Chapter 12: Picnic
For obvious reasons, a roundabout way to the picnic site was taken by Starscream and his companions. After stepping outside of the library, they had turned away from what appeared to be the main street, walking down roads that had no other occupants before breaching the village’s limits. From there, they headed into the open fields that surrounded the village and moved in the direction of their destination.
Unfortunately, taking this route offered Starscream very little chance to take in the sights of Ponyville, and he could only look at it from a distance. Much unlike the Hive, Ponyville was vibrant and colorful. Simple houses indicative of an unsophisticated lifestyle and a technologically underdeveloped society lined the outer edges of the town limits. While no other ponies were within view, he imagined that the interior of the village was a bustling hub of activity, also a significant difference from the Hive.
Taking just those observations into account, Starscream concluded that he would rather reside in the Hive than in Ponyville, surprisingly.
The trip to the picnic site was not expected to be long, and with the promise of getting his questions answered then, he had no inclination to engage in conversation. Twilight, Spike, and Rarity must have all felt the same, as none of them said anything either. Well, none of them said anything to him, at least. Rarity did question Twilight on whether she was going to take the quick way through town or a longer way around town to reach the picnic site, but that was the extent of any communication amongst the four of them.
Rarity was leading the group towards their goal, while Spike sat on her back and Twilight walked to the side of her and a couple of paces behind. Taking up the rear of the company was Starscream.
After another couple of minutes, the group finally came to the base of a hill. It wasn’t necessarily a huge hill, but it was certainly tall enough to keep the ones that could be heard talking on the opposite side of it from view. At that point, Rarity stopped and turned to address Twilight. “We’re here, Twilight,” she said. “Do you think one of us should approach them first and prepare them for Starscream, or shall we just go all at once?”
“It’d probably be best if one of us go first and put them at ease, as I’d imagine they’re a bit tense,” Twilight responded. “Wait here.”
Rarity nodded and fell back to Starscream’s side while Twilight moved up the hill, though she made sure to grab Spike with her magic and place him on her back. He looked just a little dejected as he and Twilight fell out of view behind the hill.
“My friends that you’re about to meet are some of the greatest mares to ever grace Equestria,” Rarity said to Starscream. “I have a feeling that you’ll get along great with them; even Rainbow Dash, given time.”
“Good to know,” Starscream muttered, disinterested. It didn’t really matter to him what Rarity thought of these friends of hers; they were holding him against his will, and that was enough for him to be somewhat agitated with them all. Still, though, he’d do his best to provide a good first impression on the ones he hadn’t met.
Twilight reappeared from over the crest of the hill. “Alright you two; come on out,” she said to them. Rarity started first, with Starscream falling in behind her. As they went up, Twilight disappeared again, presumably joining with the rest of her friends.
And finally he reached the top of the hill. Near the base of the hill opposite the side he and Rarity had climbed up was a large blanket with several wicker baskets and various plates of food laying on top of it. But more importantly, however, were the four ponies standing by Twilight in front of the picnic blanket.
They stood in a block next to Twilight, the row closest to Starscream consisting of an orange coated, blond maned pony who was also wearing a hat, and an overly pink one. Rainbow Dash stood behind the orange one, and next to her stood a yellow pony with a pink mane. The amount of vibrancy and color was a stark contrast to the changelings, and it was almost unsettling.
Another thing that stuck out to Starscream were the golden necklaces, except for Twilight, who instead had a crown, that they all wore. In the way that the necklace Rarity had matched the mark on her flank, the necklaces and crown of the others matched the wearers’ corresponding marks. They must have been the things Dash had been told to distribute prior to the picnic. They must be the Elements of Harmony...whatever that meant.
Rarity continued her approach towards her friends, and Starscream followed in kind, though he gradually fell behind a few paces. “Everypony, this is Starscream,” Twilight introduced as he came nearer. By the time Rarity was with her friends, Starscream was lagging behind by several feet, and he stopped moving forward as she did.
“Hey there, Starscream!” the excessively pink pony greeted, bouncing in place and wearing a wide grin.
“Do you girls want to introduce yourselves, or would you like me to do it?” Twilight asked them.
“We can do it ourselves, I reckon,” the orange pony spoke up, making hesitant steps towards Starscream. “Howdy there,” she said. “Name’s Applejack. I’d say it was a pleasure to meet’cha, but Dash ain’t exactly makin’ you out ta be a fun time ‘round.”
Rainbow Dash had informed Rarity that Starscream was crazy, he recalled Rarity saying earlier, and apparently Dash had told the rest of her friends, too. Things were going swimmingly. She extended her hoof for shaking once she was close enough, and Starscream accepted the motion, saying, “Way to be blunt.”
Applejack went back to her spot in front of Rainbow Dash while the pink one bounded towards Starscream. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!” she announced.
“Um...hi,” he responded awkwardly. The amount of energy Pinkie seemed to have was an uncommon occurrence in Cybertronians; she must have been packing mountains of Energon in her somewhere!
“I just want you to know,” said Pinkie, “that just because Rainbow Dash is saying mean things about you doesn’t mean I’m gonna be a meanie-pants towards you. Or any type of pants at all, since I’m not wearing any!” She laughed at her own joke. “I just hope that we’ll all be able to put our misunderstandings behind us and be friends.” Suddenly, she was right in Starscream’s face, glaring at him menacingly. “But if you hurt one pretty little hair on Twilight, you’re gonna wish you was never born.”
“But I’m fair game then, right?” Spike deadpanned.
Just as quickly as she had invaded Starscream’s space and become threatening, she was back at a reasonable distance and cheery. “Silly Spike,” she giggled, “you don’t have a mane.” And then back to threatening. “But you better not hurt Spike, either.” And back to cheerfully bouncing back to her friends.
“Uh…” Starscream dumbly stated, trying to process what had happened. Failing to do so, he turned to Rarity, who looked confused as well, but less so than himself. “Is she...she always like that?”
“More or less,” Rarity shrugged. “It becomes normal after some exposure; don’t worry.”
So that was five of the gathered ponies that Starscream had been introduced to. Introduced so far as to only know their names, but that was almost more than he could say about the Decepticons that he had been fighting alongside for literally millions of years. Was he really that unsociable? Aside from names, he also knew that he hated all of the other Decepticons, they were pretty much all incompetent, and that was about it. These ponies, aside from Rainbow Dash, were already in better standing with him than they were. How sad.
“Hello...Equestria to Starscream, you there?” Twilight was waving her hoof around in front of his face. Man, he couldn’t even meet people without zoning out and ignoring them. Maybe he was that unsociable.
“Yeah, I’m here,” he muttered, now back to the real world. “What’d I miss?”
“You missed Fluttershy introducing herself,” she answered with a frown.
“Oh, right, sorry,” he said, each word lowering in volume and pitch. “Which one’s Fluttershy?” Gah, what a dumb question; it’s the yellow one, obviously.
Said yellow one looked away and attempted to hide her face behind her long, pink mane. “Hi,” she whispered pathetically softly.
“Hi,” he grunted. “Meet-‘n-greet’s done now,” he said snappily to Twilight. “What now?”
“What we came here for,” she answered, moving towards the picnic blanket. “To eat.”
Each one of them ate very differently, Starscream noticed. Rarity and Fluttershy were very reserved and clean whereas Dash and Applejack were not so, with Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike falling somewhere between the two extremes. It was very befitting of the way they acted, at least in their brief conversations made awkward by his presence. Rarity and Fluttershy were polite and reserved, whereas Dash and Applejack were both blunt, and the other three fit somewhere in the middle.
Various foods were brought by all of them, but Starscream was unable to name most of them, never having actually needed sustenance in that form and all. As such, he simply sat there at the edge of the group, awkwardly watching them eat while trying to not be awkward. Pinkie Pie a couple of times attempted to give him some pastries to eat, which in all made her feel bad for his inability to eat. Oh well; some sympathy was good for his cause, he figured.
Before long and surprisingly quickly, their meals began to wind down. They must have really wanted to get the questioning part of their meeting. As did he, so he was glad that they were eating quickly. Their fills had, their utensils and leftovers began being packed away in the baskets they had all brought with them. The baskets were then moved to the side, and eventually a semi-circle was formed around Starscream.
“Uh...hi.” Could these ponies get any more awkwardness out of him? No, best not ask that, else it’ll happen.
Clearing her throat, Twilight kicked things off. “So, everypony...Starscream will be staying with us for a little while, at least long enough for us to get comfortable with him and find him unthreatening. That said, I think it’s best if we allot some time to ask each other questions.” The others, in various ways, agreed. “So if you have any questions for him, feel free to ask.”
“Ooh, ooh, where are you from?” Pinkie asked immediately after the invitation was given.
This question again, he internally groaned, sighing outwardly. “Allow me to hopefully answer all your questions at once.” This was going to be long winded, so he inhaled deeply...not that he needed air, but it apparently let organics know to shut up until he was done, so he would go through the motion anyway. “I’m from Cybertron; yes, it’s another planet; no, I don’t know where it is related to here, nor how I got here in the first place. No, I’m not a robot, I’m a biomechanical organism. I don’t know how or why I’m here on the planet; as for why I’m here, it’s because I have a message for Princess Celestia; no, I won’t tell you the message, as it’s very time and audience sensitive. My wing is missing because it’s also a sword and Twilight’s confiscated it. No, I’m not here to hurt anyone, but gladly will if provoked. No, I don’t want to be here, but I can’t leave until Twilight says I can, so if you could convince her to let me go, that’d be wonderful and you won’t have to deal with me.” He panted like an organic would after saying all of that in one breath, finally concluding with, “Anything else?”
“Nope!” Pinkie answered. “That’s all I wanted to know.” Starscream was actually kind of impressed with her ability to keep up with him, as she was the only one. The others, on the other hand, gave him rather incredulous looks.
Rarity was the first to break out of her stupor. “That was an unsettlingly impressive impression of Pinkie Pie,” she said. Somehow, Starscream got the feeling that that wasn’t a good thing.
“Mind slowin’ that down a tad bit?” Applejack asked next.
So he did, repeating everything he said before, word for word, agonizingly slow. It was painful even to him how slowly he was speaking, but it was definitely worth it to get back at the ponies for the annoyance they had caused them. Or maybe that was just his Decepticon programming telling him that he was justified in doing that; hopefully he wouldn’t have to get into that Decepticon stuff; nasty business, it was. No one seemed amused by his antic, though.
“That was a mean joke,” Applejack said once he had finished, “but ya answered all my questions. Ya ain’t seemin’ like a fella I’d like to hang around, honestly.”
“Fine by me,” Starscream honestly answered. “I could care less if you -or any of you ponies, really- like me. So long as you can accept that I’m not going to kill you -which is all that our agreement entails, Twilight- I’ll be satisfied.”
“See, everypony?” Rainbow said to her friends. “A jerk, just like I told you.”
With a cross look, Twilight said to Rainbow Dash, “I don’t exactly see you trying to make things better, Dash.”
“Pfft,” Dash replied, blowing off Twilight’s comment. “He’s not worth the trouble. I say we blast him with the Elements and forget he even happened.”
Rarity stepped in, siding with Twilight. “Rainbow, dear, that would be foolish to do for many reasons. Firstly, he’s an alien. We don’t know how the Elements will react to him, and it’s not something I want to test lest the results be less than satisfactory. Secondly, he’s an alien. He knows things we don’t; he’s proof that life exists beyond this planet, and you want to just...destroy and forget that? Thirdly, any hostilities he has towards us are completely justified, and we should be helping to calm him down, not rile him up.”
“Yeah, what Rarity said,” agreed Pinkie.
This was...rather surprising, to say the least. After openly admitting that he could care less about all of them, three of them still...he wouldn't say like him, as that was a bit of an over statement, but they still didn’t hate him like Dash and Applejack seemed to. That was something, at least. There was still one thing bugging him, though, that he just couldn’t justify not asking. “What are these ‘Elements’ you keep talking about?”
“Oh, these things?” Pinkie answered, reaching for her necklace and toying with it.
“Yeah, those things...I guess.”
“These nifty doodads are super cool! Whenever someone’s being a big meanie, we just wear these necklaces and Twilight casts this spell which makes her eyes all glowy-sparkly and little rainbows come out of the necklaces and combine into one big rainbow, and then it’s all, ‘Taste the rainbow, motherfeather!’” As she shouted that, she viciously swung her forelegs down as if she were crushing something under them. “And then the meanie either turns out to be Celestia’s little sister or turns into stone.”
That sounded horrible. Starscream surely didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that, as he would surely turn to stone. After all, he wasn’t Celestia’s little sister. At least, he hoped he wasn’t...although that would definitely make his job a lot easier.
“Right, well,” Twilight said, “while what Pinkie said is what happens, it’s a bit more complex than that. You see, the Elements of Harmony don’t stone people just for being mean, else everypony would be susceptible to being stoned. What they actually do is, when the large rainbow hits the target, it checks to see if there’s evil in their heart. If there is, the Elements will purge it if possible, like it did to Luna with removing NightMare Moon, or, if the evil is so ingrained that it’d be impossible to remove it, the Elements will suppress the evil. In Discord’s case, that meant turning him to stone, and subsequently being used as a display piece in Canterlot Gardens.”
So the Elements only affected you if you were evil at heart, then. Well...that was even worse. Being a Decepticon- it wasn’t just something you followed; it was something you became. Being Decepticon became an integral part of one’s programming once one made the choice. Sure, one could turn away from it -Starscream had once- but its existence would still make itself known, and still affected every decision one made. It had taken substantial will to not behead Rainbow Dash when he had the chance.
When it came down to it, it didn’t matter that Starscream had left the Decepticons; had stood up against Galvatron to vainly show the power of Unicron in an attempt to save his planet; was trying to help the changelings, who were so desperately in need of help and were unable to acquire it for themselves. No, when it came down to it, he was still a Decepticon; still evil. His cutie mark was proof of that.
“Furthermore,” Twilight continued to explain, “the six Elements are only useable by the individuals who best embody their respective Elements, as shown by the fact that each Element has the cutie mark of its bearer.”
“Intriguing,” Starscream muttered, completely uninterested and downtrodden after his brief bit of introspection.
Pinkie leaned forward and tried to meet Starscream’s gaze, which was directed at the ground directly in front of him. “Someone’s unhappy,” she noted. Sitting back up to her original position, she said, “Know what I think would cheer you up?”
“What?” Starscream mumbled.
“Bragging about your special talent!” she exclaimed. “Tell us about your cutie mark.”
The wing of his that was still attached twitched. “No,” he said, still looking down and struggling to keep his voice from raising. “No, that’s something I refuse to discuss. For now, at least. Maybe if I grow to like any of you I could spoil that by telling you, but not until then.”
“Touchy subject?” Twilight half asked, half observed.
“You don’t say,” Starscream said, finally looking up, sarcasm in excess. Twilight frowned disapprovingly, but Starscream couldn’t care less. He was surprisingly uncaring, he noticed.
“Different topic, then,” she said. “What about Cybertron? How was that world like?”
From one touchy subject to another. Still, being too disagreeable would be detrimental, and at least there was a good part of Cybertron to talk about, that part being Cybertron before the war. Might as well start there. “Cybertron was a wonderful place; very free and void of conflict. It was like your typical civilized society, except that everything was mechanical and a lot of stuff was automated, but what would you expect from a society of biomechanical organisms? I had a steady job and a couple of friends, and that was all I ever needed to be satisfied.”
“Who were your friends?” Pinkie asked. Why was she so intent on discussing friends?
“I worked in a club,” he started. “There was a regular patron by the name of Blitzwing who I grew to like, then there was my boss… er, bosses. I explicitly worked for Astrotrain, the club owner, who then hired Soundwave to DJ, and I was often doing stuff as Soundwave’s assistant. And I didn’t hate either of them, so...that’s close enough to being a friend in my book.”
“So you consider anypony ya don’ hate a friend?” asked Applejack.
“Yes,” Starscream answered. “You’d be surprised to know how exclusive an honor that is.”
As he spoke to Applejack, Twilight’s expression grew extremely contemplative, which Starscream noticed after concluding his exchange with Applejack. He waited patiently for her to finish constructing her thoughts.
“Was this club you worked at some sort of fight club or something?” she finally asked. “If it were, I could see why you carry a sword with you, but you said that Cybertron was void of conflict, and fight clubs like that aren’t very civilized. All in all, I’m rather confused as to why a DJ’s assistant would have a sword in a situation like that.”
“Yes, I did say that Cybertron was void of conflict,” Starscream confirmed. “‘Was’ being the word to emphasize. I don’t know too well what happened politically. Pretty much all I know is that this odd looking black and orange guy came in, he and Soundwave left, and not long after, scrap hit the grinders.” No need to discuss the fact that he knew exactly what happened with Megatron’s revolution at this point. “Cybertron fell into civil war, has been for the past few million years, and now the planet has probably been eaten. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to stop talking about Cybertron.”
“Eaten? Oh, that’s terrible,” Fluttershy said, finally saying something. “Did anypony else manage to get off the planet before that happened?” she asked concernedly.
He shrugged. “Heck if I know. I died trying to get Galvatron to help Optimus fight off Unicron, but knowing Galvatron, it’s safe to assume that Cybertron has been destroyed. And unless I dimension hopped or something, it’s only a matter of time before the Great Destroyer comes to eat this planet, too.”
“The Great Destroyer?” Twilight asked with sudden intrigue. “I haven’t had time to check them all, but a couple of the few texts I’ve managed to check out of the Crystal Empire’s library make mention of a Great Destroyer. Curious…”
“Small universe, huh,” he said, finding the possible connection rather uninteresting. “Now, like I said, I don’t want to talk about Cybertron. In fact, I think I’ve had enough of talking for, I don’t know, the next couple months or so. I don’t have anything more to ask of you, and I’m certain that Twilight will make time to ask me more things in the future.”
“That’s fair,” Rarity said for Twilight. “You’ve said a lot already, and it’s only proper to give an extreme introvert such as yourself time alone.”
“Thanks.” He pointed to the top of the hill behind him and said to Twilight, “I’ll be up on the hill if you need me. Take as long as you like; I don’t care.” Without waiting for a word from any of them, he trotted off towards the hill he had indicated, reaching the top of in within a minute. Surprisingly, none of them tried to stop him or anything. They must have had enough of him, which was fine, since he had had enough of them.
He laid down near the top of the hill, back enough so that he couldn’t be seen from anyone on the other side, but still a respectable, maybe a bit excessive, distance from the ponies, where he decided to go over his current impressions of his captors.
His stance on Dash was fairly obvious: he hated her. It wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t have to get her approval to be let loose, but seeing as he did, his opinion of her only worsened. Then there was Applejack, who seemed unsure of him, just like Dash was. He really couldn’t blame her, seeing as she only had Dash’s soiled word and his performance back there to base her judgment. It was at least a remote possibility that Applejack would give him the okay, which was good for him and for his opinion on her.
The others, though, he was surprised to find he didn’t hate. Pinkie seemed to be only interested in befriending him and Fluttershy so far had only made herself out to be sympathetic towards him, each of which might be immensely helpful in gaining Dash’s and Applejack’s favors. Twilight seemed to be completely intrigued by him from a scientific standpoint, and Spike really appeared indifferent.
Finally there was Rarity, who despite his bad first impression and his show just then, still seemed to be friendly and understanding. In those ways, she very much reminded Starscream of Alexis.
How’s Alexis now? he wondered. If Unicron hasn’t been stopped, perhaps she’s dead too and somehow came here like me. It was a nice thought if one ignored the fact that he may have inadvertently hoped that his best friend was dead, but an unlikely occurence, he deemed. Now wasn’t the time to get sentimental, though; not with a mission as desperate as the one he was on now.
Eventually, he managed to clear his mind of any thoughts regarding Earth or Cybertron, and pretty much any other thought aside from how annoyed he was that Twilight was taking so long to leave. All he wanted to do now was just go back to the library and wait for Twilight to say he could go to Celestia. But that, too, was unlikely, and he tried to push those thoughts out as well.
Much time passed before Starscream was finally called for, though it was Rarity that called for him instead of Twilight, whom he had expected. “Oh Starscream, deary, time to get up,” she called to him, walking in his direction.
He began to stand. “There’s no need to speak to me as if I were some sort of sparkling,” he mumbled.
“Well, you hadn’t moved in some time, and I couldn’t tell if you had fallen asleep or not. Good to see that you hadn’t.”
And it had indeed been some time. The sun was beginning to set, indicating either late afternoon or early evening, depending on how one chose to see it. That consequently meant that about the entire outing had been about five hours long. A long time to hang out with friends, in Starscream’s opinion.
At the more immediate picnic site, the others were gathering any things they had left out before or had gotten out in the meantime and packed them up in their baskets, as well as folding up the blanket into a neat little square. Rarity’s own basket was still with the others.
“It’s well about time we all start heading for home,” she said, returning down the hill and beckoning him to follow, which he did. “I think you’ll be pleased to know that you have accommodations for tonight.”
“The library floor’s not good enough?”
“Dear Celestia, no,” she exclaimed in disgust. “Even the cleanest of floors are still dirty and just unfit for anything more than standing on. Plus Twilight hasn’t really gotten a good night’s rest since you fell out of the sky.”
“I was more knocked out of the sky, but close enough. These accommodations are…?”
They had reached the picnic site, which was now completely packed up with everyone ready to leave.
“Well, good bye, y’all,” said Applejack. “Best get back home as soon as possible; don’t know how well Big Mac’s been able to handle Bloom’s crusadin’ all day, and he must be tired by now.”
Her friends bid her farewell, and then she was off.
Rainbow was next to excuse herself. “Yeah, I should go hit the hay, too.” Glaring daggers at Starscream, she said, “Nearly being decapitated takes quite a bit out of ya.”
He resisted the urge to say something in retaliation as she flew off, getting a farewell similar to Applejack’s.
“I’ma go too,” Pinkie declared. “Bye Twilight. Bye Spike. Bye Fluttershy. Bye Rares. Bye Screamer,” she said as she bounced towards Ponyville.
“Bye,” her friends chorused while Starscream was taken aback by his apparent nickname. Screamer? Surely she could do better.
That left just him, Rarity, Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy, who was next to leave. “The picnic was wonderful, girls. I’m so happy that you came. And it was good to meet you, Starscream; I’d love to get to know you more later.”
“Oh, uh, yeah, good to meet you too,” he said.
And then she left.
“Well, Twilight, it was good to see you finally not obsessing over Starscream, in a professional sense, of course,” Rarity began. “I wish you and Spike a wonderful evening and the greatest of rest. We will certainly see you tomorrow.” She turned and made off in the direction of Ponyville, leaving behind a very confused Starscream.
“We?”
“Yes, dear, we. Did I not tell you? You’re spending the night at my place.”
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Hey people! Obviously I'm doing something wrong, else I wouldn't have accumulated so many dislikes so quickly, but I can't get better if you don't tell me what it is that I'm doing wrong! It doesn't take any more that 10 seconds to tell me, "Hey, your pacing is stupid," or, "Super OOC!!!", or some similar constructive comment, so why don't you do that so the issue can be addressed, which might actually cause you like it?
Otherwise, I'm just going to assume you're trolling, in which case I must ask: is your life is really so unfulfilling and are you really so immature that degrading others' stories is the best thing you can find to do with yourself? I know I'm a pathetic excuse for a human, but really, that's just pathetic, even by my lax standards. And I'm saying that out of complete sincerity, not out of any desire to feed the parasprites.
Nice little nod to Alexis with Rarity. They did share the same voice actress after all. Tabitha St. Germain also voiced Professor Suzuki in Cybertron.
As for Transformers, well I haven't really felt inclined to watch the rest of Energon, last I checked I was only about 10 episodes in. But I have started Beast Wars and so far I'm impressed. Only nitpick, that 90's cgi obviously has not aged well.
3445366
They're just disliking something without posting why. They probably don't like you, and aren't man enough to say it. Pay those who dislike this no heed.
3445472 Wait...Rairty and Alexis share the same voice actor? I was completely unaware of that; that's pretty f'ing awesome.
I've seen the first episode of Beast Wars, but not any more of it. I'll be honest, animal based transformers (with the rare exceptions such as Ravage and Laserbeak) don't appeal to me very well, so an entire series based on such transformers doesn't suit me well. I'll additionally be honest and say that you're not missing really anything worthwhile by not watching Energon. However, after the conclusion of this story, I plan to continue with an Energon based sequel that I guarantee won't suck as much as the actual show did, and as such, I'd recommend you get acquainted with the series, by watching it if you're so inclined to do so. Just don't hate me for recommending it, please
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3445474 So long as people aren't explaining why they dislike something, which has actually only happened once or twice throughout all of my stories, I just attribute their dislikes to them being trolls. And while I know that those dislikes have no merit, others might be turned away by the large amount of red in that bar up there. Which would kinda suck, but there's not much I can do about it. I also doubt that it's people not liking me, else they would have hit up my other stories too. Oh well
.
I kinda half-expect Twilight to find an ancient scroll detailing a visitor from the stars named 'Alpha Trion'. Maybe Some bit about Alpha Trion comparing the elements of harmony to the Autobot matrix of leadership, but in a way that only Starscream knows what Alpha Trion is talking about.
In the G2 comic series, Starscream once used the Matrix to merge with a large battleship that was named 'Warworld'. While it made him more poweful, it apparently was slowly turning him good, so he quit using it after awhile. Here's a picture of G1 Starscream using the Matrix.
http://s90690880.onlinehome.us/jhiaxus/images/oddities/matrix/starscream_g210_01.jpg
3446010 Eh, well... you're kinda on the right track, except there'll be no Autobots here. But now's really not the time for past interstellar visitors in Equestria; it's the changelings who are important!
Oh, G1 Starscream, you're the only transformer I can think of who'd be so disinclined to be good that they'd effectively weaken themselves to avoid it
. Seriously, even Megatron would be more willing to have that happen than Starscream would.
I think Starscream has more than proven himself good!
Stopping a planet eating monster, saving an alien race, and trying to kill Rainbow.
Yep, he's a good guy
3448804 Oh, if only he was aware that he had been the catalyst to stopping Unicron; that'd get him free for sure.
ha i just read this chapter.
the history so far is enjoyable. it became a little slow since starscream arrived in ponyville but is ok. the ponies are just acting how they normally do. but it felt slow maybe because the readers know the urge of the message.
(twilight would have annoyed him to death with questions)
...mmmm....CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DECEPTICONS!!!
starscream is well depicted and the pairing with rarity sounds good
but when sweetie bell see him
if you will make an energon sequel i will read it!
oh and G1 starscream dont wanting to be good... in the marvel g1 UK comic there was a christmas special were a kid tried to teach starscream about the chirstmas spirit and all that. the starscream used that knowledge to humiliate an autobot (streetwise from the protectobots)
about beast wars, 2 episodes are considered to be the best things ever in transformers: code of hero and transmutate. i wont say spoilers but those 2 episodes are EPIC.
anyway that thing about animal transformers was a huge controversy in the 90s when beast wars premiered "truck not monkey" said everyone.
3449007 Maybe the pacing has purposefully gotten slower so that you would feel a little antsy like Starscream is, thus being able to relate to the character more and making things more effective
?
I wish I could do stuff like that purposefully, but no; it's actually just poor writing on my part
. Things'll probably pick up in a couple chapters, or maybe once I know what'll actually go down in Ponyville.
As far as sequels go, I actually have plans to continue with the rest of the Unicron Trilogy, hopefully explaining some things that the shows leave unattended, such as Starscream's sudden desire to take over the Decepticons in Cybertron when he had only been nothing but loyal in Energon. Each story, TA:SR, TE:SR, and TC:SR, should be able to be read as self contained stories, though, if I do it right.
Oh dear, Starscream and the Christmas spirit...I can see the hilarity already...:
*Starscream enters Decepticon base*
Megatron: Starscream, where were you!
Starscream: Lord Megatron, I was learning the customs of the humans.
Megatron: You were what!? Were you conspiring with the enemy, traitor! *proceeds to bi^ch slap Starscream*
Starscream: No, Lord Megatron! With the knowledge of the humans' ways, we should be able to perform operations much less suspiciously!
Soundwave: His reasoning is logical, Lord Megatron.
Megatron: Then tell me what you've learned, Starscream.
Starscream: Lord Megatron, I've learned that we should not be selfish, and that we should share gifts amongst ourselves freely and happily.
Megatron: And how does that help us?
Starscream: Because I come to you with gifts. Null rays for everybody! *pew pew pew*
...that all sounded better in my head...
3449086
well the real reason for starscream change in personality is because GONZO the animation studio that made Transformers Galaxy force refused to make a sequel to energon so they made a stand alone season. but in america galaxy force became cybertron and was edited and rewriten to be a sequel to energon.
the funny part of all this is that years later the japanese continuity was acomodated to make galaxy force a sequel of superlink (energon).
oh and about christmas starscream
http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/e/e5/MarvelUK-145.jpg
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/359/d/4/christmas_demotivational___starscream__s_christmas_by_seekerarmada-d5p6ecj.jpg
3449216 I don't blame them for not wanting to make an Energon sequel; I would be reluctant to have official affiliations with that poorly done series. If memory serves my correctly, isn't the Unicron trilogy one of the least liked TF continuities? I recall hearing that somewhere...and if that's true, it's disappointing how much potential was wasted in the three series (cumulatively; Armada's still epic).
For future links, do you think you could use the add link function to make things easier for those who want to look at them quickly?
3449255
actualy i think that was car robots (robots in disguise in USA) the series that was aired between beast machines and armada. is really childish and silly to the point that the predacons were even more good than the autobots. and if you dig more to japan then beast wars neo and beast wars 2 are a huge new low.
also beast wars and transformers prime are considered the best.
oh and sorry i didnt see the add link button
3449281 Prime has slowly become my favorite of the Transformers series. I love Soundwave and Starscream from Prime, but neither can compare to Armada Starscream. Unfortunately, Armada Starscream can't make up for all the faults that Armada did end up having, of which Starscream was definitely not one. Armada's a close second for my favorite series, though.
Well given the fact that his options for social interaction was between pricks and the people from the other faction who unfortunately has credible reasons to shoot you on sight so yeah social interaction wouldn't exactly be on the plate for him ... pity. XD
Ooookay ...I think our protagonist is becoming a bit unhinged ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DJ Soundwave! Reminds me of a Hot Blooded Pinkie Pie Comic!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3453276 I couldn't have summed up his social outlets better myself. But boy, being a Decepticon must really suck, considering that as a result you pretty much hate everybody. Aside from out of fear of Megatron, who'd even want to be a Decepticon?
I think we can all agree that after moving from one hopelessly desperate situation (in Starscream's case, Unicron) to another (helping the changelings/refraining himself from ending Dash), one'd start to get a little loopy. Unless you're Pinkie, in which case you can simply skip the desperate situation part and move straight to crazy.
Yay for DJ Soundwave...and for ripping off Double the Bass!
3453497
Well having a blood (oil?) thirsty mindset helps cope with this!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So now I wonder what kind of mental breakdown would we be expecting then?
3453554 Yup; being a crazed, Energon-thirsty warmonger sure would.
Well, for a completely different reason, I think we should be expecting a total mental breakdown in the far future...
Hey there! really like your story and cant wait for future chapters.
By the way, ever thought about having Starscream compare Pinkie to Cyclonus before?
3463965 I hadn't made that connection before, but now that you point that out, I can totally see it. Hmm...I don't exactly know what I plan on doing with Pinkie, but I'm sure that I can bring that up if there's ever a point where Starscream gets to better know her.
I'm glad to hear that you're liking things so far, and I hope that future chapters are just as impressive
.
Have a good one,
Lego
I just remembered two scene in Armada where Starscream shown that he understood the idea of Friendship quite well.
1.) A scene where he noticed the Star saber team was a bit wrecked, so he let them come into the CR chamber with him.
2.) When the humans asked Hot Shot to pick up a rock from Mars when the Autobots had a mission to go there, Starscream overheard it and picked up a rock when he and Hotshot got over to Mars. Later on, Hot Shot admitted to the kids that he forgot about their request. So Starscream gave the rock to the kids. I do remember Alexis making a necklace out of her piece. I think she even still wore it in Energon.
3480619 Yup. I'm aware that Starscream is familiar with the concept, but he's also been shown to hold grudges, which, unfortunately for everyone, is the side of him that's winning out in the current situation.
We can only hope that Rainbow Dash will stop being such a bi*ch to Starscream, for both her sake and the changelings.
My only problem is in the last chapter where Twilight picks Starscream up... I mean how he is atleast a couple of tons and she appears to carry him with little to no effort.
I would also like to say this. Starscream is a just unstoppable he kills Deceptions, Autobots anyone that fucks with him is irradiated he get shot down, bitch slapped by Megatron even Death can't take him and he is still around kicking ass I applaud him.
3511759 Yeah, I haven't exactly thought out completely how I'm going to deal with Starscream's weight...but as for Twilight being able to move him around so easily with her magic, it really isn't too unbelievable. Firstly, it is magic, after all; the normal rules of physics don't necessarily apply. Secondly, she's an alicorn and the element of Magic; it should be assumed that she's capable of heavy lifting and multitasking with ease. And if Luna can move a moon, and if Celestia can move an entire star, then Twilight moving Starscream is relatively nothing.
Or, at least that's how I think of it.
Anyways, onto your other statement: I absolutely agree. Starscream is the king of bada
ery, and completely deserves all our applause. I clap with you.
just wondering will the mane 6 learn of/see Starscreams death
3551010 If the Mane 6 can earn Starscream's trust enough, he may oblige them with information on that.
Will the infamous Rainbow Dash vs. Starscream Death Battle be referenced here?
3560633 Most likely. It can't be helped.
3560690 Well if they do end up fighting, can you at least make it a proper fight instead of "Starscream doesn't stand a chance against Rainbow Dash"? I HATED that part of that death battle.
3560767 Well, a proper fight in Dash's terms would be a race as opposed to actual punching and kicking, in which case the two of them are quite equivalent.
3560934 You know (and I don't know why) I'd actually like to see that.
3560938 Well good, 'cause it's happening
.
3560988 Really? Where?
3564189 In the future.
3568759 True, but I do think the Prime Starscream manages to succeed where the earlyer ones failed when it comes to the power hungery part.
3568887>>3568759 I'll agree with the both of you that most other Starscream incarnations (that I'm familiar with, mind you) were somewhat, to say it in a single non-word, bleh. But Maxout, I have to disagree with what you said about Prime Starscream and being power hungry. If I'm interpreting what you said correctly, then you're saying that he's not overly power hungry, right? If so, then I have to say that that's not quite true, but Prime Starscream does deal with his lust in a way no other Starscream has done...he's actually discreet about it! You've got to give him props for not being blatantly obvious about his deceptive intentions...though he still does suffer from a bit of an ego when he is initially successful with his usurpation, as Rainbow Ninja has pointed out is a tendency of Starscreams across the multiverse save for Armada.
3570639 Actually, I was saying that he played the part of being a sneaky back stabber BETTER then all the past Starscreams. Lets face it, since G1 till Armarda, and then Prime Starscream was nothing more then a joke with a dopey crown on his head.
In the words of G1 Galvatron conserning said seeker, "This is bad comedy."
3573074 Oh, sorry for the misinterpretation. But really, Galvatron said that? That's hilarious! I must disagree, though. In addition to Armada and Prime Starscream (until Beast Hunters, that is), I believe that the other Unicron Trilogy Starscreams were also not jokes (regardless of how underdeveloped they were, both were actually quite formidable and, in Cybertron's case, cunning); unless I'm once again misinterpreting you and by saying Armada Starscream you also are including Energon and Cybertron Starscream as they are the same character.
3573208 Actually, I chose not to count Energon and Cybertron because, Energon was as blank as a clean sheet of paper and thus in my eyes, doesn't even COUNT as a character but as more of a just there accessory, and the Cybertron one, while he was better then those before him (besides Armarda) I just felt to sorry for the poor guy, I mean seriously, NOTHING goes RIGHT for this guy, and even when it DOES, his glory is so brief you ask yourself "what just happened?" and the end of it.
Seriously, the guy tries so hard and has so much more brains and passion in comparison to the earlier ones, it's actually just... sad.
3573479 When you put it like that, I can't help but agree. Quite convincing arguments you've got.
3574712 Really? Wow... most of that I just made up on the spot!
I hope you update this again soon! And I also hope that Starscream will be able to make friends AND deliver the message!
3583914 No, he's not a cyborg, he's more a robot pony (but don't let him hear you call him a robot; I've heard he doesn't like people or ponies confusing Cybertronians for robots).
3583996 Thank you very much
.
3584208 By saying again, I assumr you're referring to the infamous RD vs SS Death Battle?
3584321 I'd be working on the next chapter by now if I hadn't been feeling under the weather for nearly the past week. As it is, I am, so I haven't done any writing so as to keep my head from hurting and to keep my proofreaders from having to try to make something out of a steaming pile of s#!t.
3584392
No. I meant that Rainbow meets him again after their first little...incident/crash course. Sometimes Rainbow can be a bit of a hothead eh?
3584414 Yes indeed. Let's hope Starscream has what it takes to cool her off a bit, eh?
3585191
Totally
I'm not too sure why people haven't made a story based of Transformers Energon or Transformers Cybertron. I just really like Shockblast and Six Shot and it would be cool to see them stuck in Equestria. Same with Sideways and Soundwave from Cybertron.
3595463 Well, it's probably because the Unicron Trilogy, especially Energon, is a bit of a blemish on Transformers's already mediocre name, and I doubt people really want to crossover with a series that has so much wrong with it when there's much higher quality series such as Prime to work with.
Six Shot could have been a much more awesome character than he was (though, to be fair, that's true of every character in Energon), but he was one of the best characters. I found Shockwave in Energon to be an interesting take on the character, being a psychotic trigger-happy psychopath instead of a psychotic sciency psychopath. But, again, the character suffers from having hardly any character.
I'm not surprised that no other Energon crossovers exist on the site, but Cybertron was so much better; I am surprised that there are no other crossovers with that. Looks like I'll be the first.
First for what? one more thing, its ShockBLAST. It would be funny to see Shockblast and Six Shot in equestria in an attempt to reform them.