//------------------------------//
// Part 9: Super-powered Showdown 
// Story: My Little Pony: Friendship is Cine-magic: The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water 
// by IndyWriter Productions 
//------------------------------//

Burger Beard's new food joint had become a huge success in the span of just a few hours. Customers piled against the service window while literally shoving their money to the pirate just to get a taste of those juicy burgers. Burger Beard happily took there money, hastily cooked the patties to perfection, and served out the sandwiches by the dozen to the waiting customers. As the happy consumers munched on the new food item on the block, a strong wind began to pick up. Some turned to where it was coming from. In a flash of light, our heroes dropped to the ground, but in a much more different form. SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward now sported a very muscular physique and Mr. Krabs had transformed into a robot. As for the Main 7...

"Oh, my gosh! It worked! It actually worked!" Spike said excitedly.

SpongeBob ideas of super-powers gave Spike the nostalgic idea to bring back and re-live a form he and his friends had a for an adventure a while ago. They had transformed into the Power Ponies: Twilight had become Masked Matterhorn, Applejack became Mistress Mare-velous, Rarity became Radiance, Pinkie became Fili-second, Rainbow became Zapp, Fluttershy became Saddle-Rager, and Spike became Humdrum.

"This again? Ah thought we all agreed to not do this again." Applejack said flatly.

"Wait? I don't remember that." Spike said, a little surprised.

"Well it was more about being sucked into a one of your comics again than being...y'know, the Power Ponies." Twilight explained.

"Come on, girls. Wasn't this, at least, a little excited for you?" Spike asked in a pleading tone.

For a second, the girls didn't reply. Then Rainbow decided to speak up.

"To be fair, it was kind of cool to control the weather." Rainbow admitted. "Besides, being super heroes is pretty awesome."

"And these costumes are pretty stylish." Rarity added, admiring her outfit.

"Right. Plus it did make coming up with powers for us all much easier." SpongeBob said.

"Duh, duh, duh-duh!" Patrick said, striking a pose.

Unfortunately, he was facing backwards.

"Patrick!" SpongeBob said sharply.

Patrick turned around and the team made a heroic pose together.

"Hey, I got feet!" The sea star looked down at his new shoes.

"Good for you, Patrick." Rainbow said semi-sarcastically.

"Agh! What are in these things?" A customer looked at his burger.

Another customer just shrugged as he happily ate his burger. The team of heroes slowly came up to the food truck.

"We'll take one secret formula to go!" SpongeBob demanded.

"And if you don't comply, then you will face our wrath!" Spike added.

The Main 6 all give him weird looks.

"I tried to sound like we meant business." Spike rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

Burger Beard spotted the team and walked over to the service window in disbelief.

"Clear the area, citizens. There's going to be some serious aft-kicking here." SpongeBob struck his fist with his palm.

The citizens just stood there, confused and perplexed. One even took a picture of the anomaly.

"Aft-kicking?" Rainbow said with confusion.

"Gotta keep this family-friendly, Dashie. Or at least this part of the series." Pinkie said.

"Pinkie, what in Equestria are you talking about?" The lightning pegasus asked.

The, now souped up, earth pony just giggled in response.

"But...I banished you." Burger Beard whispered in confused bitterness.

"Time to take action! What's the plan, SpongeBob?" Spike asked.

"Sour Note?" SpongeBob called out.

Squidward stepped forward. He slammed his fists together and as he drew them apart, a clarinet constructed itself. Grabbing the musical instrument, Squidward took in long and deep inhale and then blew into the clarinet with all his might. A cacophony of sound spilled from the instrument, assaulting the citizens' ears. The sound was unbearably loud, forcing the people to run away in a deafening panic. Even the seagulls, perched on a high-tension wire, couldn't take the horrid noise.

"My tiny little eardrums!" One of them wailed.

As the citizen vacated the premises, Burger Beard ran out of his food ship.

"Hey, hey, wait! Hold on! Hold on!" He begged to his fleeing customers. "Wait! Wait! Customers! Wait, please!"

Squidward's musical came to a halt, leaving only Burger Beard and our super-powered friends. The fast food pirate gritted his teeth in anger and stomped over to the team.

"Oh, my. He's really angry." Fluttershy stepped back.

"Mr. Superawesomeness, take him down." SpongeBob said to Patrick.

"Superawesomeness? What kind of name is that?" Rainbow asked incredulously.

"He's a super awesome friend. It fits." SpongeBob answered.

"Yeah, but there's got to be like a better name than that." The cyan pegasus argued. "That just sounds like a five-year come up with that."

While the pony and sea sponge argued, Patrick was already using his psychic powers to use. From far away, two ice cream cones flew out of two peoples' hand and into the sea star's hands. Dark clouds began to form. Thunder roared and lightning crackled as Patrick held the two cones in his hands. The others watch with excitement and a bit of apprehension. Burger Beard, fearing the worst, held an umbrella over his head. Just as the storm was about to reach a crescendo, Patrick began happily licking away at the ice cream. He giggle in satisfaction from the creamy goodness.

"Well that was lame." Applejack said bluntly.

"Maybe we should have picked a better superpower for you, Patrick." SpongeBob said in disappointment.

Taking it as his initiative to act, Burger Beard hastily went back to his food ship to fetch something. Patrick licked his hands, satisfied with himself.

"Maybe it's time we did our thing." Twilight said.

"Let's see you get out of this one!" Burger Beard was now holding the book and quill.

The Main 7 gasped.

"He's going to strip us of our powers!" Rainbow shouted.

"And probably send us back to that horrendous island!" Rarity cried.

But, before Burger Beard could write anything down, Mr. Krabs acted first. He launched one of his detachable claws right at him. It caught Burger Beard by his left arm and trapped him against his ship. His right arm was still free and still held the feather quill. He chuckled evilly and lifted the quill toward the book. That was until Mr. Krabs launched his other claw, trapping Burger Beard's right arm.

"And just for good measure." Twilight conjured up a spell and froze the pirates legs to the ship.

"Get ready for the Invinci-bubble." SpongeBob held his breath and popped out a bubble from the bubble wand on his masked head.

The bubble enveloped the book from Burger Beard's hand and flew away into the sky.

"No!" Burger Beard yelled. "My book!"

The pirate-slash-fry cook struggled to break from the ice and claws.

"Well that was easier than I thought, but, I'm not complaining." Twilight said.

"But we didn't get to do anything. What's the point of gaining these powers if I'm not gonna use them?" Rainbow said.

"Oh, quit yer whinin', Dash. The whole point was to stop Burger Beard, not flex off our powers." Applejack rebuked.

"All right, team, time for hands in the middle." SpongeBob held out his hand.

"Yes!" Mr. Krabs then realized he didn't have a spare claw. "Oh, yeah."

His left claw flew back over and reattached itself to his arm. But, now that one of his arms was free, Burger Beard was set to free the rest of his limbs. He carefully pulled the other claw off the ship, setting his right arm free. Then, he broke the ice casing around his legs. Our heroes, however, we too distracted to notice his escape.

"Great job, guys. We did it!" SpongeBob congratulated.

The team put their hands and hooves together. But, then a paw was added to the pile of hands. The others pulled their hands and hooves away in fear and disgust. They all turned to see who the paw belonged to. It was giant live-action squirrel.

"Huh?" Patrick said.

"What?" The squirrel said in a familiar southern accent.

"Where did you come from?" Fluttershy asked.

"Sandy? Is that you?" SpongeBob asked in shock.

"You can call me...The Rodent!" Sandy showed off her karate.

"I thought we were missing somepony...or some-squirrel I should say." Twilight said.

"Hey, where'd the pirate go?" Patrick asked.

The others looked to see an empty parking space where a food truck ship should've been. All that was left was Mr. Krabs's right claw rolled to a stand-still and a puddle of melted ice.

"He's gone!" Spike said in astonishment.

"How did we not notice that?" Rainbow wonder out loud.

SpongeBob surveyed the area.

"And who had their accident there?" The cyan pegasus pointed to a puddle of yellow-ish fluid.

The muscular sea sponge gasped and leaned over it. He dipped his finger and licked it, getting a good taste of the fluid.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is." Rarity dry heaved.

"It looks like Burger Beard forgot the first rule of mobile fry cooking." SpongeBob concluded. "Always batten down your grease traps."

The sea SpongeBob pointed to a trail of grease that snaked down the road.

"Oh. Grease. That's what it was." Rarity said, relieved.

"Follow that grease, team!" Mr. Krabs shouted in determination.

The robotic crab's legs transformed into a pair of small rocket boosters. He balanced himself on a single, small wheel as he readied himself.

"Ladies." He said politely.

Applejack was the first to understand.

"Way ahead of ya." She jumped onto Mr. Krab's shoulder.

"Do we HAVE to do this?" Rarity whimpered.

"Well you ain't gonna keep up with us with ya own hooves." Applejack persuaded.

The white unicorn gave a reluctant sigh.

"Fine. But only because I have no choice." She jumped onto Mr. Krabs other shoulder. "Then again I can probably just create my own form of transp-AHHHHHHH!"

Rarity screamed to the heavens as Mr. Krabs took off at Mach speed, following the grease trail. The others followed after: Squidward and Fluttershy rode Sandy as she ran down the street, Patrick stood atop SpongeBob as he used his bubbles as rocket propulsion, Spike rode on Pinkie Pie while she used her breakneck speed, and Rainbow and Twilight could fly fast enough to keep up on their own.

Burger Beard drove his ship down the coastal streets, dead set on retrieving the book. His shipped weaved down the road, trying to pick up speed. He pulled out his telescope get a closer look of the book flying in the air.

"There she blows." Burger Beard laughed. His victory was almost in his grasp.

Our superheroes, however, were not too far behind. Burger Beard looked into his rearview mirror to see the gaggle of unlikely creature gaining on him. He grunted and loosened a rope and several small sails opened up. With the extra wind power, his ship shot forward in a great burst of speed, even catching some air time. The ship bounced down the road. Several cars swerved out of the way to avoid it, but the team didn't give in.

SpongeBob drew in a deep breath, forcing out my bubbles for increased speed. Mr. Krabs activated a second set of rocket boosters. Pinkie, Rainbow, Twilight kicked into high gear to keep up. Burger Beard looked over his shoulder to see SpongeBob, Patrick, Rainbow, and Twilight flying up alongside the ship. While Twilight kept Patrick in balance, He tried to grab onto the ship.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Burger Beard violently veered to the left.

Patrick lost his balance. He managed to grab hold of the ship, but now he was kicking a feet up to stay upright causing SpongeBob to go into a horizontal spin.

"Hang on, Patrick!" Twilight clutched onto the star's tiny cape to try to hoist him up.

Patrick accidentally kicked SpongeBob away. SpongeBob lost control, colliding into Twilight and sent the two crashing into the crow's nest of the ship. They both began to fall, but SpongeBob was able to grab Patrick's short while Twilight held SpongeBob's leg. Patrick's shorts began to slip which started to reveal his bare backside. SpongeBob shriek in disgust.

"Agh! I do not need to see that!" Twilight closed her eyes.

Rainbow tried to get face-to-face with Burger Beard.

"Don't forget about me, Burger Boy!" She said haughtily.

"Don't worry. I didn't." Burger Beard replied.

He stomped his foot against a pedal. The ship's anchor dropped, smashing into the pegasus along with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Twilight. The four careened down the road and into the rest of the team, causing them to tumble down the street. Burger Beard laughed maniacally, then set his sights to the bubbled book, which was floating closer to the crow's nest. He hastily ran to the ship's mast and started climbing. Unknown to him, our heroes weren't down just yet. Mr. Krabs held on the anchor while the rest kept their balance on him and the chain.

"He's after the book!" SpongeBob gasped. "Sandy, use your squirrel powers!"

"Roger that!" Sandy leapt onto the chain and began carefully crawling up it.

Burger Beard was already up on the crow's nest, just inches away from getting the book.

"Oh, she's never gonna make it!" SpongeBob said.

"Leave this to me, guys." Rainbow began flying up to the book.

"No! get away from my book!" Burger Beard wacked her away.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play, huh?" Rainbow said angrily.

The two starting floundering at each other.

"Consarnit, Dash!" Applejack said.

While brainstorming for more ideas, SpongeBob spotted a large statue of a fish sitting at a park entrance. The perfect idea then came to him

"Everyone...lean!" SpongeBob called out.

"Wait! Why?" Rarity asked.

There was no time for questions. The team leaned drastically to the left and zeroed in on the fish statue.

"This is gonna hurt." Spike braced himself.

The team slammed into the statue. The anchor lodged inside the fish's mouth. The team was sent flying while the statue was ripped from it's foundation. The sudden pulled back caused the ship to jump into the air.

"Woah!" Sandy yelped as she tumbled off the chain.

The rest of the team tumbled onto the street.

"Is everypony alright?" Twilight yelled with concern.

"I am." Spike came up to the purple alicorn.

Fluttershy checked herself over.

"I think we're all okay..."

"Get out of the way!" Rainbow flew in and pulled Fluttershy away just as the fish statue tore down the street.

The others stumbled out of the statue's path. The ship began to turn, facing the opposite direction. Burger beard held onto the mast for dear life as to not fall.

The seagulls from earlier were watching the spectacle with popcorn in-hand.

"That's what you get." One of them said.

Finally, the ship came to a screeching halt. It had turned a complete 180 degrees. Burger Beard gave a shrewd laugh then noticed the bubbled book was floating toward him. He reached at his hands, ready to grab it.

"Come here. Come here." He muttered.

"SpongeBob! The book!" Spike cried out.

SpongeBob lifted Patrick off of him.

"The book!" He gasped. "Sour Note!"

Squidward quickly inhaled and blew into his clarinet. The disrupting wave of sound tore across the street, shredding the ship's sails and popping the bubble. The book fell and tumbled into the ship's hatch. Burger Beard yelled in frustration. Squidward dropped to the ground, out of breath.

Burger Beard quickly climbed down the mast onto the ship's deck. He looked to see the book landed squarely on the active grill. It erupted into flames, slowly burning into ash and soot.

"Nooooaaarrgghh!" Burger Beard shouted.

He angrily looked back at the team, who were now walking toward the ship.

"It's over, Burger Beard!" Twilight yelled.

"All right, Burger Beard, prepare to be teamworked!" SpongeBob said with confidence.

"I'm going to scrub my armpits with you." The pirate growled menacingly.

"Uh. I don't get it." SpongeBob in confusion.

"Because you're a sponge." Squidward deadpanned.

"Duh." Burger Beard said dumbly.

"Welp. That's an image I won't be able to get out of my head." Rainbow said, grossed out by such a prospect.

"Oh." SpongeBob said meekly "Get him, The Rodent!"

"Consider him roasted!" Sandy dipped her head into a peanut cart.

Bystanders ran away in a panic. Burger Beard realized what was going to happen as soon as Sandy came back up with a mouthful of peanuts. She spat one out like a bullet right toward the fast food pirate. Burger Beard dodged it. Dodging a couple more, he pulled out his trusty spatula. Sandy was surprised and confused. She began shooting them in rapid succession.

"Count me in." Twilight began shooting orbs of magic ice at the pirate.

Burger Beard, however, deflected the peanuts and ice. He leapt to the side and grabbed onto a rope. Sandy suddenly stopped.

"Ah, nuts! I'm all out of nuts!" She said.

Twilight maintained shooting magic at Burger Beard. That was until he deflected an magic orb right back at the alicorn. Before she could even react, Twilight was frozen in a solid block of ice. The rest of the team gasped, while Burger Beard rode the rope up to the crow's nest and laughed mockingly.

"Twilight! Are you okay?" Spike ran up to the frozen alicorn, frantically trying to find a way to get her out of her predicament.

"Yer gonna pay fer that." Applejack said angrily to the fast food pirate.

Burger Beard just laughed even harder.

"Justice is best soft served." Patrick put his hands to his head.

From a nearby ice cream parlor, hundreds of ice cream cones shot through the windows on Patrick's command. Bystanders ducked for cover as the sea star signaled the cones right for Burger Beard.

"Patrick, I should have never doubted your powers!" SpongeBob said.

Burger Beard was one step ahead, however. Grabbing the rope, he swung around the mast of the ship. The volley of soft served ice cream chased after him, but he managed to evade it. Now the ice cream was headed right for the team. The rest of the team, except Patrick, scrambled out of the way. Patrick tried to commanded them to turn away, but it was too late. He was bombarded to the ground by the onslaught of frozen treats. He laid there, covered in melting ice cream.

"I can't think of a sweeter way to go." Patrick said weakly.

"You're not gonna die, Patrick." Rainbow deadpanned.

"Well I still feel bad." The starfish whined.

"Ha! It's all mine!" Burger Beard held the secret formula, almost as if to taunt our heroes even further.

"Not so fast, Booger Beard." Mr. Krabs launched his claw rockets at the ship.

They sliced through the mast. It teetered a little. Burger Beard held on for dear life.

"Take this, you ruffian." Rarity summoned a giant pair of scissors, which swiftly cut into the mast.

Finally, the entire tower gave way. Burger Beard fell to the ship's deck as the mast crashed onto the road. The formula bounced and rolled onto the road, right in front of the crab and unicorn.

"That ought to teach him." Rarity huffed.

Mr. Krabs reattached his claws and went to grab the tiny bottle.

"Me formuler." He said.

Just then, Burger Beard slid out from the service window with a medieval gun. Giant sticks of butter were fitted into the magazine of the gun.

"This will make you feel a little butter." He sadistically joked.

The gun revved up, ready to fire.

"Not melted butter!" Mr. Krabs said fearfully.

"Anything but that! It'll ruin the latex!" Rarity clung to the robotic crab.

The gun shot out a blast of hot, melted butter. Mr. Krabs and Rarity were sent flying into the horizon, screaming.

"Mr. Krabs! Rarity!" SpongeBob cried out.

He then noticed the formula and went to grab it. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash flew up to the sky.

"This ends now!" She yelled.

She grabbed her lightning amulet with her mouth and held it up high. Storm clouds began to form and lightning began to strike.

"I've got my own dispensable weapons!" Burger Beard pulled a lever on the side of his ship.

The bow of the ship opened up and revealed dozens of primmed cannons. Burger Beard unhook a trigger rope and pulled it down, activating one of the cannons. It shot out a cannonball which hit the electrical pegasus right in the stomach. Rainbow dropped to the ground, clutching her stomach in pain.

"Uh, oh." SpongeBob said.

He gave an innocent smile and softly put the bottle back onto the road. The pirate pulled the rope again, unleashing a blitz of cannonballs at the sponge. SpongeBob barely dodged them as they whizzed past him. Burger Beard let out a "got you" laugh and pulled once again.

"Oh, yeah!" He shouted.

The cannonball shot forward. It flew through SpongeBob's bubble wand, but now enveloped in a bubble. SpongeBob looked at it then smiled, realizing what he could do with that knowledge. Burger Beard shot more cannonballs, but this time, SpongeBob made sure each one flew into his bubble wand. He laughed, acting like it was some kind of game. Burger Beard just gave a incredulous frown as he pulled the trigger again, though not with the same gusto. Suddenly, his hand was caught in a golden lasso.

"That's enough of all the cannon fodder." Applejack spoke severely, holding the lasso in her mouth.

"What makes you think you have a say in the matter." Burger Beard violently pulled his hand back.

The two got into a tug-of-war scenario. Pinkie took this opportunity to grab the secret formula.

"I got it, guys!" She said, holding up the bottle.

"Nice one, Pinkie." Applejack said happily, through gritted teeth.

Burger Beard growled in frustration. Meanwhile, Patrick had just finished the last of the ice cream strewn around the area. He then noticed a bubbled up cannonball floating over his face.

"They're beautiful!" He said, mesmerized.

He made the mistake of touching it. The bubble popped and the cannonball smashed onto his face.

"Patrick!" SpongeBob cried out.

That was all the distraction Burger Beard needed. He pulled the trigger with his free hand. A cannonball shot out right at SpongeBob. It was a direct that sent the sponge sprawling to the ground.

"SpongeBob!" Applejack said, alarmed through gritted teeth.

Now that she was distracted, Burger Beard grabbed the lasso and pulled the earth pony forward, causing her to step on a puddle of melted butter from his previous assault. Applejack slipped and fell onto her back, groaning in pain.

Fluttershy was in complete shock. Most of her friends lay on the ground, hurt or subdued. Her shock slowly transformed into anger. She glared at Burger Beard and she could feel her body begin to change; her muscles bulged and her body grew. The Saddle-Rager part of her was starting to come into fruition. Suddenly, Burger Beard swung Applejack's lasso at her. It wrapped around her neck, not to the point that she couldn't breath, but enough that her anger transformed right back to panic and her body changed back it her normal form. Pinkie tried to make a run for it, but Burger Beard used the other end of the lasso and swung and wrapped around Pinkie's legs. Both ponies and the formula flopped to the ground.

"Hey! No fair!" She pouted, trying to untangle herself.

SpongeBob lay in a daze. The bubbles popped and cannonballs smashed into the asphalt around him. Burger Beard laughed victoriously. he kicked Applejack out of the way and swiped the formula. His laughter turned more maniacal now that the formula was back in his possession. As he began to walk away, Patrick came to SpongeBob's side in an instant.

"SpongeBob!" He said in despair.

"Patrick?" SpongeBob said weakly.

"Talk to me buddy." Patrick spoke softly.

"I'm...I'm seeing a bright light." The sponge said.

Patrick turn his head to block out the sun.

"Is this better?"

"Much. Thank you." SpongeBob said. "But the discomfort I feel in my eyes is nothing compared to the shame I feel for letting down the Patty. For letting down Bikini Bottom."

"Yeah, SpongeBob, you really blew it." Patrick agreed.

"No, Patrick, we blew it, as a team." SpongeBob said with a weak smile.

"Nope. This one's on you." The sea star said bluntly.

As Burger Beard headed over to his ship, Spike tried one last ditch effort to get the formula.

"Hey! We're not all down for the count!" He shouted at him.

Burger Beard turned to him and let out another maniacal laugh.

"Oh, yeah? What are you going to do about it?" He said in a taunting matter.

Spike was about to say something, but he didn't know what to say. He wasn't sure what he could do.

"I'll tell you what you can do! Nothing!" Burger Beard said cruelly. "There's no way you can beat me, little lizard. Not even you friends could beat me. You’re nothing! Why don't you scamper off before you hurt yourself."

Spike was hurt by Burger Beard's heartless words. But, he was right. There wasn't much he could do. He was just Humdrum, the one hero of the team that didn't have any powers. There was no way to even contest Burger Beard, not with his assortment of weapons. Spike lowered his head in defeat and the fry cook pirate laughed while heading back to his ship.

Twilight looked on from inside her icy prison. She was enraged that Burger Beard had insulted and belittled Spike. She wanted nothing more than to incinerate him, to show him the true wrath of a protective mother. Most importantly, she wanted to comfort Spike, to tell him that he wasn’t nothing or weak. But, she knew she couldn’t do anything. She was stuck there, frozen in one place, one position. Helpless against the ice block’s unforgiving hold. She stared at Spike with a sorrowful expression.

"Oh, Spike. You aren't nothing. You mean so much to us, to me" She could only think to herself.

It seems like our heroes have been defeated for good this time. Has Burger Beard really won? Is Bikini Bottom doomed with a Krabby Patty famine? Will Rarity even get over her ruined latex?

We'll found out soon enough.


To be continued