//------------------------------// // The Wolf's Howl // Story: Equestria Rangers // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// Sunset and the others sat together in the med bay along with the unconscious Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armour. Their bruises and slight hits being tended to in seconds thanks to the curative molecules dancing throughout the air. For the Rangers, it didn't take long for what seemed like the majority of their pain to fade. As much as they were appreciative of their plan, they had gone through so much of it by this point that it hardly seemed to matter. All it took was one battle where Twilight and Elaris weren't there to help and their time on the mortal coil was over. "I still don't get it." Fluttershy laid a hand on Shining Armour's belly as the machines continued to fix him up. "If he never left, then how did he fight us? How did he get those powers and beat us senseless?" "It beats me. The guy was completely conked out here all this time. Still, how did he just get up, fight us, then somehow wander back in here?" Applejack looked down at Shining Armour's motionless body. "And before any of y'all say that it was some kind of magic, I'm just gonna shut ya down right there and then. L.U.C.Y. even said that Shining Armour needed some kinda fancy sedative. There's no physical way he could've gotten out of there that fast..." "Hold on, girls. I'm getting a very bad feeling about this..." Sunset felt something bubbling in the pit of her stomach. She didn't want to have believed it to be true, but the way that the evidence was piling up before her, she couldn't help but open her mouth. "Remember how Shining Armour was subjected to some experiments on board the Alpha Slayer?" "I'd rather not think about it..." Fluttershy already knew what Sunset was going to say. She could tell simply from the memory alone. "You don't think that..." "It's plausible, yes. But I'm not sure if it's got enough data to be true or not. But, what I think happened is that Shining Armour got cloned aboard the Alpha Slayer..." Sunset paced back and forth across the med bay, unintentionally knocking away healing particles that scattered through the air. "This could have been an exact copy of Shining Armour, made to serve the Wolfpack; made to break Twilight, make her feel weak and powerless. So that she could get stronger. As for the powers, I'm not entirely sure what he has, but it's dangerous, to say the least." "I was afraid you'd say that..." Rarity tightened her hands into fists. "Some honour these wolves have. Choking us out of resources, killing our loved ones, then making replicas of them in order to make us break down? For once, I think I agree with Rainbow Dash. We should just go up to the Alpha Slayer and destroy it from the inside out before any of these attacks escalate." "But Rarity, the Alpha Slayer's super-duper fortified! I mean, without Espy giving us the fast-track around the place, we'd be full of bullet holes by now!" Pinkie splayed her arms out wide. "We only barely made it out of there alive the last time. That meanie Vi'Al cornered us in his lab if you remember." "True. But at the same time, we can't just sit here and do nothing like we did with rescuing Shining Armour. If it's true that the Wolfpack have staged a mutiny against Mar'Zek and those Feral Five wolves are now leading the charge, then this planet's going to be crawling with wolves by the end of the day!" Sunset exclaimed, stomping the floor vigorously. "If everyone gets run down with the Wolfpack, we'll be to blame for all of it. Because we didn't work. And that's why this ship needs to be fixed and this other Shining Armour defeated. NOW!" The shout was so loud that it caused the other Rainbooms' hair to stand on end. But for as furious as Sunset was, there was some truth within her rage. The Wolfpack were a race of conquerors. Why had they not just attacked the rest of the planet to set an example? Why had they only focused on Canterlot apart from their crystals? As the questions continued repeating themselves over and over again in the girls' heads, they could only look on with dread as their faces started to sweat. "You're right. We can't just mosey around and do nothing anymore. It's time to take action." Applejack stood up proudly. "Pinkie Pie. You, Fluttershy and Rarity handle the repairs. Rainbow Dash and I will fetch the materials we need to fix the ship. And Sunset?" "Yes, Applejack? What is it?" Sunset asked, the tension in her body quickly relieving. "Elaris mentioned something about making some kinda super-souped up motorcycle in the Forge. But no matter what she does, it always ends up being a total mess. Ah'm no expert on fancy-schmancy space-age tech, but I think it'd work better if she had an actual motorcycle to work on." Applejack pulled her hat off, revealing a wide grin on her face. "You need to get to Canterlot High and grab one of those bikes we used in the Friendship Games during that Tri-Cross Relay event. Then, bring it back here and maybe that'll be the kicker Elaris needs to fix the stuff up." "You really sure that kinda stuff will work?" Sunset questioned. Applejack had never been one to conform with the times. Like, ever. "It might not, but it's worth a try at least. In fact, why don't you go off and get the rest of the gear that we used in that relay? Speed skates, archery bows, anything that'll be useful in stopping the Wolfpack and giving us an edge. If it looks good, grab it and bring it back here." Applejack folded her arms. "We'll do as much as we can back here, but who knows how much time we have before those Wolfpack varmints make their next move? We need to do this now. And when I say now, I mean right now like it was supposed to be done yesterday." "Alright. I'll do as best as I can. In the meantime, I'm counting on the rest of you to help out back here." Sunset started to make her way towards the door. "And if Twilight wakes up, get her working with Elaris on the codes and systems. I'm sure that this ship could use some kind of digital upgrades as well as physical ones." "On it. Everyone else? Let's go! Like real Power Rangers, ya hear?" Applejack bellowed to the others. "We need to get this ship up and running in the hour at best!" "Right!" The Rainbooms all chorused in unison before charging out of the med bay to get on with their jobs. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity headed towards the bridge, leaving Applejack, Sunset, and Rainbow darting out of the ship as fast as their legs could carry them, leaving Twilight and Shining Armour behind. Down in Canterlot High, Sunset immediately found her way towards the supply shed sitting quietly at one corner of the sports pitch. The gargantuan, grassy, gravelly ground with two giant bleachers standing tall beside it. Without a crowd, it seemed far more expansive to her than ever, but that hardly mattered to her now. She needed to get everything back as soon as she could without anything slowing her down. But as soon as she arrived at the door, she was met with another obstacle. The door was padlocked and a key nowhere in sight. Of course, why did she ever think it would have been in sight? At the very best, it would have been with Principal Celestia or Vice Principal Luna. She had no time to talk to any of them or even question why she was taking some of their gear, but duty called and the world was about to end if she didn't do this job immediately. "Darn! Why did I have to be the one without any kind of physical powers?" Sunset muttered to herself, walking back and forth. She flipped out her phone and punched in a number, immediately reaching Rainbow Dash's line as her profile picture popped up on the screen. "Rainbow Dash? The door holding the new weapons is locked. I'd go and get the key myself, but that's not gonna take enough time. Think you can swing by and give me a hand with it?" "I'm already here, Sunset." As soon as the voice came over, Rainbow Dash did in a contrail of rainbow light. Her super-speed once more on show. "So. This that door ya need busting down? Well, I'm sure that a little bit of Ranger power would be able to do this." She went for her belt and slammed the crystal, preparing a morph. "Equestrian Star! Ignite the Fight!" In the blink of an eye, she donned her Blue Ranger apparel and drew her blasters. "But, just curious about something. Why didn't you try this kinda stuff?" "Have you ever seen wood and fire go together, Rainbow Dash?" Sunset deadpanned, looking down at her own crystal. "My fire sword would have torched the whole shed, potentially destroying everything that we need to fight back against the Wolfpack." "Oh. Right." Rainbow let out a weak chuckle and aimed her blasters at the lock, letting loose a torrent of bullets. Every single blast landed against the lock, with it finally breaking under all of the focused fire, falling to the ground with smoke coming off of the charred metal. "Open sesame." Rainbow pushed the door open, allowing Sunset to walk inside first with her following after. Sunset was the first one to spot the CHS motorcycles, painted their radiant streaks of cyan, yellow, and red. With a sleek, jagged body spiking outward, the friendship games immediately sprang to mind. The day she tore through the track with Rainbow, battling against the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts, how they all grew their wings, tails, and ears every time they did something noteworthy on that day, it all seemed like decades past when she came back to reality. In the midst of her little trip, she barely even noticed the other equipment scattered around. Sports balls, archery gear, even the odd set of small cones that marked the playing field. "It's perfect. This is just what we need to battle the Wolfpack with." Sunset walked over to the bike, rubbing her hand against the chrome, well-glossed, well-painted bike. Tingles ran up her spine as she took a seat on the saddle, planting her hands on the bars, with the accelerator ready to be twisted. "Rainbow Dash, take the skates and the archery stuff back to Elaris. Then, come back here and help me drive these things back to the ship. Think you can handle that?" "No problemo, Sunset. Just one little jolt of geode juice and we're good to go!" Rainbow activated her geode once more, the pony-up features showing on her Ranger suit as she turned into a blur once more, snatching up the items that Sunset had mentioned before shooting out of the shack like a rocket. Within the space of a few seconds, Rainbow Dash was back once again, sitting daintily on the other motorcycle. "You might wanna Ranger up too, Sunset. Last I checked, we didn't exactly go into the Motocross stuff with just our casual wear." Rainbow jabbed to Sunset's body. "Yeah. You're right. I should probably do something about that." Sunset slammed her hand into the crystal, morphing with the lack of a catchphrase as her Red Ranger suit formed on her body once more. Dressed for the ride ahead, she twisted the accelerator; the roar of the motorcycle filling the silence after what seemed like years of being a stationary staple of sports history. "Let's rev it up, Rainbow Dash!" "You got it, Sunset! Let's pop these clutches and tear through the streets!" Rainbow did the same with her accelerator, the howls of her own vehicle sounding loud and clear as the two cycles pointed towards the door. Together, both teenagers kicked the pipes standing the bikes up and shot out of the shed, with nothing more than the deafening screams of the motorcycles filling the air around them. Some cheers were let out, but they were completely drowned out by the screeches and screams of the bikes they were on. Slicing through the grass like butter, the two rode the cycles off of Canterlot High's streets and down onto the road, noise following them every single inch of the way back to Elaris's ship. On the Alpha Slayer, the Feral Five watched as Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer sped on the roads of Canterlot, wind rushing past their suits as they sped towards the ship, completely unaware of the fact that their moves were being watched. Some small sniggers and giggles came from Deh'Mehn'Sha, but the others were still very silent. "So. They're just now making an ordnance run, are they?" Uhp'Grahy'Der smirked, rubbing a claw over his cybernetic body. "Fine then. Let them run with their new toys. It'll hardly matter in the long run. We've already got this planet under lock and chain." "What repulsive vehicles. Honestly, had it been a palanquin, I would have forgiven them." Mah'Jehs'Tie flicked her warfan outward. "But, I suppose it is to be expected with meat. Meat sacks have no sense of taste, no sense of dignity." "The hurty dolls really are getting stronger. Just like the old, bad captain said they would. But it matters not, it never matters with human apes... Never, never, never, never, never!" Deh'Mehn'Sha muttered to himself, body fidgeting wildly while he stood in the same spot. "Just like all little dolly toys, you dress them up really, really pretty, and then you break them! Gyaha! It's so much more fun to break the hurty dolls and all of their little hurty toys! That's all that hurty dolls are. They destroy, destroy, destroy, destroy, destroy! What even is the point of them trying to create when destruction is far easier?" "Shall I shoot them out of their little rides, Captain?" Uoh'Buh'Leht picked up his rifle, loading a shot into it before cocking it, ready for battle. "No. There is hardly any need to waste your time. We have a world to conquer." Ahl'Mai'Tie stood proud, raising his hammer high. "Attention, all Wolfpack forces! Descend on the planet! Leave every country, every continent, every place around the Rangers in ruins! Find the strongest and turn them to our side, then throw all the rest into the sun! Let them be examples for our cause's strength!" The wolves in the ship let out laughter as the rest all rushed to their stations, ships swarming out of the Alpha Slayer and all of the nearby ships in swarms towards the earth. What used to be a blank space between the flagship and the planet was now completely coated in ships carrying Wolfpack agents, creating a hurricane of metal and exhausts as they shot down towards the planet. Sunset and Rainbow Dash rode their cycles up the hill and back into the ship, slowing down when they arrived at the ramp leading inside. The crying machines now reduced to gentle purrs, both riders drove their cycles into the ship, down the wide, glowing corridors as they arrived back in the bridge with the others. "We're back!" Sunset sing-songed as she climbed off of the motorcycle, with Rainbow Dash following shortly afterwards. "And we've got a ton of new stuff that's gonna be super-useful against the Wolfpack. We can make wheels for our boots, use these bikes to rush into battle, all kinds of stuff that's gonna clock our speed up even higher than ever!" Rainbow Dash fist-pumped as she strode off of her bike and towards Elaris and the other Rainbooms. "It's gonna be totally cool once the stuff's done, don't ya think?" But, instead of being greeted with smiles as the two had been expecting, Sunset and Rainbow Dash were instead seeing the other girls watching the screen, where Espy sat with the rest of the Omega Pack. And from the lowered brows and frowns on their faces, none of them were too happy. "Sunset. Rainbow Dash. You got here just in time." Espy spoke up. "Not just with... whatever the heck that is, but just in time to let you know that they've started." "What?! Already? But we were so super-duper fast!" Rainbow began to whine, swinging her arms out in all directions. "We got the motorcycles and the other Ranger goods back in record time. RECORD. TIME." "Time doesn't matter with the Wolfpack. What matters is action. And right now, they're spreading this message across the world as we speak. Patching you through to the audio feed now." She turned towards Cordin and Sala, who were typing away at another console. In the blink of an eye, the screen turned red; the violent hues changing the colour of the bridge to a more aggressive state. The Wolfpack logo appeared, with the same bar that had been used for Espy's previous voice transmissions. "People of Earth. We are the Wolfpack. And we have deemed your planet worthy of conquest." Ahl'Mai'Tie's voice came through loud and clear. "Within seconds, your world will be ransacked. The strongest among you, those who fight back and succeed will be conformers; bending to our will and our will alone. For all of the rest, a swift and merciful death await you. Whether you are cut down by our troops or ejected into the very celestial deity that you worship so much, we will unburden all of you from the mortal coil, freeing you of any trouble that you might have experienced." "No way..." Elaris looked on in horror as the lines jumped and stabbed the screen around it. "For too long we have waited to take this planet, let alone the pack into our hands. But, the passing of our previous captain has since opened our eyes. And we see the entire world as one big harvest; one big menagerie to pick and choose from. Obviously, we only pick the best, while leaving the rest to decay," Ahl'Mai'Tie continued. "For those who resist, namely the Power Rangers and all those who dare to strike back, there is no more running. No more hiding. Your time is over. And now, only the Wolfpack awaits. "You should in no way consider us hostile towards you for the sake of hostility, though. This is all just business. We are not those stereotypical alien invaders who seek to destroy everything that you hold dear like what you've been made to believe. As I've said, salvation awaits for the strong, those who wish to be something more than themselves. And if you wish to fight us, you may just receive your salvation." A chuckle came from his lips. "You will be salvaged from the very life you cling onto should it be death, or salvaged from the weakness that you harboured before joining the Wolfpack. Either way, let our invasion show that we offer you a better way out. Oh, and before you even try it, your earthling weapons are no match for our technology. It's already been proven by those pitiful Power Rangers who dared to oppose us. "Now then. Ladies and gentlemen. Boys and girls. Children of all ages and creatures of all shapes and sizes. For every single one of you, whether you're ready for it or not, the hunt is on!" Where there would have been silence, instead, there were howls. Howls from every single one of the Feral Five and seemingly dozens more wolves, until a cacophony of wolf howls filled the air. "That transmission's being played everywhere, to everyone at the same time." The screen switched, to show a number of different locations, with various oversized television screens showing the Wolfpack's message, relayed to titanic crowds of people, who could only stand stricken with fear, only to let it all out with screams and hysteria as they ran all over the place in a frenzy, throwing everything they had been carrying around them. "I don't know about you, girls. But it seems like the Wolfpack just declared war on the human race. If you girls are working on something to stop them, you need to do it FAST." "They're... attacking everywhere? All at the same time?!" Sunset's entire body grew numb as her legs bent on their own. Her tall stance became a weak, limp kneel as she tumbled to the ground. "But that means... we've failed to stop them. The entire Wolfpack fleet's right on top of us and we're nowhere near close to stopping them!"