Transformed

by the flying spaghetti monster

Chapter 16: Live To Fly, Fly To Live

Chapter 16: Live To Fly, Fly To Live



Ravage’s conscious mind was shut down in the dream world. Losing consciousness due to sleeping was something new in his experience, as Decepticon brains typically work twenty-four-seven. Only during significant repairs or upgrades do Transformers get deactivated. Other than his recent sleeping experiences and the spark transfer to his current pony body, the panther bot’s last deactivation was four million years in duration when the warring Autobots and Decepticons crash-landed on Earth.

Tonight, he would allow his neural tissue to repair itself the old way, without any aid from his computerized systems. This is one of the biological processes that happen when flesh creatures sleep. But the repair period would not continue without disruption.

He was floating in space, unmoving. Debris and dead Transformers all around him. All had cracked body shells in various stages of dismemberment. He knew their faces, friend and foe. There were humans too, also having faced the same fate. He recognized their planet from its ice caps, split in two. Earth’s molten core was exposed, still glowing from its formation four and a half billion years ago. Adjacent to the Earth was Cybertron, torn apart. In the middle of it all lay the moon, intact and unspoiled.

He could not speak, as he tried to cry out to his comrades.

He could not hear. Only the static of the microwave background of the cosmos accompanied the gruesome scene. No radio talk. The static faded to silence.

His own circuits started failing. Large swaths of his vision became a pixelated mess. Colour gave way to monochromatic, then the lighter shades darkened, becoming blacker and blacker until nothing remained.

He could not see.

His senses suddenly returned as a great flash gave way to a very concerned creature. The strange thing, dark blue in colour, stood on four limbs and had a star map float around its face like it were an image on a flag.

“Ravage, you’ve been poisoned!” it shrieked. “I’m sending help right away, so whatever happens, keep calm.”

The alien pressed its mouth parts to his forehead before going way.

His eyes opened. He could feel Fluttershy’s forelegs on him.

Yet he saw nothing.

He tried moving his head, looking for anything lit up by the moonlight. It was black in every direction.

He could feel his own breathing, his lungs pulsing air in out. He could feel the rush of air on his palate and tongue. They were dry.

His computer core was completely isolated. He could not sense any communication ports. The urge to consult the Battle Computer was strong, but it just wasn’t there for use. Where did it go?

Luna showed up. Of course, she did. No error message accompanied the unauthorized port use, but that is what happened when he tried to sleep like a flesh creature.

He sat up. Still no eyesight. No access to his infrared system. Startled at the multiple failures, he kicked the bedpost.

Something was off. He could feel the bedpost, certainly. But he did not hear anything.

He could feel Fluttershy’s hooves tapping him; gently at first, then more urgently.

When he asked - tried to ask - what was going on, the words did not come out.

He tried yelling, in asking what was going on. Nothing came out.

He could feel Fluttershy’s panicked breath on his face. Her scent was well recognized.

His breathing became abnormally fast as fear set in. He could not tell the gamma laser to locate a target, to find what was doing this to him and kill it. He could not order an air strike. He could not sense his own rear-mounted weapons, let alone do an ammunition count. And throughout it all, his sense of touch was fully operational.

He had become nothing, a consciousness trapped inside an abyss of flesh.

He rolled off the bed in a vane attempt to assume a fighting stance, his legs painfully knocking against several objects. Managing mobility, his face banged into what felt like a wooden object at walking speed. The vibrations of little objects could be felt as they hit the floor.

He felt his surroundings with his hooves, looking for the door. Fluttershy grabbed hold of them, trying to keep them on the floor.

Adjacent to him, the door opened. He could tell by the slightly lower temperature and scent of the house air that rushed in.

Fluttershy tried to push her tail into his mouth. After resisting for a moment, he figured out what she was trying to do and accepted the tail, biting down hard.

Slowly, carefully he walked behind his ally. A few bumps on the door frame were expected and mitigated. Thanks to his cerebellum, navigating the stairs was second nature.

They walked outside. He could feel the hooves of the other pegasus mares on his withers guiding him, accompanied by the air gusts of their wingbeats as he followed behind Fluttershy. His gait was sometimes aided by the unicorn mares levitating magic, preventing him from tripping over rocks, roots, and other hazards.

He was completely helpless, completely dependent. Twenty minutes of this agonizing disability rented his mental state, until they passed into another building. The smell of pulp and paper dominated the air. But then the smell of – soap?

Fluttershy pulled her tail from his mouth. She guided him into a bath.

Wait, a bath? Is this what happens when ponies don’t bathe? Magic is bizarre.

Pushing hard on his head, she willed him to submerge. The water was pleasantly warm.

She removed her hoof almost as soon as she pushed him under. It was probably time to come up for air, so he did. ALL of his systems, organic and computerized, came online at the same time.

His breathing was still elevated, as error messages rained down on his superimposed vision. Fatal errors from multiple system buses and CPUs matched the number of unsuccessful reboots. He willed the messages away, as he needed to address the ponies in front of him. ‘You okay’, ‘You alright’, among other questions, were asked simultaneously by all six Elements of Harmony, as well as the rest of his escort. He turned to Fluttershy, slowly. “What. Just happened.”

Fluttershy opened her mouth when Twilight interrupted. “Aster said you wallowed into a field of poison joke. I don’t know why she didn’t tell Princess Luna as soon as she saw…”

“Poison WHAT?” he demanded to know, his anger rising. Did a pony poison him with ‘joke’? Was that a spell? He jumped out of the bath. An exclusion zone lacking ponies widened around him, startled by his temper. All he had left to do was find out who he had to kill.

“Aster said you walked into a field of poison joke, darling,” Rarity repeated, her lady voice calm and collected. “The bath contains the ingredients for the cure.”

She must be referring to that field of blue flowers with the enormous black matter absorption! That’s the last time he saw Aster. She had a smug look on her face, she knew this was going to happen!

“When I encountered poison joke, it made my horn flimsy,” Twilight described, trying to defuse Ravage’s anger. “And inoperative!”

Twilight’s magic was blocked! Quite the powerful effect, he noticed.

“It gave me a stallion’s voice!” Fluttershy said.

Ravage didn’t want to believe this. “Really? You?” The most effeminate pony, sounding like him? Very strange.

“It shrunk me down to smaller than a baby foal, and left Rainbow Dash uncoordinated,” Applejack added, ignoring Rainbow’s huffy protest.

The Decepticon stallion was getting the picture. “I see. Very dangerous.” He decided to take Aster off the Revenge roster and add her to the ‘Treat Poorly’ roster. This was going to happen whether she was there or not.

Twilight continued. “Luna warned me in my dreams last night, so I got up early and made the bath. I kept Zecora’s ingredients around from the last time this happened to us.”

“And I told Cloudchaser what was going to happen,” Spike chimed in. “Right around the time you were waking up.”

Without their clear thinking and actions, this could have gone on for hours – days even! What if he had successfully remained anonymous and continued to explore the planet himself? He’d rather not think about it.

And then, Pinkie Pie sounded off. “That poison joke is sure good at playing pranks!” she marveled, bouncing straight into the air like gravity didn’t exist.

Ravage had trouble processing this. “Are you suggesting that the poison joke, those blue flowers in the Everfree meadow, wanted to do these things to you mares? And to me?”

“Well duh! It’s just looking for a good laugh. I mean, we’re all fine now, right?” Her good cheer dulled when she noticed Ravage skulked right next to her, and he wasn’t happy.

“So,” Ravage began, barely containing the newfound rage that was welling up inside of him. In his long life, he had never felt more disconnected. “It thought that was funny.”

Pinkie realized her mistake when Ravage suddenly transformed into robot mode.

Rainbow Dash tried to intervene. “Hold on, big guy. Take a chill pill. Next time…”

Her consolation was cut off when Ravage ignited his jet engines, instantly taking off, and knocking the Pinkie and Dash over with the exhaust blast. He slammed through the circular skylight like it was made of paper, headed in the direction of his ship.

Twilight grabbed hold of Fluttershy. “We have to stop whatever he’s doing!” she yelled, and the pair of them teleported away.

… And they reappeared at Sweet Apple Acres. The Decepticon vessel launched itself without its pilot, spinning around to point at the Everfree. “How is it doing that?” the astonished alicorn wondered.

Yelling over the steadily powering up engines, “Ravage’s ship is sentient!” Fluttershy explained, having discussed its apparent autonomy with the other girls.

The spaceship’s gate lowered, receiving the Decepticon that sped toward it.

“Go!” Twilight implored, giving her yellow friend a hard push in the gate’s direction.

The Element of Kindness needed only to think of the damage done to Canterlot to motivate her to gun it to the closing gate. Adjusting her flight pattern, she made a hook shaped maneuver around the gate just in time, only to wipe out on the floor of the moving war vessel.

Ravage obtained the exact coordinates of the poison joke field using the Battle Computer and started his ship’s climb to one-thousand meters. He intended to strafe the area with the main guns, and then decide whether to use incendiaries. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice yell.

“Stop!” Fluttershy was out of breath from flying so hard. “If you’re doing what I think you’re doing,” she said between laboured breaths, “You need to stop.”

“The poison joke must be destroyed!” he replied angrily. Pre-emptively covering her mouth as she was about to respond, “It has afflicted your people and mine.”

The pegasus mare tore her mouth away from his hand. “That doesn’t give you the right to kill!”

“I don’t require your permission.” He started his descent, accelerating to attack speed. “Don’t you ponies defend yourselves from threats?”

The strafing path where his bolts would impact the meadow appeared on the main screen. A well concealed door on the control console opened, and from the enclosure a yoke with manual controls extended itself up with servo motors. He guided his ship in and was about to fire when Fluttershy jumped right onto the control console, blocking the yoke, and causing the engines to complain and the ship to lurch. “No, Ravage!”

Obviously, he missed his attack run and had to start again. He picked her up like a cat and dropped her on the floor. She responded by getting right back on the console and blocking the yoke again. He picked her up again and threw her off, discarding her like an apple core into the bushes, but she flew right back on. Ravage repeated this but the obstinate pegasus kept covering the controls before Ravage had a chance to fire.

“Get off!” the angry Decepticon commanded, pointing in a direction away from the console.

“No!” she fumed. “The poison joke is part of an ecological system, both biological and magical.”

And magical? This was unexpected. He didn’t believe those ridiculous little flowers had a profound effect on the overall health of the forest, but he saw their enormous magical power.

“Magical...” he mused. The experiment he had in mind was to characterize black matter particle sizes using energon sieves and Scootaloo. He was intent on going into the Everfree with her to find a suitable stream. Perhaps he didn’t need to. Why waste time trying to set up on a stream which may be unstable, and in a place that ponies almost unilaterally didn’t want to go, when the streams’ common destination can be brought right into the lab?

Fluttershy saw the internal battle Ravage was having and pushed her advantage. “Yes, all magical systems, from flying pegasi and Earth pony strength to the poison joke and mirror pools are connected,” she lectured. “Uh, but Twilight is the best pony to ask about it. Should I ask her to continue your magical lessons? You and Princess Celestia have made up, after all.”

Celestia was his enemy, and Fluttershy’s impossibly positive attitude riled the Decepticon. Had he been in his stallion mode he surely would have vomited. “And by standing by and doing nothing, that sickly little plant will terrorize more ponies. Are you okay with that?” he challenged.

She had to think on this for a bit. “No,” she admitted. “But I can accept it, if it means keeping the balance of nature.”

“Balance!?” Now it was Ravage’s turn. “I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but ‘Nature’, as you call it, is out to kill you, me, and everybody and everything that ever lived.” The opposing mare was confused. “Nature is a meat grinder, and by wanting to continue to exist, we are against it. And I would be grateful if you would get out of my way, so I can kick Nature in the teeth.”

He wasn’t going to shoot. It may be useful, and entertaining, to try and extract more of Fluttershy’s reasoning. For now, he was deciding whether to send his one and only autoscout to the surface. Those things have a habit of being very curious, and hence, a habit of getting blown up when you look the other way.

The emotionally spent mare sighed. “I know we have differing philosophies on life, but please don’t ruin those flowers. I know they hurt you. It was cruel. But can I ask you to follow my philosophy on life as long as you’re in Equestria?”

Ravage crossed his arms. “That’s a big ask.”

“Please?” She used the puppy-eyes technique, playing to the stallion hiding behind all that armor and weaponry.

On the port side of the ship, unbeknownst to Fluttershy, a metal wafer ejected. Instead of falling to the ground, it gently floated down in controlled fashion. Upon contact with the poison joke, the autoscout transformed the old way, changing from a wafer to a crawling robot in five distinct phases. Following Ravage’s wireless instructions, it began collecting the pollen.

“If a large dragon swooped in, ate one of your friends, and flew away, would you kill it?” the Decepticon stallion challenged. His pegasus mare friend looked shocked that he would even say such a thing. “The dragon is doing nothing wrong. Recycling bodies is Nature’s way.”

Fluttershy didn’t like this question, but he had not destroyed the poison joke yet. She had to keep working hard! “As long as our civilization remains intact, we should be able to handle any dragons that come along before they can harm any ponies.” She managed to shoo one away in the recent past. It was the day she revealed her assertive side.

A cruel smile etched itself on Ravage’s face. “A good dodge, but you didn’t answer the question,” he pointed out, even raising his finger. “The correct answer is kill the dragon!” He started a slow pace. “You get to prevent more of your friends getting eaten, and you’ll satisfy Nature’s insatiable hunger for death, even providing a food source for all the scavengers, flies, bacteria, and fungus that would feast upon the fetid lump of meat.” He turned around, slowly pacing away from her. “It’s a win-win situation, don’t you agree?”

The gentle pegasus had become sullen. This was a conversation she never expected she’d have, not even with griffons. Of course she’d thought about this before! She opted to use her ability to communicate with animals to mitigate or outright prevent natural enemies from killing and eating each other, but it only affected her dwelling and yard. She hoped one day to establish a larger space, a sanctuary where animals would never prey on one another.

Was it the right thing to do? None of Ravage’s points were wrong. The very concept of imposing an area where dulling creatures’ natural tendencies to hunt and kill was against Nature, very much so, but this didn’t mean she’d stop doing it. She liked to talk to Harry the bear, and all the otters and cute little mice and birds and dragonflies. Conclusively, her animal magic was against Nature, even though she considered herself a defender of Nature. Nevertheless, she now had an answer.

“I’d kill it.”

The Decepticon warrior turned to her, surprised.

“Dragons are intelligent enough to have their own culture. They know better than to kill individuals from other civilizations, so dragons know when they’re doing wrong,” she explained. “What you are trying to do is obliterate an entire species!”

“You think that poison joke grows only in the meadow below?” the Decepticon queried. “I find that highly unlikely.”

“There is no record of them anywhere else. Please leave them alone,” she retorted with conviction.

Ravage felt very satisfied with this conversation. Not only did he obtain a tool for his magic to energon research, but he learned critical details about the ponies themselves, assuming Fluttershy was at the extreme end of pony passivity. Under their coiffed manes and tails, huge eyes, and prancing lurked a real killer. It made him sad he would never see it in action before he left. “Let me have the controls. I promise I won’t attack the poison joke.”

Fluttershy backed down slowly. As uncomfortable as that conversation was, he could have thrown her out of his ship if he wanted to, or worse. Instead, he calmly debated. Now looked like as good a time as any to see if he could uphold her trust in him.

Soon after they landed, the Decepticon ship’s gate closed right after Fluttershy and Ravage disembarked.

The usually alert pegasus mare felt as if she’d just spent the morning painting the house, but it wasn’t even eight o’clock. Something so basic as ‘live and let live’ was apparently forgotten by advanced civilizations, and it didn’t make her pine for adventure. If fact, she wished she could be with her animal friends for the rest of the day, feeding them, and talking to them. Had Mrs. Mole’s left leg healed yet? Was Gertrude the hen still being pecked at by her older coop-mates? There was so much she had to catch up on. Yet, for the past two weeks, she had opted to pursue the attractive stallion walking beside her. Forget for the moment that he was male, which had its own libraries of books written about how to approach and handle, he was an alien! Relationships were a lot of work, but this – this was project work, lifelong project work! Saturday’s date would be the litmus test and she was looking forward to relaxing with Ravage instead of working on their budding relationship.

Ravage was awake and contemplative, performing calculations for an experiment with which to test the poison joke pollen. He was also figuring out what to do about Celestia’s eye and would probably have to bring a medicroid to examine it. The condition of the retina will determine what could be done. Notwithstanding, he had a bothersome pegasus mare come and spoil his morning revenge. He wasn’t happy about being prevented from making a pool of fire where the poison slag once grew. What made him more unhappy was that if it were not for Fluttershy’s intervention, he might have run a lame experiment and come back to Cybertron with nothing. ‘I spent two weeks with the ponies and left,’ would be all he would have to say for himself. But what would make this all better? Cadance’s death! Saturday’s date would be a day of reckoning. It would see the end of Cadance, and it would soon see the end of cavorting with these grotesque little flesh creatures.

The autoscout was assigned to clear twenty percent of the poison joke field of pollen, or accumulate one gram, whichever came first. It would take at least the rest of the morning to finish its task, after which it was instructed to transform and lie still until Ravage came for it.

=^.^=

Twilight’s dragon slave, Spike, had made breakfast for everybody. The guests included Ravage’s escort ponies, the Elements of Interference, Spike, and himself. Scootaloo was imprisoned in a facility called ‘school’.

The food consisted of liquified sugar, which one poured on discs of carbohydrate, a white substance of high fat content, strawberries, and blueberries. How ponies managed to avoid clogging their coronary arteries by age thirty was a mystery, and it was not apparent in the genetic code from which Ravage’s current pony tissue was created. More was known about black holes and quasars than pony metabolism. And yet, every bite of these ‘pancakes’ tasted sensational. Focusing on eating temporarily shielded him from the din of talking mares. Their chirping was so annoying that it could be used as a weapon, doubly because of the hardwood walls.

With food entering her belly, Fluttershy destressed quite a bit. It was still early morning, but she needed to get some chores done, her animal care in particular. The thought of Ravage helping her pour feed out of a bag got her heart beating faster. She reflected on his time here, trying to figure out what underpinned her infatuation for him. A filly would fall for his brains, brawn, and dashing good looks. What was beyond?

A duplicitous Decepticon lay within. He knew nothing of pony culture, in spite of his spying. Fluttershy granted his destructive escapades with Princess Celestia and Princess Cadance, all because Cadance chose to ignore Twilight’s legal counsel. The only other incident where he was about to dispense wrath was upon the Poison Joke bed. If there was another patch of the same flowers anywhere on the planet, she would have not opposed him. What the Poison Joke did was indescribably cruel.

The meek pegasus chewed her pancakes at a slow pace. Where was the good in him? Fluttershy felt very comfortable that her animals liked him. Angel didn’t but that was par for the course.

He liked foals. Say what you will about him giving a screaming filly his ice cream to quiet her up, but the tolerance he gave foals could not be ignored. Exhibit A: Scootaloo. She proclaimed hatred for him, and it bounced off like so much rubbish. Yet, by the end of the evening, he had earned her trust. Scootaloo now regarded Ravage as a friend.

Fluttershy scooped up the last of her whipped cream covered blueberries and savoured the last bite. What was his end game? Leave? ‘Yup, there’s magic here’ was a very short report for all his effort. He was definitely interested in learning it, but why learn something you don’t need and can never use? The Decepticons couldn’t possibly use magic against the ponies or any other creature, could they?

Would he stay? This was the outcome Fluttershy hoped for. Her liaison with Ravage was stronger than ever and would keep getting stronger. She just wanted to be with him, weapons, armor, and all. He never objected to her proclivities, and even cuddled with her.

She blushed at her next thought.

Would he make a good father?

She really could see him playing with his foals, teaching them, and protecting them and it made her blush even more. His friendship with Scootaloo suggested that he would win the love and trust of his children.

He wouldn’t shy away from being a disciplinarian either. Only about half of her Element friends had it in them to do this difficult task.

Fluttershy never thought of having a family before Ravage came along. Settling would be within the realm of possibility if it were not for one issue.

“Megatron,” she whispered unbidden. She looked over to Ravage and saw something she’d never seen his face express: fear. In turn, Fluttershy showed fear. If Megatron was indeed his Princess, she must be more like Nightmare Moon.

“Hey,” said Cloudchaser, noticing Ravage’s change of attitude, tapping his shoulder with her left hoof. “You alright? That poison joke spell was pretty bad.”

“I have fully recovered.” He didn’t even look at her.

The conversation volume started to die down as Ravage finally began to speak.

The Wonderbolt reservist wanted to know more about Ravage and was content to draw out any information anyway she could. “You don’t seem too happy about it. If it were me, I’d be ecstatic. I’d talk about it for days.”

“Rest assured, the poison joke meadow will be available to curse somebody another day,” he replied. His librarian host didn’t look pleased. “Oh, and good breakfast.”

“Thanks!” Spike replied.

Twilight was restless. “Ravage, remember, you’re supposed to follow the laws of Equestria.”

“I have broken none.”

“What about my window?” she retorted. “I fixed it with magic, but not all ponies can do that.”

“I overheard you complaining that Rainbow Dash had broken it three times this year,” he countered. The Princess of Friendship was getting flustered. “Was she breaking the law?”

“He’s got ya there, Twilight!” Spike intervened.

“In fact, she was!” The irate princess needed to control her anger and promote friendship between ponies and Decepticons. But Twilight had her eye on the spunky pegasus for some time, and she had recently become her lover, what was she supposed to do?

“No consequences then.” Ravage continued eating the delicious pancakes.

“If you damage somepony’s property, you are expected to repair it to the condition it was originally in, or pay for it, and you have to do this in a timely manner,” she lectured.

“You repaired the damage inflicted by Rainbow Dash and myself. Thank you, Twilight,” he replied with a nod. He went back to eating.

“Yeah, thanks Twilight,” Rainbow added before scarfing down more pancakes.

The mage grumbled at the pathetic scraps of gratitude. Instead of pursuing this irritating line of questioning, she decided it was time she addressed the other elephant in the room. “Winter.”

“That’s my name. Don’t wear it out,” she replied cheerfully, and looking good enough to make Rarity jealous.

“Keep your more explicit tendencies to yourself,” Twilight advised.

“Eeyup. I’ll keep ‘er closed up till Friday.”

The Friendship Princess knew it would not be that easy. “That’s not the only thing. I heard you were licking up blood from your fur,” she described, shuddering at the thought. “Couldn’t you just ask to use the shower?”

“What shower?” the unicorn teased, enjoying Twilight’s reaction. “We did eventually use Ravage’s hot tub to clean up.”

“Twilight,” Applejack interrupted, “Ah’ think we oughta debrief after breakfast. Just let us eat first.”

A crescendo of feminine voices indicated strong agreement with the Element of Honesty.

“I just can’t get that blood image out of my head,” the mage complained, looking stressed. She had barely touched her pancakes.

“Hmm… Can I entertain everypony with a story?” Winter asked, specifically looking at Applejack. “I promise, it’ll be short.”

Applejack gave her the go-ahead gesture with her foreleg. Twilight settled down, as did the other ponies.

“Once upon a time, there was unicorn filly. She loved to hang glide off the cliffs of the northern escarpment, conveniently located near her home village of Maelstrom,” she explained, selling the story like a professional.

“That’s in the arctic!” Rarity realized.

Winter continued. “One morning, the sky was clear and the north wind blew strong. A perfect day for flying. So she flew! And she flew high! Keeping the cardinal rule of ‘Never lose sight of the village’ in mind, she glided further and further south, however, she made the mistake of changing the cardinal rule to “Never lose sight of the mountains that conceal the village.”

“Uh oh.” Twilight knew what was going to happen.

“With the mountains at her back, the wind betrayed her, and she came down hard. It was then that she realized her mistake.”

“How did you get back?” Flitter queried.

“By trudging through the snow until I made it home. There’s no roads up there.”

The mares were disturbed. South of the mountains? That must be so far!

“Sixty miles,” Winter estimated. “Give or take.”

“How did you survive that?” a curious Applejack asked.

Winter’s horn glowed. “Let me show you.”

In a flash of light, her snout became longer, and full of whiskers! Her pony comrades were very disturbed by such a long nose on a mare.

The clever unicorn wiggled her new whiskers. “One of the first spells taught to filly unicorns up north is this one. And these work, in case you were wondering. In fact…” she turned her whiskered muzzle up, and turned her head slowly from left to right, as if to probe the library. “Rarity, there’s a mouse behind your bag.”

“Alright, Winter, I’ll humour you,” the seamstress mocked. She levitated her fancy bag off the floor. “You see? Nothing!” While her bag was still floating, a mouse jumped out the side and scurried under the door, escaping outside. Rarity yelped, dropping the sack on the floor.

“Astounding!” Ravage uttered, joining similar replies from the ponies. He knew that the quicker he figured out how to turn magic into energon, the better off he would be. Winter didn’t just change her appearance, she added functionality.

“I knew she could do that,” Pearl Bliss commented, being the only unimpressed mare in the room.

“I didn’t,” Saffron admitted.

“You didn’t actually,” Fluttershy gulped, “Hunt mice. Did you?”

In a flash, Winter’s modified muzzle returned to normal. “That’s how I survived. All I had to do was learn how to hop ‘n pounce. Believe me, I had lost a few pounds by the time I got home. I’d rather not go through that again.”

Twilight suspected that Winter had the potential to be a powerful sorceress, if she wasn’t one already. That lewd unicorn and Ravage hid their abilities very well; she works at a Mini-golf shop! If those two ever started working together, trouble would not be far behind.

“The point being, Twilight, you need to spill a little blood from time to time, especially where survival is concerned.” Winter braced herself for the rebuttal, but she took the Princess’ beginning to eat her pancakes to be a good sign.

If fact, Twilight didn’t say anything. She voraciously ate her pancakes and caught up with the other ponies.

Soon after, was the debriefing. Every mundane thing they did yesterday was painstakingly written down by Twilight. She didn’t understand why the ‘three seashells’ was better than toilet paper and suggested that Ravage catch up with the Reunification era. She became concerned when some troublemaker called Discord had magically shown up to pester Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash became concerned at the mention of Lightning Dust.

Boring as that interval had been, Ravage was happy to have been treated better than Spike. The little dragon was at the Princess’ beck and call. He made food, took diction, and assisted the alicorn whenever she willed it, day and night.

He thought of himself in Spike’s place. Things would have looked very different, with much of the town burnt down, and the dragons relegated to public enemy number one. Fortunately, his exit in just four days would take him away from this dangerous place.

The dragon was transfixed by the white unicorn, Rarity, glancing at her often. Could this lizard find a mammal appealing? How? The stallion bot understood that, with enough exposure, an individual surrounded by units not of his own design will inevitably succumb to their cultural norms. He would be unnaturally attracted to members not of his own species. Ravage’s spine grew cold when he realized that his situation is not so different from Spike’s – a single member of another civilization surrounded by mares! He found them repugnant, yet they piqued his curiosity. Would he eventually pay more attention to these females? They certainly didn’t smell repugnant. He was impressed at how fast they were, how powerful they were. How influential they were. Would the very curves of their bodies soon capture his eye?

Ravage transformed into robot mode.

“Whoah partner, it’s only after ten,” Applejack soothed, “Ya still got time before yer meetin’ with Princess Celestia.”

“We are finished with debriefing, are we not?” he reasoned. Though he would not normally do such lowly chores, he considered suggesting to Spike that they clean up.

Fluttershy sensed opportunity and got up. “My animals need attention. Ravage, can you help me feed them?”

A knock on the door drew everyone’s attention. Being the closest to the hail, Ravage decided to apply the simple cultural norm of answering the knock. Such a small thing should not affect his Decepticon identity.

Upon opening the door, he saw Scootaloo accompanied by a mulberry-coated mare who promptly shrieked at the sight of Ravage.

Scootaloo jumped onto his metal midsection and gave him a hug. “Hi Ravage!”

With the last member of his escort present, the Decepticon spy shut the door on the hysterical mare, bringing the still-clinging Scootaloo inside.

She hopped down to let her teacher in. “It’s okay, Miss Cheerilee. Ravage won’t hurt you. If you won’t let him.”

Cheerilee cautiously walked inside, never keeping her eyes off Ravage. “I don’t agree with what you are doing here, Twilight. Scootaloo should be in school, not gallivanting around with an enemy of Equestria.”

“Ravage is not our enemy,” Fluttershy protested, supported by many of the other mares.

The elementary teacher didn’t like anything that condoned taking children out of school. She turned toward Twilight. “And I don’t approve of sending the guards to ‘update me’.”

“My apologies, Cheerilee,” the Princess responded. “We are short on time. Did you bring the lesson plan?” Her flustered friend fished it out of a saddlebag with her mouth, and presented it to Twilight, who took it with her magic. “Thank you.”

After Princess Twilight glanced at it, noting the developmental levels of math, science, history, and other knowledge, she passed it onto Pearl Bliss. “Pearl, your teaching certificate is still valid, correct?”

The other girls started talking amongst themselves, waiting for the little pegasus’ education to be mapped out.

Ravage transformed back to pony mode. “It looks like you will not be missing school,” he said to Scootaloo. The noise from his transformation got a delayed glance from Cheerilee, who continued planning with Pearl and Twilight.

“Yeah, it was either this or catch up in my own time,” the filly lamented.

The stallion bot turned to Spike, who was standing around boredly when he wasn’t looking at Rarity. “Spike, apparently Twilight hatched you. At what age did she do this?”

“Age five!” he responded excitedly. “Her magical prowess caught Princess Celestia’s attention.”

He looked at Scootaloo, then back at Spike. The ponies were going through the trouble to continue a filly’s education even while she was on an alien starship. “Why aren’t you in school?”

“A just question,” Cheerilee interrupted, approaching their group with the details. She tried many times to get the Princess to allow Spike to go to school, but to no avail. Noticing Ravage’s stallion mode, which she’d prepared for, she couldn’t help but gawk a bit. “Are all Decepticons as attractive as you?”

“No.”

“Good. It would be unfortunate if our nation’s mares were snookered by phony ponies.”

He very much liked one less mare going after him. Perhaps she would spread the word and increase that number.

She turned to the child. “Scootaloo, Pearl will teach you, starting now. Ravage, could you hold off for forty-five minutes while she teaches the math lesson?”

“Fluttershy has already requested my assistance at her home,” he responded, enjoying throwing a wrench into the teacher’s plans.

Cheerilee sighed. “Fine, but you’ll eventually need to return to Pearl and the other girls.”

It seemed a sensible use of his time. He could go straight to the Celestial Sea to look for deuterium, but Princess Celestia had the power to withhold the metals from him. No metals, no reactor! “Alright, but we must board my ship at eleven forty-five.”

=^.^=


Scootaloo rushed out the front door with the other escort ponies rushing along with her. She had insisted on getting two subjects out of the way and had Twilight’s firm support for her work ethic. Only one more subject needed study, then the homework could begin. This extra work had pushed their exit time beyond eleven forty-five, but Ravage had flown his ship to meet them at the library.

Twilight sighed, still denied seeing the alien technology on the inside. “I guess I’ll prepare my ‘Science Needs More Love’ presentation,” she cracked. Really, the easiest way to convince ponies to embrace science was to get them to view the Decepticon warship up close and personal, especially since Decepticons were a non-magical species?

With the vehicle’s incredible speed, the Decepticon stallion was able to meet Princess Celestia at noon precisely, landing on their meeting cloud as the bell tolled.

“Greetings, Ravage. I’m glad to see you are a punctual stallion.”

Ravage was in robot mode. He did not respond. Whatever meaningless dross she had to say about pony culture would have to be tolerated until she relinquished the location of the metals. He had his satellites scanning the castle grounds but couldn’t find them.

Flitter and Fluttershy flew out of the ship, not certain if they needed to provide an escort by landing on the cloud.

“We need to be alone,” the Sun Princess declared. Her horn lit up, and the two disappeared in a flash.

Startled, Ravage went for his side arm only to realize they were in a room of unknown location. That was, unknown temporarily. His satellite network reconnected quickly, indicating he was moved to a place within the city, three point eight kilometers away from their initial meeting point.

“Your weapons, you will not need them,” she said.

He didn’t trust her, but put his gun in its holster which then mechanically inserted itself into his right leg. There were other ways of self-defense.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” she asked with a flourish of her great tail.

“Ask me your questions and give me my metals, so I can be on my way.”

The roughly L-shaped room they were in was larger than Ponyville’s library and was bisected into two areas. One had a bed, with cabinetry and plush curtains, which were closed. The other had coffee tables, couches and comfy chairs. An en suite was accessible from the bedroom side.

“How long are you here for?” she asked.

The Decepticon spy tried to guess what she would do with that knowledge. A short stay? Then he didn’t have to care about pony culture. A long stay? He could be forced to follow an educational curriculum like Scootaloo until he was an expert in pony culture. That could take years!

“Months to years,” he lied. If she knew he planned to make his escape on Saturday, and wanted him to stay for the long haul, his departure plans would surely be disrupted. “And what about your eye?”

“My lack of eyesight in the right socket can wait till then end of our meeting. Then I will provide you with the materials we agreed upon,” she answered promptly.

“Is that wise? Damage to your retina could be increasing as we speak. With my technology, I could prevent this, but this work is time sensitive.” The Decepticon stallion needed to get out of this room. He was so close to his enemy, he felt as if he were chained to her.

Celestia smiled and held her hoof to her heart. “Why Ravage, looking upon us now, you would never suspect we were fighting to the death a couple of days ago.”

Ravage lambasted himself internally. Now he had to try to fix the eye, not just examine it. But if he could get away on Saturday…

“My little ponies’ well-being comes before mine,” she continued. “Did you mention that you could be here for years?”

“Months to years,” he corrected, though both options were false.

“Could you,” she started, making circles with her right hoof, as if drawing on some invisible canvas in the air, “Could transform for me, please?”

“Why?”

“It would make me more comfortable,” she answered, observing no reaction from Ravage. “It would also make the meeting go faster.”

That last phrase got a reaction, as the stallion bot mulled over her request. Whatever trickery Celestia was planning, he couldn’t guess. She had poison joke on her side, and probably a great many other magical hazards.

Ravage had nuclear weapons.

Since he had the power of fusion, Ravage transformed into a stallion. His enemy’s eyes lit up and she smiled widely.

“Crossing the galaxy must be very time consuming,” she reasoned. “Therefore, I suspect Decepticons must live for longer than a century.”

“Correct.”

Celestia had to get Ravage to bring his guard down. He didn’t even want to talk to her. So far, the only tactic she had was to continue small talk. “And how old are you?”

“A great deal older than you.” This was a waste of time. Why was she asking trivial questions?

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” she offered.

The answer to that question would give her enough data on how to handle Transformers in general. He was the only one here though. After some internal debate, he decided to answer correctly. “Eight-million fifty-thousand four-hundred twenty-eight.”

If it weren’t for Celestia being so sturdy, she would have collapsed. “You must be joking…”

“No joke.”

The Princess was shaking her head in disbelief. “And I suppose your pony body is capable of lasting just as long.”

“It is.”

Celestia hadn’t yet noticed how low her jaw had dropped. She sat on her haunches, hoping to ease the burden of acceptance. Was she being punked? There was no way to verify if he was lying or not.

She’d witnessed the power of Decepticon metal first hoof. It felt as if Ravage and his ship had come from the same forge. The overwhelmed Princess was beginning to see how alien Decepticons really were. Ponies came from ponies. Decepticons and everything they built came from Cybertron.

Still, there was that stallion mode he used often. The Sun Princess had no hope of negotiating against somebody with literally eons of wisdom. But against somepony? She calmed down, and having discovered a potential chink in his armor, and a wry smile snaked its way onto her face.

“Is that all the questions you have?” he demanded.

Standing before her wasn’t just a stallion. Ravage was an immortal stallion. And how very stallion-like of him to appreciate foals the way he did. And so, Princess Celestia hatched a plan to reign in the destructive force that was Ravage.

The Decepticon warrior watched the alicorn mare carefully, ready to blow her to smithereens. She stepped out of her golden shoes. It reminded him of when Luna did that, and how she assumed she would just interface with him as if he were a real pony stallion. And off came the chest plate, and the crown. This was not good. “What are you doing?”

Celestia glanced sideways. “Do you know how to handle mares?”

“I avoid them whenever possible.”

“I’ll take that as a resounding ‘no’.” she responded, getting onto the bed and lying down on all fours. “Before you assume what happens next, let me assure you that is not my intent. Now, please come here,” she demanded, tapping the duvet beside her.

“The fabric is made of cotton. Have I passed your test?” The last thing the stallion bot wanted to do was gingerly touch his enemy. Disgusting!

“If you are not lying to me and you are here for years to decades,” she closed his jaw shut when he was about to protest, “Then you must learn about pony culture!” She released the jaw-lock, and he kept quiet. “You may speak as if you were born here, but language is not enough. It is culture that is the glue of civilization. Lesson zero is how to handle mares.”

“I decline.” He didn’t like his speech shut down like that, but Celestia had made known her preference for him to stay around for the long haul. Why didn’t she want him gone?

“Listen Ravage, if you plan on staying for a long time, I assure you that avoiding mares is impossible. They’re everywhere.” Her guest’s stoic demeanor remained unchanged, which she expected. “It is only a matter of time before one of them cajoles you into getting between her legs.”

“And I can assure you that will never happen,” he rebutted.

“Oh? I understand Flitter and Cloudchaser nearly succeeded.”

Ravage shuddered at the truthfulness of that statement. “I could have cast them aside in a moment’s notice.”

Celestia picked up on his lack of confidence. “And if you did the deed, as they so desperately wanted you to, are you aware of the consequences, one consequence in particular?”

“You underestimate me!” he came back with bluster.

“How many dates have you been on since you entered Equestria, not counting your forays with Fluttershy?”

He had to think about it. “One,” he answered simply.

“That’s all it takes to create new life. Are you prepared?”

“Are they?” he answered angrily.

“Probably not. Now, to be fair there are many kinds of contraceptives available. Nearly all of them are magical. I am going to assume those two pegasi prepared properly since they had a few days advance warning. But it won’t always be like that.” Her debate opponent was fuming, but the Princess knew these were the fumes of loss. He put on a good face, but she could tell. “Wasn’t there a third mare? Who was she?”

“Sugar Gem,” he answered, recalling her boasting about her exploits. The Sun Princess’ words helped steel his resolve to get out of Equestria as soon as possible.

“Ah, I know of her,” she remembered. “So, if she were to discover she was to become a mother carrying your child, would you go help her?”

Ravage stood there, stunned by such an absurd question.

“She lives in Vanhoover.”

The Decepticon warrior would NOT allow his body to be used to start new life. But Celestia was correct. They did get very close!

“She’s something of an adventurer and might request a Cybertronian name for your foal.”

No! This was not happening. In one week’s time he will be destroying Autobots!

“And after a day’s play and learning, your child will be snuggling you.”

Inconceivable!

“That’s the good part, the reward for all your hard work.”

“Through your lens of perception, fatherhood somehow suits me,” he came back. “That is utterly absurd.”

Celestia didn’t think so. With her points made, it was time to move onto the next phase. “Be that as it may, you still need to learn how to handle mares.” She tapped the duvet beside her, and he began to back off. The Princess would get Fluttershy to do it if she wasn’t convinced that pegasus mare was also trying to get Ravage between her legs. She’d likely chosen Saturday at the Baltimare Love Festival to strike. “I will give you a choice. Learn the art of mare handling with me, or we could go to an elementary school play.”

Ravage was rightly confused now. Those two choices have nothing to do with each other, unless visiting children was her aim. He wanted to learn about mare handling as much as he wanted a kick in the head from Optimus Prime. “I’ll take the foals,” he said plainly.

“A wise decision,” Celestia responded while getting up. She put her shoes, chest plate, and crown back on.

In a flash, Ravage was teleported to a location in the north end of the city, three-point-seven kilometers from the meeting point. The buildings were not unlike those in Ponyville.

In front of him stood a child’s prison, Cloven Hoof Elementary. The orange brick structure was only a single story that sprawled in cylindrical sections with pointed roofs. Worked into the masonry were several heart icons. There was a large wing attached that was greater than two stories high. The front yard consisted of shrubbery that hugged the exterior walls, and a lawn bisected by a cobblestone sidewalk that the stallion bot and Princess were crossing now. Windows, very wide but not very tall, lined the walls behind the tops of the plants. Satellites revealed that the building and front lawn were only about one-third of the school domain with a large field, comparable in size to one of the Apple family’s orchard sections, completing the rest.

From what the Decepticon gathered, its detainees were held from eight-thirty in the morning till three-thirty from Monday to Friday. The full training package consisted of the foals’ parents raising them at home combined with the training they received at school. Celestia was about to show him how they did it. The information could be useful.

The interior smelled of wood shavings and graphite primarily, but there were also smells from glue, crayons, and paint. Marble flooring complemented the stark white brick walls which featured bulletins and organized drawings from the foals. The drawings themselves displayed figures and structures warped beyond imagining but became better as Celestia and Ravage clopped down serpentine halls. Perhaps they were organized by age.

Upon the fourth turn in the hallway network was an opening to a great chamber. In it, was a stage with children on it, setting up displays. Some were dressed, which was completely against the social norm. Directional lights from the ceiling illuminated their workspace.

One of the handful of adults present bowed before Celestia, stopping the Princess and her interstellar guest in their tracks. “Forgive me, but is that not the enemy with you?”

The Matriarch’s appearance got the foals excited. Combined with Ravage’s appearance, they became confused.

“Ravage is under my protection,” the diarch answered. She really hoped that the foals’ practice had begun, but it seemed that setup was taking extra time.

A small brown colt approached the Decepticon. “You a bad pony!”

Ravage sneered and drew his head a little closer to the foal. “Yes, I am,” he confirmed.

A filly seven years older approached them, confused by what she saw. “Miss Peachtree says you attacked Princess Celestia in cold blood.”

“Well, I’m an endotherm, so...” Ravage was going to enjoy messing with these foals.

The filly harrumphed, crossing her forelegs and turning her head away in disgust. “Warm blood, icy heart.”

Ravage smiled, impressed at her efficient and imaginative response. Indeed, foals continued to surprise. Of course, they will eventually transform into adults. Boring, not worthy of his curiosity. “Defense protocols required that I neutralize Princess Celestia as soon as possible.”

All the foals had gathered around to see the exchange. Ravage had to defend himself from Celestia? That’s not what they heard! They’re supervising teacher was also surprised.

The Day Princess intervened. “Ravage speaks the truth. Know that our altercation was because of a misunderstanding.”

Princess Celestia protected the evil pony from outer space! Was it all a misunderstanding?

“Waita minute,” another young colt intervened. “If you’re from outta space, how come you look like us?”

“And speak like us,” said another filly.

“It’s another defense protocol,” Ravage explained. “Because the galaxy is so dangerous, my people can assume the form of nearly any object, or creature, in an effort to blend in.”

“Camouflage,” Miss Peachtree deduced. “Like a changeling.”

A silence hung in the room. Ravage was stunned at how quickly the temperature lowered. He didn’t know much about changelings, but he knew there was a recent war between them and the ponies. “I’m a Decepticon, not a changeling.”

“Aw come on!” the eldest filly mocked. She was a deep-blue-coated, pink-maned pegasus who’d seen fit to attach a metal ball to her lower lip, and more metal ornamentation in both of her ears. “He is just a stallion. Princess Celestia’s prankin’ us.” A large portion of the other children looked as if they had second guessed themselves. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she continued, looking assured.

Ravage enjoyed seeing how deceptive his pony mode really was.

The small brown colt was not dissuaded. “Mister Ravage, what you look like before you come to Equestria?”

Celestia just realized that the foals weren’t even aware Ravage had two forms. This could get interesting.

“All metal body,” he answered. “With a panther head.” He pointed he hoof at his head. “And bipedal.”

“Ugh,” the eldest intoned, smacking her hoof to her head in disbelief.

Miss Peachtree had accepted that their long-planned rehearsal was pretty much shot unless this guy left. Yet the Princess brought him here, for what reason the educator couldn’t guess. Time to put up the wall! “Ravage, I heard you changed into your metal form.” Disprove everything about him. Then they’d leave, and their rehearsal could continue as scheduled.

The eldest laughed. “I’ll go get my little sister’s kitty ears. They oughta make you look like a panther,” she mocked.

“I don’t need kitty ears,” he rebutted, looking at her calmly. He determined that the closer to adulthood the foals became, the more vexing their behavior.

“If you are unable to show anything,” Miss Peachtree addressed, “Then sit down, or leave. We have a lot of work to do here.”

“I do have something to show.” The stallion bot leaned in toward the brown colt. “You want to see my previous body?”

The colt’s eyes brightened up as he smiled broadly.

Was that whimsy, Celestia wondered? Her Decepticon guest looked as if he was about to pull a fast one when he asked the colt that question. Very stallion-like indeed!

With the whir and clatter of thousands of moving parts, Ravage’s body shifted and folded as he transformed into his robot mode. Dead silence and motionlessness gripped the ponies. There was not a trace of the stallion left!

The floor shook as Ravage took a few steps toward the eldest filly. “What do you think of me now?” he queried in his echoing robotic voice.

Her mouth moved but was unable to produce any words.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he continued, throwing her words back at her.

Peachtree shook herself out of her trance-like state. What became of his pony flesh? His fearsome metal panther-headed form completely replaced his other body.

The brown colt rushed up to Ravage. “Do that again!” he demanded with a hop, his eyes as wide as if he had been watching his first fireworks show.

The Decepticon transformed back into a stallion, looking every bit as complex. All other foals rushed to his vicinity, eager to glimpse the transformation.

How did you do that!? Can you do that again!? Even with all the amazing feats of magic the foals had seen, nothing prepared them for this.

Ravage assumed a braced stance. “Okay, watch carefully.” He looked eager, confident, as if he was about to kick the winning goal.

He transformed into robot mode. Sounds of awe and amazement rose up from the foals. Miss Peachtree also could not take her eyes off the spectacle.

Celestia didn’t tire of Ravage’s transformations either. What kind of life could survive such a thing?

He changed back. Do that again! Do that again! The children became more excited by the second at the new thing they found.

So he did, once again assuming his robot mode. “Had enough?” he challenged.

“Ravage?” a young filly intervened. “You gonna attack the castle again?”

“Of course!” he answered confidently. “I don’t intend to miss the five ‘o clock shelling,” causing the children to gasp. “I think I’ll use fireballs this time.”

“Protect the Princess!” “Protect Equestria!” and other calls to action were sounded by the kids as a good number of them rushed Ravage. Being not heavier than a pony stallion, they knocked him down. He was surprised at their fury, but soon realized they couldn’t do any real damage.

“I seem to have been knocked down,” he observed as he sat up, eight kids straining to keep him pinned down.

“Turn him to stone, Princess Celestia!” one cried. “Do it now!”

“Are you trying to provoke an air strike?” the stallion bot prodded. He looked toward Celestia, who was covering her mouth with her hoof in attempting to hide her enormous grin. He extended out his right arm, which had a pegasus colt trying to restrain his fingers. The other foals were tiring themselves out, as one would do if they were trying to crush a tree trunk.

“They would make a good decoration for your play,” Celestia propounded.

Peachtree wasn’t pleased. “Assuming we can have our rehearsal.” She tried to hide the venom, she really did. But some of it came out.

“Ravage? Why don’t we help with the setup? It would save them time and we could watch the rehearsal,” the Princess suggested.

The stallion bot scrutinized the pegasus foal as he slowly tested his fingers against the little colt’s strength. “Your logic is sound.” The other kids were sitting on him, mostly on his legs. An adventurous one found one of his jet motors to her liking, sitting on it comfortably.

“Why yes, of course you can help!” Miss Peachtree graciously accepted. An alicorn and alien helping them could get exciting!

Their otherworldly house guest didn’t disappoint. Using his jet motors, he repaired one of the directional lights that had been jamming up. Though he may have been an earth pony by nature, he wielded flight like a pegasus.

From a flame produced from one of his fingers, he repaired the steel frame of one of the props with a weld. He said the metal not being galvanized or stainless made the gases from the repair less toxic, but still demanded that the doors to the outside be opened while he did it. Princess Celestia could have done the same repair with a thought but was keen on seeing how an advanced civilization with no magic would do it.

The combined forces of the foals, Celestia and Ravage completed the setup in less than thirty minutes. Miss Peachtree was pleased, as the group still had time for a rehearsal.

Ravage approached her in his bipedal form, his gait uninterrupted when he flawlessly executed transforming into a stallion as he walked. Decepticons were very athletic, for lack of a better term. He sat on his haunches beside the educator, watching the foals start the rehearsal, and Celestia sat down on his other side. If it was one thing mares did well, it was ensuring that their stallions were surrounded on as many sides as possible.

The foals were re-enacting some sort of historical event. Miss Peachtree whispered details to him. It turned out that there was a lot of turmoil in pony history, before and after Nightmare Moon’s banishment.

It took about ninety minutes for the foals to finish a run-through of their play. Celestia thanked the children and directing adults of Cloven Hoof Elementary for their patience, before bidding them farewell.

The kids were sad to see the Princess and her guest go, and gave their heartfelt goodbyes to each of them, in equal measure. This included many hugs, which was confusing for Ravage, but he weathered it.

It didn’t escape his notice that a couple of the youngest ones were pretending to transform using cardboard boxes as props. They even did a good job mimicking the sound of the transformation process.

In a flash of teleportation, they were back in the room from whence they came.

“Well Ravage, I’m glad we were able to both enjoy the rehearsal together.” The diarch couldn’t help but hope for this alien stallion to remain in Equestria. Whatever could possibly anchor such a headstrong Decepticon here? It was very clear to the Princess how this could be accomplished. Her interstellar charge wasn’t that uncomfortable with the foals, allowing his stoic defenses to slip just enough to smile semi-naturally when they were hugging him.

“The route to pony individuality is a convoluted one,” the stallion bot responded, still in his pony form.

“Did you not have parents? Go to school?” Celestia queried. Her guest should have gone through the same trials, like all civilized people.

“No,” he answered plainly.

For the third or fourth time that day, Celestia was shocked, unable to hold back her gasp.

“We are created fully formed,” he described in as simple words as he could find.

“You – you were never a child!?” She felt devastated for him. She believed him, certainly, but how? Who do you learn from if not your parents?

“You think me a mindless automaton?” the Decepticon questioned. Princess Celestia had purposefully thrown Ravage into a den of their young and vulnerable. Had she known of the true nature of Decepticons, this would have never happened. What he was just shown was a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“N – no, of course not,” she answered, still recovering from the news. This new discovery was terrifying. How do you wake up one day, knowing everything you need to, and having no past, not even existing before you opened your eyes?

No childhood. No parents. No future begotten from growing up. Only ponies had these things, and it caused something of an existential crisis within the stallion bot. Children are vulnerable and undeveloped, but they are not mindless. The sample he just finished observing showed this clearly.

Ravage made a dangerous decision. “I’ll show you,” he said, promptly transforming into robot mode. He adjusted his position to stand directly in front of Celestia.

The Princess of the Day stared at the gleaming metal and flickering lights of his torso, prepared to receive more life-altering news. Suddenly, his chest split open! The central piece geared upward, while the left and right sides split apart like doors, opened by Ravage’s hands. In the center, a conglomeration of – parts – pushed their way forward six inches. The darkly, blue-grey piece was accompanied by intricate little parts, and little lights. In several locations, glowing, translucent spaghetti-like tubes connected the central fixture to the rest of Ravage’s interior. Behind windows in his Deception frame, she saw even more of this material, each strand glowing gently with a different colour. Abruptly, the central device shifted, whirred and clicked, growing larger as a result, and in its center, a little pair of black doors forming a square could be seen.

And then the little black doors opened, revealing a brilliant white light. It was shaped like a dandelion seed, and slowly bounced about in its little chamber, kept inside by a force field. It was made of light and flickered like a star.

But it wasn’t just light Celestia saw. She felt life from it; a kind of warmth felt only in the heart.

Her guest’s chest closed as quickly as it had opened. He was alive, as alive as the trees, the birds, and her little ponies. He stood there in his bipedal form, expecting a response. “I never doubted you,” was all she could come up with.

He continued to stand there, unmoved. “Well I doubted you.”

“But not anymore?” Celestia smiled though she was bursting with joy on the inside. The immovable warrior was nudged, and that was enough for her. Of course, he didn’t respond to her question, but that was par for the course. “Now, about my eye,” she started, her hoof pointing to her head.

“We need to get back to my ship to deal with it.”

In another flash of teleportation, they were back on the battlements, conveniently located just behind the cloud where Ravage landed nearly two hours ago.

A couple of ponies in lab coats approached the pair. “My Princess!” Doctor Grey Blight said as he bowed with his mare companion. Looking up, they saw Ravage in his robot form. Why Princess Celestia would want to be around that brute was anypony’s guess.

“We had been waiting for nearly an hour,” nurse Heart Throb spoke in Canterlot-valley-girl. “We’re gonna need you to remove your eye-patch, hun.”

“Ugh, you’re not going to spray that horrid material again!” Celestia protested.

“A magical solution for your injury hasn’t been found yet.” The stallion doctor had been searching since the Princess’ eye became injured.

Celestia removed her eyepatch with her magic. “Ravage will examine it first.” This slightly upset her medical staff.

He bent over to take a closer look. “Celestia, where is the iris?”

She felt like panicking. “What do you mean?”

“I mean it’s not here.”

“Princess Celestia,” Heart intervened, “We had to stabilize you first. By the time we got to your eye, the iris was completely destroyed.”

Crestfallen, the Day Princess sighed exhaustively.

A strange noise came from the direction of Ravage’s ship. Soon after one his medicroids hovered toward them, closing in on Celestia. Probes extended from its metal body like tendrils.

“The probe on the left,” the Princess indicated, pointing to a smooth, tubular device that was about the width of a carrot. “Is that what I think it’s for?”

“Oh my…” Heart Throb covered her mouth, grinning.

Blight was flustered and Ravage didn’t understand the humour.

“It is for ultrasonic analysis,” the Decepticon clarified. “I told the unit to prepare to examine ocular tissue damage.”

Celestia didn’t remember him ever speaking to this ‘unit.’ “You did?”

The medicroid’s laser scanner quickly analysed Celestia’s damaged right eye in a series of thin blue lines, top to bottom.

“Analysis completed,” it spoke in its acidic tone. “Vitreous humor infected. Iris and cornea pulverized. Vasculature still functional. Innervation still functional. Retina still functional but may become infected.”

From a port from one of its side panels, a hologram about the size of a pumpkin formed. On display was the Princess’ smashed-up eye. The medical staff and Ravage examined it closely.

“You have some impressive magic, my dude,” Heart Throb complimented.

“Looks like blunt force trauma,” Blight guessed.

“Like a broomstick handle,” was Ravage’s guess. The three of them concurring in unison.

Blight added more evidence. “A broomstick handle is consistent with the bruising on the eyelids.”

“Tch, some ponies just don’t clean up properly,” the nurse said, aggravated by Celestia’s sorrow. “I mean, a broom is used for cleaning, is it so hard to put it away?”

Elsewhere, in Ponyville, Derpy sneezed.

“Obliterate the infection,” Ravage commanded.

A probe sprayed an analgesic solution onto Celestia’s bruised eyelid. With surgical precision, spreader devices carefully pulled open the eyelids, allowing more of the analgesic spray to be applied directly to the damaged eye. Then, two different needles injected antimicrobial solutions into the body of her eye. The whole process took less than twenty seconds.

The Decepticon continued. “In terms of getting you to see out that eye again, I could harvest stem cells, and attempt to grow them into them into a new iris and cornea, but it would likely fail. Steering tissue development is not one of my skills.” The three ponies waited for the second shoe to drop. “The best choice would be to construct a biomechanical interface.”

“You mean an artificial iris and cornea?” Grey Blight verified.

“I mean a Decepticon iris and cornea,” Ravage corrected. “But I suppose to you it would be artificial.” He pulled a small vial from one of the tiny storage areas from the medicroid, which flew off back to the ship. “Dilute this one-hundred times with water,” he told the medical staff. “Then spray Celestia’s damaged eye three times a day. It will keep the axons intact.”

The medical ponies marveled at how quickly their supposed enemy formulated a solution. Could the clear, unassuming liquid in the little vial really prevent nerve decay? A sample had to be set aside for study!

“And I believe our meeting is over,” Celestia announced, teleporting a map of the ocean floor in front of her guest as she did. “Thank you for your time, Ravage. Your metals are in Manehatten, Dock thirteen. They should be on the pier.”

Ravage grabbed the map and flew off in one continuous move.

The three ponies watched, dumbfounded, as the Decepticon flew straight into his rotating ship. It accelerated toward Manehatten not ten seconds after he took off.

“Tell us how you really feel,” Heart Throb quipped.

=^.^=


The appearance of police ponies as he tractored the last crate off the dock did not concern Ravage, though Cloudchaser and Fluttershy were screaming at him to go down and perform the transaction properly.

“I will not waste any more time,” he explained brutally. The length of the meeting with Celestia was many times longer than he could tolerate.

A faint ‘tink’ could be heard every couple of seconds. The Battle Computer indicated that it was a unicorn police mare trying to assault his ship with energy blasts from her horn. To no avail though, as the shields held strong.

With the last of the cargo nearly aboard, Ravage decided to take no chances, and released one of the chain guns from its enclosure.

“No!” Cloudchaser rebuked, hoisting Ravage away from the bridge console.

Fluttershy calmed down and composed herself. Opening fire against the alien ship should have been a well known no-no. “Ravage,” she began calmly. “Do we have to do this again?”

“She attacked me,” he responded. “An unprovoked assault against merits a wide range of retaliation, up till the point of termination.”

“Not here it doesn’t,” Flitter intervened tersely. “This is Equestria. You are innocent before proven guilty.”

Ravage tried walking back to the console before noticing that Cloudchaser was still restraining him. He instead pointed at the viewscreen. “Guilty.”

Flitter flew up to the viewscreen where the quivering mare was still hiding her head under her forelegs. “Look at her! Do you really think she’ll be lobbing any more bolts at you?”

“Maybe not now,” he decided. “Later?”

Scootaloo approached the agitated adults. “Ravage, can we just go?” He immediately looked her way. “She probably thinks you’re a pirate, but still shouldn’t have shot at you. She should have called for backup first. It’s the law.”

All the mares on the bridge looked at the filly as if she had pink polka dots on her coat.

“Erm,” Scootaloo was hoping she hadn’t made any mistakes. “My uncle is a police officer in Manehatten?”

Ravage casually walked up to the console and started operating the controls despite Cloudchaser still trying to restrain him, her hooves unable to find purchase on the smooth bridge floor. The gun retracted back into its enclosure, and the ship flew out. Course heading, southeast.

The autoscout that Ravage had sent out to collect poison joke pollen had completed its mission eighty minutes earlier, obtaining precisely one gram of the dangerous pollen. It had transformed into cassette form and awaited pickup, as ordered. Soon, the great black ship hovered over it.

“Ravage, what are we doing back in Ponyville?” Saffron asked, able to read a map like the rest of the escort.

“We are not in Ponyville,” he corrected. “My old base is just south of it, and I received a couple of alarms regarding the integrity of the entrance.” He got up and flew down the floor shaft, making his way to the main gate which was slowly opening. Fluttershy, Flitter, and Cloudchaser followed behind closely.

Meanwhile, the autoscout had floated up into the ship through its designated port, unseen.

Pearl Blissed sighed. “I don’t know if I should be jealous or happy that only pegasi can escort Ravage under any conditions.”

“Don’t ask me,” Scootaloo retorted, continuing her homework.

He flew down to the entrance with the mares, determined to get this done quickly. The four of them soon arrived at what appeared to be an unassuming rock face. Proximity sensors opened the door.

“I’d normally be surprised by all this,” Cloudchaser remarked, “But we just covered Equestria in less than half-an-hour, including Manehatten.”

“And Sunset Point last night,” Flitter added.

“Ravage’s technology is,” Fluttershy started as the cavity where his ship used to be lit up, “Incredible!” She had to control herself from saying magic, regardless of Discords’s attempts to convince her otherwise. Princess Luna said that Ravage was using technology, not magic, and that was enough for her.

A great space it was. Large houses, even trees could fit inside.

The panther bot secretly checked all the old fort’s subsystems. The microwave emitter was still sending energy to the satellites from the dam flawlessly. The cruise missiles he constructed were still hidden away in their silos. Nothing wrong here, though there never was anything wrong. With the pollen sample safely aboard the ship, it was time to go.

Flitter was disturbed, seeing the true abilities of the pony she wanted to bed just a few days earlier. “Ravage, how did you do this without us noticing?”

“You do not fully understand the power of the Decepticons,” he replied, irking the pegasus mare. “It would be best if it stayed that way.”

“A thunderstorm,” Cloudchaser deduced.

He turned sharply toward the clever pegasus.

“What?” she mocked. “You think a weather pony isn’t gonna figure that one out? C’mon mare!”

“Concealed by thunderstorm, Ravage dug out this cave,” Flitter connected. “Colour me impressed.”

“Oh my, I hope we don’t get a thunderstorm when we’re on escort duty!” Fluttershy realized how unprepared she would be if that happened.

Ravage was unhappy at how fast the ponies figured out how he landed here without any clues. Yet he felt the need to aid Fluttershy, perhaps because of the new connection strengthening between them. “Since you figured out my method of infiltration, I shall advise you.”

The three mares looked at him. “Advise us on what?” Cloudchaser asked.

“In ten to fourteen hours, Ponyville will be visited by another storm, similar to the last one.”

“What!!!” all three mares responded, aghast at the mention of another storm coming.

“How do you know?!” Flitter demanded. “And don’t give me that ‘Power of Decepticon technology’ horse apples.”

“I’ll show you.” He stepped back, and a hologram of the approaching storm was emitted from a device in his forearm. “See,” he pointed to the red and yellow areas of rain occurring hundreds of kilometers to the south. “That’s at least seven storm cells. There’s enough heat and moisture in the Everfree forest to keep them powerful.”

Once again, the mares stood there, frozen in shock.

“Huh. Power of Decepticon technology,” Flitter purported in monotone.

“I’ll go tell the mayor,” Cloudchaser spoke before taking off like a shot.

Flitter was still getting used to experiencing one new revelation per hour. “I’ll go tell Applejack and Twilight Sparkle.” She took off in a more relaxed fashion.

Fluttershy approached the Decepticon. “Ravage, could you please tell the other mares on your ship about the storm? I know you want to get out to the Celestial Sea, but it would mean a lot… To me.”

He nodded. “Ravage to Pearl. Ravage to Pearl. Push the glowing blue button near the bottom right hand of the console to acknowledge.”

A few seconds passed. “*Tch* Is this thing on?” Pearl Bliss replied.

“I can hear you.”

“Oh! Hey, Ravage. What’s up?”

“Be advised that a thunderstorm system is approaching from the Everfree and will arrive in Ponyville in ten to fourteen hours.”

“What! Ravage, we gotta get down there!”

“Fluttershy and I are coming. Ravage out,” he responded. Before he could take off, he felt a hoof pull against his leg. It was Fluttershy, smiling brightly.

She hovered up to him. “Thank you, Ravage,” she said. She kissed his one of his face plates before flying toward the ship.

The unicorns and Scootaloo were brought down. Then the Decepticon visitor and his pegasus friend shuttered up her cottage, and got the chickens in the coop, among other pre-storm duties.

The panther bot had an inkling of something he also ought to do in light of everybody’s home about to get boarded up, so he went to his former construction site accompanied by Fluttershy.

He hovered above the site for about a minute, getting the ponies’ attention. Turning off his jet motors he landed on his two feet with a thud while Fluttershy landed gracefully.

One of the construction ponies approached him. “We don’t want any trouble from you. Please go.”

“Ah, Die Cast. Always the Peacemaker,” the panther bot remarked.

The Peacemaker in question had a moment of realization yet couldn’t understand why. How did this metal panther even know his name?

His former coworkers, Bo and Micah approached carefully.

“Ravage?” Bo ventured, “Is that you?”

“Here’s a hint,” he said gruffly, before transforming into his pony mode.

The construction ponies stared in awe. From a metal panther to a pony? What kind of magic was this? It wasn’t like anything they’ve ever seen, folding and shifting instead of merely changing at the sound of a magical pop.

“So let me get this straight,” Bright Rock said as she approached the newly minted stallion. “You skipped work, beat up our Princess, and now you’re back?” she questioned. The foremare was certain he would never show his face at the work site again.

“I’m here to tell you that in nine to thirteen hours, a powerful thunderstorm will strike Ponyville,” he described calmly. “And don’t mix that concrete.” He pointed to the side while still looking at Bright Rock. The new mixer pony paused, avoiding adding the water. “Wait till tomorrow, unless you have some way of covering it up.

Bright Rock wasn’t convinced. “How do you know a storm is coming? I haven’t even seen the pegasus patrol yet.”

Ravage tilted his head behind him. On the streets, ponies were hauling out storm planks for their windows. He tilted his head the other way, showing more of the same activity.

The foremare got the message. “No cement today! Get the site ready for a storm!”

Like one amoebic mass, the crew set about the necessary tasks to prepare for the coming tempest. Except for Bo and Micah, whom were all to happy to see their friend again.

The stallion bot received simultaneous hugs from them both. He expected this and weathered it.

“Are things between you and Celestia good now?” Micah asked. “I saw your ship fly to Canterlot this morning.”

Ravage nodded. “I think you could call it that.”

Bo noticed Fluttershy smiling proudly. “Say Ravage,” she addressed, pointing to the yellow pegasus. “Is Fluttershy your girlfriend?”

“Good choice!” Micah agreed with a stiff nod.

Overcome with shyness, Fluttershy’s head retreated into her wing. Barely audible meeping sounds that had no hope for being considered as language were emitted.

Coming from an audio processing background, Ravage understood every word. “She says ‘I would die to be his girlfriend.’” The blank expressions of Bo and Micah indicated something was amiss. Suddenly jolted, “Wait, what?!”

Fluttershy took off in the opposite direction they came.

Ravage felt some sort of uncomfortable pang before feeling Bo’s hoof tap him on the shoulder.

“Go after her,” she instructed.

The Decepticon tried very hard to process the meaning of Bo’s words. Give pursuit? Is that what she meant? The thought certainly registered with his own emotions.

“Vamoose!” Micah pointed at Fluttershy’s trajectory.

Uncertain of what was occurring, Ravage transformed into robot mode. With a sluggish, lackluster takeoff, he flew in Fluttershy’s direction.

He didn’t want a girlfriend. Girls wanted things he was not prepared to give. Why then would she want to be his girlfriend?

He slowed down, not wanting to overtake her so soon.

He planned on leaving in four days, fully intent on leaving her confused, laughing at her disappointment. Date a Decepticon? You idiot!!

Where were his thoughts of a landscape littered in dismembered corpses? Where were his thoughts of cities melting in nuclear fire? Megatron had ordered these flesh creatures destroyed when his mission was completed.

And now he understood why. Flesh creatures were inferior. They were not worth spending time on. Their need to listen to, and even to full-on obey, their feelings was all part and parcel of an ancient mechanism of reproduction. Inferior! Decepticons did not waste time in childhood and were ready to fight the instant they came online.

Decepticons are superior.

Fluttershy had stopped mid-flee. She heard Ravage’s jet motors, and turned around, looking upon the hovering, confused Decepticon. Her consternation was replaced with a smile. “You followed after me, huh?”

Ravage didn’t know what to say. Her certainly did follow her! He felt happy to look upon her and didn’t know why. Curse these inferior flesh creature mental processes!

“I guess you don’t know that sometimes it’s best to let words stay between two ponies,” she explained. “And I took off, because I was embarrassed.”

“So, do not transmit messages meant only for two ponies,” the panther bot clarified. “How would I know?”

“Well,” the hovering mare tried to think of the best approach. “Assess the situation,” she suggested. “Read the room.”

He tilted his head like a puppy, making the mare feel even more enchanted.

“Let’s experiment.” She flew up to what she perceived to be his right ear. “I meant every word,” she whispered. “Did you get that?”

Ravage could only nod. He didn’t want to act on these stupid feelings and waste more time. Yet the pang he felt earlier was completely replaced with this new feeling of relief and – something else. He considered Fluttershy an ally, so making her happy should be returned as support for himself.

“Well, let’s get out to the Celestial Sea,” she beamed, before flying toward Ravage’s ship, which he left suspended over Scootaloo’s house.

The Decepticon was only too happy to oblige.

=^.^=


Life in Ponyville ended at the boundary of the Everfree forest. Whatever went on in those untamed wilds stayed there.

Since its abandonment over a millennium ago, the Castle of the Two Sisters hosted nothing more than moss and small creatures hiding from the weather and predators.

Today though, in the castle’s depths, Cherry Lush and Blue Star searched one of its many store rooms. The space was held together by hulking boulders and was still intact even though the mortar slowly disappeared over the course of centuries.

Cherry Lush activated her ‘Longing Spell’ on the bracelet Blue Star gave to her to examine. When executed, it caused the object to glow in any colour, from red to blue. Warm colours, especially red indicated strong appreciation of the object by the owner. Appreciation waned to indifference as the colours became cooler.

The little brass hoof bracelet had engravings of the moon and stars and had slowly corroded during its time sealed away in the castle.

“This is really from Princess Luna’s mother?” the mare gushed. “Really!?” The bracelet glowed blood red in the spell. Blue Star had met with Luna over a millennium ago, and was made aware of where the bracelet came from.

“Indeed,” Blue verified. “And it looks like it’s important to the Great Princess.”

“That’s three out of four then,” Cherry computed. Using her telekinesis, she brought out the other two objects they pilfered: Celestia’s victory flower, and the pen that Celestia first gave Twilight Sparkle on her first day at the School for Gifted Unicorns.

The wizard sighed. “I tried my best to find something of great value in Cadance’s Canterlot quarters,” he explained, “But nothing.”

“We have to go back to the Crystal Empire,” Cherry Lush deduced. “Six o’clock train ride then?”

The two crystal ponies left the decaying fortress, bound for the places Princess Cadance stores her keepsakes.

=^.^=



Ravage flew the ship toward the north end of the Celestial Sea. The deepest water was located at the longitudinal center, as deep as it was cold.

The mares had formed a gossip group, because they didn’t have anything better to do with their lives. They were very happy with Ravage, though there was some hesitation about preparing for a storm without any visual cues.

They arrived at the surface waves. “Prepare to dive,” he informed his escort before plunging into the deep blue water.

He used a special dive setting on his shields that allowed water on to the hull of his ship, but at a pressure not greater than ten atmospheres. The pressure on the shields continued to rise, as the vehicle dove deeper and deeper.

Fluttershy’s eyes were glued to the main screen, looking for all the cute little sea creatures that she’d never seen before, but was disappointed to see just a blank blue slate that got darker and darker with only a couple of crustaceans quickly scuttling out of the way.

The statistics of the dive were seen only by Ravage, using his overhead display. The continuously increasing pressure on the shields required more and more of the twenty energon cubes he’d set aside for the dive to maintain. According to the map Celestia gave him, they were diving into the deepest trench known as Abyssal of the Great Eel, a horrifying six point one kilometers from the surface. As technologically sophisticated flying in space was, it paled in comparison to deep dives. In this case, a difference between one atmosphere of pressure against over six hundred. Without shields, no spaceship could do it.

The panther bot flew up the floor shaft to the repair bay, one deck up, and quickly isolated himself in the research room with one of the medicroids, transforming into pony mode.

Immediately after, a tinny knock on the door came behind him. “Ravage, you can’t just take off like that,” Cloudchaser warned, though she was nearly inaudible behind the metal barrier.

Following its wireless instructions, the unit biopsied a small portion of Ravage’s front left hoof, intending to examine how it reacted with the poison joke pollen.

Transforming back into robot mode, he left the room and almost ran over a very annoyed Cloudchaser.

After sixty minutes, the sea floor was reached. Due to the immense pressure and the power required to maintain the shields, he had less than an hour before his twenty energon cube allotment was used up. The water temperature was less than two degrees Celsius. Perfect!

“I’m looking for heavy water,” Ravage announced. “If you help me scan for it, we can find it faster, and therefore, leave faster.”

“I’m cool with that,” Scootaloo accepted. “What do I do?”

The other mares quickly followed the little filly’s example and agreed to help, though not without questions.

“How will we distinguish the heavy water from all the other water,” Pearl asked.

From shifting wall panels, several small stations with their own screens clanked into place.

Ravage decided that the truth would suit his purposes best. “Heavy water is like water, but with an extra neutron on the hydrogen atoms.”

“A whatsa on the whatsa?” Flitter puzzled.

He continued. “Pure heavy water freezes at around four degrees above the freezing point of normal water, and it freezes from the bottom up, not from the top down as happens with normal water ice.”

Despite the background radiation being eight times higher than found on Earth, there was a lack of deuterium in the surface water. The Decepticon hoped that it was concentrated in the depths of the planet’s oceans. The north end of the Celestial Sea was less than eight-hundred kilometers away from the glacier entrenched ice cap. Could this allow for substantial undersea freshwater cascades? Any calving of heavy water ice bergs would occur on the sea floor and, hopefully, ride with freshwater cascades into the Celestial Sea like an escalator. Assuming these processes were even possible, Ravage combed the sea floor.

“If you are helping, find a screen,” he instructed. “The colour on the screen is the result of radio waves generated by magma from the planet’s interior, propagated through the water and subsequently received by the sensor that is illuminating the screen.” The ponies listened carefully even if they had trouble keeping up. “A sudden change in colour could be a result of heavy water interference.”

“Right. Watch the screens and alert you when there is a change in colour,” Cloudchaser determined.

“But,” the panther bot intervened, demonstrating the use of controller used to operate the sensors, “Point the sensor at constantly changing locations on the sea floor, or below it.” The sea floor was only slightly darker than the water above it on the sensor screen. “This should give us our greatest chance of success.”

“Are we really four miles below sea level?” Pearl asked, trying to get a feel for the sensor controls. “I mean, I didn’t hear any creaking from the hull or anything.”

“The shields are very strong.” Ravage was focused on looking for the elusive ice of heavy water.

Just a few minutes into the searching, with all aboard searching for heavy water, something appeared on the sonar.

Being the only one to see the sonar object, Ravage stopped his mission search, and puzzled at the enormous signal that was slowly closing in on them. He increased the speed to twelve knots from ten. The object, looking like a great planet on his sonar inset sped up and kept closing in.

“It can’t be,” he uttered softly, catching the attention of his escort who normally hear him speak in harsher tones.

“What can’t be, Ravage?” Cloudchaser enquired.

“A… Great eel.”

The ponies were stunned. They had never seen Ravage afraid, and this in turn was making them afraid.

“Ravage, where are we?” Pearl demanded.

“The Abyssal.”

“The Abyssal of the Great Eel,” Cloudchaser corrected, face-hoofing. The roomful of mares gasped.

“Ravage, we have to get out of here!” Flitter demanded.

The mares looked upon Ravage for hope. “The shields will hold,” he told them confidently.

Nope. The shields would pop like a grape in the maw of the eel beast, and Ravage knew it. At least death by deep sea pressure would be fast. Nevertheless, he secretly programmed the ship to use the antimatter containment like a bomb. In the event of a breech, it would explode with the force of over seventy megatons of TNT. The eel would not savour its last meal.

The escort was getting very scared, and Scootaloo started crying. Shields or not, that monster would try to eat them!

“Ravage, can we see the eel on your theatre screen?” Fluttershy queried.

He turned on the headlamps and an image of the eel’s face flashed on the screen from the blackened depths, jolting the crew. It was deathly white with a vast osculum punctuated by rows of rapier-like teeth. In place of eyes it had massive, armored plating.

Fluttershy was the first to recover, and slowly flew toward the monstrosity on the display.

The Decepticon knew well of her abilities but didn’t believe they would work in this situation. “Undersea mines are being constructed. Preparing to deploy.”

“Wait!” the pegasus mare implored, hovering up and directing her right, front hoof toward him, indicating she wanted him to stand fast.

With her fearful group silently waiting, Fluttershy approached the screen. “Good afternoon, Mr. Eel,” she greeted with a smile.

The beast responded with clicking as well as ultrasonic sounds.

“Oh my! We’re just looking for some heavy ice. I hope we haven’t disturbed you.” The yellow mare was friendly and cordial.

More eel sounds.

Ravage was beside himself with surprise. How? Even with magic, how?

“That’s good to know,” she continued. “We’ll be on our way in less than an hour. Have a nice swim, Mr. Eel!”

The mares were silent.

Ravage was silent.

“Okay, what just happened!?” Cloudchaser demanded. She was looking forward to seeing the Decepticon fight, sharing his confidence.

“Oh?” Fluttershy didn’t see any reason to be alarmed. “Mr. Eel was just on his afternoon swim. When he smelled something funny, he came over to take a look.”

The panther bot looked visibly relieved. “Being made of metal has its advantages.”

“Fluttershy, is it okay to even be here?” Winter asked.

“I think so. As long as we don’t bother Mr. Eel,” she answered, thinking aloud.

“Then we continue searching.” The Decepticon felt time slipping away with each interruption that got in the way of his plans.

Cloudchaser tried to deconstruct what happened. “Ravage, I spelled out what we are up against in deep water. A great eel means a castle sized eel. What were you thinking?” she admonished.

“Eighty feet, maybe,” he replied, settling into his search routine. “Not eighteen-hundred feet!”

Cloudchaser face-hoofed, this time with both hooves.

Saffron wasn’t pleased either. “Ravage, I am getting you a red-collared shirt for Hearth’s Warming. With pineapples!”

“I’ll get the sunglasses,” Flitter added.

The panther bot ignored their suspected derisive banter and kept searching. Soon, the other ponies quieted up, and joined the search. They knew asking him to leave would be pointless until he got what he wanted.

After forty-five minutes of cruising the sea floor, the Decepticon warrior was starting to think of other fuel options for the fusion reactor, lest he be stranded with these mares permanently.

“Ravage?” Winter alerted.

The panther bot walked up to her station. “You’ve found something?”

She worked diligently to keep track of the strangely coloured object on her screen.

“Excellent work,” he complimented as the other mares corralled themselves around the unicorn’s screen.

Saffron couldn’t believe it. “You mean to tell me that light blue thing is heavy water?” Considering the range of radio wavelengths coming from the planet’s magma, the graphics were quite fuzzy. Her friend certainly had a skill for finding things.

The Decepticon moved the ship to intercept and zeroed the other sensors on the object. “Winter found heavy water ice. Preparing the tractor beam. The cargo bay will partially fill with water, so don’t get alarmed.” He estimated its mass at over half a ton. Hopefully, it would be enough.

“Ravage, what will we be doing for the rest of the evening?” Fluttershy asked.

“What do you mean?” In his quest to find the neutron-rich hydrogen, he didn’t even consider what he was going to do after he’d dropped off the metals and heavy water on the main satellite. How was he going to hide the satellite’s existence from the ponies? With enough data, the ponies had showed they could quickly deduce his plans.

“We haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Flitter indicated.

Even in robot mode, he knew his pony digestive system was drained dry and did not produce any nutrients. “This is true,” he admitted.

“Let’s go back to Ponyville and we’ll treat you,” Cloudchaser suggested. Much agreement supported her decision. The need to leave the deep place returned in force now that the search was over.

Winter didn’t agree. She was shaking her head. “Wait, wait, wait…” The other mares respectfully gave her attention. After all, she did find the heavy water. “We are in a SPACE SHIP,” she enunciated. “Couldn’t we dine in some place sexier than Ponyville?”

“Why not Ponyville?” Cloudchaser contested.

“Didn’t Celestia’s people give you a thousand bits for operating expenses?” Winter retorted.

Flitter liked where this was going. “Operating expenses such as eating?”

“In Saddle Arabia?” the mischievous unicorn suggested.

Ravage was taken aback when the idea was supported by a deafening chorus of feminine agreement. If he were in pony form, he would have had to cover his ears. He programmed the helm to leave the water and head for the main satellite.

Scootaloo pondered seeing a place on her world she’d never been and became entranced. “Is Saddle Arabia hard to reach, Ravage? We’re super far from Ponyville wherever we are. You think we could go?” she asked with her innocent little filly face.

Ravage gave it consideration, since he needed Scootaloo’s cooperation in the upcoming experiment. “Do any of you speak their language?” he countered.

This dampened the girls’ hopes, but only temporarily. “Do you?” Fluttershy challenged. Her amazing Decepticon love interest could predict thunderstorms and cross the gulf of space to different parts of the galaxy. And he spoke Equestrian. Was it such a stretch to expect him to speak Saddle Arabian?

All of them turned to him, eyes wide like saucers.

That’s twice in one day that they figured out information he never explicitly told them. “I do,” he answered truthfully, causing a few girls to gasp.

Pearl believed him even though she didn’t want to. “Well, I’m impressed.” She spent a good chunk of her life learning business and education, and felt upstaged by Ravage. His abilities continued to astonish.

The Decepticon didn’t want to waste any more time, but without these mares, finding the heavy water ice would not have been possible. He decided to humour them and brought up a map of Saddle Arabia and its surrounding environs on the main screen. “Where?” he asked.

“Murakarr!” they responded almost in unison, followed by comments on the shopping, the culture, and the beautiful inhabitants, among others.

“Is there going to be real food there?” Scootaloo asked, not convinced she’d like eating weird food from the other side of the world.

Ravage nodded in understanding. “A just question.”

“Good food?” Winter mocked. “The best in The Plaza of the Seven Moons!”

“That’s a good place for shopping too,” Flitter and the other girls agreed.

“Course heading set for Murakarr,” Ravage announced. The girls cheered, applauding Decepticon transport ability. What used to be a month-long trip could be done within an hour.

=^.^=


The Decepticon vessel arrived at the main satellite.

“The fastest way to fly from one point on a planet to another is through an arc,” Ravage explained. “Murakarr is so far that our arc takes us into space. For your viewing pleasure, I’ve set the ship in a stable orbit and opened the main gate with the force field on. You should probably go look at your planet,” he suggested.

Again, the girls were spellbound. Their planet? Really??

Like a barnacle, Cloudchaser stuck by his side. “As long as you come with.”

Ravage crossed his combat alloy arms. “I don’t have to go anywhere.”

The pegasi took the floor shaft, while the other ponies used the elevator to get to the main gate. Cloudchaser stayed by the panther bot, unwilling to leave him alone. Little did she know that the metals and heavy water, contained within energon cubes, were already moved into the main satellite by the medicroids. Ravage simply orbited in front of it.

“Please Ravage,” she begged, “Can you come with me so I can see my planet?”

He remained unmoved.

The Wonderbolt reservist hovered up in front of him. “I can make it worth your while,” he looked back at her, red eyes aglow. “I can finish what we started in the Warehouse.”

“Disgusting pegasus!” He tried to backhand her, but she dodged.

“Hey! The eyes don’t lie,” she countered. “You were ready.” He stomped in the other direction from her. “You wanted it.”

“Stifle yourself!” he growled, pointing at her.

“Stuff myself? Don’t mind if I do.” The pegasus mare flew over to his packing material where he had made his bedding. She put on her best bedroom pose, lying on her side, showing her curves. “While those other ponies are looking at planets, I can show you what you’ve been missing out on.”

He would have loved to shoot at her, but she was fast. He’d likely miss and damage the bridge!

“It’s called a quickie, Ravage. Come get some,” she invited, tapping the packing material beside her. He fled down the floorshaft, leaving her disappointed.

In spite of everything, Cloudchaser really liked Ravage. She thought of him as brave, and was taken in by his quick, decisive actions. She was convinced that a single night with a mare would shake him out of his reticence.

The plucky pegasus hoped to be the lucky mare to benefit first. She followed after him down the floor shaft to find that he had fled to Fluttershy’s side, lucky girl.

And for the first time, Cloudchaser saw her planet…

The girls were awestruck. Nothing was spoken. They just stared.

The Decepticon warrior leaned against a bulkhead, arms crossed. He could go somewhere else and work, but Cloudchaser or some other mare would likely try to interface with him. Again. Even though they knew he was a Decepticon, born of metal and fire. As such, it was unsurprising that Fluttershy came over and leaned on his left leg.

He uploaded the report on the poison joke pollen using his overhead display. The control group, pollen that stood alone, had strong concentrations of black matter flow into it, which was normal. When it was spread on his biopsied hoof, the black matter also flowed away from the pollen, and it flowed up the hoof keratin microtubules like plumbing. It was directional too, with the black matter streaming toward the body.

“Wow,” was the first word said by Flitter.

Wow indeed, thought Ravage. He could now design the experiment. Finding out the effects of particle size would be his first module.

Saffron pointed to a random part of space. “Death.” Another part. “Death.” And again. “Death.”

“We are so isolated,” Pearl noted.

Scootaloo had no words. She had never seen a thing so vast.

“We share our world with so many species,” Fluttershy gushed. She knew all ecosystems were connected together in a vast web of life, but to see its true form was breathtaking.

Pearl agreed. “Griffons, changelings, minotaurs, and so many more.”

The humbled ponies continued to stare. Solidarity for sharing the world with their fellow ponies and other species was taught in school, but today they really felt it.

“Your planet is a great rock in space,” the Decepticon spoke. “The complex life on it is fragile.”

Flitter nodded slowly. “No kidding.”

“Are other worlds more or less habitable?” Fluttershy asked Ravage.

“Absolutely not. They are virtually all ‘death’, as Saffron described.”

Cloudchaser felt a chill up her spine. “We have no were else to go.”

“Ravage,” Winter asked slowly, “Have you witnessed other species actually destroy their worlds?”

“Oh yes. Many times,” he answered plainly.

That put the girls into shock. From witnessing their world’s true splendor and beauty to realizing they could lose it all if they weren’t careful silenced them.

After nearly a minute, Fluttershy spoke up. “All we can do is be the best ponies we can be,” she offered. Solemnly, the others agreed.

After they quietly returned to the bridge, Ravage set a course for Murakarr.


=^.^=


Entertaining the whims of the escort, the Decepticon ship arrived in Murakarr. There were a great many airships, enough to assemble in invisible lanes in the sky. Mimicking knowledge of Saddle Arabian law, Ravage followed in the lanes, and matched the speed of the other ships.

The city was a sprawling creature of concrete. It lacked the colour that lavished Equestrian cities, except where there were onion-domed, or other ornate buildings. It was bisected by a river and did not occupy any territory on the delta.

The people were larger, sleeker versions of earth ponies. The genetic history between Equestrians and Saddle Arabians could be an interesting read. If Ravage were to guess, Equestria’s sheer magical power is what kept it so influential.

“I’ve avoided all the major castles to get to the Plaza of the Seven Moons,” the panther bot updated. “I have no idea what the air traffic protocols are for an Equestrian ship in Saddle Arabia.”

Cloudchaser thought on it. “We have almost no international correspondence with Saddle Arabia, even though they showed interest in hosting a Wonderbolts show.”

“Too far to travel?” Pearl asked, Cloudchaser nodding back.

“I’ve parked the ship one-hundred yards out from the southeast entrance. Five-hundred yards up.” Ravage had to mentally prepare himself for being hauled around by Cloudchaser again.

As if pre-meditated, there she was, hovering beside him. “Same as yesterday?”

And just like yesterday, they maintained their efficient means of moving each other to the ground.

Ravage was only too happy to be released from Cloudchaser, who took the opportunity to nuzzle him on the way down.

The girls looked around, somewhat disoriented.

“Is it – morning?” Pearl asked. The other girls looked like they wanted to ask the same question.

“Correct,” the Decepticon verified. “We crossed the nightside of the planet on the way here.”

“So it’s Wednesday,” Cloudchaser deduced, smirking as she did. “Trippy.”

A few inhabitants glanced at the motley crew, but otherwise paid them no attention.

“Ravage, could you read these signs for us?” Fluttershy requested.

And so, his job as a translator began. He pointed at a big, yellow-lettered one. “Sahar’s Golden Hoofwear.” He looked to the one beside it. “Aqila’s Bags and Trinkets,” And then, “West Side Fireworks, a police station, another government building, Mystic Foods of Saddle Arabia.” This continued for a few more shops.

“We’re going to need a money-changing shop,” Cloudchaser determined, looking toward Ravage. “And I can’t read the signs, so…”

“So we walk around.” Ravage knew he sounded ridiculous, considering the size of the plaza.

Cloudchaser nuzzled into him. “But flying is way more efficient. Am I right?”

“A cursory evaluation is not necessarily the right way,” he countered, trying to weasel of this. The amourous pegasus flew on top of him, grabbed his midsection, and took off. “Put me down!” was the last thing the group heard before the two associates flew off into the distance.

Saffron felt a little robbed in having to keep her lascivious instincts under control while Cloudchaser openly appeared to court Ravage. “Looks like she’s not waiting till Friday.”

Winter could tell the Wonderbolt reservist was going to do this and shrugged. The sooner Ravage accepted his place as a stallion of Equestria, the better. “I guess we look at shoes then,” she suggested, and headed straight for the shoe shop. The others followed. Hungry as they were, they couldn’t eat without obtaining the appropriate currency first.

They were quite impressed with the selection. One large compartment was dedicated to gold adorned Hoofwear.

Even Scootaloo, influenced by her dazzled female compatriots, slowly fell under the spell of shopping. She looked at everything that looked interesting, but kept going back to the same shoes, becoming more and more entranced with them. They had shiny terra cotta hoof covers and golden shank lacing, and she started to daydream with herself in them. She put her foreleg beside the shoes and compared.

“Looks like they go well with your coat colour,” Pearl commented.

“Wish I had some money,” the little filly lamented.

The shopkeeper noticed the little pegasus’ interest and tried to speak to them.

Fluttershy tried her hardest to understand what the keeper was getting at, noticing the gesturing around the hooves. “She may be saying that those shoes are too big for you.”

“Do they even have them in foal sizes?” Flitter wondered.

“Told ya they were here,” spoke Cloudchaser, who had come had come back with Ravage in tow.

He sighed as his transport pony was proven right. “Your deductive reasoning is impressive.”

The shopkeeper continued trying to communicate and was getting frustrated when Ravage intervened.

The girls were amazed as their Decepticon associate talked fluent Saddle Arabian.

“She says she doesn’t sell to foals,” he reported. “They don’t respect the hard work put into these shoes. And, if I’m reading the price tag correctly, half our budget would go into purchasing these shoes alone.”

Scootaloo tried not to look too dejected. “S’all right. I’m almost old enough to start working.” She turned to face Ravage. “Almost.” She was surprised when he picked up the shoes and started examining them. “Uh, Ravage?”

He flipped them over, turned them all around, unfolded all the lacing and even looked inside, as if trying to find a pebble. The shopkeeper chuckled and said something with whimsical candor. Ravage clapped back, causing her to look sad. She turned away and went to the front desk.

Fluttershy was curious. “Do I wanna know what you said to her?”

“No.” A moment of silence was spent while Ravage carefully put the shoes away.

Cloudchaser sounded off. “We found a good place to eat about eight minutes walk from here.”

The girls bolted out of the shop, tumbling haphazardly toward where their pegasus friend had pointed.

“Can we just fly there? I’m so hungry,” Winter lamented.

Ravage really felt the pangs of hunger now. Flying was a good idea! He was about to transform when he stopped himself, Fluttershy looking on.

“I think you need to stay as a stallion,” she suggested.

Saffron sidled up beside the yellow pegasus. “Can I get a lift?”

It was then the stallion bot noticed that Flitter had already flown off with Scootaloo and Pearl, and he looked back to Fluttershy, she’d also flown off with Saffron.

Where was Cloudchaser?

Suddenly snatched by assailants unknown, the Decepticon was instantly airborne. He also felt more nuzzling, and recognized the scent of Cloudchaser.

“We’re hungry,” she said analytically.

In less than a minute, they arrived at Falafel Queen. The shop was a hole in the wall, replete with steam, sizzle, and hustling workers. Cloudchaser landed at the end of the line with Winter and Ravage, followed by the rest of the escort. Twenty minutes later, they sat down with their meals.

As if drawing upon energy from the vortex of a black hole, the girls enthusiastically talked during their meal. The Decepticon Visitor was happy that they weren’t inside this time. He kept to himself and ignored them. It was easy, considering that his own thoughts were focused on implementing the magic-to-energon research – which could begin as early as tonight. But how? Scootaloo’s strict bedtime could turn into a show-stopping blockade.

The food was good though, making heavy use of a pulse crop called ‘chickpeas’. They’re just large seeds, so why would they have anything to do with chicks?

Over the girls’ yammering, a hollering was heard, spoken in the foreign language. And then it was heard again.

Ravage translated. “Stop. Thief.”

A hooded figure was seen slamming through the crowd, rocking tables and knocking down people, heading for their table.

Proximity Alert: Incoming threat.

The Battle Computer didn’t think highly of the marauding pony approaching their position, and neither did Ravage. The thief was a wiry mare, not heavily built like his former construction partners. As she was about to upend their table, Ravage stood up and simply got in her way.

The thief bounced off of Ravage like she’d run into a wall. And she’d lost the necklace she’d just pilfered! That thrice damned Equestrian stallion just kicked it behind him! She whipped out her blade and attempted to stab Ravage with it.

The Decepticon soldier deflected the strike easily and returned fire with two prongs that rose out of his other hoof. Without putting much force into it, the prongs connected with the enemy mare and emitted ten-thousand volts of electricity. The unconscious attacker flew two meters away and collapsed in a heap.

With the bewildered escort mares looking on, Ravage merely sat down and continued eating, as if nothing had happened.

“Thief stopped?” Cloudchaser shrugged.

A thundering of several other ponies reached their position within the next minute. They looked like guards. Soon after, another mare arrived, clad in gold and blue attire.

Ravage found it difficult to eat his meal with the increasing commotion. The thief was bound up, and one of guards approached his group.

“Which one of you stopped her?” he asked.

“I did,” Ravage replied. He’d rather be eating the meal for which he’d travelled to geosynchronous orbit and back than tend to this guard. “And I’m the only one in my group who can speak your language.”

The escort ponies watched Ravage closely, knowing that their fate was in his hooves.

“We’re going to take some information from you,” an associate female guard said. “Name?”

“Ravage.”

The guardsmare looked over to the thief, who was only now awakening. “Appropriate. Why are you in Saddle Arabia?”

The Decepticon Visitor was about to answer when they were interrupted by a mare fancily dressed in blue and gold.

“Leave him be, Sargent.” The beige-coated blonde-maned blue-eyed beauty approached Ravage with a foxy gait. The recovered necklace hung around her neck. “I want to thank him personally. I would prefer he were not bothered by questioning.”

The guards stood back from Ravage, standing at attention. “Yes Princess,” the Sargent replied dutifully.

“I am Princess Sara Bluehoof of Murakarr Province,” she greeted. “My summer house is just over there.” She pointed in the direction of the unidentified government building, intent on asking him over for a visit.

The Decepticon looked in the direction she pointed and nodded back.

How plebian! But the princess would not be deterred. “Well Ravage, we don’t get many Equestrians in Murakarr.” Her eyes motioned toward his spaceship. “I’m impressed with your nation’s new airship. It’s very sleek!” She smiled, excited with the design. “No sails. No hot air vestibule.”

The stallion bot just wanted to eat his delicious food though he was concerned that she managed to pick out his ship among the dozens of others that had moored nearby. Did he really need to humour her? “The design cuts down on air resistance.” He smiled weakly.

The Princess gasped, smiling with her mouth open. “Is it so fast you need to be concerned with air resistance?”

Ravage nodded. “It’s fast.”

The Saddle Arabian mare got unexpectedly excited and sat down on the empty grass spot beside him. She was taller than him, and towered over the escort ponies.

“Ravage, are we in trouble?” Flitter asked.

“Yes.” His response did not ease his escort.

She snugged in close. Their hips touched to the surprise of onlookers, and the chagrin of her guards. “I think you may want to consider the five-hundred mile race next spring, my dear,” Sara suggested confidently, long eye lashes complimenting her icy blue irises.

This pretty stallion offered no words, no blushes, and didn’t seem interested. He may have gotten used to the swarms of Equestrian mares vying for his time. That was fine, because this situation could turn into a fun game. First step, don’t dismiss the guards just yet. Second step, talk is cheap. Small talk is even cheaper. It was time to ask some bigger questions. “Ravage, are these girls your harem?”

He looked at her with complete surprise before laughing out loud.

Sara was pleased with such a burst of emotion, and laughed herself. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’.”

“No,” the Decepticon confirmed, shaking his head, “I have no harem.”

Winter whispered into Cloudchaser’s ear, “I don’t like the vibe this chick is giving off.”

“You’re a free stallion then,” she proclaimed. “I just have one more question.” She had his full attention. “What is the gravitational acceleration of the world, and how long would it take for an iron ball to reach the ground is dropped from that tower,” she asked, pointing to a distant cylindrical building.

“Thirty-two feet per second squared, and three point two eight seven seconds,” he answered easily. “Why?”

Sara didn’t expect such a speedy response. “Correct.” She smiled, elated that her instincts about this stallion were also correct. “I’m an engineer, you see.”

“You appreciate applying physics to real world problems then.”

“I built that tower!” she laughed, happy to have found such an exotic and beautiful stallion, a sight she was starting to believe she would never see.

Ravage looked again toward the distant building. “Impressive.” He felt like transforming and taking off right there and then, but he couldn’t just grab Scootaloo and leave, because she would never help him. He had to end this.

“Just one thing, Ravage,” Sara continued, “As a free stallion, it is customary in Saddle Arabia to kiss the hoof of the Princess you are speaking to.” The face of her conversation partner twisted in confusion. “I know it’s been a little chaotic, with the thievery and all. However, I would like you to lay some protocol on me.” She presented her right hoof to him.

He looked toward his escort.

“I think you kiss her hoof,” was the majority response.

“I don’t think you should hoof-bump it,” Fluttershy added, remembering when Twilight told her about Ravage’s first time meeting Princess Celestia.

“It’s a trap,” Flitter warned.

He looked back at Princess Sara Bluehoof, and took her right hoof into his right hoof. There was a bracelet with a jewel on it he was about to move out of the way.

“Kiss the jewel,” Sara commanded. The guards were surprised, one of them remarking that it contained the family crest.

The stallion bot just wanted to get this over with and kissed the stupid jewel. The female attached to it squealed in delight.

Sara clutched the freshly kissed bracelet. She smiled slyly at Ravage. “I accept your compliment.”

Ravage looked at her incredulously. The escort mares tried to hide their incredulity, knowing something was wrong, and were helpless to assist.

“Ravage, this is really exciting. To find an engineer who isn’t automatically in line to court me,” she continued, smiling cheek to cheek. “These other mares,” she gestured at his escort, “They will have to go back to Equestria.”

Ravage’s ship started to slowly move toward the escort’s position.

She got up on all fours and stood beside her guards. “You will come with me,” she commanded. “We’ll go to the palace, get settled in, and then we’ll ride to Subterrecca tomorrow to meet my mother.” She saw that he wasn’t completely aboard with her plans, obviously. “I know this is sudden for you, but we’re quite wealthy…”

“I just wanted something to eat,” he interrupted. “And you know nothing about me. Is it wise to just start making all these plans before we’ve had any kind of interaction?”

“Yes,” she said confidently, surprising the Decepticon spy once again. “You are an engineer, are you not?”

“I can do all the work of an engineer.”

“Well, that discipline requires nearly constant study,” she laughed. “I mean, what else could you get up to?”

“Oh,” he shrugged, “This and that.”

Sara sighed. She’d had enough of the cat and mouse games, and motioned to her guards. “I’m sorry this has to end inconveniently for you, but running into you is the opportunity of a lifetime. I will not tolerate a lesser stallion.”

Looming over them was the arriving Decepticon ship. The sound of its engines was menacing enough to give Sara and her guards pause.

Ravage turned to the escort mares. “I’m expanding the shield. Walk to the gate and enter. Calmly,” he advised. “Do not look back.”

The Equestrian mares did exactly as he asked, but he remained behind.

The Princess wiped her brow as if a crisis had passed. “I thought you were going to try to escape.”

“The darned thing has a mind of its own,” he quipped, gesturing to his ship.

She extended her hoof. “Come along, my dear. Let us prepare for the rest of our lives.”

Ravage got up, but then he got up on his hind legs. He jumped high into the air, did a back flip and landed ten meters behind him just in front of the gate. An impossible leap!

“Seize him!” the betrayed Princess ordered, not caring about what he was physically capable of.

The guards went after him, except for one who remained by the thief. All of them bounced painfully off the shield.

Sara gasped, helpless to stop the events that were transpiring.

The Decepticon stallion got on the gate, got on his hind legs and pointed at Sara. “Do not, my friend, pursue only the ideal stallion. One day you will rise, and your youth will have slipped away!” he boomed.

The Princess wanted to cover her ears, so painful was the truth.

All his combined romantic experiences came to bear with his last statement to Princess Sara. “Just find somebody you like.”

He galloped up the gate. Seconds later, the ship started to spin around as the engines revved higher, preparing to head north.

Princess Sara Bluehoof was aghast. “I don’t like those muscle-bound morons!” Did he not understand? She could not marry just any Saddle Arabian. If she wanted to dodge the influx of ‘proper’ stallions, she would have to marry outside the country. Ravage was a noble Equestrian (how could he not be?) brimming over with quality, and her only chance to evade the meat-headery that would surely impede her research, her life’s work.

The rear engine cowl glowed with power and the ship took off in a straight line. Not content with disappearing over the horizon, it simply flew into the evening sky getting smaller and smaller until there was nothing left – a process that took only seconds.

The Princess, her guards, and indeed, her countrymen looked upon the spectacle in awe. The plaza was quiet. Even the children didn’t know what hit them.

Sara shook her head, most dissatisfied.

“I think that ship would win the five-hundred mile race,” a commoner casually observed.

=^.^=

The girls were dumbfounded by what just happened.

“So, Princess Sara Bluehoof claimed you?” Flitter asked, instigating a cacophony of similar responses.

“I did not give myself to her, but that’s what it looks like.” The Decepticon had a similar philosophy among his fellow warriors: take it if you can get away with it. A medicroid approached with laser sheering equipment. “Right now, I intend to reduce the thickness of my hooves.”

“Your hooves look fine to me,” Cloudchaser determined.

The medical unit started working on the hoof of the foreleg he held out. The bottom was polished to a smooth finish, but then a further three millimeter thick section was removed.

Most of the girls looked away, but Winter was entranced. “Is this a Decepticon hooficure?”

“Something like that.” Ravage had the other medicroid build the device to test on Scootaloo. In just a few minutes, four three-millimeter sections were shaved off and taken away.

Winter was a little concerned. “Hope you’re not gonna need horseshoes.”

Fluttershy approached, looking apologetic. “Ravage, I’m sorry about what happened. We should have checked Saddle Arabia’s traditions before visiting.”

“It was on the spur of the moment, Fluttershy,” Winter added. “And it was my idea.”

Pearl just finished marking Scootaloo’s homework. “Saddle Arabia’s got muscle. I hope there’s no political problems.”

“I’m still trying to summarize the failure,” Cloudchaser thought out loud. “We landed, looked around, bought food, ate food, then our problems started. A thief was stopped by Ravage which is normally a good thing.”

“But Princess Sara Bluehoof’s summer house is part of the plaza,” Ravage added.

“A Princess seeking a stallion,” added Fluttershy.

“And seeking hard!” Winter caught on to what the other ponies were dishing out.

Saffron deduced what had happened. “So, stallion-seeking Sara used the Plaza of the Seven Moons, a meeting place of world-renown, as a honey trap. It entertains visitors from every country. She just had to take her pick!”

“I doubt Princess Bluehoof devotes a significant portion of her schedule to ‘stallion-seeking’.” The fact she singled out his spaceship was still concerning. Ravage didn’t want to think on this anymore, and that the thousands of kilometers between Ponyville and Murakarr should be sufficient to dissuade Sara from pursuing him any further.

“The plaza is a multi-faceted multi-layered area of shops and fountains and greenspaces and other stuff,” Cloudchaser contributed.

“It has three amphitheaters,” Saffron also contributed.

Flitter was shaking her head. “I guess it’s clinched then. The plaza is nearly two square miles. The Princess may have been in the vicinity when she was robbed because she was approaching Ravage. I saw how she walked up to him. It was like she was doing a victory lap.”

“You ponies are crazy,” Scootaloo chimed in. “I think she likes Ravage because she got her necklace back.”

The bridge was silent, as everybody digested the statement. They all looked relieved from processing it.

“From the mouths of babes,” Pearl commented.

Ravage felt the faint deceleration and checked their location. “We’ve arrived in Ponyville.”

If the mares showed any shock, it was brief.

“I’m not even surprised anymore,” Cloudchaser confidently commented.

The Decepticon vessel arrived back at its home field in Sweet Apple Acres. Long shadows portending sunset graced the landscape. The gate opened with a hiss of the country air filling in vacuum, accompanied by the hydraulics lowering the heavy platform.

Applejack came out to greet them, but noticed nobody emerged.

On the bridge, the escort ponies were waiting for Ravage who was waiting for one of his medicroids.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s nearly Scootaloo’s bedtime,” Pearl commented.

“What!?” the startled filly replied. “That’s over an hour away.”

“Did you take your bath yet?”

“No, there wasn’t time!” She couldn’t believe she missed that, but they were very busy. “Ravage, can I use your hot tub?”

“No!” a chorus of mares instantly replied.

“Yes,” replied Ravage, irking said mares.

Cloudchaser had planned to ask Ravage to bathe with her. She would tactically offer to wash his mane and body. Looking at her companions’ faces, they may have hit upon the same plan.

Twenty minutes later, Scootaloo stood on the fur drier having cleaned up in the near-hot water. Her eyelids were heavy, making her actually want to get to bed on time. Maybe she could use Ravage’s bathtub every day?

The moment the filly left, three more girls took her place in the hot tub.

Ravage decided that the best time to experiment on Scootaloo was right now, while half the escort was distracted. “Scootaloo,” he began, drawing her attention. “I require your assistance.”

“Yeah?” she answered, Pearl combing her mane with a levitating brush. It seemed strange that somepony as independent as Ravage would ask for her help. “What do ya need?”

“As you know, the Decepticons took an interest in this planet when we noticed it’s star orbiting it.”

“That’s why you came here!?” Scootaloo hadn’t yet thought on what could attract an alien to Ponyville. Learning the reason was quite surprising.

“Ah, I gather Princess Celestia hasn’t shared this with you yet.” Ravage was starting to wonder if that was also a conversation that should have remained between two ponies. The other girls had stopped talking and were staring at Ravage.

“Is this the part where you tell us that the sun orbiting our world is wrong?” Saffron sourly asked.

“It is.”

Ravage paused, waiting for the shocked mare noises to die down. Their world was turned upside down on them after all. Again. The process took nearly five minutes.

Scootaloo wanted to know what Ravage wanted. “You said you needed my help?”

“Indeed,” he answered. “I have never seen magic before and I wish to see it’s effect on quantum fields.”

“Quantum what?” a confused Flitter asked. “What do these fields do?”

“They are spaces where subatomic particles exert their influence.”

“Influencing what?”

“Electromagnetism, nuclear forces, and mass.” Ravage wirelessly sent for the medicroid and test equipment.

Flitter wasn’t very good at sciencey stuff, and didn’t want to ask any more questions.

“Ravage, why do you need Scootaloo specifically?” Pearl queried.

The medicroid arrived to deliver the experimental apparatus. One by one the girls noticed it, and where suddenly silenced.

Then the apparatus was handed to Scootaloo, who also could believe what she was seeing. “I – uh… It’s the shoes!”

Cloudchaser had to exert more self-control than usual. She wanted to frown. She wanted to scream! She wanted to know why Scootaloo got new shoes and she didn’t! And after all the help she’d given him. The green-eyed monster tried to burst through, but she controlled it. Her smiling poker-face twitched in the eyes and lips, but she controlled it. At least she was fairing better than the other mares.

“Scootaloo gets new shoes,” Winter spoke through her teeth, amplifying the sour mood of the other girls.

“I did not purchase them in Saddle Arabia,” Ravage explained. “These devices are of Decepticon manufacture.”

“Devices?” asked several ponies.

“Correct. They look like shoes, but are field generators,” the panther bot answered.

It still didn’t make sense to Cloudchaser. “Why Scootaloo and not one of us?”

“I had to use nearly my entire stock of iridium to make them.” This questioning was tiresome.

The mares were satisfied and Scootaloo tried to put the shoes on. “Hmm, Ravage I think they’re too big. And heavy!”

“That’s the iridium. And the shoes are two or three sizes larger so the resizing mechanism could produce a perfect fit.”

Scootaloo looked at the shoes too big for her, then looked at Ravage.

“Say ‘resize’,” he guided.

“Resize.” In a whir of clicking and stepper motor noises and two seconds, the shoes folded themselves to Scootaloo’s size.

The mares gasped. Was there anything Ravage couldn’t do!?

The little foal trotted around a bit. “This is amazing! They’re so comfortable.” They were still heavy, but easy enough to deal with. The hoofwear had built in shock-absorbing suspension for longevity. “No laces, but I ain’t complaining,” the smiling filly marveled.

“Say ‘laces’,” Ravage suggested.

Scootaloo knew she was in for a treat. “Laces!” As predicted, laces erupted from the shoe bodies and wound themselves around Scootaloo’s shin, taking less than a second.

The mares were too emotionally and mentally exhausted to react very much. Decepticon technology was just amazing!

The other medicroid brought another device with it, which Ravage took.

“We need to be outside,” he said. “There will be less magnetic interference.”

Ravage, Scootaloo, Flitter, Cloudchaser, and Fluttershy left the protective shield behind and found a care package addressed to Ravage with a note on it.

“Dear Ravage,” it wrote, making the Decepticon shudder. He is dear to nobody! “Here is a lab coat for you to wear for when we practice magical experiments.” The package included a clipboard, parchment, an ink bottle, and a quill. “When you’re done all your dating, I would love to start teaching you magic again. Princess Celestia really likes you, by the way,” making Ravage feel ill. That – that – thing likes him!? WHY? “She came over and spent two hours raving about you. She had to stay for dinner!” Another slag-damned princess to mind. Great. “I’m looking forward to our debriefing tomorrow. I can’t wait to hear what you and your escort did today!” Ravage paused, knowing the failure will spread, and that there was nothing he could do to stop it. Nothing realistic, anyway. “Don’t forget to practice your mouth-writing! Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle.”

Ravage’s eyes glowed white hot before plasma beams erupted, incinerating the note.

“Ravage,” Fluttershy prodded menacingly. “What did the note say?”

The Decepticon spy transformed into his stallion mode, donning the lab coat. “Nothing.”

The girls knew that was horseapples and expected the other shoe to drop at the library tomorrow.

The Decepticon shoes were more than just self-resizing and lacing conveniences. Inside each one was poison joke spread uniformly on the sections of hoof provided by Ravage, and oriented so the hoof sections faced upward. As verified by his black matter detector, the poison joke constantly drew in black matter. The sections of hoof made the poison joke release it directionally, so it would flow up and into Scootaloo’s body. A series of energon sieves lay above the hoof sections, controlling the particles sizes that could enter Scootaloo. There was a physical lock that forced at least one of the sieves to remain active, thus preventing the filly from suffering nightmares followed by bodily dysfunction characteristic of poison joke sickness.

“Quantum field measurements beginning,” Ravage said. The sieves opened and closed in a way that a group of similarly sized particles could flow at a time, smallest to largest. “Scootaloo, please report on any changes to your condition.”

“Uhhh…” she muttered fearfully. Ravage is a Decepticon. Decepticons are different. He wouldn’t hurt a pony would he? Unless you get him mad… “I – whoah!” It felt like a ghost just went through her!

Ravage took note of the particle sizes in the two-hundred to three-hundred nanocule range. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yeah!” she nodded. “I’m fine, but what was tha-AAaat!”

Five-thousand to fifty-one hundred nanocule range noted. “Please keep responding.”

“Don’t hurt Scootaloo!” Fluttershy implored.

“I’m fine, Fluttershy,” the child said with a smile. Ravage was just weird, he would never hurt her.

The little pegasus reported two further ‘ghost’ incidents.

“Ya know,” she began, “I’m feeling pretty limber.”

“Oh?” the pony bot found this reaction very interesting.

“Yeah.” She rocked on her two right legs then the two left legs. Two wing flaps produced noticeable air movement. “It’s like waking up, but waking up from already being awake,” she attempted, not sure how to sum up what was happening.

Four ranges of particles produced physiological effects on Scootaloo. Ravage had one more range, one more means of particle control, and the effective ranges were in the first half of the scan. Nearing the end of the scan, the particles became heavier and heavier until finally…

“Gah!” she reported.

“What happened?” Ravage didn’t expect any other reporting, but this sounded significant.

Smiling, she tried to tell how she felt. “Ya know how you sleep on your foreleg, and it goes to sleep, but then you get up and it tingles and slowly wakes up? I felt that in my shoulders.”

Ravage examined the data. It was a single particle that caused that effect, one-point-three times heavier than a proton. “Heh, the pegasus particle,” he joked.

“I thought you were studying fields, not particles,” Cloudchaser commented.

The Decepticon knew Cloudchaser was intelligent, but he underestimated her yet again. She may be as smart as Fluttershy! “Well, electromagnetism has both wave and particle properties,” he horseappled.

And Cloudchaser knew it. “Uh huh.”

Having finished the scan, Ravage had five particle ranges that affected Scootaloo, and by extension, probably other pegasi.

“Anything else, Ravage?” she asked cheerfully. Whatever he did was weird, but fun!

“Just one more thing,” he responded. He programmed the shoes to release all five ranges of particles into Scootaloo, and transmitted. If she got poison joke sickness, he had access to the formula of the bath water needed to rescue her. While looking over the data, gasps were heard by the escort ponies. He turned toward them. “What is it now!?” So bothersome. They just kept staring upward, and the turned around to see what the fuss was about.

Scootaloo was hovering, under her own power, five meters in the air.

Comments

[Starcat5]

I am too busy to read this right now, but I must acknowledge this Christmas Gift from the Author. Thank You.

[RuneGuy116]

I thought this was dead when I last read it almost 6 months ago but I'm so glad to see an update and hope to see you finish this one, keep up the good work.

[Moongaze14]

Words can’t describe how happy I am after seeing the story update. I actually read the chapter twice due to how good it was. Definitely one of your best chapters and it helps that it’s your second biggest chapter and that you wrote it faster than the previous one. Anyway, let’s discuss the chapter!

Now that the secret of his identity is out, I love that Ravage is more open to showing off his technology and his true personalities to the ponies. Seeing the effect of Poison Joke on his was quite the surprise and I liked that Ravage didn’t hesitate to point out how Twilight showed favoritism to RD whenever she broke her windows. It was also entertaining that we learn more about Winter (from her ability to transform) and Pearl’s backstories as their lascivious personalities didn’t hint it.

Ravage and Celestia’s interactions were amongst my favorites in the chapter as Celestia actually develops a liking towards Ravage after seeing him bond with foals, plus I laughed when she actually tried to teach Ravage how to handle mares. The scene with Ravage discussing how healing works through science was entertaining to watch.

Ravage’s socializing with Fluttershy and Cloudchaser was pretty fun, especially Fluttershy being willing to think of a future where Ravage fathers her foals and Cloudchaser actually liking Ravage enough to still be willing to sleep with him. Seeing Micah and Bo return was heartwarming and Cherry Lush’s plan definitely explains what happened to the flower. It was also interesting that as much as Ravage underestimate the ponies, they have knowledge and abilities that can match his technology while his technology also offers solutions that the ponies cannot match such as instantly knowing Saddle Arabian.

The funniest part was the visit of Saddle Arabia and the fact that Ravage got the Saddle Arabian equivalent of Luna and Twilight interested in him that she wants to marry him on the spot. Genuinely hope Princess Sara becomes a recurrent character as her interactions with Ravage is hilarious and would love for her to compete with Luna. The ending with Ravage having to tell his discoveries to Twilight next chapter plus his discoveries about magic through Scootaloo make for an exciting cliffhanger.

Once again, thanks for a wonderful chapter, especially since it appeared in Christmas Eve. The story is becoming more exciting now that Ravage is open about his status, so hoping we get to see the next chapter appear soon in the future. I wish you a Merry Christmas.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Holy crap its back.

Poor Ravage becoming such a target. Though it's a better fate then what he has in canon

[Twilight_the_spy]

11782317
Sure, perhaps. But do the vast majority of people look up and say "Hey, look at Sol!"? Or do they say, "Hey, look at the sun!"?

I have rarely heard people refer to it as Sol, even in astronomy classes.

[Nightsclaw]

This was an unexpected gem of a story to find. I was not expecting this crossover to be so engaging. Well done characters and an intresting PoV to see the world we all know and love from.

Now how will the royals take it when the find out what he has just done?

Thank you for sharing this story with us.

[Kilobytes]

Nice to see this is still consistently updating, some things never change.
Time for re-read number 'god-knows-what'

[Poparakelis]

Ravage crossed his arms. “That’s a big ask.”

...Ask? Look me in the eye and tell me you accidentally wrote this shit.

[Poparakelis]

Well that was interesting, see you in 2 years I guess

[Twilight_the_spy]

Twilight’s dragon slave, Spike, had made breakfast for everybody. The guests included Ravage’s escort ponies, the Elements of Interference, Spike, and himself. Scootaloo was imprisoned in a facility called ‘school’.

I love this entire paragraph lol

Scootaloo was hovering, under her own power, five meters in the air.

Yes! I was wondering when this would happen.

---

Was not expecting that bit with Celestia, and now with the note from Twilight that Celestia really likes him? Looks like he is going to have all the princesses pining after him.

...Even the ones in other countries. Wonder what will happen with her?

---

And with that, ends my re-re-re-read. I think. Maybe add one more re-? Can't wait for more!

[Arctic_Razor]

Nice! I really enjoy this story, and what an excellent chapter too! Keep up the great work!!

[Starcat5]

11782928

Now how will the royals take it when the find out what he has just done?

Which part, the Orthopedics for Magic, or the International Incident?

[Taunought]

Can't wait to see more