Equestria Rangers

by Shadowmane PX-41

The Enemy of My Enemy

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up a second here.” Rainbow Dash pushed her hands out defensively. “If Mar’Zek’s here, but the Feral Five are running the show, what exactly happened?”

“Long and short, punks decided to have a mutiny against me. Thought for sure that I was dead.” Mar’Zek gruffly retorted. “Fortunately, it helps to have some loyalists among the Wolfpack. People who were fed up with the Feral Five trying to do MY job. So, they brought me back to life.”

“Can’t tell whether that’s a blessing or a curse.” Sunset deadpanned, her sword still in hand. “After all, it just means there’s one more wolf we’ve gotta cut down.”

“I’ve neither the time nor the patience to battle any of you girls right now.” Mar’Zek turned his back. “I need to reclaim my ship from those thugs up there on the Alpha Slayer.” He blew a strand of hair that had fallen over his face. “Unless you ladies know how to fly head-first into a starship armed to the teeth with weapons capable of blasting a Mark 9 Omega-class battleship to smithereens and somehow come out unscathed, that is.”

“I’m trying right now to get us back onto the flagship, but it looks like Vi’Al’s locked us out. Of course, he would…” Kin’Dred was fiddling with a device on her arm, getting an error noise every single time she tried to activate it. “One step ahead, that guy. No wonder you hired him, Captain.”

“He’s always caring about his own agenda. Couldn’t give anyone else but himself the time of day.” A fellow scientist wolf spat at the ground. “Everything’s always facts, figures, data to him. Typical scientist.”

“So… these are… your loyalists?” Twilight asked, examining the Wolfpack scientists accompanying Mar’Zek. “I must say, it’s an awfully small bunch.”

“There’s more aboard the Alpha Slayer, trying to mess with the Feral Five’s remaining members. The chaos they bring should buy us some time to figure out a way to get back on board and finish off the rest.” Mar’Zek explained as he looked towards the clear skies above him. “I’ve had to free everyone in my brig just to try and get some order. If the Feral Five weren’t trying so hard to go against conduct, you’d think I’d gone mad.”

“Wait a second. Rewind that tape a little, buddy.” Pinkie Pie slid up to his side. “Did you just say… remaining members? As in, you’ve actually managed to get rid of some of them?”

“Yes. I simply had to dispose of Uhp’Gray’Der and Uon’Buh’Leht. Didn’t even put up that much of a fight. Regrettable sacrifices, but I’m sure I can find some other machinist and sniper to take their mantle once I get back control of the Wolfpack.” He gazed into Pinkie Pie’s visor, hoping that he was making contact with her eyes. “There’s only three members of the Feral Five left, but they’re the most dangerous of the three. I’m honestly surprised that Deh’Mehn’Sha didn’t try to put me in a trance, like he always does with his prey.”

“El? Are you getting this?” Sunset asked through her comms. “Mar’Zek’s just admitted that he’s killed off two of the Feral Five. As in, literally chopped them down in cold blood.”
“Wait, really?” Elaris sounded surprised on the other end of the line. “Well… That makes it a little bit easier for us. Not by a long shot, but it does take off some of the pressure.”

“Anything else that you can get from him?” Espy’s voice was added to the conversation. “I mean, if this really is THE captain Mar’Zek, then you need to probe him for as much as you can. Who knows? He might even cough up something about the Feral Five that we can use to bring them down.”

“I’ll see what I can find,” Sunset replied, then turned back to Mar’Zek. “So. Deh’Mehn’Sha, you mentioned?”

“Yes. He’s the scrawniest, lankiest wolf in the Wolfpack, but he is known to hypnotise, beguile, and leave everything around him completely lost in their own little worlds,” he replied. “It’s in his name, after all. Dementia does mean the complete loss of one’s sanity, after all.”

“Why don’t you tell us how to get rid of him, then? Since we’re all in the same boat together?” Fluttershy asked, taking a step forward towards the former captain, still armed with her flute. She didn’t want to be caught off-guard in case he pulled anything funny.

“The same… boat?” Mar’Zek blinked. “I fail to see what that means.”

“There’s a sayin’ we got here on Earth.” Applejack stepped forward with her hammer. “The enemy of mah enemy is mah friend. Meaning, that if you both hate something together, ya’ll can put yer difference aside and work together to put it down. At least until it’s gone.”

“How curious. Very, very fascinating. Even when divided, you find some common ground for others to stand on.” Mar’Zek muttered to himself underneath his breath, then turned towards his loyalists. “What say you? Were you aware of this ‘enemy of my enemy’ thing that Applejack just said?”

“It is a saying, yeah,” Kin’Dred replied.

“I see. And, by that logic, would it be beneficial to ally ourselves with these Power Rangers, for the time being?” Mar’Zek asked, lifting his arms. “Especially, given the circumstances? And please, be honest with me. You know how much I dislike dishonesty…”

Kin’Dred’s ears twitched. “Well, there’s another. DUCK!”

“I don’t see no ducks…” Applejack muttered before Kin’Dred shoved her to the ground as screaming jet engines split the air.

The forest exploded in a wave of fire, trees flying as Wolfpack bombers came around for another pass.

“...oh, that kind of duck,” Applejack realized. “Silly me.”

“Underhanded fools…” Mar’Zek glared up at the bombers. He knew that battalion of ships well. “So, the Feral Five really have lost all of their honour; all of their pride. Can’t even give us a moment of peace.”

He snarled and took up a combat stance. “I’ll disembowel those pilots myself!”

“No, captain!” Kin’Dred held him back before he could leap. “We’re not about to let you get killed like that again!”

“Get off of me!” Mar’Zek thrashed around in Kin’Dred’s grip. “They’re MINE!”

“In your state? Not gonna happen!” Kin’Dred barked. “You might be our captain, but a captain’s nothing without his crew to back him up. A captain who rushes off without assistance is asking for it; especially like this.”

“And you seem to forget who I am.” Mar’Zek finally got out of Kin’Dred’s hold and scampered off. “I RULE the Wolfpack. Everything else is beneath me on the food chain; including these traitors!” He climbed up the tallest tree that he could, just as the bombers came down for another run.

They approached the tree line and, as they did, he leapt at one of the ships and clawed at the underside, shredding it with a single claw swipe, causing it to leak fuel and coolant, before ultimately spinning out of control and landing face-first into the ground. Mar’Zek himself tumbled to the ground and used his claws on one of the other trees in his descent. Unfortunately for him, even as his claws ripped through the tree’s bark, he still came down as hard as he could on the ground, causing him to tumble over his body in a heap.

“Captain!” The loyalists all cried together and went off to tend to him, while the Rainbooms were all alone as the ships came roaring towards them one more time.

The guns of the ships spun up and rockets were launched from the bombers directly at the Rainbooms. In response, Applejack took up her Terra Hammer and struck the ground with it, causing columns of stone to burst up from the ground that intercepted the rockets before they even burst through the trees. Said columns were reduced to rubble by the impact, but the Rainbooms were unharmed.

That was until the guns started firing. Then, they all had to jump to their bellies and take cover as the gunfire tore up the ground around them, puncturing leaves, roots, and many more parts of the jungle around them. Another scream of the jet engines could be heard as the ships rocketed over their heads again.

“Alright, I’ve had enough of this…” Sunset muttered. “Elaris, summon the zords!”

“Roger! They’re coming your way!” Elaris replied on the other end. And as soon as she finished, rumbling sounds could be heard as, in the distance, the Rainbooms’ zords came speeding in.

“Kin’Dred… Start taking notes,” Mar’Zek said to his scientist.

“Captain?” the wolf asked confused.

“I said start taking notes. These ‘zords’ are the reason we lost so often,” Mar’Zek replied. “I want to figure out why…”

“O-of course!” She gave a nod and watched as the Rainbooms all entered their Zords and took to the cockpits.

The jets descended from the heavens, thundering down from the skies above as the Rangers combined their zords into their massive mecha form.

“Ready Rangers?” Sunset asked as the mecha readied it’s sword.

But so was the Wolfpack, the jets firing cables at the massive mecha’s legs and pulling a Empire Strikes Back, brought it down. The earth shook, trees flying like toothpicks.

“We’ve… we’ve got to get back up!” Sunset ordered, and the megazord creaked and groaned before electric shocks ran throughout its entire frame. Then two more jets swooped over, and fired a massive energy net, binding the Megazord and try as they might, the Rangers couldn’t break free.

“Hahahahahahaha!” Ahl'Mai'Tie cackled as his form lit up the sky, a massive hologram in front of the Rangers. “Consider this Uhp’Gray’Der’s last present! We’ve been working on a way to bring your Megazord down, and while it’s a shame Uhp’Gray’Der himself couldn’t be here for the main event, I think he would be proud!”

Once he finished saying this, a large rumbling could be heard from above. The clouds above everyone split apart, revealing a giant machine descending upon the battlefield. To say it was large would have been an understatement. It was snake-like in design, but was the size of a mothership. It had long tendrils growing out of the head, extending metal limbs growing out of the body, and had strips of harsh green neon light running all over its’ body. Its’ large two eyes glared down at the downed Megazord and turned red, as did the rest of the neon on its’ body.

The giant snake charged in at the Megazord and knocked it airborne, sending the Rangers hurtling against the walls. As it fell down, the snake coiled itself around the plummeting mech suit and constricted it as tightly as it could, trapping the mech in mid-air. It crackled with electricity like that of an eel, electrocuting the Rangers inside and causing a series of explosions to ring out inside the cockpit. They were all swallowed up by the smoke, until they were ejected back onto the ground, de-morphed and covered in bruises and gashes.

“Your Zords as you put them give you power. But it also makes you dependent on them. You believe they are the only way that you can win. And, for your sake, it is true,” Ahl’Mai’Tie went on. “So, that’s why, as of today, those Zords are officially prohibited. On orders of me. Ahl’Mai’Tie. God King of the Wolfpack and of the universe itself.”

He clicked his fingers, and as he did, the snake machine projected a teal bubble around itself. One that grew brighter and brighter until it disappeared, causing the machines inside to vanish completely.

“NO!” The Rainbooms all let out a cry of horror as the machines disappeared.

“Now, I grow tired of your continued existence. So, I think it’s time that we end this little charade.” Ahl’Mai’Tie went on. “If you survive—which, at this point is highly unlikely—you’re welcome to try and get your ships back. Key word being try.”

“Damn it!” Rainbow swore.

“How are we supposed to fight those jets WITHOUT A ZORD?!” Pinkie Pie shook down the other Power Rangers as vigorously as she could. “We’re doomed! DOOMED, I TELL YOU!”

“Oh come on now,” Mar’Zek said, obviously disappointed shaking his head and crossing his arms. “Don’t tell me this is what it takes to bring down Elaris’ champions. I can’t believe I lost against you idiots time and time again if you’re just going to throw in the towel when times get tough.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, we’re stuck here on the ground, while those guys have jets and are shooting at us!” Rainbow Dash threw her arms towards the jets. “How are we supposed to get rid of those jets with the weapons we’ve got right now?”

“Element of Loyalty?” Kin’Dred asked, shaking her head. “More like the Element of Giving Up.”

“Why you…” Rainbow snarled at her.

“Use your imagination, ladies. That’s what you’ve been doing so far, haven’t you?” Mar’Zek scoffed and climbed up another tree to try and hit down another ship that came charging. “I mean, look at me. I’ve lost all my weapons, all my armour, and I’m back to square one. But does that mean I’m giving up? No!”

He leapt at another ship, smashed through the windshield and cut the wolf piloting it in half. “Are you really the same Power Rangers I thought stood a chance against us? If you are, then prove it! And stand your ground!”

“But there’s nothing we can do. Nothing except…” Twilight looked down at her neck. Of course. She had been so stupid. Of course. She was a teenage girl with magical powers, along with all of her other friends. In all of this Power Ranger business, she had forgotten how the Rainbooms had dealt with all the other threats to their lives; with magic.

“Of course!” Twilight clutched at her geode and did a Pony-Up, gaining the wings, ears, and hair extensions that she and the Rainbooms were known for. Then, she reached her hand out towards one of the trees, elevated it off of the ground, and threw it at one of the ships, who barely had enough time to fly past it.

“There we go!” Mar’Zek praised. “There’s that old fire in your eyes!”

Rainbow ran in a circle, the air crackling as she spun up lightning and like a lance, she actually tossed it at one of the ships. The lightning bolt struck one of the wings, causing the ship to spin and swerve a little, spluttering some black smoke as it did so.

“So uncouth… Why didn’t I think about this sooner?” Rarity, in her new Pony-Up state, manifested a diamond shield. One that she tossed in front of one of the other jets as it came towards her. It crashed into the diamond and immediately exploded, as if it had crashed into a firm, brick wall.

“Batter up!” Applejack clutched at a tree in her new form, effortlessly uprooting it. She swung it around and held it like it was the largest baseball bat she had ever held. A little bit too chunky for her liking, but Applejack knew not to fuss with the tools she had been given. As the next jet came towards her, shooting wildly, she swung the tree and swatted the ship like it was a baseball, over the horizon, where a small smoke plume came out of where it landed. “Outta the park! Just like Babe Ruth!”

“Ooh! Ooh! Me next! Me next!” Pinkie wiggled her arm, then sped over to the nearest tree that she could. And of course, Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, it was a fairly simple job to climb said tree. She just ran as fast as she could up it, then waited at the top like a monkey surveying the jungle around it. Once a ship got close, she hid underneath the leaves, got some explosive confetti loaded up in her hands, then planted it underneath the ship as it flew over the leaves. She jumped down just as it exploded, taking the ship with it.

“There we go. That’s more like it.” Kin’Dred smirked as she watched the bombers get taken out one by one. She observed as Fluttershy was next. And, using her new wings, she hid in waiting while another ship came around. Once it noticed her, it charged at her and she let out a yelp, ducking under the trees.

The Wolfpack pilot fired on her, trying to clear her out of the trees, but she just kept on running for her life, eventually pulling back a large branch that she then snapped back once the jet got close enough. The branch smashed the windshield, causing the Wolfpack pilot to choke on the ferocious winds that thrashed against his face. He ejected himself from the ship and fell to the ground below.

“Right… Now, how can I do this?” Sunset asked herself as she stood there in wait. Her Pony-Up power was mind-reading. Fat lot of good it would do her when her enemy was soaring around in a Wolfpack fighter jet. She needed some way of reaching it. But how?

Of course.

Charging forwards, she took to the skies with wings of fire.

Burn baby burn.

She met the pilot head-on and landed on the wings. She looked into the eyes of the wolf piloting the ship, causing him to leer at her. He went for the sidearm around his waist, opened the windshield up and started firing on her. At point blank range, he was sure that he would have hit her, but she sidestepped the shots. She got closer, closer, almost touching the controls. But as soon as she was about to step into the cockpit herself, the Wolfpack pilot performed a barrel roll and shook her off. Once she was shaken off, however, he realised the error he made. Once he stabilised, another tree was directly ahead of him. And he had no time to get out of the way. So, he collided with a brief scream before the explosion drowned it out.

“Alright. Ships down. Now, we’ve gotta get our Zords back.” Sunset thought to herself as she flew back down to the rest of the team with those majestic, burning, phoenix wings of hers. She landed gracefully, as the wings on her back vanished.

“...yeah, but how?” Rainbow asked. “Like, they’re on that ship! Like, do we have to go all Lupin the 3rd and steal them back with grace and style, because I’m totes down for that!”

“Highly unlikely my hide...” Mar’Zek watched as the Rainbooms all regrouped, then stomped over to them. “We’d better get moving. If I know the Feral Five like I think I do, they’re gonna see we’re still alive and throw everything at us. And I know that without your Zords, you’re gonna be mutilated.”

“Right.” Twilight gave a nod as she went for her communications device as well. “Elaris. We need an exfiltration. Like, right now. Before the Wolfpack come back for another run.”

“I saw the whole thing, ladies. I was already heading over,” Elaris replied through radio chatter, then her ship ported in above them all. She swooped down low and opened the hatch on the rear. She was waiting on the other side. “Get in!”

“Don’t need to tell us twice!” Pinkie yelled back and scurried onto the ship, along with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight, in that order. Sunset was the last to get on, and as she looked back, she watched as Mar’Zek and the other loyalists by his side stared back at her.

“Well? Go on then, get out of here. Before the Wolfpack rip you apart!” Mar’Zek waved them off dismissively.

“Not without you!” Sunset called back. “There’s no chance you’ll survive out here all by yourself, captain! Like it or not, the Feral Five are running the show now. And you’ve seen what they’ve done to us. Imagine what they’ll do to you!”

“The captain can take care of himself, Sunset Shimmer. Focus on your own affairs and leave us to think of our own.” Kin’Dred called back over the roaring noises of Elaris’s ship engines. “We will survive. You won’t if the Wolfpack find you. So run as fast as you can and think of a plan!”

“Please, Kin’Dred. Don’t speak for me. I speak for myself.” Mar’Zek stomped forward and placed a paw on the landing ramp of Elaris’s ship. Then another, and then another. Soon, he was face-to-face with Sunset. “If you really are going to walk this path; to fight back against the Feral Five, then you need all the help that you can get. Don’t you humans use the term, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’?”

“Sunset! We need to go!” Elaris called from inside the ship. “The Wolfpack are going to find out we’re still alive if I keep the ship here!”

“Snap out of it, girl!” Rainbow Dash added from the sidelines.

“You’re… really going to side with me? With us?” Sunset asked, wide-eyed. “Even though you’re part of the Wolfpack and have been trying to kill us?”

“Don’t be stupid, we are not friends. But I would prefer to kill you myself and take this planet than let those mongrels have it,” Mar’Zek stated. “Now go, the witch is right! You are running out of time!”

“A… Alright then,” Sunset looked back at Mar’Zek one last time as he got off of the ramp and rejoined his loyalists. She then watched as the ship left the ground and the ramp retracted, prompting her to head back inside with the other Rangers. Sunset still couldn’t bear to think about what would happen to Mar’Zek all on his own like that. He was just as vulnerable as they were. More powerful, yes, but still just as mortally in danger as she and the other Rangers were. The ship flew away from the scene as fast as it could, and Sunset made it back to the bridge with the rest of her girls.

“Hey, you gave him a chance, didn’t you?” Twilight couldn’t help but raise an arm at Sunset, who slumped her shoulders in a defeated posture.

A sigh escaped our lips. “Twilight? I don’t know about you, but I think I might actually be worried for Mar’Zek down there,” she looked into Twilight’s eyes. “I mean, he’s Wolfpack, sure. And a super-powerful one at that. But you saw how the Feral Five fight, right? They fight dirty. There’s no way he’s going to survive; even with those friends of his.”

“If the captain said that he wanted to do this his own way, then we have to respect his decisions,” Elaris said as she returned to the seat of her ship, along with the other Rangers. “In the meantime, we need to think of a plan. The Wolfpack have our Zords, and we’re virtually helpless if one of their agents goes giant. We need to either get the Zords back, or find a new way to fight a giant foe. And I personally lean more towards the giant Zords. Don’t know about you.”

“Yeah, but how…?” Sunset wondered. “What, do we steal them back?”

“Wait, we’re seriously considering my phantom thief idea?” Rainbow Dash perked up, excited.

“...I don’t think any of us are flashy enough, or quiet enough to do the whole phantom thief thing,” Sunset said. “So no. No Phantom Thiefranger.”

“Awwwwww…” Rainbow, and Pinkie for that matter deflated.

“We need to figure out exactly what that thing is that schwooped away the Zords first.” Elaris tapped away at the console at her seat and brought up a communications channel with Espy. The other members of the Omega Pack were hidden behind her. “Hey, Espy? The Wolfpack just stole the Rangers’ Zords with a giant snake robot. Got any intel on that?”

“A giant… snake… robot?” Espy’s eyebrows lifted up ever so slowly as she started typing away ferociously on her console. “No... No, no, no, no, no, no, no! They shouldn’t have finished that! Especially with the chaos that’s going on upstairs!”

“Finished what?” Fluttershy asked, with a brow of her own raised.

“The Feral Five had been working on a series of machines to cripple the Rangers. Stuff cobbled together from some of their own designs with a little help from Vi’Al’s technological prowess and the data he had gathered,”

Espy began to explain as images of the snake robot appeared on the screen of Elaris’s ship. “What you just witnessed was an Anti-Zord classified bot called The Constrictor. But the last time I saw that thing, it was still only being built. How they got to finishing it so quickly is worrying girls. What are the Feral Five doing up there?!”

“Well, whatever they’re doing up there, they’re trying to ruin our lives. And from the looks of it, they’re doing a pretty good job.” Rainbow Dash grimaced. “Without our Zords, we’re screwed six ways from Sundance if the Wolfpack goes giant on us.”

“The Constrictor is explicitly designed for the capturing and impounding of enemy machinery like Zords. That being said, the Wolfpack might have improved on the design since the last time I saw it. What did you girls see when it attacked you?” Espy asked the Rainbooms. “Anything at all? Any kind of structural defects? If it was released that suddenly, then the Wolfpack must have left some kind of fault…”

“Well, it did look awfully slim…” Twilight looked at the snake closer. “And now that I think about it, everything has this… Oh, I don’t know how to explain it. Stress points! Everything has a certain amount of stress it can take, before it falls apart. If we were to somehow vibrate that snake apart… The problem is, the only thing that could do that? Why, it’d have to be the loudest sound ever heard!”

“Well, we are a band, right?” Applejack asked from her seat. “And it ain’t the first time music’s solved all our problems. Both physical and magical,” she said.

“Yes, but you don’t understand,” Twilight babbled. “What I’m talking about, it’d have to be LOUD. Like, really loud.”

“And it’s not like we can hire out Vinyl’s car again. In fact, I don’t even think that bad boy can even fly like a spaceship can,” Pinkie lifted a finger. “How are we gonna make our music so loud that it blows that thing to bits?”

“Well, you’re gonna have to rig together something. And fast,” Espy’s face came back. “If The Constrictor comes back or someone else on the Wolfpack grows, you’re not gonna be able to fight back. As for the Zords that it stole, if my hunch is correct, they’re trapped in the Alpha Slayer’s hangar. I can try and see if we can hijack them, but it’ll be awfully risky…”

“We need amps.” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “And LOTS of them. Thing is, where are we supposed to find amps when the Wolfpack still have parts of the world in their greasy paws?”

“You may not need all of them,” Espy theorized. “Just a couple. I can jury-rig them so their output is greater than normal.”

“Again. Where? Not how.” Rainbow Dash remarked. “I know how we can use amps to blow that thing out of the sky with our rockin’ awesome music, but how do we actually pick up amps when the Wolfpack are breathing down our necks?”

“Can’t we just pick some up back home?” Sunset asked. “I mean, the Wolfpack were forced out of Canterlot City after they threw everything at us. I don’t think they’d wanna try and hit it again if we did such a good job of protecting it.”

“Right, right. But we’ll still need to act fast.” Rarity pushed her fingertips together. “I’m pretty sure that the Wolfpack are sick and tired of everything going on at the moment. Such uncertainty does tend to make someone awfully jumpy you know.”

“You can say that again,” Applejack sniggered; knowing full well how panicky Rarity got whenever she was facing a fashion dilemma.

And like a crack of lightning, Rainbow was gone and then she was back with everything the band needed. “...well you did say to ‘act fast’!”

“Oookay…” Elaris stood there, slack-jawed in awe at how fast it had taken Rainbow Dash to get everything that the group needed. “Are you sure you even need the suits to take out the Wolfpack, girls?”

“Nah, we still need the suits. This is just so we don’t get caught with our pants down.” Rainbow Dash flexed her fingers as she handed off the equipment to each of her bandmates. “Well, that, and it’s just cool to use those powers, y’know?”

“Yep!” Pinkie Pie gave Rainbow Dash a high-five which was more like a vigorous hand slap.

“Now comes the hard part. Trying to figure out how we can use these instruments to shake the Constrictor to pieces…” Twilight studied the musical instruments and the ship around her thoroughly. From where she was standing, it didn’t look like there were any power outlets for Rainbow Dash or any of the others to plug in their equipment. If they could at least find a power source, then the rest could have been plain sailing.

“Does anyone know what we can plug these things into?” Twilight ended up asking the group.

Elaris simply gestured to her ship behind them.

“Oh.” Twilight uttered.

“Now, we’re only gonna get one shot at this. If the Wolfpack figure out what we’re doing, then they will recall the thing so that it can be repaired and reinforced,” Espy went on. “I’ll send a crew to the hangar to see if they can release the Zords, but we’ll have to pull this off at the same time. Make them focus on you and not on us.”

“Right. Rainbow Dash? You got any songs to blow this thing out of the air?” Sunset asked as she and the other Rainbooms began to get set up.

“Oh, I think I know just the one…” Rainbow Dash smirked as she tightened the grip on her electric guitar.

---

Just a few minutes later…

---

“Another hero, another mindless crime
Behind the curtain, in the pantomime
Hold the line
Does anybody want to take it anymore?
The show must go on
The show must go on, yeah!”

The music was loud as it echoed and reverberated around the ship. It shook the pebbles and leaves below and could be heard for miles around. It had attracted an audience easily, but not the usual human crowd that would be drawn to the music. Instead, there it came, breaching through the clouds like a majestic sky serpent, though majestic was far from the right word to describe it.

The Constrictor, drawn to the noise, laid its eyes on Elaris’ ship, where the Rainbooms were performing a song inside. Despite how confined they were, they were acting as if there were thousands of people watching them perform at a concert. And there were thousands watching them. The Wolfpack were all watching the Rainbooms from the eyes of the Constrictor, all across the many screens of the Alpha Slayer.

“What are they playing at now?” Vi’Al groaned as he watched the Rainbooms performing. “Music? What a waste.”

Scoffing, he turned his view off and went back to his research, unaware that, on another one of his screens, members of the Omega Pack were skittering about without his notice; ready to carry out their plan to free the Zords.

The Omega Pack operatives travelled in a group, sticking close together as if they were a focused unit of the Wolfpack, when in reality, they were playing against it; not that their higher-ups would notice. There were a few wolves, but there were creatures of other shapes, colours, and forms, all bunched up together and all marching under the same banner.

Knowing the layout of the Alpha Slayer off by heart, it didn’t take them long to find their way to the hangar. There inside, engineers were already working on ships. There were similar jet fighters to the ones that the Mar’Zek and the Rainbooms had destroyed earlier in the forest, as well as carrier ships for large-scale invasions. Sparks flew as parts were welded, galvanised, reinforced, and augmented. The tools buzzing away, filling up the colossal room with echoed noise. And there, in the back, locked away behind electrified gates, were the Rangers’ Zords, all motionless and still, as agents of the Wolfpack were surveying them, so as to decide whether or not to repurpose them, or strip them down for parts.

“You know what to do, team. Let’s just hope that the Rangers are doing their part…” One of the wolves in the Omega Pack whispered as they walked into the hangar.

“My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies
Fairy tales of yesterday, grow but never die
I can fly, my friends
The show must go on
The show must go on
I'll face it with a grin
I'm never giving in
On with the show!”

The Constrictor still flew there, waiting for the Rainbooms to make any sort of move. The Wolfpack had no idea what the girls were trying to pull with this move. But inside, the girls had a plan in mind. Elaris turned the dials up all the way to as far as they would go. All the way to the eleven mark. Once she did that, she pushed some switches up on her own console, trying to see if she could augment the sound even more.

As they played their song, the Rainbooms’ pendants shimmered with ethereal light; the kind of light that only they could produce whenever songs were played. They all needed to channel their thoughts, feelings, and power into this song here and now; just like they did back in the Battle of the Bands at their school.

As they came to the final line in their lyrics, Rainbow and Sunset ferociously strummed their guitars, and a wave of rainbow light, coupled with the rippling of sonic waves smashed against the Constrictor in a dazzling display. The rays struck it directly in the head, sending shockwaves reverberating around its body.

The machine thrashed around as it tried to escape the music, but there was no escape. In that singular climax of the song, it was subjected to the full force of the Rainbooms music and magic. Cracks began to form, and explosions formed one after the other, until at last, the cracks grew wide enough so that the Constrictor exploded in a titanic fireball, illuminating the girls’ view in a wave of orange, yellow, and red.

As soon as the Constrictor exploded, the Omega Pack snuck inside the Zord cockpits, took control of the machines, and tried every button that they could. Eventually, one by one, the many machines came to life. However, they wildly thrashed around, realising there was a Wolfpack soldier inside of them. Alarms flashed inside of the cockpits and the controls moved on their own.

“G-gah! Work with me, you oversized piece of—” a feminine voice came from the pink-skinned, teal-haired girl with six arms who was trying to control Twilight’s Hydrazord. Even with her arms, the joysticks and levers did not want to react to her.

“Just get them out of here!” A second agent; made out of spatial energy barked, as he held his hands out at the levers and dials, which generated auras of light around them. He stopped the devices in their tracks and bent them to his own will, moving them backwards.

The Wolfpack members in the Hangar had noticed the confusion going on with the Zords and were focusing on them, rather than the Constrictor’s destruction. Letting out a howl, they all converged on the mechs to try and get them back under control.

“Lets… Just… GO!” A wolf inside Sunset’s Phoenix Zord smashed his head against the big, red button in the middle of the console. As he did, the wings of the Phoenix Zord were alight with flame, and a torrential wave of it spat out to the side, singing the metal around it and the containment fields of the other Zords. The Wolfpack outside all tumbled to their haunches as they watched the Phoenix Zord break itself and the other Zords out.

“Captain! CAPTAIN!” One of the wolves opened up a communication channel with the bridge. “The Zords down here are going crazy!” He barked in a frenzy as he showed Ahl’Mai’Tie the scene.

“Can we not just have SOME form of peace and quiet around here?!” Ahl’Mai’Tie snarled, witnessing the berzerk Zords spiralling out of the Wolfpack’s control. “Just destroy them if you have to. Whatever you can to shut them down. We’ve already lost the thing that brought them in. I wouldn’t want to have to lose the imbeciles who let them get away…”

“Yes sir!” He saluted, then went to rejoin the other panicked Wolfpack wolves and other aliens as they tried to mount the Zords and weigh them down.

“Come on! We’re your friends! Not your enemies!” Another female wolf, commanding Pinkie’s Kangaroo Zord tightened her grip on the joysticks. As she did, the Zord tried to bounce like a kangaroo to shake her off. It managed to do so, crushing some of the Wolfpack trying to control it under its giant metal feet. It jumped again, and again, and again, until it caused the lights to go out inside the Hangar.

Another alarm sounded, as the Hangar was filled with harsh red light. The chaos unfurling caused the hangar bay hatch to open. Without anything standing between it and the wolves, outer space greeted the room and started to pull things out into it. Supplies, Wolfpack soldiers, ships, and more. It got wider, and wider, until at last the Zords were sucked out of the Hangar one by one, still spinning out of control in an attempt to get rid of the Omega Pack trying to save them.

“Girls!” Elaris shouted as she watched the zords plummet to Earth, like streaking comets. “The Omega Pack, some of them are on your zords! You need to save them!”

“Well, you heard her!” Sunset teleporting into her phoenix. “Activate Megazord function now! All Zords, combine!”
And like that, one after another, the Zords buckled, twisted, and fused into their new form. As it finally took on their new form, the girls got into their new, fused cockpit, standing proudly, even without their Power Ranger outfits.

“Alphazord! Ready!” The girls all decreed as the Alphazord stood proudly, like a colourful mountain.

And then came the Wolfpack’s jets, soaring down to greet them.

“Here we go again…” Twilight uttered.

“But this time, the outcome shall be different!” Rarity declared.

“I’m going to need a beat to do this to,” Sunset said, searching through her tunes before grinning as she found one she liked. Screaming guitars filled her ears. “There we go.”

As a legion of jets came running down to greet the Alphazord, the girls all took control of the machine and had it retaliate in kind. Waves of flame from the burning phoenix wings on its back, torrents of flame from the hydra heads, and straight up swats of the hands when the jets came too close to it.

One ship went down, then another, and another, and another. It was almost rhythmic as Sunset Shimmer and the rest of her team beat down the ships. As a ship was taken down, two more took its’ place. But that didn’t stop the team from fighting back. If anything, it motivated them to fight harder.

Then, after another squadron had been knocked to pieces, the girls witnessed something else. A carrier ship descending upon them, gigantic, and coughing out more and more of the fighters that they had been facing so far. They came out as a swarm of gargantuan, steel locusts, descending upon the world like a plague.

“Going up?” Rainbow gave a smirk.

“Yep.” Sunset smirked back, as the Rainbooms all fired up the engines for the ship’s foot jets, as the wings on its back flapped powerfully, elevating the Alphazord off of the ground.

It sped towards the carrier ship as fast as it could, barrelling through more of the fighters as it did so. It took a few hits on the way up, but the fighters barely even scratched the Alphazord’s chassis. And, whenever a shot was landed, the mech counterattacked with the hydra’s heads chasing after the jets and firing back on them.

“Think you’re so smart, Rangers? I think not.” Another voice, more snide remarked as an image appeared on the screen of the Alphazord. “Do you remember me?”

“Nope.” Applejack deadpanned. “Y'all are all the same. So ah don’t bother to remember names.”

“Typical impertinence. It’s no wonder you have the lowest IQ out of the Rangers, Applejack,” Vi’Al retorted as he addressed her. “Seriously. Even that other buffoon, Rainbow Dash, is more intelligent than you.”

“Can’t tell whether that’s an insult or a compliment,” said Rainbow Dash in response.

“Regardless, I’m afraid that your valiant escape with your Zords is not going to have a happy ending.” Vi’Al pushed his claws together. “You see, I, Vi’Al, am the lead scientist for the Wolfpack. And so, I am in charge of developing all the assets, powers, and armaments that the crew needs in order to fell any foe; no matter how persistent they may be. But enough about my achievements. Let’s get right to the business end, shall we?”

Vi’Al lifted up a remote and pushed the single red button on it. Once he did, the carried revealed some glowing cracks for an instant, before it changed shape, taking the form of a humongous, bipedal robot with massive arms, a chest that opened wide to reveal more ships as well as a beam-weapon for the heart, and a pair of seething red eyes as the head burst out of the top.

“You see this, Rangers? I came up with this design after you thwarted our assault on your wretched hometown,” Vi’Al taunted. “Now, while I’d love to debate how science will trump you in every way imaginable, I need to calm down the chaos that has been happening in the Alpha Slayer as of late. Goodbye.”

The video feed ended, showing the Rainbooms face-to-face with the giant Carrier Mech. As well as the punch it wound up and struck the Alphazord with. It was a heavy punch; one that caused the Alphazord to stagger and fall back to the ground below, landing with a thunderous crash. No sooner had it landed hard on the ground when the Carrier Mech landed on its two feet, stomping towards the Alphazord.

Twilight slammed a hand on a button, and the Hydrazord breathed a blast of flame at the opposing mecha before freezing it solid with an icy mist. Sunset followed suit and used the feet of the Alphazord to kick the Carrier back to the ground before the Alphazord got back onto its own two feet.

As the Alphazord sped towards the felled carrier for another attack, the machine got back up, charged up the chest laser, and fired off a chunky laser that pierced through the air. It struck the Alphazord head-on, causing it to stop in its tracks. But it still stood firmly. It did leave the Carrier enough time to get back to its feet again, however, as well as disperse more jets from inside it.

“Let’s see ya dodge this!” Rainbow Dash slammed her fist onto the console, as the Alphazord opened up hatches on its arms, firing blue buzzsaw waves of energy at the jet fighters dancing around the battlefield. The bladed wheels spun and swirled, homing in on the jets until they crashed into them, shredding the fighters in half before moving onto the next targets. “You can run, but you can’t hide!”

The Carrier came running in, fists tightened up for another strike as it left giant holes in its’ wake from its’ feet. As it reeled back for another strike, Rarity reacted and threw her hand over the console, which gave the Alphazord a colossal diamond-patterned shield on its’ arm. One that it used to intercept and stop the punch. It stood firm as the Carrier kept on punching it over and over, until at last, with the final attack failing to breach it, the shield vanished and the Rainbooms made the Alphazord perform an uppercut, which knocked the Carrier backward again.

“And to finish you…” Twilight said pressing another button, before her zord let electric blasts fly. But that wasn’t enough, and the Hydrazord let loose with cyclonic winds. Both colliding with the Carrier’s body like a full-on tempest. Lightning crackled off and bounced on the mech’s body, splitting off in multiple directions like a trance-inducing light show.

“Let’s do this!” Sunset cried as she and the other Rangers started posing in unison. “Girls!”

Despite not having their weapons, the Rainbooms still posed as if they were wielding them. And as they did so, the Alphazord took up the posture that it needed for the final blow. The Mega Swords popped out of its body and fell into the hands of the Alphazord. Raised high into the air, the swords gathered energy. A constellation formed above the Alphazord, despite it being in the middle of the afternoon. And underneath that constellation, the swords were filled with energy.

“Cassiopeia Strike!” The Rainbooms all threw down their arms and the Alphazord sped forward with the Mega Swords fully-armed and ready to unleash. Once the swords were within touching-distance of the Carrier, they cleaved the machine to pieces, one after the other, faster than the naked eye could travel, expelling all manners of starry energy onto the machine.

Limb after limb was shredded, leaving only the armless, legless body of the Carrier. A sword swung up, another swung down, and both split the remnants of the Carrier into three separate thin slices of metal. All of which fell to the ground as another explosion’s fire burst out.

“The hunt is over!” The Rainbooms all said together, as the Alphazord stood dormant and the remaining Wolfpack jet fighters all fled to the stratosphere.

---

Meanwhile, back on the bridge, Ahl’Mai’Tie was watching the devastation on multiple accounts. The remains of the hangar where the Zords had been impounded, the remnants of the Constrictor and Carrier Mech that had been butchered by the Rainbooms, and Mar’Zek and his loyalists travelling alone. His breathing became heavy. Forced. Furious.

Standing up with a growl, he picked up his gigantic warhammer and smashed it on the ground; the resounding smash vibrating through the whole bridge. Letting out a scowl, he seethed to all of the wolves around him, Feral Five and underling alike.

“RANGERS!” Ahl’Mai’Tie screamed a scream so blood-curdling, that it would make anyone shiver with fright. “YOU! HAVE! NOT! WON! THIS!” He said, smashing his hammer down with each word that came out of his mouth.

“Brother! Calm down!” Mah’Jehs’Tie stood from her seat and grabbed onto Ahl’Mai’Tie’s shoulders as hard as she could, making the frenzied leader of the Feral Five stop in his tracks. “They have simply hit us hard. But that’s alright. After all, we like it hard, don’t we?”

Deh’Mehn’Sha chuckled under his breath as he hobbled over towards Ahl’Mai’Tie. “Y-yes. The hurty-dolls are playing their own little game. Like good little boys and girlies. They’re completely unaware of the bigger picture.” He said. “But that will all change. Once I play with their brains, they’ll all be cutting each other apart without even knowing it…”

“You talk a lot, but have I seen you doing anything, old friend?” Ahl’Mai’Tie gave a leer to his compatriot. “You say that you’ll ‘play’ with your hurty-dolls, but you’ve done nothing but sit around on your furry rear!”

“He says…” Deh’Mehn’Sha whispered under his voice. “But what he doesn’t know is that my trap is all set up. The Power Rangers will come running, they will play, play! And when they do, that’s when we win, and they lose!” Laughing like a creepy clown from a horror movie, he dashed out of the room, ready to exact his move. “Ooh, my hurty dolls are gonna be in so much trouble!” He clapped his hands together like a giddy preschooler. “Especially that silly Pink One. She’s so happy-go-lucky, cuddly-wuddly, and ever so sickeningly sweet! Let’s see how long that lasts when I get under her skin…”

Author's Note:

HUGE thanks to The Bricklayer for this chapter. Thanks, man. Couldn't have gotten this done without you shoving a metaphorical jet up my ass and giving me the drive to write this. Cheers again, mate.

Comments

[badninja]

Well it looks like things are coming to a conclusion up there. I hope the girls are able to no sell the trap.

[darkhabit]

So just going to say it, I saw the "enemy of my enemy" teamup with Mar'zek coming the moment the big bad 5 took control. Didn't believe he was done when he was dead, I knew he was getting Power Ranger backup at some point.

Not to say it was a bad setup, mind you.