Chapters Yggdarsill Tower, Earth 5:00 pm
Machines hummed as Dr. Shinigami entered the control room. As he looked over the work being done, he could not help but give himself a pat on the back. Who else would have been able to unite the different species to work towerd there goal. With the combined time travel of the Imagin, and the dimensional attributes of the Forest of Hellheim, mixed with human technology they wouldn't have to stop with just Earth. They could concur, colonize, consume or corrupt any world in the multiverse.
"Doctor," said a voice. Turning he saw the owner of the voice, a man wearing a white robe and mask, it was the High Priest Darom, one of the leaders of the organization known as Golgum. He was flanked by two fangire,stained glass window like vampires; one resembling a cockroach, the other a type of frog.
"Yes sir?" Shinigami asked.
"The Tribunal wants an update on the Gateway."
"You may tell the tribunal that the Gateway will be ready by tomorrow morning," the doctor said confidently.
The robed figure did not seem satisfied with this answer, "They want it operational today."
"I'm sorry, but it will have to be tomorrow."
One of the fangire finally spoke up, "Why the delay?"
"We need to run the safety checks first, and calibrate the circets to accommodate the inferior technology."
"Inferior? Are you suggesting that we have not provided you with sufficient equipment?"
Hearing the edge to the Priest's voice he quickly explained. "It was only one piece of equipment and we are fixing the problem as I already stated. Mr. Takashido," he jestered to the young man who was working on the problem, "will explain it to you."
Takashido Yuma, was a younger man wearing a lab coat with glasses, with a blue streak in the lower, left side of his hair. "Certinaly, sir." he turned to the three visitors, "You see, the Warring Driver that we received was damaged so we could not quite extract the necessary parts from it."
"What part would that be?" Said the roach fangire.
"A Lockseed," said the scientist, "we needed one to stimulate the Gateway to create a crack to another universe. We were hoping for a high numbered seed, but the driver we were given was damaged so we were only able to get LS:05."
"Very few of Warring's creations were not destroyed once this city fell." Said Darom who had been listening closely the whole time. "Very well, you may have one more day, but it had better work." he turned and left, the fangire following.
Shinigami breathed a sigh of relief, "Right! Let's get this finished."
12:59 am
Takashido looked at his watch, 'almost time'. He looked at the others in the room; two Zect troopers stood guard at the door leading to the rest of Yggdarsill tower, an Unknown was posted next to one of the generates, and a co-worker at the station next to him.
As the clock struck one, two figures appeared in the doorway, a Zect trooper and a silver, scorpion-like Worm. The trooper was carrying a large briefcase.
With out warning the Worm attacked the nearest Zect trooper, while the one with the brief case attacked the other.
The Unknown would have attacked the intruders, however what he failed to notice was that the generated he was guarding had a very shiny covering to it, almost reflective. Nor did he notice the two large golden pincers which emerged from it.
The other scientist saw what was happening and backed up into Takashido who simply smiled charmingly and said, "Mind if I real you in?" Before knocking the man unconscious. Takashido then began to leak sand and fell to the ground himself, after which a blue and orange turtle-like Imagin named Uratarous rose from the body and walked toward the new arrives, who had succeeded in subduing the guards.
The remaining Zect trooper removed their helmate to reveal a young woman named Yuka Osada, an orphnoch (a zombie-like kaijin) who felt compassion for humanity. Although this description could be applied to all the kaijin in the room.
"Right, lets get to work," Yuka said "the guard's replacement will be here in ten minutes." She opened the briefcase, revealing a book like device, a sword and two zecters.
"Here," Uratarous said, gesturing to the station his host had been working at.
The worm took on his human form, which went under the name, Tsurugi Kamishiro. He was a younger man with long hair, wearing a white suit. "Okay, so what exactly are you going to do?" he asked.
"I'm going to wire the Rider Cards into the circuit board. In theory, it will send the spirits of the fallen riders to the dimension that the Gateway is open to." explained Yuka.
"In theory?"
"What dimension is the Gateway open to?"
Ignoring the worried look on the face of the last rider, Yuka addressed the Imagin, "The Kaijin are calling it: M etal L ightning P lasma 4: F ire I ce M agma."
... ...
"Uh," she looked back at the info file on the Gateway's target, "the locals call it, Equestria."
"Okay, that's a lot easier."
It was at that point that the fourth member of their party decided to enter, a large, goldenrod, bipedal, crab-like advent beast, emerged from the generator casing. Unfortunately, this triggered the alarm. Don't ask how, i'm the author and I have no idea.
"And thats the cue for you three to leave." Yuka said panicking.
"Wait! Your not coming with us?"
Handing the briefcase to Tsurugi, "I'll hold the guards off, the Hyper Zecter will keep you safe on the trip through the void." As she was explaining she she took on her true form, the crane orphnoch. " And you are going to need those, Sasword."
The last rider looked at the orphnoch in front of him, a few years ago he would have thought the idea of working together with kaijin impossible, now. "Good luck, Osada."
He turned to the advent beast, "Come on, Magmacancer."
Urataros turned to their teammate, "Take care of yourself." before also heading off into the unknown, with two thoughts on his mind. One, what will this, Equestria, be like? And two, do they have pudding?
Cantorlot to Ponyville Train, 6:35 pm
Twilight was feeling pretty good about herself at the moment. She had helped amend somepony's problems, befriended said pony, and rekindled her friendship with her old classmates. Well, most of them.
"Hey Spike," she asked her assistant/brother/son.
"Yeah Twilight?" he responded.
"Remind me to see how Lyra Heartstrings is doing when we get back to Ponyville."
"Yes ma'am." he replied in his usual cheery attitude.
"And don't you worry about him forgetting, cause if he forgets then I'll remind him, to remind you." said the third member of their party, the original party pony herself, Pinkie Pie.
The two mares and drake were coming home from a week in Canterlot working on their latest 'episode in friendship' as Spike had been calling them. Twilight had realized that she had neglected to talk to her old friends from CsfGU since well... ever. So she went to Cantorlot to have a sort of, class reunion. There were some complications, but in the end things turned out all right.
Now after a big party last night and hours of surveillance the days prior (don't ask), Twilight was ready for a good nights sleep. After seeing how Lyra was of course, her being the only one of her friends who had moved out of Canterlot since she had left.
"How about we eat out for dinner tonight Twi," Spike suggested "you look a little tired, and quite frankly (yawn) so am I."
Twilight looked at the young reptile, he did look exhausted and she was feeling a little groggy. "That sounds great. Want to join us, Pinkie?"
The pink mare smiled, "Sure, but you're buying."
Twilight gave a little chuckle, "Deal." She suddenly heard a light snoring, looking down she realized Spike had fallen asleep against her. Careful so not to wake him, she wrapped her wing around the dragon.
As she did she couldn't help but feel like catching a few winks herself. She laid her head against the window and let the rhythm of the engine lull her to sleep.
Suddenly she noticed that was all she could hear, no Spike snoring, no chatter from the other passengers. As she looked around the car she didn't see any other passengers, even Spike and Pinkie were gone.
The princess got up to look around and realized there was someone else in the car. Or more accurately, something else. The figure had the shape of a pony, but its coat was covered with red markings. It had three large red eyes on its face. And where it's ears should have been there where, only large antenna. Needless to say she reacted like any sane mare would when they saw a giant spider pony.
"Ahhhh!!!"
Don't tell me you wouldn't do the same if it happened to you.
"Twilight! Wake up!"
Twilight opened her eyes and realized she had been dreaming. Everypony was still on the train, or getting off the train.
Spike looked at her worriedly, "Are you okay? You seemed restless."
"I'm OK, just a bad dream." Although she had never had a dream like that before.
"Well we'd better move sleepy heads, cause the train stopped and I'm staaaarvin'." Pinkie said as she bounced past Spike and Twilight.
As the young princess exited the train, she tried to remember her dream. It had already faded, so she couldn't remember what had scared her. She was so engrossed in trying to remember that she didn't notice that in the train window there was a reflection without a body watching her and the rest of the ponies on the platform with a hungry look in its eyes.
The Soup Bowl, Later
All thoughts of Twilight's dream had vanished as the group sat down at a restaurant they found. Actually we ran into Lyra and her friend Bon Bon who showed us the restaurant. Ahh! Pinkie, don't do that. Sorry.
The ponies and Spike sat down, the two horned members discussing their work.
"So Bon Bon took me in and before you knew it we were best friends." said the mint colored unicorn.
The cream earth pony chuckled at that, "It didn't happen over night, in fact it was the nights that kept me from opening up to her."
"What do she snore?"
"Pinkie! Uh, no that wasn't it."
"And I did not snore."
"Actually I didn't get a chance to find out, she was always working late on her studies and projects. More than once I found her passed out at her desk."
"Oh I can relate to that." Spike spoke up. "Twilight once went about three days without sleep."
"Hey, I was trying to avert a disaster of colossal proportion."
"Which never came."
Twilight stopped talking at that point, knowing that there was no point in continuing. Instead she decided that they should start eating. She called for a waiter and a young earth pony filly came over. She had a grey coat and a silver grey mane ending in a braid, and she wore a pair of glasses and a white apron around her midsection.
"Ready to order?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'll have a lettuce and daisy sandwich."
"Alfredo pasta bowl for me."
"Ooh ooh, make that two. And include a side of barley with mine."
"I think I'll have my usual, Bon Bon?"
"I'll take the pasta as well, but with tomato sauce instead."
The filly finished writing down the orders. "Okay, your meals should be here in a bit." she said turning to the kitchen.
She didn't make it that far though, another pony was crossing the same way and tripped the filly. The waitress fell flat on her face.
"Ow! Watch where your going." she exclaimed.
The pony turned and bowed his head to her, "Oh, sorry."
The filly just sighed and stood herself up. "Its alright, but please stop bowing."
The pony did, yet didn't take his eyes off the filly as she went into the back room. He then took a seat in a secluded spot. To the average passerby it would have been normal, but Pinkie was not the average pony by any means, and she could have sworn that she saw some kind of pattern spread over the pony, if just for a moment.
Castle Harmony (Twilight residence), even later
"Thanks for all the help Pinkie." Twilight said as they approached the large doors that were the entrance to her new home. " I really don't know what I would have done without you."
"Aw, you would have come up with something. Oh wait, you did come up with something, me." Pinkie giggled at her comment a little. "Seriously though I'm glad you got back together with your Canterlot friends. Which reminds me, are you still keeping in touch with your CHS friends?"
"I've been getting weekly letters from Sunset and that worlds versions of you and the rest of the girls. I've been thinking it might be nice to bring Sunset back over here and let her and Celestia make amends."
"I'd really like to meet her, if you do invite her better not let the rest of them through, or at least not all of them. Can you imagine what it would be like with twelve elements of harmony in one place?"
"I'd be more worried about what would happen to Spike if there were two Raritys in one place." the dragon in question was curled up on Twilight's back dozing soundly. "Speaking of which, I'd better get this little one to bed. Goodnight Pinkie."
"Goodnight Twilight."
Once the two mare had finished saying goodnight twilight turned to the magical castle she was apparently calling home now. The purple alicorn pushed open the doors to her unbearably large castle, and made her way to the bedrooms. Spike had a room across from her so if anything happened she would be able to help. Wrapping the drake in her magic she gently lifted him off her back and placed him in his bed. Twilight remembered the basket Spike had as a bed before and new that the little dragon would miss it, it was all she could afford as a young filly and Spike had never really shown any discomfort with it, even after moving to Ponyville.
"Sweet dreams, my little dragon."
Twilight then saw to her own preparations for sleep. She was to tired to brush her teeth or anything so preparation turned out to be a metaphor for: fall on the bed like a dying swan. Yet as she did this, she was once again pulled into the realm of dreams, or something akin to that.
Twilight found herself in what seemed to be a void, yet it was unlike any void she had seen before. The space between Equestria and the human world was bright and excited; the plain that Celestia took her to to make her an alicorn was also bright but in a calming way. This was more like a ripple on a pond, with murky water. She couldn't help but feel a little nervous, especially since the void seemed to be moving or something was moving inside it.
"H-Hello. Hello!" she called into the nothingness. "Is somepony there?"
"That depends on your definition of somepony." said a voice in the darkness.
Twilight got officially nervous at that point, "What do you mean?"
"Does someone have to be a pony to be a somepony? Or can they be something else?"
"Look, just" she paused to consider her words, "who are you."
It was then that a figure stepped out of the ripples. It was an earth pony stallion, he had a tan coat with a semi-wild black mane with thin pink and silver streaks running through it, two of which were longer and stuck out. Twilight also noticed that the stallion's eyes looked off, like there was something barring them.
What was most unusual about the pony was his attire, she never saw clothes like them before. He had on a sort of armor, covering his chest, and legs. The chest-plate had a white double line running from the left side of the neck down, and another from the left shoulder running across to the other side and down. The legs were covered in a pink armor that was painted black on the inside for the front legs and white for the back. The pony's cutie mark seemed to show what to Twilight looked like a bar code with eyes.
Twilight was quite taken aback by the figure. "Who are you?" she repeated.
"I am the one who will connect all worlds." said the stallion. "Though to most, I'm just a passing through, Kamen Rider."
Twilight just stood there, "Is that supposed to mean something?"
The waking world, outskirts of Ponyville
The pink pony, Cherry Berry, was not usually one to go out at night. Tonight though, she heard something coming from behind her house. She held up a lantern which seemed to barely pierce the gloom, trying to see what was about.
Upon finding nothing she decided it was probably just a stray pet, but she did lock her back door after closing it.
Once she did a figure crawled out of the darkness. Its three large, compound eyes fixated on the castle in the distance.
Author's Note
first chapter, be kind.
don't know when next chapter will be out.
The stallion had expected this to happen but it still hurt to explain what to him was fact of life. "I see I'm going to have to start at the beginning," he said to the purple alicorn before him. "I am Kamen Rider Decade."
The stallion then reached toward his midsection and seemed to grab some form of device which Twilight had not noticed before. As he did his body and armor seemed to dissolve in pink, squares, yet as they did they left the stallion changed. His coat remained the same color, but his mane became more even and a shade of soft brown. His armor had completely vanished and was replaced with a red turtle-neck and brown trench coat. He also had a small box hanging around his neck. His cutie mark had changed as well, it now showed what appeared to be a roll of film negatives, each showing a green and blue sphere. The pony looked much less intimidating but still just as unusual.
Twilight was speechless, "... Waa?" mostly.
The strange pony moved to his left, as he did so the void surrounding the two ponies vanished and was replaced with the castle's throne room. "This seems more appropriate," Decade said, "A Kamen Rider is a warrior who fights to protest the populace from evil. Basically, I'm from another world. And I bring you, Princess Twilight, a warning."
This finally seemed to knock Twilight back to her senses, "I'm listening."
"I'm a traveler of sorts, I've seen many worlds. However the world that I've called home for a while is in danger, and so is yours.
"My world has been plagued by a species called Kijin, there kind have devastated our nations, and killed or consumed most of our people."
"Consumed?" Twilight was familiar with species who ate the the flesh of others, but it still sent a chill down her spine to think of anyone being eaten.
"Yes, and now they have found a way to travel to other worlds. Your world is their first target." Decade sat down in the throne opposite from Twilight's throne. "You have been chosen as this world's defender."
Twilight was shocked, "Me? What can I do?"
"I've been observing your world, I haven't seen everything but I get the gist of it. You have the potential to resist there invasion, but only if you become a Kamen Rider."
"You mean like you? With the armor, and the weird mane and the, whatever that just was." Twilight was beginning to panic again, she had been entrusted with some huge responsibilitys in the past year, but this was crazy.
"Just the armor, my armor in fact. It will form to suit your species, just as my form is projected to you as a comfortable form."
"Why do I need it? You said Equestria has potential and we've dealt with invasion before."
Decade rose off the throne and approached the Princess. "You magic is too passive, to defeat the kijin you can't just banish them, you will have to destroy them."
Twilight gasped, "No. No it's too cruel!"
"They are murderers! Blood thirsty killers that will not show mercy or restraint." He paused and turned to the window, "And you need to make a choice: either hold onto your beliefs that there is no such thing as pure evil and die, or accept the help of my people and have a chance of living." Decade took a few steps away from the window and faced the princess of friendship. "Come to this room when your mind is made up."
With that the pony moved toward a wall where the void from before was descending like a curtain. Twilight felt herself going numb and fell into an unconscious state.
Twilight felt like she had just been the victim of Pinkie's twitchy tail, during cider season. But the memory of her dream was still fresh in her mind.
"Twilight, are you okay?" said Spike who was at her bedside, "I heard you yelling in your sleep and I came to see what was up."
"Oh, what time is it?" Twilight asked, groggily.
"About 3:30."
The alicorn rubbed her eyes, "Oh, I had a weird dream. This crazy pony said I had to kill monsters that were invading our world."
Suddenly, somewhere in the castle a large crashing sound was heard.
Spike and Twilight both looked in the direction of the sound. Spike said, "Either that wasn't a dream or the IRS finally decided to start taxing political figures."
Author's Note
Big plus to anyone who can guess where I'm getting the chapter titles from.
I am so sorry, I forgot to upload this chapter, better late than never.
Twilight knew that her teleportation spell was faster than walking, but there were times when the spell was too dangerous, teleporting to an unknown location in building filled with what could quite possibly be a murderous monster definitely qualified. So Twilight and Spike found themselves running to the front entrance of the castle, the latter wearing a pot and holding a rolling pin which he somehow grabbed as they passed the kitchen.
In only a few moments they had reached the source of the crash, one of the windows in their library was all over the floor. "Ok don't panic, we have an intruder. That dosen't mean that it's a monster from another dimension."
Spike was holding the rolling pin out in front of him like a sword. "Uh yeah, just an intruder in our home in the middle of the night. N-Nothing to be scared of." One could almost feel his teeth chattering.
Then something started crawling on the walls, or that's what it sounded like.
"Tw-Twilight, what is that?"
Twilight had no idea and was too scared to comfort the young dragon. They didn't have to wait long to find out, as a large figure dropped too the ground in front of them.
It bore the resemblance to a spider, but had the shape of a pony. Actually it looked exactly like the creature she saw in her dream on the train. Having seen it before didn't make it any less terrifying.
Twilight positioned herself between the creature and Spike. She addressed the creature, "What are you?" She had a bad feeling that she already knew, but wanted to here it from the pony's mouth.
The creature made a sound which could have been laughing and said, "I am a Kaijin, the future rulers of your world, but I suppose you just need to be concerned with the fact that I will be the last thing you ever see."
Twilight took a step backwards, "Oh, well in that case," Twilight then lowered her head to the Kaijin and cast a stunning spell, "RUN!"
Levitating her assistant onto her back the Princess proceeded to make like Tartarus out of the library. She also received an adrenalin rush from the unholy scream that came from behind her.
Twilight made her way to the kitchen where she and Spike hid in an empty cupboard in the island in the middle of the room. Silently thanking Celestia that she never got around to stocking her kitchen, she put her hoof over Spike's mouth so to make sure that they didn't make a sound.
"Oh princess," came a voice from the hallway, "please don't run. It will only make things worse for you and your subjects."
Twilight decided to play for time and cast a spell that would let her continue to speak with the Kaijin while still remaining hidden.
"You seem to know who I am, but how come I don't remember ever hearing of you before?" the princess's voice seemed to come from everywhere, and yet it was far away as well. The spider decided to play her little game and began to search the room.
"Mostly because we have just arrived on your little world. Oh, but that still leaves questions unanswered, doesn't it?"
"Yes, it does. So I ask again, how did you know I was a princess?" Twilight, seeing that the spider was moving to the far end of the kitchen, was slowly moving herself and her assistant out of the room.
"Oh we have our methods," he replied sinisterly.
"Alright keep your secrets, so how about answering the question of a dead mare, why me? Celestia is more important, Cadence is more isolated, and Luna wouldn't cause that much of a disturbance." Twilight was almost to the door now.
"Young alicorn you are a fool. In the first place; you live alone in this huge castle, so technically you are the most isolated. And in the second place; that is not how we operate, we aren't terrorists or assassins. We're just evil, plain and simple."
The spider then reached his clawed hoof into the cupboard where the two had been hiding yet found it empty.
"Then I know what I h ave to do." Twilight said from the doorway as she dropped her spell. She then proceeded to run out of the kitchen, where she had been standing was a pile of webbing launched from the mouth of the spider.
Spike was clinging on to Twilight as she ran to, the throne room? "Uh, Twilight I hope you have a plan. Hopefully one that doesn't involve us getting eaten."
"Yes Spike, I just hope I don't regret it."
Entering the room, Twilight immediately began searching the thrones for the device. "There it is," she said once she reached Rarity's. She grabbed the device and another larger device that she hadn't seen before.
"What is that?" Spike asked.
"Our ticket out." Twilight said. She placed the device to her midsection like Decade had done, a strap wound its way around her waist like a belt, and nothing else.
"Um, now what?" Spike asked nervously. "Well," Twilight started, but she stopped once she realized- "You don't know how to use it, do you?"
Twilight and Spike's faces turned pale as they heard the slithery voice behind them. Turning to the door the found themselves in the three eyed gaze of the spider pony. "I don't know how you got the buckle and Deca-deck, but at this point it doesn't matter. I think i'll kill the reptile first, they say nothing hurts a mother more."
Twilight once more positioned herself between the spider and Spike, ready to sacrifice herself for- wait, what did he call the second device?
She grabbed the device which had somehow attached itself to the belt and found it opened like a book only instead of pages inside she found a deck of cards. The one on top of the deck bore a striking resemblance to that stallion, Decade. Then she felt the top of the buckle and found a slot about the size of the cards. Being the star pupil of Celestia, it only took her a millisecond to put two and two together.
"Well I've only got one chance to find out. Henshin!" Twilight didn't know what made her say that of what it meant, but it seemed to make sense, and made the monster stop in it's tracks. She put the card she held in her magic into the slot in the buckle and remembering how Decade had seemed to pull on the buckle she pushed on the side and felt the middle part slide sideways.
"Kamen Ride D-D-D-Decade!"
The kaijin finally broke out of the trance and decided to attack before the transformation was complete, but was hit in the head as nine card like apparatuses hit it in the face.
Spike looked on as his older sister turned into some kind of superhero knight. She wore the same armor that Decade had been wearing, only she also wore a mask that resembled the one she had as Matter-horn in Spike's comic book, except it had green goggles and nine pinkish-red bars across the facepiece.
Twilight hadn't felt like this since the battle with Tirek, She felt like could fight a pack of timberwolves single-hoofed. The spider looked on at one who he had thought long dead. "You won't kill me, it would be against your ethics to kill another sentient species."
Twilight looked at the spider kaijin with a solid unblinking stare, "True, but you attacked me and my little brother, so killing you would be in self defense. And as to the subject of you being of a sentient species, the ability to speak dose not make you intelligent, so I feel no remorse in destroying you!"* With that she lunged at the kaijin.
Twilight had never gotten any lessons in hoof-to-hoof combat; she'd only seen Rainbow do it a few times and mostly used her magic during the Changling Invasion. Yet now it came so easily: punch, kick cross, punch, like she had been trained to do it her whole life. Right up until she got hit square in the jaw.
"Ahh! ow!"
Twilight backed off and moved her jaw back and forth a bit. "Well at least it still works. Now, let's see what else this suit can do."
She reached back into the deck and pulled out another card; this one depicting a golden mask. She opened the buckle and placed the second card into the slot.
"Kamen Ride A-A-Agito!"
Twilight felt a warm glow come from the belt, and realized that her armor had changed to a suit similar to the one on the card. She wore a gold cheastplate with gold armor pieces over her fore and hindlegs, and silver shoulder plates. Her mask had red goggles and a gold crown like ornament resembling a beetles' jaws.
She struck out again, this time she felt she was more agile but the armor was actually quite heavier. She also found she was hitting with more force then before. "Well, I suppose that's an improvement."
She continued her attack, driving the spider to an open window in the hallway, facing the Everfree forest. She got caught in the ribs by a left hook from the Kaijin, but she was still able to knock the creature off it's feet and was able to pin it against the window sill.
"I am going to give you one last chance," Twilight said to her opponent, "back off and leave us alone, or fall." She pressed down on the Kaijin's neck as she said this.
The spider simply laughed, "You fool, you still don't get it. I'm not trying to kill you because I have too, I'm doing it because I want to. I'm just plain evil!"
With that the spider spat silk at the Agito doppelganger, blinding her for a moment. Twilight's hold on the Kaijin loosened, which resulted in her getting kicked to the floor.
Spike had been keeping a distance since the battle began, trying to understand anything that was going on. Once Twilight was on the ground he realized she needed help so he did the one thing he was good at, he breathed emerald fire at the creature. He didn't hit it hard, but it still caught fire.
Twilight used her magic to clean the silk off her mask and attacked the now flaming Kaijin. With One buck that would have made Applejack proud, she sent the the screaming, giant spider into a slow, sideways fall towards the Everfree.
Twilight felt her body go slack as fatigue washed over her. Spike came up to steady her, once he did the armor seemed to dissolve from her body. The two of them walked in silence to Twilight's room.
Both of them too tired to make sense of anything that just happened they decided to call it a night. They both just fell onto the bed, Twilight holding Spike close to her like she had done when he was a hatchling. There they almost immediately fell into a, thankfully, dreamless sleep.
Author's Note
Finally, we get to see the Kamen riders.
P.S. One more week until Season 5 resumes, keep it together man.
Sugar Cube Corner, 6:58 am
Mr. Cake was making breakfast for his family, normally he did this a lot later but Pumpkin had woken up early so the rest of the cakes were up as well. So as he was pouring pancake batter (what you thought they could only make desserts?) his wife got the store ready for opening.
A coo came from the highchair behind him.
"Give it a bit Poundcake, you can't rush good cooking."
It was then that the fifth occupant of the house, and honorary family member, came down the stairs. Although you would hardly recognize the bouncy party pony from the looks of her. She had notable bags under her eyes, and her mane was perfectly flat on the top, with the rest of it spread out.
"Yaaawn, 'smack' morning." the pink earth pony said groggily.
"Pinkie Pie? I don't think I've ever seen you this tired. Did something happen last night?" Mr. Cake asked a little worried about their tenant and friend.
"It's my Pinkie sense, telling me that some pony nearby had a party last night and I missed it." She sat herself down at the table and began pouring juice into her cup. "It's only happened once before, the Summer Sun Celebration after getting my cutie mark."
Mr. Cake removed himself from the stove to keep Pinkie from over filling her glass. "And the bed mane?" He returned to flipping the breakfast.
"It's just a side effect, my twin sister, Inkie, called me 'Poodle Pie' until Maud helped me get it out."
Mr. Cake paused at this, "Why would she call you that?"
Pinkie looked up from her empty plate, "Because my mane looks like a poodle... Wait you mean it doesn't?"
"No," Mr. Cake said as he placed a large plate of pancakes down on the table and a few small ones on the twin's plates. "it looks more..." he paused looking for the right word. Pound Cake then picked up on of his pancakes and squished it in his hooves. "That’s it, squashed."
Pinkie looked at her clean plate a little more closely, and saw that her reflection really did have a squashed mane. "Yikes, that’s new. I wonder if this means something, or if bedmane is unpredictable." she glared at her reflection, it backed away in fear. "Oh well, best not to find out on an empty stomach." she said, returning to her normal self, with bed mane.
Fluttershy's Cottage, same time
Angel Bunny didn't like to wake up Fluttershy when she was sleeping this soundly, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
"Gasp! Sputter. Angel, what are you doing?"
The white rabbit hopped down from her head rest and onto the window sill. The now soaking pegasus trotted over to him, looked out the window, and nearly fell on her tail. She raced downstairs, waking a few of her animals as she did.
The yellow pegusis stepped outside and approached the woods behind her cottage. She felt a chill run along her spine; because Celestia had only just begun to raise the sun, there was dew on the grass further dampening her coat, but mostly because she was staring at a battlefield.
Several of the trees were missing branches, freshly churn dirt was everywhere, and there was a lingering sent of smoke. A trained eye would have determined that one of the parties present in this skirmish was a pack of timberwolves. The paw prints in the dirt, the claw marks on the tree bark, and the stray bits of wood and foliage were all tell-tale signs. However even the untrained eye would know this, judging by the-
"Corpses?" Fluttershy asked herself, in a voice quiet even for her. Indeed there were two large wolf shaped wood piles lying just behind the tree line, one of which was missing half it's head. Tree sap stained the ground as well, indicating more then just these two wolves had been killed.
"But, timberwolves have regeneration abilities. Even if the they are blown to bits they can still reform." Fluttershy went through all the local creatures she knew, including the ones in the Everfree Forest, and none of them could do something like this to a timberwolf.
She felt a paw tug on her foreleg, "What is it Angel? You find something?" The bunny began hopping toward one of the corpses, the one that still had its whole face.
"Wait! It might still be dangerous." she called to her little companion. Angel ignored her and went right up to the wooden carcass's mouth. Fluttershy timidly hovered after the rodent and got a closer look at the body. She found what had been the cause of death, the wolf's chest cavity had been burned away; she also saw it had something yellow in it's mouth.
Reaching her hoof in she pulled out a small yellow medallion, which seemed to bear the image of a tiger on it. "Weird," Fluttershy said to herself.
Once again feeling the morning cold, the pegusi decided to head back inside to dry herself and warm up. However she decided to keep the medallion with her in case it turned out to be something important.
Carousel Boutique, 7:35
Rarity awoke to the smell of breakfast. Normally when this happens, she would race downstairs and find her sister, Sweetie Belle, burning juice and everything else. Thus explaining how she found herself splayed face down wrapped in her comforter.
Once she got herself untangled she found not the white unicorn that was her sister at the stove, but an orange pegusis instead.
"Um, morning Rarity." said the filly that was Scootaloo.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot about Sweetie's sleepover, so what's for breakfast?"
"I've got some toast in the toaster, some eggs on the stove, and if you could squeeze some oranges, we'll have breakfast in just a little bit." Remembering whose house she was in Scootaloo added, "If that is okay with you."
"Just fine darling, it's nice to know not all of Sweetie Belle's friends cook like her."
Rarity trotted over to the fridge where she kept the fruit. On her way back to the counter, she failed to notice that fleeting figure of a red, serpentine body in the reflection on the window.
Sweet Apple Acres, South Orchard, 7:45
"Well then how do you explain this?" a frustrated Applejack complained to her friend Rainbow Dash. The two of them were overlooking a patch of trees that was covered in a thick bank of fog.
"Well we didn't make this fog, at least my patrol didn't." the pegusis replied. "Besides, if we did we would have covered the whole town in fog. This feels more like some schoolcolt prank."
"Well its some prank all right, it's thicker than Granny's zap apple jam." Applejack said, turned to her daredevil friend. "Look I want this here fog cleared out by noon today, so get a couple extra pairs of wings start working that pegusi magic of your." The orange farmer then trotted back to her homestead in a huff.
Rainbow turned back to the fog, she hadn’t seen fog this thick outside of the Everfree, and even then it was formed by Nightmare Moon's magic. "Might have drifted in from the forest, or some kid got the help of a unicorn."
Rainbow's thoughts strayed back to her dream last night, it had been so strange. Somepony had told her to kill somepony else, she couldn't remember any specifics but she knew it was not a good idea.
"Well, better go find some help, this might take a while."
As she flew back toward Ponyville, a figure in a dark cloak strode out of the fog. In it's hooves it held a gold staff which bore a striking resemblance to a piece of plumbing. Following the robed figure was a pony wearing a business suit, it's face on the other hoof had no visible features other than several white lines running across it in a rib cage fashion.
The robed figure turned to the suited one, the later of which turned around and ran back into the fog. The former stared at the Apple's home for a bit longer, before returning to the concealment of the fog itself.
Author's Note
Well this got done a lot sooner than I thought it would, not much this time, mostly just forshadowing and teasers.
Ch5 The Paradise Syndrome
Castle of Harmony, 8:00 am
Twilight woke up and felt like a train had hit her, she also felt a warm form curled up at her underside. She looked down and saw her assistant curled up like a little foal, and she couldn't help but feel like a mother. She almost went right back to sleep, yet her newest accessory, resting on the nightstand, caught her eye and reminded her why she hurt so much.
She played the events of last night over in her head, and realized that she should tell the princesses and her friends about it. However her stomach had other ideas.
"ZZ-Ah! Spider." Spike exclaimed as Twilight's hunger roused him from sleep, "Sorry, last night left me a bit rattled."
"Spike it's aright, but between you and me, I don't think anything is going to be the same anymore." The young alicorn said to the drake. "We should probably tell Celestia and Shiny about this. (stomach) But first we should get some breakfast."
Spike nodded in agreement. The purple alicorn and dragon got out of bed, Twilight fixed her mane, and the two of them began walking toward the kitchen.
Spike licked his lips in anticipation, "Can I have topaz with my cereal?"
"I thought you were trying to cut down on your intake on precious gems. Something about affecting your figure?"
Spike turned to her, "That only applies to emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. You know, the big three?"
Twilight looked at the youth with a look of suspicion, "Alright, but just today."
As the two entered the rustically designed room, the purple dragon did, as they say in the human world, a fist pump.
Sweet Apple Acres, South Orchard, 8:15am
Rainbow dash was over looking the pegasi team she had brought in to clear the orchard's fog. Over all an okay team.
Firstly there was their team captain, Raindrops, a yellow pegasus with a short teal mane. She was a few years younger than Rainbow, but had also been accepted into the Wonderbolts reserve, so Rainbow knew she was a fair flier.
The other three members of the team were strangers to Rainbow, but she thought she had seen them during last years Winter Wrap-up. They were similar in color, with a sort of sherbet ice cream theme to their coats and manes. Rainbow wondered if they were sisters.
Speaking of relatives, "Well Cuz, you made the right choice calling my team in, that fog looks thicker than Cloudsdale's base."
"Yeah, I've never seen anything like it. The Apple family wants it cleared out by noon. Think it will be possible?" Rainbow asked her second cousin (on her mother's side).
The yellow pegasus tilted her head a bit, "It will take some doing, but we should be able to." She took to the air and the rest of her team did the same, "Okay; Wild Flower, you and Berryblend take the top section of the bank, give it a good shave. Me, Rainbow and Dawn will take the bottom half, and watch out for the apple trees. Okay, go!"
Two of the soft colored ponies, one with a curly mane and the other with a smooth, two colored one, flew off to attack the top of the fog bank; while the third, a smooth maned mare, advanced on the front.
They began beating their wings fiercely, yet apart from a slight disruption the fog stayed firm. Rainbow then took the logical next move, she turned around and bucked it. Her hooves passed through without affecting the fog at all. "Inconceivable!" the pegasus, named Dawn Light, said in exasperation.
Raindrops approached the fog, she then waved her hoof around inside it. "Maybe we should try something stronger. Hey Cuz, you remember at the Wonderbolts training, you and Lightning used a tornado to clear the clouds."
Rainbow cringed at the thought, "Yeah, and it nearly killed 5 ponies and got Lightning kicked out of the reserve."
"Well I didn't mean we should do what she did, but maybe we need to try something else. What do you think it looks like on the inside?"
Rainbow looked at her cousin like her mane just changed color, "What difference does that make, the inside will look exactly like the outside."
Dawn, tired of just flapping around, went forward into the fog, "Better then just doing nothing." Raindrops smirked at the cyan pegasus and followed her teammate in, Rainbow just sighed and followed.
Elsewhere
The other two pegasi were having little better luck, they had dropped inside the dense fog bank and were doing about as well at clearing the fog as one would have at digging a hole in bowl of soup. The one named Berryblend was sitting on top of an apple tree, thinking about what to do, when she heard a gasp come from the direction her teammate had been working. "Wild? Wild Flower?" she called out nervously.
Suddenly, she was grabbed by the hooves and pulled to the ground. She didn't see her attacker before she was knocked unconscious by a blow to the head.
Back with the main group
Rainbow perked her head up as she heard something moving about in the fog, "Did anypony else hear that?"
In that moment, a large mass of silk came over Dawn's head, which immediately began pulling her into the fog.
"Dawn!" Raindrops called out.
A figure jumped out of the murk onto Rainbow Dash. She crashed to the ground, rolling over she was able to through her attacker off. Yet as soon as she did another round of silk landed on top of her.
"Get help! Get Twilight!" Rainbow called out before she was pulled into the fog.
Raindrops began flying off in the direction of the Castle of Harmony like Tirek himself was on her tail.
Castle of Harmony, 8:20 am
Twilight was just finishing her breakfast, spike was still eating his mix of grains, milk and rocks. Twilight was about to start on the dishes (she still hadn't figured out how a tree made of crystal had plumbing) when she heard a knock resonate through the castle.
"Strange, it's a bit early for the mailmare." she would have gone to answer it, however the knocker in question decided to let herself in.
A frantic yellow pegasus came charging into the castle. Only by grabbing the pony in her magic was Twilight able to keep the frightened mare from causing a catastrophe.
Spike came out of the dining room to see what the noise was, as Twilight addressed the mare. "Whoa easy. What is it?"
"Apple orchard. Rainbow. Fog. Split up. Vanished. Danger. Help." babbled Raindrops as she flailed around in Twilight's magic.
"Did you get any of that Spike?" The purple mare asked her assistant.
"Something about danger down at Sweet Apple Acres, I think she might have also mentioned Rainbow Dash," the dragon translated.
Twilight had released the mare and started heading for her room as soon as Spike had finished. Upon reaching it she immediately grabbed her saddle bags, and the two devices left for her. She place the latter inside the former and made her way out of castle at a fast gallop, only slowing down to let her assistant climb on her back.
"Like I said Spike, nothing may be the same anymore." the alicorn commented as she advanced toward the fog infested orchards.
Author's Note
If I stole anyone's OC's name I apologize.
Sweet Apple Acres, 8:25am
Applejack stepped out of the home part of the Apple homestead She had decided to head into market and see if she couldn't find a new rocking chair for Granny, (don't ask what happened to the last one). She was just about to leave when she saw Twilight racing towards her at high speeds.
"Howdy, Twilight," upon seeing Spike on her back, "and Spike. What bring ya round here?" Applejack began running alongside the new princess as she explained.
"Applejack, did you ask Rainbow Dash to clear away a patch of fog this morning?"
"Yeah."
"Well, as far as I can tell, she called in a weather team to help, and they found something in the fog."
It was then Applejack noticed there was another pony running, er, flying with them. A yellow pegasus was flying above the tree tops, going in the same direction.
Applejack asked Twilight, "What sort of somethin'?"
Twilight could only say, "We're about to find out."
Moments later
Twilight had never seen a fog bank like this before. Then again, as she was from Canterlot, she hadn't seen much fog in her life at all.
"So you, your team, and Rainbow Dash entered this and were attacked?" She asked the pegasus who was with them.
The pegasi just nodded.
"Well, the best way to find them is to go in after them."
Spike held on to Twilight's back tightly as the group entered the fog bank. They had been walking around for several minutes with no sign of success.
"How big is this thing?" Applejack complained.
"Rainbow called my team in for a reason." Raindrops commented, "and if you had just waited for this soup to clear out, they wouldn't be missing right now!"
The orange earth pony looked at the pegasus with a hurt look. "I, I'm sorry, I've never gotten along well with weather ponies. I didn't mean to sound inconsiderate."
"It's all right, I can be a little over protective of my team. And until we find them, we're stuck together. So, truce?" Raindrops extended her hoof to the farmer.
Applejack responded by spiting on her own hoof and hoof-bumping the pegasus, "Truce. Also I didn't get your name."
"Raindrops." she said shaking the spite off her hoof.
Twilight looked at the bonding mares with a sense of happiness. It was then that she realized something, "Is it my imagination, or is the fog thinning out?"
Indeed, the fog was clearing out around them. The Everfree forest was only a short distance away. And positioned in front of the forest were four figures, two of whom were bound in some way.
As the group neared the figures, Twilight recognized the multi-colored mane of her friend, "Rainbow Dash!" The pegasus looked up, yet only managed a weak smile; mostly due to the fact that she was covered in wounds.
The other pegasus was equally quiet and injured, a streak of blood ran down her face. "Wild Flower! Stay calm, we'll help you out!"
"Don't come any closer," a mare's voice rang out "unless you don't care about your friends safety."
Twilight turned to the other two figures, one stallion and one mare, both had unusually long silky black manes. They also both wore robes, black with short sleeves on the stallion, and white on the mare's, which came up short on the hind limbs.
"The Princess, I presume." said the mare, yet the voice was deep, like that of a stallion.
"Yes, I am Princess Twilight," she said, confused by the mare's unfeminine voice.
Raindrops stepped forwards, "Where is the rest of my team?" she demanded.
The strange stallion moved closer to the bound ponies and spoke in a voice one would expect to come from his companion, "they will be returned, if... we get what we want."
Slightly unnerved by the mismatched voices, Applejack asked the obvious question, "And jus' what would that be. And who are y'all anyways?" er... questions.
"We are Makamou," said the stallion.
"And we want the driver." finished the mare.
"What driver?" Applejack asked.
The Makamou replied, "The belt, Princess."
Twilight's eyes widened in realization. Spike had also made the connection, "You two are Kaijin?"
"Indeed," said a voice from behind the two strangers. Out of the Everfree forest came a tall, reptilian figure. It's scales were a mossy green, with a row of spines running down it's back, instead of hooves it had four relatively sharp claws. But what disturbed Twilight the most was the snake-ish head mounted on top of the Kaijin's body. In it's claws was a length of the same silky stuff that currently bound Rainbow and the other pegasus. At the end of the silk were the other two missing pegasi, bound and gagged and draped across the lizard's back, one of them appeared to be unconscious.
"You see, safe and sound. Now hand over the belt and cards, and we will not only let your friends go, but we will also retreat from this land." said the new comer.
Twilight's mind was racing; how could the first two figures before her be Kaijin? The lizard, sure. But neither it, nor the creature she fought last night looked like the other two. However she could speculate later, now she had more important issues, like did she dare make a deal with them.
Applejack piped up, "I'm not sure what they want, but ya got to give it to them Twilight."
Spike hopped off of Twilight's back, "No! If she gives up the belt, she can't fight these guys."
"Twi-light." All members of the party looked up at the sound of Rainbow's voice, "Just, give them, what they want. You can't fight these guys." Her voice was strained and weak.
"Alright!" announced Twilight, "You let your prisoners go, and I'll give you the driver."
"Wise choice, your highness." said the male Makamou.
Twilight opened her saddlebags and removed the ride booker. Like her cousin, Raindrops had a very keen eye, and when the device was removed from the bag, she could have sworn she saw it close.
The lizard kaijin took a swipe at Rainbow and Wild Flower's bindings, which fell away. "We will send the other two over when you give us the driver, now you two, walk." said the female Makamou.
The pegasi began walking over to the rest of the ponies. AJ and Raindrops moved forward to help them, but Rainbow, being the stubborn mare that she is, refused. Twilight used her magic to levitate the ride booker over to the kaijin's waiting hooves.
"Now the belt."
Twilight lifted the belt out with her hooves, she wanted this part of the trade to happen at the same time, in case they tried anything. She began walking; Spike chewed his claws, Raindrops swallowed in anticipation, the male Makamou grinned evilly.
"Twilight Stop! It's a Trap!"
Twilight immediately stopped in her tracks to see a figure emerge from the same place as the lizard Kaijin had come from. Out of the bracken came a web entangled...
"Rainbow Dash?"
The Rainbow behind Twilight suddenly charged, and caught a startled Applejack with a left hook. The other pegasus reared her back legs and bucked Raindrops into one of the nearby apple trees, knocking the wind out of her.
The two bloody pegasi turned to Twilight as their faces, no their whole bodies, began to glow. When the glow subsided, the pegasi were nowhere to be found. In their place were two identical, horrifying creatures.
They were a sickly green, and stood only a bit shorter than the average pony. Their back hooves were normal, but the front hooves had an addition; two spurs sprouted from the right hoof, making it look more like a weapon than an appendage. The creatures main body looked like an opened cocoon, with its head covered by two protective plates. Yet most disturbing was the face; it resembled that of a pony's skull, with bony hooves reaching up from inside the coverings to cover it's empty eye sockets.
"What?" was all a disgusted Twilight could say.
The Makamou meanwhile had jumped the real Rainbow Dash and had her pinned to the ground. "Worms," said the lizard "very convincing shape-shifters, and as for your cyan friend," the Makamou pressed even harder causing Rainbow to cry out in pain.
"Ahh! Easy on the merchandise."
Twilight held up the driver like she was about to place it on her midsection.
"Too little too late, I'm afraid." the kaijin held up the Ride Booker, "You can't fight without your cards. Attack!"
Twilight saw the Worm charge her out of the corner of her eye. She took to the air seconds before they could.
"Yeah, slight problem with that plan." Twilight placed her driver on her midsection, the belt part extending before connecting on the other side. She then landed with the rest of the ponies, minus Rainbow Dash and plus Spike, behind her. Reaching into her saddle bag, she produced the "Decade" rider card, "Don't be so ready to make a deal with someone who tried to kill you."
Twilight slid the card into the slot.
"Kamen Ride D-D-D-Decade!"
Eight gray ghost ponies formed in an arc around Twilight, knocking the Worm into their allies. Applejack's eye's widened as she saw the armor form over her friend.
"Wha?" she muttered. The pegasi were just as surprised.
The Kaijin were completely dumbfounded as well. The lizard looked among it's comrades. "Get her!" he cried out in an exasperated tone. The Worm charging first, the Makamou let Rainbow go before they too changed before the ponies eyes.
The stallion and mare that had stood before them were replaced by two large dark creatures. The creatures had large ridges across their faces, and their hide was bulky and uneven. The only other notable feature was their uncannily hairy fore legs.
Twilight prepared to face the four monsters. She dodged a hook from the first Worm and landed a hit on the other. She then landed a firm kick on the male Makamou, who then was driven into the female.
The Ride Booker flew out of the female's hooves, and was caught by Twilight as she charged the lizard Kaijin. However, the scaled creature side-stepped the winged unicorn's attack and landed it's elbow (Do quadrupeds’ have elbows?) hard on her back.
Twilight rolled off into the underbrush on the border of the Everfree. She opened the deck and examined one of the cards.
"Let's try this." she said before inserting the card into her belt.
"Attack Ride Slash!"
The driver then unfurled a handle off of one corner, and a long blade off the opposite corner. Twilight used her magic to grab the sword's hilt. The alicorn princess charged the kaijin who had encircled the area she had disappeared into.
The kaijin proved to be of little trouble after that, Twilight would arc her sword across one while the others were still recovering. Sparks would fly as metal met carapace. The makamou's web spitting (when could they do that?) was a tad annoying, but Twilight was able to compensate.
Meanwhile, Spike and the other mares had made their way to the captured ponies. The real Wild Flower was gagged and bound to a tree just beyond the undergrowth, several loose threads and a gag indicated where Rainbow had been held. Spike's claws made quick work of the weather team's silken restraints.
Applejack helped her multi-chrome friend to her hooves, "Ya all right RD?"
"Yeah." she said shakily, "but, what are those things?"
"Ah don't know, but Twilight sure seemed too."
Back with Twilight…
Said mare was currently preparing to finish off the Kaijin soldiers. She raised her sword and charged, somehow causing the blade to glow a pink hue. As she first struck the Worm, she noted that a pink after-image was trailing behind her weapon.
Both Worm immediately halted and exploded into a small ball of green flames. Not stopping her onslaught, Twilight thrust the glowing sword into the chest of the closest makamou, who managed to utter a small shriek before it to burst into (normal colored) flames.
Twilight then turned her goggled attention to the remaining two kaijin. The second makamou, Twilight recognized it as the female, actually seemed scared of her. This was only emphasized when it/she began fleeing for the Everfree Forest.
“I would follow your friend's move if I were you.” Twilight said.
The lizard kaijin snarled, “I'm no coward. Hiii!” The lizard charged Twilight, it's claws kicking up dirt. Twilight charged as well, dragging her blade across the ground, leaving a trail of sparks. When the two reached each other, Twilight flicked her sword tip at the reptile, throwing sparks into it's face. The lizard recoiled in pain. She then arced the sword down on her foe's back, forcing it to the ground.
Turning toward the Everfree Forest, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash and the rest of Raindrop's team were safe in the hooves and claws of her friends. She then returned her attention to the Kaijin.
“Time to finish this.”
Twilight returned the Ride Booker to it's storage form and drew another card from it. This card simply bore a symbol on it, in fact it was the same symbol that was the Decade suit's cutie mark.
“Final Attack Ride D-D-D-Decade!” rang out the belt.
Several yellow rectangles made out of energy formed between her and the Kaijin. Twilight lept into the air, somehow knowing exactly what had to be done, despite never having done it before. As her jump reached it's peak, Twilight rotated her hind limbs forward, so she was in position to deliver a drop kick to the lizard. As she moved through the rectangles, (which had repositioned themselves when she jumped), she felt a sensation not unlike what happened when she teleported, only less sudden, and it only moved her into the next rectangle.
Twilight landed her hoof on the kaijin's chest. It cried out before exploding into flames like the others.
“Yeah!” Twilight turned to the sound of Spike's cheering, “I knew you take those things down!”
The rest of the ponies came forward. The pegasi looked battered, but alive.
“That. Was. Awesome!”
“Princess,” Raindrops said, with a bow, “on behave of my team, thank you.”
“Yeah, that was some fine fighting Twi.” Applejack said, however Twilight detected a hint of worry in her voice. “But, what were those things? And this?” She said gesturing to Twilight's armor.
Twilight opened her belt and removed the cards, “It's a long story,” she said as her armor dissipated, “I promise I'll explain everything, but first you mares need some medical attention. And please, can you not tell anypony about what you saw here?”
The ponies looked among themselves, before nodding in agreement.
"Thank you. Fluttershy's cottage would be best. Spike!" she said addressing her scribe, "Go get Rarity and Pinkie Pie, they need to hear this too."
Spike saluted the new rider and jogged off towards Ponyville, while the ponies began moving towards the grounded pegasus's residents. What none of the parties noticed thou, was that they were being observed by a certain trench coat wearing individual.
Author's Note
Finally, I started writing this chapter... when, October?
Fluttershy's Cottage, 10:00 am(ish)
"Um, Twilight. Not that I don't want their wounds to heal, but, um," the cottage's owner stuttered, uneased by the number of ponies in her home.
"What Fluttershy is trying to say Twi," Applejack interrupted, "is why did we come here, when my farm was closer?"
Twilight sighed as she sat down on Fluttershy's couch next to one of Raindrop's teammates and Rainbow Dash. The former had a bandage wrapped around her head, the latter had bandages wrapped around her waist and fore hooves. Twilight herself had a few band-aids on her legs and fore and aft pelvics. Raindrops other teammates were in similar conditions, the curly maned one had sprained her right fore hoof and was leaning on her partner, who had a few claw scrapes around her neck.
The rest of the cottage's occupants included; Applejack, who's only real injury was a bruise on her cheek, Raindrops, who was cleaning wood chips out of her feathers, Fluttershy, and Pinkie, the latter of whom somehow knew to bring a nurse's outfit. The cottage's usual residents were either hiding or waiting outside. Or in the case of one particular white rabbit, sitting on top a very annoyed cyan maned pegasi's head.
"Nothing against your family Applejack, but this is important and I don't want to risk too many ponies knowing about it."
"And yet you invited Pinkie Pie." commented Rainbow, who was having her bandages checked by the pink earth pony.
"Hey!" was her only retort.
In that moment, Rarity and Spike came in through the front door, the former carrying several fabrics in her magic. "Girls!" exclaimed the white unicorn, "Spike told me you had gotten hurt. Oh, and I see he wasn't kidding. Don't worry, I'll have these wounds redressed in no time."
"But, Rarity," exclaimed the weather pony next to Twilight, Berryblend, who was having her head wrappings replaced with lilac colored silk, "we don't need our wounds redressed."
"Oh please, you can't expect to look good in medical gauze, it's much too bland. No, it will look much nicer with these materials. Besides, I've always wanted to try mixing bandage like pieces into my work." The fashionista then moved on to Twilight's cuts, when a thought struck her. "Out of curiosity, how were you injured exactly?"
"That's the reason I asked for this meeting." The youngest princess stood up and addressed the creatures present, "I'm afraid that our world has been invaded by creatures from another dimension."
Rarity dropped a pin in shock, and everyone heard it.
"Your saying," Rainbow started, "that those things, were aliens?"
"As I understand it, yes."
"That's, that's..."
"Terrifying?" asked Fluttershy.
"Horrible." added Rarity
"Aweful and cliche?" suggested Pinkie.
"Incredible." commented Berryblend.
"Impossible." choked Wild Flower.
"Inconceivable!" exclaimed Dawn Light.
"And ya know this, how?" Applejack looked around at the baffled ponies, ten pairs of eyes fixed themselves on the orange farmmare, "What? Am I really the only pony here who's skeptical 'bout all this?"
Thank you. Thought a certain cyan maned pegasus, who was ready to strangle the fuzzy, white, long eared woodpecker on her head.
Applejack continued, "No offense Twi, but your sure what your saying about these things is true?"
Twilight sighed, "Spike, could you and Fluttershy make some tea, we're going to be here a while."
Spike and Fluttershy went into the kitchen while Twilight began, "Last night I had a dream..."
One lazy-writer's-technic-of-getting-out-of-writing-a-bunch-of-dialouge later...
"And so far, nothing has happened to disprove anything that stallion said." Twilight concluded.
The ponies in the room were mostly quiet; save for some loud, nerves breathing from Fluttershy and Wild Flower.
"So," began Rarity, "what are we going to do about these Kaijin creatures?"
"I'll write a letter to Princess Celestia and ask her what her opinion on this invasion is. In the mean time, I will take care of any attacks in Ponyville."
Raindrops raised her hoof, "What if these things show up in other towns?"
"I'll make sure to investigate anything I hear, but let's hope that doesn't happen." When Twilight was sure that nopony else was going to ask any more questions, "Until we hear from the Princess, I think it would be best if we didn't speak about this to anyone."
The ponies and youthful dragon looked among themselves before they all silently agreed. Pinkie Pie mentally moved her plans for any 'Rider' based parties to the back of her mind.
"Well if we're all agreed, we need to get back to work." announced Raindrops, who was finally able to get Angel off her head. The rest of her team got up, albeit some of them had difficulty due to their wounds. The rest of the ponies gathered also got up to go about their days, except for one pinket pegasus.
"Um, Twilight, Applejack." stammered the shy pony, "Could I see you both for a moment?"
The two mares looked at each other, "Sure thing Sugarcube." answered the country pony.
Twilight called out the door, "Spike! You go on ahead. Don't wait up for me." returning her attention to her friend, "What is it Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy escorted the mares to her backyard, "Well, um, I was wondering if you think those Kaijin things, could have been the cause of this." The 'this' in question being the small war zone outside in her cottage's backyard. Twilight and Applejack stood stiff, shocked at what they saw.
Applejack was the first to snap out of it, "Well, from what I saw today, it's a possibility. But, I've never seen a timberwolf stay dead like that though."
Twilight's shock finally wore off, "Timberwolves have a type of archaic magic that keeps them from dying completely, It's possible the Kaijin's attacks negated this magic." Twilight's analytical mind would have explored this further, however she realized something, "Wait a moment, none of the kaijin I fought, could do this. I mean they could, but they couldn't do damage like this."
This information took about three seconds to sink in, "Meaning that the monster that did this is still out there?" Twilight nodded, "Oh dear."
"Don't worry sugar, those things don't stand a chance against Twi here." Applejack tried to reassure The Element of Kindness. "But if you still feel nervous, I supposes we could let you and your animals stay at the farm for a while."
"Thanks AJ, I would feel better if I knew my friends were somewhere safe."
"Well now that that's decided, I need to send that letter to the princess." Twilight spread her wings and flew off towards the castle. Applejack decided to help Fluttershy get her animals ready to be moved.
It wasn't until later that Fluttershy realized that she forgot to ask Twilight about the medallion she found.
Dreamscape, 12:20 am.
Waves crashed against the rocky cliffs, gulls could be heard crying off in the distance. The ocean was clear blue, a few clouds obscured the horizon. The sky was awake with far more stars then anypony, save for maybe Luna, had ever seen before.
Rainbow Dash found herself looking out at the sea, her thoughts straying to what had happened that morning.
"Kaijin, the fog, Raindrops and her team, Twilight turning into some kind of superhero..." She halted her thoughts, "Why? Why didn't he tell me?"
"Because you needed to see it for yourself first."
Rainbow quickly turned around. An earth pony stallion stood on top of one of the boulders, his red eyes seemed to pierce right through her.
"You! You lied to me."
Author's Note
Not one of my better chapters, I realize that. But, good news, I'm back!
Wait, wasn't there supposed to be good news in that?
Ch8 A Piece of the Action
Rainbow stood staring at the stallion standing before her. His coat was orange, and his mane was black and swept off to both sides. He wore a crimson red chest plate with a gold collar. His hooves were adorned by four golden bracelets, the fore hooves also wore red leg armor. The stallion's face was obscured by a gold crest with three pieces of metal coming off the top, giving it a crown like appearance; a small, red, circular gem was encrusted in the center of the crown. His eyes were ruby red, and his cutie mark was like four trapezoids that came together, two below and two above, to form an arcane shape.
"You said that if I accepted this power, I would have to kill ponies, and that it would destroy me. Well Twilight has the exact same set of powers, and she's doing fine!"
The stallion sighed, "Everything that I told you is true, to a degree. The creatures you would fight are sentient, they aren't just mindless beasts. As for the part about you being destroyed, if you had gotten superhero like powers, and didn't know that you had to keep them secret, what would you have done?"
Rainbow's thoughts strayed back to an incident where she had almost been a superhero, "Probably gone showing them off around town, telling people that I was awsome-er." she said with a hint of embarrassment in her voice.
The armored stallion nodded, "Pride, it's a very dangerous trait. It can either give you courage, or it can destroy you."
Rainbow groaned, "You could have just said, 'Don't have an ego.' and skipped the criptics."
"Maybe."
Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes. She faced the dream ocean behind her, the stallion came up and gazed out as well. A breeze moved the two ponies manes, "So," asked the blue furred pegasus, "Do you think I'm too proud to have the power?"
"No." Rainbow turned, confused, towards the stallion, "you've got an ego to rival Bravo's, but I can tell you you've also got a heart that doesn't want to see anyone hurt."
The mysterious pony reached for his waist and removed a large, silver belt with a large red glass like circle in the center. As he did, his armor disappeared. The pony's cutie mark changed into four balloons tied together; one red, one blue, one green, and the other purple. The stallion held the belt out to Rainbow.
"With this, you'll be able to assume the mantle, and the title, of Kuuga."
The blue pegasus could barely contain her excitement. "OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh!" Eventually she was able to regain her composer, "I gladly accept this honor." she said before grabbing the belt out of Kuuga's hooves. She immediately prepared to put it on.
"Oh wait! I forgot about the-"
His warning fell short as Rainbow wrapped the belt around her waist, immediately she felt a burning sensation come from the belt.
Waking world, Two miles outside Ponyville
Whitetail Woods, unlike it's neighbor, the Everfree Forest, it did not possess any extreme conditions or deadly beasts. At most it had a few foxes and a bear or two. At this time, however, it also contained three dark figures, who by name were definitely monsters. Two of the figures turned suddenly in the direction of Ponyville.
"What's wrong?" asked the third figure.
"I felt something, like a great power being awakened." said the first.
"I don't feel anything. Why would you two feel something and not me?"
The two figures looked at each other in the dark, they both knew what that power was, and what it meant.
"The legacy of the Linto tribe." said the second figure, "One of the ponies has the belt of Kuuga."
Realization dawned on the third. "What are we going to do?"
The second figure stood up, "You two stay here, and wait for orders. I'm going to go hunting." The figure then spread two large leathery limbs that resembled bat wings, and took off into the night.
Carousel Boutique, same time
Rarity was not one to have odd dreams normally. Her dreams usually consisted of dress making, wearing, and critiquing; or spending time with her sister and friends. Tonight however, she dreamed she was surrounded by mirrors. Not uncommon, except she was only wearing her night-robe. Also strange was that see couldn't see herself in any of them. She could also hear some strange noise, like a whistling, or a ringing.
Rarity turned around just in time to catch a fleeting glimpse of a curved, blade-like tail. On edge, the white unicorn began spinning in place, her fear growing every second.
Suddenly, she came face to face with a large red reptile of sorts. It lunged at her, a deep growl coming from its pointed, tooth lined mouth.
Rarity sat up in her bed, fully awake and sweating slightly, her breathing fast and labored. She could still see the thing from her dreams, it vaguely reminded her of the dragon that had been snoring smoke a year ago. Though the creature from her dream was more snake-like.
Rarity looked at the clock, 1:00 am. She decided to head to the kitchen and make herself some hot milk, cause she wasn't getting back to sleep without it.
Author's Note
Another short chapter.
Ch9 The Immunity Syndrome
Carousel Boutique, 12:30 am
Rarity placed her glass on the sink, planing on washing it in the morning. She casually looked out her window, Luna's night as radiant and inspiring as ever. "Perhaps I should make a line of night time inspired evening wear?"
Caught in though at her newest line, she almost didn't see it. Something moved just out the corner of her eye. Her full attention on the scene outside, she scanned the tree line. There it was again, a figure flying just above the trees, like it didn't want to be seen.
"It's probably just some pegasus out for a midnight flight." Rarity thought to herself. And yet, something still compelled her to take a second look. The, whatever it was, didn't seem to be flying in a strait line, more of an erratic zig-zag.
Knock knock
Rarity almost jumped out of her hooves at the unexpected noise. Perplexed both as to who would be knocking at this time of night, and to the identity of the flier; Rarity trotted to the front of her house/store.
Upon opening her door she was greeted to a mass of rainbow colored mane.the mane rose up to reveal a light blue coated mare.
"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity exclaimed, "You look dreadful." Indeed Rainbow was grabbing her stomach with her hoof and had a look of pain on her face. She was wearing a hastily thrown-on, purple bathrobe. "What happened? What hurt you? Why are you here?" the white unicorn ran off some of many questions that had been filling her head.
"Rare, calm down." The blue pegasus said, "I thought I saw something flying around here, I tried following it, but I lost it when it entered the trees. And this," she gestured to her abdomen, "hurts a lot more than I thought it would."
Rarity helped move Rainbow inside the boutique, and set her down on her fainting couch, before running to her bathroom to grab a first aid kit.
Half a minute later
Rarity came back downstairs with the first aid kit in her magic. Had she stayed up a few seconds longer, she might have heard the sound of a pair of hooves land on her roof.
"Okay, where did you say you got hurt?" Rarity asked.
"Uh, here." Rainbow said with a slight strain in her voice, she pointed with her hoof toward her barrel. Rarity gasped at what she saw. There was a ring of slightly burned flesh and fur around her entire midsection. The bandages that had been put on just that afternoon had been burned black at the edge that was over the seared part of her body.
"Rainbow! What happened? Did anyponyelse get hurt?" Rarity was spouting off questions almost as soon as they entered her mind.
"Woah, Rarity, calm down." Rainbow tried to comfort her friend, until...
"Shh." Rainbow put her hoof to Rarity's mouth to try and silence her, to little effect. "Rarity, Quiet, I thought I heard something upstairs." As if to prove her point, hoofsteps could then be heard from the floor above them, slow, hard, and uneven. Rainbow turned to the purple maned fashionista, who was now perfectly quiet, and gestured for her to follow her.
The two mares began to quietly climb the stair case to the upper floor. Upon reaching the top, Rainbow did a quick check of the area, nothing. She began to make her way to the first room on her left (the room Sweetie belle used when she stayed over) when she was struck with another shot of pain from her burn.
"Hold on darling, I've got you." Rarity moved herself so the blue pegasus could lean against her. Unfortunately, that action and outburst drew the attention of the hoofstep's owner.
Out from the upstairs storage room, came the second most disgusting pony Rarity had ever seen. It was pale grey in color, with no fur or tail to be seen. It's cutie mark appeared to be some symbol that she didn't recognize, and it wore a white loin cloth on it's flank. It's face resembled a bat it had a small patch of white mane on the top of it's head, between two large bat ears. The most striking thing about it was, instead of forelegs, it had two large leathery wings, and it was walking on some sort of claw at wing's joint.
"Well," it said in a voice leathery enough to match it's wings, "what interesting prey I've found." The bat-thing began creeping towards them, tiny, razor teeth could be seen inside it's mouth.
"Rarity, get behind me." Rainbow Dash positioned herself in front of the ivory mare, her wings spread in a defensive posture.
"Rainbow, Darling, you can't! Your injured!" The vampiric kaijin's eyes trailed to the blue pegasi's flank. Indeed, the mare was injured, the thought of exploiting those injures made it's mouth water; however, something familiar about the marks in her fur made the creature hesitate.
Rainbow chuckled to herself, "Don't worry Rar's, I've got it all under control." As she said that, her wing tips moved so that they were directly under her midsection. Suddenly, her midsection began to glow, and a large silvery belt appeared out of her burns.
The bat creature, recognizing the belt immediately, retreated a few steps. This mare, this wounded, weak, pathetic mare, had somehow become what all Grongi feared, hated, and despised. "Kuuga," it said with no small amount of loathing.
Rainbow chuckled, "That's what he called himself, guess it's only fair I bare the name as well. Kamen Rider, Kuuga." She began to slowly walk toward the kaijin, a single word escaping her lips, "Henshin."
With each step she took, her hooves seemed to dissolve, like a reflection on a pond; only for a set of gold hooflets to appear. Her torso then also rippled, leaving a large white breastplate with a gold collar. Her wings received a white guard piece over the "arm" of each wing. Finally, a gold crown with three small prongs formed over her eyes, which were then covered by a pair of red goggles. Her transformation complete, Rainbow Dash immediately launched into a wing assisted punch.
The Grongi, on guard the moment she began her transformation, raised it's wing to block her attack. Rainbow used her momentum to launch a high kick to her opponent's jaw. The Kaijin staggered back, stunned, before lunging forward. Rainbow tried dodging it's claws, however the limited space in the hallway made that difficult. So she instead found herself getting pushed backward while also knocking into the walls.
Rarity had gotten over the shock of there being a monster in her house, and that her friend had just grown a suit of armor. So she was able to fully register the fact that two ponies were inadvertently destroying her hallway.
"Rainbow, do you think you could take the fight outside?" she said as another photo fell off the wall.
"Trust me, that's exactly what I'm trying to do." Rainbow's armor absorbed the majority of the bat's attacks, however she was still getting beat up pretty badly. Rainbow began reaching out with her hooves, most of her attacks missing their mark, save for a jab at the kaijin's chest which knocked the wind out of it. "Back downstairs, now!" Rainbow shouted.
Both mares made a hasty retreat back to the lower level. The Kaijin followed suite moments later, spewing curses in a language neither of them understood.
"Okay, round two." Rainbow taunted before launching herself into the air. The Grongi saw the attack coming and sidestepped her attack. Rainbow landed, and was about to spin into the pony equivalent of a roundhouse kick, when she felt a hot pain on her cheek.
The Grongi licked Rainbow's blood off it's claw before turning it's attention to the easier meal in the room. It reared onto it's hind limbs and began flying toward the unicorn, teeth bared. It was suddenly tackled from behind by the Rider.
Rainbow dragged it to the ground, grappled with it for a few moments, "Celestia, this guy stinks." and then launched it off her hooves, and into one of the shop windows.
The kaijin rose off the ground, bloody and tired. "You fight well, Pony. Unfortunately, neither of you will be able to inform your friends of your success." The bat spread it's wings and launched at the mares. Rainbow shifted her weight onto her front hooves, and rotated her flank forward so her left hind leg was stretched outward. Although she didn't try to, she felt energy start to collect in her hoof. When the Kaijin's face collided with Rainbow's roundhouse, the kaijin felt a burning sensation where the mare had kicked him. Milliseconds after the collision, the Kaijin burst into an explosion of flames.
Rainbow and Rarity stood there, dumbfounded at what just happened. Rainbow might have made a bad joke if she didn't suddenly feel like she had been hit by a train. The blue mare collapsed, her armor dissolving around her, and was only saved from falling on her face by the mare who's life she just saved.
Rarity carried her savior upstairs to her bedroom, intending to, once again, nurse her wounds. However, the ivory mare also fell victim to the clutches of exhaustion, and passed out next to Rainbow Dash.
With both mares out, no one saw the pair of golden eyes watching the two of them from the window. "Well Dash," a green figure thought to them self, "you certainly haven't lost your fire. And as for you," she looked at Rarity, who had somehow snuggled under Rainbow's bruised wing and was using it as a blanket, "you've been marked. I'd suggest you watch out, you never know when enemies might be watching." The figure then vanished, leaving the mares to their rest.
Author's Note
Not dead!
Castle Harmony, 6:20 pm (previous day)
"Spike, take a letter." Twilight said. Her young scribe immediately went for some paper and a quill. He returned a few moments later.
"Ready." he said, confidently. Twilight cleared her throat, and began dictating to the dragon.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I apologize for not bringing this to your attention sooner, however it has kept me extremely busy. Last night, I was visited in my dream by a creature from another dimension, who said that our world was being invaded by creatures from his world called C
"Hold on," Spike interrupted, "How do you spell, Kaijin?"
Twilight opened her mouth to answer, then closed it. "I'm not entirely sure. Maybe we should leave it at just, creatures." Spike nodded and resumed his dictation.
...creatures ~~from his world called C~~ Me and my friends have already been attacked twice. I have the means to defend ourselves, however, in both cases I was force to use, extreme measures.
I ask you how to progress from this point on.
Your former student, Princess Twilight Sparkle.
"You can send it now Spike." The dragon inhaled, then released his emerald fire onto the parchment, which disappeared in wisp of smoke. "I suggest we get on with the day, we don't know how long it will take the Princess to respond."
Carousel Boutique, 8:17 am (present time)
Rainbow opened her eyes slowly. The first thing she noticed was that everything was sore. The second, that she wasn't in her own home, and the third was that Rarity was snuggled up next to her on the bed. Rainbow gently removed her wing from where Rarity had been using it as a blanket, then painfully made her way to the mirror.
Rainbow was, in short, a bloody mess. The bandages from her first Kaijin encounter were tattered and needed to be replaced. Her shoulders and wings were darkened with bruises, dried blood, and cuts. A long thin scar ran across her right cheek when the bat's claw had stuck her. All in all, Rainbow was an utter mess of black, blue, and dark red.
Rarity, finally noticing the warm pony next to her was absent, stirred slightly, "Dear, it's too early, come back to bed." she groaned, still half asleep. Rainbow walked over to her, a mischievous smile playing across her face, before she placed a light peck on the white unicorn's cheek.
"As you wish." Rarity smiled, then realized who the voice belonged to, and sat bolt upright to a laughing blue pegasus.
"Rainbow Dash!" she exclaimed, her face turning a very bright shade of pink(cherry blossom to be precise), "I'm terribly sorry! I was having this, this dream and- Oh my word your coat!" Rarity grabbed Rainbow, who winced at the contact on her wounds, and started checking her over, taking in the full extent of her injuries. "Oh dear, we'll have to do something about that blood." the unicorn paused to think it over, "Alright, you go take a bath, no bubbles or shampoo or anything, just soak for a while. I'll go downstairs and clean up the window. Afterwards we'll replace you bandages and see if we can't do something about hiding your injuries."
Rainbow looked like see was going to argue, but immediately thought better of it. "Alright, and sorry about destroying your house."
Rarity smiled, "It' alright darling, this isn't the first time you've crashed into my house during one of your practice flights."
Rainbow grinned, "Yeah, next time I'll have to make sure to avoid the windows. And thanks for letting me spend the night in your guest room, dear." Although Rainbow had already started for the bathroom, she knew Rarity's blush had deepened to a solid cherry.
Sweet Apple Acres, same time
Fluttershy entered the main building, and was greeted by the warm tongue of Winona, and the warm smell of breakfast.
"Mornin' Sugar-cube." called Granny Smith from the kitchen, where she and the rest of the Apples were eating breakfast. "How'd ya sleep last night?"
Fluttershy took her place at the breakfast table, "Oh yes, thank you. It was wonderful."
Applejack, who had known the pegasus for over a year, knew there was something else she wanted to say. "But,"
Fluttershy hung her head slightly, "But, some of the animals would prefer to be sleeping in the orchard. If it's alright."
"As long as they don't do any harm to the trees, I don't see any problem." Big Mac said. Fluttershy nodded her thanks.
Apple Bloom passed her a pitcher, "So how long do you and your animals plan on stayin'?" she inquired.
"I'm, I'm not sure. I don't want to be a bother."
"Oh don't you worry Filly," said Granny, "you said you wanted to stay here 'cause the Everfree seemed wilder than normal. Well as somepony who has more experience with the forest than she would like, your welcome to stay as long as you want." Fluttershy smiled and nodded. "Just come in from the barn ev'ry once and awhile, it kills your neck sleeping on hay bales for nights on end. Trust me, I've done it enough to know it's true."
Apple Bloom looked at her grandmother in confusion, "When did that happen?"
Granny smiled, "When your brother and sister were foals, the only way to not get woken up by their crying was to sleep in the barn."
Applejack interrupted, "Ah come on Granny, we weren't that bad."
"According to your aunt Caramel Apple, you could've put a banshee to shame."
Apple Bloom and Fluttershy both burst into laughter, Granny Smith joining them seconds later. Big Macintosh, who had heard the story before, just kept eating his breakfast. While Applejack was pleading with Fluttershy not to spread the story with any of their friends, who already knew more about her foalhood than she would have liked.
South Ponyville, a back alley behind a pub.
Pine Scented was completely drunk. The stallion had spent the night drinking after he had lost his job. Apparently he had passed out in the alley with a bottle of whiskey in his hoof. Now with Celestia's sun high overhead and a nasty hangover, Mr. Scented began to aqwardly hobble out of the the cardboard box he had used as cover.
Before he could make it very far, he ran into somepony. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's my mistake."
"Yes it is," said an a deep unnatural voice. The stallion's headache left him just enough for him to register that the pony he bumped into was not a pony. "But it will be the last mistake you ever make." The last thing he saw was a brown face with evil blue eyes and two fan-like antlers.
Author's Note
Really sorry about not posting for a while.
Intermission1 Starlight
Forest outside Canterlot, 5:55pm, day after initial Kaijin invasion
All things considered, Starlight Glimmer considered herself a very lucky pony. She hadn't seen any wanted posters with her face on them, or had any dangerous encounters with the police. She may have been living in the woods, but had been fortunate enough to find an abandoned cottage.
Yes, Starlight was very lucky. Except for the fact that her plans on reforming Equestria to a world without cutie marks had been reduced to the level of Vampirism. That is, attacking ponies in dark alleys and draining them.
Starlight sighed, "It was so much easier back at the village."
She moved over to the only real piece of furniture in the house, an old sofa somepony had given away. The rest of the furniture in the cottage consisted of empty crates, barrels and a log. The rest of the cottage was necessities only, lanterns, cupboards, furnace, a sink, and an old radio. She was living halfway between the middle class, and on the street.
Well, they were, would have been a better term.
The front door opened and closed, "Hey, Chief! I'm home!" An earth pony filly entered the cottage, in her hooves was a bag of groceries. She was a pretty standard looking pony: gold coat, tan brown mane which she had done in the back so it looked exactly like her tail, and a pair of kind, magenta eyes. There were two interesting things about her though, her cutie mark was a dull gray equal sign, and she had an indigo stripe running down the front of her mane, yet this feature was missing in the back of her mane and tail. She kept the former a secret with an orange covering.
Starlight smiled, if anything good came out of Princess Twilight's interference in her plans, it would have been Cassie. The young foal, whose real name was Gold Casket, had been living on the streets, she had run away from her parents who wanted her to grow into a 'proper,' Cantorlot, pony. Starlight found her, explained her plans for Equestria, and miraculously, Cassie had agreed with her. The two of them had been living together ever since, Cassie acting as Starlight's assistant.
"Market was crowded today, guess a lot of ponies visiting got hungry." making fun of Cantorlot's residents was on of Cassie's favorite past-times. The Earth pony struggled with the grocery bag in her hooves.
"Here, I'll take those." She wrapped the bags in her magic and placed them on the counter, "So, any news on our next target?"
"Nothing yet, I think he might be out of town right now. What about you Chief, tough day at work?"
Starlight chuckled, "When isn't it?" Starlight had taken a job as a window-washer/street-sweeper to pay for the two of them to live in the cottage. It was a messy job sure, but it let her keep an eye on the populace.
"How about we turn in early tonight? Just a quick supper, and then we hit the sack."
The young filly yawned, "That does sound pretty good."
Starlight smiled, "Alright, I'll cut up some strawberries, and you can wash the potatoes."
Three hours later...
The two mares were passed out on the sofa together, a tattered old quilt covered the two of them. A shadow played across Starlight's face in the moonlight, rousing her from her sleep.
The pink coated unicorn noticed a figure duck into the forest through one of the cottage's window.
"Cassie, wake up." She said nudging the foal.
"Hmm, wha?" she yawned, "Chief, I just got to sleep, what is it."
"Someone's outside. I'm going to go check it out." Starlight cast a levitation spell on one of their candles, lit it, and proceeded out into the darkness.
The candle did little to illuminate the night. Thankfully, the star-maned Princess had blessed them tonight with a particularly bright moon. Yet there was still no sign of anypony else about. Cassie had exited the cottage and was keeping close to the unicorn mage.
"If your scared, you can go back inside." she said to comfort the filly.
"The first rule of horror books is never split up, so I'll stay here."
So Starlight and Cassie found themselves searching the pine trees outside the cottage, in the dark, with only a weak candle to light their way. They had been searching for a few minutes already and the cottage was only slightly visible through the trees.
"I don't think there is anypony out here, Chief."
"Yeah, I think your right. Let's get back-"
"STARLIGHT GLIMMER!" a deep, raspy, voice ran out.
"AHHH!" the two girls screamed and leaped into each other's hooves, the elder of who dropped the candle which instantly went out. After landing painfully on the ground, the two found themselves in the dark.
"Who are you, and where are you?"
A figure stepped forward, though not into the moonlight. The figure spoke with a slight echo to his voice (Starlight assumed it was stallion), "I have a message for you."
Starlight peered into the gloom, it was indeed a stallion, he was wearing a heavy trench-coat and rain hat. Other than a pair of glasses sitting on his muzzle, there wasn't much she could tell about this figure.
"Why should I listen to you; you trespass on my property, you wake me up in the middle of the night, you lure me into the woods, and to top it all off, you scare me and my assistant out of our fur."
The figure didn't seem to be phased by the pink mare's insults. "What if I told you someone had recently come into possession of a device capable of destroying this world."
Cassie felt her heart skip a beat, a quick look at her boss showed that she saw that the mare had a similar opinion about it.
"I'm listening."
"Are you familiar with Princess Twilight Sparkle?"
Starlight scoffed, "I have the displeasure, yes."
"She was given a device by a being from my world named Decade." Cassie raised her hoof, "And before you ask, yes, that does make me an alien."
Starlight stared suspiciously at the stallion, "So let me get this straight; Twilight Sparkle, one of Equestria's greatest heroes and and defenders, is planning to destroy the planet? I know she's a stubborn, flea-brained idiot, but even she isn't capable of something like that."
"She doesn't know that she has that much power, but she does."
Realization struck the two native ponies, "You mean, she might accidently... Is there any way we can stop her?"
The trench-coat wearing pony shook his head, "Unfortunately the only way is to defeat her in combat."
Cassie tried to hold in a laugh, "Bwa-ha ha ha!" and failed. "What's so difficult about that? I bet starlight could beat her with one hoof tied behind her back."
Starlight was about to tell her that she had little experience with hoof to hoof combat, and she had first hoof experience with Twilight's magic prowess. Thankfully for the mage's dignity, the stallion corrected the filly first.
"Decade happened to be one of the strongest warriors on my world. And it was that device that earned him that title."
"Then how do you expect me to be able to stop her?"
"Decade had a rival of almost equal power, Diend." the stallion then produced, something, from beneath his coat. It looked like a thin grate on top of a license plate, it had a stick coming off of one corner. "This was the source of his power, it will let you summon copies of the warriors of my world to fight at your side." he then produced a second device which looked more like a block of metal, "And these, will determine which warrior will come to your aid."
The gold filly took the second device and opened it like a book. Inside were several card which, to Starlight, looked like foal's trading cards.
"Nevertheless, you said he was 'of almost equal power'," Starlight made quotation marks with her hooves, "meaning that this D-End, whatever, was still weaker. So we're still at a disadvantage."
The stallion turned away from the two, "Several other ponies in this world will have inherited powers similar to yours from the warriors of my world. Now I don't care what your views on friendship are, but they will help you to defeat the princess."
Starlight ran these facts through her head several times; the idea of aliens, super powers, the end of the world. Mostly she thought about what this strange stallion was asking her to do,attack and possibly kill the youngest princess of the Equestria, who just so happened to be the same pony who ruined her life (well, one of the ponies). She looked at the filly who called herself her assistant. She then saw her splayed out on the ground in a small pool of blood, the land scorched, and Twilight Sparkle standing on the horizon.
-Never,- Starlight thought to herself, -I won't let that that happen. Ever.-
"Miss Casket,"
Cassie looked up from the cards in her hooves, Starlight only called her that when she had something of great importance to tell her. "Yeah Chief?"
Starlight looked at the stallion, he hadn't moved an inch while Starlight pondered her decision. "You have decided?" an evil smile played across his face.
Starlight's face betrayed no emotion, "Pack your things, we're going on a road trip."