• Published 24th Apr 2013
  • 7,870 Views, 501 Comments

Transformers Armada: Starscream's Requiem - Legofan



Unicron awakens, threatening Cybertron's existence. Galvatron refuses to see the truth, however, and Starscream sacrifices himself to unite the warring factions. But instead of death, Starscream is gifted with continued life in a new land.

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Chapter 15: Challenge

With Rarity’s window tightly shut behind him, Starscream gave his surroundings a cursory glance, checking for any ponies that may be out and about. Predictably, given the time of night and considerable chill, there were no ponies to be seen. Confident that there were no observers, Starscream took to the air and made his path towards Twilight’s library. It was fortunate for him that said library took the form of a massive tree; with his limited knowledge of Ponyville, it would have been otherwise unidentifiable.

He estimated that, in his current state, he’d be able to reach Canterlot before the break of dawn, and that, if his conversation with Celestia went swiftly, he’d be returning to the Hive by early morning. Even if that happened, though, without his wing, Starscream’s top speed was comparable to that of a large bird on Earth. Getting his wing back was a necessity, regardless of how things went with Celestia.

A hopeful feeling welled in Starscream as he made his way to the giant tree, silently flying over houses with their lights off and windows shut. Surely, if everyone else was sleeping, Twilight was too.

And then, just as quickly as that hope came, it was dispelled. Nearing the library, he saw light shine through the every window and pouring through the open doors to the upstairs balcony.

“That complicates things,” he muttered to himself, but approached nonetheless, landing softly before the door, then slinking over to one of the round windows beside it. His plan had simply been to enter through a window, steal back his wing, then leave, but it hinged almost entirely on Twilight and Spike being asleep, or at least upstairs, in order for it to succeed.

The window wasn’t obstructed, and he chanced a quick glance to address the situation. Everything in the room was as he remembered from earlier in the day, save the orange tint splashed on everything by a candle resting on the center table, the room’s sole light source. Also at that table sat Twilight, with her back to him and attention to the small stack of papers before her. She held a quill in hoof, but didn’t look to actually be writing anything at the moment. Spike was present as well, sitting on the bottom step of the upward staircase. His eyes were half closed and he wore a weary look. Finally, perched across the room from Starscream’s observation point was an owl. And it was looking directly at him.

Before he could survey the room more, the owl squawked alarmingly. Instantly, Starscream dove away from the window and retreated further behind the library, ensuring that he was out of view of the window.

“What is it, Owlowiscious?” he heard Twilight ask, and the owl responded with a series of hoots.

“Is somepony out there?” Spike asked, slurring his words.

Starscream heard Twilight’s hoofsteps approach the window. “Owlowiscious says that he saw something moving out front,” she explained, “but he couldn’t make anything out.”

“Probably just some animal,” commented Spike. “I wouldn’t worry about it. What I would do is go to sleep because it’s pointless sitting here waiting for Celestia to write back because she’s probably asleep already!” The dragon was nearly shouting at the end of his little outburst. After a few moments of stunned silence, he issued a quiet “Sorry.”

“No, that’s alright,” Twilight assured, her voice leaving the window, and Starscream sighed in relief. “But, it is important that Princess Celestia and I agree on what to do as soon as possible. Tell you what: another half hour, and if we don’t hear back from her by then, you can sleep in as much as you like and we’ll deal with it once you wake up. Sound fair?”

“Sure,” Spike muttered.

“Thanks, Spike,” Twilight said sweetly, and then all was silent in the library again.

Starscream waited where he was for a few minutes, but the time passed so slowly to him that it felt like he was waiting for hours. As if he were setting up an ambush, he grew anxious and impatient, and after ten minutes had passed, those feelings got the better of him. Unwilling to wait any longer to retrieve his wing, he started his trek towards Canterlot.


Sticking close to the rooftops, it took an entire minute to finally fly free of Ponyville’s limits, and the wooden houses gave way to a small forest. This forest was nothing like the one he had stopped in to get out of the freak rain storm nearly twenty days earlier. Things looked as they ought to have been: natural, green, and not foreboding. It amazed him that such vastly different spans of woods could exist in such close proximity to each other.

That thought, however, he quickly shoved out of his mind, as he had other things to worry about at the moment, foremost being to avoid detection. As he scanned about for any stray pegasi that may have happened to be in the area, he noticed that the lone cloud that had been plaguing him the entire night continued to do so. But he saw no pony accompanying it, and he ignored it as best as he could, instead considering the next issue before him: how to present himself and his case to the Princess.

One thing he realized he should have inquired of while with Twilight and her friends was what the Princess was like. Celestia was obviously someone that Twilight respected and looked up to, as she willingly took orders from her, despite their sameness of title, but that told him very little of her character. After all, Twilight respected Rainbow Dash too, but he and her weren’t exactly fond of each other. Fortunately, he had the rest of the night to ponder this new dilemma.. Perhaps, he thought, it was good that I didn’t recover my wing, else I wouldn’t have made time to consider how to approach her.

His train of thought ended there, though, as from behind him, a weary but determined battle cry sounded. Twisting, he saw Rainbow Dash rushing towards him. A faint rainbow trail followed her, originating from the plaguing cloud. Her presence there stunned him long enough for her catch up and collide with him.

“Oh no you don’t!” Dash yelled, planting a hoof on each of his legs, beginning to force him down.

Moments after she started shoving him, Starscream’s shock turned to anger. He growled menacingly, but let her continue until she drove him into the ground. Once downed, Dash stood atop him, growling at him in return and pinning him down. Or at least she would be pinning him down if Starscream’s strength wasn’t so superior to hers.

This was the final straw; her impeding of him now was her final transgression. She was now his prey, and he would toy with her like a cat before having its feast. By giving her this small victory and having her get her hopes up by feeling as if she had bested and overpowered him, her demise would only be that much sweeter.

“Where do you think you’re goin’?” Dash taunted, shoving her face right in front of his and snorting.

“Canterlot,” he spat. He noticed that Dash’s eyes were bloodshot and that there were slight bags under them. He snickered and asked, “You weren’t stalking me from that cloud all night, were you?” It would certainly explain its odd behavior.

“No,” Dash defended, “I was watching you to make sure you didn’t hurt anypony and to chase you if you tried to run away.”

Starscream smirked. “How thoughtful of you. So now that you’ve caught me, what do you intend to do?”

“Turn you in to Twilight, of course, and have her punish you as she sees fit,” Dash answered confidently, flashing a smirk of her own. Just as Starscream was wanting, she was getting confident. “Hopefully that punishment is to disassemble you,” she muttered as an afterthought.

“Is that what you would have done to me if it were up to you?”

There was no hesitation in her answer. “Yes.”

Manipulating her was too easy. “Why wait? You could end me right now. Just rip off that panel”- he nodded toward the sheet of metal taped to his chest- “and tear out all the wires underneath. Rarity even put a killswitch there to make things easier for you.” His smirk grew as Dash looked towards the taped on metal and, releasing one of his arms, tore it off, exposing the wires underneath. Dash, not knowing that the killswitch had been undone, fell for Starscream’s bait. Her hoof neared the hole in his chest, and he tensed his now free arm -not that he couldn’t have simply shaken her off before- so as to swing at Dash and ideally bash her skull in. However, at his own mention of Rarity, a new idea came over him, a way to sate his curiosity and boost Dash’s ego some more simultaneously.

He relaxed his arm. “Before you end me, Rainbow Dash,” he said pleadingly, “could you at least have the courtesy to tell me why you brought me down in the first place? It’d be a shame to die without knowing what for.”

Starscream was expecting some conceited, bogus explanation of why she was innately better and more righteous than he, and how that reason would be enough to justify her growing spite towards him, but instead, Dash recoiled, crouching defensively, and again she growled. She appeared wounded by his words.

Not having expected that reaction, Starscream couldn’t help but break character for a moment and give her a dumb and confused look. Noticing his slip up, he snapped back into his role, and hoped that Dash wouldn’t notice as well.

Dash’s expression softened some. “I…” she began, then hesitated, seemingly debating whether or not to comply. “Ugh, fine!” she growled after a few seconds, resuming her prior demeanor and pinning back down the limb that she had previously left unrestrained. “I’ll tell you, but not because you asked, but because once Rarity and Twilight hear that I’ve told you, they’ll stop yelling at me over it.

“You see, I was teaching Twilight how to fly when you showed up, and with how fast you were going, I just couldn’t help but give chase.” Dash sighed. “I’m the Fastest Flyer in Equestria, you know, so when you passed by, going nearly as fast as I can fly, I just...got nervous, and had to defend my title.”

“So, you brought me down because you were...jealous,” Starscream reiterated, voice devoid of any discernible emotion.

“Yes, I know; it’s a dumb reason!” Dash shouted, suddenly angry. “Rarity and Twilight haven’t shut up about it for the past eighteen days. They keep telling me how reckless and stupid it was and how sorry I should be, and I am, or I would be if you weren’t such a dangerous jerk in the first place!”

“Because you were jealous…” Starscream snarled and mirrored Dash’s anger. He was done playing with her. “Are you that vain!?” he bellowed, and flung Dash off of him. He shoved her into the ground beside him, and she rolled a few feet before stopping.

Dash spat out some dirt that had gotten in her mouth then made to stand again, but Starscream refused to give her that opportunity. He lunged at her and pinned her down as she had done to him, but he didn’t put all of his weight on her. Dash struggled furiously beneath him, trying to free at least one limb, but Starscream was just too massive, and not enough force was mustered to move him. After a few more seconds of fruitless struggle, Dash relented.

“You have no idea what your vanity has endangered; you didn’t even consider the consequences of your actions, did you?” Starscream said, bringing his face closer to hers and speaking in a low voice for maximum intimidation, but all he received from her was a defiant, determined glare. Backing away, he moved one leg to Dash’s neck to keep her still as he cocked his other leg back, preparing the punch that would end her.

“Twilight and Rarity were right: what you did was reckless and stupid, and now it’s going to cost you everything.”

There he was, bringing up Rarity again, the only pony he had met thus far that he’d even consider calling a friend. And here he was, about to smash the life out of one of her closest friends for the petty purpose of getting even. He hadn’t come to Equestria for his own benefit either, he reminded himself. He was there for the changelings; his actions were implicitly theirs. Rather ironically, ending Rainbow would in fact cost him everything; those few precious friends he had made, pony and changeling alike, would all be gone if he continued.

And as he considered all of this, Rainbow continued to affix him with her defiant glare, betraying no fear. Despite her impending doom and obvious tiredness, Dash did nothing. There was no struggling, no begging, no final insults; just a quiet determination that almost dared Starscream to proceed..

With a frustrated roar, Starscream drove his fist down. Dash didn’t even flinch as his leg dug into the ground directly beside her head, it stopping only when Starscream’s leg had been nearly completely buried. The ground shook slightly at the force of the impact. Reluctantly, Starscream let his weight off of Dash, and she wriggled out from under him, standing when she was free. Neither spoke for several seconds.

In the silence, Starscream finally managed to calm himself. “You’re lucky...you’re lucky that you’re a pony of significance. Otherwise, you’d have been dead in the library.”

“You’re not scary when you say things like that,” Dash retorted. “You only prove how right we are to keep you totally locked up.”

Starscream extracted his leg from the ground. He allotted a moment to wipe some dirt off of his leg, though some still clung to him after a few wipes. He paid it no mind. “Pardon me for having a lifetime of being conditioned to resorting to violence first. But you’re right, I am approaching everything wrong; we need to settle out dispute another way.” An idea began to form in his mind.

“You still wish to defend your title of ‘Fastest Flyer in Equestria’ I imagine. Tomorrow, Rarity was going to give me the opportunity to engage in activities of my choosing. How does a race sound to you?”

“I may be interested,” Dash said slowly. He suspected that she suspected him of being up to something. She wouldn’t have been wrong, but Starscream was sure that his silver tongue would be able to disarm her.

“I’m thinking...one lap: Ponyville, around Canterlot mountain, then back.” Dash began to say something, but he refused to let her get her thought out. “If I win, I claim your title and get your go-ahead to see Princess Celestia. But, if you win, in addition to promising to pacify myself, you defend your title, and you also earn the right to bestow upon yourself the title of Fastest Flyer on Cybertron.”

Rainbow, as expected, perked up and seemed to relax some. “So...you’re saying that you’re the fastest Cybertronian?”

“As my wing had been confiscated, I hadn’t thought to bring that fact up, as I would have been unable to prove my speed,” he lied.

“How fast do you fly?” she asked.

Starscream smirked. “Race me to find out.”

It only took a few seconds of mulling it over before Rainbow finally said, “Alright, it’s a deal.”

“No it’s not,” Starscream said suddenly, earning a confused glance from Dash. “You see, without my wing, I’m severely and unfairly handicapped. Return my wing to me, then we can race and put everything behind us.”

She was suddenly less enthused at the idea, but at least continued to give the idea some thought. “Fine,” she conceded after a few moments, “but I’ll only give it to you just before we race, and you’re losing it right after, got it?”

“Fair enough,” Starscream affirmed.

“We’ll start tomorrow morning at Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Someone will have to guide me there, but other than that, I am satisfied with the conditions.” He extended a hoof for shaking. “Are we in agreement?”

Dash spat on one of her hooves, then accepted the shake. “We are.”

Comments ( 68 )

OH MY GOD!, PLEASE UPDATE SOON!!!!!

This is getting good!:ajsmug: UPDATE AGAIN SOON!!!:flutterrage:

Rainbow Dash v.s. Starscream in an aeiral race? This should be good. Though, if Death Battle is to be believed, Rainbow Dash has the upper hoof.

ITS ALIVE! ITS ALIIIVVVVE!

Rainbow, please oh very please would you die in a hole? YOU BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even believe Starscream would even think of racing her at the moment!

Rainbow Dash vs Starscrem. This ought to be the race of the century. Except for the fact that Starscrem is probably just using the race as an excuse to fly to Canterlot, at which point he'll leave the course and go meet with Celestia.

Also, we I missed something:

bestow upon yourself the Fastest Flyer on Cybertron.”

Should be "the title of Fastest Flyer on Cybertron."
I take full credit for missing that.

Other than that, glad to see this back from the dead.

Write on,
Legion

Five bits says Starscream peels off from the race at an opportune time and zips to Canterlot and back.... in time to tie with Dash.

4999076 remember, this is Competent Starscream, not Useless Traitorous Lackey Starscream. This one is obviously better than the death battle iteration.

4998577>>4999021 Sorry guys, no promises on that happening, especially this week. Stupid exams. Why must they exist :twilightangry2:?


4999576 :rainbowderp:

That's a little harsh, don't you think? Sure, she's been an obstacle all this time, but at least an arrangement's been worked out for them to get past their differences, right? So she's at least being reasonable.

4999578>>4999655 Dang it man, the spoilers!

That may or may not have been a joke on my part. I'll leave you guys to ponder that.

Also, addressing Legion specifically, the error has been fixed. Thanks for pointing it out :twilightsmile:.


4999076 Agreeing with Oubliette, the Death Battle was between Dash and G1 Starscream, who did transform into an older model of airplane than Armada Starscream, meaning he'd be slower (to what degree, I'm not 100% sure, since one could argue that the model doesn't matter since it's all made of higher quality Cybertronian parts anyhow).

5000897 However, I must disagree with Oubliette that Armada Starscream is strictly better than the one in the Death Battle. Consider that Armada Starscream has no guns unless attached to a minicon (as far as I can recall, that is. Though if I'm wrong, let me know immediately). That's quite the disadvantage already. G1 Starscream is totally willing to fight dirty, whereas Armada Starscream has some sense of honor in battle, an attribute that G1 Starscream would more than readily exploit. So while Armada Starscream may be a better character, in terms of combat, if they actually engaged (meaning if G1 Starscream didn't run away...though I don't know why he would, as he actually has an advantage, and those are the only fights he fights) and Armada Starscream didn't have a minicon, G1 Starscream would actually be more likely to be victorious.

5001043 I'm saying Starscream has every right to kill her but really shouldn't since he has a mission

5000897 True, plus he has a different model compared to G1.

Dash STOP drinking on the haterad

5001209 You actually didn't say that at all before, but regardless, I agree with you.

starscream armada has no guns? tottaly false! just look

ok thats the video game but the point is that starscream is a decepticon and in every reality every decepticon is a killing machine (exept shattered glass of course) even starscream armada. the sole notion of an unarmed decepticon is like a taboo. even the most honor bound like dinobot are always armed and they must feel naked without a weapon. a lot of them even have weapons instead of limbs like shockwave.

even in his "equestrian" mode starscream should have missiles, lasers, guns, etc. unless of course twilight or the changelings took those away. but starscream of course should notice this.

and about his speed im pretty sure starscream can do this

5010044 I wasn't arguing that Armada Starscream doesn't have guns (at least none that look like a conventional firearm), but that he doesn't have any projectile weapons that he can access without minicon...at least, as far as I can remember from the show. And I'm basing this story only on the show and random stuff I make up, so that clip from the game doesn't count. (He didn't even sound right anyway).

I also wasn't suggesting that he was unarmed (insofar as his weapon is at least within rather close proximity). Even without his wing, he's still got his proton canon...if he could somehow use it. You're right, though, an unarmed Decepticon, nay, any unarmed Cybertronian is an odd sight.

As for that second video? Child's play for Starscream :rainbowdetermined2:.

5033302 The killswitch, despite its name, only disables Starscream; it doesn't actually kill him. Also consider that, prior to his waking up, the ponies had no idea of Starscream's sentiency; otherwise, some other method of reigning him in would have been implemented. But, as far as they were concerned, he was just a robot with no clear turn-off switch in case he was dangerous. Proving himself so within just minutes of actually waking up (and interacting with ponies) definitely wouldn't help in making Twilight rethink the measure, either.

Excuses for my cheap, OOC plot gimmicks aside, I'm glad that you and others have brought up how unnecessarily cruel the killswitch seems to be. It shows that you all care for Starscream and want him to succeed! You're all so nice. Just keep in mind, though, that while we know what's up about Starscream, the ponies are totally ignorant, and that's why they're being cautious.

5038690 I see; fair enough. But...how could Twilight possibly be your least favorite :twilightoops:?

5042358 Energon as a whole was just...off. It's an unfortunate follow-up to Armada, but we can't ignore the fact that it exists (and still be correct regarding the Unicron Trilogy). I hope to be remedying that somewhat in the sequel to this story, at least.

I must also agree with you on Optimus being not that stellar. He's just...boring. Having a steadfastly good character is cool and all for a short while, but at a point, not giving them moral dilemmas to figure out deprives them of character.

5044406 God I hate Energon. A while back I was on a mission to watch every episode of every Transformers series. I was so close but I just couldn't watch past like episode 10. Because of that I couldnt start watching Cybertron. I grew up on the Unicron Trilogy and I never realized just how terrible Energon really was.

5327561 Energon is not great; you're not missing anything. Cybertron is alright, but still falls way short of Armada. If you're still on the mission to watch everything (minus Energon), I'd say it can't hurt too much to watch, plus it so loosely connects to the rest of the Trilogy that you don't need to watch either to be able to follow along.

At the end of Energon, Unicron's body filled with Energon gets ignited and becomes a star that eventually collapses into a black hole. That black hole is the one that Cybertron aims to close. Other than that, there's no other connection between Armada+Energon and Cybertron.

5327752 Ive never seen every episode, and I never will, but I remember vaguely what its all about when i watched it as a kid. I also read a ton of info on the wiki. Mostly why it was terrible. Killing characters and bringing them back to life with their memories wiped being passed off as character development. Unicron getting ressurected and killed twice and yet they still didnt fill up the required episode list. Stuff like that

5327778 One of the biggest issues with Energon really is its premise of having Megatron want to revive him. Firstly, that in itself negates everything that happened in Armada except for the human/Cybertronian relations. Secondly, they already had a far more interesting premise as one of the subplots of the early episodes, that being the remiaining Decepticons trying to coexist with the Autobots. Demolisher was genuinely an interesting character until he went full mindless-drone. But alas, that would have been too boring and mature for the target demographic. Not enought explosions!

As far as characters comingback without their memories, as lazy a way of promoting new toys as it is, I'm actually kind of okay with it in Starscream's case. A fact I find amusing, as in some of my earlier comments you'll see me bash that plot device. I'm kind of okay with it now, though, for what it could have been used for. How it turned out in the series, though, was abysmal. I can elaborate on that a little more if you'd like.

5327982 God I especially hated what they did to Demolisher. I liked him so much. He was one of the better reinvented characters in the Unicron Trilogy in my opinion. Don't get me wrong I love Starscream. It's hard for me to pick favorites in anything but I can honestly say Starscream is my favorite transformer. It seemed the creators were running out of ideas and just had to make all the Decepticons that were no longer bad guys and make the inexplicably evil.

5328014 Armada really had some awesome characters. Starscream's obviously #1, but Demolisher ranks pretty high too. I didn't care for him too much at first, but once all of the Unicron and Autobot/Decepticon alliance s#!t went down, he became so much more interesting.

Is it just me, or are the Decepticons pretty much always more interesting than the Autobots?

More than just running out of ideas, if I remember correctly from the wiki, the writers were also being pressed for time. Rushed writing is never good.

5331983 I like Armada and I really warmed up to Demolisher.

Youre not the only one. The Decepticons have so many more interesting characters!

That's true. You know you have a problem when you dont even have time to proofread your titles for episodes.

Read the story so far.

Good scenes, good use of Armada!Starscream's character (one of my favourites)...

... can I hope that Alexis will appear there (I'm a fan of her and Starscream togheter)?

Vote: 10+++

5358920 A flashback or something of the like featuring her may happen, but I wouldn't expect her to make an appearance beyond that. At the very least, she will be mentioned.

5359025 Thanks for the reply.

5359118 No problem :twilightsmile:.

When will the next chapter come out?

5367964 It's currently about a thirdish of the way done...I think; can't really say for sure; I've been really bad about predicting how much fluff I can jam into a single chapter. As of late, my time has mostly been focused on studying for my finals and such, as those are obviously higher priority than writing crap fanfic. However, as of the writing this comment, I have my final final of the semester, and after that, I'll have a significantly higher amount of time to actually dedicate to writing. Hopefully I'll be able finish the chapter by the end of the year.

5368110 Thanks for replying and good luch on those finals.

5368289 I'll reply as long as I've got something meaningful to add; that's just how I work.

Thanks for the support, man.

Merry Christmas especially to Starscream.

If it were G1 Starscream before he became powerhungry, he'd use his abilities as a scientist to create some primitive robot minds that think and feel nothing but love, so that the Changlings would feed off them. He did make the combaticons from Earth Military vehicles, after all. Though there is a problem of getting the minds built in such a way that the changlings can be able to feed off the robot minds, but I think he might be able to do it. It'd probably involve studying Bombshell's cerebro-shell and how can they manipulate flesh-beings' emotional states, so the robot minds can be fed off from.

Or Shattered Glass Starscream. He's a nice guy, though a bit too worshipful of Shattered Glass Megatron. He might have doubts about creating life that is only meant to be lived off from, though.

I have doubts Armada Starscream is capable of doing stuff like that, though. Might make an attempt or two, but lack of proper materials would frustrating him.

While the lack of proper materials would frustrate G1 Starscream, he'd get over it after a whining session and begin the process of getting ready to refine the materials.

Happy New Year Lego-Lord!

5448323 A little late on my end, but happy new year to you and everyone else as well!


5426767 wait before we was power hungry? That was a thing.
And I missed it?
FUUUUUUUU!

5485782 I believe he's referring to Starscream from War for/Fall of Cybertron with that statement. I could be wrong with this assumption, though; I don't know if WFC and FoC are supposed to be precursors to G1 or not.

5486085

Actually, in certain backstories of G1, Starscream was a scientist, but Megatron offered power like a drug dealer and Starscream got hooked. According to one Transformers wiki, the Cartoon G1 Starscream was a scientist and was friends with the Autobot Skyfire.

5486649 Oh, yeah, now that you mention that, I do remember that being suggested in the cartoon. I also remember an impressive lack of being sciency by Starscream in the cartoon, though, too. But hey, the show was for kids, and all kids want are giant robots and explosions, not that silly science stuff.

5521346 My intent was not to rip-off Death Battle, though I know it's easy to assume that.

5521872 Ehhh... It's easy to do it, They make everyone fight eventually

5486649 The Autobot was Jetfire... JETFIRE!

I AM SO GOING TO SLAP THE SHIT OUT OF RAINBOW DASH SO BAD!!!!! :flutterrage:

5648355 Why so much hate for Dashie?

What have I done to her image :raritycry:?!

5622892

My bad. I don't know how I made that mistake.

looking forward to the next chapter!:pinkiehappy:

5851608 It's slowly getting there.

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