//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Friendship is Prime // by Gammerick //------------------------------// The Kingdom of Equestria is ruled by two special ponies. They are neither unicorns nor pegasi nor earth ponies. They are actually a fourth race known as Alicorns. Alicorns have both the horn of a Unicorn and the wings of a Pegasus. They are great flyers and even greater wielders of magic. Not only are both of these Alicorns the Princesses of Equestria, but they are also sisters. The younger sibling is Luna, the one who raises and lowers the moon. She has a dark blue coat and a mane that literally flows like the night sky. The older sister is Celestia, controller of the sun. She is a white Alicorn with a mane that resembles an aurora pattern. "Sister," Luna inquired. "Did you hear that noise just now? It sounded like it came from the royal garden." Celestia, who normally wears a calm demeanor, had a face filled with terror as her suspicions began to rise. "It couldn't be..." she muttered to herself. The two raced to the garden as fast as they could, and when the reached the center, they realized their suspicions were true. The spot where Discord's statue should have been was completely empty. "No. That's impossible!" Celestia declared with worry. "The Elements of Harmony should have sealed him away permanently!" "Something seems strange about this, sister," Luna rebutted. "If Discord is free, why has nothing happened yet?" At this realization, Celestia and Luna looked for any sign of Discord's presence. Aside from the missing statue, there was not the slightest sign of disharmony anywhere. "He could just be waiting to pull something," Celestia said sternly. "We need to keep an eye out for him, and we need to be on the alert for any sort of news of chaos in the kingdom. Who knows what he might be up to." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One week had passed since the Ratchet detected the anomaly. "Heads up, everyone!" Ratchet gave the red alert to his teammates. "We have some Decepticon activity on radar! It appears they're trying to access an Energon mine in a nearby mountain range." "Don't the Cons know better than to go messin' around in our turf?" Sneered Bulkhead, the largest member of the team, who was covered head-to-toe in green. "I guess that means we'll just have to teach them the hard way," Cracked Arcee, the slender female member of the group, who dons blue as her primary color. "Bzzt-brpdo-brpzt," Bumblebee, the youngest member of the group, who bears a color scheme identical to his namesake, chimed in with his own unique language that could be easily understood by his comrades. "Agreed, Bumblebee," their leader Optimus Prime responded with his iconic booming voice. "Nevertheless, we must keep our guard up. There is no telling what the Decepticons may have in store for us." "I'll send you guys through with the Groundbridge." Ratchet responded. He was currently in front of a computer system that controlled the Autobot's main method of transportation around the globe. The Groundbridge is a powerful teleportation device that can take them anywhere that they have the coordinates to. At this moment, he began the activation sequence for the Groundbridge. Soon the base glowed in a green light as the portal opened up. Even though these are the only members of the team, they always have some company. In fact, the team is now getting their typical round of support from their friends. "Knock some heads, Bulk!" Cheered Miko, a young teenage Asian girl with a pink highlight streak in her hair." "Always do!" Bulkhead responded in kind. "Good luck Bee!" Rafael (or Raf for short), a small kid with brown hair and glasses, gave some words of encouragement to his closest friend, to which Bumblebee responded, "Boop-zzt". "Hey Arcee, be back in half an hour okay?" rang from Jack, the eldest of the group with his classic gray shirt and black hair. "I promised Sierra I'd take her for a motorcycle ride later." "Thanks for the concern" Arcee replied with a sweet sarcastic tone. "Don't worry though, this won't even take ten minutes." After that exchange of pleasantry, Optimus gave the team the classic command. "Autobots, Roll Out!" And with that, the team made their way through the portal. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Decepticons were using large vehicles with drills at the end, determined to break through the mountain wall in hopes of increasing their Energon supply. The operations were being overseen a particular duo of Decepticons: Knockout, the smaller of the two and coated in Red Hot Rod design, and Breakdown, the larger one who has a blue body and orange face. "Ugh, this is taking too long," moaned Knockout. "I'd rather just go have some fun on the road and race some cars." "You mean crush some cars?" Breakdown retorted. The two shared a small chuckle at their vindictive brand of humor. "Deploying charges!" One of the Vehicons declared. The Vehicons are the standard grunts of the army, and are all identical from their mainly purple color scheme to their red visors where there eyes should be on their otherwise featureless faces. As the vehicon placed the explosives, the others saw their cue to back away. After the area was cleared, the charges were detonated. It was a huge explosion that finally broke through the weakened wall, and at long last revealed the Energon crystals, gemstones that glowed with a glorious baby blue hue. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The explosion, however, also rustled a nearby rock pile. The stones were riffled enough to come loose, and the rubble collapse managed to reveal a small white horn protruding out of the rock heap. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Jackpot," Knockout exclaimed. Just then, a green portal opened up about ten feet behind them, and the Autobots ran out, blasters already armed. "Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Knockout hissed smugly. "Looks to me like we got ourselves quite a few rats," Breakdown replied, following up on his partner's quip. "Tell me about it," Arcee was the first to respond. "I see a whole bunch of Con vermin all over the place." "Hmmhmm, clever girl," Knockout was quick to retort, "but I'm afraid we'll be the ones to help ourselves to all of this Energon. So I suggest you crawl back in to your little den like good bots, huh?" "Over my dead chasse," Bulkhead responded. "I believe that's where I come in," Breakdown responded in kind. As his hand transformed into a giant hammer-head, he charged forward, and soon enough the Vehicons were close behind their blasters armed and shooting at the Autobots. The team immediately took cover and returned fire. Several shots were exchanged back and forth, and while the Autobots remained unscratched, a few Vehicons were hit hard and unable to keep fighting. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over this battlefield, dark clouds were beginning to gather, and started to swirl around the mountain-peak. "Hmm, that's odd." Ratchet observed back at the base. "What's odd?" Raf followed up on the Autobot's audible pondering. "I'm getting a small patch of interference from something, but I don't know what." Ratchet pondered. "Maybe the Energon's acting up?" Jack guessed. "Maybe, but I have a bad feeling about this." Ratchet spoke ominously. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The fight raged on, and while several more Vehicons had been injured, Team Prime was still in top form. Optimus and Bumblebee were taking on what's left of the Vehicons, Bulkhead once again engaged in his ongoing rivalry with Breakdown as they smacked their melee weapons together, And Arcee had Knouckout in her sights. "Aren't you going to fight?" She asked the strangely calm and unmoving Decepticon. "And risk ruining this paint job? Are you kidding me?" Knockout uttered so smoothly. "Thanks sister, but no thanks." Unbeknownst to her however, a Vehicon had managed to get into the cockpit of one of the drilling vehicles. He had turned the vehicle to Optimus, ready to make the charge. However, this caught Arcee's attention. "Oh no you don't!" She exclaimed, turning her arm blasters on the nearby vehicle. She shot and hit the driver, but at the same time she was also too close to the vehicle when she accidentally hit the fuel tank. It was a small explosion, but a powerful one, as it sent her flying to a nearby cliff face. It was the same cliff face that had the rock pile with the protruding horn. Except when Arcee landed up there, more of the rubble was dislodged; enough to reveal a strange animal head. When Arcee regained her senses soon after, she let out a small, surprised gasp at the first sight she saw. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Once again, the weather overhead was worsening. The clouds were turning darker, and the bellows of thunder could be heard crashing loudly. "Ratchet, come in. Can you hear me?" Back at the base, Ratchet was picking up a transmission from Arcee. "Arcee, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" Ratchet responded professionally to the call. "I'm fine, but I've found something…strange." She responded. "Define strange." Ratchet replied. "Strange as in so strange I can barely define it." She retorted. "It's some kind of statue, but I have no idea what it's supposed to be." "A statue?" Ratchet inquired. "What would a statue be doing in the middle of nowhere?" "I don't know, but it's definitely an unusual one. It's some kind of animal, but it's made of body parts from a bunch of other animals." "Maybe some crazy artist wanted to dump a failed project somewhere secret?" Miko was the first to come up with a hypothesis. "No, it doesn't seem that way. It just feels…weird. Almost like it's alive or something." At that moment, unseen by Arcee, the statue emitted a small, black pulsation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back at the battle, Optimus and Bumblebee had nearly finished up their fight with the foot soldiers, when suddenly they were under fire by blasts from the sky. Optimus looked up and was not happy about what he saw. "Megatron," he uttered. The blaster fire came from a strange gray and purple vessel, which quickly transformed into a massive robot, one that even towered over Optimus Prime. "I did not expect to see the Decepticon leader on the front lines for a battle like this," Optimus bellowed toward his nemesis. "Ordinarily yes," Megatron responded. "But I decided that this would be one of the best opportunities I've ever had to personally extinguish the spark of my life-long enemy." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Optimus and Megatron began to clash and exchange blow for blow, the statue reacted once more. This time however, it started to slowly crack more and more with each black pulsation. "Okay, now something REALLY strange is happening," Arcee relayed to the base. "The statue is cracking up, and I think…it's faint, but I think I'm starting to hear a heartbeat." "That's crazy, Arcee!" Jack couldn't help but respond after hearing something so ridiculous. "Your servos are probably just malfunctioning." "No Jack I don't think-" Before Arcee could continue, she was interrupted by a massive bolt of lightning and an eruption of thunder. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The battle below was only getting more and more intense. As Megatron and Optimus continued to hold their ground, they delivered punch after punch, both sides either dodging with grace or blocking with brute strength. Eventually, they both drew their arm blades, and began to take turns slashing at each other. Even then, they were still even, their blades locked together in a stalemate. "Not bad, Optimus," Megatron taunted his opponent. "Still as fierce the fighter as you ever were, I see." "I have to remain sharp to be able to keep this planet safe from the likes of you, Megatron." Optimus retorted to his adversary. "Perhaps, but even the sharpest knife will break after it gets too old." Megatron gloated as he kicked Optimus in the gut and sent him flying. Optimus was too stunned from the hit to be able to move. As Megatron stood on top of him, ready to deliver the final blow, he was knocked off balance by a large earthquake. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back at the top of the cliff face, Arcee was trying to hold her ground. The statue had cracked completely down the middle, and Arcee was confident she heard the statue make a laughing noise. "Ratchet!" Arcee said sternly through the comm-link. "Forget about explanations," Ratchet said as he felt the quake hit the base. "Just get out of there!" Arcee then proceeded to jump off the cliff, transform midair into a small blue motorcycle, and ride down the cliff face at a near 180 degree angle. Near the bottom she transformed into a robot once more, jumped off the cliff face, and made a perfect landing back on solid ground. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Megatron was knocked off balance, Optimus saw his opportunity and blasted Megatron point blank. Megatron was too tough to be injured, but it did stun him long enough for Optimus to kick off Megatron and get back on his feet. However, before they could continue their fight, they were distracted by a flash of white light, where Arcee was on the cliff face moments ago. However, by the time their gaze met where the statue should be, there was nothing there but a pile a of rocks. Immediately several bursts of lightning erupted from the sky. After another big flash of white light, they were all surprised to see a bizarre-looking creature hovering right above them. He was small, but he was most definitely an unusual creature. With a lion's paw, eagle's claw, snake's tail, and other assorted body parts, nobody there could truly comprehend what this creature was. Nobody there could comprehend why this strange creature also started to let out a strange cackle of a laugh. And nobody there could comprehend what would happen next.