Last time on Pony Rangers:
“SWEETIE BELLE, DON’T YOU DARE!!!”
“Because that storm wasn’t there ten seconds ago and you’re the only pony around fast enough to pull that off.”
“Prepare to die in the name of my master.”
“What’s a pony ranger?”
“Are you alright, my little ponies?”
“…we must call upon new heroes to take up the mantle of the pony rangers and fight against this threat…and Celestia and I have chosen you.”
“Thou shall, if thou so choose, become pony rangers and lend my sister thy assistance.”
“…Cuz it’s Morphing Time!”
“I said you would have more power than even the pony rangers upon my return, and now you shall have it!”
“…go, enjoy yourselves, and celebrate your first victory as Pony rangers.”
“You’re the one who’s dangerously close to finding out your limitations, Ranger Black. Twilight Sparkle was a weak minded fool who followed her beloved friend’s around like a pet dog; I am the White Ranger, bane of all that’s good in the world, and soon to be the slayer of the Elements of Harmony…”
“Good thing I’m not an Element of Harmony then.” Blueblood responded, right before he kissed her.
Episode two: Return of the Dark Lord part 2: The Mighty Zords
Three beams of light landed in the control room, as a worried looking Luna stared at the monitor she was seated in front of. The light beams turned into Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity. They looked around in minor confusion for a second, before they recognized the location.
“Hey, we’re here again.”
“Yes, thou are most certainly here again.” Luna responded without facing them.
“Why are we here again? I thought we sent the bad guys packing and saved the day already.”
“Thou won a battle, not the war; evil is never so quick to surrender.”
“So do yall have a reason fer dragging us here, or were ya just feeling lonely?” Applejack asked impatiently. She had been in the middle of her chores when Luna had teleported her without warning.
“Well thou might be interested to know that the White Ranger is somewhere in Ponyville.”
The three rangers gasped. The news was surprising; they weren’t expecting her to be back so soon…or at all, really. “Are you sure?”
Luna nodded solemnly. “I’m certain. Her magic signature is all over the place, so I can’t give thee an exact location, but she is there…” The midnight alicorn stood up. “…which means thou needs to be ready at a moment’s notice to drop everything and engage her in combat.” She headed over to a door and opened it. “So thou might want to get acquainted with thy greatest weapons…”
The three rangers walked into the room and gasped. It was a massive chamber, big enough to house at least two Ursa Majors without worrying about them getting territorial. In this massive chamber, there were three things that stood out in particular; all three of them were giant Equine robots, about thirty stories tall each. There was a Red Pegasus, a Blue Unicorn, and a Yellow Earth-pony.
“These are the zords; they are thy personal fighting vehicles, designed to counter any oversized threat thou may encounter. They are living machines, with personalities and minds of their own, but to operate at their fullest power they must have a pilot.” Luna informed them.
“We’re getting giant robot pets?! Awesome!” Dash exclaimed, flying up to the giant Pegasus zord. “So what’s her name?”
The giant Robot Pegasus took a step back whinnied intimidating.
“His name is Red Pegasus Zord. And they aren’t ‘pets’, they are fighting vehicles at the least and companions at the most.” Fluttershy corrected as she walked out from behind the red Pegasus zord’s ear. “Sorry about Dash; she’s really a nice pony once you get to know her.” the yellow Pegasus told the mighty machine.
“What the…I thought you said Fluttershy couldn’t be a ranger!”
“She isn’t a ranger…” Luna called back “…She’s my assistant. She will help me run the operations here at base when she’s not busy elsewhere.”
*
“Augh. Our first mission outside of the lair and it’s a run to the store to restock on food.” Gila grumbled. She was magically disguised as a Pegasus, but all her colors had stayed the same. Trixie eyed her own reflection in a window.
“At least they let us out of the lair for a change. I was beginning to think we were going to be cooped up in there forever.”
Gilda was about to respond, when a familiar pony approached them. “Um…excuse me, but are you two new in town?”
Trixie turned and came face to face with the white ranger in her un-morphed state. “Gah! What are you doing here?!”
The white ranger gave them a genuinely confused look. “I was just seeing if you were new in town…I don’t remember seeing either of you before, so I thought I’d say hello.”
“‘Hello’ my horseshoes; you were spying on us weren’t you?” Trixie said, pointing an accusing hoof at the lavender unicorn. “Unbelievable! I can’t believe you think we’re so incompetent that we can’t even go on a food run without screwing things up!” Trixie took a jab at the target of her ranting with her hoof. “Well guess what missy? We’re not just a pair of screw up nobodies; we’re just as good as you and your little colt friend, and we’re going to prove it!” she turned around and huffed, before walking away indignantly. “Come on, G! We have work to do!”
The pseudo-pegasus followed after her unicorn accomplice. “I’ve told you a dozen times; don’t call me ‘G’!”
Twilight simply stood there, trying to figure out what she had said to upset the two complete strangers that had stormed off. In the end she gave up, figuring they must have just been having a bad day.
*end music*
*
“So…why is White Ranger still hanging around? Didn’t she learn her lesson when I totally kicked her flank?” Dash asked as she sat on the computer consol next to the one Luna was using.
“Thou may have beaten her, but her master still escaped, which means she is likely biding her time until he’s finished improving her powers. The next time thou fights her, she will be far stronger than before.”
Dash thought about the answer. The White Ranger was waiting to attack them, and her boss was making her powers even stronger. She had crushed the evil unicorn the first time they fought Ranger to Ranger, but if she got stronger…
“Is there any way to increase our powers as well?” Rarity asked “It would be a problem if we couldn’t improve our own abilities while they grow stronger…”
“Celestia and I cannot boost thy power in the same fashion as their master can boost theirs. The best we can do is offer sound advice and help thou train. Besides that, as long as thou follow the rules of thy ranger code, thou should experience growth in thy powers on thy own.”
Everypony in the room looked at her and blinked.
“Rules of the Ranger code?”
“What rules? What code?”
“The Ranger code is a creed thou must make in order for thy power to reach its fullest. Thou must obey the rules of the creed, or thy powers shall surely weaken.” Luna turned around and gave them a curious look. “Did not Celestia tell thou about this?”
“The last thing she told us was to go party hard.” Rainbow told the moon princess.
Luna frowned. “Strange…she said she was going to visit thee this morning.” The princess looked worried for a moment, but quickly got over it. “In any case, I shall fill in thy lack of information. The ranger code is made of several simple rules. First: Thou must never escalate a battle unless thou absolutely must. Second: thou must strive to keep thy identity as a ranger a secret at all times. Third: thou must never ever use thy powers for personal gain or dark intentions.”
“So, if we follow all three of those rules, we’ll get stronger just like the White Ranger?” Dash asked.
“Thy power will grow, yes; how much, or to what limit I cannot say.” Suddenly an alarm went off, and red lights began flashing everywhere. Luna turned around and looked at the computer consol. “Our enemy is attacking ponyville! It looks to be a patrol of draklings and two other presences I cannot identify.”
“Looks like its morphing time!” Dash said. Red energy swirled around her hooves for a second as her morphers appeared. Applejack’s and Rarity’s appeared in similar fashions.
“Red Ranger Power!”
“Yellow Ranger Power!”
“Blue Ranger Power!”
*
Draklings weren’t known for being very pretty. They were pony like creatures, somewhat resembling the members of the night guard, except that they had scales, claws, bigger fangs, and glowing red eyes.
Gilda was a griffon once more and Trixie was no longer disguising herself. They had on their ‘We’re evil super villains now’ outfits; for Gilda, a black stealth flight suit and a super hero mask (you know, those thin black strips that the heroes wear that make you wonder how their identity hasn’t been discovered yet) and for Trixie it was her old show mare outfit. They would have done better, but they had a low budget to work with, and had to finish shopping for food before they could launch the attack. They were leading the group of Draklings as they caused chaos all over the market district.
“Ha! We’ll show that White Ranger who’s boss! Once we beat the pony rangers with our clever plan, I’ll be the master’s favorite-” Trixie began to boast, when she was interrupted by her griffon companion clearing her throat. “…um…er, right. I mean we; yes, we will be the master’s favorites, which means we will get all the power we could ever ask for, and White ranger will get stuck doing the grunt work for a change!” Trixie let out a maniacal laugh, while Gilda rolled her eyes at how cliché the noise sounded.
“Seriously? ‘Muwahahaha’? What, did you learn how to be an evil super-villain from reading comic books or something?”
Just then, the Pony rangers rushed on to the scene.
“Not so fast White Ran-wait a minute. Who the hay are you two?” the Red Ranger asked, sounding slightly annoyed.
“We are the master’s loyal servants, here to destroy you once and for all, Pony Rangers!” the Unicorn Villain announced.
“…So we can get promoted, so we won’t be treated like the stupid maid service anymore.” The Griffon added, earning a glare from her companion.
“Don’t tell them that! It makes us sound pathetic!”
“Yall already look pathetic.” The Yellow ranger commented a little too loudly.
“We are not pathetic! How dare you say that?!” Trixie shouted before pointing a hoof at the rangers. “Draklings attack!”
And just like that, the fight was on. Two Draklings approached the Blue Ranger with a series of flips and jumps. Once they were close enough, she leapt at them with a flying spin kick that just barely missed due to poor timing. Once she was on the ground again, she continued with a second spin kick that knocked one of them of their legs, before turning to the other one and striking a battle ready pose.
Yellow ranger had four Draklings surrounding her. They rushed her, but made the mistake of doing it one at a time. She turned and gave the first one to approach a solid buck in the chest. The second one rushed her, and received a kick to the face. The third one came at her from her right, but she side-stepped its attack and chopped it on the back of the neck on its way past, as the fourth one jumped her from behind.
“Partner, if yer going ta grab this bull by the horns, ya better be ready for a ride!” The Yellow Ranger front flipped, landing on her back, slamming her opponent into the ground.
Red Ranger blocked several punches from a drakling, before retaliating with several lightning quick blows of her own. She kicked the one that was sneaking up on her, before dropping into a low spin kick that took out a third.
The three rangers regrouped, having finished off all their opponents, and their enemies were a little shocked at how fast it had happened. The unicorn looked at the griffon. “Uh…perhaps now would be a good time to move into phase two of the plan?”
The Griffon nodded in agreement, and then raised a hand to the sky. “I call upon the mighty Griffon Battle Zord!”
“Did she say ‘Zord’?! The bad guys get them too?!” Rainbow asked in shock.
A massive mechanical Griffon, about thirty stories tall, descended from the sky. It landed in a field just outside of ponyville. The Griffon that had called it vanished with a sudden gust of wind, and the mighty Griffon Battle Zord began moving towards ponyville.
Luna’s voice came to life inside the ranger’s helmets. “Rangers; thou must call upon thy mighty zords to fight this threat. Yon Griffon Battle Zord is a fearsome opponent when its pilot is experienced, but I doubt this pilot has ever used it in actual combat before.”
“Okay Luna; we’re on it.” Dash responded. All three rangers raised a hoof to the sky.
“I call upon the Red Pegasus Zord!”
“I call upon the Blue Unicorn Zord!”
“Ah call upon the Yellow Pony Zord!”
Racing across the land, the Blue Unicorn Zord came to battle…by itself.
“Uh…Luna? We have a problem here…”
“I noticed. I’m re-adjusting the Yellow Pony Zord’s voice command to be compliant with Applejack’s accent now, I just need some time.” The alicorn responded.
“Okay, well that explains half the problem, but why isn’t my Red Pegasus Zord here?”
“Fluttershy is working to figure that out as we speak, but this battle doesn’t look like it will go very well if we do not hurry. We will update thou on our situation as soon as we can. Have Rarity and the Blue Unicorn Zord stall for now.”
The Blue Ranger nodded that she understood she’d be fighting alone, and was teleported into her zord. The massive Blue Unicorn machine charged its griffon opponent, horn lowered and aiming to impale. The Griffon Battle Zord punched it in response. The unicorn zord reared up on its hind legs and attempted to stomp on its adversary, but the griffon cut it off with a well timed uppercut, knocking it over backwards. The unicorn zord landed on its back, and was stuck. The Griffon Zord leapt onto it and began to tear at its underside with its sharp claws. There were a few small explosions after each devastating blow.
“Luna, I hate to rush you darling, but my zord is getting destroyed out here, and I really could use some assistance.” Rarity announced over the communicator.
“I am hurrying as fast as I can, but tis very hard to reprogram the voice code program.”
“And the Red Pegasus Zord?”
“Tis refusing to leave the base. Thou must hold out on thy own.”
Refusing to leave the base? Dash thought. Why the hay would it…?
*flashback*
“They are living machines, with personalities and minds of their own, but to operate at their fullest power they must have a pilot.”
*Flash back again*
“His name is Red Pegasus Zord. And they aren’t ‘pets’, they are fighting vehicles at the least and companions at the most.”
*back to the present*
“…you have got to be kidding me…” Dash said as she watched the Griffon Zord tear into the blue Unicorn Zord. “Luna, can you patch me through to Fluttershy. I think I know what’s wrong with my zord.”
“You do?” the Princess was so shocked at the notion that Dash, who had no experience handling zords whatsoever, would figure it out before she did that she dropped her ancient accent for a moment.
“You said they have feelings and stuff, right? Well, I’m willing to bet money mine’s still mad because I called him a ‘her’ and called it a pet.”
“That would most certainly make it angry, though I would have hoped the zords were above holding grudges for such petty reasons. I’ll get Fluttershy on the communications line right away.”
The Griffon Battle Zord delivered another savage blow to the Blue Unicorn Zord. At this rate it was going to be scrap-metal in a matter of minutes.
Fluttershy’s quiet voice came on in Dash’s helmet. “Um…what is it Dash?”
“Fluttershy! Look, I need you to tell the Red Pegasus Zord I’m really sorry I called it a pet and a girl and that I really need its help because the Blue Unicorn Zord is getting totaled out here!”
“Alright, I’ll-whoa!”
“Fluttershy?!”
“I think it heard you apologize. It’s on its way.”
The Griffon Battle Zord raised a claw to deal the final blow to the Blue Unicorn Zord, and Trixie cheered with joy. “Yes! That’s it! Finish the Blue Pony rat and her zord off, and the master shall have no choice but to recognize that we are better than his worthless rangers!”
At that exact moment, the Red Pegasus Zord dove down out of the sky and struck the Griffon zord in the side, sending it flying.
“NO!” Trixie screamed in a fit.
“YES!” the Red Ranger shouted right before she was teleported inside of her zord. “Thanks buddy. I owe you big time for saving Rarity like that.”
The zord responded by whinnying and charging the Griffon Battle Zord as it got back into a standing position. Gilda glared at the Red Pegasus Zord as it charged her mighty machine.
“No freaking way! I’ve been shown up by Pegasi way too many times; I’m not getting beaten by another one! Not today, not ever!”
The Griffon Zord swiped at the Pegasus Zord with its claws, but the Pegasus Zord blocked it with one of its wings, before rearing up and striking back with its forelegs. The Griffon Zord took damage but grabbed one of the legs at the last moment and used it to throw the Pegasus Zord off balance, landing it on its side.
“Come on buddy; we can’t let them tear into us like they did with the Unicorn Zord!”
The Griffon Zord raised its claws to strike again, when a burst of blue lighting struck it, causing a massive explosion and knocking it away from its target. The Blue Unicorn Zord was back on its hooves and charging into the fight again.
“Wa-ha-ha! So that’s how you activate the magic weapons system! I’d been wondering if the horn had a purpose other than being decorative!”
With the Red Pegasus Zord getting back up, the Blue Unicorn Zord fighting back again, and the Griffon Battle Zord badly damaged from the surprise attack, Gilda had no choice.
“Crap! I can’t take two of them at once like this! I’m out of here!”
The Griffon Battle Zord took off, fleeing to the everfree forest, where it took to the sky and flew away. Trixie was furious. "Get back here you coward! You didn’t even finish one of them off yet! You call yourself an evil villain?! I’ve seen-!” She then spotted the Yellow Ranger approaching her in a menacing fashion. “Er…on second thought; wait for me!” and with a burst of smoke she fled the scene, rushing into the everfree forest.
*end music*
*
“Oh my…that looks serious…” Fluttershy said as she examined the Blue Unicorn Zord. Rarity had a nervous expression on her face.
“Is he going to be alright?”
Fluttershy looked at Rarity. “I have no idea; I’ve never worked on a living machine before. It’s not at all like taking care of my animal friends. The only reason I said it looked serious is because there’s a lot of holes and dents and other things that weren’t there before and look really bad.”
Rarity was about to comment on this, when Rainbow Dash walked past carrying a bucket of soapy water and a sponge. The Prismatic Pegasus was whistling a tune as she approached her Zord. Without a word, she strapped the sponge to her hoof and started washing it.
“Fluttershy dear, do you know if Dash realizes just how long it’s going to take her to wash that whole thing by herself?”
“I tried to tell her it was probably going to take a day or two, but she just kept insisting she wash it without any help. I guess it’s her way of saying ‘thanks for coming to help me after I was kind of rude to you’…”
At that moment the door to the control room opened. Applejack and Luna stepped in. “Are yall sure ya fixed it, Princess?”
“I am certain I have corrected the voice recognition program on thy Zord; it will now account for thy accent and respond appropriately when thou call it.”
The farm filly smiled. “Good. Then could yall send me back home again? Ah’m a might bit behind on my chores.”
*
“Imbeciles!” the master shouted in anger. Trixie and Gilda flinched. Both of them trembled in terror as they stood before their master. “You have alerted them to the presence of the Griffon Battle Zord and wasted several Draklings! I should kill you both!”
Both the Griffon and the Unicorn cringed in fear, expecting him to strike them down with lightning. His wrath never came, however, as the familiar and cruel sound of the white ranger’s laughter reached their ears.
“They look so pathetic, cowering before you like that master.” The lavender unicorn remarked as she approached. “But they may not be as useless as you make them out to be…they got us some good information, weakened our foes, and made excellent distractions.”
The master raised a brow in curiosity. “Information?”
“Yes…didn’t you notice? Only the Blue Unicorn Zord was fully operational at the beginning of the battle, and the Griffon Battle Zord almost tore it to pieces. It won’t be battle ready for a while, which means they can’t use their greatest weapon against us until it’s repaired. The Yellow Pony Zord never even showed up, which means it may or may not be having technical difficulties. Now is the perfect time to put my plan into action, and even these two can’t screw it up.” The white ranger said with a smile.
*end music*
*
Applejack woke up and immediately groaned when she realized where she was. “Yall have got ta be kidding me…” She sat up, and looked around the empty control room. “The nerve of them…teleporting me while ah’m sleeping…as if my family wasn’t getting suspicious enough. Now they’re going ta wake up in the morning and find me missing.”
A door on the side of the room opened up and in rushed Luna looking panicked, followed by a drowsy Fluttershy with a sleeping angel on her head. “There is no time for complaints Applejack; we are in grave danger!” Luna dropped herself down into a chair in front of the consol she usually sat at. The farm filly approached her, grumbling the whole way.
“This had better be good then…and where the hay are the others? Shouldn’t yall have teleported them here too?”
Fluttershy yawned. “Dash fell asleep while washing her Zord, so we sent her home. Where’s Rarity?”
Luna tried to hide the fear in her voice as she answered the question, but she did a very bad job at it. “Rarity is missing, presumed captured…and the same goes for Rainbow Dash. As of right now, you are the only pony ranger left, Applejack.”
To be continued…