Maestro
This chapter contains a music link, but nothing will be lost by not listening to it. Feel free to skip it if music in stories isn't your cup of tea, darlings, 
Enjoy! 
~ Earlier that Evening… ~
“Anyway, please let me know when you get this. Send me a text or… just let me know you’re all right, okay?” Octavia bit her lip, slowly lowering the phone from her ear, only to snap it back up. “And don’t forget to delete this after you’ve heard it. Goodness knows you forget your phone often enough, we don’t need anyone picking it up and getting suspicious.” She hit the end call button and tossed the phone onto her bed before following suit, flopping down onto the plush maroon comforter with a moan.
“You are upset,” a mild tenor voice, one tinged with a light Germane accent and carrying a slightly metallic timbre, spoke from the other side the room.
From where she lay, Octavia needed only to tilt her head slightly to see the speaker. To anyone else her Autobot companion, Maestro, would doubtlessly be a strange sight indeed. Yet seated at Octavia’s desk, the person-sized, brown and gold plated robot looked quite at home; a small device of otherworldly make held gently in his hands as he poked and prodded it with a variety of tools--some of which were integrated with his systems or had been manufactured from his own parts.
Had she been in a better mood, Octavia might have smiled a little at the sight. A year ago the very notion of having some strange robotic alien lifeform living with her in secret would have made her laugh out loud. Well, more realistically she would have just rolled her eyes at whomever had suggested such an outlandish thing, but her disbelief would have been the same. So much had changed since then, and right now she was simply glad that she didn't have to spend this evening alone.
“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be upset?” Octavia sighed, returning her eyes to the taupe ceiling above. “The past few days have been nothing but arguments, accusations and aggression, and up until twenty minutes ago I had absolutely no idea why!”
“It was quite clear to all of us that your behavior was atypical,” Maestro said. “If what young Mister Sentry communicated to you is true, then you were under the influence of these ‘Dazzlings’ creatures just as most of your classmates were. You are not to blame.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that it happened,” she huffed.
A moment of silence passed, but Octavia recognized the gentle whirring of the servos in Maestro’s neck as he shook his head. “Regardless, it would appear that the effects have worn off now that the Dazzlings have been defeated… and with the help of Miss Scratch and Subwoofer, no less.”
“That just makes this whole situation even more infuriating!” Octavia all but shouted. “She’s putting you and the other Autobots--not to mention herself--at risk without even a single thought about the consequences, and I… I can’t even bring myself to be angry with her about it!”
Maestro turned to regard her--or rather, his head did, rotating in place owlishly. The rest of his slender frame barely moved as he regarded Octavia with what might have passed for concern or apprehension on a human face. It was a little hard to tell, what with him having a smooth metal plate where one would normally expect there to be a mouth. The extended, jeweler’s loupe-like lens that served as his right eye whirred briefly as it brought her into focus. “I stand corrected. You are very upset,” he deadpanned. “And perhaps a bit confused.”
“Ugh, you have no idea,” Octavia pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m sorry, Maestro, after how I treated you these past days I’m sure the last thing you want to hear is my complaining. Just ignore me, I’ll let you focus on your...” She turned her head toward him again. “Actually, just what are you working on, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Ah, yes.” Maestro’s head swiveled back to the desk, his hands lifting the small, roughly spherical device higher as Octavia rose from her bed and padded over for a closer look. “This is one of XT-117’s sensor modules. It was damaged the last time she attempted to teleport via spacebridge, but I believe I’ve gotten it working again.” His metal eyebrows knit as a small spark erupted from the device and the faint lights on its surface fluctuated. “... Mostly.”
Octavia stifled a smile. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Hm, as a matter of fact, I believe there is!” Maestro perked up, standing and gesturing for Octavia to follow. “It still requires calibration. If I set it to perform a full-spectrum scan of you, I can use my own scans as a baseline for comparison.”
“Since when do you have scans of me?” Octavia asked as she took her place in the middle of her room, clear of any furniture that might get in the way.
“I have conducted several since you began acting peculiar, though none yielded any useful answers,” he said casually as he probed at the sensor with a small, glowing tool. “I also have a handful on file going as far back as the first day we met.”
Octavia frowned. “I don’t recall you ever scanning me before.”
“I usually do so after you have retired for the evening.”
She blinked. “You mean... while I’m sleeping?”
“Yes. It seemed the most efficient time since the scan requires you to hold still.” He paused, looking up from the sensor when he noticed the blank stare she was giving him. “Is something the matter?”
Octavia clicked her tongue and shook her head slightly. “Let’s just say if it were anyone else besides you, Maestro, I would be very, very creeped out right now.”
“I see,” he said slowly. “I’m… sorry?” At that moment, the sensor module beeped softly, rising into the air of its own accord. A bright, narrow light began sweeping Octavia from head to toe as the sensor began a slow orbit around her. “Ah! There we are!”
“Is there anything special I need to do?” Octavia asked as she watched the metal orb circle in front of her face.
“Just remain still,” he assured as his left hand transformed into a small display screen showing a rough three-dimensional image of her. “The scan should be completed quickly; XT-117’s sensors are more advanced than my own.”
Octavia nodded ever-so slightly. A few minutes passed, the only sounds the delicate hum of the sensor pod as it continued its work, and the occasional beep from Maestro’s display pad as he monitored the results.
Before the relative silence became awkward, Octavia gently cleared her throat. “She has a name, you know.”
“I beg your pardon?” Maestro looked up from his display.
“Sweetie Bot. Her name is Sweetie Bot.”
Maestro sighed, his optics performing a passable interpretation of an eye-roll. “XT-117 may choose to call herself whatever she wishes, but that name has no significance to me.”
“It does to her.” Octavia had to remind herself not to cross her arms. “Sweetie Belle told her she could choose whatever name she wanted. It represents the friendship they’ve formed, and I for one think it’s quite… sweet.” She cringed at her own awkward choice of words.
“Feh,” Maestro waved dismissively. “You sound as if you are beginning to believe the fanciful stories that those six young women tell Mister Sentry.”
“From what Flash just told us, those ‘young women’ just defeated three mind-controlling beings from another dimension with a song,” Octavia said, “so yes, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m starting to believe that there may actually be something to this whole ‘magic of friendship’ business.”
Maestro looked for a moment as if he were about to argue, but instead his metallic brow furrowed again as his eyes drifted down and to the side. “Hm. You make an excellent point, Miss Melody.” He returned to monitoring the scan without another word, and this time it was Octavia’s turn to stare in confusion.
She was well aware that Maestro had quite skillfully navigated their conversation away from talking about Sweetie Bot--it was far from the first time he’d avoided the subject, after all--but this was the first time she had seen him even consider the possibility that the energy coming from Canterlot High was some form of, for lack of a better word, magic. A low-pitched buzz from the sensor forestalled any of Octavia’s further thoughts on the matter.
“Something wrong?”
“Hm, no, nothing a few adjustments won’t fix.” Maestro tapped a few commands into his display and the buzzing ceased. “It would appear that your neurotransmitter levels are in a state of disarray. Considering the emotional and mental manipulation you’ve recently experienced, that is not surprising.”
“I suppose not,” Octavia admitted with a shake of her head. “Though to be honest, I think the main culprit behind any disarray in my neurotransmitters is, as usual, one Vinyl Scratch.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Octavia blinked. “Come again?”
“I asked if you wanted to talk about Miss Scratch, if that’s what is bothering you,” Maestro said, looking her in the eye. “Speaking of one’s difficulties and sharing their burden with others is something that friends do, yes?” He offered a small shrug. “I will listen intently, if you will tell.”
“Are… are you serious?” Octavia’s brow furrowed as she balked at Maestro. “You, the single most emotionless, robotic person I have ever known--pun not intended, mind you; really need to stop doing that--wants me to talk about my feelings?”
Maestro bowed his head and made a sound that came close to a sigh, his display shifting back into an actual hand while the sensor continued its work. “I will be honest. Before my fellow Autobots and I knew that you and your friends’ behavior was being altered by an outside force, the thought occurred that our partnership might well be coming to an end. That thought… did not sit well with me.”
“Maestro,” Octavia had to fight to keep a smile from blooming across her face, “are you suggesting that you actually like spending time with me?”
This brought an even deeper cyber-sigh from the robot as he crossed his arms. “I still stand by my belief that your world has little to offer us aside from the strange energy that radiates from the dimensional disruption at your school,” he said, “but I must admit that you are… far less irritating than most of your species. In fact, yes; I find that I have come to enjoy our rapport.”
This time Octavia could do nothing to hide her grin. “Backhanded compliment notwithstanding, thank you. I enjoy your company as well, Maestro.” She shook her head. “As for Vinyl… part of me wants nothing more than for her to just text and let me know that she’s all right, while the rest of me is absolutely dreading what she might say when she does.”
“Because of the way you acted during the competition,” Maestro said, less a question than an affirmation of his own understanding.
Octavia nodded. “The things I said to her… if she had said them to me, I… I honestly don’t know if I’d ever want to speak to her again. What if… what if she feels the same way?” Her vision blurred as she began tearing up. “Have I really just thrown away our friendship because I was… because I was angry about some stupid band competition?”
Maestro stared at her for a brief moment before reaching out to pluck the hovering sensor from the air as it passed near him, the device powering down automatically. Now free from worrying about disrupting the scan, Octavia raised a hand and tried to wipe the tears from her eyes as Maestro claimed the box of tissues from her nightstand and held it out for her. She mumbled a thank you as she pulled free several plys.
“I do not pretend to know or understand Miss Scratch that well; certainly not as you do,” Maestro said in surprisingly soft tones, “but she does not strike me as the kind of person who would hold such a grudge. Even if she were, she is aware that your recent behavior was beyond your control. She will forgive you.”
Octavia smiled through the last of her tears, and stepped forward to gingerly wrap her arms around Maestro in a quick, awkward hug. “Thank you.”
“You, ah… are welcome, I suppose.” Maestro said. The flustered Autobot was saved from any further discomfort by a sudden sharp ding. Both their heads turned toward the source, Octavia’s phone, just as the notification backlight went dark again.
The color drained from Octavia’s face. “Speak of the Devil and she doth text,” she quipped, and though she continued to stare at the device, she made no move to claim it.
Maestro looked back and forth between the phone and the seemingly paralyzed cellist. “Are you going to see what she has to say?”
Octavia bit her lip, finally tearing her gaze from the phone to look at him with uncertain eyes, and he offered an encouraging nod. After taking a deep breath she strode to the bed and picked up the phone.
Im fine. Kinda tired, gonna eat and crash for the PM. Talk 2 u in the AM? It wasnt ur fault, tavi. Were cool, no worries.
For a moment Octavia just stared at the screen, reading it thrice to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her, before breathing a massive sigh. A smile picked up the corners of her mouth as she turned the phone toward Maestro, who read the message and nodded again.
“There, you see? You were worried for nothing.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘for nothing’,” Octavia sat down heavily on the edge of her bed while her thumbs tapped out a quick response, “but you were right. Good heavens, I feel so stupid.”
Your spelling and punctuation are atrocious. Sleep well, Vinyl.
She hit send and laughed. “You’d think by now that I’d have learnt to trust Vinyl a little more.”
Maestro’s head tilted slightly. “You do not trust her?”
“No, I do!” Octavia said quickly. “That’s not quite what I… I mean, I…” She trailed off, shaking her head as her mouth twisted into a mildly-frustrated grimace. Maestro simply stood at ease for a brief moment until Octavia composed the right words.
“Vinyl and I are... very different. Everything about her; the way she dresses, the food--and I use that term loosely--that she eats, her blatant disregard for anything even resembling decorum… it all flies in the face of everything I was raised to believe a proper young woman should strive to be. Despite all that, Vinyl Scratch has never once let me down when I needed her, and... sometimes I forget that.” A wistful smile curled one side of her mouth. “She was my first friend at Canterlot High after I transferred there freshman year... I don’t even want to imagine where I would be without her.”
The phone in her hands dinged again. Octavia glanced down, the warm grin on her face folding into a frown instantly.
u 2
“Oooh, I hate her so much!”
Maestro’s mechanical brow furrowed. “I think you’re getting confused again.”
Octavia opened her mouth to reply, but her blood ran cold at the sound of a sudden, sharp trio of knocks from her door. A muffled, yet chillingly sharp voice came from the other side.
“Octavia? Is everything all right?”
“Uh, j-just a moment, Mother!” Octavia sprang to her feet, tossing her phone back on the bed as Maestro’s head whipped between the sensor pod in his one hand, the box of tissues in the other, and the rest of the room. Octavia cringed as he quickly and quietly strode to her desk, only to nearly drop both items atop it with clatter. “Shh! Hurry!” she whispered.
“I’m coming in,” her mother’s voice came again. Octavia’s heart skipped a beat.
It skipped another when Maestro took a single running step and leaped at her, his body shifting and twisting in midair with a series of relatively soft clicks and metallic hisses. Her eyes went wide and she thrust her arms out just in time to catch the incoming cello sideways across her torso. The instrument made a pleasingly-low ‘thung’ as it impacted, knocking the air from her lungs and forcing her back into a sitting position on her bed, where she nearly lost her grip on it.
“Be careful!” Maestro’s hushed voice rose up to her.
“Sorry, you’re heavy!”
“I beg your pard-!?”
“Shh!”
The door swung open.
“Who are you talking… to?” Octavia’s mother hesitated when she saw her daughter sitting on the edge of her bed, cello upright and ready before her, and wearing a smile that was just ever-so-slightly too wide.
“No one at all,” Octavia lied sweetly. “I was just going over the arrangements I’m planning to practice tonight. I sometimes recite the names just before I begin to help me remember the proper order.”
“Ah, I see,” her mother nodded slowly as she took a pair of steps into the room and crossed her arms. She briefly searched the space with her eyes, as if she expected to spot someone’s shoes peeking out from under a curtain, or an arm not quite hidden beneath the bed. “Well, if you’ll recall, you promised two full hours of rehearsal this evening in exchange for being allowed to attend that modern music festival or whatever it was your school was hosting.” The way she spat the words ‘modern’ and ‘school’ made her opinion on both quite evident. “Don’t think for a moment that just because you decided not to go that it releases you from your commitment; a promise-”
“Is a promise,” Octavia finished with a nod. “Yes, Mother, I haven’t forgotten.”
“Very good,” her mother smiled, taking one last glance around the room as she turned back to the door. “It’s getting late, so you’d best begin…” She trailed off as her eyes narrowed at something on the far side of Octavia’s room. “What is that?”
Octavia had to consciously resist the urge to swallow. “What’s what?”
“That,” her mother intoned, striding across the room to Octavia’s desk, where she beheld the assortment of damaged circuitry, metal shards, and tools Maestro had left behind in his haste to hide.
“Oh! That’s, um… just something I was working on for school. We’re studying the unit on electrical engineering in Mister Turner’s physics class.” Octavia felt herself flush as her mother scrutinized the mess. She suddenly realized that there was something else she’d forgotten; something her mother was sure to notice eventually.
“Bow,” she breathed a quiet whisper to her cello through clenched teeth.
“What?”
“Bow!”
A split second later a small compartment on the side of her instrument clicked open, and with a pressurized hiss the cello’s matching bow shot from within. Octavia made a mad grab, barely snagging the trailing end of the bow as the other struck the lamp on her bedside table, nearly knocking it to the floor and leaving the shade tilted at an awkward angle.
Her mother turned at the sound, but again saw only her smiling daughter, her instrument’s bow swinging back and forth as she flexed and rolled her wrist in preparation for playing. She turned back to the contents of the desk with a huff, picking up a small, round device and eyeing it carefully. “Well, whatever strange projects your teachers have you bringing home with you, make certain that you do not let them interfere with your music instruction. You have a recital in two weeks, and as always I expect your performance to be exemplary.”
“I understand, Mother,” Octavia said as the older woman replaced the sensor on the desk and turned to leave.
“Make certain you move to a chair before you begin. Your posture will be terrible if you play from your bed like that.” She gave her daughter a final, curt nod as she closed the door behind her.
Octavia remained stock still for another few seconds as her ears strained to pick up the soft sound of her mother’s footsteps retreating down the hall. When she finally felt safe, her shoulders sagged as she slumped forward, holding onto Maestro for support and resting her head against him. “That was far, far too close.”
“Indeed,” Maestro said, his tone still quiet. “It is a shame that your parents reacted so poorly when you tried keeping your door locked.”
“It certainly would’ve make this whole arrangement a little less nerve-wracking,” she admitted.
“I regret that I am the source of such anxiety for you, Miss Melody.”
“Oh, you know I didn’t mean it like that!” Octavia lifted her head and scoffed.
Maestro chuckled. “You are right, of course. I should let you begin practicing so that your mother does not become suspicious and return.”
“Um, about that...” Octavia started, her grip on the cello’s neck tightening slightly. “Do you suppose that, maybe I could… practice with you?”
A beat of silence passed.
“You do have an actual cello, do you not?”
“Well, yes,” she eyed the closed instrument case standing in the far corner, “but honestly, the sound you make is so much higher quality than that old thing.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, Miss Melody.”
“Please?” she begged before putting on a smirk. Her voice took on an enticing sing-song quality. “I’ll let you choose the first piece.”
Another lengthy pseudo-sigh issued forth from the instrument. “... Very well.”
“Fantastic!” Octavia beamed, standing and straining only a little as she carried Maestro across the room, pulled her desk chair to the center, and sat. “How would you like to begin?”
“Hm,” Maestro mused for a moment. “How about something... inspiring. Something dramatic and uplifting, yes?”
Octavia nodded slowly, setting bow to strings as a smile crept onto her face.
A little over two hours later, Octavia gently guided her bow to a stop as the dulcet tones of her final composition of the evening faded away. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes with a smile.
“Wonderful, Miss Melody,” Maestro’s voice said. “I am by no means an expert on your world’s music, but I am continually amazed by just how much control you exert over the pitch and volume with such imperceptibly small movements. It’s quite elegant.”
“T-thank you, Maestro,” Octavia laughed and found herself wearing a light blush. “Really though, it’s hard not to throw oneself into the performance when every note comes out so full and robust.” She quirked an eyebrow. “If you ever get tired of the whole ‘fighting for the freedom of the galaxy’ thing, you could always live out your days in the orchestra.” Octavia’s smile died on her lips as a number of seconds passed with no response. “Maestro?”
“Oh, my apologies,” he said quietly. “I just realized that it’s been quite some time since I last thought about the war on Cybertron.”
“That’s where you’re from, isn’t it? Your home?” She leaned forward and rested some of her weight on him. “You’ve never really spoken of it before, at least not in any detail.”
“No, I have not. It is a… sensitive subject for me. The civil war between my people has sown such widespread destruction and suffering that calling it a ‘civil war’ hardly seems fair. So many lives lost; so many other worlds affected...” He let out a soft sigh. “Sometimes I wonder if it is truly worth the cost.”
“Does this have anything to do with Sweetie Bot?”
Suddenly the cello shook and whirred in Octavia’s hands, and she let go as it started to curl away from her, the scroll and tuning pegs coming to rest on the floor. The body of the instrument separated into four roughly-equal pieces with a hydraulic hiss, two sliding along the neck as it also split down the middle to form Maestro’s legs and feet. The two larger pieces that made up the lower bout now lifted into the air and ratcheted apart, making room for Maestro’s head to rise into position from within as his arms unfolded from the sides. As the last details of his body settled into place with a series of soft, metallic clicks, he eyed Octavia and took a step backwards.
“How did you…?”
“I asked Subwoofer,” Octavia said, wincing only a little. “My curiosity got the better of me; I’m sorry.”
“Hnn,” Maestro grumbled and crossed his arms. “I will have to have a word with that dummkopf later.”
“It’s true, then?” Octavia asked, offering him the bow in her hand. “You were the one who… built Sweetie Bot?”
“In simplest terms, yes,” Maestro nodded, taking the bow and holding it against his arm, where it quickly reintegrated itself with his body. “Though I am afraid the truth is more… complicated.” He glanced toward Octavia’s desk and walked to it, staring down at the pieces and parts.
“XT-117 is--was an experiment. Cold-constructed and infused with an artificially-generated spark of life.” He picked up the sensor orb from the table, turning it over in his hands as he spoke. “Made with the most advanced materials and components available, including a variation of our space-folding teleportation technology. She was my crowning achievement… but she was also a failure. The project’s goal was to produce the next generation of soldiers--advanced, living weapons without conscience who would turn the tide of the war.”
“I have a hard time picturing Sweetie Bot as a soldier, of all things,” Octavia shook her head. “She may act like a child sometimes, but she’s incredibly caring and gentle.”
“Precisely,” Maestro said as he turned to face her. “Her personality was unsuitable, and she was deemed another failed prototype. She had been alive for less than six hours before she was scheduled to be… disassembled.”
A weak gasp escaped Octavia’s lips. “That’s… that’s awful!”
Maestro nodded. “I agree. Most of our previous experiments lasted barely a few moments, let alone developed any kind of sentience or personality.” He stared hard at the device in his hands, the soft sound of his neck servos giving away the tiniest shake of his head. “When I saw the light in XT-117’s eyes; the moment when I first heard the innocence in her voice, I knew that she was special. I knew immediately that I would disobey any order to dismantle her… and so I did.”
“She… she isn’t just another experiment to you, is she?” Octavia’s voice wavered. “She’s your daughter.”
Maestro looked up at Octavia, his metallic eyebrows rising. Neither spoke until Maestro’s gaze trailed slowly back to the sensor pod. “I… yes, I suppose in a way, she is.”
With that, Maestro fell silent. Octavia lost track of how many minutes she sat there; her mouth hovering between a smile and a frown, staring at her friend through blurry, moist eyes that couldn’t help but see him in a new light. Slowly, the frown started to win out.
“The Autobots fight to protect sentient life, don’t they?” she asked quietly. “If what you say about Sweetie Bot is true, why in the world would they order you to destroy her?”
Maestro let out a brief, low chuckle. “I said the truth was somewhat complicated, yes? I did not always-!”
The piercing trill and flashing lights of an alarm emanating from the sensor in Maestro’s hand cut him off.
“What is it doing?” Octavia clapped her hands to the sides of her head and had to raise her voice to be heard, but Maestro silenced the device a split-second later.
“It appears that XT-117’s sensor is picking up… an Energon signal?” His hand transformed into a display screen again as it filled with numbers and some kind of pulsating graph.
“I suppose that’s not unexpected,” Octavia said as she gently massaged the space behind her ears. “With everything that happened earlier at the Battle of the Bands I’m surprised it hasn’t been going off all night. Are you sure you’ve got it working properly?”
Maestro shook his head. “No, this is not the energy we have been picking up from your school. This is an actual Energon signature.” He tapped several places on the screen, pulling up a set of different graphs. “It has a clear pattern, but it does not match any I am familiar with,” he continued, the panic rising in his voice as he looked up from the display. “That can only mean one thing.”
Octavia’s eyes went wide as her breath caught in her throat and a chill danced down her spine.
“A Decepticon…”
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Nice. And Maestro was a Decepticon, huh? And .....*much fangirl squealing*
HE'S A CELLO!!!!!!!!!
Dun dun DUN!
I have to say, I love hearing about this 'Sweetie Bot', and as much raw, beautiful emotion was in this chapter - from both characters - I'm really looking forward to the Sweetie Belle chapter.
Also, it seems that so far each of the humans with an Autobot partner has their Autobot turn into their instrument. Subwoofer became a turntable/sound system in addition to a car, Maestro turns into a cello...does that mean that Flash Sentry's Autobot partner (since Flash was mentioned as being in the know) is his guitar? And what does that mean for Sweetie Bot? A microphone?
Uh-oh. Just what they need and before the Friendship Games to boot. A Decepticon, but who is the unlucky Con?
Well things just got interesting. Well, moreso than before.
Nice to see this story continuing! Why do I feel that Sweetie Bot is Sweetie Bell's twin. So who will be the Decepticon my bet is Starscream.
Flash's is either his car, guitar, or heck both! So are these autobots all musically themed? Thats cool. Do they have a governement agent friend like Agent Foweler was in Prime? Would that Agent friend be Bon Bon? Either way this looks interesting. Thank you for continuing!
woohooo glad to see this. And Maestro is a cello?!
I have to say this came out even better so far than I could have hoped I think.
Only one problem, why must you remind me of that wonderfull song?
Oh well at least I actually managed to find a transcription of the cello part after a ton of searching this time. Gonna have to take a look at that during practice tomorrow, and spend some more time looking for another version....
Oh, please be Soundwave. We definitely need the Decepticon DJ(and comms officer) in the story, especially with all the music in the air. Mayhaps he's picking up a certain trio to be his 'human' partners?
Also, it appears we have a reformed Decepticon in our midst. This can only lead to drama.
Random guesses:
Flash's everything
Rainbow's guitar
Library's computers
Cellphone
Maud's rock.
Crystal Prep, as in the entire school
Angel Bunny
Scootaloo's shoe.
Fortress Maximus's little brother?
I'm guessing that XT-117 was the vehicon prototype?
Wish I could like this again.
What's this?! The story CONTINUES?! Oh, goodness, this makes me happy!
And Octavia's companion is her cello. This too makes me happy.
A Decepticon, this should be interesting. GO ON.
6776798 No, no. Sweetie Bot is obviously Scootaloo.
Either the Autobots are being led by Sentinel Prime, or Optimus was not closely monitoring the project, because I cannot think of any version of Optimus Prime who would condone such an action, not if the prototype showed any signs of life.
Okay I can think of one version, but in that universe Megatron is a noble warrior and mathematician, and Starscream couldn't scheme to save his life so it hardly counts.
Ooooooh, Soundwave!
Yay, a continuation! I thought this was originally a oneshot? Well, glad to read more of this. So, here Sweetie Belle is a... Pretender? Though she seemed to be under the influence of the Dazzlings too, though she sure doesn't sound like a normal cybertronian either way. Great to see another human transformer pair, and one very different from Vinyl's friendship (and former Decepticon?). The potential combination of Transformers and equestrian magic would probably lead to a lot of potential applications.
6777893
That seems to imply that Sweetie Belle and Sweetie Bot are separate beings, but it's a nice shout out.
6777974
That said, Sweetie Bot might still be a pretender.
6777974
Ah, whoops, missed/forgot that part. Just so much information in this chapter- I don't mean it was just endless exposition, but plenty of references and inferences to their situation, personalities and other characters, which is part of what makes this fic so interesting.
Very nicely done. Can't wait to see more of Sweetie Bot, but now I'm curious about the last of the bunch, too.
6776840 Did you see the end of the Beast Wars movie? At the end, it is heavily implied that Starscream is scrap. I think that a better idea would be that it's Shockwave, and he reveals that Maestro was a Con.
Speaking of which, I have an idea for Maestro's weapon, his bow, becomes a bow. Plus, the part of his cello form that becomes the neck can fold back and become a quiver.
So, does that sound like a good idea or what?
6778555
There was a Beast Wars movie?! I know in the Transformers Movie, the 80's one he was killed but this is a different universe here. The real question is are the Joes going to show up? If we have two of the three shows we might as well have the third on in the same universe.
6778622 To specific, it was the Transformers Prime Beast Wars that the movie was based on. To sum it up without spoiling too much, Unicron resurrects Megatron and possess him in order to kill Primus using an army of Predicon zombies. The Autobots join forces with the Predicons, Shockwave cloned two more, to stop him. At the end Predaking supposedly kills Starscream for his part in the Predicon genocide back on Earth, but it fades to black before anything happens.
As for the Joes, probably not.
6777090 Yes, having an ex-Decepticon on the team certainly has potential for drama.
Though the concepts in those links may be way too dark to be brought up in this story.
6778164 I know, it's great isn't it!
Huh. That was unexpected, though entirely fitting for Octavia. The use of Sweetie Bot is also an interesting wrinkle, as is that ending. Definitely looking forward to more, especially since the fourth pair remains ambiguous.
6777119
Darn it, now you have me hoping that Boulder is a Rock Lord.
Hot damn, you knocked it out of the park with this. I've been burnt out on the Vinyl+Octavia dynamic for no less than four years now but you got this old heart beating for it just one more time. Penning a B-side to Vinyl's C1 text conversation was a brilliant move.
Meanwhile, wow. Maestro. Wow. Such a caring and understanding class act. I want one.
Keep it going, captain! Bring on Sweetie Bot--I'm ready.
I'm glad everyone seems to have enjoyed this chapter as well. Thanks for reading!
6776798
), these two just sort of... ended up that way, 
I wasn't planning on having all the 'bots follow a musical theme (as fun as that might've been to try,
I've got something special planned for Sweetie Bot, and her chapter is up next!
6776810 6776840 6777090 6777869
I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm not planning on using any of the fan-favorite bots we all know and love for this story. I wrote a blog back shortly after the story first released that has more information, but the TL;DR is that I don't want to upset folks by not getting their favorite character 'right'. Characters are the heart and soul of any story, and my knowledge of Transformers hasn't been updated since... uh, like 1988 (unless you count the live-action films),
6777047
There's a Cello Trio version as well, but I didn't like the way it sounded as much as the original... plus the look on the dude's face kept making me laugh,
6777119
Shhh!
6777697
cdn.bleedingcool.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobotChicken.jpg
6778622 6778653
I dunno, Vinyl and Snake Eyes could probably have one seriously riveting conversation,
6780174
Well it'd certainly explain why Maud keeps talking to him,
... Crap; I'm gonna have to do it now, aren't I?
6780656
Regarding Boulder the miniature Rock Lord...
That could be interesting.
6780591
No pressure, right?
Wait... I thought you were the Captain?
6780656
yeah I was laughing at that face too, though I think I imagine I've had that look on my face when sight reading a piece the first few times on more than one occasion. And yeah I like the original better as well. I've only been playing for a little over a year so it's also fun looking for a piece I can play as well as sounding decent. Just started a few pieces with a lot of hand shifting though so that opens things up a lot.
And again, can't wait for more. You hit this out of the ballpark in so many ways I don't think I can list them all here.
6780656 I'm good with that. Even the lesser known Cons need face time.
6780656 That they would.
By the way, what do you think of my idea for Maestro's weapon?
6781763
Way ahead of you,
6780656 May I recommend these pieces of fiction: Beast Wars, Transformers Prime, Transformers RiD (2001) and Transformers Animated. Even if only for inspiration, these are commonly seen as good Transformers shows.
6781804 Yeah, well it was kind of obvious.
This is the best transformers mlp crossover I've read yet, keep it up
can't wait to see what happens next.
....I WANT THE NEXT CHAPTER NOW!!!! But at the same time, I want it to be good, and so I don't want to rush you. ARGH, THE ANTICIPATION IS KILLING ME!
Awww, that was a cool and sweet chapter, nicely done man, nicely done!
Glad to see this being continued!
Keep it up!
Maestro brings back fond memories of G1's Perceptor and Blaster. (I think that was his name, at least.)
Good job, Mr.AskAPirate.
10/10
Oh I hope for a new chapter soon this is really interesting I like the way it starts out very different than the way transformer starts out when he meets humans they already friends and partners
6781804 Hey, you were talking about using a relatively unknown Con? How about this guy?
7111325 You are crazy! Since O. Prime isn't around, maybe your guy can be like this story's Megatron.
7244450 I'ma take that as a complement
Wow, this version of Octavia's mother is a lot like the one in Persona: EG. And now a Decepticon has shown up? This is getting good.