Friendship is Prime

by Gammerick

Chapter 4

It was quite a spectacle for each side to behold. A group of humans and giant alien robots had now come face to face with a squad of six candy-colored miniature talking ponies. They were probably only slightly taller than Rafael and just below Miko in height. Neither party was sure how to behold these strange new sights that lay right in front of their eyes.

"Ratchet," Arcee said with her stunned expression still fixed on the unusual creatures. "What exactly are we looking at?"

"It would appear that these are the ones who promised to help us," Racthet mused in an exasperated tone, his gaze also not turning away from this spectacle. "But I still can't believe it…"

"Are those…ponies?" was all Jack could muster.

"And unicorns, and pegasi?" Rafeal continued the question in an equally delirious manner.

"It's like an 8-year-old girl's dream come to life," Miko uttered in surprise.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight and her friends couldn't move from their spots out of sheer emotional surprise. They were in a weird cave surrounded by giants that towered over any dragon they had ever seen.

"Twilight," Applejack quietly muttered to her friend. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure," Twilight responded. "In all of the books I have ever read, I never come across anything like this before."

"This is Optimus Prime?!" Rainbow Dash whispered to Twilight while referring to the red and blue giant in front of them. "He could just stomp on Discord like a bug!"

"I hope they won't squish us like bugs!" Fluttershy whimpered while huddled on the ground, shaking in fear.

"Well we can't just keep gawking at them," Rarity was the first one to try and get the group to focus. "We should at least try and introduce ourselves"-

"Oh my gosh, this is AMAZING!" Pinkie Pie had already recovered from the initial shock and was bouncing toward these new beings. "I've never seen anything like this! Oh, what's that thing over there, or that, or that thing? Oooh, that thing has numbers on it! Hey, how many ponies do you think we could fit in here? We could hold the most ginormously super-duper party ever! I bet we could get all of Ponyville in here! Or maybe even"-

But before Pinkie could prattle on any further, Twilight decided to levitate Pinkie with her magic and bring her back to where the rest of the group was standing. Rarity was right, a formal introduction was in order.

"Sorry about that. Anyway as I said earlier, I am Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends. To my right is Applejack," she said as she lifted her hoof to point to the orange pony in a cowboy hat.

"Pleasure makin' all yer 'quaintences," Applejack greeted them as she gave them a tip of her hat.

"To my left is Rainbow Dash," Twlight went on and pointed out the blue winged pony with a Rainbow mane.

"How's it hangin'?" She asked while flapping her wings and flying over her friends' heads.

"This is Rarity," Twilight continued the introductions with a white unicorn.

"Charmed." Rarity uttered with etiquette as she made a bowing gesture.

"Over here is Pinkie Pie," Twilight pointed to the pink pony with an even pinker, poofy mane.

"Hi," She stated in a high-pitched squeak. "I hope you all like parties!"

"And lastly we have Fluttershy," Twilight pointed to an empty spot before realizing she was still cowering behind her friends. The others moved out of the way so Twilight could encourage her friend to make an impression. "Go on Fluttershy, say hello."

"Hello," the yellow pegasus whispered in a voice so quiet even her friends could barely hear her.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the team witnessed this round of introductions, they were finally getting over the initial shock from before, but they still wore an expression of great surprise on their faces. Finally Arcee decided to break the tension.

"Optimus," Arcee sternly muttered to her leader. "A word in private, please." The Autobots all walked to the other side of the base, while the ponies decided to go off in their own directions and look around the base. The group gathered close together to discuss their new situation.

"This is our last line of defense?" Arcee vented under her breath. "Six little ponies who aren't even any bigger than the kids? We'd be better off going in solo!"

"C'mon Optimus," Bulkhead joined in on the debate. "There had to be some sort of mix-up with the Groundbridge."

"While I admit that this revelation is – strange," even Optimus had to struggle to find the right words. "I do believe that if they knew about Discord's existence, then they know how to defeat him. We should treat them with the same respect we show the humans and introduce ourselves."

Then they all decided to break off and talk to members of the group one-on-one.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, Bulkhead decided to go see Applejack. She actually seemed very receptive. "Well howdy stranger, what's your name?"

"I just go by Bulkhead. You can say that I'm the wrecking ball for this team," he said with a tiny laugh as he slammed his fists together.

"Boy, with someone as strong as you, I'm sure you could give Big Macintosh a run for his money applebucking at the farm!" Applejack said gleefully.

"Uh yeah, thanks." Bulkhead didn't quite understand, but he was pretty sure it was a complement.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next Arcee decided to introduce herself to Rainbow Dash. This one flew up to eye level with Arcee to hold the conversation.

"Hey, the name's Rainbow Dash," she greeted.

"Call me Arcee," Arcee responded rather unenthusiastically.

"I like your colors," Rainbow Dash tried to complement. "Blue makes you look awesome!"

"Oh really?" Arcee replied, gaining more interest in this conversation. "Your Rainbow hair thing isn't half bad either."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Optimus decided to head over to the tiny yellow one cowering in fear. He kneeled down as far as he could so he could face her at almost eye level.

"Hello, Fluttershy," Optimus tried to greet her as warmly as possible. "I take it this sudden change in scenery has been very overwhelming for you." He waited for a response, but all she did was make a high pitched mumbling noise while she kept her face covered with her front legs. "I understand your fear, but I promise you that as long as you remain with us, we will do our best to protect you and your friends."

And at this Fluttershy finally lifted her head and looked at Optimus in the face. Her expression slowly changed as a tiny smile lit up her face.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ratchet, however, had decided to go back to his keyboard, but Pinkie Pie had ambushed him as soon as he got there.

"Hi there!" She squeaked as she popped up out of almost nowhere. "What's your name?"

"Uhh, Ratchet," he responded. "I'm the team medic."

"Oh wow you're a doctor? That's great because I know quite a few doctors back in Ponyville. There's Doctor Caramel, Doctor Feelgood, Nurse Redheart and her sister Blueshield," Pinkie just went on and on until it got the better of Ratchet's nerves.

"Look Pinkie, I'm very busy; so I'd appreciate it if you would go away!" He responded sternly.

Pinkie gave Ratchet a blank stare in surprise. Then she started talking again. "Boy you sure are cranky, you remind me of this cranky donkey. His name is Cranky Doodle Donkey, can you believe it? He was cranky just like you, but then I found his long lost love, and now he's still cranky, but he's cranky in a nicer way…"

As Pinkie went on and on Ratchet could only sigh in deep exasperation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lastly, Bumblebee was approached by Rarity. "My, aren't you the dashing one?" She said with a rather refined yet still down to earth accent. "Normally black-and-yellow is a horrible color combination for any dresses I design but you pull it off quite nicely."

"Beep-bip-bzzzt-zp!" Bumblebee responded.

"I'm sorry, what?" Rarity asked flatly.

"He said he appreciates the complement," Raf came in and acted as Bee's translator.

"Oh, thank you-uhh," Rarity had not yet heard his name.

"It's Rafael, but you can just call me Raf for short."

"Right, Raf," Rarity eased more and more into this new conversation. "You can understand him?"

"Yeah, always have." He responded simply.

"But how?" She asked with great curiosity.

"I'm not sure. I guess we just have a connection," he told her plainly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Twilight stood by herself, unsure of what to make of all of this, the humans decided to approach her.

"Hi, my name is Jack," he stuttered awkwardly before pointing to the other two. "This is Miko, and over there is Rafael. It's…nice to meet you."

The purple unicorn eyed him curiously before turning her gaze to the Autobots and back to the kids. "Oh I get it," she said to herself as her face appeared to be stricken with enlightenment. "It's just like how little baby dragons grow up to be such huge adult dragons!"

"Come again?" Jack was not sure how to respond to such a strange statement.

"You must be their babies! And when you grow up, you'll be big, strong giants like your parents over there! Hmm, you don't seem to have grown an outer shell like they have yet," she observed before poking him in the belly with her hoof.

"Ow!" He screamed as he drew away from the jabbing horse while Miko tried to contain her laughter. "We're not their kids! We're humans; they're Cybertronian."

"Cyber what now?" Twilight repeated in complete confusion.

"Look, it's a long story, I'm sure they can explain it to you." And shortly after that, the Autobots broke up their individual conversations and gathered everyone together.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron," Optimus began his proper introduction. "Also known as Autobots."

"Hey, that guy just said you guys were Cybertonarians!" Pinkie responded in an obliviously angry state.

"That's 'Cybertronian,'" Optimus rebutted. "And we Autobots are only one distinct race of Cybertronians."

"So does this mean we're on Cybertron now?" Twilight asked with great curiosity.

"No," Optimus replied. "Sadly it has become impossible to live on our home planet anymore. Since then we have found a new home with these humans on the planet Earth, which is where you are currently located."

"What could have caused your old home to become uninhabitable?" Twilight asked in concern.

"That is not important at this time," Optimus responded. "What is important is that we stop Discord from possibly doing the same to this world. Do you know how we can stop him?"

"Easy," Twilight said. "We just have to use the Elements of Harmony on him, and he'll be back in statue form in no time!" As she exclaimed this, she and the others took stances that properly displayed the jewelry they were all wearing; Twilight drew attention to the tiara on her head while the others puffed out their chests to point out their necklaces.

"That's it?" Ratchet exclaimed with slight frustration. "A demi-god is on the loose, we go through all of this trouble to find a solution, and all it takes to stop him are a few trinkets?"

Optimus once again played the voice of logic. "It stands to reason that for a self-proclaimed creature of chaos like Discord, his weakness would be artifacts with the power to restore order."

"Speaking of which, where is Discord anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Everything seems fine right now."

"After this whole spectacle, Discord may not even be a problem," Ratchet said rather bitterly. "If all we needed to stop him are six talking horses with sparkly necklaces, how much of a threat can he really be?!?."

"Calm yourself Ratchet," Optimus consoled his friend. "Maybe we can use the news to find out if he's been up to any activity."

"Hmmph, fine," Ratchet replied as he typed away on his keyboard to bring up the news stations on the monitors. "What's the worst he could do, throw pies at someone's face? Or maybe he" – at that moment, every news channel in the country seemed to display the same thing: absolute chaos. "By the Allspark…" was all Ratchet could mutter to himself.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It's complete pandemonium out there folks!" One newscaster reported in slight panic. "It's one of the largest hailstorms in New York City to date, but there isn't even a single cloud in the sky! Not to mention temperatures have reached a boiling new record of 135 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes the raining ice even more improbable! Residents are advised to seek shelter and-aaaaagh!" The reporter screamed as ice chunks the size of baseballs had apparently broken through the roof of the news station and were pelting everyone in the room. One ice chunk hit the camera and cut off transmission, so Ratchet changed to a new channel.

"The unthinkable has happened as all of Hawaii has been stricken by a 10 foot snowstorm," A newslady wrapped in snow clothing reported. "T-t-t-t-t-emperatures have been reported to be at -10 degrees Fahrenheit and dropping. So p-p-p-please find any way to keep warm and-" Rachtet changed the channel once more.

"The plains of Nebraska and Iowa have been hit by a flashflood," another anchorman reported, "It was literally a flash flood, as all of this water appeared in a giant flash! But the bizarre thing about it is that the edges of the flood are just in the middle of nowhere!" He said in front of a giant wall of water that was not being retained by any sort of structure. Ratchet channel flipped once more.

"Huxley Prescott reporting," came boldly from a middle-aged man in a red suit and glasses. "Things are getting out of control as the town is being turned upside down...LITERALLY!" He pointed his camera behind him to show several buildings not only completely flipped over, but also hovering in mid-air! "Fortunately," he went on, "The Burns Family and their Rescue Bots are already on the scene!" His camera showed an orange helicopter using its harness to pull civilians out of a floating building. Down below the chopper, a large red robot with a firefighter symbol on his head was working with a large blue robot wearing a police symbol to hold a large trampoline to help the citizens land safely. Meanwhile a green bulldozer was busy using its giant scoop to catch any miscellaneous falling objects. "But while the citizens of Griffin Rock may be able to breathe peacefully for the moment, who knows what other catastrophes are lurking around the corner!" Ratchet heaved a small sigh of relief as he turned to another station.

"Things are crazy up here in the north," another news anchor was reporting live. "I would not believe it if I weren't seeing it myself, but the sky is in fact, raining pies." As he said this, a blueberry pie landed on his face and covered him in goop. This would not be too huge of a problem except that every now and again one of the pies"- he was cut off by a large explosion noise. –"spontaneously combusts. Hopefully we can fix this mess before someone gets hurt. I'm Spike Spencer, and this is the 6 o'clock news." Ratchet had seen enough and turned off the television.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile in earth's orbit, a spiked spaceship known as the Nemesis was floating over the planet, the Decepticons inside seeing all of the panic erupting on earth.

Megatron stood at the head of the bridge, seeing the chaos unfold on the planet below him through several screens on the ship.

"Remarkable," Megatron said aloud to himself. "To think he held this much power."

Megatron was then approached by a grey, rather slender Decepticon. "Lord Megatron," he said. "Perhaps we should rethink our conquest of earth. It is a big galaxy after all. There are plenty of other planets to rule."

"No Starscream, that won't be necessary," Megatron replied. "Because we are going to destroy this little imp once and for all!"

"What?" Starscream gasped in surprise. "Bu-bu-but surely you've seen what he can do! How do you plan to go against THAT?"

"Optimus and the Autobots are more than likely figuring out a way to stop him. If we leave, and they succeed, I refuse to let all of earth's spoils fall into his hands!!" Megatron yelled.

"But what can we do? It's not like you actually plan to join forces with the Autobots," Starscream joked, but Megatron made no response whatsoever.

"But sir, they're the enemy!" Starscream protested. "We can't work with them!"

"Are you questioning me, Starscream?" Megatron asked fiercely.

"No, my lord," Starscream humbly replied. "Forgive me if I was out of place."

"Good. Now prepare the Groundbridge!" Megatron ordered as he walked off. "We're heading back to earth!"

"As you wish, lord Megatron," Starscream muttered. He checked to see if Megatron was out of earshot. He then muttered to himself, "Let's hope you don't get "squished" again," before chuckling at the thought of Megatron receiving such a humiliating defeat.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Woah," Rainbow Dash said blankly. "This is 1000 times worse than anything he did in Ponyville. How long has he been out?!"

"It's been about an hour and a half since we first found him." Ratchet said. "Why?"

"Discord was free for over a day back in our world, and the worse he did was restricted to one town!" Twilight responded.

"Are you saying he's gotten stronger?" Optimus inquired.

"I don't know," Twilight answered, "but whatever it is, Discord has become"-

"-tougher," Applejack cut in.

"-badder," Rainbow Dash added.

"-more horrid," chimed Rarity.

"-scarier," Fluttershy muttered.

"-meaner," Pinkie Pie growled.

"-worse than ever before." Twilight finished the team chant. "At this rate, the whole world will be thrown into chaos!"

"Hmmm, I believe it may have something to do with his new location," Optimus hypothesized.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked in concern.

"I'm guessing that, based on Twilight and her friends, Discord comes from a more…innocent place. Now that he's here, he's able to feed on the negativity that's more abundant in the human world."

"So now he's supercharged. Great," Arcee muttered.

"Not to worry," Twilight consoled her. "One blast from the elements should still be enough to take out Discord.

"Then we should not hesitate any further," Optimus added, "And confront Discord as soon as possible."

"I believe I can use the energy signature from before to track his current position," Ratchet proclaimed. "I'll drop us a few clicks away from his position so we can surprise him. And when I say us, I mean myself as well. This new team may require a medic in case of emergency."

"Good thinking, Ratchet." Optimus replied. "Bumblebee, I trust you to handle the Groundbridge this time."

"Brzzzt-bip!" Bumblebee accepted the responsibility.

"Alright, everypony," Twilight addressed the group. "Let's do this!"

"Wait," Jack commented. "Did you just say 'everypony?'"

"What?" Twilight responded. "You know: everypony, somepony, nopony. It's basic grammar." At this, Jack could only hold his hand up to his face in embarrassment to properly convey his emotion.

"Alright team," Optimus commanded, "get ready to roll out!"

Comments

[Gammerick]

Added a small part in this chapter to let a certain "Rescue Bots" show get a cameo in here. After all, it does take place in the Prime universe. And after their latest episode featuring Bumblebee, how could I pass this up?

[GoldenCyclone4]

Man, why does 'Bee have to be the one to sit out? He's best Autobot!