Kamen Rider EqG

by BioniclesaurKing4t2

Chapter 9: Reflections

Reflections ƨnoiƚɔɘlʇɘЯ

Some Time Ago

It was nighttime in a residential neighborhood. All was still and quiet, save the chirping of crickets and humming of A/C units. Halfway down the street stood 626 Reference Way, its driveway empty, but otherwise the same as its neighbors. Except for the crashing sounds coming from inside.

In through the busted door, a shadow-hidden figure was waltzing around the ransacked living room and tossing an armful of porcelain plates like Frisbees. After trying to land some on the coffee table and knock the end decoration off the bannister, he expertly sent the final plate to the far end of the room to help the flatscreen off its precarious perch on the mantle. He laid his hand on the back of the Welsh dresser next to him, and it tilted over forward, glass bowls and marble figurines diving off first before the double-decker bureau followed them to the ground with a satisfying smash.

Taking a deep breath, he stood tall and observed his work. With furniture upturned and valuables broken, random objects strewn this way and that, the room had become an utter mess, as if from a moment frozen during a maelstrom, future paths unclear, a state of total…turmoil. Perfection.

As he strolled to the door, he stopped, then turned to look into a nanny cam sitting on a shelf. The man had gray skin and slick, spiny black hair with off-white sides, and he grinned widely and waved, as the perspective zoomed out from the camera’s view to reveal it was playing on a small TV, sitting next to Detective Danny Haygan opposite an interrogation table from the man in the video.

The Detective paused the video and looked at the man. “Need I say more?”

Today

A man with gray skin and spiny black hair bustled into a large dim room, shoving aside a Gelnewt in his way that was looking curiously at a ghostly white monster inside a stasis pod. He waved a hand and a holographic screen appeared floating in front of him, then made a powerful swipe that sent the display scrolling rapidly through a number of perspectives until stopping on a view inside a pizzeria.

“Now,” the mysterious figure grumbled, “let’s hope this one doesn’t take as long.”

* * *

“But who would believe me?” the man said. “I wouldn’t believe it myself.”

“I see…,” said Fluttershy.

The Next Morning, Friday

Putting on her backpack with a bagel in her mouth, Rainbow Dash prepared to leave for school before glancing over at the small TV on the counter tuned to the ORE Morning News.

“And after a full week of no new reported sightings,” the newswoman said, “it appears as if the story of the enigmatic Armored Hero has finally come to a close.”

Rainbow gave a silent grunt. “Not by a long shot…,” she whispered as she headed for the door.

Unseen, Firefly was leaning against the wall behind a doorway to the next room, overhearing her daughter’s remark. She reached up to grasp her necklace cord, pulling up a red heart pendant. She held the pendant gently but tightly, staring at it.

Rainbow waved at Sonic Arrow through the window. He didn’t respond.

She knocked on the bathroom mirror at him. Nothing.

She even made silly faces at him though his water bottle. Not even a blink.

Then again, she was in the Mirror World the whole time. Neat trick though that you could stay in the Mirror Plane itself to look through reflective surfaces whose mirror doubles weren’t in the same places.

Rainbow groaned in annoyance as she slumped against her locker. Either Sonic Arrow had the best poker face on the planet, or he didn’t actually see her and this was just another busted theory of hers. Maybe Applejack was right when she’d suggested they didn’t already know Cavalier’s civilian persona. Wait, Applejack? Hadn’t she said she had some important news?

She glanced at a clock. Dang it, she was still in the Mirror World and hadn’t heard the lunch bell! She took off, hoping they hadn’t started the discussion without her.

Everyone at the lunch table was staring agape at Applejack. She had just told them about her discovery of the recorded call at the pizzeria last night.

“Wwwhhat?” Pinkie squeaked.

“Well…,” Rarity managed to say, “now I can see why you waited. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I’d known that last night.”

“Wwwhhat?” Pinkie repeated.

“You mean all this time it hasn’t just been empty all along?” Rainbow said, reaching for her forehead. “That just…”

“Wwwhhat?” Pinkie repeated again.

“Pinkie,” Applejack shot.

“Sorry,” Pinkie said, “but, wwwhhat!”

Fluttershy just remained silent.

“Okay, mind spinning,” Sunset said, holding out her hands as if to balance, “but this is big, so we need to focus again. Other that it even just being there, how many odd things have we found out about the Mirror World?”

“Well,” Rainbow started, “first there’s the portal that, other than there being no actual portal connected, is cracked without the stone looking like it was ever hit with anything.”

“Right,” Rarity followed, “then there was that time when it was pouring in the Mirror World but this world had had clear skies for days.”

“An’ now there’s that one of the buildings ain’t even the same between the two, and it actually had working electricity,” Applejack repeated. “And a phone message! The guy on the tape said the building had generators that only switched on when the console was activated, so there’s no tellin’ how long they might’ve been just sitting there.” As the others continued with their recap, Applejack turned away in thought. But I have an idea of a way to find out…

In his lair, the mysterious figure was flipping through projected screens as usual, but more mechanically, eyes scanning but his mind pondering something else, scratching at his wiry, off-white goatee by habit. He suddenly stopped in a moment of epiphany.

“It wouldn’t be so easy, would it?” he muttered to himself.

He flipped down and back through various screen views, landing on an interior shot of Canterlot High before going through one by one with renewed interest. He stopped when the view showed a figure he didn’t expect to see.

“Oh?” he mused. “When did you get back?”

Miss Hackney stood at the front of her Statistics class, finishing up the equation she was writing on the bored—sorry, board, she often got those two confused. In truth she was as interested in statistics as her students. It was almost the end of the day, she told herself, she wouldn’t have to deal with either of them for much longer. “Now, how about you, Applejack?” she asked, turning to the class. “Have you finally figured out how to…Applejack?”

At the Riders’ Crystal Prep base, Cavalier stepped through the mirror to find Applejack talking with Twilight. Immediately they fell silent and looked to him.

“…Yes?” he probed, not sure if he wanted an answer.

“Looky what she found,” Twilight coed with feigned excitement, immediately dropping the act and turning back to her computer.

He looked to Applejack as she walked over and held up a tape player, hitting the play button.

“Uh, hello?” a familiar voice said hesitantly. “Oh hi! You made it. S-see? I told ya you’d be fine—(click)”

“Souvenir?” Cavalier asked.

“From the Mirror World,” Applejack replied casually.

Cavalier stared back silently. Applejack tilted the tape player and gave half a smirk. Checkmate.

“Truth will out,” Twilight said without turning around.

Cavalier sighed internally. “It was before my time as a Rider.”

Late That Night

“It’s what he meant when he said that Ventara had fallen to Xaviax,” Applejack explained to the group, gathered again at Pinkie’s for a cover story sleepover, after it was finally late enough to discuss safely. “He didn’t just take over, he kidnapped the entire population and sent them to his own planet as a labor force to rebuild it after a war. It was left empty, just like our Mirror World.”

“So the new ringleader did the same thing right next door only a few months ago?” Rainbow said, pulling her knees to her chest as she sat on the floor. “That’s scary just to think about.”

“Welp,” Pinkie said, tossing up her hands and flopping back onto the bed, “Applejack wins play of the game today, twice over.”

“Everything that was just sitting around,” Rainbow continued, “someone had left it there as they were going about their day. I’m feeling sorry about all the sidewalks we’re scuffing up with battles all of a sudden.”

“Where did everyone go?” asked Sunset.

“He claims he and the Advent Master don’t know,” said Applejack. “Figurin’ out who’s responsible might help with that.”

“There aren’t too many places to hide a world’s worth of people,” Rarity pointed out.

No one seemed to have more to add until Pinkie piped up, “Does this mean Equestria would have its own mirror world with more ponies?”

“Oh, right, Equestria,” Sunset spoke up, pulling out her journal. “It almost doesn’t seem important anymore, but I got a response from Twilight.” The others settled in as she read aloud:

Dear Sunset,

I pondered your question if anything in Equestria might relate to or be responsible for the Mirror Monsters even after you explained their origins better. Not only did the Canterlot Archives not mention any noteworthy creature or artifact that could directly manipulate mirrors like that to work with the Monsters, but not even Discord knows of anyone from the archaic past who ever used a power similar… though he has had a few ideas since hearing about this that I’m not looking forward to finding out about. I’m sorry, but I just don’t think Equestrian knowledge will help you in this.

Cheering from the sidelines this time,

Twilight Sparkle

“Discord?” Pinkie spoke up. “You mean the school janitor’s someone important in Twilight’s world?”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied, “when I read his name, it got me thinking. Back in Equestria, Discord had been an ancient tyrant. He took over the kingdom with reality-warping powers that turned rhyme and reason upside down. The Royal Sisters stopped him with the Elements of Harmony about a thousand years before my time, but he was still kept as a stone statue in the Canterlot Sculpture Garden. Apparently I never picked up that something more had happened with him when I was sneaking back there and now he’s…helpful, or something? If everyone in Equestria has a parallel version in this world, it would only make sense that Discord would, too. Though like with the Princesses, the time scale is a different question…”

“Well if someone in one of our worlds is controlling the Mirror Monsters,” Applejack said, “this Discord fellow a’ yours certainly sounds like a candidate. Maybe ours ain’t too far off.”

“So suddenly we’re naming suspects?” Rarity commented.

“You have other leads to run down?” countered Applejack.

Pinkie scratched her chin before scooting over to her desk.

“Because I’ve only read about him,” Sunset joined back in, “he’s not my first assumption, but based on what I read, he may as well be the first assumption in everything. I guess I just never thought about him because this world didn’t have magic, so I didn’t expect any version of him here to be a threat.”

“Well if we’re so similar to the other us back in Twilight’s world,” Rainbow said, “then I’m willing to bet that if we both have a Discord, ours could be just as bad as theirs.”

“I’ll say,” Pinkie shot in while staring at her laptop. “He’s got a record, and not the musical kind. According to this neighborhood watch website, he’s out on probation!”

Everyone looked over at that. “And he was still hired by the school?” Rainbow asked.

“What’d he get arrested for?” asked Sunset.

“Not much,” Pinkie said. She dragged her finger across the screen to read, “Trespassing, breaking and entering, vandalism, destruction of property, grand destruction of property…”

“We seem to have very different definitions of ‘not much’,” Sunset replied, deciding an eye roll was too much effort.

“Well at least he didn’t hurt anybody,” Pinkie said. “He broke into an empty house.”

“Hang on,” Rarity spoke up, standing to lean closer to the screen. “I don’t know why I didn’t recognize him before. I remember my parents following that story on the news. Well, ‘follow’ and ‘news’ are overstatements, it was only mentioned once on CMZ as a novelty story because of the oddest part of it. They said he was also tried for burglary, but the charges didn’t stick because nothing of value had been taken.”

“So you’re sayin’ he broke in to someplace,” Applejack asked, “…just to break in?”

“And trash the place,” Pinkie clarified.

“That sure sounds like Discord from what I've heard of him,” Sunset commented.

“And the school still hired him,” Rainbow pressed. “Why am I the only one having a problem with that detail?”

“Maybe it was for good behavior?” offered Pinkie.

“Actually, it was part of the school’s reform program to give nonviolent offenders a second chance. He was selected by Principal Celestia personally.”

In the silence that followed, everyone slowly turned to Fluttershy.

“And you know this…how?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh, he told me,” she replied simply.

A longer silence followed.

Fluttershy looked around the group, confused by their reactions. “I ran into him this past Monday and we started talking. He’s actually a nice guy, so it just didn’t feel right hearing that he’d done all those things. It honestly sounded like you were describing a different person when you read all that stuff.”

“Monday?” Rainbow repeated. “Hold on. You mean that while we were fighting monsters that had been waiting to ambush us, you were chatting it up with our new prime suspect for who sent them?”

Fluttershy crossed her arms. “Well when you say it like that, it sounds so suspicious.”

“Tell me meeting him wasn’t the reason you couldn’t show up at the battles,” Rainbow stressed.

“Um…,” she hesitated, “it was more sort of…our collective faults?”

Rainbow slowly facepalmed. “Fluttershy…”

It was then that the girls heard the whistling ringing echo through their heads, immediately jumping to attention. Rarity looked over to the clock to see it was midnight.

“Don’t tell me they’re doing it again,” she moaned.

But as several of them reached for their Advent Decks, all of their phones got simultaneous text pings or buzzes. Rainbow checked hers to see a custom icon of Cavalier’s horse symbol with the message, “I got it.”

“Wait, he’s part of the network?” she asked. “We have a phone number for him?”

“Before you ask,” Sunset said, “I already tried back-tracing it. It’s a prepaid phone, there’s nothing to find about it.”

“Oh,” Rainbow sighed. “Wait, is it really that easy to do that, or did you just make that up?”

Sunset simply zipped her lips.

Time : 12:X– AM 2nd Night
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Inside a dark room lit by the moonlight coming in through several large windows with open curtains along one wall, one of the windows warped. A lone Advent Cycle sprang out and bounced to the ground, its speed almost immediately taking it out of the room through a narrow hallway where it slowed to a halt. The cover opened and Cavalier’s seat lifted him to observe the eye-level line of checkerboard running along both walls. As he got out and listened for signs of a monster nearby, he noticed the scribbled drawings pinned to the walls and stopped, pressing his eyes shut for a second.

“Not this place,” he mumbled to himself.

To start his search, he entered the pizzeria’s Main Party Room 1. It was dim, but enough moonlight filtered in from the hall to reveal shapes, and he noticed the large hole in its right wall that Hyperboxer had kicked open during last night’s battle.

“Huh, that’s new.”

“Dum-dee-dum-dum-dum…”

Cavalier instinctively swung around to the back left corner in a ready stance, already knowing where that echoing singing had to be coming from. A set of starry purple curtains hung around the small corner stage under the plank of wood bearing the name ‘Pirate Cove’. They were hanging slightly open and swaying. No, that was too easy.

Cautiously, he stepped as silently as he could in his Rider armor up to the ominously unassuming curtain and, bracing for anything, grabbed and threw it wide open. Pirate Cove was empty, save for a wooden signpost in the middle reading, “Sorry! Out of Order”. The top corner was bitten off. This thing was playing with him.

Taking another scan across the room to confirm nothing was hiding in plain sight, he slowly moved to the double doors to Parts and Services. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the handles and paused. These handles didn’t twist nor did the doors latch, and he gently pulled to ease them open a crack—long red jaws burst from the darkness beyond with an earsplitting shriek trying to push the doors open, but he immediately slammed them shut again, barely keeping his footing.

The monster inside shoved and pounded against the metal doors, threatening to knock them of their hinges. Cavalier braced them with his shoulder as best he could, his feet constantly slipping on the slick tile floor as the ringing of metal scratching metal echoed inches from his ear. Not the best position to be in, but he could make it work. Somehow.

Suddenly the assault on the doors stopped and all fell silent. Cavalier sighed. At least this room was a dead end, but…wait. He leaned in to listen, hearing loudening footsteps quickly approaching. {1, 2, 3…}

Holding the doors shut with his left hand as best he could, he hastily slotted a card before—
Sword Vent

The doors burst open with a crash, knocking Cavalier over and sliding as a red humanoid fox monster dove over him, hitting the ground and tumbling into a table. A flash from above dropped a sword clattering to the ground in front of the doors. Cavalier scrambled to his feet as he slotted another card.
Guard Vent

The fox jerked itself upright, twisting to face the Rider as they caught their round shield on their left arm. The soft and worn red casing of Vulpatch hung over a dark metal skeleton of sorts that was already poking through in a few places, his single-piece mechanical feet fully exposed, with a metal hook gleaming in place of his right hand and a black eyepatch over his right eye.

Not wasting a moment, Vulpatch charged. Cavalier spun up his shield into a spinner weapon and held it out, Vulpatch running right into it and getting launched twisting off to the side in a burst of sparks, crashing to the ground; the impact had lurched his shield to a stop. Hmph, was this it? If the monster was that dumb, what was he worrying about before? He went to find his sword again.

Without missing a beat, however, Vulpatch hooked into the ground and reverse threw itself to its feet, in the same motion launching itself at Cavalier. He looked back just in time to partly spin his shield up again, but Vulpatch tackled onto it, grabbing the rim. His left hand was quickly shredded to the metal skeleton, but his hook dragged across the shield’s face, spits of sparks flying, and brought it to a stop.

Vulpatch snapped at Cavalier’s face over the shield with a harsh growl, its eyepatch popping up. Improvising, he detached the shield and kicked it away, trying to catch the monster off guard. Vulpatch was only forced a step back and simply dropped the shield. It leapt at Cavalier, who quickly ducked sideways letting Vulpatch loudly crash into a row of tables. Spotting the metal glint, he raced over and grabbed up his fallen sword, bringing it up to see Vulpatch already streaking at him again with a metallic shriek.

It was after midnight, but Discord was wide awake. Night seemed to call to him more, it felt more comforting, away from the light where things could be seen clear as day, things in his past he didn’t want seen. It was terrible for a job that started as early as his, but he needed this one to work.

His gray skin blended in with the paleness of everything else in the dim light, the scraggly off-white beard he’d shaved last week didn’t look so rough, and his black hair fading with age could better hide how unkempt it was.

As he thought again about what kept him up most nights, he found himself thinking back to when he’d recently told someone else who, for the first time ever, didn’t dismiss his words outright.

“I hope you don’t mind my asking,” Fluttershy had said during one of their conversations that week, “but why exactly were you mopping the floor in a totally dark room?”

“It’ll sound silly to you,” he replied, “but it was so I couldn’t see my reflection. It’s quicker than taping newspapers over everything.”

“What’s wrong with your reflection?”

“That’s the thing,” he sighed. “It feels like it’s… taunting me, or something. I don’t know how to describe it. I don’t even understand it. I just remember the times it felt like it was playing tricks with me.”

Fluttershy paused a moment. “What was it like?”

“It all started just after my conviction,” he recounted. “They had me on camera, but I knew I was never there, and then suddenly I’m seeing things that look real but turn out to be reflections and reflections that turn out to be real and I can’t tell the difference anymore. And at that point, can I really be sure I didn’t do all that? And if I didn’t, then why can I watch me doing it?”

“That sounds like an awful thing to go through. Someone faked evidence against a friend of mine once. If you think someone may have done that to you, you have to say something, even if it is this late.”

“But who would believe me? I wouldn’t believe it myself.”

“I see…,” Fluttershy said. “If it’s any consolation, I at least believe that the you I know wouldn’t do that.”

“Thank you,” he said. “I needed to hear that.”

Gripping the sword’s hilt and horseshoe crossguard, Cavalier took a step forward and thrust his blade out, Vulpatch charging into it with a blast of sparks from its gut. Cavalier swung sideways, sending Vulpatch away and tearing off part of its torso casing, revealing its lower spine through its stomach.

Somehow unfazed, Vulpatch immediately rushed at Cavalier again, the surprised Rider shouldering it back before raising his sword and bringing it down on the monster’s left shoulder, the spray of sparks revealing more of its endoskeleton. Now knowing better than to give it even a second, he swung again and raked across Vulpatch’s chest and right arm, ripping off more casing.

Vulpatch tried swinging its hook, but Cavalier dropped down and slashed its lower legs, stripping off their casing and knocking the monster to the ground. Surely that did something.

But the battered Vulpatch was already reaching at him again with its stripped metal hand. He swatted it away with his sword, retreating away to not get cornered against the wall. He glanced at the door out, but quickly dismissed the idea of facing this thing in the cramped hallway.

The instant he came back from his glance, Vulpatch was swinging its hook at him. He held his sword up for defense, but Vulpatch snagged the blade with its hook, in the same action twisting and pulling the hilt out of his grip, sending the sword flying across the room and clattering into the darkness.

Running purely on Advent Deck-downloaded reflexes, Cavalier leaned away from another hook swing, during this pulling open his slotter with the same hand motion that slid out a card, and kicked Vulpatch back another step to safely slot the card.
Arc Vent

Vulpatch lurched itself at Cavalier and swung its hook again as a golden horseshoe dropped from a flash above them, Cavalier’s hand and Vulpatch’s hook grabbing it at the same time. Vulpatch tore it out of Cavalier’s hand and sent it flying away, too, drawing back for another strike. But it heard the pulsing whoosh of the spinning horseshoe getting louder. Vulpatch’s head pivoted towards the sound, his jaws springing open in surprise as the golden boomerang flew at his face; he leapt up and bit it out of midair and it exploded, the force folding him to the ground.

Cavalier panted as he backed away, groaning as Vulpatch planted its feet and lifted itself back upright with a broken hissing screech. Its left ear and forehead were stripped to the robotic core, its eyepatch had melted open to reveal glowing white pinpricks where its eyes had been, and its jaw now hung unhinged, slapping shut with each motion.

“Do you ever stay down!” he shouted at it.

“You mean you actually believed him?” Rainbow groaned.

“Well, I didn’t not believe him,” Fluttershy said. “He sounded sincere, even if there was a lot of evidence against him.”

“Evidence?” Rarity repeated. “They had him on video, darling, I’m afraid I’ll have to side with Rainbow on this one. That’s not evidence, that’s proof.”

Pinkie called from the desk, “I could probably find it online if you wanted to see it for yourself.”

“But he said he was nervous about something in his reflection,” Fluttershy pointed out. “Don’t you think that could be relevant to all of this? That there was a side to the case the police didn’t know about? Couldn’t investigate?”

“Exactly!” Rainbow shot back. “He all but straight up told you he knew about the Mirror World. The rest could just be an act!”

“Monsters started following you around after you found out about the Mirror World,” said Fluttershy. “What if he’s another victim? Maybe he knows too much and doesn’t realize it. What he said clearly paints him on the receiving end of any mirror tricks.”

“That’s exactly what he would say if he knew we were the Riders to keep us off his trail,” Rainbow countered.

“Okay, now you’re getting ahead of the evidence,” said Rarity. “Could it just be he’s a paranoid ex-con whose Equestrian counterpart just so happened to be one of the most powerful magical beings to ever…okay, I see how this is sounding now. But it’s still all just speculation on our parts.”

“Speculation that rather conveniently falls into place, I’m just saying,” defended Rainbow.

“The last time speculation conveniently fell into place,” Fluttershy casually observed, “you were convinced Cavalier was Flash Sentry.”

Rainbow silently growled back.

“Look, it’s getting late and everyone’s a bit tired,” Sunset cut in before claws came out. “Let’s all just sleep on this and get back to it later.”

Rainbow sighed. “Yeah, fine, alright.”

As everyone maneuvered towards their sleeping bags for the night, a nagging thought drew Pinkie’s mind back to her phone.

Cavalier crashed onto a table at the far end of the room, breaking through it to the floor. He heard Vulpatch’s attacking shriek again as scratching metal footsteps rapidly closed in. He needed a new angle, he had to escape and regroup. But before he could act, the white pinprick eyes leered down at him as he was hoisted by the neck with a metal grasp, a hook scratching sparks from his chestplate to send him right back down.

In desperation he grabbed at anything, even just a piece of the broken table. His hand wrapped around something with a switch, and on reflex he aimed it at Vulpatch and clicked. The flashlight sent a blinding glare through the darkness, and Vulpatch recoiled with a harsh shout and froze stiff, its eyes blinking out.

Cavalier let himself go limp for a second and sighed. He didn’t care why that worked, but it did. He got up as quietly as he could and without bumping Vulpatch, keeping an eye on it as he slipped by, but as he turned for the door, the fox’s pinprick eyes slowly lit up again.

Turning at the slightest sound, Cavalier flashed the light again and caught Vulpatch inches away, crying another harsh shout and freezing again as it tried shielding its eyes. This was no good. Cavalier quickly scooted over one of the remaining tables and set the flashlight on it, keeping its light trained on Vulpatch.

Satisfied for the reprieve, he shuffled through the debris towards the door, noting the pair of balloons floating at one of the few tables not destroyed by two nights of battles but thinking nothing of them. He was more concerned with Caballkhan tripping over the tables or the monster’s kamikaze tackle avoiding his lance.

Unfortunately, the constant light was a bad idea to counter Vulpatch. The sudden bright flash had triggered an auto-restart, freezing him briefly, but prolonged exposure lost its potency and only served to push him into a new setting, his eye pinpricks beginning to sear up red. Cavalier was almost at the door when a shrill screech of rage stabbed his ears, turning to see the flaring red-eyed Vulpatch halfway here thundering across the room at—
Spur Vent

A pink and silver platypus monster leapt paddles wide with a screech from the sidelines, tackling onto Vulpatch and swinging its back feet up to stab it in the chest and back with its spurs.

Vulpatch shrieked and swung its hook, catching Pinkrhynch in the face and peeling him off. He tumbled to the floor, quickly scurrying to a mirror puddle appearing in front of him and diving in. Vulpatch staggered with a whine, swaying as a web of glowing pink cracks stemmed out from the spurs’ impact points, their immobilizing venom spreading. Finally, Cavalier thought, the chance he needed.
Final Vent

With no windows or mirrors about, a glass square appeared on the ground near Pirate Cove for Caballkhan to leap out of, shattering again as the steed landed. He charged as Cavalier leapt up into his saddle, shield and lance flying into his hands from a pair of overhead flashes.

Struggling against its growing paralysis, Vulpatch contorted painfully to face them, its head twisting sideways as it gave one last banshee cry before Cavalier’s lance impaled into its chest, shoving it down and dragging the monster’s back across the ground with a wake of sparks. Caballkhan reared up with a loud mechanical neigh, Cavalier hoisting the lance skyward as an energy pulse ran up it, hitting Vulpatch with an explosion that lit the room.

Dust and scraps rained as Caballkhan stamped back down. Cavalier turned to see Pinkie in her Dynamo armor leaning against the wall. “Thought I said I had it,” he called over.

“You were taking too long,” Pinkie replied, “we got worried.”

“How sweet,” said Cavalier. Then he added, “Thanks, by the way.”

“No problem!” Pinkie sent back with a thumbs-up. But she paused, snapping, “Dang it, I forgot a catchphrase this time.”

Cavalier looked around at the charred remnants of the monster, waiting for but not seeing any energy appearing like usual. “Must not be the kind to release energy,” he said. “Alright, let’s go. This place is spooky.”

“Oh?” Pinkie piped up. “Do I hear someone being scared?”

“No.”

* * *

Some Time Ago

In the interrogation room, Discord stared at the video in disbelief. As the image of him turned and grinned at the camera, he dropped his head into his shaking hands.

The Detective paused the video and turned to him. “What else can I say?”

Then came the bang of the judge’s gavel.

Next he knew, he was sitting alone on the cement bench of a holding cell, face in hands. He had just seen footage of himself committing a crime, but knew it couldn’t have been him. It wasn’t him…was it?

“I’m telling you, I never did that!” he whimpered aloud as if his case were still undecided. “That can’t be me on there.”

“Lemme guess,” said the guard leaning against the bars, “it was a one-armed man, right?” The guard’s walkie-talkie beeped, and he took it out while shuffling away.

“But it wasn’t me…,” Discord muttered. But who could look just like him?

He turned away from the bars, perhaps to convince himself he actually wasn’t here right now, only to freeze. Sitting at the other end of the bench, looking right back at him, was him. Another him.

His breathing turned shaky. This was a hallucination, right? How was that better? Some trick of the light, then? He moved his hands down to the bench. So did the other him. He stood up. So did the other him. He took a shaky step towards the other him. So did he.

Step by step he approached this doppelganger, reaching out as he did. Closer. Closer. It sure felt colder in here than before. Their hands were almost touching, both looking equally scared. Truth or madness, truth or madness. He pushed his hand forward.

And hit glass. It was a mirror at the end of the cell. His shaking hand smeared its fingerprints across the reflecting surface that was now clear to discern.

Discord turned away from the mirror, even more shaken than before, drawing short sharp breaths and covering his face with both hands to hide from the world, hide from himself. Bit by bit, he was losing his grasp, his safe reality. Why him. Why him?

Then his reflection stopped sobbing, lifting its head. It looked back over its shoulder, and its mouth stretched into a grin.

Now

In the Party Room, again unseen as the Riders left, the blue and yellow balloons tied to chairs were now joined by a third balloon on the next seat in line. Red.

At the center of the room, Vulpatch’s sizzling debris began to spark. A surge of voltage sprang out and condensed into a pulsing ball of yellowish energy. As if tugged by an invisible force, it slowly floated over to the side, drifting through the doors to Parts and Services, swirling black dust from across the room flowing to follow it. Then a humanoid metal framework sitting on the counter slipped off and fell into the pile, a bright flash shooting through the doors’ foggy circular windows.

What was left on the floor of Parts and Services appeared to be a vaguely connected mangled mess of black metallic limb segments attached with no rhyme or reason. A 3-jointed arm suddenly reached up out of the pile, its white hand shooting forward and grabbing the reader’s face

---

Next time, on “Kamen Rider EqG”…

3rd Night.

That one was always a bit…‘twitchy’.

“I am out for you. Take a bite out of you…”

“…the moment when my jaws…close down on you…”
Warped Image

Comments

[DragonxFlutter]

Hey! This is back! Awesome!