Power Ponies: The Shadows of Power Collection

If you were to ask me which of our jobs I remember fondest.

My answer would be the museum heist.

What makes it so memorable from all the others?

This was the one time everything went completely perfect.

Fili-second sped up ahead of her friends.  In roughly an instant she circled the entire museum and made a b-line back to her friends.  “There's no point of entry.” She told her friends.  “Are we sure someone broke in?”

“Hum-Drum picked up the silent alarm on our scanners.” Masked-Matterhorn explained.  “There has to be something going on.”

“No offense to Hum-Drum” Zapp interjected.  “But this wouldn't be the first time he misinterpreted an alarm going off.  Remember that time we ended up showing up at Maretropolis High only to find out it was a fire drill?”

Mistress Marevalous looked up at Hum-Drum who was riding on the back of Matterhorn, and was flushed from embarrassment.  “With the slew of crimes that have been happening recently I'm almost certain something is going on.” She protested.

Marevelous defending the colt helped him relax, but this was no time for a break, because the ponies had arrived at their destination.

~~~

“Thunderstep! Exit! Now!” Terror Two-Hoof was cycling through camera feeds desperately searching for not only the Power Ponies, but anyone or anything that would have tipped them off.  Distracted by the amount of information his brain was processing Terror hardly had time to speak in complete sentences to his team.

“If I make an exit now those blasted ponies will know where we are!” Thunderstep contested the order, but warmed up his machine regardless.

“Trust me.  I have that covered.”  Terror reached underneath the camera controls and pulled out a small device with a big red button.  “This was going to be in case Thunderstep couldn't make an exit, but it also gave him an idea of how the team could escape, or at least make the fight with the Power Ponies a bit simpler.

“Terror?” Thunder hailed to his coordinator.

“Everything's set, make the exit.” He heard in response.

“Works for me!”  Thunderstep slammed his mechanized suit's hooves into the ground.  The resulting bass drop conjured a miniature earthquake which cause a section of the wall to collapse.

~~~

“Over there!”  Zapp pointed to the newly destroyed section of wall.  Just then the sound of a high yield explosion rang out from the back side of the building.

“And there...” Added Saddle Rager who pointed meekly.

“That could be a distraction.”  Marevelous pointed out.

“We can't take that chance” Matterhorn protested.  “For all we know either one of the explosions could have been a distraction.”

“So what do we do?” Asked Hum-Drum.

“We split up.” Matterhorn answered.  “Zapp and Saddle Ragger fly over the building and cut off anyone trying to escape.  Fili-Second since you're the fastest one out of all of us you go to.”

“Aye-eye!” yelped Fili-second who was gone in a fili-second.

“Aye ma'am!” Seconded Zapp who flew off followed by Saddle.

“The rest of us will make our way to the first hole in the wall and hopefully catch whomever we can there.”

~~~

Terror flipped over to the camera at the front of the museum and managed to catch a glimpse of four of the ponies making their way towards Thunderstep's newly created hole.

“You got four ponies coming to intercept you.” He warned his field team.

“Did you see which ones?”  Asked Siren.

“Matterhorn, Radiance, Marevelous, and...the runt; what's his name?”

“Hum-Drum.”  Replied Siren to their camera pony.  "Thanks for the info."

“No problem, now if you'll excuse me I need to-”  Terror looked behind him, and something about the scene felt off.  Everything was just as he left it at first glance...but then he noticed one of the ponies he had knocked out was a few inches off from where he had landed the first time, and was only a few sneaky steps away from a button to trigger a silent alarm.  “Blasted.  There's always something...”  Terror quickly ran for the door's exit making certain to kick the guard who was playing possum in his face with his hoof as he left.  “That should keep you out for a bit longer.” He mumbled.

Thunderstep, Madam Encre, and Siren Silence emerged from the hole in the wall they had created.  As they walked out into the parking lot they tossed aside their bagged up paintings as the Power Ponies moved to Intercept them.

“These two again?!” Radiance scoffed.

“You know them?” Matterhorn asked.

“They're the ones who trashed the Museum of Modern Arts.” Radiance aggressively explained.  “Was busting up one museum not enough for you?”

“As a matter of fact it wasn't.”  Madam Encre taunted.  “In fact destroying it was so much fun, I decided to destroy every museum in Maretropolis.   Slowly of course.  You can't enjoy a fire if it burns through all your kindling in a few minutes.”

“What's with this gal?” Questioned a slightly disturbed Mistress Marevelous.

“She's a psycho just like every other super villain.”  Radiance hissed.

“I resent that statement!” Thunderstep objected.  “Not all of us are crazy; you just don't understand our genius.”  As he spoke an antenna emerged from the back of his suit.  It stuck straight up and began to release pulsing sound waves into the air.  Thunderstep bobbed his head in rhythm to the beat his suit was releasing, and a large grin formed under his mask.  “How about a demonstration?”

The beat picked up as clouds began to form, but then suddenly stopped.  Thunderstep looked down at the Power Ponies and raised one of his hooves.

“Let's step it up.”  Thunderstep pointed at Matterhorn who jumped out of the way and dodged a bolt of lightning.  Thunderstep smiled sadistically feeling a sense of satisfaction  at making the Power Ponies battle against the forces of nature rather than with them.

“Time to power pony up!” Shouted Marevelous.  As she did Matterhorn began to fire heat rays from her horn at the team of three who scattered in response.

“Siren!” Thunderstep shouted to his teammate.  “EMP!”

“That will short out your suit!” She shouted back.

“Doesn't matter.” Thunder smirked.

The Power Ponies looked at one another.

“Get ready girls!” Shouted Matterhorn to her team.

Siren Silence stepped up between her friends and inhaled.  As she did various cords and parts of her body began to glow a bright blue color.  She exhaled and several locking noises were heard.

“Radiance!” Matterhorn shouted to the bright white pony who built up a marvelous gem covered shield.

Siren Silence began to sing, starting with a fairly low note then she steadily escalated the pitch, until the notes sounded less like singing and more like shrieking.  A blue aura expanded out from her in all directions as her shirking escalated.  The aura came in contract with Thunderstep and sparks shot out from his suit.  Thunder quickly shook off the suit as it died away.  More shockingly though, the aura washed over Radiance shattering her shield, and causing her bracelet to glow purple.  Magical sparks shot out from Matterhorn's horn, and Marevelous gripped her head with her hooves as a result of a splitting headache.

“What's going on?!” Shouted Masked-Matterhorn.

“I have called for silence.” Siren explained.  “And when the Siren demands silence, all shall abide.”

“Darling something's wrong.”  Matterhorn and Marevelous looked back at Radiance; who was shaking her hoof.  Her bracelet hadn't stopped glowing since Siren's attack, and try as she might she couldn't create anything.

“My rope...” Marevelous was panicking as she struggled to stand.  “Where's my rope? I can't sense my...gah this headache.”

Masked-Matterhorn looked at the three ponies and tried to shoot a beam from her horn.  Nothing happened.  “This can't be happening...our powers...She's disabled them.”

~~~

Fili-second, Zapp, and Saddle Rager arrived at the back of the museum.  To their surprise the only one there was Masked-Matterhorn who was standing at the hole.

“Matterhorn?” Zapp asked confused.  “I thought you were checking out the other hole.”

Masked-Matterhorn trotted past the three ponies. “We ran into problems with the robbers, we need to get out of here.”

“You're saying we run?” Zapp asked in disbelief.  “No way!  If you guys are having trouble we'll come bail you out right girls?!”

Fili nodded eagerly, and Saddle Rager nodded to a lesser extent.

“Suit yourself.”  Matterhorn turned around and fired out a split laser beam at Zapp and Fili hitting them both in the back of the neck sending them to the ground.

“Matterhorn?!”  Saddle Rager landed between her now unconscious friends.  “How could you?!”

“Get out of here.” Demanded Matterhorn.

“Get out?!  GET OUT?!”  Saddle Rager's eyes glowed green and bloodshot.

“YOU ATTACK OUR FRIENDS AND EXPECT ME TO 'GET OUT?!'”

“Blast it...” Terror cursed his luck, and jumped backwards as a fully enraged Saddle Rager bared down on him.  The force of the slam flung Terror backwards and broke his disguise, revealing the half pony half changeling.

“Who...are you?”  Saddle went to attack the abomination again, but he faded away in a black shadow and vanished.  Soon after the rest of the Shadows of Power faded away the same way, along with their stolen art.  Leaving the seven defeated Power Ponies alone, and confused.

“What...just happened?”  Asked Mistress Marevelous to her friends.

“We...lost...” Matterhorn sighed and attempted to collect her broken friends.