Alarm bells rang through the normally idyllic Canterlot streets, originating from the Canterlot First National Bank. Inside, patrons pressed themselves against the bank floor, trembling in terror as they kept their heads low to the ground. One of the bank’s security guards lay off to the side in a heap, groaning as he clutched a still bleeding bullet wound on his side.
“Move it! Come on, come on!”
A female bank teller flinched in fear as the barrel of an assault rifle was shoved even harder against her temple while she frantically shoveled stacks of bills into a burlap sack, trying not to look at the masked man with his finger still on the trigger.
“And don’t even think of trying any of that dye pack crap,” the robber threatened, his eyes narrowing behind his balaclava. “Or you’ll get a bullet straight through the eyes!”
Barely ten minutes had passed since the three masked men had charged into the bank and opened fire, blowing out the security cameras in seconds and sending patrons to the ground in a panic as they desperately scrambled for cover. The on-duty security guard had barely had time to draw his sidearm before being clipped in the side by a hail of bullets, dropping to the floor and losing his grip on his gun. One of the robbers had quickly kicked it aside to ensure he wouldn’t be a further threat. While the lead robber took control of acquiring the money, his partners patrolled the bank floor, aiming their guns threateningly at petrified patrons as a warning to any would-be-heroes.
Zipping up the now full burlap sack, the trembling teller handed it off to the robber. Yanking it from her hands, the robber kept his gun trained on her head as he backed away, glancing at his partners. “Alright, we’ve got the loot! Let’s bolt!”
Nodding, the three set off for the front gate, only to skid to a halt as the blare of police sirens cut through the air. Five police cruisers came grinding to a halt outside the front door, blocking their escape route as nearly a dozen of Canterlot’s finest stood posed outside, training their guns on the front entrance.
“Shit, the cops!” One of the robbers cursed, suddenly losing his nerve at the very real prospect of going to jail. ‘What are we going to do, Jack Ham—”
“Idiot!” The lead robber yelled, whacking his buddy in the head with the butt of his rifle. “Don’t call me by my real name!” Growling, he ripped off his balaclava and ran a hand through his messy black hair. “Right, new plan!” Whipping around, he shoved the sack of money into the left robber’s arms and handed off his gun to the other. “You two make a break for it with the dough. I’ll deal with the fuzz.”
“B-b-but Boss! You can’t take on all those guys by yourself!”
“Hmph, lucky for you idiots then that I came prepared.” Reaching into his pocket, Jack Hammer withdrew a black USB shaped device. White bone-like markings covered the outer casing, giving it a sinister appearance. Engraved on the front was the symbol of an “A” formed by a knife and a rifle.
Grinning sadistically, Jack Hammer clicked the button on the Gaia Memory.
< ARMS! >
Bending his neck, Jack Hammer rammed the Memory into a tattoo on his neck resembling a USB port. Glowing, the USB sank into his flesh as Jack Hammer’s body began to transform.
Within seconds, he had transformed into a monster resembling an apocalyptic motorcyclist. His upper torso was covered in silver armored plating with spikes adorning the upper chest and shoulder pads while leather armor hung against his sides, bullets embedded into the leather in such a way as to resemble sharpened teeth. The bodysuit underneath the armor was an almost blood red, with similar coloured spiked gauntlets adorning his forearms. Hung against his back was a massive claymore, and covering his face was a clear white skull mask larger than his face.
Now transformed into the Arms Dopant, he cocked his head to the side to glance over his shoulder at his partners with a pair of burning red eyes. “Head to the hideout. I’ll meet you there when I’m done dealing with these clowns.”
“R-r-right, boss,” the left robber stuttered, the two of them just about ready to piss their pants in terror.
Outside, the lead officer stepped forward and bellowed into a megaphone. “This is the police! We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up! This is your only warn—”
The rest of the officer’s words were drowned out by a loud explosion that rattled the courtyard and blew the bank doors off their hinges and skidding down the front steps. The officers briefly flinched back from the force of explosion before aiming their guns into the wall of smoke billowing from inside the bank.
Strolling out from within the smoke, the Arms Dopant stood on the front step of the bank. “Well?” He taunted, holding his arms out at his side and giving the officers a clear shot at his chest. “I’m waaaiiittting…”
“Fire!”
Though shocked by the monster’s appearance, the officers wasted little time in opening fire on it, striking the Dopant square in the chest with a hail of bullets. Though sparks leapt off from the points of impact, the Arms Dopant seemed physically unphased by the gunfire.
“You call those guns? Let me show you a real gun!”
Raising his left arm, the armor around his hand and forearm morphed into a wide-barreled grenade launcher.. The officers stopped firing at the sudden appearance of the deadly weapon, their eyes widening in disbelief. Taking aim, the Arms Dopant cocked his arm back and volleyed a grenade at one of the cruisers, sending it flipping up into the air in a towering wall of flame with a single shot, the totaled remains of the vehicle crashing into the pavement with a metallic crunch seconds later.
Cackling wildly, the Dopant took one shot after another, sending officers scattering as they ran to avoid shrapnel as their cruisers were taken out one after another. Staring down at the flaming carnage before him, a grin split across the Dopant’s face.
“Oh, this is sooo much fun!”
Leaping down onto the pavement, the Dopant advanced towards a group of officers. He didn’t so much as flinch as they continued to pepper him with bullets, backhanding one officer across the face before whirling around and kicking another in the stomach, sending them both sprawling against the pavement.
“Freeze!” Came a cry from behind him as more 9mm rounds ricocheted off the back of his armored skull. Grinning, he slowly turned towards the officer, who was visibly trembling as he tried to keep his gun steady.
“Oh, bad move, buddy…” Grabbing the hilt of his claymore, he slowly drew it from his back, revealing that the top third of the sword had been broken off, leaving jagged edges at the end of the large sword. Slowly, the Arms Dopant began to stalk towards the officer, his fingers curling around the hilt in glee.
Off in the distance, a motorcycle came hurtling down the road, the roar of its engine muffled by the ensuing carnage. At the sight of the towering flames ahead of her, the rider pulled her right hand from her handlebars and called forth a device in the shape of a unicorn head: the Uni Driver. Slapping the device against her waist, a belt with an additional port on each side shot out of the device and wrapped tightly around her waist. With the belt secure, she pulled out a turquoise colored Gaia Memory and pressed down on the button.
< UNICORN! >
“Henshin!”
Gripping the Gaia Memory, she placed into the slot at the top of the device and slammed the palm of her hand onto the Memory, sliding it into the Driver.
< UNICORN! >
Revving the engine, she sped down the road as a field of turquoise coloured energy swirled around her and her bike in a whirlwind of energy. When the field dissipated a moment later, both the rider and her bike had transformed, now donning a suit of turquoise armor with sun metal lines over her body with a pair of compound aquamarine oval eyes over her eyes. Protruding from her forehead was a green crystal horn with a silver edge.
Back at the bank, the Arms Dopant raised his sword over his head, poised to bring it down on the petrified officer’s head, only to pause as the sound an engine reached his ears. Glancing aside, he caught the briefest glimpse of a motorbike barreling through the flames seconds before the bike jackknifed into him, sending him flying back and smashing into the door of a nearby police car.
Blinking, the officer gasped at the sight of his savior. “You’re… you’re…”
Picking himself up with a shake of his head, the Arms Dopant glared at the sudden arrival. “Oh, great! You!”
Dismounting her bike, the masked rider turned to face the rampaging Dopant, her horn glinting in the light. “That’s right… Kamen Rider Unicorn!”
Growling, the Arms Dopant raised his sword again and charged at Unicorn. Swinging it wildly, Unicorn easily ducked under his swing and punched him hard in the chest, sending the Dopant reeling. Not willing to spare a moment for the Dopant to recover, she quickly followed up with a uppercut to the jaw before finishing with a kick that sent the Dopant flipping head over heels across the smashed hood of the same police vehicle.
“You and your men need to get out of here now,” Unicorn said, glancing at the still shocked officer. “It’s not safe. I’ll deal with the bonehead, you just worry about getting to safety!”
Snapping out his trance, the officer stammered a quick, “R-right!” before running over to a nearby downed officer and picking him up by the arm in an attempt to haul him to safety. Other officers still on their feet quickly followed pace, not wanting to go a second round with a monster capable of shrugging off their bullets like BB pellets.
With that taken care of for the moment, Unicorn dashed over to the cruiser the Dopart had cartwheeled over. Leaping onto the hood of the car, she peered over the side in time to suddenly find herself staring down the multiple barrels of a Gatling gun.
“Surprise!” With a cackle, the Dopant unleashed a stream of bullets at Unicorn. Acting fast, Unicorn leapt off the hood of the car, twisting her body as she flipped through the air. Her horn glowed with a turquoise light as she summoned three orbs of mana in the air, flicking her wrist to send them shooting into the Dopant’s back and knocking him flat on his face. With one more flip, Unicorn landed back on her feet behind the prone Dopant.
“Son of a…!” Leaping back to his feet, the Arms Dopant gripped his broken claymore tightly as he morphed his left arm into a second blade, roaring as he charged at the masked hero.
Deftly dodging the wild swings from both swords, Unicorn channeled mana into her fist, which glowed with magic as she saw her opening and punched forward, aiming for the Dopant’s head.
However, her attack instead collided with the face of the Dopants claymore as he swung it up like a shield. A metallic clang radiated outward as the shield withstood her attack, sending a shockwave of force rebounding up Unicorn’s arm that knocked her back a foot as her attack was deflected.
Seeing his chance, the Dopant lashed out with his left arm again, cutting straight across Unicorn’s torso in a shower of sparks before following it up by stabbing his claymore into Unicorn’s abdomen and finally spinning on his heel and slashing both blades across her body with enough force to send her flying back and rolling across the pavement.
“Ha! How does that feel?!”
Grunting, Unicorn tasted blood as she rolled onto her side.“So... that’s how you want to play, huh?” Unicorn said as she got back on feet. “Well, two can play that game!” Pulling out a second Memory, Unicorn parried another slash as she slotted the Memory into her left hip port and pressed down on the button.
{< FANG! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}
A burst of light blue energy wrapped around Unicorn, curving the pauldrons of her armor into crescent spikes as the armor around her arms and legs became segmented, sharpened claws extending from the tips of her gloves along with curved blades jutting from the heels of her feet. Finally, the horn on her head extended several inches and sharpened to a deadly point.
As the Dopant brought his claymore down towards her for another slash, Unicorn caught the edge of the blade against her right arm, stopping it dead in its tracks.
“Unicorn: Fang Edge!”
Knocking the claymore aside, Unicorn swung her leg in an arc, catching the Dopant across the chest with her bladed heel. As he retaliated back, she easily caught the edge of his claymore with the palm of her hand, grinning as she shoved it aside and backflipped, slashing her bladed heels vertically across his chest. The Dopant stumbled back as Unicorn backflipped twice more before flipping back on her feet.
“ARRRG! You’re beginning to bug me!” Morphing his left arm from a sword to a rifle, he aimed the gun at Unicorn and let off a burst of three shots in her direction.
Before the shots had even left the barrel, Unicorn slapped the port containing the Fang Memory with the palm of her hand.
\ ARM FANG! /
A pair of curved blades sprang up from Unicorn’s forearms as she spun on her heels, becoming a whirling sawblade as the rifle rounds were sliced apart by her fangs in an instant. Skidding to a stop, she held her bladed arms in front of her in a fighter’s stance.
“Only beginning to? Seems I might have to start getting serious then.”
“Why, you—”
“Heads up!”
The Arms Dopant barely had time to look up before a blue and vermillion blur dropped from the sky, slashing him vertically across the chest and knocking him back with enough force to send him spinning. He groaned as he tried to pick himself back up, smoke coming off a damaged chunk of his armor.
“Huh?” Unicorn’s posture relaxed as she recognized the newcomer.“Nasca?”
A pair of sky blue scarves with vermillion ends drifted in the wind as the figure turned around. Covered in light blue armor with vermillion lines similar to Unicorn’s, she wore a Driver around her waist in the shape of an N with a red button in the centre, one half of Driver blue while the other half was bright vermillion. The Bird Nazca Line were depicted on both her right and left bracers and similar black wings stretched across her shoulders. Instead of a pair of compound eyes like Unicorn, a yellow-orange visor resembling wings spread across her face, with a single horn curving back over her helmet. Gripped in her hand was a silver shortsword.
“Yep!” Raising her sword over her head, the newcomer struck a pose that seemed plucked straight from a comic book. “Delivering justice at sonic speeds! Kamen Rider… Nasca!”
Rolling her eyes at the display, Unicorn disengaged her arm fangs before crossing her arms over her chest. “You know, you didn’t have to jump in like that. I had this under control.”
“Oh, I know.” Nasca replied, resting the blade of her sword against her shoulder. “I just happened to be passing by and thought you could use the company.”
Unicorn quirked an eyebrow behind her helmet. “You just happened to be passing by, huh?” she said suspiciously. “And I’m sure the dramatic entrance was just a coincidence too?”
“Nope! That was all me!” Nasca declared with a hint of pride in her voice. “I mean, what’s a hero without a dramatic entrance?”
Unicorn raised a hand as if to argue, before recalling her own dramatic entrance minutes before. “You know… I can’t really argue with you on that one...”
“Hey!” The two Kamen Riders glanced over to find the Arms Dopant glaring back at them. They could almost see the fumes blowing out his ears as he angrily stomped his feet. “Don’t ignore me!” Pointing his claymore at them, he declared, “I’ll rip you both to shreds!”
“Pleeease...” Nasca gave a dismissive shake of her head as she leveled her sword at the Dopant. “You couldn’t open a can of soup with that rusted can opener!”
“Say…” Walking up next to Nasca, Unicorn put her hand on Nasca’s shoulder. “Since you’re here anyway, how about helping me wrap this up?”
“Like you even have to ask!” Tossing her sword up into the air, Nasca pressed the button in the centre of her driver, ejecting the Nasca Memory as the driver rotated from its blue half to orange. Slotting the Memory into the orange slot, a ripple of energy passed over Nasca as the color of her armor shifted to a bright vermillion.
\_/ NASCA! VERMILLION MODE! \_/
At the same time, Unicorn removed her hand from Nasca’s shoulder as she tapped against her left hip port twice in quick succession.
\\ LEG FANG! //
Another pair of curved blades sprang up from Unicorn’s armor, this time extending upward from the back of her ankles.
Catching her sword by the hilt as it flipped back down, Nasca leveled it at the Dopant once more as the two Kamen Riders stood side by side.“Come on, Unicorn! Let’s make this showy!”
Swapping his rifle for a Gatling gun, the Arms Dopant opened fire on the pair of Riders. Unicorn leapt away to avoid the oncoming hailstorm, but to Nasca the bullets might as well been moving in slow motion.
Moving at speeds faster than the naked eye could follow, Nasca weaved around the bullets and slashed the Dopant across the side as she ran past, before whirling around and slashing him again across the back and then his other side with another pass before finally slashing him three times across the chest, all in the span of a second.
The Arms Dopant stumbled backward as sparks cascaded off his body, just barely staying on his feet. Glancing up, his eyes widened as he saw Unicorn barreling towards him, frantically holding up his claymore to intercept her attack.
Lashing out with her right leg, Unicorn delivered a bladed spin kick against the claymore, the impact sending the Dopant skidding back a few inches and digging a deep crack in the sword’s surface. Following it up with another spin kick from her left, the cracked widened even more as the Dopant was pushed back even further.
The blades on the back of Unicorn’s legs resonated with pure energy as she leapt up and drop kicked the weapon, smashing it into pieces and sending the Dopant flying back from the attack. Flipping in the air, Unicorn landed back on her feet, Nasca fading in beside her seconds later.
Seeing the Dopant flopping around on the ground like a fish, Unicorn glanced at Nasca, who had the exact same idea as her partner. Once more, Unicorn pressed the port on her left side, three times this time.
\\\ HORN FANG! ///
Unicorn’s crystal horn glowed bright blue as it grew into a curved blade. “Time to restore Harmony!”Transferring the Fang Memory from the port on her left hip to her right, Unicorn pressed the side of the port with the palm of her hand.
>} FANG! MAXIMUM DRIVE! {<
“Time to go into Overdrive!”Ejecting the Nasca Memory, Nasca mimicked Unicorn in sliding the Memory into her right hip port.
>} NASCA! MAXIMUM DRIVE! {<
Climbing up to his feet, the Dopant glanced up in time to witness Unicorn leap into the air, her horn glowing with a blinding mix of blue and green energy. Back on the ground, Nasca held her sword vertically in front of her, the blade sparkling with a growing aura of electric energy as a pair of yellow electric wings burst from her back
“FANG KLINGENSCHNEIDER!”
“VERMILLION THUNDERBOLT!”
Spinning in the air, a blade of pure energy extended outward from Unicorn’s hang as she swung herself downward, slicing the Dopant straight down the middle. At the same time, Nasca charged forward in an orange blur, slashing horizontally with the energized blade of her sword across the Dopant’s waist before skidding to a halt several feet behind him. Her Driver flipped back to the blue half as Nasca’s armor reverted back to its original blue.
The Arms Dopant let out one final cry before exploding in a ball of fire. The flames lasted but a moment before parting, revealing an unharmed Jack Hammer as he collapsed onto the pavement, the Gaia Memory ejecting from his neck and bursting apart into a pile of smoking fragments.
Landing back on her feet, Unicorn strolled over to the unconscious Jack Hammer and collecting the shattered remains of his Gaia Memory. Clenching her fist, she crushed the remains into a fine dust that scattered into the wind.
“Well, that’s that,” Unicorn remarked as she cleaned any remaining dust from her gloves. “Thanks for the assist, Nasca.”
“Ah, no biggy,” Nasca replied with a wave of her hand, extending her arm outward. “That’s what partners and friends are for.”
Chuckling, Unicorn reached out grabbed Nasca’s hand, gripping it firmly as the two shook hands.
Off in the distance, the blare of more police sirens rapidly approached.
“Aaaand… that’s our cue to leave.” Releasing Unicorn’s hand and stepping back, the same electric wings from before burst from Nasca’s back as she rocketed up into the sky, leaving a vermillion streak in her wake as she sped off.
Running back to her bike, Unicorn climbed back on and revved the engines, her tires squealing against the tarmac as she spun around and took off down the road, vanishing in a burst of magic.
In the silence that followed, nobody noticed the remaining two robbers as they peered out from behind the wall of the bank. “Uh… Jim?”
“Yeah, Frank?”
“I think it’s time we got out of here before the cops arrive.”
“Good thinking.”
Turning around, the two crooks stood petrified at the wall off police officers standing behind them, their guns drawn and pointed in the two’s direction
“Freeze!”
“We surrender!”
***
In a flash of sea green magic, Unicorn reappeared in the alleyway of a building a block and a half away from the bank. Dismounting her bike, she quickly glanced around to make sure she was alone before pressing down on and ejecting the Unicorn Memory from her Driver. Her armor faded to a dark grey before dispersing in a wave of energy, leaving Sunset Shimmer standing alone in the alleyway.
Wiping away a line of blood from her lip with her thumb, Sunset sighed as she leaned back against the wall of the neighboring building, running a hand through her hair. Raising her hand, she glanced at the Unicorn Memory still clutched in the palm of her hand.
“To think so much destruction and suffering could be caused by something so small…” If there was anyone who knew how much pain could be caused by something so small, it was Sunset. Not a day went by where she didn’t in some way make up for the years of suffering she had directly caused, made harder after her actions had inevitably channeled Equestrian magic into a world previous bereft any magic of its own.
Things had only gotten worse since the day of the earthquake, unleashing a massive column of emerald light into the sky visible from every corner of the city. The light had brought the Gaia Memories with it, scattering them across the city to be picked up by an unsuspecting person and twisting them and their desires into horrific monsters called Dopants capable of untold destruction in their wake.
And yet, the Memory she now held had been drawn to her that same day, giving her a means of fighting back against the threat of the Dopants. Thanks to Twilight developing the Uni Driver she now wore, she was protected from the harsh influences of the Gaia Memory, allowing her to fight as Kamen Rider Unicorn.
“While it’s not the Canterlot I grew up in, this city is still my home…” Sunset gripped the Unicorn Memory tightly as her resolve vulcanized, a fire burning in her eyes. “And I’ll stop anyone who thinks they can harm this city or any of my friends.”
“BOO!”
“Ahh!” Nearly jumping out of her skin, Sunset whirled around and glanced up, scowling at the figure standing over her. “Rainbow! Don’t startle me like that!”
Kamen Rider Nasca snickered. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” Leaping down from the roof, she ejected the Nasca Memory from her Driver as well, her armor fading to grey before disappearing to reveal Rainbow Dash in her place. Pocketing the Nasca Memory, Rainbow stuck her hands in her pockets as she strolled deeper into the alleyway. “Now… where did I hide my bike?”
Sunset huffed as she watched Rainbow search for her bike. It had only been a few weeks since Rainbow Dash had found the Nasca Memory, joining her as a fellow Kamen Rider thanks to another Driver designed by Twilight. While a bit rough around the edges, Rainbow Dash had been quick in learning the ropes of being a Kamen Rider and thus far proved herself a capable partner.
“Aha!” Rainbow exclaimed as she wheeled her bike out from behind a stack of trash cans. “There you are!”
Placing her helmet over her head, Sunset mounted her bike as she glanced behind her at Rainbow. “Come on, if we don’t hurry we’ll be late for school!”
“Right behind ya, Sunset!” Donning her own motorcycle helmet, Rainbow leaped into the seat as she gunned the engine, the two peeling out of the alleyway and tearing down the street.
***
“— Robbery attempt was thwarted early this morning thanks to the timely arrival of Canterlot’s very own heroes, Kamen Riders Unicorn and Nasca. An on-duty security officer at the Canterlot First National was injured during the initial robbery and has been rushed to hospital with serious, but non-life threatening injuries and is expected to make a full recovery. All three suspects have since been taken into custody and are expected to face charges including—”
“Sounds like you and Sunset had a busy mornin’, eh?”
Still lying on her back across the piano, Rainbow Dash looked away from her cellphone to glance at Applejack from across the room. “Sunset did most of the work. The dude was already on his last leg by the time I dropped in.”
“I appreciated the help all the same,” Sunset replied, sitting against the wall as she tuned her guitar. Nearby, Fluttershy worked on grooming Angel Bunny while Rarity fiddled with her keytar. The group had convened in the music room they regularly practiced in after school had ended.
“Speaking of this morning…” Setting her guitar down, Sunset stood up and stretched her arms over her head. “I don’t remember ever seeing that particular attack before. New trick?”
Sitting up, Rainbow draped her legs over the edge of the piano as she set her phone down next to her. “Yep, little something I’ve been working on. I can only do it while in Vermillion Mode, but it takes the boost of energy I get from it and slams it into the bad guy at full speed!” Her smile slipped into a frown as she added, “Downside is it pretty much drains Vermillion Mode from full to empty in one go, no matter how much time I had left, so I gotta be careful how I use it if’n I don’t want to end up a sitting duck.”
“Continuing with our Kamen Rider coverage…” Came the newscaster’s voice from Dash’s phone, attracting everyone’s attention. “... public support for the masked heroes has been on a constant rise across the city. More and more citizens are showing support for the pair of crime fighters with each passing day, with many saying they ‘feel safer with Unicorn and Nasca around.’
“However, the Canterlot Police Department has yet to give a statement on their opinion of the two masked vigilantes, with the Chief of Police quoted as saying, ‘All I will say is that these “Kamen Riders” are possible suspects regarding the recent string of monster reports across the city and that we will do our best to protect our city’s people through these turbulent time.”
“Hear that? They’re talking about us!” Pumping her fist in the air, Rainbow grinned from ear to ear. “Oh, yeah! The people love us! This is what being a hero is all about!”
“Careful, Rainbow…” Sunset warned with a frown, “any bigger and your head won’t be able to fit in your helmet anymore.”
Rainbow replied with a dismissive snort. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Being a Kamen Rider isn’t about fame or glory, but about protecting people from the Dopants. Still, it’s nice to hear that people actually appreciate everything we do dealing with these punks. Were this a comic book, there’s a good chance they would rather throw rocks at us on sight.”
“I would have to agree with Rainbow,” Rarity interjected, playing a few notes on her keytar. “As long as you don’t let such praise go your head, there’s nothing wrong with accepting some respect from time to time. Considering how much you two have sacrificed to keep these ‘Dopants’ from running afoul, I would say you’ve earned it.”
Sunset sighed, but a small smile still slipped across her lips. “I suppose you’re right. It is nice to know we’re actually making a difference. Now…” Tapping her finger against her chin in thought, she added, “If only we could figure out where these Gaia Memories are being distributed from…”
“I can help with that!”
Everyone glanced at the door as Twilight came bursting into the room, wheeling a massive whiteboard into the room with Pinkie’s help.
“Uh...Twi?” Applejack asked, “Why did ya go and steal the art room’s whiteboard?
“Borrowing, not stealing!” Twilight stressed as she finished wheeling the board inside. “It’s for visual aid, because I think I might have stumbled upon a potential lead! It was so obvious I’m amazed I didn’t think of it sooner!” Grabbing a red marker, Twilight began frantically writing across the board as her friends all watched with mixtures of curiosity and building dread that Twilight might just explode at any minute from sheer excitement.
“So! Refresher!” Twilight announced once she had finished scrawling across the board, pointing with the tip of her marker at a pair of lines that read, “T1 Gaia Memory” and “T2 Gaia Memory” respectively. “We all know there are two types of Gaia Memories, right?”
“Duh!” Rainbow replied. “The ones me and Sunset use and the kind that robber had this morning.”
“Correct! The ones that have been used primarily by criminals thus far would be the T1 Memories, which all have a distinguishing bone design on them. While these Memories are quite powerful, they are also very fragile and break upon being struck by a Maximum Drive.” She added “Bone design” and “Fragile” beneath T1 Gaia Memory.
“More on those in a minute, but the ones you and Sunset use are classified instead as T2 Memories. Besides being more refined Gaia Memories based on my research, they don’t break upon being hit by a Maximum Drive.” Underneath T2 Gaia Memory, she jotted down “Smoother appearance” and “Don’t break”. “Right now the Memories you two have gathered so far are the ‘Unicorn’, ‘Fang’, ‘Cyclone’, ‘Queen’, ‘Joker’, ‘Metal’, Shining’, ‘Nasca’ and ‘Accel’ Memories.”
“Queen… That was the Memory that possessed Sunny Flare, wasn’t it?” Rarity gained a dejected look across her face as she recalled the pain that her friend had suffered under the Memory’s intoxicating control. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forget the monster Sunny Flare ended becoming by using that… thing to enthrall everyone at Crystal Prep. I can’t thank you enough, Sunset, for freeing her from its influence.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I couldn’t just stand by and let her suffer like that.“ Especially since I know what that kind of power feels like and the regrets that come with it, Sunset thought, wincing at the all too vivid memory of when she had made that same mistake, ending up consumed by a power beyond her understanding and seeking to bring the student body under her heel.
Even now, just having the Queen Memory in her possession made her terrified of potentially repeating the same mistake twice. “How is Sunny Flare by the way?”
“She’s… recovering.” Rarity replied delicately. “I can say she’s definitely in a better place mentally and physically than before, but it still left a few scars behind. Sometimes, all I can do for her is to be there to help her through it.”
“Sometimes, just bein’ there is more than enough.” Applejack reassured her, placing her hand comfortingly on Rarity’s shoulder and smiling down at her.
“Anyway!” Twilight interrupted, gesturing back at the whiteboard. “Every Gaia Memory, whether T1 or T2, has a symbol on it that corresponds to what it represents in the form of a letter. And, while there have been several T1 Memories bearing the same letter, I noticed we’ve yet to see a repeating T2 Memory. Which means…”
“... That there might just be a single T2 for every letter,” Sunset surmised.
“Exactly!” Drawing up a column, she jotted down the alphabet while filling in the Memories she had already mentioned next to their corresponding letter. “If I’m right, then it means we might have a way of tracking how many T2s are left!”
“Well, somebody palmed one of them off onto Gilda,” Rainbow remarked. “‘Violence’, I think it was?”
“‘Puppeteer’ was the one that varment Svengallop was using to take advantage of Rara’s talent.” Applejack growled, grinding her teeth together at the memory of Svengallop treating her oldest friend like a mere object.
“Glitter Glam was using one to frame Sunset,” Fluttershy added. “I think it was something with a G.”
“‘Gene’.” Sunset remembered vividly how Glitter Glam had boasted about the Gaia Memory’s power and how she was going to use it to systematically ruin Sunset’s life.
“About those three, this is where it gets complicated.” Drawing three boxes, Twilight doodled three crude images of an icy Dopant, a fiery Dopant, and an avian Dopant. “All three Memories were snatched up by three unknown Dopants before Sunset could retrieve them. I tried looking them up in the Infinite Library, but I didn’t have enough keywords to make a clear match. The closest I could get were ‘Winter’, ‘Burning’ and ‘Harpy’.” Writing the possible names under each box with a question mark next to them, she drew a line connecting the three boxes to ‘T1 Gaia Memories’.
“Assuming the three of them are all working together and not separate entities, it’s very likely that they’re the ones distributing the T1 Memories to criminals and the like. Analyzing the remains of the destroyed Memories leads me to believe that they were designed by reverse-engineering the tech of the T2s, meaning that the T2 Memories are the originals and the T1s are simply mass-produced knock-offs.” Stepping away from the board, she muttered, “Why they’re even creating more Gaia Memories I can’t even begin to fathom though...”
“Question!” Pinkie shouted, waving her hand in the air like in class. “Do we know where these things even came from?”
Twilight sighed. “Sadly, no. It’s likely they appeared through that column of emerald energy we saw during the earthquake, but as to where they originated from before that I can’t say. Their energy is like nothing I’ve ever seen before!”
Sunset bit her thumb, unable to shake the still lingering feeling that somehow this was all her fault, jumpstarted by her bringing magic into a world that had previously been magicless. Dispelling that thought with a shake of her head, she stepped up to the whiteboard and scanned Twilight’s notes. “Well, seems like we have a plan then.”
Snatching the marker from Twilight, Sunset circled the boxes with the three Dopants inside. “We find these three, follow them back to wherever they’re producing the Gaia Memories and shut it down. That should stop the flow of new Gaia Memories into the city while we hunt down the remaining T2s.”
“So we find ‘em, beat ‘em to a pulp and force ‘em to tell us where they’re making all these things, right? Sounds like a plan to me!” Rainbow replied, driving her fist into the palm of her hand. “I still owe that ‘Harpy’ a beatdown for giving one of those things to Gilda!”
“Now, adding in the ‘Puppeteer’, ‘Violence’ and ‘Gene’ Memories as well as assuming all three of these Dopants were also using T2s and that just leaves…” Twilight paused as she counted down the list. “Seven… eight… nine more T2s unaccounted for! We should start doing patrols of the city, dividing up the city into sections while canvass… canvassing…” Bringing her hand up to her mouth, Twilight fought back a powerful yawn. Lifting her glasses to rub at her eyes, she slid them back down as she returned to the whiteboard. “As I was saying, we should—”
“Twilight?” Sunset asked, placing a hand on her friend’s shoulder. As Twilight turned her head, Sunset noticed for the first time how bloodshot Twilight’s eyes were, not helped by the heavy bags hanging under her eyes. “Are you alright?”
“I’m… I’m fine…” Twilight replied, failing to suppress another yawn. “We should get started on… on…” Twilight wobbled on her feet, before suddenly collapsing forward.
“Whoa!” Reacting fast, Sunset caught Twilight before she could slam into the floor. “Twilight, you look exhausted! When was the last time you slept?”
“Uh… what day is today?”
“Twilight, I think you need to lie down—”
“No!” Pulling away from Sunset, Twilight vehemently shook her head. “I’m fine, really! There’s far too much for me to do to waste time lying down! I need to help you and Dash find the rest of the Gaia Memories, not to mention I still need to work on my latest mech-animal design and then there’s... there’s…” Twilight pressed a hand to her forehead as she wobbled again, collapsing into Sunset’s arms.
“That’s it,” Sunset said firmly. “You need to get some rest. Now.” Supporting Twilight onto her feet, she slowly walked her towards the back of the room.
“But… Sunset—”
“No buts. You won’t be helping anyone if you collapse like that again. Besides, I seem to recall a certain someone reprimanding her brother for much the same thing.”
“... I guess a nap couldn’t hurt.” Yawning again, Twilight let herself be lead towards the back wall. As they walked, Twilight rested her head against Sunset’s shoulder, sinking deeper into Sunset’s embrace. She’s so warm… Twilight thought, too tired to reprimand herself for thinking about her friend like that.
By the time the pair reached the back wall, Twilight was fast asleep. Smiling, Sunset sat down with her back against the wall, careful not to disturb Twilight. Removing Twilight’s glasses, she set them carefully aside as she cradled her sleeping friend, brushing a lock of stray hair from Twilight’s face. “Sweet dreams, Twilight.”
Snickering from the front of the room reminded Sunset that it wasn’t just her and Twilight there, glancing up to find her friends all trying their hardest to hold in their laughter. Glaring them down, she silently mouthed, “Not. A. Word.”
***
Under the blanket of night, a pair of figures stood beneath a bridge on the outskirts of the city. Bundled up in a thick jacket and a bowler hat, a sleazy looking man meticulously counted through a suitcase bursting with stacks of hundred dollar bills. “One hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred… two hundred thousand. Everything seems to be here. Now, as promised…” Closing the suitcase and setting it at his feet, he retrieved his own suitcase and held it up, clicking the locks open before lifting the lid up.
Nestled inside atop a cushion of velvet was a golden Gaia Memory, a pair of outstretched wings extending outward from the top. Reaching in, the second figure pulled out the device, holding it up under the moonlight.
“No refunds, all sales are final,” the man quickly declared as he closed the suitcase. “This Memory wasn’t easy to get a hold of, hence the price tag. With that, our business transaction is done.” Picking up the suitcase full of money, the man tipped his hat before beating a hasty retreat.
Now alone, a devilish grin spread across the figure’s face as they pressed their thumb against the device.
< QUETZALCOATLUS! >