Lunaverse: Galaxy Rangers - Magic School Zord

by Rixizu

Chapter 5

Magic School Zord
Chapter 5
by Rixizu

Cheerilee backed away in panic as the fire spread around her. She almost didn’t get up from her chair fast enough before it burst into flames. Anything not made of stone was lit on fire or burned to a crisp. The stones under Celestia melted from the intense heat coming from her. Spike stared at his mistress in a panic unsure what to do. He tried and failed to put out the mural as it burned away. Nothing seemed to be able to put out these flames.

Trixie was the only one not panicking. She stared Celestia in the eyes with a grin on her face and her eyes glinted with eagerness.

"I've been waiting a long time for this Corona," Trixie said. She held her morpher in her hoof. Her pose told her readiness for battle.

"How dare you, Trixie," Celestia said and howled in fury, "I offered you hospitality and you spit on my face."

Trixie shrugged. “Why not? I never believed this surrendering nonsense for a second. I’m not like Cheerilee. I know you will never be redeemed. You’re selfish and rotten to the core. Ponies like you can’t change. You can’t be happy unless you rule everything. I’ve heard stories about you Corona. The ones before you went insane. You weren’t the picture perfect pony Luna loves to paint you as. Your insanity just made it worse. Sane or not, you’re evil, selfish and maybe even cruel. Ponykind would be better off without you.”

“How dare you!” Corona spat. The heat in the room intensified. Almost all the stone in room melted from her fury. Trixie, on the other hoof, didn’t even seem to care.

“You and I both know this was the only way things could end," Trixie said voice going cold, "I just sped things up a bit."

“We need to get out of here, now!” Cheerilee yelled ushering the foals away towards the door. Her first priority was getting them to safety. No way she wanted the foals in the middle of a battlefield.

“Very well!” Celestia said spreading her wings wide into the air. “You aren’t the only one who has been looking forward to this battle.”

“Spike!” Cheerilee yelled getting the baby dragon’s attention. “We need to leave! Help me find a safe way out of the castle!” She needed to get the foals back to her Zord and Spike was her best choice to find the path out. He was the only one of them who knew their way around the castle. Cheerilee cursed herself for not thinking about memorizing the castle’s layout. They needed to get back to the front entrance and their spacesuits. She would come back to save Spike with her Zord as soon as possible.

“Got it!” Spike said nodding. “This way!” He didn’t run towards the front doors of the dining room as expected, but a servant’s door instead which led to a kitchen that wasn’t on fire thank Luna almighty. Not yet at least.

"Follow Spike," Cheerilee ordered.

“But what ‘bout Trixie?!” Apple Bloom asked terrified.

"She can take care of herself," Cheerilee replied, "she’s strong and knows what she's doing."

Damn you Trixie! Did you even think for a second what would happen if you started a fight? Have you lost your mind?!

Apple Bloom nodded and ran into the kitchen with the rest of the foals. Cheerilee did a mental count of the all the foals making sure each one ran to safety. She blinked and noticed one of her students was missing. She looked over the foals and realized the identity of the missing student in an instant. Her heart skipped and searched around in an almost hysterical desperation.

Dinky, where the hay are you?! Cheerilee’s frantic thoughts said. Her anxiety became worse when she couldn’t find the little filly.

“Dinky!” Cheerilee cried out. Spike turned back to look at her in concern. "Go! I will find her." Spike nodded and led the foals to another door.

"Dinky!" Cheerilee cried out again and in a moment she found the foal in question. Little Dinky was watching the confrontation between Celestia and Trixie with an angry frown on her face. This was the angriest she had ever seen Dinky. Cheerilee pulled out her morpher ready to jump in and grab her.

“It’s morphing time!” Trixie thrust her morpher forward. “Ur…”

“Stop this right now!” Dinky screamed, and a startled Celestia and Trixie stared at her.

“Dinky, what are you…” Trixie was about to say, but she screamed in pain when Dinky used her magic grabbing Trixie by the ear making the Red Ranger drop her morpher.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!” Trixie said whining as Dinky pulled her closer.

“I said stop it!” Dinky repeated. “No fighting!”

Dinky released Trixie and glared at Celestia. “You too!” The sun princess gave the little filly a bewildered expression before nodding. In an instant, the room became cool again and all the fire stopped at once leaving the room a burnt out mess.

“I can’t believe you two. You’re grown mares, act like it.” Dinky scolded.

“But she’s a…” Trixie tried to explain, but Dinky cut her off in an instant.

“No buts!” Dinky said growling. “This conversation is over, missy!”

“But…” Trixie shrank under Dinky’s glare. “Fine.” She muttered and looked away.

"Phew, that was a close one." Spike let out a sigh of relief.

Cheerilee watched the scene in amusement half expected Dinky to send Trixie to her room. Trixie looked less than pleased with this turn of events and sulked.

“Uh, so is it over?” Scootaloo asked peeking out behind Cheerilee using her as a shield.

"It's over," Cheerilee confirmed and Spike and the rest of the class looked relieved, "nice work Dinky."

Dinky looked embarrassed and rubbed the back of her neck. “I just did what I thought my mom would do.”

“You did very well.” Cheerilee praised and Dinky beamed from the compliment. The other fillies and colts did the same treating little Dinky as a hero.

"I must thank you again little one," Celestia said peering down at Dinky, "I lost my temper. I might have done something I would later regret. You saved my castle considerable damage.” She gestured with a wing to the burnt out room at large.

"It was so pretty too," Dinky lifted up the skirts of her pink dress and showed the soot marks, "and it ruined my dress!"

"It's alright," Celestia said, "they're only things. Unlike ponies, they can be easily replaced. I will make sure give you a new one." Dinky gave a grateful nod.

"Now Trixie, you owe Princess Celestia an apology," Dinky said in another motherly tone.

“What?” Trixie stomped her hoof in protest.

Dinky glared hard at Trixie who squirmed under the little filly’s frown and looked away in shame and embarrassment.

"S-sorry," Trixie muttered in a low almost inaudible tone.

“What was that?” Dinky demanded.

"I'm sorry," Trixie repeated loud enough for everypony to hear.

"I hope this teaches you a valuable lesson in manners," Dinky nodded in satisfaction. Trixie grumbled under her breath again.

Cheerilee smirked glad to see Trixie put in her place for once. She admired the little filly for being so brave and strong when a literal fire was all around her. Ditzy had raised her well and Cheerilee felt sure Dinky would grow up to be a wonderful mother one day.

"Come, I have a lounge we can use to have dessert," Celestia said clearing her voice, "I don't know about you, but I could really go for a piece of cake.”

The entire class broke out into mummers of excitement at the sound of dessert especially when the princess mentioned the word cake. After that mess, a piece of cake sounded fantastic to Cheerilee too.

“Except Trixie,” Dinky added.

“What?” Trixie exclaimed in outrage.

"She's been a bad filly, so she doesn't deserve dessert," Dinky replied.

"I quite agree. Bad little fillies should go to bed without dessert." Celestia gave Trixie an impish look and Trixie glared in response.

“Right this way!” Spike said gesturing towards the kitchen exit. He looked glad everything was in control again and was eager to get the night back on track.

Spike led them down several corridors to yet another well-furnished room. It seemed Celestia had spared no expense when designing this castle. It contained hoof carved chairs and couches in the with their own unique flair. They were just as comfortable as they looked and Cheerilee moaned as her body melted in the couch's cushions. The walls had bookshelves with more subjects than she could count. Too bad Twilight wasn’t here. She would freak out over all the old books in Celestia’s collection. The soft lighting called and relaxed her and by Luna did she need this after Trixie’s little spat with Celestia.

Spike left to return with a cart covered in a wide variety of cakes from chocolate to carrot and even some fruit cakes and provided tea as well. Spike served each of his guests a piece of whatever they asked for, except Trixie of course. The Red Ranger pouted in the corner pretending to not care at all. He seemed glad to serve, and it was obvious he took pride in his work. He was different from the nervous baby dragon Cheerilee remembered from the Longest Night. She felt grateful to him for being such a positive influence on Princess Celestia. Spike left them to start cleaning up the mess Trixie and Celestia started and gave the offending mare another glare before leaving to his task.

"Your castle is magnificent, princess." Cheerilee complimented and took her first bite of cake. Cheerilee wasn’t sure she had ever had a cake this good in her life. Whoever made this cake was a cake master. The taste of chocolate and strawberries almost overwhelmed her in flavor. "Forgive me, but I am a little confused how you got it here on the moon in the first place. It would have been quite the undertaking to build it in the first place much less construct it on the moon."

Celestia put down her piece of chocolate cake she was eating on a nearby table and smiled. “As you can imagine, it wasn’t cheap to make this castle. Hundreds of ponyhours were used in its construction. I had it built in secret as a get away from the stress of court life.”

“Looks like they didn’t do a good job then considering you snapped and went completely bananas,” Trixie said in a quip. Celestia’s ear twitched in irritation.

"Trixie," Dinky glared at Trixie who shrunk and hid behind a chair.

“As I was saying.” Celestia continued pretending like she wasn’t just interrupted in such a rude manner. “I had it built on Earth and used several of the court magicians to teleport it to the moon. After all, what would be a better place to not be interrupted? A personal joke on my part. Lulu never did learn about it.”

“That’s ah cute little nickname yah got for yah sister princess.” Apple Bloom replied.

Celestia laughed. “It came about because as foal I wasn’t able to pronounce my sister name properly.”

“That’s adorable,” Cheerilee replied. She cooed imagining a tiny filly Celestia trying and failing to say her sister’s name.

“Do yah think things will ever be right between yah and Princess Luna?” Apple Bloom asked with a sad almost heartbroken expression on her face.

Celestia fell silent for a long moment staring at her half-eaten cake in thought. Finally, she spoke her voice solemn. "I don't know my little pony. There's bad blood between the two of us. Even though I want to forgive her, a part of me is still mad at Luna for locking me into the sun.”

"Hold on," Trixie said in protest and wanted to say more but stopped when Celestia held up a hoof.

“Yes, I was a monster and out of my mind. I understand that, but you remember how I said I’m taking medication for my condition correct?” Trixie gave a curt nod to Celestia’s question.

“Back then the pony mind was not that well understood, the best my sister could have done is lock me away.” Celestia continued. “Things have changed though and there have been dramatic improvements in the field in the study of the mind. My sister must have known that. Why didn’t she try to unseal me and get me the help I needed?”

“Well…” Trixie’s voice trailed off.

Celestia stood up full of emotion and anger. “She just left me on the sun to rot! She didn’t even attempt to help me! She was perfectly content to leave on the sun for all eternity!”

The room went silent no pony daring to say anything. Even Trixie couldn’t give a reply and had a scowl on her face.

"I will probably always be a monster to her," Celestia said in a voice almost too low to hear.

This time it was Apple Bloom's turn to give the sun princess a hug. "Please give yah sister’s another chance. Ah know what it’s like to be mad at yah sis. We’ve had some bad fights, but ah always made up with her the end. She’s my kin and ah will always love her.”’

"You might be right my little pony," Celestia said with a sad smile on her face, "I just hope my sister will forgive me too. I haven't exactly been the best sister." Celestia lifted up a cup of tea to her mouth and drank from it. Cheerilee blinked. Did Celestia just smirk for a second there? Nah, it was only her imagination.

“Knowing the princess, she will fer sure!” Apple Bloom said with the utmost confidence. “When she learns of yah new situation, she’ll run up and hug yah and the whole thing will be settled.”

“As my mom says, hugs fix everything.” Dinky said with absolute confidence.

"No doubt she's been lonely without me over the last couple of years," Celestia said smiling.

Cheerilee clapped her hooves together in excitement. “Trixie, you should write Princess Luna a letter as soon as we get back.” She could already see the heartwarming hug the two would have and then Equestria would be whole again at last. The country had suffered enough with the two sisters apart.

"Already planned to," Trixie said with a wave of her hoof.

“Trixie, if you don’t mind, I have a request.” Celestia levitated a scroll over to Trixie and dropped in her hooves. “I would like you to give my sister this.”

As soon as Trixie got the scroll in her hooves, she tore open Celestia’s royal seal and read the letter. She read it over at least six times before nodding.

"Fine," Trixie said, "I'm sure Luna will appreciate this letter. It seems a genuine heartfelt apology.” The last part dripped with obvious sarcasm.

Cheerilee rubbed her head and felt herself getting a headache. Did this mare learn nothing over the last hour?

"It's alright Miss Cheerilee," Celestia said in a reassuring tone, "some paranoia is to be expected." She grabbed the letter back from Trixie and resealed it.

"Paranoia," Cheerilee grumbled. Being cautious was fine, but this was going too far. No doubt Trixie used some subtle magic to scan the scroll for traps too as if Princess Luna would ever be so careless.

“That Trixie has been going along with this is a good sign,“ Celestia said, “if a stubborn and hard-hearted pony like her can accept my offer of peace than it is a fine first step to being accepted back into pony society.” Trixie rolled her eyes at this.

“Don’t worry Princess Celestia!” Sweetie Belle stated. "I will tell everypony how you aren't bad anymore and how nice you've been to us." The other foals nodded in agreement and looked eager to spread the news of Celestia's reform. They heaped praise on her and one foal, Pipsqueak, declared Princess Celestia to be his favorite princess. Celestia, of course, was genial and looked upon them like a mother would to her foal.

"Come," Celestia said as she stood, "there’s one thing I must show you before you depart."

The foal groaned at this, but Celestia only gave them a gentle smile in return.

"Sorry little ones, but the hour is getting late," Celestia said, "I have kept you too long. I mustn't keep you from your beds."

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Let’s get going already; I still have paperwork I need to finish.”

Celestia led them up a flight of stairs and they found themselves on the roof of the castle. It provided a lovely view of the lunar landscape. There wasn’t much up here, but it had one thing of interest. One a tripod was an old-fashioned telescope. It shone golden and despite its age, it looked to be an excellent condition and it was obvious Celestia took loving care of it.

"I thought you might want a gaze at the Earth from a telescope for a change," Celestia said, "It’s a little out of date, but it will still give you a breathtaking view of the Earth."

“I want to go first!”

“No, I should obviously go first.”

“No me!”

“I wonder if I can see my house from here.”

The fillies and colts bumped and jeered to the first in line. Cheerilee wasted no line to put them back in order. She forced them into a line and told them they could only have five minutes each on it. They grumped but obeyed.

"I must commend your skill at herding these little ones," Celestia said, "much has changed since my time in Equestria. Back then, only the wealthy and the privileged had schooling. Most ponies would be lucky to even know how to read. It warms my heart to see that learning is available to the common ponies.”

Cheerilee puffed out her chest in pride. "Indeed, Equestria has improved and advanced much since the public school has been established. Equestria wouldn't even be half as prosperous without it. It's hard to imagine it’s only been a little under two hundred years since education has become available to everypony."

“So many advancements. Already ponykind is reaching for the stars. When I see these little ponies, I see the future. “Celestia mused.

Cheerilee looked at her students with pride. Particularly at Scootaloo who was now having her turn at the microscope. There was an excited energy about her now. This whole trip she had never seen the little filly have such a rapt attention to her lectures before. The little filly had fallen in love with space and its wonders and majesty. The whole trip had changed her life Cheerilee knew and no doubt many of her other students as well.

Cheerilee snuck up behind Scootaloo. “Enjoying the view?”

Scootaloo nodded and jumped up and down in her excitement. “This telescope is amazing! I can actually see Canterlot and part of Ponyville!”

Cheerilee cracked a smile and patted Scootaloo on the head and looked down at the Earth with her. The planet was huge far bigger than the moon appeared on Earth. It was so crisp and clear too since the moon had no atmosphere or pollution to block the view. It looked like a giant globe just out of reach almost like she could reach out her hoof and touch it. The princess was lucky if she had a view of their planet like this every day. Cheerilee wished she could stay right here forever.

Scootaloo looked up at her teacher with a sad expression on her face. “It’s almost time to go isn’t it?”

"I'm afraid so Scootaloo," Cheerilee said, "the princess has been very nice to us, but life must go on."

Scootaloo’s looked transformed from crestfallen to a determined one. The little filly stood to her full height. “I want to come back someday, only I want to do it under my own power! I want to fly into space and see just how far I can go!”

“What a wonderful dream Scoots,” Cheerilee said her heart booming with pride.

"Indeed it is," Celestia said grinning ear to ear, "push yourself as far as you can."

Scootaloo nodded. “I will.”

Apple Bloom gasped. “Ah don’t believe it!”

“What is it?” Cheerilee asked looking around in concern.

Trixie narrowed her eyes and pulled out her morpher. “Did something happen?”

“No no." Apple Bloom pointed at Scootaloo. "She's got hur cutie mark!"

"What?!" Scootaloo looked down at her flank and sure enough, a mark adorned it. It was a shooting star with a tail with a multicolored lightning bolt that blurred and zipped through the heavens.

“I got my cutie mark!” Scootaloo screamed and ran after her flank much like how a dog would run after its own tail.

“Congratulations!” Celestia praised. “Well done my little pony.”

"Huh, wasn't expecting that," Trixie said flabbergasted, “Congrats squirt.”

Cheerilee patted Scootaloo on the back. “Congratulations!”

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! This is the best day like ever!” Scootaloo said unable to control her excitement.

Diamond Tiara scoffed a sly grin on her face. “It’s alright. I guess a dummy like you can do something right once in a while.”

Scootaloo scowled her good mood ruined. “You always have to ruin everything don’t you?”

“That’s why I’m here.” Diamond Tiara said standing up proud. “I have to keep you ponies in your place.”

“Don’t listen to her.” Sweetie Belle replied. “She’s just jealous! Your cutie mark is so much cooler than hers!”

The three fillies descending into bickering and Cheerilee sighed. Note to self, give Diamond Tiara double detention.

Still, Cheerilee couldn’t contain her grin. This was the first time she had ever helped one of her students get a cutie mark. She glowed with an indescribable feeling of exertion and glee like she was floating in the air.

This, this is why I became a teacher. Cheerilee thought. For the first time, she made a concrete change in one of her students. She didn’t just give her students some semi-useless factoids they probably would forget about in a few years or foalsit them. She helped them grow as a person and there was nothing better a teacher could do creating a foundation they would use for the rest of their lives.

Why did she ever think she wanted to be a bounty hunter of all things? Sure, it seemed an exciting and daring life, but what did it really accomplish? Somehow those early years seemed wasted now. Besides, she had to admit she wasn’t a great bounty hunter to begin with

Yep, I’m definitely where I need to be.

---

“A little to the left, then rotate it about 34 degrees and there!” Cheerilee ordered Celestia and the princess dropped the plaque. It landed right next to the “Trixie Lulamoon was here” that Trixie wrote earlier. The message was engraved into a stone made of marble in the shape of a miniature obelisk.

The fillies and colts whooped and cheered as the plague landed. It contained each one of the class's signatures with Cheerilee's at the bottom and proudly announced they were the class of 1001 NLE (New Lunar Era) of Ponyville. Trixie's name was the only one missing from the plague. For some reason beyond Cheerilee's comprehension, Trixie was quite happy with her crude writing on the ground. Was it because Celestia was generous enough to provide the plaque for them? Whatever. Let her be that way.

“Again, thank you so much,” Cheerilee said to Celestia one last time.

“I am more than happy to help,” Celestia replied using her magic again to communicate telepathically, “you ponies made history and I am more than willing to celebrate that.”

“Will we ever see yah again Princess Celestia?” Apple Bloom asked.

A smirk tugged at the sun princess’s mouth. “You just might.”

"Poor us," Trixie said muttering to herself. Cheerilee groaned. Would that mare ever give up her grudge against Celestia? Her opposition of Celestia at every turn was starting to get annoying.

Everypony waved Celestia goodbye as she flew away back to her castle even Trixie gave her own half-hearted wave. They walked back to Cheerilee’s Zord, and the class talked amongst themselves about what they saw and did today. Scootaloo continued on and on about her plans to fly to Mars one day and maybe even find aliens while she was at it.

"Now Scoots, if you want to go to Mars in the first place, you need to study really hard," Cheerilee said in warning, "they don't just let anypony be an astronaut."

Scootaloo’s eyes bulged wide, and she nodded. “Oh my gosh you’re right!”

"You need to be a very capable pony with plenty of education and experience." Cheerilee paused. She didn't want to overwhelm the filly with the amount of work required, so she kept it simple for now. "You will need a degree in engineering or physical or biological science to qualify.”

Scootaloo nodded mulling the problem over in her head filling her face with concern and worry. Cheerilee put a comforting hoof on the little filly’s back.

Cheerilee gave Scootaloo a wink. “Don’t worry. I think I have some books that might help you get started. Just promise me you will study hard.”

"Yes, mam!" Scootaloo said with a salute and ran into Cheerilee's Zord.

Cheerilee noticed Trixie looked quite entertained by the conversation. Her face broke out into a wide grin.

"You did good today Cheer," Trixie said grinning ear to ear happy for her friend, “The world needs more ponies like you, not third rate stage magicians and meatheads like me. You’re a much better role model.” After saying this, she left to go back to her own Zord.

Cheerilee watched Trixie left with a flummoxed look on her face. That was probably the nicest thing Trixie had ever said to her. First Corona turning a new leaf and now this, was the world about to come to an end? Cheerilee took one more long loving glance at the moon before entering her Zord already eager to go on her next adventure of teaching.

Comments

[The Bricklayer]

Huh, well, what do you know? Somehow, I still don't trust Celestia for obvious reasons, but maybe...

[RainbowDoubleDash]

Ah, ancient hospitality laws. They make sense - back in the Old Days, turning away someone asking for shelter was often literally a death sentence in many parts of the world. The wilderness is an unforgiving place. Of course, guests have certain rules they have to abide by as well.

Vampire: the Masquerade could have this play out in a fun way. The Tzimisce Clan were absolutely monstrous in every way, shape, and form - but they're also really old-school and into the whole hospitality thing, so if you were a guest of theirs they'd dote on you and make sure everything was great for you - even as down in the basement they continued to do unspeakable things to people who were not their guests. Their Revised Edition quote was even "Welcome, a thousand welcomes! I am honored that we could put aside the Jyhad's foolish rivalries for a night, that you might come under my eaves in the spirit of - eh? You start? Ahh - that noise! A trifle! Nothing that need concern you, sweet guest!"

Was it possible for Trixie to go a day without alienating someone?

Sure. Several in a row, even, during her heat, since she locks herself in her house and doesn't come out.

Was she doing this on purpose?

Maybe, as a test to see how far Celestia has really reformed? Or she's just being Trixie.

Having said that...maybe she should have just played along as long as the foals were around.

Lulu never did learn about it.

Luna: "Wait, what?! She has a castle where?! I'm going to - I know! I'll build a castle on the Sun! ...wait...crap, that won't work...dammit Tia no fair!"

Anyway - still not certain that this isn't some long-term plan of Celestia's. We'll see...

[DracoDarastrix]

You know I seriously doubt Celestia is genuine. There are so much things against this being true.

1. The curse she had put on Luna in the previous story.
2. I seriously doubt a medicine would work on an Alicorn as they seem to me that they are kinda demi-god like beings in the Lunaverse.