EPISODE THREE
Early one morning, Bronc was working hard in his workshop, perfecting a project he started long ago. He was laughing and talking to himself in a way that made him sound like a crazy scientists. “Yes… YES!!” he shouted. “It’s finally working.”
Keto came into the workshop, having heard him shouting, “What’s finally working?”
Bronc hated it when people barged in on him while he was working. Nevertheless, he showed him his special project. It was a machine creature which Bronc called a Robotic Knight, armed with a strong cutlass in his right hand, a large buzz-saw for his left hand, and strong metal plating.
“If all my calculations are correct, this should give us a great lead in crushing the rangers for good.”
Keto wasn’t sure what to think as he gazed at the creation. “Um… yeah, well, when you’re through with that, you think you can come up and help us come up with a real idea?”
Then he left leaving Bronc infuriated, and he angrily shoved all his tools to the floor in a fit of rage, “A real idea?!” he grumbled “I’ll show them a real idea; I didn’t even tell him about the best part of my little creation yet.”
With a pair of long tongs, he grabbed a glowing piece of ore he had forged. “Once I install this, the really exciting part begins.”
(Que Intro)
Twilight and Professor Brain were working hard in the laboratory, within the rangers’ base.
“Right, are we ready, Twilight?”
“Ready, Professor!”
“All right then… power on!”
Twilight switched on the controls, and Spike ducked down behind her leg nervous shaking as powerful beams of energy fired at a monster dummy at the end of the room, imprisoning it in a sphere within a split second.
“Oh, wow!” Twilight cried, “IT WORKS!!”
“Satisfactory! Most-Most-Most Satisfactory!” added Brain.
Spike howled in joy, but then he stopped and asked “Um… what did you just do again.”
“We’ll explain when the others get here.” replied Twilight. After that, all she, the professor and the lab technicians did was ogle proudly at their success.
Later that day, the rangers were all summoned to the base for the announcement of their new success.
First Twilight made them all view footage of past battles, at the precise moments when the rangers used the Star Slammer to finish the monsters off the first time. “You called us here just to show us all that?” Rainbow asked.
“No, there’s more.” said Twilight “Now you all know what usually happens at this point.”
Sunset nodded, “Just before the monster is captured and imprisoned, it grows.”
Surely enough, the next bit of footage showed just that-- Keto’s Fortissimo mugic working its magic and making the monster grow, thus sparing the creature from capture.
“So what’s all this about?” asked Buddy.
“Well, that’s just it…” Celesto cut in, “Professor Brain has…” he stopped when Twilight cleared her throat and gave him a straight look, “Ahem, Professor Brain and Twilight…” Twilight nodded at him “…Have increased the capturing power.”
“So, we’ll be able to capture the monsters much faster then?” asked Fluttershy.
“Correct…” replied Celesto, and he typed into the controls and showed every one the blue prints. “Once we transfer the upgrade to your weapons. As I just answered Fluttershy, you’ll be able to capture the monsters much quicker before Nacluv can order that they be grown.
So, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you all the leave your morphers here for a while so we can make the transfer.”
Now the rangers all felt concerned,
“But what if a monster should appear?
We’d be in such trouble. That is clear.” said Rhymey.
“Well, let’s just hope that doesn’t happen.” said Lightning, “We could use this upgrade after all.” With that, he and the others turned in their morphers, promised to have them back soon.
“We better go or we’ll be late for first period.” said Sunset.
“Oh, joy!” groaned Rainbow, and all the rangers walked off together, and Twilight had to go with them. She couldn’t be excused with exams coming up, and the technicians could easily perform the upgrade without her being there.
She took Spike with her, stuffing him into her knapsack. She was allowed to bring him to school, leaving him in the care of her Principal Cadance, sister-in-law,
Celesto sighed as he watched the rangers head through the jump-tubes, “You do so much for us, rangers. It makes me proud to know and help all of you.”
That day, the five rangers and Twilight all shared the same Home Cooking class and the class was taught by the Cafeteria workers, Cupcake and Carrot Cake.
“All right everyone…” said Mr. Cake “Today, we have a very special guest joining us. Please, Welcome Cookie Dough, Mr. Grandruler and Principal Celestia’s personal home chef.”
The rangers knew Cookie Dough very well, having had many meals at Celesto’s mansion cooked by him, while the other students seemed honored and amazed he was there, and they whispered about to one another…
“That guy’s a world-renowned chef!”
“I heard he once cooked for the Queen of England.”
Cookie Dough cleared his throat, “Now, everyone, your teachers have asked me to take part in this special assignment of yours. All of you are going to use whatever foods are provided for you, and try to create the best kind of dish that you can, and I personally shall sample your dishes.”
Rainbow raised her hand “You mean this is some kind of cook-off?”
“That’s correct…” said Cookie Dough “And I’m a master chef, so I have great expectations, but try not to let that get to you.”
Fluttershy already was shuddering nervously as the pressure got to her.
“There’s one other thing…” Cookie continued “If you manage to score more than 90 points with me… you’ll be excused from your written exams and have passed this course.”
Many faces light up with joy, while Twilight seemed shocked of the thought of skipping the written portion, and she raised her hand, “Um… why should we not have to do our written exam?”
Cookie chuckled, “Because, Cooking isn’t really just something you learn on paper. It’s all about making it real. Knowing all the types of food and tools is just part of it, but actually using them is the real task. So, if you get it right… then you already have proven you’ve learned all you need.”
With that said, everyone got straight to work, but they didn’t have to rush as the project would last for a few days, in case other people had to prepare meals that required a waiting period, and at least students were allowed to work in groups of two or three.
Rhymey and Fluttershy worked together, naturally being distracted by one-another, and blushing, but they managed to work well together.
Twilight was working with Sunset, and they had so many different kinds of foods that Twilight literally calculated how many different kinds of dishes they could make and then how they could be prepared.
“Come on, Twilight… let’s just pick a dish and get to work.” said Sunset.
“We will, I just need to calculate how much time we need to spend working on it.”
Sunset sighed, “This could take a while.”
Meanwhile, Rainbow and Buddy were already hard at work creating their own meal, while noticing that Nikki and the Jazzies weren’t doing a thing. They were just standing at their stations looking grimly at the tools and foods as if they had never cooked in their lives, which Nikki suddenly confirmed…
“Why am I even doing this?” Nikki complained “As if theses skimpy aprons and these gross bandanas didn’t already make me want to puke.”
“I don’t touch knives!” whined Amber.
Dione simply turned on the stove, and the soft pilot light from the element surprised her. “Okay, this is really freaking me out.”
“What’s wrong Girls; you never cooked before?” Rainbow teased.
Nikki didn’t take kind to that and marched over to their station and sneered, “I don’t cook, I eat, and I’ve eaten finer things than you dweebs ever could cook.”
She then noticed a bowl of tomato sauce Buddy had made, and put her pinky in it “So there…” and she proceeded to lick her finger clean.
Buddy quickly tried to warn her, “Uh… Nikki I wouldn’t do that! That sauce has…” but Nikki had already taken a lick, and at once, she gasped, and he face went bright red as steam shot through her ears, and she took off round the room gaging and screaming!
“…Ghost peppers in it.”
Nikki dashed back to her station panicking, “Water…!! WATER!!!”
Panicking themselves, Amber and Dione grabbed the faucet nozzle, switched on the water and sprayed Nikki hard, drenching her from head to toe.
The entire class laughed at her, but the teachers and Cookie Dough were from impressed. “That’ll be enough mischief ladies.” snapped Mr. Cake, “Your grade as well as part of your future depends on how well you can cook.” added Mrs. Cake.
The girls felt humiliated and in disgrace, while Nikki was infuriated, especially with Buddy and Rainbow, “I’ll fix those two, and pass this course at the same time!”
Amber and Dionne had a good feeling it was time for a Jazzie revenge.
Meanwhile, Keto was demonstrating her new idea to Nacluv and the others. “Behold, Fryer Chuck!”
The creature seemed to resemble that of a large cooking cauldron, with a passive frying pan shape for his head, and his special ability was creating vast amounts of heat that cooked anything it touched, as well as summoning large cauldrons to cook his victims.
“The heat is on.” he hissed “Do you like your rangers charred, or well done?”
“Hmm…” Nacluv said “How about… extra-crispy?”
Marla and Keto snickered along with their master at the joke, while Bronc was still sulking behind his mask.
“What’s got you so down?” Marla asked.
“Nothing…! I’ve got work to do.” Bronc huffed, and he stormed off.
“Now what’s got him so riled up?” Nacluv wondered, “Oh, well... Get out there, Fryer, and cook those rangers good for us.”
“You got it!” Fryer hissed, and he prepared to teleport off.
Meanwhile, Bronc was still grunting as he worked on his Robotic Knight, “They can’t respect me! They overlook my ideas…! Well, I don’t trust them to succeed, but you I trust you shall restore my honor!”
Meanwhile, Vice Principal Luna was out walking Spike, since Principal Cadance was far too busy. “I still find it amazing how intelligent you are, that you still require a walk to do your… business.”
“…It’s a dog’s life.” retorted Spike.
Krysta came flying along while out on her patrol, “Hiya guys, what’s new?” she asked.
“More as in what is old.” Luna groaned as she pointed down at Spike. She really wished he would hurry up and do his business, but suddenly, her perked up his head and sniffed the air deeply. Then he growled angrily!
“What’s wrong?” asked Krysta.
“I smell something foul, and it isn’t what I want to do!” replied Spike. Then he took off, yanking his leash out of Luna’s hand. “Spike… Stop…!” Luna shouted as she chased after him.
“Oh, boy…!” Krysta groaned as she pursued after them both.
They arrived in the park, and all three of them halted when they saw Fryer Chuck, with a massive cauldron pot, and a whole gaggle of civilians he had captured, bound by chains and dangling over the pot.
He turned round and looked right at the trio, “Well what have we here?”
“RUN!!” shouted Luna, but as she and the pets turned to flee, they were suddenly surrounded by a swarm of Lingos.
The pets managed to slip past them, being small and swift, but Luna was unable to overcome the swarm and was taken hostage.
Soon, she was dangling over the hot cauldron as well, and the heat was just sweltering, making it almost hard to breathe.
“This ought to get the rangers attention.” Fryer hissed, “And once they get here we’ll have a real cook-off!”
The pets saw everything behind the shrub. “We’ve gotta go get the rangers!” cried Krysta. “But wait… they still don’t have their morphers.” Spike pointed out, “We can’t just ask them to rush into battle without their powers.”
Krysta would have agreed, except seeing all the poor people suffering and fearing for their safety… even Spike suddenly agreed, “You’re right… let’s go!”
Back at school, the period had ended, and all the students decided to finish their food project the next day.
“I hope Cookie Dough likes our dishes.” said Sunset.
“So do I.” added Rainbow “It’ll be nice to have less exam to worry about.”
Fluttershy was still rather nervous about the project. “What if I make some sort of mistake? What if Cookie dough doesn’t like the dish Rhymey and I make? What if he fails us so badly he’ll never let us cook again!!”
She was really starting to panic.
“Calm down, Fluttershy, nothing will go wrong.
Not as long as we work together, things will go right along.” said Rhymey.
The others agreed and gave Fluttershy more confidence. “It’s just a test, Fluttershy. You don’t need to be super perfect. Just pass it…” said Buddy.
Fluttershy smiled, but suddenly Lightning came running down the hall while the period had changed. “Lightning, what’s up?” asked Twilight.
“There’s trouble… Krysta and Spike called me form outside my window. There’s a monster in the park and he’s got hostages!”
“HOSTAGES?!” the others cried softly.
“Yes, including Vice Principal Luna.”
“Come on, let’s go!” cried Sunset, and the six of them dashed off.
While the classroom was totally empty the Jazzies snuck in and crept to the refrigerators where the rangers had stored what little bits of concoctions for their projects to use the next day.
Nikki then held her hand out to her friends, and they each passed her two shakers full of extremely hot pepper flakes. “Let’s spice it up a bit.” Nikki hissed as she began to sabotage the rangers’ foods but sprinkling large amounts of flakes into the foods which would soon melt away, but leave the foods super spicy.
Amber and Dionne snickered.
Later on, the monster was growing impatient. “Where are they? I’m getting a heatstroke waiting for those rangers to show up.”
The rangers and Twilight hid behind a bush with the two pets.
“Oh, those poor people!” cried Fluttershy.
“We can’t just sit here. We have to do something.” said Rainbow.
Twilight called Celesto on her cellphone and informed him of the situation.
“I was afraid of this…” Celesto said, but unfortunately he could not get the morphers to the rangers yet, “The upgrade isn’t fully finished yet. If we disrupt the process, the morphers could get damaged, possibly beyond repair. We just can’t risk it. The second it’s done I’ll get them straight to you.”
With that, he hung up.
The rangers continued to watch the hostages suffering, and finally decided that powers or not, they to help the people somehow.
“Let’s go.” said Sunset, and she and the rangers leapt through the bush leaving Twilight to look after the pets.
“You there…!” Sunset shouted.
Fryer turned round, “Ha! There you are. Like moths to the flame.”
“You let those people go right now!” shouted Lightning, but the monster only laughed, “Someone’s hot-tempered, and speaking of heat…” he demonstrated another specialty of his by unleashing a heat blast from his very face… as it was a frying pan after all.
KAPOW… there were big explosions that struck the ground, just barely missing the rangers, and still knocked them all back.
Fryer laughed at them, “What’s the matter, not hot enough for you?”
Infuriated, the rangers jumped back onto their feet and charged!
“So that’s how it’s going to be, huh?” snapped Fryer “Lingos…!” and at his command, his swarm of followers rose and charged at the rangers.
Even while morphed, the rangers fought valiantly against them.
“Take this!” Rainbow shouted as she gave a Lingo a good kick in the chest.
Fluttershy was ambushed by two more, “Couldn’t we talk about this?” she asked, but her enemies charged her, forcing her to attack and knock them both down with one swing of her fist, “I guess not.”
Buddy leapt in the air over a swarm of Lingos taunting, “Ever play leapfrog?” He landed right behind them and then gave a swift spinning kick, tripping them all over. “STIIII-RIKE!”
Rhymey was faring well too, as he punched, kicked and tackled the Lingos to the ground.
“You’re going down,
You sick clowns!” he shouted. He almost didn’t make a legit enough rhyme, but it didn’t bother him much. At least the Lingos were down!
Lightning and Sunset managed to break-through the ambush and attack Fryer, but even with their combined efforts, he was much stronger than the Lingos were; skillfully blocking their every attack, and then proceeding to attack them back.
Lightning and sunset managed to avoid getting hit and rolled away from him, regrouping with the others.
“This guy’s tough!” Sunset groaned.
“How are we going to beat him?” Lightning wondered.
“You’re not…!” snarled Fryer, and he used his powers it make another huge cauldron appear from under the rangers.
“Hey!” snapped Rainbow.
The monster chuckled, “And, for an extra bit flavor…” he created a large barrier of flames around the pot so the rangers couldn’t jump out. “The heat is on!”
“It’s getting hot,
Here in this pot!” cried Rhymey.
“Tell me something I don’t know.” snapped Buddy.
“If we don’t get out of here, we’ll be cooked!” cried Rainbow.
“That’s what you get for not having your powers.” chuckled Fryer, and with that, he intensified the heat, “Coming up, rangers stew!”
The rangers were suffering horribly. It was getting so hot it was hard to breath, and all they were sweating so hard it was horrible watch.
Twilight and the pets could only watch helplessly from the bush. “Lightning…! Guys…!” cried Krysta “Oh, I can’t watch this!” and she hid her face behind her wings.
“We’ve got to help them somehow!” cried Spike.
“Yeah, but what can we possibly do!” cried Twilight. She was right. They had no way to beat that monster, or stop his cooking powers.
The rangers were starting to lose consciousness from the heat.
“Some…body… help!” groaned Fluttershy.
“So… hot!” cried Lightning “So very… very hot!”
Fryer laughed “Your goose it cooked rangers! MORE HEAT!” and he increased the heat even more!
Sunset, though weary, was growing infuriated. She clenched her fists tightly and actually found a few bits of strength to stand on her feet, “I won’t… let my… friends… suffer!” she shouted, and she suddenly began to glow brightly.
“Hey, what’s going on?!” cried Fryer.
The rangers looked at their friend, and knew they weren’t seeing things. Sunset’s natural alien powers were awakening.
“Look at Sunset!” cried Spike.
Krysta looked up over her wings, “What is she doing?”
Twilight just stared in awe, and adjusted her glasses to stare more clearly.
“Time to break this firewall…!” Sunset shouted, and she fired a beam of bright light at the fire.
“Oh, no you don’t!” snarled Fryer, and he unleashed more fired from his face trying to intensify the wall, but even still, Sunset refused to give in, “I… Will… SAVE…MY…FRIENDS!!” and with her determination, she glowed brighter than ever, and this gave her the boost of power she needed to shoot straight through the flames, destroying the wall, and strike the monster hard, sending him rolling along the ground.
The two cauldrons disappeared, and while the hostages were still dangling from their chains, the rangers were released, and thanks to Sunset’s glowing, they were restored to their normal temperatures.
That’s when sunset stopped glowing, as her power had been used.
She felt a little woozy after doing so, but her friends were ever so delighted.
“Sunset, you saved us!” cried Buddy.
“Thank you, Sunset!” added Fluttershy.
Sunset smiled and gazed down at her hands, knowing that her friendship powers had saved her and her team once again.
“That does it! Now I’m really getting boiled!” snarled Fryer “I’ll just have to finish you off the old fashioned way!”
The rangers stood ready to brawl again, when suddenly Celesto showed up. “Rangers…!” he called to them, “Here…!” and he tossed to them their morphers, now fully energized.
“Thank you, sir!” Sunset called to him.
“Insolent human!” shouted Fryer, and he launched a blast at Celesto, but he ran for cover.
The rangers clipped their morphers back on, and Sunset shouted, “…It’s Morphin’ Time!”
“Morphing Sequence… Ready!”
The first five rangers morphed, “STARFLEET MAGIC… POWER ON!!”
Then Lightning morphed, “Cosmic Comet… Power On!!”
The rangers then summoned their nearly supped up weapons. They all looked exactly the same as before, but the rangers trusted Celesto when he promised they had been upgraded. “All right! Time see what these new babies can do.” said Sunset
“I’ll roast ya!” shouted Fryer, and he charged forth, as did the rangers.
While the five rangers dealt the monster, Lightning leapt over to the hostages. They were all passed out a little from the heat, so they hadn’t seen him morph or Celesto giving the rangers their morphers back. So secrecy was safe.
“Hang on, folks. I’ll get you down.” Then he blasted at the chains with his comet gauntlets, breaking the metal, and all the people fell with a thud, but it wasn’t that bad. They began to come to their senses and were delighted to be freed.
Celesto and Twilight dashed over, and Celesto said “We’ll take care of them. Go help the others!”
“Right…!”
Meanwhile, the others were fighting hard against the monster.
Rhymey slashed at him hard with his sword, and the monster blocked his attacks with his strong arms, but as an expert fencer, Rhymey found his way around and slashed the monster hard. Sparks flew and the creature backed away a bit.
“My turn…!” shouted Buddy and he lassoed his whip round the monster’s leg. “Here, let me take you for a spin!” and he whirled the monster around and around like a hammer-throw.
“PULL!!” shouted Rainbow, and with that, Buddy let the monster fly, letting Rainbow and Sunset shoot at him with their weapons, hitting him in midair.
“That does it!” shouted Fryer, “Take this!” and he fired the biggest and strongest heat-blast he could muster up, which headed straight for the girls. “No…!!” Fluttershy shouted as she leapt in the way with her shield armed, intercepting the blast and sending it right back at Fryer.
KAPOW!!
“That burns!” he groaned.
Lightning rejoined the group just in time, “Did I miss anything?” he asked casually. “No, you’re just in time for lunch; monster soup.” said Sunset “Bring ‘em together guys!”
“Weapons combine!”
“Star Slammer… Ready!”
“Let me boost it up.” Lightning said.
“Comet Gauntlets, Engage!”
“Comet Trail… Fire!” He charged up the Star-Slammer, and the others aimed it at the monster. “STAR-SLAMMER… ULTRA-STRIKE!!”
The monster roared as he watched the rangers slam him hard, enveloping his body in sparks and flames, “WHOA!! TOO HOT TO HANDLE…!!”
KAPOW!! He exploded, and thanks to the weapons upgrade he was already imprisoned in a sphere!
Nacluv was furious, and he thundered at Keto, “Don’t just stand there! Make him grow!”
“I can’t! He’s already been captured! My spell won’t work!” cried Keto.
Nacluv flared up in anger, ready to roast the little mugician. “Yikes…!” Marla cried as she ducked behind a counter, not wanting to watch.
“Hold it…!” Bronc shouted “It’s not all lost yet. It’s time I showed you all my creation.” and with that, he pressed on a remote control he held, and at once a beam of light shot out of the tower, and flew over the sea heading straight for Mystic Island…!
Meanwhile, the rangers rejoiced in their victory. “They really worked!” cried Rainbow.
“Now Nacluv won’t be able to make the monster grow.” added Buddy.
With that, Sunset picked up the monster in his sphere and decided to call it, “Monster Captured… Mission--!”
Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and something huge appeared! “What’s that?!” cried Fluttershy.
“It’s a giant robot!
That is what!” cried Rhymey.
The Robotic Knight stomped its huge feet and raised his sword to strike.
“Look out!” cried Sunset, and she and the rangers all jumped away just in time before the huge blade could hit them.
Sunset then contacted the base, “Launch Star-Jets!”
“Summon Zords!”
The Jets were launched and came to the rangers’ aid.
“GIGANTIFY!” Lightning shouted, and he pressed on his morpher.
“Giant-Mode, ready!”
With that, he grew into a giant, and at the same time, the other rangers combined their zords.
“Jet-Star Megazord… Ready!”
“Let’s take this creep!” said Sunset.
“RIGHT!!” the others agreed.
The Knight glared at the zord and lunged forth, while Lightning leapt up and began to attack the robot’s metal plating, only to then get slashed at with his sword. “Whoa! This guy’s strong!”
The megazord then grabbed the knight by his right arm, only for the robot to saw it with his left arm, creating a shower of sparks. “Veer off!” cried Rainbow, and she pulled on the controls getting the megazord away before its arm was sawed off.
Back at the tower, Bronc laughed, “Thanks to special ore I fused, not only is my Robotic Knight gigantic, but his power is increased immensely. The rangers have finally met their match!”
“Hmm… well done, Bronc.” said Nacluv “Perhaps I’ve underestimated your talents.”
Bronc snickered thankfully.
The Knight slashed at the megazord, bashing it hard back, and kicked at Lightning hard with his strong legs sending him rolling along.
“I think we’re going to need some extra power, guys!” Lightning called to the others.
“Just what we were thinking.” agreed Sunset. “Ultra-Star Megazord… go!”
“Summoning armor!” shouted Lightning, and his Comet Striker armor appeared.
“Zords Combine!”
With that, the armor combined with the megazord!
“Ultra-Star Megazord… Ready!”
“Power’s holding steady!
We are ready!” said Rhymey.
The robot charged at the megazord, but thanks to the rocket thrusters on its back, the megazord sprinted out of the way.
“You missed us!” Rainbow teased.
The robot, despite having no feelings or emotion, seemed to be growing infuriated as he charged forth with its sword ready for attack… until Lightning leapt in and kicked the sword away. “No, No, No, that’s not nice.” he mocked.
Still infuriated, the robot powered up his saw to slice, but the megazord grabbed its left arm in one hand and karate chopped the robot’s arm with its over hand, slicing the saw blade end off.
“Okay, here’s our chance!” cried Sunset “Charge up the Star-blast Wave!”
The zord’s chest armor, arms and head all glowed brightly as pulsing flashes appeared.
“Energy Charge, Ready!”
With the energy systems charged, the rangers all shouted together, “STAR BLAST WAVE… FIRE!!” and at once… POW… the zord fired four major streams of energy combining it all into one big golden wave of power that flew straight at the robot, blasting it hard, and piercing right through its metal plating, disrupting its system.
The robot sparked, and small explosion erupted from its body, and it fell over and really exploded… nothing fake. Since it was not a monster, and could not be captured, it was really blown to scrap-metal.
The rangers all rejoiced, and as the monster had already been defeated earlier, sunset merely called, “…Mission Complete!”
Back at the tower, Bronc was infuriated. “I don’t believe it!” he thundered “They destroyed my beautiful creation!”
Surprisingly however, Nacluv wasn’t really angry that the plan failed, “…A mere minor setback, Bronc. You did provide us with a backup plan. So I suggest you start working on improving your designs for these knights of yours.”
Keto and Marla were shocked, “But he still didn’t beat the rangers.” cried Keto “Shouldn’t you punish him?”
Nacluv turned to sneer at him and Marla, “Maybe I should punish the two!!”
Keto shuddered fearfully, and Marla whined “But why me? I didn’t do anything!”
“Exactly… you did nothing at all, so the rangers beat us again!” snarled Nacluv.
Marla and Keto screamed and they ran off, while Bronc could only chuckle, “Serves them right for disregarding my talents.”
The next day at school, the rangers all got back to their cooking class, still unaware of Nikki’s sabotaging their foods, and Nikki actually came in with a terrine containing an actual dish she seemingly made.
“Good luck dorks.” she teased at them.
“We don’t need luck, Nikki.” Sunset sneered at her.
“Ah, just ignore her.” said Twilight “Let’s concentrate.”
She and Sunset made a special chili, with beans, ground meat, and some of Buddy’s hot sauce to spice it up.
Rainbow and Buddy blended up some vegetables to make a special vegetarian drink for an athlete, promising that one glass would have the nutritious equivalent of a full steak meal.
Rhymey and Fluttershy made spaghetti, with a few vegetable mixed into the noodles, and topped it off with a golden mushroom cream sauce.
All of them used food they had prepared the previous day that Nikki had spiked with hot-pepper, and Nikki couldn’t wait to see the looks on Chef Cookie Dough’s face when he tried their dishes.
“Okay class… let’s taste those foods.” Cookie announced.
He started with Nikki’s meal. “Hope you like it sir. We spent hours making it.”
She pulled off the lid of her terrine, revealing a delightful casserole made with rice, pork slices, and melted butter.
Cookie tasted it, “Mmm… this is fantastic ladies.” he didn’t rate it just yet, he had to wait until had tasted everyone’s dishes.
He tried other students’ cooking. Some were good, some were not, but he gave them all confidence and encouragement.
Then it came to the rangers.
He tasted the chili, “And it was pretty spicy, but not insanely spicy, just enough to make Cookie fan his tongue. “Fantastic! Just like chili should be!”
He sipped Buddy and Rainbow’s drink, “Oh, my! The vegetables combined with the ground up spices; it’s like an entire meal in one drink!”
Rainbow and Buddy slapped each other a high-five.
And then he tried Rhymey and Fluttershy’s pasta, “Oh… Oh, my! This is… exquisite!” he shouted “The mushroom sauce spiced with the pepper, the way it mixes with the noodles and the flavours of the vegetable to reduce spice and sweetness!”
Rhymey and Fluttershy were confused by what he meant about spiciness, since they never added anything spicy. “You… really like it?” asked Fluttershy.
“Like it… I LOVE IT!!” cried Cookie. “That also goes for you all.” He said to the other ranger, “All of you definitely get the passing requirements, and are excused from the written exam!”
The rangers and Twilight rejoiced, but the Jazzies were outraged “How can this be!” cried Nikki.
Amber wasn’t so sure, “I think maybe when they cooked up and prepared their foods, the spices got mixed in too well!”
“No way!” said Dionne “I think I have a book that can totally confirm that.” she reached into her knapsack to pull out a book, but something fell out.
“What is that?” Cookie asked.
Nikki gasped and stood in front of the object. “What’s what sir?” she asked trying to play innocent, but Twilight picked up the object, which was an empty plastic food tray with a price tag on it. She read the label aloud…
“Chinese Pork and Rice, with melted butter: Simply heat in microwave and serve. Your local grocery store: $12.95.”
Some of the students laughed, and Cookie tapped his foot in front of the Jazzies. The girls tried to cover up their deceit, but Cookie said to them, “You get A for effort, ladies, but I suggest you study hard if you want to actually cook.”
The girls sighed in humiliation, knowing they would have to take the written exam now.
“I am, like, so embarrassed!” Nikki groaned, and she picked a small bean out of a salad bowl near her, forgetting she had spiked, and unlike the other cooked foods… she got blasted by the spice hard, and took off at a fiery pace!”
“Nikki, here!” cried Buddy, and he offered her a pitcher of water he and Rainbow used for their drink. Nikki grabbed it and splashed it over her face, washing her hat off her head, and soaking herself in the process, making everyone laugh at her more.