.”RIDER CUTTING!”

“What!?”

Haruka stared wordlessly up at Kabuto, then down at the massive blue shears latched around the red Rider’s waist.

“N-Natsumi…?” she whispered, looking past the thrashing form of Kabuto as Kamen Rider Gatack lifted him and slammed the shears closed, detonating Kabuto’s form into an explosion and neatly depositing Kabuto’s Rider Belt around Gatack’s hands, with the Zecter seemingly content to hover around Gatack.

As Gatack then turned to regard Haruka, the transformation dropped, revealing the weary and battered form of Natsumi, a tired smile upon her face. “Hey sis…” she murmured, plucking the Gatack Zecter from her belt and handing both items to Haruka. “I think the little guy likes you better.”

Haruka wiped a tear from her eye and sniffled, “You mean you just want to be the red one, don’t you.”

“... Shut up and help me kick some more kaijin ass before the entire town gets burnt to a crisp,” Natsumi muttered.

Haruka reached for the Gatack Zecter before pausing and looking up at Natsumi, “... Wait, how the hell did you even transform anyway? Don’t Zecters actually have to choose the wielder?”

“...” Natsumi shrugged, “Hey, I’m pretty sure a hero’s Zecter would rather be attached to a hero than an artificially created Kaijin Rider.”

“Point. Alright, let’s go kick some ass!” Haruka stood and attached her belt.

”HENSHIN”

”HENSHIN”

Both sisters stood stock still as a web of hexagons raced over their form, leaving gleaming heavy armor over their bodies, Natsumi’s having red highlights with a blue visor, Haruka’s having a mostly blue torso with cannons on her shoulders and twin protrusions coming off of the chestplate to frame her head in a pair of opened stag beetle jaws.

“Ready?” Natsumi asked.

Haruka smirked beneath her visor, “Always.”

“Cast off!”

“Cast off!”

”CAST OFF: CHANGE BEETLE!”

”CAST OFF: CHANGE STAG BEETLE!”

Robotic whirs filled the air, matching the volume of the crackling flames and crumbling rubble, while the heavy armor exploded off of both Haruka and Natsumi and left behind sleek, shining armor. Natsumi’s was red, edged in white, and had a rhinoceros beetle’s horn flip up to separate her visor into a pair of large, oval shaped lenses. Haruka’s armor revealed a slightly bulkier set of blue armor armor edged in gold with large swords attached to its shoulders, while a pair of stag beetle jaws flipped up to frame her faceplate and give definition to her red lenses.

“Ikuze! Clock up!”

“Clock up!”

”CLOCK UP!”

”CLOCK UP!”

With a sharp crack of thunder and a loud, persistent whooshing noise, both sisters vanished in a haze of lightspeed travel, seeking out the monsters that had attacked the town.

TheBee cackled maniacally as he shattered the limbs of another screaming mare, tossing the crippled pony back into the flaming building he had dragged her and her family from. As the building burned, TheBee decided to speed up its collapse by slamming a Rider Sting into its supporting walls.

This was the scene Natsumi and Haruka came upon- flaming rubble crumbling into a heap upon a family of ponies; a mare, a stallion, and two foals. Screaming with fury, Haruka dashed into the flames without regard for her own safety, kicking away the falling rubble as it moved in extreme slow motion, and picking up the family in her arms as best as she could, then dashed off to get them to safety.

Behind Haruka, Natsumi engaged in a frantic duel with TheBee with the burning remains of Sugarcube Corner collapsing slowly in the background.

Natsumi ducked under a thrown punch, using the momentum of her dodge to sweep out TheBee’s legs. Unfortunately, as soon as her legs contacted his, TheBee jumped and flipped backwards, dodging the kick with little effort and retaliating with a bone shattering kick to Natsumi’s ribs.

“Gah!” Natsumi yelped, rolling back and cradling her injured chest.

“Pathetic….” TheBee muttered, stalking slowly up to Natsumi and staring contemptuously down at her. “I don’t even understand how you could have killed my partners.”

“Fuck off…” Natsumi hissed, trying to muster the energy to stand back up and fight even through the pain of her fractured ribs.

TheBee snorted, “Juvenile.”

“You can take that high and mighty attitude… and shove it!” Natsumi suddenly surged forward, her second wind letting her get the drop on TheBee and tackle him to the ground. As they tumbled, Natsumi managed to, completely on accident, slam the horn of her helmet into TheBee’s crotch, prompting a shriek of pain as the yellow Rider doubled over pathetically, giving Natsumi just enough time to slam a Rider Kick into his face and destroy him even with his retaliatory strike to her face.

“Suck it!” Natsumi cheered, then doubled over from the pain and collapsed to the ground, letting herself drop out of Clock Up mode and de-transform.

“Ugh…” she muttered, head spinning and ribs aching. “That sucked… oh gods…..” Silently, she stared up at the destruction around her, knowing that she had to get up, to move, to save someone, anyone.

“Just… a few…. seconds….” Natsumi murmured tiredly, eyelids drooping tiredly as sensations began fading away, her vision flickering black, hearing dropping, touch numbing away. Such was the state of her unconsciousness that she didn’t even hear or feel Haruka rush over to her and shake her frantically.

“Natsumelon! Wake up! Come on we gotta fight!”

“Natsu! Come on this isn’t funny!”

“Natsumi!”

“Natsumi….!”

“Na...mi!”

“Na…!”

“....!”

Haruka shook Natsumi’s shoulder frantically, terrified at her twin’s lack of response.

“Oh no no no no no, this can’t be happening shit!” she shrieked, finally deciding to just haul Natsumi over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes and drift off to place Natsumi down with the rest of the assorted townspeople she rescued.

“Come on Natsu, stay with me!” Haruka cried, shaking Natsumi repeatedly as soon as the both of them had cleared the edge of Ponyville’s border. “I can’t do this alone! Come on Natsu! Wake up! Please… wake up….”

No response from Natsumi.

“Dammit Natsumelon…” Haruka murmured, her armor slipping away as she held back tears. “... O-…. O-…. ONORE NATSUMIKAN!”

“.... How many times…. do I have to tell you…. not to call me that….?” Natsumi murmured weakly, eyes fluttering open as she groaned. “How long was I out…..?”

“Long enough, lazy bones,” Haruka spoke tearfully, a wide grin on her face despite the circumstances. “Now come on, you gonna help me save what’s left of the town or what?”

Natsumi hauled herself to a stand, wincing in pain as she felt her fractured ribs creak under the strain. “Y-yeah… I think I’m still good….”

“... Obviously not,” Haruka muttered, shaking her head and looking out over the kaijin infested Ponyville. “Good news, none of the kaijin in the town can clock up. Bad news…. the town is full of kaijin and ponies are dying all over the place.”

“Shit…” Natsumi hissed, gently raising her hand to catch the Kabuto Zecter once more. “Damn… this is gonna suck…. Ready sis?”

“Always.”

“Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

”HENSHIN”

”HENSHIN”

“Cast off!”

“Cast off!”

”CAST OFF: CHANGE BEETLE!”

”CAST OFF: CHANGE STAG BEETLE!”

Natsumi sighed in relief, the natural power of her Rider transformation healing her side faster and allowing her a freedom of movement that wasn’t normally possible with fractured ribs.

“Ah, much better… tcheh, still stings, though…” Natsumi rolled her shoulders and neck, stretching out the kinks and limbering up. “I think I’ll be okay though… as long as I don’t take too many hits…”

Haruka shook her head, “Just try not to die, doofus.”

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up.”

“Always. Clock up!”

“Clock up!”

”CLOCK UP!”

”CLOCK UP!”

Twin sisters sped off once more, this time sticking together as they blazed a path through the burning wreckage of Ponyville.

“Come on!” Natsumi shouted, leaping into the air and flipping around as Haruka came up underneath her.

“Has anyone ever told you that your plans suck?” Haruka muttered, grabbing Natsumi’s arm as Natsumi flipped over and bodily flung the two of them at a street full of Kaijin as a spinning, Clocked Up, wheel of death.

”RIDER KICK!”

”RIDER KICK!”

All that the marauding kaijin had time to see as their reign of terror ceased was a whirling disk of red, blue, black and piercing lighting. As the disk passed through the street, every kaijin it smashed through exploded into a burst of blue fire, harmless but for the noise and light each detonation produced.

”CLOCK OVER!”

”CLOCK OVER!”

Natsumi and Haruka screeched to a skidding halt, both sisters panting heavily as they de-transformed.

“Well… that’s about half the town cleared…” Natsumi sighed, feeling the aching in her ribs fully now. Healing though they may be, the effort she was exerting wasn’t doing her sides any favors.

“Yeah, well, and the rest of it’s still burning…” Haruka muttered, re-transforming and rushing off.

“O-oi! Wait for me dammit!” Natsumi cried, following suit.

Hours.

Four hours of constant fighting, rescuing, and running.

But it was worth it, in some small way.

Though the town was an uninhabitable wreckage of ash and debris, there were startlingly few casualties.

Relatively speaking, that is.

“Too many…” Haruka murmured, staring off into space with dead eyes, mindlessly taking up the shattered body of another pony- one of the flower sisters, Daisy- and handing it over to Natsumi, who wordlessly sped off to the rapidly growing mortuary to the west of town.

Still, the small joy she had in finding survivors mitigated the worst of the effects. Such was the small smile she had when she handed a living, mostly uninjured foal over to Natsumi, who sped off to the refugee camp off to the east.

“Any deaths are too many…” Natsumi muttered, graciously accepting the towel handed to her by Discord.

Haruka shook her head and took a seat on the rubble, “I think that’s everyone…”

“Yeah…” Natsumi sighed, dropping down and staring up at Discord, “Where were you this whole time anyway? We could have used your… help.”

Discord sighed, “I’m afraid that I can’t tell you that. Old Celly has my lips sealed.” He zipped his mouth shut to demonstrate his point.

“Great.” Haruka muttered, kicking a loose chunk of stone as she stared down at her dust covered, bloody hands, “... Being a Kamen Rider sucks sometimes…”

Natsumi nodded, the strain of travelling at lightspeed for so long finally catching up to her, rendering her too tired to speak.

Leaning back, both sisters stared at the curiously clear sky, the bare throes of afternoon finally seeping into the sky amidst the noonday sun.

“.... This isn’t right…” Haruka muttered, “Something like this doesn’t deserve a blue sky…”

Natsumi nodded tiredly, leaving both sisters and Discord to sit and stare at the sky, mulling over the strange turn their fates had taken.

Author's Notes:

Eugh. So the next chapter was actually written before this since I was feeling too lazy to actually write out this piece of shit.

Whatever.