Transquestria

by Spiderprime1

2. The Meeting

On the bridge of the Decepticon Nemesis Warship, Vehicons typed away and watched the screens that lined the rounded room. Each seemed to be in order, save for one, which began to show multiple red bars across an overhead map. The black and purple Vehicon operating the computer stepped away from his screen. “Lord Megatron! Something has gone wrong!”
The towering Decepticon averted his attention from the Earth's sky to the vehicon's terminal. “What is it?” Megatron asked with disdain.
“Lord Megatron, Knockout's signal seems to have disappeared, as well as the Autobots'.”

“What do you mean?” Now curious, Megatron turned and began to walk to the computer.

The Vehicon typed away on the keypad. “I was monitoring their signals, but they suddenly disappeared right here,” He pointed at the screen, “At the point of a strange anomaly.”

He scowled, red eyes darting over the screen. “And what would you mean by 'strange'?”

“It would appear an anomaly similar to that of a space bridge appeared, and when it disappeared, the energy signals vanished as well.” He explained as he turned back to Megatron.

Megatron rubbed a hand against his chin, “Interesting.” was all he said. While he was somewhat concerned with what this anomaly could be, his curiosity was needing to be satisfied. “Soundwave,” he shouted, not turning from the screen. “Go and investigate.”

- - -

When Rarity came to, she found herself laying on a field of grass. She groggily opened her eyes, her head was dizzier than the time she played on the merry-go-round with Sweetie Belle. And similar to that occasion, Rarity felt an incredibly uncomfortable sensation in her stomach. Upon having the strength to stand, her legs shaking, the Unicorn slowly stood. She saw that she was no longer in the park, or anywhere near Ponyville for that matter. It appeared that she was in a clearing of a forest, and it wasn't the Everfree Forest nor the Whitetail Woods, so Rarity was rather baffled where she landed.

After looking around, Rarity saw Pinkie and Spike, as well as Trixie still unconscious around her. She slowly made her way to the dragon, lightly shaking him. “Spike. Spike, are you alright?” Rarity asked quietly.

Gasping loudly, Spike's eyes darted open, and he tried to stand up, immediately falling over. He had a massive headache, and could barely roll over to get on his knees.

“Careful, Spikey! You're going to be really dizzy for a while.” She leaned down and nuzzled him, glad to see that he was just disoriented.

“Rarity?” Spike tried to clear his head. “Where are we? What happened to Twilight's spell?” He turned to look at the white Unicorn, worry clearly on his face.

She sighed, looking at the other two, who were still asleep. “I don't know, but all I can assume is that she made a mistake or something. At least we landed in a forest, and not over a cliff.” Rarity giggled a bit, starting to feel better by now.

Spike, now able to stand, looked around the clearing. “This place doesn't even look like we're in Equestria anymore. I haven't seen trees like these before.” He started waddling around, looking at the sky and forest. Celestia's, well, maybe it wasn't Celestia's, but the sun was beginning to set, causing the sky to turn a light orange.

Trixie and Pinkie Pie soon awoke as well, and Rarity explained the situation to them. Pinkie seemed to take it rather well, always being on the optimistic side. Trixie was a lot less accepting, but didn't say much, being more irritated at Twilight than anything. She went to Ponyville for one reason, to duel Twilight Sparkle, and now she found herself in who-knows-where, with a bunch of losers.

As they began to think on what their next course of action should be, a large, green vortex opened about 20 meters from them. “No, Not again!” Pinkie shouted. A large, circular portal opened, swirling green energy into it's black center. As the ponies dived for cover, they realized that this portal was lacking the crazy winds.

They stood up, surprised that this vortex wasn't trying to suck them in, just as they saw a towering blue figure emerge from the portal. It was a light blue, two-legged creature with a slender form, with a spiked head and a flat face that resembled black glass. The creature took slow, long steps until it was but a mere step away from the ponies, staring down at them.

As the towering being made its way across the clearing, Rarity waved her hoof to the others. “Get behind me!” She wasn't sure what she could do, but it was the only thing that she could think of. Rarity turned back the monster, now standing tall over them, and summoned her magic from her horn, causing it to glow a faint blue.

- - -

Soundwave paused before the small creatures. His scanners had never detected an energy source of this form on Earth before. Upon further scanning, he found the source was from the white Earth horse closest to him. It stood in a defensive pose, with this mystery energy emanating from a horn protruding from it's forehead.
He could not determine what it was, so he concluded that the best solution was to have this energy studied aboard the warship.

- - -

Rarity's bravado quickly shrunk as the faceless monster reached down with it's incredibly long arm. She tried to run from it's grasp, but it caught her in it's cold fingers and hoisted her off of the ground. The other ponies jumped back from the claw, but Spike lunged forward on a burst of adrenaline. Rarity began to scream in panic as she left the ground, and Spike managed to grab hold of one of her legs, refusing to let this thing take her from him.

Trixie stared in shock, an overwhelming fear taking her. This was far worse than the time she was face to face with that Ursa Minor, which had so far been the scariest moment of her life. Pinkie was stuttering, wanting to run, but wanting to charge the towering hulk threatening her friends.

- - -

Holding the horse in his hand, Soundwave sensed a small reptilian clinging to it's leg, but this creature was not a typical Earth lizard. He gently tugged it off of the horse, ignoring the sounds of panic from both of them, and held the second creature by it's tail with his free hand. It would appear that both of these creatures should be studied.

Before he could turn his attention to the other two, a blip appeared on his map. A ground bridge opened about 100 yards from his position. Soundwave turned to see a white car speed through the green spiral, to reveal an as of yet unidentified Autobot signal.

Smokescreen shifted from his vehicle mode, jumping into the air before landing in his robot form, guns drawn. “Freeze Decepticon dirtbag!”

Soundwave decided that fighting would be pointless when he already had what was of value here. With that, he created a ground bridge behind him, and the tall Decepticon retreated through the portal, with two still screaming creatures in his hands.
Seeing the Decepticon's ground bridge close, Smokescreen growled in frustration. “No one ever listens when I say 'freeze'.”

He put his weapons away, and turned his attention to the ground, noticing two brightly colored horses staring at him, giant eyes wide with shock. He looked around quickly to be sure that there was no signs of Optimus or the others. He saw a few piles of scrap where Vehicon husks lay smoldering, but no Optimus, Arcee, not even Starscream. “How am I gonna explain this to Ratchet?” He said, scratching his head with one hand.

As if on cue, Ratchet patched in to his radio channel. “Smokescreen, what's the status of Optimus and the others?” He sounded somewhat panicked, like he always is whenever things get a little hairy.
Before he could answer, Smokescreen heard a faint voice. “Did you come here to save us?”

“In a minute.” He waved a hand to the small pink and blue horses near him, placing a hand against his comm link. “Don't know how to put this Ratchet, but...WHAAA?!” He jumped back a step, unsure if that voice came from what he thought it did.

As he stared at the tiny horse, Ratchet spoke into his ear again. “Smokescreen! What's wrong! Respond!”

“R-ratchet? Are Earth horses supposed to talk?!”

“No! Of course not. What kind of idiotic question is that?”

“Wait 'till I get back. I have an idiotic answer for you.” Smokescreen kept his optics centered on the creature.

The pink horse tilted her head slightly, now with a wide smile on her face. “You came here to save us, didn't you?” It stared at him with huge blue eyes.

“Uh...yeah. I guess I did?” He replied, not sure on how to react. When a creature that isn't supposed to talk talks, it puts you off guard. After a pause, he heard Ratchet ask if the Autobots were there. Smokescreen said there was no signs of any of them, and Ratchet ordered him to return to base.

Turning to the two horses again, the white Autobot sighed, asking himself if he was really about to say this. “Alright, I need to bring you two to safety, and you guys have to follow me back to my base. Is that clear?”

The blue one, having the look of shell shock on it's face, simply nodded. But the pink one nodded sharply and spoke back, “Okie dokie loki!”

“Ratchet...just send the bridge.” Smokscreen shook his head, unable to comprehend the situation. He had been on Earth for only a short time, but was pretty darn sure that humans were the only race that could speak fluently on this planet.

The ground bridge opened behind him, startling the small horses. But after a reassuring wave, they reluctantly started walking through. After the two had made their way through, Smokescreen followed through, the bridge closing behind him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Knockout looked at the town, then at the Autobots, then cried out to his troops,
"Decepticons, Transform and retreat!" They did as commanded and the five of them took off for the mountain face in the distance.

"Optimus," said Arcee, blasters at the ready, "Should we pursue? Optimus?" She turned to see Optimus kneeling down next to a green pony with a lighter green mane and a picture of a harp on her flank. She was crying and laying on her side clutching her front left leg. Arcee looked closer and saw that it was broken.

Optimus reached out to her, "Are you alright little one? Did you hurt your leg?" He wiped away the tears from her eyes, she looked up at him, her lip quivering. Optimus reached down and scooped her up in his hands and held her close to his chest. Something about this creature convinced him that it was intelligent. "What is your name?" he asked.

"L...Ly...Lyra..." she said through her tears.

"Hello Lyra, My name is Optimus Prime, is there somewhere we can get your leg looked at?" She nodded and pointed with her good hoof towards a building that had a red cross on the front of it. "Don't worry, I will take you there." As he walked away, he called back to the Autobots, "Look around and see if there is anyone else who needs assistance."

As the Autobots got to looking for other injured ponies, Optimus was approached by a violet pony with a dark purple mane with a pink streak in it and a pink star on her flank.

"Hello little one, are you also in need of assistance?" said Optimus while still walking towards the medical building.

- - -

“My name is Twilight Sparkle... And I believe we need to talk...” Twilight hesitantly said to the metal giant before her. She had let him safely bring Lyra to the hospital, but was not about to let him go until he agreed to explain himself. At least, it seemed like a him from it's voice. She and her friends had led the titan-sized creatures to the library, much to the discomfort of the citizens of Ponyville, but Twilight reassured everypony that they would do no harm. So, she, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy now stood on the second floor balcony of the library, nearly eye-level to the creatures.

“Indeed we do, Twilight Sparkle.” He responded with a booming voice. The large creature leaned in to get closer, much to her discomfort. “You probably have many questions, as do I. But I shall offer you answers first, on account of us invading your world.”

Twilight noticed that he was at least civilized, which instantly made this process five times easier. She surged the magic out of her horn to pick up a roll of parchment, quill and ink she got from the hospital, and hovered it before her, ready to write down what she heard. “Very well. First: Who are you, what are you, and what are you doing here?” She set the quill near the parchment, awaiting his answer.

The energy that Twilight Sparkle used to pick up the objects intrigued Optimus, being something his scanners have never seen. But he would get his turn for questions. For now, it was his duty to explain himself.

"My name is Optimus Prime. This is Wheeljack," he motioned towards the white robot, "Arcee," then towards the blue robot, "and Bumblebee," and finally towards the yellow robot. "We are Autobots, those others you saw that escaped were known as Decepticons."

"Auto-whats?" asked Applejack.

"Decepti-who?" accompanied Rainbow Dash.

"SHH, let him finish." said Twilight, turning back to Optimus.

The Autobot nodded to her. "As for your second question: We are a race of Autonomous Robotic Organisms, from the planet of Cybertron. It used to be a peaceful world, until war ravaged it's surface and infected it's core. Neither side was to blame for what happened, but neither side was innocent either. We left, hoping to find a new world to call home, and that is when we came across a planet called Earth. We landed there and made friends with some of the indigenous species of the planet. But, to our dismay, Megatron and his Decepticons followed us from Cybertron to Earth. Now we fight, defending the Earth, hoping to one day rid the universe of the Decepticon threat." The ponies stood in amazement at Optimus' story, taking it all in.

"But, as to how we came onto your world, I am not sure. We were pursuing a rouge Decepticon named Starscream. We offered him sanctuary with us and-"

"Wait just a minute!" shouted Rainbow Dash, flying up to Optimus.

"Rainbow, be quiet!" hissed Twilight.

"No, what did you mean by giving a Deception sanctuary? He's the bad guy!"

"While Starscream is the furthest from the title of ally then any other Decepticon, he has on more than one occasion provided us with information about the Decepticons that has proved vital both times."

"Why would he turn on his own kind?" asked Applejack.

"Starscream and Megatron have gone through power struggles more times than can be counted. I believe Starscream could no longer take being second-in-command, and abandoned the Decepticon army, though it appears he has not fully changed his ideals." Optimus hesitated at the last part, as if not sure how to explain.

“And because he is no longer with your enemy, you hope he would assist you?” Twilight spoke up, now confident she understood the situation.

He took a moment before responding. “The few times where he did aid us has shown that there is a part of him who is willing to join the Autobot cause. I believe everyone should be given the chance to prove themselves, and that is why we are seeking out Starscream.” The red and blue titan looked to the other Autobots, who nodded in agreement.

The smallest of the group, who was known as Arcee, then spoke up. “Alright, that's our side of the story. What's yours?”

“Yeah. Would you mind telling us where we are?” The white Autobot Wheeljack asked.

Twilight Sparkle took a short breath before answering. “This is the land of Equestria on the planet Earth, which is rather coincidental with the planet you were from.” Optimus was interested by this statement, but decided not to interrupt. “We are ponies, residents of Equestria. There are actually three separate races of ponies: Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorns. Earth ponies are just normal horses, while Pegasus ponies have wings, possessing the ability to fly, and Unicorns, like myself, have the ability to use magic.”

“Please explain what you mean by 'magic,'” said Optimus, curiously. He was interested in learning about her glowing horn.

“Yeah, from what we see you doing right there, it seems that this is real magic. From where we come from, magic means tricks that use slight of hand and misdirection.” explained Arcee.

“And just how would you know that?” asked Wheeljack, seeming to be skeptical of Arcee's explanation.

“Jack showed me.” she replied waving a hand at him.

Twilight took a moment to figure out how to explain it to them, rubbing a hoof against her horn. “Well, to put it in simple terms, Unicorns can use their minds to just imagine the magic happening, and we use our horns to actually make it happen.” That was a stretch, but she wasn't sure how else to put it. “I was actually trying to cast a spell before you arrived...”

“What was this 'magic spell' supposed to do?” Optimus interrupted, growing curious, and leaned close to the Unicorn.
“Uhm, well, it was supposed to be an advanced teleportation spell.” She began, nervous with the Autobot so close now. “From what I could understand, it should be able to transport any object, no matter what it is, from one place to another. But I think I cast it incorrectly, because it created a green vortex, sucking everything in, including some of our friends.” She added that last statement somberly. “Then, you all came from another vortex which appeared after mine vanished.”
After thinking a moment, Arcee looked to the others. “From what I hear, it sounds like a ground-bridge. Not much else that can do stuff like that.”

The yellow Autobot, Bumblebee, nodded, and responded with a multitude of incoherent “beep” sounds, causing confusion for the ponies. Optimus looked back to his team, standing up straight. “Correct. It appears that it was indeed similar to a space-bridge, due to the tremendous distance it reached to. But you had not set any sort of coordinates for it, did you Twilight?”

“N-no. All I did was picture what I wanted to teleport. I didn't expect it to create a portal.”

“Then my only guess is that with no coordinates, this 'space-bridge spell' searched through the stars until it located and locked on to where our ground-bridges spawned. And with it having the largest strength, we were pulled to Equestria, where the bridge originated.”

“But what about our friends?” Applejack asked worriedly. “Sure, ya'll can make it through these 'bridges' alright, but will Ponies be safe goin' through 'em?”

Again, Arcee spoke up. “Oh, they should be fine. We have a few Human friends back on our Earth who go through ground-bridges all the time. They make you sick at first, but you get used to it.”
Everypony sighed with relief. At least the other four were alright. Then, Twilight had an urge to ask a possibly stupid question.

“What are Humans?”

The bots all stared blankly at the Unicorn for a few moments, causing an awkward silence. “Looks like we have a lot more to talk about than we thought...” Arcee muttered.

- - - Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Ponyville - - -

Knockout and his four remaining Vehicons sped up the face of a mountain in their vehicle modes, looking for an area to set a base of operations. “Where the frak are we?” The red Decepticon grumbled to himself, “This looks like Earth, but no part of Earth that I'm familiar with. And where is Starscream? Lord Megatron will have my head if I fail again.” Knockout's thoughts cringed, fearing what horrible consequences would follow.

As his mind raced to figure out a solution to this situation, he saw something in his side mirror. Adjusting it to get a better look, Knockout noticed that in a forest just down the hill, the trees were parting in a rather unnatural way. Well, at least one problem is accounted for. The Decepticon turned his tires, and skidded to a halt. The four Vehicons copied him, all stopping on the hillside.
He contemplated what action he should take for a moment. He needed Starscream, but obtaining the traitor would prove fruitless if they could not contact the Nemesis. Knockout noticed a small cave higher up the mountain, and made his decision. Still in his vehicle form, Knockout shouted to the Vehicons, “You two, go investigate the forest, it could be Starscream, the rest of you, follow me.” The two rear cars spun around, tires digging into the dirt, and raced to the forest towards the moving trees.
Knockout and the other two eventually made their way to the mountain cave. The inside was dark, and they each crept in slowly with their headlights on to be sure it was clear. The three transformed back into their robot forms, glad to see the ceiling was high enough for them to safely stand. The two vehicons awaited their Commander's order, while Knockout turned his attention to the landscape below him.

The cave they found was actually rather high above the land they stumbled upon. Off in the distance, the Decepticon could make out the small settlement where they had arrived, as well as the forest where he sent the two Vehicons to investigate, and a large mountain far on the horizon grabbed his attention as well. Well, first things first: “We need to reestablish contact with Lord Megatron and the Nemesis. Now, I have an idea as to how we do that, give me your communicators and I’ll combine them with mine, see if we can't get a faint signal.”

- - -In the Forrest- - -

The two Vehicons drove through the forest till the sun hit the horizon. After a while of following a trail through the trees, they transformed to their robot modes. Their jet-black bodies shone in the moonlight, their single optic visors and the energon from their arm-mounted guns shone throughout the darkness of the forest. The large footprints in the dirt had vanished, as well as pushed bushes and trees. If Starscream was here, this was where he was hiding.
A loud snap caused them to turn, just in time to see the Rogue landing right in front of them, on one knee. Before the Vehicons could raise their weapons his direction, Starscream thrust his sharp fingers deep into each of their spark chambers. With a small grunt, he shoved the Vehicons back, knocking over a tree, into a nearby clearing, and slamming the two Cons onto the ground, their sparks extinguished instantly.

Starscream stood up, ripping his claws from their chests, shaking his hands clean of the energon dripping from them.
“Cannon fodder at it's finest.” He muttered with a hint of amusement, seeing the Vehicons were just as simple-minded as when he left the Decepticons.

He raised his eyes from the ground to look up at the night sky, only to see it nearly covered by dozens, possibly a hundred, of these small, armored winged horses, similar to the ones from that small settlement. They all carried a small, metal-tipped spear, all of which were pointed at Starscream. He looked to the ground to see just as many horses surrounding him, some of them emanating a soft glow from an appendage on their foreheads.
One took a step forward, clearly the horse in charged, sticking his chest out. “Creature! Surrender to us now, or we will use lethal force!”

Taking another look around him, Starscream gritted his teeth. He had been in a situation like this before, but this was different. He wasn't sure what these creatures could do if he tried to run, so he was not going to risk it this time. Reluctantly, the Decepticon raised his hands, darting his eyes back and forth as the horses closed around him.

“...Scrap.”