//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Lunaverse: Galaxy Rangers - The White Raven // by Rixizu //------------------------------// Lunaverse: Galaxy Rangers - The White Raven Chapter 6 by Rixizu Pokey yawned as he looked out the window of the Friendship Express. It was very early in the morning. His boss Trixie Lulamoon insisted he take the first train to Canterlot. He grumbled a little, but eventually went along with it. It got him out of doing endless errands and he could use a little break. The job he was assigned wasn't too difficult. He was to find out as much about DJ-Pon3, also known as Vinyl Scratch, as he could. Trixie suspected that she was the new Pink Ranger that attacked her and her friends last night. She thought the DJ's arrival to Ponyville and the Pink Ranger attack to be too much of a coincidence. Pokey thought the theory was silly and with that logic she might as well blame every unicorn that came to Ponyville that day, but it got him out of Ponyville so he couldn't complain too much. The DJ disappeared before Trixie could question her, so she decided to send Pokey on this information gather mission. She was too busy to do it herself. It was about eight o'clock when he arrived at Canterlot. Pokey decided his first stop was to get breakfast then go to the club called Ground Zero that Vinyl Scratch usually worked at. After a horrible breakfast, Pokey arrived at Ground Zero. For some reason, every place Pokey tried served the same thing. It was bland, horrible, and the servings were tiny. A three-hoof rating his back leg. He tried to put the horrible experience out of his mind and focus on the task at hoof. Pokey knocked on the back door. After a few moments, an earth pony mare with a pink mane and green coat poked her head out. Her face was covered with black stripes that went down to her face to her torso. It looked like some sort of tattoo made by magic ink. "I'm sorry we're closed. We open at 12." "No Miss, that isn't why I'm here," Pokey said turning on the charm, "I actually here to see Vinyl Scratch. You see, I'm with the Canterlot Herald. We are doing an article on Canterlot club scene, and I would like to ask her a few questions. Perhaps you could get her for me? I just had to get an interview with the most famous DJ in Canterlot. I promise I will barely take up any of her time." “Oh, I’m sorry. But Vinyl is taking a few weeks off.” The mare said sadly. “It will be some time before she gets back.” "Really, that’s a shame.” Pokey mulled this over. This was an odd coincidence. “Strange time for a vacation. No holiday is nearby. Is it her birthday maybe?” “She’s always like that.” The mare said a bit annoyed. “She always picks the weirdest times to have a day off.” “But for a few weeks?” Pokey arched an eyebrow. “Still just like her.” The mare said simply. “Dang.” Pokey did his best to look completely disappointed. “Say, perhaps you could tell me a few things about her?” The mare thought it over. “I guess that would be okay. Come in.” Pokey was let inside and was lead into what looked like an employee break room. It had a couch, a table with a coffee machine and coffee cups, a coffee table, and a few foldout chairs. It was a mess and smelled of used cigarettes. Pokey moaned when saw and smelled of the fresh coffee. The mare chuckled in amusement. “Would you like some coffee?” Pokey nodded enthusiastically. "Yes thank you." The mare poured Pokey and herself a cup of coffee and brought them to the table. "I'm Fade by the way." "Scribble Script." Pokey lied. He took a sip of the coffee and moaned in delight. It was very good, better than his boss's coffee. Maybe he could think about quitting and applying here? “Nice to meet you Scribble Script.” Fade greeted. “What would you like to know?” Pokey pretended to mull it over. He pulled out a notebook and quill out of his saddlebag. He sipped his coffee in his hooves. “How about her early foalhood? And how she got into being a DJ?” Fade thought about it. “Well, Vinyl has always been interested in music. Her talent in music allowed her to enter Bard Music Academy.” Wow, that’s actually quite the prestigious school for a pony to go to. Pokey thought. “Go on.” Fade laughed. “Would you believe she was called one of the best violinists the school had ever had?” Pokey started in shock. “Wha-what really? Why isn’t she in a grand orchestra right now?” Fade shrugged. “Never showed much interest in it. Instead, she really got into the underground Canterlot music scene. Took some DJing jobs and it all snowballed from there.” Pokey wrote all this down. “I see.” “She’s pretty happy. She loves creating new music and experimenting. Being in a concert hall would probably kill her.” Yep, this was a waste of time. Pokey thought. This mare is the Pink Ranger? Ha! “So how was she even able to afford to go Bard Music Academy? Isn’t that one of most expensive schools in Equestria?” Pokey asked. He was ready to get out of here. "That would be thanks to Greens." Fade explained. Pokey raised an eyebrow. “Greens?” "You know. Duke Greengrass. But everypony here calls him Greens.” Fade said chuckling to herself. Pokey felt his whole world spin around. He had to brace himself on the chair. “What? Why?” "When Vinyl was a filly, she and her parents were in a terrible accident," Fade said gravely, "they were trailing through the Smokey Mountains on vacation and there was a rockslide. Her parents passed away and Vinyl got hurt real bad. She lost her back leg." “And Greengrass?” Pokey asked. “He heard what happened and took pity on her and decided to sponsor her.” Fade smiled. “He’s been looking after her ever since.” I see. But what could it mean? Pokey thought. “So they see each other often?” Fade nodded. “Yeah, he stops by here all the time.” Could she be an agent of Greengrass? It made sense. She does errands for him while he pretends to be her generous loving benefactor. Of course. He finds a helpless filly, saves her life, and manipulates her into doing whatever he wants out of gratitude. Very clever indeed. It sounded like something the infamous Greengrass would do. Pokey had always heard the Duke loved making ponies his puppets. Pokey stood up and finished his coffee. “Thank you for your time.” “No prob.” Fade grinned. “I am looking forward to your article.” Pokey left the club and rubbed his chin. Vinyl might actually be a solid lead after all. Unlike Twilight Sparkle, Vinyl actually was connected to Greengrass and he could not ignore this. He grinned. This trip was starting to become fun. --- Pokey asked around town if they had seen a pony of Vinyl’s description. Her unique appearance did make her stand out after all. A promising lead led him to a diner in downtown Canterlot. Pokey noticed that the place did not have any hoof rating which he approved of. His eyes widened when he got there. There the Duke was and Vinyl was with him. An earth pony with thin glasses was with them. She had a yellow mane with a white coat and was wearing a yellow pants suit. They were having lunch at a sidewalk cafe. It looked like they were having a friendly chat. Well, Vinyl and Greengrass were anyway. The white earth pony ate her lunch in silence. She had no expression on her face. He watched them from a distance behind an alley wall. He grinned. Finally, he got to do something exciting. Trixie told him to just gather information and leave dangerous parts to her, but Pokey decided to ignore that order. It was his time to do something. Pokey quickly backed behind the wall. The white earth pony turned right towards him. His heart skipped a beat. Did she see me? He could feel her eyes on the alley, right on him. He didn't know why he was so scared. He shook his head. He decided to go back the way he came to approach the cafe at a different angle. He went back through the alley and went around the building. By the time he got to the cafe, Greengrass and his group were already moving. He followed making extra sure not be seen. Every once and awhile, the white earth pony would turn her head right towards him and he had several close calls, but he didn't think she saw him. Pokey followed them to the building on the outskirts of Canterlot. It was the Ministry of War. They all went inside except the white earth pony. She stayed outside scanning the area. She stared right where Pokey was hiding. He tried to stay calm. What is with this mare? Eventually, she gave up and went inside. Pokey smirked. Infiltration sounded like a lot of fun. He went to the back. There was a fire escape door that nopony was looking at right now. Perfect. It couldn't be opened from this side, but Pokey had the exact spell to get around that. His horn lit up and shot the door. It opened, he peeked inside, and then closed it behind him. He was in a bland hallway. Nopony was in sight. He carefully trotted through the building. Pokey's luck ran out when he heard some ponies coming his way. He searched around for a place to hide and found a bathroom. He went inside and hid in a stall. The ponies came in and chatted about some project. Pokey's ears perked up when he heard the word ‘Ranger'. After some time, the ponies left and Pokey was alone again. Pokey sat on the toilet and thought. He was on the right track, but how was he to get past all the security and ponies that worked here? He was lucky he entered the part of the building that many ponies didn't go by. He wished he didn't just jump in here without a plan. Oh well, too late now. Could he maybe disguise himself? He sighed. He needed to press his boss on how to become invisible when he got back. He laid back and looked up. There was a rather large air duct. He grinned. --- The air ducts were a bit cramped but had enough room for him to move around. He had been walking for at least ten minutes. Pokey had a good sense of direction and had a good idea of the general layout of the building, but still hadn't found Greengrass or Vinyl. Through a vent, he found a sign that pointed towards the labs. It’s a good enough place to look as any. Pokey thought. As Pokey was moving towards the labs, he heard a familiar voice. He headed that way and through the slits of the vent found what he was looking for. Vinyl and a stallion with a mustache were arguing rather loudly. Greengrass was with them. The white earth pony mare was with them as well, along with a dignified looking unicorn stallion with a grayish azure coat. They appeared to be in a high-tech lab of some kind. Pokey couldn't understand what anything was. In a small room with an observation window what looked like a morpher attached to some wires. Pokey's eyes widened. So they really are trying to create their own rangers. Pokey was a bit stunned. “You can’t just do whatever you want! You almost blew our cover.” The mustached stallion yelled. "I was just testing the waters, Fisher." Vinyl shot back. "Sides, we need to do some real combat testing, right?" "In a controlled environment," Fisher said gritting his teeth. Vinyl shrugged. “Alright fine. I won’t do it again.” "I agree with Archduke Fisher on this one." Greengrass chided. "Don't go off on your own again please." Vinyl nodded several times.” Got it.” Isn't Archduke Fisher the one in charge of the Ministry of War? Pokey had no idea how Trixie got such powerful enemies against her. "Now to business," Fisher said a bit annoyed, "my people found another Planetary Gem two days ago..." “What really?” Vinyl asked. “Awesome. Which planet is it?” "Pluto." A mare in a lab coat with a tan coat said. With her magic, she brought out a cart with a device in a glass box that looked like one of the Ranger's morphers on it. "I thought that wasn't a planet." Vinyl asked confused. "Well, I guess those cultists didn't know that at the time." “Planet or not.” The mare in the lab coat explained. “It has tremendous power. It’s also very dangerous.” “Dangerous how?” Greengrass asked. “Unlike the other gems, it is volatile to anypony that tries to use it.” The mare in the lab coat shook her head. “Indeed. The last pony that tried to use it ended up in the hospital. He’s still in a coma.” Fisher tapped a hoof. “So it can’t be used at all?” The stallion with the grayish azure coat asked. “Only because they lack vision.” A voice said. All eyes including Pokey turned towards the new pony. She was a purple pegasus with a gray mane. She was an older pony with many wrinkles. She had a hard-unforgiving face. Fisher groaned at the intruder. “What are you doing here Puissance?” "What? You didn't think I wouldn't find out about this place?" Puissance said smugly. "I want in." Fisher sighed. “Of course you do.” Puissance gave an unpleasant smile. "That Trixie Lulamoon will pay dearly for humiliating me." Greengrass rolled his eyes. “We might as well add her to the group too.” "I thought this place was supposed to be top secret." Vinyl groaned. "Makes it so not as cool if everypony knows about it." "The hazards of the Night Court I'm afraid," Greengrass said a bit sadly, "are you okay with this Viscount Night Light?" Night Light sighed. “Do we have a choice?” "No. You don't." Puissance said flatly. She walked up to the glass box with the morpher. "So this is the power of the god of the underworld?" She eyed it hungrily and started rubbing the box. “I would advise not trying it.” The scientist mare warned. Puissance just glared at her. She started caressing the glass box. “Open this up. I will not be denied. I deserve this power!” All eyes turned toward the old hag. Pokey realized this might be a good time to try and steal that morpher in that small room. He didn't want his friends facing more super Rangers. And what was with this talk about the power of a god? He carefully crawled to a vent right next to the door that led to that small room. He heard arguing from Puissance and the scientists. Perfect. There wasn’t a vent that led into the room, but he was close enough. Pokey used his magic to loosen the vent door quietly and placed it to the side. He wiped sweat from his forehead. He carefully opened the door and used his telekinesis to grab the morpher after disconnecting it. He slowly levitated it back towards him. He closed the door quietly. He saw one of the scientist turning this way. He dropped the device to the ground. Thankfully the pony didn’t see it and shrugged apparently thinking what he saw or heard was his imagination. Pokey picked up the morpher again and levitated it towards him, he grabbed the morpher when it was close. He put the vent door back and sighed in relief. So this is it huh? Pokey thought. It was surprisingly heavy in his hooves. The boss is going to be so excited when she sees this. This will teach her how cool and useful I am and I can handle the dangerous stuff no problem. Maybe with this, they can find a way to stop the other Night Court Rangers. Pokey turned back to the commotion in the room. "I don't care!" Puissance shouted. "This was meant for me!" "Just let her do it," Greengrass said completely exasperated. The tan mare in the lab coat shrugged. "Very well." She got out a key and opened the box with her magic. Puissance grabbed the morpher greedily. “It’s morphing time!” Puissance thrust the morpher forward. She suddenly started shaking. She cried out in ear piercing agony. She collapsed to the ground and started screaming uncontrollably. She twisted her body in every direction flailing her limbs. “Grab her quickly.” The tan mare said calmly. Some scientists tried and failed to restrain her. She was too strong and out of control to hold down, even magic didn’t work. Despite all this, Puissance never stopped screaming. “Call an ambulance!” A scientist yelled out and another nodded and left the lab. Eventually, with the help of some of the stronger scientists and unicorn magic, they had her under control. It still didn't stop her screaming, though. She was put on a moving cart and pushed out of the room. They could all hear the screaming from the hallway. "Stars and Stones," Greengrass said shaken, "I was not expecting that." Fisher nodded. He too looked a little shaken. "Yes, you can see why it was under lock and key." “I don’t think the hag deserved that.” Vinyl looked away. “Indeed.” The azure coated stallion said solemnly. The white mare with the glasses just closed her eyes, other than that, she didn’t change expression. Horrible thing. Pokey thought. At least nopony can use it! I need to get out of here. He motioned to leave and started crawling. He hit the floor a little harder than he intended. There was an audible clang. Did anypony hear that? At this distance, probably not. The white earth pony mare opened her eyes and threw something in a blur. Something hit the vent door making Pokey jump and involuntarily cry out in surprise. "It seems Notary found somepony," Greengrass commented amused. “There is somepony in the vent!” A pony cried out. “Wait, where is the Venus morpher?” A scientist said in alarm. "Ponyfeathers!" Pokey cursed. Pokey pushed the vent open with his magic and the cover flew to the ground in front of Greengrass and the others with a loud clang startling them. Pokey pulled out a smoke bomb he stole from Trixie and threw it shrouding the whole area in smoke. He grabbed the Pluto morpher with his magic before anypony could react and put it in his saddlebags. “After him! Close down the entire facility!” Fisher ordered. Pokey crawled through the vent trying to book it out of there as quickly as possible. --- Pokey jumped out of the vent and into an empty hallway. Thanks to his early explorations, he knew where the fire escapes were at. He knew there was one of those escapes only a few corridors away from where he was. He ran down the corridor and cursed when he ran into a bunch of armed security ponies blocking his path. They held their nightsticks menacingly. Pokey smirked. "Ha. It's a good thing it's my specialty to pierce through anything! ...Don't make the obvious joke." Pokey's horn lit up and he fired a golden beam at the crowd of guards and they were split into two groups. They cried out in alarm and shock wide-eyed. Pokey ran between them and found the fire escape he was looking for. Outside Pokey ran as quickly as he could into Canterlot proper. He finally stopped in a back alley to catch his breathe. “Phew. I did it.” Pokey laughed to himself and patted his saddlebags. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Trixie’s face when he came back with this treasure. This would teach her. He probably did a better job than she ever would. Pokey straightened and started cantering out of the alley towards the train station. He was almost home free. Pokey froze mouth agape as Notary suddenly popped in front of the alleyway. It seems like I spoke too soon. She just stood there motionless staring at him with a neutral expression on her face. “Hello? Can I help you?” Pokey said innocently. He didn’t think anypony really got a good look at him so there was no way for her to know it was him. Notary didn’t move. She didn’t say anything. She just continued to stare. It was really starting to creep Pokey out. “So… I really need to get going. I have a train to catch. It was nice meeting you!” Pokey had trouble keeping the nervousness out of his voice. He backed away slowly. Pokey's eyes widened when he saw that, out of nowhere, Notary now had a knife in her left hoof. "Look! Um..." Pokey really started backing away now panic starting to fill him. "I don't want any trouble. I..." He suddenly grabbed a smoke bomb out of his saddlebags and threw it in Notary's face. He turned and ran as quick as he could. Pokey ran towards the exit. He needed to get out of here. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his side and he fell forward into the ground painfully. He shook his head and turned towards the source of the pain and his eyes widened. A knife was embedded right below his ribs. It was oozing blood. He screamed in pain as he pulled it out with his magic. He grabbed the open wound with his hoof and struggled to his hooves. He screamed in pain and everything went white as he was kicked right where the knife wound was and collapsed to the ground. Notary stood above him staring at him with no expression on her face. No choice then. Pokey pulled out the Venus morpher with his magic. This was his one last shot of getting out of here. “It’s morphing time!” There was an explosion of light and Pokey was flung into a nearby wall. Blood streaked down it as Pokey fell. He collapsed to the ground. He whimpered. Not in his life had her ever felt so much pain. Pokey tried and failed to get up. His side wound was bleeding uncontrollably now. Notary stood there looking at him, then she looked down at the morpher. She picked it up gingerly. She started at the morpher for a few moments. "It's morphing time." She said in a flat voice. There was another explosion of light. When it dissipated, Notary was in yellow armor. It looked a lot like the Galaxy Ranger's armor, but hers looked more like robes. Her helmet had a white tiara that had pink jewels shaped like flowers made of hearts on either side of her head. On her forehead was the symbol of Venus. "Venus" Pokey gapped in complete shock. No! No! No! This wasn't supposed to happen! He panicked. He was done for. The only thought that went through his mind was getting the Pluto morpher away from these ponies. How he did not know. Suddenly he had it. He pulled out the Pluto morpher and used the last of his strength and magic to shoot it into the sky. It pierced the sky in a golden beam. He prayed to Luna that it would somehow find the proper pony that could use it. “Ha!” Pokey laughed weakly. “That should slow you down a bit!” He blacked out when Notary kicked him again in his knife wound. --- Lemon Hearts screamed as she heard something crash. Her dog, James, started freaking out. “Shh. Shh. It’s okay.” Lemon petted James to calm him down. “I will see what it is.” Lemon picked up a fireplace poker with her magic and went upstairs slowly and quietly. She looked around and thankfully didn’t see anypony. She growled in frustration at the broken window. “Really? Ugh.” Was it the foals next door playing baseball too close to her house again? She would have to yell at Morning Glory about this later. She turned to leave when she spotted something in the corner of her eye. She turned and found this strange small rectangular device on the floor. It had a white gem in the middle of it. Lemon put down the poker and picked it up and turned it around in her magic. "Where did this come from?" It was surprisingly undamaged. She grinned. It was pretty cool. She went to her room and picked out one of her favorite purses. She attached it to the purse and grinned. She didn't know where it came from, but it was the coolest accessory ever. She couldn't wait to show her friends.