Combaticons in Equestria
"Somehow, I knew Megatron would mess up." Griped Blast Off.
Back on Earth, the Constructicons had built a trans-warp shuttle designed for quick travel into deeper depths of space, without using energy that would cripple soldiers. Astrotrain nearly blew his circuits when he heard that a transport vehicle would be replacing him, but Megatron said that it was still a prototype. Using the same technology that Skywarp uses to teleport, the shuttle would create a worm-hole to a certain location. Onslaught volunteered his team to be the first users, much to the dismay of Blast Off, who hated being inside cramped quarters. Swindle, strangely, was ecstatic, for who knows where they'll go, or how much money they can line their pockets.
However, when the shuttle was preparing for launch, the Autobots attacked the base and the shuttle, nearly shooting it out of the sky. Turns out their spy, Mirage, had secretly seen the entire thing. When Megatron ordered the shuttle to be launched, the most demented scientist ever to be sparked, Wheeljack, shot it with one of his inventions.
The shuttle's engines overloaded, and sent the wailing Combaticons into space. After a couple astro-seconds, the worm-hole closed, revealing another Earth-like planet.
The Combaticons then attempted to land their shuttle onto the planet, but it was revealed by Swindle that the landing gears were shot, giving another reason for Onslaught to crush Wheeljack into microbes.
And after their crash-landing (which tore a good-sized crash-trail into a forest) the Combaticons immediately thought they were back on Earth, but no radio from either Decepticons or Autobots sent the crew into panic. Primus knew what planet they were on, or what part of the universe they were in, if they were even in the same universe.
Onslaught, not one to lose his cool after crashing, ordered his team to split. Blast Off would recon from high altitude, and monitor any form of life. Vortex would explore and scout for energy. Brawl was ordered to cover ground and patrol the area. Swindle would try to find a civilization that would allow them to give metal for repairs. Onslaught would try and rebuild what he could of the shuttle.
And so, their adventure began.
"Aw shut it Blast Off, it could be worse." Vortex said. He didn't give a slag about whatever the whiny shuttle thought, he just wanted some fresh Energon in his veins, and no-one wanted a cranky Vortex.
"Ah, you're right. Though I doubt we'll find any source of pure Energon. We'll probably have to make our own." The shuttle transformed next to Vortex's helicopter form, dwarfing his comrade.
"That'll make Onslaught lose his mind."
"HA! That's a good one, Vortex!" That sentence came from their ground-bound comrade Brawl, who you could hear coming from halfway across a planet. His tank form rolled towards to forest, plowing down the trees in his way. Vortex found the destructive exit humorous.
"Well, there goes Brawl."
"Good riddance, I say. His treads are louder than Rumble's pile-drivers." The two Combaticons then took off, a cloud of smoke behind Blast Off and a whirlwind of air surrounding Vortex. Suddenly, a thought appeared in Vortex's databanks.
"Do you know where Swindle went?" asked the helicopter, taking off into the east, with Blast Off diving towards the south.
"No clue, but he did say that he saw a farm somewhere before we crashed."
Swindle, in his spark, was a dealer and an entrepreneur. Being a Decepticon came second when it was time for selling the treasures he 'found' (also known a stolen) for larger-than-normal prices. Unlike his counterparts Octane and Double Dealer, he respected the customer. When the customer was happy, Swindle knew that he, she or it would come back to deal more. He had clients and dealers on both sides of the war, which made him more than happy with the amount of currency coming into his banking account back on Cybertron.
But it gave him more than enough enemies on both sides. Megatron demanded that he terminated his clients after he dealt with them, and the Autobot Commander Ultra Magnus wanted his hide behind bars on some desolate moon on the far end of the galaxy. He shuddered at the thought.
Swindle came across the farm he saw, before his team crashed, in his golden Jeep form. The apples, as he scanned them, were of mediocre size. Thankfully, he knew that many humans back on Earth sold apples in massive quantities. Getting in that business, or any business that dealt trading, was something the golden mech couldn't resist. Finding a pair of large baskets, he shook the tree, and the apples came down like red rain. After loading it into the trunk of his alt-form, he drove off.
'This is too easy. Not a guard in sight.'
Swindle didn't see that he left massive hand-prints where he shook the tree, and the dusty road held his tire-tracks from when he drove off.
On another region of the planet, in the Everfree Swamps, the tank-former Brawl cursed loudly. Not only was he lost, he was stuck in some muck that glued his treads to the ground, even after he transformed. His cannons were mucked up and jammed, making his temper flare more so than normal.
"Fraggit!" Brawl, finally getting out of the muck, landed and crushed a pile of trees, much to the dismay of the Combaticon. As he rose up, his chassis revealed that he was caked in black mud and shards of wood. Brawl groaned, loudly.
'Primus, what more has this wretched planet have in store for me?'
High in the sky of the planet, Blast Off soared faster than any of his peers. One of the smoothest fliers in the Decepticon Empire, his only direct rival for elegance was the Seeker Thundercracker. Too bad Blast Off had a bigger advantage when he was in the sky. Since he was older than Thundercracker and had the alt-form of a shuttle, giving him speed and higher resistance to the pull of gravity, he had the experience and the power. His flying skills in space were rusty, however, due to the time in the Kaon Detention Center. He was improving greatly, and might be able to do more than just carry supplies and snipe for the Combaticons.
He was cruising along the stratosphere, when something odd came up on his scanners. Blast Off questioned his scanners when it showed a grouping of solid cloud, which Blast Off thought impossible, since clouds were basically weightless. He dived down to get a closer look, and got the shock of his lifetime.
Not only did the scanners show that the clouds were solid, and floating, but there was a city on top. A large, marble city. Not only that, there was a massive rainbow waterfall reaching out of a fat clump of cloud, which also had buildings poking out. Not one to leave a mystery, his optics zoomed into the city, and gasped.
Residing inside the city was pegasi. Small, flying horses that walked on the cloud like it was some sort of street. The purple and brown shuttle gawked as the pegasi continued their lives, unaware of the alien transformer staring at them. Blast Off decided that a radio would be a good idea.
/Blast Off to Onslaught. Come in, Onslaught/
/Reading, Blast Off. Are you done with your reconnaissance/
/Nope, but this planet has quite a few surprises/
/Like what/
/Have you ever seen a city built on a giant cloud with a super-size rainbow river coming out/
/Err…no/
/Would it shock you even more for me to tell you that pegasi reside on this planet/
/Flying horses/
/Yep/
/From human children fairy tales/
/Uh-huh/
/Weird. Continue your work. I'd like outside info when I'm done repairs/
Blast Off disconnected with Onslaught, and began his reconnaissance. As he was finishing up, he picked up something on his radar. Twelve flying objects coming towards him at incredible speeds, shown as green triangles on his inboard screen. Believing that Autobots were the only ones that could fly that fast, specifically the Aerialbots, Blast Off pulled out his rifle and pointed. What came to him really fascinated him.
Twelve blue pegasi soared past him, obviously avoiding his massive frame and scattering. Behind them were trials of bluish smoke erupting from their tails. He knew that they were going to rendezvous with the floating city, but he was in the way. Watching them scatter like moths around a bulb and gawking at him, he laughed as he saw how uncoordinated their flying was when they saw such a shocking sight as himself. He transformed, and blasted the creatures with hot air as he took off.
In the mountains, Vortex was busy digging up gems. At first he thought that gems would be rare to find due to his time on Earth, but his scanners revealed something else. He could blow his propeller for a few seconds and gems began to show themselves from the dust. And like a solid glowing rainbow, they came out.
"Swindle's gonna have a sparkling! There are millions of these tiny crystals!" Vortex giddied, gathering as much gems as he could into his cargo hold. He transformed with the crystals tucked inside, and began flying towards the crashed shuttle.
What he didn't see was three pairs of eyes marveling over what he did.
Onslaught came to the conclusion that being grounded for a long time was probably over the horizon. Not only was he slightly mad at Megatron for forcing his team to launch during a battle, but now he's on some uncharted planet with no outside contacts. Thank Primus he had his team, otherwise the anti-air truck would most likely snap and go a killing frenzy.
The first to arrive was Blast Off, who told him that twelve flying horses nearly ran into him, laughing as he told his story. Next was Brawl, who didn't really feel like talking. The other two Combaticons stared at their miserably messy comrade glared at them and walked off, grumbling about burning down a forest. Swindle arrived later, a smile on his face and two massive baskets full of apples. Onslaught and Blast Off tilted their heads slightly to the right before Onslaught spoke up.
"Swindle, tell me a good reason for you to bring fruit into the shuttle." Swindle responded with a joyous tune.
"Humans grow these things at a massive rate! I could sell them for a decent price."
"HA! Apples? Looks like you've lost your touch, Swindle." Vortex, with stride and pride mixed, walked into the main hanger of the shuttle. He held out a massive box, which he plopped down on a purple metal table.
"Vortex, what's in the box?" Swindle asked. He loved surprises, especially when he was involved.
"See for yourself." He opened the box, and Swindle nearly fainted.
Thousands of beautiful shards of various gems and crystals lined the box nearly to the brim. They glowed like fresh Energon just out of the factory. Onslaught and Blast Off both took a gem, and studied it. They were real and pure. Vortex leaned on the table on his right elbow, checking out his fingers in a smooth and smug fashion.
"So, Swindle, you stickin' to the fruit?" he asked. Swindle screamed; "Frag no!" and lunged for the gem-laden box. In the blink of an eye, Onslaught grabbed it before Swindle's twitching arms and his overeager ego could touch it. Turning to the left, Swindle glared at the Combaticon leader, and put his arm out, indicating; 'gimme'.
"These crystals will be used to make Energon, not for your petty sales." As Onslaught walked away, Swindle stuck his tongue out Onslaught. Vortex and Blast Off laughed. Onslaught turned to his air-travel troops, and spoke.
"All of you get some shut-eye. We've got a lot of work to do." The Combaticons then parted ways, going into separate bunkers. Swindle was nagging at Vortex about the location of the gems, but Vortex, much to the gold mech's dismay, just wouldn't crack. Brawl was already in his room, and Blast Off went into the command bridge and sat down, staring into the beautiful starry night. Onslaught continued to weld metal and wires, and being a light sleeper, he would probably work until recharge took over forcefully.
Onslaught did come to the conclusion of being here for a long time, but what he was scared was of being permanently grounded. Not that he liked his team, he did. He just wanted off planets that he never visited, let alone planets that were never even seen by another Decepticon. It would eat away at his logic circuits.
He walked over to his quarters, lied down on his bed, and thought about all the possible outcomes about being on this planet. Blast Off's surveillance of pegasi did creep into him like an unwanted visitor. Pegasi were only legends, but just a few breems ago Blast Off was nearly a target-board for the supposed 'legends'.
He shut down into recharge, and waited for tomorrow.