Kamen Rider Lux: Sins of the Parent

by Rixizu

Chapter 14

“Bright Eyes, no,” Banana Splash said, sinking to her knees. The tiny filly sobbed into her dead friend’s body, overcome with grief.

A laugh echoed as Jigoku-Thunder popped from the sandpit, finally showing herself. “And you will soon join him,” she cackled.

“I won’t allow that,” Pinkie said, her tone frigid cold. Her hair flattened against her head, acting as a curtain over her left eye. Jigoku-Thunder’s mirth stopped, surprised by Pinkie’s expression. It showed no emotion, only pure ice. The Destron monster fidgeted on her hooves in uncertainty, not expecting this side of the usually perky, silly, party-loving mare. She reserved it for the worst of the worst. How dare he make a filly cry?

After a nervous laugh, Jigoku-Thunder regained his bearings. “What will you do, little pony? Throw me a party? Scold me for being a bad little filly?”

“I don’t like it when ponies laugh at other’s pain and misfortune,” Pinkie said, her tone containing no emotion whatsoever. “Laughter is meant to bring mirth and brighten spirits. Bad ponies like you besmirch its meaning.”

“And I’ll continue to laugh, once you’re a lifeless corpse!” Jigoku-Thunder said, trying her best to not sound ruffled. Pinkie didn’t reply, continuing her icy stare.

“Die!” Jigoku-Thunder sprang forward, hoof extended for a punch to the face. She jerked in surprise as her blow missed her prey, Pinkie avoiding it with a single step back. A follow-up punch met empty air, Pinkie already knowing where her opponent would strike.

“What?” Jigoku-Thunder jerked in pain as a sudden jab stabbed her ribs, almost toppling over as Pinkie’s next attack struck her in the kidney. Jigoku-Thunder stepped back in fear as Pinkie suddenly appeared in her face, eyes staring an icy, blank glare.

“Huh?” Banana Splash said, convinced they’d been a goner.

“Damn you!” Jigoku-Thunder jumped back, her body clearly fighting back nausea. Pinkie said nothing in reply. This monster wasn’t worth talking to. She stood still, waiting for her opponent to make the next move.

“What’s happening? You aren’t a Rider! You shouldn’t be this big of a problem!” Jigoku-Thunder said, a hint panic entering her voice, only for the Destron monster to laugh at her foolishness. “No, you never stood a single chance! Drown like your friends!”

With a leap, Jigoku-Thunder disappeared into the sand beneath them. The monster’s laugh echoed through the chamber as coarse grains of sand pelted them from above. Banana Splash quivered in terror, holding onto her fallen friend for comfort. Pinkie, however, allowed the raining sand to bury her, her mane sparkling as sand got into its length. Sand continued to fill the chamber, rising almost to Pinkie’s barrel.

Banana Splash watched her guardian in distress, wondering why Pinkie didn’t struggle against the sand threatening to engulf her. Behind the filly’s eyes, Pinkie saw despair and resignation to her inevitable demise. While Pinkie wanted to reassure her, she kept her expression neutral. Any distraction would prove disastrous.

“Die!” A hoof reached out from beneath the sand, eager to bury her alive. A twitch and Pinkie already knew which direction to dodge.

Her opponent repeated the trick, only to receive the same results. Frustrated, Jigoku-Thunder burst from the ground for a different tactic.

“Fine!” Jigoku-Thunder said, hobbling towards her opponent. “We’ll do this the hard way! You’ll wish I gave you death from suffocation!” When Pinkie offered no reply, Jigoku-Thunder became more frantic. She was used to her prey cowering in fear, and this distinct disinterest unnerved her.

A set of wild punches assailed Pinkie, each hitting nothing. From the brief exchange, Pinkie noted her opponent had no actual fighting skills. Jigoku-Thunder was a trapping predator, unused to getting prey in the open.

“Oof!” Jigoku-Thunder’s head jerked back as she received a sudden punch to the face. But it didn’t seem to do much, only annoying Pinkie’s foe. How bothersome. Her earth pony strength might not be enough to defeat this monster.

---

“Pfft!”

Banana Splash jerked in fear as a sudden voice tried to get her attention. With a nervous glance, she turned in that direction.

“Professor?” Banana Splash’s jaw dropped in shock. After Bright Eye’s terrible demise, she’d assumed everypony on this trip was dead! “H-how are you still alive? Where’s Black Light?”

Doctor Spectro’s expression fell, sniffing. “Gone, like Bright Eyes, along with the guards. I was lucky. After almost suffocating, I played dead. This Shocker ruffian didn’t bother to examine the body of an old stallion.”

“That’s great!” Banana Splash said, unable to control her relief that else had survived. She clamped her hooves over her mouth, fearful she’d given them both away. But Jigoku-Thunder didn’t even notice, more interested in finishing the strange pink earth pony.

“But, what now? We have to help Pinkie!” The words sounded stupid the second they’d left her mouth, but they couldn’t abandon her savior! Much to Banana Splash’s relief, the professor nodded in agreement.

“Quite right! That ruffian was gone too far! And we’re going to stop her!” Doctor Spectro said, with feeling.

“Not to knock you, professor. But how will we accomplish that?” While Pinkie could inflict some damage, she seemed incapable of finishing the job.

Doctor Spectro’s eyes lit with mischief. “Oh, yes! With this!” He held out a strange device.

“What’s that?”

“A prototype energy converter. The princess allowed me to borrow it from Ambassador Hell’s lab. I’ve been fiddling with it. I figure with a suitable crystal, we could use it as a weapon to help defeat that ruffian!”

“But wouldn’t we need a power source? Wasn’t this meant to be used with Kamen Rider Lux’s photon powers?”

Her professor’s expression sagged somewhat. “Yes, that is a snag in my otherwise brilliant plan.”

Neither spoke for a long moment, the severity of their situation striking home. Even if they fled the cavern system, Ponyville was miles away. The cavalry wouldn’t arrive until it was too late.

“Wait!” A sudden idea struck Banana Splash, remembering her crystal analyzer. It used light to analyze a crystal’s properties and used a powerful battery! With some fiddling, it could shine a powerful burst of light into the energy! But they’d only have a single shot. It will sap the battery’s remaining power and fry the analyzer’s circuitry. Stumbling over her words, Banana Splash explained her plan.

“Nice thinking, Banana Splash! You truly are a once-in-a-generation genius!”

The filly hid her face to disguise the reddening of her cheeks. “We best hurry.” A sudden idea occurred to her. “I think I know where we might find our crystal. Pinkie showed me where she thought she’d found some promising crystals.” Her rock farming experience had to count for something, right?

“Lead the way!”

Banana Splash’s hopes were dashed to splinters when she redirected her attention back toward Pinkie’s desperate fight against Jigoku-Thunder. The pink mare had a bloody gash across her forehead, leaking blood over her uncovered eye. Worse, her left leg hung at an odd angle, likely broken. Despite her remarkable dodging skills, Pinkie couldn’t keep up the fight forever.

“Here?” Banana Splash examined the crystal chamber, with little to distinguish its fellows. How could they find anything among this glittering horde? She reflexively gagged as she spotted her professor licking a rock.

“It’s an old rock farmer’s trick.” Doctor Spectro said defensively. “It hasn’t failed me yet.”

“We could try methods that are more scientific?” Banana Splash’s eye twitched. Their freaking lives were on the line!

“Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” Her professor said, sniffing a random crystal on the ground.

We’re so doomed! At least this chamber wasn’t as filled with sand. She shifted through it, scanning each crystal with her scanner. Her heart blackened in further despair as each proved more useless than the last.

A cry of pain made her jump, and her heart froze as a pink figure crashed into a nearby crystal wall, shattering it. A familiar laugh taunted them as it entered the chamber, gloating victoriously.

“Pinkie!” Banana Splash froze in fear as she stood over the princess’s fallen assistant. She was in terrible shape, struggling to lift her head. The blood dripping down her flat mane made Pinkie appear ghoulish, her gaze promising retribution. With some effort, she pushed herself to her hooves.

“How is she still standing?” Banana Splash said, marveling. “Her body should be passed by now.”

Pinkie dashed forward to meet her foe. While each move pained her, the earth pony continued to stay a step ahead. Despite the beating, her efforts had taken a toll on Jigoku-Thunder. The Destron monster’s movements seemed more sluggish, not used to exerting herself so hard. But that didn’t save Pinkie from the pain. More crystal walls shattered as the earth pony slammed into them. She barely had the energy to keep standing, only surviving through sheer stubbornness.

Tears stung Banana Splash’s eyes as she dug further into the sand, trying to honor Pinkie’s sacrifice. But each crystal reported negative, making her efforts seem more pointless. Her professor, however, only seemed more determined. An energy seemed to have overtaken him, moving like a pony forty years younger. He rummaged through the broken wall, calling Banana Splash over.

“Here! Try this one.” Her professor said after he sniffed a crystal and peered into it for several seconds.

“Okay.” Banana Splash’s hopes rose as the readings began, but when she read the final figures. “Nope. It’ll only hold the charge for a couple of seconds.”

But inspiration struck, her face lighting up with hope. “Which might be all we need! We only got one shot, anyway!”

“Brilliant, young lady! That might work! Hand your scanner over quickly!” Before it even touched his hooves, the device’s back was already open. With deft hooves that belied his age, the professor fiddled with the wires and connected the two devices in a complicated procedure Banana Splash couldn’t understand. But their good fortune proved short-lived.

“Ugh!” Pinkie floundered, struggling to stay on her hooves. Her body was a bloody mess, battered almost beyond recognition. “No, must keep going,” she muttered, but her words faltered, collapsing to her knees. While she’d fought a good fight, Pinkie had reached her limits.

“No!” Banana Splash’s heart raced as Jigoku-Thunder approached her opponent with a casual gait, making Pinkie suffer in utter helplessness as she awaited death.

I have to do something, but what? While a unicorn, Banana Splash’s magical skills were subpar at best. Levitation was her best spell. Even then, her lifting power was limited. But it didn’t matter. If Pinkie died, there was nothing between them and certain death.

I need to be strong! I need to be strong, or else we’ll die. Pinkie wasn’t moving, only the slight movement in her chest indicating she was alive. Despite the hopelessness of their situation, a strange calm overtook her. With her death almost a certainty, what else did she have to lose?

“Hey, leave her alone!” Hardly believing her own actions, a crystal shattered against Jigoku-Thunder’s head as she hurled it toward the creature.

Instead of being insulted, the Destron monster only seemed amused. “You’re challenging me, little filly?”

“Yeah, take that! Had enough yet?” Please hurry, professor. When she turned to check his progress with his thingamajig, Banana Splash had found he’d vanished. Her fake calmness vanished when she realized she was alone with this monster.

“Uh, er. Never mind!” Banana Splash laughed nervously, cursing her professor for abandoning her to her doom.

“You have some guts, filly.” With Pinkie out for the count, Jigoku-Thunder turned her sadistic games towards Banana Splash. What a lucky day.

Cursing the late Luna in heaven, Banana darted towards a far exit to escape. She could at least lure the Destron monster away from Pinkie. But her short legs betrayed her, the sand filling the chamber almost impossible to run through. Jigoku-Thunder, however, suffered no impediment. With a casual gait, the monster approached, not fearing that her prey would escape.

“Come here.” Banana Splash flailed as Jigoku-Thunder picked her up like a kitten by the scruff of her neck. To save herself, she squirmed with everything she had to wiggle free. But it proved futile, only getting her tossed into a nearby crystal pillar for her trouble. Jigoku-Thunder laughed as her prey struggled to breathe, the wind blowing out of her.

“Useless,” Jigoku-Thunder said, laughing over Banana Splash’s prone form. “What did you hope to accomplish?”

“A nifty distraction!”

Destron monster turned towards the sound, gasping in surprise as Pinkie launched herself towards her with something silver in her hooves. Before Jigoku-Thunder could respond, the earth pony thrust the device into the monster’s chest, right above the heart. The creature’s antlion carapace glowed red, face twisting with pain. The light within intensified before going dim and extinguishing.

“Huh?” Pinkie looked into the lens of the device before shaking it. The crystal within it had gone black. “I was hoping it’d become a cool sword! How disappointing!”

“How dare you!” Jigoku-Thunder said, her steps wobbly.

An ugly black mark hung over her heart where the heat of the light beam had cauterized the wound. Banana Splash’s muzzle twitched at the revolting smell of charred meat. Remarkably, the Destron monster was still alive. She heaved with each breath, her movements becoming more unsteady.

“You’re dead!” Jigoku-Thunder swung a wild punch toward Pinkie’s head. Even beaten as she was, the earth pony still dodged with ease.

“Stay down, jerkface!” A shockwave erupted through the cavern as Pinkie punched the Destron monster in the chest, and the creature collapsed. If she was dead or only unconscious, Banana Splash couldn’t tell.

“Banana Splash, are you okay?” Pinkie said, rushing to her aid.

“I’ll live.” Though Banana Splash doubted she’d forget this harrowing encounter. Maybe her father was right. She should have chosen a career in tap dancing instead. “What about you? The thing almost killed you!”

“I’ll be fine. A few bandages, and I’ll be right as rain!” While her hair hadn’t returned to its usual puffiness, Pinkie seemed otherwise herself.

“That’s good to hear,” Doctor Spectro said, whipping a handkerchief over his sweaty brow. “Thank Shocker, our plan worked! I feared the device might explode in your hooves!”

“Great, and now we’ve lost our scanner!” Banana Splash said, signing. “We’ll never find our special crystal now!”

“Oh, chin up! We’ll find it, eventually.” Pinkie said. “Professor, while you’re getting help, please find a broom too! We’ll need one.”

“Sure thing!” Doctor Spectro was already heading towards the exit.

“Why?” Banana Splash asked, baffled.

“Because the place is a mess, silly!” Pinkie replied. “We can’t just leave the crystal cave like this with sand everywhere. My rock farm heritage won’t allow it. Besides, we might stumble upon the right crystal as we work! My rocky instincts are screaming, it’s in this room!”

“But, you’re half-dead!” Banana Splash found herself lost for words. “Okay.” She sighed, wondering what happened to the cool, fearless Pinkie that fought Destron monsters. “We need to clean up every piece of sand?” Banana Splash asked, dreading the answer.

“Yep!” Pinkie said, beaming. “We should have it done before the ambulance arrives! Can’t dally when work needs doing. That’s what I always say!”

I should have become a tap dancer. Banana Splash thought as her professor returned with two brooms and dustpans.