In a meeting room, Sunset Shimmer was gathered around a few of her friends, including Spitfire, Soarin, Fleetfoot, a few Wonderbolts, and a few Autobots included. All of which were sitting around a large planning table with a few glass cups.

"Remind me again, why did Nitro kill Thunderblast?" Spitfire asked, trying to comprehend the situation.

"He was enraged with the death of Mohawk. I think he's officially lost it," Sideswipe said.

"Though we can't entirely blame him though," Sunstreaker said, receiving awkward glances. "I didn't say it was right!"

"Anyways," Sunset said. "We know these Decepticons collected a ton of Energon cubes. The question is for what? What would they do with all of that besides feeding themselves, or creating a spaceship to blast off this planet?"

Everyone was in deep thought. If it was one of Megatron's cronies, there would be a ton of viable options; world takeover. World destruction? Conquest of the galaxy? It could be anything. But Megatron was not leading these Decepticons. But what was it?

"Maybe we won't have the answer right away, but maybe our list of identified Decepticons could give us a clue," Spitfire said, pulling up a new image on the monitor. A pair of mugshots flipped on one of the TV screens, revealing Shatter and Dropkick's faces. Dropkick looked as sour as ever, but Shatter looked like she was putting on the most innocent face she could.

"I remember seein' those strangers durin' the fight. Can't say I recognize em," Applejack asked, sipping some apple cider.

"Shatter and Dropkick; triple-changing mercenaries. But here's the real kicker, they work for Megatron," Spitfire explained,

"Oof," Pinkie winced. "That can't be fun."

"They serve under Megatron himself, only hunt when he orders them to. Don't let her looks fool ya, she's one bad bot you don't wanna mess with. She'll keep you talkin', but once she's loose--"

"--She'll hold you down while Dropkick bisects you in half," Bumblebee finished. "I've encountered these two more than anyone else here. But what annoys me most is they keep calling me by my former unit name."

Fluttershy blinked. "Unit name?"

"When we were first forged, some of us just had a series of numbers or unit tag. Eventually as time moved on and we got older that's when we got our names, but for the longest time, I was always referred to as B-127."

Arcee stifled a chuckle, but gave a comforting pat on his shoulder.

"Still, we know who's with them," Spitfire said. Her finger clicked on the remote, displaying more images on screen. "Barricade, I'm sure you all know him, I was told you guys had a fair share of encounters with him when Megatron--I'm sorry, Galvatron was on his quest for the Matrix," Spitfire continued, clicking away. "Blackout, big, strong, tough, but ultimately stupid. Bludgeon; this samurai has no honor but he'll slice you into sushi! Flamewar. Slashmark. Terrorcons."

All mugshots on display, big enough for them all to see. Everyone was in awe.

"Don't forget about Heatseeker and Wasp. Whatever Tempest and her cronies did, they turned them against us," Rainbow added.

"But something's still doesn't make sense. Who's Tempest?" Sunset said, spinning around in her chair. "Teletraan-2, look into Earth's database, see if you can find any records of anyone named Tempest."

Stilled images flickered on screen, looking through any records, any files, anything that would be close to anyone named Tempest Shadow.

"Over 100,000 results for Tempest."

Sunset blanked. "Okay, uh... look for Tempest, and anything human connected to it."

"Searching database." Teletraan answered. "Over 10,000 results."

"AGH!" Sunset groaned, slamming her head against the table.

Several Hours Later

Hours went by and it quickly turned to night. Everyone in the room was all spread out. Sunset, Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Bumblebee were now laying on the table. Arcee, Twilight, and Applejack were all laying on the ground while Fluttershy had flat out fallen asleep in her chair, using her arms as a pillow while keeping her head on the table.

"Ugh... how many results have gone through now?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Only 5,395," Spitfire answered.

Everyone shared a collective groan.

"Maybe we should take a break?" Rainbow offered.

"Maybe we should," Sunset agreed. She raised her head up, looking back on the screen. Still no result was found, making her head go back onto the hard table. "Maybe we should get some dinner."

"I'll page the chefs to get something cookin' for you girls," Spitfire said, hitting her pager.

Rainbow Dash moved her head to the right, looking at the sprawled Bumblebee. "How is your weight not breaking the table yet?"

"I'm pretty small, Rainbow," Bumblebee said, not looking at her and just staring off at the ceiling.

"Identification found."

Sunset and the others all turned their heads to look up. A new image appeared; a woman in her 20s, with dark purple skin. Cherry hair, a visible scar going down her eye, and a deadpan expression visible on her face.

"One result found. ID; Fizzlepop Berrytwist; also goes by the alias of Tempest Shadow. Reported missing in the year 2021."

Sunset's eyes looked closely, and a soft gasp was in her voice. "Fizzle?"

All senses around her died as images flashed before her eyes, screams of fear and terror, the growling of a metallic tiger and taunts of a Decepticon. Rockets, gunshots, explosions, all played back in her head.

"Sunset? Sunset!"

Sunset shook her head, waking back up to reality. "Huh, what?"

"Maybe that's her!" Rainbow pointed.

"Rainbow, there's dozens of people in the world named Tempest, how do we know it's actually her?"

"Come on, look at her! Her whole face just screams evil," Rainbow said, hands gesturing to her face.

"What if that's just how she naturally looks? Not every human can look as awesome as you, you know," Sideswipe pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but..." Rainbow stammered. "... Come on, how is she not suspect number one?"

"Because she went missing! And even then, I don't even recognize her," Sunset added. "Is there any information on this girl that you can recover?"

"Negative. Information regarding her personal file has been reported missing since her disappearance. No other records of her identity have been recovered."

"Okay, well, if you find anything else, please, keep some on file. Maybe now we should all take a break," Sunset said, starting to walk out of the board room.

"I think I'll join you," Twilight yawned, following after her with a stumble.

With a little more motivation to wake up, the rest of the girls kicked themselves awake and stumbled out of the board room, slowly behind Sunset. The promise of snacks made them walk a little faster though. But as they walked down, they were followed by another Autobot companion.

"Hey boss. I don't mean to tell you to do your job or anything, but I think maybe you should talk to Flareup and Blastwave now, just so they know what you look like," Wheeljack said.

Sunset stopped in her tracks. She almost forgotten that they had new cadets with them. With the tracking of Autobots departing, Decepticons freed, the amount of problems they were having in the base, the struggle to keep up with her friends, she had completely forgotten that they had new cadets here.

"Alright. Look, just send them down, I'll talk real quick, and then I really need to get some food," Sunset said.

"Got it, boss-bot," Wheeljack nodded.

As the girls walked into the cafeteria room, Sunset stood outside, waiting for the two cadets. They peered just around the corner and stopped in front of the room. Their eyes looked down, seeing the small human on the ground. Somehow a girl with fiery hair and yellow skin was not the first image that came into their heads when they were told their boss was 'Sunset Shimmer'.

"Sunset... Shimmer?" Flareup asked.

"Yes, that's me. And I take it you two are Flareup and Blastwave?"

The two cadets nodded.

"First off, hello, nice to meet you both. I'm sorry you two didn't get a proper welcome when you arrived, you can thank the Decepticons for that. Secondly, I was told you two were responsible for the Decepticons getting away. I don't want to make assumptions, but I am willing to hear your side of what Spitfire was telling me."

Flareup froze. "Oh. That. Um..."

Blastwave's eyes glared at the other cadet and a growl escaped his breath.

"Hey, don't growl at me, you didn't want them to escape either!"

"Guys," Sunset said, sternly and calmly. "What happened?"

Flareup sighed. "Okay. Look, they were getting free Decepticons, they were going to get away! I always thought if something was going wrong, you were to tell your superiors and allies, that's why I interfered."

"Yes, but Spitfire told me that they had a child used in a hostage negotiation," Sunset said, tapping her foot. "Did you not think about what would have happened if something went wrong?"

Flareup stopped. The thought had never occurred to her. She was so focused on stopping the Decepticons from escaping, she completely forgot about what they were negotiating to begin with. Truthfully and painfully, her head lowered as she spoke. "No ma'am."

Blastwave shamefully shook his head as well.

"Alright, look, you two," Sunset said, still trying to keep herself calm and collected. The two cadets looked back at her. "What you two did wasn't good. You know that, right?"

They both nodded.

"But I'm not going to say it's the worst choice of action that an Autobot has done in history. You two haven't seen what happened when Sentinel Prime came here for a visit," Sunset replied.

Blastwave gave Sunset a few hand gestures, attempting to communicate.

"I'm sorry, I... um..."

"Oh, he can't speak. His vocal processors were destroyed," Flareup explained.

Sunset hissed. "Ow. Sorry about that, I didn't know."

Blastwave just nodded and continued to make gestures to her.

"He says it's okay, and he's asking what happened when Sentinel Prime was here?"

"Ohhh... well trust me, I think it's a good thing you two weren't here for it. Just from speaking, he was causing riots in here. Everyone was getting mad, everyone wanted to slam him to the ground... poor Hotspot and Silverbolt had to keep a few prods out just to keep the Dinobots at bay," Sunset said, chuckling at the memory. "Oh and you will not believe the ruckus that went out when he personally tried to detain the Decepticons we said were okay to be free."

The two couldn't help but smile a little bit. Even though they knew what they did was bad, they were at least a little happy they didn't make the worst decision. ... Sort of.

"But look, what you two did was bad, really bad. But we're going to stop them, and we'll get that child back. I know we will. But if you two are going to work with us, you need to understand that the rules here on Earth are different than on Cybertron. You can't just make brash decisions without thinking. Tomorrow, I'll see if I can dedicate some time to teach you two a bit about Earth and show you how we do things around here. Maybe even have you two run through our combat training area just to see how well you can work on the battlefield. Okay?"

The two of them gave a quick salute.

"Yes ma'am!"

"Alright. You two are dismissed."

A quick nod, and the two wandered away. Sunset gave a soft sigh, being a leader was tough work but she was proud of how she handled the situation. Cool, calm, collective, not a--

"Oh, um, boss?"

Sunset stopped. "Yes, Flareup?"

Flareup was hesitant to speak, a look of guilt heavy on her lips. But eventually she got the courage to speak and looked to her boss. "I know what we did was wrong. But it's honestly my fault. Blastwave's innocent here, it's on me. I know what I did was wrong, but I swear I'm not going to repeat that mistake again. I swear on my spark."

And without saying another word, Flareup walked away. Sunset, truth be told, was a little astonished. While this was only the first time she met them, she did feel some faith restored in her after their talk. Her judgement was a bit clouded just from what Spitfire ranted, but talking to the new recruits did make her feel a little bit better.

No further interruptions, Sunset walked into the cafeteria where the rest of the girls were waiting for her.

"Hi girls, what's up?" A new voice said.

"Oh hey Sourrr-uhhh..." Sunset droned.

The girl that came to their base, disheveled and covered in wounds was standing before them looking as clean as a whistle. Well, it seemed like she was. Her skin wasn't covered in so much bruises, and looked as if she just stepped out from a relaxing spa. Her long pony-tailed hair was now shortened and spiked up.

And how she was dressed? Now she was sporting spiked up shoulder pads held together by a few straps that connected to a pair of shorts, a white tank top underneath.

But Sour just casually cooked like a normal evening while everyone just gave her awkward stares. "What? ... oh wait, do I have something in my teeth?"

"Noooo..." Sunset said awkwardly.

"There's something different about you, but I can't put my finger on it..." Pinkie observed. "Did you get a tattoo?"

"Oh, I already had one," Sour said, showing that same graphic she wore on her clothes which was now a permanent image on her right shoulder. "And I got one in a little special area," Sour gave a naughty wink.

"... you really have been becoming more flirty since the last time we saw you. Are we sure this isn't one of the Sirens in Sour's body?" Applejack asked.

"She can't be, silly!" Pinkie giggled.

"Don't worry girls, I gave Sour a new makeover," Rarity said, stepping out from one of the hallways. "And although I was hesitant, I think Sour pulls it off quite wonderfully."

"Maybe in a post-apocalyptic future," Rainbow muttered, jokingly.

"I heard that, Rainbow Crash," Sour snarked. But she quickly brushed it off. "Look, I just thought since we're fighting Decepticons again, I need to toughen up. And thanks to a little help from the boys in the medical ward..." She raised up the foot that was once injured, revealing a titanium boot hooked to a few straps and supports. "I can now run without any pain."

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked.

"I'm positive. Besides, the doctors told me my foot will get better in a few weeks, but until then," Sour said, putting her foot back down which made a metallic slam. "Gotta wear the new heel."

"Right..." Twilight said, unsure.

Shrugging, Sour nudged the girls to take a seat at the tables. "Come on, have a seat! Take a break, you girls look like your brains are fried. Just let Mama do the cookin', m'kay?"

Still a bit doubtful that Sour was 100% stable, Sunset took her seat next to Rainbow Dash.

"So uh, Sour, what are you cooking?"

"Sour Sweet's famous spaghetti and meatballs, cooked to perfection!" Sour sniffed the food that she was stirring in the pot. "Mmm, mmm, mmm. That's the stuff."

"Well, Sour, it's really nice of you to cook for us, but you didn't really need to," Applejack said, trying not to insult her.

"Oh pshah," Sour waved with her hand. "Look, it's no problem, I know my way around a kitchen. ... Also I had literally nothing else to do, so just deal with it."

"Well, we appreciate the thought Sour, thank you," Twilight complimented.

Sour halted in the middle of her cooking, and looked back to the group of friends. "No. Thank you."

"For what?"

Sour's mind bounced around for a little bit, but she turned her mind back to her friends with a grateful smile. "For letting me see you all again."