Disclaimer: Usual stuff. Yes, Pinkie crashes into the 4th wall and shatters it. Nopony else does, only she does. How? Don’t ask me. Anyway, Power Rangers aren’t mine, My Little Pony isn’t mine and names, locales and other trademarked stuff isn’t mine. Everything you don’t recognise is mine. Now on FIMfiction...finally.

Rangers Of Equestria

Chapter 1: Day of Destruction

Unknown place

I fear he will make a move soon.

Is everything ready?

It will have to be. How is the other doing?

He is still grieving. It will take time for him to accept what happened.

He will do his duty, which I am sure of.

Did you feel that?

It is time.

Ponyville

It was another bright and beautiful morning in Ponyville. The pegasi were clearing up the skies and ensuring that everypony had another brilliant day. Twilight Sparkle inhaled deeply as she stepped out of the Library and basked in the morning sun. The purple unicorn hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before since she was up almost all night studying. The Library had so many books on all different subjects and there were books she hadn’t read before and…

And she was rambling in her head again. Staying up all night was a regular occurrence, but the binge last night was strange, even for her. She didn’t know what possessed her to start reading on Interdimensional theory and past military strategies or even why she had wanted to commit the information to memory. It wasn’t as if the Library would be destroyed, right? Unless one listened to whatever Pinkie Pie was rambling on about today about being some in some crossover story and how the world was going to change in a few hours.

Trotting through the streets, she thought about her friends. She knew Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were helping with the weather and whatever else pegasi did. Rarity was in her boutique with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. Applejack was tending the farm and tweaking her apple cellar to ensure there were plenty of apples over the winter. Spike was in the Library psyching himself up to go visit Rarity. That just left Pinkie Pie in Sugarcube Corner. Silently groaning to herself, she walked to the pastry shop and poked her head in.

“Pinkie? Are you in here?”

At once a pink blur slammed into her, throwing her into a conveniently placed hedge. For a brief moment, she didn’t know which way was up or down, but quickly she quickly regained her bearings. Spitting out a hoof-full of leaves, twigs and other assorted plant matter, she looked at Pinkie Pie. The bright pink Earth Pony was bouncing up and down on the spot. Seeing that her friend had finally surfaced from the hedge, Pinkie began speaking.

“Goooooooooood Morning Twilight! What a nice day it is now! Nice for us here, but not that nice for the author! The sun is out but its hidden behind all those clouds and it looks like its going to rain soon and he should really stop writing and get back to work! What if he gets caught? Again? No, don’t look behind you, I can see you and I can see myself, but nopony else can! And now an edit? Stop putting words into my mouth! But if you stop, then I can’t speak! Oh no!”

Twilight blinked hard and then slowly shook her head. Ever since the Gala, Pinkie had gotten it into her head that they were all fictional constructs and stories were being spun of them all the time. As she thought about the hyperactive pony’s ramblings, she started to compare them to what she had read last night. Of course she knew there was only one of her and only one of each of her friends. Only one Equestria, only one set of the Elements…wait. Why was she thinking about the Elements of Harmony? They had vanished soon after the purification of Nightmare Moon and hadn’t been seen since. As she chuckled lightly to herself, she thought about the crazy rumours that had been spreading through the town. Sightings of Princess Luna flying over the town in the dead of night carrying saddlebags of strange objects; it all was just speculation to what was happening.

She frowned lightly as Pinkie cart-wheeled through the air. The next point wasn’t a rumour per se but it was strange nonetheless. From her talks with the others she had noticed the recurring theme of strange chills and shakes that came without warning in the dead of night and vanished without a trace. Of course, she hadn’t told anyone where the shakes and chills had started from on her body…but she had a feeling it was the same area as the rest of them. The tremors and shakes felt like the feeling that she had felt when she had activated the Elements of Harmony…but her connection to the Element of Magic had been cut after the freeing of the Princess.

Of course, she had felt a faint stirring when she had sent Trixie running, but…

The Library exploded.

Ponies ran for cover screaming as wood, books and fire rained down from the sky. The two ponies could only stare in shock as beams of light struck various buildings around them, setting them on fire. Rolling columns of smoke rose from the burning wrecks and ponies tried to free loved ones or save sentimental items…or even to give comfort to those in their last seconds. Twilight could only stare in shock. The Library was her home for the past year and not it had been destroyed in a ball of fire. All of her work, her research and Spike…

Spike had still been in the Library…

Twilight forced her legs to move and shakily started galloping towards the wreck of the Library. Next to her, Pinkie Pie ran as fast as she could while gaping at the destruction. Sucking as much air as she could into her burning lungs, she yelled over the noise of the explosions.

“Twilight! What’s happening? What are you doing?”

“Spike was still inside! If he didn’t get out in time…oh, I don’t know! I don’t know anything at all!”

Tears were streaming down her face and her breath was coming out in ragged gasps. If Spike was gone…no, she couldn’t think about that. She wouldn’t. As they neared the wreckage, all hope faded from Twilight. Nothing but a pile of blazing wood and smouldering pages was left of her home. Her eyes fell on a shredded basket and she felt tears spring to her eyes. Nothing…and no one would have survived.

“Twilight! Anypony! Help!”

The familiar voice drifting on the wind made her pause her mourning. Spike had been in the Library, but she could hear his voice coming from the direction of Carousel Boutique. The two ponies looked at each other and raced in that direction but skidded to a dead halt when they saw the scene in front of them.

Rarity was on the ground in front of the ruins of her business while Spike was tugging at something on the ground, yelling for help. Fluttershy was near him, speaking to something on the ground. Applejack had a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder and was hiding Apple Bloom’s head from something. Above them, Twilight could see Rainbow Dash directing lightning bolts and narrowly avoiding the beams being blasted from below. All of a sudden, Spike paused from what he was doing and ran towards Twilight.

“Get down!”

Inhaling deeply, Spike blasted a spout of green fire from his snout at the space behind the two ponies. All Twilight heard were birdlike screeches of pain and the crackle of burning feathers. Looking behind her, Twilight gasped in shock as a burning form lurched towards her. It looked like a crow, but it was much bigger. Some sort of armour covered its chest and upper wings as it reached toward her. Stumbling back, she summoned a blast of magic and directed it at the creature, pushing it backwards onto blazing rubble. When it didn’t get up again, she slowly backed up to see what Spike had been pulling at.

There on the ground lay Sweetie Belle. She was impaled on a wooden beam that had planted itself into the ground and was stuck. From what she had seen, the beam hadn’t hit anything vital, but it was still distressing to see that much blood come out of somepony that small. Sweetie turned her hear up and smiled shakily at the unicorn, her voice sounding dangerously weak.

“Twilight, I’m going to be fine. Don’t worry, jus…jus take care of Rarity.”

Upon hearing her name, the purple maned unicorn ran to her dying sister’s side and nuzzled her gently. Her glamorous mane was dirty and there were scrapes and cuts on her once pristine body. She whispered something to Sweetie, which seemed to calm her somewhat, and sank back looking utterly defeated. No words would come out of Twilight and she doubted she could find the right words to say. A sudden crash nearby sent them all wheeling around in panic before they saw Rainbow Dash’s crumpled form nearby. She had flown too close to one of the beams and had a hole punched through a wing. The steady rise and fall of her flanks were the only sign Cloudsdale’s greatest flier was still alive.

The sound of heavy footfalls broke the sombre mood surrounding the ponies and their heads all whipped to the source. Striding through the flames was a creature none of them had ever seen before. To Fluttershy’s eyes, it looked similar to one of the fish she had seen in the Everfree Forest – a piranha – but this one was walking upright. It had two arms protruding from its sides and its mouth was seemingly fixed into an evil grin, showing rows of teeth. Dangling from one hand was a pair of fish shaped flutes connected by a chain made of bone. As it neared the ponies, it let out a laugh and spoke; its voice both jovial and menacing.

“Well, what do we have here? Looks like its time for me to dive in and have a feeding frenzy! Say your goodbyes little ponies!”

Time slowed down as the fish brought up one of the flutes to its mouth. Twilight huddled around her friends and waited for the end, when an unfamiliar voice cut the air around them.

“Get off this planet, scum!”

TBC…

Author's Note

Time to use the Author's Notes as a 'Making Of' thing. As stated on the site, I wrote this after my dream with the Zeo Crystals and the ponies. For some odd reason, King Mondo was the bad guy, Spike was Alpha (to Celestia's Zordon) and Luna was the Gold Ranger. Also Tommy (in his Dino Thunder Uniform) was riding Pinkie for some reason.

Decided to not go with the Machine Empire because he wasn't evil enough. Dark Spectre was a possible antagonist but he didn't engage the Rangers directly and Maligore would have been too overused. Rita had her moments but she was goofy straight out of the Dumpster. I needed an antagonist who would strike fear in all who saw him but since this was set after Countdown to Destruction and the Z Wave, I needed a being who had been shown to have a high degree of evil.

Yes, Rainbow Dash goes down and Sweetie Belle is impaled. Why her? Applebloom would just leap out of the way and Scootaloo would have adjusted her course mid-flight to avoid the beam.