//------------------------------//
// Countdown to Peril 
// Story: Power Ponies 3: Perilous 
// by Epicdiscord214 
//------------------------------//

The citizens of Maretropolis were enjoying their day. The sun was shining. The ponies were nice. It was like there wasn't any trouble in the world.
But that all changed when every television set turned on and started showing a frightening face. Gryphon Galore's confident grin took up most of the screen.
"Hey, pony dweebs!" she proclaimed. "We interrupt your regularly scheduled day to bring you this important announcement. We have a..." She stopped herself to shout angrily away from the camera. "Mane-iac! I told you, no activating it!"
"Oh, come on!" the Mane-iac whined off-screen.
Gryphon Galore sighed and looked back at the camera. She lost all enthusiasm and continued her announcement without any emotion. "We have a bomb." She then turned the camera to the large, mechanical device that the Mane-iac looked eager to get near. All the ponies that saw it were shocked and scared
"Can't I just touch it?" the Mane-iac asked.
"No!" Gryphon Galore shouted. "Keep your hooves, hair, or anything attacked to you away from the bomb!" She then turned her attention back to the camera. "Listen up, everyone! The Sisterhood of Evil has three demands! #1: we are to be given free access to all city banks. #2: the city must declare us its rulers. And #3: no heroes are allowed to set hoof in this city. No royal guards or princesses as well."
"Hey, that was four demands!" the Mane-iac exclaimed.
"The last one is a two-part." Gryphon Galore explained with cringing teeth. "Look, you losers, if you don't want all of Maretropolis to be a giant crater, all our terms must be met! You have 24 hours, or until the Mane-iac decides to detonate it early and I can't stop her. Whichever comes first." And with that, the feed ended leaving the citizens of Maretropolis in worry and fear.





Meanwhile, Gryphon Galore threw the camera to a nearby corner and turned to her partner.
"You just can't help yourself, can you?" Gryphon Galore asked.
"I am what I am." the Mane-iac replied.
"Which is a crazy mare." Gryphon added.
Suddenly, they heard gears squeaking. Gryphon Galore flew behind the bomb suddenly and saw the Masked Matterhorn's husband trying to remove the back panel of the bomb. When Blue Comet saw the villain, he jolted back, but he landed straight into the Mane-iac's tendrils.
"Well, well, well." the Mane-iac said. "If it isn't the Masked Matterhorn's hubby. You may be cute, but you're utterly useless when it comes to villains like us."
"Hey!" a voice cried out that they didn't think would come from somewhere else. They saw Blue Comet looking down on them from the catwalk above. "Who's useless?"
"What the..." the Mane-iac asked before turning back to the masked Pegasus in her mane. "When who's..."
Suddenly, the Pegasus flashed a green light and emerged as Joe, the Mighty Machine wirewolf also known as Masque. The sight of him shocked the Mane-iac to accidently drop him. He hit the ground and feigned an upset look.
"It's because I'm metal, isn't it?!" he shouted.
Suddenly, the windows burst as the Power Ponies and the Mighty Machines broke through and landed before the Sisterhood.
"Nice entrance." the Mane-iac said. "Either you never heard of a door, or you just like picking glass out of your gears and outfits."
"How did you dweebs know we'd be here?" Gryphon Galore asked.
"Must have been our sense of smell." Zapp insulted.
"Ooh, burn!" Masque said joining the other heroes along with Blue Comet.
"Actually, it's repetitive." the Masked Matterhorn explained. "This is Starlight Glimmer's abandoned shampoo factory where the Mane-iac was created. She always comes here whenever she's committing a crime."
"What?" Gryphon Galore asked. She turned her angry face to her partner. "Your first choice to hide this bomb is the first place they'd look?!"
"Well, I use this place often enough." the Mane-iac said. "I thought they'd decide to break my streak."
All that did was irritate Gryphon Galore even more. "This is why I hated the Sisterhood of Evil! Don't you know that repeating things for a different result is the exact definition of insanity?!"
"You two, listen up!" the Masked Matterhorn called out getting the villains' attentions. "I am giving you one chance. Your old partner, the Sinister Sorceress, left the life of crime, and now, I am giving you that option. If the two of you use your gifts for good instead of evil, you could be given bigger rewards."
"Yeah, right!" Gryphon Galore mocked. "Nothing's bigger than ruling an entire city... except maybe ruling all of Equestria, but I'm taking things one city at a time!"
"And I can't quit now." the Mane-iac said. "I've just refreshed my evil business cards."
"Forget it, MM." Mistress Marevelous said. "The only thing these varmints can understand is their own evil."
"It won't be like that for long." the Masked Matterhorn whispered to them pulling out her spell paper. "Just keep them distracted long enough for me to cast my reformation spell on the Mane-iac."
"Your what?" Radiance asked.
"Don't ask." Hum Drum said.
"Just keep them busy." the Masked Matterhorn said.
"That's our jam!" Masque shouted. "Set me up, Dev!"
"Okay." Devastator replied.
"Set you up with what?" Timberwolf asked. Suddenly, Devastator grabbed ahold of Timberwolf's head and removed it from his neck. "WHAT THE HECK?! DON'T YOU DARE!"
It was too late. Devastator had already thrown his head up into the air. Masque jumped up and shot the head toward the Sisterhood like a volleyball. Deciding to cooperate, Timberwolf thrusted his head forward to headbutt Gryphon Galore. She staggered back after taking that unseen hit and bumped the Mane-iac off of the bomb. While the Mane-iac used her mane to soften the fall, Timberwolf's head was caught by Devastator.
"I can't believe you used my head as a volleyball!" Timberwolf complained.
"Ah, quit complaining." Devastator said. "We hit the bad guy, didn't we?"
"You're lucky I learned to use my body even when it's separated from my head." Timberwolf said. He looked at his body giving Masque some hard, nonverbal gestures.
"Just fight, everyone." the Shadow Blot said.
Gryphon Galore and the Mane-iac got back up and charged toward the ponies and the wirewolves. The heroes dodged and countered any mane tendrils or gryphon strikes the villains threw at them. The Mane-iac managed to grab ahold of Timberwolf's wrist and squeezed tight enough for his hand to pop off and landed in Blue Comet's hooves. He was not happy about that. Meanwhile, the Masked Matterhorn flew to a safe distance reading over the sheet of paper she held. She then closed her eyes and concentrated. Her horn began to glow a white light that she pointed to the villains.
Meanwhile, Gryphon Galore noticed something. She forced the Mane-iac to hold her position and confront the heroes that were surrounding them in front of the bomb.
"Hang on!" Gryphon Galore shouted. "What's going on? You dweebs aren't putting up more of a fight like usual."
"What do you mean?" Rodan asked nervously. "We've been giving it our all."
"No, we haven't silly." Filli-Second said innocently. "We were just buying time so that the Masked Matterhorn can hit them with her reformation spell."
"FILLI!" everyone shouted.
"Reformation spell?" the Mane-iac repeated. The Sisterhood looked at the far side of the factory and caught sight of the Masked Matterhorn brightening her horn. Suddenly, a white beam of light escaped the glowing horn and right toward the villains.
"GET DOWN!" Gryphon Galore shouted.
The two criminals ducked out of the way of the beam, which instead hit the bomb behind them. Suddenly, the lights began to brighten up while it sparkled white electricity out. Everyone gazed at the bomb beginning to act up.
"Uh, what the jumping june-bugs is happening?" Mistress Marevelous asked.
"I don't know." Gryphon Galore replied. "I didn't build this."
"Whatever's happening... RUUUUUUUUN!" Radiance shouted.
As soon as she screamed, white lightning began to shoot out of the bomb. Everyone scattered around the room while Hum Drum approached the Masked Matterhorn, who watched in shock and horror.
"I... I don't understand." she breathed heavily. "This wasn't supposed to happen."
"Twilight, we can think about this later!" Hum Drum panicked. "Right now, we need to..." He was interrupted by a blast of white lightning that struck him. Suddenly, his entire body vanished into thin air startling the Masked Matterhorn.
"SPIKE!" she screamed. She looked and seeing her friends vanishing below her. "RARITY! APPLEJACK! RAINBOW DASH! PINKIE PIE! FLUTTERSHY! RICKY! MARTY! JOE! TERRY! AARON! DEVASTATOR!" Even the villains disappeared when the white lightning hit them. The Matterhorn then knew what was going to happen. She looked at the bomb and saw the lightning heading towards her. "Me." As soon as the lightning struck, only Blue Comet was left there.
Blue Comet hid himself behind a crate and stuck tight. In a minute, the lightning stopped striking. He peeked his head out and saw the bomb completely shut down. No light was coming off of it. He slowly walked out and breathed heavily.
"Well, that was a close one." he said. "Is everyone all right?!" All he got was silence. He looked around and didn't see anyone. "Guys? Anyone here? Machines? Ponies? Matterhorn? ...Twilight?" When no sound was heard, he gasped and began to worry. "Oh, no. It... It can't be. They can't be..." His eyes began to fill with water when he heard gears shifting. He wiped his tears away and followed the sound to his hoof. The mechanical wolf paw he held on was moving its fingers slowly up and down.
"Timberwolf's paw!" Blue Comet gasped. "It's moving? Does that mean... they're alive? But... where are they?"