The Keys To Victory

by RevvEmUp

Chapter 4

“You had more keys?” Sunny asked The Bird as the new key rests in her hoof.

“What does it do? Give us a new suit?” Zipp also asked.

“The Ranger Keys hold the power of heroes past and future. By using them, you wield their powers as your own.” The Bird explained. “For example, this one grants the power of dinosaurs, as do its compatriots.”

“Woah… an entire genealogy of heroes in our hooves…” Hitch basked in the Ranger Key’s presence, as does Sparky.

“How many have you been keeping from us? Where were these before when we needed them?!” Zipp interrogated in frustration.

“As part of an ‘all hands lost’ contingency, I disconnected the relay point between more than a hundred keys and your suits to prevent the full extent of these powers from being misused.” The Bird explained.

“Why didn’t you reconnect when we picked them up?!” Zipp asked, getting more exasperated.

“I needed to make sure you knew what you were getting into before I reconnected them.” The Bird explained.

“They really would’ve come in handy just now.” Pipp groaned.

“If it weren’t for this contingency, we probably wouldn’t have survived Miss Silver’s attack.” Sunny defended the decision.

“No kidding.” The Bird nodded. “The Ranger Keys Silver wields are of heroes more powerful alone than five united. We were lucky that our Silver never turned his back on us.”

“We need a plan to get the phone back before we beat Human World.” Zipp declared.

“I got one: beat the shine outta Miss Silver!” Izzy viciously suggested.

“No, Izz. She must be some poor pony Human World forced to serve him. I know we can free her of his control without hurting her… somehow…” Sunny postulated.

“Let’s not waste more time! Training is a go!” Hitch declared.

---

The team build an obstacle course in the abandoned Canterlogic factory floor with net climbs, stair ramps, dummies, and balance beams among others. “There we go: one academy-standard obstacle course.” Hitch exhaled as he and Sparky wipe sweat off their brows.

“Where’s the swinging logs? The goo vat? The hoops?!” Izzy whined.

“Those aren’t academy-standard… and sound extremely unsafe.” Hitch cringed at such a build.

“May I have everypony’s attention?” The Bird called to them atop a console.

“Go to The Bird, Sparky. I’ll come to you when we’re done.” Hitch told Sparky, who waddles to The Bird’s side.

“Before we start, I must warn you that the powers you are about to use are technology and powers well beyond your own magical world’s knowledge. Be careful and you’re your time. Without further ado, It’s—"

“Go, go, Power ponies!” Sunny shouted before transforming. “Red Pony!”

“Skirates, set sail!” Zipp shouted before transforming. “Sky Blue!”

“Oooh! Are we picking superhero catchphrases? I got one! Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of fun!” Izzy shouts before transforming. “Green Pony!

“Wait, I got one, too! Captain Force, let’s go!” Hitch shouted before transforming. “Captain Yellow!

“Eh, might as well.” Pipp shrugged acceptedly. “The Power of Pink!” Pipp transforms, posing with fluffy wings flicked outwards like a swan.

“Your roll calls are fantastic, everypony! But we gotta streamline it as a group.” Sunny suggested.

“Ahem.” The Bird clears its throats for the ponies to refocus.

The golden buckles on their sashes flip open to produce keys of diamond-chested heroes in each ponies’ respective colours, except for Izzy, who gets a black key. “Black? Don’t they have a Green guy?” Izzy asked The Bird.

“More or less, but there’s always a Red.” The Bird answered.

The ponies insert the keys in their phones, shooting lightning bolt-shaped emblems above their heads before merging with them, transforming them into heroes with white diamonds on their chests and unique animalistic helmets with mouthplates sculpted like lips.

Pipp looks at herself with her phone’s selfie mode. “Huh? What am I? Some dragon-bird?”

“Hitch, your helmet’s a cat!” Zipp pointed.

“And yours is… I dunno what it is.” Hitch awkwardly points to Zipp’s helmet.

“Oooh! Can we breathe fire because we have lips?” Izzy roars at a dummy, expecting fire to spew out, but nothing happened.

“They’re just as powerful as your base forms, but unlike your base powerset, they have powerful weapons unique to each member. Go try ‘em out.” The Bird answered.

Everypony’s battle saddles pull out their weapons and brandish them before their faces. Pipp has a bow-and-arrow, Izzy gains a massive battleaxe, Hitch twirls around twin daggers, Zipp wields a two-headed trident, and Sunny extends a sword with baroque patterns along its flat side.

“Cool…” Sunny runs her hoof along the sword’s length before flicking it at a dummy, shooting an energy slash that cleaves it. “Even cooler!”

“I wanna try!” Izzy hops onto the stair ramp and swings her axe haphazardly before getting it stuck in the railing. She tries prying it out before a portion of the axe slides down to the bottom-end of the grip, causing a laser to shoot and obliterate another dummy. “It’s a laser, too?!” she pulls it out of the railing before aiming the laser-end to the other dummies, turning them to ash one-by-one.

“These weapons are dual-function!” Zipp realized before splitting her trident into twin sais. “Mine has a ninja mode!”

“Hmm… then maybe…” inspired by Zipp’s attempt, Hitch tries to join his daggers, but find no connection points. He shrugs before throwing them at two dummies between the eyes.

Pipp flies to higher ground above a climbing wall before slowly nocking an arrow, aiming for a dummy. “Steady… steady…” she whispered to herself before Izzy sneaks up behind.

“You got a bow! Ranged buddies!” Izzy blurted to Pipp’s surprise, causing her to let go of the arrow, exploding the dummy on impact.

“Izzy, you made me lose concentration!” Pipp nudged her friend.

“Don’t worry, my battle saddles are one-hundred-percent accurate no matter what!”

“One-hundred-percent?” Pipp repeated.

“With a five-percent margin of error.” Izzy added nervously.

“Well, this wasn’t too bad. We didn’t blow up.” Sunny sheathes her weapon.

“This is just the start. As years went on, heroes got more and more powerful facing greater risks; my team being the near-ultimate culmination of these powers.” The Bird continued. “Onto the next generation of dino-heroes!”

The ponies’ belts deploy Ranger Keys similar in theme to the previous, but with golden footprint emblems on their chests, and Izzy and Pipp are given Black and White keys.

“For this team, along with enhanced weaponry, they have power-ups that bring you to another level of battle!”

“Power-ups on top of power-ups?! Count me in!” Izzy excitedly inserts her Black Ranger Key, unleashing a golden claw insignia that transforms her into a hero with gold diamond patterns along her limbs, and a helmet with a short mohawk-crest and a jagged-edged visor lined with gold teeth. “Roooaaar!” the helmet distends the visor as if it were an actual maw.

“Cool! The last ones didn’t do that!” Sunny admired Izzy’s roaring helmet before the others followed. Sunny, Hitch, and Zipp transform into colour-matching heroes with white diamonds along their legs, and Pipp into a white hero with black diamonds along her legs and a very menacing jagged red visor.

“To power up, you just have to bring out your inner dinosaur, show the enemy you’ve got guts! Dino-Guts!” The Bird encouraged them.

“You heard The Bird! Let’s roar!” Sunny rallied her friends.

“Roooaaar!” They let out their loudest roars, causing spikes to sprout from the diamonds on their arms, while Hitch gained draconic wings under his battle saddle.

“Hitch, you have wings!” Zipp pointed.

“Cool! Now I’m a real dragon dad!” Hitch cheered as Sparky claps from a safe distance.

The Bird pulls a lever, activating robotic assembly arms to move the dummies around and deploy Pegasi dummies swinging from the ceiling. “Moving targets! This is better than the academy!” Hitch exclaimed before spreading his wings to engage the flying dummies. He chases down the dummies on their set track and instinctively screams, unleashing a sonic screech that causes them to implode. “I never knew flying could be so fun!” he cheered before a blue dash outpaces him.

“Welcome to my world, sheriff!” Zipp teased before snipping a dummy’s cable with her spikes.

Everypony slashes dummies to pieces with their bony spikes like butter, and Izzy had the idea to throw herself at the dummies and curl into a spike ball, impaling upwards of six dummies onto her body. Out of all of them, Sunny was the fastest in this form, speeding circles around the course. “Whew! That was intense Let’s take a break before moving to the next!” Sunny powers down before her friends and takes a cocoa thermos from her satchel she put aside.

Hitch lands and powers down before a very excited Sparky jumping and clapping for his dad. “Didja see me, Sparky? I was flying like a dragon!”

“More like a Pegasus foal.” Zipp teased as she powers down. “If you’d like lessons, W.I.N.G.S. is still open to new inductees.”

“I’ll take you up on that offer.” Hitch giggled.

Pouring out cocoa for everypony, Sunny sits down beside The Bird’s console. “Well, what do you think now? Are we ready, or are we ready?” she asked confidently.

“Not too bad. My team were fast learners, too. They had to be when the universe they lived in was that dangerous.” The Bird admitted. “Hey… sorry if I came off as harsh. I don’t trust easily, not after what I’ve been through in my adventures. I always thought to keep things as little as names to myself.”

“I understand. When we united ponykind after moons and moons of animosity, it still months for trust to form. Gaining trust can be slow, and doesn’t happen overnight, but it’ll get there. I hope we’ll earn your trust, too.” Sunny responded to The Bird, sounding as kind and sincere as always. “You haven’t told us your name. Do you trust us enough for us to hear it?”

The Bird opened its mouth hesitantly with a few awkward jitters. “I guess… now’s a good a time as any. My… name is—”

“Everypony! Look at this!” Pipp called her friends as she waves her smartphone. They gather around Pipp to watch a news broadcast from Zephyr Heights of motocross-riding and roller-skating Kudakks tearing up the streets as Human World fires volleys of arrows at Pegasi, turning them human.

“They’ve hit Zephyr Heights!” Zipp exclaimed.

“Motorcycles? Skates? Arrows? Where are they getting this stuff?!” Hitch clutched his head.

The footage ends when Miss Silver zipped towards the camera on roller skates and impales it, cutting the feed.

“Training’s over, ponies! We’re back in action.” Sunny declared.

“The Mare Stream’ll get us there quick!” Izzy suggested.

“Actually, I have a better idea…” The Bird rubs its wings in anticipation.

---

At the Royal Palace, guards evacuate citizens into the grand foyer as Human World’s forces rampage in the city below. “Move! Move! We’ll hold ‘em off!” Zoom shouted to the citizens, fanning her wings towards the palace doors.

“Cloudpuff! Where are you?!” Queen Haven shouted.

“Something’s approaching!” another guard alerted everypony. Zoom looks into the distance to see a young green man wearing Romanesque banded armour covered in burns shambling towards them carrying a white fluffball.

“It’s me… Thunder!” the man waved his arm as he approaches the door before collapsing from exhaustion.

“Thunder! Oh, what did he do to you, partner?” Zoom cried at Thunder’s side as he falls asleep. Squeezing from under him, Cloudpuff skitters to Queen Haven’s side.

“Oh, Cloudpuff! I’m so glad you’re… oh, oh no…” she looks at his side to find his wings missing. “Cloudpuff! Where are your wings?! What did he do to you?!” she cried, hugging the unconcerned Cloudpuff tight to her chest.

Human World arrives, skating on bedazzled roller skates and wearing a blue skating helmet with yellow horseshoe decals. “Nice pad, man! You having a party, man? I love parties, man!” Human World approaches the palace as the guards close the doors behind everypony. When the doors lock shut, Human World snaps his fingers to summon Kudakks in medieval archery gear. “Fire, man!” the Kudakks launch their arrows into the doors, electrifying it. “Again, man! Fi—" then, a shadow casts over him from the side.

The Kudakks lower their bows, looking to a massive blade cutting through the clouds, signalling the arrival of the red sky ship flying as if the air was the ocean. The ponies in the palace watch in awe at such a sight, regaining a fragment of hope they needed. The ship fires its cannons at the Kudakks and Human World, knocking them off the platform down to the city. The Kudakks were crushed on impact, while Human World just barely survived as he landed in a fountain.

Swinging from the sky ship on grappling hooks, the five ponies leap into action. “Didn’t think we’d be here on time, did ya?” Sunny taunted, raising a smug eyebrow.

“You… you ponies, man… You Rangers, man!” Human World grumbled as he stands up. “I’ve had it up to here with you… you Pony Rangers, man!”

“Pony Rangers… I like the sound of that” Sunny rubbed her chin before taking out her transformation phone. “Get ready, everypony! Just like we practiced on the way!”

“Ready!” they thrust forward their transformation phones and insert their Ranger Keys, engulfing them in light and unleashing energy crosses towards Human World, who expertly dodges each one before they swing back to merge with the ponies.

“Red Sun!” Sunny flicks her collar.

“Yellow Blazer!” Hitch tips his helmet upwards.

“Green Bow!” Izzy hopped in place.

“Blue Storm!” Zipp spins with wings outstretched.

“Pink Petals!” Pipp fans out her wings.

“Go, go, Pony Rangers!” they shouted as fireworks go off behind them.

From the Skyship aft, The Bird and Sparky watch the events unfolding in anticipation. “They’re really re-branding everything, huh?” The Bird commented judgementally. “As long as they live through this, they can call themselves whatever.”

“Aren’t you missing a member, man?” Human World points at the heroes.

Miss Silver skates in from behind with her blaster extended, jumping and kicking the side of Sunny’s head before landing at Human World’s side, twirling its blaster into trident mode.

“Miss Silver!” Sunny shouted as she picks back up her blaster. “I don’t know what Human World did to make you do this, but I promise you, we’ll help you break free!”

Without another word, motocross-Kudakks arrive to encircle the Pony Rangers. “Like the upgrades, man? It’s thanks to something called the ‘infinite potential of humanity,’ man. I guess that means I can do and make all sorts of stuff, man.”

“Won’t be infinite when we toss you into the scrap heap!” Izzy shouted.

The Pony Rangers engage these Kudakks, slashing and shooting as they practiced. Taking advantage of their air superiority, Zipp and Pipp shoot Kudakks from above while dodging plug-tipped arrows. Izzy picks up an intact motorcycle and revs its engines, participating in vehicular robo-slaughter as she blasts and runs over Kudakks while popping wheelies. Hitch stomps on the ground and summons hungry carnivorous plants bursting through pavement to grab the biking Kudakks and consume them. Sunny fights through the Kudakks towards Human World, only to be intercepted by Miss Silver swinging her trident onto her head, but is blocked by Sunny crossing her blaster and saber before parrying.

“Please, listen to us!” Sunny pleaded to Miss Silver. “What did Human World do? Threaten your family? Promise to turn you back? Whatever it is, we can help instead of him!”

Miss Silver wordlessly refuses by blasting Sunny, who dodges each shot with her enhanced agility. The rest of Sunny’s friends come to her side to face off against Miss Silver. “We might not be as ready as the heroes before us were, or even the heroes before then… but we still have the courage and will to fight on as they did!” Sunny declared.

The Pony Rangers take random Ranger Keys from their sashes and insert them into their phones before emblems of all sorts merge with the ponies. Sunny transforms into the first dino hero; Hitch a yellow-black suit with an “S.P.D.” badge and sirens on the side of his H-visor helmet; Izzy a gold-trim cape and a helmet with a bull-shaped visor; Zipp a blue-silver riding suit, a “GB” badge, and a helmet with small headlights and blue sunglasses-shaped visor; and Pipp a suit with a diagonal yellow zig-zag pattern on her chest, and a ceratopsian helmet with a visor covering her face and a silver mouthplate on her muzzle.

“What, man?!” Human World shrieked in surprise before turning to Miss Silver. “Hey, how come you can’t do that, man?! Turn into another Ranger, man!”

Miss Silver presses a button on her golden belt to deploy a Ranger Key, but no matter how many times she mashes the button, it wouldn’t come out. Human World slaps her back as he comes to her side.

“If you ain’t gonna work alone, I might as well join you, man.” Human World grumbled as he readies his bow.

“Ponies, let’s make this winter legendary!” Sunny declared, brandishing her winged sword.

Sunny locks her blade with Miss Silver’s trident as they engage in a swordfight. As their blades clash a shower of sparks with every hit, Hitch blasts Miss Silver’s open side with a needle-thin blaster, who endures the blasts before a white robot dog bearing the same badge as Hitch jumps out of nowhere and chomps on her neck, distracting her enough for Sunny to charge her blade and throw her backwards.

“Where’d that robot dog come from?” Sunny wondered.

“Dunno, but I think it’s on our side.” Hitch suggested as the dog comes to his side and sits to be petted. “Aren’t you, little guy? Aren’t you~!”

Miss Silver stands and fires at Sunny, who swings her sword to launch an energy crescent to cut through the blaster bolts towards Miss Silver, only to be batted into a billboard, cleaving it in half.

Sunny looks at Miss Silver preparing to attack when her collar short-circuits, briefly causing her to jolt. “Huh? Wha—” Miss Silver muttered before the collar again sparks, and she returns to duty.

“Hitch! The collar! Aim for the collar!” Sunny commanded.

“Ten-four!” Hitch saluted. Miss Silver flings her trident at Hitch, who extends a white “S.P.D.” radio from his belt. “S.W.A.T. Mode!” he opens the radio like a police badge, granting him black body armour and a massive rifle blaster. He charges up the blaster and fires a massive yellow energy ball, throwing the trident off-course and precisely striking Miss Silver’s collar, destroying it while leaving her unharmed.

Miss Silver falls to her knees and powers her down to reveal herself as Misty, who appeared to have just woken up. “Huh? Where am I?” Misty groaned as she awakens and clutches her head.

“Misty? You were Miss Silver the entire time?” Hitch said in surprise.

Misty widens her eyes as she realizes what happened, surprised to find herself in Zephyr Heights. “Sunny! It’s not what it looks like!” Misty blabbers in a panic before Sunny suddenly hugs her.

“Don’t worry, Misty. The robot can’t control you anymore, you’re safe.” Sunny assured Misty, who slowly embraces her. “Everyone’s evacuated to the palace. Can you walk?”

Misty stands up, although difficult to keep herself balanced since her skinny legs are shivering from this sudden weight shift and the cold. “Uh, yeah, I think I can.”

“Please, make your way there safely.” Sunny requested. “Oh, that fancy-looking gold phone you have; could you return it to us?”

That was the one thing Misty remembers from this ordeal, meekly removing from her pocket the sixth phone. “Is this it?” she feigned ignorance as she hesitantly hands it to Sunny.

“Thank you, Misty. We’ll take it from here.” Sunny assured her before Misty flees.

Human World shoots arrows at the Pegasi circling above like vultures, taking shots from Zipp and Pipp firing lasers from a camera-shaped blaster and a yellow-and-black double-barrelled blaster shaped like a dinosaur head. Frustrated, Human World throws a wrecked motorcycle at Zipp, who pulls out a pair of binoculars that flip out into a sword, slicing it in half. “Seriously? Throwing stuff? For an advanced robot from another world, you sure are thinking primitive!” Zipp mocked him.

“Yeah, like, don’t you have a beam that can take our wings away, or something?” Pipp added salt to the wound, amping up the sassiness in her tone.

“Why don’t I—” Suddenly, a white rocket with green flames strikes Human World’s abdomen, throttling him through five skyscrapers before pinning him against the Z.B.S. Headquarters.

Dazed, he looks up to see Izzy riding the rocket like a motorcycle. “Like my new ride? Came with the suit, and this wand!” Izzy presents a wand with an M-shaped crest tipped with a bull-shaped crystal.

Human World tries to blast his humanizing beam, but she casually summons a mirror to reflect it back into his eyes to blind him. “I can’t see, man! I can’t see, man!” Human World cries as he thrashes around.

Izzy backs up, letting Human World fall nearly a hundred stories into the ground. The Pony Rangers gather around the crater he made, pointing their weapons at him before he suddenly gets up and his eyes surge with green energy. “Say goodbye to your front legs!” He threatened the Pony Rangers as they back away.

Human World fires his humanizing beam, parting away snowfall in its path towards the Pony Rangers. Sunny gets in his way and instinctively triggers her Alicorn powers, creating a magical shield that holds back the beam before it dies down, leaving Human World burnt-out and exhausted; steam and smoke seeping from between his armour plating. “After a long day, this finally ends here.” Sunny declared, just when a miniature of the sky ship drops from the sky.

“Consider this my final lesson: Battlizers!” The Bird squawked as he flies overhead. “You’ll be given the greatest power this set can offer: a suit of armour that can turn the greatest of enemies into a pile of ash with one Final Strike!”

“A finishing move like in video games!” Izzy shouted giddily.

Sunny takes the miniature and flips out a key from the keel before inserting it into her phone, creating a hologram of the Jolly Roger that bursts and merges with the Pony Rangers, returning them to base form and granting them special weapons; a rack of blades on Hitch’s hind-left leg, twin cannons mounted on Izzy’s front-left leg, a five-bladed claw on Zipp’s front-right leg, quadruple cannons on Pipp’s right leg, and for Sunny a massive chestpiece modelled after the sky ship’s bow.

Her friends admire the shiny new digs, gazing at the gold plating on their boots. “Oh, seriously, I still can’t believe these heroes can have such super drip!” Pipp affectionately rubs the shiny polish on her cannons.

“Let’s finish this!” Sunny declared as she charges up the cannons on her armour, as do her friends.

“Pony Rangers! Final Strike!”

“Wait, man! We can talk about this, man!” Human World pleaded.

“Fire!” they unleash a volley of cannonballs and energy blades at Human World, destroying him from sheer overkill of force.

The moment he’s destroyed, ponies he turned human revert back to their pony selves and rejoice with their friends and families, even Cloudpuff regained his wings.

Before the heroes could celebrate, the ground quakes as a massive shadow loom over everypony, looking up to find a giant black robot dinosaur with a barcode scanner head stomping into the city.

“What?! Where’d that come from?!” Izzy pointed.

The giant stomps where Human World once stood, blowing away the heroes from the shockwave. Energy surges throughout its body, transforming its head into that of Human World. “Yeh-heh-heyeah, man! Ready player two, man!” giant Human World cackled before unleashing a surge of green energy throughout the city.

To be continued…