One by one, old pai zhua masters start to show up in Equestria
A few years after Dai Shi was defeated, Casey has been teaching at the same Pai Zhua academy ever since. There has never been any sign of the Rinshi...or any danger for that matter. But for some reason, one by one, those who fought against Dai Shi’s evil forces have been taken to a new land full of magic and ponies. The weirdest thing is that the ponies already know what ‘Power Rangers’ are.
This story is sort of a sequel to Prehistoric Thunder. I suggest you go read that so you know what some of the characters are talking about.
Casey’s life was very strange. He had first attended this Pai Zhua Academy less than two years ago. He was always the underdog. Everyone picked on him, knowing he wouldn’t fight back. No one wanted to hang out with him. But that all changed the day of the tournament finals. The champion was bossing around another student because he thought he earned that authority. By then, Casey had enough bullying. Casey stood up for the student, and his life had been changing ever since.
Since that moment, Casey became a Power Ranger. Originally, only the tournament winners were supposed to be the rangers. But Master Mao thought that Jared, the bully, didn’t deserve to be a ranger. Instead, he chose Casey because of his bravery in standing up to Jared. Casey became not only a living, breathing Power Ranger, but he was chosen to be the red ranger, the leader. Of course Jared wasn’t happy about this, so in his outfit of rage, he accidentally unleashed an evil spirit named Dai Shi, who possessed Jared and used him to attack the innocent. And sure, there were a few bumps on the way, but Casey and his friends still managed to destroy Dai Shi.
Now, Casey taught at the very Pai Zhua Academy. He was a Pai Zhua master. Jared was now one of his best friends. Even with all of that, he still missed the action of being a Power Ranger.
At the moment, Casey was on his way back from lunch with the others. He had a class to teach. He still didn’t understand why Theo and Lily were still working at the old pizza parlor. He decided he wouldn’t dwell. Once he arrived at the academy, he gathered his students. Jared told him that he and Camille were taking today off, so they weren’t present today. “Okay, everyone. Today we’re gonna learn the art of humility. Now, it’s important to have self-confidence, but too much of it can be dangerous. You must balance your self-confidence with humility. Now, humility is knowing your limits. This doesn’t mean not to try, but to know when you’ve tried enough,” Casey told his class.
“Now, for today’s exercise, you’re all gonna be paired up with a fighter bot. Each bot is currently set to its lowest skill level. As you continue, the skill level will increase. You’re gonna fight your robot until you feel that you cannot take anymore. Each robot is set so that of you quit at a certain point, it will give either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If you get a thumbs up, you can stop. If you get a thumbs down, keep going until you get a thumbs up,” Casey instructed as he brought out the fighter bots.
The students began to fight their bot when Master Mao called him out of the class. “Hey, what’s going on?” Casey asked him.
“I have been sensing something strange around the school. I’ve never felt this until a few days ago. I want you to go check it out,” Master Mao instructed.
“Yes, Master,” Casey bowed and went outside.
Casey walked around the school for a moment, his eyes peeled for anything suspicious. After a few minutes, he heard the faintest of growls. He tapped into his instincts to see what he should do, and his instincts told him to go check out. He did, and he found a few Rinshi carrying a tablet of some sort. They were being instructed by a Rinshi wearing a red suit to signify that he we leader. Casey wasn’t sure what to think of the situation. He thought all of the Rinshi were destroyed. His instincts told him to take action. He jumped into the middle of the Rinshi and started to attack them. The Rinshi were all too surprised to fight back. Casey didn’t even need to use his morpher.
Once all of the Rinshi were taken down, Casey stood to face the leader. “I see you’ve finally fought wind of our presence,” it said. “It doesn’t matter. You’re too late.”
“We’ll see about that,” Casey said as he charged the Rinshi leader. Before he could make contact, however, it held up the tablet as it showed Casey’s reflection. It then showed the reflection of an entire other place. Casey tried to stop, but he was sucked into the tablet.
Meanwhile in Equestria
It had been a little over a week since the Dino Thunder Power Rangers had gone back to Earth. Rainbow Dash was still getting over Connor’s absence. She was embarrassed to admit it, but she really did love him. Part of her wanted to pass through Twilight’s portal just to go see him. She had even brought the idea up with the others.
“That’s not really a good idea,” Twilight protested, “the portal opens up at Canterlot High School. People will be creeped out at there being two of you. Besides, you wouldn’t even know where to look for Connor.”
“Didn’t Ethan say they were in a place called Reefside?” Rainbow pleaded.
“He said they went to school in Reefside. He didn’t say where they lived now. Look, I know you miss Connor, we all do, but if you crossed over every time you wanted to see him, you’d rarely ever stay in Equestria,” Twilight concluded.
The most Rainbow could do was think about the time they shared: being chained together, playing soccer, him saving her from the rock monster, and him kissing her before he left. She decided to go for a flight to clear her head. She took off and began to really enjoy herself. It had been a while since she had done this.
When she tried to pull off one of her stunts, a sudden, fierce gust of wind took complete control of her movement. She was eventually forced down to the ground. She looked up to see some sort of two-legged eagle descending in front of her. “So, you’re supposed to be the best flyer in Equestria? Pathetic,” it said to her.
“I’m not afraid of you!” she shouted back.
“You should be. Do you know who I am? I am Carnisoar, the Overlord of the sky. Soon all of Equestria will bow to me and the other Overlords,” he replied.
“You’ll have to get through me first!” Rainbow said as she charged Carnisoar. Carnisoar simply responded by using another gust of wind to send her flying.
Back in town, Twilight saw what was going on and went to help her friend. When she saw what Rainbow was up against, she fired one of her most powerful spells at it. It did absolutely nothing. She tried again and got the same result.
“I don’t get it, why isn’t this working?” she asked herself. This got the beast’s attention.
“Your magic is no match for my power,” it said throwing a gust at her. “What’s that? He’s here!?” the monster said to itself. “You got lucky, next i me I’ll finish you,” the monster said as it flew away.
“What was that thing” Twlight said, tending to Rainbow.
“It called itself Carnisoar. He said he was the ‘Overlord of the sky’. I have a funny feeling I know where he came from though,” Rainbow replied.
The two of them gathered their friends at told them what happened.
“I’m pretty sure that thing came from Earth,” Rainbow said.
“What’s yer point there?” Applejack asked.
“I think I know,” said Starlight “Don’t you girls remember what happened last time a villain from Earth threatened Equestria?”
“You don’t think that Connor and the others are going to come back, do you?” Rarity asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Starlight replied.
“Well, how about they threw their Dino Gems into the black hole to defeat Zeltrax?” Fluttershy said.
“Oh right. I forgot about that,” Starlight said.
Outside, a few screams could be heard. The seven of them ran to the window to see that Ponyville was under attack by brown suited beasts, with white, creepy faces. They ran outside to face them. “Not Tyrannadrones, but not exactly friendly,” Starlight said. She, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash charged into battle while Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie got the locals to safety.
Starlight tried to blast the enemy, but her magic did no good. “I tried it earlier. It won’t work,” Twilight told her.
“Looks like we’re gonna have to fight these guys the old fashioned way,” Rainbow said. She flew into battle and knocked one enemy down. She flew a bit higher, but the enemy could jump pretty high, and it managed to grab hold of her. Applejack bucked it with her hooves and took out another one while was at it.
Starlight teleported directly to another one and sent it flying way back. “Magic works, you just have to use it right,” she said with a slight smirk. Twilight tried the same thing and it worked. They continued the fight until all of the monster were down.
“I bet I can guess who sent those things,” Rainbow said. Not more than two seconds later, there was a blinding flash. When it receded, there was a human in its place. Rainbow got excited and flew toward the human. But the when she got a little closer, she saw that the human wasn’t anyone she’d ever seen before. He had moderately short hair and light skin. He was wearing a red jacket and he had a tattoo of some kind of scratch marks on his wrists.
Rainbow let out a sad sigh. This got the human’s attention. He turned to see Rainbow and he jumped back a bit.
“Woah, calm down there. It’s okay, you’re just in another dimension called Equestria,” Twilight said.
“Um, okay. But what exactly are you?” he said in response.
“Oh right. I’m Twilight Sparkle, an alicorn. This is Rainbow Dash, a pegasus. This is Applejack, an Earth pony. And this is Starlight Glimmer, a unicorn,” Twilight told him.
“Okay. Now you don’t happen to know why I’m here do you?” he asked.
Casey wans’t sure what to. In just under an hour, he found Rinshi by the Pai Zhuhai Academy, he defeated those Rinshi, he was sucked into some strange tablet, he was now face to face with talking, magical ponies, and one of them had just asked him if he was a Power Ranger. He had no idea how to respond. His instincts told him that honesty would be the best option here.
Casey took a deep breath and said, “Yes, I am a Power Ranger? May I ask you how you knew that?”
The one that had called herself Twilight Sparkle answered, “We don’t get a lot of humans in Equestria. In fact, the only other humans that entered this place other than yourself were also Power Rangers.”
This made Casey ease up a little bit. “If you mind my asking, which team were they?”
“They were the Power Rangers Dino Thunder,” answered Starlight Glimmer.
The one that Twilight earlier referred as Rainbow Dash was looking rather sad, which Casey couldn’t help but notice. Before he could ask why, he remembered what Starlight had said earlier. “Starlight, earlier you asked you said you might know why I was here, depending on whether or not I was a ranger. Why?”
“Oh, right,” she answered, “we were just attacked by a villiain we believe came from Earth. The Dino Rangers came here to stop another villain that also came from Earth,” she explained.
“By the way, what color are you?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, I’m a red ranger,” Casey responded.
“What was your team called?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“We called ourselves ‘Power Rangers Jungle Fury’,” Casey answered. At this, Rainbow Dash drooped her head again and looked away from Casey. Casey couldn’t stop himself from asking, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing, really,” she answered before flying away. Casey looked at the others with a confused look.
“It’s a long story,” Twilight answered. “Anyhow, why don’t you come get something to eat?” Casey obliged.
“So, where exactly are we going?” Casey asked.
“To Ponyville. That’s where we all live,” Twilight said with a smile. Suddenly, Casey’s instincts told him to be on the look out. He looked around and saw nothing.
Once they arrived, the ponies took him to what looked like a bakery. “This place is called Sugarcube Corner. It’s the best place to eat here in Ponyville,” said Starlight.
When they walked inside, Casey was greeted by a pink pony with a huge smile. “Ohmygoshareyouapowerrangeritssonicetomeetyouimpinkiepieareyougonnasaceusfromthatbigbadeaglethatattackeddashie?” said the pink pony.
“Umm...what?” Casey asked.
“It’s really no use tryin’ ta understand ‘er. That’s Pinkie Pie, she’s like that a lot,” Applejack told Casey.
“Oh, okay. Wait a second, what do you mean ‘big bad eagle’?” Casey asked.
“Oh yeah. Right before you were transported here, we were attacked by a monster that looked like an eagle. It called itself ‘Carnisoar’. Do you know who that is?” Twilight asked.
“I do. I’ve fought him before. I thought he was destroyed,” Casey responded.
“That’s what the Dino Rangers thought about their enemy,” Starlight said.
“Hold on, did he say if the other Overlords were here?” Casey asked, urgently.
“I don’t know. He went after Rainbow Dash more than anything,” Twilight said. “I’ll have to talk to her about it,” Casey said, “enough talk though. I’m starving.”
With that, they all sat down to eat. Casey didn’t see anything that really interested him, just a ‘bunch of pastries. He prided himself on eating well. He settled on a slice of carrot. When he went to take a bite, he went wide-eyed. This was the best cake he’d eaten in his life. He let out an audible main of enjoyment. This earned him embarrassing looks from the ponies. He rolled his eyes and finished his cake.
After they all finished eating, they all stayed and talked about the situation. “So, how many more Overlords are there, other than Carnisoar?” Twilight asked.
“There are two others: Jellica the Overlord of the sea, and Grizzaka the Overlord of land. They’re all really powerful. Last time, we barely beat those guys,” Casey explained.
“How many other Jungle Rangers are there?” asked Starlight.
“There are four others: Theo the blue ranger, Lily the yellow ranger, RJ the wolf ranger, and Dominic the rhino ranger.”
“Why do you call them that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like wolf ranger or rhino ranger?”
“Well, our power comes from within ourselves in the form of animal spirit. Like for instance, my animal spirit is the tiger. I can use this animal spirit for battle, instincts, reasoning, you name it. RJ’s animal spirit was the wolf, so he was called the wolf ranger. Dominic’s animal spirit was the rhino, so he was the rhino ranger,” Casey explained.
Twilight was astounded. The Dino Rangers’ powers were already amazing to witness and research, but this new ‘animal spirit’ could be even better. “Just out of curiosity, what’s that tattoo on your arm?” she asked.
“This isn’t a tattoo. They’re Pai Zhua Master stripes. You earn them when your animal spirit reaches a certain point in strength,” Casey responded. Now Twilight was even more excited. She had so many more questions to ask Casey. She probably would have too, if it weren’t for a couple of screams that could be heard outside. She and the others ran outside to see an enemy similar to the ones they had fought before, but this one had a red suit instead of brown. “What is that thing?” Starlight asked, mostly to herself.
Casey heard her and answered, “They’re called Rinshi. It feeds on fear.”
With that, Casey charged into battle with the Rinshi. They seemed to be equally matched, one not gaining an advantage on the other. It was a flurry of attacks. They broke struck as fast as they could. During the fight, a few more of the brown-suited Rinshi showed up and started attacking. Twilight and the others started to fight back, but without their magic they couldn’t do much. Applejack’s strength was enough for her to hold her own. These Rinshi had pretty high centers of gravity, so she had no trouble taking them down. Starlight and Twilight had a bit more trouble, on the other hand. Just as before, their magic had no effect on the Rinshi. It didn’t matter which spells they used, it was hopeless.
“It seems no one here is afraid of you,” Casey taunted the leading Rinshi.
We’ll see about that,” it responded. With that, it drew a few daggers and threw them at the citizens. Luckily, nopony got hit, but they were still running in terror. Casey saw as the leading Rinshi took a deep breath and sucked in the fear. The leader molted it’s read suit and out the back came a monster that slightly resembled a mantis. “Now, you see my true form. I am Vampris, the spirit of the praying mantis,” it said.
“I guess I do need these,” said Casey, pulling out a pair of red sunglasses.
Starlight saw Casey put them on. “What does he thinking he’s doing. Those aren’t exactly weapons,” she said to herself.
Casey pressed a button on the side of them and shouted, “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” A few flash of lights and loud roars later, Starlight saw a red ranger with red and black stripe patterns, as opposed to the white triangle patterns on the Dino Rangers’ suits. Casey was now morphed and ready to fight.
“Let’s see if you’re really as strong as you were before,” Vampris taunted as it charged toward Casey. Casey met it in the middle. The two threw a flurry of attacks at each other. A few seconds later, Casey threw a hard drive at the monster and gained the advantage from their. Vampris tried to fight back, but it couldn’t regain its ground long enough to attack. It only got worse for Vampris when Casey pulled out a pair of nunchucks. He swung around and at the monster. Vampires had enough. Casey charged his power and unleashed a barrage of slashes from his nunchucks, causing the monster to fall and explode.
After the action was over, Casey pressed the button on his visor and powered down. Twilight and the others ran up to him. “That was amazing. It was a completely different fighting style from the Dino Rangers,” she said to Casey.
“Thanks, Twilight. I don’t think he absorbed enough fear to grow, so I think I’m done for now,” Casey responded.
“Let’s go introduce him to the others,” Starlight said.
This caught Casey’s attention. “Others? How many ‘others’ are there?” he asked.
“You’ll see. Don’t worry, they’re all really nice,” Twilight responded with a chuckle.
Twilight gathered all of her friends at the castle, even Rainbow Dash, who showed up reluctantly. She was still missing Connor too much to really feel like getting to know Casey. “Girls, this is Casey. And yes, he’s a Power Ranger,” Twilight said, “Casey, this is Fluttershy, Rarity, and you already know Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.”
“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Casey said with a smile. That was al it took for Rarity and Fluttershy to forget about personal space. They crowded him asking him all sorts of questions. Casey looked at Twilight with a confused smile. She couldn’t hold in a chuckle.
“So, I take it you’re going to deal with that eagle-thing, darling,” Rarity said.
“Along with any other monster that shows up here in...sorry I forgot the name of this place,” Casey confessed.
“It’s fine. You’re in Equestria,” Twilight responded. As weird as this place was, Casey thought he could get used to it.
Meanwhile
Carnisoar backed away from his telescope, disappointed. There simply was not enough fear in this place to bring down the red ranger. Jellica walked into the room Carnisoar was in. “If you’re worried about fear, I believe I have a solution,” she told him.
Casey was in the middle of a heated battle. Jared was even stronger than before. Last time, Casey had barely escaped with his life. He wanted to fight back, but he just couldn’t bring himself to hurt Jared. Even if he was possessed, Casey knew Jared was still in there, somewhere. Casey got up, against his body’s better judgement. He couldn’t live with himself if Jared was lost to Dai Shi forever.
“So, you’re stupid enough to want to keep going. Looks like I’ll just have to finish you off,” Dai Shi taunted. He charged Casey and took him down. He then charged his animal spirit to fire at Casey. Casey tried his best to get up, but he just couldn’t move. Dai Shi fired Jared’s lion spirit at Casey, but before it hit, Theo and Lily jumped in front of him. They took the hit hard. Slowly, they started to deform and turn to dust. Casey watched in horror as his friends blew away with the wind. Dai Shi didn’t hesitate to charge the lion spirit again, and he fired it at Casey.
Casey gave a slight yell as he shot awake from his nightmare. He looked around and slightly recognized the room that Twilight had insisted he sleep in while he was in Equestria. It was so strange, Casey hadn’t had these kinds of nightmares, well...ever. Even while Jared was possessed, he never had them.
A few seconds later, Casey heard a knock at his door.
“Come in,” he said. The door opened, and the purple unicorn known as Starlight Glimmer enetered with a slightly concerned look on her face.
“Are you alright? I thought I heard you yell,” she asked him. She was sleeping in the room just next to his.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just had a bit of a nightmare,” Casey explained. “I’m fine now, really.”
“Are you sure? Sometimes, it helps just to talk things out with a friend. We-we are friends...right?” Starlight responded, sounding a little desperate.
“Starlight, of course we’re friends. But no, I really am fine,” Casey said. Starlight turned to leave. Casey’s instincts told him he was doing the wrong thing. Against his better judgement, he called, “Starlight, wait.” Starlight turned back around. “I guess you’re right. I should probably get this off my chest before it becomes a real problem.”
Starlight pulled up a chair with her magic and sat down. “So, what’s bothering you?” she asked.
“Well, I guess I didn’t really tell you everything about my life as a ranger. I used to fight an evil spirit named Dai Shi. The spirit possessed an old bully of mine named Jared. He used his lion spirit to attack me and my friends. We fought so many times before Jared started to fight Dai Shi himself. I eventually saved him, and we’ve been friends ever since. But almost every time we fought, I barely escaped with my life. In my nightmare, I was fighting him again. He was sweeping the floor with me. He even used his animal spirit to try and destroy me, but my friends stepped in front of me and took the blow. The were destroyed by the resulting blast, a-and all I could do w-was watch them die. I’ve never had nightmares like this before. I just don’t know what it means,” Casey explained.
Starlight had a sympathetic look on her face. “Well, it seems to me that you’re letting your past bother you. I know how you feel; it happens to me a lot too,” she explained.
“What do you mean?” Casey asked.
“I-It’s kind of a long story,” Starlight said sheepishly.
“It’s okay. You can tell me,” Casey offered.
Starlight took a deep breath. “Before I met Twilight and the others, I wasn’t exactly the best pony I could be. I had a lot of trouble making friends. I took my anger out on cutie marks. I thought that if I could get rid of those, I would be truly happy. So I convinced an entire village to give up their cutie marks, and I told them they would be happier this way. So that’s how my life went for a couple years. Until Twilight and the others came to my village, that is. They convinced the village that their unique talents were essential to life, and they unraveled my entire plan. I was run out of the village. I was so angry at them, so I took an old unfinished spell and altered it a little to get even. I went back in time and undid the action that drew Twilight and the others to get to know each other. I did all I could to keep it that way, but Twilight convinced me that it wouldn’t really solve anything. She told me that I could start over. She offered to take me under her wing, literally, and teach me everything she knew about friendship. Ever since, my life has gotten better and better, but still to this day, I-I dream of what could’ve h-happened i-if I hadn’t met Twilight.” Starlight’s voice grew shaky, and she couldn’t go on any more.
Casey placed a hand on her neck. “It’s okay. I’m glad you told me. I understand. Just let it out,” he said. Starlight took a few deep breaths. This was still a real sore spot for her. All Casey could do was watch, just like his nightmare.
“You know, I think maybe you’d have less trouble thinking about this if you stopped asking yourself ‘what if?’ Instead, just ask yourself...’what can I do next?” Casey told her.
Starlight held her head up to face him. Her eyes were a little tearful. “What can I do next?” she asked to clarify.
“Exactly. Look, I know it’s hard to let go of the past, but it will be a lot easier accepting it as who you are if you start asking that question,” Casey responded. “You got that, Twilight?”
Twilight revealed herself from the other side of the door. “How did you know I was here?” she asked.
“It’s hard to hide yourself from my instincts. For instance, I can feel Pinkie Pie’s enthusiasm from here,” Casey chuckled. “Seriously, we should get to sleep.”
“Right, it was nice talking with you, Casey. Goodnight,” Starlight said as she left the room.
“Wait, I have more questions. How do your instincts work?” Twilight yelled as Starlight pushed her out of the room as well.
“Come on, save it for another time.”
Later
The next morning, Casey was taking a jog through the streets of Ponyville. Although he couldn’t hear them completely, he knew that the locals were whispering about him. He wasn’t offended, he knew they knew he was a ranger. He was just still getting used to this new world, along with his new nightmares. Although the talk he had with Starlight the night before made him feel somewhat better and a little more welcome, he still felt like he needed to clear his head.
While he was jogging, he saw the pegasus known as Rainbow Dash taking a stroll around town. He never did find out why she was being so distant. He decided to go talk to her.
“Hey...uh Rainbow Dash was it?” he asked her.
“Oh hey...uh, yeah, that’s me,” she said with a sheepish smile. She didn’t really feel like talking, but she couldn’t come up with an excuse not to.
“What’s up?” Casey asked.
“Not much. I don’t really have anything going on right now,” she said.
“I hope you don’t mind my intruding, but can I ask what was going on when you first met me?”
“Well...um. I-It’s kind of a long story. IT’s not you though, really. I-If that’s what you were thinking.” Casey seemed to notice that she was blushing.
“It’s personal, isn’t it? I get it, I won’t intrude any further,” Casey said.
“Thanks. I bet Twilight or one of the others could explain it to you,” she said. Casey turned away to continue his jog when he heard Rainbow call out to him, “Wait, do you...uh. Do you want to get something to eat or something?”
Casey considered and realized he didn’t eat breakfast before he got going. “Yeah, sounds good,” he said, trying to sound as friendly as possible.
The two of the, arrived at Sugar Cube Corner and got some cupcakes. Casey didn’t really like the lack of protein, but he didn’t mind too much.
“Serious question: how long did the Dino Rangers stay here for?” Casey asked. Not that it would matter, he just wanted an estimate of his stay here.
“Hmm, I’d say about four and a half weeks. Why do you ask?” Rainbow said.
“Just curious,” Casey responded. He took a bite into his cupcake. He may have been upset by the lack of protein, but these cupcakes were still really good. It was no wonder the locals came here so much.
The crazy pink party pony, also known as Pinkie Pie, came literally bounding into the room. “I hope you don’t mind Casey, but I took the liberty of planning a party for you. It’s gonna be in two days. Tra-la-la-la-la,” she said, bounding out of the room.
“I was kind of expecting her to just shout something super fast,” Casey said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, you never know with her,” Rainbow responded.
Just then, Twilight and the others came running into the room with urgent looks on their faces. “Casey, Rainbow, we have to go to Canterlot, now! Where’s Pinkie?” she shouted.
“She’s on the back. What’s going on?” Rainbow asked.
“I just received a letter from Princess Celestia! She said that Canterlot is under attack!”
“We can’t waste any time,” Casey said.
“Pinkie! We’re going to Canterlot to help Princess Celestia!” Rainbow shouted.
Pinkie ran out of the back room into the front. “Pinkamena Diane Pie reporting for duty!” she said with a salute.
The eight of them got to the train station as fast s they could, where there was already a train waiting for them. They all boarded as the train began to move. Canterlot quickly came into view. It was clearly being attacked. There were guards flying all over the place.
Once they arrived, Twilight and the others saw the Rinshi attacking the locals. Casey quickly jumped into battle, taking down one of the Rinshi. He turned to avoid an attack from another, landing another shot. Rainbow flew around the Rinshi and created a tornado, sending almost all of the Rinshi flying, Casey was impressed.
There was an audible blast coming from the main throne room. “We have to go help the princess,” Twilight said.
“You shall go no further,” shouted a leading Rinshi.
“You two go, we can handle him,” Starlight whispered to Casey and Twilight.
Casey ran toward him, as if looking to fight. But once he got to him, Casey jumped over the leading Rinshi. Twilight simply teleported her way around the leading Rinshi. “Okay, no one else will get past me!”
Casey and Twilight made their way to the throne room, where they found Princess Celestia trying to fight Carnisoar. Her magic was of no use, as Carnisoar kept attacking with his claws.
Casey pulled out his sunglasses from before and put them on. “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” Casey shouted as he became the red ranger once again. “With the strength of a tiger! Jungle Fury, Red Ranger!” Casey leapt into the middle of the princess and Carnisoar.
“You’re going down, Carnisoar!” Casey shouted.
“You sound so confident. Perhaps you have forgotten what happened the last time we fought,” Carnisoar retorted.
“Actually yeah, I do. We defeated you,” Casey said.
“WE being the keyword of that statement. You are all alone now.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Casey said attacking Carnisoar. Carnisoar avoided the attack and returned it with a slash of his blade. This sent Casey onto the ground, as Carnisoar charged a blast from his wing. Casey avoided it and tried to attack using his nunchucks.
Meanwhile, Twilight was tending to Princess Celestia. “Are you alright?” she asked, helping the princess up.
“I am fine, but I just couldn’t fight him off. Who is he?”
“His name is Carnisoar. According to Casey, he’s supposed to be the Overlord of the sky on Earth.”
Casey was getting his butt kicked. He couldn’t keep up t\with Carnisoar’s attacks. Every time Casey tried something, Carnisoar would easily counter. Carnisoar threw a gust of wind at Casey, sending him out a window. Casey landed in front of the others. They all watched in horror as Carnisoar slowly descended behind him.
“I can’t lose now. Not with so many ponies counting on me. I have to keep fighting,” Casey said as his aura began to glow. Carnisoar watched in amusement as Casey got back up. “Call to the beast inside! Free the tiger!” Casey said as his aura transformed into a red tiger that charged at Carnisoar. Carnisoar tried to dodge it, but the attack was too fast. Carnisoar was thrown back. Before he could retaliate, Casey got his nunchucks and attacked Carnisoar once again. This time, Carnisoar couldn’t keep up with Casey. Casey landed blow after blow, forcing Carnisoar to a ledge. Casey pushed Carnisoar off the ledge. Carnisoar looked he was falling, but he simply just glided into the air in front of everyone.
“You have gotten lucky this time, red ranger. But next time will be different,” he said as he flew away.
The ponies came up to Casey to see if he was okay. “Casey, what was that?” Twilight asked.
“That was my animal sprit at full power,” Casey responded with a slight chuckle. He pressed the button on his visor and powered down.
“Carnisoar’s gonna be back. I have to prepare,” Casey said.
“Wait, we can help you,” pleaded Starlight.
Casey stopped and remembered the conversation they had the night before. “Don’t ask ‘what if?’ Ask ‘what can I do next?” Casey whispered to himself.
“Carnisoar’s right. Next time will be different, because we’re gonna get him for good,” Casey turned to them with a smile. “WE being the keyword of that statement.”
Just then, there was a huge flash of light. It lingered for a few seconds; and when it left, there were two humans, one male the other female, standing in its place. They both had confused looks on their faces.
“Um...Casey? Where are we? And why are there ponies everywhere?” Theo asked. Not thirty seconds ago, he and Lily were closing up the parlor for the day. All of the sudden, they were whisked away to another world full of ponies. The only thing Theo saw that didn’t freak him out was Casey.
“It’s a little weird at first, but you get used to it pretty quick. We’re in another world called ‘Equestria’ and to answer your second question, the ponies are all locals. Get this, we’re only the second group of Power Rangers to be here,” Casey said. He couldn’t hold back a laugh. Theo was always a little stuck up. Watching him get used to this world was gonna be hilarious.
Lily remained silent. She wasn’t sure what to think of the situation. On the one hand, she was getting bored of working in the old parlor. But on the other, she wasn’t really thinking of a new world, especially one with no other humans.
“You must be Casey’s team. My name is Twilight Sparkle. It’s very nice to meet you,” Twilight said, making Theo even more confused.
“D-Did that just talk?!” Theo practically yelled at Casey.
“Yeah, how’d you think they communicate with each other?” Casey was already enjoying this.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Twilight. I’m Lily, and this is Theo,” Lily said, reaching out her hand. She and Twilight shook hand and hoof, and before anything else could be said or done, Theo fainted.
“What’s with him?” Starlight asked.
“Don’t mind him; he fears what he doesn’t understand,” Casey joked. Lily gave him a dirty look in return. “You’re no fun.”
“Anyhow, we should get back to Ponyville so we can explain what’s going on,” Starlight said. “I’m Starlight, by the way. Nice to meet you.”
Later
“Ugh, Lily?” Theo groaned without opening his eyes.
“Yeah Theo?” Theo heard Lily respond.
“I just had the weirdest dream. We were sucked into some weird world called Equestrya. It was full of ponies. Casey was there too,” Theo chuckled.
“Umm, it’s pronounced ‘Equestria’,” Theo heard a strangely familiar voice say. Theo shot awake and found himself surrounded by Casey and Lily, along with a bunch of other ponies.
“Hehe, have a nice nap?” Lily giggled.
“Why are we here? Did we do something wrong?” Theo panicked.
“Dude, chill. We’re save this land, not because we did something wrong,” Casey responded.
“Save it? From what?”
“From Carnisoar. And maybe the other Overlords. I forgot to ask you, Rainbow. Did Carnisoar say the other Overlords were here?”
“He did say that Equestria would fall to him and the other Overlords, so I guess that means they’re here,” she said with a shrug.
“Wait a second, I thought we destroyed the Overlords,” said Lily.
“Well, my theory is this: we only destroyed Carnisoar and Grizzaka, not Jellica. So she probably found a way to resurrect them,” responded Casey.
“Oh great, we had a hard enough time fighting them last time, and that was with RJ and Dominic. Without them, we don’t stand a chance,” said Theo.
“Have faith. I literally fought off Carnisoar on my own not too earlier than you arrived,” said Casey.
“Either way, we all have to be prepared for when they come back. Did they have any weaknesses?” Twilight asked.
“Not really. And magic doesn’t really seem to be an option,” said Casey.
“Wait a second, magic?” Theo said. Now he’d heard it all.
“Well, yeah. She’s an alicorn. What did you expect?” Casey said.
“I’m don’t know. A few hours ago I didn’t even know this place existed,” Theo retorted.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. She had come to enjoy Casey’s company, and Lily seemed pretty cool too, but Theo seemed like a total buzz kill.
Before anything else could be said, there were a few screams outside. Casey looked outside and saw the Rinshi were back with a new leader.
“Rinshi attack, let’s go guys,” said Casey.
“Wait a second, we don’t have our morphers,” said Theo.
“I have yours, Theo. I was gonna go visit Master Mao and give them back,” said Lily.
“Why? He said you could keep it in case of emergencies,” said Casey.
“We’ll talk about it later. But now we have to go deal with these Rinshi,” said Lily.
The three of them exited the castle to face the Rinshi. “What? I thought only the red one was,” said the leader.
“I got some backup,” said Casey.
“No matter, I’ll take all three of you down. Attack!” said the leader.
Lily gave Theo his morpher and put on her own. The three of them pressed the buttons on their sunglasses. “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” the three of them shouted. In a familiar deal of flashes and roars, the three humans were now all morphed into the Power Rangers Jungle Fury. Theo’s Suit was similar to Casey’s, but the patterns on his uniform were black and blue instead of black and red. Lily’s suit also had black patterns, but with yellow colors to go with them. Her suits also had a skirt at the waist.
“With the strength of a tiger! Jungle Fury, Red Ranger!” shouted Casey.
“With the stealth of a jaguar! Jungle Fury, Blue Ranger!” shouted Theo.
“With the speed of a cheetah! Jungle Fury, Yellow Ranger!” shouted Lily.
At the mention of speed, Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up.
The three jungle rangers charged into battle with he Rinshi. Casey used his strength to knock a bunch off balance. The Rinshi tried to get on top of him, but he wouldn’t let them. Theo was simply attacking and dodging. He had no problem bringing down the Rinshi. Lily had a serious speed advantage. She turned and attacked a quick as possible, and the Rinshi were too slow to counter.
Twilight and the others came out and saw what was happening. She, Starlight, Rainbow, and Applejack got into battle as well; while Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy helped protect the locals. Twilight used her flight and teleportation to get around her enemies. Her magic may have not been any use, but she could still use it in certain ways to her advantage. Starlight was doing the same. She had to fight a little harder, however, because she could not fly. Rainbow remembered that these creatures were very clumsy. She simply swooped down and tried to get the Rinshi to attack her. They did, they missed, and they went down. Applejack had no trouble fighting. She found this a lot easier than fighting Tyrannadrones. These things didn’t act like they knew what they were doing.
Once the Rinshi were all defeated, the leader steeped up to the battlefield and went at it with Casey. Casey fought back as best he could, but the leader didn’t give an inch. It took Casey down with a clean sweep. Theo and Lily went to attack him and had a bit better luck.
“It’s time fo you to see what you’re really up against,” said the leader as it began to molt its skin. It became a two-legged fish with sharp jaws and claws. “I am pyrrhanax, spirit of the piranha.”
“Let’s pull out our weapons,” Casey said to his friends. Casey pulled out his nunchucks from before, as Theo pulled out some tonfas and lily pulled out a staff. They attacked the monster and gained the upper hand. Casey used his nunchucks to knock the monster off balance, as Theo and Lily used their weapons to send an electric charge at the monster.
“I think this guy’s had enough. What do you say we use this,” Casey said, pulling out a canon.
“Alright,” said Theo.
“Let’s do it,” said Lily.
The three of them took aim at the monster who was now getting back up. “Claw canon! Powered by animal spirits!” said the rangers, in unison. “Fire!”
A ball of fire shot out the end and turned the monster to stone before it exploded. The ponies came up to the rangers and congratulated them on their victory. Before much could be said, the monster grew as tall as they did against the Dino Rangers.
“You don’t happen to have zords, do you?” Twilight said.
“Let’s find out,” said Casey.
The rangers unleashed their animal spirits into the sky and they all became material. The mane six looked up in awe at what was before them: a red tiger zord, a blue jaguar zord, and a yellow cheetah zord. The rangers jumped into them and approached the monster. Before they attacked, the jaguar and the cheetah folded their paws to make their bodies straight. The tiger folded in its legs and stood upward. The cheetah and the jaguar attached themselves to the end of the tiger zord. The Jungle Pride Megazord was now complete.
The monster tried to attack the Megazord, but it was able to block. It struck back with a sound punch that made the monster hit the ground hard. The monster got up pretty quick and caught the Megazord off guard.
“We’re gonna need more power. Elephant zord!” Lily shouted. With that, she unleashed another spirit that took the form of an elephant. The elephant zord detached its head to make a wrecking ball. The wrecking ball combined with the Megazord.
“Jungle Elephant Megazord!” the rangers shouted. They swung the wrecking ball at the monster and sent it flying. The Megazord started to spin faster and faster. The monster was afraid of what was to come. The Megazord released the wrecking ball, and it hit the monster. The monster finally fell down and exploded.
The rangers jumped out of their zords, and the mane six ran up to them.
“Those zords were amazing. The Dino Rangers had zords too, but they were way different,” said Twilight.
“Thanks, Twilight. When we get back, we’re gonna have to meet up with the Dino Rangers,” said Casey.
“It’s really implied here, but thank you all,” said Starlight.
“No need to thank us. It’s our job,” said Lily.
“Yeah, we’ll get the Overlords next,” said Theo.
“Why don’t we get back to the castle? It’s getting pretty late,” said Twilight.
“Sounds good,” Casey responded.
Meanwhile
Carnisoar was very disappointed. Not only was he humiliated by the rad ranger, the other rangers were here as well. Jellies came into the room.
“We only need a little more fear. We don’t yet have enough to resurrect Grizzaka. I’ll have to do this myself,” she said.
Before she left, a skeleton that was half painted with camouflage appeared in front of her.
Theo was getting “the grand tour” as Pinkie calls it. After his rough start, he decided he wanted to get to know this new world. Although it was crazy, Theo was actually starting to get used to it. After all, this was only arguably the weirdest thing he’d ever seen.
Pinkie was super-duper happy Theo was coming around. She had taken it upon herself to make him comfortable. So, she did that the only way she could think of: throwing him a party. Unfortunately, that only freaked him out. So she resulted to trying easier methods, starting with apologizing.
The two of them just finished checking out Rarity’s boutique. Theo was strangely impressed. He had never been fascinated by clothes before, but he couldn’t help but marvel at Rarity’s designs. It was no wonder she had so many stores across Equestria.
Theo has seen the crystal castle, Sugarcube Corner, Sweet Apple Acres, and Fluttershy’s cottage, and he was thoroughly impressed. And according to Pinkie, that was just what was in Ponyville.
Meanwhile, Casey and Twilight were chatting about his power. Twilight had learned the hard way that Casey wasn’t the same as Ethan. She found this out when she surprised him with questions and he responded by running away. Now, they were just having a friendly conversation. Casey was telling about his life at the Pai Zhua Academy. She couldn’t help but compare him to Connor. He was more head forward. Connor was more laid back. She liked them both, don’t get her wrong.
Casey was really getting used to this new world. At first, he was unsure about living in a world without other humans, and his nightmares didn’t really help. But now he was growing closer with the ponies here, especially Starlight. Theo and Lily also really helped.
“Jared was always a bit of a jerk, but he didn’t deserve to be possessed. And what’s worse is that it took us so long to figure out that he was. No kidding, we had just assumed he was just being more of a jerk. When we finally did figure it out, I took it pretty hard. Then, one day on the forest, I decided to go for a run. It was a few days after Theo and Lily earned their stripes without me. I admit I was jealous, but mostly I thought it was me. Anyhow, I saw three phantom beasts attacking Camille. I thought about helping, but then another person came out of nowhere and started defending her. I ducked behind a tree, and I saw that it was Jared. After he defeated the monsters Jared tended to Camille. She at first thought it was Dai Shi, but then Jared spoke up. He said that Dai Shi didn’t really care about her. He told her that, in his time Dai SHi possessed him, he had grown fond of her. He took her back to the temple. I told my friends about what I saw, but they didn’t believe me. I tried to convince them, but they just thought I was trying to be heroic so I could earn my stripes. It was clear I wasn’t getting any help, so I went to Dai Shi’s temple on my own. Master Mao even tried to stop me, but I was determined to save Jared. I entered the temple and we met, face to face. Dai Shi told me that Jared no longer existed, that I was wasting my time; but I wasn’t gonna let him get to me. We fought, and he kept trying to get into my head. Eventually, I gained the upper hand, and Jared finally broke free of Dai Shi’s control. But Dai Shi wasn’t gonna give up. He tried to finish Jared off once and for all. Camille even tried to stand up to him, but Dai Shi just tried to destroy her too. Luckily, he forgot about me. I used my tiger spirit to hold back Dai Shi. We took the opportunity to escape, and my friends met us out front. They were ready to fight them, but I managed to talk them down. But then, Snapper and Scorch came out to confront us. We all fought them and defeated them. I earned my tripes that day. RJ said it was because I really wasn’t thinking about making up for not earning them before. I offered our friendship to Jared, but he was convinced that he didn’t;t deserve a second chance. So he and Camille went into hiding. We were on our own to face Dai Shi. Scorch was out to fight us one last time, but even though we defeated him, he still managed to gather enough fear to resurrect Dai Shi. Dai Shi usedhis power to resurrect all of the monsters we defeated, including the Overlords and the Phantom Generals. We had no choice but to fight. We did the best we could, but there were just too many of them. We tried to get Jared to help, but he was still getting over being possessed. Luckily, the other Pai Zhua masters came back to help us. They used their full powers to get rid of all the evil spirits, but Dai Shi took their power from them and regained his physical form. He was a huge, twelve headed, golden dragon. We tried to fight him, but he was just too strong. There was nothing we could do. Luckily, Jared came. He told Dai Shi that they were not the same. He charged his power to its full extent and jumped directly into Dai Shi and began to weaken him. He told us to finish him off. We told him that we weren’t gonna hurt him, but he said he would be fine. We took aim and fired our power at him and destroyed Dai Shi once and for all. Jared hit the ground in front of us. We rushed to his aid, and Camille cried because he wasn’t giving a pulse. But he woke up. I went back to teach at the old Pai Zhua Academy with Jared and Camille. Dominic went to France. RJ, Theo and Lily all stayed to work at the pizza parlor. Jared and I have been friends ever since,” Casey finished.
Twilight was astounded. She was hating herself inside for only wanting to research Casey’s powers. She didn’t recognize that he was a person. He had a life outside of being a Power Ranger.
“That-that was amazing. Ethan just told me about his ranger life. I completely took your real life for granted. I’m so sorry. I-I hope you can forgive me and we can be friends,” Twilight said.
“Of course. Don’t sweat it. Everyone on Earth thinks the Power Rangers are just popularity. They forget what our job really means. We take offense at first, but then again we’d do the same thing if we were in their place. Oh, and yes, we’re friends,” Casey said, making Twilight smile.
“Quick question, though,” Casey continued, “Rainbow told me you could tell me: why was she giving me a hard time before? We talked before, and she said it wasn’t really me.”
“Well, I guess if she said it was alright, I can tell you. It really isn’t you; it’s just that, she kind of had a thing for the last red ranger that was here: Connor, the red Dino ranger. Ever since he left, she’s been trying to convince me to let her go to Earth and see him,” Twilight said.
“Really?” Casey raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I don’t know if it was his super speed, or what? Well, anyway, it took them both a while to realize they were growing closer. We didn’t even pick up on it until they left and,” Twilight looked around the room, “and he kissed her,” she whispered.
“Oh wow. I guess that makes sense,” Casey said.
“Yeah, looking back it’s pretty funny how long it took them to realize their feelings for each other. You know, kind of like you and Starlight,” Twilight teased.
“What?! What are you talking about?” Casey said, blushing.
“Oh please. I heard that talk you two had the other night,” Twilight said.
“I admit I feel closer to her, but I don’t think of her like that,” Casey defended.
“Whatever you wanna believe,” Twilight concluded.
Meanwhile
“Who are you? You don’t look familiar,” Jellica said to the skeleton.
“Yeah, neither so you,” it responded.
“Just answer the question, or I’ll destroy you,” Carnisoar threatened.
“Woah, woah. Calm down there buddy. I’ll answer the question...I-uh...what was the question again?” it asked.
“Ugh, this guy’s an idiot,” Jellica said to Carnisoar.
“Hey, I heard that. You’re lucky I don’t sick my sister on you,” it shouted back.
“Oh shut up,” Carnisoar said, sending a blast at him. The skeleton simply blocked the attack no problem. It then struck back with a fire ball, which Carnisoar dodged. The fire ball hit a tree, instantly destroying it.
“Hey, I have an idea. This guy may be stupid, but maybe he can destroy the rangers for us,” Jellica said.
“Rangers!? As in Power Rangers!? Oh Rita’s not gonna like this. If she comes to this world and sees there are Power Rangers here, she’ll never trust me to do anything important again,” the skeleton pouted.
“Let’s try it. Yes, there are Power Rangers here. And they’re strong. But we bet if you fought them, they’d go down in an instant,” Carnisoar said.
“Alright then. Oh just wait, those Pwoer Rangers won’t know what hit them,” the skeleton said as it started to run off, “Oh yeah, by the way, I’m Rito...Rito Revolto.”
Carnisoar and Jellica rolled their eyes in unison.
Later
Lily was out at the edge of the Everfree Forest. She had nothing better to do, so she thought she’d give Fluttershy a visit. She couldn’t help but admit the timid pegasus was cute. And her love of animals was also something she really admired. After all, there were only so many people on Earth that saw animals for what they really were.
Lily arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage. She noticed that a lot of birds were watching her. The animals here were a lot more tame than on Earth. She knocked at the door, and it opened up just enough for a small voice to come out.
“Come in,” said the voice. Lily smiled and walked in.
“Hey, Fluttershy. I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by. I hope I’m not intruding,” said Lily.
“Oh no, it’s okay. I was just cleaning up a little,” Fluttershy responded.
Lily walked in and admired the inside of the house. It was beautiful, as if nature had created this house just for Fluttershy. There were trees and other plants growing on the walls and floor, and animals running around with each other. It lily were anyone else, she would run and never look back. But Lily absolutely loved nature.
“Wow, your cottage is amazing,” said Lily.
“Oh, thank you,” Fluttershy blushed.
Lily’s mopher started to buzz and she put them on. She saw a skeleton that was half painted with camouflage. It was running with purpose toward Ponyville.
“Sorry, Fluttershy. Duty calls,” Lily said, running out of the cottage.
“Oh that’s okay. Good luck!” Fluttershy waved. “Now, who’s hungry?” she said, turning back to her animals.
Lily finally managed to cut off the skeleton.
“Not another step, skelly,” she said.
“Haha, do you even know who you’re talking to, little girl? I am Rito Revolto, brother of Rita Repulsa. I’ve been sent here to scout this land for her rule, and she’s not gonna like Power Rangers in these lands,” it said.
“Yeesh, it sure likes to talk,” Lily said to herself.
“I heard that. Uuuugh, I’m gonna make you pay for that,” said Rito.
Rito drew his blade and fired a lightening bolt out of it. Lily just barely dodged it.
“Guys, I’m gonna need some help up here,” Lily said.
She then put on her sunglasses and pressed the button. “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” She was now morphed once again.
“Huh? I’ve never seen a Power Ranger like you before. Eh whatever, I’ll destroy you anyway,” Rito said.
Lily and Rito met in the middle. Lily tried to jab at him, but he blocked all of her attacks. He even struck back. Lily tried to counter, but he was too strong. Rito took aim and fired a fire blast at Lily. She took it and went flying. She tried to use her staff to attack with lightning, but Rito fire a beam through the lighting and at Lily.
“Lily, we’re here,” shouted Theo. He was with Casey.
The two of them put them on their sunglasses. “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” The two of them morphed.
“What the?! More of you?!” Rito shouted.
Theo and Casey tried to fight Rito, but he held his own easily. Casey swung his nunchucks at him, but he missed. Rito struck back using his sword, and Casey hit the ground. Theo tried using his tonfas to send a bolt of lightning at Rito, but he just countered worth the same beam as before.
“Let’s try the canon,” said Theo.
“Right,” Casey responded.
“Claw canon! Powered by animal spirits!” The rangers took aim at Rito.
“Gimme your best shot,” Rito taunted.
“Fire!” The canon fired its fire ball at Rito. But Rito countered it just by punching it into thin air. Rito then fired his own attack, damaging the claw canon.
In the distance, Rainbow and Twilight were witnessing the fight. “We need to help them,” said Rainbow.
“But how? Magic doesn’t work,” Twilight reasoned.
“It’s worth a shot,” Rainbow countered.
“Alright,” said Twilight. Twilight charged a spell and took aim at Rito. She fired and the spell made contact. Rito reacted by bursting into flames. But he quickly recovered and struck back. Luckily, Twilight and Rainbow had their fair share of avoiding attacks in midair.
“If magic works, let’s try the Elements of Harmony,” said Twilight.
“Good idea. I’ll tell the rangers to stall,” said Rainbow.
“Be careful,” said Twilight as she flew off.
Twilight teleported to the castle and told the others what was going on. They went to the Tree of Harmony and got their elements, along with Rainbow’s element. They made their way back to the fight, where Rito was making quick work of the rangers. They gave Rainbow her element and took aim at Rito. By the time Rito knew what was happening, it was too late. He was struck by the blast and turned to stone.
“That guy was tough,” said Lily.
“Yeah, I’m not sure how much longer we could’ve lasted. Thanks for the help,” said Casey.
“No problem. It’s what we do,” said Twilight.
“Just out of curiosity, what are those?” Theo asked.
“Oh these? These are nothing. Just our Elements of Harmony,” said Rarity.
“Elements of what?” said Theo.
Before Twilight could answer, the stone statue began to shake. The stone cracked and Rito broke free.
“Oh I hate when I get turned to stone! That’s it, no more Mr. Nice Guy,” he growled.
Before Rito could attack, there was a bright light that lingered around for a moment. When it vanished, a human stood in its place and faced Rito.
“Rito Revolto, you’re coming with me,” he said.
“Oh no, not you again. I’m out of here,” Rito said, teleporting away.
The man turned to face the rangers and the mane six.
“Who are you?” asked Casey.
“I’m Tommy...Tommy Oliver,” he responded.
At the mention of Tommy Oliver’s name, Twilight fainted.
“Wait, you’re...Tommy Oliver? As in the greatest Power Ranger of all time?” Theo asked.
“That’s me. You must be the Jungle Rangers. It’s nice to meet you,” Tommy responded.
“It’s an honor. But why are you here?” Casey said.
“I’m here to stop Rito Revolto. I tracked him here. He’s scouting this land for his sister to see if she could take it over. Luckily, you guys managed to keep him here long enough for me to catch him,” said Tommy.
“Thanks, another second and we would’ve been done for,” said Rainbow.
Tommy had not yet noticed that this land was full of ponies. He was shocked to see that came from a pegasus.
“Umm, no problem. Wow, I probably should’ve checked where I was going,” Tommy said.
“It’s fine, you get used to it after a while. We should get back to Ponyville and prepare for Rito’s return,” said Casey.
“Good idea,” said Tommy. “I’ll let you guys explain when we get there.”
Meanwhile
“You ran away?!” said Carnisoar.
“Hey, you don’t know what that guy’s capable of. That’s Tommy Oliver. I wouldn’t have stood a chance fighting him,” Rito defended.
“So, that was the so-called ‘greatest Power Ranger of all time’? He didn’t look that strong to me,” said Jellica.
“Well, you haven’t seen him in battle,” said Rito.
“Why don’t we make a deal? We’ll both go after ‘Tommy’ while you finish what you started with the Jungle Rangers,” said Jellica.
“Hey, that’s good idea. You fight Tommy, I fight everyone else. I have a good feeling about this,” Rito said, jumping around.
“As good a fighter this guy is, he’s an even bigger idiot,” Carnisoar said to Jellica.
“Yes, but maybe he’ll be the one to finally destroy the rangers,” replied Jellica.
Meanwhile
“So let me get this straight,” said Tommy. “I’m in another dimension called Equestria, and we’re the only humans present in this dimension?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” said Casey with a nod.
Twilight was finally coming to. The last thing she remembered was fighting a skeleton and then another human showed up.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Oh hey, Twilight. This is Tommy Oliver, the greatest Power Ranger of all time!” said Theo with enthusiasm.
“Wait, that wasn’t a dream!? Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, I have sooooooo many questions to ask you,” said Twilight.
Tommy’s morpher started to buzz. “Maybe later, I gotta go deal with Rito,” said Tommy.
“Let’s go,” said Casey.
“Hold on, you guys stay here. Rito’s too strong for you guys. I’m gonna deal with him myself,” Tommy replied.
“What? What do you mean he’s too strong? We can deal with him,” said Lily.
“Well, according to what I saw earlier, no you can’t. No offense, but Rito’s My personal responsibility,” said Tommy.
“But we can help. We’ve dealt with powerful beings before. Why is Rito any different?” Casey asked.
“I’m gonna deal with. End of discussion,” Tommy concluded.
With that, Tommy exited the room to go fight Rito, leaving the others to discuss what had just happened.
“This guy’s not very humble is he?” Starlight said.
“Well, he is kind of the best,” Twilight said.
“So what? That doesn’t mean he can do everything on his own,” said Rainbow.
“Rainbow and Starlight are right. His arrogance is gonna get himself killed,” said Applejack.
“I don’t know. I mean, you saw what Rito could do. We might just end up getting in the way,” Rarity said.
“Guys, let’s just let him figure that out for himself,” Casey said.
“What are you saying?” asked Theo.
“I’m saying, let’s let him try to fight Rito. If he beats him, that’s great; but if he doesn’t, maybe then he’ll realize that he needs us to help him,” Casey said.
“I guess it’s worth a shot,” Lily shrugged.
“Alright, if you guys say so. But I gotta ask; why did you faint when Tommy arrived, Twilight?” Starlight said.
“Oh, that’s easy. HE’S THE GREATEST POWER RANGER OF ALL TIME. I mean, sure he started out evil, but how many other rangers can claim that they’ve been FOUR DIFFERENT COLORS. He’s been green, white, red twice, and black,” Twilight said, jumping around.
“Wait, he was a black ranger? As in...the black Dino Ranger?” said Rainbow with a grin spreading across her face.
“Yep, he was the only Dino Ranger not to be sucked into Equestria when Zeltrax attacked,” Twilight said.
“WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY THAT?! I’m gonna go watch him fight,” Rainbow said, zooming out the door.
“I guess we should go too,” Casey said.
Meanwhile
Tommy got to the town center to face Rito.
“There’s no escaping for you this time, Rito,” he said.
“We’ll just see about that, but first the fight,” said Rito.
“Bring it on,” said Tommy.
“Oh, you’re not fighting me. Today, you’re gonna be fighting these two,” Rito said.
At that, Carnisoar and Jellica stepped up to the battlefield.
“Who are you?” Tommy asked.
“I am Carnisoar, Overlord of the sky,” said Carnisoar.
“I am Jellica, Overlord of the sea,” said Jellica.
“You may as well surrender now. You don’t stand a chance against both of us,” said Carnisoar.
“It doesn’t matter how many of you there are, I’ll beat all three of you,” Tommy said.
Rainbow and the others all got to the scene as Tommy pulled out a black key. He activated his morpher on his wrist. “Dino Thunder! Power Up!” Tommy said as he put the key into the morpher. There was another deal of roars and bright lights. In Tommy’s place stood a Power Ranger with a black suit. It had golden triangle patters instead of white.l Tommy was now in his black ranger mode. Rainbow couldn’t help but squee at the sight.
Tommy drew his bracheostaff and charged at Carnisoar and Jellica. Carnisoar reacted first. The two of them met and they fought. They both attacked as fast as they could. Tommy dodged everything Carinisoar threw at him, but he wasn’t able to land any solid shot himself. Tommy used his Dino Power to turn invisible. He was able to get the jump on Carnisoar and land a good hit. He then turned his staff upside down and fired a deal of lasers at Carnisoar. The laser all bounced off of Carnisoar’s wing. The returned with a huge gust of wind that sent Tommy into the sky. Carnisoar followed him and struck him down to ground.
Carnisoar stepped back and Jellica a chance to fight. She used her spear to jab at Tommy, but he was able to avoid the attacks. Tommy tried to strike back, but simply used that as an opportunity to attack. She hit Tommy square in the chest and he went flying back. Tommy spun a disk on his staff, and unleashed a lightning bolt upon Jellica. She erupted into a fit of smoke as sparks from the resulting blast. Tommy turned invisible again and attacked Jellica. But when he tried to hit her, his staff just went through her body. Jellica sent a big wave at Tommy, sending him back.
”These two are strong, but they haven’t seen anything yet,” Tommy said to himself. “Super Dino Mode!”
Tommy’s suit glowed as the triangle patterns on his suit became blades. He jumped back into the fight. This time, both Carnisoar and Jellica attacked. Tommy tried to spin and use his blades to strike them. They both took a couple shots before catching Tommy and using their combined powers to blast him. The resulting shot caused him to demorph by force.
“You were unwise to fight us alone, weakling,” said Carnisoar.
“And to think that this mortal is the best Power Ranger of all time. If that’s true, Earth is doomed,” said Jellica.
Casey and the others were still watching in the distance. They saw everything that had happened.
“We have to help him,” said Casey.
“Right,” agreed Theo.
“Let’s go,” said Lily.
“Be careful,” said Twilight.
Casey, Theo, and Lily came out to face Carnisoar and Jellica.
“Leave him alone,” shouted Lily.
“Or what? You think you can beat us?” taunted Carnisoar.
“Here we go,” said Casey.
“Jungle beast! Spirit unleashed!” The three jungle rangers morphed into their respective suits.
“With the strength of a tiger! Jungle Fury, Red Ranger!” shouted Casey.
“With the stealth of a jaguar! Jungle Fury, Blue Ranger!” shouted Theo.
“With the speed of a cheetah! Jungle Fury, Yellow Ranger!” shouted Lily.
Tommy, barely conscious, saw the Jungle Rangers trying to protect him.
“You’re going down,” said Casey.
“Let’s see about that,’ Carnisoar.
“Let’s just use our animal spirits so we can regroup,” Theo suggested.
“Good idea. You guys ready?” Casey asked.
“Ready,” said Theo.
“Ready,” said Lily.
“Call to the beast inside! Free the tiger!”
“Call to the beast inside! Release the jaguar!”
“Call to the beast inside! Bring out the cheetah!”
The rangers’ animal spirits all made contact with the two Overlords. The resulting blast sent the Overlords flying away.
“Hey, you guys beat my backup. Guess I’ll have to deal with myself,” said Rito. He went to attack when he saw the rangers recharging their animal spirits. “On second thought, I think I’ll join them.”
The mane six went to tend to Tommy.
“Let’s get him back to the castle ,” said Starlight.
Later
Back at the castle, the rangers were waiting for Tommy to wake up.
“Carnisoar and Jellica are gonna be hard enough to beat. We have to be ready for when they return,” Casey said.
“Yeah. I’m just glad Grizzaka hasn’t shown his face, yet,” said Theo.
“Either way, how are we supposed to beat Rito? He mopped the floor with us before,” Lily reminded them.
“That doesn’t matter. What does is that we do what we can to beat him. Maybe Tommy can help, you, when he wakes up,” said Casey.
The door opened. The rangers turned to see Twilight and Starlight. Twilight’s words from before began to ring in Casey’s mind:
’kind of like you and Starlight’
‘kind of like you and Starlight’
‘kind of like you and Starlight’
Casey shook his head and got those words out of his mind.
“How’s he doing?” asked Twilight.
“Good. His pulse is getting stronger. He should be awake in a few minutes,” said Theo.
“I can’t believe Carnisoar and Jellica could do so much damage,” said Starlight.
“Yeah, we beat them, but we still had a really hard time,” said Lily.
“If only RJ or Dominic were here,” said Casey.
“Maybe they will be. They just haven’t been summoned yet,” Starlight said.
Just then, Tommy started to wake up. He looked around and saw the Jungle Rangers, along with Twilight and Starlight. He was instantly filled with a sense of regret and embarrassment.
“Hey, you’re awake. How are you feeling?” asked Casey.
“Fine. I’m sorry guys. I should’ve learned this lesson a long time ago,” said Tommy.
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up. I had the same problem with Casey when I we first became rangers,” said Theo.
“Yeah. Although it’s honestly a little ironic,” said Casey. Tommy shot him a confused look. “I was teaching my students about humility right before I came here.”
“Yeah. But what are we gonna do about Rito?” Tommy asked.
“The Elements of Harmony may not have defeated him, but they did hurt him. Combine that with your powers, and I think that should be more than enough,” said Twilight.
“Sounds good. Either way, we should get prepared. I’m gonna go on a quick jog. You guys can join me if you want,” said Casey.
“I-I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind,” said Starlight, sheepishly.
Twilight raised an eyebrow and shot her a smirk. “You two go on ahead. I have a few questions to ask Tommy,” she said.
Casey rolled his eyes. “Alright, we should get going,” said Casey.
“See you guys later,” said Starlight as she and Casey exited the castle.
“We should go too, just in case Rito comes back,” said Theo.
“Right, bye,” said Lily.
They both exited the castle and left Twilight and Tommy alone.
“Alright, what did you want to ask me,” Tommy said.
“First, how did you know that Rito was here in Equestria?” Twilight asked.
“When you’ve been a ranger as long as I have, you get large connections, even to places you’ve never been to,” Tommy replied.
“You said that Rito was here to scout. What did you mean by that?”
“Rito is the brother of Rita Repulsa. She’s one of the most powerful beings in the universe. She sent Rito to seek a land that she could take over without much trouble.”
“I assume your Dino Power is invisibility. When did they return?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your Dino Power. The other Dino Rangers said that their Dino Powers returned just before they were brought here.”
“My former students were here? How many of them?”
Twilight was a little shocked to learn that Tommy didn’t know his fellow Dino Rangers came to Equestria. “Oh, all of them: Connor, Ethan, Kira, and Trent.”
“Why? What would they need to do here?”
“Zeltrax came here and tried to open a black hole.”
“Oh. I thought Zeltrax was destroyed. What happened? Was Mesagog here too?”
“He wasn’t at first, but Zeltrax did summon him. Anyhow, the rangers tried to fight Mesagog when Zeltrax managed to open the black hole. Luckily, it opened point blank on Mesagog and sucked him in. But when the black hole opened, a force field formed around Zeltrax, and we couldn’t get to him. But the rangers...they took their Dino Gems and threw them at Zeltrax. They broke through the force field and hit Zeltrax. They went flying into the black hole, and Equestria was saved.”
Tommy was aghast. He had no idea Zeltrax was capable of such a catastrophic action. Zeltrax has done crazy things before, but nothing this bad.
“Wow, they really gave up their powers?”
“Yeah. We were all extremely grateful. We wanted to repay them, but they wouldn’t accept it. I just feel so bad that there was nothing more we could’ve done to help.”
“It’s fine. Sometimes rangers have to make sacrifices. Were they okay when they left?”
“Yeah they-“
Twilight was cut off by Tommy’s morpher going off.
Rito Revolto stood, waiting for the rangers to show up. According to Jellica, he was the bait...again. He was starting to get tired of being the bait. Then again, as long as the Overlords kept Tommy Oliver busy, he didn’t care what he was. The rangers had been taking forever. How hard was it to find a skeleton in a land full of ponies. He was just outside the town, in plain sight.
Carnisoar flew up next to him. “You haven't done anything to attract the rangers’ attention.”
“Oh right. I knew I forgot something,” Rito said. He then struck the ground with a lighting bolt from his blade.
Carnisoar facepalmed. “Attack one of them!”
“Okay, okay. You’re worse than Edd. I still can’t believe my sister married that guy.”
Rito walked into town and used his sword to attack and scare the ponies. They all ran in terror of what stood in front of them.
“Now this ought to get the rangers’ attention,” he said.
Carnisoar rolled his eyes and got back into position.
Sure enough, the rangers all came running up to Rito. “Took you guys long enough. I’ve been here for hours,” said Rito.
“if you’ve been here that long and we’ve only been called here now, you must suck at your job,” said Theo.
“Ugh, that’s it. You guys are so going down,” said Rito.
“”Keep an eye out. Carnisoar and Jellica could be anywhere,” said Casey.
“Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” “Dino Thunder! Power Up!”
The four rangers all morphed and charged into battle. Rito tried to fight, but he was overwhelmed. Casey used his nunchucks to knock Rito off balance as Theo and Lily sent an electrical charge at Rito. Tommy used his staff to fire lasers at Rito and they hit hard. Rito fired a laser back at Tommy, but it was blocked by Theo an Lily.
“Looks like this is our queue,” said Jellica.
She and Carnisoar jumped into battle. Jellica started by going after Tommy. She used a wave to attack him, but he used his staff to counter with another wave. Casey caught Jellica off guard and struck her with his nunchucks. She tried to turn and attack him, but Tommy attacked her before she could reach Casey. Carnisoar went after Theo and Lily. He tried using wind to get them on the air, but they kept their composure and struck back. They used their weapons to attack him, and Carnisoar dropped his blade.
Rito tried to get back into the fight, but the mane six stood in his way. He fired a thunder bolt at them, but Twilight blocked it with a shield. When she put down the shield, Starlight instantly teleported behind him and blasted him. Rito went flying toward Applejack, who buck him as hard as she could. Rito went flying up into the air. Rainbow used a tornado to cause him to go out of control. Rito tried firing a laser, but he couldn’t get a clear shot. Rainbow began to slow down in hopes Rito would hit the ground, but Rito activated a Jetpack and remained in the air. He fired another laser at Rainbow, and she wasn’t fast enough to dodge.
“One down...a couple more to go,” Rito said to himself.
Rainbow was saved by Twilight’s magic. She lowered Rainbow onto the ground slowly as she readied a spell to attack. Rito tried to get a little closer to hit them. He got too close and was hit by a stray laser from Tommy. This sent his jetpack out of control.
As a result of all the chaos, Rito dropped his blade. It landed on Casey. Casey tried to shake it off, but Jellica wrapped a tentacle around him. Tommy tried to cut him loose, but his staff went right through the tentacle. Jellica took the opportunity to attack Tommy. She struck him hard with her spear. It took all of Tommy’s strength to stay morphed.
Carnisoar threw another gust at the rangers, and they dodged it again. At this point, he was just waiting for them to get close. He moved toward Jellica. Theo and Lily followed. Theo tried attacking Carnisoar with his tonfas, but Carnisoar dodged and grabbed hold of Theo. Lily attached, but Carnisoar held Theo in front of him like a shield.
Rito obtained a flamethrower or his hand. He took aim at the mane six and fired. They all managed to avoid the blast, but a few of the houses caught fire. Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy rushed toward the town to help the locals escape the flames. Twilight tried to blast the flamethrower off of Rito, but he used his other hand to dispatch the spell she used. Starlight tried teleportation again, but Rito saw it coming and blasted her.
“We’ve gotta get that thing away from him,” said Applejack to Rainbow.
“I have an idea,” Rainbow said. She flew in the air, trying to distract Rito. Applejack snuck toward Rito. Rito fired at Rainbow, but she managed to avoid it. Applejack lunged at Rito. The two of them rolled a distance. Applejack eventually got the flamethrower away from Rito.
Tommy was having a hard time. He just couldn’t land a solid shot on Jellica. He tried laser, thunder, fire, water, and even an earthquake. She just took it all. Casey was still in her grip, trying to escape. Tommy saw an opening and ran toward Casey. Jellica fired at Tommy, but he ducked out of the way. Casey took as much cover as he could, and the blast him Jellica’s own tentacle. Casey was now free.
“I’m done playing around,” said Casey. “Jungle Sabers!”
Casey pulled out a pair of swords. He went after Jellica again, and avoided or blocked her attacks. He swiftly, repeatedly struck her. She tried to counter, but he was too fast. Casey then put his swords together and waved it around. He struck Jellica with one tough final attack.
“You got lucky. I’ll be back to finish you off,” she said before leaving.
Theo tried to get out of Carnisoar’s grip, but he was too strong. Lily couldn’t find a way to attack Carnisoar without hitting Theo.
“Just hit him with a charge,” Theo told her.
“No way. I’ll hit you,” she responded.
“I’ll be fine, just trust me,” Theo pleaded.
“Alright, if you say so.”
Lily charged electricity through her staff and fired at Carnisoar and Theo. Theo drew his tonfas and caught the charge. He added a bit to it and redirected it at Carnisoar. Carnisoar let go of Theo. Theo and Lily regrouped.
“Jungle Mace!”
“Jungle Fans!”
They drew their new weapons and went back after Carnisoar. Lily swung her mace around and hit Carnisoar hard. Carnisoar tried to blast the mace, but he couldn’t find anything strong enough to counter. Theo swooped in with his fans and slashed at Carnisoar. Every attack sliced a feather off of Carnisoar until he finally backed off.
“I’m done here. You will regret resisting,” Carnisoar said, flying away.
That just left Rito. He saw he was all alone. He tried to run, but Tommy got in front of him and blocked his path.
“I don’t need them. Let’s see you beat this one,” said Rito. He pulled out a device and activated a switch on it. He then threw it on the ground causing a huge explosion. Out of the smoke, Rito grew huge. “I don’t need fear to grow.”
“This one’s for you,” Tommy told the rangers.
“Jungle zords!”
The tiger zord, jaguar zord, and cheetah zord combined like they did before. Lily summoned the elephant zord, and it combined with the Megazord. Rito attacked the Megazord with his sword, but was hit with the wrecking ball. The rangers swung the wrecking ball around again, and sent Rito’s sword away. Rito activated his jetpack and flew above the rangers. He blasted them from above.
“We’re gonna need a little more help. Bat zord!” Theo said. He then summoned a giant bat. The elephant detached from the Megazord as the bat detached its wings and head. The wings combined with the Megazord. They rangers flew up to meet Rito in the sky. They attained using the bat’s sharp wings. Rito couldn’t do anything to counter, since he didn’t have his sword. Instead, he got out his flamethrower from before and blasted the rangers point blank. The Megazord hit the ground hard.
“Isn’t there anything you can do to help them?” Twilight asked Tommy.
“I think there is, but it doesn’t involve a zord,” he said.
He lifted his staff and started to build energy in it.
“Can you give me a boost?” Tommy asked.
“Sure. Let’s go, Rainbow,” Twilight said.
“Right,” Rainbow replied.
Twilight and Rainbow lifted Tommy into the air. They got higher and higher as the Megazord kept taking hits. Once they got close, Twilight and Rainbow launched Tommy into the air. Tommy prepared to unleash the energy building on his staff.
“Black Power Orb!” he shouted as he unleashed it. The orb flew toward Rito’s flamethrower, and it broke apart.
“Guys, his flamethrower’s down. We can get in close,” Casey said.
The Megazord got back up. The rangers struck again with the wings, and Rito had no way to counter. The Megazord started to spin faster and faster. The wings were getting sharper and sharper. The Megazord flew right threw Rito, severing a bunch of bones.
“You may have won this fight, but my sister’s gonna have at you,” Rito said. With that, he finally fell down and exploded once and for all. The Jungle Rangers got back onto the ground and cheered with the others.
Later
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay? We could really use your help fighting Carnisoar and Jellica,” Lily pleaded.
“Are you kidding? The way you guys fought out there today, you can take them no problem. Besides, I gotta go have a little chat with my former students,” Tommy said.
“Go easy on them,” Twilight said.
“Don’t worry I will. It was really great meeting all of you. I wish you good luck in fighting the Overlords,” Tommy said.
“It was an honor to fight with you,” said Casey.
“Yeah, we’ll never forget it,” said Theo.
“No problem,” said Tommy.
“One more thing. Can you tell Connor that Rainbow Dash said hi?” Rainbow asked.
“Sure,” Tommy said.
With that, Tommy activated his morpher and teleported back to Earth.
Starlight hung her head a little bit and went outside. Casey saw this and followed her. He found her on the balcony and took a seat next to her.
“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked her.
“Nothing, I’m fine,” she responded.
“I remember saying the same exact thing to you before.”
Starlight chuckled a little a that comment. “Yeah, but really I’m okay.”
“If that’s what you say so. By the way, did Twilight talk to you about our little conversation the other night?”
“Yeah. She asked what was wrong, and I told her about the nightmare. I also told her the advice you gave me, and she facehooved hard because she didn’t think of it.”
Casey chuckled a little too. “Yeah, I remember giving the same advice to Jared.”
Starlight took a deep breath. “I lied. There is something wrong.”
“It’s okay, you can tell me.”
“Really? It’s kind of embarrassing.”
“Then it shouldn’t be a huge deal.”
“Alright. It’s just That...Tommy leaving got me thinking. I remember after Connor left, Rainbow was a mess. I started thinking about how close we’ve grown, and then I realized that you’re gonna have to leave too.”
Casey dipped his. He was not prepared for this. Twilight’s words started ringing in his head again:
’kind of like you and Starlight’
‘kind of like you and Starlight’
‘kind of like you and Starlight’
“Starlight, no matter what happens, I will never forget you. I really never thought of leaving either. But remember how I said you shouldn’t let your past bother you? The same applies to the future. Right now, we should just focus on the present. If you ask me, that’s the best way to live.”
“Wow, no wonder you’re a teacher back on Earth,” Starlight said, nudging Casey.
“Yeah. But I’ll tell you, I have been thinking of how close we’ve gotten.”
Starlight blushed and tried to think of something to say. “Yeah, it was the same deal with the Dino Rang-“
Starlight was cut off by Casey. “I was talking about you and me. And I know that’s what you meant before, too.”
Starlight’s face went completely red. She couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“It’s fine. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been thinking about it either. I have been thinking about how close I’ve grown with the others though.”
Starlight nearly passed out from how much she exhaled. “Really? And what did you come up with?”
“Well, Twilight’s like a really smart aunt. Rainbow’s like a cool cousin. Fluttershy’s like a little sister. Rarity’s like a fashion-crazed cousin. Pinkie’s like a crazy twin sister. Applejack’s like a caring mother. I guess I haven’t really thought of you as a part of the family...”
Starlight nearly cried at the lat part. Her heart was instantly broken. She closed her eyes and started to get up to leave.
“...because that would make this next part pretty weird.”
Casey turned to face Starlight. He leaned as she turned her head t face him. With that, Casey took Starlight in a deep kiss. Starlight nearly fainted. She could feel her face burning a bright shade of red. Luckily, she saw that despite the show he was putting on, so was Casey. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the passionate kiss.
Casey heard a noise back toward the castle. He opened his eye to see what it was. He saw a lavender blur scurry out of view. He broke the kiss and walked over to the noise. He found a beet red Twilight trying to leave the room.
The adrenaline of the day before was still getting to Theo. He couldn’t believe that he got the chance to fight alongside TOMMY OLIVER, let alone meet him. He didn’t let this get to him, though. He knew that overconfidence would lead to his downfall. He decided to burn some of his energy and go for a run.
Theo was starting to get used to this new world, crazy as it was. He found himself thinking about his old life back on Earth. He remembered when he attended the Pai Zhua Academy, meeting Lily, becoming a ranger, and defeating evil spirits. Sure, he and Casey had a few bumps here and there, but the two had really become close friends. In fact, he couldn’t seem to remember a time before the Pai Zhua Academy. After all, he was a ranger through and through.
Theo woke up from his day dream when he tripped over Fluttershy. The butterscotch pegasus started to gather her stuff from the ground and back away.
“Hey, I’m really sorry. I really should have been looking where I was going,” Theo said.
“Oh no, it’s alright. It’s my fault for interrupting your run. Oh I hope you can forgive me,” Fluttershy responded.
Theo was shocked. He knew Fluttershy was really nice, but this was insane.
“Forgive you? You should be the one forgiving me. I ran into you,” Theo responded.
“Oh no, I could never make you take the blame for something like this. After all, you’ve only been here a week. I don’t want you to feel unwelcome,” Fluttershy responded.
Theo was unsure what to do. He wasn’t about to make this nice little girl apologize for something like that, but he couldn’t find a way to convince her that it was his fault.
“T-That’s okay. I forgive you...I-I guess?” Theo said.
Theo walked away, still shocked about what just happened. He made a note to himself to talk to Fluttershy about that.
Before he could think about the topic any further, he was instantly surrounded by Rinshi. He looked back at Fluttershy and saw she was under attack as well. He pulled out his sunglasses and hit the button. “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” Theo jumped into action and defended Fluttershy as best he could. It was a lot easier to just fight the Rinshi, but protecting someone in the process was another story. He could easily make quick work of these guys, but protecting the innocent always comes first.
He swept a Rinshi off the ground and took a few more down. He had to get out of the middle, so he could gain a higher advantage. Fluttershy was completely helpless. She could be assertive when she needed to be, but she had no fighting experience at all. All she could do was fly, but these Rinshi could really jump. Every time she tried to escape, they just pulled her back down.
Theo was being overwhelmed by the Rinshi. He just couldn’t hold them down long enough to help Fluttershy. Eventually, he just pulled out his jungle fans and attacked with those. He had to be careful not to hit Fluttershy. He managed to get to her and finished taking all of the Rinshi down.
“T-Thank you. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you weren’t here,” said Fluttershy..
“There’s no need to thank me. It’s what I do,” Theo responded.
“Especially because you won’t e defeating me,” said a lead Rinshi.
Theo took a stance and prepared for battle. Flutter shy got away from the scene as quick as she could. Theo and the leader went at it. Rinshi may have been clumsy, but lead Rinshi weren’t. Luckily, Theo had a big speed advantage. He didn’t;t have to try too hard to attack and dodge. The lead Rinshi couldn’t keep up.
Fluttershy took cover and looked back at Theo. She didn’t know how to fight, but she just couldn’t live with herself if something happened to him. The lead Rinshi saw her and fired an attack at her. She screamed and ran for Ponville. The lead Rinshi took in her fear and became the monster. It was a furry beast with huge hands and muscles. He had the spirit of the gorilla. It charged at Theo and mauled him.
“Guys, I need help. This guy’s huge,” Theo said.
“We’re on our way,” said Lily.
Theo got back up and tried to attack the monster. He attempted to tackle it, but it had a too low enter of gravity. The monster simply just picked Theo up and threw him a great distance. Then, with a roar, the monster blasted Theo.
Casey and Lily arrived on the scene, already morphed. They saw the monster and drew their weapons. Lily swung her mace at the monster in hopes it would do something. The mace connected with the monster, but it barely fazed the it. Casey attacked from behind with his blades, but the monster didn’t even notice.
“I think we’re gonna need some real firepower,” said Theo.
The rangers pulled out the canon and fired at the monster. The blast connected, and the monster fell back. It’s fur was on fire. The ouster ran away before the rangers could do anything else.
The rangers powered down and went to check on the citizens. They found nothing wrong, other than a scared Fluttershy.
“We barely even fazed that guy. Almost nothing we did worked,” said Lily.
“The canon worked, but we can’t fire that over and over without demorphing,” said Casey.
Theo thought back to the situation and realized that the monster wasn’t so strong until it took in fear.
“Guys, I have an idea. All we need to do is keep the locals from being too scared,” said Theo.
“How do you think we can do that?” asked Lily.
“Hear me out...”
Later
Theo was on his way to Fluttershy’s cottage. He needed to talk to her. He found her watering her plants.
“Hey, Fluttershy, do you have a minute to talk?” Theo asked.
“Oh hello, sure. I hope you’ll forgive me, but my house isn’t very organized at the moment,” Fluttershy said.
Theo rolled his eyes. “It’s fine. Anyhow, I have a plan on how to beat that monster from earlier.”
Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide with fear. She did not want to even think about that monster.
“It’s fine. Just listen too this,” Theo said.
“O-Okay. I hope I can help,” Fluttershy said.
“Trust me, if this works, you won’t have to worry about that monster anymore.”
“So what’s your plan?”
“I need you to face the monster. It feeds on fear, but it’s weakness is bravery.”
“Nononononononono. I can’t do that!”
“It’ll be fine. You just have to show him that you aren’t afraid.”
“But I am afraid. I can’t even think about that monster without shivering.”
“Don’t show him that you aren’t afraid of him. Show him that you’re not afraid to face him. It’s perfectly fine to be afraid, but with fear comes bravery.”
“I just can’t do it. I can’t and you won’t make me.”
“Fluttershy, I know you can do this. Why do you think I came to you other than any other pony? If I didn’t think you could, I wouldn’t have asked.”
“I-I don’t know. What if I mess it up? What if he sees my fear anyway?”
“You won’t. As long as you believe in yourself and put your heart into it, you’ll do amazing.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure.”
With that, Fluttershy gave a confident smile and nod. “Alright, let’s do this!”
“That’s it. One more thing, stop apologizing for stuff that isn’t your fault.”
Fluttershy blushed.
Later
“Alright guys, I just spoke with Fluttershy, and I think this plan is going to work,” Theo said.
“Great. What is it?” asked Casey.
“You’ll see,” Theo said.
“As long as it works. I have no clue how to beat that thing,” said Lily.
Before anything else could be said, the rangers’ morphers buzzed. They looked and saw the monster from earlier was back.
“Let’s go get him,” said Casey.
The rangers all morphed and faced the monster. It gave a huge roar and charged at the rangers. Before it reached them though, Fluttershy ran in between them.
“Look who’s back? Gonna run away again? Or cry this time?” the monster taunted.
“You can make fun of me all you want, but it won’t get to me,” Fluttershy responded.
Twilight came up to the scene. She nearly freaked when she saw what Fluttershy was doing. She wanted to run in and stop Fluttershy, but was stopped by Theo.
“What is she doing? She’s gonna get herself killed!” Twilight pleaded.
“She’ll be fine; trust me,” Theo responded.
Back at the scene, the monster was still trying to torment Fluttershy.
“I remember what happened last time you saw me: you ran. Because you’re a wimp.”
“I am not a wimp. There’s nothing wrong for me to be afraid. After all, I’m here now. If I were afraid I would be running now,” Fluttershy should her ground.
“Oh please, I can smell your fear from here.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. I won’t lie; I am afraid. But I have courage, enough to face.”
The monster shrank back at the mention of courage. “Oh really? Courage doesn’t mean you’re strong,” it said, trying to sound threatening.
“As long as I have courage, I’ll always be stronger than the likes of you, who preys on the fear of others.”
The monster didn’t know what to do. It charged at Fluttershy, only for the rangers to get in its way and attack. This time, the rangers were able to match the monster in strength. Theo used his fans to swipe at the monster, and since it didn’t have a weapon of its own, the monster couldn’t counter. Theo kept attacking until the monster couldn’t take anymore and tried to escape. The rangers drew their cannon and fired at the monster, causing it to go up in flames and explode.
The rangers demorphed and took a breather. Theo walked up to Fluttershy.
“I’m proud of you. What did I tell you? As long as you believe in yourself and put your heart into it, you can do anything,” Theo said to her.
“You’re right. And I say this a lot, but this time I mean it. I am going to be more assertive,” Fluttershy said, proudly.
Twilight walked up and joined them. “Fluttershy, that was amazing! I had no idea you had it in you!”
“Thanks, Twilight,” replied Fluttershy.
“Nice job. See, I’m not the only one who knows how to teach,” Casey said to Theo.
“Thanks man. When I saw Fluttershy run from the monster, I knew she had more potential than she showed,” Theo responded.
Before anything else could be said, the monster grew and loomed over Ponyville.
“Let’s hope the zords can take this,” Casey said as he and the others summoned their zords. Theo also summoned the bat zord so they could form the Jungle Bat Megazord.
The monster went to attack the rangers but was stopped short by the blades. The Megazord kept attacking and didn’t give the monster a chance to attack. Eventually, the monster saw an opening and struck. The zords had trouble staying together.
“We need more power! Lily, try the elephant,” said Casey.
“But then we’ll be vulnerable on one side,” Lily responded.
“Wait, what if we tried the bat zord and the elephant zord? That way, we can attack with one weapon and defend with the other,” said Theo.
“Will that work?” asked Lily.
“Only one way to find out,” said Casey.
With that, Lily summoned the elephant zord. Instead of becoming a mace, the ball and chain connected to the side of the Megazord. The other bat wing was still on the other arm of the Megazord.
“This feels great!” said Theo.
“Yeah. Now let’s see what it can really do,” said Lily.
The monster came back and attacked the Megazord, but was slashed by the blade. The Megazord then turned and hit it with the mace. The monster went flying back. The Megazord started to spin like it did before. This time, it turned so that it was spinning in a vertical motion. The monster was first slashed by the blade. Then it was completely crushed by the mace. It was destroyed.
Later
Casey, Theo, and Lily were deep in the Everfree Forest, tracking a signal they found often the battle. They looked around for anything out of the ordinary. According to Twilight, the forest was a dark place, which many ponies were afraid of.
Theo looked around and saw a tree with claw mark on it. He ran over to it and found tracks in the ground near the tree. He called the others over, and they began tracking the trail. After a while, they came upon a fire. But it wasn’t like a wildfire, it was more like an campfire. They also heard humming. They all took cover as the humming got closer.
Out of the shadows came a human. This human had long hair and a short beard. It was RJ, the wolf ranger.
“RJ! What are you doing here?” Theo asked.
RJ jumped when he heard Theo and jumped into a fighting pose until he realized it was him.
“Um, I’m not entirely sure. Do you guys happen to know, since we’re all here together?” RJ asked.
“Come with us. It’s a really long story,” Casey said.
RJ and the rest of the rangers made their way out of the forest and into Ponyville.
“Well, that sounds...interesting. I must admit I thought I was just somewhere in the wilderness back on Earth. I have no idea how I got here,” RJ said.
“Yeah, neither do we, to be honest,” Casey responded. “Anyhow, this is Ponyville.”
“It looks nice, like a quaint little town from Earth,” RJ said. He was still taking in the fact he had been sucked into another dimension while on a camping trip. Luckily, RJ had always been a bit of a pacifist.
Casey opened the doors to the Crystal Castle. They were all greeted by Starlight. “Who’s this? Another Jungle Ranger?” she asked.
“Yep. Starlight Glimmer, meet RJ the wolf ranger,” said Casey.
“It’s nice to meet you. I can’t believe I’ve been here a week and didn’t even know there were ponies here,” said RJ.
“Nice to meet you too,” responded Starlight.
“Hey, have you seen Twilight or the others? We should introduce RJ to them too,” said Theo.
“They’re in the map room, trying to figure out what that signal came from,” said Starlight.
“Yeah, that was me. Sorry about that, I didn’t know a campfire was so rare here,” said RJ.
Casey glanced at Starlight and hid a blush. “Y-You guys ahead. I’m gonna hang back here for a few. I’ll meet up with you later.”
“Alright, see you later. I have a feeling I’m gonna like this place,” RJ said as he, Theo and Lily walked off.
Casey looked back to Starlight and blushed again. “Um, hey,” he said sheepishly.
“Y-Yeah, hey,” Starlight returned the blush.
“You didn’t happen to talk to Twilight about...the other day?”
“I did. I was mad at first, but then I realized: that’s just Twilight. I couldn’t stay mad at her.”
Casey chuckled. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I would’ve tried to embarrass the heck out of her.”
Starlight chuckled as well. She then turned on a somewhat serious face. “You know, we never really did talk about it.”
“What do you mean? What is there to talk about? I like you and you like me. Simple as that.”
“Really? You really like me?”
“Well, yeah. Why else would I have kissed you?”
“I don’t know. But like, what are we? Are we together? Was it just a fling?”
Casey kneeled down to look her in the eye. “Of course not. I don’t know where to go from here, but I know we’ll figure it out together.”
“But what about after you defeat Carnisoar and Jellica? You can’t stay here forever.”
“Like I said before, don’t worry about the future. I know we’ll figure something out when the time comes. But for now, just don’t worry about it. I’m not going anywhere for a while.”
This made Starlight feel better. Casey gave her a quick peck on the cheek and stood up. “Come on, let’s go see how the others are doing.”
Casey and Starlight walked into the map room to see Twilight and the others enchanted in one of RJ’s stories, while Theo and Lily were sitting at the other end of the room, trying not to crack up.
“So there I was, face to face with the vicious wolf. I dared him to attack and he did. He slashed at me with his claws, leaving a huge scratch on my chest. I hit back and knocked him on the ground...”
Casey walked over to his friends. “What’s going on?”
“RJ’s just over exaggerating his fight with his animal spirit,” Theo said.
“Yeah, he’s telling it like it was some desperate war,” Lily added.
Casey rolled his eyes and sat down.
“I avoided swipe after swipe of his claws,” RJ continued. “He was getting angry, really angry. I had no choice but to unleash my full power. I attacked him one final time, and he went down. I got him to rejoin to my spirit.”
Theo and Lily clapped sarcastically. Casey couldn’t help but laugh. RJ joined in the laughter.
“What’s that about?” Twilight asked.
“It’s a lot less exciting when you’re not inside his head to witness this amazing battle,” Lily said.
Twilight turned back to RJ. “So you’re animal spirit is a wolf?”
“Yeah. It gives me the courage to face any situation, no matter how dangerous,” RJ responded.
“I wish I had that kind of courage. I get scared by anything,” said Fluttershy.
“Well, there’s a difference between fearlessness and courage. Courage is being brave enough to face your fears, no matter how much it scares you,” RJ said.
“Kind of like you did yesterday with that monster,” Theo added.
“Monster? What kind of monster?” RJ asked.
“That’s right. We kind of forgot to mention that, we don’t know how we got here. But we know why. Carnisoar and Jellica have returned. As far as we know Grizzaka hasn’t though,” Casey told him.
“Oh, wow. Didn’t see that coming. How are they even here? I thought we defeated them.”
Casey told RJ his theory from before, and that seemed to convince him.
“I can see why they would come here instead of Earth,” RJ said.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.
“There’s a lot more magic than power or animal spirit here in Equestria,” RJ responded.
“What does that have to do with it?” Starlight said.
“Animal spirit, especially from Overlords or Phantom Beasts, has a serious advantage over magic. You see, during the beast wars, a being called Imperious tried to use magic to conquer between both side. He used his most powerful spells, but he found that his magic was useless against the Pai Zhua Masters. He tried to turn on Dai Shi’s forces, but he had the same problem. He ended up retreating,” RJ explained.
“What’s A ‘Phantom Beast’?” Twilight asked.
Before anyone could answer, the rangers’ morphers began to buzz. They saw that a golden monster was attacking the citizens of Ponyville. They recognized it as one of the beast they had fought before.
“You’re about to find out. There’s one attacking right now,” Theo said.
The rangers rushed out to meet the monster. It had a large snout and long tusks. It had the spirit of the boar. The rangers pulled out their morphers as RJ pulled out his own. Instead of sunglasses, it was a wrist bracelet, similar to the Dino Rangers. “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” All of the rangers morphed into their suits. RJ’s suit was a dark shade of lavender. His helmet also had white streaks unlike his teammates.
The monster charged at the rangers. They got out of the way and attacked with their weapons. The monster used the weapons to counter each other. The monster then unleashed a huge roar upon the rangers, making them fall back. RJ charged his morpher the make his fist glow. He used this to attack the monster. The monster couldn’t really do anything to counter. It head-butted RJ and used its tusks. RJ didn’t have a weapon, so all he could do was punch back. It seemed to work well enough for the other rangers to take the monster by surprise. Casey severed its tusks using his sabers. Theo used his fans to glide around the monster and get it to lose balance. Lily used her mace to hit the monster square in the gut. The monster held its gut in pain as it unleashed another roar. Casey and Theo sliced through it using their weapons and attack the monster again. But the monster regrew it tusks and used them to jab at Theo and Casey. Lily used her mace to attack the monster, but it just caught the mace with its tusks. It then threw the mace back at her.
RJ realized he was alone. He had to stop this monster. He recharged his morpher and attacked. The monster met him and attacked with its tusks. RJ needed to stall until he had enough power to unleash the wolf beam. He kept punching the monster, and it used its tusks to block. It then unleashed a roar, blowing RJ back a bit. RJ now had enough power to finish the monster off. He aimed his arm at the monster and activated his morpher. “Wolf Beam! Final Blast!” RJ fired and the monster was defeated.
Twilight and the others tended to the other rangers. “We’re okay. We just bit off a little more than we could chew,” said Casey.
“Yeah, we underestimated it, that’s all,” concurred Theo.
The monster rose up from the smoke and began to grow. Lily was too hurt by the monster’s last blow to summon her zord. Luckily, RJ had his own wolf zord. He summoned it and used it to attack the monster. Casey and Theo summoned their zords as well. RJ’s wolf zord began to fold up, like Theo’s and Lily’s zords. Its tail also folded in, like a blade. The three zords combined, with RJ’s wolf zord taking the place of Lily’s cheetah zord. The Wolf Pride Megazord was now ready to fight.
The monster charged and attacked, but the Megazord stood its ground. The Megazord used the wolf zord to kick the monster, sending it a distance away. The Megazord didn’t waste a second, stomping on the monster. The monster used its tusks to jab at the Megazord, but the Megazord grab on to them. It then flung it around and launched it away. Then, the tail of the wolf detached and was held in the wolf’s mouth. The Megazord kicked and the tail flew at the monster. The monster’s tusks were severed, and the monster exploded.
The rangers jumped down to ground and were greeted by the ponies. “RJ, that was awesome. I had no idea your zord could do so much on its own,” said Twilight.
“Thanks. You should see what can do with all of the Jungle Zords,” RJ replied.
“Guys, we could have a serious problem on our hands,” said Theo.
“What do you mean? The monster’s defeated,” said Starlight.
“Theo’s right. What if that wasn’t the only Phantom beast? What if there are more?” Lily said.
“We’ll deal with it when the time comes. We don’t know for sure, so we shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” said Casey.
“Casey’s right. Maybe that particular monster just so happened to survive and make its way here. That doesn’t mean there are more,” said Starlight.
“Either way, I could really go for something to eat,” RJ said.
Meanwhile
Carnisoar and Jellica were scanning Equestia for crystal eyes. They didn’t know where that Phantom Beast came from, but they weren’t gonna let another one get out. Not after what happened the last time Jellica trusted them.
“I’ve found something,” said Carnisoar.
“Let’s go check it out,” said Jellica.
The two of them got to the edge of Griffonstone and found three crystal eyes glowing. Jellica looked up at the sky and saw the stars beginning to align. She quickly drew her spear and destroyed the eyes. The spirits inside the eyes were now trapped inside them with no way out.
Starlight had slept in. She didn’t do this very often, but she didn’t feel like doing anything that day. When she did finally get up, she walked into the map room. Twilight was in there, chatting with RJ. RJ was siting in his “chair”. Starlight didn’t really get the importance of it, but Casey told her it wasn’t a big deal. She went into the kitchen to see if Spike needed help with breakfast. On the way, she ran into Casey.
“Oh hey. I was just on my way to the kitchen,” she said, blushing.
“Oh cool. Um, I was wondering, did you maybe wanna, I don’t know, like hang out or something?” Casey asked.
“Sure, I’d love to. I gotta do a few things here, first. I’ll see you later,” she responded. On the way out, she took a deep breath and brushed Casey’s leg with her tail. She heard Casey shiver a little and shivered as well. She didn’t know why she was still so nervous. Casey did like her. Then again, she had never really had feelings for anyone that wasn’t a pony.
She entered the kitchen and was surprised to see Spike wasn’t there. It looked like he was in the middle of making something, but he stopped in the middle of it for some reason. She walked over to the counter to investigate. There was a bowl full of pancake mix with a spoon in it. It looked like it was only half stirred.
She turned and noticed that the window was open. She thought Spike preferred to keep that window closed. She looked out and saw nothing out of the ordinary.
“Hey Starlight,” said Spike. Starlight jumped at the sudden voice. She turned and saw Spike wearing his apron and baking hat.
“Don’t do that! You scared me,” Starlight said.
“Oh sorry. One would think you’d be used to surprises, considering how much you’ve been hanging around Pinkie,” Spike said, sarcastically.
“Just out of curiosity, why did you leave the window open?” Starlight asked.
“It just got a little hot. What’s it to you?” Spike asked.
“Nothing,” Starlight said, noticing the attitude in his voice. “What’s going on with you? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”
“I’m fine. I’m probably just hungry.”
“If you say so,” Starlight said, exiting the kitchen.
“Hey Starlight, wait. I’m sorry. I want to show you something,” Spike called.
Starlight turned to see what Spike was talking about. She didn’t see anything. “You have to come in here. It’s really big,” Spike told her.
Starlight walked back in as the door slammed shut behind her. She looked at Spike and saw a green glow in his eyes. She gasped and tried to teleport away, but Spike glowed and changed into her worst enemy: Queen Chrysalis. Queen Chrysalis shot a sticky substance at Starlight, covering her hooves and horn. Starlight was trapped.
“You’re never gonna get away with this,” Starlight said.
“How can you say that, if you don’t know what I’m up to?” Chrysalis replied.
Starlight opened her mouth to call for help, but Chrysalis shot the substance over her mouth and prevented her from making nothing more than whimpering noises.
“Oh hush now, I’m not going to hurt you. Physically, that is,” Chrysalis said with a sly grin. She teleported the two of them to what looked like a dungeon cell. “Ironic. This dungeon belongs to Twilight, but I’m the first one to get any use out of it.”
Chrysalis glued Starlight to the wall with her hooves spread out in four diagonal directions. She then took off the residue on Starlight’s mouth.
“Let me go!” Starlight yelled.
“It’s no use yelling. No one can hear you,” Chrysalis said, changing her appearance to match Starlight’s. “Not even your beloved red ranger.”
“You leave him alone. I swear, if you hurt him-“ Starlight was cut off by Chrysalis covering her mouth once again.
“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt him. I only intend to make you pay for taking my kingdom from me,” Chrysalis said.
Starlight struggled and tried to escape, but the residue wasn’t giving at all. “You’re wasting your strength. Not that you’ll need it. One more thing before I go: you get a front row seat of the show.”
With that, Chrysalis made a screen appear in front of Starlight that showed Casey. Chrysalis teleported away and into the frame with Casey. Starlight tried to yell through the residue to warn Casey, but it was no use. She could only watch as Chrysalis approached him.
‘Starlight’ walked up to Casey. “Hey. I’ve finished everything I need to. You wanna hang out now?” she asked.
“Sure, sounds good,” Casey said with a smile. The two walked out of the castle and toward the nearby waterfall. Casey couldn’t help but admire the beauty of it all. The smell in the air, the noise of the water, the sight of the pool below, it all felt great to him.
“Can you swim?” Casey asked.
“Yeah. Can you?” ‘Starlight’ replied.
“You bet,” Casey said. The two of them jumped into the pool and swam around together for a while. Casey couldn’t help but notice that ‘Starlight’ was acting a bit different than before. She was nervous around Casey, but now she seemed more confident than he did. Even his instincts were telling him that something was wrong. He decided to ignore it though. After all, he had never had a crush on something that was not human. He liked Starlight, and he couldn’t think of anyone else he had these feelings for.
Eventually, the two of them got out of the pool and laid down on the grass, side by side. Casey looked into ‘Starlight’s’ eyes. Her beautiful green eyes. Casey felt a little confused. He thought Starlight had lavender eyes to match her mane. Before he could say anything, ‘Starlight’ looked over at him and smiled. Her smile reassured him.
She moved a little closer to him and brushed her tail against his leg. He felt a tingle in his chest. ‘Starlight’ leaned in a little closer and sat up. She leaned over him as Casey rolled onto his side. The two shared a passionate kiss. ‘Starlight’ let go and went in for another and another. Casey couldn’t help but feel something different. Before, Starlight had just held the kiss. Now she was trying to make out with him. Even if he did like her, he didn’t feel like she was the type of mare who would want to do that. He pulled away.
“What’s wrong?” ‘Starlight’ asked.
“Nothing. It’s just...I didn’t really want to move that fast. I mean, a kiss is fine, but I didn’t want to make out,” Casey responded.
“Oh sorry,” ‘Starlight’ responded. She then got an idea. “I guess, it’s just that I started worrying about you leaving again. I just didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Sunburst.”
“Who’s Sunburst?”
“He was my first friend. Like I said, as a filly I had trouble making friends. But there was always Sunburst. We were best friends. Eventually I started to develop feelings for him, but he got his cutie mark and moved away before I could tell him.”
“Oh, I ha no idea. I had trouble making friends too. It wasn’t even until I became a ranger that I felt like I had any real friends.”
The two of them shared another kiss. This time, ‘Starlight’ held. Casey felt better about the situation.
Starlight felt terrible. She had no choice but to watch Chrysalis play Casey and pretend to be her. She felt a mix of anger and sadness. There was nothing she could do. Casey had fallen for Chrysalis’s trick, hook line and sinker. She began to cry, as a knot in her stomach tightened. She tried to look away, but she couldn’t move her head. Even if she could, she knew what was happening. She now knew what Chrysalis had meant when she said she wouldn’t hurt her physically. She was taking what she loved the most. She could only hope that Casey or one of her friends would see through Chrysalis’s trick.
She watched as Chrysalis kissed Casey and run her fake tail up and down his body. She couldn’t take much more of this.
“I love you,” Starlight heard Chrysalis say.
To her luck, she saw Casey put a confused look on his face. But the dread she felt before returned when she saw Casey smile and say, “I love you too.” Starlight’s heart was shattered. The tears ran down her body like the waterfall Casey and Chrysalis were at. And the worst part was that Casey really had those feelings for Starlight, but he was expressing them to a bug.
Casey wasn’t sure what to do. This was definitely not Starlight. He knew she liked him, but she didn’t have the courage to say it. At least, not that clear. Starlight would’ve stuttered and blushed through the whole thing. But this...being just said it like it she was saying hi. Casey decided to play along. “I love you too,” he said. The being went in for another kiss, but Casey put his hand on her mane and he held her on his chest. She just lay there while he thought of a plan.
Casey looked around, pretending to be looking for something. The being looked up.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“My panther instincts are going crazy. Something must be coming,” Casey responded as he got to his feet.
“How close is it?” the being asked as she got to her hooves as well.
Casey’s heart dropped. There was no way this was the same Starlight he had fallen in love with. This was an imposter.
“Standing right next to me!” Casey shouted as he jumped away from her. “Who are you? What have you done with Starlight?”
“Casey, what are you taking about? It’s me, Starlight Glimmer,” the imposter pleaded.
“Then why didn’t you correct me when I said my PANTHER instincts were active when the real Starlight knows my animal spirit is a tiger?” Casey shouted.
Inside the castle, Twilight heard what was going on. She and RJ got to a window and saw what was going on.
The imposter gave a devilish laugh as she started to glow green. She was completely covered in a green light, which Twilight recognized instantly. In the place of the light was none other than Queen Chrysalis.
“Queen Chrysalis,” Twilight said to herself.
“Who’s that?” RJ asked.
“The former changeling queen, and Starlight’s nemesis,” Twilight explained.
The two of them joined Casey and faced Chrysalis. “What have you done with Starlight, Chrysalis?” Twilight yelled.
Chrysalis chuckled. “Oh, she’s close. So close it’s stupid that you don’t know,” she said.
Casey was angrier than he had ever been before. “You let her go or I’m gonna-“
“What? Destroy me? Go right ahead. Then you’ll never find her,” Chrysalis boasted.
Casey’s aura was burning with rage. RJ noticed this and felt the need to step in. “Don’t you baddies ever learn? There’s no winning for you. Even if you’re so close, you always lose.”
“Big talk. But can you back it up with some real skill?” Chrysalis challenged. She then began to glow again. This time, she turned into a two-legged warrioress with black armor and a blade.
“I assume you want to take this one on your own?” RJ asked Casey.
Casey calmed down enough to answer. “Yeah, thanks. I’ll tell you if I need help.”
“Casey, be careful. Chrysalis can literally take any form she wants to,” Twilight warned.
“I’ll be fine, Twilight. Didn’t you hear RJ? Evil never wins,” Casey said, pulling out his sunglasses. He morphed and began to fight with Chrysalis. The two were evenly matched. Chrysalis had been preparing for this for a long time. Originally, she meant for this to be for Starlight Glimmer, but Casey was doing just fine. Casey felt his rage empower his actions. He would never forgive Chrysalis for pretending to be Starlight. He would do whatever it took to save Starlight and get even with Chrysalis. He swung at her with his blades, but she countered it perfectly.
Chrysalis fired a magical attack at him point blank. Casey thought he was done for, but the blast did absolutely nothing to affect Casey. Casey then remembered what RJ said before; magic didn’t affect Pai Zhua Masters. Casey threw an uppercut at Chrysalis as she was trying to figure out what happened. Casey took advantage of the situation by repeatedly kicking Chrysalis. He backed her into a wall and pinned her against it.
Starlight was too heart broken to look at the screen anymore. Her eyes were shut as hard as she could. She had given up trying to escape. She felt her forehooves becoming numb from hanging on the wall. She was breathing quickly.
“Maybe this is how I go out: watching Casey fall for Chrysalis,” she thought to herself. She supposed there were worse ways to go, but she couldn’t think of any. Nothing seemed to compare with the pain she was feeling right now. “Casey told me to focus on the present and not worry about the future. Then I shouldn’t worry about the others.i should just accept that this is happening.”
Accepting her fate, Starlight opened her eyes to face the screen. Her eyes widened, and her heart rejoined itself when she saw what was going on. Chrysalis was no longer pretending to be her. Casey had seen through her lies. He was now beating her down. She tried to cheer, but it came out in the form of moans and whimpers. She no longer cared that she was glued to the wall. All that mattered to her was that she get to Casey and help him.
Casey held his hand to Chrysalis’s throat. “Tell me where she is, now,” he ordered.
Chrysalis just gave a choked laugh. “You’re pathetic. You really think you two can be together. You’re not even from the same dimension,” she said.
Casey tightened his grip on her throat. She just continued to laugh. “Go ahead, I already have my revenge on Starlight Glimmer.”
“Casey, stop! It’s not gonna help anything!” Twilight yelled.
“Yeah man! You’re a Power Ranger! You don’t kill!” RJ said.
Casey realized they were right. He loosened his grip, but didn’t let go of Chrysalis completely. He felt himself begin to cry in defeat. Chrysalis continued to laugh.
“You’re weak,” she said. “Even when you’ve already lost, you give up.”
Casey got an idea. He couldn’t destroy Chrysalis, but he knew how to make her talk. He let Chrysalis go and powered down. Chrysalis was confused. A few seconds ago, Casey had the intent to kill her. Now he was pretending it was just a prank gone wrong. She teleported away before he could change his mind.
Chrysalis returned to where she was keeping Starlight. Starlight tried to yell, but the glue was holding up.
“You little welp! You think you’ve won? I still have you here, and I’ll never let you go,” Chrysalis said.
Starlight glared at Chrysalis. Chrysalis noticed the tears on the ground. “So, it seems my plan has worked. I told you I wouldn’t hurt yo physically. Tell me, how does it feel to have your love ripped away from you?” Starlight gave a few muffled shrieks as Chrysalis laughed.
Chrysalis stopped as she heard footsteps. She panicked. She turned into Starlight again and release her from the wall just as Casey, RJ, and Twilight came into view. She and Starlight stood and faced them.
It took Casey almost no time to figure out that one of them was Chrysalis. He just didn’t know which one.
The room was filled with an eerie silence. No one moved or said a thing. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of the passing wind. Twilight broke the silence. “Whichever one of you is Chrysalis, reveal yourself now and your punishment will only be banishment.”
“Guys, it’s me. I’m the real Starlight. She’s a fake,” one of the Starlights said.
“No, I’m the real Starlight. Chrysalis is trying to fool you,” said the other.
Casey tried to look at their eyes, but the room was too dark to see the colors of them. “I have an idea. I’ll ask you something only the real Starlight would know,” he suggested.
“Sounds good,” said one Starlight.
“Go ahead,” said the other.
“What is the name of the evil spirit the Jungle Rangers fought on Earth?”
“Dai Shi,” the two said in unison.
Casey glanced at RJ. He had no idea how Chrysalis would know that. “Both of you are correct. Next question: what was the name of the bully he possessed?”
“Jared,” they both said again.
Casey was unsure what to do. Then he got an idea. “How old am I?”
“Twenty-seven,” said one Starlight.
Casey, Twilight, and RJ looked at the other, who hung her head. “I-I don’t know,” she sighed in defeat.
Casey looked at the one that answered. He charged his animal spirit and fired, revealing Chrysalis. Twilight was shocked. Chrysalis had not only answered correctly, but Casey revealed it was Chrysalis. Starlight was in shock as well as Chrysalis stood up.
“You may have defeated me now, but I will have my final revenge,” she said, teleporting away before Twilight could catch her in a spell.
Casey kneeled down to face Starlight. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I-I...I just need to be alone right now,” Starlight responded, teleporting away as well.
RJ put a hand on Casey’s shoulder as Casey hung his head in shame. RJ couldn’t help but feel bad for his former teammate.
“How did you figure out which one was Chrysalis?” Twilight asked.
“I never told Starlight how old I was. I figured that if Chrysalis knew the answer to the first two questions, she’d know that as well,” Casey explained.
“I gotta go. I’ll see you guys later,” Casey said as he walked out the door.
“Wow, I can’t believe that Chrysalis could do so much psychological damage,” RJ told Twilight.
“Yeah. I’m surprised she stooped this low. She’s done horrible things before, but this tops it all,” Twilight responded.
“Should we go check on them?” RJ asked.
“Later. Right now, they just need time to process this whole thing.”
The two of them heard a couple of groans coming from another nearby cell. They looked to find Spike hung up on the wall. The two of them freed Spike and left the dungeon.
Later
Starlight was sitting out on the balcony. This was the same spot Casey had first kissed her. She forced her memories with Casey through her mind before she planned to erase them. She had the spell ready and everything; she just wanted to feel the love one last time before she forgot it all.
“Starlight? Are you in there?” Starlight heard Twilight say and the other side of the door.
“Yeah, I’m here,” she responded after a minute.
Twilight came in. “How are you doing?”
“I feel like someone ripped my heart out and chewed it into a thousand tiny pieces,” she responded.
“Hey, I get it. Don’t feel bad. Casey didn’t know what was happening. He figured it out best he could.”
“I know, but...even after he saw what Chrysalis could do, he still didn’t trust me enough until he tested me.”
“What Casey did was what anypony would’ve done in that situation. Sure, it seems a little cliche, but it worked.”
“You don’t understand. You didn’t see what I saw.”
“What do you mean?”
“When Chrysalis captured me, she showed me what she was doing. She took my place with Casey. She made him think she was me. He told her he loved her. They even...they even kissed.”
Twilight wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t know if she should try to defend Casey or relate to Starlight. She saw a tear run down Starlight’s cheek. She embraced Starlight in a deep hug, which Starlight returned.
“You weren’t the only one affected you know. Casey thought he was talking to you. He has those feeling for you. He even went so far as to nearly killing Chrysalis for what she did.”
Starlight took a breath. She didn’t consider what Chrysalis did to Casey.
Before she could respond, there was a knock at the door. It was RJ. He motioned for Twilight to come over. “I’ll be right back,” she said, getting up.
She walked out the door to see RJ and Casey. “Do you think Starlight’s ready to see Casey?” RJ asked.
“Yeah. I just talked to her, and I think I managed to calm her down,” Twilight replied.
“Alright, Casey. It’s all yours. Good luck,” said RJ.
Casey entered the room. He looked back and saw Twilight and RJ watching. Casey rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him. He finally turned to face Starlight.
“Hey,” was all he could manage to say.
“Hey,” she deadpanned back.
“Can...Can we talk?” Casey asked.
Starlight took a deep breath before responding. “Sure.”
Casey took a seat beside her. He looked out on the horizon. It was silent between the two.
Casey broke the silence. “I-I’m really, really sorry for what happened.”
“Why? You didn’t know what was happening,” Starlight responded.
“Because I should have. Because my instincts were telling me something was wrong, and I ignored them. Because I noticed your eyes were different and ignored that too. Because I felt it was strange that you wanted to make out instead of enjoy the moment and ignored that feeling too. Because I should have been able to figure out what was happening, and I didn’t.” Casey began to cry. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have fallen for Chrysalis’s game, and I did. I just want you to forgive me. I’m so so sorry.” Casey leaned on Starlight and buried his head in her mane. “I’m sorry.”
Starlight let a tear fall down her cheek. She moved her hoof to Casey’s shoulder. The two of them joined in a full on hug. The two cried on each other until Starlight pulled away and looked Casey in the eye.
“Of course I forgive you. I just thought I would remain down there forever. I only focused on myself. I didn’t think of how much you were hurting. I just want to move past this and forgot it ever happened.”
“There’s just one more thing I want to say about this whole thing,” Casey said. “When I told Chrysalis I loved her, I had it figured out by then, I was just playing along with her until I could figure out what to do. But I want you to know, that if I were saying that to you, I would have meant every word. I love you, and I will always love you.”
Starlight’s heart was beating faster than she could register. “I love you too,” she said, hugging him again.
The two of them stayed their. They didn’t want to let go. Casey even saw Twilight peeking in on them again. He didn’t care. All he cared about in that moment was the mare in his arms. He loved her, and he didn’t care who knew.
Theo and Lily were on their once a month lunch “appointment” in Ponyville. Lily had been trying to get him to call it a date, but he insisted on calling it an appointment. Lily knew there was no getting through to Theo’s thick skull, so she gave up after a while.
The two walked into the restaurant. Inside were a couple of other ponies. To their surprise, none of the locals seemed to be surprised at the humans. Theo shrugged and pulled out a chair for Lily.
“I thought it wasn’t a date,” Lily smirked.
“It’s not, but that’s no excuse for not acting like a gentleman,” Theo responded.
Lily rolled her eyes and looked at the menu. She noticed that this place was extremely similar to a fast food restaurant back on Earth. She looked at Theo, and the two exchanged agreeing nods.
A few minutes later, the two received their food: a hayburger for Theo and a haydog for Lily. Theo bit into his food.
“Not bad, but I still prefer food from Earth,” Theo said.
Lily chuckled and took a bite of her food. She immediately understood what Theo was talking about.
Before either of them could continue, their morphers went off. Theo looked into his and saw a group of Rinshi approaching Ponyville.
“Duty calls,” he told Lily. The two got up as Theo went to pay the check.
“This is in the house. I wouldn’t dream of making a ranger pay for his meal in my restaurant,” said the manager. Regardless, Theo left a few bits on the table as a tip.
The two rangers ran to face the Rinshi. They jumped into battle. Theo used his agility to his advantage. He jumped over some Rinshi and kicked down others. He then swept another down to make it fall on one of its allies. Lily threw a flurry of attacks at her enemies and took down several at once. One Rinshi managed to get a hold of her, but she gained control and threw him around.
Once the Rinshi were defeated, a monster ran directly through Theo and Lily. It had a long snout and a nose ring. It also had square horns. It was the spirit of the bull.
“Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” Theo and Lily morphed and went to fight the monster. The monster got low and charged through them again. Theo and Lily went flying over the monster.
“Guys, we need some help up here,” Theo said.
“We’re on our way,” Casey replied.
Theo pulled out his tonfas and sent a charge at the monster. This seemed to stop it in its tracks. Lily did the same with her staff, and they held him there until Casey and RJ arrived. The monster broke free of the shock and charged the rangers again. They all jumped over the monster. RJ took the opportunity to blast the monster with his morpher. The blast hit the horns, but it didn’t seem to do much. The monster turned back and charged again. Lily pulled out her mace and swung it at the monster. The monster head butted it and sent it back at the rangers. They managed to avoid it, but they were still hot by the monster.
“I have an idea,” said Theo. Theo got directly in front of the monster and taunted it. The monster charged again as Theo began to run. The chase went on for a few minutes until the monster caught up with Theo. Theo was hit hard by the monster and demorphed.
“Let me try that,” said Lily. She taunted the monster as Theo did. She took off with the monster hot on her tracks. She was only running at a fraction of her speed. She didn’t want to lose the monster.
She took the chase through town. A bunch of the locals dove for cover as they saw the monster run by. The fear energized the monster, and it began to run faster. Lily picked up the pace just enough to match the monster’s speed. She saw Twilight’s castle coming into view. She turned to the waterfall behind it. She sped up until she reach the pool at the bottom. She turned and saw the monster still charging. She waited until he got just close enough. Right before he hit her, Lily jumped out of the way as the monster fell into the pool. Lily waited for him to surface, but he jumped out and escaped.
Casey and RJ regrouped with Lily as the all demorphed.
“That thing was tough,” said Casey.
“Yeah, we should go get Theo so we can come up with a way to beat it,” said RJ.
“I’ll do that, and we’ll meet up at the castle,” said Lily.
Later
“So it has strong horns, a fast pace, and anger management problems. How can we use that to beat it?” RJ asked.
“Maybe we can lure it into a trap,” suggested Theo.
“That seems like a good idea. I could outrun that thing no problem,” said Lily.
“Now the question is: how do we trap it?” Casey asked.
“I know. What if we run it into the side of a mountain and cause a bunch of rocks to fall on it?” Theo said.
“Would that really destroy it? I feel like that would just make him even angrier,” said Lily.
Just then, Twilight entered the room. “Hey, what as with that monster from earlier, chasing Lily through the town?”
“Sorry about that. I was just trying to lead it away. We’re trying to figure out a way to beat it,” Lily answered.
“We figure if we can lead it out of town, we can lead it into a trap,” Theo said.
Twilight put on a sly grin. “I have an idea that might work. Lead it toward the castle again and leave the rest to me.”
“Trust me. I’ve got it covered,” Twilight insisted.
Later
Lily was waiting for the monster to return. She didn’t appreciate being the bait, but she remembered that she was the only one who could outrun the monster. She looked around and saw no sign of it.
Rainbow Dash came flying up to her. “Hey, Lily. What’s up?”
Lily tried to act like nothing was going on. “Just waiting for Theo,” she responded.
“You mind if I wait with you? I’ve got nothing going on right now,” Rainbow said.
Lily got worried. She had to get rid of Rainbow before the monster returned. “Are you sure? I mean, don’t you want to practice your tricks or something?”
“No, it’s fine. I don’t mind waiting. Maybe we could even get to know each other a little better.”
“Really, Theo usually takes a long time.”
Before Rainbow could respond, the monster gave a war cry and charged st the two of them. Rainbow screamed, and Lily grabbed onto her. She morphed and took off. Rainbow caught on to what was going on. She got out of Lily’s grip and started to fly on her own.
The monster was even faster than before. Lily was having trouble finding the right speed. She couldn’t get too ahead of it, but she didn’t want to get hit either. Luckily, she saw Twilight waiting for her. She ran past Twilight, and Twilight cast a spell on the ground the make a large hole appear. The monster was running too fast to stop in time, and he fell into it.
“A little impractical, but affective,” RJ complimented.
“Thanks,” responded Twilight.
The rangers looked down into the hole to see the monster. Too their shock, it just jumped right out, causing the rangers to fly back. The monster got up and stared down Lily. She tried to get up and run, but the monster charged her. She demorphed and hit the ground. Casey and Theo tried to attack, but the monster hit them with its horns. They both demorphed as well. RJ tried to get on the monster’s back and attack from there, but the monster crushed RJ with its body. It then picked up RJ and threw him toward the castle. RJ tried to recover and counter attack, but the monster charged him again. RJ demorphed, leaving Twilight to be the monster’s last target.
Twilight backed away, but tripped on her tail. The monster huffed in anger and started to approach her. She kept trying to back away, but she knew it was only a matter of time before the monster would charge her at full speed. She closed her eyes and shivered in fear of what was about to happen.
“You leave her alone,” said a new voice that Twilight had never heard before. She opened her eyes to see another human with a very round head and a white jacked.
“Rhino Morpher, activate!” he shouted as a large metal hand appeared on his hand. He pulled a switch on the contraption. “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” There was another deal of roars and flashing lights, and Twilight saw a new ranger. This one had a white suit with orange streaks. He also had a horn on the front of his helmet.
“With the power of a rhino! Jungle Fury, Rhino Ranger!” he shouted. The monster charged at him, but he stood his ground and stopped the monster with a swing of the hand. He then swung it back and sent the monster flying.
“Are you alright?” he asked Twilight.
“Y-Yeah. Are you Dominic?” Twilight said in response.
“That’s me. It’s nice to meet,” Dominic answered. The monster got back up and went after Dominic again.
“We’ll have to make proper introductions later,” Dominic said as he struck the monster again. He then charged the monster himself. He punched it with his weapon and gained the upper hand pretty quick. Twilight couldn’t help but be impressed by the way he was fighting.
“Rhino stampede!” Dominic shouted as his morpher shot a deal of lasers at the monster. The monster charged again, but Dominic absorbed the blow. He took the monster by the horns and threw it down.
“Rhino Morpher, blade mode!” Dominic shouted as he activated another switch on the morpher. A huge blade appeared on the side of it. He swung it at the monster, cutting off one of its horns. He did the same thing, and the other horn went flying off as well. The blade then began to flame. Dominic swung it around and delivered one final shot on the monster, causing it to erupt into a fit fo sparks and explode.
Dominic went to tend to RJ. “Are you alright?”
“Dominic? Is that you?” RJ asked.
“Yeah man, it’s me,” Dominic replied.
“Then I guess I’m fine,” RJ said.
Before Dominic could go help his other friends, the monster regenerated and grew. It was even angrier and was prepared to charge.
“Rhino Steel Zord!” Dominic shouted. The monster charged toward the castle, but a giant, white rhino zord stepped in front of it and stopped it. Dominic jumped into the cockpit of the zord and prepared for battle.
The monster leapt at Dominic, but he simply used the rhino horn to knock the monster away. The rhino zord then turned toward the monster and gave it a taste of its own medicine: it charged and hit the monster hard. The monster changed into a taller warrior with a sword that looked like it was made from the horns of the monster. It slashed at the rhino zord, and Dominic took a couple devastating hits.
Before the monster could finish the job, the rhino zord began to glow. The stood straight up and folded its head in. It detached its sides and turned them into arms. The horn on the top became a blade to hold. The Rhino Steel Megazord was now ready to fight. The monster attacked again with the blade, but Dominic blocked it. He then attacked with his own and cut down the monster’s weapon. The monster had no way to defend itself as Dominic attacked again. He began charging energy to the sword as prepared the final attack. The monster went in for one last charge. It ran headfirst into Dominic’s blade and was defeated.
Later
Theo was just now coming to. The last thing he remembered was fighting the bull monster. He shot up and prepared to fight. But when he went out of the room he woke up in, he saw everyone waiting for him; including Casey, Lily, RJ, Twilight, Starlight, Pinkie, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Dominic.
His eyes shot wide open when he realized Dominic was there. Looked around the room and saw everyone else stand up. They all asked him if he was okay, and he told them he was fine.
“Dominic, when did you get here?” Theo asked.
“Earlier today. I saw what happened with the bull monster and fought it,” Dominic explained.
Theo began to relax again as his morpher started going off again. He put them on and saw Carnisoar and Jellica staging an attack.
“It’s the Overlords,” Theo said.
“Let’s go get them,” Casey said.
“They’re going down this time,” said Lily.
The five Jungle Rangers all morphed and faced the Overlords.
“You’re too late to stop us,” Carnisoar said.
“We’ll just see about that,” said Dominic.
With that, the rangers jumped into battle with the Overlords. Casey, Theo and Lily fought Carnisoar while RJ and Dominic fought Jellica. They were all evenly matched. Casey used his blades to counter Carnisoar’s dagger. Theo slashed at Carnisoar using his fans. Carnisoar avoided the attack and ascended into the air. Lily wrapped her mace around him and pulled him down. Carnisoar simply used the momentum to throw a very strong attack with his claws. The rangers were forced back.
Dominic countered Jellica’s spear with his morpher. She pushed him back with a wave, only for RJ to attack her from behind. Jellica turned toward RJ, leaving herself vulnerable to Dominic’s rhino stampede attack. Unfortunately, she avoided the blast, and it ended up hitting RJ. Jellica then used her spear to jab at Dominic. He tried to defend, but Jellica shot down his morpher before he could do anything. She hit him with her spear, and he went down.
Carnisoar and Jellica backed off a little and started to emit their auras. The held their power together and focused it in one place. There was a bright light and a sinister laughter.
“It can’t be,” said Casey.
“That’s impossible,” said Theo.
“We destroyed him,” said Lily.
“There’s no way,” said RJ.
“Not a chance,” said Dominic.
When the light receded, it revealed none other...than Grizzaka, the Overlard of the land.
“This is the end of the line for you, rangers,” Grizzaka taunted.
The rangers weren’t sure what to do. They were in no condition to fight Grizzaka, but they knew he wouldn’t give them a choice. All the rangers could do was prepare for battle.
Grizzaka charged. Casey was the first to try and fight. He used his sabers to fight, but Grizzaka used his wrist gauntlets to counter. He then used his insane strength to slash Casey. Casey tried to recover, but Grizzaka shot a blast at him before he could. Casey was demorphed.
Theo was next. He attacked with his fans, but Grizzaka avoided the attacks. He eventually caught one of the fans and tore it up. He then punched Theo down several times. Theo had nowhere to go. He was helpless as Grizzaka continued to pound him into the ground. Eventually, Grizzaka picked up Theo and threw him into a tree, and Theo demorphed as well.
Lily attacked Grizzaka next. She swung the mace around him, but he slipped out of the chains. He then used the ball to attack Lily. It hit her, and she was unable to prepare for Grizzaka’s next attack. She tried to hit him with a flurry of punches, but all she hit was his gauntlets. Grizzaka struck Lily with a slash and quickly followed with a deadly uppercut. He finished her off with a kick in midair. Lily couldn’t stay morphed either.
RJ charged his morpher and went after Grizzaka. Grizzaka charged a similar attack, and the two traded huge hits. Eventually, Grizzaka grabbed onto RJ’s arm and crunched it with an elbow. RJ tried to kick Grizzaka, but he couldn’t reach. Grizzaka did a quick spin with RJ still in his grip, and he threw RJ on the ground. RJ bounced a few times and demorphed.
Dominic was left. He charged Grizzaka and used his morpher to counter his gauntlets. It worked for a moment, but Grizzaka blasted Dominic from a close range. Dominic shot back, and the blasts were equally matched. Grizzaka charged forward and hit Dominic with a flurry of slashes. Dominic switched to his blade mode and used that to attack. Grizzaka was finally hit and fell back. Dominic took the opportunity to charged his blade’s power, so he could finish the fight. He attack, but Grizzaka turned. Before Dominic’s blade made contact, Grizzaka unleashed his Sokatto power, and Dominic took the hit hard. He was demorphed blacked out as Grizzaka turned back around.
“That’s it? After all these years, that’s all the strength you have? And to think that you were the ones to defeat Dai Shi. Pathetic. It’s time for me to put you out of your misery,” Grizzaka boasted. Before he could take action, a bright light appeared in his way. Grizzaka tried to blast through it, but the blast was turned back at him. A barrier was put around him to deny him any action.
Master Moa turned his attention to Carnisoar and Jellica. They attacked, but he put down the same barrier. He then turned to Casey and the others. He used his power to teleport them away.
Meanwhile
Back at the castle, Twilight and Starlight were worried about the Jungle Rangers. They went to stop the Overlords a while ago. They should have been back by now. She wondered if they were alright.
Their concerns were proved when the rangers appeared in the castle, demorphed and unconscious. They looked pretty beat up too. Starlight ran over to Casey and looked for a pulse with her magic. Tears began to roll down her cheek when she had trouble finding one. Twilight was doing the same with RJ.
“Do not worry, young ones. They will be awake any moment now,” said an unfamiliar voice. Twilight and Starlight looked to see a glowing figure wearing an orange robe.
“I am Master Moa. I would be here physically, but my animal spirit is not what it used to be,” said the figure.
With that, the Jungle Rangers woke up. Starlight took Casey in a deep hug. Her tears were still flowing, but these were tears of joy. Casey ran a hand along her mane, confused to what was going on.
“What happened? Last thing I remember was we were getting our butts kicked by Grizzaka,” said Theo.
“Do not worry, Theo. Grizzaka will not be returning before you have made a full recovery,” said Master Mao.
“Master Mao!” the rangers all said in unison.
“What are you doing here?” Dominic asked.
“After Casey went to investigate the strange appearances and didn’t return, I did a little investigating of my own. I found a crimson tablet laying on the ground. I looked into it and saw Casey. I saw this world and what was happening. I tried to pass through, but I couldn’t regenerate its power. All I could do was hope you rangers would find a way to return. I held onto the tablet. I looked into it every night. Whenever I felt you were in danger, I sent another part of the team to Equestria. I wish I could’ve helped, but I wasn’t strong enough to send myself here. All I could do was send my spirit when Grizzaka returned. I am very sorry for all that has happened,” explained Master Mao.
“No apology needed. We couldn’t possibly blame anyone for sending us here,” said Casey.
“What about Grizzaka?” Lily asked.
“I put a barrier around him so he could not move. It won’t last long, however, due to me not being here physically. However, there is one more thing I can do to help,” Master Mao said. With that, he summoned three more bright lights. Each light found its way to Casey’s, Theo’s, and Lily’s hand. The light receded to reveal three metal claws.
“Our claw boosters!” Theo exclaimed.
“This will definitely help us beat those Overlords,” said Lily.
“What do they do?” asked Twilight.
“These will allow us to extend our power. With these, we can enter our Jungle Master Mode,” Casey explained.
“However, they are not active. They need to be bonded once again to your animal spirits. And it must be done fast; I don’t know how long I can hold Grizzaka,” Master Mao added.
“We’ll get to and beat Grizzaka,” said Lily.
“Yeah, you can count on us, Master Mao,” agreed Theo.
As the other rangers went to activate their boosters, Casey hung his head in despair. This was noticed by Master Mao. “There is something wrong, Casey. I can feel it,” Master Mao said.
“I’m gonna go see if the others need help,” said Twilight as she exited the room.
“Tell me Casey: what is bothering you?” Master Mao insisted.
Casey looked at Starlight, then at Master Mao. Starlight figured out in her head what was going on. She hung her head as well.
“It’s just that..well, I...it’s...me and Starlight...we’re kind of-“ Casey started to say but was cut off by Master Mao.
“I believe I understand. You do not want to leave this world.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“I understand your despair, my student, but you must return to Earth,” Master Mao said. Hearing this, Starlight quickly ran out of the room, in tears.
“But I can’t just leave Starlight,” Casey pleaded.
“Do not worry. I have a solution to your problem. You will not lose contact with Starlight,” Master Mao encouraged.
“What do you mean?” Casey asked.
“You will see. But first, the Overlords must be defeated,” Master Mao said.
Casey put on a brave face and got up. “I won’t let you down,” Casey said as he ran to join his friends.
Theo was currently trying to connect with his animal spirit. He summoned his aura, but it wasn’t working. He knew he couldn’t give up. This was the only way to beat Grizzaka. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, let this world down. It was this thought that allowed Theo to fully connect with his jaguar spirit. The claw booster glowed to signify that it was now active. Lily tried the same, and her booster was activated as well.
Casey joined his friends and saw they had succeeded in their tasks. It was now his turn. He summoned his aura and tried to connect to his tiger spirit. But he was too distracted by Starlight. He didn’t want to leave her.
Casey’s friends saw that Casey’s aura was no longer surrounding him. “What’s going on?” Dominic asked.
“I’m fine, really,” Casey insisted.
“Are you sure? Because your aura’s not showing,” Theo pointed out.
“I’ll try again,” Casey said. He summoned his aura again, but he got the same result a before.
“Okay, you gotta talk to us. We’re your friends; you can tell us anything,” Lily offered.
“I believe I know what’s going on,” RJ said. He kneeled down to Casey. “It’s Starlight, isn’t it,” he whispered so no one else could hear.
“Yeah, I just can’t get her out of my head,” Casey said.
“If you can’t do this because you’re worried about her, focus on doing this for her,” RJ said.
“Alright. I’ll try,” Casey said. RJ backed off, and Casey summoned his aura a third time. This time, Casey thought of Starlight a different. He would do this for her. He wouldn’t let her down. He didn’t care if he never saw her again, as long as she was safe. At this thought, Casey finally connected to his tiger spirit. He directed it to his claw booster, and it became active.
“Nice job,” said Lily.
“Now the Overlords don’t stand a chance,” said Theo.
“Yeah. I gotta go do something. I’ll be right back,” said Casey as he left the others.
He ran through the castle, until he came upon Starlight’s room, and he knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Casey heard Starlight say.
Casey entered Starlight’s room to find her lying on her bed. He walked up to the bed and took a seat beside her.
“Hey, I got my claw booster working,” Casey said with little enthusiasm.
“Great. Now you’re one step closer to going back home,” Starlight said, sarcastically.
Casey placed his hand on her mane. “Listen, I don’t care what Master Mao says; I’m not leaving,” Casey said.
Starlight sat up. “Really? What about Earth?” she asked.
“Earth’ll be fine without me. I just don’t want to leave you. I love you, Starlight, and I can’t give that up.”
The two joined in a hug. Casey stroked Starlight’s mane, and Starlight muzzled Casey’s shoulder. The moment was interrupted by Casey’s morpher going off. He looked into them to see that the Overlords were free.
“I gotta go. The Overlords are free,” Casey said as he exited Starlight’s room.
“Go get ‘em, tiger,” Starlight said. Her heart was warmer than a Heart’s Warming Eve fire.
Later
The rangers ran out to meet the Overlords.
“You are foolish to resist,” said Carnisoar.
“Do you not remember what happened last time you tried to fight us?” Jellica said.
“Yeah, and this time’s gonna be different,” shouted Casey.
“We’ll just see about that,” said Grizzaka.
With that, the rangers activated their morphers. “Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” There was a long deal of flashing lights and roars. The rangers were all prepared for battle.
“With the strength of a tiger! Jungle Fury, Red Ranger!” shouted Casey.
“With the stealth of a jaguar! Jungle Fury, Blue Ranger!” shouted Theo.
“With the speed of a cheetah! Jungle Fury, Yellow Ranger!’ shouted Lily.
“With the courage of a wolf! Jungle Fury, Wolf Ranger!” shouted RJ.
“With the power of a rhino! Jungle Fury, Rhino Ranger!” shouted Dominic.
The Overlords charged into battle. The rangers met them, and the Overlords quickly gained the upper hand. Carnisoar went after RJ and Theo. He slashed through them with his daggers. He then lifted them into the air with a gust of wind, where he proceeded to rush through them repeatedly. Jellica fought with Dominic and Lily. She allowed Dominic to attack, but she just had his attack go through her. She jabbed him with her spear, creating a large distance between the two. Lily attacked with her staff, but Jellica fought back. She waited for an opening and blasted Lily. Casey went after Grizzaka alone. Grizzaka struck, using his gauntlets. Casey blocked with his sabers, but was unable to block Grizzaka’s next attack.
The rangers regrouped. Casey, Theo, and Lily pulled out their claws and activated them. “Jungle Master Mode!” they shouted as their suits began to change. The black colors shed off, becoming white. The claws stretched out a little further as well. “Fire jets!” the rangers shouted as their suits let out a fit of fire. They charged back into battle. The Overlords were unable to counter the rangers’ attacks. Lily used her claw to slash repeatedly at Carnisoar. She didn’t give him any time to counter. Theo used his claw to break Jellica’s spear. He then kept getting a new angle every time he attacked, keeping Jellica from being able to counter. Casey fought Grizzaka once again. He avoided the attack of the gauntlets and struck from there. Grizzaka tried to tackle Casey, but Casey used his jets to get out of the way.
“I’m outta here,” said Jellica, teleporting away.
“You got lucky, rangers. Next time will be your last,” said Grizzaka as he left the scene as well.
Carnisoar saw the other Overlords leave. “Cowards!” he shouted. He turned his attention back to the rangers. “I don’t need them to make mincemeat out of you!”
The rangers charged back into battle. Dominic blocked Carnioar’s first attack, allowing RJ to land his own strike. Dominic followed up by punching Carnisoar with his morpher. Casey, Theo, and Lily then attacked Carnisoar with their claws. He tried to fly above them, but they used their jets to bring him back down. Carnisoar threw a nasty swipe at Theo, but he ducked under it and struck Carnisoar with his own claw. Casey and Lily jumped at Carnisoar and hit him with their own claws.
“Let’s finish him off,” Casey said. He, Theo, and Lily charged the claw canon, RJ charged his wolf beam, and Dominic readied his rhino morpher. They all took aim at Carnisoar, who prepared his own attack. They all fired at once, and the rangers’ attacks completely over turned Carnisoar’s. He was hit and exploded.
The rangers all cheered and congratulated each other. That was one Overlord down, two more to go. But Carnisoar still had enough energy to grow. The ponies back in town saw what was going on and ran in terror. Rainbow saw Carnisoar and went to go alert her friends. They all made their way to see what was going on.
The rangers summoned their zords. Dominic even summoned his rhino zord. They combined and went after Carnisoar. He stood his ground and fought the rangers back. He swiped both Megazords with his claws. The resulting shots made the rangers’ Megazords begin to smoke. They couldn’t take much more of this.
“Guys, we have our Jungle Master Mode back. We need the master zords,” said Casey.
“It’s worth a shot,” agreed Theo.
“Let’s do it,” said Lily.
With that, the rangers began summoning new spirits. The spirits took form of three different Jungle Zords. There was a red gorilla zord, a blue antelope zord, and a yellow penguin zord that was riding a hovercraft. The gorilla jumped at Carnisoar and tackled him to the ground. Carnisoar knocked off the gorilla and got to his feet, only for the antelope to hit Carnisoar with its head. The penguin shot a freeze beam at Carnisoar, freezing him in place. The penguin then attacked using its hovercraft.
The zords began to regroup as the antelope folded up. The penguin combined with its hovercraft. The two zords acted as legs for the gorilla. “Jungle Master Megazord!” The rangers went back after Carnisoar again. They used the gorilla’s strength to counter his claw attacks, and the antelope’s durability to kick Carnisoar. The Megazord stretched out its arms and began to spin. Carnisoar tried to attack it again, only to be smacked by the fist. The Megazord then slowly approached Carnisoar. The attacks were too much for him to handle, and he was struck down by the Megazord.
“You may have defeated me, but you will not be so lucky against the other Overlords,” Carnisoar said as he erupted into a fit of sparks and smoke. He hit the ground and was finally defeated.
“Well then bring it on,” said Casey as he and the others got to the ground. They were met by Twilight and her friends.
“I think it’s safe to say you guys did a great job,” said Twilight.
“Yeah, those new zords really showed Carnisoar who’s boss,” said Rainbow.
“That penguin was adorable,” complimented Fluttershy.
Grizzaka was fuming. He was supposed to be strong; he was supposed to be invincible. He wasn’t supposed to be defeated. Those rangers had ruined his plans over and over again. Equestria would fall to his knees if it killed him. Magic wasn’t supposed to affect him in the slightest. Carnisoar had already failed him, and Jellica didn’t show much promise either. It wasn’t even all of the rangers, just the red one. What Grizzaka would give to see him be destroyed.
“G-Grizzaka, I have a plan,” Jellica said sheepishly.
“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT! You have already failed me time and time again. Give me one reason not to destroy you now,” Grizzaka threatened.
“P-Please, just give me a chance. I am the Overlord of the sea. I can wipe out the rangers,” Jellica said.
“Oh please, like that would ever work. You can’t even cause a rainstorm,” Grizzaka responded.
“I don’t control the weather, but I can control the ocean,” Jellica tried.
“Fine, but I doubt I need to tell you the consequence for failure,” Grizzaka said.
“Thank you. You won’t regret this decision,” Jellica said. As soon as Grizzaka seemed out of earshot, Jellica whispered, “And to think Carnisoar and I went through so much trouble to revive him.”
“WHAT WAS THAT?” Grizzaka boomed.
“N-Nothing,” Jellica said.
Meanwhile
Casey and Starlight were lying in the field. They were exhausted from running through Ponyville like two little kids. Starlight, who was fast asleep, was on top of Casey, who was on his back. Casey had his hand on her mane. Every time he felt it, it felt softer. He wasn’t far from falling asleep himself. He was wearing the biggest smile he had in years. He knew stying in Equestria with Starlight was the right decision for him.
Starlight moved around in her sleep, and Casey tried not to move. He didn’t mind if she woke up, but he didn’t want this moment to end. She settled back down and repositioned her on Casey’s chest. Interestingly enough, Casey felt his heart warm when she did. He looked up at her face and saw she also had a big, beautiful smile. She moved again and rested her head on Casey’s chest.
Casey was about to drift off to sleep until he heard Starlight woke up. She looked around for a minute, and her face went red when she saw she was on top of Casey. The sight only made Casey smile more.
“Rise and shine, Starie,” said Casey. Starlight chuckled in response.
“We should probably get up. How long was I asleep?” Starlight asked.
“About twenty minutes. You look pretty when you’re asleep,” said Casey, making Starlight blush. “And even more when you’re embarrassed.”
The two shared a quick kiss before Starlight got off of Casey. She stretched while Casey got up as well. “Why did we even fall asleep out here?” Starlight asked.
“You were too tired to walk back to the castle. I would have carried you, but I thought I was gonna fall asleep too. Beside, the field was surprisingly comfortable,” Casey responded.
“You know, I could go for something to eat,” said Starlight, batting her eyelashes.
“Are you asking me out instead of the other way around?” Casey responded, raising an eyebrow.
“Maybe I am. Unless there was something you wanted to ask me,” said Starlight with a smirk.
“No. I think I’ll accept your invitation,” said Casey, returning the smirk.
Starlight chuckled. “Guess I overplayed my hoof.”
Casey petted Starlight’s mane again. The two were about to walk off when they heard a new voice.
“What did I just witness?”
Starlight turned to see the royal-blue unicorn known as Trixie. “Oh hey, Trixie. Where’ve you been?” Starlight asked.
“I just got back from my tour to Saddle Arabia. Now, can you answer my question?” said Trixie with a chuckle of her own.
“Oh right. This is Casey. He’s a Power Ranger,” replied Starlight.
“I figured that. Power Rangers are kind of the only humans in Equestria, remember,” Trixie said.
Starlight rolled her eyes and faced Casey. “This is Trixie, my supposed best friend.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Trixie,” said Casey, extending a hand.
Trixie shook Casey’s hand with her hoof. “You too, Casey. Although, Starlight didn’t use my full title,” she said, running a short distance away. She threw a smoke bomb on the ground and walked through it dramatically. “I am the Great and Powerful Trixie.”
Starlight rolled her eyes and sighed with a smile. “She’s a show pony.”
“I got that,” said Casey.
“What can I say? Actor’s gotta act,” Trixie said. “Seriously though, what was with that flirting earlier? Are you two like together or something?”
Starlight and Casey looked away from Trixie and blushed. This got Trixie really excited. She started jumping up and down a little bit. “Oh. My. Gosh. You are aren’t you?! Oh that’s sooooo cute,” Trixie cheered.
“Oh come on, Trix. It’s not THAT big a deal,” Starlight said, rolling her eyes.
“I know, but now I get to tease you about it~” Trixie said in a teasing manner.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean,” Casey said, furrowing his brow.
Trixie shrunk away at Casey’s sudden outburst. “I don’t mean like that. I just mean that Starlight’s never really fallen in love with anyone-I mean anypony, not that you’re-“ Trixie was cut off by Casey.
“Trixie, I’m just messing with you,” said Casey with a sly smile.
This time, it was Trixie’s turn to blush. Starlight chuckled at the sight.
Casey’s morpher started to buzz, and he saw that Jellica had returned. “Gotta go. Ranger duty,” he said with a wave. With that, Casey left the scene.
“I can see why you like him. He’s funny,” Trixie said. Then she whispered, “and hot too.”
Starlight jumped. “Back off!”
Trixie couldn’t hold in a laugh.
Meanwhile
RJ, Theo, Lily, and Dominic were doing their best to keep Jellica out of Ponyville. It was easier said than done. They were having trouble just hitting her. The only one of them that could do any actual damage was Dominic with his stampede attack. Even then, just that wasn’t enough.
Luckily, Jellica didn’t seem to be fighting back. She was letting the rangers try and attack her. She wasn’t attacking at all. She could easily sweep the floor with the rangers, but she chose not to. All she really did as either counter or dodge Dominic’s attack.
Casey arrived on the scene. “What’s going on here?”
“We’re not really sure. Jellica’s not attacking. She just letting us try to hit her,” explained Theo.
“It’s almost as if she’s just taunting us,” Lily added.
“Let’s just try and finish her,” said Casey. With that, Casey, Theo, and Lily pulled out their claw boosters. They activated them and entered Jungle Master Mode. Casey started by using his jets to quickly charge at Jellica. She finally came alive and fought back. She used her spear to block Casey’s attack and made sure not to leave any openings. Theo and Lily jumped to the other side of Jellica and attacked from there. But before they could hit her, she got out of the way. Luckily, Casey was able to avoid getting hit by Theo and Lily. Jellica reappeared and struck the three of them with her staff.
RJ and Dominic got into the fight, using their individual weapons to attack Jellica. RJ unleashed a charged attack upon Jellica, but she caught it and sent it back at him. Dominic was able to block it and try to attack. The two of them went at it for a minute, until Jellica found an opening Dominic had left. She took advantage of it, and Dominic was sent flying. RJ got back into the fight, but Jellica used her tentacle to swing RJ into a mountain.
Once the rangers regrouped, Jellica put her spear away. She turned to address the rangers. “Here’s how this is gonna work, rangers. Five miles away from here is an ocean. As the Overlord of the sea, I have the power to cause that ocean to flood. If you do not surrender your morphers to me, I will cause a tsunami. You have two minutes to decide.”
The rangers turned to face each other. “What are we gonna do? We can’t her our morphers,” Theo said.
“But you heard her; if we don’t, she’ll flood Equestria. We can’t let that happen,” replied Lily.
“If we give her our morphers, Equestria would be doomed anyway,” RJ reasoned.
“At least if we do, there’ll be a chance Grizzaka goes easy on the citizens of Equestria,” put in Dominic.
“Dude, you’ve me Grizzaka right? Why would he ever go easy on this world?” Theo retorted.
“Well, there’d be a little more time until the end, at least,” Dominic shrugged.
“But can we even trust Jellica? She might just cause the flood anyhow,” Lily added.
Jellica overheard all of this. “One minute remaining. It looks like it’s up to you, red ranger. Flood or fury?”
Casey closed his eyes to think. He really didn’t know what to do. Either way, Equestria would be doomed. He couldn’t think of a way around the situation, either. Suddenly, an idea came to him.
“Guys, give me your morphers. You’re just gonna have to trust me here,” Casey told his teammates.
“What?! Are you crazy?” Theo asked.
“Yeah, what are you thinking?” Lily said.
“Like I said, you’re gonna have to trust me,” Casey said.
RJ and Dominic exchanged nervous glances and nodded. “We trust you, Casey,” said RJ. He and Dominic handed over their morphers.
Theo sighed as he and Lily demorphed and handed over their morphers as well. “This had better work,” stressed Theo.
“Trust me, it will,” assured Casey. Each of his teammates gave Casey their morhpers. Casey, without demorphing himself, turned toward Jellica and started slowly walking toward her.
“Good choice. I hear death by tsunami is a lame way to die, anyhow,” Jellica said.
Casey reached her. Jellica reached out her arm to take the first morpher, but Casey threw Theo’s, Lily’s, and RJ’s morphers into the air. As Jellica looked up toward the flying morphers, Casey put on Dominic’s rhino morpher. He then used hid jets to fly and retrieve his friends’ morphers.
Jellica looked back at Casey, realizing she had been deceived. But before she could summon the tsunami, Casey attacked. He used his own claw to slash away at Jellica’s spear. He then used the rhino morpher to punch Jellica in the gut. He didn’t let up from there. He used both of the weapons to grab hold of Jellica and throw her into the air. Casey activated the rhino blade and flew after her. Using the combined powers of the weapons, Casey sliced an X on Jellica. She erupted into a fit of sparks and finally exploded.
Casey got back to his friends and returned their morphers. “That was a great idea,” Lily complimented.
“Yeah, man. How did you know it would work?” Theo asked.
“Villains tend to get cocky in these types of situations. I figured if I could catch her off guard, I could easily get the upper hand,” Casey explained.
“Casey’s right. Jellica was too confident in herself and payed the price for it,” RJ agreed.
“Oh, and I gotta admit. Dominic, your morpher is awesome,” Casey complimented again.
”Thanks, but don’t get used to wearing it,” replied Dominic.
Before any more could be said, Jellica regenerated her power and grew. “How dare you pull that type of trick on me?! Now, it’s time for you to pay the price of defiance,” she boomed. She stretched out her arm toward the ocean she was talking about earlier. Several pegasi flew into the air to see what was going on and saw a 15 mile high tidal wave rushing toward them.
“We need to stop her now,” said RJ. He and the other rangers summoned their zords and combined with one another.
“Jungle Master Megazord!” “Wolf Pride Megazord!” “Rhino Steel Megazord!”
The three Megazords charged Jellica, but she simply transferred herself into the wave. The rangers were hit by the wave and took a second to regain their balance. They began trying to push back the wave.
In the distance, Starlight and Trixie saw what was happening. Trixie was cheering the rangers on, but Starlight knew they couldn’t hold it off for long. She teleported herself to the highest and closest point to the wave she could find and charged her magic. She took aim at the wave and fired one of her most powerful spells. It helped push back the wave, but Starlight knew she couldn’t keep it up for long. Sure enough, she already felt herself overheating.
“Twilight! You have to go help Starlight!” Trixie shouted, running into the castle.
Twilight appeared in front of her. “Trixie? What are you talking about?”
“Look outside,” was Trixie’s only response.
Twilight ran to a window to see what Trixie was talking about. What she saw terrified her. She saw the rangers trying to push back a gigantic wall of water and Starlight trying to help. Without a second of hesitation, Twilight ran out to help her friend.
“Twilight?! What are you doing here? Get to safety,” Starlight yelled.
“No way. I’m not gonna let you do this on your own,” Twilight said, charging her horn. She opened fire on the wave and began pushing it back. It wasn’t long before her strength was low as well.
Casey looked down to see what was going on and saw Twilight and Starlight using their magic to help them. Casey turned toward his friends. “Guys, look.” Theo and Lily looked and saw what Casey saw. “Their trying to help us when we’re supposed to be the ones helping them. We can’t let this wave get to Ponyville,” Casey said with authority.
“You’re right. We came here to protect this world, and that’s exactly what we’re gonna do,” Theo said.
“Yeah. Jellica thinks she can just blow this place down? Well then she’s gotta another thing coming,” Lily agreed.
“Come on, push!” Casey yelled again.
With that, the rangers put all of their strength to push back the wave. The force was enough to get the ave to start moving away from Ponyville. Eventually, the rangers got a steady pace and had no trouble pushing Jellica back.
But in the distance, Grizzaka was watching the whole thing. “I NEEDN’T REMIND YOU THE CONSEQUENCE FOR FAILURE, DO I, JELLICA?” he boomed. With that, Jellica pushed even harder than before. The rangers were starting to be pushed back. It was only a matter of time before the wave hit Ponyville.
Jellica smirked with a thought of victory. She had finally done it. She had finally beaten the rangers. Unfortunately for her, and blue, rainbow-maned pegasus flew as fast as she could at the wave. A comb appeared around Rainbow as she reached her top speed. Rainbow hit the wave while sending out a giant ring. The ring had the colors of a rainbow and looked beautiful.
It managed to cause Jellica to lose control of the water. It dispelled and began falling toward the ground. She tried regaining control of it, but the rangers attacked her before she could. She managed to use her spear to fight them off, but they didn’t back down. RJ used his speed to get around her and sweep her with the wolf. Dominic countered her spear with his sword, damaging Jellica in the process. Casey, Theo, and Lily used their insane strength to crack Jellica’s spear in two, leaving her completely defenseless.
RJ, Dominic, Lily, Theo, and Casey focused all of their power toward Jellica as she prepared to fire back. Casey, Theo, and Lily, used their spin attack; Dominic used his rhino blade, and RJ used his wolf slash. They all unloaded on Jellica as she fired a counter attack. The exchange wasn’t even close. The rangers’ attacks blew right through Jellica’s and made contact. Jellica erupted into a fit of sparks.
“This-This is impossible! Grizzaka will finish you off!” Jellica yelled as she finally exploded for the final time.
The rangers jumped out of their zords and powered down to tend to Rainbow, Twilight, and Starlight. Casey held up Starlight and felt her horn. It was burning hot. Theo felt Twilight’s horn and got the same result. Lily took a look at Rainbow, but she found there wasn’t anything wrong with her.
“We should get these two to the castle,” said RJ.
Casey picked up Starlight and began carrying her to the castle, making Rainbow squint in confusion. RJ and Dominic got Twilight and made their way back to the castle as well, where the rest of the mane six were waiting.
“Oh my goodness, what in Equestria happened?” Rarity yelled.
“Jellica tried to wipe out Ponville with a tsunami, and Twilight and Starlight tried to stop it with their magic,” Lily explained.
“I wouldn’t say tried. They really helped us out there,” Theo corrected.
“Yeah. If it wasn’t for them, Ponville would have been washed away,” added Dominic.
“I do hope they’ll be okay,” Fluttershy said, not even trying to hide the fear in her voice.
“Ah’m pretty sure they’ll be fine. They’ve done tougher stuff with their magic,” Applejack said.
“Yeah, and then I can throw them a ‘Congratulations, You Stopped a Tidal Wave’ party,” Pinkie added, making RJ chuckle.
Casey was too concerned with about Starlight to hear what everyone else was saying. He took her to her room and lay her on her bed. He then felt her neck to make sure her pulse was steady. He found it was faster than normal, but other than that she was okay.
“Hey. What are you doing?” Rainbow asked, surprising Casey.
“Just making sure she’ll be okay,” said Casey.
“Aren’t you concerned about Twilight too?” Rainbow asked with a serious look on her face.
Casey tried to think of an answer. “Y-Yeah, b-but she’s an alicorn. Wouldn’t she make a faster recovery?”
“I guess she would,” Rainbow replied. “RJ wanted talk to you for a minute though.”
“Alright, just tell me if she wakes up okay?” Casey said.
“Sure,” Rainbow lied.
After Casey left the room, Rainbow closed the door. A few moments later, Starlight woke up.
“Oh good, you’re awake. How do you feel?” Rainbow asked.
“Like my horn was stabbed by another horn,” Starlight replied.
Rainbow looked around to make sure nopony else was listening and leaned a little closer to Starlight. “Can I ask you something? It’s a little personal.”
“Shoot,” Starlight replied.
“Is...Is there something going on between you and Casey?” Rainbow asked gently.
“How’d you figure it out?” Starlight asked.
“He was more concerned about you than Twilight. So there is something going on?”
“Yeah. Why do you ask?”
“Well...I don’t you to get hurt. You know, like I did when Connor left.”
Starlight smiled. “That’s sweet. But just between you and me, Casey said he’s gonna stay after Grizzaka is defeated,” she whispered.
Rainbow was shocked by this news. A part of her wanted to protest. After all, Connor had to leave, so why didn’t Casey? But Rainbow managed to restrain herself. “O-Oh. That’s great,” she said, trying to sound happy for Starlight.
“What’s wrong?” Starlight asked.
“N-Nothing. I’m happy for you two,” Rainbow replied.
“It’s Connor, isn’t it? You don’t think it’s fair. You can tell me if that’s true,” Starlight assured her friend.
“Yeah, kind of. But I really don’t want to get in your way. If Casey wants to stay, it’s none of my business. I do kind of wish Connor had stayed though,” Rainbow said with a tear rolling down her cheek.
“No, you’re right. It’s not fair to you. It’s not fair to Connor. I’ll tell Casey,” Starlight said, starting to get up.
“No. Not yet at least. Like I said, I don’t want you to go through the same thing I did when Connor left,” Rainbow said, stopping her.
“Alright, if you’re sure. We should probably go tell the others I’m okay though,” Starlight said.
“Yeah,” Rainbow replied. As Starlight left the room, she stayed back a little. She was ashamed of herself to admit it, but she really was jealous of Casey. She took a deep breath and went to join her friends.
Meanwhile
If Grizzaka was angry before, this was a whole new level. First Carnisoar, and now Jellica had been defeated by those blasted rangers. They had interfered with his plans long enough. No more, they were going to pay. After all, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
Theo and RJ were sparring. With only one Overlord left, they knew it was only a matter of time until Grizzaka attacked. They had to be ready. Even with Jungle Master Mode, it never hurt to train. RJ swept a leg and Theo jumped over it. The two were becoming used to each others’ attacks.
Dominic was training as well. He was testing his strength by attempting to knock down a tree. He had seen Applejack bucking trees earlier and thought he could do something similar. When he hit the tree, it hurt a lot more than he thought it would. Luckily, the tree did go down. Dominic picked himself up and prepared to do it again.
Lily was working on her dance routine. She had always been a really good dancer, but she could still use the practice. It was a little harder without music. She had to count the beat in her head, which was hard to do because she also had to focus on her moves. Regardless, she was doing a good job.
As for Casey, he was with Starlight, who had been acting strange ever since Jellica had been defeated. He made sure it was really Starlight- he didn’t want a repeat of the Chrysalis incident -but she was acting like something was wrong. Casey tried to figure out what it was, but Starlight assured him it was nothing. He dismissed it as an after effect from the wave.
The two were now sitting on the same ledge from before. Casey never got over how beautiful the view of Ponyville was from there, but he still preferred the view of Starlight. She was more beautiful every time he saw her. He looked back out on the town. He could easily get used to this place as his new home.
Casey put his arm around Starlight and felt her tense up. After a moment though, she leaned back against him. She felt warm. Not just on the outside, but in her heart as well. She glanced up at him and smiled. He never looked more handsome. She sighed within herself. She knew this would have to come to an end, but she didn’t want it to. But she had to; she wouldn’t do this to Rainbow. It really wasn’t fair that Casey would get to stay even though Connor had to leave.
In that same moment, a large blast erupted from the middle of Ponyville. Casey and Starlight stood up. They could then hear Grizzaka yell, “GET OUT HERE, RANGERS AND FACE ME LIKE TRUE WARRIORS!”
“Good luck,” Starlight said as Casey ran out to face him.
Casey was joined by his friends, and they all faced Grizzaka. “You may have defeated Carnisoar, you ,ay have defeated Jellica, but you will never defeat me. This is your destruction,” Grizzaka boasted.
“Let’s do this,” said Casey.
“Grizzaka’s going down,” RJ said.
“Jungle Beast! Spirit Unleashed!” The rangers all morphed in got into their fighting poses.
“With the strength of a tiger! Jungle Fury, Red Ranger!” “With the stealth of a jaguar! Jungle Fury, Blue Ranger!” “With the speed of a cheetah! Jungle Fury, Yellow Ranger!” “With the courage of a wolf! Jungle Fury, Wolf Ranger!” “With the power of a rhino! Jungle Fury, Rhino Ranger!”
“You all have the hearts of idiots if you think you can beat me,” shouted Grizzaka.
With that, the rangers charged into battle with Grizzaka. Grizzaka wasted no time slashing the rangers with his gauntlets. They all took the hit hard. Grizzaka didn’t let them recover as he rushed through them all and slashed them again. The rangers pulled out their weapons in hopes they would help. Casey used his nunchucks the tangle Grizzaka’s gauntlets. Theo and Lily used their weapons to send a charge at Grizzaka. RJ and Dominic charged their morphers to fire at Grizzaka. They did, and their attacks caused a large explosion when they connected. But from the smoke, Grizzaka got back up, seemingly unfazed.
“Is that all you got? You’re really doomed now,” Grizzaka said. With that, he jumped into the air and slammed into the ground, leaving a crater in his wake. The rangers all went flying in different directions from the shock. Grizzaka went after Lily and fought her one on one. She tried to get back to her friends, but Grizzaka wouldn’t let her get around him. He grabbed hold of her and threw her into the air, jumping after her. Lily tried to stop Grizzaka’s oncoming attack with her mace, but Grizzaka unleashed his Sokatto power and the mace was thrown back at her. Lily hit the ground, leaving a crater of her own. She was stuck within it and was unable to get up.
Theo went to save Lily, but was stopped by Grizzaka. Theo jabbed at Grizzaka with his tonfas, but the attack was blocked. Theo fired a charge at close range, and it seemed to hurt Grizzaka. Theo went in fro another attack, but Grizzaka recovered and slashed Theo onto a nearby rooftop. Grizzaka jumped after Theo, but Theo used his fans to glide out of the way. He tried to swipe at Grizzaka, but Grizzaka ducked under the attack, leaving Theo vulnerable. Grizzaka took advantage of this and slashed Theo down to the ground. Grizzaka then jumped again, landing directly on top of Theo.
RJ used a charged punch to hit Grizzaka from behind. He managed to knock Grizzaka off guard and do a little more damage, but Grizzaka didn’t let him keep it up for long. He caught RJ’s arm and slashed at him several times. He then swept RJ off the ground and stomped him down. RJ managed to throw a kick at Grizzaka from behind and get back up. He tried one more time to attack, but Grizzaka unleashed his Sokatta power. RJ was sent flying into a fountain.
Dominic punched Grizzaka with his morpher, but Grizzaka absorbed the blow and sent it back at him. Dominic dodged to attack and used his stampede attack to blast Grizzaka. He managed to do a little bit of damage before Grizzaka dug underground. Dominic aimed his morpher at the ground below him, but Grizzaka jumped up behind him and took him in a death grip. Grizzaka then body slammed Dominic on the ground. Luckily, Dominic was able to activate his blade and force Grizzaka off of him. He tried to keep attacking, but Grizzaka used his Sokatto power to bring him down.
Casey was all that was left. He looked to his fists and clenched them hard. Grizzaka attacked Casey before he could do anything. Luckily, Casey avoided the attack and tripped Grizzaka, causing him to hit the ground. Casey took his stance and charged. Grizzaka slashed at Casey, and Casey countered. The two exchanged blow after blow until Casey began to get tired and he knew he couldn’t keep it up. Grizzaka hit Casey in the gut with a hard strike, causing Casey to falter a bit. Grizzaka took advantage of the action and attacked again. Casey tried to block, but his strength had left him. Grizzaka fired his Sokatto power, and Casey finally went down.
“Pathetic. I here I was, thinking you would put up more of a fight. Oh well. It looks like I’ll have to destroy you now. I’m gonna savor every minute-no, every second of this,” Grizzaka boasted as he slowly approached Casey. He was about to finish him off when he heard a female voice behind him.
“If you’re gonna destroy him, you have to destroy me first,” said Starlight. She was not about to let Casey die so easily.
“Starlight, get out of here. You’re gonna get hurt,” Casey tried to tell her, but Starlight stood her ground.
“If that’s what you want,” Grizzaka said, starting to approach her.
“Well if you’re gonna destroy her, you’ll have to destroy me too,” said Rainbow Dash, flying up next to Starlight.
“Me too,” said Applejack.
“And me,” said Rarity.
“Same goes for me,” said Pinkie.
“Me as well,” said Fluttershy.
They were quickly joined by Twilight. “You want to start your destructive reign, Grizzaka? Then you can start here,” she said with gusto.
“Alright then. You have just made a grave mistake. If you were trying to call my bluff, you have failed. You are very brave; I’ll give you that; but you are also very stupid,” Grizzaka said, firing his Sokatto power at the ponies.
“No!” shouted Casey as he entered his Jungle Master Mode and blocked the attack. He struggled for a moment, but he actually managed to gain control over the blast. Casey took careful aim and fired Grizzaka’s Sokatto power back it him. It hit him, causing a dark aura to surround him for a moment before disappearing.
“Impossible. You can’t use my Sokatto power against me. You can’t even control it,” Grizzaka shouted.
“Well that’s all about to change,” Casey retorted. With that, his jets began to blare louder and bigger than before, and he got another claw. Casey, very quickly, flew at Grizzaka, taking him all the way out of Ponyville. He slashed at Grizzaka, who was trying and failing to counter. Casey used both of his claws to slice off Grizzaka’s gauntlets, leaving Grizzaka without a weapon. Grizzaka tried to use brute force to attack Casey, but Casey got under him and jabbed him with the claws. Casey then threw an uppercut at Grizzaka, following it with a down slash from in the air.
Theo, Lily, RJ, and Dominic got up to see what was happening and were shocked to see Casey’s newly found power. None of them had ever reached that level of strength. They all decided to join Casey in the fight instead of just watching. Lily and Theo used their claws to get Grizzaka’s attention. They slashed from behind, making Grizzaka even angrier. He turned to attack them, only to be punched by RJ and Dominic. They sent him back a couple of feet before attacking again. All Grizzaka could do was try to hit harder than them. They backed off and blasted him from a farther range. Grizzaka unleashed his Sokatto power, but Casey did the same and countered it.
“Your time here in Equestria is up, Grizzaka. You’ve overstayed your welcome,” Casey said.
“Let’s finish him off, guys,” RJ said.
With that, RJ charged his wolf beam, Dominic charged his rhino morpher, and Theo, Lily, and Casey, readied their claws. RJ was the first to fire. His wolf beam pierced Grizzaka’s armor. Dominic fired next. His blast broke off what was left of the armor. Theo and Lily used their jets to fly at Grizzaka and slashed him with their claws. Finally, Casey used his powered up jets to fly at Grizzaka and slash in a X shape. The attack finally caused Grizzaka to lose his balance and spark up. He slowly fell to the ground and exploded.
“Casey, how did you do that?” Theo asked.
“I’m honestly not sure. Twilight and the others were about to sacrifice themselves to save us, and I just got in the way of Grizzaka’s attack. I guess I must have absorbed it,” Casey explained.
“The Sokatto power is strong, but it’s also easy to fight off. Casey believed in himself to be stronger than it,” RJ concurred.
Before anymore could be said, Grizzaka reappeared and started to grow. “Don’t you rangers get it? I’m invincible!”
“Let’s send this guy packing once and for all,” said Dominic.
With that, the rangers summoned their zords and formed all the Megazords they had access to. Grizzaka went after the Wolf Pride Megazord first. He was much bigger than it, so he had no trouble hitting it. He was then slashed by the Rhino Steel Megazord. He struck back and caused Dominic to hit the ground. He then proceeded to stomp on him, causing more and more damage as he did. The Jungle Master Megazord threw Grizzaka off of Dominic and punched Grizzaka. Grizzaka struck back with a punch of his own. He quickly found himself surrounded by the three Megazords. They all began to close in on him, but he unleashed his Sokatto power to hit all of them at once.
RJ quickly got back up and used the wolf tail to distract Grizzaka away from the other Megazord. Grizzaka punched RJ and got him to the ground. He then held up the Megazord and ripped off the wolf zord. He did the same to the jaguar and threw the tiger down as well.
Dominic struck Grizzaka with his sword, but Grizzaka caught it and broke the sword in two pieces. He then stabbed the rhino with his gauntlet and lifted it into the air. He proceeded to launch it at the attacking wolf zord, and the two zords went down together.
Casey, Theo, and Lily went after Grizzaka one more time and smashed him on the head. They then tried to overpower Grizzaka, but he hit them with a knee and took advantage. Grizzaka kept punching the Megazord until it could barely stand. He then swept a leg and detached the penguin right out from under the Megazord. The antelope did fare too well either as it was forcefully ripped away as well. Casey tried the use the gorilla zord’s strength to fend off Grizzaka on his own, but it wasn’t enough. Grizzaka picked him up and chucked him and the others.
“We’re toast. We can’t fight him without the Megazords,” said Theo.
“We can’t give up that easily. We have to keep fighting,” responded Lily.
“But if we try to fight him like this, we’ll be destroyed,” said Dominic.
“Not if we use every zord we have,” said RJ.
“Yeah. We just have to overwhelm him,” said Casey,
“Let’s try it,” said Lily.
With that, the rangers summoned all of the zords they had at the their disposal. RJ and Dominic both had their only zords summoned. Theo used his power to call his bat zord, and Lily called her cheetah zord and elephant zord. Casey even summoned a blue shark zord. All of the zords grouped together and faced Grizzaka.
“What now? Are you gonna try and roar me to death?” Grizzaka boomed.
The gorilla got on the back of the rhino as the tiger, jaguar, cheetah, and wolf got together in front. The bat picked up the shark, and the elephant stood beside them. The penguin got on the left side of the rhino, and the antelope got to the right side.
Grizzaka charged the Jungle Zords to finally finish them off, but the zords charged as well. Their auras were glowing as the each struck Grizzaka one by one. The tiger started by clawing at Grizzaka, filled by the wolf, cheetah, and jaguar. The elephant, bat, and shark all struck Grizzaka at once with powerful attacks. The penguin the froze Grizzaka in place, and the antelope head butted him. The rhino used its horn to knock Grizzaka over its back. Finally, the gorilla swung its arms and struck Grizzaka three times with each arm. Grizzaka hit the ground on the other side and began to spark.
“This is impossible. I’m the mighty Grizzaka; I’m supposed to be invincible,” Grizzaka shouted as he was finally defeated. The rangers cheered and jumped to the ground.
Later
Everyone and everypony was at Pinkie’s “Congratulations You Defeated All of the Overlords” party. The rangers were having the time of their lives. Theo and Lily were in the middle of the dance floor, putting on a show. RJ was chatting with some of the local business owners about owning a business. Dominic was talking with Applejack about her work. Casey, of course, was with his marefriend, Starlight. She had invited her old friend Sunburst, who was very eager to meet Casey. The two of them hit it off without a hitch. Starlight couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her fillyhood best friend getting along with her “boyfriend” as Casey called it.
“So you and Starlight really grew up together?” Casey asked.
“Yeah. It was just me and her. Our parents were always busy,” Sunburst explained.
“I know what that’s like. I’m a little disappointed that Jared didn’t get to show up. I bet you all would’ve really liked him,” said Casey.
“It’s just so fascinating. Your power, I mean. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of ‘animal spirit’ before,” said Sunburst.
“Don’t sweat it. Most people on Earth don’t know what it is,” said Casey.
The party went on for a few more hours until everypony said their goodbyes.
“See you around Casey. It was nice to meet the one who swept my best friend off her hooves,” said Sunburst, making Starlight blush. Casey waved goodbye as Sunburst walked out the castle door.
“That was great. Thank you, Pinkie, for throwing this party for us,” said Theo.
“Are you kidding? How could I not throw a party for you guys?” Pinkie said.
“And besides, we should be the ones thankin’ y’all for helpin’ us out with the Overlords,” said Applejack.
“Yeah. This was literally the least we could do,” agreed Rainbow Dash.
“It’s nothing. Saving the world is kinda what we do,” said Dominic.
“Well too bad, because we’re thanking you for it anyhow,” said Rarity.
They all shared a bit of a laugh before there was a blinding figure. The rangers recognized the figure to be Master Mao.
“Congratulations, rangers. You have succeeded in your task of saving Equestria. I am sorry I could not be more help,” said Master Mao.
“No apology needed. We understand,” said Casey.
“It is now time for you to return home. Jared, Camille, and Flint are awaiting you,” Master Mao said as a portal to Earth opened beside him.
“I can’t believe we’re already going back,” said Theo.
“Yeah. I’m really gonna miss this place,” agreed Lily.
“It was great meeting you all. We’re never gonna forget you,” RJ said to Twilight.
“We’ll never forget you either. We will be forever grateful for your service here in Equestria,” Twilight said, hiding the sadness in her voice.
“I have to admit: sayin’ goodbye to your rangers ain’t gettin’ any easier,” said Applejack.
“We’ll really miss you all. If you ever need a set of claws, don’t hesitate to contact us,” said RJ.
“I do hope you have a safe journey home, darlings. It was amazing to get to know you,” said Rarity.
“Rarity’s right. I am happy that you get to return to Earth with your powers though,” Fluttershy said.
“Keep doing what you do best, guys. I’ll remember you till the day I die,” Lily said.
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t get to know you all better. Even though, I’ll still always remember you,” said Dominic.
“I guess it’s time to get back now,” RJ said. He, Dominic, Theo, and Lily all made their way toward the portal, but Casey stayed behind.
“Casey, aren’t you coming?” Theo asked.
Casey shrugged and took a deep breath. “No, I’m not. I’m staying here in Equestria,” he said.
With the exception of Starlight and Rainbow, everyone’s bottom jaw hit the ground.
“What are you talking about?!” Lily said.
“I’m not leaving,” Casey repeated.
“My student, I know why don’t want to leave, but you must. I wish there was another way, but here just isn’t,” Master Mao said.
“I don’t care. I’m staying here with Starlight,” Casey said as he crossed his arms.
Upon hearing her name, Starlight looked at Rainbow and took a deep breath. She couldn’t believe she was about to do this. “Um Casey? I think they’re right. You should go back,” she said.
“What? I thought you wanted me to stay?” Casey said, confused.
“I-I do, but...it’s not fair,” Starlight said, tearing up.
“What do you mean?” Casey asked, also starting to tear up.
Starlight looked at Rainbow again. “C-Connor had to leave. If you stayed, that-that wouldn’t be fair to Rainbow,” she stammered.
Casey understood. Rainbow had loved Connor, and he left. It would only be fair if he did too. He knelt down to Starlight and took her in a deep embrace. “I understand. I love you, Starlight.”
“I love you too, Casey.”
Rarity began to tear up at the sight of Casey and Starlight, and Applejack was close to joining her. Fluttershy hid herself in her mane, and Pinkie comforted her. Theo, Lily, and Dominic were also beginning to silently cry. They had no idea Casey had feelings for Starlight. It was hard to watch their friend say his permanent goodbye to his first love. RJ stayed strong though. He knew if he lost it, everyone else would too.
Casey and Starlight finally broke their hug. Casey stood up and faced the portal. He closed his eyes hard and walked toward it slowly. He looked back toward Starlight and put a small smile on his face. He remembered the time they shared together and always would. Casey walked through portal and was followed by his friends.
“I’m sorry, man. I wish you had some way to remember her,” Theo said.
“Yeah. We should’ve stuck up for you,” Lily agreed.
“It’s fine. There was nothing more you could’ve done. I’ll always remember Starlight. It would take me getting amnesia for me to forget her,” Casey said.
“We’re here for you, man,” Dominic said.
“Thanks, but I just need to be alone for now,” said Casey, walking away.
Meanwhile in Equestria
Starlight could barely see through her tears. She couldn’t believe she just did that. Twilight placed a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her.
“You didn’t have to do that. I could’ve found a way to get over it,” said Rainbow.
“What kind of friends would that make me?” Starlight replied.
“We’re so sorry for you. We wish there was another way,” said Fluttershy.
“It’s fine; I’ll be okay. I just need some time on my own,” Starlight said, starting to leave.
“Wait a second. You should keep this. I believe you will like its function,” said Master Mao, levitating a turquoise tablet toward Starlight.
“Thanks,” said Starlight, leaving the room.
“Now, I must be getting back. I have something to give to Casey,” Master Mao said, disappearing.
“Should we go comfort her?” asked Fluttershy.
“No, she just needs time,” Twilight responded.
Starlight entered her room and put the tablet that Master Mao gave to her on the table. She laid down on her bed and closed her eyes. It wasn’t long until she began to cry again. She opened her eyes to see that the tablet was glowing. It also had a round button at the top. Starlight walked up to the mirror and pressed the button. What she saw in the tablet made her cry more tears of joy.
Meanwhile on Earth
Casey buried his head in his arms. He wasn’t sure how to feel. Was he supposed to be happy to be back on Earth? Was he supposed to be sad to leave Starlight? Casey let his eyes fill with tears.
Master Mao walked into the room. “I am sorry my student. I really am. If there was another way, I would have allowed it. But I can give you this,” Master Mao said, handing a turquoise tablet to Casey.
“The tablet that sent me to Equestria? Why would you give me this?” Casey asked.
“You will se my student. Use your tiger spirit to activate it and press the button. I believe you will enjoy what happens next,” said Master Mao. With that, Master Mao left Casey alone.
Casey rolled his eyes and used his animal spirit to activate the tablet. It began to glow and show a button at the top. Casey pressed the button, and the tablet face glowed even brighter. A few seconds later, it showed something that made Casey’s heart explode. It was Starlight.
“Oh my goodness. S-Starlight, i-is that really y-you? Can you hear me?” Casey asked.
Starlight nodded with tears eyes on the other side of the tablet. “It’s me. It’s me Casey. I can hear you,” she responded.
Theo looked in on his friend and saw what was going on. He was glad Casey still had a way to contact Starlight. Casey saw Twilight open the door to Starlight’s room and put on a surprised expression. She then smiled and backed out of the room, leaving Starlight.
Casey was so happy, that he couldn’t even find the words to say to Starlight. Starlight had the same problem. He settled for resting his head and the tablet and so did Starlight. He couldn’t actually feel her, but he felt the warmth of her mane as if she was there with him.
Casey heard a door close and a voice yell, “Casey? Where are you? Master Mao told me what happened. Are you alright?”
“Who’s that?” asked Starlight.
“It’s Jared. I should probably go tell him I’m okay. I love you,” Casey said.
“I love you too,” Starlight responded.
With that, Casey pressed the button again, and the image faded. He went out to greet Jared and told him everything was okay. Casey and Jared shared a brotherly hug, and Jared offered to take the rest of Casey’s classes for him. Casey obliged and went back to his room. He hung up the tablet and smiled at it. He was content.