Robert’s POV:

All five of us, or maybe (Probably) it was for Sunset Shimmer specifically given that the whole town of Ponyville had seen her publicly morph into the Gold Ranger and face down Goldar greeted us with a roar of cheers and applause as we strode into town, still clad in our suits. The noise itself, it was almost deafening. They came out in droves, swarming us like buzzards. Zen-Aku, I noticed, had faded into the crowd and turned back into his Unicorn form. Fair enough I suppose, he never liked to bring attention to himself. My guess was that nopony would ever really know who piloted the Predazord, and perhaps that was for the best in some ways. After all, given the blatant racism I’d been shown, God only knew what kind of hatred the Duke Org would be shown if anypony knew what HE really looked like.

Sunset sighed as she took off her helmet, the action of doing so making the helmet emit a small hiss of air. She let her yellow and red mane flow free in the winter wind and I had to admit to myself, she was beautiful, even as sweaty and worn out as she was. She, with those wings, and I admit I’m probably repeating myself here more often than I’d like, looked absolutely angelic. Both mares and stallions alike, some of them quite good-looking, rushed up to the Princess of Empathy and began begging her for her autograph. Funny thing about it was, during all of this time I never noticed Sunset blush once. Arrogance didn’t seem to be in her character, least not anymore, so why? Actually, now that I think about it, she never really responded to my flirtations either. It is entirely possible that she’s just not interested in me and just hates sexual harassment (Because really, that’s what anyone could call some of my comments at times) in general. But still, it bothered me. Not sure why, but it did. Maybe I was overthinking things. Probably was. Could be nothing.

Casting my thoughts to a different subject, I turned to my teammates. They seemed to be taken aback, Sunburst and Vapor especially as if being hailed as heroes was new to them.

“I… I… don’t know what to say.” Sunburst stammered out. I could understand both his and Vapor’s reasonings for their surprise. If anything, those confessions Sunset made us write out, hateful as they were definitely helped me understand who I was working with. Sunburst, in his case, had seen himself as a failure and a screw-up his whole life, even with his fiance’s love to keep him from driving himself to the drink, or worse. Never thought I’d actually be thanking that insane batty brained pony for anything but I did have him to thank for that at least. Not that I wasn’t going to admit it aloud, of course, he was still my rival after all. And Vapor… Well, she had a legacy to hold up to, given her best friend (And probably more if I had to ransom a guess. Would not have been surprised to learn that they shared a roll in the sheets at some point.) was her predecessor.

I tossed a glance to Lightning and sighed. I wasn’t surprised at all by the way she was taking all of this.

“Yes, that’s right, bask in the glory of your hero!”

That’s one mare who needed some humble pie if you ask me. Why she got chosen is still beyond me. As I turned my gaze to the Animaria Guardian Megazord, still standing tall and proud, the midday sun behind it, I smiled and began humming the lyrics to an old song.

“Keep your silver, give me that gold
You'll remember when I say
We can be heroes everywhere we go
Keeping us down is impossible
'Cause we're unstoppable”

A bit arrogant of me and hypocritical of me, I know, but at that moment I truly believed nothing could stop us. Not Thrax, not Solar Flare, not Bunglay. Whatever they could throw at us, we’d be there to meet it. And as I turned back to the crowd and my fellow Rangers, I could swear I saw a transparent figure. He was clad in red and white spandex and nodding, giving us his silent approval before he faded away as if he was never there.

Later that night, as fireworks burst high in the sky in showers of color to celebrate the passing of an old year and the beginning of a new one, me and Sunset found ourselves sitting atop a hill. Our backs were pressed to a tree, as we watched the night lit up in a display of fantastic color and thundering noise, blanket from Sunset’s home bundling us up and protecting us from the frosty Maine night.

“You know, you really were like a Phoenix today.”

“This your attempt at making normal conversation without a sex joke in it or any sort of flirtation whatsoever?” Sunset commented in a somewhat deadpan tone of voice, a glass of punch in her hand.

“Suppose it is, I guess,” I remarked. “Times, they are a-changing, that’s for sure.”

“In what way?” Sunset asked curiously as she took a sip from her glass.

“You, coming back with a new Zord, us giving Thrax a good solid arse kicking on two fronts and all that,” I remarked, trying to keep any thoughts about Solar Flare out of my mind as I knew Sunset would probably pick up on them. I was successful… Up to a point.

“You’re deflecting, there’s something you’re not telling me,” Sunset said. Damn those empathic powers of hers! Should have been a shrink instead of a Princess, she should have been. She’d be able to help anyone. Hell, wouldn’t have been surprised if she read books about how to be a psychologist at one point given how much of an egghead she is at times.

“Let’s… Let’s just not ruin the moment okay?” I asked, and Sunset nodded.

“Okay, but this discussion isn’t over. Count on it.” Sunset said before she smiled as red and gold fireworks lit up the sky, I smiled as Sunset drifted off to sleep, head on my shoulder and I pulled her in closer. Right now, I wouldn’t trade this moment for any other in the world.

Author's Notes:

You know those moments when you surprise even yourself? Well, this is one of them. I just was listening to the song in question used here and this chapter came to me really. Wasn't even expecting it to be written down, but guess some ideas are too good to ignore. Not much to say really about this one, just a nice piece of fluff and character moments before the regular drama starts back up again. As for the Red Ranger cameo, I'll leave it up to you which Ranger from days long past it was...