Everyone is searching for a world where they belong. A place of light, free of falsehood. We are on a continuing journey to go there.
- Kadoya Tsukasa / Kamen Rider Decade

TTTTTTT

Spell 4

Change

TTTTT

After Haru’s disappearance from his very own party, Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie all went searching for the magic using dragon. However, even though they searched throughout Ponyville, and even following Pinkie Pie to where his campsite, the dragon and almost every trace of him had disappeared from the town. Even after all of the information Twilight received from Haru, her curiosity was hardly satisfied if anything, Haru left more questions than real answers. ‘I should send Princess Celestia a letter about this, but what would she say? About these other forms of magic? About the Phantoms? About Haru? Or would she request for me to leave Ponyville out of safety?’

The only thing left of Haru was the Garuda familiar that was currently following Twilight as she trotted through Ponyville. It had been here since Haru had literally disappeared, which was about a day ago. Of course, Spike was with her, but kept on trying to catch the ruby bird. “Hold still!”

Garuda chirped before it swooped past Spike, making the dragon run ahead of Twilight to chase the familiar. Twilight sighed before her horn began to glow brightly, making Spike lift off the ground, “Spike, please don’t mess with that.”

“He started it Twilight!” Spike pouted as he struggled through the air. “He’s been taunting me ever since the party!”

“I know Spike,” Twilight admitted as she placed Spike down on the ground near her. It was then that the Garuda landed atop of Twilight’s head. “But I’m sure he’s here for a reason.”

After the fruitless search, Twilight had returned home to see that Spike was being bullied by the very same jewel bird – The jeweled Unicorn and jeweled Kraken were nowhere to be seen. Why the Garuda was still around was a little bit of a mystery, but if Twilight had to guess, it was here to watch her. ‘I guess Haru must’ve left him here to keep an eye on me. Those Phantoms are still out there, so, I’m willing to wager that Haru’s still around here too.’

“Hey Twilight,” Spike stated, tapping Twilight’s back. “Does it feel like the ground’s moving?”

A little confused at what Spike was saying, Twilight was about to respond until she felt the unmistakable shake through her hooves.

In the air over the town, Rainbow Dash flew overhead to see the plains, where a large dust cloud was coming closer towards Ponyville. Drawing a deep breath, Rainbow Dash yelled out with all her might, “STAMPEDE!!!!!!”

At those words, coupled with the massive amounts of quaking, many ponies in town ran about to take cover. Earth Ponies and Unicorns ran into their homes, taking their doormats and any young foals into the shelter, while Pegasai flew up high to dodge the damage that was sure to come.

Said stampede was a herd of cattle that galloped towards Ponyville, their faces racked with fear and their cries drowned out by their hooves slamming against the ground. With each second, the herd drew closer to destroying Ponyville in their path.

However, galloping alongside the herd was a familiar blonde maned mare with a rope around her neck and a cowboy hat atop her head. Applejack was accompanied with a cute brown and white furred dog following her. “YEEE-HAW!”

The small dog barked as she slowed her pace to get behind the herd, but soon Winona dashed back to the other side of the herd, barking all the while. “Herd ‘em up girl!”

With Applejack and Winona on either side of the charging herd of cows, the mass of cattle began to come together, gaining some order to the chaos charging towards Ponyville.

The herd grew closer as Applejack rammed into one of the cows, trying to prompt her and the rest of the herd to turn from Ponyville. When that didn’t work, Applejack whistled loudly, signaling Winona to rush in front of the herd. At the same time, Applejack leapt atop one of the cows, the end of her rope in her mouth while the rest was spun in the air to reveal a lasso. With a flick her head and dead-eye accuracy, Applejack made the lasso go through the air until it wrapped around the lead cow’s neck.

Leaping next to the lead cow, Applejack used all strength she had to pull the lead cow to the right, drawing the rest of the herd to turn right as well, just barely reaching the bridge and river that separated them from Ponyville. As the cows slowly came to a stop, Applejack dropped the rope to hear all the cheers coming from Ponyville.

Of course, she couldn’t get a swelled ego at this moment, so ignoring the cheers, Applejack trotted up to one of the cows. “Now what in tarnation was that about?”

“Moo,” replied the lead cow before she cleared her throat. “Ohh, my, begging yer pardon Applejack, but when we heading to our grazing patch for our afternoon, there was this big nasty red snake hanging about, and wouldn’t ya know it, it gave us all the willies.”

“Ah perfectly understand,” Applejack replied with a nod of her head. “But next time ya’ll get spooked, could ya’ll try not to trample over Ponyville.”

“Of course Applejack,” The cow replied with a sheepish smile on her face. “But do ya think ya could help us out? We can’t go back to our usual field with that nasty beast around there.”

“Ah’ll tell ya what,” Applejack said as Winona barked. “Lemme go see how the folks in Ponyville are, and Ah’ll see what Ah can do to help out.”

“Thank ya kindly Applejack,” the cow replied. “Do ya mind if we stay here till ya get rid of that nasty snake?”

“Ah don’t see why not,” Applejack stated before she trotted off with Winona. “Ah’ll head on over in a sec.”

TTTTTT

After checking on her friends, Applejack traveled to the plains where the cattle usually grazed at. With Winona by her side, Applejack searched the area for this ‘red snake’. “Ah don’t have much time fer this, Ah need to get back to the apple orchard ‘fore that fancy speaking scab gets ahead on that work.”

Winona barked as she ran across the field, heading towards one of the few trees in the area. The small dog jumped up to place her front paws on the tree, continuing to bark. Applejack trotted to the tree and looked up at the branches. “What in tarnation? That ain’t a snake!”

Indeed, whatever was hanging out in the branches wasn’t a snake – What kind of snake munches on a doughnut? What Applejack was looking at was definitely a dragon, certainly had the same traits that another dragon that Applejack knew. Only this one was red, was wearing a black jacket, and was a little bit taller.

Haru stopped mid-bite from his current plain sugar doughnut and looked down to see the barking dog and cowboy hat wearing mare beneath him. “Hello.”

“Ah hate to interrupt yer snack,” Applejack spoke as she placed a hoof on gently on Winona’s back, making her loyal canine cease her barking. “But do ya think ya could enjoy yer snacking somewhere else?”

“I don’t see why not,” Haru replied looking at his doughnut. “But I also don’t see why. What’s wrong with me eating doughnuts in this tree?”

“Well, ya see, some cows saw ya’ll up there,” Applejack began to explain. “And some of them got spooked, thinking that ya’ll were a snake.”

Haru almost dropped the doughnut he had in his claws. “A snake? How in the world do I look like a snake? I’ve got arms and legs!”

“Yer kinda missing the point,” Applejack sighed. “Point is, ya’ll being here kinda caused a bit of a stir with them cattle, and they almost turned Ponyville into a scrap lumber yard. So, Ah don’t mean to bother ya, but if ya could move from that tree, Ah’d be much appreciated.”

Turning his attention towards Applejack, Haru had to admit, what she brought up was a good point. But then again, when the dragon turned to the doughnut that he just finished, he shrugged his shoulders. “Nah. Sorry, but I just got cozy here, and after clearing out where I was before, I need a little bit of time to enjoy my…”

“HUH!?” Haru yelped at the sudden shaking of the tree, quickly regaining his composure.

“Ah ain’t got time fer this!” Applejack barked, having turned around and lifted both of her hind legs, and then slammed her hooves into the tree, making it quake again. “So if yer not gunna move on yer own, A’m gunna make ya move!”

With another powerful slam, Applejack’s powerful legs rocked the tree and forced Haru to fall face first into the ground. A little dizzy, Haru lifted his head up to reveal that his face was covered with powdered sugar and doughnut bits. “Ow.”

Too bad Haru didn’t get a chance to mourn his crushed doughnut, a lasso wrapped around his arms and immediately tightened, “What the?!”

More of the rope coiled around the dragon’s body, tightening as Applejack roped up Haru, “Sorry ‘bout this, but Ah just don’t have the time to deal with yer funny business. It’s just easier to drag ya off.”

Haru barely heard Applejack’s explanation, he was more concerned with the fact that Winona was eating the remains of his plain sugar doughnut. Applejack didn’t seem to notice this and continued on as she tightened the hold of the rope. “Now Ah’ll drag ya to Sweet Apple Acres, leave ya there for a little while, and when the cattle git back here Ah’ll be letting ya go. Ah’m sure ya’ll don’t have a problem with that, right pardner?”

The dragon didn’t get a chance to answer, since Winona had turned to lick up any powdered sugar that was on Haru. With no verbal response, Applejack tugged on the rope with her mouth and began to drag Haru across the ground, “Good!”

‘Not the weirdest thing that’s happened to me,’ Haru thought to himself with a roll of his eyes, moving his head around to try to scare the dog that was trying to make a snack out of him. ‘But definitely ranks up in the top ten.’

TTTTTT

It took a little bit of time, but eventually Applejack had dragged the troublemaking dragon back to Sweet Apple Acres, even though the Haru wasn’t causing any trouble while he was being dragged (aside from complaining about how Winona was trying to nip at his tail now and then). Just making it through the front gate and past some of the trees, Applejack released the rope and trotted around Haru to look him in the eyes, “Now listen here, Ah’ll be back in a few. Ah just gotta check on the fancy prance, then Ah’ll let the cows know they can get back to the field.

“Please, take your time,” Haru replied as Applejack trotted past the dragon. “I’ve gotten used to the rope straight jacket that you so generously gave me.”

“Don’t tempt me boy to leave ya’ll like that,” Applejack stated before she continued on her way. “Winona, be sure to keep an eye on our guest.”

With his back turned to the pony, Haru craned his head back to watch the southern mare disappear over the hill. A smirk appeared on his face as he stretched his black claws, and then using his pointer claw, Haru began to cut through the ropes that bound him. ‘I guess there are some ups with having these claws.’

At her owner’s cry, Winona barked and ran off to follow her master’s path. Haru on the other hand sighed as he picked up the pace of trying to cut through the ropes with his claws.

Meanwhile, Applejack just stood in place as she looked at the orchard before her – A large number of apple trees were completely uprooted from the ground along the dirt road, a number of apples scattered along the way. “What in tarnation happened while Ah was gone!?”

It was then that another tree crashed a few yards in front of Applejack, making the southern mare jump slightly. But that wasn’t the only thing she saw, standing next to the tree that was just uprooted was a very odd creature.

The creature in question stood on its hind legs with its body covered in a rather bulky orange and black armor with curved feet, shoulder pads, gauntlets and even a curved head piece that had a masked fact just above its chest. The creature had a few blue jewels embedded on its thighs while there was a silver emblem under his lowered head. The creature’s green eyes turned towards Applejack and gleamed at her.

And then the creature lifted its right arm up and bowed slightly toward Applejack. Said mare narrowed her green eyes right back at the creature, “Ah dunno who are, but nopony messes with mah family’s trees!”

Applejack charged towards the odd creature, and was about to pounce on the armored creature – Only to miss as the odd creature sidestepped her charge. The creature cackled loudly before he began to spin around quickly. Dirt and rock flew around the creature’s body as it spun deep into the ground. Applejack looked at the large molehill that was left behind from the creature, “What in Granny Smith’s dentures?”

However, another tree nearby was quickly uprooted with the odd creature leaping up from the ground with it. Once again, the creature cackled loudly as it landed on the fallen tree, sitting down on it. Applejack didn’t care for how the creature was not only destroying her property but was also making fun of her! “Listen here ya… Whatever ya are, Ah’m gunna give ya one last chance to put these here trees back or else Ah gunna tan yer hide!”

The creature stopped laughing. Then pushing itself off of the tree, the armored creature snapped its fingers, forcing a tall pillar of gravel to erupt from the ground next to him. Slamming its right hand into the pillar, the dirt and gravel transformed into a large, gunmetal gray trident that the creature gripped.

“Is that supposed to scare me?” Applejack countered as she stomped a hoof into the dirt. “Boy, ya’ll have no idea what yer getting into.”

Waving one of its fingers, the odd creature egged on Applejack. This prompted the young mare to gallop towards the creature quickly. Once again, the odd creature sidestepped Applejack, however, when the Applejack noticed this, she immediately stopped and slammed both of her hind hooves into the creature’s side, forcing the creature to skid back a few feet.

“Ha! How do ya like them apples?” Applejack chuckled as she turned towards the weird creature.

However, the weird creature didn’t seem wounded at all, instead all it was doing was scratching the area where he was kicked. “Keekeekee!”

Holding up its trident, the weird creature now charged towards Applejack. But before the creature got close enough, several streams of red light crashed into its torso making it stagger backwards. Applejack blinked a few times at what just happened.

“Sorry about the rope,” A cocky voice sounded, making Applejack turn around to see Haru casually walking towards her with his weird silver gun aimed point blank at the weird creature. “But I can’t let a cry for help go unnoticed. Although, I didn’t expect to see a Phantom here.”

In response, Haru tossed his gun into the air as he brought his right hand in front of his belt buckle. “DRIVER ON!!”

Then lifting his left claw up, Haru revealed the red ring on his claws and immediately brought it to the now bulkier belt. “FLAME! PLEASE!

The fiery runic circle appeared to Haru’s left and immediately covered his body, transforming him into his ruby and black clothed masked form, with the red mask gleaming in the light.

The creature’s green eyes widened at the sight of the Wizard, and Applejack’s mouth was slightly slacked as Wizard held his right hand out to catch the gun. Quickly unfolding the gun, Wizard held up the unique sword up, “It’s… Showtime.”

And with that, Wizard ran over the dirt road towards the surprised Phantom, the Phantom shook its head and began to lift up its trident to attack. However, Wizard was faster and brought down a quick slice down on the Phantom’s chest, sparks flying from the monster’s chest and sending it staggering back.

Before the Phantom could recover, Wizard spun around and slammed a powerful roundhouse kick to the Phantom’s side, sending it flying into one of the apple trees, breaking it in two by the powerful force.

Wizard was about to charge to continue his attack, when Applejack galloped in front of him, “Hold it! Just what do ya think yer doing?!”

Wizard tilted his head slightly before he tapped the dull side of his sword against his shoulder, “Uh, destroying the phantom?”

“No, yer destroying Apple Family Property!” Applejack yelled out, making Wizard take a step back from the enraged mare. “It mah family’s bread and butter! We’ll be taking this little squabble away from here and…”

“LOOK OUT!” Wizard shouted as he tackled into Applejack, just before several pillars of solid rock crashed into the area where both were at just at.

Near where the Phantom was recovering at, its hand was lifted up with the pillars on the ground where he was near. The Phantom picked himself up and snapped his fingers, making the towers crumble to dirt.

Picking himself up from forcibly pushing Applejack out of harm’s way, Wizard growled under his breath, “Damn, an Earth Phantom. Well, if that’s the case…”

Reaching for the chain of rings at his side, Wizard pulled off a large green ring and replaced the ring that was on his left hand. “I think it’s time for a change. Though to be honest, I wanted to see how far I could get with just Flame Style.”

Standing straight up, Wizard stabbed his sword into the ground as he messed with the belt, flipping the hand symbol twice. That’s when Wizard placed his right hand in front of the buckle, “HURRICANE – PLEASE!”

A green runic circle appeared before Wizard, and before he leapt through the circle, he grabbed his sword. When he dashed through the circle, a bright green light enveloped his entire figure. “Fuu Fuu Fuu! FuuFuuFuuFuu!”

When Wizard passed through the runic circle, all of the red jewels that covered his form were transformed into bright green emeralds with a triangular theme to them. Applejack blinked a few times as the Wizard flew over the ground, the wind around him completely visible and green. “What in Sam’s Hill am Ah watching here?!”

The Phantom was surprised as well, but not just at the change but for the fact that the Wizard was now directly in front of him. And with a powerful kick to his chin, Wizard sent the Phantom flying into the air. Using the twisting wind and his powerful legs, Wizard flew into the air after the surprised Phantom.

When Wizard reached the Phantom, he spun around to deliver several slashes to the Phantom’s chest, forcing the monster to fall towards the ground. However, before the Phantom could fully reach the ground, Wizard quickly flew beneath him and slammed both of his legs into the Phantom’s back, propelling the monster through the air once more.

Once again, Wizard used his newly acquired flying abilities to soar back above the Phantom, where using both of his hands, the magic user slammed his sword into the Phantom’s torso, forcing the Phantom towards the ground, and this time allowing the monster to crash into the dirt road away from the trees.

And as gentle as a as a leaf falling to the ground, Wizard landed next to Applejack, “There, Ah managed to fight the Phantom without damaging yer precious trees.”

“Ya’ll making fun of my accent?” Applejack asked giving Wizard a dirty look.

“What?” Wizard questioned, a little taken back. ‘Oh holy Tsuyoshi Kida!* It’s contagious!!’

Shaking his head free of that thought, Wizard stepped forward and opened the hand symbol on the sword, “Anyway, time for the finale.”

But before Wizard could place his left hand onto the hand symbol though, the Phantom was already back to its feet and began to spin around until it drilled into the ground, leaving nothing but a hole in its place. Wizard quickly ran over to the hole and sighed, “Damn, the guy got away. Great.”

‘Three phantoms, Two gates and only One me,’ Wizard thought to himself as he rubbed his masked chin. ‘This is gonna be a problem, especially if these Phantoms are working together, they could attack both of the Gates at once.’

‘I’ve got Garuda to keep an eye on Twilight, but, if I use the familiars too casually here, I’ll just be wasting my mana and even if I fight the phantoms, I’d be unable to last long against them.’

Wizard jumped slightly when he realized that Applejack was standing right next to him, yelling right into his ear. “Oh, I hope you’re alright Miss.”

“Alright?” Applejack growled at Wizard, leaning closer towards the suited up dragon. “Ya’ll have the nerve to ask me if Ah’m alright!? Look at this place!”

Wizard craned his head around a few times, realizing that the trees that were uprooted were… Well, still uprooted. Applejack slammed her hoof back into the ground loudly, garnering Wizard’s attention. “These here apple trees are the life blood for the Apple Family, we need them in order to put food on the table!

Wizard sighed, he didn’t know what Applebuck season was, but he knew at least these trees were what probably gave Applejack here her hope. “This is what mah family needs! And Ah gotta do what I can to make sure mah family doesn’t get hurt.”

The term echoed in Wizard’s head. With a sigh, he drew a ring from the chain and replaced the ring he had on his right hand. “Give me five minutes.”

Applejack had never seen anything like it in her life, the dragon she had easily roped up less than an hour ago had called up two more of those green runic circles appeared before Wizard. And when he stuck his arms into the circles, they managed to make his arms incredibly huge! It didn’t take long for Wizard to re-plant the trees into the ground, and he even managed to repair the broken tree.

Granted, all he did was refit the two pieces of tree together, and tied it with the rope that had been used to tie him up, but the thought still counted.

When the work was done, and his arms were back to normal, the suit disappeared and allowed Haru to slump to the ground, exhausted. ‘Yeah… I’ve used too much mana today. Even just maintaining Garuda’s starting to get hard to do.’

“Well now, that was a purty neat trick,” Applejack admitted as she trotted alongside Haru, Winona following her. “Ya’ll alright?”

“Hey, don’t worry about me,” Haru chuckled sheepishly as he shakily stood up. “I just need some rest, I’ve just been real busy today and it’s tuckering me out. I didn’t even get a decent lunch.”

Applejack rubbed her chin with her hoof a few times before a smile popped on her face, “Well, tell ya what, Mistah Dragon, as thanks fer cleaning up this mess that jerk made here and even being a good sport with me tying ya up, why don’tcha come follow me to the house fer a few, and we’ll see if we can’t fix that last problem.”

Having skipped out on the party and all the free doughnuts that Pinkie had brought was a big mistake, but then again, he had to leave. There are just some things in this world that nopony should know, and having told Twilight what the Phantoms did to Gates was more heartbreaking than what Haru let on.

Besides, with Garuda, if there was a problem, Haru could easily use Connect to get to where she was. ‘Thank goodness that I had Unicorn hide out as well…’

With a curt smile, Haru turned towards Applejack, “It’s not really necessary, but if you’re insisting, then I don’t mind.”

“And Ah am,” Applejack replied as she trotted ahead of Haru, Winona following her.

With a tired shrug, Haru began to follow the mare and pup. “So, I know this is a little late, but my name’s…”

TTTTTTT

Back in the Everfree Forest, Harpie had moved Minotaur to a nearby patch of moss where he could relax in the shade of the Everfree. Currently, Minotaur was sleeping peacefully, but the cracks in his armor were still very visible. Harpie sighed as she shook her head. “Minotaur…”

“Mademoiselle Medusa was right, this little group of Phantoms do act like a family.”

Harpie craned her head around to see the exact same Phantom that Wizard had made run off, save for a few cracks in his armored body, the Phantom seemed to be doing rather well. Harpie lifted her wings up defensively and stood up to guard Minotaur. “You must be one of the Phantoms that Lady Medusa told me about.”

“Oui oui, madame,” The orange phantom replied with a slight bow. “You need not worry zough, moi has no interest in your petty little family. Moi only came here to grant you some information about ze Wizard.”

The orange Phantom didn’t say a word, but rather cleared his throat. “Moi’s name is Gnome, and for zat comment, moi shall be keeping zat piece of information to moi’s self!”

“Let’s not get out of hand,” Harpie chuckled sheepishly. “Now, how about you tell little me about this information.”

“Non, non, non!” Gnome replied with a wag of his finger. “Moi only came here to recover and to see ze ozer Phantoms here. Oh, and moi has to tell you, madame, zat moi will not tread on your territory, moi needs only to complete moi’s own mission.”

“… What?” Harpie questioned with her head tilted slightly. “I can’t understand you with that accent.”

Gnome rolled his eyes with a sigh. “Stupid Equestian Phantoms, can’t understand zeir own language. Zat matters not.”

“Anyway,” Gnome said with a wave of his hand, making a large column appear to his side. With a snap of his fingers, the excess of the column fell off of it until a statue version of Wizard appeared next to him. “While moi has no interest in ze Gates you were all assigned. Even ze Wizard is of no concern of moi, but if zis fool dares to show his face to moi once more, moi will personally bring zis fool to his early grave!”

With a mighty spin, Gnome slammed the back of his fist into the head of the Wizard Statue, knocking the head off and into the air. “Moi came here to tell you zat your troubles wiz zis fool are over!”

The stone head bounced a few times until it rolled away from the clearing and deeper into the woods. The stone head of Wizard managed to even reach the dark dirt road that went through the Everfree Forest, stopping at the hooves of a mysteriously cloaked individual.

The cloaked individual turned their head towards the direction of where the statue head came from, then observed the well-crafted head. ‘This is a warrior with a mask, is this perhaps a new task?’

Things to Note
* - ‘Oh holy Tsuyoshi Kida!’ A joke parodying a theme I’ve noticed in some MLP fiction, where the characters refer to ‘Oh dear Faust’, considering that Faust was the main reason why MLP FiM took off so greatly. Tsuyoshi Kida is the series’ main screenwriter, and I thought it would be funny for characters from Kamen Rider Wizard to refer to it like this.

Friendship is SHOWTIME!!

by MangaKamen

Spell Four - Change