High above Equestria, a ripple in space began to form, before it burst wide open and a familiar silver saucer-shaped form burst out of hyperspace. Inside the Dolgiran sat Bard at the controls. Unusually for him, he was without his partner Retsu.

“Sure you can handle things?” Retsu asked from a nearby computer screen. “Even with Celestia’s blessing, I highly doubt we’re exactly welcome on their planet after we basically kidnapped one of their rulers,” he warned cautiously.

“It’s just a routine patrol,” Bard replied, and Retsu raised an eyebrow not believing him for a moment.

“Then why is the Shadow Saber conveniently missing from our vault?” Retsu asked skeptically. After SPD folded, the Galactic Union Police basically took them over for lack of a better phrase, building their bases around old SPD structures and modernizing and updating them with the latest technology. The fact was a lot of the mecha and suits the Space Sheriffs used were actually based on old SPD Zord and Ranger tech believe it or not. Dol, in fact, was drawn up from plans that had been found in the wreckage of the Power Chamber back in Angel Grove, from bits and pieces of the Thunderzords.

“Okay, I admit, considering that there’s still a member of SPD somehow on Earth, or Equus or whatever we want to call it, I figure he should have it,” Bard stated, the famous katana resting near his seat, blade dulled from years of neglect and being stuck in a vault. It was hardly a weapon in its current state. “Plus, as we know the Earth Branch was the only one that we never managed to get ahold, with the Time Force branch sweeping it up for themselves. Someone’s got to figure out what’s happened to that base right? Besides, if it’s brought up and running again, way I figure it the Rangers might gain a huge advantage over Thrax right?” Bard pointed out.

“True…” Retsu mused. “They’re going to need all the help they can get. The sensors on the Dolgiran, you getting what I’m getting back at headquarters? Abnormally large heat signatures, coming from the center of the planet. Or somewhere near the center anyways. Can’t pinpoint the exact location but nobody’s seen energy readings like this since-”

“Yeah, I’m getting them. Seeing them, but still working on believing them,” Bard confirmed with a reply, checking the Dolgiran’s sensors. “The Rangers, they need to know what’s coming. What Thrax is planning,” he continued.

“Right now, they’ve got their hands full,” Retsu said in return. “Managed to hack into the Argos Satellite, -which is still working amazingly enough- and managed to get some pretty nasty footage coming out of Canada, in an area noted to be the Crystal Empire. Odd name I know, but that’s not the point. The point is, what it picked up.”

“Show me.” Bard stated simply, direct and to the point, and so Retsu brought up the footage he’d managed to save from the already heavily damaged Argos Satellite showing Trixie cutting through the Rangers with ease.

Bard’s breath caught in his throat, knowing the exact power levels of that Ranger, and he swallowed. “You’re quite right commander. They need the help, and I’ll be there to give it to them.”

With that, he grabbed the Shadow Saber and teleported down to Earth.

On the Animarium, Sunset sighed to herself as she watched Robert snooze in his hospital bed from the viewing pool.

“Oh, well guess that answers one long-standing question eh?” Vapor asked vaguely from somewhere behind her, as she absentmindedly strummed her guitar. Her arms along with several other areas of her were bandaged up from the wounds Trixie had managed to inflict upon her from their last bout.

“What’s… what’s that supposed to mean?” Sunset asked, a little bit too snappishly before she yawned tiredly.

“Oh, come off it!” Vapor scoffed. “You’ve been watching him sleep in that bed of his for the last few hours now. I work long hours, and so does Sunburst and Lightning for all of our various reasons so we’re used to staying up late and getting up earlier than most, with nice long sleeps being a luxury. But you?” she asked. “Really, you’re making us look like amateurs when it comes to the no-sleeping category. Oh hell, sure, we’ve all been having trouble sleeping since this whole White Ranger fiasco began, she’s the only reason I’m up as late as I am right now what with the nightmares and all but some of us, and that means you should at least try and get some sleep right?” Vapor asked sternly.

Sunset yawned again and walked over seemingly in a daze, holding her head as she tried to concentrate. “I-I’m fine…”

“No, you are most certainly not fine!” Vapor told her sternly as Sunset tripped over a small rock only for Vapor to catch. “I can list the signs of sleep deprivation I’m seeing in you off the top of my head right now. Yawning, moodiness, irritability, the lack of concentration, and sheer clumsiness. Look, I get it, okay? I’m concerned about Robert just as much as the next Ranger, and hell, if he were my boyfriend I might be sitting around the fountain keeping an eye on him as well! But you know what I’d also do? Listen to the advice of a friend. Mystic Mother dammit, Sunset, why do you have to be so friggin’ stubborn?” Vapor asked in exasperation.

“G-Guess I got it from my mother,” Sunset chuckled weakly. “Not my real one, considering she was a piece of shit no two ways about it, but from-”

“Celestia?” Vapor asked. “Yeah, she’s a stubborn old nag alright. And I cannot believe I just said that…” she trailed off, looking quite nervous at calling the Princess of the Sun a ‘nag’ of all things! Sunset giggled to herself.

“You know you sound like Luna when she’s been woken up early, right?” Sunset asked and Vapor smiled a bit.

“Glad to be compared to the Princess of the Moon, Dreams, and Tides!” Vapor commented before her gaze turned stern again. “Speaking of dreams, that’s where you really should be getting off to. Dreamland, I mean. Robert will be there in the morning. You know that as well as I do,” the purple ranger stated. “I get that you love him, I do, but-”

“I-I… We’re not in love with each other! I mean, Robert certainly isn’t in love with me! If he was, his eyes might not be as wandering as they are!”

“Oh, so you’re still hung up on this?” Vapor asked, throwing her arms up in the air in frustration. “I talked to Shining a few days ago, right after he got out of the hospital Trixie put him in, and do you know why he, and Ah mean Robert was in the Crystal Empire in the first place?” she asked, and Sunset shook her head. And so Vapor continued. “And it sure as hell wasn’t that bullshit excuse to buy trinkets! He was there to get advice from Cadance about how to handle this situation between you and Luna for fuckin’ crying out loud!” she ranted, her southern accent beginning to come out. “Ah swear, Y'all are idiots, the lot of you!”

It seemed Vapor was suffering from Sleep Deprivation as well if her attitude was any indication. Or maybe she’d just been holding a lot in.

“R-Really?” Sunset stuttered and Vapor sighed to herself. Shayla walked over, and slipped a little drink into her mouth, some sort of dreamless sleep potion created from local herbs. She patted Vapor’s forehead and planted a kiss on it as the pegasus drifted off into dreamland. Shayla knelt down next to Sunset, and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Listen, take it from someone who’s… never exactly been the best at confessing their feelings,” Shayla admitted, drawing from what little experience she had in the matters of love. “Better you say something while they’re here, before they just become dust in the wind.” the Princess of Animaria said sagely. “I never got the courage to tell Merrick how I felt about him when he was alive, and when I did see him again he left me soon after. Okay, I know you two have already admitted, more or less, that you like each other after months of dancing around it and yet here you are again and if you don’t do something fast Sunset, you’ll lose him. Who knows, Princess Luna might just take her chance and sweep up Robert again.” she remarked. “If you don’t reciprocate, Robert, well he might just grow tired of this little game of yours and wander back into another Princess’s all-too welcoming clutches,” Shayla stated. She knew it was a low blow, and was bound to rile Sunset up but she was frankly quite tired of seeing the mare act like a child about this.

“You… You…” Sunset sputtered out furiously before letting out a scream of frustration. She knew Shayla was probably right, and besides what use was there arguing with a couple-thousand-year-old Princess who’d probably seen it all?

Suddenly, Shayla found herself drawing her Crystal Saber and Sunset did as well, as a ripple appeared in front of them before a familiar wolfish form stepped out of the shadows, eyes gleaming out in the darkness of the temple.

A cock of a gun’s barrel was heard as Galaxy stepped out of the tree line with Dino Blade Blaster in hand, and Jindrax followed him, knives drawn.

“Give me one good reason why we should have to listen to anything you say?” Galaxy snarled out, his rifle ready to fire. His eyes looked especially menacing tonight, and so did Jindrax’s for that matter with the both of them quite sick of backstabbing and betrayals. “You know, never did quite trust you from the moment we met, way back when you took temporary command of the team during the Evertree Incident. Did a bit of research on Neighponiese, and you want to know what I found? Zen-Aku, means good-evil. Literally. How true the name rings huh?” the thestal asked.

“Leave, now,” Sunset stated, wings beginning to crackle with small embers. “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming here after what you pulled yesterday. Left us high and dry with Trixie. You could have lended a hand, but you didn’t. Left us to get our asses kicked. Guess where we know where you stand now.”

“Retinax… he brainwashed me. Worked some old Org spell to make me listen to him. Only recently broke it,” Zen-Aku tried to explain, but Sunset was in no such mood for bullshit. Especially not tonight of all nights.

“Hah!” she scoffed. “Convenient excuse. Leave now, I won’t ask again. How are we supposed to trust someone who seems to gravitate to the nearest power whenever he feels like it? You’re like a revolving door Zen-Aku, we never know whose side you’re exactly on.” Sunset snorted, and was ready to slash him to pieces right then and there before Zen-Aku simply lifted a paw. Everyone tensed for a moment, expecting the Duke Org to do something even if they didn’t quite know what. And he did, just not the thing everyone was expecting him to do. He simply lifted his paw, and tossed the remains of the Alicorn Amulet onto the ground.

“W-What?” Galaxy whispered before his eyes narrowed. “Tell me you didn’t.” he growled out slowly before he let out a shouted. “Tell me you didn’t!”

“Trixie is quite alive and well, I assure you,” Zen-Aku stated calmly, not even remotely intimidated by the Captain of the Night Guard or Sunset. And why should he be, considering he could take them both easily down if he were so inclined. “That spell has also been broken. She’s still under the White Dino Gem’s control, but that should be easily dealt with, if she were persuaded. You could easily break through the spell Retinax put her under. I’d help, but like you said Sunset Shimmer of Equestria, how can you ever trust me?” he commented, his eyes matching her own and for a moment Sunset felt a tinge of guilt as Zen-Aku took his leave, with only a few small leaves stirred up in the wind to ever indicate someone had been there to begin with.

Trixie Lulamoon, at least from her perspective, didn’t see herself murdering Equestrians right and left, or the Putrids and Doomwing as foul monsters. Instead, what she did see was the exact reverse. She saw herself calmly striking down Putrids, leaving bloody feathered messes in her wake, and perhaps even more disturbingly, Doomwing as her own older brother simply guiding her in taking each and every one of the creatures down. The Putrids as Canterlot’s Royal Guard. Armed with bazookas of all things, but still the Royal Guard.

Screams turned into caws as her drago sliced through skin as easily as a hot knife would through butter. To herself, Trixie hummed: “They've got a feathered face,
They've got a funny beak,
I.Q. of under ten, they're loud and noisy!
They smell like spoiled fish on a
Hot, hot summer's day,
Cross-eyed and crazy enough
To fly above us!

“Ugly ugly birdies in the sky,
Rangers gonna get you
Watch the Tenga
Watch the Tenga
Watch the Tenga
Tenga, bye bye!”

Trixie aimed the hilt of her Drago Sword, resembling the head of her Zord, at a Tenga holding a sniper rifle from atop a rooftop and fired a gold energy beam at the ‘Tenga’s’ head. Almost at once, blood flew out the other end of the bird’s skull, and the body hit the cobblestone streets with a crack, and strangely the crunching of metal. It almost sounded like Royal Guard Armor. Trixie quickly dismissed the possibility, no that simply couldn’t be. What use would the Tengas have for Royal Guard armor?

“Good, very good Trix!” ‘Sunburst’ said, and chuckled. His laughter, for the briefest of moments, sounded like a hyena’s high-pitched cackle but quickly adjusted itself back to its normal pitch. Trixie shuddered, that type of laughter sounded so wrong coming from her brother’s mouth.

A Ranger Sentry came at her from the left, one of the red Tyranno ones holding a bladed staff and Trixie whirled around to slash at him, and left a deep gash in his chest and staff split in two. The two halves fell to the ground with a clatter, and their owner smacked into the cobblestone, before Trixie grabbed him by the next with an aura of magenta magic and threw him into a building.

Gunfire flew above Trixie’s head as a black Ranger sentry aimed his rifle with ‘Sunburst’ raising his sword and deflecting each shot before sending a wave of golden energy at the Sentry knocking him into a boutique window and into some mannequins modeling the latest dresses from Prance.

“Not going to let anything harm you Trix,” Sunburst reassured. “Or anyone.”

“Believe me!” Trixie snapped as she shoved her sword into another Tyranno Sentry’s chest, with the red-clad warrior collapsing into the streets in a puddle of blood. “Trixie can quite very well handle herself!”

What she didn’t really see was that she had stuck her sword into a newspaper stand and slashed away at it. The drugs burrowed deeper into her mind, and everything began to dissolve and reappear as entirely different objects. Once she defeated the “Tyranno Sentry,” she moved on to strike down a slender Tenga, when in reality, she was just carving up a lamppost.

A yellow Sabertooth Sentry grabbed a separate lamppost, and ripped it from it’s position in the street, and tossed it at Trixie and her ‘brother’ who simply carved it in half. The Sentry came rushing towards her, only to be swiftly decked in the face.

“Another Sentry down!” Trixie fist-pumped at the demolished projectile. “You can’t hope to stop the Great and Powerful Trixie by just throwing your minions at her!”

“Hold it right there!” a voice that sounded suspiciously like Sunset’s if only distorted beyond almost all recognition shouted. “You’ll have to deal with me too!”

Trixie tried to focus on Sunset’s voice, but all she got was a frightening, twisted visage of a phoenix who looked fat in certain areas, yet slim and sleek in others. Different parts of the creature traded sizes before it burst into flames and became a large fireball that charged off to the distance and left nothing but a trail in its’ wake.

It was then behind her, and decking her squarely in the face as it took an arguably humanoid form once more.

‘Sunburst’ then clashed swords with the Phoenix Monster before sending out a spiralling x-shaped arc of golden energy at her.

Another monster, a skeletal bird creature with wings of lightning leaped in to help and struck Trixie’s ‘brother’ from behind with an orange sword themed after what looked to be a giraffe oddly enough.

“Where… am I?” Trixie asked, diving further and further down the rabbit hole as lights and colours danced all around her. She couldn’t make any of it out, no matter how hard she tried.

“Focus on my voice,” Sunburst replied. “Just try and find me. I’m here for you sis, no matter what. I’m with you to the end of the line!”

Trixie calmly focused all of her mind’s energy into tracking down the source of the voice through the chaos, only to come face to face with some monstrous bat-creature. Dark blue veins pulsated from its’ wings to its’ eyes, it had three silver claws on each wing’s end, and its’ talons tore up the ground it was standing on. The ears on top of its’ head were white fur, yet had blood-red flesh on the inside, leading down to the eardrums. Its’ deformed and fang-filled face let out a roar, showing off the many more eldritch-esque teeth inside its’ mouth and down its’ throat.

“Gyah!” She screamed, slashing at the bat monster as her arms flailed. “Get it away from me, mummy! I need my blankie!”

“No… no, Trixie,” Sunburst’s voice whispered in horror as it came out of the creature’s mouth. “It’s me, your brother! I’m right here, I’m right here for you sis,” he said, trying to pull her in for a hug but all Trixie saw was the bat-thing trying to strangle her no thanks to Retinax’s spell.

“Get away from me!” Trixie screamed, kicking the monster in the face, and she heard what sounded like glass shattering next.

“What’s wrong with her?” Sunset asked, watching Trixie kick Sunburst away, his helmet visor shattering. “Why is she hurting him?”

“More to the point,” Vapor asked, and in Trixie’s vision, she saw a monstrous whale with two tusks and a ridged back. “Why is she calling Doomwing of all creatures Sunburst?”

Suddenly, Sunset realized. “That damned wolf, he was right… She is still under a spell!”

“Funny, isn’t it?” Doomwing remarked. “Funny how everything changes when you just work a little bit of magic on a pony. Combine my great master’s magic with the sheer bloodlust of the White Dino Gem, and look what happens!”

Sunburst let out a growl, as his horn lit up in a light yellowish tint, and a bolt of lightning came down and struck Doomwing sending him staggering back.

“You know what Doomwing, I’m really, really quite tired of you,” Sunburst stated as he pulled out two golden axes. “Guys, can you handle Doomwing? I’m going to save my sister, no matter what.”

“Gladly, he’s really rather overstayed his welcome,” Sunset smirked, going for her Phoenix Sword.

Sunburst meanwhile, grabbed Trixie and vanished in a blur of white light as Trixie took the battle away from everyone, and into the Everfree Forest…

Bard, personally, never liked hospitals. He never knew what it was about them, really. Patients being moved everywhere, doctors rushing around with no breaks in sight, and the endless chemicals that filled the air made it seem more like a secret, confidential facility rather than a general hospital. But nevertheless, he knew that he had to get everyone out now that Doomwing and the White Ranger/Trixie were tearing the city and the Rangers apart.

Patients were being wheeled, carried, and herded out as fast as the nurses could organize them. Nothing was left behind that wasn’t important, like books or drinks. Even as everyone and the devices they were hooked up to were being moved, Bard kept on having to shuffle past and through them, sometimes even being planted against the wall to avoid being completely run over. Perhaps it was because of all this chaos that nobody noticed an anthropomorphic bird definitely not wearing a doctor’s lab coat or a patient’s dressing gown inside the halls.

“Alright, where are you?” Bard thought to himself, before he let a smile grace his beak as he found Robert’s room. Resting the Shadow Saber against a wall, he walked up towards the Orange Ranger.

That smile was soon to fade as he saw Robert trying to grasp for breath, and the beeping of his EKG machine began to speed up rapidly in a manner that was far from normal.

“Come on, don’t you die on me, Robert Williams of SPD…” Bard started to reach into his pockets for anything that would be able to help calm him down and slow the beeps slightly. “Where is it? Where in Tartarus did I put it?!”

Meanwhile, Robert continued to try and catch his breath as Bard began to go into a panic; his own heart rate beginning to spike. Robert’s eyes went wide as he woke, and he grasped at his bedsheets with a hand

A doctor rushed in, hearing the beeping of the EKG began to spike and then go into a direct flatline. She let out a shout for another doctor as she left the room.

“No…” Bard’s eyes widened at the motionless and breathless body of Robert. “No, no, no, no, no, no! Not like this!” he whispered to himself, before his eyes narrowed. He was a trained member of the Galactic Union Police, and like all members of that organization, he always carried a form of field medicine with him. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a glowing blue orb. He didn’t really understand how it worked, only that the people of Mirinoi were very well-versed in magitech, and healing magitech in particular.

He put the small little orb into Robert’s hand, and watched as it started to glow with a golden energy. That same golden energy began to go all the way up through Robert’s arm, through his veins healing any damage it could find. Color began to return to Robert’s face, and the EKG machine began to start beeping once more. Bard quickly grabbed the Shadow Saber and placed it in Robert’s hands.

“SPD must be restored if Equestria, no, the world is to survive the coming fire,” Bard said sternly. “But right now, your friends are in trouble. Get to it, and do what you do best.”

Robert smiled as Bard fished a certain morpher out of a nearby cupboard and handed it to him.

Meanwhile, outside the hospital, the Rangers were managing to hold off Doomwing, if only barely. He launched a Doom Slash at Lightning, who blocked it if only barely with the Sword of Pardolis, the sheer force of the strike ripping up the street as she staggered back. Sunset fired a blast of pure magical energy at Doomwing from her horn making him stagger, before doing a series of cartwheels to get away from some rockets launched by Putrids. She whirled around and launched a flaming slash of energy at the Orglings, rendering them to cinders before she whirled around again and launched another flaming slash at Doomwing to cancel out another Doom Slash.

Vapor leaped off the top of another building and threw her trident at Doomwing, but he simply knocked it aside, before dodging some swings from Vapor’s Crystal Saber and drawing back his fist, and punching her with a powerful Doom Strike making her stagger back into Lightning’s arms.

“You alright sis?” Lightning asked, and Vapor nodded.

“Yeah, but he won’t be by the time I’m through with him…” Vapor muttered before going into Orion Mode, and firing a jet of pure pressurized water at Doomwing from her gauntlet sending the rooster monster flying back into a nearby building, cracking the walls spiderweb-style he happened to land on before a full blast of energy fired from the Falcon Summoner sent Doomwing crashing through the wall

“Only might be three of us, but three’s more than enough to kick your sorry ass…” Sunset smirked.

“Then, let’s even the odds!” Doomwing cackled before snapping his fingers. “Putrids, rise up!”

Like ooze seeping up from the ground, Putrids poured up from cracks in the streets, and surrounded the Rangers.

“Oh great, he called out the ugly brigade,” Lightning sighed. “Predictable really.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Doomwing hissed.

“Face it chickie,” Lightning taunted. “You’re always too cowardly to fight us one on one, every time we get close to destroying you, or do some damage, you fall back and let your little Orglings do the work for you, while you just run off and flee like the coward you are!” she smirked. Doomwing let out a scream of rage.

“Fine!” Doomwing hissed, and raised his sword skywards before bringing down red bolts of lightning all around the Rangers as the sky broiled. “You wanted a one-on-one fight to the death? You got one, your death that is!”

Slinging lightning bolts everywhere, the Rangers dodged and weaved between the sheer white-hot bolts of electricity.

“Face it Doomwing,” Sunset added. “We’re wise to your tricks by now. Trixie, during our fights with her, taught us… Well, guess you could say she taught us all the tricks you and her had up her sleeve!”

A pure jagged red lightning bolt was sent towards Sunset, and she shut her eyes as Vapor let out a scream before something else took the bolt. When she opened her eyes, she saw a very familiar sight. Robert, in a hospital gown holding back the bolt with a katana, with a dog’s head as the hilt. Okay, maybe not such a familiar sight but a rather welcome one.

“You’re completely, utterly and absolutely insane you know that?” Sunset said as Robert morphed, and under his helmet the Orange Ranger sent her a smirk.

“I went back to my mother
I said, “I'm crazy ma, help me.”
She said, “I know how it feels son, cause it runs in the family,” Robert quoted. “But seriously, you’re welcome. Consider this me returning the favor from when you saved my arse from Goldar.”

“Which time?” Sunset joked as Lightning and Vapor joined them. Robert chuckled.

“Point. Where’s Sunburst?”

“Taking care of his sister,” Vapor nodded. “They should be fine.”

“WHAT!?!” Doomwing screeched at the new arrivals.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wreck your day. Suppose you’d better just turn and run away. Or fly away, it’d probably be for you,” Robert smirked as Bard ran up and covered himself in his Space Sheriff Estevan armor. Robert pointed the tip of of the Shadow Saber’s blade at Doomwing. “Now, you really should be running though. Serious, legit talk. Because you know who this blade belonged to? Commander Doggie Cruger of Space Patrol Delta. This is probably the truest sword in the galaxy, one of the finest blades to ever be forged. And you shall simply become rust on it’s tip. Orange Ranger, Kitsune!”

“Gold Ranger, Phoenix!”

“Aqua Ranger, Thunderbird!”

“Purple Ranger, Levithan!”

“Space Sheriff Estevan!”

With a battle cry, the five charged into battle. Meanwhile, deep within the 100 miles of pure untamed wilderness Sunburst and Trixie continued their fight. They’d gotten close to the old Castle of the Two Sisters, and were waging close combat in a small stream under the little bridge that led up inside the castle. Trixie kicked some water into Sunburst’s partially destroyed helmet, blinding him just long enough for Trixie to land a powerful punch to the gut sending Sunburst staggering back. He collapsed into the stream below him with a small splash, a small rock ripping open some of his skin and causing him to bleed.

“Trixie, it’s me. Just listen to the sound of my voice!” Sunburst shouted, as he rolled out of the way to avoid a downwards swing from Trixie’s sword. However, it was difficult in Trixie’s dazed and spellbound state for her to see past the horrific bat-monster. She continued slashing widely out of fear even as Sunburst used his Shadow Hatchets to block every blow. Eventually, she managed to break through his defense and force him up against the wall, holding her blade to his throat. Even though her visor, Sunburst could see his sister’s eyes widened with fear. “Trixie, you know me! Just listen!” he pleaded out, a tear slipping from his eye. Trixie, upon seeing this, stopped from delivering the killing blow. Why, why would a bat monster not fight back. He was easily beating her earlier, and now he was crying and pleading to spare him? But little by little, the bat’s screeches turned into a very familiar voice.

“S-Sunburst?” Trixie whispered, dropping her blade in shock, fighting back the pure bloodlust the White Dino Gem was forcing upon her.

“Y-Yes, it’s me. Now can I tell a little story?” Sunburst sighed in relief. “You know something? When I was growing up in a small little town, everyone used to make assumptions about me, and they were mostly wrong ones. Fact was, everyone assumed I was going to be this masterful magic user in Celestia's personal court. Guess what, failed barely passed Magic School. I was a washout, everyone thought of me as a failure once the news broke. Assumed that a magic user who could barely perform magic would be of no use. I aimed to prove them wrong. Look at me now, a teacher and a hero. The two can be mutually exclusive, as it turns out. Here I am, helping teenagers figure themselves out, what path in life they're going to take. They may not treat me like a hero, but one day soon, I know they'll thank me. Run up to me and hug me, tell me whatever job they ended up with, and tell me I helped them get there.”

And as Sunburst talked, the image Trixie saw in front of her shattered, and she embraced her brother.

“Sunburst… I… I…” she whispered.

“Hey, it’s alright. It’s alright. That damned gem, and Retinax are to blame for all of this. Not you, not you understand?” Sunburst reassured, before they both heard the sound of an explosion and saw a huge fireball rising in the distance. “Now come on, as long as you’ve got those powers, I say we make use of what little energy you probably have left and give our friends a hand eh?’

“Yeah, our friends…” Trixie snarled, thinking of Doomwing and how he’d masqueraded as her brother and ordered her about forcing her to kill all of those ponies including members of the Royal Guard sent to stop them. “Oh, that chicken’s got some payback coming that’s for sure!”

Meanwhile, back at the main battleground, Robert had quickly discovered even if you wielded the Shadow Saber, that didn’t mean you knew how to use it properly. Katana, completely different from using a pistol and dagger combination as it turned out.

His wide swings and rather erratic ones at that screamed he had no talent for the blade, and Robert did remember this sword had been forged for Cruger, not him so chances are it was probably weighted for the Commander and not him.

So, he simply just tossed the sword to the side, and it impaled itself in a lamppost. The Orange Ranger, at least for the time needed to be the hotshot and not the swordsman. Running up to a fountain, he flipped and rebounded off of it, firing shots at Doomwing in midair, which he deflected with his sword before managing to grab Robert and slam him into the ground.

“And here I thought you were supposed to be a hero…” Doomwing sneered. “Guess you’re just not all you’re ‘cocked’ up to be!” he cackled, while deflecting blade strikes from Lightning and Sunset, catching the tips of their Crystal Swords with his own hook blade before slashing them both across the chest.

“You should have just turned and ran while you had the chance!” Doomwing sneered, as he sliced a Estevan Dynamic sent towards him by Bard. “Now you see why Retinax values me as his top general? I can’t be defeated!”

“Funny…” Robert grimaced as he picked himself up off the ground. “I only thought you went running to him because your job with Thrax wasn’t working out!”

He grabbed his Kitsune Blaster and fired off a shot just as Bard used a Laser Z-Beam on Doomwing at the same time. Doomwing managed to deflect the Z-Beam, and sent it towards Robert knocking him to the ground, before catching the blast from him with his sword and sending it towards a certain Space Sheriff.

“Ha, and there’s no one to pull your fats out of the frier now is ther-”

He was soundly cut off by a cry of: “Call to the Beast Inside, Free the Owl!” and a misty yellow bird ripped and tore into Doomwing’s skin with its own talons as Sunburst and Trixie landed with both managing to score slashes across Doomwing’s chest with their own blades.

“WHAT!?!” Doomwing screeched out once more. “B-But that’s impossible! Retinax said that spell was unbreakable!”

“Oh, just like the Alicorn Amulet? And the White Dino Gem?” Trixie taunted. “Guess you didn’t read the news. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s being controlled. Time and time again, some sick fuck thinks their little master spellwork can keep me at bay. Well, here’s a small tip for you. If you’re going to try and control moi… Don’t. Simply don’t. I’ve had enough of that to last a lifetime!” Trixie declared, before drawing some arrows with her sword, and flinging them at Doomwing. “This is my stage now boys!”

She flashed forwards, and in a blur sliced Doomwing across the chest just as the arrows hit, before coming back around, rebounding off a light post and slicing through him again. However, the humiliation wasn’t over yet as the Wild Force Rangers picked themselves up off the ground and joined Estevan.

“Hey, don’t think you’re going to have all the fun sis,” Sunburst smiled. “This may be your stage now, but we intend to still make a show of things right Navi?”

“Right!” the little robotic parrot said as she turned into her blaster form. Sunburst pulled the trigger and fired sending Doomwing staggering back.

“Estevan Hyper Dynamic!” Bard shouted, going for his Laser Blade and swinging it sending an arc of energy towards Doomwing while Robert pulled the Shadow Saber out of the light pole and rested the blade on top of his Kitsune Blaster, which was being held in his other hand.

“Kitsune Shadowed Seibai Blast!” he shouted, sending a ball of blue fire which transformed itself into a snapping canine’s jaws at Doomwing. Finally, to complete the humiliation, Sunset, Vapor, and Lightning sent energy slashes of their own towards the rooster monster.

He staggered back, but to everyone’s surprise, didn’t even look dented as he started to glow with an ugly green energy.

“You’ve… You’ve got to be fucking joking me!” Trixie squeaked out, as Doomwing grew to the size of a mountain.

“Fine, if I can’t destroy you that way, I’ll just blow up this whole planet and take you with me!”

Estevan’s sensors on his suit began screaming alarm bells.

“He’s not kidding, he’s building up enough energy to crack this planet in half! We need to destroy him, and fast! Dol!”

The bottom half of the Dolgiran detached and unfolded into the massive dragon that made up the ‘Dol’ half of the name.

“I need Red Dragon Thunderzord power, now!” Robert shouted, and the shadowed form of the great serpent snaked out of the cloud cover and breathed a hot blast of red flame at Doomwing, as Dol joined in with a blast of blue fire, the twin streams knocking Doomwing backwards. Still wasn’t going to be enough though, and Robert went into Orion Mode as the Red Dragon transformed into its warrior stance. He pulled out the Red Zeo Battlezord key, and inserted it, before the Red Dragon changed shape and the two massive Gatling cannons that the Battlezord sported began pumping blast after blast into Doomwing before finally the monster fell forwards, and exploded into a plume of fire.

“Oh, it’s so good to be back!” Robert smirked as he gave the remains a thumbs down. “Sayanora, Doomwing…”

As the clouds cleared, Robert and Estevan joined the other Rangers down at the ground below.

“So… how did you…? I mean, I thought you were supposed to be in the hospital for weeks!” Vapor stammered out at Robert, grasping for explanations.

“You have him to thank,” Robert commented, as he pointed behind him to Bard. “He saved me. Not just sped up the healing process but saved me as well. Couldn’t find myself catching my breath, and the next thing I knew, I felt this energy traveling through my body. I awoke to find bird-man over there standing over my hospital bed with my commander’s old sword to boot!’

“Thank Mirinoi technology, and archiving. It translates to Miracle for a reason in my language,” Bard replied simply before he turned to Trixie. “So, I see your brother got through to you after all. You could be a real asset on the battlefield, you know that right?”

“Please don’t say the words battlefield or asset,” Trixie whispered. “Please, just don’t. I killed so many ponies today, and Mystic Mother knows how many others when I was under Retinax’s brainwashing. Honestly, I don’t think I deserve this…” Trixie sighed, looking at the morpher on her wrist.

“Will you at least consider it?” Bard asked. “Retinax is going to be madder, and more desperate than ever now that he’s lost his top three generals. He’s going to do something drastic, I know that much.”

“Just… Just give me some time to think about it okay?” Trixie lied before she began to walk off.

“Hey, where are you going?” Sunburst shouted.

“I… I honestly don't know right now. Trixie thinks she’ll let the winds be her guide this time, see where they take her, who they lead her to,” she replied, before vanishing over the crest of a hill.

“You think we’ll ever see her again?” Sunburst asked sadly. “I know Retinax made her do a lot of horrible things, but-”

“They weren’t of her own free will?” Sunset finished, before sighing. “In her mind at least, they were. She killed those ponies, brainwashed or not. That kind of thing, I don’t know what it’ll do to her. And I honestly, really don’t know if we’ll ever see her again…” she whispered sadly.

“Damnit!” Sunburst shouted, punching a wall, cracking it. “And just when I’d gotten through to her!”

Sunset pulled him into a hug and whispered: “Hey, it’s alright now. We’re all back together again, and Trixie, at least in some aspects is free. And who knows, maybe she will come back. We’ll just have to wait and see…”

“In the meantime, will I suffice?” a familiar voice asked, and everyone turned to see the Purple Plesio Charge Ranger.

“Okay, who the Hell are you?” Sunburst asked. “You’ve been saving our flanks left and right, and you vanish soon after. I think it’s about high time you gave us a name right?”

With a snap of her fingers, the Ranger demorphed to reveal an all-too-familiar blond-haired woman, surprisingly youthful considering who she was. On a necklace, she bore a purple gem not that far removed from both the ones Galaxy and Daring had. Robert’s eyes widened in an instant.

“...No fucking way. Emily?”

“Surprise.” Emily Suzuki, AKA Samurai Ranger Yellow laughed sheepishly.

Author's Notes:

Well, Doomwing's roasted, and the bomb about the Purple Ranger's identity has been dropped. Not to mention, Trixie's free! Of course, you knew perfectly well she wouldn't just join up with the main team at the drop of the hat, would you?

No, I didn't think so.

Also, if you haven't seen the news yet... http://comicbook.com/powerrangers/2018/06/15/power-rangers-new-team-beyond-the-grid/

Yes, that is the Talon Ranger, or Kyouru Navy.