Sweetie Belle and Snowdrop stood on opposite sides of a circular moderate-sized room with a single light illuminating the room from the middle outwards. Both were morphed and had their blades in attacking position as they stared each other down. Upon the sound of a bell rung by Sweetie Belle’s magic (pun not intended), the two fillies charged at each other with their blades forward. Snowdrop tried to get the first hit in on Sweetie Belle and went for an overhead strike, but Sweetie Belle quickly ducked out of the way of this and gave Snowdrop an elbow to her underside that knocked the pegasus to the ground.
“That’s one point for me,” Sweetie Belle said as she helped Snowdrop up.
“Hmph, lucky shot,” Snowdrop grunted as she got back to her hooves. She then returned to her corner of the room and got ready for a second round. Upon the sound of the bell, Snowdrop rushed forward at Sweetie Belle, hoping to use her wings to give herself a speed advantage. However, Sweetie Belle once again sidestepped Snowdrop’s attack and gave the pegasus a strike with her sword that caused Snowdrop to crash.
“Two points,” Sweetie Belle said. “Are you sure you’re alright, Snowdrop?”
“I’m fine,” Snowdrop growled as she got back up. “You’re getting lucky, but you’re luck’s about to run out.” Snowdrop then prepared herself for a third round.
The second the sound of the bell hit Snowdrop’s ears, she instantly took to the air and fired a blast of wind at Sweetie Belle. Sweetie just barely managed to block this attack with her magic, following with a blast of water at Snowdrop. Snowdrop flew out of the way of this attack, but she was unprepared for Sweetie Belle teleporting above her and giving her a powerful slash to her back that sent the young pegasus into a tailspin. The very second before Snowdrop hit the ground, however, Sweetie Belle caught her with her magic.
“That’s game,” Sweetie Belle said as she let Snowdrop down. “Something the matter, Snowdrop?”
“I told you, I’m fine,” Snowdrop replied as she walked over to a bench on the other side of the room and sat down.
“Are you sure about that?” Sweetie Belle asked as she sat down next to the pegasus. “Because I’ve called you Snowdrop twice just now and you’ve done nothing about it. I thought you didn’t like being called that because you said that was the name of the filly you used to be or something.”
Snowdrop simply sighed and removed her helmet. It was the first time she had done something like that since the Chaos Rangers were first formed due to her Ranger powers giving her the ability to see. Sweetie Belle had almost forgotten what Snowdrop’s face had looked like. Seemingly sweet and innocent, but wearing an expression of contempt and anger... and a slight frown, contrary to what Sweetie Belle was expecting.
“Actually, something is bothering me,” Snowdrop said as she looked at the ground. “Discord hasn’t sent us to attack Equestria in about two weeks. All that time, I’ve been waiting anxiously for an opportunity to get back at Spike for deserting us and destroy the Harmony Rangers along with him.”
“Um, no offence Snowdrop,” Sweetie Belle said, “but our attacks haven’t really been that successful in the past.”
Snowdrop raised her head and glared in Sweetie Belle’s general direction, though looking slightly past the blue-clad marshmallow. “Our attacks haven’t been successful because none of them were our attacks,” Snowdrop said. “Everything before two weeks ago was part of Zecora’s plan to create Chaos Ranger Gold, and we all saw how that worked out.”
“So I’m assuming you have a plan of your own?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Snowdrop replied with an evil smile. “And the best part, this one is truly foolproof because there will be no Zecora, no Alan, no nopony to buck things up.”
“You sound pretty confident,” Sweetie Belle said. “What exactly do you have planned?”
“I’ll tell you when Button Mash is here with us,” Snowdrop said as she fumbled around for her helmet. “Gah, why did I set that thing down?”
“Lemme help you with that,” Sweetie Belle said as she picked up Snowdrop’s helmet with her magic and helped the young pegasus put it on.
“Thanks,” Snowdrop said as she blinked a couple times having her sense of sight return to her.
“That reminds me,” Sweetie Belle said, “where is Button Mash? I haven’t seen him around all morning.”
“He’s probably in Ponyville,” Snowdrop said. “I think I overheard him grumbling about something at an arcade down there a couple days ago.”
“Oh, yeah,” Sweetie Belle said. “They put up a new game down there last week. He’s been sneaking to the arcade behind Discord’s back for the past four days.”
“Well I hope he isn’t doing anything stupid,” Snowdrop said as she began walking out of the room.
Meanwhile in Ponyville, Button Mash was standing around in the Ponyville Arcade. Since he wasn’t morphed at the time, nopony really paid any mind to him just standing there. He was just an ordinary colt who seemed to live an ordinary life and blend into the crowd. Oh how he longed for this to be his life on a permanent basis once again. No Pony Rangers, no Discord, no-
“Oh, right,” Button Mash said to himself as he remembered that going back to his old life would mean leaving Sweetie Belle behind in his current life. Despite this, he felt glad that he was able to sneak off on occasion and just have some time to himself here at the arcade.
Today wasn’t one of those days, however. Today, he had to mix his life with his break. He was meeting Spike that morning to do some gaming together. Sure they had become friends weeks ago, but this was the first time they actually met each other when they were on opposite sides of the battle between Harmony and Discord. It was of course going to be a little awkward, but Button was willing to work past that and Spike seemed to be willing as well. A peaceful morning in which two friends would forget their lives outside of the arcade doors and game together.
Or so Button thought.
While Button Mash was waiting for Spike to show up, he heard his communicator go off. Button looked around for a place that wasn’t crowded to answer his comm, but the only place his could find was the bathroom. With a groan, Button galloped in and activated his comm.
“This is Button Mash,” the colt whispered.
“Button Mash,” Sweetie Belle’s voice said from the other side, “Snowdrop wants to talk to us on the moon base. She says she has a plan for defeating the Harmony Rangers, but she needs us both there.”
“Uhh...” Button Mash said. He needed to be there to support his team, but he couldn’t cancel on Spike without saying anything. And even if he did tell Spike, what would he say? “Hey, Spike, I just wanted to let you know that I’m blowing off our day off to help my team destroy your friends. Sorry.” Some friend Button would be. Still, Snowdrop scared him and he cared a lot for Sweetie Belle. Finally, Button Mash decided on a compromise.
“Tell Snowdrop I’ve actually got a plan of my own,” Button suddenly said. He quickly threw his hoof over his mouth, shocked at what he just said. Did he have a plan? Was that even the compromise he had thought up? Panic had sunk in faster than Rainbow Dash could have delivered it.
“Ooh...” Sweetie Belle replied. “I don’t think she’ll be too happy about that.”
“Tell her not to worry,” Button continued, doing his best to recover from his situation. “I’ve got a plan to keep Harmony Gold occupied so that he won’t be there to help stop Snowdrop’s plan.”
“Really?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Wow, Button. Way to take initiative.”
“Yeah, well, I figured they’d be a little weaker without their precious Gold Ranger,” Button replied. “I need to go. Gotta be waiting at an exact spot in order to ensnare Spike.”
“Good luck, Button Mash,” Sweetie Belle replied. With that, she disconnected. Button then let out a sigh of relief.
“That was a close one,” Button said to himself. “Oh, I’d better get out of here so I can meet Spike.” With that, the young colt galloped out of the bathroom and back into the arcade, where he found Spike waiting by the entrance. “Spike, glad you made it,” Button said as he trotted up to the baby dragon.
“Wasn’t easy to get here,” Spike replied. “You won’t believe the excuse I had to make for getting out of practice with Twilight.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing compared to what I had to do to avoid a meeting with Snowdrop,” Button replied. “Have I mentioned she scares me?”
“More than once,” Spike replied with a chuckle. “So... where shall we start?”
“They’ve put up a new game in the back,” Button Mash replied. “Super Street Ponies 7.”
“Oh man, I love Super Street Ponies,” Spike said. “I bet I could totally kick your flank in that game.”
“I highly doubt it,” Button replied. The two then ran towards the game in the back of the arcade.
Meanwhile just outside of Ponyville, Snowdrop and Sweetie Belle had just teleported in with a group of Putty Ponies behind them.
“Are you sure Button Mash knows what he’s doing?” Snowdrop asked.
“I’m pretty sure,” Sweetie Belle replied. “Still, if he’s keeping Spike occupied, that’s one less Ranger for me to worry about.”
“Alright,” Snowdrop replied. “Just get started on the distraction, and I’ll get to work on my end of the plan.”
“Okay,” Sweetie Belle said with a nod of agreement. Snowdrop then flew off while Sweetie Belle directed for the Putty Ponies to follow her.
Twilight was studying in her library that morning. Spike had left to polish the zords in order to “give a random present just because everypony’s so awesome” as Spike put it. Of course, Twilight knew Spike’s true intentions were to take a day off from the whole Ranger thing, but he deserved it. He probably trained harder and in longer sessions than any of the other Rangers ever did, plus just one week prior he had to battle and defeat a manticore on his own within an hour, so Twilight could allow the baby dragon just one day to himself.
That mindset would quickly change, however, as Twilight heard an alarm from her console. She galloped over to check the nature of the attack. It was strange to her, as there were about forty Putty Ponies attacking the town square, but only one Chaos Ranger. “That’s odd,” Twilight said to herself. She didn’t have time to contemplate this, however. She needed to contact the others.
Back at the arcade, Spike had just kicked Button Mash’s flank in Street Ponies for the fourth match in a row.
“Wow,” Button Mash said as he stared in surprise at the screen which was on its continue countdown. “I guess you were right, Spike. You can kick my flank on Street Ponies.”
“Well, you didn’t make it easy,” Spike said. “I was sure you were gonna beat me that last round.”
“Okay, now you’re just being nice,” Button replied. “You had me in the bag from the start.”
“Button, you shouldn’t doubt yourself like that,” Spike said. “If you’re ever going to be truly successful at anything, but you keep failing every time you try, you have to do two things: reassess your mindset, then decide whether or not you need to try looking at things from a different angle.”
Button Mash was about to respond to this before Spike’s communicator went off. “Um...” Button Mash said as he looked at Spike’s beeping watch comm.
“It’ll take a minute, I promise,” Spike replied. He then turned from Button and answered his comm. “This is Spike.”
“Spike,” Twilight’s voice said from the other end, “there’s an attack in the town square. There’s only one Chaos Ranger, but there’s a lot of Putty Ponies.”
”One Chaos Ranger?” Spike thought to himself. He then took a moment to glance back towards Button Mash before replying to Twilight. “There’s only one Chaos Ranger there because I intercepted one of them on their way to the attack. I can handle this one myself, but I might not be able to join you guys.”
“Alright,” Twilight said. “I’ll let you go then.” Twilight then disconnected.
“Did you seriously just blow off your team to spend more time with me?” Button Mash asked Spike.
“Not really,” Spike replied. “You are technically a Chaos Ranger and I did technically intercept you, so I didn’t tell Twilight a thing that wasn’t true.”
“Wow,” Button said. “And I thought I was evil.”
“I wouldn’t call what I did evil,” Spike said. “Clever would be a better word. Now then, I believe I was in the middle of kicking your flank?”
“This next round’s going to be different,” Button replied as he put another bit into the machine and the two began another game.
Meanwhile at the market area, Sweetie Belle was leading a large group of Putty Ponies on a mindlessly destructive rampage. (The best kind of rampage. ^_^)
“I really hope those Harmony Rangers get here soon,” Sweetie Belle said to herself as she used her magic to blow the roof off of a building.
“Wish granted!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she and the other Harmony Rangers galloped onto the scene.
“Finally,” Sweetie Belle said as she turned to face the Rangers. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Just beneath the Harmony Rangers’ perception, Sweetie Belle cast a quick spell to notify Snowdrop to begin her end of the plan.
“So where are your pals Chaos Red and Yellow?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Red is busy with something that is none of your concern,” Sweetie Belle replied. “And Yellow’s keeping Harmony Gold out of the picture for the time being.”
“That much we already knew,” Twilight said. “But what’s Red’s game?”
“As I’ve said, it’s none of your concern,” Sweetie Belle replied. “Putty Ponies, attack!”
“IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME!” Rainbow Dash shouted.
“ELEMENT OF HONESTY!”
“ELEMENT OF KINDNESS!”
“ELEMENT OF LAUGHTER!”
“ELEMENT OF GENEROSITY!”
“ELEMENT OF LOYALTY!”
“ELEMENT OF MAGIC!”
“Harmony Force, Ranger Blue!”
“Harmony Force, Ranger Yellow!”
“Harmony Force, Ranger Pink!”
“Harmony Force, Ranger Black!”
“Harmony Force, Ranger Red!”
“Harmony Force, Ranger White!”
“From all of us together, we fight as one! We protect one another until the battle is done! PONY RANGERS: HARMONY FORCE!”
Finishing their roll call, the Harmony Rangers charged forward at the Putty Ponies, not even bothering to draw their weapons to fight them.
Meanwhile at Sugarcube Corner, Snowdrop was sneaking into the building under the cover of the battle going on at the market. She flew up to the top balcony and entered from the window right into Pinkie’s party room, which looked so cluttered with streamers, balloons, and the like, one could have assumed that a hurricane had whipped through the room.
“Wow,” Snowdrop commented to herself. “That Pink Ranger is a real slob...” Quickly, Snowdrop shook her head and reminded herself of what she was there for, and it wasn’t to comment on how messy Pinkie Pie was. The young pegasus made her way out of the room, down the stairs at the other end, and into the hallway on the second floor. She examined the area for any signs of life that might see her. Pink Ranger was off with the other Harmony Rangers ensnared in Sweetie Belle’s distraction, and the Cakes were downstairs working on something that was likely very sugary. Well, two of the Cakes. The other two were in a room Snowdrop had just snuck into. She quickly surveyed the area before she found her objective, a crib with two sleeping foals in it. An evil smile crossed the pegasus’ lips as she approached the crib.
Back at the market area, the Harmony Rangers had just finished off the last of the Putty Ponies and were all now focused on Chaos Blue.
“Even without Harmony Gold, you still defeated those Putties faster than Red calculated...” Sweetie Belle said in disbelief. Just then, however, Sweetie’s comm went off with a loud ‘ding’ sound. “Scratch that,” Sweetie said to the Harmony Rangers. “You six pulled it off perfectly. Red’s plan was successful.”
“You still haven’t answered our question,” Rainbow Dash said. “What is Chaos Red’s plan?”
“Oh, you’ll see soon enough...” Sweetie Belle said. Then, before anypony could respond, the blue-clad filly teleported away.
“Well that was weird,” Fluttershy said.
“Her little cliffhanger aside,” Pinkie chimed in, “is anypony else getting a sense of deja vu?”
“How so?” Rarity inquired.
“Well the last time the Chaos Rangers came down to Ponyville with a bunch of Putty Ponies then disappeared once we had finished them, Zecora had snuck into the library and kidnapped Spike.”
“I highly doubt that’s what happened,” Twilight said. “Still, just to be safe, we should all regroup at the library.”
Back at the arcade, Button Mash and Spike were in a heated battle in Street Ponies. They were both tied six matches to six matches, and they were just about to start round 3 of match 13.
“You’re going down, this time,” Button Mash said to Spike.
“In history, maybe,” Spike replied. Just before they could start their battle though, both of their comms went off at the same time.
“Why do I get the feeling our day off is over?” Button Mash asked.
“You’re not alone there,” Spike added. Both of them then answered their comms.
“This is Button Mash,” Button said into his comm.
“Snowdrop’s finished her end of the plan,” Sweetie’s voice said from the other end. “Ditch Harmony Gold as fast as you can and return to the moon base.”
“This is Spike,” Spike said into his comm.
“The battle’s finished,” Twilight’s voice said. “But we need to analyze the outcome a little deeper, and that involves a full regroup. Get rid of Chaos Yellow as fast as you can and come back to the library.”
Both colt and dragon turned to each other wearing the same disappointed expression before sighing and turning back to their respective comms.
“I’m on my way,” Button said.
“I’ll be there soon,” Spike said.
“Good,” Sweetie Belle said to Button Mash. With that, she disconnected.
“We’ll wait for you,” Twilight said to Spike. She then disconnected as well.
Button and Spike turned to each other, neither one really wanting to admit what they were just told.
“I guess that’s our day off,” Button said.
“Guess so,” Spike replied. “I suppose we’d better get out of here before our teams get suspicious.”
“Yeah,” Button said with a sigh. “Oh well. We could always plan another day off together.”
“Already working on it,” Spike said. “I guess I’ll see you some other time.”
“See ya,” Button said. The two then brohoof/clawed and walked away, Spike heading for the exit and Button for the bathroom so he could teleport without anypony seeing.
It was about five minutes before Spike had finally gotten back to the library to meet up with the others. “Glad you’re finally here, Spike,” Twilight said as the baby dragon ran in.
“So am I,” Spike said as he panted from the running he did once he left the arcade.
“What happened with Chaos Yellow?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You totally pwned her, right?”
“Her?” Spike asked. “Oh, I mean yes, I did. Well I almost did. He- ah, she teleported away before I could even start trying to fight her.” Spike felt a little uncomfortable calling Button Mash a filly, but it was for the sake of protecting his identity, something Spike had sworn to do as Button’s friend.
“Well, we had about as little success with Blue, so don’t feel too bad,” Twilight said. “Now then, back to what we were talking about. Pinkie Pie brought up the fact that the last time there was an attack of this nature, Zecora snuck into the library and kidnapped you. Based on that and the fact that Chaos Red was unaccounted for in both of our battles, we can only assume Discord planned something just as dangerous as last time with Chaos Red filling Zecora’s role this time. But the question is... by what means?”
“I think I might have an idea, actually,” Spike said.
“Really?” Twilight asked. “Tell us.”
“Look at it this way,” Spike began. “We all know pretty well that the Chaos Rangers have something personal against us. Whether it be the fact that they want to be the only Pony Rangers or they’re some kinds of obscure rivals from our past we don’t know, but it’s pretty obvious that they hate us very much. As well, we haven’t really seen them in about two weeks before today. Going off of my limited experience as an evil Ranger, if I were cooped up in that moon base for two weeks without getting a chance to battle you guys, I’d probably have a lot of anger pent up and I’d be willing to go to any measures necessary to get at you, even if that involves crossing a line.”
“So what are you saying?” Twilight asked.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Spike replied. “My best suggestion is to return home, but keep your guard up. There’s likely some kind of trap waiting for you if I know those Chaos Rangers well enough.”
“Alright,” Rainbow Dash said. She then turned to the other Rangers. “You all heard the dragon. Let’s go weed out a trap.” The others nodded and left the library for their respective homes.
“Way to take charge of that situation, Spike,” Twilight complemented as the others left.
“Thank you,” Spike replied.
Once Pinkie Pie got home, she heard a loud wailing sound coming from upstairs.
“And cue Chaos Red’s trap,” Pinkie said to herself. She then went into full Pinkie-speed gallop up the stairs towards the room where she heard the noise, which was Pound and Pumpkin Cake’s room, oddly enough. When she got the room, however, what she didn’t find was two foals crying, but Mrs. Cake crying with Mr. Cake trying to comfort her, both standing in front of an empty crib.
“What’s happened?” Pinkie asked as she galloped over to the two.
“The foals have been taken!” Mrs. Cake wailed. “Who would do such a thing?”
“I don’t know,” Pinkie lied. “Did you find any kind of note or something the foalnapper might have left?”
“We didn’t even look,” Mr. Cake replied. “We know there wasn’t one in the crib.”
Pinkie looked over to the dresser next to the crib to find a small piece of paper sitting at the top. “Found it,” Pinkie said to the Cakes as she picked up the note and read it.
Dearest Pink Ranger,
I, Chaos Ranger Red, have taken your younger siblings while you and your friends were busy with Chaos Blue’s distraction. If you ever wish to see them again, you will meet me at the Castle of the Ancient Pony Sisters in the Everfree Forest, and you will come alone.
-Red Chaos Ranger
“What does it say, Pinkie?” Mr. Cake asked Pinkie.
“Don’t worry, Mr. and Mrs. Cake,” Pinkie said, completely ignoring Mr. Cake’s question so as to not risk revealing herself as a Ranger while hiding the note in her mane. “I’ll get the foals back.” Pinkie then galloped out of the room.
“Wait!” Mr. Cake shouted. However, Pinkie was already clear out of the building.
“You did what??” Button Mash shouted at Snowdrop after she told the colt of her plan. “Have we really stooped to kidnapping defenceless foals in order to get to our enemies?”
“I didn’t stoop,” Snowdrop said as she held the two foals, who were still asleep thanks to a combination of a drowsiness spell and an obliviousness spell, both courtesy of Sweetie Belle. “I used a totally cunning plan to redirect the attention of the Harmony Rangers in order to sneak into one of their homes and steal the two things they hold most dear.”
“And all of that still happens to stem from kidnapping those foals,” Button Mash said.
“Listen, I’m in a good mood today because I have a plan that’s actually starting to come together,” Snowdrop said. “I don’t need you questioning my authority to ruin my mood or my plan. Now you and Sweetie Belle stay here on the base and wait for my signal to begin your ends of the plan.”
“Alright,” Button Mash said. “But I’m just going to go on record and say that while we’ve done some questionable things as Chaos Rangers, this is one plan I feel I have to say I’m uncomfortable with.”
“You’re lucky I ignored that,” Snowdrop said angrily. With that, she teleported away to where she had planned on meeting Pinkie Pie in the Everfree Forest.
Pinkie galloped as fast as she could towards the Castle of the Ancient Pony Sisters in the Everfree Forest. Of course she wanted to tell her friends so that they could back her up in getting the foals back, but she didn’t want to risk it. After all, Chaos Red’s note did say to come alone, and Pinkie was the desperate foalsitter who didn’t want to take a single chance when it came to saving those she was responsible for. After five minutes of galloping, she finally arrived at the castle.
“Alright, I’m here!” Pinkie shouted at the empty ruins. “Give the foals back, Chaos Red!”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that quite yet,” an all too familiar voice said from above Pinkie. The earth pony turned around to find Chaos Red descending form the ceiling while carrying Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake, both of whom were still asleep. “I haven’t even given you my demands for their return yet.”
“Well then hurry up,” Pinkie said angrily. “I plan on making you pay for taking them as quickly as possible.”
“What’s the rush, Pink Ranger?” Snowdrop asked with an evil smile beneath her helmet. “You’re the party pony when you’re not a Ranger, so I thought you of all ponies would understand how... bored I’ve been lately.”
“You were bored, and you decided to foalnap two defenceless foals to relieve your boredom?” Pinkie asked.
“Oh no,” Snowdrop replied. “I’m not that evil. Foalnapping these two was just the means. Now allow me to explain the ends.” Snowdrop gently placed the two sleeping foals on a smooth rock and approached Pinkie. “I want something exciting, something out of the ordinary, something only you, Pinkie Pie, can give me.”
“And what’s that?” Pinkie asked, still glaring at the approaching filly.
“A dogfight,” Snowdrop replied as she stopped within five feet of Pinkie.
“A what?” Pinkie asked.
“Do you not know what that is?” Snowdrop asked. “I suppose you never really did strike me as the brightest of the Harmony Rangers.” Snowdrop chuckled a little at this, but Pinkie simply growled. “A dogfight, in our case, would be where we battle zord on zord. My Falcon zord against your Pterodactyl zord in an aerial battle. If you happen to beat me, I’ll surrender the foals back to you and we’ll have no problems. But if you lose, you’ll never see the foals again.”
“Challenge accepted,” Pinkie said as she drew her Element of Harmony and placed it on her neck. “IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME!”
“ELEMENT OF LAUGHTER!”
“Harmony Force, Ranger Pink!”
“Hold on a second,” Rei said, flying in between the two Rangers. “Pinkie, would you mind explaining to me why you took three lines even though, since you were the only one talking, you could have kept all of that in the same paragraph?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Pinkie asked. “You’re the one who writes and formats this thing. Now get out of my way. I need to rescue Pound and Pumpkin.” Without even giving Rei a chance to respond, Pinkie charged forward at Snowdrop, knocking Rei over in the process. Just before Pinkie could hit Snowdrop, however, the filly fired a gust of wind that stopped Pinkie in her tracks and knocked her back a little.
“Did you forget what I asked of you?” Snowdrop asked. “A dogfight. In the air. With our zords.”
“Oh, right,” Pinkie said. “In that case, get your parachute ready.”
“I’m a pegasus, remember?” Snowdrop said.
“Wow, I’m really off today, aren’t I?” Pinkie said.
“Well you’re the one who knocked me over in your charge,” Rei said from the other side of the room.
“Enough of this!” Snowdrop shouted. She then hit a button on her morpher with her opposite hoof. “RED FALCON ZORD!”
Pinkie raised her hoof to the sky to summon her zord. “I need dinozord power, now!”
From opposite sides of the Everfree Forest, both zords soared towards each other. Both of their pilots entered their respective zords and instantly engaged each other in combat.
“Let’s get this over with!” Pinkie shouted as she accelerated her zord and fired several missiles at Snowdrop.
“Not enough,” Snowdrop commented as she pulled her Falcon zord up to avoid the attack. “Now have a taste of this!” Upon saying this, the Falcon zord suddenly nose dived and fired a beam of energy at the Pterodactyl zord, just barely clipping its wing but not dealing enough damage to even faze Pinkie.
“I hope you didn’t think this was gonna be easy!” Pinkie shouted. She then pulled her zord up and began charging a wing attack.
“I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of foalnapping those two if I thought this would be easy,” Snowdrop replied, flying downward to meet Pinkie’s attack with one of her own. Snowdrop’s Falcon zord suddenly started glowing and, before Pinkie had a chance to evade, struck the Pterodactyl zord, stopping its wing attack and sending Pinkie into a spinout. Pinkie was able to recover from this fairly easily, however.
”She’s a little better at this than I thought she’d be,” Pinkie thought to herself. ”Getting the twins back is going to be a challenge, but I can’t back down.” Looking down at her console, Pinkie added, ”I can’t call for backup either. This whole thing’s my party.”
“What’s the matter, Pink Ranger?” Snowdrop taunted. “Did you fall asleep?”
“Hardly!” Pinkie shouted in reply. Her Pterodactyl zord then gave a mighty roar before flying towards the Falcon zord again. “I’m just getting warmed up!”
“That’s what I’ve been waiting for,” Snowdrop said under her breath. “Now maybe I can start trying.” She then sent her Falcon zord flying against the Pterodactyl zord, and the two Rangers engaged in aerial combat yet again, only this time with far more ferocity than before.
Meanwhile on the moon base, Sweetie Belle and Button Mash were watching the battle.
“She’s quite a pilot for a blind pony,” Sweetie Belle commented. “I mean, obviously her Ranger powers let her see, but it’s just... not something you’d expect from somepony like Snowdrop.”
“Which is exactly why I made her a Ranger in the first place,” Discord said as he walked in from behind the two ponies. “Now then, would somepony mind giving me the context of this conversation?”
“Discord?” Sweetie Belle asked, stunned. “We were, uh...”
“Did Snowdrop come up with a plan without my consent?” Discord asked. “I should have known she’d do such a thing eventually. Still, I can’t say I’m unimpressed.”
“What do you mean by that?” Button Mash asked. Discord simply replied with a chuckle.
“Let’s just say I have my own plan that I’m working on,” Discord said. “And Snowdrop is following that plan to a T.”
Back in Equestria, Pinkie Pie and Snowdrop were still going at it in their zords, neither pilot seeming to be gaining any ground over the other.
“Give up, Pink Ranger!” Snowdrop shouted as her Falcon zord blasted the Pterodactyl zord with a flamethrower. “You don’t stand a chance against me!”
“Maybe I don’t,” Pinkie said, restabilizing her battered zord once again. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t stop fighting!”
“You really care about these two foals, don’t you?” Snowdrop asked. “Don’t worry, I’ll let them live if you lose. In fact, they’ll have the honor of becoming Chaos Rangers when they grow up.”
“Not a chance!” Pinkie shouted. She then sent her zord into a powerful, albeit reckless, charge towards the Falcon zord. Snowdrop barely had any time to react before Pinkie rammed the Pterodactyl zord right into hers, dealing heavy damage to both zords and sending them both into fiery spinouts.
“Gah!” Snowdrop shouted as she tried to restabilize her zord, though to no avail. “I can’t believe this!” Infuriated, Snowdrop pulled a lever next to her seat that ejected the filly from the cockpit and teleported the zord away before it could crash. However, before Snowdrop could fly to safety, she was knocked out of the sky by the wing of the falling Pterodactyl zord, sending her crashing into a corner in the castle she and Pinkie had originally met.
Snowdrop quickly tried to shake herself off from the crash. She wasn’t heavily injured since she was morphed when she crashed, so that was a good thing for the filly. What wasn’t such a good thing, however, was the sudden realization that hit her when she tried to open her eyes. For some reason, all she could see was darkness. Panicked, she felt her face to find that, sure enough, her Ranger armor was gone, her ability to see along with it.
“Oh no,” Snowdrop said to herself. “No no no no no, this can’t be happening. Not after all the trash I talked to Pink Ranger. I’ve gotta teleport out of here.” Snowdrop tried to use her morpher to teleport, but it was apparently damaged due to her fall. To make matters worse, the filly could hear hoofsteps entering the castle, despite the fact that she was on the far end. (Not being able to see did have a couple of perks.)
Just then, however, an evil smile crept across Snowdrop’s lips. ”Sounds like a perfect opportunity to try out Emergency Plan Epsilon,” she thought to herself as she took off her morpher and hid it in her mane. ”This is going to be so demeaning, but it will be worth it.”
Pinkie Pie, having escaped her crashed Pterodactyl zord, galloped at top speed towards the castle where she saw Chaos Red crash. She had beaten the evil Ranger, and now she was determined to make her return the Cakes as promised. Once Pinkie entered the castle, she scanned the room to find that it was empty aside from the two sleeping foals next to the entrance.
“They’ve seriously been asleep this whole time?” Pinkie asked as she walked over to Pound and Pumpkin. “Weird. If this is magic of some sort, I hope Twilight will be able to help them.” Pinkie Pie picked up the two foals in one foreleg and prepared to contact Twilight on her comm with the other before a strange noise stopped her. Pinkie couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like... crying?
”Could it be Chaos Red foalnapped another filly?” Pinkie thought to herself. She then began approaching the source of the crying. What she found was, hiding behind a pile of rubble, a light blue pegasus filly with a white mane and a similar tail, except her tail had sky blue streaks in it.
“Um... hello?” Pinkie said to the filly. This only caused the filly to perk her head up and gasp in fear.
“Who’s there?” the filly asked as she looked around, despite Pinkie being right in front of her. “Please, whoever you are, don’t hurt me.”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Pinkie said, approaching the filly. “Are you ok?”
“I don’t think so,” the filly replied. “I don’t know where I am, and I have no idea how long I’ve been here. I’m blind, and because of that, somepony took me from my home and brought me here for some reason, and I have no idea how long I’ve been here since.”
“Do you know who it was?” Pinkie asked. The filly shook her head. “But has she been here lately?” The filly nodded this time.
“I thought I heard something crash around here a few minutes ago,” she said. “But I couldn’t point you in the right direction.”
“Well that’s ok,” Pinkie Pie said. She was about to offer to help get the filly back to Ponyville when something clicked in Pinkie’s mind. ”Wait a second,” the party pony thought to herself.
”Why are we waiting?” Pinkie Pie mentally asked her straight-maned counterpart. ”She’s a blind filly who’s been stuck here for Celestia-knows-how-long. We need to get her home.”
”Are you sure you know where exactly her ‘home’ is? the straight-maned Pinkie asked.
”You’re right,” normal Pinkie said. ”I should ask Rainbow Dash to bring her back to Cloudsdale.”
”You’re missing the point,” Pinkamena replied. ”Look at it this way: who were you fighting earlier?”
”Chaos Ranger Red?” Pinkie replied.
”And what race of pony is she?”
”Pegasus?”
”And where did she crash?”
”Somewhere in this castle?”
”And the last question, for 500 points and the win... about how old is Chaos Red?”
”I dunno, but she can’t be older than-”
“This filly right here!” Pinkie finished out loud.
“What was that?” the filly asked.
Everything made sense in Pinkie’s head. Chaos Red was a pegasus, this filly was a pegasus. Chaos Red crashed in the castle, this filly wasn’t here before now. Chaos Red was a filly, this filly was a filly. And that could only mean...
“You’re tricks are done, Chaos Red!” Pinkie shouted at the filly.
“Wha-?” Snowdrop started to say. However, she was stopped when Pinkie kicked the filly into a wall. “Ahh! Why are you doing this?”
“Because you hurt my friends and foalnapped Pound and Pumpkin Cake!” Pinkie shouted. “You’re gonna pay for all of that!”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Snowdrop shouted back with tears in her eyes. “I thought you said you weren’t going to hurt me!”
“That was before I found out how much you hurt everypony I love,” Pinkie growled. She then started charging towards Snowdrop.
“Please, it’s not what you think!” Snowdrop tried shouting as Pinkie got closer. “I don’t know what’s been going on, but I’m sorry! It wasn’t my fault! I’m sorry!”
Upon hearing those last two words, Pinkie skidded to a stop before Snowdrop, who was now practically bawling her eyes out. ”Why would a Chaos Ranger be apologizing like this?” Pinkie thought to herself.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Snowdrop continued to say through her crying. “I never meant for any of this to happen. It was Discord. He came to me and promised to give my eyesight back. But I didn’t know what that entailed. I didn’t know he’d make me a Chaos Ranger until it was too late. He gave me the morpher and his power took control of me from there. I tried to resist, but the pony he turned me into was too strong. I thought I’d never be the same again. Never see my friends and family again. I thought I’d be a slave to his evil influence forever. Please, you have to believe me. I just want to go home. I just want to forget this whole thing ever happened and go home.” Snowdrop then continued crying, seeming to not yet register that Pinkie had been standing idly listening to the whole thing the whole time.
”Oh great,” Pinkie thought to herself. ”Just when you think you’ve beaten one of your most powerful foes, it turns out she was just a manipulated filly the whole time. And worse, I’ve made her cry. What am I gonna do to make this better?”
“I know some ponies who can help you,” Pinkie said to Snowdrop, who was still crying. However, upon hearing this, the filly stopped her crying for a moment.
“But... but I thought you were trying to destroy me,” Snowdrop said. “I thought-”
“I thought wrong, little one,” Pinkie said. “It was really mean of me to jump to such a conclusion and I’m sorry. I wanna make it up to you, and I know some ponies who can help.”
Snowdrop wiped a tear from her eye and looked up past Pinkie. “You mean it?” she asked.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Pinkie replied.
“So that’s a yes?” Snowdrop asked.
“Yes it is,” Pinkie replied with a nod. “Wait right here for a moment.” Pinkie then quickly galloped off to get the foals before returning to Snowdrop. “I’m back. Just hold still a little longer and I’ll get you some help.”
“Okay,” Snowdrop replied, all her tears gone and replaced with a smile.
Pinkie flipped her comm on and contacted Princess Celestia. “Princess Celestia, this is Pinkie Pie,” Pinkie said.
“Hello, Pinkie Pie,” Celestia said from the other end. “Before you go any further, might I ask why you summoned the Pterodactyl zord earlier and why, when Twilight teleported it back to its hangar, it was near totaled?”
“So everypony found out about that?” Pinkie asked while slightly blushing from embarrassment. “That aside, I’ve found Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake, as well as Chaos Red in her unmorphed state. But with Chaos Red, it turns out she was a filly named Snowdrop who was an evil Ranger against her will.”
“Snowdrop!?” Princess Luna’s voice asked all of a sudden. Before Pinkie could reply, she, Snowdrop, and the Cakes were enveloped in a dark blue light and teleported straight to Canterlot.
Pinkie was about to say something to Princess Luna, but the princess, eager to see Snowdrop again, bumped Pinkie out of the way and sent her flying. “Snowdrop?” Luna asked the little filly in front of her.
Snowdrop’s reaction was instantaneous. She gasped in surprise, her ears perked up, and she nearly began tearing up again. “P-Princess Luna?” Snowdrop asked. “Is that you?”
“It’s me, Snowdrop,” Princess Luna said, walking around to the front of Snowdrop and turning to face her. “It’s been 1,000 years since I’ve seen you, but...”
Princess Luna turned around to face Snowdrop once again, this time not even trying to hide the tears in her eyes. “It is you,” Luna said happily. She then rushed up to Snowdrop and hugged her. “I’ve missed you so much, Snowdrop.”
“I’ve missed you too, Princess Luna,” Snowdrop replied, also crying.
“I’ve never seen my sister so happy,” Princess Celestia said, levitating a cloth to wipe her own tears away. “Not since when Snowdrop was still alive over 1,000 years ago.”
“I don’t mean to ruin Princess Luna’s happiness,” Pinkie Pie said, “but she did tell me she was Chaos Ranger Red.”
“Wait, what?” Twilight asked, galloping over next to Pinkie. “And you brought her here?”
“First, Princess Luna’s the one who teleported me here,” Pinkie replied. “Second, she also told me that she was held a Chaos Ranger against her will.”
“Well if that’s the case,” Twilight said, “I have a spell that can detect any active magical influences on her to make sure she hasn’t tricked us.”
“Go ahead,” Pinkie replied. Twilight then cast the spell on Snowdrop, which caused her body to glow blue for a second.
“Nope,” Twilight replied. “She was telling you the truth. Discord was controlling her and now she’s free.” Twilight sighed before adding, “The question is, how long until Discord realizes the strings have been snipped and he tries to fix them?”
“Luna and I can work on a spell for making sure that doesn’t happen,” Princess Celestia said. “For the time being, though, I think she has a lot of catching up to do with Snowdrop.”
“In the meantime,” Pinkie said, turning back to Twilight, “the Cakes are still asleep and I think it’s because of magic.”
Twilight looked down at the sleeping foals by Pinkie’s hooves. “Oh, that’s a simple combination of a sleep spell and an oblivious spell. Any old unicorn could figure that out.”
“So... can you wake them up?” Pinkie asked.
“Have you any idea how complicated the zords are in terms of magic?” Twilight asked with a chuckle. “Waking these two up is as easy as levitation compared to that.” Twilight’s horn then flashed to life as she lowered it onto the two sleeping foals. They glowed a faint purple for a moment before the glow disappeared and they both yawned and stretched.
“They’re ok!” Pinkie said happily. “Thank you Twilight. I need to get these two back to Mr. and Mrs. Cake.” Pinkie then picked up the two foals.
“Pinkie!” Pound Cake said happily.
“Pie!” Pumpkin Cake finished. Both foals then began laughing happily.
“Okay, I’ll teleport you three home,” Twilight said as she charged her spell. Pinkie and the foals were then teleported to Ponyville.
“You may leave as well, if you want,” Princess Celestia said to Twilight.
“Are you sure you won’t need help with anything?” Twilight asked.
“I think Luna and I will manage,” Celestia replied.
“Ok,” Twilight said. She then teleported back to Ponyville.
“Now Luna,” Celestia said as she turned to her sister, who was still embracing Snowdrop. “You heard what Pinkie and Twilight said. We need to come up with a spell that will permanently free Snowdrop from Discord’s grasp.”
“Yes, of course,” Luna replied. “Ready for a ride, Snowdrop?”
“Yes,” Snowdrop replied. Luna then hoisted the filly onto her back and flew out of the room with Snowdrop laughing happily all the while. With a smile and a chuckle, Princess Celestia followed.
At Sugarcube Corner, Mr. and Mrs. Cake were on their way out of the building holding piles of “Missing Foals” posters. Before they left, however, the door opened in front of them and outside stood Pinkie Pie carrying Pound and Pumpkin.
“Mommy!” Pound said.
“Daddy!” Pumpkin said.
Both foals instantly escaped Pinkie’s grasp and galloped up to hug the legs of their parents.
“They’re back!” Mrs. Cake said. “They’re actually back! I can’t believe this!”
“Did you find them, Pinkie?” Mr. Cake asked.
“I did,” Pinkie replied.
“But how?” Mrs. Cake asked. “We looked all over town before we got the idea to put up these posters.”
“Let’s just say I knew somepony who was willing to help,” Pinkie said.
“Pony Rangers!” both foals happily said in unison.
“Huh?” Mr. Cake asked. “Did they just say-?”
“Woah, they must have been awake that whole time,” Pinkie quickly said. “I’d better get them to bed.” Pinkie then grabbed up the foals and rushed them quickly to their crib. In the safety of the foals’ room, Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief. “You two need to be more careful. You almost gave me away.”
Meanwhile, Discord was watching the whole thing from the moon base. “I should have known even Snowdrop would fail,” he said to himself. “Now, not only has her plan failed, nor only is she in the hooves of the Princesses, she managed to break free of her Ranger powers.” Discord then began chuckling to himself. “On the bright side, that last bit won’t last forever.”
Later that night, both the Princesses and Snowdrop had gone to sleep in Canterlot. However, after a while, Snowdrop opened her eyes and retrieved her morpher from its hiding spot in her mane. She then flipped on the comm and quietly, she said, “Sweetie Belle, the horse is in the stable. I repeat, the horse is in the stable.”
“You got it, Snowdrop,” Sweetie Belle replied from the other end. “I’ll get Button Mash and Derpy started first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Good,” Snowdrop said. ”Finally, that act is about to pay off,” she thought to herself as an evil smile crept across her lips.
Next time...
“It’s time for our endgame.”
“You’re a good kid, Scootaloo. It’s just too bad your sister can’t see that like I can.”
“Applebloom, there’s something you should know.”
“I’ve waited too long to tell you this, Rarity.”
“Snowdrop, what are you doing?”
“I thought I could trust you, Button.”
次回、 「Manipulation」 あ楽しみに！ [Next time: “Manipulation (Endgame part 1)” Enjoy!]