Canterlot Royal Hospital

Boop. Boop. Boop. That sound was the first thing Galaxy heard when he awoke in his hospital bed. It wasn’t like the first time he’d ever heard this sound or awoke in the hospital's emergency wing bloody beyond belief and at the end of things with a few more battle scars to boast about. But, for whatever reason, when he awoke, he always hated the sound of a heart monitor.

Perhaps it reminded him of things lost, or maybe it was just that irritating of a sound. After all, a beep turning into a flatline, really, was that the last sound you ever wanted to hear as your life came to an end?

Actually, he hated the entire atmosphere of a hospital really. Too clean, too sterile, and the nurses were always much too damn cheery in his opinion. Sure, they were always trying to make you feel better, but that damn false smile when they told you everything was going to be alright even when you just knew there was a ‘but’ coming up that told you everything wasn’t going to be fine always made him sick. Really, things would be much better in his opinion if they just told you outright that you were going to have to be amputated for whatever reason. Least you got the truth outright, instead of ‘em beating around the damn bush about it.

Thankfully for Galaxy, at least this time, nothing of the sort had to be performed. At worse, he had a bandage wrapped around his chest and a few stitches on his right arm from where that Blueblood imposter had gotten in a lucky cut with that golden clad blade of his.

Well, least it wasn’t early morning and the sun wasn’t shining through the curtains. Early evening, the time he liked best, when all of his senses started to awaken themselves, and the time for a hunt was prime. Speaking of senses, his keen sense of hearing was starting to pick up the sounds of an argument. Training his ears towards the sound, Galaxy listened.

He caught wind of what sounded like the words “Fag” and other derogatory terms for ponies like him being tossed about. Galaxy’s eyes narrowed. Effin’ Canterlot Nobles and their backwards ways of thinking. They wouldn’t know progression if it danced up to them completely in the nude and bit them in the ass. And then he heard the one sound he never wanted to hear, the slurs being tossed to Sunburst who was rapidly shouting: “S-Shut up! J-Just shut up!”.

Galaxy’s eyes narrowed even further, when he realized how close to tears his mate sounded. A protective urge filled him, (As nobody, and I repeat nobody made his Sunspot cry on his watch.) and he soon found some of his strength returning. Grabbing ahold of the IV Rack with a hand -Wincing in pain as he did so- he pulled himself out of bed and slowly walked out of his room towards the reception desk, with a look of tranquil fury etched across his muzzle.

That look only became even more furious when he saw his Sunburst, who was currently being shouted at by a stallion, saying he’d wished Galaxy had died mid-operation. Would have served Sunburst’s gay ass right.

“Now, listen,” Galaxy snarled out, and the stallion looked as if he was about to shit himself as he realized who’d overheard his shouting. “Can we talk a little?” he asked, his voice growing quieter. Time to play his with prey a bit before he pounced on them. Rubbing the stallion’s chin with a finger, he smiled seductively.

“Now, you’re a fine young buck, surprised you haven’t been hit on before… Well, maybe you have, just only by the mares. Probably an interesting thing for you, being commented on your lovely appearance by a stallion eh?” Galaxy asked, getting far too close to the doctor for his liking, before his eyes trailed downwards. “Now, nice ass I gotta say. Really yummy. if I wasn’t a married, or soon to be married stallion if I have my way, I’d be shoving my dick right up that one. Ooh, you’d swiftly be changing your mind about me then, lemme tell you. Sunburst sure did, that’s for sure!” He laughed, enjoying the look of shock and rage on the doctor’s face. He also somewhat enjoyed Sunburst’s embarrassed look. That was always a joy to see, his little Sunspot flustered red as a tomato. Galaxy could go on trolling this bigot for hours, if he had the desire. But, of course, all good things had to come to an end, as Galaxy then punched the stallion across the face with a right cross and his furious look returned. He loomed over the doctor, Galaxy’s shadow seemingly covering him, with his bat wings flared outwards, and his eyes practically glowing in the evening’s light.

“Now… I don’t give two rat’s asses in hell if you call me names, or hell if you have any problems with gay marriage. But do me two favors will you?” Galaxy asked, holding up two fingers. “Keep your bigoted views to yourself, and secondly, don’t you ever berate my fiance. Ponies like you, they give ponies like you a really bad name. Now be gone. May not be in the best of shape, but I can still toss your ass out through the nearest window, understand?”

The doctor quickly got the message, and ran out of the room quite quickly. At the speed he sprinted, must have set a new world record, Galaxy mused to himself. He then sniffed the air, and his nose wrinkled as a familiar scent reached it. He soon called after the stallion, still scampering off like a wingless bat out of Hell. “Urination huh? Now that’s a fetish I can get behind, no two ways about it!” he laughed, and smirked as the unicorn couldn’t get out of the room fast enough screaming obscenities that would probably cost him his job at both Sunburst and Galaxy.

“...Assholes,” Galaxy muttered before he flashed a smile at Sunburst. “See, no damn gentleman thief in his fancy dress going to take me out of the ballpark. Going to take a hell of a lot more than some fancy pants to keep this old thestral down.”

Galaxy, almost in an instant, was practically tackled into a hug by a tearful Sunburst.

“Ow… Okay, maybe not somepony in fancy duds, but still, ease up will you? Chest hurts like a bitch…” Galaxy murmured, smiling a little.

“Sorry… it’s just if I had gotten to Canterlot quicker, you wouldn’t be here…” Sunburst sobbed into his shoulder, only to be quickly shoved away and smacked around the head.

“Now, you listen here and you listen well. Not your fault, understand? Never your fault for whatever I get myself into. My fault, and my own damn fault alone, the Bell Org was proof alone of that. Going to have to give you some liquid courage sooner or later, might toughen you up,” Galaxy berated his love. “Hell, you couldn’t have known what kind of trouble I was in understand?” he said sternly, and Sunburst let out a whimper and sniffled as he nodded weakly.

“Now, I’ll still be in care for a few days, so I want you to borrow my Dino Morpher, and kick a bit of ass with it and my Chargers in the meantime understand?” Galaxy asked. “You got that?”

“May… May have already have… Used the Dino Squash Charger on some Tengas when Goldar launched an attack on Canterlot.” Sunburst laughed nervously, and Galaxy cackled.

“That’s my little Sunspot!” he chortled, throwing his head back as he did so. “Gettin’ out ahead of me, knowing exactly what I’d want! ...Shame, no Marelot, or even a good gin. Damn stuff’s restricted round here. If I was in a better state, I’d break into someone’s secret stash…” Galaxy mused, and Sunburst stared at him in shock.

“What?” Galaxy asked.

“Marelot, really?” Sunburst deadpanned, eyebrow raised. Galaxy often wondered who patented that look. Was it Sunburst, Robert or Sunset? They all seemed to use it in equal measure.

“What, I can’t be refined? Seriously, next best thing to AB-negative blood you can get in terms of sheer class!” Galaxy exclaimed, throwing a hand up in the air.

“...You do realize AB-negative is like in only 1 percentage of the population right?” Sunburst asked slowly as he adjusted his glasses, and Galaxy only laughed harder as if this was only making the thing that much funnier to him.

Galaxy then begin to hum under his breath after giving Sunburst a quick kiss and a firm “Stay strong okay, little Sunspot?” as he walked back to his bedroom.

“Well, you've got your diamonds and you've got your pretty clothes
And the chauffeur drives your car
You let everybody know
But don't play with me, cause you're playing with fire

“Your mother she's an heiress, owns a block in Saint John's Wood
And your father'd be there with her
If he only could…” he sung.

The Animarium:

Early afternoon came, and the Twilight from Wyatt’s universe still found herself chained to a tree via the Deer Zord’s magic when she awoke, with the Zord himself keeping a watchful eye on her. Spike had stayed through the night after he’d returned from the little mob incident. He was asleep in a hammock, tail dangling lazily off the side.

“So, calmed down yet?” Twilight’s counterpart asked herself, trying not to think on how unusual this was. Here she was, talking to a younger version of herself with Rider powers, and draconic features with a temper to match.

“Yes,” Twilight responded, taking a deep breath. “I’m calm, very, very calm now.”

“Really, you’re not feeling any murderous urges?” Twilight asked. “Because last time we saw you, we did have to restrain you for a reason,” she stated, eyes narrowed.

Twilight snorted, releasing a puff of smoke. “I let my aggression get the best of me; I wasn’t even part dragon for six months before I got my wings.”

Twilight sighed, and sat herself down on a nearby boulder. “Alright, I believe you, but it’s not me you have to convince, it’s going to have to be your fellow Riders, and Sunset before they even think of letting you off this island. Spoke to Wyatt myself, and he’s not going to let you go anywhere before he believes you’ve calmed yourself down a notch…”

Twilight, even as she said this, flashed back to a few hours before.

It was early morning, the sun was just beginning to rise over the clouds and bathe the forests and lakes of the skybound paradise in its rays.

“Your Twilight… She’s quite rash, not sure I can trust her to help us deal with this ‘Dai-Shocker’ if she can’t even control her own base instincts…” Twilight sighed, as she walked down a forested path with Wyatt, evidently her counterpart’s coltfriend or whatever it would be called for him. “We had to chain her up, and the last time we had to do that to someone to keep them from doing something stupid was with Robert when he learned what happened to humanity. So Wyatt, I have to ask, can she be trusted?”

Wyatt eyed her for a moment before speaking. “Of course she can be trusted, what kind of a question is that? Just put yourself in her shoes for a moment; she has things that she’s still learning to control and a version of one of the most important people in her life did something monstrous.”

“I am putting myself in her shoes, as you put it,” Twilight replied. “But that’s the thing. Her draconic instincts, I’m worried they can’t be controlled. I’ve seen what happened when my Spike went through his growth spurt as it were. I was afraid… so afraid for the longest time it’d happen again, couldn’t trust myself to be around him, couldn’t look him in the eye for weeks, my own son! ” she whispered out in shame before nickering in self-disgust. “Some mother I am…”

It was clear this was still a sore point for her. Wyatt placed his hand on her shoulder. “Look, my Twilight is dealing with things that she wasn’t born with. Our Spike had that growth spurt too but you know; his rider powers come from greed, desire.”

“They…. They really come from simple avarice? How…?”

“Draconic Alchemy,” Wyatt answered. “Spike’s grandfather is the dragon shaman; he made the medals Spike uses from greed and the essence of animals,” Turning her towards him, he gave her a smile. “The way I figure it, you should let him embrace that part of him. Start giving him bits or things to collect. Have him get a job. It’s unhealthy for dragons, at least the ones back home, to not be a little greedy.”

“Well, he does have that obsession for old comics he inherited from my brother…” Twilight giggled a little, before she frowned a little upon thinking of her own counterpart. “But… your Twilight. Just imagine for a moment if you will, those dragon instincts of hers, what if they did overtake her base instincts, could anyone stop her?” Twilight asked fearfully.

“Yeah, Smaug, Spike, Daring, Agito, Kuuga, Maud, AJ, me.” He thought for a moment. “Maybe Trixie? Smaug wouldn’t have given it to Twilight if he didn’t think she could handle it.”

“Yeah, I suppose…” Twilight sighed, opting not to tell Robert about another supposed fictional character existing. He’d probably die of shock really. “In a way, I suppose it’s worse for me,” she commented, and Wyatt looked at her curiously.

“How is it worse?” Wyatt questioned, raising his eyebrow.

“Think about it, I grew up with this version of Princess Celestia, idolizing her like a mother, no a goddess, believing every word she said, no matter how true or untrue it was. I was a suck-up, a poor excuse for a Princess if I couldn’t tell when something was wrong. ...I couldn’t tell Celestia was suffering from a split personality problem, or a Mesogog situation as Robert put it,” Twilight replied sadly, shaking her head in shame once more. “Whoever Mesogog is… Name a ring a bell to you?”

“Yeah, he was a weird dinosaur guy who shared a body with a businessman,” Wyatt explained, nodding his head. “Had some weird plan to bring the dinosaurs back. He wasn’t all the effective at it, honestly.”

“Can’t imagine so…” Twilight laughed. “But if you believe your Twilight can control her base instincts, well…”

Princess Twilight flashed back to the present day, and stared down her counterpart. “Wyatt believes you can keep your cool, and that might be good enough for me, but what about your dragon? He seems to be your teacher, doesn’t he?” she asked curiously.

“Not in the slightest,” Twilight replied, shaking her head. “He’s an incarnation of the first Dragonlord, Bahamut. Still uncertain if he’s manifested due to the ritual or if he’s my subconscious image of him, but we’re keeping the name for him.”

“Now,” Twilight said. “I have to ask, that ring of yours… Where’d you get it, I mean, how you’d earn it? Not any scientific rationale behind my question, not begging you to teach me your secrets, but simple honest to Mystic Mother curiosity.”

Twilight glanced at her hand, a slight smile on her face. “I found the first ones in the Castle of the Two Sisters. They were made by Clover the Clever from Starswirl’s notes. Zecora’s been helping me fashion more of the stones when she has the time.”

“Wow, Clover definitely is living up to her rep once more…” Twilight breathed out in awe.

“I’m pretty sure Clover the Clever was a stallion,” Twilight corrected, giving her double an odd look. Said double ‘hmmed’ to herself.

“Nope, last I checked, history books showed Clover was a mare… Constants and variables I guess…” Twilight trailed off.

Twilight groaned. “Please don’t. That’s not how the multiverse works at all. Trust me, I’ve seen it.”

“Remind me to have a talk with those ponies with the bird and the cage Cutie Marks,” Twilight muttered, getting a headache and rubbing her temples. “They seem pretty sure of themselves on that matter…”

Twilight gave her double a very long stare. “There’s a universe out there where Rainbow Dash is an Earth Pony fashionista who lives in a place called Ponyland. Constants and variables are not a thing.”

“We never tell this Rainbow, or yours about that one, agreed?” Twilight asked her counterpart. “...No, strike that, we tell her, just for the reaction,” she smirked. “And then we tell Rarity.”

Her counterpart returned her smirk. “Wyatt always has a camera so he can take a picture of her reaction for you,” She shifted uncomfortably in her chains. “Now, can I get out of these chains? I’ve been attached to this tree all night and I really have to use the bathroom.”

Twilight groaned, as she could have gone without knowing that, but all the same she looked up to the Deer Zord. The Wild Zord nodded, and released the chains from Twilight’s counterpart as his antlers glowed with a fine golden mist once more.

With a quick thank you, the other Twilight rushed away, waddling with her legs crossed in a frantic search.

“...I could have gone my whole life without seeing that.” Twilight muttered to herself, before teleporting off, she had other matters to attend to. A few hours later, a crowd had gathered in front of the Golden Oaks Library where a microphone and a podium had been set up. Twilight had called everyone to her home for a town meeting. Soon, she emerged, with a determined expression on her face.

Twilight tapped the tip of the microphone, ready to give Ponyville a sound education. After Celestia had opened up her personal library, Twilight had dug into it eager to learn of the planet’s past, and one book in particular she found so shocking, because it struck so close to home nowadays.

“I’d like to tell you a little story Ponyville,” Twilight snarled, her voice as hard as steel catching everyone off guard for the second time in the past few days. “And maybe teach you a lesson. I’ve been reading a human book recently, want to know what it’s called?” she asked in a mock-sweet tone.

“What?” a random pony asked.

“To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“Oh great, you’re reading human books on how to ki-” a pony commented before quickly being cut off.

“Shut up!” A certain showmare’s voice echoed from somewhere in the crowd. “Let her speak! The Great and Powerful Trixie is actually interested in what Twilight has to say for once!”

“The story, as it goes, is about prejudice and the destruction of innocence. The mockingbird, symbolizes things that cause no harm whatsoever. Ironic really, considering what goes on in the book. Actually, two of the book’s leads are associated with the bird. One of them, a human, is put on trial for a horrendous crime, but here’s the thing… he’s completely innocent. Now,” Twilight asked the populace. “Why would a man be put on trial because he’s innocent?”

The crowd murmured amongst themselves, searching for an answer. Flitter was the first to come up with a good one. She shouted: “Because he’s been framed!”

“Yes, and also… because he’s black. Not of the same race as the white-skinned humans. Sound familiar?” Twilight asked. “Because, if it does, good for you! The book goes on, and the character is found guilty solely because of his skin color, and solely because others deem him a lower being!” she shouted. “The other mockingbird, a character deemed at the start to be dangerous, insane and generally untrustworthy, when in fact nobody knows anything at all about him, and he actually saves the life of a little girl!

“For the past few months, I’ve watched sickened, as we’ve treated Robert Williams, and now Wyatt the same way because of the words we now know to be completely false! Wyatt, he helped stop a monster in Canterlot not too long ago, and Robert, he’s stitching away in Carousel Boutique doing nobody any harm in the world at all! We’ve presumed they are nothing but bloodthirsty savages when in fact, they’re generally very nice people unless you treat them as otherwise. I’m amazed neither of them have gone insane by this point, considering how we as a species have been acting towards them. Did you know, last time I met up with some delegates from Saddle Arabia, they were intent on giving Equestria a wide berth just because of what we’ve said about humans for the past 3,000 years!” Twilight continued. “Do you know what that means? Possible alliances with powerful nations, not just Saddle Arabia, damaged, just because of propaganda we’ve been spreading!”

With that, Twilight marched off the stage, head held high as she was greeted with a stunned silence. In the crowd, a white pegasus mare with a pink mane wearing a sleeveless dress that exposed her sun Cutie Mark watched as Twilight retreated into her home, and smiled. Maybe now times would start to change, and there was nothing anyone, not even her dark half could do about it. It would take a long while, yes, but repairs to the human race’s reputation would continue. She started things with her own speech to the nation, and now Twilight had picked up the torch.

The Nexus:

Far below the earth, Thrax mused upon his recent alliance with the beings known as Lord Drakkon and Somber Shield.

“Goldar!” he ordered, and like a dog coming to his master, the armored baboon-like being strode into the room, mind you with much more dignity. “I need your opinion. How… trustworthy do you think our new ‘friends’ are?”

“I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them,” Goldar replied, stopping in front of the throne. “Neither of them seem like the sharing type; I bet they’re plotting to take this world for themselves.”

“Yes, and there’s only room for one world conqueror on this planet, and it isn’t them,” Thrax growled out. “We’re being played for fools, played like fiddles in their minds I suspect. But I’m no fool. Nobody just offers up power without expecting something in return. If you want something, you have to give something else up first, something of equal value, and in our case, that’s our positions of power. Soon as we become useless to either of them, we’re going to be thrown out like yesterday’s trash,” Thrax mused, never once raising his voice during the entire thing. “Goldar, while I admit those Troopers that we were provided were… useful up to a point as a good test of what he has to offer, I’m not really all that impressed with them beyond that. I think it’s time we make use of those Inves, and soon. Hopefully, they’ll be more valuable in the field. Send some to Twilight’s home, see what they can do. I wonder… Can Princess Twilight, propagator of Friendship, handle creatures from another dimension?” he mused aloud, before chuckling darkly to himself. “Dai-Shocker thinks they’re using us, we’ll use them instead. They’re playing with fire, and I intend to see that they get burned.”

Back on the Animarium, Robert sought out Wyatt. He knew Wyatt wasn’t telling him the full story about Dai-Shocker, every detective sense of his was going into overdrive, screaming out alarm bells. Eventually, he did find Wyatt in the clearing Shining and Jindrax had been using earlier as an impromptu dojo, going through a series of martial arts moves, or katas.

“You want to spill the beans?” Robert asked, from behind the young teen. “I’m not an idiot, I know when someone’s not telling me the full story. I was a Police Officer you know, before all of this. What are you not telling me about Dai-Shocker?” he asked lowly, his eyes narrowing.

Wyatt didn’t stop his movements, his breathing remaining steady. “Trying to catch me off guard and make it easier to catch me in a lie?” the teen asked, not turning around. “Good attempt, but the Shining Armor of my world already used it when grilling me about dating Twilight.”

“Oh, you are good…” Robert smirked, before that faded. “But all the same, I don’t like being played for a fool. There’s still something you’re holding back from me, something you think will scare me if I knew. If any of the Rangers knew.”

“Alright, let me start by asking you a question first,” Wyatt replied, snapping off a quick kick. “Is the name Tommy Oliver familiar to you?”

“Stupid question, of course I know the name. Any Ranger worth his salt does,” Robert commented, before his eyes widened in sharp realization. “Wait, you’re not telling me that…”

“One of the members of Dai-Shocker is a version of Tommy that stayed evil,” Wyatt finished for him. “Calls himself Lord Drakkon, wields a fusion of the White Tiger and Dragonzord powers and conquered his world.”

“Should have guessed as much,” Robert muttered and Wyatt was surprised at how calm he was. Perhaps the shock hadn’t fully set in yet. “There’s always an evil double of someone out there somewhere in the multiverse. Hell, wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an evil version of us out there.”

“Think they follow Star Trek logic and have goatees?” Wyatt asked, turning on his heel to rub his chin for effect. “Because I’m thinking the clean-shaven look is best for me.”

“Cute,” Robert commented. “Trying to deflect, use jokes to keep me from freaking out. Well, guess what, I’ve reached freaking out. Just how dangerous are we talking here, what does Lord Drakkon have at his beck and call?”

“An army of what he calls, Ranger Sentries,” Wyatt started, dropping his act and fixing a serious look at Robert. “Most are based on the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Coins but he has Samurai and Zeo Sentries too. Not to mention a crazy loyal version of Kimberly called the Ranger Slayer.”

“Can’t have Tommy without Kimberly…” Robert muttered. “What else?”

“He killed Jason, Billy, Ninjor, Zordon, and Alpha,” Wyatt added, (Robert looking as if he was about to be physically sick at this point) running a hand through his hair. “And he might have killed the Alien Rangers. I haven’t seen any sentries with their powers, so for all I know, they might have escaped.”

“And you think he’s coming here next?” Robert asked.

“You tell me,” Wyatt questioned. “What was in the Canterlot Vault that Lupin, and by extension, Drakkon would want their hands on?”

“Daggeron's old morpher…” Robert muttered, before he snarled and let out a shout of: “That bastard!” and punched a tree.

“Well, now there’s going to be Solaris Knight sentries,” Wyatt muttered, running his hand through his hair. “And if I know Drakkon, that’s just the start. He’ll come for all the power sets.”

“Well then…” Robert said, morphing into his Orion Mode with a gold flash of light and drawing his sword. “If he comes… Let the battle be joined.”

Wyatt summoned his driver, holding it up with a determined grin. “No complaints here, I’ll back you up.”

Elsewhere on the island, Twilight (From Wyatt’s universe) and Sunset sat down in the main temple to have a talk over a few drinks of Marelot.

“So, interesting differences we share, isn’t it?” Sunset asked. “I have to ask, what’s my counterpart, the one in your universe like?”

Twilight’s eyes widened for a moment and a sip of the wine went down wrong, causing her to cough for a bit. “Our Sunset? She... doesn’t live on our world anymore.”

“Oh, you mean she’s…” Sunset trailed off. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“No, I didn’t mean she died,” Twilight shook her head, taking another sip of her drink. “You were Celestia’s student before me, like here I assume. But, your ambition got out of control. When Celestia wouldn’t give you what you wanted, you broke into the forbidden section of Canterlot Library.” She paused for a moment, looking into her drink. “You were caught and Celestia expelled you.”

“Funny how things work,” Sunset mused, thinking back to her own past and how similar, and how different it was at the same time.

“You ran off after that,” Twilight continued, looking up at the sky. “You went through Starswirl’s mirror and stayed on the other side. No one saw you again until after my coronation. You came back through and stole my crown, wanting to use it’s power. The Element of Magic corrupted you, turned you into a monster.”

“Okay, minus the whole other world thing, I did go through something similar. I did get jealous of Celestia’s power, went a bit mad trying to become an Alicorn, like my counterpart, and in the end, turned into a corrupted form of the Solaris Knight after stealing Celestia’s personal morpher and trying to unseat her from her throne with it,” Sunset replied, shamefully.

“That’s a lot better than our Sunset’s plan to take over Equestria with an army of brainwashed human teenagers.” Twilight replied, giving a little giggle.

“Kinda sad really… I mean, human teenagers? If I was trying to take over Equestria, I’d use something a whole lot better, like zombies or something,” Sunset chuckled a little. “Now, if I may ask you a question?”

Twilight motioned with her hand. “Go right ahead, I don’t think I have anything to hide.”

“Okay, the whole kirin thing. Where’d you get the dragon eyes and fangs?” Sunset asked. “And the, er, temper?”

“Ah,” Twilight nodded, baring her fangs. “Well, I’m not really a kirin, I just have a bit of dragon in me. Spike found his family, not too long ago. As it turns out, his mother was a dragon named Peridot, and his father was an Earth Pony stallion named Star Dust,”

“Go on,” Sunset motioned with her hand. “So where do you tie into all of this?”

“During the dragon migration, Spike found his grandfather, Smaug,” Twilight explained.

Sunset spat out her drink right then and there, in a classic spit take motion. “Wait, Smaug as in: “My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!” That one?” Sunset squeaked.

Twilight gave her an odd look. “No? Smaug is the dragon shaman, he looks like Spike; except one of his eyes is blind.”

“Oh, good…” Sunset said weakly.

“Well, he did burn the nation of Minos to the ground, but that was a few centuries ago. And to be fair, they killed his clan save for his daughter’s egg first.”

“So, I assume some sort of blood adoption ritual took place?” Sunset questioned, regaining her composure.

“Exactly!” Twilight replied with a smile, putting a hand to her chest. “Smaug performed a ritual that tied my family to Spike’s clan. Everyone in the Sparkle family is like this now, even Cadance!”

At that, Sunset finally fainted having had too many shocks in one day.

“Guess she can’t handle her wine,” Twilight noted, taking Sunset’s glass and placing it in front of herself.

Golden Oaks Library:

Later that night, (Princess) Twilight had set herself back to work on the mysterious Sengoku Driver she’d obtained from one of those Kurokage Troopers, or more accurately, stole from the Canterlot Royal Guard’s Lock-Up. This was her latest personal pet project, and one she was determined not to fail. Considering what the Rangers had been facing as of late, a little extra help of the Masked Rider (She’d did a bit of study into Neighponiese, and learned the meaning of Kamen and Henshin) probably would be a boon to them… right? After all, if Sunset’s theories were right, Goldar’s newfound help was only the tip of the iceberg, and she knew Wyatt and company, pleasant as they were couldn’t stay forever. Had their own universe to get back to and defend along with their own lives to live.

Breaking into a Royal Guard building, not something Twilight had ever thought she’d be doing in her lifetime, really. But, here she was, doing just exactly that under cover of darkness. Sure, there was a chance of being caught, and Twilight had never done anything stealthy in her lifetime whatsoever but the benefits outweighed the dangers. She was tired of being shoved to the sidelines whenever a monster attacked Ponyville. Supposed she was taking a leaf out of Rainbow Dash’s book and doing something mind-blowingly stupid, and completely rash.

But, she’d seen the power those armored troopers the being known as Goldar had under his command possessed. If she could obtain one of those belts, -or Drivers as she heard them referred to by the Royal Guard, probably due to the similarities of the belts her Rider counterpart and her Spike possessed- then she might just have a chance to defend Equestria from Thrax’s forces at last.

Now, the first and foremost problem, avoiding the guards. Now, she’d kept an eye on their movements around the lock-up’s main vault, and had timed them. Every 30 seconds, which wasn’t a long time- they’d halt in their march, before turning around and marching the other way. If Twilight could slip between these patrols while they weren’t looking into the vault, she could nab the Driver and get out. Of course, Twilight wasn’t completely stupid. She’d looked up a spell just for this situation that would help her along the way.

Twilight mentally counted off the seconds in her head, and when the guards halted, she ran for the vault and quickly dashed inside. Once she was inside, her horn glowed slightly and if a guard were to even peek inside, they’d think they saw something for a brief moment, but continue looking past her.

Of course, the trouble was breaking into one of the cases that held the Drivers and nabbing it without anypony seeing or setting off the alarms. Pulling out a piece of dried bubblegum from her dress pockets (Twilight groaned in disgust at this) she quickly made a magical construct of a knife, and slid it under the case ever so slightly before replacing the knife with the gum. That would keep the button that sounded the alarm from going off, now that there was a weight that matched the glass case on it. Now, that was the tricky part done. Lifting off the glass case, she grabbed the driver, and opened up a small portal to a pocket dimension (Another tricky spell Twilight was proud of herself for learning) and stored the driver in it. With a quick purple flash, she was gone. Before she left however, she smirked a little and commented: “Not as hard as I thought it’d be…”

However, what she hadn’t counted on, and in hindsight, should have thought about, were the teleportation detection spells placed in the room. That was how Shining would later find out about this theft, via magical signature alone. Wasn’t Captain of the Royal Guard for nothing after all.

Back in the present, Twilight continued to work late into the night via candlelight only at her desk. Various unfinished Dino Chargers lay nearby, including a silver one with the face of the Super Megaforce Silver Ranger on it. Nearby lay the Squash, Blaze, and Fusion Chargers. Somehow, these Drivers were connected to someone’s personal signature or their DNA, meaning that once you put on one of these Drivers, only you alone could use it. That could be a problem… That was, if you were anypony other than Twilight. Snipping the connection between this driver she’d obtained and it’s former user was a simple matter. Envisioning the connection between the person and the Driver as a string, she envisioned a pair of scissors in her mind and snipped the string.

“Now…” Twilight thought. “Just gotta put this on myself…”

Attaching the belt to her waist, a yellow band appeared and strapped it to her. Grabbing the Lockseed that came with the belt, themed after a pinecone (Was that even a fruit, Twilight wondered.) of all things, she smiled.

“Now, at last it’s my turn to morph…” Twilight said, before shouting “Henshin!” as she placed the Lockseed into the belt in a perhaps needlessly overdramatic fashion, and sliced it open with the small cutting blade. To her surprise however, nothing happened.

Twilight blinked in confusion for a moment, before she let out a mutter of “No, no, no, no, no, no!” as she realized by severing the connection between the Belt and it’s former user whoever he or she may have been, she broke the Lockseed as well.

Swearing quietly, Twilight tossed the seed away into the darkness, it hitting the floor with a small clattering sound.

Twilight let out a groan as her head hit the desk, and muttered: “Now what do I do…?” to herself as she placed her face in her hands. Behind her, a zipper appeared in midair, and slowly unzipped itself to reveal an entrance to a strange forest.

Twilight heard the sound, and her eyes widened at what she saw. “...The Hell?” she asked, and throwing caution to the wind, stepped into the crack and into the misty forest. Like some otherworldly kudzu vine, maroon fruits covered the trees all around her and strange curled up purple blooms littered the damp, wet ground as strange growls came from all around her and bushes ruffled. All in all, Twilight felt she should not be here. She ran for the exit, only to find it closing up behind her.

“Frak, frak, and more frak…” Twilight muttered, before the researcher, the curious side of her came out to play and she began to think to herself. “Now, if there’s a way in, there has to be a way out. That crack opened at random, so chances are more will open sooner or later at random intervals. Just got to wait things out and when the next crack opens, jump through it back home!”

Twilight whimpered as another growl came from nearby. That was, if she could even survive her time in this forest…

Time passed, although Twilight didn’t know how much time. Could have been hours, could have been days. She did know one thing, however, she was getting hungry and all of those fruits were oftly tempting, dangerous as they looked.

Reaching out for a fruit, and ignoring the growl coming from behind her, she was surprised when it changed its shape into another Lockseed, this one with a banana on it.

Then, the growling increased in volume as several gray, insect-like creatures stepped out of the bushes, fangs bared. Twilight looked at the Lockseed, and then her belt, knowing what she had to do.

“Henshin!” she shouted, slamming the Lockseed into her Sengoku Driver, and slicing it open. To her surprise, she soon found herself covered in silver chainmail, with red detailing. “Lock On! Banana!” the belt seemingly shouted, as a zipper opened up and a metal banana slowly floated down towards Twilight, before opening up and transforming her into a crimson and yellow European knight-like warrior holding a jousting lance. “Come on! Banana Arms: Knight of Spe~ar!” the belt shouted, with the sound of trumpets accompanying it.

Spinning the lance around in her hand, gripping it and getting a good feel for the weapon, Twilight charged into battle against the creatures. Impaling one, she then tossed the dying Inves into one of it’s fellows. More were to come out of the woodworks however, and Twilight knew she had to do something fast.

Slicing down on the cutting blade several times, Twilight -As the belt shouted “Banana Sparkling!”- thrust the lance into the ground, and several energy bananas manifested and skewered the remaining Inves who went up in fireballs.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Twilight cheered, looking decidedly ridiculous as she bounced up and down like a happy filly in her armor. “I finally blew up some monsters!”

Twilight then, on another bout of curiosity, wandered over to another tree and grabbed another fruit off of a vine, seeing what she could grab this time. This Lockseed seemed to be themed after a mango, judging from it’s appearance.

“Hmm, wonder what else this forest has to offer…?” Twilight thought, putting the new seed into a pocket dimension for convenience’s sake and continuing onwards, plucking various fruits off the trees as she went.

Author's Note

Whoa nelly, never imagined the next chapter would be this long, but with so many things needing to be discussed, such as Twilight's draconic features, Wyatt revealing the truth about Drakkon and Twilight shaming Ponyville along with her finally becoming Armored Rider Baroness for the first time, I suppose it had to be a long one.

Next time, the invasion begins! Now, you know the drill by now, comments, thoughts, and critiques are welcomed.