It had been a few days since Twilight’s training with Flash Fire had begun, and already she was showing signs of improvement. Let it never be said, Twilight Sparkle was a quitter. No, she knew she had to master this, for Equestria’s sake. Thrax wasn’t going to give in, and neither was Bunglay, or Mystic Mother only knew what else.

“Don’t… Don’t you think you’re pushing yourself too hard?” Gilda asked, as she used one of the barracks showers, completely in the nude and letting the warm water run through her fur and through her feathers. She groaned out in pain, Flash Fire’s training having run her raw. Sure, she knew how to handle herself in a good scrap, but Flash Fire’s ideal of training was something else. She’d asked Twilight about this type of training, and the mare had only this to say.

“This isn’t the standard training your average royal guard gets,” Twilight had said. “No, this type of training is the kinds the Captains of the Guards get, and this is the type of training Galaxy throws his men into. This isn’t for frontline troops guarding some town, or the borders of Equestria. No, this is for those who guard the Princesses. This is the kind of training the Ranger and Kurokage Legions are going to be put through.”

“I mean, you’re not a soldier,” Gilda continued, running some soap through her head feathers, and then letting it wash down her bare back. She smelled like shit, and she knew it. Building up a huge sweat and getting all dirty was just a consequence of Flash Fire’s training. “Sure, we’re both living in barracks now, but we’re not soldiers! We’re both Royalty, and I’d think we’d deserve to be treated a little like that.”

“No, I specifically asked for no special favors,” Twilight replied, having just finished washing herself as well, now wearing only a towel. “I asked for the hardest, most brutal training Flash Fire could offer me, the 20 mile hikes, the sword to sword battles, the works. And if I have to live in a barrack like my brother used to, so be it. And for the time being, until Thrax gets defeated, we’re all soldiers. That includes both of us. Would we not ask our people to do something we wouldn’t be willing to do ourselves?”

“Point taken…” Gilda mumbled. She wouldn’t go into battle, not unless she knew her people had her back. And they always did, but that was simply because they knew when Gilda went into battle she had the proper ability to watch herself so they wouldn’t have to baby her. “Hey, you don’t mind if you help me rinse my back?” Gilda asked, a flirtatious edge in her voice.

“Gilda…” Twilight groaned out. “Really?”

“Oh please, it’s just a bath! I’m not going to do anything that’ll make your muscles ache any more than they already are… Not unless you want me to,” Gilda smirked. Twilight stared at her, speechless. “Oh for… Don’t tell me you’re saving yourself for the wedding!”

Twilight’s silence said it all.

“Oh, you are. You’re such a prude!” Gilda huffed. “Look, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s the onset of mating season for us griffons! I’m tired, and I’m horny, so that puts me in a very bad mood!” she ranted out, throwing her arms up in the air before finally deciding to hell with it all.

Gilda let out a moan as she dug her claws into her clit and started to pleasure herself, an aching burning sensation filling her body. “Oh… Oh fuck!” Gilda moaned out, as semen dripped from her body. “And… and if you’re not particularly interested in me at the moment, why haven’t you left the room?” Gilda panted out, even as she still continued getting off.

Again, Twilight’s silence said volumes. Gilda smirked before she wrapped her arms around Twilight and pulled her in for a kiss that the alicorn all too easily accepted. After several seconds of wet, sloppy kissing, the two pulled away, a thin strand of saliva connecting them.

“Princess of Friendship huh?” Gilda murmured as Twilight finally gave in, and dropped her towel rubbing her own marehood against Gilda’s own. “Looks more like you’re the Princess of -Oh fuck!- making me very, very happy…” she panted out, kissing Twilight heavily as the pony massaged her breasts.

“You’re a very naughty little bookhorse,” Gilda said, her clit still aching for more as the water poured down their hot sweaty forms. Twilight continued to grind against her, only accelerating her desire. “And a very clever one as well. Any evidence of our activities… Well, -Oh for the Goddess’ sake!- is going to get washed down the drain with the dirt. Agh, you know what, screw the foreplay! I’m horny as all-”

A small cough interrupted them, and both of the two lovebirds so to speak pulled away only to see Flash Fire standing there, arms crossed and with an eyebrow raised.

“Need some time?” She asked simply, unphased by their compromising position. “Finish up. We have exercises to do.” Turning on her hoof, she left them to enjoy each other.

Twilight, mood thoroughly killed by this occurrence redressed herself in a pair of jeans and a nearby shirt that usually belonged to Gilda judging by its larger size. “I’m… I’m sorry Armsmaster Flash Fire, I… I apologize!” Twilight rambled, her face blushing a bright red.

Flash Fire merely smiled; a heartachingly sad smile. “Treat every moment with your loved one like it's your last.”

“Yeah, you ever heard of tempting fate?” Gilda asked. “With Thrax about, that day could very well come someday soon.”

“You… You know what that’s like Armsmaster don’t you?” Twilight asked.

Flash Fire sighed, gesturing for them to sit. “I suppose we can push the breathing techniques back for story time. How loyal are you to your country? Both of you?” she questioned.

“I married Gilda, just to stop a war from breaking out,” Twilight said. “That should say volumes about how loyal I am.”

Gilda added: “Hey, I may hate a lot of Equestrians, but I’d rather let them be idiots on their own then be idiots in ball and chains and winding up being slaughtered by Thrax. The power of the griffon nation should be able to help Equestria strengthen its own defensive capability, as a few of them seem to have trouble pulling their heads out of their sorry asses,” she continued, thinking of a certain ex-chancellor. “So yeah, I’d say I’m pretty loyal.”

“Loyal enough to kill the one you love?” Flash let the question hang looking between them with an unreadable expression.

“If… If it came to that, I was willing to kill Celestia, someone who I viewed as a mother when Solar Flare was possessing her.” Twilight whispered.

“I… I honestly don’t know,” Gilda replied. “I… I honestly don’t.”

“A long time ago, there was a dragon occupying the Kirins’ grove. I was sent on assignment to remove them,” Flash began, closing her eyes. “Most Kirin don't like to fight, it ignites the dragon blood in their veins, but one never stopped trying to fight.”

“Oh, I can see where this is going…” Gilda murmured sadly, shaking her head. “He was your lover, right?”

Flash ignored the question, continuing on. “Spring Breeze managed to rally a few Kirin to stand up for themselves. We...spent many a night together. But, we drove the dragon out and I returned to Canterlot.”

“What happened to Spring Breeze?” Twilight asked, not sure if she really wanted to know. But a part of her knew she had to learn the answer.

“We started to receive reports of raided dragon dens. Smashed eggs, stolen treasure. Really pissed off Torch. With my past experience, I snuck into the dragon lands,” She took a moment before continuing. “Spring was still leading that band of Kirin, only they weren't satisfied keeping the dragons out. They wanted them to pay. When he refused to back down, I...he made the only choice he could.”

What that choice was exactly, it went unstated. A long silence permeated the air and was only broken by a barking sound. Knowing what it was coming from, Twilight ran over to her mirror -a one made specifically for tracking her Cerberus familiar- when she saw the lights on it start to glow. Twilight’s eyes widened even as she gripped the golden frame, and she saw Neighsay’s face looking back at her.

“Well, well, I was wondering when you’d come looking for me,” the former chancellor remarked. “Oh, is that Captain Flash Fire back there? Pleasure to see she’s crawled out from whatever rock she’d been hiding under the past decade or so.”

Flash Fire didn’t bother to dignify the outlaw with a response.

“What do you want Neighsay?” Twilight growled out, wings flared in anger. “And let Cerberus go!”

“Aww, you’re naming your little familiar?” Neighsay mocked, flicking ‘Cerberus’ on the forehead making the mirror vision judder and shake. “That’s cute. But I suppose I should expect nothing less from the Princess of Friendship. Nice to see you’ve dropped your standards even more and took up housing with a griffon. I’ll be sure to send a card!” he said mock-sweetly. “But as for what I want? Well, you should be able to guess easily enough, it’s what I’ve always wanted. Just to prove to Equestria that the Rangers aren’t needed and that all they need is me and my power. But if you think different, Princess,” Neighsay continued. “Meet me at the warehouse district, I do desire to see just how much Flashie’s training has improved your skills.”

With that, he knocked out Cerberus with a small zap of magic cutting the connection. Twilight growled, and put down the mirror before placing it inside her pants pocket. “He’s going to pay for that.”

She started to walk off before Gilda put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, you know perfectly well that’s a trap.”

“Course I do, and I’m springing it, as Neighsay has to be stopped. He’s been running wild for far too long.” Twilight said, grabbing her Apple Lockseed and gripping it tightly.

“But what, you’re just going after him for a familiar? Bit extreme isn’t it?” Gilda asked cautiously. Her wife begged to differ.

“No, not just for Cerberus. Neighsay… He’s got to be brought to justice. Before he goes after my friends again, any of them,” Twilight stated. “Please Armsmaster Flash Fire, let me go after Neighsay, with all the power at my disposal.” she requested, eying the Mango and Banana Lockseeds still tucked away on Flash Fire’s belt.

Flash Fire sighed, knowing she probably was going to regret this but handed the Lockseeds to Twilight anyways. Twilight whispered a “Thank you.” before dashing out of the room and then taking flight.

“Like Hell I’m letting her go alone…” Gilda muttered, before snapping her fingers with a white garuda familiar flying in through the window. She whispered something to it, and the garuda let out a little squawk of understanding before flying off again.

“Much as I understand the concept of personal grudge matches,” Gilda remarked with at Flash Fire’s raised eyebrow. “No way in Tartarus’s name am I letting my wife -My wife, understand?- blunder into this without someone watching her back.”

“If... No, when Twilight gets back. Ask her this. Ask her to go to the Kirins' Grove, it's almost beyond the borders of Equestria but there's a train route that should take you there. Stationmaster's a little nuts, but he's harmless. I want you... I want you both to go and find my daughter. She was an infant at the time I left her, but she should be about your age now. Just ask for Autumn Blaze, okay?”

“I... I will.” Gilda nodded.

Far and away, one Troy was walking away from his shared home with Canvas. Apparently, the two had gotten into an argument when Troy had heard his parents were coming to visit, and Canvas was terrified of what they might think of a pony marrying a griffon.

“Damn it Canvas… My parents… They’d accept me for who I am! Who we are! They’re not like Neighsay and the like, they’re not diehard bigots! They’re just… difficult to accept change in the family, that’s all.”

“Sounds like you and I have a few things in common,” a voice whispered in his ear. “Now, you may not know me, but I’ve been cast out and found difficult for reasons beyond my power.”

“Who… who are you?” Troy asked, even as his body began to get covered in a dark blue form of armor, resembling a knight’s.

“Nobody important, now just lay back and relax. I’ll explain my identity in good time, my friend.” Koragg said as his helmet formed over Troy, and shut away his personality. The last thing he needed was that goody four paws interfering with his revenge. Drawing his sword from the shield resting on his back, the griffon-turned-knight laughed. Finally, he was back. “And now Zen-Aku, let’s just see how good of a fighter you really are…”

With a snap of his claws, he smirked when he heard the sound of whinnying in the night air. So nice to see his faithful steed was still around when he needed him.

Canterlot: Warehouse District

“You’re a bit late,” Neighsay remarked as Twilight ran up. “No matter though. I’ll still show you that I’m the only eligible way towards Equestria’s future.”

“Anypony ever tell you that you’re nuts?” Twilight asked as she slapped on the Sengoku Driver. “Because seriously, you are. Your dreams… they’re in technicolor. Haven’t you realized yet? You’re a fugitive from the law, a wanted man! Nobody in Equestria would ever accept you, they stopped accepting you the moment you attacked Equestria’s favorites, the Wild Force Rangers.”

“Tch!” Neighsay remarked with a little crack of his neck. “The Rangers are weak. You saw it yourself, they couldn’t even last five minutes in a battle with me, and they had to be bailed out by one of the very monsters they fought! So, what makes you think, an untrained Princess who’s only spent her life in books and only fought with friends by her side, can defeat one of Equestria’s greatest mages?” Neighsay asked as his ultimatum before slamming on his driver, the belt wrapping itself around his robe-covered waist. He then placed his two lockseeds into it, and sliced them open.

“Pomegranate Arms! An out of season bloomed sacrifice! Blood Orange Arms! The evil path on stage!”

“Firstly, for a guy who calls himself Savior you’re hardly winning over any fans with a transformation call like that,” Twilight deadpanned, spinning her Apple lockseed in her hand before placing it her own driver. “Secondly, you forget that I’m no slouch in the magic department myself.”

“Ranbu! Defend your Position! Knight of Shi~eld!”

Twilight drew her blade, and leveled it at Neighsay. “Now, time to finish this, ‘Savior’. It’s not easy to make your ideals come true, but I will defend this world. And I will defeat you. My name is Kamen Rider Baroness, and that is my creed.” she stated, slowly striding forwards blade still in hand.

Letting out a battle cry, she raised her blade and charged at Neighsay using it to slice through magical energy bolts sent her way. Neighsay fired a blue beam of energy at Twilight which she leaped over before she struck Neighsay across the chest with a downwards strike of her sword not even giving him a chance to react.

“Damn you!” Neighsay shouted, and fired off a few sonic arrow blasts at Twilight, and she raised her shield to block them before she teleported behind Neighsay and bashed him in the head with her shield.

“You’re not even worthy of the title of Rider, Neighsay!” Twilight barked, kicking him in the chest. Before, all of her battles had been waged with only pure luck, anger, and the drive to succeed and prove herself worthy pushing her onwards. Now though, it was the drive to protect those people closest to her that made her want to fight. “You’re just stomping on the legacy and trying to use it to justify your own actions, your own ego!” Twilight stated, a calm tranquil fury before she sliced the ‘Rider’ across the chest once more. “You have to earn the right to call yourself a Kamen Rider.”

With that, she flipped over behind Neighsay as he let loose a flurry of sonic arrows, and knocked him to the ground with a leg sweep.

He quickly recovered and swung his sonic arrow’s blade unleashing a slash of energy that knocked Twilight to the ground before he leaped up into the rafters, and began drawing his bow back.

“Not worthy of the title am I?” Neighsay chuckled darkly. “Well, I’ve laid you low.”

“Not yet.” Twilight stated and vanished in a flash of pink magic before Neighsay heard a popping sound from behind him. Out of the corner of his eye saw a flash of more pink magic.

“What?” he bellowed before another lockseed’s transformation call sounded.

“Wizard Arms: Shabadoobi Showtime!” Twilight’s belt shouted, before she brought out the WizarSwordGun and with a few quick shots, drove Neighsay to leap to another rafter of the warehouse. Twilight was soon to follow leaping after him, and changing the weapon to blade form.

“Now, it’s showtime!” Twilight shouted, seemingly not noticing her brief personality change. Flicking the cutting blade on her Driver several times, she activated the Sparking feature.

“Wizard Sparking: Slash Strike!” the driver sang, before Twilight’s sword glowed red and she sent an arc of blazing fire towards Neighsay who sent an arc of energy of his own towards it to meet the attack. Leaping from rafter to rafter, both Riders continued to fire off and meet each other’s attacks, never landing a blow against the other.

Twilight changed back into Apple Arms, and activated her Sparking feature once more and leaped into the air, a red energy apple at her hoof. “Apple Sparking!”

Neighsay was sent flying through a glass window, and into another warehouse rolling along the ground as he tumbled into some wooden crates.

Twilight’s entry meanwhile, was far more graceful as she just simply floated down onto the concrete floor. “There’s a difference between you and me, Neighsay,” she started, keeping her shield up while the stallion tossed bits of broken wood off himself. “You think you work for the advancement of Equestria; twist the truth in order to make that so in your mind. But the truth is, you’ve only been working for yourself. Equestria doesn’t need an egomaniac as a protector. I’ll take twelve selfless Rangers over one twisted Rider any day.”

Neighsay let out a roar of rage and sent several chains of lightning spiraling towards Twilight, his mind a blur of pure anger over being insulted.

“You’d side with that human ape over ponies? How the mighty have fallen…” Neighsay chuckled as Twilight just barely managed to dodge or deflect the lightning chains. “You know something, I used to look up to the Sparkle family. Paragons of Equestria’s greatness, they were. Even your older brother made something of himself, and I admit, I was impressed when Celestia’s personal student, AKA you made Princesshood. But now look at you, you’re weakening! Becoming soft! You’re letting yourself be aligned with inferior creatures!” Neighsay shouted, bringing out his daidaimaru and slashing Twilight across the chest making her scream out in pain as sparks flew.

Before Twilight struck the wall, her horn lit up and she disappeared in a flash of light. A moment later, she re-appeared and kicked Neighsay in the back before landing on her hooves. “I’ve learned something important, Neighsay, there’s no such thing as a superior species. Humans, yaks, dragons, griffons, and ponies. All of them can soar to impressive heights or have members that are as low as dirt,” She brought down the knife on her driver once and held her sword out. “As you are now, you’re a member of the latter. Think about it Neighsay, every battle we or anyone else ever fights in leaves behind some seed of conflict and in time, it always matures into some fruit of sadness. This fight will be no different if it continues. Break the cycle Neighsay, break it! End this here!”

At the tip of her sword, a bundle of fifteen energy apples, which were promptly thrown at Neighsay. He, at the very last second, teleported out of the way. No, that was incorrect. He actually jumped into a Helheim crack using the powers of his combined lockseeds and came out from behind Twilight only to hit her with another slash from his daidaimaru.

“You don't even notice that you're being targeted as you hesitate to fight, I can still crush you if you remain a green fruit!” Neighsay barked out as he slashed out with his sword again.

This process repeated itself several more times before Twilight finally caught on, and heard the distinctive sound of a crack opening. She tossed her shield, and at only the very last second did Neighsay dodge and fire off a sonic arrow volley in retaliation. Twilight did a spin in midair to avoid the flurry of energy arrows sent her way, before she let out a growl as she looked at Neighsay, vines sprouting from his driver.

Twilight glared beneath her helmet, looking up from the vines to focus on the battle. She switched back to Wizard Arms, planning to fight fire with fire. “Look what you’re doing, Neighsay. Bringing those vines to Equestria could destroy it. Is that how a savior acts? And the reason I hesitate, is this power was made to protect, not to destroy. Can you say the same about your own?”

Neighsay, of course, ignored her, and actually sent several of these vines towards Twilight using them like whips to lash out at her.

“It’s… It’s that driver. The longer those Lockseeds stay on him, the more his sanity deteriorates.” Twilight thought, even as two of the vines grabbed her and she was thrown into a wall covering it in small spider-web style cracks. “If he keeps drawing on more and more power, he could very well turn into one of those Overlord things like my predecessor Kaito did. I’m not sure how Neighsay made those lockseeds, but obviously, he screwed up somewhere along the way.”

Twilight lit her horn, covering herself in flames to burn away the vines holding her captive. “Right now, this fight’s no longer about winning, or seeing who deserves the Kamen Rider title. It’s about saving someone’s life.”

Neighsay ran along the warehouse floor, firing off more sonic arrow blasts at Twilight, who continued to run alongside him trying to outpace the Rider rapidly turning Overlord. She fired back with the WizarSwordGun sending out a series of silver bullets towards Neighsay, ones that actually sought out their target.

Twilight then changed into Mango Arms, ignoring the Driver’s usual “Fight of Ham~mer!” proclamation and went mace to katana with Neighsay.

“Neighsay, you have to stop this!” Twilight cried as all around them, cracks began to open and elementary Inves began to spill out of them. “Look at what’s going on all around you! Ask yourself, would a savior let these monsters run amuck?” she shouted, spinning around and hoisting her mango punisher up behind her to avoid a strike from behind by Neighsay.

The former chancellor didn’t answer, simply bringing his sonic arrow down over his head towards Twilight. She rolled out of the way, and slammed a different lockseed into her belt. “Soiya! Watermelon Arms! Midare-dama, Ba-Ba-Ba-Bang!”

Letting loose with a flurry of shots from the gatling gun she now carried, she quickly set about knocking Neighsay back and taking down the Inves before they got their hands on any of the Helheim fruits and evolved.

“Breaching!” a voice called. “We know you’re in there Neighsay. Come out with your hands up!”

Suddenly, the door smashed in, with Galaxy Squad in full Ranger get up and his two lieutenants Rumble Spear and Iron Phalanx in their Kurokage Shin armor. Other members of the Night Guard were with him, clad in regular Kurokage trooper wear.

“Royal Dino Punch!” Galaxy cried out as he smashed his fist into an Inves' chest caving it in sending the remains of the body flying across the room. “Leave these freaks to us, Prinţesă, you deal with Neighsay!”

Galaxy grimaced at the sight before him, the Inves advancing on him and his men. He was so glad Gilda put the call in to help out. Looks like Twilight needed it.

Twilight nodded, turning her shield to Neighsay as she shifted back to Apple Arms. “Thank you, Galaxy! Burn those vines if you can!”

“And thank you, Gilda,” Twilight mentally added, knowing it was only her who could have alerted Galaxy to this crisis. “Seriously, thank you.”

Galaxy turned to his Kurokage Trooper squad. “Remarcat. Ei bine, ai auzit-o! Du-te la asta! Ardeți și ardeți! Ca flacăra unui dragon!” he ordered, and several of them brought out flamethrowers as Twilight and Neighsay continued dueling with their swords outside the warehouse.

Twilight put her limited training to its best, thrusting her shield forward to parry a blow and gave herself an opening to counter. In the background, she could hear the dying screeches of Inves as they were -presumably- charred to a crisp.

She then gathered up some magic, and formed a small drill boring into Neighsay’s armor before she sliced him across the chest twice using his shock to her advantage. She’d infused her sword with her own magic to strengthen the blows.

“Credit where credit’s due, that’s some strong armor.” Twilight admitted if only to herself. She wracked her brain, an idea forming. “Wait a moment, he’s treating this like a normal fight, protecting his head and vitals. But we’re Riders, there’s something else he should be protecting.”

Twilight feinted with her sword, getting the stallion to guard his face. Time seemed to slow down, she knew she’d only have one shot to get this to catch him unaware. Her feint dropped, and she thrust her sword at his lockseed.

Slashing right through it, and the belt, both the Sengoku driver and the Pomegranate lockseed fell to the ground in two pieces. The Blood Orange one remained intact, and Twilight pocketed it even as Neighsay’s transformation ended. Chances are, that lockseed might come in handy later on. Never could be too careful.

Twilight sighed in relief, turning back towards the warehouse to help finish the fight with the Inves. She left Neighsay where he was, she wasn’t in the mood to continue saying anything to the misguided stallion.

“W-Why…?” Neighsay whispered as he saw Twilight’s retreating form as she changed into Banana Arms, his vision beginning to fail him as he lost consciousness.

“A Kamen Rider protects the lives and smiles of others,” Twilight answered simply, looking over her shoulder at him. “Even those that don’t deserve it. An inferior human taught me that.”

With that, Neighsay slipped into unconsciousness.

The Animarium:

Twilight and Gilda weren’t the only ones who had been doing some training actually. With no small amount of reluctance, Emily had been accepted back into the fold and was now giving proper lessons to Robert, using only wooden swords.

Mind you, that didn’t mean she was exempt from a little bit of punishment, as she was unfortunate enough to find out.

“Hey… Wait a tick,” Robert said, snapping his fingers slightly after finishing up with the latest lesson. “I think… I think…” he said, continuing to snap his fingers as he struggled to ‘remember’ something he’d learned at SPD before he did so and an absolutely evil smile that his Zord probably would have been proud of came to his face. “Isn’t there this… well, rule I should say about all new Rangers having to have to wash the Zords?”

Lightning knew perfectly well that this was bullshit -Then again, maybe not given where Robert trained to become a police officer- but given what exactly she’d put Robert through she was willing to go along with it. Nobody touched her adoptive brother/eternal Ranger Rival except her and lived to tell the tale.

“Hey yeah, I remember that rule! We put you through it when you joined, and then Galaxy, and then Shining, and then Daring and then Celestia…” she went on counting off the names on her fingertip, sharing this evil smile. “Oh, and especially Trixie!” Lightning giggled childishly. Sunburst and Vapor shared a look, and swallowed.

“By Mystic Mother…” they thought in unison. “They’ve become two of a kind. Scary.”

“But… But those Wild Zords, they’re like thirty feet tall! At least!” Emily sputtered.

“Sorry Ems, but the shoe’s on the other hoof now.” Lightning remarked.

“...I didn’t make such a rule…” Shayla murmured before Sunset looked at her.

“We’ll let them go along with their boneheaded jokes for now, I need a bit of a laugh. Besides, when things escalate too far -and believe me they will with those two- I’ll put an end to things,” she whispered.

“If you say so…” Shayla trailed off.

“You first start with the Kitsune Zord,” Robert said, handing Emily a bucket and then a mop. Emily just balked at this. “Be careful, I hear he reeeeeeally loovvves getting his back scrubbed!” he cackled with delight. He admitted this was rather on the vindictive side, but after being put in trauma by Emily’s insane idea of training he wanted to get back some of his pride. And have a bit of a lark along the way.

“I do not, you baka-kisame!” the Kitsune Zord snapped and of course, Robert ignored him as always even as the Zord continued to rant and rave in his head as Emily sighed and walked off. “When I get my hands on you, I’m going to rip and tear you limb from limb!”

“Nothing I’ve heard before…” Robert singsonged to him with a small roll of his eyes before fist bumping Lightning.

“Good one ‘Bucky’,” he commented with a small snigger before making a small gesture with his hands mimicking an explosion. “Now blow it up!”

Lightning simply looked confused. Robert facepalmed. He shouldn’t have been all that surprised, Lightning was not the type to be seen watching Bill Nye.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough you two. You’ve had your fun,” Sunset sighed, having to bite her hand to keep from busting out laughing at the two numbskulls she had to put up with as teammates, and in one case a boyfriend. “Emily, you can drop the bucket and mop! They’re just screwing about with you!”

“SERIOUSLY!?!” Emily screamed throwing her hands up in the air in frustration at being had. “...I should have realized, Mike told me about this friend of his named Trent having this exact same prank being pulled on him,” she grumbled before walking off into the jungle.

“Ah well, we tried,” Robert admitted with a small sigh. “...I suppose the joke doesn’t work so well on veteran Rangers. Guess we’ll have to find a new way to haze her.”

“...We’re lucky she isn’t hazing us, and that she’s too sweet for that.”

“Give her time…” Robert swallowed nervously knowing exactly what they said about the nice ones. Syd was evidence of that. ...Or maybe it was something they said about blondes. He wasn’t sure. “She’ll get us back for that, I know it. I just know it.”

“Listen, there’s something we need to talk about,” Sunset stated, and almost at once the air went deathly still. They could tell she was serious enough, as the tone alone carried a lot of weight. Hell, just her actually speaking up at all and not letting Robert and Lightning goof off -which she’d long given up trying to stop- was an indicator that something was deathly wrong.

“Is there a… problem?” Sunburst asked trepidatiously, not sure if he really wanted to know.

“Yeah, not long before the whole Inspiration Manifestation incident, or maybe while it was going on even, I was in Canterlot tracking down a lead. Went to the Charcoal Grill Org’s restaurant, and found that he and Crow were packing up. Like, packing up and planning on never coming back packing up.”

“Oh, I don’t like where this is going…” Sunburst muttered. “They know something about what Thrax is planning, don’t they, something we don’t. There’s only one reason they’d pack up like that. It’s that Thrax’s endgame is so destructive, and so deadly the best place to be is… Well, anywhere besides Equestria.”

“E-Exactly,” Sunset replied with a small quiver of fear in her voice, her body shaking and shuddering.

“Easy there Sunset, don’t rush yourself,” Shayla said as she steadied her friend, handing her a cup of tea before gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “Just speak slowly, and speak calmly.”

“N-No, there’s no beating around the bush with this. Crow said, and I quote: “No seriously, like get the Hell out of here. The Great Dragon, he’s returning. I don’t know where Thrax found him, I seriously don’t but somehow he did. And now, there’s soon to be a ser-

Robert’s eyes widened the moment the phrase ‘The Great Dragon’ came out of Sunset’s mouth, and he let out one tiny little word uttered in simple honest to god terror: “Serpentera.”

At once, all eyes turned to him. “Woah, woah, wait!” Lightning stammered out. “I… I thought Serpentera was defeated. Like blown up with a holy weapon defeated!”

“...Of all the times for someone to remember their Ranger history.” Robert muttered breathlessly, as he took a moment to collect himself and sit down on the fountain.

“No… No, that bike of Coles’ was powerful yes, but not exactly holy weapon status. The only way that Serpentera could have defeated during that Forever Red mission,” Sunburst said before swallowing nervously knowing perfectly well the bombshell he was about to drop. He looked at Navi, who nodded wordlessly. He had to tell them. “...Was that if that one was just simply the prototype. The real one was never destroyed, it was probably stored off-world somewhere.”

“...And now Thrax has it.” Emily murmured. “How do we… I mean… Can we even…?” she whispered, gasping out for air and beginning to hyperventilate.

“Honestly, for the first time,” Sunburst whispered. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”

Author's Notes:

So... That just happened.

Massive thanks to Shagohad and Thunderclap for their contributions on this chapter. Shago for Flash Fire, and Thunder for the Twilight VS Neighsay duel.

Next time, the one you've been waiting for. Zen-Aku Vs Koragg, the rematch.