The post office is bustling this summer, and volunteers have been requested to help deliver the large mass of letters and packages. As each sorted pile is delivered, more arrive to wait in it's place. It is on this day that Derpy Hooves must assign some new volunteers their mail routes for the season.
Derpy glanced at the group of ponies in front of her, one eye often turning towards the map on the wall beside her. She didn't have much of a way with words, so she used the method of drawing each different mail route on the map in different colours. Her instructions often sounded like this:
"You will go on that yellow route."
"You two will go to that really long blue line, I mean route!"
"And you will go on that route coloured pink!"
It took a full ten minutes to direct everypony to the right route. Derpy took a huge sigh of relief. Then her eyes drifted to either side of the room. She spotted two ponies...colts, to be exact, patiently waiting for their mail route to be announced. Her other eye drifted yet again to the large map. All the routes were taken. That's when an idea came to her.
"Hello," Derpy said, "You need a route?" After the two colts nodded, she replied, "I got a few extra packages waiting, if you don't mind running all around Ponyville."
"Sure," answered the horse with the green flank and dark brown mane. His friend, who had a red mane and fiery-coloured mane, nodded in agreement. At this reply, Derpy led them to the pile of packages and handed them five brown boxes, each slightly bigger than a full-grown hoof. Then the two horses went straight to work.
Exiting the post office, the two ponies began to chat. "Hey, Fred, did you hear about the attacks in Cloudsdale?" the green one asked.
Fred answered, "Nope, I've been too busy packing for school. Did the Wonderbolts save the town, Brock?"
"Barely," Brock replied. "It would be cool to be superheroes, wouldn't it? Instead of being stuck going to school."
Fred shrugged. "Hey, It's the government's decision that more ponies should receive higher education for acceptance into certain jobs."
Brock stared back. "And farming isn't one of those jobs. What's wrong with broccoli and spinach anyway?"
Fred rolled his eyes. "Nothing. But you don't want to end up like that pony," he gestured to an old shop that used to sell various kitchen appliances and other household machines and gadgets. It had been shut down for a week now. "This just happens to be where one of the packages are supposed to go." He placed one of the packages into the corresponding mailbox.
The next hour or less was spent mostly in silence, with the occasional muttering of "Are we in the right spot?" or "I think I found the house!" Finally, two packages were left.
Brock spoke up. "Wait a minute...these two packages are for us!"
Fred peeked at the addresses in surprise. "Wow, I think we better head home soon to open them, then. Would you like to come over to my house?"
* * * * *
Meanwhile, someplace not too far from Ponyville, a robotic figure in the general shape of a pony was having a conversation with a floating pony head in a tube. The pony trapped in the clear, cylindrical cage was none other than Floating Figurehead, an old wizard from the depths of space who traced a mysterious intergalactic threat all the way to Equestria. His robotic assistant, Android, served as his sidekick.
"F-Floating, sir, d-d-do you really think that this is a good idea?" Android stammered. "T-t-these are a-a-average p-ponies we are talking about! T-t-they might not be up to the task!"
Floating Figurehead stared down at Android. "Trust me, these young souls are full of good. Of course they will be up to the task. Especially if it will help save them from a near-apocalyptic world."
Android knew the situation. It started when He and Floating were on their home planet, which had been invaded by the same unknown threat that wished to conquer Equestria. Only some of the citizens escaped, and even the best of them in health had a few scratches to remind them how they barely made it out. Floating was likely the most beaten-up of his kind that escaped, and so was placed in a healing tube. It was a slim chance that he would be back to full health, especially with his old age as an allicorn, but he didn't worry too much about himself. He was more concerned about where the threat would strike next. Equestria was their next target. Despite the defences Equestria already had--Elements of Harmony, some very powerful royalty, and even a flight-force known as the Thunderbolts--they weren't prepared for this upcoming threat.
That's why he made morphers.
On his home planet, there were legends about Power Rangers (other legends referred to them as Super Sentai) who wore brightly-coloured suits and worked together to stop threats that usually came from other planets. Most times, the heroes were in groups of five or six, and were residents of the planet being attacked, if not very much acquainted with the planet. They would use handheld morphers to quickly dress in their superhero suits. If the need arises, they would even call upon vehicles called zords to stop larger threats. Each ranger would have their own zord, and those would join together to make a large megazord.
Floating decided that the power the rangers had would be enough to stop the upcoming threats. So he and Android created a set of six morphers with matching zords. He then spent many months looking for possible rangers after this, to send the morphers to. In a risky move, he decided to mail the morphers to each of them, worrying that the classic 'teleport the rangers randomly and then give the morphers' move would seem to unexpected to them.
Unfortunately, Android was quick to point out one problem. "S-sir, we haven't found a sixth ranger yet."
Floating tried to make a comeback with difficulty. "Once the first five rangers have gotten used to their powers, then I am pretty sure they will help us find the sixth ranger."
"B-b-but sir--"
"Don't worry, Android, I have everything planned for the next two days, maybe even the next week. now may you please get some salad ready? I think we should be expecting visitors."
In great confusion, Android headed for the kitchen.
Author's Note
This is the first story I am trying to publish. As I might get the process wrong, I don't mind some helpful hints and constructive criticism. I mean to add more chapters soon.
Workshop Wrench never expected to see any customers for the next five years, let alone this many at once.
Surrounding him were four ponies: a red colt with fiery-coloured hair who preferred to be called Fred, along with his friend Brock Olli, who was bright green with a brown mane, a unicorn with a yellow flank and light brown mane named Sunshine, and finally a pink pegasus named Primrose Peach. He learned all this as he was talking with them.
He also learned of the strange items that now sat on the table in front of them, currently beside some sushi and salad. The items were given to each of them in small packages, which Fred and Brock admitted to have delivered themselves. Each of the items were mostly black with gold pieces, with a different colour ring around each that matched the owners' flanks, respectively. They were also found to fit well inside the ring of a normal front-hoof horseshoe, as if it was meant to be worn without easily being seen. Yet none of the five ponies could even guess the slightest idea of what these objects were for, and why they were the only ones delivered them.
Sunshine was just about to try another bite of sushi when Wrench declared, "I think I found a note in the red one!" From the object with the red ring he pulled out a small scroll. With her telekinesis, Sunshine unrolled the scroll.
Fred stared at everypony else. "Who wants to read it?" he said, gesturing with his hoof to the parchment. He accidentally shot out a small spark of flame from his hoof, setting a corner of the page on fire.
Alarmed, everypony jumped at the parchment. Fred stuck his hoof in a glass of water to stop it from burning anything else. Brock smacked the flames to keep it from spreading and as an attempt to smother it as Wrench picked up another glass of water and dumped it over the miniature inferno. This resulted in the note's letters blurring up. Sunshine cast a drying spell on the parchment, teamed up with Peach flapping her wings. Finally, the note seemed to be in a good condition to read. After a brief apology from Fred, Wrench volunteered to read the note:
Dear Fiery "Fred" Flame,
Firstly, I apologise for any misspelled letters or names, or for the flammability of the paper used. I am writing to explain that you and four others will be invited to my "command center" for a meeting on your new occupation: power rangers. If the term seems unfamiliar, super sentai may ring a bell. Otherwise, I have copies of the sentai/ranger encyclopaedias with me. Unfortunately, I have only been able to write one letter for all, but I feel you might be with the other four at the time of reading this letter anyway.
Brock interrupted. "This guy seems to have been stalking us!" he exclaimed, peeking out the window as he spoke. Wrench continued,
In simple words, you five will be working together to fight a common enemy which threatens the lives of everypony in Equestria. My suggestions are to become acquainted with how the morphers work. Those would be the round items which all of you should now possess. These will allow you to wear your ranger suits to keep your identities secret.
Peach was quite amused. "This is quite the joke!" She exclaimed.
Sunshine stared at Peach. "Why don't you prove that the morphers are fake then?" she challenged. The stallions mow stared too, urging Peach to do as Sunshine told.
"Sure," replied Peach, happy to share what knowledge she had on practical jokes. Wrench began to read the instructions:
1. Insert morpher into one of two front horseshoes. Morpher should fit so that it seems inconspicuous yet still allows wearer to walk comfortably. It may also be masked with the coloured , waterproof ring around the outside of the morpher by stretching it over the inner part of the morpher. Don't worry if this is difficult: you will rarely have to remove the device.
Peach took a couple of minutes to do this. Luckily, the instructions were quite specific.
2. Hold morpher in front of you with outstretched leg.
Peach stretched her hoof in front of her.
3. Now state the following line that applies to you. If confused, try remembering your flank colour and as for Wrench and yourself, Fred, please don't question how I figured out one of each of your grandparents weren't ponies:
"Red ranger, dragon!"
"Blue ranger, seapony!"
"Green ranger, earthpony!"
"Yellow ranger, unicorn!"
"Pink ranger, pegasus!"
The last line was uttered aloud by Peach. Suddenly, the world around her seemed to become filled with pink. In fact, she felt like she was flying over the world as Pinkie Pie might have seen it! She spread her wings, feeling something surrounding nearly her whole body except her head.
She landed. Then she turned her head upwards in time to see a visor over her head, similar in many ways to a helmet with sunglasses.
The world around her turned back to normal. She turned to the faces of four astonished ponies.
Looking in a nearby mirror, she saw that she seemed to be wearing a full-body pink suit with white boots and a cutie-mark print of a gold lightning bolt. Her helmet followed the pink colour scheme as well.
4. To remove suit, say "Power down."
"Actually, I think I might keep it on for a bit longer," Peach thought.
Fred and Wrench glanced at each other. In unison and awe, they asked "How does that writer know our..." they couldn't find words for the next 10 seconds until saying "dragon" and "seapony" at last.
Brock, meanwhile, was still taking in the idea that he and his best friend had just become superheroes. Sunshine, though, peered curiously out the window as she attached the morpher to her hoof. "Everypony? Remember those strange creatures that tried to invade Cloudsdale the other day?"
She was replied with nods of 'yes'. She continued, "Do you think that writer was referring to them as the common enemy?"
Everypony else shrugged, looked at each other, and then started to wince.
Sunshine now gazed at her morpher, then back at the window with increasing alarm. "I think they have just found us. And not to say congratulations." She stepped aside, revealing a dozen of grey, clawed creatures peeking in.