//------------------------------// // Intermission1 Starlight // Story: Kamen Rider a New Breed // by raven618 //------------------------------// Forest outside Canterlot, 5:55pm, day after initial Kaijin invasion All things considered, Starlight Glimmer considered herself a very lucky pony. She hadn't seen any wanted posters with her face on them, or had any dangerous encounters with the police. She may have been living in the woods, but had been fortunate enough to find an abandoned cottage. Yes, Starlight was very lucky. Except for the fact that her plans on reforming Equestria to a world without cutie marks had been reduced to the level of Vampirism. That is, attacking ponies in dark alleys and draining them. Starlight sighed, "It was so much easier back at the village." She moved over to the only real piece of furniture in the house, an old sofa somepony had given away. The rest of the furniture in the cottage consisted of empty crates, barrels and a log. The rest of the cottage was necessities only, lanterns, cupboards, furnace, a sink, and an old radio. She was living halfway between the middle class, and on the street. Well, they were, would have been a better term. The front door opened and closed, "Hey, Chief! I'm home!" An earth pony filly entered the cottage, in her hooves was a bag of groceries. She was a pretty standard looking pony: gold coat, tan brown mane which she had done in the back so it looked exactly like her tail, and a pair of kind, magenta eyes. There were two interesting things about her though, her cutie mark was a dull gray equal sign, and she had an indigo stripe running down the front of her mane, yet this feature was missing in the back of her mane and tail. She kept the former a secret with an orange covering. Starlight smiled, if anything good came out of Princess Twilight's interference in her plans, it would have been Cassie. The young foal, whose real name was Gold Casket, had been living on the streets, she had run away from her parents who wanted her to grow into a 'proper,' Cantorlot, pony. Starlight found her, explained her plans for Equestria, and miraculously, Cassie had agreed with her. The two of them had been living together ever since, Cassie acting as Starlight's assistant. "Market was crowded today, guess a lot of ponies visiting got hungry." making fun of Cantorlot's residents was on of Cassie's favorite past-times. The Earth pony struggled with the grocery bag in her hooves. "Here, I'll take those." She wrapped the bags in her magic and placed them on the counter, "So, any news on our next target?" "Nothing yet, I think he might be out of town right now. What about you Chief, tough day at work?" Starlight chuckled, "When isn't it?" Starlight had taken a job as a window-washer/street-sweeper to pay for the two of them to live in the cottage. It was a messy job sure, but it let her keep an eye on the populace. "How about we turn in early tonight? Just a quick supper, and then we hit the sack." The young filly yawned, "That does sound pretty good." Starlight smiled, "Alright, I'll cut up some strawberries, and you can wash the potatoes." Three hours later... The two mares were passed out on the sofa together, a tattered old quilt covered the two of them. A shadow played across Starlight's face in the moonlight, rousing her from her sleep. The pink coated unicorn noticed a figure duck into the forest through one of the cottage's window. "Cassie, wake up." She said nudging the foal. "Hmm, wha?" she yawned, "Chief, I just got to sleep, what is it." "Someone's outside. I'm going to go check it out." Starlight cast a levitation spell on one of their candles, lit it, and proceeded out into the darkness. The candle did little to illuminate the night. Thankfully, the star-maned Princess had blessed them tonight with a particularly bright moon. Yet there was still no sign of anypony else about. Cassie had exited the cottage and was keeping close to the unicorn mage. "If your scared, you can go back inside." she said to comfort the filly. "The first rule of horror books is never split up, so I'll stay here." So Starlight and Cassie found themselves searching the pine trees outside the cottage, in the dark, with only a weak candle to light their way. They had been searching for a few minutes already and the cottage was only slightly visible through the trees. "I don't think there is anypony out here, Chief." "Yeah, I think your right. Let's get back-" "STARLIGHT GLIMMER!" a deep, raspy, voice ran out. "AHHH!" the two girls screamed and leaped into each other's hooves, the elder of who dropped the candle which instantly went out. After landing painfully on the ground, the two found themselves in the dark. "Who are you, and where are you?" A figure stepped forward, though not into the moonlight. The figure spoke with a slight echo to his voice (Starlight assumed it was stallion), "I have a message for you." Starlight peered into the gloom, it was indeed a stallion, he was wearing a heavy trench-coat and rain hat. Other than a pair of glasses sitting on his muzzle, there wasn't much she could tell about this figure. "Why should I listen to you; you trespass on my property, you wake me up in the middle of the night, you lure me into the woods, and to top it all off, you scare me and my assistant out of our fur." The figure didn't seem to be phased by the pink mare's insults. "What if I told you someone had recently come into possession of a device capable of destroying this world." Cassie felt her heart skip a beat, a quick look at her boss showed that she saw that the mare had a similar opinion about it. "I'm listening." "Are you familiar with Princess Twilight Sparkle?" Starlight scoffed, "I have the displeasure, yes." "She was given a device by a being from my world named Decade." Cassie raised her hoof, "And before you ask, yes, that does make me an alien." Starlight stared suspiciously at the stallion, "So let me get this straight; Twilight Sparkle, one of Equestria's greatest heroes and and defenders, is planning to destroy the planet? I know she's a stubborn, flea-brained idiot, but even she isn't capable of something like that." "She doesn't know that she has that much power, but she does." Realization struck the two native ponies, "You mean, she might accidently... Is there any way we can stop her?" The trench-coat wearing pony shook his head, "Unfortunately the only way is to defeat her in combat." Cassie tried to hold in a laugh, "Bwa-ha ha ha!" and failed. "What's so difficult about that? I bet starlight could beat her with one hoof tied behind her back." Starlight was about to tell her that she had little experience with hoof to hoof combat, and she had first hoof experience with Twilight's magic prowess. Thankfully for the mage's dignity, the stallion corrected the filly first. "Decade happened to be one of the strongest warriors on my world. And it was that device that earned him that title." "Then how do you expect me to be able to stop her?" "Decade had a rival of almost equal power, Diend." the stallion then produced, something, from beneath his coat. It looked like a thin grate on top of a license plate, it had a stick coming off of one corner. "This was the source of his power, it will let you summon copies of the warriors of my world to fight at your side." he then produced a second device which looked more like a block of metal, "And these, will determine which warrior will come to your aid." The gold filly took the second device and opened it like a book. Inside were several card which, to Starlight, looked like foal's trading cards. "Nevertheless, you said he was 'of almost equal power'," Starlight made quotation marks with her hooves, "meaning that this D-End, whatever, was still weaker. So we're still at a disadvantage." The stallion turned away from the two, "Several other ponies in this world will have inherited powers similar to yours from the warriors of my world. Now I don't care what your views on friendship are, but they will help you to defeat the princess." Starlight ran these facts through her head several times; the idea of aliens, super powers, the end of the world. Mostly she thought about what this strange stallion was asking her to do,attack and possibly kill the youngest princess of the Equestria, who just so happened to be the same pony who ruined her life (well, one of the ponies). She looked at the filly who called herself her assistant. She then saw her splayed out on the ground in a small pool of blood, the land scorched, and Twilight Sparkle standing on the horizon. -Never,- Starlight thought to herself, -I won't let that that happen. Ever.- "Miss Casket," Cassie looked up from the cards in her hooves, Starlight only called her that when she had something of great importance to tell her. "Yeah Chief?" Starlight looked at the stallion, he hadn't moved an inch while Starlight pondered her decision. "You have decided?" an evil smile played across his face. Starlight's face betrayed no emotion, "Pack your things, we're going on a road trip."