Prologue: A Falling Dream
Author's Note
Hey guys. This is a prologue of my first MLP crossover with Toei's famous decade-long Kamen Rider Series on this site. I have been planning on this for a while, going back to an old forum I wrote a year or two ago, which was just an after-thought. Then, after some thinking, I decided to make it into a full-fledged story (which I hoped to post in on Kamen Rider's 45 anniversary, but hey-I'm still in the same year).
That being said, I should warn you: I have been known to have month-long breaks between updates, my interest on one story can switch with another-delaying my writing process-and I have given up on certain stories that I can barely continue after a certain point (boy have I done that A LOT).
Nonetheless, I do hope you guys enjoy this story, whether I cancel this after the first chapter or not. I hope it will exciting for you all, as it gets to honor a group of heroes whom I like (even if they are not well known in the west) and puts familiar ponies in their place. Comment, critique-let me know your thoughts on it. Thank you.
-W.S.
Prologue: A Falling Dream
"... Str... ar... ou.."
Though the words were barely comprehensible, he could hear them through his helmet’s communication link. It was enough to wake him. He struggled to claw himself out of the deep chasm that sought to drag him back to unconsciousness.
His success was rewarded with pain. His joints creaked, his muscles ached, and he swore his hands burned from unnatural sparks they gave off.
Yet, the pain seemed to have faded away, if only for the briefest moment, and a bright white haze came through the small cracks. In it, he could see something. It was a memory, he realized. A memory that was so long ago, but it felt like it was only yesterday.
He remembered the creek, the smell of coffee, and the soft voice, which hid a pain he failed to notice at the time. "... One day, when there’s no more monsters… once the world’s peaceful… I want to go somewhere far away and beautiful… the two of us…"
"That sounds great. I want to go too," he had answered. The voice then was too deep and brash that he almost did not recognize it as his own.
"... Stro... are you..."
"Really? Do you promise?"
The hopeful question was almost heart-wrenching now, even more so when he replied, "Yeah, I promise."
"Stronger!"
The foreign cry crowding in his ears, he opened his eyes. His eyelids felt heavy, only rise halfway. It was enough to see everything, though. The lenses of his helmet, usually large and bulging with a green color, were cracked, and light poured in through the pores of the eyes.
His other senses kicking in, he knew something was wrong. The air felt warmer than usual, and it left a terrible taste in his mouth, and nose, and… pretty much everything. There was no feeling of right, left, or up. Just down.
He was right. It was all wrong. An unnatural color of grey, the epicenter of the heat, spread above with hint of a natural blue sky on the rim. Parts of metal, some shredded to pieces, some long beams encased in flames, and some parts of a great wings, dropped from the sky.
And he fell with them.
A little grunt left his drying mouth when he failed to kick his legs off of the falling metal. After a couple more tries, he gave up and stared down at the large ocean and several small landmasses below. How long was the drop? About five hundred meters, maybe more?
"Stronger, are you there?!"
Now, he heard it, louder than before. The strong and commanding, yet warm and gentle, tone, even if there was the slightest hint of concern in it. He almost smiled, imagining the irritatingly warm and stoic face turn into alarm.
Yet, his throat burned as the words rose through it. "I'm here," he answered, fatigue tingling at the edge.
“What happened up there?” the same voice inquired.
It took what was left he exhausted mental faculties to remember. "The idiot ambassadors tried to detonate the nukes while they were still on the plane" he managed to recall. "The radiation will spread all over, now."
"And the remnant SHOCKER agents?"
"Dead," he replied, remembering dealing with them himself before the explosion.
On the other side of the line, there was nothing, and that was enough. He could already the shock on the other side. “Any word from Mr. FBI?” he continued, breaking the silence with his hoarse voice.
“Taki said he and Interpol already finished the evacuation,” answered a second man–his voice just as strong, if only a little more hopeful. “They should have gotten away by now.”
Huh, so Second was there too. No doubt, so were the others, watching the destroyed craft fall from down below on some island or cliff face.
“Really? Give him my thanks.” Already, the green lenses dimmed from inside. Darn it, he was so tired…
Just then, a third voice, a little lighter than the previous two, called out, “Stronger! We need to regroup and figure out what to do. Can you make it down here?”
Ah, ‘Mr. Three’: the first one he encountered, and the one who brought him into the little band. It made him a little sad to give him the bad news. "Sorry, but you'll to have do it without me."
"What are you talking about?" the second voice asked, showing more shock than his counterparts.
"I barely managed to get out before the explosion. I'm falling with the debris, now."
More surprised and alarmed tones rung in him helm. Mixed voices cried out, almost hard to decipher: "What?!" "Get out of there!" "You need to live on!"
Despite the pain, he felt like chuckling at the cries. The others always did see the courage to move on. Their own trials put them through much, like he did. It helped them to fight on, and there was always more work to do. Sadly, he currently lacked that resolve. "Sorry, sempai,” he spoke to them. “Looks like I'll be joining Four, soon."
"What are you talking about?! You can still get out!" argued another deep voice.
"Stronger, live!" a fifth and feral voice encouraged.
His mind only let out a tired sigh. His instincts told her to move, to get out of there like the others told him, but his body refused every command. Any power he had was used in his failed attempt to stop an international catastrophe, and now he had none left to even lift a finger. There was no way he could make it out.
Giving in, he closed his eyes. His breaths grew quieter, and he only spoke in a voice slowly fading away. "Sayonara everyone... the heavens... they're finally calling to me..."
And so he fell, further and further. The fires spread everywhere, adding more to the stinging heat of radiation. The wind howled, the burning pieces of metal banged against one another and creaked slightly. Through it all, a voice cried out:
"JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
A loud gasp rung out as Rainbow Dash sat up from her bed and breathed heavily. A cold sweat ran down her cyan face, sticking her rainbow-colored mane to her forehead. 'That dream again,' Dash thought with a shudder.
In those dreams, she wasn't herself. She was another person–another male, which was a little awkward at first–and it was not the first dream she had about him. Before, Dash had seen him fighting against monsters she could never imagine. Now, she had seen him falling to his death, barely winning some kind of battle she not could see.
Rainbow wiped the sweat off her brow and rubbed her eyes. She expected to feel the warmth of the morning sun on her, but when her vision cleared, out there were the starry sky and a cool breeze that came through the window. The sight made Dash sigh inwardly as she crawled out her bed.
Right, the “everlasting night.” The royal decree of Nightmare Moon, Equestria’s latest ruler and tyrant, for night to last forever, a decree that lasted for over three years now.
Dash stared down at her hooves. Three years. Almost three years since she and the others failed to stop Nightmare Moon. Three years since the Elements of Harmony were destroyed. Three years since these things fused to her, forcing her to wear protective gloves. ‘Make a note to thank Twilight,’ Rainbow reminded herself, and she took slow trots towards the window.
"You're heading out?"
Stopping in place, Dash turned to the other figure in her room, leaning against the bed post. He was mostly cover in the shadows and turned away, yet Dash could make out the strange clothes and the jacket grasped in a gloved hand.
“Yeah.” Rainbow answered, not phased in the slightest. “I got to make a few stops.”
“Sounds dangerous,” he said after a short pause.
“It always is. The others are getting ready.”
Another pause. “Do you think you can win?” he asked her.
To that, Rainbow grinned. “I know we can.”
The man stood on his two legs and turned, showing off the giant “S” on his shirt. A grin as wide and brash as Rainbow’s was plastered on his face as he slung his coat over his coat. “Well,” he slung his coat over his shoulder, “let’s get going. I’ve been itching for this day to happen.”
Rainbow turned away with a smirk. Out of the others, he was her favorite. They were too alike that it made the others a little annoyed sometimes.
With a small breath, Dash spread out her wings and bent her forelegs into a crouching position. Her eyes glanced up at the moon peeking out of the corner of the window. Nightmare was watching, Rainbow knew that without a single bit of fear. But it wouldn’t be forever. Everything would change, now, Rainbow could feel it, and everything would go back to normal.
‘We’re coming for you, Nightmare Moon,’ she swore.
With that, Rainbow Dash flew out the window, leaving a colorful blur in a dark and empty room.
