Disclaimer:

This is not a chapter.

I'm going to talk about What Could Have Been. Normally, I don't like doing this sort of thing because its actually against "da rules" of the site to post a chapter that's completely Author's Notes, but hey, other people have gotten away with worse.

So . . . what to start off with first . . .

I was going to make the "episode" names mirror universe equivalents of Transformers: Animated episodes. For example, the "premiere" was named "Transform and Rise Up" in contrast to Animated's movie, later split into a three-parter episode titled "Transform and Roll Out."

Following this trend, the next few "episodes" would have mirrored Animated's early Season 1 episodes. Likewise, they would have been called episodes and not chapters to make it more like Animated.

"Home Is Where The Ember Is" to mirror "Home Is Where The Spark Is" because in the SG world, Transformers have Embers, not Sparks. And there would have been a "Total Splashdown" in opposite to "Total Meltdown." The next episode didn't have this name

"Home Is Where The Ember Is" would have multiple subplots.

It would open with Applejack inviting Twilight out, and Twilight warning Spike not to break anything while she's gone. Then Spike would have talked to a shadow in the mirror, which would turn out to be Celestia.

Back at the Decepticon, Starscream would be attempting to establish a link with Cliffjumper's world, successfully getting a transmission so they could talk to, but not travel to the other side. Cliffjumper would have talked with G1 Optimus, and G1 Optimus and SG Megatron would have gotten acqauited. Optimus would trust Megatron because Megatron had Cliffjumper's trust, which is hard to do.

Meanwhile, Princess Chrysalis was trying to get Sideswipe to smile, with little success. Diamond Tiara and her friend Silver Spoon would have come to the base and complained about the "Blank Flank Rangers" (the Cutie Mark Crusaders) bullying them at school. Sombra would have gone with them to set the Rangers fillies straight and been blockaded by Cheerilee, who encouraged bullying behaviors. Sombra, however, pulled Tiara and Silver Spoon out of there when he saw a flying chariot approaching - because it, was of course, Queen Celestia. Cheerilee attempted to kowtow to Celestia to avoid her doing anything, but Celestia was insisting on a test of Megatron's ability and insisted.

The Blank Flank Rangers would have gone out and found a toy shield and played with it some.

Megatron would have sent out Cliffjumper and Sideswipe to investigate when the town was suddenly overtaken by a purple mist. Everypony who lived in town would have become gray, (like when they're Discorded) depressed, and motionless. Sideswipe would have asked Cliffjumper what he thought, only for Cliffjumper to succumb to the same symptoms as the townsfolk, much to Sideswipe's distress.

Meanwhile, with the Autobots, Rodimus and Grimlock would be experiencing some personal issues, establishing Grimlock as the Starscream of the Autobots. Pinkimenia would have attempted to leave, only to be interrupted by Grimlock. Grimlock explains to Pinkie that he knows what Pinkie did, leaving a note to Diamond Tiara to let the Decepticons know of the Autobots attacking Canterlot. He would have struck a deal with her that he wouldn't tell . . . if she agreed to be his plus-one to a secret meeting. The secret meeting, turns out, is hosted by the Machination, headed by Sideways. Sideways is attempting to get people together to join him in a faction that is neither Autobot or Decepticon.

Back with the Decepticons, after some experimenting, would have that Chrysalis and the Changelings' positive emotions abilities are able to cure the effects of the mist. While they would have cured the townsfolk, they wouldn't be able to cure Cliffjumper - it had to be Sideswipe. Sideswipe would have had to smile and he, Chrysalis, and the Changlinges would have all sung "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands" eventually resulting in Sideswipe smiling successfully and Cliffjumper being cured.

Then Twilight would discover the Rangers' toy shield and liberated it from them. Diamond Tiara would follow Twilight to a cave, where Twilight had salvaged Optimus Prime's remains from the river and the "toy shield" was actually Optimus' faceplate that had gotten loose. Twilight would have discovered Tiara and then hypnotize her into forgetting she saw Optimus there so Tiara couldn't tell Megatron.

Megatron would have gone into a Ponyville field where the purple mist was still was, despite being dispelled earlier. Megatron would called Celestia out and demanded a fight, which Celestia would . . . deny, saying Megatron "wasn't powerful enough" yet to face her in combat. She also would have been really creepy about it, calling him "Sweetheart" and sort of flirting with him.

"Total Splashdown"

In this episode, had it been "produced," Silver Spoon would have taken up mud wrestling, and it would have been established Sombra had a love . . . of tacky dancing.

Megatron would have found a secret holographic message showing the Fallen and entrusting Megatron would the task of finding the Cyber Planet Keys! He would have also been alive, after Megatron thought he was killed by Optronix's raid on Cybertron all those years ago. The Fallen would have ALSO mentioned that he, using the bonds of entropy shared by the both of them being ancient spirits of chaos, ripped through time and space to entrust the Decepticon Crown of Leadership to Discord (here an equivalent to the Autobot Matrix), having predicted Megatron's arrival on Equestria.

Silver Spoon would have been in a mud wrestling tournament, accompanied by Soundwave's cassettes, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, and Ravage. Silver Spoon would have breezed through it, only to find she had to fight the previous winner . . . who happened to be Rarity.

Rarity would have smacked Silver Spoon about, using moves that were illegal, but nopony would have done anything since they're afraid of Rarity attacking them. The cassettes would have started to intervene, with Laserbeak being a grumpy curmudgeon about "taking orders" from an organic. They would have failed, but . . .

Errrm . . . somehow Silver Spoon would have summoned a Cyber Key? And then beat up Rarity . . . Yeah. It's silly, I know. Part of why this fic never continued. I WANTED to make the Ponies somehow be able to summon Cyber Keys, but I could never come up with an explanation that I was really satisfied with. Burning Justice? Mutation in the Cyber PLanet Key caused by it being on Equestria? Granted ability by Sideways? (Who I'll talk more about in a minute) But anyways, this would have foreshadowed that there was a Cyber Planet Key on Equestria.

The following next "episodes" would be a mirror version of the G1 Episode "The Key to Vector Sigma."

The Decepticons' good standing would have taken a nose-dive as ponies reported aerial vehicles destroying their homes. As it turns out, Twilight found a way to get to Cybertron, found the Omega Terminus (The SG Vector Sigma) and have used it to give life to . . . the Aerialbots! In response, the Megatron and the Decepticons would have gone to Cybertron for the Terminus and make the Combaticons! A fight scene would have ensured, complete with re-using the scene where Optimus revealed Superion in the G1 Cartoon, with Twilight reacting similarly horrified the way G1 Megatron did.

And that was it for dedicated plots. Everything else is a loose collection of ideas.

The "Season 1 Finale" would have featured Megatron and Celestia duking it out at last, with Celestia getting the better of Megatron blowing a huge hole in his chest. As a bookend to the premiere where Twilight charged Megatron's insignia up until it said "100 percent" we would have counted down as the percentage on Megatron's display creeped to zero. Twilight would then reveal a sucessfully revived Optimus Prime, now sporting his Laser Optimus body from his Botcon "Invasion" toy with the G-Blade and all that fun stuff. Optimus would have had the ability to fly under his own power in his new body.

There was also the idea that Sombra would have challenged Celestia to a "game" which Celestia had a tendency for, similar to non-mirrorverse Discord. Sombra would have won the game, getting one free favor from Celestia as a reward and Celestia would have attempted to tempt him into wasting the favor on something like money or women, but Sombra remained true and had Celestia open a portal to an alternate realm . . . bringing G1 Optimus Prime into the picture! Eventually Megatron would be fixed, and then Celestia and SG Optimus would have had to contend with both heroic leaders of SG Megatron and G1 Optimus.

Something that might have happened is that Celestia would have conducted a ritual that would let her cast a spell, one-time-only, that would drive somepony utterly insane with little-to-no chance of being brought back to sanity. She would have TRIED to use it on Megatron, only for Pinkimenia to throw herself in the spell's way so Megatron could keep fighting the good fight.

Alternatively, Celestia would have found out about how Pinkimenia was slipping the Decepticons' notes in her doctor's handwriting to tip them off to various Autobot schemes and killed her for it. Alternatively alternatively, Celestia would have attempted to kill Megatron with a spell, and Pinkimenia would sacrifice herself to that, explaining to Megatron how she was the one giving the Decepticons' tips and that she knew Twilight and her friends were insane and needed to be stopped as she lay dying. Either way, while Celestia would have beaten at the end, Megatron would have still been saddened by the senseless loss.

There was also a vague idea for Nightmare Moon to appear in the S1 Finale. Nightmare Moon's backstory would have been altered into being that she raised the moon every night, but Celestia forbade from seeing what the ponies did during the night hours. One day, she snuck out and saw how ponies used the cover of night to get away with criminal acts and subsequently refused to raise the moon for Celestia the following day. Celestia sent her to the moon without a second thought. Nightmare Moon's colors would be a glittery silver coat with purple accents, while Luna's would have Luna's Season 1 Appearance with the coat and accent colors swapped around.

Celestia also would have forced Cadenza and Twilight into kissing (literally) and making up so they could both be her henchponies. In case it's not made clear, Celestia would have been a flirtatious, sadistic despot who really, almost sexually enjoyed inflicting mind-based mental agony on anypony who crossed her or displeased her. A common appearance in her more direct victims was the presence of thin black and white spirals in their eyes (as Cadenza has at the end of Transform and Rise Up, Part 3). And since I forgot to mention anywhere else, I'll go ahead and say that Celestia left Cadenza in charge while on business elsewhere, and was very disappointed to hear Cadenza lost the city to Megatron.

Twilight's backstory would have also revealed that she used to be Celestia's student, but Celestia frequently indulged in her mental torture magic on Twilight as a way to "teach" the spells to her. Eventually, Twilight got sick of it and staged a coup. It failed, and Celestia exiled her to Ponyville, with Spike assigned to Twilight as a assistant while actually serving as a spy for Celestia. Celestia would have forgiven Twilight's "transgression" when she forcefully made Twilight and Cadenza make up. There also would have been a light implication that Celestia had a sexual relationship with Twilight.

There was also a vague idea for a take on "The Transformers: The Movie" from the 1980's, which would have featured the bits about G1 and SG Optimus Prime and Celestia demolishing Megatron. But in this version, The Autobots, Decepticons, and their allies would have gone to the Castle of the Two Royal Pony sisters where the Cyber Planet Key lay, in place of the Elements of Harmony.

The "Season 2" would have featured the quest for the Cyber Planet Keys to defend against a greater threat . . . which maaay have turned out to be Unicron. I never decided on that.

It also would have more explanation of Sideways' group, the Machination. Sideways had called Pinkimenia on the telephone prior to the events of Transform and Rise Up and told her exactly what was going to happen with the Autobots and Decepticons arrived, so that when they did arrive and everything happened exactly as Sideways told Pinkimenia it would, Pinkimenia would be persuaded to join Sideways' group.

There was also - and this, I think, was the real key to the implosion of the fic - going to SG Versions of the Care Bears and the Thundercats, to provide planets for where the other Cyber Planet Keys rested. However, new experiences taught me that trying to make a crossover with more than two series involved tend to not turn out as well as one might hope, and I never came up with what other planets to use for the Keys, so that's why that never materialized. Sideways' group, the Machination, was to be a mirror universe of the Planet X Agents from Transformers Cybertron, complete with a Soundblaster to replicate Cybertron Soundwave's as Sidway's partner in crime.

As mentioned, SG Grimlock would have been the G1 Starscream to SG Rodimus, constantly attempting to usurp leadership. He would have more success than G1 Starscream usually does, though.

Also, much, much, much later, I had the vague idea for an Equestria Girls- Beast Hunters story, where everyone went into the Equestria Girls universe in search of the powerful Predaking, who was sealed away in that universe.

Also, SG Overlord, who was popularized by his appearance in James-Roberts-penned IDW comics, would have appeared. As mentioned in the A/N, he would had G1 Impactor's colors with Springer's personality - as Tfwiki puts it, "Someone you can count on to ride in, save the day, and be smug about it."

Trixie, had she appeared, would have Big Macintosh's colors and personality, while Gilda would have curlers in her hair and be named "Brenda." The Flim Flam Brothers would have pale-white coats as well.

Twilight and Optimus and a have romantic relationship. One idea, though, was that because in Friendship is Magic: Prime, Twilight's tricked and manipulated into hating Optimus as a bad guy before realizing the truth and making friends with him, so in the mirrorverse, their relationship would start off well but steadily decay until they hated each other's guts.

Color Chart:

Celestia would have Nightmare Moon's colors with a black coat, purple mane, and green snake eyes.

The Blank Flank Rangers would have Diamond Tiara's, Silver Spoon's, and Babs Seed's regular-universe colors.

Silver Spoon would have . . . Scootaloo's colors, I think? Pretty sure. She would have been orange, at least. It's been so long.

Cheerliee would have her normal coat colors, but her mane and dress would have been based of Francesca Von Karma from the Phoenix Wright series, after the Shattered Glass' tendency to randomly based characters' off various actors, famous people, and other fictional characters.

The SG Aerialbots would have G1 Constructicon colors and personalities.

In contrast, the SG Combaticons would have G1 Aerialbot colors and personalities.

Sunset Shimmer would have had Normalverse Celestia's colors.

Beast Hunters Predaking would have G1 Grimlock's colors.

Sideways would be the Transformers: Universe 2008 "War Within" Ratbat toy . . . which was, in itself, a redeco of Cybertron Sideways.

Likewise, Soundblaster would the Universe 2008 Autobot Blaster toy, which was, in itself, a redeco of Cybertroun Soundwave.

The name "Machination" was also taken from IDW comics.

However, there is good news!

The presence of a Mirror Universe in the IDW My Little Pony Comics has inspired me to work *MY* Shattered Glass Ponies into the second half of Operation: Patriotism. And I may just make a sequel to this story after I get through with that, because there's so much I wanted to do with this world that just . . . never materialized. And just updating this after all of this time (he says as he techincally releases an update) would be kind of awkward, so sequel it is!

There was also the implication, as per "Transform and Rise Up, Part 2" where Twilight and Shining Armor meet, that Twilight and Shining Armor had their own abusive, incestuous relationship that Cadenza sometimes took part in. (Free free to hate me now as a despicable human being, but that's a perfect inversion of their loving, sibling relationship on the show.)

But maaaan, she had sexually abusive relationships with two princesses and her own brother. No wonder she's crazy.