The Darkest Hour

by TheClownPrinceofCrime

Chapter 16: The Darkest Hour part 1

The Decepticon leader stared at the brave colt with widened optics while he stepped backwards. Even the other Decepticons were shocked to see the little hero alive. "This is not possible! Another insect alive?!"

"Anything can be possible, Megatron. Right now, you will answer for your crimes against both Cybertron and against Equastria!" Rumble declared.

"You're okay!! My baby brother is okay!!" Thunderlane cried, tears pouring out. He tightly hugged Rumble with Red Alert beside them while the Mane Six hugged Starlight who blushed from all the love shown to her.

"I thought we would never see you again! Thank goodness you and Starlight are alright!" Luna added.

"How did you survive? I saw Megatron kill you both!" Twilight asked.

"Well, a handful of clones helped me survive through this; I'm not really sure if they're still alive to help again though," Starlight replied, nervously giggling.

“For me... well... it’s a long story. I’ll explain once this is all over,” said Rumble.

As his friends were tightly hugging them, Lout walked over and embraced them all in his arms. "Group hug time, eh? I might as well join in!" Meanwhile, the Mane Six, the alicorns, and Thunderlane looked at him with confused yet amazed looks.

"Is he a friend of yours?" Celestia asked Rumble.

"I guess you can say that he's our... new recruit," Rumble smiled, blushing.

“It’s always pleasing to see another reformed Decepticon who’s willing to make a difference,” Red Alert tenderly smiled.

"I like him already! After this is all over, I'll give him the biggest 'Welcome to Equastria and thanks for helping us save the world!' party EVER!!!" Pinkie jovially shouted, throwing confetti out of thin air.

"Wow, that is one hyper pony," said Lout, amused by her personality.

"ENOUGH OF THIS NONSENSE!!" Megatron angrily bellowed. Once everyone gave their attention to their adversary, the latter pointed his sword toward them as the corrupted magical energy from within his spark chamber flowed toward his optics. "You insignificant beings will never succeed in your vain attempt to stop me, for I have the greatest source of power that is just as strong as the AllSpark. With it, I am unstoppable and... inevitable. THIS PLANET BELONGS TO ME!"

"You're wrong, Megatron! No matter what power you have, freedom and justice will always triumph!" Rodimus retorted.

"Such heroic nonsense, Autobot, which I've heard way too many times already. Time to put an end to this foolishness," Megatron dismissed. "Decepticons, DESTROY THEM!"

All the Decepticons gathered themselves together as they glared daggers at the small group of heroes. They even chanted battle cries as most of them activated their various weapons. Meanwhile, Megatron hovered in the air as he transformed to helicopter mode.

"What do we do now, Rumble?"

"The same thing we did last time, Pinkie: saving the universe!"

“This is now our final chance to save both our worlds. We will fight the Decepticons... as one,” Red Alert stated, charging her blasters.

“Yeah! Time to kick some Decepticon butt!” Rainbow added, eagerly flapping her wings.

"I just want to say that it has been an honor fighting beside you all if any of us don't make it... like me. You all have been the best of friends to me like no other, right Dead End?" Skywarp spoke.

"I don't even know who you are, man," Dead End remarked, looking away.

"Ponies, Autobots—or, um, new Autobots, ATTACK!" Rodimus commanded. Thus, the ultimate battle between good and evil commenced. Seeing their enemies rushing forward, the Decepticons shouted cries of war before running forward as well.

The heroes and villains clashed against each other with brute force. The ex-Decepticons fired their blasts toward the opposing faction whereas all three princesses fired their magical beams from above, adding more power to their ammunition. The empowered blasts struck some of the ‘Cons on their chests right before the paralyzing effect seized them. They fell on the ground immobile.

The Seekers flew forth to fire on their former brother Skywarp who was already in jet mode. He fired his missiles at them which only managed to strike two of them; Slipstream dodged the projectiles until she fired two last ones with firepower of her own.

This managed to distract Skywarp as he idly gazed at the explosions until another Seeker rammed him. Transforming to robot mode, he attempted to push Ramjet away while he activated his thrusters. “Sorry, pal, it was an accident! Totally not intentional!” Ramjet yelled.

“You... lie... too much!” Skywarp grunted, pushing him off. Suddenly, he got shot in his left wing.

“Oh, great and sly traitor, the pleasure of taking your attractive mechanism offline is mine!” Sunstorm smiled. He fired more laser beams toward his opponent.

As Skywarp quickly dodged the blasts, he fired two more shots that impacted Sunstorm’s thrusters. He flew out of control as he instantly crashed down on the dirt. “By the AllSpark, landing my face on the organic soil is... wonderful!”

“I hope that didn’t hurt him too much,” said Skywarp.

“You’re not finished with me yet, fool! I’ve only been warming up!” Slipstream shouted, approaching from behind. As he noticed her from behind, he anxiously yelped before he flew up toward the red sky. Laughing in amusement, she chased after him around the field.

Luna flew around multiple Decepticons with Twilight following her. Both alicorns blasted several ‘Cons’ faces with beaming magic, temporarily blinding them. Twilight grabbed two random Decepticons via magic and bashed their heads together, rendering them unconscious.

Suddenly, they were surrounded by Motormaster and his remaining Stunticons as they drove in circles. Then they transformed to robot mode before Motormaster stepped forward. “YOU IDIOTS THINK YOU CAN CHALLENGE THE KING OF THE ROADS?! RIDICULOUS!!”

“Yeah, you better give up now or else we’ll make it worse for you ponies,” added Breakdown.

“Wow, first we got pretty fembots from Cybertron, and there are now pretty ponies here too! Man, I gotta be lucky every time,” Wildrider smirked, winking at Luna and Twilight who recoiled in disgust.

“Let me finish them off, boss. Those fleshling heads would make a decent addition to my collection,” Drag Strip sneered, sharpening her buzzsaw.

At that moment, a bright magical beam struck Drag Strip’s face which forced her to grunt. Motormaster looked up and saw Celestia descending on them in full power; the alicorn generated a massive ball of magic and threw it towards the Stunticons. It exploded in their faces, sending them flying in the air.

“Are you alright?”

"We’re fine, sister. We can't hold them off for much longer," replied Luna. "Those fiends will eventually overwhelm us by sheer numbers and strength alone."

"We have to keep fighting, Lulu. We will defeat Megatron and the Decepticons together, one way or another," Celestia encouraged.

"Do you think Rumble and Rodimus will figure something out?" Twilight asked, nervously sweating.

"I know they will, Twilight. Come on!" Celestia ordered, taking off to the skies. Twilight and Luna followed her as they pursued after multiple grounded Decepticons.

Swindle fired his cannons toward Lout who was in pickup truck mode, carrying Pinkie Pie in the front seat and Discord at the back. After running over several Decepticons, Lout ejected his hooks and attached them to Swindle. The latter yelped as the hooks pierced his torso. "Watch it! My chassis isn’t that cheap, you know!" he yelled.

"Say, Pinkie, what do you think we should do to Mr. Expensive over there, eh?" asked Lout, chuckling.

"I have an idea! Let's put some cupcakes in his eyes!!" Pinkie shouted, loading her cannon full of cupcakes.

"Don't you mean 'Dirt' in his eyes?" Discord corrected.

"Dirt, shmirt, let's do it!" Pinkie unleashed her ammunition of cupcakes right at Swindle's optics until his entire head was covered with them. Then Discord snapped his fingers to summon a giant rolling pin, causing Swindle to panic. The pin swiftly rolled him over, effectively flattening him as a pancake. Seeing their work done, the rolling pin disappeared while Lout released his hooks from Swindle.

"Hm, that's weird. There should be multiple broken pieces," Lout wondered, arching his brow.

"Of course not, silly, it's all cartoon physics! It helps us escape the pain of reality every time," Pinkie grinned, hopping on Lout's shoulder.

"Couldn't agree more! Besides, what fun is there in making sense?" Discord added. They all laughed together.

Strika and her remaining teammates stood against Rodimus, Dead End, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. As the former opened fire on the latter, the heroes split up and chose their respective opponents to battle. Rodimus faced Strika, Rainbow fought Oil Slick, Applejack went face-to-face with Blackout, and Dead End stood his ground before Spittor.

"Your pathetic choice of a team will fall, Autobot! Then you will be next!" Strika declared.

"Not if I stop you first," he retorted. Raising his bow and arrows, he shot her arm with two arrows. Bellowing in pain, the large Decepticon used her free arm and swung at the Autobot. He ducked under the swing, ran under her legs, and then shot more arrows at her back. Frustrated, she activated her cannons on her back and shot multiple beams at him. He skillfully dodged every shot until he ran up and punched her face.

"You will regret that, Autobot scum," she snarled.

She immediately grabbed him and body-slammed him on the ground and punched him to the skies. She jumped high towards the clouds and kicked him back to the field, creating a large crater.

Rainbow flew around the toxic Decepticon who constantly threw barrels of oil at her. "You think you can slow me down, punk?!"

"Just hold still already, you little twerp!" Oil Slick snapped. He grabbed his chains and threw one around Rainbow's back legs, chaining her up. Smiling smugly, he swung her around while she screamed and then slammed her against trees and the mud. "Haha, how do you like that, organic?"

Suddenly, she flew high up in the sky while dragging Oil Slick along with her. The Decepticon thug kept getting dragged through many clouds before she broke free of the chains. After that, she spun around Oil Slick repeatedly until he fell down to the ground dizzy.

"Oh yeah! Top that, Decepti-creep!" she called out.

---

Meanwhile, the bounty hunter Lockdown drove through the woods beneath the hills not far from Equastria. Ever since the Decepticons invaded the land and attacked the inhabitants, he had been spending his hours looking for anything that might interest him.

After several hours of searching, something caught his sight as he drove past the mountains. Transforming to robot mode, he investigated the strange place. "Well, well, this weird house looks pretty ancient. Hopefully, something useful is inside," he said. Activating his chain saw, he sawed open the large doors and threw them aside.

As he entered the place, a giant three-headed dog along with many caged creatures became alerted to his presence. The very moment the creatures eyed the giant, bipedal metal being, they whimpered in fear and could only stare at the mechanical monstrosity. The dog guardian, however, angrily growled as it confronted him.

It ran up to him, blocking him from going any further. Unamused, Lockdown glared at the watchdog who barked aggressively at him.

"Aww, what a cute little puppy. Here, allow me to give you a good pat on the head," Lockdown mockingly spat. Raising his hook, he jumped toward the dog and slashed one of its heads, striking an eye. It wailed in pain as it covered the head's wounded eye. The watchdog ran away from the intruder.

"Too easy." The bounty hunter looked around to see multiple creatures sitting in their cages while there was no sight of any weapons or gadgets.

"Man, what is this supposed to be? A zoo? I'm not even sure if it's a prison or not," he muttered. Just as he said this, he noticed a much larger cage up in a distance where another creature was being held. Curious, he walked towards it.

The prisoner looked up and saw the menacing titan approach him as he already witnessed him put all the other creatures to fear. Amazement and curiosity seized him as he gazed at Lockdown. "My, my, I have never seen such a magnificent creature like you before. What are you? Where did you come from?"

"You may call me Lockdown, a bounty hunter. Do you know if any weapons are around here? I could use some mods."

"No, but I could learn more about your species if you care enough to share. Maybe set me free so we could know each other better?" the creature suggested, slyly smirking.

Lockdown suddenly chuckled before he glared at the creature. "I only make deals with those who have something useful to offer me in return. No bounty, no deal. Simple as that. And who are you anyway?"

"I am Lord Tirek. I was once the most feared being in all of Equastria. Soon, I will take back what is rightfully mine and absorb all of its magic once more."

"That's a beautiful story, bub. Anyway, I gotta bolt. See ya," the bounty hunter dismissed, walking away.

"What?! None of my story seems interesting to you?! This is my only chance of escaping this infernal prison and having my revenge against those insufferable ponies!" Tirek bellowed.

"Ha, you're too late for that, organic. Besides, I have better things to do," Lockdown smirked.

At that moment, a loud explosion was heard below the platform Tirek's cage was stationed. Before either of them could register what that noise was, a purple Cybertronian jet flew up to the ceiling until it transformed to robot mode and landed on the pavement.

"FREE AT LAST!!! THAT DISCORD FELLOW WILL FEEL MY WRATH!!" Cyclonus triumphantly shouted.

"Another one? He's been here the whole time? And... he shape-shifted... that kind of transformation I've never seen before," Tirek marveled.

"What are you doing here, bounty hunter?" Cyclonus demanded, glaring.

"Just looking for something useful. Nothing more, nothing less. After that, I'll be out of this planet and go off to another adventure. This whole war stuff is getting pretty boring, y'know?" Lockdown nonchalantly replied.

"Hmm, fair enough. Maybe you can do something with that pathetic organic and use it as a weapon of sorts?" Cyclonus suggested.

"Hey! I'm not pathetic!"

Thinking about it, Lockdown instantly got an idea. Mischievously grinning, he ripped open Tirek's cage and forcefully picked him up. "What the?! What are you doing?! You can't harm a helpless prisoner!" Tirek yelled.

"I see no prisoners, only trophies," Lockdown grinned.

Horror filled Tirek's face as Lockdown took him away to his own ship. "No! No! Please! Have mercy! I'll tell you everything about equestrian magic! I swear! NO, NO, NOOOOOO!!!!" After the bounty hunter entered his ship, sounds of chain sawing and Tirek’s screams of agony were heard from miles away. Afterwards, the ship flew off and left the planet.

Cyclonus escaped Tartarus and viewed for himself all the destruction, fire, and chaos unfolding before him. He wickedly laughed in celebration of the Decepticons' apparent victory. However, something caught his optic in a distance. Once he squinted his optics to get a better view, he saw a vast army approaching—an army which both surprised and terrified him.

"By the AllSpark..." he whispered.

Comments

[Darth Wrex]

For some reason, I keep thinking Animated Sunstorm would make a decent Autobots.

[ChazMLPFIM]

Nice, Twilight and Thunderlane are happy for Rumble and Starlight alive. And now the true fight begins.

[TheClownPrinceofCrime]

10881506
That’s... an odd yet interesting thought.

[Darth Wrex]

10881532
All I'm saying is he's shown loyalty towards Autobots.