(Litwak city farmlands, January 2031, night time)
A nice looking car drove out of a drive-in theater in the city farmlands one night. But this wasn't an ordinary car, it was a transformer, a decepticon named knockout, who was a frequent guest at the drive in.
"Human horror films, always fascinating"
Knockout drove through the dark roads back to his home in the decepticon city of New Kaon, but saw that he was being followed by several black cars, which started bumping into him, knocking him off the road. In anger, he transformed into robot mode with a buzzsaw hand ready to attack
"That was on purpose. And you scratched my paint, prepare for surgery" he angrily shouted
Figures in all black emerged from the cars and fired some kind of electrical weapons at knockout, knocking him unconscious. He awoke in the morning, with a robotic suit looking over him. It was a soldier who guarded the farmlands
"Hey, con, you ok?" The soldier operating the suit asked
"I think so, I don't remember much" said knockout
He tried to transform, but his body just made a weird noise when doing so. He began to panic
"Oh no, my t cog, it's missing" knockout shouted in panic
"Calm down, we'll get a report filed. Now what exactly is a t cog?" The soldier asked
"It's what allows me to transform. And before you say anything it can't be rebuilt or replaced" knockout shouted "without it, I'm nothing"
Knockout got on his knees and screamed
(Vanellopes castle, sometime later)
Vanellope sat in the dining room alone in her kid body reading something when Ralph came to join her.
"What you reading, kid?" Ralph asked
"Drive-in movie schedule, think a night out would ease the kids' minds of our financial situation. Which movie do you think looks good?" Vanellope asked
She showed Ralph the list of movies playing that night
A week of sci fi: Star Wars the empire strikes back
James Cameron's Avatar
Aliens
Star Trek 2 the wrath of khan
"Not Star Wars, I don't want to think about what the empire has put us through right now" said Ralph
A short couple months ago, Vanellope made a stupid decision to try to overthrow the galactic empire to impress her daughter, Lucy. It didn't work and now for a full year, the family had to pay the empire retribution in taxes, to the point they lost nearly all their money, that fact wasn't known to the citizens. Worst the families businesses were under imperial control for the year, they had to have imperial banners hang from the castle til the earliest 3 days from now, and the citizens were beginning to lose faith in their rule.
"Yeah, you're right" said Vanellope "What about Avatar? Rancis is working for those soldiers from one of those games right now"
"Aren't they villains I forget" said Ralph
"Wait, they're villains? Maybe that explains the complaints I get about them being there in the farmlands" said Vanellope "Maybe avatar could be good. Be nice to do something with the kids, maybe Lucy will talk to me again"
"She'll get over what happened, in time" said Ralph
"she won't. I know her well enough she won't" said Vanellope
A battle droid walked into the room
"Your majesties, that pony twilight is insisting on a private talk with you. Lucy threw her through a wall" said the droid
"Why?" Ralph asked
"I don't know, I'm just the messenger"
Before the 2 could get up, they heard shouting at the window
"Queen Vanellope I know you're in there, answer me"
Vanellope and Ralph walked to the window to see Knockout looking angry.
"What? I'm busy" said Vanellope
"I've been robbed of something very important and those lousy cops of yours aren't doing a thing to help"
"What'd you lose?" Ralph asked
Knockout tried to transform, but his body just made a weird noise
"My t cog is missing. Without it I can't transform to vehicle mode" said Knockout
"You're not the only one who had something stolen, some weird crime wave has hit the city and the police are trying their best to solve it" said Vanellope
"You're the ruler of this city aren't you? You should be doing something about it. If lord Megatron was here he'd have his best bots on the case" said Knockout
"Well Megatron isn't here. I'll see what I can do but I have something important to attend to now go away" Vanellope shouted before shutting the window
She and Ralph prepared to leave, but were surprised when the kids' teacher, twilight, came limping in.
"That talk I wanted, it's not a suggestion, I mean it. We need to talk about your parenting"
"Not again" Vanellope whined
(Classroom)
Lucy sat at her desk, headphones over her head and typing on her phone as Vanellope and Ralph sat at twilights desk
"Detention? Wait what's detention?" Vanellope asked
"It means Lucy's in big trouble. I don't know what's gotten into her, she's such a good student and now her grades are slipping, like she doesn't care anymore. I tried to ask about her grades and she threw me through that whiteboard. Now she's here while the rest of the kids play. And she still looks uninterested" said Twilight
She used her magic to confiscate Lucy's headphones.
"No music, you're in trouble" said Twilight angrily
"Don't blame her, she's probably still angry with me. Things haven't been the same since that failed war" said Vanellope
"I still don't know what the empire did to you. Is this why Lucy's acting this way? As a teacher I need to know. And don't think about firing me again just so you don't have to answer"
"You wanna know? The empire took most of our fortune and resources that's what they did, and we won't start getting that back til November" said Ralph
"And Lucy's been having a hard time adapting to the change, a lot of royal perks we had to suspend to keep up appearances and such" said Vanellope
"Wait, you're nearly broke? Why didn't you tell me?" Twilight asked
"For one, I don't like ponies. Your species has given my daughter nothing but trouble since she made her kingdom. And you're not family either, this was a family secret" said Vanellope
"So because your broke, Lucy's just giving up? She can't just give up on school" said twilight
"If it were up to me this school would be about dealing with other games, not whatever it is you teach" said Vanellope
"And you wonder why people question your rule and parenting. I'm gonna ask that you wait in the hall while I talk to Lucy" said twilight
Ralph and Vanellope did just that.
"Lousy winged unicorn thing, why did you all rehire her?" Vanellope asked
"Because you unjustly fired her" said Ralph
"I hope Rancis is having a better time with his job.
(With Rancis)
To help support the family, Rancis had taken up a temporary job teaching others to fly as a member of the farmland protectors, soldiers from an old Avatar game who protected the farms, which were deemed important to the city. He was currently talking to a new recruit, which to his annoyance was an orange pony.
"My name is Sunny starscout, king Rancis. I am a g5 pony who hopes to mend relations with planet equestria and the Lucy empire. With the new secop operation being planned there I hope to travel to the planet and-
"I ONLY ASKED FOR YOUR NAME! And fixing relations, don't make me laugh. You lousy ponies got my daughter into the mess she's in. So you wanna fly a scorpion huh? Well the scorpion gunship is a powerful weapon, one that should-
"King Rancis, colonel Quaritch wants to speak to you" a soldier told Rancis
Rancis went to office at the top of the base, where he met a man in camo with gray hair and scars on the side of his head. This was colonel Quaritch, who was in charge of the farmland protectors.
"Your majesty, as you are aware the crime wave in the city is growing. More and more stuff is being stolen. This morning a decepticon lost his t cog" said Quaritch
"Another t cog? What is anyone gonna want a t cog for?" Rancis asked
"That's the question now is it? The thefts are getting serious, this morning a scorpion and 3 amp suits were stolen. The pilots were knocked out by something they couldn't describe. I really hate to do this considering your situation but I have to cut all flight ops for the time being, the choppers are major investments I'm sure you understand. All amp suit patrols have been cut too, we'll have to patrol on jeeps and foot. I know we hired you to fly but we can't risk you getting knocked out of the sky" said Quaritch
"I understand. I'll request more resources be diverted to the police department, get the thieves captured" said Rancis
"You know you're welcome to join these on foot patrols if you wish. Give the boys and girls some morale" said Quaritch
"I wouldn't be good in that position, colonel. I think it's best I pack it in for now. Maybe watch the house" said Rancis
"As you wish your majesty" said Quaritch
At dinner later that night, the family were discussing their current situation.
"Lucy I'm disappointed in you. You're gonna write a letter of apology to your teacher before the movie tonight" said Rancis
"Fine, whatever daddy" said Lucy
"So you quit?" Vanellope asked
"This crime wave is affecting a lot of people, and no one seems to know why. I mean what would someone want to do with a transformer t cog?" Rancis asked
"I don't know. But if things could get worse they did, the imps took control of my toy store and arcade for the year today. Any money we make now comes from whatever this castle generates in game" said Kevin
"Ugh, I can't live like this, sick of living like this, close to broke, eating disgusting instant noodles. I'm tired of living like this" Lucy complained "And it's your fault mom"
"It's honeys fault for giving me bad advice. She started all this" Vanellope argued
"It doesn't matter whose fault this is, we need to get through this somehow" said Ralph
"And we need to get the people back on our side. One more slip up and next thing we know, Taffyta is living here" said Vanellope
"Can't we just leave this dumb planet behind and stay in my place in space?" Lucy asked
"We're not abandoning our home" said Ralph
"I don't even like this home, everyone's always mean to me" said Lucy
Vanellope stirred her fork around her noodles, then came up with an idea.
"What if we stopped this crime wave? We get hands on, solve it, citizens see we're capable of this, and we have support again" said Vanellope
"Not a bad idea" said Ralph.
"And how do we do that, mom?" Kevin asked
"I haven't figured that out yet" said Vanellope