https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYME1QBrXw4

Sit down, let me tell you a little story. Oh, I suppose I should introduce myself first. My name is Sunburst Starflight, aka the Black Ranger. Now, a bit of history for you on the five Wild Zords that me and my team control. The Kitsune, the Phoenix, the Thunderbird, the Leviathan and the Vampire Bat. The five Legendary Wild Zords that protected the Kingdom of Animaria alongside their king, Animus, Lord of all 100 Wild Zords. Yes, I said one hundred Wild Zords existed at one point.

But in the great battle against Master Org, almost all of them, save for a lucky few were destroyed, even Animus himself. All Ten of the Guardians had long been thought lost after that, but by some miracle, by the pure power of humanity, they came back. Each and every single one of them. Animus, he came first, his five components, the Black Lion, the Jaguar, the Sawtooth and so on.

He fought the reborn Master Org for the second time, but was destroyed and as far we know, only his physical components were brought back. I don’t know if his consciousness still lives on. But enough about that, you’re probably more interested in me, Mystic Mother knows why, but I’ll tell you my tale.

To be honest, my story isn’t that really interesting. It started forty odd years ago, give or take a year, meaning I’m the oldest Ranger on the team. I’ve never done much with my life. It started in a small town, outside what used to be Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve heard, that in Humanity’s golden years, even in the 3000s, it was a place of sin and debauchery. Strip clubs, bars, gambling joints, the lot. Not my kind of place. Mind you, I don’t know how much of this is fact or fiction thanks to Solar Flare, but we’re getting off topic. I had a friend, name of Starlight Glimmer. She, despite being a unicorn, really didn’t seem to have a natural grasp of the magical arts like I did, or at least that’s what I thought I had at the time. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We were best friends, we did everything together.

You know, if I wasn’t interested in the male side of the spectrum, we probably could have been in love if we grew up together as teenagers. But as it happened, I earned my Cutie Mark in magical abilities and was shipped off to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Of course, as I found out, I was skilled in booksmarts, but not magic itself. I could barely manage the simplest of spells. I passed school, if only just. I was ashamed of myself, I couldn’t go back and face Starlight nor my parents knowing that they thought I had natural talent and if they knew I didn’t… Who knows what they might have thought of me? I was scared, and it shames me to say it.

So I ran all the way to Ponyville, hoping I could stay out of anything that might alert my parents that I was still around. The town was small, small enough for me to stay under the radar as the old human phrase goes. I was welcomed, even made a few friends. But really, every time I saw Celestia’s gifted students, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle performing magical feats and saving Equestria from any number of threats, I was reminded of my own lack of magical talent. So when the Crystal Empire returned, I ran once again, hoping there was no one there with raw magical talent who wasn’t a unicorn to remind me of what I am, a failure at being a unicorn, and life in general. Mystic Mother above, I bet you want to stop reading right now and give me a hug now don’t you?

To be honest, I… I would like that, to tell me I’m not a failure but nothing anypony ever says that to me ever makes me believe it. Except for one. My future fiance, Galaxy Swirls, the infamous Reaper of Canterlot, Captain of Luna’s Night Guard and the Graphite Power Ranger. It’s the oddest thing, we shouldn’t fit together, but somehow… we just do. It started when Galaxy, given some time off by Luna herself came to the Crystal Empire on vacation.

I’d just got back from exploring my hideaway from everyone, a place where I went when I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts, the Crystal Forest. It was an apt name, really, when you consider it was a forest literally made of crystals that were hundreds of years old and could grow over 70 feet tall or more, the height of a Saguaro Cactus. It was inside one of those crystals, I found my Animal Crystal, the Black Vampire Fruit Bat. Yes, I said fruit bat as in those things that could suck an apple orchard dry. I asked Princess Shayla to keep that part of the name a secret, as I didn’t want to be laughed at anymore then I already was.

Ack, I’m rambling. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Sorry, just had to beat my head against my desk as I’m writing this for a moment there. Now where was I…? Oh yes! Galaxy Swirls, Reaper of Canterlot, Captain of Luna’s Night Guard and the Graphite Power Ranger. I did say that already didn’t I? Well, I suppose me saying it twice keeps one from forgetting. Not all ponies or people have the memories of elephants after all. You know there is an Elephant Wild Zord right? It’s in the hands of my fellow Ranger, Sunset. ...Again, getting off track here. Anyways… It started off simple, me and Galaxy. We just talked, it really was odd how remarkably sane the self given “High Functioning Psychopath” was. Then again, in his own words, “99% of mental cases do think themselves sane, so who’s to say if I’m really sane or not? I may just have a lust for battle that gives off that impression.”

He had to leave soon of course, get back to his guard duties after all. At the time, I felt a little of myself hurt inside. I didn’t know why at the time, but I wanted him to stay. So, I made a train trip to Canterlot and surprised him while he was training his men. I wanted to yell out “SURPRISE!”, you know, as you do, but I’m not much of a confident stallion really so it came out more of a quiet stutter. I got the desired effect though. Galaxy certainly was surprised. Mind you, thanks to my nervousness, his men laughed at me and I felt that old familiar stain.

Of course, Galaxy for whatever reason threatened them with something called the Blood Moon, and that shut them up real quick. Oddly enough, he took me out on a pity date. I didn’t even know he was into stallions. As it turned out, he swung both ways. He took me to this place called the Tasty Treat, little known restaurant he said, but served the best Indian food in the whole kingdom.

And you know what, he was right! The food… Oh Mystic Mother, the food! Not to say Galaxy himself wasn’t charming. He was a remarkably nice stallion, the same I’d known when he visited the Empire. We got to talking spurred on with more than a little bit of alcohol in our systems, pretty much ignoring the food, and shared our pasts talking long into the night.

If you thought I had it rough, whoo boy you obviously hadn’t met Galaxy yet. For the first thirty years of his life, everything was nice. He was a noble, leader of the country of Transalfangya (Feel free to laugh if you must) as it turned out. His name was different back then. For privacy reasons, he asks me not to divulge it. Anyways, he had a wife and two children. But that happiness, it was shattered when Queen Chrysalis attacked and slaughtered his whole family except for him, just to twist the knife in.

That night, something inside him snapped and he became the stallion he was today. I can only imagine what it was like for him when the Changeling Queen returned and invaded Canterlot at Shining Armor and Cadence’s wedding. So, there we were, two broken stallions.

Things progressed fairly quickly from there. That simple crush of mine, it turned from an ember into a blazing inferno of love. On that first date, I got some crucial advice as well, play to my strengths, and not focus on my weaknesses. That is, use my understanding of science to teach others about it. So I headed back to Ponyville and took up the open slot as its High School science teacher. So there you have it, that’s what led me up to this point. Now, let me tell you what happened not too long ago…

Okay, for a while now there had been these old legends about this abandoned clock tower outside Ponyville. It was said it had been inhabited by an old stallion, crazy as a loon. Hated everypony and all he really cared about was his money. Stuffed it into rusty mason jars down behind the clock tower and on certain nights if the moon was right you could see his spirit digging up the ground and running his hands through the bits he’d collected. Now, me being a stallion of science, I was a skeptic. So, of course, I wanted to prove myself, not just the legend was bunk but that I wasn’t a coward.. Galaxy insisted on coming along, just in case that legend was true.

Personally, I think he wanted an excuse to shove me into that clocktower and snog me senseless, as Robert might put it. (If we had time, I’d put my thoughts on him here, but...) For hours we searched under the full moon, and eventually, I found myself proven right in my mind. That old legend was bunk, just as I thought. Well, not entirely as it turned out. There was a spirit there, an Org spirit to be exact. He took the shape of a giant bell, with one gold eye and a sharp toothed maw and had a hammer to ring himself with. And what a sound it created. It was like Hell’s Bells ringing themselves. We had to cover our ears just to keep ourselves from going deaf. Of course, standing around with our ears covered wasn’t going to get this Org defeated, ergo…

“Legendary Wild Access!”

“Unleash the Power!”

So, there we stood, two lone rangers against a single Org. Seemed like fair odds. Of course, we were overconfident and he quickly had us outmatched. Galaxy tried slashing at him with his Dino Saber, but just couldn’t break through that tough armor of his and so he tossed me his Morpher and I fired off a few shots at the Bell Org. Those bounced off as well. Then he hit himself with his hammer and sent us flying back with sheer waves of sound before firing a beam of golden energy from his eye and striking Galaxy right in the chest and sending him flying back into a tree. The Org then hit the ground with his hammer knocking me off balance.

“Alright, I’ve had enough of this. Shadow Hatchets!” I called and threw my twin golden axes at the Org and they hit him all over and boomeranged right back into my hands but he seemed unharmed. The Org laughed, and then summoned a giant bell cage right over my fiance and they both teleported away. I screamed in rage and punched the ground before I broke down sobbing. I was useless as a fiance, and useless as a Ranger…

Eventually I wandered into town as day broke and just walked aimlessly, musing over my failure to protect the one that I loved. I passed Carousel Boutique, where Spitfire was walking out in a refitted flight suit. Then, I realized it wasn’t Spitfire at all, but a stallion who had a uncanny resemblance to her.

“Bet he has someone who’d be able to protect him from that Org.” I thought as I sat down on a bench. As it happened, Zephyr Breeze had been watching me from the Boutique’s window and noticed my distraught state. He dropped whatever he had been doing (Giving a manecut evidently, if the angry shout of “Hey, I paid good bits for this trimming, so don’t you drop out on me now!” was any evidence.) and walked outside and sat down beside me.

“Really, a pony like you, one that handsome shouldn’t be looking like someone killed his puppy.” Zephyr remarked as he put an arm around my shoulder and studied the lines of my face. “Alright, I’ve seen that look before. You messed up something with your lover didn’t you?”

“...Yeah, big time. I failed to do something, and now…” I sobbed, unable to get the words out.

“Listen, I don’t claim to be an expert on love, but I know a thing or two about giving up and failure. Listen, you know what I was like before? Lazy, somepony who couldn’t get anything done and always had somepony else do it for him? Well, all that was because I truly believed I couldn’t do anything. That’s the same with you isn’t it?” Zephyr inquired of me.

“Yeah, I suppose.” I nodded.

“Listen, if you believe you can do something, you can do it. Corny as Tartarus, I know, but it works. Trust me on that. Now go out there and do whatever it is you gotta do. If I can change and start believing in myself, so can you.”

Zephyr’s words filled me with a newfound confidence I’d never felt before. He was right, I never could do anything because I never believed I could. Never give up, never give in, as Galaxy always said. Kick ass and look good doing it. I ran, fast as I could and while I did so I morphed and used my horn to track the signature the Org was giving off. I never knew I could do it, but yet here I was, doing just that. It was a vile, putrid signature, and it was only appropriate that it was located in that vile place, Fire Swamp. There the Org stood, laughing as he banged on his bell cage with Galaxy inside, giving both him and me quite the headache. I sighed to myself, we were both probably going to be deaf or at least need some medication by the time this was over.

“With the stealth and bite of a Vampire Bat, Black Vampire Bat Ranger!" I cried out, with more confidence than I had ever yelled it out before.

“Time to make this bell stop its ringing… permanently.” I snarled to myself before I cried “Dino Morpher Blast!” and sent the Org flying with a powerful blast of black light and a head shaped like my Zord’s own following it, perhaps our two power sets mixing together in some way. Then, I focused all my energy into my horn and sent it skywards and then the clouds boiled, as if someone had flicked on a light switch for them. Rolling thunder, upon the rain. And then a powerful bolt of white hot lightning struck the bell cage, blasting it to smithereens and freeing my fiance, who gave me a look of complete and utter shock.

“S-Sunburst? You… You actually did that?”

“Belief’s a strong thing. I learned that from a good friend. Also learned play to my strengths, and as it turns out, magic is more of a strength than I thought.” I said before tossing Galaxy his Dino Morpher with a shout of “Here, you’ll need this!”

Galaxy only shook his head.

“No thanks, I got the perfect weapon to deal with this guy. Blood Moon!”

A dark blue and black scythe with a disturbingly crimson tint to its blade appeared in Galaxy’s hands, and he opened up his belt buckle to take out a “Dino Charger”, as I later learned they were called and inserted it into a little slot on his scythe.

“Blood Moon Slash… Final Strike!” Galaxy roared, fanged teeth bared and he swung his scythe, and for the briefest of moments, I could swear I saw a red moon appear behind him as he launched a swirling blade of energy at the Org, bifurcating him right down the middle. But of course, it was never that easy with these creatures. From out of the sky, a truly gigantic wand, as I could find no other way to describe it impaled itself in the fallen Org’s remains and soon he was alive again but standing as tall as a Manehatten skyscraper.

“Well… You know what we gotta do now, right?”

I nodded and put my Animal Crystal into its slot and summoned my Zord as Galaxy threw another Dino Charger and yelled out “Summon Pachy Zord!”

Landing with a mighty thud was a grey and yellow trimmed pachycephalosaurus Zord with a chained mace for a tail. And high in the sky was my Zord, a pure black as night Vampire Fruit Bat with a fanged maw and axe like wings.

“Oh, I’m so jealous. Why do you get the Vampire Bat for a Zord and I get a dumb dino?” Galaxy grumbled, but in a lighthearted jokey manner, telling me he wasn’t entirely serious. I smirked. This Org didn’t know what he was in for. He swung his hammer trying to bring the Bat Zord down but it flew very close to him and it’s sharp wings cut into Bell Org’s armor. It flew in for another pass, but Bell Org hit himself with his hammer and the ringing that sent the Bat Zord flying backwards and messing with it’s echolocation could be heard for miles. Yep, I’m so going to need headache medication after this.

But the Pachy Zord struck back and aimed it’s mace tail at the Org’s knees knocking him off balance and into the sludge of the swamps and knocking trees down for miles around. I’d have thought that would have knocked some sense into the Org, but evidently not as he slowly but surely got back up off the ground. Of course, by this time the Bat Zord had regained it’s bearings and flew in for another pass and sliced another slash into the Org as the Pachy Zord hit him again but was soundly knocked to the ground by the Bell Org’s hammer. But evidently, the Bat Zord didn’t like that and flew in again and struck even faster this time and then flew in for another pass, and then another.

The Bell Org once again tried his ringing himself trick, but didn’t get a chance as the Pachy Zord knocked his hammer out of his clawed hands with a swing from his tail just in time for the Bat Zord to go for it’s final strike and launch a pair of twin missiles at the Org and they hit dead on target and the Org stumbled over backwards and exploded in a huge fireball with the Fire Swamp’s natural gases igniting making the fireball even larger than normal for an Org explosion.

Galaxy and I smiled wearily as we demorphed with the battle finally over and Galaxy turned to give me a conniving smirk.

“So, that good friend of yours who gave you that advice… Should I be worried?” He asked teasingly, not that I realized it at first.

“N-No!” I stuttered out. “He’s j-just a friend, just a friend! A-And for the record, he’s married! And interested in the fairer sex!”

But then I saw the smirk on Galaxy’s face and realized he was joking around and muttered some none too nice words towards him and received a firm swat on my flank for that.

“Cursing out your fiance? Tut-tut, that deserves… punishment. Rushing headlong into danger without thinking, Even more punishment. And fraternizing with another stallion? Even worse punishment…” Galaxy growled out seductively as he began to nibble at my neck. “You and me, when we get back to Ponyville, you’re getting the lashing of your life.”

I swallowed but managed up a nervous grin.

END

Author's Notes:

Okay, so as you can see for the next of our character oriented chapters I tried something a little different. I've rarely done first person writing before, with this being only being my third time doing such a thing. Anyways, I thought it best both to give Sunburst some backstory, and just how he ended up with a known psychopath like Galaxy Swirls. Anyways, huge thanks to Hawker Hurricane for letting me use his OC (The Spitfire like stallion coming out of Rarity's) and on the first person note, I'm not likely to do it again, but if you guys like it enough I may reconsider it. Next time... The Hunted!