Idea Bank: How to Fix my First Exposure to Kamen Rider

"Kamen Rider" was a phrase that I think I first learned memetically, as something in the cosmic background of the universe or something like that. It didn't consciously register in my mind until the third Fan/fic/ Theater 3k15 riff of July 2016, the Obscure Crossover Shuffle, where Scarlet's entry was "Wake Up! My Little Fluttershy." by The Gamer Master Archives, a crossover of MLP with the ninth Hensei-era (essentially, post-series creator's lifetime) Rider series Kamen Rider Kiva.

The story, of course, was terrible. I mean, in the first place, My Little Dashie derived stories are always terrible. But what makes it really terrible is that it choked its execution miserably. The concept is that it's a sequel to the series where its hero, Kurenai Wataru, is the adopted father of a baby Fluttershy. After years of effectively nothing happening except introducing everyone and spoiling the hell outta everything and having one single monster battle, the other ponies show up, reveal the backstory is just like the original MLD except somehow dumber, and want Flutters back. She doesn't, they insist, she gets away thanks to all the Riders fending it off, and it ends with a not ending with the ponies telling Discord that Flutters isn't coming back, who responds not by going after her himself by being freakin' Discord but instead just gets sad.

Oy vey.

I knew that the show really couldn't be nearly as bad as this story, so I ended up searching it up and watching it not long after the riff ended. I ended it being a newly-minted Kamen Rider fan, and just in time for Ex-Aid. (I think Kiva is probably the weakest Rider series I've watched in full as of this writing, but yeah this fic is way worse and doesn't do any of it justice.) I'm basically entirely convinced that this author never watched it, because if he did, the obvious way to fix it into something remotely readable would've presented itself up front.

I told my relevant online friends about this back when I first thought it up, and now I'm putting it here because maybe if I put it someplace more public it could inspire other Rider fans who have more time on their hands to write fics than I do.

Kamen Rider Kiva is unique among the other series in this franchise because, in order to talk about its themes of fate and destiny, it follows two narratives in two time periods simultaneously, the past of 1986 and the then-present of 2008 (when the show ran, because that's how it does things). The present time follows Wataru / Kiva and his adventures of being an adorkable violin maker, as well as violin player, while also fighting the supernatural Fangire, vampire-like kaijin (rubber-suit monsters that are human-sized) that disguise themselves as humans and consume their life energy. Wataru also clashes with the agents of a human Fangire-hunting organization, Wondrous Blue Sky, who see Kiva as much a possible threat to humanity as the monsters, and those agents include their own super-armored hero IXA. The past story, 22 years earlier, follows Wataru's father, Kurenai Otoya, a womanizer who is amazingly good with a violin who gets wrapped up in the fight for humanity when he hits on a female Blue Sky agent, Aso Yuri, and just won't let up, resulting in him eventually joining the group and fighting with the prototype IXA System.

That's the basics you need to know for this blog post. If you want to know more, Google is there for you.

An MLD-type story set in the world of Kiva benefits most from exploiting this structure. Instead of having it be a sequel, it works best as an original flavor story set sometime during it.

Here's how I see it going down, personally (with jumping between them intermittently like the show, but all of each time period presented one at a time because it's easier for me to write it here like that):

In 1986, a yellow baby house with wings is found in a box with the name "Fluttershy" written on it by Otoya or one of the Wondrous Blue Sky agents of the time period, and is then attacked by a Fangire that wants it. They fight and they manage to fend it off. Blue Sky studies the creature and found that is an undocumented type of Demon Race. See, a thing that wasn't brought up yet is that in this world's manual, there are 13 "Demon Races" that inhabit the planet along with humans, of which a few that appear during the series proper are Fangire, Kivat (Kiva's transformation trinket), Wolven, Fishmen, and Frankens. And now there's suddenly a 14th, which they decide to call "Pegasus" for now. She could be dangerous to humanity, especially since it's a baby and clearly would need probably a lot of life energy for growing. What Otoya sees, however, is a chance to grow his relationship with Yuri by getting them a surrogate child, and sneaks her out of Blue Sky before they can destroy her to be "their daughter." Yuri tries to get it back and stop calling it "Fluttershy" you're going to get attached to a thing we have to blow up, but Otoya is quite determined to keep their family outing going. The Fangire shows up again a couple times, letting slip that the Pegasus possesses a strange life energy the Fangires have never heard of in all of their existence, and he stands a chance at becoming a lord (or something) if he can gift it to the Fangire King. Otoya will have none of that, becoming IXA Prototype and fighting it. However, it times out and crashes him before he can win, and the Fangire moves in for the kill when Fluttershy suddenly cries and emits a strong wave of energy that blows the Fangire away. Back at Blue Sky, Otoya and Yuri relate their misadventure and they do some more tests, and they find something interesting: unlike other Demon Races, Pegasus don't steal life energy from humans, but rather passively absorb it from loving contact with parental figures, and judging from the two of them do so without any actual harm to the parents. As such, they decide to let Fluttershy live, but she'll have to be put in protective custody of Blue Sky with parental figures that aren't active field agents. Yuri's a little sad to see her have to go, but understands. Otoya's mostly sad that he lost his latest chance to hook up with Yuri. The Fangire, meanwhile, hides itself away, estimating it will probably be about twenty years before he'll have enough power to shrug off that horse's strength...

In 2008, Wataru goes out in response to the Fangire returning and attacking a family, trying to get at a timid young woman of about 23 or so. He fights him for a bit as Kiva when suddenly five other horse-like monsters show up: two ponies, two unicorns, and one pegasus. They are also after the girl. The Fangire, knowing he's in over his head, bails, leaving Kiva to deal with the pony monsters. Which doesn't last long, as they realize the girl has fled and they also retreat, though not before the female Blue Sky agent support character in this time sees them. Wataru returns home to find his surrogate-mother-girl-caretaker support character (I'm too tired to look it up right now) found the young woman on the street and brought her back when she wanted shelter because she doesn't want the police involved. At this point I figure that we're at a time in the series where Wataru and Blue Sky are on OK terms regarding Kiva, so Wataru goes to talk with Hongo / IXA at the coffee shop that's basically the local hangout in this show. The female agent is there too, and she fills them in on the info she got from Blue Sky after reporting back: the girl is actually a member of the Demon Race called Pegasus with a unique life force signature that sustains itself by getting passive love from parental figures, which is now kind of a problem because the Fangire killed the figures that had been raising her for 22 years. Wataru draws the connection between the Pegasus girl, who has spent this entire time so far going under a human name for her protection instead of her original name of "Fluttershy" to the point she doesn't really remember it (she was 1 back in '86, after all), and the five Pegasus that attacked him - or, given the different features, perhaps the better name is Ponies. Hongo and the woman agent have their orders: resecure Fluttershy, and the five Ponies that attacked humans have to be put down if they interfere. Wataru disagrees, saying there has to be some way to resolve this without having to kill each other, which serves for a lot of tension on the hero side. They head back to Wataru's place to find that Fluttershy and the other girl are doing pretty well together. The 22 years have been enough time for Blue Sky science to make a measure for Flutter's energy, and find that in spite of the recent troubles, it's still going fairly strong. The two Blue Sky say they have to take her someplace safe (Blue Sky HQ, naturally) and maybe there's a chance the new friends can meet again. As they leave, they're attacked by the five Ponies. Kiva and IXA transform, and IXA and the woman actively attack them while Kiva defends Flutters as the two of them and the girl get away. One of the Ponies, a purple unicorn, gets away from IXA long enough to follow. IXA tries to kill them, but they manage to survive some of his finishers and get away. Meanwhile, Kiva's dealing with the lone Pony and having a strangely much easier time with it when the Fangire attacks again, glad for the opportunity to take a Pony out one at a time. This allows them to figure out that Ponies get their strength not just from familial love, but by being with friends. Kiva attacks the Fangire and drives him off, and before the Pony takes off he cancels his transformation and asks her to stay so they can talk this out. The Pony accepts. In human disguises, they talk at the coffee shop. The Pony is Twilight Sparkle, and they're a Demon Race from an alternate dimension where their kind of non-lethal methods of gaining life are more the norm. An accident caused a few days ago by another Demon Race called the Draconequus caused their friend Fluttershy to wind up in their dimension (because that storm cloud was freakin' bull and you know it), and they were sent by their leader to get her back. They just want to bring her back home and she doesn't understand why she's avoiding her or why she can't get power from her. Wataru explains Flutter's life on Earth for the past 22 years as he heard it, which has apparently caused her to forget her entire life back at her real home. Twilight finds this might be a problem; it's possible that her memories of this world would have to be erased in order to prevent undue stress on her were she to return. Flutters is distressed already at hearing this; she loves life on Earth, and she already has plenty of friends and already feels oddly close to Wataru. Twilight says she'll have to find the others and discuss this. And just in time because they show up outside, followed by IXA and the woman agent. They head out and Twilight tries to get them to calm down so they can on the same page, when the Fangire returns after supercharging himself... somehow... and blasts through grabbing Flutters and running before anyone can react. Flutters, using her Pony powers and true form for the first time in years, tries to fight back but with her friends so far away, she can't do much against the Fangire, who supercharged specifically to be able to fight all six Ponies together. Unfortunately for him, before he can finally sink his fangs into her life energy for himself at long last, the rest catch up. Fluttershy being taken from both of them allows the heroes and the Ponies to finally start listening to each other after a talk from Twilight and see they need to work together to save her. The Fangire fights well against all nine foes, but the Ponies are tougher than he thought they were. And for good reason; for now they have Kiva, IXA, and the two girls as new friends! With a combined finishing move, they destroy the Fangire and either destroy or secure his soul as per standard for this series. Afterwards, Fluttershy chooses that she has to return, lest other Fangire manage to find out about her and cause even more trouble for all her Earth friends. Hongo knows Blue Sky won't be happy, but it's better than the alternative. Wataru and the others bid their goodbyes as Princess Celestia's portal appears and all the Ponies depart through it - though not without Fluttershy giving Wataru a big hug from seemingly nowhere. This causes some funny moments for the episode to close out on.

God, I wish I had the energy to write this out completely. I already spent a few hours just writing this and I'm tired, mostly because I've been kinda sick and it's almost 2 in the morning. So, readers, do with it what you will. If you do write this out, just toss my name out as being behind the idea, that's all.