Equestria: Transformation

by Fairweather

First Contact: Autobot

"I'm telling you, Gray, they're Changeling super weapons!" The silver Earth Pony exclaimed as they walked down the Manehatten street. His brother, Gray, shook his head. "No no, you got it all wrong Clear. It's not Changelings, nor aliens, it's Griffin radicals."

"What makes you say that?" Clear asked with a skeptical look, his brother sighed, stopping to look at the silver Earth Pony.

"Because Changelings are too stupid to even think of building robots, and aliens from outer space is just too ridiculous. Really, only Griffins have the love of battle and are crazy enough to build giant robots and then send them to attack Canterlot."

"Yeah, but they were said to change forms! Changelings change, the robots changed! Er-go, Changelings!"

Gray stared with an open mouth, before shaking his head. "Clear, that's a stupid reason to think that the Changelings built the robots!"

"Stupider then Griffin radicals?" Clear retorted, huffing as he glared at his brother.

Before Gray could huff back, he was interrupted by the sound of metal feet clanging loudly against the concrete of the street. The two brother's turned, blinking at the strange golden form that kneeled in the middle of the street. Ponies on the other side of the street stopped and looked in shock while several taxi-carriage drivers skidded to a halt to avoid crashing into the robotic being, causing their passengers to look out in confusion and/or annoyance. In a matter of seconds, a large crowd of onlookers had formed, many Ponies murmuring to each other in wonder and concern. Suddenly, the golden robotic being stood up, raising her hand in the air.

"WOO! Nailed it!" Sari cheered, her robotic voice startling the crowd around her. Her pixelated eyes opened up, looking at the many colourful Ponies around her. "Well, hello native Horse-creatures!"

The Ponies simply stared at her in shock as she made a casual wave to them. Sari paid the reaction no mind, since she herself would probably be just as surprised if she were in their place. So, she instead smiled, her pixel eyes closing up to show her friendly expression. "My name is Sari Sumdac, and I am-"

"It's one of the robot aliens!!" A stallion in the crowd called out, causing Sari to stop her introduction and blink.

"Wait what?"

"It's here to attack the city!" A mare screeched, causing some Ponies in the crowd to turn and flee in a panic. "Just like they attacked the Capital!"

Sari looked around, raising her hands in confusion. "What?"

One of the taxi Ponies looked to his compatriots. "Boys! Get yer bats out!!"

The other taxi Ponies moved quickly, reaching into their carriages and pulling out sturdy, wooden bats, holding them in their forelegs. The lead taxi Pony looked to the other citizens. "Come on, fellas! Are we just gonna let these aliens bully us around!? Or are we gonna stand for Manehatten!?"

"H-how are you guys even holding those?" Sari asked, taking a nervous step back from the crowd, which was swiftly turning from borderline panic to outright hostile. The teenage girl blinked at the sense of déjà vu she was getting at the Ponies that were rallying around the taxi-carriage drivers, reminding her of a stereotypical image of New York.

Huh, they even sound like New Yorkers. She thought. Wait a minute... They had New York accents, the taxi drivers were aggressive and armed with bats, there was a statue in the large river that ran through the city, and the city was called Manehatten... Her eyes widened. Oh dear god, they are New Yorkers! Angry New Yorkers!!

Sari took several steps back from the slowly advancing crowd, her hands raised in an attempt to show peacefulness. "H-hold on guys, I think you've got me confused with something else!"

The crowd did not seem to listen.

"We ain't afraid of you!" A Pony called out.

"Look!" Another pointed. "On it's shoulders, the robot face symbol the news story mentioned! It is one of the aliens that attacked the Capital!"

"Huh!?" Sari looked at the side of one of her shoulders, seeing the Autobot sigil painted on, before looking back and waving her arms in a desperate bid to get the crowd to listen. "Wait! You've got it all wrong! This symbol means I'm a friend! It's a good guy symbol! I'm one of the good guys!"

"GET IT!!" And like that, the crowd of Ponies stampeded towards her.

"Oh scrap!" Sari cursed as her eyes widened.

"Sari!" Prowl shouted through the comm. "Get out of there!!"

As the crowd charged at her, Sari willed her armoured boots to change, mechanical servos swiftly shifting inside as panels at the soles and heels of the boots opened up, revealing special boosters as her boots transformed from their default armoured forms to specialized jump boots in less then a second. Immediately after, Sari then jumped, the opened panels of the boots glowing a bright blue as power was applied to them, causing Sari's leap to propel herself into the air and away from the surprised crowd. With a robotic caw, Laserbeak dived and opened his claws, swiftly coming into range of Sari's outstretched arms. Upon grabbing her, the robotic bird then pulled sharply away, ion jets opening on his back, causing him to speed away from the city and the Ponies below. Once the city was far in the background and they deeper into the mainland, Laserbeak deactivated his jets, folding them back into his main body, his claws also retracted, allowing Sari to flip over and crawl on top of her robotic friend, kneeling as she worked to steady the pounding from her bio-mechanical heart.

"T-thanks Laserbeak..." She breathed out, earning a small caw from the bird.

Far above, on the Hand of Primus, Perceptor and Prowl watched the whole series of events unfold on the main viewscreen.

"Well, that certainly backfired." Perceptor commented with a somewhat perplexed tone.

"Spectacularly." Prowl deadpanned with a groan and facepalm.

"But why, though?" Perceptor asked, looking to his friend and superior.

"How should I know?" Prowl replied, looking back up at the viewscreen, seeing all that Laserbeak saw. "It's like our relations with the Humans all over again, except this time we're skipping straight to the part where they hate us for some reason!"

"Hmm, do you think the Decepticons have something to do with their reactions?" Perceptor asked, watching the viewscreen with obvious interest. "They were mentioning something about 'alien robots' and an attack on a capital. Perhaps the headquarters of this species was the Seekers target?"

Prowl hummed in response to that. "That would make sense, wipe out the political leadership to destabilize the whole nation-state and make organized resistance against them all but impossible."

"And a species who doesn't know the difference between a Decepticon and an Autobot could easily confuse both as being the same." The two turned to the source of the new voice, seeing a frowning Kup walk towards them.

"I thought you were going back into stasis?" Prowl asked.

"Hmph!" Kup grumpily responded as he passed them and looked at the viewscreen, arms crossed. "I realized that it was better to deal with you crazy Bots then have to undergo the whole stasis awakening process all over again."

"Hey, uh, guys?" Sari's voice echoed clearly through the intercom on the bridge. "Am I the only one who's freaking out over the fact that there is a copy of New friggin' York City on an alien planet populated by intelligent, colourful Horses that sounded and acted like New Yorkers!?"

Prowl looked at Perceptor, who simply shrugged.

"To be honest, Sari," the Commander responded. "All these organic cities, Human or otherwise, look alike to us so we don't see what the big deal is."

Sari sighed, hanging her head a little at that, before raising it again. "Well, since First Contact was a total bust, what do we do now?"

"Find the Seekers." Prowl answered firmly. "And neutralize them before they can do any more damage. We'll figure out how to deal with this species later. For now, Sari, it may be best to avoid being spotted by these organics to avoid causing a panic or, you know, accidentally starting a war with them."

Sari nodded. "No argument here. Have the ship's scanners picked up any Energon on this planet?"

Perceptor hummed in thought as he tapped a few keys on his console, he frowned as he read the scan's results. "Unfortunately, the amount of moisture on this planet is as bad as Terra's, our sensors are having trouble getting any clear readings."

The Autobot scientist was silent for a moment before he got an idea. "Sari, your internal sensors are functional, correct?"

Sari raised an eyebrow inside her helmet, causing her pixel eyes outside to partially close the opposite eye in a perplexed expression. "Uhh, yeah, but they're pathetic. The range is only a few feet long, I'd practically have to be standing right next to something to detect them with my sensors."

"Not if we connected the ship's systems to your scanners and use them as a relay." Perceptor pointed out with a smile. "That would boost your scanning range and give us far more clear and precise readings."

Sari blinked at that, before grinning. "Hey, good thinking, Perceptor! What do I need to do?"

"Just focus on scanning your surroundings." The Autobot scientist explained. "I'll work on connecting to your sensors..."

Sari did as she was told, activating the sensors within her mostly robotic form. Of course, as she had told Perceptor, with the range being so limited, she got nothing except Laserbeak's own energy signature, nevertheless she kept her sensors active. As she waited, she began to muse on how easy it was for her to activate and control them. There was a time, not too long ago (barring her time in stasis) that the idea of using any of her features unique to her Techno-organic nature was a daunting one, at best. Indeed, for the first half of her life, her robotic side was completely dormant, leading her to believe that she was, in fact, completely Human like her father. It wasn't until she had first spied upon the Autobots that she had began to feel drawn to them, perhaps that was when her robotic, Cybertronian side began to awaken. Still, she had no idea who she truly was, until she was caught between a skirmish between her Autobot friends and a small group of Decepticons, her arm being damaged in the process. It was only a minor injury, all things considered, but it was enough to reveal the Cybertronian circuitry that lay beneath her skin. Even Optimus Prime, who was usually hard to read, was openly surprised by this revelation. From there, several different Autobots tutored her on how to make use of her Cybertronian side, somewhat difficult since, for them, it was practically instinctual, almost like teaching someone how to breath, or see, or hear.

Her musings were interrupted when she felt a jolt through her systems, not exactly painful, but it certainly felt strange.

"Woah!" Sari exclaimed as her sensor range exploded outward, briefly overwhelming her senses from the readings of... everything. She shook her head as her systems adjusted to this sudden change.

"Are you alright, Sari?" Perceptor asked with some trepidation.

"Y-yeah." Sari answered as she began to see everything clearly again. "T-that was just a little intense for a bit, that's all. I guess it worked."

"It has, indeed!" Perceptor replied. "And we're getting far more clear readings, try to narrow your search for Energon sources. If we're lucky, they'll be concentrations of it away from any inhabited locations."

"We can only hope." Prowl commented.

Sari nodded, and quickly willed her sensors to focus on finding Energon, rather then just anything and everything. As she looked down at the ground, her sensors showed the Energon in her vision as appearing in dark blue specks sprinkled across the ground, before bright blue circles of light, appeared across the ground, showing concentrated portions of unrefined Energon. Before Sari could cheer at the findings, her eyes were blinded when the cities around her became as bright as miniature, blue suns.

"Gah!" Sari gasped as she shielded her eyes. "What in the-!?"

"B-by the Allspark!" Perceptor exclaimed.

"T-that can't be right..." Prowl said, awe in his voice. "There's no way an organic planet has That much Energon."

"Guys?" Sari said, keeping her eyes closed. "What's going on? How much Energon are we talking about here?"

"Too much to be possible..." Kup answered, his own voice showing awe. "So much that it makes Terra's supply of Energon look like a puddle compared to this veritable ocean!"

"You're kidding!" Sari replied, opening her eyes slowly and only slightly, trying to get a glimpse at the ground around her. All she was Energon, mostly tiny amounts sprinkled across the ground, but more then a few deposits of concentrated amounts. However, it was the now shining cities that caught her attention. "W-why are the local cities glowing with Energon?"

"They-" Perceptor began, but stopped as he tried to process what Sari was seeing. "They shouldn't be, unless... But, that wouldn't make any sense..."

Prowl spoke up next. "You don't think that... These Horses are using Energon to power their cities, do you?"

"That doesn't make any sense." Perceptor said, shaking his head.

"Wait a minute!" Sari said. "Isn't refined Energon incredibly dangerous for organics to interact with? Like, one touch and they melt and/or explode dangerous?"

"Yeah." Kup answered. "Only we Cybertronians can safely contact refined Energon, and that's the only type you can use to power anything."

"True," Perceptor replied. "But with such an abundance on this planet, perhaps this species was able to figure out how to refine it and safely make use of it."

"That can't be." Sari said with a shake of her head. "I mean, Humanity is way more advanced and they didn't even know of the existence of Energon until you guys showed up and, last I heard, they still haven't fully figured out how to safely refine it. Besides, if this species uses Energon as their main source of power, why don't they have spaceships, satellites, or hovercars? Or, hell, just regular cars rather then freaking carriages that they have to manually pull!?"

"The kid's right." Kup said in agreement. "It doesn't make any sense."

"This whole planet doesn't make any sense!" Sari shouted. "It couldn't make any less sense if it tried!"

"Normally, I'd agree with you both." Perceptor replied thoughtfully. "But we know so little about organics in general. I mean, this is only the second intelligent organic species we have discovered."

"We can worry about how this planet and species works later!" Prowl interjected. "We need to stay focused on finding the Cons, that should be our top priority!"

Sari nodded as she tried to look past the overwhelming Energon sources, before she got an unexpected reading deeper into the mainland. "I think I've got something!"

Cutting out all other signals, allowing her to see openly, she narrowed her scanners on the source and blinked in surprise. "A Cybertronian signal. It's quite faint."

"An open signal?" Prowl asked, perplexed. "Can we identify it?"

Perceptor moved to tap on his console. "Sari, keep focusing on that signal, I'm checking to see if it matches any particular Cybertronian."

"Narrow the search to the Seekers, Perceptor." Prowl ordered.

With a nod, the Autobot scientist imputed the commands into the console. Sure enough, a match appeared, the Decepticon insignia appearing on the screen, as well as a profile of the Decepticon in question. "It's one of the Seekers alright. Nacelle, a Con who has seen surprisingly little action giving how long he has been associated with them."

Prowl nodded. "Sari, are there any other signals you detect?"

"None." Came the teenager's answer. "Isn't it a little strange we get an open Cybertronian signal from a Decepticon?"

Perceptor hummed for a moment. "It's possible he's in such a weakened state, that he's unable to hide his signature."

Kup, however, was not satisfied with that answer. "Or he could be bait to draw us out into a trap."

Prowl sighed. "We can't know without a careful investigation. Sari, proceed to Nacelle's signal, but do so with extreme caution, and keep your optics open for any signs of a Decepticon ambush."

"Roger that." Sari replied firmly. "Alright, Laserbeak. You know what to do."

With an acknowledging caw, Laserbeak tilted slightly, changing his direction towards the source of the signal. Sari's hands twitched, before she steeled her nerves, ready for any sort of treachery the Decepticons might throw at her. Back on the large Autobot vessel, Prowl hummed in thought for a moment, before coming to a decision.

"Perceptor," he said to his comrade and friend. "You have the bridge. Teletraan Six, ready Shuttle One for launch. Kup, Scattershot, with me. We're going to the surface!"

With that, Prowl turned away, with Perceptor giving a confused look to his friend. "S-sir?"

Kup and Scattershot, though equally confused, stepped in line behind their superior while Prowl stopped, his hands flexing as panels in his arms opened up, revealing two of his Photon Blasters, each grasped by his hands. "I don't want to take any chances. Though Sari and Laserbeak are skilled at recon and espionage, if the Seekers get the drop on them, they'll need our help fast."

Scattershot grinned, raising his fist in anticipation. "If we're going up against Cons, I'll need my good ol' Scatter-Blaster to give them a proper Autobot greeting!"

Prowl frowned in thought for a moment. "Alright, just be careful in regards to collateral damage, Scattershot."

The Autobot soldier laughed. "Come on, Commander, I'm not Warpath here."

Prowl nodded, turning away, with the two Autobots behind him. "Alright then.... Autobots, transform and roll out!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Things had calmed down significantly in Ponyville since the Decepticons attack on the town yesterday. However, though he was surrounded by over a dozen Royal Guards, many Ponies were still uneasy in the presence of the unconscious alien robot, Twilight's magical restraints still shimmering around him. Applejack, who had a bandage around her still recovering nose, examined the giant robot with a skeptical look.

"Ah still find it hard to believe that you took out one of these things all by yerself." She said, the bandage causing her to sound quite nasally, much to Rainbow Dash's amusement.

The Pegasus grinned. "Come on, AJ, the whole town took a group of these guys out. I also heard that you and Mac hogtied this guy up as well."

"Yeah, we did." The Apple Farmer admitted. "But it took all of mine and Mac's strength just to keep him down, and many of us had to work together against them. Hay, even Applebloom and the Crusaders had to gang up on the small one! And they lost!"

She wrinkled her nose at the thought, the memory of the force of the robot's punch to her nose still clear to her, before she turned to look at Dash with a concerned expression. "How's Scoot, by the way?"

Dash's grin dropped immediately, and she sighed. "Docs say she'll be fine. A few weeks, maybe a month, before she'll fully recover."

"I'll be sure to plan her the biggest, bestest, 'Get-Well-Soon' Party!!" Pinkie Pie shouted, suddenly right between her two friends.

"Giah! Pinkie!!" Rainbow cried out, wings flaring open as she jumped away in surprise. AJ herself was more composed, though her widened eyes showed that she too was caught off guard.

"When did you get back?" The Farmer asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Duh!" Pinkie replied, grinning widely. "I took the train back as soon as I got Spike's letter! Maud and the others were sad that I had to cut my family visit short, but it's not everyday you get to throw a 'Welcome to Equestria' Party for transforming, robot aliens!"

"Uh, Pinkie..." Rainbow said as Ponyville's Party Pony bounced past her. "These guys aren't exactly friendly, robot aliens."

Pinkie simply giggled as she jumped on top of the unconscious Decepticon, two nearby guards blinking in surprise.

"Uhh, ma'am?" One guard said. "It's not safe up there, please-"

"It's okay, guard." Princess Celestia's regal voice caused all heads to turn upwards, seeing the Solar Alicorn gracefully land not far behind Rainbow and Applejack, who gracefully bowed as Twilight and Luna landed only a moment later. Celestia smiled at the two Bearers of Harmony, before signalling with a hoof for them to rise.

"Princess," Rainbow greeted as she proudly stood up. "Glad to see you're okay, the news that something may have happened to you from the alien attack had us all worried."

"Then I hope my presence has alleviated your worry, Miss Dash." Celestia replied, to which Rainbow responded with a grin and a confident salute.

"Twilight!" Pinkie shouted, suddenly right in front of the young Alicorn and embracing her in a tight hug.

"H-hey Pinkie." Twilight greeted back, her voice somewhat strained due to how tightly her friend was hugging her.

Princess Celestia merely laughed lightly at the sight. "Twilight." She said as soon as Pinkie had released her.

"Yes Princess?" Her former student asked expectantly.

"See if the rest of your friends have arrived in Ponyville. Should this one reawaken and attempt to escape while we transport him, we may need the power of Harmony to properly subdue him."

Twilight nodded. "Right away, Celestia! Come on, girls!"

With that, the four Bearers galloped off into town in search of Rarity and Fluttershy, while Luna eyed the unconscious robot warily.

"Are you sure about this, sister?" She asked. "We do not know what this alien is fully capable of. What if Tartarus isn't enough to contain him?"

Celestia's expression turned serious at her younger sister's question. "To be honest Luna, I'm not sure. Tartarus is, however, the most secure prison we have at the moment. We just have to hope that it is enough."

Her wings opened up, and Celestia took flight, hovering over the Decepticon, eyeing the symbol on his crumpled wings.

"I suppose you are right, sister." Luna replied, as she followed her sister up, watching her nervously. "Are you okay?"

Celestia was silent for a moment as she felt her heart quickening as she stared at the mark the robot had, feeling her chest grow hollow as the fear seeped in. Fortunately, she had prepared herself for this before she had left for Ponyville, and was able to control her fear far more adequately then the first time she had witnessed the symbol. After taking a deep breath, she nodded. "I am."

Luna nodded, believing her sister, before looking back down at the machine. "It's a long way to Tartarus from here, how do you intend to move this thing?"

"Simple." Celestia responded. "We teleport it."

Luna looked back at her sister with a raised eyebrow. "Don't you hate teleporting?"

"I do." Celestia answered, looking back at the Dark Alicorn. "But I can stomach it once for something as serious as this."

Luna nodded, humming in thought. "It might be dangerous teleporting something this large straight to Tartarus."

Celestia nodded in agreement. "It might. Twilight's the most experienced with the spell out of all of us, we'll ask for her expertise on the matter."

She blinked when Luna suddenly started to chuckle.

"What?"

"Nothing," Luna replied, shaking her head. "It's just... You have been her mentor since she was a filly, and now here we are with her as an Alicorn, looking to her for advice."

Celestia laughed at that. "Like I said before, Luna, when I saw her and her Cutie Mark, I knew she was destined for great things. Perhaps even greater then either of us. Same for Cadance."

Luna nodded, looking down to examine the binding spell Twilight had cast upon the alien earlier, allowing Celestia to briefly frown as a nagging thought came to her once again. But did I do the right thing?

She shook the thought aside, forcing her smile to return as Luna looked up again. "Well, perhaps we should-"

"Your Majesties!" A voice called out, as a dark armoured bat-pony suddenly appeared before the Princesses, bowing as she hovered where she was. "We have spotted two aliens en route to the town!"

The Princesses immediately turned serious at the news. "Where from?" Luna asked.

"They are flying from the direction of Manehatten, Highness." The Night Guard answered. "They are smaller then the larger bipedal ones, but clearly robotic. A small, Pony-sized golden one, and a slightly larger black falcon. They had apparently raided Manehatten, but is appeared that the civilians there quickly drove them off before they could do any damage. Now they are en route to the town."

Luna gritted her teeth as she turned in the direction where Manehatten was, before her eyes narrowed at a dark speck in the sky. "There!" She called out, pointing at the speck. "They are almost here!"

Celestia frowned. "So more have come... They must be looking for the one we captured. Luna, we cannot let them reach Ponyville."

Luna nodded. "Leave that to me, sister. My guards and I shall ground these new arrivals and keep them busy while you gather the Element Bearers."

"Be careful, Luna." Celestia said as Luna propelled herself further up to the sky, flanked by several of her Night Guard.

"My Loyal servants!" The Dark Alicorn called. "Our land is under threat from an unknown hostile force! They have attacked our cities, threatened our subjects, and have shown no respect towards us!"

Meanwhile, further ahead, Sari blinked as she saw a dark blue speck ahead of her and Laserbeak. "What in the-?" Her eyes narrowed, her vision zooming towards the speck, before showing a sight she could not believe was real. A dark blue horse, with wings and horn and a wavy mane and tail, and several dark grey horses that seemingly materialized out of shadow, with slitted eyes and bat-like wings, each wearing armour and helmets that covered their faces. The dark blue horse was speaking loudly, likely to the flanking forms, before pointing directly at her.

"Oh scrap!" Sari cursed, her eyes widening. "Prowl! We've got a serious problem!"

"Now, my faithful!!" Luna shouted as she pointed at the fast approaching aliens. "Show them the error of their ways! FOR EQUESTRIA!!!"

With that battle cry given, the Bat Ponies charged forward, flying in a loose formation as they charged toward Sari and Laserbeak.

Comments

[Fetch]

Sari, Laserbeak, go straight up to avoid them, then stop and tell them as loud as you can:
We Come In Peace!

Then, explain that you and the others with the red mark, the Autobots (point to autobot symbol) are an enemy of the ones with the purple mark, the Decepticons. That you and your friends are here to capture the Decepticons and remove them from this planet.

[Golden Wings]

7985126
Good plan, but you forgot one thing,
Panic makes it so no one does the sensible option.

[Fetch]

7986258 Perceptor stays calm. The only other bot who keeps that calm when things start going wrong is Optimus Prime.

[Mazamba]

Yeah, this is more or less what I expected. Still a fun read.

[Fairweather]

8021621
It's a mix of G1, Animated, and Prime. I highly recommend you watch Animated, don't let it's weird cartoon style fool you, it's a great show with some of the best Human side characters in the entire franchise. But thanks for the compliment on the story!

[Mazamba]

8032712
Sooo... is this continuing or...?

Just saying, this is one of the few TFA crossovers and I'd hate to see it stop.