RIDER TIME old chapters · 2:19am Mar 6th, 2021
I'll be posting the old chapters of RIDER TIME on this blog periodically. This way, people can see the original while I can organize the rewrite more easily.
Prologue: The Averted Fates
"This is the story of the lost world, the "World of Riders".
Kamen Riders are heroes from across space and time, who fight for freedom. At one point, some of these Riders banded together and formed their own society, one governed by the ideals of those heroic figures. This new society would go on to be called the World of Riders, maintained and governed by the descendents of those original Riders.
However, the peace there was not meant to last. One day, ominous otherworldly figures started appearing out of nowhere, and managed to disrupt the Rider powers that would otherwise protect the land. The power of the Kamen Riders were sealed into RideWatches, and flung into another world, never to be seen again. Without the powers of its champions, the World of Riders was completely obliterated.
Or was it?"
Twilight Sparkle, recently coronated Princess of Friendship, had been studying an odd book she had picked up from a travelling book seller, that detailed this World and the heroic Rider powers.
"Kamen Riders...why do I find myself so absorbed in this story?" Twilight asked herself.
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Later that night, near the edge of Sweet Apple Acres:
The air around the farm at night was quiet and tranquil. As the Apple family were all sleeping, barely any movement existed outside their house.
Which made a sudden loud impact all the more jarring to them.
"What in tarnation was that!?" The recently awakened Applejack cried out.
"Uhh...what was that noise?" Apple Bloom had come out of her room, rubbing her eyes...
"Naw, you get back to bed now, sis. I'm gonna go see what the ruckus is about." The elder Apple sister said as she ushered her younger sister back to her room.
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Applejack wandered over to the source of the loud noise. To her shock, a large crater had been dug into the ground nearby, with an unusual silver canister lodged in the center.
She hesitated to approach it, remembering a scary movie Pinkie Pie had her and their friends watched. Applejack had always had a very secret fear of alien invaders, but kept it locked away, figuring that nothing like that would ever happen.
The scared farmer swallowed her fear as much as she could to approach the strange object.
As she got closer, she could make out more of the design of the object...it was a rather large canister, that could probably fit even a pony Big Mac's size in it. On it was a small window with a strange symbol underneath, sort of resembling clock hands.
Applejack tensed up as she peered into the window of the canister...and promptly ran in the direction of Twilight Sparkle's castle as fast as her legs would let her once she saw what was inside.
"THE ALIENS ARE HERE! THEY'RE GONNA EAT MAH BRAINS!"
And thus, Ponyville would not be sleeping well tonight.
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".....optimal living environment reached. Releasing stasis. Good morning, Thomas Decade."
"...ugh...I really wish I could just have it call me Tom...I hate being called Thomas..."
The canister started to make mechanical sounds as it opened up. Its passenger was a young man with somewhat pale skin and brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a plain white T shirt and some black sweatpants, and a nondescript pair of sneakers. He started to stand up, and grabbed two items from within the canister; a strange belt-like device, and a small pocket watch-shaped gadget.
Tom climbed out of the canister, and tried to find his way around, but it was too dark for him to see.
"Of course they give me the belt and watch, but don't give me a damn flashlight...thanks a lot."
Tom then decided to try his watch, remembering it lit up. As he reached for the watch button, he suddenly had a light shining on him.
"Ngh! What...?" He asked as he felt his body being lifted up by something intangible.
"H-hey! What's going on!? HELP!!!" Tom started to panic, and began flailing around.
"Ugh...stop struggling...you're gonna make me drop you...!" A female's voice said.
Too little, too late however, the grip was broken and Tom fell back on the ground.
"OW ow ow ow..." Tom whimpered, rubbing his head. He tried to look around for the source of the voice.
"Hey, are you alright?" The girl's voice rang out again.
"I'm fine, I think..." Tom replied.
"So...who- and WHAT- are you exactly?" The girl asked.
"What am I? What do you mean, I'm-" Tom started, but stopped as he got a look at his "rescuer" and the others with her. And his jaw dropped when he saw exactly who he was talking to.
The girls in front of him weren't human at all, though they were humanoid. They looked like colorful equine creatures that had human characteristics. One of them, an orange colored creature wearing a Stetson, as well as a flannel shirt and some daisy dukes, was glaring at him.
"See, Twilight? The aliens are a' comin! They're gonna nab us and either eat our brains or...*shudder* probe us..." The orange one said.
'What is she talking about? I'm not here to do any of that!' Tom thought.
"Applejack, really? I've seen creatures like him before remember, he looks a lot like the humans from the Canterlot High world." The purple creature, with a noticeable horn on her forehead and wings from her back, wearing a very modest blouse and skirt, reassured her friend. "I'm sure he's harmless."
"Umm..." Tom tried to speak up. "I can explain if one of you would-" But he was cutoff by Applejack's paranoid ranting.
"I ain't gonna let him cut me open! He came outta the sky in his UFO and he's gonna call a bunch of varmints and we're all gonna be stuck in tubes of goo!" Applejack was really deep into her alien-phobia.
"Oh come on, that was just from that silly movie of Pinkie's!" Twilight retorted.
"Hey...can I get a word in edgewise...?" Tom tried again.
"FIne then, you deal with him, and then you'll be sorry when you have a big metal stick up where the sun don't-" Applejack kept going, but...
"Excuse me! If you want an explanation you could just ask me! And I'm not going to do any of those things to you!" Tom finally yelled out.
Both of the women stopped and turned to him. "Um...sorry about that. It's just my friend here's been paranoid about alien invasions for about a week now." Twilight explained.
"Alien invasions? Well, I guess I would technically be an alien here, but I have no intention to harm any of you." Tom replied.
"Who are you?" Twilight asked.
"My name is Thomas Decade, but just call me Tom. I'm from another world, the World of Riders." Tom explained.
Twilight suddenly remembered the book she got talking about another world with that name.
"World of Riders!? Are you a Kamen Rider!?" Twilight asked excitedly.
"Uh, well, I-wait, how do you know about Kamen Riders?" Tom asked, before being swept up into that strange force again, noting that it seemed to come from the purple one's horn.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Tom panicked, as the force drew him into close proximity to the purple one.
"Amazing! I thought that book was just a bunch of nonsense, but you're real! Kamen Riders are real!" Twilight exclaimed, seeming like she was about to explode from excitement.
"Yeah...can you put me down now please?" Tom asked, being understandably frazzled.
"Oh! Sorry, I'm just excited. This is a major discovery!" Twilight said.
"Speaking of discovery...where am I?" Tom asked.
"Yer on Sweet Apple Acres, in Ponyville." Applejack replied, still sounding a bit distrustful of the newcomer. "I dunno about this Camera Rider stuff, but I'm keepin' my eye on you!"
"Um...it's pronounced Kamen Rider..."Tom tried to correct her.
"Whatever! Ah don't trust you!" Applejack shouted.
"Applejack! That's no way to talk to a visitor!" Twilight reprimanded her friend. Turning back to Tom, she placed him on the ground.
"Well, if you don't mind, Tom, I'd like you to come back to the castle with me, I have a lot of-" Twilight started but Tom interrupted.
"Wait, CASTLE? You live in a CASTLE!?" Tom was astounded. He was part of one of the more notable Rider Houses, but he didn't live in a castle!
"She is the Princess of Friendship ya know." Applejack explained.
"Princess!? I'msorrypleaseforgivemymanners!" Tom quickly bowed.
Twilight and Applejack glanced at each other, confused. Applejack just shrugged.
"You don't need to bow, Tom. In fact, I prefer it if you aren't formal with me...I don't like being called princess anyway." Twilight said, with a slight sadness in her voice.
"Um...okay, if that's what you want." Tom replied. "Where is this castle anyway?"
The three started towards Twilight's castle, unaware they were being observed.
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"So, one of them got past us after all. I thought we'd have an easier time exterminating them after getting rid of those vile Rider Powers."
"That's Kamen Riders for you. Stubborn little bugs they are. In any case, now that he's made contact with the Elements, we're gonna have to come up with a strategy."
"True, but what of the other survivor? He should have awoken by now."
"Yes, he's awake, and performing exactly as we want-he's acting on the information we gave him, after all..."
"Heh, he's so dead set on revenge, he'll probably blow up the whole town! That'd be exciting!"
"So, for now, let's see how this plays out. With any luck, those two will finish each other off, and with plenty of collateral damage to boot."
"It'll be fun to watch..."
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After a few minutes of walking, the three arrived at the Palace of Friendship. Tom had learned that he was in "Equestria", and the primary inhabitants referred to themselves as "ponies". Twilight was almost skipping, she was so excited to meet both an alien species AND a member of the civilization she was reading about!
"So, Tom, what kind of Rider are you? Are you a Kuuga? Or maybe a Fourze?"
"Twilight, I appreciate your excitement, but you should know Kamen Riders don't openly reveal their identities."
He wasn't lying, since while the original Riders who founded the World of Riders had secret identities to hide from their enemies, it became more of a social tradition to not reveal your Rider powers except to close associates. Then again...
"...though, given the circumstances, I suppose it doesn't matter. I'm actually a recently formed type of Rider, even though I'm from the Decade family." He explained.
"A new type? So you're an undiscovered Rider?" Twilight's eyes were lighting up.
"...I guess you could put it that way, but let's go inside first please...I really need to sit down." Tom was rather tired, and all the commotion didn't help either.
"Oh, right, of course, come on in." Twilight opened the door. "Will you be joining us too, Applejack?"
"Nah, I'm headin' home. You have fun with your alien, I've got to get some sleep." Applejack was still cranky about the whole situation. Twilight just paid it no mind, and turned back to her guest.
Twilight was leading Tom down the hall. Tom had seen a lot of crazy things in his life, being from a world full of super heroes and monsters, but a giant castle made of crystal was new to him.
As they approached a large round table, they heard a young male voice calling out.
"Twilight? You alright? Did you find out what that noise was-" The figure stepped out, he was a smallish, purple dragon, wearing a pajama shirt and pants. Upon seeing Twilight's guest, he started panicking.
"Monster! I'll take care of it!" Spike jumped to defend his sister-figure, but Twilight grabbed him in a magic field.
"Spike, he's not a monster! He's a visitor from another world!" Twilight scolded.
"Ah, so an alien then...Alien!" Spike started freaking out again.
"Calm down! He's harmless!" Tom saw this was going nowhere, so he tried to step in.
"Hey, calm down buddy, I'm not here to hurt anyone." Tom said as gently as he could. "What's your name?"
"...Spike." The young dragon replied.
"I'm Tom. It's nice to meet you Spike." He held out his hand for a handshake. Spike was reluctant, but soon took the humans' hand in his claw and shook. "Twilight just wants to ask me some questions, you can sit in if she's okay with it."
Spike turned to Twilight, and she nodded. "Alright. Should be neat learning about an alien."
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"So, you're from the World of Riders originally?" Twilight asked her first question.
"Yeah, that's where I was born. It was a world founded by the legendary Kamen Riders, they were basically what you'd call superheroes. Their powers were passed down within their houses, though new powers sometimes popped up as a result of intermarriage and other factors. I come from the House of Decade, which happens to have a rather diverse family tree compared to other houses."
"But you said your powers weren't like the other Decades, but something else, right?"
Tom pulled out the watch-shaped object. "This is a RideWatch, which I can use to become Kamen Rider Zi-O."
"Zi-O? What kind of powers do you have?"
"Though I haven't completely mastered it yet, my powers seem to be related to time, and use of other RideWatches."
"You mean there's more than one type?" Twilight was furiously writing all of this down.
"Decade users were able to draw on powers that came from other houses, but it seems Zi-O has even more compatibility than that. I could use any Rider powers if I had the right RideWatch."
"Dude, you're a super-hero!?" Spike excitedly asked. "That's awesome!"
"Uh...thanks." Tom responded.
"But how did you get here anyway?" Spike asked another question. Tom just looked down at the table, slightly saddened at the memory.
"...I'm sorry, I really don't want to talk about it. I will tell you I'm not here by choice though." Tom answered with a notable sadness.
"I won't force you to talk about it, but if it's something you need to talk about at any point, I'll listen. I'm sure my friends will too." Twilight said in an attempt to reassure the Rider.
"Your friends? I know the one that came with us here...her name was Applejack right? I don't think she likes me very much somehow." Tom noted.
"Applejack's just paranoid because of a silly movie that scared her. You're definitely not a threat." Twilight said.
"Either way, thanks for this." Tom stood up and started walking.
"Wait, where are you going?" Twilight asked.
"To find a place I can sleep. I don't exactly have anywhere to go." Tom sadly said.
"Well, we've got plenty of rooms in the castle, you can stay here." Twilight offered.
"...really? I...I don't know what to say. Thanks." Tom said, finally smiling a bit.
'Maybe things won't be so bad now.' Tom thought to himself.
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At the same time, Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer around, was fast asleep in her cloud home, when all of a sudden, something fell on her head!
"Ow! What the hay-" Rainbow started before she got a look at the offending object. It looked like a red and blue pocket watch of sorts. She picked it up and examined it.
"Weird...where'd this watch come from?" As she started fiddling with it, she turned the outer ring...
"BUILD!" The watch shouted. Rainbow's eyes suddenly flashed red and blue, and a bit of her mane suddenly sprung up.
"...I've got it. I've got the winning formula!" She suddenly proclaimed.
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I see you got the old chapter in the blog.