//------------------------------// // Vanished // Story: Power Ponies: The Storm Unleashed // by Darksonickiller //------------------------------// Power Ponies: The Storm Unleashed Chapter 1: Vanished By Darksonickiller and Izangi “It would appear you’re in a ‘hairy’ situation now, Power Ponies!” a maniacal voice declared, their demented laughter echoing down the vaulted hallways of the Maretropolis Museum of Natural History. Seven ponies stood near the origin of the incessant cackling, but none of them were smiling or sharing in the apparent humor of the situation. The seemingly demented mare ceased her laughter, and returned her nemeses’ stoic gazes with wild and disturbing red-green eyes as she brandished something golden and lustrous in one of her prehensile green locks. “We’ll see about that, Mane-iac!” The Masked Matter-Horn replied finally, lowering her horn in an aggressive posture and sneering. “That artifact is public property of the museum, and the citizen of Maretropolis!” Mistress Mare-velous readied her golden lasso to the Matter-Horn’s right, as she studied the stolen artifact in question that Mane-iac was grasping with so much nefarious enthusiasm. “Stealing priceless pieces from museums now, huh Mane-iac? That’s low, even for the likes of you.” Radiance huffed in agreement as she adopted a readied posture, her horn ignited in a violet aura. “It’ll take more than even that magical comb to fix a rat’s nest of a mane like yours!” Mane-iac’s lips pulled into a scowl of displeasure, and she cackled briefly before replying, “Fools! Have you any idea what this is?” She held the golden comb aloft, revealing the scrolling of hieroglyphics across its polished handle. “With the Pharaoh’s Comb, every mane in Maretropolis can, and will, bend to my will! Every hair salon from here to Trotham will quake with fear at the name, ‘Mane-iac’! My hair-care product empire will be unrivaled! The streets will be flooded in a tsunami of shampoos-” “She’s going to keep on going, isn’t she?” Fili-Second stated with a deadpan tone at the villainess’ ongoing rant. “Always the monologues with her…” Hum Drum groaned, peering up with a mixture of annoyance and wariness at the Mane-iac. “The same could be said for all of the blatant reprobates that terrorize our fair city, truthfully,” Zapp replied, hovering above Fili-Second with a look of distaste. Mane-iac was still giving a monologue about her plans with the Pharaoh’s Comb, even now. Saddle Rager was the only one of the group who looked more nervous than angered or annoyed. “Oh boy...Mane-iac’s really starting to get on my nerves…” Her timid nervousness was rapidly giving way to anger, and the veins on her neck were pulsating dangerously. After nearly a whole minute and a half of Mane-iac’s speech about combs, hair domination, and other things rather outlandish, the Masked Matter-Horn had heard more than enough for a single night. “...and now, I will start right in this very museum with the hair of none other than the dreaded Power Ponies, themselves. Say goodbye to your precious manes, I-” “Power Ponies, attack!” Matter-Horn shouted, cutting Mane-iac off mid sentence. “Standard formation!” In the span of a heartbeat, the Power Ponies sprung into action and engaged their foe, leaving Hum Drum and Saddle Rager standing there with anxious looks. Mane-iac, never one to back down from a chance to spar against her hated nemeses, let out a laugh. The many hair appendages of her mane and tale went to work with guided efficiency. One of them blocked the ring of Mistress Mare-velous’ lasso as she attempted to seize the villain immediately in hopes of ending the fight early and avoiding damage to the many museum exhibits surrounding them all. Mane-iac’s hair-legs glided quickly across the polished marble floor, working hard to avoid hoof jabs from the rapidly-darting form of Fili-Second. The Masked Matter-Horn fired arcs of directed energy and blasts of ice from her horn at the Mane-iac, attempting to sever the writhing appendages and get through the villain’s defense. Radiance cooperated with Fili-Second by creating energy construct trampolines that the lightning-fast mare used to bound off and launch her attacks at Mane-iac’s sides as she attempted to fend off Mistress Mare-velous’ additional attacks. Above the battle, Zapp was in position and concentrating her power into summoning a miniature storm cloud. Her sapphire-blue eyes lit up with mounting power. The Pharaoh’s Comb began to glow as Mane-iac channeled its power to help her fight back while dodging one of Zapp’s lightning bolts, but she knew she would eventually be overwhelmed if she didn’t come up with something quickly that could distract the Power Ponies, if only for a couple precious seconds. “Henchponies!” Mane-iac shouted, her eyes wild and insane as ever. A group of a dozen or so flamboyantly dressed stallions with a colourful array of mane styles materialized around a corner expectantly, immediately rushing to their insane employer’s aid. Mane-iac’s plant-wilting stare bore into each and every one of them. “Where were you fools this entire time?” “Uh, well, we-” One stallion began nervously, before being cut off. “Nevermind, you imbecile, deal with the Power Ponies! I must secure the Pharaoh’s Comb, or else our plans are lost!” The mob of mooks got to work without further comment, moving towards the Power Ponies with vicious snarls as the heroines continued to assail their boss. They were able to draw Fili-Second and Radiance’s combined attention away from the Mane-iac, but the Masked Matter-Horn, Mistress Mare-velous, and Zapp were still keeping up their attacks. Matter-Horn attempted to fire a beam at Mane-iac’s chest to stun her, but she fired a millisecond too late and missed, leaving her open to a painful attack by one of the hair appendages, which Mane-iac used very much like a whip across the unicorn mare’s face. Seeing a comrade on the marble floor, covering their now reddened face and groaning intensely, Saddle Rager had finally had enough, and decided to join the fray. “That tears it! Mane-iac, YOU’RE GOING DOWN!” Going into full berserk mode, the now hulking and impossibly ripped pegasus smashed her way through an unlucky glass vase display with ease, emerging from the debris unfazed, but increasingly angry as she charged at the villainess. Saddle Rager broke through Mane-iac’s hair appendages with as much difficulty as she had the late exhibit, and promptly pick the normally larger pony up like a ragdoll. The Mane-iac wailed like a banshee in between giggling fits as she went flank-first into a replica statue of Maretropolis’ founders, shattering a couple of display cases that also lined the statue’s base. Their numbers seemingly multiplying like magic, several more henchponies appeared in front of the pegasus, blocking her path to the downed Mane-iac. Saddle Rager looked up to the Tyrannosaurus exhibit that sat nearby and let out a very unpony-like roar, before charging at the stallions, whose bravado was quickly fleeing their faces faster than Fili-Second could jog to Neighpon and back. “YOU ALL MADE POOR CAREER CHOICES!” Saddle Rager thundered at the minions. “You tell em’, Saddle Rager!” Hum Drum cheered from afar. The mooks rolled haphazardly out of the way, but it provided a now recovered Mane-iac with more than enough warning to do just the same, before the pegasus could flatten her completely with the statue. Not all the stallions were able to escape Saddle Rager’s path of rather destructive justice, but Mane-iac did. Her hair pulled her back to her hooves, then held her aloft again as she dusted her bodysuit off and regained her bearings. Through her brief spat with Saddle Rager, Mane-iac had been able to retain hold of the golden comb. The artifact seemed to be practically glued to her mane, now. Channeling its power, Mane-iac found herself with deja vu as she dodged yet another of Zapp’s lightning bolts, which had already felled a couple of her henchponies. Their fried-black and unconscious bodies lay all over the debris-strewn marble, damp from indoor rain. Some of them twitched. Mane-iac dodged or blocked yet more lightning bolts with unnatural, inequine speed. Her eyes began to glow much like her pegasus opponent from the magic of the Pharaoh’s comb. “Calamity!” Zapp exclaimed as she turned away briefly to watch Mistress Mare-velous lasso and hogtie three mooks near the Masked Matter-Horn’s incapacitated form. “What sort of mind would think it a fitting idea to imbue a golden hairstyling implement with any form of magical power?” “A brilliant mind. Whatever else, Power Pony?” Mane-iac retorted venomously, her voice now underlined by an ominously new note of hostility. “I must correct you, Mane-iac. A deranged mind.” Zapp countered. “Oh, but Zapp, you fail to see the mane point of the matter. Insanity is but another form of beauty!” Mane-iac chuckled as Radiance catapulted Fili-Second towards her with an energy force-field for a battering ram, seizing Fili-Second by the hindlegs with the appendages of her tail and tossing her towards an exhibit for prehistoric amber. “I beg to differ!” Fili-Second shot back with annoyance, her forelegs crossed as she soared through the air. “Fili-Second!” Radiance cried out. Ceasing her barrage of lightning strikes with a gasp, Zapp attempted to catch Fili with gust of wind before she could impact the stands, turning her back to the Mane-iac in the process. “Yes!” Zapp’s rescue attempt was successful, but Mane-iac saw a window of opportunity. “You are safe now, Fili, for a true pegasi is always watchful!” “Uh, thanks for the save, Zapp.” Fili-Second scratched rapidly at her orange forelock of hair awkwardly before returning to jump back into the fray. In the moments it took for Zapp to deposit Fili-Second back on the ground to help Saddle Rager, Radiance, Hum Drum, and Mistress Mare-velous deal with the remaining henchponies, Mane-iac was able to entangle the pegasus in her green mane, which had taken on a consistency comparable to metal in the places where it was not still the Mane-iac’s ‘ordinary’ hair. The hair held Zapp with a vise-like grip as the pegasus fought against it with grunts of effort. “Urgh! Release me at once, vile fiend!” Zapp demanded. Her command was met by another tirade of sanity-shattering laughter and cackling from the Mane-iac, who only tightened her grip more on the Power Pony. “Let her go!” the Masked Matter-Horn shouted, having recovered from the strike to her face. The entire area around her muzzle was as red as a cherry, and looked almost hot to the touch. “Ah, ah, ah, Power Ponies. It’s not that simple, I’m afraid. I’d rather not have to hurt your friend, and run the risk of dirtying my gorgeous hair any further, but first there’s something you must do for me.” Mane-iac held her forelegs out in a broad gesture. “Need I to spell out the obvious?” “You really expect us to surrender to the likes of you?” Mistress Mare-velous hissed, standing near Matter-Horn to hold her up while the unicorn rubbed at her sore muzzle. “RELEASE HER BEFORE I BREAK HALF OF EVERY BONE IN YOUR BODY!” Saddle Rager roared, her berserker rage already beginning to fade away back to normal. In response, Mane-iac simply laughed and tightened her grip on Zapp, now rivaling that of a constrictor snake. Zapp cried out in pain. “...please?” Saddle Rager added with a squeak as her normal voice returned. “I told you,” Mane-iac began, glaring intensely at her nemeses. “Every hair salon in this region would quake with fear at my name, and I meant it!” She squeezed at Zapp again and giggled as the pegasus yelped with a mixture of pain and righteous anger. “If you wish your comrade free of any lasting injuries, you will accept your defeat like proper mares.” “Zapp, no!” Hum Drum cried with distress. The others echoed him. Eventually, the Power Ponies shared a mutual look of desperation, and finally, the Masked Matter-Horn caught the villain’s rapt attention with a drawn-out sigh. “Very well, we-” Matter-Horn swallowed hard, as if the words she were about to utter were an earlier lunch that her stomach hadn’t quite agreed with. “-we surrender.” Mane-iac’s eyes glowed with excitement as she let out a victorious bout of laughter. “Henchponies, you know what to do!” The stallions that could still walk approached the Power Ponies with sturdy ropes they produced from their satchel bags. “Go ahead, make your getaways, have your moment in the sun. You’ll still get yours, all of you!” Fili-Second taunted as she held her forelegs out to the nearest henchponies with mock enthusiasm. “Justice is as swift as I am quick.” “I can attest to that,” Radiance affirmed, who was already being tied to one of the large, ornate wrought iron lamp posts that graced the cavernous halls of the museum. Working quickly, the mooks were able to secure the Power Ponies at various points around the hall. All of them were now looking at Mane-iac expectantly, waiting for her to fulfill her end of the bargain and release Zapp. What happened next caught everyone, even the henchponies, by complete surprise. Mane-iac laughed like a madmare for the thousandth time that night as she looked between Zapp and her fellow Power Ponies sadistically, before running the pegasus through the back with one of her metal-like strands of hair formed into a wicked point, easily punching through the mare’s blue body suit, and barely missing her vitals, as it exited near her stomach. Zapp’s eyes widened with disbelief and shock as she felt an explosion of almost unfathomable pain blossom out from her very core, rendering her unable even to cry out as all the air escaped from her lungs. For the rest of the superheroes, time seemed to slow to a mere crawl as Mane-iac then released Zapp from her clutches and wantonly catapulted the wounded pegasus out through the skylight above, as if she were barely more than a teddy bear, or a polo ball. What followed was a chorus of panicked cries, interspersed with shouts of rage or Zapp’s name from the Power Ponies as Mane-iac’s laughter picked up. The villain paid them one final smirk-filled glance, before leading her remaining henchponies away to their escape, the Pharaoh’s Comb and its power still in their grasp. The Power Ponies quieted themselves as their departing foes finally vanished from sight, as each team member worked to wrap their heads around the unthinkable event they had just witnessed. Mistress Mare-velous slammed a free hoof down onto the floor in fury as she struggled to loosen her bound forelegs, leaving cracks in the marble tiles. While in her ministrations, she noticed a small pony staring at her wide-eyed from behind one of the exhibits. “Hum Drum?” Mare-velous’ voice softened as she attempted to keep it from breaking. “I guess they forgot to tie you up with the rest of us, huh?” Hum Drum emerged from the shadow of the exhibit stand, nodding. He gulped as he did so, his eyes wide and brimming with tears. “C’mon squirt, untie me and the others.” Mistress Mare-velous registered the colt’s expression, and adopted a maternal tone on instinct. “Don’t worry, Hum Drum. Zapp is a tough mare, possibly the toughest one of all us! We just gotta go out and make sure she’s alright. But first,” The earth pony tilted her head towards her bonds, – her own lasso – with emphasis, causing her platinum mane to move with her. “O-ok,” Hum Drum nodded, sucking up his tears and getting to work loosening the knots. “Good boy. Don’t you worry, we won’t rest until Mane-iac is brought to justice for this!” Mistress Mare-velous’ features darkened as she uttered the name. Hum Drum quickly made his way over to the Masked Matter-Horn and freed her, and did the same with the others, until the entire team was free again. “Zapp needs our help, let’s go, hurry!” Matter-Horn urged. Wasting no time, they all darted outside to begin the search for their undoubtedly wounded friend and comrade, not bothering to let their ankles recover from the tight knots. They did not have to look long. Zapp had evidently landed right outside the front of the Museum of Natural History, which was by now filled with the blaring lights of police squad cars, and the frantic back and forth talk and calls of police ponies and random members of the Maretropolis press as they responded to the incident. At least a few helicopters were buzzing overhead, but none of the Power Ponies paid them any mind. All seven of them had their eyes glued on one particular spot of the pavement, which the authorities were already taping off and taking pictures of for their later reports. Lights from hundreds of cameras flashed all around the surrounding street behind the police cordons. No doubt, a story of the decade was already circulating through the papers and the major news networks. For on the pavement, in a pool of blood and shattered glass, lay nothing but Zapp’s lone lightning bolt pendant.