My Little TFW2005- Posting is Magic

BotCon. 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.