//------------------------------//
// XVII: Xenocide 
// Story: Operation: Patriotism 
// by Darkryt Orbinautz 
//------------------------------//

Twilight blinked, groaning, rubbing her head after the experience of being flung through time by a god. The best way she could describe it would be to compare it to going through a tunnel … on a train … which had been assembled backwards and was moving the wrong direction. She wondered why she couldn't build a Time Bridge instead, or bring back the Temporal Archway ... 

Oh yeah, because Future Bumblebee and Jack hadn't told her, and the Archway and its blueprints were destroyed.

“W-where am I?” Twilight asked, looking around at an unfamiliar landscape. It resembled Cybertron, but … rusted. Sheets of bent, rusted metal littered the landscape. Lights flickered from towers in the distance, with a cracked monitor showing a flickering image of a Decepticon symbol, which seemed to stare down on the land menacingly, as if it were watching … 

“It looks like Primus sent me through time and space.” Twilight observed, taking a step forward. She caused a clatter by stepping on a pile of loose scrap, which made her jump. 

“Hmm.” 

Moving forward, Twilight found a trench. She saw a human running in the trench, with short blonde hair and a scruffy beard. 

“Is that …” Twilight squinted. She beamed, seeing who it was. “Cody!” 

Twilight galloped into the trench, not noticing how Cody seemed to be looking over his shoulder, clutching at his coat.

“Cody!” 

Cody reacted in surprise to the sound of his name, and even more so the sight of Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle?”

“Oh, I’m so glad to see you!” Twilight said. “It’s been so long, hasn’t it? Well, maybe even longer for you, heh-heh! Look at how you’ve grown! You’re kinda handsome now, huh?”

Cody whipped out a pistol and pressed it to Twilight’s noise, pulling back the hammer.

“You’re supposed to be dead.” Cody said. “You have forty-five seconds to explain how this isn’t some Decepticon trick before I blow your brains out.” 

Twilight’s eyes widened. It took her a minute for her brain to catch up with what has happening, but once she did, she let it all out. 

“I’ve bent sent into the future from the past by Primus to try to figure how we can stop this terrible future from happening.”

Cody blinked, taking this in. He raised his gun up, clicking it back. Cody looked to the side, unsure if he could trust her.  “Well, that’s crazy enough to almost be believable … but I still have to check. What’s the name of your brother?”
“Shining Armor.”

“What does he do?”

“Captain of the Royal Guard.” 

“Name of your parents?”

“Twilight Velvet and Night Light.” 

“Most hated enemy?” 

“Oh, that’s a tough one … I’m gonna say … Starscream?” 

“What’s the name of that freedom group you led?”

“The Autobots Imperial.”

“Do you remember being possessed by Unicron?”

“I remember.” Twilight said. “I will never forget that. I remember the feeling … the helplessness in my own body … the chaos … the burning … oh, the burning … the memories of planets long ago in the past, burnt to a crisp and devoured by his maws …” 

Twilight fell silent. As did Cody.

“Alright.” Cody nodded. “I believe you. If you were a Con trick, they wouldn’t have bothered to learn about your family. They’re arrogant like that … and no one else would have been able to described being possessed like that. Come on.” Cody flicked his hand for Twilight to follow him and turn around. “I’m supposed to be on a scavenging mission right now, but this is too important to ignore.”

“Scavenging mission…?” 

“Yeah.” Cody said. “A scavenging mission. You know, where you scavenge? For food and parts?”

“You have to scavenge for food?” Twilight asked. “That’s awful.”

“No, really?” Cody asked. “You think I don’t know that?”

“Sorry. I guess I’m just … still trying to take this all in.” Twilight glanced around at the ruined landscape. “Bumblebee told me about how bad things had gotten, but I guess I still underestimated how nasty it truly is.” 

Cody raised an eyebrow. “You met Bumblebee?”

“Yeah. Your Bumblebee. When he tried to travel into the past to find Jack.” Twilight said. “You can call him. He’ll vouch for me.” 

“Too risky.” Cody said. “Never know if the Cons’ will have monitoring in our area.” Cody stopped and held an arm out in front of Twilight. “Speaking of which, get down!” 

Twilight followed Cody, hitting the deck and ducking into a corner of the the trench. A spherical device flew overhead, shooting out a sweeping scanning beam. It flew over them, its scan only missing them by a few feet over the trench’s lip. 

“Probes.” Cody said. “The Decepticons have whole squadrons of them continue to sweep around the planet, scanning for rebels like myself, other malcontents, or someone they can just shoot for target practice.”

Twilight was surprised, before realizing she shouldn’t have been. Would she expect anything else from the Decepticons when they had complete control over a planet?

“Come on.” Cody said. “Let’s move before another one of those things shows up.”

Cody and Twilight got out of their hiding place and continued moving forward, where they arrived at a rusted-out building with a dilapidated roof.
Cody pointed a finger at Twilight. “Wait here.” He went up to the building and pressed his hand into a panel. “Operative Cody Burns, returning from mission due to … complications. And one guest.” 

A green beam emitted from the panel and swept over Cody and Twilight.

“Identity confirmed.” The panel said. The door hissed open, and Cody led Twilight Sparkle inside. 

There, Twilight was awestruck to see a gathering of Autobots, humans, and ponies working together … and all of them in poor shape and poor health. An Earth pony try to lift some metal pipes somewhere to be useful, only for his legs to give out, forcing a one armed Autobot - whose half-melted shoulder showed he used to have more than one - to help. 

Twilight continued to look around, finding similar scenes all over the base. The humans were cold and huddled together in moth-eaten blankets for warmth, the ponies laid down on the ground, while the Autobots sat around, staring off into the space. Twilight found a sense of hopelessness existed everywhere she looked. It was palpable. It was almost solid enough she could cut a knife through it, even. 

As Cody led her further in, Twilight saw one familiar face. “Scootaloo!” 

Scootaloo was sitting on a bench, polishing a gun barrel. She looked up at Twilight. “Well, I’ll be. Either I’ve died or I’m seeing a ghost.”

“Scootaloo, it’s me.” Twilight said, gesturing to herself. “It’s Twilight Sparkle. I’m, uh, visiting. From the past.”

Scootaloo gave her a curious look. “Why would anypony from the past ever want to visit here? This place is a pit-stain, a horrible place. Things were better in those days, in the pasts, before the Decepticons took over. But I guess I’ll entertain you in your delusion. What can I help you with?” 

Scootaloo walked over, causing Twilight to gasp. The gun wasn’t a hand-held weapon; it was part of her, a shoulder cannon mounted over the edge of her back. It wasn’t the only metal part of her, either, as an unlit optic replaced her right eye, and metal patches covered her right leg and parts of her back, with a set of caterpillar treads mounted set on top of her rear. 

“We’ve had to do some pretty desperate things to fight the Decepticons.” Cody said. “Congratulations, Twilight Sparkle. You are looking at the first attempt to turn a pony into a Mini-Con.” 

“The first attempt …? You mean there’s more?” Twilight balked.

“Oh yeah, tons more. Lots more.” Cody said. “Either an experiment by ourselves, or something the Decepticon did to the turncoats and cowards who promised to follow them. They have a lot more resources, so theirs tend to turn out better. As you can, ours are kind of … patchwork and janky.”

“Bu-bu-bu …” Twilight stuttered. She looked at Scootaloo and took her appearance in.

Cody slapped Twilight on her back. “Welcome to the future, Twilight. Now enough sight-seeing. Let’s go.” 

Cody let Twilight into a room where a few Autobots were staring up at three screens, two of which didn’t have anything on them, and the last of which was cracked.

“Yo boss-bots.” Cody said. “Got something here for you.”

The ‘boss-bots’ turned around, showing Bumblebee, Heatwave, and Smokescreen. Smokescreen had a cracked optic, and Heatwave had a drill and T.Rex head in place of his hands. 

“Twilight?” Smokescreen asked. “It is my bad optic playing a trick on me, or are we looking at Twilight Sparkle?”

“I see her too.” Heatwave said. 

“Twilight!” Bumblebee exclaimed with glee. “I’m glad to see you here, Twilight Sparkle. We could use your help, and with you on our side, we may just be able to change the past. But how did you get here? I never was able to get you the specs for a Time Bridge.”

“Primus sent me.”

There was an awkward pause in the room.

“N-no, really, he did.” Twilight said. “I mean it. He paired up with Megatronus and Micronus Prime, and they sent me here from my dreams. Speaking of which …” Twilight let out a yawn. “I could really use some sleep.”

“Sure, but after I brief you on the state of things.” Bumblebee said. He crouched down near Twilight and pointed at the screen. “The Decepticons rule Cybertron and other planets from their citadel in Kaon, the new capital of the planet. There are resistance groups on Cybertron, Equestria, and Earth, including ourselves. The Decepticons maintain outposts on those other planets, trying to curb and squash the resistance effort. There’s a handful of organics who have switched sides to the Decepticons, and others who the Cons keep prisoner for slave labor … or sometimes, they’ll let them go free and hunt them down for sport. Do you understand, Twilight?”

Twilight nodded, horrified.

“The Decepticons practically run and own both Equestria and Earth.” Bumblebee said. “There’s a few holdouts, but they won’t be able to last for long, especially without help. Now you see why we had to resort to trying to change the past?”

“For all the good it’s done us.” Heatwave grumbled. 

“I’m not so sure about that, Heatwave.” Bumblebee said. “I think the timeline can be altered. Recently, we got an influx of new recruits, all of whom we thought were dead. I’m not sure what, but something must have changed in the past.”

Twilight cupped her chin in thought. “I know! Rampage! You said Rampage went crazy after Fluttershy died and went on a massacre, right? Well, in my relative present, Rampage died instead, so he couldn’t have gone to kill those people!”

“That … makes sense.” Bumblebee realized. “I thought there was something different, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.”

“Who’s Rampage?” Heatwave asked.

“R-rampage?” Bumblebee asked. “The big crazy crab-con? You fought him once! Had a chaingun, liked to laugh, like to torture people?”

Heatwave shook his head. “Got no clue what you’re talking about, Bumblebee.” 

“Then … then the timeline can be altered.” Bumblebee said. He broke into a grin. “That means we’re not living in a predestined world! Ha ha ha! YES!” Bumblebee pumped his fist.

“So that does mean, since she didn’t die in the battle, Fluttershy is alive?” Twilight asked. 

Bumblebee’s smile faded. His shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry, Twilight. No. She … she’s still dead. Something else must have got her.”

“I see.” Twilight glanced to Cody. “Actually, that makes me think of something … Cody, where are you -”

“My father tried to work for the Decepticons and try to keep their reign from being too terrible and hope to take them down from inside, but he died of a heart attack. Kade is helping Starlight Glimmer hold out on her town, Graham is a Decepticon slave engineer, and Dani died in a dogfight.” Cody said. “You were going to ask what happened to my family, weren’t you?”

“Y-yeah …” Twilight said, rubbing at her neck nervously. She took in a deep breath and turned to Bumblebee.

“Bumblebee, Primus sent me here so I could discover what went wrong that allowed the Decepticons to take over.” Twilight said. “I promise you, I will get to the bottom of the mystery, and prevent this terrible tragedies from happening. Now, where you would recommend I’d go to start my investigation?” 

“If I were you, I’d start with Decepticon Citadel in Kaon.” Bumblebee said. “The Decepticons aren’t always the most meticulous bunch, but between them, there should be a few of them who recognize the value of archiving information and wrote down what happened somewhere. Probably in a locked and guarded vault, so no one can learn what happened but their own.”

Twilight nodded.

“Be careful, Twilight.” Bumblebee said. “They won’t hesitate to kill you if they think it’s in their best interests. And if you die in the future when you’re from the past …” 

“It could cause a paradox, or worse.” Twilight said. “It might strengthen the hold the Decepticons have on Cybertron.” Twilight turned away from him. “Well, it looks like I’m off the Decepticon Citadel. I’ll be going alone. If I get captured, I don’t want to compromise your resistance.”

“What? Hey, no, no, no.” Bumblebee said. “Listen here, Miss Pony From The Past Who All Of Our Hopes of Salvation Are Resting On, you and your mission are way too important to allow you go to the Citadel alone. I’m coming with you. And so is a whole team of us. We have to make sure you get there safely, and ideally, get you into wherever the Decepticons keep their archives.”

“Alright.” Twilight accepted his logic. “Get your team together, and we’ll leave when we’re ready. Let’s roll out.”

“Heh.” Heatwave chuckled. “Haven’t heard that in a long time.” 



A convoy led by Bumblebee, including Heatwave, Scootaloo, Cody and others, rode out from their base, climbed out of the trench, and went about driving towards Kaon. 

They converted to their vehicle modes and drove, riding with their organics in their seats. Twilight sat in Bumblebee’s driving seat, with Cody in the passenger side, glancing out the window at Cybertron.

“Everything is so … desolate.”  Twilight observed half-collapsed buildings in the distance, with their top halves either torn or crumbling downwards, as if the world’s largest modern art piece. “And ruined and rusted.”

“Do you think the Decepticons really care about keeping everything nice and shiny and pretty?” Cody snarked.

“No.” Twilight said. “But I think a dictatorship would want to try do a little work on its upkeep to keep the populace from rebelling. Functioning buildings keep the citizens happy.”

Cody glared at her. “Do we look happy to you? Did you think making sure the buildings are well-maintained would make us happy?” 

Twilight rolled her head.

The ground rumbled beneath them, making Bumblebee jump as if they had hit a speed bump. 

“Slag!” Bumblebee swore, coming to an abrupt stop. He transformed, evicting Cody and Twilight from their seats. “Everyone, scramble!”

“What? Why?” Twilight asked. “What’s going on?” 

“Fortress Maximus.” Cody answered. “That’s what. Find somewhere to hide, moron!”

Cody, Bumblebee, and the others all scrambled, running off in different directions to find hiding places, either behind items or beneath some rubble for cover. 

Isn’t Fortress Maximus a good guy? Twilight thought as she looked around, trying to find a hiding place. The ground rumbled again, and on a reflex, she made a blind teleport. 

She ended up next to a pile of sheet metal, too small to provide effective cover. She spread her wings and took flight, intending to fly away to a better hiding place.

The black and grey form Fortress Maximus arrived, his feet shaking the earth with each step. Twilight grimaced and lurched. 

Fortress’ head tilted down and saw her. “ANOMALY DETECTED.” 

Twilight attempted to speed on her wings, taking to heart the example of Rainbow Dash. Fortress Maximus launched a clamp out of his chest which pursued her and trapped her, clamping around her body and binding her legs. 

Twilight grunted and struggle to get out. Taking a moment to calm herself and focus, she tried to cast a spell- another teleport would work wonders.

“EQUESTRIAN MAGIC DETECTED.” Fortress Maximus deployed a gun from his shoulder. The gun shot a bolt of electricity which struck Twilight’s horn and negated her spell, as well neutering her magic, at least for a time. Twilight could feel it. She tried to cast another spell rather than simply resign herself to her fate, but nothing happened.

The clamp began to retract, pulling Twilight Sparkle inside.

“Slag.” Bumblebee swore, watching from his hiding place. “Slag slag slag.”  Bumblebee put a finger to his head. “There’s nothing we can do.”

“Are you kidding?” Scootaloo asked. “Whatever to ‘Miss Salvation?’ We can’t just leave her!” Scootaloo converted into her messy tank mode, which made a groaning, creaking noise as her bones were shifted. She took aim at Fortress.

“No.” Bumblebee grabbed Scootaloo’s barrel and lifted her up. “I understand you’re upset, Scootaloo. But we can’t fight Fortress Maximus. We don’t have the means. We don’t have enough firepower, we don’t have enough men. If we tried, he would crush us. Stomp us, blow us into scrap … I’m sorry, Scootaloo … but there’s nothing we can do.”

Bumblebee looked up as Fortress Maximus turned around to present his find to the Decepticon Lords. 

“All we can do is sit here and hope and pray that by some miracle Twilight will escape and make it through after all.”



Twilight Sparkle was brought inside Fortress Maximus’ chest chamber. Brought inside, Twilight saw his interior differed and had changed drastically from when she had been inside his rooms in the past. Curving blue bridges connected the doors to rooms, and a model of a solar system was used as a centerpiece.

“Bring her here, Max.”

Twilight’s ears perked up. The voice sounded familiar. 

The clamp stopped before lifting up, dropping Twilight down on one of the bridges, bringing her face to face with …

“Snowdrop?” Twilight asked, horrified and puzzled by what she saw. She was looking at an adult Snowdrop, wearing a black outfit with a Decepticon symbol on it. But the most striking change to her were the glowing red Decepticon optics in place of her eyes, which clicked and whirred as Snowdrop focused on Twilight. 

“Twilight Sparkle?” Snowdrop said. “But you’re supposed to be dead.”

Twilight chuckled. “Well, heh heh, I’m here now.”

“Do not play games with me.” Snowdrop said. “How are you here?”

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know. I was half asleep in bed, and the next thing I know, I was here!”

“You’re lying.” Snowdrop growled, narrowing her optics. “You’re leaving details out. Twilight Sparkle, if you do not give me the information I seek, I will extract it from you. And I assure you, the process will be quite painful. I am an excellent interrogator.”

“Hit me with your best shot.” Twilight said with a cocky grin. “But can I ask you a question first?”

“Hmph. I suppose.”

“What’s with the eyes?” Twilight asked, gesturing at her own eyes.

“They were a gift.” Snowdrop said. “From my master, Steeljaw. They were given to me to replace the non-functioning eyes I was born with. It’s funny … you think a magical place like Equestria would have spells to easily cure blindness, especially given how it had a thousand years of history. Yet, it took the genius, the pragmatism of a Decepticon for anyone to even think about doing something about my eyes.”

“I see.” Twilight said. 

“That’s enough sharing for one day.” Snowdrop said. “I’m going to take you to the House of Lords.”

“The House of Lords … that’s the leadership, right?” Twilight asked. She took in a deep breath and took a chance. “Snowdrop, you can’t. Please. You were a good girl once, a good filly. Remember how good you used to be? Remember your old sense of right and wrong? How you helped us fight Megatron when he tried to come back?”

“That was in the past … ‘Twilight,’ if that is who you are.” Snowdrop. “Things change. Either you accept it and adapt, or you cling to the past and grow old and withered, letting the world pass you by and evolve while you still clutch to what you thought of as ‘the good old days.’ I serve the Decepticons now, and I do it well. I serve Steeljaw. I carry out their agenda. I patrol Cybertron for rebels, threats … and anomalies … and I bring them to the Decepticon Lords. That’s the way of things.”
Twilight stared in shock. “They changed you, Snowdrop. They … they did something to you. They brainwashed you. They condition you. Maybe they put something else in with your optic implants.”

Snowdrop shrugged. “Maybe. But’s that’s the way things are now. Even if turned out there was something in my implants, I’ve worked too hard for them to turn back now.”

“So it is.” Twilight said. She glanced up at her horn. She could feel her magic returning, the block wearing off. “Snowdrop, I’m sorry, but I can’t let you take me anywhere. I have to get to the Citadel and find out what went wrong. I’m sorry about this.”

“About what?” 

Twilight’s horn lit up, and a glow enveloped Snowdrop’s optics. Twilight pulled, yanking the optics of Snowdrop’s eye sockets, revealing the wires behind and ripping the red spheres from her head, leaving them on the floor. 

“Gaaah!” Snowdrop reeled and fell to her knees. 

Twilight took flight and flew to the side, charging up a spell. She knew hitting the armored portions of Fort Max would do her no good, so she flung a massive blast through the first window she could find. She flew out from her made exit.

“She ripped out my optics!” Snowdrop yelled. “That … that … arrrrgh! Fortress! Grab her!” 

Twilight flew away from Fortress Maximus, but Fortress turned around and snapped her up in his hand. Fortress deployed his anti-magic weapon and fired, neutralizing Twilight’s magic again.

“Turn around.” Snowdrop ordered, feeling the ground in front of her with her hooves. “We’re taking her to the Citadel. They’ll figure out what to do with her there … and I can find someone to put my optics back in!” 

Snowdrop continued to feel around, trying to find her eyes, while Fortress Maximus spun around and began to march towards the Citadel. 



Back in the present, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia stood on a balcony overlooking Canterlot, observing the lights emitting from the glittering city in the night.

Shining Armor walked into the room. “Your Majesties?”

“Ah.” Luna turned to him. “How goes the war, Star Seeker?”

Shining Armor’s eyes bugged. “Y-you know about that?”

“Cadence’s mission report was very through.” Luna said. “Speak quickly, zealot, before we decide that thyne’s head would be of more use to us somewhere other than thyne’s shoulders.”

“P-p-princess Celestia!” Shining Armor stuttered. “Are you going to let her talk to me like that?”

“Rest assured, Shining Armor, I will not let you be beheaded.” Celestia glared at Luna. “However, I find the fact you willingly joined a xenophobic organization with explicit violent goals on the target of its prejudice hard to ignore … or forgive. You are lucky one of your Star Seeker companions saw fit to bring you back to our space. But I assume you came in here for a reason than to hear us critique you. What news do you have for us?”

“There’s … someone here who wants to speak to you.” Shining Armor said. “They say they would prefer to speak in private, they don’t want anypony else to learn they’re here, and that … that you could decide whether they live or die.”

Celestia and Luna exchanged glances.

“Tell them we will meet them,” Celestia said after a pause.



“So you mean to tell me she just … fell asleep on your way in?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“And you’re sure this isn’t some sort of trick? I know Twilight Sparkle ...”

“I’m sure, Lord Starscream. Her breathing is normal, and I found no weapons or devices on her person when I inspected her.”

“Hmm.” 

Twilight Sparkle hung from the ceiling, suspended by chains and under a spotlight. Her head was upright, and she was breathing in and out as she snoozed. 

“Hmm.” Starscream tapped her nose. “She seems to be the genuine article … she should be inspected by Lord Megatron.” 

Twilight began to stir, her ears twitching at the mention of Megatron’s name. She opened her eyes and saw a large, hulking Decepticon enter from a dark door.

“Megatron?” Twilight wondered.

The Decepticon came into view under the spotlight. He had Grimlock’s body shape, but with a purple and green colors, and a helmet with a rounded bucket shape resembling Megatron’s, but not Megatron, with a grape-colored face inside the helmet with smooth clean teeth instead of Megatron’s fangs.

“You’re not Megatron.” Twilight said.

‘Megatron’ laughed, a suave, smooth, almost gentlemanly voice instead of Megatron’s bestial growl which showed he was always keeping his temper in check, his animal rage inside. It was ironic that this Megatron, whoever was, would sound more like a gentleman even though he turned into a T.Rex. 

“No. But I am a Megatron, and that is good enough.” Megatron said. “I suppose, if it helps you keep things straight in your head, you may call me ‘Megatron the Second.’’

Megatron II grabbed the chains holding Twilight Sparkle and brought her up to his face. “So tell me, Twilight Sparkle, did you enjoy your nap?”

“Yes, actually.” Twilight answered. “You have no idea how badly I have gone without a good night’s sleep.” 

Megatron II was not expecting such an answer. “Er … okay.” He let the chains, making Twilight swing freely. “Tell me, what do you think of our Citadel?”

Twilight looked around. The room she was rounded in shape and stretched up several stories, all of which had balconies and entrances, with a shape which reminded of her roman coliseums.

“Seems fancy enough.” 

Twilight looked around.  She saw Starscream, with his optic repaired. Bludgeon was present, with the Dark Spark beating and shining in his chest. Dragotron, Lazerback, a repaired Tarn from the Justice Division, and Nova’s aid, Galvatron. 

“The Decepticon House of Lords, I presume.” Twilight said.

“Yesssss. What do you think? An apt name, no?” Megatron said. “Steeljaw’s idea, although he is … lamentably absent from us at this time.”

“Can’t imagine why …” Twilight muttered, glancing to the side. “How did you get Galvatron on your side?” 

“Let’s say his priorities aligned with our own.” Megatron II flexed his hand in a posh and arrogant way.

“Mmm. So tell me, … Megatron II … how did you and the Decepticons win? What let you unite and take over Cybertron as totally as you have?”

Megatron II let out a hearty laugh. “Well, it would be foolish of me to tell you the whole story, especially as I don’t even know where you’re from … but, let’s just say that music is a many-splendored thing, yessss.”  Megatron II tapped his fingers together. 

“Ah ah up.” Starscream interrupted. “Twilight Sparkle is as clever and crafty as she is treacherous, Lord Megatron. Give her an inch, she will find her own way to make it into a mile. Best not to give her any hints as to what allowed our victory.” 

Treacherous? That’s the pot calling the kettle black … and the kettle in this case is silver chrome instead of black metal. Twilight thought. 

“Well …” Twilight smiled and wriggled with her chains, getting them into a slight sway. “Since you won’t tell me what you let win, I guess I’ll have to go and find out for myself.” 

Twilight’s horn charged, purple light flaring up from up. She fired a blast straight down, which smashed through her chains and severed them. Megatron II’s surprise at Twilight being able to escape kept him from trying to grab her before she flexed her wings and teleported to an exit. Twilight blew out a raspberry at the Decepticons before running down the exit.

“She wasn’t magically neutralized?” Megatron II demanded.

“I’m sorry, Lord Megatron!” Snowdrop threw herself at his feet. “I thought Fortress Maximus’ neutralizer would be enough!”

“You know that’s only temporary!” Megatron II facepalmed. “Never mind that. GRAB HER! STOP HER! She mustn’t find what she’s looking for!” Megatron pointed a finger and bellowed, and the Decepticons chased after her, following through the exit. 



“Thank you again for agreeing to guard this meeting.” Luna said to the pair of Americons who stood outside the door. “We realize it is thankless work, and appreciate your contribution.”

“No problem.” The Americon said. “But if I may ask, Princesses, why all the secrecy? Who are you meeting with that has have a meeting so private?” 

“A group calling themselves Quintessons.” Celestia said.

“Quints?” The two Americons pulled out their arm-cannons. 

“Is there … a problem with the Quintessons?” Luna asked.

“Yeah.” One of the Vehicons snarled. “Those scum-sucking squidheads tried to take over Cybertron a few million years ago. Passed themselves off as gods and claimed they gave us the ability to transform. Eventually, we figured out they were lying and drove them off our planet. They’ve been at odds with us ever since, and they’ve fought us in the past. They always resented how we were able to free ourselves from their control.”

“Let me at them.” The other Americon said. “I want to give them a piece of my mind. We’ll kill ‘em all.”

“No.” Celestia said. 

“What? But Princess, didn’t you hear what we just said?” 

“We accepted the Quintessons here under the assumption of a peaceful meeting.” Celestia said. “We will honor that arrangement. Doublecrossing those you meet with under a banner of peace may be acceptable to Decepticons, we will not tolerate it here on Equestria. And you did join Galloway’s program to get away from Decepticons, did you not?”

The Americons crossed their arms and turned their heads. “Yeah … alright, fine. We’ll respect your wishes and let you meet them.”

“Rest assured.” Luna said. “We will address the issue of their past invasions of your home and conflict with  your species.” 

Celestia and Luna turned and went through a set of double doors, which led to an outdoor garden where the Quintessons had parked their spaceship and disembarked. 

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us.” One of the Quintessons said, his voice gravely. “It is … much appreciated.”

“Spare us from thyne’s false sympathy and cut thee’s charade!” Luna snapped. “We have only just been told now by our Cybertronian allies that thee has attempted to take over Cybertron, and fought against the Cybertronians! Explain thyself, and why we should continue to listen to anything thou hath to say!” 

“Perhaps we did leave a few … key details out in our message to you.” One of the Quintessons said.

“Mistakes were made. Many mistakes.”

“Mistakes that we will freely admit to.” Another Quintesson said. “We were conquerors and warlords once, but that was a long time ago … now we are a broken people, living in fear, constantly looking over our shoulders for assassins and seekers of revenge. Now … we just want to be free from our mistakes, from our past, so that we can live freely and begin to rebuild our society, our planet, and our culture …”

“While there still exists enough of us and of our culture to rebuild from.”

Luna raised an eyebrow at Celestia for her lead on what to do next.

Celestia nodded at the Quintessons. “You have my ears, Quintessons. We will listen to what you have to say before coming to any decisions.”




Twilight Sparkle ran down the hall, eyes flashing with alarm as she skidded past black-coated Vehicons and a few Vehicon Generals. 

“Pony in the hall!” A General shouted. The Vehicons armed themselves and pursued, firing after Twilight Sparkle as she went around a corner.

“She headed towards the Vault!” A Vehicon shouted.

Twilight braced her back against the wall, her breath labored. Her chest rose and fell as she worried about what to do next.

“Wait, what am I doing?” Twilight asked herself. Shining her horn, Twilight cast an invisibility spell on herself, making herself disappear. 

The squadron of Vehicons rounded the corner. Not seeing Twilight in the immediate vicinity, they marched down the hall to look for her elsewhere. Except for two Generals, who stopped halfway and looked around.

Acknowledging each other with a nod, the Generals turned around and began to sweep the hall. One of them aimed his weapon up at the ceiling, searching it to see if Twilight was hiding in the rafters. The other kept his weapon trained on the corners and edges of the hall, to see if they might have missed her. 

The two began to approach where Twilight was hiding. Twilight took in a deep breath so she could hold it, hopefully keeping the Vehicons from cluing in to her position.

“Wait.” One of the Generals held his hand out. “Did you hear that?” 

Swear words raced through Twilight’s head. It was irony, pure and simple. In her attempt to hide her breathing and mask herself from the Vehicons, the act of taking in air had drawn them towards her instead. 

“It sounded like it came from over here …” The General noted, marching towards the front edge of the hall, his other arm whirring as he converted it into a second blaster. 

Twilight exhaled through her nose. She waited for the Generals to get a  little closer. 

Twilight fired, launching a magical artillery shell straight through one of the General’s chest, exploding it and making the General fall on to his back with a groan, a smoking hole in his chest. The other General tried to react and fire at where the shot had come from, but Twilight was quicker on the draw, shooting and putting a hole through him too.

“Hmph.” Twilight huffed, walking past the smouldering Vehicons. She walked down the hall, coming to a stop when she saw something.

In the dead center of the wall was a set of enormous double doors, elaborately decorated with a silver finish and golden dials. At the top of the doors was a L.E.D display which showed Cybertronian letters - Twilight knew enough by now to read it with no difficulty. They spelled “The Vault.” 

“So this is the vault they were talking about.” Twilight flew up. Using her magic, she pried the doors open and went inside.

Twilight gasped and covered her mouth, greeted by a horrifying sight on the inside of the Vault. 

Corpses, bodies, the remains of Equestrians, humans, and Autobots were strung up, hanging from the ceiling by chains. It was as if it were a meat locker. The bodies were all in varying states of decay, ranging from only the beginnings of rigor mortis, to having been rotting away in here for a long while. They were also Americons and other Vehicons strung up in the Vault, who Twilight presumed had either sided with the organics against the Decpeticons or at least had attacks of conscience and objected to their former brothers’ ways … and were executed for it. She also recognized the rusted, torn bodies of at least two powerful and popular Autobots, a red truck-based one and a green one with a rotund build like Bulkhead’s, with a beard made of bullet casings.

Twilight flew into the room, bumping against the side of a Vehicon’s car tire, making it spin. Twilight freaked out when she heard a chee-choo-chee-chee-chink noise, watching in terror as the dead Vehicon transformed, despite being by all appearances dead. The transformation didn’t snap the chains, and the sight of a car hanging from the ceiling was a sight to behold, and might have made Twilight laugh if she didn’t know this car used to be alive. 

Twilight tapped her hoof to the hood, trying to get a reaction out of it. “H-hello? Are you still alive in there?” Twilight pounded the hood again, several times. “Guess not …” Twilight took another look around the room. Her eyes stopped traveling when something caught her attention. 

The skeleton of a pony, strung up by its front hooves. What made it remarkable was the familiar Stetson hat tilted on the skeleton’s head.

“A-a-Applejack?” Twilight stuttered out, flying up to the skeleton. She noticed something she had failed to notice on the other bodies thus far. A blue card with Cybertronix written on it, attached to the cuffs of the chains holding up the skeleton’s legs. 

Twilight read it.

APPLEJACK 
Killed During The First Purge

“First Assault?” Twilight asked. “What does that mean?” Twilight glanced to the side and saw a human skeleton with an orange shirt which was too small for them … a familiar orange shirt. 

Twilight flew over and its card.

MIKO NAKADAI 
KILLED DURING AN ATTEMPTED RAID ON ONE OF OUR ENERGON PLANTS

Below this was some elegant handwriting.

-Took a long time, too. Nearly got me in the chest with her blaster - Steeljaw.

Twilight frowned at Steeljaw’s cavalier attitude about Miko’s death. He and the other Decepticons were murdering people, slaughtering them, then hanging their remains up like cuts of lamb and beef instead of giving them proper burials … and he was writing a grumbling note as if he were an office employee complaining about paperwork. 

Twilight saw another skeleton which caught her interest. It was wearing a tattered dress which had decayed with time, and the unpolished, rusting metal pieces of the Equestrian Princess dress, with a pair of folded wings. Or the bones of wings, anyway.

This was one was her. 

It was too small to be Cadence, or Luna, and especially Celestia.

Twilight went up to her skeleton and read its card.

PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE 
KILLED DURING THE FIRST PURGE

“There it is again.” Twilight said. “The First Purge. What is that? What does that mean?” 



“Lord Megatron.” A Vehicon came to Megatron II. “I’m here with a report. We haven’t been able to find the intruder. We’ve combed through almost the entire building, and we haven’t found her.” 

Megatron II took in a deep breath, sneering.

“ … bring in the asset.”

“Sir!?” The Vehicon asked, drawing back in surprise.

“I know, I know. Few of us like working with him. Our agreement is that we do not disturb his solitude unless something serious and dramatic arise. Considering we are dealing with a pony who is supposed to be long dead, I would say this qualifies, wouldn’t you? Yessss. Have the asset brought in.”

The Vehicon hung his head. “Y-yes sir.” 



“So, Quintessons …” Luna asked. “What is that you want from us?” 

“Protection.” The gravelly-voiced Quintesson answered. 

Luna and Celestia looked towards each other.

“Protection from what? From whom?” Celestia asked. 




“Oh no.” Twilight said, realizing something horrible. “Oh no no no no. No. Please, no.” 

Twilight flew around the room, darting between various bodies, dodging the chains to avoid hitting them and becoming entangled. 

She covered her mouth and let out another gasp of shock when she saw what she was looking for - the exact thing which she was hoping not to see.

“No …” Twilight sobbed, a tear coming her eye and her voice breaking.

Two large, withered pony skeletons, strung up like all the rest of them, their front hooves tied together. Their size and shape made it easy to identify them, and if that alone wasn’t enough, the color-faded chestplates they both wore made it unambiguous and certain, removing any trace of doubt.

These were the skeletons of Princess Luna and Celestia.

Twilight flew up to them, still crying and with her hooves over her mouth, to read their cards and learned how they died. How her Princess, her mentor had fallen.



The Quintesson paused before giving The Princesses an answer. 

“Nova Prime.” 



PRINCESS CELESTIA OF EQUESTRIA
BEHEADED BY NOVA PRIME 

PRINCESS LUNA OF EQUESTRIA 
BEHEADED BY NOVA PRIME 

“What … Nova Prime?” Twilight asked. She flew back and forth, trying to puzzle together and figure out how in the heck this was supposed to work. “Nova Prime was a hero! A good guy! I mean, he was Optimus Prime’s personal hero! If you ask me, you have to be a preeeetty darn good person and all around decent ‘bot to be Optimus Prime’s role model.”

Twilight barely had time to register and process how the incompatible, despicable act of cleaving Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s heads off with a blade could match up with the view of Nova Prime as a decent and good person, if a bit full of himself, where the doors to the Vault were shredded open.  An outside force ripping through and exploding the doors, destroying them and obliterating them from existence, leaving behind trails of black smoke. 

Twilight turned around to see Nova Prime standing in the ruined wreck of the doorway, his hands sparking with purple electricity. Spires and twisted growths of Dark Energon covered his being his from feet to his shoulders, massive orange panels forming the basis of a pair of wings on his back.  His chest was painted black, with a red jewel set in the center, and various other parts of his body which were once a regal dark blue were now a foreboding black, creating an menacing contrast with his white parts.

“Hmm. Twilight Sparkle.” Nova Prime said, turning to her. “I must admit, when the Decepticons came to me explaining of a pony who was supposed to be dead, I did not believe them. Yet, here you are.” 

Nova raised his hand. He launched a thunderbolt made of dark and purple energy from his palm at Twilight, who flew to the side, letting the thunderbolt hit the wall, making a hole in the wall instead of her.

Twilight zoomed out of the room, flying by Nova Prime and into the hallway. Nova launched another attack at her, which missed, taking out a section of the opposite wall.

Twilight teleported to propel herself forward, putting as much distance between her and Nova as she could. She continued to fly and teleport to evade him, flying through the Citadel, not caring about other Decepticons noticing her. At one point, this led to her flying by a Vehicon who attempted to take aim and shoot her, only to have one of Nova’s dark energy bolts rip through his chest. 

“Sorry.” Nova said to the Vehicon, though he didn’t sound sincere. 

Twilight kept flying and teleporting, eventually making her way to the outside of the Citadel. She looked behind herself to make sure she was safe and away from Nova. She was not. 

Nova Prime smashed through the wall of the Citadel, knocking rubble loose and making pieces of the building crumble and fall to the ground. Nova looked around the area for Twilight, and when he saw her, he flung another dark energy bolt at her.

Twilight jumped out of the way in time, flying to a lower level. She watched in fear and mild curiosity as the bolt struck the ground she used to reside and a cluster of Dark Energon sprouted up from where the bolt struck. 

“How can you do that?” Twilight asked. “How can you use Equestrian magic?” 

“You arrogant cretin.” Nova Prime snarled, levitating towards her, spheres of dark energy crackling in his palms. “Do you think you Equestrians have some sort of patent on magic? My powers come from a greater source, kin to the dark arts of Unicron himself!” 

Nova Prime tossed the spheres of dark energy from his hand, lobbing them at Twilight Sparkle. Twilight turned and ran, fleeing from the explosions behind her. 

Twilight continued to run, eventually stopping when some headlights fell on her. 

“Twilight!” Bumblebee reverted into robot mode. “We found you! We thought you were a goner! But we were about to try to stage a rescue mission anyway.” 

“Okay, yes, I’m escaped, you’ve found me, I’m alive now, and that’s great, Bumblebee, but we should really be running!” Twilight said, galloping away.

“What?” Bumblebee asked. He looked up and saw Nova. “Oh.” Bumblebee converted and drove after Twilight, rolling up beside her. Twilight, wanting some assistance, but to be able to maintain her own maneuverability to fight and dodge, jumped up on Bumblebee’s roof.

“I can’t believe Nova Prime is … this.” Twilight said.
“Uh, yeah?” Bumblebee asked. “You didn’t hear me when I told you not to trust him?”

“No, I didn’t,” Twilight said. “You were busy being cut off by being sucked into a Time Bridge, remember?” 

“Oh yeah.” 



“Nova Prime?” Luna asked. “Preposterous. Nova Prime is a hero and a public figure on Cybertron! He is admired and loved by all. Why does thou needeth protection from him?”

The Quintesson nodded. “He was a hero … to the Cybertronians, once. I’m sure you know he went into space to hunt our kind down and prevent us from ever returning to Cybertron.”  

“His intrudance into our affairs grew disruptive to our society.” Another Quintesson said.

“So we used our technology to find another universe. An alternate universe. A dead universe, one with no life to speak of.”

“We teleported him and his crew there, in the hopes of banishing him there forever and ridding ourselves of him.”

The Quintessons paused.

“Our plan … backfired.” 

“Nova and his crew able to get out and escape the dead universe,” one of the Quintessons said. “Only … they were different. The universe had … changed them during their time inside.”

“Before, Nova only ever killed us if the lives of himself or his crew were at stake.” A Quintesson said. “He much preferred, whenever possible, to take us prisoner. But after he got out from the universe, he went up to the prisoners he had, let them out of their cells …” 

“And slaughtered our brothers mercilessly in cold blood.”

“He continued to hunt us down, no longer interested in imprisoning us or getting us to sign a treaty. He was only interested in killing every last one of us he could find.”

“Thus forcing us to turn to desperate measures to try to protect our species, before Nova Prime and his men wiped us out of the face of the universe.”

“Our first attempt was a pacifying device which we tested on Messatine, on the Decepticon Justice Division.” A Quintesson explained. “It failed to pacify them enough, and they destroyed it.”

“When that failed, we turned to another option. We had been able to recover a long long Cybertronian relic … the Requiem Blaster. We hired the Star Seekers and gave them the blaster in the hopes they would wipe out the whole Cybertronian race, Nova Prime included. That also failed.” 

“Immoral, perhaps. Malicious, even. But we felt it was warranted.” 

“Now, after having all our plans failed, all our efforts thwarted … we come to you, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna of Equestria, in the hopes that you alone might have the power to shield us from Nova Prime …” 

“And the mercy and forgiveness in your hearts to do so.”

“Sanctuary is all we ask for."

Celestia and Luna glanced at each other. 

“We will … confer to consider your request.” Luna said.

The Quintessons nodded. “Take your time. We understand it is … not an easy decision, given our bloody past.” 

Celestia and Luna walked back inside the castle, closing the doors.

“We have to protect them.” Celestia said.

“What? Sister, did thou not hear them?” Luna said. “They themselves admit to being conquerors! Why should we lift a hoof to aid them?” 

“Luna …” Celestia said. “If we rejected all those who went looking for second chances, for protection, the former Decepticons we have protecting ourselves and Earth now would turn back to their wicked ways. We must allow the Quintessons the chance to redeem themselves. If we inflict punishment on them simply because of their past, we are no better than the likes of Megatron and Chrysalis.”

“How do we know this is not a trick?” Luna asked.

“We do not.” Celestia said. “That is a risk that we will have to take.”

Celestia stared Luna down hard.

“I will not answer violence with more violence.”  

Luna hung her head. “We … understand, Sister, and we will abide by thyne’s wishes. But do not come crying to us if it turns out they are merely using us.”

“You have my word that I won’t.”



Bumblebee swerved to the left, and to the right, avoiding the lightning bolts Nova Prime was throwing down on them.

Twilight clung to Bumblebee’s roof to hold on. She twisted her head back and used her magic to fire a retaliatory lightning bolt at Nova Prime, striking square in the chest, to no effect. Nova continued to fly on towards them, not bothered in the least by the bit of smoke on him.

“He’s gaining on us.” Twilight informed Bumblebee.

“No, you think!?” Bumblebee retorted before pausing. “Wait … hang on. I think we’re nearing an entrance. There’s a network of tunnels below Cybertron’s surface. The resistance uses them to travel Cybertron undetected. We can shake Nova Prime off in there. But we have to make sure he can’t follow us, or we’ll be discovered.”

“How do you propose we do that?”

“I’ll tune myself and puff some smoke out my exhaust. You use your magic to spread it around and make a smokescreen.”

Bumblebee’s engine revved and revved before backfiring. A huge cloud of smoke puffed out from his exhaust pipe, whipping some cover for them. Twilight, her horn alight, used her magic to summon a wind to spread and swirl the smoke around, getting it to cover almost the entire area. 

Nova Prime, losing sight of his prey, stopped in mid-air. 

Bumblebee revved up before making a sharp turn to the right, forcing Twilight to drop to her stomach and cling desperately to his roof.

Nova Prime raised up his hands. Clenching energy in his fist, he threw indiscriminate thunderbolts down, firing blindly into the smokescreen to hit his target. 

One of the bolts hit its mark, striking Bumblebee’s front tire. Bumblebee wobbled and grunted in pain, but he pressed forward, eventually getting into the access shaft and bringing Twilight and himself into the tunnel entrance.

Now safe and out of harm’s way, for the time being, Bumblebee transformed to robot mode and released Twilight, getting down on his knees and clutching at his shoulder.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked. 

“Yeah.” Bumblebee groaned out, wincing. He rubbed at his shoulder some more. “I’ll be fine. The important thing is, are you okay?” 

“I’m fine.”  Twilight said. She frowned. “But I don’t want to hear you talk like that. You matter just as much as I do.”

“Twilight Sparkle, in the grand scheme of things, it is more important that we get you back to the past safely than it is for me to live here and now.” Bumblebee said. “If I die, you can still go back and change history, and change it to where I don’t die. Not here, not like this, by whatever ‘Con or Technoist who gets the lucky shot in. But if you die … any and all hope of changing this future die with you. Understand?”

“I understand perfectly.” Twilight said. She looked down and saw a river of bright, blue healthy Energon below a ladder. “You forgot to mention this was a sewer.”
“Did I?” Bumblebee said. “Sorry, guess I might have my mind on other things. Other, winged, lighting-throwing things. Here. You can’t go into that, it’s too deep for you. I’ll carry you.” 

Bumblebee scooped Twilight up into his hands and made his way down the ladder, holding her firm in his palm and wading through the Energon. 

“I can fly, you know.”

Bumblebee grinned nervously. “Can’t blame a guy for trying to be polite and giving a girl a life, can you?”

“Hmph.” Twilight chuckled and let Bumblebee ferry her in his palm. She turned away from and looked at the river.

“This Energon is glowing so brightly …” Twilight observed. 

“Yeah.” Bumblebee said. “That is one thing I’ll give to the ‘Cons. They know how to engineer some premium quality Energon. Sometimes it makes you think, ‘hey, maybe them being in charge of Cybertron isn’t such a bad thing!’ but then they do something horrible, and you remember, however energy-efficient they may be, they’re still Decepticons. Here we are.”  

Bumblebee sat Twilight down on the edge of an a sewer gate. 

“This is where keep some of our stuff.” Bumblebee said, grabbing the gate’s bars and lifting it up. “Don’t want to keep all in one place.” 

Twilight and Bumblebee climbed inside, where a miniature command center was set up. It had a table for directing troop movements, a series of computers for displaying information, and a pitiful attempt at recreation by drawing a chalk circle on the floor. 

“Good to see you made it back alive.” Heatwave greeted them, accompanied by Boulder, Chase, and Blades, all of whom had saurian features and the last of whom was missing an optic. “We set up here in the tunnels. We were going to storm the Citadel and try to rescue you, Twilight Sparkle, but we never got Bumblebee’s signal.”

“We assumed the worst.” Boulder said. 

“But nonetheless, we are glad to see you are here now.”  Chase said.

“It’s good to see all of you, too, Rescue Bots.” Twilight said. “Seems like I only see you when something horrible is going on.” Twilight turned her attention to Blades. “Blades? You haven’t said anything.” 

“Blades … hasn’t been much of a talker since the takeover.” Boulder said. 

“But he’s gotten very good at skewering Decepticons.” Heatwave bragged with pride, before noticing this was making Twilight uneasy. Twilight found it hard to imagine sweet, nebbish, fearful Blades as the Decepticon-skewering type, but hard times make for hard people, she supposed.

“Make yourself at home.” Heatwave said. “We won’t be going anywhere until Boulder makes sure the coast is clear. Sonar still working right?”

“Right as it always has.” 

Boulder and Heatwave left the way Twilight and Bumblebee entered.

“There’s computers over there if you want to amuse yourself.” Bumblebee pointed to the monitors. “I think there’s some archived footage in there, if you want to watch that … and have the stomach for it.” Bumblebee walked over to go sit down.

“Hmm. I think I’ll do that.” Twilight flew up to the monitors. She pressed a button, and the machines whirred to life, each screen showing a different list of files. 

“Hmm …” Twilight decided to simply watch the files already highlighted, she presumed from the last time someone booted up the machine and reviewed the footage.

Twilight pressed the button for play, and three of the screens began to play different images. Twilight gasped at all three of them.  

One showed a recording taking place at Starlight’s town, which had grown to be a heavily fortified installation with a massive black wall built of obsidian. A quivering Earth pony laid at the ground, looking into the camera before turning it over, showing Starlight dressed in a black robe, rallying a group of unicorns towards her, where they used their magic to fight valiantly against a raiding party of Decepticons, including Vehicons, Insecticons, and Leapers. They were able to drive the Decepticons off, though not without one of their ranks taking a mortal wound a Leaper’s blade. 

Another showed a massive, monstrous hybrid creature of a pony and a simian, with four hooved legs in black, and hulking, muscle-bound red arms, firing beams of fire from a spark created between his curved horns and beams of chaos from his mouth.  

The last screen showed Hydia, along with two other females, floating around in a wicker basket on a wooden sailboat, being tossed around on a sea of rolling purple goo which covered the land. 

Twilight kept her mouth covered in shock. 

“I … I need a minute.” Twilight said, before flying out the exit. Between Snowdrop, the horrors in the Vault, and what she had witnessed on the screen, she needed to run away … to be just … away from it all for a little while.

“Twilight, wait!” Bumblebee shouted. “We haven’t heard word it it’s safe!”

Bumblebee had to restrain Blades from pulling out a sword and stopping Twilight the hard way.

Twilight didn’t listen to Bumblebee, flying up and around until she reached a sewer grate. She sat by the grate, on top of the pouring Energon, taking in a deep breath, letting her tears flow freely. She needed to get them out now, or she would have to let them out later, and she didn’t want them to burst out right in the middle of a fight. 

Twilight’s ears perked up, hearing heavy metal footsteps. She scooted around and pressed her face to the bars, hearing the faint hum of music.  Heavy Load and Fearswoop walked into view. 

“Do you have to play that, Heavy Load?” Fearswoop asked. “You know it makes my head hurt.”

“Sorry, Fearswoop.” Heavy Load said. “Sometimes I just like to listen to the music that was playing the day The Decepticons and Technoists took over. The day we won. It reminds me of good times.”

Twilight strained her ears, trying to listen to the music coming from Heavy Load.

“Aaaah aaaah aaaah ahhh aaaah ooooh …” 

Twilight’s eyes widened. She recognized the sound.

“I know that voice.” Twilight said. “That’s … that’s Adagio Dazzle’s voice.” Twilight cupped her chin, wondering what this could mean. She tried to piece together. She absently leaned over, clinking her horn against the grate.

“What was that?” Heavy Load asked.

Twilight grimaced.

Heavy Load and Fearswoop walked up to the grate. Heavy Load aimed his arm-cannon and fired, blasting the grate open. Twilight ducked and was able to avoid being hurt, as the blown-off grate flew over her head. 

Heavy Load and Fearswoop leaned in and saw Twilight. 

They spent a minute staring awkwardly at each other in surprise before their brains caught up and they reacted.

“NOVA! HEY, NOVA!” Heavy Load shouted. “WE FOUND HER! SHE’S OVER HERE!” 

Twilight growled as Fearswoop reached in to grab her. She flew out of the grate, blasting Fearswoop and Nova in the chest, punching holes in them and making them both fall.

Nova Prime landed behind her, his impact on the ground ringing the metal road they stood on.

“Well, well well.” Nova Prime said. “There are you, ‘Twilight Sparkle,’ if that is who you are. Ready to die?” Nova produced a purple flame in his palm. 

Heatwave, Bumblebee, and the other Rescue Bots hopped up from over an edge.

“You’re gonna have to go through us, first, pal.” Heatwave said.

“That would be an easy enough task by myself. But I suppose my acquaintances will want in on the fun.” 
Nova snapped his fingers, and the Decepticon House of Lords emerged in full, accompanied by other footsoldiers.

Heatwave clapped his hands. An explosion ripped out the street down the way, and a small number of Autobots and companions led by Smokescreen emerged. 

“How did you get them here so fast?” Twilight asked.

“I told you we were planning to storm the Citadel for you.” Heatwave said. 

“Get Snowdrop and Fortress Maximus over here.” Nova ordered a Vehicon, who nodded and left.

“Hold the line.” Heatwave ordered. “No matter what happens, Twilight Sparkle has to be protected until she can safely get back to the past. Even if it means this will be our last stand.” 

Heatwave and the Rescue Bots all transformed into dinosaur modes, with Heatwave turning into a T.Rex with a drill for a tail. 

Megatron II converted into his own T.Rex mode, which to no surprise, resembled Grimlock’s. He charged at Heatwave, snapping his jaw and missing, allowing Heatwave to clap his own jaw around and seize Megatron II’s by the neck. Heatwave began to shake, biting harder into Megatron II’s neck. 

The Autobots charged at the Decepticons with their weapons blazing. The Decepticons met them head-on, with one of them trampling over Scootaloo. 

Twilight was distracted, watching Scootaloo limp along the floor. She was almost hit by a blast from Nova Prime, which almost hit her wing. Nova narrowed his eyes at her.

Twilight turned around and flew away, barreling through the air as fast as she could. She could hear - she could feel the footsteps of Fortress Maximus shaking the earth, not far away and soon to arrive. It would be over for the Autobots when he did.

Nova Prime spread his wings and took flight, chasing after Twilight, launching fireballs and thunderbolts. 

“Primus!” Twilight shouted, flying to the side to dodge a fireball. “Megatronus! Micronus! Somebody! I’m ready to go back now! I know what happened! I know what happened! I’m ready! Primus! PRIMUS!”

Twilight’s shouts eventually reached somebody, as she disappeared in a sphere of light, moments before one of Nova Prime’s thunderbolts would have cut through her.

Nova touched down on his foot and stood there darkly, sulking. 



Twilight was teleported into her room at the Rainbow Principality. She hung around in the air, idly flapping her wings before lowering herself to the ground. She paced around in circles. 

“That must have been what happened.” Twilight said. “The music - Adagio Dazzle’s music - did something that let the Decepticon splinter cells and the Technoists unite together and become a cohesive force. But what?”

Twilight tapped her chin. “What could cause the Decepticons to hate that music so much? What do I know about Canterlot High or Equestria that would lead to that? The only thing I can think of is ...”

Twilight paused.

“If the music is … mind-controlling.” Twilight saw. She slapped her head as she realized the plan.  With Fearswoop in the future complaining about Heavy Load playing the music which hurt his head, it all became obvious. 

“Of course! That’s what happened! Adagio Dazzle and her Dazzlings took over the minds of several organics, so they didn’t have any proper defense against the Decepticons! They started playing the music so much, and they must spread it around to take over more minds. It began affecting the Cybertronians, who, being immune to Equestrian mind control magic, experienced physical pain and uncomfortableness, making it easy for Nova Prime to unite them together and have them slaughter all of the enchanted organics to make the music and - thus the pain - go away!”

Twilight paused. 

“That’s … that’s actually a brilliant plan on Nova’s part. I … I need to stop him somehow, before he gets that far. The Dazzlings, too.” Twilight tapped her chin. “Where to start? I can’t just go up and take the fight to Nova directly … he’s a hero! A patriot! All of Cybertron loves him! How I am gonna convince anybody that he’s actually a bad guy? I mean, unless I make him confess it in public -” 

Twilight halted again, getting an idea. She tapped her chin again.

“Hmm …”   



Twilight Sparkle managed to arrange a trip to Cybertron, where she was able to get in touch with Nova Prime again and schedule a meeting inside an unused hangar where Aerialbots used to deploy from. 

“Thank you again for meeting me on such short notice, Your Eminence Nova Prime.” Twilight said, bowing as they went inside.

“Of course, of course.” Nova Prime said. “Anything for a friend in need. Please, Twilight, there’s no need to be so formal. Just “Your Eminence” will do.”

“Uh-huh.” Twilight said. “Will it, now?”

“What can I do for you?” Nova Prime asked. “I assume you didn’t come all this way just to talk to me unless you were in some sort of trouble. How can I help?” 

“Well, you see, Nova, the thing is …” Twilight said. 

“Yes?” Nova gave a quizzical tilt of his brow.

“I’ve recently come across information …” Twilight began. “That tells me you have powers that you received from a kin of Unicron, and you’re a Technoist supporter who wants to boot all organics off Cybertron and banish them, and that you would slaughter all of us if you could.” 

“I … see.” Nova Prime said, his jovial tone leaving his voice. He wrapped his hands beneath his back and paced. He glared at Twilight from the corner of his eye. “And … where did you come across this information, Twilight Sparkle?” 

“I couldn’t say.” Twilight said. “My source wishes to remain anonymous. But where I got it isn’t important. The important thing is whether or not it’s true. Is it true, Nova Prime? Are you an organic-hating Technoist?”

“Have you and your source … gone to anyone else about your suspicions?”Nova Prime asked.

“No.” Twilight said. “It’s just us.”

“I see. Very well then. Yes, Twilight Sparkle, I’m afraid it’s all true. I do have powers similar to Unicron’s. I am a Technoist, and I hate, hate your filthy organics, stomping all over MY Cybertron. Nova stomped his feet, throwing a tantrum. “My sweet, precious, metal Cybertron, with your filthy muddy hooves and your weird bodily fluids like water and mucous and phlegm! It’s disgusting. And yes, Twilight ... Sparkle.” Nova snarled. “I would kill every last one of you if I could. Better yet, I’d turn them all into robots if I could! Into Cybertronians! Into pure, perfect machines, removed of your organic impurities, because you’re too backwards to recognize your own inferiority!” 

“Now … did you come alone?” Nova asked. 

“I did.” Twilight answered with a smile. 

“So … despite your kind constantly preaches about ‘the magic of friendship,; you thought you would come to me, a beloved public figure, with unfounded accusations about my character which would make my life very difficult if they get out, alone, by yourself. With no bargaining or leverage that would dissuade me from attempting to make sure those accusations stayed secret, and didn’t share them with others before you came to me?” Nova Prime said. 

Twilight’s face went into a worried grimace as she realized she may not have thought this through.

Nova raised his hand. It glowed with a purple fire before bringing the hanger door down.

“That was a mistake.” Nova Prime said. 

Nova raised his hands again, launching a barrage of purple fireballs at Twilight. Twilight flew up to avoid them, the fireballs exploding the ground. 

Twilight flew towards the hangar door. Nova shot a lightning bolt from his palm at her, which Twilight teleported to avoid, disappearing from the hanger. His bolt tore a hole through the door.

“Grr …” Nova Prime growled and marched up to the hangar door. Holding up his palms, he shot massive fireballs, blasting the hanger door out and sending it flying before it fell to the ground. Nova climbed on top of the ruined hanger door …

And came to face to face with an assembled force of Imperials, led by Ultra Magnus, Twilight Sparkle flying comfortably by Ultra Magnus’ shoulder.

“How much did you hear?” Nova asked.

“All of it.” Ultra Magnus answered.

“You …” Nova realized, glaring at Twilight. “You were wearing a wire.”

“Yup.” Twilight said.

“How?”

“Back of the wing.” Twilight said, turning around and showing a device attached to her feathers.

“You lied to me, Twilight.” Nova said. “You didn’t come alone.”

“Hmph! And you’re an honest fountain of truth?” Twilight asked. “I think in this case, the ends justify the means. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.”

“You know …” Ultra Magnus said. “You were my brother’s hero, Nova. You were his role model. He took after you. He tried to make himself as much like you as he could when he was young, long before the war happened and changed things, and pretending to be and act like somebody he wasn’t would have gotten him killed. He would be so disappointed to hear you say all of those things. Thankfully, he won’t have to. Not just because he’s dead, but because you will be, too.”

Ultra Magnus aimed his boomstick and cocked the hammer back.

“BLOW HIM TO HELL, BOYS!”

A screeching, piercing signal rang through the air, affecting every Cybertronian in range. Ultra Magnus covered the sides of his head. 

“AAAUGH! What is that noise?” Ultra Magnus demanded.

The screeching signal faded.

“Attention, attention all Cybertronians. Now that our signal made sure we have your attention …” A voice said, broadcasting from Shockwave’s Tower all across the planet.  “Please report to the Hydrax Plateau. The nominee for the acting President is about to be announced.” 

“You interrupted us for that?” Ultra Magnus growled. “!” He noticed Nova Prime flying up and away on his wings. “Shoot him down!” 

Magnus and the Imperials opened fire, firing upwards to try to hit Nova Prime and bring him down, but Nova evaded their fire and was able to fly away.

“He got away …” An Imperialcon lamented.”

Ultra Magnus let out a sigh, putting a hand on his forehead.

“Well.” Ultra Magnus heaved his boomstick over his shoulder. “We might as well go and see what the election news is all about. Who knows? Things could get … interesting over there, and I imagine we’d want to be there to act as containment in case a fight breaks out. Let’s go!”



“Fascinating,” Galvatron said, walking down the hallway to the pavilion with Metalhawk, who was boring, er, entertaining Galvatron with talk of theories written up by Rung. “Tell me about Ringlet’s -” 

“Rung.” Metalhawk corrected him.

“Ringlet’s theories on inter-species bonding.” Galvatron said, not caring. 

“It’s a fascinating study, really.” Metalhawk said. “Rung posits that Cybertronians who bond with Equestrians are more likely to make bad decisions when it comes to the welfare of those Equestrians. According to his model, there is a sort of, oh what did he call it … cuteness overload that cause lapses in judgment and tactical decision making in a Cybertronian. He said he had something to do with their big round eyes, which made them look, I quote ‘adorable.’” 

“Intriguing.” Galvatron said. “So it could be posited that bonding with Equestrians is bad for Cybertronians’ mental health?”

“I suppose so.”

“I could make use of this information …” Galvatron mused.

They arrived at the entrance to the platform where they would stand, where Lazerback was resting on the edge of the door, his arms behind his head.

“Hello, Lazerback.” Metalhawk greeted him. “Are you excited to see the results of the vote?”

“Oh? I’m sorry, didn’t you hear? I dropped out.” Lazerback said.

“W-what?” Metalhawk stammered. “When?”

“Let’s see … it was, oh, today?” Lazerback said.

“You can’t do that!” Metalhawk said. “The ballots have already been cast! You can’t drop out now!” 

Lazerback shrugged. “What can I say? I told you, I am an agent … of chaos.” 

Metalhawk clutched at his forehead. He tried to think of what to do. “I suppose it can’t be helped. Come, Galvatron. Let us inform the public of this development.” 

Metalhawk and Galvatron went out onto the stage. There, cheering throngs of Cybertronians greeted them both, reacting in different ways to each of them - some cheered for Metalhawk, some jeered Galvatron, some expressed their support of Galvatron and booed Metalhawk.

“My fellow Cybertronians!” Metalhawk shouted. “Calm yourselves. And remain calm, please. There has been … a complication with the voting process.” The crowd fell silent. “Lazerback, one of our candidates, has just announced his intention to drop out of the race.”

“What?”

“He can’t do that!”

“I already voted for him! I liked his edgy, unflappable style!” 

“Calm down, calm down.” Metalhawk said, waving his hands. “In these trying times, I must urge you, my brothers, to remain calm. We will fix this. We will find a solution.”

Metalhawk cupped his chin. He turned to Galvatron.

“It seems to me, Galvatron, that the only fair thing would be to allow those who voted for Lazerback to be allowed to recast their vote. After all, they did not know he would be dropping until today ...”

“Seems fair enough.” Galvatron said, though he didn’t sound pleased.

“Okay.” Metalhawk clapped for attention. “All those of you who voted for Lazerback, raise your hand.”

A number of Cybertronians raised their hand.

“Now, keep your hand up if you would like to recast your vote for me, that is, Net leader Metalhawk.”

Some of the Cybertronians lowered their hands. Metalhawk did a quick count.

“Now, raise your hand if you would like to recast your vote for Galvatron.” Metalhawk said. 

The number of raised hands switched to the appropriate sides. Even without an exact count, it was clear Metalhawk was more popular among the Lazerback outliers than Galvatron was. 

“Excellent, excellent.” Metalhawk said. “I wouldn’t want to appear presumptuous, so if someone could confirm for me …?” 

A Vehicon General walked onto the stage. “It appears that Metalhawk is now Acting President of Cybertron until he and we the people can establish a more finite and concrete government in the wake of our recently-ended civil war. Everyone, please give a big round of applause your new leader, Metalhawk!”

A large number in the crowd burst into uproarious applause, though a noticeable few were less enthused, clapping only out of social pressure and politeness rather than any real happiness at the news.

“Yes, and there you have it, folks! Metalhawk, acting Supreme Leader of the Cybertronian people.” A reporter said. “One can only hope he’s up the task.”

“I think I’ll establish a parliament, first.” Metalhawk mused, before returning his attention to the crowd. “Thank you, people of Cybertron, for electing me on this day! I realize it didn’t go quite the way any of us expected, considering … but I promise you, I will do everything in my power to be the leader you deserve! The leader who will right the wrongs of our past, and face the issues that challenge and perplex our society in this murky, post-war haze we stumble through!”

Metalhawk bowed. The crowd gave more applause, while Metalhawk and Galvatron turned and left the stage, going back through the hall, passing Lazerback. 

“I congratulate you on a campaign well-fought, Galvatron.” Metalhawk said. “As they say, good match. But you can rest assured, Cybertron is in good hands, and I won’t stop fighting for a pure and just Cybertron. To work for a peaceful Cybertron where the crimes of those in the war are properly punished and forgotten, and where we can live in harmony with the other species.”

“Oh, please.” Galvatron huffed, walking in front of Metalhawk. 

“W-what?” Metalhawk asked.

“Oh, Metalhawk, quit pretending.” Galvatron said.  “You don’t actually care about the war, or living harmoniously with the organics. You just like acting righteous in what you see as the moral thing, lording your obvious moral superiority over others. It’s sickening.”

“W-well …” Metalhawk stammered. “There is a certain satisfaction in doing the moral thing … i-in knowing that I am in the right, and certain others are in the wrong.” 

Lazerback stepped away from the door, walking towards Metalhawk. His footsteps alerted Metalhawk, who spun around to face him.

“W-what are you doing?” Metalhawk asked.

“Let’s just say that Lazerback and I have come to … an arrangement, of sorts.” Galvatron said.

“I see.” Metalhawk said. “And this arrangement wouldn’t have something to do with Lazerback’s sudden decision to drop out of the race, would it?” 

“Oh, it has everything to do with it.” Lazerback said. “Like I said, Metalhawk, I am an agent of chaos.”

“Yes.” Galvatron said. “And after this, Lazerback, you will be free to cause as much … chaos as you want.” 

Galvatron raised up his weaponized arm, with his usual weapon of a death-lock pincer. 

Galvatron stabbed Metalhawk in the back, the blade portion of his weapon emerging through Metalhawk’s chest. Metalhawk groaned and gasped as his Energon seeped out from his chest. Not one to leave things to chance, Galvatron fired a blast from his cannon, shooting a massive blue shot of superheated plasma straight Metalhawk’s torso. Galvatron jerked his weapon out, slicing sounds coming from the metal as it was removed from Metalhawk’s body.

Metalhawk’s body fell to his knees before falling down. Lazerback lifted him and rolled Metalhawk’s body over on to his chest. 

Lazerback took out his Toxic Strike Blaster and fired it at Metalhawk’s chest, melting it down with acid into a pile of metal sludge and neatly hiding any evidence of Galvatron’s weapon. Liquid slag metal dripped off the sides of the yellow blob lying where Metalhawk’s torso used to be.

“Excellent.” Galvatron said. He walked up to Lazerback. “Now do me. Don’t hit anywhere too hard. Especially not in the chest.”

“You got it, big guy.” Lazerback said. He aimed the Toxic Strike Blaster and fired it on Galvatron’s non-weapon arm, melting it down. 

Outside, the crowd had began to chatter about politics, having sorted its differing parties over to different sides to avoid conflict.

The crowd was hushing when Galvatron came limping out onto the stage, clutching at his half-liquified arm.

“Help!” Galvatron screamed, a panicked look flashing in his eyes. “Help!” 

Galvatron limped over to a speaker and set himself against it. Two Cybertronians climbed up on to the stage and rushed over to Galvatron’s aid.

“What it is, Galvatron?”

“It’s - it’s Lazerback.” Galvatron said. “The campaign was all a ruse to him. He killed Metalhawk! He tried to kill me, too, but I fought him off. He was still in the hall when I saw him last.” Galvatron nodded his head at the hall. 

“Understood. Someone get up here and go after Lazerback!” The Cybertronian shouted. Two Vehicons, an Aerialbot, and an Autobot rocketeer climbed up onto the stage and ran into the hallway.

“You know …” Lazerback said, crouching over Metalhawk’s corspe. “I was serious about campaigning, Metalhawk. Imagine all the mayhem I could cause as ruler of Cybertron. Until, Galvatron approached me with a deal. Drop out of the race, and then once the results were in, Galvatron would kill you and frame me for it. See, me, I’m a criminal and a maverick by nature. I don’t really mind marking myself as a criminal in Cybertronian society. After all … I’ve always got Earth and Galloway to go back to.” Lazerback smirked. “See, this way, regardless of who won the vote after I dropped out, Galvatron would win. If he won, he’s rid of you being a nuisance to his Technoist goals and a threat to his power, and probably would have had you executed anyway. If you’d win, well … he’d kill you, and then with only one candidate left, he becomes ‘President’ of Cybertron by default. All while framing me, so that he gets away scot-free, while I am free to cause mayhem somewhere else. Hoo-hoo-hoo!”

Footsteps echoed from down the hall.

“Well, I’d better be off.” Lazerback stood up. “Sounds like they’re coming for me!” Lazerback reverted into his beast mode and took off running down the hall.

“With Metalhawk dead, and Lazerback going rogue …” One of the Cybertronians helping Galvatron up to his feet said. “I guess that means you are now Acting President, Galvatron. Er, Mister President.”

“Excellent.” Galvatron said, trying hard not to let his grin show through. “My first order of business - after Lazerback’s capture and trial, of course - is the complete removal of the Changeling Batteries.” 

Some in the crowd cheered.

“My second order of business is to an all organics from travelling to Cybertron.” Galvatron said. He gave an awkward smile. “Just until we can stand on our feet and have Cybertron up and running again on our own.”

“Accepted. You are in charge now.” The Cybertronian said. “But … you don’t seem too concerned with Lazerback, or the fact Metalhawk just died, my liege.”

Galvatron squinted off to the side. “There is … nothing we can do for Metalhawk. Even Dark Energon, were we to somehow acquire any, would only bring him back as a shell of his former self. As for Lazerback, I have confidence that if everyone works together, Autobot or Decepticon, he will be caught in time.” Galvatron gave another warming smile. The Cybertronian nodded, and he and his companion carried Galvatron off to receive medical care.



Ultra Magnus, watching from the edge of a nearby building, (the Imperials were still criminals in the law, after all) walked back to his squadron.

“I’m going to assume you all saw or at least heard most of that.” Magnus said. “Lazerback showed the populace his true colors. Metalhawk is dead, and Galvatron is Acting President of Cybertron by default. Something tells me those last two thing share are related.”

Twilight sighed. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. We’d need proof that Galvatron did it, and we still need to find and hunt down Nova.”

“Yeah …” Ultra Magnus. “Galvatron is insisting on an embargo on the travel of organics to Cybertron. For the sake of the economy, of course.”

“Of course.” Twilight groused. “I suppose that means that the Imperials - the organics of us, at least, aren’t allowed on Cybertron anymore.” 

“Yeah, but you’re not going anywhere without me.” Ultra Magnus said, grinning.

Twilight sighed. “We might as well pack it up and head home. Don’t worry, everyone. I’ll figure out a way for us out of this. This battle may be lost, but we can still win the war in the long haul.”

Twilight and the Imperials began packing up their gear and heading through a Space Bridge to the Principality.



Meanwhile on Earth, at the Pentagon, in specific, Agent Fowler was walking down the halls, going over a report when he heard a most unwelcome sound. The sound of Attinger’s voice, yelling out his name.

“Fowler!” Attinger shouted. 

Fowler halted and clutched at the paper before turning around to face Attinger. “Yes, Attinger?”

“It’s been a rough couple of days for all of us,” Attinger said. “Why don’t you join me in my office for a drink?”

“A drink?” Fowler asked. “While we’re on the clock?” 

“We don’t do more than few shots.” Attinger said. “Please. I insist.”

Fowler paused. Attinger had a fearsome reputation. When he insisted on something, he was insistent on it. Fowler suspected turning him down would only serve to upset Attinger and make him more suspicious. 

“Yeah, okay.” Fowler said. “Just one or two shots.” 

Attinger smiled, patting Fowler on the shoulder. He guided Fowler to his office, and had Fowler take a seat opposite of his own desk chair.

“I recall you saying you were more of a scotch kind of guy.” Attinger said, pouring Fowler and himself glasses.

“Yeah …” Fowler said, hesitantly taking one of the glasses.

“Bottoms up.” Attinger raised his cup up before lifting to his mouth and chugging the shot. “Drink up, Fowler. It’s not laced with anything.” 

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Just, uh, trying to be mindful …” Fowler said. He took a dainty sip from his cup. 

“Hmm.” Attinger said. “You know, we’re not so different, Fowler. We’re two men, fighting for our country … we love our country … we want it to be safe. To survive. To endure. To thrive.”

“Is that so?” Fowler asked. 

“Yes.” Attinger said. “Recently, however, I’ve noticed you’ve been absent lately … gone for long periods of time, with no contact from anyone. I know you still have sympathies for the Autobots … are you working with them?”

Attinger raised a finger. “Don’t answer that. Whether or not you’re working with them, that’s not important. What’s important, Special Agent William Fowler, is … do you know where the Imperials’ base is?”

Fowler took in a deep breath. He had to remain calm in the face of Attinger’s accusation. He worried the scotch might have had something placed in it designed to loosen his tongue, if the alcohol itself proved insufficient. 

“No.” Fowler answered. “I do not know the location of the Imperial base.”

Attinger nodded. “I’m impressed. I’ve spent my whole life turning myself into a human lie detector. I have practiced and practiced picking up on the tiniest details. On the hardest to spot tells. Almost everything you’re doing right now tells me you’re not lying. Almost. Your breathing is good, your heart rate is steady, your eyes are focused on me … but there’s one thing you can’t control, Fowler.”

Attinger stood up from his seat, slamming his palms on the table. 

“Your pupils are contracted.” 

Fowler grimaced, realizing he was found out, and there would no way to convince Attinger he was mistaken.

Attinger snapped his fingers. Two of his men came into the room. 

“Hmph. Alright, fine.” Fowler said, glaring at the agents. “So I know where it is. I’m not telling you, though. Those are my friends in there.”

“I think you will.” Attinger said. 

“What are you gonna do, waterboard me?” Fowler asked.

“I haven’t ruled out the possibility.”

“You’re gonna have to do better than that, pal.” Fowler crossed his arms. “I was held captive and tortured by Decepticons. So you are gonna have to wake up pretty early in the morning to cook something up that will actually hurt me any.”

“We have our ways.” Attinger said. “Take him away.” 

The agents grabbed Fowler by the shoulders and lifted him out of the chair. Tying Fowler’s hands together with rope, Attinger and his men took a covert route to take Fowler out of the building, and lumped him in a car and took him for a ride.

“Where are we going?” Fowler asked. “Prison? A river to toss me in? Maybe a cliff to drive me off?” 

“You’ll see.” Attinger said.

Attinger’s men took Fowler to some … warehouse out in a hidden, sandy location. They pulled up to the warehouse and made Fowler get out, where Galloway was waiting for them.

“Ah, Attinger.” Galloway said. “And it looks like you’ve bought a present for me.”

“And indeed we have Mister President.” Attinger said. “I have reason to believe this man knows the location of the Imperial base.”

“Does he?” Galloway walked up to him. “Ah, Agent Fowler. The Autobot sympathizer. Tell me, how does it feel knowing you’ve been on the wrong side, and that you’re about to lead to their downfall?”

“I don’t have anything to say to you, you bottom-dwelling, scum-sucking megalomanic.” Fowler said.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Fowler!” Galloway said. “I’m sure there’s lots we could talk about! Who knows? We might have a few things in comm-”

Fowler spat into Galloway’s face, getting spittle over Galloway’s glasses. Attinger’s men began to rough Fowler up. 

Galloway was quiet for a moment before speaking. “Easy, easy. Take him inside.”

Galloway and Attinger accompanied the agents as they shoved Fowler into the building. They threw Fowler down onto his knees inside, where a Cybertronian was waiting. Fowler thought he recognized the shape, but he looked different.

“What is it now?” Ratchet asked, turning away from Vigil. He gasped when he saw Fowler. “Agent Fowler?”

“Ratchet?” Fowler asked. “What happened to you? You look … different.”

“It’s hard to explain.” Ratchet said. “What are you doing here?”

“He is here to provide us with the location of the Imperial base.” Galloway said. “Which you are going to get out from him.”

“And how do you propose I’ll be doing that?” Ratchet asked drolly.

“I’ve been reading up on some mission reports. Logs. That sort of thing.” Galloway said. “Bring it in, boys.”

Some Americons walked in, wheeling in a Cybertronian medical station, along with a black cord with purple lining. 

“You …is that …?” Ratchet said. “You can’t honestly expect me to try to set up a cortical psychic patch on a human!” 

“That is exactly what I expect you to do.” Galloway said. 

“No.” Ratchet crossed his arms and turned away. “I won’t do it. I won’t!” 

“Do I need to remind you of the terms of our arrangement?” Galloway asked, and the Americons produced Energon prods.

“As a matter of fact, I do. The terms were for me to use my understand of Cybertronian biology to help you, as sick as it makes me. There was nothing in there about using it on humans, much less my friends!”

“Aww. I’m your friend?” Fowler asked. “That’s sweet.”

“This is really is not the time for you snide, Bill!” Ratchet snapped. Fowler seemed taken aback by Ratchet using his nickname.

Attinger seemed just as, it not more mortified than Ratchet. “S-sir, you can’t really mean to use this … piece of alien tech on of our own, can you?”

“I can and I do.” Galloway said. “I have every intention of it. I want the location of that Imperial base.” 

“B-but, sir! He’s one of us!” Attinger said. “He’s a human! An American! He deserves better than to be probed by one of these aliens … torture devices! Please.” Attinger clapped his hands together. “I’m begging you. Let me interrogate him. I can get the information you want. And I can do it in a way that is safe and humane. Isolated containment will have him talking in no time. Please. He’s a Special Agent. He deserves better.”

“He was a Special Agent.” Galloway said. “Now he’s just a mole.” Galloway clapped his hands and pointed at Ratchet. “I want that cortical psychic patch set up, Ratchet. If you won’t do it, I’ll find someone who will! Like Vigil. Vigil will do it, won’t you, boy?”

“I am programmed to do as instructed.” Vigil said. “I will do the task you assign me. But please, Mister President, do not refer to me as a ‘boy.’”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Thattaboy.” Galloway said and left. 

Attinger remained where he was, rooted to his spot, staring off into space in shock. He took his glasses off, staring at the floor with his jaw hanging up. Attinger glanced up to Ratchet and acknowledged him with a sympathetic nod before putting his glasses back on and leaving.

Ratchet sighed. “I suppose I might as well get this all set up. You two, put Agent Fowler on the slab.” Ratchet ordered the Americons, who picked Fowler up in their claws and laid him flat on the slab.

“I’ll need to hook this equipment up to you, Vigil.” Ratchet grabbed the medical station and dragged it over to Vigil’s terminal. He found some extension cords and began making adjustments, plugging them into Vigil’s electronic ports and the station so Vigil could manipulate it.

“If I may ask, Ratchet, why do you not do this yourself?” Vigil asked. “Would it not be more prudent to have Fowler interrogated by your hands? They are more experienced than my proverbial ones, after all.” 

“They are.” Ratchet said. “It probably would be. But this is one line I will not cross. I will not do this to Fowler, not by myself … but … Galloway’s made it clear it’s going to happen anyway, no matter what I do, even if I were to try to escape ... so I may as well do my best to at least make sure the experience is comfortable for him.”

“I see.” Vigil said. “I … think I understand.”

“Less chit-chat, more working.” One of Attinger’s agents ordered.

Ratchet growled, baring his teeth. He signed and put his anger aside, at least for the time being, and went over to Fowler, lifting up a syringe.

“Don’t worry.” Ratchet said, flicking the syringe with his fingers and filling it up with a liquid. “I’m not going to use the patch on you just yet. This is an anesthetic. It should keep you from feeling any physical pain when the patch goes in … and if something goes wrong, and the patch is … incompatible with your human physiology, it … it will hopefully make the experience painless.”

“I understand.” Fowler said. 

Ratchet stabbed the syringe into Fowler’s arm and deployed the plunger, injecting the anaesthetic. Fowler groaned, his eyes rolling around in his head before they closed.

One of the Americons climbed on the secondary slab of the station. He laid back, and Vigil went to work on plugging the patches into him and Fowler.

Ratchet, having done all he could, sighed and walked away.

“You know …” The remaining Americon said. “As far as I’m concerned, once we’re through with the human, we should put you on the patch next, Autobot.”

“I … beg your pardon?” Ratchet asked. 

“You’re Ratchet, right?” The Americon said. “You hurt a few of my friends during the war. I want to see it was like from your perspective. Did it feel good for you? Did it seem less horrible for you when you were over the scalpel instead of under it? And that’s just the ones that made it back. I want to know how badly you hurt anyone else I knew.”

“I am ... sorry about your friends.” Ratchet said. “I took no pleasure in having to harm them, for any reason. But the war is over now, and that’s in the past. We should move on.” 

“Not for me, it isn’t.”

The Americon’s arm-blaster hummed, but Ratchet got the drop on him, going around behind the Americon and wrapping his arm around the Americon’s neck. While the Decepticon struggled and tried to pry the arm off, Ratchet got his Dragonshredder Drill ready and plunged the drill through the Vehicon’s back, the drill bursting out from his chest. 

Ratchet removed his arm and weapon, letting the dead Vehicon fall to the floor. 

The agents of Attinger who remained pulled out their guns and opened fired on Ratchet. Their bullets bounced off Ratchet’s Beast Hunter armor, but it was enough of an annoyance for Ratchet to reach his breaking point. 

Screaming in fury like a barbarian, Ratchet charged at the agents, his drill spinning. One of them, seeing Ratchet charge at them, pulled out a taser and hit Ratchet in the ankle, to no effect.

After … dealing with them, Ratchet walked over to the medical station, where the Americon was no doubt rummaging through Fowler’s mind.

Ratchet bared his teeth and raised his soaked, dripping drill up, preparing to stab it straight down into the Americon’s chest.

Ratchet stopped. If he killed the Americon now, he could kill Fowler too. He couldn’t bring himself to do that.

Ratchet sank to his knees, curling  up in a fetal position on the floor, lying his drill besides him. It was too late now. Galloway was going to find out the location of the Imperial base. Galloway was going to find out where the Imperials’ were, and then he was going to wipe them out. Probably drop a nuclear weapon on them or something. 

All Ratchet could do was sit there and rock, cradling his head as the reality of the situation caught up to him, the Energon from the dead Americon and the blood from Attinger’s men pooling in the corner … 



“Don’t worry, everyone.” Twilight assured her team as they arrived back in the foyer of the main building of the Principality. “We’ll find some way out of this. We will get out of this. We’ll find Nova Prime, find proof that Galvatron is guilty, and still overthrow Galloway and put him back in check.” 

“Uh, that may have to wait, Commander.” An Imperialcon walked up to him. “You’re going to want to see this.”

“See what?” Twilight asked.

“We’ve been found out. It’s the Isolationists.” The Imperialcon answered. “The U.S Army is here. They’ve found us.”

“WHAT!?” Twilight's eyes, in addition to the eyes of several others, widened in surprise. “But how? We took every precaution! Did someone turn traitor? Did we have a leak?”

“I don’t know, Commander.” The Imperialcon said.

Twilight put a hoof to her forehead. “It doesn’t matter now. We need to focus on defending the base.” Twilight flashed a grimace as she heard the roar of a jet engine zooming by.  “Are any of our double agents in the Army with them?”

“Unknown, Commander.”

“Well, find out, and if they are, get in contact with them tell them now is the time to let their true colors shine!” Twilight ordered. The Vehicon nodded and left.

“We need to defend the base.” Twilight turned to Ultra Magnus. She paused, dread feeling up her hooves. 

“We need to evacuate the Civilian District.”



General ‘Circuit Smasher’ Witwicky surveyed the area outside the Principality, with tanks, jeeps, and jets flying in the sky at his disposal.

“Alright, you.” Circuit Smasher said. “We’ve got the full might of the U.S Army at our disposal. There should be no reason we can’t take out an installation protected by a bunch of stupid ponies.”

“I thought you said you liked ponies?” Shining Armor asked, walking up to Circuit Smasher. He glared.

“Er … I just meant the ponies inside.” Circuit Smasher said. 

“Shining, doesn't questioning Circuit Smasher make you a hypocrite, since you hate Autobots?” A soldier asked.

Shining had to consider this. “Um … well …” Shining hung his head. “I guess it does.” 

“Never mind that. That’s not important now.” Circuit Smasher said. He pulled out a walkie-talkie. “Delta Squadron, take out the west - AArrgh!” Witwicky winced in pain as the walkie gave off static. “They must be jamming communications. Our orders are going to have to be given manually. Not a good start.”

Shining Armor and Witwicky examined the perimeter’s defenses.

“A force field.” Shining Armor said. “It’s not as good as mine would be, of course. Here, I’ll just …” 

Shining Armor fired a beam into the force field. The purple spell struck against blue hexagons, which shimmered briefly before shooting the beam back at Shining, covering his horn in soot. 

“What?” Shining Armor stammered.

“Gun.” Circuit Smasher ordered. A soldier put a gun in his hand, and Circuit Smasher fired on the shield. The bullet bounced off the hexagons, which shimmered as long as it took to deflect the bullet before turning invisible again. 

“Nested force fields.” Circuit Smasher observed. “That’s clever.”


Twilight Sparkle and her team with Ultra Magnus ran out of the main office.

“Someone, get out there and evacuate the civilians.” Twilight ordered, drawing up her helmet. “And get those fusion cannons firing! Do you think they’re decoration?”  Twilight ran off.

“Where you are going?” Ultra Magnus asked.

“To reactivate Project: Proxy.” Twilight said. “We need all the help we can get. All hands on deck!”

Inside the building, Jack, Raf, and Miko were surprised when Arcee burst into the room. 

“We’re under attack.” Arcee explained. “All hands on deck. That includes you.”

“Well.” Jack said. “It’s a good thing you raided COBRA’s base lately and got another mech from there, or I might feel a bit useless.” 

“Alright, baby.” Miko reached over and opened a compartment, pulling out the Apex Armor. “It’s showtime.”

Raf shirked. “I don’t think I really belong in a battlefield situation.” 

“You can help with evacuation.” Arcee said. “And after that, you could hack into the enemy’s systems.”

“I can do all of that.” Raf jumped out of his seat. “I’m good with numbers. Evacuating a whole a bunch of people shouldn’t be any different, right?”

Arcee smirked. “That’s the attitude. Come on.” 

Outside, one of the Fusion Cannon towers rotated, aiming one of its cannons at a squadron of fighter jets which was flying around. 

The massive barrel of the Fusion Cannon charged, sucking up energy before firing a sphere of distorted space. The sphere stopped mid-way between several jets and began sucking up everything around it, pulling the jets in to its crushing, inexorable pull. The jets clustered together, with some of the pilots thinking to hit the eject button before the sphere exploded, terminating the jets and reducing them to thousands of pieces of shrapnel, which rained hazardously down on Witwicky’s forces.

Witwicky bore a mad grimace. “Someone get up in there! Stinger! Where is Stinger? Get him on this!”

“I got it, boss!” Stinger announced, making his fashionably-late appearance, joined by other Gould drones. Stinger walked up to the force fields. He tapped the outer field, watching it pulse beneath his touch. “Hmm. Easy pickings. Traxes! Junkheaps! With me now!” 

Stinger, the Traxes, and Junkheaps got together and formed a pile, linking up and merging together into one massive, gargantuan Transformer. The drone combiner raised its massive fist and punched the force field, the shimmering hexagons flickering and losing some of their light and cohesiveness, unable to stand up to the combiner’s overwhelming raw might. The force field held, though. 

“Ha!” Stinger’s voice, distorted and amplified in the combiner, laughed. “This should be easy pickings!”

A massive blast came from inside the force field, striking the Stinger-amalgamate in the chest and throwing him backwards.

“What?” 

Bruticus stepped out of the shield, the barrels on his back smoking. 

“I shall crush you cheap knock-offs.” Bruticus declared. He raised up his arm made from Blast Off, converting his hand into a giant afterburner, using Blast Off’s fuel as ammunition for a flamethrower.

Bruticus fired a massive stream of fire from his arm, running it over the Stinger-combiner and melting it down, threatening its cohesion. Bruticus took his helicopter arm and began to slash at Stinger with Vortex’s rotating chopper blades, scuffing the combiner up before Bruticus grabbed its torso with his hands and squeezed hard, causing all of the limbs to pop up and evicting the drones from their combination.

Bruticus held up a flailing, struggle Trax in his hand. He closed his fist around the drone, crushing and crunching it down. Not quite done with body, Bruticus tossed the crumpled drone into another Trax, knocking it over. 

“W-where’s Bumblebee?” Stinger asked, crawling back as Bruticus marched towards him. “I-I want to fight Bumblebee instead of you.”

“Of course you do.” Bruticus growled, aiming his flamethrower at Stinger. Bruticus staggered back when a fighter jet strike him in the back with a missile. “Gah!”

“Bull’s-eye!” The pilot cheered. Moments before Bruticus scored a direct hit on the back of his jet, retaliating with his shoulder cannons, which struck and blew out the jet’s engines. “Uh-oh.” 


Jack and Miko came riding out of the main building, Jack piloting a COBRA mech and Miko clad in the Apex Armor, ready to do some punching. 

“Who wants to get wrecked?” Miko roared, swinging her arms around. 

“I hope I remember how to pilot this …” Jack mumbled. 

Elsewhere, Raf and others were busy trying to evacuate the citizens.

“Where are we going to put them all?” Smokescreen asked.

“Hmm. I know! They are refugees in Cobra-La, right? We’ll send them there.” Raf said. “I”m … sure they’ll get along, heh heh.”

Smokescreen smiled and nodded. “Good idea.” He turned and shouted. “Open up the Space Bridge! Coordinates, Cobra-La!”

A Space Bridge was opened. Raf, Smokescreen, and a few Vehicons supervised getting the civilians through it.

“Go, go, go, go! Single-file, please, single-file!” A Vehicon shouted.

“I’ll this is somehow your fault.” An Autobot civilian spat at a Vehicon.

“My fault? How?” The Vehicon asked.

“I don’t know. You and your other ex-Decepticon buddies probably did something, ticked someone off.” The Autobot.

“Uh, guys?” Raf said. “We really don’t have time for this.”

“All I wanted was somewhere I could lie down and retire and live in peace after the war!” The Autobot complained. “Somewhere nice, maybe. With a lawn. Maybe settle down, start a family. I thought I could get that here, but nooo! You and your buddies just HAD to ruin it for everyone!”

“Hey, I wanted to start a family, too!” The Vehicon pointed to his chest. “So don’t you dare accuse me of-” 

The ground shake below as an explosion rocked the force field above. The arguing Autobot and Vehicon looked up at the sky.

“We should go.” The Vehicon said.

“I couldn’t agree with you more.” The Autobot and the Vehicon entered through the Space Bridge side by side.

“Keep moving, keep moving!” Smokescreen said. He glanced down the way. “Okay. I think that’s almost all of them. After we get this last batch in, we should be good.”

Another explosion rocked the force field above. It punched a hole big enough for another piece of ordinance to drop down, dropping next to Smokescreen and Raf and exploding the ground, knocking them on to their sides. Smokescreen bore the bulk of the blast, shielding Raf from it, who mostly just got a face full of dirt.

“Smokescreen!” Raf yelled.

“I’ll be fine!” Smokescreen groaned, struggling to get up, his back and his right leg smoking. “Get the rest of them out of here! Don’t worry about me! GO!”

Raf nodded and turned to the remaining citizens, who were mercifully unharmed. “Alright, folks, keep it moving. Don’t worry about him, folks, he’ll be fine …” I hope, Raf added in his head.

“Status report.” Witwicky ordered. 

“We’re making a few dents here and there, sir, but no major breaches yet.” A soldier reported.

Witwicky scowled. “Call in the major airstrike.”

“Already, sir? We haven’t even gotten the force fields down.”

“Exactly.” Witwicky said. “I want you to drop a megaton of bombs on the force field and crack it like an egg.”

“Understood, sir. We’ll have your orders relayed.” The soldier said. He went about relaying the orders to the others, the order passing down a chain of soldiers until it got to two who would go on to unfurl a banner they had hastily thrown together after it was discovered radio wouldn’t work. The banner read “airstrike now.”

Receiving the message, a squadron of jets arranged in a v-formation. They flew over the Principality, flying high, high into the sky before dropping their payload, unloading massive bombs from their chutes. 

The bombs struck the outer force field of the Principality, going up in a massive explosion. A huge fireball rose out, bright enough to burn the eyes of anyone who was staring or standing too close at it. The combined explosive power was too much for the outer force field to handle, and it collapsed.

The jets swung back around, going for another pass. Having not exhausted all of their reserves, they dropped another series of the bombs down, striking the second force field and causing it to shatter as well. 

Magnum and Ultra Magnus survived the wreckage, watching as the shards of the magic shield fell to the ground before disappearing in a puff of powder.

“The force fields are both down.” Magnum said. “Commander, I believe it’s time to retreat. We’ve lost.”

“What?” Twilight balked. “We haven’t lost! So what if the force fields are down? We still have men, weapons, non-sentient automatons …” 

“They have an airstrike, Twilight.” Ultra Magnus pointed above. “And something tells me they were smart enough to pack more than just two in case things got hairy. You really think Circuit Smasher is gonna have any moral problems with bombing this place over and again until he’s burnt it to the ground?”

“No, but …” 

Another missile hit, blowing the tops off one of the skyscrapers, reducing its size by half. The rubble spilled over from the sides of the building like pouring sand, falling down and destroying bridges and statues.

Twilight sighed. “You’re right. We need to retreat. It’s better to live to fight another day. We can regroup somewhere, build a new base … maybe make on the moon or something. Make sure every automatic defense we have is firing and running at peak efficiency and top speed. If they take this place, I want to make it as hard for them as possible.”

Twilight activated her comm. “Attention all Project: Proxy fighters. Direct yourselves to the front and cover our escape.” 

“Oh, why didn’t I include a self-destruct mechanism for this place?” Twilight lamented. Now who knows what Witwicky and Galloway were going to able to do with access to the Principality?

“You didn’t want to risk blowing up the civilians if you activated before they got out.” Magnum said.

“ … that’s a good point.”

Twilight turned away. Ultra Magnus and Magnum logged into their comms and did what they could to make sure all the cannons were firing.

Morbots, B.A.T’s, and blue colored Stingers marched to the front of the battlefield, where they formed a wall and held the line, stopping Witwicky’s encroaching forces from gaining any further entry into the Principality before the Imperials had a chance to escape.

“A knockoff of a knockoff.” Stinger said, observing his blue clone. “That’s novel.” 

The Fusion Cannon towers rotated, all of them firing at once on Witwicky’s forces. One shot in particularly took out a bunch of jeeps and a few tanks.

The Imperials marched out of the city, walking away from and leaving it to Witwicky’s forces. Ultra Magnus stopped away from the city and looked back. clutching his hammer in fury, he considered heading back in and making a last-second, one-man charge, before deciding against it. He was more useful to Twilight alive.

“Once we’re far enough away, we need to have Raf whip up something to remotely wipe all the data on our computers.” Twilight said.

“Sir!” A soldier reported to Witwicky. “The Imperials are leaving the base!”

“They are?” Witwicky asked.

“Yes, sir! What are your orders, sir? Do we pursue, or do we stay behind and secure the base?”

“Hmm …” Witwicky, the soldier, and Shining Armor ducked for cover as a Morbot flew over them and fired at them with its cannon.

“It doesn’t look we’ll have a choice! Secure the base! I want all of those drones gone before sundown!”

“Sir, yes, sir!”



The Imperials gathered a safe distance away from their former base, watching the Principality from afar, listening to the sounds of clashing metal and exchanging gunfire as the Proxy drones did everything they could to slow down the seizure of the base before they were stopped, defeated, and shredded apart and torn to pieces.

Applejack looked up at the sky. “Twilight? Did y’all order the Omega Lock to be fired?”

“No.” Twilight answered. “Why?”

“Then … Isn’t that the portal the Omega Lock fires through?” Applejack pointed up. “What’s that doing in the sky?”

Twilight and the other Imperials looked up to see a massive pool of electric-blue energy rippling in the sky, energy humming from its surface.

“It is.” Twilight said. “But … I didn’t give the order to fire.” Twilight activated her comm. “Attention, Omega Lock attendants. Stand down. Depower the Omega Lock. I did not give the order to fire. Repeat, stand down! Depower the Omega Lock! I did give the order to fire!” 

Twilight froze, her eyes widening in worry.

“They’re … they’re not responding.” Twilight said.

Applejack looked at the Principality. “What do you want to do?”

Twilight pondered it and mulled it over, but it became obvious to her there was only one true answer.

“We … we have to save them.” Twilight said. “We have to save the Isolationists. They don’t know the Omega Lock is about to fire. They have no idea we’ve lost control of it.” 

“What?” Ultra Magnus balked. “Twilight, are you forgetting these people work for Galloway and just ran us out of our own base? Our base that all but doubled as our home?”

“I know.” Twilight said. “They work for Galloway, sure, but that doesn’t make them all monsters. I’m sure some of them are just loyal soldiers … I bet - I know some of them have families who would suffer without them.”

Ultra Magnus pretended to clear his throat. “Your brother is also with them.”

“So?” Twilight said. “Maybe he’s a complete and total dunce … maybe he’s a moron. Maybe I’ll never be able to completely forgive him for allying with the Star Seekers, or being an anti-Autobot self-appointed moral guardian who thinks he knows best … but he’s still my brother! I still remember the good times I had with him. I … I … deep down, despite everything he’s done, everything I’ve done, that’s happened to me, to both of us … I still love him.”

Ultra Magnus put a finger to his forehead in salutation. “I have to admit … you’re a better bot than I, Twilight Sparkle. I would have kicked him to the curb by now.”

“We have to save them.” Twilight ordered, firming her voice and pouring her authority into it. “It’s the correct, moral thing to do. It’s what … it’s what Optimus would have wanted.”

“How are we gonna do that, Twi?” Applejack asked.

“We’re going to do what i do best. We’re going to talk to them.” Twilight looked around, squinting.

“Um … somepony please tell me we have a white flag or something around here somewhere?”



Circuit Smasher launched an electric bolt through a B.A.T, slicing it half at the waist and allowing it to fall over.

“That should be the last of them.’

“Sir, look,” a soldier said. “The War Princess.” 

Circuit Smasher looked over and saw The War Princess flying in, waving a white flag of surrender.

“General, I need to have a word with you.” The War Princess said, landing in front of them.

“Surrender, eh?” Witwicky asked. “Finally recognizing your betters?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I wouldn’t surrender to you in a thousand years unless I had no other option. No, I needed to speak to you on neutral terms. Look up.” The War Princess pointed to the sky. 

Witwicky, Shining Armor, and a few other soldiers did as told, watching the Omega Lock portal swirl in the sky.

“That is the “Omega Bridge,” if you will, for the Omega Lock. If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’d know the Omega Lock was in our control. I have lost control of it. Soon, it will fire. You and your men want to be elsewhere when it does, or it will tear through you. It will consume you. It will turn you into cyberformed zombies, if it doesn’t kill you.”

“Alright,” Witwicky said. “My men and I will - wait, hang on a minute. How do we know this isn’t a trick?” Witwicky said. Witwicky pointed a finger at Twilight. “You just said the Omega Lock was under your control. How do we know you didn’t just fire up to scare us, then come to us to tell us to retreat so you could have your base back?”

“ … really?” The War Princess asked. “That’s the game you want to play right now? Alright, alright, FINE, you scrap-for-brains. I tried to have my men stand down and turn it off, and they didn’t. But if that’s not enough for you, consider this; why I would want to take back a base after its location had been compromised?”

“She raises a fair point,” Shining Armor said. 

“Don’t get into this, I’m still mad at you,” the War Princess pointed at Shining Armor.

Witwicky stared at The War Princess, evidently trying to decide whether he was going to listen to her, or if he would give into his base nature and try to argue with her some more before shooting her and taking her captive.

The Omega Portal fired, a brilliant, massive blue pillar of a beam firing down from the heavens. It cut diagonally through the Principality skyscraper which had been destroyed earlier, cleaving through it and replacing its neat, smooth, polished structure with a wild, primordial of spikes and bridging pillars, based on what Twilight could only assume was what Cybertronian looked like during the Predacon-dominated Age of Rust.

The Omega Beam continued moving through the landscape. The War Princess rushed forward on rockets and tackled Witwicky out of the way, where the beam swept over the spot he was standing on, raising up a series of spikes.

Even someone as stubborn as Witwicky realized if the Beam hadn’t killed him, the spikes would have impaled, and The War Princess had saved his life. 

Witwicky pushed her aside and got to his feet.

“We’ll work on retreating immediately.” Shining Armor said. He turned and shouted to the soldiers. “Fall back!”

“Fall back!” Was relayed down the chain of command. 

“Go.” The War Princess. She stared up at the Omega Portal. “We’ll handle this.”

Shining Armor, the soldiers, and a still-stunned Witwicky worked on turning around and retreating. 

The rest of the Imperials came up to The War Princess’s side, weapons at the ready, prepared to fight the Omega Lock… however they were supposed to do that.

“How are we supposed to fight that thing?” Smokescreen. “It’s … it’s the Omega Lock. How do we fight the Omega Lock? It has no soul, no feelings, no desires … what are we supposed to do, just run around and try to keep the beam focused on us?”

“If nothing else follows, then yes.” Twilight said.

Something else followed.

Behind the Imperials, a Bridge formed. It was a different bridge, one unlike any of the ones they had seen before. It wasn’t a GroundBridge, or a Space Bridge. It even lacked the blue glow of a Time Bridge. No, it was a dark blue Bridge which resembled the night sky, stars seen in its reflection, with purple energy sparks in place of where the a Ground or Space Bridge would have pink and green, and it was a fair bit larger than any of those other Bridges.

“What … is that?” Smokescreen asked.

“I don’t know.” Twilight said. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. Ultra Magnus?”

“Don’t look at me. I leave this science-y stuff to you science-y types. I’m a Wrecker. I hit things.” 

“Do we … do we trust it?” Smokescreen asked. “I mean, should we go through it?”

“I don’t know …” Twilight said. “I’m not sure we should trust it.” 

The Omega Portal hummed again, this loud and roaring. It fired another Beam, this one moving faster, roving across the same amount of space as the last one in half the time, sweeping  furiously across the landscape and hurtling towards the Imperials at a blazing speed, intent on cyberforming them over.

“Moot point!” Twilight yelled, seeing the Omega Beam barreling forward. “We have to trust it! Everyone into the bridge, into the bridge, into the bridge!” 

Twilight, Magnus, Smokescreen, Magnum and all the others ran through the Bridge, going inside and fleeing through it to escape the wrath of the furious Omega Beam, despite not knowing who or what sent it and where it would led them on the other side.



It dropped all of them out in front at Canterlot High, in the plaza, just in front of the statue, where the mirror had been moved to … 

Standing by the statue were Nova Prime, Galvatron, Lazerback, Dragotron and Steeljaw.

“Nova Prime.” Twilight gasped. 

“Yes.” Nova Prime hissed. “It’s me again, Twilight Sparkle. Ordinarily, I had hope to go unnoticed until there was an, aah, better climate to enact my plans, but your premature discovery of my true intent has forced me to change my approach.” 

“Yes.” Steeljaw said. “Twilight Sparkle can be such a bother that way, can’t she? A real nuisance and pest.”

“Fire at will! Do it now!” Magnum ordered. The Imperials opened fire on the five of them, but Nova raised his head and created a force field which shielded them from the Imperials’ shots.

“With a little help and a few suggestions from Steeljaw, I was able to take over the Omega Lock from you.” Nova Prime explained. “After that, it was a simple matter to turn the Omega Lock on you and force through one of my Dark Bridges, a rip in time and space that only I can open with my powers, and has far grander and vaster travelling capabilities than any Space Bridge. As you can see, it was able to take you straight from Earth to this … Canterlot High realm existing in Equestria with no problem.” 

“Now.” Nova said, raising his hand. “I believe my next course of action will be to use the Omega Lock to cyberform Earth and Equestria, and scour them clean of organic life. I think I’ll try to make sure to cyberform and mechanize everyone on both planets. I think Princess Celestia would look good as a silver mech, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes.” Steeljaw purred.

“Sounds exquisite.” Lazerback added.

“Obviously, I can’t have all of you running around, mucking about with my plans.” Nova Prime said. “So you can just stay and wait here in this Canterlot High dimension until I’ve finished cyberforming your homes, after which I’ll come back and do the same thing to this place.” 

Nova Prime raised up his hand up. He summoned a massive boulder of purple and black dark energy, swirling around with a white core in the center. He threw the boulder down, shattering the mirror, from the glass to the frame, into pieces, trapping the Imperials here. The dark could wrapped him and his fellows up in a dark cloud, which enveloped them before dissipating in a burst of purple star-shaped sparkles, after which Nova Prime and the others had disappeared. 

“NO!” Twilight ran towards the mirror, hoping her magic would be strong enough to fix it. 

Dark Energon began to sprout around the statue. Lining up in a circle around it, the Dark Energon grew at alarmingly fast pace, rising up and up into the sky, curling over and towards each other until it formed a massive, pinecone-esque cluster of Dark Energon which kept Twilight Sparkle and the Imperials out and away from the statue and the broken mirror.

“NO!” Twilight Sparkle fired a massive blast from her horn into the cluster, which didn’t even suffered a scratch. She and the Imperials continued to rain fire on the cluster, hammering it with every piece of artillery they had, but the cluster didn’t suffer a single ding or dent, not even from the lightning of Ultra Magnus’ Magnus Hammer. 

“No.” Twilight pounded her hoof on the cluster. She bashed her horn into it, banging her head against in the hopes a melee attack would succeed where magic and lasers had failed. “No, no, no, no, no, noooooo...” Twilight whined, closing her eyes as tears poured from her face, dripping down her cheeks and to the ground.

Twilight jammed her horn against it when she realized she wasn’t going to get her anywhere. She slid down, burying her head into the grass.

Jack, dismounting his mech, walked over and tried to comfort her. He put a hand on her shoulder. “It … it’ll be okay, Twilight. We’ll figure a way out this. We always do. We always have, even before we met each other. It’s like you Equestrian like to say, if we work together, we’ll be unstoppable!” Jack pumped a fist in encouragement. “Right?”

Twilight sniffed and looked up at Jack. She buried her head into his chest, careful to mind her horn. “I wish I could believe you, Jack … but it’s not going to be okay. I have … no idea how we can escape from here … that mirror was the only way in or out … and even if there’s another way, by the time we found it, Nova will have cyberformed our planets by then.”

Twilight wrapped her hooves around Jack, pulling him in for a tight hug, sobbing into his chest.

“All that work … for nothing.” Twilight complained between sobs. “Trying to fight Galloway, Starscream, Bludgeon, Lazerback … and all for what? To realize we should have been fighting Nova Prime all along, and now it’s too late?”

“Hey.” Jack ran a hand through Twilight’s mane. “Don’t cry. It’ll be okay. Besides, I’m sure the high school will have some books you can read. I’ll bet even you have read all of the books from an alternate dimension yet!”

Twilight chuckled. She gave Jack a brief smile before nuzzling into his chest.

“And now, there’s nothing else for us to do but just sit around here and live out the rest of days until Nova Prime comes back to kill us all …” Twilight cried.

“Don’t be like that, Twilight.” Jack said. 

“Whoa!” Sunset Shimmer exclaimed, walking in on them. “You’re all armored up and armed, aren’t ya?”

“Pull it together, Twilight.” Jack said. “Sunset’s here.” Twilight pulled away from Jack, sniffed, wiped away a tear and nodded.

“What are you doing here?” Ultra Magnus asked.

“Kinda hard not to notice a whole army just showing up out of nowhere in front of your high school.” Sunset Shimmer commented wryly, smiling. “So, what brings you here? Here for the Battle of the Bands?”

“Battle of the Bands?” Twilight asked. 

“Yeah.” Sunset Shimmer walked up to Twilight and pulled out a flier from her pocket. “We set up as a musical showcase, but a few girls convinced us to turn it into a competition.”

“You don’t say.” Twilight said. She examined the flier. “I’m sure this is fun, Sunset, but …”

Twilight examined the flier. She saw, marked in big green lettering on the bottom of the flyer, “with a musical performance by Adagio Dazzle and the Dazzlings!” depicting cartoon heads of Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk. Twilight looked up at Sunset, who was smiling pleasantly. Twilight suspected she might have been under Adagio’s control. 

“Actually, yes.” Twilight Sparkle said. “Yes, Sunset, we are here for the Battle of the Bands. We’ll be happy to attend.” Twilight handed the flier back to Sunset.

“Great!” Sunset smiled and folded up the flier. “I’ll see you there! And … all of your friends, too, I guess.” Sunset looked around awkwardly at the armed, spec-out Imperials before leaving.

“Uh, Twilight?” Arcee asked. “Whaaat are you doing? Shouldn’t we be looking for a way to get back and stop Nova?”

“We should.” Twilight said. “But just because we can’t fight one threat, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t focus on fighting another. The Dazzlings’ music taking over the minds of several organics was one contributing factor in the future I saw. We need to stop them as much as we do Nova. We need to stop them here and now before that happens.”

“We’ll split up.” Twilight said. “One group will keep trying to break that Dark Energon barricade. The other will attend the Battle of the Bands and keep the Dazzlings’ from taking over too many minds. Got it?”

The Imperials saluted. “Sir, yes, sir!”

“Good.” Twilight nodded. “Ultra Magnus, Beast Hunters, you’re with me and the girls stopping the Dazzlings. The rest of you, tear down that Dark Energon.” Twilight ordered.



After making an attempt to settle in and blend in with the locals, Twilight Sparkle was accosted by Principal Celeste. 

“Twilight!” Celesta grabbed Twilight by the hoof. “I’m so glad you could make it. It’ll be wonderful to have you here for the musical showcase.” 

“You mean Battle of the Bands, don’t you?” Twilight asked dryly.

“Battle of the Bands, showcase, whatever. The difference isn’t important.” Celeste said. “Now, come with me. I want you to meet my boyfriend Jason.”

“Does Jason want to meet me?”

“Oh, yes.” Celeste growled. “The minute he heard you were in town, all he wanted to do was meet up with you.” 

“Really?” Twilight said. “Interesting. Alright, I’ll meet him.”

“Great! I’ll set the whole thing up. Come on.” Celestia dragged Twilight along. “I’ll make some tea, maybe even some cookies.” 

Celeste dragged Twilight the whole way to her apartment. 

“Jason!” Celeste called. “I have Twilight Sparkle here for you, like you wanted!” 

“That’s good to hear, dear.”

Celeste threw Twilight into the living room. “You two catch up. I’ll go start on the tea.” Celeste left. 

Twilight didn’t remember Celeste having so much enthusiasm. Dismissing it, Twilight turned her attention to the living room, where an old man was sitting on the couch. His face was scarred and clearly had work on it, his hair was gray, and he wore denim jeans and a leather coat over a white shirt. He also had a prosthetic, mechanical hand. 

He stood up from the couch, his grip firm on a walking cane. 

“Hello, Twilight Sparkle.” Jason said. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.” Twilight said. “Well, no, I suppose that’s not completely true. I have a lot of stuff I’m dealing with right now.” Twilight brought her head to rest on a hoof. “It’s taking everything I have to just keep from breaking down into tears and complaining about the unfairness of the universe. But I need to keep it together. Ponies are counting on me. People - lots of people - are counting on me. They’re counting on me to save them, even if some of them don’t know it.”

“I can relate.” Jason said. 

“Tea’s ready!” Celeste announced, barging into the room and placing a tray with a kettle and cups on the t.v desk. “I’ll leave you two alone.” She walked out of the room.

“Sugar?” Jason asked, pouring from the kettle. 

“No thank you.” Twilight took her cup and nursed it. She sat on the floor in front of the desk, opposite Jason.

“I must admit, I’ve never really had a chance to try drinking and experimenting with tea.” Jason said. “But I find I quite like adding a spoonful of honey.”

“Everyone’s tastes differ.” Twilight said. Twilight found something about Jason’s inflection, the way he said and pronounced his words with a certain thoughtfulness, familiar. “Wait, you said you never had a chance to try tea before? What were you doing that made you so busy you couldn’t sit down for tea?”

“I fought in a war.” Jason said. “Took up most of my lifetime.”

“Mmm. Which war?”

Jason seemed ready to answer her at the drop of a dime, but stopped. “A few, actually. It doesn’t matter.” Jason rotated the wrist of his prosthetic. 

“Is that how you lost your arm?”

“You could say that.” Jason said. “It didn’t happen right away. It was still working good, until someone with an axe to grind assaulted me, and the damage caught up. Anyways, I was still hurting for awhile after all of the fighting had ended. So I thought I would … I would move into this alternate dimension. Start over. Try to get a new lease on life, where I could leave all of that behind.” Jason sighed. “But I guess not. I had a dream, telling me to hide. Recently, I had another dream, telling me the time for me to fight would come soon.”

“Interesting.” Twilight said. “Listen, Jason, do I know you? You seem familiar, but I can’t quite place it. I don’t anybody on Equestria whose name would ‘humanize’ into Jason, and yet ...”

“I never said I was from Equestria.” Jason said. 

“Oh. Well, no. So were you born here?”

“I told you I moved in.”

“Hmm … well, I suppose that means you’re from Earth, I guess.” Twilight said. “Forgive me. I’m not familiar with that many Earthlings.” 

“I’m aware.” Jason said.

Twilight stood up. 

“Well, I really should be going.” Twilight said. “I have places to be. Things to do. I want to be ready if I’m going to go the Battle of the Bands.”

“I imagine you should.” Jason asked. He affixed Twilight with a piercing glare which seemed to go right through her, as if he could tell whether or not she was lying. “Are you ready? To do what you need to do?”

Twilight was a perturbed by it, but affirmed himself. “I am.”

“Good.”

Twilight turned towards the door.

“Mmm. Twilight Sparkle? One last thing before you go.”

“Yes?” Twilight said.

“I’m sorry for lying to you.” Jason said. “I’m sorry about hiding from you. I hope you can forgive me.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Oookaaay … um, sure, I guess? I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You will.” Jason said. “In time. It will be clear as day when it is time.”

“Uh-huh.” Twilight nodded before exiting the room and leaving the building, feeling a little creeped out by Jason’s cryptic words.

She closed the door to Celeste’s apartment and walked down the street.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Adagio Dazzle walked up to her. “There you are. I’ve been looking for you. I’ve been told you and your little band of … Imperials, is that you call it? Were going to attend the Battle of the Bands.” Adagio Dazzle put her hands together.

“Yes, that’s correct.” Twilight said. “What of it?”

“Well, I was wondering …” Adagio reached over to put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder, but Twilight rebuked her, slapping it away. Adagio was annoyed, but made no comment. “If you would consider having Sunset Shimmer use her magic to change all of your Imperials into humans? I was thinking. All those ponies and giant robots … it might make a few people … uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, sure -” Twilight paused. An interesting thought occurred to her. What if the future she had witnessed happened, in part, because she agreed to this idea, thus making the Imperials’ susceptible to the Dazzlings’ mind control? A part of her wondered why she would agree to this, when they were supposed to be working on breaking the Dark Energon barrier. Perhaps in the ‘original’ timeline, Twilight and the Imperials were visiting under better circumstances, so having the Imperials take on a human form to be polite seemed less of a bad idea. 

Twilight also seemed to recall the denizens of this world bearing witness to a massive battle between her Imperials and the forces of demonic legions summoned by Sunset Shimmer from the nether realm. Sharing space in an crowd with Cybertronians and Equestrians should have be no problem to them.

“Actually, no, no.” Twilight shook her head. “I’m afraid I’m not comfortable doing that, Adagio Dazzle. At this time, I need my Imperials to be in their full forms and full strength.”

“Oh, please?” Adagio put her hands together in a begging position. “It would mean so much to me and my girls!”

“I’m sorry, but the answer is no.” 

Adagio Dazzle grimaced, flashing fangs. The abrupt change in her disposition from cheery to enraged was so sudden it caught Twilight off-guard. “Now you listen here, you sniveling kiss-up to Celestia, I’ve been waiting a long time for a chance like this, and I’m not about to have it ruined by-”

“HEY!” 

Adagio Dazzle turned and saw Ultra Magnus looking down at her. Magnus, in a gesture of warning to Adagio, tapped the shaft of the Magnus Hammer against the concrete.

“When the lady says no, she means no.” Ultra Magnus said. “And if you don’t like it, and having us around makes you uncomfortable … well, too bad. You’re gonna have to deal with it.” 

Adagio Dazzle looked like she wanted to argue, but she refrained, insteading walking off and grumbling beneath her breath.

“Thanks.” Twilight said to Magnus.

“Anytime.” Magnus said with a smile. “I’ve heard the showcase should be starting soon. We should get ready.”

“Understood. Any progress from our other team?” 

Ultra Magnus shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Darn.” Twilight said. “We’re running out of time. We need to break through and fix the mirror - or find some other way out - before Nova launches the Omega Lock. If he hasn’t already.” Twilight sighed. “Maybe some nice music will make our minds off our woes for a little bit.”
“One can hope.” Ultra Magnus quipped.



Twilight, her friends, the Beast Hunters, and Magnus joined a crowd gathering around the stage. Arriving late, they had to settle for standing on the edge of the concert hall. No seats of them, which Twilight suspected was something Adagio Dazzle had arranged.

“Hey there, girls!” Sunset Shimmer greeted them, waving a hand at them. “Excited to hear the Dazzlings’ sing?”

“I thought they were supposed to be multiple bands.” Twilight quipped. 

Sunset, realizing her blunder, blushed. “Oh. Oh, y-yeah, yeah! But come on.” Sunset jabbed Twilight with her elbow. “We all know we’re just here for the Dazzlings, right?”

“Oh yes.” Arcee purred. 

“We’re here just for them, alright.” Bulkhead said. 

“Glad to hear it.” Sunset said. “Mind if I sit, er, stand with you?”

“Not at all.” Twilight said, tolerating Sunset Shimmer resting her head against Twilight’s side. 

A band came up and played their song. Twilight didn’t pay much attention to them, only caring about when the Dazzlings would get onstage, but the Autobots did.

“Terrible coordination.” Ultra Magnus said. “They can’t quite seem to keep their instruments in tune with each other.”

“Yes.” Arcee agreed. “And mixing a keyboard with maracas? Whose idea was that?”

They continued on, ripping into each band and criticizing them for flaws in their performance and song. 

Twilight gave a slight chuckle. The Autobots, fighters of freedom, defenders of truth and justice … and scathing music critics. Maybe they ought to make a website.



“Now, these girls, they were okay, but there was a mistake in roles.” Arcee said after a trio of girls had left the stage. “The back up vocalist has a much better singing voice than the lead singer.” 

“Rap?” Bulkhead questioned the choice of a pair of hooligans. “Really? Rap?”

“While I must admit there is a certain timeless appeal to the works of Beethoven, I question the effectiveness of attempting to replicate the emotional tenor and musical tension on a harmonica and triangle, both instruments with a low barrier of entry to begin playing.” Bumblebee commented, earning him odd looks from the other Autobots. “What? I can’t have hobbies?”

Even Fluttershy got in on the act.

“While Flash Sentry and his band had a very strong opening, towards the end they began to peter out, and I could begin to feel that what I was watching perform was rehearsed, and it no longer felt natural.” Fluttershy said. She and Twilight giggled.

Celeste and Luna got up on the stage. They tapped the microphone to test it.

“And now.” Celeste said. “The band you’ve all been waiting for … Adagio Dazzle and the Dazzlings!”

The crowd burst into a roar of applause. Sunset Shimmer leaned over eagerly.

“Finally.” Arcee tensed her fingers, ready to reach for her weapon at a moment’s notice. 

Adagio Dazzle, Aria, and Sonata walked up on the stage dressed in impressive, sequined and sparkling outfits. 

“Well, one can’t deny their fashion sense.” Rarity said. 

Adagio took the microphone from Celeste, giving a dark chuckle as the Principals walked off the stage. 

“Thank you, Canterlot High!” Adagio Dazzle said into the mic, prompting a burst of joyous screams. “Thank you, so much, for giving us this wonderful opportunity to showcase our musical talent … and make our biiiiig comeback! Thank you all for indulging on this fine day. The world better be ready, because here comes the Dazzlings to take it by storm!” The crowd applauded.

“Before we begin,” Adagio Dazzle said, “I just want to point that a certain someone in the audience declined a request I made to them before the show.” Adagio Dazzle turned her head aside and coughed. “Twilight Sparkle!” 

“Booo!” The audience jeered at Twilight, who raised an eyebrow at them. 

“Twilight, how could you?” Sunset asked. “Adagio Dazzle is the best!”

“Hmph, well …” Twilight scoffed, not losing her cool. 

“But we shouldn’t be mad at her about that.” Adagio Dazzle said. “Too much. And now, to thank you all, to give our deepest, most sincere thanks from the bottom of our hearts to all of you at Canterlot High …” Adagio placed a hand over her heart. “We’ve got a special little number we’d like to perform for you.” 

The crowd roared and cheered.

“Orders, Twilight?” Bumblebee asked.

“Wait for the right moment.” Twilight said. “If we strike too soon, we could have a brainwashed mob trying to protect them.” 

Adagio held her hand up, and the crowd went silent. She and the Dazzlings began chanting. 

“Oh-whoa, oh-whoa, oh-whoa … you didn’t know that you fell, oh-whoa, oh-whoa, now that you’re under our spell.” Adagio clicked her tongue, pointing a finger at the audience.

“‘Under our spell’?” Ultra Magnus whispered. “Are these girls even trying to be subtle?” 

“Hear the wave of sound … as it crashes down …”

Green mist appeared on the stage. It covered the stage before seeping over into the audience’s chairs.

“Twilight, pretty sure that green mist isn’t just theatrics.” Bulkhead said. “Do we make our move now?”

“No.” Twilight said. “Not yet.” She glared at the stage, waiting, watching for the perfect moment … to strike. When the Dazzlings would lull the audience in, and let their guard down.

“You can’t look away … we’ll make you want to staaay …”

“Twilight.” Ultra Magnus clutched at the sides of his head. “My head is starting to hurt.”
It has to be soon, Twilight.”

“Not yet.” Twilight said. 

“Hear the wave of sound … as it crashes down.” A speaker rumbled on the stage.

The Autobots grit their teeth, attempting to bear the pain. Their fingers twitched, antsy and eager for an excuse to give a reflex. Fluttershy was getting it particularly bad because of her half-pony, half-Insecticon body. One half wanted to lean in and listen to the soothing sounds of the Sirens’ voices … the other want to blow her own ears off rather than listen to another note. Fluttershy cricked her neck, her face in a terrifying split between a grin and a grimace.

Arcee noticed Fluttershy’s discomfort. The speakers let out another blast, blanketing the audience in the Dazzlings’ music.

“That’s it.” Arcee pulled out her Echohawk Bow and pulled the drawstring on it. The Dazzlings didn’t seem to notice.“I’m putting a stop to this.”

“No.” Twilight said. “Not yet.”

“Twilight, are you not paying attention to what’s - aaah- going on here?” Arcee groaned, clutching at her head as the music increased in volume, getting to her. Arcee gestured to Fluttershy.

“I know. I see it, too.” Twilight said. “But not yet. I’ve got a feeling in my gut.”

“A feeling in your gut?” Arcee asked. “What, are we making tactical decisions now based on what you had to eat last?”

“Arcee, do you trust me?” Twilight asked.

Arcee wasn’t prepared for a question like that. “I, uh …’


“Arcee. Do you trust me?” Twilight asked, glaring up at her.

Arcee’s fingers lingered on the drawstring. She appeared to consider firing at the Dazzlings.

“ … I do, Twilight Sparkle.” Arcee lowered her bow. “But we still need something to help us stand that awful music until we’re ready.”

“Hmm. Ah! I got it. A bubble of silence. Why didn’t I think of this before?” Twilight shot a light out from her horn, encasing her, her friends, the Autobots, and Sunset Shimmer in a pink bubble which blocked out all noise, in effect making them deaf to the Dazzlings’ music.

Sunset Shimmer came out of her spell, putting a hand on her forehead. “W-what happened?”

“Now you need us, come and heed us!” The Dazzlings’ was the note finished their song on. 

Massive green rings of magical energy erupted from the stage and traveled over the crowd. In a brief moment of awareness of what was going on around them, the crowd screamed in fear, but they fell back under the spell once the rings had passed. The Dazzlings rose up into the air, unaided. The mist rose up and curled around them, forming cocoons. The Dazzlings’ skin cracked on their bodies before falling off. The cocoons broke out, and the three girls now had bat wings sprouting from their backs, and featureless, glowing red eyes. 

“Wonderful!” Adagio Dazzle declared. “Wonderful, absolutely wonderful! Attention, Canterlot High.” Adagio Dazzle pulled the mic. “We’re the Dazzlings. But we’re not just the Dazzlings, oh no. We’re Sirens. A thousand years ago, we were banished from Equestria from using our magical voices to cause conflict and strife. But now, with your love, with your adoration … we can feed off that and gain enough power to achieve our true forms, and make our way back through the mirror and to Equestria, where we can wreak havoc once more! You will love us. You will adore us. Your every waking thought will be of us. Now, let me ask you, Canterlot High … do you love us?”

“YES!”

“ABSOLUTELY!”

“WE LOVE YOU, ADAGIO DAZZLE!” 

Twilight and the Imperials were about to burst out the bubble and make their move, until …

“No.” 

The crowd gasped in shock.

“What?” Adagio Dazzle said. She scanned over the crowd. “Who said that?”

“I did.”

Adagio Dazzle turned to the lone dissenter in the crowd. She watched him make his way through the audience and climb onto the stage.

It was Jason.

“I do not love you, Adagio Dazzle.” Jason said. “Nor your fellows, and I will not love, as I cannot bring myself to love such … despicable creatures. You admit to causing strife, but you give no reason as to why. I will not forgive the fact you are creatures of pure malice and hatred.”

Adagio Dazzle chuckled. She flew over to Jason. “Oh no? We’ll see about that … what was your name again? Jason Thames, I think it was? Principal Celeste’s squeeze, if I recall correctly.”

“I am going to stop you.” Jason said.

Adagio laughed again. “Ha ha ha ha ha! Listen to this guy! He thinks he can stop me.” At Aria’s bidding, the crowd laughed with Adagio Dazzle. 

“And just who are you that makes you think you can stop me?” Adagio Dazzle asked. “Stop us? And this crowd?”

Jason took in a deep breath.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the beginning and the end. I am that which is, which was, and is yet to come. I am the last of a long lineage stretching back to the dawn of time, long before you were three even born. Long before Equestria was even a nation.  From a time long before the planet of Equestria had yet compact together from the celestial rocks of the cosmos. And you will know my name when I, guided by divine intervention, lay my retribution down upon you.”

Adagio Dazzle burst into a guffaw.

“What makes you think you’re all that, Jason Thames?” Adagio Dazzle asked, getting into Jason’s face.

“My name …” 

Jason clutched at his cane. He pulled at the handle, revealing it to be a cane-sword. He slashed Adagio Dazzle across the stomach, a spray of blood gushing out of her gut. Adagio, in both pain and in shock, fell onto her back. Jason pointed the tip of the sword at Adagio’s neck, focusing her eyes on the shine of the blade.

“ … is Optimus Prime.”