Disclaimer: Power Rangers = Saban. My Little Pony = Hasbro. Anything that resembles any other bit of copyrighted or trademarked material = their respective owners. Anything you don’t recognise that isn’t trademarked or copyrighted = mine. Enjoy.

Chapter 10: Dark Skies

It had been three days since the initial battle and everypony was restless. The rebuilding of Ponyville was slow and strange rumours were flying around. One particular rumour was that when the creature had attacked, it had been driven off by another fiercer monster who had taken the lives of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Of course, the “Bearers of Harmony killed” part had been debunked over and over again – as the bearers in question had been seen helping the reconstruction – but the so-called second monster was harder to disprove.

“I saw it! It had a blue and white body with a silver nose and white claws! It zapped the fish away and turned to the bearers hungrily!”

Applebloom turned away from Snips and sighed to herself. She and her big sister had been in that group of ponies and knew both who the supposed monster was and how the battle had ultimately turned out. Unfortunately, she had been sworn to secrecy by both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. It wasn’t all that bad though. School had been cancelled for the duration of the cleanup and rebuilding, so that left lots of time for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Tensing up at the sound of magic, she looked down to her right front leg where a thin strip of metal was wrapped.

“Applebloom, watch out!”

At the yell, Applebloom instinctively jumped backwards and lightly reared up…just as a slightly charred pile of wood crashed in front of her. Falling onto her rump, she blinked in shock as a familiar purple head came into her field of vision.

“Twilight…what’re you doin’? What’s that?”

The unicorn blinked once and smiled sheepishly. Since the bestowing of the Ranger powers, her magic ability had grown exponentially. What would have once drained her of all her energy was almost second nature to her. She was even starting to learn magic from Billy’s dimension via Dimitria – although it was limited to simple kinetic bolts and binding spells. Realising she had yet to answer the filly’s question, she smiled again.

“This is one of the larger salvageable parts of the Treebrary. Unfortunately, most of the books were destroyed, but both Princesses are helping me rebuild.”

Well, that was mostly true. Princess Celestia had allowed her back into Canterlot Library to see what books needed to be duplicated and Princess Luna had allowed her exclusive access into her own private collection. So far, she hadn’t taken up Princess Luna’s offer yet as she needed to rebuild the Treebrary to its former glory. She had also been surprised by Billy’s offer to browse the small number of books he had brought over and she was fascinated by the titles. The only problems with those books were the pictures and diagrams that showed human silhouettes and figures; which would be somewhat difficult to explain to other ponies. Looking at Applebloom again, her brow furrowed.

“Where’s Applejack?”

Applebloom rose to her feet and thought hard. She knew she had talked with Billy about something a day or so ago and was sticking real close to the human. Of course, that had been after Rarity had been teased after waking up in Billy’s room and after said human had been grilled by Rarity for sneaking off in the night. Sometimes it all went over her head, but she knew she’d get it when she was older. She hoped anyway.

“She’s up in Canterlot Crags wit’ Billy ‘nd Fluttershy doin’ some work for the base.”

Quickly looking around them to see if anyone was listening, Twilight pulled Applebloom towards her and spoke in an urgent and hushed tone.

“Applebloom, remember to keep your voice down in Ponyville. We’re not ready to be revealed yet.”

As Applebloom nodded once before scampering off to find the other Crusaders, Twilight thought about what the young filly had told her. Applejack was at Canterlot Crags with Fluttershy and Billy? She wondered what they were doing, but dismissed it. The human was always working on something or another to increase security and surveillance. If he was there, everything would work out for the best.

Canterlot Crags

The crags below Canterlot are not places ponies should be. The winds whip up at excesses of 80 km/ph and there are not many flat places. Despite all this, Billy measured out the outline for the door and nodded to the orange Earth pony standing nearby. With the wind whipping her blonde mane about, she lowered her head and charged at the rocky wall. With split second timing honed by years of applebucking, she turned on a dime and slammed her hind legs into the rock, making the ground quake a small amount.

Squinting at the damage done to the wall, Billy consulted his blueprints and shook his head with a sigh. He leant over the edge of the path and yelled over the howling wind.

“Fluttershy, it’s safe! You can tell them to help you up!”

To the sound of heavy wings, Fluttershy appeared on the back of two griffons that had been nesting below the working area. As they alighted on the stone, the yellow Pegasus pony jumped off and stammered out thanks. The larger male griffon bent his head down and looked the pony in the eye.

“You don’t have to thank us. We are proud to help one of the Bearers of Harmony.”

As the two griffons took flight, Billy mused over the blueprints once more. The Ranger powers had strengthened the ponies’ natural abilities tenfold and had elevated their stamina to levels on par with Earthbound Rangers. He had seen Twilight Sparkle and Rarity study magic with Dimitria and Princess Celestia as well as poking his head in on Pinkie Pie as she tried to break Equestria’s Land Speed record…not to mention the shakes that always seemed to happed whenever Applejack tested out her kicks unmorphed. The only ponies that seemed to have no obvious enhancements were the pegasi. Sure, they were as strong as the others but their speeds seemed the same. He’d have to check Rainbow Dash again and have that talk with her…but if it went in the same direction as Applejack’s…

“B-Billy? I don’t mean to rush you, b-but what do we do now?”

Fluttershy’s voice broke him out of his thoughts and he sighed. He would have to break out the rock cutting tools at night and pray the wind masked the crunching sound. If that didn’t work, there was always his backup plan…but he needed a spotter for that to have any chance of keeping their cover.

“Sorry girls, looks like we won’t be getting much done today. You’d better go back to Ponyville to help with the cleanup.”

Applejack reclaimed her Stetson from Fluttershy and nodded once. She had wanted to spend some time with the human and finish their talk, but he seemed to become a mite uncomfortable with the topics raised. She didn’t want to push him but at the same time, she desperately wanted his opinion…when he had digested the information, he would talk to her. Huddling around the human, she nodded once.

Nodding back, Billy tucked the blueprints under his arm and raised his left wrist. Tugging back the sleeve, he made sure the Rangers were close by and pressed a button on the side of his communicator and they vanished in three coloured streams of light.

Once they rematerialised in the Command Tower, they saw Princess Celestia standing with an anxious look on her muzzle. Billy felt his stomach drop as he remembered seeing that look all those months ago when the Princess was informing him of…but he couldn’t be free. Noting the silent question on his face, Celestia nodded grimly and spoke the words Billy had been dreading since learning of the subject.

“Discord is free.”

TBC…

Author's Note

A bit about the gossip pertaining to the Rangers, a conversation between Applejack and Billy (which I had planned but, at this point, had not written out yet) and Discord being freed.