Equestria 101 – Prophetic

"Discord is your brother?"

At the nods of the twin Alicorn sisters, the Orange Ranger ran a hand through his hair in disbelief. Weihan thought the madness of the day had ended with Bree telling him that she was 'destined' to be part of a Ranger-like team called the Sentinel Rangers or whatever they were called. He had briefly wondered how many Power Sets around him had prophecies linked to them but decided not the dwell on it. After all, he hadn't learnt about the Prophecy of Ultra until it had been basically spelled out to him by Zordon. As the communication after-image had winked out, an all black unicorn had walked out of one of the side passages, had seen the new faces in the room and had begun charging up his horn. Seeing this display of power, he had prepared a blue-hot fireball and had been about to fling it at the strange unicorn when Princess Celestia had leapt in the middle of them and forced them to stop. The past fifteen or so minutes had been spent explaining to him the various new twists and turns that had popped up since his last visit. He was still trying to wrap his head around the strange family tree that Celestia and Luna were a part of.

"And you're their father?"

The black unicorn nodded once and he felt his mind shut down once more. Shaking his head to clear it, Weihan sighed and placed his head in his hands. The ex-King Sombra set him off slightly as there was a faint aura around him that didn't have anything to do with the inherent magic the unicorns possessed. He had felt Twilight and Rarity weave their spells around him far too often to know what their magic felt like. If he didn't know any better, he would have said it was like the power Ninjor and Dulcea always held around them…the aura of their Ninja and Ninjetti Spirits. How a unicorn could have gotten in touch with such powerful energies away from the Rangers was beyond him. Just one more question to deepen the ever-growing mystery that was King Sombra. As if sensing his thoughts, the black unicorn nodded once more and spoke in the deep tone that reminded him of James Earl Jones.

"I assure you that I am their father. I have been…elsewhere for the past few thousand years and I trusted my daughters to rule in my stead."

As she could see he looked a bit sceptical at the claims made, Twilight trotted up next to the shocked Ranger and lightly nudged his side with her horn. She frowned slightly at the strange image that flashed in her mind for a split second of flesh slapping together and shook her head to clear her mind. Thankfully, the Orange Ranger hadn't noticed or didn't mention anything. It was odd to her how the images seemed to flash up within the proximity of the Orange Ranger…almost as if her subconscious mind was telling her that something had happened a while ago that she had forgotten. She didn't know what it could be as there hadn't been any time that she had lost in the past, well, not since the debacle with the spell that didn't take hold. Even though she had betrayed them in the end, she still trusted Dimitria's words about them not having done anything in the duration. Even their images on the security recordings had been concurrent with what Billy had said they were doing…though their movements seemed somewhat jerky. She opened her mouth to speak to the human, her tone holding an undercurrent of warmth to it.

"He destroyed a giant monster with one blast. That's something you haven't done yet."

Weihan rolled his eyes. Destroying a giant monster single-handedly was one of the first things he had done as a Ranger. Admittedly, nuking a giant monster was well within his limits but he hadn't felt it was necessary. After all, Xonix had stopped making monsters grow for quite a while before the big battle and the Ultra Psycho Rangers wouldn't go down with one blast anyway.

"Blast, no. Slash, yes."

Closing his eyes as the black furred unicorn gaped openly, he felt for the connection to his Battlizer and, by extension, the massive energy source that was tethered to it. Once the mighty armour was summoned again, the final checks and procedures would be done for him to summon what the Elder had called the 'Ultimate Weapon'. After he had seen it, he had agreed. Opening his eyes once more, he saw Sombra looking at him closely. Well, the unicorn wasn't looking at him but at the air around his body. It was akin to something Ninjor and Dulcea had taught Rachel and had her use him as a 'training aid' of sorts. The technique was an energy signature reading that dated back to Zordon's war with Rita. Where the ancient sage had learnt it from was lost to the annals of history, yet that didn't keep hundreds of history scholars all over the Universe from looking.

"Your energy signature is overwhelmingly powerful…"

He rolled his eyes and looked over to where the Crystal Rangers were watching him with interest. He really should have had them try to develop their magic or, at the very least, to create duplicates of themselves but after the slight debacle before with Liz and the lack of clothes on her double…well, he wasn't going to take any more chances. At the very least, Emma's incredulity regarding the equines around her had lessened somewhat and she was accepting being in another dimension. He was about to suggest Liz taking the Rangers to the Secondary Training Room to get some practice in when the former King's voice reached his ears. As it was in a very low and quiet tone, Weihan knew that it wasn't meant to be heard…but the words made him want to bash his head repeatedly on one of the marble pillars.

"Could it be you hold one of the Crystals of Prophecy?"

"Crystals of…great, another prophecy to deal with. What does this one say now?"

Sombra looked down slightly and ran his tongue over his teeth. He stamped his front hooves on the ground and flicked his tail back and forth as he tried to wrest the exact words of it from the far reaches of his memory. Unlike many of the great prophecies he had heard, there was little evidence to show that it would happen at all within the lives of all of the dimensions. There were too many variable in place that needed to align up perfectly; so much so that even the slightest deviation could end in the prophecy not coming true at all. For it to have come true at all within the lifetimes of the Elders was truly astounding as it was terrifying. As small parts of it came to him, the Unicorn opened his mouth to convey the words before snapping it shut. Although the Ranger in front of him had the hallmarks of being the one from the Prophecy, there was nothing that he could see that told him of his true character. He would have to play it safe to start.

"I am afraid I do not know the full words as it is very peculiar. It states vague happenings that will come about with the fall of the warriors six up until the world's end."

Weihan felt the colour drain from his face as the words sank in. As he could recite the Prophecy of Ultra word for word, the part the black unicorn had uttered about the 'fall of the warriors six' was something that would have sounded thematically apropos for the situation…had it not been for the words 'world's end'. Those words were from the odd, almost sing-song third verse. Of course, the second verse had revolved around his trip into the Dark Future and that memory was not something he wanted to relive in front of the ponies. He had agonised over the significance of the 'battle lost' in the third verse but he had come up empty…until his death. Barely stifling the violent shudder that threatened to ripple through his body, he forced himself to look anywhere except at Sombra. The Crystal Rangers were staring at him with mixtures of concern and curiousity while the ponies were looking at him in a rather confused way, except for Pinkie who was snoring in one of the farthest corners. Chuckling under his breath as the Pink Ranger rolled onto her back, he didn't notice Applejack coming up behind him again until she spoke.

"What's wrong, Sugarcube? Ya look like you've seen a ghost."

Snapping out of his bemusement, all thoughts turned back to business and he glared at the unicorn. As far as he was aware, no 'mortal' being was supposed to be aware of the existence of the second and third verses. The full Prophecy had been distributed only to the most trusted people with the express belief that they would not be shared within the Intergalactic community. To hear of some unicorn hearing the full prophecy in another dimension was…well, it was something all right. The Orange Ranger almost wished Zordon was still around so he could be grilled, but that was something that was still a bit painful to think about. Clearing his mind of any untoward thoughts regarding the level of knowledge the ex-King Sombra possessed, he inhaled deeply and softened his gaze as much as possible before speaking in a somewhat gentle, but firm, tone.

"Where did you hear that Prophecy?"

Sombra blinked at the tone in the young man's voice and felt a small shiver run over him. The Elders had always cautioned spreading the word of the Prophecy around to others as they had seen far too many attempts at beings try to manipulate the words for their own gain. More often than not, those attempts had ended poorly. The way this Ranger had moved against a foe that was only known to a handful of Equestria's Rangers was astounding to watch and he had, on more than one occasion, rubbed his eyes with his front hooves…as if cleaning them would somehow cause the strange sight to vanish completely. Yet, here he was in front of him, staring at him intently as if to wrest the true meaning behind his words from his inner core. There was still one question that needed to be asked of the man, one thing that would truly set his mind at ease and grant him the envy of the Elder.

"From my travelling companions. They seemed quite adamant that the only person that would know the meaning of the words was the Bearer. Do you know what it means?"

At his nod, Sombra's gut tightened. This was it…to finally have the answers that the Elder couldn't give in front of him was an intoxicating prospect. However, even with the benefit of hindsight, nothing could have prepared him for the words he was about to hear.

"I have heard it before but as the Prophecy of Ultra or the Prophecy of the Crystals. It states the rise of my team of Rangers, the Ultra Rangers, and glosses over the various allies that I have found, including your daughters and their Rangers."

The black unicorn fell back on the floor with a stunned expression on his face and the Orange Ranger internally rolled his eyes as his daughters raced to him. With all those questions about the Prophecy that had come his way, he would have thought Sombra to be better prepared when he was faced with the undeniable truth. Apparently, he had been wrong on that account. Running a hand through his hair, he opened his mouth to speak when the doors flew open and banged loudly on the walls. Everyone jumped, startled by the sudden noise…but to his amusement, Pinkie Pie didn't stir one bit. He felt fire rush to his palms for a brief second before a white unicorn with a three-toned blue mane galloped in. From her position by Celestia's side, Twilight's eyes lit up with delight at the sight of her brother, Shining Armour. The Captain of the Guard and current co-ruler of the Crystal Empire nodded at the Orange Ranger and his new Rangers once, despite never having seen them before, but blinked at the stunned black unicorn in the middle of the floor, with the Regal Alicorns flanking him.

"I came as soon as I saw the smoke. What happened…and who's this?"

As the purple unicorn approached her brother to fill him in, the Orange Ranger walked over to the Crystal Rangers and nodded once. Liz, Bec and Jorja stood up and nodded back, before preparing themselves for a new round of training. They had the basics down but Weihan wanted to test them against the ponies to see how well they could stand up to their power and endurance. It would have to wait until the others had the proper rest and recovery and when he was certain that no other attacks would be taking place. Ignoring the stunned shout from behind him, Weihan looked at his Rangers and spoke in a steely voice.

"Now we train."

TBC…