Kamen Rider Unicorn The Movie: Memories of Friendship

by Michael_Ravencroft


Revelations

Trixie was busy pacing the floor of her room, it was already midnight and she still hadn’t heard from Sunset Shimmer. No texts, no missed calls, nothing. Trixie bit at her thumb as she stared at the backpack, like a phantom haunting her, telling her that she should have called Sunset instead. The girl was already depressed and angry at her current situation, and Trixie knew better than to just leave her alone, at this point she should’ve told her mother what was going on, but something inside Trixie told her she should trust Sunset Shimmer, even though she had no real basis for that, it was still a strong feeling she couldn’t ignore. 

Now though, as the hour drew late, and no contact came from Sunset, she was getting increasingly worried about her safety. “You’re just reading too much into it, Trixie! Sunset’s a strong girl, and confident! She wouldn’t do anything stupid!” 

How many people thought that about their friends until it actually happened, thought Trixie. 

Just then, a knock came at Trixie’s bedroom door, and in peeked her mother. She was a tall, slender woman, with long golden hair, a golden-brown complexion, and a gorgeous pair of emerald green eyes. Her name was Spectacle, and considering how she looked, the name was spot on. Despite her mother being in her forties, the woman looked as if she was in her late twenties, even Trixie could see that her mother must’ve been a hit when she and her father were performing stage magic together. 

“Trixie, honey, it’s midnight, you need to head to bed soon. You do remember you have school in the morning.” Spectacle took a moment to look over her daughter and realized that she had a worried expression. “Trixie, what’s wrong?” 

“I-It’s nothing, really, just thinking about a new trick, that’s all,” she lied. 

Spectacle put her hands on her hips and cocked an eyebrow at the obvious lie. “Now, Trixie, precious thing, you do remember that – besides your father – I too am a master of sleight of hand and illusions.” To prove her point, Spectacle raised her right hand and made a motion with it, making a playing card appear out of nowhere. When she turned the card around, she showed it to be a tarot card, more specifically, The Moon arcana. “The Moon, in the upright position. You’re afraid, and anxious. What’s wrong Trixie? You know you can talk to me.” 

Trixie knew she couldn’t hide everything from her mother, but maybe she could offer some advice, provided she didn’t divulge every bit of the situation. The silver haired girl sat down on her bed, with her mother sitting next to her. “There’s a friend at my school, she’s…she’s going through a really hard time right now.” 

“How so?” 

“Everybody sees her as someone to be afraid of, to be feared and hated, but, in reality, she’s not really like that. I mean, I thought that about her for a while now, but after today, I’ve started to rethink everything I know about her. In the good way, I mean! Even her friends seem to have forgotten all the good she once did and is,” said Trixie. 

Spectacle could see this was really getting her daughter down, and it sounded like heavy stuff for a teen girl to go through. “This friend of yours, is she alright?” 

“I don’t know now…she left me her backpack and said she’d come by to get it, but that was hours ago, and she hasn’t texted or called! I’ve called her and texted her several times and she’s not responding! I’m…I’m worried, and I don’t really know how to help her.” Trixie admitted. 

Spectacle hugged her daughter, trying to bring some comfort to Trixie. “You shouldn’t have to carry all of this on your own, Trixie. You should tell Principal Celestia or Vice Principal Luna, I’m sure they’d be able to help Sunset Shimmer.” 

“I don’t know – wait, what?! I never said it was her!” Trixie exclaimed in surprise. 

“Please, if there’s one girl that fits that description, it’s her. And, I don’t think we need to worry too much, if she’s as strong as you know she is, then she’s fine. Look.” Spectacle made another gesture with her hand, and another card appeared. She then flipped it around to display a new arcana tarot card. “The Star, the symbol of hope, and…” Spectacle made another gesture, changing the card to another arcana. “The Strength, courage is what’s needed my bright shining star. You have it, and so does she. You’ll see her tomorrow, I’m sure of it.” 

Trixie smiled and hugged her mother tight. “Thanks, Mother.” 

“Anytime, Great and Powerful Trixie,” said Spectacle, causing her daughter to blush. “Now, off to bed, you won’t be of any use to anyone if you’re tired and groggy.” 

Trixie nodded, and Spectacle got up to leave. When she closed the door, she made one last hand gesture and made another tarot card appear. With a bit of trepidation, she flipped the card around and grimaced at the new arcana. “The Tower…a great upheaval is coming…” When it came to this card, it was a real neutral card, even if right side up. It could mean that the upheaval could be a good thing or a bad thing.

While Trixie was changing, she suddenly heard a buzzing sound, like a phone vibrating. Trixie looked around and saw that Sunset’s backpack was shaking and glowing. The amateur magician eyed the vibrating backpack, a myriad of ideas went through her head as to what that buzzing, and glowing could be attributed to. At one point a thought came to Trixie’s mind that made her blush hard, she quickly shook her head to dislodge the thought and finally decided to just see for herself. Carefully, the amateur magician opened the backpack and let the contents slide out. The buzzing and glowing came from a leather-bound journal, with a sun and star emblem emblazoned onto it. 

Trixie opened the journal as the pages flew to a blank page, and upon it was written a message in real time. 

Sunset, we think the Memory Stone was buried under this rock formation.

The image of three stones aligned in a triangle appeared on the page. 

We were able to determine it takes three full days for the effects of the memory loss to be permanent. And if you don’t destroy the Memory Stone by the time the sun sets on the third day when the memories were first erased, all those memories will be erased forever! 

Trixie’s eyes bulged out at reading that last line. As of midnight, today was the third day. Did that mean that they were already too late? “Wait, we don’t know when the culprit actually erased the memories, and if that’s true, it could’ve been at anytime!” 

That theory was both comforting and alarming. While that didn’t mean that today meant that the memories were all gone, without knowing the proper time in which the erasing took place, any time today could be the time when their deadline was up. Trixie quickly took to her phone and texted Sunset the information from her strange magic journal, hoping that this would get Sunset to call or text her back. 

Dammit, Sunset, where are you?!

***______________<U>______________***

Twilight was pacing her room, her heart was a jumble of emotions, in conflict with what she knew about Sunset Shimmer. She was a bully, a tyrant, she constantly picked on Twilight and degraded her, comparing her to Princess Twilight and how she would never measure up. By all rights Twilight should hate Sunset Shimmer, and yet…and yet she kissed her. It would’ve been another thing if Sunset initiated the kiss, forced her to do it. But that wasn’t the case, no, it was Twilight who initiated the kiss, Twilight who felt a strange wanting and stirring in her heart and liked every minute of their contact. 

“Oh gods, please, please don’t tell me I’m developing romantic feelings for my abuser?! Why her of all the people in this city – no – of all the people in the world?! Okay, so I swing ‘that way’, fine, I accept that! But, why her?! I mean, Rainbow Dash is a better candidate if she wasn’t dating Gilda! Rarity too, if she wasn’t already dating Sunny Flare! Hell, there are plenty of cute girls at CHS! It’s just a fluke, my teenage hormones are just interfering with my rational mind. That’s right there are plenty of cute girls I’ve met before that I’m sure I can get the same response from.” 

Twilight closed her eyes and imagined in her mind’s eye said list of girls. She started with some of the girls from Crystal Prep, which, after a long thought, realized that they were inherently “hot” in their own ways. The first was Indigo Zap, she was boisterous, energetic, and much like Rainbow Dash, an intense athlete. While the thought of being by the strong teen did make her shiver, it only lasted a few seconds before that mental image shifted and turned into Sunset Shimmer.

“UGH! Okay, someone else,” said Twilight. 

The second girl she imagined was one of her friends, in this case she imagined Pinkie Pie. The “Pink Menace” as some would call her, was a bottomless source of energy, almost bouncing off the walls both figuratively and literally, her positive outlook on life helped to brighten any situation, and her joy was seeing other people happy. Surely such a girl would be allowed to be selfish and have someone special all to herself? And Twilight would form the perfect balance, and an extrovert like Pinkie would indeed help her come out of her metaphorical shell, she already did that now, so it would only increase with a romantic relationship. However, not long after imagining such a scenario, did Pinkie turn into Sunset and a mental image of the two of them riding her motorcycle popped into her mind. 

Twilight ran her hands through her hair as she let out a frustrated yell and then fell back on her bed. Even now, she could still remember what happened very vividly. Despite how strong Sunset came back at her, she was still gentle, it wasn’t as if she was forcing her back, more like guiding her, and she even stopped when she could’ve taken it a lot further than Twilight would’ve been comfortable with. Would a bully like Sunset really be concerned about something like that? 

Just then, Twilight heard the familiar jingling of dog tags and sat up to see Spike entering her room. “You okay, Twi?” 

“I don’t know, Spike,” Twilight sighed heavily. “I’m very confused right now.” 

“Did, Sunset do something?” Spike asked with an edge in his tone. 

“No…more like I did something to her.” 

That made Spike curious. “You? What did you do?” 

Twilight removed her glasses as she rubbed her face. “I kissed Sunset…”

Spike’s jaw dropped upon hearing this. “You kissed Sunset Shimmer?!” 

“Yes…I was just unloading all the pent-up anger I had about her at once, and…I expected her to get angry, furious even, I expected her to cuss me out or even attempt to physically hurt me! But she didn’t, she just said all these things about me…all these traits that she’s noticed about me, and that…she made it sound as if we’ve been together, but…you’d think I’d remember my first ever girlfriend?!” Twilight exclaimed. 

Spike walked forward as she said, “Well…I mean…I don’t know, Twi that’s kind of a head stumb – OW!” Spike stepped backwards as he yelped. 

Twilight quickly moved down to the floor and asked, “Are you okay?!” 

“Yeah, no, I am, but I stepped on something.” 

Both Spike and Twilight looked down at the floor and noticed that the crystal unicorn charm that was lying on the floor. Twilight picked up the piece of jewelry, staring at it as if it held an answer to a question Twilight didn’t know she was asking. Just then, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and Shining Armor was in her doorway. 

“Shiny, are you alright, you left here in a hurry, and what was that noise outside earlier?” Twilight asked. 

“Unicorn showed up, she was fighting some kind of Dopant,” said Shining Armor. 

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “That’s the second time that’s happened, why is she fighting the very things she’s creating?” 

“Probably infighting or something, but…” Shining looked away for a moment, unsure of how to explain what he had to say. “There’s something you need to know.”

“What?” 

Shining stood up straight and said, “We fought Unicorn, Rainbow Dash was the first to engage, and then I backed her up. Rainbow said she cornered Unicorn after our attacks heavily damaged her, but then she revealed her true identity……it’s Sunset Shimmer.” 

Twilight’s eyes widened with shock, the notorious villain, Kamen Rider Unicorn, was Sunset Shimmer, and she had kissed her, and let her into their home. “What happened, during the fight, was she acting strange?!” 

“Well…” Shining thought. “If there was anything, it was that she didn’t fight back.” 

“She…Unicorn…Sunset Shimmer, didn’t attack you?” Twilight asked in utter confusion. 

Shining crossed his arms as she sighed. “She had plenty of opportunities to do so, but she stayed on the defensive throughout the whole fight.” 

“Maybe you two were attacking her too fast to react?” Twilight suggested. 

Shining Armor shook his head. “It’s just a nagging feeling in the back of my head, but I don’t think she wanted to fight us. Like she was doing everything possible to avoid fighting us, which goes against everything I remember during the times we have fought her. I don’t like this, especially…” 

“Especially, what?” 

“She was abducted.” 

“WHAT?! BY WHO?!” Twilight shouted. 

“Some new Rider I’ve never seen before…at least…I don’t think we have, Rainbow described her, but I feel as if I should know who that is. Anyway, I just wanted to get you updated from what happened,” said Shining Armor as he began to walk away. 

Twilight reached out to her brother and asked, “Wait, are you going to put out an APB on Sunset?” 

Shining Armor stopped. “Would it be weird if I said I know I should, but something’s telling me not to?” 

Twilight clutched her right hand against her chest as she replied, “No, and it wouldn’t be the only weird thing that happened tonight.” 

Shining’s shoulders slumped in exhaustion. “Alright, get some sleep.” 

When Shining Armor was gone, Twilight closed the door and found herself looking down at her canine companion. 

“What are you going to do, Twi?” Spike asked. 

A determined look appeared upon her face as she said, “What I should’ve done a while ago. Look Up!” 

~*~*~*~

Twilight entered the Memories of the Earth, a lot of things were not adding up, making less and less sense. If there was anyplace in the world that had the answers she sought, it was in this vast collection of knowledge. This wouldn’t be a normal search; she already knew the subject and the key word was…

“Look up: Sunset Shimmer.” 

The many rows of bookshelves disappeared as a single book flew from one of the shelves and floated before Twilight. The book transformed into a leather-bound book, the front cover had edges of gold and red metal, and at the center was a turquoise colored unicorn. Only now did Twilight understand the meaning of that symbol. So many doubts plagued her mind, but this place would clear those up, the Earths’ Memories recorded everything, and that meant all of Sunset Shimmer’s bad deeds and, if possible, good deeds.

“This will clear up everything.” 

Twilight opened the book and before her flashed a series of events, it went back to the Fall Formal, showing Sunset’s defeat at the hands of her friends and the Princess version of herself. But up until that point, that was the only thing that was the same. It then showed the Battle of the Bands that her friends spoke of, they said that Sunset had been quite the antagonist throughout the whole thing, almost as bad as the Sirens, but…

“She…She helped them defeat the Sirens, and with my other self too?!” 

More images flashed on, showing the infamous Friendship Games. Twilight was certain this was where the misconceptions would end, and everything would align with her memories of the event. And they did, for a few instances. Sunset was being cheered on by the other students, sharing in laughter with her friends, and yes, she did yell at her, but it wasn’t just her friends who saved Twilight. The image of Sunset Shimmer appeared, having been transformed by the Magic of Friendship into a beautiful, angelic being who stopped her dark counterpart, Midnight Sparkle, and cleansed her of the darkness. 

“That…That can’t be! I was there, she…she didn’t hold my hand, she didn’t reach out to me!” 

More images continued to flow, showing Twilight how Sunset was helping her through the ordeal of becoming a dark angel, telling her of her past and how she had overcome it. The next images really didn’t make sense. She witnessed as Twilight herself created the Uni-Driver, gave it to Sunset, and helped her to become Kamen Rider Unicorn. But what she saw was not a villain, but a hero, every battle, every new ally gained, and the mysterious Rider that her brother spoke about. 

“Kamen Rider Equal…” 

Twilight continued to look through the book, now seeing all the times that she and Sunset spent together, even the part where they said they loved each other, and shared their first kiss. Sunset was telling the truth.

“No…this…none of this makes sense! It’s…It’s in total contrast to everything I remember!” Twilight exclaimed. 

“What does your heart tell you?”

Sunset’s words rang in Twilight’s ears, her heart, it…it yearned for Sunset Shimmer even more now, despite what she has believed all this time, and now what she learned, Sunset was important to her. The last scene she looked upon was the day of Christmas, when the two exchanged gifts and showed each other the matching crystal unicorn charms. 

~*~*~*~

Twilight exited the Earth’s Memories and frantically raced to her dresser, she searched through numerous drawers until she found the one that contained the few pieces of jewelry that she did own. After rummaging through the drawer, she gasped. Twilight picked up a very familiar unicorn crystal charm, she brought up both of the charms and inspected them carefully, they were exact match, how did she have this and not know it? How did Sunset know? The only why she could have known was…

“If she gave it to me…” Twilight sat upon her bed as tears began to well up in her eyes. The look of rejection and shock on Sunset’s face when she pushed her off, showing nothing but contempt and fear. “Oh my gosh…she was telling the truth…!” Twilight shot up to her feet and grabbed her cellphone. “I have to tell the girls!” 

“Twilight, it’s the middle of the night, and most of them are asleep, well, except for Rainbow Dash. You may want to save the heavy stuff for when they’re awake,” Spike suggested. 

Twilight felt antsy, she wanted – no – needed to tell her friends the truth, but Spike was right. This was too much to write down in a text, and at this late night they wouldn’t be able to fully process it. With a reluctant sigh, Twilight relented to the bare minimum. 

[Emergency meeting at the Wondercolt Statue before school starts! This is urgent!]

***______________<U>______________***

Sunset awoke with a start, she winced as she felt her whole entire body ache. The former unicorn took a moment to look about her surroundings and noticed something familiar, something big and familiar. First off, she was lying on a couch, second, a few feet away from her, was the Emerald Mountain, the physical connection from this plane of existence to the Memories of the Earth. Sunset looked around and saw that she was in the cavern that housed the giant crystal, and behind her were several workstations, and at one of them was a familiar face. 

“S-Starlight Glimmer?” 

Starlight was busy soldering something until she heard Sunset’s voice, she put down her tools and looked up to see her friend had finally woken up. “Good, I was starting to get a little worried there for a second. But it’s you, so I should’ve known better.” 

Sunset shifted her position until she was sitting on the couch. “Are we…Are we under PhoenEXE Corp.?”

“Yes, I used one of many different backdoors to get us here, it’s the only safe place that is unaffected by what’s occurred up top,” said Starlight. 

She picked up a bottle of water and brought it over to Sunset. The young woman took the bottle and took a swig of it. Starlight sat down next to Sunset and gave her a smile. Sunset had to ask, “So, you remember this place?” 

“I remember, everything.” 

“Oh, uh…”

“Relax, our quarrel is over, you’re still my friend, I’ll never forget that. However, the same can’t be said of the others,” said Starlight. 

Sunset looked down at the floor, feeling as if she wanted to cry and was very well close to doing so. “My friends hate me, my girlfriend rejects me, the city sees me as a villain, and the one responsible has gone to ground. I’m out of options, Starlight. At this rate…wait…how are you not affected, and how did you get your memories back, and how do you know what’s going on?” 

Starlight smiled as she showed her Equal Memory to Sunset. “When the reality warp happened, and the memory erasure, this appeared to me. I wasn’t sure at the time what it was, but it called out to me to grab it. The moment I did, balance was restored, the power of this Gaia Memory made it so that I did not lose memories but gained memories when the warp occurred. So now I remember my time as Equal and our battles. It didn’t take me long to realize something was up, especially when I looked up that Unicorn was a villain.” 

“I wanted to contact you, but I wasn’t sure how much had been affected, so I investigated.” Starlight got up from her seat and walked over to the workstations. She then wheeled over a whiteboard which showed a crude diagram of the city and some kind of bubble. “From what I’ve been able to determine, this is a closed space. It extends a bit past the city limits and encompasses everything from the city, AJ’s farm, and even Mount Eris. I’ve tried to exit it, but all my attempts have failed. Barring that, I set out to see what did and did not change in here. From what I’ve been able to piece together, my existence has been erased, in order for you or rather, Kamen Rider Unicorn, to be painted as the villain in this reality.” 

“So, that monster I fought has taken away that PhoenEXE Corp. was part of the Dopant conspiracy,” said Sunset. 

“Yep, it’s just seen as a tech company, and either the Dopant knows I’m Equal and doesn’t care, or just overlooked that fact when they rewrote this world.” 

Sunset interest piqued upon hearing that. “Wait, so it is Dopant?” 

Starlight tapped her chin. “Yes, and no. It’s giving off similar energy to that of a Gaia Memory, but one I’ve never seen before. The other part of its energy is unknown to me.” 

“Magic,” Sunset stated. “Memoria’s using a relic from Equestria to help her erase the memories of me and Unicorn from the minds of the people.” 

Starlight bit her lip as she looked upon her calculations on the board. “So, my hypothesis was correct. A fusion of magic and Gaia Memory power, somehow this person has figured out how to combine them, that kind of power…” Starlight shook her head. “Anyway, we need to figure out who the culprit is and defeat them. I fear the longer this reality continues to stay the way it is, the more it will set in as the true reality.” 

Sunset frowned at Starlight’s suggestion. “It’s no use, even if we find the culprit, by now, my identity’s being blasted through the city, I showed myself to Rainbow Dash, hoping it would jog a memory before I blacked out. No doubt she’s told Shining Armor and the police force on top of it.” 

Starlight raised an eyebrow at that. “Not so sure that’s the case. I’ve been scanning the internet and police communications, there’s no mention of Unicorn’s identity, plenty about the fight, but nothing about me as Equal, or you being outed. I think they’re keeping it quiet.” 

Sunset felt a spark of hope ignite in her chest. “Still…There’s no way I can go back to CHS. Rainbow knows I’m Unicorn, if not now, then by tomorrow the girls will know, Twilight will know…and even Trixie might figure it out and then…”

Starlight sighed heavily. “Seriously, Sunset, you’re making it hard to believe that you’re the same girl who defeated me all those months ago.” 

Sunset rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment as she said, “Technically, I didn’t really defeat you…you saved me and I saved you, kind of. Our Rider Kicks more or less cancelled each other out.” 

“After that, did I ever become Equal again, aside from now? Were you still a hero?” Starlight asked, to which Sunset nodded. “Then you defeated me…I still think I can bring equality to this world my way, though.” Starlight sighed wistfully. “I guess we’ll always be on divergent paths, Sunset Shimmer.” 

Sunset stood up and smiled at Starlight as she placed a hand on her shoulder. “Even best friends can disagree and still be friends. But right now, we have a common goal, and if this reality sets in, at least I’ll have you, and Trixie, hopefully, as my friends. I can tolerate a world like that.” 

“Heh, yeah, no, we’re not settling for that,” Starlight chuckled. “We’re getting our reality back, even if it means I go back to being an amnesiac.”

“Starlight…”

“Look, I don’t know if this is permanent, or if it’s just because of the reality being messed with. If it’s the latter, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure your future, and my friends’ futures, are not destroyed by some ego maniac on a power trip!” Starlight declared with vigor. “So, all I need to know is, are you still willing to fight to get back what is rightfully yours?!”

Sunset was feeling low, but now, with Starlight, she felt that it was possible, that she did have a chance at ending this nightmare for good. “Alright, I’m in. What’s our next move?”

“Well, with my hypothesis proven right by Memoria, I think I may have way to defeat her, but I’ll need a little more time to finish it up. However, I do believe you were on the right track, the culprit is definitely someone from your past, and more than likely at CHS. If we’re going to defeat them, we need to find out who they are first, and as much as it will suck, you need to go back to CHS and keep investigating,” Starlight explained. 

Sunset dreaded that, she knew it was going to be all kinds of awkward, but with her renewed resolve she could power through this and find out who it is. Starlight then reached into her pocket and took out Sunset’s phone. “By the way, someone’s been blowing you up for the past four hours, I didn’t recognize the name, so I didn’t check them.” 

Sunset took her phone back and read over the texts; each one was more frantically worried than the last. Guess I didn’t leave Trixie with much confidence in my mental state. Can’t really blame her. After scrolling through the messages, she nearly went into panic mode upon reading her last message. 

[Sunset, you better be just ignoring me or something, because we need to step it up tomorrow! FYI, I found your magic journal thing and it had a message from Princess Twilight! We need to find out who messed with everyone’s memories by tomorrow! She said after 3 days the memories will be gone forever! Which means all this could become permanent! It’s based on whatever time the person did the erasing at, that could be anytime between now and midnight tonight! I know it’s painful for you, but not for me, I’m going to confront your “friends” tomorrow morning! I’m either going to make them confess or make them get onboard with helping us!]

Sunset looked up from her cellphone and asked, “How long will it take for you to finish that thing you were working on?” 

“Um, I don’t know, maybe half a day?” Starlight pondered. 

Sunset turned her phone around and showed Starlight the message Trixie sent her. 

“Did I say, ‘half a day’? I meant ASAP!”