My Little TFW2005- Posting is Magicby LegoTFGuyChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 1Ring, ring. Ring, ring. A sleeping light blue earth pony cringed at the noise, trying to remain asleep. Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Lucky Stars then groaned in annoyance as he pried his eyes open and glanced at his saddlebags sitting next to his head, Ring, ring. Ring, ring Reluctantly, he reached his hoof into the bag and pulled out his cell phone. He flipped open the lid and answered groggily. “Hello?” “Lucky Stars?” a female voice answered. “Where the heck are you guys?” Stars rubbed his eyes sleepily. “Princess Sweet Pea, is that you?” The voice on the other end sighed. “Yes, it’s me, and for the last time, don’t call me ‘Princess’ when I’m not in my own kingdom.” The blue earth pony yawned. “Whatever. What’s up?” “What’s up is that only half of us are actually back at the hotel. Are you guys still in the building where we had that TFW2005 members meetup?” Stars thought back to the previous day. He and several other members of a Transformares fansite called TFW2005 had met up at a party in Canterlot. They had planned to have a meetup to get to know one another, then get on a train to travel to Las Pegasus for BotCon, a major Transformares convention. He recalled the party last night, and that he and some of the others had passed out from a combination of over-consumption of ice cream, cake and other goodies and staying up WAY too late. “Uh, yeah, we’re back at the building, I guess,” he finally answered. “Well, the train leaves in an hour,” Sweet Pea informed him, “So I’d advise you hurry up.” “Right oh- see yah soon,” Stars said in his British accent before hanging up. Sleepily, he sat up, only to bump his head on something. As he rubbed his head under his red and blue hair, he glanced around and realized he was under a table. A gray pony with black hair leaned over the edge of the table. His brown eyes were half closed, and his face was covered in bits of junk food. “Hey, keep it down, will yah?” he asked, annoyed. “I’m trying to sleep here.” With that, he retreated back to the top of the table. Luck Stars crawled out from under the table. Standing up, he saw the earth pony was lying on the table, using a wadded-up jacket as a makeshift pillow. Around him, the table was littered with candy wrappers and half-eaten goodies. The blue pony poked him in the back. “Bobado, get up. The train leaves in an hour, and this place is a disaster.” Bobado groaned with annoyance and reluctantly slid off the table and put on a pair of square-framed glasses. “Who else is still here?” Stars asked him. Bobado yawned. “Beats the hoof outta me.” “Some bloody help YOU are,” Lucky Stars said as he glanced around the room. He could see a few ponies, still fast asleep among the massive amounts of garbage and half-eaten food. Stars slowly approached a blue unicorn with black hair, a film reel cutie mark, and a face full of freckles. He was passed out of the floor, lying on his back, snoring softly. Stars nudged him sharply in the side. “Get off the floor, Silver Screen, unless you want to become a floor mat.” Silver Screen snorted as he awoke. “Huh…? Wha..?” Stars then tossed a broom at the unicorn. “On second thought, a broom would suit you much better than a door mat.” Silver groan as he rolled over and stood up, using his magic on the broom to sweep the junk on the floor into a pile. Satisfied, Lucky Stars searched for his next victim. An orange pegasus with a top hat suddenly popped out from under a pile of garbage, causing Stars to yelp in surprise. “Bloody hell, Sunstorm, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” Stars said angrily. The orange pony yawned and stretched. “That’s CAPTAIN Sunstorm to you, mate,” he said in his best Jack Sparrow impression. Stars facehoofed. “Just help me wake up the others.” Captain Sunstorm nodded, then glanced around the room until he spotted a green pegasus curled up on a chair. He had a black and light gray mane and a red LEGO brick for a cutie mark. The orange pegasus smiled mischievously as he crept over to the sleeping pony. His smile grew larger as he found a can of whipped cream on the floor. Lucky Stars snickered as he watched Sunstorm carefully spray a large glob of whipped cream onto the green pony’s hoof. Sunstorm was about to enact the final phase of mis master plan- tickle the green pony’s face with one of his wing feathers- when he suddenly found a whipped cream-covered hoof shoved in his face. “Seriously?” the green pony started. “If you’re gonna prank me, at least try to do it a little quieter.” Captain Sunstorm whipped the cream from his face, dismayed that his plan had backfired. “So, Brickbuild, how long have you been awake, pray tell?” Brickbuild slipped off the chair. “Since that phone rang awhile ago. I’m a light sleeper.” “Well, then you know that we need to get our plots in gear and clean this place up,” Lucky Stars said as he trotted over to the last pony, another orange pegasus with a black mane and a pencil cutie mark sleeping on a table. “Sketch, get your lazy flank off their and help us,” Stars ordered. Sketched rolled over so he was facing away from the blue earth pony. “Make me,” he mumbled. Stars was about to reply when Brickbuild walked up to the table. Plucking Sketch’s round glasses off the table, the green pony then reared up and kicked one of the legs of the folding table. His kick was well-placed; it hit the lock on the table’s leg, causing the leg to retract. The table fell over, causing Sketch to roll onto the ground. The orange pegasus shot up. “What in the hoof was that for?!” Brickbuild handed him his glasses. “Just start cleaning.” “Whatever,” Sketch mumbled, as he put on his glasses, thankful that Brickbuild had taken them off the table so that he wouldn’t risk them breaking. “Cleaning’s so flippin’ boring.” “I have Winter Wrap-Up recorded on my IPony,” Brickbuild offered. “NO!” Sketch replied simply as he hurried to find something to do. For the next few minutes, the ponies hurriedly swept, tidied, and shoved as much trash as they could in the few trashbags they had. “Hey, whose Cybertron Starscream is this?” Bobado asked, holding up a maroon action figure. “Oh, uh, that’s mine,” Lucky Stars said as he snatched up the robot toy and shoved it in his saddlebag. After what seemed like an hour (but was really closer to about ten minutes), they completed their task. “I think it looks good enough,” Captain Sunstorm said. “But it still looks terrible,” Silver Screen commented, pointing to a large pile of pizza boxes haphazardly stacked up in a corner. “Hey, some day when we’ll be rich and famous, and no one will care if we make a mess!” Sunstorm replied. Silver shrugged. “Can’t argue with that!” With that the group abandoned the building they had rented and began the trek towards their hotel. As they walked, they occasionally glanced at the busy metropolitan city that Canterlot had become over time. Cars and trucks constantly filled the wide streets. Ponies of all shapes and sizes walked up and down the sidewalks that were line with stores, shops and stalls. Police Pegasi made sure that other Pegasi didn’t perform the illegal action of flying over the streets or buildings and instead stayed above the sidewalks. At last their hotel came into view. It wasn’t the fanciest building, but the service and environment had earned it a good three and a half stars. A tall, thin alicorn with a light yellow coat and orange and pink hair was waiting outside. “There you guys are!” Sweet Pea said when the group came in earshot. “The train leaves in a half hour!” “Where are the others?” Silver Screen asked. “Still inside,” Sweet Pea replied. “And you say we girls take forever to get ready…” “Boys take a lot less time to actually get ready,” Bobado started as he walked past the alicorn, “We just put off getting ready longer than you girls.” “You can say that again,” Sweet Pea muttered as she followed them into the hotel. In the lobby they found two more ponies- one a red unicorn with orange hair done up to resemble flames and featherpen cutie mark, the other a gray pegasus with a spiky red mane, round glasses and a triangular arrow cutie mark that somewhat resembled the Avengers Logo. “Hey, Flarefire,” Brickbuild said to the unicorn. Flarefire looked up from his comic book. “Oh, uh, hi, Bricks.” “Where are the others?” Bobado asked. “Still packing up all their junk,” the pegasus, Dunce, replied, not looking up from his Marvel magazine. “Hey, who you callin’ junk?” asked an orange pegasus with a purple and mint-colored mane and wings and a circular saw cutie mark. “I wasn’t calling you junk, Buzz Surge,” Dunce replied, still not taking his eyes off his magazine. “I was referring to all that stuff you insisted on shoving into your suitcases.” “Aw, he doesn’t have THAT much stuff,” said a yellow earth pony with a white mane and a butterfly cutie mark. “Compared to YOU he does, Imago,” Dunce replied. “I still don’t see how you could fit enough stuff for such a large trip in a single suitcase.” Imago shrugged. “Hey, I just pack light.” “C’mon, guys, we can talk about our luggage on the train ride,” Sweet Pea interrupted, “That is, if we actually get there in time.” After the TFW2005 group had gathered their belongings and checked out, they again began the trek across the city of Canterlot- this time, though, their group was twice as large, making it a bit difficult to stick together on the busy sidewalks. “Hey, where’d Flarefire and Silver Screen go?” Bobado spoke up. Being the tallest, Sweet Pea focused her keen alicorn senses on locating the missing ponies. “There they are- at a veggie burger stand.” She sighed. “We SO don’t have time for this. Will someone please go get them?” She was at first pleased to see Brickbuild approaching the stand, but almost facehoofed as he started ordering his own burger. A minute later, the three colts returned, munching sloppily on ketchup-slathered veggie burgers. “Can we PLEASE get to the train station now?” Sweet Pea pleaded. “Well, I kinda wanted to see a musical performance on the other end of town that starts in a few minutes,” Sunstorm joked. “If you’re so intent on getting there so fast,” Sketch started, “Why don’t you use your alicorn powers to teleport?” “In public?” Sweet Pea replied as she continued walking in the direction of the train station. “Not a chance! It’s hard enough to not draw attention to myself the way it is!” Sketch shrugged as he and the other TFW2005 group members followed her to the edge of town. Finally, they reached the train station. Much to their relief (or at least Sweet Pea’s) the train had yet to leave. “Hey, look at that!” Imago spoke up. “We’re actually ten minutes early!” Sweet Pea rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get our tickets already.” She approached the ticket window. Behind it was a female pony with reading glasses and a calculator Cutie Mark. “Hello, we need eleven tickets to Las Pegasus, please.” The ticket mare peered over her glasses at Sweet Pea, then at the group behind her, as if making sure the request wasn’t a joke. “Alright then, hon. Eleven tickets at eight bits per pony makes your total eighty-eight bits.” “Do we get a discount for our large group?” Sunstorm asked. The ticket mare pointed to a sign reading ‘Discounts available for groups with 15+ members.’ “No,” she stated simply. “Do pegasi get discounts for flying the whole time and not actually touching the floor of the train?” Brickbuild asked. “No,” the ticket mare repeated. “Do we get discounts if we ride on the roof?” Silver Screen asked. “NO! Eighty-eight bits, take it or leave it!” the ticket mare half-shouted, drawing curious glances form other ponies in the depot. “You should’a let me do the bargaining,” Buzz Surge said as the ponies each withdrew eight bits from their saddlebags. “I don’t think even you would have gotten very far,” Flarefire said softly as he received his train ticket. “I agree,” Dunce stated, “This is a train station, not a garage sale. You can’t bargain your way out of everything.” “I still think they should offer discounts for riding on the roof,” Sliver Screen said as he started for the train. “Wouldn’t that be considered a safety hazard?” Imago questioned. Silver Screen shrugged. “I still think it’d be cool. “Well, I still think that pegasi should be able to ride at a discount if they keep flying for the whole trip and never touch the ground,” Brickbuild commented as they boarded the train. “Yeah, because you are totally physically capable of pulling that off,” Sketch said sarcastically. Brickbuild’s head lowered slightly. “It was just a thought…” “A pretty dumb one,” Sketch muttered as he took his seat. Brickbuild took a seat a few rows behind him, looking a bit dejected. Flarefire sat beside him. “Don’t mind Sketch- he’s just a little rough around the edges.” Brickbuild smiled at the unicorn. “I know. It’s just…” he threw a glance at the orange pegasus, “He reminds me of someone from my past…” Outside, the Conductor of the train (who looked a lot like the pony version of Alec Baldwin) shouted, “All aboard!” Seconds later, the train began its long voyage to Las Pegasus. Chapter 2If the TFW2005 group thought Canterlot was amazing, then Las Pegasus was downright GLORIOUS. Massive skyscrapers lined the horizon. Cars, trucks and busses zipped up and down the multi-lane highways that crisscrossed the city. Despite this, the group agreed that the best part by far had to be the food. “This shtuff ish aweshome!” Dunce said through a mouthful of veggie-burger and Prench fries. “Yeah, I can’t believe how good this stuff is for how cheap it was,” Flarefire agreed. Imago noticed Silver, Brickbuild and Flarefire were all munching on burgers. “Didn’t you guys eat before we left?” “Yeah, but that was, like, five hours ago,” Silver Screen replied. “Actually, it was more like two,” Bobado said as he cocked an eyebrow. Silver considered this as he studied his burger, which was held in midair by his magic. He then shrugged and took another bite of the sandwich. The ponies continued to roam the city, marveling at the sights. Sweet pea caught a glimpse of a large clock on a tower. “Alright, everypony, it looks like we have about two and a half hours before the convention starts, so until then we’re free to sightsee and-” “Oh my gosh, a sale on LEGOs!” In an instant, Brickbuild had disappeared inside a fairly large toy store. “Someone should probably keep an eye on him” Sweet Pea commented. “I-I wouldn’t mind,” Flarefire offered. “I mean, I’d like to pick up some LEGOs myself…” “Well, I’d rather browse a toy store than look at some boring tourist traps,” Sketch said. “I wonder what they have for Avengers figures,” Dunce murmured to himself as he started for the store. “Oh, wait for me!” Silver screen called as he started following Dunce, Sketch and Flarefire. “Well, glad that’s taken care of,” sweet Pea said. “Now, let’s see what- hey, where did Lucky Stars and Captain Sunstorm go?” Bobado, Buzz Surge and Imago glanced around, but saw no sign of the missing colts. “They’re probably gonna get themselves into trouble,” Imago commented. “If they do, I’m not talking them out of it,” Buzz Surge said. “Can we just get a move on already?” Bobado complained. “We’re burning daylight!” “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree,” Sweet Pea spoke up. “Let’s just enjoy our time here and leave those two to do… whatever it is they’re doing.” ********** Lucky Stars had always been a bit of a prankster. However, he hardly found himself in a good position to actually prank anypony. In that regard, today was very different. Not only was he in a park filled to the brim with unsuspecting ponies, but he also had a great mentor. “Alright, the first thing we do is survey the area and decide who our potential victims are,” Captain Sunstorm explained to the blue unicorn. “So, who looks like they’re vulnerable?” Lucky Stars carefully studied each pony in his sights. His constant studying of stars had giving him an acute attention to detail. Stars pointed to a brown earth pony. “He looks like he’s waiting for someone- maybe his marefriend?-and he’s half asleep.” Sunstorm nodded. “Good, good! Now, pay close attention.” The orange pegasus them reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a small, red tube. Stars cocked an eyebrow. “Dude, is that… lipstick?” Sunstorm shushed him as he whipped a bit of the red substance on his hoof. “Now, watch closely.” Sunstorm then removed his saddlebags and took to the air. He zipped through the park, eventually flying next to the half-asleep colt Stars had pointed out. The orange pegasus then returned to his blue friend. “Did you bump into him or something?” Lucky Stars questioned. Sunstorm held up his hoof- the lipstick was smeared. “Bumped him lightly, yes- right on the neck.” Lucky Stars slowly smiled as he started piecing things together. After a few minutes, the colt’s marefriend showed up. It wasn’t long before she noticed the lipstick on her coltfriend’s neck. Seconds later, the two were engaged in a fairly heated argument. From their place behind a line of thick bushed, Captain Sunstorm and Lucky Stars tried their best to refrain from bursting out laughing- that would look suspicious, after all. “Alright, let’s beat it and find us a new victim,” Sunstorm said as he held up his hoof. Stars accepted the hoofbump, realizing too late that it would result in him having lipstick smeared on his hoof as well. ********** “Hehehe, I can’t believe the amazing assortment of stuff they have here!” Brickbuild gushed as he piled box after box of LEGO sets on his back. “Dude, that giddy laugh was REALLY creepy,” Sketch said. “At least I actually LAUGH once in awhile,” Brickbuild countered as he examined a set that had obviously been bought, opened, taped back together and returned. “I wonder if I could get even more of a discount on this one…” Flarefire studied the box. “I’d say you have a pretty good chance at that.” Sketch examined the ever-growing pile of boxes on Brickbuild’s back. “Have you even considered the fact that spending all your money here means you won’t have any left for the convention?” “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve been saving up since SEPTEMER,” Brickbuild chuckled. “I got plenty a’ cash.” Sketch shook his head. “Still, I don’t see why you need to buy so many at the same ti-” “Hey guys!” Dunce said as he and Silver Screen walked up with about two and a half dozen action figures piled up on each of their backs. “You wouldn’t BELIEVE the amazing stock they have here! It’s army-builder heaven!” “Transformares section is all but cleaned out, though,” Silver screen said. “All that’s left is a few Bumblebees.” Sketch’s ears perked up. “Did they have Cyberfire Bumblebee?” Silver nodded. “Plenty of ‘em. Why?” “I... need one yet,” Sketch stated simply as he started making his way to the Transformares isle. “First time I’ve ever heard of someone who couldn’t find a Bumblebee,” Flarefire joked. “Yeah, figures the hardest Bee figure to find is the one people actually WANT,” Brickbuild replied. “Well, looks like I’m done here.” A minute later, the ponies were at the checkout counters. The mare at the cash register rolled her eyes at the sight of Brickbuild’s huge pile of LEGO boxes. “I hope you left some for the rest of the customers.” “Don’t worry, I only got one or two of each set,” Brickbuild explained as he placed the obviously-returned box on the counter. “Hey, do I get a discount for this?” The mare at the counter studied the beat-to-heck box, then glanced at a piece of paper taped to the desk. “Regulations say I can give you a 50% discount on damaged products.” “Is that 50% off the sale price?” Brickbuild inquired. “If I do that, will you go away?” “Yes.” “Then yes,” the clerk said as she began ringing up the many boxes of LEGOs. In another line, Silver Screen patiently waited behind another customer. Hearing hoofsteps behind him, he glanced behind him to see Sketch. “Hey Sketch.” Silver then noticed what Sketch was carrying. “Uh, why do you need three Cyberfire Bumblebees?” He then recalled that three was also the total number of Cyberfire Bumblebees on the pegs. “Uh, yeah, well, I’m army-building them,” Sketch explained. “I thought you said you only needed one.” “That was before I saw they had three- and were on sale.” Silver shrugged. “Fair enough.” ********** “Y’know, after the convention’s over, we should go to some of these concerts,” Bobado said as he studied the many posters plastered on the concrete wall in front of him. “I agree,” Buzz Surge replied. “I’ve always wanted to hear Wooden Toaster and the Living Tombstone in concert.” “Don’t forget Mic the Microphone!” Imago said. “We can talk about that later,” Sweet Pea said, “Right now we have to find the others and get to the convention.” A half our later, the ponies were gathered at their meeting spot- the hotel they were staying at. There they found the group that had gone action figure shopping. “Have you guys seen Lucky Stars or Captain Sunstorm anywhere?” Sweet Pea sked. “Nope,” Silver Screen replied. “We haven’t seen them since-” “Did somepony say ‘awesome’?” Captian Sunstrom said as he and Stars entered the hotel lobby. “Uh, no,” Flarefire said, “Nopony said ‘awesome’, as far as I-” “Well, somepony said my name, right?” Sunstorm asked. “Um, yes,” Sweet Pea replied. “Then you pretty much said ‘awesome’!” Sunstorm decreed overdramatically. “Hey, why do you have a big bruise on your nose?” Brickbuild asked. “He got in a fight with a drunk pony who almost knocked his hat off his head,” Lucky Stars answered. The orange pegasus adjusted his top hat. “NOPONY messes with the hat,” he muttered. “We can worry about that later,” Sweet Pea said, “Right now we have to get to the convention!” With that, the ponies set off to one of the geekiest conventions in Equestria… …unaware of how it would change their lives forever. Chapter 3BotCon. Just the very mentioning of its name is enough to make any Transformares fan giddy. And who could blame them? The idea of several days in a massive convention hall at an event that solely centers around one’s hobbies is enough to make just about any pony bursting with excitement. That’s how the TFW gang felt upon entering the convention hall the first day. Most of them suppressed the urge to break into diehard fan squealing. (Ironically, the only pony who DIDN’T get the urge to squeal like a little filly was also the only female.) “It’s… beautiful…” Flarefire said, for some reason feeling the need to state what was blatantly obvious. “Well, I dunno about you guys, but I’m going to get me some exclusive figures!” Silver Screen said as he started for the exclusives booth. “Heck yeah!” Brickbuild exclaimed. “Animated RiD Ruination, here I come!” in a flash of green, he was gone. “Get me a spot in line!” Imago shouted to the retreating pegasus as she started trotting after him. Flarefire took off after them. “Me, too! I-if you don’t mind…” Bobado’s face suddenly lit up as she saw something across the building “Oooh, a video game demonstration!” “Awesome!” Buzz Surge said as he, Dunce and Bobado hurried over to check it out. “I’m gonna check out the artist’s tables,” Sketch announced, failing to hide the uncharacteristic enthusiasm in his voice. “I’m heading to the dealer room,” Lucky Stars stated. “Sounds like a plan,” Captain Sunstorm said as he began flying alongside his ‘apprentice’. However, he soon found himself restrained by an orange aura of magical energy. “Just a second there,” Princess Sweet Pea said, her expression stern. “If you get in to ANY sort of trouble, I will PERSAONALLY see to it that you get what you deserve.” Sunstorm gulped. Few things actually succeeded in intimidating him. An angry Alicorn just so happened to be one of those few things. “G-got it…” “Good!” Sweet Pea said, her mood changing from serious to happy as she released the orange pegasus from her telekinetic grasp. Said pegasus then shot away faster than a filly runs from the smell of broccoli. Sweet Pea sighed to herself. It was about time she got a good vacation from her royal duties. “Hey, look! An Alicorn!” A voice suddenly said. In no time flat, Sweet pea was surrounded by a crowd of groveling comic book nerds. Her left eye involuntarily twitched. This was going to be harder than she thought… ********** “Exactly HOW long have we been waiting in this line?” Silver Screen complained. “Exactly ten minutes,” Brickbuild reported with a glance at a clock on the wall. “Also exactly two minutes since you last asked that same dang question.” “Seems more like ten HUNDRED minutes,” Silver murmured. “Dude, just chill out,” Imago spoke up. “We’ll be at the front of the line in no time!” “Funny, I heard that’s the exact amount of time it takes for all the exclusives to sell out,” Flarefire joked. Imago shot him a stern gaze, to which the red unicorn responded by shrinking back and his ears folding against his head. “So, which figures are you guys interested in the most?” Brickbuild asked in an attempt to de-rail the current conversation. “I’m looking forward to the Snaptrap and Axor set,” Flarefire said, glad for the change in topic. “Same here,” Imago stated “Paradron Medic,” Silver Screen said in a strange tone that prompted the others to stare at him curiously. “Uh, and Thunderclap.” “Thunderclap?” Imago started. “How can you be looking forward to THAT eye-searing G2 homage?” Brickbuild leaned close to his friends. “Honestly, I’ve seen ponies in real life with more repulsive color schemes.” Imago considered this for a moment. “Good point.” ********* “Wow. Have you ever seen anything so amazing?” Lucky Stars asked in awe. “I don’t believe I have,” Captain Sunstorm replied. The blue earth pony studied the area around him. As far as he could see, the dealer room was filled with tables and table of Transformares merchandise- all of which was for sale. Glancing around, Stars could pick out figures from literally every single Transformares cartoon to date. “Where to start…” Stars muttered to himself, before looking up to see Sunstorm already halfway to one of the tables. “Hey, wait up!” The Captain had already started browsing the figures by the time Stars caught up to him. The blue pony was about to bug him about not wandering off when he himself looked at some of the figures. “So much variety…” Stars muttered in awe. Sunstorm, meanwhile, was carefully examining the figures on the table in front of him- or so it appeared. In reality, his eyes were on the mare behind the table. Everything about her was perfect- her eyes, her mane, even her glasses looked absolutely stunning. He must have been staring too hard, because she soon noticed. “Can I help you with something?” Oh sweet Celestia, even her voice is perfect. Leaning carefully on the edge of the table, Sunstorm turned up his charm. “You wouldn’t happen to have a figure of you, would yah? Now THAT I would buy.” The mare’s gaze changed to one of annoyance. She’d dealt with this kind of crap before, and knew exactly how to handle it. “No, I don’t,” she replied before pulling a model firetruck from nearby on her table. “But I DO have this great condition RiD Optimus Prime. The missile gimmick works GREAT- here, let me give you a demonstration…” With that, she pushed a button on the back of the fire truck’s ladder. Four guns popped out of the ladder, and each shot a maroon plastic missile- strait at Sunstorm’s face. “Ow! Ow! Ow! OW!” The orange pegasus cried as the plastic projectiles bounced off his mug and pattered onto the table. “Hey, don’t you ever read the instructions?! ‘Do not aim at eyes or face!’” With that, he stormed off. The mare smiled in satisfaction before noticing that the pegasus’ blue friend was still standing by the table, staring at her in surprise. “You gonna buy something or not?” she prompted. Lucky Stars walked over to the front of the table and scooped up the four maroon missiles. “I’ll take that Optimus for the sole reason of annoying my friend.” The mare smiled again. “And just for that, I’ll give you a 50% off discount.” ********** A massive mechanical monster stomped around an even bigger metal city. The robots that inhabited the city tried desperately to stop the rampaging beast to no avail. One of the flying vehicles directing the monster flew close to the ground, blasting any and all of its enemies into oblivion. It then morphed into a brown and purple quadruped robot. A gun extended out of its shoulder and began blasting away at a large enemy base in front of it. “Abominus, take out that outpost!” it shouted to the monster. In reply, the metal behemoth aimed it hand-held blaster at the walls of the base and blasted a sizeable hole through it, allowing his fellow Decepticlops access into the Autotrot outpost. The monster’s ‘commander’, whose name was Blastoff, made his way to the hole. Once inside, he set a grenade on a stack of ammo boxes. That, combined with Abominus’s continuing onslaught, soon brought the walls of the base tumbling down. “Alright!” Bobado said as he watched the building fall. “This is awesome!” “Man, if the video game demo is this good,” Buzz Surge started, “I can’t wait to play the whole thing!” “Transformares Animated: The Great War 2,” Dunce read from a sign about the game. “Release date: August 21.” “Well, I guess we don’t have to wait TOO much longer,” Surge said as he returned his attention to the gray earth pony playing the game demo. “Although you could probably wait Bobado- seems like you’re perfectly content with just the demo!” “Huh?” Bobado replied, not once taking his brown eyes off the screen. “Oh, yeah, sure.” Buzz Surge rolled his eyes. As he did so, he caught a glace of a familiar orange pegasus. “Oh, hey, Sketch!” “Hello,” Sketch replied flatly. “Find anything interesting?” Surge asked. “Well, I got some pretty cool prints,” Sketch started, “And a sketch of Animated Tarantulas made by Derrick Wyatt.” “Really?” Surge exclaimed. “Man, that is so cool!” The orange pegasus nodded before looking around Surge to the video game demo. “Bobado’s STILL playing that thing?” Surge chuckled. “Yeah, but who could blame him? You get to play as Blastoff and order Abominus around!” Sketch’s eyes widened slightly as he watched the game. “Wow, those graphics are amazing!” “I thought so myself,” a new, feminine voice said. The two pegasi turned to the newcomer. She was a thin unicorn mare with a yellow coat, orange hair and green eyes. It was all so familiar, and her voice… Sketch cocked an eyebrow. “Sweet Pea?” The unicorn shushed him. “Call me Honeybuzz,” she whispered as she pointed to her cutie mark- a bee. “But yes, it’s me. I had to use a transformation spell so ponies wouldn’t recognize me, and stop crowding around me so much.” Sketch and Surge nodded in understanding. “So, what were you guys doing?” ‘Honeybuzz’ asked. “Oh, we were just waiting for Bobado to finish up before moving on,” Surge explained. “I doubt he’ll take much longer.” ******** “I still don’t get it,” Buzz Surge said later that night after the convention had ended for the day. “How does a pony play the same level of a video game for three straight hours?!” Bobado shrugged as he and the rest of the TFW gang walked slowly to their hotel, tired from a day full of so much, “Epic Transformares epicness!” as Brickbuild had put it. After examining their purchases in their hotel rooms (a process that ranged from five minutes to a half hour depending on what pony we’re talking about), the TFW gang settled down for the night, eager for the day ahead of them…. Unaware how it would change their lives forever. ********** It had been another normal convention day for everypony, filled with action figure shopping, art trading, video game demonstrations, and presentation attending. But now most of the convention goers had gathered in one spot for a major event- the costume contest. Along one wall was about three dozen ponies wearing very well-made costumes of robots- and even some organic characters- spanning all generations of Transformares. “Wow, there’s so many amazing costumes,” Honeybuzz said, “I don’t think I can even pick a favorite!” “Hey, look at the bright side,” Brickbuild replied, “At least not having one favorite means you don’t have to be disappointed if they don’t win!” Honeybuzz laughed at this. “Good point.” “I dunno,” Flarefire spoke up, “I-I think the one dressed as Armada Hot Shot has a pretty good chance.” Brickbuild nodded. “This is true.” A female announcer then took to the stage. After clearing her throat, she began speaking into the microphone. “Fillies and gentlecolts, welcome to this year’s BotCon costume contest!” The crowd went wild with cheering and clapping. When they had settled down, the announcer continued. “This year, we have some… how shall I say? INTERESTING surprises,” she added. Honeybuzz tilted her head slightly. Something wasn’t right about that announcer. Her voice, toward the end, almost sounded… sinister. The announcer the proceeded to laugh evilly as a green glow enveloped her. She grew taller an lankier, her coat changing from blue to a charcoal black. Her legs were full of holes, giving them the look of Swiss cheese. Her hair became blue and stringy, a few strands falling over her green eyes. Sharp fangs smiled wickedly at the crowd. Ponies screamed in horror and gaped in awe as Queen Chrysalis stood before them. Suddenly, half of the cosplayers were enveloped in a similar green glow, revealing themselves to be changelings. Various ponies in the crowd also revealed themselves to be shape-shifters. “We gotta get out of here!” Honeybuzz said as she and the rest of the TFW gang bolted for the door. However, Imago suddenly jumped in their path. “Imago,” Honeybuzz started, “What are you-” Realization struck her like a ton of bricks. “Oh, no…” Imago smiled wickedly as he, too shed his disguise, revealing himself to be a Changeling. “Surprise!” he exclaimed with an evil cackle. Soon, a perimeter of Changelings had been created around the convention-goers to be sure nopony attempted and escape. “Now I’m sure you’re all wondering why we’re here,” Chrysalis hissed. “And I suppose you deserve to know, seeing how we crashed you geek convention.” The Changeling queen began to pace up and down the stage as she spoke. “You see, after my armies were forced out of Canterlot, I got to thinking, ‘What went wrong?’ Soon the answer hit me- I had allowed those who could stop me to get too close. With that in mind, I slipped some of my changelings in the building site for this theme park that was to be opened tomorrow.” She extended a hoof to a window, where a sign that read “Coming Soon- Transformares: the Theme Park” was visible. “They built a little device there that , in a matter of seconds, will seal off the city! Soon, Las Pegasus will be OURS!” She and her changeling subjects then launched into another round of evil laughter. The worried crowd of ponies watched out the window as a mammoth transparent green forcefield overcame the sky and touched down at the edge of the city limits, sealing off Las Pegasus from all traffic- inside and out.
Chapter 1Ring, ring. Ring, ring. A sleeping light blue earth pony cringed at the noise, trying to remain asleep. Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Lucky Stars then groaned in annoyance as he pried his eyes open and glanced at his saddlebags sitting next to his head, Ring, ring. Ring, ring Reluctantly, he reached his hoof into the bag and pulled out his cell phone. He flipped open the lid and answered groggily. “Hello?” “Lucky Stars?” a female voice answered. “Where the heck are you guys?” Stars rubbed his eyes sleepily. “Princess Sweet Pea, is that you?” The voice on the other end sighed. “Yes, it’s me, and for the last time, don’t call me ‘Princess’ when I’m not in my own kingdom.” The blue earth pony yawned. “Whatever. What’s up?” “What’s up is that only half of us are actually back at the hotel. Are you guys still in the building where we had that TFW2005 members meetup?” Stars thought back to the previous day. He and several other members of a Transformares fansite called TFW2005 had met up at a party in Canterlot. They had planned to have a meetup to get to know one another, then get on a train to travel to Las Pegasus for BotCon, a major Transformares convention. He recalled the party last night, and that he and some of the others had passed out from a combination of over-consumption of ice cream, cake and other goodies and staying up WAY too late. “Uh, yeah, we’re back at the building, I guess,” he finally answered. “Well, the train leaves in an hour,” Sweet Pea informed him, “So I’d advise you hurry up.” “Right oh- see yah soon,” Stars said in his British accent before hanging up. Sleepily, he sat up, only to bump his head on something. As he rubbed his head under his red and blue hair, he glanced around and realized he was under a table. A gray pony with black hair leaned over the edge of the table. His brown eyes were half closed, and his face was covered in bits of junk food. “Hey, keep it down, will yah?” he asked, annoyed. “I’m trying to sleep here.” With that, he retreated back to the top of the table. Luck Stars crawled out from under the table. Standing up, he saw the earth pony was lying on the table, using a wadded-up jacket as a makeshift pillow. Around him, the table was littered with candy wrappers and half-eaten goodies. The blue pony poked him in the back. “Bobado, get up. The train leaves in an hour, and this place is a disaster.” Bobado groaned with annoyance and reluctantly slid off the table and put on a pair of square-framed glasses. “Who else is still here?” Stars asked him. Bobado yawned. “Beats the hoof outta me.” “Some bloody help YOU are,” Lucky Stars said as he glanced around the room. He could see a few ponies, still fast asleep among the massive amounts of garbage and half-eaten food. Stars slowly approached a blue unicorn with black hair, a film reel cutie mark, and a face full of freckles. He was passed out of the floor, lying on his back, snoring softly. Stars nudged him sharply in the side. “Get off the floor, Silver Screen, unless you want to become a floor mat.” Silver Screen snorted as he awoke. “Huh…? Wha..?” Stars then tossed a broom at the unicorn. “On second thought, a broom would suit you much better than a door mat.” Silver groan as he rolled over and stood up, using his magic on the broom to sweep the junk on the floor into a pile. Satisfied, Lucky Stars searched for his next victim. An orange pegasus with a top hat suddenly popped out from under a pile of garbage, causing Stars to yelp in surprise. “Bloody hell, Sunstorm, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” Stars said angrily. The orange pony yawned and stretched. “That’s CAPTAIN Sunstorm to you, mate,” he said in his best Jack Sparrow impression. Stars facehoofed. “Just help me wake up the others.” Captain Sunstorm nodded, then glanced around the room until he spotted a green pegasus curled up on a chair. He had a black and light gray mane and a red LEGO brick for a cutie mark. The orange pegasus smiled mischievously as he crept over to the sleeping pony. His smile grew larger as he found a can of whipped cream on the floor. Lucky Stars snickered as he watched Sunstorm carefully spray a large glob of whipped cream onto the green pony’s hoof. Sunstorm was about to enact the final phase of mis master plan- tickle the green pony’s face with one of his wing feathers- when he suddenly found a whipped cream-covered hoof shoved in his face. “Seriously?” the green pony started. “If you’re gonna prank me, at least try to do it a little quieter.” Captain Sunstorm whipped the cream from his face, dismayed that his plan had backfired. “So, Brickbuild, how long have you been awake, pray tell?” Brickbuild slipped off the chair. “Since that phone rang awhile ago. I’m a light sleeper.” “Well, then you know that we need to get our plots in gear and clean this place up,” Lucky Stars said as he trotted over to the last pony, another orange pegasus with a black mane and a pencil cutie mark sleeping on a table. “Sketch, get your lazy flank off their and help us,” Stars ordered. Sketched rolled over so he was facing away from the blue earth pony. “Make me,” he mumbled. Stars was about to reply when Brickbuild walked up to the table. Plucking Sketch’s round glasses off the table, the green pony then reared up and kicked one of the legs of the folding table. His kick was well-placed; it hit the lock on the table’s leg, causing the leg to retract. The table fell over, causing Sketch to roll onto the ground. The orange pegasus shot up. “What in the hoof was that for?!” Brickbuild handed him his glasses. “Just start cleaning.” “Whatever,” Sketch mumbled, as he put on his glasses, thankful that Brickbuild had taken them off the table so that he wouldn’t risk them breaking. “Cleaning’s so flippin’ boring.” “I have Winter Wrap-Up recorded on my IPony,” Brickbuild offered. “NO!” Sketch replied simply as he hurried to find something to do. For the next few minutes, the ponies hurriedly swept, tidied, and shoved as much trash as they could in the few trashbags they had. “Hey, whose Cybertron Starscream is this?” Bobado asked, holding up a maroon action figure. “Oh, uh, that’s mine,” Lucky Stars said as he snatched up the robot toy and shoved it in his saddlebag. After what seemed like an hour (but was really closer to about ten minutes), they completed their task. “I think it looks good enough,” Captain Sunstorm said. “But it still looks terrible,” Silver Screen commented, pointing to a large pile of pizza boxes haphazardly stacked up in a corner. “Hey, some day when we’ll be rich and famous, and no one will care if we make a mess!” Sunstorm replied. Silver shrugged. “Can’t argue with that!” With that the group abandoned the building they had rented and began the trek towards their hotel. As they walked, they occasionally glanced at the busy metropolitan city that Canterlot had become over time. Cars and trucks constantly filled the wide streets. Ponies of all shapes and sizes walked up and down the sidewalks that were line with stores, shops and stalls. Police Pegasi made sure that other Pegasi didn’t perform the illegal action of flying over the streets or buildings and instead stayed above the sidewalks. At last their hotel came into view. It wasn’t the fanciest building, but the service and environment had earned it a good three and a half stars. A tall, thin alicorn with a light yellow coat and orange and pink hair was waiting outside. “There you guys are!” Sweet Pea said when the group came in earshot. “The train leaves in a half hour!” “Where are the others?” Silver Screen asked. “Still inside,” Sweet Pea replied. “And you say we girls take forever to get ready…” “Boys take a lot less time to actually get ready,” Bobado started as he walked past the alicorn, “We just put off getting ready longer than you girls.” “You can say that again,” Sweet Pea muttered as she followed them into the hotel. In the lobby they found two more ponies- one a red unicorn with orange hair done up to resemble flames and featherpen cutie mark, the other a gray pegasus with a spiky red mane, round glasses and a triangular arrow cutie mark that somewhat resembled the Avengers Logo. “Hey, Flarefire,” Brickbuild said to the unicorn. Flarefire looked up from his comic book. “Oh, uh, hi, Bricks.” “Where are the others?” Bobado asked. “Still packing up all their junk,” the pegasus, Dunce, replied, not looking up from his Marvel magazine. “Hey, who you callin’ junk?” asked an orange pegasus with a purple and mint-colored mane and wings and a circular saw cutie mark. “I wasn’t calling you junk, Buzz Surge,” Dunce replied, still not taking his eyes off his magazine. “I was referring to all that stuff you insisted on shoving into your suitcases.” “Aw, he doesn’t have THAT much stuff,” said a yellow earth pony with a white mane and a butterfly cutie mark. “Compared to YOU he does, Imago,” Dunce replied. “I still don’t see how you could fit enough stuff for such a large trip in a single suitcase.” Imago shrugged. “Hey, I just pack light.” “C’mon, guys, we can talk about our luggage on the train ride,” Sweet Pea interrupted, “That is, if we actually get there in time.” After the TFW2005 group had gathered their belongings and checked out, they again began the trek across the city of Canterlot- this time, though, their group was twice as large, making it a bit difficult to stick together on the busy sidewalks. “Hey, where’d Flarefire and Silver Screen go?” Bobado spoke up. Being the tallest, Sweet Pea focused her keen alicorn senses on locating the missing ponies. “There they are- at a veggie burger stand.” She sighed. “We SO don’t have time for this. Will someone please go get them?” She was at first pleased to see Brickbuild approaching the stand, but almost facehoofed as he started ordering his own burger. A minute later, the three colts returned, munching sloppily on ketchup-slathered veggie burgers. “Can we PLEASE get to the train station now?” Sweet Pea pleaded. “Well, I kinda wanted to see a musical performance on the other end of town that starts in a few minutes,” Sunstorm joked. “If you’re so intent on getting there so fast,” Sketch started, “Why don’t you use your alicorn powers to teleport?” “In public?” Sweet Pea replied as she continued walking in the direction of the train station. “Not a chance! It’s hard enough to not draw attention to myself the way it is!” Sketch shrugged as he and the other TFW2005 group members followed her to the edge of town. Finally, they reached the train station. Much to their relief (or at least Sweet Pea’s) the train had yet to leave. “Hey, look at that!” Imago spoke up. “We’re actually ten minutes early!” Sweet Pea rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get our tickets already.” She approached the ticket window. Behind it was a female pony with reading glasses and a calculator Cutie Mark. “Hello, we need eleven tickets to Las Pegasus, please.” The ticket mare peered over her glasses at Sweet Pea, then at the group behind her, as if making sure the request wasn’t a joke. “Alright then, hon. Eleven tickets at eight bits per pony makes your total eighty-eight bits.” “Do we get a discount for our large group?” Sunstorm asked. The ticket mare pointed to a sign reading ‘Discounts available for groups with 15+ members.’ “No,” she stated simply. “Do pegasi get discounts for flying the whole time and not actually touching the floor of the train?” Brickbuild asked. “No,” the ticket mare repeated. “Do we get discounts if we ride on the roof?” Silver Screen asked. “NO! Eighty-eight bits, take it or leave it!” the ticket mare half-shouted, drawing curious glances form other ponies in the depot. “You should’a let me do the bargaining,” Buzz Surge said as the ponies each withdrew eight bits from their saddlebags. “I don’t think even you would have gotten very far,” Flarefire said softly as he received his train ticket. “I agree,” Dunce stated, “This is a train station, not a garage sale. You can’t bargain your way out of everything.” “I still think they should offer discounts for riding on the roof,” Sliver Screen said as he started for the train. “Wouldn’t that be considered a safety hazard?” Imago questioned. Silver Screen shrugged. “I still think it’d be cool. “Well, I still think that pegasi should be able to ride at a discount if they keep flying for the whole trip and never touch the ground,” Brickbuild commented as they boarded the train. “Yeah, because you are totally physically capable of pulling that off,” Sketch said sarcastically. Brickbuild’s head lowered slightly. “It was just a thought…” “A pretty dumb one,” Sketch muttered as he took his seat. Brickbuild took a seat a few rows behind him, looking a bit dejected. Flarefire sat beside him. “Don’t mind Sketch- he’s just a little rough around the edges.” Brickbuild smiled at the unicorn. “I know. It’s just…” he threw a glance at the orange pegasus, “He reminds me of someone from my past…” Outside, the Conductor of the train (who looked a lot like the pony version of Alec Baldwin) shouted, “All aboard!” Seconds later, the train began its long voyage to Las Pegasus.
Chapter 2If the TFW2005 group thought Canterlot was amazing, then Las Pegasus was downright GLORIOUS. Massive skyscrapers lined the horizon. Cars, trucks and busses zipped up and down the multi-lane highways that crisscrossed the city. Despite this, the group agreed that the best part by far had to be the food. “This shtuff ish aweshome!” Dunce said through a mouthful of veggie-burger and Prench fries. “Yeah, I can’t believe how good this stuff is for how cheap it was,” Flarefire agreed. Imago noticed Silver, Brickbuild and Flarefire were all munching on burgers. “Didn’t you guys eat before we left?” “Yeah, but that was, like, five hours ago,” Silver Screen replied. “Actually, it was more like two,” Bobado said as he cocked an eyebrow. Silver considered this as he studied his burger, which was held in midair by his magic. He then shrugged and took another bite of the sandwich. The ponies continued to roam the city, marveling at the sights. Sweet pea caught a glimpse of a large clock on a tower. “Alright, everypony, it looks like we have about two and a half hours before the convention starts, so until then we’re free to sightsee and-” “Oh my gosh, a sale on LEGOs!” In an instant, Brickbuild had disappeared inside a fairly large toy store. “Someone should probably keep an eye on him” Sweet Pea commented. “I-I wouldn’t mind,” Flarefire offered. “I mean, I’d like to pick up some LEGOs myself…” “Well, I’d rather browse a toy store than look at some boring tourist traps,” Sketch said. “I wonder what they have for Avengers figures,” Dunce murmured to himself as he started for the store. “Oh, wait for me!” Silver screen called as he started following Dunce, Sketch and Flarefire. “Well, glad that’s taken care of,” sweet Pea said. “Now, let’s see what- hey, where did Lucky Stars and Captain Sunstorm go?” Bobado, Buzz Surge and Imago glanced around, but saw no sign of the missing colts. “They’re probably gonna get themselves into trouble,” Imago commented. “If they do, I’m not talking them out of it,” Buzz Surge said. “Can we just get a move on already?” Bobado complained. “We’re burning daylight!” “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree,” Sweet Pea spoke up. “Let’s just enjoy our time here and leave those two to do… whatever it is they’re doing.” ********** Lucky Stars had always been a bit of a prankster. However, he hardly found himself in a good position to actually prank anypony. In that regard, today was very different. Not only was he in a park filled to the brim with unsuspecting ponies, but he also had a great mentor. “Alright, the first thing we do is survey the area and decide who our potential victims are,” Captain Sunstorm explained to the blue unicorn. “So, who looks like they’re vulnerable?” Lucky Stars carefully studied each pony in his sights. His constant studying of stars had giving him an acute attention to detail. Stars pointed to a brown earth pony. “He looks like he’s waiting for someone- maybe his marefriend?-and he’s half asleep.” Sunstorm nodded. “Good, good! Now, pay close attention.” The orange pegasus them reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a small, red tube. Stars cocked an eyebrow. “Dude, is that… lipstick?” Sunstorm shushed him as he whipped a bit of the red substance on his hoof. “Now, watch closely.” Sunstorm then removed his saddlebags and took to the air. He zipped through the park, eventually flying next to the half-asleep colt Stars had pointed out. The orange pegasus then returned to his blue friend. “Did you bump into him or something?” Lucky Stars questioned. Sunstorm held up his hoof- the lipstick was smeared. “Bumped him lightly, yes- right on the neck.” Lucky Stars slowly smiled as he started piecing things together. After a few minutes, the colt’s marefriend showed up. It wasn’t long before she noticed the lipstick on her coltfriend’s neck. Seconds later, the two were engaged in a fairly heated argument. From their place behind a line of thick bushed, Captain Sunstorm and Lucky Stars tried their best to refrain from bursting out laughing- that would look suspicious, after all. “Alright, let’s beat it and find us a new victim,” Sunstorm said as he held up his hoof. Stars accepted the hoofbump, realizing too late that it would result in him having lipstick smeared on his hoof as well. ********** “Hehehe, I can’t believe the amazing assortment of stuff they have here!” Brickbuild gushed as he piled box after box of LEGO sets on his back. “Dude, that giddy laugh was REALLY creepy,” Sketch said. “At least I actually LAUGH once in awhile,” Brickbuild countered as he examined a set that had obviously been bought, opened, taped back together and returned. “I wonder if I could get even more of a discount on this one…” Flarefire studied the box. “I’d say you have a pretty good chance at that.” Sketch examined the ever-growing pile of boxes on Brickbuild’s back. “Have you even considered the fact that spending all your money here means you won’t have any left for the convention?” “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve been saving up since SEPTEMER,” Brickbuild chuckled. “I got plenty a’ cash.” Sketch shook his head. “Still, I don’t see why you need to buy so many at the same ti-” “Hey guys!” Dunce said as he and Silver Screen walked up with about two and a half dozen action figures piled up on each of their backs. “You wouldn’t BELIEVE the amazing stock they have here! It’s army-builder heaven!” “Transformares section is all but cleaned out, though,” Silver screen said. “All that’s left is a few Bumblebees.” Sketch’s ears perked up. “Did they have Cyberfire Bumblebee?” Silver nodded. “Plenty of ‘em. Why?” “I... need one yet,” Sketch stated simply as he started making his way to the Transformares isle. “First time I’ve ever heard of someone who couldn’t find a Bumblebee,” Flarefire joked. “Yeah, figures the hardest Bee figure to find is the one people actually WANT,” Brickbuild replied. “Well, looks like I’m done here.” A minute later, the ponies were at the checkout counters. The mare at the cash register rolled her eyes at the sight of Brickbuild’s huge pile of LEGO boxes. “I hope you left some for the rest of the customers.” “Don’t worry, I only got one or two of each set,” Brickbuild explained as he placed the obviously-returned box on the counter. “Hey, do I get a discount for this?” The mare at the counter studied the beat-to-heck box, then glanced at a piece of paper taped to the desk. “Regulations say I can give you a 50% discount on damaged products.” “Is that 50% off the sale price?” Brickbuild inquired. “If I do that, will you go away?” “Yes.” “Then yes,” the clerk said as she began ringing up the many boxes of LEGOs. In another line, Silver Screen patiently waited behind another customer. Hearing hoofsteps behind him, he glanced behind him to see Sketch. “Hey Sketch.” Silver then noticed what Sketch was carrying. “Uh, why do you need three Cyberfire Bumblebees?” He then recalled that three was also the total number of Cyberfire Bumblebees on the pegs. “Uh, yeah, well, I’m army-building them,” Sketch explained. “I thought you said you only needed one.” “That was before I saw they had three- and were on sale.” Silver shrugged. “Fair enough.” ********** “Y’know, after the convention’s over, we should go to some of these concerts,” Bobado said as he studied the many posters plastered on the concrete wall in front of him. “I agree,” Buzz Surge replied. “I’ve always wanted to hear Wooden Toaster and the Living Tombstone in concert.” “Don’t forget Mic the Microphone!” Imago said. “We can talk about that later,” Sweet Pea said, “Right now we have to find the others and get to the convention.” A half our later, the ponies were gathered at their meeting spot- the hotel they were staying at. There they found the group that had gone action figure shopping. “Have you guys seen Lucky Stars or Captain Sunstorm anywhere?” Sweet Pea sked. “Nope,” Silver Screen replied. “We haven’t seen them since-” “Did somepony say ‘awesome’?” Captian Sunstrom said as he and Stars entered the hotel lobby. “Uh, no,” Flarefire said, “Nopony said ‘awesome’, as far as I-” “Well, somepony said my name, right?” Sunstorm asked. “Um, yes,” Sweet Pea replied. “Then you pretty much said ‘awesome’!” Sunstorm decreed overdramatically. “Hey, why do you have a big bruise on your nose?” Brickbuild asked. “He got in a fight with a drunk pony who almost knocked his hat off his head,” Lucky Stars answered. The orange pegasus adjusted his top hat. “NOPONY messes with the hat,” he muttered. “We can worry about that later,” Sweet Pea said, “Right now we have to get to the convention!” With that, the ponies set off to one of the geekiest conventions in Equestria… …unaware of how it would change their lives forever.
Chapter 3BotCon. Just the very mentioning of its name is enough to make any Transformares fan giddy. And who could blame them? The idea of several days in a massive convention hall at an event that solely centers around one’s hobbies is enough to make just about any pony bursting with excitement. That’s how the TFW gang felt upon entering the convention hall the first day. Most of them suppressed the urge to break into diehard fan squealing. (Ironically, the only pony who DIDN’T get the urge to squeal like a little filly was also the only female.) “It’s… beautiful…” Flarefire said, for some reason feeling the need to state what was blatantly obvious. “Well, I dunno about you guys, but I’m going to get me some exclusive figures!” Silver Screen said as he started for the exclusives booth. “Heck yeah!” Brickbuild exclaimed. “Animated RiD Ruination, here I come!” in a flash of green, he was gone. “Get me a spot in line!” Imago shouted to the retreating pegasus as she started trotting after him. Flarefire took off after them. “Me, too! I-if you don’t mind…” Bobado’s face suddenly lit up as she saw something across the building “Oooh, a video game demonstration!” “Awesome!” Buzz Surge said as he, Dunce and Bobado hurried over to check it out. “I’m gonna check out the artist’s tables,” Sketch announced, failing to hide the uncharacteristic enthusiasm in his voice. “I’m heading to the dealer room,” Lucky Stars stated. “Sounds like a plan,” Captain Sunstorm said as he began flying alongside his ‘apprentice’. However, he soon found himself restrained by an orange aura of magical energy. “Just a second there,” Princess Sweet Pea said, her expression stern. “If you get in to ANY sort of trouble, I will PERSAONALLY see to it that you get what you deserve.” Sunstorm gulped. Few things actually succeeded in intimidating him. An angry Alicorn just so happened to be one of those few things. “G-got it…” “Good!” Sweet Pea said, her mood changing from serious to happy as she released the orange pegasus from her telekinetic grasp. Said pegasus then shot away faster than a filly runs from the smell of broccoli. Sweet Pea sighed to herself. It was about time she got a good vacation from her royal duties. “Hey, look! An Alicorn!” A voice suddenly said. In no time flat, Sweet pea was surrounded by a crowd of groveling comic book nerds. Her left eye involuntarily twitched. This was going to be harder than she thought… ********** “Exactly HOW long have we been waiting in this line?” Silver Screen complained. “Exactly ten minutes,” Brickbuild reported with a glance at a clock on the wall. “Also exactly two minutes since you last asked that same dang question.” “Seems more like ten HUNDRED minutes,” Silver murmured. “Dude, just chill out,” Imago spoke up. “We’ll be at the front of the line in no time!” “Funny, I heard that’s the exact amount of time it takes for all the exclusives to sell out,” Flarefire joked. Imago shot him a stern gaze, to which the red unicorn responded by shrinking back and his ears folding against his head. “So, which figures are you guys interested in the most?” Brickbuild asked in an attempt to de-rail the current conversation. “I’m looking forward to the Snaptrap and Axor set,” Flarefire said, glad for the change in topic. “Same here,” Imago stated “Paradron Medic,” Silver Screen said in a strange tone that prompted the others to stare at him curiously. “Uh, and Thunderclap.” “Thunderclap?” Imago started. “How can you be looking forward to THAT eye-searing G2 homage?” Brickbuild leaned close to his friends. “Honestly, I’ve seen ponies in real life with more repulsive color schemes.” Imago considered this for a moment. “Good point.” ********* “Wow. Have you ever seen anything so amazing?” Lucky Stars asked in awe. “I don’t believe I have,” Captain Sunstorm replied. The blue earth pony studied the area around him. As far as he could see, the dealer room was filled with tables and table of Transformares merchandise- all of which was for sale. Glancing around, Stars could pick out figures from literally every single Transformares cartoon to date. “Where to start…” Stars muttered to himself, before looking up to see Sunstorm already halfway to one of the tables. “Hey, wait up!” The Captain had already started browsing the figures by the time Stars caught up to him. The blue pony was about to bug him about not wandering off when he himself looked at some of the figures. “So much variety…” Stars muttered in awe. Sunstorm, meanwhile, was carefully examining the figures on the table in front of him- or so it appeared. In reality, his eyes were on the mare behind the table. Everything about her was perfect- her eyes, her mane, even her glasses looked absolutely stunning. He must have been staring too hard, because she soon noticed. “Can I help you with something?” Oh sweet Celestia, even her voice is perfect. Leaning carefully on the edge of the table, Sunstorm turned up his charm. “You wouldn’t happen to have a figure of you, would yah? Now THAT I would buy.” The mare’s gaze changed to one of annoyance. She’d dealt with this kind of crap before, and knew exactly how to handle it. “No, I don’t,” she replied before pulling a model firetruck from nearby on her table. “But I DO have this great condition RiD Optimus Prime. The missile gimmick works GREAT- here, let me give you a demonstration…” With that, she pushed a button on the back of the fire truck’s ladder. Four guns popped out of the ladder, and each shot a maroon plastic missile- strait at Sunstorm’s face. “Ow! Ow! Ow! OW!” The orange pegasus cried as the plastic projectiles bounced off his mug and pattered onto the table. “Hey, don’t you ever read the instructions?! ‘Do not aim at eyes or face!’” With that, he stormed off. The mare smiled in satisfaction before noticing that the pegasus’ blue friend was still standing by the table, staring at her in surprise. “You gonna buy something or not?” she prompted. Lucky Stars walked over to the front of the table and scooped up the four maroon missiles. “I’ll take that Optimus for the sole reason of annoying my friend.” The mare smiled again. “And just for that, I’ll give you a 50% off discount.” ********** A massive mechanical monster stomped around an even bigger metal city. The robots that inhabited the city tried desperately to stop the rampaging beast to no avail. One of the flying vehicles directing the monster flew close to the ground, blasting any and all of its enemies into oblivion. It then morphed into a brown and purple quadruped robot. A gun extended out of its shoulder and began blasting away at a large enemy base in front of it. “Abominus, take out that outpost!” it shouted to the monster. In reply, the metal behemoth aimed it hand-held blaster at the walls of the base and blasted a sizeable hole through it, allowing his fellow Decepticlops access into the Autotrot outpost. The monster’s ‘commander’, whose name was Blastoff, made his way to the hole. Once inside, he set a grenade on a stack of ammo boxes. That, combined with Abominus’s continuing onslaught, soon brought the walls of the base tumbling down. “Alright!” Bobado said as he watched the building fall. “This is awesome!” “Man, if the video game demo is this good,” Buzz Surge started, “I can’t wait to play the whole thing!” “Transformares Animated: The Great War 2,” Dunce read from a sign about the game. “Release date: August 21.” “Well, I guess we don’t have to wait TOO much longer,” Surge said as he returned his attention to the gray earth pony playing the game demo. “Although you could probably wait Bobado- seems like you’re perfectly content with just the demo!” “Huh?” Bobado replied, not once taking his brown eyes off the screen. “Oh, yeah, sure.” Buzz Surge rolled his eyes. As he did so, he caught a glace of a familiar orange pegasus. “Oh, hey, Sketch!” “Hello,” Sketch replied flatly. “Find anything interesting?” Surge asked. “Well, I got some pretty cool prints,” Sketch started, “And a sketch of Animated Tarantulas made by Derrick Wyatt.” “Really?” Surge exclaimed. “Man, that is so cool!” The orange pegasus nodded before looking around Surge to the video game demo. “Bobado’s STILL playing that thing?” Surge chuckled. “Yeah, but who could blame him? You get to play as Blastoff and order Abominus around!” Sketch’s eyes widened slightly as he watched the game. “Wow, those graphics are amazing!” “I thought so myself,” a new, feminine voice said. The two pegasi turned to the newcomer. She was a thin unicorn mare with a yellow coat, orange hair and green eyes. It was all so familiar, and her voice… Sketch cocked an eyebrow. “Sweet Pea?” The unicorn shushed him. “Call me Honeybuzz,” she whispered as she pointed to her cutie mark- a bee. “But yes, it’s me. I had to use a transformation spell so ponies wouldn’t recognize me, and stop crowding around me so much.” Sketch and Surge nodded in understanding. “So, what were you guys doing?” ‘Honeybuzz’ asked. “Oh, we were just waiting for Bobado to finish up before moving on,” Surge explained. “I doubt he’ll take much longer.” ******** “I still don’t get it,” Buzz Surge said later that night after the convention had ended for the day. “How does a pony play the same level of a video game for three straight hours?!” Bobado shrugged as he and the rest of the TFW gang walked slowly to their hotel, tired from a day full of so much, “Epic Transformares epicness!” as Brickbuild had put it. After examining their purchases in their hotel rooms (a process that ranged from five minutes to a half hour depending on what pony we’re talking about), the TFW gang settled down for the night, eager for the day ahead of them…. Unaware how it would change their lives forever. ********** It had been another normal convention day for everypony, filled with action figure shopping, art trading, video game demonstrations, and presentation attending. But now most of the convention goers had gathered in one spot for a major event- the costume contest. Along one wall was about three dozen ponies wearing very well-made costumes of robots- and even some organic characters- spanning all generations of Transformares. “Wow, there’s so many amazing costumes,” Honeybuzz said, “I don’t think I can even pick a favorite!” “Hey, look at the bright side,” Brickbuild replied, “At least not having one favorite means you don’t have to be disappointed if they don’t win!” Honeybuzz laughed at this. “Good point.” “I dunno,” Flarefire spoke up, “I-I think the one dressed as Armada Hot Shot has a pretty good chance.” Brickbuild nodded. “This is true.” A female announcer then took to the stage. After clearing her throat, she began speaking into the microphone. “Fillies and gentlecolts, welcome to this year’s BotCon costume contest!” The crowd went wild with cheering and clapping. When they had settled down, the announcer continued. “This year, we have some… how shall I say? INTERESTING surprises,” she added. Honeybuzz tilted her head slightly. Something wasn’t right about that announcer. Her voice, toward the end, almost sounded… sinister. The announcer the proceeded to laugh evilly as a green glow enveloped her. She grew taller an lankier, her coat changing from blue to a charcoal black. Her legs were full of holes, giving them the look of Swiss cheese. Her hair became blue and stringy, a few strands falling over her green eyes. Sharp fangs smiled wickedly at the crowd. Ponies screamed in horror and gaped in awe as Queen Chrysalis stood before them. Suddenly, half of the cosplayers were enveloped in a similar green glow, revealing themselves to be changelings. Various ponies in the crowd also revealed themselves to be shape-shifters. “We gotta get out of here!” Honeybuzz said as she and the rest of the TFW gang bolted for the door. However, Imago suddenly jumped in their path. “Imago,” Honeybuzz started, “What are you-” Realization struck her like a ton of bricks. “Oh, no…” Imago smiled wickedly as he, too shed his disguise, revealing himself to be a Changeling. “Surprise!” he exclaimed with an evil cackle. Soon, a perimeter of Changelings had been created around the convention-goers to be sure nopony attempted and escape. “Now I’m sure you’re all wondering why we’re here,” Chrysalis hissed. “And I suppose you deserve to know, seeing how we crashed you geek convention.” The Changeling queen began to pace up and down the stage as she spoke. “You see, after my armies were forced out of Canterlot, I got to thinking, ‘What went wrong?’ Soon the answer hit me- I had allowed those who could stop me to get too close. With that in mind, I slipped some of my changelings in the building site for this theme park that was to be opened tomorrow.” She extended a hoof to a window, where a sign that read “Coming Soon- Transformares: the Theme Park” was visible. “They built a little device there that , in a matter of seconds, will seal off the city! Soon, Las Pegasus will be OURS!” She and her changeling subjects then launched into another round of evil laughter. The worried crowd of ponies watched out the window as a mammoth transparent green forcefield overcame the sky and touched down at the edge of the city limits, sealing off Las Pegasus from all traffic- inside and out.
