> the brutality factor > by Celestia_X_Luna > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Arrival (part 1) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is space? its so... Boring was the only thing Blastoff could think of. Sure space had a lot of stars but it still felt ,for lack of a better word, empty. Space was so vast and all the stars seamed so far and apart from each other, not to mention him. Sure he was a brown and purple space shuttle but he still didn't like space. He would of continued to be lost in the stars if it hadn't been for the hand that grabbed him and pulled him behind cover. "WHAT THE SCRAP ARE YOU DOING BLASTOFF?!" Onslaught yelled. Onslaught was a blue and light green bot with two canons built onto his back. Blastoff had forgotten what he was doing when he got lost in the stars. Then it all flooded back to his remembrance; he and the other Combaticons where assigned to protect a space bridge in deep space that was made to be the connection between earth and Cybertron. He peaked around cover and saw them, the Arialbots, an autobot airshow, where on the other side of the space bridge firing at them. Several shots ricocheted off his cover, it didn't take long for his battle program to kick in. He immediately drew his rifle and returned fire with his fellow Combaticones. With his usual skill he was able to knock the weapon out of Air Raid's hand. Blastoff found considerable pleasure in seeing the shocked face of his enemy finding his weapon no longer in his hand. His enjoyment was cut short however as a shot from Fireflight just misses his head. It doesn't take blastoff long to target him. within second Fireflight is down on the ground holding his shoulder, Silverbolt is immediately by his side. sweet a two for one deal. His finger slowly squeezing the trigger as to not mess up his shot, when suddenly his scope was full of yellow. He pulled away from his scope to find a small yellow autobot standing in front of his scope with a big smile on his face. "Scrap" was the only word that he said before he was kicked square in the face. He fell flat on his back before getting into a siting position. He looked up to see the last thing he wanted to see. There standing right in front of him was Optimus Prime with a gun pointed at his face. "SURRENDER" Optimus said loudly. He desperately looked for a weapon but found that his precious rifle was being placed in a pile of weapons and the rest of the Combaticons where as helpless as he was. "You don't suppose we could be civil about this?" Swindle said "I mean, were all civilized Cybertronians. aren't we?" this drew laughter from the near by Autobots. They where running out of options when suddenly, blastoff had a brilliant idea. "Fine we surrender." This caught the Autobots by surprise as well as the other Combaticons. "We what?" Brawl said bewildered. "We surrender." Blastoff repeated. "Alright then." Optimus said "I want you to deactivate this space bridge." "Ok" Blastoff said He quickly stood up and began to walk to the bridge controls. "Hold onto something and play along" he whispered to his comrades. Swindle caught on and began to smile, which he expertly hid moments later. The other Combaticons caught on to the ploy and played along becoming very rambunctious. "Traitor!" "Megatron will hear about this!" "Autobot conspirator!" Blastoff was escorted to the space bridge controls, once there he put his plan into action. Imput access codes... Deactivate distortional dampeners... Activate energon space distortion... Activate static charge... Static charge building... The space bridge came to life, light coming from all the conduits. a small black hole opened in the center of the space bridge. it began to grow as electricity arced from the space bridge onto the black hole, fueling its growth. Black hole unstable... The hole began to fluctuate, no longer a circle but more of a constantly changing blob. Blastoff grabbed the terminal as tight as he could, bending the edges. "Hey, what are you.." Suddenly the black hole collapsed in on itself becoming the size of a pin, then it exploded outwards knocking all the Autobots backwards and onto their tailpipes. By the time they had gotten back up, Blastoff and the other Combaticons had already freed themselves. "COMBATICONS, MERGE AND FORM INTO BRUTICUS!" onslaught barked. The Autobots where helpless as they watched each one in turn transform and attach to each other. Where the Combaticons had stood only moments prior was now a massive Decepticon monster. "BRUTICUS CRUSH PUNY AUTOBOTS!" Bruticus bellowed. "Autobots" Optimus yelled "Retaliate, bring that thing down!" Upon hearing this, Bruticus singled out the Autobot leader, now his energon fueled rage was pointed at him, completely ignoring the other Autobots as there fire helplessly bounced off his body. "BRUTICUS SMASH LITTLE PRIME!" He shot out his hand to grab the Autobot leader. Optimus, seeing it coming, jumped back at the last second, as Bruticus' hand went through the outer shell of the space bridge. he then removed his hand from the bridge holding a piece of machinery. "Uh-oh" Bruticus said as if just realizing what he had just done. suddenly the bridge began to activate, electricity arking acros s the surface of the bridge. Several small explosions rang out across its surface. Bruticus looked at the mass forming in the center of the bridge. It was amazing, his sensors picking up countless spectrums of color. It was enchanting, he couldn't believe how beautiful it was. The only thing bringing him back to reality was his feet beginning to slide. 'its pulling me towards it' he finally realized. "AUTOBOTS, GET TO JETFIRE!" Optimus yelled Bruticus turned and watched as the Autobots climbed into Jetfire and flew away into the cold embrace of space. "FINE! LEAVE! THIS MEANS BRUTICUS WINS!" he yelled after them. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw the weapons pile get sucked into the hole. He began to look around and watch as the bridge began pulling itself into the hole as well. "or not" he said. The pull began to grab him, pulling him of the bridge."OH NO YOU DON'T!" he yelled defiantly. He reached down and grabbed a pair of strengthening beams that had been exposed during the battle. The pull of the hole had him completely upside down. then he heard something, the sound of metal bending. He looked at his hand hold and saw it begin to buckle and bend. "scrap." With a resounding ping and the sound of tearing metal The beams gave way and he was pulled into the portal. Twilight was so exited. Her and her friends where joining her to go stargazing. Plus Celestia heard about her plans and had decided that her and Luna would be joining them. "Spike could you bring me the..." "Starswirl's guide to stars, constellations, and other celestial bodies?" Spike finished as he climbed a ladder and grabbed the book in question. "That's the one." she said. It was nice having an assistant who knew exactly what book she was needing. "I want to see if i can locate some of the more rare constellations, like the Starswirl nebula." "Isn't it kind of odd how many things he has named after himself?" Spike asked "Well he was a world renowned unicorn. He also was the created of most of the spells we use today" She answered Spike was now down the ladder and placing the book in Twilight's saddle bag. "Also, why did they call him 'Starswirl the bearded?' did he have a lesser known brother named 'Starswirl the not-so bearded?" Spike asked Twilight opened her mouth to answer but then stopped. Come to think about it she didn't know. "I have no idea." She replied. "Any ways, lets get going, everypony is probably waiting for us." With that, several objects including a telescope where wrapped in magic and placed in a wagon while at the same time she picking up her saddle bag and placed it on her back. "Do we have everything?" She asked. "Yep, were all set." Spike replied. With that she wrapped the door in magic, opened it, and went out followed closely by spike and the wagon. They made their way to sweet apple acres where their friends where waiting. "Its about time you showed up," Rainbow Dash said. "We were wondering if you where going to make it." apple jack said. "Enough talk," Pinkie Pie interrupted "Did you bring the snacks? Twilight's eyes shrank to pins as she realized she had forgotten them. How could she have forgotten? She was the most organized pony she knew, and she never forgot. "They are right here." Spike said as he pulled a basket from the wagon. Twilight relaxed and released the breath she had no idea she had been holding. "Thanks Spike, I had forgotten them completely." Twilight said. "No problem. what kind of assistant would I be if I didn't remember what you forget?" Spike replied That last bit sounded smug to Twilight, but spike had earned the right to be a little smug. A little bit smug. Suddenly there was a bright light in the sky, it was brilliantly beautiful. When it faded it was replaced by two alicorns. Everypony bowed deeply. Twilight was the first to rise and speak. "Its so good to see you princess. I was thinking that you wouldn't be able to make it." "Oh Twilight," Celestia responded "I never miss a chance to see my little sisters beautiful sky." "Oh tis nothing." Luna responded with a slight blush. "SHOOTING STARS!" Rainbow yelled. Everypony turned around to see a shooting star fly across the sky. It moved so fast that it would of been easy to miss. "Aaaaaaaw yea! Reminds me of a stunt I'm working on," Rainbow said "First I fly super high, then I race towards the ground then I pull up just above the ground. I'm thinking of calling it THE FALLING STAR." She said with emphases on the name. "Actually," Twilight said " It is a small meteor burning up in the atmosphere, therefor making it burn like a star." "Are we going to talk about meteors or stargaze?" Pinkie Pie asked. They had been looking at stars for hours. In the end everyone had fallen asleep except for the 3 princesses. Luna was fine, she stayed up this late all the time sometimes longer, but Twilight could tell Celestia was getting tired even though she hide it expertly. "I think i'm going to retire for the night." Twilight said. "Indeed," Luna said matter-of-factly "You need sleep as well sister." "If you think so sister," Celestia said "I will see you tomorrow twilight." Suddenly there was a loud BOOM that rattled everything. Every one woke up immediately. "What was that?" Suddenly the sky was filled with large objects raining from the sky, smashing in to the ground all across sweat apple acres and the Everfree Forest. They looked like huge balls of fire that were bent on the destruction of everything. "LOOK!" rainbow dash yelled Everyone looked in the direction she had indicated and saw a huge asteroid smashed into the middle of Ponyville. "Looks like sleep will have to wait." > arrival (part 2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- systems rebooting... Bruticus awoke with a start. He was lying flat on his back looking strait up and he saw the strangest thing, A blue sky. What was a blue sky doing in space, unless he wasn't in space. There where only two places he could be, Earth or Cybertron, and the last time he checked Cybertron did not have blue skies. He must be on earth. The question is, where on earth. He pulled himself off the ground into a sitting position and took in his surrounding, which consisted of the crater walls. He must have fallen from orbit. He got to his feet and climbed out of the crater he had made earlier. Then he saw another peculiar thing, trees, lots and lots of trees, and it was abnormally dark and dreary. "I don't think were in Kansas." He stood at his full height and looked over the trees, they where quite tall. the trees maid it up to bruticus' waist. "Combaticons separate!" With that Bruticus fell apart and was replaced by five much smaller beings. "So what do we do now?" Swindle asked "I mean its not like we have our weapons with us." "No," Onslaught said "But we have our vehicle weapons. Blastoff, you and Vortex fly over the forest and try to find our weapons. Brawl and Swindle you are with me. lets see if we can find a human establishment." They had found the strange object in the middle of Ponyville square and Celestia had scientists and guards shipped in over night. What they found looked like a really long cylinder with some parts protruding from it here and there. It was huge, it was 20 hooves across and 5-6 blocks long. At one end it seamed to be hollow, but the other was solid. "Have you made any progress?" celestia asked "We have made some progress," one of the scientists said. He was a tan earth pony with a grey mane. he was dressed in a lab coat with a pair of glasses in his pocket. "It seams to give off a strange type of energy we have never encountered before."He began walking along the object followed by Celestia to the middle of the device. "We also found a switch in the middle of the object." He said indicating towards the switch. "We would like your permission to see what the switch does." "Lets not at the moment, it could be dangerous. It could do anything from make clouds to destroy everything." Celestia said "Lets focus on getting it to a secure location, where we can test it safely." "As you wish princess." The scientist said with a bow. "One question though." "What is that?" "How are we going to transport it? We cant exactly load it into a wagon." Vortex was a grey and blue helicopter flying over the forest when he saw something. Hey its a human establi...wait those don't look like humans, and is that? this is not good. "Onslaught come in this is Vortex." "Onslaught here, go ahead Vortex." "I found a development but it is not human, and Bruticus' phase cannon is in what i believe to be their town square. I'm also seeing a lot of lab coats and clipboards." "Keep me informed Vortex." With that he cut the transmission. "Brawl, Swindle were moving out." Swindle was a small yellow and purple CJ-5, while Brawl was a grey and green tank. Onslaught trusted Brawl with his life, Swindle... not-so-much, he hasn't trusted Swindle since he sold him for spare parts. "Where to?" brawl asked. "Vortex where is this 'establishment'?" "Due west of the forest." Vortex stated. "Blastoff, whats your twenty?" "I am currently flying towards the development, with our weapons in tow." "Good work you two, we are on our way." With that he closed the com. "Alright lets..." Onslaught froze mid sentence. He turned around to find a four headed monster emerge from the trees and give a mighty ROAR. "BRAWL, BRING THAT THING DOWN!" Onslaught barked. Brawl didn't have to be told twice. he immediately transformed into a tank. "Hey Griff, can you hold this for me. IN YOUR GUT!!!" With that brawl fired a explosive round right into the beasts gut. It screamed in pain then glared in their direction and ROARED. It began walking towards the group hell bent on killing all of them. "Wait for it." Brawl said. Not one second later the monsters body exploded, raining flesh everywhere. "Well no that that is dead lets move out." Onslaught said as he transformed into a truck with AA-guns and a massive flat bed. Brawl and Swindle fell into position in their vehicle forms as all three made their way west toward town. Celestia was perplexed. she needed to get this thing transported somewhere were they could conduct tests on it and figure out what it did but their was no way to move it. her train of thought was cut short however as an boom rang though the Everfree forest followed by two roars another quieter boom then... nothing. "What the buck was that?" Celestia said aloud. "The roar was hydra in origin but the boom... I have no idea." one of the scientist responded. Celestia looked around and fond everyone was looking into the forest as if at any second something would run out and eat them. "Captain Iron Hoof." Celesia said. "Yes your majesty?" Said one of the guards. He was dresses in platinum armor with a red star on his chest and his coat was grey as stone. "I want you to put together a team and investigate what that was." bruticus: combaticons: > contact > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hey onslaught do you have a plan for how to get the blaster from the inhabitants?" Swindle asked They had been driving through the forest for about twelve earth minutes. Swindle wasn't known for his patience, or for being quiet. "I have a plan," Brawl said "We could have you walk in and just take the weapon, your face will scare them away." "haha... there is an example of your shining sense of humor." Swindle deadpanned "Enough of that you two." Onslaught ordered "and yes Swindle i do have a plan." now i need to think of one by the time we get there. "Hey Vortex." Onslaught called on the radio. "Yes Onslaught?" Vortex responded "On a scale of one to ten, ten being us, where does their tech lie?" "Two. they have basic tools and weapons, like hammers and swords." "Do you think they are very superstitious?" "I will find out." With that he flew as fast as he could towards the forest outside of town. He hovered just over the ground transformed and hid behind some bushes. He reached out and grabbed some branches and pulled them off the bush. "Time to put my camouflage program to the test." Apple jack was walking Apple bloom to school from the farm. Ever since that thing fell from the sky she was not going to leave Apple bloom alone for a moment, as she walked down the road towards the school she saw a large full tree on the side of the road. That's odd. I don't remember that tree being there. She walked closer and began inspecting it. "Come on i'm going to be late." Apple bloom cried "Alright i'm coming." she said as she left the tree and continued walking. As she disappeared over the hill the tree rose slightly and made its way quickly towards town. This was by far vortex's best disguise ever. He had managed to sneak his way through town and was right next to the weapon. He wanted to just pick it up and slowly leave, But there where three problems with that plan. 1. Every one was looking at the gun. taking it would be notice. 2. They would see two huge arms come out of a tree. That would blow his cover. 3. The gun was massive, it would not fit in his disguise. So all he could do was gather Intel on the ponies. First thing he noticed, they where Adorable. He had never seen anything so cute. He also noticed that the had three species of pony: normal, horned, and winged. Oh yeah, and they where colored like the rainbow. He needed some real Intel. Just then he noticed the marks on their flanks. Maybe a sign of the clan or their faction? No their all different. Maybe a rank, no their are to many marks for it to be rank. Maybe it is like human tattoos that they put only on their flank, it could be a tribal thing saying what their jobs are in the tribe. "Vortex you got anything yet?" Onslaught called on the radio. "Not anything that will help. What is your location?" He asked as quietly as possible. "We are at the edge of the forest. Where are you." "Do you see a tree by the gun?" "Yes why?" "That is me." "OK i have to admit, that's kind of impressive." said brawl "Shut up!" Onslaught said ."Can you retrieve the weapon?" "Not without exposing myself." vortex responded "Trust me, no one wants that." Brawl responded "HA. I see what you did there." Swindle said "Lets try to focus." Onslaught responded "Did y'all hear that? one of the ponies said in front of Vortex. It was that orange pony with the hat that almost caught him earlier. "Scrap, Got to go my cover is in jeopardy." "Just hang on." onslaught said as he ended the communication. It was so weird, applejack swore she heard something. She looked behind her and saw nothing but a tree. It looked a lot like the tree she saw before It cant be the same tree as before. Can it? Vortex was as still as he could be, the orange pony from before was staring at his disguise with a scrutinizing stair. "Hey Applejack" a voice called. The now Applejack looked towards the source of the voice and was greeted by a smiling purple pony with a horn and wings. A fourth species? "Hey Twilight, I need your help." Applejack said "With what." the now Twilight asked "I dot know what kind of tree this is." she responded "I saw another one like it earlier but I never saw it before today." "I don't know. It doesn't look like anything I'v seen in my books." Great, leave it to me to be a tree that doesn't exist. "and the leaves look more like those of a bush in the Everfree forest." Now i'm a nonexistent bush tree. He thought as he mentally face-palmed. "So are you saying this tree does not exist?" Applejack asked Twilight opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by a cyan rainbow pony with wings. "Hey guys, what you looking at?" She asked as she landed looking at the disguised Vortex. "It is apparently a nonexistent tree." Twilight responded "well it obviously exists." the cyan pony responded. "i mean, its right in front of you." she then proceeded to fly over and break off a branch and bring it to twilight. "see, real." thank you blue pony tortex thought as he relaxed a little. when he relaxed though, he shifted making the tree move. he realized what he had done to late. "Did yall see that Rainbow dash!?" Applejack asked. He straitened up as quick as he could when she looked away before the other two could see. "See what?" the now Rainbow dash responded. "The tree just moved!"apple jack said. Rainbow dash now looked at Applejack as if she had just said the dumbest thing ever. "Of course the tree moved, trees tend to do that when the wind blows." Rainbow said. "not like what i just saw." she said still staring down tree vortex. "My dearest subjects." A voice called out. Who is that Vortex wondered. He looked in the direction of the voice and was greeted by the sight of a large pony. It was white, or a very light pink, it had a horn and a pair of wings, but the strangest part was its hair, or whatever it was for horses. it was three different colors and was flowing with a none existent wind. MANE! its called a mane. Vortex was proud of himself for remembering that factoid of information. "Many of you may be asking what this thing is, rest assured that we will figure this out. we are going to transport this 'thing' to a secured location..." "Are you hearing this Onslaught?" Vortex asked quietly. "If they take it to a 'secured location' than WE wont be able to secure it." Swindle said "I dont see why you are freaking out, its not like they can move it." Brawl said matter-of-factually "Shut it Brawl!" Onslaught ordered "Swindle do you have a holo-projector?" "Yes, why?" "I have a plan."