Transformers Prime: Return to Equestria

by The Carolean

Chapter 5

Twilight paced back and forth, actually cracking the floor of her castle. Optimus knelt behind her close to the doorway, with Spike and Starlight to his right, and Trixie, Cadence, and Luna to his left. They sat with baited breath, watching and waiting for Celestia to stir. “Calm yourself, Twilight. My sister will be fine,” Luna told the younger alicorn.

“I know, I know, I’m just nervous what she-”

“Twilight,” somepony called from down the hall. “I need to...uh...use the...you know what.”

Twilight’s face contorted in horror as she galloped out of the room.

“Who is that?” Optimus asked.

“Flash Sentry, poor guy. He-”

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh!”

Spike found himself silenced mid sentence when a loud groan from the princess. Celestia propped herself up with her front legs, groaning as she rubbed her forehead. Optimus and Luna rushed to the princess’ side, Cadence, Trixie, and Starlight close behind them. “Celestia, are you alright?” Prime asked.

“Water,” she croaked. Luna took a glass from a nearby table, lifting it to her sister’s muzzle, allowing her to lap water from it. She plunged her snout into the glass, all but inhaling the water. Once she’d consumed every drop of liquid, Luna pulled the glass away, though Celestia protested, licking the sides in an effort to get every drop of moisture. “Thank you, Luna,” she said as she lapped the residual moisture from muzzle.

“No need sister,” Luna told her. “Now, I believe this belongs to you.” The younger alicorn’s horn began to glow gold and blue, the two colors spiraling around the spire in her forehead. Once the intertwined streaks reached the tip of her horn, the golden half snaked its way to Celestia’s horn.

All at once, her entire body grew, the color returned to her mane, and her cutie mark returned. Finally, the golden glow left Luna’s horn, leaving her aura a pure blue. With her magic returned, Celestia lept to her feet, before forcefully embracing her little sister. “I missed you Luna,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Luna hugged her sister back, joining the older alicorn in her tears. “I missed you too,” Luna told her.

“We all did.”

Celestia turned to see Optimus, his soft smile causing a pleasant warm sensation in her chest. She released her sister, then took a running start and leapt onto Prime. The Autobot caught her in his arms, chucking as she nuzzled his face. She stealthily snuck a kiss into her nuzzling, giggling like a naughty school-filly, thinking herself oh, so clever. Luna’s snickering shattered that illusion.

Luna opened her mouth to comment on her sister’s behavior, forcing Celestia to act quickly. “Where’s Twilight?” questioned.

“She’s helping Flash Sentry use the bathroom,” Spike told her bluntly. Celestia gasped. Without warning, Spike’s body was enveloped in a golden glow. Celestia lifted the young drake off the ground, laying him on top of her chest. Suddenly, Spike found himself bombarded by a barrage of sloppy alicorn kisses. He held back the urge to protest; after all, he was behind showered with the affection of an alicorn princess.

“Oh Spike, I missed you so much,” she said as she continued her assault. Then, she narrowed her brow, taking a closer look at her adopted son. “Hm, have you grown?”

Spike chuckled contently, puffing out his chest, flexing his arms as he did. “Yup, sure did. Not much a baby anymore, huh?”

Suddenly, the doors to the room burst open, giving everyone within jump. Pinkie Pie marched into the room, hauling a large cart full of various foods, including a large chocolate cake. Between two rods attached to the cart hung a banner which read “Welcome Princess Celest.”

Celestia’s eyes grew to the size of pony-hole covers. She calmly set Spike down, and disappeared. As the princess vanished, a white predator pounced on her prey in a blur of speed, sending cake flying. The carnage that day would prove legendary. The elegant alicorn grabbed piece after piece of cake with her forehooves, shoveling chunks of the baked good into her gaping maw, not even bothering to cut the pastry.

“Is that really a good idea Princess Luna?” Starlight questioned. A blue blur rushed past the unicorn, dragging her mane as she pounced on a pile of mooncakes. The unicorn turned to Optimus, cocking her eyebrow as she motioned to the two princesses.

Prime only shrugged.

Before long, the two magical winged predators completely consumed Pinkie’s offering. Both sisters levitated a napkin to their mouths, daintily wiping the ends of their muzzles. “Thank you, Pinkie Pie,” Luna said.

“Yes, thank you. I haven’t had any real food since I was first taken,” Celestia added.

“It’s...my pleasure, your highnesses,” Pinkie weakly answered, her eyes wide and her pupils dilated. “Wow,” she whispered under her breath.

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

Megatron flew over the clouds covering Ponyville, gliding atop an air current. “Where are we going?” Starscream asked.

Megatron let out loud groan. “For your information, Starscream, we are-hurk!” Megatron suddenly felt a crippling pain in his stomach. He clutched his gut, unknowingly folding his wings in. He spiraled towards the ground, opening his wings just in time to avoid returning to the afterlife, inadvertently grinding his face into the ground. Scrapes and splinters dotted his chest, adding to his agony.

Suddenly, something good found its way into his nose. “What is that?” Starscream asked. Megatron didn’t answer. He righted himself, acting more on instinct rather than thought, and began eating the grass.

“Uh...Mr., are you okay?”

Megatron looked up from his meal, finding three fillies standing before him.

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

Celestia and Luna strode down the hall outside their room, Optimus and Spike not far behind. The entire castle was a tight fit for the Autobot, though the fact he could even fit inside was a testament to its size. As they neared a corridor, Twilight and Flash Sentry's heads emerged from another room. At first, the two princesses shared a giggle, only to gasp in unison when they saw Flash’s back end.

Flash Sentry’s rear legs were encased in a wheelchair. The Wheelchair was made of two L shaped rods, one on either side of his body. One end of each rod attached to a platform with wheels near his rear feet, and the other end attached to a harness around his barrel. The contraption was gold in color, with soft, plush straps holding Flash in place.

As Twilight and Flash turned the corner, Twilight ran forward, hugging Celestia as tears streamed down from her face. “Princess!” she cried as she gripped her mentor. Celestia embraced Twilight, but kept her eyes fixed on Flash.

“Twilight, what happened to Flash?” she questioned. Twilight released the older princess, whipping one last tear from her eye.

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

A single hallway of the Nemesis lay in ruin. Warped and twisted metal nutter from the walls like claws, burned from magic and energon bolts. One one end of the hall, a lone squadron of Vehicons hid behind boxes and crates, peaking out every so often to fire. The corpses of their comrades littered the hall, their spilled energon creating a thin blue film on the floor.

On the other end of the hallway, a boarding party fired on the Decepticon’s position, protected by a lavender shield of magic. Cadence and Rarity fired magical bolts from behind the barrier. Next to them, a heavily armored Applejack fired another round from her shoulder cannon.

The darn contraption, as the farm-pony called it, had a body attached to her body armor with a clip of six small artillery shells protruding from its top. The barrel was made of two segments slightly larger than Applejack herself when put together, with a bayonet on the end so long it was almost a short sword. The firing mechanism was a textured bar the user fired with their mouth from behind a metal shield with a reinforced eye slit cut into it.

The front, back, and sides of her armor were dark green in color, made to blend in with the vegetation, while the top of her armor was dark grey. The front of her chest was protected by a single metal plate, while her back was covered in four separate, interlocking pieces of armor. Her helmet was uncolored, though she chose to wear a hat over it.

Rarity and Flash Sentry wore similar armor, though theirs lacked the massive cannon on the end. In addition, Rarity had a bayonet affixed to her horn, and Flash had wing guards. While Rarity used magic, and Applejack used a canon, Flash used a lighting rod, identical to those used by the other pegasus guards.

Twilight and Cadence were more heavily armored than their companions, wearing full plate armor, face plates down. “Push everypony! We’re almost there!” Twilight shouted in mid air.

“Are you sure she’s in there Twilight?” Cadence questioned.

“I know it,” Twilight answered.

Applejack bit into her cannons trigger, taking aim and firing the weapon. As the shell left the gun, Twilight took hold of the projectile with her magic, guiding it to its target. It struck one of the hidden Vehicons in his knee, which was poking out from behind his cover, blowing his lower legs off his body. He he cried out in pain, falling back against the wall with a loud thud.

Knockout cringed as the Vehicon howled. “Scrap! We’re gonna be slag if Shockwave doesn’t get here soon,” he said before quickly covering his ears as another shot collided with his cover. “That’s it. Decepticons, retreat!” he ordered his two remaining Vehicons. Knockout changed forms and drove down the hall, only to be stopped when a large foot slammed into his hood. “Ow!” he said as he changed forms. “Hey, what's the big i...dea…”

Shockwave towered before the Smaller Decepticon, unaffected by the bolts of magic whizzing past him. “I ordered you not to retreat,” he said.

“Well maybe I wouldn’t have if you didn’t take your sweet time getting here,” Knockout suggested.

Shockwave ignored the doctor’s remark, calmly pushing past him. He changed forms, a magic bolt striking his armor as he did, though the Decepticon didn’t even react. Then, he slowly drove forward, unleashing a massive energon bolt from his cannon. The bolt collided with Twilight’s shield, shattering it and knocking the princess to the floor. Twilight hastily raised another shield, which Shockwave cracked with equal ease.

“Twilight!” Cadence cried.

“Keep going!” Twilight ordered from behind another shield, before Shockwave destroyed it. Cadence began to rush towards the younger princess, when a red energon bolt sailed past her face. The princess fell backwards, hooves flailing, blinded by the bolt.

Finally, Shockwave broke Twilight’s shield one final time. With all her magic drained, the alicorn fell to the ground, completely helpless. Shockwave lowered his cannon, discharging another bolt.

Suddenly, Flash slammed into Twilight, knocking the princess out of the way. The bolt struck him instead, catapulting him into the end of the hall. He struck the metal with a sickening crack, He slowly slid down the wall, motionlessly slumping onto the ground.

Twilight recovered, her mouth gaping and her eyes wide. The fur on Flash’s belly was completely burned away, exposing the charred and melted flesh of his side. Welts dotted the poor pony, while bits of metal from his armor furthered the suffering of the abused flesh. His back bend in an unnatural way, at too much of an angle to be considered normal.

Cadence, finally able to see again, sat up. Her hooves instantly went to her mouth as she gasped at Flash’s injuries.

Twilight picked up the wounded guard with her magic, putting up another magic shield, despite her dwindling magic reserve. “Everypony! We’re leaving!” Applejack and Rarity heeded their princess’ command, flanking her on either side. Twilight began the teleportation spell, causing purple lightning to swirl around them, completing the spell just as Cadence leapt into range.

The strikeforce instantly arrived at Twilight’s castle, right in front of Nurse Redheart and her aids, Trixie, Starlight, and Spike. Twilight hastily removed Flash from her back, stripping him of his armor with her magic and laying him on his unharmed side. “Help him!” she ordered Nurse Redheart. Twilight stepped back, allowing the nurses set to work, treating the stallions wounds, checking for concussions, and making sure he was as comfortable as possible.

After the nurses mended Flash’s wounds to the best of their ability, the loyal guard awoke. In an instant, Twilight loomed over him, tears streaming down her face, landing on his coat. “Flash! Are you okay?” she questioned.

Flash took a moment to examine himself, looking around, flexing his hooves and wings, stretching his neck. “Twilight” he told her. “I can’t feel my legs.”