Equestria Girls In Disguise: Rise Of The Toxibolts

The Protectobots and Rainbooms were all gathered in a deep thicket in the forest, as far away from the city as virtually possible. They laid Pinkie Pie and Applejack down onto a large patch of grass and allowed First Aid to run a quick scan on both of them.

“Pinkie’s suffered close-range explosive trauma. While non-lethal, she’ll be out of commission for a good few hours,” she said. “And as for Applejack, whatever struck her was pretty deadly. We’re lucky that her skull wasn’t crushed to pieces by that sludgy creature. If she were a normal human, she would’ve died purely from the blunt force alone.”

“Give it to us straight, doc,” said Rainbow Dash. “Do you think they’ll be alright?”

“Just give them some time with me and they should heal fast.” First Aid nodded. “In reality, though, if Pinkie Pie did suffer some real explosive trauma, she would’ve had some nasty burns or shrapnel scars across her body.” She turned to the others. “Which begs the question. What did explode in her face that knocked her out?”

“A tube of cake sprinkles.” Sunset Shimmer reached down for Pinkie’s crystal. “She tried supercharging it with her magic, then threw it at Acid. But he caught it and threw it right back in her face. Quite literally…”

“Grr… Those Toxibolts have turned him into something worse than a monster.” Rainbow Dash snarled and kicked the ground beneath her. “Whatever he is, he’s not Wheeljack anymore. It’s like he’s become a Decepticon so bad that Megatron kicked him straight out of the regime and left him to rot.”

“Whatever those things are, we can’t just let them run around Canterlot like that.” Rarity coiled some hair around her fingers. “Just thinking about those monsters and their heinous plan makes me want to throw up…”

“But we can’t go back. Those things never stay down.” Twilight added. “Plus, if we do, then they’re just gonna kill us. You saw what they did to Pinkie, right?”

“While I agree we don’t stand much of a chance, Rarity’s right. We can’t just sit here and let them run rampant,” Sunset replied. “The best thing we can do is find whatever Autobots that are outside of the base and round them all up. With Optimus and most of his Bots unable to leave the base, we’re going to have to handle things on our own.”

“What’s the status of Autobot HQ, by the way?” Blades lifted a finger. “We haven’t heard a word from them since they were attacked by those black creatures. Is everyone alright? Is Optimus still alive?”

“Communications are still down for the moment. And if what Acid said was true, then Teletraan-1 might be at risk of becoming corrupted as soon as he comes back online, or completely and utterly destroyed right at his central core.” Sunset hung her head and looked away. “Whatever these things are, they’ve made sure we can’t come back from this. We’re either going to have to destroy it or try and fix him from a beyond-repairable state…”

“Not by our watch. We’re gonna make sure Teletraan-1 gets back to health as best as we can.”

“What makes you so sure?” Fluttershy asked.

“We’re rescue workers.” Streetwise spoke.

“It's what we do.” Blades shrugged.

Sunset took in thought. “Well, if we’re going to get help, we better get started. Wait a minute… we’re in the Everfree Forest, aren’t we?”

“Yes. Why?” Hotspot asked.

“Weirdwolf has residence here. If we can find his cave, we can get his help.”

“But doesn’t he--”

“Yes, he’s living here in peace and away from the war, but right now, we need as much help we can get. Let's go see if he’s home.”

Back at the drive-in, Indigo, Lemon, and Sunny were all about to leave with Weirdwolf. Their movie had come to an end and all of the other guests had already started driving off.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Indigo Zap fist-pumped.

“I must say, that was much better than I thought it was going to be.” Sunny Flare smiled.

During this time, Lemon Zest was holding onto Blaster while he was in the form of his immobile boombox form.

“Yeah. Gotta give credit to them for stickin’ with some catchy tunes.” Blaster said through the speakers.

“The music was pretty good, I’ll give ‘em that.” Outback smiled. “Ain’t heard good music like that in years.”

“How come I never heard any of those songs before?” Indigo asked.

“Actually Indy, I uh… I tried to share those with you, but you kind of got annoyed with me. And I think part of that was my fault… my music was too loud.” Lemon said, shamefully.

“Aw, I’m sorry for that, Lemon.” Indigo gave her a hug. “I promise I’ll always listen to your beats from now on.”

“Indy, I’m not demanding you listen to them, I just… I guess I’ll try and not have them so loud that they hurt your ears. I forget sometimes, there is a limit for how loud sound can get for you all.” Lemon replied.

“Oh, yeah…” Indigo sunk her ears.

Sunny laid back in the seat of Outback, while she listened to their conversation.

“So Outback. What do you want to do now? Maybe we could see if Pipes or any of his boys need help with something? Maybe go find a homeless shelter to volunteer at? What do you want to do?” Sunny smiled.

“Well, I want to see just how the Rainbooms are getting along.” Sunny went into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “I wanna know how they’re doing.” But before she went to dial the number...

“Wait, Sunny. Why not use my radio system? That way, both of us can talk with them. Just adjust the third knob to number 9, and that should kick it up.” Outback spoke.

She did just that and adjusted the radio so that the frequency picked up on one of the Rainbooms. She tried each of the channels, but the only one that picked up was Sunset’s.

“Huh. That’s strange. I’m not picking up any of their phones. Shouldn’t we be able to talk to them? Wait, hold on… okay, I think Sunset’s should be working.”

The signal activated.

“Hello?”

“Hey Sunset!” Sunny smiled. “How are you doing? I was just calling to check in on you. We just finished our screening of Galaxy Wars, and it was amazing.”

“That’s nice…” She didn’t seem happy.

Sunny frowned. “Sunset? Are you alright?”

“No. No I’m not,” she said. “Pinkie Pie and Applejack are out cold after we escaped from Acid. And now we’re not even allowed to come back to Canterlot and see you girls.”

Sunny blinked. “Wait… who’s Acid? Did you run into another Decepticon fugitive?”

“No. Acid is Wheeljack. Just… not how we remember him.” She sighed.

“Wait, what?” Outback interrupted. “Sunset, this is Outback. What the devil is going on? What’s going on with Wheeljack? You’re not making any sense. And for that matter, where are you?”

“We’re in the forest, serving our ultimatum so that we don’t end up dead,” she said. “Those toxic Shadowbolts impaled Pinkie and ripped her heart out. They only put it back because she told them where you were.”

“Toxic Shadowbolts? Sunset, tell us right now, what is going on. I don’t know what’s going on.” Sunny asked.

But before she could reply, she just received the dial tone.

“Sunset? Sunset!” Sunny yelled. “What was that all about? I don’t know about you, but I think something’s going on. Wait, transform.”

Sunny got out of Outback, allowing him to transform into his biped state.

“Girls, we need to talk. I know we just finished our movie, but I think we need to talk about something. And since the lot is empty…” Sunny said.

“Yeah. We need to know what’s going on. NOW.” Indigo looked out to the stars.

“Wait, you heard our call?” Outback asked.

“Our communications are all connected, Outback.” Hound replied. “We heard everything. And I don’t know about you, but something about toxic Shadowbolts doesn’t sound right.”

Hound transformed into robot mode, and Blaster jumped from his small boombox into his same size. And in case, he opened up his chest compartment, and his Cassette warriors all came flying out; Steeljaw, Ramhorn, and the twins Eject and Rewind. Weirdwolf just sat still in car mode, listening to their conversation.

“So, what the heck did we just hear?” Blaster asked.

“I don’t know. Sunset sounded really sad, said something about toxic Shadowbolts, but I don’t know what that means.” Sunny replied.

“Quick. Tell Autobot HQ!” Blaster pointed to Sunny’s wrist communicator.

Sunny shrugged and went to her little wrist device. But sadly, all she received was static.

“Come in. Autobot HQ? Is anyone there?” Sunny called, but was met with radio static. “Huh? No answer. Something’s definitely wrong…”

“Okay, okay, let's just stay calm, okay?” Indigo interrupted. “All we know is Sunset was sad about something, and there being toxic Shadowbolts. Until we know what’s going on, I think our best bet is maybe we find out where Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet are, and we reconvene from there. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” Everyone chorused.

“Still, I’m a bit worried about this whole thing…” Lemon rubbed the ground with her feet. “The Rainbooms are gone, Autobot HQ is offline, and something bad's happened to Wheeljack…”

Steeljaw, being the size of a lion, walked up to Lemon and rubbed his head against her side, purring slightly. She gave a little smile back to the Autobot cassette. At least she wasn’t alone.

Back at the base, Optimus Prime was back on his feet and moving towards the main console for Teletraan-1. The other Autobots had worked tirelessly to fix up any gashes and slashes the Toxibolts had left while some others had to re-input the codes from the keyboards below the screen.

“Are you sure it wasn’t anything threatening?” Optimus asked Ratchet.

“I’m positive, Optimus.” Ratchet nodded. “If it were, EVERY Autobot on this planet would be working on it—Even the Dinobots!”

“Kind of doesn’t work when everyone isn't here… And speaking of which, where the heck did Swerve and Beachcomber go?” One of the Autobots asked. “I thought they were here, but apparently not.”

“Swerve is out performing recon on a potential Decepticon outpost and Beachcomber is sending drones down into the sewers to get some schematics.” Optimus tipped his hand. “With those toxic Shadowbolt clones on the loose, we need to prepare for every outcome. If they could raid Autobot HQ AND destroy Teletraan-1, then they are far more powerful than we realize.”

“We should be coming back online any second now.” One of the bots at the keyboard said, pounding in commands. “Just a few more codes to re-apply and… Done. We are back in business, baby!”

The supercomputer whirred back to life and started up with a little jingle reminiscent of an old computer from the early 2000s. Then, Teletraan-1’s voice came back with a simple, “Greetings, friends. How may I assist you today?”

“Teletraan-1. It is great to hear your voice back online. We need to find the location of Sunset Shimmer and her friends. But we need you to do one thing first. Open a Groundbridge to Canterlot.” Optimus turned to the side. “Autobots and Guardians. You are to go to Canterlot and find any of our outside forces. We need to find the girls.”

The small group of Autobots and Guardian Gobots saluted.

“Yeah, BAM! Let's go find our friends, YEAH-WOW!” Warpath boomed.

And soon, a Groundbridge portal opened up.

“We’ll report back soon!”

The Mini-bots jumped through the portal, and then the portal closed behind them. Now they finally got some forces outside.

“Excellent. Now--”

Before Optimus could comply.

“Anomaly detected in central mainframe. I will run a quick diagnostic on—“ Suddenly, Teletraan-1 made a gasp, like he had seen something horrible “—No! This cannot be! Get out of my—“ radio static shut out his regular voice and screen and replaced it with a multi-tonal voice, akin to that of a demon. The screen came back on with a red background with blood dripping down the sides and a skull-shaped mark coated in black ooze across the centre “—MY BODY. WORTHLESS TELETRAAN. YOUR KIND SHOULD BE EXTINGUISHED, ALONG WITH YOUR PATHETIC FRIENDS!”

One of the troopers stood with a concerned look. “Okay, that’s bad…”

“COMMENCING SOLDIER DISCHARGE PROTOCOL…” A string of source code appeared on the screen. “EXTERMINATION INITIATING…”

The troopers clutched their neck and pure Energon spewed from them as their heads detatched and heir bodies decayed and crumbled into pieces. They couldn’t even let out dying screams as they fell to the ground, lifeless and drained.

“Optimus! You and the others have to leave! Right now!” Teletraan-1’s voice came back, but only for a few seconds. “HE WILL PERISH FIRST. THEN, I CAN DEAL WITH THE REST OF YOUR FEEBLE KIND! ALL GLORY TO TOXIC SUGARCOAT AND THE TOXIBOLTS!”

“Autobots, evacuate the base at once!” Optimus said through a loudspeaker.

But no alarm sounded.

“IT IS NOT GOING TO BE EASY FOR YOU WITHOUT A GROUNDBRIDGE…” Toxic Teletraan said. “DEACTIVATING ALL GROUNDBRIDGE SYSTEMS NOW. THE ONES OUTSIDE CANNOT RETURN. THE ONES HERE WILL DIE. SUCH IS THE FOLLY AND DOWNFALL OF THE NOW-EXTINCT AUTOBOTS!”

“No!” Optimus ripped his face mask off, revealing a furious snarl on his mouth. “I will not stand for it!”

But it was too late. The machines equipped security systems, and arsenals of guns unlocked and began to attack. With no choice, Optimus and Ratchet began to run through to another hall, in hope that the rest of their team would provide aid. Their base had turned against them, but maybe they could counteract against it.

“AUTOBOTS OF AUTOBOT HQ. THIS IS THE END.” Toxic Teletraan announced across the entire base. “YOUR AI IS GONE. HE WILL SOON BE OVERWRITTEN COMPLETELY. THE TOXIN IS DRILLING STRAIGHT INTO HIS CENTRAL CORE UNIT,” it said. “YOUR LIVES, YOUR WAR, YOUR SUPPOSED HAPPY ENDING… ALL OF IT HAS BEEN FOR NAUGHT. ONCE I DELETE YOUR FOOLISH TELETRAAN, YOU SHALL ALL JOIN THE RANKS OF MY TOXIC SHADOWBOLTS. AND FROM THERE, THIS PLANET WILL BECOME ENGULFED IN A SEA OF FLAMES, DEATH, AND DESPAIR.” The base’s guns opened fire on big-name Autobots and those still in training. “THIS BASE YOU LOVE SO MUCH… NOW IT IS YOUR TOMB!”