//------------------------------//
// G: Girl from Griffonstone / Steel Resolve 
// Story: Kamen Rider Unicorn 
// by Michael_Ravencroft 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy drove down the road, trying to keep a low profile as she did. Every few seconds she would look in her rearview mirror to check on Sunset, and each time she would wince when she heard her friend grunt in pain. The pink haired girl so badly wanted to take her to a hospital, but Twilight’s warning for her not to take Sunset Shimmer to a hospital rang in her head. She couldn’t imagine Twilight purposefully denying Sunset help out of fear of her being caught as the Kamen Rider, it had to be something else. Sunset began to stir, coughing a little as Fluttershy came to a stop before a red light.

“Fluttershy?” Sunset groaned.

“It’s me Sunset,” said Fluttershy.

“Sorry for…for bailing on you like that.”

Fluttershy remembered, after talking with Sunset she had offered her friend a ride back to Rainbow Dash’s house, considering Sunset couldn’t ride her bike with her injured arms. During the drive, Sunset and Fluttershy spotted the Dopant attacking Rainbow Dash’s house. Sunset had quickly left the car and transformed to fight the Dopant, meanwhile Fluttershy remained close by, watching the battle until the very end, seeing Sunset land in Rainbow Dash’s backyard. Spotting her two friends running into the backyard, Fluttershy drove back there, and rest was history.

“I see…ugh, I feel like crap,” said Sunset.

“Sunset, I-I don’t know what do right now…I know I should take you to a hospital, but Twilight said not to! Sunny, you’re bleeding and…and…I’m just really scared for you right now,” said Fluttershy in a trembling voice.

The fiery haired girl felt her heart ache, Fluttershy really cared for everyone, and Sunset knew seeing her friend in this state was probably tearing her apart. “Shy, I know it doesn’t make much sense right now, but trust me, my body will heal quickly. I just need to rest up a bit, sorry, but can you just drive around for a little while?”

“W-Why? I could take you back to my house,” said Fluttershy.

“Thanks, but Twilight’s folks wanted me to stay over a couple of nights, and if I come back looking like I am, they’ll worry, and then I’ll be forced to go to the hospital! So for now, like I said, just drive around, I should be able to walk on my own after an hour or two.”

Fluttershy was still skeptical about this, every cell in her body was telling her to ignore this and drive straight to the ER. But there must’ve been a good reason that she didn’t want to go, either out of fear or something else, Fluttershy wasn’t sure, but it was something big that Sunset Shimmer didn’t feel like divulging at this time. “If you start to get any worse, I’m going to the ER, I don’t care what you or Twilight say.”

Sunset chuckled. “Whatever you say, ‘Mom’.”

“I’m not joking,” said Fluttershy in her stern voice.

Sunset knew she wasn’t kidding, but thankfully, she could feel that her body was healing itself as the aches and pains, and the throbbing in her head was lessening as the minutes passed by. “Alright, I understand Fluttershy.”



***_______________<U>_______________***



Rainbow Dash had bid Twilight farewell, still skeptical that Sunset was alright, but she had to believe that she was. Sunset Shimmer was tough, and an obvious fighter, so there was no way she could stay down. Rainbow helped her parents with packing some essentials, as their house was now technically a crime scene, and a bit structurally unsound after getting part of the second floor bashed in, her family was setup with temporary housing headed by PhoenEXE Corp. for victims of disaster. Apparently they were making a killing due to the recent earthquake and now Dopant attacks.

In either case, Rainbow Dash and her family were taken by police escort to the house that was designated for them. Thankfully it wasn’t too far from CHS, and was two stories tall, a “cookie cutter” home as some would call it. Rainbow was helping her parents get their luggage in, when she heard a familiar voice.

“Rainbow?”

The prismatic girl turned to her left and watched as Gilda walked under the streetlamp. “Gilda? What are you doing here?”

Gilda shrugged. “I roam around here from time to time, but what are you doing here?”

“Heh, our house got attacked by that monster thing I told you about, wrecked my room and messed up some of the house. So for now we’re shacking up in here until the cops say it’s okay for repairs to start,” said Rainbow.

“Damn…” Gilda walked to the SUV and pulled out a couple of bags. “Let me help out a little.”

Rainbow Dash smiled as she and Gilda helped to bring in the last of the luggage, all the while trading stories about what has happened, Rainbow had even told Gilda about the magic that had shown up in CHS. The two of them settled in the backyard and continued on where, of course, Gilda didn’t believe it at first, at least until Rainbow kindly took out her guitar and played a short tune, making her ears and wings appear. The tough girl just sat there on the lawn chair, mouth agape at seeing her friend with pony ears and feathered wings, and a hair extension that made it look like she had a pony tail.

“Jeez, I leave you for a few months and your school becomes crazy magic central,” said Gilda. “And you’re saying that Sunset Shimmer became a demon?!”

Rainbow put down the guitar, and in an instant, her pony up ended. “Yeah, but then she became some kind of angel thing, it was freakin’ awesome!”

“Heh, you got yourself some weird friends, Dash, really weird.”

Rainbow sat on the opposite lawn chair and reclined back. “Yeah, I do, and almost everyday is something crazy and exciting.”

Gilda glanced to Rainbow. “This whole thing count?”

Rainbow winced. “Eh…not exactly, I mean, those other times people could’ve gotten hurt, but we managed to stop it before it got too crazy, and it was happening at our school. Now though, this mess with monsters popping up at random is worse, especially when we don’t know if it’s something to do with magic or something else. I just…I just hate not being able to do anything!”

Gilda sighed. “Same old Dash, wanting to be a hero.” She then looked to her left hand and narrowed her gaze. “But…you can’t save everyone…”

Rainbow Dash turned to her side. “G, what happened to you? I mean…you kinda stormed away and I couldn’t find you after that. So…I was worried until you showed up out of nowhere. Did you go back to Griffonstone?”

“Tch, you say that as if I had someplace else to go,” said Gilda as she stood up. “I learned one rule in Griffonstone, anybody who grows up there knows this rule. ‘The one and only person you can count on, is yourself’, and Griffonstone drills that into your mind and soul on day one. But you…you were different, you didn’t grow up in Griffonstone, but you were still cool, confident, and didn’t take crap from no one! Ugh, just tell me Rainbow, why do you hang out with those girls?!”

Rainbow Dash got up from her chair and looked at Gilda with an incredulous gaze. “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I?”

“Even with all that magic and stuff…I mean…come on! That one chick is fashion obsessed, another one acts like she was born with pure sugar running through her veins, that country girl, and that wallflower?! If she’s your girlfriend then, whatever I won’t judge your taste, but those others?”

Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow. “G, I know you haven’t known them as long as I have, and yeah, they’re not exactly the kind of people someone like me would hang around, but that’s just it! I like them because of how different they are! And CHS is a place where everybody, jocks, ‘nerds’, and everyone actually gets along with each other! Is it perfect? Do we fight sometimes? Yeah, but what friends don’t argue or something, but thanks to them, my life’s like…more fulfilling, I guess is the right word? They’re the kind of friends that always have my back, and I’d always have theirs.”

“I can’t believe how much you changed, the Rainbow Dash I remember was cooler, and didn’t bother with lame-os like that, and I thought you’d…you’d always be there…” Gilda’s left hand began to tremble, at the same time a shooting pain ran up her arm that made the tough girl inhale sharply.

“Gilda, what’s wrong?” Rainbow asked as she reached out towards her.

“Don’t touch me!” Gilda yelled as she swiped her hand away.

The action caused something to fly out from Gilda’s jacket, Rainbow watched as a USB device landed on the patio. Curiously, Rainbow reached out and grabbed the device, there was a “V” letter in the center, but the design of the USB looked familiar. And that’s when it clicked. This…This is one of those Memory things like what Sunset and Twilight have!

Before she knew what happened, Gilda swiped the Gaia Memory back. Rainbow was on edge now, she didn’t want to believe it, but after seeing the evidence, there was no doubt. Gilda was the Dopant. But as Rainbow looked at her face, it seemed that Gilda didn’t catch on that Rainbow knew what the device was. “Heh, that’s a weird looking memory drive, G.”

“Y-Yeah, it’s a custom design…sorry, I just got some important stuff on it,” said Gilda.

“Heh, like what, your porn stash?”

Gilda smirked and punched Rainbow in the arm. “I better go, sorry for killing the mood. I’ll see ya around.”

Rainbow nodded and walked Gilda out, watching her as she headed down the street. Every part of Rainbow Dash was telling her to go after her friend, to try and talk some sense into her and give up the Gaia Memory to Sunset and Twilight, but if she really was the Dopant who had attacked yesterday, and today, she couldn’t just confront her like that. She did not possess the power that Sunset had to stop her, the only thing Rainbow could hope for was to talk her into giving up the Memory, or swiping it away. Gilda though was tough, and a fighter, getting it away like that would not be easy.

So, in the end Rainbow did the only thing she could do. She whipped out her cellphone as soon as she was in her room and typed the message: [Gilda has a Memory thing, had a V on it.]



***_______________<U>_______________***



Thankfully, Sunset had managed to heal up enough that Fluttershy didn’t have to drive her to the ER. Twilight was already at home and intercepted her friend before her parents had a chance to see her. They got through dinner easily enough, and when it came for bedtime, Sunset collapsed onto her bed groaning as the aches and pains she had been trying to suppress had come back.

“You should’ve just told them that you wanted to go to bed early,” said Twilight.

“I know, but I really was starving after that fight,” said Sunset.

“I understand, you used up a lot of energy, and no doubt your healing factor is speeding up your metabolism, so that explains your wolfing down a good portion of the dinner.”

Sunset blushed and sunk low onto the bed, feeling embarrassed that she practically shoveled most of the food Mrs. Velvet made into her mouth. “Your mom and dad must think I’m a total a pig…”

“Actually, they were pretty okay with seeing a girl with a good appetite, if anything my Mom’s jealous you can eat like that and still keep that figure…” Twilight realized how that sounded and quickly added, “Her words, not mine!”

Sunset smiled and rose back up against the pillows. “Well, now we need to figure out how the Dopant knew to attack you and Dash at her house. If this was a stalker I assume they knew where she lived, but it seems too much like a coincidence that you were tracking the Dopant, and not too long after, it attacked.”

“We were in the park, but there weren’t that many people in earshot of us except…”

Suddenly, Twilight’s phone went off. She quickly took hold of it and swiped at the screen. She read the message sent from Rainbow Dash and her eyes went wide. Sunset saw the look on Twilight’s face and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Rainbow Dash just may have given me the final clue as to what the Memory this Dopant is using, and it seems that she found out who it was,” said Twilight as she handed the phone back to Sunset.

Twilight took a step back and dove into the Infinite Library.

~*~*~*~

Twilight watched as the multiple bookshelves flew away as they released books, those books then flew off into the white nothingness and once again leaving only the two. With confidence, Twilight spoke the new keyword. “Keyword: V.”

The book on the left vanished leaving only the one. It changed its cover, matching the look of the Dopant. Twilight opened the book and began reading.

“It’s the Violence Memory, characterized by a strong destructive need. The Dopant has a hard body, boasting incredible strength and durability.”

---Could’ve told ya that.---

“It’s wrecking ball form is its strongest form, the more it spins the more momentum it builds up, reinforcing its already dense body. Your triple Maximum Drives may have done more damage than we thought then, it remained in humanoid form during the fight, and received two attacks in that form, and it looked staggered, no doubt the third made it a little worse,” said Twilight as she closed the book and left the infinite space.

~*~*~*~

Sunset glanced at the message and cursed under her breath. “She was right there, I should’ve been more observant, I was getting a bad vibe from that girl and I should’ve gone with my gut! But I…”

Twilight looked to Sunset, “But what?”

“……I saw myself in her. She had the eyes of someone who had always been alone, and looked out only for themselves and no one else!” Sunset growled. “I don’t know why I didn’t follow her?!”

Twilight sat at the edge of the bed and twiddled her thumbs. “I may be just thinking out loud, but…I think it’s because you did see yourself in her is the reason. You were given a second a chance by someone – the other me – and you wanted to believe that she wasn’t all bad, and maybe she’s not. Maybe she’s just looking for someone to reach out, like you did for me…”

Sunset sat up and looked a Twilight, she moved closer and rested her head on Twilight’s back while hugging her from behind. This Twilight may not be Princess Twilight, but just now, in that moment, she spoke words that sounded as if they came straight from Princess Twilight, encouraging her to go on. “Thank you, Twilight.”

Meanwhile, Twilight’s heart was thumping wildly as her face became nearly red, she knew this was a completely platonic moment and did not want to ruin it with her strange feelings. “N-No problem.”

After a few more seconds of hugging, Sunset backed away and sighed. “Now that we know that Gilda is the Violence Dopant, we need to find a way to confront her and get the Memory away from her.”

“I can look up areas that will have the least amount of people, it’s important that we make sure that we have control of the field of battle, each time has been near populated areas, and we can’t risk her going wild and attacking innocent bystanders,” said Twilight.

“We’ll need to call Rainbow Dash on this, she needs the heads up. And I doubt she’ll just standby while we work,” said Sunset.

“Sunset…what if we can’t get the Memory away from her? You can’t fight her in your condition,” said Twilight.

Sunset paused in her dialing, it was true, her body still ached, and she wasn’t really sure she could take another round with Gilda in her Dopant form. However, the only ones who could deal with this crisis, was a Kamen Rider, a hero. “I’ll just have to do what heroes do, fight, and win.”



***_______________<U>_______________***



It was early morning in Canterlot City, and Gilda was already out on the streets. Her left had throbbed, pulsating, urging her to use the Violence Memory, but she had to resist it, transforming now served no purpose, not unless Rainbow Dash or her lame friends were around. She hated feeling this way, but still couldn’t forgive her, all she knew to do was strike back at anything that hurt her, Griffonstone taught her that. Gilda had arrived in the new neighborhood that Rainbow Dash was living in for the time being, she knew her old friend would most likely see her other friends again. Why couldn’t she take the hint? She was dangerous to be around now, so why would they still hang around her?

“They’re the kind of friends that always have my back, and I’d always have theirs.”

Gilda growled, her hand reaching to grab the Violence Memory, but she stopped herself. She didn’t want to hurt Dash, but if push came to shove…

Despite her warring emotions, Gilda continued to follow Rainbow Dash. She milled around some of the typical places she’d expect Rainbow to go to. She headed into some sports shops, mostly checking on motocross bikes, apparently having grown an affinity for the sport after the Friendship Games. Gilda continued her stalking, feeling as if she was being dragged around town, but so far, Rainbow hadn’t met up with any of her friends. Gilda was growing a little suspicious, but decided to think nothing of it, even with friends, sometimes it was good to have alone time to yourself.

Although Gilda became a little panicked when Rainbow Dash bought a skateboard and began shredding down the sidewalk, it was a leisurely ride for Rainbow, but it made Gilda have to double time it to keep up. After a bit of running and following, Rainbow ended up in the abandoned industrial district of Canterlot City, the old steel mills from a time when the country did all it could to help supply soldiers during the Great War. Again, Gilda questioned why Rainbow Dash would even come to this place, but remembering the skateboard, it would prove to be an excellent place to practice tricks. Gilda waited outside as Rainbow Dash entered one of the buildings, the echoes of her board grinding against concrete and metal rang out through the empty buildings, and Gilda wished she could watch.

However, Gilda heard a terrified scream as Rainbow Dash came flying out a large hole in the wall. She grabbed onto the ledge for dear life as the skateboard plummeted down from the three story building. Gilda’s eyes widened with fear as she saw her old friend hanging there and losing her grip. In the end, Gilda threw caution to the wind and ran towards Rainbow Dash. But as she did, the rainbow haired girl lost her grip and began to fall. Everything happened in slow motion as adrenaline pumped through Gilda’s mind and body. She had no time to think, only act. Gilda removed the glove of her left hand, and pulled out the Violence Memory from her jacket with her right hand, pressed the button.

< VIOLENCE! >

Gilda pressed the blue end onto her left hand and immediately transformed into the Violence Dopant. Once underneath Rainbow, she jumped straight up and held out her arms, catching her friend before she could hit the ground. Gilda braced herself as they both came down with a powerful thud, causing a small tremor. The Violence Dopant panted, but after a moment calmed itself, until she realized what she had done. The Violence Dopant looked down at the girl in her arms, who was now looking up at her with concern in her eyes. She dropped Rainbow Dash, unceremoniously, to the ground and was about to run.

“GILDA!” Rainbow called out.

The Violence Dopant stopped.

“I know it’s you, G! Don’t turn your back on me!”

The Violence Dopant did not answer.

“You’ve attacked me and friends at the mall, attacked my house and almost hurt my parents and my friend! Now, now you go and save me! If you wanted to hurt me, you could’ve just let me fall! So why?!” Rainbow asked.

“I…I don’t want you dead! Hurt, maybe, but not dead!” Gilda spoke. “How long have you known?”

Rainbow Dash began slowly walking towards Gilda, but approaching at angle so that she could see her. “Since last night when that USB fell from your jacket. I know what it is, and it’s dangerous. I don’t know if it’s some kind of magic or something, but it messes with your head the more you use it.”

“Tch, I need it, I need the power, to be stronger, strong enough that nothing keeps me held down, or away from something!” Gilda stated.

“You mean Griffonstone? Gilda, what happened after Camp, you were way different from back then! You were almost like Fluttershy levels of shy, but after a bit you became one of the toughest girls at Camp! Then a couple of years later, you become like a total jerk to my friends, and they’re probably some the easiest to get along with people you’d ever meet!” Rainbow shouted.

The Violence Dopant turned to Rainbow Dash and looked like she wanted to say something, but was hesitant.

“It’s because she’s afraid of being powerless.”

Both Gilda and Rainbow Dash watched as Sunset Shimmer walked into view from the alleyway of building ahead of them.

“Sunset?! How the heck did you even find me?!” Rainbow asked.

Sunset pointed up, and as Gilda and Rainbow looked up they saw a hawk flying around. “Hawk has a surveillance camera installed in it. I figured you might try and reach out to Gilda somehow, so I had Hawk watch you, just in case.” Sunset continued walking forward and stopped as she gazed directly at Gilda. “Trust me when I say Gilda, power alone won’t fix everything, or get you everything. I had great power, and it turned me into a monster, I thought I knew what I wanted, but when I got it, it just made everything twisted!”

“That was you! That’s not me, I know what I want!” 

“Do you? You’re alone, you feel powerless and strive to get more than what life has dealt to you, right?!”

The Violence Dopant looked to Sunset, its one eye glaring at her. “How do you know that?!” 

“Cause I’ve been there, and someone gave me the chance to rise above it, in spite of all the bad things I did, I was given a second chance. I can’t wipe away all of my sins, I have to live with them, and make myself better than I was yesterday! Gilda, Rainbow Dash did what she did because she believes in the good in you, don’t you see that?”

Gilda looked to Rainbow Dash, the look on her face was one of conviction, and everything Sunset had said was what Dash believed. “I wish you were with me the rest of the way. I don’t know what happened to you back home, but you can always start fresh and make a new start! You just have to give yourself a chance!”

The Violence Dopant heard their words, and it did strike a chord within her. Maybe she could be better, maybe she didn’t need this power to get what she wanted. Suddenly, an energy surge shot through her body, sending sparks of violet electrical energy shooting off her body. Rainbow and Sunset ducked down as the bolts struck the surroundings, setting off small explosions. When the energy dissipated, the Violence Dopant was glaring at both girls with a violet glowing eye.

“I won’t let anything else be taken from me, and you’re one of those I must crush!” 

“GILDA!” Rainbow shouted.

Damn, the Memory must be affecting her mind now! 

Sunset pulled out the Uni-Driver and her Unicorn Gaia Memory.

< UNICORN! >

“Henshin!”

> UNICORN! <

The turquoise field of energy wrapped around Sunset as she ran towards the Violence Dopant. The monster came in swinging with its wrecking ball hand, but a quick teleportation saved Unicorn at the last second, appearing behind her and charging up her right hand to loose a magic bolt. But the Violence Dopant was ready, turning on a dime to backhand Unicorn. The blow struck her in the chest, sending sparks flying as Unicorn spun in the air and landed hard onto the ground. Before Unicorn could recover, the Violence Dopant rushed towards her and grabbed her. The Dopant hoisted Unicorn up and began smashing its wrecking ball hand against her chest, over and over again.

“GILDA STOP, YOU’LL KILL HER!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she rushed towards them.

The Violence Dopant snapped its head in Rainbow’s direction, it then threw Unicorn away like a rag doll and proceeded towards Rainbow Dash. Unicorn coughed and heaved after receiving the vicious blows, but regained enough sense to see what was happening. Sunset, despite the pain in her body, got back to her feet and teleported away. A flash of turquoise light appeared before Rainbow Dash, and in the next moment both were whisked away. The Violence Dopant growled from being denied its target, but the denial didn’t last long as Unicorn reappeared a few feet away, collapsing onto one knee as the injuries from the previous bouts were catching up with her.

“Sunset, what’s wrong?!” Rainbow asked

“I’m still in rough shape, you need to run, now!”

Rainbow looked to Sunset, and to Gilda who was already charging towards them. Sunset got back up, and stood in front of her friend, her body was weak, but she had to stand, to protect Rainbow and to free Gilda from the Memory.

The Violence Dopant was almost upon them, transforming into its wrecking ball form to finish of Unicorn once and for all. However, before the Dopant could strike, metal plates shot out from the buildings and formed a wall before Sunset and Rainbow Dash. The Violence Dopant struck the shield, releasing sparks as it grinded against it, trying to run it down. But the metal plates would not give as a silvery energy lapped off them and burst, forcing the Violence Dopant to roll back and return to humanoid form.

The plates released something, a ball of silver light. Sunset understood what this was and reached into the ball of light, pulling out a new Gaia Memory. As soon as she did, the plates of metal fell to the ground. Sunset opened her hand and saw a gray colored Gaia Memory, with the letter “M” metalized.

“Is that a new Memory thing?” Rainbow asked.

“Yep, and it’s just what I needed. Let’s go!” 

< METAL! >

Sunset placed the Metal Memory into the left hip port and slammed down on the button.

{< METAL! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

Silver-gray light appeared around Unicorn as a new Mimetic Drive Form was ushered in. Silver gauntlets appeared over her right and left forearms, with rivets along the outlines. Her lower legs turned into sleek metal boots, with plates forming on her thighs and biceps. Her shoulder pauldrons rose up slightly, giving them a curved look, followed by riveted armor on her chest and back. The crystal horn was encased in a sharp metal sheath, and from the top to the back of her head was a blade in the shape of a horse mane. This Metal Memory felt strong, made her stronger, and somehow sturdier, this was the form of her resolve, unwavering and unbending.

“Unicorn Iron Heart!” 

The Violence Dopant remained unimpressed. “You can change that costume as many times as you want, you’re still not strong enough to beat me!” 

Unicorn raised her left hand and waved to her in a taunting fashion. “Come and try me.” 

The Violence Dopant growled and charged for Unicorn. The Kamen Rider merely began walking towards the charging Dopant, not even flinching as it began changing into its wrecking ball form. Unicorn slammed down twice on the left hip port.

\\ ARMOR UP! //

The metal armor plates on Unicorn began to expand and cover her entire form, Unicorn slammed her knuckles together and took a defensive stance. Once the wrecking ball approached, she reached out with both hands. The wrecking ball impacted against her hands and caused a shockwave of force to roar out, shattering the glass and causing the ground to fissure in every direction. Sparks flew from Unicorn’s hands as she braced herself against Gilda’s unrelenting spin, however, during this whole time, Unicorn hadn’t even moved an inch. Feeling invigorated, Unicorn took a step forward, feeling the ball move back. She then took another step, and another, and another, and then breaking into a sprint.

“Wait, what the hell are you doing?! Y-You can’t be this strong!” 

“Looks like I am!” Unicorn shouted as she cocked back her right fist and punched the spinning wrecking ball.

The Violence Dopant shot backwards, bouncing once in wrecking ball form before returning to its humanoid form. Unicorn’s armor up ended, prompting her to hit the button once more.

\ METAL RING! /

Unicorn held out her hands as a flash of silver-gray light went off, and in her hands she held a metal ring. It looked to be made of copper, iron, and steel, and wrapped tightly together at eight points. The Violence Dopant didn’t wait for Unicorn to figure out her weapon as she ran and came in swinging with her left arm. On instinct, Unicorn swung the ring, intercepting her attack and knocking it away. The ring was slightly heavy, moving almost on its own, which threw off Sunset’s balance a little. The Violence Dopant attacked again, but Sunset used the momentum of the last swing to counter, knocking that attack back.

It was then that Sunset understood how this weapon was to work. She looped the ring around her arm and began spinning it around as she charged for the Dopant. Sunset used the built up momentum to strike a powerful blow on the Violence Dopant’s chest, causing sparks to fly. After the first blow, Unicorn fluidly switched the ring to the left hand, spun around, and came down again for a second blow, hitting hard and making Gilda back track. Unicorn saw this and threw the ring at an angle, bouncing off one surface after the other and striking the Violence Dopant at different angles, one last ricochet brought the ring sailing back to Sunset, who grabbed it and looped it over her body.

“Gilda, you’ve let that Memory mess with your head and distort your view of your friendship!” Unicorn took out the Metal Memory and placed in the right hip port. “Time to restore harmony!”

>} METAL! MAXIMUM DRIVE! {<

Unicorn jumped into the air and began spinning the ring around her waist like a hula hoop. The ring glowed a bright silver color, and latched onto the right hip port, extending out and becoming akin to a long tail. Unicorn did on filp and descended down with the glowing tail following behind her.

“METAL LASHING!”

The metal tail struck the Violence Dopant once, twice, thrice, continuing until ten lashes were given in total. Glowing gashes formed on the Dopant’s body until the gashes released their energy and exploded, a bright flash went off inside the explosion as Gilda and the Gaia Memory were separated from each other. The glowing tail detached and returned to ring form which looped itself around Unicorn’s body and then disappeared. She quickly went to Gilda, with Rainbow Dash following behind her.

Both girls knelt down to the knocked out tough girl, shaking her a little so as to wake her. After a moment Gilda began to stir, opening her eyes slowly and seeing Unicorn and Rainbow Dash staring down at her. Tears began to well up in her eyes as looked away from them. “I’m such an idiot…”

Rainbow Dash placed her hand gently on Gilda’s shoulder and flashed her a comforting smile. “Gilda, it’s okay, you made a mistake and your head was messed up from that Memory thing.”

“Yeah…my head was messed up, but it only got that bad because of how I felt…I don’t deserve a friend, or anybody to care about me,” said Gilda as she continued to cry.

“You’ve done some bad things, like I said before, you can’t erase them. They’ll always be there, but what matters is what you do from here on out to show a change. You already have one friend that’s willing to help you get there, and you have one more,” said Sunset as she reached out to the girl.

Rainbow Dash stood up and extended her hand as well. “You got two friends giving you a hand G, you gonna turn ‘em down?”

Gilda looked back up at Unicorn and Rainbow Dash, and smile graced her lips, a genuine, heartfelt smile for the first time in a long time. The girl from Griffonstone reached out and took ahold of both their hands and was helped back to her feet. Unicorn nodded to Gilda and turned to go and retrieve the Violence Memory. Until she heard something from up above, in the light of the sun, a shower of blue energy beams came flying down towards their position.

“GET DOWN!!!” Unicorn yelled as she hit the left hip port button twice.

\\ ARMOR UP! //

Gilda and Rainbow Dash crouched down low as Unicorn covered them with her body. The increased defensive power of the Armor Up aided in deflecting many of the beams as they deflected off to the sides and away from Rainbow and Gilda, after a few seconds the barrage stopped, allowing Unicorn the glance over her shoulder and see what it was that had attacked them.

Down on the ground was another Dopant. It looked akin to a harpy, with long blue wings for forearms, and three taloned fingers. It’s feet resembled that of a bird of prey, long and incredibly sharp, even as she stood the talons were raking into the concrete as if it were nothing.  Her body was a midnight blue, with tail feathers that hovered over the ground and had a whimsical curve to them. Upon her chest was a red ruby, with white, almost tribal markings. She had a white Mohawk, with a mask that covered her eyes and was connected to a beak that covered where her nose would be, and glowing yellow eyes that pierced through all that they gazed upon.

“Thanks for doing all the dirty work, I was really not up to a fight today, so I’ll be taking the Memory and saying my goodbyes,” said the feathered Dopant.

“Wait a minute -!” 

The winged Dopant extended it right wing and waved that wing at Unicorn, releasing several quills that energized and shot towards her. Unicorn braced for the impact, but the shots only landed a few inches in front of her, causing several explosions that kicked up a dust cloud. After a few seconds the dust cloud was blown away by a strong gust of wind, emanating from the takeoff of the winged Dopant. The last thing Unicorn saw the Dopant mock saluting her before she zoomed off into the distance, too fast for even Hawk to follow.



***_______________<U>_______________***



Case Report: Violence Dopant




It was eventually determined that the Violence Dopant was in fact Gilda, upon questioning from Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer, Gilda had informed them that she was given the T2 Gaia Memory by a girl she had never met until that day. At first she didn’t believe her, not until she used her own Gaia Memory to transform in front of Gilda. From what she remembered, it was called the “Bird”, which matches the harpy-like description of the Dopant Sunset encountered snatching back the Violence Memory. It is unclear what this girl’s motives were in handing this Memory to Gilda, but regardless, it served Gilda’s needs.

According to Gilda, there were problems back in Griffonstone, with her family and a gang she thought were her friends. That gang had settled on leaving her to rot, so to speak, until that Harpy Girl gave her the Violence Memory. According to Gilda, she went on a small rampage and took down the gang. Feeling empowered, she tried to fix things at home with her parents, but it seems that they rejected her, throwing her out. Gilda retaliated by using the Violence Memory and demolishing their home, taking only what she felt was important to her.

Rainbow Dash was her one only lifeline back in Canterlot City, and believed that she was forgotten after getting some new friends and wanted to break her away from us, to have it be only the two of them, and no one else. The Harpy Girl seemed to assist with her vendetta, granting her a burner phone with Rainbow Dash’s phone number in it. Thankfully, during her attack at the mall, no one was seriously injured thanks the report I managed to sneak from Shining Armor, a lot of property damage, but nothing that can’t be fixed. The same could be said for Rainbow Dash and her family, repairs on their home have already been undertaken and will be done in the coming weeks.

I won’t lie, part of me thinks we should report her for the damage she caused during both attacks, but Sunset assured me that Gilda was going to change. Like I stated, I am a bit skeptical, but comparing what Sunset had told me about her actions before meeting my otherworldly doppelganger, it does grant me hope for her.

However, I am concerned about the person who gave the T2 Memory to Gilda, all she said is that it was a girl she had never seen before, but apparently had knowledge of the Gaia Memories. I’m starting to believe that there is in fact a separate entity searching for the Gaia Memories, and possibly producing the breakable versions.



Twilight finished typing at her computer and gazed ahead, seeing Gilda, with Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer at her sides. It was a reintroduction of sorts, and an apology as well. At first there was hesitation, mostly from Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy. But it wasn’t long before Pinkie Pie was zooming towards the the girl from Griffonstone, and hugged Gilda with a big grin on her face.

It amazed Twilight how these six girls could see past the bad in someone and find the good that even that very person didn’t know existed. How forgiving they were of deeds done in the past, knowing that the past doesn’t define you, but your actions going forward do. And each day, Twilight felt grateful that she was a part of this group of amazing girls, and even more grateful to have a friend like Sunset Shimmer, a hero.