Crossing Over
Canterlot High, a rather peaceful place, or at least that was what you could mistake it as when you just passed by it. But it was anything but that. It had been the focal point of magical attacks even before the city was really affected, but strangely the moment the Corrupted, monsters that were created by corrupting ordinary people with magical artifacts, appeared things more or less died down around here. That was until a week ago. A Corrupted had apparently decided that this would be her new stomping ground for whatever reason. Not that he really cared why she was here only about the fact that he would make her leave, he was after all this city’s Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Alchemy.
He had come to this city just because his family wanted him to, collect magical energy to recreate an old family heirloom, something he never really cared for, but he had found something different here, a purpose. He had fought the Corrupted time and time again, recreated the lost heirlooms of his family and even created a Philosopher Stone, something not even his ancestors had managed. But most important, he had become a Kamen Rider. A life of constant action… or at least that was what people believed.
“You really think this will work?” Phoenix sighed, his eyes already half closed. With his orange skin and red hair, someone could assume that he would like that the air around him was stale and hot, but no he, in fact, felt like he was currently being cooked alive. Well, that was to be expected when you cram four people into a small black van two streets away from the school.
“Oh, it worked once already, so why not a second time? Or do you have any better ideas?” Ocean returned, a woman with whitish blue skin and hair that was a mixture of dark blue and lighter blue. She was not even trying to hide her own frustrations with the whole situation as sweat dripped from her forehead.
“You really couldn’t have gotten a van with an air conditioner?” He tried again, wiping his own sweat off his forehead.
“Shut it, this is the standard issue surveillance van, that is all I got, so could you please stop complaining? I’m even gonna order us a pizza later today, thought of a new combination, you’ll love it, trust me. And after that we can enjoy the evening, how does that sound? But only if you stop complaining, got it?” She said, with a resigned sigh.
This managed to grab his attention. “A new combination? Oh, do tell what abomination you will create today?” He chuckled, but only got a raised eyebrow in return.
“Oh, abomination? Well, I could always eat it myself and-” that was as far as she got until Phoenix managed to interrupt her.
“Ok, fine, fine you win. I’ll take it back, you are the ‘Master-of-the-weird-combinations-that-really shouldn’t-work-but-do-somehow’, happy now?” He returned, with a loud groan.
“Interesting title,” she chuckled in return.
“It’s a work in progress, ok?” Phoenix huffed back, crossing his arms with a frustrated frown on his lips.
“Aww, I was about to say that you shouldn’t beat yourself up over something like this, but... Ok, you are just too cute when you look like this,” Ocean returned, trying to suppress a giggle.
“Can you two do this later?” Both of the heard from behind them, and of course from Pinecone, and he looked just as grumpy as ever with his light brown skin and dark brown hair. “You can do whatever you want when you are alone, but not here. This is already weird as it is, we don’t need you two to make it worse,” he grumbled, his arms crossed in annoyance.
“I second that,” came from the last person in the van, Shining Armor. “I really don’t want to offend you, but this is getting uncomfortable,” the young police officer said, a slight blush on his cheeks. ”And a bit weird. We are observing a school, and you two making out in here is just… just... weird!”
“Oh, really Shining? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t object if this were another school? One like I don’t know, Crystal Prep with their principal? What was her name again? Cad-”
And that was where Shining burst in, his cheeks bright red as well as his eyes directed to the floor. “Shut it!” Instead of silence he just received a good amount of laughter from Phoenix and Ocean, Pinecone instead kept this eyes firmly locked onto the monitors in front of him.
Neither of the other three did notice when he raised his voice: “Uhm, I think-” But his voice was quickly drowned out by the laughter of his ‘friends’. “Hey, there is-” Again, they just weren’t listening, Pinecone’s expression going from annoyed to pissed in a matter of moments until he finally slammed his fist onto the wall of the van. “Hey, guys! I think I can see our target!” This finally got their attention, all three quickly turning around and staring at the monitor in front of them.
And indeed, there she was, a white humanoid fox clad in what was unmistakably a Neighpone kimono, the piece of clothing almost as white as her skin, intersected with red flowers and other patterns stitched onto it. Her face was covered by a mask that was equally as white but covered in red lines. A katana was tied to her waist and swung with every step she made. Her shoes had been replaced with what looked like wooden sandals and two long fox tails extended from her back. The oddest thing, however, was something else, long stripes of silk that were hanging from her arms, but instead of dragging on the ground were hovering a few centimeters over it.
“Well, it seems this did work… Well, if we can beat her, that is,” Phoenix muttered, in equal parts glad that this was finally over and at the same time he knew that Ocean would not let this down for over a week,
“Well, if we stand around all day we probably won’t,” Pinecone returned with his usual dry voice.
“Good point,” Phoenix returned before all three stormed out of the back door, landing on the street below them, a few pedestrians looking at them quite confused, that was until they put on the Drivers and inserted their respective transformation trinket into them.
\ MAGIC DISC DETECTED! /
\ SCANNING CHARGE! /
\ UNLEASH THE MONSTER! /
“Henshin!” They all screamed in unison.
\ FLAME DISC ACTIVATED! /
\ 50, 80, 100! THUNDER CHARGE! /
\ AWAKEN: MANTICORE! /
After the flaming whirlwind around Phoenix, the electrical sphere of energy around Ocean and the ethereal manticore that had consumed Pinecone all faded away the people started to take pictures and filming the whole spectacle. It was not every day that one could see the three heroes of Canterlot City in the flesh like this, the three Kamen Riders, Alchemy, Charge, and Monster. Alchemy was clad in red armor with golden lines accenting it rather nicely as well as a long cloth that reached down to his shines. His shoulders were decorated with three feathers each, and on his head, one could see two large green eyes as well as two flame formed horses.
Charge, on the other hand, was clad in her electric blue armor which consisted of a blue undersuit with silver plates intersected by black lines all over it. On her legs, one could see blue tubes that stood out from the silver surroundings. Two red bug-eyes looked at the path ahead of her.
The monster had taken on his emerald green form, two massive scorpion tails decorating his shoulder pats while his body was covered in plates of varying shades of green. On his neck, where his arms went over into his hands and around the end of his boots one could see light brown fur, all while the face of an angry lion with glaring red eyes stared back at one.
The Riders, however, ignored the fascinated onlookers without even much of a second thought, right now there were bigger fish to fry or foxes for that matter.
After a small sprint, the three Riders reached the school grounds, something that would have been easy to find even without the fact that they knew where to go, the running and screaming students were a good indicator where the Corrupted was at any given moment. And indeed, the Corrupted was exactly there where the students had fled from, in front of the school building, scaring off the last few idiots who hadn’t managed to get away yet.
“Finally, and I thought these imbeciles would never leave,” she groaned in annoyance, letting one of her cloth strips chase after the two last students only for it to crash into the ground a few steps behind them, letting the of them run even faster. “So, after that is done, how about I start what I came here for in the first place, m’kay,” she chuckled and turned away from the fleeing students, walking calmly towards a statue that stood right in front of the school.
“There you are my beauty. It’s time for you to give me what I desire,” she hissed, two red eyes flaring up behind her mask and she extended her arms out towards the statue. That was until she suddenly a sting on her right hand. In and she jumped back, rubbing her hand in a mixture of shock, fear, and annoyance.
“Hey Foxy, how is it going? It seems you like it here, so often how you come by, am I right? Miss school or something?” Alchemy shouted towards the Corrupted who just glared back at him, or at least that was what it looked like, quite hard to figure out facial expressions when someone was wearing a mask.
“Why? Why do you always get in my way?” She hissed, stopped rubbing her hand and instead let it disappear inside of the sleeve of her kimono, something Charge was none too happy about. Another shot headed directly towards the Corrupted, however, she hadn’t expected that it had learned. Instead of another yelp in pain, the shot was just blocked by one of the floating cloth stripes. This managed to get her enough time to retrieve something from her sleeve.
“You really think you can just waltz in here and ruin my show? Especially you Alchemy, that you have the nerve to show your face to me is just disgusting, or how was it again Phoenix Feather. Doesn’t sound so scary after all, right?” The Corrupted chuckled in a rather smug tone, one that quickly got grading before she held out what she had just retrieved from her sleeve, a strange necklace in the form of a flame.
“Aha, and what is that? Your new fashion collection or something?” Alchemy returned, continuing to rush towards the Corrupted, dodging the attacking pieces of cloths that she was throwing his way. “As if I would be scared of a little necklace.” He continued, keeping a close eye on it at all times, he knew that this would probably just cause more problems if he wasn’t fast enough to get it out of her hand before she did goodness knows what with it. That was when he heard another shot zooming past him, and before he even noticed what had happened, he heard a loud scream from the Corrupted, clutching her hand while letting out a deafening screech.
While wounded she still had managed to hold onto her necklace, if she could have grinned she would have, this was a sign, a sign that things were finally going her way. She tightened her grip on the necklace and within a few moments the first crack started to appear, then the second then the next until ultimately… CRACK!
Then everything happened really fast, the necklace shattered, letting out a blinding red light that quickly scattered and crashed to the ground, covering the entire courtyard of the school in a cloud of thick dust. At first, none of the Riders could even see their own hands in front of them, just silhouette and nothing else. Then the first one popped up in the dust cloud, large hulking and it looked like a man in rather bulky armor was staggering towards him, then another one and another one until they had been surrounded by these metallic monsters, Remnants.
“Oh, of course, what else? Seriously, you guys are just cannon fodder, so why even bother. Just let us kill you and we all win, well you lose, but that is beside the point,” Alchemy sighed in frustration after he dodged the first strike of his opponent, the ground under him being hit with the full force of his opponent, and quickly was turned into even more dust that made it even harder to see. If he didn’t know better, he might have thought these things were learning, but that would be ridiculous, right?
Monster and Charge meanwhile were trying to figure out in which direction Alchemy had rushed off, something not made easier by the cloud of dust around them and of course the Remnants. “You know where this idiot rushed off to?” Monster growled while impaling one of the Remnants with his whip, pulling it back afterward to strike down the next unlucky fool who dared to attack him.
“Don’t know, but probably where the most noise comes from, it’s generally a good way of finding him,” Charge returned, unloading a full magazine of her Charge magnum into the eye of a Remnant, the remains of the Monster quickly exploding afterward.
While both of them tried to find a way to their comrade Alchemy was still pretty lost, he had no idea where the Corrupted had gone to, and he was not ready to repeat this a fourth time. That was when the next Remnant jumped at him, surprising the Rider with its agility. “Ok, I get it, you are annoying, can we stop this now?” He shouted as he tried to wrestle the rather heavy monster of him, with rather limited success. “Ok, how about this then?” He shouted at the uncaring construct that had gotten ahold of him as he ripped the Magic Disc from his Driver.
\ Flame Disc Attack Mode! /
\ Flame Saber! /
The Disc now having formed into a katana-like weapon with it as a hilt he turned around the blade and pierced through the body of the Remnant, its grip finally loosening and falling to the ground behind him. “Ha, serves you right. I don’t offer piggyback rides, at least not for you! So, where is Foxy?”
But not only Alchemy was getting quite annoyed by this whole ordeal. Charge had been stormed by Remnant after Remnant with no sign of an end in sight, she had enough, especially with this damn dust. “Monster, cover me, I’m gonna let the sun back in!” She shouted towards the Rider just a few meters away from her. He gave back an affirmative grunt and continued his attacks on the Remnants, all while Charge removed her Thunder Charger from the Driver and replaced it with another one, quickly spinning the cylinder on her Driver afterward.
“Charge up!”
\ 50, 80, 100! WIND CHARGE! /
Her form changed, now instead of the sleek blue and silver her armor had consisted before she now was clad in emerald green and two massive propellers extended from her back, propellers that were quickly put to good use blowing away the dust that had clouded their vision until now.
It only took a few seconds till their sight had been restored and to their relive there were only six Remnants that had survived the slaughter, and they basically jumped into Alchemy's and Monster's arms who took care of them rather quickly, that only left the Corrupted.
After a few seconds wasted with looking around their eyes locked onto the Corrupted, right in front of the statue and… what was she doing? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good, energy was flowing from the statue towards her. There was no time to be wasted, all three riders rushed towards her, that however was already too late.
The Corrupted who had until now remained and concentrated suddenly screamed out in a scream of agony, much to the surprise of the Riders. What followed next came entirely out of left field, the entire courtyard was consumed in a blinding light, swallowing everything caught within it.
As the light subsided the only things remaining were the signs of the battle, but none of the combatants, just an empty and silent courtyard. “Ocean? Ocean, can you hear me? Ocean!” Shining screamed into his headset, but nothing. No response, no answer, no nothing. “Oh, this can’t be good,” he finally sighed, letting himself sink back into his chair, his forehead covered in wrinkles.
00000
The next day, a universe away in another version of Canterlot that was set in the middle of a desert. Three young women were seated in a living room. A pale skinned girl with pink and purple hair was resting her head on the shoulder of a darker skinned young woman with short purple hair as she smiled softly. The third had tanned skin with red hair and was looking over something on her phone.
“Weird, Applejack said she was gonna text me earlier,” the tanned girl said as she put her phone away. “Yah don’t think somethin’ happened, do yah?”
“Nah, I’m sure she just got caught up in something with Rarity or Honey, Apple Bloom,” the dark-skinned girl said as she squeezed her friend lightly. “I’m sure they’re okay.”
“Yeah, probably,” Apple Bloom said with a sigh as she leaned back and closed her eyes. “So, ya’ll are finally gonna tie tha knot huh? Ah’m amazed it took yah this long Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo blushed a little as she gave her fiance Sweetie Belle a gentle kiss on the forehead. “Yeah, and I couldn’t be happier, just a shame that we got caught up in everything so we couldn’t celebrate it properly.”
“Mmm, but we more than made up for it last night, isn’t that right?” Sweetie said with a grin as she kissed Scootaloo.
“Yes, way more than enough,” Scootaloo said with a grin as she rubbed her nose against Sweetie’s. “I love you, Sweetie.”
“I love you too Scoots,” Sweetie said and was about to say something when there was a knock on the door.
“Oh thank goodness, that’s gotta be the pizza guy,” Apple Bloom said as she got to her feet, the last thing she needed was the image of her two friends going at it in her head. “Where’s the cash?”
“On the table,” Scootaloo said as Apple Bloom picked the cash up and looked through the pinhole and blinked a little before opening the door to find no one there. “Hello, is anyone there?”
“Auntie Apple Bloom!” A cheery voice said as a girl with tanned skin and red and red and yellow hair ran up and hugged Apple Bloom tightly. “It's so good to see you again!”
“Hey Honey,” Apple Bloom said as she ruffled the girl’s hair as a pale-skinned woman with curled purple hair and a tanned woman with long blonde hair came into view. “Applejack, Rarity, Ah didn’t expect ta see ya’ll here.”
“Well, after Scootaloo talked to us about wanting to propose to Sweetie…” Rarity said.
“About time if yah ask me,” Honey said with a giggle.
“Yes, of course, Honey darling,” Rarity said with a chuckle. “We had some time off from work coming up, and we thought we could come to visit. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you we were coming, but we wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Ah told Rares we should’ve told ya’ll,” Applejack said with a chuckle as they headed into the apartment together and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked up and smiled a little when she saw them enter. “Howdy ya’ll, how’s tha newly engaged couple doin’?”
“About as good as can be expected with everything else that’s going on,” Scootaloo said with a sigh as Honey ran up and hugged the two of them. “Oof!”
“Ah can’t believe yer really gonna be mah auntie Auntie Scootaloo!” Honey said with a smile as she hugged them tightly. “This is so awesome!”
“Sorry, she’s been really excited ta get here,” Applejack said with a chuckle as she ruffled her daughter’s hair as Sweetie Belle smiled a little. “We’re happy fer ya’ll and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy send their regards too Scootaloo.”
“How are you holding up?” Rarity asked as she took a seat in the chair opposite the couple. “We’ve been following that Riderwatch blog as well as the news reports about these monster attacks, but we don’t know much else.”
“It hasn’t been easy, I’ll tell you that much,” Scootaloo said with a soft sigh. “Though I guess it kind of helps that I’m not doing this alone, or that I know that I’m not the only one who’s had to do something like this. Still, it's a lot of pressure and I’d probably have cracked under it if it wasn’t for Sweetie and Apple Bloom.”
She smiled a little as she reached over and gripped her fiance’s hand gently.
“Well, Ah’m glad our sisters have been able ta help yah out,” Applejack said with a smile as there was a knock on the door. “Are yah expectin’ someone?”
“Oh, we ordered a Pizza from this place downtown, it's probably just them,” Sweetie Belle said as she grabbed the money off the table again and headed for the door. She opened the door where a man dressed in a delivery outfit with the name Magnum Opus stitched on it. He had red and orange hair as he took out the pizza.
Apple Bloom took out the cash and took the pizza before heading back in. She frowned a little bit as she saw Scootaloo was talking on the phone and she didn’t look happy.
“What’s goin’ on?” She asked.
“It's from…” Sweetie started to say before she looked over at her sister and sister in law. Given the secrecy of what was going on, she had to keep the identity of the caller secret even from them. “It’s related to Justice, one of our contacts, you know?”
“Oh, of course,” Rarity said with a slight frown as Scootaloo hung up. “I was hoping that we could at least have a few days together. Is everything going to be okay?”
“Yeah, sorry I have to go,” Scootaloo said with a soft sigh. “There’s something going on at the High School that I need to check out, Amores is already on her way there. I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
“It's alright, just kinda disappointin’,” Applejack said. “Are yah gonna be okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Scootaloo said as she headed into her bedroom that she shared with Sweetie and picked up a silver device with golden moon symbols and a red circle in the center as well as a box with cards in them. She headed back out and gave Sweetie a quick kiss on the lips and smiled a little. “Don’t worry, its probably nothing to worry about, I’ll be back soon.”
“Alright, take care,” Sweetie said as she kissed Scootaloo back. “Go get ‘em, okay?”
Scootaloo nodded as she headed out of the apartment and down towards her car downstairs. She climbed in and took off towards the High School.
00000
“What’s going on?” Scootaloo asked as she approached a woman with light skin that was dressed in black and had pink and blue hair. “All Fancy Pants said was that there was an energy surge from outside the school.”
“Last night we had a run-in with, some sort of fox monster here too,” Sweetie Drops said as she frowned a little. “She ran off before we could stop her, but she wasn’t an Order monster.”
“Then what was she?” Scootaloo asked as she blinked a little in confusion.
“We don’t know, it’s not like anything we’ve seen before,” Sweetie Drops said with a shake of her head as she placed her hand on her pocket. “We just got a minor surge from the same location, that statue outside the school.”
“Isn’t that the one that Fluttershy and the other Tempest Shadow went back to their home from?” Scootaloo asked and Sweetie Drops nodded. “Figures, alright, no use in taking chances I guess, right?”
“Right,” Sweetie Drops said as she took out a device similar to the one Scootaloo had. They placed them on their waists and belts made out of the same metal formed around their waists “Let’s do this.”
“Henshin!” They said in unison as they slid cards into the slots in their devices.
The red circles at the center shone brightly as energy flowed out of them, black and green for Scootaloo and red and pink for Sweetie Drops.
“TIME TO TIP THE SCALES!”
“LOVE CONQUERS ALL THINGS!”
The energy coalesced around Scootaloo as it formed into armor. It was mostly black with a green chest plate. The helmet had two antennae coming out of it with red glowing eyes and a silver mouthpiece.
Sweetie Drops’ armor was brilliant red and covered with pink markings. Her helmet had hot pink eyes but lacked the same antennae as Scootaloo’s, instead, her mouth had appendages that formed the mouthpiece of the helmet.
“Wow, that was fast, we just beat the last one yesterday,” a female voice said in Sweetie Drops’ head. “What’s going on?”
“We don’t know, that’s what we’re here to find out, Lyra,” Sweetie Drops said as she pulled back on an ornately designed bow. “Be ready for anything, okay?”
“Okay,” Scootaloo said with a nod as she gripped the sword in her hand. “What're the readings telling us?”
“Whatever it is, it’s getting close, we need to be ready,” Sweetie Drops said as she pulled back and an energy arrow formed in her bow.
Then it happened everything all at once, the readings skyrocketed, only to be outdone by the blinding light that quickly enveloped the entire courtyard in front of them, letting the two women avert their gaze from the statue, not that they could see it anyway. “Ok, that is new. What is that?!” Lyra screamed out, every word echoing through Sweetie’s head.
“I don’t know, but I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t scream inside my head,” she muttered back, trying her best to maintain a somewhat consistent line of sight with the origin of the light, it wasn’t really working out though.
“Oh, ups, sorry.”
“Ok, end of the line Foxy, prepare yourself for a beatdown of epic proportions, no more running for you!” A new voice called out through the light, one rather cocky voice.
“What?” Scootaloo said as she blinked a little in confusion, she couldn’t make out who it was still and she didn’t recognize the voice. “There is no Foxy around here, try Pirate Cove!”
“Ah, there she is! Get her!” Came in through the slowly subsiding light and not even a second later something came rushing towards them. It looked human, that much was, just a bit bulkier than the average, that was all. And a bit more pointy apparently, at least that was what they could make out through the light. It came closer and closer, more and more features becoming clear, something that looked like horns stuck from its head, as well as something undefinable on its shoulders. But the part that managed to get the most of their attention was what it had in its hand, it looked like a sword.
Scootaloo fumbled with the deck box on her belt and grabbed a card that she slid quickly into her belt’s slot. “ARCANA CIRCLE SHIELD!” It said as an ornately designed shield appeared on her arm as she held her sword outright.
“I’m not about to let you hurt this city!” Scootaloo said as she headed for the figure as fast as she could.
“Hey, that is my line!” Bellowed it back towards her, the figure not showing any signs of slowing down; instead, it looked like it was doing something with the sword in its hands. “Flaming Slash!” The voice called out, grabbing its weapon with both hands and was preparing to take a swing at her.
Scootaloo raised her shield and caught the sword with it as it strained under the blow. That had been stronger than anything she had encountered before, she was about to thrust her rapier forward towards him when something clicked in her mind.
“Wait, what did you say?”
“I can repeat it for you if you are a bit slow on the uptake: That is my line! I’m not gonna let you hurt this city! After a few months, one would think you monsters would learn!”
“Oh for the love of… we are such a cliche…” Scootaloo said with a groan as she jumped back. “I’m not a monster, I’m Kamen Rider Justice, you’re in Canterlot which I’ve been protecting from monsters for weeks! You’re in the wrong universe!”
After a few moments of silence, the figure just muttered: “Uhm… What.., You don’t mean? This damn fox, I’m gonna… that’s all her fault!” He started to curse, kicking the poor ground under him.
“What’s going on?” Sweetie Drops asked as she approached. “I still can’t make anything out, what happened?”
“I think we had a misunderstanding,” Scootaloo said as she reached for her belt and deactivated it as her armor vanished and Sweetie Drops did the same. “Look, I don’t know who you are but that Fox thing is long gone.”
“It appeared last night and ran off somewhere in the city,” Sweetie Drops said. “We’re here because we picked up a strong surge of energy from this statue. Unfortunately, universal travelers aren’t exactly unprecedented.”
The light finally died down enough to see the traveler in more detail, he was clad in a crimson armor with gold accents all over it, two golden horns, a silver mouthguard and apparently feathers on his shoulder pads, and of course two green glowing bug-eyes. The man took another look at Scootaloo before grabbing for the belt around his waist and pulled it and the red Disc on it off, letting his armor shatter into nothingness. Before them stood a rather familiar face.
“Wait, aren’t you that delivery guy from Magnum Opus?” Sweetie Drops asked.
“Technically waiter, never really delivered a single pizza, had other things to worry about at that time, that was Summer’s job and… Wait, why am I trying to explain that anyway? Different universe… or something like that, right?” The man returned, going from surprised to rather confused. “Aww, my head hurts!”
“Well, then you are ok it seems,” another voice came from behind him, Ocean.
“Haha, very funny,” he returned back, taking one look over his shoulder before a smirk appeared on his lips. “How about I tell them about your food, I’m sure then their heads will hurt, plus their stomachs.”
“Wait a moment,” Scootaloo said as she reached into her pocket and took out a deck of cards that she quickly went through and picked one out as she held it up. “This was in those cards that I found before, you’re Kamen Rider Alchemy right?”
“Oh, I see my fame has already reached past my own world,” he chuckled before, almost immediately feeling Ocean’s stare in his backside. “Ahm, I mean, you are right, Kamen Rider Alchemy, or Phoenix Feather,” he chuckled, carefully trying to peek a look back with a nervous expression on his face.
“And I’m Kamen Rider Charge, or agent Ocean Skies if you prefer,” Ocean added, taking a few steps forward, reaching her hand out towards Scootaloo. “Excuse Phoenix, he can be a bit… boneheaded sometimes,” she continued, rubbing the back of her head with an awkward grin.
“Boneheaded doesn’t do it justice, he is a complete idiot!” Came yet another voice from behind. “Names Pinecone, or Kamen Rider Monster if you prefer that,” he muttered, his hands stuffed into his pockets and complete with his usual grumpy expression.
“Oh, yeah, how could we forget the most fun Rider of them all,” Phoenix groaned, throwing a pleading look at Ocean who just sighed with him.
“Scootaloo Dash, as I told Phoenix I’m Kamen Rider Justice,” Scootaloo said with a nod.
“Sweetie Drops, Kamen Rider Amores,” Sweetie Drops said as she looked the three over. “Let me guess, you chased that fox monster towards a portal in your universe and wound up here.”
“Portal? What portal? No, a Corrupted had attacked Canterlot High a few times in a week and today we caught her again red-handed. She sent a few Remnants after us and did… something with the statue, then there was light and after that I attacked you… Sorry for that again though,” he sheepishly finished.
“Look, we’re still figuring out exactly how it works but this statue in our world seems to be a focal point of sorts,” Sweetie Drops said with a shake of her head. “It was used not long ago to transport a pair of Riders from another universe back home. If your reality is remotely close to this one, it might be the same for yours and if something caused interference, it could’ve caused the jump.”
She paused a moment and shook her head a little. “I’ve been spending too much time in Flim and Flam’s lab…”
“Wow, wow, wow, hold on there for a moment! Flim and Flam? These two? Why in the name of Tartarus would you hang out with these two criminals?” Phoenix burst out, looking quite surprised by all of this.
“Right, alternate universes,” Sweetie Drops said as she rubbed the bridge of her nose for a moment. “It’s a long story, but they were offered a job in return for not being charged for some crimes a long time ago. Alright, I need the three of you to come with us, if there’s a monster loose in the city, again, we need to know what we’re dealing with. Scootaloo, call your friends and have them head for HQ.”
“Well, uh, you see, their sisters and niece are visiting for a few days and…” Scootaloo said as she rubbed the back of her head a little.
“How much do they know?” Sweetie Drops said as she raised an eyebrow.
“That I’m Justice, and that’s about it,” Scootaloo said with a shrug.
“Alright, hold off on calling them then, I’ll talk to the Director, the three of you will come with me, Scootaloo go back home and we’ll call you when we’re needed,” Sweetie Drops said.
“Okay,” Scootaloo said.
“Ok, if you say so,” Phoenix shrugged with his shoulders before adding. “As long as it has an air conditioner.” He threw a quick look at Ocean, and just like expected she was rolling her eyes at his comment.
“It’s a standard issue surveillance van, they don’t have an air conditioner, dammit” She groaned before brushing away a bit of sweat.
“Hey Ocean, in all honesty, I kinda miss the van now, it was far colder than this. Is the city caught in a heatwave or something?” He added, following Ocean’s example, getting rid of a bit of sweat.
“That’s one way to put it, welcome to Arizona,” Sweetie Drops said with a chuckle. “Someone had the bright idea to build a city in the desert.”
“Desert?! Wait, wait, we are not in Southe Mareonlina anymore?” Phoenix burst out, staring in shock at Sweetie.
“Umm, no, like she said you’re in Arizona in the United States of America,” Scootaloo said. “I guess we’re just used to it.”
“United States of America? Never heard of it, only of the United States of Equila. Probably the same thing or so, who cares. This whole thing confuses me more than Equestria and that was already strange as Tartarus,” he muttered shaking his head in defeat.
“Let’s, just get you back to HQ,” Sweetie Drops said with a sigh, this was going to be a long day.
00000
“The Queen of Swords is reversed,” a woman dressed in robes with a mask covering half her face said as she set a tarot card of a woman holding a sword and seated on a throne. “Curious, a card that means…”
She was cut off when a man in armor with a distorted humanoid face and a crown of laurels stormed into the elaborately designed room. She rolled her eye as she looked back at the man with a frown.
“What is it now, Caesar?” She said with a groan.
“Where is he?” Caesar demanded as he looked around. “Where is that red-eyed snake who continues to undermine my authority!”
“Okay, how about you repeat that without the paranoid rambling,” the masked woman said as she shuffled through her tarot deck. “You are hardly helping yourself right now. I would suggest stepping back and telling me what happened.”
“There was an unusual reading coming from the human city,” Caesar said as if through gritted teeth. “I investigated and found an Agent that I wasn’t informed of being summoned. What possible explanation could there be for that other than his involvement, tell me that Priellit?”
“There is only one flaw with your logic,” Priellit said as she reached into her robes and took out another deck of cards and fanned them out. “This is the only summoning deck in existence and every card that hasn’t already been used to summon an Agent is still in here.”
“Let me see that,” Caesar said as he snatched the deck from the woman and looked it over as he frowned a little. She was right, every card that should’ve been in there was still in there, there was no way the fox creature had come from them. “But we have yet to detect any other activity in this city, how do you explain why there is suddenly some sort of, fox monster here?”
“I do not know, perhaps we have some competition,” Priellit said as she took the deck back and placed it in the center of the table. “The fact of the matter is that we are not the only group out there. We may be the only one in Canterlot, but it is always possible that we drew some sort of attention.”
“Right,” Caesar said as a man dressed in black with a hat pulled down over his features walked in leaning on a cane. “I don’t suppose you know anything about this, do you?”
“I believe that we’re dealing with an interloper from another reality,” the man in black said as he adjusted his hat a little. “Our recent operation with the Shinigami Fangire and the nearing Convergence must be weakening the walls between realities. A strong enough burst of energy could easily break the borders between the target reality and another.”
“So, then what are we going to do? The last thing we need right now is more competition,” Caesar said as he crossed his arms. “This new threat could disrupt everything we have worked towards.”
“Indeed,” the man in black said as he walked forward and stopped by the table where Priellit was sitting. “Then we must put a player of our own in the game. Or perhaps, two players.”
“Two players?” Caesar asked as he looked at the man in black confused. “Who else are we going to put in the game? Kuagua is too flighty to do the job, and we do not have the power to summon another Agent right now.”
“Indeed, don’t worry I already have something in mind,” the man in black said. “But for now, I will deal with the Agent.”
He reached over and picked up the deck of cards as he shuffled through it for a moment, his eyes beginning to glow a bright red. “The wheel of fortune spins once more, let us see what it gives us now.”
He drew a card and narrowed his eyes as he looked at it. It depicted two figures on a boat with six swords behind them pointing downwards. “The Six of Swords, a resistance to change and unfinished business, curious.”
He chanted something under his breath before the card vanished from his hand. He leaned on his cane for a moment as the spirit went off and nodded. “It will find a proper host, now if you’ll excuse me I have another matter to attend to.”
He got up and left the room as he made his way down the stairs towards his goal. He made his way down a corridor that was lined with doors. Most of them were open to empty rooms as he stopped at one at the far end that had a symbol carved into the door. He reached into his pocket and took out a set of keys that he used to unlock it as he looked inside to see an armored man chained to the wall.
“Today’s your lucky day,” he said as he unchained the man. “You are finally being given a second chance to finish what you started 13 years ago.”
He released the chains as the figure struggled to get to his feet. He let out a grunt as he looked back at the man in black. “What is your will, master?”
“The child who escaped you last time has grown into a threat to the Order,” the man in black said as the muscular armored man got up. “This is your chance to redeem yourself in the eyes of the Master, Granforca. Carry it out and you will be rewarded greatly, fail and if you are lucky you will be returned to the cell.”
“Yes sir,” Granforca said with a bow before he walked out and vanished.
00000
“Hello Scootaloo darling,” Rarity said as Scootaloo came back into the apartment. “How did everything go?”
“Crazy,” Scootaloo said with a sigh as she grabbed a soda out of the fridge and put some pizza on her plate from the box. “I swear it feels like someone put out fliers to come and visit our world or something because we’ve got another group of Riders showing up chasing a monster.”
“Again?” Rarity asked as she raised an eyebrow curiously.
“Long story,” Scootaloo said with a sigh as she took a seat and took a bite of her pizza. “Last time something like this happened over a hundred people were killed. Needless to say, I’m a little uneasy about this kind of thing.”
“Mind you, last time was because the visiting monster was a Fangire, so that was more because it was hungry,” Sweetie Belle said with a shake of her head. “But yes we have to consider all the possibilities.”
“More Kamen Riders?” Honey asked curiously. “What are they like?”
“They’re, interesting,” Scootaloo said with a shrug and was about to say something else when suddenly her phone went off. She looked at it and blinked a little when she realized she didn’t recognize the number, she cautiously answered it and raised it to her ear. “Hello?”
“You’re about to have company,” an unknown woman’s voice said on the other end.
Scootaloo blinked a moment, she recognized that voice. It belonged to a strange woman who had appeared to her and Sweetie Drops and told them more about the Order as well as weapons to use against them. She frowned a little and looked back at her friends before she went back to the phone.
“Who are you and what do you want?” She demanded. “You can’t just call me like this and not give me some sort of explanation.”
“I’ve been watching you since this began,” the woman said. “I’m warning you because I have no interest in seeing you hurt. If you know about your enemy in advance, they cannot catch you off guard, that is all you need to know.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Scootaloo asked.
“Look out the window,” the voice said and Scootaloo went to the window as she looked out the window and narrowed her eyes a little. She could see that coming down the road was a woman with curled purple hair.
“It looks like a woman, why are you…” Scootaloo started to say when she then realized that the woman had familiar energy growing in her chest. “Son of a… alright, I’m on this.”
“Scootaloo, what’s wrong?” Rarity asked as she headed over to the window as Scootaloo grabbed her Driver again. She frowned a little when she looked out the window and looked back at the others. “That’s Suri Polomare, what’s she doing here?”
Sweetie frowned a little at that as she remembered that name. “That was the woman who tried to sabotage your fashion show before you moved to New York right?”
“Right,” Rarity said as she frowned a little bit. “What happened to her?”
“She’s being possessed by a parasitic spirit from the Order,” Scootaloo said as she sighed a little and took a deep breath. “Sweetie, call the Director, I’ve got this.”
“Be careful Auntie Scootaloo,” Honey said as she looked worriedly at Scootaloo. “I don’t want you to get hurt…”
“Don’t worry Honey, I’ll be fine,” Scootaloo said reassuringly as she placed her hand gently on her future niece’s shoulder. “I’ve got this, okay? This isn’t my first time fighting one of these nasty monsters.”
“I know, I know but…” Honey said and shook her head a little. “I’ve just got a bad feeling like something is coming…”
“I’ll be careful,” Scootaloo said as she raised the Driver and placed it on her waist as it formed the belt around her. “I’ll be just fine, I promise.”
Honey backed off as Sweetie was dialing the number. Scootaloo reached into her deck box and took out the two cards as she took a deep breath. She didn’t want to worry Honey, but despite everything that she said she had to admit she was nervous. It was weird that this was showing up so soon after the encounter with Phoenix and the others.
Whatever the Order was up to, she didn’t like it and she was going to do what she could to make sure that their plans were stopped.
“Henshin!” She said as she slid the cards into her Driver.
“TIME TO TIP THE SCALES!” The Driver said as the energy flew out of the circle and into her body as the armor appeared over her body and the elaborately designed rapier formed in her hand.
“Cool…” Honey said as Scootaloo smiled a little from behind her mask as she headed out of the apartment and down to the road where Suri was waiting.
“About time you came out here,” Suri said as she narrowed her eyes. “I thought I’d have to come and knock on your front door.”
“What do you want?” Scootaloo said as she pointed her rapier at the woman. “Because if you want me, then here I am!”
“Don’t be silly, you’re simply in my way,” Suri said with a wicked grin as she took a card out of her pocket. “I am here for your friend after what her sister did to me!”
“I’m pretty sure that was more your fault than…” Scootaloo started to say.
“I DON’T CARE!” Suri screamed as Scootaloo took a step back. She clearly didn’t know that Rarity was visiting and was after Sweetie, but she wasn’t about to let her hurt either of them. “You will not stand in my way!”
She raised the card and it started to glow as a transformation overtook her. Grey armor formed over her as the energy flowed over her to form it. Her face distorted and grew into that of a cat as a symbol of six crossed swords appeared on her chest plate. She grinned wickedly as she drew an ornately designed katana and pointed it at Scootaloo.
“I am known as Anupan, and I’m going to tear you apart in the name of the Order!” She said as she rushed forward and slashed at Scootaloo with her katana which the Rider barely managed to avoid as she gripped her sword tightly. “You are going to have to do better than that!”
“I could say the same for you,” Scootaloo said as she narrowed her eyes from behind her visor and thrust the rapier forward, catching the cat monster off guard. “I’ve fought worse than you so far, I’m not about to let you hurt my fiance!”
Anupan took a step back as she tried to avoid the attack from Scootaloo. The Rider swung her sword around only to have it be caught by Anupan’s Katana before she turned her fist around and caught the monster in the stomach as it fell back from the strike.
“A feisty one, but it won’t help you,” Anupan said as she swung her katana around again and caught Scootaloo across the chest. “The Order will prevail, you and the other Rider are just delaying the inevitable!”
“No, you’re lying to yourself,” Scootaloo said as she pushed forward and cut the monster with her sword. “You’re hurting innocent people, and for what? So you can take their life force? So you can enact some insane plan that probably won’t even work? I’m not going to let you continue.”
She stabbed hard at Anupan before delivering a powerful kick to her chest which sent her sprawling out. She needed to get this done fast so they could focus on the fox problem and was about to do her finisher when suddenly there was the sound of someone approaching on foot.
“Pathetic, the Order’s agents have apparently gotten weaker while I was gone,” a male voice said as he came to a stop. “It’s a good thing they sent me to intervene personally.”
Scootaloo froze at that as she recognized the voice. She shakily looked up to see a muscular armored male figure standing there with the Roman Numeral VIII set into his armor. His helmet was pulled down over his face and there were broken chains on his wrists. He grinned wickedly as he pointed at Scootaloo.
“I remember you, you got away from me because of that meddling Kamen Rider, I’m going to correct that mistake now!” He said.
“Lord Granforca, I’m sure that with your help I will…” Anupan started to say before Granforca’s eyes glowed as he shot her a look.
“You will leave this to me,” he said with a snarl. “I’m not about to let you take my prize, not when I’m this close!”
Anupan gulped and ran off without any further arguments. She wasn’t about to mess with Granforca.
Scootaloo dropped her sword after a moment as she shuddered, trying her hardest not to lose control. This wasn’t just some random monster, she knew that face, it had been burned in her memory and in the dreams that had tormented her.
He was the monster that had killed her parents, her heart was beating a mile a minute as she fell to her knees. Panic was rising in her as she struggled to get her sword off the ground as the monster laughed and walked forward.
“Pathetic, I can’t believe you’ve actually given us so much trouble,” he said, glancing up to see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom coming out of the apartment complex with guns trained on him. “Your friends will be here to see you, DIE!”
He raised his fist and was about to bring it down on the Rider when a gunshot rang out and he screamed as he felt the bullet hit him from behind. He spun around to see a woman dressed in black with a hat pulled down over her face standing there holding a rifle trained on him.
“You!” He shouted as he advanced on her. “You’re the one who kept us from succeeding in the Convergence 13 years ago! You humiliated me and got me thrown in prison!”
“Yes, and I’m not going to let you pull it off this time,” the woman said in a distorted voice as she looked at Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. “Get her out of here, I’ll handle this muscle head.”
“Right,” Sweetie and said as the two young women ran over and picked Scootaloo up off the road and pulled her away from the monster. “Come on Scoots, you’re going to be fine…”
“That was a dumb move, you can’t defeat me on your own,” Granforca said as he narrowed his eyes. “You can only hope to delay me.”
“We’ll see about that,” the woman said as she reached into her coat and took out a silver device identical to the ones Scootaloo and Sweetie Drops used. She set it on her waist as the belt formed around her. She raised a pair of cards and slid them into her Driver. “Hen...shin!”
“THE PALE HORSE RIDES AGAIN!”
Black and silver energy flowed over her from the circle at the center of the Driver and covered her body. Black armor appeared first over her body, then a silver chest plate and attachments to her arms and legs. Finally, silver armor formed over her head and ran down her back with holes in it. The faceplate resembled a human skull with glowing red eyes and small antennae coming out of its head as she stared Granforca down as an ornately designed black and gold revolver appeared in her hand.
“So, you finally decided to show yourself, Kamen Rider Death,” Granforca said as he took a fighting stance as he prepared to fight the new Rider. “Last I heard you vanished after our last failure.”
“Yeah, well consider this me coming back,” Death said as she fired several energy bullets into the monster’s chest. “You’re nothing more than a rabid animal, and I’m here to put you down!”
“I’d like to see you try!” Granforca said as he ran forward and swung his fist at Death, only to miss as she jumped out of the way and planted a kick to the back of his head as she landed on the ground behind him and fired several more shots at him. “Ha, you’re not going to hurt me much that way!”
“Hmm, you might be right… good thing it's not my only option,” Death said as she drew another card from the deck box on her belt and slid it into the card slot.
“ARCANA ASSAULT RIFLE!” The Driver said as a black and gold assault rifle appeared in her hands and she raised it to her shoulder and fired a series of rounds into Granforca forcing him back.
“Why you little…” he started to say before she aimed for his head. “This isn’t over yet!”
He vanished into thin air and Death shook her head as she deactivated her Driver and her armor vanished from around her. She adjusted her hat a little and looked back at the three friends who stared back at her rather confused.
“Who are you?” Scootaloo asked as she looked at the black-clad woman confused. “How are you a Kamen Rider?”
“You don’t know everything,” the woman said as she put her Driver away. “And that is a question you should ask of Fancy Pants, not me. All you need to know is that I’m here to defeat the Order, with or without your help.”
She walked over to a silver and black motorcycle with a skull design on the front and drove off.
“That was weird,” Apple Bloom said as she looked back at Scootaloo. “Are yah okay Scoots? What was that thing?”
“I… honestly don’t know if I’ll be okay,” Scootaloo said softly as Sweetie hugged her tight. “That, thing that was the one from my Nightmares…”
“Shh… it’s going to be okay,” Sweetie said as she hugged Scootaloo tightly. “We’re here for you.”
They held the hug for a moment as they looked back towards where the strange woman had gone. They had more questions than answers right now.
“Come on, we should get to HQ,” Sweetie said as she took a deep breath and smiled a little.
It was time to get some answers about what really was going on here.
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Oh god... For a minute there I thought a certain Phantom had escaped from the sun! Let me catch my breath here.
Stay away from Zawame and eldritch forests, man... (Okay, that was cruel I know, but with a name like that and in a KR story it had to be made.)
TAKA, TORA, BATT-Wait, wrong rider.
Careful Ruin. your reality is becoming a magnet!
Oooh, early bird cameos.
Not bad, not bad at all for a beginning chapter. Already found the theme for this story.
Can't wait to see more, but first... ONORI DIKECADO! ...I blame him for universal convergences. It's a habit I'm trying to break.
9477437
Don't worry, this is a world that has no Phantoms... yet.
...Huh, didn't even notice that. Neat... Ahm, I mean, totally intentional.
Totally not a shout out at all, no, no, no.
Watch out for a guy in a black suit with a camera, he can be rather annoying... ah, who am I kidding, we all love him for it.
Huh, Samurai Strong Style? Well, seems we have to use this now.
Don't talk too much about him or he will show up.
9478392
I note the yet.
Hmmm, sure.
Keep telling yourself that.
Hums Ride the Wind
Eh, Scootaloo's probably already met him.
It just... worked. First thing that came into my head.
Oh, so he's like like Slenderman then? Rambles on about Tsukasa for a good long while