Ponyville:

The last sun of autumn set upon Ponyville, and normally this was a cause for celebration as it set the stage for the passing of one season to another. However, tonight was a different story. In the center of town was what could only be described as a tree from the Everfree walking and talking on it’s own. It had two dark blue eyes, and a gaping hollow mouth resembling that of the man in The Scream painting by Edvard Munch. To top it all off, it’s arms ended in hands with long clawed fingers easily able to rip a pony to shreds.

For it’s first act of destruction, the Evertree monster slammed it’s hands on the ground and big roots began sprouting up from the ground and then wrapping up rapidly fleeing ponies such as the stallion known as Thunderlane. Other ponies were soon to follow, had an azure blue mare dressed in a star spangled wizard’s hat and cloak along with a rather skintight outfit that showed off a bit of leg not intervened. She created illusions of various ponies for the Evertree monster to go after while the real deal fled. As soon as the monster figured this out, it bellowed and howled in rage. Next, it went after the buildings. Wooden tree vines wrapped themselves around a building like a snake coiling around it’s prey and began crushing the newly repaired home of Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch.

“Oh, this is so not cool!” Vinyl said as she blasted away a vine sprouting up from the floor with her magic coming out in a magenta aura. Octavia, on the other hand kicked away a vine trying to reach out and grab her through the window.

“Honestly, I must ask, what is with all of these monster attacks nowadays? It’s so inconvenient and disruptive to making music,” Octavia remarked in annoyance. “What, do these monsters just pop up out of the ground and decide to, I don’t know, cause havoc and mayhem?”

“That’s our lives now, I guess. Have a monster everyday and wait for the Power Rangers to show up and stop it,” Vinyl remarked. “Oh wait, we don’t need their help when we can do things like THIS!” Vinyl snarked as she went for her Bass Cannon and fired off waves of sound towards the vines shattering them into splinters.

“Still, it is nice to have professional monster destroyers and superheroes around when you need them.” Octavia remarked. “I do often wonder how they just seem to know when a monster is going to attack.”

“Bit late tonight, aren’t they?” Vinyl deadpanned as she keep on pouring out the backbeat of her beloved Wubs.

“True...” Octavia trailed off. “But they must have good reason.”

“If you say so…”

Just then, as a wooden spike sent from the Evertree monster’s mouth came flying towards a fleeing Roseluck and was ready to impale her had it not been cut down by a long golden blade. It was held by a pure black thestral with yellow eyes and clad in night blue armor with golden adornments.

“All right freakshow. You attack during the night, you attack during my one night off in which I was planning to visit my fiance, and you know what that really makes me? REALLY hacked off, which is what you’re about to be when I’m through with you,” Galaxy snarled as he cut down a tree vine sent towards him and then another, and then another. “Now, I was already a bit pissed when I found out the Princess of Empathy got sent to the hospital thanks to some bigoted fool ponies who are lined up for the Blood Moon if I have anything to say about it, but you disrupting a night off where I planned for wild mind blowing passionate sex just pushes it. Now I ask you… I’m pissed off, horny and a full-blown psychotic to boot. Do you really want to mess with me?”

The Evertree monster howled and sent vines towards Galaxy which he leaped over and then landed a kick to the monster’s face knocking it back.

“Guess that answers my question.”

Then, with a fang-filled expression of rage on his muzzle, he held out his Dino Charger and pressed down on it and put it into his Dino Morpher before shouting “Unleash the Power!”

“Time to render you into woodchips,” he snarled and combined his Dino Saber with his Dino Morpher and yelled “Rapid Blast!”

Galaxy fired off a few quick shots of grey energy towards the Evertree monster and made it stagger back before it used some vines to knock him through a stall and pin him up against a building. Just as Galaxy broke free with a shout of “Royal Dino Punch!” some vines were sent towards the Carousel Boutique. However, Rarity came bolting out the door dressed in just a bathrobe and her mane in curlers and fired a beam of magic splitting the vines right down the middle.

“Really, waking up a lady from a nap? You’re not just a vile beast, but a rude one too! Someone ought to teach you some manners!” Rarity growled, hands on hips. As if to answer that, the Evertree monster was struck from behind by Zen-Aku, all pretenses of pretending to be a pony dropped. This was the Wolf of the Night.

“You shall go no further,” Zen-Aku snarled as he pointed his blade at the Evertree. Next, he grabbed it with a single hand and spun the monster around and slashed it right across the face with his flute dagger. The monster howled in pain before Zen-Aku kicked it backwards.

“Crescent Boomerang!”

The Duke Org’s blade glowed golden before he threw it and just as it was about to slice the Evertree Monster in two, Galaxy knocked it aside with a swing of his Dino Saber.

“Wonderful, just what I need. Another monster to ruin my night. While normally I’d let you two horror-shows fight amongst yourselves and let the blood cover the street for me to take for my own personal collection later on, I’d really rather not have any civilian casualties tonight,” Galaxy remarked and Zen-Aku said “Begone! You are not needed.”

“You’re really taking that lone wolf thing seriously, aren’t you, Duke Org?” Galaxy chirped cheerfully before his tone became more serious. “Yeah, I know what you are. I did my research.”

“Not enough, evidently. I walk the path of redemption now,” Zen-Aku said as the threesome stood in a classic Mexican Standoff formation, weapons all trained on each other. The tension in the air was thick enough that you could cut it with a knife. Then, the blade swung. “Now, as I said, begone! This I can handle alone!”

With that, he kicked Galaxy backwards even as the Graphite Ranger in midair fired off two blasts at both the Wolf of the Night and the Evertree monster, making them stagger. Meanwhile, Galaxy unfolded his wings and let them carry him to a safe landing as he slid backwards in the dirt. Both night dwellers drew their blades and began swinging them each other, the clanging of metal sounding each time the blades met.

It was about then the other Rangers arrived just as the moon rose, their ornamental eyes on their helmets functioning as headlamps. Vapor observed the situation.

“...Wonderful, I knew this would happen if those two ever met,” she muttered as she facepalmed and shook her head. Robert raised an eyebrow at the Graphite Ranger’s costume.

“Never seen that style before. Although it’s fairly obvious he takes his powers from the ancient dinosaurs, I’ve never seen a ranger costume quite like that in the historical records,” he mused before giving himself a mental reminder. “Guess there’s another way to draw power from those creatures and nobody knew about it till now. I’m going to have to ask him about where he got those powers at some point.”

Right about then, Tengas in swarms flew down from the sky and landed right in front of the Rangers.

“...And here we go. Why does this not surprise me?” Robert deadpanned in an annoyed tone of voice. “Oh right, cause this always happens with Rangers! Send down minions to wear us down, and let the monster take us out!”

He then pulled out his blaster and began firing into the hoard. There was no showing off, no excess flashiness and no jokes made during all of this. Robert simply stayed silent and the only sounds was the laser fire of his blaster and the dying caws of Tengas as they fell before him. It was just pure cold ignited fury channeled into his attacks.

Lightning grabbed a Tenga and pulled it towards her and then headbutted it before lashing out at several more Tengas and knocking them back. She then chased them under a wood covered bridge and drew her Crystal Saber and inserted her Giraffe Crystal and the Saber gained a long golden blade of energy. “Crystal Saber: Giraffe Cutter Mode!”

“Alright, who wants some fried turkey?” she snarled and charged through them and in a flurry of quick cuts chopped them all down leaving pools of purple blood in her wake. Elsewhere, Sunburst inserted his Bison Crystal into his Saber and it changed into the Black Bison Axe as Vapor impaled a Tenga with her trident and then inserted her Eagle Crystal into her Saber and gained her Golden Eagle Sword.

“Now… let’s see what these can do,” Vapor murmured, as she observed her new weapon and then swung it in a downwards motion like she had often seen Sunset do with her Phoenix Blade.

“S-Sure,” Sunburst nervously stuttered out and with swings and chops, they too left a pile of dead Tengas in their wake. Sunburst hit a Tenga in the chest with one side of his weapon while Vapor stabbed another. Then, they shared a look as a theory came to mind. With a quick motion, the Black and Purple Rangers combined their weapons and clutching the new sword, they swung downwards into a murder of Tengas and a golden blade slashed the whole bunch down the middle.

Nearby, Zen-Aku had chased the Evertree monster into a nearby park and was slicing through it’s vines and then sent it flying into a duck pond with a Crescent Wave. The monster soon jumped out of the dark waters and sent wooden spikes flying towards the Duke Org, but in a flash of black and dark purple light the Wolf of the Night was behind him and slashed at him with his flute dagger before flipping off the monster’s back. In mid-air, he then fired a Crescent Wave sending the monster down into the ground below with Zen-Aku landing behind him.

“You’re not even worth my time,” he remarked as he rested his weapon on his left shoulder. But as they always say, arrogance is blinding as shown when vines erupted from the ground and coiled around his legs and Zen-Aku found himself trapped just as two more vines closed in at rapid speed ready to pierce his chest...

“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I might actually need some help here…” he thought, but just then a beautiful, wondrous song cut through the nighttime air...

Elsewhere completely unaware of Zen-Aku’s predicament, Galaxy and Robert were fighting back to back against the swarms firing blast after blast into the crowd of bird-brained minions. Evidently, the old game of men trying to show each other up had appeared between them.

“I’m on twenty already!” Galaxy crowed.

“Thirty for me,” Robert bragged. And then, with a smirk, Robert fired off his Kitsune Blaster into the air and its single golden shot branched out into many ones and punched holes in exactly ten Tengas’ chests. Galaxy snarled.

‘That still only counts as one!’ he snapped.

‘Not in my book!” Robert retorted. “You’re just thinking up excuses on how your blaster isn’t as good as mine!”

“Can’t believe this, but I’ve turned into my adoptive uncles.” Robert mused, chuckling at the irony before he shot down another Tenga behind him, not even turning to look at it.

“Why I oughta…” Galaxy grumbled mentally. Just then a cannon blast hit Robert in the side, demorphed him and sent him tumbling into yard outside a machine shopped owned by the pony Silver Spanner. Robert groaned and as he picked himself off the ground, vision clearing he saw Artilla walking slowly towards him.

“Well well well, isn’t this a familiar sight?” Artilla chuckled. “Me, you, and a target lined up in my sights and about to lose his powers.”

“Yeah?” Robert chuckled darkly. “Well, it’s about to get even more familiar in a minute. SPD: Emergency!”

Artilla chuckled. “You seriously think you’re going to beat me in that? As I recall, you couldn’t handle yourself in a fight against a regular Org in that costume and I crushed your morpher under my feet. Now, what makes you think you can do it this time, if you’re even thinking at all?”

“Well, I just want to fight you the way things began with us. Call it... a bookend,” Robert replied before he fired his Delta Blaster a few times before the Org had a chance to react. In Robert’s mind, he was seeing the images of the ponies who put Sunset in the hospital in place of Artilla and so the Duke Org was feeling his full fury. He fired one of his arm cannons, but Robert rolled out of the way and fired again. But then, with one of his cannon shots from Artilla’s main horn, Robert was sent flying backwards into the side of a milling machine.

A small dialogue of text which read “Danger level heightened. Recommend activating SWAT Mode” appeared on his heads-up display. Robert’s eyes widened. That was new.

“Huh, looks like Twilight accidentally tapped into the inhibitors keeping me from going SWAT and bypassed them. Now I can really take things up a level here and I just might be able to defeat this Org.”

“SPD, SWAT MODE!” Robert called out, and almost at once, he gained body armor, a flak jacket along with an extra set of sensors on the left side of his helmet and a comm set on the right side. But most importantly, in his hands he now held the Delta Enforcer which was a rather large double-barreled repeating laser rifle. And almost at once, he let Artilla have it. He fired again and again, rolling to the side or using various objects as improvised cover to avoid shots from Artilla’s arm cannons and slowly wore away at the tank-themed Org’s armor. At one point, he even managed to shoot off the tank treads hanging off his shoulders. But just about then, his morphing energy ran out.

“Fine then. Let’s do this the old fashioned way. Without technology,” Robert remarked and as Artilla fired a cannon shot from his horn Robert flipped over him and grabbed the tank treads he’d shot off and wrapped Artilla in them before yelling “Call to the Beast Inside! Free the Kitsune!”

The misty nine-tailed fox then ripped into Artilla again and again before Robert charged forwards and got in a powerful slash across the chest with his Crystal Saber. Groaning, Artilla’s eyes closed and he fell backwards before exploding into a tall plume of fire. Robert looked upwards, expecting to see Thrax’s wand descend from the night sky, but it never came. With a shrug, he broke into a sprint and morphed back into the Kitsune Ranger and went off to rejoin his teammates.

Eventually, all the Tengas were down and the Rangers met up in the center of town.

“Where were you?” Lightning asked, hands on hips.

“Sorry, had to take care of some unfinished business,” Robert replied nonchalantly with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“Now where’s Zen-Aku?” Vapor asked nervously, worried for her friend.

“Heh, some leader. Looks like he left us to go off and fight alone,” Lightning drawled. “Best we go and find him before he gets himself killed.”

Elsewhere, Zen-Aku saw landing on top of a tree a glowing green bird, resembling the Eagle Zord but much smaller and as it sung the vines withered away and died.

“The Soul Bird…” Zen-Aku whispered as he bowed, feeling unworthy of the honor after all he’d done. It was said you only saw the Soul Bird once in your lifetime, never twice and that to see it you were incredibly deserving. But inwardly, Zen-Aku didn’t feel that honor, not after all he’d done. He’d created chaos, stolen Animal Crystals and delivered them to the Master Org, corrupted quite a few Wild Zords and took them as his own and then used them against the Rangers. And to top it all off, even after he was destroyed he came back to try and reclaim his former host’s soul. Why Animus had chosen to revive him from the monster underworld was beyond him.

“Is that really all you think of yourself, Zen-Aku?” The Soul Bird asked in a feminine tone. “You walked the path of redemption for three thousand years, and are even doing that now as we speak. Look at yourself, fighting to defend those who scorn you and even taking a Power Ranger’s place as the leader of her team. You’ve done far more good than harm now, so the scales of fate weigh you as worthy of seeing me. And to be honest, this will probably not be the last time I will come to your team’s aid. The Orgs are more powerful than ever. Last time, I was a pacifist, but that was before the second Master Org murdered my chick. Now, I think it’s time to step in and join the fight. Now go and do Animus’s will and destroy this monster.”

With that, the Soul Bird took flight into the night sky even as the Rangers ran up. Zen-Aku sniffed the air.

“I sense the blood of a Duke Org is on you Robert.”

Everypony turned to him.

“...Wait, when you meant unfinished business did you mean…?” Sunburst trailed off in realization, eyes widening.

“Yeah, Artilla’s done for. Now, we have some other unfinished business to deal with. Time to go all George Washington on this overgrown herb,” Robert snarled, back in that cold tone of absolute fury once more. “Sa... dohade ni ikuze. For Sunset. Kyuubi Seibai Blast!”

Robert started the chain attack by launching his finisher skywards while Lightning pulled the Evertree monster forwards with her whips and dealt in a sword strike with the Sword of Pardolis and tossed the creature to Vapor, who sliced at it with her Golden Eagle Sword. The Monster was then slashed across the chest by Sunburst and his Black Bison Axe before Galaxy fired his Dino Morpher a few times at the monster and then Zen-Aku, as thunder cracked in the background, threw his blade like a boomerang striking the Evertree. Finally, a full fiery manifestation of the Kitsune Zord came down from above and bit down on the Evertree and shook it a few times before tossing it away with the monster falling over and exploding.

“Well, I’d say that’s-” Robert said as he dusted himself off and holstered his blaster. He quickly cut himself off as from behind them, everyone heard the sound of vines creaking and groaning as they wrapped and coiled themselves. With a slow turn of their heads, everyone turned to look each having a sinking feeling about what they were about to see. And they were not disappointed in the slightest. There stood the Evertree standing at titanic size. Everyone took a step back as the monster tried to step on them with one colossal foot.

“Well Zen-Aku, hope you can put your money where your mouth is…” Lightning muttered. The Duke Org simply smirked at her and replied. “I too control a great power. Hammerhead Zord, arise!”

“Wild Zords, descend!”

He blew on his flute, Hammerhead Crystal in place as the Wild Zords descended from the Animarium on a rainbow bridge of light. Just as before, they combined in the same way but with the Hammerhead Zord taking up the Phoenix’s spot with a hiss of steam and a crescent shaped boomerang piece of metal attaching itself to the upper torso. Finally, a golden horn resembling that of a Duke Org’s now jutted out from the Megazord’s forehead. All four Wild Force Rangers and Zen-Aku teleported into the cockpit and placed their summoning weapons on the consoles, with the cockpit now having a distinctly darker tint than usual thanks to Zen-Aku’s presence.

“Animaria Guardian Megazord: Predator Mode, ready!” The team shouted and pulled out the Megazord’s katanas from their sheaths, which was once the Leviathan Zord’s tailfin before it split in half during the transformation.

“Time to cut this thing down to size.” Zen-Aku snarled as the Evertree monster tried to send vine after vine towards the Megazord but the metal warrior just kept on cutting and cutting as it advanced, the world’s largest machetes in hand. It dealt a few strikes across the chest and then swung around for the Kitsune Zord’s tails to smack the monster in the side and it was sent crashing into the Everfree Forest.

“Back where you belong,” Zen-Aku growled as his foe picked himself up off the ground. “Hammerhead Surge!”

The Megazord dealt out a powerful left hook, the Hammerhead’s jaws snapping as it did so, to the Evertree monster’s face but it then struck back and grabbed the Megazord by the chest with one vine and picked it up and tossed it into the fields outside of Ponyville. Then, a wooden spike cut the ports between the Megazord and the Thunderbird making up it’s right limb.

“We’re down a Zord!” Sunburst yelled and checked his console and his eyes widened in alarm. “Power levels at 67% and dropping!”

“Vapor, you have an alternate Zord, do you not?” Zen-Aku requested and the pegasus nodded, unsure where the Duke Org was going with this or how he even knew. “Then now it is time to use it.”

“Right!” Vapor replied, figuring out now what her friend wanted. “Deer Zord, descend!”

Soon, the Deer Zord was on the scene and it’s legs folded up and it’s head tilted downwards and it spun 360 degrees like a drill before attaching itself to the Megazord as it’s new right arm.

“Animaria Guardian Megazord, Preda-Deer Formation!”

“Now... Animaria Guardian Megazord: Antler Crush!” Zen-Aku ordered and the Megazord grabbed the Evertree monster with the clutcher arm and held it up to the sky. Next, it began spinning it 360 degrees before with a mighty toss, sent the monster flying towards a mountain and where it landed a fireball that could be seen for miles rose high into the sky.

As the monster exploded Zen-Aku growled out “Send Thrax my regards, and tell him… We’re coming for him next.”

The Nexus:

Thrax chuckled darkly as he listened in on Zen-Aku’s ultimatum.

“So, that’s how it is is it? He’s calling me out, and I must answer the challenge. Soon, Goldar will be ready for his revival and then Ponyville, and then the rest of Equus will feel my wrath.” Thrax mused as he fingered the dark gem he had gotten ahold of on Sentai 6. Even now, it pulsed with energy of a great dark power, the kind of which the galaxy should never know. Thrax frowned to himself as he placed the dark gem next to the piece of Goldar’s armor and let its power flow into the golden piece. The small piece of the shattered armor lifted itself up in the air for a moment, pulsed purple, before it dropped soundly to the dirt floor with a clattering sound.

“Everything is progressing as planned. Still, I need a heart to give this warrior life. That can be acquired easily enough. The Orgs under my command, most of all Retinax won’t like a non-Org being promoted over them, but they’ll just have to deal with it. After all, they’re not important in the grand scheme of things. But that’s not my main concern. The Talon Ranger, the first Ranger. I know he survived his planet’s destruction. I sense his energy deep within the Morphin’ Grid. His energy, it’s in a constant struggle between my own and his. The balance is at a stalemate. But soon, it will reach a tipping point and I will overpower his energy and the advantage will be mine.”

Thrax didn’t even bother to turn his throne to look at the source of the twin footsteps behind him. He knew who they belonged to.

“We need to talk,” Retinax snarled, pointing his axe towards Thrax. “You let my fellow Org fall, and you didn’t even send down that staff of yours to revive him.”

Thrax chuckled.

“He wasn’t worth it. He failed to kill a Ranger, the very same Ranger in fact, twice with a weaker power set than that of the one stemming from Animus and the Wild Zords. He wasn’t worth a second chance. I don’t give those out lightly, and I didn’t see the point in reviving Artilla because of his failure. Now leave me.”

Helicos let out a growl as she and Retinax walked out, the eye themed General Org thinking to himself.

“From the way the Master acts, it seems as if he thinks us as not worth the trouble in the end. Could it be… Could it possibly be that he sees us as lower life forms? Is that all we are to him? A means to an end for some greater plan?”

Retinax growled.

“I trusted one false Master once, and I ended up paying for it harshly. But not this time, this time I intend to keep all of my eyes on this new Master Org and whatever he’s plotting…”

Far above Earth, a truly gigantic ship resembling a scorched pirate’s galleon floated high above the planet, orbiting it with a truly ominous presence coupled with the shadow of the moon behind it. This effect was only heightened by the figurehead and mast themed after that of a giant squid and coal black flags that flapped entirely on their own despite that being entirely impossible as there was no wind in space to speak of. On the bridge, Bunglay smirked and raised a laser rifle. Behind him was an emblem of a white skull against a pure black shield with a red dragon to its left holding a sword and a blue dragon to the right holding a flintlock rifle. This ship once belonged to the long vanquished Imperial Armada faced by the Power Rangers Megaforce, and now Bunglay had claimed it for his own and had been using it as his personal ship to hunt down whatever he thought of as big game. And as of right now, that big game in question was the Orange Kitsune Ranger...

“Now, I think it’s time for me to continue my little hunt…” He smirked and cocked his rifle with an audible hum.

(To Be Continued…)

Author's Notes:

And we've breached the 100,000 word mark! First story of mine to do so! Okay, first off I want to apologize to the Villain in Glasses, but I wanted to go through with this one alone, as sometimes I feel as if you're holding my hand a bit too much and sometimes the only way to improve at anything in life is to do something by yourself. Anyways, so on the chapter. First off, like the chapter with the Animaria Guardian Megazord's debut before it, this one doesn't open with a piece of music as I couldn't find an opening theme that would really work, so you get Zen-Aku and Merrick standing back to back instead. (Also, yes I know Galaxy's entrance is set to the wrong piece of music, and don't get me wrong I love every aspect of Dino Charge including the theme but I think the Dino Thunder Music is more appropriate for a badass entrance.) Anyways, first new combination (Okay, two new combos) of Zords which is half the fun of Wild Force to me and Thrax creates a monster of his own instead of relying on the Orgs. (I figure this is a Necessary Weasel as I will run out of Orgs from both Gaoranger and Wild Force eventually. Same reason I brought Bunglay in as well.) Also, if anyone's wondering how I got this chapter done so quickly, it was because I was working on it alongside Chapter 25.