Pony Rangers: Dino Thunder

Twilight had now opened the letter. It read:

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am very concerned about the health of Spikey-wikey. Is he doing alright? He forgot to pick up the extra gems I had sent for him, and they’re still there! Luckily, it seemed that you forgot to clean up your workspace and I managed to send the letter via magic to let you know about the gems. If only I could have sent the gems the same way!

So, where in Equestria are you? I messed up my beautiful indigo-violet mane just to go all the way to Canterlot to find out where you were! And Sweetie's friends have been complaining that their sisters have been missing as well! Wait, I don't think Scootaloo and Dash are related, are they?

Please come back soon, because at this rate I am worried my new fashions will outgrow you if you grow to alicorn size!

And by the way, if you find some sapphires, can you please send them over?

Sincerely,

Rarity

Twilight felt exasperated. "Didn't she know that Spike can't handle these kinds of letters when he's a puppy? I thought I specified to send the messages through the portal in the letters I sent to the other elements. Applejack, didn't you send those letters?"

Applejack gulped. "Honestly, Twi', I was in a rush, so I gave the letters to Rainbow Dash."

All eyes were on Rainbow Dash. "I sent the letters to Pinkie and Fluttershy, but Rarity wasn't home. So I gave her letter to Sweetie Belle."

Twilight rolled her eyes. Dash might be the element of loyalty, but she lacked patience, or the ability to take her time to notice that Rarity had a mailbox. At the same time, she wasn't to blame.

"Change o' topic," Applejack said, beginning to retell the events of the day to Spike, who had now managed to get back up and regain his health. Spike's eyelids drooped down sleepily as Twilight described all the new, "intriguingly interesting" things she learned in class. Then, as Dash detailed every minute of recess, Spike found himself feeling very dizzy. Then Applejack finally told of their first experience as power rangers, to which Spike opened his eyes and mouth wide in amazement.

"What do we do now?" wondered Dash aloud. "I mean, I seriously hate the fact that those huge things attempted to rampage the town and all that, but I kinda wish they came back." Rainbow Dash paused and stood up, pretending to prepare for a wrestling match as she did in front of Discord back in the maze in Equestria, as she said "I want to kick some more of those dinos until they run away screaming!"

The others grinned slightly as Rainbow Dash mimed being a superhero, when Twilight spoke up. "Well, something is telling me that we'll be seeing them again soon." With that, she zipped open her heavy backpack and eagerly opened her textbooks on the desk facing the window. Rainbow Dash, however, immediately jumped to bed and began to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Rainbow Dash woke up to the sound Applejack preparing a quick breakfast. Within minutes, Dash joined her in eating up toast with apple jam, washed down with apple juice.

"Y'know," Applejack began, her face as green as her grandmother's, "I just realized that my human self can't stand havin' apples in ev'ry meal. Ain't that awful?"

Rainbow Dash looked at her watch. "Well I think what's worse is that we have to head to school soon." she replied, turning her head towards Twilight, who was fast asleep. "Why isn't Twilight awake yet?"

"Twi' was so busy with homework, I guess she forgot about sleepin' until after everyone else," Applejack answered. "We better wake her up."

Applejack and Rainbow Dash tried nearly everything they could, from kicking the bed to trying to whisper "Wake up" in her ear. Spike even attempted to bark as loud as he could to wake her up.

Rainbow simply stared at Spike, who was out of breath in three minutes, yet with no success. Finally, she said, "Spike, try louder, like this." Then she screamed at the top (if not over) her lungs. Immediately, Twilight shot up out of bed, and everyone was covering their ears with their teeth gritted and eyes tightly shut. Barely a second later, Dash asked herself "How did I do that?"

Twilight tried to think of a possible explanation when Spike spoke up. "Hold on, I think that Dino Thunder show was on yesterday while you were all gone. All the rangers seemed to be using superpowers in the theme song."

"Did the other rangers get any nifty superpowers too?" Applejack asked.

Spike thought for a moment. "I think, but I can't be sure. The video clips for the theme song went very fast. After all, how am I supposed to remember? You're the rangers, not me!"

The rangers looked at one another before Twilight glanced at her watch. “Oh my, I'm going to be late for school!" she worried, scrambling toward her backpack.

* * *

The next six hours were, again, rather uneventful. It wasn't until after school that Rainbow Dash had bumped into Applejack with exciting news. "The soccer practices start today, and they said I might join the team!" she announced joyfully. "Go find Twilight and meet me at the soccer field, because you won't want to miss this!"

Applejack agreed to be there and immediately went to find Twilight. Despite still being unfamiliar with the school hallways, she seemed to find herself navigating the school much faster than usual, finding Twilight within barely a couple of minutes.

"Applejack, you really shouldn't run in the hallways," said Twilight upon noticing her friend. "What's with the rush?"

"Rainbow Dash is waitin' at the soccer field. Somethin' about practices," Applejack replied.

"Oh! I'll be right there!"

"It seems nearly everypony--I mean everybody-- else is already outside, Twi'."

"Good thing too."

Applejack looked puzzled. "Why do you say that?" she asked.

Twilight answered, "Because running in the hallways is against the school rules. Sorry, A.J. But you did go pretty fast. Hearing your footsteps was like being in a movie going fast-forward."

Despite the fact that Applejack had no idea what her friend meant by movies speeding around, realization dawned on her that she was the second of their team to discover her superpower.

* * *

The crowd was slightly larger than usual, considering that what they came to see seemed to be an ordinary soccer practice. It turned out that the team had gotten a sudden and slight growth in popularity, however. Twilight and Applejack managed to find a space near the edge of the field soon after arriving to the field, before spotting Rainbow Dash on the field. Dash was practicing some simple soccer drills with some of the other team members, specifically practicing shooting the ball into one of the large nets at either side.

Within about 15 minutes, the coach blew his whistle to call the team to attention. "Team, I have good news and bad news," he announced to the soccer team and the audience. "The good news is that we finally have enough players to have a chance at winning the soccer tournament this year." There were many cheers coming from on the field and where the spectators sat, as the school seemed to have very little chance of winning for the past 5 years.

The coach looked around with a grim face. "The bad news is that our best player, Sam Field, has a broken ankle, and won't be able to play for the rest of the season." The crowd now made many noises of disapproval, from booing to concerned comments, and then finally a heated argument from a small amount of students sitting right behind Twilight and Applejack.

"How can this happen?" one of them asked angrily. He was very muscular, and seemed like the very person not to mess with.

"Calm down, for crying out loud!" another yelled. "Haven't you seen that new kid with the rainbow hair? She's awesome!"

"She's a wimp! Look at how tiny she is!"

"You make fun of the team, you're disgracing the school!"

"So what?! She's still a shrimp!"

At this rate, Dash was getting angry herself. "Who are you calling a shrimp?" She asked the bully, with a very similar tone that she once used long ago while defending Fluttershy.

Twilight and Applejack sat there in embarrassment, blushing to the extent that one would think their faces were freezing. They were literally sitting in the middle of an argument. "Dash, please, ignore them." Twilight pleaded, watching the muscular person behind her make fists with his hands.

Unfortunately, the bully just stared straight at Twilight. "So, you're friends with this shrimp? Seriously?" He grinned maliciously. "Well, then, since you are already right in front of me, and I haven't got a chance to beat anyone up for the last few hours..." he stopped speaking, and looked around at his large audience. The coach was, conveniently, speaking to someone on her cell phone with her back turned. He looked back at Twilight.

PUNCH! He wasted no second in giving her a punch in the face before slamming her to the field. Applejack couldn't do much, as physical fighting was strictly against the rules. To her, honesty and integrity were very much similar. The best she could do was break her friend's fall.

Unfortunately, Applejack was caught off-guard and tripped over the seats. Now, they both fell all the way down to the field, smashing into Dash, who smashed into some other soccer players, who smashed into the coach.

The coach rose from the ground, looking around to see what happened. The other students also got back up, and started to explain the whole incident. They made it to the part when Twilight got punched in the face, when Applejack spoke to Twilight. "Twi', you alright?"

"That was a pretty hard hit," Dash added, seeing Twilight bent over and looking the other way, towards the bully.

Applejack and Dash were confused. "Are you alright?" she repeated, with a more confused tone. She looked over to see Twilight's expression. She and Dash noticed that Twilight wasn't crying at all, nor frowning. Rather, she had a slightly amused face on her, and there was no sign of blood or bruises at all. They followed Twilight's gaze to the bully, who was screaming in pain.

"I guess I might have found out my superpower," Twilight said to her friends, in a low volume so that only they could hear.

"Only Applejack has to find out what her power is now." commented Rainbow Dash.

"Already did," Applejack answered. "Super speed."

Dash looked at her friend with a bit of jealousy, before telling her "I'm sure I'd still be faster than you would."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Let's just forget about arguing over superpowers, and be lucky we have them. Plus, look over there." She pointed to a group of dinosaur minions marching straight for the field.