The girls were surprised to see Rarity huffing and puffing as she got inside the practice room. And the amount of paleness on her face as well as the bulging eyes made it clear she was spooked.

"Rarity? What happened?" Sunset asked.

"I... I don't know." Rarity quivered. "I was double checking the hallways to see if anyone was around, and I could have sworn I saw Knockout inside of the school."

"What do you mean you saw Knockout?" Sideswipe asked, raising a brow.

"I looked down the hall, and it looked like Knockout was... glowing. He saw me, he walked towards me, but then he just... faded away. Like he was a ghost." Rarity said.

The girls all looked at one another with some concern. It did seem strange that Rarity saw Knockout in the hallways. But that made no sense, he was out patrolling. Why was he here? And more importantly, why was he glowing and why did he spook Rarity? Alas, none of them had any answers.

Sideswipe and Bumblebee looked at each other with concern.

"I'll call Knockout, see if he's actually here..." Bumblebee hesitated. Bumblebee tapped the side of his head, activating a com link, and waited as it began dialing.

"Knockout, you here?" Bumblebee asked.

"I read you Bumblebee. What is it?" Knockout said on the other side.

"I want to ask, where are you exactly?"

"I'm unloading Energon cubes with Ironhide, and then at some point later we're going to go for a drive keeping an eye out for Decepticons. What about you?"

Bumblebee paused for a moment. "So... you're not here at CHS?"

"No, I'm not. If I was there you would know that, and I'm sure you would have detected my energy signature."

Bumblebee paused for a moment. He looked at the girls, and then walked up and looked outside in the hallways, looking at both ways, checking for Knockout. But he didn't see anything.

"Never mind, false alarm." Bumblebee said, hanging up. He pulled himself back into the room looking at the girls. "I didn't see anything, and Knockout raised a point. I would have picked up on his energy signature."

"But if he's not here, than how come I saw him in the hallways?" Rarity whined.

"I don't know Rarity." Bumblebee said. "I just don't know."

Later that night, the girls continued to stay together in groups, looking for the mysterious Shadowbot. Sunset stayed in the main control room with Rarity and Applejack by monitoring the cameras, Sideswipe, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash walked out into the hallways on one end, while Bumblebee, Pinkie, and Fluttershy walked down another end.

Over with Sideswipe's end, the group kept their eyes forward, the sides, up on the ceiling, and behind them, keeping an eye out for anything that stood out. And as they walked, Rainbow Dash kept her helmet/head on while Twilight remained unmasked. And as an extra addition to their Headmaster suits, Sunset required them all to mount flashlights on their shoulders for them to see, and a little camera was mounted with them, so the girls back in the main base room could see what they see and give them a little bit of guidance. They also had headsets with microphones on them for those who were unmasked.

"Why are you wearing your mask?" Twilight asked.

"Why aren't you wearing yours?" Rainbow huffed.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "The mask is very tight around my head, and its not very easy to breathe in there."

Twilight couldn't tell, but Rainbow was giving a bit of a scowl under her head mask. "Well I can breathe in my mask fine. Besides, it totally awesome. I sound like a robotic god in this thing." Rainbow joked.

Inside her helmet mask, she could see an energy gauge, along with an overhead map of the entire school. There was also a blue dot connected by some lines that was bouncing all over the screen, trying to detect where their entity was. She looked forward, and the blue dot still kept bouncing.

"Still haven't found anything yet." Rainbow said. But she stopped when she saw a small alarm go off on her helmet vision in red. "Uh oh. Guys I've spotted something."

"The Shadowbot?" Twilight asked.

"No, not the Shadowbot. I'm picking up major amount of heat energy. Coming from... below." Rainbow tilted her head down in the ground. She looked back up, and the red dot suddenly transformed into an arrow pointing to the right in the set of hallways.

"I'm getting directions to go over where that heat signature is. Should we follow it?" Rainbow asked.

"We'll follow you Rainbow." Sideswipe smiled.

Rainbow walked forward while Twilight and Sideswipe walked behind her, keeping their guns at the ready. Their eyes kept going side to side looking for whatever monster or entity was ahead. Twilight felt the sweat running down her head, and listened to her armor continue to clank and rattle, shaking from her own fear.

Rainbow stopped and looked back at Twilight. "Can you stop shaking? That thing's gonna attract us."

Twilight gulped. "Sorry Rainbow, I just... I'm a little scared, I'm sorry, I... I've never been in an environment like this."

"Really? Never?" Rainbow stopped.

Twilight looked away and shook her head in shame. Rainbow just walked back and raised her head up, smooth fingers underneath Twilight's chin.

"Its okay. Believe it or not, I've actually never done something like this. I've only gone through one scary maze but... that was just out of a dare. We're gonna be fine. As long as we stick by each other. Okay?" Rainbow said.

Twilight wasn't sure what to feel, but her spirits did lighten up a bit knowing that her friends were by their side. Especially there being an Autobot.

"Right Sideswipe?" Rainbow asked.

Sideswipe nodded, followed by a friendly smile.

"Okay. You're right. I can do this." Twilight breathed in and out. She tightened her grip on the gun and held it in front of her. "Shall we continue?"

Rainbow continued leading the three of them, and they made a right down another set of hallways. The red arrow that was going off in Rainbow's helmet pointed to a left, leading to a locked door. Or, so they thought.

"My helmet's telling us to go to the left. It looks like the door that leads to the furnace in the basement." Rainbow said.

"I didn't know this school had a basement." Sideswipe said.

"None of us did for a while. Until they had to... make... repairs..." Rainbow droned when she froze at the sight of it. Ususally the door that led to the basement was locked. But here... it wasn't locked at all. It had been bashed down, like something was trying to smash it open to get down into the basement.

Rainbow raised an arm up straight, gesturing them to walk on down. Rainbow and Sideswipe listened to the sounds of their feet making clanking noises as they walked down the stairs, eyes focusing on each other, making sure they didn't trip or lose one another.

As they finally reached the actual ground of the basement, their eyes looked forward to see a very unusual sight. The furnace was operating like it should be, but there looked like something was bashing on the top of it. Like giant fists were mashing against it. There were some tracks on the ground like something was walking around, something the size of Sideswipe's foot. There were cobwebs everywhere, dust collecting, everywhere they looked it was one giant spook-fest.

"That's not good..." Sideswipe said. "Do furnaces usually look bashed?"

"No, they don't. You think the Shadowbot was after something down here?" Rainbow asked.

"I don't know."

Sideswipe shined a light on the furnace some more and discovered something else. He saw a small bit of what looked like purple residue... steaming. Like it had recently been touched upon. Sideswipe moved his eyes closer and gazed upon the residue.

"The Shadowbot definitely was here. It looked like some of the Dark Energon seeped onto the furnace." Sideswipe said.

"That's not a good thing... is it?" Rainbow asked with some worry.

"I don't know. I don't know everything about Dark Energon which isn't a good thing. All I know is that it can either make a Decepticon powerful, bring a Cybertronian back from the dead, or corrupt an Autobot. But that's about it. Twilight what do you think?" Sideswipe waited for a reply, but he didn't hear anything. "Twilight?"

The two of them looked away to see if she went anywhere, but she wasn't here. She wasn't in the basement with them.

"That's not good." Rainbow said.

Twilight hadn't gone down in the basement at all. For something else was catching her attention. She heard clanking noises as well as the sound of a ghostly moan.

She had slowly walked away from the door down the hallways, searching for the source. Luckily she had her gun by her side, as well as her lights, and her headset microphone for Sunset to talk into.

"Twilight! What are you doing?" Sunset yelled into the microphone making Twilight wince from how loud the noise was.

"I'm hearing noises Sunset. I want to know what it is." Twilight said.

"What about Sideswipe's rule!? You don't split up from anyone in these kind of situations! That's just asking for death!" Pinkie yelled on an end.

"Pinkie how did you even get on my headset?" Twilight asked.

"We're all connected so we can be alert of what's around us. But Pinkie's right, you got to get back with the others." Sunset said.

"Okay. I understand. I'll get back with Rainbow right away." Twilight said, agreeing.

She turned the other direction and began running down the dark and empty hallways, the only light to be seen was the moonlight shining from the windows of the top of the ceiling as well as the lights that were mounted on her shoulders. She looked up at the ceiling and saw the stars twinkle in the night sky, along with the moon shining down on the ground below. Twilight could see her own shadow from on the ground.

She looked back forward and continued to run down more hallways and made a turn that led her to the hallway with a small corridor. She shined her lights around the small set of lockers and walls, realizing what part she was in. She was with the same poorly lit hallway. She always remembered that sight when she came into the school.

"They really need to fix that light." Twilight muttered to herself. She turned back around, getting ready to walk down more hallways but--

Twilight...

Twilight froze when she heard the voice call for her.

Twilight...

She didn't know where it was coming from, but it sounded like if someone was...summoning her. Like if someone wanted her to come to where she was. She shined her flashlight all around where she was, but she didn't know what it was. She shined her light down the hallway on her left, moving it across some doors, lockers, and onto the right hallway, but nothing was there.

She looked down the hallway that was poorly lit, and her eyes bulged out of her head. Strange shapes were emerging from the darkness. A shadow, almost. A cyan fluorescent mask was seen glowing in the darkness, followed by a pair of purple demonic eyes.

Twilight's breathing intensified, her feet kept tapping on the floor, her hands were shaking up, and the metal kept rattling. As if her fear wasn't raised enough, the figure in the shadow began to slowly emerge. Some more features were identified. There she could see this figure was... floating. Up in the air, nothing holding or raising her. Her.

Twilight gulped and held her gun at the ready, pointing at the figure. The figure finally was out of the shadows, with raven wings on her back, a cyan horn on her forehead and a maniacal laughter.

"No... that's impossible! No! Please!" Twilight begged.

All that the figure replied with was maniacal laughter. Twilight tried to keep her hands steady with the gun in her hand, ready to shoot the figure, but her shakiness wasn't helping her stay stable. But before she could respond, her vision was suddenly becoming blurry. But the figure was moving closer and closer and closer to her face.

She began hyperventilating and she started coughing. She was having a hard time trying to breathe, almost like something was choking her. Everything was suddenly fading in her vision. The laughter, the noise, everything around her was rattling in her ears and pounding her heart. She let out a loud scream of pain.

With what little vision she had, the figure began slowly... decaying. Like if she was burning to ashes. It began with her legs, and it worked its way up to the top of her body, the last thing fading away was the demonic eyes. Before Twilight could do anything, everything was becoming darker, and darker. The figure moaned for a few moments and Twilight's lights began becoming brighter and brighter, like the energy was about to reach its peak and short out. The last thing that appeared in her peripheral vision was... a Transformer. Its mouth was gaping purple drool and there was purple fluid leaking from its eyes, moaning in pain.

Twilight tried to keep herself up, but she didn't have any strength in her. But she heard... a voice?

"Kill me... kill me..."

But at that moment... everything went black. Her body fell to the ground, and her eyes closed. Everything was shutting off around her, and she didn't hear the sound of her friends yelling and calling out for her.

Author's Note

Yeah, sorry the dialogue isn't that great. But I'm still trying to improve.