Kamen Rider EqG

by BioniclesaurKing4t2

Chapter 7: Chromatic Dispersion

Author's Note:

Alternate Title: Riders on the Storm

Chromatic Dispersion noiƨɿɘqƨiᗡ ɔiƚɒmoɿʜƆ

It was a dark and stormy night, the sound of rain pounding hard everywhere but not a raindrop in sight. That wasn’t her concern, though.

Sunset hit the ground, her Kamen Rider Leona armor clanking against the asphalt. Sword in hand, she pushed herself up to look upon the mass of obscure shadowy shapes gathered before her. Sonora Boomer stood at the front, glowing green eyes on a dark silhouette, each monster past it growing nastier and blurrier. A demonic chorus of snarls and hisses writhed through the air.

Getting up to a knee, Sunset pulled a card out of her Advent Deck, but as she caught a glimpse of it, she hesitated. She’d been trying not to use this one, it was too risky, but it looked like she had no choice. She slid it into the slot and pushed the slotter’s lion mane back.
Attack Vent

A mirror surface appeared on the ground in front of her and a red humanoid figure with a lion’s head leapt out, roaring at the monsters. Pantheraleo, her Advent Beast. The mob of shadows shrieked at him, but he roared back louder, jets of flames slipping through the transparent red vents between the golden stripes of his mane.

Sunset took her chance to get back to her feet, but as she looked down to push off from the ground, a realization struck her. The chorus of growls and snarls continued as before, but though she knew that Pantheraleo was among the cacophony, she couldn’t tell which roar was his. The lion blended perfectly into the dissonance. Too perfectly.

As Sunset stood up and raised her sword to fight, Pantheraleo let his roar fade silent against the monsters’ hissing whispers. “Let’s go!” she called.

For a second, Pantheraleo didn’t move. Suddenly he spun and raked his claws across her torso, splintering the blade of her sword and sending her falling back again in a shower of sparks.

Pain and shock vied for her focus as she lay on the ground, her sword’s blade reduced to a five-inch severed stub with a smoking tip. She looked up at the towering Pantheraleo, the roiling wall of silhouettes seemingly chittering in amusement.

“Wh… what?” Sunset muttered. “Why are you doing this?”

“Why?” came a reply she knew was from Pantheraleo. Sunset held back a gasp as she recognized the new voice as her own, and yet… not. She knew who it was from.

Pantheraleo’s body suddenly erupted into flames. “Because you think I will,” continued the voice. The flames turned blue and burst away as a pair of wings flared open, and standing there now was Sunset’s red-skinned demon form from when she’d corrupted Twilight’s crown. The demon stared at her with her black pit eyes and gave a sly grin. “Now, what could have given you that idea?”

No, Sunset thought. What’s she doing here? Why again?

Demon Sunset raised her hands and quickly charged a large blue fireball, throwing it at Sunset, who quickly raised her arms to—

Sunset jolted awake in the dark room, breathing a sigh. She turned in her sleeping bag to look at her Advent Deck sitting on the floor beside her, instead finding herself looking into the eyes of the image of Pantheraleo on his Attack Vent card resting atop the Deck; he was in front of a mesh of fire on the dark gravelly card, Attack 5000. She froze. She hadn’t taken his card out.

Then she heard a variant of the whistling ringing she’d heard before. Her eyes were drawn to the framed picture of her and her friends sitting next to the Deck, and the glass cover that began to warp. Pantheraleo’s face moved into view in the reflection, staring at her.

She quickly reached out and slammed the picture down onto the floor, holding it down as the whistling ring slowly died away. She grabbed the Deck, returned the card, and slid out of the sleeping bag to toss the Deck into her open backpack propped against the wall. Doing that made a noise, and she heard a stir from elsewhere in the room, but luckily they didn’t wake up. She carefully slipped back into her sleeping bag, but kept the picture facedown just in case.

* * *

The Next Day, Sunday

“Who else’s got Strike Vent?” Rainbow Dash asked the crowd, holding up the orange-bordered card with a picture of her cyan metal eagle talon gauntlets, Attack 2000. The girls were gathered on and around Pinkie’s bed comparing Advent Cards in some mash-up of poker and go fish.

“Ooh,” piped Pinkie, “I do!” She held up her own orange card showing a pair of pink and silver metal webbed-claw gauntlets shaped vaguely like handheld paper fans, Attack 2000.

Rainbow and Pinkie looked around at the others. Sunset shook her head.

“That’s it?” Rainbow said.

“Apparently,” Pinkie responded. Applejack shrugged.

“Huh,” said Rainbow. “Something so generic, thought there’d be more.”

Sunset held up the dark purple card of her katana with a red and gold lion head crossguard. “How ’bout Sword Vent?”

“I’ve got that one,” said Rarity, holding up a dark purple card showing a straight conical beak-like sword that was gold on the front half and silver on the back half. “If only I’d known that sooner.”

“Mine’s stronger,” Sunset countered, tapping the Attack 3000 in the lower right corner of her card. Rarity looked at her own card to see it read only 2000.

“Well…,” Rarity said slowly, sifting through her other card, “what about Splash Vent?” She held up a seafoam green card with a group of four harpoon-tipped water tendrils.

“That looks like a burst of water, right?” asked Rainbow, fishing out another card. “A burst of wind’s close enough, Blast Vent.” She turned over her dark teal Blust Vent showing a tornado shooting from a set of talons. “Ignore the spelling.”

“Close enough? Hardly,” Rarity countered.

“Think I’ve got a winner,” Pinkie interjected, “Cover Vent.” She held out a magenta card showing the figure of her Rider armor dispersing into a cloud of multicolored confetti, no Attack number.

“Oh, I have one, too,” said Fluttershy, showing her own magenta card with her Rider armor dispersing into a cloud of pink butterflies. She held up another card, this one sky blue showing a pair of disconnected pink butterfly wings, Attack 1000. “Wing Vent?”

“Oh, come on!” cried out Rainbow, slapping down her own Wing Vent card in frustration, showing a set of silver eagle wings connected by a silver pack, Attack 2000. “That was supposed to be my ace in the hole.”

“Um, I did use it during that fight, remember?” said Fluttershy.

“Oh, um…I was distracted,” Rainbow replied sheepishly.

“Well,” said Sunset, “I think I have the winning hand with three unique cards.” She tossed them down in front of her one by one. “Sun…Burn…and Pack.” The cards were bright red with a glowing transparent spherical shell of yellow and red halves separated by a wavy border, Attack 2000; dark red-orange with her Rider armor covered in flames, Attack 2000; and medium gray with a medieval broadsword floating in front of a trifold vanity mirror display, each mirror reflecting the sword, no number.

“No fair,” said Rarity, laying down her cards like she was folding on a hand of poker. “I only have five cards, the rest of you all have six.”

“Hold up there, Sunset,” Applejack said. “Pound. Brawl. Quake.” Applejack lay down her own trio of cards: yellow-orange with an orange mallet made from a pair of kangaroo feet, Attack 3000; dull orange with a pair of orange, paw-shaped metal boxing gloves, Attack 2000; and brown with a set of violet shockwave rings over a patch of cracking ground, Attack 3000.

“Three and three, huh?” said Sunset, holding up a dark red card showing her gold lion symbol in front of a red starburst background, finger covering over the power. “War? Final Vent strength to decide?”

“No need,” Applejack said smugly. “All three of my cards have the kangaroo symbol in the corner, but only two of yours have the lion symbol. A trump card though it may be, Pack Vent just has a generic circle, and it’s got no points.”

Sunset took a look across the six cards, then up at Applejack. “Well played.”

Applejack held up another card. “Oh, also…” She placed a fourth card on her row of three: the pale orange Spring Vent, showing a pair of orange boots with springs stretching from the soles, Attack 1000. Sunset raised an eyebrow.

“Come on, AJ,” Rainbow said, “that’s the kind of play I’d make.” Applejack just shrugged. “So, now that AJ’s won at Advent Cards,” Rainbow addressed the group, “how are all of your new Rider powers treating you? Are they as awesome as they are for me?”

“You know it!” said Pinkie.

“After so long without my old unicorn magic,” Sunset said, “it feels relaxing to have a new outlet of power that I actually have control over. Even if I don’t quite understand how it works just yet.” She stared at her Deck as she turned it over in her hands. “Of course, these Advent Beasts are a bit…unconventional.”

“I’m still getting used to the idea, myself,” Rarity chimed in. “I figure one day it’ll catch up with me and I’ll understand just how crazy things have truly gotten this time, but I’m more than willing to press on until then.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Applejack added, “it’s a lot to take in. Honestly, I’m just ignorin’ how far off the ranch we’ve gone with this one. Makes it a heckuva lot easier.”

“Tell me about it,” Pinkie said. “With access through every reflection, various rooms are feeling a lot more ‘open’ all of a sudden.”

As the others carried off the conversation, Sunset wondered if she should press whether they shared her concerns, but before she could, a humming came from her backpack. Twilight had responded to what she’d sent after Rainbow had claimed the portal had been open. Sunset pulled out the journal and read starting with the end of her last message:

[…] I hope nothing managed to sneak through, though because they’re invisible, I don’t know if you’d have been able to tell.

Said Twilight,

Wait, you mean the portal was open? It hasn’t been nearly long enough yet since it last activated. Do you think my forcing it to open may have messed with the cycle? Even if I reset the cycle, the portal shouldn’t be opening on its own for quite a while, another 30 moons.

Sunset started to pen her reply.

Yes, 30 moons, just about a m

She stopped writing, a case-breaking realization dawning on her.

“Ohhhh…,” she moaned, dropping her forehead into her hands. “I. Am. An. Idiot.”

“What?” Rainbow asked, the others turning to her.

Sunset gave an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know if that old Starswirl the Bearded refused to change with the times, wanted to hide the Mirror’s true potential from those ‘unworthy’ of figuring it out, or just honestly didn’t realize that the definition had changed.”

“The definition of what?” asked Pinkie.

Sunset took a deep breath to compose herself. “The portal that connects here and Equestria is only open for three days once every thirty moons,” she laid out slowly, “do you remember me explaining that?”

“I remember not knowing what a moon was, but listening and nodding all the same,” Rainbow said.

“That’s just the point—‘what is a moon?’” Sunset explained. “In modern Equestria, a moon is a measure of time about a month long, roughly one lunar cycle of twenty-eight days or so. But it wasn’t always. Back well over a thousand years ago, before the initial rule of the Two Sisters, the term ‘moon’ stood for a period of only one night, the time the moon was in the sky once. That was obviously repetitive with the word ‘day’, and new moons were a can of worms, so they changed the definition of ‘moon’ into meaning a month. Shortly before leaving Equestria, I’d been looking at a bunch of old sources from before the switch, so I’d gotten into the habit of mentally translating ‘one moon’ to mean ‘one day’. When I read the lore of the Mirror Portal, I guess I just assumed that the moons it was talking about were the day-long ones without a second thought. It turns out I was right, but I never thought back to realize that I was the only one who had a reason to make that assumption! Twilight—heck, even Celestia—probably still thinks that it only opens once every two and a half years!”

“Which…means?” Rainbow asked, trying to piece together her ramblings.

“Which means,” snapped Sunset, “that the portal opens about thirty times more often than anyone else thinks it does!” She fished out a calendar from her backpack. “The pattern I followed without fail was every thirtieth day it would open for three days at a time, three days included in the thirty-day spans. It’s what I used to sneak back into Equestria a few times to find out that Twilight had become a princess, realized the Element of Magic crown had a new look that matched the Fall Formal crown, knew when she would be at the Crystal Empire so I could take it…I always wondered why there were almost never any guards at the portal—they didn’t know they needed to be there so often!”

Everyone watched as she began fervently scribbling on the calendar, muttering aloud to herself. “So, open Friday but closed Saturday means…thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three…if we started at Day 1 the day after Twilight left that one Sunday because one moon-in-the-sky had passed, then Day 30 was this past Wednesday, and that means…four Fridays from now.” She looked up at the others. “The portal’s opening again in another four weeks.”

“And you think we need to have all this wrapped up before then?” Rainbow asked.

Sunset gave another sigh. “It’s all mirrors. I don’t wanna risk it.”

Someone told me long ago…
There’s a calm before the storm. I know!
It’s been comin’ for some time…

* * *

The Next Day, Monday

Three men were running down a wooden hallway, racing towards something.

While running, the one in the middle took off his bifocal glasses, turning them upside down and jamming them onto the face of the man in front of him. His depth perception thrown out of whack by looking through the near-focus halves of the lenses when he needed far-focus, he stumbled and fell as the other two passed him.

The man in back slowly made his way up on the leader, only to be slapped in the face by a rubber swim fin on the other man’s hand, making him trip over his own feet and fall as well.

The last man standing came racing up to a door along the wall and grabbed the handle to skid himself to a stop. He grabbed the kite pin off his shirt, a string attached to it pulling a key out of his pocket, which he used to unlock the door. He pushed the door open and slipped inside as the other men caught up, slamming it shut as they tried forcing it open behind him.

The man looked around the room, reaching over and grabbing a long stick with a claw on the end of it from a nearby table. Clamping the door handle with the claw, he rested the stick across the door and up against the wall, preventing it from being pushed open. Taking the brief moments this bought him, he ran over and slid the nearby glass armonica (like a piano but with a sideways stack of glass bowls instead of keys) in front of the door to completely block it.

Brushing his hands in satisfaction, he reached into his pocket, took out a coin, and flipped it. Catching and examining the result, he leaned over and shouted, “Tails!” excitedly through the door to his colleagues.

All of the students in the class were staring at Pinkie Pie. Except Rainbow Dash, who was burying her face in her hands. At the front of the room, Professor Bill Neigh blinked.

“Iiiiiii’m rather sure Mr. Franklin had a better reason for assigning the electron’s charge as being negative,” said the stunned Professor.

Pinkie shrugged in response.

Being in the middle of a free period, Sunset sat on a bench in the intersection of CHS’s hallways. She stared at Pantheraleo’s card, a half-written journal letter to Twilight sitting open on her lap. She didn’t know how to finish it, or even if she should.

Using the power of a monster to fight another monster, the idea was just unheard of in Equestria. Just how much like the other Mirror Monsters was this one? Could she really trust it, or was it just cooperating for her help towards its own ends? And what ends would they be?

Something moved in her peripheral vision. She glanced over at the trophy display case and flinched as she saw Pantheraleo standing in the edge of the reflection. Upon being seen, he ducked out of view immediately, the whistling ringing Sunset hadn’t realized she’d been hearing fading away. As her heart slowed down again she sighed and turned her attention back to the journal.

“You sure you should have that out in the open?” asked a familiar voice. Sunset looked up to see Rarity standing next to her with a hall pass.

“What,” she replied, tilting Pantheraleo’s card, “you mean this ‘trading card out of a cereal box’?”

“You’re right, I guess it is meaningless unless someone already knows about it. But something is clearly troubling you.”

“Yeah,” Sunset moaned, “I just don’t know who’ll listen without saying I’m being silly about it.”

Rarity thought a second. “Tell you what, I’ll be back in a minute and we can discuss whatever it is. Okay?”

“Sure,” said Sunset. She sat around a few seconds after Rarity left, but then an idea dawned on her. She looked around to confirm the halls empty, then took out her Advent Deck and made for the trophy case.

Applejack yawned. Another day in school meant another day of boredom while sitting in Sadistics—sorry, Statistics class, she always got those two confused. It was just lotsa fancy mathematics to complicate things that should be simple. As far as she was concerned, “the chances of anything happenin’ is fifty percent—either it will or it won’t”. Unfortunately, that was never what the teacher was looking for.

“Well?” asked Miss Hackney, an older purple-skinned woman with a pin of a chalkboard whose content seemingly swapped between a ‘2’ and a ‘1+2’ each day (Applejack was convinced she was waiting for someone to point it out, but never felt up to it). It took her a second to realize the teacher was talking to her.

“Yes?” Applejack replied.

“What would you say the answer is?” Miss Hackney repeated, indicating the board covered in numbers and symbols.

“Uh…” Applejack glanced around the room. “Sparkline seems to know,” she said, pointing over her shoulder at a boy with dark orange skin and the pin of a red line graph, his hand raised nearly to the ceiling. “It’d be a shame not to ask him.”

A yellow-orange hand held the Leona Advent Deck out through the mirror, Sunset waiting a few seconds before stepping through. “Hello?” she called into the room.

Twilight turned away from her computer by the wall to see the new arrival to her lab. “Should I start an appointment book now, or after your next visit?” She turned back and kept typing. “Anything important?”

Sunset looked around to see that no one else was there. “I’m not sure if—”

“—I’m the expert you need?” Twilight cut in.

“No, it’s just…what are you doing?”

“Spoilers,” said Twilight.

Unseen, the mirror Sunset arrived through rippled again. “What seems to be the matter?” said an unfamiliar male voice.

Sunset turned back in surprise to see a blurry, warping black silhouette in the mirror behind a layer of ripples. Seeing it, Twilight started typing with more concentration.

“Who—?” Sunset tried asking.

“The Advent Master,” Twilight said.

“Oh,” Sunset said. She waved nervously. “Hi.” The silhouette nodded…she thinks. “Well…to be honest, I’m sort of having…not second thoughts, but…”—Twilight’s fingers stumbled, and she drummed the delete key before continuing—“more concerns. Not at becoming a Rider, but at the whole using a monster to fight a monster idea. I just don’t know if I’m comfortable with it.”

“Unsure if you can trust your Beast?” the Advent Master offered, as if the question was to be expected.

“Well, yeah. Do Advent Beasts often appear in dreams their Rider has?”

“They will usually attempt to test their contract holder through a dream, yes,” he responded.

Sunset sighed. “Then I think I just failed one. I dreamt I was fighting monsters when mine suddenly turned on me…saying he only did it because I expected him to, and invoking a more…regrettable decision I’ve made. How sure are you that our Beasts and wild Monsters are, as Cavalier put it, ‘dogs versus wolves’?”

“Xaviax made his monsters to be an army,” the Advent Master said. “I made mine to be battle partners. It can happen—” His blurry image warped in on itself and faded completely.

“Advent Master?” Sunset said.

“No, not again,” muttered Twilight. She typed furiously for a few more seconds before stopping and sighing. The empty mirror stopped rippling. Twilight braced for a barrage of questions on the matter, but none came. She glanced over her shoulder to see Sunset just standing by the mirror.

‘It can happen’, Sunset repeated in her mind. He was in the middle of saying something else, right? He wasn’t saying that an Advent Beast might actually…

Suddenly the whistling ringing filled her head, and she put a hand over her ear and looked around. Twilight managed not to.

Sunset looked at her Deck, wishing she’d gotten a better answer, before running through the mirror.

Rainbow looked up from her hands as she heard the whistling ringing. Showtime, and not a moment too soon. She looked over to Pinkie and the two nodded. However, looking that way also gave her a view out the door’s window, where she saw Sonic Arrow from soccer practice hurrying past. Huh.

She raised her hand. “I just remembered,” she said, “I need to be at a team meeting before soccer practice, so I’ve gotta leave a bit early today.”

“Um, okay,” said Bill Neigh. Rainbow headed to the door.

“And, uh,” Pinkie added, “I need to clear some of my stuff off the field before they need to use it.”

“If you must…,” said the professor. Pinkie quickly followed Rainbow.

“Oh,” said a random student, “and can I also—”

“Sit down!” Bill Neigh ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

Fluttershy was sitting in Cranky Doodle’s class when she heard the ringing.

She had to make an excuse to leave. Oh, but what should she say? She was bad on the spot like this, and she didn’t like lying to begin with. Okay, it should be something believable, but not too suspicious. Big enough to pull her away in the middle of class, but not so big that someone would try to follow up with asking her about it later. But should it be something she could use again later? Always having the same excuse was slightly better than always having a new excuse, right? And if not repeatable, it shouldn’t be something that could too perfectly fit with escaping another situation later on. She of course had to take into account whom she was giving the excuse to, and whether they would agree with it being serious enough. Oh, but none of this was helping her actually come up with the excuse. This was going nowhere, and neither, she realized, was she.

Rainbow walked past the room, glancing in to see Fluttershy still sitting inside. Fluttershy looked over to see her through the door’s window.

Rainbow gave her a stare and flared her eyes (“Come on!”), but Fluttershy barely managed a shrug in response (“How?”). Dash threw her arms up and then facepalmed (“Never mind!”) before walking away.

Rainbow and Pinkie met up with Rarity and Applejack on the school’s front steps. A second later, the glass doors warped and Sunset jumped out on the inside, saw she was on the wrong side, then came out to meet them.

“I wondered where you’d gone,” said Rarity.

“Yeah, it couldn’t wait, sorry,” Sunset replied.

Rarity scanned the group. “Where’s Fluttershy?”

“Still stuck in class,” said Rainbow. “With her, who knows how long it’ll take to get away.”

“Let’s just let her catch up on her own when she can,” Sunset said.

“Speakin’ of which,” said Applejack, “I don’t know if I’m just not used to it yet, but it sounds like that alarm ringing is comin’ from all over.”

“Actually, yeah,” said Rainbow, looking around, “I’m hearing it from everywhere, too.”

The door warped again, and the image of Cavalier appeared. “Three different locations to be exact,” he reported.

“Three?” repeated Rainbow. “Yikes. It’s like this is happening because there are suddenly so many Riders now.”

“That’s my bet, too,” Cavalier said.

“Then there’s no time to lose,” Sunset said. “We’re splitting up. You two, you two, us two.” She pointed at Rainbow and Cavalier, Applejack and Pinkie, and then Rarity and herself. As she pulled Rarity through the door next to him, Cavalier started to raise a finger, but dropped it with a defeated sigh.

The others raised their Decks at the glass doors, colored electricity reaching down and generating their belts. Rainbow pulled her Deck back and pointed forward, Applejack held hers in place, Pinkie spun around to the left and posed with her right hand up at her left shoulder, Rarity spun her Deck up with a flourish of her wrist, and Sunset held hers over by her right shoulder, tilting its right end up slightly.

“Kamen Rider!”

* * *

“And now,” said the ORE newswoman, “over to Misty Breeze with the weather. Misty?”

“What did I tell you?” Misty said. “Not a drop of water all weekend, and we’re expecting more of the same this week. Back over to you.”

“Thank you, Misty,” the newswoman said. “In other news—”

“Honestly,” Misty’s voice sneered from off-camera, “I don’t know why they even let that Paula Haze into the weather room in the first place, she wasn’t even good as the coffee girl…wait, is this thing still on?”

Rainbow, as Talon, and Cavalier exited a mirror propped against the side of a back alley. Rainbow turned back to the mirror.

“I put those all around the Mirror World for convenience,” Cavalier answered before she could ask.

Rainbow put her hand out and looked up. Rain was falling lightly from a barely cloudy sky: a fabled sun shower.

Elsewhere in the city, Applejack and Pinkie, as Vault and Dynamo, came out of a windowfront into a courtyard surrounded by tall buildings. The sky was overcast and it was drizzling.

“Good thing my Beast is aquatic,” Pinkie said.

“I don’t think it quite works like that,” Applejack said, putting her hand above her eyes to block the rain.

“You sure about that?” Pinkie replied. Applejack turned to see that Pinkie wasn’t blocking the rain with her hand, the platypus bill visor rim already doing it for her. Applejack rolled her eyes.

Sunset and Rarity, as Leona and Grace, stood under the cement roofing at the base of a lit parking garage, heavy rain pouring from a darkened sky beyond it.

“I just wanted to continue that talk we’d started,” Sunset said.

“Thought you found another way to handle it,” replied Rarity.

“Didn’t pan out.”

“Well, maybe later,” Rarity said, looking out at the rain. “I didn’t think it was raining like this anywhere in the city.”

“It wasn’t,” said Sunset, crossing her arms. “So, the Mirror World has its own weather, does it?” Thunder rumbled, and the rain turned to a torrential downpour.

“I get so many monsters for so many Riders,” Rainbow said, looking around the alley, “but doesn’t it feel odd? Monsters should be trying to kidnap people, right? But last time, and right now…”

“What people?” Cavalier finished.

“And we’ve been led directly into the Mirror World,” she continued, turning back to him. “I’m about ready to call this a—”

An explosion erupted between them. {You don’t realize.}

A figure suddenly leapt from the downpour at Sunset and Rarity. It swung a pair of swords at them, but they ducked under the slashes and kicked the figure past them. The metal figure staggered to a stop, turning back to them. It was a dull silver with sea green legs and chest featuring a wide open vent; its arms were made of stacks of spiked metal sharktooth triangles, it had a smooth shark head with its teeth forming another vent, and it carried two long barbed swords: Abyss Lasher.

“Looks like we’ve been graduated to facing the unique monsters,” said Sunset. “Ready?”

“I think I’d like to try out my own sword for this fight,” Rarity replied.

“Suit yourself.” The two slotted their cards.
Sword Vent
Sword Vent

In a flash, Sunset’s katana flew down to her from under the ceiling, while a new sword flew in from outside and landed in Rarity’s hand: the blade was a long and skinny cone split like a bird’s beak, the front half gold and the back half silver.

“Too bad for you, monster,” Sunset said, pulling out and slotting another card, “but this new challenge has gotten me all fired up!” If I can just power through this battle quickly…
Burn Vent

She held out her left hand, and a burst of flames from her lion head slotter’s mouth set her hand on fire. The flames tracked up her arm and then across her entire body, her armor now ablaze. She flicked her sword, the lion head guard spitting flames onto the blade as well.

Sunset charged the monster, slashing down at it. Abyss Lasher crossed its swords to meet hers, a pair of spike barbs clamping onto its blade, latching it in place mid-strike. Sunset tried pushing the flaming sword to no avail, even grabbing the hilt in both hands. Abyss Lasher then unleashed a torrent of water from the vents on its chest and mouth, pounding Sunset and extinguishing all of her flames with a burst of steam, sending her rolling across the ground up to the edge of the rain outside, her sword lying beside her.

Rarity ran over, offering a hand to get up. Sunset grumbled as she took it, “Fire, water, don’t say it.”

Abyss Lasher rushed over and slashed at them both, but the girls caught its swords with theirs. Sunset shoved Rarity to the side before ducking the opposite way, letting Abyss Lasher stumble forward another step and trapping it right between them. It looked from one to the other.

Sunset slashed at it, but it easily blocked the attack. Catching on to her strategy, Rarity stabbed at its back, but the sword was so heavy she only managed a poke. Abyss Lasher turned and swung at Rarity, and while she ducked below it, Sunset took the opportunity to slash it from behind. Abyss Lasher let out a snarl before spinning around with both swords held out, forcing to the two to back off.

“Hey, Pinkie,” said Applejack, “did you hear somethin’?”

“Huh, now that you mention it…”

A blue monster jumped in between Pinkie and Applejack, slamming the large end of a staff onto the ground at their feet. Pinkie spun away as Applejack grabbed the staff and immediately started grappling with the monster over it. Making a distorted moaning sound, it had blue tentacles running across its head, a gold beak on its forehead, a bright red ‘V’ on its metal chest, and pads ringed in suction cups over its hands: Wiskraken.

Pinkie pointed at it. “Protect this world together, defend what’s right forever!”

“How many a’ those do you have ready?” Applejack asked, still shoving with the monster.

“Nineteen and counting!” Pinkie answered proudly.

“Trap, trap, trap, totally called it was a trap!” Rainbow shouted, ducking down as another explosion came from next to them.

“Which way?” Cavalier asked, quickly looking around. A green laser bolt shot past them and blasted the ground, both of them rolling back to opposite walls behind alley debris, Rainbow behind a group of trashcans and Cavalier a stack of wooden pallets. Another laser blast hit between them.

They carefully peeked over their defenses to see a Monster standing up the alley. It was metallic olive green with spiked knees, a head with a shark fin on top and a giant vent mouth, and a hammerhead shark attachment on its chest with two cannon barrels and a pair of fins sticking out as handles: Abyss Hammer. Seeing them again, it grabbed the handles and shot a laser blast, the Riders ducking again as it hit a trashcan in front of the one Rainbow was hiding behind and sent its lid and contents sky-high and raining across the alley.

“Think we’re lucky the pros got the path with the big threat?” asked Rainbow.

“Thinking they put a big threat down every path,” Cavalier replied.

Fluttershy exited with everyone else as class let out, hurrying off to find a mirror surface in a secluded corner. Classrooms were emptying, but no telling if a club was gathering in one. Even the dead end hall with the faulty light probably wasn’t lonely enough. Then she came upon the bathrooms.

Slipping inside the girls’ bathroom, a quick scan showed all stall doors ajar. She stood at the large mirror over the sinks and took out her Advent Deck.

Then she heard a tap. What was that? Was it inside or out? Must’ve been out. But then there was a creak. Was someone coming in? No, that was nothing. What’s that beating!? Oh, her heart. Wait, was that water or just wind in her ears? The vents breathed. The pipes flowed. There were more footsteps from outside. Were they approaching or—

Fluttershy slipped back out into the hallway. Everywhere seemed too risky to transform. How did the others expect them all to manage it every time they heard a Monster alarm?

“Wait,” she said to herself. “I could probably just have slipped through the mirror and then transformed on the other side, right?”

She was about to go back, but then she noticed she was passing a dark room with its door sitting just open. A place like that was likely to be empty, right? Room 401. Just like Twilight’s lab over at Crystal Prep. Could it be a sign?

Beginning to slide her Deck back out, she quickly pushed the door in, but it jerked to a stop, a clattering and splash coming a second later.

“Augh, I just—,” said a man inside, who quickly switched to frustrated muttering. As a puddle of water seeped out from under the door, Fluttershy looked in around it to see a figure moving in the darkness.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” she said. “I didn’t know you were in here.”

“No, that…,” the man muttered before giving up for a sigh, righting his mopping cart behind the door. “Things always…”

Fluttershy looked down at her Deck, then at the janitor slowly trying to clean up the spill. She thought for a moment. Then she slid her Deck back into her pocket. “Here, let me help.”

As Applejack and Wiskraken wrested for the monster’s staff, Pinkie ran up and jumped to kick Wiskraken, but the back and forth of the two brought the staff’s end swinging in her direction, catching Pinkie in the side and knocking her from the air.

“Whoops, didn’t see ya—,” Applejack started saying, but Wiskraken used her distraction to spin and pull the staff from her grasp, coming around to hit her in the back and send her down beside Pinkie.

“I’m bright pink and shiny silver,” Pinkie said, spinning back to her feet, “I’m kinda hard to miss.”

She reached down to help Applejack up, but Applejack grabbed her arm and pulled her tumbling over her as Wiskraken swung its staff down where she’d been standing.

“Oof. Thanks, but a warning helps,” Pinkie complained.

“Does it?” Applejack queried.

Pinkie groaned. “Point taken, I’ll announce my attacks so the monster can prepare and dodge twenty seconds in advance. Happy?”

The Wiskraken raised its staff at them, but Applejack kicked out and hit its shin, sending it to a knee. “Close enough,” she said, jumping up and ramming it back. Wiskraken swung again, but Applejack ducked under the staff, grabbing the monster from behind. Wiskraken made its distorted moaning again as it struggled to break the hold.

Pinkie took her time to get back up, watching as the fight progressed. “Y’know,” she said, “that’s not quite the sound I heard before.” A distorted squibbering came from behind her. “Oh, that’s it. Wait.”

A blue pad ringed in suction cups latched onto her chest, a tendril reaching from it back over her left shoulder. With a lurch, it pulled her back.

Abyss Lasher swung its right sword out to catch Sunset’s as she tried another strike, then it looked the other way to swat Rarity’s sword away with its left as she tried whatever she was doing. It turned back to Sunset and heaved to push her sword away, raising its other sword to strike, but spinning around and swinging short of an approaching Rarity.

“Maybe it’d be easier if you switched to my sword?” Sunset asked as she tried another stab, but Abyss Lasher deflected it.

“It would be easier if I were better at swordplay in general,” Rarity replied, using both hands to lift and swing her beak sword down, managing to push Abyss Lasher’s right sword to the side but leaving herself wide open. Abyss Lasher instead thrusted at Sunset, forcing her to abandon a sneak attack and knock its sword down.

“Didn’t the Advent Deck auto-download the skill?” Sunset replied back, trying to spin the monster’s blade around to trick the sword out of its hand, but it swung up and out of the maneuver. It brought the sword back down, and she jumped back.

“Knowledge of what to do, yes,” Rarity clarified. “Muscle composure to use this particular sword, not so much. I’d wager the preloaded skills predated the formation of the sword and failed to account for its…girth. It’s almost more a lance than a—”

Rarity realized too late she’d given Abyss Lasher an opening, and it kicked her in the chest, sending her stumbling away. Sunset flamed up her sword again and tried jumping in, but Abyss Lasher swung around with both swords and knocked her over to the wall of rain beyond the overhead. It spread its arms wide and released fire hose-force water cannons from its mouth and chest, blasting her out into the downpour.

Sunset crashed to the ground amidst the sudden darkness as thunder rolled overhead. Her sword had gone out again. She tried reigniting it, but against the deluge it only fizzled, and she slammed it against the ground. I can do this without needing my Beast, I know I can. Trustworthy or not, if I don’t use it, I’ll never be risking it.

She got back up, the only landmark being the lights from under the overhang. Through the rain she could see the figures of Abyss Lasher and Rarity as it turned its full attention to her. Backing out towards the rain, Rarity tried poking with her sword again, but Abyss Lasher knocked it aside and slashed her down.

Sunset started back to help, but Abyss Lasher turned to her. It stepped into the rain, and then shot to the side in a blur, Sunset immediately losing track of it. She tried looking for it through the wall of water and saw a blur sliding across her view, then back again closer, then—

Reacting to a glint of silver, Sunset brought up her sword to stop a sharktooth blade, but it quickly pulled itself back into the falling background as another came out of the rain, catching her shoulder. She swung her sword, but another blade bit her arm, and as she tried bringing it back, the pair scissored and broke the blade off her sword, dragging sparks from her chest plate. As she flinched back a step in seeming slow motion, another slash came across her chest with a shower of sparks, then another back the other way, then a thrust that sent her to the ground.

Blast Vent

Rainbow jumped out from behind her cover and threw her right arm out, a swirling column of wind shooting forward from around her forearm and hitting Abyss Hammer square on. It tilted back a bit but stomped down to steady itself, leaning into the gale and standing firm. It held onto the fin handles and fired a barrage of lasers, hitting the ground all around Rainbow. The wind funnel dissipated and she dove back behind the trashcans.
Arc Vent

Cavalier jumped up and threw a golden horseshoe that hit Abyss Hammer in the shoulder and exploded. Abyss Hammer barely seemed to notice and fired back, Cavalier ducking again as splinters of charred pallet blasted off of his barrier.

“Well, this isn’t working,” Rainbow called over.

Cavalier looked back at the mirror they’d arrived through, then over at Abyss Hammer. Thinking a second, he slotted a card.
Guard Vent

In a flash, his horseshoe-wrapped shield dropped down from the sky spinning, but it was hit by a green laser bolt in midair a second later and flew end over end down the alley.

“Dang it,” he said.

“Your plan?” asked Rainbow.

“I need a distraction so I can make it to that mirror.”

“I get it,” Rainbow said, “sometimes it’s all too much to take and you need to let a girl handle things for you.”

There was a pause.

“I’ll be coming back,” Cavalier insisted.

“If you say so,” she joked, closing her slotter.
Wing Vent

Aquileo flew overhead, in a flash dropping a small panel mounted with two large silver wings. Abyss Hammer shot it, but the wings’ overlapping feather scales diluted the impact, only pushing the assembly back. Rainbow jumped up and into the middle of it, the pack latching onto her back armor at the three connection points. As she dropped down to the ground in the center of the alley, she closed the wings tightly to block the monster’s next shot, which almost knocked her off her feet, but she dropped to her knees and dug the wings’ edges into the pavement, locking her in place.

“That good enough?” she called. No response. The wings jolted as another shot hit them. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said to herself.

She heard a mirror warp a short ways away, then an engine rev.

Pinkie was being spun around right while getting pulled back, the dark blue tendril coiling around her as she came closer to the squibbering noise. Suddenly, she stopped in the grasp of another monster like the first, but with flared tentacles on its head and a faded chest ‘V’, Bakraken.

“Oh, hi there,” she said. It squibbered in her face before shoving her back out spinning, unspooling the tendril attached at its left wrist. She was jerked to a stop at the end, the tendril stretching out before pulling her winding back into Bakraken’s grasp. “If you wanted to dance, you could’ve just asked,” she said, but Bakraken pushed her back out again, Pinkie rapidly stepping to try and stay on her feet.

Wiskraken brought its staff down, but Applejack hit the side with her elbow and it swung past her.

“I’d punch you in the face if I knew where yours was,” she said, popping up her second belt’s tray and pulling out a card, “so I’ll just settle for this.”
Pound Vent

She jumped back and caught a large orange sledgehammer falling from the sky, its head a pair of kangaroo feet set together. Wiskraken swung its staff at her again, but with one swing Applejack knocked the staff out of its grip and off to the sidelines, swinging back again and knocking Wiskraken back in a shower of sparks.

Pinkie sighed as she jerked to a stop again at the apogee of the yo-yo, but before getting pulled back and coiled up again, she pulled out a card. As Bakraken reeled her back in, she reached around and popped open the bill of the platypus device strapped to her leg, slotting the card.
Strike Vent

A pair of gauntlets resembling spread webbed feet with claws fell spinning from a pair of flashes as Pinkie approached the monster, attaching onto her hands on the final spin. She sliced through the tendril with one of the gauntlets, continuing the spin around and slashing Bakraken across the gut with both, sending it stumbling back and squibbering up a storm.

Applejack swung Pound Vent down at Wiskraken, but it grabbed the hammer’s end, the suction cups around its hand latching onto it. She tried pulling it away, but Wiskraken pulled back, the suction cups tightening their grip. Then an idea came to her. She pulled again, leaning back over her heels for maximum effect, Wiskraken pulling even harder in response. Then she let go.

Applejack fell back to the ground, letting Wiskraken pull itself over off its feet and crash down, too. It went to get back up, but found itself still holding the hammer’s end. It tugged its hands away, but they didn’t budge. Wiskraken moaned as it shook its hands and tried pulling them apart, but like a finger trap, its suction cups had pulled too tight and were stuck. Applejack casually rose to her feet and slotted another card.
Spring Vent

Wiskraken managed to get its feet under it as Applejack ran up, jumping and throwing a sideways kick as a pair of large orange boots on springs fell down to her. They attached onto her feet mid-jump, her left foot touching down and absorbing all of her momentum, the right one hitting and transferring it all to Wiskraken, the impact launching it back with enough force to tear its hands off of the hammer. The monster flew away as the hammer clattered down.

Sunset gasped before coughing, pushing herself up onto her side. Her chest plate and the tip of her broken sword were smoking, and the pouring rain running across her mask was distorting her vision. She looked up to see the dark silhouette of Abyss Lasher towering over her, raising its swords. This felt all too familiar.

That dream of hers was coming true, it its own way. The monster was different and there was actually rain now, but…there was rain.

At Abyss Lasher’s feet, a puddle of water sat shielded from the rain by the monster’s body, undisturbed enough to see a reflection. A very specific reflection staring back.

The puddle warped, and a red lion figure sprang from it behind Abyss Lasher, grabbing the monster with a piercing roar and dragging it back, the two fading into shapes amid the rain. Sunset lay there a second from shock. The shapes reached the overhang, so Sunset pushed herself up and hobbled after them, stumbling to her knees again at the edge.

Still grappling Abyss Lasher from behind, Pantheraleo roared again, flames spouting from the red vents running through its mane. In its struggle, Abyss Lasher jerked its head around a full 180, and spewed a blast of water in Pantheraleo’s face, dousing the flames and forcing him to let go and stagger away sputtering. Abyss Lasher grabbed its head and twisted it back around into place with a metallic squeal.

As Sunset pulled herself in from the rain, winded, Abyss Lasher turned to her with a guttural hiss.
Splash Vent

A group of water tendrils shot out of the downpour at Abyss Lasher, the monster turning to counter with another water blast, the two attacks hitting and stopping each other. Rarity stepped in from the rain where the tendrils had come from, holding her shoulder.

The next thing Sunset knew, Pantheraleo was crouched down next to her, reaching out. She flinched back, but he didn’t move. Remembering to breathe, she took a closer look, realizing that Pantheraleo wasn’t crouching, but kneeling, and his hands…paws…were palm-up. In a flash, a new copy of her sword appeared laying across them.

Sunset stared for a second. Pantheraleo tilted its gaze up to her.

He just saved me without being called. He was right there the whole time with this chivalrous…loyalty? She gave a smile. Silly Sunset, what were you so scared of?

She took the sword in reverse grip, nodding at Pantheraleo. It replied with a low grunt.
Guard Vent

Sunset turned to the light blue flash to see Rarity holding her shield with its extended energy rim against another of Abyss Lasher’s water blasts, her feet slowly sliding back.

“I require a slight assistance, Sunset,” Rarity cooed.

Sunset charged Abyss Lasher, igniting her sword. Cutting the water, it turned and raised its swords to meet her, but she jumped and spun left with a trailing fire slash. There was a burst of sparks and Abyss Lasher stumbled back, the top halves of its swords clattering to the ground as Sunset touched down.

She spun the sword around into a normal grip in her left hand to slash back to the right, then held it in both to slash left again, spraying sparks everywhere. Abyss Lasher staggered away, its torso smoking.

Sunset pushed her slotter open and held up a dark red card showing her gold Lion symbol over a red starburst background, Attack 6000. “I’ll finish this if you don’t mind.”

“Go right ahead,” Rarity said winded, leaning on her knees.

Sunset slid the card in. “Let’s go, big guy.” She pulled the slotter shut.
Final Vent

Pantheraleo walked up a distance behind her, fire beginning to spill from the vents in its mane, and it threw its arms wide with a roar. Flames burst from its head into the shape of a giant lion’s head with open jaws, flying forward. Sunset jumped up, the flaming head sweeping over her and dragging her along inside it, her sword igniting. She swiped it to draw an ‘X’ in front of her with its flame trail, then thrust it forward, sending the X out the lion’s mouth. Abyss Lasher let loose another water blast, but upon hitting the fire X the stream evaporated, the X stamping itself onto the monster’s chest.

As the flaming lion head reached Abyss Lasher, it opened its jaws wider, Sunset stabbing forward and impaling the monster through the center of the X. The lion head bit down, its form collapsing and forcing itself into Abyss Lasher through the stab before bursting back out again as Abyss Lasher exploded, debris flying, leaving Sunset standing there with her sword pointed forward. She tipped it down as she took a deep breath, the monster’s energy floating over to Pantheraleo. She turned to him, and he nodded back.

“Good job, you two,” sighed Rarity. “I’ll be better help next time, I swear.”

“I wonder what the others are up to,” Sunset said.

Rainbow looked over the edge of Wing Vent to see Cavalier speed past her on his Rider-morphed motorcycle, Caballkhan leaping over her head to join his charge. Abyss Hammer tried firing at them, but Caballkhan leapt over the first shot its way, and Cavalier snaked around the barrage that followed. He rode up a ramp of pallets as a pair of lasers hit it, causing a huge fireball behind him as he launched into the air. It probably looked even more dramatic from the front, Rainbow thought.

Caballkhan reached it first, leaping over it as Abyss Hammer turned to try and aim at it, but Cavalier rode in and kicked up his back wheel, spinning and smacking the monster in the back. Abyss Hammer turned back to him, but he accelerated and drove up its front as Caballkhan kicked its back, Cavalier flipping completely over and touching down, speeding forward to sweep out Abyss Hammer’s legs with his bike’s cowcatcher.

“Yes,” Rainbow muttered with a fist pump. She’d retracted Wing Vent to watch better.

Abyss Hammer pushed itself back up, grabbing at its cannon’s fin handles but missing.

“Gotta get back in on this,” Rainbow said, but then a shadow passed over her. She looked up to see Aquileo still circling overhead. On a thought, she pulled out another card, teal showing Aquileo reaching his talons out of the image, Attack 3000. “Haven’t tried this one yet,” she said, slotting it.
Drop Vent

As Cavalier revved his bike for another pass, Aquileo screeched and turned, diving right at Abyss Hammer and tackling it to the ground. He screeched and snapped at the struggling monster as he latched his talons onto it, kicking off and flying straight up high into the air before shoving it down. Abyss Hammer slammed chest-first into the ground, blasting apart on impact and sending flaming debris flying around. As its energy rose, Aquileo swooped by and absorbed it.

“Well…,” Rainbow said, “that’s OP.”

“I weakened it,” Cavalier said, looking away.

As Pinkie peeled the suction pad off her armor, Bakraken tossed out its other tendril, but swung it to slap her.

“We dance and then this?” Pinkie said. “We just met and already I’m getting mixed—hey!” She ducked as the suction pad swung by again. Bakraken kept the tendril swinging in a wide circle, swatting at Pinkie every time it came around again. She’d never get through like this. Unless…

She gave a whistle, and a pink and silver shape leapt from the sidelines with a honk. Pinkrhynch bit the tendril mid-swing and dove down into a mirror puddle that appeared below it, yanking Bakraken off its feet.

“And now,” Pinkie said, “the fin—” A nearby window warped, and two figures jumped out. “Yah! Who goes there?”

“See?” Sunset said to Rarity, “told you this was the way.”

“Oh, it’s just you,” Pinkie said. Rarity waved.

“Perfect timing,” Applejack said, taking out a card, “we’re just about all finished up here.”

Sunset looked at the Krakens as they struggled on the ground. “More water monsters?” she said to herself.

“I’ve got a gap in my attack with Pinkrink busy,” Pinkie said, pulling out a card, “anyone care to give an assist?” Bakraken pulled on its tendril, Pinkrhynch briefly surfacing before diving and tugging Bakraken back down.

“I’d like to say I accomplished something this outing,” said Rarity, sliding out a card and slotting it with the others.
Final Vent

Applejack faced Wiskraken as it staggered back to its feet, still swaying. A square mirror surface appeared on the ground behind her, the orange kangaroo Hyperboxer springing out of it before it shattered away, landing where it had been. Hyperboxer grabbed Applejack’s arms, tossing her straight up them leaping up after her. As Applejack reached the peak of the toss, Hyperboxer came up behind her; she brought up her feet, still clad in the Spring Vent boots, and Hyperboxer kicked her down at Wiskraken. She slammed it with a flat two-footed kick, Wiskraken disappearing backwards into a fireball as Applejack flipped backwards and landed in a crouch.
Splash Vent
Final Vent

“Bring ’im to me!” Pinkie called. She kicked up onto one foot and began spinning like a ballerina, her webbed gauntlets held out, and as she gained speed, she became like a spinning top with a giant buzz saw blade around the edge.

Water tendrils swirled in a sphere around Rarity as she raised her right arm; she threw it forward, and the tendrils shot out in a spiraling column, ramming Bakraken as it tried to stand up again and snapping its tendril, pushing it back into the waiting teeth of Pinkie’s attack.

As its back hit the spinning blade, there was a burst of sparks. A second later, more sparks sprayed, and then more, more and more often as the blade sped, each hit holding Bakraken in place, up until there was a constant shower. Then Bakraken exploded, the flames quickly getting sucked up into the vortex before dispersing. Pinkie dropped down to scrape her gauntlets across the ground and slow herself to a stop. Shaking her hands to make the gauntlets shatter away, she stood and stretched.

“Are you really not dizzy?” Sunset asked.

“You get used to it,” replied Pinkie.

The Kraken’s energies floated up, Hyperboxer and Pinkrhynch leaping up and absorbing them. Then the drizzle abated.

Sunset looked up. “Huh, didn’t notice it was raining here.” In the sky above, a rainbow was becoming visible through the clouds.

When it’s over, so they say…
It’ll rain a sunny day…

* * *

School would’ve been over by then, there was little point in returning. Instead, they met back up in Twilight’s lab.

“So that’s what it was all about,” Rarity said.

“The Equestrian era of reforming villains into allies came after my time,” Sunset continued. “I was the first example I ever saw of it. Knowing how tough it was from my side, I guess I just doubted if it would work in what appeared to be other cases, like Advent Beasts.”

“Huh,” Rainbow said, “guess I just went with it without thinking about that. More importantly, though, are two things.”

“First is the Mirror Monsters’ new behavior,” said Cavalier, stepping forward. “The swarm of minions followed by a group of unique monsters, neither appearing anywhere with people. Whoever’s directing them, I’d say it’s likely we’re their new targets of interest.”

“So if no one’s in danger, could we just not show up?” asked Pinkie.

“And leave them free reign?” Applejack commented. “Target or not, we’ll have to stop them, or else they might just choose one.”

“I was just saying,” Pinkie replied.

“And what’s the other thing?” Sunset asked.

“Has no one else noticed it yet?” Rainbow shot back. “Fluttershy still hasn’t shown up! She stalled so long, the battle’s ended, and now she probably just went home.”

“Perhaps it just wasn’t possible for her to leave where she was,” Rarity offered.

“And she knew the rest of us were already there,” added Applejack. “What can seven Riders do that six can’t?”

“But she’s still part of the team,” Rainbow said, “or she’s supposed to be.”

“Bit of a rule of thumb,” Pinkie piped in, “but when it comes to planning a party, you have to assume that everyone is gonna miss it for some reason and then plan around that. However likely it may be, expecting everyone to show up on time without contingencies is a setup for failure.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Rainbow sighed. “All hands on deck for all calls is clearly gonna be more an inconvenience than anything else. How come it always looks so easy on TV?”

“Here’s an idea,” said Sunset. “Why don’t we all link up a group text conversation, and then any time there’s a Monster, anyone who can go does, and they tell the rest of us who’s on the job so we know if we need to try extra hard to get away.”

“Ooh, that could work,” Pinkie replied.

“Speaking of,” Rainbow said, “OG Rider boy’s been at every Monster scene since the beginning.” She turned to Cavalier. “I think it’s high time you took a break and let the rest of us shine on our own for a bit. Get back to that secret life you’re doing so much to hide.”

“Mandatory vacation, is it?” he said. “Well, since you’re twisting my arm so much about this…”

After he turned away, she squinted at him, recalling Sonic Arrow passing the classroom window. Soccer practice was Thursdays, he shouldn’t have been out of class. Big theory number two, go.

Location: [—_ -ˆ_--]

The mysterious figure walked between rows of tables in a large, dark room that was not his normal setting. Lines of party hats sat on speckled white tablecloths, but no joy was in the air. He stopped in front of a raised stage with three statuesque figures standing on it.

“Always a favorite,” he said with a grin. With a flourish, he added, “Let’s strike up the band.” He raised a glowing hand at the figures on stage and snapped.

---

Next time, on “Kamen Rider EqG”…

12:00 AM.

1st Night.

Can you survive…mechanical instinct?
Five Diffraction Minima

Comments

[Sonic Rainboom Dash]

oh no, nonononono. jump scares are going to happen and paranoia will run rampant

[DragonxFlutter]

Woo! Great to see this back after so long! Nice use of Sunset's character!

[raven618]

So was the portal open every night before and now Twilights got it to where it will only open on the twenty eighth, twenty ninth and thirtieth days?

I'm a little confused.

[BioniclesaurKing4t2]

8830306
At first, it would be open for three days, then closed for 27, then open for another three (starting 30 days after the day the previous open period began), etc. I made a whole spreadsheet to keep track of it.

Twilight messed up the cycle by forcing the portal open off schedule. As soon as she let it close after returning, that counted as, say, Day 0, after which it gave itself a "reboot cycle" and reopened on Day 30 (the day of Chapter 4). It was then open across Days 30, 31, and 32, when Rainbow found it (end of Chapter 5) pretty much seconds before it closed again with the moon rising to the top of the sky as she left. It's set to reopen again on Day 60 by this count.

[BioniclesaurKing4t2]

8982223
Triple reference, actually. Power Rangers, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokémon.