Haruka sighed quietly as she looked around at the scenery rushing past, “.... Natsumi?”

“Yeah?”

“How come we gotta stand on top of the train?” Haruka asked, nearly shouting over the wind.

“Because if there’s any trouble we won’t have to run through a big crowd of people,” Natsumi answered, similarly almost shouting back.

The wind howled loudly, then became a roaring cacophony as the train entered the tunnel to Canterlot station.

“Ears!” Natsumi shouted, slamming down a pair of earmuffs and slapping her hands over her ears for good measure.

Haruka did likewise, throwing in a, “Goddammit I hate this part!” just because she could.

With an earsplitting shriek of metal on metal, the train slid to a halt at the Canterlot station and opened its doors, allowing the hundreds of assorted refugees to disembark and spill out onto the platform.

“Ghaa…” Haruka muttered, digging a finger into her ear as she hopped off of the train and leaned against a nearby wall. “Stupid train brakes… wouldn’t have had to worry if we were inside, but noooo…”

Natsumi snorted, smacking Haruka upside the head, “Quit whining. That was the last train for the day. Now come on, her royal whiteness is waiting for us and I’d rather not be hunted down again.”

“Don’t forget her royal blueness,” Haruka added.

“And the purple one.”

“And… uh, are there any others?”

“Who even knows? Whatever, let’s just keep moving,” Natsumi shook her head and continued on, walking the streets of Canterlot on a direct course for the highly visible palace in the distance.

“Yeah yeah… wonder what they want…”

“I’ll state this as simply as possible: there are other cities all across the country that are being destroyed by monsters. Most of the time they’re driven back, but lately there haven’t been as many successful repulsions of those… creatures.” Celestia stated her point with all the solemnity it deserved, head hung low in despair over how many of her beloved subjects had lost their lives.

“Wait… no… no no no… you mean…?” Natsumi shook her head, clutching her hands over her ears in blind denial, “It can’t be…. No no no… How… how many…. How many are gone…?”

Haruka stood in shock, hand clutched against her heart as she slowly shook her head, “This isn’t right…. It’s not just us… this…. This…”

“This is the work of an organization,” Princess Luna spoke up, striding into the room with all the authority she could hold.

Celestia sighed in quiet relief, “Sister… you’re late.”

“I was making preparations for the ceremony later on,” Luna replied. “Have you told them yet?”

“Told us what?” Natsumi asked, curiously scratching her hair underneath her ever-present beanie.

Celestia shook her head, “Not yet, Luna. I was waiting for you and Twilight. Speaking of Twilight, do you know where she is?”

“Nay, I do not, sister. I believe she was coordinating the movement of the refugees last I saw her some three hours ago,” Luna replied.

Celestia nodded and turned to Natsumi and Haruka, “V- Natsumi, Haruka, would you mind terribly bringing my student here? We’ll tell you everything once she’s back. I think you’ll like this surprise.”

Natsumi frowned and crossed her arms, “You were about to call us Vampire and Ace, weren’t you?”

Haruka raised an eyebrow and scowled, “At least get it right. It was Kivala and Larc.”

Celestia coughed and looked away, “I apologize. Old habits tend to flare up sometimes, you understand.”

“Yeah yeah, just don’t do it again. C’mon Haru, let’s go,” Natsumi turned and strolled out of the throne room, waving jauntily over her shoulder as Haruka followed along behind.

“Citizens of Equestria!” Celestia announced from the stage whereupon she, Luna, Twilight, Natsumi, and Haruka stood. “Today I bring both grave news and a solution! As you know, there have been numerous attacks upon our beloved country as of late. As current information dictates, this is the work of a terrorist organization. However! Thanks to the efforts of the two beings behind me, and my sister’s and student’s work, we have provided now a solution to this plight!”

Luna looked a Twilight, then winked at Natsumi and Haruka, whispering just loud enough to be heard, “Play along.” With that, Luna’s horn flared blue and a banner flared into existence above and behind the stage, bearing the sun and moon of the Royal Guard, along with an emblazoned fist crossed over a hoof.

Luna strode forward and took the microphone from Celestia, “Citizens! We are proud to announce to you the Royal Guard’s new Rider Corps! These brave and loyal guards are the best of the best, and will protect Equestria from any threat that attempts to harm our beloved nation!”

As Luna spoke, several guards clad in blue armor, almost like motorcycle gear, landed on the stage and struck simple combat stances. Their armor gleamed in the sun and brought to attention the strange, almost exhaust-pipe shaped belts at their waists.

“Natsu are those…?” Haruka murmured, nudging Natsumi with an elbow and surreptitiously pointing at the belts.

Natsumi nodded, “Yeah, those are MP Mach Drivers.”

Luna finished up her speech while Natsumi and Haruka quietly discussed the implications of the presence of the MP Mach Drivers with a flourishing wave, “- and now, a word from the two most gracious ones who have agreed to be the personal trainers of the new Rider Corps!”

“Wait what?” Haruka blinked in surprise, as did Natsumi.

Celestia winked surreptitiously from the side and mouthed out ‘play along’.

“Oh that-” Natsumi whispered as she stepped forward to the microphone and flashed her most winning, powerful smile. “Greetings Canterlot! I am Natsumi Miwa, a human, and I am proud to have been selected as one of the elite trainers for the newly instated Rider Corps!”

Haruka sighed to herself, then stepped up as well, “I am Natsumi’s sister, Haruka Miwa! I swear to you all that my sister and I will do our utmost best to keep the Rider Corps as the very best of Equestria’s defenders!”

Both sisters waved and smiled out over the crowd as even the stuffy upper class citizens broke composure and cheered, with the loudest cheers of all being from the refugees even now still pouring into the square.

“You really think we can do this?” Haruka quietly whispered into Natsumi’s ear.

“No way in fucking hell,” Natsumi responded.

“Thought so.”

“Alright, recruits! You know exactly why you’re here!” Natsumi paced back and forth among a line of stoic faced ponies of various race, color, height, build, gender, and even economic status. “You’re here not because you’re the best of the best, but because you are uniquely compatible with the Rider systems! This means that you have a very pressing responsibility to be the best goddamn Kamen Rider you can hope to be so you can keep your country safe and sound. Do you all understand!?”

“Ma’am yes ma’am!”

“Good! Now seeing as I’ve never had to do this before, the first thing to do is to pick up your respective belt systems and practice transforming! Remember, it’s not about efficiency, it’s about style, and intimidation! The Rider is not just a soldier or a guard, the Rider is a hero, and heroes must be visible!” Natsumi pulled out the Kabuto Zecter from her bag and held it out into the air. “Observe! Henshin!”

As she tossed the Zecter into the air, it flared to life with a mechanical buzz and flew in a loose orbit around Natsumi before settling down at her waist and locking in place. This prompted a wave of hexagons to build and form along her body, thus leaving her clad in the familiar bulky silver armor of Kamen Rider Kabuto’s Masked form.

Natsumi struck a suitable pose, one finger extended and arm raised, pointing at the sky, “While it may seem counterintuitive to combat, the hero’s prerogative is first and foremost to inspire the populace when all seems lost! Now…”

Haruka wheeled a crate into the expansive training room, popping it open and revealing the shrink wrapped, plastic sealed belts within.

“Recruits! All of you have your names on the packages! Please grab only yours and suit up! The instructions have been provided along with the belts and the activation keys!” Haruka announced, already suited up in her Gatack armor.

The assembled ponies lined up and individually retrieved their belts, standing at attention without even a hint of undisciplined action.

Personally, Natsumi found it a tad eerie with how focused the recruits were, even the civilians. Still, she didn’t let that deter her as she picked up her own demonstration belt and placed the Kabuto Zecter back into her bag, letting her armor dissipate in a flash of crumbling metal.

“Alright everyone! I’m sure you all know how to read the instructions, but I’m going to give you a practical demonstration anyway! Observe!” Natsumi held up the simple, key shaped Signal Bike as she attached the belt to her waist. “Let’s…. Henshin!”

SIGNAL BIKE!

RIDER! MACH!

As Natsumi struck a simple pose, bright wheels and lines of magic formed around her and collapsed inwards, forming the standard motorcycle-padding themed armor of the production line Mach Driver. She scratched at her faceplate briefly, then lifted the visor to reveal her face. “Remember everyone, you may think of yourselves as soldiers, but that’s not the point. The point is, we’re making heroes, and heroes need to inspire the people. That’s why the transformation is so flashy, if you were wondering. Now, form up into rows and begin practicing! It’ll be straining at first, so make sure to take breaks wherever you can!”

“Ma’am yes ma’am!”

“We’re not gonna make it,” Natsumi muttered as she flopped down into her bunk that night, sore and exhausted from repeatedly using the MP Mach Driver she had been given. “They’re good, but none of them are combat ready yet.”

Haruka snickered from above Natsumi, where she was already lying in the top bunk. “Have faith in them, Natsumikan,” she said, idly waving her hands for emphasis even though she knew Natsumi couldn’t see. “We weren’t combat ready at first and we did fine!”

“We were mind controlled by Discord and our bodies were piloted by what was essentially combat programs, idiot,” Natsumi shot back, face buried in her pillow and muffling her words. “The only reason why we can do anything now is because we still remember what our bodies were doing.”

“.... Touché…”

Natsumi sighed, “Come on, let’s get some sleep. We’re gonna need it for tomorrow.”

“Night, Natsu.”

“Night, Haru.”

Approximately three weeks later...

Manehattan mornings were always brilliant in the urban areas. High rises catching the sunlight as it shone from the east and reflecting it across the skyline so that the entire city glowed a soft pink, the peaceful tranquility as the city that almost never slept just awoke from its slumber, even the cool, green onion scent that the dew covered windows and decoratively placed trees emitted.

Of course, as always, early morning is perhaps the worst time of the day in any city in Equestria.

Explosions broke the early morning quiet and turned what, for most ponies, was a normal morning into a disaster scene as strange, green, insectoid creatures crawled from the ground in Thymes Square amidst a legion of even stranger, stained glass seeming creatures. The green monsters had large hunchbacks, were bipedal, and more or less acted like zombies as they clawed down everything that came too close. The stained glass creatures seemed to have no definitive theme beyond being bipedal and looking like a moving church window. They swarmed about with great speed, tackling ponies and stabbing them with bat wing shaped fangs of energy, draining the unfortunate citizens until they themselves shattered into piles of clear glass.

At some point, a fire had started in somepony’s haste to run, and the blaze spiraled out of control as Thymes Square lit up in an appropriate hellish landscape to match the appearance of the monsters.

Rubble littered the streets as the creatures poured from the ground in endless numbers, corpses and piles of glass along with the rubble and small rivers of blood flowing across the cracked and burning pavement.

Amidst the panicking crowd fleeing from the horde, two figures stood strong.

Then two more.

And more.

And more.

Until there was a line of fourteen ponies from all walks of life standing unbroken across the largest entrance to Thymes Square, resolute in expression and posture, strange belts gleaming in the sun. As one, they shouted above the roar of the flames:

“LET’S! HENSHIN!”

And magic flared with such intensity that even the flames burning the city were snuffed out from the sheer force.

Across the nation, all the way in the still dark town of Fillydelphia, a similar scene took place during the early morning hours- monsters pouring from the ground in droves, the city set ablaze, and an exact number of fourteen, white armored ponies appearing to do battle.

The same happened in Nebrayska City.

Detrot.

Dodge Junction.

Appleloosa.

San Franciscolt.

Sacramentoat.

Hayston.

All across Equestria, cities and towns came under attack, only to face resistance in the form of 14-pony squads, with Royal Guards taking up the slack everywhere else. And though Equestria was under attack, the populace felt hope.

Hope for a better tomorrow.

Hope that the monsters would fall under the forces of the heroes.

Hope that they too could help strike down the menace ravaging their land.

Baltimare burned.

Natsumi and Haruka had arrived far too late to stop the initial rush of Worms and Fangire, but had already donned their armor- Kabuto and Gatack- to begin the extermination of the monsters plaguing the citizens of Equestria.

All was well in the long run, they thought, until both red and blue Zecters faded to gray and flew back into the bags which held them, dropping both sisters from Clock Up to zero in the span of half a second and leaving both with a nasty case of road rash.

Natsumi groaned and rolled onto her side, face bloodied and twisted into an expression of sheer confusion.

“What… the fuck was that?” Haruka asked as she pushed herself to a kneeling position, rummaging through her bag until she found her Gatack Zecter. “It’s… all greyed out…?”

Natsumi blinked and held up her Kabuto Zecter, staring at it intently, “I think… somehow… they ran out of charge? I mean we’ve been using them a whole lot….”

“Well, at least we ha- DODGE!” Haruka suddenly rolled to the side, dodging an energy blast and leaping to her feet with the Drake Zecter and gun in her hands already.

Natsumi slid to a halt behind Haruka and held up the TheBee Zecter, dodging a few energy blasts coming her way and stopping to a suitably impressive exploding backdrop. “Ready? Henshin! Cast off!”

“Henshin! Cast off!”

CHANGE: WASP

CHANGE: DRAGONFLY

“Now that’s more like it!” Haruka whooped as she sped around the burning wreckage of Baltimare, bullets hitting the marauding Fangire and Worms with complete accuracy and leaving nothing behind but piles of ash and shattered glass.

Natsumi nodded as she spun in place, delivering a devastating roundhouse kick to the creatures around her and setting off a chain of dramatic explosions as they died. “Oh yeah, I could get used to this!” Natsumi chuckled and sped off as well, racing past wreckage and ruined buildings as she sliced apart hapless Fangire and rescued civilians still caught up in the destruction.

“Thirty four!” Haruka called out from the top of a still standing skyscraper, gun flashing with energy as she let off multiple Rider Shootings in quick succession, the blue, beach ball sized orbs of light striking with precise accuracy and mowing down all that stood in their paths.

“Forty!” Natsumi called back, punctuating her words with a vicious stab into a Fangire’s chest, then kicked the creature off and struck a pose as all around her, the energy upon her wrist stinger’s tip activated and caused all twenty of her most recent kills to explode with an intensity such that Michael Bay would have wept tears of joy.

Haruka stared, blue visor not showing even a trace of emotion as she facepalmed. “Okay… how did you manage to get more kills than someone with impeccable aim and rapid fire!?” Haruka protested, not even looking as she idly shot and killed another three Worms approaching from behind. “That makes no sense at all!”

“Because I’m just tha-” Natsumi froze in place as her armor shattered into golden fragments, leaving her in her civilian outfit as her grayed out, wasp shaped TheBee Zecter flew back into her bag. “.... Oh for fuck’s sake.”

“Haha! Ran out of juice didja!?” Haruka laughed, then groaned as the same thing happened to her, the gray dragonfly that was the Drake Zecter disappearing into her bag as well. “Oh COME ON!”

“Well… at least we have a few more?” Natsumi shrugged, kicking away at the Worms around her for more room as she activated her Kickhopper Zecter. “Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

CHANGE: KICK HOPPER

CHANGE: PUNCH HOPPER

Twin shockwaves blasted away the Worms and Fangire as green and brown covered the twins, grasshopper themed armor gleaming in the flames as Natsumi and Haruka sped off again. Kicks and punches rained down across the city while ponies caught in the rubble suddenly found themselves on the outskirts and very confused.

“Rider Kick!”

“Rider Punch!”

The twin cries rang out over and over, explosions marking their path as they fought and bounced their way to the center of Baltimare in an effort to stem the seemingly never ending tide of monsters heading their way.

Unfortunately, being only human meant that, even in the relatively short span of time that the sisters had been fighting- that being about half an hour total despite how many kills they had made- they were still human. And this meant that Haruka slipped up against a Worm that matched her speed and took a devastating punch to the face, sending her spiraling into the air only to slam into Natsumi.

“Gyah!” Natsumi cried out, cushioning Haruka as best as she could even as they both fell into a tangle of limbs and shattering armor. “Oh no… outta juice again!”

“Shit… ow…. You okay, sis?” Haruka asked, wincing as she stood and prodded the forming bruise on her cheek. “We- we still got our initial forms, and the Delta Driver… we can still hold off the Fangire…”

“Asking me if I’m okay when you took the punch to the face…” Natsumi snorted, gently pulling Kivala from her bag and nudging the small bat awake, “We’re still fucked against the Worm. Oi, Kivala, wake up. It’s time to kick ass.”

“Then we pray that backup comes, or the Zecters charge fast.” Haruka sighed, sliding the Ace card into her Rouzer and pulling the switch.

“Maa maa, so little faith in how awesome I am?” Kivala teased as she fluttered around Natsumi and began the transformation sequence.

“Nah, just not a lot of faith in general. Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

OPEN UP!

“Ka~Puu!”

Twin flashes of light blared out once more, Natsumi’s white and violet armor sealing around her in an effect much like a stained glass window shattering in reverse, while a crimson rectangle of energy soared from Haruka’s belt buckle and bashed several Fangire into more stained glass as the girl herself rushed through and clothed herself in her black and red armor. The stylized As glowing in the sun along with Natsumi’s blade as energy arrows and violet arcs of light carved swathes through the approaching Fangire and slower Worms, until a motion blurred behind both sisters and knocked them to the ground, shattering their armor once again and sending Kivala into convulsions from the rapid impacts.

“Dammit!” Natsumi groaned, looking around for the source of the motion as Haruka slowly pulled herself to her hands and knees. “What was that!?”

Haruka’s eyes darted around the battlefield, taking in the still massive hordes of enemies, the burning wreckage, and the portal swirling from a hole in the ground nearby. “I don’t know… but I saw a flash of white… and it was definitely a Worm…”

“Spiky with a claw?” Natsumi asked fearfully, standing back to back with Haruka as she gently cradled Kivala in her arms.

“Golden tips with a female-ish lower mouth too…” Haruka murmured, Delta driver and belt already poised for a transformation, the handle held steady and ready to be plugged into the side holster at any moment.

Natsumi sighed, tears welling up as she gave Kivala’s unconscious form a gentle squeeze. “W-we can’t do anything against the Uca Worm… she’s an executive Worm and… well… we’re only human right now.”

“Not like Tendou fucking Souji or Kadoya fucking Tsukasa…” Haruka muttered bitterly. “I guess… this is the end. We failed.”

“We tried, at least,” Natsumi hugged Haruka close and sobbed, both girls collapsing to the ground without a single ounce of fight left in them as the Uca Worm strode slowly towards them.

“I had thought you two would be more of a challenge, considering you took out most of my forces alone, with borrowed powers that are barely compatible with you. You had even managed to destroy several of my higher end subordinates,” the Worm spoke, voice feminine though distorted with an alien warble. “But no, you- AGH!”

“A-agh…?” Haruka questioned, looking up at where the Worm once stood, only to be faced with…

“Discord? Where the hell have you been?” Natsumi asked, sighing quietly in relief at the sight of the remaining enemies turning to dust, while the Uca Worm lay on her side a few meters away, smoking and groaning in pain.

Discord merely smirked, serpentine body waving through the air as he floated over to Natsumi and deposited a silver briefcase in her arms, “Just finding some old garbage I thought I’d thrown away. Turns out it aged pretty well, even if it’s a little slow and out of date- oh by the way, you would not believe how many scorpions there were in that little buried treasure trove I had! One of them even had a sword!” With a flourish, Discord tossed a long, black katana with a purple handle into the ground, upon which rested a hissing metallic scorpion of the same coloration. “See! What kind of scorpions have swords!? I mean, other than mine of course, but that’s different. By the way, one of you might want to start wearing a fedora… and the other is gonna have to brace themselves because whoo-wee is Mother Nature angry about all this-” he gestured around with his paws and claws “- happening on her turf. So, which one of you is gonna play host to all the knowledge found on the planet?”

“Wha…?” Haruka blinked, having lost attention when she saw the Sasword Zecter and Yaiver impact the ground in front of her. “Wait- what?”

“Excellent!” Discord crowed as he dropped a fedora on Haruka’s head and then whipped around and punched Natsumi right in the face with a glowing fist marked with a green G, prompting a loud, masculine call of “GAIA” to echo out of nowhere.

“What the fu-!?” Haruka screamed, then cut herself off as a red and silver belt appeared on her waist, left slot already filled with a black, translucent stick as Natsumi disappeared and formed into a green, translucent stick in her belt’s right slot. “... Oh you’re shitting me.”

“No if I were, you’d be smelling a lot worse now. Tata~ I have other deliveries to make!” With that, Discord disappeared in a poof of dust with the words ‘Deus Ex Machina’ floating in the center.

“Okay….? Double will have to do, I guess?” Haruka murmured, setting the briefcase down and popping the Double Driver open into its iconic W shape. “Just until I can get Natsumi back for Sasword… Henshin!”

“CYCLONE!”

“JOKER!”

Across the city, a wind blew.

It was a swift wind, a gentle wind at first. Slowly turning anemometers and filling windsocks until it began howling with power, with righteous justice and with the burning fury of a warrior who has seen injustice. Accompanied with this wind came a quick flurry of electronic notes followed by an orchestral finish, announcing to Baltimare the presence of a new player upon the field.

Where Haruka stood was now a warrior of wind and skill, green on the right, black on the left, with a silvery muffler hanging from behind the right shoulder. Crimson lenses gazed upon the Uca Worm’s still recovering form as one hand pointed directly at the white, spiky creature.

Twin voices, nearly identical, rang out at once, speaking a phrase that struck terror into the hearts of evil.

“Saa… Omae no tsumi wo… kazoero!”

Lashing out at the Uca Worm with a fierce kick, the form of Kamen Rider Double cut an imposing figure, enhanced further by the roaring shockwave that tore from the impact point and sent the Uca Worm flying into the sky along a cyclone of green energy and wind.

“You may be faster than us… but you’re wounded! And now… we’re stronger than you! Together, as one! Two in one hearts! Kamen Rider…. Double!” Haruka and Natsumi called as one, racing along the rubble and leaping, assisted by more wind, into the air, far past the Uca Worm’s trajectory.

“How is this possible!?” it cried, flailing in mid air as it desperately tried to find a way out of its current predicament. “You shouldn’t be this strong! Not from just that!”

“You’ll never understand the strength that comes from hearts aligned with justice!”

“LUNA!”

“JOKER!”

Lashing out with their now golden right arm, Double wrapped the length of their limb around the Uca Worm’s torso, stretching and extending as they spun in mid air and flung the Uca Worm into the ground with earth shattering force. As the ground cratered, two more Gaia Memories were slotted into the belt, one of fire, one of steel.

“HEAT!”

“METAL!”

“Take this!” shouted the twins, voices crying out over the city as they descended, the red and silver form of their combined body bearing a large staff with flames roaring on both ends. As they impacted, they swung forward, transferring their momentum and force into the back of the Uca Worm with devastating force and a massive explosion.

When the dust cleared, there was no sign of Double nor the Uca Worm, only the unconscious forms of Natsumi and Haruka, arm in arm, lying at the bottom of the crater. Both were scorched and bruised, but ultimately victorious. The sky cleared, smoke drifting away in the calming wind of justice that the twins brought. And though there was much destruction, there was even more hope.

Author's Notes:

I'm really sorry this took so long to post up, so I decided to go about four times my normal chapter length as an apology. That said, things are really heating up here... and they're only gonna get hotter.

Stay tuned for the next episode of Ka~Puu/CHANGE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dmY48fFi48