Various muffled noises and the sound of her deep heavy breaths appeared as her hearing slowly decided to come back in full force. She scrunched her eyes at the bright light that was sipping through her closed eyelids. Her whole body was somewhat heavy, her muscles were fairly sore, but it still felt as if she had run a hundred miles. Her fingers began to twitch as she attempted to move her body, feeling something above and underneath, a soft light cloth and mattress. A bed. It was so comfortable. It felt like a cloud, yet her heart was pushing in her chest. Questions arose in her mind. Where was she? How did she get here? Was everything just a dream?
A loud excited gasp emerged, followed by a high-pitched female voice near her, "Guys! I think she is waking up!"
Another female tone shushed her as she whispered, "Shh, lower your tone. Give her some space."
She gradually started blinking, desperately trying to open her purple eyes and see what was happening through her glasses, squinting her eyes from the brightness that greeted her first.
As soon as she fully opened her eyes, she attempted to sharpen the blurred different colored figures ahead of her. She grunted and slowly sat up in a sitting position, a sharp pain hit the side of her head, making her slightly hiss and flinch from the aching. She pressed a palm on her temple.
Right at that moment, someone shouted, "TWILIIIIIGHT!"
"Oof!" Twilight winced as Pinkie hooped on her best friend who was lying on the small medical bed, tackling her in a big hug. Two hands wrapped over her body, giving her the tightest, most breath-taking embrace she had ever received, almost squeezing the life out of her.
"Sugarcube, she's probably still sore! Let her go!" Applejack alerted and moved the party girl away Twilight.
"Oopsies." Pinkie chuckled in embarrassment, "I got a bit excited."
"Twi, ya good?" Applejack looked at the purple teenager with concern.
"I'm fine, girls. Just a little a headache is all." she gave her an assuring smile. A hit of realization occurred to her as she saw her friends, then her own hands.
She was a human. They were all human.
Her arms had bandages here and there, her legs were covered by the white bed sheet. She removed it and saw her leg was all cleaned and professionally patched up, it seemed the girls' wounds had already been treated as well, "All of that was real, huh?"
Sunset chuckled, "You are not the only one who thought it was a crazy dream." she sat on the bed next to her and also gave her a hug, but this time it was much more delicate. Twilight gladly returned the gesture out of relief, soon all of her other friends approached and carefully joined in.
"It's great to see you are alright." Fluttershy added in a calm tone when they broke the group hug.
"Thank heavens you woke up, darling." added Rarity.
Twilight looked at her friends and then at her body again, "But... how did we get back to normal?"
"Remember when we all blacked out?" responded Sunset, "The others told us we all turned back into our original selves before we could even go through the portal. I'm not entirely sure what could've been the reason for that, probably because we were all drained from the strong power, but that's only my theory."
A noise of tiny upcoming metal pair of wheels could be perceived the instant they entered the medical bay, "Twilight Sparkle!" Fixit beamed with pleasure as he noticed the element of magic was up and moved near her bed, "What a relief, you have finally awakened!"
"Hello, Fixit." the girl smiled at the mini-con, "Thanks, for patching me up."
The orange robot stared at her in confusion and glanced at her leg, "This? Oh, I'm not the one you should be thanking."
She raised her eyebrow, "Then who—" suddenly, heavy walking pedes drew close to where they were sitting and everyone's gazes fell on Ratchet.
The white-orange medic's optics went wide and made his usual grumpy face, "Yep-ep-ep!" he quickly stepped in, "All of you, get off her, she is still recovering!" he shooed the rest.
"Ratchet!" Twilight shouted his designation in joy, seeing the old doctor was in good condition, she immediately removed her sheet and got on her feet, quickly limping to him.
"Careful." Ratchet told as he kneeled and opened his hands to hold her for support.
The girl went closer to him and hugged one of his digits, "You are okay!" the medic slightly smiled at her warm hug, Twilight looked up at him with apologetic eyes, "I'm so sorry. It was all my fault. I understand if you're mad at me but I want you to know that I never meant to put you in danger. You were right, I should've listened to you. Because of me you almost--"
"It's alright, it's alright... I'm not mad at you, I never was. And why should I? After all, you saved me during our fight against Shockwave, didn't you? What is important now is that all of us are safe and alive." he gently patted her back, hoping he had managed to calm her down, "I need to apologize as well... for failing to protect you..."
"You did everything you could to keep me away from harm and warned me so many times about the consequences which I carelessly ignored." replied Twilight.
"Guess I don't need to give you the entire scolding lecture I've been planning for later." the voice of the motorcycle femme chimed in, Arcee stepped into the med bay along with the rest members of the Autobot team and smiled, "Glad you are safe, kid."
The limping girl hurried to her guardian who kneeled and embraced her, "Glad you are safe too." the female teen happily answered.
"Twilight, you are okay!" Spike ran to her owner full of joy and bounced into her open arms.
"Spike!" the girl giggled as she hugged him tight.
"I see everyone is awake." Knock Out entered, "How are you all feeling?"
"Never better!" grinned Pinkie.
"We are quite well, thank you darling." Rarity responded.
"Thank you too, girls. For watching our backs." replied Bulkhead.
Rainbow decided to ask out of curiosity, "Say, what exactly happened to Shockwave? Haven't seen him around."
"He is currently put in stasis." Optimus informed as he slowly approached the big group, "He will be transported to Cybertron in a few demi-cycles. The council will decide what to do with him afterwards. Until then, we will keep an optic on him."
"Man, I wish we could've stayed in those sick forms longer. I looked so cool!" whined the rainbow-haired girl.
"Do y'all think we will ever transform back into robots?" Applejack asked.
"From what I've heard, the small piece of Energon has been involved while the harvester was draining your magic, correct?" Ratchet required a confirmation.
"You mean when the entire place got blown up?" Rainbow awkwardly caressed the back of her neck, "Yeah sorry, everything was a blur to me during that."
Sunset involved, "It may have infected the magic in our geodes, is that what you are saying?"
"And my collar too!" Spike indicated his gold tag with a pink heart in the middle.
The old medic held his chin, "I'm not really familiar with the abilities of your magical power yet, but it could be possible, somehow the disruption got the Energon, also known as our CNA, transfused inside your Equestrian energy."
Fluttershy titled her head, "CNA?"
"Cybernucleic Acid, similar to our DNA." informed Twilight.
"So we have pony AND robot forms?! Awesome." Rainbow smirked to herself and crossed her arms.
"It does sound very likely." continued Sunset, "The one problem is we have no idea when we will get the chance to use them again."
"And how to control them." inserted the fashionista.
"Don't worry, I'm sure we will get used to them somehow." Twilight tried to reassure them, "Either if it will be the hard or the easy way, right girls?" her friends nodded in approval.
Afterwards, Pinkie popped in energetically and suggested, "I think now it's the perfect time for us to throw a party to celebrate!"
"No parties inside the base!" Ratchet warned with a strict tone.
"D'aww, you are no fun." Pinkie replied disappointingly as her hands dropped down. The rest laughed and went on chatting to each other.
Rarity soon noticed her guardian was missing and became worried. She glanced towards a few directions and saw how Knock Out distanced himself from the group and went to a different room. The fashionista decided to leave her friends as they talked and cautiously followed his steps. While organizing his tools in his personal workplace, his audials caught the sounds of small clacking heels which made him turn and look down, spotting his charge a few meters away from him, standing at the entrance, "May I come in?"
His intake curved up at her question, "Of course."
The girl observed her surroundings as she entered his private medical quarters, it was all tidied up, "It looks lovely." she complimented.
"Well, I always like to keep it nice and clean." he finished cleaning one of his medical tools and put it down, he leaned and offered his servo for her. Rarity kindly accepted his offer and climbed on his palm. Subsequently, he carefully placed her on his desk and spoke up, "I suppose you came here not only to take a peek at my workplace."
"Darling, I—" before she could continue, Knock Out lifted his clawed servo up.
"Please, allow me to explain first." he pleaded gently, the girl gave him a short nod for him to continue and listened to what was he about to say. Knock Out ex-vented, "About what you've heard earlier... during our encounter with Starscream. It was true. I was a Decepticon medic and one of Lord Megatron's servants... I didn't know how or when to tell you. I suppose part of me was afraid... of how you would think of me."
Rarity gave him a sympathetic look, "Oh, you poor deary. You shouldn't have hidden such a thing from me. Do you know how many of our close friends had to go through redemption? Many of which needed our help and convincing. And just because you were a Decepticon once doesn't mean things between us will change. In fact, I'm more than grateful and proud you've made such wise decision by your own will. It shows how much of a good spark you actually have. No matter what past you had, you are and will always be my friend, Knock Out."
The red medic stared at her in surprise due to her kind words. Soon, his optics softened and let out a soft chuckle, "I just came to a realization of how lucky I am to have someone special like you in my life. When I changed sides... things were difficult. It was quite hard for me to blend in, you know? The Autobots were a bit cautious around me, thinking I may turn my back on them any nano-klik. I did all I could to prove myself that I wanted to be part of them. Thankfully, we all became close and everything is much better than before, but... I still felt empty, like there was some sort of a missing piece." he explained, peering through his quarters, then his gaze fell on his charge as he smiled, "I made a lot of friends with time, yet I couldn't find someone who I could rely on... until now." those two last words made her eyes to widen.
Rarity beamed back at him and placed her tiny hand on one of his sharp digits, "You are going to make me cry." she giggled, trying so hard not to let a single tear fall and ruin her mascara.
Knock Out laughed along with her and picked her up in his hands to his optic level, "Now, now. No tears when I am around. Besides, they don't suit you at all."
As the other members were having a discussion, the red-yellow haired female heard her name being called by the old leader, "Sunset?"
She peeked behind her and saw Optimus approaching, "Hey, big guy." she greeted with a smile.
He kneeled beside her and politely questioned, "Would you like to accompany me outside for а moment?"
The girl blinked at his inquiry, "Uh- yeah, sure. Why not?" she answered, a small feeling of awkwardness building in her chest. He opened his servo next to her, once she sat on his hand, he placed her in between his neck cables and shoulder-pad. The girl found a way to sit down comfortably on the metal surface and held herself so as to not fall off. Optimus stood up and walked out of the main area to one of the base's long tunnels. Sunset hugged her knees, wondering where they were going and for what reason. She only hoped it wasn't anything bad.
The Prime felt her nervous shifting and gave her a calm smile, "I wanted to show you something you may take a liking to."
Sunset glanced at him, "Oh, okay. What is it exactly?"
"You shall see." the second he replied, two large doors appeared in front of them. Optimus tapped in a code for access and the two large gates slowly opened. The large Autobot leader walked outside, they had gone to the top level of the base and the girl gasped with amazement at the beautiful scenery. A wild, bright yellow flame burning in the center of the sky. The sky was like an artist's canvas, filled with skillful strokes of red, orange and yellow. The sun was gradually melting into the sky.
"Woah. I've never seen such a pretty view before." said Sunset as she relaxed a bit, not taking her eyes off the scene. Somewhat, it reminded her so much of her old home. Of her old mentor, Celestia. She remembered the times when the princess had to lower down the sun and a young curious filly stood by her side, looking at the setting warm light.
Optimus' optics landed on his charge who stared at the sun as if she was thinking of something, or rather someone. He also noticed the sunset's colors were the same as the teen's appearance, he hummed, "It is a rather stunning sight, indeed." Optimus confirmed with a tender voice. Sunset jolted back to reality as she heard him speak, realizing she had probably zoned out in her deep thoughts and memories, "Do they still hurt?" he asked.
"What? The wounds?" Sunset questioned as she peeked at her arms and legs, "Nah, I can barely feel them anymore. I'm sure they will disappear the next several days."
The Prime peered at the sun and began to speak, "I wanted to thank you, for what you did. For a moment... I was afraid we had lost you. You have proven yourself to be way more resilient than I thought. Even in those new forms, you were fighting back, no matter the outcomes." his smile fainted away as he continued, "I'm beyond ashamed of myself for letting you down. I was not able to protect you as I promised."
"Optimus, that's not true." she promptly objected, "You haven't let down anybody. You were fighting for us and trying to keep us safe, you and the entire team sacrificed your lives for us. We wanted to be part of this fight, remember? None of us knew what would happen." she sighed as her eyes directed to the warm-colored sky, "To be honest... I was really scared, but I knew you would be there to save us. Sure, we almost could've died from that accident and we got turned into giant alien robots for a short while..." she nervously chuckled, "But what's important now is that we are alright, isn't it?"
The old leader glimpsed at her, a small beam of ease expressed on his face-plate, "You are correct. While facing many difficulties during our battles, we made something strong between us. A connection unlike any other." he lifted his servo for her, Sunset took the hint and went to his hand. The girl sat down and Optimus focused on his charge, "We do not only consider ourselves as a team, young one. We are way more than that. And even though you girls are already accepted in our team, I must ask..."
"Would you like to be part of this family?"
Sunset Shimmer stared at the mighty Prime in disbelief as he asked. A warm feeling began to build inside her chest. The young teenager let out a short laugh, her sparkling cyan eyes met his neon blue optics. She smiled with delight as she answered.
"More than anything."
.
.
.
⊹ ۪ 𖥔 ˑ ִ ֗ ִ ۫ ˑ⊹ ۪ ﾟ｡⋆☾ ִ ֗ ִ ۫ ˑ｡⊹ ۪ 𖥔 ˑ ִ ֗ ִ ۫ ˑ
.
.
.
The distant light of magic floated through the early morning sky. It was strangely close to the Earth to be considered as a shooting star, it floated in waves above the forest trees. As the wisp kept on flying lower to the ground, it soon disappeared into the far part of the wild woodland.
A certain wolfcon watched the light carefully from afar. While he was leaning over a tree with crossed arms, his ears twitched the moment he heard rustling sounds behind him.
"Eyo, Steeljaw!"
The Cybertronian wolf glanced over his shoulder-pad only to see the other members of his pack approaching him, "What's takin' youse so long? Ya comin' or what?" Thunderhoof asked impatient. Steeljaw simply ignored his questions and focused his attention again in the direction where he was watching earlier.
The other Decepticons looked at each other in confusion and then their gazes turned back on him, "Uhh- ya alright there, boss?" Clampdown fearfully asked, trying to not anger the wolfcon.
Fracture curiously enquired, "What are you even staring at?"
Steeljaw finally stood up and faced them, "Dear brothers," he began stepping towards the group, the others quickly backed away as he passed through them.
"There is a brand new opportunity that awaits us."
He said with a slight satisfied smirk formed on his face-plate, the others continued to stare at him dumbfounded and just shrugged, deciding they would probably find out what he actually meant later, so they followed his steps, completely disappearing into the forest.
┊ ⋆ ┊ . ┊ ┊ ┊⋆ ┊ .┊
To be Continued...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Author's note]
Neat cliffhanger, huh?
Welp, that's it, folks!
I can officially announce that this book has finally come to an end.
But don't you worry!
There will be a second book! (I have no idea when it will be released tho)
Hopefully soon! I just need you to be patient with me.
Thanks to everyone, for all of the love, support and kindness that you gave me during the writing of this fanfic. I'm really glad how good it actually turned out.
And I'm mostly grateful that I managed to grab your attention with this crossover!
What is going to happen next?
Guess we will have to wait to find out.
See ya!