The Ark: Teletraan One's room
Scootaloo smiled, enthralled by the display in front of her. The moves, the flexibility, who knew any normal pony could do that? I know this sounds worryingly like something a filly should almost certainly NOT be watching, but it actually is. Okay, maybe my own words won't reassure you, but perhaps this will:
"And once again, Spitfire pulls off her world-famous Double Fire Flash!
Yep, Scootaloo had used Teletraan's satellite uplink to tune in on a Wonderbolts, who as you know are Equestria's world famous stunt fliers and the idols of Rainbow Dash (And therefore Scootaloo as well) and a subset of Equestria's Navy as well. Easily the most famous members right now were Soarin Skies and his boss and Co-Captain of the team, Spitfire whom the Autobot Powerglide had flown with and even outwitted some Vehicons alongside her.
Scootaloo let a wide grin come to her face, lately she'd saved up enough bits to be able to afford a ticket to their upcoming show in Canterlot. Problem was, actually getting somepony... Or someBOT now that Scootloo thought about it to take her there. She ran as fast as she could to the Holographic Training Room, where she knew Grimlock could often be found. And sure enough he was, teaching battle tactics to Swoop and Powerglide.
"Daddy, daddy!" Scootaloo said rapidly. "Can you take me to the Wonderbolts show in Canterlot?"
Grimlock looked confused, he'd heard of the Wonderbolts from Powerglide but he thought they were just cartoon superheros. ...Well, to be fair the name did kinda sound like a cartoon superhero team if you thought about it.
"Seriously?" Babs's voice called, and Scootaloo noticed her for the first time. She'd been watching the sparring from a corner of the room. "Dis is awesome, youse just gave me a great idea! We should go together!"
"Yeah, totally!" Scootaloo agreed.
"Me not know who Wonderbolts are, so why me take you two?" Grimlock asked, still confused but Powerglide was only too happy to explain. Once he had, Grimlock sighed sadly, he hated to disappoint one of his daughters and her friend but he simply didn't have time as he had training matches for the Mini-Bots scheduled for the rest of the week. Scootaloo saw the look on his face and hung her head, she should have known she couldn't have been this lucky.
"Me Swoop have idea!" The Dinobot piped up suddenly. "Me take you! Me want to see fellow filers, besides."
Babs and Scootaloo shared a excited look even as Powerglide added in his two cents.
"Well, I want to go too! If I do, I can perhaps pick up a few new tricks to show off to you guys!" He exclaimed. Truthfully, he just wanted to meet up with Spitfire again and perhaps share a few stories if they were lucky. But Grimlock shot them both down.
"No, me trust neither of you to not stay out of trouble." Grimlock told them, and Powerglide and Swoop looked disappointed but then Grimlock had a thought strike him. It was crazy, but Dinobots did crazy.
"However, me have idea...."
Ultra Magnus's Office:
What Grimlock's idea turned out to be was... well, this.
"You want me to do WHAT!?!" Ultra Magnus, the only Autobot to be below Optimus Prime himself in the chain of command yelled from behind his desk as Grimlock, Swoop and Powerglide stood in front of him. Scootaloo was nearby as well, gazing up in awe. She'd never seen a Autobot so gigantic, not even her daddy was as big as the blue and white truck transformer in front of her.
"Aw come on, you can't deny little Scoots and Babs here this! They've wanted to see this their whole lives!" Rainbow exclaimed in disbelief from nearby. Once she'd heard of what Scootaloo wanted to go and see, she had to help get her there. After all, a Wonderbolts show was something you just couldn't miss. (Plus, Rainbow wanted to spend some more time with her little sister in all but blood and this was the perfect way to bond.)
"You heard me Grimlock, me want you to chaperone Swoop and Powerglide here as they chaperone me daughter to a air show of some sort that she's always wanted to go and see." The Dinobot leader repeated with a sigh as Swoop and Powerglide nodded along with him. Admittedly, in his mind the whole sentence did sound rather ridiculous to begin with.
Scootaloo on the other hoof had applied a filly's best talent, and was grinning and saying "Please?" in a innocent-I-won't-get-into-any-trouble tone (With Babs doing the same.) while Magnus sighed to himself.
"Let's see, and let me check my schedule." Ultra Magnus grumbled to himself as he checked his datapad. He sighed in resignation, there were still lots of things for him to do such as punish the twins for the pranking spree they'd gone on earlier, get Slug and Snarl to clean out their quarters and now he had to play chaperone to chaperones! All of his frustration could be summed up in one simple sentence.
"...I don't have time to deal with this right now." Ultra Magnus muttered. Powerglide gave him a look of disbelief and crossed his arms.
"Come on, you really need to lighten up old boy! No offence, but you're way too serious half the time! C'mon, get out and have some fun in life. You may be millions of years old, but that doesn't mean you don't have a chance to have a bit of fun before your spark goes out!" Powerglide exclaimed and knew at once by Magnus's look how badly he'd made a verbal blunder, so he quickly corrected himself and rephrased his words.
"W-What I mean is, life's too short just to spend all your time cooped up in your office. Y-You do get my meaning, right?"
Ultra Magnus nodded, it wasn't like he disliked sparklings, or fillies in this case but as said before he had a lot on his plate at the moment.
"But what about-" He began before swiftly being cut off by Powergilde.
"You can get Prowl to do your tasks for you, he probably wouldn't mind. Okay, maybe he would mind but I'm sure he'd agree with me that you need to have some fun in your life." Powerglide told the Autobot second-in-command.
Magnus gave a long low sigh before replied with a "Ugh, I know I'm probably going to regret this but... fine, I'll do it." he said with a shaking of his head as he mentally added "Probably? I KNOW I'll regret this somehow."
He didn't know how right he was.
The Solar Stadium: Canterlot, a few days later...
It was obvious even from first approach as Ultra Magnus came up to the stadium in his truly gigantic car carrier mode with Scootaloo leaning out the driver's side front window while Babs and Rainbow sat nearby, (With Powerglide and Swoop in their alternate forms on Magnus's trailer) that this was going to be a hugely packed show with ponies coming from miles around. This wasn't surprising really, as for ponies Wonderbolts shows could accurately be compared to big name band rock concerts in our world.
"Okay, okay I promised myself not to totally geek out but here I am!" Scootaloo gushed excitedly, and she would have been unable to sit still and probably fly out the window in order to get to the entrance before everypony else had a seatbelt been not holding her down.
"Yeah, I agree with youse. This here is so exciting!" Babs agreed while in the back Powergilde commented "It'll be great to see old Spitsy aga-Oops." Powerglide said, quickly clamming up once he realized what he said.
"What!?! You met Spitfire herself and you never freaking told me?" Rainbow exclaimed in a mix of disbelief and fury.
"Well, would you have believed me for a nano-second if I did?" Powerglide asked, and Rainbow said nothing as she had to admit he had a point. Once Ultra Magnus had pulled up, everypony quickly got out while Powerglide and Swoop transformed to bot mode. Ultra Magnus stayed in his truck form, as he was planning to stay outside the stadium.
"Oh oh, I so want to get some souvenirs!" Scootaloo exclaimed "Maybe even a official Wonderbolts plushie!"
Then everypony was staring right at her as if she'd suddenly turned into a Changeling right then and there.
"N-Not that I'd sleep with it or anything, I just want it for display! Yeah, that's it!" Scootaloo quickly denied, although nopony or no bot believed for her a minute. Rainbow sighed to herself.
"Hey, listen I'll go and find us some seats if I can. Better hurry back though, as good seats quickly get taken up like they're hotcakes! Swoop, can you go with her?" Rainbow requested.
"Me Swoop do so." The Dinobot replied while Rainbow and Babs along with Powerglide headed off inside the stadium. Swoop smiled down at the young filly before before leading Scootaloo towards the souvenirs tents where all around ponies were trying to get official Wonderbolts merchandise for their collections.
"Wow, look at all of this stuff. Posters, plushies, action figures!" Scootaloo gasped. She knew a huge part of the Wonderbolt income was the money they made off their merchandise but she didn't know it was this expansive.
"You isn't kidding, me Swoop in shock as well." The Dinobot flier agreed.
"I bet Rainbow just has tons of this stuff stored away somewhere at her house! Her job at the Cloudsdale Weather Factory makes her tons of bits I bet!" Scootaloo wondered aloud. Swoop had no idea what the Weather Factory was, so he just nodded along. He reminded himself to ask Rainbow what the Weather Factory was later.
Then Scootaloo spotted it, a official Spitfire plush being sold on the cheap at a blue and white striped tent.
"Oh, I want that one!" She cried and ran over but somepony blocked her way, a older stallion. Scootaloo growled and tried to look as intimidating as possible at the jerk, but failed miserably.
"Sorry kid, but there's only one here and I'm the one who's going to be getting it." The stallion said as he shoved the filly out of the way, before he felt somepony, or rather somebot staring down at him.
"Me Swoop say you should let the kid get what she wants. You wouldn't want to deny a newer Wonderbolts fan the possible start of a collection now would you?" Swoop asked, and the stallion shook his head no in a nervous manner while looking as if he was about to bolt from the scene.
"N-No, I certainly wouldn't want to do that!" The stallion stammered before running off. There was nothing like a big transforming robot to scare a pony, it seemed especially when that robot was a member of the group formerly known as the Lightning Strike Coalition Force. Swoop may have had the friendliest demeanor of the Dinobots besides Sludge, but that didn't mean he couldn't be intimidating if he wanted to be.
Meanwhile Scootaloo was paying for her plush, and once she'd got it she hugged it tightly to her chest with one hoof.
"Oh, I am so snuggling with this tonight." Scootaloo said, and Swoop raised a opticbrow. "Not sleeping with it, huh?" He mused to himself but said nothing aloud to the young filly out of politeness. Eventually, they found their way to the stands of the stadium where Rainbow and Babs were already seated. Comically, Powerglide took up several seats to himself, crushing them under his weight. Swoop soon was doing the same thing as Scootaloo sat besides Rainbow, still holding her plush.
"So, what took you guys so long?" Rainbow asked and Swoop explained what had happened. After which, Rainbow was grumbling something under her breath about finding that stallion and teaching him a lesson. Then, a male announcer's voice boomed, magnified by a spell.
Ladies and Gentleponies, live here in Canterlot... It's the WONDERBOLTS!
Rainbow yelled "Oh yeah!" and threw her hooves up in the air in excitement as the six membered squad flew over head leaving contrails of varying colors in their wake. Scootaloo cheered, this was something she'd waited her whole life to see and now it was finally happening. But then, three familiar sounds accompanied by insect like buzzing filled the air just as the Bolts were starting to get into their first series of tricks.
Powerglide's eyes widened and he muttered "Oh no... It can't be...." as Starscream landed in the middle of the stadium grounds along with Thundercracker and Skywarp and transformed to robot mode even as three insect like robots joined him, one a rhinoceros beetle, another a grasshopper and a third a stag beetle each in black, yellow and purple color schemes before they too transformed as well.
"Decepticons, raze this place to the ground for the glory of Megatron!" Starscream yelled even as a ton of Vehicon jets flew overhead...
(To be continued...)