//------------------------------//
// Sideswipe and Strong: Freelance Warriors 
// Story: Bots and Bronies 
// by ultramagnus86 
//------------------------------//

Tara Strong was just about to step out of her hotel room when a rather loud knock came at her door.

She answered it, only to find someone...abnormal-looking at the door. He had a Lamborghini hood for a chest, a grey head, black helmet...and it was nothing she had never seen before. It was Sideswipe, in fact, but she didn't know that. She just jumped back in fear. Normally, Sideswipe would have to squeeze in tight in the hall of the hotel, and probably would have dropped through the floor, but thanks to his past experiences with Nucleon, rendering him unable to transform (this was soon fixed), he was shrunk down to human size. But now, he was able to shift between 17.46 ft. robot to 5'4" human-size robot.

"Do not fear, Mrs. Strong." Sideswipe calmly said, still with the grin on his face. "I am the noble Autobot warrior Sideswipe, and on behalf of Optimus Prime, I would ask for your cooperation in a mission that involves both Queen Chrysalis and Megatron. Do you accept?"

Tara, on the other hand, was mystified. She had played a bunch of characters on a Transformers show, but never had she seen one in real life. So she just nodded slightly and just managed to get out an "OK". After that, they proceeded downstairs to the parking lot, where Sideswipe shifted size.

"Alrighty, let's get going!" Sideswipe said as he transformed into his Lamborghini alt mode. Tara did so once the gullwing doors opened. 

As they sped off towards the convention center, which was about a few miles away, she began to lighten up to her current surrounding and decided to ask a  few questions. "So, you all are...real?" she asked, just to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

"Yep!" Sideswipe chipperly. "In fact, Twilight Sparkle and the other ponies exist too. They're on the road to Vegas right now with the Minibots."

"Cool." she said now calmer. "So, can I hear more?"

"Absolutely." Sideswipe said, who was just as calm as Tara. "So, anyway..."