Friendship Is Magic: Prime

by Darkryt Orbinautz

The Impossible Knot

Darkryt Orbinautz presents...

---

Previously on Friendship Is Magic: Prime...

"...Wait...you two and the human are up to something, aren't you?"

"I'm fine, but I need to find a way...to combat...the human factor."

"We do!" Pinkie answer. "So, will you give it to us, please?"

Soundwave transformed and jetted off, the relic in two of his tentacles.

"I could do that." The boss answered. Then he pulled out a gun on the two of them.

The trailer crashed into him and the Red Energon, causing the deposit to shatter into thousand pieces.

The scarred Insecticon hissed. "For I have terminated more than a few Wreckers in my time."

Her horn had been severed by Hardshell's blow

Rarity felt her eyelids become too heavy to keep alift any longer.

---

"Uuunnnnhhhhuh?" Rarity groaned as life slowly crept back into vision. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were all staring at her. They had been keeping tabs on their mangled friend in the event something happened.

"Girls?" Rarity could barely find the strength to ask. "What's going on?" she attempted to get up, and felt something crawling along her back. "Ah! What's on my back!?"

"Ratchet called it a 'fracture holder'." FLuttershy answered softly. "He said it would keep from you being paralyzed."

"Paralyzed!?"

"Wut can we say, Rarity? Y'all took a beatin'." Applejack stepped forward closer and unveiled something in her hoof. A white spiraling conical thing. "We, uh...we went back out and got y'all's horn. Ya know, jus' in case ya wanted it."

Rarity frowned, popping her neck up slightly to look at the broken remnant of her most precious appendage. Oddly, she couldn't bring herself to cry about it for some reason.

Shaking her neck to rid it's stiffness, Rarity felt like something was...wrong.

"Where's my trophy?" Rarity demanded.

"Huh?"

"Where is Hardshell's mandible!? It was on my neck when I came in!"

Fluttershy pointed over the railing. "Raf's guarding it."

Rarity relaxed slightly, but there was still something scrambling in the back of her mind. Remembering it, Rarity jumped off the table she was on and started frantically scouring through the base.

"Where's Bulkhead!?"

"Med-bay. Miko's already gone to see him."

Rarity bolted down the stairs and headed straight for the bay. Once in there, she could see Miko kneeling and crying on the floor just a few feet from the entrance. Ratchet and Optimus were standing opposite guard on Bulkhead's sides.

Bulkhead himself was propped upright on a cranked-upwards Autobot-sized table. See-through tubes were plugged into his shoulders and stomach, feeding Energon to replace what he had lost. A variety of screens showed various different measurements of his vital signs.

When Rarity drew up to Miko, the guitar player sniffed and turned to her.

"If-hueen-If I hadn't gone with Optimus..."

Rarity gave her a hug and pulled her close. The unicorn nuzzled her and started stroking Miko's hair. "There was nothing you could've done against Hardshell."

"Who?"

"Some...Insecticon. Don't worry, me and Bulkhead took care of him."

Miko sniffed. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Miko didn't believe it. She wanted to. She desperately wanted to, but she got...she got some sort of vibe.

Rarity and Miko both took another sad look at Bulkhead, the both of them, being so different and contrasting in personalty and thinking, united in one over the condition of the Wrecker they had shared unforgettable experiences with.

---

"REEEEEEEENNEEEEE!"

Hardshell's claw, black as coal, pierced the lip of the volcanic vent. The rest of him climbed out soon afterwards. If the Insecticons hadn't look demonic enough before, Hardshell seemed outright hellish now. His green parts had been scorched black, his yellow and orange bits heated to the faint orange of select cheese. His scars were now red, and steaming with heat.

Hardshell tensed his claw and looked upwards at the moon bearing down on the equator. The area was cooler in night, but that meant little when it was already blistering hot.

Hardshell curled his claw into a fist, and shook at the moon, screaming the name of the one Wrecker whose name was on the list of Wreckers who had scarred him without also being on the list of ones he terminated.

"RAAAAAAR-AAAAA-TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

---

"In the end, he realized that the complicated problem of the knot could not be untied. So he cut it."

Friendship Is Magic: Prime: Act III

Chapter XIII: The Impossible Knot

Episode Synopsis: Twilight's outside-the-box approach to getting revenge on Graham may just be the solution Rarity needs to save Bulkhead.

---

Knock Out, Breakdown, Dreading, Hardshell, Soundwave, Fearstorm and a Tank Vehicon all stood in a line on the bridge, awaiting to their turn to report the outcome of their missions to Megatron.

Megatron approached, walked around the side of the line, then 'descended' the line, starting with Knock Out, and ending on Hardshell.

"Were you successful, Knock Out?"

"Yes my liege." Knock Out said with a bow, prying the device off his chest and presenting it to Megatron. "I'll think you'll be quite pleased with Breakdown's and mine's finding."

Megatron picked up the device and examined it. "A phase shifter...this could come in handy." Megatron gave Knock Out the phase shifter back and walked to Dreadwing. "Tell me, Dreadwing, what have you brought?"

Dreadwing seemed reserved about answering.

"Well?"

"Nothing, my lord." Dreadwing hung his head. "I was unable to prevent Twilight Sparkle from acquiring the Apex Armor."

Megatron's head started to rattle in frustration.

"But rest assured, master!" Dreadwing quickly said, trying to keep Megatron's temper. "She now lies at the bottom of the ocean beneath tons of Arctic rock."

Megatron's head stopped shaking, but he seemed disbelieving of something. "You are certain Twilight did not survive?"

"Tons, my lord. Tons." Dreadwing reminded him.

Megatron lurched forward, bring his and Dreadwing's face too close together for the Seeker's comfort.

"Tell me, Dreading, did you feel Twilight Sparkle's body? Did you run your fingers over her cold, unbreathing carcass?"

"...No?"

"Then she IS NOT DEAD!" Megatron gave a punishing blow to Dreadwing's wing, making him stumble.

"Fearstorm." Megaton growled. "Have you followed Knock Out's successful lead, or Dreadwing's failed footsteps?"

Fearstorm chuckled. "I discovered a cache of Red Energon at the relic's coordinates. Optimus Prime shattered to pieces..." Fearstorm reached behind himself and presented a claw full of red crystal dust to Megatron. "But I dare not return empty-handed."

"Hmm." Megatron snorted. "This small a trace of Red Energon is useless...unless we were to somehow unlock the secrets of it's mutation. You have done well, Fearstorm."

Megatron moved from Fearstorm to Soundwave without giving him a beating.

"What of you, Soundwave?"

Soundwave held out the backpack he had retrieved from the mob boss' apartment. Megatron grabbed it and squeezed, causing to transform. Panels revealed, and a pair of cybernetic-implements that seemed shaped after a crab's claw popped up over it.

"A set of Galva-conductors. Excellent." Megatron gave Soundwave the backpack and proceeded to the Tank Vehicon. "And you?"

The Vehicon signed. "My unit was unsuccessful. The human doctor overwhelmed us with the sheer number of his sentries."

Megatron didn't look amused. After giving the Vehicon his own slap of punishment, he went for Hardshell.

"So, Fiercest Insecticon, have you returned with a relic or with an excuse?"

"I have no excuse, my lord." Hardshell apologized. "I was unable to secure the relic. But the green Autobot has been...hehheh...terminated."

Megatron's browplates arched upwards.

"Oh, really?" Knock Out asked, dubious. "It has been a while since anyone around here's terminated an Autobot."

"That is because it has been a while since an Insecticon warrior has been afforded the opportunity to do so!" Hardshell growled.

"Enough!" Megatron commanded. "Hardshell, are you certain the one called Bulkhead has been extinguished?"

"By my very own hand." Hardshell boasted. "The Wrecker-Unicorn denied me the pleasure of the finishing blow, but I had already felt his Spark on my claw." Hardshell raised his middle claw for emphasis. "Unlike some, I do not leave the destruction of my enemies to chance. He will be dead by the end of the day, I guarantee it."

Before Dreadwing could get offended at the slight, Megatron chuckled.

"A phase shifter, Galva-conducters, trace amounts of Red Energon, Twilight Sparkle with the Apex Armor, and an Autobot down...all in all though, it has been a very productive day. HA HA HA HA HA HAH HAAAAAAA!"

---

Arcee walked into the room, where Rarity and Miko had yet to move from their post, stuck there like statues.

"Wheeljack wants in." Arcee informed Optimus.

Optimus held his hand out, signaling it was all right. Arcee moved to let Wheeljack aside. He was careful not to step on the girls.

"So, who did it, huh?" Wheeljack demanded. "Who put my pal on the bedside table?" He pounded his fist into his palm.

"For the time being, Wheeljack, I believe it is more important to focus on Bulkhead's recovery, rather than revenge." Optimus answered stoically.

Wheeljack shook his fist, scoffed, transformed, and drove out of the room. He was a little less careful about watching Miko and Rarity this time.

Ratchet raised his head up over Bulkhead's table to Optimus. "Wheeljack will mostly like do something rash, you know."

"I believe there is not much we can do to stop him, even if we wanted to." Optimus mourned.

After the sports-car left, Agent Fowler appeared in the doorway. "Pentagon needs me to go run some interference. Highlights of Applejack's New York adventure made their way online."

"Go where you are needed, Agent Fowler." Optimus told him. "There is nothing more you can do for Bulkhead at this time."

"Keep me posted, Prime." Fowler requested as he left. "I mean it."

Miko got up from the floor and started walking out the room.

"Miko?" Rarity asked delicately. "Where are you going?"

"Home." Miko answered. "While Agent Fowler can still give me a lift."

Rarity did a horse's whine at her departure, then trotted up to Bulkhead's comatose foot, which was reaching the ground, and cuddled it.

"It's funny, really." Rarity noted. "Just as you and me are starting to finally, finally get along, this happens. I suppose that's just the way the cookie crumble, hmm, Bulk?"

"Rarity," Ratchet said. "Bulkhead can't hear-"

Optimus grabbed Ratchet's shoulder and shook his head at him disapprovingly. Ratchet, taking the hint, sagged himself out of Optimus' grip and pretended to work on something complex, but he was just pushing random buttons. After a few minutes of this, he quit and try to gesture Optimus out the room where they could talk without Rarity hearing them.

"What is it, old friend?" Optimus asked as they both tromped outside.

"It...it's Bulkhead. His injuries are severe. His Spark's been punctured." Ratchet answered.

Optimus clasped Ratchet's shoulder. "I know you will do everything in your power, old friend."

"I will, Optimus." Ratchet reaffirmed, then looked back at Bulkhead. "...But I fear it may not be enough."

"Mmm." Optimus looked back into the room as well, where Rarity had scaled Bulkhead and curled around herself in a ball to lie on his chest. She could've gone to sleep and Ratchet be unable to tell the difference.

Beautiful clear blue sky all around him, and Wheeljack couldn't enjoy it in his ship. Now that he would anyway. Admiring the scenery wasn't really his thing.

Swerving his ship to the side, Wheeljack heard something tumble. He looked over his shoulder to see Miko on his hands and knees in the back.

"What are you doing here, kid?"

"Looking for the 'Con who hurt Bulkhead." Miko answered, getting up. "You in?"

Wheeljack scowled. "Forget it, kid." Wheeljack started pushing in commands to his ship's controls. "I'm taking you back to base."

"Wait!" Miko protested. "Bulkhead's my friend, too!"

"Listen, kiddo, old 'Bulk's too stubborn not to pull through. And as soon I find out which one of Megatron's goons did this to 'im-"

"I know who did it." Miko interrupted.

Wheeljack turned towards her. "Who?"

"Take me, and I'll tell you." Miko said slyly.

Wheeljack grit his teeth. A tink-tink-tink distracted him from answering. "Now what?"

Rainbow Dash was knocking on the front screen of the Jackhammer.

"Oh, for the love of-" Wheeljack shook his head. Pushing a button on the controls' underside, he pointed with his thumb over to the side of the ship.

A small circle in the ship's wall folded into triangles, allowing the rainbow pegasus entry inside.

"Whew!" Dash exclaimed. "Thanks. It was getting windy out there."

"What are you doing here, sports fan?" Wheeljack drilled her. He was starting to really dislike all the uninvited guests on his ship.

"I'm here to find the 'Con who broke off Rarity's horn!" Dash beat her chest. "You two can either help me, let me tag along on the hunt you're on, or I can utterly wreck you both and just take the ship."

Wheeljack guffawed, amused that Dash thought she could 'wreck' him. "You know what, sports fan? I like your style. You can tag along."

"Yes!" Dash pumped her hoof into the air.

"Now, who did you say it was again, kid?"

---

"You should've seen the look on the Wrecker's face when his Spark was damaged beyond repair!" Hardshell boasted as and his two underlings paced along the hallway. In the corner of one, two car Vehicons were standing there absently.

"Hopefully now Lord Megatron realizes that the difficult tasks are best left to true warriors."

The two Vehicons started muttering insults.

"Scavengers."

"Pit-bound scrap eaters."

Hardshell stopped, hearing them, then turned around. "What did you say?"

"Uuugh!" Knock Out groaned while Breakdown smacked away at his body with a rotary buffer. "I'm glad you're around, Breakdown. You're a maestro with a rotary buffer."

Breakdown blushed Energon. "Aw, it's nothing..."

Thumps and clangs started coming from outside the room. Breakdown and Knock Out looked at each other.

The Vehicon who had started the insults was flung against the door to Knock Out's room, which opened just after he slid to the floor.

"What is going on out here?" Knock Out demanded, Breakdown behind him.

Hardshell having already started his lunge at the Vehicon, he came charging at the two of them with his claw raised.

"DAAAH!" Knock Out and Breakdown yelled as Hardshell rammed them both.

---

"All right, everypony..." Twilight Sparkle instructed as she entered the Harbinger's GroundBridge control room, still clad in her Apex'd-out Morbot. "How'd things go?"

"Mission unsuccessful." Several MECH agents, Morocco amongst them, answered.

"Really? Nopony managed anything? Did at we least keep the Autobots from getting anything?"

"To an extent..." Starscream murmured.

"Ah, well." Twilight fiddled with her Morbot's controls, eventually causing the Apex Armor to deactivate and reduce to it's normal compact disc-form. The Morbot held the disc in it's claw while Twilight teleported out and onto the ground.

"Now let's-AAH!" Twilight froze, her body wracked with pain from an unseen source.

"Twilight?" Starscream asked. "Are you well? What's going on?"

"I...I don't know." Twilight fibbed, her eye towards the Armor's disc. "Anyways, let's put this thing away."

Twilight, Morocco, and the Morbot all went to a store room in the Harbinger. Twilight found something unsettling there. It was giving her chills.

"What is that?" Twilight asked, pointing upwards a huge tool hanging from the ceiling by huge black chains wrapped around it, making it swing back and forth like a wind chime.

"That?" Morocco repeated. "That is the object you instructed us to acquire from Megatron's clutches, Twilight Sparkle."

---

Megatron rested on the command chair of his ship, happy and content in his victory.

Soundwave came into the room, and Megatron scowled. He could tell whatever Soundwave was going to 'say' to him wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Soundwave, this ought to be a grave matter for the aura of wariness around you..." Megatron quietly said. He turned to face Soundwave's face-screen.

Footage from the recent siege against his warship played on Soundwave's face.

"What?" Megatron asked, unable to see what the problem was.

Soundwave paused, then rewinded.

Megatron narrowed his eyes. Was that what he thought was? No, no...no...By the AllSpark, NO!

"We...we..." Megatron stuttered. He slumped against his chair. He buried his head in face.

"We have lost the Forge of Solus Prime."

---

Twilight's head remained tilted upward, staring at the huge hammer far longer then Morocco thought was necessary.

The hammer was so huge it could've been the toy hammer of a Bruticus-sized playset. Gold bands were on the rims of it's hammer head and the bottom of it's pole. Closer inspection revealed the presence of gears inside the hammer head, and a ring of outward-facing spikes were collared behind the hammer's face.

So this what was causing her all that pain...Twilight didn't know why the Forge was hurting her; just that it was, and that it and the Apex were of the same ilk. How she knew that, she didn't know.

"It's pretty big..." Twilight noted. "...What is it?"

"I have not the faintest idea." Morocco replied in his sneery drawl.

Twilight looked from the hammer to a pedestal on the other side of the room, where a weapon that was bigger then she was, but small for Cybertronian standards, was perched. It split into two barrels at the end, each rectangular shaped.

"What's that thing?"

"That?-!" Morocco replied. "That is...that's, um..."

"Morocco..." Twilight said dangerously. "Did you lie to me about getting the relic?"

"Of course not!" Morocco insisted. "What reason could I have for doing that?"

Twilight drew hers and Morocco's faces together. "That is an excellent question."

Twilight let Morocco have his personal space back, then walked out of the room. She nuzzled an agent on her way out, which made him all kinds of confused.

Meanwhile, in another room, Adam, watched by Novo was using his personal laptop. A sleek silver machine with an hissing cobra tamographed onto it. Given all the technology he now had his disposal- cloning machines, GroundBridge, old Decepticon science files- what could he want his old laptop for?

The news, of course.

"Hmm...interesting..." Adam mused to himself. "Apparently a Las Vegas crime boss known for his interest in old collectibles, and his girlfriend-bodyguard have been killed this afternoon...autopsy reports indicate they were killed swiftly with a large, thin sharp instrument...his thugs came forward and said earlier today their boss put a target on the head of a talkative, candy-hair pony..."

"Hmm..." Novo said.

Twilight Sparkle and Starscream went along the halls of the Harbinger, Twilight using her wings to stay at eye-level with him.

"What is that thing that Morocco brought with him?" Twilight wondered out loud.

"Who knows?" Starscream lamented.

As they walked, they came across a computer terminal. The cobwebs on it suggested it still hadn't been cleaned, despite how long the Harbinger had been repaired.

Twilight used her magic to clear the webs, then booted the machine up, revealing some very peculiar items on the screen. "Starscream, could you take a look at this, please?"

Starscream approached the terminal. "Interesting...Decepticon Audio Logs. Not just any Logs, either. Ones from their scientists. Why, there's one here from me and Shockwave- and even Thundercracker!"

Twilight raised her eyebrow. "Who's Thundercracker?"

"An old friend of mine." Starscream replied with a smile, reminiscing. "He was a chemical warfare expert."

"What happened to him?"

"What happened-oh. Nothing, really. He was dispatched to some remote corner of the galaxy or another. Rest assured, Twilight Sparkle, he'd have called if he needed something." Starscream took another glance at the screen. "I wonder what they say...I don't remember what I recorded..." Starscream pushed a button, which caused the logs to start playing. Images were displayed the screen to match. The first one was a giant circle that seemed like a modified version of the GroundBridge terminal in the Autobot base.

"Shockwave's Log Number three-eighty-nine:" A recording of Shockwave's voice began playing. Twilight seemed displeased to hear it again. "Space Bridge technology has long since been lost, or so Autobot and Decepticon alike believe. When the Great Exodus began, many were befuddled that I stayed behind: Surely one of Megatron's most trusted officers deserved to find a new home with his fellows? This is not the case, oh no. The question is surely one of Cybertron's most brilliant minds can take the first step to restoring us to our former glory. I will be that brilliant mind. I have found ancient glyphs deep underground, below even the Insecticon hives that depict how the Cybertronians of the Golden Age used their Space Bridges. What they were for...why they used them...and most importantly, how they work..."

Before Twilight could inquire Starscream as to just what a Space Bridge was, the next Log began playing. This one showed...the thing Morocco had acquired.

"Thundercracker's Log. Identification number; 0-0-8-7-9." Thundercracker's voice sounded rather crackling, like electricity was in his voice as he spoke. "I do not like being reassigned from my chosen field of chemistry, yet this is what Lord Megatron desires. He has tasked me with harnessing the raw, unmitigated power...of sound. While my chemical skills are vast, I cannot help but feel like a Circuit-Su master flung into a Metaliko tournament, but I have pursued my task diligently. To this end, I have created the Resonance Blaster: A gun that shoots off ultrasonic waves from it's two prongs, it will be an excellent contribution to the Decepticon cause."

Once again, the next log played before Twilight could ask any questions.

"Starscream's Log Number 186; On Dark Energon: There was a time, once, that I would rather go offline before I allowed my fellow Cybertronians destroy themselves with it's usage. That time was gone the moment I met Megatronus. He was able to control the Dark Energon- to contain it. To bend it to his will. I was impressed. I allowed him access to the stores I had been tasked with guarding. After much study and many tests, I have found Dark Energon to have the drawbacks I feared...and many benefits I couldn't have dreamed it would have in my darkest nightmares. But do the gains outweigh the risks? Megatronus certainly thinks so. After a certain amout of time, the Dark Energon begins to turn pain into pleasure, rendering blows useless...time will tell what else the Dark Energon may bring."

Starscream grimaced and flinched, fearful that his log may have let something slip to Twilight that jeopardized his standing in her optics.

Twilight didn't have the reaction Starscream was expecting. Her eyes were locked on the screen. She flew down to the keyboard and pressed the button Starscream had.

"Shockwave's Log Number three-eighty-nine..."

---

Dash, Wheeljack and Miko all crept along a rock-side.

"There." Wheeljack pointed at a cave some distance away.

"You know where to find Decepticon mines?" Miko asked in surprise.

"What, you think I just been rolling around this whole time?" Wheeljack responded. "You two are smaller then me, and can run reconnaissance better." Wheeljack jerked his head, gesturing for them to get on.

Miko climbed onto Dash's back. Dash lowered herself and moved as stealthily as she could to the inside of the cave where a bunch of Miners where doing their thing, watched by some Vehicons overhead.

Rainbow dash snuck into the cave easily enough, but she wasn't watching her step and and ending up making a clack with her hoof on the edge of a stray Energon shardlet.

The Miners' attention was caught immediately.

"Scrap!" Dash and Miko both swore.

Wheeljack crossed his arms, wondering what was taking his two spies so long.

Dash came galloping out of the cave, pursued by lasers all around, Miko bouncing on her back.

"WHEEEEELLLJAAAAACK!"

Wheeljack drew up his faceplate and swords. "So much for the element of surprise."

---

"I do not understand your despair, Lord Megatron." Dreadwing said. "Twilight Sparkle is not a Prime. We have nothing to fear from her possession of the Forge."

"No." Megatron answered. "Twilight Sparkle is unaware of its true nature..."

"Unless Starscream informs her of it."

"Starscream knows NOTHING of the Primes and their tools!" Megatron bellowed. "Twilight Sparkle will take the Forge into battle with her, believing to be a mere hammer! There is no doubt in my mind that somehow, some way, the Autobots will wrest it from her in the heat of combat, and THEN Dreadwing, we will have something to fear! Optimus Prime will have an mobile weapons factory at his disposal! He could build a ship to rival the Nemesis in power out of whatever scrap he finds in a human junkyard!"

Dreadwing curled his fingers, a nervous expression on his face.

Megatron raised up to scold up. " Dreadwing! Is there something on your mind?"

"...Twilight Sparkle has challenged Optimus more than once, my lord. Perhaps if we were...to message her of the threat the Forge' poses-"

"And how, Dreadwing, do we do that without informing her of its near-magical properties!?"

"Lord Megatron!"

Megatron and Dreadwing turned to see Knock Out approaching, Hardshell's group following behind him.

"The Insecticons are out of control!" The medic screeched, claws in the air. "Look what they did to my paint job!"

"Spare me the theatrics, Knock Out." Megatron sneered. "It's merely a scratch."

"Oh, but this is hardly about me, Lord Megatron." Knock Out added coyly. "The Insecticons are causing dissension in the the ranks! They should be confined-restrained, even!"

Hardshell scowled. "You could not make restraints strong enough to contain us!"

"Lord Megatron..." A green Vehicon piloting the ship said. "Incoming distress signal from mine TVC 15."

Megatron turned his back on Hardshell and Knock Out. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Unclear, sir." The Vehicon scooted his chair away to make room. "The caller will speak only to you."

Megatron walked over and pushed the button. "What is your status?"

"Pretty sweet operation you got here, Megatron." was the reply. "Though you might say it's under new management."

"Wheeljack." Megatron noted, bemused. "The one who enjoys explosive devices."

"What can I say? I'm a rebel. Now you listen here. I'm going to blow the mine."

"The loss of one asset is hardly a blow to the Decepticon cause."

"Maybe, but I'm going to keep blowing them until you hand over the 'Con who tried to frag Bulkhead."

Megatron didn't look displeased. He didn't seem upset. If anything, the unbending steel of the Decepticon Lord looked...distraught.

"...Tried?"

"Oh, and Megatron?" Wheeljack asked. "Just in case you've ever wondering what three tons of exploding Energon sounds like..."

The comm was overrun with the sounds of explosions as the Jackhammer launched torpedos underneath itself at the mine. Inside the Jackhammer, Wheeljack didn't notice Miko taking an express note of the button he pushed.

"I had been wondering if the sound of three tons exploding was different from the sound of two exploding." The Vehicon said with his claw on his chin. Megatron raised his browplate at him, then returned to Knock Out and Hardshell.

"Hardshell...the green Autobot lives."

Showing just how much sway Megatron had over his shoulders, the fierce Hardshell meekly stepped back. "Master, the day has not yet ended! He will be dead! I swear upon the AllSpark!"

Megatron squinted at him. "Then you owe me a Spark...and if it's not the one belonging to Bulkhead, it HAD BETTER BE WHEELJACK'S!"

---

The Jackhammer whirred by and over to the entrance to the valley where the next mine lay.

"The next mine is here." Wheeljack said. "Sports fan, you're with me. Kid, stay on the ship."

"What?"

"Listen..." Wheeljack said as he stepped towards the door. "Bulkhead's gonna wake up, and he'll file off my rivets if you're not there to greet him when he does. If anything goes wrong, hit the autopilot. I've programmed it to take you back to base."

Wheeljack transformed with Dash begrudgingly taking roost in his driver's seat, and drove out into the valley with his sports-car wheels screaming as they were put to work off-terrain.

Shrieking, Hardshell came charging out of the cave entrance just as Wheeljack was about to enter it. The coal-black Insecticon slammed his foot into the ground, sending Wheeljack's car-form spiraling with a shock-wave.

Wheeljack let Rainbow Dash out and converted back to robot mode. The Wrecker reached for his grenade and flung it at Hardshell.

Hardshell leaped, then batted the grenade out of mid-air, then rushed Wheeljack, rocketing towards him and slamming his claw into his shoulder, piercing it with his claws.

Dash went for the grenade, but Hardshell aimed his arm-blasters and blew her away from it.

"Thanks to your crippled friends, I am all too familiar with your Wrecker tricks." Hardshell snarled, then hurled Wheeljack a good distance.

"Oh sure, buddy!" Dash remarked. "Rub it in!" She aimed her rifle at Hardshell's face and shot a bullet straight to his visor, causing a crack in it's side and removing Hardshell's peripheral vision. Someone who made a name for himself through terminating Wreckers had scraped their way out a fight with worse injuries.

"Talk during battle is a sign of weakness." Hardshell hissed at her, turning to face her.

"Only when you're not smart enough to do two things at once!"

Hardshell lunged for the pegasus and stabbed the tip of his claws straight up her chest, before she even had time to scream in pain, Hardshell picked the pony up off his claw like a ripe grape and lobbed her at Wheeljack. She landed upside down against his head, which disoriented him. Dash's unconscious body slid down his chest before just dropping to the ground.

"DASH!" Miko screamed, face pressed against the Jackhammer's window.

Hardshell squealed and jabbed his claw into Wheeljack's chest so hard a huge cloud of dust billowed around them in a circle. Then the Insecticon slammed his claw in again, producing an even larger cloud.

"WHEELJACK!" Miko's fingers curled against the window for a moment before she decided to quit watching and start doing. Climbing up on the armrest of Wheeljack's chair, her finger was poised and ready to hit the autopilot. At the last minute, Miko's finger traced the air over to the button adjacent to it.

"This is for Bulkhead."

Miko pushed the button.

Torpedos came whizzing out of the Jackhammer that aimed straight for Hardshell despite their somewhat whimiscal flight path. The torpedos carried Hardshell on them until they hit the walls of the valley, gray smoke obsurcing Hardshell's destruction, but the rather disgusting sounds of metal shearing was all the confirmation Wheeljack needed.

"Mmmhhh!" Wheeljack grunted, trying to stand and picking Rainbow Dash up by the scruff of her neck. He looked at his ship. "You did all right, kid. You did all right..."

Wheeljack limped towards his ship, but stopped abruptly at the sound of Cybertronain footsteps.

Damn near every one of Megatron's Insecticons were approaching the valley's cliff edge.

Wheeljack didn't need Miko's screaming to suggest to him he should probably leg it.

The transformation sound played over and over again as the Insecticons all converted to their vehicle modes to pursue him.

Wheeljack burst into the door of his ship and flung Dash against the spare chair before taking up his pilot's seat.

"Thought I told you to hit the autopilot."

"Bad things happen to 'Bots when I leave their side." Miko told him sadly.

Wheeljack quickly urged his ship into lift-off and flew it away, back towards the way they had came, but the Insecticon horde was hard to miss even without the use of whatever passed for the Jackhammer's review mirror.

"There's too many of them to pick off." Wheeljack grumbled. He pushed the autopilot, left his chair and pulled a box out of the side of the room, opening it to reveal a good haul of grenades.

Miko was confused. "But I thought you-"

"I only carry one at a time."

Wheeljack climbed up a ladder to a pothole on the ship's top, allowing him to see the Insecticons clearly. He grabbed three grenades into his elbow, picked one out with his hand, then stopped to look at it. It wasn't going to be enough to shake all the Insecticons at all.

"...Better just lob the whole case." Wheeljack stuffed the grenades back in, then did exactly that. The case exploded in the air with the Insections all around it, the fiery pushback sending them everywhere.

Wheeljack climbed down the latter and sat down, this time not having to get back up. He cast a glance towards Miko. "You did Bulkhead proud, kid. Welcome to the Wreckers."

Miko scrunched up in the passenger seat, next her head in her knees right next to Rainbow Dash.

"...Then how come I don't feel any different?"

"Uuuug..." Dash's eyelids slowly peeled away, showing her magenta irises as they rolled between the two Wreckers. "Did we win?"

"Yeah. Thanks to Miko here."

Dash raised her hoof towards Miko. "Rock on..."

Miko pushed Dash's hoof away, but Dash kept flailing it at her until she relented and fist-bumped it.

---

TIIING-THAAAANG!

Went Hardshell's corpse, now looking rather petrified rather then burnt, as it was tossed before Megatron's feet by the remaining Insecticons.

Megatron's eye twitch, his jaw contorted in horror. "The Autobot did THIS!?"

"No, my lord..." an Insecticon answered. "It was...a human girl."

Megatron's jaw dropped. Reeling his mouth back into position with a jerk of the head, Megatron growled, his hellish red optics glowing even more so than usual.

---

Optimus stood alone by Bulkhead's bedside, having not once moved or wavered. Ratchet had left saying he couldn't stand to hear 'that sound' again. Optimus knew what he was talking about despite his vague wording. Rarity was unable to witness him this way any longer.

Optimus' attention was caught by Bulkhead groaning.

"Bulkhead? Can you hear me?" Optimus grabbed Bulkhead's hand for support.

"I hear ya, Prime." Bulkhead answered, tightening his fingers around Optimus' palm. "Where's...Where's Miko?"

"She said she was going to go home." Optimus answered. "I believe she needed time to recuperate from the knowledge of your condition."

"She's going to need a lot more than that." Bulkhead said. He rolled his neck to look at Optimus in the eye. "I'm not gonna make it, boss-bot."

"Ratchet will return soon."

"So what?" Bulkhead asked rudely. "Ratchet's one of the best...but even the best isn't enough."

Optimus heaved a deep breath. There was something he needed to know if Bulkhead was as far gone as Bulkhead himself believed. "Bulkhead...when you left the Wreckers for my team...was I the 'real deal' as you envisioned?"

Bulkhead scoffed. "Heh...every step of the way."

A moment of silence passed.

"Optimus..." Bulkhead said weakly. "Don't tell Miko. She may get into trouble, but she's a smart girl. Let her figure it out herself. Tell her I wanted go right back into the field or something."

"As you wish."

Bulkhead's optics began dimming.

"Make sure Jackie takes...good care of her."

"I will. Rest assured, Bulkhead, you're sacrifice will not be forgotten."

"...Prime? Thanks...for everything."

Bulkhead's head fell back backwards. His optics shut off.

Optimus's audio receptors were soon after assaulted by an off-key cacophony of noises as all the monitors flat-lined, one after two after one.

Optimus put his hand on Bulkhead's chest, closing his own optics for a moment.

"O-Optimus?"

Optimus swiveled his neck joint to see Fluttershy half-visible in the doorway, her hoofamp on the door.

"I, um...I hope you don't mind, but I was reading your book- the human one? And...and in it, it said that beetles eat dead material to recycle it into the earth's soil...I was just thinking...my Insecticons are beetles. I wouldn't mind if you-if you asked for me to..."

"I appreciate what are you trying to offer, Fluttershy." Optimus turned back towards Bulkhead. "But it will comfort no one."

---

Chief Burns had gotten right back into the swing of things despite his adventure the moment he returned. Kade and Dani with their Rescue Bot partners had managed not let anything get too badly messed up. He was watching the security cameras with a cup of coffee in hand and a doughnut in mouth when Cody came screaming through the door.

"Dad! Dad!"

Burns grabbed his by the shoulder and held him in place. "Easy, son. Panicking in a crisis only makes things worse. What's the problem?"

"Turn on the news!"

Cheif Burns pushed a button, which made on screen show static, then change to a front view of Huxley Prescott, Griffin Rock's resident press reporter.

"Huxley Prescott, reporting live from Ms. Nederlanders for an exclusive interview for the newcomer competitor for mayor of Griffin Rock...Twilight Sparkle!"

Cheif Burns' donut dropped out of his hand and into his coffee cup.

"...Did he just say Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yup."

Huxley's cameraman followed him as the report made his way to a table where Twilight Sparkle, in all her Dark Energon-mutated horror, was sitting on a stool like she was a common sight not just in Griffin Rock, but in all of Earth.

"So, Twilight Sparkle!" Huxley started, getting right into the swing of things. "The voters want to know. Why should they vote for you as Mayor of Griffin Rock and Luskey for a second term?"

"I'm technologically minded." Twilight answered.

Prescott snorted. "All right then. The viewers ask: why are you running in the first place?"

"Griffin Rock loves technology. I love technology. It just makes sense." Twilight replied causaully.

"If you were elected, what would your first action as Mayor be?"

"Ensuring that the citizens of Griffin Rock can live safely and peacefully without fear."

"And your second?"

"Learning everything I can from the citizens of Griffin Rock...and letting them learn everything they can from me."

"Interesting!" Luxley exclaimed. "Well, folks, there you have it; Technology should be why we should allow a unicorn to be our leader! Tune in next week for a special edition of "I Dare Me!"

The TV changed after that to another program.

"Something is going on." Cheif Burns said. "Cody, get in the car."

Cody made his way to the door, then stopped and turned around.

"When you say 'get in the car' do you mean your old car or-"

"Chase. I mean Chase."

---

Twilight Sparkle, sitting at the table she was for her interview- it was live, after all- quietly drank some of her milkshake while Huxley's van went off. A police siren blared around shortly afterwards.

"Ahhh!" Twilight exclaimed quietly to herself, taking her lips off the straw. "Exactly as predicted..."

A police car pulled up on the road by the dinner. Chief Burns stomped out, slamming the door behind him. Chase's insistence on protocol prevented him from asking the Chief to not do that.

"Twilight Sparkle!" Chef Burns yelled, approaching. "What are you up to?"

"What do you mean, Chief Burns?" Twilight replied haughtily, her hoof under her chin and her tail raised playfully.

"Trying to run for Griffin Rock mayor? You can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"You're a wanted criminal, to start with. Second, you can't meet the criteria for being Griffin Rock Mayor!"

"You mean like being a registered citizen before running?"

"Yes!"

Twilight reached behind her gossamer wing and pulled out a stack of papers which she offered to the Chief of Police. "I think you'll find these papers legitimate and confirming that I am fully qualified for the position of Griffin Rock's mayor."

Cheif Burns took the papers rather forcefully and scanned them over and over. Being a police chief, he had more then his share of forged documents and knew all the tells that made or broke them. The documents Twilight had given him just now were...completely legitimate.

"Graah!" Chief Burns threw the papers back at Twilight. "You're still a wanted criminal, Twilight! You're under arrest for breaking and entering, kidnapping, and grand theft automaton!"

"You can prove I did all this?" Twilight asked boredly.

"Yes."

Twilight's expression turned upwards in a way that made Chief Burns extremely wary.

"Are you sure?"

Burns, not liking what Twilight was implying, activated his comm. "Graham, check the security footage for when Twilight Sparkle was first on Griffin Rock."

"On it, Dad."

Chief Burns and Twilight Sparkle kept their eyes on the other while they waited for Graham to report back.

"Bad news, Dad." Graham said after some minutes' passing. "There's no footage of Twilight."

"What? Check again!"

"I checked three times, dad. There's no sign of Twilight, or even MECH or Morocco or the beetle-bot!"

Chief Burns froze, flummoxed as to how there could no security footage of Twilight or her cohorts. He noticed the self-satisfied look on Twilight's face.

"You did something, didn't you? You hacked into the security feeds!"

Twilight took a mocking sip from her milkshake, showing herself as unfazed by Chief Burns accusation. "Can you prove that, Chief?"

Chief Burns seethed in frustration, then stormed off towards his car.

"Chief Burns!"

Mayor Luskey was running down the sidewalk.

"Hello, mayor." Chief Burns greeted. "What can I help you with?"

"Ah, I'm glad you asked that, Chief." Luskey said with a sense of relief. "You see, I have a unicorn as my opponent for the upcoming election."

"I'm aware." Chief Burns shot a glare at Twilight, who waved at him.

"I was, uh, hoping you, as a long-time friend would help me with my campaign?"

"Well..." Burns took another look at Twilight, who gave him a bemused look as if to say 'I dare you'

"...Yes, Mayor. Me and my family will do whatever we can to help you win."

Luskey put his hands together appreciatively. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you!"

Luskey left the the way he came, while Chief Burns climbed back into Chase and drove off, road rage making him driving just fast enough to make Chase worry and take his wheel back.

Twilight laughed. "Hahahaa...You're too easy, Chief." she raised her milkshake and took another sip from it.

---

"Now, be very quiet, okay?" Ratchet made a sshh motion to everyone present in the base. "He wanted them to figure out themselves."

Wheeljack limped his way inside, Dash wounded and Miko besides him.

Arcee scurried over and knelt to look at them. "Are you two all right?"

"They're fine!" Wheeljack said airily. "They're pros."

"I wasn't talking to you." Arcee growled.

Miko looked up at her. "Where's Bulkhead?"

"He, uh," Ratchet answered. "He went out to get Hardshell."

Wheeljack, Dash and Miko all exchanged looks.

"We already took care of that for 'im." Wheeljack said.

"Er, yes, but...how is he supposed to know that?"

Wheeljack pointed over Ratchet's shoulders. "...The comms?"

Ratchet looked at the control panel. "Uh...comms are shot."

Wheeljack squinted at the panel. "No they're not."

Ratchet became very stiff. The medic raised his fist and smashed into the panel, fraying its internals outwards.

"Yes they are."

Miko looked up at Ratchet with water forming in her eyes.

"He's gone, isn't he?"

Ratchet grimaced, then frowned and shook his head in defeat. "I did everything I could."

"Well-well there must've been something you didn't do!" Miko snapped, then ran off.

Wheeljack watched as she left. "I gotta admit, Doc, you screwed this one up big-time." He transformed and left.

Ratchet's mouth hung open in offense at Wheeljack's comment. Optimus held him back before he could drive after the Wrecker.

"Wheeljack is not used to dealing with mixed emotions. His response to Bulkhead's passing would be to seek revenge- which he has already done."

Ratchet grumbled, then started working on the panel he had smashed.

"Rarity..." Fluttershy said sympathetically. "I'm so sorry."

Rarity pushed Fluttershy's hoofamp off her shoulders. "It's hardly your fault, Fluttershy...and feeling sorry won't bring Bulkhead back..." Rarity started walking down the stairs, and when she was at the bottom, far enough away from the other ponies and low enough from the Autobots, she added to herself.

"But I know what will."

---

Back at the Griffin Rock Emergency Station, Chief Burns was looking through papers while Graham attempted to see if he could somehow restore the security footage of Twilight's MECH-assisted misdemeanors.

"It just doesn't make any sense." Graham said after a third unsuccessful try. "How could Twilight not only erase the security footage, but prevent it from being salvageable?"

"Keep looking, Graham." Chief Burns told him. "They've got be in there somewhere..."

"In there somewhere..." Graham muttered. "Wait! That's it! Twilight must've not erased the security footage...she took the security tapes!"

Chief Burns looked over his chair. "Sweep the controls for hoofprints."

"Do unicorns even leave those?"

"Well, go find out!"

Graham got up out of his chair to find the forensic tools for fingerprint analysis. He couldn't help overhearing Kade on a phone call on his way.

"Hi, Missus Nederlander! It's just...normally around this time of day you call us to get Mister Pettypaws down from the tree, and since you didn't, I just wanted to make sure you were okay...what's that? ...Who? Yes..." Kade's expression turned taut and irritated. "Yes, I know the unicorn whose been living with us." Kade hung the phone with a slam. "AAAH! Twilight is out stealing our job, piece by piece!"

"I thought she was running for Mayor?" Dani asked.

"Yeah, that's what she wants us to think! She got Mister Pettypaws down from a tree! That's our job!"

Dani chuckled. "Since when is resucing trapped kittens the entirety of our job? In a way, it's nice to not have to deal with that cat..."

Kade gave her a look.

"Ueh, not that I'm taking Twilight's side!" Dani assured him.

"Nothing." Graham said after running through everything in the kit onto the keyboard. "There's nothing here!"

"Keep looking." Cheif Burns ordered bluntly. "We need evidence to prove Twilight's engaged with illegal activity if we want to arrest her and I'd be lying if I said I didn't really want to arrest her."

Cody stood by the door with his elbows latched into each other. "I wonder...why does Twilight want to be Mayor?"

"Don't you get it, Cody? She wants to be mayor so she can get at the 'Bos!"

"But..." Cody stammered. "If she could get into the security footage and erase everything, why couldn't she just use nab Rescue Bots while she was at it?"

Cheif Burns paused. "You might be onto something there, Cody..."

---

Soundwave slinked his way over to Megatron's side.

"Now what, Soundwave?"

Soundwave displayed something on his face-screen.

Megatron didn't look amused. "What? What is it?"

Soundwave continued displaying it.

Megatron rolled his optics and signed. "Fine. I'll send some troops to investigate."

---

The still-alive members of Team Prime were monitoring their normal posts with one down...Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Applejack were standing around waiting for Rarity to come back. Jack and Raf were waiting for the same of Miko. The two of them had taken Bulkhead's death much harder then their fellow organics, having been closer to the jeep.

"Optimus, I'm detecting a signal." Ratchet reported.

Optimus walked over to see what it was. "Of what nature?"

"Hard to say...should we investigate?"

Optimus nodded. "Fluttershy, would you be so kind as to allow Bob to come with us?"

Fluttershy nodded meekly.

Optimus, Arcee, Bumblebee and Bob all made their way through the GroundBridge.

Having little else to do, the ponies all drifted off towards other parts of the base to pass the time in their own way.

Jack sat by Raf on the couch in the human's pavillion. Jack tapped Raf's shoulder for attention.

"Hey Raf?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you think Miko will react to Bob replacing Bulkhead?"

Raf shook his head. "No one's replacing any one, Jack. Bob was just as helpful to the team as he was before Bulkhead...went."

The two shared a deep heavy breath in mourning.

Jack got up and set up a video game system to get his mind off while Raf just kept doing whatever he was doing.

The squeak of an elevator caught Raf's attention. Setting his laptop to rest on a couch cushion, he climbed up on the couch's back to see what was going on.

Rarity was going inside the base's elevator.

"Hmm..."

Raf, suspicous, made his way down the stairs, then up the other stairs to the elevator just as its door closed on Rarity.

---

Team Prime's and Bob's engines hummed as they made their way to the source of the disturbance. They found themselves in the middle of essentially nowhere and headed for what looked like a Cybertronian globe on a stand.

In arm's reach of it, the Autobots transformed.

Arcee was off-put. "This is we came out all the way for?"

"The coordinates correspond." Optimus answered.

Beep beep.

Bob chitted something in agreement with Bumblebee, then he spotted something and shireked in an attempt to get the others notice.

Arcee facepalmed. "We forgot to bring someone who spoke Insecticon..."

Bob shook his head disapprovingly and took a direct approach, grabbing Arcee's head in his claw and making it point upwards.

"'Cons!"

Bob let Arcee loose, and the four of them all converted out their arm blasters.

Fearstorm and a trope of Vehicons descended down from the air and aimed their blasters, engaging the Autobots in a stand-off.

The teams stared at each other, blasters aimed and shoulders tensed. The Decepticon side fired first, giving Fearstorm a distraction to lunge for the globe. The Autobots blew their opposition to pieces, and when the smoke cleared, Fearstorm was standing with the globe in his claw, examining it.

"Bah!" Fearstorm scoffed and tossed the globe aside, apparently deciding it was worthless. The more intact of the troupe struggled to followed his lead as he flew off.

Arcee stepped forward and picked the globe up to examine it herself.

"It's just broadcasting a signal..." Arcee informed them. "It's not carrying a message...or anything else."

Beep bleep beeeee?

"If it was a Decepticon trick, Bumblebee, it is unlikely that the Decepticons would fought for it in the fashion they did." Optimus answered. "It appears as though both sides have led astray by a third party."

"MECH?" Arcee asked.

Optimus looked around. "I fear that is not the case. Were this a ploy by Silas and his men, they would've attacked the moment we arrived."

The Autobots all set their eyes aside in concern there was a fourth party emerging...

---

Rarity stood on the top of Outpost Omega One. She more or less on top a rock piller with a metal cabin behind her that led the elevator that had brought her here.

The wind blew on her mane while the moon shone overhead...the perfect atmosphere for what she was about to do.

Cliffjumper's gravestone, a pile of rocks with the last remaining piece the Autobots had of him next to it was no longer alone on the cliff. Beside it was another pile of rocks with a green toy jeep in front of it.

Rarity approached the second one and clenched the object in her ankle tightly.

A silver of Dark Energon.

She raised her hoof over her head, ready to stab the crystal straight into the ground.

"Rarity..."

Rarity turned her neck around to see Raf standing in front of the open elevator door in a very ready-for-action sort of pose, with his legs spread apart and his fists clenched.

"Put it down and step away from the grave."

Rarity huffed. "Raf, you don't understand!"

"I do too." Raf said.

Rarity was skeptical. "I find that hard to believe..."

"No, really." Raf insisted. "I may not have been as close to Bulkhead as I am to Bumblebee, but I'm upset too! I understand you want to bring him back...but you can't, Rarity." Raf's eyes dragged towards the Dark Energon. "Not with that."

"This-" Rarity held it upwards for emphasis. "Brought Twilight back just fine!"

"I kinda disagree with you on that one..." Raf muttered. "But Twilight- well, Twilight's not a Autobot! She's a pony! It affected her differently! I guratee you can stick in as much Dark Energon into Bulkhead's body as you want, and it will come back to life...but it won't be Bulkhead. It'll just be a...a thing."

"Daaaahh!" Rarity exclaimed, turning back to the grave. "I don't have time for your objections, Raf! I have a Wrecker to revive."

Rarity readied her hoof to stab the Earth Blood into the ground, but she felt something climb on to her rear and dig it's nails into her rump. Reacting rather then thinking, Rarity followed her pony instincts and bucked the intrusion off.

Crrrrrrink.

...Oh.

Oh, that- that was not a good sound.

"Raf, are you all...right..." Rarity turned around to see Raf lying unconcious on his back with his limbs spread out- and his chest heaving up and down quite forcefully.

"Oh, Raf!" Rarity cried, tossing the Dark Energon aside and rushed to his side. "I'm so sorry- I should realized- we can fix this!" She put her hoof on his cheek, for all the good it did. "We can fix this! We'll get you out of here, get you all nice and patched up, " Rarity giggled, edging herself closer to denial, "We'll get you all fixed before the Autobots get-"

The elevator door hissed open.

"-back..."

Rarity looked upwards to see Optimus Prime himself step out of the elevator. She bit her lip and backed off of Raf's body.

Optimus looked to her, then to the discarded Dark Energon, then to Raf, then back to her...and when he looked back to her, his teeth showed. When he looked back at her, she felt like that everything in the surroundings- the rock pillars, the elevator, the non-pillar rocks and the cacti around the bottom of the base- could've burst into flames right then and there, because all Hell had just broke loose.

"What...have...you...done!?"

---

Bumblebee scaled the side of the rock pillar that formed the Autobot base, insisting there wasn't any time to wait for the elevator for Raf, when the amount of time it took the elevator and the amount of time it took him to climb down the side were equal. Being concerned for the welfare of those close to them made people and 'bots alike do strange things.

Bumblebee was off speeding down the driveway with Raf in his backseat in a matter of minutes, but he said something to Rarity before leaving. The tailor didn't need Raf or Pinkie to translate to her that he said he was going to decorate the base in a interesting new decor of 'sticky marshmallow pie with well-groomed coffure filling' when he got back.

The Ponies and other Autobots were gathered around the main room, Rarity standing on one of the human platforms in such a way that made she was the centerpiece of the room. Ratchet and Arcee were glaring daggers at her, while Bob just kinda...quietly hovered in the background.

Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack were leaning forward on the railings, concerned for what Optimus was going to do to their friend. Fluttershy had clung to the back of the room, as Optimus was still emitting that feeling that everything in a certain radius around him was going to erupt into flames.

"I understand you are grieving over the loss of Bulkhead, Rarity, but under no circumstances will I tolerate the usage of Dark Energon, let alone a human causualty!" Optimus shouted.

"This..." Arcee held up the globe they had found. "You made this, didn't you? The idea was that we would all be out long enough for you to pull Bulkhead out of the ground...wasn't it!?"

Rarity averted her eyes, which was all they needed in order to confirm this.

"As your purpose here on Earth was to complete the task assinged to you by Princess Celestia, which you have so far have been unable to complete, I will not banish you from Earth...yet." Optimus Prime growled. Ratchet knew better then to point they didn't have the resources to get her off-world even if they wanted to.

"But for the remainder of your stay here on Earth, you are no longer welcome within the confines of our base. We will be sending you to Griffin Rock so that Cheif Burns and his team can moniter you and so that your friends can reach you easily in the event they progress in their mission."

"You-you-can't do that!" Dash shouted at him, flying up to meet Optimus Prime at eye level. Optimus shot her a glare that felt to Dash rather like a steel pole had just been driven through her.

"You, Rainbow Dash, lack the proper authority to tell me what I can, and what I cannot do. This Outpost is under my command, and your group are our guests here. If you feel we have somehow failed as your hosts , you are entirely welcome to leave. Is that understood?"

"Y-y-yessir." Dash's normally fearless demeanor shattered under the Prime's anger.

"It's all right, Rainbow Dash..." Rarity tried to assure her. "I have commited a crime, and now I must do the time." Rarity looked at Optimus. "I should be grateful Optimus doesn't intend to do worse."

"Ratchet, prepare the GroundBridge!"

Ratchet pulled the lever.

Rarity made her way towards with dignity, but she looked behind at her friends just as she was about to enter. They all had very concerned looks on their faces.

"I-I'll be close by." Rarity attempted to assure them...but Griffin Rock wasn't actually all that close, bar the GroundBridge system. She stepped through, disappearing into the green pool.

Once the portal had zapped closed, Optimus Prime's expression finally softened and he let out a heavy, heavy sigh.

When Rarity had stepped through the other end, she instantly found herself in front of a human with gray hair in a bun with a lab coat.

"Oh!" Rarity exclaimed. "Um..." Rarity waved her front hooves around in circles. "You did not see a unicorn come out of a giant green poooorrtaaalll..."

The human chuckled. "There's no need for that...Rarity, was it? Optimus told you were going to be staying at Griffin Rock for a while?"

Rarity looked away. "...'Staying' is a good word for it, yes. You would be?"

"Professor Anna Baranova." The human bowed. "I was told you'd be willing to be a test subject for experiments?"

Rarity was not amused. "By whom?"

"Eeeh, she said her name was Arcee, but that she was asking on behalf of a...Bumblebee?"

Rarity closed her eyes in frustration and muttered under her breath. "Was that really nessecary, Bumblebee?" She shook her from side-to-side and signed. "I suppose I don't have anything else to do..."

Baranova smiled kindly. "Well, we can put if off you'd like...maybe you'd like to watch the mayorial debate?"

Rarity shrugged. "I really don't have much else to do..."

Baranova guided Rarity down the hill to where a crowd was gathered in front of two opposing stands. A overweight man stood at one with a police offcier beside while at the other was-

"Twilight!?"

Baranova became intrigued. "You know her?"

"Yes! She's one of my dearest friends."

Baranova nodded. "Okay, maybe you can explain something to me?"

"What?"

"Why is it that a few days ago, only me, the Burns and the Greenes knew about her, and then all of sudden, everyone in Griffin Rock knows and loves her!?"

Rarity was taken aback. "Everyone?"

"Yep."

"I'm sorry, professor, I can't say I could explain even if I wanted to..."

"Mm." Baranova said, disappointed. "Oh, the debate is starting!"

Rarity and Baranova quieted down as a man in a red tux climbed between the stands.

"And now, reporting live from the mayorial debate, Huxley Prescott with our current Mayor Luskey, running for a second term, and his opponent, our unicorn community servant, Twilight Sparkle!" The man in the red tux announced bombastically.

"Now, as the older spectators in our audience should know, the purpose of this debate is for one party to-" Huxley shook his fist. "Reduce the others to tears!"

The audience cheered like spectators for a bloody gladitorial match, Luskey waved at them with a smile, and Twilight just looked uncertain, despite the smugness she displayed to Chief Burns earlier. Griffin Rock's way of doing things was...unorthodox, as evident by the calculus round in the Miss Griffin Rock pagent.

"Luskey, as our current mayor, let's see you deliver the first blow." Huxley held his microphone to Luskey. "Why should Griffin Rock vote you as mayor again over newcomer Twilight Sparkle?"

Luskey cleared his throat. "Sheeee's a unicorn!" he said this like it was the worst thing to anyone could possibly be. Luskey pointed at Twilight's increasingly-evil looking gossamer wings. "And a rather freakish looking one at that!"

"A cutting remark on our competitor's species is Luskey's first shot!" Huxley presented Twilight with the microphone. "Let's what she has to say in response."

Twilight raised her imperiously. "Well, you see, my good citizens, you shouldn't vote for me...but you should vote to have someone replace Luskey."

Luskey and Huxley raised their eyebrows at Twilight's phrasing.

"You see, my little humans, Luskey is not a good leader." Twilight eleborated. "He spent a significant portion of money into a commissioning a golden statue of himself-money that could've been better spent funding the research of eccentric, but no less brillant for it, head scientest Doctor Greene."

Luskey shirked, and bit his lip when the crowd started murmuring, but Twilight wasn't done yet.

"Furthermore, when a certain scientest- whom I will not name- attempted to present his machine as an alternative to the Rescue Vehicles used by our local family of heroes, Luskey assured them they weren't going to lose their jobs. They did, and this machine was put in their place, where it quickly proved..." Twilight raised her hoof like she was examining her nails. "Inferior, and the mayor was forced to reinstate the Rescue Vehicles. Many other examples exist in our good Mayor Luskey's run in office."

"Amazing!" Prescott exclaimed, putting a hand on his hair. "Twilight fires back as Luskey with a cutting breakdown of his decisions as mayor! Let's see what he has to say in response..."

Prescott presented Luskey with the microphone again, and he could only stutter. "Nhuh...she's a unicorn..."

"This is ridiculous!" Chief Burns said, pushing Luskey aside. "Twilight is a criminal dangerous to everyone around her!"

"I like to think of myself as an experimentalist." Twilight coolly informed him.

Burns growled at her. "You're a theif and a kidnapper!"

The audience gasped at these rather serious accusations.

"Prove it." Twilight told him. "Give me evidence that I am these things, and I will happily follow you to a jail cell with my name on it."

Cheif Burns snarled at her. Arced over the Luskey's stand, he looked like an attack dog ready to come off it's leash. Luskey, sensing Burns' hostility, put a hand on the Chief's shoulders and suggested he stand aside. Burns reluncantly agreed.

"Now, moving on..." Twilight said, smiling proudly, but she looked away from the stand and noticed Rarity and Baranova watching from afar. She beamed at Rarity and waved.

Rarity, unsure what to do, waved back and gave Twilight a very forced grin.

Baranova noticed the awkwardness. "Let's go back to my place, shall we?"

Rarity nodded and turned her tail to the audience, not noticing Twilight take particular note of Baranova...

Rarity stared at Baranova's house...if it could be called that. It was like a mini-fort of saucers all linked together by industrial-level steel tubing.

"Come on!" Baranova chided, nearly at the top of the stairs that led into one. Rarity clipped-clopped her way up into. The inside was actually fairly normal, given the exterior's odd shape.

"This way." Baranova led her to what Rarity would instinctively presume to be a kitchen.

"So, um, these...experiments, are they...dangerous?"

"Shouldn't be." Baranova pulled open a drawer and removed some sticky green substance from it. "This is Squilish. It's a compound from Mars that according to Cody, made your friend Twilight eat it. My friend Doc Greene thinks that-"

Baranova noticed Rarity didn't really seem to be paying attention to her. In fact, her eyes seemed intently locked on the Squilish sample.

"...Hmm."

Baranova moved her hand from side to side. Rarity's neck waved with it.

Before Baranova could pull her hand away, Rarity's mouth swept over it in a pop. The unicorn slowly slid her mouth off, revealing Baranova's hand devoid of Squilish.

Rarity chewed, then gulped.

Baranova stared with her jaw agape. After taking a moment to recover, the Professor adjusted her glasses.

"Ah! So the Doc's hypothesis was correct. Squilish really does have a hypnotic effect on ponies...or at least unicorns."

"Uhhhh..." Rarity groaned, coming out of her daze. "I'm sorry, what does what to unicorns?"

"Nothing." Baranova assured her with a wave of her hand. "I'm just rambling like a crazy person, hahahaha..."

There was a knock on the door.

Baranova went back to the door to open it. She was given an unpleasant sight in the form of Twilight Sparkle.

"Hello!" Twilight greeted, unaware that Baranova knew just as much as Cheif Burns. "I saw a friend of mine with you eariler, and was hoping you'd know where to find her?"

Baranova crossed her arms, intent on defying the Sparkle pony. "No."

"Professor?" Rarity asked demurely, trotting out of the kitchen. "What's going on?"

"Nothing!" Baranova insisted.

Twilight forced her head through the door. "Rarity! I saw you over at the debate. What are you doing in Griffin Rock?"

Rarity turned away. "Oh, nothing...I guess you could say...me and Optimus had a...conflict of interest."

Twilight raised an intrigued eyebrow. "Oh, sooo are you willing to help me fight the 'Bots now?"

"I'm not willing to go that far, Twilight!"

Twilight was disappointed, but pressed on, or at least would've, were she not distracted by something.

"Oh my goodness, Rarity, what happened to your horn!?"

"I'd...rather not discuss that right now."

"Exscuse me..." Baranova interrupted, trying in vain to push Twilight outside her home. "But you are not welcome here!"

"That's quite all right, Professor..." Rarity said. "I'll leave with Twilight."

Rarity took up Twilight's side and followed the Terrorpony some distance away from Baranova's...'house' and into the streets of town.

As they took their leisurely walk along the stone sidewalks, Rarity was befuddled as all of Griffin Rock's residents that saw them waved jovially, even the ones Rarity could tell at a glance were very unjoyful.

"Twilight, what did you do to get these people to react to you so- so warmly?"

"Oh, you know..." Twilight replied causually. "Just did a bunch of favors for them all."

"All of them!? Where could you have possibly found the time for that?"

Twilight stopped walking to chuckle. "Oh, Rarity! You know I'm one of Ponyville's most organized ponies."

Rarity wasn't buying it. She wasn't a genius like Twilight, but she knew enough math to be able to calcuate that Twilight couldn't have done enough favors for every one to like her this much and spend all that time she had fighting the Autobots.

The Autobots...thinking about that, Rarity couldn't help but let her thoughts drift towards Raf.

Twilight noticed Rarity stopping, and unlike when she had stop to laugh, Rarity hadn't instantly started back up.

"Rarity?...What's wrong?"

Rarity took in a deep breath and swallowed her pride. Twilight had noticed something bugging her, and there was little she could do to get out of it that would deflect Twilight that would have convinced her to drop the subject and let the subject stay dropped.

"I did something, Twilight." Rarity confessed. "I did something that Optimus Prime disapproved of severely...I did something...wrong."

Twilight leaned forward with pleading eyes, still putting her friends first despite everything that happened. "Is there anything I can do?"

Rarity closed her eyes and shook her head. "No...No. Not unless you can turn back time and prevent something from happening in the first place..."

Twilight's eyes shifted back and forth on the streets. Suspiciously and with a brimming paranoia.

Twilight put her hooves on Rarity's front thighs.

"Come with me."

Twilight's horn began glimmering.

Rarity's vision went awash with violet energy. When it cleared, she found herself on a road built into the side of a mountain. On a higher level of the mountain was a large, coloful building- she didn't know it, but it was the Griffin Rock Science Lab.

"...Twilight, where are we?"

"Just beneath the Scienece Lab, but that's not what we're here for." Twilight answered. She approached the wall of the cliff and stuck her hoof in. It passed right through like a ghost.

Rarity's eyes widened. "I- Twilight-what-"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "It's a hologram, Rarity. It's not really there. Come on!" Twilight skipped on ahead through the wall that was apperntly not really there.

Rarity hesitated, but followed.

On the other side was a cool-blue colored room with a broken down police car inside. There was also a tool rack up agains the wall, and spare automobile parts scattered around the car. Pretty much a typical garage.

Twilight approached the tool rack and grabbed on of the wrenches in her magic. She pulled it slightly to the side, but it wouldn't come off it's hook. In fact, it swung out to the side some distance then stopped with a click.

The back wall pulled up like...a garage door, steam hissing out from underneath it.

Twilight gestured for Rarity to follow, then disappearing into the steam.

Rarity followed this time without stopping to think twice about it. No point in turning back now...

When she entered the room, she was immeaditly assailed by more steam. When the steam cleared...

Airachnid was looming over her with her claws arched and ready to pounce. The undead spider hissed.

"AAAH!"

Before Airachnid could lunge at her, Twilight stepped in front of Rarity and held a hoof out. "Easy, girl. She's with me." The Dark Energon in her chest pulsated briefly. Airachnid went limp and stepped back.

"So, anyways..." Twilight said, gudiing Rarity out of the steam.

Rarity...didn't quite understand at first.

They were in a large hallway big enough to house the less-big Cybertronains, with lights placed into the ceiling...and at the end of the hall was what appeared to be a technological archway.

"...Twilight, I don't see how this...is supposed to help me."

Twilight chuckled. "Rarity, this is the solution to your problem! Here, let me explain..."

"...You're not going to sing, are you?"

"I am."

"Oooh!"

Rarity, I know I always say there's no time for procrastionation,
but who needs time when you've got access to this temp-por-aal station?
The good doctor told me about it to get back in my good grace,
and then I used to get in the mayorial race!
So, dear friend of mine, just tell me where you want to go,
Anywhen from yesterday to nineteen-thirty-nine
Oh, but I should mention we'll always be in the same place
The Station can only move us through time, not space.

Using the time machine to go aways back,
I went into the rescue builing and their security I hacked.
I rewound the clock so that I can ingratite myself to the people and run for mayor of Griffin Rock!

So, Rarity, just tell me
When it is you need to go
And we'll go there before you even know!

So, with this chronal curbulator,
Our little vortex manipultor,

I can help you rewind and completely undo your day,
Just take my hoof and let me lead through the temporal archway!

Why wait for something when you can just go
straight for it through the timey-wimey gate?

"A time machine?" Rarity questioned once Twilight had finished singing.

"Yep! Uh, we might need to nab a Morbot...say, what was the bad thing you did?"

Rarity looked away. "Oh, I...I'd rather not say."

Twilight put her hoof on Rarity's cheek. "Rarity, if I'm going to help you, I need to know what it is you did."

Rarity groaned, then signed. "Oooh! Fine...Bulkhead...Bulkhead died, and I tried to resurrect him with Dark Energon."

Twilight laughed and gave Rarity a slap on the back. "Ha! Fluttershy kept trying to tell me it's evil, but you know better, don't you?"

Rarity narrowed her eyes at Twilight in a way that made it clear to the latter that she had jumped to a conclusion.

"I was prevented from doing so by poor Rafael..."

"Who?"

"Erh, one of the Autobots human partners...I don't think you've met him actually. He tried to keep me from using Dark Energon and I bucked him..."

Twilight started, evidently not understanding where the bad part was.

Rarity raised her hoof. "Raf's a very small little boy, Twilight, and...I bucked him quite hard."

"Ooh!"

"I would...very much like to go back and stop myself from doing that."

Twilight continued staring. Rarity starting getting irritated at the treament.

"What?"

"...Why not just go back and keep Bulkhead from dying in the first place? That why, you'd never try to use the Dark Energon, and then Raf wouldn't have stopped you and-"

"Why not just go back and keep Bulkhead from dying?" Rarity mocked in a whining tone. "Because-...Twilight, that's brillant!"

"I generally am." Twilight agreed, self-satisfied. She started pushing the buttons on the Temporal Station. "How far back do we need to go?"

Rarity put a hoof to her chin in concentration. "Yesterday, but as the Station only takes back through time, we'll need to go back further so we can get to the equator in time..."

"The equator, the equator..." Twilight repeated. "Where is that, exactly?"

Rarity shrugged. "It's roughly the plant's...middle, I suppose?"

"Hmmm...all right, what and when was it that made Bulkhead die?"

Rarity looked between her nose at her horn. "Hardshell."

"Hardshell? Sounds like a crab. Is that a crab? Rarity, am I going to help you save an Autobot from a giant crab?"

"No, no..." Rarity shook her neck. "He's an Insecticon with scars all over his body. He was the one that broke my horn."

"Insecticon?" Twilght repeated for confirmation. "Hmm...hang on here..." Twilight started fiddling with her ear, doing something Rarity couldn't see. Rarity was startled when a hum came from behind her.

A basic Morbot stepped out of a GroudBridge.

"We'll need some muscle...and transportation." Twilight informed her as the archway was fulled with blue energy in some mocking approxamation of a GroundBridge.

The Morbot transformed and pulled up by the two ponies.

Twilight offeered Rarity her hoof, to make sure she was fully commited to this.

Rarity examined the cautiously, and looked at Twilight's face. The Terrorpony smiled warmly.

Rairty, ready to cross the point of no return, took Twilight's hoof and shook it.

They both entered the Morbot and buckled in to its seats. Twilight used her magic to activate its systems and drive into the Temporal Station at speeds Rarity found the nessecity of questionable.

"Is this much speed really nessecary, Twilight!?"

"Yes!" Twilight snapped. "We need to make sure no one in the past sees us unless we want them to, and we don't want them to!"

The assault carrier careened through the portal. Rarity felt zapped going through it and when the shock subsided, Rarity found saw the Morbot driving the opposite direction it entered, heading straight for the entrance to the hall.

Rarity covered her eyes with her hooves when she saw the Morbot was speeding straigh to the door! Of course...this was the past before Twilight opened the door for them!

Her concerns were unfounded, however as the Morbot smashed straight the door, sending it flying off its hinge and throwing it' parts all around.

"Oooh..." Twilight groaned at the carnage. "Gonna have to fix that before we go back to the future."

The Morbot contiuned, undaunted, going through the hologram wall Rarity had went through moments ago. Just before the Morbo would've flown off the edge of the cliff and crash to the ground, it converted and rocket straight up into the stratosphere.

Rarity kept quiet as Twilight piloted the Morbot away from Griffin Rock.

"So, how is everypony?" Twilight asked Rarity.

"Hmm? I'm not sure what you mean, Twilight, dearie..."

"You know!" Twilight waved her hoof around as if trying to make it convey her meaning. "Are the Autobots taking good care of you and the others?"

"Yyyyyes..." Rarity replied slowly, definitivetly not liking where this was going. "Whhhhy?"

"Just checking." Twilight assured her. "You know, just in case they did something to you that meant I would have to brutally dissect them." She said this flippantly, like it didn't carry any disturbing implications about how she felt about about the 'Bots.

"Twilight..." Rarity said carefully. "What are you so upset with the Autobots about? I know you think they've brainwashed me and the others, but you seem really...intent on harming them!"

"Oh, I figured out that you weren't brainwashed eventually." Twilight told her.

"What!?"

"Buuut, I got killed by one of the Autobots human...pets AND nearly killed by another one of them! I have no intention of trusting ponies who defend violent people like Cheif Burns..." Twilight gripped the Morbot's controls. "Rarity?"

"Uh, yes dear?"

"Let's drop this subject."

Rarity nodded. Then she noticed something on the screen...the sky around them was all dense and smokey...

"Twilight, lower the Morbot! This is it! We're here!"

Twilight pulled the Morbot into a brake and lowered back to the ground where the the lava veins and hissing rocks that Rarity recognized as the equator greeted them.

"Now, how do you want to do this?" Twilight asked.

Rarity furrowed her brow. "Actually, that's a fairly good question...we're back in time, so we need to be careful about anypony figuring out too much...There's also the need to consider that Hardshell may be disfigured, but he's a crafty one...if we try to intercept him head-on, he may sense something's wrong..."

The unicorns were silent for a moment as they attempted to figure out their plan.

Rarity gasped. "Twilight, before we do anything, we need to figure out how far Bulkhead and I are in our mission!"

"On it!" Twilight reered up the Morbot's levers and made burn rubber on it's treads.

"Without being seen!" Rarity quickly added. "Bulkhead will smash this thing apart without a second thought!"

Twilight nodded in acknowledgment. The Morbot's treads tore through the rock, spitting out pebbles from underneath it's path.

Twilight and Rarity both had their eyes widen when they spotted just enough of a green metal to figure out Bulkhead wasn't too far away. Twilight was just barely able pull the Morbot into a skidding swerve behind a rock to hide it.

"Hang on a sec..." They could hear Bulkhead's deep voice instructing. "Sitchuation's ripe for an old Wrecker trick."

"Everypony keeps talking about the Wreckers!" Rarity's yowling could be heard. "Who are they?"

"That's something I would like to know..." Twilight said with an eye towards the Rarity in the vehicle.

"Ah, they're Autobots." Rarity rather curtly told her. "Just keep listening..."

Twilight and Rarity both perked their ears, but heard nothing. Bulkhead and Past-Rarity must've moved away by now.

Twilight converted the Morbot back to robotic mode, making it quietly tromp it's way over the rock to observe where Bulkhead had just been.

"Heey..." Twilight drawled, noticing something on the screen. "That kinda looks like an Iacon Artifact!"

Twilight tensed, ready to pounce on the relic, but Rarity grabbed her limbs and pulled them back.

"You don't want do that, Twilight...just trust me on this one."

"Hmm." Twilight seemed uneasy, but relented. Soon after the exchange, the two heard the beat of very heavily flapped wings, causing them to focous their attention on the Morbot's screen.

Four beetle-mode Insecticons, one of which had a huge crack in it's side and missing it's eyes, all flew towards the relic and transformed.

"Uggh!" Twilight shuddered at the sight of the one that looked he been put up against a huge buzzsaw rack. "What's up with that guy?"

"That's Hardshell." Rarity coldly informed her.

"You weren't kidding about him being disfigured..."

One of the Insecticons approached the relic.

"NO!" Hardshell shouted at him. "WAIT!"

The relic exploded, sending the Insecticon back and impaling his neck with Toxic-En shrapnel.

"Grisly!" Twilight exclaimed at the sight of the writhing 'Con.

"Ah, so that's what happened to him." Rarity concluded calmly. "Come along, Twilgiht. There's no need for us to linger here."

Twilight piloted the Morbot upwards and flew it towards Rarity indicated been the direction Bulkhead and her had gone in.

Rarity seemed lost in thought.

"So, that explosion...did you do that?" Twilight asked.

"No, that was Bulkhead's work-wait, Twilight, that's it!"

"...What's it?"

"An explosion! Hardshell's ending blow on Bulkhead occured atop a volcano! All we have to do is set an explosion timed to get Hardshell just as he lunges for Bulkhead..." Rarity began.

"-and past you will come to the conclusion that the volcano erupted naturally!" Twilight finished.

"Mmm...we'll need to time it so that we can be hidden away, but it'll blast Hardshell before he can do something to Bulkhead..." Rarity concluded. Taking charge, Rarity pointed her hoof dramatically at the visual feed. "Find out where me and Bulkhead are, and we'll improvise from there!"

Twilight saluted and obeyed, making the Morbot propel forwards in the air in search of the mismatched Autobot-Pony duo. Strangly, they ended up just flying around in circles. Rarity's instructions as to where Bulkhead and herself had gone proved rather inaccurate.

"Ah! We must already be at that point where Bulkhead is faltering from the Toxic-En!" Rarity realized.

"The what?" Twilight asked.

"Nothing." Rarity leaned over and started messing with the controls against Twilight's wishes. "Go this way!"

Twilight pushed Rarity off, but did so, whereupon they did indeed find Bulkhead, resting his back agaisnt a rock while Past-Rarity nuzzled into his foot.

"...Why are you nuzzling him?" Twilight asked awkwardly.

"It doesn't matter!" Rarity insisted with a blush, even though she couldn't have really helped it at the time. "Just head for the volcano!"

The Morbot did as instructed, flying up slightly higher and landing itself on the volcano's lip. Twilight teleported herself and Rarity out it's cockpit and onto the molten floor. Twilight set the Morbot out to spot Bulkhead in case he drove up before they were ready.

Rarity ran around in circles, looking for something. "Where is it, where is it-ah! Here!" she announced, heading for the volcano's side.

"What's it?" Twilight questioned.

"The spot where Hardshell's third and most lethal assault on Bulkhead occured!" Rarity announced, shoveling her hooves in the dirt. "Help me dig, will you?"

Twilight rushed on over and shovled with Rarity until the latter decided the hole they dug was deep enough.

"I have to say, Rarity, I'm impressed you're so keen on getting dirt on your hooves..." Twilight admitted.

Rarity took offense and huffed. "Twilight, a Spark is at stake here! How could I could possibly not allow myself to get filthy if it means it will be saved?" Rarity turned towards her saddlebag and pulled out a grenade.

Twilight's jaw dropped. "Did Optimus give you that!?"

Rarity forced a grin. "Err...yes, of course he did!" She dropped the grenade into their little dug pit, then shoveled all the dirt back on it, obsurcing it from view. Not a moment too soon either, as the Morbot gave the signal that Bulkhead was approaching.

Twilight, Rarity, and the Morbot all rushed over to the volcano's edge where a boulder just the right size to obsurce the three of them. The ponies straining their ears, they could hear Bulkhead's wheels as they worked to scale the fiery mountain.

"Wrecker!" Hardshell's crisp voice shouted, followed by the thumps of metal feet on volcanic rock.

Twilight and Rarity ducked when Hardshell's underling leaped over them and onto the battle, but after that, they were confident enough to peek their heads out over the rock to see the battle's progress.

"Now, we wait until Bulkhead's apologizing for not doing more for my horn..." Rarity said.

When Past-Rarity flumped lifelessly onto the ground not too far from them, Twilight put a hoof to her mouth in pity.

As Bulkhead took care of Hardshell and the other Insecticon, Rarity had to restrain Twilight coming to her aid when Hardshell's first goon started playing with her. WOW, time travel sure does makes weird stuff happen!

Bulkhead threw his second grenade, throwing the Insecticon back.

"Rarity?" Bulkhead questioned. "What's wrong?"

Twilight and Rarity slumped against the rock, already knowing what was wrong. In fact, Rarity drew back to the back of the rock completely and tried to shut it all out, unable to live through all that again.

She rested against the rock, closing her eyes in sorrow.

THHRRBOOOOOM.

"Aaah!" Rarity covered her eyes with her hooves, even though they were already closed. "Did it work? Did it work, Twilight? Tell me, did it work?"

Twilight's hoof made it's way to her shoulder. "I think you should see for yourself."

Rarity was filled with gloom and dread, but took Twilight's suggestion and peered over.

Bulkhead was on his hands and knees, having been thrown off balance by the explosion, but he was intact. He was in one piece.

He was alive.

He and her past self had their necks craned forward and up, looking at Hardshell.

What was left of him, at least.

Hardshell's head and right arm lay on the molten rock. His torso was a few feet away, cracked and with a hole blown right his back, and his leg was paritally severed, but not completely.

Bulkhead looked at Past-Rarity and pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "Did you do that?"

"Yes." Rarity breathed through clasped hooves.

"N-no..." Past-Rarity stammered. "It must have been the volcano."

Bulkhead's optics widened. "If this thing's still live, then we need to bail!" Bulkhead grabbed Past-Rarity by her scruff and transformed, his limb manevering in such a fashion that dropped the unicorn gently into his driver seat.

"Ratchet," Bulkhead said through his comm as he started revving up his wheels. "I need a GroundBrdige, pronto!"

Twilight and Rarity watched as Bulkhead's jeep form descended the mountain and entered through the Bridge.

"I'm still not a fan of the Autobots..." Twilight patted Rarity's back. "But good work, Rarity!"

Rarity stared into space, devastated.

"Rarity?"

"He..." Rarity whimpered. "He didn't say he could beat a Wrecker out of me..."

"Uhhhhhhhh...huh?"

Twilight waved her hoof in front of Rarity's face, trying to get the shattered pony to respond.

"Raaarrity?"

"Wha-? Oh, sorry...let's go back now and see if that worked..."

The hoofsteps of the ponies echoed across the metal hall as Rarity, Twilight, and their Morbot re-entered the present from the Temporal Station.

Twilight and Rarity stopped beneath the archway, ready to swing back the other way at a moment's notice.

Rarity fiddled with her earpiece. "Rarity to base. Rarity to base. Hello?"

"Rarity?" Ratchet replied, curious...but not angry. "Where are you?"

Rarity looked at Twilight, whose lip quivered.

"Nowhere." Rarity answered him.

"Well, get back here this instant! Bulkhead's gone nuts looking for you everywhere! What are your cooridnates? I'll Bridge you back to base."

"Yes, of course, but you could put that on hold for me, darling? I have some business to attend to. Tell Bulkhead I'm fine, will you?"

"All right..." Ratchet said uncertainly.

Rarity hung up the comm and made her way towards the hallway's exit.

"Twilight, there's something you should know..."

Twilight's eyes zoomed in on Rarity, intrigued as to what she needed to know.

"While I appreicate that you have lent my your assistance in saving Bulkhead, I know you, Twilight. You're smart. Too smart to let keep the ability to maniuplate time. I can't let you keep that Temporal Station."

Twilight's eyebrow raised. "Um...okaaaay?"

"One more thing...get rid of Airachnid, will you? You've been giving Fluttershy nightmares."

Twilight nodded. "Okay. I'll keep that in mind."

Rarity exited the garage door, leaving Twilight wondering just what she was talking about.

"Rarity sure was talking weirdly..." Twilight turned around to to her Temporal Station...

and saw a grenade primed, ready, and waiting just beneath the archway.

Rarity was totally unfazed as the explosion slung it's way through the garage complex, throwing Twilight into the same room just before the hologram wall onto her side.

Twilight stumbled to her hooves and pointed her front one at the leaving Rarity. Dark Energon studs popped out of the hoof and fired straight at Rarity, Ion trails emitted behind them as they aimed for her.

Rarity didn't care as the projectiles passed by her head harmlessly in bullet time, although one trimmed a lock of her mane off.

Twilight blew air out of her nose, a frustrated gesture, as Rarity exited the hologram entrance.

---

"Uh, wow." Bulkhead remarked, gathered with the rest of Team Prime in the Outpost after Rarity had concluded her story. (which had totally-not-conspicously glossed over the part where she tried to use Dark Energon and was exiled from the base, and also didn't mention Bulkhead dying, just that he was severly wounded.) "Sounds like you had quite an adventure!"

"I did." Rarity agreed. "I'm afraid, given my usage of the Station, some other ponies actions were undone by the flow of time...and therefore, I must request Miko being given an offcial welcome into the Wreckers."

Bulkhead looked more then a little confused by this, while Miko leaned over the railings, eager to for the invitation.

Optimus looked at the two of them, then back to Rarity. "While I do not feel that the control of time is a power that should ever pass to mortal hands, I appreciate that what you have done has restored one of my men to full health, Rarity."

Optimus smiled at her. A small smile. A quiet smile, but a smile. Seeing that expression of happiness on Optimus' anicent, creased weary face, it felt like a beam of sunshine was being launched straight into her heart...Rarity might've sworn Optimus' face was actually changing color from it. She was also beside herself with confusion that the bot smiling so radiantly at her had been the same one to give her the impression Hell was about to burst out around him.

"I also appreciate your wisdom in destroying the Temporal Station before Twilight Sparkle could realize the full extent of it's destructive capacity."

Rarity smiled sheepishly, though the knowledge of her crime wriggled in the back of her head...

---

Night time in the Griffin Rock rescue station, the Burns family was eating dinner. The room was quite peaceful despite the threat of a Terrorpony mayor waiting right 'round the corner.

The telephone rang.

"I'll get it!" All of the children volunteered at the sime time. Cheif Burns, sensing an impending catastrophe from his children all attempting to reach the phone at the same time, vetoed all them and got up to answer the phone himself.

"Chief Burns here. Mayor!...What? Oh, no, I see...we'll try helping you get a job soon." Cheif Burns hung the phone up and lowered his head.

"What?" Graham questioned.

Cheif Burns put his face in his hand and started rubbing his temples. "Luskey lost the election."

There was a moment of silence as the Cheif of Police let his kids figure out the rest for themselves.

Before anyone could despair over the loss, a knock was on the door. Charles, already being up, walked his way to it and opened it.

"Twilgiht Sparkle." Cheif Burns spat out at the sight of a mutanted unicorn at his door. "Come to gloat about your victory?"

"Uh, no, actually." Twilight replied. "I was hoping I could talk to Cody?"

"Absolutely not-"

"Dad, wait." Cody scooted his chair and hopped out of it. "Let's see what she wants..."

Cody brushed up against his father's leg, where both Twilgiht could see him and his dad could pick him up by his jacket and throw him back in the house, if need be.

"What do you want to talk about, Twilight?"

Twilgiht signed. Whatever she wanted to say was taking some effort to. "I know it would be awkward, the way I feel about Optimus and the way you feel about the Rescue Bots, but I was wondering...you see, I...you're a really sweet bot, Cody- uuggh!" Twilight did a odd mixture of a grunt and a sigh. "Look, what I'm trying to say..."

Twilight pointed her hoof at Cody, which made Cheif Burns jerk forward.

"Will you be my friend?"

Cheif Burns and Cody both had the same intial reaction of "What-huh-what!?" but Cody started thinking while Cheif Burns' was still dumbstruck.

After moments of hesitance and silence...Cody put his fingers on Twilght's hoof.

"I'll...try to be."

Twilight nodded, picking up on Cody's meaning. "I understand. Thank you." Twilgiht's thanks sounded very, very relieved. The two of them parted appendages, and Twilight turned to leave.

Once she heard the Burns' family door close, Twilight felt there was a sufficcnet enough lack of witnesses for her to just teleport herself into her new mayor's quarters.

Well...here she was. In the Griffin Rock mayorial room. All those favors and services done to earn the apprecitaton and respect of the citizens had led to this.

She made her way to the chair and sat at the desk, where a quirky mixture of faxed human legal documents and naturally made pony scrolls were rested out for her.

On one scroll...was an ink drawing of what appeared to be the Temporal Station.

Twilight looked at it and smirked to herself. "Haaaaa...you tried, Rarity, you tried, but after that incindent with Star Swirl the Bearded's one-use only time travel spell-which I totally blew my one use on- did you really think I'd just let something like this go? No, no, no..." Twilight tsked, then drawled in a way that a certain mechanical purple dinosaur would approve of. "Nnnooo..."

Twilight sat back into the chair, thinking.

The Temporal Station could only move through time, not space.

Something she heard today started replaying in her head. Something she had heard early, but pushed aside to focous on other concerns...something that would be just right for the diabolical plan brewing in her mind...

Shockwave's Log number three-eighty-nine...

Author's Note:

Dead Las Vegas Crime Boss? Thin sharp instrument?

In case it wasn't clear, Soundwave does not like witnesses.

Uh, I, uh...Twilight's song about the time machine is based off the Gypsy Pinkie's song about her time portal from Friendship is Witchcraft. Yes. Really.

Hinting at things for the big finale in this chapter.

Comments

[Mtgravityfallsbrony]

I'm liking this story. You have sure taken various characters in interesting directions.

[Darkryt Orbinautz]

2773364

Thank you!

It's nice to finally have someone say something I can compare and weigh against other criticisms! All the other comments have just been questions and stories about misreading the title...