Power Rangers Shadow Force

by Layton13

Light Born from Shadow - Part 2

The door to the office closed behind them leaving only the girls and Principal Cadence in the office, the five just standing there and staring at Cadance awkwardly. Meanwhile, she had pulled out her phone and called someone and still wasn’t done with her conversation. While she was busy Lemon examined the room. The walls were colored in the same lime green as halls right outside of it, the floor, however, was a far darker stone as outside. A big green fluffy carpet had been rolled over the stony ground, on a glance looking far more comfortable than even a few beds she had seen, inviting her to just roll in it. But the most striking feature of the room was actually the lack of something. Everything was so damn dark, one lamp hanging from the ceiling illuminated everything, well minus a bright desk lamp. Between the cabinets and bookshelves, Cadence had placed several large stuffed animals, giving the room a far more warm feeling.

“Yes. Yes. I know I should have told you earlier, but with things being like they are right now, it just slipped my mind. I’m sorry Ruby, it won’t happen again,” she muttered, sounding exhausted as took another deep breath. Lemon, in the meantime, took a closer look at the desk. It was also filled with a good amount of plushies as well as what one would consider normale office supplies just far pinker. And then there was that picture, Lemon leaned a bit forward to see a rather handsome man with white skin and short blue hair, probably her boyfriend.

“Ok, thank you Ruby. I’ll get you something for lunch tomorrow, ok? Good, see you!” Cadance let out a loud sigh as she let herself sink back into her pink armchair. “Well, that takes care of that. I just called your teacher, Miss Jubilee, and told her I needed to talk with you about ways to make our students more accepted about the Canterlot High students. She was a bit miffed that I hadn’t said that sooner, but she was ok with it. So we don’t have to worry about that for now.” She pushed a bowl of candy forward. “Want some girls?”

Lemon was the first to grab for the sweet temptation, taking three of the little bonbons before Sour Sweet grabbed into the bowl and took one for herself. Both Indigo and Sunny both grabbed one as well. Cadance was about to pull the candy back when Sugarcoat grabbed for it, much to the Principles surprise, immediately pulling her hand back. But what followed left her even more surprised, instead of grabbing one bonbon, Sugarcoat just took the whole bowl and started shover one bonbon after the other into her mouth, all with her usual expression.

Lemon just awkwardly chuckled, rubbing the back of her head and sheepishly replied: “Yeah, Sugarcoat has a massive sweet tooth. If we ask her, I’m sure she will just put the ca-“

Cadance just chuckled before calmly replying: “Oh, don’t worry. Candy is there to be eaten, isn’t it? So don’t worry, let Sugar eat as much as she wants. But please, don’t tell this her dentist, I don’t want to be blamed for anything.”

“Her dentist is already used to it, so don’t worry. Really, I’m surprised he hasn’t gone desperate,” Lemon chuckled.

“I just have perfect teeth,” Sugar returned between her munching, and if one looked close enough, they could see a small blush on her cheeks.

“That is all cute and funny and all,” Sour Sweet added with her lovely voice, only for that to quickly shift to her much harsher tone: “But we want answers! And not just in a year, now!” She was glaring at Cadance, the principal staring dumbfounded at her for a moment while the other four girls just looked exasperated.

“I… Yeah, I think you are right,” she nervously returned before taking a deep breath and put her hands on the table. As she looked up, her cheerful demeanor had vanished, replaced by an expression they had never seen on her face before, absolute seriousness. “Ok, where do I start?”

“Probably at the start would be good,” Sour grumbled, her arms crossed in front of her.

“Sour,” Sunny hissed, giving her a nudge into her side before staring at her with a stare that replaced the need for any more words.

“If that wouldn’t be a problem that is,” Sour rubbed her side while she added with the sweetest of voices she could muster, but not before glaring back at Sunny and whispering: “Better?” Sunny just noded, not in the mode to further pursue this.

“Yeah, the start. Good idea I think,” cadence muttered, not even noticing what the girls were doing, to bussy being lost in her own thoughts. That was until a metaphorical light bulb appeared over her head, her expression quickly changing to adapted that new development. “I know, I’ll probably start with what these monsters were that you fought down there.”

“Yeah, I want to know what kind of creeps we kicked the asses off!” Indigo interrupted her with an enthusiastic tone, only to realize that everyone was staring at her and add: “Eh, yeah, would be nice.”

The ghost of a smile danced across Cadences lips before it returned to dead serious. “So, these creatures were called Changelings. They are a race of ancient shapeshifting bug monsters. Well, calling them a race might be a bit much, but it somewhat fits.”

“Wait, wait, Changelings? I heard about them in history, sixth class if I remember. They were an old legend from Germaney, and the country's around it, right? They stole children and replaced them with their own. People thought that was the case when the child was ill or had other disabilities and deformities,” Lemon said, surprisingly excited and gaining a confused look from everyone but Sugar.

“Since when do you know that?” Indigo simply asked, looking at her like something was wrong with her. “Uhm, Principal Cadance, you think she might be a Changeling?”

“No, that can’t be. A Changeling could never be chosen by the coins, that is just impossible. Hse has to be the real one, even if this kinda strange for her to know,” she returned, still eyeing her student carefully.

“It’s not that weird. She has a good memory for things that interest her. But everything else she quickly forgets. History and mythology is just one thing she is really interested in,” Sugar interrupted their baseless conspiracy theories, something that let them all sheepishly look in a different direction.

“Exactly! Man Sugar, you just get me!” Lemon added, completely ignoring the awkward atmosphere in the room. “History and stuff like that is so exciting. You know, just imagine what all happened in this city over the ages, from Kamen Riders, magic and all the other interesting stuff. You ever heard about the pumpkin massacre of 1935? It’s like the music of history, every event is a note in that never-ending song!” She continued, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

Cadance looked at her for a moment before her confusion swapped out for amusement: “Is that so? A good amount of enthusiasm you have for that never would have guessed.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot, but if those were Changelings does that mean that all these stories about them are true as well?” Lemon’s eyes only grew wider and wider as the realization hit her.

“In a way, yes, but at the same time not. They are more or less a mixture of fear, suspicions, the inability to cope with certain things, and a bit of truth. Changelings exist, you saw that, but they were never kidnaping children or at least leaving behind copies of them. Changelings are a tribe of ancient humans, roughly three thousands years in the past that came into contact that changed the course of history forever. Something that turned them into monsters,” she returned, a nervous undertone to it all.

“Wait, that thing was three thousand years old? It didn’t look like it was that old,” Lemon said before nervously adding. “Come to think of it, that thing looked like Vinyl, one of my friends, you don’t think it…”

Her expression changed from excited to fear. “No, I don’t think so. It was definitely not much older than you five and probably not your friend. Changelings are created by a human receiving the gift of the Dark Stone. No one knows where it came from, but it absorbs light magic and anything similar like love. A shard of that stone is given to a changeling, and they become what you saw done there today, a worker. The bigger and more powerful the stone is, the stronger the changeling.”

While Lemon was listening carefully to every word of Cadance, Sunny wasn’t too convinced. “Ok, that is all very interesting, but how do you know about all of this? I mean really, you seem to be an expert on all this Changeling stuff, how comes? And why are they after you and these coins?” She huffed, cautiously looking at Cadance before pulling out the pink coin.

Cadance looked back at her, her eyes shortly becoming stuck on the coin before relaxing. “Yeah, it’s a lot to take in, I guess. But I’m gonna tell you everything I know, don’t worry. But for that all to make sense, I have to go back a bit more. I only know parts about what happened back then, so yeah. Three thousand years ago, my ancestors were part of the Changeling tribe. At the time the Changelings controlled and suppressed every other tribe in their area, and they showed no sign of stopping, and there was also no one to stop them with their control of the Dark Stone. It was supposedly massive and made it’s wielder all powerfull. But a small splinter group of Changelings rose up against their current queen but were ultimately defeated. These were my ancestors.”

“Wait, so that means you can turn into one of those bug things?” Lemon interrupted her, much to the annoyance of her friends.

Cadance however, just raised an eyebrow before chuckling: “No, I can’t. Otherwise, that fight down there would have goon far differently. No, when a Changeling is defeated the pice of the Dark Stone they controlled is destroyed. That happened to my ancestors, but they weren’t so quickly deterred, and instead of a just bowing to the queen, they decided to outsmart her. They managed to steal parts of the Dark Stone, enough to once again regain their power, but they decided to do something else. When the Dark Stone was found a similar, far weaker and smaller stone was also found, the Crystal Hearth. The Crystal Heath had been more or less forgotten by the tribe, but not by them. They crafted small parts of the Crystal Hearth into the Dark Stone they had stolen and forged something new, something that would give them a new chance, the Shadow Coins, the same coins you hold now,” she finished.

“These coins are over a thousand years old?” Sugar asked, looking at her own blue on a little closer. The coins itself were pitch black minus a small six-pointed colored star in the middle of them.

“Yes. With these coins, they managed to overthrow the queen, the original Dark Stone was lost, and the tribe was scattered. My ancestors devoted themselves to protect the world from the Changelings ever since, but over two thousand years ago, we lost the Shadow Coins. Ever since the Changelings and we have been hunting for them all across the globe, we to once again be able to protect the world from them and they to drain the light from them and restore the Dark Stone to its former glory.”

“So, how did you find these Shadow Coins if they were supposed to be lost to time?” Sunny returned, now more curious than suspicious.

“You heard about the break-in in Mount Aris?” She sheepishly returned, awkwardly shifting in her chair.

“Yeah, something was stolen from there, and these MRG guys were said to investigate everything. But what does this have to do with…” Lemon returned, looking slightly puzzled about the sudden shift in conversation only for it to all fall into place in a single second. “Wait! You don’t mean!?”

“Oh look, she figured it out herself,” Sunny shook her head.

“Oh, my goodness! You stole from that stuff from Mount Aris?” Lemon shouted out, her eyes threatening to fall out of her head as she stared in complete bewilderment at her principal who was getting quite flustered. But before she could scream out more a hand clasped over her mouth, rendering her next few sentences into nothing but unintentional gibberish:

“Would you be so kind and repeat that again?” Sour whispered into her friend's ear, only increasing the pressure on her mouth. “Because I think it hasn’t heard the entire school until now,” she added with a possessee his. “Gonna be quiet no?” Sour felt the head of her friend slowly nod, and with an annoyed grunt, she let go of her, Lemon taking a deep breath.

“Still, this is so awesome! You can break into an auction house and get away? Are you some kind of spy or something like that? I want to know how you did it!” her eyes were sparkling again, hanging on every word the older woman would say next.

“You learn a lot from a family that has hunted these things for hundreds of years now. And what you don’t learn from your parents you learn from old books and notes people have gathered over the ages,” she chuckled, but one could tell there was a somber undertone to her words. “but yeah, I stole the coins from Mount Aris. I’m not proud of it, stealing is still stealing after all, but I had no other choice. It was either this or let the Changelings have the coins…”

“I thought your family was wealthy? Couldn’t you have just bought the coins instead of stealing them?” Sugar asked, raising an eyebrow, silently judging the young principal.

Cadance just nervously rubbed the back of her head before sighing and returning: “No, I couldn’t, at least not with the Changelings. Anyone else? Probably, I could have just bought the coins. The problem is that the Changelings are not just nobody, they have far more money than my simple family inheritance.”

“And who?” Sugar said.

“The Changelings currently are lead by one of them called Queen Chrysalis, or how the public knows her, Lady Chrysella Change, head of Change Industries, one of the most successful and popular company in the country and most certainly this city,” she stated matter of factly. This left the entire room dead silent, mouths were standing open, and all eyes stared directly at her.

“Wait, you are telling us that Change Industries is run by Changelings that want to conquer the world? Is that what you mean?” Sunny asked, hoping to be clued into a very elaborate joke, but instead, Cadance just nodded.

“But… But my dad works for Change Industries…” Lemon stuttered, a blank expression on her face. “That can’t be true! He isn’t a bad person and would never work for them!” The last words we almost spat at Cadance, anger, and denial in her voice.

“I… I know this is a hard truth to accept, but it’s the truth. The Changelings are all unified under Change Industries. It doesn’t mean that everyone that works for them is a bad person. But yes, Change Industries has used its good publicity and generous nature to mask their darker ambitions. Every bit of good they have done for the city is just to further their queen's agenda, no matter how much it has helped the community.”

“But if that is true, why don’t you just tell the MRG? I mean, aren’t they the magic experts with access to Kamen Riders?” Indigo returned, looking at Cadance with a raised eyebrow. “I mean they can definitely do more than you, especially when it is about monsters. They saved the world from them already, so why not again? You know, they kick some serious ass.”

Cadance just chuckled weakly before saying: “Well, that would be a good idea if it would be so easy. Thing is, it isn’t. The only thing I have is my word against theirs, and they will manage to weasel themselves out of this situation. And really, who would you believe, a young principal of a school, or the head of a multi-billion dollar cooperation? The answer is obvious sadly…”

“Yeah… Can see it now,” Indigo nervously chuckled, leaving the room in an awkward silence afterward.

“So, what are you gonna do now? Should we give these back to you so you can hide them?” Sunny asked, holding out her own coin once again.

Cadance looked back to her before taking a deep breath. With a guilty look in her eyes, she started to say: “That… That was what I wanted to talk to you about. For over thousands of years, we had to hide from them and strike from the shadows to make any dent in their operations, but now you have been chosen by the coins. The coins only chose very few people, only those that have been touched by darkness, selfishness, and other vial personality traits, those people that have turned this darkness into light. Apparently, the coins think that you possess these properties. Something like this is scarce and gives you the ability to use wiled the powers of the coins.” That was when Cadence stopped, unable to look them into their eyes.

“And what is it that you want from us?” Sugar asked, her usual cold demeanor tainted by a worried frown on her lips.

“I… I…” She stuttered, clenching her fists as her face was twisted into a frustrated mask. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t, but I’m desperate. This is like a fairy tale, like a dream I’ll just wake up from any moment, but it’s real. The idea of the Changelings once again being beaten before there dreams of conquest are fulfilled is so close, so tempting.” She looked up, her expression desperate. “But I can’t… I just can’t ask this off you…”

“You want us to fight them, right?” Lemon asked hesitantly, her one hand wrapped around her other arm in a tight grip.

“I… I know I shouldn’t. You are just kids that don’t know what you are getting yourself into. I should be ashamed of even thinking about this, but yes. I want to see them stopped,” she returned, her face drenched in shame and regret.

“Then I’ll do it!” Lemon returned with a surprising amount of certainty in her voice.

“What?!” Came a unanimous cry from her friends as they stared at her like she had just lost her mind.

“I said I’ll do it!” She repeated, with even more conviction than the first time.

“You… You know what this means, right? They will try to kill you, you won’t have a single ordinary day anymore! You have to worry about what they do and be prepared to fight them at any time of day!” Cadance said, looking extremely worried.

“I know…” Lemon returned weakly before adding with far more certainty: “But I have seen others do it! Do it for complete strangers! Sunset and her friends helped Twilight when everything went to shit, and they didn’t even know her. They risked their lives for students that had made fun of them for so long, and they did it within a heartbeat. They showed us how one should really act. And they are just as old as we are and they were ok with it. Others chose to fight even if they don’t have to, they still do it, like the Kamen Riders! They do it because it is the right thing to do. I can’t just look away when others are in danger. This is a chance to make up for what I was before I meat Sunset and her friends. I ca show the world that I’m just like them that I’m a good person!”

“If this is how you feel I’ll do the same,” the monotone voice of Sugarcoat said, letting everyone spin around in surprise, everyone but Lemon.

She just smiled at her and said: “Thanks, Sugar.”

“Ah, to Tartarus with it! I can’t let you girls do this all on your own and not help you!” Indigo joined in with a nervous smile.

“Girls…” Cadance managed to mutter, unable t process everything that was transpiring in front of her.

“Seems like I won’t have a choice, can’t really let you all do this on your own, you’ll just screw it up,” Sunny added with a sly grin.

Now all eyes were on Sour Sweet who looked quite uncomfortable with that. With a loud huff, she said: “Ok, fine, not like I can leave you alone anyway,” she finally relented. “But don’t think I do this out of the kindness of my heart, I’m just here to stop you from doing something idiotic,” she added with a huff and crossed arms. That in return, only got her the laughter of her friends, keeping up her frown for a few seconds before she was just overwhelmed and joined in on their fun.

Cadance meanwhile just looked at the girls, unsure if they were either unaware of what they had gotten themselves into or if they were just this strong. Something in the back of her head nudged her in the later direction. She didn’t even notice her own lips curl into a smile, well until the girls noticed too.

“So… What are we gonna do now? Just storm the Change Industrie building and hope for the best? Hunt that Changeling?” Lemon asked innocently.

This snaped the principal back to reality. “Oh, of course. What comes next. Honest to Fortuna, I never thought about it before. It was always nothing more than an unrealistic dream to me. Still, I kept these things around me for so long,” she chuckled when she opened one of the drawers on her desk, pulling out five small silver bracelets. They all had the star symbol that was engraved into their coins on them.

“These are the Shadow Force Morphers. When you put your hands on the symbols, they will turn into something that will let you access the powers of the coins and will turn you into the warriors called Shadow Force. You will have powers even stronger than you experienced today. These are only as a last resort when there is no other way. Keep who you are secret, you saw what happened when Alchemy’s identity was revealed. You won’t have a single quiet moment for the rest of your life,” Cadance continued, still sounding quite uncomfortable with the situation.

“Sure! Got it! Typical superhero stuff,” Lemon simply returned.

Cadance just nodded in return when her gaze crossed over the clock next to her. “But I think you should get back to class. You shouldn’t just miss the first day of school, or else your teaches might get antsy. But how about we meet at my home after school is done? Then we can discuss what we are gonna do now. I need to figure this out myself,” She sheepishly chuckled.

“Gotcha!” They returned before leaving the room.

“What did I get these kids into?” Cadance sighed.

>-------<S>-------<

Meanwhile, in one of the bathrooms of Crystal Prep Vinyl was leaning against the wall, absolutely fuming. “These bitches! How much bad luck can one person even have? Why did they have to show up exactly then? Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” While she looked fine on the first look, she was breathing heavily, holding her arm as she gritted through her teeth.

She was about to go on another tirade, cursing the Shadow Bolts with every foul word she knew when the door to the bathroom opened again. In an instant, her eyes darted towards the door, seeing how a girl with grey skin and black hair dressed in a pink dress entered. It only took a moment for her to cry out in surprise. “Oh my goodness, are you ok? Did something happen to you? Someone beat you up?”

She rushed over without even a second thought and tried to help the injured student. Vinyl, however, was not amused by the sudden attention trying to hold her off while shouting back at her: “Leave me alone! I don’t need your help! Piss of already!” Shoving the helpful girl back, who landed on her butt staring in confusion at the other student.

“But… But you look so bad. Come on, if you did something that might get you in trouble, don’t worry, I can cover for you!” The girl shouted back and was already back on her feet and rushed towards her. This time she actually managed to get close, wrapping her arms around one of hers, trying to pull her out of the room.

Vinyl, on the other hand, was getting frustrated. Why wouldn’t this dumb cow not just leave her alone? If she continued, this might actually blow her cover. No, she couldn’t let herself be dragged away by this girl he just had to-

She just managed to rais her other hand when the grip on her arm suddenly disappeared. Before she, however, could realize what was happening, she felt a hand claps shut around her neck and with frightening easy, she was lifted off the ground and slammed against the wall of the bathroom. The girl with the grey skin stared back at her, eyes cold as ice all while she stared at her in absolute terror.

“No surprise, you are also incapable of something as simple as not blowing your cover. Really, I should have asked any other Worker to do this job, but I just had to choose you, hadn’t I? What a mistake. I’m surprised you managed to not alarm a Rider to this,” the girl said, her voice cold and brimming with silent anger.

“Lo… Lord Pharynx?” Vynil managed to croak out, desperately struggling to draw breath.

“Who else?” She hissed back, the hate piercing right through her. “How can one Worker fuck up so bad that she revives our ancient enemy?”

“The… They are just teenagers. I can easily take them if you give me one la-“ She was interrupted as her body was once again slammed against the wall.

“Oh, why should I? Tell me? Countless other Workers can do your job if I just order them. So why? Tell me?” Pharynx growled back, his eyes shifting back to the bug-eyes he usually had for just a moment. Vinyl was about to say something, but her mouth failed her, unable to give him an answer. “Just like I expected. You don’t even know yourself. Pathetic, but you can call yourself lucky. I’m gracious today. You are right, they are just a bunch of teenagers with a bad attitude, so it really shouldn’t be a problem, right? You have till this evening to bring me the coins, if you fail, you will regret it. Understood?”

The Mantis Changeling simply nodded. Just moments later she felt the hand around her neck let loss, and she simply slumped to the ground, coughing heavily as she looked up at Pharynx as he walked away, but not without saying one last thing: “Don’t disappoint the Queen. And don’t even think about running, that would just end even worse for you.” With that, he left the room, leaving her behind on the floor, rubbing her neck. Whit a low growl she pushed herself back up, just before two other girls entered the room, completely ignoring her walking past them and out the door.

>-------<S>-------<

The rest of the school day had been unbreakable, the thought of Changelings showing up and causing mayhem had been in their heads the entire time, all while their thoughts were on what would happen next. It wasn’t a reasonable thing to gain superpowers, after all. When the bell rang, they were the first ones to jump out of the classroom and storming out of the building. What followed was a long track through the city after a bus ride. Principal cadence lived in the outskirts of town, right in a suburb with a lot of rich neighbors. They had just left the bus, Lemon casually rolling next to her friends, casually humming the tune of her song.

“This still feels so… So… So unreal,” Sunny sighed, holding her coin tightly in her hand as they, moved forward.

“Yesh, that is nothing you just accept. This is just weird, no matter how awesome it is. Come on, superheroes. I still can’t believe this isn’t some elaborate prank,” Indigo added, looking at her own yellow coin.

“Yeah, it is definitely weird,” Sugar said, still her usual calm and collected self.

“Understatement,” Sour returned.

Their little walk would have continued like this if Lemon hadn’t looked up right at this moment, seeing the light blue hair she would recognize even in a crowd just walking around a corner. Without even thinking about it any longer than a second, she kicked the asphalt bellow her, shouted loud: “Vinyl! Wait a moment!” and raced after her, leaving the rest of her friends behind, much to their displeasure.

“Hey! Wait a moment, you idiot!” Sour shouted after her, but she just couldn’t break through her headphones. Lemon just raced further, crossing the same corner Vinyl had, her friends huffing in annoyance and quickly charging after her.

Lemon meanwhile was zooming through the crowd on the sidewalk, getting closer and closer to the blueness that was trying her hardest to put a sizeable distance between herself and Lemon. That was, however, ultimately for not as she once again walked past a corner and right into a small back alley that opened up into a far bigger area, filled with garbage cans and other waste. Right in the middle stood Vinyl, a wide smirk on her lips.

“Vinyl! I need to talk to you!” Lemon screamed over to her, sounding a bit out of breath.

The girl just started laughing: “Oh my queen, you are one of the biggest idiots I have ever seen. You feel for this again? Come on, you had to know that I’m not your friend? I mean seriously if the coins chose wastes of space like you this will be even easier than I thought it would be!”

Lemon simply sighed in return, looking somewhat disappointed. “I knew it could have been you, but I at least had to try. Not like you had much of a chance against us back then. I just thought, why not if it wasn’t Vinyl I’m just gonna beat you again.” The smirk on her lips only helped to enrage the Changeling.

Her eyebrow twitched for a moment before she followed: “You little… Oh, you will regret this! Drones! Take this little overconfident shit and show her what we really can do!” On her command the six Drones from before jumped down from the surrounding roofs, landing all around Lemon, growling at her. “I shouldn’t leave this all to them though. Where would be the fun for me then?” The Mantis Changeling chuckled, green flames covering her body as she turned back into her monster form.

Lemon had meanwhile taken on a fighting stance when she remembered what Cadance had told her, pulling back her sleeve to reveal the bracelet she wore underneath. With a powerful motion, she slammed her fist on the engraved star on it, the bracelet quickly shining in bright light and turning into something far bigger. She now wore a grey oval-shaped watch-like device on her arm. Golden lines across it and two round holes in it.

While she looked at the device in amazement, the Drones were rushing towards her, her friends just entering the alley and coming to a screeching halt at the scene they were seeing. Lemon however just smirked, pulled out her Shadow Coin and shouted: “Light up!” and slammed the coin into one of the two empty slots of the Morpher.

[Re-Re-Red!]

A dark shadow covered Lemon, consuming her entirely, but that did not stop the Drones as they rushed towards her.

[Shine Bright! Red!]

A blinding red light burst out from the shadow, and a shock wave knocked the incoming monsters back, revealing someone standing right there where Lemon had been consumed by the shadow. It looked like a girl dressed in a red and black spandex suit with helmet. Her shoes were red, followed by a black stripe going up to her thighs. After that followed another red part of the suit, only interrupted by the silver belt and star-shaped belt buckle. What came after that was another black part, going up to just over her breasts. On her chest, one could see the same six-pointed star that was also on her belt buckle. Her neck was black, and her helmet was red once again with two black circles on the side and a six-pointed star-shaped visor.

“Oh! My! Goodness! This is fucking awesome!” Lemon screamed out, feeling more alive than ever before. She could feel the energy rushing through her ever muscle, just being her to punch something and punching she would. With a loud scream, she rushed forward, jumping on the shoulders of one of the Drones and knocking him back down before heading ahead towards the Mantis Changeling.

While Lemon was busy with the Mantis, trading blows with it, the Drones had noticed the four other girls, rushing towards them. All four of them hit their bracelets at the same time and followed Lemon’s lead: “Light up!”

[Bl-Bl-Blue!]

[Ye-Ye-Yellow!]

[Pi-Pi-Pink!]

[Gre-Gre-Green!]

[Shine Honest! Blue!]

[Shine Wild! Yellow!]

[Shine Glamourous! Pink!]

[Shine Courageous! Green!]

Just like her friend they were also consumed by a dark shadow, only for their respective light to burst through, revealing them in identical outfits to Lemon, the only difference being their color. Sugarcoat was clad in a blue suit, Indigo Zap now stood firm inside her yellow one, Sunny Flare in pink and Sour Sweet in her green one.

They, however, had no time to admire their new clothing before the Drones already attacked them. Sugar was the first they targeted, the girl dodged the swipe with their weapon with ease, coming back up behind them. Her body almost moved on its own as she kicked the weapon out of the hand of the Changeling as he turned around, following up with several swift punches knocking her opponent off balance, staggering back clutching his chest.

She was about to continue her assault, but that was when she noticed a blue glow from her side. As she looked down, she saw a small cylindrical box. Curiously she opened it, revealing even more coins, one of which just stood out. She just grabbed it and slammed it into the second slot of her Morpher.

[Sw-Sw-Sword!]

Within moments a sword had manifested in her hand, its blade was black while the handle was white and in the shape of the six-pointed star with a round hole for another medal. Sugar stepped forward, blade ready to strike. The Changeling eyed her cautiously before throwing that to the wind and charging ahead. Sugar managed to dodge under his swing and with a swing of her sword cut right through him. The Drone staggered a bit before exploding in a fiery green explosion.

“Huh, I why not?” Indigo chuckled when she pulled out a coin of her own and slammed it the Morpher.

[Li-Li-Lightning!]

The device shouted out, electricity now surging through her body, not that Indigo felt anything. With a smirk hidden behind her helmet, she dashed at two Drones who shared a worried look but ultimately advanced as well. Before either of them could react, she had already jumped clean over them, throwing in a somersault for good measure. When she came back down both Drones were just about to turn around when they received each a punch right into their ugly mugs, letting lightning dance through their body, leaving them smoldered and chared behind. Giving her knuckles a good crack and with a smile on her lips she slammed both her still electrified fists on the ground, a surge of electricity rushing towards both of them and letting them explode in a green explosion. “Awesome!” She let out, cheering on herself.

Sour Sweet meanwhile had to deal with her own assailant, and until now she had been on the disadvantage, managing to dodge the attacks, but always on the defensive. That was until she had seen what the others had done. In between her dodges she actually managed to grab a coin, not entirely sure what it was and really, she didn’t care as long as it would get her out of this situation. “Let’s hope this works, or I’m gonna kick you to the moon you stupid coin,” she hissed as she slammed the small object into her wrist.

[Me-Me-Metal!]

While the coin glowed for a moment she didn’t feel a difference, she didn’t see anything, and there was no weapon in her hand. She was so occupied with her thoughts that she had no time to dodge and could only watch as the sharp end of the speer crashed into her. To her surprise she didn’t feel a thing, looking down at where the Changeling had struck she definitely was surprised when she noticed the tip of the speer laying next to her feet while the rest was still in the hands of the Drone. He didn’t look happy in the slightest, but before he could voice his complaints, Sour jumped him, pushing him to the ground and started to pummel him with punch after punch. That lasted for a few seconds before the thing just gave up, exploding right in her face, not that it had hurt.

The last two Drones were currently ganging up on Sunny Flare, the girl able to at least occasionally get a few punches in, but every time she did the other one struck at her. Right now she had been pushed into a corner, both of her opponents ready to finish her off. Right as they were about to swing their weapons an all to a familiar voice called out once again:

[Do-Do-Double!]

Out of seemingly nowhere a second pink warrior appeared, dashing forward and punching one of the Drones right in the gut, throwing him away. Now that the numbers had been even both pink warriors cracked their knuckles and delivered a beatdown of epic proportions that ended with the second Drone landing right next to his partner. Both frantically stood back up only to face the two pinks dashing right at them before delivering a simultaneous uppercut that then them up into the air, high up and over the building before they exploded like a green firework.

While the others had dealt with the Drones, Lemon had fought with the actual Worker. Both hadn’t really managed to gain any ground on the other, both receiving and dealing a few blows but nothing too disabling. Lemon just played one of the Mantise’s swings with her sickle-like arms with her sword before she delivered a kick to her stomach, sending her flying.

Where she landed was, however not so ideal, right in the middle of the street. It didn’t even take a second for the screaming to start, Lemon kicking herself into the metaphorical butt for doing this. The Changeling was now out in the open, people screaming and running away from it in terror. She, however, didn't really care, that was when a devious glimmer flickered up in her eyes. Her sickles started to glow in a dark green and before Lemon could even reach her, unleashed them straight at some civilians.

[Sp-Sp-Speed!]

The energy attack rocketed towards a few petrified bystanders, staring directly at their doom. But before the attack could connect a red blur rushed past them and with a loud clank, the attack sailed over them, exploding in the air without harming them. As they looked back down, they could see Lemon standing there, still holding out her blade. “Not on my watch you damn bug!” She hissed. “This is between you and us! Don’t drag anyone else into this!”

The Changeling was about to attack once again when the rest of the Shadow Bolts stormed up to Lemon, all now holding their swords. “You damn idiot!” Sunny hissed, giving her a slap on the back of her helmet. “Don’t just run away like that damn it! Just look what that got us into!”

“Sorry! Sorry,” Lemon returned, rubbing the back of her head. “Can we talk about this later. I want to finish this damn bug here!” The others shared a quick look and simply nodded. “Awesome! Just follow my lead!” And with that, she pulled out the red coin from her Morpher and inserted it into her sword, the others quickly doing the same.

[Fi-Fi-Final! Red!]

[Fi-Fi-Final! Blue!]

[Fi-Fi-Final! Yellow!]

[Fi-Fi-Final! Pink!]

[Fi-Fi-Final! Green!]

The Changeling was about to charge up another energy attack as everything around him suddenly turned dark, the monster having been entombed in a dark cloud. She just looked around in the seemingly endless darkness when suddenly a green light appeared, a long bright light and the following pain, like someone had cut through her armor. What followed were a pink, yellow, blue and ultimately a red light, all letting her feel a slash as well. When the last blade had struck her, she felt her body collapsing before it went off in a green explosion. A small black stone fell to the ground and shattered.

But before the smoke could clear something lifted her up, but the former Mantis Changeling was far too exhausted to look up. “Who are you?” It echoed through the streets, the voice definitely the red one.

In the middle of the street amidst the smoke stood a man dressed as a young girl with grey skin and black hair. “I’m here to retrieve a failure, that is all.” The girl chuckled before disappearing in a pillar of green flames, leaving the girls behind.

For a few moments, everything was silent, that was until the entire street burst out into applause, much to the embarrassment of the girls.

>-------<S>-------<

The two of them reappeared inside what looked like a vast cavern and right in front of them stood a massive throne-like object made out of the darkest stone she had ever seen. “I see you return and apparently without the coins?” A female voice asked in the sweetest voice she had ever heard.

“Lady Chrysel-“ Pharynx attempted to say, having shifted back into his original body only to be interrupted again.

“You don’t need to tell me. I already know. I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed,” she returned, Pharynx looking down at his feet, trying to avoid her gaze. “Ah, and here we have the failure.”

“Wh… What are you gonna do with me? Kill me?” The woman asked, having reverted back to a woman with light blue skin and dark blue hair as well as a black business suit.

“Kill you? Why should I? You will just return to your position, knowing fully well what you could have had and never achieving it,” she returned with a sweet smile on her lips.

“You... You let me go? Like that? Aren’t you afraid that I could, you know, talk?” She stammers back.

“Oh, sweet little bug,” Chrysella said. “I know you won’t talk. Because the moment you even think about it, your life is forfeit!” She added with an ice-cold voice. “You understand that Filing Cabinet?” The former Changeling just nodded as quickly as possible.

“Good, glad we could agree on that.” She looked over to Pharynx. “Now, we get to you Thorax.”

“Yes, mam, I will-“ That was as far as Pharynx came when the words just stopped as he stared at his approaching brother. A young man with green skin and orange hair stepped out of the shadow with a purple business suit that really didn’t fit him, he looked far too timid for it.

“Do tell what you achieve my son,” she continued, much to Pharynx shock. Thorax meanwhile looked at the floor, avoiding the look of his brother.

“I managed to gather some of the light magic that was released during the battle. IT’s not much, but with enough time, I might be able to gather all the magic we need,” he returned in a mixture of pride and shame.

“That won’t be necessary mother! I will get you the coins, I promise!” Pharynx burst out, filled with determination and anger.

“Then try my son,” she added with a sly smile.

Pharynx rushed past Thorax who raised his hand, signaling that he wanted to say something, but his brother just walked past him, already plotting how to get the coins from these teens.

>-------<S>-------<

A bit later, five teenagers sat in a dinner drinking milkshakes. A kind of reward they thought they had earned after their first real fight. The adrenaline was still in their body, making it hard to just sit there.

“This was so awesome. We totally did that, and then we did that, and oh, you did that,” Lemon whispered to her friends, smiling over both ears. The other girls just looked at her with an exhausted expression, but she could see that they were all in a good mood.

“I agree. This was pretty fun,” Sugar added, much to the surprise of everyone.

“You think Cadance will be mad if we are a bit late? I mean, this detour wasn’t really planned…” Sunny asked, looking over to the others.

“Eh, I think she will be ok with… I hope at least,” Indigo returned, sounding far more nervous on the last part.

Before anyone could answer the TV on the ceiling suddenly started to increase in volume. And within seconds they saw themselves on the screen, fighting against the Mantis Changeling. A strange form of pride filled them as they watched themselves, it was almost unreal.

“Today CanterlotCity has once again become victim to a monster attack. But instead of any of the Kamen Riders, a new group of heroes has risen to protect the people of our wonderful city,” the anchorman said. “The MRG has until now remained relatively quiet about these new group of heroes they have started to call Power Rangers. Who are these Rangers and their new foe? Stay tuned on CCTV!”

Her friends immediately started to talk about all of this. Lemon didn’t even listen to their arguing, she was lost in her own thoughts: “Power Rangers? Has a ring to it… I think I’m gonna like this.” A distant smile crossed her lips as she looked forward to what would happen next.

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

This was fun reading. Especially to see the Rangers' colors and special powers.

That said, needs some editing. Caught some typos here and there ("vial" when it's meant to be "vile," and "goon" for "gone" at one point). Still, this was a lot of fun!

[XXrhino]

Lemon Zest would not be my first choose as red ranger

[SonicStreak5344]

A new team has been born! May the power protect and watch over you. I think they’ll learn there are more Power Rangers than just them as the legendary teams like Wild Force, Time Force, Dino Charge, Mystic Force, Beast Morphers, Dino Fury, Lost Galaxy, and others.