Ch7: A Whole World of Pain
(A/N: This story takes place after issue 10 of the My Little Pony Comic Book and the Cutie Mark Crusaders Micro Series comic. This story also does not officially recognize any events of Season 3 onward. The story primarily takes place in the Transformers Aligned Continuity Family with certain smaller inspirations taken from the Transformers Animated and G1 continuity families.)
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Applebloom: Transform and Rollout!
by Dusty the Royal Janitor
Chapter 7: A Whole World of Pain
The massive hand gripped Applebloom like a vice, causing her chassis to creak under the pressure. Applebloom would have cried out, but she’d become so light headed at this point that she could barely feel the pain. Sparks flew from her joints as the grip got tighter and tighter. A light flashed in the corner of her vision in a language that she had never seen before but was somehow able to read. It read “Danger: Structural Integrity at Risk. Energon Levels less than 5%.” Applebloom recognized the word from the massive amount of information that she’d absorbed, but she was so dizzy and confused she couldn’t remember what it was.
The monstrous face of her attacker looked at her dispassionately as he slowly tightened his grip on her. Were Applebloom a normal pony, surely she would have been turned into a mushy pulp by now. The giant robot’s face turned to a hint of a smirk as he licked his two prominent fangs. “Resilient, aren’t you?” he taunted, suddenly tightening his grip all at once, causing Applebloom to whimper a little. “Not much fight in you, though,” he muttered.
BREEP BREEP BREEP
Suddenly the tightening stopped for a moment. The massive robot stopped for a second to look askance at a large, circular device attached to his shoulder. Pausing for just a moment, he soon snorted and went back to crushing the life out of Applebloom.
BREEP BREEP BREEP
The sound came from the device again. The robot growled impatiently and, to her great relief, released Applebloom, tossing her to the ground. Applebloom bounced, before crumpling face-up in a heap just outside the hole in the schoolhouse wall. As she came to a stop, she felt herself involuntarily shifting. Her spine twisted around and her face split open, signaling the start of her transformation. Faintly she heard the rest of her class, who had all found places to hide somewhere in the ruined classroom, gasp in astonishment. It barely registered, though, she was so light headed. Her limbs extended and her face fell to her chest, more lazily than it ever had before. Her transformation seemed slow and shuddering, her body twitching and spasming as she was left in her bipedal, robotic form in front of her entire class. She lay there, though, too tired to do anything to conceal herself.
“Applebloom!” She heard Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo faintly call, followed by the sound of scampering hooves.
And then a massive foot came down on her chest.
Applebloom hacked out some more blue fluid as the giant robot’s massive foot pinned her to the ground. Her attacker pointed at the two ponies coming to her aid with a horrifying sneer. “Back off, Organics,” he snarled.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle skidded to a halt, but did not back down. Scootaloo bore down, her singed wings vibrating. Sweetie seemed less battle ready, but her horn took on a faint, flickering glow.
The massive foe didn’t even seem to notice their combative postures; only that they’d stopped in their tracks. That seemed good enough for him, as he reached over to the beeping device on his shoulder and pulled something boxy out of it, attached by a long cord. Were she more conscious, Applebloom would have noticed that it vaguely resembled the boxy, new “telephones” that could be found in various buildings around town. Her giant enemy flicked a switch on the device and spoke into it.
“Dead End reporting,” he droned, rolling his glowing, orange eyes.
A voice, low, grumbling, and sinister, rumbled from the device in response. “Dead End, the troops have reported that you left your assigned squadron. What are you doing?”
The massive robot called Dead End snorted and pressed his foot down on Applebloom’s body a little harder, causing her to whimper again. “I am eliminating the supposed ‘Autobot threat,’ sir,” he replied, snidely.
The device crackled with static for a moment before the reply came again. “I am tracking your position with the comm device. You have crossed into what appears to be a populated area. Did I not tell you to proceed with caution? That this was a stealth mission?” The voice did not get louder or raise its tone, but there was a definite edge of menace in it.
Dead End scoffed. “Populated by worthless organics, maybe,” he said, sounding bored. “Once we got below the layer of radiation causing the interference, we were able to scan for Autobot signals. There is only one on the whole planet, Lord Shockwave.” He looked down at Applebloom. “The threat is negligible.”
“One Autobot signal you can observe, Dead End,” came the reply. “Waspinator reported a massive blind spot where interference is heavy located around a nearby mountain. The troops also reported a significant populated area situated at its apex.” More crackling came from the communication device as Lord Shockwave continued. “You are aware of how Autobots like to mingle with organic life forms. If the Autobots were on this planet, they would naturally be in such an area, and the blind spot suggests a jamming tower is present.”
Dead End sighed, exhaustedly. “The ship that we investigated was small, Lord Shockwave; Merely an antiquated personal transport, hitched up to a protoform nursery,” he grumbled. “Hardly big enough to carry more than a sparse few Autobots.”
“Irrelevant.” Shockwave replied. “You have compromised stealth, Dead End, and put at risk the Decepticon cause.”
Applebloom’s foggy mind managed to latch onto that one word. “Decepticons.”
Shockwave continued. “Incapacitate the Autobot you have currently engaged and bring it aboard. Blitzwing will interrogate it.”
Through the haze of her mind, Applebloom managed to piece together his words. These Decepticons wanted to kidnap her and bring her on board their ship or something! And she had no desire to see what they meant by “interrogate.” She’d read enough of Scootaloo’s comic books to know that that usually meant torture of some kind. Her body finally regaining some fight, she tried to wiggle out from under Dead End’s foot, only for the massive decepticon to push down on her harder.
Dead End looked down at Applebloom, a metallic eyebrow raised. “It’s only a minicon, sir. I’ve scrapped it pretty bad, too.”
Applebloom’s head pounded. She couldn’t move. She could barely breathe. She didn’t know if she had any special powers or anything that could help, and the only power she did know she had had only helped her fix a sink! The little bot closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle.
“Blitzwing shall patch it up if necessary.” Shockwave said. “Only long enough to get as much information about this planet as we can, of course.”
Applebloom felt something deep inside of her. It felt like it was pushing out from behind her eyes, like the time she scanned the wagon, or the time she analyzed the disposal… but there was something different about it this time…
Suddenly a massive swirling green vortex opened up in the middle of thin air.
“I am sending you a small squad of Vehicons, Dead End. You and they will exterminate any organic witnesses in the area, and return with the captured Autobot.”
Three identical, purple Decepticons suddenly stepped through the vortex and into the clearing in front of the schoolhouse, each sporting what looked like glowing cannons on their arms and one big, red, cycloptic eye in the center of their heads. They lumbered through the clearing, before turning to look at the schoolhouse and Applebloom’s classmates in the ruined classroom. The little foals all cowered behind their various covers. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo tried to keep up brave faces, but their knees were perceptibly shaking. Applebloom tried to fight through the fog in her mind, but the world felt like it was spinning around her. The words in the corner of her eye now read that her ‘Energon’ was only at 2% and that she was at risk of total system failure. More of the blue stuff was leaking out of the wound in her head and down her face. The pressure on her chest felt like it would split her in two. Her whole world was pain.
Dead End seemed to wilt a little. “But sir… I’m hungry,” he almost seemed to whine.
“Vehicon ST-3v3 tells us that you have already fed today.” Came the unamused reply.
The pulsing behind Applebloom’s eyes became ever more forceful, but amidst all the other pain, she barely noticed.
“...Shoulda drained that scrapheap dry…” Dead End mumbled, licking his fangs again before sighing again. “Very well, Lord Shockwave. By your command.” The decepticon flicked a switch on the comm device and stuck the speaker back into the main body of the device.
Dead End looked down at Applebloom with a disgusted sneer. The little Autobot struggled fruitlessly, clenching her eyes shut. The pressure in her head felt like it was going to pop her skull.
“Looks like you get to live for now, Autobot,” he sneered, reaching down. “Your little organic friends, are another story, though.” He brought her up to eye level and chuckled. “How’d you like to watch me and my friends blow your little pets to the pit?”
“NO!” Applebloom shrieked, her eyes bursting open. Bright beams of blue light fired from her eyes, engulfing Dead End’s face. The massive Decepticon snarled and tossed Applebloom away, blinded by the flash. Applebloom tumbled tail over teakettle across the ground before coming to a halt, face-up and head spinning on the ground. The pressure in her head had somewhat alleviated and the fog in her mind had started to clear, but the rest of her world was still pain. Applebloom blearily rose to her trembling hands and knees, coughing and hacking. The message in the corner of her vision read that her energon was at 1.5%. As she tried to take stock of the situation, though, she noticed two things.
Firstly, something was sitting in her mouth wrong. Applebloom blinked, and felt around in her mouth with her tongue, only to yelp with surprise when she felt something prick it. Opening her mouth, she felt around in it with a finger.
She had fangs…
And that was when she noticed the second new change. She was hungry.
Applebloom fell over clutching her stomach, she was so hungry. In fact, the word hungry didn’t even seem to come close to describing it. She was positively ravenous. Her body shook with hunger and her senses seemed to dull as her hunger seemed to take her over, but what was strangest was Applebloom could barely understand what she was hungry for.
“You morons, don’t just stand there!” Dead End shouted, clutching his eyes. He pointed at Applebloom. “Get her!”
The three Vehicons looked at each other for a moment before one of them broke off from the group to come at her.
And then it clicked.
Reason left her. Instinct took over. Applebloom shrieked, not in terror, but in rage and hunger. Like a predatory animal, she leaped at the oncoming decepticon, and despite her weakness and injuries managing to leap a good ten feet in the air. The little bot landed on her attacker’s arm, the decepticon too stunned by her actions to react quickly enough. Latching onto his limb with her hands and feet, she scrabbled up his arm to his shoulder. She opened her mouth wide and then bit down, her fangs piercing clean through its metal chassis.
Applebloom’s world seemed to explode into color.
Blue fluid burst in gushing waves from the massive Decepticon’s shoulder, most of it finding its way into Applebloom’s mouth. Suddenly, all the pain and weakness just seemed to wash off of her like dirt off a pony’s coat when they stepped into a hot shower.
The Decepticon thrashed and flailed about, trying to dislodge her, reaching back with his arms, but unable to reach the spot on his shoulder where Applebloom clung. Despite all the shaking, Applebloom held fast, her new hands never once letting their grip give. Applebloom drank deeply of the blue fluid, each gulp making her feel stronger and stronger. It tasted incredible. It was an almost indescribable flavor. Smoky, spicy, and savory all at once, but also somehow unfathomably sweet, with just a hint of bitterness at the end to offset it. The closest thing she could maybe equate it to was a smoked hayburger with cheese and sweet chili sauce, but that was still woefully inadequate to describe the sheer power behind the flavor and the sensations she felt. It felt like somepony had hooked up some sort of magical device to her muscles, causing her to gain the strength of a professional bodybuilder in mere moments, and she felt herself continuing to get stronger and stronger as she drank the fluid. On top of that, she could feel a number of the damages that had been made inside her starting to repair themselves. Her body was fixing itself. Her senses, too, were getting sharper and sharper. She could smell the nectar of a flower a dozen yards away. She could see the tiniest chalk dust motes speckled on Cheerilee’s chalkboard. She could hear the heartbeats of each and every one of her friends and classmates. Whatever it was she was drinking, it was powerful... And it was making her powerful.
And after a few moments… a few short moments… she felt she could drink no more.
With a snarl, she reached into the wound she had made in the Decepticon’s shoulder with a hand and grabbed the first thing she could feel. With all of her might, she pulled back sharply. With an enraged cry, she ripped something free, and leaped off of the Decepticon’s shoulder. The Vehicon screamed and collapsed, falling to his knees and slumping forward onto its good arm.
Applebloom landed with a stumble before finding her balance, as she panted furiously. Blinking, her senses returned but a few moments later. She looked back at the Decepticon she just attacked, struggling to get to his feet.
“My arm!” it cried. “The little vermin maimed my arm!”
Indeed, the Vehicon’s arm hung limply from his torso, unmoving. As he moved and thrashed about, the arm slapped around limply, like a wet noodle. Or at least as much like a wet noodle as a metal, robot arm could. She had managed to paralyze the limb of a robot a good four times bigger than her!
Applebloom blinked, noticing the words in the corner of her vision again. They had turned from red to green and now read “System Repairs Functioning. Energon levels at 187%, Overdrive Activated.”
Her eyes widened ‘So that was energon...’ she thought, before smirking a little. ‘I like it.’
Though the other two Vehicons and Dead End had been momentarily stunned into silence by her vicious display, Dead End soon managed to shake it off. “For the love of the pit, you idiots! Kill the slagging scraplet!”
That was all the Vehicons needed to start firing their massive arm cannons at Applebloom. The little Autobot yelped and jumped back, narrowly avoiding a burst of hot plasma that scorched the ground right where she had just been standing. Two more bursts of white-hot plasma followed, which Applebloom found herself forced to dodge. Thinking quickly, Applebloom shifted into her wagon mode and sped around the trio in a circle.
“You’re cloggin’ my tailpipe!” Dead End growled. “She’s a triple-changer too?! What kind of Minicon is this?!” He snarled in frustration, opening his own arms up and shifting his hands into large cannons of his own. “Forget our orders! Scrap the little oilspill! Turn her to molten slag!” He howled, firing his twin cannons at her.
Applebloom wove between the shots as best she could, a strange little icon having appeared in the side of her vision again, this one showing a yellow dot in the center of a large circle and four red dots situated around her. One was unmoving, likely the downed Vehicon with the crippled limb, still desperately trying to shake its arm awake. The other three were desperately trying to chase her, but her small, swift form was apparently to proving too speedy for them. Every now and then, small blue dots would emerge from the red dots and come sailing towards her. She reasoned that those were their plasma bolts, and the little motion tracker helped her avoid them with relative ease. Still, the sheer number of bolts they were firing was beginning to overwhelm her.
Applebloom skidded to a halt behind a large oak tree. The Decepticon’s volley of fire pelted against it, setting it aflame. She could hear their stomping footsteps approaching as they advanced on her hiding place. Quickly, Applebloom shifted back into her robot form.
‘How do I beat them?!’ Applebloom thought frantically. ‘I can’t go and bite all of them one by one! They’ll shoot me the second I sink my teeth in! I need something to fight them with!’
As if in response to her thoughts, Applebloom felt her back open up as something literally popped out of her and clattered to the ground. Turning, she looked down at the ground to see what had fallen out of her
The wagon handle was sitting on the ground.
Applebloom blinked, then gasped. “Oh no!” she squeaked. “Did those Decepticons shoot my handle o-”
Suddenly, the grip at the end of the wagon handle seemed to expand, opening a gaping hole in what was normally a slot one could barely stick their hoof into. As Applebloom watched, the hole between the gap seemed to fill up with the blue energon she had absorbed, the liquid pouring out of the rod of the handle and into some sort of containment field in the shape of a massive, rectangular prism. The energon spilled out like it was water from a pressurized firehose, filling the field in a matter of moments, so that a massive cube of energon sat at the end of her handle, forming a massive energon hammer. With a flash of heat and light from the grip of her wagon handle, The energon seemed to crystallize and the containment field that surrounded it when it was still liquid disappeared.
Applebloom blinked, hefting her massive energon warhammer. “Yeah, I guess this’ll do…” she said, impressed.
The moment she said that, though, the massive oak she’d been hiding behind exploded in a shower of smoldering wooden shards and burning leaves. Applebloom was knocked to her belly from the blast with a squeak of surprise, clutching the warhammer to her chest. She quickly rolled herself over to see a Vehicon, reaching over the burning stump of the tree and trying to grab at her in its clawed, metallic hand.
Applebloom gasped and quickly somersaulted backwards on the ground out of his reach. Getting to her feet, she hefted the heavy warhammer over her head and brought it down as hard as she could on the massive robot’s hand.
CRUNCH!
The Vehicon screeched in pain as the impact crushed his servos. Bringing the hammer back up, Applebloom saw that she had managed to practically flatten the Vehicon’s hand. Most of the delicate finger joints had been knocked out of alignment and the metal chassis was twisted and dented all over. The Decepticon reeled back and clutched his maimed hand with his good one. Taking the moment, Applebloom hefted the hammer up again and ran at the screaming ‘Con. Lifting the hammer over her shoulder like a baseball bat, she leapt over the burning tree stump and swung a horizontal blow at the Vehicon’s knee. There was another satisfying ‘CRACK!’ and suddenly the Vehicon fell over screaming, one leg bent the wrong way.
Applebloom attempted to run past the screaming Decepticon only for her to be suddenly jerked back. Falling forward, she twisted around to see that the fallen Vehicon had grabbed her leg with its good hand. “You little SKIDMARK!” he gasped out. Applebloom screamed, twisting around and lifting her hammer over her head again, bringing it down on the Vehicon’s head. The Vehicon managed to let out one last shriek before it suddenly cut off, his metal hand releasing Applebloom and his big red eye suddenly dimming.
Applebloom gasped for breath as she realized what she did. “Oh Celestia… I killed it!” She stuttered. She was just about to collapse to her knees when a sudden burst of plasma from behind her knocked her off her feet.
“Scrap, I missed!” came a shout. Applebloom rolled across the ground to see the other two Vehicons advancing on her, the one with a maimed arm aiming his good arm at her.
“Let me do it!” Shouted the other one, bringing up his twin cannons and firing them at her one after the other. Applebloom leapt to her feet and started jumping back and forth from one leg to the other, attempting to run at the advancing Vehicons. The two of them together seemed to be able to keep her mostly pinned down, though.
Leaping nimbly from spot to spot, narrowly avoiding every shot, Applebloom forced herself to come up with a plan on the fly. ‘C’mon, think!’ she mentally kicked herself. Applebloom didn’t have any cannons like the larger robots did. Her only weapon was her hammer and the powerful fangs and jaws that she had somehow copied from Dead End. She was a strictly close-combat fighter in a ranged battle.
Applebloom thought quickly. “Um… Your mother smells like a box of old socks!” she shouted at the two Vehicons.
The two Vehicons looked at each other, but kept their weapons trained on her.
“What are socks?” the crippled one asked.
“What’s a mother?” asked the other
Suddenly the crippled Vehicon felt himself knocked back onto his backside, a hammer buried in his chest. Applebloom had chucked the hammer at him like an olympian, causing the hammer to sail a few dozen feet through the air until it hit the Vehicon in the gut, breaking open a small hole in his armored chassis and sending him flying backwards. The maimed Vehicon tumbled head over heels backwards before coming to rest on his back, the hammer sliding off of him. The ‘Con made a guttural, pained noise as Applebloom rushed up, sprinting right at where he lay. Applebloom leapt through the air, ready to come down right on the prone decepticon.
At the apex of her leap, though, she felt a terrible burning sensation run through her leg. White hot plasma fire seared her limb, sending her sailing off course and overshooting the fallen Vehicon. Applebloom screamed as she fell in a heap next to her would-be victim.
The prone Vehicon coughed, and lifted the hammer, tossing it away. “Nice shooting, T3-X.” he managed to hack out.
The other Vehicon nodded, training his cannon on Applebloom again, but the little bot rolled to the side and managed to hide herself behind the maimed Vehicon, still struggling to get to his feet despite his maimed limb. The healthy Vehicon stopped firing, attempting to get around his comrade to get a bead on her, while the injured one noticed her and raised a hand to swat at her. Without her weapon and disarmed, Applebloom thought fast. Lifting a hand up, she split her arm open and unveiled the strange, whirring mass of gears and cogs and wires under her skin. And just like she did with the disposal under the sink back home, Applebloom plunged her hand into the hole in the Vehicon’s gut that her hammer had made.
The Vehicon screeched bloody murder as Applebloom felt her arm fusing with something inside the Vehicon. The little bot didn’t even know what she was doing. All she knew was that she wanted to mess what was inside up. She wanted to scramble it like an egg. Sparks flew from its chest as it seized up and spasmodically twitched.
The Vehicon collapsed with a resounding crash, Applebloom quickly disengaging her limb and pulling her arm out of its chest. The Vehicon twitched a little, before making a slight gurgling noise and going silent, its red eye flickering, but not going out.
Thinking quickly, Applebloom leapt over the fallen foe and somersaulted on the landing, just narrowly avoiding a plasma burst right where she had been standing a split second earlier. Running as fast as she could, Applebloom slid across the ground to where her Hammer lay in the dirt. Hefting it up, another burst of plasma sailed right in front of her, barely a centimeter away from her face. Turning to face the last Vehicon, she was too slow and ended up taking a plasma burst straight to the core.
Applebloom cried out and sailed backwards, the force of the impact knocking her off her feet, the heat burning at her armor. The little robot hit the ground with a screech of creaking metal, before skidding back and slamming headfirst into a massive apple tree. The blow had frazzled her motion sensor and readout systems and she felt like something had been knocked loose inside of her. Her vision glitching and sometimes bursting with static, the little robot lay on the ground with a groan, still clutching her hammer.
Applebloom heard footsteps approaching. Blinking blearily, she saw the massive Vehicon slowly approaching her, both his weapons still trained on her. Warily, the ‘Con stepped around her, attempting to get a good look at her without stepping in range of her fangs or her hammer. When it looked like she was down for the count, the Vehicon turned his head to address his superior.
“Sir, I think I’ve got her!” he shouted.
Applebloom took the moment. With a mighty swing, she hefted her hammer and plowed it straight into the trunk of the gigantic apple tree she was resting against. Apples flew everywhere. The bark cracked and creaked, before the whole tree finally gave. With an earsplitting CRUNCH, the tree started to tip over, twisting at the base and falling over. The Vehicon barely had time to turn his head back to his victim before the tree toppled over and collapsed atop him. With a cry of alarm and pain, the Vehicon was pinned beneath the trunk of the tree.
“Dammit!” The Vehicon shouted. With alarm, Applebloom noticed that the Vehicon was lifting it off of him. Quickly jumping to her feet, she stumbled up to the prone enemy and opened her mouth wide. “What? NO!” The Vehicon shouted.
Applebloom didn’t heed him. The little robot sank her fangs into the robot’s thigh, biting through layers of armor and chassis and revealing an energon pipe beneath. Greedily, she sucked at it, feeling the pain from the Vehicon’s attack fade away, while her foe felt his strength slowly fading away, until he could no longer lift the tree and he lay on the ground in a sickened daze.
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” came a furious shout. Applebloom turned to ready her hammer, but was unprepared for what she saw.
Dead End stood across the grassy field from her, a triumphant smirk on his face. Lined up in front of him, all weeping silently were her classmates, as well as the students and faculty of the other classes in the school. Applebloom froze, unsure of what to do.
“Now you listen to me!” Dead End shouted. “One more move, and I’ll frag the lot of them, understand?!”
Applebloom nodded, her eyes starting to water as she saw Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle among the gathered crowd in front of the ‘Con. “...I-I understand. Just don’t hurt them!” she said.
“Drop your hammer and come towards me,” He said, his cannon arm twitching. “Slowly.”
Applebloom held her hammer out in one hand and tossed it a few yards to her side. Then, slowly, she took a single step forward.
“Don’t do it, Applebloom!” Scootaloo shouted.
“Shut up!” Dead End hollered. “One more outburst and I’ll slag you anyway!” He turned his attention back to Applebloom. “Keep coming, Scraplet.”
Applebloom nodded, slowly walking forwards, fighting to hold back her tears. Despite all the fighting and overpowering three foes quadruple her size, she had still lost. When she got about two thirds of the way across the grassy field, Dead End spoke again.
“Alright, that’s far enough. Stop!”
Applebloom came to a halt. Silence reigned in the ruined, burning schoolyard, but her thoughts raced at a million miles a minute. ‘They’re gonna take me on board their ship and torture me and kill me and they’re gonna kill all my friends and maybe even all of Ponyville and then who knows what they’re gonna do to the rest of Equestria and I’ll never see Applejack or Big Mac or Granny Smith again and wait a minute…” her thoughts came to a halt as she looked past the crowd of ponies and her massive enemy into her ruined classroom. “Didn’t that bookshelf fall on Miss Cheerilee?”
Indeed, the bookshelf that had previously been face down atop her teacher was now resting on its side, and the pile of books below it looked more spread out and askew than previously. And now that she scanned the crowd, Miss Cheerilee was nowhere to be seen.
Before she could fully process the information, though, Dead End spoke again.
“Now get to your knees and put your hands behind your head, Autobot.” Dead End said, commandingly.
Applebloom blinked before obliging, putting her hands behind her head and slowly kneeling down. She looked all around in Cheerilee’s classroom for any sign of her teacher, but all she could see that was out of place was a cabinet that had previously been locked was now hanging open. Before she had any time to process that, though, Dead End spoke again.
“I don’t care what Shockwave says,” he snarled. “You’re way too much trouble to let live.” Dead End trained his cannon on Applebloom’s face, its glow intensifying. “Say goodnight, grease stain.”
“I SAID GET AWAY FROM MY STUDENTS!”
A glass flask sailed through the air and shattered against Dead End’s face.
Dead End screamed, stumbling backwards and collapsing into the schoolhouse, knocking down part of the ceiling before he found his footing. The shrieking Decepticon retracted his cannons and clutched at his face with his hands.
A familiar head of purple hair poked out from behind a bush, a massive chemistry set at her hooves. “Everypony run! To the emergency shelter! Now!”
The three other teachers quickly took charge of the panicking students and led them quickly to a storm door on the other side of the school. Dead End continued to thrash about. “My optics! I can’t see!”
Applebloom took her chance. Leaping to her feet, she made a mad dash at Dead End. She leapt up and grabbed ahold of his chest, opening her mouth wide and sinking her fangs deep into his chest.
Dead End screamed. “GET OFF OF ME!” He howled, quickly grabbing hold of Applebloom in his massive hand and throwing her as hard as he could. The little robot sailed through the air, only to come to a sudden stop as she hit the schoolhouse bell with a resounding BONG! The little Autobot slipped off of the belltower and onto the schoolhouse roof, scrabbling to keep purchase on the steeply-sloped roof.
Dead End stumbled out into the courtyard, grabbing frantically at the comm device on his shoulder. “BLITZWING! I NEED AN IMMEDIATE GROUNDBRIDGE ON MY LOCATION! NOW!”
Applebloom stumbled around as she desperately tried to keep hold of the roof. Watching Dead End stumble around in agony, she suddenly saw another green vortex open in the middle of the ruined schoolyard. Blindly feeling his way towards the whooshing, crackling noise of the vortex called a groundbridge, Dead End stumbled through, followed by the the Vehicon that had shot her before, supporting the maimed one she scrambled with a fireman’s carry. The moment the two of them made it through, the vortex closed.
Applebloom clung to the roof of the schoolhouse, gasping for breath and watching the spot where the Decepticons had vanished, her hackles raised and her body tensed. She only allowed herself a deep sigh, breathing normally again after a good three minutes had passed with no activity. Her heart still pounding in her metal chest, Applebloom slowly scooted herself down the side of the sloped schoolhouse roof, carefully dropping off the side and landing on all fours with a little stumble.
The little robot straightened up for a moment, and then collapsed against the side of the building, slumping back and slouching in exhaustion.
Idly, she moved her tongue around in her mouth, noticing that the two fangs that she copied from Dead End had vanished. The massive Decepticon was gone and her ability had followed him.
“It’s over…” she mumbled with a relieved sigh.
Then her own words hit her. “...it’s over” she whispered again. “Everypony saw me. Everypony’s gonna panic and scream and yell at me. Nopony’s ever gonna want to speak to me again and they’re gonna call the guards on me and I’m gonna be banished from Equestria or dissected or worse…” She started shivering, tears starting to drip from her eyes. “I gotta get away from here…”
Applebloom stumbled to her feet, staggering a little from the exertion. Steeling herself, she strode across the ruined, cratered schoolyard to retrieve her hammer. The field in front of the schoolhouse had previously been a well maintained, picturesque little patch of land where foals would bound around and play before and after school. Now it was a patch of ruined, cratered land, with little but scorched grass, crevasses and potholes where plasma blasts had hit, and fallen trees and debris, with one great big dead robot as the cherry on top of it all.
Reaching for her hammer, Applebloom looked around the destroyed field and sighed. She stood, grabbing her weapon, but as she was ready to leave she suddenly found herself tackled to the ground.
Applebloom panicked, crying out with a little yelp, tensing up, she readied her hammer to lash out at her attackers when she suddenly noticed what her two attackers were saying.
“Applebloom, we were so worried!” Sweetie Belle cried into her chest.
“That was so awesome, you totally took those metal morons to town!” Scootaloo cheered, hugging her around her neck
“Are you hurt?! Can we get you anything? You were so brave to stand up to those big bullies like that!”
“You were incredible! They were like PEW PEW I’MMA GETCHOO and you were like NUH UH CAN’T TOUCH ME IT’S HAMMER TIME!”
“I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“You were awesome!”
“Girls please!” Applebloom said, trying to shake her friends off of her, a panicked look on her face. “I need to get away from here! The other ponies, they’ll-”
“Applebloom?” came a voice from a ways away.
The little robot froze, looking up with dread. Miss Cheerilee was standing about six hoof lengths away, the rest of the students of Ponyville Schoolhouse and other faculty members standing not far behind her.
Applebloom shivered, barely fighting back tears. This was it. She was going to be run out of town. She was going to be strapped to a table and taken apart. She was going to be-
Somepony started stomping.
Applebloom looked up. Miss Cheerilee was smiling widely and stomping her hooves in applause. The little robot blinked as she scanned the rest of the crowd. Their faces had ranged from unsure to wary, but now a great many were starting to look as happy and proud as Cheerilee. Soon, another pony started stomping her hooves. And then another. And another.
In moments, the whole crowd was stomping their hooves. The ground rumbled with the force of their applause.
Applebloom bent down and hugged Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, letting the tears flow freely.
* * * (Meanwhile...) * * *
Applejack sat blearily on a bench outside Sugarcube Corner, desperately clutching at her aching head and blinking her eyes, trying to get the spots from Twilight’s little flashbang spell to go away. Her ears were ringing and it felt like a hundred angry minotaurs were having a free for all inside her skull. The drunken orange mare burped, a little bile landing in her mouth and causing her to grimace. Bending over and clutching her stomach, she let out a pitiful moan.
And then the contents of a rainbarrel were dumped on her.
“Sweet Celestia!” Applejack sputtered, grabbing onto her stained hat. Coughing and sputtering out rainwater, Applejack rounded on the pony responsible. Twilight was gently setting the rainbarrel down next to the building she grabbed it from. “What in the hay was that for, Twilight? Ain’t enough you went and blinded me?”
“Trying to sober you up, Applejack.” Twilight said testily. “And don’t act like I’m at fault here. What in the wide world of Equestria were you doing, breaking into Sugarcube Corner and drinking all of their rum?”
“It’s okay, Twilight.” Pinkie said with a shrug, sidling up next to the purple unicorn with a sigh, a loaf of fresh bread on her back. “We’ll have to take rum cakes off the menu for a while, but aside from a few spilled bags of sugar there’s not much other damage.” Pinkie trotted up to Applejack, setting the loaf of plain bread on the bench next to her, then picked herself up and sat next to the sodden farm mare, patting her on the back. Applejack burped again.
“It’s not the damages, Pinkie, it’s the principle!” Twilight fumed. “What were you thinking, Applejack? If the Cakes hadn’t convinced the guards to back off you could have been arrested for that stunt!”
Applejack merely grumbled something unseemly under her breath.
“What could have possessed you to get so drunk in the first place?” Twilight demanded, sternly. “It isn’t like you!”
“Ah, why don’cha shut your flappin’ gums, Twilight!” Applejack snapped, blinking her eyes some more. “Y’all don’t know horseapples!”
Twilight was taken aback for a moment at Applejack’s language towards her, but quickly pressed on. “Applejack, I’m trying to understand what, even drunk, would make you think that breaking into Sugarcube Corner was a good idea?! What’s wrong with you?!”
“Oh, what’s wrong with me, ya ask?! Says the self-righteous unicorn who can’t let a pony sit n’ have a drink in peace!” Applejack stood up, stumbling around a little before finding her footing. “Y’all don’t know me! Y’all think you know me but’cha don’t!” She said, staggering over to Twilight and poking her in the chest.
Twilight’s nose wrinkled at the smell coming off of her friend. “There’s having a drink and drinking yourself straight into the ground, AJ! And it’s especially bad when you have to break into a friend’s house to do it!”
“Iff’n the Cakes’re such good friends they wouldn’t be lyin’ like snakes behind my back!” Applejack snarled, teetering on her hooves.
“What?!” Twilight asked, her eyes widening.
“Figgered them lyin’ shrews’d have something to drink around the place. Cookin’ wine if nothin’ else. Kitchen’s got that.”
“Applejack, why would you ever want to get so dead drunk?!” Twilight looked at her friend aghast.
“Don’t y’all go and judge me, miss fancy Canterlot unicorn!” Applejack snapped. “Bet’cha you go clopping off to yer books when nopony’s lookin’!”
“Applejack!” Twilight gasped, “What in the world has gotten-”
“Twilight, please be quiet.” Pinkie said. The pink mare had an uncharacteristically serious look on her face. “You’re both going in circles and it isn’t helping.”
The purple unicorn blinked at Pinkie’s seriousness, but quickly nodded and took a few paces back.
“Applejack, can you sit with me please?” Pinkie asked, patting the spot next to her on the bench. “Munch on the bread, it’ll help your tummy.”
Applejack grumbled, but eventually staggered back to the bench and slouched down next to Pinkie Pie. Reluctantly, she lifted up the loaf of bread in her hoof and took a small bite out of it, chewing it with a grimace. After about two minutes of silent chewing, the farmer finally swallowed her morsel.
Twilight went to open her mouth but Pinkie shushed her with a hoof, before turning to Applejack. “AJ, what happened last night?” She asked, gently. “Why did you break into the Cakes’ kitchen?”
Applejack sniffed, burping again before answering. “Tavern threw me out at 3 in the mornin’,” she answered woozily. “Still needed a drink and didn’t wanna go home.”
“Why didn’t you want to go home?” Pinkie asked, rubbing her friend’s back.
Applejack grumbled, burying her muzzle in the bread again, taking a big bite of the bread and chewing it slowly.
Pinkie let her chew for a moment before asking again. “AJ?”
Applejack huffed and swallowed the bread, taking a moment to brush a sodden hair out of her eyes. “Applebloom got her cutie mark last night.”
Pinkie suddenly grinned. “Really?! That’s ama-” the pink mare stopped herself from going any further before shaking her head and composing herself again. “I mean… isn’t that a good thing? She’s been trying to get it for years now.” Pinkie frowned. “Oh dear… it wasn’t a pair of panties with bits shoved in them or a phone and three X’s or anything, was it?”
Applejack chuckled weakly. “Naw, ain’t nothin like that… it’s just…” the farmer rubbed her forehead, “It’s just her cutie mark… it ended up showin’ me that Applebloom an’ the rest of my family… they been lyin’ to me my whole life.”
Pinkie nodded. Twilight silently trotted over and sat down next to the consoling party pony. “What were they lying to you about, Applejack?” Pinkie asked.
Applejack sighed deeply. “Applebloom… she ain’t really my-”
“Ummm, excuse me?” a voice came from off to the side.
The three ponies looked up to see Mr. Cake standing there with a plate on his back carrying a travel cup of coffee. The baker scratched a leg with a hoof nervously. “I was just wondering if maybe you’d like some Coffee, Applejack? To help sober you up?”
The farmpony’s temper suddenly flared again. She leapt to her hooves and snarled, unsteadily stomping up to Mr. Cake. “I don’t want yer damn coffee, you lyin’ rat!” she spat, raising her hoof and knocking the cup off of his back, spilling it all over the ground. Mr. Cake scrabbled backwards out of the way of the angry mare.
“Applejack!” Twilight cried, grabbing her with her telekinesis and dragging her back towards the bench.
The orange mare was practically frothing at the mouth. “Y’all knew! Y’all knew about my sister this whole time and y’all didn’t think to tell me?!”
“Your sister?” Mr. Cake stuttered. “Wait… you mean-”
“Y’all knew what she was the whole time and y’all didn’t think to tell me once!” Applejack roared. “Not once! Not none of the times I went and delivered you apples! Not none of the times I helped y’all with baking contests! Not none of the times I saved yer’ flanks from some monster or other! What kinda friends do you think you are?!”
Pinkie spoke up. “Applejack,” she said, firmly. “Can you come sit back down?”
Applejack fumed for a minute before the fight seemed to go out of her. Hanging her head, Applejack stumbled back to the bench and sat down hard next to Pinkie Pie.
“I… I need to go talk to Cup.” Mr. Cake stammered as he broke out in a nervous sweat, galloping off back into Sugarcube Corner. Applejack glared after him for a little bit, before slumping back against the bench.
“What’s going on with Applebloom, AJ?” Pinkie asked, putting a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder.
Applejack sighed deeply, pulling her hat down over her eyes. “She ain’t an Apple, Pinkie.”
Pinkie Pie cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean what I said!” Applejack snapped, whipping her head around to glare at Pinkie, only for her to clutch her head and groan as a lance of pain shot through it. Applejack continued through gritted teeth. “‘Pparently Big Mac, Cheerilee, Snowflake, and Mr. Cake found her when she was a baby.”
“So that’s why you were so mad at Mr. Cake…” Twilight mused, tapping her chin. It took a moment, but the weight of Applejack’s words hit her. “Wait, you mean she’s adopted?” Twilight asked. Applejack simply replaced the hat over her eyes and nodded. “But that doesn’t make any sense,” Twilight muttered. “There’s so much family resemblance between her and you and Mac-”
Twilight was cut off as Pinkie placed a hoof over her mouth.
“And you didn’t know she was adopted, AJ?” Pinkie asked.
Applejack shook her head. “Ain’t nopony told me,” she sighed, “Everypony in my family knew but me ‘n her. Guess they thought I woulda figured it out for myself since my ma never got pregnant or nothin’. But I’m a silly pony who ain’t got no brains and I jes’ thought she had a good pregnancy or something,” she muttered, sounding annoyed.
Pinkie Pie chuckled. “I have eight younger sisters, and I can pretty much guarantee you, AJ, there’s no such thing as a ‘good pregnancy.’”
“So I’ve heard…” AJ grumbled.
“But, so what?” Pinkie said with a pat on her back. “I mean, adopted or not, she still grew up with you, right? You two still grew up in the same house together for twelve years. You still love each other like sisters.”
Applejack sniffed, her eyes still hidden by her hat. Her mouth seemed to be pressing tighter and tighter, though, and her breathing was getting strained.
“Yeah, it hurts that they kept it a secret from you, but it sounds like she’s a sister to you anyway.”
Applejack let out a shuddering breath. “It ain’t just that though. It’s more complicated than that.”
“What’s complicating it?” Pinkie asked.
“Applebloom… she ain’t a pony…” Applejack whispered.
“What?” Pinkie asked, cocking her head.
“Not a pony?” Twilight blinked. “What are you saying, AJ? Are you trying to say Applebloom’s a changeling or a mimicker or something?”
Applejack’s hoof tensed around the loaf of bread, crushing it. “I wish it were that simple,” she growled. “Naw, turns out Bloom is a-”
“MONSTER ROBOT!”
All heads in the Ponyville Town Square turned to see two little fillies galloping up the main road as fast as their little legs could carry them. One, a steel gray with a lighter gray mane and the other a bright pink with a purple and white mane, both of them were panickedly charging through the streets screaming the same words over and over again.
“MONSTER ROBOT! GIANT MONSTER ROBOT AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE!” Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon screamed.
“What in tarnation?!” Applejack said, sitting up.
A town guard was quickly flagged down and galloped over to the girls who had stopped only a few yards away from the bench the three friends were sitting on. The unicorn cleared his throat and spoke.
“What’s going on here, fillies?” The town guard asked the two of them, eyeing the crowd to make sure the rest of the skittish citizens of Ponyville weren’t being driven into a panic.
“At the schoolhouse!” Diamond Tiara shouted. “We were just starting class when a giant robot smashed through the wall and started attacking!”
“It attacked Miss Cheerilee and hurt her real bad!” Silver Spoon nodded, shaking. “And then three more showed up and started tearing up the schoolyard and attacking Applebloom!”
Applejack leapt up out of the bench and started charging out of town, faster than should have been equinely possible with as much rum as she drank.
“Applejack!” Twilight called after her, before growling and alighting her horn. “Come on, Pinkie, we have to catch her!”
Pinkie didn’t respond to her. She was intently watching as a platoon of guards ran past them in the same direction as Applejack went, still listening to Diamond Tiara still explaining her story to the guard.
“But that’s not the worst part!” Diamond protested. “Applebloom, she’s one of-”
Twilight teleported the two of them before Pinkie could hear the rest of what Diamond Tiara had to say.
The two ponies reappeared on the path to the schoolhouse, right in front of Applejack. The farm pony tried to rear back and stop herself, but she was too off balance from the drinks to dodge and going too fast to just come to a halt. The three ponies all collided in a tangle of limbs, the three of them rolling until they ended up colliding with the side of a building. As the three of them gathered themselves back up, the platoon of guards passed them, charging along almost as fast as Applejack had been.
“What the hay, Twilight?!” Applejack roared. “I need to save Applebloom!”
“AJ, you’re drunk!” Twilight protested as Pinkie desperately tried to keep the farmer pinned. “If you try and go fighting monsters in your condition, you’ll get killed!”
“I’ll take on anything that tries to hurt my sister!” Applejack snarled, trying to push Pinkie off of her.
Pinkie didn’t respond to the farmer’s pushing, but looked askance to Twilight. “Guess that sorts out the family issues, huh?” she said, aside.
Twilight ignored the pink pony. “Applejack stop, you’ll only get the both of you hurt in your condition!” Twilight shook her head. "Look, Pinkie and I can gather the other girls and take care of it, but I'm not going to let you go out there and fight monsters while you're intoxicated!"
"I fought plenty o' monsters!" AJ snapped.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Not after binge drinking half a dozen bottles of rum you haven't." she quipped.
Applejack spat. “That's my kin y'all are keeping me from! Y'all're gonna take too long gettin' the others, and either way, I gotta be the one to save her! Gotta let her know I still care! Now git offa me!” she shouted, kicking out with her hind hoof. The buck connected with Pinkie’s gut, winding her and throwing the party pony off of her. Applejack scrabbled to her feet, just as Twilight lit her horn, casting a levitation spell upon the farm pony. "What the hay?!" Applejack swore, kicking and thrashing about in midair.
"That's enough, Applejack!" Twilight grunted, gritting her teeth. Levitating a pony for an extended period of time was no small feat, especially if that pony didn't want to be levitated. "I'm doing this for your own safety. I'm teleporting you back to the Library."
The farmer snorted, letting out a growl as she rotated in Twilight's magical grasp. "Like Tartarus you are!" Twilight began to cast the teleport spell, but was interrupted as Applejack swung herself around and aimed a solid buck right at Twilight's face. The buck connected with the side of her head with a thundering 'CRACK!' Twilight cried out, spinning on her hooves a few times, before falling to the ground out cold.
“Twilight!” Pinkie Pie gasped, running over to her fallen friend. Applejack took the moment to stumble after the guards, her galloping erratic as she wove from side to side down the street.
Pinkie sighed as she watched Applejack disappear down the path, her mane drooping a little. “It was going so well, too…”
* * *
Four ponies sat in the middle of Cheerilee’s classroom, sitting quietly with a cup of tea each. The rest of the students at Ponyville Schoolhouse had all been sent home and the other faculty members had quickly followed. Applebloom had retrieved her hammer and tucked it away safely inside of her after shrinking it back down to handle size, then changed back into pony form. Now, here she was, sitting nervously in Cheerilee’s classroom with a cup of tea and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo on either side of her. Cheerilee sat in front of her with an enigmatic smile on her face. The four of them all sipped their tea quietly for a little bit before Cheerilee finally spoke.
“So…” she said, cocking an eyebrow. “I take it this was what you wanted to talk about before class, Applebloom? Or did you just want to come up with an excuse for late homework?”
Applebloom looked at her blankly for a second before smirking and chuckling weakly. “No… this is what I wanted to talk to you about, Miss Cheerilee.” She sighed. “I… well I discovered this about myself last night.” She waved her arms at her teacher. “I didn’t know nothin’ about the other robots, though I swear. I had no idea that they were in Equestria.”
“Don’t worry about it, Applebloom.” Cheerilee said, softly putting a hoof on the filly’s shoulder. “Everypony got out okay.”
“But you didn’t!” Applebloom protested, pointing at the various gashes and bruises that covered Cheerilee’s body. “That Dead End guy banged you up somethin’ fierce!”
Cheerilee shook her head. “It’s just a few scratches, Applebloom.” she said. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“But…” Applebloom tried to protest, only for Cheerilee to hold up a hoof.
“I’ll be fine, Applebloom,” she insisted. “I think the more important question is how are you?”
Applebloom went silent for a moment, looking deeply into her empty teacup. “I’m fine, Miss Cheerilee.”
“I don’t think that’s true, Applebloom.” Cheerilee said softly.
“No really,” Applebloom said. “I got a few scratches from the fight, but they seem to be fixin’ themselves okay. I don’t rightly understand how, but somehow my body is managing to repair itself.”
“I’m not talking about your body, Applebloom. I can see that it’s fixing itself.” Cheerilee pointed to Applebloom’s forehead. “You had a massive metal shard lodged in your head just twenty minutes ago. I can barely tell anything happened at all now.”
Applebloom felt her forehead. There was a small patch where she didn’t feel any fur but other than that, the wound had closed up and was no longer leaking energon fluid.
“Weird…” Applebloom muttered.
“Cool!” Scootaloo said with a grin. “She’s got a healing factor! Like Badger from the X-Ponies!”
“Shhh!” Sweetie shushed her with a roll of her eyes. “You read too many comics.”
“I’m talking about how you’re feeling, Applebloom.” Cheerilee said gently. “When I talked to you this morning, you seemed very upset for somepony who just got their cutie mark.”
Applebloom was silent.
“She had a fight with Applejack.” Scootaloo said. “She transformed last night and Applejack freaked out.”
Cheerilee nodded. “I see…”
“She attacked me.” Appleboom mumbled. “She thought I were some kinda monster that went and skinned her ‘real’ sister and was wearin’ her like a dress or somethin.” Applebloom buried her face in her hooves. “And then when we got her calmed down, she still went and said I ain’t her sister after Big Mac told the story of how he found me.”
Cheerilee sighed and leaned back, silent for a moment before speaking again. “Applejack is stubborn and bull-headed. Always has been. When a thought gets lodged in her head, it takes either a long time or a real shock to the system to get it out.”
“Except what if she’s right?” Applebloom whined. “I mean… I’m a robot alien from space! I ain’t her sister… ‘specially not now.” she moaned.
“What do you mean?” Cheerilee asked.
“Well, look at what I did!” Applebloom said sharply. “I went and starting bitin’ those robots and drinkin’ their blood… energon… stuff!” she shouted. “Hay, I killed one of them!” she pointed out the massive hole in the wall at the fallen robot, still lying on the ground motionless where it lay next to a mangled tree stump. “An’ I hurt the others so bad, they might never get better!” She shivered. “Applejack was right. I’m a monster.”
“Applebloom, no.” Cheerilee said sternly. “You are not a monster.”
“But I-”
“Listen to me,” Cheerilee said, putting her hooves on Applebloom’s shoulders. “Those were bad creatures, whatever they were. They wanted to hurt you. Not just hurt you, they wanted to kill you. You and every other pony that was here.”
Applebloom sighed. “I’m not a pony,” she grumbled.
“You’re more pony than you know, Applebloom,” Cheerilee said, releasing the little yellow filly. “Listen, fighting something that wants to hurt you… wants to kill you or your friends… you have to do what you have to do to protect the ones you love.” Cheerilee shook her head. “I wish I didn’t have to tell you, but not everything is always cut and dry. Some things in life are confusing and hard to deal with. I’m not sure what to tell you about family and what you should do or feel about Applejack. I don’t have any family like that…” Cheerilee trailed off before picking up again. “But I can tell you this, Applebloom,” she said firmly. “You are not a monster. And nopony here thinks you are. Taking a life in defense of the ones you love and care about doesn’t make you a monster or an animal or anything like that. If anything, that’s what makes you a pony most of all.”
Applebloom sighed, still looking unconvinced. “Why didn’t you tell me about when you and my brother found me?”
Cheerilee looked pensive for a bit and hummed, sipping at her tea. After a moment, she spoke. “We didn’t think it was important. We thought that, whatever had happened in that ship, it had made you one-hundred-percent pony. You never showed any signs of anything otherwise. Not to mention, Yoketron’s last wish was that you be treated as any other pony and that you be kept safe from fighting.” She took a deep breath. “I guess we failed on that front.”
“I don’t want to fight anymore.” Applebloom said sadly.
“You won’t have to.” Cheerilee said, shaking her head. “If there are any more of these ‘Decepticons,’ and I’m sure there are, then you don’t have to be the one to fight them. The Elements of Harmony, the Guard, the Princesses… I’m sure they can all take care of any more Decepticons that show up.”
“I don’t want to be a monster…” Applebloom mumbled sadly.
Cheerilee put a hoof under Applebloom’s chin and raised her head a little. “You aren’t a monster, Applebloom.”
“But that’s just it, Miss Cheerilee…” Applebloom said, looking away. “What I did… I copied that Dead End guy’s power. There’s something…” she sighed, getting ready to explain. “Yoketron somehow gave me a lot of information on my species. And there’s something that we have that are just called ‘Abilities.’ They give people like me special powers. That Dead End guy had the ability to suck energon… basically robot blood... out of other robots like a vampire.”
“Yes?” Miss Cheerilee urged Applebloom to go on.
Applebloom took a deep, shaking breath. “I think… I think my ability is that I can copy other robots’ powers. Like some sort of mimicker or something. Maybe it has something to do with how I can analyze and fix machines or something, I dunno. But what I mean is… when I copied Dead Ends power…”
There was silence in the schoolhouse for a moment. It was a full thirty seconds before Applebloom spoke again.
“When I copied his power and sucked out that robot’s blood for the first time... it felt good.” she whispered. “Fighting them… I was scared and I was horrified when I killed one of them and it hurt when I got hit but… somehow it felt good too. It made me feel powerful.”
Cheerilee said nothing for a moment. The schoolteacher was just about to open her mouth when there was a clatter of hooves outside the schoolhouse. The ponies inside all turned to see a contingent of guards galloping up to the schoolhouse. Several of the guards broke off from the main group to inspect the fallen robot body still laying in front of the school. Three guards trotted up to the massive hole in the wall of the schoolhouse and addressed the ponies inside.
“Miss Cheerilee,” said an approaching unicorn guard with a crest the color of his jet black mane as opposed to the usual blue crest of an average guard. “Branch Commander Ballista,” he said, levitating a badge out of a hidden compartment in his golden armor. “We got a report that there was a monster attack here. From what we can understand from the reports, they were some sort massive, metal golems?”
Miss Cheerilee motioned to the three fillies to sit tight as she talked to the guard. Turning back to the officer, she nodded. “Yes, there were four of them. One of them fell in the attack, but the other three got away.” She continued, raising a hoof. “Aside from some damage to the schoolhouse and a few minor injuries, nopony was hurt, thank Celestia.”
The branch commander looked back and forth between the ponies and the massive robot the other guards were swarming over. “Given the size of that thing and the amount of damage, I have to ask… how did that one fall? How did you drive the others away?”
Cheerilee chuckled. “Well, I threw hydrofluoric acid at their leader for one thing,” she winked. “There’s a reason teachers lock the chemistry cabinets.”
The commander blinked. “Impressive.” he said, nodding. “But what about the fallen one over there? How did you drive the others away?”
“That was us!” Scootaloo piped up with a grin. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Monster Slayers!”
“What?!” Sweetie Belle and Applebloom yelped at the same time. Cheerilee slapped a hoof to her face.
The commander simply coughed. “Given some of the things you three have done around town, I can almost believe that you three are enough to drive a quartet of steel golems away.” He narrowed his eyes. “Almost.”
Cheerilee sighed. “You see, sir, what really happened is-”
The guard cut her off. “That does bring me to another point of intel we got though,” he said gruffly, looking at Applebloom. “We got a report that young Applebloom here… changed somehow during the commotion.” He looked with a raised eyebrow at Cheerilee. “I’m sure you understand the implications of this claim?”
The schoolteacher cleared her throat. “Sir, I can assure you. Applebloom is not a changeling.”
“You may vouch for her, ma’am, but it’s well known that changelings have the ability to brainwash ponies.” He shook his head. “Somehow I doubt that Applebloom is a changeling. There’s been no word of them since they invaded Ponyville a few months back, and Miss Sparkle reported that she trapped them all in some sort of pocket dimension during the Secretariat event. That said, we have procedures for this. We’re going to have to use a changeling detection spell on her.”
“Wait, what will that do?” Sweetie Belle asked nervously.
The guard commander nodded to the other two unicorns in his company. The two of them trotted into the room, standing horns-ready on the other side of the collected ponies. The guard turned to address Sweetie Belle. “It’s a simple spell meant to disrupt anything that might be generalized as a transformation or illusion,” he explained. “You don’t have to worry about it hurting your friend. The most it should do to a pony is disrupt some cosmetic illusions, if there are any. To a changeling, though, it shatters their spell, revealing them instantly and tending to knock them out.”
“Um…” Applebloom stuttered, sweating a little.
“Mister Ballista, if you would please let me explain something about Applebloom-”
Commander Ballista held up a hoof and smiled disarmingly. “Listen, don’t worry. The two fillies that gave us the intel were hysterical. They said she changed into a robot or something. I’m sure they were just confused from being so frightened. This is merely procedure.”
Cheerilee cleared her throat. “Sir, if you’d just listen.” Cheerilee said, trying to get his attention but the guard shook his head.
“Ma’am, it’s procedure. We could listen all day, but I have to use the spell. I’m going to have to ask you to stand back.”
Cheerilee sighed and stepped back a few paces. The teacher looked at Applebloom and smiled weakly. “Don’t worry, Applebloom. I’m sure you’ll be okay.”
Applebloom shivered, unsure whether her mechanical transformations would be affected by the spell or not. She really didn’t want to find out, but on the other hand, she didn’t want to fight the town guards either. All she could think to do was sit there, looking at the floor.
“Here we go, little filly. Ready?” Commander Ballista asked.
Applebloom said nothing.
“One…” The commander said, alighting his horn.
“Two…” Applebloom flinched.
“Three!”
Applebloom felt a bolt of magic hit her and immediately felt something was wrong. Her whole body seized up and started to tingle violently. She felt her muscles start spasming as the spell shot through her body like a bolt of lightning. ‘No, please not again!’ she thought to herself as she felt her waist twisting, her face splitting open, and her limbs extending like pistons. She felt her body seize up like it was paralyzed as she exploded outward into her robot form and collapsed on the floor twitching, her whole world starting to go dim.
“Mother of Celestia, what is that?!” She heard one of the guards shout.
“It’s some kind of changeling trick!”
“It looks kind of like that golem out there! What do we do?!”
“No!” she heard Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shout. “Stop!”
“They’ve been brainwashed! Sleep spells!” one of the other guards shouted.
“Leave my students alo-!” Miss Cheerilee was cut off as she too was hit by a guard’s sleep spell.
“EVERYPONY QUIET!” Applebloom heard the commander shout as she finally slipped under. The commander’s face was etched into a deep frown as he looked down at the unconscious filly-turned-robot. He sighed, exhaustedly. “I don’t know what it is, but it isn’t a changeling. Load them up in a prison cart and have her and the others transported to Canterlot for questioning and mental scans.”
“Yes sir!” One of the guards shouted.
The rest of the guards galloped off, each of them with an unconscious pony on their backs. Ballista looked at the unconscious form of Applebloom and groaned. “Why do we always get the weird stuff here in Ponyville?” he said tiredly, dipping his head under her prone form and hefting her onto her back.
“GET AWAY FROM MY SISTER!” came an enraged howl. Ballista turned, only to catch an orange hoof sailing towards his face. He stumbled back, barely dodging the right hook that Applejack had thrown his way.
“Miss Applejack, please calm down!” Commander Ballista shouted as several guards attempted to tackle the orange mare, only for each of them to get thrown off or kicked in the face on their approach. “This isn’t your sister, it’s some sort of golem!”
“That’s my sister, alright! And I ain’t letting you take her!” Applejack shrieked, throwing another hook at Ballista, this one grazing his snout. “Ain’t nopony taking her from me!”
The commander growled. “Applejack, I can smell the drink on you!” Ballista said, getting angry. “Stop this before I have to stop you myself!”
“I’ll stop when y’all drop my sister!” Applejack frothed at the mouth. “Give her to me, ya varmints! I saw you cast that spell on her and her friends!”
“Enough of this!” Ballista shouted, jumping back from another kick. His horn lit up again as he shot a powerful bolt of lightning at Applejack’s chest, singing her fur and stunning the orange mare with a shriek.
“AAAAAAAAAGH!” howled Applejack as her body seized up, shaking and spasming. Applejack suddenly lurched forward and spewed all of the contents of her stomach up, splattering vomit all over Ballista’s chest and armor, before finally collapsing face down and unmoving as the taser spell ended.
Ballista grimaced disgustedly as he kicked Applejack over with a dripping hoof. “Ugh,” he retched. “Damn drunk.”
He pointed to a guard picking himself up after Applejack’s assault. “You, load her into the cart with the rest of them, they’re all going to Canterlot!” he shouted, Applebloom still hanging off of his back.
“Yes sir!” the guard called, sticking his head under the stinking Applejack and lifting the heavy mare onto his back with an ‘oof.’
Commander Ballista sighed. “These reports are going to be Tartarus.” he said as he handed the still unconscious Applebloom off to another guard. The prisoner cart soon rolled into the clearing, and the four unconscious ponies and one robot were all loaded in and secured with hoofcuffs to the rails along the interior. In mere minutes, the cart was on its way to the train station, where it would be loaded onto a train and shipped off to Canterlot.
Applebloom stirred restlessly in her fitful sleep. Nopony noticed as her chestplate opened, revealing a strange, blue-glowing, spherical object buried deep within her. A small shower of sparks burst from her chest and green electricity sparked over her small form. The moving parts on Applebloom’s body shuddered and then went still.
Well, I hope this chapter is sufficient. A lot of readers were worried about this chapter employing a 'Deus ex Machina' to solve the cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter. And while I would argue that there had been some decent foreshadowing on the part of Applebloom getting powers to defend herself with (I did show that she was capable of scanning, immediately understanding, fixing, and upgrading mechanics in a previous chapter), I worry that a lot of readers might feel otherwise and that the mimicry powers and abilities were pulled out of thin air.
I will admit to Dead End's vampiric energon-siphon abilities not being properly foreshadowed. That was a mistake on my part. I do apologize for that one. I tried to hint at them in the previous chapter, but I don't know how well it got across. I plan to go back to a previous chapter and have him demonstrate them while aboard the Darksyde so that new readers will see them in action, but I haven't yet gotten around to that. Because I'm lazy. And an ass.
I've tried to sufficiently explain some of what happened in this chapter in the conversation between Applebloom and Cheerilee, though again, I'll admit that it's a little plot-convenient that Applebloom is capable of merely 'understanding' what's going on when it becomes relevant. Hopefully once we get much further into the story this will stop happening as much.
...maybe I should have taken that one reader's suggestion and made Yoketron just stick around in her brain. Then she would have had a better excuse to know these things than "she remembers things that didn't actually happen to her because she had a massive info-download into her memories in the second chapter." It might be less awkward anyway. possibly. I have no idea.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not ENTIRELY satisfied with this chapter. At least not the expositionary parts of it. That said, this is literally only the second time I think I've ever written an actual fight scene and I think it turned out pretty damn well. As far as the fight itself goes, ignoring potential plot aspects, I'm pretty proud of myself on that front.
I'm also pretty proud of the scene with Applejack, Twi, and Pinkie. I'm actually looking forward to using Pinkie a little more in the story. I was skeptical about using her before, but now that I'm writing her, I'm actually really liking an alternate interpretation of a more responsible Pinkie, who knows when to serious up when the situation calls for it. Maybe she learned something from the Cranky Doodle Donkey debacle?
Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to smooth the plot out a little in coming chapters. I may even go back and edit some things in previous chapters later on to make them flow more smoothly. I'll have to reread the story and think about it.
For now, hope the chapter wasn't too bad and that you had fun! 
See you next time!
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Hm... *Narrows eyes*
Ahh, and I started to hate the LOLRANDOM pinkie that most folks write
So she copied Dead End's psudo-terrorcon abilities?
Transformers usually get pretty smash happy when they get Energon drunk.
You`ve seen that fanart too?
I gotta say, you did do the fight scene well enough to be awesome. Except for one thing.
You backtracked here. Even with my limited understanding of writing I can tell this is a big no-no. You should re-word that.
HA!! Hammer Time
As Sweetie Belle would say: OH, COME ON!!! Seriously, though, that poor filly has enough crap to deal with as it is. Those guards really need to be punished for their harsh treatment of not only Apple Bloom, but the others as well. I mean, there is doing their job and then there is crossing a line, and they have crossed that line. I can’t wait to see what will happen when Celestia hear the whole story…
Well, Pinkie helped put some senses into that bonehead of a mare, but it seems Applejack might have hurt her friendship with Twilight.
C&Cs will be PM.
...Ballista is a DICK!
And thus, we see the second reason why no one ever said anything about [REDACTED] finding Apple Bloom in a crashed alien ship in the woods: Because they somehow got the idea in their heads that the Royal Guard would freak out and completely overreact to the situation.
I can't imagine how they might've gotten that idea, outside of the fact that they just freaked out and totally overreacted to the situation. Princess Celestia will not be pleased.
ORLY?
Can't slip these things by me.
Heck no.
That's an easy way out, and it's done wrong 80% of the time. I much prefer a database that cannot be fully accessed all at once. It's unique.
Also, it would detract much needed attention from applebloom.
Loving the story! The battle stretched my sense of plausibility, but it stayed intact because she was overcharged- and She only(lol) took out a grunt and didn't take out any more.
Can't wait for the next chapter~
Wait, what happened at the end there? Was that Applebloom's Spark? She's not dying is she?
5368562 Under the circumstances I don't think the guards did too badly. Except tasering Applejack that was a bit much, could have used a sleep spell there. Yeah they panicked a bit but hey it could have been worse. If those guards had been trainged in America, everyone there would likely have gotten shot.
5368709
...
Might want to look at that first sentence again. Looks like an autocorrect error or something.
5368709
I'm not exactly sure what you're saying. Though I must say, if such a thing were to happen to Applebloom, I think the Royal Guard would have REASON to freak out.
... I can't help but admit that the thought of it makes me particularly uncomfortable...
Yes, they're that kind of guards. They're told to listen but decides not to because it isn't important to listen to civilians. Surely not even the little sisters of two Elements and the teacher of Ponyville's school have something worthwhile to say! Goodness, one would think ponies mattered to their government in Equestria.
I hope the others will realize Applebloom isn't affiliated with the hostile robots, for they will likely appear again soon.
To dream again,
another dream in solitude,
another misconception toward the friendships
of little ponies, like children,
they may doubt the intentions of the unusual,
novel and strange!
Oh, how naive,
to believe in Harmony between that which already resonates,
why simply not hear the beautiful sound?
A voice ringing through the darkness this night,
and within your hearts,
a flower in most beautiful bloom.
Awaiting further releases.
5368779
Eh, true, I suppose.
But, they still show a lack of discipline, they used forceful actions in a situation that could have been resolved more-or-less peacefully by simply listening in the first place, and reacted without sound judgment. To a superior officer, which also included Princess Celestia and Luna, that is still going to be a major issue. And, to be honest, like any of those American's soldiers who decided to fire upon any innocent (or even semi-innocent) souls, those guards would have gotten a court martial and imprisonment, maybe worse, if they did that.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around Applebloom being both organic and machine. I mean, how do spells meant for organic targets affect something metallic?
5368562 5368639 5368709 5368779 5368842 5368851
I must say, I'm a little surprised at how people are reacting to Commander Ballista and the guards.
I was honestly trying to portray them as a little bit more reasonable than they seem to be coming across (though I admit the unnamed, lower ranked ones did get a little spooked by Applebloom's transformation). Ballista in particular I was trying to portray more as a "beleaguered reasonable authority figure" than a massive dick. Believe me, in the original draft he was far more unreasonable and actually tried to downright kill Applebloom, and would have had Applejack not rescued her. This was, of course, before I decided I didn't like that and toned the guards down exponentially.
I will say this. While it doesn't fully justify all of their actions, I will remind everybody that they did mention that they knew Changelings to be capable of brainwashing. They got a note that Applebloom "changed" in some way, which, according to procedure, means that they have to cast the spell, whether people vouch for the pony in question or not. After all, anybody that vouches for the pony could be under the effects of brainwashing. If Applebloom were a Changeling, and she had brainwashed Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Cheerilee, what would the first thing those ponies would say to the guards that wanted to cast the Changeling Detection Spell upon her? Naturally, they'd say "Applebloom is not a Changeling."
They could listen to them explain things all day, but in the end, the spell would have to be cast. And while in this particular case they would have gotten a different explanation where they would tell the guards that Applebloom is a robot but isn't affiliated with the other robots, et cetera et cetera, they had no reason to expect such a thing. And rather than get caught in an endless loop where everybody repeated to him over and over that '"Applebloom is not a Changeling" "But I have to cast it anyway" repeat ad nauseum,' Ballista decided to just cut them off before it got to that point and get on with it. And when it turned out that something entirely different was at play, the exhausted Ballista just said "Nope" and passed the issue off to his superiors.
I guess it didn't come across as well as I'd hoped it would. Sorry about that, everybody. I'll have to think about how to make it come across a bit better.
5368864
This will be explained in the next chapter.
I can see from your explination where you were coming from. He didn't come off as dickish to me as more him taking the easier path and not nessesarly the best one. Personally I would like to see it come back to bite him in the ass a bit. Not major but that's just me.
5368894
I believe they did act in relatively proper conduct after the spell was cast, beside refraining from suggesting they come peacefully. What I objected to was refusing to listen until their "arbitrary" duty was finished. I imagine things would have gone rather differently if only they would first listen to Cheerilee, then act from there. The reveal sufficiently frightened them to the point no rational thought could be made. That isn't a fault of the author, however. Not to worry. We're just voicing our mild contempt for such a pony.
5368894
Whoa, easy there, I am not really angry or even remotely upset. I know that the situation is a bit chaotic and new for them and their panicking is a bit fair. No one is attacking the chapter (at least, most of us are not, anyway), we are just talking about the chapter in general.
And, as for your defensive part about listening, I think you might be going just a bit extreme in your defense. True, they would still be upset at seeing a living robot in front of them, but I like to think the impact might have reduced the panicked a bit, allowing them to acted a bit more professional manner. I can see where you're going with it, though, and you don't have to worry too much on it.
Also, just in case you're thinking it, don't you dare change it because we said something about it. It is fine as it is and you did a good job on it. In any situation, there will always be moments where things should have been done better in hindsight.
As for my thought of punishment, knowing Celestia or one of her Captains, I would have pictured one of them ordering them to do clean-up duty or something on that level for a month (though, the tasering one might lose his position or something...probably not fired, though, since Celestia is a bit of a softie...Luna, maybe, but not Celestia).
5368789 5368814
...
...
...
...
...
I...
...
Oh... oh dear... let me, let me just....
5369002 5368975 5368963
I'm not suggesting anyone is upset. I just figured it would be good to explain why the characters acted the way they did. Whether those particular actions were right or not is up for debate, I was just astonished that so many people got so aggressive towards them. I'm happy to hear that people aren't discounting that section of the story entirely though.
Hope this gets cleared up in then next chapter
breaking into sugarcube corner
if maybe you’d like some Coffee, Applejack
1. Forgot to capitalise.
2. Extra capitalisation.
Well... Applebloom is just getting the short end of the stick so far, not the shortest mind you seeing as she saw how Applejack tried to defend her in the end but still got shocked enough to be detained and have her spark chamber opened. Though I have to wonder about the 'green electricity' part. I don't remotely recall (from my memory anyways) about any Cybertronian experiencing this sort of thing, not even in the entirety of Beast Wars and Beast machines (again, from my memory of things).
You also mentioned that aside from some potential plot aspects that you ignored it went quite well. Yes I would agree that it went quite well especially seeing as how Applebloom managed to fight in that situation especially when she went and did something to the vehicon with her hand inside of it. I can most likely attribute this to both of her recent knowledge and action that she performed. I could argue that she knew in the very back of her head that she could do something but not knowing exactly what but it would definitely help her current situation.
I just hope that should she reach Canterlot, they won't mess around with her spark. If anything, I just hope Celestia can actually see how much Applebloom really cares for her fellow ponies and should not be considered a threat especially if Applebloom sees herself as one. Or you know, you could pull up some eccentric mad scientist who wants to discover what Applebloom can do via all sorts of experimentation and we would go mad from their... overenthusiastic actions. Sure they might mean well but I just wonder if they would actually act if at all before or after they got the information/reports from the guards.
Again, I could be over analysing things. But again, long time Beast Wars and Machine fan so some things tend to pop up into my head more often than not. Wonder how Twilight and the others would be briefed on this? Would the guards consider them a security risk as well? What about the others that know about Applebloom? What would happen if they phrased their response as; "We know Applebloom is something different from us but is not a Changeling,"? Would they ignore the earlier part of the sentence and subconsciously filter it out and listen to the latter?
I should stop talking nonsense before I flood this comment section...
5369064
Heh, a great story usually get more of an emotional reaction than average stories, so it is expected to see some aggressiveness toward a situation like that. It just mean that we, the readers, have gotten emotionally involved into the story, and that's a good thing...well, if done within reason, heh heh.
Anyways, grad to see that everything is all clear out. Keep up the great job.
So, it seems like AB's Spark cleared the spell's paralysis. Good.
That tunnel vision with Ballista, though. One would think that when someone wants to explain, you stop for a moment and listen. It's not like it changes anything you're going to do but it might change how you might react to what happens afterwards.
Mindlessly following procedures is just that: mindless.
Can't wait for next chapter!
5369064
My apologies, I have little patience for the bad choices of fictional characters when they obstruct the protagonist.
5369254
Imp is a "Greater Equestrian Mimicker" that appeared in the MLP Micro Series IDW Comics Issue #7. She was basically a gigantic sapphire with big eyes and only spoke in whistling musical notes, who had the ability to transform into any inanimate object or non-sapient animal. As the lore goes, A Greater Equestrian Mimicker will have the "base form" of whatever it's born as until it finds a form that it feels better suited to, whereupon that will become its new "base form." The CMC interpreted this to be similar to finding a cutie mark, so they inducted her as a new, fifth Cutie Mark Crusader and spent a few days trying to help her find her new base form. Eventually they stopped coming up with forms for her benefit and started using her to do cool things that they wanted to do instead, effectively taking advantage of her abilities. Imp got mad and ran away and the CMC recognized their error, found her, apologized, and brought her home to her mother.
static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imp_5951.jpg
Twenty bits says that commanded gets replaced for attacking a multi-time national hero.
Well, at least she's honest.
I did not expected this kind of cliffhanger
Which that excites me more
I do feel the fight stretched plausibility, not because of Applebloom's mimicker ability, but because even with cover and a nimble form, she was able to successfully fight off at least three robots 'four times her size'. Part of the trade off for a smaller, more nimble body should be limited strength (even during an 'overdrive'). Couple that to her unfamiliarity with fighting, much less fighting in that form with a hammer, and it becomes a bit difficult to believe that she won the day essentially by herself.
I had assumed AJ, Twilight and Pinkie would show up and between those three and Applebloom, they would manhandle Dead End enough to make him retreat, especially as he would be shocked by organics displaying such powers.
Also, the first conversation between those three was good. AJ was pissed off, hungover and Twilight had just flash-banged her. Twilight was upset at what AJ had done, and Pinkie served as a good mediator. However, the later scene in which AJ assualts them left me cold. Not because AJ hit them, between her hangover and Applebloom in danger I could see her doing, but because the conflict, and Twilight's actions, don't make sense. Since when has Twilight ever been comfortable with 'letting the guards' handle something? Especially something like a giant monster attack? And if she really wanted to keep Applejack from going why not just teleport her back into town? We've seen her do forced teleports before on Spike. Even if that was off the table she's capable of holding an Ursa Major in her TK. Just pick AJ up and hold her there.
I would definitely agree that this is not your strongest chapter.
Still looking forward to more though.
5369462
I'm admittedly a little unsure how to handle the first part. I can only guarantee that Applebloom won't be capable of taking much on single handedly in the future, as she won't have the element of surprise on her side, nor will she be in 'overdrive mode' in the future, and she'll likely be more often fighting named Decepticon leaders as opposed to the questionably competent (as seen in the TF Prime cartoon) Vehicons. And to be fair, she did have a little help from Cheerilee at the end there. That said, I get where you're coming from and you're not wrong. I'm just unsure how I'd make this particular scene better on that front. I shall reflect upon it as I meditate under my personal waterfall.
I considered having another pony show up to help out, but I wasn't sure who would be a decent pick. AJ, Twi, and Pinkie were all occupied, and given the sequence of events, I didn't feel it likely that they'd be able to make it over to the schoolhouse in time to take part in the fight. I was hesitant to use a character that had not yet been established as a part of the story, like, say, Rainbow Dash.
That said, I thought about it, and you are completely right on the Twilight, Pinkie, and AJ front. Twilight really isn't the type to leave things to the guards when she can help, so I modified that part a little bit. Hopefully the new version will leave you a little less cold.
5369505
Ah, that works rather well. Concern for AJ fighting in her condition vs AJ desire to save Applebloom works rather well. And the intro put them in close enough proximity that quick strike by AJ would foil Twilight's efforts.
I don't tend to use waterfalls when I meditate, even when the temperature is above freezing. However, I often meditate in my room. I find that stretched out is the best position to connect with the universe and seek my inner self. Usually while on the bed. Sometimes I even spend the whole night meditating.
Today's chapter was brought to you by the letters:
POLICE BRUTALITY
The power of science!
Awesome chapter, all the elements are well balanced and the narration is fluid. The scene with the guards annoyed me a bit but, although I think that they have overreacted (they could have simply restrain Cheerilee and the Crusaders using the telekinesis instead of shooting spells to everything that moves, and seriously? A taser spell?), I guess that their reaction followed the logic 'something unknown = possible threat', so they just tried to resolve the situation in the safest way for everyone.
I thought that chapter was just fine; actually pretty good.
Don't second-guess yourself.
5369722 The only real way to spell Police.
Mengele McMurderRobot has a point. I mean, if the Princess can block out all of Canterlot mountain just by existing...
Weapon Get! So, Applebloom is Earth Pony Cybertronian Megaman? This is going to be awesome... And terrifying, if this sets the standards.
Ugh! I know he's a Decepticon, but that's something you don't wish on anybody.
That moment where you remember that her weapon is made of her blood...
The perils of cross-species communication...
YES, CHEERILEE, HARM THEM BODILY WITH SCIENCE!!
Really, my big issue with the jerk is that you maybe did a bit too hood of a job making him seem tired... As is, he feels detached, like the paperwork is more important than the ponies, if that makes sense. Anyway, wonderful chapter, can't wait for more!
New chapter? *Ahem* YESYESYESYEYESYESYESYESYESYESYES!
Personally, the guards, particularly Ballista, struck me as being, ya know, kind of "by the book" types, feeling that a little excessive caution is worthwhile in the wake of both the Changeling attack, and the just then attack on the school: it could have been a complex scheme to first create a fight, then use the chaos to cover kidnapping and replacing a foal with a Changeling infiltrator. I just hope he gives Cheerilee a chance to come along and give her side of the story to whichever judge is involved.
As for the spell itself, I figure it works under narrative physics: it disrupts any Disguising Transformations, however they come about.
As far as getting in some foreshadowing of Dead End's power drain, I'd suggest something like a "machine vermin" type pest onboard the Decpticon ship, that he can grab, drain, and drop the husk of.
Applebloom's mimic ability... I think it'd be more interesting if she discovered some limits, like some of these: "Not as well as the original" "limited uses/duration" "only hold a limited number of abilities, and must discard one to get a new one" or something.
Anyway, looking forward to the next chapter.
And Twilight is still in the dark. She needs to get back on her A game.
*Watches the battle*
Only one sing fits this for me:
Cherilee showing the wonders of SCIENCE!!! was great.
Of course the guards show up after everything is over!
Eh, this story is taking itself much too seriously now.
This is the sort of crossover that's only tolerable for me in small doses, and when it has a healthy dose of comedy.
I would say the main problem towards the end is that the guard's actions were textbook "We need to force this plot element, so have a chain of explanation cutoffs until the situation gets forced".
Heck, just by stating he could almost believe the CMC could fight off a monster suggests he's experienced enough to listen first, shoot later.
If anything, being a teacher and used to talking over rowdy kids, I would have thought Cheerilee would cut straight to the point with a paragon interrupt and derail the drama we get straight from the start.
As for Twilight getting knocked out by a hit to the head, I don't buy it. She has taken much harsher hits from rainbow and stayed conscious, so that shouldn't have been an issue. If you need a way to keep her from interfering with the fight, simply have everything take place concurrently. By the time they are done at sugarcube corner, it's already over at the schoolhouse.
Otherwise, it's a good chapter. Equestrians are used to weird stuff enough that alien robots aren't going to trip them up too much. What will be a trip up is when the invaders find out everyone can hold their own in a brawl.
I am Applebloom Prime...
HAMMER TIME!
Just noticed this is a repost. Oh well >.>
I think the vampire thing works fine. There are lots of hints about eating and such,and then in this chapter, bam, you get show precisely what it means. I was thinking canibal up to this point, but then I had an "oh, now I get it" moment.
Also I think the issue with the guards will be fine as long as they apologize later. Though if you want Ballista to make a good impression have one of the subordinates cast the spell the second he mentions it instead of having him keep interrupting Cheerilee. That way it's just strict protocol that it's cast as soon as possible, and you can maybe even have Cheerilee finish her sentence just a little too late to be useful.
A "mini-con," with enough personal power to handle three vehicons at once while still a total novice with her abilities who carries a mysterious relic. Applebloom borrows a lot from Sari. Her abilities combined with the power of the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony mean that the Decepticons are in for one hell of a fight.
It's a good thing this borrows portrayals from multiple continuities and not just Prime and War For Cybertron. Because that Shockwave leaves something to be desired. Competent and dangerous, yes. But no more so than most other Decepticons.
Marvel G1 Shockwave (and the IDW Schockwave inspired by him) on the other hand is considered by many fans to be potentially the most dangerous transformer of all time. Him I could totally see executing a plan that needs something on the level of all the aforementioned magical firepower to stop.