Author's Notes:

Wow... 9,000 words... Never thought I'd manage that...

Canterlot Castle:

Luna sighed sadly to herself as she watched the sun set over the horizon, casting a pink glow against the dark blue ribbon of the rapidly approaching winter night. Snow fell on the rooftops of Canterlot castle in small little dots and covered the ground below as the stars twinkled above in the moonlight sky. Solemn, but beautiful and elegant in their moonlight waltz. It had been weeks since her sister vanished to parts unknown after Solar Flare made her sudden reemergence. In that time, Luna had been forced to rule alone, balancing both the nobility and the morale of the populace with the political issues of other lands. These ranged from the might of the often aloof (And that was putting it mildly.) Dragon Kingdom of Zandar in what was once Africa, the wise and sun worshipping Saddle Arabians to the east and the powerful if not quickly roused Griffon Kingdoms in what was once northern Europe. And then there was the Zebra Empire in Roam. Celestia, for over 1,000 years had kept the peace between the nations. Luna deeply suspected fear of Solar Flare had kept them in line, but now that Celestia had vanished, the kingdoms were starting to… stir. At the least, Luna thanked the current Dragon Lord Torchlight and his desire to have no quarrel with ponies. His daughter, on the other hand, was a bit of a handful from what her sister had told her.

Though to be honest with herself, Luna, thinking back, could never quite tell when it was Solar Flare or Celestia speaking when she talked about the other nations. Luna groaned and held a hand to her forehead as she used a quill and levitated it into an ink pot and signed her signature on what was the latest of a long line of paperwork. It all came down to one simple thing. Well, not entirely simple. All of this paperwork, it related to the upcoming yearly Winter Gala, when all five major nations would meet with delegations from all four corners of the globe. Between her, Celestia’s personal assistant Raven Inkwell, Twilight and Sunset, the four had their work cut out for them if they wanted to get everything just right.

One mistake, one false misstep, and everything could go right to Tartarus with any or worse, all of the nations and the 1,000-year treaty could be broken. Luna shuddered to think of what could happen if war broke out. She’d read of humankind’s capacity for destruction during the three World Wars and that was a race that didn’t have magic at their disposal. Luna could only shudder at the possibility of a five-race war, each with their own powerful forms of magic to fight back with. She could see only ashes left in their wake, nothing but dust in the wind.

“And I suppose that’s all we are in the end… Just dust in the wind,” Luna thought to herself sadly with a morbid chuckle. “How did you do it sister, manage everything at once for 1,000 years while I was on the Moon atoning for my sins?” She asked herself.

Luna sighed as she got up from off the throne, the nearby guard known as Star Hunter shooting her a concerned look.

“You alright, milady?” the dark blue Royal Guard pegasus asked. Luna gave him a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, just need some time to myself. That’s all. A wander through the halls, need to stretch my legs, might do me some good,” Luna lied, and Star Hunter nodded as he and a member of the Night Guard allowed her passage into the corridors.

The Princess of the Night teleported her royal regalia, pure black crown and all away to her personal chambers as she roamed the halls, her dark blue metal horseshoes clopping against the marble floor tiles. The hallways… they seemed… empty for lack of a better term without her sister’s presence. She could light up the very room, no pun intended. Luna was the former bearer of the Element of Laughter, true. But Celestia had this warm and motherly presence about her that you could just feel every time she smiled or just took her time out of her daily schedule just when somepony, even as simple of that of a denizen of Canterlot was feeling down. Luna, ever since she returned from the Moon four years ago, just couldn’t connect as well to the populace as well as her sister could. If she was to be honest with herself, she never did connect as well to everypony as her sister could, and maybe that’s why the Nightmare took her as easily as it did.

Luna pushed open two wooden doors, turning the silver coated handles as she did so and stepped out onto a balcony, cold wind rushing through her mane as her hands gripped the balcony and she trotted through the snow leaving hoof steps behind her as she walked. She shivered at the cold but ignored it. It was worth it, to see the stars the galaxy had created every night. Luna personally liked to think of them as ghosts in the night, shining long dead light from distant systems down to Equus long after the original star had burnt out.

Luna smiled again and closed her eyes in bliss, her dark blue dress blowing in the wind and a snowdrop landing on her nose. Luna sneezed as it did so, the cold tickling her nostrils and she rubbed her arms together and wrapped her wings around herself, trying to keep warm. She knew this was stupid, but she’d be damned if she wouldn’t miss tonight’s nightly dance. If the astronomers at the Canterlot observatory were right, tonight the central star of the Kyuranger Star System would breathe its last and go up in a spectacular fireball. One last blaze of glory before it burnt out, never to be seen again.

“Going to catch a cold Lulu, but then again you always were the stubborn one,” A familiar voice said as a brown fur coat, encased in a golden aura, wrapped itself around Luna, covering the mark of a crescent moon on her upper arm. “You always came out here, every night, on the dot just to see the stars,”

Luna’s eyes shot wide open. That voice… It couldn’t be.

“S-Sister?” Luna whispered, not wanting to believe it. But as she slowly turned, she found herself flying into the arms of Princess Celestia, who wrapped her arms around Luna as the younger of the two sobbed. “I… I thought you were gone. Went into hiding till a method to destroy Solar Flare without destroying you as well was found.”

“Yes…” Celestia admitted, and Luna could swear she could detect a tinge of shame and cowardice in her sister’s voice. “But an old friend helped me see the light. “Stop running…” Celestia whispered before her voice turned into a low growl. “Yes, that’s it. Next time Solar Flare wants to show herself, she’s going to have a fight on her hands. I’m not letting her control me anymore. Not again, not ever again,”

“Bet she doesn’t like that,” Luna commented with a nervous laugh, wiping her tears away as she smiled, this time a happy one, at the knowledge her sister was back.

“Yes, even now I can hear her in my head, telling me to kill anything and everything that stands in my way. But that’s not going to happen. She’s just noise in the system. A symphony, perhaps, but just that… Noise,” Celestia remarked.

“So, what will you do now?” Luna asked.

“Make up for lost time, I was a coward. Flash Magnus, and all those humans who laid down their lives to prevent Solar Flare’s ascension… Their deaths would be in vain if I chose running as my solution to my problem,” Celestia stated as her eyes narrowed. There was a fire in them, but not the one of Solar Flare. Not the fires of war, but the fires of somepony who would never give up, never back down not matter how high the odds were stacked against them. “No, I have to face Solar Flare sooner or later. Face Tartarus’s fire, and extinguish it forever. You know, there’s a quote I’d like to sprout now. Comes from a man named Vladimir. It goes: “I am convinced, the way one plays chess always reflects the player's personality. If something defines his character, then it will also define his way of playing,”

“Funny, that’s not your attitude to chess from the way I remember it. I seem to remember another quote by this Vladimir man about it,” Luna remarked. “Even if you play perfectly, a fault of your opponent's can destroy the entire beauty of the game,”

“Yes… I did, but that was Solar Flare speaking for me. Personally… I’ve never liked chess, never wanted to treat my ponies to brutal match-ups like pawns on a board to be sacrificed for some “Greater good”. Not Solar Flare’s. Chess was born in a brutal age, life mattered for very little back then. I will never be that pony, I swear by it,” Celestia stated firmly.

“So you’re saying…” Luna realized.

“Yes, I will not play Solar Flare’s game at all. No, now she’s playing by my rules,” Celestia repeated. “Her character… It goes without saying she cares for little except herself, and would not hesitate to sacrifice you, or any of my subjects for her own selfish desires. I will not. I say again, I will not,”

Right then, both Luna and Celestia felt a tingle, something far more powerful than ordinary magic reach their senses. At about that moment as the Kyuranger galaxy’s central star went up in a colorful cosmic fireball lighting up the night sky, a golden comet rocketed through the sky overhead leaving behind a trail. Luna and Celestia followed its path, and Celestia placed a tracer spell on it. She saw, through the comet’s “Eyes” for lack of a better term where it was heading. Then, impact and everything went dark before the entire world before Celestia was lit up in white. Celestia’s eyes opened.

“The Pentagoet Archeological District… That’s where it is…” Celestia whispered.

“Where what is?” Luna asked curiously.

“The Lights of Orion. The Rangers… they need to get there first. I doubt we were the only ones to see them. This just became a race against time. Even I don’t need to tell you how powerful Thrax or anyone else could get if they got their hands on them.”

Ponyville:

Atop a snow-covered hillside with the moon behind them, shining high in the sky down on them, Commander Cruger had implanted Robo Knight’s sword, along with Adam’s Turbo Blade, Cestro’s katana and Hunter’s Thunder Staff in the ground with the Rangers beside him. Shining had summoned several unicorn members of the Royal Guard to perform a magic based variant on the 21-Gun salute in honor of the fallen warrior.

“We stand here today to honor a fallen warrior. One who gave his life twice so that the Earth may survive the forces of the Armada. He deserved a peaceful rest,” Cruger began before his paws clenched in anger and he let out a small growl. “But instead, that did not happen. He was disturbed, once more forced to fight against his will towards members of the planet he swore to protect. You would think, would you not that this would be the end of the depths the space pirate Bunglay would stoop,” Cruger continued, his voice a calm tranquil fury. “But, sadly, that is not the case. Bunglay, he raised several other fallen Rangers from the dead including myself and Z in order to fight for him, and for what? All just to hunt down anything he deems “Exotic”. Although I know I must return to the land of the dead shortly, I will not use my time left in this world unwisely. Bunglay, I will help you bring him to justice for the crimes he has committed.” Cruger stated firmly as he raised his Shadow Saber skywards as both Robert and Z saluted. Shining knew this was his cue.

Shining shouted “At arms!” and in twenty-one successions, magic blasts of varying light colors were fired into the sky one after the other.

“And you shall be given that chance, Doggie Cruger,” Celestia’s voice said as she appeared in a flash of flame. Robert, along with several of the other Rangers pulled out their weapons. Oddly, Shining nor Daring and Galaxy followed suite. In fact, Shining actually lowered Robert’s hand.

“It’s not her, not Solar Flare. Let her talk. At ease.” Shining stated and Robert growled. He raised his Kitsune Blaster again with an audible cocking sound.

“Yeah, like Hell I will,” the Orange Ranger snarled. Honestly, he couldn’t tell which side of Celestia was which anymore.

“It’s her, it’s Celestia. She saved my life from Goldar back in Fillydelphia and sent him packing,” Shining explained, and both Daring and Galaxy nodded to confirm that. Robert sighed, even if he didn’t lower his weapon.

“Alright, I’ll let her talk… For now,” Robert muttered.

“Thank you,” Celestia said with an exhausted sigh. “Even now Bunglay, along with possibly the creatures that call themselves Orgs are chasing after the Lights of Orion,”

Cruger growled on hearing that name, he knew the powers the Lights possessed and if any of the Ranger’s enemies got even the smallest amount of them, they would have powers beyond anyone’s imagination.

“Wait, wait, hold up,” Robert stammered out. “Could you repeat that one again? Could have sworn I had something crazy fly in my ear,”

“I’m not lying to you Orange Ranger, the Lights have returned after their long absence in this galaxy,” Celestia replied. Robert still didn’t believe her, not for an instant.

“Assuming you’re… Well, you and not Solar Flare, what’s your interest in this? How would I know you’re not lying?” Robert asked her and Celestia chuckled.

“Would I have any reason to lie about something that would give you an advantage and tell you about something that could help you defeat my other half? Plus, if I were Solar Flare, would I be so stupid to appear before you all completely defenseless and easily able to be destroyed by your combined powers?” Celestia asked and Robert was forced to concede her point lowering his gun at last.

“What are the Lights of Orion, anyways?” Lightning asked. Sunburst swallowed nervously before speaking.

“A powerful energy source eons old, only appearing once every 3,000 years before vanishing again till the time of their next reemergence,” the Black Bat Ranger explained. “I’ve heard legends of their existence dating back thousands of years, but I never had any proof that they existed before now,”

“Well, it’s true. They exist,” Shining stated. “My predecessor, the first Magna Defender was their guardian and keeper of sorts.”

“And now they’re back…” Sunburst muttered. “It would be like Bunglay to hunt these things down, considering how rare they are. If he had his hands on them, it would make it so much easier for him to hunt down the Wild Zords,”

Everyone stared at him in shock.

“What, don’t think you’re not all considering it in your heads. You know and I know it,” Sunburst remarked. “Each Wild Zord, they’re one of a kind. Nothing else like them in the world. The perfect prizes for Bunglay,”

As this little fact slowly sunk into everybody’s heads, Sunset swallowed nervously. Who knows what Bunglay would stop at? Robert, the Wild Zords, and then probably the Princess as well. Anything exotic, anything unique in even the slightest fashion, it automatically went on his radar.

“Right…” Sunset muttered in distaste. “Legendary Beast Hunter and all. Well, we’ll just have to beat them all to it. Bunglay, his forces and anyone else who stands in our way.”

Each of the Rangers nodded before the five main ones pulled their Animal Crystals and threw them to create their Savage Cycles. A bull themed bike appeared before Shining and Daring and Galaxy pulled out two Dino Chargers from their belt buckles (Themed after the dinosaur known as a Deinonychus) and pressed down on them. Two bikes, both half black and half yellow like their Morphers appeared before them with an enlarged version of the Dino Charger that spawned them connecting the two halves with glowing green eyes on the front half of the cycles to serve as headlamps. Celestia snapped her fingers, and in a flash of gold magic recreated Cruger’s old ATV from his time as the Shadow Ranger.

Robert, as he got on his Kyuubi no Kitsune themed Savage Cycle pressed down on the handlebars and gunned the engine. He grinned and said, “Let’s ride.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6m9rBBSfU8

The mountains of Maine, long silent were silent no longer. Engines rumbled down long disused mountain roadways, past snow-covered forests and over bridges with ice-cold rushing rivers below. Sunset, in the lead on her Savage Cycle, led the convoy of Rangers towards the Lights of Orion. So far, the journey had been mostly mile after mile of eating up the tarmac and plunging through the darkened mountain pathways and through tunnels carved into the landscape, but everybody involved knew it couldn’t stay that way for long. Especially not with Bunglay involved.

“You know,” Robert remarked as he pulled up alongside Sunset. “If this was a different situation, this could actually be sorta fun really. Just you and me, racing our bikes down old roads and pushing them to their limits.”

“Your idea of a date, not mine,” Sunset retorted as she twisted the handlebars and gunned the engine speeding ahead of him

“Suit yourself, Sunset-Chan.” Robert chirped.

Next, he popped a wheelie leading the pony in question to roll her eyes and mutter “Show-off...” to herself. She rolled her eyes and thought “Boys and their toys...” in a good natured tone to herself and shook her head.

Robert smirked when he saw that. Personally, he would have preferred taking Sunset on a mountainside ride in his Mustang, but the tires on that thing did not lend themselves very well to the slushy snowy roads they were currently on. It was customized for street races, not off-roading in the backroads of Maine after all. And as far as he knew, nopony in Equestria knew how to make snow chains. So, he’d just have to make do with this for the time being.

“How long do you think it’ll be before we’re spotted?” Lightning asked.

“I-I was trying not to think about that actually.” Sunburst stammered out.

Z held onto Commander Cruger as she and the Syrian rode atop his personal ATV, lights flashing red and blue.

“On your guard Rangers, if there’s anything about Bunglay I can guess… Somebody of his caliber is never surprised.” Cruger informed. Right about then, sounds not too dissimilar to that of a Star Wars TIE Fighter were heard as two Bruisers in their starfighter forms rocketed down from the sky and fired their laser cannons.

Sunset shouted “Serpentine!” and the bikes began swerving left and right to avoid the blasts as the fighters rocketed overhead and then went around for another pass.

“Well, there’s your answer Sunburst!” Lightning shouted as she turned her head towards the Ranger in question. “That’s how long it’ll take before we’re spotted!”

“You had to ask, didn’t you?” Robert snapped as he ducked his head to avoid a laser blast.

“W-Well, it’s not like I knew…” Sunburst murmured nervously to himself.

“Ever heard of the term jinxing it?” Lightning asked sarcastically. “Because that’s what you just did, right here!”

Cruger groaned to himself, did this team of Rangers ever focus on the situation at hand instead of just bantering back and forth with each other?

“Guys, we sorta have a bigger problem here than Sunburst may or may not having jinxed the situation, just want to point that out,” Z remarked.

“Believe me, I noticed!” Sunset shouted back. “Now we just have to focus on dealing with them.”

Shining smirked. “Don’t worry, I have an idea. Z, can you take the other one?”

“Sure, but…” Z trailed off, not sure what the unicorn was thinking. She chuckled. Shiny, sparkling unicorns who could kick ass. Syd would absolutely love this new world, she just knew it.

“Oh, I can see her squeeing like a little kid now…” Z thought.

Either way, she transformed to SWAT mode and fired her Delta Enforcer at one of the two starfighter’s engines, the rifle’s repeating laser blasts punching a hole in the armor. The starfighter began to spin around and around going out of control in a kamikaze death spiral and crashed into the tree line before going up in a huge fireball.

“Oh, the EPA’s going to love me for that…” Z muttered largely to herself. Meanwhile, Shining leaped from his bike as the other starfighter flew above him and with a powerful Galactic Slash cleaved it in half right down the middle. The two halves just barely missed Shining’s bike as he landed back on it grabbing hold of the handlebars just in time before the bike swerved off the side of the road and into the rushing waters below.

“Okay…” Z admitted. “I’m impressed. If I wasn’t dead, I’d ask you out on a date,”

“He’s married.” Sunset and Robert both said at once before they both shared a look. Sunburst smirked, his theory was confirmed. Under her helmet, Z’s jaw dropped in shock.

“No way. Just no way,” She thought. “Well, I can safely say I would never have seen that coming…”

“Yep, definitely dating.” Sunburst mused before he sighed. “...Now I owe Vapor some bits. A whole lot of bits…”

“Guys, show’s not over yet!” said Ranger stated as she pointed ahead. “Company!”

Sure enough, ahead of the convoy lay a blockade consisting of thirty to forty X-Borgs rocket cudgels aimed and ready, along with about ten to fifteen Bruisers to back them up. If that wasn’t enough, two pairs of Royal Guards accompanied them, staves in hand. In front of them lay barbed wire.

“You gotta be…” Daring muttered to herself. “¿No han oído hablar de la palabra exceso?”

“What she said.” Z agreed, knowing the language being half-Spanish herself.

“It’s Bunglay, so I would say no,” Sunset replied. Z shot her a look.

“How do you know…?” the Yellow Ranger trailed off, not expecting the Gold Ranger to know her native language.

“Princess' personal student, a workaholic with something to prove. You pick up a few things.” Sunset remarked simply.

“Get ready, Rangers!” Cruger ordered as the Royal Guards put their staves together and launched manifestations of the Armada’s banner at the group. Cruger used his ATV’s lasers to take out the first manifestation while Galaxy used a Blood Moon strike to deal with the other before launching another one at the first pair, shearing their heads clean off and leaving their bodies to crumple to the ground sparking. Daring then used her Dino Morpher to take out the other set of twins.

“No way in Hell are we going to make it through that blockade!” Robert shouted as two rockets flew right by his head.

“And if you thought looking ahead was bad enough…” Lightning shouted. “Take a look at what’s behind!”

Robert whirled his head around and his eyes widened. Two more Bruiser Starfighters, coming up fast. “Verdammte Scheisse!” He swore.

Sunset sighed and then she made her decision.

“Right then everybody, going to take a little walk in the woods!” She shouted before taking a swerve off the road and into the nearby woodlands. The rest of the Rangers were swift to follow, hoping they’d lose the starfighters within the trees, their headlamps lighting up the path that was before them.

As they drove on through the dense forest, two more Bruisers appeared from out of nowhere and tacked Daring and Shining off their bikes while a third Bruiser fired his arm cannons and sent Galaxy’s Dino Cycle tumbling end over end while Galaxy himself hit a tree.

“Chiar atunci…” Galaxy growled as he picked himself off the ground and brushed snow off of his suit’s shoulders and chest and unfolded his wings to remove the rest. “Time for somebody to be taught a lesson in manners. And I mean royally.”

With that, he grabbed the offending Bruiser by the shoulders and like his Dino Zord’s basis was often known to do, headbutted him sending the mechanical foot soldier flying into a tree. The sheer power and force behind the headbutt was strong enough to send him flying through the tree splitting it down the middle and when the trooper hit another, explode.

“Keep going, we can handle things from here!” Shining shouted as he blew a hole through the second Bruiser’s chest with a shotgun blast from his Riot Blaster while Daring bifurcated the third and final one down the middle with her Dino Saber.

“You sure about that?” Vapor asked, as three more Bruisers launching blue energy balls from their arm cannons along with a swarm of X-Borgs appeared from the treeline.

“Trust me…” Shining grinned as he switched to his Magna Blade and lit up his horn in a light rose-like pink color as Galaxy drew his Dino Morpher and smirked cockily. “We’re sure.”

“I hope you’re right…” Vapor whispered as she and the remaining Rangers forged on ahead, the sounds of metal hitting metal along with energy blasts coming from behind them. She gunned the engine, and headed to the crash site…

Just barely escaping a series of powerful crater creating explosions caused by the starfighters dropping bombs all around them, the convoy made it out into a large clearing. This was it, the point Celestia had indicated. The area formerly known as the Pentagoet Archeological District. And in the middle of the clearing was another crater, holding the Lights of Orion, ready to be claimed by any brave soul.

Problem was, the X-Borgs had beaten them there first. Then, as if matters couldn’t get any worse, the gigantic form of Bunglay’s personal ship warped into orbit above the site with its captain teleporting down as the starfighters flew inside it’s launch bay. Sunset couldn’t help but nervously swallow at both the prospect of how many Armada forces it had to have held and its ghost galleon like appearance.

Suddenly, she winced in pain as she got a flash of an image. A giant red cube like animal, resembling a whale in some manner. Her eyes widened under her helmet as she saw X-Borgs poking and prodding at it with electric prongs and it roaring in pain with each poke and prod.

“Something wrong, Sunset-Chan?” Robert asked in concern.

“The animals… On board his ship…” Sunset groaned as she held her head in pain and her left fist tightened in rage around her bike’s handlebars. “I can hear them… They’re in pain, he’s torturing them... He needs to be stopped.”

Cruger growled in frustration as he ground his ATV to a halt and unsheathed his Shadow Saber as the Rangers got off their bikes and drew their weapons, ready to face the coming battle.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise. You lot were actually foolish enough to show up,” Bunglay chuckled in both amusement and surprise. “Well, I suppose I should get cracking in destroying you lot. Robert, you’re off my quarry list for now, so consider yourself honored. I rarely let my prizes go. But this time… I’m making an exception. Much bigger fish to catch now. And I do mean bigger.”

“Oh save it…” Robert muttered as he rolled his eyes and pulled out his Kitsune Blaster. “Can we just get done with this, summon your puppets so we can bring them back to our side and rip your army and hopefully you to shreds in an extremely showy manner, savvy?” He replied in a mocking tone.

Bunglay smirked, he was hoping he’d say that. Dashing forwards, he pulled three specific past legends from the SPD files and Robert’s own memory. Taking shape were three forms, each with their own restraining collar. The first was a gold and silver colored Ranger with a V shaped visor holding a gray and yellow axe.

The second, a black armored warrior with elaborate golden detailing making him resemble a lion.

The final warrior was not a hero at all in any sense of the word. She was an Asian woman with a gold scorpion themed helmet, shoulder and arm armor, and a bustier in mostly red and black colors with gold thrown in as well holding a silver blade.

“Scorpina…” Robert muttered. Great, just what they needed. And that wasn’t counting the Puppet Rangers, namely the mind-controlled Titanium Ranger/Ryan Mitchell and the Black Lion Warrior/Jarrod.

However, before the Rangers could meet this threat, several large shurikens like helicopter blades flew over their heads and Scorpina knocked them away with her blade.

“Surprise!” Helicos laughed as she teleported in, with an army of Putrids rising up from the Earth as well. She chuckled as she turned her gaze to Lightning and the Putrids stomped their weapons against the ground as an intimidation measure, their whole bodies coated in toxic slime. “You and me, we still haven’t finished our little duel.”

“Damn, and here I was hoping you’d forgotten…” Lightning drawled in mock-displeasure as she changed her Crystal Saber to the Sword of Pardolis. “Still have to pay you back for knocking me out of the sky a while back.”

“Let’s get to it.” Helicos chuckled, and the entire area erupted into mass chaos. Putrid against the Armada, Ranger against the Armada and Putrids. Ranger against Ranger, you get the idea.

Robert quickly found himself in a duel with Jarrod and rolled out of the way to avoid a slash from the armored warrior’s claws. He then kicked Jarrod in the chest-plate before unleashing his animal spirit. Jarrod did the same, calling out “Spirit of the Mighty Lion!” and creating a black lion with a gold mane that slashed, scratched and bit away at Robert’s Kitsune spirit which was constantly on the defensive.

Robert tried to trip Jarrod up with a leg sweep, but his fellow Pai Zhau student leaped over it and yelled “Fist of the Beast King!” and struck Robert in the chest with a powerful Zocato-infused punch sending him flying back into a hoard of X-Borgs. Robert quickly fired a Kitsune Scatter Blast into the crowd before re-engaging Jarrod again.

“Jarrod, listen to me! You’re Pai Zhau, one of us! Bunglay.... He’s just using you, like Dai Shi used you long ago!” Robert shouted as Jarrod scored a slash across the chest. But even then, his eyes shot wide open and he flashed back to his final battle with Casey.

“He’s not a friend Jarrod… Dai Shi, he’s warping your mind! I’ve seen the real you with my own eyes.”

“Look a little closer.” Jarrod had growled out on that day. Casey had barraged his way into Dai Shi’s personal fortress, cutting down any of his Rinshi warriors that stood in his way unmorphed and on a mission.

Robert dodged another Zocato infused punch and slashed Jarrod across the chest with chi-infused claws and fired a few shots into his chest plate. Next thing he knew, Jarrod sent him flying backwards with another blast of Zocato power. But even as they fought, Jarrod continued to have flashbacks of his final duel with Casey.

“You’re no match for Dai Shi.”

“Then you help me! Together we can destroy him!” Casey pleaded, tugging on Jarrod’s attire.

“I AM HIM!” He roared before launching Casey backwards into a wall before donning his armor.

As Casey got up off the floor, he muttered to himself “Whose idea was this again? Oh right… Mine.” before taking out his Solar Morpher and yelling out “Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleashed!”

The two battled intensely, completely wrecking the throne room and surrounding chambers with their battle. Eventually, Casey managed to pin his opponent up against a wall.

“Jarrod, look into your heart! You can fight this, I know you’re in there!” Casey pled. “I saw you save Camille, Dai Shi never would have done that!”

“No, I won’t be defeated!” Jarrod snarled before tossing Casey aside and going into his extremely elaborate Phantom Beast King armor, themed after a Griffon and allowing Dai Shi to take control.

In the real world, Robert dealt out powerful chi-infused punches that were easily matched by Jarrod’s own Zocato powered blows. Meanwhile, the Kitsune spirit was ripped apart by the Black Lion spirit above them, ending their duel.

“Foolish boy, Jarrod no longer exists,” Dai Shi growled out. “I have swallowed his humanity, he is now my slave.”

But Casey was still defiant. “No, you can’t have him! He’s Pai Zhau, one of us!”

“Robert’s right… And so was Casey. I’m Pai Zhau, I’m no one’s Master but my own,” Jarrod murmured to himself, his voice going unheard to anyone but himself. “Casey earned his Master Stripes that day… So time to do him proud!”

With that, he tore off the collar even as amp after amp of electricity wracked his body. He fell to the ground panting and sweating, his Master Stripes clearly visible on his arm.

“You alright?” Robert asked as he helped his fellow Pai Zhau member up.

“Yeah... “ Jarrod growled as he morphed back into his Lion Armor and together, they faced the X-Borgs. “But they won’t be…”

Robert smirked, that was the Jarrod he knew. The power and fury of a blazing lion, and the heart to back it up. Both he and Robert shared a look before Jarrod smirked.

“Let’s do this.” He grinned before he got a look at Robert’s attire.

“Really… A cape? Isn’t that what most people would call both egotistical and ludicrously impractical?” Jarrod snarked.

“Hey, way I see it, we’re multi-colored spandex heroes, so I think practicality is out the window by this point.” Robert deadpanned.

Sunset, as she sliced through both Putrid and X-Borg, all the while holding off Scorpina’s blade raised an eyebrow.

“Thought you were rampant about how it wasn’t spandex? Thought it was a self forming-nanofiber!” Sunset laughed.

“Oh s-shut up!” Robert stammered out.

“Totally whipped,” Jarrod remarked, picking up on their relationship immediately.

“You shut up too furball,” Robert muttered as he pulled out his Crystal Saber. “Now… As you were saying, let’s do this.”

With that, they entered the fray of Putrids and began slicing and dicing...

Meanwhile, Lightning and Helicos continued their duel.

“So, what the Tartarus are you doing here, Helicos?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Those Lights… Any advantage to Retinax, even if has to come from the side of good would be a great boon to us in wiping out Thrax!” Helicos laughed. “Besides, I knew you’d be here anyways, with your fellow Ranger friends. You and I, we still got a duel to finish!” Helicos says, jabbing at her with her long, broad-headed spear, Lightning deflecting the blow with the flat of her blade.

“Yes… That we do, but fighting me alone? Isn’t that a bit foolish?” She counters, slashing at his chest. Helicos catches the blow with the haft of her spear, pushing her back and bringing the bladed end of the weapon around to open up a gash along her forearm ripping open her costume.

“You’re one to talk, you’re the most arrogant of them all. First time we met, you believed you could take me, a Duke Org on alone!” Helicos mocked. “Where did that get you? Oh… Now I remember, you nearly lost your soul to that Camera Org if Shining and Robert hadn’t come to bail you out! You’re a failure of a Ranger, and that’s the end of it.” She pressed her attack, jabbing repeatedly at her with the spear, keeping her dodging until he overextended her reach, giving her an opening.

Lightning let out a small snarl. “You know, I’ve been called a failure all my life. By my own father no less.” She growls, lunging at the Org, her blade aimed for his throat.

“Well, he isn’t wrong…” the Helicopter themed Duke Org laughed. She deflected her sword away again, the deadly blow instead inflicting a minor scratch to her shoulder.

“But any words out of you, they don’t mean anything! Jack-shit, you hear? Only failure I see around here is you. You’re a failure of a Duke Org, your brother fell and eventually so will you!”

If Lightning was hoping to get a rise out of Helicos from that remark, she’d be surprised to see it fail. Helicos, taking advantage of her off-balance state after the last parry, swept the blade of her spear back around, intending to behead her.

“Funny, only one thing wrong with your plan, if it can be called that. I know my brother was a failure,” Helicos replied. “He was always too arrogant for his own good, thinking with his gun instead of his brains.” Lightning caught the spear, wrapping her hand tight around the haft and stopping it dead before ripping it from the Duke Org’s grasp.

“Family… That’s what should be the most important factor in anyone’s life!” Lightning snarled in disgust. “My brother… He never bought into my dad’s shit and neither did my big sister nor my adopted big brother! But… I guess you’d never understand that, you having no heart and all.” She punctuated her words by twirling the appropriated spear in her hand and driving its point right through where her heart would be, watching the life fade from her eye.

Nearby, Z and Cruger helped Sunset hold off the deadly duo of the Titanium Ranger and Scorpina. Ryan swung out with his axe, but Z blocked it with her baton before she flew backwards firing her Deltamax Striker as Ryan switched to his Titanium Laser mode by pushing the axe blade backwards, and twisting the hilt and the two shots met in midair and collided, canceling each other out.

Z fired off another shot but it was once again met with another from the Titanium Laser as Ryan flipped backwards to avoid another shot and then fired again in midair. This shot was blocked by Commander Cruger’s Shadow Saber. The two clashed weapons again and again, each matching the other perfectly in a dance of blades. Z kicked Ryan in the face making him stagger back as Commander Cruger scored a slice across the chest with his katana.

“Ryan, you’ve got to remember who you are! Diabolico, he brainwashed you once! Do you want to be controlled again? Do you?” Z asked, remembering Ryan’s history from the SPD files even as he flashed back. “You got past that, Hell, I remember you helping to train us while we were at SPD!”

“Who are you?” His sister had asked.

“I’m your worst nightmare!” They had fought… He had fought his own sister!

But then, he remembered. A cliff late one stormy night, he, his father and his sister hanging off a tree branch. There he was, just barely holding onto his father’s ankles. His dad… He had no choice but to make a deal with Diabolicoto save his life. But that damn demon… He made him forgot everything he was. Made him think his father had let him fall.

“Never again, never again!” Ryan whispered as he slowly remembered. Then, he remembered it all. He trained the B-Squad cadets after Lightspeed. He still wanted to continue helping people, like he did when he was a Ranger. He helped the scientists develop the top-secret SPD Kat Ranger project after inspiration struck them after seeing the Omega Ranger in action. And then, there was that other project…

Ryan’s eyes shot wide open, and like the sounds of chains breaking, he ripped off his collar and turned his blade on Scorpina just as she was about to deal a powerful blow to Sunset striking her across the chest.

The scorpion themed woman sliced and diced at both Sunset and Ryan with her vaguely V-shaped blade before knocking Sunset backwards with the blunt end of her blade but the Gold Ranger scored a kick to the chest before she leaped forwards and sliced downwards with both her Phoenix Blade and her Crystal Saber. Scorpina staggered back from the blow but she wasn’t defeated yet. The woman threw her blade like a boomerang slashing Sunset and Ryan in multiple places as it circled and struck their bodies like a whirlwind.

Sunset and Ryan clutched their chests in pain as the blade returned to Scorpina’s hands.

“Had enough?” She laughed and slowly strode forwards to deliver the killing blow.

“Spirit of the Mighty Lion!” Jarrod roared out as the Black Lion spirit slashed away at Scorpina.

“Sorry Bunglay, but you made a rather large mistake bringing both of us back to life,” Ryan chuckled as he staggered to his feet. “Me and Jarrod… Both of us have been controlled before. Should have thought of that before you brought us back. We’re nobody’s puppets, not anymore.”

“Now, go for the Lights! We’ll hold off Bunglay’s forces!” Jarrod called out.

Sunset nodded and ran for the Lights of Orion with her fellow Rangers backing her up. Scorpina tried to throw her blade at Sunset again, but Jarrod hip-tossed her before slashing her across the chest with his armor’s claws and then Ryan shot her with his Titanium Laser punching a hole right through her chest. X-Borgs tried to block their way but Robert and Sunburst slashed them apart with a Jungle Fan/Crystal Saber combo. Lightning grabbed a Bruiser with her whips and threw it behind her where it was swiftly impaled by Vapor as Cruger sliced another across the chest with his Shadow Saber and Z took down two more with her Deltamax Striker.

Bunglay roared in rage as he dashed forwards for the Light as well but was kicked in the chest by both Vapor and Lightning making him stagger back. Two Royal Guards stood in Sunset’s way and launched a manifestation of the Armada’s emblem but Sunset simply slashed through it charging up her swords with her magic before decapitating the two guards with a Phoenix Blade/Crystal Saber combo.

And just as that happened, the Lights shot into Sunset’s hands enveloping her in a golden light before they branched out and did the same to Vapor, Lightning, Sunburst and Robert. Bunglay roared in rage at the loss of his quarry as the Rangers called out: “Now… Lights of Orion, activate!”

The effects were quite noticeable as the Rangers felt a new influx of power surge through them. Firstly, their belt buckles became larger and more ornate. Bracelets with green gems appeared on their upper arms and claw like gauntlets appeared on their left arms. Finally, their Crystal Sabers extended from dagger-like implements into cutlass like blades.

“Haven’t said this in quite a long time, but now I think it’s only fitting…” Robert grinned as he gripped his Crystal Sword. “Sa… Dohade ni ikuze!”

“Give me that power!” Bunglay growled.

“You got it!” Sunset replied before flashing forwards and dealing several devastating fire infused slices across the chest. Lightning leaped in and slashed Bunglay across the chest with her claw gauntlet, the claws becoming long blades of energy before she sliced downwards with a powerful lightning infused strike. Vapor implanted her sword in the ground and a powerful geyser erupted sending Bunglay flying skywards and Robert and Sunburst turned into flashes of golden light and struck multiple times, one after the other before Sunburst drop-kicked Bunglay back towards the ground.

“Had enough?” Sunset smirked, but that smirk was soon to fade as soon as she saw Bunglay picking himself off the ground.

“You… You insolent bilge rats! I’ve survived far more attacks than what you can throw at me,” Bunglay laughed, unnerving all of the Rangers and sending chills down their spines. “Now… Time for me to get cracking and show you my power!”

Bunglay flashed forwards and struck. First, Sunset fell to a slash from Bunglay’s anchor and then Sunburst and Robert as well before finally Vapor and Lightning. Next, Bunglay’s face tentacles reached out and wrapped themselves around the Rangers, both choking them and zapping them with amp after amp of electricity.

“Now… Do you know why I’m the Legendary Beast Hunter?” Bunglay cackled. “Nothing, not even Power Rangers can stand in my way.”

“Yeah?” Ryan asked as he, Z and Cruger ran up. “We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we? This hunt’s over.”

Ryan fired his Titanium Laser, Z, her Delta Enforcer and Cruger aimed his Shadow Saber like a rifle and fired an energy beam at Bunglay. The three collective blasts hit Bunglay in the chest, and his grip loosened before he unceremoniously dropped all five of Lights of Orion powered Rangers, clutching his chest which was dripping purple blood, pooling on the ground.

“Very well then… I know when I’m outmatched. I’ll just let them finish you off and then come and collect your bodies. Magna Beam!” Bunglay shouted before he teleported up to his ship. At the same time, a member of the Royal Guard on the bridge slammed his fist on a big red button and fired a huge blue beam at the fallen forms of three Bruisers, two Royal Guards along with Scorpina and Helicos growing them to a truly colossal size.

Scorpina, during the size change, had unveiled her true form and threw away the illusion of looking human mutating into something truly monstrous. Now she truly looked like a scorpion with a bit of a cobra thrown in as well, dreadlocks hanging off her head and the transformation completed itself with pincer claws in place of hands.

“Damn… She’s Buck-Ugly…” Lightning muttered. Nobody bothered to disagree with her.

“Wild Zords, descend!” The Rangers shouted, with the Black Bear and Polar Bear crystals being tossed to Sunset and Lightning by Vapor Trail.

“I need Red Dragon Thunderzord Power, now!” Lightning shouted knowing the back-up would be needed for this fight. As the Wild Zords descended from the night sky, a shadowy reptilian form covered the moon and an ear splitting roar pierced the heavens. It let out another roar as its tail and neck folded upwards with the head detaching. Both the front and back legs combined to form arms as the head reattached to the chest a more humanoid like one now visible.

With shifting and whirring sounds, the Leviathan Zord split in half and its head and jaw folded open to become feet and the tail split open at the back as the Kitsune Zord’s back legs folded up into its chest and excess metal in its chest detached to form twin katanas and it’s head folded downwards to become a chest-plate as its front legs detached with hisses of steam. The Black Bear and Polar Bear’s backs moved upwards to become shoulder pauldrons while the front halves moved forwards just a little. The Polar Bear became the left shoulder, and the Black Bear the right. The Polar Bear’s shoulders sprouted the image of a glacier, while the Black Bear’s had the image of a fireball. Two powerful cannons sprouted from their mouths. A tusked head popped up from the Kitsune Zord’s neck, and the Vampire Bat Zord, wings detaching as it attached to the back of the Megazord with a clang and its head moved upwards and became the helmet.

“Animaria Guardian Megazord: Double Knuckle!” The Rangers shouted as Lightning leaped from one cockpit to the Red Dragon’s as it spun its Bo staff around in a defensive manner to block the Bruisers’ energy blasts.

“Oh, alright then… Metal to metal!” Helicos laughed before she fired her Helicopter Shurikens at the Animaria Guardian who used its massive arms to simply bat them aside but was then struck across the chest by a powerful blow from Scorpina’s sword.

“Chopper blast!” Helicos shouted, and fired a powerful eye beam at the Animaria Guardian sending it staggering back and Scorpina leaped in and dealt several more powerful slashes across the chest. Bunglay took this chance to warp out of the atmosphere and back into space.

“Power levels are dropping!” Vapor shouted in alarm. Sunset gritted her teeth and thought to herself.

“Come on Lightning, you can handle those walking scrap piles. I know it, I have faith in you!” She thought worriedly. Down below, as Jarrod, Cruger, Z, and Ryan slashed through the last of the Armada’s forces and the Putrids, they turned their attention to the massive fight taking place nearby.

“Come on Rangers, you can do it!” Cruger ordered before slicing down an X-Borg with his Shadow Saber. “You’ve been judged.” He thought to himself before skewering a Putrid.

“Hit ‘em hard, and hit them fast!” Jarrod shouted as he kicked a Putrid in the face before slashing another X-Borg across its helmet felling it.

The two Royal Guards tried using their staves to fire off another manifestation of the Armada symbol before the Torozord rammed them, and impaled them with his horns and then tossing the two behind him where they were swiftly dealt with by the hammer tail of the Ankylo Zord and the mace tail of the Pachy Zord.

“Shining!” Vapor shouted happily as she spotted the Magna Defender atop his loyal steed.

“See, told you we’d be fine,” Shining reassured before ordering: “Now, get to it! Magna Defender, Transform!”

Shining and the Torozord rapidly merged into the Defender Torozord and brought out the Megazord’s lance and joined the fight.

Nearby, the Red Dragon was fending off the Bruisers with its sansetsukon, or three-sectioned-staff. Using the staff to deflect blasts as the Red Dragon gripped one end tightly to knock away the energy balls or go on the offense dealing out powerful strikes, the entire fight resembled an elegant dance. Lightning quickly switched back to the Bo Staff form before spinning it 360 degrees to send embers flying towards the trio of metallic foot soldiers. Two of the Bruisers changed their bottom halves to a motorcycle like implement and charged towards the Red Dragon arm cannons firing all the while. Lightning flipped over them as they charged. Next, the Red Dragon struck the third Bruiser from behind before switching the Bo Staff back to the sansetsukon form and wrapping it around the final Bruiser’s neck and pulling the robot’s head clean off. The remaining two Bruisers switched back to their walking mode and one was elbowed in the face multiple times but the second took the chance to punch the Red Dragon in the face sending it staggering back.

“Can’t… I can’t take them! I need more power!” Lightning thought, and as if to answer her prayers, the Lights of Orion reacted.

A key, resembling a star visored warrior appeared in her hands. Now she knew what that lock was for. Planting the key in the lock, she gave it a twist and the words “Let’s Go!” appeared above it as the Red Dragon changed shape and a golden glow enveloped the Red Dragon as it shifted form to a giant mecha resembling a championship level boxer, complete with metal belt around its waist and two golden bracers around its hands. The face changed to that of a star visored warrior completing the shift.

Lightning reacted with lightning fast punches to the Bruisers, throwing right hook and then a left hook to their chests, faces and anywhere else she could reach powerful pistons supplying each punch. Rapid-fire punch after punch came, each dealing more and more damage.

“Now, let’s finish this!” Lightning shouted as the bracers moved forwards revealing their true purpose. Gatling guns. With the sounds of thunder, the guns fired again and again and next thing Lightning saw was the Bruisers falling at her hooves and going up in a shower of sparks.

“Now, to help my friends.” Lightning thought before turning her gatling guns on Scorpina overwhelming her with blast after blast. “Now! Take her out!”

Sunset nodded before the Bear Blasters fired and struck Scorpina with blasts of both fire and ice and she stumbled, before falling backwards and going up in a huge fireball.

“And now for you…” Lightning smirked as she punched Helicos across the face with the Red Zeo Battlezord in a powerful right cross. Next, Helicos was sliced through by the Defender Torozord’s Lightning Spin. The Bear Brothers detached from the Animaria Guardian Megazord and were replaced by the Phoenix and Thunderbird Zords as the truly mammoth War Axe materialized in the Megazord’s hands. With a powerful helm-splitter maneuver, Helicos was sliced straight down the middle, finishing her off for good.

Later that night, the Megazords standing behind them in the shadow of the moon, the current Ranger team met with their predecessors. They knew they didn’t have long before they faded away, so they knew what they had to do.

“Thank you, Commander… Thank you for helping us out one last time.” Robert said, saluting his boss.

“No, the pleasure was all ours,” Z stated, shaking Sunset, Lightning, Daring and Vapor’s hands. “You girls just keep on fighting the good fight, and if anyone tries anything sexist… Punch ‘em in the nose.”

“Trust me, already done that a few times with a couple of idiots I’ve met before I became a Ranger.” Daring chuckled and Z laughed as she and the other Rangers began to fade.

“One last thing… Kick Bunglay’s ass for us, will you?” Jarrod remarked.

“Oh don’t worry, that’s coming. You can be assured of that.” Shining stated before saluting each Ranger as they faded away and went back to their peaceful rest. As they did so, Vapor whispered one last thing.

“May the power protect you, even in death…”

High above, in his ship’s Bridge, Bunglay smirked to himself.

“Very well Rangers, you may have won this round… But I’ll find you and your Zords’ hiding place soon enough,” He thought before shouting “All of you lot, search for that island! I don’t care if you have to scour the whole of Equus to do it, just find the damn thing!”

“Plus, there’s always my trump card…” Bunglay thought as he turned his attention to the holding cells...