Sunburst let out a yawn as he checked the nearby clock, watching it read 4:00 AM on the dot. He was thankful it was a weekend, otherwise, he was going to be paying for it if he had class in a few hours. As much as he got annoyed by the teenagers in his class at times, Sunburst didn’t believe in substitute teachers for the same reasons he told his little sister why he persisted on teaching kids who at times didn’t seem to want to listen to a word he said. Simply put, eventually one day they or at least one or two of them would thank him eventually for setting them on their life courses or at least giving them that little nudge.

“Get some rest dad,” a rather tired Navi said from her perch near the windowsill. “Seriously, that book on dragons? It can wait till the morning. Mystic Mother only knows when Thrax will strike next, and you know it’s best to be awake and alert at all times.”

“God… for someone so smart I’m such an idiot,” Sunburst muttered as he let out another yawn as he tried to rub his temples. He set his reading glasses to the side as he turned to look at Navi, and away from the tome on Dragons. The damn thing was pretty much useless anyways, full of mostly myths and legends, several of them known to be quite inaccurate to Sunburst at least from the time he’d spent around Spike in their comic discussions over Power Ponies issues or Ogres and Oubliettes sessions. Reminded him, he really should invite Robert to a session one day, the guy might enjoy it for all he knew. If someone like Galaxy or Big Mac could enjoy them, who’s to say Robert couldn’t? Guy could be hiding a secret dork in there somewhere for all he knew. Actually to be honest it wouldn’t have surprised him in the slightest given Robert’s propensity to spring off pop culture gags that nobody else seemed to get. “Seriously Navi, I know I’m different from the other Rangers, and different as in book-smart and a complete loser when it comes to combat prowess but need even you rub it in?” he asked in self-disgust. Navi flapped her little wings and flew over to Sunburst, and gave him a look.

Honestly, she loved her father but the poor guy needed a lot more self-confidence in himself. She’d remembered Robert, Galaxy and this Zephyr dude all muttering to themselves at one time or the other about how it was high time that they all took Sunburst out for a few drinks and gave him what they called liquid courage. Navi would fully support them in that endeavor. Hell, she’d even work up a hangover cure with Zecora’s help if need be. Right now, she’d had enough of Sunburst and his constant self-disparaging remarks to himself. Him belittling himself for every little thing. She was fuming mad about all of this, and it was high time she let her father know about it.

“Now, that’s enough of that self-deprecation! Heard it from you enough, and now it’s high time to stop with it all,” Navi said sternly as her voice turned softer. Her golden eyes looked directly at him in a stern fashion. “Dad, you are different, but different as in surprising, unpredictable, and endearing, and very talented. You learn fast. Remember when Masters Swoop and Theo came back from the dead to teach you the Bat Style? I did some reading of my own, and it turns out getting even as far as you did with the Bat Style, that sometimes takes years and you managed it all in a single night! If that doesn’t speak to your prowess than I don’t know what does. Nobody ever said being smart was ever a bad thing. Don't underestimate yourself, Dad. You may just end up surprising everyone.”

“Yeah, I just might. But the pressure’s all on me to find a way to finally end up discovering the secret to these Energems, and just find out what keeps Emily immortal, and deal with that. I’m… I’m just not sure I can, what with these tomes being completely and utterly fucking useless!” Sunburst exclaimed in frustration, throwing his arms up in the air. He normally would have watched his language around Navi, but this entire thing was driving him up the wall so badly he didn’t care at the moment. Plus he suspected Robert was teaching his daughter some fairly bad words anyways when he wasn’t around.

“Sunburst Starflight, one of the beloved superheroes of Ponyville and the rest of Equestria beyond, defender of the innocent, Org slayer and fighter of all the rights, can't deal with the pressure of just research? Something that comes naturally to him? No, I refuse to believe that! You can do it dad, I believe in you.” Navi said reassuringly, nuzzling him.

“T-Thank you Navi, I don’t know what I’d do without you…” Sunburst yawned once more.

“Not get some rest?” the parrot asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Point…” Sunburst chuckled lightly, and looking at the tome and placing a small piece of rolled up scrap paper in it before shutting it. “This… This can be left for another day. Emily’s certainly not going anywhere…”

With that, he finally let his eyelids shut and drifted off into Luna’s dreamland on that couch then and there Navi singing a soft lullaby the entire time. Gently stroking his mane before grabbing a soft cover off one of the antiques her father had recently acquired, she pulled it over him and began to sing… “Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed.
Hush now, quiet now, close your sleepy eyes.
Hush now, quiet now, my how time sure flies.
Drifting, drifting off to sleep the day's excitement behind you.
Drifting, drifting off to sleep, let the joy of Luna’s dreamland find you…”

Early that next morning, the former city of Blue Bay Harbor, California paid host to some unusual visitors, ones it hadn’t seen the like of in thousands of years. Namely, monsters. Murders of Tenga soldiers surrounding them Goldar and Thrax teleported in to where the Abyss of Evil lay sealed, the former tomb of the dead still glowing darkly with magical pulses of dark indigo magic, and every now and then if you listened closely and put your ear to the ground you could hear the angry howls of the monsters still trapped inside.

“Ah, here we go…” Thrax chuckled lowly before turning to Goldar. “Look upon this Goldar, see the failures of the past, and learn from them. While I’ll grant that fool Lothor was onto something with this idea, his own pride and arrogance of underestimating even Powerless Rangers was his undoing. I shall not make the same mistake. Rangers always find a way to win, do they not?”

“Yes,” Goldar growled out. “They have this uncanny and annoying ability to do that. Even Lord Drakkon, who had the Rangers at his mercy multiple times somehow managed to get defeated even when he had them at the end of their ropes.”

“You didn’t help matters much,” Thrax remarked in a rather annoyed tone. He needn’t raise his voice, -Thrax never had to- just from Thrax’s expression alone, Goldar knew he had to think of something fast. “In fact, I seem to recall you summoning my version of the putties to your side and aiding the combined Ranger and Rider forces in defeating the so-called Ranger Slayer.”

“Yes, well that Ranger Slayer was Katherine Hillard under the helmet, if not an alternate version of her. I still had scores to settle and defeating someone so close to any version of Tommy Oliver would give me great pleasure. Besides, I am the only one allowed to kill those Rangers, nobody else can deny me that simple satisfaction of crushing the current team underneath my feet.”

Thrax chuckled again. “A simplistic and quite petty reason, but one I cannot argue with. I would be rather annoyed myself if Drakkon was the one defeating the Rangers.”

“But you said to Somber Shield that-”

“I lied,” Thrax remarked before he began muttering old incantations under his breath as wisps of dark red magic began to flow from his wand into the Abyss of Evil. Every now and then, Thrax let out another dark low chuckle to himself.

“Any idea what he’s doing?” one of the Tenga warriors asked one of his fellows, who could only shake his head.

“Got me,” the other Tenga remarked, rubbing his head feathers in confusion. “Seriously, I really don’t know half of what the boss is doing nowadays. You’d think he’d be more upset he’s losing potential army warriors with each Org defeated, but he takes the destructions in stride. And don’t get me started on him remarking on this serpent thing in Celestia’s garden!”

“I know right? Mum’s the word on the subject whenever the boss comes up with these big-ass plans!” a third Tenga spoke up. “Seriously, you would think he would let us know what he’s planning, maybe we could he-”

This Tenga was grabbed by the throat by Goldar. “The reason the ‘boss’ is mum on the subject as you call it,” he growled out, bringing the Tenga’s face very close to his own. “Is so blabber-mouthed idiots like you won’t spill his plans to the Rangers.”

With that, he snapped the Tenga’s neck with a sickening crack! sound and tossed the limp body aside. Goldar looked at the rest of his warriors. “Let that stand as an example to all of you. I do not tolerate foolishness in this army, nor warriors who cannot keep their mouths shut. Keep this in mind, if the Rangers were ever to learn of any of our plans, even the smallest snippet then they would not rest until they figured out what we are up to. Consider yourselves lucky you’ve survived this long, and I’ve tolerated your sniveling and mutterings.”

All of the Tengas nodded and almost immediately shut up. Goldar leaned towards his Master.

“Ask me again, why do we keep them around? You know as well as I do even with that little display they won’t keep their beaks shut for long.”

“Who says I’m keeping them alive for that long?” Thrax whispered back to him. “I only needed them as bodies to throw to in case we had uninvited guests. And as it seems we won’t be getting any…”

With that, he raised his wand to the sky and brought down bolts of red lightning scorching all of the Tengas to ashes.

“One nuisance dealt with,” Thrax sighed in a bored tone. “And now for the second one. I need a soul sacrificed for this to work. Invoking an ancient ritual, creating a warrior from the souls of the dead. It’s similar to the one I used on you to return you to this plane, but in this case, I need an object namely damned souls and most importantly one living soul. Any would do,” he continued, before snapping his fingers and a portal opened and a Lava Lizard fell out of it.

He muttered a small “Uh-oh”, which was quite perhaps the understatement of the century when Thrax grabbed him and held him over the Abyss of Evil.

Meanwhile, another portal opened and a tombstone fell out of it, marked with the words: “Flash Magnus, the bravest of the Canterlot Royal Legion and a Ranger to the End.”

“Now…” Thrax hissed out. “Spirits of the damned, I ask you to provide this new lizard with powers beyond his imagination! Fuse him with the bravery and power of the one this tombstone remembers, and your powers from the worlds beyond! Come forth, Lord of the Graves and Master of Spirits, Thánatos!”

The crack in the ground opened wide, and spirits poured into the Lava Lizards mouth as the tombstone shattered into a million pieces before what was left began to graft itself to the Lizard’s body before with a burning light before in the Lava Lizard’s place stood a completely different type of lizard monster. Covered in stone, with what looked to be molten magma bubbling beneath the surface of his skin that seemed to be barely only contained by what looked like the lid of a vase, and two horns seemingly made out of black burning flame jutted out of his head. In one hand, he held a lantern marked with the kanji for Death or 死. In the other, he held a massive bronze twin bladed axe with the blades seemingly resembling the Greek letter Ω or Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

His blank white eyes shot open, and he twirled his axe behind his back before bowing.

“You have summoned me, my master?” he spoke, in this soft-spoken tone of voice. Goldar took a step back out of fear but Thánatos just looked directly at him with his pure white irises. “I don’t blame you for being afraid, either of you. I can sense your fear. It’s hard to blame you, I even scare myself. Created to kill, it honestly seems to be detrimental to my health. But I will do my job all the same, as a loyal general should. And now is not the time for fear. That comes later. That fear will be reserved for my enemies, and yours Lord Thrax.” Thánatos spoke.

“Oh, I like you. Quick, and to the point,” Thrax chuckled giving Thánatos an admiring look. “You know exactly what you want, the destruction of anything that stands in your or more accurately my way. Hell, with you and what I know you can do, I may not even need my little ‘back-up’ plan. My my, the Rangers won’t be expecting this will they Goldar?” Thrax asked, looking at the golden armored warrior. “My own personal God of Death!”

“Do not consider me a god. That would imply I am above you,” Thánatos corrected. “I am just a simple servant, nothing more.”

“Good, I hate those with egos. They get themselves killed far too quickly,” Thrax remarked, thinking of Doomwing. “Always the foolish who go first. Far be it from my generals to be such a thing.” he commented. “The Rangers should savor the daylight while it lasts, for it’s about to get rather dark…” Thrax trailed off before he broke off into full-on evil laughter, his cackling echoing throughout the valley with Goldar’s soon to follow.

Sunburst was awoken the next day around 11:30 or so with a fearful Navi tugging at his arms. “Wake up, wake up!” she squawked out in fear.

“What… what is it?” Sunburst asked, his eyes jotting open in an instance upon hearing his daughter’s fearful tone.

“Turn on the TV, now!” Navi shouted, and Sunburst with a flick of the dials saw the face of Chancellor Neighsay on the TV screen. “Rangers, I call to you with a simple challenge. I’m about to introduce the newest face in Pony Security, and I want you to be there to greet it. Canterlot Marketplace, Noon exactly. Don’t be late.”

“You know it’s a trap, right?” Navi asked, and Sunburst nodded even as he reached for his Growl Phone and dialed Trixie’s number.

Muttering to himself: “Come on, pick up…” before looking at Navi. “Of course I do, it’s Neighsay. But he has to be dealt with. Mystic Mother only knows what trouble he’d cause for us down the line if we don’t deal with him now. Legendary Wild Access!”

Rushing to the Canterlot Marketplace with the other Rangers -Thankfully, Trixie had gotten Sunburst’s message- close behind, they were greeted by just Neighsay, clad in his red robes, and looking down upon them.

“Alright, who’s this guy?” Robert asked.

“Chancellor Neighsay,” Sunburst replied, with no amount of disdain. “Head of the Equestria Board of Education, known bigot. Celestia really dislikes the guy. Sadly, because he was born into noble blood she can’t just get rid of him. Plus, I don’t think when Solar Flare was alive that side of her ever wanted to.”

“Oh, wunderbar. This would explain so much…” Robert muttered. Neighsay only chuckled and shook his head.

“Oh, you ponies have done well so far even with a human slowing you down,” Neighsay remarked with Robert rolling his eyes at that. He’d heard far better insults from Thrax and his monsters. “Fighting off Orgs and other monsters day after day, but now I think it’s time for the real power to take the stage.”

“And how do you plan to do that, Chancellor Neighsay?” Trixie asked in disbelief, her horn lighting up and crackling with magic. She growled to herself, Neighsay was on her persona non grata list for her shows thanks to him seeing her and Zecora as potential threats. Zecora, simply because of her race and Trixie because of her past misdeeds. Oh, she was so going to enjoy beating this guy into the ground if it came to that.

“No, the name’s not Neighsay,” the unicorn corrected. “At least not for the time being. For now, call me… Kamen Rider Savior.” he stated, holding up two Lockseeds. One was marked LS-22 and themed after a Blood Orange and the other was marked LS-33 and themed after a Pomegranate. Ripping the faceplate off the Sengoku Driver to expose its genesis core like when Twilight did to activate Jimber Dragon Arms, he slammed both Lockseeds into the belt and sliced them open. “Henshin.”

“Pomegranate Arms! An out of season bloomed sacrifice! Blood Orange Arms! The evil path on stage!” Neighsay’s Sengoku Driver shouted as the armor covered him with a splash of red liquid. It, for the most part, resembled the armor of Twilight’s Apple arms which might have been the intent but the left shoulder pad resembled that of a samurai’s armor for whatever reason. Maybe it was because this was a variation on the Jimber Arms, which were themed after jinbaori, formal coats Samurai wore over their armor. In any case, this armor combined with the Sonic Arrow he held in his hands along with the sword strapped to his hip made Neighsay look very dangerous indeed.

“It is always the political types that cause trouble. Why couldn't a nice vivisectionist decide to give himself powers instead?” Thánatos asked. “And really, you’re just broadcasting your intentions far too much with a transformation call like that.” he noted from atop a nearby building as he and Goldar observed, even as the Rangers readied for battle.

“Let’s dance…” Trixie snarled, as she drew her blade.