//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Black Knight's Attack // Story: Zodiac Rangers: Defenders of Equestria // by BlackWarGreymon //------------------------------// (Presented by me with help from Under_The_Vaile and Sonic Rainboom Dash) Zodiac Rangers: Defenders of Equestria Chapter 2: Black Knight's Attack It was the day after the Zodiac Rangers had finally received their morphers and they were all out during their own respective things although they were all in pairs with each other. They had concluded the previous day with training under the watchful eye of the Harmony Rangers and Princess Twilight Sparkle. They had improved each in their own way during that day but they had yet to actually use their new morphers. They also sadly had been unable to actually meet Sunset Shimmer as she had been asleep the whole time. Now Blazing Fire was on duty, walking along a patrol route with Tourmaline by her side. For some reason the previous day he had started to stay by her side for longer periods of time and seemed reluctant to part from her side. Fire briefly glanced at him before finally speaking to break the silence, “You’ve changed Tourmaline. Before, the only times we were together is when we went on dates or at the Spa. Now here you are in your off time following me around when I’m on duty. So the question is what has changed about you?” Tourmaline replies, “I just have a bad feeling that something will happen, and so we need to be sure to watch each others backs incase if one of us gets taken.” Fire nodded as she continued to walk along and peered around the area to make sure everything was as it should be. After a moment of looking around she was satisfied and continued to speak, “Oh? Do you think the shadowlings might try to take one of us captive or something?” She seemed unsure about that. Tourmaline nods, “Its what I feel for I’ve noticed a pattern of where and when that attack and they seem to lead us away from something else.” Fire frowned as they continued to walk and asked hesitantly, “Do you have a guess as to when and where they will attack next? Any place in particular?” “The when happens during the day and they attack in areas that has a few shops that sells stuff related to sleep chemicals.” Tourmaline says with a calculated guess. Fire mulled over the information as she looked around again and started to walk towards an area she knew had stores that sold stuff related to that, “So you think they are planning to use the stuff to kidnap ponies?” Tourmaline nods, “More than likely though I don’t know who would want that unless… they use dreams as energy.” Fire frowned as she looked at Tourmaline for a moment, “Dreams as energy? The only being I can think of that used dreams as energy was Nightmare Moon. And there hasn’t been any sign of her ever since Princess Luna was freed. You think she’s finally showing herself again?” She was glad that Princess Luna and Celestia were ruling the country and she was worried about Nightmare Moon returning, “Do you think the Shadowlings could be gathering the ingredients for Nightmare Moon?” “That is the direction I see this leading down to.” he said with certainty. Fire frowned as she looked at the stores before glancing to him again, “Think we should stick around this area for a while just in case the Shadowlings appear? We could stop them right when they appear.” “That might work if we manage to stop them but what's to stop them from doing the same with the other towns and cities.” Tourmaline said worried. Fire frowned in worry, “I don’t know. The Harmony Rangers could step in if they need to but their powers have weakened dramatically ever since they did the power transfer to us. Still I think it would be best if we stuck around at least for a little bit in case they show up. Right?” Tourmaline nods and simply stays with his loved one and watches for anything out of the ordinary. A burst of magic was a sign that something big was about to happen and the trouble alarm was proof enough to warrant Blaze and Tourmaline into action. ---------- In another part of the town Steel Strength was sitting on the ground as he looked up and watched his friend work the weather. Sometimes it was a pain being landbound when his friend worked up in the air. He waited for his friend to finish his current job and swoop down to talk with him. Steel grinned when Glitter Berry came flying down, “Hey man. How’s the job going?” Glitter lands besides Steel, “Not much other than getting a new weather schedule to keep track of.” Steel rolled his eyes at Glitter, “Dude you really should get a more interesting job. It's got to be boring just pushing clouds around all day. Why not work at a restaurant or another store? I’m sure the pay would be better than what your getting now working for the weather team.” Glitter does a fake gasp, “You wound me Steel. You know how much I love the air blowing in my face.” He finished his little joke with a giggle. Steel chuckled at the joke before he replied in a companionable tone, “Well I guess I never will convince you to leave the weather team. So what do you think of Princess Twilight? She sure is interesting. It looks like she’s been through quite a lot on that other planet.” Glitter nods, “I have to agree with you there. Though it doesn't surprise me that she had to have been through something. What strikes me as odd, though, is the fact that I don’t recall there ever being a Princess Twilight before she went missing. Not to mention that I recall hearing about a mare who looked similar to our princess went missing around the same time.” He pondered. Steel rolled his eyes as he replied, “Come on man are you seriously telling me that you forgot what Miss Starlight told us yesterday? She told us that Princess Twilight is that mare that went missing back then.” Steel’s eyes widened in realization, “Wait, that would mean that Princess Twilight is a living legend. None of the ponies that have gone missing lately have ever been found, yet Princess Twilight did! How?! And now that i think of it, How did she get to that other planet and how’d she get back?!” Glitter nodded as the realizations started kicking in. “Not to mention, her pupil, Sunset Shimmer. How did she find her? From the way Blazing Fire acted when she heard Sunset’s name, she had to have been about nineteen when she went missing, before the actual ponynappings.” Steel had to take a moment to calm down from his self induced panic. After taking in several deep breaths and letting them out he looked back up at the hovering Glitter, “I don’t know. There are to many unanswered questions at the moment. I suppose we could just ask Princess Twilight herself. She’d answer our questions right?” Before they could formulate a plan, they felt a huge surge of magic come from the Castle, as well as the alarm warning of an attack. ------- Silent Phantom was once again doing her job of watching over Fluttershy as she watched from a different observation tree near the cottage. She knew that Sugar Sweet would be able to locate her easily just by her emotions alone. Phantom sighed as she looked out over the cottage and its grounds at all of the animals. She did her best not to disturb them as she had seen what they could do to ponies that ticked them off. Especially that little demon rabbit called, ironically,  Angel, who was Fluttershy’s pet. Phantom shivered as she recalled the last time she had crossed the little demon rabbit. She shook her head as a flashback started to form in her mind’s eye because she needed to stay focused on her mission. She looked around and nodded to herself after seeing that Fluttershy was still tending to her animals with Sugar Sweet’s help. She sighed to herself because babysitting like this was one of the most boring jobs ever. Especially when nothing exciting ever happened around this area. “Hi!” A bubbly voice shouted behind Phantom, startling her off the branch she was sitting on, “Whatcha doing over here Mrs. guard?” the other menace that Phantom had to deal with at times said. While Silent Phantom didn’t dislike Pinkie, she really wished that she didn’t have the same ability that Sugar did. “Aw, don’t be like that. I’m sure Sugar wouldn’t mind if her ability and mine were the same.” Pinkie said after somehow reading her mind. A thought that always terrified her. What Pinkie had done by scaring Phantom like that, was cause her to not only fall out of the tree but draw her wing blades as well. So she was hovering in the air currently in a defensive position with deadly wing blades at the ready. She had even hissed in fear and anger at being surprised like that. After finally realizing that it was Pinkie she quickly resheathed her wing blades after giving Pinkie an annoyed glare, “Miss Pie please don’t sneak up on me... like… that.” “Ooh! do these really cut the air you fly in?!” Pinkie interrupted, grabbing the blades without any concern at all, inspecting each and every inch, unaware that her motions were causing her mane to brush the tips of her very ticklish sides. Phantom ended up falling to the ground out of the air about a foot as she started laughing uncontrollably because of Pinkie’s mane. She rolled around on the ground and out of the way of Pinkie’s mane before finally catching her breath. She stayed still for a moment with her eyes closed as she tried to keep her cool. Her annoyance with Miss Pinkie Pie was slowly rising even if Pinkie Pie was a mentor towards her and the others. She slowly reopened an eye and looked at Pinkie for a moment before finally saying, “Yes Miss Pie. Now may I please have my wing blades back?” “Hey Phantom! Who are you talking to?” Sugar’s shout caused Phantom to turn her head to see a confused and smirking Sugar. About to reply Phantom looked back over to Miss Pie, only for her eyes to bug out when only the tree she had fallen from to be the only thing in sight. Silent grumbled under her breath as she went back to observing. “Stupid Pink Ninja. She’s a freaking menace is what she is. Sensei should take training seriously.” Phantom looked back down at Sugar silently for a moment as she thought about what to say. Finally she sighed and said softly, “I was talking to Miss Pie before she disappeared Sugar.” Of course she knew Sugar wouldn’t be able to even hear her at this distance as she just put her head on her hooves and silently watched them again. It wasn’t long before a burst of magic from the castle was felt, along with the alarm that indicated trouble started ringing. ------ Earlier Starlight was sitting on her seat at the circular table in the middle of one the castle’s many rooms, after being converted from what must have been a storage room. She tapped at the holomap that was produced by the high-tech table before her. She moved it around now and again in a frustrated and bored manner. The table may be great and all but it could only do so much. It had a warning system built into it to tell her when an attack by an enemy was going on and the general area of where the attack was at but never the exact location and number of the enemies. She looked up from looking at a map of the city of Canterlot as Twilight Sparkle entered the room along with her pupil Sunset Shimmer. She nodded her head to the both of them as she said calmly, “Good day Princess Twilight and Sunset Shimmer. What brings you to see me today?” Twilight sighed as she was once again called a Princess. She really didn’t like being labeled as one, as many stories she read had the princess always be captured and rescued by an all-around bland character. If she wanted to fall for someone who rescued her, then they would have to have a more than just a winning smile and charm. “Starlight, was it?” Twilight asked, wanting to get the awkwardness out of the way first. After seeing Starlight nod, Twilight continued. “While i’m don’t mind being called a princess, I would much rather be treated as just another pony. I’ve had to put up with many people trying to kiss my flank as a way to get in my graces.” she said, before turning to Sunset who couldn’t suppress her giggles fast enough, “and you missy, are so going to get it when I can find a way to get back at you for spilling that fact to our friends.” Starlight rolled her eyes at the two of them as she replied in her calm voice, “As you wish Prin-- er, Twilight.” She then shrugged before looking back at the holomap in frustration again. She was not in the mood to deal with nonsense right now so her voice became clipped and short, “So as I said. What brings you to see me today?” “Ah, Right,” Twilight nodded sheepishly, “I don’t suppose you’d mind giving Sunset and me a tour of the castle, as this is the first time in the last thousand years i’ve ever stepped foot, er, hoof, in an Equestrian castle again.” she asked, holding her poker face as carefully as she could, hoping her nervousness wasn’t bleeding through. Starlight sighed and tapped the edge of the table as she stood up from her seat and turned to Twilight, “Yes I can. Its best that we get you used to the area so you know where to find things and can help out just in case the new rangers get themselves into deep trouble and we need to step in. Right this way please.” She motioned with her head to follow her and walked towards another door. She asked in her business voice, “Is there anything other than a tour that you needed to talk with me about?” As they walked, Twilight’s expression went from that of an outsider returning home, to one of seriousness. “There has been something bugging me ever since i got back.” Twilight said as they finished touring a kitchen, somewhat sluggish after grabbing a bite or ten of hayburgers, “where did this castle come from? The last time i had been on Equestrian soil, this crystal castle was not here before, not to mention the amount of magic needed to infuse the crystal with in the first place would be staggering even for an alicorn.” Starlight led them out of the kitchen and started to talk in a teacher’s voice as they walked down the hall, “The castle came into being after the other Harmony Rangers and I defeated King Sombra, former emperor of the Crystal Empire. We were in pitched battle against him but unfortunately we just didn’t have the power needed to overcome him and we were forced to retreat. He drove us all the way into the Everfree forest to the Tree of Harmony where we finally discovered the keys to open up a crystal box which contained power within it that let us defeat Sombra. The box contained equipment called battlizers which helped us to fight off Sombra and then eventually defeat him. After the fight our battlizers disappeared and returned to the chest which then took off into the air before landing in the ground where an old library had been. Afterwards it grew into the crystal tree and this castle that you see,” Starlight finished as they turn a corner with a locked door that thwarted all efforts to open. “This door here, as well as one in the basement has remained locked ever since this castle grew. But for now that is a mystery we will hopefully solve one day. Anyway, that concludes the tour princess.” Starlight waited for a response from Twilight after her tour on something, but no response came. Confused, she turned around and her face turned from confusion to concern as Princess Twilight was just staring at the door. Before she could speak, Twilight started moving, as if in a trance, towards the door. Upon touching a hoof to it, a bright flash filled the hallway, while also triggering the automated distress signal the table in the room they started from was set to send when high levels of magic was felt in an area. When it cleared, Starlight’s jaw dropped at the sight of the locked door no longer locked, but also having a large version of Twilight’s cutie mark emblazoned across it. Starlight frowned but rolled her eyes as she looked at Twilight and replied in a clipped tone, “I’ll leave you to deal with the door Miss Sparkle. It is very apparent that it is only for you. I have to shut off the alarm and reassure the Zodiac and Harmony Rangers that nothing is wrong.” She turned and quickly trotted off back towards the small room with the command table and left Twilight by the door alongside Sunset Shimmer. Sunset looked up at Twilight nervously and said, “So what do you think is behind their Princ----er Twilight?” She still didn’t feel that comfortable calling the older alicorn Mother. “The zords and watchcenter.” Twilight said in an echoey voice. Upon opening the door, three things were apparent that this room was just waiting for Twilight. The first was the throne with her cutie mark emblazoned on the back. The second was the table in the center, showing the entirety of Equestria, along with some of the bordering nations. But the third thing that truly spelt that this room was Twilight’s, Was the artificial baby dragon standing by the table holding a sign that read, “Welcome Home, mom!” The alarm abruptly shut off in the distance as Starlight could be heard faintly yelling into a microphone at the Harmony Rangers and the Zodiac Rangers who she could tell were heading towards the castle in a hurry. Sunset raised an eyebrow back in that direction before turning back to look at the crystal baby dragon with her other eyebrow raised. It took a moment but finally she she spoke in bewilderment, “What... the buck?” Twilight herself was too stunned by what she was seeing to scold Sunset, but not stunned enough to prevent her to slap the back of Sunset’s head like the leader of that one show she liked, NCIS. “S-Spike? B-but how?” Twilight asked, before galloping over to the crystal dragon, pulling him into a tight hug. Sunset had let out a yelp of pain and rubbed the back of her head with a hoof while muttering, “Ow what the buck was that for?” She moved closer to Twilight before stopping as she looked around in wonderment before one of her wings sprung open on her causing her to flip onto her side at the sudden movement. She started to curse up a storm using some colorful language that normally only pony sailors would dare use and it definitely got the attention of Twilight. “---as soon as I get these wings under control, I’m going to find the pony who said that the Princesses had it easy and buck him right in the, MMPH!” she ranted before finding an entire bathrooms worth of soap lodged in her mouth. Looking around for who did that, Sunset’s eyes fell on Twilight’s, who in turn just narrowed her eyes further. Sunset wisely decided to close her wings, surprisingly easy when properly motivated, and, like a scolded puppy, walked over to Twilight with her head held low, ears pinned back, and tail tucked between her legs. When Sunset reached Twilight’s side, she mumbled “Sorry.” and stayed quiet. Sunset kept her head lowered for a bit longer before asking in a meek voice, “Um who exactly is that with the banner anyway Twilight? It seems like he recognizes you and you him.” Before Twilight could reply, Starlight and both the Harmony and Zodiac rangers rushed into the room. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shouted, her Wonderbolts jersey glistening with sweat. Once again, before she could get a word out, she was met with a flying tackle, plus pony pile by the rest of her friends, who looked like they hadn’t aged a day. Though they met yesterday, for most of her friends, the fact just hadn’t sunk in that the friend they thought had sacrificed herself, had in fact returned. Sunset had luckily avoided the pony pile but it had caused a knee jerk reaction in her due to having been startled one to many times by monsters popping out of nowhere. She had pulled her morpher off the holster on her foreleg and held it at the ready to morph just in case it was needed. She appeared to be very on edge as she looked around and then finally calm down as she set the morpher back into its holster before her anger boiled over again. “What the buck were you all thinking just- mmph!” once again a bar of soap found its way into sunset’s mouth, though this time by the pink pony smothering Twilight’s face. Sunset backed up and spat the bar of soap out of her mouth as she glared at the pink pony as her rage boiled higher, “And just who do you think you are? You can’t just go around doing that you blasted bloody twit.” It was rather apparent that Sunset had picked up some curse words from Earth during her tenure there. “Sunset Shimmer,” A voice cut in to her rant that made the rage evaporate instantly, and her blood freeze as she slowly turned her head to the one who spoke. Twilight was glaring at her from under the pink pony, which by all right’s should have been hilarious, yet Twilight made it look terrifying. “I’m sure I wasn’t hearing you fall back into that attitude you had back in the beginning? Was I? Because if you were then you might just find yourself on ‘The Rack.” Twilight finished with a subtle wink to Pinkie, who had been whispering to Twilight her sneaky prank. Sunset Shimmer looked at Twilight in fear for a moment before she finally pulled herself together as she looked up at her with a neutral expression. She lowered her eyes for a moment before raising them and finally replying, “Maybe you did and maybe you didn’t. Who’s to say for sure.” With that she turned around and started walking towards the door having had enough of everyone for the moment. Once she was at the door she turned her head back to the still glaring Twilight for a moment even as Sunset’s expression remained neutral. Sunset spoke up again in a curt tone, “I’ll be in my room practicing if you need me Mother.” With that she flipped her wings out in a gesture for a moment somehow doing it without thinking about it before walking out of the room. At least, that was her plan, however before she could even get two steps out of the room, she was dragged over to Twilight who flipped her over and started raining the worst torture ever devised. And sunset was sure the pony that had invented such torture had met his end to it. Twilight started tickling every single one of her ticklish spots, including some that were new, like under the pits of her new wings. It only got worse when Twilight added her wings to the mix. “So, what were you saying about being a bully again? Hmm?” Twilight said smugly, raising an eyebrow waiting for a response between the laughter. As this was all going on Silent Phantom was watching from the doorway but now she just snorted as she sighed and made a silent gesture with her wings to her sister to communicate to her that she thought all this was just a load of malarkey. Her sister acknowledged the feeling with her own affirmative wing gesture. Phantom then turned with a sigh and started leaving the area not caring about what was going on anymore. She was more exasperated than anything. Fire followed close behind her as she realized she’d finally have some time to talk with her sister after such a long time apart. Meanwhile Sunset replied between bouts of laughter, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m not a bully. You heard wrong. You heard wrong.” Twilight relented as she brought Sunset into a hug and smiled as the realization that she was finally home sunk in. “I’m glad we made it home.” she said. “Me too, mom. Me too.” Sunset said, to the complete and utter shock to the ponies in the room. Steel Strength was in awe of the fact that the other new alicorn Sunset was actually Twilight’s daughter even though they really looked nothing alike. Steel frowned but after a moment shrugged as he figured it wasn’t worth the effort to try and question why that was. He turned to his friends and quietly whispered, “I think I’m going to go and just leave them to sort through their feelings. I feel a bit like an intruder at the moment.” With that he too turned and left the area. Sadly, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, as the very next moment the alarm started going off, this time indicating a real emergency instead of the false alarm from earlier. However, before the rangers could leave for the map room, the table that had been largely ignored by the ponies lit up, showing not only where the attack was, but also show a creature that looked like a weird shadowy Pegasus with horns on its head. It was covered in a blue silvery armor that was on the forelegs and chest. With a black plate covering on its back, stomach and hind legs. Its red eyes glared out at them from the table as it laughed while holding a flaming longsword in its grip while it stood on its hind legs. The place it was attacking was close to the barnyard bargains superstore, before the screen that was being projected zoomed in on three fillies. One was an earth pony, with a light yellow coat and an apple read mane and tail. In her mane was a large pink bow. The second pony was a unicorn. She had an eggshell white coat, with a curly pink and purple mane and tail. Finally the last filly was a pegasus pony, holding the remains of a scooter while trying to protect her friends. She had a light orange coat, with a purple mane and tail. One of her wings was also in a cast, having sprained it yesterday trying to once again fly. As the alarm went off one could heard a loud yell from somewhere in the castle that came from Fire. She was cursing the alarm and the enemy for stopping her from actually having a talk with her sister. The two rapidly appeared with Steel in the room and saw the monster. Their expressions hardened and Phantom nodded to her team, “Come on. We need to get out there now.” She jumped out a window nearby without waiting for a reply with her sister right behind her as they headed right for the scene of the attack. The rest of the team were close behind as the exited through a smaller door in the hallway nearby to a balcony low to the ground that they jumped off of with easy on their own way to the scene of the attack. Sunset Shimmer followed behind them rather quickly just in case she was needed to help these new rangers. ------- The monster’s name was Black Knight and he laughed as he got closer to the three fillies, “You three will make wonderful additions to the master’s collection.” He held his longsword out in front of him menacingly as he prepared to knock the fillies out and kidnap them. Now as we all know these fillies constitute what is known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. But there several main differences between these Crusaders and the ones we all know and love. First off is the fact that Applebloom, the young earth pony filly, was actually the daughter of Applejack and not Applejack’s parents. Applejack had ended up marrying another stallion some time ago but he had sadly passed away in an accident shortly after young Applebloom was born. The second is that Sweetie Belle, the unicorn filly previously mentioned was the daughter of Rarity. Now i know this sounds like a stretch but Rarity did manage to find herself a good well to do stallion that treated her like the Lady she was. He too had passed away but a few years after Sweetie Belle had been born. And the last main difference of course is that Scootaloo, the orange pegasus filly, was not Rainbow Dash’s honorary sister. Rainbow Dash was simply a hero to the orange filly who had heard of and seen a few of Rainbow Dash’s heroic exploits as both a wonderbolt and a Harmony Ranger. She wanted to grow up to be a Ranger in her own right and hoped that in the future there would be some kind of school for that. Other than that she was sadly nothing more than an orphan who lived in the Ponyville orphanage hoping that someone would eventually adopt her. As it was at the moment the Zodiac Rangers simply didn’t have enough speed or time to make it there before something bad could happen. So the Black Night swung downwards with his black spiked longsword that emanated darkness. It bit deep into the remains of the scooter that Scootaloo was currently holding up in front of her to try and protect herself or her friends. Black Night growled in irritation as his sword pulled the remains of the wooden scooter away from the filly only to realize that it was firmly lodged in the wreckage. Scootaloo glared up at him even as tears poured down her cheeks. She kept her wings spread out in a protective manner in front of her friends as she kept them back up against the wall on the side of the building. Black Knight growled at the mess of wood on his sword and swung it around with great force until the wood finally dislodged at the sword cut through it. Annoyingly enough for him, the fire on his sword was really only for show which is why the wood had not caught on fire and burned to ash despite it looking like a flaming longsword.  He laughed to himself and then turned back to the young fillies who had given him so much trouble. He looked down through his helmet right down at the orange filly who was the boldest of them all and had given him the most trouble, “Hopefully the master will let me punish you for giving me such a hard time.” He reached down with a gauntleted hoof again only to have to quickly bring his sword up in a parrying maneuver as he was forced to stand on his hind legs to use the sword more effectively. There standing in front of him in a defensive posture while growling was a black unicorn with a red mane and tail. A red cutie mark of a scythe was on his flanks with a couple of musical notes in the background. The unicorn was growled at him, “Stay away from these fillies monster. If you try to go after them again you’ll have to come through me first.” The unicorn’s horn glowed brightly as it tightened its grip on the weapon that Black Night had been forced to parry. The Black Knight finally got a good look at said weapon and growled as he saw it was a huge scythe shaped to look just like Death’s scythe Thanatos. The Black Knight twirled his longsword in his grip for a moment as he glared at the unicorn, “You’ll pay for your interference unicorn. This is not your business so you should leave before I have to get nasty.” The unicorn growled, “The name’s Night Shade and I refuse. I’ll protect these fillies with everything I have. Now quit yapping and actually fight you cowardly monster.” He held his scythe at the ready in his magic as he twirled it in the air once and then brought it in front of him in a defensive position. The Black Knight growled as he replied, “Don’t say I didn’t warn ya unicorn.” He then charged in as his form glowed a bit and a shield appeared on his left foreleg after he switched his longsword to his right hoof. He stayed in the upright bipedal position even as he charged forwards. From there he brought his sword down straight while growling. Night Shade expertly blocked the strike by spinning the scythe just enough so the curved blade came into direct contact with the blade while pushing it off to the side. He then followed this up with a full rotation only to have the scythe blade clang right off of the monster’s shield. The Black Knight laughed even more as the blade clanged off his shield before he moved in with a series of fast swipes using the long sword. Night Shade had to keep up the rotation of his scythe at a higher speed in order to parry or block all of the swipes that the Black Knight launched at him. He could hear the fillies whimpering behind him in fear as they latched onto each other and tried to make themselves smaller as the watched the fight between the two. Night Shade scowled and stepped forwards as he decided it was time to take the offensive. He kept up the rotation speed up of the scythe so it was a deadly windmill of flashing steel. The hum from the spinning scythe could be heard as it move in closer to the monster. The Black Knight growled in anger as he held up his shield in front of him and his body jerked and shifted as the scythe repeatedly clanged off his shield even as it scratched and dented said shield. Finally he tilted his shield and lashed out with his foreleg and shoved the spinning scythe to the side. Night Shade stumbled to the side as his magically held scythe was shoved away from the monster. The pull and tug on his magic caused him to stagger and gave the monster and opening to exploit. The Black Knight rushed in and swung with his shield which connected with the side of Night Shade’s head causing him to freeze in place as his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he slumped to the ground unconscious. The Black Knight followed this up by grasping the longsword with both of its hooves by the hilt of the blade and pointing the blade point down towards Night Shade in order to finish him off even as the fillies cried out in fear and begged him not too. Sweetie Belle cried out, “Leave him alone please. We’ll go with you just don’t kill him please.” Applebloom yelled in fear, “Please don’t. We’ll all come with ya. Just please don’t kill the poor stallion.” It was Scootaloo alone who said nothing and simply glared at the Black Knight. Her good wing fluttered with a buzz as she stayed in front of her friends. The Black Knight paused as he looked over at them with a malicious smile, “Oh is that so. Well I guess I have a choice to make. Oh I wonder which one I should choose. Oh I know. How about this one.” He continued with the downward thrust only to have the scythe from before come spinning into view and knock his thrust to the side to bury point deep into the ground causing him to growl in anger. How was it possible that his strike had been deflected while the Stallion was unconscious. As he looked around he received his answer. There approaching at high speed was a group of other ponies and in the middle of the pack was a light amber unicorn who’s horn was glowing. A furious fire burned in her eyes as she glared at the monster. Her horn stopped glowing as she let go of the scythe she was nowhere near proficient at using. She was lucky that her spinning of the scythe had been enough to protect its own. The rest of the ponies ran up and took up a stance in front of the fillies and a few even moved up near him, causing him to back up in surprise, and stand in front of the unconscious stallion. One of them who appeared to be the leaders stepped forwards ahead of the line. It was a thestral mare whoe glared up at him in anger even as he said in confusion and anger, “What’s all this? Where did you all come from? Get out of my way or your going to regret it.” The thestral mare hissed back as she spread her wings and her fangs showed, “As if. You’re the one who should back off while he has the chance. This is your only warning to retreat and go back to your scummy master.” The Black Knight was angered as he roared back, “How dare you try to use my own lines back at me. You’re going to learn first hand why you don’t cross the Black Knight. Shadowlings assemble.” And with a wave of his sword a large amount of small blobs appeared all around him. They looked like living, moving puddles of ink for a moment before each individual puddle coalesced on itself and formed into different shadowy versions of different ponies. The standard type of shadowling seemed to be composed of a non-descript earth pony stallion with no real distinguishing features. All these shadow stallions carried short swords in their mouths as they glared at the group of ponies before them. The Black Knight looked around at all his minions and laughed darkly, “Hahaha. Do you truly think you can stand before me now. Bow down and I might just spare you!” The ponies all glared at him in defiance before the still hissing thestral mare looked back at her fellow ponies for a moment before looking forwards again back at him. She hissed out, “Ready guys?” All of the ponies called back simultaneously minus the amber unicorn who was right next to the fillies, “Ready!” The thestral mare hissed, “Zodiac Power! Morph On!” and she slammed her right hoof on the left eye of the cobra her morpher stylized. A smooth male voice called out, “Morph on! Standby!” A catchy little tune played out that had the mare standing on her hind legs and twirling around twice clockwise before doing a backflip before she slammed her hoof down on the right eye of her morpher. At the same time she called out, “Unleash the beast!” The male voice called out loudly, “Complete! Armor On!” A black void seemed to appear around the mare as a symbol of a black cobra appeared in front of her glowing. She stood on her hind legs as this happened and the symbol moved over her. The hood of the symbol encompassed her shoulders and forelegs and the face of the cobra ecompased her chest and barrel while the neck and lower fangs encompassed her hind legs. A black suit formed around her body with the forelegs and shoulders of the suit being stylized with a snake’s scales even as white gloves appeared around her hooves and conformed to them. The scaling began at the cuffs of the gloves and moved to her shoulders. The chest of her suit had the face of the cobra with the eyes glaring from the chest of the suit and the fangs opened and bared on the stomach. A small cape appeared on the back of the suit which flared out behind the mare in an intimidating way. The lower part of the suit had the scaled snake look again as it started from the cuffs of the white boots around her hind hooves and lower leg up to a belt around the middle of the suit which had a belt buckle that looked like a small image of all the chinese zodiac beasts growling outwards at the opponent. There was also a small skirt that extended from the belt downwards to just above the knees of her hind legs. Finally the morpher on her left foreleg had come loose of its holster and floated in front of her head before facing Black Knight’s direction and then moving backwards even as it glowed and turned into a another cobra symbol. The symbol moved back over the mare’s head and the helmet finally appeared. The visor was black and was shaped to look like the outline of the cobra’s head even as two glass cobra’s eyes were on top above the visor. There was a small flexible covering of the mare’s ears so she could move them around at will while still having them protected. A fine, light flexible metal covering extended out over the mail’s tail from the back of the suit to also allow plenty of movement there while also protecting it. The mare’s mane also extended out of the back of the helmet again covered in the same flexible metal mesh that the ears were covered in and it was all colored black. The morpher reappeared in its holster on her foreleg over top of the glove and part of the suit. The mare finally struck a pose while still on her hind legs. Her rear legs spread apart a distance and her hooves brought up before her as she looked at the Black Knight sideway with her forelegs facing each other in front of her chest, “With the silent stealth of the cobra! Zodiac Black Ranger!” The mare, who was Silent Phantom stood ready for combat before the Black Knight. The others followed her lead and slammed the first eye button on each of their respective morphers with their right hooves. As they did this, they called out, “Zodiac Power! Morph On!”. The male voice spoke up from their morphers, “Morph On! Standby!” The catchy tune then played for them as they copied their leader’s dance and after finishing their backflip they slammed their right hooves on the second eye buttons while calling out, “Unleash the Beast!” The male voice spoke up again from their morphers while saying, “Complete! Armor On!” Their morphs went just the same as their leaders with key differences that helped them to stand apart from their leader. The first and obvious difference was the armors’ colors and animal shapes. Each was themed with the animal their morpher represented with the head of said animal imprinted on the chests of their suits and barrels and the overall symbol of the zodiac rangers showing as a silver belt buckle across their suits to connect the lower portion with the top. And of course each of their suits was colored according to the color of their morphers. The helmets visors’ were each themed with the outline of the beast they represented and the animal’s eyes appeared as crystals right above said visors. And last but not least they each had a small cape attached to the back of their suit that was inspired by the Mystic Force rangers suits courtesy of Twilight. It would seem she just couldn’t kick the habit of the capes for some reason although Silent Phantom was rather annoyed by it. Each of the mares also had the small skirt that moved down from the belt to just above the knees of their hind legs when they stood up bipedally. Blazing Fire took up a position next to her sister and struck one pose as she started to speak, “With the inner fire of the Dragon! Zodiac Red Ranger!” She struck an intimidating bipedal pose as she finished her chant. Steel Strength took up his position on Silent Phantom’s other side as he struck his own pose on all fours, “With the strength of the Ox! Zodiac Blue Ranger!” He also took his own bipedal pose in an ox like stance as he finished his chant. Next up was Sugar Sweet who took up position next to Blazing Fire as she took a pose on all fours, “With the swiftness of the rabbit! Zodiac Yellow Ranger!” She finished up her chant with a cute bipedal bunny like pose. The next to last to take his position was Tourmaline who took up a position beside Steel Strength while he posed on all fours, “With the iron defense of the Ram! Zodiac Green Ranger!” He finished up his chant with a bipedal pose that was defensive. The last of the rangers to take their place was Glitter Berry who took up position beside Tourmaline while posing on all fours, “With the agility of the monkey! Zodiac Brown Ranger! “ He finished up his chant with a bipedal monkey like pose. Together they all put their right fore legs to their chests while standing bipedally and holding their left forelegs straight out in front of them as they chanted, “Beasts of the Zodiac! Champions of Equus! We Are the Zodiac Rangers!” as they finished their chant and got ready for battle, explosions of the color their armor was went off in the distance behind the zodiac rangers. Everypony in the vicinity semi jumped in surprise when the explosions occurred, but otherwise went back to what they were doing, namly watching the Zodiac Rangers beat the tar out of the monster they were facing. Sunset could only watch them as they finished their first morph. Sadly for Sunset, she was unable to morph herself as her morpher was powerless at the moment. Twilight had been forced to use most of the latent power in Sunset’s morpher in order to help herself construct the new Zodiac Morphers. With time Sunset’s morpher would regain its power but for now it was nothing more than a broken old cell phone like device that was keeping her a pony. Still she was pretty formidable in her regular true form especially now that she herself was an alicorn. She’d be able to use her combat skills to hopefully fight off any enemies that came near her and the fillies. One of the only things she couldn’t do in her new alicorn form was fly as she still hadn’t learned how. The Black Knight growled as he looked at the rangers and held his sword out in front of him menacingly as his shield stayed on his forearm, “Let’s see if you have what it takes to beat me and my underlings.” He looked around at all the shadowlings around him and then made a forward motion with his sword while yelling, “Attack! Kill them all!” The shadowlings all galloped forwards towards the rangers and the fillies. Silent Phantom yelled out, “Let’s get them team!” She then rushed forwards towards the enemy and broke into their offensive line as she threw a forward punch with her foreleg and caught one of the shadowlings in the chest sending him flying into two of his comrades. She ducked under a swinging punch from one of the other shadowlings that came at her only to start lashing out with her own punch towards it. The Shadowling saw this and brought its short sword up to guard but she retracted her hoof as she quickly and silently jabbed hard with her other hoof underneath its guard into its chest and sent it flying back just like the first into its own group of comrades. The rest of the team spange into action when Silent started her charge, the others fighting in various ways. Fire was fighting like a dragon, aggressive, dominant, and with blows that would topple even hundred year old redwoods in a single hit. Steel fought with the strength of the ox bulling his way through his enemies and tossing them to the side with his strikes. Tourmaline fought more defensively as he waited for his opponents to lash out at him and then catching hold of them before throwing them or retaliating with his own punch or kick as he kept them in a hold. Sugar Sweet’s attack pattern was both brutal and efficient, she would dodge with fluidity and then retaliate with lightning fast punches and kicks, before moving to her next target before the first could even feel the attack. Glitter Berry on the other hoof caused the enemies to attack themselves with his quick feet and slight of hoof tactics. The Black Knight growled in anger as he saw his minions get systematically destroyed by the rangers as the continued to fight his small army. He growled and bypassed the fighting rangers and his minions as he made his way over to Sunset and the fillies. He growled at Sunset, “Out of my way girly and let me at those fillies or your going to regret it.” Sunset just smirked as she lit up her horn. “Not on your life creep. You look like something the cat dragged in then used as her personal litter box.” She said as she formed a blade of fire from her magic, though unstable due to not yet being used to the additional power her transformation into an alicorn brought. The Black Knight just laughed at her as he replied, “You actually think that thing can stop me? What a laugh!” He moved closer and swung his sword at her and had it clang against her own magically conjured sword. He grinned as he expertly locked the hilt of the fiery sword with the hilt of his own and moved in closer. He saw Sunset’s eyes widen in surprise as she backed up a bit, but it was already too late for her as he moved in and swung his shield arm. The shield came flying around and hit her hard in the side of the head. The impact knocked her out and caused her morpher to go flying, though before she lost consciousness, she spoke only two words. “Sorry….mom.” With her morpher no longer in contact with Sunset, she quickly returned back to her human form, though with the clothes she had been wearing tattered and torn. Black Knight was confused when the alicorn in front of him turned into some kind of hairless minotaur, but shrugged it off as he decided to end her before she could become another thorn in his side. Hefting his sword, Black Knight Swung down hard, intending to bring a trophy back to his master, before something stopped the swing in its tracks. “What?!” he shouted in surprise, seeing another alicorn, this one looking about as old as the celestial sisters, stopping his sword with nothing but her bare hoof. Try as he might, Black Knight could not even budge his sword from the alicorn’s grip. “Who do you think you are to stand in my way girly!” he shouted, still struggling to move his sword. Just as he was about to swing his shield, he froze. Not because of a spell the alicorn cast, but because of her gaze. For Black Knight, he had seen some truly terrifying creatures that would make even the most hardened warrior flee in terror, heck even his master was terrifying, but this mare made Black Knight want to run home and hide under his pillow with a nightlight on. “You. Hurt. My. DAUGHTER!!” Twilight Said calmly, though with each word spoken, her mane and tail started to smoke, while her coat went for a lavender, to a bleached bone white. When her mane and tail caught fire, that’s when Black Knight realized, for the first time, that he was not going to win. The Black Knight backed up a moment truly terrified before he shook his head and growled, “I will not go back to my master empty handed. Out of my way you stupid mare or pay with your life.” He twirled his sword for a moment before lashing out quickly with it in a sideswipe. At the same time his shield moved downwards and clipped the still unconscious Sunset Shimmer in her side and sent her flying to smash into the side of the building next to the fillies thus further injuring her as blood ran from a wound on her head. As soon as that happened however, To the Black Knight, it looked as if time had stopped, for if this mare in front of him scared him more than his master did just by hurting her daughter, than now he may as well just run while he still has a chance. ‘Forget the fillies, I’m getting out of here!’ he thought, as he looked for his chance to escape. Phantom was busy lashing out with another quick strike to the chest of yet another shadowling she glanced around to see where the Black Knight was and cried out in surprise to the rest of her teammates, “He got behind us.” She ducked another swing behind her and lashed out with a quick kick which demolished the shadowling behind her before yelling, “Sugar Sweet with me!” She dashed forwards towards the Black Knight even as she heard Sugar Sweet respond with, “Affirmative.” Sugar fluidily ducked a punch from an shadowling before lashing out with a powerful kick from one of her hind legs taking off the shadowling’s head and making it dissipate into shadow smoke before following Phantom. The Black Knight heard the commotion behind him and backed up away from the smouldering Twilight and started to turn towards the rangers that were coming his way. He was completely unaware of the true danger of doing so as he presented his side to the angry mother alicorn. Twilight didn’t even blink when she appeared right next to The Black Knight’s side and landed a punch, that not only destroyed the sword and shield in a single hit, but obliterated a large portion of his armor. Sadly, for the Black Knight, the moment Twilight struck, The Ranger’s pounced. ‘I don’t believe it. I failed my master.’ he thought, as he started getting hit with punches, kicks, and other various attacks, all the while looking for a chance to escape. Phantom was the first to reach him of the rangers and she landed a good quick punch to his chest which was uncovered now since he lost his armor. The Black Knight let out a small grunt in pain but lashed out with his own kick which Phantom barely ducked as Sugar moved in. Sugar jumped into the air and landed a good leaping side kick to his right side before she landed on the ground and watched him stagger back. The Black Knight roared in pain as he lashed out towards her with a fist only to have her duck and she set her forelegs out in front of her just in time to catch his rapid kick which followed. This gave Phantom the opportunity to rush in and land a series of 4 punches to his chest and stomach as she growled, “Stay away from Sugar you monster!” The punches had quite a lot of force behind him and further forced him back as he cried out in pain. He started to cough up blackish blood as he managed to break Sugar’s grip on him. He then lashed out with a quick kick which connected with Phantom’s side sending her flying through the air to land on the ground with a cry of pain. She was still conscious but just that one blow had enough force behind it to do major damage to her and one could see a gash in her suit which showed a wound in her side which had her breathing quickly and hard. This pissed Sugar off who launched her own series of rapid fire kicks at the monster who backed out of her reach as quickly as he could. Sugar lost herself to her anger and left a large enough opening for the Black Knight to exploit. He lashed out with two punches of his own. One to her chest and the other to her stomach as she was knocked into the air a bit. The second punch sent her flying through the air to land rolling on the ground and coming to a stop next to Phantom. Only Sugar was unconscious as she finally came to a stop. Steel Strength saw his teammates go down and finished bulling through his remaining patch of shadowlings with his head down before stopping and turning to look at the Black Knight. He turned and saw Tourmaline finish off his own patch of Shadowlings with a set of defensive punches before turning and nodding to him. Together they both rushed towards the Black Knight even as Glitter Berry finished off his own patch of shadowlings by having the remaining ones cut into each other with their short swords. He rushed to join his team mates even as Blazing Fire turned to see her sister on the ground injured and bleeding. She cried out in fury and with the power of the dragon behind her finished of her patch of Shadowlings to join her teammates. Black Knight was rather overwhelmed with the 4 rangers coming his way and backed up. He looked around for an escape room and completely froze when he saw the angry alicorn mother was near him again still with great rage in her eyes. Because he froze up the rangers were able to catch up to him with Fire in the lead. She growled, “You’ll pay for hurting my sister.” She lashed out with a hoof as she yelled, “Fire Dragon Claw!” The punch came in like a dragon’s claw and smashed into his chest sliding down it like a claw and sending him flying even as the hoof was engulfed in flames. He smashed into the side of another building with a roar of pain even as the other rangers moved forwards. Black Knight had mere seconds before the rangers would be upon him, but for once he was glad he had his escape chance. The building he crashed into stored fireworks and other explosive equipment, to which he lit the fuses with what little magic he had left and chucked his helmet out of the ensuing explosion, making the angry alicorn and the ranger teams think he was destroyed. He quietly slipped away into the shadows outside of the building and back to the dimension where his mysterious master awaited him. Phantom meanwhile was still on the ground nursing her injured side while at the same time trying to drag herself over to the unconscious Sugar. Her teammates quickly arrived back over to her and got both her and Sugar to the local hospital after their morphers deactivated their powers and suits. The nurses ended up having to take them into a secure room where they could start using their healing magic without interruption. Thankfully their injuries weren’t to bad but they’d still have to rest for the remainder of the day and most of the next morning before they would be allowed to leave. Sunset Shimmer’s injuries were worse but the nurses and doctor of the hospital were able to work on her much easier after Twilight slipped Sunset’s morpher back into its holster. They ended up having to take Sunset into the surgery room in order to operate on her because of some serious internal injuries. Twilight would not be happy with the results of the surgery after they finished with Sunset. They eventually did finish and the doctor handed Twilight the list of her injuries and that most of them were fixed now but that there was one where they’d ended up having to use a spell that would slowly regrow an organ for Sunset. Sunset was moved to the ICU of the hospital where she could be watched closely. Her only visitor would be Twilight. The fillies themselves were thankfully alright despite the attack and were taken back to their respective places. Applejack and Rarity were both glad that their daughters were safe and unharmed. And the whole orphanage was in awe at Scootaloo and very proud of her. The rest of the rangers ended up heading back to the castle to start a grueling training session after how badly they ended up botching this first fight. Fire herself was beating on herself rather hard for failing her sister and letting her get so injured. She was worried for her unaware that her sister would be just fine in the end. So passed their first real fight as Rangers. ------- At the Orphanage, one orange pegasus was eyeing the remains of her scooter with sadness, as it had been the last thing her birth mother had given her before she passed, Scootaloo was only four at the time, and her father had died a year before she was born. She would have kept wallowing in her saddened state had not a gentle knock occured on the door. The matron of the orphanage, Tailwind, a pegasus with the same kindness as Fluttershy, opened the door. “Scootaloo, you have a visitor.” Tailwind said as she opened the door to reveal her visitor. Scootaloo’s eyes widened as her visitor was none other than Princess Sparkle. Scootaloo, who had been miserable from the loss of her scooter, practically jumped at the chance that a princess was visiting her. “Princess! W-What are you d-doing here? Not that i don’t want you here.” Scootaloo stammered, berating herself for not acting cool around the princess. Twilight had to stifle a giggle at the filly’s enthusiasm before holding a hoof up to settle the little ball of fur. “It’s quite alright, but the reason i'm here is because i wanted to gift you three things for protecting your friends, even if it was dangerous. The third is optional, though you would be more than welcome.” with that said, Twilight lit her horn up and aimed it at Scootaloo’s scooter, where with widened eyes, scoots watched it begin to reform itself, while also seeming to change from wood, to some kind-of metal alloy. Once the repair was complete, Scootaloo gingerly stepped on it, while at the same time thinking this was just a dream. When it didn’t break, Scootaloo leapt over to the Princess and hugged her, before blushing and making an attempt to stay cool. “Hehe, It’s alright. Coolness needs to be worked on, as not everypony has it. Now the second and third gift are a pair, the first being asking if you wanted to be able stay with me at the castle, and receive training to better protect what you care about? You can decline and I won’t push, but know that you’ll always be welcome.” Twilight said as she held out her hoof with a strange watch in it. It was none other than a copy of the good old Mighty Morphin Power Rangers wrist communicator. Remade by Twilight so that its frequency was tuned into the command console back at the Crystal Castle so that Scootaloo could call if she needed something or just wanted to talk. However, twilight had programmed in a hidden program that would only activate if scootaloo accepted receiving training. The first being that it would allow her to activate a shield that would be impervious to all manner of attack, even from below, for 20 seconds, with a minute recharge timer,  while the second would give scootaloo her own morph. Not as powerful as a true ranger, but enough that she spar with an un-empowered adult pegasus, as in terms of strength, unicorns were harder to beat thanks to their versatility, pegasi were built for speed, and earth ponies made up for their lack of ability with sheer strength. Scootaloo looked at the watch for a moment and slowly took it before looking back up at Twilight with a frown of uncertainty. She looked back down at the watch as her good wing buzzed while she thought. Finally she looked back up at Twilight in a serious manner as she replied, “Thank you Princess Twilight for repairing my scooter and for this gift but I don’t feel I’m ready for any training yet. I still have some stuff that I need to work on first. And while It would be cool to live at the castle I just don’t feel comfortable with it. I have friends here at the orphanage I care about and I don’t want to leave them just yet.” If Scootaloo thought Twilight would be bummed that she was turning down living with her, than her eyes went cross-eyed when she decided to bend down and kiss her forehead in a motherly fashion, before replying. “Hehe, don’t worry about it Scootaloo, but please keep the watch, it will protect you, by letting you get in contact with my friends or the Rangers, and will teleport you to the castle in a dire situation.” Scootaloo looked up at her with big surprised eyes for a moment before looking back down at the watch. She slipped it onto her foreleg before looking back up at Twilight solemnly and nodding. “Yes Princess Twilight. Thank you.” with that, Scootaloo once again broke her own coolness code and threw herself into hugging Princess Twilight, and for once not caring how ‘uncool’ it looked.