~Earlier that evening… again…~
“Please?”
“No.”
“Pretty please?”
“No!”
“C’mon…”
“I said no!”
“Is she still upset?” Scootaloo asked as she entered the Crusader’s clubhouse holding an extra-large pack of juice boxes and a plastic grocery bag that looked ready to burst at the seams. Sweetie Belle, her phone held to her ear, turned and answered by way of an exaggerated eyeroll, which the purple-haired tomboy reciprocated. “What, has she been taking lessons from your sister on being overdramatic?”
“I heard that!” a young woman’s voice blared from Sweetie Belle’s phone, making her wince and squint one eye against the sudden volume.
“Good!” Scootaloo set the juice and bag down on a small table before turning back to glare at the phone, hands on her narrow hips. “If you heard then maybe you’ll realize how dumb it sounds!”
“I’m not being dumb! I’m still waiting for you to apologize!”
“We did!” Scootaloo threw her hands in the air. “Like, a bajillion times!”
“Five,” Sweetie Belle piped up.
“Whatever!”
“You said you’re sorry, but you didn’t really mean it!”
“Uh, yeah we did!”
“No, you didn’t!”
“Did!”
“Didn’t!”
“UGH!” Scootaloo groaned, pulling at her hair. “How the heck are we even supposed to convince you that we mean it?!”
There was a spot of silence.
“I’ll… I’ll just know!” the voice finally answered. “I’ll know because it’ll sound like you mean it!”
Scootaloo’s shoulders slumped as Sweetie Belle gave the clubhouse door a curious glance.
“Where’s Apple Bloom?”
“Right here!” the young farmgirl’s distinctive country twang answered from just outside. A moment later she appeared in the doorway, cheeks nearly as red as her hair and chest heaving slightly as she struggled with the added weight of backpacks over both shoulders, rolled sleeping bags under her arms and a third one of each clutched in her hands.
“What took you so long?” Scootaloo asked.
Apple Bloom’s cargo tumbled to the ground in a heap just inside the doorway as she frowned. “Gee, I wonder.”
“Hey, don’t look at me!” Scootaloo put her hands up. “I said I’d grab the food and drinks, and I did!”
“Uh-huh,” Apple Bloom said, crossing her arms.
“It that Apple Bloom?” the voice from Sweetie Belle’s phone asked. “What’s going on? What’re you guys doing?”
“We’re having a super-special Crusader sleepover in the clubhouse,” Sweetie Belle said, her eyes narrowing as she grinned. “You suuuuure you don’t wanna join us?”
“I… n-no! Not until you say you’re sorry! For real!”
“Fer cryin’ out loud; she still mad?” Apple Bloom asked as she started piling the bags in a corner of the room.
“C’mon, girls,” Sweetie Belle pleaded as she placed her hand over the phone’s receiver to muffle it, “you know how she gets when she’s like this. Let’s just try it again, okay?”
“Fine,” Scootaloo growled as she and Apple Bloom trudged over to join Sweetie Belle, who held her phone out in the center of the little triangle they formed and gently cleared her throat.
“We’re very sorry for the way we treated you while we were under the Dazzlings’ spell.”
“Even if it wasn’t really our fault,” Scootaloo mumbled, only to be shushed by Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle shot them a silencing glare before she continued.
“We acted like jerks, and I didn’t listen to you or the other Autobots’ advice.”
“We got so caught up in wantin’ to win that we sorta started seein’ everybody that tried to talk us down as if they were out to get us,” Apple Bloom rubbed the side of her neck nervously, “but even if that was the Dazzlings’ fault, we really shoulda known better than to think that about you.”
A brief silence arrived, ending when Apple Bloom elbowed Scootaloo in the ribs and tilted her head at the phone meaningfully.
“Ow!” Scootaloo exclaimed, rubbing her side and frowning at the farmgirl. “Okay, okay! Um, We’re sorry for the things we said. You didn’t deserve any of that and…” she trailed off, biting her lip in concentration for a moment. “Oh! And I’m really sorry for calling you a rust bucket.” Her eyes fell to the floor as some of her usual bravado likewise crumbled. “I know you’re sensitive about that kind of thing and I… I said it because I knew it would hurt you. I was acting like a jerk, that was really, really uncool of me. I’m sorry.”
“We’re all really sorry,” Sweetie Belle picked back up, drawing nods from the others. “You’re not just our friend, Sweetie Bot, you’re one of us--a Crusader.” She frowned. “At least, we hope you still wanna be friends with us after this, so... please forgive us?”
Several seconds of silence slipped away as the three girls stared at the phone in Sweetie’s hand, almost too afraid to move or even breathe until they had an answer.
“I… I am,” the voice replied suddenly. “I mean, I do! I forgive you, and of course I’m still your friend!”
The Crusaders exchanged joyous grins. “Thanks, Sweetie Bot,” Apple Bloom said.
“So do you want in on this sleepover now?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Heck yeah! Is the coast clear?”
Applebloom and Scootaloo peeled away from their huddle, the former closing and latching the clubhouse door as the latter zipped around doing the same to all the window shutters. Finished, they nodded to Sweetie Belle. “Ready!”
Sweetie Belle held out her phone and gently tossed it toward the middle of the room. As it spun lazily through the air, a sudden arc of electricity danced across its surface, followed by a dozen more in a sporadic pattern. The space around it seemed to twist and stretch as the phone casing split apart and unfolded, expanding in one impossible instant from a hand-held electronic device into a teenager-sized robot with white plating and light pink accents. It landed awkwardly on one foot, teetering slightly before Sweetie Belle reached out and caught one arm to steady it.
“I swear, that gets cooler every time I see it!” Scootaloo beamed.
Sweetie Bot laughed nervously. “Thanks… still sorta trying to get the hang of the landing part.”
“I still don’t get where you put… well, the rest of you when you shrink down like that,” Apple Bloom shook her head.
“Oh! Maestro explained it to me a while back!” Sweetie Bot’s hand transformed into what resembled a small planetarium projector, and a bevy of hovering holograms flickered into existence. The images slowly spiraled through the space inside the clubhouse as the Crusader’s eyes collectively widened. Pulsing graphs, rapidly-changing equations, and even a full-motion 3D visualization of Sweetie Bot herself surrounded by lines that flexed and stretched in bizarre ways as her image assumed a number of different transformations of varying shapes and sizes.
“See, what he said was that my reconfiguration circuits were designed to be integrated with a prototype on-board spacebridge field generator. This allows for variable mass-density transformations, or VMDTs, by creating a subspace pocket within which can be stored any structure or subsystems not required for the current VMDT configuration.
“Normally the energy required for maintaining a stable subspace pocket of this nature would be beyond what could be produced without massive amounts of Energon, but due to advances in the field of spatial compression combined with a revolutionary energy conversion system that feeds off the electrostatic differential between subspace and normal space, the pocket can be maintained almost indefinitely, and with only a minimal amount electrical discharge through surface conductors when the pocket’s extra-dimensional shape is altered.” Sweetie Bot put her hands on her hips triumphantly as the holograms winked out of existence. “Simple, huh?”
Three sets of glazed eyes gazed back at her. Or at least, in her general direction. Scootaloo’s eyelids were actually starting to droop, flirting with unconsciousness, and Sweetie Belle’s blank stare seemed focused somewhere on the far wall.
“Uh,” Apple Bloom mumbled, coming out of the technobabble-induced stupor before the others, “what does all’o that mean, exactly?”
Sweetie Bot’s optics blinked a couple of times before her shoulders slumped.
“... I have no idea.”
Scootaloo snapped to attention, shaking her head vigorously. “Ugh, who cares about that egghead stuff anyway? All that matters is its super-awesome!” She grabbed one of the grocery bags from the table and pulled out a box of fruit snacks. “Now c’mon, let’s get this party started. I’m starving!”
The others grinned. The girls each took a juicebox and a handful of snacks before they--along with Sweetie Bot--plunked down in a rough circle in the center of the room.
“Okay, tomorrow’s Saturday, so we got all night,” Apple Bloom said as she took a bite of an oatmeal cookie. “What should we try first?” She was met with a trio of thoughtful hums, one of which carried a subtle electronic quality.
“Dressmaking!” Sweetie Belle squeaked suddenly.
“Ugh,” Scootaloo groaned, tossing back another fruit snack. “Booooring. Besides, didn’t we already try that, like, months ago?”
Sweetie Belle pouted. “Well I liked it… besides, the Rainbooms’ outfits at the Battle of the Bands looked really cool; kinda made me want to try again.”
“What did they look like?” Sweetie Bot asked. “Were they like the costumes you made for that music video?”
Sweetie Belle’s face lit up. “Nah, those things don’t hold a candle to Rarity’s designs! Her outfits were so bright and colorful! The leggings were all mismatched so everyone looked unique even though you could tell they were all part of the same band, and the dresses were all customized to suit everyone’s personalities; Applejack had apples, Fluttershy had little butterflies, Pinkie Pie had balloons…” Sweetie Belle shook her head as stars danced in her eyes. “They were just beautiful!”
Scootaloo leaned over to Sweetie Bot and whispered--quite ineffectively--behind her hand. “They looked like a paint store got sick on a tilt-a-whirl and threw up on a fabric store.”
Sweetie Belle crossed her arms and shot Scootaloo a dirty look as Apple Bloom tried not to shoot juice out her nose.
“Well, either way I wish I could’ve seen them,” Sweetie Bot said.
“I’m sorry I didn’t take you with me,” Sweetie Belle said with a frown.
“Yeah,” the Autobot responded, her shoulder plates sagging lower as a weighty silence fell over the clubhouse. It lasted only a moment before Scootaloo leaped to her feet, hands ruffling her own hair in frustration.
“Ugh! Okay you know what? We’re not spending the whole night moping around feeling sorry for ourselves. Forget Crusading for now; let’s do something fun! Something like…” She put a finger to her chin as her eyes swept the clubhouse for ideas--ironically passing right over the corner they’d hung a light bulb in and designated as the ‘idea corner’ without so much as a pause--before circling back to the group and lighting up when they landed on Sweetie Bot.
“I got it!” She said, smacking her fist into an open palm. “Let’s go robo-scooting!”
“That’s a great idea!” Sweetie Belle beamed.
“Sure!” Sweetie Bot nodded enthusiastically.
“No way!” Apple Bloom shouted, crossing her arms in front of her into a giant ‘X’.
“Aw, why not?”
“‘Cause if Applejack finds the grass in the orchard all tore up after y’all’ve slept over again she’ll tan my hide!”
“Pff,” Scootaloo dismissed her with a wave. “We’ll just tell her we saw those Diamond Dog guys creeping around again. They’re always digging for stuff.”
“What kinda stuff?” Sweetie Bot whispered to Sweetie Belle, receiving only a shrug in reply.
“Yeah, ‘cause that excuse’ll work three times in a row,” Apple Bloom crossed her arms.
Scootaloo furrowed her brow. “Well we don’t need to stay on the farm.”
“Uh, yeah we do,” Sweetie Belle piped up. “Sweetie Bot is still a secret, remember? You two aren’t even supposed to know about her.”
“Hel-loooo?” Scootaloo gestured to Sweetie Bot with both hands. “Transforming robot here, emphasis on transforming. It’s not like anyone’s going to recognize her.”
“The other Autobots would, though,” Sweetie Bot said.
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle seconded. “And if we run into one of them it’ll get back to Maestro, and that means it’ll get back to Miss Octavia, and…” she trailed off and shuddered. “She’s scary when she’s angry!”
The color drained from Scootaloo’s face as Apple Bloom and even Sweetie Bot nodded in agreement. “Uh, good point… nevermind.”
“Oh!” Sweetie Bot suddenly perked up. “Girls, I just had the best idea ever!”
“This’s the worst idea ever!!” Apple Bloom shouted, nearly losing the bow in her hair as they zipped under the low branches of an apple tree at breakneck speed.
“Are you kidding?” Scootaloo laughed. “This is freaking awesome! How come we never thought of this before?”
She wrenched the handlebars, whipping the almost tractionless hover-scooter (and attached hover-wagon) that Sweetie Bot had transformed into around the next tree in a wide, swinging turn that threatened to send both of her passengers tumbling out onto the ground. Somehow, Apple Bloom’s death grip on the side of the cart and Sweetie Belle’s death grip on Apple Bloom’s midsection both managed to hold.
“We won’t mess up the orchard if we don’t actually touch it!” Sweetie Bot’s cheerful voice echoed out of the console at the base of the scooter’s handlebar stem. “We can go all night and Applejack will never suspect a thing!”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged terrified looks as Scootaloo deftly maneuvered between a closely-growing pair of trees, her joyous laughter in gnashing contrast to their squeals of fright.
“I… I think I’m gonna be sick,” Sweetie Belle mumbled against Apple Bloom’s back, prompting the farm girl to look back over her shoulder.
“Don’t you dare toss yer cookies on my…” She trailed off as something caught her eye through the trees. “Hey Scoots, slow down!”
“No way!” Scootaloo scoffed. “Just aim Sweetie Belle over the back and-”
“Not that!” Apple Bloom pointed off to the side with a frown. “Slow down and go that way, I think I saw somethin’!”
Scootaloo grumbled but did as instructed, easing off the throttle and navigating in the direction Apple Bloom had indicated. They cleared one last row of trees and Sweetie Bot brought herself to an abrupt halt as a collective gasp rose from their throats. Apple Bloom scrambled to dismount the hover wagon, inadvertantly pulling Sweetie Belle with her as Scootaloo likewise stepped down to the ground. Electricity sparked over the scooter’s surface as Sweetie Bot quickly resumed her humanoid shape, and all four friends stared with wide eyes.
Before them lay a wide swath of destruction; a deep, ragged furrow in the earth that stretched from where they stood off into the distance; exactly how far it went the girls could not tell. All along its path the once bountiful apple trees had been violently forced aside, in some cases uprooted and in others smashed to pieces, their namesake fruit scattered and mashed upon the ground. Small fires--the source of the flickering light that had drawn Apple Bloom’s attention--still burned along the sides of the trench,
Apple Bloom swallowed hard.
“Applejack’s gonna kill me.”
“Why? We didn’t do this!” Scootaloo protested.
“Yeah, like that’s gonna matter.”
“But what did do it?” Sweetie Belle asked with a frown as she picked up a broken branch.
“I…” Sweetie Bot spoke up. “I think-”
“Hey, look at this!” Scootaloo’s sudden shout brought them all to where she was kneeling about a foot from the side of the ditch, examining a large, roughly rectangular depression in the ground. “I bet whatever did all the damage made this too.”
“Made these,” Apple Bloom corrected, pointing to a series of four more depressions that led away from the trench before they were replaced by a set of deep, wide tire treads that continued off into the distance between two rows of apple trees in the general direction of Canterlot city proper.
“Is… is that what I think it is?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Sweetie Bot nodded as a small, spherical sensor ejected from her upper arm and floated over the depressions, scanning them with an intense light. Sweetie Bot’s hand transformed into a projector again, producing some kind of 3D oscillating graph. “An unknown Energon signature. It’s another Cybertronian, alright.”
“Cool!” Scootaloo’s eyes sparkled. “Can I have this one?”
“Really?” Apple Bloom crossed her arms with a frown. “They ain’t pets, y’know.” Her frown twisted upwards into a mischievous grin. “‘Sides, it showed up on Apple family land; this one’s mine!”
“But what if it’s the other kind?” Sweetie Belle asked, inching a little closer to Sweetie Bot’s side. “Maestro said that part of the reason the Autobots are here is because they’re hiding; what if the Decepticons finally found them?”
“Deci-whatnow?” Scootaloo scratched the back of her head.
“Decepticon,” Apple Bloom said. “They’re the bad guys.”
“And if they’re here,” Sweetie Bot continued, eyeing the width of the tire tracks nervously, “then we’ve got a really big problem.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Okay, so then what’re we waiting for? Let’s go!”
The others focused on her with blank stares until Sweetie Belle squeaked. “You want to go after it?!”
“Well, duh!” Scootaloo grinned. “If it’s really a Deceiveron-”
“Decepticon.”
“... If it’s really a bad guy, we need to stop it, right?”
Sweetie Belle’s face paled--quite a feat for someone with her skintone--while Apple Bloom coughed gently into her hand.
“Maaaaybe we should call the others first an’ let them know what’s goin’ on?” The farmgirl turned to Sweetie Bot, who was shaking her head and pressing a series of small keys on her forearm panel.
“I just tried; something’s wrong with my transmitters.” There was a sharp clang as she smacked the panel and let out an irritated groan. “Ugh! I wish I knew how to fix things like this… I’m still all full of bugs and glitches and stuff.”
“It’s okay, we can just call them,” Sweetie Belle put a comforting hand on her Autobot companion’s shoulder as Apple Bloom pulled out her phone with a frown.
“‘No Signal’? What’s goin’ on here? The orchard usually has great reception.”
“Mine too,” Scootaloo chimed in.
“Huh,” Sweetie Belle furrowed her brow at her normal, non-transforming alien robot phone. “Is this because of the Decepticon?”
Sweetie Bot’s optics widened.
“Oh!” She tapped a few more buttons with renewed vigor. “You’re right! There’s nothing wrong with my transmitters; there’s some kind of crazy strong jamming field that…” She trailed off blinking as she read the display “Oh, wow, I think it’s covering the whole city!”
“Decrepitons can do that?” Scootaloo asked.
“Decepticons,” Apple Bloom sighed.
“Whatever! They can really knock out cell phones and stuff?”
“I don’t know,” Sweetie Bot shrugged. “Subwoofer and Maestro are good with things like that so… probably?”
“I think Miss Octavia lives somewhere on the other side of town, but I have no idea where Vinyl or Flash live,” Sweetie Belle wrung her hands in front of her. “How are we going to warn them?”
A hushed silence fell over the orchard as the four friends turned to face the direction of Canterlot, well marked by the ever-present glow cast into the night sky by the lights of downtown.
Scootaloo took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“We don't.”
"Whaddya mean 'we don't?' Are ya plumb crazy?" Apple Bloom crossed her arms. "Scootaloo, in case you've gone and forgotten, Sweetie Bot ain't exactly the fightin' type. If this really is a Decepticon, how the heck are we supposed to stop it without the other Autobots?"
"Well what choice do we have?" Scootaloo shouted as she turned to face them, her mouth set in a tense line and her eyes sparkling with anger. "Who knows how long ago this thing landed? It could already be in the city by now! People's lives are in danger!"
"Scootaloo..." Sweetie Belle breathed with concern as her irate friend continued.
"By the time we reach the others it might already be too late, and anybody else we try to warn wouldn’t believe us anyway. We're the only ones who have a chance of stopping this thing before people get hurt. Even if that chance is small... are you really okay with just sitting here doing nothing? Is that what our big sisters would do?”
Apple Bloom winced, and Sweetie Belle's gaze fell to the ground as Scootaloo's words ushered in another momentary silence.
"If there were any way she could help at all, Rarity would do it," Sweetie Belle said quietly.
"An' Applejack wouldn't hold back if it meant protectin' somethin' or someone she cared about," Apple Bloom agreed.
The two finally mustered the courage to look at one another, exchanging pointed looks before nodding in tandem. Scootaloo smiled.
“I… I understand what you’re saying, Scootaloo,” Sweetie Bot said, “but I’m… I’m not so sure I can really help.”
“It’ll be okay,” Sweetie Belle said, her fingers intertwining with the Autobot’s as she took her hand. “I’m scared too, but you’re not going out there alone.”
“Darn straight,” Apple Bloom added with a grin, putting her hands on her hips. “Ain’t a good idea fer us to stay here anyway; if that thing circles back this way we’d be in trouble. Safest place is gotta be wherever you are.”
“Yeah! Crusaders stick together!” Scootaloo said. “So what do you say, Sweetie Bot? Ready to kick some Dubstepicon butt?”
“Okay, now you’re just doin’ it on purpose.”
“Am not!” Scootaloo rounded on Apple Bloom. “It’s just a hard word to remember, okay?”
“No it ain’t.”
“Here, try it like this,” Sweetie Belle said as she let go of Sweetie Bot’s hand and stepped forward. “‘Duh’... ‘sep’...”
Sweetie Bot gave a small laugh as Scootaloo, her brow furrowed in concentration, listened intently to her friend’s lecture on proper pronunciation. Her optics refocused on the lighted sky in the distance before lowering to the tire tracks that laid out the path before her.
“... It’s what she would do, too.”
“Hm?” Sweetie Belle and the others all looked to her. “Did you say something Sweetie Bot?”
“I’ll do it,” the Autobot said firmly and stood a little straighter. “Let’s go, we don’t have any time to waste.”
“Ugh, this is gettin’ us nowhere,” Apple Bloom said as she continued scanning the street for anything that seemed out of place. “Since we got into the city an’ lost the trail we could drive right past this thing and never know it.”
“Well, we’re at least in the right general area,” Sweetie Bot said. She had once again transformed into a powered scooter and matching wagon for the girls to ride, albeit this time with actual wheels to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. “This dampening field is keeping me from getting a solid signal, but I’m still picking up trace Energon readings.”
“So it’s here,” Scootaloo frowned at a large van that turned the corner ahead of them before a jacked-up pickup truck parked on the other side of the street caught her eye. “Somewhere, anyway.”
Apple Bloom shook her head and sat back in the wagon. “There’s gotta be some better way to do this. If you were a transforming robot from outer space, where would you go?”
“Um, I am a transforming robot from outer space,” Sweetie Bot offered, “and I would probably come hang out with you girls, but I don’t think that’s going to help.”
Apple Bloom sighed, and as she did she caught sight of Sweetie Belle out of the corner of her eye. Her arms were crossed and her mouth curled into a lopsided frown, while her head was tilted back and to one side as she looked upwards with an absent stare. It was an expression Apple Bloom had seen her friend wear many times.
“What is it, Sweetie Belle? What’s on your mind?”
“Hmm… the Autobots hid here because they thought the weird magic that my sister and her friends have was kinda like the Energon stuff they use for power, right?” Sweetie Belle mused. “I wonder if that’s what this Decepticon thought too?”
Apple Bloom scratched the back of her head. “I guess that makes sense, but how does that help us find-oh!” Her eyes brightened as the truth dawned on her.
“What?” Scootaloo asked, trying to look back over her shoulder and still somehow keep one eye on the road. “What’d you figure out?”
“Take a left up here, Scoots!” Apple Bloom said as she pointed to the next intersection with an excited smirk, “I know where it’s goin’, for sure!”
“Didn’t think we’d be back here so soon,” Sweetie Belle murmured as they slowed to a stop at the entrance to the Starswirl Amphitheater in Canterlot Park.
The outdoor stage loomed before them; dark and foreboding without the multicolored lights that had illuminated it during the Battle of the Bands. Though most of the expensive equipment had been taken away or covered with heavy tarps, remnants of the food and various other thrown items that had sent the Dazzlings running from the stage after their defeat hadn’t yet been cleared away. The bleachers, by comparison, felt empty without a crowd of cheering fans to fill them, and the chilly night breeze that whistled through the space served only to emphasize how alone the girls were as they stepped off their transportation. A flash of light accompanied by a pair of familiar popping sparks heralded Sweetie Bot’s transformation into her humanoid form.
“Are you sure about this, Apple Bloom?” she said as her optics swept over the area.
“Well, there was a huge magic rock concert here a few hours ago,” Apple Bloom smirked and crossed her arms. “If yer lookin’ for weird energy, this here is the place to be.”
Scootaloo shook her head. “I don’t see anything that might be a… ‘Decepticon’?” She turned to Sweetie Belle for confirmation, receiving a wide grin and enthusiastic thumbs-up.
“If ya could tell just by lookin’ it wouldn’t be a very good Decepticon,” Apple Bloom quipped as Sweetie Bot launched her remote sensor. The small sphere zipped up into the air, stopping some twenty or thirty feet above the ground before it began sweeping the amphitheater. Her hand transformed into a display and projected a small-scale 3D map overlay of the stage, bleachers, and surrounding area that pulsed with a rapidly-shifting kaleidoscope of colors.
“Woah,” her optics widened, “you weren’t kidding; the readings are all over the place.”
“Anything that could be another Cybertronian?” Sweetie Belle asked, peeking over the Autobot’s shoulder.
“No,” Sweetie Bot shook her head with a sigh, “there’s way too much background radiation. I can’t even see us on this thing.” She switched off the display and turned to face the girls. “We’re gonna have to do this the hard-!!”
She was silenced by the earthshaking growl of a diesel engine coming to life. The girls jumped and turned as one, staring with wide eyes as a massive dark brown three-axle dump truck rumbled out from behind the bleachers, clipping the corner of the stands and demolishing the steel supports as it swung around to face them. Powerful headlights blinded them before they’d truly had a chance to react.
“Or maybe it’ll find us first!” Scootaloo shouted as the group turned and started to run, but the truck, moving impossibly fast for its size, was practically on top of them already. Sweetie Bot roughly swept the three girls up into her arms, pistons and hydraulics pumping as she shot forward with strides far more powerful than any human legs could produce. Even so, the truck gained on them.
“Hang on!” Sweetie Bot yelled as the air surrounding them began to shimmer and twist.
“Ooh, I hate this part!” Apple Bloom cried out, while Sweetie Belle let loose with an ear-piercing shriek.
Electricity writhed through a roughly cube-shaped space around them as the truck bore down. A bright flash accompanied by a clap of thunder ripped through the night, and the truck barreled through the place they had just been, screeching to a halt as its brakes slammed into action.
Across the amphitheater, near the other side of the stage, a second burst of light unceremoniously deposited the three girls and their Autobot guardian onto the unforgiving pavement with a collective yelp.
“Ugh,” Scootaloo groaned, shoving to try and free herself from a tangle of legs and arms. “You weren’t kidding about the landings, Sweetie Bot.”
“Sorry; it was the only thing I could think of,” Sweetie Bot said as she stood and likewise pulled a dizzy, swaying Sweetie Belle to her feet. “Is everyone okay?”
“Ask me again when the room stops spinnin’,” a visibly green Apple Bloom moaned as she pushed herself up to her hands and knees.
Any response Sweetie Belle might’ve offered was cut off as the truck’s engine revved hard. The girls turned to face it as best they could as the vehicle began to change, metal screeching against metal as large servos and grinding gears began to spin and twist the frame. The dump body broke into sections that either slid along the surface or folded in on themselves as the bed split down the middle to form a pair of boxy arms. The arms levered the rear of the truck up into the air as the cab and engine block likewise rose atop wide, powerful legs that unfolded from beneath. The truck’s grill rotated around the to the new ‘front’ of the machine as the tires spun and locked into position on the knees and upper arms. A head formed from what looked like part of the vehicle’s rear drive shaft assembly ratcheted into place with a shuddering squeal, a dull red light marking the Decepticon’s optics as they flickered on. As the transformation settled down, the head turned to regard the girls with a metallic groan.
“Hmm,” a deep, appropriately gravely voice laden with a thick Stalliongradi accent issued forth from the former dump truck. “Did not expect to see spacebridge technology on backwater rock. Then again…” The massive Decepticon turned and started taking slow, deliberate steps toward them. The stage and bleachers shook as each footfall sent a minor tremor rippling through the ground. “Did not expect to find slag-sucking Autobots here either.”
Sweetie Bot gasped.
“I don’t... I-I’m not…” She planted her hands firmly on her hips with a huff. “That’s rude!”
“What?” Scootaloo whispered. “What does slag-sucking mean?”
“I don’t think we want to know,” Sweetie Belle absently mumbled back, unable to actually pull her gaze from the Decepticon as it towered over them.
“You… your kind isn’t welcome here! Decepticons, I mean!” Sweetie Bot took a pair of bold steps forward. “You need to leave, or… or there’s going to be trouble!”
“Hmph,” he chuckled. “Cute. But I am not in mood to play games, little scrap.” He leaned forward, his shadow eclipsing the girls as he loomed above. “Where is the strange Energon?”
“Uh,” Sweetie Bot hesitated slightly, “w-what strange Energon?”
The Decepticon’s eyes narrowed. His hand whipped across in a terrifyingly swift motion, swatting Sweetie Bot aside effortlessly and sending her crashing straight through the stage and into the storage area beneath it.
The Crusaders gasped.
“SWEETIE BOT!!” Tears welled up in Sweetie Belle’s eyes, but before she could take even a single step the Decepticon’s massive fist slammed into the ground, blocking the path to her fallen friend.
“I ask again,” his voice rumbled over the terrified and defenseless trio as his optics narrowed, “where is Energon?”