The rising sun created a rosy tone across the early morning sky. Golden fingers of sunlight spread across the scene. The apples glowed redder than they do in the daytime. Rays of light radiated throughout the branches of each tree. It was a party of splendid and aesthetic colors.
The peaceful morning was interrupted by a distant crowing sound. And it was coming from Sweet Apple Acres. It was the family farm and orchard of the Apples, located at the ends of Canterlot.
The main door of the farmhouse was slowly opened by Applejack. She stepped outside and carefully closed it behind her back, so as not to cause any creaking noises. Very quietly she walked towards the other side of her house and observed the area in case any family members were around at this early hour. What caught her off guard was the opened doors of the barn. She was certain she left them fully closed yesterday, before going to bed.
Someone was probably inside.
"Dang it!" she cursed under her breath. She had luck coming home in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep but this time... she was definitely going to be in trouble.
"I'm so screwed..." she gulped and nervously approached. After finally reaching the barn, she inhaled and put up a brave face, "Here goes nothin'."
She slowly peeked inside and fortunately for her, she saw nothing except the piles of boxes, the hidden vehicle under the huge old car cover, and much to her surprise, hens wandering around all over the place.
The cowgirl became relieved and quickly shut the big doors right after her. Once she shooed the hens away, she removed the cover and greeted, "Mornin' Bulk!"
The dark green SUV's engine calmly whirred at her welcoming, "Good morning kiddo, how was your recha--err, sleep?"
"Took a while for mah brain to process everythin' that happened yesterday. But ah got plenty of sleep and enough energy for today, so it's peachy. Sorry for the messy barn by the way, if ah knew you were comin' ah would have tidied up a bit. Thank apples at least Big Mac took our old family truck for work and we got enough space to tuck you in. Did the chickens wake you up? How did they even get inside?"
"Hey, it's alright, at least they kept me company." Bulkhead chuckled, "But uh, a young girl came in this morning before you, took some baskets and left the barn open."
Upon hearing the last sentence Applejack became concerned and asked, "Did she saw ya?"
"Nah, guess she was in a hurry."
She let out an exhale, "Phew, I dunno what I would've made up if they spotted ya. Comin' up with a lie ain't one of my best traits, ya know?" she said, awkward smile resembled on her face while she sheepishly stroked the back of her neck.
"Yeah, I know, I know. Thanks for trying to keep us in secret, really appreciate."
"No problem, big guy." she warmly smiled and patted his hood, "Ready to go?"
"You know it." he replied. Applejack went to see if the coast was clear and since there was still no one, she moved away for him to park outside. After making sure the barn was closed, Bulkhead welcomed her by opening his front door. As she got in and buckled up her seat belt, his engine rumbled and finally set off.
"'Bout the girly you saw earlier, that was Applebloom, mah lil' sister. I suppose she took the baskets 'cause she and Granny Smith are gonna make some apple pies for the contest today. She may be a troublemaker sometimes but she is a really brave and good-hearted kid." she explained during their drive.
"Heh, kinda reminds me of an old friend of mine." responded Bulkhead.
"Really? Who?" Applejack curiously asked. He opened his glove compartment, when she spotted something inside, she took it and her eyes widened.
It was a selfie of an unknown young girl and Bulkhead, both smiling at the camera. The girl had medium-long black hair with pink highlights, worn in a low ponytail. She also had two twin tails at the top of her head, a two-toned purple T-shirt under a dark blue tank top with yellow stripes with a little green robot drawing and a soft two-toned purple bracelet as a match to her T-shirt.
"Her name was Miko Nakadai, my first charge." cleared up the Cybertronian, "We met each other while we were still at war on Earth and it was just us, Team Prime. Speed metal and wild punk outfits were her thing. She always searched for thrills, causing troubles, making Doc Bot's energon boil but man, what guts she got. That girl had some real fierce loyalty and protectiveness for her friends, I tell ya."
Applejack smiled as she stared at the picture, "Ain't she a sweetie. And how is she doing now?"
It took a moment for him to respond after that question, "I uh... We- haven't really talked or met since we left. I... hope she is okay."
Applejack stood silent for a few seconds, then she asked, "Do ya miss her?"
"Of course... she was our little wrecker after all."
The cowgirl quietly awwed at his sweet answer. Who knew this big strong guy had such a soft side?
"Lookin' forward to meeting her someday."
"Hah, she will definitely like you, especially with these cool superpowers you got." Bulkhead replied with delight.
She laughed at the compliment, "Thanks Bulk. By the way, ya mentioned somethin' about bein' a Wrecker, didn't ya?"
"Yep. Back on Cybertron, I was a laborer before joining the Wreckers during the Great War. They are known to be one of the best and strongest Transformers who take any risk to get the job done on any covert combat missions they're assigned to, even the most dangerous ones during the war. Sadly, I had to leave them to join up with Optimus and the others aboard the Ark just before it left Cybertron."
"Must've been thought for ya, huh?"
"And it was. After the war finally ended, things slowly came back to normal, sure it's still not the same as it was before, but we should be happy with what we still got, am I right?"
"Couldn't say it better myself, sugarcube."
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The city streets of Canterlot were fulfilled with all sorts of vehicles, some of them driving faster, others slower, fortunately, there was no busy traffic during the early mornings. A certain sports car though was driving down the streets, it took the attention of the fellow citizens that passed by, they glanced at it with amazement and wonderment due to its good-looking design, it's not every day they could see such rare models in town.
"Soo it doesn't have any taste?" Pinkie questioned as she held the steering wheel, pretending to drive.
"Well, it's like... consuming thousands of batteries at once." Smokescreen tried to explain as clearly as he could.
"Eesh, I will definitely need a cooking recipe for this." the pink girl thought, "We can't celebrate our victory party without cupcakes for everyone, you know!"
Smokescreen chuckled at her attitude, "Like your positive thinking, Pinks. How come you are so cheerful and energetic all the time? Whenever I act like this, they all start complaining about how-"
"- childish this behavior is!" they both said in sync.
"Yeah, exactly!" replied the young mech.
"Nothing can stop me from bringing smiles and joy, buddy! And hey, I'm the element of laughter, remember? My duty is to make people happy! Hmm, maybe instead of cupcakes, I can make a cake! Kinda have to figure the size though..." she wondered while tapping her chin.
As she tried to come up with a solution for her party plan, Pinkie quickly thought of a question related to the manner and decided to ask, "Saay, when is your birthday, Smokey? Have to make a note of it on my calendar, definitely will ask the others too later!" she took her phone out of her pink hair, prepared to write it down.
Right at that moment, a red light came on and the automobile slowly stopped.
"Birthday? Like- the day when I was created?" Smokescreen confusingly questioned the human girl.
"Of course, silly! Don't tell me you are not celebrating it!"
"Not... really?"
"WHAT?!" she shouted so loud that the driver who waited next to them got startled and spat their coffee on the windshield. When Pinkie peeked at the other car, a middle-aged woman with two kids at the back, which seemed to be her children, stared at her with confused expressions and at the same time with worry. In return, Pinkie waved and smiled at them in embarrassment. Thankfully, the uneasy situation was interrupted by the green light and Smokescreen quickly drove off. The girl closed her eyes and exhaled in relief while leaning back on her seat.
That was a close one.
"I-I mean, we do but- it's not something regular for us!" her guardian justified.
"Nuh-uh, not on my watch, mister. From now on, every year each one of your creation days will be celebrated, or my name is not Pinkie Pie!" stated seriously the female teen.
Smokescreen laughed right after, "Yes ma'am."
A sudden notification sound came from Pinkie's phone, "Oh, it's from AJ! She says they have already arrived at our meeting spot!" she informed as she saw the message from her friend.
"Then you better hang on tight. We're gonna get there before you even know it!" warned the robot, his engine roared and sped up.
"WOOHOO!" Pinkie loudly cheered as the car drove fast towards their assigned destination.
-
-
-
Without even noticing, a number of cars were hiding in the shadows of the quiet alleys, watching the duo driving away in the far distance. The automobiles' engines quickly turned on and revealed themselves in the daylight.
"Gotcha." a single voice came out of the group. Soon all of them hit their pedals and followed their targets, leaving behind a big pile of smoke.
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"- and then, we used the staff to absorb the Storm King's remaining magic and got rid of his lightning storm, for good." told Rainbow Dash, flying around her guardian who was sitting on the ground, leaning on one of the forest trees while listening about the past experiences she had with her friends. Both of them decided to await the rest in an unhabituated area and share their stories to pass the time.
"What about the ship?" Sideswipe curiously asked.
In response to that question, she nervously chuckled, "It uh... kinda sank to the bottom of the ocean...? But! We managed to save everyone right on time and got them back home through the pony world and the Crystal Mirror, completely unharmed."
"You sure had a lot of crazy adventures back then, huh? Actually, we kinda had a similar problem to deal with too, like the day when we defeated Megatronus. We had to use several of these bad boys here." the red 'Bot stood up and revealed a strange-looking equipment, half the size of his arm.
"What's that?" questioned Rainbow out of wonderment.
"A Decepticon Hunter, turns to whatever weapon you want." as he explained, he swung the unfamiliar object with his servo and it unexpectedly gave the form of a giant katana.
"Pretty neat, right?"
"This. Is. AWESOME!" she answered in excitement and flew closer to him, "It looks so cool! How did you get that?!"
"It's a standard equipment on Autobot prison ships, like the Alchemor. After the crash, Fixit was able to find some and gave them to us. Since then, I haven't stopped using it."
"Any chance you have them in human size? You definitely have to teach me how to fight with this thing!"
"Eeh— 'prolly not."
"RAINBOW DASH!" a loud female voice was heard from afar, startling both of them. They turned in the direction where the sudden shout was heard and noticed Knock Out's vehicle form approaching them. As soon as he parked, Rarity hopped angrily out of the car.
"Look who finally decided to show up." smirked Rainbow at her friend, as soon as she landed on the ground, her wings and pony ears disappeared out of their sight.
"Optimus clearly stated to not transform into the open!" sternly replied Rarity.
"Chill Rares, we are not in the open, nobody will see us here, that's why we picked up this place as our secret hiding spot. We will be fine." her friend calmly reassured.
"Hmph, I hope you are right, otherwise I will blame you for this if we get in trouble."
"Jeez, you are even grumpier than Ratchet." involved Sideswipe.
"Yeah, what happened? Did you break one of your heels again?" jokingly asked Rainbow, Rarity glared at her even more in return.
Meanwhile, Knock Out was able to transform into his robot mode and answered her question instead of his charge, "Her sister got a bit too curious this morning."
"She saw you?!" Sideswipe immediately questioned.
"Only in my alt-mode, of course."
"We were about to leave, then Sweetie Belle spotted him and couldn't stop asking these hundreds of annoying questions. She wanted to come with us, eventually, I had to come up with a lie that I'm busy with work or something. In the end, that little missy would not let me go and stop talking unless I give her one of my fabrics for her dolls." explained Rarity about their earlier situation.
Rainbow blinked a few times before responding, "She blackmailed you?"
"Yes! All of my precious expensive fabric is now probably ruined! Ruined I tell you!" the fashionista cried out in agony and despair while shaking her friend.
"At least look at the bright side, it appears the little one has gained a good sense of style and taste, just like yours, my dear. Perhaps she is looking up to you." Knock Out shared his assumption.
"Sometimes I feel that she does these things only to annoy me." Rarity sighed, "But thank you darling, maybe you are right."
"So much drama just for this? No wonder you two got along so fast." added Sideswipe, not looking surprised at all by their reaction to a such minor problem.
"ARE YOU CALLING US DRAMATIC?!" both of them furiously snapped at him, the poor mech backed away slowly and raised his arms in defense.
At that very moment, everyone heard a distant noise coming somewhere from the forest. Both 'Bots and girls went dead silent and steady as they looked around, searching for the source.
But nothing was there.
"W-What was that?" Rarity nervously asked.
"Oh please, did you seriously got scared by a small noise? Probably, an animal nothing to be-"
Before Rainbow could even finish her sentence, the same sound appeared again, louder than before.
"-- worried about..."