Mighty Morphin' Power Ponies: Origin Story

by FelixTheBrony

Red Ranger!

Red Ranger

Applebloom opened her eyes to find herself back at Sweet Apple Acres, surrounded by the Gala trees in the western orchard. The leaves bright green and the fruit plump and ready to harvest.

Thinking that she had taken a nap and overslept, she shook her head and rolled onto her stomach, taking a closer stock of her surroundings. That was when she noticed that she wasn't alone.

“Ah, you're finally awake!” A red Unicorn stallion with a white main exclaimed, happily, before pausing. “Well...not 'awake' awake but-well you know what I mean!”

Applebloom blinked and tilted her head to the side. “Um...Who are you?”

“Oh forgive me, I haven't introduced myself,” The red pony said, lowing his head in respect. “I'm Tyranno, spirit of the Tyrannosaurus power coin.”

Applebloom blinked again, tilting her head to the side. “Blunt.”

He shrugged. “I find it best to just let the pony know what they're getting into before they take my test,” He explained, before straightening himself out and waved a hoof towards the left. “Now then, we begin here.”

Applebloom turned and was surprised to find herself, albeit much younger, constantly kicking a tree behind her, at most getting one or two of fruits down at a time.

“You used to be quite the determined little tyke,” She heard and glanced back at the pony. “Always trying your best to find what you were meant to do. That's why you formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders, right?”

“That don't exist no more,” Applebloom clarified, looking at her younger self fondly. She did look rather adorable but, at the same time, incredibly exhausted.

“No, you disbanded when Scootaloo got her cutie mark,” Tyranno mentioned, offhandedly, causing her to look up in shock. “I'm in your head, sweetheart, I know all of this.”

“...oh,” She was unsure, whether or not, she should be freaked out by this. “...So when do Ah fight the slime monster-”

“That was young Featherweight's test,” He interrupted, waving his hoof around the area. “You didn't think all of your tests would be the same, did you?”

“...Well maybe.”

“Kid, each of you has a test based on who you are or what you've done and, as I'm sure you've noticed, you're not Featherweight,” He clarified, noticing that the younger Applebloom finally collapsed on the ground, glancing at her own blank flank in self pity.

“Featherweight had to deal with his bravery. He spends his time hiding from the world, behind his camera and such, he needed to learn how to do things he was afraid to do. Scootaloo had to deal with her emotions, to control them better and to not let them build up to an uncontrollable rage. Pipsqueak had to learn to stand up for himself, not to be weighed down by his differences. Sweetie Belle had to learn to not be so pessimistic, to realise that the only one holding her back from what she wanted was herself...”

He paused as he finally noticed the younger Applebloom start to cry at her blank flank. “And you, my dear, need to learn to have confidence in yourself.”

The older Applebloom's eyes widened and she was about to argue that she is confident, before he silenced her. “I know that you have performed with your friends in front of crowds before but tell me, if you were to go out on your own, in front of everyone you know and share a talent, would you?”

“No, of course not! Because Ah don't have a talent!” Applebloom yelled, getting tired of the pony in front of her, waving a hoof towards her flank. “If Ah did Ah'd have something ta show fer it, wouldn't Ah?”

Tyranno put on a stern expression, before the scene shifted to the CMC clubhouse that another version of herself was currently fixing up. “You didn't get a cutie mark for that, did you?”

“Ah don't have anything on mah flank, obviously tha answers n-”

“But that doesn't make what you did any less impressive!” He interrupted, looking up at the young Applebloom looking over the completed clubhouse, before looking at her flank, flinching and looking to the ground, depressed. “And yet there you are, acting as if you just spent the whole time playing tic tac toe with yourself.”

Applebloom glared back. “Well Ah may as well have fer all tha good it did!”

The scene fast forwarded again, this time to a Twilight Time where Applebloom perfected potion able to accelerate the growth of an apple tree, from seed to tree, from a few years to just a few days.

“That was an incredible feat you did there. A potion used by your family all over the world, able to gather food throughout the year, as much as they want. Scientists up in Canterlot are currently working on synthesizing it to work on any fruit or vegetable. They believe that you may be the pioneer to solving world hunger.”

The younger Applebloom sighed and hung her head as she noticed her flank was still blank. “And you look like you just made tea for the first time.”

“Yeah yeah, it was impressive, but all Ah did was make, like, two changes in one of Zecora's potions. Given a couple of months an' she'd be the one who did-”

“You don't know that,” He interrupted again, waving to a formula scribbled on Twilight's board in the background. “It took Twilight years to work out what was wrong with the equation of her temporal displacement spell. She carried a two instead of a three on one sum.”

He turned to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Being able to change what a potion does like that is no easy task, even if they seem like simple changes to you, other ponies may not even see what you did. There are reasons those scientists haven't yielded results yet.”

“Well if'n that's tha case then why don't Ah have mah cutie mark yet!” Applebloom cried out, frustrated, tears coming to her eyes. “Ah've tried everything and nothing has worked, even tha stuff Ah was good at didn't work! Karate, carpentry, science, potions, farming, crochet, hoof-ball, tennis, teaching-None of it!”

Tyranno shifted the scene again, this time to her in her room...From last night.

She looked at the Applebloom from yesterday, staring at her flank in sadness, the weariness in her eyes and the frown on her face.

Tyranno sighed. “It's because you gave up.”

Applebloom blinked and looked up at him as he continued. “It happened a while ago, after CMC comedians didn't work, just after you performed at the talent show with your friends. You do this every night. Look at your flank with a frown, sometimes you cry, sometimes you hit yourself, sometimes you punch your pillow, but you always go to bed with a frown. Like you hate yourself or something.”

“...And what if Ah did?” Tyranno blinked and turned to find Applebloom's tears falling, but no sobs or anything escaping her. “Ah don't know what's wrong with me, Ah've tried everything to find mah special talent but nothing has ever worked...It got to tha point where Ah just...knew that Ah wasn't special. That Ah had nothing to help me stand out, Ah'd just be an untalented blank flank...ferever.”

---

“Is she crying?” Pipsqueak asked, looking at the stock-still yellow pony in front of them, tears falling from her eyes.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle flinched as memories of their own tests rushed back to them. “Guess Applebloom's test must be going kinda roughly, huh?”

Spike ignored Scootaloo's comment, opting instead to panic, reaching out a claw to hold Applebloom's hoof, securely, in his grasp. Ah man, why did I make her do this?! If she's not worthy of the coin she could...

Ignoring the odd looks he was getting from the other four, he extended a wing to try and comfort the pony, despite the fact that she probably couldn't feel it, and probably didn't even know that he was here. Please be okay, Bloomy.

---

Applebloom sniffed as she felt something wrap around her, but as she squinted her eyes open there was nothing there, just a sympathetic looking red pony.

She wiped her eyes of her tears. “I don't need your pity...”

“Now, now. I'm not-”

“Yes you are!” She said, turning away. “This is why Ah don't talk ta ponies about this! Ah'll get that look! Ah'm a big pony, Ah can take care of mahself!”

“And why should you need to?”

“Because Ah-” She blinked, not expecting that question. “What?”

“I asked why you should need to be a lone wolf when, by my account, ponies are very social creatures,” He explained, looking over her. “And you appear to have a few ponies here for you right now.”

She looked around herself before he stopped her. “Not physically, obviously, but in spirit. There to catch you when you fall. Why cut your only safety net, hmm?”

He tapped a hoof to the ground, showing the inside of the Castle of Friendship, seeing Spike hugging her to his side via wing, both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo giving unheard words of encouragement and Pipsqueak and Featherweight giving their own support, albeit a lot more subdued then the other three.

“You have a group of friends, ready and willing to help you with anything you might need help with and you choose to shut them out. That sounds somewhat selfish, but I know that wasn't the intent,” He explained, waving a hoof towards them.

“Well it's silly, really!” Applebloom shot back, looking down. “Ah mean it's just a cutie-”

“Buck the cutie mark, this is about your self-esteem!” She flinched at his harsh tone. “Is getting your cutie mark suddenly going to make you love yourself, or are you inevitably going to be disappointed by what it is!”

“Society builds itself around our darn cutie marks!” Applebloom yelled back. “If you don't have a cutie mark, you have nothing!”

“You have friends-” He shot back. “-and that should be all that matters! A picture on your butt isn't going to magically solve all your problems! You just told me that you hate yourself! That's not something that's going to go away overnight!”

Applebloom started to breath heavily as the thought of attacking Tyranno came to mind. Though she knew that was a stupid idea. He's the spirit of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, there was no way she was going to do any damage.

He noticed her back down and sighed in defeat. “Forget it, this was a waste of time,” He said as he turned to leave. “You can find your way out though the castle door, failure-”

That tore it, as Applebloom screamed in rage and charged the pony, squatting down to swipe his legs out from under him, causing him to fall onto his side painfully, and drop kicked his stomach.

“Now you listen here you chicken limbed, quasi-philosophical crud spewer, Ah was brought here to git some power so Ah can help catch Twilight's killer an' Ah'm gosh well going to get that! Spike and Twilight'll be countin' on me and Ah ain't going to let them down, ya hear me!”

He looked up as Applebloom sat down on his chest, using one of her fore-hooves to pin both of his over his head, her other one griping his horn, ready to twist in case he started to charge a spell.

“Ah ain't gonna sit there like some yellow-bellied coward while mah friends go try and catch some deadly assassin on their own. Ah'm getting that power ta help them and do you know why? Cause when Ah put mah mind ta something, Ah do it! Mah feelings in the matter don't matter when mah friends are countin' on me!”

She grit her teeth as she gripped his horn a little tighter. “So do your worst!”

She prepared several techniques in mind, ready for him to try and twist his lower body to roll the two over. A simple twist in the opposite direction will allow her the momentum advantage to throw him away enough so that she could get up and get ready for his next attack...

...What she didn't expect was for him to start laughing.

She grit her teeth harder, making sure her head was out of headbutting range. “What's so funny?”

“That's what I was looking for! Your drive!” She blinked as he started to disappear in front of her.

She looked back and brought her hooves up, expecting a teleport strike, but what she wasn't was a power morpher and jacket to appear on herself. “You fight for your friends, that's where your confidence lies. But remember to allow your friends in! Let them know about your problems. They will help you and they won't think any less of you.”

“You need to believe in yourself and be able to strive forward, even if the situation seems hopeless. That's what it means to hold the power...”

She flash-backed to last night, and remembered that she felt incredibly lonely, sad and miserable.

Let them in, She thought to herself, letting out a small smile as her friends now surrounded her, all giving words of encouragement, placing their hooves on her shoulders, giving small hugs etc. And they'll love me all tha same.

“It's morphin' time!”

---

Everyone backed away when they heard her shout. Tyrannosaurus

They then saw her wearing a red version of the ranger suit, the helmet looking like an open T-Rex head with teeth surrounding the visor.

She got up onto her hind hooves, placed her fore hooves on her hips and held her head up in the air. “Red Ranger!”

---

The ponies of Ponyville where all just going about their day, enjoying the sun and the company of their friends around the town.

From within Sugarcube Corner, Big Mac, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Golden Delicious, Thunderlane, Rarity and the Cake and Mash family were all finished setting up Pinkie's Birthday Party.

Rainbow Dash herself sighed in relief and fell back onto Big Mac's side as they took in their surroundings. “I'd say the place looks great, think Pinkie'll like it?”

Big Mac let out an 'oof' as the full weight of the pregnant pony landed on him and he smiled. “Shucks you girls set it up fer her, she'd be happy if you had gotten her a card from Barnyard Bargains.”

“Yeah but still-”

“Um guys? Did we invite Thorax?” Thunderlane asked from the door, causing the group inside to look up at him.

“I don't think so, why?” Applejack asked, motioning for Golden Delicious to go and play with Pixel Bit as she moved towards the door and noticed a group of, like, thirty changelings flying towards the town.

“Those guys don't look-” Was as far as he got before the changelings started to fire on the town.

Comments

[ponylover2]

I love this chapter a lot keep uploading more chapters when u get a chance that is I'll b waiting my friend