• Published 28th Mar 2017
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Equestria Rangers - Shadowmane PX-41



Following a meteor shower in the city of Canterlot, Sunset Shimmer and her friends are about to transform into a new generation of heroes...

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Stepped on a Livewire

Twilight ran back into the ship with Elaris, helped her back into the pilot's seat and reactivated the console, bringing up a video feed of the Megazord standing adamantly on the beach. From there, Elaris pounded hectically on the keys of her console, trying to find some data on Livewire.

"That guy was pretty tough. I just hope that the girls know what they're doing." Twilight clasped her hands together as she watched the mech charge forward into the ocean.

"Those Thunder Chips we created didn't have enough data to sustain a full-time use. We should make sure to fix that once this stops," Elaris didn't stop typing, even during her conversation with Twilight. "Now then, Nimbians, Nimbians, how do we fight Nimbians?"

"Uh, forgive me for sounding a little bit off, but what's a Nimbian?" Twilight lifted a finger.

"A Nimbian can control weather to a heavy extent, to the point where it becomes the be all and end all of their power. They lived together on Nimbus-12 before it mysteriously vanished. Mar'Zek must have been responsible for that." Elaris pulled up a datafile, showing a breakdown of Livewire's body, while text in another language started to fly up a box on the right hand side of the picture. "The stronger a Nimbian's control over their weather is, the more dangerous they are. And this Livewire fellow seems especially dangerous if he was able to do all of that to the girls."

"You're telling me." Twilight winced, just rubbing her arms that she counted lucky hadn't been torn up by falling glass or bruised by other means.

"A Nimbian always has their limits. Excessive overuse of their power can have catastrophic effects, no matter how powerful they can be. Even the King of Elements, the Nimbian who ruled over everyone else on Nimbus-12 can be withered and exhausted after he uses up his strength." Elaris fiddled more with her device, establishing an audio link with the girls in the Megazord. "Rangers. Livewire's been out there for quite some time. All you need to do is survive this storm and you'll win."

"Survive? Elaris, as much as I am a fan of your little tidbits, it's not helping much right now!" Rarity cried, as a distant explosion burst into the conversation. "This Livewire is tearing us apart!"

"Even so, you need to stand tall. If he keeps on using his power like this, he'll burn himself out. That's your cue to move in for the finishing blow." Elaris removed the file on the Nimbians, restoring the video feed of the battle at hand. "If he throws the world at you, meet it. Break through his assault and cut through the storm!"

"Elaris, what are you—" But Sunset was cut off with a single push from one last button.

"You can do this. I know that you can. You've faced insurmountable odds before and always overcome them. Preda'Tor, Ahn'Taier, Para'Noia, all of them have fallen before your might, Power Rangers. Now, add another name to that list!" Elaris couldn't help but give a smile as she made a fist out of her hands.


"Do you know the last time I had to use this much power, Rangers?" Livewire asked as he threw his hand towards them, causing a wave of electrified water to crash down on the Megazord. "It was during my last raid with the Captain. Together, we pillaged and plundered the Hellfire System." He raised his hands and punched them together, making two waves spawn from the Megazord's sides, which promptly sandwiched it. "Planet after planet, destroyed. Species wiped from the face of existence, and all so we could get our hands on one single Wolfpack wolf, hiding out in the cosmos. He couldn't run from his calling, and now his pinnacle has been reached! UNLIKE YOU, who shall fall deeper and deeper into the abyss!" His tesla-ball hair wriggled and squirmed as tiny bolts of lightning crackled between them. He clapped his hands together, causing the tornado he surrounded himself with to spread, launching the Megazord back onto dry land.

In the attack, the Rainbooms were bounced around like peas in a frying pan, hitting every single corner of the cockpit, until they all smacked face-first into the windscreen and collapsed in a heap against the back.

"The Captain has grown weary, confused in his arrogance. He has forgotten the ways of old. Once I destroy you, I shall remind him of just how weak he is. I shall be the harbinger of his hubris, as I take yer crystals and finally give him the duel he so desperately wants!" Livewire snarled and flew towards the Megazord, bringing his hurricane with him. "He should have destroyed you when he had the chance. His so-called honour is vanishing with these weak attacks from his lessers. If they are simply to die, then what is the point of sending them, when he can land the sword through your necks himself?!"

"What good is honour if you Wolfpack wolves attack the people, cause untold chaos for them, rather than for us?!" Sunset leapt back up to where she was meant to stand and clung on tight, typing some commands to make the Megazord stand back up. "If anything, your 'honour' is nothing more than downright delinquency and mischief. You don't have honourable battles with your strongest rivals; rather beat them down and force them into conflict through twisted means! Well, as far as I'm concerned, you're all beyond saving because of that!"

"And what good do you know, Sunset Shimmer of the Power Rangers?!" Livewire's water drenched the Megazord, lifting it from the ground until the girls came face-to-face with Livewire. "You are not Wolfpack Wolves. Yer not well-versed enough with war and destruction to even know what the meaning of the word is for us." Livewire lobbed a volley of lightning bolts at the Megazord's windscreen, causing it to splinter, crack, and eventually shatter into pieces.

"Lightning Comb!" He declared, as he reached out for the girls, manifesting giant electrical hands that forcibly grabbed and threw the girls out onto a single solitary piece of land that had been ripped up in the storm, leaving the empty husk of the Megazord to tumble downward and separate into the six animals that formed it, before they turned into globes of light and flew back towards the town. "If ye have any sense of dignity left, you'll die right this instant for me. For the Wolfpack. You have failed to protect this world, and now we have come to collect what you owe us."

"No! It's you who's gonna be the one to go boom, Livewire!" Pinkie Pie pointed outwards with her wrist-mounted party cannons. "You meanie Wolfpack Wolves should have just left us alone!"

"Whether it was power or not, you should have just turned away and left us, rather than come to this world and hound us!" Rarity whipped out her twin swords. "Now, you've just made us angry. And we will not tolerate your brutish kind hurting the innocent any longer!"

"THEN PROVE IT." He grabbed Rarity by the throat and pumped a massive amount of lightning energy into her body. "PROVE THAT YOU CAN KILL ME. PROVE THAT YOUR SPECIES HAS SOME MEANING."

Sunset leapt out and swung her sword at Livewire, cleaving his hand clean off of its' body, releasing Rarity from its' hold. She then proceeded to grab him by the throat and swing that sword across his face repeatedly, leaving big cut marks until he just screamed, calling down another torrent of water and lightning down onto his body, knocking her back into the others.

"You're not killing my friends, Livewire. No matter what, we will be the ones to kill you first." Her eyes glowed bright red as she stood back up, a powerful aura enveloped her body and covered every square inch of it. "You have no right to invade our world, and now you are going to pay. For everything."

"For all of the chaos you Wolfpack Wolves have created, we're not just going to sit down and cry like babies!" Fluttershy took out her flute and twisted the dial. "They say you should be kind to everything you meet, but there are just some people that don't deserve it. You're one of them."

"Today, the Power Rangers are gonna put you down, turn away from your exploding body, and stand proudly as heroes. The Wolfpack can kamikaze into the planet fer all ah care, but we're not just gonna let you torment us any longer!" Applejack whipped out her Terra Hammer and swung it around in a spiral motion.

"Such bravado. Horribly misplaced." Livewire stood back up, his eyes beginning to glow pure blue, until there was no trace of them. Only blue spotlights remained in place of his eyes, as his remaining arm and legs also donned a radiant sheen of light. "VOLTIC VORTEX!"

Livewire swung his arm out towards the back of the storm, creating a clearing out towards the sea. That clearing was then filled with more and more volts of lightning, which danced around the sky, creating what looked like a ring reaching out through the ocean. Said ring conducted more and more voltage until there was nothing more than an endless stream of pure electrical matter.

"I have never been driven this far before, Power Rangers. Now, I will show ya exactly how I murdered the King of Elements. If you survive this trick, well, let's just say you'll never have to worry about pain ever again." With a click of his fingers, Livewire created a gust of wind that began to push the Rainbooms closer and closer towards the Voltic Vortex. "And just to make sure that you definitely go flying, Electric Monsoon!"

His signature move rained down on the platform, breaking it up piece by piece, splitting the Rainbooms up further and further from each other and blurring their vision of each other as the hurricane's waters gradually grew thicker and thicker Screaming at the top of his voice, Livewire sent lightning orbs careening off in every direction, groaning and howling to himself endlessly as his hair became more and more frazzled and messy. "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! BLEED! FALL! FADE! VANISH! DISAPPEAR!"

Rarity dug her blades down onto her platform and sent out diamond barriers with her geode. Though they were almost knocked off course, they still found their way to the Rainbooms and repelled Livewire's desperate attempts at hitting the girls.

"I WILL NOT BE DENIED MY DESTINY! TO SURPASS CAPTAIN MAR'ZEK AND BECOME THE NEW LEADER OF THE WOLFPACK! A TRUE GOD AMONG EVERYTHING!" Livewire screamed, his body turning into pure lightning as he reached out in every direction. "YOU POWER RANGERS ARE MERE ANTS, FOOTNOTES IN ME LEGACY! AND NOW, YER ABOUT TA BE WIPED FROM THE HISTORY BOOKS ONCE AND FOR ALL!" He fired himself out of the hurricane, went to the beach, and created another wind blast towards it, pushing the storm closer to the Voltic Vortex. "DEATH TO EVERYTHING! DEATH TO THE WEAK! DEATH TO THE STRONG! LET THEM ALL DIE FOR ME, THE KING OF STORMS!"

Sunset Shimmer, feeling overwhelmed and battered to the edge by the storm couldn't hold on anymore and tumbled off of the edge, flying out of the storm towards the Vortex on the other side. The others were quick to follow, their weapons vanishing as they lost their balance and fell from their footholds, limply spat out towards the gate of lightning.

Rarity tried to create another one of her barriers to catch the girls mid-flight, but her co-ordination had been knocked by the overwhelming amount of sensory force that was being applied. The noise was beginning to pound away at her mind and the g-forces were already playing hell with her body. She made one at last, but it only barely stopped their flight right as they were about to collide with the gate.

"So, this is it?" Rainbow Dash asked, grabbing onto Sunset's hand as the girls fell towards the sea's veil. "Are we really about to die?"

"We tried our best, but Livewire's not gonna stop." Pinkie slowly pressed her fingers on Sunset's head. "I think Dashie might be right about that."

"I... I..." Sunset wanted to find a word to counter the argument with, but all of her will to continue was being sapped by the intense storm that had surrounded her and her friends. Unable to muster up a single word, she ended up fainting mid-air, arms and legs flopping like ragdoll limbs before the other Rainbooms.

"Sunset! Sunset, wake up!" Fluttershy grabbed onto the silent Sunset and began shaking her around.

"Come on, girl. Don't do this to us now..." Applejack also clutched Sunset's body in the attempt to wake her.

The water crept closer and closer to the girls. Despite their efforts to wake her up, they couldn't break through to Sunset, and she remained motionless as they collided with the sea, buried underneath a thick layer of water, with waves still ripping through it. Together, the six rangers fell further and further into the ocean, weighed down by their suits, protected by nothing more than the oxygen in their helmets. But even that proved to be too much, as the other girls fell one by one, into a pitch-black void.


"Perfect Ones! It's not over yet!" A distant voice cut through the distorted and warped darkness within the Rainbooms' heads. A dim light began to shine in the distance, which only glowed more and more as the voice became louder and clearer. "You're supposed to beat this traitor, not roll over to his lunacy!"

When the Rainbooms came to, they found themselves on the beach's sand, still being ripped apart by the hurricane-force storm in the distance. They all got back up slowly, groaning to themselves as they tried to readjust to their new surroundings, only to find that an armoured figure was standing before them all. Clad in spiky armour with purple accents, a black 'X' mark dividing the eyes and mouth, with the single vertex on the tip of the nose. Bladed greaves were seen on the foot with smaller but just as deadly array of knife-like edges were seen on the figure's forearms. The Wolfpack sigil was seen on the chest, with a high number of marks across it, similar to the ones seen in a prison cell.

"Oh, thank the captain you're awake. For a second, I thought I was going to have to take the crystals and use them on Livewire." The helmet retracted and mechanically morphed to show the wolf beneath it.

"Wh-whoa!" That was enough to make Sunset jump back onto her feet and take our her sword. "Not another one!"

"Don't get the wrong idea, Rangers. I'm not here to kill you. Yet, that is." She bowed before them. "My name is Siel'Viz, and I am the Captain's right hand wolf. The only reason I'm not slitting your throats right now is because I've got a different mission to attend to." She turned to face Livewire, who had his feet boring into the ground with heavy breaths.

"This is... treason!" Livewire barked, sweat dripping down his forehead. "A Wolfpack Wolf killing one of their own! The Captain would be utterly ashamed of you, Siel'Viz!"

"Funny, because he distinctively told me to kill you after you so rudely hung up on him. So, I immediately took him up on that offer because, A, Vi'Al's still hard at work in his lab; B, the Captain doesn't do mercy; C, I've been wanting a fight since we first arrived on this planet, and now I finally get one." She swung her arms out, extending the claws on her arms as the mask reappeared on her face. "By the way, ladies. Appreciate you cutting off one of his arms. Saves me some time."

"Electric Monsoo—"

"Sever String!" Siel'Viz darted forward and grabbed Livewire by the throat as he tried casting his attack. From there, her blades metamorphed into a frontal cone-like guillotine edge that gouged his throat as she swung it back and forth across him. As he choked and coughed on the pain, she flung him into the air, squatted on the spot to take in energy, leapt back into the air as he began to fell and attacked so fast that she almost became invisible to the eye, with nothing more than crimson red slashes of a sharp weapon and the sound that went with it to accompany it. When she finally reappeared, Livewire had been cut into thousands upon thousands of little pieces. As Siel'Viz fell back down to earth, she ate every single last piece, before letting out a giant fire-ridden belch.

"Consider that your decommissioning, traitor." She remarked as she turned back to the Power Rangers. "I apologise for what you had to witness there, Rangers, but I haven't had a good meal in a long time. And there is nothing I like eating more than people who break the rules."

"Why? Why are you still doing this?" Sunset asked, weapon lowered as Siel'Viz walked over to her side. "I thought the Wolfpack were supposed to work together at trying to kill us; not off themselves when they step out of line."

"It was Livewire's own fault for getting too wrapped up in himself and letting his pride go before our laws," Siel'Viz answered. "He should have just obeyed orders and returned to the ship. Instead, he decided to deny Mar'Zek's orders and try to kill you of his own accord. He has no honour among us, and certainly no honour among any other species. I can guarantee you that he will not be missed or mourned; not even by us."

"You... you killed him because he was going to kill us." Applejack de-morphed along with the other girls.

"Consider it a free pass, Rangers. You won't get another." Siel'Viz scoffed. "The other Wolfpack agents are going to be trained harder and harder. And, unlike Livewire, they WILL obey orders. I can guarantee you that." She turned her back and pulled out a device, which she activated, creating a small portal back to the bridge of Mar'Zek's flagship. "And believe me, what you just saw? That's just a taste of what is to come when you finally get the chance to fight me." As she walked through the portal, it closed, causing the storm around the girls to instantly dissipate, dying down into a wonderful summer's day with clear skies and blinding sun.

"A free pass?" Sunset repeated those words to herself, over and over again as she relived the execution. "Just who are these wolves? Why are they like this? They want to kill us, then they don't want to kill us? What motive could they possibly have for keeping us alive, even after we've disappointed them?"

"Well, whatever the case, I say that we should take them up on that free pass and get out of here. We need to get more stuff from Elaris's Forge." Rainbow Dash put a hand on Sunset's back. "Plus, I'm definitely not staying around to clean up all this stuff, even with my super speed and all our other powers."

"In any case. Equestrian Star Rangers. The hunt is over, I guess?" Sunset meekly gave out her victory catchphrase, while still unnerved by what she had been through with her friends.