The Groundbridge portal opened up, and the five Crystal Prep students, still in their partners’ bodies walked on through. Once it closed, they looked ahead the first thing they noticed was a sign in front of them that was boarded up wtih closed marks, and an additional sign that said, “Keep Out.”
“Geez, what happened to this place?” Indigo looked at the vines coiling around the fence. “It’s like no-one’s been here since, like, forever!”
“Which is why it’s the perfect place to hide out.” Sunny Flare cut down the padlock holding the gate shut. “No-one’s gonna find us here.”
Sour could only gulp. “Are you sure this was a good idea? Why not just go to a forest or something? Why an abandoned park? Not to mention it's outside of Canterlot?”
“Oh, relax, Sour. It’s an abandoned amusement park. If anything, we’re gonna be the scariest things here.” Lemon smirked. “Plus, I kinda wanna see how a clown would react to a fifty-foot tall robot.”
“That’s an implication that we’re not alone. And this place has been boarded up so technically we would be alone. But I’d like to point out if there is someone around that sees us, we don’t have anything good to cover,” Sugarcoat deadpanned. “This is outside of Canterlot, and the only people who know that the Autobots exist is EVERYONE in Canterlot. If anyone else outside finds out, we’re dead.”
“Sugarcoat, you’re overthinking this.” Sunny wrapped her arm around Sugarcoat’s. “We’re armed to the teeth and we’re all together. Nothing’s gonna kill us out here.”
“Yet six people died here in a roller coaster accident?” Sugarcoat lifted a brow
“Oh trust me, Sugarcoat, there’s a lot more to that story than you know.” Indigo smirked. “Plus, it was totally human error. The machine didn’t just have some wacky-dacky malfunction or anything…”
“Well, enough talk. Let's just go in,” Sugarcoat said walking forward.
The girls pushed through the gates and stared up at the sky. Ravens cawed above them as they flew from their metallic perches and dropped feathers over their heads. Every part of the amusement park, including the food stands had either rotted and crumbled or had been completely overtaken by moss and ivy. There was almost no part of the park with any color or life to it of any kind.
The girls all looked around the place, observing the rusted machines that laid dead and unmoved. Sour, who moved close behind them kept on shaking and the metal on her body rattled and shuddered with every step that she took. A loud grinding noise filled her ears and before she could say anything, one of the carriages from the ferris wheel rotted off of the frame and crashed right behind her.
Sour let out a small squeak and she nearly jumped as the crashing noises filled her ears.
“Sour, dude. Calm down… Geez. You’re more jumpy as a robot than you are a human,” Lemon said.
Sour shivered a bit more. “S-Sorry girls… I guess… I don’t know. Something about this place doesn’t feel right.
“C’mon, what’s gonna happen?” Indigo shrugged. “Are a bunch of clown zombies just gonna come outta nowhere and start chasing us down?
“Or maybe a killer clown from outer space with a laser weapon that’ll turn you into cotton candy!” Lemon joked.
“Girls! I don’t want any ‘nam flashbacks to Killing Floor 2, alright?!” Sour shouted. “It’s bad enough that there’s killer clowns. But zombies dressed up as every circus act under the sun? No. Thank. You.”
Sugarcoat scowled back at Sour. If she could raise an eyebrow, she could. But having an entire blue visor as a set of eyes didn’t express much.
“Sour, what exactly is making you this jumpy? I don’t recall you having much fear.” Sugarcoat replied, turning herself around with her hands on her hips.
Sour shuddered a bit more as she looked. “I don’t know, I guess… okay, I’ll admit… I am actually afraid of abandoned places that look like this…”
“Ah, you’re just a bit of a scaredy cat.” Indigo stroked the cannon on her shoulders. “We’re Autobots now. Nothing scares us.”
“Y-You don’t know that! I know everyone’s scared of something! My partner has fears, you know that!” Sour said.
Lemon rolled her eyes. “Sour, how long ago did this supposed monster devour her planet? Almost, maybe thousands of years ago? It's not here now, is it?”
“N-No…”
“Then you’re fine!” Lemon said.
Sour just shivered some more, still clutching close to Sunny Flare.
Suddenly, a creaking noise came from the carousel and everyone shot their heads over towards it. But they saw nothing but a derelict hunk of metal, worn down from years of neglect and abandonment.
“Look, Sour, it’s gonna be fine. There’s five of us, actually…” Lemon tapped her yellow compartment on her chest. “Nine of us. I’ve got cassette warriors in my chest, which Blaster forgot to eject. That’s nine people in total, we’ll be fine.”
Sugarcoat just sighed and kept on walking. As they looked around, there were more sights in the park to be seen. An abandoned roller coaster with a few of the cart components off the track, looking as if they had crashed. Worn out paint from a few more buildings, along with more moss and plant life growing around them.
“So… where do we go now?” Indigo asked.
“Why not try and see if we can transform? I think that’s our first step.” Sunny spoke up.
“Transform? As in, we turn into the cars and drive around and stuff?” Indigo lifted a brow. “I’m kinda cool staying like this, dudes.”
“Technically, three of you can, but Lemon and I can’t. Lemon’s just gonna turn into a boombox, and Highbrow told me not to since one, he’s a helicopter; and two, if I do, my entire head will disconnect into a smaller robot. I’m not even sure if I can get back into robot form if I do that,” Sugarcoat said.
“Well, if Highbrow can transform and turn back to normal without any problems, then I’m sure you can do the same, Sugarcoat.” Sour lowered her brows. “Aren’t you and him supposed to be the brains of this operation?”
“I’m being smart here. I don’t know if I can even change back, not to mention, I have never actually flown a helicopter.” Sugarcoat crossed her arms. “Highbrow’s small head does all of the flying.”
Lemon shook her head. “That just sounds weird... “
“The point is, I know nothing about being a Headmaster.” Sugarcoat scoffed.
“Oh come on, this shouldn’t be too hard!” Sour said as she got some space. “After all, we were technically Autobots one time, right?”
“Yeah, then we lost the suits and now they’re probably in Starscream’s hands by now,” Sugarcoat retorted. “Your point is?”
“The point is that we should be used to transforming by now, Sugarcoat.” Indigo put her hand on Sugarcoat’s shoulders. “In fact, let me try first.” As Indigo tried to transform, she found it hard to mold her arms and legs in the right way to get the right shape. “Oh… hang on a bit. Just a sec. Let me just…”
“Let me try!” Sour said. “Smallfoot’s transformation is simple.” She moved her arms close to fold them in, but nothing happened. “Oh come on! Transform! Uh… Convert! Convert! Come on! Convert!” Sour groaned. “This shouldn’t be that hard! All she does is tuck her head in, move her arms to her sides, and bend her legs backward, that’s it!”
“I can just imagine how jarring it was for Optimus when he had to do it the first time.” Sunny just looked up to the sky. “But anyway, you’re all trying way too hard here. Let me do it.” Sunny contorted her arms and legs and was able to pull the shape off perfectly on her first attempt. “Booyah.”
“Question.” Sugarcoat asked. “How will you transform back?”
“Simple.” Sunny jumped back into robot form and gave a smug pout. “Like that.”
Sugarcoat would’ve rolled her eyes if she could. “Mini-bots always have the simple transformations.”
Indigo groaned some more as she tried to transform, but with how she groaned, she sounded like she was constipated.
“You okay there, Indigo?” Lemon asked.
“Ergh… how does this work!?” Indigo groaned. “I swear, Hound’s gotta be in pain whenever he tries doing this kinda stuff…” With how she was bending her body, Indigo might as well have been in yoga class instead.
“Indigo.” Sunny spoke. “Relax… just concentrate and calm down, Indigo.”
“Easy for you to say!” Indigo’s leg hung straight over her head and her finger digits were popping out of her hand. “You’re not the one who looks like they’re about to die from playing a game of Twister!”
“Look… it’s not that hard. I’ll show you girls.” Sunny said.
She moved in front of Sour and Indigo and readied herself.
“Just focus into the center of your brain, calm your senses, and tell yourself to change shape.”
Just as the girls were about to untie Indigo, they heard the laughter of some gravelly teenage boys in the distance. They looked out through the stalls and saw a group of humans running towards one of the chain-link fences towards the park.
Lemon scoffed. “Great. Now what?”
“Hide. Now.” Sugarcoat sternly said.
The bolts all hid, but Indigo was still tied up. “Uh, guys?! Are you forgetting about somebody?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake…” Sugarcoat grabbed Indigo by the chest and dragged her into hiding.
Everyone peaked their heads out a corner and watched the boys laughing.
“What do we do now? We can’t exactly tell them to go.” Sour asked. “If there’s any footage of us taken, the Autobots are dead. We have enough problems, we don’t need military teams hunting them down and melting them to make new weapons of mass destruction.”
Everyone stared at Sour awkwardly.
“Can’t we just knock ‘em unconscious and wipe their memories or something?” Lemon asked, only to get glares from the others. “What? It’d be much easier for them.”
“We’re giant robots. And we can’t exactly call anyone at the moment.” Sugarcoat said. “Hmm… wait. Indigo, you said this place was closed down for the deaths of six people on the roller coaster right?”
“And it was closed again for child killings, malfunctioning equipment, unclean substances, along with lord knows how many other murders,” Indigo said. “Seriously, this place has a messed up history.”
“Since when was child killing brought into this?” Sunny asked. “All that got this park shut down was that roller-coaster incident. Some pretty big-name dignitaries brought their kids here on one of their days off and it was not a pretty sight to behold…”
Indigo blinked. “Oh, well… I heard a lot of rumors about this place at Crystal Prep. Said this place was haunted with tons of deaths.”
“And you actually bothered to look into it?” Sugarcoat asked.
“Well, Fleur De Lis, Diwata Aino, and Ginger Owlseye are, like, the most popular girls in school there. They were spitting out rumours like a cowboy hocks loogies into those spit cans,” said Indigo.
“... I see.” Sugarcoat said. “Well, if we can’t tell them to leave… then I say we SCARE them out.”
“Scare them out?” Sour lifted a brow. “What are you talking about?”
Sugarcoat for the first time, gave them a smirk. “I have an idea. But I’m going to need all of your help. Now…”
The teenage boys walked around laughing in hysterics as they wandered the abandoned park. They were all making quips about how ruined the place was and what kind of pranks they would be able to pull with no-one around. It was like a gold mine of delinquency for them all.
“I tell you, man, this place is perfect. Just attract some people in, and BAM! We get them good.”
“Shyeah. I reckon we could totally pull some mondo-awesome pranks here, bro,” said another teen. “How ‘bout you guys?”
“Yeah…” a boy said. “Who’d be dumb enough to walk here? Besides, it's not like the people who died are ghosts are anything.”
“Wouldn’t it be radical if we could talk to the dead?” a third boy asked. “I’m sure those ghosts have a lot to talk about. Like, how did they survive that crash?”
“Oooh…” a voice said. “Ooooh…”
“Whoa… you hearing that, dudes?” the second boy asked. “Sounds like someone’s making a gnarly attempt at trying to frighten us.”
Sour smirked as she hid behind a building, and continued to make noises. But what she didn’t notice was a pair of blue eyes that were watching her from another building.
“Oooh… ooooh…” Sour spoke in a ghostly moan.
Lemon watched as Sour made noises and she covered her mouth, trying not to burst out laughing.
“Yo. Dude! Or dudette! Whatever, man, I don’t really care either way,” the first teen said. “Are you, like, really dead? If so, we wanna talk to you.”
“You do not belong here…” Sour whispered. “You have disturbed us… why do you mock the deceased?”
“Uh… we weren’t really mocking anyone,” the second boy spoke.
As Sour continued to impersonate a ghost, the blue eyes staring down from the top of the castle came into the light, revealing a white creature with darker blue accents to his body. He flapped down silently, curving his wings in as he swooped down around the Shadowbolts.
“You have made us angry by being here…” Sour continued to moan. “For this, we punish thee with a horrible curse more frightening than anything you could ever imagine…”
“Please, brosef, have some mercy on us or something like that.” The leader got down onto his hands and knees. “We didn’t mean to disturb you or anything. Just wanted to know how you survived a roller-coaster accident.”
“We punish thee with…”
“DEATH!” shrieked the figure.
Everyone looked up and saw a giant white and blue bat-like creature zoom overhead, leaving a massive slipstream of wind in his wake that knocked the boys airborne. He swooped across the sky at blisteringly fast speeds and concealed his presence by going behind the ruined castle.
“Forget this, man! We gotta hide!” one of the teens said. “These ghosts mean business!”
The three boys ran from where they were and began to leave where they came in. And as they ran, the creature that swooped down, flew off somewhere else and ducked behind a building. Noticing the coast was clear, the girls stepped out and laughed.
“Nice job guys!” Indigo chuckled. “I don’t know who made that bat, but that was amazing. Nice touch.”
Lemon laughed hard. “Oh, they were so freaked out!”
“Girls, do you really think that it’s a good idea to come out now with that… thing prowling around?” Sugarcoat stayed hidden behind the stands. “Whatever that thing was, it wasn’t any of us. As far as I can tell, none of us have any wings…”
Both girls eyes widened and they ran back behind a building where Sour, Sugarcoat, and Sunny were hiding.
“None of you staged that?” Indigo asked. “N-None of you?”
Sour shivered. “None of us. And I think that… thing was watching us the whole time. While I was hiding behind that building there, I felt someone, or something watching me. I guess it was that big thing.”
“Well, if it’s gonna stay here, then we’re not safe at all.” Sugarcoat crossed her arms. “This was a bad idea from the start. I’m just gonna open up a Groundbridge and that’ll be the end of that.”
“Uh… here’s my question. You barely know how to operate that body, and you don’t know all of the switches. How exactly are you going to make a portal escape back home!?” Indigo snapped.
Sour shivered. “She’s right… we’re stuck out here with that… thing!”
Sour tightly pulled Lemon close, not wanting to lose her.
“Ugh, you’re all just terrified. Once we get back home, you’ll see that it was nothing but a fluke.” Sugarcoat poked her head out and attempted to active a portal pressing a button.
The second her head poked out, the creature’s talons swooped down and ripped her head from her body. It clattered and clanged across the road, causing Sugarcoat’s body to fall down chest first and halfway transform into its immobile helicopter form.
“SUGARCOAT!” The Shadowbolts all cried out as they watched their lifeless friend spark electricity from the ripped wires.
A bat-like screech pierced through the skies as the beast perched itself atop the castle once more. But all the bolts could hear was their own frantic groans and moans as they grabbed her head out of view and tried putting Sugarcoat’s body back together.
The head that was severed off began to clank and whir, as soon the entire head began to change its shape and revealed a much smaller robot that was no bigger than the teenagers.
“I guess it’s a good thing I’m in a Headmaster, huh?” Sugarcoat said.
“Yeah, but I don’t think you’re gonna get put back together, Sugarcoat…” Sour Sweet just had to look at how badly torn Sugarcoat’s head and neck wiring was. “It’s totally ripped to shreds. You could power down any second now.”
“Girls, I’m fine. Look, Highbrow’s head is an entire living thing on its own. He’s still functioning even when he’s decapitated. Sure, I might not be able to get back to my body now, but he’s not dead.”
“Sugarcoat, you don’t even HAVE a body to get back to.” Indigo pointed out the wires again. “I’m pretty sure that without the head on his body, Highbrow’s literally just a talking paperweight now. Just look at the damage! How can you say you’re gonna be okay with a slash like that?!”
Sugarcoat looked back on the damage from the sizzling wounds of the larger body that looked like it was barely halfway through the transformation to helicopter form.
“Well...” Sugarcoat grimaced and put a distressed face on. “This is a problem.”
Sour held Sunny close to her as she felt herself quaking and whimpering. “We should have just stayed home…”