They say that third time is the charm, not that she knew what they meant with that phrase since she always did things at the first and when she didn’t, well, she took her time to learn and get everything just right; it was this time that she finally understood what humans meant with that phrase, because for the third time since she got her hands on the belt on her waist, she had been able to transform.
While the action of transforming into something else was not new to the ex-unicorn mare, this was an extreme version of what she had already done several times; first was turning into human, then into a she-demon, then she got pony ears and then that strange alicorn-like transformation using the power of the Elements of Harmony, so, now that she thought about it, she had been taking a lot of different forms since she got back her magic.
Still, what she knew was that she had an amazing affinity to new and extremely variant sources of power; unlike Princess Twilight, who besides gaining wings permanently, had the Rainbow Power which they used a grand total of once, Sunset Shimmer had been able to gain more and more powers as things went on. The belt on her waist was the true testament of how her life had changed in terms of power and energy capable of defeating her opponents; and she thought she had reached the pinnacle of magical power when she saved Twilight back at the Friendship Games, now she was standing in the middle of a forest after fighting one of the owners of the camp who had transformed into some kind of plant monstrosity. When her life did become so chaotic? Maybe when she decided to jump into the mirror, but considering her fate, maybe the problems started even before that.
Taking the radar from belt, the suit around her body dissolved into fine mist, evaporating as if it didn’t exist from the beginning, showing a tired teenager underneath the suit; this was a girl that had been waiting for some relaxation among trees, lake and friends, but instead the only thing she got was fighting and more headaches that were necessary. The white, immaculate device was as mysterious now as when it was changed into this form, but with one click on the side, the device opened like before, but instead of absorbing and storing magic, this time the interior had changed.
Moments prior to Gardenia’s transformation, Sunset had seen a strange set of crystals hanging from her neck, which in truth gave her the same kind of feeling than the Dazzlings when they arrived at CHS. At this point in time, it was clear that those crystals had the power of Equestria inside of them, but for what reason and what was their purpose? Well, if Sunset knew something was the fact that wizards back in Equestria liked to get rid of things by throwing them into the human world, with no after thought to the creatures already living in this world.
Inside her device now sat comfortable one of those crystals, one that was shining red if she looked at it and focused; around it, making a full circle around the interior of the device, there were another six places for crystals too. Sunset snorted, knowing full well that those crystals were connected to her friends and her, it was too much of a coincidence to have seven crystals lying around with colors that matched those of the Elements of Harmony, although, she was a confused about why there were seven and not six; was her magic part of this too for some reason? If that was correct, then that meant the mystery was getting bigger, with not only monsters appearing, but now the Elements of Harmony?
“Hey Shouichi! You still in Japan?... Is because I saw Agito, or at least an Agito… yeah, I’m here with another Rider apparently… I don’t know, but I’m curious about it… yeah, I’ll keep in contact with you,” the mind with the wild hair, and apparently also a wild Rider, hanged on the phone; he had been talking in Japanese so Sunset had no idea who he was talking to, except something about an Agito, whatever the hell that meant “you kid, you are the one fighting these monsters?” then he switched to very good English; considering what Sunset had seen from videos that Rainbow had shown her in YT, most Japanese people had some serious trouble learning English.
“This is, well, the third time they appeared, but I still have no idea what is going on,” Sunset hated being in the unknown about something, which explained why she had become so obsessed with the mirror in the first place.
“We all start like that, with some degrees of confusion apart between some of us,” he said pointing at the belt that was still present on his waist; unlike the one in Sunset’s waist, this one was one piece, a green brilliant jewel mounted in what looked like pure gold; it gave an air of mysticism instead of technology and magic like Sunset’s.
“Us? I saw you transform, but I have no idea of what’s going on, I don’t even know what this thing is!”
“I guess it was lucky that I came to America then, you have no idea how horrible it is to transform with no idea of how or why; wish there was someone that could explain it to me when I gained this power, but I’m here for you. We are Kamen Riders, but that’s the only thing in common that we have kid.”
“Yeah, I heard that name; I am Kamen Rider Yujo.”
“Harmony? Well, I guess it is a better name than Gills, but I guess there is someone that can help you more with your belt than me.”
“But you are a Rider too!”
“And? One thing you will have to understand quickly is that Riders appear for different reasons and with different goals too; some become Riders because of evolution, due to technology or genetical and mechanical experiments; because of humanity or civilizations forgotten by all. Come, I think you better listen to the Professor about this,” the blonde man said as they walked back into the camp, where Filthy Rich, who had recovered after his encounter with the Spider monsters, was discussing something with a still shaken Timber and a short redheaded woman with a braid reaching her back.
“You see miss-”
“I suppose if you want to be technical, it would be Doctor, but most people call me Professor Saotome these days,” the short woman said with a full grin in her beautiful face; as she smiled, her blue eyes seemed to sparkle in glee which contrasted heavily with the scowling Filthy and the still shocked Timber.
“And you are here because?” Filthy did not like this woman, after all, she was getting in the middle of a very juicy business of his and he hated when people got in the middle of one of his plans.
“You see Filthy-”
“I prefer to be called Mister Rich.”
“Like I said, Filthy, is that I will pay for all the debt that Mister Spruce and his sister had accumulated through the years.”
“And the reason for this generosity?”
“Oh no, this is not just because I like the Camp, which I do, believe me, but is more in terms of research; my company is very interested in making a permanent research lab in this place due to the high amount of energy concentration in this part.”
“You company?”
“Oh yes, Green Queen Laboratories, maybe you have heard of it?” The woman asked as she adjusted slightly her thin spectacles while the grin in her face never left her face.