Grimlock, Dinobot... and father?

by The Bricklayer

Part 13: War Dawn

Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse: Sweet Apple Acres

It was another fine day in Equestria, and the sun was blazing high in the sky above the small town of Ponyville as puffy white clouds drifted softly through the springtime sky. It was one of those days where you just wanted to kick back and do absolutely nothing at all and basically just be lazy. For a certain foursome of fillies however, doing absolutely nothing was not in their agenda. In fact, they had a long list of things that they wanted to try. While the CMC has earned their coveted Cutie Marks by beating up and defending their class from the Decepticon known as Ravage, that didn't mean they couldn't try new things right? Besides, Babs had still yet to earn her Mark, and still didn't know what her special talent was so until that time came, it was full steam ahead with trying anything and everything to try and figure out what her Mark would exactly be. Plus, if the CMC has fun along the way that was just a bonus.

"So Crusaders, let this meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders come to order!" Sweetie Belle announced as she banged a gravel like a judge would to bring a court to order.

"So, what's on the agenda today gals?" Apple Bloom asked as she watched Sweetie pull out a list and unfold it before the younger Belle sibling began reciting off the list. Babs gaped as she saw the list roll directly past her.

"Yeah, it's a long list." Apple Bloom whispered to her cousin.

"So I noticed." Babs said dryly.

"Jeepers, when youse gals said that you had a good amount of ideas you weren't kidding. I thought youse was exaggerating." She remarked, quite stunned.

"Hey, nothing like coming prepared right?" Scootaloo replied to her. "All of these ideas are things we meant to try before that attack on the dam by those walking scrapheaps, but never got around to."

"If your Mark is somewhere, it's bound to be in here!" Apple Bloom interjected. "It's just got to be!"

"Sweetie, if you please?" Scootaloo then said as Sweetie continued her recitations.

"Well, let's see here..." Sweetie recited off the list. "Bungee jumping, filmmaking, historical catalogurers..." She continued, before Babs suddenly jumped in.

"Wait, historical catalogurers?" She interjected. "That sounds awesome!"

"Wait, seriously?" Scootaloo replied. "You want to earn your Cutie Mark in that?"

"Hey, it does sound like fun to me." Babs said back as her cousin put a foreleg around her shoulder in support.

"Besides, this is my cousin's Mark we're talking about, not ours. It's her choice." Apple Bloom added. If her cousin wanted to get her Mark in cataloging history, so be it.

"But all of Ponyville's history is so boring!" Sweetie Belle complained. Babs smirked back at her.

"Who said anything about PONYVILLE'S history?" She asked as her friends gave her a look of confusion before a look of dawning realization settled over them. Scootaloo voiced their thoughts perfectly, all summed up in one single word.

"Awesome!"

---

The Ark

So, it wasn't even a hour later all four members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders found themselves back at crashed Autobot base in the hills outside of town talking to not just one of the oldest Autobots on the ship, but one of the oldest Autobots in general, the war veteran known as Ironhide. A bright red Autobot who turned into a pick-up truck, this particular transformer had seen just about everything and was, if you were willing to look past his almost constantly grumpy demeanor, always willing to have a story or two to tell.

"So, you kids want to hear some of my old war stories huh? Ah should warn ya right now, they're not for the weak." Ironhide warned, his version of the southern accent coming out in his speech patterns.

"Hey, we're a lot tougher then we look!" Apple Bloom retorted, slightly annoyed that Ironhide thought them as just kids who needed to be protected and coddled away from the world's evils. They could handle themselves, even if they didn't look like it.

"Besides..." Scootaloo put in. "If we can handle those Decepti-Punks in the modern day, I doubt there's ANYTHING that can rattle us in any of your stories." She replied and Ironhide let out a deep belly laugh at her before he ruffled the young pegasus's manestyle and then smiled.

"Well, Ah guess Ah can't argue with that logic." Ironhide chuckled. "But if y'all get nightmares and any of your older sisters come to me about it..."

He shuddered. Angry Deceptions he could take, but angry older siblings who happened to be mares? Give him a battle against Devastator anyday!

"Alright then..." Ironhide finally said after a few moments of hesitation. "So, Ah'll give you a really good one right off the bat. Any of you ever wanted to learn the origins of Optimus Prime?"

The filly foursome leaned forwards and Ironhide chuckled again.

"Ah'm going to take that as a yes." He remarked. "Now, it began over five million years ago..."

Scootaloo suddenly groaned out "Wait, don't tell me that this is going to be one of those LONG stories."

Ironhide just rolled his eyes at her before speaking.

"All of mah stories are going to be long ones, considering the timeframe they took place in." He replied before Apple Bloom quickly shushed Scootaloo by clamping a hoof over her jaw and hissing "Shut up! Ah wanna hear this!"

"Now if Ah may continue?" Ironhide asked sarcastically. "It was in the early days of the war, before Optimus ever became a commander. Actually, he wasn't even known as Optimus back then..."

---

Cybertron: Over five million years ago...

The docksides of Cybertron's capital city, Iacon hustled and hustled with activity. At one particular warehouse, a group of young Cybertronians got to work with their daily duties. One was a red and blue bot, another was his girlfriend, a bright pink robot with a mechanical ponytail and the final robot was orange and blue with a racecar driver like helmet attached to his head.

"Alright, I want all of those Energon crates stacked nice and neat! No slacking!" The orange and blue bot, who went by the name of Dion ordered. Nearby, another robot who was obviously a younger version of Ironhide provided security.

Suddenly, he noticed the red and blue bot watching the skies.

"Oi, Orion!" He called out. "You're supposed to be working, not watching the skies like some astronomer from the Stellar Galleries!"

"Sorry, it's just..." Orion apologized before he pointed skywards. "Well, look!"

High in the sky above, a group of four Cybertronians flew overhead. Three were jets with the exact same design, with the only variation between them being their color schemes with final one obviously being a younger Megatron.

"Hey, isn't that the new group of bots from out of Kaon?" The ponytailed robot, named Ariel asked in interest.

"Yeah, it is! Cool, huh?" Orion replied to her in a excited tone of voice. He could barely believe it, he'd heard many things about this group of flying transformers but he had never believed any of them until now that he's seen them in the flesh, so to speak.

"Don't you start overloading on us now Orion." Dion teased, before his voice became more serious. "You and I have both heard the rumors about them, and what they've been doing with those fancy abilities of theirs."

Ironhide nodded as he used his hand to shield his optics from the sun's glare.

"Kid's right. Ah personally don't trust any one of them in the slightest. They just rub me the wrong way." He added in.

"Aw, you two are just being paranoid." Orion said, brushing off their concerns in the way one would a fly.

Present Day...

Back at the Ark, all four fillies were stunned speechless. They could barely believe what they just heard. Optimus Prime, looking up to Megatron and the Decepticons off all bots? If they hadn't heard it out of Ironhide's vocal receptors, they wouldn't have believed any of it.

"Wait, so Optimus Prime actually looked up to MEGATRON?" Apple Bloom asked in disbelief.

"Like I said, these were different times." Ironhide replied.

"Aw come on, this story is boring. When are we going to get to the flank-kicking already?" Scootaloo demanded.

"In a minute!" Ironhide snapped at her. "You still need some more background context to understand this fully. Anyways..."

Iacon, five million years ago...

It wasn't long before Megatron and the three seekers he had with him landed outside the warehouse with Orion greeting him.

"Hello there!" Megatron said in a friendly way. He mentally growled, oh how it burned him just to act like this. Thankfully, he knew he wouldn't have to do it much longer. All he needed was just to gain access to the warehouse and for it's security systems to be turned off.

"Right back at you, friend." Orion greeted. Megatron chuckled, seemingly at some private joke even as some purple trucks with crates on them rolled up.

"What is it that you store here?" Megatron asked and Orion explained that it was mostly just spare Energon that no one used although they'd take anything really. Megatron smiled darkly even as Orion turned off the security systems to allow Megatron's group entry.

"And that's all I needed to hear..." He laughed before giving the order.

"Decepticons, ATTACK!" He screamed and the trucks and their "Goods" transfomed into Vehicon drones. Dion and Ariel tried to stop them, but we're hit by a barrage of laser blasts. Ironhide tried as well, but only received a punch to the face for his troubles.

"Wait! What are you doing? Stop!" Orion yelled and tried to take on Megatron but was swiftly taken out by a backhanded strike from the Decepticon leader, who along with his forces robbed the place of everything it had before going skywards once more. What they didn't see was another robot, one with burgundy and purple armor along with a long white beard arrive to the scene after he'd heard everything.

"Common wisdom would tell me to take you all to a hospital, but..." Alpha Trion began as he picked up Orion Pax off the ground. "I'm not sure you have the time left in you to withstand such a journey. Guess it's up to me then." He sighed before taking the young bot and his friends back to his lab where after many hours of toil he was finished at last. The bot once known as Orion Pax set up in Alpha's laboratory table.

"I looked up to Megatron for his power. But I failed to see how he used that power." Optimus Prime snarled as his optics blazed in anger for his fallen friends and his fist crackled with energy. A valuable lesson had been learned that day, and Megatron had gained a powerful new foe to fear...

---

Present time:

"So I assume Megatron got what's coming to him?" Apple Bloom asked, seething with rage at what Megatron had pulled.

"Yeah, he did and then some!" Ironhide proclaimed even as the four fillies rushed out of the room with Scootaloo exclaiming "Thanks for the story Ironhide!"

Then, Babs checked her flank. It was still as bare as the day she was born.

"Awww man!"

END

Author's Note:

Okay, so yeah I did a adaptation of the G1 episode War Dawn, so sue me. Anyways nothing much to note about this chapter except instead of the Aerialbots, we get Ironhide and no time travel is involved.

Bios for this chapter:

tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_(G1)

tfwiki.net/wiki/Megatron_(G1)

tfwiki.net/wiki/Ironhide_(G1)

And because his wasn't in the last chapter...

tfwiki.net/wiki/Brawl_(G1)

Comments

[DaiAtlas2016]

Awesome!! I love you!!