I tried my hardest to stifle a laugh, but I found it more and more difficult the longer I looked at Soundwave. The irritation on his face was evident. He spoke to me, his voice still monotone and rough but without the metallic echo
"What is so funny?" he asked annoyed
I couldn't hold it any longer "Your a pony!" I bust out laughing finally. I stopped a bit short when I felt, physically felt, the amount of irritation coming from Soundwave.
I composed myself finally "S-sorry...I didn't expect the princess to punish you like this."
"She didn't"
"Come again?"
"I took this form to allow me to blend in better to 'better receive the punishment' as she put it"
"Wait, you could have been disguised as a pony this whole time?"
"Correct"
My eye twitched angrily "Well why didn't you do that before!"
"I hate taking organic forms. I have to imitate some organic functions and variations of them to keep a legitimate cover"
"So wait this isn't your punishment?"
"No"
"Then what is?"
Princess Celestia finally spoke up "Soundwave has been tried with insanity, therefore he must be allowed recover properly, as compared to the alternative." she said with almost a smirk
"Princess I hate to be rude but would you explain the full deal?"
She nodded "Vinyl Scratch you are to take care of the Cybertronian's until they are deemed worthy to fit into society"
"That doesn't sound so bad"
"However," she continued "You must leave Canterlot and move back to Ponyville"
"Aww why?"
"Do you really want him to learn about fitting in with the ponies from Canterlot?"
I went to say something but remained silent as I saw the logic in that, definitely didn't want Soundwave acting like a pompous ass.
"There must be a catch," Soundwave said
I turned and looked at him "What do you mean?"
"There must be something your not explaining, you're letting us off to easy."
"You're right Soundwave, as you are aware I tend to show mercy to all beings. Along with you and your little friends, you must live with one other of your kind"
I could see the look of horrible realization in Soundwave's face "You can't possibly mean..."
Before he could finish a red blur tackled him down the hallway. The two of them came to a stop, leaving Soundwave pinned by a red pegasus with a black tail and a black mane that was rough cut and hanging on one side of his head, sort of like mine I guess.
He was laughing manically "Did you think me beaten so easily!" he said getting his face close to Soundwave's.
Soundwave the proceeded to headbutt him, making him release his hold on Soundwave's hooves. Soundwave stood up grabbed the red pony in his hooves and tossed him back down the hallway with great force, apparently despite his smaller size all of his strength was still there. The red pegasus flared his wings open to make himself stop, and charged back at Soundwave, Soundwave charged at him as well. Just as they were about to collide they were wrapped in a golden aura that suspended them in the air. I turned and looked at Celestia, who's horn was glowing, as she approached the two.
"The punishment for both of you is that you must learn to live peacefully together or be destroyed, understood"
The red pegasus spoke up, his voice was shrill and rather whiny sounding "Do you think that the Great and Powerful Starscream will stoop as so low as to listen to an organic like you!" His self appointed title reminded me of a mare who tended to be a show off.
"I realize this isn't an ideal situation for you, but you will be punished for siding with Discord and kidnapping Vinyl Scratch and my sister."
Starscream flailed angrily trying to break free of her magical grasp, while Soundwave remained calm, but with a definite look of disappointment on his face. I approached the three of them, when Celestia looked back at me. "As I have said Vinyl Scratch it is your job to care for them on their journey....and make sure they don't harm anypony or each other."
I gulped at the task ahead of me "I don't have a choice do I?"
She simply smiled "I would give you some other community service if I didn't trust you could handle the two of them. Now in Ponyville you'll find a home waiting for you. If you need help ask my pupil" she released their grip of them and they both fell to the floor, Soundwave landed on his hooves where as Starscream landed on his face from all of his flailing.
Starscream got up and said begrudgingly "I'll follow this ruling...for now"
I could tell Soundwave rolled his eyes as he gathered his Minicons "Let us depart then...the sooner we get this done the better." he said giving the ponified Starscream a glare.
We began to leave the castle and make our way to Ponyville. As we were walking we all stayed silent, I occasionally looked back at the them and they kept their own heads forward not daring to make eye contact with the other. The minicons staying equally as silent
An interesting question popped into my head "So what's with both of your cutie marks?"
Starscream titled his head not knowing what I was talking about, but Soundwave spoke up "Elaborate."
"Well you guys both have one, did you put them there on your flanks?"
Starscream looked back at his, which was an image of a playing card that was an ace but instead of the normal card symbols his was the Decepticon symbol. "How did that get there?" he asked
Soundwave spoke up "When we take on organic forms we first scan a nearby life form for a template. We scan all of their anatomy and do our best to imitate it. When we scanned the Equian form of this planet we took on certain characteristics of their being. When we scanned an Equian our processors devised the perfect 'cutie mark' that would best suit our individual talents, much like your own. Which is also why Rumble and Frenzy do not have one seeing as the form they chose of a young Equian wouldn't have them yet" he motioned to Rumble and Frenzy who indeed had blank flanks
Starscream looked annoyed "So mine is merely a playing card?"
"Well if you think about it it's an ace, right? So the term 'ace' is can be used as someone who's good at flying"
Soundwave laughed a little which made Starscream snap his head at him "What's so funny?!"
"Your only talent is your most basic functions, and even then your terrible at that." Starscream looked like he was going to throw another fit when he had a look of realization on his face "Clearly it means I'm not only an excellent flyer, but I've always got an 'ace up my sleeve' as the humans say"
Soundwave stopped laughing "Hardly, none of your plans ever succeed and the one time you finally wrest control of the Decepticons you're killed the moment the crown is placed on your head" he poked his hoof into his chest. Starscream gritted his teeth "Just you wait...I'll kill you just as I've killed Megatron."
"Optimus Prime defeated him, you merely took advantage of his severely weakened state, barely proving that you were strong enough to lead"
I used my magic to separate the two from each other "Alright enough you two," I said sternly. They exchanged one more glance before walking back in silence. "By the way Soundwave?" I asked after after a few more moments
"What?"
"How come you chose an earth pony as your form? Wouldn't you want to be a unicorn so you can use magic."
"I could not."
'Why?"
"My programming does not include the reality defining 'magic' you have, therefore I cannot choose that from as it would be severely flawed and possible ruin my cover."
I simply nodded as we continued in silence to the train station and ultimately Ponyville.
During the train ride I asked a few more questions about Soundwaves new form. He technically does have to sleep anyways to save power, but other things like eating he can fake, although he still only survives off of energon he can get a tiny bit of power from eating normal food. I was a little surprised how quiet Starscream was during the train ride, and from the occasional look from Soundwave, he had the same surprised feeling.
After a few quiet hours we finally made it to Ponyville by sunset. Literally the moment we stepped off the train I heard the sound of hoof hitting flesh and saw a blue blur fly past me, with an equally fast red blue chasing after him. I tried to chase after the two with Soundwave's Minicons.
------
Starscream's hoof connected with my torso and sent me flying into a nearby gingerbread-like structure causing me to break right through the wall. I got up and tried to recover, but the annoying bot tackled me at high speeds sending both of us through the rest of the building. He lost some momentum and released his grip sending me tumbling across the cobble stone ground. I stood up quickly as he made another dash for me. Using some quick thinking I stomped my hoof on the ground causing a loose stone to shoot up and I turned and bucked it at him making direct contact with his face and causing him to back flip in the air.
He hit the ground hard, I didn't want to take any chances this time and I ran over to him making sure that he was finished, but he hit me with a resoundingly quick uppercut, sending me a few feet into the air. He shot up after me and grabbed me, flying higher into the air until he dropped me from a point where I would reach terminal velocity. Still dazed from the uppercut I couldn't recover in time before I crashed through the roof of another building that was shaped like a earth carousel. I tried to get up only to have Starscream hit me from his full speed right in the chest making me 'cough' up some energon.
"I told you I'd get you back!" he said smugly, but I also wouldn't be defeated so easily
He foolishly got off me and began to walk around me and began to monologue about how strong he was and that same old spiel. As he walked right in front of my back hooves I pushed up with my front hooves and kicked him upward with my back hooves sending him right through the window of the building. I jumped out after him where I saw him standing ready for another attack. We charged each other only to see him get hit by a multicolored object going at about mach ten, where as I was picked up in a purple field of magic and blasted with some sort of null ray* causing me to fall into sleep mode.
-----
While the two of them where fighting I tried running after them and keeping up, but they were much too fast for me, so I went to Celestia's pupil for help, Twilight Sparkle, she and her friends where at her tree home when I warned them of what was going on.
"Wait your friends are fighting each other?" Twilight said confused
"Yes now please hurry before they kill each other." I lied when I said Starscream was a friend, but the rest of that was true
"What do you want us to do?" She said
"I don't know anything to knock them out!"
She nodded and rushed out with her friends to try and stop the two beings from laying waste to half the town. Thankfully they slowed they came to a slight stand off after busting through Rarity's Boutique, giving time for Rainbow dash to tackle Starscream and for Twilight to knock out Soundwave. I wasn't exactly sure why Raindbow felt the need to hit Starscream doing close to her Sonic Rainboom in speed, but whatever got the job done I didn't care. We dragged their unconciouss and broken bodies to Fluttershy's cottage, which I asked them to bring them their instead of the hospital coming up with a clever line on how I though Fluttershy is much more suited for the job than a real doctor.
The minicons went to Soundwavs side, where his ribs should be was completely caved in from a nesty blow Starscream gave to him. Starscream didn't fare much better after being hit by Rainbow Dash, not to mention his face was covered in this light blue liquid which I guessed to be their blood, energon.
"Will they be okay?" I asked after a few moments
Fluttershy went between the two of them "Well...umm...they both were hit pretty hard...but they should be alright...in time..." she said shyly, making me breathe a sigh of relief.
"So tell us why they were so bent on killing each other" Rainbow Dash demanded
"They uhh...umm..." I stuttered not sure what to say until Rumble finally spoke up
"Well ya see they's both are heated rivals and they like to blows off some steam by sparring, though sometimes they can get very carried away." he spoke as if it was rehearsed, I nodded in agreement
They all looked at us skeptically until Fluttershy finally finished bandaging the two bots in disguise and realized the distance of a now furry Ravage and a feathery Laserbeak. She flew over to them with awe in her eye "Wow such a lovely coat this cat has, and I've never seen a phoenix with black fathers before!"
"Oh them that's my friend's pets, their names are Ravage and Laserbeak, and these are his little brothers I guess you could say Rumble and Frenzy"
"Those are some weird names" Rainbow Dash said
"We're not from 'round here" Rumble responded quickly
"Oh where are you from then?" Twilight asked
Thankfully they were interrupted by PInkie "Ohmygosh do you guys know what this means!?" she asked excitedly
"That we're going to throw a-"
"Party! And not just a normal 'Welcome to Ponyville' I'm gonna throw a 'Welcome to Ponyville, 'you two should be better friends and not wreck the town' party! I'll go get it ready!" she ran off before anyone else could respond to prepare a party for the two most hateful beings in all Equestria.