//------------------------------//
// The Storm 
// Story: The Mighty Machines 
// by Epicdiscord214 
//------------------------------//

"I THOUGHT YOU SAID HE WAS DEAD!" Terry shouted.
"HE FELL INTO A LAKE OF LAVA!" Aaron shouted. "IT WAS ASSUMED!"
"SCATTER!" Ricky shouted as he saw the Phantom Blot lift his claw up in the air. When he struck down, the wirewolves were already running in different directions towards the Underlings.
As the Phantom Blot's eyes were following Ricky, who was trying to lose his attention, he kept floated after him. Meanwhile, the other wirewolves were facing their own problems with the Underlings.
Terry scampered across the enemies until he found a whole curve of Underlings in front of him. He then came up with an idea. He bent his left arm into a 90 degree angle and used his other arm to remove it from his shoulder. He then threw it to the Underling on the far side and it smacked it. The arm then spun toward the other Underlings like a boomerang. When the last one went down, the arm flew right back to its shoulder.
"Nice." Terry said working his arm. "Now, I got to..." He was interrupted when he turned and two Underlings were just inches from his face. They were going to attack when...
"Hold it!" Kul'as shouted as he approached the two. "This one went back on my deal. I'll handle him."
The two Underlings chuckled while Terry began to shake. But as Kul'as got closer, he grabbed the Underlings' heads and bashed them both together. He then changed form to Joe and chuckled. "They actually bought it."
"Why didn't you just shift into another one of these uglies?" Terry asked.
"I would if I could, Tim." Joe said. "But there's something about these guys that makes it certain I can't copy them. I think the Golden Apple did more than we thought."
"Tim?" Terry asked. "My name's Terry."
"Tim's short for Timberwolf." Joe said. "That's your new nickname."
"Why would you worry about nicknames at a time like... never mind." Terry said pinching the middle of his eyes. "Who else do you got?"
"Well, obviously," Joe said, "I'm Masque, 'cause that was my stage name. Also, Ricky's Shadow Blot name actually fits. Aaron is Dusk and Marty is Rodan, but Devastator doesn't need a nickname. I mean, just look at him."
The two of them observed how the Underlings tried to tackle Devastator, but he knocked them back with his ball-and-chain. A few Underlings jumped him at once and he was slowed down. Before long, he was completely covered by Underlings. Underneath the pile, Devastator picked up a handful of dust from his satchel and stuffed it in his mouth. The dust began to glow brightly and he began to feel a tremendous surge of energy coming from his throat.
"DEVASTATOR..." Suddenly, he pulled off a roar with a destructive energy blast escaping his jaws. It propelled the Underlings off of him. "SMAAAAAAAAASH!" When the blast ended, all the Underlings surrounding him turned around and ran. He turned back to Terry and Joe giving them a smile.
"I never knew his new powers came with that." Joe said.
"I never knew he could speak words other than 'Devastate'." Terry said.
From afar, Tartus zoomed in with his robotic eye and observed Dusk and Rodan back to back shooting their fire and shadow balls.
"Tartus, what is happening?" Kul'as asked.
"They got powers. They're holding off your forces."
"How is it possible?"
"Must be fairy magic." Jade said. "The cottage back there is home to a reclusive fairy."
Kul'as began to growl. "That's just great. Just what we need; a fairy."
Tartus turned his eye away from the fight and right to the cottage. "A fairy, huh?"





Around the back, Pixie Dust opened the door and carried the Golden Apple by its stem. As she lifted it out of the door.
"'Get the Apple out while we distract them', they said." she muttered to herself. "'It'll be easy', they said. Don't those boys realize how old I am?"
"Would you like my help?"
"It took you long enough, you..." She stopped herself when she saw Tartus standing beside her.
"WHAT?!" Pixie Dust asked in panic. "How'd you find me?"
"Well, I was wondering why the wirewolves weren't using the Apple in the fight," Tartus said, "So when I remembered there was a fairy living here, I thought you might be trying to make off with it. Now, I see I was right."
"Come an get it, then!" Pixie Dust said before dashing up. She held onto the Apple tight and didn't look back. That is, until she felt a cold, metal hand wrap around her body. She turned and saw Tartus hovering 10 feet off the ground. "You can fly?"
"I can do a whole lot more than that." Tartus said. "But more on that later. In the meantime... give me the apple!"
"You want it?" Pixie Dust asked. "Go fetch!" She swung her arm forward and let go of the Apple, which plummeted toward the ground.
In the middle of the battlefield, Ricky and Kul'as both saw the Golden Apple at the same time. They ran toward it and caught it. They didn't notice each other until they were both clutching opposite ends of the Apple. They then struggled for control of it.
"Let go!" Ricky shouted.
"You let go!" Kul'as shouted.
"I told you first!" Ricky shouted.
Ricky struggled as Kul'as tried to pry the Golden Apple from his claws, as both of them pulled back and forth trying to get an advantage over the other.
"This thing has the potential to end all life, Kul'as!" Ricky shouted.
"That's the idea!" Kul'as yelled using his remaining two arms to try to pry Ricky away. Meanwhile, the Apple glowed again. "Phantom, kill him!" Kul'as commanded the Blot to do, which was already making his way to Ricky not noticing the Apple shining brighter than before.
A beam of light stronger than what hit the Underlings struck Phantom Blot right on his chest, making him roar as he began to transform, he grew larger in size bulking up in mass as tentacles appeared where his legs should've been. Wings grew then unfurled from his back, revealing their massive wingspan as his sludge like skin turn almost as black as night. Massive black claws protruded from his fingers as his ghastly green eyes turned red, his face elongated into a snout, filling with gleaming canines, the single horn on his head splitting in two.
The Phantom Blot laughed as he flexed his claws looking down at at the wirewolves as they stood in awe and terror, as he had grown over six times an alicorn's height, but twice the size of the newly transformed Underlings, and gained the appearance of a hulking demon dragon hybrid.
Kul'as looked surprised, but then began to smile. "Thank you, Shadow Blot. You just sealed your fate." At the side, Tartus was enjoying the sight as well. Kul'as then laughed as Phantom Blot roared slamming his fist down knocking the wirewolves back.
"WHY?! WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?!" Aaron yelled at Ricky.
"DON'T BLAME ME!" Ricky argued. "BLAME THE STUPID APPLE!" He looked and saw that he still had the Apple in his claws.
"But you just couldn't stop yourself!" The wirewolves looked and saw Tartus hovering over them with Pixie Dust in his metal hand. "Nice job making everything worse!"
"Jinkies, it's Tartus!" Joe shouted.
"Look, I don't know why you're mad at us, but..." Ricky started to say before the scientist interrupted him.
"Don't try to understand why I'm mad. Let's just say I'm a living consequence. But you know all about consequences, don't you? The six of you were so desperate to return home, that you decided to take the easy way out, only to find out you were finding a powerful dangerous relic for the bad guys. So much for mighty machines right?"
"Mighty machines." Joe said. "I like the sound of it."
"Why do I bother with you people?" Tartus asked. He clenched his fist and Pixie Dust began to squirm. "Now surrender the Apple or I'll pop her like a grape!"
"Catch!" Ricky said tossing the Apple into the air.
Tartus let go of Pixie Dust and extended both his hands. As Pixie Dust fell, Marty reached out his hands and caught her before she hit the ground. He then placed her gently on the ground.
"Oh, I knew you wirewolves would be the death of me." Pixie Dust said softly.
"It's all right, PD." Marty said. He tapped her little head with his claws. "It's going to be okay."
"Did you just 'there-there' me?" Pixie Dust growled.
"YES!" Tartus said about to catch the Golden Apple. Suddenly, Ricky pulled a string he had attached to it and slipped it away before Tartus could catch it. "NO!"
Ricky caught the Golden Apple and tossed it to Devastator. "WE GOTTA KEEP THIS AWAY FROM TARTUS!"
Devastator turned around to run, but he couldn't move a step. He looked down and saw a puddle of black goo attached to his feet. He then saw it connected to a black tentacle that belonged to the Phantom Blot.
"It's not him you need to worry about!" Kul'as gloated.
Everyone was horrified when something started to appear from the goop. It looked like an Underling, but it was dripping in black fluid.
"An Underling, made of the Blot?!" Terry shouted.
"BLOTLING!" Joe shouted.
Suddenly, more Blotlings were created from the goop and jumped onto Devastator. He tried to fight them off, but it was like punching a waterfall, it wouldn't stop them.
"DEVASTATE!" Devastator launched the Apple away from him and into Terry's hands.
"ME?!" Terry asked in a panic. Suddenly, a black tentacle snapped at him and trapped him to the ground. The inky stuff began to cover him, but not before the threw it to Joe.
One by one, the wirewolves were catching the Golden Apple before getting caught in the Phantom Blot's traps. The last one to catch it was Ricky, who was then blasted back by a red beam of light coming from Kul'as claws. Ricky didn't get back up, but he scooted back. He had Kul'as creeping toward him with the Phantom Blot right behind him. Ricky couldn't move back anymore when he hit the base of a rocky pillar.
"Soon your friends will be dead and Equestria destroyed." Kul'as declared. "There's nothing you can do about it. And I will destroy every unicorn, Pegasus, Earth pony, and alicorn that walks on that colorful world."
That threat gave Ricky flashbacks of his pony friends, especially Princess Celestia. He then looked at the Golden Apple and flashed an idea. Kul'as stopped walking when Ricky began to chuckle. Soon, his chuckle was raised to comical laughter. It confused both Kul'as and the Phantom Blot.
"What?" Kul'as asked. "What's so funny?"
"The fact that you think you can destroy Equestria." Ricky said. "You couldn't destroy a paper bag."
"What?" Kul'as growled.
"I'm just saying," Ricky shrugged, "You crawled out of the deepest, darkest pit in the Neatherealm, assembled an army of abnormal monsters, employed a mad scientist, took control of a dark, deformed copy of myself, claimed an age-old relic of untold power, and mutated your abnormal monsters, but you can't even get the simplest job done? No wonder Arcanus as a hoof up on you."
"Go ahead, wise guy." Kul'as growled angrily with his claw sparking red lightning. "Keep giving me an excuse."
"I'm just stating the facts." Ricky said. "You claim to be the most powerful being in the Neatherealm, but I've managed to evade your capture over a dozen times. How can you hope you destroy a world if you can't even destroy me with all you have?"
"If that's what you prefer," Kul'as said raising his electric claw, "THEN I SHALL STRIKE YOU WITH EVERYTHING I HAVE!"
Kul'as made a throwing gesture, and he stopped when he pointed at the wirewolf. A red lightning bolt escaped from his claws. It was heading to Ricky's direction. Suddenly, Ricky blocked the lightning bolt... with the Golden Apple. Kul'as widened his eyes in shock as the Apple began to glow again.
"If a scratch made this Apple so crazy," Ricky said standing up in front of Kul'as, "What do you think a cosmic blast would make it do?"
"No!" Kul'as shouted. "You doomed us both!"
"No." Ricky said. "Just you!"
Ricky extended his leg hard kicking Kul'as right toward the Phantom Blot's body. As soon as he impacted, the ink weighed him down, so no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't get free. Meanwhile, Ricky took the glowing Apple and climbed up the stone pillar. The Phantom Blot shot tentacles toward him, but Ricky kept dodging. Losing his patience, the Phantom Blot raised his claw and struck the pillar. From the falling top of the pillar, Ricky jumped up and flew above the Phantom Blot's head.
"HEY, PHANTOM!" Ricky shouted showing off the Apple. "EAT THIS!"
Ricky threw the Apple out of his grasp and into the Phantom Blot's open mouth. He tried to close it, but it was already down his throat. The Blot felt a surge of power from inside its stomach at the same time a yellow light was visible from it. Kul'as felt the power reach his back as he tried to escape.
"NO!" Kul'as felt the light grow bigger while Ricky dropped down to the ground and took cover. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The bright, yellow light shined too bright for anyone to see clearly. After a few minutes, it finally dimmed down. And then, the Phantom Blot was completely solidified, and Kul'as was merged with it. They were both defeated by the very thing they were desperate to achieve.
Meanwhile, the ooze that covered the Mighty Machines began to evaporate releasing the wirewolves within. They all converged to Ricky and cheered. They then looked at the frightened Underlings that stared at the monument of their deceased master.
"Now, go!" Ricky shouted. "And if I hear about any one of you threatening Equestria again, you're going to be really sorry!"
The Underlings nodded their heads and turned to run.
"YEAH, THAT"S RIGHT!" Joe shouted. "'CAUSE WE'RE THE MIGHTY MACHINES, AND WE DON'T TAKE ANYTHING BAD FROM ANYTHING BAD!"
"Seriously?" Terry asked "That's all you've got."