Scroll 3
I woke up the next day with quite the start. Apparently, Zepha had convinced the girls to play a little prank on me while I slept. She had put me on my bed and climbed in while, the girls waited in the living room waiting for me to wake up. The sound of me yelling and falling out of bed was drowned out by them laughing, especially Rainbow.
“Never try a stunt like that again!” I exclaimed when we were in the living room and the girls had calmed down.
“Ah, I thought it would be a dream come true waking up next to me” She said with a smile.
“More like a nightmare.” I muttered.
“Okay, now that our little prank is done, I can tell you the news I got yesterday.” Twilight said.
“What’s the news, Twilight?”
“The Vilotan siblings have asked the girls and me to come to their castle for something and I thought if it will be nice if you came with us.” She said. I was shocked when she said that. What could those three want with the girls now of all times? I wasn’t going to let them go there without protection.
“Are you sure that they wouldn’t mind me coming?”
“Don’t worry, darling.” Rarity said.
“Rarity’s right, Echo. You’re our friend and this will be your chance to meet them face to face.” Twilight said.
“Okay, I’ll come. Zepha, think you can watch this place while we’re gone?” I asked. She nodded and went back into the kitchen. We ate breakfast and were about to go when there was a knock at the door. I opened it and Apple bloom came in.
“Apple bloom, what’s wrong?” Applejack asked her little sister.
“There’s something wrong with Big Mac. He just got back home, went into the barn and said something about seeing the monsters in town but, there isn’t any.” She said. The girls were confused but, I knew something was wrong when she said not seeing any.
“That’s strange, maybe I should go see him and find out what’s wrong with him.” Applejack said but, before she went out, I spoke up.
“Wait, I’ll go talk to him. Twilight, when are the royals expecting us?” I asked.
“Well, they aren’t expecting us for another two and a half hours and it takes an hour and half to get to their castle.” She said.
“I’ll only need less than an hour. I’ll meet you at the train station.” I said as I grabbed my backpack and went out the door.
I made my way to Sweet Apple Acres and knocked on the barn door.
“Big Mac, you in there, it’s Echo Wave.” I said. There was a moment of pause and then the barn doors opened. I saw Big Mac holding an old sword and a pitchfork on his back.
“Where are you going with those?"
“I’m going into town, get the guard and get rid of those monsters.” He said in a stern voice. I looked into his eyes and saw that the green tint in them as gone.
“Big Mac, listen to me. Put that stuff back and follow me. I promise I will explain everything. You need to trust me on this.” I said in a calming voice. He was reluctant at first but, agreed. We walked into the sea of trees and made our way back towards the hill. When we got there, we took a sit at the base, facing each other and I began explaining everything to him from that night I got the chest, to my travels and me coming back. It took a good forty-five minutes telling him this, based on my watch. To say that he was shocked would be an understatement. He quickly composed himself and asked me something.
“If this is true, than how come the magic on me suddenly disappeared?”
“This is just a guess but, seeing that you were knocked out, the restoration and dispelling magic must have had an effect on you as well, breaking the magic’s hold on you.” I said. I reached into my backpack, pulled out the black book that was in the chest, flipped through the pages until I found the one I was looking for, placed my hand on his head and began the chant. He winced a bit but, stood firm. When I finished, he looked up and the green tint was back.
“What did you do?”
“Through training, I was able to use the spell that Princess Luna used on me. It will allow you to view the monsters in their disguise at your will. Remember, no one must know my secret.” I said. I got and was about to leave until Big Mac asked me something.
“Why do you think she asked you to do this?” I let that question sink in. Ever since the day I took up this mantle, I have wondered why the princess chose me for this task. However, if she did choose me for this than she must have confidence in me.
“I don’t know but, I deal with it in the end.” I said and then I left.
I met the girls at the train station with five minutes to spare and we got on board. We all sat in the same car and I watch the scenery go by us through the window. The trip was long and quiet until I asked a question that’s been bugging me.
“Twilight, how are the princesses?”
“They’ve been doing well. I still get letters from them. However, Princess Celestia sounded strange in her recent letters to me. I think she may be keeping a secret.” She answered. Before I could ask something else, we arrived at our destination. We exited the train and I had to hold back my surprise when I saw the amount of rezythes in the small streets. The ones that were guards guided us into the castle, through the corridors and into the throne room. There they were, sitting on their thrones. The doors closed when we walked in. the girls bowed when we got to the center of the room and I did as well.
“Your majesties.” We all said.
“Twilight Sparkle, it is good to see that you and your friends have come.” ‘Scythin’ said.
“It is a great honor for us.” Twilight said.
“Who is this stallion you brought with you?” ‘Morpha’ asked.
“This is our friend, Echo Wave.”
“It is an honor to finally meet you.” I said.
“Ah yes, I had heard you tell of your friend that was traveling. It is nice to finally meet you.” She said.
“The pleasure is all mine, princess.” I said while gagging on the inside.
“Look at that brother. Our sister has an admirer.” ‘Chaon’ teasingly said. She glared at him and I resisted the urge to puke.
“Now that introductions are over, we can move on.”
“Your highness, what do you need?” Twilight said.
“As you know, an old enemy of ours has returned. The ‘sorcerer of arcane’ is back to finish what he started. I have consulted with my brother and sister and we would like for you to go to different locations in Equestria to gain information on him.”Scythin said. The girls were shocked at this mission while I just listened.
“Where would you like us to go first, your majesty?”
“We would like you to go to Appleloosa first. We have heard rumors of incidents being there. Be warned, he is dangerous so, be careful.”
“We won’t fail you.” We all said. The royals gave us our blessings and we were escorted out. I took one last quick glance at them to remind me of who they really are. I promised myself that the next time we meet, one of them is going down. I told Twilight to have Spike send Zepha a message about where we’re going and to meet us there. We got on the train and began the long trip to the western settlement.
“I hope Braeburn’s okay.” Applejack said.
“It’s okay, Applejack. I’m sure your cousin is just fine.” Fluttershy reassuringly said. Applejack’s cousin, Braeburn, lived out there and ran an apple farm himself.
“Have there been any advancements out there?” I asked.
“No, it’s still the same but; some of the residents have started using those crystal powered bikes for traveling.” Twilight said. The crystal powered bikes, named zergers, came into existence two years ago. Two wheeled vehicles that the Vilotan siblings helped make. How they came up with this just adds to my worries of what else they have.
The trip was long and we were able to catch a glimpse of it the next morning. Through the window, I saw a few ponies riding on zergers with carts attached to the back of them. We got off at the station and Applejack immediately knew something was wrong.
“If he isn’t here welcoming new ponies, than something must be wrong with him. Let’s head towards the farm.” Applejack said. We made our way through town and towards his farm. There were only a couple of trees out here and I didn’t sense any magic from them and we didn’t see Applejack’s cousin.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know, Applejack. Maybe he left somewhere. Let’s check the town one more time.” Twilight said. Before we left, I noticed what looked like a broken pitchfork in the dirt. I picked it up and it looked like the top was burned off. We went to ‘The Salt Block’ saloon for any information we could find. I went to the bar while the girls talked to the locals. I saw a burly looking blue earth pony next to me and decided to see if he knew anything.
“Excuse me, sir?” I said. He looked towards me for the voice.
“Yeah.”
“Sorry for bothering you. I was hoping you’ve seen Braeburn anywhere?” I asked him.
“Sorry, I haven’t seen him in quite a while. In fact, I haven’t seen him in four months. Of course, he hasn’t been acting right since then.” He answered. That didn’t make any sense. How could he be gone for four months without anypony noticing?
“What did you mean by he wasn’t acting right?”
“Five years ago, the buffalo came through town for apple pies but, I guess they saw something they didn’t like and left real quickly. He was hit hard because he thought we were friends and just stayed on the farm. All the residents helped take care of the trees because he matters to all of us.”
“When was the last time anypony saw him?”
“Hmm, that would be a week before he vanished. I was going over to check up on him when I saw him talking to two vilotan ponies. They were asking around for somepony help with their expedition but, the weird thing is that when I got closer, Braeburn looked scared to death of them. Like he saw something from a nightmare.” He said. I didn’t need to know why Braeburn thought that.
“Did you see any injuries on him?”
“Now that I think, I did see that he had some medical wraps around his head.”
“What did these two look like?” I asked. This was crucial.
“I know the boss was a unicorn but, I didn’t get his name. His partner was an earth pony, named Iron Crusher. In fact, that’s him now.” He said while pointing to a nearby table. I turned my head and saw Iron. He may look like a silver earth pony but, he truly look like a walking rock golem.
“Thank you.” I said as I got up. I walked to the girls and told them that I was heading back into town to find more clues. They nodded in agreement and I left the saloon and waited for my chance.
An hour had past and the sun as just setting. Iron Crusher was just coming out of the saloon. He looked up to the sky and saw a barrier forming.
“I heard about you but, I didn’t think you make it out here to this dirt trap.” He said as he turned around and saw me, fully transformed.
“Where is the stallion you took from here?”
“You’re going to have to be more specific than that and besides even if I did know him, what are you going to do about it?” He asked. My answer came in the form of a dagger thrown at him and bouncing off.
“You’re going to have to try better than that If you want to get answers from me!” He said. He raised his fist and struck the ground so hard, it caused everything to shake. All the patrons exited the saloon to see what’s going on, including the girls.
“There he is. He’s fighting that stallion” Twilight shouted.
I took out the crescent gem, pulled out the handle, placed it in and slammed the handle.
“Lunar Moon.”
My chest plate appeared; I drew my sword and went on the attack. I kept attacking slashing but, I wasn’t making a dent.
“You think a sword can harm me!” He swung his arm down and I barely dodged the attack. I tapped into the chest’s power and created an illusion of me.
“He cloned himself!” Rainbow Shouted. Fluttershy was shaking in fear from seeing this.
“No, it’s just an illusion.” Twilight said. I told my duplicate to attack from the left while attack from the right. We went forward and started slashing at him. He only laughed at our attempt as he swung his arms down at us. I dodged but, my copy was crushed. I heard Rainbow say I didn’t stand a chance and the crowd agreed.
“You can’t beat me. I’ll crush you beneath the earth itself!” He Proclaimed.
“The earth huh, funny. I was thinking the same thing.” I said. I took out another gem: a rectangular orange one. I felt a strange felling coming from it. I pulled out the handle, placed the gem in and slammed the handle in place.
“Honor Ground.”
The gem began to spin and an orange light appeared.
In Canterlot, behind an underground vault, deep in the castle. The element of Honesty shined bright.
The ground around me began to shake and small rocks began to swirl around my arms. When the shaking stopped, everpony saw that my chest plate was gone but, on both my arms were orange gauntlets with a gem in the middle and the symbol of honesty in the center of my helmet.
“Twilight, isn’t that the element of honesty’s symbol on his helmet!” Applejack said out of shock.
“Yes but, how can that be!” Twilight responded in equal shock. The others were also shocked by this as well.
“I’m going to ask one more time. Where is he?” I asked. He smirked and charged right at me.
“FIND OUT, YOURSELF!!!” He shouted. He raised his arm and struck down with all his might. The impact caused dust to cloud everpony’s vision. When the dust settled, no pony was more shocked than Iron. I had caught his fist with one hand.
“So be it.”
I brought my right fist back and the impact of my punch sent him colliding with the barrier on the other side. All the pony’s jaws dropped at how strong I had gotten. My fist left an imprint in his side, penetrating his rock like skin. I raised my left fist and slammed it into the ground causing a boulder to pop up. I grabbed it at sent it flying towards him. It impacted and shattered causing him to fall to his knees. I grabbed the handle, pulled it out and slammed it back in.
“Honor Ground, Exceed!”
Small rocks began encircling my right fist and gauntlet. I sprinted forward and slammed my fist into his chest. The shockwave caused ground beneath him jutted upwards and entombed him.
“May the Earth, Obliterate this evil.” He yelled as the rocks around and on him inwards and imploded on it. All that was left was dust. I turned around and saw the shock faces on all the ponies. The shadows started to engulf me but, before I disappeared and the barrier vanished, Twilight said one thing.
“Who are you? I simply answered.
“I am Kamen Rider Shade.”