Hector and Trixie were not amused by the current predicament they were in.  After the battle with the Mantis VilaMax, the two unlikely individuals were in a sense put into each other’s company, and they both despised the other.  Trixie, because of VilaMax hated humans in their entirety, and Hector?  He just disliked her due to her attitude and the fact that she tried to deep fry his head with magical head beams.  The human leaned against the wall outside of Trixie’s wagon, examining the core medal he had retrieved from the Mantis VilaMax, casually flipping it every now and then.  Inside, the unicorn in question was getting her ‘beauty sleep’.

“You just want an excuse to boot my butt out, stupid magic horse,” Hector grumbled.

As he leaned against the wagon, his mind started to drift to the moment he landed here no more than a day ago.  It had happened so fast, but he remembered one detail quite clearly.  When he was falling, the driver’s Medal Holder had snapped open and erupted out various bolts of light.  There was no doubt about it; those lights had to be the other Core Medals.  But one question was still on his mind.

“How exactly did I get here,” he stroked his chin in thought, “And just what caused my Driver to become the actual thing.”

His thoughts continued to drift well into the wee hours of the early afternoon, but elsewhere, something was taking place.

*

Vilacus paced in his throne room, the large chamber made his footsteps echo as the cloaked man grunted in anger and kicked his throne.

“DAMN IT!  I WAS SO CLOSE!  THEN THAT,” his words transitioned into a string of nonsense as he glared out at the empty chamber and called out, “RASPBERRY, VANILLA!  Get your flanks IN HERE!”

Nothing happened for a moment, but then a series of thuds were heard as the throne room doors burst open.  Into the throne room ran two mares.  One was an earth pony with a muted pinkish red coat with lime green eyes and a deep strawberry mane with black dots peppering its surface.  Her mane and tail were wavy in appearance.  The front of her mane curved upward ever so slightly while the rest was tied back in a bun.  She was currently garbed in a maid outfit with a feather duster in her mouth.  Beside her was a unicorn mare who wore a fairly bored looking expression.  Her coat was a whitish yellow; her eyes were a chocolate brown.  Her mane was a light brow with streaks that matched her coat in it tied back in a loose pony tail, while her bangs ‘swirled’ slightly to the left of her face.  Her cutie mark was that of a spoon stirring a mix of liquefied Ice Cream.  On her face was a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses.

“Vanilla Swirl,” stated the bespectacled pony in a mildly disinterested voice, “Reporting.”

“Frasfherry Felds,” the maid pony muffled, “Reporting.”

Vilacus face palmed, “Take the feather duster out of your mouth….”

The maid pony spat the duster onto the ground, “Oh sorry, Raspberry Fields, reporting,” her voice was a tad high but held a bit of some sort of accent none could place.

Vilacus sighed and sat in his throne, brining both of his hands to his face and groaning.

Vanilla tilted her head, “I assume the Mantis thing was destroyed?”

Vilacus nodded, “Damn it….I had such a good idea going,” he gestured around to the throne room, “I have a castle, dark powers…”

“And two awesome minions,” Raspberry chirped.

Vilacus moaned as he slumped lower in his seat, “One moron, and one competent liaison.”

Vanilla nodded as Raspberry blinked for a moment.

Vilacus sat up straight in his chair, “What am I going to do now….,” he gestured outside to the noon sun, “Out there, there’s some superhero jerk that could wreck EVERYTHING I’ve built….and frankly I don’t even think I could beat him mono a mono.”

Vanilla raised a hoof, “My lord, can I make a suggestion?”

“Honestly,” Vilacus slumped back into his self-loathing, “I’m open to anything.”

“Why don’t you find more of those Medal things and make more monsters,” she stated flatly.

“Do I LOOK like I’m made of those things?”

Vanilla stepped forward, “Well, if I might be so bold, I can attune my horn to the remnants of the Medal energy present here to track some down.”

Vilacus moaned, “Fine!  Do it, not that it will matter.  As far as I know, there could be only that one and the ones Hector has in his−“

Vanilla’s horn flashed once and she stated flatly once more, “I can sense two.”

Vilacus was on his feet, “What?!  You’re shitting me!”

Vanilla shook her head, “If it will stop your ‘Oh woe is me,’ moment, I can go out and retrieve them for you.”

“ME TOO ME TOO,” Raspberry hopped in place.

Vilacus clapped his hands together, “Make it so my mare minions!”

Raspberry ripped off her maid outfit to reveal an explorer outfit, “ADVENTURE HO!”

Vanilla shook her head as the two mares departed.

*

Back in Ponyville, Hector or as he was now, O’s was standing in front of a log that AJ was securing in place.

“Is it ready?”

AJ chuckled, “Hold yer horses,” she finished with the last support, “NOW it’s ready.”

O’s hopped in place and wringed his hands, “Alright,” he pulled out the Kamakiri Medal, “Let’s get the ball rolling.”

Applejack ran from the post and joined her friends who were watching the spectacle nearby, “Have at er O’s!”

Hector nodded as he inserted the Kamakiri Medal in place of the Tora Medal.  He then ran the C−Scanner over the three medals.

“TAKA, KAMAKIRI, BATA!”

There was a flash, and O’s torso changed.  The yellow of his torso was replaced with a much lighter green, the tiger head like symbol replaced with one that roughly resembled a mantis.  The wrists of the suit seemed a tad more bulky than the Tora ones.

"Sweet!"

Twilight ooed at the display and started taking notes as O’s faced the log, a pair of long thin and curved light green blades manifesting in his hands.  He took up his fighting stance and started to hack away at the log.  From above, Rainbow Dash descended and landed near the group with some shakes.

“Hey, what’d I miss?”

Twilight glanced over at Dash as O’s cleanly sliced a nice slab of wood form the log, “Not much, Hector’s just practicing with his new medal.”

Pinkie nodded, “It’s so cool!  He’s like a living combo!”

Rainbow shrugged and slurped up her shake, “Meh,” she glanced at Twilight’s note taking, “heh, what are you doing?”

“Oh,” Twilight smiled, “I’m just taking some notes.  I decided that since Hector is going to be here for a while that I’d keep record of each Core Medal he acquires and its specific ability and motif.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “Motif?”

Applejack nodded as she sat on the grass, “From what we’ve seen and what Twi has told us, the Medals are based on animals.”

Twilight nodded, “I surmise that the green ones are insects, the yellow ones are jungle cats, and the red might be birds.”

Rarity made a face at the green ones, “Ugh, I just can’t believe insects are a motif for him, the two greens clash horribly with the red,” she tapped her chin, “I wonder if there are purple medals.  Ooh!  What if those represent a majestic animal?”

Pinkie piped up immediately, “Like a monkey!”

Rarity glanced at her for a moment, “A monkey?”

Pinkie nodded, “Monkeys can be totally majestic!”

   As the girls chatted amongst themselves and O’s trained.  Trixie watched from afar and rolled her eyes.

“I can’t believe they think that human is good,” she grumbled, “He’s probably just gaining their trust.  But Trixie will not be tricked so easily!  Trixie is vigilant and always ready!”

“RRRRROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!”

A ground shaking roar reached the ears of the girls and human as they looked around.

O’s glanced around for the source of the noise, “What the heck was that?”

From a distance away, a mass of birds shot skyward in the Everfree forest as some trees rocked.

Twilight came to O’s side, “What do you think that was?”

O’s thought for a moment, “Worst case scenario, a Yellow Medal VilaMax.”

Rarity came to his side with the rest of the girls, “And the best case?”

“It’s a Yellow Medal VilaMax,” he rubbed his hands together and bolted for the tree line.

Twilight shook her head and looked after O’s, “Come on girls!”

The pony took off with the other elements in hot pursuit of the Kamen Rider.  Trixie merely shook her head and went to her trailer.

*

Within the darkened forest, trees whooshed past as the Rider hopped from tree to tree with his Bata legs giving him the best aid.  As he went, he could hear the sounds of the disturbance getting closer by the minute.  As he continued to hop, he mentally prepared himself….though outside he was giddy as hell at the prospect of getting another medal.

“This is going to be so cool!”

Soon the tree line fell away to a clearing, and he halted, his legs turning back.  

“Whoa….”

Before the costumed hero was a massive stone city.  The place looked like a massive Aztec town, a temple in the dead center.  He glanced around, his Taka Head’s scanner going off as he searched for the Medal source.  Soon however, the girls appeared behind him and stopped in awe.

Twilight looked around at the ruins, “This is….amazing,” she glanced behind her, “how far in are we?”

O’s pointed toward the city, “What we should be concerned about is the fact that I’m staring at the blaring signature of a Core Medal, right there.”

Within the Taka Head, the Medal in question seemed to be moving.  At first, it seemed to linger in one place near a cluster of buildings, and then it would leap to another section and slowly move.  O’s gestured for the girls to wait.

Applejack stepped forward, “Do ya have a screw loose in that helmet of yers?  We’re comin too!”

O’s shook his head, hands raised in a calming gesture, “Trust me.  Just hang back here.  I won’t be long.”

O’s slowly walked into town, the Kamakiri blades manifesting as he kept the tracer on the Medal.  When he reached the center of town, he got a beat on it and sighed.  It was another Tora medal….but better than nothing.

“Alright VilaMax!  Come out and taste my green blades of fury!”

In an instant, the Medal signature moved around the building it was behind, and the creature leapt out.

O’s arms dropped slowly, “Okay….”

Twilight stared on in shock, “What the hay is that?!”

Before O’s was a creature unlike any the ponies or the human had ever seen before, and that was saying something.  The creature was a massive stone tiger, but it was odd in terms of shape.  Its body was blocky looking, it’s torso a massive rectangle with a dip in its back.  Its leg and tail were stone cubes perfectly interlocked, but its head was slightly more like a disc in shape, its lower jaw lined with razor sharp stone teeth.  On the sides of its head were glowing orange eyes, the stone itself the color of sandstone.  The tiger towered above O’s by a good foot when at full height.

“Uh,” O’s backed up slightly, “Nice kitty.  Nice ToraTiger.”

The ToraTiger roared and surged toward the rider.