It's Anthropomorphin' Time!
Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy stared at Pinkie Pie and the clothing rack standing next to her.
"Pinkie, what the heck is that?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Pinkie wore a form-fitting pink spandex bodysuit with white boots, white gloves, a high white collar, a white belt, and a six-color rainbow "sash", bordered in black, that ran from her left shoulder to her right hip. Pink stripes ran up the sides of her boots, joining with the white stripes that ran up her legs all the way to her armpits. The silver buckle of her belt was shaped like the eight-pointed star crest of Canterlot High School. A trio of white balloons adorned the chest of her strange outfit. Tucked under her arm was a round pink helmet with a black visor shaped like Vinyl Scratch's shades and molded pony ears on the sides.
"I made some fun costumes for us!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "I know that's usually Rarity's thing, but I just had the bestest idea ever and I just had to run with it!" She grinned broadly at her friends. "We can be the Rainbow Pony Rangers!"
The others stared at her flatly.
"...what?" Sunset Shimmer asked.
"Yeah that's not happening," Rainbow Dash said.
"Oh, come on, Dashie! Give it a chance!" Pinkie said. She pulled away the plastic tarp covering the clothing rack to reveal five more costumes, each with a different color scheme. "You can be the Red Ranger, since you're the leader..."
"Well, I am the leader..."
"Oh no, not this again," Applejack muttered.
"...even though really Sunset Shimmer is our leader now but I'm getting to that," Pinkie continued. "Rarity can be the Blue Ranger since she's, uhh...well, the smartest of us I guess? Usually the blue guy's the calm one but Rarity's kind of a drama queen..." Pinkie frowned. "But the blue suit's already tailored for Rarity anyway so I can't do anything about that now...oh well! Applejack, you can be the Green Ranger since you're the strong one, Fluttershy can be the Yellow Ranger because...because..." Pinkie frowned. "Because you're yellow and I'm pink. I mean, you're really more of a Pink Ranger than a Yellow Ranger, but I wanna be the Pink Ranger because I am pink, so...you'll just have to be yellow, okay?"
"Umm...okay? I guess? Except...I don't really want to be any color Ranger..."
"And since Sunset Shimmer is our Sixth Ranger, she gets to be GOLD!" Pinkie exclaimed with a flourish, pulling a shiny gold costume off the rack that was markedly different from the others.
"Is she even listening to a word we're saying?" Sunset Shimmer asked.
"No. No, she's not," Rarity said.
Applejack sighed. "Let's just humor her and put these silly things on, then pretend this never happened. She'll have forgotten all about this by tomorrow."
With weary sighs, the girls accepted their Rainbow Pony Ranger costumes from Pinkie, and one by one, went behind a divider to change. The costumes were largely identical, save for the colors and the chest insignia—a cloud and lightning bolt for Rainbow Dash, three diamonds for Rarity, three butterflies for Fluttershy, and three apples for Applejack. Sunset Shimmer's costume, however...
It was more of a sleeveless gold minidress than a bodysuit, with dark red tights underneath which covered her entire body except for her head and hands. Black stripes ran up the sides of the gold boots, joining gold stripes which ran up the legs of the tights, before becoming dark red stripes that ran up to her armpits. Her elbow-length gold gloves had black cuffs at the tops. Instead of a rainbow sash, she had a black leather belt studded with six gems, each a different color, with the gold eight-pointed star buckle in the center. Her red-and-gold sun cutie mark graced the chest of her costume, rimmed in black. Her gold helmet had a shiny red visor, and sported a long, sharp unicorn horn in addition to the molded pony ears.
Rarity looked at herself in the mirror. "I do have to admit, you did quite an excellent job on these outfits, Pinkie Pie. Even if they are patently ridiculous." She frowned at the helmet she held. "I'm not so sure about these helmets, though. I'd rather not ruin my coiffure, if it's all the same..."
"Seriously?" Applejack asked. "You had on a helmet just like that with one of those costumes you made a while back."
"Fair point," Rarity conceded.
"So uhh...why does Sunset Shimmer get the most awesome-looking outfit again?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Because she's the Sixth Ranger, silly! Duh! The Sixth Ranger always has the coolest costume!"
"For the record, this is neither awesome nor cool," Sunset Shimmer said.
"Oh, I don't know," Rarity said. "With a little work, that could be an excellent date night outfit for you."
"Yeah, no. Even if I had somebody to date. Which I don't." Sunset Shimmer sighed. "Are we done now? Can we take these silly things off?"
"Not yet!" Pinkie Pie said. "First, we need to do a team roll call!"
Rainbow Dash groaned. "Seriously?"
"Come on, Dashie!" Pinkie pleaded, giving Rainbow Dash puppy-dog eyes. "I'm not asking for much. Just do this for me, please?"
Rainbow Dash sighed. "Okay, okay, fine." She put her helmet on. "Red Rainbow Pony Ranger," she said boredly.
Pinkie Pie looked at Rarity, who rolled her eyes and put on her helmet. "Blue Rainbow Pony Ranger, I suppose."
Applejack put her helmet on, settling her brown hat on top of it. "Green Rainbow Pony Ranger."
Fluttershy struggled to tuck her hair into her helmet. "Umm...Yellow Rainbow Pony Ranger? Did I do that right?"
Pinkie put her helmet on and struck an absurdly silly pose. "Pink Rainbow Pony Ranger!"
They all turned to Sunset Shimmer. She crossed her arms. "No."
"Oh, come on!" Rainbow Dash cried. "We all did it, so you have to do it too."
Sunset Shimmer groaned. "Gold Rainbow Pony Ranger," she said.
"Hooray!" Pinkie Pie said, jumping up and down. "And now we have to go aaaallllll the way across town to the Canterlot Children's Hospital to put on a show for sick little kids who have cancer and stuff. Oh, and we're supposed to be there in twenty minutes, so we don't have time to change, so we'll just have to stay dressed like this, which is okay because I kinda promised we'd be showing up as Power Rangers, because the kids really like that, so..."
You wouldn't think it'd be possible for five girls wearing expressionless helmets with opaque visors to give someone a tangible death glare, but the Rainbooms demonstrated just how easy it really is.
"Oh, don't look at me like that," Pinkie Pie pleaded. "It's for sick children!"
The others sighed. "Well...we can't disappoint dying children," Rarity said. "We'll just have to put up with this for now, then kill Pinkie Pie later."
"Slowly," Sunset Shimmer added.
"Painfully," Applejack agreed.
"Yay," Fluttershy said softly and menacingly.
The girls did their best to ignore the stares, snickers, and whispers as they headed across town in their Pony Ranger costumes, carrying their instruments.
Two hours and a lot of happy little sick and dying children later, the girls decided the whole Pony Ranger concert thing had been totally worth it, and that Pinkie Pie would live to see another sunrise. They even agreed to pull out the Pony Ranger costumes again for very special causes.
"I'll build us a giant robot for next time," Pinkie Pie said. "We can't be Pony Rangers without a giant robot."
"Now that does sound awesome..."
