• 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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The Feral Five

Another day had passed and the Rainbooms were all in Elaris's ship. After having fixed a number of things within the bridge, they now focused their efforts on the forge and the practice range. To be more precise, they were running their own combat simulations against Wolfpack Hounds.

"Rainbow Dash! Vault over that wolf and switch to shotgun mode!" Elaris pointed out.

"Got it!" Rainbow did so on command, grabbing onto the sides of the lunging hound, morphing her guns as she clambered over his body. She fired a round from the shotgun, destroying the footsoldier instantly with a shrapnel blast to the face. She then flipped it back over her head and blew another wolf's head off with another burst. "Booyah!"

"Pinkie! Cannonfire on those wolves, before they run Rarity down," said Elaris. "They can't handle an aerial assault, so do what you can to take advantage of that."

"On it. Time to go bye-bye holo-wolfies!" Pinkie bounced once, twice, then three times before flying over the heads of the wolves and letting her twin party cannons rain down a hail of confetti, which promptly glowed before exploding, coating the wolves in a shower of explosions. "No thanks needed for the heads' up, Rares."

"I wouldn't have had it any other way, darling." Rarity, using her two swords fended off a horde of wolves, leaving 'X' patterns on most of their faces and chests while impaling all of the rest.

"Alright, Sunset. I'm going to try one more time to bring in the Suncycle. If the data corrupts again, I'll stop the simulation. Are you prepared to take a ride?" Elaris asked as she played around with a console on the side of the sparring grid. "If it feels a bit bumpy, I'll fine tune it after the fact."

"Yeah. I'm ready. Let's just hope that it works this time. We need all of the stuff that we can get if we're gonna make fighting the Wolfpack easier." Sunset nodded back at the Harmonite mentor, gripping her flame sword tightly as a crowd of Wolfpack wolves swarmed on her position.

"Alright. Transmitting the Suncycle in now." She pressed a button, causing a bright red halo to form over Sunset's head, before a pillar came down on her.

Sunset leapt and arched her belly forward as if she was boarding a motorcycle. She was ready to take the Wolfpack on a ride in more ways than one. The bike formed itself and neared completion, but as she grabbed onto the handles and readied her butt to land on the saddle, a spark formed and the vehicle disappeared, causing Sunset to land ungracefully on her face, with the holographic wolves slashing away at her body before they quickly left as well. She pushed herself up from the pile of wolves that had once been beating her while she was down hoping to see her friends still in the fight. Instead, she saw that the simulation had ended for them as well, watching as they all demorphed back into their casual attire.

"What happened, El?" Sunset asked, looking up at the white-skinned alien once again. "It's still not complete yet?"

"I'm sorry, Sunset. I'm just so sorry. It always does this, no matter how much I try!" Elaris backed up, eyebrows twitching as her hands began to shudder. "You're all counting on me so much to be your leader, but this data just will. Not. Cooperate!" She yelled and punched the monitor as violently as she could. "My family paid over a hundred thousand Nebuloids for this, you know. Worthless piece of mail-order junk if you ask me!"

"I advise you to cease your aggression towards the system, Elaris. That part of my circuits was only reinstalled the last week. If you want to add it back to your workload of repairs needed to properly defeat the Wolfpack, then continue attacking it by all means," said L.U.C.Y. with a cold tone in her voice.

Elaris let out a few deep breaths, then dropped her arms as she let out a long and dreary sigh. "I'm sorry, everyone. I've just been trying so hard to power ourselves up after what happened with Siel'Viz. I mean, first of all, Rarity becomes the White Paladin, then we hear this Omega Pack saying that Mar'Zek's let out five wolves who nearly managed to kill him. At this rate, I feel like we're getting nowhere in terms of strength. We're just constantly trapped in the same place over and over again."

"Hey, hey. Chill out, girl. We'll be able to work out the kinks eventually. We just need some more time to properly get it all hooked up and ready to go. No biggie, really." Rainbow Dash stepped out of the range, walked over to Elaris and wrapped her arm around her shoulders.

"I can wait for a power upgrade. Even if I don't get one, I'm still confident that we can handle whatever the Wolfpack throws at us." Fluttershy was the next to step out of the range and offer her embrace towards the crestfallen alien. "After all, Rarity took down one of Mar'Zek's inner circle, so that definitely counts to how strong we've gotten since then, right?"

"Still. It's the Wolfpack. They're going to be throwing everything that they've got at you. It's a war of attrition and they can still keep going. We can't!" Elaris moaned and threw herself to the ground before everyone. "And no matter what I do, it's never good enough! All I can do is sit on the sidelines and get everyone else to do everything for me. All it's gotten me is pain. I lost my friends, I lost the crystals to Mar'Zek, and now I'm going to lose this battle with his army! I just..." She let a small tear drop. I'm just holding you all back, aren't I?"

"Hey, El... It's fine." Sunset Shimmer brushed her stomach off and squatted down to Elaris's weeping body. "There's no need to get so worked up about it. "We're always going to have your back when it comes to this kind of thing. You can't just give up after so many failed attempts, right?"

"Science is never easy. That much can be said for any species. Any planet. Any form of life, even. But we never just call it a failure after a bunch of mistakes." Twilight Sparkle sat down with Elaris and patted her on the back. "The beauty about science is that it's always worth it to keep on trying out new ideas based on what went wrong and improving off of that. Trial, error, and improvement."

"But I've tried so many—" Elaris was about to continue when a finger placed itself on her lips.

"Don't try and keep whining about it. Just keep doing what you do. And don't stop until you find a solution that works. Look over in great detail what went wrong and try to find a new way to get around the problem. There's a solution for everything, girl. You just need to find the one for this little conundrum. Then, when you crack it, you'll feel much better for doing so." Twilight took the finger off of Elaris's lips. "Trust me. I've been through so many attempts when it comes to properly programming stuff for me, my family, and my friends. It's never right the first time. That's where the old saying comes from. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

"That's right. We didn't succeed when it came to battling Mar'Zek himself, but that's why we're going to try again. And again. And again. Until finally, we put that mangy old dog out to pasture and tear his fleet from the roots up!" Applejack gave Elaris a firm nod as she folded her arms. "You can count on that."

Suddenly, the alarm went, filling the room with a red hue. The other rangers hurried off to meet the call to action, leaving Sunset and Twilight alone with Elaris.

"Listen, El. You don't need to work so hard for us. We'll find a way to fix that part of the ship as well. We'll find a way to create the Suncycle for me and whatever other stuff the forge can put out, alright? But for now, you just need to take it easy and leave the rest to us." Sunset gave her a nod before rushing out with her friends.

"And besides, while they're gone, I can help you out with the machines. I've got a lot of experience when it comes to this kind of stuff, so finding out what went wrong and working around it should be a cakewalk." Twilight wrapped her arms around Elaris's chest and pulled her back onto her feet. "But first, I think you'd need to show me how most of this stuff works. I don't really know how to get into the inner workings of Harmonite technology just yet."

"Thank you, Twilight. Thank you and all of your friends." Elaris let one more droplet fall from her eyes before a smile came back to her face.


The Rainbooms—now kitted up as the Equestrian Star Rangers once again—dashed towards the site of the ruined power station, where the attacker had been triangulated. They fumbled around whatever remained of the site's wreckage with cranes over their heads. Obviously, work had gotten started on trying to fix what had happened to the place after Livewire's attack. But none of the girls had time to think about how long it would take the people of Canterlot to clean up the mess that the Wolfpack had left behind; especially when there were some more of their agents roaming around nearby.

When the Rangers came to the ruins of the cooling towers for the power plant, they saw a sight that they weren't expecting to see. Captain Mar'Zek, the leader of the Wolfpack. His back was turned to them but his sword and the glaring hues of purple energy seething off of it were seen clear as day.

"Rangers. At long last, we meet each other on the battlefield once again." He turned to face the girls, a sadistic glint in his eye as he unsheathed his sword and held it out before them. "Let me just say that I am pleased with your progression. You have managed to slay Siel'Viz. My right hand. My old partner when I was in the war for the Lupus Conglomerate. I mourn her loss, but at the same time, her weakness needed to be culled or her in its' place."

"So you want to fight us again, knowing that you want to see how we perform because Rarity got a power boost?" Sunset cocked a brow as her sword's flame glowed brighter.

"No. I will not fight you yet. The loss of my friend has angered me, awakened the rage that I had long since sated. Trust me, girls. My anger is proof that I deserve to lead this pack to the ends of existence and beyond. If I were to fight you here, it would be mercy. And mercy is a strict law that we do not ever pass onto our foes." He said, lowering the sword. "However. There are some wolves that you will fight. If not here, then later down the line."

Mar'Zek leapt into the air, allowing five more wolves to step out of the shadows. One was dressed in majestic clothing, looking like the epitome of a queen, complete with diamond-studded tiara and two golden bladed warfans. Another showed itself as a rugged wolf armed with a giant sniper rifle, as well as scars across his body from head to toe and a belt made entirely out of bullets. The third newcomer was also male, yet his appearance was vastly different. He was kitted completely in a chrome suit with electronic lights running up and down it. The fourth was a gnarled wolf, twitching with every single move, lurching randomly out towards the Rangers with nothing more than his bare claws and not a single piece of armour. The fifth and final wolf to step out was the largest of all of them, looking like a titan by comparison. He donned armour that was draped in pictures of the sun, complete with a chestplate showing half of the celestial object in question.

"So. These are the Power Rangers that we've heard so much about?" The female wolf asked, before turning her head and letting out a sadistic chuckle. "So undignified. They hold no place in our court and no claim to the Perfect Ones' Crystals."

"True, true. But they make good hurty-dolls, don't they?" The twitchy wolf asked, before scurrying over to Rarity's side, clutching her arm and pulling her in close. "Look at those suits. Those shiny tin suits with flesh inside. I want to just pull it apart and see the little girly-girls inside." He leapt over her to see Pinkie and Fluttershy close up. "Hurty dolls are so, so much fun when you can see their faces. Helmets are bad! Bad! They're censoring you for no reason, hurty dolls! Don't you want to show me your faces?!"

"Forgive the abhorrent ways of my colleagues. They have just been released from the Alpha Slayer's prison and have been dying to meet you." The titanic wolf came over to the crazy one and pulled him back to the side of his comrades. "If anything, you do look ravishing, ladies. Perfect material for when we beat you within an inch of your life and take those crystals from your hands."

"Excuse me, but who even are you?" Pinkie Pie asked, tipping her hand outward.

"This is Mah'Jehs'Tie." The titan pointed to the regal wolf. "Then, Uon'Buh'Leht." He pointed out the sniper next. "The wolf in chrome is known as Uhp'Grahy'der, the... mentally unstable one is known as Deh'Mehn'Sha. And I am Ahl'Maih'Tie." He slammed his fist to his chest. "Together, we are known as the Feral Five. The five wolves so feared by the pack that we were sealed for their own sanity."

"You stand no chance, Rangers. Forfeit the crystals now and we can end this silly facade," Uhp'Grahy'der spoke with a dual-toned accent which sounded half-robotic and half-human. "Trust me. It's for your own good and ours. We've been promised permanent freedom if we can please the captain. And by showing him that we are all-powerful, he'll have no choice but to end our incarceration."

"Yeah, right. And let you take over the world and every other world? Not gonna happen." Rainbow activated her geode and dashed for the Feral Five, only for Uhp'Grahy'der's suit to glow a radiant shade of neon green as he charged at Rainbow in response. Just as she was about to change her gun, she felt a violent punch ram into her helmet, shattering the visor and slamming her into the remains of the tower, where she promptly tumbled like a ragdoll to the ground.

"Terra Hammer!" Applejack swung her hammer out at Uhp'Grahy'der, forming splits in the earth, only for him to slalom through every split before he slid under her legs and glowed once more. He effortlessly lifted her up and ran for the other rangers, using her as his own oversized club to knock them all down before leaping back to his crew.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, ladies. Whatever powers you may have, they're nothing before me. I've been kitted out with some of the most advanced tech in the armoury. You're not going to defeat me." He walked back to his peers. "I could crush you right now if I wanted, but yadda, yadda, yadda. The Wolfpack can't kill weaker opponents. Bunch of hooey if you ask me..."

"At the very least, we can take out some of our pent-up anger on the lot of you." Uon'Buh'Leht pulled out his rifle, loaded a bullet, and aimed at the Rangers. "Helmet or no helmet, this is going to hurt you. A lot." He looked down the sights of his gun, as crosshairs formed on the display over the Rangers, flashing bright red and letting out a buzzing noise as he pulled the trigger.

A sniper bullet careened into Applejack's chest. As it landed, it went through a small portal before reappearing and striking Pinkie's chest. Then it went through another portal and landed on Fluttershy, then Rainbow Dash, then Sunset, and finally Rarity before returning to the magazine of the rifle.

"One shot, so much collateral damage, wouldn't you agree?" Uon chuckled to himself as he vanished, taking a perch atop one of the nearby cranes. He let another shot fire at the pounded rangers, hitting them all once again with the portal effect, causing them all to demorph. "Just some target practice before we have our real scuffle." He chuckled, his refined accent showing as he went back to the group.

"Now then. Just as I thought, you're not very beautiful underneath all of that metal, are you?" Mah'Jehs'Tie let out a fiendish cackle as her eyes glowed a shade of lime, the fans forming a pattern with energy of a similar colour. She swung the fans out at the rangers, turning everyone but Rarity into a stone statue with a single wave of energy. "And that just proves it. My Beauty Judgement is never wrong. Most of you are unfit to look at me. On the other hand, you, my dear might actually be interesting. I look forward to our little brawl, White Ranger."

"Wh-what did you do to my friends?!" Rarity asked, trying to stand up as she looked at the stone likenesses of her fellow Rangers.

"Beauty Judgement sees my beauty as the highest in the battlefield. Anyone and everyone within range is turned to stone if they are not as pretty as I am. Seeing as how you are immune to its' effects, it means that you are just as ravishing as I am. But that still means that I will have to fight you for that crystal. As for the other five, they are utterly useless to you when fighting against us." She swung the fan back, turning the statues back into the Rainbooms. "I'd rather let you breathe a few more days. It's no fun having to waste a powdered nose and the finest make-up this side of existence against brats who don't know the first thing about beauty."

"Beauty, schmeauty! Who needs it when you're fighting against meanies like you?" Pinkie yelled out, clutching her chest in pain.

"Yes, yes, yes! That's it! Get angry, my little hurty dolls! You look so much fun to play with when you're angry. Ooh! I'm going to have so much fun dressing you up, brushing your hair, melting your minds so that you play just like me on the battlefield, oh, it's good to be back!" Deh'Mehn'Sha clapped his hands in a rapid fashion as he picked everyone else up. "Hurty dolls, hurty dolls! How I love my hurty dolls! So much fun when they get beaten and beaten and beaten some more! And even more fun when they see life the way I see it!" He barrelled into Applejack, driving his claws into her head. "INSANITY!" He bellowed, pumping Applejack's head with black energy which turned her eyeballs a similar colour. He then vaulted off of Applejack, squealing to himself as he watched the country girl rise back up onto her feet.

"Applejack? Applejack, what's wrong?" Sunset asked as she watched Applejack morph back into her ranger form, bearing the Terra Hammer in the sunlight.

"You're not sane. You're not happy. You don't ever need your sanity to be happy!" Applejack swung her hammer out towards the Rainbooms, maniacally slamming it into the ground as she let out a demented laugh. "Sanity is weak! Sanity holds us back! Who needs sanity to be happy?! My family never need sanity but they still have it! My family are stupid because they have their sanity! Sanity is a bad thing! We need to get rid of it to be happy again!" She ran around, chasing the Rainbooms down with her hammer, leaving lots of smashed rubble in her wake as she tried to hurt her friends.

"Do you like it, hurty dolls? That's just a little bit of my Insanity for you. It's a magical ticket into a happy-go-lucky wonderland where you can see the world how you want, do what you want, enjoy life the way you want it. And all the while, you've got no clue as to what's going on around you. Not that you ever needed a clue. I never need a clue. Do you need a clue, who in the name of Mar'Zek needs clues?!" Deh'Mehn'Sha called out, still shivering from head to toe. "Applejack sees nothing but what she wants to see. She's seeing moles tearing through her orchard when really the moles are you. She's hurting you, hurty dolls! Just like a hurty doll acts. They hurt others, they get hurt, and their reason for existing is only to cause pain for themselves and for others! Truly, the best toy the universe ever gave, isn't it?"

"Applejack! Stop it!" Sunset ducked a hammer swing. "We're supposed to be friends!"

"Friendship is not sanity! No friends ever need to be sane to be happy!" She brought the hammer down inches away from Sunset's crotch.

"In her mind, she actually said, and I quote; 'get off of Sweet Apple Acres, you darn varmints.' But you'd never know that from looking at her, would you?" He grinned sadistically. "Well, I think playtime is over for today." He reached his hand out to Applejack's head, sucking all of the black magic out of it. "But don't worry, my little hurty dolls. We'll play again very soon, I just know we will."

As soon as Applejack felt the insanity leave her mind, her muscles became increasingly heavy. She demorphed once more and fell into Sunset's arms, dropping the hammer as it too faded away with her suit."Wh-what in the world was I doing?" She asked herself, looking into Sunset's eyes. She turned to see the rest of her friends, breathing heavily as they were splayed across the wreckage.

"I would show you just what I can do, but I would rather not. This is clearly a waste of our time and talent." Ahl'Maih'Tie glared at the felled Rainbooms. "Just as the Captain proved; you are weak. You will remain weak. And by the time you get strong enough to face us, it will be far too late for you and your world. Consider your jobs done, Equestrian Star Rangers." He clicked his fingers. On command, he and the rest of the Feral Five vanished through portals back onto the Alpha Slayer flagship.

"Do you see us now, Power Rangers? You stand no chance. At least, not yet." Mar'Zek stepped back into the ring, looking at all of the girls. He personally reached down and pulled them all up. "But that's what you do. You appear weak, then you grow stronger. After all. Your White Ranger became the White Paladin and felled my right-hand. Surely, the rest of you have an ascendant form ready and waiting to battle the Wolfpack?" He looked around at the girls, who could only shake their heads. "No? A shame then. Well, if it's any consolation, the offer still stands for you to join us. You can have everything you want and more as long as—"

"Never." Sunset seethed, slapping his paw away with the back of her hand.

"Well, that was fast." Mar'Zek deadpanned. "But you should know that there is no point trying to fight for this planet any longer. The Wolfpack have won; claimed this world for our own, and all of the heroes that reside on it. The more that you try and resist us, the more pain and pressure you put upon yourselves, Power Rangers. If you wish to prove me wrong, then by all means. Defeat the Feral Five and prove that this world still has some form of value to you." He opened his own portal and returned to the bridge of his ship, leaving the Rainbooms in the wake of the wrecked power plant.

"Sunset... How are we going to beat these wolves?" Fluttershy asked, trying to fight back her pain as she tried to stand up once more. "They're... far too strong!"

"Yeah. They totally whooped our butts into next year..." Pinkie was rubbing her own bottom to emphasize. "How are we gonna come back from this?"

"I don't know, girls. I don't know. Not unless we get some help..." Sunset grabbed onto one of the edges of the walls and pulled herself onto her feet. "The Omega Pack..."

"We are the Omega Pack. We're the lowest of the low in his food chain, but can be valuable assets in yours. We will talk again, Power Rangers. For now, know that the Omega Pack has your back."

"That's what they said, right? They're the lowest in the Wolfpack, yet they're willing to defect?" She asked the other girls, who simply let out pained noises in response. "Well, right now, we need all hands on deck if we're going to get ourselves back in the fight with the Wolfpack. And this Omega Pack might be just what we need to do it..."