Author's Notes:

Fair warning, massive spoilers for the ending of Kyurangers in this chapter, so if you're still on that series or haven't watched it... Uh, oops?

The Shining Armor:

“Explain to me what happened, all over again,” Stardust said walking along the halls of the ship. “You’re saying to me that some Baron took two of my team and tossed them only Mom knows where?”

“...Yeah, uh, that’s basically what happened,” the Doctor stated. In the background, the communications station for Dark Matter was beginning to blossom with small explosions before finally going up in a massive one that cut it clean in two. All the useable data had already been transferred off by Stripped Gear and a technical team before magical explosives had been laid and detonated. “Look, I applaud them for wanting to stop another threat, I really do, but that was just foolish.”

“And tell me Doctor,” Stardust said whirling around and poking the man in the chest with his cane. “Why didn’t you go and stop them? You consider yourself something of a savior right? So why didn’t you save my team?”

“L-Like I said, it happened too fast, and besides by the time I could do anything Nero or whatever he called himself had thrown up a barrier!”

“A barrier you didn’t even try and breach!” Stardust bellowed grabbing the Doctor by the neck and slamming him into a bulkhead. All the while, he’d grabbed the man’s sonic screwdriver and pocketed it. He figured if the Doctor couldn’t use it to save his team, he wasn’t worthy of having it. “If you’re the Doctor, the man who claims to make people better why the hell didn’t you do so in this case? You could have made them smart enough to not challenge an unknown threat on their fuckin’ bloody own!”

Panting and sweating, Stardust released the Doctor and turned around to the small crowd of crewmembers who had started to gather. “What are you looking at?” he shouted. “You’ve all got jobs to do! So… Go ahead and get back to work! Come on, we’ve got two members missing and nobody gets left behind! We will not be leaving Keel’s orbit till we retrieve our lost crewmates, got it?” he bellowed.

The crew members, mumbling to themselves under their breath and shuffling their hooves slowly departed from the corridor as Stardust threw his hands up in the air in frustration and nickered. “...Nutter.” the Doctor muttered largely to himself once the alicorn was out of earshot. But the pony was right, much as the Doctor hated to admit it. He should have done something, anything really to help and instead, he froze up for one minute too long. “Some fine excuse for a Doctor I am…”

As for Stardust, the stallion continued to grumble angerly to himself even as he reached his quarters. Flurry was waiting for himself outside to try and talk to him, but he brushed her off with a mutter of “Save it…” before collapsing on his bed, falling face forwards. Dimming the lights, he sighed and tried to get some sleep. Maybe an idea of how to help the Doctor would come to him in the morning. For now, Flashfire and Coldcast would have to fend for themselves. With any luck, they landed in some safe universe with nothing to put them in any real danger. Maybe they landed in that universe Flurry had told him about, the one with the other Rangers and those wolves. At least, if they landed in that universe maybe they could lend a helping hand to those Rangers who sounded like they needed all the help they could get.

Rolling over onto his back as he looked up to the ceiling, which displayed a holographic image of his home galaxy, a spiral formation he thought on how far the ships had come. In just a few short months, they were far away from Equus and while they were contending with the Dark Matter syndicate they’d found several planets that could house them perfectly. Keel for example. It was a heavily forested world, with a perfect atmosphere for breathing and the inhabitants didn’t really seem to mind others all that much. ...Mind you, saving them from Dark Matter may have had something to do with that, Stardust reasoned, so it might have been impossible to tell how they would have reacted in the long run. Granted, for whatever reason the planet’s spiritual leader seemed to be infatuated with Pharynx -the grumpy old ‘Ling- despite being half his age. She could probably welcome the Equestrians into the world if she wanted and soothe the people into accepting them.

Idily tossing his Draco Kyutama into the air and catching it, he sighed before a small voice in the back of Stardust’s mind asked: “So, you’re still not telling him on how you gave him the idea for the Kyutamas?”

That much was true, Stripped Gear’s ideas for the Kyutamas -at least the Skill ones anyways- were not his own. Stardust, while programming Stripped Gear had slipped a few ideas of his own into the cyborg’s brain. Personally, Stardust at times wondered why if he had the ideas for most of the Skill Kyutamas, why didn’t he create any himself and let his ‘son’ do all the work? Perhaps it was this. Perhaps maybe he wanted his 'son' to feel a sense of accomplishment at doing something? All fathers wanted their sons to make something of themselves and feel pride for them.

But the fact of the matter was, he’d implanted the ideas in his ‘son’s’ head, and had given him energy direct from the body of Discord himself calling it nebula gas and just let him run wild with it. Personally, Stardust wasn’t quite sure how Discord died in the first place, given he was a spirit of chaos and all that but Stardust often theorized maybe… maybe he’d died of a broken heart. Fluttershy being the first, but as soon as all of his other and only friends had passed he just lost that will to live. Maybe that wasn’t the case, but it was the one Stardust liked to think of being the truth. Mind you, he wasn’t proud of defiling a hero of Equus’ corpse, even if that little voice in the back of his mind told him it was for the betterment of Equestria and it’s future. To make them evolve into the heroes they needed to defeat Dark Matter or any other threats they might possibly have faced.

“Still makes me sick to my stomach though… Discord was like an uncle to me, I suppose. Don’t remember him very well, but all the same, I do have vague childhood memories of him making me laugh with his tricks. And here I am, defiling his body even if it’s for a good cause!” Stardust thought to himself in disgust.

“But when love turns to hate…” that same little voice in the back of his mind asked. “What are you supposed to do? Run away like a scared little filly, or stand and fight?”

Meanwhile, Jabari was going through the data recovered from the comms station before it went up. What he was most curious in was the possibility of an old Equestrian signal being picked up by the station and was frantically trying to patch it up. It had gotten to the point where he’d shooed all of the lab assistants out of his laboratory.

“Come on… Come on…” Jabari muttered before swearing and slamming a hand on the table. The damn signal was too old to even make heads or tails of it. “...Fucking junk Dark Matter technology and fucking junk I have to work with!” he shouted throwing his hands up in the air and choking back a sob. “...Why… Just when I had a chance to finally figure out what happened… why did everything have to crap out on me…?”

Hearing the young stallion’s sniffling as he walked past the lab, the Doctor peered his head in and his footsteps going unheard gently walked up behind Jabari.

“Hey, you alright?” the Doctor asked laying a hand gently on his shoulder. “If… If you want, I can leave…” he said. “I’ve… I’ve got other things to do anyways, like trying to redeem myself for my error in judgment earlier…”

Truth be told, he needed an excuse to leave. He wasn’t that good on dealing with crying people, stallions or otherwise. Pitiful as the sight was, the Doctor felt really awkward intruding.

“No… No,” Jabari murmured wiping away his tears. “It’s… It’s fine. Everything’s… Fine.” he muttered.

“Doesn’t look fine to me…” the Doctor trailed off, being careful about this situation. Last thing he wanted was for the zorse to turn him into something like say, a frog. He figured as intelligent as Jabari seemed to be, he probably knew how to do it. So needless to say, the Doctor was very wary on how he phrased certain things around him. “Or is a crying stallion a good thing from where you come from?” he deadpanned raising an eyebrow as he did so.

“Yeah, suppose you got me there,” Jabari admitted. “Alright, don’t know why I’m talking to you about this but-”

“Hey, I’m a trustworthy guy!” the Doctor replied. Jabari raised an eyebrow and the Doctor laughed sheepishly. “...Okay, maybe not that trustworthy.”

“...Well, no turning back at this point,” Jabari sighed. “You saw me blubbering like a little schoolfilly, so I might as well explain myself.”

“Did you have to use that particular turn of phrase? “No turning back”, that's almost as bad as “Nothing could possibly go wrong”, or “This is gonna be the best Christmas Walford's ever had!” Trust me, avoid those words if at all costs. That’s like jinxing yourself, that is,” the Doctor pointed out before Jabari glared harshly at him. “...Righty-o… Shutting up now!”

“Long long time ago, when I was just about… five years old I suppose Equus got the idea to go for space travel once again billions of years after the disaster that was the Phoenix. That explosion scared everybody straight, kept them from wanting to see the stars. Right foolish if you ask me. If you have the technology, what’s stopping you from going ahead and trying again?” Jabari asked. “But nope, nobody wanted to. If space could claim one of their heroes, what chance would some normal pony have? Now, fast forwards a couple billion years when the planet is going to freeze over and eventually become inhospitable to anyone. Space travel is suddenly looking like a very viable idea. So cue Project Mercury, or as it would later be called Project Horizons. Dear old dad… he decided to be one of the first cosmonauts to test the advances in space travel technology made since then.”

“...Oh, I can see where this is going…” the Doctor murmured to himself shaking his head.

“Yeah, it worked up to a point. The shuttlecraft launched alright, and I saw it from my vault but eventually, it lost contact with the planet. That was a little over a decade ago. Whether my dad’s dead or alive, I don’t know. But I intend to find out. That’s why I chose to become a Kyuranger, to find my father.” Jabari stated holding up an old photo of a golden-furred horse smiling heavily as he looked at a far younger Jabari playing with a toy rocket while a zebra mare looked on fondly.

“...And finding out this comms station had recorded an Equestrian transmission reignited your hopes, am I correct?” the Doctor asked with Jabari nodding in reply. “That’s good. Never give up on your dreams. Even if this lead turns out to be bunk, there will always be others out there… Somewhere amongst the stars. And I’ll help you every step of the way.”

“No. As much as I appreciate the offer,” Jabari sighed as he got up and walked off. “This is something I have to do by myself. No ifs and or buts about it, family matters are family matters. You understand?”

“Yeah, I suppose I do. But you have to understand this as well. Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person. Don’t always get so wrapped up in your work that you forget the people around you, and let them pass you on by.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jabari asked.

“You’ll figure it out, someday…” the Doctor said looking towards a photo on Jabari’s desk. One of him and a barely smiling white feathered griffon. “Now Coldcast, whatever could have happened to you…?”

Kyurangers Universe: Planet Luth, Kojishi System

The Doctor’s question would be answered easily enough really, considering Coldcast along with his adoptive brother found themselves walking through a grand garden. A massive castle could be seen up atop a high cliff, lion heads adorning the castle battlements every so often. Coldcast, looking at Lucky’s attire -a white coat with red lion heads- figured this was very much an intentional design choice.

“I apologize for dropping in on you like this,” Flashfire admitted. He was honestly surprised when this Lucky character didn’t even blink at him being a unicorn. If he was in a different dimension like Nero had said, then chances are Equestria may not have existed here. So he or any other unicorns for that matter probably didn’t exist either. But then again, given Garu -whom Flashfire had known to have seen aboard his ship- existed here who was to say really? “Believe me, wasn’t exactly our choice in the matter.”

“It could have been,” a nasty little voice in the back of Flashfire’s mind said. “If you hadn’t been so stupid in challenging Nero when you didn’t know what he could do. You knew he could travel dimensions, by his own admission no less!”

Flashfire made a small growl and pushed the thought out of his head. “So, you’re Lucky, is it? Interesting choice of names,” he remarked cordially. Truth be told, he was frankly feeling rather nervous. He was hardly a diplomat really, and given the fact that Lucky looked like royalty with his manner of dress and there was a castle in the background it didn’t take long for Flashfire to put two and two together. Needless to say, Flashfire didn’t want to screw this one up even if his track record with diplomacy had been less than… stellar. Personally, back on Vela Flashfire did always wonder if he’d made the right decisions liberating the people from that idiot god wannabe. Granted, he was being cruel just to be kind, but there was always that little fact that there was a very good chance the people could have turned on him, He was lucky he wasn’t lynched if he was honest even if Stripped and a few others did tell him he made the best of a really bad situation. Granted, there was a remarkably huge difference between dealing with a desperate people with a false god and a royal who seemed to be a genuinely nice person.

“Actually, I don’t mind unexpected guests,” Lucky stated in return as they walked past a small babbling brook. If Flashfire didn’t know better, he swore he saw a very tiny red lion -about the size of a toy- drinking from this brook. He blinked, must have been his imagination getting the better of him. Way too many lions around here. “Plus, me getting mad over someone dropping in me would be frankly hypocritical considering the way I er…” he stammered, his face flushing a bright red.

“Way you what…?” Coldcast asked with a slight grin.

“...I may have met my future teammates when my space speeder broke and I crash landed right in the middle of a battle…” Lucky finished, and Coldcast burst out laughing.

“Well, that’s one way to make an impression león rojo grande!” Coldcast said, and Flashfire blinked. Sometimes he forgot what nationality his petit frère was at times.

“How’d you figure out who he was so quickly, grr?” Garu asked. “He hasn’t said a word he’s Shishi Red!”

“...Wait, he’s a Red Ranger?” Coldcast blinked before idly tossing his Change Kyutama up in the air. “...Shoulda guessed I suppose. I was only making comment on the red on his coat and the ludicrous amounts of lions around here.”

“Ah, I see…” Garu trailed off watching Coldcast toss the Kyutama up in the air again. “Wait, where’d you get my Kyutama, grr?” he said reaching for it.

“Your Kyutama? This is my Kyutama!” Coldcast stated. “You’ve got one hanging around your neck, dumbass!” he shouted pointing to Garu’s neck where around it lay indeed his own Kyutama on a small chain.

“...Oh, so it is!” Garu muttered. “My bad!”

“...I’m surrounded by imbéciles,” Flashfire muttered. “Annnnnnnyyyyways, suppose I haven’t properly introduced myself. Commander Flashfire of the Shining Armor, and Cerberus Seagreen.” he said sticking out his hand and letting Lucky shake it.

“So, you’re a Kyuranger too? I didn’t know the Cerberus could be tamed completely, nor did it pick out a Ranger to pilot it… The thing ran amuck on Earth when we unearthed it, and we needed the Hercules Kyutama just to rile it back into our grasp.”

“Plus, I’ve never even heard of this Shining Armor!” Garu pointed out.

“...Right, universal differences here. I presume you, being the Red Ranger with a lion theme pilot the Leo Voyager or whatever it’s called here?” Flashfire said rubbing his head. He was beginning to get a headache. Now he saw why Coldcast mentioned how much he hated interdimensional travel. Too many constants and variables to keep track of.

“Yosh!” Lucky stated pumping his fist. “The girl has never driven me wrong yet! I presume it’s the same way with you and your Cerberus Voyager?”

“...Yes, although I don’t assign a gender to it. It’s just a machine after all.” Flashfire stated.

“...And yet I notice you call the Leo Minor Voyager boy at times…” Coldcast snickered. “Don’t pretend you don’t like it grand frère!”

“Wait, you have Caesar in your universe?” Lucky asked in surprise, his and Garu’s eyes widening briefly in shock. “...Have to say, I wasn’t expecting that. Yossha, lucky!” he shouted punching the air once more.

“...Oh, so you’re one of those hot-blooded ones?” Flashfire deadpanned. “Absolutely lovely.” he said although if you looked closely you could detect a small ghost of a smile. Lucky, in some ways -perhaps with his positive outlook and can-do attitude- did remind him of his petit frère.

“What’s wrong with being hot-blooded?” Lucky asked, grabbing Flashfire by the shoulder and pulling him close. “I mean, it gets you all fired up when something goes your way!”

“...Please don’t do that.” Flashfire stated not really pleased with his invasion of personal space. There were only two people in the universe who he allowed to get that close. Needless to say, neither one was Lucky.

Lucky and Garu just laughed as the foursome made their way up to the castle. Once inside, Lucky treated his guests to dinner. It was the only polite thing to do really. Flashfire observed Lucky did seem to adhere to the Golden Rule, namely, treat others as you would want to be treated. Not that this was a bad thing of course, Flashfire would have encouraged it but it boggled the mind to him -even an Equestrian- how someone could be this cheery or this nice!

“Then again,” Flashfire admitted. “I suppose I haven’t had much to be cheery about for a good long while…”

“So, in your universe you’re fighting Dark Matter instead of the Space Shogunate Jark Matter?” Garu asked eating some meat off a bone. “...Syrian… I thought one universe filled with those creeps was enough…”

“Hey, if they were defeated in your universe,” Flashfire said placing his Kyutama on the table. “Then chances are we can kick their derrières in our universe right?”

“If we ever get back to it, that is…” Flashfire thought, that same nasty little voice in the back of his head returning once more.

“Yeah, friendship is a powerful thing,” Lucky said doing that air punch once more. “With it, you can definitely take on the universe! If you ask me, those Dark Matter guys should really be checking their horoscopes and testing their luck against you lot.”

“Yeah, but so far we’ve only managed to free 2 and a half galaxies out of eighty-eighty. This will not be an easy job, no matter how you look at it,” Flashfire replied his eyes widening briefly when he saw that same little lion from before -this had to be Caesar- jump up on the table, grab a bite of food and start playing with the Cerberus Kyutama like it was a ball of yarn.

“Down boy!” Garu shouted with Caesar letting out a small hiss and swiping at him before a stern glare from Garu and another shout got him to obey.

“...Said from the dog to the cat.” Coldcast murmured before taking a bite of his meat. “Damn, this is good! No, seriously, this is maldita buena mierda! Spada would be jealous!”

“Wait, you have a Spada in your universe? Has he managed to open up a nine-star restaurant like he has here?” Lucky asked excitedly.

“...Trust me, if we had the time, the Changeling probably would. He’s certainly got the ability to do so,” Flashfire agreed. “He’s easily the best cook a stallion could meet, and definitely the man I’d have chosen to wield the Chameleon Green powers…”

“Wait, green? Our Spada is a yellow here!” Garu shouted in shock eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. “...I’m sorry, I just can’t imagine Spada of all people as a ninja…”

“Hey, a Changeling makes the perfect ninja. Trust me. Spend enough time around them, and even then you’ll still nearly jump out of your fur!”

“What’s a Changeling?”

“Shapeshifting bugs who come in many colors and are renowned for their stealth abilities?” Flashfire asked slowly. “...You don’t have those?”

“...Well, we might but from the sounds of it for all we know they may not be easy to find here in our universe…” Garu stated before his eyes looked towards one of the suits of armor in the dining hall. One he could have sworn was watching him. “For all we know one could be here right now! There isn’t… is there?” he asked looking towards Lucky and grabbing onto his arm nervously. “T-Tell me there isn’t!”

“I dunno... “ Lucky trailed off booping the wolf-like creature on the nose. “If there was, it’d be awfully embarrassing for us when we-”

“Please, I’d rather not hear about any of that over dinner…” Flashfire muttered rubbing his temples before taking another sip of wine. He figured he’d need it really. “Merde…”

Coldcast meanwhile was laughing his ass off, barely able to stay in his seat. Eventually, the conversation quieted down and it turned darker and more solemn. “So, if you have a Dark Matter in this universe then I can only assume you have a Don Armage as well right…?” Lucky asked swallowing nervously at the thought.

“Unfortunately yes. Right before we got sent here,” Flashfire sighed. “Me and several of my teammates had a run-in with him. Not physically mind you, but as a hologram.”

“Creepy as all hell, let me tell you!” Coldcast shuddered. “I’m amazed he’s still alive after what our Leo Red, the Doctor did to him. Apparently if what he said is corrected, he burned through all of his Kyutama’s energy and all of what his people call regenerations as well just to deliver a blow he thought would kill him.”

“Wait, there weren’t any guys named Cuervo with this Doctor of yours were there?” Lucky asked.

“No… Not that I know of, although the Doctor really doesn’t say much on his past,” Flashfire admitted. “One of the many reasons I can’t trust him really, but that’s besides the point. Why do you ask?”

“Armage… at least our Armage has a nasty little habit of possessing people. When Cuervo lay dying after this big huge battle on the planet Corvus against Armage where a friend of ours -Tsurugi- fought him, Armage decided to possess Cuervo and gain a new body in the process.”

“...:Lovely,” Flashfire muttered. “...Still, it might explain why Don Armage is still alive in our universe. When I get back to the Shining Armor, I’ll have a few words with the Doctor. After I throw him in the brig for withholding information from us!” he snarled his horn flickering a brief light green in anger.

“Wait wait, it might not be like that,” Lucky stated. “For all we know, you Armage is simply powerful enough to survive an attack like the one you described. Scary thought all the same, but if he doesn’t need to possess someone that’s good… right?”

“...Yeah, I suppose.” Flashfire admitted. “Still, possession…”

“If you think that was bad, then you’re going to love this one,” Garu stated. “Cuervo, despite framing himself as a friend to Tsurugi, was hardly anything but grr! No, all he wanted to do -the little feathered bastard- was just wanting to ride the coattails of Tsurugi's fame and be remembered in his legend. That’s all there was to it!”

“Sounds a bit like a guy from my planet’s past, Stygian. Mind you, he let himself be possessed by a dark force known only as the Pony of Shadows because he was jealous of his friends and their deeds and never being appreciated. He wasn’t a bad sort, and after he was freed from that darkness was finally recognized as the hero and strategic expert he always was.” Flashfire replied. “Somehow, I doubt that was the case for your Cuervo.”

“...I do wonder at times if Tsurugi had recognized him more things might have turned out differently, but then again from what Tsurugi told me he had nothing but fondness for him right up till the end. Hell, even after Cuervo was revealed as Armage, Tsurugi wanted to save him in a sense,” Lucky said. “...I like to see the best in people, I really do, but I don’t think there was any good in Cuervo. Tsurugi was just blinded by his memories for his friend because trust me Cuervo was not a nice person. It’s very telling that unlike Armage's other hosts, Cuervo actually maintained his complete identity, allowing Armage to use him as a host to take over and subjugate the universe. They just had personalities that similar in some aspects. That’s what he was like.”

“If I may… How was Armage finally defeated, maybe we can take a few notes here?” Coldcast asked.

“Well now,” Garu said rubbing the back of his head. “That’s quite a tale! Lucky here got the bright idea, after seeing our commander Xiao get absorbed by Armage to get all of us to throw our own Kyutamas inside him as well and see what would happen.”

“It’s slightly more complex than that, but yeah,” Lucky agreed. “Armage was apparently born from the despair and suffering of the peoples of this universe and when the twelve Kyutamas were thrown inside him he had a bit of a breakdown and then absorbed everyone else. Needless to say, this backfired on him quite badly. Granted, it took quite a bit of luck on our parts, but we managed to convince everyone he absorbed to fight back and empower us with their hope. And in the end…?”

“You took the universe back,” Flashfire smiled. “Goddess above, chances are I’d have to see that to believe it, but it doesn’t sound like something you can make up due to how outright weird it actually is. Sounds exactly like something out of an old horror novel, your Armage. Complete eldritch abomination, him. Which scares me even more to think about what our Armage is like…” he sighed having suddenly lost his appetite putting down his fork and moving his salad bowl away. “Lucky, if I may…?”

“Sure,” he said. “Ranger to Ranger right?” he asked leading Flashfire away from the two blue Rangers. Behind them, as they walked they could hear the sound of both Garu and Coldcast morphing and then a shout.

“Hey, we have the same costume!” Coldcast exclaimed in delight.

“I know right! Garu, Ookami Blue! You?”

“Coldcast Lulamoon-Bredsida, Lupus Blue!”

Flashfire and Lucky shared a laugh at the two’s antics even as Lucky led Flashfire out onto a balcony, only the stars above them as the two stared out at the great expanses of vast forests and lakes that made up this part of Luth.

“...So, what’s the issue?” Lucky asked.

“Gah, I don’t even know anymore… Leadership doubts maybe? It’s just I keep on making stupid mistake after stupid mistake. Like for example, challenging the Baron who threw me and Coldcast here without any real plan aside from pummeling his ass into the ground.”

“You learn to live with it, and keep going,” Lucky said. “God knows I’ve had doubts about my capabilities more than once. But Xiao, he told me this really. I can still hear him, even now saying this to me. “Lucky… Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader. Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine.” I kept those words to heart, and even if I made mistakes I still accepted them. It’s par for the course of being a leader, nobody’s perfect. You make mistakes, you stumble, but then you pick yourself right back up and learn from them.”

“I know, and forgive me if I sound like I’m whining here but sometimes it feels like I have-”

“The whole world at your back?” Lucky nodded. “Pushing you, and it keeps putting pressure onto you? Yeah… Been there. But I’ve learned to deal with it. Part of being a leader, and in my case a King as well.”

“Yeah. A wise man once said, very wise in fact… He said this. “A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all morality.” Flashfire agreed. “We do not let our worries, our fears, our choices define us. We define them. We decide what to do with our worries, and shove them to the wind to be what we are needed to be…” Flashfire stated. “...Now, if only I could listen to myself more often. Instead, I have to keep having friends knocking sense back into me.”

“That’s what they’re for, to pick you up when you fall,” Lucky agreed. “To be honest, I’m proud to include you in that list. Friendship doesn’t have to be contained to one universe after all…” he smiled before that smile faded. “And truth be told, I could use an extra hand or two at the moment.”

“Eh?” Flashfire asked.

“It’s about my kingdom. Something’s been going on, something… odd.” Lucky said, resting his hands on the wrought-iron balcony railing. “Fires with no discernable causes. I was hoping to contact my friends in the Rebellion but for right now I wanted to handle this on my own. But that’s gone far enough. A village burned down just last week. I was going to send a message to Xiao and see if he could send anyone but then you guys showed up distracting me from doing so. And seeing as how you and Coldcast are Kyurangers in your own right…” Lucky trailed off with Flashfire nodding in return as Caesar leaped up on his shoulders.

“Well, nothing more needs to be said there,” Flashfire smirked adjusting his coat. “Trust me, it shouldn’t even be a question. People are in danger and need help? That sounds like the job of a Kyuranger right there. Tomorrow, when we’re all rested we’ll go to the scene of the latest attack and see what’s what okyu?” Flashfire asked.

“Okyu!” Lucky said giving a thumbs up before fist-bumping Flashfire. “...Your Xiao does that too?” he laughed.

“Nope, don’t have a space dragon to help us. Instead, we have a pretentious as all hell prince who thinks he’s the Goddess gift to ponykind. Lovely…” Flashfire stated in a tone of complete and utter disgust thinking on what Stardust would look like with a broken nose. It was a very nice fantasy. “But anyways… I promise you this case will be solved. In fact… Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” he continued making Lucky blink.

“Uh…?” he trailed off rather dumbfounded.

“...It’s an Equestrian thing, don’t question it.”

As promised, and quite possibly a case of avoiding idle hands setting in both Coldcast and Flashfire walked down into the villages that very next morning. Or what remained of them anyways. Every last building had been burnt to a crisp, with only the basic foundations left.

“...Okay, this is odd,” Flashfire observed. “No, like seriously this is really odd.”

“Eh?” Garu asked. “It’s a burnt down village. What’s so odd about that?”

“Yes, it’s been burnt down to their it’s foundations, but that’s the oddest thing about it really,” Flashfire commented. “Look around,” he said gesturing to the smoldering remains. “Now, there’s a forest around us yes?”

“Yes, but what are you getting at…?”

“I think I know,” Lucky commented. “He’s right. Any normal village fire… It’d have set the forest around us ablaze. Gah, can’t believe I didn’t notice this sooner!” he said facepalming.

“So, what you’re saying is somehow some arsonist managed to be so very good at his job that he managed to avoid setting fire to the trees while he burnt this village to a crisp?” Garu commented. “That’s impossible! Nobody’s that good!”

“Apparently, someone is,” Flashfire noted. “I suspect, no I hypothesize that what we’ve got here is a precision arsonist of sorts. Someone who didn’t just go take a torch from somewhere and set fire to a building and watched the flames catch the next building alight and so forth. No, in some strange way they were precise and somehow targeted each building and each building only. Like a sniper rifle that shot flames, if you will.”

“See, now that does sound ludicrous!” Garu barked.

“Ludicious yes, but seemingly the only explanation. My only question is this,” Flashfire posited. “How did the village guards not see the sniper, and if they did why didn’t they take him down? Nobody’s that ineffectual!”

“...Well, our Royal Guards used to be…” Coldcast muttered. “And besides, isn’t it a sniper’s job to not be seen as he takes his shots? That is, if we’re going for this ‘theory’ of yours.”

“...Well, think I’ve got an answer to at least one of your questions anyways,” Garu commented as he walked over to one of the guards, sound asleep. “They fell asleep on the job! Hey you,” he said, slapping the man’s face with his paw. “Wake up! Ya hear me? Wake up!”

“Out cold, this one…” Coldcast murmured, his wings fidgeting nervously. “I don’t like this… Not one bit you hear?”

“Grr, what’s with this strange stamp on his armor, grr?” Garu asked gesturing to this massive red stamp mark on the guard’s armor.

“Feeling traces of some magical residue…” Flashfire noted as he ran his finger along the stamp. “Something I haven’t felt since… No, it couldn’t be.”

“Couldn’t be what?” Lucky asked. “If you think you know something, go on. Share it!”

“It’s a working theory in my mind right now, and I’d rather not share it until I’m sure of myself.” Flashfire replied.

“Well, isn’t that just lovely…” Garu muttered seemingly not taking notice his fellow Blue Ranger had left the area. Flashfire however, was more observant and he had. Finding Coldcast sitting on a rock next to the village gates -a pair of white pillars adorned by winged lions- stroking Caesar’s head, Flashfire sat down next to the younger griffon.

“It’s catching up to you, isn’t it?” Flashfire sighed. “The very real possibility we may never make it… home. I’m surprised you don’t blame me, considering I’m part of this whole mess.”

“Yes, that you are but then I’d only be putting the blame on part of the problem. I’m partially responsible as well considering I did very little to stop you,” Coldcast sighed. “Let’s face it grand frère, I should have done more.”

“Maybe, maybe not. We can’t change the past, can we? Even attempting to do so would be foolish. No, we worry about the present and what we can do.”

“And besides, if I’m right then we may be able to get home after all.” Flashfire thought to himself.

“Say we don’t find a way home,” Coldcast asked. “Say we spent an unknown amount of time searching the galaxy for a wormhole back home -and that’s presuming this hypothesized wormhole even takes us back home- and yet we find nothing. Then what?”

“We go on with our lives here in this universe. We change, we adapt as needed. Our crewmembers, the ones back on the Shining Armor, they can adapt as needed to our loss. They’ve got Flurry, and she’s a natural borne leader. Yes, they’ll be down two less Rangers but they will adapt. And that’s presuming there are only nine to ten Kyutamas in our universe. If these two share a constant, then there’s actually twelve legendary Kyutamas out there. So there would be nine saviors regardless.”

“I notice you don’t count Stardust in that…” Coldcast smirked.

“Should I have a reason?” Flashfire remarked. “He’s hardly legendary savior material is he?”

“Nope, he isn-” Coldcast started off with a barking laugh before his eyes widened as he saw a glint atop a hilltop. “Hey, grand frère, look up there. Right up there! Over the crest of that hill!” he shouted.

“Yeah, I see it. Someone’s moving about up there!” Flashfire said and looked towards Caesar. “Go, tell your King that something’s amiss. We’ll go on ahead, have a little look-see!”

As Caeser ran off, Flashfire and Coldcast broke into a sprint as they ran up a forest path following the glint in the sunlight. As soon as they reached the crest of the hill morphing as they did so, they saw it. Two monsters, one massive and red with what looked to be giant stampers on each hand and the other made of black flames with a massive magnifying glass as part of his body.

“Yeah, just as I thought…” Flashfire stated as Crows surrounded the twosome. “The Shadow Line. Knew you were involved in this little incident as soon as I felt that stamp mark on that guard. Awash with the distinctive energy signature you guys put off. Very sloppy.”

“Well, I must admit neither of us was really counting on a unicorn to actually pick up on our signature…” Nero said. “Very clever of you, actually.”

“And I can only presume the plan of attack is to distract everyone with burning villages, sunlight focused through the lens of your guy to cause the flame and guards stamped asleep while you gather the energy you need from this universe am I correct?” Flashfire questioned.

“Right again,” Nero said bowing and doing a tip of his hat. “I must admit, I didn’t really know what planet this exactly was otherwise I would have prepared a stronger defense. Nevertheless, two of my finest monsters, Magnifying Shade and Stamp Shade along with myself against the two of you seem like fine odds. And to make things fair for you, if you defeat us in combat I will send you back to your home universe. Fair bargain?” Nero asked offering up a gentlemen’s shake.

“Noted,” Flashfire said taking the offer. “And trust me, we are going to defeat you.”

“We’ll see,” Nero said as he began going sword to sword against Flashfire leaving Coldcast up against the two Shades. Coldcast avoided the Stamp Shade’s heavy blows but was left wide open for a small focused sunbeam to the chest making him emit a shout of pain before being kicked backwards.

Coldcast extended his wings and flew forwards slashing the Stamp Shade and the Magnifying Shade across the chest with his Astral Claw before smirking as the Stamp Shade’s yellow eyes widened in fear.

“Yeah, I’m just that good la persona repugnante!” Coldcast smirked before Lucky’s boot met the Stamp Shade’s chest sending the creature rolling along the ground.

“And here you wouldn’t let us join in on the fun?” Garu asked as Nero and Flashfire dueled in front of him. “Shame on you!”

Lucky fired his Seiza Blaster at Nero making him stagger back. “Looks sorta familiar, that one…” he mused before pulling out what had to be a truly massive Kyutama and slamming it into his gauntlet.

“What’s up? Super Say the Change!”

Spinning it, he morphed into a white ranger while Garu changed into his own ranger form. The Stamp Shade, seeing he was outnumbered now took a run for it and ran towards the Kuliner.

“...A White Ranger and a Red Ranger in one?” Coldcast rubbed his head kicking a crow in the stomach. “Something’s wrong here…”

“You… You dare threaten my subjects?” Lucky asked angrily. “Get lost, I won’t ask again!”

“The Grand Design must be carried out, so I will not leave!” Nero yelled before sending a massive blast of shadow energy towards Lucky which he blocked with his sword. “Do not interfere!”

“Oh, I dare interfere. As soon as you started threatening my kingdom, then I had to take action. The Miracle Star, Shishi Orion White!”

“The Beast Star, Ookami Blue!”

“The Beast Star, Cerberus Seagreen!”

“The Howling Star, Lupus Blue! Sokkyō Ucha Sentai… Kyurangers!”

“Now…” Flashfire and Lucky said together as they pointed their swords at Nero and his monster. “Time to test your luck!”

Rapidly cutting down the Crows, the Rangers raced towards the Magnifying Shade and Nero.

“You know, if you win this might be the last time we see each other?” Lucky asked slashing the Shade across the chest, before snapping his fingers and opening up warp gates to summon a hoard of weapons to barrage it with.

“Ah, goodbyes are not forever, and like you said,” Flashfire commented grabbing a second sword out of the air and doing a double Regulus Impact to the creature. “Friendship extends beyond interdimensional boundaries right?”

“That I did, yes…” Lucky admitted. “And if this is the case, I can only wish you the best of luck in defeating your foe. But for now, let’s finish off this one yes?”

“Quite!” Flashfire stated readying up his finisher along with Coldcast, Garu, and Lucky readying theirs.

“Do we look there, or there, or where?!” the Magnifying Shade asked as attacks came at him and Nero from all sides. Nero growled and shoved the monster in front of the oncoming Infinish Blast and Twin Star Crashes before taking a run for it.

“Coward!” Flashfire yelled running after Nero.

“I call it pragmatism,” Nero said, the two one again going sword to sword. “Besides, my time is almost up in this universe anyway.”

Flashfire tossed his weapon aside, and grabbed the summoned Ryutsueder out of the air and fired it, the rifle scoring a few shots to Nero’s chest before Nero blasted Flashfire backwards with a wave of shadow energy. Another weapon was summoned, the Houou Blade and once more Nero and Flashfire went sword to sword.

“My offer still stands, if you defeat me in singular combat I will send you and your comrade back to your universe.”

“Believe me, I will do just that!” Flashfire shouted. “Phoenix End!” he roared sending a flaming strike towards Nero sending him staggering back.

“Very… Very well.” Nero admitted as Coldcast ran up with Astral Claw in hand. “You shall have just that,” he stated snapping his fingers and the next thing both of them knew, Coldcast and Flashfire were sent hurtling through universes with the blow of a steam whistle. And when the rush and the roar was over, they found themselves on a familiar forested world.

“Keel…” Flashfire murmured pressing down on his Kyuchanger and sending up a distress beacon. “...I’ll be damned, the man actually kept his word…”

“You were expecting him not to?” Coldcast asked his eyes widening in surprise.

“Eh, there was always that odd chance, yes. But he did do a gentlemen’s agreement and I suspect he would want us out of his hair…” Flashfire mused as Coldcast laughed his head off and the low hum of a Voyager was heard somewhere above the trees...