Author's notes: this takes place before Legacy Day and will be AU in some small areas that will become apparent later.

...

Classes had ended for the day. Briar was to engage in an usual past time of hers. Occasionally, she met up at the coffee shop in town for a verbal sparring session of sorts with a supremely unpleasant person. Apple decided that she would go Briar this time.

The two princesses arrived outside the coffee shop where the person Briar was going to meet was waiting for them. He was a slim white guy with messy brown hair wearing a baggy, dark green shirt and khakis. His name was Evan Chanter, son of the enchantress from Beauty and the Beast. He was a first year student and in a few short weeks, he had already established a reputation as the biggest asshole in all of Ever After High.

"Briar," Evan greeted with clearly faked cheerfulness. He'd been hexted in advance about Apple joining them so he wasn't surprised to see her there.

"Evan," Briar said with contained disdain. With that out of the way, the three fairy-teens went into the coffee shop. Apple and Briar placed their orders but when it was Evan's turn, he said he'd have the usual and then teleported a syringe into his hand.

"What's that for?" Apple asked worriedly.

"I like my lattes with a shot of virgin's blood," Evan explained. "Patricia here is okay with it: right Patricia?"

"I am," the woman at the counter said. "But I had a bad bicycle accident the other day, so I might not be a virgin anymore."

"Have you engaged in penal/vaginal intercourse with a man?" Evan asked and Patricia shook her head no. "Then you're still a virgin."

Patricia rolled up her sleeve and Evan inserted the needle, drawing out some of her blood.

"He tips generously for this if you were wondering," Briar said to Apple.

"And Patricia," Evan began, "uses my tips to help put food on the table for her sister's little bastard."

"Now that was just uncalled for," Apple said disapprovingly.

"Actually," Patricia spoke up, "my sister did have her kid outside wedlock, so that statement is technically true."

Evan turned to both girls and gave them a very smug grin.

"That smirk makes your face look very punchable," Briar said. The three of them sat down at a table while they waited for their orders.

"So I see that you have a new accessory," Briar said to Evan.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Evan said flatly.

"I'm talking about that headband you're trying to hide under your hair," Briar said and then turned to Apple. "Evan has several magic-boosting items on him that he tries to hide under his clothes. A little game we have is where I try to find the item and guess it's effect." she then turned to Evan. "Since it's near your brain, it probably boosts some kind of psychic ability. I know it's not telekinesis because that's a very basic magic ability that no one would waste the time building a booster artifact for. I know it's not telepathy because you'd respond to what I'm thinking of right now," Briar said as she pictured being inside the girl's locker room after grimnastics, "and I know it's not hypnosis because you'd have used it to make me shut up by now. So I'm guessing that it protects your mind from people trying to read or control it because like all huge assholes, you want to be sure no one tries to get back at you."

"Very astute, Briar," Evan said as he moved his bangs aside and revealed that he was wearing a thin headband with a small, teal jewel next to his forehead. "And absolutely correct: apparently, you're not the empty-headed party-girl I keep telling people you are."

"Like anyone listens to you anyway," Briar shot back.

"You still haven't figured out what the penis ring is for yet," Evan said.

"ummmm," Apple muttered.

"I don't know for sure that he actually has a penis ring," Briar clarified. "I suspect he's hiding a magical artifact there because no one would want to check there: especially girls."

Ouch, Evan thought, more impressed than angry at Briar's zing. Although he was still pretty angry: he was thinking of telling Briar that when she started her one hundred year sleep, he was going to put her hand in a glass of cold water so that she pissed herself off and on for the entire time but that would spoil the surprise. Truth was, he didn't have a penis ring as a magical artifact: he let Briar thing that because it misdirected her from the toe ring he had that boosted his teleporting ability.

Patricia let them know that their lattes were ready and they went to grab them. Evan emptied stirred in the contents of his syringe and they sat back down. They sipped on their drinks for a while before Evan spoke up.

"So Apple," Evan said, "I hear your rooming with Raven Queen this year."

"That's right," Apple admitted.

"Hoping to make her embrace evil?" Evan asked and Apple nodded yes. "Good luck with that. She has a great deal of magical potential that she is squandering by refusing to accept her destiny: it's pathetic. Scratch that: she's pathetic."

I'm starting to see why Briar goes to these get-togethers, Apple thought. Any shot of bursting his bubble is a worthwhile endeavor.

In truth, Evan had more reason to be resentful of Raven aside from him being an asshole (although that was a big part of it). If one were to rate their inner reserves of magical energy on a scale from one to ten, Evan would be a five and Raven would be more of an eight.

"Can you imagine what I could do if I had her level of magical power to work with?" Evan continued.

"Knowing you," Briar began, "you'd use it to torment people for your own twisted and petty amusement: like you do now, only bigger."

"You know me so well," Evan said with a wide grin.

"Speaking of you being a sadistic psycho," Briar continued, "I know it was you who gave Duchess Swan dysentery."

"That's one way to look it: another is that I helped her loose three pounds," Evan admitted with yet another evil grin.

"You've been going after her a lot lately," Briar said. In addition to giving Duchess dysentery, Evan had also spelled her hair to move on it's own and spank her for five minutes, made her break out in hives, and put a spring-loaded mechanism in her locker that shot a pie into her face when she opened it and that was all just in the past ten days. "Any reason?"

"I want to get people to like me by going after someone who's also widely disliked," Evan said.

"So not buying it," Briar said. "For one thing, between you and Duchess, pretty much everyone would say that she's the lesser of two evils. Also, you like people thinking of you as an asshole who will do terrible things for little to no reason."

"It is my destiny," Evan said with a prideful smirk. Indeed, Evan was looking forward to his assigned role because it involved being a huge asshole. It also helped that unlike many evil-doers, his fate would involve dying or spending the rest of life in a dungeon.

"Anyway," Briar continued, "I figure that you have a reason for going after Duchess as much and I think it involves a girl. Duchess has made fun of or done something to this girl and you're targeting Duchess to try to win her over. This works very well for you because it involves being a huge asshole in an attempt to get laid."

"Damn you're good," Evan said with a hint of admiration (although he would deny that to his dying breath). "You are correct: I'm trying to win over a girl by getting revenge on her behalf. And if you're so smart, why don't you tell me who this girl is?"

"I haven't gotten that far yet," Briar said. There was silence for a while as she tried to deduce who the mystery girl might be.

"Well, we know it's someone Duchess has picked on," Apple said in an attempt to be helpful.

"It could be anybody," Briar said as she put her hand on her forehead. She removed her hand and had a determined expression on her face. "I am going to figure out who this girl you like is: I just need more time and more information."

"Of course you do," Evan said condescendingly. The three of them made idle chit-chat for a while as they finished their lattes

…

Apple returned to her dorm room and was about to enter when she heard Raven shouting.

"It worked!" Raven shouted. "I finally did something with my magic that worked!" Apple opened the door and entered. "Oh, hey Apple," Raven said sheepishly as she ceased her jubilation.

"Hey Raven," Apple said. "What worked?"

"A little experiment with my magic."

"Does this have anything to do with the belt?"

"What belt?"

"The belt you are currently wearing," Apple said as she looked at the object in question. It was a large, silver belt with vertical feather designs at a vertical angle. There was a large, circular buckle with a purple stone in the center that was slightly lower than the straps.

"This has to do the those bug guys you watch through the mirror, doesn't it?" Apple asked.

"They don't all look like bugs," Raven shot back. "Furthermore, I have no idea what you're talking about." Raven then realized what she had just said and put her hand on her forehead. "I have got to be a close second for worst liar in this school next to Cedar."

The 'bug guys' Apple was referring to were a breed of warriors known as Kamen Riders. One day, Raven had been using her magic mirror to look for interesting stories to watch. She came across the many Kamen Riders that were scattered across several worlds and been using her mirror to watch abridged versions of their exploits. Fortunately for Raven, the mirror provided subtitles to go along with her viewing which was good, because all the Riders were Japanese.

"I can explain," Raven continued. "As an experiment, I decided to see if I could give myself rider powers. I focused on how I wanted one of their armors to protect myself from anyone who might want to hurt me while I called upon the largest amount of my magic I've ever mustered before. And it worked: assuming the belt does what I intended it to do, I can put most of my magic into it to conjure a suit without dealing with the usual restrictions of how I can usually use my magic when being evil."

Apple stood in silence as she tried to take this all in while Raven grabbed a round bottle and drank its contents. The bottle contained a potion that replenished the magical energy of those who drank it. Raven had just used most of her magic and didn't want to wait for it to recharge on it's own for what she wanted to do next.

"You can transform like they can?" Apple asked.

"Don't know: Let's find out right now," Raven said with a grin that would have made Kitty proud. She put her right hand next to her left shoulder, her hand glowing as Raven called upon all the magic she had left.

"Henshin!" Raven yelled out the traditional battle cry that the Kamen Riders used before transforming as she put her magic into the belt buckle. A flash of black light covered Raven and quickly disappeared. "Wooooh! What a rush."

As Raven enjoyed the surge of power that overcame her, she turned towards her mirror and saw what her rider armor looked like. It was black with silver lines on her chest, arms and legs that had small feather designs on them. She had the traditional Kamen Rider 'bug eyes', except hers were glowing purple.

"Hexellent," Raven said in a hushed tone as she looked at herself as a Kamen Rider.

"Raven, why do you want to do this?" Apple asked.

"Because I have something in common with the Kamen Riders," Raven said. "I am familiar with the stories of many riders and there's one pattern that repeats even though it manifests in different ways. Whether the rider is experimented on by an evil organization that he rebels against, or he uses armor that was made by the bad guys, or uses the power of monsters contained within cards or coins, the source of their power is usually tied to that of the monsters each one fights. And yet, that doesn't keep them from being heroes. That ability to do great good with powers born of great evil is…. inspiring."

I don't like where this is going, Apple thought. All this talk about doing good and rebelling against organizations was making Apple think that Raven was getting very serious about not following her destiny.

"What are you planning to do with this new armor?" Apple asked nervously.

"I haven't thought that far ahead," Raven said. "I tried to give myself rider abilities mostly to see if I could. Now that I have, I don't know what I'll do next."

Good, Apple thought.

"So if these people are called Kamen Riders," Apple said, "what do they ride?"

"They ride these things called motorcycles," Raven began explaining, "that are like huge bicycles that run very fast and move without pedaling."

"So they're magic."

"No: I asked Cupid about this because she came from a world with motorcycles and according to her, they run on something called gasoline which is the liquefied remains of animals that have been dead for millions of years."

There was a pause as Apple processed this.

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Apple said.

"I know," Raven admitted. "Cupid admitted that she didn't really understand how they worked, so she probably got that part wrong. I'm not planning to use one of those anyway since I already have a horse."

"Oh," Apple said, feeling uneasy again. "You're talking about that demon horse thing, aren't you?"

"Her name is Demona," Raven said. They were talking about the animal companion Raven had received. Demona was from one of the infernal plains and Raven could summon her whenever she wanted to do. Raven had summoned her several times since getting here but hadn't yet been brave enough to attempt to ride Demona. "And with the enhanced strength and protection of this armor, I am confident that I can deal with her now."

"I hope you deal with her better than Professor Papa Bear," Apple said, remembering Demona trying to pick a fight with him after the first time she was summoned. Fortunatly, Raven found out that she could call on and send back Demona with her magic before anything too serious happened.

"I'm sure I can," Raven said. She then noticed that the stone on her belt was glowing. She brought her right hand next to it and in a flash of black light, a guitar appeared with Raven holding the neck and the rest leaning on the floor. She picked up the guitar to get a closer look at it and noticed that it had a purple strap and an axe-blade on the side of the body. She grabbed the guitar by the neck and gave it a few practice swings.

"And I thought calling a guitar an axe was just an expression," Apple said as she saw the new object. "What is that thing anyway?"

"I'm not really sure," Raven said. "My best guess is that as a side-effect of giving myself rider powers, I created a new weapon to go with the armor." She put the guitar's strap over her shoulder and plucked a few strings. She was very happy to hear that the guitar was able to produce its own electric sound without an amplifier. "This whole thing just got like…. %300 more awesome!" Raven shouted as she held the guitar over her head.

Apple was feeling better about this now. Judging from Raven's enthusiasm and her statements from earlier, she didn't really have a plan and was acting on simple fangirlism.

Besides, Apple thought, she hasn't been this hexicted about anything in like… ever. It's refreshing to see her so happy, even if I can't see it on her face.

"This has all been very… strange, Raven," Apple said, "but do you think change out of that suit now?"

"Okay," Raven said. She just stood there for a while as an awkward silence filled the room.

"Well."

"I will change out of this armor, just as soon as I figure out how."

Raven's first attempt to make the armor go away by thinking about it didn't work and she was starting to worry.

This is bad, Raven said as she began shaking and panting a bit.

"What am I gonna do if I have to go to the bathroom in this thing?" Raven asked in panic. Apple decided to get Raven's attention by somewhat lightly hitting her in the head with a book.

"Panicking never solved anything," Apple said. "Let's try being solution oriented.

"Did you just whack me with your Princessology book?" Raven asked.

"It wasn't that hard. Besides, you're wearing a helmet," Apple said in her defense. Raven decided to heed Apple's advice, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "See? Much better."

Raven didn't know what Apple meant until she looked down and saw that her armor and guitar/ax had been dispelled by another flash of black light (although Raven hadn't seen that because her eyes were closed).

Raven was still smiling as she processed everything. In addition to now being a rider herself (or very close to one), she had found a way to tap into most of her magic without being evil. Raven checked the time: it was almost six, which meant the castleteria would start serving dinner soon.

"I'm gonna grab a quick bite then go into the woods to practice my new abilities somewhere with more open space and less breakable objects," Raven said as she walked towards the door. "I should be back by light's out. Or not: I have no idea."

And with that, Raven closed the door behind her. Apple still wasn't quite sure what to make of this. All she knew for certain was that she hoped tomorrow would be less weird.

…..

Author's notes: Demona the demon horse is replacing Raven's pet dragon Nevermore from the books because I've had this idea since before I found out about Nevermore.

Lastly, Kamen means masked and Henshin mean transform or transformation. I promise, there won't be much more gratuitous Japanese beyond that.