Friendship Is Magic: Prime

by Darkryt Orbinautz

Act II: Over a Barrel

Friendship Is Magic : Prime by Darkryt Orbinautz

Act II

Chapter 2 (Box Set Chapter 8)

Over A Barrel

---

Sierra rubbed the belly of the creature delicately. "What you do think it is?"

"...I don't know." Jack answered after a moment's hesitance. "I think we should leave and call the authorities."

"No!"

Jack stared at Sierra.

"Let the government take him and put him in some...cage somewhere? What if it can talk? What if it knows something? What if it can feel?" Sierra questioned.

Jack shrugged nervously. When he said 'authorities' he meant 'Autobots' whom he knew would treat the... thing right, but he couldn't let Sierra know that.

"Well, let me call my mom at least." Jack said, taking out his cell phone.

"Isn't your mom a nurse?"

"Yeah, exactly!"

"You sure this...thing doesn't need a vet?"

Jack signed, "First you don't want to call the authorities, then you don't want me to call my mom...What do you want me to do?"

"...okay, Call your mom." Sierra conceded.

After a series of clicks, Jack put the phone to his ear. "Hey, mom?"

"Jack! Sierra's mother told me you were out with Sierra!" spoke June, Jack's mother through the phone.

"Well, I was...am. Listen, me and Sierra found a thing and...we think it's hurt. Badly. Like, medical care badly." Jack explained.

"What kind of thing?"

Jack took the phone away from his ear and looked the creature's body up and down, noting only the clashing brown and yellow coloration and asymmetry of it's body.

"It's...hard to describe." Jack answered. He lowered himself away from Sierra's earshot, ducking behind his side of the creature. "You know, with Sierra here, I can't call my...'Science Fiction Club'."

'Science Fiction Club' of course, being Jack's and June's euphemism for the Autobots Jack had made friends with.

"...I'll be right there." June answered and hung up.

"Right. My mom say's she'll be quick." Jack informed Sierra.

Sierra frowned and rubbed the creature's chest fluff. "Don't worry, boy. Everything's gonna be OK." She put her ear to what she assumed to be it's chest.

After some time, they saw the lights of an ambulance. It stopped and June came out with a bag of medical supplies. "Load...it up into the back. " June ordered.

Working together, they managed to load the animal onto the bed, but only it's top half. The lower half slumped out the open door and down the ramp.

Cramped together inside the room, June started hooking the creature up to health monitors. June observed the creature and shuddered.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Sierra asked with concern.

"Uh...let's just say I know it's a 'he'." June assured her with a wince.

The monitors began beeping and whirring. June walked over and checked their readings.

"He's alive...heart beat steady, but slow. He's been electrocuted. I can keep him alive, but I'll need the big, immobile hospital equipment to heal him." June explained.

"You...you won't send him to a government cage to be studied, will you?" Sierra inquired. June gave her a odd look, only to receive a pleading one in return.

"...I'll do my best to prevent that. Anyways, it's getting late, and the higher ups will want to know where I am."

Jack, June and Sierra, after many failed attempts, they successful coiled the creature up in a bundle on the bed. June drove Sierra home and Jack to their respective homes.

June drove Discord to a backside entrance of the Jasper hospital.

"June! Where you been?" A fellow doctor asked as she rushed to get the stretcher.

"Got an...unique patient. Needs to stay a secret, OK?"

The doctor looked at June suspiciously.

"Look, if I could explain it, I could explain why it needs to be a secret." June explained.

"Oooo! Government experiment?" The doctor asked with a laugh.

June put a finger to her chin before deciding playing along would be a good way to proceed while still keeping the creature a secret... "Who told you?" She snapped.

The doctor raised his arms up in surrender. "N-no one! I was joking!" The doctor assured her.

"Well, since you're in on the 'joke', you can put him away until tomorrow when I punch back in!" She yelled, handing him the stretcher and enjoying her false role of 'Under top-secret government orders' a little too much.

---

The next day...

"Jack!" June called out as Jack prepared to ride Arcee in her bike mode out. "Can you take me to the Autobots? I have an idea regarding that creature we found last night."

Jack put on his helmet and looked expectantly at Arcee's headlight.

"What creature?" The bike-bot answered.

"This...thing Sierra and I found unconscious out by the road last night." Jack explained, "I meant to call you guys, but you know...Sierra!"

"All right, what do you need?" Arcee questioned.

"Ratchet!" June yelled through the halls of the base. The white Autobot in question made his presence known, peeking out of a door. "Yes, Nurse Darby?"

"Jack found a creature that I brought to the hospital. I'm trying to keep a secret from my coworkers, and I was thinking Agent Fowler could help me with that."

Ratchet scratched his chin. "If it warrants calling Fowler, I think that perhaps you ought to run it by us."

"Well, it's big. It's body is mish-matched and asymmetrical, with a goat horn on one side and a deer antler on the other. It has a scaly tail that ends in a plume, and a scaly leg and a faun calve."

Ratchet tilted his head, "Doesn't sound Cybertronian..." As Ratchet started pondering and muttering to himself, Optimus came out the door.

"I heard you talking. This creature...I have read human stories about a mystical beast called a 'chimera' that had a lioness' body, a goat head attached to its back, and a serpent's tail. The term has since been applied to anything that would be consider a mix of two or more creature, but I have read no records of one with that particular description."

"Perhaps the most prudent course of action would be to transport it here for study." Ratchet suggested.

June cast a dubious eyebrow at him. "It went so well the last time you did medic work on a organic?"

Ratchet sneered, "I'll have you know that I've been practicing organic surgery on test dummies! If you didn't want my help, why did you call me?" He huffed and retreated into the room. Optimus Prime watched him go.

"June, I believe Ratchet is more sensitive about the incident with Rafael than you realize. I would ask you refrain from mentioning it." Optimus requested politely.

June put a hand to her head, "I'm...sorry, it's just...the kids, being with you like this...It makes a mother worry."

Optimus closed his eyes and nodded, "Understood. Nevertheless, I would hope you'd honor my request. You said you wanted Agent Fowler for something?"

---

June and the overweight black male dressed in a government suit known as Agent Fowler made their through the hospital halls to where the creature had been hidden. Upon arrival, Fowler gasped at it.

"Whoo! Well...I can see why you'd want to keep a secret." The Agent remarked.

"All right, you guard the door. I'll get to work on fixing it." June ordered. Fowler seemed rather OK with being the one given orders, considering how he was pretending for something to be a government secret in order to keep a secret from the government, which probably would get him in big trouble if his employer find out. He did leer at June a bit though.

"Are you...sure you should be fixing it?"

June looked at him angrily, "Maybe, maybe not. But I'm a nurse, and that I means I have to protect life."

Fowler shrugged, "If you're sure..." he exited the room, leaving the door slightly ajar in case of the need to communicate.

---

Optimus and Bulkhead observed as Ratchet brutally cut up one of the aforementioned practice dummies with his arm blade.

"Eh...Doc-bot, you all right? I seen you 'perform' on these things before, but you seem like you're just hacking at it now." Bulkhead asked with a concerned figure gesture.

"Fine, fine...Just...frustrated, is all." The medic assured them. He converted his blade-arm back to a normal hand, (Well, normal for Autobots.) and went over to the main computer. "Perhaps some amusing events on the monitor will cool my engine block..."

The Autobots were mostly silent while Ratchet worked.

"That's strange..."

"What? What is it?" Bulkhead snapped.

"I'm detecting a very strong signal from concentrated Energon, almost like a...bomb."

"The Decepticons?" Optimus asked.

"Seems likely, but why would they use so much Energon? Unless..." Ratchet speculated.

"They found a way to make sure it payed off! Probably found a huge deposit of Energon they intend to blow!" Bulkhead added with a bang of fists.

Ratchet turned to Optimus, who nodded.

"Autobots... Roll out!"

---

Megatron pushed the communications button on the Nemesis' main control panel. "Knock Out! Have the Autobots arrived?"

"Ehh, not yet, Lord Megatron, but rest assured, when they do, they'll have a very warm welcome."

Megatron cut off the contact.

"Lord Megatron..." Airachnid approached warily, skittering down the control bridge slowly. Megatron turned to show she had his attention.

"I was recently informed that an Equestrian snuck aboard on ship...Discord, was it?"

"I'm sorry, Airachnid. Is this particular kind of information something you feel you should be kept informed of?"

Airachnid shook her head, "No. No...But, a strange thought occurred to me. Discord is the Equestrian Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, yes?"

"Yes." Megatron answered with boredom.

"And you...you have Dark Energon, the crystallized and fossilized Blood of Unicron embedded in your Spark, yes?"

"Yes." Megatron repeated.

"Unicron...the Chaos-bringer."

"...Yeeeeeesss." Megatron drawled. "Are you implying something, Airachnid?"

"That maybe Discord's stowing away isn't a mere coincidence." Airachnid explained with a jerk of her head.

Megatron grunted. "An amusing theory, Airachnid... but not one I will be pursuing."

Airachnid bowed. "All right, then...I think you're missing a valuable opportunity, however."

---

Knock Out and Soundwave adjusted a device of moderate size within a the epicenter of a crater's lower half.

"Hmmm...Poor Autobots, ready to fall into a trap like this! At least they can take solace in the face they gave us the large supply of Energon buried here with their last breaths."

Soundwave leered.

"Yes, yes, I know we don't 'breathe'!"

ROOOOOOM!

"Ahh! The guests of honor have arrived!" Knock Out observed before transforming and driving off.

Optimus Prime, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee drove off the crater's edge and transformed as they landed in the bottom half, where Soundwave was waiting.

"Soundwave? Here? Alone?" Bulkhead questioned.

"Be cautious. It is quite likely that this is a trap." Optimus advised.

Bumblebee noticed Knock Out driving away and converted to vehicle mode to speed after him.

Bulkhead charged at Soundwave with a raised mace which Soundwave's tentacle caught mid-throw. The tentacle shook Bulkhead's arm a bit before batting him aside. More tentacles spouted out of Soundwave's back and supported the Decepticon, suspending him in the air. Spare tentacles not supporting the 'Con rose up and started striking Bulkhead and Prime both.

Knock Out transformed back into robot mode and leapt onto the crater's 'walls', unknowingly with Bumblebee behind, having followed suit.

"Urg! Huk! Gyaah!" Optimus yelped, using his blades to defend himself from Soundwave's assault. In a moment's brief reprieve, Optimus could look on to see Soundwave's unique fighting pose.

Bulkhead had to defend himself extra hard now, at the tentacles that had targeting Optimus had now joined the ones attacking him. Soundwave pressed his advantage, walking on his tentacle supports like insect legs...until a well-place shot from Optimus' Ion Blaster cut them all down, sending the Decepticon crashing. Bulkhead prepped his mace again and began running, intending to bring the metal sphere in on Soundwave's vital organs. The blue Decepticon recovered and back flipped himself upright , sending Bulkhead's mace to pound on empty dirt. Soundwave jumped and transformed to his vehicle mode, jetting off to leave the Autobots to their fate.

"Come back here and fight, scaredy-cat!" Bulkhead shouted. Optimus brought his attention to the ledge of the crater.

"Wish the whole gang was here, but oh well!" Knock Out lamented, "It's been fun!" He reached to get the bomb's remote detonator...which he didn't have on him. Did Soundwave take it?

Knock Out felt someone tapping his shoulder and turned to see Bumblebee, who had somehow swiped the remote from him. Bumblebee proceeded to punch him in the face, sending tumbling down the 'wall' and back into the crater's bottom, the impact leaving him unconscious.

"Excellent work, Bumblebee!" Optimus shouted. The scout scraped his foot and waved his hand in an 'awww, shucks...' manner. Beeeep!

"We should be able to defuse the bomb safely..." Optimus remarked, examining the device.

Bumblebee slid back down and looked at Bulkhead.

"You know...there's not a human for miles...the crater is about the bomb's range...and there's lots of Energon buried here." Bulkhead elaborated.

Optimus 'hmm'ed.

---

Aboard the Nemesis, Megatron reprimanded Knock Out for botching up the trap and giving the Autobots such a huge stock of Energon by tearing off his head fin.

A nurse walked in the hospital halls, clipboard in hand, stopping suddenly when she saw a black man guarding a room.

"Um, excuse me, sir?..Visiting hours haven't arrived yet." She attempted to inform him.

The black man reached into his shirt's pocket and pulled out a badge. "Special Agent William Fowler. I'm here guarding this room, the patient of which is a person of interest." He told her.

The nurse mumbled 'OK' and resumed her walk.

Within the room, June took a wipe to the last burned spot of the creature, finally making it clean. She pouted at it, as it had showed no change in condition.

Beep...beep...beep. Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep.

June gasped and opened the door, motioning Fowler to come in. "His heart rate is increasing!"

"That's good, right?" The agent inquired.

The creature groaned, earning an excited squee from June. It raised a talon to its snout and yawned. Slowly, it opened its eyes, revealing them to be bright yellow with red irises.

"Oh...hello. Who-" It yawned again, "Who are you ponies?"

"Ponies? We're humans! People!" Fowler barked.

"This is Special Agent William Fowler." June said, holding the agent back before he could agitate the patient. "And I'm Nurse June Darby. My son, Jack and his friend Sierra found you on the side of the road, barely alive. We brought you here and nursed you back to health." She smiled warmly. "What's your name?"

The creature blinked, put a paw to it's muzzle, and observed June before smirking haughtily and answering.

"I'm Discord."