Legendary rangers from past, present and future come together in forms of keys? And in the hands of an actual pirate? What madness is this?!
Legend telling tales of legendary treasure chest that holds untold powers hidden somewhere on Equis. Catching the eyes of power hungry; or greedy enough, and go hunting for it only for it to terraform the world before scattering the treasures all over to world.
But now; few years later, new folks arrive with one thing in common; they aren't from this world. Can they survive the strange land and the unknown? This is where their new journey begins.
It was daylight in Promo Town, once known as Ponyville. It was changed after some complaints from non-pony folks. Besides that, nothing else has changed, besides the lowlines of technology.
At a medieval-style tavern, many folks are drinking and eating, talking about their lives or recent events. Waiters go around taking orders from customers or cleaning tables; that’s either unoccupied or having too many dishes that need to be cleaned.
Sitting at one of these tables is a well-muscled, pale peach-skinned young man with messy, average brown hair. He was laying back on the cushioned couch, glancing around the many anthros with his blue eyes. He was dressed in a sleeveless gray shirt, a black pirate design jacket with a red accent and silver sleeve cuffs, faded navy blue jeans with a brown buckle belt, and red loose shaft pirate boots. On his right hand, middle finger, a silver ring with an engraving of two cutlass swords crossing each other behind a red fox head.
The young man sighs as he sits forward, leaning his arms on the table. He grabs the huge cup of apple cider and takes a sip before placing it back on the table. "This reminds me o' the time I went across sea’s t' look fer new places t' drink! A bit raucous but it’s nah bad fer someone like me." He says to himself, reminiscing about the old times.
It comes to an end when he hears a lot of screams coming from outside. 'What the?' He thought before quickly drinking the rest of his cider before running outside, pushing the flap doors open and stepping outside, seeing people running away from something. "Wha'’s goin' on?" He says this before heading the opposite direction toward the ruckus.
Just as he reaches the market area, a couple of XBorg soldiers move out into the open from one road, along with three Bruiser officers following right behind them. Behind the group, he could see bodies lying lifeless on the ground and buildings burning around them. One of the XBorgs attacks one of the fleeing people, striking them in the back of the head with a silver mace-like weapon that makes the person drop to the floor, lying lifeless as they look at the man.
Seeing people being slaughtered, he pulls out a modified flintlock pistol and aims it at one of the grunts before pulling the trigger, the shot striking the grunt, who drops to the ground unmoving. The remaining figures all turn their weapons to solely focus on the man. "Ye blasted rats, get yer serves!" He says, quickly pulling the hammer and firing at another grunt as he moves behind a building corner for cover. All of the XBorgs fire at the building he moved behind, breaking the brick structure with pieces flying around from the shots.
He rolls back out into the open to fire another shot while pulling out another flintlock pistol, looking different from his other gun, from his coat and firing it at another, as they fall to the ground from his metal pellets, only for more to take their place. He fires a couple more while keeping himself on the move to avoid being an easy target. He dodges a projectile that misses his head entirely before shooting the one who tries to blast his head off.
"Do you want a hand?" A voice asks from above the group. All the robots and the young man stop firing before looking up where the voice came from. Standing on top of one of the roofs is a figure looking down at them. He has neatly combed black hair; bangs that curve over just above his eyeline; his eyes almost look bright red; he's wearing a long flowing red jacket; and the rest of him is obscured by the building roof railing.
"I would be most grateful 'n be a bit weary o' ye." He says it honestly.
The figure jumped off the roof, landing beside the man. "Just so you know, even when offering to help. I don’t do something for nothing. We’ll decide on payment after these Gormin and Sugormin are dealt with." That made the man raise an eyebrow at the names he used for the enemies.
"I, Arther, may oblige." Arther somewhat agrees with the term.
"Okay then." The second figure says before facing towards the creatures ahead of them before pulling out a flintlock pistol that looked similar to the one Arther was holding, firing multiple times in quick succession, most of the creatures dropping lifelessly. Arther fires his two pistols as well, not letting his shots miss their mark.
"This is not going to get me anywhere." The man mutters under his breath as he reaches into his jacket and pulls out what looks to be a red key in one hand before throwing his gun into the air as he pulls a phone-like object out of his pocket.
Not realizing what the stranger was doing, Arther puts away both of his pistols after knowing his normal pistol is almost out of ammo, and pulls out a similar red key and flick open a bulky red and yellow phone with black trim edges that also have a key slot.
Arther places the red key into the bulky phone key slot. "Set Sails!" He shouts before twisting it ninety degrees before thrusting the phone forward. The device vanishes back into his pocket while he stands at attention. Two X's pass through him and change his outfit to be a black bodysuit and a red pirate coat, gloves, and boots. Two X's swing back around to the front to form the red helmet. He announces, "Morphin’ Marauder, Red!" as he pulls out a special cutlass sword from his hip before swiping in a J-motion.
At the same time as Arther did his motions, the figure brought his phone across his chest, pointing the key in his hand forward as he shouted, "Gokai Change!" before putting the key into the phone, turning it the same way Arther had. Unlike Arther's transformation, a voice shouted out, "Gokaiger!" as the process proceeded. Once the transformation was completed, he calmly moved his hand in front of his face before saying, "GokaiRed." He caught the gun he had thrown into the air in his hand while pulling out his cutlass sword from his side in a similar fashion to Arther’s, holding it in the other.
There was a brief silence as both of their realizations caught up with them. "Huh?!" They say it at the same time while looking at each other in surprise.
"Why do I feel like something is not right with this?" The figure asks while looking at Arther.
"I would be the same, but I reckon we 'ave much more pressin' matters t' attend t'.." Arther says as he pulls his pistol with the icon of a similar key with a cross cutlass on the side of the gun. "-Savvy." With that, he charges in, guns blazing with a cutlass at the ready, taking out at least three of them as he does. The enemies open fire as well, at the charging Arther. He deflects the shots that would have actually hit him with his cutlass. He even angles his grip on the sword to hit with the flat side of the blade to send some shots back at them.
The figure begins to move towards the monsters ahead of him, firing his gun at them before darting off to the side, many of the monsters falling to the ground. The Bruisers turn and focus shots on the figure which is being blocked by his sword.
When Arther got close enough, he does a high flip forward at an XBorg and lands in front of it before slashing at its chest before standing straight up in a fencing stance before giving it an overhead slash as he does the splits, which made one XBorg miss with its mace-design gun. While having his legs stretched out across the ground, he uses his Super Megaforce Pistol and counters with a shot at the XBorg, who tries to whack him in the head before getting back up to his feet. "I may be a pirate, but I know how t' dance, ye fool!" He says this to the one he shot down before getting back into the fight.
"Keep yourself moving!" The second man's voice shouts back as Arther sees him jump over both him and the XBorgs, firing a barrage of bullets down onto them, each falling to the ground. He then spun backwards upon landing his sword, slicing into the chest of one of the Bruisers.
Arther runs in and Shin slides in between two XBorgs, slashing the left one and shooting the right before fully leaning back as the last Bruiser swipes where Arther’s head would have been. He pulls his legs out from under him before using his feet to kick the bruiser back, who uses its arm to cover and block the attack while stumbling back. Then Arther does a motion and pushes himself off the ground with the help of his arms and back while using his legs to swing himself back upright.
The Bruiser was about to charge at Arther, but it was stopped by a few shots from Arther.
"'ave some o' this!" Arther says happily as his cutlass is encased in waves of water, reeling his sword behind him as his gun points at the Bruiser as it charges air in the barrel. He pulls the gun hammer and fires a huge bubble that speeds headlong at the Bruiser. It thought it was just a wimpy failure of an attack, but is suddenly caught off guard as it sucks the Bruiser into itself, caught in the bubble. Bruiser tries to pop the bubble with its pincers, only for the bubble to stretch like rubber.
"Tidal Wave..." A voice calls out as Arther slashes forward at the Bruiser. A slash made out of watery waves shoots out of the blade and flies right at the Bruiser. When it hits the bubble, it cuts straight through the Bruiser, splitting it into two. The bubble pops loudly as it explodes. "-SLASH!"
"That looks pretty strange." The man mutters to himself. "Pretty sure that wasn’t a finisher like I remember." He looks back at the remaining Xborgs before bringing his sword up, blocking two of their maces when they came down at him. He pushes them off and shoots both in the chest. He quickly moves towards the rest, quickly cutting the rest down.
Clap clap clap "Bravo! For once, I might actually have a challenge doing this." A large monstrous figure walks into view, getting both Rangers' attention. He is a lamprey eel-themed monster with a gray-metal colored body with a few different sizes of turquoise orbs in a few places, and his right arm being a sniper gun. "Make it interesting at least." It opens fire with its gun, doing a bit of collateral damage.
The second figure comes to a halt and looks around before saying. "I assume you know how much it’ll cost someone to fix this mess. I assume you’ve got some kind of "sensible reason" or are going to pay for the repairs?"
"Only when this planet is ours, and that's a big maybe. You got more important things to worry about anyway." The monster chuckles a bit.
The figure let out a sigh before shaking his head as he shrugged his shoulders. "So it's one of those things. Invading this world for your own gain. How stereotypical of creatures like you."
"Can ye nah natter about Stereotypin'! I 'ave enough o' scallywags usin' that cliche response." Arther whines at the man in irritation on that subject. "'n ye;" He points his gun at the monster with his forefinger pointing as well. "... I got naught." He says this after a brief moment of silence, not coming up with anything to say to the invader.
"You're supposed to be a hero? Some hero you are, can't even quip properly. I have seen many attempts in my day, but yours at least got a good laugh out of me." Once again, the monster opens fire, with more accuracy than before, right at the so-called heroes.
Arther evaded the shots as best as he could, using his cutlass to block or deflect them. "First o' all;" He starts saying this as he takes a few steps forward while protecting himself. "I’m nah a hero, I be a pirate." He points out and literally uses his left hand with the sword and raises two fingers at the monster to indicate what he says next. "They be two different things.. 'n second," A projectile shot soars right at him with the flat side of his sword; he hits it right back at the monster. "'ave it back!"
"Yes, keep it up, make me work for it! A challenge is what makes me feel alive!" The monster grunts as the reflected attack hits it, but it seems only slightly dazed at best.
"Why do I get a feeling you enjoy getting hurt?" The second figure says. He had gotten behind the monster while it was distracted, slicing into the monster's back with his sword before shooting it multiple times.
Another grunt, but not a huge amount of damage. "Hurt? No, I don't enjoy the pain, I enjoy the fact you're making me hurt, making it a challenge that makes me feel more excited for the kill!"
"Masochist. Got it." The second figure kicks the monster in the back, knocking him back towards Arther, creating a small distance between him and the monster. Arther follows it with a rapid fire attack on the gray monster as he uses the pummel of his cutlass on the yellow buckle top, pressing a button that makes a hidden door on the buckle flip to reveal an odd key. Unlike the key Arther and the other person used, it didn’t have a person on the handle but a blazing lion's head and mane instead.
Arther grabs the key with his only available fingers and slots it into the sword key slot. He looks at the other red ranger. "Ahoy, switch weapons wit' me." He says as he raises his sword and gives it a few light shakes to emphasize which one he’s giving.
"You got it; catch!" The figure shouts back, shooting the monster a few more times before throwing his gun over its head towards Arther who threw his sword over as well. When he caught Arther's sword, he noticed the key was still inserted but not turned. Arther catches the gun and starts firing both pistols at the monster with perfect accuracy.
The man pauses when an idea pops into his head. Smiling, he threw his own key into the air before inserting it into the keyhole on his own sword. He brought both keys together, the sword closing up, sealing the keys inside the blades, before they heard a voice shout, "Final Wave!" as he crossed both blades in front of him, both glowing in a red hue.
After a couple of moments, he began to run forward before slashing both swords down. A red light encased the blade, as two crossed blades of light moved forwards towards the monster.
The monster tries to block it with his gun, desperate a bit. "So I guess I finally met my match..." He strains to speak as his gun shatters as the attack lands and cuts through the gunarm and strikes its body. "Why doesn't this feel as bad as I was expecting?"
Sparks fire off the monster's body as it stumbles back, the flaming embers still left on him, shaped like the maws of a lion biting down into him. Arther turns away, his right hand—still holding the gun—trailing his finger up to the edge of his helmet while twirling the other pistol in his other hand before whipping his arm aside and stopping twirling the pistol. Meanwhile, the second figure turns and walks away, both blades resting on his shoulders. With one last stumble, the monster explodes in flames as a loud roar of a lion comes from the explosion, displaying an amazing scene behind them.
After seconds passed, the figure took a single deep breath, canceling his transformation before walking back towards Arther. He held the sword and key he had thrown at him in his hand. "I assume you want these back?" Seeing both the key and the cutlass, Arther takes both back while giving the man the pistol back, which he places back inside his jacket.
"Thanks." Arther says as he reverts back to normal as well, with his weapon in tow. He was going to go back to what he was doing when he caught sight of something. "Hmm?"
Stepping out of the corner, a nervous cream-colored anthro mare with pink and navy blue hair and a tail walks out, wearing a thigh-long, single white dress with light blue short frills around the neck hole, yellow line short sleeve rims, and two light blue stripes that sandwich a yellow stripe around the dress covering her thigh. A shin long white sock with blue rims and last is slip in classic shoes.
She stops a few paces from them and asks anxiously. "Uh-um.. Thank you, both of you!" She says it in gratitude.
The figure hears this, turning to the woman with a curious look in his eyes. "It wasn’t a problem. I was glad to help. He served as a good enough distraction from everything else that's gone off for a time."
Arther faces the mare before giving a gentleman's bow. "Ah ye're too kind madom!" Standing straight again, he adds. "I hope ye're alright."
She nods at them. "I’m alright! Thank you for your concern. B- but please, may I ask, who are you?" She asks them.
"I’m nobody of any great importance. I just happened to be in the area when all this started is all." The figure calmly responds, still taking curious glances at the woman in front of him.
"O-oh." She says this in a slightly disappointed tone.
Arther walks up to a box and places one foot on top, getting their attention. He smirks before answering with a light chuckle. "Chin up lass, I'll answer yer riddle! I am Arther Mcfox!" He walks up to her before kneeling on one knee with his head bowed. "At yer service!" Her cheeks turned faintly red at his manners.
"I really should have got that name before this.." The figure says with a shake of his head before looking at the mare. "And I did not know him in any way before this, so don’t lump me in with him."
"Ohie!" Arther says with a hint of annoyance, as he stood up while turning to him. "Ye're makin' it sound like I be embarrassin' ye. I’m jus' bein' polite t' the fair lass like a full-pocketed cur, ye jus' stand thar 'n act all mysterious. At least greet us wit' yer name; at least?" The mare looks at the man, wondering that too.
"Take a look at how you're posing, then try to ask that first part again with a straight face." The figure responds with a shake of his head. "And frankly; before now you never asked who I was."
"I already said it; "I’m jus' bein' polite t' the fair lass like a full-pocketed cur" 'n that’s how I show me politeness. 'n aye, I didn’t ask afore, 'cause we we be fightin'.. The creature was attackin' the town 'n didn' look like they we be in a mood fer long natters. Ye expect me t' jus' stop t' jus' ask yer name 'n prolly get shot by a happy trigger monster? That’s squiffy!" Arther responds, repeating what he said before and then explains his reason for not asking for the man’s name.
"Uh;" The mare decides to invervine, getting Arther’s attention once again. During their conversation, her cheek redness has diminished. "I-if it’s alright, may I k- know your name, sir?" She asked the strange man. "So I m-may thank you p-properly."
"Hawkins… Matthew Hawkins." The man, Hawkins, answers calmly as he lets out a single, slow breath. "And may I ask yours, miss?"
"O-oh! M-my name is Bon Bon!" The mare answers.
"Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Bon." Matthew says, with a calm smile.
"Thank you. But may I ask.. why did you save us?" Bon Bon inquires.
"Let's just say I have my reasons and leave it at that." Matthew responds with a dismissive wave.
Arther just shrugs. "I was in the neighborhood 'n heard the screamin', 'n seein' wha' 'twas I decided t' save ye 'n others from 'em cause I wanted t'." Arther answer as well. "I’d like t' answer some more but shall ye be checkin' on everyone else?" He asked.
Hearing this, Bon Bon gasps before running toward somewhere. "I've got to go! Thank you for saving us!" She says this in gratitude as she goes around a corner, leaving the two alone.
"I'm pretty sure she had an ulterior motive for talking to us than to just thank us." Matthew states, looking at where Bon Bon had gone.
Arther lets out a soft sigh before speaking. "I wouldn’t know 'n I'll be honest, I don’t care if she does or nah. She’s safe 'n that’s all that shall matter." He says as he stretches his arms to the sky before dropping them back to his sides.
"If you say so."
"So.." Arther looks at Matthew. "Wha' are ye gonna do now? Or be it none o' me business?"
"Well…" Matthew began to say before stopping, hands going to his stomach and Arther heard the sound of it rumbling. "I was trying to find work to actually afford food. Not really much to catch out there… especially with nothing to use to cash them in with."
"Yah har har har ar! Well then, join me in the tavern! I was goin' back thar anyway! I’ll even pay this once, as a reward I owe ye!" Arther says wholeheartedly as he walks to the tavern he was in.
"I suppose I did ask for that one." Matthew responds with a smirk as he shakes his head, following closely behind Arther.
As the two of them left the market, a small figure looked on from a nearby sidestreet, the figure's eyes glued to Arther and Matthew's distant form.
The figure looks to be a small boy with pale purple scales, along with a neon light green frill ear and a spike spine from the top of his head to his tail, and having bright green eyes. He was wearing a green shirt with a purple hoodie jacket on top and dull navy blue jeans.
The young reptilian slowly steps forwards, his eyes continuing to follow them as he clutches a comic book in his hands, holding it close to his chest. The front page has one large image on the front. That of a green helmet that looked to almost resemble that of a dragon. A crest on top of the forehead starts at the nose bridge up and splits into two directions, both being the eyebrows. The middle split has a noticeable stripe piece shaped like a spear with a tiny diamond-shaped jewel embedded in the arrowhead that’s wedged between the splits. Teeth imprinted on the top and bottom of a single piece long sunglasses visor. The single metallic silver mouth covering has a closed lip dent to remind you that it's a helmet, and turquoise eyes below the eyebrow piece.
Once both Arther and Matthew were out of his sight, the figure took a single step forward, whispering to himself in stuttering awe. "T-The Rangers… They’re real!"
The tavern had been somewhat vacated during the attack on town, with the exception of some of the workers. The flap door swung open, getting the attention of two of the workers. Arther enters the room, with Matthew following just behind. Arther decides to speak up to the workers. "It's safe now. Take care o' those scurvy invaders." Hearing the good news, they sigh in relief.
Arther heads back to the seat where he was sitting before, sliding into the couch seat. He grabs the large mug he left behind before he lays back and lifts his left leg to rest its ankle on his other leg. "May I 'ave another one?! 'n get 'im whatever he wants, I’ll pay fer it." He asks one of the workers, prompting them to go back to their work.
"This may sound like a strange question.. but what sort of food do they even sell here?" Matthew asked, looking for some kind of menu.
"Thar’s different types o' seafood, some side stuff like french fries, meat, burgers. Basically like any modern galley." Arther explains as he grabs a sticky piece of tacky paper before writing down his order before sticking it onto the flat standing board that has the words "Food Orders" on top.
Matthew grabs his own menu, his eyes scrolling through the menu before shaking his head. "Considering that all I've been eating for the last three days is fish, I don’t want more of that, so I suppose this will do." He says, then writes his order on a note before placing it on the board before sitting back down.
A single mare waitress walks up to their table. Taking the two sticky notes to give it a look before heading to the opening hole on a wall behind the counter, attaching it to an order wheel ticket holder before giving it a light turn for the other side to see.
"So.." Arther starts to say. "How’d ye get yer hands on a Power Ranger Legendary Ranger key?" The mare comes back and pours more cider into the cup before returning to her post. "Especially one that can literally make ye go power up." He takes a sip, loving the taste.
"I’ll be honest with you.. I don’t know myself. I just woke up on the beach holding the key tightly." Matthew responds before pausing. "Actually.. I feel like I’m forgetting something very important."
"Eh. Give it a bit t' catch up. As fer me, I found mine while scavengin' on the coastal shores 'n took it.. The first time testin' it out caught me by surprise, but it didn’t take long fer me t' get used t' it." Arther says.
"It's strange though for me.. I don’t know why, but for some reason, as soon as I touched my Mobilate.. it felt like I’d had it and used it for years." Matthew stopped, reaching up and scratching his forehead. "But I’m pretty sure one of the last things I remember before being on the beach was being on a boat, then being knocked underwater."
The drinking pirate takes a bit of a swig, then leans back onto his seat with the mug still in hand. "If that’s how ye got here, then best be lucky ye survive. I only showed up in this uncharted land by a storm!" Arther said, smiling about that. "Twas a thrillin' ride! Sea waves shake the ship, blusterin' wind trying fiercely t' knock me off course, thunder boomin' across the rainy clouds, 'n lightnin' trying t' strike me ship wit' veracity! A fine moment fer Davy Jones Locker t' try 'n plunder me down t' the dark depths. If it weren’t fer me skills o' controllin' the ship, I wouldn’t be alive t' this day." He relates his experience before taking a longer swig before letting out a gasp of delight before remembering something.
"Anyway, Nice work wit' the Leo Blaze Power Key." Arther comment.
"The what now?"
Arther pulls out the lion key Matthew had seen in the sword he had been passed. "This key."
"And that key is.. I mean, it doesn’t look like anything like the other key I have."
Arther smiles at this. "That’s 'cause I hand made it three days ago! It grants the wielder the power o' the element dependin' on the power key!"
"And you hand made it how?" Matthew asks, with a look of confusion on his face. Arther just shrugs as though he doesn’t know it himself.
"All I did was craft the key. I was thinkin' about how 'twould work 'n got curious. "Wha' if I insert it into the morpher or weapons." At first it didn’t work on the morpher as it gave green sparks all o'er it. I then went t' try it on the weapons 'n t' me shock; they worked! When I made three more power keys 'n tried it on the weapons first, it didn’t do anythin'!" He scratches his head at that. "I thought I broke it, so I tried usin' 'em on the morpher, 'n that’s how I learned how t' make 'em damn work! The energy from the sparks gave me the idea o' the key t' work the way I designed it. Though when I try makin' a made up key, It didn’t cause a spark, so it has rules it turns out.. But har ye get wha''s given."
Matthew just looks at Arther, a look of confusion on his face. "Okay… Could you just explain one bit again?"
"Which bit?"
"Everything after you said, "all I did was craft a key"."
"T' put it simply, the morpher energy be from the morphin grid 'n made me power keys t' life. Though they don’t 'ave ranger forms yet so it still has flaws that needs some more tweakings."
"What the hell is the morphing grid?" Arther looks at Matthew in confusion at his question.
"Eeh, ye know, Morphin' Grid. A multiversal energy field fer all Power Rangers, it provides all Rangers a specific link t' the Grid by usin' the morphers." He says this in the hope of ringing a bell, only for Matthew to look even more confused than before. "Ye don’t know about it; do ye??"
"I have absolutely no clue what you are even on about. I wasn’t even aware that something like that existed." Matthew points that out, looking at the key in his hand.
Arther was about to say something but then pause, remembering something a while ago. ‘During our transformation, his phrase didn’t sound like Super Megaforce’s.. Could it be..’ He looks at Matthew. "I get the feelin' we aren’t from the same rangers."
"I don’t actually know myself." Matthew responds, flicking his key upwards, looking at the full design of it. "I mean, thinking back, I know something feels off, but I can’t place a finger on it."
"This is only a guess, from what I gathered. Are you by any chance, from this so-called Super Sentai?" Arther question.
"Super Sentai…" Matthew responded, pausing in thought. "It sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place my finger as to where..."
"Uh.. Does Gokaiger ring any bells?"
"Apart from the fact that the phone-like thing that for some reason I know is called a Mobalite shouted that out when it transformed.. and the strange fact that I know what those things we faced are called. But beyond that, the name doesn’t mean anything to me… Which is strange because I feel like it should." Arther just shrugs at that before taking another swig of cider.
Minutes later, the waitress came back with plates, giving them their food and placing each food plate in front of their respective order. Arther got a large bowl of french fries, a plate full of mashed potatoes and steak, a side bowl of gravy, and another bowl of salad. What Matthew gets is a simple burger and chips (fries), and a tall glass of water just beside it.
Arther went for the steak first with the utensil in hand, cutting it up and taking bites out of it in pure delight. Meanwhile, Matthew looks at the food in front of him for a moment before placing his key back in his pocket before grabbing the burger and eating it.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, a familiar young reptilian sat inside a small bedroom. On a two-level bookshelf, the walls are covered in framed comic books, almost all of which have various Rangers on the front covers. Any space that wasn’t occupied by comics had strange objects ranging from toy trains that looked to depict animals with cartoonish eyes to an oversized belt buckle with an image of a dinosaur on the front.
In the middle of them rests a set of five strange keys, each one being identical apart from their colors. The main aspect of them looked almost human, with train tracks running over where the eyes would be and a crossed black and white pattern that circled numbers between one and five.
The young figure reaches his hand over to one of the keys, grabbing the first one that is red in color. He holds it up to the light, turning it in his clawed hand. "These things.. I always thought of them as just toys, but I’m sure those two rangers were using them before to fight with that monster." He looks at a comic on the bed, the same comic he’d been holding onto when he saw the fight earlier.
His eyes went to the buckle on the shelf. He moves up to the shelf and picks the object up, holding it in his hand. It has a gold coin with a T-rex engraved onto it that had its mouth open wide. "And if they are both as real as they looked, are the ones in the book real as well?"
Placing the buckle back where he took it from, he grabs the remaining four keys and places them all (except the red one) into his jacket pocket before walking to the window. Looking outside over to the destroyed part of the town within view, a bit of smoke is still rising in the air. "But.. I know Twilight always says that nothing in my comics is real. But that can’t be right.. Can it?"
Turning away from the viewing glass, he stares at a board just behind the bed. It was covered in old newspaper clips, each one having a pin with connected coloured threads to each other. "And what’s with all these strange occurrences around Equestria? Is there a connection to those as well?"
There's a knock on the door, surprising the young reptilian, his head quickly turning towards the door. A moment of hesitation before calmly asking. "Yes, who is it?"
"Spike, it's me." A feminine, older voice spoke up. "You're supposed to be organizing the library today."
"Twilight.. Considering what just happened in town, I doubt anyone will even come." The young boy, known as Spike, replies as he rolls his eyes.
""Considering what happened in town today?" What do you know about that, Spike?" The voice that belongs to Twilight asks through the door.
"I know a monster attacked the town, but..." Spike then pauses in hesitation. "I know it was stopped by two creatures."
"Two.. creatures?.. Tell me more, Spike." She mutters before asking for more information.
"Well... they looked and fought like the Rangers in my comic books." Spike responds.
Spike heard a groan from behind the closed door before it was flung open. A lavender unicorn barged into his room, her eyes instantly locking onto Spike before saying. "Spike, did you eat a lot of gems before bed last night? I told you once before that your comics aren't real, they're just made up."
"But Twilight, I know what I saw.. I’m sure there were two Rangers that fought and defeated that monster in front of my eyes!"
"Word of mouth is not enough proof, Spike. Give me actual, solid evidence." She sighs. "You know this."
"Of course I know that Twi! But do you really think I can just walk up to them and beg them to come along just so you can see them for proof? I may be a kid but even I'm not dumb enough to think that'll work." Spike says matter-of-factly.
"Spike, I want to believe you. Truly, I do. But without evidence of their existence, I can't." Twilight explains as best as she can. But then she had a thought that would probably ease both their minds. "How about a compromise? I needed to go out and see what's been happening—and probably get some things while I'm at it. You can go around looking for these Rangers or get some evidence to support your case. If you do find them, come straight to me and take me to them. Is that fair?" He thought about that for a moment before nodding his head.
"In that case, I’m going to start looking right now!" Spike said while dashing for the door. "Besides, the longer I wait, the more likely they are to have left town." He soon steps out of the building, Twilight hearing the door to the house quickly shut. Once he’s out of hearing range, Twilight lets out a long sigh.
"What was I thinking?" Twilight asks herself before going to her room to get her bits for her shopping. Hopefully she didn’t make the wrong choice.
A couple of minutes after leaving, Spike arrives at the market plaza where he saw both power rangers before. People wearing white or yellow suits take the dead to the morgue or help survivors, which is very few. He turns his eyes away from the scene and looks in the direction the rangers went.
"I’m going to find those rangers no matter what it takes." Spike said with an excited tone in his voice before running in that direction, his eyes darting in every direction where he thought they could have gone. He also asks anyone if they have seen the two individuals, but without much luck.
The next person he asks changes that, and he asks one of the flower attendants, Daisy, who’s been cleaning up the stall that had been knocked over. "I think I saw them heading that way." She said, then the dragon heads off in that direction.
He didn’t find them but did encounter another pony, Thunderlane. "Sorry dude. Maybe Bicep has seen them?" Spike follows the direction the stallion provides to find the said pony.
When he found the white, extremely muscular pegasus. He asks him about the whereabouts of the Rangers. "Yeah! I think I saw someone near the tavern! Don’t know if it’s them!" He says this in a higher voice as he lifts barbells.
"R-right, thank you." Spike calmly said, nodding to the stallion before heading off to the tavern. ‘Hopefully they are still there and haven't moved on yet. If they have, I hope someone saw where they went.’
At the Market Streets, Twilight Sparkle walks out of one of the streets to the market plaza. When she looks around, her eyes widen and she gasps in shock. The place was destroyed. There were burnt marks of some explosion, some stalls and carts were knocked over, with a few of their products littering the floor. She can see anthro creatures, mostly ponies, checking the folks on the ground for life. Very few have survived, but the rest have died, who are being taken to medical transport carts to the morgue.
"Oh my Faust... Spike was right!" Twilight whispers and mutters, not expecting to see this magnitude. She spots one of the ponies, who was standing inside one of the collapsed buildings, pushing a piece of rubble aside. She runs up to them in hope of getting some answers. Twilight saw them shake their heads, the figure sighing as she saw a twisted limb sticking from the rubble. She walks to them in the hope of getting answers.
She hears the figure's conversation with someone, saying. "That's the tenth dead creature in this area alone."
A second voice was heard, shouting back from further inside the building. "At least yours are recognizable! I can’t even tell what creature this one was. The bodies back here are in such a bad state that I can hardly recall their bodies at all! This is worse than it was in Manehatten."
She calls out as she goes around a few pieces of rubble. "Excuse me, Sir?!"
The stallion near the edge of the building pauses, turning his head towards Twilight before saying. "I’m sorry miss, but it's not safe around here right now. For your own safety, you need to keep your distance from the buildings." Twilight stops just a few feet from the broken building.
"I need to ask you what happened here?!" She asked.
"Wish we knew, miss…" The stallion responded. "We arrived after it was like this, and nobody will even tell us what caused this damage."
The second figure then walks out of the building before they say. "Although it seems almost like something blew up outside the building and everything was blown back into the open spaces inside and crushed the poor creatures within."
"Hmm.." ‘Maybe I could use my memory projection spell on someone. But the question is, who?’ Lavender Mare thinks to herself for a moment before remembering someone who has been there before. ‘That’s right, Spike said he saw it happen! I need to find him.’ With that in mind, she heads to go find Spike, hoping he’s nearby. ‘I hope Spike’s alright...’
At the Promo Town scrapyard, where most of Promo Town’s junk and discarded stuff are sent. One of the old dump trucks, one that’s tilted on its side against a hill of scrapes, its door bangs open. Slowly, someone climbs out, coughing from the disturbed dust.
Who it was is a young dog girl hybrid in her teens, having white and light brown fur with white skin, and her top head is styled to be a somewhat messy hairstyle. She wore a yellow tank top shirt and yellowish cream overalls, concealing her impressive bust. Her cement-gray working gloves push away the dust from her face with a squint of her bright blue eyes as she coughs.
"Awe man.. should have brought the mask." She said before moving her legs, which had brown leather boots on, out of the truck seat to the outside, letting them dangle over the steps to the inner truck. She pulls something out of the seat side that turns out to be a dusty, old-style, thick steering wheel. She gives it a look over, using her gloves to try to clean the dust off it. "Hmm... It's not what I'm looking for," She shrugs as she grips the steering wheel. "But it’ll do."
She pushes off the truck and back on the ground on her feet, showing her long, fluffy white tail that’s a bit dirty from rummaging through the scrapes. She was already planning on washing up after doing some work, not that she's bothered by it.
She places it in a wagon full of parts she's collected before heading to the north side of the junkyard with the wagon in tow, humming a soft tune as she does. Just as she got to the back of the junkyard, there was a door with three different locks. The young woman unlatches it, pulling and lifting the locks to free the door restraint before opening the door and then continuing her track.
When the young canine girl reaches the end of the road, it leads to an old, single-story house. It’s not bad, but there were signs of planks being replaced with a few metal plates and a bunch of parts littered everywhere in some neat order. ‘Home sweet home.’ She thought.
She moves to the side where a shed is and simply opens the double doors and then rolls the wagon inside before closing it from the outside. Afterwards, she heads inside to get herself clean before heading out to town for lunch time.
Back in town, Spike was running around in annoyance, muttering to himself. "I should have asked directions to the tavern... and which one he meant." He then turns down a sidestreet, headlong down the path without looking up before bumping into something that made him fall backwards onto his backside.
"I’m sorry I wasn-" He stops when he looks up at the figure, frozen in fear at the sight of a silver-armored knight. It has curved pointy toe tassels and looks to have a rapier guard and handle as shoulder guards and a head mask, wielding twin rapiers. "I-I-I…" Spike stutters, trying to back away from the monster in front of him.
The figure looks down at Spike before taking a step forward and standing over the young boy, leaning down, patting him on the head. "Don’t worry. You are in no state to duel right now. Besides, no rules are in place yet, so this time you are safe. However, next time we cross, you will need to pick a partner to fight with when I order it, otherwise.. I’ll kill you myself! Understood."
Spike quickly nods his head in agreement out of fear, getting a chuckle from the monster as it walks past Spike. "Good boy. Make sure to pass the rules of the game around to everyone you see; otherwise, you will have to face me regardless!" He walks past Spike and into the street he had come from.
Moments later, he heard screams coming from where the monster had come from as he continued to shake in fear, unable to say a single word and just sit there.
"Spike!" Twilight spoke up as she finally found him, running up to him before kneeling down. "Are you alright?!" She asks, worryingly.
He didn’t respond to begin with before slowly turning his head towards Twilight, fear still clear on his face. "T-Twilight.. there's another monster in town." Seeing him like this metaphorically hurts, but what he said made her eyes widen.
"What?! You-" She stops herself, remembering what she’s here for. "Spike, I need to use my memory reading spell on you. Are you alright with that?"
"Y-You don’t b-believe me… D-Do you?"
"Spike.. I need to see what you saw. You're the only one I know who has seen these things. We can talk about the rangers later, but right now; this monster is our top priority." Twilight says, putting a hand on his shoulder. "So please, let me see it?"
"O-O-Okay..." Spike responded, his voice still shaky and fearful. She brought him into a comforting hug to help ease his mind, which did make his shaking lessen. Her horn lets out a soft, light magenta glow. With a flash, Twilight's vision changes to Spike's past eyes. Seeing a monster that Spike had bumped into, then hearing what he had said to Spike, word for word. It suddenly stops after the conversation ends.
Since Twilight is here, she might as well see what happens to the town market. Diving deeper back into his memories, she found what she was looking for. She's watching the scene: Creatures shoot buildings in the market and kill any creature around them with reckless abandon. She then notices two figures in strange full-body costumes concealing their identities are fighting the monsters, both figures looking identical and almost looking to fight together at some moments.
Thinking that’s enough, Twilight exits his memories, indicated by her horn glow going out. ‘That’s what’s been happening! I need to get the guards and tell the princesses about this!’ She thought. She moves Spike to face her. "Spike, we need to inform Princess Celestia about this!" Hearing this, he steps out of her hands and pulls out a paper and ink quill at the ready, knowing what she would request him to do. Twilight stands back up, clears her throat, and starts reciting. "Dear Celestia…"
In a whitish magenta marble room with an even number of support marble pillars designed like a high cloud sky, a few purple old-style banners hang from the ceiling that shadows the corners of a hot-pink carpet at the center of the floor. The third lowest dias, just above the base, has a pool of water leaking on either side into a small ring of water around the dias like a mini waterfall. Behind it and on the wall is a gold hall frame that almost reaches the roof with a darker magenta inner and an oval stained glass. A large blue banner depicting an image of some kind, one on each side of the throne wall.
Sitting on the throne was a tall woman. She had chalk white skin and both wings on her back and a horn on her forehead. Her long multicolored hair has stripes of blue, green, and pink going from scalp to tips. It flows as if being disturbed by a non-existent wind. Her bright pink eyes loom over the room in silence. She wore a simple, long white dress that hugged her figure. A gold necklace regalia around her neck and a gold tiara on her head. She was wearing thick, low-heeled slip-on shoes.
A green wisp moves through the air in front of the mare before flashing, becoming a small letter before dropping down into her open hand. With graceful motion, she opens it and reads the letter. When she finishes, she summons a single sheet of paper and a quill into her hands, and an ink bottle that’s on top of one of the throne's armrests, and starts writing a new letter.
When she finishes it, she ignites her horn and the letter turns into a wispy ash that then flies out of one of the window-shaped holes. While it leaves, the tall anthropoid mare rests her chin on her cupped hands. "So.. There are more of them. I suppose it's just a matter of time.. If they can work together…"
Back in Promo Town, the monster sat atop a tall building, looking over the citizens below. The crowd had spotted him and tried to vacate the area in fear, causing the monster to grin at the scene.
"Looks like the first participants are almost ready." The monster says before standing tall, flipping a single bit between his fingers before flicking it into the air, then catching it in his hand. "I wonder how many creatures will end up dead this time, and how many cowards will I need to deal with before I’m done?" He then jumps down from the building, landing right in front of the civilians, moving one of his blades just above the heads of the group he's facing. The blade barely grazes the head of one of the mares, cutting a large portion of her hair away, causing the entire plaza to scream in a panic, leading to the attention of the others that tried to run away before quickly freezing in fear.
"That will do it!" The monster shouts with a sadistic grin before tossing the coin up into the air as it grows in size, spinning. Many of the eyes of the scared civilians around him were glued to the coin before it hit the ground. A crimson light spread outwards from where the coin had struck the ground, passing through every creature within a thirty-eight foot radius.
Seconds after the light show ends, every single creature in the area suddenly turns to face one another in pairs before suddenly lunging towards each other. Many of them let out painful cries or broke down into tears as they were forced to attack each other. In some cases, the targets of the attacks are family members.
The monster just went back to the nearby building, watching the chaos unfold below him, observing for anyone who wasn’t fighting. "Now.. Where is that boy from before? He should be part of this game."
The monster then looks back to the fighting below again. He's still unable to see the one he’s looking for amongst the fighters. "Looks like he’s the first coward I need to hunt down this time." He clicks his fingers, which makes all of the creatures fighting below stop fighting. Few of them look at the injured forms of other anthros they've been fighting, taking steps back from each other in fear of being forced to fight again.
"Congratulations to all of you for your participation in the first of many wondrous duels! From here on out, whenever I desire it, you will be fighting like this, but to give you a chance for the lucky creature who faces me, I’m giving you a chance." He then clapped his hand as a large pile of black and gold maces and guns appeared on the ground in two piles. "From now on, you will use these to fight. Also, anyone who refuses to will be branded as a coward, and I will be hunting down and removing them from our game."
The monster stands up, walking along the roof he was on. The civilians below watch him, many of the youngest ones among them shaking as he speaks. "And to the one creature among you who didn’t fight just now, I’m afraid you are the first to leave us."
In the crowd, a single mare's eyes widen in realization, turning to run away from the area when a single loud gunshot is heard and the mare's body falls to the ground lifelessly. There's a single hole in the back of her head. "I really don't want to lose any more duelists, so I will look forward to our next meeting." The monster finishes, clicking his fingers again before walking away, as loud screams fill the area as the crowd flees the area, leaving the dead mare on the ground and the weapons the monster left behind.
"Now.. to find and kill the single remaining coward." The monster added as he began his search.
Meanwhile, a few minutes ago, a familiar canine girl was walking down a road after getting her meal at the Hayburger place. She carries two leather bags on her arms by the straps, one full of scrapes, while the other just has her food leftovers. Her overall straps are undone, revealing her smooth stomach and a better view of her perfectly melon-size bust, and her gloves are pocketed in her overall pockets, revealing her paw-like hands.
She was looking at the well-crafted wooden katana that had a guard shaped like a wolf's head and was spewing out the blade straight up from the mouth.
Her attention is drawn to the screams to her left to see the citizens fighting each other to the death. She let out a light gasp in surprise as a bit of fear rose, thinking of the possibility of their killing others mindlessly. It eases up when she sees the monster and hears what it says about; "-kill the single remaining coward" part. She quickly puts the bags down onto a bench, and with a weapon in hand, she chases after the monster after the crowd has dispersed. Hopefully, no other civilians get killed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Arther and Matthew walk out of the tavern.
"Well it seems that things have quieted down somewhat… Though I still need to find myself a job." Matthew responded with an annoyed groan. "Which I can’t imagine being any easier than it was last time I was job hunting."
"Eh. I don’t needs t' at the moment." Arther says, not worrying about jobs.
"You're not the one that can’t afford food of any kind." Matthew argues. "Besides, without money or a boat, I don’t think I’m going anywhere far anytime soon."
"Cool yer sails thar!" Arther has his hands barely up, doing the "easy there" gesture. "No needs t' get yer tail in a twist."
"You're talking to a man whose only skill is fishing, and I don’t see anyone needing that right now... I mean, sure, I know how to safely pilot most boats, but still, I don’t have my own to even offer to ferry people or cargo." Matthew points out.
"Guess I’m lucky then." Arther simply says.
"Guess so." Matthew says, shaking his head. His eyes caught something in his view: two figures running down the street.
One of the two bipeds looks like the oldest, with features similar to a unicorn. She had purple skin and was wearing a simple t-shirt and trousers. And the younger one running beside her had green scales covering his body, being covered by a jacket and shorts. From what little Matthew could make out of the boy, he only assumed it to be some sort of lizard. She was looking back over her shoulder every now and then as they ran.
"Gonna have to ask.. Is something supposed to be happening in this town today?" Matthew asked, looking at Arther. He did not get any words out of him as Arther was looking to his left and nodding his head at something. Did he hear him or not? He couldn’t tell.
He looks at Matthew in confusion. "Sorry, I didn’t hear wha' ye said. Can ye say it again?" Arther question.
"I said, is something supposed to be happening in this town today?"
"I wouldn’t know. As I said, I’ve been here fer only three days so I haven’t gotten t' know things yet." Arther answer.
Matthew’s eyes look in the direction the two folks came from to see something. A strange figure was running on the roofs of the buildings beside them. The figure looks to be covered in silver armor, giving him the appearance of some kind of knight.
"Stop running, you coward!" The figure shouted down at the two strangers before Matthew saw a large golden coin appear in the air, slowly spinning as it fell towards the ground. Once it landed, a crimson light spread over the area, moving over both him, Arther, and the running figures. The younger boy froze in place, his body almost involuntarily turning towards the creature on the building, his movements rigid and unnatural, almost seeming forced.
"So you're finally done running away like a coward." The creature on the building says as it jumps down from the building, landing in front of the young boy, tapping the blade of a sword on his shoulder as he walks towards him. "I did warn you what would happen if you didn’t fight the next time I asked."
Spike watches helplessly and scared as the monster raises his sword. All he can do is shut his eyes and pray for someone to save him.
"Spike!" Twilight says after stopping seconds later after noticing the young boy wasn’t beside her. She charged up her magic; she focused on having Spike by her side. Her horn lights up in a magenta aura, and with the sound of a pop, the young boy disappears out of thin air; the monster misses his cutting blow, and the kid reappears right beside the lavender mare.
The monster leisurely raises his head, eyes focusing on the lavender mare. "I can already tell you are going to be an annoyance. If you leave that coward, I will let you leave without a scratch. But if you continue to protect him, I will make sure I kill you first." The lavender mare simply has one of her arms in front of Spike, not letting the monster get any closer.
"Not happening." Twilight resolves with a bit of fear in her heart, but that’s not going to stop her from protecting her brother.
"Then it looks like he gets to watch you die first." The monster replies back with an almost sadistic tone in his voice, walking towards them while drawing a second sword from his side and bringing his first blade to the side of him, preparing to attack them. Twilight’s hands and horn lit up in aura, getting ready for the possible battle brewing.
Before the creature could swing its sword towards Spike and Twilight, multiple loud gunshots rang out from near them. The monster recoils slightly as sparks fly off of him from each shot hitting him, backing away a bit. Twilight took this moment to look at who it was that jumped in, seeing Matthew and Arther.
‘Who are they?’ She thought, thinking they were civilians at first, but she had never seen their species before.
The monster's head quickly looks around as its sights land on Matthew, whose pistol was raised towards him. The second his eyes see this his focus gaze hardens, leaving Spike to focus on Matthew. "Who do you think you are!"
Matthew didn’t reply as he kept focusing his gaze on the monster before saying. "Arther, can you get everyone clear of the area? If the monster from earlier is anything to go by, there will be a lot of damage to the nearby area." After ten seconds pass without hearing anything from Arther, he looks to his left beside him to see it empty. Looking back at the monster while shaking his head, Matthew mutters. "Or maybe don’t respond and just disappear without a word." He walks to the monster and the other two, his gun still pointing at the monster.
The monster, in response, points his sword at Matthew before shouting. "Who do you think you are? Answer me!"
"I’m someone of no great importance." Matthew replies calmly as he stops between Twilight and the monster. "Besides.. I could say the same for you attempting to murder two innocent people."
"You mean the coward!" The monster responds.
"If by coward you mean a scared child, then yes." Matthew responds calmly before gesturing with his free hand to Twilight and Spike to run. Seeing this, Twilight teleports herself and Spike into the tavern where Arther and Matthew came from.
"I’ll just deal with them both later. The boy can’t escape me now anyway." The monster barely hides the annoyed tone in his voice.
"Not happening!" A voice shouts out. The same canine girl drops down from behind the monster while slashing down at its back with her wooden sword. The blade only smacks against its armor, in which case she jumps back for some distance, holding her weapon in both hands in front of her.
"You know, you’d have more of a chance of harming me with a real weapon than using a wooden one." The monster pointed out, not looking at the canine behind him as he kept his focus on Matthew.
She holds her wooden sword in full display in front of her, with the base of the blade resting between her other hands, index finger and thumb. She slid the mentioned finger and thumb across the blade, causing the blade to change from wood to a black blade made of metal.
She charges at the monster and, with a diagonal swing of her sword, she slashes at his back, sparks flying off him. The monster turns away from Matthew to face the canine girl who took a few steps back. "Who do you think you are!" He says, now sounds much angrier.
"More like, 'Who do you think you are?' coming here; ordering people around and getting them killed!" She says sternly, keeping herself at the ready. "I’m here to stop you!"
The monster looks over the canine’s form before shaking his head. "I can’t see you being able to be as you are. Take my advice, kid. Just walk away. You’ll get to live another day that way."
She smirks at that. "Big talk, can you back it up?" She mocks looking at the monster's rapiers before returning her attention to the monster. "Or are those swords just to pick on those who can’t fight back? From what I saw earlier, I say yes."
"Are you trying to get me to kill you?" The monster asks with a malicious tone in his voice, his grip on his swords beginning to tighten. "Because if that is your aim, you're getting really close to it!"
Matthew simply stood behind the monster, who momentarily lost interest in him in favor of focusing on the canine, giving Matthew time to think. ‘He seems like the sort of guy who prefers to face only a single enemy at a time. If more than one of us attacks him, he should either lose focus or retreat till the odds are back in his favor.’ He looks at the canine girl and then simply nods to her, lowering his gun slightly as he waits for some kind of response, only to see that she’s too focused on the monster.
"I’m just stating the facts." She simply says as she relaxes her stance, even resting her sword on her weapon arm shoulder. "Am I wrong?"
The monster, now visibly more annoyed with each passing second, takes a step forward towards her only to stumble, his body dropping slightly as he uses his sword to try and steady himself as he sinks down, looking down to find the floor under him getting watery and his legs starting to submerge quickly. "What did you cowards just do?!"
During this time, something rose from the ground just a few feet behind the trapped monster who was struggling to get out of the floor and caught a glimpse of a sharp shark fin made of deep water moving along the floor and heading towards him. The monster tries to turn behind it before lunging its swords towards the location below where the shark fin is, only for it to evade around the jab and sink out of sight.
“Is this you doing!” The monster shouts, his eyes darting between the canine and Matthew.
“This has nothing to do with me.” Matthew replies, his hand resting on the Mobilate in his coat.
The ripples around the monster grow bigger and bigger until it’s the size of a kid pool. Suddenly, a shark shot below the monster, its jaws biting and pinning his sides as they shot out of the ground and into the air. Seeing it in full view, the shark is completely made of water.
"How are you doing this, you cowards!" The monster shouts out through gritted teeth as he tries to get his arms free to strike the shark.
Once they get high enough, the shark starts to break apart, revealing something Matthew didn’t expect. Arther was hidden in the fish predator water form, his free hand in a grasp motion with his power ranger scimitar raised above him with water coating the blade. He did a triple slash at the monster, the first two being horizontal and the last being overhead, and the monster was unable to dodge as all three struck in quick succession.
Arther lands back on the ground on his feet as the monster hits the floor.
Getting up to its feet and knees, the rapier-like monster looks at Matthew, then at Arther, who turns to face him, and then at the canine girl.
"This is honestly not a fair fight." The monster mutters to itself, slowly getting back to his feet before backing away from the group, slowly raising both of his swords into the air, before shouting, "Kuro’s!" By his words, appearing on the ground in front of him are black and blue mists, which dissipate to reveal multiple figures.
The figures looked human and resembled old western noblemen. They wore noble black suits; the main portion of the steampunk, gothic, and Victorian overcoats had some kind of leather vest with a white line design and what looked to be a white cloth necktie. Their faces are hidden under a white mask with a smiling gray fence mouth, while their heads are covered in a fedora top hat with a similar design to the jacket.
As the group looks at the figures, they see the monster starting to run away down to the street behind him. "Hay wait!" The canine girl shouts at the runaway as she runs after him, only for two of the suited figures to block her way with their guns aimed at her before starting firing. She hit some of the shots, deflecting them down to the floor as best she could. "He’s getting away!"
"Forget about 'im fer now." Arther says to the canine girl as he uses his hand to block the arm of one of the Kuro that’s halfway swinging its axe weapon. He wraps his blocking arm around theirs, trying to wriggle their arms out of his gasp. He slams his scimitar at its head a few times before letting go for it to stumble back, before pursuing the lesser monster with a spinning slash and then ending with a kick at its chest which drops them on its back.
"It’s a better idea that we deal with these things before they cause anyone else harm, and ensure their weapons don’t get spread around." Matthew adds as he quickly turns around, shooting two of the figures in quick succession before kicking a third one near him that makes them stagger backward into a nearby wall.
Reluctantly, the canine girl charges at the two who are still shooting at her while deflecting the shots. Both change their guns to be axes before one swings across at her, who backs away while blocking it. The second went to copy the first Kuro attack, causing the girl to back up again. She then evades an overhead slash from the first Kuro, which she moves to its side and does two horizontal slashes with her sword before kicking it away. The second Kuro uses this opportunity to swipe across at her again, only to be stopped by the flat side of her blade and then kick at its stomach, allowing her to slash upwards and then bang its head with the pummel overhead before kicking harder to send it stumbling back.
When Matthew saw this, he smiled slightly. "You're not bad with this kid." He then turns and shoots three of the Kuro’s near him, each shot hitting them in the chest before moving the nearest Kuro as it regains its balance. Matthew's sword slashed across its chest as it fell forwards, only to be caught by Matthew, who quickly swung it around to face two other Kuro's who went to strike him with their axes, stopping before they hit the one in his grasp, before both were shot in the head by him, who shot over his captive's shoulder before delivering a shot to the back of his captive's head. All three Kuros fall to the ground before turning to smoke.
"Thanks, and I'm not a kid." The dog girl corrects him.
"Fair enough then." Matthew responds while moving backwards as he feels his back make contact with someone as he looks over his shoulder, finding Arther behind him with his blade slung over his shoulder. "Arther. Shall we?" He calmly asked, sheathing his sword before he held his Sentai key in his free hand.
"I rather nah but;" Arther puts away his sword while flicking his own Mobilate open. "this calls fer it. Let's do it!" He says seriously as he pulls out his own red key.
"Okay then." Matthew says before throwing his gun into the air and grabbing his Mobiliate out of his jacket.
Matthew brought his phone across his chest, pointing the key in his hand forward and shouting. "Gokai Change!" Both place their red keys into the bulky phone key slot.
"Set Sails!" Arther shouts before they turn the keys before thrusting the phone forward.
"Gokaiger!" A voice shouted out. Both Mobiliate vanish into their pockets as they stand at attention. Two X's pass through them, changing to their ranger or sentai forms.
"Morphin’ Marauder, Red!" Arther announces, as he catches his special cutlass sword and swipes in a J-motion.
Once the transformation is complete, Matthew calmly moves his hand in front of his face as he says, "GokaiRed." He caught the gun he had thrown into the air in his hand while pulling his sword out. He fires multiple shots at four Kuro’s near him, each hitting them in the head as they drop to the floor.
At the Tavern, Twilight and Spike stare in awe, their gazes glued to the two transformed rangers. "Wait.. WHAT!?" Twilight starts freaking out a bit. "What is that!?"
"I told you so, Twilight!" Spike said excitedly, with a smile on his face as he watched, almost jumping in place. "I told you they existed!"
"So this is what a ranger’s morph looks like?" Twilight quickly recovers and starts taking careful and precise notes, taking in as much detail as possible of the strangers.
Arther was parrying two Kuro at once, the scimitar and axes clashing against each other. It looks to be a draw match as both couldn’t get a hit in.
"Hey Arther, need a second sword!" Matthew shouted as he continued shooting at any of the Kuro that were further away from the two.
"I appreciate it!" Arther pulls out his ranger gun. With a block of a battle ax, he throws his gun high into the air right at Matthew, who kicks his sword over towards Arther who catches it and dual wields two ranger scimitars as he pushes the one he blocked away and pursues Kuro. Matthew catches the gun and, with two ranger guns in hand, shoots the Kuro’s near Arther.
The canine girl has taken two down, but two more have taken their place and are chasing her, who is running a bit farther away from the two rangers, so there's less cluttered space. She stops at a nearby construction shop and does a turning rotation slash at the pursuers who saw her stop and step back, evading her slash. She kept her sword at the ready in between herself and the opponents.
"Here!" A voice spoke up, making the canine girl look behind at whoever it was. A strange long object falls from the sky. Instinctually, the girl catches it and almost drops it before holding it in front of her. What she’s holding is a bulky, long, red and black samurai sword with a silver canister sticking out with a key slot on top. The side of the base of the sword has an icon of two swords crossing each other behind a key.
"What is this?" Canine Girl asks as she quickly looks around for the owner of the voice only to find no one.
As Arther slashed at a Kuro he was chasing, he felt some in his pocket. He looks down at his pocket and suddenly is surprised when a yellow key that looks like his suit floats out of his pocket and flies right at the girl. "Wha' the?!"
The dog girl sees something at the corner of her eyes and notices a key flying right at her. She flinches at the same time as it stops a foot away. Right then, the base of the odd sword splits open on a hinge all on its own, revealing a key slot. Looking at both in confusion, she hesitantly takes the yellow key in the same hand as the odd sword.
The group of Kuro charge at her after their surprise wears off, swiping at her with their axes. In response, she dodges out of the way, avoiding their strikes while trying to figure out what she’s supposed to do with it. Out of random guessing, she inserts the yellow key into the open space of the base blade. "What did they say earlier?" She mutters in haste.
When she got out of the constant attack and finally got enough space, she put away her wooden sword on her hip and held the split sword in her right hand instead. With a bit of adjustment in motion, the dog woman brought her new sword, holding the yellow key in her hand in front of her before placing it into the split base of the sword key slot.
"Set Sails!" She says this confusedly before turning the key before holding the sword in a prayer grip in both hands. Two X's pass through her, changing her outfit to be a black bodysuit and a yellow pirate coat with a yellow straight skirt down to half of her thigh, gloves, and boots. Two X's swing back around to the front to form the yellow helmet. Feeling a sudden impulse, she announces. "Morphin’ Marauder, Yellow!" She uses her hand to grab the blade half and hinge it back into place to be in sword mode, swinging her sword to the lower side.
She looks at herself in surprise, feeling the helmet on her head to see if it's real, only to quickly look back at the Kuro’s who are moving cautiously around her. Seeing their reaction, she does a practice swipe in front of her before charging at them. She feels like she can go for a more offensive approach. She does a knee slide under an incoming swing of an ax before doing a few short quick cuts at a Kuro in front of her, moving back in pain. Getting onto one knee, she spins around behind her with a wide slash at two Kuro’s before quickly getting back to her feet as the two Kuro’s fall limping and dissipate into smoke.
Arther saw the canine girl transform and whistled in awe. "I didn’t expect that!" He says this before going back to fighting.
"Maybe you should back up your new ranger?" Matthew suggests as he spins around to kick away at a Kuro’s wrist, knocking its weapon from its grasp before shooting it in the chest with both guns at once.
"Doesn’t look like she needs it." Arther says as the canine woman strikes any Kuro that tries to get close to her with precision and force, taking down three more at once. "Case 'n point. Which reminds me.." Arthers' blades are encased in ocean water before swinging the sword at their respective sides before reeling both blades behind him. With both swords swinging across in a wide arc forward, two wide slashes made of watery ocean waves shoot out and turn into ocean waves. It catches four Kuros inside and pincers them in a bundle while dragging them towards Matthew. "'ave at it, Matt!"
"Thank you kindly." Matthew replies with a smile as he opens up both of the guns, revealing the key slots as the buckle flipped over as two keys rose into the air and fell into the guns. He presses them against each other to close them before spinning both pistols in his hands. A voice shouts out, "Final Wave!" as he lowers the pistols towards the Kuro’s. The barrels of the pistols then began to glow in a red light before Matthew calmly said, "Gokai Blast!" before a red bullet was shot from each of the guns towards the Kuro’s. Both shots strike them as each one explodes into blue mist.
After his special shot show ends, four Kuro fire at Matthew while two go to pincer him from the sides. He pushes off on his right foot, rolling backwards away from the two at the side position before firing his guns towards the incoming bullets as they collide in midair. However, he wasn’t able to stop all of them as some flew by, but none hit him. The two that tried to pin him had to stop to avoid being shot by their fellow Kuro’s before going to blaster mode and firing at him as well.
At this time, several Kuro decide to look through the buildings, and one of them is the tavern where Twilight and Spike are. They move in and look around and find both taking a few steps back as Twilight’s horn and hands glow in a magenta aura. With a thrust of her palms, two Kuro are thrown at the wall by her levitation before she grabs the other five and sends them back outside.
Spike ran up to the two Kuro’s that were flung and did a drop kick at the one that was trying to get back up. Despite his small stature, his claw feet hit its face and knocked it back down. When Spike gets back up, Twilight grabs the second Kuro and throws it at the Kuro’s she pushed out of the tavern, making them tumble back outside onto their backs. When Spike stands back up, he breathes out green flame at the same kuro he kicked until it stops squirming and puffs into smoke.
"Th-th-there! A-at least one m-m-more is gone!" He stutters hopefully before turning to Twilight, who is pushing the other Kuro’s outside again when trying to get back in.
Twilight has enough and forcibly pushes them hard and sends them flying back. "Spike, I need you to stay here. I'm going out there."
"Twilight! Maybe it’s a better idea for us to stay in here and let them handle this…" Spike suggests a nervous look on his face.
"Spike, I can’t keep pushing them back and waiting for them to deal with the rest. My magic will run out and they’ll barge in and do something to us!" Twilight says, explaining their circumstances. "If we help now, then everyone will be safe." She stops to push the group of Kuro’s outside again, and without waiting for a response, Twilight steps outside and leaves Spike in the room alone.
As she comes out of the tavern to deal with the mooks, she gathers a bit of magic into one hand before blasting a magical beam from her channeled hand to the closest Kuro. Her magic dragged the lesser monster back a few feet and caught another Kuro that was standing behind, knocking them to the floor. In mid-fire, she was charging her other hand before shooting several magical projectiles at the last three. A few hit the ground while some hit their marks as they staggered around in place.
"Get out of our town!" Twilight says out loud, reeling both of her arms back and, with a thrust forward, she fires a large magical shot at them. It explodes when it makes contact with the center Kuro’s, hitting the group impact and magical shrapnel, taking out all of them. The only ones left are the two she blasted away earlier.
At this moment, on top of the hill of Promo Town, two figures walk up a hill in faint silhouettes. Looking over the town in silence.
After the fight comes to an end, they take a moment of rest, especially Arther and the dog woman; who have been moving around to keep the Kuro’s from surrounding their teammates and to stay a distance away from the others, otherwise they would have been dogpiled to death.
The dog girl is a bit miffed as she looks at the direction the monster ran, annoyed that it had gotten away. Taking her attention away from her ire to examine her new sword and outfit but more on her clothes. It looks alright but she didn’t think some of her assets curves sort of sticks out a bit.
"Not bad… I guess." She mutters quietly before looking around to then see Arther who’s taking one last glance around before de-morphing out of his suit with weapons in tow. Seeing this, she thought about how to get herself back to normal only for her new outfit and sword to vanish and revert back to her normal clothes.
"Are you feeling okay after that, kid?" Matthew asks as he walks up to the dog girl.
She looks at him and then frowns at the "kid" part. "I’m alright, and can you stop calling me kid." She says this in a serious tone at the end.
"I would. But I don’t really have any other name to call you to get your attention." Matthew calmly points this out as he taps the end of his pistol on his shoulder.
"Then ask me for my name instead of expecting me to just give it out like candy." She lets out a huff before reluctantly introducing herself. "My name is Kaccy."
"Well then Kaccy, it’s a pleasure to meet you. You can call me Matthew."
At this time, Twilight spoke up, stopping anyone's chance at any further conversation. "Okay, I have so many questions and need answers!"
"Don’t we all, miss. The first from me being, "Why exactly was that monster after you" and the young boy you were protecting?" Matthew asked.
She takes a glance around, realizing that this isn’t a good place to talk. "I think it’s best we go to my place to talk about this." Twilight suggests as Spike had walked out of the tavern and is standing right beside her.
"And I should trust you why?" Matthew asks with an eyebrow raised under his helmet.
"Because none of you clearly like that monster, a-and, I think I’m the only one who knows the most about him." Spike said while also taking a glance at Matthews' suit. "Besides, if you want the best chance of taking him down before he can harm anyone else, it makes sense to be near me. He came after me once, so he’ll likely be after me again."
"So what, we act as your personal bodyguards… What do we get out of this?" Matthew asks, looking between both Spike and Twilight.
Arther places a single hand on his shoulder from behind him, leaning forward to look at him. “Nah gettin' kicked out be a possibility. But then again, they could 'ave the authorities arrest us out o' suspicion. We be strangers aft all.” He says before lightly pat Matthews back with the same hand once before stepping aside from him. “I’ll cooperate wit' ye, as long as ye don’t ask riddles that might shut me mouth out o' personal privacy.”
Arther looks at Matthew and asks. “Well, wha'’s yer choice?”
“Frankly… I don’t like the idea of doing something for nothing.” Matthew responded before pinching the bridge of his nose, letting out a short sigh. “But as much as I hate to say it, the kid is right. He’ll be targeted again and I doubt anyone beyond us can do anything about it when he is.”
Twilight sighs in relief before gesturing for them to follow her. “Then let's go! Before anymore interruptions occur.” Spike and the mare begin to leave as Arther follow along. Matthew at first didn’t move, shaking his head before looking at Kaccy to find that she was nowhere to be seen. Seconds after, he slowly catches up with the group.
Twilight’s group had managed to get to the Golden Oak Library, gesturing to the treehouse and telling them that this is her and Spike’s home. Arther just whistles at this while Matthew for the most part remains silent as they go inside. As they come in, they see the space having lots of bookshelves filled with books. In the back, there seems to be more rooms but they didn’t get to know since they’re led to the chairs around a wooden table which did have a bit of books still there.
Arther went to sit at a chair near the bookshelf, Spike sat where he could see the door, and Matthew remained a distance away from them on the other side of the room, his eyes looking between both Spike and Arther.
Twilight however has gone to the back room and then comes out with many scrolls, books and a bit of writing tools carried in her arms and levitation. Walking up to the table, she placed the items on the table before sitting beside Spike. Stretching her arms for a bit, then quickly organizing the stuff she brought with the help of her magic. “So, who will start first?” Twilight asks everyone as she organizes.
“You don’t get something for nothing.” Matthew said, looking at Twilight. “I’m only here to make sure if that monster comes after you he won’t be able to get the kid easily.”
After a moment later, seeing that no one would start asking, Spike nervously decides to do it. Looking at Arther, he asks. “How exactly do you transform… I know in my comics the rangers had a coin they used but how about you guys?”
Arther thought about this for a sec before pulling out a folded rectangular-ish black device. Flipping the top fold, and then takes out his red super megaforce key(in unfolded position to show the ranger design) and shows both to the drake and Twilight. “Wit' these, the Mobirate Morpher 'n Ranger keys.”
Spike froze at seeing the key, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a red key of his own. “You mean like this one?”
With the key in display in the drakes claws, Arther's calm demeanor changes once he sees it. “Wha'! That’s a Legendary Ranger Key!” He says in surprise.
Twilight interrupts him. “No, it's one of his toys.”
“I don’t know… it looks pretty close to my key in size.” Matthew points out. “Do you remember where you got that from Kiddo?”
“Well, I found it in a charity shop. They sold it with four others in a section labeled ‘kids toys’;” Spike admitted. “I thought that’s what it was. A rare, limited edition, collectible toy from the comics.. that they priced wrong and hadn’t looked into.”
“I know it's the real deal!” Arther reassures everyone hastily. “Me treasure instincts are kickin' in 'n it’s tellin' me that THAT be the real Legendary Ranger Key!”
“These are… real pieces of Ranger equipment,” Spike asked, looking at the key he holds. “As in… these are usable by you guys!”
“Exactly!” Arther says happily but then calms down. “Sorry, let’s get back t' the questionin', afore we get side-tracked.” He suggests in a calmer tone.
“They're just toys.” Twilight muttered under her breath, shaking her head before recomposing herself. “Anyway. Would you mind telling us what exactly you two are?”
“You’ll need to be more specific?” Matthew asks for clarification while looking out of the window.
Twilight sighs in annoyance. “What are you? Are you both some kind of Minotaur or an unknown creature from inside the Everfree?”
“Neither o' those ma’am. We’re called human 'n we’re nah from around here but we can’t go further into detail, please understand.” Arther says, shooting down both theoretical guesses.
“Houmon, homan, hoo-man.. Human…” Twilight asked while writing things down with the quill on a rollable paper, quickly and accurately writing everything that’s said in the conversation, even noting how the newcomers act and handle the situation. “Can you tell me anything more about your species?”
“Besides wha' ye can see, nah much. Besides us bein' somewhat considered as omnivores, thar’s nah much t' say.” Arther says.
“That means you eat almost anything right?” Spike asked, looking at both Matthew and Arther. “Does that include gemstones like me?”
“Uh no. I reckon that’s a dragon thing.” Arther debunks the drakes' thoughts then adds before they think of it. “'n nah grass either.”
“What about hay?” Twilight asks, looking at Arther with her quill just off the paper.
Arther scratches his head at this. “I don’t reckon so, I’m nah well knowledgeable about that.”
“Okay… so where exactly did you come from if not from here?” Twilight asked, “I mean considering the fact this is only a small island where you can’t have come from that far away.”
“I can’t say fer 'im;” Arther points at Matthew for a moment. “But I was on me ship when I docked three days ago 'n got on land 'n found meself in this town durin' those days.”
“So you have a boat… but can’t tell us where you sailed from to get here? Is there something you're hiding?” Twilight asked her with one eye raised looking at Arther skeptical.
Arther clears his throat a bit before speaking but not pirate speak. “Let me ask you, if you encounter some strangers that you have no idea who they are or their motivations, would you really tell them everything and get yourself being backstabbed later on with them knowing the knowledge or would you rather keep certain things to yourself until you can truly trust them that they wouldn’t flap their lips to the whole world to know?” He asks in a calm tone only to get a moment of no response. Both Twilight and Spike's eyes cast to the ground, neither unable or unwilling to respond to Arther’s statement.
“So you can speak like a normal human being.” Matthew said, moving up to the group.
“Pirate is my main accent, English is a requirement.” Arther gave a small explanation.
“So the language you both speak is called English?” Twilight mutters to herself, taking this as an opportunity to change the topic. Her hands and magic writing it down. “Strange. It sounds identical to Equish. Must be why I can understand you both; even though it's clear we are nothing alike. I wonder if there are any other similarities I am yet to see?”
“Well considering that these keys of yours are like ours there must be some kind of link.” Matthew admitted picking up the key Spike had put on the table, before his head began to throb. Wincing from pain, his free hand pressed against his head as he let out a pain groan.
“Hey, you okay?” Arther asked in concern with plain English.
“I-I’m not sure…” Matthew responds through his pain, strange images flashing in front of his eyes that looked to be some kind of event, but looked to be of two mixed sets. One of a group of people in suits like that of the key he had found standing in a line moving in some kind of pattern, the other being a blurred figure on a fishing boat out at sea, with an older man beside him, their hand on the blurred figure's shoulder.
After a couple more moments of flashing images, it began to settle down. Matthew’s vision started to clear and return to normal while taking a single slow, shaky breath. “I’m okay. I think I’m good.”
“You sure? Not losing your head right?” Arther asks to be sure.
“Apart from seeing strange flashing images as soon as I touched that key. I’m fine..” Matthew responds but then pauses, looking back at the key in his hand with a confused look on his face. “Wait… that's strange.”
“What's strange?” Twilight asked her quill against the paper again.
“The strange images I saw… I think half of them had the figure on this key in them. Well, that one and four other figures in similar suits.”
“Can you describe what you saw?” Twilight asked with an almost excited tone in her voice.
“Five figures… or was it six? Stood in a line before moving their bodies to make them look like they were spiraling out behind the red one. I think I saw them in one case fighting that monster that was attacking us here. But that makes no sense.”
“Do you remember anything about the monster?” Spike asked.
“I think; to them; he was known as Saber Shadow?” Matthew responds. “Beyond that nothing, we don’t already know.”
“And you didn’t tell us all this before now why?” Twilight asked, raising her eyebrow in confusion at Matthew.
“I didn’t know it till now… after touching that key.” Matthew responded.
“So… that key held the information regarding this Shadow Saber monster?” Spike responded looking at Matthew, before turning his head towards Arther. “And you said you use the keys to fight; correct?”
“That’s correct.” Arther says, returning to his pirate accent.
“So… could it be safe to assume that the keys hold some semblance of either the past experiences of the former rangers or is part of the ranger's power themselves.”
“Spike! I already said that your keys are just toys, they wouldn’t hold anything like that!” Twilight argued.
“But upon touching them I did get a feeling of something more and saw what I did… and not until I had contact with the key itself,” Matthew points out. “And even Arther said he could somehow tell they were real.”
“Let me see the key?” Arther asks for the key with one hand out.
“If you're sure.” Matthew responded by handing the key over to Arther without hesitation.
Arther looks it over, muttering a few things like; “It feels jus' right.” then; “Givin' off a sense…” before giving it a sniff before staring at it in thought in total silence, as though he’s trying to pull answers out of the object. “... Yupe. 'tis the real deal 'n nah some plastic toy.” He finally says to everyone.
“Once again. Just because you think they are real does not make them real.” Twilight response. “There is no physical proof that it is more than a plastic toy.”
“So… theoretically. If someone used that and transformed you’d accept that the keys are real?” Spike asked.
“If I saw it happen and actually made one of them change to look like something else. I don’t think there would be much room for me to doubt it.” Twilight says but then adds. “But as I said. It is just a toy. And would not work.”
“Miss, ye know the phrase; “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”?'' Arther says to Twilight before turning his head towards Matthew and gives the key in his hand a short flick. “Ahoy Matt, show 'em wha' I mean.” With a flick, he flings the key to Matthew who catches it.
“I can see what you mean.” Matthew responds, holding his morpher in his free hand, before shouting; “Gokai Change!” going through the standard motions like he normally did to transform. However the name it shouted out was different, the name “ToQger” being heard instead.
Once he had finished transforming, he was covered by a full-body red suit, the only accent being a red and white cross on the chest that led from a circle with the number 1 on over his heart. The helmet looked to have polished metallic train rails over the visor. Above that was what looked to be a small train lamp just above it and a large black circle with the number 1 inside it.
Twilight just looks at Matthew in stun silence, seemingly trying to process what she saw.
“Ye believe us now?” Arther spoke up a minute later, snapping her back to reality.
“Y-Yeah… but how… that thing has been in his room for so long! Why did nothing I have ever sense that there was power like this inside them? It makes no sense!”
Arther lets out a yawn, stretching his arms over his head. “As much as I wants t' answer yer riddles more, I be tired.” He says as he starts to stand up. “Why don’t we continue some other time?”
“But there is so much more I need to know! How does that suit work?! What can it do?! How many keys are there?! Where are they?! How many do you have?!” Twilight began to say frantically, listing off her thoughts out loud.
“Don’t know. Helps us be more durable. Nah sure how many keys are thar. I don’t know but I 'ave a hunch. 'n I 'ave six.. Actually five 'cause someone else has one o' 'em now.” Arther answers in the same pace as Twilight in a calm fashion.
“For that last question… only one.” Matthew responds. “I don’t think I can keep this one.”
“No you can… just sign a comic book in return!” Spike quickly shouted out enthusiastically.
“Okay then.. I have two keys… You better get a comic in question out though.” Matthew said.
“R-Right!” Spike responded as he quickly ran off up a nearby set of stairs.
“Okay then, Twilight, have you seen any other keys like these anywhere else?” Matthew asked, looking at the mare.
“No. Though this isn't the first time I have heard of a ranger team. Just had no idea this whole thing.. was real.” Twilight seems lost in thought slightly.
“Would you mind elaborating on that… What do you know of other teams?” Matthew asked with a curious look in his eyes.
“Just one. In the royal library, there's a story about a team of heroes in colors like you described that used strange magic to defeat monsters. Since none of them were unicorns I thought it was just a tall tale. but likely it was a real story since rangers are real.” She sighs. “Guess Spike was right.”
“I just need to check. Can you confirm any other details about that story?” Matthew asked with a curious look in his eye, as he caught sight of Spike looking down at them from the floor above.
“The only other thing I can remember is that the green ranger was a minotaur. It was a long time ago and I thought it was fiction so I only skimmed it.” Twilight responded.
“Wait, there was some other kind of story that may have been related to rangers, and you never told me!” Spike shouted from above them quickly running down the stairs with an eager look in his eyes. “I want to know everything!”
“Well Spike, since I now have proof rangers are real. I’ll simply borrow the book from the royal library the next time we head to Canterlot.” Twilight gulped. “Though, I don't exactly remember a whole lot of it as I said.”
“So… you're telling me you read the fairytale relating to Nightmare Moon thousands of times cover to cover… but completely ignored another story because it seems unrealistic?” Spike pointed out, raising his eyebrow in confusion.
“Spike, the Nightmare Moon fairytale popped up during a research session. I read the ranger book out of boredom, it never came up in my studies.” Twilight glared a little. “Not exactly the same correlation.”
“Can we; like, hurry up? Not to be rude but I’m tired and want to go back to my ship to get some rest.” Arther asks as politely as he could.
“Awfully eager to leave the kid at risk aren’t you.” Matthew responded with a smirk before returning his attention to Spike as he canceled the transformation. “So do you have the book you wanted me to sign?”
“Y-Yeah. It’s this one.” Spike replies with a shake of his head, placing the comic book on the table as he reaches for a nearby quill to sign the book.
Matthew looks at the front page only to freeze to see a figure in a bright green suit, the figure almost matching what Twilight had described before looking at Arther. “Arther… do the figures on the front of this look familiar to you?” Curious on what he’s talking about, Arther walks back over and looks at the comic cover.
“Oh. If my memory be correct, that's from Mystic Force Rangers.. I reckon thar counterpart was uh… Magikaiger? Or somethin' like that.” He says, scratching his head to remember the Japanese version of the show name.
“It’s strange… I feel like I should have known that form instantly, but instead it’s like a distant thought. Almost everything I think I should know has been a blurry mess for me since I arrived here both that and my past.”
“Maybe some kind of traumatic event occurred to you and you're repressing it. Maybe a bit too far?” Twilight suggests, before pausing in thought. “But why would you forget the image and name of a comic book character?”
“Or maybe it's nothing to do with the ranger itself… I mean you said you got blurred images of two different things when you touched the key I gave you. Could that have something to do with it?” Spike suggests.
“I really don’t know.” Matthew responds with a shake of his head.
Arther looks at Spike and asks a question. “Do ye only needs Matthew t' sign or both o' us?”
“Well… if a full team did sign it… I suppose it would be nice.” Spike thought out, tapping his chin. “Would you be willing to?”
Arther did a hand gesture of ‘slow down’. “Blimey thar! Slow down thar! He 'n I are nah part o' the same crew. I’m, we both turn into the same ranger! 'n, I don’t even 'ave me owns crew! I’m the only one in me crew.” He explains.
“Well if you're the same ranger… wouldn’t it make sense you work together?” Spike pointed out. “Besides; from what I saw, you both seem to work well together as a team.”
Arther sighs at that. “Look, as much as it sounds nice, 'n aye we did fight mighty well together, but we aren’t in the same crew.. Reckon o' it as two teams workin' together.” He tries to explain.
“Hell, I’m not in any crew… or part of anything… I think?” Matthew responds with a hint of doubt clear in his voice. “In fact… I think I’m pretty much alone.”
“See. So ye still wants both o' our signatures knowin' we aren’t in the same crew?” Arther asks once more.
“You're both Power Rangers, that's close enough for me!” Spike replies with a gleeful smile on his face.
Hearing this, Arther opens the page to the back of the front cover and writes his name in graceful cursive signature with a little quote below it in normal text saying; “Never give up, there’s always a Power Ranger inside us all!” before moving it to Matthew.
Matthew just chuckled before moving to write on the comic but then paused, his mind going blank for a moment before simply signing using what he thought was his signature; even that being uncertain in his head before returning the comic back to Spike. “Hope you enjoy it.” Spike simply nodded his head in agreement before sprinting off back up the stairs in glee.
“And now he’s going to try and frame the thing.” Twilight says with a chuckle.
“I assume this happens often?” Matthew asked, looking at her curiously.
“Every time a new comic or toy comes out… especially the replica… what does he call them… Mophers.” Twilight responds. “I’ll try to keep an eye on him and keep him away from any monsters that appear.”
“Hopefully it's just Saber Shadow and those Kuros that should cause you any problem.” Matthew calmly says. “And hopefully someone will handle him before anything bad happens.”
Not wanting to get too into the conversation anymore out of battle exhaustion, Arther speaks up. “Well, gotta go.” Arther said as he leaves this time, closing the door as he steps out.
“Stay with him, make sure you look after the kid.” Matthew responds before leaving the building, leaving Twilight alone who sighs and looks at everything she learned today.
At the opposite side of Promo Town from where Matthew was. The monster, Saber Shadow, who had been terrorizing the citizens, sat on top of a nearby roof. He’s been looking down at the creatures forced to fight, but the scene was unable to put him in a better mood.
“Why are there those things here?! Why were they protecting the coward?! And how Dare they dishonorably fight me in a group instead of alone and use dirty tricks!” The monster shouted angrily only to see one pony in the crowd try to run away.
“Another coward.” The monster muttered in annoyance. “Kuro. deal with it!” Getting a salute from the Kuro, it ran towards the fleeing pony before shooting it. The pony barely gets far before dropping dead on the floor and then being dragged back towards the fighting.
“If I see that cowardly dragon again. I will kill him and anyone else with him before they see me. Especially that mutt, unicorn and those creatures.” He then began to pace forward and back on the roof. “But how do I deal with them, and how do I lure them out?”
He continued pacing for a couple of minutes before looking at the creatures fighting below. A smirk formed on his face. “I could use my toys to deal with them for me, but I need to be able to affect a lot more first.” He added before walking away.
“Kuro. Find me a location with a lot of contestants at once. We have a long night ahead.” The monster says with a grin, all the Kuros saluting him before running off. “And I am going to enjoy every moment of their suffering.”
Saber Shadow continued this multiple times, getting his strength out of fear of his “toys”.
On his sixth batch, he flipped a coin and it hit the ground and affected another group of ponies as a shiver ran down the monster's back. “Now that feels much better. I feel like I could take on those annoying Rangers now!”
Looking at the dueling ponies below him, if he can express it; he would have a sadistic grin on his face watching the entire area filled with fighting ponies. “Just a few more like this and I can force the entire town to follow my orders at all times. I can have them drag that coward and that unicorn to my feet and do as I please with them.”
The monster starts to turn away to look for more victims before hearing a noise from the fighting below him. Turning back to the scene and sees two colored figures running into the fray.
They were both covered in suits however it was very different to that of the Rangers he had faced before, these having two coloured full bodysuits one yellow and the other blue, both looking almost identical. Their entire bodies were covered in a tight form fitting suit that gave the option of them being some kind of spy, though the yellow has longer ends of the upper suit as a skirt. A black gadget shoulder holster around their shoulders from their back, a black belt around the waist with a flat; metallic gray buckle with their icon and matching colored boots. The yellow helmet is engraved to look like a rabbit's head while the blue one has a gorilla and both have lit headlights as eyes.
“There's more of them!” Shadow Saber shouted in anger as he saw the rangers knocking the weapons the ponies were holding from their grasp and knocking them to the floor. “I don’t want to deal with any more of them right now.”
So the monster ran off again, the Ranger's glance along the runaway before the yellow ranger speaks up. “So he’s the one who’s doing this?”
“Seems that way.” The blue figure responds. “We should deal with this lot first and make sure they’re safe before going after him.”
“But do we even know why they are all fighting each other?”
“I would hope our contact here would be able to explain it. It’s just a matter of finding her.”
“Do you even know where she is?” The yellow figure asked as she restrained one of the ponies that had been fighting.
“I think she owns a sweet shop in the town. I have the address for it once we finish with this.”
“Fine. After this is sorted, we find the contact and learn everything.”
“Agreed.” The blue ranger responded as they continued restraining each of the fighting ponies.