When the world goes crazy during the Mayan perdicted day of destruction, one young teenage woman was spared the chaos and sent to anotehr world with power stemming from one of her favorite shows. She will become... A Kamen Rider.
When the world goes crazy during the Mayan predicted day of destruction, a few chosen human who have decided to stay peaceful instead of rioting and looting the streets were saved from the escalating chaos then placed in worlds of their choosing. This is one of those stories.
A story of a young teenage woman who was given the Eternal power of Gaia's memories and sent to a world she has only heard about but never really delved into. A world that would soon be in need of a Warrior of Justice, A Protector of the Innocent, a Defender of the Innocent, a Hero known as...Kamen Rider Eternal!!!
(!!! contained Anthro ponies!!!) (!!!Updated the rating because of some scenes in Chapter 3 and beyond that I cannot sugarcoat no matter what I try. !!!)
I'm sure you've heard about it; the Mayan prediction about the end of the world. Oh, what am I saying...Everyone and their grandmother had heard about that piece of stupidity. I personally believe that the calendar if nothing more than an indicator for the Mayan's about when Venus was going to cross the sun. Oh, before we go any further, I guess I better introduce myself.
My name is Katherine Ichigo Williams; a nineteen year old woman living in Dallas-Ft. Worth Texas. And before you ask my middle name came from my mother: a Japanese Immigrant, while my first and last names came from my father: a navy SEAL. Unfortunately that is the only thing I know about them since they passed away when I was five and given to the orphanage. Hold on! I see those looks you're giving me. You're thinking that my life there was miserable or something; well you're wrong, it was not that bad actually. My parents had plans made up just in case something happened to them which got me sent to an orphanage where some friends of theirs worked at.
Another strange request they had was that I be given martial arts lesson which also included Kendo and Ninjutsu for some strange reason along with survival lessons of all kinds. Nonetheless I dove into the lesson head...I guess you could say I wanted to be closer to my parents since they chose those skills for me to learn.
But this story is not about my past, rather it is about the Mayan day of destruction and how my world got turned upside down all because of my decision to stay sane while the world around me went insane.
3nd Person POV
December 20th, 2012; as the time neared from the 'Mayan Apocalypse' to begin, the world had started to go crazy. People were either gathering any and equipment they had saved for years together and hiding to wait out the coming 'storm'; or rioting in the streets, trying to get one last hoorah before it all went to hell in a handbasket.
During all this, a small group of men decided to finally indulge on an urge they had held back for fear of the law and decided to have some "fun" with some young school age girls. All of them smiled perversely in the alleyway they had decided to place this 'event' as they slowly surrounded a group they had captured during the chaos.
"Don't worry girls," one of the men said as he licked the blade was holding, ready to slice the only thing between him and the girl's bodies, "We'll make sure all of you are nicely filled in a moment; maybe you'll find out you like it."
"No, Please!!!" one of the more vocal girls shouted hoping to get anyone's attention but was sadly lost in the sounds of the riots around them.
The other men chuckled darkly as they slowly advanced on the girls...only for a blade to come flying down between the two groups and sink deeply into the asphalt shocking everyone.
"I think there are a few things wrong with the scenario you just talked about," a young woman's voice that was silky smooth but with an edge similar to a razor blade said from seemingly nowhere making everyone look around wildly, "For one, neither of them seem to be at the age of consent; and even if they were number two comes into play as they don't want anything you're selling."
Finally everyone looked up to see a young woman a little bit older than the ones in trouble glaring down at the perverts wearing a black jacket with red piping along the arms, body and hood with an equally black shirt under it, with a strange mask that covered the lower half of face from the nose down under the collar. Black pants covered her legs with black modified combat boots on her feet, a strange holster on her right thigh, a strange belt around her waist, and a sword on her back. Thanks to both the darkness and her hood, the only disenable things about her face was the gold eyes which seemed to burn into the souls of the perverts and light blue hair.
"Who the hell are you?!?!" the 'leader' demanded as he glared at the girl who was stopping him fun.
"Just a good Samaritan passing through," the girl replied back as she pulled another black throwing knife out ready to throw, "now you leave these girls alone and go on your way. Or I'll make your lives hell."
Before the leader could say anything, one of the man quickly cried out in fear, "IT'S HER!!! The Kunochi!"
Many of the men gasped in fear and shock while the girls looked at their savior with stars in her eyes. "Who?" the leader asked stupidly as the girl gracefully jumped off the building and landed in-between the girls and the perverts.
"She's one of the city's most wanted vigilantes taking down multiple gangs of all types and is said to have even stopped an attempt on the governor's life," another guy said as he was very close to losing control of certain functions.
"The gangs I can take credit for," Kunochi replied as she twirled her Thin Kunai with her fingers, "But I only reported the assassin to the police. But since they are busy, I will just have to take you guys out."
The leader just laughed before he started to speak with a wider grin then before saying, "As if I'm afraid of a little girl... Ugh" A second later he started to shake a bit along with two of his 'followers' before they all fell down... 'dead'.
Doing the smart thing, the rest of the group quickly hightailed it out of there thought the high pitched screaming probably wasn't needed. With a sigh the Kunochi walked over to the down guys and roll them over before she pulled out the needles she had discreetly thrown as one of the girls walked over to her.
"A-are they dead?" the girl asked as she watched the Kunochi put away the needles in a separate pouch.
"Nope," she replied getting up and turning to the girls she had saved, "I never kill no matter what; they're only knocked out." Not a second later she was all but mobbed by the girls until Kunochi gently pushed them back, "I much as I want to stick around, you girls might want to get to safety." and with that she stepped back, discreetly dropping a smoke bomb which exploded.
The smoke briefly covered the ninja girl confusing the girls which increased when it disappeared revealing that the Kunochi was gone. As the saved girls looked around trying to find their heroine, said heroine was stealthily climbing the nearby wall via Parkour and once she reached the roof took off for home.
After a while she finally reached a large building with quite a few kids of all ages coming in and out of the building gathering what supplies they could and putting it into two mini buses. Kunochi easily jumped onto the top of the building she was on and slipped inside the door on the rooftop. Once she was inside, the girl pulled down her hood along with the mask to reveal a very beautiful girl with neck length auburn hair that had light blue highlights in her hair then reached up towards her eyes. A second of fiddling and she pulled off the contact lenses over her eyes revealing sapphire blue irises that shined happily in the light of the building.
As the girl reached the fourth floor of the building, she was stopped by one of the kids -a little younger than her- who was taking a box down.
"Hey Ichigo!" she shouted calling Kunochi -or rather Katherine- out by her preferred name, "The boss wanted to talk to you."
"Thanks Ashley!" Ichigo replied her voice now bare of the razor edge it had before and replaced with a happy tone. As the two went their separate ways, Ichigo took off her jacket as she dodged the quick moving that was going on around her.
Soon she reached the main room of the house where the 'boss' was and entered the room. Inside an old woman in her fifties wearing a semi formal business suit was gathering the last of the papers she needed when Ichigo came in.
"Ah Ichigo, I was looking for you," she replied happily as she stood up straight, "Take a seat please."
Ichigo took the seat in front of the desk in the room as the woman sat down behind said desk and sighed. "Katherine," she started quickly gaining Ichigo's attention, "you have been with the orphanage ever since your parents have died almost fourteen years ago and since then you have kept all of the kids here in line and then safe from the city's dark side after you started to learn all that which your parents wanted you to learn."
With a sigh of regret the matron continued on, "And with that said everyone in the orphanage, including the kids, have decided that it would be best if you left the city on your own and leave us behind."
"WHAT?!?!?!?!" Ichigo shouted jumping to her feet, "Why do you want me to leave?!?!? Don't you need help keeping the kids safe while the riots and what not are happening?!?!?!"
The matron quickly slammed her hands onto the desk and shouted back, "WE'RE DOING THIS FOR YOU!!!" Ichigo was stunned by what the older woman said as she calmed down and explained, "I heard from my friend in the police force that they are going to use this opportunity to find and capture you before making an example of you despite what you have done for the city Ichigo. While many don't want to do this; the less savory members of the both the city council and the police force had pushed this through and my friend only found out just two hours ago."
Ichigo quickly pieced the puzzle together as she too calmed down, "So that's why the police seemed to be so thinned out. The corrupt cops and council members are looking to arrest and maybe even kill me."
"Indeed," the Matron replied, "And so it is with a heavy heart that I ask you to leave the orphanage and find your own way out of the city away from the police blockades. If the riots hadn't happened I wouldn't do this; but there is no other choice. Maybe once everything has calmed down you can rejoin us until you're out of High School but we'll see."
Stunned was the only thing Ichigo could feel as she mechanically stood up and walked out of the door. As she did, many of the kids that were not carrying boxes and items were surrounding the doorway and as Ichigo passed through them, they hugged her or patted her on the back while crying. Once she passed through the large group and reached her room, the Japanese-American girl began to gather what items she needed to get out of the city and survive in the country for a while.
After she gathered her supplies into a black paratrooper bag with a golden 'E' on it -a novelty item given to her by her survival leader along with everything she needed to survive at least a week in the wild with a little extra from her Ninjutsu teacher- she dropped her jacket on the bed and grabbed another one similar to it but with the logo of a group called NEVER from Kamen Rider W with two patches on either arm. The right sleeve had a patch of the symbol of Celestial Being from Gundam 00 with the Team Gurren Lagann's symbol below that while the left arm had the Pentacle from Black Butler on top and an Alchemist Circle from Fullmetal Alchemist bellow that. Then she took a necklace with the Geass Symbol from Code Geass and placed it around her neck before grabbing a plushy of Anko Mitarashi from Naruto and discreetly placing it in her bag.
With that done -and a few extra items place in hidden pockets of her jacket- she looked around for anything else she could take and saw that the kids had left one last item for her. Reaching for it she pulled out a black metallic case down from one of the shelves in her room and opened it up to reveal one of her most treasured items; a set of 27 different USB flash drives each one colored differently and a sticker on each one with -the T2 Gaia Memories and one extra that was partnered with one of the T2 Memories. It also included the connected Lost Driver and the Accel Driver from the series as well. The whole set was a recent birthday present from the entire orphanage where all of the kids gathering their money together to buy it while the adults handled the shipping.
A sad smiled crossed Ichigo's lips as she gazed upon the set before closing the case and placed it into a separate bag to place on her back since she would be needing both hands for the coming hours. Soon she was back on the rooftop -but not before nipping a few rations from the kitchen as a starter food source- and took off back into the city. Unfortunately not an hour later, Ichigo had to start dodging all of the cops who were frisking anyone wearing clothes similar to hers and had not found a way out of the city when she normally could have in the same time frame.
"These idiots are starting to piss me off royally," Ichigo growled out as she had to once again dodge another police vehicle who was ignoring the riots and searching for her.
A moment later she felt something behind her and with quickness born for her training, twirled around while pulling out her sword revealing that it was a Wakizashi inside of a Samurai sheath and slashed at her attacker. Ichigo became shocked when she saw her sword was blocked by a Tekagi-shuko and when she saw the old man wearing a modern day Shinobi Shozoku minus the mask Ichigo quickly blanched.
"Sensei!" she nearly cried out in shock quickly backing off, bowing to her master who was said to be descended from the original Japanese Shinobi.
"Denshi-chan," the old master replied with a soft smile of his face, "I'm glad to see you are keeping up with your training ever after your graduated a year ago."
"D-domo arigato gozaimashita," Ichigo thanked her master with a light blush on her face which turned into confusion quickly, "But why are you here Sensei?"
Sensei's face quickly turned from happy to serious, "I heard about your situation my student thanks to a vision I saw while meditating and have come to help." The aging master turned to his stunned student as he explained what he saw, "You will need to survive until midnight where you will be judged for your deeds both in the past and today."
Before Ichigo could enquire further a bright light shined down on them from a helicopter that had snuck up on them.
"KUNOCHI!!!THIS IS THE POLICE; YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!!! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AND GET ON YOUR KNEES!!!"
"GET BENT!!!" Ichigo replied and threw an Oversized Kunai at the light which easily shattered the lens and bulb sending both ninja's back into the darkness.
As the two tried to reach the next rooftop, they were forced to get back when bullets started flying at them. As they took cover Ichigo heard one of the cops cry out, "WE FINALLY GOT THE BITCH!!!"
"Damn!" the girl cursed as kept her head down to avoid the hail of bullets, "Some of those corrupt bastards are here!"
A few seconds late the gunfire suddenly died down allowing both Student and Teacher to jump back up and fling a few needles at the corrupt cops knocking them out via pressure points. Using the chaos from the attack, the two took off once more as they were unknowingly being tracked by another helicopter that appeared just seconds after the first one backed off but with its light off and the thermal cameras on.
After a few minutes of a 'merry' chase across the rooftops, the duo finally took shelter in a nearby abandoned building to catch their breath. After a while, both of them heard the sirens surrounding the place making Ichigo curse once again. "Those guys aren't giving up at all," she said taking a peek out of one of the windows only to see the corrupt commissioner walking up to the front line with a wide evil grin on his face.
'We finally got the bitch,' the man who had lied, bribed, and cheated his way to the position he was at thought evilly as his 'men' both willingly and unwillingly surrounded the building. 'That money the mayor is promising me is as good as mine.'
At the same time Ichigo tried to think of a way to escape the predicament she and her teacher was in, Sensei was looking at a watch hidden under the sleeve of his Shozoku and saw that it was nearing time. "Denshi," he spoke making his prized student turn to him as he dug into his uniform and pulled out a few scrolls which he gave to her, "It is time for you to make your escape from this corrupt world."
"What are you talking about?" Ichigo asked as her teacher handed over the scrolls, "just give me a few minutes and we can both escape this trap."
"Ichigo!" Sensei ordered silencing the young woman, "I have long since known that my time in this world was short thanks to the cancer in my body held back only by my will. If I can at least give you the chance to escape this world at the cost of my life, then it is a price I am willing to pay.'
"Sensei..."
The old Shinobi smiled as he placed a weathered armored hand on his student's shoulder, "Your path of never taking a life will be your key into a new world; one that -while it has it's own share of danger- is much more peaceful and kind with the chance to finally find love if you open your heart fully." as he said that a white light slowly began to form around Ichigo startling her, "May you have a good life, my student, my daughter."
"SENSEI!!!" the girl shouted out before the light around her got so bright that her sensei was forced to look away while calling the cops' attention as they tried to figure out what was going. "Get in There!!!" the commissioner order as the light slowly died down.
But instead of hearing boots running towards the doors he heard guns being holstered and looked to see the cops that did not want to be there start getting into their cars. "GET IN THERE OR I WILL HAVE YOUR BADGES!!!" he threatened but was ignored as they went off to do as they should have done and bring peace to the city. After a while the commissioner was so pissed off that he started to order the men to go inside, only to get a kunai to the forehead killing him.
Every cop turned towards where the knife was thrown from and saw the old man standing in the doorway, a fist full of kunai in one hand while the other held a katana that gleamed in the moonlight.
"I may not be able to go with my student on her journey," he said through his full face mask as he glared at the corrupted, " And I may be going to hell for what I have done in the past; BUT AT LEAST I CAN TAKE A FEW OF YOU WITH ME!!!"
With a war cry he charged forward, knowing that this would be his final battle into hell yet his heart light thanks to seeing his student carried away from this corrupt world.
Scene Change
Ichigo felt herself floating somehow with her eyes closed as she cried for her sensei who was going to die maybe even dead already. None the less her tears flowed down her face as she wondered what was next for her.
"So you are the next one to be called," a voice called out startling her yet she could not open her eyes.
"Who are you?" she asked calmly despite her racing emotions.
"Who do you believe I am?" the voice -which sounded a lot like Morgan Freeman- replied.
"Morgan Freeman?"
Ichigo could swear she felt the 'person' sweatdrop as she said that, "Why does nearly everyone I call always connect my voice to Freeman. Thought he did play me very well in the movie Bruce Almighty."
To say the teenage Kunochi was stunned would be an understatement, "Kami-sama?!?!?!"
"Indeed." God/Kami-sama replied with a smile in his voice, "Anyway's you are one of the few humans that have passed my test I created from the misinterpretation of the Mayan Calendar."
"Are you telling me that the scientist were right about the calendar being a watch of sorts for when Venus would cross the sun?" Ichigo replied, her shock continuing.
"Yes. Because you have decided to help protect the innocent of your city both in the past and today I have decided to grant you the same 'prize' and others who have decided to stay non violent on this day.”
"What about my sensei?!?!" Ichigo asked worried for the man she considered as a father.
"Unfortunately his past has bared me from granting him what I am giving you." Kami-sama replied sadly making the poor girl start crying again until he spoke up once more, "However, since he has worked towards repenting for the sins he was forced to commit, he will be giving a place in heaven a part of my warrior angels."
Ichigo could not help but smile as he heard that with her tears of sadness turning into tears of happiness. She let Kami continue as her heart soared for what was waiting her sensei.
"Now then, normally I would have given you the choice of where you want to go in the multiverse but unfortunately there is a world that will be in need of your special skills." Kami continued with a sad tone in his voice, "but like many others who have passed my tests, you will be given a few gifts. One of the gifts will be giving you the body similar to one of your favorite Kamen Rider; Katsumi Daito, but without being dead ."
"Really?!?!?!" Ichigo nearly squealed happily with her eyes sparkling behind her eyelids.
"Yes," Kami replied with a chuckle, "I will also be giving you a few extra gifts; two of them you will have to earn to gain them while the third you will have automatically: The Geass of the Seal of Absolute Suspension.”
The Kunochi winched as she felt her left eye pulse slightly as she felt the Geass implant itself into her eye as Kai continued speaking.
"There is one more gift I will be giving you; but it is not from me but from a source of power similar to the world you are heading for but you will not be able to use my gifts when you used this one."
Suddenly, Ichigo's ears were assaulted by multiple voice that seemed to come from behind her before two items appeared in her hands as she was finally able to open her eyes. As she looked into the white expanse and down at her hands, her eyes widened as she saw the Lost Driver in her left hand and her favorite Gaia Memory in her hand despite both of them should have been in the case on her back. Instinctively, she placed the Driver at her waist and watched with shock as a belt shot out of one side of the driver, wrapped around her body, and connected to the other side of the buckle as a black slot -similar to the one of the Lost Driver- appeared on the right side of the belt.
Ichigo's eyes could not get any wider as she looked at the toy turned real device around her waist before her eyes turned to the Memory in her hand. Quickly coming to a conclusion she held up her right hand a pressed the button on the Memory
=ETERNAL! =
"Henshin." the kunochi softly spoke as she placed the Eternal Memory into the slot then brought the same hand up to her left shoulder before backhanding the slot on the Lost Driver causing it to tilt to the side as a gold holographic 'E' appeared in front of the Driver's window.
=ETERNAL! =
Crimson and Gold energy shards, shot out of the buckle, briefly formed a ring around Ichigo before they covered the girl's body in a fiery red energy. When the kunochi dismissed the aura with a wave of her hand; she revealed that her clothing had changed. Her entire body from neck to feet was covered in a white body suit with equally white segmented armor that allowed for both maximum protection and flexibility at the same time with the rounded shoulder guards lined with black. The armor on her arms had a flame like pattern in a deep crimson that started at her hands and nearly touched her shoulders. Her wrist and ankles hand small decoration on the like bracelets in white with crimson flames on them as well.
The most impressive of it all was the helmet. It was white as well and sported two yellow insect like eyes lined in black with a strip of the same color that traveled from the side of one eye to the opposite end of the other circling around the helmet. On her forehead was a white trident like shape with pointy ends and a scarlet gem embedded at the base, almost reminiscent of an E or the head feathers of a horned owl.
As the transformation energies died down, the white expanse faded into a beautiful meadow like field as she heard Kami speak one more time. "You will not be needed for a while Kamen Rider Eternal, so I suggest you get use to your new powers in the meanwhile. I can not tell you when you will be needed, but you will know it is time to reveal yourself when the world turns around twice in the same day and a celebration happened a week later.”
Eternal looked around as she saw the white fully fade away and reveal that she was actually at the edge of a forest with a huge castle on the opposed end of the meadow with a large castle carved into the side of the mountain. "I don't know what's going to happen to this world," she said taking in the sight of the beautiful world, "But I swear that I will now let anything happen to the beautiful world that I see before me."
With that she turned her back to the castle and walked into the forest to train as -unbeknownst to her- the Eternal Gaia Memory sparked slightly inside the Lost Driver as if responding to what it's new wielder had spoken. Maybe this girl will be able to harness the powers within properly...
A month and a half; for nearly a month and a half I have been waiting for the signal Kami said was suppose to arrive soon and that waiting is DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!!
No...I shouldn't blame my rage on the waiting; but instead of where it rightfully belongs. Myself and my inability to access the full powers of Eternal.
What am I talking about??? Well, the Eternal Armor has three different forms a person can access, Red Flare -the form I had first activated-, Blue Flare, and Strengthening Armament forms. Red Flare is the most basic form of Eternal with fire controlling abilities along with increased speed, strength, agility, you know the usual super armor power ups; but it is actually the weakest of the three forms and can be accessed by anyone whether or not they are fully compatible with the Eternal Memory...At least until someone comes along with fully compatibility then it will only work for that person.
Blue Flare is the True Form of Eternal: the Gaia Memory that rules over all. But since Eternal is a fickle memory -according to one of the villains in Kamen Rider W (pronounced Double), Jun Kazu- that form can only be awakened by a person with a high to perfect compatibility rate. Not only does it have the power to access the abilities of any Gaia Memory without transforming into it, but it can also deactivate or even completely shut down any Gaia Memory that is not in the same Generation as it. And since Eternal is a third generation Gaia Memory -or T2 Gaia Memory- the last list is a short one.
Yet despite all of my knowledge of the Eternal Gaia Memory and having been chosen by it supposedly, I still cannot awaken Blue flare no matter what I do. No amount of medication, training, or anything has allowed me to push past the wall that stood between me and the full power of Eternal. Sure I have been able to push my frustrations over not fully awakening Eternal to the side -mainly by training with the other T2 Gaia Memories, learning all I can about their powers- to keep myself from going crazy with rage; but only just. The rage increased briefly some when I saw that a few of the memories were not the ones I remember seeing in the Kamen Rider W movie such as the T2 Memory that stood for P -Puppeteer- was changed to another Memory that I never even heard of; Pegasus.
I also tested my new body to see where it's limits were and how I could push past them thanks my transformation into a still live and kicking, Necro-Over: a person that has been revived through the use of a special bio-stimulant and transformed into super soldiers with increased strength, speed, agility, and monstrously inhuman pain resistance. Why do I call it monstrous??? A great example of a Necro-Over's pain resistance would be in Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/Gaia Memories of Fate where one member of NEVER crashed into a pile of debris and gained not only a dislocated shoulder from it, but also what seemed to be a broken neck. His response??? To punch both his neck and his arm back into place before jumping into the fray a second later.
Thankfully because I was still alive when I became a Necro-Over, I don't suffer the same problems as they did such as my skin feeling cold all the time or having to take a regular injection of bio-stimulants to keep my body from disintegrating. I still have to be careful not to loose myself to these new powers or I could not only lose my empathy, but also my memories as well.
Another thing I have been doing since I have appeared in this world is gather as much information I could without revealing myself. Thankfully Kami-sama must have predicted this because after I finally found a temporary base in the forest, a large duffle bag appeared beside me where I slept after the first night filled with quite a few goodies for me to use. Some were basic surveillance equipment (map making tools, compass, binoculars, etc.), other were weapons -most of them concealable-, and the rest was survival gear like camp stoves, a sleeping bag, etc., which basically tripled what I originally had in my Bug Out Bag. But one item that really made me smile was a composite bow that was an exact match to a bow I had seen in a movie before -Blade Trinity I think.
Pushing that to the side, I used my new equipment to not only keep myself fed, but also scout out the Castle and it's inhabitants who startled me the first time I saw that they were ponies; anthropomorphic ponies! Complete with a short muzzle, short coats of fur, tails, hoofs instead of feet, and hands. To add to that there were three different types -well four but that's will come later. A majority of the ponies in the castle had horns showing they were unicorns, while other had wings like a Pegasus, and others had neither one. But there were two of the ponies that had both wings and horns that all the others treated like royalty.
Of course none of that mattered to me since I was just surveying the ground, though one of them did catch my attention. She was rarely seen during the day but a lot at night and seemed to the younger of the two... Alicorns I called them. Her fur was a dark blue almost purple color with a midnight blue mane and tail that seemed to sparkle as if they has stars in them. Any and all dresses she wore always seemed to be the same color as her coat with a silver crescent moon somewhere on it such as a pin or a embroidery. Every time I saw her I could not help but blush from how beautiful she was despite how some would probably say her sister was the most beautiful of the two.
Nonetheless I waited with ever increasing agitation towards the Eternal Memory for the first sign of when I would be needed and finally it arrived...the day where everything seemed to flip on it's head somehow before going back to normal. With the date of when everything would go down in place, I got myself ready to discreetly enter the castle where supposedly a new member of royalty was going to be introduced. I just hope that whatever was going to happen, I can stop.
Third Person POV
Nighttime in Canterlot, normally there would be few ponies out and about in the clubs and bars around the castle town; but since the introduction of a new princess, Twilight Sparkle the once student of the Princess of the Sun Celestia and the Element of Harmony known as Magic, few ponies were asleep. The new Alicorn smiled as her friends and family laughed, ate, drank, and basically had a good time at her coronation after party. The Unicorn turned Alicorn was still wearing the same dress she wore that morning made by Rarity for her that was unsurprisingly comfortable despite having worn it for the majority of the day with her dark violet mane slowly uncurling back to it's normal style. Watching as her friends happily partied, a small sliver of worry still etched itself in her heart as she wondered if her friends would still treat her like normal or differently thanks to her new station.
"Hey Twilight," the new Alicorn heard behind her and turned around to see her friend Applejack walked up to her.
The light brilliant gamboge earth pony walked up to her friend wearing her usual clothing of white button up shirt -tied up at the bottom to show off a little bit of her stomach- a light brown vest over it, blue jeans over her legs and her usual cowpony hat on her head. Her green eyes were still sparkling with happiness for her friend as she sat down beside Twilight.
"How come you're not joining the party Twilight?" she asked with her unique accent, "It is for you anyways sugarcube."
A sad smile made it way onto Twilight's lips as she replied, "I know Applejack but I can't help but be worried about how everyone will react to my ascension. Will they still treat me as they normally do or differently because I am a Princess now."
"Is that what you're worried about?" Applejack asked a bit startled before smirking, "I don't know about the other girls; but I know that you are still the Twilight that became my friend three years ago; and nothing will ever change that. And I'm sure the others will feel the same way if you asked them." she then looked left and right quickly before leaning close to her Unicorn-turned-Alicorn friend, "Thought between you and me I would watch out for Rainbow Dash. She may ask you to put in a good word about her to the Wonderbolts despite what she said a few weeks ago.
Twilight could not help but giggle as she saw that in her mind which blew away all but the smallest amount of worry away. "Thank you Applejack," she said hugging the first friend she had met in Ponyville -not counting Pinkie since she barely said hi to her before she took off to plan a welcome party. Soon the party started to get to her as she tried to hold back a yawn with her gloved hand, "Well I think I'm going to turn in. I will have a few more things to do before we can return to Ponyville."
With that she got up from her seat and began to walk about to her room bidding everyone she passed a goodnight; thought she discreetly dodged her old mentor -Princess Celestia's- hands since Princess Luna and a few guards had warned her about her 'plans' for Twilight if what the elder Alicorn had predicted came true. As she went back to the castle; two shadows watched her leave. One shadow was quietly confirming that Twilight was the target and silently went after her while the other was not as sure, but followed its gut which all but screamed to go after her.
A few minutes later -after dodging a few aristocrats who wanted to get in some favors from the newest princess- Twilight reached her room and after stripping off the dress carefully, put on her modified PJs while making a mental list of what she had to do tomorrow. As she did finished, the Alicorn heard a soft thump behind her and before she knew it felt something pin both her arms and new wings to her body before a collar wrapped around her neck. Twilight tried to call out to the nearest guard; but a gag was quickly stuffed into her mouth before an arm wrapped around her body and pulled her into another one.
Looking behind her, Twilight paled as she saw a light grey porcelain mask of a fox facing her hiding the mare behind it as a strange black bodysuit covered her from neck to hooves -minus the arms which revealed her ash grey fur between the shoulder and her gloves, with a light grey vest over her upper body.
"Forgive me for doing this, Element of Magic," the mare said with a strange accent that reminded Twilight of ponies from Neighpon, "But since Celestia-himesama decided to not heed our warning, my clan must set an example. We will not allow the Alicorns to repopulate the world as they did before Discord ruled the world and threaten its balance." Twilight eyes grew to the size of plates as she heard that declaration as the mare pulled out a Tanto style dagger. "Forgive me," the mare said one more time as she lifted the dagger up into the air then quickly brought it down.
As is sliced through the air, time seemed to slow down as Twilight's life flashed before her eyes while her magic tried to break through the restraining collar around her neck. Memories quickly raced through the new Alicorn's mind as the dagger seemed to inch ever so closer to her neck where certain memories became even more prominent in her mind; but before Twilight could fully process them...
A weighted wire suddenly wrapped itself around the mare's right arm and pulled it back along with the dagger. Both Princess and Shinobi were forced to looked back and saw -unbeknownst to them- Ichigo wearing her usual Kunochi clothing but with a dark navy blue cloak attached to her neck with a sapphire clasp that had a tilted golden 'E' on it. The wire she had used to grab the other ninja's arm was connected to a device on her left arm as she held the wire back with her fingerless-gloved hands.
"I don't know what is going on," She said to the stunned mares while hiding that she was using almost all of her strength just to hold back the arm despite her newly enhanced body, "but I know an assassination attempt when I see one and I will not allow you to go through with it."
As she spoke, this gave Twilight the time she needed to break through the collar's grip on her magic -stunning the assassin as it popped with sparks before breaking- before the new Alicorn quickly used her magic to pull out the gag and called for help.
Not a second later; Princess Luna's Night Guards quickly busted the door down and -after taking in the scene- went after the one holding their new princess hostage. Knowing a lost opportunity when she saw one, the ninja quickly pushed Twilight into the guards stunning them as she quickly escaped the wire -causing Ichigo to stumble a bit from the lost force- before rushing for the only way out... the balcony window. Ichigo quickly followed the enemy ninja as the wire reeled itself back into the hidden device only to be stopped when the mare jumped the guardrail and to new Rider's shock, a miniature hang glider popped open on the enemy's back, sailed her over the castle walls into the rooftops.
Without thinking, Ichigo jumped back a few feet before charging forward leaping off the balcony to the new princess' and guards' shock. As she fell, Ichigo threw her weighted wire out where it caught another balcony and used it to swung through the air -using both hands to hold onto the wire so as not to lose her arm- and when she reached the end of her arch, pulled back the wire and once more launched it at another balcony to swing over the castle walls and onto the rooftops beyond. And with that she charged after the enemy kunochi who had landed a couple of rooftop beyond where Ichigo touched down and took off after the wings pulled back into her vest.
Back over to Twilight, the new Alicorn quickly pulled her jaw off the floor and took off after the two; but not before performing a quick change spell that switched her into her normal everyday clothing of knee length skirt, with button up shirt with a light purple vest over it. The guards were quickly on her heels... At least until Twilight remembered one of her most used spells, teleporting back to the party and next to startled Princess Celestia and Luna.
"What's wrong Twilight?" the princess of the sun barely got out before ponies started screaming as something whistle through the air and planted itself right before the elder princess. She jumped back and as she saw the kunai pierce her slice of cake quite stunned by what just happened.
Everypony quickly looked up to see the two ninjas battling it out on the rooftop; sparks, kunai, and shuriken flying as they danced with death beside them waiting to see whose soul it would reap.
Twilight quickly pointed to the two fighters as she said, "the one in the mask just tried to kill me; but the mare in the cape saved me before the masked one could."
Instantly, Celestia's eyes hardened as she quickly turned to the fighters; but because of the speeds they were going at could not get a spell to lock onto them while being forced to dodge the occasional stray kunai that the cloaked one was forced to block.
Ichigo jumped back from a slash at her stomach and threw a small barrage of kunai at her enemy when she landed before charging forward pulling her Wakizashi out. The enemy ninja was forced to block the attacks with her own sword before slashing at Ichigo who power slid under the blade. After the blade passed by her nose the foreign girl sprung back up swinging her left foot at the enemy.
The masked kunochi quickly leaned back matrix style canceling into a series of backflip which until the end of the rooftop where she landed on the edge, spun around, then took off once more. Undeterred, Ichigo ran after her opponent sliding her sword back into it's sheath, pulling out a handful of shuriken as she did so. When the masked one tried to go left, Ichigo let the blades fly forcing her to roll under them, canceling some of her momentum. With that opportunity made, Ichigo poured on the speed using the wall of a taller house in front of her to wall run briefly keeping her momentum while changing directions back towards the kunochi.
A few seconds later she was forced jump onto a nearby rail when the masked ninja threw a handful of makibishi/caltrops behind her hoping to pierce the heroine's feet with them. Unfortunately this gave Ichigo a crazy idea; which came into fruition when the masked kunochi stupidly looked back at the edge of a rooftop. A second later, Ichigo jumped towards the kunochi, her cape briefly giving her a demonic appearance as it waved behind her just before the girl grabbed the mare by her neck, bringing her down.
Then just seconds before they hit the ground; the more experiences kunochi pulled the arm with her captor back and thrust it forwards, slamming the mare's back into the ground which formed a small crater which nearly made her lose her mask. Ichigo landed a bit more safely then the enemy thanks to her enhanced body while keeping a hold of her opponent's neck, pulling her free right arm back to punch the mare just in case.
[End song]
Every-pony that was watching were shocked by the fight they just witnessed and how brutal the other 'mare' was. The only who wasn't was a cyan furred Pegasus mare with wide sparkling magenta eyes that had rainbow colored mane/tail that looked naturally messed up, wearing a light blue jacket and white sleeveless jacket with blue jean shorts.
"That was so awesome!!!" she shouted quickly breaking the trance all the ponies were in.
Ichigo just ignored that as she glared at the enemy kunochi through her glacial cold sapphire blue eyes. "I don't know why you tried to assassinate that Alicorn," she said confusing everyone briefly as the heroin continued, "But if you don't start talking..." flicking her wrist upward, a thin bar suddenly popped out of her sleeve before a blade flipped out stunning every-pony with its appearance as Ichigo continued, "You're soon going to be short one eye."
Having seen enough, Princess Celestia -despite wanting the strange mare to punish the one who just tried to kill her student- grabbed both warriors with her magic and pulled them away from each other much to Ichigo's shock.
"There will be no violence here," she said as a stunned Ichigo turned her head towards the princess as she was brought closer to the elder Alicorn, "I thank you for saving Twilight, but please sheathe your blade."
Briefly thinking about not doing as the powerful Alicorn said, Ichigo reluctantly slid her blade back into it's mechanism which earned her a motherly smile from Celestia as the night guards quickly grabbed the masked kunochi. Celestia sat the 'mare' down where she was instantly tackle hugged by Twilight almost bowling the poor girl over.
"Thank you so much for saving me!" she all but shouted while trying it squeeze the stuffing out of her heroin; before pulling back with a wide smile, "My name is Twilight Sparkle; newly crowned princess of Equestria. That is so strange to say..." she muttered to herself briefly before she began to introduce her friends. "This is Rainbow Dash."
"What you did was so awesome!!!" the Pegasus mare shouted as she jumped into the air and looped once before landing.
"Applejack..."
"Nice to meet you," the cowpony said with a smile, her accent reminding Ichigo of people from Texas, "Thank for saving our friend from that varmint."
"Not a problem," Ichigo replied with a smile behind her mask.
Twilight giggled a bit before continuing the introductions with a pink furred mare with super curly mane/tail -that reminded Ichigo of afros or something similar- with a pink blouse/skirt that had blue stripes along the sides and a bright smile. "This is Pinkie Pie."
"HiI'mPinkiePiebuteveryponyinponyvillecallesmePinkie.Itsnicetomeetanicemarelikeyou! HaveyouevergonetoapartycosIeanttoinviteyoutoa'WelcometoPonyville'party!!!" she spoke in one breath until Twilight placed a hand over her mouth as she sweat dropped in embarrassment.
"Sorry about that," she said sheepishly before pointing to her next friend who was a white furred unicorn with an expertly curled mane/tail and fingernails wearing a light blue dress with gems along the bottom, "This is Rarity."
"Thank you so much for saving our friend darling," Rarity said with a somewhat heavy British accent that made Ichigo glad she had a mask covering the lower part of her face and a smile.
"I'm just doing the right thing ma'am," Ichigo replied white scratching the back of her head in embarrassment from the rare praise she was getting.
Before anyone else could say anything Ichigo heard a voice call out that had her palling in shock.
= VIOLENCE!=
Ichigo quickly turned towards the voice just in time to see the guards get thrown away by the masked mare as she pulled out a strange item -a USB memory stick- that was blood red with dirty cream colored ribs along the sides and a similar colored sticker on the front with a clawed arm bent into the shape of a V.
"Gaia Memory!!!" Ichigo shouted in shock as she saw the unrefined Gaia Memory -or as she called them, Dopant Memories.
"I will not fail this mission!" the assassin shouted before slamming the end of the Memory into her left arm where a black tattoo of a USB port -a Living Connector- appeared as it absorbed the Memory into her arm with a strange sound. A second later a crimson aura covered her entire body as it morphed into a monstrous form. When the aura died down, Ichigo instantly recognized the new monster as the Violence Dopant but in a female form making it not as bulky in the chest area as the original Dopant was but the arms and legs were almost twice the size she remembered with the wrecking ball hand on her right arm.
Not a second later, the new Violence Dopant charged at the group causing Ichigo to shout, "SCATTER!!!" which all of them quickly did. Unicorn Night Guards quickly tried restrain the monster with their magic but for some reasons anytime their magic got close to it, the mana would dissipate back into the either. The Earth Pony guards tried their hand at restraining the monster but were quickly overpowered by her sending many into the walls and cracking bones on impact with her wrecking ball. Princess Luna took a shot at holding the Violence down with spell chains and succeeded briefly before the Dopant shattered them stunning the Princess as it turned to her.
Ichigo was helping a few guards up when she heard a girl scream and looked to see Princess Luna helping up a butter colored fur coated Pegasus with long light pink mane/tail wearing a light green blouse and a sky blue blouse that had tripped as the Violence Dopant barreled down on them. Without thinking, Ichigo decided to use one of her other gifts that she had barely even trained in, let alone mastered and hopped for the best.
Twilight also heard the scream and turned to see her friend and fellow princess in the path of the monster then without thinking called out to them which quickly got her other friends' attention. Suddenly; a wine red sphere of energy was projected from Ichigo and encompassed the entirety of Canterlot stopping all time briefly as the magic within the kunochi's right eye and the magic of Equestria worked together actually slowing down time within the castle walls instead of making the mind think time had stopped. This was unknowingly ignored by Ichigo who quickly charged at the soon to be mowed down duo that were seconds from being pony pancakes.
A second later, all time returned to normal and Twilight gasped in horror as the Dopant had seemingly trampled her friend and Princess Luna... until she heard coughing and could not help the tears that started to form in her eyes when the dust settled down revealing that Ichigo had saved the two mares in the nick of time. Sure Twilight was curious about how she did it, but put her obsession for knowledge was overridden by her need to check on her friend.
Ichigo groaned as she barely saved the two mares from being trampled just before her Geass deactivated and used her body as a cushion to keep the two from getting hurt when she pushed them. Looking up she saw the two ponies looked at her with worry in their eyes; but she just smiled and got up as she said, "Glad you two are alright."
Both mares looked at her in shock, especially since her hood had fallen and revealed her auburn hair with blue highlights -which somehow stuck around despite that they should have faded by now- and her furless face. Unfortunately, Twilight called out, "Fluttershy! Luna!" briefly causing both mare to look towards the running Alicorn and friends allowing Ichigo to notice her fallen hood and slid it back up.
"Are you okay sugarcube?" Applejack asked as the kunochi slowly stood up on slightly shaky legs.
"Once I defeat that Dopant I will be," Ichigo replied as she stepped up in front of the stunned group at the same time the Violence Dopant turned her sights to Twilight and her friends.
"You are the one who forced me to take this form." the Dopant growled out in a distorted voice, "But I also have you to thank for allowing me to discover that I am immune to magic now. So I will thank you with a quick death!"
Ichigo just scoffed as she fiddled with her cloak and threw it off to the side before opening her jacket some and digging into it with her right hand, "If you think I am going to be easy prey... then obviously the Gaia Memory has already started to corrode your mind. Of course I will need a little help to fight on your level." As she stated that, the kunochi pulled her right hand out of her jacket holding up her own Gaia Memory causing the Dopant to gasp in shock.
"You're a dopant as well?!?!" she asked stunning the mares behind the heroine.
"Wrong!" Ichigo replied as she lower her raised arm while reaching behind her back with the unoccupied hand for a special pouch on her belt she had made and pulled out her key to victory as she spoke the same words her favorite Kamen Rider once said. "Ore wa...." the kunochi started as she held up her Lost Driver, "Kamen Raida da!"
And with that she placed the Driver at her waist, allowing the belt to wrap around her body before it connected to the other side and held the Driver/buckle in place. Once again she held up the Eternal Memory and pressed the button on it startling the watchers as it spoke in a voice similar to the Violence Memory but more human/pony sounding then the monsterous voice.
=ETERNAL! =
"Henshin!" Ichigo said as she placed the Memory into the Driver making it pulse as waves of golden energy were projected from the device along with the golden 'E' before the kunochi push the Driver to the side activating it.
=ETERNAL! =
Every-pony was forced to briefly look away as a ring of red and gold energy was projected out of the device along with a catchy tune before shattering and reforming onto Ichigo's body creating the Eternal Armor. And with that Ichigo introduced herself to the stunned ponies.
"Kamen Rider Eternal! Kenzan!"
Every-pony was stunned at the transformation which the Rider used to charge at the Dopant who quickly returned to normal and swung at her. Eternal blocked the attack and to everyone's shock stood her ground easily before pushing the offending arm away from her and began throwing punches rapid fire into the Dopant's gut sending the transformed mare stumbling back before an uppercut sent her flying into the air. Eternal quickly followed and spun around slamming a spin kick into the monster's gut bringing her back down to earth.
Eternal landed in a crouch and looked to the side to see the Dopant quickly climbing back to her feet where she swung her wrecking ball arm sending the iron call at her. The Rider quickly stood up and grabbed the wrecking ball sending her skidding back a few feet from the force before she stopped. Seeing her chance, Eternal grabbed the chain which connected Dopant to weapon and pulled. A second later, the Mare was sent flying towards Eternal who reached behind her back and pulled out another Gaia Memory -one that was emerald green with a unicorn's head, body, and tail in the shape of a 'U' on the sticker- sliding it into the black slot on the right side of her belt before slapping the button on it.
=UNICORN: MAXIMUM DRIVE!=
Clenching her right fist, lightning and wind gathered around her fist forming a drill of sorts which Eternal slammed into the incoming Dopant who screeched in pain as the energy/wind drill tore into her hardened body sending her flying back once more into a building. For a second there was no movement then suddenly the rubble burying the Dopant exploded revealing a pissed off monster.
"ONORE TEME!!!" The mare shouted but was overshadowed by another voice.
=PEGASUS:MAXIMUM DRIVE!=
The monster looked and saw that Eternal had taken a wide stance with her arms moving in a strange pattern as a silver and crimson aura surrounded her. The Rider -once she was finished tracing the stars in the Pegasus constellation- brought her right clenched fist to her waist with the left one high above her head before throwing a right hook at the monster shouting out her attack.
"PEGASUS! RYUUSEIKEN!"
From her fists what seemed like hundreds of beams of light blue energy shot out towards the monster and began punching her an endless amount of times which sent her flying once more into another building once the attack finished. Eternal looked at her smoking fist and scowled behind her mask.
'Still not powerful enough,' she thought before turning to the Violence Dopant pulled herself out of the ruble and shot once more to the Rider who easily ducked out of the way of the berserker rush while pulling out the Pegasus Memory and replaced it with a yellow one with golden crescent moon on it with two cuts in it forming an 'L'.
When she slid it into the black slot on the belt every-pony was stunned by what it said.
=LUNA: MAXIMUM DRIVE!!!=
The moon princess looked with wide eyes as the warrior charged towards the monster throwing her right arm back and to every-pony growing shock, it stretched until it reached almost a city block in length. The Violence Dopant turned around just in time to see Eternal in her face as the warrior shouted, "GUM GUM NO PISTOL!"
A second later, the stretched arm snapped back towards it's owner who slammed her fist 'charged' fist into the monster face once more sending the Dopant rolling back once more. When the transformed mare stopped she looked up and saw the Eternal was high above her with her right leg stretched out ever high towards the sky -literaly!
"GUM GUM NO STAMP!" Eternal shouted as she brought her rubber like right leg down at the Dopant who cried out as the armored foot slammed into her chest, sending her even further into the ground.
A few seconds later, Eternal pulled back her leg as she landed on the ground in front of the groaning Dopant. "Will you surrender," the Rider asked as she turned to the down monster, "Are do I have to kick your ass around the castle some more?"
"I will not give up!" the dopant shouted as she forced herself out of the ground throwing stone and dirt into the air with a roar, "I will not lose to a Kunochi wannabe!!! and I will not fail this mission!!!" and with a feral roar, she charged towards her opponent with red in her eyes.
Eternal easily side stepped the Berserker while pulling out the Luna Memory and placing it in the armor's subspace pocket. "Then this will clench it," the Rider said with a tone finality as she reached for the Lost Driver and pulled out the Eternal Memory which she placed in the black Maximum Slot.
=ETERNAL: MAXIMUM DRIVE!!!=
Crimson and gold flames formed around the Rider's right leg as she turned around and jumped high into the air stunning every-pony once more as her jump had taken her higher then the her previous ones which only reached the top of the buildings. She performed a front flip at her jumps arc then brought her right leg out concentrating the flames around the outstretched leg forming a drill as the Rider dropped down like a rock.
"SEIYA~" Eternal shouted as her burning foot made contact with the turning Dopant, slamming into her chest and sending her skidding back with a golden, burning 'E' branded onto her body.
The Kamen Rider pushed off the Dopant and landed; turning her back on the monster as she held her right arm out to the side with her thumb down saying, "Saa…jigoku o tanoshimina!"
Suddenly, the Dopant exploded in a fiery ball of flames causing every-pony to cry out in shock and fear but when the flames did, they revealed that the Assassin was still alive but knocked out with the shattered remained of the Violence Memory beside the fallen mare.
Eternal sighed in relief as her main Gaia Memory returned to the Lost Driver which she pushed back into it's default position allowing her armor to break apart into energy that returned to the ether before reached for the nearest -still standing- table where her cloak had landed and put it back on. A few seconds later she was surrounded by a few guards -at were still up or not surrounded in the down assassin- with Princess Celestia and Luna with Twilight and her friends behind them but ready for anything.
"It seem I have your thanks for saving my little ponies Eternal," the older princess said using the name Ichigo gave before her fight with the Dopant, "But I must ask that you come with us. I have a lot of questions for you."
The Rider smiled sadly behind her face mask as she replied. "As much as I would like to go with a beautiful mare like you; I have a few things to do." And with that she threw something into the air bringing every-ponies attention to it as Ichigo closing her eyes as she knelt down and threw her cloak over her head. A second later...
BOOM!!!
A bright light burst out of the thing Ichigo threw into the air blinding them and after a couple of seconds, the heroine quickly pulled her cloak off her head and took off. But not before leaving one of the princesses something.
After a minute all of the ponies finally got their sight back with Celestia more then a bit peeved as she turned to the guards, "Half of you take the wounded to the hospital, the rest; that that mare!"
"Yes, your majesty!" the guards replied before going to do as she asked.
"That may not be necessary sister," Celestia heard her sister point out and turned to her only to see Luna's bright red face as she looked down at her cleavage of her dress where a small white piece of paper was poking out.
Luna pulled out the paper -her face bright red with embarrassment, and opened up the note. After a few seconds reading it her face cooled down as she began to giggle a bit before handing it to Twilight who read it out loud.
For the one who get this note;
I'm not sure this note will be needed but better safe than sorry right? If you want to meet up with me to either talk or arrest me -I hope that will not be the case though- you can find me in the northwest part of the forest nearest the castle. I will be leaving up some discrete signs so that you can at least go in the general direction of my camp where I can find you if you do decide to come.
Signed: Kamen Rider Eternal
P.S. If I had placed this note in an inappropriate location please forgive me. Despite protecting my eyes from the flash bang -if I used one- I can still get disoriented. I do hope I gave it to the dark furred Alicorn beauty that I have seen flying around.
Celestia, Twilight, and all of Luna's friends turned to the moon princess with wide smirks on their face making the poor Alicorn's blush return.
"Looks like someone has an admirer," Celestia said in a sing song voice with what many called her troll grin.
"TIA!!!" Luna shouted with an ever growing blush as her friends laughed and poked fun at her in a good naturedly way -except for Fluttershy who just smiled.
As the moon princess was being teased, a shadow looked at them from an alley way writing something on a scroll. The being then hightailed it out of there and into a building where it went towards a nonchalant place on the wall and discreetly opened it to reveal a glass jar with a crimson fire in it. Once the jar was opened the being -which was revealed to be a pony from the firelight but with no other discernible features showing- placed the letter into the jar and watched as the fire burned it before the ashes quickly gathering above the flames and shot off towards the east.
A few hours later, the ashes reached what looked to be a Sukiya-zukuri styled house where a crimson female dragon wearing black and crimson battle kimono was training in the yard. When the ashes were close enough, she caught them before it entered her mouth and reformed into a scroll. After opening and looking at the content, her eyes widened in shock at what was written before quickly rushing inside the house. After a few minutes she reached what could be called the master bedroom and entered it before sitting Seiza Style and bowing.
In front of her, meditating in front of a small shrine with some incense, was a brown furred pony with short auburn mane and tail wearing a brown Jinbei with his mane tied back with a black string.
"My Lord," the dragon spoke with a slightly accent while keeping her head down, "I have received a report from one of our spies in Canterlot. Your beliefs have been proven; one of the clans have tried to assassinate the new Princess, Twilight Sparkle."
"I see," the earth pony said in a deep rumbling voice with a depressing sigh, "Has Princess Celestia started to plan her funeral yet?"
"There is no need my Lord," the dragon replied as she sat up while placing the note down and pushing it towards her Lord, "Someone was able to save her...someone with Iga style training."
"WHAT?!?!" the ninja lord almost shouted in shock as he opened his crimson eyes and quickly turned around to grab the note behind him.
"And that is not the most surprising My Lord," the kunochi dragon continued, "The assassin had used one of those strange objects we have found on the enemy shipments we were able to salvage. And the Iga ninja who saved Princess Sparkle had something similar to it but different."
"Hmmm," the Ninja Lord hummed as he read the full report. "This is most disturbing news Ryuki," The Lord replied when he put the note down, "Do you think this 'Iga Ninja' could be discerned as one of ours?"
"Unless they have seen us fight face to face before Tanba-sama,” the dragon -Ryuki- replied, "Then no, but if they have..."
The ninja Lord -Tanba- scowled a bit as he thought things over, "There is too much speculation Ryuki... Have our spies keep a closer eye on Canterlot and Ponyville incase any of the other clans decide to use this opportunity to remind Celestia about her 'promise' to them and her late mother Faust-sama."
"HAI!" Ryuki replied bowing to Her Lord before taking off to do as she was ordered.
Tanba looked at the scroll once more as he stared at the words as if they would reveal the answers to this mystery. He could not help but think that this new development would be world changing in more ways than one.
‘Oji-san,' Tanba thought sending them to his deceased grandfather as he turned to look at the shrine he was meditating at where a picture of an old earth pony similar to Tanba but with a slight scowl on his muzzle sat, 'Was this the event you were talking about on your death bed?’
Three days had passed since Equestria had met with its newest Hero, Kamen Rider Eternal, and now Twilight, her friends, and Princess Celestia and Luna were on their way to met up with the Heroine along side a couple members of the Royal Guard who walked in front of the group and one more being. He was a tall amethyst purple dragon -just as tall as Twilight if not a bit taller- with large leathery wings that draped down his back and green spikes running down his head, along his back, and all the way to the tip of his tail which made him seem even taller than he was. He wore a black coat with emerald green flames raging upwards into the darkness, a tan t-shirt made to look like parchment and black dress jeans. The dragon was staying close to Rarity who wore a wine red shirt with a black jacket over it and a pair of black colored pants all of which highlighted her figure wonderfully.
"I wonder if I'm cursed," the young dragon grumbled out loud, "The one time I decide to go to bed early and something awesome happens."
"I would not call it 'awesome', Spike," Rarity spoke up as gingerly stepped over a root, only to catch the one hidden behind it with her hoof. Just as she was about to fall, the dragon -Spike- quickly reached out and steadied her earning him a smile from the sophisticated mare which caused him to blush.
"I thought it was pretty awesome!" Pinkie countered as she skipped along the route somehow dodging all tripping obstacles that appeared in her path, "Well besides someone trying to kill Twilight and many other ponies."
Princess Celestia agreed with Pinkie Pie on that one, "Indeed Pinkie. And the power that the Assassin and Eternal used was very interesting; both ancient and new at the same time."
"Wish we could have studied at least one of those items they used to find out why our magic was struggling to work on them," Twilight added with a sigh, "but one of them was destroyed by Eternal who somehow vanished when she set off that flash bomb. I still wonder who that mare was."
"As do I," Princess Luna said with a look of concentration on her face, "Especially since I could not discern her name at all."
While the other ponies looked at the moon princess curiously -minus the guards-, the elder princess turned to her sister as she asked, "So you could not tell what her name was either?"
Twilight was very curious about what her ex-mentor and fellow princess was talking about, "What do you mean Pri- Celestia?"
The solar princess smiled as she explained, "All Alicorns have the ability to instinctively know the name of any Pony they meet. The 'Royal Instinct' as some call it, can only be fooled by the most powerful magicks, so for us to not know Eternal's true name only means one of two things."
Celestia -being the wise mentor she is- kept silent about her suspicions to let her ex-student shine once again; and she was not disappointed.
"That means either Eternal is somehow protected from the 'Royal Instincts' or is not a pony at all." Twilight hypothesized causing her friends, little dragon brother, and the two guards to look at her in shock.
"Wait one minute," Applejack quickly interrupted, "You're tellin' me that the mare that saved you might not be a Pony at all?"
"That seems to be the case Applejack," Lune replied with a small smile on her lips as this conundrum started to interest her, "There is also the chance that the 'Gaia Memories' Eternal and the assassin used could also be protecting them but that only seemed to work when both of them were transformed."
"So you know the name of the mare that tried to kill me?" Twilight asked but before either of the sisters could answer... and sharp whistling sound pierced the air before a 'THUNK' announced the appearance of an arrow at the feet of the guards, quickly making every-pony be on alert.
"Sorry about that," A familiar voice called out to the group from above and to the front causing every-pony to look towards the sound. There 'Eternal' stood on top of a thick limb with a bow in her left hand as she continued speaking, "but your guards were about to step into a trap and I didn't want anyone to get hurt on my account."
"Like we will believe that," one of the 'braver' guards barked as she stepped over the arrow...only to scream when she was quickly hoisted up by that hoof into the air via a snare made from woven vines.
"Baka," Ichigo groaned as she face-palmed along with the smarter guard and the others behind her. The Kunochi tree hopped over to the mare -stunning the ponies beneath her- and quickly yet safely let the trapped guard down from her 'high peak'.
"How was the weather up there, Silver Arms?" the smarter Unicorn guard asked the not so smart one after she was safely on the ground.
"Ha, ha," Silver Arms replied as she quickly let herself out of the noose around her hoof, stood up while grabbing her dual broadswords and glared at the kunochi.
"I did try to warn you," Ichigo stated as she jumped down after rolling up the vine rope, "Now please follow me to my campsite. It's not much but it works for what I needed it to do."
And with that the dimensionally displaced ninja lead the group towards her camp helping them dodge the traps she had placed which made Fluttershy cringe seeing them. She had more then a few bad experiences seeing that some of her animal friends had been violently killed by them. After a while the group finally reached a small open area where four large logs surrounded a expertly built fire with a metal stove over it that had a metal coffee pot on top of it. Off to the side was a simple lean-to tent build with large sticks, rope, two trees forming the main support with the back part made of canvas over a frame and leafy branches over that to help protect it from the rain. Under the lean-to was a sleeping bag with large canvas bag under it filled with dry grass to soften the ground beneath the sleeping bag.
"I would say make yourself at home but this is not much of one," Ichigo said as she took off her cloak and threw it over another nearby rope to let it air out.
"Oh sweet Faust," Rarity exclaimed in shock, "How long and you been living like this???"
"Just over a month," the Kunochi replied as she went to another hanging rope and took off a few tin cups hanging from some hooks connected to the rope, "But believe me I've been in worst situation in my survival training. Would anyone like some coffee?"
For the cultured mare it just would not do, and with a glow from her horn, summoned a very nice couch to sit on around the fire. Her friends just rolled their eyes as they sat down on the logs and accepted Ichigo's offer except for the guards who kept standing making Celestia roll her eyes. After everyone/pony had been served, Ichigo got the last cup but was a bit reluctant to drink from.
"What's wrong Eternal?" Twilight asked a bit confused as she looked at the Rider/Ninja.
Ichigo winched at the name slightly before looking away while deciding to be honest with them, "Before you ask I did not poison the coffee or anything...I'm mainly worried about how you might react to how I look."
"Well," Applejack began after taking a sip of the surprisingly good coffee -her senses were telling her that Eternal was a good pony or whatever she was- as she said, "We already know you might not be a pony. So if you are a griffon or something, we won't mind."
The other non guard ponies nodded in agreement surprising Ichigo before deciding to jump in feet first. Setting her cup down, the Kunochi reached for both her hood and face mask bringing them to reveal herself stunning the ponies when they saw her furless face.
None more so were as shock as the princesses who shouted, "A HUMAN?!?!?!"
Ichigo turned to the princesses with her own shock as she stuttered out, "Y-you know what I am???"
"Twilight may have only heard about you from history books," Celestia explained, "But we have actually met humans almost two centuries ago."
So shocked was Ichigo that her mouth took over briefly, "Both of you have aged very well..."
That unexpectedly broke the ice as the two elder princesses began to giggle which everyone/pony else quickly caught before settling down.
"Thank you..." the solar princess began before a look of curiosity crossed her muzzle, "I don't believe you told us your name."
"What do you mean Princess Celestia?" Fluttershy asked in a quiet voice that was nearly lost to the winds.
"From what We remember about human," Princess Luna explained, "A human's name does not revolve around their talent or Cutie Mark since humans do not get them unless they have been touched by magic."
With a smile, Equestria's only human said, "While I did not get all of your names, and I hope to learn them soon; My name is Katherine Ichigo Wilson."
For a few seconds no-pony spoke until a giggle was heard causing everyone to turn to Celestia who was giggling madly, "Your middle name is Strawberry?"
A vein suddenly popped on Ichigo's forehead as she shot up to her feet shouting out, "MY MIDDLE NAME DOES NOT MEAN STRAWBERRY!!! IT’S ‘ONE WHO PROTECTS’; ICHI FOR ONE AND GO FOR GUARDIAN!!!"
Celestia just kept on giggling as everyone -minus Luna and the Guards who were used to the elder princes' antics- watched in shock as Ichigo tried to tear into the Alicorn verbally. After a few futile minutes, the girl calmed down, picking up her tin cup to take a drink and hopefully calm down.
"Um, excuse me Ms. Wilson..." Fluttershy began quietly only to be briefly stopped.
"Please call me Ichigo...um."
"F-Fluttershy," the butter furred Pegasus replied with a blush, "T-thank you for s-saving myself and Princess Luna."
"Indeed," the moon princess added with her own smile, "The monster that the assassin had turned into was immune to our magic for some reason which briefly affected me after I attacked it. Thanks to that I was unable to get the two of us out of her path."
"It's wasn't a problem at all," was the princess' reply, "I was just doing as I was trained to do."
"Be that as it may," Twilight interrupted, "I remember reading that Humans were forced to leave this world 2 centuries ago for some reason. So why are you here?"
That really caught everypony's attention especially Luna and Celestia since they sadly knew why the human's had to leave. Unknowing of this, Ichigo just shrugged as she replied with her answer.
"I don't really know. I was sent to this world by Kami-sama after passing a test and told I would be the perfect defender for this world."
Every Unicorn's and Alicorn's eyes widen in shock when they heard that while all the other ponies were confused. "You mean to tell me," Silver Arms -who had kept quiet despite the heated looks she gave Ichigo- asked in shock, "That the creator the worlds sent you here???"
"Yep," Ichigo replied before taking a sip as magic using ponies stared at her dumbly.
"What in tarnation as ya'll talking about?" Applejack asked getting quite confused.
"The Creator of worlds," Luna replied as Twilight tried to get her head wrapped around the Creator being real, "Is a legend for any magic users. He is a very powerful being greater than myself and Tia combined who forged the world we live in along with multiple others each one as unique as our own and yet similar at the same time."
All the other pony's eyes widen in shock when they heard that as Celestia asked, "Why did he send you here?"
“Because someone in this world seems to have found a way to create Gaia Memories,” Ichigo replied taking another.
“You mentioned those before,” Twilight pointed out, “what are Gaia Memories exactly?”
Ichigo set her cup down and pulled out her Eternal Memory as she began to explain, “Gaia Memories are rectangular shaped devices that hold the conceptual existence of a word; a literal mental representation that is Observed by the world it is created from. They can be anything from a simple thing such as Heat, to objects such as Blades, and even concepts such as my personal memory.”
=ETERNAL!=
The ponies jumped slightly when the Eternal Memory ‘spoke up’ without Ichigo pressing the button. “Now because Gaia Memories are draw from the world’s own memory of a Concept, they hold a lot of power in them. There are multiple way of using the power sealed inside each Gaia Memory; and you only saw three of them a few days ago.”
“How much power do these memories hold?” Luna asked a bit scared of the what looked to be a harmless object.
“It depends of the concept they were created from, how they are forged, and how the person -or in this case ponies- use them,” the ninja rider replied as she placed her personal Rider Memory back into her jacket. “Straight out of the Earth without any modifications or items to regulate the Memories power; they can be inserted into a person which would then transform their body to represent the concept sealed within the Gaia Memory creating a Dopant.”
“Unfortunately this is the most dangerous way as normal people, I mean ponies can’t handle it because of the seer conceptual power contained within each Memory would making them go crazy as a result. Sure there are some ponies that can match a Memory so well they can’t go crazy from the power; but this make them harder to defeat. There are also devices called Gaia Drivers that Filter out enough of a Memory’s influence that the user won’t go crazy; but it also weakens the Dopant at the same time forcing the person to use more powerful Memories to compensate.”
As she finished that part of her speech she reached into the back pouch of her belt and pulled out her Lost Driver. “There are ways too ‘dilute’ a Memory’s power; but those memories need a bridge -similar to my Lost Driver here- to connect it to a person/pony and they are weaker than non-modified Memories. The bridges are similar to the Gaia Drivers in that they can harness the Memory’s power but instead of transforming the person; they form a shell of armor around them while still granting the person their power though limited. Their full power only can be brought out for a short time creating what is know as a Maximum Drive which temporarily super charges the user and grants them access to a ‘finishing move’ of sorts.”
“My Eternal Memory is different from other Gaia Memories. Unlike normal Gaia Memories which can only use their own power and no others -except in certain cases; My Eternal Memory can draw power from any other Gaia Memory in the form of a Maximum Drive.” With a sigh Ichigo finished her speech, putting her Lost Driver away as she said, “But sadly I haven’t been able to pull out Eternal’s full power so I can only do so much at the moment.”
All the ponies looked at each other as Ichigo looked at the ground sadly before Applejack asked, “Why don’t you tell us how you came across those Gaia Memories?”
Ichigo perked up slightly as she told her guests the story of how she came across the Gaia Memories. Then Fluttershy, who noticed something, asked, "What happened to your parents?"
Finally the question Ichigo had been dreading was asked and with a deep breath she answered. “My parents have been dead since I was five years old over thirteen years ago.”
All the girls gasped in shock at that while Celestia, Luna and the two guards looked at the human with pity in their eyes. But before they could say anything, Ichigo quickly tore into them.
“Don’t any of you dare pity me or make any comments about how bad my life must have been since I’m an orphan!” She said with fire in her eyes, “My life after my parents died has been very good since their will allowed me to stay at a orphanage where a friend of the family worked at while allowing me to learn the skills they wanted to teach me such as surviving in the worst environment as well as the eighteen disciplines of the Ninja.”
The ponies could do nothing but blink in shock before Rarity gently cleared her throat. “Forgive us dear,” she began, “But I believe because of the horror stories every-pony has heard about orphans and orphanages, we expected the worst.”
With a sigh, Ichigo began to apologize, “Sorry; I’m so use to hearing people saying that they are sorry that i’m an orphan and giving me pity since they think my life is hard or something. While it is in a sense -mainly because of my training- it was not emotionally at all.” Holding a finger up Ichigo continued, “You need to remember; for every bad story you hear; there are at least three times good ones hidden behind it. Unfortunately because of people’s insistence on only focusing on the bad, the good stories more often than not get pushed to the wayside.”
Celestia smiled as Ichigo lectured briefly before adding, “That is a good lesson to learn for all ponies to learn.” she then turned to Twilight as she said, “That lesson may not be one on friendship, Twilight; it is one you should learn nonetheless.”
“I will remember that Pr- Celestia,” Twilight replied with a smile as she mentally wrote the lesson down.
Ichigo on the other hand was a bit confused, “Lesson on friendship? What is that???”
This time it was Twilight’s turn to talk as she told about her time in Ponyville and how she discovered the ‘magic of friendship’ and how it allowed her and her friends to face off against Equestria’s own bad guys. Personally Ichigo believe Twilight’s and her friends’ power came from their bonds and not just the magic of friendship -the Kunochi was a big believer that the bonds a person/pony makes is makes a warrior strong- but she kept her peace for the moment. The tight knit group of friends also told Ichigo about some of the adventures they had and embarassing/funny moments learning about friendship which made more than one pony bright red.
After laughing about one time Twilight’s went a bit crazy- read a lot- when she discovered she was going to be ‘late’ for her friendship report and nearly tore Ponyville apart trying to find a lesson; Ichigo wiped her eyes before sighing sadly. “Listening to all of those crazy adventures makes me wish I could go with all of you back to Ponyville, Twilight. But I doubt it would be possible.”
That really confused every-pony as Celestia asked, “Why do you believe that Ichigo?”
“Well for one, I’m a human not a pony so I don’t know if I’ll be well received or treated like some sort of rare find,” Ichigo explained as she reached for the refilled coffee pot and poured herself another cup, “and two; I really don’t want to be a burden on anyone since all of my training had me work towards being independent.”
Ichigo took a drink to hide her worry as the ponies looked at each other sadly before one of them had an idea. “Well Ichigo,” Celestia began, “Since you want to be independent of anyone, How about I offer you a job to help protect Twilight when she goes back to Ponyville.”
Nearly choking on her coffee, the displaced Kunochi looked at Celestia in shock along with Twilight and her friends. “You want Ichigo/me to what???” the new princess and ninja asked simultaneously.
Celestia sighed as she explained herself, “It is hard for me to admit this; but the ponies who sent that assassin after you might try something else in the future since their first attempt failed. I know that you and your friends can protect yourselves, Twilight; but it doesn’t hurt to have a little bit of extra insurance just in case.”
Twilight thought about it for a bit but was unsure; until Celestia sent her a mental message, “It would also be a good way for you to help learn how to spreading your message of friendship across Equestria when it is time for you to fully immerse yourself in your future responsibilities. But that still won’t be for a few years.”
That sealed the deal -since her mind thought of it as a test- and quickly agreed. “I think that would be a good idea since we are more use to fighting face to face and not in the shadows like Ichigo is.”
Ichigo was a bit stunned that the ponies would so easily ask her to stay with them when she was certain they wouldn’t. Of course this caused her to smile since if she was going to protect Twilight, it would be best to stay at her side as a friend like her ninja sensei recommended all those years ago when it comes to protection detail. And with a wide smile she said, “I accept your offer.”
Every-pony smiled when she said that as Celestia clapped her hands, “Very Good! We will still need to work out payment; but I think this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
And with that, the kunochi began to gather up her supplies with the ponies chipping in too -to her surprise. Ichigo mainly worked on the food -since she had hidden away some fish she had smoked away knowing that Ponies were herbivores... At least until she accidentally tripped and dropped the container where it bounced, rolled, and landed in front of Fluttershy who looked at it curiously.
“What is this?” she asked picking up the container and -to Ichigo’s dread opened it up and pulled out one of the fish jerkies before paling slightly. “Is this... Meat?”
Everypony looked at the item before looking at the sweating human...At least until Celestia and Luna smacked their foreheads.
“Of course we forgot about that,” The older sister ‘moaned’ as the younger nodded her head, “Humans are omnivores but can choose if they want to eat meat or not.”
“Really?” Fluttershy asked as she towards Ichigo, only to find the Human gone.
“Sorry,” Ichigo said from somewhere but since her voice was somehow echoing it was extremely hard to pinpoint where she was exactly, “I know that ponies are herbivores so I was trying to keep things like that hidden. If you don’t want me to stick around, you can leave and I won’t hold it against you.”
A second later, Ichigo found herself being pulled out of her hiding place -a nearby tree top- by a golden aura which was admitting from Celestia’s horn. “You don’t have to worry about that Ichigo. There is no laws about eating meat at all nor are ponies strictly herbivores.”
“Huh?” was Ichigo intelligent reply.
“Ponies can eat meat,” Luna added as Ichigo was set down, “We just don’t need to like humans do.”
“Oh...” Ichigo said embarrassingly and the girls giggled -except for the guards who kept to the side watching out for their princesses though they did smile briefly.
Scene Change
Deep beneath Canterlot Castle, a shadowy figure easily dodged the guards inside,heading for their destination. Soon the shadow reached a certain cell where within resided the defeated kunoichi still ‘knocked out’ hanging from the cell walls with chains to keep her in place; a simple robe covering her body instead of the armor/clothing she had worn before. The shadow easily picked the cell’s lock and entered the room before pressing a certain part of the mare’s body waking her up quickly.
“Nee-sama,” the Kunochi gasped happily seeing the familiar mask of her elder brother, “You have come for me!!!”
“In a sense little sister,” the stallion replied as he stared at the slightly younger and shorter mare, “You have failed your mission.”
“Not yet Nee-sama!” the mare quickly replied, “If you free me, we can still...”
“You know the punishment for failing a mission as important like this,” The stallion interrupted making the mare’s eyes widen in shocked horror.
“No...NO NEE.....”
The frantic mare was quickly muzzled by her ‘older brother’ who did not seem at all sad at what he was about to do. “This is for your own good sister, since you have become a liability to our clans” He said, pulling out a kunai which caused the mare to start to try and struggle out of her bindings with no luck, “May Faust-sama have mercy on your soul.” And without hesitation; performed the deed.
A minute later, the stallion quickly sneaked out of the cell, a few splattering of blood on his chest plate and gloves. Just before he could make his full escape; some-pony called out, “HEY YOU!!!” Without looking back, the ninja quickly took off with four guards behind him. One of them, wearing gold and purple armor signifying he was captain of the dawn guard, started to bark out orders.
“Straight Arrow, check on the prisoner; the rest of you are with me!”
“Yes Sir; Captain Armor!” the three replied as one of them quickly stopped and entered the cell while the other three raced after the ninja.
As soon as Straight Arrow entered the cell; she gasped in horror, covering her mouth to keep her bile from escaping. The scene in front of her was too gruesome to describe but it was clear to see that the assassin they had caught had been quickly yet brutally murdered; her face wide eyed in horror.
Saying a quick pray for the poor soul, Arrow quickly raced out of the cell to send a message to the princesses hoping that this assassin didn’t have the same strange item the last one did.
Scene Change
Back in the forest, Ichigo and her new friends -thought she was slightly reluctant to call them that to early- was just finished putting up the campsite when Spike’s cheeks began to bulge before letting out a small plume of fire which quickly transformed into a scroll that fell into the dragon’s claws.
“It’s addressed to you Princess Celestia,” He said, handing the scroll to the elder princess who opened it only to gasp in shock at what was written within.
“There is another assassin inside the castle!” she exclaimed stunning the ponies while Ichigo frown which deepened when Celestia added, “And he just killed the first one.”
Quickly making a decision, Ichigo asked, “Princess Celestia; I suggest that we head over to Canterlot as quickly as possible.”
“I agree,” Princess Luna acknowledge, “We need to capture the assassin since he is our only lead to who is trying to kill Twilight Sparkle.”
“Indeed,” Celestia replied as Ichigo quickly threw on her cloak while pulling up her face mask and hood, “I will set you just inside Canterlot’s walls while the rest of us teleport into the castle and hopefully herd the assassin away from the major pony population without spilling any innocent blood. And do not worry about your items, I will be transporting them into a spare room near Twilight’s.”
“Yes, Ma’am!” Ichigo replied as she check over her gear before she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked to see Twilight looking at her, a worried expression on her face.
“Please be careful Ichigo,” she said softly as her friends looked at the kunochi with the same expression on their faces, “I don’t want one of my friends to be killed because of me.”
Stunned was the only thing Ichigo felt as he saw the conviction on Twilight’s face when she said that Ichigo was her friend before she smiled, patting Twilight’s hand. “There’s something you should know about Kamen Riders; As long as we are needed, we will never die.”
Now it was Twilight’s turn to be stunned along with her friends as Ichigo turned to Celestia and with tongue-in-cheek humor said, “Beam me up Celestia!”
The solar princess shook her head before focusing on Ichigo and Teleported her to Canterlot. A brief moment of vertigo greeted the ninja as she appeared on a rooftop near the walls of Canterlot and after shaking it off began racing towards the castle.
A minute later -after transmitting Ichigo’s things- Celestia, Luna, and Twilight worked together to teleport the rest of the group into the castle grounds. Unfortunately just as they appeared, Applejack saw something that made her shout, “WATCH OUT!!!” as she pushed Twilight to the ground. A second later...
“AHHHHH!!!!!”
Twilight looked up and saw that Applejack now had a kunai stuck in her right arm just below her shoulder causing the newest princess to gasp in shock. “Applejack!!!” She shouted along with her friends as they quickly yet carefully sat her up while Celestia cast a shield spell around them.
“Now I can see why my sister had a hard time killing you Twilight Sparkle,” a male voice spoke from seemingly everywhere, disguising where the Assassin was hiding.
Glaring out of the shield spell, Applejack -fighting through the pain- called out, “What do you mean your sister???”
“The pony that attacked Twilight three days ago was my own sister,” The pony replied as he stealthily moved through the shadows of the castle trying to find a weak point in the shield, “Unfortunately because of her failure and capture, I was forced to dispose of her as per our laws.”
All the ponies gasped in horror as they heard that while Rainbow Dash was pissed, “YOU KILLED YOUR OWN SISTER?!?! HOW COULD YOU?!?!”
“Family ties mean nothing when it comes to completing a mission and the laws of our clan,” The pony coldly replied as he saw there was no way to breach the shield quickly and decided to use his trump card -a crimson red Dopant Memory with an ‘M’ shaped like a volcano for the symbol, “And since you do not want to die quickly Twilight Sparkle; you will just have to settle for dying painfully.”
A second later, the ponies heard the dreaded voice from three nights ago speak out once more.
=MAGMA!!!=
A dark whirling sound later, all of the pony’s eyes widen in shock as they saw what could only be called a monster made up of magma -cooled on the arms and legs but burning hot everywhere else- stepoed out of the shadows. A second later, a ball of flames appeared in it’s right hand and with a roar the ninja threw it at the shield which held up for a while before shattering into shards of energy.
The Dopant quickly threw another ball of fire at the ponies who quickly threw themselves to the side with Applejack crying out in pain from jostling her wounded arm. Quickly picking up on that, the ninja fired another ball of flames at the downed Earth Pony and mentally smirked when he saw his prey teleporting in to block the shot with her own shield. Unfortunately just like before, it to shattered but more flames escaped the broken shield and almost hit Twilight who was forced to summon water out of the air to block the rest.
Quickly thinking on her feet, the new Princess of Magic gathered up the remaining water and threw it at Dopant who hardened into igneous rock. Just as every pony was about to breath a sigh of relief... The Dopant’s body suddenly flared up; quickly melting the rock back into magma to everypony's shock.
“That almost worked,” the ninja taunted -the memory already starting to taint his mind- “Unfortunately for you, my new body is too powerful for even the oath traitors, Celestia and Luna to defeat me.” He then threw another fireball too quickly for Twilight to get a proper shield up, forcing her to the ground next to Applejack.
The others and some guards that appeared quickly tried to head for them...only for the Dopant to slam his foot down causing a large wall of lava to suddenly spew out between them and the ninja who started to gather a large amount of flames together.
“Good Bye, future destroyer of Equestria,”the Dopant taunted as the flames finally reached their peak.
Suddenly...two kunai flew through the air and pierced the fireball before exploding causing the Dopant to lose control over the death ball while allowing Twilight time to grab Applejack and teleport away.
“WHO DID THAT?!?!?!” the Dopant demanded after he cleared the cobwebs created by the explosion from his mind, “SHOW YOURSELF!!!”
At this time, the magic of Equestria decided to activate as a strange echoing song started to resonate throughout the castle with the sounds of fingers snapping to the tune -that nopony seemed to be doing- before a familiar -to Fluttershy and Luna- instrument started to play. Everypony looked towards the sound and saw a hazy figure slowly start to appear in the streets through the nearby entrance of the castle walls, a cloak wrapped around their neck softly flapping in a sudden breeze. The minds of the sudden audience was entranced as the figure -playing a sky blue sweet potato ocarina- slowly walked through the streets towards the Dopant without a care for their own life. As soon as the figure got closer, the Princesses, their friends, and some guards instantly recognized the figure as Eternal/Ichigo who continued walking forwards playing her ocarina.
In a nearby alleyway -hidden in the shadows- the same figure from three nights ago could not help but sweatdrop as he saw the Iga trained kunochi slowly walking towards the upcoming fight playing in instrument like a ronin samurai in a story. Of course they also knew that Eternal was doing this as a show of confidence of sorts since no ninja worth their salt would ever do something like that if they did not have a plan. Thought he was thankful that the sounds of his snapping fingers reverberated enough to keep hiding him.
Captain Armor, who had briefly followed a false lead, quickly caught up to the rest of his guards and saw a familiar pony stand stunned a few yards away from a magma monster. He quickly raced up to Twilight and asked, “Are you okay Twily?”
The unicorn turned alicorn turned around quickly and saw her big brother behind her. “Shiny!” She said and hugged the older unicorn before pulling back, “I’m okay. The Dopant didn’t get a chance to hurt me before Ichigo stopped him.”
“Ichigo?”
Smiling, Twilight turned to the still strolling figure as he said, “That person right there.”
Shining Armor was a bit stunned to see Eternal/Ichigo walking up to the monster, projecting a confidence that he has rarely seen before. “That’s Eternal’s real name?”
As Ichigo ended her song, stopping a few yards away from the Dopant, her cloak settled back over her body as she hid her arms inside it, glaring at the monster. “So another one of you assholes has decided to try your luck.”
“And you are the one who stopped my sister from completing her mission,” the dopant replied back not in the least bit worried about the hero in front of him.
More than a bit pissed Rainbow Dash shouted out, “HOW CAN YOU STILL CALL HER YOUR SISTER WHEN YOU KILLED HER WITH YOUR OWN HOOVES?!?!?!”
The Manga Dopant glared at the pegasus who was trying to keep talking as everypony moved to calm her down. Ichigo on the other hand just asked one thing.
“You killed your own sister...why?”
Turning to Ichigo, he replied with, “That is the rule of our clan. Those who do not complete their mission are considered a liability and must be eliminated as such.”
Ichigo kept quiet as she bowed her head before saying one thing.
“Trash.”
“What did you say?” The Dopant replied in his native language.
“No your not trash..” Ichigo corrected as she glared at the ninja, “Your worst then trash!” She then began to secretly pull out her Lost Driver as well as a Gaia Memory as she said, “True those who don’t follow the rules are trash; but those who harm or abandon their own comrades ARE WORSE THAN TRASH!!!”
And with that our Heroine charged forward as the Dopant -quite pissed off- shouted, “YOU BITCH!” Before creating another fireball which he threw at the kunoichi who threw her cloak in front of her where it exploded as it connected to the fireball stunning everypony. Suddenly...
=METAL!=
“Henshin!”
=METAL!=
The familiar Gaia Memory voice spoke out again but with a different word along with the sounds of someone wording on metal with a tune. A second later, the Dopant was hit with a long metal shaft that sent him flying away from the ponies while dispersing the flames.
Ichigo was still wearing armor similar to the Eternal armor; but it was entirely a shiny metallic grey color instead of the white with crimson flames. In addition the bands on her wrists and ankles had turned to silver with rivets along the edges as a ‘W’ shaped marking on her chest and shoulders in the same color and pattern appeared. Her helmet was also a metallic grey but the compound eyes were more rounded instead of the infinity symbol shape the Eternal Eyes made, and the crest on her forehead wasn’t an ‘E’ shaped but more of a ‘W’ with the red gem in the bottom part of the crest.
“I have no sins to count!!!” The Dopant replied as he shot up and charged at the Rider.
Just as he got close enough to lay his hands on Metal, the Rider quickly flipped her stave up knocking his hands away before smacking his head a few times. She then twirled the stave over her head a few times and batted him away like a baseball. He rolled away a few times but quickly swung his body up and threw a few kunai made of molten magma at the Rider who just used her stave to bat them to the ground. This was only a ruse to allow the dopant to get closer as he began to throw a rapid amount of punches at the Rider who blocked with her stave before slamming one end of her weapon onto the Dopant’s head making him stumble back while rubbing his head.
Taking the moment offered, Metal pulled out another Gaia Memory and slid it into the (Maximum) slot on the Staff -with Equestria’s magic activating once more to play music- as she said, “It’s Climax Time!!!”
=LUNA: MAXIMUM DRIVE! =
Suddenly one end of the stave slid back into the black handle as Metal swung the stave over her head before swinging it forward. Then, to everypony’s shock, the other silver end of the stave began to stretch and swing around like a whip. The dopant didn’t have time to dock as the whip hit him multiple times without any relief. Metal then swung the Metal Stave up, uppercutting the monster in the jaw and sending it flying before the Rider spun her body around, giving the whip more momentum as she slammed it into the dopant’s gut sending it crashing into the dirt.
She then took out and replaced the Luna memory in the stave causing it and the Metal memory to began to repeat the same words over and over as silver and gold light began to shine through the slits on her armor.
=MAXIMUM DRIVE! MAXIMUM DRIVE! MAXIMUM DRIVE! MAXIMUM DRIVE!=
Metal winched as the energies from the two activate Maximum Drives began to fight her to be released, which she was ready to do. And with that, the kunoichi Rider began to spin the Metal Stave on either side of her body causing the now rope like silver ends to twist about forming six rune circle around her. The thing that really stunned the ponies watching was that each circle had a one of six familiar symbols inside them.
“The Elements of Harmony!” Twilight gasped confirming everypony’s suspicions.
Their surprise grew when Metal then spun her stave around her head while spinning creating two more rune circle that both Celestia and Luna were very familiar with.
“Our Cutie Marks!!!” the solar princess gasped in shock while Luna just looked on speechless.
The Rider was unknowing of this as she focused all of her attention and will power to controlling the attack before she launched the rune circles with a roar of, “TWIN MAXIMUM: LUNAR METAL ILLUSION!!!” All eight rune circle shot through the air spinning like discus as each one slammed into the Dopant one-by-one, bouncing off him before circling back and all hitting him at once with an explosion.
Once the attack was over; the Gaia Voice stopped repeating himself as Metal fell onto her hand and knees, panting as the armor dissolved into particles along with the stave, and the Memories clattered to the ground as the music stopped. At the same time, the flames and smoke cleared to reveal the assassin on the ground with the Magma Dopant Memory shattered.
All the ponies quickly gathered around Ichigo as the guards quickly gathered up the assassin. “Are you okay Ichigo?” Twilight asked as Rainbow Dash and Applejack helped him up.
“I’ll be okay,” she replied, grateful for the helping hand, “Still not use to using a Twin Maximum Drive attack.”
“So you are like those Iga bastards,” the voice of the Ninja sounded from his place within the guard circle, “I will tell you this before I go, there is still another here in Canterlot. If you can defeat him well...I’ll buy you a drink when we met up again.”
“And what makes you think you can get away from us?” Shining Armor said as he held a sword to the prisoner’s throat.
To his surprise, the ninja just smiled, “Who said anything about escaping???”
Ichigo’s head shot up as she heard that with her eyes widening as distinct and familiar crunch echoed the silent grounds. “GET AWAY FROM HIM!!!” the kunoichi shouted as the ninja began to convulse with his eyes rolling up and towards the back of his head.
The guards quickly let go and jumped back as the ninja fell to the ground, shaking harder than San Francisco during an earthquake with foam coming out of his mouth. A few seconds later, his convulsions stopped as his eyes stared up into the sky and was silent. Ichigo gently pushed the poneis away from her, walked up to the still ninja, and knelt down while running a finger through the foam around his mouth. She brought it up to her nose briefly before pulling back quickly.
“Potassium cyanide,” she said stunning the ponies there when she recognized the bitter almond smell, “He basically killed himself.” Ichigo then brought her hand to the deceased ninja’s eyes and gently closed them.
“He k-killed himself?” Fluttershy asked with horror in her eyes along with Rarity before both of them fainted with Rainbow Dash catching her old friend while Spike caught Rarity.
Ichigo stood up as the guards quickly gathered up the ninja for autopsie to at least gather some information about him if possible. The kunoichi forced herself keep standin as she turned to Celestia and said one thing.
“I think we will need that talk sooner than expected.”
The princess nodded as she led the group back into the castle for that talk. At the same time, on a rooftop a few blocks away from the castle, a figure who was watching the fight from the beginning took another drag from his cigarette as he watched them go.
“Damn! That was an awesome fight! Even if it didn’t have any blood or gut spilling, It was still on the level of my man Afro Samurai!” the pony ninja, who was a lanky fellow with dark brown almost chocolate fur with dark blue almost navy shinobi clothing but without the headgear as it was replaced with a pair of crimson sunglasses. The strangest thing about this pony was his white mane and tail which was long and very much like an afro with the mane sticking straight up and a long scarf around his neck.
“She may not be a cold hearted killer like Afro,” the ninja said as he stood another draft, “She’s still one tough b...” At that he began to choke on something for some reason before catching his breath.
“I forgot,” he stated with a deadpanned voice, “While this world may have some fine women here, it doesn’t allow for harsh words like that unless you’re immune to the magic somehow.” He took a puff from his cigarette before he said, “At least there is some good booze, cigs, an’ shit like that, even if I do need to report to Tanba.”
He then began to smirk as he turned to the reader and said, “Thought I have a feeling this may just be the first body on that girl’s body toll. May god rest those ‘poor’ souls.”
And with a cackle he took off shouting, “NINJA NINJA; OUT!!!” startling anypony that was near him.
