//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Hyper Dimension Tuning // Story: CPU of Equis Re;Birth // by Maziodyne //------------------------------// Back at Twilight's Castle... "I see," Twilight said, after being introduced to Alice and hearing about her situation. "Well, I'm not sure yet, but I might be able to make some sense of your situations once I've finished analyzing all the data I have. It's getting late, so you should all get some sleep. You can come back in the morning, and I should have come to a conclusion by then." "Sounds like a plan to me," IF said. After the six had stepped outside, Alice spoke up. "Actually, where are we going to sleep?" she asked. "Except for you two," she said, addressing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, "none of us live here. We don't have anywhere to sleep." "I have space at my house that you could use," Fluttershy offered. "A sleepover?" Neptune asked. "Ooh, I love sleepovers!" "I wanna sleep at Miss Shy's..." Rom added. "Well, I guess it's decided then," IF said, shaking her head slightly with a hint of a grin. Rainbow Dash then left for her own house, the other five heading for Fluttershy's. The following morning, in Twilight's Castle after meeting up with Rainbow Dash out front... "Hey Twi, you got anything for us yet?" Rainbow Dash called out as they entered the testing room. Twilight was inside with her back turned. She seemed to still be looking through the data. "Nothing absolute yet," she answered without turning around. "But the data is showing that Rom is undoubtedly giving off two completely different dimensional signatures." "Way over my head, Twi," Rainbow Dash said. Twilight sighed before continuing, still without turning around. "I'm saying that Maiko is a real, independent person," she explained. "I still haven't figured out how or why she's in Rom's head though. I'm going to need more time." She was silent for a few moments before she continued. "As for Alice, this Makai place she claims to be from isn't something I've heard of before, and it isn't in any of my texts. She might also be from a different dimension. But if you haven't heard of Makai, then she's not from yours." A few moments after she finished speaking, Twilight suddenly came to a dead stop. "Maybe..." she whispered before looking over her shoulder at the group. "I'll need some time to do something," she said to them. "Go find something to do, I'll contact you when I'm ready." She then turned back to the data in front of her. "Uh, Twi's in one of those moods right now," Rainbow Dash said. "So we should wait outside or something." "Alright, if you say so..." IF responded slowly. Once outside, the group saw a small crowd gathered nearby on the street, and they could hear drumming from the same direction. Curious, the group went over to investigate, but as they approached, the drumming stopped, and the crowd clapped vigorously. "Thank you for listening!" a young woman's voice shouted to the crowd over their clapping. "Maybe I'll perform here again sometime. If I do, I'll be looking forward to seeing every one of you here listening to me!" The crowd cheered at this, then, after several moments, slowly broke up as people left. Once everyone had left, the drummer was the only one remaining. The drummer was a woman with shoulder-length red hair, and red eyes. She was wearing an open, white shirt over a red plaid shirt, as well as a white skirt with a leather belt. She also had a pink tie on, and strange boots that had tiny drum mallets fixed to the heels. There was a ring floating around her, and attached to it were eight flat, red, hexagonal objects with swirl designs. She was sitting on a large bass drum that had a floral design on its skin. The group realized that the bass drum was floating just off the ground when the woman caught sight of them and the drum floated towards them. The woman stopped in front of them and inspected them all. "Hmmm..." she said to herself after she'd finished looking them over. "They match the descriptions I was given..." "Excuse me," IF interrupted. "But who are you, and why do you have descriptions of us? Who gave them to you? And why would they give them to you?" "Ah, sorry," the woman said. "My name is Raiko Horikawa. I have your descriptions so that I would know who to look for. Your next question is unfortunately classified information, but as for why I wanted them..." A grin formed on her face as she paused, flipping her drumsticks into the air and catching one in each hand. "It's because I'm interested in fighting you," she finished. "I want to gauge your strength." "Do you even know who we are?" Rainbow Dash asked incredulously. "Not your names," Raiko answered. "But I do know that you're the people I want to gauge the strength of right now." "Let's just get this over with..." IF said, her face in her hand. "Woohoo!" Neptune said, pumping a fist in the air. "Finally, my first battle! Last time, I just pwned Underling, and the battle screen didn't even show up." "Neptune, just shut up and fight," IF said, irritated. "Ugh, fine..." Neptune said. Rom and Neptune materialized their weapons as IF flicked her Katars out of her sleeves and Rainbow Dash drew her dagger from within her coat. Alice simply held her Grimoire at the ready as the five faced Raiko who was still sitting on her bass drum sideways in a casual fashion. Rom HP: 14600/14600 | SP: 8096/8960 -------------------- Rainbow Dash HP: 8990/8990 | SP: 6350/6350 -------------------- Raiko ------------------------- IF HP: 19410/19410 | SP: 3440/4520 -------------------- Neptune HP: 27420/27420 | SP: 5340/5700 -------------------- Alice HP: 13250/13250 | SP: 8130/8130 -------------------- Rainbow Dash attacks Raiko! Rainbow Dash made the first move as always, lunging in for a slash. Raiko didn't seem to be very agile, though the attack didn't seem to faze her much either. 103 damage! IF attacks Raiko! IF then followed, making a lunging slash with her Katars. Raiko, again, was slow in her attempt to dodge, though the attack didn't seem to faze her too much, just like Rainbow Dash's attack. 187 damage! Rom used Ice Coffin on Raiko! Rom spun her staff in front of her, grabbing it in both hands to slam the butt end to the ground as she called her Ice Coffin Skill. The ice spire caught Raiko within it before shattering. 277 damage! 274 damage! Alice used Quaking Orange on Raiko! Raiko is weak to the Earth element! Alice then opened her Grimoire and read out a spell from it before declaring "Quaking Orange!". At Alice's declaration, stone spires erupted from the ground underneath Raiko, and she recoiled as they hit her. 599 damage! Neptune used Critical Edge on Raiko! Neptune pointed her sword at Raiko and shouted "Critical Edge!" before dashing at her and slashing her. 386 damage! Neptune then knocked Raiko into the air and slashed her again in midair. 383 damage! 390 damage! Raiko used Crashing Thunder on Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash is weak to the Lightning element! Raiko then used one of her drumsticks to hit one of the hexagons around her. It sounded off like a drum, but also released several sparks of electricity upon being struck. After a moment, a bolt of lightning came down and struck Rainbow Dash, the force of it knocking her to the ground. 3672 damage! Rainbow Dash looked like she had taken the attack poorly, but got back up on her own and into a battle stance anyway. Rom HP: 14600/14600 | SP: 7664/8960 -------------------- Rainbow Dash HP: 5318/8990 | SP: 6350/6350 -------------------- Raiko ------------------------- IF HP: 19410/19410 | SP: 3533/4520 -------------------- Neptune HP: 27420/27420 | SP: 4980/5700 -------------------- Alice HP: 13250/13250 | SP: 7830/8130 -------------------- Rainbow Dash used Cool Combo on Raiko! Rainbow Dash lunged for Raiko again, but this time she attacked Raiko with a swift, six-hit combo. 164 damage! 166 damage! 161 damage! 158 damage! 162 damage! 160 damage! IF attacks Raiko! IF simply performed the same attack as last time, a lunging slash with her Katars. 185 damage! Rom used Ice Coffin on Raiko! Rom once again performed her Ice Coffin Skill, having more or less the same outcome as previously. 276 damage! 279 damage! Alice used Quaking Orange on Raiko! Raiko is weak to the Earth element! Alice once again opened her Grimoire and read out the spell for her Quaking Orange Skill. This time, however, the stone spires erupted under Raiko three times in a row, landing three successive hits. Critical Hit! 603 damage! 601 damage! 597 damage! Neptune attacks Raiko! Neptune then ran at Raiko before slashing with her sword. Raiko continued to be slow on her dodging. 254 damage! Oddly, Raiko wasn't showing many signs of fatigue yet. The group began to wonder if she was just toying with them. Raiko used Crashing Thunder on Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash is weak to the Lightning element! Raiko once again struck one of her strange drums to cause a splash of sparks. However, Rainbow Dash knew what was coming, and timed her dodge perfectly, sidestepping as the lightning bolt struck next to her. The attack was avoided! Rom HP: 14600/14600 | SP: 7232/8960 -------------------- Rainbow Dash HP: 5318/8990 | SP: 6000/6350 -------------------- Raiko ------------------------- IF HP: 19410/19410 | SP: 3625/4520 -------------------- Neptune HP: 27420/27420 | SP: 5107/5700 -------------------- Alice HP: 13250/13250 | SP: 7530/8130 -------------------- Rainbow Dash attacks Raiko! Rainbow Dash then retaliates, immediately following up on her prior dodge with a lunging slash. 105 damage! IF attacks Raiko! IF then follows up with a jumping slash of her own, attacking as Rainbow Dash backs away from Raiko. 188 damage! Rom used Ice Coffin on Raiko! As IF jumped backwards, away from Raiko, Rom made her own follow-up attack, hitting Raiko with her Ice Coffin Skill. 277 damage! 280 damage! Alice used Quaking Orange on Raiko! Raiko is weak to the Earth element! Alice also began reading her Quaking Orange spell from her Grimoire as Rom performed Ice Coffin. Just as the ice spire shattered, the stone spires erupted from the ground to hit Raiko. 605 damage! Neptune used Critical Edge on Raiko! While Raiko was still being knocked into the air by the stone spires, Neptune pointed her sword at her and declared her Critical Edge Skill. She then slashed Raiko in midair, knocked her further up into the air, then landed and jumped back up to slash Raiko in midair a second time. 382 damage! 390 damage! 386 damage! Raiko was defeated! Rom HP: 14600/14600 | SP: 6800/8960 -------------------- Rainbow Dash HP: 5318/8990 | SP: 6052/6350 -------------------- Raiko ------------------------- IF HP: 19410/19410 | SP: 3719/4520 -------------------- Neptune HP: 27420/27420 | SP: 4747/5700 -------------------- Alice HP: 13250/13250 | SP: 7230/8130 -------------------- Victory! Despite the beating Raiko had just endured, she seemed mostly unfazed by the battle. "Alright, looks like your freestyle is pretty strong..." she commented to herself. "Are you just toying with us or something?" Alice asked. Raiko looked at her. "No, I'm just gauging your strength, like I said I was," Raiko answered. "Anyway, I think that's good enough for now. Next time, I'll probably test to see how well you can keep up with the beat. Be seeing you!" With that and a quick wave, Raiko then took to the sky on her bass drum and left. "Jeez, that was one strange character," Neptune commented. "You're one to talk..." IF muttered. At that moment, Twilight then came out of her castle. "Ah, you're all right here, good," she said. Twilight? Maiko started. Have you managed to figure out what happened with me? "No, not yet," Twilight responded. "That will take more time. I came to tell you that I'm working off an unrelated theory right now. I'm in the process of building a device that can detect the dimensional signals that Rom, IF and Neptune give off. And the basic prototype I've built has already confirmed my hunch." IF raised an eyebrow at this. "What do you mean?" she questioned. "Well..." Twilight started. "The prototype can only scan within Ponyville and the immediately surrounding area. On top of that, it can't pinpoint where a signal is coming from. It can only tell me when it picks up a signal, and how many unique signals it picked up. On the trial run... it detected four signals." "So...?" Rainbow Dash asked slowly. "There are four people right here that claim to be from different worlds." "True, but Alice isn't from the same dimension as the others," Twilight explained. "And the device is tuned to exclusively pick up signals from Rom's dimension." "So Alice wouldn't register on the device," IF finished as she came to a realization. "Meaning that someone else we know is in the area." "Exactly," Twilight said. "And it's very possible that there are even more further out, but I can't confirm that until I finish the final build of the device. While I work on that, you should go and look for the source of the signal and meet up with them." "Of course," IF said. "We would have done that anyway." Then let's get going, Maiko added. "I wonder who it is..." Rom wondered as the group left to search the town. End of Chapter 5