Crossing Over

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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.

Constants and Variables

View Online

“I see, you encountered Death then,” Fancy Pants said as he stroked his chin thoughtfully. They had arrived at the SMILE HQ building and were currently in the middle of a meeting with the Director, Fleur, Sweetie Drops, and the new arrivals. “I wasn’t expecting her to show up again this soon.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about her?” Scootaloo asked. “I think this kind of information would’ve been useful, especially after she approached us before.”

“Kamen Rider Death appeared after the Magician Card was stolen from me 13 years ago,” Fleur said with a sigh. “She asked us to keep her existence secret unless she had to come back because of the Order. She’s been quiet since then, and we weren’t expecting her to show up again this soon.”

“But more worrying to me is the appearance of Granforca,” Fancy Pants said with a shake of his head. “The best we ever could tell was that he was a top enforcer of the Order given that he often fought against us 13 years ago. And, unfortunately, yes he was the one who killed your parents Scootaloo.”

“Yeah… I figured…” Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked down at her feet and Sweetie put her arm around her. “I’m sorry, I just froze up when I saw him. I don’t know how else to explain it, but facing him again, I couldn’t handle it.”

“Scootaloo darling, you went through a traumatic experience,” Rarity said with a reassuring smile. “We’re going to help you through this.”

“Right,” Scootaloo said as she took a deep breath before she turned to Phoenix. “Okay, so we’ve got that fox monster and now an Order agent to deal with. Is there anything we should expect from this fox creature?”

“Well, we didn’t really have much interaction with it, the only thing we managed to figure out is that it can control cloths like some sort of tentacle. And that she apparently has a supply of other artifacts that she can shatter to get Remnants, but besides that? Not much, well besides that she attacked Canterlot High, but that could also have something to do with the fact that the school had a lot of magical incidents in the past,” Ocean instead returned, while Phoenix had crossed his arms in front of him and was making a rather grim expression. “Right Phoenix?”

That managed to snap him out of it. “What? Sorry, I was lost in thoughts; it’s nothing.” The upbeat and cocky tone he had before was gone, replaced with a far more somber one.

“Yeah, sure, and you not making jokes about this whole thing is totally normal? So, what is it? Come on, don’t try to eat it all up again, we remember how that went after all,” Ocean asked, putting her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her for a moment before pulling something out of his pocket, a perfectly round white Disc with golden lines orienting, and in an instant Ocean’s face went pale. “Oh, yeah, ok. Yeah, I guess I can see what you mean,” she muttered to him.

“What’s goin’ on?” Applejack asked. “Do yah want ta talk about it?”

“Well, you se-” Ocean was about to start as Phoenix placed his hand on her shoulder instead, letting her stop in an instant.

“No, no, I’ll do it. It’s nothing really, just a few rather fresh memories coming back, that is all. I lost someone close to me a few weeks back, and that just brought it back full force, but I’ll manage,” he returned with a low voice. “Nothing like hunting a monster than to get back on some more positive thoughts, right?” He added with far more vigor. Still, there was that bit in his voice that made it all sound rather insincere.

Scootaloo frowned a little as she looked back at Phoenix, something about what he said bothered her, but that wasn’t what they needed to focus on right now. She sighed a little and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry Phoenix, I wish there was something more I could say. Are you sure you’re going to be up for this? We can probably handle this on our own if you’re not comfortable doing this.”

“Oh, screw that noise. I’m not gonna pity myself while you are risking your life! It’s in the past, and that is just it. I can’t change it, I just have to accept it and learn from my mistakes, and use that to move forward,” he returned with a wave of his hand.

“Well, that is the great thing about Phoenix, whenever something bad happens, he is always the first one to accept it and learn from it. He can be a massive idiot at times, but that is one thing I have to say I’m always impressed by, as long as he doesn’t try to overcorrect, right Phoenix?” Ocean chuckled, getting a rather annoyed look from Phoenix.

“Oh, come on, that happened once. Yeah, sure not sleeping for a week wasn’t my best idea, but I got that now. You know, I’m not gonna pull something like this again, just other stupid stuff. And besides, it can’t be too bad after all, or you would have never become my girlfriend,” he returned, a devilish smile on his lips.

“You little,” Ocean started to mutter before both burst out into laughter, much to the confusion of everyone but Pinecone who just rolled his eyes.

“Alright, before we have to put you two in a room we have something to discuss,” Fancy Pants interrupted with a shake of his head. “You told us about this Fox creature, but given that we don’t have any record of this type of monster existing on Earth we would like any information you can provide on these, Corrupted you called them?”

“Right, they are humans that use magical artifacts to transform,” Ocean returned quickly, pulling something out of Phoenix’s pocket, a red Disc in the form of a spinning flame. “This is an artifact, objects that contain large amounts of magical energy. This Magic Disc would be categorized as a Level 3 artifact. They can come in various shapes and forms, some recently created through the wishes of the user and stray magical energy while others were created hundreds of years ago, how exactly that is possible is still beyond us since magic has only recently started to become stray with no sign of any wild magic beforehand,” she continued, entirely in her element.

“Humans being turned into monsters, yeah like we haven’t ever seen that before…” Sweetie Drops said with a roll of her eyes.

“What do you mean? Can’t be that normal, right? It’s not like there a many kinds of monsters here… right?” Phoenix returned first jokingly before it turned into a question he hoped would be answered with no.

“Well…” Scootaloo said as she shifted uncomfortably for a moment. “There have been monster attacks going back decades, some of which nearly resulted in the end of the world.”

“Kamen Riders like Scootaloo and Sweetie Drops will rise, or other teams that tend to dress in multi-colored spandex, to fight against the monster factions, but there have been casualties,” Fancy Pants said with a sigh. “SMILE was formed in reaction to these factions, though it wasn’t until the Inves invasion a few years ago that we got most of our funding.”

Phoenix and Ocean exchanged a quick look before they started to shake their heads. “Oh, come on, and I thought we would have a bit of quiet and piece after we somehow managed to stop the Corrupted. But if we look at what you just said, I think this will turn into a pipe dream. Well, at least it won’t be boring, right?” Phoenix chuckled awkwardly, before stopping altogether and letting himself sink deeper into his chair.

“Well, there’s no actual guarantee that will happen,” Rarity said with a shake of her head. “I mean, you come from a different universe right? Isn’t it possible that things will go differently there than here?”

Phoenix just looked back at her with a raised eyebrow: “Ah, sure. I know my luck, and that “means that this is gonna happen, as much as I don’t want it,” he returned with a resigned sigh.

“Well, if this universe’s history is anything to go by, you won’t have to do it alone,” Fancy Pants said. “And fortunately due to past events we can at least track this Corrupted when we get surges of magic power. Though I have to wonder what it could be after in this city, in the meantime I’ll have agents continue to watch the statue in the event it tries to return to your reality.”

“Yeah, would be really bad when it went back without us knowing about it since all the good Riders are over here. That could end rather badly,” Phoenix said, shuddering a little bit at the thought alone.

“We’ll try ta deal with this as fast as possible,” Apple Bloom said with a sigh. “Tha Order ain’t gonna make things easy either.”

“Especially with, him there…” Scootaloo said with a soft sigh as she shook her head a little. “I’m sorry, if he keeps showing up, I don’t know how much help I’m going to be. I’m afraid that I’m just going to freeze up again.”

“Don’t worry, you aren’t really alone out there after all, especially with us around. And even if he is dumb enough to attack you with five more Riders around, he will realize that this was a mistake the moment we kick his ass to Sunday,” Phoenix returned with a smirk. “Ouch! Hey, what was that about?” He shouted out while rubbing the back of his head.

He had turned around and stared right at Ocean who just shook her head. “Show a bit more tact Phoenix, don’t undermine her pain,” she hissed.

“Oh, come on, that wasn’t supposed to do that, besides she looks tough. I was just trying to comfort her, worked with you most of the time, even when I couldn’t get through to you for a while after… I think I’ll just stop talking now,” he finished, looking to the floor in embarrassment.

“Yeah, better is that. Not that you get our hosts on your bad side,” she returned with a judgmental glare, all while Phoenix head turned deeper and deeper shades of crimson.

“Scootaloo is one of the toughest women I know,” Sweetie said as she leaned over and kissed Scootaloo on the cheek. “And I promise that you’re going to be okay Scoots, you’ve got some good people backing you up and I’m going to be cheering you on every step of the way. We’ll stop this Corrupted and the Order Agent, and I promise you, we will not let this Granforca guy get away with what he did to your parents.”

“Thanks, Sweetie,” Scootaloo said gently as she rested her head gently on Sweetie’s shoulder and sighed happily.

“Ah have ta admit, meetin’ people from another universe and goin’ ta a top secret government base wasn’t exactly how Ah expected ta spend tha week,” Applejack said.

“But we definitely can’t say it’s been boring,” Rarity added with a chuckle. “Still, with Suri Polomare out there she’s probably going to go after us if she finds out we’re in the City because of me.”

“Meh, it could be worse, you could be trapped at a music festival with around one thousand people trying to kill you while slowly turning into monsters. On and don’t forget the three Corrupted that have control over everyone there. Man, that was a weekend I tell you. Your counterpart would probably agree as well,” Phoenix added, the crimson slowly fading from his cheeks.

“Well, we once had to fight a… wait, what do you mean counterpart?” Scootaloo asked confused. “Or is this like the other reality we encountered where versions of ourselves exist… you’re not really talking ponies, or something are you?”

“No, we are not, but my ancestors come from Equestria… It’s a long story. But we meet your counterparts in our world,” he pointed at Applejack and Rarity. “You, we ran into you while you were dealing with Flim and Flam, they had started to use the power of their artifacts to cone the citizens of Canterlot. And Rarity I met thanks to Thunder, my brother. He runs a and apparently you girls are well known there, so much so that he sent me along on a small fashion contest with you because he was busy, without asking me!” He emphasized the last part for some reason no one, but Ocean seemed to grasp, she in return just rolled her eyes.

“There was also a Corrupted, a girl named Coco Pommel, she wanted to help the other contestants by repairing and fixing small things on their clothes, but in the chaos of a fight another girl found out about her secret and used her to sabotage her competition. Funny enough, was the same girl that showed up at your doorstep today, I think. Oh, and you are all about seven to five year younger in my world. I think that covers it all,” he finished rattling off everything he knew, in no apparent order.

“Ah, only understood half of that,” Applejack said with a confused blink. “Ah guess that means Honey doesn’t have a counterpart in yer world, interestin’.”

“I don’t know, if she did, that would mean… And never mind, I’m done thinking about it!” He finished with a bright red face, all while Ocean buried her face in her hand.

“Alright, we can compare universes later,” Fancy Pants said with a sigh. “Right now we need to focus on finding where Anupan and… whatever your Fox Corrupted is called in the city. We have facial recognition software looking for Suri Polomare as we speak as well as our satellite looking for Order and Magical energy signatures.”

“It would probably help if our techs could run a scan of your Drivers,” Fleur added. “If it has a similar signature to the monster it may give us a way to track it better.”

“The Driver probably won’t help you much, as far as Ivory said, it only focusses the magical energy, the actual magic is in the Magic Discs,” Ocean added, with an unusually low voice.

“Right, my mistake,” Fleur said with a nod. “But still if there is a chance that it’ll help, we would like to study them. It shouldn’t take long.”

Ocean threw a pleading look towards Phoniex who ultimately relented and returned with a sigh. “Ok, fine. But I’ll keep this one,” he held up the white and gold Disc he had shown to Ocean before. “I’m not trusting you enough to give a Philosopher Stone into your hands. But you can have the normal ones, as long as I can take them back any time I need.” Ocean smiled with a sigh of relief and patted him on the shoulder.

“Philosopher’s Stone huh?” Sweetie Belle asked as she looked at it curiously for a moment. “Like, turn metal into gold, the elixir of life kind of thing?”

“More in the line of turning magic into other stuff. You just need to know how that is the hard part really,” he returned after pocketing the Disc again.

“Alright, don’t worry about it, we’ll make sure that your discs are returned without a problem,” Fancy Pants said. “You have my word that they will not be damaged or stolen.”

“I hope so, that would be six hundred years down the drain,” he chuckled nonchalantly.

“Alright, Fleur, take him down to the labs and tell the techs to be very careful with them,” Fancy Pants said. “The rest of you should remain in the base until we have a proper plan to deal with these two. Any more questions before you’re dismissed?”

Phoenix was about to say no as he heard a loud roaring from the side. Before he could even turn around, he could hear the voice of his girlfriend as with a rather embarrassed undertone. “There wouldn’t be anything to eat would there? We didn’t really have anything since breakfast.”

“Yes, we have a cafeteria, I’ll take you there after the lab,” Fleur said.

“Oh, you are in for a surprise I tell you,” Phoenix chuckled, Ocean’s face turning several shades of red.

“Phoenix,” she muttered avoiding eye contact with everyone as he put his arm around her.

“Oh, come on, smile! It’s just a little payback,” he smirked. “And, it’s not like they won’t think the same about me when I’m back. I’m starving as well. And remember what you took, I want the same.”

“Alright, you’re all dismissed before this gets weird,” Fancy Pants said as they got up.

“Believe me; the weirdness only starts when this is over,” Phoenix chuckled.

“Come with me,” Fleur said as she got up and gestured for Phoenix to follow her.

“Well, ok then,” he muttered, stretching himself before jumping up and following her.

00000

“Seems Phoenix was right,” Ocean chuckled, a slight blush still on her face as she took another bit of her meal, a bizarre mix of mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise on rice with a bid of undefinable meet. This was still a rather normal meal, at least comparing it to her standards, she would have probably put a bit more in it if the cafeteria wasn’t so damn ordinary. Kinda reminded her why she never really at there back home. “They did look a bit taken aback by my choice of food, especially Rarity kinda looked like I murdered one of her dresses or something like that.”

“Not really surprising really,” Pinecone muttered, sitting over his own fair share of the food, but he had simply settled for ordinary rice and meat. “What you claim to be food is a damn catastrophe for others. No wonder they quickly ditched us, seeing you eat this is still disgusting.”

She smiled back in return. “Yeah, can see that. So, if it’s so disgusting why are you still here?” She playfully raised an eyebrow, Pinecone avoiding her gaze.

“Do I need a reason for everything I do?” He grumbled back, shoving another spoon of rice in his mouth.

She just shook her head in amusement as she returned: “No, not really. But if you don’t have one, one might think you are warming up to us. Strange, right?” That certain smug expression was written all over Ocean’s face, much to Pinecone’s annoyance.

“Pah, as if. You guys are the bane of my existence, dragging me into this pointless conflict that has nothing to do with me. Warming up to you is ridiculous, especially with someone like Phoenix around,” he growled. Still, he avoided eye contact with her.

“Thank you.”

This got him to snap around in absolute bafflement, staring at her as if she had completely lost her mind. “What? What do you mean?”

“I said thank you. You helped us out so many times already and without you who knows how far we would have gotten in the end. I just wanted to thank you. As you said, this isn’t your fight, but you still help us. This means a lot to us, even to Phoenix, no matter how he might act around you,” she said with a smile on her lips.

“I… I… Thank you,” was all he managed to return, trying to hide his face as deep in his rice as possible.

“No problem,” she quietly returned before continuing with her meal. It didn’t really take her that long till she got up to take another one. While the other people there still looked at her like she had completely lost her marbles they did give her what she had asked for, and a second one just in case Phoenix came back soon, if not, more for her.

However, that dream rather quickly was blown to the wind as she heard a familiar voice behind her. “I see, only something mildly disturbing today. No ideas any more or just nothing to mix?”

“Nah, just cantina food is most of the time awfull anyway and not that much to play with. By the way, back already? I mean, that was quick, took you only like… two hours? Was the line really this long?” She looked in disbelief at her watch, it just felt unreal.

“Well, they say time flies by when you have good company or something like that,” he threw a look at Pinecone who just rolled with his eyes. “That is mine I assume, right?” He pointed at the second plate in her hand. With a silent sigh, she nodded, placing it next to her on the table.”Awesome, I’m starving. So, is it good?”

“Managed to get it to at least passable, so take that as you will,” she jokingly returned. “By the way, I wanted to talk with you about something,” she added with a far more serious tone.

“I think I’m done here, I’ll look around the base or something like that,” Pinecone said, standing up and taking his plate and leaving the two to their own devices.

“Ok, what is it?” He returned, already expecting a good verbal smackdown form her.

“You are ok?” That was all, no berating him, no chastising, just a question.

“What do you mean?” Phoenix returned with a worried look in his eyes.

“You spaced out before. Are you really ok? There are no other Riders and people here, you can be honest with me,” she continued, placing her hand on his. “You know you can trust me. So no eating it up by yourself again, ok?”

“As I said, it just brought back memories, that is all. I know I can’t change it, and that is all I need to know about it. I made a lot of mistakes when it came to the old geezer, so did he and every time I think about him I find new ones, but that can’t be changed now. So, yes, I can handle it, don’t worry. It’s just… I’m kinda worried about Scoots, that is all,” he admitted with a defeated sigh.

“Why? Her girlfriend said she was one of the toughest people she knows and I’m inclined to agree with her, so why are you worried about her,” Ocean returned with a rather puzzled look on her face.

“You are the toughest woman I’ve ever met, and how did you react when… when you killed your mother? You became one hundred percent focussed on finding Ivory, so much so that endangered the people around you to do that. It took far to long to finally get through to you, I don’t want to see that again, no matter the person, that is all,” he finished, Ocean could feel his entire body shake, tightening her grip on his hand.

“Hey, don’t worry. If her friends are anything like you, they will manage to get her through this, just like you did for me,” she finished, giving him a quick kiss on his cheek, turning his head bright red. “Just promise me that you won’t do something stupid, ok?”

He chuckled in return, all while trying to suppress his blush, save to say, it was not working. “Yeah, ok fine, I won’t do anything stupider than usual.” Then he turned around and looked toward Ocean, adding with a bright smirk: “You think we could ask Fancy Pants about one of those rooms he talked about?” Not even a second later a loud: “Ouw!” Could be heard. “Was that really necessary.”

“Yes, yes it was,” Ocean returned with a smile.

00000

“Yah know fer a secret underground base, this place ain’t bad,” Applejack said as she sighed a little and fell back on the bed in one of the rooms that had been set aside for guests. “Still, it feels like we’re stuck cooped up in here.”

“Yeah, I don’t like it much either,” Rarity said with a sigh as she sat down on the bed next to her. She smiled a little when she saw Honey reading a book. “I mean we knew Scootaloo was Justice, but…”

“But it’s weird ta get caught up in this whole thing with tha government?” Applejack asked, and Rarity nodded. “Yeah, Ah admit it’s weird, but they don’t seem ta have any problems with it so Ah’m sure it's fine.”

“Yeah, probably,” Rarity said with a sigh as she looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes a moment. “I’m worried about them Applejack, this isn’t exactly something that’s normal, you know? I mean, yes I know this is far from the only time this kind of thing has happened, but…”

“Its tha first time it’s affected someone close ta us?” Applejack asked, and Rarity nodded.

“I thought it was bad enough when the Inves attacked and we were unable to get in contact with anyone for a while,” Rarity said with a sigh. “Now our sisters and their friends are caught up in the middle of this. I’m afraid that they might not make it out alive, or at least not the same as they were before.”

“Ah think they’re gonna be okay,” Honey said as she looked up from the book she was reading. During the conversation, the two had nearly forgotten she was there listening. “Auntie Scootaloo’s got somethin’ worth fightin’ fer, and she’s stronger than she seems. Ah think she’ll be just fine.”

“What makes you say that darling?” Rarity asked curiously.

“Ah dunno, just a feelin’ Ah’ve got,” Honey said with a shrug. “She’s fightin’ ta keep Sweetie and Apple Bloom safe as well as stop tha Order from hurtin’ tha city. She’s got somethin’ worth fightin’ fer in her mind at least, and Ah doubt someone like Auntie Scootaloo would let that go.”

“Yah know we probably shouldn’t have been talkin’ about this with her in tha room,” Applejack said with a chuckle. “But she’s got a point yah know? Scootaloo’s a good kid, and she’s got tha support she needs ta help her.”

“Yes, but still…” Rarity said with a sigh as she shook her head a little before she spoke quieter to her wife. “And it doesn’t help that Suri Polomare wants revenge on me and is willing to go after Sweetie to punish me. I just feel so useless, I can’t even help my little sister deal with that, thing!”

“Ah know Sugarcube,” Applejack said as she wrapped her arms gently around Rarity and patted her on the back. “If there was somethin’ Ah could do Ah’d help yah out. Come on Rares, yer gonna be just fine.”

“I hope so…” Rarity said with a sad sigh. “I’m still scared, Jackie, I hope you’re right.”

Applejack smiled softly as she held Rarity close to her. Honey looked up and smiled a little as she watched her two moms hug before she went back to reading her book.

“So, is anyone else hungry?” Applejack asked as her stomach growled a little.

“A bit, yes,” Rarity said with a chuckle. “Though I’d rather not be in the same room as Ocean’s, I’d say food, but that would be far too generous. I don’t know how anyone can make it through that.”

“Can Ah try her food?” Honey asked.

“No!” Her moms said in unison, that was the last thing they needed right now which made her pout a little.

“Yer no fun,” Honey said as they chuckled a little. “But Ah am kinda hungry still.”

“Alright, well, we might as well take a chance,” Rarity said as they got to their feet and Rarity took Applejack’s hand in her’s and gave her wife a smile as she leaned up and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank you Applejack.”

“Yer welcome Rarity,” Applejack said as the three of them headed out of the room together to head towards the cafeteria.

“Sir, I think I’ve got a source for the unusual readings,” Sweetie Drops said from behind a corner as she pressed against her ear and watched the three walking away. She had been following strange readings that the sensors in the base had been picking up in this area.

“What is it?” Fancy’s voice said in her ear.

“It’s hard to believe, but the readings seem to be coming from the Apple-Belle family,” Sweetie Drops said with a slight frown as she examined the device she was holding. “I’m having a hard time getting a reading on exactly what kind of energy it is.”

“Understood, do you think there’s any threat?”

“No, but I suggest we keep an eye on things in the future,” Sweetie Drops said with a shake of her head. “I suggest we get in contact with Virgil Division up in New York after they return to keep an eye out for anything just in case.”

“Agreed,” Fancy Pants said. “Keep an eye out for anything strange at least.”

Sweetie Drops nodded and headed towards the cafeteria once she was sure they didn’t know she was there.

00000

“Alright, we’ve managed to use the satellite to track the location of both the Order Agent and the Corrupted,” Fancy Pants said in the briefing room as he pulled up a map of Canterlot and two points appeared on separate parts of the city. “The Agent is in the north part of the city on 12th Avenue.”

“Uh-oh,” Rarity said as she flinched a little when she saw where it was. “I used to own a shop there before we moved to New York. But that was years ago, I don’t know why she would be heading there.”

“Likely she didn’t know you sold it,” Fancy Pants said with a sigh as he looked back at the map. “The Corrupted though we’re not sure, she’s downtown on Wright Street, there’s not a whole lot there that would be likely to draw her attention.”

“Weird…” Scootaloo said as she looked at it thoughtfully for a moment. “Anyone have any ideas?”

“Wright Street, Wright Street…” Apple Bloom said as she looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yeah, Ah have no idea, might help if we knew who this Corrupted was and what they might be after.”

“Question is if we can be of any help here, I don’t know how much our two cities overlap, especially with this whole desert thing,” Ocean muttered. “Could someone give me a map of this place?”

Fleur left the room after a moment and came back with a map of the city that she laid out on the table in front of Ocean as she pointed at the two locations. “Here’s where they are according to the satellite.”

“Hm, interesting. The city looks more or less the same, some small differences, but that is it. Well, besides completely different street names,” she said, no one entirely sure of to herself or them. “So, where would the Corrupt-”

“Let me take a look at this as well,” Phoenix said from her side, shoving himself right next to her, she didn’t really seem to mind. “Wright Street, Wright Street, oh there, hey that looks famil- Fuck, fuck, fuck!” His curious tone quickly shifted into worried, exceedingly worried.

“What?” Rarity asked.

“That is where the Magnum Opus is in our world, I would recognize that corner of Canterlot everywhere. I think she is trying to go after Thunder and Summer. Oh, she is going to get her ass handed to her, I’m so gonna… Ahm, back on track, I need a bike, now, you wouldn’t be willing to lend me one? Please?”

“I’ll get Stone Breaker to get out one of the extra models, Sweetie Drops go with him on Anteros,” Fancy Pants said. “We need to split up into two teams of Riders, one goes after the Agent, and the other goes after the Order Agent. Scootaloo, since Agent Drops is going to Wright, you head for 12th, understood?”

“Got it,” Scootaloo said with a nod.

“Ocean, Pinecone, I need at least one of you to go with her,” Fancy Pants said as he got to his feet. “We’ll keep an eye out for things here in case anything else shows up. The last thing we need right now is for the Order to attack with one of their Commanders while we’re distracted, but we don’t have much choice.”

“Phoenix? Who should go with her?” Ocean asked, he already sorting through his stuff, making sure he actually got everything.

“Both of you, I can deal with this, especially with Sweetie's help here. And if they send that guy after Scoots again I want her to have backup,” he returned, before heading for the door.

She looked at him for a moment in surprise before chuckling, “Ok then if you say so, but don’t complain to me later when you get your ass kicked.”

“Oh, please, I picked fights with far more dangerous opponents, so this will be fine. Foxy beating me, that would be the day,” he chuckled in return, throwing a look at Sweetie Drops.

“Alright, it's settled then,” Fancy Pants said with a nod. “Stone Breaker will bring out the bikes, good luck and godspeed to all of you. Something tells me you’re going to need it.”

00000

It had been a pain navigating through this city; everything was so different, different street names, new roads while others had simply vanished and then there was the fact that it was so damn hot, it was horrible. She had no idea what had happened, but to be honest, she didn’t care, right now the only thing on her mind was revenge, sweet, sweet revenge. The girl in the high-set purple hair and her purple school uniform was staring at the other side of the street, clenching her white scarf with a fox stitched into it. “Finally,” she let out an exhausted sigh “I can’t believe this took me so long, right? This useless city, am I right?” She muttered to her self, her voice sounding insufferably smug like she was the greatest thing to ever grace this earth since cookies,

A quick glance behind her revealed a small alleyway and within it a beaten-up bunch of thugs that were lying around the ground, some of them having strange marks on them. “And then there are the locals, unbelievable! Try to attack a vulnerable girl and rob her, unacceptable.” With that, she let her scarf blowing in the wind before looking for a good place to get to the other side of the street.

That, however, was the moment when she heard the loud roaring of engines coming closer. At first, she didn’t really think anything of it, but the closer and louder they got the more they started to concern her. She didn’t really know why, but somehow she knew that this was the sound of something terrible, she was just not sure what exactly. Throwing all caution to the wind she just rushed onto the street, several cars only barely able to hit the breaks and stop in front of her, followed by loud honking. Still, she managed to run past all of them and ended up on the other side, letting out a relieved sigh, nothing had happened after all.

Then she heard the sound of the engines suddenly stop and that right behind her. Her head snapped around and stared right at… him! “You!” She let out a growl, staring at the man in his red and golden armor and these damn green eyes, just sitting on that stupid bike, surely making her.

“So, do you see any white foxes around here? Doesn’t look like she already attacked the restaurant, thank goodness.” Alchemy asked the strange Rider next to him, she had never before seen her, but what difference did it make, she had this new power and now was even stronger than before, no Rider, not even Alchemy was any kind of match for her.

“No, that’s weird though, you’d think she’d have had enough of a head start…” the Woman said, her armor was red with hot pink markings as she picked a card out of a box on her waist and slid it into her Driver.

“ARCANA BOW!” The driver said as an ornate black and gold bow appeared in her hand.

“Yeah, kinda strange. Until now she was always so damn fast and…” Alchemy stopped mid-sentence, his eyes fixated on her. “Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me. Amores, I think I found our Corrupted and apparently our universes have a sense of humor, look!” He pointed at her, but that hardly mattered to her, the anger was already completely overtaking her.

“You!” Was all she managed to bellow at the Rider, grabbing her scarf tightly.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me…” Amores said as she facepalmed a little. “What are the odds of two transformation monsters affecting the same person from two different universes?”

“I don’t know, I never was that good at math, I just now that the universe definitely is trying to screw with us,” Alchemy muttered, the scarf around Suri’s neck starting to glow, quickly covering the entire street in a blinding light.

\ Flame Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Flame Saber! /

As the light started to subside again, Alchemy had already jumped off his bike and rushed towards the fox, weapon in hand. “Hey, Foxy, I’ve gotta give it to you, never expected you to be our second monster, wait, you are the first, forgot that, but you two are just so alike.” But the Corrupted was not just gonna let him attack her without putting up a fight and like he had already expected a swarm of silk was heading his way.

“You! Do you know how what you did to me? Do you?” Suri bellowed into their direction, letting the cloth swirl around Alchemy, trying to ensnare him with it.

“Yep, fooled your plan to use a little girl, I monster. By the way, I might not be the best at physics, but even I know, cloth burns and oh look what I have here, fire,” he chuckled, spinning the Disc on the handguard of his sword and dashed forward as magical energy gathered inside of it.

“Yeah, like I’m going to listen to someone willing to become a monster to get something as petty as revenge,” Amores said as she pulled back on her bow as an energy arrow formed in it. “You’re not going to hurt this city over something like that!”

Alchemy meanwhile was just in front of a good amount of the cloth, five of the strips as he let his weapon come down on them. “Flaming Slash!” But to his surprise the moment the sword hit the strips of silk they wouldn’t budge, instead wrapping around the blade of the sword, completely ignoring the fire that was erupting from the weapon. “Ok, no! Just no! Fire plus cloth is supposed to burn, why aren’t you burning?” Alchemy shouted, his frustration growing with every second.

“Wait, Corrupted are formed in connection to magical artifacts right?” Amores asked as she fired an arrow to try and sever the scarf. “Is it possible the scarf is an artifact?”

“Probably, but that doesn’t really matter right now, right? The only thing that matters now is beating her, we don’t get the thing otherwise. And besides, Corrupted are just weird, sometimes they just work the way they do, I stopped questioning it after a while, magic is wild I tell you,” Alchemy screamed back, trying to jank the sword out of the claws of the cloth, which ultimately proved futile. “Ok, screw this, I’ll try something else,” he hissed with gritted teeth as he turned the weapon back into its Disc form and pulled out another Disc, put it on the Driver and spun it.

\ THUNDER DISC ACTIVATED! /

The Rider was consumed by thundery whirlwind before emerging in an electric blue armor with the same golden highlights, shoulders that were formed light lightning and similarly themed horns as well as two bright red eyes. “Try keeping up with this Foxy, will be quite the challenge.” With that, he quickly removed the Disc from the Driver again.

\ Thunder Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Thunder Tonfa! /

In his hands, two tonfas in the same color as the armor had formed as well as golden lines engraved on them Two Magic Discs were placed right over the handle. With the new weapons in hand he suddenly disappeared from view, no he just rushed under the silk with superhuman speed, and right in front of the Corrupted, following up with a swift punch to her stomach that sent the monster into the next best wall.

Amores drew her bow back and fired several arrows at the Corrupted before she could get up. She was still new to this particular type of monster, so she just had to hope that this would help as she pulled the string back for another shot.

But before either of them could attack again the Corrupted let out a bloodcurdling scream and not even a second later silk upon silk stips were shooting towards them, it was almost like particularly angry pasta. Not even Alchemy’s super speed would cut it here, the Rider jumping backward next to Amores. “Ok, that is not working anymore, but how about this?” He chuckled as he simply punched the ground beneath him, and nothing happened.

“Uh, that was anti-climactic,” Amores said as she looked at him. “Exactly what was supposed to happen there?”

“Patience,” he chuckled, as he flicked once, the sound echoing through the streets, as suddenly a bright blue light appeared at the point Alchemy had hit the ground, quickly forming into some sort of seal. A similar seal appeared on Suri’s body, and then it happened, lighting sprung and connected both seals, letting the Corrupted scream out in agony. “See, you just have to be a bit more patient.”

“Ah… that would do it,” Amores said as she pointed her bow back at the monster. “Any chance that was enough to finish it or do we have to do something else?”

“Oh please, you don’t believe that yourself, right? They never make it that easy,” he sighed as he deactivated his weapon again. “I think she has a good amount of fight still left in her, wanna bet?” With that, he placed the next Disc in the driver.

\ WIND DISC ACTIVATED! /

“Why does everyone have more form changes than we do?” Lyra’s voice said in Amore’s ear as she reached into her deck box again. “What are you thinking, tomahawks this time?”

“Nah, let's try this first,” Amores said as she took one card and slid it into the Driver as the first one slid out.

“ARCANA SHORT BOW!” Amores’ driver said as the bow was switched with a shorter bow as she drew back on it and fired several more arrows at the monster.

Alchemy meanwhile had been released from the emerald whirlwind that had enveloped him, revealing his new form, now clad in emerald armor with the familiar gold accents, shoulders, and horns with a wind them and two red piercing eyes as well as a long flowing white scarf. “Well, look Foxy, I’m rocking the scarf as well, and I actually look good with it,” he shouted at the raging Corrupted that quickly shoot an onslaught of her ‘tentacles’ at him. Alchemy just chuckled a little before ascending into the air and promptly gaining hight, all while removing his Disc from the Driver.

\ Wind Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Hurricane Bow! /

In his hand, an emerald and gold bow formed with the Magic Disc attached to the grip. On a closer look, one could even see two blades at the end of each side of the bow. Pulling back the string of the bow he let an emerald arrow lose on Suri, that one, however, was quickly blocked by one of the innumerable pieces of silk around her, she was getting harder and harder to hit with every passing moment.

“This is getting annoying,” Amores said as she dodged one of the pieces of silk and tried to fire another arrow towards the monster. “We need to hit this thing faster and harder…”

She glanced back towards the red and pink bike for a moment and nodded a little as she raised her bow again and fired a few shots towards the monster again. “Cover me!”

“No problem, I have just the right thing for that,” he smirked, starting to spin the Disc again and pulled back the bowstring again as emerald energy gathered in it. “Arrow Storm!”

With that, he let one arrow sore right above him, and it continues that way for a few moments until it disappeared in a large emerald seal in the sky. Seconds alter a barrage of arrows rained down on top of the Corrupted who had to use all of her silk to shield herself from the incoming attack. And even that didn’t really work that well, several of the arrows pierced through and hit her on several places of her body.

Amores jumped on her bike and pressed two of the buttons on the handlebars as she started it up.

“Battle mode engaged,” the computerized voice said from the bike as she gripped the handlebars and pointed it right at the monster. “What are your orders?”

“Target the hostile being and prepare for an attack on my command at 15 MPH,” Amore said as she gunned the engine. “Now!”

The Motorcycle roared to life as it sped right at the Corrupted and hit her hard with the front wheel catching her off guard. Amores held the bow up again and fired several more arrows at the monster before she could recover as she prepared for another attack with the bike.

“You’re going down!” She said as she reached for her Driver again.

The device flipped open, giving her access to the Lovers Card which she quickly put into a slot on the bike, the computerized voice shouting out: “LOVERS BREAK!” The bike was quickly engulfed in pink energy, much to the horror of the Corrupted who screamed out in pain and anger.

“You damn… I’m gonna murder you, you hear that!” But Amores just didn’t listen, not that it would have been anything profound anyway. It didn’t take that long till a massive explosion consumed the entire street, Amores managing to stop her bike before she crashed into the wall. With this the whole street had pretty much been covered in dust and smoke, making it quite hard to see. Alchemy sighed in relief. Finally, it was over.

“Revenge… Revenge! Revenge!” Suddenly cut through the smoke and out of nowhere several of the silk strips grabbed ahold of Alchemy’s legs and pulled him earthwards, the Rider landing with a painful grunt on the ground. Amores faired only partially better, she managed to evade the attacks of the Corrupted but was knocked off her bike, landing a few meters away from the tangled strips of silk.

“Ok, I have had enough of you,” Alchemy groaned, Amores could hear his pain in every word. “Time to kick it up a notch!”

\ FRIENDSHIP DISC ACTIVATED! /

The dust and smoke was quickly pushed away by a purple whirlwind that quickly revealed Alchemy in an all purple form. The golden highlights of the other armors had taken on bright pink, his shoulders had taken on the form of waves while his horn had been changed into two interwind magical waves on each side, all while two pink eyes stared at the Corrupted. “Let’s finish this, ok?”

“Suri, you used the powers that were bestowed upon you to attack others and try to punish people for your own mistakes. By the magic that was bestowed upon me, I deem you unworthy of your powers and will now take them from you!” Alchemy shouted towards her, even though she probably couldn’t hear him anymore. With that, he spun the Disc on his Driver as energy gathered into his foot.

\ Friendship Disc Maximum Power! /

Before the Corrupted could even react, four seals appeared around the monster and ethereal chains burst out of them quickly wrapping the Corrupted in them and immobilizing her, thankfully even taking a good amount of the silk strips with it. While all this was happening Alchemy was ascending higher and higher into the air.

Amores drew the bow back as she pointed it at the Corrupted. Energy started to gather in the tip of the arrow for a moment before she shouted. “SONIC ARROW!” And let loose with the arrow as it flew through the air towards the Corrupted.

Alchemy had finally reached the appropriate height and now was rocketing towards the Corrupted foot first, both Finishers hitting the immobilized Corrupted at the same time, letting her go off in a massive explosion. Out of the dust and smoke, a white scarf with a fox stitched into it floated towards Alchemy who just snipped it out of the air. “Well, that takes care of this.”

“Yeah, let’s just hope that the others are doing just as well as we are,” Amores said as she lowered her bow.

“I’m sure they are fine, they have Ocean, Pinecone and Scoots there, they will be fine. If we could beat this crummy Corrupted they can beat that Order Agent as well,” Alchemy returned, quickly wrapping the scarf around his forearm. “Still, you think we should go check on them? Just in case?”

“Would be a good idea,” Amores said with a nod as she righted her bike up again and climbed on it. “Let’s go then.”

“Right on that,” Alchemy returned as he picked up his own bike with a levitation spell and quickly mounted up as well.

“You’re going to have to tell me how you do that,” Amores said with a chuckle as she removed the bow card from her deck and started up the bike. “Let’s get going then, to 12th Avenue?”

“As you wish, but I don’t think you will like the answer,” he returned with his own chuckle, letting the engine of his bike roar as well, but not without taking a look back at this world's version of the Magnum Opus, unscratched. Thank goodness, he didn’t want to ruin the restaurant a second time.

00000

Scootaloo blinked a little as she looked around with the other two Riders. They were at the spot that they were supposed to find the monster at, but there wasn’t anything there other than an empty shop.

“Okay, that’s weird,” she said as she got off her bike and looked around. “You’d think they’d be here…”

“What do you see?” Fancy’s voice said in her helmet’s communicator.

“Nothing, are you sure the readings are coming from here?” Scootaloo asked as she looked around more and placed her hand on her deck box. “Do either of you see anything?”

“Negative, nothing here,” Ocean returned her Charge Magnum already in her hands. “Something is off about all of this, I just know it.”

“I don’t see anything either, but here is something, I can sense it,” Pinecone growled back, his eyes darting across the room like they were some startled wild animal.

“Agreed,” Scootaloo said as she drew out a card and slid it into her Driver as the black and gold rapier appeared in her hand. She paused a moment and activated her communicator again. “Director is it possible that they could turn invisible?”

“Given everything we’ve seen, I wouldn’t discount it,” Fancy Pants replied. “All of you stay on your guard until you know what you’re up against here. We’ll keep running scans to make sure that she didn’t get away.”

“Why don’t we ever get normal monsters that just have weapons…” Scootaloo muttered to herself.

“Trust me, there is nothing like a normal monster,” Ocean returned, not letting her finger from the trigger for a moment.

Scootaloo paused a moment as she swore she saw something out of the corner of her eye as she reached for her sword and turned around quickly. There was nothing there when she turned around, it was as if whoever or whatever it was was playing with them.

“Where are you?” Scootaloo demanded as she gripped the hilt of her rapier in her hand and looked around for the monster. “I know you’re in here somewhere…”

There was a sudden ripple effect in the air as the cat monster re-appeared behind Scootaloo and slashed hard at her with her katana. Scootaloo screamed a little and swung around just as the monster vanished again with a laugh.

“Definitely invisibility…” Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. “Just what we need, a hard one to beat.”

“Stop whining and get on with it,” Pinecone growled back, summoning a whip made out of small little green scales that ended in the sting of a scorpion. Within seconds two large bat-like wings extended from his back and he ascended to the rather low ceiling, hovering there for a moment before letting the whip come down on the floor, shattering the point it hit into thousand pieces. Dust and debris from the attack quickly filled the small store, all while Monster slammed his claws into the ceiling and hung there.

The dust started to fall around them as the Riders scanned the area quickly. The dust seemed to settle on a shape of a cat-like woman that was holding a sword. She didn’t notice that she was visible for a moment before she suddenly snapped up and looked at the Riders.

“Clever…” she said with an animalistic growl as she turned visible again and gripped the sword tightly in her hand. “Fine, if you want to play it that way, I can play!”

With that, she ran forward right at Ocean, dodging any attacks as she did as she swung her sword at the female Rider.

A loud metallic sound rippled through the air as the blade was stopped by Ocean’s Stun Baton that she had pulled from her belt. With the Agent taken aback by the sudden block, it was easy for Charge to unload six shots from point-blank range right into the stomach of the monster. The Agent roared out in pain as it staggered backward, Charge already spinning the cylinder of her gun to reload it.

“So I underestimated you, this is hardly over…” the Agent said as she gripped her sword and energy started to flow around her more. Scootaloo flinched a little at that, she was drawing on more energy from the host, it was the only thing that made sense. “Then I’m going to have to hit you all harder than ever before!”

“That’s not good,” Scootaloo said as she moved forward and pointed her sword at the agent. “I’m not about to let you get away with hurting that woman!”

“Why do you care? You’re friends with that bitch’s younger sister aren’t you?” The agent said with a snarl. “Why should you care what happens to this host?”

“This city is under my protection, as is everyone in it,” Scootaloo said as she gripped the sword tightly. “Yeah Suri Polomare may want revenge on Rarity, but she doesn’t deserve to be used by the Order like this! I don’t care what it takes, but I’m going to drive you out of her body once and for all!”

“Then try it,” the agent said with a laugh as she pointed her katana at Scootaloo. “All of you try it. I’m not giving up this body that easily!”

“Then we’re going to have to force you out!” Scootaloo said as she ran forward and thrust her sword at the monster who jumped back. “I’ve stopped your kind before, and I’m going to make sure that you don’t get away with this!”

“Then you’re going to have to try harder than that,” the agent said with a laugh as she held her sword up. “I don’t need cheap tricks to defeat you. You, on the other hand, seem to need help!”

She ran forward at Scootaloo who barely managed to dodge the attack and slashed at the monster with her rapier. She paused a moment, had she become so reliant on the help of others that she had a hard time fighting the monsters herself?

No! She was still strong, she could still handle herself against these monsters with or without help. She was not going to let this Order Agent get to her, not now!

She gripped her sword tightly and dodged an attack from the monster before she slammed her fist into the monster’s chest, which sent her staggering back. “Don’t you give me that crap! Having my friends and family don’t make me weaker, they make me stronger than you! I’m not going to let you win!”

“Then have at me,” the monster said with a snarl as she struggled to get to her feet and pointed her sword at Scootaloo. “You have a lot of nerve parading around as the defender of people when you do so on the backs of the agents you killed!”

Scootaloo frowned a little at that, no there was no way that made sense as she gripped her sword tightly. They were invading her world and hurting innocent people, right?

“Watch out!”

Scootaloo looked up just in time to see the agent swinging her sword right at her which she just barely managed to counter with her own weapon. “No fair distracting me.”

“All’s fair in war,” the agent said with a cackle as she backed off a little and laughed madly. “I’m going to take you down, and then I’ll pay a little visit to your friends!”

“You know, I kinda agree with you,” a growly voice came from behind the Agent, the monster quickly spinning around in shock, staring at the beastial Rider behind her and his two piercing red eyes. “All’s fair in war,” he continued with a gleeful chuckle and brought his claws down upon the surprised Agent, sparks flying everywhere as the monster screamed out in pain and staggered back towards Scootaloo. Monster, however, wasn’t done yet, pressing forward and slashing across her chest, again and again, every time accompanied with an agonizing screech as he pushed her further and further back. “Take her from here,” he bellowed over the constant pained screams of the monster before jumping back a few steps.

Scootaloo nodded as she ran forward and leaped up at the agent. Energy started to gather in her foot as she headed right for her, preparing to finish her off before… the monster vanished. Scootaloo cursed loudly as she hit the ground hard, a sickening crunch heard as she impacted the ground and let out a cry of pain.

“Son of a… freakin’ invisibility monsters…” Scootaloo groaned as she tried to get to her feet only to feel a sharp pain through her body as she powered down. Her leg looked like it was in bad shape from the impact. “Yeah… that’s definitely broken…”

“Dammit,” Ocean sighed as she walked over to the injured Rider and offered her a hand. “Come, I’ll help you up,” she continued as she slowly picked her up and let Scootaloo support herself on her. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah… must’ve gone a little faster than I expected,” Scootaloo said with a pained groan as she let Ocean help her up. “Usually that works, so I don’t need to worry about it.”

“Well, stuff like this just happens sometimes, there were a few times Phoenix tried to defeat a monster with finisher and it didn’t turn out so great, one of them even ended with him being thrown out of his transformation, almost got us all killed, but like I said, stuff like this just happens, t least you are still alive.” She looked at the limping Rider besides her. “Even if this is less than ideal. But nothing that a transformation can’t fix, right?” She continued with a soft tone in her voice.

Scootaloo struggled to draw a card from her deck box. “I don’t really get how these things work, but before this did manage to heal me…” she said as she looked down at the Justice card. “It looks like she ran off though. We should get back to HQ…”

Scootaloo could see how Ocean shifted her helmet, and the two red eyes stared at her. “Probably, but how are we getting you there? I don’t think riding your bike will work that well,” she continued.

“No, definitely not…” Scootaloo said as she reached for her pocket and took out her cell phone. “I’ll call the Director, he can send a ride to pick us up.”

“Yeah, that is prob-” Ocean returned before she was interrupted by the roaring of two engines and the two bikes that quickly followed it.

“Hey, and how did it g-” Phoenix asked in a cheery tone before actually taking in the scene. “Oh, that can’t be good,” he added quickly, basically jumping from the bike and rushing over to them. “What in the name of Tartarus happened?”

“Oh you know, broke my leg trying to do a finisher on the monster,” Scootaloo said with a pained groan. “I’ll be fine, but she got away, just my luck really.”

“Don’t sweat it, monsters are really slippy, they tend to do this. But hey, look on the bright side, we got the Corrupted, so the next time the Agent shows itself, it’s gonna have to deal with all of us and believe me, she won’t manage that,” he chuckled, slapping Scootaloo on the back, causing her to flinch. “Ah, sorry,” he sheepishly added.

“I’ve had worse, should’ve seen me after the first one…” Scootaloo said weakly as she called Fancy Pants to get them a ride.

“And you should have seen Phoenix after his third fight, nearly killed him and only survived because Rainbow dash saved his skin, it was hilarious, well when everything settled down,” Ocean added.

“You love to tease me, do you?” He just sighed while shaking his head.

“Yes, yes I do,” she added playfully.

00000

“Okay, Ah know yer worried about her, but can yah two come up fer air already?” Apple Bloom asked with a roll of her eyes as she watched Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle kiss in the infirmary back at HQ. “We need ta talk about what happened back there.”

“Sorry,” Scootaloo said with a blush. Her leg was starting to feel better as the spirit from the card was working its magic on the injury. “This thing turned invisible, have there been any other readings of energy in the city?”

“Sadly no, not yet,” Fancy Pants said with a shake of his head. “Which either means that she’s in human form or her invisibility blocks our scanners.”

“Great,” Scootaloo said with a groan as she shifted a little. Her leg still hurt, but the Justice card was finishing its work on the repairs. “So what do we do now?”

“You don’t do anything young lady, not until your leg is healed,” Sweetie Belle said in a curt tone as she shook her head at her fiance’s behavior.

“Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot we can do other than keep our Satellite’s directed at the city looking for any readings,” Fancy pants said. “So, yes you are basically going to stay here until your leg is healed. We also have agents watching the Canterlot High Statue in case something happens there.”

“At least we don’t have to worry about Foxy anymore,” Phoenix chuckled. “And if you keep this up you will be back in action in no time at all. And judging from how some people here treat you because of it, might actually have been worth it.” Before he could continue to chuckle he quickly felt something on the back of his head followed by a sharp pain. “Ow, what was that for?” Ocean just looked at him with her usual expression when he had said something stupid, but there was the hint of a smile on her lips. “Come on, as if you aren’t thinking the exact same thing.”

This quickly let Ocean turn bright red, stuttering out a flustered: “No, I’m not!” All while Phoenix was just laughing.

“Wanna join in?” He added as well with a bright grin on lips, this one turned her cheeks crimson, her eyes darted to the floor in an instant.

“Get a room you two,” Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she gave Sweetie a smile as she leaned up and gave the pale-skinned woman a kiss.

“Like yah are one ta talk,” Apple Bloom said with a roll of her eyes. “Miss Ah’m gonna make out with mah fiance where everyone can see us.”

“Hey, we have a room,” Scootaloo said with a roll of her eyes. “You’re all just in our room.”

“Ok, I need to remember that one,” Phoenix muttered to himself, Ocean just staring at the two in disbelief before starting to chuckle herself.

“Alright all of you out,” the doctor said with a roll of her eyes. “Ms. Belle you’re free to stay of course, but the rest of you should leave Ms. Dash to rest. Once the process is done, you can tease her more.”

“Oh fine,” Apple Bloom said with an exaggerated sigh. “Ya’ll take care, okay? Ah should go check in with Applejack, Rarity, and Honey anyway. They’ve been worried about yah.”

“I’ll check in with them later,” Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked down at her leg. She had asked that they not visit mostly because she didn’t want Honey to see her like this. Even with the Justice card healing her she didn’t want to scare the young girl. “Tell them that I’ll be okay for me.”

“Okay,” Apple Bloom said as she gave her friends a hug. “Ah’ll tell them, see yah soon.”

The others headed out of the infirmary together, which just left Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle in there alone. Scootaloo closed her eyes as she laid back and placed her hand gently on the card that was placed against her skin underneath the hospital gown she was wearing.

She had always felt almost like she took this kind of thing for granted. This card had given her the power to fight against the Order, and she honestly wasn’t sure what other things the card could do for her.

She sighed and reached over and squeezed her fiance’s hand as she gave her a soft smile. Her leg was starting to feel better, but what mattered was that she was here with the woman she loved as well as her friends.

Now she just had to stop this new monster from hurting others.

00000

“Still nothing on the scans?” Fancy Pants asked as he headed into the command center of the SMILE HQ with the Riders from the other universe behind him.

“No Director,” one of the agents, a dark-skinned woman with dark pink hair said as she read over a tablet. “They’re still remaining quiet for the time being, as is Granforca and any of the other Commanders.”

“Alright, make sure that we keep our eye in the sky looking out for anything,” Fancy Pants said with a sigh as he took his seat. “The last thing we need is for something else to happen while we’re looking out for this thing.”

“Indeed,” the dark-skinned woman said as she adjusted the tablet and looked back at the screen that showed the map of the city. “Though I have to question if bringing those three into the base was the best idea given the sensitive nature of what we do here.”

“Your objections are noted Agent Shadow but given our lack of knowledge about the Corrupted it was the best option at the time,” Fancy Pants said. “For now they’re welcome here until the current situation is resolved.”

“Fine,” Agent Tempest Shadow said as she went back to work.

“Sorry about Agent Shadow, but she is right, this is supposed to be a secure facility, but the situation hasn’t exactly made that easy,” Fancy Pants said as he looked back at their three guests. “Though if one of you is anything like she is on this side of the portal, I’m sure you understand the need for secrecy.”

Ocean was the first to answer: “Oh, while the MRG is not really a secret organization we still have things we better keep secret from the masses, people probably shouldn’t know where we store our magical artifacts after all. We are definitely grateful that you allowed us to work so closely together with us. If any of your agents ever get stranded in our universe, we are very much willing to return the favor.”

“Good to know, with this line of work you never know when that might happen,” Fancy Pants said as he glanced at the screen. “I swear between this and the Fangire incident it feels like we’re becoming a magnet for interdimensional activity…”

“Let’s hope we don’t become one as well, we have already enough on our plate with two evil Riders and the Corrupted, as well as everything that comes with it,” Pheonix sighed. “Another interdimensional adventure would be really annoying.”

“Well good luck with…” Fancy Pants said as an alarm suddenly went off. “Report, what’s going on?”

“Sir, we’ve got a sudden surge of energy coming from the portal outside of Canterlot High,” one of the agents said.

“We’re getting reports in from our agents in the field,” another one said with a frown. “The agent must have snuck by using her invisibility.”

“Why would she have jumped universes…” Fancy Pants muttered as he looked at the sudden surge visible on the screen. It went down after a moment as whatever happened ended as he rubbed his temples. “Do any of you have any ideas on why they could’ve done this?”

“Huh, weird. It’s not like there is anything special in our universe compared to yours, well besides the… Oh fuck me sideways,” Phoenix returned before ocean even had any chance to reply before suddenly stopping only to start cursing. “I think she is after an artifact. May work on them, I don’t know, artifacts just turn humans into monsters who knows what would happen when a monster used it.”

“They were able to combine with a Fangire before,” Tempest Shadow pointed out.

“Alright, we’re sending Scootaloo and Sweetie Drops with you through the portal,” Fancy Pants said definitively. “We need a team on your side especially if we’re dealing with another Hybrid monster. Agent Shadow, you’re in charge of the team.”

“Understood,” Tempest said with a nod.

“Scootaloo should be healed soon,” Fancy Pants continued before he looked back at Phoenix, Ocean, and Pinecone. “Given the nature of the situation and that we’re going into unknown territory, we’re relying on the three of you to help our agents. Last time there was a hybrid it lead to the death of over a hundred people, so be careful.”

The moment he heard this his hand quickly clenched into a fist before returning: “Good, no problem. I’m not gonna let that happen to anyone again,” he returned with an uncharacteristically low voice.

“Alright, once Scootaloo is ready, I want you all through that portal,” Fancy Pants said with a nod. “Time is of the essence right now, if there is nothing else we need to get our team ready to go.”

“Roger! Phoenix, Pinecone, get moving, like he said, time is of the essence,” Ocean ordered out, both of her comrades nodding in agreement.

00000

“We’re goin’ with her,” Apple Bloom said as she and Sweetie Belle were talking with Fancy Pants. Scootaloo was getting changed in the bathroom after the Director finished giving the briefing. “We ain’t gonna take no fer an answer, we’re goin’ ta back her up.”

“You’d be going to another universe entirely, one you’re not familiar with, and we don’t even know what effects that might have on you,” Fancy Pants said as he adjusted his monocle a little. “I cannot in good conscience ask you to…”

“You’re not asking us to do anything, we want to do this,” Sweetie Belle interrupted as she crossed her arms. “We’ve been fighting these things for a while and giving Scootaloo back-up. She’s our friend and my fiance, we’re going with her.”

“Yes, but we don’t know what we’re…” Fancy started to say when the two women shot him a look. “I’m not going to talk you two out of this am I?”

“Nope, no chance,” Apple Bloom said with a shake of her head. “We ain’t gonna let this go. Scootaloo broke her leg last time she went out, and we don’t want anythin’ ta happen ta her again.”

“Alright, fine,” Fancy Pants sighed. “I’ll make sure the two of you are outfitted with the right equipment. Do not put yourselves into any unnecessary danger, understood?”

“Understood,” the two said as Scootaloo came back out fully dressed as she made sure that her cards were secure in the card box.

“Alright Scootaloo, your friends are coming with you as well,” Fancy Pants said with a sigh. “Are you okay with that? I mean, you’re going to another universe entirely.”

Scootaloo paused a moment as she looked at her friends for a moment and smiled a little as she shook her head. “No, that’s okay, I want them to come with me. We’re going into uncharted territory here, and I’m fine with them coming to back me up. I trust them to watch my back.”

She smiled a little as she took Sweetie’s hand in her’s and gave it a squeeze. Fancy Pants nodded a little as they got their things together.

“Alright, we just need to talk ta our sisters then,” Apple Bloom said with a sigh. “Some vacation fer them huh?”

“Let’s just hope that we make it back before they need to head home,” Scootaloo said with a nod. She took a deep breath and placed her hand on her deck box. Her leg was still a little sore, but she could at least move it now.

“I’d be careful on that leg too,” the doctor said as she adjusted her glasses for a moment. “You’re still recovering from the break, I would advise not using any of your weapon cards above the three of Swords for the time being, or it might make matters worse. Just for now at least, alright?”

“Okay,” Scootaloo said with a nod as they started out of the infirmary.

00000

“So, anything else we should expect on the other side?” Sweetie Drops asked as she secured her equipment and gave a green haired woman a nod. “Anything weird that we should know?”

“Well, nothing particularly-” Ocean returned before being interrupted by Phoenix.

“There is one thing, if you see someone in armor like mine, just run. I’m serious, don’t try your luck with them, just run,” he finished with a serious undertone.

“Great, evil Riders just what we needed,” Sweetie Drops said with a shake of her head. “Are you sure that you’re the first Kamen Riders in your universe? Because that’s a thing here too, even the similar armor thing… wow, I never realized how weird this universe was until right now.”

“No, he isn’t, there were Monsters before him,” Pinecone stated matter of factly.

“Hey, the first one that went with the name and was publically known, not that your ancestors did much else than to beat up bandits in the forest,” he returned with a slightly annoyed frown.

“What did you just say?” Pinecone shot back, staring daggers at him.

“Guys, guys, you can continue this later, we have something to do!” Ocean interrupted them with her firm voice. “Now, can we get back to that and leave this behind for now?” She got a mumbled yes from Phoenix while Pinecone just stayed silent. “Thank you!”

“How have the Corrupted not overrun their universe yet?” Sweetie Belle muttered to Scootaloo.

“Well, I’m guessing they fight better than they get along,” Scootaloo answered with a chuckle. “Come on, we need to get going.”

“Good, let’s show this ‘agent’ what it means to get in my way,” Phoenix chuckled back. “Primarily a foot to the face!”

“Right, let’s get going,” Tempest said as she checked everything and nodded to the portal and the other SMILE agents. “We’ll go first, wait a minute and then follow, okay?”

“Right,” Scootaloo said as the agents headed through the portal. She took a deep breath and looked at her watch for a moment as she waited for a minute to pass before they headed through the portal to the other world.

Brave new World

View Online

Scootaloo groaned a little as they exited the portal, for a moment she didn’t think that anything had happened. They were still in front of the statue at the school, it was a little cooler, but that was about it.

“Weird did we…” She started to say before she raised her hand to her face and realized that it was no longer the darker skin she had been used to, it looked more light orange. “What the heck?”

“Oh, so you noticed? Quite a shock, am I right?” Phoenix called out to her from behind, trying his hardest not to burst out laughing. “Everything is a bit more colorful here.”

“Uh, then why am I like, really white?” Sweetie Belle asked as she looked at her extremely pale hand. “I mean, this is more like going in the opposite direction… I look like a Marshmallow!”

“Well, I always thought you…” Scootaloo started to say before Apple Bloom interrupted her.

“Don’t yah dare finish that sentence, its bad enough Ah have ta hear ya’ll every night,” she said with a deep blush.

“I don’t know, I think it suits you,” Phoenix added with a chuckle. “And oh boy I’m glad that we have back our color, especially you Ocean, you just look perfect with it.”

“Oh, there you are! Where in the name of Tartarus have you all been? You were gone for an entire day, and then this thing came back here instead of you. I was worried sick you kn-” A voice called out to them, one that was very familiar to Phoenix and Ocean, Shining Armor! “What are you three doing here? And why do you look so much older?” He quickly added with a confused expression.

“Hey Shining, good to see you! Nice that you wanted to play the reception committee for us. Let me introduce you to Scootaloo Dash, or if you want to go by her more known name Kamen Rider Justice,” Phoenix returned with a big smile on his face.

“What?” Was all Shining could say, staring at them in even more confusion. “I think I’m missing something.”

“Just a little bit, but right now we need to know where the monster went,” Ocean interrupted them before they could waste any more time. “We’ll tell you about everything when we have time.”

“I think that’s the Police Officer who helped me after my first encounter with Diamond Tiara when she was possessed…” Scootaloo muttered to Sweetie and Apple Bloom.

“Huh, really?” Apple Bloom asked as she looked at Shining Armor curiously. “Eh, it's probably just a coincidence.”

“Alright, we need to get your former Corrupted secured or whatever you do with ‘em,” Tempest Shadow said as she nodded to the secured Suri Polomare. She reached into her pocket and took out her badge. “I’m Agent Tempest Shadow, there’s been a crossover event involving a monster from our universe coming here, any information would be helpful.”

“Well,” he returned, still trying to get the thoughts in his head in order. “That is a lot to take in, but I think we can help you, as long as agent Skies is ok with it.” Ocean just gave him an amused smile before he continued: “Right. So, I ordered a few of my colleagues to follow her, but she quickly disappeared, we don’t know if she just teleported somewhere else or if she just went invisible-”

“Invisible!”

He looked at Ocean for a moment before continuing with a shake of his head. “Right, invisible, got it. We lost her sadly, and even Light Bulb can’t find anything on her through our scanners; apparently, she isn’t magical. Right now we are watching everything for any sighting of her, but until we didn’t get anything. That is about all I can offer, sorry. But at least I can get our little friend here to the headquarters, I think she has a lot to talk about, right?”

“Yeah, apparently her punishment from last time didn’t tell her that messing with magic doesn’t end well. Maybe she will learn this time?” Phoenix chuckled. “On another note, anything attacked the MRG building in the time we were gone? I mean seriously, that happens on a weekly basis.”

“No, we had nothing, no Chrysopoeia, no Alkahest or any other Corrupted, just that cat-thing, whatever it is,” he returned with a slight groan. “But apparently this little trip didn’t improve your sense of humor, it’s still awful.”

“Hey, my comedy is great, tell him Ocean!” Phoenix snapped back, crossing his arms with a smug grin on his face.

“It’s cute,” she just returned, a bright smile on her lips before she gave him a kiss on the check and headed off towards the parked van on the sidewalk.

“Cute? What do you mean with cute? Hey, I’m talking to you!” He shouted after her, she just widening her grin and continued.

“Luckily we brought handheld scanners for this eventuality,” Sweetie Drops said as she raised the device in her hand. “Not nearly as precise or accurate as a satellite, but it’ll do the trick.”

“So, where to now?” Scootaloo asked.

“We’ll take a quick detour to our labs. I’m sure Light Bulb might be able to make some adjustments to our own scanners so we can have a better idea where our little monster is hiding and we might even get to look into our little artifact, something seemed off about it, and I don’t know what. And after that, we will head straight to our local headquarters, I’m sure Onyx would love to hear about you all,” she shouted over her shoulder as she continued to approach the van. “I hope you all aren’t claustrophobic, because we have to cram a bit to get you all into this one,” she chuckled while opening the rear door of the van.

“Great…” Scootaloo said with a groan. “Well, I guess if we have no choice, let’s get going then.”

“Well, you could just wait here till the van comes back for you, but I’m not sure how some people would react seeing you just standing around a school, especially since you two can’t keep it in your pants,” Phoenix snickered before rushing towards his girlfriend, leaving the others behind, Pinecone just shaking his head and trotting after him.

“Hey, we’re not that bad!” Sweetie protested as Apple Bloom just laughed a little at that. “Come on, we’re going!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes as they headed to the van after them.

00000

“Oh, oh, this is so interesting. I would love to strip you all down and analyze everything about you,” Light Bulb said with a childish glee in her voice, a small white woman with long blond hair who was right now extremely close to Scootaloo and stared at her through some strange high tech glasses. All while she was completely oblivious to the fact that everyone was giving her a few funny looks. “All the data I could gain from all of this, especially from your Drivers and these cards. Oh, the possibilities.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you will have time for that, but right now we have to get the scanners to work with our one if that is possible,” Ocean sighed, her cheeks clearly red.

“Oh, right agent Skies, shouldn’t be a problem. Seems the scanners work on similar technology than ours, just have to plug this in her and then…” she muttered to her self as she tinkered around with the device. “And that should do the trick!” At that moment the computer beeped something. “Should only take an hour or so to calibrate, nothing more I can do from here,” she continued with that big grin on her face. “Now, about that examination-”

“Hey, no one’s stripping Scootaloo!” Sweetie protested quickly before muttering something to herself.

“Yeah, look, Light Bulb, right? I’m not some test subject to be poked and prodded,” Scootaloo said as she shifted uncomfortably. “So could you please stop staring at me like that? It’s freaking me out.”

“Oh, right right,” immediately jumped back, almost bumping into Ocean before continuing. “I’m sorry. Won’t happen again. Still, sad that you won’t let me examine you,” she added with a depressed tone. “But it’s not like there aren’t any other test subjects that I could turn to…” she glanced over to Sweetie Drops and Lyra, a hopeful smile on her lips.

“Oh heck no,” Lyra said with a shake of her head. “I’m only here because we weren’t sure if she could transform with me in a separate reality. I did not sign up for being poked and prodded either.”

“Is she always like this?” Sweetie Drops asked as she looked at Ocean.

“She can become rather… excited when she discovers something new, otherwise she is rather shy… even if you don’t really see that right now,” she returned with a flustered expression on her face. “I’m sorry.”

“Aww, so sad… And I thought I finally had the chance to research a Rider,” she sighed, picking up the strange Scfi-glasses, revealing her golden eyes.

“We should make sure we don’t let her follow us back home,” Sweetie Drops muttered to Scootaloo who chuckled a little at that.

“Look, I get it, not exactly a lot of subjects around here to poke and prod,” Sweetie Belle said with a shake of her head. “But she’s my fiance, and she’s not comfortable with that. But you’ve got a monster who can turn invisible at will and will hurt who knows how many people in this city trying to…”

She paused a moment and thought about that. The monster was building on Suri Polomare’s anger towards her sister, so what would she do here? If she had a counterpart then…

“Where’s Rarity Belle in this universe?” She asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure I know exactly the person who might know that just give me a minute,” Phoenix returned, having already pulled out his phone and left the room. “Hey Thunder, how is it going?” That was the last they heard from him before the door closed behind him. That was until loud, incomprehensible screaming started.

“What the…” Scootaloo said as she opened the door and went to see what was going on.

She could see Phoenix holding the phone a good distance away from his ear and on occasion could make a few words out: “Idiot… worried sick… you get home…” and a few more. Without even saying as much as a word she closed the door again.

“Uh, yeah, I think I’ll leave him to that…” Scootaloo said with a shake of her head as she looked back at the others. “Anything else we should know about this universe while we’re here?”

“Well, Like Phoenix already said, we have evil Kamen Riders here, almost as long as he was around. One of them is a serial killer that murdered people because they were in the possession of artifacts to power up his own Magic Discs. The other one…” she started only to stop mid-sentence, her expression filled with guilt and sadness.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Sweetie Belle said with a slight frown.

“Unfortunately this kind of thing is not that uncommon where we come from,” Sweetie Drops said with a sigh. “I swear it’s like we live in a weird superhero universe sometimes.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean, but I’m not sending you out there unprepared, especially since Chrysopoeia is by far the most dangerous out of all of them. He is… it’s complicated,” she sighed again, ordering her thoughts for a moment before continuing. “He is the spirit of a unicorn that has been assumed dead for six hundred years. He came here hunting for Phoenix’s family and stole some of the Magic Discs a few hundred years ago. Alkahest is his descendant. Alkahest kidnaped one of my closest friends, Ivory Diamond, the one that developed my Driver and now his ancestor is using his body like a puppet. If you see someone in armor that looks like Phoenix’s just run, they are extremely dangerous. I know Phoenix already told you that, but don't attempt anything. We are only alive at this point because of a mix of luck and the fact that Chrysopoeia wants to destroy our lives before killing us…” she finished with a low voice, her hands had clenched into fists.

“Oh geez…” Scootaloo said with a flinch. “I’m sorry, that can’t be easy on you. If there’s anything, we can do to help…”

“No, I’m not dragging you into this and neither would Phoenix. He has no reason to go easy on you two. He doesn’t know you and probably would just kill you for being in his way and to hurt us. This is our problem, and we aren’t getting you killed for it,” she returned with a firm expression. “In the end, we just have to pull this off ourselves, we are Kamen Riders after all. It’s our job.”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said with a soft smile as she placed her hand gently on Sweetie Belle’s. “The most important thing is that we keep the people of our cities safe. Especially those closest to us, it’s not an easy job, but someone has to do it. Especially given what the alternatives are…”

“Yeah, exactly. I hope you can prevent anything like that from ever happening to you. And seeing you fight, and what Phoenix said about your partner, I’m sure you will manage. Just don’t let your identity get know, that is quite annoying. I tell you,” Ocean chuckled. “Seriously, how long is Thunder gonna chew out Phoenix? You know what, I’m gonna look what they are doing, you play nice with Light Bulb. Oh, and Light Bulb, don’t make our guests uncomfortable, I’m sure when everything is done and wrapped up, they will let you have a look at their gear, just don’t overdo it, ok?” The white woman nodded eagerly with a bright smile. “Good!” Ocean continued before leaving the room, the rest able to see Phoenix still holding the phone a good distance away from his ear before the door shut close again.

“He’s gonna be like that for a while isn’t he?” Scootaloo asked.

“Probably, I don’t really know much about his brother beside that he is his brother,” Pinecone mumbled back, his arms crossed and staring at the monitor that showed the calibration. “By the way, sorry for before,” he added, almost too quiet to hear.

Scootaloo nodded and sighed a little as she sat down. It felt like her life was just getting weirder and weirder ever since she had found that Justice card in Canterlot. Her life was just getting more and more difficult, first the Order and now they were here in this weird alternate universe with magical monsters and people with weird skin colors.

She had to admit that if it wasn’t for Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom she probably would’ve gone insane a long time ago. She smiled a little as she looked at her fiance and friend. She was lucky to have them right now in this situation.

“Look, Light Bulb, I’m not comfortable with being poked or prodded, but is there some equipment you could use to study it while I’m transformed during the fight with the monster or something?” She suggested. “I mean, there has to be a way to do that without being so, intrusive, right?”

“Oh, definitely,” she burst out and grabbed the strange glasses again, put them on and stared at Scootaloo. “It will be less effective, but we had to study Alchemy this way, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Thank you very much,” she smiled at her. “I wonder what I can gather from you and who knows when it will be useful. But there is still one request I might have, please, please, pretty please let me have a look at this Justice Card you have or any of these cards, the data I could get from them could be invaluable,” she begged with large golden puppy eyes, the glasses resting on her forehead.

“Look, uh, I don’t really know how these things actually work beyond some sort of spirits within them, but we’ve had our scientists go over them already,” Scootaloo said as she placed her hand on her deck for a moment. “Plus if we find the monster I’m going to need all my cards just in case, same with Sweetie Drops and Lyra. I’m sorry, it's just not something we can spare right now.”

With a deep sigh, she let her arms hang down like some kind of wet blanket before dragging herself over to one of the tables with several cables and other things, but what stood out the most was a small bracelet with a bug on it. It looked completely out of place next to a metallic boxlike object that looked only half finished. “Oh well, shame really. Hope agent Skies sees you a bit during your next fight, I would love to analyze your fight data. Until then, I have some stuff I have to finish anyway, this has taken up far too much of my time anyway,” she sighed and picked up a small pen-like device with a small gem on its end that she quickly pointed at the strange device. “I think they should be about done out there, why don’t you take a look, I would prefer it if I could work in private,” she absentmindedly added, tinkering away at her table.

“Ya’ll know tha most interestin’ people, yah know that right?” Apple Bloom asked as she looked over at Ocean after they had left the room.

“Comes with the job. Really, most people that go hunting or are interested in the supernatural are in some way… let's just say special,” she chuckled, Phoenix finally ending his call with Thunder.

“So, with this over and my ear surprisingly still intact, I think I know where your sister is… sister from this universe… Rarity, where Rarity is. She is apparently still working at her job at Carousel Boutique, so we probably should get going. I have the feeling your agent might find her sooner rather than later,” he said, still rubbing his ear. “Just have to pick up the bikes from the MRG.”

“Alright, we should move out on the double then,” Tempest said with a nod. “Though I’d still keep an eye out for other possibilities. We’re simply working under one assumption here, and we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket. This isn’t a good situation to be in right now, so let’s move out and see what we can find.”

“Agreed. Still, getting the bikes would probably be the most important thing right now. If we are mobile we can act far faster,” Ocean returned, leading them towards the exit.

“Bikes? Uh-oh…” Scootaloo muttered to herself. Forseti, her bike back in her home reality, was outfitted with a limited AI system that compensated for her driving, and she was if she was being honest with herself, not that great on the bike without it. “Uh, maybe I’ll take the van instead.”

Phoenix turned around with a rather puzzled expression. “Didn’t you have a bike back home? So, what is the problem?”

“Yeah, I have a bike… with an AI system,” Scootaloo admitted as she rubbed the back of her head a little. “I’ve only got a basic idea of how to actually run one of these things on my own…”

That was when Phoenix couldn’t hold it anymore. “Wait, you are telling me, the Kamen Rider can’t ride a bike? It’s even in the name?” He was already leaning against the wall, holding his side, all while laughing. Or at least he was until Ocean gave him a quick slap on the back of his head. “Ouch!”

“You deserved it,” she simply stated. “So, what are we gonna do about this? I think we could drive you around in the van, it’s just far slower than the bikes,” she muttered, being a bit taken back by the situation herself.

“Yes, unfortunately, the bikes were reverse engineered from tech developed by a group called Gorgom from the 80s,” Sweetie Drops said with a sigh. “Scootaloo, first thing when we get back, you’re taking some proper lessons with Stone Breaker. The onboard AI is supposed to compensate in battle.”

“Got it,” Scootaloo said with a sigh. “Sorry, I guess with everything that’s been going on it slipped my mind. I’ll talk to Stone Breaker as soon as we get back.”

“Alright, then we’re down one Rider, can any of you give her a ride there?” Tempest asked as she looked between the three of them.

The three looked at each other for a moment before Ocean returned: “Well, my bike is not very passenger friendly, Pinecone could pick you up, but well…” She gave the Rider a glancing look before shaking her head. “Phoenix, are you ok with-”

“Sure, why not. Just hold on tight, the thing goes very fast,” he chuckled in return.

“Hey, it's not like I’m not used to it on my bike, I once had to break through a window in a factory with it to fight a monster,” Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. “That was a crazy moment…”

“Also are you sure all Riders ride bikes? Because I found a report about this one guy called Drive who had a car,” Sweetie said thoughtfully.

“Well, technically Chrysopoeia rides a chariot, so not even in this world every Rider has a bike,” Ocean added, a smug smile on her lips, Phoenix just rolling his eyes in return.

“Hey, he can at least ride it himself.”

“Okay, if you’re done comparing vehicles I think we should get going,” Tempest said with a shake of her head. “May I remind you that Rarity could be in danger if we don’t hurry up? Let’s get going.”

“Right, right,” Phoenix returned, quickly overtaking Ocean and rushing to the van with her not far behind.

00000

After a quick stop at the MRG to pick up their bikes as well as one spare one for Sweetie Drops they were on their way towards Carousel Boutique, Scootaloo holding onto Phoenix as they passed through the streets of the city. Phoenix had activated the police radio and listening to everything that was currently happening, a robbery on the other end of the city, a traffic accident and a noise complaint, nothing special, so no Agent or Corrupted yet… yet.

Their bikes stopped right in front of the shop, still intact and no sign of any crazy doppelgangers anywhere. Seems they had arrived in time. After removing his helmet and jumping off his bike, Phoenix looked at the shop with a smile on his lips. “Been a while since I last saw this place, ah memories.”

Scootaloo climbed off the bike and took a deep breath as she looked around. “Kinda reminds me of her old boutique back home before she moved to New York actually. Constants and variables indeed.”

“Yeah, the universe is funny. I tell you. But this is as far as I know just a side job for a student, not like she owns the thing. That would be quite impressive indeed. I’m sure she would be delighted if she found out that in your world she has been so successful,” he chuckled as they walked into the boutique. Inside rows upon rows of clothing laid out for everyone to admire, well everyone who actually cared about that stuff. Thunder would probably have a field day with this, but that was beside the point really. A few seconds passed as the two scouted the shop, their eyes falling on the white girl with the purple hair. “Ah, there she is!”

“Hey, Rarity!” He shouted through the entire room, gaining a few confused looks as he did so. Rarity meanwhile turned as well, looking at him like he was out of his mind for a moment before putting on a resigned smile and walked over to them.

“Phoenix, darling, what are you doing here? Did something happen? And who is your new friend there, she kinda reminds me of someone…” Rarity muttered quietly, occasionally looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was staring, which they obviously were.

“Yeah Rarity, how do I explain this the best way… Uhm, well…” Phoenix returned, stumbling over nearly every word and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“This isn’t going to be easy to explain…” Scootaloo muttered to herself as she rubbed her temples lightly. “Phoenix, given the situation maybe we should explain it quickly.”

“Yeah, ok… Here goes nothing. So in short, there is a version of that girl Suri Polomare from another dimension that wants to kill you, and she can turn into a monster as well,” he finished, looking somewhat unsure of the whole thing. “Oh, and that is Scootaloo Dash, aka Kamen Rider Justice, also from another world,” Phoenix added, with an awkward smile.

She looked at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow before returning: “Ok, if you say so. I might not understand everything perfectly, but it seems to be important. Let me just get a few things and tell miss Hemline that I have to leave early today, and I will be right with you. My car is just down the street,” she sighed, before walking off and towards the older lady with the grey skin.

“Well, she took that quite well…” Pheonix said after a few seconds of silence.

“And I thought my universe was going to be the weirder one…” Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. “Do you have bloggers and news reports on your fights too? I think my Canterlot just ran out of things to talk about and latched onto me as the next big trend. Still, beats the alternative.”

“Well, something like that. I was the local attraction when I first showed up, quickly swept away the previous weirdness that even brought, me to this town. Never really cared much about the news and so on, well until a few weeks back. To make a long story short, a local crime boss captured my two comrades and forced me to reveal my identity to the whole city. Let’s just say that I have made far more of an effort to stay under the radar from then on. With rather varying success. Sometimes I wonder when they will leave me alone,” he sighed with a rather flustered groin. “I like the limelight, at least a bit, but this is just kinda way too much. But maybe when everything dies down, they will lose interest.”

“The Order already knows my identity because they had an Agent possess a friend of mine, which is why they tend to go after me and my friends,” Scootaloo said with a sigh. “I’m starting to see the value of secret identities in comic books though.”

“Yeah, keeps the reporters off your back. Thankfully none of them ever got in the way of fighting a monster yet, so there is that,” he chuckled. “Well, no use to complain about spilled milk, it happened, and I have to make the best out of it.”

“Sometimes I wonder if it might be better if the public at least knew about the Order’s threat,” Scootaloo said thoughtfully. “Oh they know about the monsters, but they don’t really know about how they work. Maybe that would help a bit, or maybe it would just incite panic… then again we did use the internet during the recent encounter with the bat thing.”

“Probably not a good idea, there are just some things better left buried,” he returned with a low voice. “Oh, look, I think she is coming back!” He pointed at Rarity who had grabbed her purse and was on her way back to the two.

“So, I got everything I need. I also warned the rest. So, where are we going next? The MRG right?” She nonchalantly returned, showing no sign of worry or nervousness.

“Wow, you are taking this very well.”

“After what I went through one gets used to it. And worrying is bad for my skin anyway, so no thank you,” she returned with her usual smile.

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Come on, we’ll get you to the MRG in no time, and after that, we will deal with that monster as soon as possible.” Phoenix returned with a nod.

“I can ride with you if it helps,” Scootaloo offered. “In case something happens on the way, you know?”

“What, don’t want to ride with me again?” Phoenix chuckled.

“Maybe a little, but we need to be careful anyway in case you get separated,” Scootaloo pointed out as she placed her hand on her Driver in her jacket pocket. “Really, with everything that’s going on and because she’s a target we should probably have someone in the car.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it. But don’t be mistaken, I’m not by any means helpless,” the girl returned with a confident smile on her lips.

“Oh right, the Geode, how could I forgot,” Phoenix added, rubbing the back of his head rather embarrassed as he stared at one of the walls.

“Oh, sorry,” Scootaloo said a little embarrassed too. “I just thought it might be a good idea is all… we don’t have to do that.”

“Oh, no, no, no darling. I wasn’t against the idea, just didn’t want to look like the damsel in distress,” she smiled back at her with a familiar smile. “You are very much welcome to drive with me. And if it’s true that you are from another world, I would love to know if you met my counterpart in it.”

Scootaloo exchanged a look with Phoenix for a moment before chuckling a little. “Yeah, I’m sure I can tell you a few things. So, shall we get going?”

“Oh, this is gonna be so interesting!” Rarity almost squealed out before shoving both Riders out of the door of the boutique.

00000

As the car started up, Scootaloo looked out the window at the city for a long moment. It was amazing how much this Canterlot reminded her of home, even if it was a bit more colorful in places. She smiled a little and looked back at Rarity.

“I, uh, probably should preface this by saying the Rarity in my world is about 25,” she said with a chuckle.

“Oh, really? Still so young? I hope I managed to achieve most of my dreams already, wouldn’t want to do that when I’m old,” she chuckled as the girl pushed the gas and the car started to move, past the shops of the street, Phoenix close behind them.

“Well, she’s pretty successful actually, she started her own boutique in our Canterlot before hitting it big and moving to New York City with her friends,” Scootaloo said with a slight smile. “I haven’t really seen the place up there yet myself, but Sweetie’s visited, and she brought back pictures, pretty nice set-up.”

“Oh, that is lovely. I would love to see that, even if I never heard of that New York place. That brings me hope that my own dreams will also flourish just like hers,” she was smiling brightly, an aura of satisfaction radiating off her. “On another note, anything else that is noteworthy, like, oh, I don’t know, like a handsome gentleman?” She spared a quick look over to her, her cheeks turning a slight shade of pink.

“Uh… about that…” Scootaloo said as she rubbed the back of her head a little. This was going to be a weird one to explain. “She’s married, to Jaqueline Apple, or, Applejack as we usually call her.”

In a split-second, she hit the breaks like a champion, the car coming to an abrupt halt, Phoenix just barely managing not to crash into the back of the car. Rarity’s head shot around in an instant, her cheeks crimson red and she stammered: “What? Can… Can you repeat that again please!”

“She’s married to Applejack…” Scootaloo said she was a bit frazzled from the sudden stop. “They live together with Applejack’s daughter Honey.”

“Da… Daughter? With Applejack? Me?” She was still completely out of her mind, stammering simple words like they meant anything specific. “I mean, she doesn’t look bad, but… Me! She is… So rustic… Unbelievable… Pain in my… Applejack?” As unbelievable as it was her cheeks turned even redder, her head now more resembling Alchemy’s helmet than anything else.

“I have pictures on my phone… assuming my phone still works…” Scootaloo said as she reached into her jacket pocket and took her phone out. “We took one after they came to visit yesterday.”

She held her phone up to show the picture to Rarity. They hadn’t been able to do much together, but they had at least gotten in one as sort of a family picture before all the craziness started up.

“I mean, I don’t know how accurate this thing is, and remember its an alternate universe…” Scootaloo said sheepishly. “I know it’s probably weird to you, but it’s the truth.”

Rarity shook her head for a moment before returning: “Yeah, a bit. Not the different universe thing, that is pretty much normal. One of my friends comes from another universe actually. But that is beside the point. Let me have a look.” She stared at the screen for a few moments, it was cute, even if strange at the same time. That was until something else caught her eyes. She took a glance at Scootaloo’s hand as well and chuckled. “Oh, and who is your special someone?”

“Uh…” Scootaloo said as she paused a little. “I think I should probably wait until you recover from the shock of you being married to Applejack first.”

“Ah, I’m sure it’s fine. It’s not like it’s Sweetie Belle,” she returned with a chuckle, her cheeks having already returned to a somewhat flustered pink, all while she let the car start to drive once again.

“Uh, about that…” Scootaloo started to say as she blushed a little, she had no idea how she was going to explain this one either. This was worse than actually telling her world’s Rarity she wanted to date Sweetie Belle somehow.

Before she could even think any further she was interrupted by a loud screech of delight. “Uhhh, that is so adorable! I approve! Always thought you two would make a cute couple but until now nothing! I have to show you to them, maybe that will get them into it?”

“Okay… I certainly didn’t expect that,” Scootaloo said with a chuckle. “Yeah, we’ve been dating for a few years now and I proposed to her the other day. Given everything that has been going on, I felt it was time.”

“Oh, tell me everything! I need to know, I need to know!”

“Well, Sweetie was my first real friend after my parents died,” Scootaloo said as she smiled a little and brushed her purple hair back. “When we started high school together, I started to realize I was into girls like that, and Sweetie in particular. I finally worked up the courage to ask her out, though I talked to your counterpart about it first. Well, long story short she said yes, and we’ve been a couple ever since. After the Order started attacking, well I couldn’t risk losing her or her losing me, so I scraped together the money I had saved, borrowed money from family, and got down on one knee and proposed. She makes me happy, probably happier than anyone else I’ve ever known and I’d do anything for her.”

She blushed a little when she realized she had said all of that out loud. “Sorry, I rambled a bit there…”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s cute, really,” Rarity chuckled playfully. “Maybe I have to talk to this world’s Sweetie.”

“Maybe, but if they don’t feel that way about each other wouldn’t you be kind of forcing it?” Scootaloo asked with a shrug. “But who knows, maybe they do feel that way and are just unsure about how to tell one another. I know I was certainly nervous when I wanted to ask Sweetie out.”

“I know, I know. But as a big sister, you kinda think about that sometimes,” she returned with a sigh. “They would be so cute together.”

“Really that’s about all to report, except the weirdly large amount of monsters that tend to attack our world…” Scootaloo said with a slight shake of her head. “Seriously it goes back to like the 70s, I’m amazed we’re all still alive.”

“That does not sound reassuring…” she returned with a shake of her head. “But I’m sure Phoenix and the others can handle it.”

“Hopefully, then again we’ve got so many Riders and everything in my universe, who knows it might be someone else,” Scootaloo said with a sigh. “I just hope that we’ll be able to stop the Order before anyone else gets hurt or worse.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Things always turn worse before they get better,” Rarity returned. “Let’s hope this new monster is dealt with soon.”

“Yeah…” Scootaloo sighed. “Between this and the last universe we ran into, my life is starting to feel like a bad comic book plot.”

“Tell me, darling, I lived through evil highschool-demon-girls, horse-fish-hybrids, twice I might add and so much more and then all of this. If I wouldn’t know any better I would assume I live in a TV-show,” Rarity chuckled back, taking the next turn.

“Or at the very least a series of movies with weird plots,” Scootaloo said with a chuckle. “Not that my universe is any better, oh the things we’ve dug up on the internet about past Kamen Riders and their enemies. Things are just weird sometimes.”

“Yeah, but so is life, am I right? You never know what lady luck throws your-” Before Rarity could finish her sentence, she quickly spun the wheel around like a madwoman, crashing into the lamppost on the side of the road, bringing her car to a sudden halt, knocking the young girl out cold in the airbag.

Scootaloo, on the other hand, was still concise, her face just buried in the airbag. “I’m starting to wish I had taken the bike after all…” she muttered as she fell back. While the smoke was coming off from beneath the hood, she was still somewhat dazed by the whole ordeal, unable to make out the footsteps that were heading her way, footsteps that came closer and closer with every passing moment. When she finally managed to push herself out of the white cushion her head had been forced in she stared into a quite familiar face, the face of a cat with a symbol of six swords on its chest.

“Really?” Scootaloo said with a groan as she reached for her Driver. “You couldn’t just wait until we weren’t driving anymore? Are you okay Rarity?”

Before the cat could answer both of them heard the roaring of an engine from behind and within mere moments the monster was thrown to the side by a bike that stopped just before the door. “You're ok?” Phoenix asked, holding his hand out to her. “Hope so, because it’s time to get a bit of payback on Kitty over there.”

“Right,” Scootaloo said as she took his hand and managed to stumble out as she raised her Driver and set it on her waist as the belt formed. “Let’s take her down.”

“Perfect,” he returned, putting on his own Driver and accompanying Magic Disc on while dismounting his bike. With both Riders standing next to each other the Agent had managed to stand back up again and was already dashing towards them as both of them activated their Drivers.

\ MAGIC DISC DETECTED! /

“Henshin!”

\ FLAME DISC ACTIVATED! /

“Henshin!”

“TIME TO TIP THE SCALES!”

To the Agent’s surprise, she ran right into Alchemy’s flaming whirlwind and thrown back once again and right against the wall. When the fire finally died down both Riders stood before her, taking a good look at the scorched monster. “Hey, Kitty, didn't anyone ever tell you to not run head first into fiery whirlwinds of death?” Alchemy chuckled as he removed the Disc from his Driver once again.

\ Flame Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Flame Saber! /

“Oh, and I have the feeling no one ever told you not to attack my friends as well. Well, tough luck, because I can be rather resentful when it comes to that,” with that he dashed forward and swung his sword at the monster, Kitty being able to block the attack with her katana.

“You talk a lot for a Rider,” the agent said with a sneer as she kicked him back. “And I’m not about to let you stop me!”

“I’m not about to let the Order attack another universe,” Scootaloo said as she rushed forward, stabbing forward at the Agent with her rapier which the Agent barely managed to stop. “And you don’t stand a chance against the two of us!”

“Exactly! You’ll fall before us like any other monster before you and believe me, there were a lot,” Alchemy added, thrusting his sword forward, piercing the side of the monster who jolted to the side.

“You little…” The agent said as she swung her sword down at Alchemy only to be caught in the side by the Rapier. “Stay still!”

“Oh, you want me to stay still? How about this then?” He chuckled as he returned his weapon into Disc mode and pulled out an orange one before putting it into the Driver and spinning it.

\ EARTH DISC ACTIVATED! /

With the agent standing right beside him she was once again caught off guard by the whirlwind of stone that formed around Alchemy and thrown to the side, all while the Rider emerged in an orange armor with red eyes.

\ Earth Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Boulder Shield! /

With his orange shield now in his hands, he wasted no time and threw it at the monster, knocking her down again just as she was about to stand up from the ground, the shield bouncing back right into his hand. “How about this? Didn’t move an inch!”

The cat monster snarled as she raised her katana and pointed at them as she eyed the two of them. “If you’re going to play like that, I’m not playing fair,” she said with a wicked grin as here sword shimmered for a moment before she vanished.

“Crap… not this again,” Scootaloo said as she gripped her sword’s hilt and looked around. “Where did she go?”

“Again? Oh, right, Ocean said something about invisible monsters. So, how did you find her last time?” He asked Scootaloo, all while holding tightly onto his shield.

Scootaloo took a card from her deck box and slid it into her Driver as a shield appeared in her other hand.

“ARCANA CIRCLE SHIELD!”

“We sent up a bunch of dust to find her, but that’s not necessarily going to be an option here,” Scootaloo said as she backed up against Alchemy. “What I would give to have Death here right now… a ranged weapon would be useful right about now.”

“Huh, so you found her through a trick like that? I might have an idea, you wouldn’t mind covering me for a moment?” He chuckled, still letting his eyes dart around the street while they spoke.

“Alright,” Scootaloo said with a nod as she gripped her sword and shield and looked around for any sign of the monster.

“Well then, try to keep her off of me,” he returned, all while deactivating his weapon and returning it to the side of his belt as he switched the Disc out with another one. That was when he heard a footstep right beside him. Within a split-second he rolled out of the way, Scootaloo striking at the point where she suspected the monster and indeed the sound of metal against metal could be heard. While Justice was busy keeping him save Alchemy just plucked in the new Disc and started to spin it.

\ WATER DISC ACTIVATED! /

With a water-hose swallowing the Rider, he completely lost track of where the monster could have ran off to after her short exchange with Justice. The Rider now clad in his dark blue armor now stood wide in the open, no sign of the monster anywhere. The moment he grabbed ahold of the Disc once again he felt it, sharp pain in his back. Thrown forward by the unexpected force he landed on the ground.

His first attempt at getting back up was once again met by a sharp pain, but this time in his side, sparks flew off as the katana once again struck him only for the agent to disappear on the wide open street once again.

But this short moment of time was all he needed, slamming his fist on the ground, seemingly to help himself back up. Just like he had expected he felt the pain once again, this time again on his back, but instead of scream in pain he simply chuckled and flicked his fingers. Within seconds the entire street was quickly covered in a thin layer of water streaming from a small blue magic seal where he had slammed his fist on the ground.

“Gotcha!” He groaned out, a pained smile under his helmet, a smile Scootaloo joined in just mere seconds later as she noticed what he had done.

“Hold her there, I’ve got this,” Scootaloo said as she glanced at her shield, she knew she couldn’t use it very long so she had to make this count. She gripped the objects in her hand and ran at the cat-woman, slamming the shield into her as she kicked her hard.

“Guess cats don’t like water, huh?” Scootaloo said with a grin as she stabbed forward with her Rapier only to have it be caught by her sword.

“This is far from over,” she said with a snarl as she swiped at Scootaloo, her claws slashing at Scootaloo’s chest. “I’m not about to let you two freaks stop me from getting my revenge!”

“Revenge, revenge, revenge, really, you sound like a broken record,” Phoenix sighed as he dragged himself back up to his feet, all that accompanied by pained groans. “Seriously, revenge will never satisfy you. Your life is already shit, so what would ruin the life of another change about that?” With that, he changed the Disc once again as well as activating his weapon.

\ FRIENDSHIP DISC ACTIVATED! /

\ Friendship Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Connect Protector! /

Charging forward he slashed across the back of the agent, throwing her off Scootaloo, the Rider stepping next to her and pointing his sword at the monster. “I’m getting really tired of this. I miss the time when there were monsters that had something else driving them instead of revenge.”

“This… isn’t… over… not by a longshot…” The agent said as she got to her feet and smirked as she spotted something behind the two Riders. She held her own sword out and gripped it tight. “Here comes a new challenger.”

“Wait, what?” Scootaloo said as the two Riders turned their heads, only for Phoenix to see an armored fist flying and hitting him across the face.

Standing there was an armored woman dressed in silver armor with golden overlays. The helmet had a design on it that resembled a scorpion’s claws wrapped around the glowing red eyes of the visor. She had a Driver in the same design as Scootaloo’s, but she held no weapons, instead taking a fighting stance.

“Kamen… Riders…” She said in a distorted voice that neither Rider recognized.

Phoenix just held his jaw before returning: “Ok, so you figured out who we are, good for you. Now that you did that how about not hitting us, we are the good guys! Damn, that hurt like Tartarus,” he quietly added, taking a fighting stance as well, his weapon pointed at the new opponent.

“You… will… PAY!” She screamed as she rushed forward punching hard at both Riders before coming to a stop in front of the Agent. “Must… destroy… Riders…”

“Who are you?” Scotaloo demanded as she steadied herself, holding her sword upright. “Why do you want to destroy us? And why are you talking like Captain Kirk?”

“He’s… telling me… to…” the Rider said. “The… man… in black… his voice… is in… my head…”

“Ok, consider me officially freaked out,” Phoenix muttered, carefully eying the strange figure before him.

The strange Rider finally screamed and grabbed the Order Agent before the two vanished into thin air. Scootaloo blinked a little in surprise at that before she reached to her driver and removed the two cards as she powered down.

“What in the name of everything that is holy was that about?” She asked.

“Hey, she had one of your Drivers, so don’t ask me. On a different note, I don’t know if I should be happy or angry about the fact that she escaped,” Phoenix returned, deactivating his own Driver.

“I know… but I’ve never seen a Rider like that before,” Scootaloo said as she thought about it for a moment. “But Apple Bloom did, she saved her from a monster during the time we were fighting that Fangire/Order Agent hybrid monster. Something about all of this is weird… we should go check on Rarity.”

Phoenix stared at her for a moment before his expression shifted to one of worry. “Oh fuck, you are right!” Without wasting any more time the two rushed over to the wrecked car and lifted Rarity out of it. “Give me a moment, I’ll call an ambulance.”

“I’ll take her,” Scootaloo said as the petite woman helped keep Rarity steady as she nodded to Phoenix. “Probably better you call for help, I doubt my phone plan includes alternate universes… it’ll be okay Rarity, we’ve got you.”

“Good, good. Come on…” He muttered all while pacing up and down the road. “Ah, finally! Yeah, here is Phoenix Feather…”

While the two Riders were busy with Rarity two figure had watched the whole ordeal play out. The one with the pale skin and labcoat muttering in an annoyed voice: “This is troubling.”

Ideals that Surpass Worlds

View Online

That damn room! That damn room he had seen way too often in his entire life and especially in the recent past. It almost felt like he already knew every knock and cranny of the stupid room and every time he felt the same dread surging through his body, time pass like it was slowing to a crawl and the busy staff that was working as fast as they could. That damn waiting room.

After his phone call, the ambulance had arrived in a few minutes, maybe saying how he was had helped, but that didn’t really matter now. What mattered was the fact that they had picked up Rarity and brought her here and now they were doomed to wait. It felt like hours had passed, but in reality, they had only spent fifteen minutes in the hospital.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck. I hate this so much!” He hissed while walking up and down the small room, already having attracted the attention of a few nurses in the area.

“It’s never easy when someone you know is in the hospital…” Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked down at her feet. “This is bad, we should’ve called for help as soon as we got into that accident…”

“I know, I know, I have been in this damn waiting room far too often already, doesn’t get any easier really,” he sighed, clenching his hand to a fist. “But really, don’t beat yourself up over this. Shoulder, woulda, coulda doesn’t matter right now. We both fucked up, we just have to not do that next time, that is all.”

“Do you ever wonder if you’re really cut out for this job?” Scootaloo asked with a sigh as she barely looked at Phoenix. “Over a hundred people died when we ran into that last Hybrid because the Order Agent was draining the life force being fed on by the Fangire. A few days ago I fought against a monster that nearly killed us because he was able to stop us from transforming… how long until one of us get’s badly injured or worse?”

Phoenix stopped in his tracks and took a look at her before sighing: “Sure I do. I know most of all how much I fucked up, believe me, I never even wanted to do this in the first place, but I was one of the few who could act and that is what I did. I made my fair share of mistakes along the way, some of them even costing someone their life, but in the end, what can you do? Roll in self-pity and give up? No, you have to keep moving forward, forward towards a bright future. Learn from your mistakes, that is the only thing you can do. That is what I learned from all of this. Accept what happened in the past so you can be ready for the present,” he finished with a determined tone.

“Normally I can fight anything that comes at me, even that bat-guy, but recently I just…” Scootaloo said and slammed her fists down on the chair. “I just froze up, I came face to face with the guy who killed my parents and I couldn’t even fight him…”

“Well, not the same, but I think I experienced something similar. When I had all six Magic Discs my grandfather came to visit. We were on bad blood and that is putting mildly really. He wanted me to abandon the city and return home so we could try to forge the Philosopher Stone. I refuse, first because I didn’t want to leave the city and second because I was scared because the last guy that tried that died. The thought of creating the Stone had been flying through my head a lot after I got the Friendship Disc, I just always found another excuse: ‘I’ll manage,’ ‘It’s too dangerous,’ and all that. Then it happened, one of my enemies capture Pinecone and Ocean and forced me to reveal my identity. I fought as hard as I could, but I lost and then…”

He took a deep breath before continuing with a low voice. “Then it happened, the damn old geezer jumped into an attack meant for me. He died right in front of my eyes because I was too much of a coward to pull through with risking my life. After that I pulled all my anger together and tried it, creating the Stone. It worked, perfectly. I was able to save my friends and beat the guy. He even died because of his own actions, but I just felt hollow. I knew I fucked up, that because I made a mistake I had cost someone his life and I could never rectify that mistake. The only thing I can do is learn from it. And having seen you fighting I’m dead certain that you can do that too, you have what it takes to be a Kamen Rider!”

“I feel like I keep getting these pep talks over and over again,” Scootaloo said with a chuckle and gave him a thumbs up. “Thanks, Phoenix. You may be the first in this universe, but you’re one heck of a Kamen RIder yourself.”

That took him by a bit of a surprise, his cheeks turned red and he started to rub the back of his head. “Thanks, you making me feel a little bit embarrassed.”

“I don’t know, I think she hit it right on the head,” a new voice joined them, only for Phoenix cheeks to turn even redder. As their heads turned around they could Ocean walking in, complete with the rest. While she had a smile on her lips, one could still make out the underlying worry in her expression.

“You love to tease me, do you?” Phoenix sighed.

“Ok, that for sure, but I’m dead serious. You have pretty much become my definition of a hero,” she chuckled before adding with a far more serious tone. “So, how is Rarity?”

“We don’t know yet,” Phoenix sighed, taking another look at the door.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” Scootaloo asked as she noticed that Sweetie was holding an ice pack to her head. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Sweetie admitted as she sat down next to Scootaloo and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “I think I blacked out again, the last thing I remember was Light Bulb talking about something and then I woke up on the bathroom floor with a headache the size of Texas.”

Scootaloo paused a moment, there was something weird about that. This was the second time Sweetie had blacked out, the medical staff at SMILE had scanned her but found nothing unusual. It was weird, but they had bigger problems right now.

“Okay, clearly we need to keep an eye on Rarity,” Tempest said as she crossed her arms. “My suggestion is that we keep two Riders at the hospital, for now, to keep an eye on things in case the Agent comes back. Any volunteers?”

“I would be wil-” Phoenix was about to say when he was interrupted by Ocean.

“Yeah, no. I don’t think wasting you here is such a good idea. Uhm, Pinecone, would you-”

“Sure, if you want that, saves me from being near him anyway and that is always appreciated,” the dark-skinned man returned with a grumbly tone.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Phoenix huffed back, only stopped by Ocean who put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head, the Rider begrudgingly staying put.

“I’ll stay as well,” Sweetie Drops said with a nod. “It’s the best option right now and leaves the rest of you to scout the city.”

“Alright, check-ins every 15 minutes,” Tempest said. “If we don’t hear from you after that we have to assume that the Agent attacked. In addition, we should have officers outside the room and watching from the street. I doubt this thing can walk through walls so they still have to use the door or window like anyone else.”

“Sure thing, I’ll just tell officer Armor and some of the rest of his men to do that, he should be able to handle this,” Ocean returned, already reaching for the communicator in her ear.

“Alright, sounds like we have a plan,” Apple Bloom said with a nod. “So, what do we do now? Hope we get a readin’ on tha cat lady monster thing?”

“Well, I could just call Light Bulb, maybe the calibrating is already done?” Phoenix returned. “Where was that damn number again? Ah, here! Hey, Light-”

“Phoenix? Is that you? You have to come! Now! The monster, it’s here!” Shouted the voice of the timmied scientist back at him.

“Got it!” He took a quick look around before continuing: “Guys, we gotta move, now! Scoots, you’re gonna ride with me again!”

“Alright, let’s go,” Scootaloo said with a nod as she got up and made sure her Driver and cards were secured.

“Yeah, we have a monster but to kick after all!” He chuckled back as the three Riders dashed out the door, past Shining Armor who just waved them goodbye.

00000

It felt like hours had passed since the call, she could hear the sounds of the alarm ringing through the entire facility as guards were storming past her room and straight towards danger. Light Bulb had locked the door and was currently hiding under her desk, but not before locking away all her inventions, as well as the scarf Ocean had left her, in a safe. Before any other thought could cross her mind she could fell a strong shake go through the whole building, the muffled sound of an explosion audible from outside. It was coming closer.

Then everything just stopped silence, no footsteps, no explosions, nothing it was just quiet, well besides the alarm. Who knew that quiet was so much worse than the sounds of a battle. Every second felt like an eternity, and all she could do was cower in fear and wait for help. This must have been how Ivory felt like when Alkahest had come for him, would she suffer a similar fate? No! She shouldn’t think about that right now!

Then the silence was ripped apart, the door suddenly creaking under immense pressure that quickly turned into the sound of bending metal. She could see the feet of the thing, clad in metallic boots as she walked through the room, every step echoing through from wall to wall. She hadn’t even noticed the fact that she had stopped breathing altogether until she had spent all of her air. The monster didn’t wander around aimlessly, she was on a straight path towards the safe.

Then she heard it once again, the bending of metal and quickly thereafter a loud metallic sound as the front of the safe was thrown to the wayside, right next to her. She noticed far to late the yelp she let out, one the agent would not in a thousand years miss. And indeed, the monstrous being turned around and chuckled: ”Come out little mouse, hiding is pointless against me.”

She drew her sword and slammed it down on her hiding place, the sharp sound of metal against metal as she raised her foot to kick it away.

Light Bulb reacted like anyone in her situation would, scream her lungs out and desperately crawl out from under the desk, scrambling to get towards the door. However, lady luck didn’t seem to be on her side, in the panic slipping on the floor of her own lab and falling down not even two meters away from the door, a loud malicious laugh could be heard behind her.
“You won’t get away from me that easily,” the Agent said with a wicked grin as she raised the katana above her head. “Time to meet your maker science girl.”

Light Bulb let out a loud screech and held her hands in front of her face, absolute terror filling her every thought. She expected the worst, well until all of a sudden two loud shoots rang through her ears and the pained grunts of her assailant could be heard. She dared to open her eyes once again only to see that her attack had been thrown across the room and a familiar gun loomed over her head.

Without as much as a second thought, she scrambled backward, past two blue, two red and two black and green legs. She did that until she hit the wall on the other side of the hallway, letting her wince in surprise. “Hey, Light Bulb, everything ok?” She could hear Ocean’s voice, the terrified woman quickly nodding. “Good, then better get out of here.” That was something she hadn't to be told twice, hastily staggering back on her feet, almost falling back over and running down the hall.

“You Riders just had to go and ruin my fun again,” the agent said with a sneer as she pointed her sword at the newcomers. “You’ll pay for that! You’re going to be able to stop me this time, not with the power I have!”

“Oh no, Ocean, look what she has in her hands!” Pheonix shouted over her back in utter shock.

At that moment ocean had noticed as well what the agent had gotten ahold of, the artifact her counterpart had used. Without even a second thought she unloaded all four remaining rounds at the monster, aimed directly at her scarf. However, before even a single one of her shots could connect the room was engulfed in a bright light that blinded the Riders.

“What the…” Scootaloo said as she covered her visor to try and protect her vision from the bright light. “What’s going on?”

“Something bad, something really bad. She just activated the artifact!” Phoenix shouted back.

When the light faded the Agent’s armor had changed into that of a samurai warrior and a second smaller sword had appeared in her other hand. She now sported a helmet that was styled like a cat. Her grin was barely visible behind the visor of the helmet as she pointed her swords at the Riders.

“Such… power! It flows through me!” She said with a laugh. “You foolish Riders, you don’t stand a chance against me!”

“Great, just great. Can’t anything be easy for just once?” Phoenix groaned, taking a step back.

“Apparently because we’re Kamen Riders, the answer is no,” Scootaloo said with a groan as she raised her rapier. “I swear it's like we’re at the whim of some twisted gods who use us for their own entertainment.”

“Oh, come on, that is ridiculous,” Ocean returned while reloading her gun. “You can discuss philosophy later, we have a big problem on our hands here.”

The agent laughed as she ran forward and slashed hard at Ocean in the middle of reloading with her swords. “What, do you think this is some cartoon? I’m not going to make it that easy for you!”

The revolver flew out of her hand and landed a few feet behind her, the Rider reacting quickly with pulling out her Stun Baton and blocking the next attack before making a backflip in the direction of her fallen weapon, giving the hybrid a kick to her chin as a parting gift, even if it didn’t seem to do all that much. The moment the revolver found itself back into her hands she spun the cylinder on the ground and unloaded all six shots into the opponent after landing on her feet again. To her utter dismay, this did not yield the expected results, every shot just bouncing off her.

“Did you really think it was going to be simple?” The Agent said with a laugh. “I have more power than ever before! The magic of this artifact has made me even stronger! Forget the Master, I can use this power to become an Overlord in my own right!”

“Great, she’s gone mad with power,” Scootaloo said with a groan as she reached for her deck and slid two new cards into her Driver.

“ARCANA CIRCLE SHIELD!”

“ARCANA SHORTSWORD!”

The Driver sparked with energy as the Rapier vanished from her hand and a shorter sword and the circle shaped shield appeared in her hand. She held them upright and looked at the monster hard.

“We’re going to take you down!” She said.

“I’d like to see you try,” the Agent said with a laugh.

“Please, we are more than willing to show you. How about we kick this into the next gear Ocean?” Phoenix shouted back while changing the Disc on his Driver.

“Good! I’m really getting tired of this girl,” she shouted back inserting a new Charger into the Driver as well.
“Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! FRIENDSHIP CHARGE! /

\ FRIENDSHIP DISC ACTIVATED! /

\ Friendship Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Connect Protector! /

With Alchemy and Charge now in their purple armors the three Riders stood around the agent, Ocean the first one to fire her rifle, each shot at least getting a low grunt from the monster.

“We should probably get her out of here if we do this inside we would probably just endanger more people,” she houted over the constant fire of her gun.

“Yeah, I’ll work on that,” Phoenix shouted back. “You don’t mind if I break a few walls while doing that, do you?”

“Go ahead!”

“With pleasure! Hey Scoots, give me a helping hand!” He screamed over to the Rider before rushing shield first at the armored opponent.

“You got it!” Scootaloo said with a nod as she rushed forward towards the monster at the same time. She raised her sword as she held her shield out and prepared to strike the monster with her shortsword.

The Agent screamed out as Scootaloo knocked her back with her shield and then slashed at her with the shortsword. “You little… you’ll pay for that!” She shouted.

“Sorry, didn’t bring any cash with me and I’m pretty sure my credit cards won’t work in this universe,” Scootaloo said with a grin from behind her helmet.

“Prefect! Now, dodge!” Alchemy called out to her from behind, quickly following the orders of the Rider, even though she had no idea what he wanted to do. This continued as two magic seals appeared on the feet of the agent that quickly started to hover over the ground. That was roughly the time Alchemy rushed past her, shield in the front and right into the agent. Without any ground to stand on the monster was quickly pushed back and right into the wall, but instead of stopping Phoenix did the opposite, he got faster and faster, breaking through the wall with no problem and disappearing in the dust cloud that flowed from the new hole in the wall.

“Guessing that means to follow him,” Scootaloo said as she ran through the hole after Alchemy and the Agent.

“Yeah, probably. You sometimes don’t really know what he wants, especially when he pulls something like this,” Ocean chuckled from behind her before adding with a somewhat embarrassed undertone: “But to be fair, it has its charm. He just needs someone to point him in the right direction and he comes up with something unexpected.”

“So, who’s gonna pay for these walls?” Scootaloo asked as she eyed the walls as they headed out.

“Well, this is an MRG facility, after all, I’m sure Onyx is gonna be understanding, even if this might cause a bit of a kerfuffle with the local heads. But I’m sure this will fall under wear and tear,” she nervously returned, trying her best to sound not worried.

“I’ve heard Japan in my universe has entire insurance agencies dedicated to selling monster attack insurance…. Apparently, it started as a joke, but, yeah…” Scootaloo said as they neared the exit of the building.

“Can see why. Have the feeling some of those will pop up here as well,” she shook her head as they passed the third hole.

“Yeah… probably, probably the same in…” Scootaloo started to say as they passed through the fourth hole in the wall and she let it trail off.

To their relief that was indeed the last hole, leading right to the parking lot, complete with several cars standing around, one with a dent in it. It didn’t take that long to spot the two combatants Alchemy and the agent was trading blows just a few meters away from it. With her two swords, the monster was currently wailing on Alchemy who was struggling to block each following attack. “Hey, a bit help here? This kitty is quite agile!”

“Yeah, yeah, coming!” Charge returned, before starting to fire her rifle at the monster, a few shots taking the attention of the monster of Phoenix, well at least it looked that way before the agent delivered a swift kick to his stomach throwing the Rider into a nearby car. With Alchemy no longer in her reach, she rushed towards Ocean, deflecting any attack that came her way.

The agent quickly caught up to her, Ocean not stopping her firing spree for even a second, even if the shoots completely missed their target. She barely managed to wedge her rifle in between her and the katana and to kick her opponent back a few steps before she dashed forward once again. Well, she would have if it wasn’t for the fact that the blasts that had missed had actually curved around and now impacted one after another in the back of the agent, turning her mad dash forward into a pathetic stumble. One Charge finished off with a swift spinning kick that sent the monster flying into another car.

“Scoots, I think this is your chance!” Ocean shouted towards her as she backed off from the monster, not without unloading even more shots on her.

Scootaloo nodded as she raised her sword and slashed at the Agent hard across the chest, causing her to scream loudly and stumble back. “This… isn’t… over…”

“Really? Because it’s looking pretty over to me,” Scootaloo said as she pointed her shortsword at the monster. “And your future isn’t looking too bright.”

“Then I will have to change it,” the agent said with a wicked grin as she crossed her swords and they started to glow brightly before she vanished with a cackle.

“Oh come on, not again!” Scootaloo said as she stomped her foot hard on the ground. “I swear she’s cheating by doing this so much.”

“Yeah, I’m getting what you mean with that,” Phoenix returned with a groan, stepping next to her, weapons ready to strike.

“Maybe you should try that water trick again,” Scootaloo suggested as she held her sword and shield for a long moment and kept an eye out.

“Yeah, let’s try it!”

\ WATER DISC ACTIVATED! /

Wasting no time the Rider slammed his fist down on the ground before flicking whit his fingers, the water spraying out of the seal in seconds and covering the entire parking lot in it. And just like last time showing them exactly where their opponent was. “Well, seems you didn’t learn Kitty, still falling for the same tricks.”

“Really? Because I think this says otherwise,” the agent cackled and after a moment she vanished as the water suddenly went straight through her.

“OH, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!” Scootaloo shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Ok, you know what, yep she is cheating!” Phoenix joined her, frantically looking around for any sign of the monster.

Scootaloo’s shield vanished as she held the sword upright. “Intangibility and invisibility… that is not a good combination,” Scootaloo said with a groan as she looked around. “Any suggestions on what we should do?”

“Right now? Not really, besides maybe pulling out all the stops, but I’m not sure if this is a problem we can punch through,” Phoenix returned gritting through his teeth.

“Right now I think we need to regroup and come up with a plan,” Scootaloo said as she glanced around, holding her sword tightly. “Unless one of you has a better idea.”

“Nope, bailing sounds like the best idea right now!” Phoenix returned, before adding a slightly embarrassed: “Huh, so this is how it feels to run in the middle of a fight, go figure.”

“Ok, got it!” Ocean shouted back, pulling out another Charger.

“Charge up!”

\ 50, 80, 100! WATER CHARGE! /

“Whatever you do, just follow me!” She shouted at them before steam erupted from the jets all over her armor, covering the entire area in a thick mist. As the mist dissipated once again the three Riders were nowhere to be seen, leaving the invisible agent behind.

00000

“Fuck!” That singular word echoed through the office as Phoenix slammed his fist on the table. After they had escaped from their fight with the Corrupted-Agent-Thing they had made a b-line right towards the MRG headquarters.

They had managed to get a few of the still remaining cameras in the lab to work and were right now going through the events that transpired after they had left, all while the other Riders that had stayed behind to protect Rarity would hear everything over a speaker. After ranting about them for a while the agent returned back inside the lab and headed right towards several other artifacts that hadn’t been shipped to any of the warehouses yet and pocketed them.

“That’s not good…” Scootaloo said as she watched the footage. “She was able to get this powerful just from one artifact, I don’t want to think about what kind of power she’d get from all of those.”

“I… I don’t think that would be a possible option, well if she works the same way other Corrupted work,” Light Bulb added with a week voice, nervously looking out of the window. “Even if she is absolutely terrifying,” she added. “Normal Corrupted can only use one artifact at a time, but she could do something else with them…”

“Off the top of my head, she could bring them back to our universe and give them to the Order’s leadership,” Tempest suggested with a frown. “That would be bad, the last thing we need is more of these things.”

“So, how do we stop her?” Scootaloo asked.

“Good question really,” Ocean sighed. “At least, the idea that she might take it back home is not that likely. Remember what she said?”

“She wants revenge… though clearly, that’s distorted because that isn’t even the same Rarity…” Scootaloo said as she stroked her chin thoughtfully for a moment. She thought back to everything that had happened leading up to this point with the Order. “There’s still an Order Agent Parasitic Spirit at its core, right?”

“Right,” Tempest nodded. “Something about Suri Polomare’s mind seems to be affecting it or it’s just playing along with her revenge scheme.”

“Right, that’s not something we normally see in their behavior,” Scootaloo said. “The last one we encountered, for example, was willing to indulge the host’s revenge desire sure, but the Agent’s ultimate mission overrode it before it could kill anyone.”

“And then there is the fact that she fancies herself an overlord now. She might even want more power, that’s why she stole the artifacts. I hope she doesn’t get too frustrated when she can’t use them and breaks one, we don’t need her to know about what happens then,” Ocean added with a frown.

“Right, except the Order doesn’t work like that,” Scootaloo said with a nod. “They’ve been going after me and my friends directly for the most part. Maybe what we need to do is somehow appeal to that basic programming of the Order Agent and lure her somewhere away from anyone else. The question is how do we actually defeat her…”

“Well, we could be fast enough to hit her while she is still tangible, but if she is invisible, not even that will work,” Ocean returned with a shake of her head. “And if she figures out what happens when she breaks an artifact she even has a small army at her disposal.”

“Scootaloo, you crossed paths with the Eight of Swords monster didn’t you?” Tempest Shadow asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Scootaloo said as she reached into her deck box and took out a tarot card. It depicted a bound woman surrounded by eight swords. “That freaky skinwalker-like thing, I still have nightmares sometimes about him. Why?”

“The minor arcana cards that are five and higher aren’t just the weapons,” Tempest said. “They come with special extra abilities. While I’m not familiar with the Eight of Swords, there is a chance that it might give us an edge in the upcoming fight. Just be careful, the higher the card the more of a toll it’ll take on your body.”

“Great…” Scootaloo said as she stared at the card in her hand. “But if it’s what it takes to beat this thing, I’ll do it.”

“Huh, gambling on an ability you never used? Don’t get me wrong, we have to use everything we have, but I don’t like this one bit. I had bad experiences with that,” Phoenix returned, eyeing the speaker suspiciously. “And on another note, if you know about the abilities, shouldn’t that be critical, need to know information?”

“We don’t have much of a choice, the higher the card the more powerful the weapon,” Tempest said with a sigh. “She was supposed to be eased into this kind of thing. However, given how things went last time this may be our best option. It’s a gamble yes, but the alternative is that we try everything we did last time and hope it works this time.”

“Look, we need to stop this thing and if this is our best chance right now then I’m willing to risk it,” Scootaloo said. “Our job is to protect the world from threats like the Order or the Corrupted. Sometimes that means taking risks and putting our lives on the line in order to keep people safe. Unless you’ve got some super cool power you can pull out of nowhere Phoenix, this is our best option.”

“I know, I know. Still, dick move. Yes, that was directed at you,” he shouted at the receiver. “So, wanna try it before or go in hoping for the best?”

“Unfortunately we will have to do the latter,” Tempest said with a sigh. “Like I said a card like this will take a toll on her body. If she uses it now she will likely be unable to recover in time to deal with the Order Agent before she can pull something worse off. It will leave her incapacitated and it won’t be safe to use it again for days. She needs to get used to using these cards before she can use them regularly. If we had time, then yes I would agree with you but right now we do not have the time.”

“I hate it when they are right,” he mumbled before letting out a sigh. “Well, then it’s pretty much do or die. So, business as usual.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Scootaloo said as she looked at the card one last time before sliding it back into her deck box. “I don’t like this either Phoenix, but unless someone has a better idea this is what we’re going to have to do.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it the first time, doesn’t stop me from complaining the whole way through though,” he weakly chuckled in return.

“You think you have it bad, I’m gonna have to explain this to my fiance,” Scootaloo groaned. “She isn’t listening, right?”

“No, she’s away at the moment,” Tempest answered.

“Yeah… gonna have to explain this to her…” Scootaloo sighed.

“Huh, I’m not envying you Scoots,” Phoenix returned with a sly grin. “Thankfully my girlfriend is more open with stuff like that.”

“Yeah, because I have a constant eye on you so you don’t do anything stupid,” Ocean returned with a smug smirk.

“He, yeah, that as well,” he sheepishly added.

“Alright, then we have a plan,” Tempest said. “So then we need to figure out how to lure the monster out. Do you have a suggestion of a clear area we could lead them to?”

“An area that is large and doesn’t leave to much room to escape? Maybe the stadium? The field should be plenty enough for a good fight and it’s pretty much empty, so no civilians in danger. I think that could work, just how we get her there is the question,” Ocean said in return, still somewhat lost in thoughts.

“Well, we could do what we did with the bat creature,” Scootaloo said. “Basically taunt the spirit into chasing after us. It’s not exactly a safe option, but if we can get into some fast vehicles we could probably lead her right to the stadium.”

“Or we could take advantage of her desire to get revenge on Rarity,” Tempest suggested. “If we can fool her into thinking that she’s in the area it might do the trick. We’d just have to figure out how to do it without actually putting Rarity in the line of fire.”

“Yeah, that is a problem. I’m sure she would be up for it, but even then I wouldn’t be comfortable with her actually doing it. We have to think of something else,” Ocean continued, her expression shrouded in worry.

“Uhm… Maybe-” Light Bulb was about to say as she was interrupted by Phoenix.

“Yeah, we aren’t gonna risk rarity’s life for this, but if we don’t figure something out the agent will just go after her regardless.”

“Ahm, Phoenix, I have-”

“Yeah, we have to think of something soon or we can forget the whole stadium plan,” Ocean added.

“Ahm! I have an idea!” Light Bulb finally called out, every eye in the room quickly darting at her. “Uhm, I mean I might know a way,” she added with far more nervousness.

“No, no. Come on, tell us. We are pretty much open for everything right now,” Ocean said with a warm smile on her lips.

“So, um, you know, I could do it,” she managed to stammer out.

“What do you mean?” Phoenix asked, sounding rather confused, all while a nervous expression formed on Ocean’s face.

“Well, I’m not that tall and have a similar skin tone to Rarity as well as hair length. If we dye my hair purple I could probably pass as Rarity, at least from afar,” she finished, a nervous smile on her lips.

“Are you serious? You have seen her and how she nearly killed you, now think what she would do to the actual goal of her revenge. And you want to play bait? Are you insane?” Ocean shouted out, looking at the scientist like she was out of her mind, Light Bulb took a step back.

“I… I know. And I would rather never see this… this thing ever again, but we are at a loss for options here and if we don’t do something soon Rarity will be in even more danger. If I can help then I damn well will, I joined the MRG to help people, just like you did,” the timid woman burst out, her confidence growing with every word.

“We’ll have our team there as well as the Riders to help protect her,” Tempest said. “Admittedly we don’t know what kind of effect the bullets will have on a hybrid like this but it should be able to at least slow it down to help the Riders.”

“Fine, ok then. If this is ok with you Light Bulb then we will do this. Even though I don’t like this one bit,” Ocean sighed.

“Yes, I want to do that!” The scientist returned, staring Ocean dead in the eyes with a glare of determination that could have stared down a lion.

“Good, then we are doing this. Get everything moving, we don’t have much time!”

00000

Cramped, that was probably the word best describing how all of this felt. Light Bulb had come with Phoenix and Ocean to the hospital Rarity was at and with her a good amount of hair dye and other pieces of make-up. They had all headed to Rarity’s room and ‘borrowed’ the dress she had worn when she had the accident. They were sure she wouldn’t mind… all that much and it was with the blessing of her friends that had gathered around the still unconscious girl.

After her transformation into the high school student had been finished one could actually mistake her for Rarity, at least from afar. So the plan could definitely succeed, that was at least a start. With Rarity transferred to another room, they headed out, Light Bulb’s heart was beating a mile a minute as she stepped out of the hospital and into an armored van, thought after thought flooding her mind. No! This had to work and no amount of thinking would change anything at this point, she knew that.

The three Riders, Alchemy, Charge, and Monster let their engines roar to life the moment the doors of van closed shut and they drove off. While Light Bulb was left completely in the dark to what was going on outside both Phoenix and Ocean quickly noticed that someone was definitely following them. A girl clad in leather as well as a long flowing scarf on a chopper, she had started her engine shortly after them and had slowly caught up to them. A small nod from Ocean was all that he needed to know. The Rider slowly pulled his hand from the gas and slowed down until he was driving right next to their uninvited guest.

Staring at her with his green bug eyes was apparently enough for her to understand that her disguise had been shattered. The scarf quickly started to glow, Alchemy falling back even more, now driving right behind the quickly transforming monster. Like expected the girl quickly had taken on her monster form, but there was one thing Phoenix had not expected, the bike had changed as well. Not a normal back chopper anymore, the bike had changed into what could only be described as an armored war machine. It still maintained its general shape, but now clad in black metallic armor. Images of cats were plastered all over the monstrosity as well as multiple blades. Where the headlight would normally be an open cat mouth greaten them, glowing in a bright red.

Within seconds both of them let their machines roar. Everyone on the street turning their heads towards the sudden noise that sounded like the roar of a damn dragon and the two machines rushing past them. With its new form, the agent quickly began catching up to the van, but not only she did, but Alchemy was also just behind her, his weapon drawn and ready to defend the transport with everything he had.

Phoenix drove right next to her, his blade ready to swing down on her, then the sound could be heard. The eerie sound of metal against metal as both Alchemy and the agent clashed blades at insane speeds, sparks flowing everywhere and both combatants being pushed back by the immense force. This was, however, nothing that in any way discouraged them in any way, wasting no time to bring their bikes back on a collision course. This time not only did their blades meat in a battle, but their machines also did as well, the black metal of Surie’s bike and the red of Alchemy’s, none of them willing to budge even an inch.

That was just the moment Phoenix had been waiting for, suddenly removing his had from the gas handle all together letting his opponent suddenly turn right thanks to the missing obstacle in her way. But this was not all he had planned, oh not by a longshot, quickly picking up the pace once again. It didn’t even take more than a few moments till he once again was right behind his opponent who still was struggling to bring the machine back under control only to spin the Disc of his weapon on the side of his bike, flaming energy gathering in the blade. Through the deafening roars of the bikes, he screamed: “Flaming Slash!” Before bringing down the devastating attack on the back of the hybrid.

Even though the loud noise of the machines one could hear the bloodcurdling scream of her as she started to seemingly lose control of her bike. Well until she ripped one of the blades from the bike and slammed it into the ground beside her, miraculously pushing her back into a somewhat steady position.

And before Alchemy could come closer again and strike the agent once again ripped one of the blades from her bike and threw it at the Rider, hitting him across the chest with it, slowing him down significantly.

A vicious smirk crossed her face as she ripped the next one from its rightful place and hurled it towards the wheel of the van. The metal projectile quickly covered ground, coming ever closer to the precious rubber as a shot rang through the streets as the blade suddenly shifted trajectory and instead struck the ground. Two more shots followed, hitting next to the agent as she glared at her newfound problem, Charge.

She snarled at the Rider before picking up the pace once more, coming once again closer to the van. Unbeknownst to her, they had already managed to cover a good portion of the way to the stadium, just a little bit more and they would be done, something the agent was not gonna let happen that easily.

With her speed she quickly caught up to the speeding vehicle, ripping one of her blades from the bike and was about to slash at the side of the van as Charge once again fired a shot at her. One shot that to her horror was easily deflected and left the agent with a big enough window to take a good slash at the van, tearing through the outer shell of it like through butter.

And just like the agent had predicted another shot from that reached Kamen Rider headed her way, one easily deflected like the last one. With that dealt with she was about to stab her blade into the wheel of the van as another shot rang out. She could only turn to see the blue energy bolt in all its glory before it hit right into the hole in the helmet that was meant for her eyes. A scream that could have carved flesh from bones if possible could be heard from her as she feebly tried to stay on top of her bike.

The stadium was already in sight, and this was exactly the opportunity they had waited for. Alchemy’s engine roared louder than ever, his bike quickly overtaking the agent who was still flailing around and desperately clinging onto her machine. As this was happening another bike was slowing down right next to her, Monster. With the two Riders roughly on one line in front of the agent, they nodded to each other and Monster threw his whip right towards Alchemy who caught it with ease, then they hit the breaks. With both Riders coming to a screeching halt and the agent still partially blinded she could only watch in horror as the whip tightened right in front of her, and around her front, ripping her from her own machine.

With a loud crash, the bike landed against one of the trees that were planted on the plaza in front of the stadium, all while the monster landed rather roughly on the ground, the two Riders rushing past her and towards the braking van.

“Ok, get moving! Out! Out! Out!” Charge shouted, ‘Rarity’ running out of the van and towards the entry of the stadium.

“Halt!” The voice of the agent called out to them, letting Alchemy and Monster turn around once again, staring in disbelief at the already standing monster. One could truly see the fierce glance in her eyes as she stared them down, furiously pulling out a small sack. With a devilish grin, she threw the sack up in the air, pulled out one of her two katanas and slashed through the sack with one clean cut.

What happened then was their biggest fears taking form, or rather forms. Dozens upon dozens of magical orbs emerged from the remains of the sack quickly crashing into the ground around the monster who was laughing maniacally. Within seconds she was surrounded with a small army of Remnants, all clad in their stony armor.

All Phoenix could say at this moment was a terrified: “Fuck!”

And at that moment the whole lot of them stormed towards them, ready to absolutely overrun them. Well, until something strange happened, a portal that appeared right in between the Remnants and the Riders. Out stepped a Rider, clad in white armor with black accents across it. His armor reminded one of Alchemy, just a bit different and with a feather motif. “You are so pathetic. Really? Already willing to give up?” The Rider shouted at Phoenix who just stared at the figure in utter horror, Chrysopoeia!

Next, another figure stepped out of the portal, a Rider clad in the same armor as Alchemy in his friendship mode, just balk and with purple accents. His entire body language looked different from the other Rider, he looked annoyed and rather listless, Alkahest.

“And who are you two?” The agent growled at them, impatiently wading through her army of Remnants until she stood in front of them.

“And what do you want here?” Alchemy added, tightening the grip on his weapon.

“I? I am perfection, unparalleled, I am the Magnum Opus the Alchemy Systeme will ever create. I am Kamen Rider Chrysopoeia! And what I want? Well, it’s simple, I will be the one to kill Alchemy and I won’t let a pathetic third-grade monster steal that from me,” he boasted across the battlefield, pointing his strange spearlike weapon at the Remnants. “And that means I can’t let you roam around here!” With that, the Dark Rider dashed forward, right at the agent who just hissed in annoyance and disappeared. “And that goes to you Alchemy!” He shouted while slamming his weapon into one of the Remnants. “Don’t dare to die against her!”

Phoenix stared a few more seconds at Chrysopoeia before hissing in disgust and ran into the building after his fellow Riders. It didn’t take them long to reach the field and with it ‘Rarity’ who was surrounded by the remaining Riders. Everyone ok?” Ocean asked, especially looking at Light Bulb, everyone nodding. “Good, we are getting company!”

“Please tell me that means this insane plan worked and we’re not about to have more problems we didn’t account for…” Scootaloo said as she eyed them for a moment.

“Well, there is a small army of Remnants outside, but we probably don’t have to worry about that,” Phoenix returned. “Just don’t ask,” he added with a low growl.

“Thanks for totally alleviating our fears,” Sweetie Drops said as they got ready. “Alright, the team is in place with the weapons. Tempest is keeping an eye on things from the stands with a sniper rifle, and we’re standing in the middle of the field the monster expects to find her target in… yeah, this is a good plan.”

“Let’s hope that it stays a good plan and not devolve into utter chaos,” Ocean stated with a grim undertone. “We can’t afford to lose here!”

“Alright Scootaloo, it’s up to you here,” Tempest’s voice said over her headset. “If we’re lucky your sword will give you a way to force her to be visible. If this doesn’t work, well, we don’t exactly have a Plan B.”

“Don’t kid yourself, this isn’t Plan A, this is Plan C, it’s too crazy to be anything else,” Scootaloo said as she gave the others a nod. “So, how do we actually know when the invisible crazy cat lady is here?”

“We don’t. We have to be fast enough to stop her when she gets visible!” Ocean returned matter of factly, her gun already ready to fire at any moment.

“Alright, then time to try this thing out and see if it works...” Scootaloo said as she reached into her deck box and took a deep breath. She remembered what Tempest said, this wasn’t going to be easy on her but it was the best option. She slid the card into her Driver after a moment.

“ARCANA BROADSWORD!”

A sword formed in her hand, it was covered with ornate black and gold designs on the hilt with a basket protecting her hand. She eyed the sword for a moment and held it out, her hand shaking a little as she did.

“Scootaloo, are you okay?” Sweetie’s voice said over her communicator.

“Yeah… I’m fine, just didn’t expect it to be that big,” Scootaloo said as she raised the sword and looked around. Nothing seemed to jump out at her, was Tempest wrong and this was just a normal weapon after all?

A cackle came up around them, which just caused Scootaloo to grip the hilt of the sword tightly as the Riders looked around for any sign of the Order Agent. Finally, the armored woman appeared in front of them holding her swords aloft.

“Well, it looks like you’ve got a new toy,” the Agent said as she pointed her shorter sword at Scootaloo. “Not that it’s going to matter, you can’t hit me as long as I have this power at my disposal!”

“We’ll see about that!” Scootaloo said as she tried to sound more confident than she actually felt as she gripped the sword tight. “This ends here and now!”

“I don’t think so, I’ve got business to complete here, have fun trying to hit me,” the agent said with a laugh before she vanished again.

“Form up on Rarity,” Sweetie Drops said as she raised her bow as the Riders moved around Light Bulb. “She still has to get through us if she wants to get to her.”

“Yeah, and she won’t be doing that under my watch!” Phoenix joined in, holding his sword ready for any incoming attacker.

Scootaloo glanced around from behind her helmet’s red-eyed visor for a moment. She hated having to face a monster that she couldn’t even see or guarantee a hit against as she held the broadsword out.

She blinked when she looked at the long blade and realized that it was shimmering slightly. When she pointed it away it stopped but when she pointed it forward again she realized that it was getting stronger and the sword was starting to shake in her hands.

On instinct alone, she swung the sword around and slashed hard at what seemed to be thin air. At least until a scream was heard as the Agent faded into existence on the ground with a sword slash across the chest.

“What? How did you… what?” The Agent demanded. “That shouldn’t have been possible!”

“I don’t understand it myself, but you’re not going to be able to hide from us anymore,” Scootaloo said as she started to feel more confident. “And we’re about to take you down!”

"Oh, it's time for payback," Phoenix added with a bright grin from under his mask before he, Ocean and Pinecone all removed their respective transformation devices and replaced them with a white Disc with golden accents, a strange device with a cylinder and a white medal.

“Charge up!”

\ HEUREKA! /

\ 100, 150, 200! OVER CHARGE! /

\ AWAKEN: CHIMERA! /

While Phoenix was consumed by a white whirlwind with several colored spots in it, Ocean was guarded by a white energy orb and Pinecone as six etherial monsters burst out of his Driver and rushed into several parts of his armor.

When everything had settled Alchemy was clad in white armor with golden accents, golden shoulders in the form of feathers and a white cape with golden borders, glaring at the monster with his blue eyes and feather themed horns. Charge meanwhile was clad in white armor with silver plating and black lines. All over her body engines had been plastered and in her hand, she held a massive canon. Monster meanwhile had suited up in a suit that was made out of stylized heads of the beast that made up his powers, all representatively locate on his legs, arms, chest, and head.

“Once more, everyone has cool form changes but us,” Lyra said as Sweetie Drops raised her bow and aimed it at the monster while Scootaloo raised her sword. “You always take me to the nicest places, you know that right Bon Bon?”

“Real funny,” Sweetie Drops said with a roll of her eyes as she pressed her hand to the side of her helmet. “Team one open fire, let’s see if we can slow her down at least.”

“Affirmative,” the voice said on the other end and after a moment shots rang out over the stadium as several bullets tore into the Agent’s armor and she let out a cry.

“Why you little…” She started to say as she turned towards the stands only to get hit in the back with an energy arrow.

“Your fight is with us not them,” Sweetie Drops said as she pulled her bowstring back again and aimed it at the Agent. “And it ends now!”

“You’ll have to try harder than that!” The agent roared as she gripped her swords tightly as energy flowed around her before she ran right at Sweetie Drops, just barely avoiding more shots from the team as she raised her swords to attempt to attack the red and pink Kamen Rider.

Sweetie Drops jumped just as the swords swung towards her and planted a kick in the monster’s chest as she did a flip and landed on the ground behind the Agent. She quickly turned around and fired another arrow at the monster who cried out.

“How’s that for trying?” Sweetie Drops said as she fired several more arrows at the armored monster.

As the agent staggered backward with an agonizing scream something zoomed past her. When she noticed she could already feel the sting in her side, the feeling of sharp claws that were digging right through her armor and into her skin. As she looked down she could see a faint blue glimmer over the bird-themed gauntlet before the claws were ripped from her and a foot took their place, shimmering with red energy.

Landing several feet away she quickly tried to come back on her feet, only for a beast-like helmet to appear right in front of her, the red eyes glared at her from the white material before she felt herself lifted from the ground, a low growl accompanying this the whole way through. For a few moments, she could nothing do but stare into the soulless eyes right in front of her, only for her sudden elevation to turn into a quick fall down back towards earth, well more like she was shoved back down. As she was rammed into the ground the groaning of metal could be heard and on several parts of her body, she could feel the armor shift under the sudden force.

When the monstrous Rider suddenly disappeared she couldn’t be happier, well for a second at least, because the new thing in her sight was arguably worse. Right where Monster had stood several bright orbs were heading her way, with terrifying speed one might add. She desperately tried to scramble away, her metallic fingers digging into the grass of the stadium, but it was all for not as the first orb hit her. The heat was unimaginable, she could feel it through her armor, the metal quickly taking in the heat of the attack and leaving burn marks on her skin. Then the second hit, similar pain surged through her arm and as the third struck its target she could feel herself lifted off the ground, all while the burning sensation all over her body continued to spread.

The landing wasn’t as equally unpleasant, but it was still far from something she could call comfortable, hitting the ground at least on three separate occasions until she finally came to a halt. But all the pain, all the burned fur that filled the air, all of it was nothing compared to the pure rage she felt. Every sensation besides her breath and the anger quickly were pushed into the background as she heaved herself off the ground, staggering forward a few steps before coming to a halt.

Noticing immediately the Rider that was rocketing towards her, small little flames coming off her all over her body as she hovered above the ground and straight towards her. With a ferocious roar, she pulled both katanas from their sheaths and dashed forward at the incoming Rider. Charge showed no sign of slowing down, even though she was heading straight at the monster. Then in the last possible moment, several of the engines stopped only for others to activate, letting Charge rush over her and unload several shots into her backside, the monster stumbling forward until it stood before two more Riders, Alchemy and Justice.

“Hey Kitty, how about we show you what happens when you really piss us off? Sounds good? Good!” Phoenix chuckled, cracking his knuckles in the process. “So, should we start Scoots?”

“Yeah, let’s finish this!” Scootaloo said as she held her broadsword up and she nodded to Sweetie Drops who held her bow up and pulled back to form another energy arrow. “You’re future isn’t looking bright. And we’re about to show you just why that is!”

“This… isn’t… possible…” The Agent said as she struggled to steady herself and crossed her swords. “I won’t let you get away with this!”

“Yeah, yeah, broken record and so on. You are exactly like every other monster we fought, arrogant, full of themselves and worst of all, never know when to stop. Do you know why you are gonna lose? Because you are stuck in the past, you can’t let go of it. We, however, we will keep moving forward towards a bright future!” Alchemy returned, pointing his finger at the agent.

“And we’re going to keep fighting to make sure that brighter future exists,” Scootaloo said as she pointed the broadsword at the Agent. “Because we’re Kamen Riders, and it is our duty to protect the world from threats like you. We will return to defeat the likes of you, no matter how many times it takes!”

“Exactly! And now it’s time to fulfill this duty!” Phoenix added. “You're going down Kitty!”

“I’d like to see you two masked freaks try!” The Agent laughed as she held her swords out. “Come at me, both of you!”

“They really never learn, do they?” He sighed while shaking his head.

“Nope, they do not appear to,” Scootaloo said as she held the sword up. “Also, masked freaks? Have you looked in a mirror recently lady? I thought you were a cat monster, not a pot monster.”

“You do realize that sounds more like something based on drugs right?” Sweetie said over her helmet’s communicator.

“STOP RUINING MY BANTER!” Scootaloo said with a groan. “Forget it, the moment’s ruined, let’s just deal with this cat freak.”

The Agent just laughed as she held her swords out. “Then try it!”

Scootaloo gripped the sword tightly and headed straight for the monster as she gave Phoenix a nod as she swung the large sword at the monster who barely managed to catch it with her own swords.

“You’re still sloppy with that sword,” the cat woman said with a laugh. “You don’t even know how to use it yet do you?”

“No, but I don’t have to,” Scootaloo said as she kicked hard at the Agent’s chest sending her sprawling back. “I won this weapon from one of your comrades who was way more terrifying and dangerous than you could ever hope to be! You think you’re so powerful, but you’re nothing more than a joke!”

“Just keep telling yourself that you bitch…” the Agent said as she struggled to get to her feet and steadied herself. “I’m going to rip you apart, and then do the same to your friends and family! There is nothing you can do to hope to stop me!”

Suddenly she felt something from behind swooping away one of her legs, letting the agent fall to the ground only to receive a devastating punch to the stomach. “Blah, blah, blah. Oh for the love of everything holy can you just shut up! You are by far the most annoying monster I have ever seen and to be frank, one if incredibly bad taste. I mean really, you look stupid!” Before the agent could say anything in return Phoenix simply kicked her towards Scootaloo. “She is all yours!”

“Got it!” Scootaloo said as she swung her sword around and slashed hard at the Agent. The Agent tried to stop it with her swords, only to have them knocked out of her hands as Scootaloo pushed her back onto the ground.

“Finisher then?” Scootaloo asked as she glanced at Phoenix as a green glow formed around her foot.

“Give me a moment, there is still one thing I have to do,” he returned before clearing his throat. “Kitty, you used the powers that were bestowed upon you to attack others, took over a human and hurt my friends. By the magic that was bestowed upon me, I deem you unworthy of your powers and will now take them from you!” With that, he started to spin the Disc on his Driver.

\ Philosopher Stone Maximum Power! /

Both Riders jumping into the air, golden energy gathering around Phoenix’s foot as well as six golden wings extending from his back. The two of them rocketed towards the monster, the energy on their legs growing ever brighter as well as golden lights that formed into a whirlwind extending from Phoenix leg. Then the kicks connected, the agent could only scream in a howl of pain as both Riders pushed through her, letting the monster go off in a ball of fire and explosions behind them.

“Well, look at that, I was right. Go figure,” he chuckled.

“I need more catchphrases…” Scootaloo said with a groan as she started to wobble a little bit as she reached down to her Driver and deactivated it as her world started to get dark.

“Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle called out and she could barely see her running towards her before she fell to the ground, her vision going dark as she slipped into unconsciousness.

00000

“Is she goin’ ta be okay, Doc?” Apple Bloom’s voice said as Scootaloo’s eyes slowly opened.

“She should be,” a voice that it took her a moment to realize was the doctor from the SMILE medical ward. “Her body isn’t used to the drain on her from the card, frankly we’re lucky the fight didn’t last too much longer or it might’ve killed her.”

“I don’t know what she was thinking, she had to know that it was dangerous,” the familiar voice of Rarity said. “I can’t imagine how worried Sweetie must’ve been.”

Scootaloo’s eyes finally opened and she looked over to see Rarity and Applejack standing there with Apple Bloom talking with the Doctor. She looked at her side and saw Sweetie lying at her bedside, asleep with her hand clasped around her’s.

“Ugh, did anyone get the license plate of that truck that hit me?” Scootaloo asked with a groan which caught their attention. She rubbed her head with her free hand as Sweetie started to stir and looked up to see her awake, she looked like she had been crying.

“Ms. Dash, I told you not to use that card,” the Doctor said as she walked over to Scootaloo’s bed. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

“I know, I know, it had to be done, and it worked,” Scootaloo said as she looked at Sweetie and squeezed her hand a little bit. “I couldn’t let that monster run amok in this world or ours. It was the best chance we had.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we have ta like it,” Applejack said as she rolled her eyes a little.

“Well, the genie’s out of the bottle,” the Doctor said with a sigh. “But you’re going to have to use it sparingly from now on at least until you can use it without passing out. And we’re going to have to move you and Ms. Polomare back to our home universe in the next few hours given the effects on the portal seems to be weakening.”

“Right, of course,” Sweetie said with a sigh. “So, what do we do now?”

“For now we need to let Scootaloo relax,” the Doctor said with a nod. “She’s been through a lot recently. I’m going to recommend once she gets back home she takes it easy for at least a day.”

“Yeah, okay,” Scootaloo said with a sigh. “I think I can handle that as long as nothing attacks us again.”

“No, if the Order attacks have Agent Drops handle it,” the Doctor said. “Anyway, I’ll leave you alone to talk. If there’s anything else, let me know.”

She headed out the door to the Hospital room at that as Applejack, Rarity, and Apple Bloom headed back over to Scootaloo’s bed.

“So, where’s Honey?” Scootaloo asked.

“Oh, she’s back home with mah family until we get back,” Applejack said with a nod. “Given everythin’ that’s been goin’ on and tha fact that we’d be goin’ ta a whole different universe we thought this would be best.”

“Yeah, probably,” Scootaloo said as she squeezed Sweetie’s hand again. “I’m sorry for worrying all of you… did it at least work?”

“Yeah, you have no idea how hard it was to keep Light Bulb from playing with this thing,” Sweetie said as she handed Scootaloo the card. It depicted two figures in a boat with six swords behind them. “You know the Swords Suit is really weird right?”

“Yeah, I’m starting to realize that,” Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she leaned in and kissed her fiance on the lips. “I’m sorry for worrying you, Sweetie. I promise I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“Good,” Sweetie said with a soft smile as she returned the kiss which they shared for a long moment.

“Do ya’ll have ta make out all tha time?” Apple Bloom asked with a light chuckle as she shook her head at her friends.

“I think it’s cute,” Rarity said with a smile. “Besides, after everything that just happened, I think they deserve some time together.”

“Yeah, yer right,” Applejack said with a soft smile. “Ah’ll admit though, this is one heck of a family vacation though. Never thought Ah’d visit another universe entirely.”

The group just laughed at that. Scootaloo smiled, it was nice to be able to spend time with her friends and their family after everything that had happened. Her life felt like it was in a constant spiral of trouble and nothing else.

It was nice to know that she could have a little bit of normalcy.

Or at least she could have if the door hadn’t just slammed open, five familiar faces entering the room. “Ah, so our sleepyhead is finally awake. That is good to hear,” Phoenix burst out, a bright grin on his face, Ocean, Pinecone, Light Bulb, and Shining Armor right behind him.

“Well there goes spending time with my friends and family,” Scootaloo said with a sigh before chuckling a little. “Hey, one heck of a fight huh?”

“That is one way of putting it,” Light Bulb interrupted Phoenix before he could even as much as get a word in. “I would rather call it absolutely terrifying. How do you do that? Jump into a fight like this and be so casual while doing it?” She looked at Scootaloo and Phoenix for a moment before shuddering a bit.

“Well, how could you jump into it? You wanted to be bait, knowing full well what might happen and you stuck with us for the entire time. So, how did you do it?” Phoenix returned with a slight chuckle.

“Uhm… Well… You know…” She started to stumble before her expression changed into something far calmer. “I just had to. It was the right thing and… Well, in a way helping others just felt right.” During the last part of her sentence, a slight blush covered her cheeks, something her snow-white cheeks couldn’t hide in the slightest.

“Then that’s your answer,” Scootaloo said with a nod as she looked back at Sweetie Belle. “We do it because its the right thing, and more often than not we’re the only ones who can. It’s not an easy job, I admit I’ve faltered more than I should, but it has to be done given the alternative is usually worse.”

“Exactly, it’s about doing what is right, no matter what might happen to you and how hard it can be,” Phoenix added with an approving nod. “But on another note, we are bringing good news. Rarity woke up and it seems she will make a full recovery. Oh, and we should thank you all from the girls.”

“Tell them we were glad to help,” Scootaloo said with a soft smile. “And I’m glad Rarity woke up. With everything that was happening, I was kind of worried about her.”

“Ah gotta admit, this universe is, interestin’,” Applejack said. “Let’s try not ta meet our counterparts though, Ah get tha feelin’ that would be weird.”

“Oh, you have no idea…” Scootaloo said with a light chuckle as she remembered back to the conversation she had with Rarity in the car.

“Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. I already find this extremely weird and I only know you because of my sister,” Shining said, shaking his head with a quite confused expression.

“Oh, I thought you looked familiar,” Rarity said as she looked at Shining Armor. “Huh, guess this universe is pretty similar after all. You’re Twilight’s brother aren’t you?”

“Yeah, officer Shining Armor, nice to meet you,” he extended his hand towards Rarity.

“Nice to meet you as well,” Rarity said with a smile as she shook hands with him. “This is going to certainly be an interesting conversation with our Twilight when we get back to New York. She’s probably going to be mad she didn’t get to go to another universe.”

“Hehe, yeah that sounds like my Twilie,” Shining returned with a chuckle. “Yeah, some things apparently never change.”

“Yeah, that definitely sounds like our Twilight,” Applejack said with a chuckle. “Sounds like it’s a universal constant or somethin’.”

“In all honesty, I don’t know. Oh, this Rider stuff is just weird and it never gets better,” he sighed while shaking his head.

“Oh you have no idea if you ever visit our universe do not look up pictures of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid,” Rarity said with a shudder.

“Yeah, yeah, Rider stuff is weird, you don’t say?” Phoenix added with a slightly mocking tone. “So, you are leaving us soo Scoots? Shame really was a pleasure fighting with you.”

Scootaloo smiled a little and gave him a nod. “It’s been good fighting with you too, and who knows something might happen and we could cross paths again. I wouldn’t mind if that happened, but, you never know.”

“Yeah, you never know, especially with how our lives are. In all honesty, I wouldn’t be all that surprised if it happens again. And if it should happen, be sure to say hello, we’ll do the same. Riders have to look out for each other after all, right buddy?” He extended a thump up towards her, complete with a silly grin.

Scootaloo smiled as she returned the gesture. “Right, who knows what the future holds.”

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure it’s a bright one. We just have to get there,” he added, a faint smile crossing his lips.

“Yeah… we just have to make sure that it is, and I think you two can help with that,” Sweetie said with a chuckle. “Just don’t get yourselves killed, the last thing we need is dead heroes.”

“Not really planning on that actually, but thanks for the reminder anyway,” he added with a smirk.

Scootaloo smiled a little as she leaned up and kissed Sweetie gently on the lips as she wrapped her arms around her fiance. The two held the kiss for a few moments as they just enjoyed the moment together.

“I think we should leave these two alone,” Rarity said with a soft smile. “I think they’ve earned a little alone time, don’t you?”

“Yes definitely, now shoo,” Scootaloo said with a laugh as she gestured at the group. “We have things to do… err, talk about. We’ll see you again before we leave for our home universe, okay?”

As the others filed out of the room, Scootaloo smiled softly as she took Sweetie’s hand in her’s as she placed it on Sweetie’s engagement ring. “I really am sorry for worrying you before… you know I love you and I just wanted to…”

She was cut off when Sweetie placed her finger on Scootaloo’s lips. “Scootaloo, I understand. You did what you had to do in order to stop the monster. Just promise me that you’ll be careful from now on, okay?”

“I promise,” Scootaloo said with a soft smile as she stroked Sweetie’s hair a little. “I promise I’ll only use the Eight of Swords when I absolutely have to. Though really I’m not sure how useful that ability would be anyway.”

“You never know, but enough about that,” Sweetie said as she kissed Scootaloo again. “So, how about we take advantage of the time we have alone?”

Scootaloo smiled a little as she kissed Sweetie again. There wasn’t much they could do right now, but they could simply enjoy this moment of closeness. After all, with a life like they had, sometimes that was all they could ask for.

00000

“Well, I guess this is finally it,” Scootaloo said as they gathered at the statue in front of Canterlot High later that evening. “Sorry that we couldn’t stay longer.”

“Yeah, shame really, but can’t be helped. We can’t just let you be stuck here after all,” Phoenix returned, a bit of sadness in his voice. “You have some monster but to kick after all.”

“Yeah, seems like we both do,” Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she gave him a nod. “Its been a real pleasure working with you all though. If somehow you’re ever in the neighborhood, feel free to give us a call.”

“Yeah, if the phone works,” he smirked back. “But seriously, we’ll do and I hope you two are married then.”

“Oh you can bet on it, I’m not letting this one get away,” Sweetie said with a grin as she squeezed Scootaloo’s hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I doubt Ocean will let you get away either.”

“Well, I’ll try to avoid that, but talking about marriage is a bit early, now is it, right Phoenix,” she added with a sweet smile on her lips.

Phoenix just looked at her with a nervous expression before whispering to Scootaloo: “What am I supposed to say? Yes or no, I have the feeling both of them are kinda wrong.”

“Oh definitely gonna be in trouble either way,” Scootaloo said with a laugh. “But if you want my advice, don’t even consider it until you’re both ready. Me and Sweetie have been dating for years and have known each other for longer. I’m not the best to give romantic advice, but, well, there you have it.”

“Eh, I think he will manage,” Ocean said with a light chuckle. “He managed fine until now and when we get to that point we know it, right?”

“Right,” Phoenix said, his cheeks turning a bright crimson. This blush only grew more intense when she gave him a quick kiss on his cheek.

“I think those two crazy kids will do just fine,” Sweetie said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, me too,” Scootaloo said with a laugh as she looked back at the statue and checked the time. “Well, we should probably get going, the Doctor’s probably going to want to poke and prod me when we get back. Tell Light Bulb I hope she got some good information from those scans.”

“Oh, she did. She has been all up and arms about all of the data. And she might have pocketed a few of these Anti-Agent-Bullets, so we won’t be seeing her for a few days. Who knows, maybe she can bring this data to good use one day. Oh, and she also says thank you for all of the data,” Ocean added.

“Well, it seems this is really it. Till next time and good luck,” Phoenix sighed, holding his hand out for a last handshake.

“Until next time,” Scootaloo said as she shook hands with Phoenix and gave him a soft smile. “Try to avoid any future multiversal trouble, okay?”

“Yeah, we’ll try our best and really, what are the chances of that happening again anyway?”

“Oh great, you just jinxed it,” Scootaloo said as she facepalmed.

“Heh, yeah right… Oh no, you are right,” he sighed. “Ups?”

“Well good luck with your impending visit from another traveler from another universe,” Sweetie said with a chuckle. “We have our own things to take care of, good luck both of you.”

“Thanks, good luck as well.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie smiled as they walked through the portal together hand in hand. After a moment, they vanished from view.

“Well, that was a wild ride, hope they will be ok,” Phoenix smiled.

“I’m sure they will do just great. I think we can safely call it quits for today, how about we get something to eat, like a pizza from your brother?” Ocean returned, accompanied by the low grumbling of her stomach.

“You know, that sounds perfect about right now. You decide what we take as topping though.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” she finished with a bright smile. “So, what are we waiting for anyway? We should enjoy it while it lasts, who knows what might happen.”

“Yeah, but let’s not think about that right now. I’m starving.”

Fanfic War 2019 - Alchemy x Justice: Alchemical Sword

by Layton13

Crossing Over

Constants and Variables

Brave new World

Ideals that Surpass Worlds