> The Transformers: Friendship is Universal > by Tempestus > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1- Escape > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1- Escape It is the year 2006, the treacherous Decepticons have finally been defeated by the heroic Autobots during the battle of Autobot City. A Prison ship, outfitted with a transwarp drive core, lifts off of Earth and into space. On board that ship resides Megatron and his defeated Decepticons, as they travel to a prison platform in deep space. "Ultra Magnus!", a red and blue autobot with a long cannon over his shoulder and a distinctly British accent says. "What do you need Proceptor?", Magnus replies to the scientist who is tapping away at a kiosk and watching the screen. "In just a few more hours we will be clear of Luna Base and able to make our Transwarp jump into space, I hope that I do not have to remind you how experimental this technology is, we must take care!", Proceptor says with urgency in his voice. "You worry to Much Proceptor!" A white Autobot says as to pylons on both sides of his head light up blue when he speaks. "Sorry Wheeljack if I do not place too much faith in your, engineering." Proceptor states toward Wheeljack looking a little dismay. "We don't have time for this now you two, we are nearly past Luna Base and we don't have enough Energon to get to the prison platform without the transwarp drive!" Magnus says, silencing the two arguing Autobot scientists. ______________________________________________________ Meanwhile, down on the prisoner containment deck. "Slag, Snarl, go check on our prisoners!", Grimlock says as he sits on a tall barrel with his sword out and pointed towards the ground. "Me Slag say you go do it yourself.", Slag says as he crosses his arms. "Me Snarl say that you Slag need to follow orders." Snarl states in his normal, slurred and quiet tone. "ME GRIMLOCK SAY GO CHECK ON THE PRISONERS!!!", Grimlock bellows, inspiring them to do their job. "Yo Grim, why is it that you and me are the only smart ones?", Swoop squawks from his perch above Grimlock. Grimlock pays him no mind as he turns to a monitor, "Sludge, I need a report, how is the far end, anyone foolish enough to try and escape?" "No." Sludge replies, thus satisfying his commander. "Me Slag report all secure." Slag reports, interrupting Grimlocks check in with Sludge. "Understood, I want you to go down to Sludge and stay there until I give further orders!" Grimlock growls, slightly annoyed as always. "Okay.", they turn off their comms. ______________________________________________________ "Megatron, the Autobots are coming.", Soundwave reports in a hushed tone as he places his disabled stasis cuffs back on. "Silence you fool, it is those dimwitted Dinobots.", Megatron snaps as he too replaces his disabled cuffs onto his arms. "Me Slag want to know why we have to guard Decepticons?", Slag asks Snarl. "Me Snarl follow orders of most powerful leader! We do as we told." Snarl replies to his companion. Both Dinobots stop and turn to one another as they begin arguing about who is stronger. "Me Slag say me should lead Dinobots, no, all transformers!", Slag boldly states. "Me Snarl say you too dumb to to lead." Snarl argues back as they begin to fight. "Me Slag strongest Dinobot!", Slag yells as he transforms into his Triceratops mode and rams Snarl. "Me say you crazy Slag!", Snarl replies as he does a clumsy back flip and transforms into a Stegosaurus. They collide into one another and slam into the cell containing Starscream and Shockwave, thus shutting it down. They continue to fight as Slag rams into another cell, shutting it down as well, and Snarl slamming his tail into Slag. "Starscream, activate your null ray and free Lord Megatron and Soundwave from their cells.", Shockwave says in a hushed tone as both Decepticons remove their shackles. "Stand clear Shockwave!" Starscream says as he aims his null ray at the cell controls for the entire ship, "I will free us all right now!", and fires. Megatron walks up to Starscream, "Excellent work Starscream, we are free, now to get to the bridge and capture this ship!", he sneers though his evil grin. ______________________________________________________ Back on the bridge. "Ultra Magnus Sir!", a green Autobot with a rocket mounted on his shoulder runs up and salutes Magnus, "There is a disturbance in the prisoner containment area, and I am receiving reports about three of the Dinobots having a skirmish and heading towards the Transwarp Drive core!", the soldier says in a urgent tone as his headlights project a hologram showing three Dinobots fighting eachother, Slag, Snarl, and Sludge. "Hound, I want you to take a team and secure the prison cells!", Ultra Magnus says as Hound bounds off the bridge to carry out his orders. "Proceptor, tell Blaster to radio a distress call to Cybertron immediately to keep it on a loop just in case!" Proceptor jumps out of his seat and runs off the bridge and to the radio room. "Wheeljack can we shut down the Transwarp drive?" "No way, its too late to shut it down. We just have to hope that the Dinobots don't damage it, or who knows where we will end up!", Wheeljack says, never taking his optics off of his monitor. "Primus help us all." Magnus mutters as he looks out the main window of the bridge and rests his optics on the wormhole that their transwarp drive is creating. ______________________________________________________ Grimlock runs through the corridors with Swoop right behind him, "I should have sent you with them Swoop!", he yells to his flying friend. "Yeah well you didn't know they were gonna start fighting again!" Swoop replies back as they both reach the end of the hall. At the end of the hall they watch as the worst possible thing happens, Sludge throws Snarl though the heavily armored doors that lead to the transwarp drive as Slag rams into Sludge and they collide with the experimental engine. "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!", Grimlock yells as Swoop knocks him down to the floor to survive the ensuing explosion that ripples through the ship. ______________________________________________________ In Canterlot. "Sister you should go to sleep.", Celestia looks at her younger sister, the princess of the night. "I will little sister, just wanted to check on you before bed.", Celestia says as she turns and walks off to her chamber. "Goodnight sister." Luna mutters as she returns to observing the stars. Only a few hours later, while she is observing a comet a flash of green appears before her eyes and a massive fireball plummets down from the heavens. She watches as it strikes the Badlands, using her telescope she can see many bipedal creatures running from it as blue flames expand in a giant bonfire. "I must wake my sister, she must know immediately!" Luna screams as she runs to her sisters chamber to bring her the news. > Chapter 2- From Science to War > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2- From Science to War Cybertron, two minuets after loss of contact with Ultra Magnus. "Sideswipe, do you know where Prowl is?", Optimus Primes asks his cherry red friend. "Sorry Prime I don't. But last I heard was that he is monitoring the crowds for the big welcome home party for Jetfire." Sideswipe replies in a cheerful tone. "Thank you my friend.", Prime says as he pat him on the shoulder. Sideswipe leaves to go about his business as Optimus moves on to the location where Jetfire will land and give his speech. ______________________________________________________ "Inferno, I want you to be ready for any fire, Red Alert be prepared to administer first aid if necessary. We don't know what Jetfire has gone through, or if he is damaged, any complications could jeopardize the safety of the crowd.", Prowl states, never removing his optics from his hand held data pad. Both Autobots salute and move to their stations and teams. "Bumblebee and Spike reporting as ordered Prowl!" an all too cheerful voice says from behind the black and white police officer. "Ah, just the two I needed.", Prowl says as he turns to greet the yellow Autobot and his human friend, "I need the two of you to take over the monitors for any shenanigans, we can't have any attacks during this event. I hope that I don't need to remind you both how important this is, it is the first exploration project since the war, so lets try not to ruin it for everyone." Prowl says, sounding flustered. "You worry too much Prowl, the Decepticons are gone, war is over." Bumblebee states before patting his friend on the shoulder and getting to work at the monitor. "I hope you are right little buddy.", Prowl says softly to himself as he leaves to attend crowd control duties. ______________________________________________________ "Ah Cybertron, now that is a sight for my optics!", Jetfire says to himself as his home world come into view. Observing the moons and watching for debris he winds his way through the wrecks of ancient warships and satellites. "And to home he goes!" a familiar cheery voice yells as Jetfire zooms past a red Autobot working alongside the arialbots. They all turn and cheer for the great explorer of deep space as he makes his final burn for home. "Its good to see you again too Powerglide!" Jetfire yells as he clears the debris and rights himself before his planetary approach. ______________________________________________________ "Sister, sister!", Luna screams at the locked door in which she had been pounding at for a couple minuets that seemed like a lifetime. "What is it Lulu?" a tired and uninterested voice answers her from behind the door. "You will not believe what just happened!", Luna says as Celestia emerges from behind the door. "And what would that be dearest sister?" Celestia asks her little sister with a yawn. "Something just fell from space and crashed in the Badlands!" Luna said with urgency in her voice as she dragged her sister to the telescope. ______________________________________________________ At the crash sight. "My lord we are being overwhelmed!", Shockwave reports to Megatron as the Dinobots advance closer to them. "Constructicons, merge for the kill!" Megatron commands as the six Constructicons merge into a large green and purple colossal transformer. "PREPARE FOR EXTERMINATION", Devastator booms as he slams his fists into Sludge and knocks Swoop out of the sky. While Devastator pounds the daylights out of the Dinobots, Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker are battling the other Autobots, along side Thrust, Dirg, and Ramjet. "Pathetic fools, there is no escape!" Starscream yells as he performs a strafing run on the Autobot known as Hound, who takes one of the seekers missiles into his chest and explodes. "HAHAH, this is almost too easy Thundercracker!" "Stay on focus Starscream!", Thundercracker states as he performs an aileron roll and ignites Cosmos engines, sending him spiraling out of control towards a forest. ______________________________________________________ "Autobots fall back to the ship, we can't hold out any longer!" Ultra Magnus yells. "Understood, you Autobots fall back, we Dinobots will hold here until you are all clear!" Grimlock yells as he bites down on the Insecticon Kickback and stomps on Sharpshot. "Stupid Bugs!". "Thanks Grimlock!" Magnus yells as the Autobots retreat, Magnus bringing up the rear. ______________________________________________________ "Megatron, the Autobots are retreating back to the ship.", Soundwave reports to his leader. "When the Dinobots retreat do not pursue!", Megatron says calmly. "As you command Megatron.", Soundwave replies as he walks away to the front line where Snarl is impaling Hardshell, killing him. ______________________________________________________ In the city of Iacon on Cybertron. "Autobots, our great explorer has returned from his journey into the unknown!" Sunstreaker says over a loud speaker positioned in the front of the large croud of Transformers in front of a stage. "Now, now, everyone please keep a little distance from the stage." Prowl says to the crowd of excited Autobots wanting to meet Jetfire and here all about what he has discovered, "We will all here what old Jetfire has to tell us!". Optimus walks onto the stage and waits for everyone to calm down. "My fellow Autobots, I too wish to hear what Jetfire has to say, but I fear that this celebration is over. Please disperse in an orderly fashion.", Optimus says solemnly as his Autobots leave the stage. "Prime?" Prowl says confused. "Prowl, I need you and Jetfire for an important mission as soon as he lands, repairs, and drops off his research." Optimus says as he turns away, "I would like to see you both as soon as he has done so." "Yes sir.", Prowl replies in a flat tone of voice as Jetfire lands next to his fellow Autobot. "Hello Prowl, I thought that there would have been a larger turnout for my return." Jetfire says plainly. "There was, until Prime came by." Prowl says as he turns to his large friend. "What is wrong?" Jetfire asks with a rather confused expression as he takes off his helmet. "We need to go talk to Prime as soon as you have delivered your research and get whatever repairs you need." Prowl states as he walks away. ______________________________________________________ An hour or so later. "Jetfire, Prowl, I need the two of you to locate and if possible, assist Ultra Magnus. We lost contact with them as they were moving through the transwarp wormhole." Prime says as he looks out of the window in the command center. "We will prime, the ship has a rather specific energy signature, it should be easy to track." Jetfire says as he examines one of the many pictures of Earth on the monitors throughout the Command Center. "Any ideas on what happened?" Prowl asks his leader. "No, we have no intelligence on what happened, but it is safe to assume that Megatron and the Decepticons are to blame." Prime answers as he turns to face his lieutenant. "We will leave immediately Prime!" Jetfire replies as he walks out of the room, followed closely by Prowl. "I wish you luck my friends." Prime says as the door slides shut behind the two distinguished Autobots. > Chapter 3: More Than Meets The Eye > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3: More Than Meets The Eye "Hey Pinky, you wanna get Twi?", a cyan colored pegasus asks her pink pony friend. The pink pony bounces up to her and vanishes, reappearing behind the cyan pegasus wearing a ninja suite. "You got the goods Dashy?", Pinky Pie asks as she streatches her neck out to Rainbow so that they are nose to nose. "You bet!", Rainbow Dash smirks as she pushes Pinky's face back to where it belongs and brings out a few water balloons. "OOOOHHH, pink ones are mine!", she says as she grabs up all of the pink balloons and slithers on the ground and up to a roof to await Twilight. Rainbow Dash merely shakes her head in bewilderment as her pink friend breaks all of the laws governing physics again. Over the hedges she spots Twilight coming closer holding a few books in her telekinesis. "NOW!" Rainbow Yells as she zooms over Twilight dropping her balloons and soaking the alicorn below as Pinky's balloons also hit their mark on Twilights horn. "Rainbow Dash!" A mildly angry and wet Twilight yells as the rainbow maned pegasus flies away. "Hahaha, that was a good one!" Rainbow squeals as she laughs inverted while still flying, she never saw the large green disc coming straight at her. ""Dashy look out!" Pinky Pie yells from her perch on the roof as the giant flying disc hits her friend, knocking both of them out of the sky and into the nearby field. ______________________________________________________ In orbit two hours after loss of contact. A large white and red jet bursts out of a wormhole, the same one that they suspect abducted their missing ship and friends. The jet moves in closer to the planet, many things are noticeably different about the place they popped out into. The first major thing was that the systems star was orbiting the planets, the second was that the only inhabitable planet was at the center of the system itself with all the other planets also orbiting it. "This is different." Jetfire calmly states as he heads toward the only planet with water on it. "Seen anything like this before Jetfire" Prowl asks, letting his curiosity out a little bit. "Can't say that I have, this is most definitely a first for me." Jetfire says with wonder in his voice. "You can study it after we finish our mission, if I am reading your sensors right, you just picked up a distress call from our bird!" Prowl says, with excitement in his voice. "I must say, you are faster on my sensors than I am Prowl." Jetfire replies as he adjusts his heading towards the planet at the center of the system. "What can I say, there isn't much to do in here." Prowl replies, "Heh, I don't even know how you can stand those long explorations of yours." "Well, for one its a lot more peaceful than hanging around, for two, when you do find something it grabs your attention completely. Though even I must admit, t gets lonely out here without anyone to talk to." Jetfire replies, answering his friends unintentional question and silencing any further conversation as they reach orbit. ______________________________________________________ Rainbow Dash falls out of the sky in pain as she crashes through a tree and lands upside down, the green disc carving a trench as it comes to a halt on the ground not even four yards away. "Rainbow are you okay!" Twilight yells as she gallops to her wounded friend. "Ugh, what hit me?" Rainbow asks as she rubs her head with a fore hoof. "I don't know..." Twilight says, no longer too concerned about her dazed friend. In the faint light of the cloudy night a large shape moves in the dust caused by the crash. They ca hear a strange sound, like metal sliding against itself as a large bi-pedal creature stands up and out of the dust. The creature is green and yellow, with a red head, its face has two blue ovals and a large plate where the mouth should be. "Ow, what did I hit?" A voice said, even though it sounded rather far away. "Oh dearest me, what happened, AHHHHHHHH!!!" Fluttershy begins but changes into panic mode when she spots the massive metal creature standing before her. "AAHHH, the animals talk!" The green giant yells as he takes a few unstable steps back and falls on his skid plate. "Animals?" Twilight inquires. "Are you not ponies?" The now startled giant replies as he gets himself back up. "Well yes we are ponies, but we aren't animals, we are ponies." Twilight replies as she walks slowly toward the metal creature. "Um, Twilight, I don't think..." Fluttershy began, but her voice became to quiet to hear. "Its okay, I don't think he wants to hurts us, I think he hit Rainbow on accident." Twilight replies as she spreads her wings and flies up to their visitor. "Um, okay." Fluttershy says as she backs into a tree and hides behind it. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. What is yours?" Twilight asks the giant. "Cosmos, my name is Cosmos. I am an explorer from Cybertron." Cosmos replies to the lavender being in front of him. ______________________________________________________ "Hot Rod, Kup, Springer, Arcee!" Ultra Magnus says after his Autobots form ranks, "I want you four to go on a scouting party to track down Cosmos." "You can count on us Magnus." Springer says as his assigned team starts to move out, "We will contact you and let you know what we find." "Get to it." Magnus replies as he turns his attention to the rest of his remaining Autobots. During the battle they had lost three of their rank, Hound, Hoist, Smokescreen, and they witnessed Cosmos go out of control when he was shot by Starscream. Now Ultra Magnus was getting what supplies they could from the ship, and taking a head count so that there would be no more casualties, considering that the Decepticons heavily out numbered them. Their ship had a full crew of combat drones for security, when it crashed those said drones didn't evacuate, therefore leaving the Autobots to themselves. ______________________________________________________ "Luna, this news is indeed troubling." Celestia said as she looked through the telescope and observed the unknown beings. "Sister look!" Luna said as she pointed with her hoof at a red and black bird that had streams of purple coming out of its back. "What is that?" Celestia asked her sister, as the bird opened fire. Shots of purple light peppered the ground and came towards the two alicorns below who threw up shields to protect themselves as the bird shot at them. "I do not know, but it needs to be taught a lesson." Luna yells as she shoots the bird down with a blast from her horn, vaporizing its wings. "Well done little sister." Celestia says as she drops her shields and occupies the guards that charged through the door when Luna shot down the bird. > Chapter 4: Fire on the Mountain > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4: Fire on the Mountain After they got Rainbow Dash to the hospital to treat her for a broken wing and concussion, caused during her mid air collision with Cosmos. Cosmos had hidden himself among the nearby trees as to not frighten the other ponies like he had Fluttershy. "Okay Cosmos I'd like to introduce you to the rest of my friends while Rainbow is still in the hospital." Twilight said to the green giant who had just come out from behind the trees. "Okay, but do you mind if I repair myself while you introduce us?" Cosmos asks. "Not at all, stay here and I will get them all here!" Twilght said as she turned about towards the nearby town. "Um, you are hurt?" Fluttershy asked after Twilight left as she came out of a tree costume. "Well, yes." Cosmos said, slightly confused by the yellow pegasus who just came out of hollow tree. "Do you need help?" she asks as she flies up to meet his eye level. "I don't think you could help any." Cosmos says, then sighing, "Well I suppose you could help with the more delicate wires." "Wires?" Fluttershy says, tilting her head in confusion. "I'll explain when everyone is here." Cosmos says as he opens his chest and sparks fly out. ______________________________________________________ "Springer, what do you see from up there?" A teal and aging Autobot says. "Well this is going to sound crazy, but I see a city made of clouds." Springer replies from his helicopter form. "A city of clouds? I think you need your optics checked Springer!" Hot Rod says as he finishes climbing a tree to confirm his green friends report. "Whoa, it is a city made of clouds!" "I told you." Springer says sarcastically. "Do you think Cosmos is there?" Arcee taps Kup on the shoulder. "Eh, I don't know. Last time I checked you can't stand on clouds, even when I was on that backwards planet Gastos V where you sank in rocks and could stand on water, the clouds were always normal." Kup replied while scratching his chin. "How about over there!" Hot Rod says pointing at a small town not too far away from the city of clouds. "Possible, we will sweep the area, just remember not to be seen." Kup says as he starts to move out. ______________________________________________________ After they were attacked by the strange metal bird the princesses immediately sent it to be dissected in the underground labs beneath Canterlot. Since the attack their guards have refused to leave the princesses side, if there were to be another unprovoked attack they would be ready. "Highly peculiar little sister, whatever attacked us must have had a reason and I am willing to place my bets that it is related to the aliens we saw in the distance." Celestia tells her sister as Luna paces the throne room. "Most assuredly, but for what reason?" The Princess of the Night asks Celestia. "I don't kn..." Celestia was interrupted by a guard flying through the double doors to the room and crashing to the ground, leaving a smear of blood in his path. Luna and Celestia both jump up into the air and hover, watching the door and the abnormally dark hall beyond. "Target acquired, Rumble, Ravage, Frenzy, eject. Operation subdue and retrieve." A monotone voice says as a metal panther and two metal, bipedal creatures rush forward into the hall. The Royal Guard rushes forward to meet their foes and perform their duties as one of the twelve guards head is blown clean off. The other eleven guards didn't stop their charge and soon enough more beams of blue light from the red creature hit more of the guards, thus detonating their heads. Five of the guards attempted to use their spears on the metal panther only to have the tips shatter as the panther pounced on them, ripping them apart with its metal teeth. The blue creature was knocked down by one of the last four remaining guards, who fired a magical beam that cut its head off. The red creature took notice and shot the unicorn guard as another unicorn thew a shield up around him saving his life. "Thanks!" The first guard said as he turned and bucked the panther. "Anytime" The other guard replied as he dodged a falling pegasus guard who died from another blast while he was saving his other comrade. The last three guards backed up to the princesses who fired their own beams at the metal creatures that were killing their guards. The red creatures legs were cut off as the panther was sliced in half from the top center line of its body down. "Enough games." The monotone voice said as a massive blue and white creature stepped into the hall and shot them with lightning, knocking them all unconscious. "Lord Megatron, the castle is secure, Frenzy and Laserbeak are damaged, all other minicons are offline." Soundwave reports to his master. "That is unfortunate, but the mission was a success?" Megatron asks as the balcony window opens and the large shining silver leader of the Decepticons who peered down at the ponies beneath his massive feet. "Affirmative." Soundwave says, his voice uncharacteristic as always, even despite the death of two of his minicons. ______________________________________________________ "Prowl I just saw Megatron fly into that building on the top of the mountain." Jetfire says as he circles high above the mountain. "Well, I say we interfere with his operation!" Prowl says back to his friend. "Prepare to jump!" Jetfire says. "Wait, what, why?" Prowl asks, as he prepare to do so. "I can't transform with you inside of me little buddy." Jetfire replies as he begins a steep nosedive. ______________________________________________________ "You monsters, what do you want with the princesses?" One of the guards asks. "That is none of your petty concern fleshing." Megatron replies. "We will never let you get away with this!" another guard says as the three of them get up, their legs shaking both from pain and anger. "Such heroic nonsense." Megatron says looking away as he fires a blast from his fusion cannon. A beam of blue energy escapes the end of the cannon and in a flash of light there is nothing left of the three heroic guards, the princesses watched in horror unable to even stand, as they were shocked further by Soundwave. Just as Megatron opened his mouth to say something a Black and White blur landed in a roll through the balcony firing a shot into Soundwaves shoulder. "Attention Decepticons, you are under arrest!" Prowl says as he stands up, aiming his gun at Megatron. "Ignorant fool." Megatron says as he raises his cannon to bear at Prowl. A large white and red being dropped through the roof and slams into Megatron. "Then allow me introduce you to an old friend of mine!" Jetfire yells as he picks up Megatron. "And who would that be?" Megatron sneers at his assailant. "Pain!" Jetfire yells as the four small particle cannons flip down from their positions on the side of his head and fire into the Decepticons leader chest. "RRRAAAAAHHHHGGGG" Megatron yells as the red beam penetrates his chest and exits his back. Jetfire then throws Megatron to the side and moves towards the hurt ponies who had just begun to stand up when Soundwave punches him. "Prepare for disarmament, acid pellet style." Prowl says as he quick draws his pistol and fires it, the shot hit Soundwaves arm joint and severs it from his body. Soundwave stumbles backwards and aims his fire arm at Prowl, but before he could fire it Jetfire slams his fist into the side of Soundwaves head thus knocking him down. To finish him off Jetfire stomped on the Decepticon communications officers chest and crushed it inwards. "And no calling for help Decepticreep!" Jetfire yells at his damaged foe. "Thank you warriors for saving our lives." Celestia said with a frown at her dead guards and the scorch mark where the others once stood. "I am sorry we didn't arrive sooner." Prowl says as he approaches the odd lifeforms before him that resembled horses but with wings and a horn on both. "Tis not you fault brave heroes." Luna says standing shakily to her hooves. Megatron stands back up and transforms into a pistol, landing in Starscreams hand. "This is not the end Autobots!" Starscream yells as he fires two shots into Jetfire, who uses his external armor to take the damage as the Decepticons Retreat, Soundwave carrying hit two damaged minicons and his left arm. "Jetfire!" Prowl yells as he rushes to his kneeling friend. "I'm fine, the Decepticons are getting away!" Jetfire jells as he stands back up and his rocket engines engage. "Wait!" Celestia says. "For what, those creeps are getting away!" Jetfire yells, then feeling a hoof on his leg looks down to see Luna crying. "Please, enough death has happened tonight." Luna says shakily. "Very well." Jetfire says cooling his jets and removing his helmet, "My name is Jetfire." "And my name is Prowl." Prowl says putting away his pistol. "I wish that we could have met under better circumstances Jetfire and Prowl." Celestia said as she bowed her head towards her dead guards. "Can you tell us what attacked us and why?" Luna asks them. "The Decepticons attacked you, but I do not know why." Prowl says as he too kneels next Celestia and observes the death around him. "Rest assured that we will do everything we can to find out why." Jetfire says turning to Luna, "May we know your names?" Luna looks up to the massive metal being that rescued her and her sister, "I am Luna, this is Celestia. We are the princesses of Equestria." > Chapter 5: Abduction > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 5: Abduction Morning had finally come in Ponyville and the ponies that had met Cosmos decided to keep him in Applejacks barn. That plan only had one oversight, Applejacks little sister, Applebloom. Now the ponies had placed their new, very large friend in the barn with a promise of a longer introduction in the morning, as organics Cosmos knew this was because they needed time to sleep. Even though the space traveler hadn't spent much time on Earth with the humans, Jetfire would never shut up about them, so he knew quite a bit more than he ever wanted to know about organics. The doors to the barn opened and a little yellow and red filly with a large red bow tied in her mane walked into the barn. Inside she could see the baskets she needed to carry the apples for the days soon to come hard work. She hadn't expected a rather large green object in her way. "What the hay is that thing?" Applebloom shouted, tilting her head as she approaches it. "Hey Applebloom what are you up to?" Scootaloo rides into the barn and clean into the giant object. "Huh, now what?" Cosmos says, making the two fillies scream and run out the door of the barn and straight into Sweetie Bell as he transforms to his robot mode. "What is that thing?" Sweetie Bell yells at Applebloom. "Ah don't know, a large varmint maybe?" Applebloom replies. "If that is a varmint then I don't want to see your pests!" Scootaloo shouts back as the three fillies scrunch together and shake in fear of the metal giant in front of them. "Girls, its just Cosmos." Twilight says as she trots past them and straight up to her new green friend. "Did I do something, wrong?" Cosmos asks the lavender alicorn. "No, I just think that they were a little startled by you." Twilight says in return as four others walk up to the barn. "You mean that, thing is alive?" Sweetie Bell says as she and her fellow crusaders stop shaking and approach the metal creature. "WELCOME, WELCOME, WELCOME, TO PONYVILLE TO YOU, WELCOME, WELCOME, WELCOME, I SING FOR YOU!" Pinkie Pie yells as she appears out of nowhere and on top of Cosmos head. "Thank you, but now that I am repaired I'd like to talk with all of you and find out where I am and who you all are." Cosmos says as he sits down. ______________________________________________________ "Jetfire!" Celestia says as she approaches him, he had just returned from scouting the area for Decepticon activities while Prowl had stood watch over the princesses. "Yes princess?" Jetfire says, they hadn't gotten past introductions, the two alicorns had been busy attending to matters concerning the death of many guards last night, and the two Autobots had been focused on watching for Decepticon threats. "I wish to thank you again for saving us last night, without you, I fear that we would no longer be here for Equestria." Celestia says to the massive Autobot. "It was nothing, any of the Autobots would have done the same." Jetfire replies as he removes his helmet and external armor. "Tell me more about these Autobots please." Luna says from a dark corner, Jetfire hadn't seen here there, it was almost as if she melded into the darkness itself. "We are autonomic organisms from the planet Cybertron with the ability to change forms. Our two factions, the Autobot and Decepticons have been at war with one another for millions of years, only recently have we Autobots managed to nearly put an end to the Decepticon threat so that the Universe and more precisely, the Cybertronians can return to peace without the threat of slavery over our heads." Jetfire says looking straight at the princess of the night. "Most interesting noble Jetfire, would you know why they attacked us, what hey could have wanted?" Luna asks him. "I am afraid that we don't." Prowl says walking up and next to Jetfire. Before Celestia could say any more a green fireball erupted next to her. Prowl instinctively drew his pistol and would have shot if Jetfire hadn't moved the pistol off target. "Wait" Jetfire says as he drops his arm. From the fireball a scroll appears, in which Celestia quickly opens and reads. When she gets halfway down in reading the scroll she accidentally drops it. "Oh my" Celestia says, her eyes wide in shock. "What is it big sister?" Luna says picking up the scroll and reading it, though unlike her sister she doesn't drop it, but instead finishes reading it, "So Twilight has found another, Transformer." "It appears that these events are not isolated." Celestia says as she regains her composer. "And judging by what she says it is an Autobot." Luna says, levitating the scroll back to her sister. 'Prowl stay here and protect the capitol, I'll go check it out." Jetfire says as he turns and places his helmet back on. "Mind giving me a lift as well?" Celestia asks stepping towards the white and red autobot. "Not at all." Jetfire says as he transforms and Celestia hops into his cockpit as he flies out the balcony doors and towards ponyville. ______________________________________________________ "What is the status of Lord Megatron Soundwave?" Shockwave asks from his perch above the cave that houses their lord and master. "Repairs are proceeding without delay, estimated time of recovery, two Earth hours." Soundwave replies back. "Most excellent." Shockwave says back, looking towards the castle on the mountain to see a jet fly from it. "Allow me to intercept him!" Starscream says as he runs forward, his seekers, Thundercracker and Skywarp right behind him. "Take caution, and if he has one of their princesses bring her back alive if possible." Shockwave says as he transforms to cannon mode and tracks Jetfires flight path. ______________________________________________________ Jetfire was flying just above the clouds while Celestia peered through his canopy and marveled at the speed they were traversing. "You are extremely fast for your size." Celestia remarked, hoping to strike up a conversation. Jetfire payed her no attention, his thoughts were elsewhere, mainly on the mysterious Autobot that had been found, and where the other Autobots where assuming any survived considering the Decepticon presence. When streaks of blue light passed him by. "Whoa!" Jetfire says as he rolls into a hard left turn to pursue the three jets who missed their target. "Look at what the space jink dragged in." A voice all too familiar to the old explorer who knew it to belong to his old friend, Starscream said as he and his seekers split into different flight paths. "Ah, I can't say that it is good to see you old friend!" Jetfire says as he rolls to pursue Starscream. "Hey Screamer I found the priority target for ya!" Skywarp says as he flies inverted just above Jetfire. "Buzz off moron!" Jetfire says as he transforms in mid air and launches a volley of missiles toward the seeker who teleports out of the way as the missiles hit Starscream. "Idiots!" Starscream yells as he falls from the sky and towards a odd cloud formation. "Skywarp you could have just shot them and then warped instead of letting them hit Scream!" Thundercracker says as he rams into Jetfires back. "Not my fault he was behind me Thundy!" Skywarp replies, teasing his brother. "I do not understand how they can be so friendly towards one another and yet wish such harm upon others." Celestia says to Jetfire. "You are asking the wrong bot if you want the answer to that question princess." Jetfire replies as he strafes Thundcracker, sending him flying into Skywarp. They both fall out of the sky as Jetfire asses his handiwork. "Well that was fun while it lasted." A cool and calculating voice says as Jetfire spins around just to be shot in the chest by a blast of blue light which goes clean through him. ______________________________________________________ "We found him Magnus." Kup says through his comm link. "Excellent work Kup." Magnus's voice cackles through the radio. "Problem is that he is surrounded by the natives of this planet." Springer says. "Well if they know that we exist then there is not much we can do but introduce ourselves and hope for the best." Magnus says. "Understood Magnus, recon team alpha out." Kup says turning his attention back to the group of ponies surrounding their comrade. ______________________________________________________ The ponies sat there in awe of Cosmos as he finished his story of who and what he was, and how he came to be here. Of course Twilight had sent a letter after Cosmos finished the first part of his story, but to know that the Decepticons where in Equestria as well worried the young alicorn. She was just about to ask a question when five more transformers with Autobot symbols came out of the trees nearby. "Cosmos want to introduce us to your new friends?" a red Autobot with yellow flames painted on him asked. "Hot Rod, Kup, Springer, Arcee, and Blur, tis good to see you all." Cosmos jumped up and floated about them as he said their names, pointing to each one as he did so. "And who are these cute little creatures?" Arcee asks as she kneels down to Fluttershy and pets her mane. "Oh, I'm Fluttershy." The yellow pegasus replies for Cosmos. "And I'm Rainbow Dash!" the cyan pegasus says as she flies up in the air towards Springers face. "Darlings, my name is Rarity." The white unicorn says as she curtsies towards Arcee. "My name is Pinkie Pie, do you wanna be friends, do you, do you, do you?" the pink pony says as she zips around the different transformers talking and moving just as fast, if not faster, than Blur. "Applejack is my name, and this here is Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Bell." the orange pony says taking of her hat and pointing a hoof towards the three fillies. "Twilight Sparkle, I am pleased to meet you all." the lavender alicorn says bowing with her wings out. "Hey the name is Spike." a small dragon says from next to the alicorn. Their introductions are interrupted by a falling metal being who impacts into the barn, blowing it apart and sending flaming debris everywhere. "Was that who I think it was?" Cosmos says as he zooms off just above the ground with Hot Rod, Blur, and Springer to help out the fallen explorer who they know to be Jetfire. "Look, Decepticons!" Arcee yells as Kup fires a blast from his pistol, Arcee soon to join him but to no avail. ______________________________________________________ "Shockwave report!" Megatrons voice crackles over the radio. "I have the target my lord, and the Autobot air guardian has been eliminated." Shockwave says as he flies back his master. "Excelent, unlike my other warriors, you never fail me." Megatron sneers. "It is not my fault Might Megatron, Skywarps bumbling idiocy nearly cost us our mission." Starscream yells over the radio as his transmission fades in and out of static. "Shut up Starscream, I am not in the mood for your excuses today." Megatron says as he shuts off his comm link. > Chapter 6: Desertion of the Dinobots > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 6: Desertion of the Dinobots The fire was spreading from the barn as the Autobots charged into fire to dig out their fallen comrade when a white and red being threw debris off of him and stumbled out of the flames. "Celestia, Shockwave, ambush." the massive Autobot says, tipping over as his red visor goes black. "Jetfire, hold on lad!" Kup says as he and Hot Rod caught him, laying him down gently. "When did old Jetfire get here?" Springer says coming to Kup's side. "I really don't know kid." Kup says looking down at the air guardian. ______________________________________________________ "Megatron, the prisoner is awake." Soundwave says. "Wake her fully." Megatron says from the shadows as he attaches his fusion cannon. "Understood." Soundwave says as he turns towards the princess of the day. and firing his voltage gun. Celestia doesn't cry out in pain but instead continues to stand. Her legs shake under her as she spreads he wings and screams once more, falling to the dirt. "Enough Soundwave." Megatron says kneeling down to the fallen alicorn. "Wh, what do you want?" Celestia says while she lays on the ground, her legs twitch from the electric weapon. "All in good time Celestia, all in good time." Megatron says now satisfied with her response to her capture. "Secure her to the wall" Megatron says pointing to a wall where she will be out of the way. "As you command Megatron." Soundwave says as he pushes a button on his chest, "Ratbat, Frenzy, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, eject, operation detainment." The four minicons fly out of his chest, Frenzy lands as the three others transform and hover in the air. "Heh, this is for Rumble pony!" Frenzy says as he punches Celestia many times and breaks her wings, ending the physical torment by grabing her horn and slamming her face to the ground. The four minicons transfer the beaten alicorn to the wall and secure her to it with iron chains. "Return" Soundwave says, forcing his minicons to transform back to cassettes and flying back to there master. "Now I want to know everything about your magic organic, everything!" Megatron growls. "I won't tell you anything." Celestia states as she turns around as best she can. "Soundwave, torture her until she submits or dies, if all else fails we can abduct another." Megatron says as he leaves his most trusted officer to his orders. ______________________________________________________ "Prowl, do you think they will be okay out there?" Luna asks the Autobot while he studies the many stain glass windows. "I'm positive that they will be fine, there are few Decepticon who can handle a fight with Jetfire." Prowl says looking at a image of six ponies shooting another with beams of energy. "I hope that thou are right." Luna says looking out the balcony and towards the sky. ______________________________________________________ "Grimlock, what are you doing?" Ultra Magnus yells as he runs to catch up with the Dinobots. "Leaving to hunt the Decepticons." Grimlock says but doesn't stop. "But we need you here if they attack again." Magnus says as he comes up to the side of the Dinobot commander. "They aren't interested in us if they haven't already attacked." Grimlock says as they near the edge of the debris from the ships crash. "You can't just storm off after them, we need a strategy!" Magnus yells grabbing the Dinobots arm. Grimlock spins around and grabs Ultra Magnus by the head, "Me Grimlock have own strategy, me Grimlock crush them all!" he yells as he throws Magnus aside and transforms into a T-Rex. "Grimlock!" Magnus yells as the Dinobots all transform and run into the forest. ______________________________________________________ "Mighty Megatron!" Starscream says as Megatron is instructing the Constructicons on what he wants built for his new base. "What is it Starscream?" Megatron says, turning to face his Air Commander. "Perhaps we should rethink our strategy here, the ponies are not going to surrender their knowledge and we won't learn how to use it for energon if we kill them all." Starscream says. Megatron shoots him, "We will do it how I want to do it! Question me again and I will hit something vital!" Megatron sneers as he turns back to the Constructicons who laugh at the fallen seeker. "I tire of your insolence Megatron, your quest for power at the extent of others is over." Starscream mutters to himself as he turns and flies away, leaving his Decepticon insignia behind. ______________________________________________________ "Hey Blur!" Hot Rod says from his perch on a rather large rock. Blur looks at his friend. "How did you get here? I thought you stayed with Magnus." Hot Rod says as he watches the ponies rebuild the barn with help from Springer. "I snuck out an followed you guys, it was no fun at the ship, no fun, no fun at all." Blur says. "Okay then." Hot Rod says, giving the blue transformer a bit more space. "Celestia!" Jetfire yells as his visor turns back on blue. "Whoa big guy, hold still!" Kup yells pushing Jetfire back down as Twilight lands back on top of him where she had been. "Where is she?" Jetfire says rubbing his head. "Who?" Kup asks but before Jetfire could say another word Twilight started shouting. "What do you mean where is Celestia, was she with you before you fell out of the sky?" Twilight says getting in his face. "Shockwave must have taken her." Jetfire says as he gets up and checks himself, "Who repaired me?" "Myself and Miss Twilight did." Kup says as he too stands back up. "What do you mean Shockwave took her, is she in danger?" Twilight says in a panic as her friends come into the clearing with the barn fully raised. "If Shockwave has her then we must find her." Hot Rod says, joining into the conversation. "Agreed." Jetfire says as he jumps back into the air and transforms into his jet mode. "We'll search too!" Cosmos yells as he too transforms and flies in a different direction than Jetfire. Springer also flies off in his helicopter mode as Kup, Blur, Arcee, and Hot Rod run into the woods, leaving the ponies behind and completely astonished at how fast their new friends could vanish from sight given their size. "Girls, we have to find out what happened!" Twilight says, turning to her friends. "Ah fer one agree, but first ah gotta get this here filly to bed Twi." Applejack says, looking at her little sister who is passed out and laying against a tree with her two friends and Spike. "And I must get Sweetie Bell to bed as well darling." Rarity says walking over to her sister and slinging her across her back. "I'll take Scootaloo home" Fluttershy says walking out of the clearing with a half asleep Scootaloo. "I do suppose I should get Spike back to the Castle, but first I am going to write a letter to Princess Luna." Twilight says a she looks to Rainbow Dash, "Would you mind delivering it?" "No problem Twi, I'll get it to Canterlot faster than you can say Crisis!" Rainbow Dash says as she does a loop. "Thank you, hey do you know where Pinkie went?" Twilight says as she looks bout the clearing for their pink party pony friend. "No clue, get that letter done and I'll get it delivered!" Rainbow says after looking around a bit. ______________________________________________________ Deep in the woods the Dinobots roam, looking for their prey, unbeknownst to them that they are being watched. "OOOOHHHHHHHHH, you guys are different." a high pitched voice says from nowhere. "Huh, who said that?" Grimlock yells, snorting flames from his snout. "Oh its just me." the same high pitched voice says to the Dinobots. "Me Salg say it sounds like beryllium baloney." Slag says in his Triceratops mode. "Snarl say cesium salami." Snarl replies. "Knock it off before I scrap you both, I'm still mad at you two for the incident on the ship!" Grimlock yells as he blows flames their way. "OOOHHHHHH, confrontation!" that high pitch voice echos around them. "Show yourself!" Grimlock yells. "Oh, okay." a pony says as she falls down from a tree and onto Grimlocks head. The pony is wearing a ninja suite but her blue eyes, pink cotton candy likemane, and matching tail are visible, as well as a katana and pack of throwing stars. "Hi I'm Pinkie Pie, do you know who Shockwave is? He took our princess who brings the sun and we really need her back." Grimlock quickly transforms and catches the pony in his hand, "I don't know anything about a princess, but if you are against Shockwave than I think we can help eachother out." He says as he opens his hand to reveal nothing. "Oh, I'm up here siiiiiiilllllllllyyyyyyy." Pinkie Pie says from his shoulder. "Wait, but, never mind. Which way to Shockwave?" Grimlock sputters, the other Dinobots also had transformed and had looks of complete confusion on their faces. "Oh Shocky, he went that way!" Pinkie says pointing her hoof in the direction of the ponynapper. "You heard our little friend Dinobots, charge!" Grimlock yells as he runs at full speed in the direction of the Decepticons his fellow Dinobots following him. > Chapter 7: A Friend in Need > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 7: A Friend in Need "Megatron the captive is near expiration, suggest alternate method of information attainment." Soundwave says as he emerges from their recently built base. "Like what Soundwave" Megatron growls. "Subject seems to falter when its subjects are threatened, I suggest capture and torture to secure required information." Soundwave says while he projects an image of the supposed plan. "Do whatever you need to do, just get that information!" Megatron yells, slamming his fist against the wall thus shattering it. "As you command Megatron." Soundwave says with a salute. "Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, eject, operation abduction." He says, unleashing the twin minicons as they fly off towards a small town nearby. ______________________________________________________ "Megatron is a fool, I should lead the Decepticons, but to lead them I would need to remove him from power, but how?" Starscream monologs towards himself, pacing to and fro on his perch overlooking the base when he spots Soundwave's two reconnaissance minicons flying towards a town. "Interesting, perhaps I should follow them." he says, transforming into a F-15 Eagle and discretely following the two twins. ______________________________________________________ "Right over this hill!" Pinkie whispers to Grimlock who stops abruptly. "You should stay here, this could get messy." Grimlock says as he lowers his head for her to climb off. "Nah, you guys distract them, I'll grab the princess and we can all get out of here together." Pinkie says, drawing her katana. "N..." Grimlock started to say before Pinkie jumped up and played a tune on a bugle that came out of her mane. "CHARGE!!!" She yells as she lands back on top of Grimlock who just sighs and goes with the crazy pink ponies idea. "Dinobots, leave no Decepticon functional!" Grimlock yells as he and his fellow Dinobots plow over trees and enter the Decepticon base. "Autobots!" Skywarp manages to say before he is rammed by a triceratops and pushed into a wall. ______________________________________________________ "Princess Luna!" a Rainbow maned pagasus yells as she hovers next to the closed balcony doors. "Rainbow Dash, what are thy doing here?" Luna says, coming into view from a doorway on the other side of the throne room. "Jetfire was attacked and Celestia was taken and even more Autobots showed up, they are all looking for her now." Rainbow screams, panting as she lands in the throne room, "Oh, and Twilight told me to give you this letter if I forgot something." she says as she pulls out a scroll in her saddlebag. "Celestia, taken! No, no, no, no, no." Luna says running about the room until a black and white machine emerges from the door. "Princess Luna is everything alright?" Prowl asks as Luna runs into is leg and bounces off. "No, my sister was taken by the Decepticons, Twilight wrote what I believe to be a name, Shockwave." Luna says as she starts to calm down and walk towards the balcony. "Where do you think you are going?" Prowl asks her when she reaches the balcony. "To save my sister." Luna says as her eyes turn white and storm clouds appear outside. "No it is too dangerous, if something happens to you then their will be no one to perform yours and your sisters duties." Prowl says as he steps to the door. "Then what do you suggest I do?" Luna says, her eyes still white. "Allow me to perform my duties and return her to you ma'am." Prowl states as he walks out the door. "Please bring her back alive." Luna says sadly as her eyes return to normal and Rainbow Dash sits down. "Don't worry princess, from the way he left, I don't think he will rest until she is safe." Rainbow says before passing out cold. "Guards, please take Miss Dash to her guest room, she came a long way and it is late." Luna says as she turns to her own room. Luna walks into it and closes the door, "I do not care what others say, I must act." She turns to a bookshelf and pulls a lever. The bookshelf slides inwards and to the side revealing a secret passageway. ______________________________________________________ "Hey Sergeant!" A royal pegasus guard says as he passes by. "Humph" Sergeant says and turns around, coming face to face with Princess Luna. "Captain Sergeant I need your help." the Princess of the Night states as the pegasus bows to her. "What do you require Princess Luna?" Sergeant says. "You must keep this quiet, but Celestia has been abducted and I need you to get her back." Luna says as she witnesses Prowl run out of the Palace doors and transform into a odd wagon that has flashing red and blue lights on top of it that make a 'wee-whoo' sound that pierces everyone's ears. "I will get my best bucks and go after her immediately ma'am." Sergeant says as he starts to walk over to the palace. "No, I need you to follow me." Luna says as she motion for him to come with her into the secret passage. ______________________________________________________ "Prepare to get Devastated Devastator!" Grimlock yells charging the massive Decepticon, Pinkie Pie had vanished as soon as the battle had begun to rescue the Princess. That left Grimlock and his fellow Dinobots to pound the scrap out of the Decepticons. "Hahahahaha, No one can defeat Devastator!" the combiner bellows as he punches Grimlock, who moves to the side and bites down on Devastator's arm. "Excuse Me" Slag says as he rams into Devastator's leg, knocking him down. "I tire of this child's play, Soundwave!" Megatron yells as he jumps back and transforms into a pistol and lands in Soundwave's hands. Soundwave shoots Swoop out of the sky and turns to fire on Snarl who instead impales the blue and white decepticon in the chest causing him to ignite into flames. "Decepticons retreat!" Megatron yells as he transforms into robot mode and flies into the sky, followed by the rest of his army when a wall of missiles slam into the Decepticon leader. "You aren't going anywhere until you give me back the Princess you piece of scrap!" Jetfire yells as he blasts a few more Decepticons out of the sky. "You can have the horse you sentimental nimrod!" Megatron yells as he flies away with his Decepticons. "Ah, Jetfire its good to see you." Grimlock says as his fellow Autobot lands. "Wasn't expecting you to be here." Jetfire says as he puts up a finger, "Autobots stop the search, we have the..." Jetfire never finished when Sludge came out of the makshift base holding a bloodied up pink pony with a scroll attached to her. "Pinkie!" Grimlock yells as he runs over to the wounded pony. ______________________________________________________ "No need to worry Princess, unlike the Decepticons we will not kill you." a raspy voice says in the darkness. "Who, who are you?" Celestia asks in a whimper, she had just watched many shady figures beat one her former students friends into a pool of blood. "Oh, you will find out soon enough that the Decepticon where no the only things on that Autobot prison ship my dear." the same raspy voice says as it drags her further into the darkness. ______________________________________________________ > Chapter 8: Desperate Measures > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 8: Desperate Measures "Pinkie?" A low growling voice stuttered towards the bloodied pink pony. The pink pony doesn't respond and Slag lies her down on a raised stone. Grimlock takes the note that was attached to her and quickly reads it, crushing it afterwords. "What does it say?" Jetfire asks his war bound friend. Grimlock turns around to his old acquaintance, "Its a death wish." he growls as he pushes Jetfire to the side and marches towards the edge of the tree line, "I'll be back with the Princess while the group of you help our pony friends and finish off the Decepticons." "But Grim we need ya!" Swoop squawks. Instead of replying Grimlock walks off and disperses into the forest, dropping the piece of paper. "Hmm." Jetfire picks up the scroll and checks what it says. "So we gonna follow him?" Swoop asks. "No, I am going to get the pony to proper medical care, you are going to lead the Dinobots against the Decepticons." Jetfire says as he walks towards the hurt pony nearby and places the scroll inside of him. "Understood Jet, Dinobots lets get going, Transform and move out!" Swoop calls as he transforms and flies in the direction of the Decepticons. ______________________________________________________ "Princess Luna?" Sergeant asks when they exit the secret passage and enter a part of the castle that he has never seen before. "Hold your questions, I shall tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it." Luna says as they pass by two ponies in white lab coats who bow to the princess. "As you command Princess." Sergeant replies still as confused as ever when a door to his right opens and a mare approaches. "Princess Luna is this the candidate?" a electronic voice says as Sergeant notices that she didn't open her mouth but spoke via a box on her neck. "Yes this is Sergeant, he will be field testing your equipment Silver Star." Luna says as she walks into the room. Sergeant says nothing as he walks inside, looking around he can spot pieces of the metal aliens that attacked on tables at the edges of the room, but in the center is a complete body suite that resembles the armor of the Royal Guard. "Sergeant, you have any questions before we arm you to do battle with our greatest foe." Silver asks as Sergeant walks up to the armor. "Well it would be nice to know what this is?" Sergeant says, turning around on the scientist. "This is a suite we designed to be used against the machines that attacked us for anypony who is not capable of casting spells. The suite augments your movements and quickens your reaction time, improving your performance overall." Silver replies. "And what else can it do?" Sergeant asks. "Well we equipped it with the weapons from the destroyed Decepticons, all you need to do is think of it shooting and it will fire the side mounted laser guns." Silver said, smiling at her work. "So I have to laser guns mounted on the armor, one on each side?" Sergeant asked. "Yes you do Sergeant." Silver said but no longer looking at the pegasus. "Silver I want you to put him in the armor now, we can spare no delay in recovering my sister." Luna says now turning away from the unicorn scientist. "As you command princess." Silver says with a bow as she picks up the armor and simultaneously removes Sergeant's old armor. "Do you know where I should start looking ma'am?" Sergeant says as the new armor is placed on him by the unicorn mare. "No, but Celestia and her pet phoenix, Philomena, are rather close, therefore I shall send him with you." Luna replies as the said phoenix comes out of a hole that slides shut as quickly as it had opened. "Very well, I'll follow that bird to Princess Celestia, even if I must to go to the corners of the Earth to find her!" Sergeant says as the phoenix lands on his shoulder and he walks out of the door to start his mission. ______________________________________________________ "Where am I? I demand to know!" Celestia commands, she can tell that she is upside down and hanging from something above her, yet she cannot see anything. "Oh, your awake at last, hehehehe." a raspy voice with a fanatical tone cries out from the shadow as eight eyes appear in the darkness. "Who, what, are you?" Celestia stammers. "Oh, forgive me for not introducing myself properly when I cut up the pink pony who tried to save you. I am Tarantulas, a Predacon." the eyes spoke. "Predacon?" Celestia asked. "Yes, like a Decepticon, but we transform into animals or insects." Tarantulas said as the eyes vanished. "What do you want with me?" Celestia now asked as she tried to move but couldn't, she could feel herself wrapped inside of something. "Oh nothing much, just your power alicorn." the rather creepy voice of her abductor said as the cavern filled with light and a black and silver tarantula appeared and crawled up to Celestia. who now realized she was stuck to a web. Celestia attempted to struggle but couldn't even feel her muscles. Instead all she could do was look pleadingly at Tarantulas and hope that someone would come to her aid. ______________________________________________________ Prowl drove through a city, he didn't know what to think of it. All around him ponies where pulling coaches and many gave him odd looks when he sounded his sirens and flashed his lights to get by. "What the hay?" a large stallion said as he pulled over to see what was going on just to be greeted by a flash of red and blue lights pass by on a horseless wagon. The ponies where not very advance in technology, the most advance thing that he saw so far was a steam train and a few hot air balloons, though they do have electric lights, they don't seem to have figured out how to make computers and other electronic devises. "Watch it mister, wait what the?" a mare called out as Prowl swerved to avoid her when he almost drove off the road. He had been in vehicle form for hours now unable to rest, so he corrected his course to take him outside of the city. Jetfire could certainly move much faster than he could, especially since he didn't have to deal with the eight mile per hour traffic. He was just exiting the city when he saw two Decepticon scouts fly by with a seeker following just out of range of their optics. ______________________________________________________ Starscream had followed Laserbeak and Buzzsaw to a grand metropolis after they scouted out the small town and got a call to abandon their mission and scout out the areas surrounding when he spotted an Autobot, more specifically Prowl since he was easily told apart from the others. Luckily the two minicons didn't see him, but he did see them, and the seeker following them. Prowl aimed his pistol up in the air and took aim, that is when Starscream landed next to him. "No, don't shoot you fool." Starscream whispered as he grabbed Prowl's pistol and lowered it. "Star..." Prowl began before Starscream grabbed his mouth, the rest of what he said was muffled. "Be quiet or you will get us both noticed." Starscream said removing his hand from Prowl's face. "What do you mean?" Prowl says turning to the air commander. "I am no longer welcome among the Decepticons, I have left them." Starscream says pointing out the fact that he no longer has insignia on his wings. "Very well, can you lead me to a pony they took?" Prowl says, knowing that if Starscream knew of the importance of this pony that he might try something to gain the favor of his former comrades and rejoin their ranks. "Last I heard the Princess was stolen from them." Starscream said, surprising Prowl. "Thank you, I am going to assume you would like to help find her then?" Prowl says expecting to have a rather unpleasant search partner. "No, I am interested in this world and would prefer to continue my study of them." Starscream replies and turns around from the Autobot officer. "Very well Starscream." Prowl says and walks along the road and deeper into the woods outside of the city. "Well that went well." Starscream says watching the sun rise in the distance, and noticing that it was rather unstable. ______________________________________________________ > Chapter 9: Dare to be Stupid > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 9: Dare to be Stupid It didn't take long to escape from those pathetic Dinobots, especially since their leader Grimlock had abandoned them. Megatron now stood at the entrance to the badlands once more, in the distance he could see what remained of the Autobot forces salvaging what they could from their ship. Turning around and facing his Decepticons, who had taken casualties in the battle with the Dinobots and Jetfire, "Decepticons, before us is a new world to conquer, no longer shall we squirm under the rule of the Autobots, this is a new beginning, let it shine through the ruins of the old war." he said as he drew his mace. "Lord Megatron." Soundwave spoke. "What is it Soundwave?" Megatron replied, only to see his communications officer pointing a finger at the sky behind his forces. "Laserbeak returns, Lord Megatron." Soundwave says, dropping his arm back to his side and transforming as buzzsaw turns into a cassette and lands inside. "Ah, Laserbeak, Unlike some of my other warriors, you never fail me." Megatron sneers, remembering that Starscream has turned traitor, "Soundwave, play back they'er findings." The clear section of Soundwaves chest lights up revealing images from their flight and an occasional video of many pastel colored ponies talking, even an encounter with a dragon that the two minicons killed. "We attack on the hour Decepticons." Megatron says as he observes more of the video, he witnesses though the eyes of his scouts three castles, three castles that contain the rulers in this land. ______________________________________________________ The sun was rising as Jetfire swooped out of the sky and quickly transformed into robot mode as he landed in front of the hospital. He had sent a message to his fellow Autobots who had gone searching for the pink pony he now held in his bloodied hands. Only two of them responded, he was certain that his signal strength was high enough but it seemed as though he was getting interference, but Arcee and Springer manged to get to Princess Twilight who had told them how to get to the hospital and who was waiting there now as a giant robot fell from the sky and landed a few feet away. "Is Pinkie okay?" Twilight asked as she ran up to the ancient explorer. "She is bleeding heavily and has many wounds, however there seems to be no internal organ damage that is to severe and only a few broken bones. She still needs medical care and I think I just gave the hospital staff heart attacks." Jetfire said as Arcee and Springer both transformed into robot modes. "I'll get her inside, I already sent a message to Princess Luna who is going to publicly announce the arrival of aliens in Equesrtia." Twilight yelled as she picked her pink friend up in her telekinesis and ran into the hospital for help. "What happened out there?" Springer asks Jetfire who was watching as Twilight got her friend upstairs and into a room where her new alien friends could see the patient without too much difficulties. "I don't know the pink one was with Grimlock and his team, and when I found them she was already hurt." Jetfire said as he removed his helmet and placed it on the ground next to him. "What happens now?" Arcee questions her two companions. "Now, we wait and help however we can." Jetfire says, thus assuming command over his fellow Autobots. ______________________________________________________ Grimlock had been on the trail of whoever hurt his friend and had taken the princess, he wasn't about to let whatever it was live much longer. "Who approaches my cave!" a deep voice bellows from within a cave to Grimlocks right. Grimlock merely ignores it and sniffs the ground to get the scent back, he was tracking a creature that smelled like an insecticon, but there was something off about the scent, something that sent shivers down his servos. A few moments passed and he was about to start moving again when something the same size as the Dinobot commander plowed into him. Turning Grimlock saw what appeared to be a Dragon from human mythology, just a Spike and Carly had told him about. It was green with many horns coming out of it head, its wings had holes in them, and it stood on it rear legs thus leaving his front claws free to use for other things. "This is my territory kid, get lost." The dragon spoke, his spiked tail raising a bit as his jaw opened a little to reveal double rows of teeth. At this point Grimlock was glad something wanted to fight, he needed to release his anger, "Me Grimlock want a lunch special ugly." "Heh, wise guy huh, lets see how you like this you wingless overgrown lizard!" The dragon said as he spewed flames at Grimlock. "Me Grimlock no lizard, me Grimlock king!" Grimlock roared as he charged through the flames and head butted the dragon who returned the blow with a swipe of his tail. Grimlock then stumbled back a bit before dousing his foe in plasma fire, the dragon screamed all the way back to his cave. "Pathetic excuse for an opponent, I didn't even get to bite him before he ran away." Grimlock chuckled before picking up the scent of the unknown attacker and resuming his search. ______________________________________________________ Starscream had watched from what seemed to be the ruins of a castle as Jetfire landed next to a building that resembled that of a human hospital and was holding one of the natives of this world who appeared to be badly hurt. He quickly lost interest as the Autobots seemed to be doing nothing aside from talking to each other. So he decided to explore this castle some more. He was curious to its design and why it had been abandoned, Primus, he was curious about the natives of this world, and tired of Megatron. Those two reasons were why he left the Decepticons, and now he was looking at a ruined castle, this left Starscream to ponder if he did the correct thing. Unfortunately he was lost in his thoughts when he found a hole just outside of the castle, looking up he could see the tree tops and the sky. Upon further examination, the hole he was in was lined with metal, and below him was a cybertronian symbol etched into the same rusted metal. He was sitting on top of an old Autobot base, but that was impossible, the Autobots had never been here, had they? And if so when, Starscream had access to all the star charts and would have certainly remembered such an irregularity in the universal laws regarding how solar systems should work, not to mention that in the hall of records Cybertronians had data on every planet that sustained life, so what was this doing here? ______________________________________________________ Prowl was standing in what appeared to be a Decepticon stronghold, rather what was once a Decepticon stronghold. On the outside there were pieces of his enemy all over, and on the inside there was energy webbing and a massive amount of blood. The first of which made him curious, but when he tried to touch it, it nearly shut him down. The blood however was from two different entities, both pony, and there was a lot of it. Upon exiting the cave he came upon tracks, many tracks, one set of tracks with multiple creatures led off one way, but the other creature seemed to walk off on its own. After discerning that the tracks belonged to the Dinobots he decided to follow the ones he assumed belonged to Grimlock. ______________________________________________________ Sergeant flew just behind the Princesses Phoenix, the bird was supposed to lead him straight to Celestia so that they could rescue her. Currently they were flying at treetop level and over a forest, when the bird suddenly stopped, causing the rocket powered pegasus in armor to nearly plow into it. Sergeant said nothing as he gave the bird a look of confusion and Philimena circled a clearing below that had many pieces of metal in it. After they both landed Sergeant looked around and realized that there were pieces of what attacked the princesses at Canterlot. He also noticed a cave nearby that looked as though the Decepticons, as Luna had called them, had tried to fortify it. Inside the cave were many tall structures, but what caught his eye were the chains in one corner and the massive amount of blood. "Philimena, we have to find the Princess now." Sergeant said as he and the phoenix both flew out of the cave. ______________________________________________________ Rainbow Dash watched the royal guard and the flaming bird charge out of the cave and gave chase, they hadn't noticed that she was following them and she hadn't notice that something else was following her. > Chapter 10: The Calm Before the Storm > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 10: The Calm Before the Storm Starscream managed to find the latch which opened the access hatch to the ancient Autobot base. After waiting roughly ten minuets the hatch sunk down further before splitting down the center of the Autobot insignia with a loud hiss followed by screeching as it opened. "Well then, the door works." Starscream muttered to himself as he switched his optics to night vision and jumped down the hole. He didn't bother with his jets as the fall wasn't long enough for the landing to do any damage. Upon landing at the bottom the hatch above sealed itself as the soft white lights of the base came online, each one making a loud booming sound that resembled thunder. The halls were shaped like and egg, and they were at least one-hundred foot tall. The hallway seemed to be in perfect working order, no signs of rust anywhere, and all the lights were functional. This brought curiosity out of the former Decepticon, as it is an ancient Autobot base on a planet that isn't on any star charts and it seems to be in perfect working order. Starscream walked onward slowly, cautious of any booby-traps that might lay waste to him, the ancient Autobots were know for leaving them in their cities during the first civil wars long before the fourth war that they are still waging today. ______________________________________________________ The Dinobots were in bad shape, they had attempted to battle Megatron and the Decepticons without their leader, and they had been beaten to a smoking and leaking pile of scrap without the ability to transform. "Me Slag tired." Slag said, his voice cutting in and out. Swoop looked at him, Slag was holding his left arm in his right hand, and his red visor was flickering. "We can rest for a little while, but we have to keep moving to warn Ultra Magnus about Megatron." Swoop said, thus sitting on a large rock nearby. "Snarl say let them deal with Decepticons." Snarl groaned as he put down the makeshift stretcher with Slug laying on it. "Yeah, let Autobots fight them, Dinobots too tired." Slag said in agreement. Swoop was about to punch Slag in the faceplate when Cosmos flew into the meadow that they were resting in and transformed. "What happened to you guys?" Cosmos asked the once proud Dinobots. Before any of the others could say anything Swoop stepped towards the green Autobot. "We fought Decepticons, they damaged us badly, now the Decepticons are preparing to attack Autobots." Swoop said, his vocabulary failing him as he spoke. "Stay here, I'll warn Ultra Magnus and get a medic out here to retrieve you!" Cosmos said as he leaped off the ground and transformed into a flying saucer. "Thanks!" Swoop said as he and the other Dinobots all entered emergency stasis. ______________________________________________________ Pinkie Pie was surrounded by all of her closest friends, minus Rainbow Dash who went to Canterlot to deliver a message to Princess Luna. "I'm glad that they were able to help you and that you weren't too badly hurt Pinkie, but promise that you won't run off like that again!" Twilight snapped at her pink friend who was wrapped from head to toe in bandages even though the unicorn doctors had healed her lacerations her skin was still frail when they regrew it. "MMMHHHMMNNNMM" Pinky replied to which Fluttershy kindly translated. "She said that she would wait next time but she met a really nice metal Dragon who tried to help her rescue the princes but a giant metal spider took her away." Fluttershy said. "Darling, I truly do not know how you can understand Pinkies mumbling." Rarity said, putting a hoof on the yellow pegasus's back. "Oh, its really simple." Fluttershy said, but she wasn't heard. ______________________________________________________ Jetfire stood near the hospital with his two fellow Autobots, they looked at the nearby town. The town was plastered with many different colors and was a wondrous sight to behold. "All this waiting is driving me crazy." Springer says, pulling out his sword to sharpen. "We will wait until we are needed, we don't know if these Decepticons are planning on attacking the natives, and this is the closest settlement." Jetfire replied to his impatient friend. Meanwhile, Arcee had made a friend with a blue-green pony with a white mane and tail. "So you are a sentient machine from another planet?" Lyra asked the female Autobot. "Yes Lyra, I am." Arcee said with a smile at how cute the natives of the planet are. "So if I said I wanted hands, could you make me a pair?" Lyra said, leaning in as she spoke and making rather large, pleading eyes. "That's not really my department, but if you ask an Autobot scientist like Jetfire, or Wheeljack I bet that they could help you out." Arcee replied, confused as to why this pony wanted hands so badly. "Okay, which one would be faster to find?" Lyra asked, tilting her head. "Jetfire is right over..." she began to say as she pointed with her finger, but the pony had rushed right up to Jetfire. "Excuse me, Mr. Jetfire!" Lyra said, trying to get the attention of the massive Autobot but to no avail, for he seemed to be lost in his thoughts. ______________________________________________________ Grimlock stalked the woods until he came to an area that was much different than what he had seen on the rest of the planet, though it was surprising still as colorful. He was standing in a desert canyon, it had a few cacti growing here and there alongside a few fauna here and there, but aside from that it was just sand and ravines. He transformed to get a better look around and took a few steps, he sank into the sand a few feet, but didn't get stuck, though he still decided to transform back into dino-mode so he could distribute his weight more effectively and move quicker. ______________________________________________________ Prowl found the signs of battle between two large beasts, one he knew to be Grimlock, the other he wasn't to keen on. Observing the area he found tracks similar to Grimlocks, but larger, they lead off into a cave. Prowl moved towards the cave with his blaster out, when a pegasus in golden armor landed in front of him. "That cave belongs to a rather large Dragon Autobot, I wouldn't go in there if I were you." the rough voice of the pegasus eminated up to the transfomer. "I'll take your word for it." Prowl replied, only looking slightly confused. "The name Sergeant Slaughter, I figure we ought to team up to find Princess Celestia, Prowl." The pegasus says as Philimena lands in a nearby tree. "Fine by me Slaughter, you know this planet a whole lot better than I do." Prowl says as he begins following Grimlocks trail again, but now with Sergeant flying next to him. ______________________________________________________ Rainbow Dash watched as the obvious Autobot and the Royal Guard talked and followed the large tracks in the muddy ground, but something caught the corner of her eye. In a nearby tree was a six legged metal bug with a large light for a head, before she could get to close to it, it burst into dust. Apparently it liked her just as much as normal bugs did, on that note she didn't mind too much. She jumped down to the ground and heard a twig behind her snap. "Who's there?" she shouted a little too loudly. She heard a growl and saw a Siberian tiger with wings dash off into the darkness as an even louder roar filled the air. Rainbow Dash turned around to see a Dragon crawl out of its cave with bad looking burn marks covering most of his head and one of his wings torn to shreds. "Who dares trespass in my territory!" The dragon booms as Rainbow Dash backs up into the cover of an overgrown bush in hopes that it might hide her. ______________________________________________________ "Its almost time to enact my plan dear princess, almost ready!" Tarantulas said as he salivated in his beast mode as his little metal bugs built up a machine that resembled a large circle with many tendrils coming off of it. Celestia noticed on of his monitors light up with Prowl and one of her Royal Guard, and then Rainbow Dash getting close to the camera as the monitor went dark. "Drat, I may have more company soon, oh well, I look forward to the Autobots, their energon will make an excellent source of power for my machine, as for the organics, I do so enjoy a good meal." the deranged Predacon said as he burst into laughter. > Chapter 11: Got Better Things To Do Than Die > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 11: Got Better Things To Do Than Die Ultra Magnus watched as three of the only four Autobots to stay behind and help with the construction of their temporary base flew backwards when a green saucer like object landed on them. "Sorry, I still need to work on my landings." Cosmos said as he helped up Warpath. "Eh, don't mention it little buddy!" Warpath replied, smashing his fist together and getting back to work, Preceptor and Whelljack had already gotten back up and resumed their tasks. "Cosmos what happened to the search team I deployed to find you?" Magnus asked as he approached the green and yellow Autobot. "I'm afraid that explanations will have to wait for later, we have multiple Decepticons inbound to our position as we speak, they already trashed the Dinobots!" Cosmos said "Preceptor tell Blaster to radio Prime for reinforcements, we'er gonna need em!" Ultra Magnus said as he checked one of the salvaged auto cannons from the ship. ______________________________________________________ Grimlock sniffed the air again, he found that the searing heat was messing with most of his circuits, though to be honest he didn't really care. He had managed to climb to the top of a massive rock that overlooked the canyon, even though the only things he could see from that rock were more rocks and enough sand that Metroplex could probably make a sand castle like those human children often did at their beaches. The he spotted small tracks and seeing as he could no longer track the princess by her scent, he decided to see where these tracks led. After a few hours he reached the end of the tracks, a solid rock wall. In front of the wall were multiple of the same tracks, but there was no actual way in. "Hmm, I didn't come all this way to be stopped by a rock formation." Grimlock snarled, then roaring, transformed. First his legs materialized from his massive chrome tail, then his T-Rex chest opened as his massive head folded back thus revealing his chest plate and head, finally his dinosaur legs transformed into his arms and hands. "WHEN SOMETHING GETS IN MY WAY, I REMOVE IT!!!" he bellowed as he slammed his sword into the rock wall, which only began to ripple like he had just dropped a stone in the water. "What?" Grimlock stuttered, his visor still glowering red. He decided not to question it and just walk through with his double barrel particle cannon in his right hand, and flame sword in left. ______________________________________________________ Rainbow Dash had just dodged a steady stream of dragon fire when she clipped he wing on a tree and fell back down. She had wanted to fly away and forget about trying to find out what was going on, go back to Ponyville and talk to the jolly green giant Cosmos a bit more, but the day just wasn't hers. The dragon moved closer to her as she got up, wincing at the pain in her wing. "You... you want a piece of me!" Rainbow yelled up to the rather beat up Dragon. The dragon didn't bother replying as he bent down and opened his jaw slightly to incinerate the cyan pegasus when a green laser tagged the beast. "Hold it right there!" Prowl yelled, his pistol smoking from the tip. "I will crush you for that!" the dragon yelled as he grabbed Rainbow Dash and charged Prowl. Sergeant open fired with the stolen Decepticon blasters and peppered the Dragon with lasers. The dragon then dropped Rainbow who was caught just before having a rather smashing meeting with the ground by Prowl who had slid on his skidplate after tossing his pistol to the side to save her. "You okay miss?" Prowl asked the rainbow maned pegasus. "Yeah, just clipped my wing on that tree..." She started to make a gesture toward the tree when she saw the Siberian Tiger with metal wings watching the battle from afar, its green optics seemingly focused on her alone. Prowl seemed to catch this and turned to look in the same direction, but the mysterious tiger vanished into a puff of mist as though it never existed. Then the Dragon fell over in a pool of blood, his body had holes that smoked from the heat of the lasers that punched through him. "Shouldn't see any trouble from him anymore." Slaughter said with a frown directed towards Rainbow Dash. Rainbow merely cringed at the sight of the dead dragon and the armored pony with the smoking alien weapons. ______________________________________________________ Starscream entered the secret bases recharging station to find five occupied stasis pods and an assortment of weapons, grinning he outfitted himself with new charges for his null ray and reloaded his missiles before turning his attention to the stasis pods. "Now what do we have here, ancient Autobot warriors?" he said as he rummaged through the computers data base. "No, they are protoforms, and I just so happen to have the processors of five loyal Decepticons, loyal to me that is." He laughed as he produced the processors of his fallen comrades, the Combaticons. He wouldn't make the same mistake the first time he recreated them, no, this time he would rewrite their memories and loyalty functions so that they would obey his command, and his command only. Starscream began his work on the protoforms laughing uncontrollably. ______________________________________________________ Jetfire noticed the blue-green pony with neon blue and white hair grinning ear to ear below him and was sorry for doing so as soon as he made eye contact. "My name is Lyra, can you really make me hands?" She said as she leaned her front hooves on the old air guardian. "Hands? why would you want hands?" Jetfire asked the crazed unicorn who looked as though she had just drank one hundred espressos. "Oh, well you know, so I can be more like a human!" Lyra said, leaning her head closer while still pressing her hooves against him. "Okay then, why do you want to be more like a human?" the fifty two foot tall giant asked the four foot tall pony. "Because humans are awesome!!! I even have pants!" Lyra exclaimed, pushing herself off of Jetfire in a back flip and landing on all fours. Behind his helmet Jetfire mouth was open, he was completely dumbstruck as to why this pony wanted to be like a human when it hit him that there are no humans on this world. He looked up to the rising sun with a white glow surrounding it to think. "Doesn't that hurt your eyes?" Lyra asked as she too tried to look directly at the sun but turned away. "I will make you hands." Jetfire said as he turned away and walked to a more open area to begin constructing a contraption from spare parts that would resemble and work as hands would. ______________________________________________________ "Decepticons attack!" Megatron shouted and pointed towards the crashed Autobot ship, the time had come, the sun was rising, and their foe was weak. "Lord Megatron." Shockwave said as he approached his master. "What is it?" the silver warrior said, watching as his seekers did combat with Ultra Magnus who tuck and rolled, dodging a missile and grabbed Skywarp, throwing him into Thundercracker, both seekers transformed and landed in a pile as Ultra Magnus fired one of his missiles to finish them off. "What is to be gained from attacking their ship?" Shockwave asked, peering at the battle he witnessed Blitswing and Warpath circling each other all the while pounding tank shells into each others sides. "Not only would we take a significantly advantageous location as our base, but we would have access to resources such as energon and weapons that were previously ours prior to capture." Megatron said, watching as Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack both seemingly looked up at the sky. "My Lord..." Shockwave began before Megatron transformed into a pistol. "Target Ultra Magnus!" and Shockwave did, it took the scientist a full two seconds to line up a shot that would go clean through. ______________________________________________________ "What do you mean the communications just went down?" Ultra Magnus asked as both he and Wheeljack dodged another missile from the seekers that managed to escape their doom. "Preceptor told me to tell ya that Blaster said he transmitted the S.O.S. twice before going dark." Wheeljack said as they both stopped and stared at the sky. Several shots of white energy pierced Ultra Magnus through the spark chamber from his back and out the other side, thus neutralizing the Autobot permanently. Wheeljack sidestepped just in time to not get hit by another burst of white death from what experience had told him was Megatrons primary weapon. ______________________________________________________ Kup had just witnessed Ultra Magnus get blasted to smithereens, he Hot Rod, and Blur had just arrived after getting the distress call from Cosmos prior to receiving a priority call from Blaster. "What do we do now?" Hot Rod asked. "We get our guys out of there and tell Jetfire the bad news." Kup said looking down at his feet. "Blur whip up a cloud cover, I'll give support fire." Hot Rod shouted as he pulled out his rifle. "Any Autobots receiving this message Ultra Magnus is down, we need to retreat!" Kup said over his comm-link as the other Autobots began moving in their general direction. Warpath had come out victorious over Blitswing, who had decided to take him on as a jet since he failed to finish him as a tank. Blaster was helping Preceptor, who had a blown apart leg, get off the battlefield, and Wheeljack had grabbed Ultra Magnus's head and was retreating with Cosmos. The sun was now up fully, and the Autobots had been steamrolled by their Decepticon adversaries. ______________________________________________________ Celestia was awake again, no, she had never fallen asleep. All around the exhausted alicorn who was fighting for consciousness was darkness, but she knew what was in that darkness, until she heard a roar that made her head spin. "Oh Nooooooo" Tarantulas exclaimed, his voice once being near sounded as though her was thrown at least a mile away. "You hurt Pinky, ME GRIMLOCK HURT YOU!!!" was all Celestia heard as she heard a loud grinding sound followed by a smashing sound, followed by a intense burst of heat that she not only felt but saw as what appeared to be a giant metal dragon roasted her abductor who squealed and vanished into one of his many holes about the den. "You can't kill what you can't find you brute." Tarantulas said from seemingly every direction, his voice echoing. All this did was send the metal dragon into a frenzy, he destroyed the support pillars and many machines, in which purposes was unknown to Celestia, before he hit something that sent forth a inferno and lit the room not only in green flame, but allowed the metal creature to get a view of Celestia and Tarantulas, who had been hiding next to the immobilized solar princess. "Me Grimlock going to rip out your spinal structure!" The metal dragon yelled as it transformed into a robot even larger than Jetfire, its Autobot symbol shimmering on his golden chest-plate. "Scrap me!" Tarantulas squeaked as he quickly transformed and left his lair when Grimlock charged with his flame sword which he them impaled the web controls with and roared as though he was still a giant metal dragon. "You... you are an... Autobot." Celestia said as she drifted from consciousness. ______________________________________________________ "Thank you doctor, though I am still curious... how did she recover so quickly?" Twilight asked the pony doctor as she exited the hospital with Pinky Pie and their friends. "To be honest I don't truly know, but hey, nopony can really explain Pinky Pie." he said before walking back inside the hospital, thus leaving Twilight to the spectacle outside. "YOU DID IT!!!" Lyra Heartstrings yelled up at Jetfire! > Chapter 12: Changing Tides > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 12: Changing Tides Grimlock Marched out of the cavern and into the scorching desert light holding the alicorn whom Pinky had spoken about. He didn't know where the Predacon had vanished to, and to be honest he didn't care anymore, all that mattered now was getting the princess home in one piece, he could have revenge later. "Hmm, may not be a good idea to travel during the day, me find shelter so you can rest for later." Grimlock's voice boomed in the empty desert as explosions could be heard from inside the lab. "Thank you Grimlock." Celestia said as her strength returned to her as she felt the sun'd rays on her, "Though perhaps it would be best if we traveled during the day, the sun gives me strength." "Hmmm," Grimlock contemplated the idea before he began to walk, "If you say so." ------------------- "What were you doing out here?" Prowl asked as he bandaged Rainbow's wounds. "I was just flying by when I saw, well, you." Rainbow partially lied. "I doubt that highly filly." Sergeant said as he cantered up to her. "Well whatever happened she is here now, lets not waste anymore time getting to Celestia." Prowl stated as he stood to his full hight and retrieved his acid pistol. "Lets." Slaughter replied as he took to the skies. Prowl then transformed into a car and open his passenger door, "Can't leave you here so hurry up and get in." he said as he revved his engine. "Um, okay." Dash said, getting into the Autobot who just changed his form before her eyes. "Belt in and hold on!" he proclaimed as he took off after Sergeant Slaughter with his siren going ballistic. ---------------------------- "Jetfire, what are those?" Twilight asked as Lyra wiggled her robotic fingers on her new hands. "Those are a quick design that is rather durable to enable a person who lost his or her hands in an accident to retrieve functions that they lost in the process." The Autobot scientist replied, then realizing that the lavender pony was confused rethought his response. "They are a modified version of robot hands for an exo-suite for use via neurological though processes." He corrected. "Ah, okay..." Twilight said, still somewhat in a stupor at the mechanical marvel before her. "These are great Jetfire!" Lyra said as she clapped her hands together before running into Ponyville with a massive smile on her face. "Now what do we do?" Arcee asked over her comm-link. Catching Jetfire's attention he walked up behind her, nearly stepping on a few ponies in his path. "Did the SOS get through to Prime?" she added to whoever was on the other end. Judging by the look on her face all was not well with their Autobot Brothers, this was confirmed when all the Autobots, less Grimlock emerged from the treeline in shambles. "Swoop no feel too good." The second in command managed to say before falling to his knees with his Dinobot brethren shutting down alongside of him. "Swoop, what happened?" Jetfire asked rushing over to his side, using his jets to fly over the ponies who were gathering under the giants. "We follow Decepticons, we fight Decepticons, we defeated by....... Decepticons." Swoop said as he powered down into stasis. "Arcee, tell the others to regroup on us, I am going to assume command until Prime gets here." Jetfire said as he began work repairing the Dinobots, mentally he was raging inside, but physically he was in control. ---------------------------------- "Decepticons!" Megatron bellowed at his triumphant soldiers who he was celebrating victory with. "Hail Lord Megatron!" they all replied to their leader. Standing on the remains of Ultra Magnus, Megatron looked around before giving a sigh, "We stand upon a world much like primitive Earth, there is no force on this planet strong enough to stop us, and soon my warriors, very soon, we will reclaim Cybertron with the Energon collected from this world resources." "All hail Megatron!" his Decepticons once again praised, evidently drunk on the amount of Energon they had consumed. "Shockwave, repair those of our brothers who were damaged or put into stasis, start with Soundwave." Megatron said before turning around and looking down upon the dead Autobots, "You may use the deceased to do so, all but Magnus, I have other plans for him." he added upon seeing the former second in commands optics flicker ever so slightly on before shutting down into a stasis. "As you command Lord Megatron." Shockwave replied from beside his leader, he had taken a few cubes, but they remained full as he preferred to keep his wits about him. ---------------------------- "I am Starscream, your leader my loyal Combaticons." The former air commander stated as he walked to a position centered on the front of his elite group of Decepticons. "Hail Lord Starscream!" Onslaught said as he and his team saluted their new master. Starscream turned around and smiled before pulling up images of other Decepticons, "These are renegades that turned against me and our brothers, ultimately killing us all, they must be destroyed." "You heard him Combaticons, no prisoners, only trophies!" Onslaught yelled before his team moved out as they talked among themselves about strategy. "We'll get it done my lord, you can count on us." The Combaticon Commander stated before joining his troops as they set out on their mission. "Excellent, while you are doing the dirty work, I'll get to work on my new space bridge." Starscream muttered to himself as he walked to another segment of his secret base. ------------------------------ Tarantulas crawled into a secondary lab that he had constructed and stored the energies that he had stolen from the alicorn. Initiating the light system he brought up a display on his monitor, on it was a winged white tiger with blue armor protruding from his body. "Yesss, soon we shall see who the hunter and the pray is, I have enjoyed this game for long, and now it shall come to a decisive end." Tarantulas said as he chuckled, after all, he was about to tame not one, but two Vok. > Chapter 13: First You Crack the Shell > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 13: First You Crack the Shell Celestia had passed out on top of Grimlocks back as the massive metal monster marched through the desert, only to be stopped by a buzzing sound. Turning his mighty head he laid his optics on a strange hoard of bugs drawing near, thinking nothing of them he continued his march to the forest, remembering his encounter with the dragon he gave the bugs a second look to see that they were not organic. "Did you really think that we would be killed so easily, easily, easily?" Kickback said from the hoard as the Insecticons got closer. "Me Grimlock turn you into scrap, how'd you live bug bot?" the Dinobot said turning and unleashing a torrent of flames towards the Cybertronian insects. "You killed dummies, dummy, dummy, dummy!" Kickback added as the hoard dodged the fires, though they burned through many in proximity, and smashed into the Dinobot commander making him drop the princess as he fought them off. "Me Grimlock no dummy, me Grimlock King!" Grimlock roared before transforming and cutting through his foes with his sword and blasting them with his double barrel cannon. "Ak, Insecticons retreat, retreat, retreat!" Sharpshot yelled as the hoard dug into the ground and vanished. "Grimlock, what happened?" Celestia said as she got up to peer at the mighty transformers silhouette as the sun began to set behind them. "Nothing that you should worry about pony." Grimlock said before walking towards the line of trees that marked the edge of the forest with Celestia following close behind. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prowl stopped abruptly when he heard the skirmish ahead but before he could react Slaughter was blindsided by a giant metal bug with horns on its head. "Ung, what the?" Slaughter managed to say before he was thrown through a tree. "Megatron sends his reguards pony, but the princess is ours!" Hardshell said as he landed facing Prowl. "If you want to live Ms. Dash then I suggest you get out of here now!" Prowl said as he ejected her and transformed and fired a missile that was instantly intercepted by one from Hardshell. "Oh great, now what?" Rainbow Dash said sleepily since she had dozed off during her ride, "Whoa what the hay is that, well, aside from ugly?" she added as she jumped away just as Prowl stepped where she had been. "An Insecticon, the Decepticons must be on to us!" Prowl replied as he returned fire, each shot burning through whatever it hit as though it were coated with acid. "Well then this bug is gonna have to deal with being a bug, cause ya know what I do ta bugs? I smash em!" Slaughter said as he flew out of the ditch he had created from his fall and smashed in the aliens head. "Nice effort equine, but you should know, where this is one of us, there is all of us!" Hardshell replied as a whole swarm of Insecticons tunneled out of the ground. "Good more for the Slaughter!" Sergeant yelled as he began ripping the Cybertronians apart with only his hooves. "Remind me not to tick him off." Prowl said to Rainbow Dash as he knelt down and blasted a con who was about to flatten the berserk pony. "Um, yeah, I'll remember to do that." Rainbow Dash said in awe of the situation, that was until she was dragged underground with one of them. "Ms. Dash!" Prowl managed to say before the hole behind he closed and the Insecticons vanished from sight. "Nope, just me Grimlock and her Celestia." the Dinobot leader said as he emerged from the treeline, toppling quiet a few trees that were in his way. "Prowl I need you to help Rainbow Dash, you know these Decepticons well." Celestia said concerned for her pupils friend. "As you wish ma'am, Slaughter go with Grimlock and escort the princess home. I have to exterminate some pests." Prowl said before switching to explosive rounds and blasting a hole into the underground tunnels that the Insecticons left behind. "Eyup, happy bug squishing to ya." Slaughter replied cheerfully as he took flight. With that Prowl jumped down feet first into Insecticon territory. --------------------------------- Optimus Prime had rallied a literal army of Autobots to follow him with Metroplex to this new planet to aid their comerads and the planets citizens. Walking on the bridge he looked on towards his staff, Jazz and Cliffjumper were setting the course while a monitor showed Hoist installing the trans-warp engine. Bluestreak and Smokescreen were checking in with the Autobots down below while Bumblebee finished the final pre-flight check. "Silverbolt here Prime, everyone down here is ready to go!" The Aerialbot Commander reported. "Good, blast off in five, four, three, two, one!" Prime counted down as he sat down in his chair. 'Ignition!" Bumblebee stated as Metroplex began to lift off the ground and into space. ------------------------------------ Luna had decided to go to Ponyville to calm her nerves and speak to Twilight in person on her turf, unfortunately when she got there she was only able to do the ladder of her two needs. She moved like lightning through the columns of metal legs that were moving about as Jetfire and many others were trying to repair their wounded brothers. "Princess Luna!" Twilight called as she waved her hoof towards the lunar princess. "Princess Twilight, it is to see you in these..." Luna stopped talking as she dodged a falling chunk of metal from one of the more badly damaged Autobots. "My apologies Princess Luna I don't seem to be holding together all that well, perhaps Jetfire could help me as soon as I finish helping him." Preceptor said as he turned around to resume his medical efforts. "Troubling times, Twilight when did all this happen?" Luna asked raising a hoof towards the many damaged Autobots around them. "The Decepticons launched an attack on them at their ship and killed many of our allies, Jetfire assumed command and had them fall back to Ponyville for repairs. Unfortunately many of them are badly damaged." Twilight said as the two alicorns made their way over to the other ponies who were not underfoot. "I understand, thank you." Luna said as she watched Jetfire yank a one hundred and five millimeter shell out of a red Autobots chest. --------------------------------------------------- "Shockwave!" Megatron snarled as he stepped inside of the scientist new laboratory. "Yes mighty Megatron?" the loyal Decepticon inquired as he cut open a Griffon. "I have a specimen I want restored to partial functionality." the warrior replied as Frenzy and Rumble dragged Ultra Magnus into the room, "I only have one modification for you to make, and I'm sure that Optimus Prime will find it rather, explosive." Megatron added as he smirked. "As you command my lord." Shockwave replied before wiping up the remains of the Griffon he had just finished disecting and tossing it into the corner. ----------------------------------------------------- Onslaught and the other Combaticons projected a visual of what they could see for Starscream on one of his monitors, on the screen they could see a few Decepticons still celebrating while the others went about their business and got ready for their next battle. All the while Starscream was only half paying attention, he had discovered something else about this new base of his, something that filled him with joy. His new base was not only already equipped with a space bridge, but was a dormant transformer, now obviously an Autobot that could be easily changed by the scientist. Suddenly the lights shut off and flickered back on as Starscream had just finished reprogramming the former Autobot with his new Decepticon name, Skorpinok. > Chapter 14: Then You Crack the Nuts Inside > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 14: Then You Crack the Nuts Inside Optimus Prime looked up to the main monitor and examined the planet with his own optics for the first time. It was much like Earth in many way, mostly being dominated by water, oxygenated atmosphere, the terrain in general. But this world had a beauty all its own, as this world had much more color than Earth, and the old prime greatly enjoyed everything about it, that is except the Decepticons. "Jazz, report." Optimus commanded without removing his optics from the giant screen. "The Sky Spy has located most of our Autobot buddies in a small town that is overlooked my a large castle, they are mingling with the native population while also trying to repair themselves, though the natives are seeming trying to help as well boss!" Jazz replied looking down to his small monitor. "Natives?" Prime asked, knowing that a planet this rich must have had intelligent life from the start. "Enquines of many kinds sir." Jazz replied. "I hope they have good taste, it would be a shame to ruin my finish." Tracks said as he throttled the shuttle up and brought them into the atmosphere. "I would worry less about your finish Tracks, and more about your aim." Optimus said before standing up. "Prime?" Jazz said turning around in his chair. "Autobots, we are going to be battling the Decepticons on a planet that is filled with peaceful life, it is imperitive that we not allow any harm to come to these ponies, or any other species if we can help it." Optimus Prime stated loudly as the speakers in the ship carried out his wisdom. Every Autobot on the bridge nodded in agreement before turning back to their stations. --------------------------------------- Prowl slid through the tight tunnels in a crouch, using one hand to slide him along while the other held his pistol at the ready. The rest of the tunnel seemed to go straight down, Prowl gave off a small smile, as he hadn't been given a good chase since before the war when he was Cybertronian Police, before jumping down feet first into the pit. He landed with a hard, squishy thud, as he looked around he could see no one in sight, though it was dark. Checking himself for injuries he turned on his infrared before moving slowly forward in the large chamber. There was a loud rumble before he could here the chamber behind him begin to collapse, deciding he'd rather no be entombed inside this planet, at least not while Rainbow Dash was still in danger, Prowl ran straight ahead and into the first tunnel he saw. He fell down several stories before landing inside of a metal box where he was temporarily blinded by the bright lights. Ducking behind a few metal crates, all with Autobot Symbols on them, he watched as the Insecticons strapped the poor mare onto a table and stepped aside. Then Shockwave stepped forward with a small knife protruding from his hand and pointed at her. Prowl jumped out of cover and took quick aim, right behind the Decepticons, before firing his shoulder rockets and rolling back into cover. "The Autobot followed you!" SHockwave screamed as he jumped out of the way of the missile. Kickback was blown apart without even turning around, his limbs flying off in different directions, as his two companions turned to fir on Prowl. The said Autobot swung himself out of cover and placed one good shot that took Hardshell's head clean off, before he was shot in the shoulder by Sharpshot. "No escape Autobot!" Sharpshot's raspy voice echoed throughout the chamber. "For you." Prowl replied calmly as a grenade rolled under the Decepticon's feet. "Oh, scra..." Sharpshot detonated, there was nothing left of him except for his head as Prowl walked out from behind his cover. "Okay Shockwave, just you and me now." Prowl said as he readied his pistol. He had no response, not even a sound aside from Rainbow's pained breathing on the table. Looking down at the mare Prowl realized that the knife that Shockwave was going to dissect her with was lodged in her throat, the mare herself was looking with a pained expression to the Autobot who stood with a look of great concern crossing his face. "No time to deal with Shockwave, I need to get you medical help now!" Prowl shouted before blasting her restraints and carefully scooping her up as he transformed. Charging out of the doorway that slid open automatically Prowl heard the surprised battle cries of several Decepticons as he disappeared into the woods. ---------------------------------------- Slaughter walked next to the Solar Princess with Grimlock, in his robot mode, walking behind them. After Prowl had left them to go rescue Rainbow Dash there journey had been quiet uneventful as they approached a storm of noise ahead. Celestia stopped when she heard pained screams that sounded like those of their mechanical friends, though each had a much different tone to it. "Jetfire watch what you are doing man!" Blaster yelled. "Well if you would hold still it would hurt much less." Jetfire replied with a chuckle. "Hey I barely got a scratch on me, what do you think you are doing." the red Autobot asked. "Cannibalizing you for spare parts." Jetfire replied as he closed Blaster up and carried a few parts over to where the Dinobot were. "Say what?" Blaster said as he ran a quick diagnosis on is systems. "Don't worry, I didn't take anything vital, just a bunch of extra equipment inside of you." Jetfire stated as he opened Swoop and began working on his systems. "Like what?" Blaster asked, all the while Swoops optics flickered back on as he let out a sigh. "Wires to be precise, things that are abundant and can be worked together. Don't worry all your systems should work. Blaster just shrugged as he walked by Preceptor, who had just finished the final calibrations on his temporary leg. Looking around Blaster saw a pony rolling a large set of speakers up to them before looking up at him with a small smile. Blaster couldn't help himself and transformed as he shrunk to match her size. "And now for number one on the bottom forty, get down and boogie!" Blaster yelled playfully as he began to play rock music. Most of the Autobots grabbed their audio receptors and shut them off, though Jetfire didn't seem to care too much. All the while, the white and blue pony just nodded her head with the beat before placing a record on her turntable. Blaster stopped playing music as the last Dinobot stood up, repaired as best they could be with limited resources, and the help of half the ponies in town. Vynal Scratch started up her music and dubstep roared out of the speakers. "Oh yeah, now this is a mare after my central processor, get down!" Blaster yelled, barely audible over the music, as he added extra strength to it by connecting himself to her turntables. Celestia laughed as she came into sight of her sister nodding her head to the beat, but with unfathomable speed rushing to hug her older sister. "Tia, what happened?" Luna asked as she noticed the many scars across her sisters coat. "First I was tortured by the Decepticons, to which the Autobots and Pinky Pie attempted a valiant rescue, then a Predicaon snagged me and, well if it were not for the mighty Grimlock I would be dead now." Celestia silently cried as she took her sister embrace once more. Grimlock stepped out into the open and snapped his fingers to the beat, "Me Grimlock like this tune!" he shouted over the music as he too nodded his head. The other Autobots took notice and turned their audio receptors back on to be greeted with the awesome beat. Most started dancing where they were standing, though the Dinobots all charged their leader and rejoiced in his return. --------------------------------- "Shockwave, tell me, did you at least managed to convert Magnus into a bomb, before you allowed the primary Insecticons to be destroyed?" Megatron yelled so loud that the other Decepticons backed away, but not the scientist who he was questioning. "Yes my lord, the procedure went without a hitch, and I am pleased to report that the pegasus mare whom Prowl rescued is gravely injured. Megatron took this news with a smile as he turned his head and saw optics from the woods spying on him. "Come out into the open cowards, unless you wish me to kill you where you hide?" The Combaticons walked out of the woods without fear, their weapons drawn, and the Decepticon Symbol shining proudly on each. "And you are?" Megatron inquired. "We are the Combaticons, warriors of the real Decepticons!" Onslaught yelled as he and his Combaticons charged Megatron. "Another one of Starscream's pathetic attempts at killing me I assume." Megatron mutter before transforming into a pistol and landing in Soundwave's hands. ------------------------------------------ Starscream had finished his work on the bridge and looked at the monitor just to see his Combaticons in combat with the Decepticons. "Onslaught fall back now, that was recon, not an assault." Starscream calmly said over the radio. "At once Lord Starscream!" Onslaught said before running back into the woods with his brothers right behind him. "It is so hard to find good help these days." Starscream remarked as he opened the bridge and let the Combaticons through before closing it. > Chapter 15: Other Visitors > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 15: Other Visitors "What is the status of sector A-23.408?" a disembodied voice said. "Operation unit 217B is tracking the fugitive." another voice said as a window in space opened and two entities resembling skulls looked into it. "Perhaps it is time for us to take action." the first voice said. "Indeed, we would not wish for this experiment to be ruined like the last, let us alert our operative." the second voice stated and they both faded into the surrounding light. -------------------- Prowl gunned his engine and plowed through the bushes that lined the edge of an old dirt road. Hitting his brakes hard he skidded to a sudden stop in front of a dilapidated house with a rather surprised older mare, wearing a old cloak and fancy hat, standing in front of it. "What the hay is this about?" she questioned. "Please, its an emergency!" Prowl shouted as his right door opened and his seat slid out with Rainbow laying on it caked in blood. "Celestia have mercy, Rainbow Dash?" the pony yelled, no longer sounding older. "She was badly hurt and I don't have the know how to help her!" Prowl said as he transformed. "I'll get my medical kit, just make sure nothing else happens to her!" the pony ordered, to which Prowl merely drew his pistol and stood guard. ------------------------- Optimus Prime stood silently behind Jazz as his shuttle set down softly upon a large clearing next to the large assembly of ponies and Autobots. "What do you think is going on down there boss?" Jazz asked as he looked at his monitors. "It seems that our brothers have found friends Jazz." Prime replied as he walked over to the door, his fellow Autobots in close pursuit. "Yeah, lets just hope they can be our friends too!" the lieutenant replied as the door opened and the Equestrians greeted the four Autobots inside. "Greetings friends, and welcome to Equestria, my name is Princess Luna." the alicorn regally called as the four Autobots slowly walked out of their ship. "Greetings Princess, I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, and custodian of the Matrix of Leadership." the red and blue Cybertronian proclaimed. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance Optimus Prime, I am Princess Celestia. We owe your Autobots much already, but we are afraid that we are ill suited to fight the Decepticons." Celestia stated giving a small frown. "Do not fear, we shall defend your people from any acts of aggression that Megatron may take against you." Optimus replied, looking over the assembly of his brothers and sister. "You have our thanks." Luna added. "Allow me to introduce my fellow Autobots, this is Jazz, he has acted as my Lieutenant since we first left Cybertron, Sunstreaker, a fine Autobot Warrior, and Sunstreakers brother Sideswipe, without him the other would be lost and vise versa." Optimus said, waveing his hand to each individual Autobot. "Prime!" Jetfire shouted as he walked up to his leader with a salute. Optimus nodded, "Jetfire, it is good to see you my friend." "As it is you sir, Prowl is currently rescuing a pony who was taken by Insecticons, and we have massive casualties, but those of us still here are capable of combat." the Air Guardian reported. "Yo Prime, whats the plan now that we know a bit more of our situation?" Jazz asked as the Autobot brothers walked away from the group and started talking to Warpath. "Perhaps we should evaluate our situation further, Princesses if we may talk?" Optimus said as he began to walk ever so slowly with the Princesses in conversation, leaving Jetfire and Jazz behind. "Think this will go well Jet?" Jazz asked. "To be honest old friend, I don't know." Jetfire replied as he watched Lyra show a group of ponies her new hands as Blaster and Vynal bust out a fine tune. -------------------------------------- "Um Scootaloo ah don't think we're supposed to be out here right now." Applebloom stated worriedly as they dodged the giants foot falls of the Autobots. "You worry too much Applebloom!" Scootaloo practically yelled as she dodged another foot fall. "Yeah, I think Appleblooms right Scootaloo." Sweetiebell said as she and Applebloom and her both backed away slightly. "Huh?" Scootaloo questioned before a large red foot slammed down next to the three ponies. "You know little fillies this really isn't the best of places for you!" Hot Rod laughed as he bent down and offered to let the ride in his hand. "Oh sorry, we were just looking for Cosmos!" Scootaloo replied hopping up into the Autobots hand with her friends close behind her. "I can take you to him if you'd like." Hot Rod offered as he stood up. "Thanks!" a three fillies said in unison. ---------------------------- "Megatron." the communications officer stated with his monologist tone. "Soundwave, report to me your findings." Megatron commanded. "Autobot shuttle has landed in the nearby settlement, suggest operation, booby-trap." Soundwave implied as he turned his visor to look upon the massive gathering of the Autobots and ponies, many of whom he had learned through his observations were high ranking. "Noted, operation booby-trap will commence shortly." Megatron replied before shutting off his comm-link. "Buzzsaw eject, operation, evaluation." Soundwave ordered as the said yellow, black, and white Cassetticon flew out of his chest and transformed into a bird to go perform his duties. ------------------------------------- "Onslaught, what were you thinking of trying to take down Megatron and his merry band of rebels?" Starscream yelled as he questioned the Combaticons who had formed a line in front of their leader. "We saw an opportunity to destroy them sir, but..." Onslaught began but was cut off. "But Megatron had surprises in store for you and your team. If it is one thing you should know, its that Megatron, for the fool he is, always has a contingency!" the seeker yelled as he turned away from his soldiers. "So whats the plan boss?" Swindle inquired, stepping in front of the group a little. "In one stellar cycle we will make our move on Megatron, I have discovered something in this facility that will give us the upper hand in the battle to come..." Starscream thought for a moment before he turned around, "That is all, take a rest." The Combaticons didn't argue, each of them were happy that their leader hadn't taken more drastic action against them, but they were more elated to hear that they had a weapon that could even the playing field. The seeker merely smiled as his troops left the room, truly if anything, this was his master plan. On the monitors in front of him he could observe everything that was transpiring, the Autobots, Decepticons, Ponies, that strange tarantula, and the winged tiger, everything was falling into place. -------------------------------- Tigerhawk crouched down in his beast mode, his masters the Vok having just informed him of what he was to do. Tarantulas was his target, but he was also to remain unseen by the Cybertronians and Equines alike. "I got the first aid kit!" a mare in a ratty old cloak yelled as she ran out of her home and towards a white and black Autobot. "Good, my scanners indicate that we were not pursued by the Decepticons." the said Autobot reported as the mare knelt down to administer aid to the blue mare that Tirgerhawk had seen a few days ago. "Damn, what happened to her?" she asked, stitching the pegasus' stomach close from what looked like a surgical insertion. "The Decepticons thought that it would be nice to dissect her while she was still alive." he replied, anger in his voice. "That's horrible." the ratty mare replied, showing signs of disgust in her own voice. "Ung, Prowl?" the wounded mare moaned. "Ms Dash, don't try to talk, you are badly hurt!" the transformer named Prowl commanded, only to be greeted with a smirk from the mare. "Oh, hey Daring Doo, fancy meeting you out here." Rainbow Dash gave a small, pained, chuckle. "Just shut up Dash, shut up and rest." Daring replied, a look of concern melting away at Rainbow's poor attempt at putting on a tough girl act. "Will she be alright?" Prowl inquired as the cyan pegasus fell back to sleep. "I've done all I can, Rainbow's a tough mare, she'll be fine." Daring Doo replied before taking off her disguise since it was blown anyways by her old friend, "You want to come inside?" "I don't think I'd fit, but I can help you get her inside." Prowl replied with a small smile spreading across his face, glad that the mare would make a full recovery. Daring laughed and began walking over to her house with prowl carrying Rainbow Dash right behind her.