Lunaverse: Galaxy Rangers - The Rangers Nevermore?
Chapter 1
by Rixizu
Twilight Sparkle flew off of her seat and crashed into the ground in front of her. Her thick black trim glasses flew off and hit a nearby seat with a clang. Twilight groaned in pain and reached around with a hoof to look for her glasses almost blind without them. In few seconds, she found them and used her magic to put them back on her face.
“What the hay just happened?” Twilight asked. She had been enjoying a much-needed nap when the train she was on suddenly stopped. Several other ponies also found themselves picking themselves off from the ground.
Twilight was about to leave her seat to figure out what is going on but stopped when she saw a pegasus in a black suit and hat with gold trim enter the cabin. "Don't worry folks, some cows were crossing the tracks and we had to make an emergency stop. We should be starting back up in few minutes."
Twilight poked her head out her window and sure enough, a bunch of cows were crossing the tracking looking both embarrassed and apologetic to what looked like an engineer. Everypony in the cabin relaxed visibly. The train was going to Ponyville, a town infamous for monster attacks. No doubt that was the first thing that came to their mind when the train stopped unexpectedly. It only took five minutes for the train to start up again and get back on its way.
After a few moments consideration Twilight decided to go over the checklist she made for when she got to Ponyville just in case she'd missed anything. It was unlikely, but she had some time to kill and she didn't feel sleepy anymore. She was on an important mission after all. It wouldn’t do to miss something on her checklist. It was at least another three hours until she got to her destination. She looked it over at least two times and nodded in satisfaction at its completeness.
Ever since she was little, Twilight had dedicated herself to knowledge. She took every class in Princess Luna’s School of Magic and got the highest marks, but that wasn’t enough for her. Not even close. After finishing school, she decided to travel all around Equestria seeing and learning everything she could, she’d been everywhere around the land from Las Pegasus in the west to Manehattan in the east. Then one day, she heard of them. They were the most amazing and spectacular thing she had ever heard of.
About two months ago on the Longest Night during the festival, Corona, the deranged alicorn that used to be Princess Luna’s sister returned after a thousand-year imprisonment. She turned out to be just as bad and powerful as the legends suggested. Corona beat her sister, kidnapped some ponies, and almost destroyed Canterlot. She seemed unstoppable, but then they appeared and beat her. Not permanently, but they beat her badly. They were called the Galaxy Rangers.
These heroes appeared out of nowhere shortly after Corona’s release and had strange and reportedly amazing powers. Twilight’s pen pal from Ponyville attested to that. And they continued to beat Corona back. She sent many monsters after them and they beat them every single time. Twilight wanted to see these heroes for herself. So, she dropped her studies and took a train all the way from Vanhoover. She wanted to study them and learn how their powers worked. If she did that, maybe she could find a way to replicate them and beat the monstrous Corona for good. She also thought of all the advances this knowledge could bring to ponykind. Twilight was giddy just thinking about it and hugged her checklist in glee and giggled. She could barely keep herself still with all the anticipation. She decided to check her checklist again. It didn’t hurt to be extra thorough.
Twilight trotted off the train with a grin on her face. She was pulling her traveling bag packed to the brim with supplies along behind her with her magic. She’d left in a hurry, so she’d had to pack light. It pained her that she only had 30 books in her pack, but she had to make do. She finally arrived in Ponyville. It was a small town really only known for its farming community and its location near the Everfree Forest. Twilight looked around the town to make a better assessment of it. It didn’t seem like much to her. It was quaint and homely, but that was about it. Not really the town you would expect to home a group of superheroes.
First on Twilight’s list was a trip to the hotel to unpack, set up her equipment, and then to the library. She suspected that it might have some books that could help her. The Galaxy Rangers showed up right here in Ponyville on the Longest Night. Twilight wanted to research if there was any connection between the Galaxy Rangers, the Everfree Forest, and the Longest Night. This was all pure speculation, but it was a starting theory at least.
On her way to the hotel, Twilight spotted something strange. Three earth pony mares were hiding behind a flower stand that housed a variety of different flowers. These ponies looked terrified. Twilight decided to investigate. She trotted up to them.
“Excuse me.” Twilight tried to say, but the three mares screamed and hung on to a nearby lamppost. They shivered in pure terror and grabbed on to the post with all their might.
This left Twilight in an awkward position and she wasn’t sure what to do. “Um, I’m not going to hurt you.”
The three mares looked down, saw Twilight, and sighed in relief. They slid down the pole and got back on the ground.
A mare with a pale magenta coat and lime mane sighed in relief. “It’s just a pony.”
“Just a pony?” Twilight asked confused.
"We thought you might be a monster." Another one of the mares explained. This one had a raspberry coat with a light amber mane.
“A monster?” Twilight looked around as she asked this. Was there a monster around? This actually got her excited. She might see the Galaxy Rangers in action!
"It’s almost midday!” The magenta colored mare explained in a way that in reality explained nothing.
Twilight looked up and sure enough, the sun was in the position that said it was about 11:50 or so. In her excitement, she almost missed that it was almost noon. Not that she cared about the old superstition that Corona attacked ponies if they wandered out during midday. That was just for foals, after all, to prevent them from spending too much time in the sun.
“So?’ Twilight said raising an eyebrow.
“ This is usually the time Corona sends out one of her monsters !” The last pony in the group exclaimed. She had a pale-yellow coat with a raspberry mane.
"Really?" Twilight said not in fear but excitement. She looked around town and noticed something she didn't see before. All the windows in town were closed and shuttered and the streets were completely empty. If she looked closely, however, she could see ponies hiding. Some were hiding behind windows, boxes, carts, carriages, and whatever they could find. Strangely, some were wearing hazmat suits.
“Do you get one every day?” Twilight asked trying her best to hide her excitement.
The three mares shook her head. “Not every day, but often enough!” The raspberry coated mare explained looking around nervously. Twilight almost beamed at this. This was perfect. This would give her plenty of opportunities to study both the Galaxy Rangers and the monsters.
All four mares jumped when they heard a scream. “There it is.” A voice yelled. The group turned and saw it. It was the most bizarre thing Twilight had ever seen and it was walking down a nearby street. It looked like something resembling a carrot, but this one had hooves and walked around on them. It had eyes on what would usually be the top of the carrot. It had a mohawk made of carrots with a black collar that had carrots instead of metal spikes. Twilight noticed that it had spiked bracelets as well on its hooves also made of carrots.
“It’s time to root this party!” The strange creature yelled. It pulled out a guitar out of seemingly nowhere that looked like it was made of carved carrots somehow and started strumming the strings. This created a giant shockwave and Twilight covered her ears in pain trying to shield herself from the loud and painful noise. Windows broke from the high-pitched sound. The creature continued rocking out creating a nonsensical and off-tone tune. Twilight thought her head would explode. The pain was almost unbearable and Twilight collapsed to the ground. The pain just got worse and worse and Twilight just laid there completely helpless. The monster, on the other hoof, seemed oblivious to this and continued playing jumping up and down in excitement while bobbing its head back of forth.
Suddenly it just stopped. Twilight ears rang, but the pain was subsiding. Twilight looked up to see the creature on the ground in pain. It looked up angrily and Twilight turned her head to see what it was looking at. There was something standing on a roof. Twilight’s heart stopped. It was the Galaxy Rangers.
They were dressed in what looked like some sort of armor. They were each a different color; red, blue, green, black, yellow, and pink. The suit was mostly one color, but it had a white vest on it. On this vest was what looked like a constellation of bright white stars that shined brightly. Each one had a different constellation on their suit. The Red Ranger had the constellation of the Ursa Major, Blue had Cygnus, Green had Libra, Black had Hercules, Yellow had Scorpio, and Pink had Sagittarius. Their helmets had a black visor with a yellow star around it. On their hooves were white boots that also had a yellow star on the front. The Blue and Red Rangers were unicorns and they had a horn on their helmet. Black and Pink were pegasi with strange metal wings that were almost skeletal and were wider and sharper than normal pegasus wings. Lastly, Green and Yellow appeared to be earth ponies. There was something feminine about the design of the suits. Their muzzles and body type suggested they were all female. The last thing Twilight noticed was a belt around their torso with some strange gold and black device on it.
The Blue Ranger was holding a bow in an aura of blue magic that matched her color and it looked like the monster was glaring at the pony. It yelled something, but Twilight couldn’t hear what it was saying with her ear still ringing from the earlier attack. Twilight didn’t really care about that; she was too focused on watching the Galaxy Rangers filled with pure amazement.
Blue shot an arrow made of brilliant golden energy at the monster. The monster used his guitar to block it. The Galaxy Rangers jumped down to the ground and landed right in front of the monster.
They struck a pose sticking their hooves forward ready for battle. The monster readied its guitar and hit its strings, a sound wave appeared directed at the Rangers. Yellow jumped in front of the wave and blocked it with a shield that appeared out of nowhere. The attack was absorbed into the shield and disappeared only to be redirected back from the front of the shield a moment later. Sparks erupted from the monsters and flew back grabbing its chest in pain. A second later, it got up, although with a little difficulty.
The Rangers took advantage of this and charged in to attack. Red pressed a button on her belt and a sword appeared in her hooves. She swung it at the monster and sparks appeared when it contacted. Pink and Black also pressed a button and a staff appeared in Pink’s hooves and a hammer in Black’s.
Pink swung her staff, but the monster was able to duck just in time and the weapon hit Red right in the face who was moving behind the monster. Red was sent flying into a nearby cart crashing into it. Pink's body language showed she was horrified and stood there stunned and received a blow in the chest from a swing of the monster's guitar for her trouble and went flying back. Black was also stunned by what happened to Red, but quickly got her bearings back and swung her hammer at the monster from above. The monster tried to use its guitar to block the attack. It was blocked, but the creature was sent back a few steps. Green also moved for an attack but didn't summon her weapon like the others. She struck the creature with her hooves and it recoiled in pain at the blows. It was too stunned to block or dodge Black's hammer and it dropped its guitar before it could block the blow. It howled as the powerful blow hit it right in the chest and it collapsed to the ground. Black and Green moved aside with Black pulling Pink away from the monster much to Twilight's confusion.
The reason became apparent quickly as Blue pressed a button on her belt again and her energy gathered around the bow and went into the string. Blue, for some reason, took the bow in her hooves and stood up on her hind legs and pulled the bow back.
“Omega Arrow Crusher!” Blue yelled and let go of the string. An arrow all the colors of the rainbow was released and struck the prone monster trying to get up. Blue turned around and started trotting away from the creature. The monster exploded in a giant fireball. When the smoke cleared, all that was left were pieces of carrot.
All the ponies watching cheered stomped their hooves or whooped. Twilight stomped her hooves in approval. This was more than she ever imagined. She had never seen such power in her life. She had to study it!
Red got up from the cart and dusted herself off and the other Ranges ran to see if she was alright. Twilight rushed in. She had a million questions to ask. First, she had to examine the belts. However, before she or any other ponies could get close, the Rangers teleported away. They just disappeared in a beam of light into the sky and were gone. Twilight stood there stunned.
“Yeah, they always do that.” The magenta colored mare said. “They never give you enough time to get an autograph.” The mare gave a sigh.
"Oh well." Twilight thought. "I'll just have to figure out who they are." Twilight suppressed her excitement. First, she decided to change her plans a bit and do interviews and learn what she could from the townsfolk. She already had a good cover story planned.
“It’s awful!” A voice said behind Twilight.
“It’s horrible!” Another said.
“What?! Another monster?!” Twilight exclaimed.
“This pot of lilacs just got knocked over!” The pale-yellow coat yelled dramatically. She pointed to a potted flower that had been knocked over and was now lying sideways on the ground. A little bit of its dirt was falling out of it onto the ground. The three collapsed to the ground and it looked like they just passed out.
“The horror! The horror!” The raspberry coated mare exclaimed.
Twilight watched in bewilderment as the three mares twitched on the ground. “I really need to get going! Good luck with...whatever you are doing!” Twilight left the scene confused about what just happened.
---
Corona watched on her crystal ball as the ponies known by the mortals as the Galaxy Rangers shot down her newest creation. She gave a snort of irritation. Not that she was surprised by the failure, but that it did so little to its enemies. They had grown so powerful. Corona doubted ten of her monsters at once could best them now. Every encounter seemed to make them even more powerful. Corona resisted the urge to smash everything in sight out frustration.
The Queen of the Sun was sitting in the study of her castle. It was well furnished with a rich red couch and matching chairs. In front of the couch was a table with a crystal ball on it. The room had bookshelves of old books and tomes. Some of them forbidden and full of knowledge best forgotten to time, but Corona liked to keep that knowledge nearby just in case. The walls had pictures of long gone friends, lovers, and of her and her sister as fillies.
No, that would help nothing. Corona thought as it would destroy her favorite furniture. She would just need to think of a better way. Still, she did get some pleasure out of ruining that orange maned Ranger's prized carrot. It seemed she planned on entering it in a fair and had grown an impressively sized carrot with her earth pony magic. Not anymore, though, it had been destroyed by the very one that grew it. Even if it didn't win, transforming it into a monster was an amusing sight.
Corona stepped off from her setting position from a large comfortable pillow and started pacing around the room. She needed some way to make her creations stronger since her current method wasn’t working. Infusing an object with the power of a star beast wasn’t enough. Perhaps using an animal would make it more powerful? It was a gamble though and she hadn’t attempted it yet for three reasons. One, the will of the creature might interfere with the magic Corona used to control and subdue it. The power of the star beast might amplify that will. Two, in her studies of this spell, she had never seen a case of it used on an animal or somepony. She had no idea what the result might be. And three, it was a cruel thing to do to any creature.
Corona spent the next ten minutes pacing and debating the issue in her head. She was desperate and she needed an edge. As cruel as it would be, if it worked the sacrifice of one creature won’t be so bad. After all, getting her incompetent and misguided sister off the throne and defeating her Rangers would be worth it.
“Spike!” Corona yelled. The baby dragon dutifully entered and bowed respectively.
"Yes, my Queen," Spike said with some quaver in his voice.
“Your Queen desires a two-layer chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache frosting! Make it post haste!” Corona ordered.
Spike bowed again. "Yes, sir! My Queen majesty sir!" He left to do as he was ordered.
Corona decided to think it over a snack. She briefly thought of using Spike as a test subject since he proved quite useful as muscle when she aged him back on the Longest Night to attack Trixie and her friends before they became the Rangers but dismissed it quickly. He was too valuable to waste. No one made a two-layer chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache frosting like he could. His culinary skills were excellent and Corona would be a complete foal to sacrifice him. He was also very good at keeping her little hidden castle on the moon tidy. No, she would keep him and his delicious cake close for centuries to come.
It didn’t take long for Spike to bring the dessert of perfection and set it on the table. Corona nodded to Spike. “You may go.” Spike nodded again and left the room with haste. Sadly, the baby dragon was always skittish around her. A behavior she would have to fix.
Corona dove her face into the cake and moaned in pleasure. She licked her lips and did another dive into the cake. She decided she would have to make a sacrifice. A pony seemed preferable since their natural magic would make the star beast magic even stronger. As soon as she finished she would contact her spy in Equestria to find a suitable candidate. The time for games was over.