//------------------------------// // Para'Noia and Anxiety // Story: Equestria Rangers // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// Rarity found herself in a dull and miserable world of grey and black. Every single colour in the entire world had been snuffed out, and even the sun's rays had been diluted and quelled by a veil of thunderclouds. The only speck of colours were on her own body, and even then, her ranger outfit had been swapped out for what could only be described as a human kaleidoscope, with colours cobbled and surgically fused with each other in an erratic style. "Eurgh! What manner of fashion crime is this?!" Rarity groaned as she looked at her threads, twirling and craning her neck around to see every part of herself. "Whoever designed this must have the worst tastes on the planet!" Her cries didn't go unheard, as the people around her began giving her leers and stares, turning away or spouting spiteful comments and insults under their breaths. Such things like "Walking daycare" or "Colourblind idiot" were said, and they didn't even bother to try and make it inaudible. They were loud enough to pierce Rarity's ears and make her wince at them. "You!" Said a teenage girl with spiked hair and tight jeans, other details masqueraded by the lack of colour. "You're breaking the law." "Law?" Rarity asked, looking at the girl with a cocked brow. "Colours are against the law here. You're breaking the law by wearing colours." The girl punched her hand and cracked the knuckles inside. "When someone wears colours like those, the citizens are authorized to beat the stuffing out of them, and break every single bone in their body for not conforming to this new society." "Lawbreaker!" Another man called out, stomping towards Rarity with his fists raised too. "Stay still so I can nail you right in the gut!" "You're not allowed to wear colours, you moron! Now let me hurt you!" Said another girl. Soon, Rarity found herself slowly being encompassed by the rough gang of humans, her window of escape closing ever so slowly. All Rarity could do in the situation was run towards the first girl, shove her to the ground, and run away with the angry mob chasing her down through the streets. No-one gave her a hand, and anyone else she did see joined the mob or tried to block her way. "What did I ever do to deserve this?!" Rarity bawled as she tried to drown out the yells and chants of the ferocious crowd behind her. "I didn't choose to wear these clothes! Someone! HELP ME!" She screamed, but no-one answered her prayers. For this was her nightmare, and one that she would never wake up from. Pinkie Pie's nightmare world was entirely different. To her, absolutely nothing seemed to move. The Rainbooms and Para'Noia had completely frozen in time, as had everything else around her. Birds had stopped flying mid-air, and even some of the leftover smoke from when Para's pod had smashed into the earth had stopped. "Huh. Pretty weird idea for a party trick," said Pinkie as she walked towards Para'Noia. She tried to poke at her to see if she would move, but all that happened was that she bobbled around like a fragile vase in the house. "If this is a Wolfpack wolf, then I'm the president. I mean, she's not even doing anything to me. Or the girls, or the city, or... anything else for that matter..." Her eyes bulged out of her head and she had them touch Para's snout. "What's your game, Wolfie? Tell me?" Nothing. Not a single peep came out of Para's mouth. "Don't do the silent treatment with me, sister. I've seen plenty of meanies do mean things with mean magical powers here. You can't fool me with this 'everyone is now a statue' trick. Plus, as far as villain powers go, this is pretty lackluster, all things considered..." Pinkie said, but only to herself. "Am I right, girls?" The other Rainbooms, again, were motionless to her. "Okay, I think I take that back. This is a pretty bad spot we're in." Pinkie Pie's eyebrows lifted when she saw the lifeless state of her friends and the world around them. "Girls? Hello? Earth to Rainbooms. You there?" She tapped Sunset's head, but with much more force than she was expecting. Sunset Shimmer's statue-like state swung around before tumbling to the ground, breaking into pieces, and then causing the fabric of reality Pinkie was in to shatter as well, leaving nothing more than a black void in its' wake. "Uh oh..." Pinkie watched as the cracks continued to spread, quickly covering the world around her. The other Rainbooms, and even Para'Noia were then to crumble and disassemble, their arms and legs crashing against what little remained of the ground, with some screams and moans of anguish accompanying them all. Well, all except for Para'Noia, who let out a laugh as her form was destroyed. "You ruined everything again, Pinkie Pie..." Rarity wailed like a pretend ghost would. "You destroyed everything because of your silliness..." "No! No I didn't! This was all that mean wolf's fault! Pinkie Promise!" Pinkie flailed her arms around, trying to find the voice. "Cross my heart and hope to fly—" "And now we're all going to die." Rainbow Dash's voice finished for Pinkie, before a spectral stream of purple energy sewed Pinkie's mouth shut and removed it from her body. "And it's all your fault. Not Para'Noia's. Yours. Pinkie tried speaking again, but how could she without a mouth to use? All that came out of it were muffled moans and whimpers, as the other Rainbooms' voices spiralled around her head, while the world broke down even more around her. "Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!" They all chanted, in a haunting harmony to each other, with Para'Noia's laugh becoming more and more maniacal as it filled the other noise in the air. If Pinkie could speak again, she would have let out a large scream. Applejack woke up to find the world around her had changed drastically. Everything around her now towered over her body, and large shadows coated her from head to toe. There were giant stairs, doors, lockers, and other such items all around her, and as she tried to move forward, she barely covered even an inch of distance. She had been shrunk down to the size of a speck. "Girls? Where in the heck are ya'll?" She asked, looking around for the other Rainbooms or, heck, even Para'Noia so that she could get some answers out of her. But as she scanned the colossal rotunda-like entrance hall of CHS, there was not a single soul in sight. None large, and none tiny like she was. "And just what in tarnation happened to me?" Then, out of nowhere, the school bell sounded, and the sheer intensity of the noise was enough to make Applejack put her hands to the sides of her helmet to try and drown it out. Her ears were being pierced harshly, and her walk cycle had been reduced to trips and jagged steps forward as she tried to press on. And before Applejack could even make it to the center of the room, she heard the sound of stampeding shoes and loud chattering voices. Turning around, she watched as students from CHS came out of their classes and filled the land around her, all the size of titans and with voices that could deafen even the most mute of people. "Wh-Whoa! What in the heck is this?" Applejack jumped and dived out of the way to avoid being flattened by the giant humans. "And why in the heck am I so tiny like this?! Someone better give me a straight answer right now or—" "Hey. Did you hear about that girl, Applejack?" Said a pair of girls nearby. "The really tiny one? No bigger than a grape?" "Yeah. Always thinking herself as one of us, a big human with lots of heart. When in reality she's as teeny-weeny as a fly." A second girl said to the first one, while giving a mean-spirited laugh. "What a dork, thinking that she's one of us. She can't even keep herself safe around us big people." "What?! I sure can keep myself safe, no matter how big or small I am!" She yelled out to the girls, but they couldn't hear or notice her. "She never should've come here in the first place. She should've stayed with the mice under the floorboards. As least they're small enough to see her," said the first girl. "Applejack, Applejack, cry off home and don't come back!" She laughed shrilly at the bully-like pun she had made. "Why you..." Applejack's face muscles twitched and contorted as she ran towards the girls and tried to give them a piece of her mind. She got to their legs and tried to climb them, but as she got to their waists, they started to move away from where they had been standing, causing her to lose her grip and tumble back down to their legs, where she made another desperate grab at the cloth of the trousers. She missed, and hurtled towards the ground at a rapid pace. All that she could do was scream as she smashed against the hard, polished floors of CHS. Only for them to rip apart like paper, and for her to fall down a black and purple void, right into Para'Noia's two fingers. "And lo and behold, the Power Ranger is not as big and bad as she makes herself out to be, isn't she?" Para'Noia mocked as she squeezed Applejack like a toy, then brought her closer and closer to her mouth, watching as she scrambled to get away from her. "But there's always a place for everything in this world; even if they're BITE-sized!" And without another word, she threw Applejack into her mouths, hearing her let out a large and high-pitched scream as she vanished down the wolf's gullet. Sunset Shimmer's nightmare-scape was engulfed in flames. Every speck of grass, the buildings around her, and even the air that surrounded her was laden with ash and embers, flickering and dancing as they left a titanic plume of smoke and fire around them. She was still cloaked in her ranger outfit, but her helmet had been charred and laid by her feet, a large portion of it destroyed beyond repair. Laughter could be heard as the sound of laser-like magic cut through the roars of the fires, tearing up the ground and causing human screams to ring out. Explosions slightly peaked through the veil, but were mostly covered up by the already expansive fires around her. "Girls?!" She called out, looking at the bodies of the other Rangers, mangled and unresponsive as their helmets were non-existent as well. Their weapons laid next to their bodies, broken and torn up, with parts scattered all around them. "Oh no... No, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening! Not again!" "Weak." Was the only word that she could hear, from a voice all too well. Atop Canterlot High, Mar'Zek stood before her, garbed in his armour and with his sword crackling with dark energies. He held the helmets of the other five Rainbooms and threw them to the ground, causing them to shatter before her, with the sounds of glass tinkling as their pieces spread out by her feet. "Sunset Shimmer. Once again, you fail to meet my expectations." He said, leaping from the roof of the building and landing before her, causing the ground to crack and rupture around her feet, lava quickly filling the gaps around her. "You haven't gotten stronger at all, and instead, you allowed yourself to succumb to one of my crew. I did warn you and your friends, did I not?" "Who said I... was still weak?" Sunset asked as her hands trembled and shuddered, yet still gripped the flame sword. "What you did to my friends... I'll make you pay!" She yelled, but couldn't find the strength in her heart or legs to move forward and strike him. "You say that you are strong, but your body and words betray you. Para'Noia broke you, Sunset Shimmer, and the rest of your friends." Mar'Zek performed a casual side-slash with his sword, turning away from Sunset as he did so. The strike shattered Sunset's sword and caused her to de-morph, fingers landing very close to the growing tides of molten lava. "And now, this planet will pay the price for wasting my time. We've destroyed the core of the planet, and right now, it's transforming this place into a supernova. Now, I'll let you and your friends spend your last moments together in this rotting, decaying, void of a world that once was. At least, in death, you and your friends die together, along with the hope of this Earth of yours." Sunset tried to get back, but could only manage as much as watching Mar'Zek open one last portal and vanish through it. "No! Stop!" She cried, watching as he disappeared into the portal of swirling light and energy, returning to the comfort of his flagship. "We're not weak! WE'RE NOT WEAK!" But as the lava broke the ground around her even more and separated herself from the rest of her friends, her breathing only got more and more heavy. And the buildings and trees starting to collapse around her as the devastation got greater and greater was the last straw. "SOMEONE HELP US!" Fluttershy's world wasn't that different to that of the one she was already in. In fact, everything was the same, except the sky had gone from a clear and sunny day into a grim and bleak thunderstorm, tossing rain and bolts of lightning down on the world. The other Rainbooms were squirming as their nightmares continued to play out in their heads, and Para'Noia just took a few steps back from her. "Interesting. Very interesting." She said as she opened up her fans again. "I put you in a nightmare world, and yet you still see it as our current fight. Is being a Power Ranger really such a harrowing and scary task for you, my dear?" She asked as she sent out purple energy kunai blades at her, only for her to play her animal flute and cause an Eagle to take the attacks before vanishing. "Yes. This is a very scary thing for me; especially when I see my friends suffering like this." Fluttershy walked forward, continuing to play her flute. Perfect notes came out, causing her spirit animals to appear beside her, proudly walking with her. "But I don't just choose to sit down and cower. Sure, they're terrifying, but I'm a Power Ranger now. If I feel afraid, I know that I can face my fears with my friends. Both real, and ghostly." She petted a cat that leapt into her arms and watched as it graciously leapt down to her feet. "My Living Nightmare has never been beaten before. But you know the old saying: There's a first time for everything." Para'Noia charged towards Fluttershy and clashed with her ghost animals. Punches from gorillas, charges from rhinos, and the occasional trampling, pecking and scratching from others, but she was able to cut through the majority of them and get back to Fluttershy's face. "Sadly, that day is NOT today! Die, vermin!" Fluttershy dodged to the left and right as her fan blades slashed and gashed the air in front of her. Eventually, she kicked and pounced on top of Para'Noia's body, playing the flute some more, which caused a giant bear to appear and give the wolf left and right hooks across her face. It seemed that, if there was any fear in Fluttershy's heart, it was buried deep within her as she continued to play her flute, angelic notes coming out of it; even over the rain and lightning. "No fear, even WITH Living Nightmare playing havoc on you... What kind of Perfect One are you?!" Para'Noia asked herself as she tried to break free from Fluttershy's hold, only for her to play another note and cause the bear to rip her from the ground and swing her into it over and over again. "I'm no Perfect One. I am a Power Ranger. And whether or not I'm scared, I still have a job to do." Fluttershy played one last note that caused the bear to throw Para'Noia towards her, prompting her to charge at her and deliver one final punch to the flying wolf's face, causing some teeth in her jaw to fly out on impact. The last blow was so intense that it caused a bright light to envelop Fluttershy and Para'Noia, bringing them back into reality. The purple flash on Fluttershy's visor broke and vanished, as did the stormy weather over her head. "No-one... No-one has ever been able to escape Living Nightmare before." Para coughed and hacked as she stumbled to get back onto her feet. "Nobody! But you, my dear... you've been the first. And now, you're gonna see a whole 'nother side of me." She chuckled slightly, threw her arms out to the side, and howled into the sky, causing the moon to appear and blacken it instantaneously. "Wh-What?" Fluttershy just started to walk backwards as she watched dark energy coil around Para'Noia's body. "You should be proud of yourself. Not only are you facing your fears, but you're letting me use a side I thought I'd never use." Para grinned as her eyes flashed dark purple and red. "So, if I don't make you scared in my world, then I'll make you scared in yours. Feral Fury!" Just like before, red and black lightning coiled inside and outside of her body, her blood began to bubble and pump vigorously, and she buried her claws into the ground. Within seconds, she grew to the size of a skyscraper, as did her spiked fans. With one last howl, she covered the ground below her in darkness, covering everything beneath her up. "Try facing your fears now, little Rangers! You couldn't possibly control your Megazord while you're stuck in your nightmares now, could you?!" Para'Noia roared down to the black clouds beneath her. "Bear Zord! Come to me!" Fluttershy called out as she jumped into the air. Seconds later, her zord came running to her side, and she grabbed onto the head before climbing in the hatch and sitting in the pilot's seat. "I may not be able to fight you with all of my friends, but I'm sure that I can hold my own against you, Para'Noia." "With ONE zord? Hah! I'm gonna enjoy carving that thing up right before your eyes. Seeing you scream and wail as your precious little bear is torn limb from limb by my fans." She cackled, sharpening the blades against each other. "After all, if I can't scare you, then I'll just have to scar you instead!" Mar'Zek and Vi'Al were watching the fight unfold from the bridge of the flagship, watching the screen as Fluttershy's bear zord stood adamantly against Para'Noia's humongous form. "One zord against a Feral Fury Wolfpack Wolf? She's completely lost her marbles!" Vi'Al commented. "Why, I bet you ten thousand space bullion that she loses this fight badly to her." "Don't underestimate her just yet, Vi'Al. After all, Para'Noia's Living Nightmare has brought empires to their knees, and terrified even the strongest of fighters in the galaxy. Even I get some chills when we spar and she uses her powers on me." Mar'Zek pushed his claws together. "So the fact that she was able to survive it, break through the facade and cause Para'Noia to go giant is already raising my confidence in the power of the Perfect Ones again. Even if the other rangers fail to break out in time to join the fight, at least we saw something interesting today, didn't we?" "Of course, captain." Vi'Al nodded hastily. "I should probably document this fight for future reference. Good thing I always keep my clipboard with me at all times." He pulled a large tablet out of his coat and started to write things down with his paws. "Now then, Yellow Ranger. One Feral Fury wolf still stands, and the rest of your rangers are afflicted by the dark powers of Para'Noia. What do you do now?" He asked, leaning closer and closer to the screen. "Fight or flight? That is the question. But knowing how you've battled so far, I think you know the answer by now. Don't you?"