//------------------------------// // Part 12: Burnin' For You // Story: Equestria Girls: Transformation // by The Bricklayer //------------------------------// Back at the Autobase, Perceptor was just re-emerging from his personal quarters after a long recharge cycle. He’d been working day and night to find a solution to Road Rage’s… predicament for lack of a better term, with very little success. With a distinct hissing sound, the doors to the Autobase’s medical wing opened, and Perceptor stepped into the room, datapad in hand amongst about probably a million other things. “Primus, Perceptor, heard you were one busy bot, but never knew it was this bad…” Road Rage asked in a concerned tone of voice, switching off the local fifties throwback radio station headed up by a girl known as ‘Pinkie Pie’. Strange name, but then again she was named Road Rage so really, who was she to judge? Song had been playing, mentioned something about blue suede shoes. Very suave singer, really. “Sure you’re not making a mistake throwing yourself into your work this much?” Perceptor let out a little yelp, and dropped everything he was holding, scrambling to pick it back up with Road Rage giving him a hand. “I’ve only made one mistake in my entire life,” Perceptor responded as he looked up from his things and towards Road Rage, with an edge of warning in his tone. “Once, you hear? I don’t intend to make that same mistake again. Not ever.” Road Rage wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about and figured it probably best not to ask, but put a comforting hand on his shoulder anyway. “Whatever your mistake was, I’m sure you’ll correct it. Nobody’s perfect,” she replied in a soft tone of voice. “We all do things in life we regret. But if we don't learn from them, and move towards a brighter future, we pay twice,” she told him, voice still soft but gaze quite firm. “Easy for you to say…” Perceptor muttered quietly to himself before he regained his composure and began holding up an odd little device Road Rage suspected he’d probably built himself, as she felt every inch of her body being scanned. “So, how do you feel?” “The usual, like scrap really,” Road Rage replied dryly. “Yes, I suspected as much, but anything out of the ordinary, anything you can really describe to me that might help me give me a clue as to how to work on this virus of yours?” Perceptor asked gently, and Road Rage was honestly surprised by his bedside manner. Normally, he was supposed to be this cold, unfeeling bot focused only on his work. She supposed, spending time around humanity and spending time around her had made him open up a bit more, act more like a normal Cybertronian really. “I… I don’t know how to describe it, except maybe as this burning sensation wanting to eat me up inside, tear away every fiber of my being. For the most part, it’s fairly tame, like a little prick at the back of your neck, but every now and again it flares up like an inferno and I feel like I’ve had this red-hot poker stuck into me, and I just want to scream, tear things up like some sort of monster,” Road Rage whispered, every inch of her voice dripping with sheer terror. “Like… like some sort of instrument of destruction,” “I see,” Perceptor replied, using his scope mounted on his shoulders to look inside Road Rage’s body, past her armor plating, and to her body frame structure and see all of her inner workings, cogs and gears turning and her spark beating and pulsating, albeit at a slightly faster rate than was normal for any Cybertronian. More symptoms of the virus, he supposed. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose,” Perceptor muttered, as he continued looking over Road Rage’s vitals. “Surprisingly grim, coming from you,” she noted. “Yeah, quote I heard once. Made by a human named Bill Gates, smart man really. For a human,” Perceptor remarked, before clarifying. “What I mean is, keep on being successful, you get arrogant, and you believe you’re on top of the world, nothing can go wrong for you. When in fact, one simple mistake can shatter everything you ever knew, and send your whole life as you knew it crashing down,” “Listen, whatever you did, I’m sure you can correct it. Wasn’t your mentor Wheeljack, who said, ‘I barely ever make mistakes, but when I do, I correct them?” So, shouldn’t you be listening to his advice?” Road Rage asked. “Depends on how big the mistake is,” Perceptor muttered in reply. “So, just means you have to work harder to correct it right?” Road Rage asked. “You’re surprisingly insightful today,” Perceptor observed. Road Rage, still sitting on her berth, shrugged. “Comes with the territory I suppose,” she remarked. “I’m an ambassador, often requires me to get to know people quite well, the reason I signed on for this job in the first place, get to know Earth culture better,” “I noticed,” Perceptor remarked, turning the radio station back on, where a brief snippet of a song played. “Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear And it shows them pearly white Just a jackknife has old MacHeath, babe And he keeps it, ah, out of sight Ya know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe…” a voice crackled from it, before Perceptor turned it back off. “Suppose it’s hard for me to do my job as an ambassador, when I have to stay cooped up in her half the time, getting drugged up to slow the flow of that damn virus,” Road Rage muttered bitterly. Perceptor was now the one putting a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a cure. Not just me working on this, if you remember. Twilight, Sugarcoat, they’re putting their backs into this. They don’t have to, they have social lives of their own, but you know what? They’re dropping everything just to help you, someone they barely know. It’s a lot more than most Cybertronians, I shamefully admit, would do. Before, I had barely any respect for humankind, but now that’s changed. Funny that.” Road Rage only smiled. Back in the present, Perceptor walked into the main room of the base, and looked around, before blinking slightly. “Okay, so where’d everyone go?” he asked, before looking down towards Sugarcoat, who was pacing back and forth in worry. “D-Did I miss something?” “Uh dude, Decepticons just got spotted in Japan stealing some nuclear fuel rods, and Prowl and the others just went off to go chase them. Seriously, alarms went off and everything, whole nine yards!” Indigo exclaimed. “How could you miss this?” “I was in a recharge cycle, robots need sleep too you know,” Perceptor replied simply and in a matter of fact tone. “Japan, huh? Okay, so how do we plan to keep a lid on this?” “Chrysalis and Fowler are running interference, Japan’s experienced in robotics as we all know, so they’ll just say that a few prototypes went out of control,” Indigo explained. “People are dumb, by default in some ways,” Indigo added. “And this explanation is so crazy, people might just believe it. In fact, I’d bet they would.” “Hey, uh…” Trixie spoke up, absentmindedly strumming her guitar. “Anyone seen Lemon?” It then hit everyone, that Lemon had conveniently gone missing, and Sugar sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose as everyone’s gazes turned to the little tunnel where the Groundbridge normally opened up, and Prowl and company had gone through only a few hours before. “...Tell me she didn’t.” Indigo muttered, as the penny dropped. “She did.” Sugarcoat sighed to herself. Ikata, Nishiuwa District, Ehime Prefecture Eventually, the entire group of Autobots met up at a dockyard by the sea not that far from the Power Plant. As Prowl pulled up to let Lemon out, he felt this distinct, tingling sensation. Like a small fire flickering inside him. It wasn’t painful by any means, but just noticeable enough. “L-Lemon?” Hound asked in shock, his cool blue optics widening by a considerable margin. “What in the Pit’s name are you doing here?” “Okay, I admit it, I tagged along to get some cool snaps,” Lemon sighed, rubbing her bloody face. “Not my best decision, I admit. But can you blame me? Robot on robot action, and yes I know that sounds like porn so sue me, but this was something I couldn’t miss!” “I… I…” Hound sighed. “We’ll talk about this later, or more likely your friends will give you a good enough chewing out. I’d probably be tearing you a new one right now, but I’m too exhausted, leaking fluid just like you are (Here he pointed to his chest, which was leaking blue energon) and your friends will probably be more than enough to knock enough sense into you so you won’t do this again anyways,” he stated, before turning to Prowl. “So, how’d it go with Octane?” Slowly, but surely, and it looked as if he was in pain while doing so, Prowl transformed. Swerve and Hound shot him concerned looks all the while. The entire back of Prowl’s vehicle mode ended up as his legs, lightbars becoming part of his feet, doors folding out to become arms, and front wheels ending up on the back of Prowl’s shoulders as the entire hood of the car became his chest, with a red chevron atop a white head coming into view. “Got away, Flamewar and Swindle managed to keep me from stopping him, and he transformed into one of his alt-modes and Groundbridged out of here,” Prowl explained, short and getting straight to the point. No nonsense, and no watering things down. “But… On the bright side, we know now at least Perceptor’s armor for the girls worked. Wouldn’t have made it out with my Spark intact without Lemon,” he said, and the girl in question beamed, before Prowl shot her a look. “Still doesn’t excuse her actions though.” He then noticed Hound and Swerve’s expressions, and raised an eyebrow. “Sorry,” Hound said. “It’s just, well, when you transformed you looked as if you were in pain while doing so. Did you get hit a bit harder than you’re letting on?” “It’s nothing,” Prowl refuted. “You’re probably right, just took a few too many knocks and dings from Flamewar and Swindle, that’s all.” Inside, his Logic Circuits were screaming at him that this wasn’t the case, and he’d seen this problem somewhere before, but every other part of Prowl was ignoring them. This concerned him, although he wasn’t about to let it show. Prowl went for his comm unit on his wrist, and requested for a bridge back home, as his colors flickered back to American police livery. Prowl started to transform back to vehicle mode for the ride home, but Hound put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Swerve transformed back to vehicle mode, legs becoming the back end of a pickup truck, and arms folding up into the chassis as the entire front end of the truck -Which made up a huge amount of his robot mode’s back- moved forwards, the whole thing being accompanied by the very distinctive TSCHE-CHU-CHU-CHE-TSCHE sound. Hound followed suit, and his transformation wasn’t all that different really, with legs flipping and becoming his vehicle mode’s back half and arms folding up into the chassis, with the head vanishing from sight. A swirling green and blue vortex of energy opened up, and as Lemon stepped inside Swerve’s cab, she noted a slightly beaten and battered Toyota Hilux pickup resting off to the side, by some massive metal shipping containers. “Hey, so why didn’t you pick that as your vehicle mode Swerve?” she asked. “Mom had one of them, and those things were practically indestructible. Only reason it gave up the ghost was because I… may have accidentally backed it into a lake while learning to drive and flooded the engine compartment,” she laughed nervously. Swerve shuddered, noting to himself to never let her take drive him for any reason. “Hey Hound, doesn’t that look like the sorta vehicle mode my sister Smallfoot might use as an alt-mode if she came to Earth?” Swerve asked, as the three entered the groundbridge portal. “Now that you mention it, yeah…” Hound mused. “I’m sorry, I’m lost here,” Lemon asked, scratching her head. A small white jet flew past her, Phaser if she had to guess. “Who’s this Smallfoot?” “Sorry, friend of ours and fellow scout from back on Cybertron, very sweet soul. Got along with fellow mini-bots like Glyph and Tap-Out,” Hound explained, with a wistful tone in his voice. “Oddest trio of friends I ever met, considering their various backgrounds. Scout, researcher, and former gladiator. Never understood what they had in common aside from being smaller than your average bot.” “Hey, me and the rest of the girls get along quite well, even if we’re so different right?” Lemon asked. “Fair enough, I suppose…” Hound admitted. “Hey, Friendship is Magic right?” Lemon asked before groaning. “God, that sounded so cheesy.” Back at the base, Sugarcoat and Twilight had explained to Perceptor about a certain conspiracy theorist’s broadcast. “I must say, I will never understand the human condition to believe in what simply isn’t there,” Perceptor mused to himself, rubbing a finger on his chin in thought. “Granted, I’m not a psychological profilist, not among my many sets of skills, but it is a fascinating thing isn’t it?” “Hey,” Chrysalis put in. “Some of us, we all need explanations for what’s going on in the world. I mean, we all believed in sea serpents and giant octopus sinking ships and angry sky gods creating storms just because we couldn’t find anything logical about our planet. I mean, the fact that we believed the Sun and everything else revolved around the Earth is saying quite a bit. Though I think that speaks to the human ego if you ask me…” she mused. “And then we find out giant squid, though nowhere near the ship sinking size -Perhaps dinghy sinking size- exist!” Sugarcoat pointed out. “And now aliens as well, namely you guys!” she exclaimed, gesturing to Perceptor. “Not to mention the sea serpents thing, although considering they come from another dimension well, guess that would make them aliens I suppose,” Twilight mused. “Er, actually, about that other dimension thing… Ran a study on the portal in that statue in front of your high school Twilight,” Perceptor put in. “Turns out, Spacebridge to another world far from here, lightyears away.” There was the sound of twin thuds, and Perceptor looked to see both Trixie and Twilight had fainted dead away. “...Was it something I said?” the scientist asked, and both Sunder and Chrysalis gave him ‘looks’. “Oh nothing, you just made their entire reality crash all around them,” Sugarcoat deadpanned. “Nothing more, nothing less.” “I-I see…” Perceptor sighed. “Now, can you continue on about this Xiraia and this radio show of hers. Sounded like you were leading up to something important,” “Ah, so I was,” Sugarcoat nodded, clearing her throat. “I managed to record the entire thing, and this bit might be of interest to you.” With that, she pressed a button on her Pipboy-inspired bracelets (The same that let Lemon transform into a Targetmaster) and let it play. “Anyways, for those of you not in the know, not too long ago, some scientists at the Canterlot Observatory, they sighted two strange meteors coming down right outside the city. One impacted in the canyons outside the town, while the other crash-landed in the mountains. I say crash landed, because despite all of head scientist Night Light’s comments that they are not spacecraft, I know better. Seriously, what else could they be? Asteroids?” “Hmm, seems this human’s a lot smarter than most, despite her need to think everything’s a conspiracy,” Perceptor mused, taking things in stride. “Let me guess, and if you’re as smart as I think you are, you’re about to tell me that you figured out that you think that the second asteroid is the Decepticon base?” he asked. “What else could it be?” Sugarcoat replied, crossing her arms. “Trust me,” Spitfire said, as her face came up onscreen, letting everyone see the inside of her jet’s cockpit. “Kid’s right on the money. I listened to that same radio show as well, and came to the same conclusion. Of course, unlike Sugar here, I actually went and checked to see if my hunch was correct. Long and short of it?” she continued. “It is, I wouldn’t recommend taking that base. I was greeted by a squadron of those Vehicons and a huge number of auto-turrets. Barely escaped alive. I imagine the Cons would be quick to figure out now that people know the location of their base, you aren’t far behind and are probably beefing up their security as we speak! Wouldn’t recommend taking it, least not yet. Not with your forces at least. Give me a chance to round up some tanks and such, and a full flight squadron and then maybe we can take it in one clean sweep.” “Negative,” Prowl said as he walked inside the base, with Swerve and Hound soon following. After Lemon was let out, they transformed. “I don’t want to risk any possible human casualties.” “Speaking of possible human casualties…” Indigo growled out, and ran over and punched Lemon in the gut, nearly making her best friend double over. “What the Hell was that for dude?” Lemon coughed out. “You… You complete idiot!” Indigo snapped, close to tears. “You could have been killed, I-No, we could have lost you!” Indigo’s quick correction was not lost on anyone, and Chrysalis suppressed a smirk. Ah, young love. Those two, they reminded her of her when she was their age. Of course, unlike them, they’d probably be able to keep their hormones in check as they got older. Probably. “Seriously, that was damn reckless.” Sugarcoat admonished, rubbing away at Lemon’s wounds, wiping away all the blood and such. “You’re… You’re such a… Gah!” Indigo screamed, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration and walking off. “Indy, wait…” Lemon whispered before brushing past Sugarcoat knocking her on her butt and running after her. “Well, guess I better go after them I suppose.” Hound sighed and changed back to vehicle mode driving off after the two teenagers. Eventually, Hound did catch up to Lemon and Indigo in the many, many tunnels that made up a veritable maze inside the canyon walls that housed the Autobot base. It was inside these walls, that another hidden gem of the Ghastly Gorge was revealed. In this case, quite, quite literally. The walls were lined with crystals of the finest shapes and size, and sparkling bright purple and red as they glittered in the sunlight peeking through a small crack in the cavern ceiling. Geodes and gemstones of all shapes and sizes littered the caverns. Some smoothed and refined, while others retained a spikier form. What would have been a lightless cave had been transformed into a piece of art with how the light reflected off of each and every crystal in sight, creating a kaleidoscope of lights that bathed every corner of the cave. It was tranquil, peaceful and if Hound had known about this place earlier, he admitted he probably would have come here just for some peace and quiet, maybe to update his personal logs or something. To be perfectly honest, he’d grown bored with the constant metallic landscapes of his homeworld and honestly longed for something more. Aside from the prospect of chasing down and capturing rogue Decepticons, he admitted that the idea of seeing an entirely new world was a very pleasing prospect. But that, of course, was in the past. Right now, he needed to focus on the here and now, and currently, that was getting, or at least trying to help Lemon and Indigo reconcile. He could feel the tension between them, Primus knew he felt with Sunstreaker and Side Burn before they interfaced for lack of a better term. He chuckled in remembrance, Side Burn had actually come off from the same production run as Prowl of all bots; however, there’d been some sort of glitch in the production run causing Side Burn to roll off the assembly line vastly different in appearance from everybody else. Cybertronians, when rolling off production lines, each had the same body style underneath depending on what production line was used. (Say, for example, body-type 65356-9292-346 which was often used for bots like Glyph and Bumblebee) Somehow, Side Burn had managed to subvert this trend with his body-type and come off especially different in personality from Prowl in particular. “Hey, you alright?” Hound asked, sitting his much larger frame by Lemon’s, who was crying, and wiping away tears from her eyes. “R-Really should get that patched up you know…” Lemon sniffled looking towards the wound in Hound’s chest. “I’ve survived worse,” Hound replied. “But let’s talk about you, or you and Indigo to be more precise,” “I already know what’s about to happen.” Lemon sighed and looked up at him. “Indy’s already mad at me, and I’m pretty sure all the other girls don’t even wanna speak to me right now. If anything, you might as well follow through with that thing of yours; maybe I do need to be benched for a bit,” “You’re being an idiot,” Hound commented. “Geez. Thanks for rubbing it in,” Lemon groaned and buried her head into her legs. “Sorry, but that’s what it is. Sure, running off like that into the heat of battle was dumb, but you saved Prowl’s life. Keep this between us, okay, but if I was a younger bot, I probably would have done the exact same thing myself.” Hound admitted. “But you’re an Autobot. Not a human like me,” said Lemon. “Y’know there’s a reason why we keep running from Decepticons instead of trying to fight them as much as you do. We’d be crushed like grapes because of them!” “Oh, I knew a bot back on Cybertron, one of the smallest bots you’d ever run across, and yet he’d have the nerve to take on titan-sized Cons like Trypticon. Tap-Out was his name, had bearings of chrome steel.” “How quickly did he last? Not long, if I had to guess,” Lemon replied. “Actually still alive today, if you can believe it. Works as a bodyguard at some bank last I recall. Wrestle a perp to the ground faster than you’d be able to blink.” “No shit!” Lemon gaped, and Hound nodded. “The thing with bigger enemies, is that the smaller ones always have another way of fighting back,” Hound sat down beside Lemon and patted her back. “Even the Decepticons, no matter how big they are, can still be taken out from the inside by a human, if they could. But enough on that, how did you and Indigo meet? Judging by your dynamic, you’d have to be childhood friends I’d think,” Hound mused. “Yeah, that’s true. Sure, at Crystal Prep we sorta drifted apart for a while, no thanks to Principal Bitch as we all call her, but we met on a playground. Some assholes were mocking me for playing with dolls, and Indy…” here Lemon sighed wistfully. “She just knocked them flat. Broke one of their noses, if I recall,” she chuckled. “She always did hit hard…” Lemon smiled. “So why should she hate you for going into battle like that? Sure, it was reckless, but we’d never let you die like that, Lemon.” Hound sighed and looked down. “Look. Maybe Indigo needs some time in the thick of battle, caught in near-death scenarios so that she knows how you felt when she yelled at you.” “Maybe,” Indigo’s voice said from behind the two. “But I think I’ll pass on the recklessness for the time being. Listen, I was just scared about you. I mean, those suits of ours, till you used it against what’s his face, we didn’t even know they’d work!” “Indigo, if you’re going to scold and shout at her again, I wouldn’t,” Hound lowered his brows. “I’ve already had to break up one Shadowbolt fight today. One more and I’ll have to take action; one way or another.” “Yeah yeah,” Indigo replied in a dismissive tone. “Who said anything about shouting or scolding her? I just wanted to talk, that’s all.” “Well, you sound like you’re still riled up,” Hound stood back up. “The way you wanted to brush me off like that, it doesn’t spell ‘calmed down’ in my optics.” “Listen, I get that you’re concerned for us and all, but can you give us some space? Please?” Indigo asked. “This is sorta a personal matter between me and Lemon.” “Personal?” Hound tilted his head. “How so? “I mean really secretive personal, Hound,” Indigo walked past him. “The stuff I’d rather not have shared ‘round.” Hound nodded in understanding, and smiled to himself before talking off, the sound of his massive metal footsteps receding being heard. “Lemon. I’m not just worried about you because of how dangerous it was out there,” Indigo felt a lump appear in her throat. “If you’re gone… I have nobody left.” “What about your parents, or the rest of the ‘Bolts?” Lemon asked. “The other Shadowbolts have way too many issues these days. Sugarcoat’s stuffier than a stuffed stocking, Sour Sweet’s emotionally unstable, and Sunny Flare… well, I don’t really know what to make of her these days after Cinch and all…” she held Lemon’s shoulder. “Without you, I feel like I’ve got this gaping hole where my heart should be, y’know?” Lemon faked a gag. “You know how mushy that sounds right? Sure you’re not in a Nicholas Sparks novel?” she teased, punching her best friend on the arm slightly. She noted Indigo avoided the subject of her parents completely. “Lemon. Please,” Indigo’s stare intensified as she saw Lemon’s smile fade. “This isn’t a joking matter. Don’t die. You’re my only family. My sister, if you want. I can’t lose my only family; for anything.” “Oh please, give me a break. Stop denying it,” Lemon remarked. “We both know we’re more to each other than sisters,” she replied before facepalming. “Great, now I’m the mushy one!” “Yes you are,” Indigo nodded. “But still, I’m not about to watch you go out there and risk life and limb just for some ‘cool shots’ or some other crap like that. I need you. We need you. Without you, what are we other than bullies and jackasses?” “Friends?” Lemon asked. “Trust me, I’ve seen the rest of the Shadowbolts. When we’re together, we actually act like normal people, instead of just screwed up prep school kids.” “Aren’t those the same thing?” Indigo raised a brow. “But anyways, it doesn’t change my opinions or my point. And, if anything, if you die…” she held Lemon’s hand. “At least die with me. Together. Then, we can stay buds for the rest of time.” “Indy…” Lemon’s eyes widened as she felt her fingers interlock with Indigo’s. “You really mean that?” “Of course I do, Lemon Zest.” Indigo smiled and pulled her into a gentle hug, with a small kiss finding its’ way onto her lips. “We’ve been through so much together, you and I. It’s only fair that we go out the same way; not with one of us biting the dust early,” Lemon Zest felt a warmth begin to grow in her heart as she wrapped her arms around Indigo’s chest and brought her into a hug. Smiling and nuzzling into her friend’s chest, she knew that things would only get better; so long as the two of them stuck together through thick and thin. “Indy… thank you,” Her face flashed with color again as she broke out of the hug. “Thanks for the pep talk.” “Hey. No problem, girl.” Indigo tousled Lemon’s hair. “That’s what friends do, right? We shout, argue, and have our little… problems. But at the end of it all, we’re still BFFs. And that’s what makes us truly special.” “Totally!” Lemon replied, before giving Indigo another quick kiss. In the shadows, Chrysalis and Hound sighed in relief. “Thank God that’s over,” Chrysalis muttered. “I was worried we were going to have to shove them into a room together or something and lock the damn door…”