Kamen Rider Unicorn The Movie: Memories of Friendship

Chapters

Seeking Answers
Forgotten Love
Revelations
Confrontation
Battle of Truth and Lies
UNITED!
New Beginnings
Epilogue
Public Enemy #1
The Pretty-Decent-Assistant-Dective-Helper Person and Sunset Shimmer

Seeking Answers

3 DAYS AGO…

It was a bright sunny day at Canterlot High School, all the students were milling about and doing different activities around campus. And it was Sunset Shimmer’s job to document and photograph all of this. Sunset had been picked to head the Yearbook Committee, and she took to the appointment with all due excitement. She was going around school and photographing the different club activities, along with some shots of the different students hanging about or posing for the yearbook.

Every shot she took, every moment captured, it only served to remind Sunset how lucky she was to be at this school, to meet the girls who would become her lifelong friends and find the girl who she would eventually fall in love with. The halls had memories filled with both pain and joy, but Sunset had finally come to terms with herself from that time and was only looking towards the future. It wouldn’t be much longer before graduation came up, it was more or less around the corner, and from there, her new life would start.

Sunset now had documentation, fabricated documentation, but documentation nonetheless, that she was an official resident of Canterlot City, and existed. Now she could go anywhere she wanted, and where she wanted to go, was with Twilight to college. Sunset had it firm in mind now more than ever that she wanted to be with Twilight Sparkle, wake up next to her, share in happy, sad, and even painful experiences. Sunset had already gotten a letter of admission from Canterlot University, now both of them would be able to further their future together.

The fiery haired girl thought of this as she continued to take shot after shot of the students in their moments, some were candid, others were staged for fun, and others were more spontaneous. Eventually Sunset met her quota of pictures and headed to the Yearbook Room, there, she found her friends and girlfriend happily assisting with the completion of the yearbook, she knew she could count on them to get everything together, and it would serve as one more good memory to add before they eventually parted ways.

Sunset sighed inwardly, that was going be a hard pill to swallow when the time came. Their close bonds that they had forged through different perils and just life in general while at CHS, they would be tested once the girls separated and went on to pursue their own careers and goals. Some would get married, others would go on to see the world, some will make a name for themselves, and some will help others. Sunset had at one point saw five of these girls as enemies, but now she couldn’t imagine her life without them. She was going to have Twilight by her side for the rest of the ride, but she really wanted to make sure that their memories of friendship would last forever.

As the former unicorn mare sighed, she turned to her left and crashed right into someone, sending both herself and the other onto the floor. Sunset rubbed her head as she said, “I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention, kinda lost in thought…are you okay, uh…”

The person Sunset had knocked down was another girl. She wore dark blue denim pants, and a tan striped sweater. Her complexion was a light-green color, while her hair was a deep grass green. The new girl’s eyes were a warm brown color, matching the rather earthy tone of her hair color. The young woman stared up at Sunset with an annoyed look and said, “It’s fine. Although I’ve been here for a while.”

Applejack scooted close to Rainbow and whispered, “Ain’t she a quiet one.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled as she said, “Yeah. And we know some pretty shy people. Am I right?”

Fluttershy overheard their conversation and curiously asked, “We do? Who?”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash chuckled softly as they shook their heads

Sunset offered her a hand and the new girl took it, after hoisting her up Sunset said, “Again, sorry about that, were you wanting to join the Yearbook Committee?”

“My name’s Wallflower Blush.”

“Nice to meet you!”

“I’ve been on the Committee since you started. We met in ninth-grade English.”

Sunset glanced back and forth in a nervous fashion while also putting on a nervous smile as she said, “And…I was…saying it was nice to meet you then! You didn’t let me finish.”

Wallflower was not convinced in the slightest, but she shrugged and sighed as she picked up the papers she was holding earlier and handed them to Sunset. “Anyway, I counted up all the votes for the yearbook Superlatives.”

The girls all clamored after hearing they were in, each of them wanting to see who got what. Wallflower was, unfortunately, left out of their little gathering.

“‘Most Likely to Succeed’, ‘Best Smile’, ‘Class Clown.’ Ooh! We won ‘Best Friends’! Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and me!” Sunset announced.

Pinkie bounced about the room as she said, “I always knew I liked you all, but now it’s official! In yearbook form! The people have spoken!” Pinkie ended her speech by standing atop one of the tables and somehow producing confetti out of nowhere.

Twilight continued to look through the other Superlatives and stopped when she saw one that raised her ire a little. “Oh, good for Micro Chips. ‘Most Likely to Invent Cold Fusion’! Even though I made two devices that allow my friend and girlfriend to harness the power of devices that hold incredible power and created THREE different artificially intelligent robot animals who assist in defending the city! It’s not a reason to be jealous! Not even a little! Heh, heh!”

The others were not convinced. Sunset strode up to her girlfriend and planted a little kiss on her cheek as she said, “It’s okay, Twi, everyone knows you’re an uber genius. And plus, you got the second smartest girl in CHS as your girlfriend.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Please, you nearly had me during the Friendship Games, I’d say we’re pretty much on par. Guess that’s why we get along so well.”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say that it was the only reason,” said Sunset with a half-lidded stare. “I’m pretty sure I can think of other reasons.”

“Get a room you two!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Rainbow Dash, please,” Rarity admonished.

“What? Not like I’m wrong, besides, it’s says so right here.” Rainbow Dash held up another Superlative, one that read, “Most Likely To Get Married: Sunset Shimmer & Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh my,” said Fluttershy as she blushed.

Twilight’s face was burning red as she saw what was written on the slip of paper, Sunset managed to maintain her composure, but even she wasn’t immune to this kind of thing.

“And besides, it’s just a yearbook,” Rainbow

Any and all embarrassment from the Superlative was forgotten when Rainbow Dash uttered those words.

“Just the yearbook?!” Sunset exclaimed.

Applejack face palmed herself. “Now ya gone and done it, Dash.”

“The student body has entrusted me with the responsibility of gathering their memories into the pages of this book. In thirty years, we might not remember everything, but we will remember what’s in this yearbook!” Sunset stated with pride and conviction.

Rainbow rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. “Well, I’m entrusting you not to put us next to ‘Best Muscles’. Every time you close the book, it’ll be like we’re kissing Bulk Biceps!” Rainbow demonstrated this by picking up one of the past yearbooks and opening and closing the book repeatedly.

“Um. I-I think he’s sweet,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Hey, let’s celebrate! Party at Sunset’s house!” Pinkie announced.

“Yeah…wait, what?!”

Just then the door to the room flew open only to rebound and shut close on whoever opened it so quickly. A few expletives were heard before the door opened again, a little slower this time, and revealed the school’s resident amateur stage magician. “The Great and Powerful Trixie demands to speak to the yearbook editor immediately!”

All eyes shifted to Sunset, upon which the flame haired girl gave a heavy sigh. “Unfortunately for me, that’s me. What do you want, Trixie?”

Trixie gave Sunset an annoyed and suspicious look as she strode up to her. “Ha! Just as I suspected! I was not voted ‘Greatest and Most Powerfullest’! Explain yourself!”

“Hmmm, how should I put this?” Sunset pondered as she tapped her chin. “Oh yeah! You didn’t win ‘Greatest and Most Powerfullest’ because it’s not one of the Superlatives!”

Trixie narrowed her gaze at Sunset, but then put on her trademark smug smirk as she pulled out one of the yearbooks from the shelf. “Neither was ‘Queen of Mean’, but that didn’t stop you from winning it our freshman year.” Trixie turned the book around, showing a rather unflattering picture of Sunset about to punch out the cameraman.

Sunset felt a slight sting in her heart, she had come far since then, and had forgiven herself as others have her, but sometimes, the sting from your past actions doesn’t always fade away.

Applejack walked up and snatched the book from Trixie. “That was different, the whole school voted for her.”

“She was sooooooo mean,” Pinkie whispered.

Twilight saw the pensive look on her girlfriend’s face, she placed her hands on Sunset’s shoulders, granting her some comfort. “But, of course, we all know you’re not like that anymore, and more than earned the right to not be thought of like that.”

Sunset looked to Twilight and said, “Thanks”, she then turned her attention back to Trixie. “We’re not having a ‘Greatest and Most Powerfullest’ Superlative. Sorry.”

Trixie Lulamoon huffed in indignation. “Oh, you’re the one who’ll be sorry, Sunset Shimmer! When you least expect it, I’ll have my revenge, and then I’ll disappear! Like this! Behold! The Magician’s Exit!” Trixie pulled out a small ball-like object from her hoodie and threw it against the floor.

The room immediately filled with shimmering smoke, causing the occupants to cough. For a few seconds they believed the would-be-magician had vanished, but then they started hearing the sound of a door handle being jiggled. When the smoke cleared, they saw Trixie trying to open the door.

“Allow me, we were just leaving.” Sunset walked up to the door, prompting Trixie to stop, she then pulled out a key from her skirt pocket and unlocked the door. Trixie left the room first, her nose turned up at them in frustration.

The others chuckled at Trixie’s expense as they filed out of the room.

***____________________________***

“After that, we partied at my place like Pinkie said, and everyone crashed at my place afterwards. Sunday was pretty normal, no Dopant attacks, no major crimes, and zero drama. I shared a few texts with Twilight and then went to bed,” said Sunset.

After the revelation that even Unicorn was considered a bad guy, Sunset was left with little recourse but to seek refuge in her homeland of Equestria. Thankfully, the portal seemed unaffected by whatever strangeness was gripping the city and its people. Once she arrived, Sunset went over the details of the last three days prior to the incident, trying to find any little detail that could give them a clue as to why what was happening was happening.

“Do you think it could be a Dopant? I mean, those two women, Sunflower and Clear Skies have revitalized Starlight’s Gaia Memory black market,” said Twilight.

“I don’t think so, at least I’ve never encountered a Gaia Memory that can warp reality to this level.”

Twilight scratched at her chin as she hummed in contemplation. “Then, maybe dark magic? You haven’t had many magic based incidents lately, perhaps this was one that was slowly building up and created this alternate dimension?”

“If that’s true, why didn’t it affect the portal? You still remember that we’re friends, and that I’m a good Kamen Rider,” said Sunset.

Silence hung in the throne/map room, both mares were at a loss as to what could be causing this to happen back on Earth, and why it seems it has affected everyone except Sunset, or rather, why it has affected everything regarding Sunset.

“Well, maybe we should consult Celestia, she may have a clue as to what is happening, or at least point us in the right direction,” said Twilight.

“Better than nothing,” said Sunset as she shrugged in defeat.

I wasn’t long after that conversation that the two alicorns were off to Canterlot. Of course, upon arriving and exiting the train, they were once again mobbed by several ponies wanting to either get a picture with the princesses or to speak with them about some issue or another. However, this time around, it wasn’t the Royal Guard who came to their aid, but a cream-colored unicorn mare with a red mane and purple streaks.

The unicorn mare released a burst of magic that temporarily blinded everyone, she then dragged Sunset and Twilight along with her telekinetic spell, whisking them off to an alleyway that was far from the mob scene. Once she was sure that they were safe, the mare released another flash of light from her horn, clearing up the spots that were in their eyes.

“That spell causes temporary blindness for about thirty seconds, but can be dispelled quickly, you’re lucky I was around, Twilight.”

Once the de-blinding spell kicked in, Twilight immediately recognized their savior. “Moondancer!” Twilight rushed to the mare, embracing her tight in her forelegs. Moondancer blushed and hugged Twilight back. “Thanks for the save!”

“N-No problem,” squeaked Moondancer.

Sunset watched the scene before her and smirked a little. “Oh, Twilight, since when did you get a marefriend?”

Twilight and Moondancer quickly separated, their faces blushing hard.

“W-W-We’re not ‘marefriends’, we’re just old friends!” Twilight explained.

“We just reconnected a few months ago and, well, it was kind of emotional, for everypony, but that’s it!” Moondancer corroborated.

Even with that explanation, Sunset’s smirk remained. “Uh-huh, well, thank you, Moondancer, for getting us out of that mess.”

“No problem, this one needs to just use more common sense when arriving with a hero princess,” said Moondancer. “Anyway, if you get the time, drop by my place.”

“Will do, thanks again Moondancer,” said Twilight.

The bespectacled mare nodded and went on her way, all the while Twilight was waving goodbye to her old friend, and Sunset couldn’t help but widen her smirk.

“She’s pretty cool,” said Sunset.

“Yep,” Twilight replied.

“Kind of cute, too.”

“Yep.”

“She’s got a nice flank as well.”

“Yep.” Twilight’s distracted mind finally caught up to what Sunset was saying and reacted appropriately. “WHAT?!”

Sunset shrugged. “I’m just saying, she’s cute and she’s got a nice flank. I have a type; apparently cute nerds are my thing.”

“You’re with the other me remember,” said Twilight slight edge to her tone.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t stop and admire another mare’s rear, like you were just a moment ago.”

Twilight’s face went red as she turned around and began walking. “Let’s just go to the palace already!”

***____________________________***

After much, much more teasing by the junior alicorn, Twilight and Sunset arrived at the palace. They were, unfortunately, formerly announced by the ponies in the court and brought into the throne room. Upon which Celestia practically hurried down from her throne and embraced her adopted daughter in a hug that most likely would’ve broken the back of any pony caught in it, but since Sunset was an alicorn, her strength and resilience were much higher than that of normal ponies, so she could take it.

“Oh, my little Sun’s back!” Celestia gushed.

“G-Good…to see you…Mom…!” Sunset gasped. She shot Twilight a look that pleaded for help, but the purple alicorn just smiled as she sat there and enjoyed the show. Really, Twi? Payback?!

“I know your graduation is near, and I can’t wait until that day!”

Luna came walking up behind her elder sister and said, “Trust me, she can’t. She’s been gushing about the upcoming event for months now…” Luna looked upon Sunset and tapped Celestia on the shoulder. “Sister, if you continue to hug my niece that tight, I fear she may bend at an angle that ponies aren’t meant to.”

Celestia blushed and quickly released her daughter, letting her fall to the floor. The alabaster mare gave a very apologetic look as she gazed down at Sunset. “I’m so sorry, Sunset, are you alright?”

“I think I need a chiropractor, but I’ll live.” Sunset looked up and glared in annoyance at the purple pony princess looking down at her. “You win this round, Purple Smart…”

Twilight chuckled at Sunset but did offer her a hoof up.

“Tell us though, what brings you two to see us? Not that you’re an unwelcome sight, but normally Twilight Sparkle would send a letter ahead to notify us unless…” Luna stopped as she realized what the possibility was.

“Unless it was an emergency,” said Celestia, finishing her younger sister’s thought. “What’s happened?”

Sunset began telling her mother and aunt about what had occurred back on Earth, her friends forgetting that they were her friends, the whole school fearing her once again, and the city seeing Kamen Rider Unicorn as an enemy. The two oldest rulers of Equestria thought over Sunset’s words, something seemed to have sparked a thought between them, but they didn’t seem quite sure.

“I am not familiar with the exact spell that could have erased your friends’ memories. But it sounds like Equestrian magic is at work in your world,” said Celestia.

Luna nodded her head in agreement. “Hmm. Indeed. The toilings of this nefarious enchantment could portend unimaginable catastrophe if left unchecked.”

Sunset had to stifle her laughter, knowing how her adopted aunt in the human world talked and acted in contrast to the pony version was something she wished she could show them. The midnight blue alicorn seemed to have caught on to the slight chuckling of her niece, prompting Sunset to compose herself.

“Sorry, I’m just used to hearing you say, ‘No student parking in the faculty lot.’ Or, ‘learn how to play you newb!’”

Luna raised an eyebrow at that. “I’m not sure what a ‘newb’ is, but this ‘faculty lot’ sounds like a place of great power.”

Sunset and Twilight looked to each other and shared a giggle at the second eldest alicorn expense.

Celestia was sure she’d get the joke at her younger sister’s expense when she eventually visited the world behind the mirror, but right now a thought came to mind. “Come with us, we may know of a place where we can get some answers at least.”

***____________________________***

The Canterlot Six were all in the band room, they just played through one of their songs, for about the eighth time today. To anyone passing by, the girls would’ve sounded perfect, but, to the Rainbooms, it just wasn’t perfect, not at all. Although it sounded good, it was off, their tempo, their groove, and they couldn’t shake this feeling of missing a component of their band, but not exactly sure what.

“Let’s take five guys,” said Rainbow.

The girls all broke up and sat at different spots in the music room, Twilight, for some reason, couldn’t take her eyes off of the lone white and turquoise colored guitar that was sitting on its stand all alone.

“Hey, girls, do you know who that guitar belongs to?” Twilight asked.

The others looked at the instrument in question.

“Can’t say Ah have, but…”

“It feels familiar, right?” Rarity asked.

“Yes, maybe that’s the thing that was missing?” Fluttershy asked.

“Do we even know who it belongs to? `Cause it’s not mine, unless you’ve been secretly practicing behind our backs, Twi, and you’re gunning for my lead guitarist position,” Rainbow accused.

Twilight vehemently shook her head and waved her hands as if trying to dismiss the notion. “Of course, not I’ve only ever played the violin, I can’t play that! Maybe…Maybe it belongs to Flash Sentry? A backup perhaps?”

Pinkie Pie walked up to the guitar and inspected it. “Hmm, doesn’t seem like Flash’s style. You sure it isn’t yours, Dashie?”

Rainbow Dash walked until she was standing before the instrument, the sports girl carefully slung the guitar over her and began playing a few cords, but as she continued to, she instantly realized it wasn’t hers. “No way, this isn’t mine. It’s tuned differently, I like mine a certain way, and this was definitely tuned to whoever owns it.”

“Still, why’s it in this music room? We’re the only ones who use it, not many others come in,” said Applejack.

Rarity could tell that the subject of the mystery owner of this guitar was getting them down some, so Rarity decided to change the subject a little and tease Twilight a bit. “So, Twilight, speaking of Flash Sentry, has he asked you out?”

“He did, a few months ago, but…I turned him down,” said Twilight.

“Oh, not your type?” Fluttershy asked.

“I know about the other me, and you guys told me he liked her. And he looks sweet, but, I don’t want to start a relationship because he’s trying to chase after the version of me that’s in another dimension, not to mention…I don’t think I’m really girlfriend material…so I don’t want to disappoint him or anyone for that matter,” said Twilight.

Pinkie Pie blew a raspberry at Twilight explanation. “Flash’s not that shallow, and on top of that, who says you’re not girlfriend material?” Pinkie zoomed across the room and somehow managed to get Twilight standing before she herself realized it. “You’ve got nice legs, not too curvy, but just the right amount of curve for the feminine appeal. Your bust isn’t as big as mine or Fluttershy’s, or Rarity’s.”

“I beg your pardon! How do you know my bust size?!” Rarity asked as she covered her chest with her arms.

Fluttershy followed suit in that regard.

“Never underestimate Pinkie’s perfect eye for potential busty beauties! Now, as I was saying, they’re just about average, but nothing to sneeze at either. Unlike Rainbow Dash’s.” Pinkie pointed her thumb at the rainbow haired girl and made a motion with her hand starting from her chest with the flat of her palm and going up and down.

“I AM NOT A WASHBOARD!” Rainbow shouted in indignation.

“Any who, then there’s just your face, it’s cute, thin, and you look good with and without glasses, a definite plus. And you’re smart without being smug or condescending to others! All and all, you’re the perfect package, Twilight Sparkle,” declared Pinkie Pie.

Twilight blushed at how her friend described her, not sure whether to feel extremely complimented or embarrassed that her friend just described her in such a fashion. “Oh…um, well, thank you, Pinkie. I didn’t know you put that much analysis into my…um, figure, and traits. You, um, you don’t like-like me, do you?”

Pinkie Pie thought on that for a minute, making the other girls in the room hold their breath. “Hmm, well, I won’t lie, I would totally go out with you! But…it’s weird, I feel like if I did, I’d be a complete and total jerk pants. Like I’d be keeping you from your soulmate.”

Why does it feel like she’s right, thought Twilight.

“Ugh, c’mon, let’s head to Sugar Cube Corner, maybe some shakes will jog our memory, or at least get our moods up,” suggested Rainbow Dash.

The rest of the group nodded and put away their instruments before heading out. Rainbow was the last one out of the room and was about to hit the light switch, but she paused and stared at the out of place guitar. Or is something else out of place? With that thought, Rainbow Dash turned off the lights and closed the door.

When she did, something strange happened. The guitar began to get wrapped in strange green energy, the energy seemed to try and hide the guitar from view, but for some reason the guitar shimmered as if it was trying to remain. But it was no use, the energy swallowed the guitar and its stand, removing the instrument from sight, as if it never existed.

***____________________________***

The four alicorns made their way to the one place that Sunset wasn’t expecting, the Canterlot Library, Celestia and Luna led the way as they walked deeper into the facility.

“The answers we seek may lie in here,” said Celestia.

Sunset glanced about the shelves of the library, compared to the Memories of the Earth, the number of books in this library didn’t even rival that by a long shot, but still. “There’s got to be a million books in here.”

Twilight sidled next to Sunset and slung her left foreleg over her friend’s shoulders as she chuckled at that insinuation, “I wish! But don’t worry. You’re looking at somepony who knows this place like the back of her hoof.” It was then that Twilight noticed her former mentor walking down a different path than what she was used to when she once roamed these halls. “Where are you going, Princess Celestia?”

“To the restricted section,” said Celestia in a nonchalant fashion.

Twilight’s eyes widened, and her left eye began to twitch as she heard those words. “There’s a…a reh…a reh…a reh…”

“Breathe, Twilight, just breathe,” said Sunset as she padded her friend on the back.

The two sisters continued leading the way to a dark corner of the library, upon which both Celestia and Luna used their magic to move two books, one with a sun emblem and the other with a moon emblem. Upon doing so, the bookshelf began to move, and opened a secret doorway that led into a dark corridor. Twilight’s mouth hung open at the sight, but Sunset quickly closed her mouth before a fly could get in.

“I will head back to the castle for now, please call me if you need assistance, Sister,” said Luna.

“Thank you, Luna.”

With that, Princess Luna headed back the way they came, while Celestia, Twilight, and Sunset walked down the corridor and ended up before two large double doors. Celestia used her magic to open the doors, and inside was a new area of the library that Twilight and Sunset had never seen before. There were many books in this section, hundreds if not thousands more than what was in the general public area. Twilight’s eyes roved over every tome that fell within her eyesight, taking in the vast number of books that she had never before seen nor had access to until today.

“Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh! So many books all unread!” Twilight’s magic reached out and grabbed several books of their shelves at once, making them float around her in orbit as she glanced to one and then the other as if unsure of where to start. “Ancient historical artifacts! I just…I thought…! I can’t…!” Twilight began to wheeze and hyperventilate as her mind was about to overload with joy at the prospect of going through so many new-old-books.

Sunset smirked at her friend’s reaction. “You sure you’re up for helping me go through all this stuff? I wouldn’t want you to have a bookgasm on the floor.”

Twilight threw her forelegs around Sunset’s neck as she pleaded, “Don’t take this away from me!……And that only happened once!”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed into a predatory stare and her smirk took on a wicked mirth. “Oh, did it now?”

Twilight blushed bright red as she realized she may have given away a personal piece of info that she may or may not have wanted to take to the grave. Sunset decided to show her best friend mercy, for now, and turned to Celestia, who was busy fiddling with some sort of device.

“Unfortunately, the archives’ mechanical cataloging has not been…” Celestia pulled on a lever and made it snap off. “…well-maintained.” Soon after that, the entire apparatus fell into pieces, sending a plume of dust into the air.

“Well, that’s an inconvenience.”

Twilight’s giddiness went up even more at this so called, “inconvenience”. “Guess we’ll have to read everything! C’mon! No way!” Twilight used her magic to grab another book from the higher up shelves on the second floor. “Can you believe they have Canterlot Cantabiles Volume Thirty-One? You heard me! Thirty-One! Sunset, that’s when it gets goooooooood! Over here!” Twilight grabbed yet another old tome and held it up for both her friend and former mentor to see. “An original Windigo Weather Warning from the pre-Equestrian era! Oh, my goodness! I can’t! I just can’t!”

Sunset and Celestia glanced to each other and then shared a laugh at the book horse’s antics.

***____________________________***

It worked, it actually worked, and she couldn’t believe it. Wallflower Blush, the quiet, shy, and often times invisible girl, roamed the halls of CHS. Everybody seemed to be talking about Sunset Shimmer and how she hadn’t been seen in school since this morning. Many students were whispering among themselves, all of whom were suspicious of Sunset’s actions thus far, wondering if she was planning on doing something bad.

What’s more, it seemed that the group she hung out with, the “Rainbooms”, were officially against her, regarding Sunset as the bully and tyrant Wallflower knew she was. Still, she never expected how easy it would be to make this all happen.

“Magic is a wonderous thing my child, but be weary, it can be fickle.”

“What do you mean?” Wallflower asked.

“Stronger magic can negate other magic. Sunset Shimmer has wronged you, and everyone. Everyone seems to have forgotten the tyrant that she is. But you haven’t.”

Wallflower grimaced as she continued to walk through the halls of the school. “Of course, I haven’t. I could never forget; she acts all good and pretends to be nice. But everyone forgot that that’s how it all started. A nice gesture, a sincere-insincere smile, all to lower your guard so that she could one day use you, blackmail you, or trample you. Or in my case, ignore my existence altogether.”

“That is horrible, child. No one deserves to be ignored, to be shunned and passed over as if they were just a tiny particle amongst the vastness of everything else. We will show her; I will help you.”

Wallflower exited the building and headed towards the woods behind the school. “You’ve already helped me so much, what else can I want?”

“My little flower, there’s so much more. What we’ve done so far is very impressive, but it’s not permanent, not yet. There are forces that will conspire to stop you if they find out what you have done.”

The green haired girl took a turn in the woods and ended up in her little secret garden, her oasis where the flowers she attended to were the only ones who cared if she existed, as she had helped them grow from seeds to budding flowers and an assortment of different vegetables. Yes, if she were not around, they would truly feel the sting of her disappearance, as the only member of the Gardening Club, if she weren’t here to tend to them, they would wither and rot away.

“Sunset Shimmer isn’t a threat, now that the school doesn’t trust her anymore, she can’t trick anyone. They finally see her as I do,” said Wallflower.

“You give her far too little credit, even in my current state, I can sense the immense magical power she possesses, and you know why that is.”

Wallflower sat on her knees as she opened her backpack and took out a stone object with strange markings on it. She held the stone between both of her hands as the rock glowed. The stone emitted green light which created multiple windows around Wallflower, each one displaying a memory pertaining to Sunset Shimmer, each them showing how kind and sincere she was, but they weren’t looking, showed the conniving, evil look in her eyes afterwards, but the ones of most interest to Wallflower, and the voice, were the ones that revealed that Sunset Shimmer was in fact the hero who saved the world and the city on multiple occasions, Kamen Rider Unicorn.

“I can’t believe someone like her has the gull to call herself a ‘hero’!” Wallflower growled.

“It is unsettling, that a person who could manipulate, bully, and threaten others so easily now has such great power and has won the hearts of many. Who knows what kind of havoc she could cause with such power?”

Wallflower looked upon the many harrowing adventures and fights Sunset had been through, every battle, every hardship, and it made her sick. How could the universe ordain such a horrible person with this kind of power? Especially when there were more worthy people in the world. Wallflower would count herself among them, but not quite as high as the other girls, the Rainbooms. If any of them were Unicorn, that would make sense, like Rainbow Dash. Well she was Nasca, apparently, so that was slightly true. But why not Applejack? She was loyal, strong, and honest, and always willing to help others or stand up for someone. Hell, why not Twilight Sparkle, the pony princess one or the science one, either would make a good candidate.

“But of course, it just had to be Sunset – freakin’ – Shimmer who gets all the power, the glory, the adoration, and…” Wallflower looked upon another window, showing some tender, romantic moments between Sunset and Twilight. “……love.”

“My little flower, do not despair, you are as lovely as any of these plants within your garden. You have yet to blossom into your truest self, but believe me, that time is coming very soon. However, we must be wary, Sunset’s lack of presence after finding out what has been altered could make her desperate.”

Wallflower dismissed the windows and stashed the stone back in her backpack as she began to go to work. “You don’t think she’ll attack us, do you?”

“In my experience, taking something precious in the eyes of that being can lead them to make desperate, sometimes violent decisions. And with her reality warped to such a degree, we must be prepared to confront her. But – and I know you hate this – our advantage is your anonymity; your lack of presence can be used as a weapon against her. You will be the last person she suspects to be the cause of this, and by the time she has finally realized it, it will be too late.”

“And what if she does?” Wallflower asked as she began watering the flowers. “She’s smart, really smart. Sunset will eventually figure it out, and it could be before it’s done.”

The voice chuckled as she said, “The beauty of warping reality means we have the overall advantage. Anyone she once saw as an ally is now an enemy, and even her enemies are still her enemies. She’s alone, Wallflower, she has no one who can help her in this world.”

“Alone, just like I was, at least until I met you. Before this is over, Sunset will know what it’s like to be ignored and shunned, to be utterly alone! And I’ll be the one with friends who care about me, who see me!” Wallflower declared.

“Yes, my little flower, we have all the tools we need to make this happen. The stone, and…”

Wallflower unconsciously placed her left hand over her left front pocket, feeling the familiar, rectangular shape of a certain device.

***____________________________***

Sunset sat in front of a table, piles of books surrounded her, some on the table, some next to her and some scattered about other places. Celestia and Twilight were still reading through more books, the other two alicorns having already created large piles of their own. Sunset flipped through the last page of another book she was reading, and stared blankly at the wall across the room, her expression deadpan.

“Did you know that Chancellor Pudding Head tried to pass a law that mandated all Earth Ponies drink carrot juice at every meal? I do. Know that. Now.” Sunset let her face smack against the table.

Twilight turned and looked at her friend as she yawned tiredly, “Awww. Sounds like you got to read all the fun books. We should probably take a break from looking…”

Sunset sighed in defeat.

“Because I found something!” Sunset’s face lit up with both hope and excitement upon hearing those words and was thankful that hours of reading every book in this library was worth it. “You're familiar with The Seven Trials of Clover the Clever?”

“Obviously.”

“Well, first of all, these date back to before the founding of Equestria. Look at this.” Twilight unraveled the scroll she found and in it was an illustration of gray rock with emerald lines etched into it.

Sunset looked upon the illustration with intrigue. “‘The Memory Stone’. That sounds promising.”

Twilight flipped through the pages as she explained, “It belonged to an evil sorceress who was practically invincible. With the Memory Stone, she could erase any memory from anypony. Even fragments of memories.”

Sunset’s eyes widened with realization. “Fragments…like of me being nice and being Unicorn?”

Twilight nodded in confirmation. “Mm-hmm. Clover the Clever knew the sorceress had to be stopped and the Stone destroyed, so he chased her across land and sea. But every time he got close, the sorceress would erase his memory and escape. But he kept finding her. Eventually chasing her down through a mysterious portal.”

“How?”

Twilight used her magic to pick up a piece of paper and tore off a corner. “These scraps of parchment. He secretly wrote everything down, so he’d know what had happened and where to go next. Like a trail of breadcrumbs.”

Sunset smiled as she said, “Clever! Ohhhh, Clover the – Yeah, got it. What happened on the other side of this portal?”

Twilight unraveled more of the scroll, and where a page should be, there was nothing. “The last page was ripped out. Most likely, Clover must’ve hidden it to keep anypony else from finding the Memory Stone. But, Sunset, I have a theory. What if the place beyond the portal, was Earth?”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed as the pieces were slowly falling into place. “Someone must’ve found the Stone on Earth and is using it to erase all the good I’ve done from everyone’s memories!”

“I must point out, that while this does explain everyone’s memories being altered, it still doesn’t explain how such an item could manipulate, or possibly warp reality,” said Celestia.

All three pondered on that for a moment, trying to figure out if there was anything that could not only manipulate memories, but also warp reality? All three mares’ heads shot up as a thought crossed their minds.

“You don’t think?” Twilight asked.

“It’s possible, a Gaia Memory,” said Sunset.

“But, have you ever encountered one that powerful?” Celestia asked.

Sunset shook her head. “The closest one to that kind of power is the Shining Memory, but that’s only because it’s a fragment of the Miracle Magic. And I have it.” Sunset sighed, the mystery wasn’t going to get all the way solved here, and she knew she couldn’t hide out in Equestria and let whatever was happening on Earth continue. “Well, at least now I have an idea what we’re looking for, maybe I can convince them with some evidence.” Sunset used her magic to fold up the piece of paper that had the image of the Memory Stone and stored it in a pocket dimension.

“We’ll keep searching through the library for more clues, top to bottom! Even if it means reorganizing the entire collection!” Twilight squeed with delight.

Sunset looked to her adopted mother, who then added, “I’ll make sure she stays on task.”

“Hey!”

Celestia moved closer to her adopted daughter and brought her into a hug. “I don’t like the idea of sending you back there, surrounded by enemies without a friend to assist you. Perhaps…Perhaps I should go with you? Luna can take care of things while I’m gone.”

Sunset smiled, hearing that her adopted mother was so worried about her and willing to traverse into an unknown world to grant her at least some comfort through this harrowing time made her feel warm inside, especially as she rested her head against Celestia’s chest. “Thanks, Mom, but no. I can’t risk it. You’ve never been there, and it can feel awkward transitioning from this form to a human one. Plus, if this turns out to be something big and bad, Equestria can’t afford to lose one of its co-rulers, and I can’t afford to lose my Mother.”

Celestia grit her teeth, she so badly wanted to go with her daughter to protect her in any way she could, but realistically, Celestia knew she’d only be a hinderance and a possible liability should the villain decide to strike at Sunset, especially since Celestia would not have access to her vast reservoirs of magic power on Earth. “I understand…but, please, be careful my little Sun.”

“I will.”

After bidding farewell to her friend and mother, Sunset returned to CHS. Unfortunately, hours of searching through the Canterlot Library’s restricted section had made Sunset miss the whole day of school, the building was closed save for the after-school clubs activities and faculty that stayed behind for meetings. Sunset didn’t know where to start looking for this Memory Stone, most likely, it was dumped here on Earth in the city, but where was a different story.

You’d think an object like that would give off some sort of magical signature. I could trace it as Unicorn, but if I did people would probably go into a panic and then I’d have to fight Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash…again.

In all honesty, Sunset could use her Final Form to beat them if necessary, but the problem is, she didn’t want to. She shouldn’t have to use her most powerful form against those who were her friends, especially when they were doing it because they had their memories erased or altered. Sunset opened her cellphone and looked upon a picture of herself and Twilight, the nerdy girl was blushing red as Sunset gave her kiss on the cheek as she took the selfie.

With little to do, Sunset decided to try again tomorrow, her hunt for the true culprit behind all this would begin at sunrise.

Forgotten Love

Sunset had entered the city, well, she was overlooking the city. She had transformed into Unicorn and looked down upon the horizon and city from atop a tall skyscraper. Everything was wrong with the world, the hero was seen as a villain, her friends were her enemies, and all due to some ancient magical relic. The day had dragged on and it was soon the time of sunset, Unicorn watched the sun slowly dip down the horizon, bathing the sky in warm hues of orange, red, and yellow, just before it switched to the cool hues of dark blue and purple of the twilight.

Twilight…

Out of everything over these past two days, that had to hurt the most. Losing her friends was one pain, but it was another to lose the person she loved most, to have Twilight look at her like a villain, someone to fear and be hated. But that couldn’t have been all gone right? Unicorn’s horn glowed and into her hand appeared the crystal turquoise colored unicorn charm, the one that she had gotten Twilight and that Twilight had gotten her.

It can’t be all gone, our feelings for each other go deeper than just memories alone…they have to!

It was then that Sunset decided on desperate act, very desperate if she was being truthful. With that in mind, Sunset jumped off the side of the building, letting the wind roar around her as she plummeted some hundred plus feet down, several flashes of magic went off as she teleported to slow down her descent. Her final teleportation brought her down to ground level, where she quickly changed back to her civilian form and mounted her bike.

It took Sunset almost an hour to weave through traffic and make it to Twilight’s neighborhood. She remembered how she kind of felt out of place around here, although it wasn’t exactly the ritzy part of town, it was still a nice neighborhood. Sunset was about to bring her bike up to the driveway but stopped when she realized that they don’t know her.

“I could always park my bike in the driveway before, but it’s probably not a good idea right now…”

Reluctantly, Sunset parked the bike against the sidewalk, putting the kickstand on as she walked up towards the house. Sunset stopped at the front door, her stomach knotted with nervousness at how she would be received, she had no idea if Twilight spoke of the apparent harsh treatment she had been getting from Sunset, and if they were the first people to answer the door, it would get awkward and bad pretty fast.

With little recourse, Sunset raised her fist and knocked on the door. It wasn’t too long before Sunset heard footsteps approaching the door, and when the door opened, she felt both relief and sadness. Twilight had answered the door, and her first reaction was to gasp upon seeing Sunset Shimmer at her front door, Twilight closed the door just a little, trying to use it as a shield.

“W-Why are you here?” Twilight asked.

“I just want to talk, Twi, that’s all, I swear!” Sunset insisted. “I promise, Twilight, I’m not here to hurt you, I just really need to talk to you…I…I don’t have a lot of options and you’re the one person I need to believe me, to at least listen to me.”

Twilight wanted to tell Sunset no and slam the door in her face. Why should she give her bully the time of day, let alone invite into her own home? Then again, Sunset did look distraught, desperate even, and she had been acting strangely over these past two days. “My brother’s home, and he’s a cop, if you try anything – anything – he’ll throw you out or arrest you.”

“I’ll wear handcuffs right now if it’ll make you feel safer,” said Sunset as she raised her wrists to Twilight.

Twilight shook her head and said, “T-That won’t be necessary, so long as you behave. C’mon in.” Sunset entered the home and let Twilight lead the way, once in the house, Twilight stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked to Shining Armor who was busy clacking away on his work laptop. “Shiny.”

Shining Armor stopped his work and turned around, “Hey, who was at the…door.” His eyes fell upon the flame haired girl and his gaze narrowed. “Can we help you?”

Haven’t seen that expression for a long time, thought Sunset.

“Sunset Shimmer and I are going to talk for a minute in my room,” said Twilight.

“Uh, yeah, no. If you need to talk, you can do that down here, where I can keep an eye on you two,” Shining replied.

Even though he said, “both of you”, Sunset knew he really meant to keep an eye on her.

“I think’s it better that we talk alone, I’ll keep my door open the whole time, I promise.”

Shining looked to Sunset and then back to his little sister. “Fine, I’ll be right here then.”

“Thank you,” said Twilight. “Let’s go.”

Twilight ascended first; Sunset was about to before she stole one last glance at Shining Armor who made a gesture with his fingers that translated to “I’ve got my eyes on you”. Sunset remembered suspicious Shining Armor; she was not a fan of his return. The two girls eventually made it to Twilight’s room, where Spike was playing with a chew toy before stopping and getting into attack position as he growled at Sunset.

“What’s she doing here?!” Spike asked.

“Down boy, she’s not here to hurt me, Sunset just wants to talk to me. And I’d appreciate you giving us some privacy,” Twilight stated.

Spike looked up at his owner as if she had grown another head. “What?! No way! Not after the way she’s treated you!”

“I’ll be fine, Shining Armor knows she’s here too, and I promised to keep my door open. If you want, you can wait in the hallway and listen.”

Spike looked up from his owner and then to Sunset, he gave a little huff and then walked outside disappearing around the corner, but no doubt still close enough should his protection be required. Twilight moved to her bed and sat at the edge as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt. “Okay, we’re alone. Now, why did you come to see me.”

Sunset reached into her skirt which made Twilight flinch. “You don’t have to be afraid me, Twi. I would never hurt you.”

Twilight hugged herself and said, “You don’t have to touch someone to hurt them. I’ve received plenty of verbal tongue lashings from you already.”

“That’s not real, Twi! That memory is a fake! In fact, I saved you from turning into Midnight Sparkle and destroying reality!” Sunset stated.

Twilight looked at Sunset with confusion. “You saved me? My friends saved me from becoming a monster, and it’s taken me a long time to come to terms with what happened to me. I know you turned into a demon because you got in over your head with magic! And no thanks to you, you’ve taken constant pleasure in comparing me to the pony version of myself! Telling me my friends only care about me because I look and sound like her, and that I’ll never measure up to what she stood for and accomplished.” Twilight stood as tears began to well up in her eyes.

“That’s fine, I’m not the perfect pony princess! I’m just an imperfect, introverted, shy little nerd girl! And that’s fine! I don’t want to or need to be compared to a different dimensional version of myself! I’m just me, and my friends know that! So, say whatever you want to say about me, I know who I am!” Twilight huffed and panted as she released all this, apparently, pent up rage. Twilight took a deep breath and sat back down, her gaze falling to her knees. “I just…I just wanted you to know that! So…yeah.”

Sunset wanted to cry upon hearing that, but she kept strong, she ran her hands through hair as she took a deep breath and said, “I know all that, Twilight.” Sunset walked towards Twilight; the young genius flinched with each approaching step. “You’re kind, compassionate, and you’re always thinking of others.” Sunset knelt in front of Twilight as she continued to speak. “You’re also the smartest girl I’ve ever met, as well as the most adorkable. And, I know that even if there’s danger involved, you won’t back down if it means you can save someone.”

Twilight was understandably confused right now. Her heart was racing, but she wasn’t sure if it was from fear of having Sunset Shimmer so close to her, or if it was excitement for the same reason? Twilight also noted that her face was becoming unnaturally warm, was she blushing? Why was she blushing? Was it because of Sunset Shimmer? Why was it her? Oh no…don’t tell me I’m becoming one of those girls who falls in love with her abuser?! Wait, do…do I like girls?!

“I want to show you something.” Sunset reached into her pocket again, slowly, and pulled out the crystal unicorn charm. “Do you recognize this?”

“It’s some kind of charm, but…” Twilight kept staring at the charm, something about it felt familiar, but she wasn’t sure where she had seen it before.

“We gave these to each other on Christmas, you keep one I gave you on you everywhere you go,” said Sunset.

“Why…Why would I keep something you gave me? Why would you give me anything at all?” Twilight asked.

“Because…Because…” Sunset didn’t know if she could say it, she wasn’t sure if she could take the rejection.

Twilight was starting to lose it, all these conflicting feelings, the appearance of her bully, the uncharacteristic kindness and sadness she was showing, which greatly contrasted to the normally angry and spiteful girl she had known for the past year. Twilight grabbed Sunset Shimmer by the shoulders, surprising the former unicorn into dropping the charm, and said, “BECAUSE WHY?!”

Sunset looked up into those amethyst eyes, and Twilight stared into Sunset’s turquoise eyes. Without any warning, Twilight moved forward and kissed Sunset on the lips. Sunset, while initially shocked at first, quickly got over it as she allowed the kiss to happen, and after a few seconds, began to take the lead. Sunset slowly rose up, forcing Twilight to lean back as they continued their tongue wrestling match. The flame haired girl continued to press into Twilight, making her scoot back on her bed more and more, neither one of them breaking contact. Before they knew it, Twilight was laying on her bed, with Sunset looming over her. Her eyes looked like they were about to cry tears as a happy grin split across Sunset’s face.

Twilight didn’t know what was happening, her emotions conflicting with the memories she had of this girl, this bully, the person who was voted the “Queen of Mean” of Canterlot High School, and yet she kissed her, not just kissed, they just made out and now were in a very compromising position. Why was this happening? Why did Twilight just kiss the girl who hated her? Why did she like it? Why was she allowing this situation to go as far as it was? Despite all this, Sunset stopped.

“You…You stopped…why?”

Sunset smirked a little. “Well…we haven’t gone that far yet, but if you want, we can?”

“Why do you make it sound as if we’ve been together before?”

“Because we have, we’ve been together for almost a year now, and my life has been so much better for it. I meant what I said before, someone’s tampered with your memories, with everyone’s memories! Whoever did this may’ve taken them away, but they can’t take away the feelings etched into our hearts. What does your heart remember Twi? What does it tell you? Do you feel as if I would ever hurt you?”

The battle of memories and feelings was still being waged inside Twilight, everything about this based on her memories would say that Sunset would take full advantage of her without a care in the world, but what she felt said differently, she felt safe, felt…loved. Twilight gripped at her head, it felt as if there were two different versions of herself arguing back and forth and she was caught in the middle.

“I don’t know! Nothing about this situation makes any sense!” Twilight stated.

“Twi…” Sunset carefully reached with her left hand to cup Twilight’s cheek.

“NO!” Twilight forcefully shoved Sunset right off of her, sending her flying onto the floor, back first with a loud “THUMP!”

Sunset coughed from the sudden impact, she looked up at Twilight from where she was on the bed, a look of panic and confusion on her face. And for Twilight, she saw a look of heartache and sadness. Unfortunately, before Sunset could say anything, Shining Armor came up the stairs and looked upon the scene before him. His little sister had a panicked expression, Sunset Shimmer was on the floor, and he had just heard a thump. “I think it’s time you got up and left.”

“Wait, Shining this is a misunder–!” Sunset began.

“NOW!” Shining Armor ordered, interrupting Sunset.

Sunset looked back at Twilight, her gaze averted. The flame haired girl wanted to cry again, but she merely sighed heavily, and sadly. The last thing she wanted to do was fight with Shining Armor, so, reluctantly, Sunset got up and began walking downstairs. Shining Armor took up the rear, and Sunset could feel his eyes boring holes into the back of her skull.

“Shining, please, I swear, I didn’t hurt her!” Sunset pleaded.

“I don’t know what to believe, right now, every brotherly instinct inside me is telling me to kick your ass, the cop in me is saying I should arrest you, but…” Shining hesitated.

“But what?”

“But…ugh, whatever!” The two of them arrived at the front door. Sunset opened it and stepped outside. “Just stay away from Twilight, got it?!”

Sunset didn’t turn to face him, she only said, “I understand.” The door slammed behind her, making Sunset flinch from the sound of the impact. The flame haired girl collapsed onto the porch as the strength in her legs gave out, she could see the look of panic on Twilight’s face, and the fierce expression of Shining Armor. “This is all wrong…This isn’t right…none of this is right! I'm going crazy, please someone, wake me up from this nightmare!”

“Oh, poor Sunset Shimmer. Lost your so-called friends, and lost the girl whom you duped into actually loving you, well karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?”

A flash of green light went off on the street, and Sunset looked upon a creature she had never seen before. Its body was black as night, with glowing green lines that spread out like vines across her body. Some of those vines had leaf-like designs coming off of them as they wove around this creature’s body, some accentuating its curves to show that it was in fact female. The creature’s hair was made of emerald flames that reached down her back, and her eyes were pools of emerald light that shimmered in the dark of the night. At the center of this being, right in the middle of her chest, was the very object that Sunset had been looking for.

“THE MEMORY STONE!” Sunset’s strength returned with full fervor as her brow furrowed with rage. “IT WAS YOU!”

“Exactly,” said the creature.

“Why have you done this?!” Sunset asked.

“I think you have a vague idea, Sunset Shimmer. But mostly, it’s revenge, and in a way, I’m saving this city, and its people, from you,” she answered.

“Funny, that’s what I was about to say!” Sunset summoned her Uni-Driver and Unicorn Memory.

< UNICORN! >

“HENSHIN!”

UNICORN! <

A turquoise electrical field surrounded Sunset, transforming her into Kamen Rider Unicorn. When the armor fully materialized, her eyes and horn glowed with barely contained rage for what this monster had done to her and her friends. “I’m going to make you wish you never found that relic!”

“I’d like to see you try!”

Unicorn teleported off the porch, but when she reappeared to strike, the monster had jumped high into the air, back flipped, and landed a few feet away from where Unicorn attacked. Sunset decided to up the ante a little as she whipped out the Skull Memory.

< SKULL! >

{< SKULL! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

The symbol of the Skull Memory appeared behind Sunset, wrapping her in its phantasmal power and changing her into her powered form, Unicorn Noir. “Now count up your sins!”

“Mine are a drop in the bucket, compared to yours!”The creature raised its hands, creating two orbs of emerald light. She pointed her right hand at Unicorn and fired an electrical beam that zigzagged about.

Unicorn jumped to the right, rolling along the front lawn, and as she did, she quickly struck the left hip port once.

\ MAGNUM! /

When Unicorn got out of her roll, she recovered into a kneeling position and fired upon her enemy. Several shots were fired, and each one hit is mark, making the floating monster hiss in anger. However, the battle did not go unnoticed as several residents exited their houses, and of course, Shining Armor was one of them.

“Unicorn!” Shining called out.

“Crap…”

“Well, that’s bad for you, see ya!”

The monster began flying towards the city, but Unicorn snorted as she cried out, “You’re aren’t getting away from me!”

Her motorcycle flared up and transformed into its Rider Form, the wheels screeched as the bike shot off, performed a U-turn and came back towards Unicorn. The masked hero jumped into the air, back flipped, and landed onto her bike in one fluid motion as she gave chase to the monster.

***______________________________***

Unicorn followed the monster as it flew through the air, occasionally firing off green lightning bolts at her. Unicorn weaved and dodged each of them, returning fire with her Magnum any chance she could get. Their chase continued into the city proper as the night life of Canterlot City was treated to the spectacle of Kamen Rider Unicorn chasing down a monster, on any other day, this would be the time when she would hear the citizens cry out and cheer her onto victory, but right now, all she could hear were the sounds of terrified gasps and calls for help.

This only further infuriated Unicorn as she revved up her pursuit of the creature. Unicorn infused some magic into the tires of her bike, and released a burst of energy below the bike, sending it flying into the air. The bike and Unicorn flipped several times before finally landing on the side of a skyscraper. The magically infused tires clung to the building like static cling and allowed Unicorn to drive on the side of the building without falling. To the monster’s dismay, this was an unexpected development. Unicorn fired more shots from her Magnum, each one hitting the monster as she returned fire.

Unicorn jumped onto another building just as the green bolt struck the window of the previous building she was on. Once she landed, Unicorn repositioned herself so that she was perching on her bike as it continued to drive itself. Unicorn then struck the left hip port three times.

\\ SKELETON! ///

Unicorn focused her magic to the soles of her boots, and then vaulted off her bike, the added magic created another burst of propulsion that sent her rocketing towards the monster. At the same time, a violet colored construct skeleton appeared around Unicorn. The construct reached out with its boney hand and grasped the monster, both kept flying until they landed atop the roof of another building. Unicorn came to a halt as she dug her heels into the rooftop, along with using the free hand of the skeleton construct to slow them down. With the other hand, she slammed the monster onto the ground, hard, pinning the creature.

“No more running, it’s over!” Unicorn declared.

“Not by a long shot, Sunset.”

The creature’s body began to glow with emerald light, and in the next moment, released an energy field that burned away the construct’s hand. The creature dashed straight for Unicorn, piercing through the construct’s ribcage and entering the safe space within where Unicorn resided. The creature thrusted her left palm against Unicorn’s chest and released a burst of magical power that shattered the construct and caused several sparks to fly from her armor. Another burst sent Unicorn flying across the roof until she slammed up against the raised railing, she didn’t think this monster would be so powerful.

“Give it up, Sunset, this is only going to end one way,” she said.

Unicorn picked herself up and glared at the monster. “Yeah, with you on the ground unconscious!” Unicorn took out her Shining Memory and raised her right hand into the air. Several seconds went by as Unicorn searched the skies for a certain firebird device to come flying out of the sky and into the palm of her hands. “Uh…okay…”

The monster began laughing mockingly at Sunset, holding her sides as she watched the hero wait for something to come to her. “Let me guess, you were going to transform into that OP form of yours, right? Well, unfortunately, that won’t be happening anytime soon.”

“And why’s that?!”

“That device’s power comes from your ‘bonds of friendship’ with those girls have with you. Well, I should say had, past tense. With their memories wiped of all the ‘good’ memories of you, your sparkling angel form can’t be attained, and you’re stuck with that golden form which lasts, what, two minutes at most? But even then, I’m more powerful than you are right now. I could easily wipe you out!”The creature raised her right hand as it surged with magical energy, growing bigger and bigger as she continued to gather power.

“But I won’t, not yet anyway. Because one way or another, either your former ‘allies’ will do you in, or you’ll come begging to me to end your suffering in this world where everybody hates you and fears you. Either that or become the villain they all know you to be!”

“Who the hell are you?!” Unicorn demanded.

“Memoria, but if I were you, I’d worry more about myself.” Memoria pointed her right hand into the air fired off the energy she was gathering. A sphere of emerald light shot into the sky, when it reached about twenty feet the ball exploded, sending a shockwave that shook the windows, cars, and people for a good one-mile radius. “Welcome to the new world, Sunset Shimmer…”

Memoria released a flash of emerald light, and disappeared, leaving Unicorn alone. But not for long.

“UNICORN!”

Oh, great Faust, please don’t tell me…

Unicorn turned around and saw Kamen Rider Nasca, but in her Final Form, Star Chaser.

“Oh, please, not right now. I’ve had a hell of a day and night!” Unicorn groaned.

“Sorry, let me come back later when you’re feeling better. Yeah right! You’ve been freaking out the people and causing damage!” Nasca accused.

“Yeah and did said people happen to mention I was fighting another monster?!”

Nasca scoffed. “So, you were having a beef with another villain, who cares.”

Unicorn stomped her foot and glared up at Nasca. “That ‘villain’ I have a ‘beef’ with is called Memoria, and she’s the reason why I’m trapped in this never-ending nightmare! And the last thing I need to do today is fight with you, Rainbow!”

That caught Nasca’s attention, her hovering waivered as if she had just been struck in the head, caught completely off guard. “H-Hey, how the hell do you know my real name?!”

“Why? Because we’re partners, that’s why! I know you’re the captain of every sports team in CHS, I know you’re overconfident, kind of annoying at times, and the only other girl in our group of friends who as perverted as I am!” Unicorn took a few deep breaths as she tried to calm herself. “But, you’re also the most loyal friend anyone could ask for and would come through no matter what if it meant helping out your friends.”

Nasca shook her head in disbelief, how did Unicorn know so much about her? “How…How do you know all this about me?! Are you, like, stalking me or something?! I mean, I get it, you’re a villain, so you’re probably researching on how to beat me, but still, that’s like super stalkery.”

“No, it’s called BEING A BEST FRIEND! Because we ARE best friends! Partners! We fight alongside each other to stop the Dopants! You even helped me save the world more than once, and I’m not counting the Fall Formal, the Dazzlings, or the Friendship Games!”

Nasca shook her head as she summoned her Condor Sword. “Okay, that’s enough! You’re not getting into my head!” Nasca’s wing thrusters flared as she sped straight towards Unicorn.

The forgotten heroine didn’t even have time to react as Nasca was upon her in mere seconds. The blade of her Condor Sword swiped across Unicorn’s chest armor, creating sparks from the damage as Unicorn was sent sailing away, bouncing on the rooftop like a stone skipping on water. Unicorn teleported to reposition herself as she came to a halt, she then took out the Metal Memory and inserted it into the Mimetic Drive port.

< METAL! >

{< METAL! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

Unicorn’s body was wrapped in silver light, transforming her into Unicorn Iron Heart. “I’m not your enemy Rainbow!” Unicorn quickly hit the left port twice and brought her arms up into a guarding position.

\ ARMOR UP! //

Nasca charged in again and started slashing at a rapid-fire pace, the only thing that Unicorn could see were streaks of blue-green light zipping around her and slashing at her armor. She was not going to fight Nasca, Memoria may’ve messed with her friends’ heads, but she was not going to play her game and make her fight them. Cracks started to appear all over her armor, her Iron Heart form was about to reach its limit, but still, Unicorn refused to do combat with her friend.

The winged Rider came in with one swing of her sword, striking Unicorn hard as she was sent flying off the roof top, her armor up breaking apart as she reverted back to her default form. Unicorn felt weightless as the world began to rush around her, she hurriedly summoned her Queen Memory and swapped out the Metal Memory.

< QUEEN! >

{< QUEEN! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

Unicorn’s body was wrapped in pink light and transformed her into Unicorn Empress. The hero quickly struck the left hip port four times.

\\ ROOKS! ////

Two large construct behemoths appeared next to Unicorn, and with their mighty shields, created a barrier in midair, surrounding themselves and Unicorn. Her Empress form was easily her third strongest form, right behind Noir and Ace High, with her second strongest being the Pseudo-Final Form, Shining Day, so the barrier created by the Rooks should have been strong enough to protect her. That is until she heard something that made her question that.

/#\ CANNON! /#\

A strong energy blast struck the shield from below, causing it to fracture a little. Another blast hit again, causing even more cracks to form. Unicorn peered down in the direction that the fire was coming from, and it turned out to be Kamen Rider Trigger in his Super Form, SWAT. His Chrome Ultimatum had formed a light-blue construct of a cannon, which was aimed right at her. Another blast came from up above, in the form of Nasca loosing blue-green crescents at her shield. The two-pronged attack threatened to destroy her defense and leave her to the mercy of her two former allies. For a moment, Unicorn contemplated using the Shining Memory, it was strong enough that she could possibly put them down long enough to reason with them.

No, if I do that then they’ll just see me as a villain defeating the heroes!

Unicorn’s indecision was about to prove costly as Trigger pressed the 5 digit three times and hit “Enter”.

|<^>| 5-5-5, ENGAGE!|<^>|

}<^>{TRIGGER! MAXIMUM DRIVE!}<^>{

Nasca took the Rocket Memory and inserted it into her Max Drive port.

}/^{ ROCKET! MAXIMUM DRIVE! }/^{

Unicorn noticed what was about to happen as Nasca made a circle with her sword, creating several orbs of blue-green light around her, and how Trigger’s cannon was building up power. Seeing what was coming, Unicorn struck her left hip seven times.

\\\\ RALLY! ///////

The two behemoths glowed as they transformed into a glowing construct shield. Unicorn took the shield into her right hand as she moved the Queen Memory into her Max Drive port.

} QUEEN! MAXIMUM DRIVE! {<

“STARFALL!!!”

“FINAL CANNON!!!”

“GRAND BASTION!!!”

Unicorn’s shield shined as a construct; fortified castle formed around her. At the same time, Trigger’s cannon fired a massive beam blast straight for the castle, while Nasca’s orbs fired continuous, steaking shots of light. The two attacks slammed into Unicorn’s defense, one from below and another from above. The castle continued to hold even through the onslaught that they were hitting her with. However, it was not to last. The castle was showing cracks along the walls, the turrets were beginning to crumble and fall, and bit by bit the construct was breaking apart.

*Crack*

The two attacks pierced through the construct and struck at the center, creating a large-scale explosion that shook everything for the next five city blocks. A fireball flew out of the explosion and into a building that was still under construction, smashing through several concrete walls before finally stopping inside.

“I think that was Unicorn just now, I’m heading in after her!” Nasca announced.

Trigger gave her the thumbs up.

Nasca flew straight into the unfinished building, following the trail of destruction until she finally found Unicorn, her armor had reverted back to its default form, but now she was kneeling, the armor itself looked cracked, even the lenses of the helmet. Unicorn panted; her armor released several sparks as it tried to maintain its current form. Nasca approached Unicorn and pointed her sword right at her face.

“Now it’s over, Unicorn, no more Dopant attacks, no more evil plots!”

Unicorn looked up at Nasca and said weakly. “If…If that’s what you want then fine…if you’re going to take me down, then do it.” Unicorn reached for her Unicorn Memory and took it out.

The armor disappeared into particles of light, and much to Nasca’s shock, it was Sunset Shimmer. Nasca’s blade wavered as she took a step back. “S-SUNSET SHIMMER?! W-W-WHAT THE HELL?!”

“Yeah…I’m Unicorn…Always have been, and you…you’ve been my partner…fighting Dopants side-by-side, and now…I guess if I’m going to die in this new hell…it’s better if it’s by your hands…” Sunset smiled up at Nasca, at Rainbow Dash, and finally collapsed.

Nasca didn’t understand what was happening, Sunset Shimmer, the Queen of Mean of CHS, was Kamen Rider Unicorn? But there was no denying what was before her very eyes. “This…This is so effed up! Ugh, whatever, I’ll just take her in to Shining Armor and let the cops do their thing. I guess…”

“I can’t let you do that.”

Nasca looked around when she heard the unknown voice. “What, who’s there?!”

From Nasca’s left, a figure walked towards them. The stranger was female, wearing a black leather suit and black bike helmet. The woman kept to the shadows, but from her hand movements, she was reaching for her helmet, and in the next second, took it off and tossed it away.

“I can’t have you take her away, if this false world is to be tore down, she’s essential to it all.”

“Who are you?” Nasca asked.

“Me?”

< EQUAL! >

< XTREME! >

“I’m just a past villain coming to even the score. Henshin.”

EQUAL! <

{*X*} XTREEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMMEEE! {*X*}

A blast of crimson, navy-blue, and black light went off inside the building. When the rush of energy died down, Nasca looked upon a new Rider, that of Kamen Rider Equal Balance Breaker. “Who…Who the hell are you?!”

“I see, so you have no memories of even me. Thank you, you’ve just confirmed my theory. Now, I’ll be taking Sunset before you make a mistake,” said Equal.

Nasca turned her attention towards Equal and brandished her sword in her direction. “Not before you tell me what you want with her! She may be the Queen of Mean, and a villain, but right now you look more like the villain behind the villain who’s come to kill their mook for failing their mission! And I won’t let you hurt her!”

Equal tapped her chin as she hummed in contemplation. “Well, can’t fault you there. But, then again, why do you care if I have come to eliminate her? Isn’t she your sworn enemy? Why is it that you’re concerned with her wellbeing?”

Nasca hesitated. Why was she concerned about Sunset Shimmer? She just found out she was the bad guy and was about two seconds away from taking her out before she revealed her identity. And what was this feeling in her heart that was telling her to help Sunset?

[{X}] DIVIDE! [{X}]

Before Nasca could react, a navy-blue beam of light struck her. She tried to move, but it felt as if time and space around her had slow down to a crawl, even ice was forming around her entire body. Equal ceased her attack when she saw that everything from Nasca’s neck down was covered in ice. “With your speed power, you should be able to vibrate that ice and generate enough heat to melt it away in about, oh, five minutes or so.” Equal casually walked over and picked up Sunset, holding her by the waist with her right arm. “Which will give me plenty of time to disappear.”

“WAIT! LET HER GO!” Nasca shouted.

Equal walked to the edge of the unfinished wall that faced the city, she stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Search your feelings, Rainbow Dash. You know I won’t hurt her, and neither do you. Stop thinking about what you believe your memories are telling you and start to listen to your heart! All of you!”

Once again, Nasca was shocked to hear her name called out, and this time by an unknown Rider. Equal crouched and jumped out of the building and disappeared into the night like a ghost. Nasca didn’t know what to make of all this, confusion was prominent in her mind right now, memories of fighting a villain and the feelings of wanting to protect Sunset. What did it all mean?

“NASCA!”

“OVER HERE!”

Trigger entered the floor and followed Nasca’s voice until he found her frozen in place. “What the heck? What happened to you?!”

“Some new Rider I’ve never seen before did this. She ran off with…”

“She took Unicorn?”

Nasca nodded.

“Don’t worry we’ll take them down, you couldn’t have known she had an ally, hell, I wasn’t even aware there was another Rider backing her up. Now, let’s get you outta this ice,” said Trigger.

“Wait, you need to hear this.” Nasca looked directly at Trigger as she spoke, “Kamen Rider Unicorn, is Sunset Shimmer.”

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?!

***____________________________***

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!]

***____________________________***

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!”

Confrontation

The sun had risen on the third day of the reality warp, and all roads converged on CHS. The Rainbooms, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, had all gathered around the statue. Twilight was the last to arrive, in her mind she was still trying to figure out how best to explain to her friends that everything they thought they knew about Sunset, about everything, was a lie? Rainbow Dash may have had an inkling about what she was going to discuss with them, but not the whole story, still, it had to be known, she had to tell them whether they liked it or not, a grave injustice was done to Sunset, even though their minds were messed with.

Twilight approached her friends, her hair was a mess, and Rarity was – obviously – the first to point this out. “Darling, your hair…”

“It’s fine, not important right now. There’s something we all need to discuss, and we need to do it now before anything else happens!” Twilight stated.

“I get ya, Twi, I think I know what this is about,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Uh, mind lettin’ the rest of us in on the secret?” Applejack asked.

“Last night, when Trigger and I fought Unicorn, she showed me who she was. And, it was Sunset Shimmer.”

A collective “WHAT!” was exclaimed from the other four girls, and each one had an expression of dismay and worry about this revelation.

“I…I don’t believe it…Sunset Shimmer’s a supervillain?!” Fluttershy stated.

“I…I know she can be a bully and then there was that Fall Formal incident, but…to think she’s behind all of this chaos with the Dopants as well…” Rarity spoke in shock.

“Wow…I know she’s the Queen of Mean, but that’s taking it to a whole new level,” said Pinkie Pie.

“About that,” Twilight chimed in, “I don’t think it’s true.”

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight as if she misheard her. “Twi, I literally fought her and saw her transform.”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I’m not denying that, in fact, I’m saying it’s true that she’s Unicorn, but not a supervillain.”

The girls blinked in unison.

“Ya lost me, Twi,” said Applejack.

“RAINBOOMS!” Before Twilight could explain, the group was descended upon by the resident amateur magician, Trixie Lulamoon. She had her backpack, but also had another one slung over her shoulder, and she looked quite perturbed. “Enough is enough, we’re getting to the bottom of this today or so help me I will make you help!”

Now the girls were thoroughly confused as to where this aggression was coming from. Applejack approached the silver haired girl and said, “Now, simmer down Trix, what’s got ya all riled up?”

“What’s got me ‘riled up’, is the fact that Sunset Shimmer trusts you so much to remember that you’re all friends, and in your case,” Trixie pointed a finger to Twilight Sparkle, “girlfriends, that you won’t even give her the benefit of the doubt that she’s being honest!”

“Um, Trixie, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Yes! And that’s not the point! The point is, Sunset Shimmer is telling you all the truth! Someone has erased all our good memories of her, and if we don’t figure out who did it before today is over, they’ll be gone, forever!” Trixie shouted.

Twilight’s eyes widened with fear, this was worse than she had imagined, had she not done the Look Up last night, they would’ve let this day pass by without helping at all, and two days were already wasted not believing Sunset.

“And if you don’t believe me,” Trixie knelt as she opened Sunset’s backpack and fished out the journal, “then read this! It’s a journal connected to Princess Twilight Sparkle, and it belongs to Sunset!”

Rarity stepped forward and opened the journal, she turned to the page that was bookmarked and read the contents aloud to the girls, which made them all look a little worried. “And…you believe this is true?”

“I was right there when the words appeared! We don’t have much time, we need to find out who’s behind all this, hell, we may already be too late!” Trixie urged.

Rainbow Dash looked to the magician and said, “Trix, you gotta know, this still may be a trick. We…and don’t ask how…but Sunset Shimmer is Kamen Rider Unicorn.”

“I know.”

“WHAT?!” The girls shouted.

“I read the rest of the journal entries when that appeared, and if someone erased the memories of Sunset being good, then whoever’s behind this also did the same thing to her as Unicorn and replaced them with bad memories. Each entry is dated, so I did some research online, and found a lot of contradictions with what the news stories reported and what was written.”

“Trixie believe me, Unicorn’s the bad guy, at least…I think, it’s kind of hard after what happened last night…but suffice to say, I know she is,” said Rainbow.

Trixie placed her hands on her hips as she glared at Rainbow. “I know what you’re getting at, Kamen Rider Nasca.”

Every girls’ jaw dropped, expect Twilight who said, “Let me guess, the journal?”

“Page 194, it talks about the day you got your Nasca Memory and Accel Memory, and how you two started your superhero partnership,” Trixie stated.

The girls quickly turned the page in question, and indeed there was correspondence between Sunset Shimmer and Princess Twilight, but the events described were far different than what Rainbow Dash remembered the event to be. For Twilight, this only confirmed everything she learned in the Earth’s Memories.

“So, either fess up to manipulating her memories, or actually help us find out who did it!” Trixie demanded.

The rest of the girls looked hesitant as they read one page after the other, all these events that Sunset spoke about were some that they had done, and others that they never remembered doing. It was all so confusing right now; they didn’t know what to believe. Eventually, they noticed that Twilight had remained mostly quiet throughout this entire reveal.

“What do you think, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t think, I know. Trixie’s right, everything in that journal is the truth,” said Twilight.

Trixie was not expecting that, denial, ridicule, arguing, those she as ready for, but not flat out vindication, and from Twilight no less.

“You’re not actually buying this are you?!” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t do a Look Up last night on Sunset Shimmer. What’s recorded in the Earth’s Memories severely contrasts with what we know, and the Memories of the Earth record everything past, present, and future. We’ve been tricked…We’ve been manipulated into shunning someone who meant so much to us…We’ve…We’ve hurt her…” Twilight stated as she started to cry.

Fluttershy moved closer to Twilight and hugged her for comfort. “It’ll be okay, Twilight…”

“No, it’s not ‘okay’! Sunset and I…we’re a couple! She came to me last night, the one person she hoped would remember her, and I rejected her out of a fear that a false memory gave me! And now she’s kidnapped!”

“KIDNAPPED?!!” Pinkie exclaimed. “H-How?!”

“Some dark Rider swopped in and took her away…that’s how,” said Rainbow Dash with remorse.

“Then you have to go and find her! She hasn’t answered any of my texts or calls! She could be hurt or…ugh, just get on your Rider bike and go look for her!” Trixie demanded.

“That won’t be necessary, Trix.”

All seven girls turned around and watched as Sunset Shimmer walked towards them, her head was hung low, her hands stuffed into her jacket pockets as she made the slow walk towards the group. An awkward silence befell the group once she arrived at the statue, knowing the truth of what was going on, Sunset could see the shame they were feeling, as well as the conflicting emotions of what they thought to be true and what they now know is the truth.

“I know it’s hard to believe, if I were in your shoes, I’d feel the same. I can’t make you believe me, but right now, I’m begging you.” Sunset got to knees, making the others gasp. “Please, help me set things right…if not because of our past friendship…or…” Sunset glanced to Twilight. “…relationships…then do it because whoever is doing this, I guarantee you, won’t stop at just me. Dark Magic is being used in combination with a Gaia Memory, those two powers combined can hurt a lot more people than just me. This person could rewrite anything they desire, how long will it be before they set their sights on the world?! So, don’t help me to regain what I lost, help me to save what is left! If that means having to start from scratch to regain your friendships, then I’ll gladly pay that price!”

The girls all looked upon Sunset with shock, she would never resort to begging, for anything. Rainbow Dash scrunched her face into a grimace as she walked towards Sunset, who averted her gaze from her former partner.

“Stand up, Sunset,” Rainbow demanded.

“Rainbow…”

“You’ve never begged for anything, you’re sure as hell not starting now, so stand up and just ask us for help.” Sunset turned her gaze back up at Rainbow, who stretched out her hand towards her. The flame haired girl smiled gratefully as she took Rainbow’s hand and was hoisted back up to her feet. “To be honest, I think we all had doubts about what’s been going on. What we remember, and what we feel don’t exactly match up. I should be angry, but right now…I just feel…ashamed, and sad. Dammit…I’m supposed to represent loyalty, and I can’t even tell the difference between a fake memory and the feelings that have been telling me otherwise.”

Sunset’s smile widened as she slowly opened her arms and gave Rainbow a hug. “I don’t blame you, any of you. This wasn’t any of your faults.”

Rainbow was a little surprised by the show of affection, and not really sure if she should hug her back. In the end she returned the hug, as awkward as it was for the prismatic girl.

“Don’t let us off the hook that easily, Sug,” Applejack interjected. “We shoulda listened to our hearts rather than our heads on this one, and truth be told, we should’ve given ya more leeway when it came to this sorta thing.”

Trixie sighed loudly as she got in between all of this, “Yeah, she was right, you guys were wrong, you’re all made up. Now can we please focus on the person who’s erasing memories?! We’re kind of on a deadline!”

“If the memories aren’t returned before the end of today, then they’ll be gone forever. That occurs three days after they were erased, problem is we don’t know at what time they were erased,” said Twilight

“So…we could already be too late,” Rarity finished.

“But we could also be just in time! We don’t know the time, so that could just mean we’re really not too late if we start now!” Pinkie stated with great optimism.

“Um…I agree with Pinkie Pie, we-we can’t just give up now…we have to make things right,” said Fluttershy with great determination.

“Then let’s go and show this a-hole that they can’t just mess with people’s memories! Sixteen eyes are better than four, right?” Rainbow asked.

Sunset nodded.

With their mission affirmed, the girls made their way towards the building. Twilight halted, tugging at Sunset’s wrist, she stopped the flame haired girl and looked at her with a bit of sorrow. “I’m sorry about what happened…I…I should’ve listened to my heart instead of my head…I didn’t mean to hurt you like that…”

Sunset smiled comfortingly to her girlfriend. “It’s okay, I won’t lie it did hurt a bit, but I know it’s not your fault. I’d kiss you right now, but I figure that’d be too awkward.”

Twilight began playing with her bang and said, “A little…sorry. But, I’m okay with hugging, if you are?”

Sunset didn’t argue, she simply enveloped Twilight in her arms, there was a slight hesitation from the genius girl in her arms, but Twilight got over it quickly and returned the embrace, feeling a sense of calm and comfort in these arms. For Sunset, it was relief, relief that at least she was willing to start over if it came down it.

“Love birds, the Great and Powerful Trixie would like to solve this mystery sometime today!” Trixie scolded.

“If you wanted in on this Trix, you missed your chance about a year ago,” Sunset shot back.

Trixie became flustered as she huffed and went inside.

“She’s fun to tease,” said Sunset.

“Um…” Twilight became a bit nervous as her face reddened, “This is going to sound ridiculous…but…you and Trixie…you two haven’t, ahem, what I mean to say is…”

Sunset leaned forward and kissed Twilight gently upon her cheek, she looked into her girl’s eyes and said, “I would never cheat on you, tease, ogle maybe, but never cheat. I love you Twilight Sparkle, that won’t ever change.”

Twilight felt her heart race as her face burned from hearing such words of devotion coming from Sunset, and because she’d never thought she’d be on the receiving end of such words. “W-Well, let’s look for this Stone so we can get things back to normal!”

***__________________________***

Now with assistance of the Rainbooms, a full and more thorough investigation was launched, while some people may have been skeptical and weary of talking to Sunset and Trixie, they had no problem speaking to any of the other girls, but alas, their efforts still came up short, none of the people they talked to seemed to know anything or have seen anything strange or suspicious over the past three days, and the clock was ticking.

It was already the afternoon hours and their suspect pool was running really low now.

Sunset and Trixie convened in the Yearbook Committee room, with pictures of various students having red “X’s” over them, marking the ones that they had spoken to.

“So, why are we in here again?” Trixie asked.

“I wanted to see who we missed, but it’s no use, we’ve talked to everyone, A to Z!” Sunset stated

It was then that Trixie noticed something was off, a picture with a generic gray profile and no actual picture. “Wait… ‘Not Pictured: Wallflower Blush’. Who’s Wallflower?”

“I’m literally sitting right across from you.”

“GAH!” Trixie exclaimed as she just now noticed the green haired girl’s presence. The amateur magician tapped her chin as she looked upon Wallflower. “Uh, who are you?”

Wallflower gave Trixie a deadpan look. “Wallflower. And I’ve known you since third grade.”

Trixie blinked. “Ahh! I remember third grade. Not you specifically, but what a grade it was. The Great and Powerful Trrrrixie debuted her disappearing frog trick. You know, a lot of people don’t realize how much work goes into raising tadpoles. You really have to coddle them…”

Sunset rolled her eyes Trixie went into her longwinded story, she then turned her attention to the journal, re-reading Princess Twilight’s message and the picture of the rock formation the Memory Stone was supposedly hidden under. The former unicorn huffed in frustration, “How am I supposed to find a rock formation that looks…like…” Sunset turned her gaze towards Wallflower and Trixie, and there, on Wallflower’s computer background, was the very rock formation they were looking for. “…That’ll work.”

The flame haired girl put the journal down and made to go to Wallflower but stopped as she inconspicuously propped up her cellphone, hit the record button, and then scribbled something onto a piece of paper and stuffed it into her skirt pocket. She then turned to Wallflower and asked, “Hey, can I ask you a silly question?” Wallflower nodded. “Where did you take that lovely photograph?”

Wallflower’s expression brightened as she turned to the picture in question. “Oh, that’s my garden. Well, it’s the school’s garden, technically. I’m the president of the Gardening Club! I founded it, too! I’m also the only member…and the only one who’s ever been to the garden. Or seen it…or even asked about it.”

Trixie tugged at the collar of her hoodie and said, “You’re not really into other people, huh?”

Sunset elbowed Trixie in the ribs and made the magician give a pained “oomph”.

“I was…maybe going to add this picture somewhere in the yearbook. What do you think?” Wallflower asked with a hopeful tone.

“Sorry, Sunset doesn’t let anyone put things in her yearbook. No matter how much they deserve them,” said Trixie as she rubbed her side.

Sunset gave a slight glare at Trixie, and then turned back to Wallflower with a beaming smile, “No! You should do that, Wallflower. Uh, so don’t let us keep you from working on it.”

“What?! The Great and Powerful Trixie is…annoyed and insulted!” Trixie huffed in indignation and turned her nose up at both of them as she crossed her arms...

Wallflower smiled back at Sunset and went to work on the computer.

Sunset made a few gestures to Trixie indicating that she was going to search Wallflower’s backpack. Trixie nodded and moved to obstruct Wallflower’s view of Sunset’s actions. The former unicorn stealthily made her way to Wallflower’s backpack and carefully opened it.

“WALLFLOWER, SHE KNOWS!”

Sunset stopped upon hearing that voice, and so did Wallflower. The green girl turned around and saw that Sunset was at her backpack. Wallflower shot up from her seat and swiftly pushed Trixie aside, she then barreled into Sunset, sending the both of them sprawling onto the floor. Wallflower had landed atop Sunset, but she quickly regained her bearings and hastily scooped up her backpack and readied to bolt for the door.

“TRIXIE, LOCK THE DOOR!” Sunset ordered.

The silver haired girl rushed to the door, slamming it shut and locking it. Wallflower backed up from Sunset as she got up from the floor. “It was YOU! You’re the one who erased everyone’s memories?!”

Wallflower looked around the room, her secret had been found out, so there was no need to play dumb now. “Yes…I did!”

“WHY?! WHAT THE HELL DID I DO TO YOU THAT WAS SO BAD THAT YOU HAD TO RUIN MY LIFE LIKE THIS?! I DON’T EVEN KNOW YOU!” Sunset practically screamed.

Wallflower’s gaze narrowed upon hearing that last sentence. “The fact that you don’t know is all the reason I need! Everyone in this school, everyone in this entire city, was fooled into thinking you’re some hero, but I know who you really are! You haven’t changed, you’re still a manipulative, egotistical, bitch that you were back then and still are now! I mean, I never thought you were so twisted that you’d make people believe you were a superhero, but now you have Twilight Sparkle following you around like a lost puppy and making her your girlfriend is like the leash around her neck!”

“You – how dare you –!” Sunset began.

“I won’t ever forget, what you are, Queen of Mean!” Wallflower stated.

Sunset growled angrily; her eyes narrowed into slits that promised of great retribution to come. “Calling yourself Memoria…Erasing all the good I’ve done to try and put all this hate and fear behind me, making the person I love the most forget who I am and that we were in love…” Sunset summoned her Uni-Driver and Unicorn Memory. “YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE HOW MEAN I CAN GET!”

Trixie’s eyes widened as she saw Sunset ready to practically vaporize Wallflower, understandably she was really ticked off, and had every right to be, but if she didn’t intervene now, Sunset may end up doing something she may regret, and the last thing that girl needed was more of them.

The amateur magician hurriedly put herself between Wallflower and Sunset. “Whoa! Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa! Let’s not antagonize the person with the all-powerful mystery rock!”

“Don’t let her intimidate you, my little flower.”

“Who’s that?” Sunset asked.

“Who’s who?” Trixie asked.

“A real friend, someone whose helped me more in the last three days than anyone has in the entire school year! But…as much as beating you here would be nice; I don’t like confrontation…” Wallflower reached into her backpack slowly. “…Let’s just forget this ever happened!”

Wallflower whipped out the Memory Stone, the relic shined with green colored magical energy, prompting Sunset to reach out and shout, “DON’T ERASE–!”

A flash of green light went off in the room.

***__________________________***

Sunset and Trixie were in a daze as they stood there, and after a second, the two girls snapped out of the daze and looked around the room quizzically.

“What was I saying? I’m sure it was something brilliant?” Trixie asked.

“Why are we in the yearbook room?” Sunset asked.

Trixie shrugged in confusion, unsure herself. “Well, anyway, let’s continue the search.” When the amateur magician went to open the door, she found that it was locked. “What the heck?”

Sunset chuckled to herself and said, “Here, Trix, let me–” Sunset reached into her skirt pocket and felt nothing inside. “That’s…weird. The key’s gone.”

Trixie turned around, a slight look of panic forming on her face. “You’re telling me we’re locked in here?!” The amateur magician then noticed the time on the clock. “How has is it four o’ clock now?!”

“Oh crap…we must’ve found the one responsible! Memoria, she erased our memories! But if she thinks a locked door is going to keep me from stopping her, she’s got another thing coming!” Sunset concentrated as she summoned her Uni-Driver and Unicorn Memory, but nothing happened. She tried again, and yet again, there was nothing. “Oh, double crap…that’s not good.”

“If there’s anyone I don’t want to hear that from, it’s you,” said Trixie with dismay.

“Memoria must’ve taken my Driver and Gaia Memory when she wiped our memories!”

Sunset stated as she rushed towards the door and began banging on it, calling out to anyone who could help them. Trixie joined it, both girls were working to get themselves free, short of breaking down the door. After a good five minutes of effort, both were exhausted as they leaned up against the table.

“This is ridiculous! Even if we get out of here, how are we supposed to catch this person if they keep erasing our memories and set us back to square one,” Trixie in frustration.

Sunset glanced over the tabletop and noticed a red light on her cellphone. She placed her hands into her skirt pockets and felt something in her left pocket. When she took it out, she smiled gleefully and said, “By being clever!” The flame haired girl took up her cellphone from its hiding spot and noticed it was still in recording mode. “YES! I must’ve set my phone to record everything just in case this happened and wrote myself a little note to make me check, look!”

Trixie read the words “check your cellphone” scribbled onto the small strip of paper. Trixie huddled close to Sunset as she stopped the recording and played back the footage that she had. All in all, she was glad that it hadn’t died, it was almost two hours of footage. Sunset scrolled through footage and came up to the point where she and Wallflower were speaking.

“Who’s that?”

“Wallflower Blush,” said Sunset.

“Hmm, name’s not ringing any bells.”

After watching the slight confrontation between the two, the video reached the near apex of their argument.

{The fact that you don’t know is all the reason I need! Everyone in this school, everyone in this entire city, was fooled into thinking you’re some hero, but I know who you really are! You haven’t changed, you’re still a manipulative, egotistical, bitch that you were back then and still are now! I mean, I never thought you were so twisted that you’d make people believe you were a superhero, but now you have Twilight Sparkle following you around like a lost puppy and making her your girlfriend is like the leash around her neck!}

[You – how dare you –!]

[I won’t ever forget, what you are, Queen of Mean!]

[Calling yourself Memoria…Erasing all the good I’ve done to try and put all this hate and fear behind me, making the person I love the most to forget who I am and that we were in love…YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE HOW MEAN I CAN GET!]

Trixie rubbed the back of her head as she watched that unfold. “I hate to say this, considering all she’s done, but she is kinda right about you.”

Sunset rolled her eyes with annoyance. “Gee, thanks.”

“Actually, the Wise and Moralizing Trixie was making a point. You said you didn’t do anything to her?”

“I didn’t! I swear I didn’t lay a single finger on her! I barely even talked to her!” Sunset stated as she flailed her arms.

“But,” Trixie raised her right index finger, “maybe it’s not good enough to not be mean to someone. Maybe you have to be nice and acknowledge others. Sometimes ignoring someone, can be just as bad or even worse than a punch to the face, or a mean word.”

Sunset took a moment to digest Trixie’s words, how long had Wallflower been ignored by others? How many times was she passed over and made to feel as if her existence was nothing to notice or appreciate? In her case, even just a slight bit of acknowledgment would’ve been nice, even if it was from the school bully. Sunset felt that old hurt and pain from when she remembered her past, but now she wondered how much she really hurt Wallflower Blush, and she cursed herself for not being able to remember.

“You’re right, Trixie…”

“Of course, I am…um…right about what exactly?” Trixie asked.

“It’s not enough to be nice, I made up for a lot of mistakes, and I overlooked one. But no more.” Sunset placed a hand on Trixie’s shoulder and said, “At least if we don’t make it through this, and everything stays as it is, at least I’ll have a couple of good friends who will still be there for me. And I mean, one of them is the Greatest and Powerfullest Canterlot High School has to offer, so I guess I can’t complain.”

Trixie felt like her heart was breaking hearing Sunset sound defeated, and at the same time she felt joy that she could give some level of comfort to her new friend. It was then that Trixie’s attention was drawn back to the cellphone. “Hey, there’s more footage, look!”

The flash of green light went off in the video, the girls watched as Wallflower walked up to Sunset Shimmer and snatched away her Driver and Gaia Memory.

[She’s gotten closer, Memoria, we have to do something before she figures it out again!]

Silence.

[I know we just have to wait until sundown, but at this rate…]

Trixie looked to Sunset with confusion. “Is she…talking to herself?”

Sunset narrowed her gaze on the Memory Stone and noticed that the relic was glowing in response to her questions. “No. She’s talking to someone, through the Memory Stone or in the Memory Stone I can’t tell, but if I’m right, this may have gotten much worse than I originally thought. We need to get out of here!”

Trixie felt a surge of confidence running through her as she separated from Sunset and laughed boisterously. “You poor fool! Did you think that something as silly as a locked door can stop the Great and Powerful Trixie?! Especially when a friend is in peril?! Ha, ha, perish the thought! Behold!” Trixie reached into her pocket and dug out a smoke bomb. “The Magician’s Exit!”

The silver haired girl threw down the smoke bomb, creating a puff of violet colored smoke. When the smoke cleared, Trixie found herself outside the yearbook room. Trixie’s eyes widened with unimaginable glee as she danced in place. “Yes! It worked! I finally did it!”

Her celebration was cut short when Sunset knocked at the door. “Still in here!”

“Oh…um…one sec!”

Trixie pulled out another smoke bomb and threw it at the floor. Another puff of smoke plumed and from it appeared Sunset Shimmer, unfortunately, she seemed to have swapped places, with Trixie now being the one trapped behind the locked door. Trixie growled in annoyance as she threw another one, with the same results. She did it again, and again, and again, each time with the same result.

Finally, Trixie just slumped her shoulders and waved to Sunset. “You know what? Just leave me here! Go and save the world or whatever!”

“I owe you one, Trixie! I promise I won’t forget this!” Sunset declared as she ran down the hallway.

“Never say never!”

***______________________________***

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that again?!”

[It’s exactly like I said big brother, Sunset Shimmer isn’t a villain. Yes, She’s Unicorn, but she’s not evil! Someone’s messed with our minds, the whole city’s minds! We may already be too late to get them back, but we can at least stop the true villain from hurting anyone else!]

Shining Armor could feel it, something was off about this whole thing, especially when he learned of Unicorn’s identity, but was this really it? “And you’re sure this isn’t some kind of trick or something? That she’s not laying down a trap for you?”

[Shiny, please trust me. We have to hurry, or we won’t be able to undo any of this! I need you here at CHS as fast as you can!]

Shining Armor nodded his head and said, “Alright, I’ll be their quick.”

The law and order Kamen Rider pressed the “end call” button on his helmet and revved his motorcycle. He flipped on the police lights and swiftly zoomed through traffic. There was a feeling that something was off for a while now, but he couldn’t put his finger on it, and if his little sister was right, then that meant that they were fighting their own friend and ally. Shining sped up, determined to make it to CHS in order to aid his little sister and her friends in finding the culprit. However, as he was riding, another biker sped up and was tailing him. The other biker was dressed in all black and wore a black bike helmet and was female.

“I don’t know who you are, but I don’t have time to race some punk!” Shining stated.

“Oh, I’m not racing you, we’re just heading in the same direction!”

“And that is?”

“Canterlot High School,” said the other biker.

“Wait, who are –?!”

“Save the questions for when this is over! Sunset, Twilight, and the girls will need our help before this is over, so speed up!”

Shining had a million questions for this person and was fairly certain this was the person that Rainbow Dash had told him about, but right now not a lot of things made sense, so he had to go with the best course of action. “Don’t slow me down then!”

Both Riders zoomed down the highway, their destination only a few minutes away.

***______________________________***

Sunset ran down the hallways, her cellphone in hand as she called out to Twilight. At first, she didn’t pick up, not recognizing the number, but after the second try she picked up and Sunset managed to tell her what had happened and who had the Memory Stone. With the intel passed on, Sunset continued to run around the halls until she spotted her target.

“WALLFLOWER!” Sunset shouted down the hall.

The other students stopped and looked in Sunset Shimmer’s direction, she had a laser focused look, and they knew not to get in her way. The girl in question turned around and yelped in shock that Sunset remembered her, and with that, she ran. Wallflower turned down one of the hallways but stopped when she saw the other end was blocked by Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

“You have to help me! Sunset Shimmer’s after me!!” Wallflower begged.

Both girls crossed their arms and glared at Wallflower.

“C’mon, please, Sunset Shimmer’s going to hurt me!”

“Like you hurt her?” Applejack asked.

Wallflower’s eyes widened. “W-What?”

“The jig’s up, we know you’re the one who erased our memories!” Rainbow stated.

Wallflower backed up and swiftly ran back the way she came, now she had Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Sunset Shimmer on her tail. It made no sense, they were her enemies, those two would rather fight Sunset than help her. Wallflower ran down a third hallway, and once again, she found her path blocked, by none other than Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie.

“Thank goodness, please, you have to help! Sunset’s coming after me,” said Wallflower.

“Oh, is that because you erased all our good memories of her and now you’re running away because she’s uber mad at you?” Pinkie Pie asked.

Once again, Wallflower was shocked by the revelation.

“Um, Wallflower, please just stop, maybe we could talk?” Fluttershy asked.

Wallflower Blush did an about face and ran down the same why she just came from. The green haired girl stopped as she realized she was at a crossroads, to her left, Sunset Shimmer was barreling down the hallway, and right next to her was Twilight Sparkle, down the middle hall was Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who were surely going to reach her first, and the right hallway had Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Trixie wasn’t among them, which meant even if she tried to erase their memories now, that would leave one more person who knew, and who would remind them that she was the culprit, and that’s not counting whatever else evidence that they might have already saved to ensure that if she did erase their memories, they had a backup to remember.

The desperate girl turned around and headed straight into the library, unfortunately, it was nothing but a giant rotunda, with only one way in, at least not counting the emergency exit. Right after Wallflower entered, the seven girls burst inside the library, with the librarian, Miss Cheerilee, giving them all scolding looks.

“Excuse me, girls, quiet in the library!” Miss Cheerilee warned.

“S-Sorry, Miss Cheerilee, but we’re kind of in the middle of an emergency,” said Twilight in apologetic tone.

Suddenly, the fire alarm went off, all the students in the library began to look around in a slight panic. Cheerilee and the other librarians began to usher the students out of the library, but the Rainbooms knew better. The seven girls ran to the back of the library, and there they saw the open fire exit door. The Rainbooms ran outside and quickly spotted Wallflower running towards the football field, already having gotten a good head start on them.

The shy girl felt as if she was going to make it, but her luck would not hold out as two motorcycles came rushing in from the street and skidded to a halt on the field. The first was that of Shining Armor, the second, once her helmet was removed, was Starlight Glimmer. Behind Wallflower was her enemy, Sunset Shimmer, and the girls she had tricked into helping her.

“It’s over, Wallflower! Just give up the Memory Stone and the Gaia Memory, and we can fix all of this before it becomes too late,” said Sunset.

“I don’t get it!” Wallflower growled. “Why would you help someone like her! Did you all forget how she made you all forget that you were friends in the first place! She single handedly broke you all up and then you suddenly just want to forget it all happened and be friends?!”

Rarity cleared her throat as she spoke, “True, I don’t believe that any us of shall forget that Sunset Shimmer played a major role in dividing us and making us estranged from each other. But neither can we deny the fact that the kind of power you’re wielding is too dangerous to be left here.”

“Erasin’ our memories without permission, fer what? If we made up with Sunset and became friends, then that’s our choice! It ain’t yours to decide that we only remember the bad and see her as such,” said Applejack.

“And how do you know that she hasn’t changed! You erase all the good memories, and only focus on the bad, people can change!” Twilight glanced to Sunset who had a little smile on her face. “So, don’t push your own opinions on us!”

“UGH!” Wallflower growled. “Fine, if that’s how you want it, then I’ll just reset everything!”

“Not yet! R0V3R, fetch!” Rainbow called out.

Mechanical barking could be heard as a robotic dog ran past Starlight and Shining Amor, and swift as the wind, the Mechanimal used its sharp tail to slice the backpack open, allowing its contents to spill onto the ground, including Sunset’s Unicorn Memory and Uni-Driver. Wallflower snatched the Memory Stone before it could hit the ground and held it close to her as she backed away.

“HAWK!” Twilight cried out.

The second Mechanimal swopped in from above and scooped up the Gaia Memory and Driver. Hawk hovered over Sunset and dropped both devices down to her, upon which Sunset snatched them out the air. Starlight and Shining Armor ran over to join them, the latter still giving Sunset a suspicious look.

“Are we good, Shining?” Sunset asked.

“For now, we’ll focus on the immediate threat, and why does it feel like I’ve had this kind of tense talk with you before?” Shining asked.

“Gee, it may have something to do with the fact that I’m dating your little sister,” Sunset remarked.

Shining’s eyes bulged from his skull upon hearing this. “WAIT – YOU’RE WHAT?!”

“Save the freak outs for later, it’ll all make sense when you get your memories back,” said Starlight.

Wallflower continued to back up, she always wanted to be noticed, but not like this, not with these accusatory gazes, as if she was the bad guy, when the real villain was standing amongst them.

“My little flower, it’s time we stopped playing games and showed them our true strength.”

Wallflower meant what she said, she did not like confrontation, but sometimes, life didn’t give her much choice. The green haired girl reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a Gaia Memory, it was green in color, the symbol of the device was an “M” that looked like a brain. At the same time, Wallflower held up the Memory Stone, which glowed a bright emerald.

< MEMORY! >

Wallflower pressed the Memory Memory against the Memory Stone, the device immediately dissolved into the Stone, and upon which Wallflower pressed the Memory Stone to her chest. The moment she did, emerald light surrounded her body, and in the next moment the light collapsed, revealing a blackened figure. But soon the figure’s body began to form wispy, vine-like fissures across its body, and its head caught on fire with jade colored flames that mimicked Wallflower’s wild hair. Now, it was not just Wallflower Blush standing before them, it was Memoria.

“Memories are powerful things, my friend taught me that. And in those memories, I’ve been granted the power to punish you! Sunset Shimmer!”Wallflower declared.

Shining Armor glanced to Rainbow Dash and asked, “Are we sure that Sunset’s not the bad guy?” To this, Twilight came up and swatted her big brother in the back of the head. “Ow! Just asking Twily, it’s a valid question right now!”

“Don’t worry about it, but either way, that kind of power is dangerous to use. We have to stop her now!” Sunset stated.

“Don’t think you’re safe just because you outnumber me. You’ve no idea what powers a Gaia Memory and a magical relic can do together!”

Wallflower channeled both magic and Gaia Memory energy into her right hand and slammed it against the ground. A wave of emerald light erupted and washed over the area, creating a blinding light that shined from the ground up. Everyone closed their eyes as a near weightless feeling grasped them. The feeling lasted for about a minute before they felt as if they were sitting on solid ground again. When everyone opened their eyes, they were still on the football field, however, the entire field had been translocated from CHS straight into the forest, with a good number of trees crushed beneath the giant plot of earth that was just moved in an instant.

Memoria clapped both her hands together, and upon doing so, the Memory Stone released dozens, upon dozens of smoke trails that flew out and around her. When one of them landed on the ground, the smoke began to take form, in less than a few seconds, they were all face to face with enemies of their past. Dopants that represented the twenty-six T2 Gaia Memories. Accel, Bird, Cyclone, Dummy, Fang, Gene, Heat, IceAge, Key, Luna, Ocean, Puppeteer, Queen, Rocket, Unicorn, Weather, Yesterday, and Zone. But they were not alone.

Another round smoke wisps emerged from the Memory Stone, and what appeared next was another round of Dopants, that of the PhoenEXE Corp. T1 Gaia Memory Dopants. Arms, Terror, Taboo, Claydoll, Smilodon, Dog, Utopia, Anomalocaris, Magma, T-Rex, Money, Bat, Quetzalcoatius, Injury, Lightning, Dog, Jewel, Spider, Commander, and Eyes.

Rainbow Dash’s right eye twitched upon seeing the small army of past Dopant foes. “Okay, that’s not fair! Some of those guys I don’t even recognize!”

“You’ve fought them before, trust me,” said Sunset.

“Dammit, how many are there?!” Shining asked.

“Not including Memoria, that’s about thirty-eight. Divided up between the four of us that’s roughly…”

“About nine and a half Dopants each.” Starlight, Sunset, and Twilight stated at the same time. All three girls looked to each other, blushed and then shared a laugh at their synchronicity and calculating abilities.

“Eggheads,” Rainbow mock coughed.

“You don’t have much time, Sunset, the moment that sun sets, it’ll be all over!”Memoria stated.

“Maybe…ideally, I’d like to defeat you before that happens…but,” Sunset glanced about, to her friends, to her allies, to her lover, “if it means having to start from scratch, to build that trust with them again, I’ll do it, because they’re worth it!”

Shining Armor smirked at that answer. “Well then, let’s get started. I like your attitude Shimmer, maybe you’re not as bad I thought.”

Sunset smiled as she produced her Uni-Driver. At the same time, Starlight summoned her Equilibrium Driver, Rainbow brought out her N-Driver, and Shining Armor his T-Driver. All four Riders placed their belts against their waists, allowing the straps to wind around them and secure themselves. Once the Drivers were set, all four of them pressed down on their signature Gaia Memories.

< UNICORN! >

< NASCA! >

< TRIGGER! >

< EQUAL! >

“Henshin!”
“Henshin!”
“Henshin!”
“Henshin!”

UNICORN! <

NASCA! <

TRIGGER! <

EQUAL! <

Turquoise, azure, blue, and silver electrical energy gathered around the four Riders, materializing their armor and transforming them into their alter heroic egos, and anti-hero.

“Delivering justice at sonic speeds!” Nasca flared her electric-fiery wings and brandished her Nasca Sword. “Kamen Rider Nasca!”

“The keeper of law and order!” Trigger drew his Chrome Magnum blaster, spun it around on his right index finger, and then pointed it at the Dopant horde before him. “Kamen Rider Trigger!”

“So, we’re doing this? Alright, why not.” Equal summoned her Staff of Sameness, twirled it around, and entered an attack stance. “Bringer of balance! Kamen Rider Equal!”

Unicorn glanced to her allies, and then to her friends, feeling the same bond of comradery as they once did reinvigorated the hero. “The Magic of Friendship unleashed!” Unicorn’s horn and hands shimmered with magical energy as she entered her fighting pose. “Kamen Rider Unicorn!”

Those of the Dopant horde who were able to, fired multiple energy blasts at the Riders before them. Several of the blasts exploded around the Riders, with many more continuing to go off with each successful blast. Wallflower raised her hand and ordered the horde to stop firing. Flames raged around the blast zone, as well as smoke bellowing from the raging flames. But then, four different colored auras began to shine through the flames, and with a collective battle cry, the auras blasted away the flames as all four Riders charged straight ahead towards the horde, not a scratch on their armors, and none of the other five Rainbooms were harmed either.

“What can we do now?” Fluttershy asked.

“Darling, I don’t think there’s much for us to do,” said Rarity, feeling powerless in this current situation.

“We may not have transforming super belts, but we can still cheer on our friends!” Pinkie stated.

Twilight padded Fluttershy on the shoulder as she watched her friends and family, charge into the army of Dopants. “She’s right, we have to pray for their victory.”

Battle of Truth and Lies

Trigger engaged in a fire fight with Arms and Anomalocaris, the two Dopants fired multiple shots at the azure Rider as he jumped onto the bleachers. The spines of the Anomalocaris would whiz passed him and pierce through the metal frame, while Arms’ blaster rounds would explode upon impact. Trigger returned fire with his Chrome Magnum, making the ground around the Dopants explode and throw off their aim.

However, they weren’t the only long-range attackers, two floating eyeballs appeared above. The eyeballs glowed and fired two beams of blue light. Trigger jumped backwards just in time to narrowly miss the attack. However, when he landed, he felt his back get hit, making him lurch forward a bit. Trigger turned around and saw a cowboy looking Dopant, the Yesterday Dopant. Suddenly, time seemed to rewind, or rather, he was rewound. Trigger suddenly went through the same actions, but this time in reverse, ending with him back at where he started, but when he returned to the same point, the previously missed attack did not miss. The two floating eyeballs fired and struck Trigger, sending it flying onto the field as sparks came off his body.

Arms ran towards him, changing his weapon into a large, broken sword as he readied to swing down upon the prone Rider. Trigger quickly opened his Chrome Magnum and inserted one of his Utility Memories.

< KNIFE! >

|^| KNIFE! ARMED! |^|

The Chrome Magnum glowed until it transformed into a large knife, just as the Arms Dopant swung his sword down. Trigger used his knife blade to catch the attack, stopping it before it could reach him. Trigger pushed the blade away, and spun around to sweep the Dopant’s legs, causing Arms to fall to the ground as Trigger vaulted back to his feet. Arms got back up and began attacking the azure Rider. Arms was fast, but Trigger was faster as he dodged the sword swings and nimbly slashed at the Dopant’s body, using his Chrome Magnum Knife like a paint brush as he slashed up and down Arms’ body and made sparks fly from him.

Arms staggered backwards for a moment but then roared as he charged for Trigger. The Rider of law and order energized his Knife and dashed towards Arms. When arms swung his sword, Trigger dove under the attack and slashed at his midsection as he skidded to halt. Trigger disengaged the knife mode and transformed it back into its blaster form, upon which her quickly turned around and fired several shots into the Dopant’s back before it finally exploded.

Anomalocaris fired more of its super sharp spines, making Trigger have to run to avoid them, at the same time, the floating eyeballs of the Eyes Dopant hovered overhead and fired pinpoint beam attacks at him, and every now and then, the Yesterday Dopant would take a pot shot, trying to make him rewind back to get hit by all those attacks. However, Trigger was not about take this lying down. He reached for his transformation Gaia Memories and inserted all four into his Chrome Magnum.

< SUPER! >

< WEAPONS! >

< ACTION! >

< TACTICS! >

|<^>|SUPER!WEAPONS!ACTION!TACTICS!S.W.A.T. ENGAGED!|<^>|

Blue energy surrounded Trigger as a police siren sound blared. Once the energy dissipated, Trigger had entered his Super Form, Trigger SWAT. Trigger quickly pressed the “2” button on the Chrome Ultimatum and then the “Enter” button.

/#\DUAL!/#\

Trigger’s weapon split into two, now he wielded two Chrome Ultimatums at once. The azure Rider jumped high into the air and began firing multiple shots at the floating eyeballs. The laser bolts hit their marks several times, making the eyes explode, and from far away, there was a cry of pain coming from the Eyes Dopant. Trigger’s helmet quickly picked up on this and pinpointed the Dopant’s location, he then disengaged the Dual Mode and pressed the “3” button.

/#\SNIPER!/#\

The two weapons became one as a construct sniper rifle formed over the Chrome Ultimatum. The scope zeroed in on the location of the Eyes Dopant, who was hiding behind a large tree. The barrel of the construct rifle glowed brightly, and then Trigger fired. A sharp beam of light sailed through the air and pierced through the tree and through the Dopant at the same time. Trigger fired two more shots before landing on the ground, the last two shots hit their mark and caused the Dopant to explode.

“Now it’s your turn!”

/#\GATLING!/#\

Trigger’s weapon formed another construct as he unleashed a hailstorm of laser bolts at the Anomalocaris Dopant. The Dopant fired its piercing spines from its mouth, but each of the spines was being knocked out of the air by the many laser bolts of Trigger. The Dopant and Rider continued trading fire, but it was soon evident that the Dopant’s barbs were not as infinite as it seemed, as the barbs were coming out at a slower pace, and fewer than before. Trigger pushed forward as the laser bolts continued to fly, pelting Anomalocaris until the Dopant met the same fate as his allies.

“And then there was one,” said Trigger.

Trigger moved his Trigger Memory into the Max Drive Port and pressed down on the button, at the same time, he pressed all six numbers on his weapon and hit “Enter”.

|<^>|1-2-3-4-5-6, ENGAGE!|<^>|

}<^>{ TRIGGER! MAXIMUM DRIVE!}<^>{

The blue glass panels on Trigger’s armor began to glow, along with his visor, and the six Gaia Memories on his chest. Six oscillating rings appeared in front of the barrel of the Chrome Ultimatum, each one was wider than the next, and at the center of each one was a thin layer of light that almost resembled glass. Energy began to build at the barrel as he readied took aim at the Yesterday Dopant. The Dopant fired multiple shots from its custom revolvers, the rewinding rounds curved in some cases as Trigger ran towards the desperado. With each missed shot, Trigger was counting, watching as the revolver chambers rotated again and again, until…

*click*

Yesterday looked at its revolvers for a moment, realizing that it was out of ammo. The Dopant readied to reload, but at the last second, Trigger appeared before him, with the magnifying panels pointed right at it.

“MAGNA ENFORCER!”

The beam passed through all six panels and roared as a giant beam of azure energy bathed over the monster until its body was completely destroyed, leaving nothing behind.

***_________________\N/_________________***

Nasca was waging an aerial battle, the biggest amongst them being the Quetzalcoatius Dopant, its large bird form proved to be a bit of a challenge as it spewed fireball after fireball at the flying Rider, not to mention its partner, Weather. With its command over the wind and constant lightning attacks, it left little room for Nasca to get in there and counterattack. However, when she did get an opening, she was blocked by the fast moving Rocket Dopant, that Dopant’s rocket attacks were easy to dodge here and there, but with the Bat Dopant’s sonic resonance, it was able to take control of the rockets and redirect them, granting the Rocket Dopant a second chance without having to expand the energy to fire more.

“Okay, now I’m annoyed!”

Nasca took out the Weather Memory and inserted it into the Mimetic Drive port.

< WEATHER! >

{< WEATHER! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

Wind, lightning, light, and water surrounded Nasca, transforming her into Nasca Storm Breaker. Nasca decided to take out two major annoyances before they could cause her anymore trouble, the elemental Rider focused her power on the wind, conjuring a whirlwind around her. The Weather Dopant saw this and decided to counter her with its own wind power, both elemental wielders’ windstorms collided with each other, the roaring winds scrapped and screeched as they tried to overcome each other. The Weather Dopant was a naturally powerful Dopant due to its command over different elemental forces of nature, so their attacks were near equal to each other.

But Nasca had an ace up her sleeve.

The speedster Rider flipped the “N” symbol of her Driver around, making the orange part of the N point upwards.

\_/ NASCA! VERMILLION MODE! \_/

Nasca’s fiery-electric wings flared out of her back, at the same time, parts of her armor took on a vermillion coloring, but this mode didn’t just come with a color change, it also increased Nasca’s speed and power. The wind that Nasca conjured started to take on a vermillion color as well, growing in size as it pushed harder against the Weather Dopant’s wind attack. The Dopant seemed to struggle and was growing increasingly concerned by how its attack was being countered so easily.

The speedster Rider clapped both of her hands together, sparks of lightning arced from her hands, gathering more and more electrical energy as she took aim at the Dopant before her. Nasca spread her arms out, creating a spear-like weapon made of pure vermillion lightning. Nasca, rather Rainbow Dash, put all those years of watching and Olympic javelin throwers and hours of training to become the captain of the Track and Field team to good use as she took the weapon in hand and yelled out, “LIGHTNING JAVELIN!”

Nasca tossed the javelin, the weapon pierced through the wind as a burning streak of light. The Weather Dopant quickly tried to counter with its own lightning, but Nasca’s empowered lightning attack was too fast as it struck the Weather Dopant right in the chest. The lightning surged through the Dopant’s body until it completely overtook it and exploded into a fiery heap of lightning and ash.

Nasca turned around and saw that the Bat Dopant had a worried expression on its face, and Nasca just smiled under her helmet. “Your turn batty!”

The Rocket Dopant fired off more of its rockets, trying to hit Nasca, but thanks to her increased speed, the rockets might as well had been standing still to her. Nasca fired off several lightning bolts that sniped the rockets from the sky, the Quetzalcoatius Dopant lurched its head back and unleashed a huge fireball straight for Nasca, but Nasca countered by generating a huge ball of sunlight. She fired the sphere towards the fireball, causing both to explode in midair. Nasca held out her right hand and summoned her Nasca Sword, she ran her left hand over the blade itself, coating it intense sunlight energy.

Nasca glanced at her armor, noticing that the vermillion shading on her armor was beginning to fade, her time was almost up. The speedster Rider flew across the sky, several rockets and fireballs were launched at Nasca, trying to stop her from attacking another of their companions. The Bat Dopant tried to fly away, and was a fair distance away, but Nasca wasn’t having that. She poured more of her energy into the blade as she raised it overhead, and as she swung it down, the blade extended outward, further and further until the sunlight blade sliced right through the Bat Dopant in one strike.

Nasca’s “N” switched back to the blue side, and the vermillion shades completely faded away. “Alright, with that out of the way, time to go all out!” Nasca dismissed her sword, removed the Weather Memory, and took out the Rocket Booster and Rocket Memory.

< ROCKET! >

/^\ BOOST! /^\

{/^} ROCKET BOOST! ULTIMATE DRIVE! {/^}

A tornado of blue-green light swirled around Nasca, when the tornado died out, Nasca had transformed into her Final Form, that of Nasca Star Chaser. Nasca summoned her Condor Sword as her wing thrusters flared, propelling her through the air at incredible speeds. Nasca appeared as a streak of blue-green light that zipped through the air as she traveled straight for the Rocket Dopant. The Quetzalcoatius Dopant tried to take her down by snapping its jaws at her and striking at Nasca with its large wings. But Nasca just flew circles around the giant bird as she slashed at the flying beast’s chest. The Quetzalcoatius Dopant backed away, and the Rocket Dopant attacked with more of its rocket blasts, but Nasca slashed them out of the air. With one stroke of her blade, multiple blades of blue-green light appeared at once, striking about a dozen rockets out of the air.

The Rocket Dopant readied to fire again, but before it let loose another salvo, Nasca appeared before it. Streaks of blue-green light appeared around the Dopant, and in the next second, its body released several sparks before Nasca slashed it once more, making the Rocket Dopant explode. “Time to roast this overgrown turkey!” Nasca removed the Rocket Memory and placed it into the Max Drive port.

}/^{ ROCKET! MAXIMUM DRIVE! }/^{

Nasca’s wings released sparkling particles that wrapped around her body until she became pure light.

“Shooting Star Breaker!”

Nasca flew straight for the Quetzalcoatius Dopant, the giant bird monster inhaled deeply and bellowed out a huge fireball straight for Nasca, but she wasn’t deterred. The beam of light shot straight through the attack, but as she did, the energy of the fireball was being absorbed by her light, and by the time she exited the sphere, the flames and light were one as she pierced straight through Quetzalcoatius and caused the bird to ignite into a fiery explosion that thundered in the sky.

Nasca reappeared, no longer made of fire and light, but now of physical form. She looked over her shoulder and chuckled as she said, “Anyone order fried chicken?!”

***_________________=E=_________________***

“Well, this is ironic,” said Equal.

She was currently staring down the Dopant forms of her colleagues/friends, Luna, Heat, Bird, and IceAge. Equal was in the middle of their crosshairs, and each one was ready to take her down. The only thing that granted her comfort was that the Dopants were only just monsters and did contain any trace of her subordinates.

“The thing is, I don’t have time to play with you, I need to help my friend return things to normal. She has a future to look forward to, and I’ll tear down all obstacles in her way!”

Equal produced the X-Devicer and combined it with her Greater and Lesser Than items. She then took out the Xtreme Memory, inserted it, and merged the Devicer with her belt.

< XTREME! >

{*X*} XTREEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMMEEE! {*X*}

In blast of crimson, navy-blue, and black energy, Equal transformed into her Final Form, Equal Balance Breaker. The empowered Rider selected Heat as her first target, dashing straight for the Dopant, and unleashing a flurry of punches on the elemental. Heat could only defend against the onslaught that was Equal, that is until its body raged with flames, releasing a sphere of fire that made Equal back away from her, at the same time, Bird flung its sharp quills at Equal. The black Rider performed back flip after back flip, dodging the quills as they rained down on her.

However, IceAge slammed its palm against the ground, creating a sheet of ice on the ground just before Equal landed. The moment her feet touched the ice, she slipped and fell onto her back, allowing the quills to pelt her from above. When Bird was, done, Equal was ready to counterattack, that is until she remembered the other function of the quills.

“Oh crap…”

Several explosions went off around Equal, sending up a cloud of smoke and dirt that completely obscured her from view. Equal used this opportunity to slip out and prepared to strike back, however, long rubber arms wrapped around her body and hefted her into the air, Equal was then tossed like ragdoll towards some trees, slamming against them and plopping to the ground. Equal growled as she got up and noticed that there were a dozen or so Luna Dopants surrounding her.

“You lack Party Favor’s creativity, and that will be your downfall!” Equal declared as she pressed down on the left button twice.

[{X}] DIVIDE! [{X}]

Equal’s body released a navy-blue energy wave, her Entropy Field. As the field grew wider, ice formed on the ground and nearby trees, and each copy began to disappear, like dust in the wind as soon the field enveloped them. One dozen copies were gone, with just one, the original, standing frozen in place. Equal pressed on both buttons of her X-Devicer and summoned her Spear of Judgement into her hands, she then pressed the button on the right side of the Devicer.

[{X}] BOOST! [{X}]

Equal twirled around the spear as the blade gathered crimson energy. When the blade itself glowed crimson, Equal thrust forward, sending an elongated blade of crimson light shooting straight for the Luna Dopant. The blade pierced right through the monster’s chest, causing sparks to fly from both the entry and exit wound. After another second the Dopant exploded, and the blade of light disappeared. Equal brought down her field and turned to see Bird and Heat preparing to attack.

The Bird Dopant flew up into the sky, its body then caught fire as it initiated its Firebird attack. The aerial Dopant performed a flip as it dove down, Bird then angled itself out as it whizzed past Heat. But Heat unleashed a torrent of flames that roared towards Bird, the two attacks merged together to form an even bigger firebird that screeched as it drew closer to Equal. The Rider of balance was not deterred, quickly pressing down on the left button four times.

[{X}] DIVIDE! [{X}]

Blue light gathered to the spear tip, and with a single thrust, Equal unleased a massive Entropy energy blast. The beam of navy-blue light left an ice trail in its wake as it neared the scorching attacker. When the attacks hit, the effects were immediate, the flames were starting to freeze faster than the heat could melt them. Despite their best combined efforts, both Dopants’ attacks were only struggling to keep the attack going. Equal drew back on her spear and thrust once more, doubling the size of the beam as it completely engulfed the Bird Dopant and continued until it washed over Heat. Nothing but ice was left, the flames having been frozen solid at such a rapid pace it was able to capture their last moments before being snuffed out. Equal spun her spear around and pierced the ice before her. Cracks formed along the ice trail it all shattered like fragile glass.

IceAge kicked up an ice storm, freezing wind and snow roared around him as it readied to attack Equal. Equal merely smirked beneath her helmet as she masterfully balanced her Spear of Judgement on the tip of her boot, confusing IceAge. The Rider of balance took out her Xtreme Memory and placed it into the Max Drive port, striking the button.

>} XTREME! MAXIMUM DRIVE! {<

Equal bounced the butt of her spear on her boot, and then kicked it up into the air. Her right foot blazed with crimson light as she jumped straight up into the air after it. The Spear of Judgement spun around and around wildly, and as Equal neared it she gave it a strong, and precise kick at just the right moment when the spear tip was aligned with her target.

“Fall of Damocles!”

The kick carried the energy into the spear, sending it flying like a missile towards IceAge. The elemental Dopant fired a massive burst of ice energy, but the spear pierced right through it, all the way until it struck IceAge and caused a red, fiery explosion that wiped out the last of the “Elite 4” Dopants.

***__________________________________***

< METAL! >

{< METAL! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

Unicorn changed into her Iron Heart form as she fought against the Jewel Dopant, the creature’s diamond fists met with Unicorn’s fists of steel, each strike resounding with a thunderous boom as the two hard bodied fighters traded blow after blow. Unicorn threw a right punch at the same time as the Jewel Dopant threw a left punch. Two punches skirted one another, ending in Unicorn delivering a perfect cross-counter to Jewel’s face, its own punch falling short a few inches. The blow sent Jewel stumbling backwards, allowing Unicorn to strike her left hip port once.

\ METAL RING! /

A band of silver light appeared before her and looped until it was a complete circle. Once Unicorn grabbed it, the light disappeared and revealed her Metal Ring weapon. With the grace of a gymnast, Unicorn began spinning the weapon around her left arm, she closed in on Jewel and struck it once, she then switched it to the right hand and – while never losing momentum – struck the Dopant again, and again, sending sparks flying from its body. The crystalline body of the Jewel Dopant began to crack as Unicorn funneled her magical energy into the ring and flung into the distance, at the same time, she pressed the left hip port button twice.

\ ARMOR UP! //

Unicorn’s body gained armor plating as she channeled more power into her right fist. The Metal Ring continued to ricochet off the trees until it hit a rock, angling it just right to send it sailing back towards Jewel. Unicorn threw her punch and struck the Dopant in the chest, at the exact same time, the Metal Ring hit the back of the Dopant. The two pressures and energies resonated within the monster, causing it to explode.

Just then Unicorn sensed something, she quickly moved to her left just as a blast of energy sailed past her and impacted against a tree. It was then that she noticed that it was the Key Dopant. “Oh, I remember you, this I will enjoy!” Unicorn stated as she took out the Metal Memory and switched it with the Queen Memory.

< QUEEN! >

{< QUEEN! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

Unicorn was wrapped in pink colored energy, changing her into her Empress form. The magical Rider pressed down on her left hip port twice, paused, and then pressed three times.

\ KNIGHTS! //

\\ BISHOPS! ///

At that moment, two pink light construct knights appeared beside Unicorn, and next to them appeared two female, pink light construct mages. The sound of snapping trees drew Unicorn’s attention as a roar echoed throughout the forest. The creature came barreling towards her, only now that it was in visual range did Unicorn recognize it as the Terror Dopant’s Terror Beast, with its master walking behind it, creating its Terror Field, the oozing darkness that was a physical manifestation of terror itself. Not far behind that one, was the Injury Dopant, it wasn’t in its evolved state, which meant that it could only harm her by touch. However, Unicorn realized she was on the wrong end of a three way, but thankfully, she wasn’t alone.

\ PAWNS! /

\\ ROOKS! ////

Unicorn’s behemoth constructs appeared, their shields at the ready to defend. About two dozen construct foot soldiers appeared before Unicorn, rounding out her court. “Rooks, keep that big monster at bay! Knights, attack the Key Dopant, and Bishops attack the Injury Dopant. Pawns, with me, we’re moving on the Terror Dopant!”

With her orders given, each of the pieces charged for their respective opponents. The twin Knights dashed with incredible speed towards the Key Dopant, the creature fired off several of its Lockdown attacks to try and stop the Knights advancement, but its attacks would not hit, not against their swift speed. Once upon the Key Dopant, both Knights slashed at the monster in perfect sync, creating a pink energy slash that formed an “X” pattern on its chest.

The Rooks took on the Terror Beast, with the first one allowing it to slam into its shield. Rook 1 held fast as its heels dug into the earth, the Terror Beast doing all it could to break through the shield and get to the enemy on the other side. However, this was just a clever ruse. Rook 2 appeared behind the Beast, the twin shields of the Rooks began to glow, and in an instant a shield bubble formed around the Terror Beast, an inverted shield that made sure to keep the one inside it from getting out. The creature thrashed and thrashed, but it was not getting out anytime soon.

The Bishops had it a bit easier, the Injury Dopant was limited by its ability to touch its opponent in order to cause harm to them, which meant the two spellcasters just needed to bombard the monster. And bombard they did. Bishop 1 attacked with lightning and fireballs, raining down heaven’s judgement on the Dopant, while Bishop 2 attacked with stone bullets and wind sickles, the Injury Dopant could do little more than dodge or hide behind trees, but that proved to do little as the bombardment smashed or seared through any object in their path.

Unicorn formed spheres of pink mana energy and fired several towards the Terror Dopant. The Dopant raised the Terror Field, creating a wave of oozing darkness to block all the attacks. While Unicorn kept him busy, the Pawns began to surround it, the first dozen used their shields to form a barrier that kept the ooze from growing, while the second dozen used their spears to fire consecutive blasts that forced the Dopant to defend.

“Let’s end this!” Unicorn declared as she struck the left hip port six times.

\\\ RALLY! //////

The eyes of all the constructs glowed at the same time, being called to arms by their Empress. The Bishops joined their mage staffs together, concentrating their dual magical energies to release a beam of pure mana that blazed through the foliage and struck the Injury Dopant, causing it to explode. The Rooks compressed their shield, making it shrink more and more until the monster inside was crushed into the size of a marble. The Knights came at the Key Dopant from the front in the back, with Knight 1 delivering a powerful slash to its midsection, while Knight 2 came up from behind and slashed at the same spot, both Knights skidded to a halt just as the Dopant exploded into a fiery heap.

With those two defeated it was time for Unicorn to finish off Terror. The magical hero took the Queen Memory and placed it into the Max Drive port.

} QUEEN! MAXIMUM DRIVE! {<

The remaining chess pieces dwindled in number, until one of each of their rank was present. Rook, Bishop, Pawn, and Knight took up positions around Terror, and from each of their weapons fired a beam of pure pink light straight at it. The four lights converged and wrapped around the Dopant, nullifying its Terror Field and holding it in place. Unicorn jumped overhead; with her right hand she formed a massive sphere of pink mana energy that blazed like a sun.

“CHECKMATE!”

Unicorn hurled the sphere straight for the Dopant, causing the creature to go up in flames and leaving behind a large crater from the attack. When Unicorn landed back on the ground, she heard a snarl, when she turned, the Fang Dopant lunged at her, only for a blue-green blur to swiftly strike the white raptor and send it flying into a tree. The blur reappeared and revealed itself as Nasca.

“Thanks, Rainbow,” said Unicorn.

“Don’t thank me yet, look!”

Unicorn looked in the direction Nasca was pointing at, and to her dismay, the Dopants she had just destroyed were reforming. “Oh, come on…! Ugh! We need to regroup!”

The two Riders ran out of the woods and back to the displaced football field, there they could see Equal and Trigger still battling Dopants, Unicorn fired off mana spheres and blasted away a few of the Dopants, while Nasca flew straight through and cut down a few more, blazing a path right to their comrades, the rest of the Rainbooms could only watch as the four Riders continued to destroy the Dopants, but every time they did, they would reform a few seconds later. After another minute of prolonged battle, the Dopants backed away, rallying around Memoria, while the Riders panted, tired from the never-ending waves of Dopants.

“This is so unfair! Every time we destroy one, it comes back!” Nasca complained.

“You can’t destroy them, because they still exist in memories. I have the memories of these creatures, taken from the people of Canterlot City, and your exploits! So long as the memory exists, so willthey! Face it, you’ve lost, the sun will set soon, and this will all be over!”

Maybe not, thought Unicorn. The magical Rider took out her Shining Memory and raised her right hand, once again calling on the Phoenix Ascender. But to her dismay, it would still not come to her. Unicorn looked back to the girls, and then to Nasca and Trigger. Although they may believe her, the spark of their friendship had not fully returned, and without it, neither would the Phoenix Ascender. Unicorn lowered her right hand and sighed heavily.

“I’m sorry.”

Wallflower raised an eyebrow. “What did you say?”

Unicorn stepped forward and continued, “I ignored you, and so have others, and no one deserves to feel that way. To feel as if their existence doesn’t matter. I understand why you’re doing this.”

Wallflower narrowed her gaze as her green glowing eyes shined with malice. “NO, YOU DON’T! You were always ‘Miss Popular’! And you had everyone cowering wherever you went!”

Unicorn removed her Queen Memory and her Unicorn Memory, changing back into her civilian form, much to the protests of her friends and allies. “And what did that get me? I wasn’t happy, despite what it looked like, I was never happy. I was lonely, always alone here…and I did it to myself! I pushed everyone away, made enemies instead of friends, and when I realized my mistakes, I was shunned, and rightly so, I was not a nice person! And I know you’re alone too, you just want to be noticed, to be acknowledged! Wallflower, you can start fresh right now, it’s not too late, just like it wasn’t too late for me! I know I was one of the people who made you feel that way, and I’m truly sorry.”

Wallflower growled as her green flaming hair flared up. “No, you’re not! You’re just trying to look good in front of all your friends here, just so you can get your power back!” The young woman looked upon the faces of the Rainbooms, and her scowl deepened. “And it’s working! GAH! How am I supposed to punish you if nothing I do matters?! I…I…I hate you!!!”

Sunset felt like her heart was stabbed, even though there were people who did hate her back at CHS before the Battle of the Bands, no one outright said they hated her with such venom. Well, Flash did, but he was being mind controlled at the time. “That’s fine, I’ll accept that hate if that’s what you want, I won’t deny you that. And…And if having to live in a world where everyone thinks I’m a villain, where I’m feared and hated again…then that’s fine.”

Twilight narrowed her brow as she broke away from the group and stood beside Sunset and gave her a determined look. “No, it’s not ‘fine’! It’s not at all! No one deserves to be ignored, that much I agree with!” Twilight focused her gaze on Wallflower. “You aren’t the only one who was shunned and made to feel as if you were invisible! Every day I spent at Crystal Prep Academy was nothing but loneliness! So, what if I am intelligent, no one wanted anything to do with me, if anything, at the least, I was a target, at worst, I was ignored by my peers completely! You can erase our memories, but the Earth will always remember, and so long as it remembers, so will I! Starting over…” Twilight unconsciously gripped Sunset’s hand, “might be tough, but if it’s for love and friendship, then it’s worth fighting for!”

Wallflower ran her hands through her flaming hair as she growled in frustration. “How can you not see how she’s tricking all of you?! All this ‘hero’ and ‘redemption’ stuff is just a load of crap! She’s still the same manipulative, tyrannical, she-demon bitch she’s always been! I’ve seen it! The memories I’ve syphoned have shown me that she hasn’t changed!”Wallflower calmed down for a moment, but her rage had not quelled. “If what you say is true, then so long as you remember her, this will happen again! In that case…” The Memory Stone at the center of her chest began to glow, building up more and more power. “…I’ll just have to erase ALL their memories of high school!”

Sunset’s eyes widened with fear. “NO! If you do that, you’ll erase their memories of being friends! You won’t be hurting me anymore; you’ll be hurting them!”

“It is a small price to pay, my little flower, in order to truly bring about justice!”

Wallflower’s eyes glowed brighter. “SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR MEMORIES!!!!”

“NOO!!!!” Sunset screamed.

< UNICORN! >

< SHINING! >

“HENSHIN!”

UNICORN! <

{< SHINING! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

Sunset hurriedly transformed into her Pseudo-Final Form, Unicorn Shining Day. Unicorn flew up and funneled the magical power she had into creating a barrier of golden light, the emerald beam of the Memory Stone crashed upon its surface, creating a shockwave that rumbled throughout the forest and shook the very ground. Unicorn struggled against the beam, it was so strong, a magic born of dark intent and fueled by the power of the Gaia Memory, the two combined powers were proving to be her better, and at this rate, Unicorn feared she’d burn through her own power reserves before the two minute limit was up.

“YOU CAN’T STOP THIS! THIS IS WHAT YOU DESERVE!”Wallflower shouted.

Unicorn glanced over her shoulder, looking upon the frightened faces of her friends, and no doubt the worried looks she was receiving from her Rider allies. Unicorn gritted her teeth, and steeled herself, there was no other way to stop this, but to save at least her friends’ friendship…

“Twilight, everyone! I’ll miss you…!”

Unicorn warped her barrier, making it so that the beam focused on Unicorn and Unicorn alone. The beam struck her in the chest as a flash of emerald light blinded everyone. Unicorn dropped out of the sky, changing back to her civilian form as everyone rushed to her side. Wallflower, on the other hand, was genuinely surprised.

“What…What did you do?!”

Sunset crawled onto her hands and knees as she looked upon Wallflower. “I ruined their friendship once…I won’t let it happen again; my friends will remain friends with each oth – AAAAAHHH!!” Sunset’s forehead began to glow as a ribbon of yellow light flowed from the point of light, upon that ribbon, one could see the faint image of Fluttershy. “FLUTTERSHY! NO! AAAHH!!”

The next ribbon of memories to leave Sunset’s mind was orange, with Applejack’s image. “APPLEJACK!” The others could only watch in horror as Sunset desperately tried to grasp the Ribbons of Memory that were being pulled from her mind, and no matter how much Sunset willed herself to hang onto those memories, they just slipped through her grasp as if they were made of air. “PINKIE PIE! RARITY! RAINBOW DASH!!” Pink, white, and blue ribbons flew from Sunset’s head.

“Can’t we stop this?!” Nasca asked in a panicked tone.

“This is magic, I…I don’t know what to do!” Equal stated in frustration and worry.

Sunset rolled onto the ground as she held her head, but it was no use, even more Ribbons of Memory flew from her mind, this time one was colored lilac and had the image of Starlight Glimmer, and the next to leave was a dark blue color, showing Shining Armor’s image. Sunset breathed heavily, all around her she could see only strangers, the only person left her mind could remember was…

“T-Twilight…?” Sunset spoke.

Twilight hurriedly went to her side and grasped her hand tightly. “I’m here Sunset, please hang on!”

Sunset smiled sadly as she said, “Don’t forget me…AAAH!!!”

The final Memory Ribbon flew from Sunset’s mind, purple in color, with Twilight’s image engraved upon it, and with that, Sunset fell to the ground in an unconscious state. All the memories converged into the Memory Stone, and strangely enough, Wallflower felt a tremendous amount of power coursing through her body, the green lines shined brighter and even her green flaming hair flared with a greater luster than before.

“SUNSET, SUNSET SHIMMER?! Please answer me! SUNSET!” Twilight begged.

The flame haired girl’s eyes fluttered open; the others gave her space as she began to move awkwardly. “Who…Wha…” Sunset looked upon the group and gasped in shock as she tried to back away but fumbled about before finally stopping on her hands and knees. “Who are you?! W-Where am I?! Th-This isn’t Canterlot, why am I here?! P-Princess Celestia?! Princess Celestia where you?!” Sunset gasped again when she looked upon her hands and then the rest of her body. “W-W-W-W-What happened to me?! Why’s my body look like this?!” Sunset couldn’t feel her magic, she was in a body she didn’t know, fear gripped her as she got into a fetal position, covering her head with her hands, balling them into fists for makeshift hooves. “Please, someone, a-anyone…help me…”

Twilight didn’t understand what was happening, “Why…Why is she acting like that?!”

“I know…” All eyes fell to Equal. “Sunset’s not from this world, remember? She’s from Equestria, a land of ponies and magical power. Erasing her memories of high school, essentially, four years’ worth of memories, which is all the time she spent here on Earth. In so doing, Wallflower has left only the memories of before she ever came to Earth, and so, her mind has returned to that of when she was her pony self. She’s confused and scared, how jarring would it be for anyone to suddenly find themselves in a body that was not their own, in a place that they don’t know, surrounded by strange beings…? That is what we’re seeing here.”

Flutterhsy had her hands over her mouth as she cried, even for someone she considered to be a bully, this was too much, no one deserved this. Pinkie Pie’s hair deflated as her eyes teared up from seeing how scared and frightened Sunset was. Rarity was just stunned as she leaned on Applejack for support, while Applejack herself was seething underneath a stoic expression. Trigger tightened his fists and gritted his teeth, he witnessed someone he suspected and had fought against save his sister and himself from a similar memory loss at the expense of the memories this girl held dear. Nasca growled as she punched the ground before her, her tears falling to the point that she changed back to civilian form to keep them from fogging up her helmet.

Equal remained silent as she looked upon this scene.

Twilight, on the other hand, was not silent. She shook with rage and with tears burning in her eyes, she turned and faced Wallflower Blush. Even in her Dopant form, Wallflower felt true fear when she looked into Twilight’s eyes, even from her distance. “How dare you……HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO HER! She didn’t deserve this – NO ONE DESERVES WHAT YOU JUST DID!!!”

Wallflower shook her head. “N-No, S-Sunset does deserve it! She was just tricking you all into believing she’d changed! L-Look, I’ll show you! Now that I have her memories, you can see exactly what she was truly thinking and planning!” Wallflower Blush focused on the Memory Stone and from the eye image on it dozens upon dozens of green, holographic screens appeared around them. Each one showed a memory of Sunset Shimmer, going back all the way to the beginning of her time at CHS.

Everyone looked and watched as Sunset, for a short time, lived in squalor upon coming to Earth, until Principal Celestia got her into her current home. Yes, there were schemes, but there was also loneliness, every time Sunset went home, she was sad, alone, trapped in a world that was not her own, with a body that was not natural to her, she tried to do whatever she could to survive, if it meant that she trampled others, so be it. That is until her plan for the Fall Formal, it was then that everything ran the way Twilight saw in the Earth’s Memories, every window after that showed events as she knew them to be, the events of the Battle of the Bands, of the Friendship Games, becoming Kamen Rider Unicorn, saving her home world of Equestria, saving Earth from a game virus, fighting alongside Legendary Riders from other worlds.

Then there were the tender moments, the moments shared between the six girls who made her life so much better and brighter, and the loving moments between Sunset and Twilight. Shining Armor was shocked to see that, despite his treatment of her, Sunset regarded him among her treasured memories. Equal, rather, Starlight, was struck when she saw that even memories of herself were among them, even if she was their enemy for a time.

However, after seeing all this, the one most surprised and shocked to see all these memories, was Wallflower Blush. “Wait…I…I don’t understand…these-these have to be fake!”

“How can these be fake?! They came from Sunset’s mind!” Applejack sneered.

“B-B-But the memories from before, they were…were…MEMORIA! What’s going on?!”Wallflower asked.

“………”

“Memoria?”

“……Oh well, I guess it couldn’t be helped. The veil on this little charade was bound to be taken off at some point.”

Pinkie Pie glanced about. “Um, is it just me, or did anyone else here a creepy lady voice echoing in their heads?”

“No, I heard it,” said Fluttershy.

“Ditto,” replied Rainbow Dash.

The energy that made up the holographic windows began to coalesce above them, until it formed the image of a unicorn mare, her body was made of emerald light, while her eyes were as black as the night, granting her an almost demonic look. “I am the true, Memoria. I am, was, the creator of the Memory Stone. Clover the Clever chased me into this world where we fought to the death! However, while my body was destroyed, my mind, my memories, remained. The so called ‘Clever’ Clover never thought that I would have a spell ready that would seal away my mind into the Stone itself. In hindsight it was a last-ditch effort, and one that I was, unfortunately, not able to follow up on.”

Equal looked up at the unicorn and asked, “Then that leads me to wonder, what is the Memory Stone?”

Memoria chuckled happily and clapped her hooves as she turned to look down at Equal. “Leave it to the resident former villain to ask the right question. You see, I learned long, long ago that memories have power, great power. I built the Memory Stone to not only erase those memories of my victims, but to also store them, and convert them into power. The stronger the memory and emotions attached to it, the stronger I became through its use. However, while it does gain power, it also takes time to digest all those memories. Hence the three-day time limit, a small set back, but otherwise I was still able to use some of the magic.”

“Then what are you doing now?! You’re helping Wallflower get revenge on Sunset?!” Twilight asked.

Memoria chuckled again as her body broke down into particles of light that zipped right to Wallflower and reformed into her unicorn body. The unicorn laid her head on Wallflower’s shoulder, while her tail wrapped around her legs. “Why, young Wallflower was my little helper. I was buried for so long that I became detached from the goings on here, but that didn’t mean my magical senses were completely blinded. I sensed a great source of power being unleashed within this city a few months ago. When my little flower here dug me up, I was able to share in her memories and see what exactly happened. I told her what I could do, what we could do together. Getting revenge on Sunset Shimmer was just to flex my power and regain my strength, her pitiful little road to vengeance served a greater purpose.”

Wallflower’s eyes widened. “Purpose…? W-What purpose?!”

Memoria nuzzled Wallflower’s cheek, making the young girl squirm. “I learned of Kamen Rider Unicorn through Wallflower, and I sensed Equestrian Magic and the power of the Gaia Memories. And a plan began to form. But first, we needed an item. We sought out the two women who were trying to recreate the Gaia Memories, those two fools made one for us, we promised them money, but instead, we took the device and erased their memories of our encounter, none the wiser. The Memory Memory, when combined with my Stone, allowed me to see the greater wellspring of knowledge that lied beyond my grasp. And so, my plan was hatched. I told Wallflower to steal the memories of every person in the city that pertained to Unicorn, but it was my little flower’s idea to take all the good memories of Sunset Shimmer.”

The unicorn mare laughed maniacally as she brought her hooves to Wallflower’s cheeks nuzzled her nose affectionately. “Never could I have imagined that Unicorn was Sunset Shimmer, or that Sunset Shimmer was a fellow Equestrian like myself. From those stolen memories I realized exactly what I needed to do to get to the Memories of the Earth. So, I altered the stolen memories, and showed a fabrication that Sunset was trying to deceive everyone, and you bought it, hook line and sinker! HA-HA!”

“No…No y-y-you’re lying! Memoria, please stop joking around, this isn’t funny!”Wallflower begged.

“Oh, my little flower, what’s funny is you thinking that a plain, little nothing like yourself was important to anyone. You were using the Stone to erase memories before this scheme was hatched, all your little embarrassing moments – zap – gone. All your awkward greetings? Zap! Every time you tried to confess how you really felt for that mare?”

“S-S-SHUT UP! I NEVER–!”

“Zap! And every time you did that it was feeding me, making me stronger. And today, taking Sunset Shimmer’s memories was the final bit of fuel I needed to fully manifest and awaken!”

Wallflower’s body suddenly went stiff. Her heart rate quickened as her body refused to obey anything, she willed it to do, about the only thing she had control of was her head. “W-W-What are you going to do to me?!”

Memoria ran her hoof along the Wallflower’s body and chuckled manically. “I need a new body, and yours will do nicely. Truth is I’d have preferred a more attractive body, as I was quite the attractive mare many years ago, but beggars can’t be choosers, and your body has adapted well to my power, so I’m sure I can make some changes. I will use your body, and with the Memory Memory and the Memory Stone, I will absorb the entirety of the Earth’s Memories! All that knowledge converted into raw power, a nearly endless stream! I will be ALL POWERFUL! A goddess! And it’s all thanks to you, my little flower.”

Wallflower’s eyes widened with horror, she had been tricked, she had played into this monster’s hands, and in so doing took away the one person who could stand up to Memoria. “I…I’m sorry…” Wallflower looked towards the Rainbooms and the remaining Riders. “S-Sunset…” Sunset Shimmer raised her head upon hearing her name and paused when she saw the glowing tears coming from her eyes. “I’m so sorry…”

Memoria pressed her hoof against the Stone and said, “Time to be one.”

The unicorn mare’s body flowed into the Memory Stone, and from there, the only things that could be heard were the screams of Wallflower Blush mixed among the roaring of the dark magic that flowed from the Memory Stone. The colors of her body inverted, with the green becoming the dominant color, and the green lines becoming dark lines. Gone where the wispy, vine-like designs, what now appeared were jagged fissures in their place. But that wasn’t the only change, Wallflower’s body began to age to that of a more mature woman, even some of her proportions were filling out more than what they previously were. Her green flaming hair was now black fire, and her eyes were now pools of darkness, at the center of those pools was a white dot, the only thing that acted as a pupil.

The screams of pain eventually morphed to laughter; Wallflower’s voice had transitioned into that of Memoria’s herself. With that, the transformation was complete, Memoria looked upon her new body, inspecting it as a wide grin split her face. “Now this I can work with.”

Everyone couldn’t believe what they were seeing, and neither could Sunset, and yet, despite not knowing what was going on, she felt, something. Something deep in her heart when she saw the face of that girl who apologized to her. Not only that, but there was also an urge, an urge to fight, an urge to stand against this evil before her. Why she felt like this she did not know, but her heart felt that this was the right thing.

Sunset flexed her digits, finding the sensation incredibly strange. She then wiggled the toes that were concealed by her boots, also strange. Slowly, she rose up to her feet, feeling very wobbly as her center of gravity had shifted dramatically. Sunset had judged by her current appearance and those around her, that her current form was bipedal and not quadrupedal, so it should feel somewhat natural to stand on two legs. The process, however, was difficult. But, just as quickly as she started to rise, so caught up in her work, Sunset didn’t realize that the young violet haired girl had appeared next to her and helped steady her.

“T-Thank you,” said Sunset.

“No need to thank me, this is what friends do for each other,” said Twilight with tears in her eyes.

“W-We’re friends?”

“……Yes, well…more than that as I’ve recently learned.”

Sunset blushed a little, she had to admit, she liked the feeling of this girls hands on her left arm. This closeness, her scent, and even though she wasn’t a pony, Sunset was steadily finding this girl attractive. “I’m sorry, I don’t fully remember…but…” Sunset placed her hand over her chest. “I feel something, here.”

Twilight placed her hand over Sunset’s hand. “Listen to that feeling, it’s what I should’ve done a long time ago. If I did, this situation may’ve turned out differently.”

“You aren’t the only one to share in that blame, darling,” said Rarity as she joined on Sunset’s right. “We all had feelings regarding you, our hearts were telling us what our minds had forgotten, however, we just didn’t listen hard enough.”

Fluttershy held out her hands and Sunset, for some reason, reached out and took them. “No matter what happens from here, we won’t ever leave you alone.”

Pinkie Pie walked up next and patted Sunset on the head. “That’s a Pinkie Promise, and I never break a Pinkie Promise.”

Rainbow joined the group and said, “You tried and tried, never giving up on us even when we practically turned on you. That’s loyalty. I haven’t shown much of that lately because of that witch over there. But no more, we stick together, always.”

“Sunset, what do you want to do? What does your heart tell you?” Twilight asked.

Sunset closed her eyes, focusing on the feelings for all these girls, and with a determined look in her eyes she said, “I want to save that girl, I want stop that monster! I…I don’t know how, but, please, I need your help do it!”

All six girls nodded in agreement.

Equal deactivated her transformation, and as she did, a bright glow came from her back pocket. Starlight took out the source of the glow and smiled as she ran up to the girls with Trigger in toe. “We might be able to win this, or at least give ourselves a fighting chance. Shining Armor, deactivate your transformation.”

“You sure about this?” Trigger asked.

“Positive.”

Trigger did as she asked and returned to his civilian form, still confused as to what was going on, and what the glowing ring in Starlight’s hand was.

Starlight approached Sunset and presented the device to her. Sunset gingerly took the ring, and upon doing so, the light faded and revealed what it was. The ring was colored grayish-blue, around the front of the ring was the symbol of each of the twenty-six T2 Gaia Memories. In the center of the ring was a Gaia Memory device connected to the ring, and in the middle of that device was the letter “U” in but stylized in the form of feathered wings.

“What is this?” Sunset asked.

“The Union Memory, it combines all my knowledge regarding the Gaia Memories, as well as what I have learned from you regarding magic. If you can awaken its power, we might be able to defeat Memoria.” Starlight glanced towards the sky and grimaced. “But we don’t have a lot of time, you have to try now, or all this will be lost!”

Memoria laughed at their efforts. “Oh my, a last-ditch effort to save the world. How charming, but in the end, a complete waste of time. She doesn’t even remember that she’s Kamen Rider Unicorn anymore, she has no idea how to use that thing, and even if you helped her, it would still be a wasted effort, she no longer knows how to fight either!”

“Wrong…” All eyes returned to Sunset as she spoke. “You…You can erase memories, but you can’t erase what’s in here!” Sunset pressed her hand against her chest. “Our hearts have memories too, they remember not images, but feelings, the connections that we’ve made cannot easily fade away…that’s…that’s what friendship is…heh, now I get it, Princess…”

~*~*~*~

Suddenly, the world went still. Time seemed to slow down as Sunset found the world around her slowly shift and move away, turning into an infinite white space. Several bookshelves appeared around her, too many to count, but they went as far as her eyes could see. Upon each shelf were hundreds of books, each one containing knowledge of some sort or another. Sunset felt a sense of familiarity with this place, she knew it was important, important to her and others.

“I’ve been here before…” Sunset ran her hand against the books, feeling the texture of the books. They reminded her of the old tomes of Equestria, the ones she would spend hours and hours studying. “All these books…I wonder if there’s anything about ‘Sunset Shimmer’? Wow, that’s vain even for me.”

At that moment, the bookshelves all began to move, either falling into the white abyss below or zooming off into the distance. Some left behind books, but of those books they too began to disappear, all until one remained. It had her name, along with the red and gold metal, and a turquoise unicorn. Sunset opened the book and upon doing so, her eyes glowed bright.

UNITED!

On the outside, the group watched as Sunset’s eyes glowed bright white. Twilight and Starlight felt a stirring and both women knew exactly what was happening. When Sunset’s eyes stopped glowing, she looked to Twilight. “I…I remember, I remember who I am.”

“Then…who are you?” Twilight asked.

Sunset took a step forward, and then another, she was no longer stumbling, she was moving as naturally as any human would. “I am the unicorn mare who once forsake the teachings of the one who took me under their wing and treated me as their daughter. I am the mare who sought power that was not her own and made several mistakes in trying to obtain that power.” Sunset stopped and looked towards Memoria and her Dopant army.

“I am also the girl who sought redemption, who despite all the hardships, rose above them and saved those whom she persecuted. I am the girl who saved the life of a another from going down a similar path! I am the girl who along with her friends, fought to protect this city, and this world from darkness and destruction! I am Sunset Shimmer, and what’s more–!” Sunset reached behind her back and materialized the Uni-Driver, placing it at her waist as the straps shot out and wrapped around her waist. “–I AM KAMEN RIDER UNICORN!”

[]UNION![]

Sunset flipped the ring up and yelled out, “HENSHIN!” as she inserted the Gaia Memory into the main drive port and flipped the ring down.

[>O<]UNION![>O<]

Eight pillars of light appeared behind Sunset. A purple pillar appeared over Twilight, pink over Pinkie, white over Rarity, blue over Rainbow Dash, yellow over Fluttershy, orange over Applejack, lilac over Starlight, and a darker blue color over Shining Armor. A large ring, the Memory Ring from Starlight’s thwarted plan, appeared behind Sunset Shimmer. All around them, a ring of twenty-six T2 Gaia Memories appeared, a second circle was made consisting of the Memories of Harmony, and lastly, floating above Sunset, was the Shining Memory and Phoenix Ascender.

< ACCEL! >

< BIRD! >

< CYCLONE! >

< DUMMY! >

< EQUAL! >

< FANG! >

< GENE! >

< HEAT! >

< ICEAGE! >

< JOKER! >

< KEY! >

< LUNA! >

< METAL! >

< NASCA! >

< OCEAN! >

< PUPPETEER! >

< QUEEN! >

< ROCKET! >

< SKULL! >

< TRIGGER! >

< UNICORN! >

< VIOLENCE! >

< WEATHER! >

< XTREME! >

< YESTERDAY! >

< ZONE! >

< HONESTY! >

< LOYALTY! >

< GENEROSITY! >

< EMPATHY! >

< LAUGHTER! >

< KINDNESS! >

< MAGIC! >

< SHINING! >

^/ ASCENSION ^/

{< UNIONOFFATEANDHARMONY! ALL IN ONE! ONE IS ALL! >}

A rainbow of lights swirled around Sunset, her Unicorn armor appeared, but only as a base. The Honesty and Loyalty Memories appeared over Sunset’s right and left forearms. Golden gauntlets formed, the right sported the symbol of a lightning bolt, and a drive slot, to which the Gaia Memory fitted itself into. The left forearm had an apple symbol, and like its twin, also had its Gaia Memory slot filled in with the corresponding device. Over Sunset’s legs, two more pieces of golden armor formed, the armor over her right leg had a butterfly symbol, with the Kindness Memory inserting itself into a slot. The left leg had a diamond symbol, and the Generosity Memory fitted into its appointed slot. Three Memories formed the chest plate, the right side had a balloon symbol, with the Laughter Memory inserted into it. On the left side, was a star symbol, with the Magic Memory safely placed into its slot. At the center of the chest plate, the Phoenix Ascender and the Shining Memory melded into the armor, affixing itself as an ornament of sorts. The seventh Memory of Harmony formed her helmet. A sun symbol formed the crest of the helmet, with the center ray band jutting out to form the horn. But that horn housed a ruby crystal, and inside the crystal was the Empathy Memory.

Underneath the armor was a mesh comprised of sparkling aroura colors that constantly shimmered as if the sun’s rays were permanently shining upon them. Behind Sunset formed a larger version of the Memory Ring, when this appeared, all twenty-six T2 Gaia Memories flew towards it, and inserted themselves into their appointed slots, their individual symbols lighting up as they funneled their power towards their new wielder. All this combined with an explosion of power that buffeted Memoria and the Dopant army, the army was practically knocked onto their rears, while their leader floated in the air, protected by a barrier. When the light and wind stopped, Memoria looked upon her foe, and she was not pleased.

Unicorn’s golden armor retained some of its turquoise plating around the biceps, sides, and inner thighs, but the overall armor was golden with the sparkling mesh underneath. The compound eyes of Unicorn’s helmet were no longer turquoise but shimmered with shifting rainbow colors depending on how the light hit them. The Memory Ring floated behind her, revolving slowly as it remained suspended.

“What…What happened?!”

“What happened, is that our hearts merged as one,” said Sunset.

“You’re no longer fighting just one of us,” said Twilight.

“You’re fighting ALL of us,” said Starlight.

“We won’t let you take away the memories of friendship we share,” said Fluttershy.

“We shall defeat you, and use all our might to do so,” said Rarity.

“When you mess with one of my family, you’d best believe Ah’m fightin’ with ‘em,” said Applejack.

“Yeah, and as for what this is? I guess you can call this our Super Final Form! Made specially to kick your ass!” Rainbow stated.

“A party’s more fun when everyone is invited, and this is one party I’m not going to mess!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Working together is part of a cop’s duty to stop evil wherever it pops up,” Shining added.

“Hear us now! We are KAMEN RIDER UNICORN UNITY!”
“Hear us now! We are KAMEN RIDER UNICORN UNITY!”
“Hear us now! We are KAMEN RIDER UNICORN UNITY!”
“Hear us now! We are KAMEN RIDER UNICORN UNITY!”
“Hear us now! We are KAMEN RIDER UNICORN UNITY!”
“Hear us now! We are KAMEN RIDER UNICORN UNITY!”
“Hear us now! We are KAMEN RIDER UNICORN UNITY!”
“Hear us now! We are KAMEN RIDER UNICORN UNITY!”
“Hear us now! We are KAMEN RIDER UNICORN UNITY!”

Memoria glared at the newly transformed Rider, the memories within her relic warned her that a change in costume was more than just cosmetic, and even she could tell, the amount of magical power coming off of Unicorn was akin to an alicorn. No, it’s stronger, with those Gaia Memories she’s ascended higher than that! “No matter, the sun is about to set, and the moment it does, all the memories in the Stone will be broken down and my power will be magnified! You have me, and an army to deal with, what can you possibly hope to do against all of this alone?”

“Alone? What gave you that idea?” Unicorn spoke with nine voices at once.

The Dopant army charged towards Unicorn, the first to attack was Terror, unleashing a tidal wave of dark ooze. Unicorn didn’t flinch.

“Fluttershy, let’s take care of that.”

“Okay!”

{} KINDNESS! {}

{} OCEAN! {}

{} CYCLONE! {}

Unicorn’s right leg glowed with yellow and cerulean light, emerald wind swirled around Unicorn as the symbols for the Cyclone, Ocean, and Kindness Memories appeared. The united hero drew a crescent on the ground with her right foot, a blue line formed in the wake of her foot, and once it was drawn, Unicorn stomped her right foot down on the line, and from that line a giant tidal wave roared into existence. But this tidal was different, within the waters were yellow, butterfly light constructs that made the water sparkle as it moved towards Terror’s dark ooze. The two tidal waves clashed against each other, and upon doing so, the twin powers of the wave cancelled out that of the Terror Field, washing it away. The tidal wave continued, letting the emerald wind funnel itself into the wave as it surrounded the Terror Dopant until it was caught in a waterspout. Unicorn swiftly jumped up and over the mouth of the spout. She spun once in the air and came down with a glowing ax kick, striking the Dopant and causing the creature to explode.

Memoria didn’t bat an eye to the destruction of the memory construct. “Oh, whatever shall I do? You destroyed my monster.” Memoria snapped her fingers, but nothing happened. She snapped them again and again, but the Terror Dopant didn’t return. “What did you do?!”

“You’re dealing not just with magic, but the power of the Gaia Memories,” said Starlight.

“And right now, you have three minds who can access the power of the Earth’s Memories in one,” said Twilight.

“Which means we can close the door on that memory once we take it out. Your army’s about to lose a few troops.”

The Quetzalcoatius Dopant roared into the sky as it launched fireball after fireball upon Unicorn.

“Rainbow!”

“On it!”

{} NASCA! {}

{} BIRD! {}

{} ACCEL! {}

{} ROCKET! {}

{} LOYALTY! {}

The four symbols of the Rocket, Bird, Accel, Loyalty, and Nasca Memories appeared behind Unicorn. The five symbols combined and from her back formed white wings outlined in aurora light flared into existence. Unicorn took a step back, and as she did, she zoomed away, leaving behind a ghostly afterimage in her wake. The Dopant continued to lob one fireball after the other, raining them down on the football field, but came nowhere close to hitting Unicorn. The united Rider flew into the air, now level with the Quetzalcoatius Dopant, joining the bird-dragon was the Rocket, Weather, and Bird Dopants.

“Why don’t we get a little creative?”

“I concur, Darling.”

{} GENEROSITY! {}

{} PUPPETEER! {}

{} QUEEN! {}

The left leg of Unicorn’s armor shined as the Puppeteer, Generosity, and Queen Memory symbols shined. At the tips of Unicorn’s fingers, diamond claws formed, Unicorn dashed across the sky, heading right for the giant bird-dragon. Rocket, Weather, and Bird tried to intercept her, but Unicorn flew circles around them, weaving around them as if they were standing still. However, once she dodged them, she just floated in midair. The Dopant she passed by also seemed to be stuck where they were, unable to move. Looking closer, Unicorn’s hands had thin, pink, construct wires coming from the fingertips. The wires all led back to the three Dopants who were completely wrapped up in the wires.

A pulse of pink energy shot through the wires, and suddenly, all three Dopants turned and rushed towards the Quetzalcoatius Dopant. Bird, Rocket, and Weather attacked the giant Dopant, much to its confusion, however, the power of the Puppeteer Memory, along with the embedded diamond claws of the Generosity Memory and combined with the commanding power of the Queen Memory, the Dopants had no choice in the matter. Weather conjured a lightning storm, at the same time as Bird ushered in its Thunderbird form. The two attacks struck Quetzalcoatius in the chest, exploding on impact, the Rocket Dopant finished the job by unleashing a rapid-fire salvo on the bird-dragon before the entire thing exploded into nothingness.

When the deed was done, Unicorn severed the strings, but doing so made the strings glow brighter and brighter until they detonated and destroyed all three aerial Dopants at once. The Dopant’s down below began to fire their long-range attacks, trying to snipe Unicorn out of the air, but their attacks were just as ineffective as they were before as she barely made an effort to dodge them. Unicorn’s eyes then fell upon the larger Dopant, that of the T-Rex.

“Let’s take the big one out next,” said Sunset.

“Then let me at ‘em!” Applejack exclaimed.

{} HONESTY! {}

{} VIOLENCE {}

{} JOKER! {}

{} HEAT! {}

The four symbols appeared over the right arm of Unicorn’s armor, she raised her right and left hands into the air as a sphere of molten power formed. Unicorn condensed that energy into her right and left fists, creating two large burning fists. The united Rider flew straight down, making a beeline for the T-Rex Dopant. In no time at all, Unicorn appeared right in front of the creature’s face and delivered a powerful haymaker to its snout. She followed up the attack with an uppercut, going into a left jab, and finishing with a straight right punch. The final attack funneled all the strength and power of the four combined Memories and blasted the T-Rex with all the power of an erupting volcano.

The explosion caused by the attack engulfed both the Key, Luna, Dog, Smilodon, and Queen Dopants who were unlucky enough to be near the blast zone. Unicorn landed on the ground, now surrounded by many Dopants who were ready to pounce.

“Pinkie, Shining Armor, let’s party!”

“Roger that!”

“Aye, aye, Sunset!”

{} LAUGHTER {}

{} TRIGGER! {}

{} SKULL! {}

{} LUNA! {}

The four symbols of the Laughter, Trigger, Skull, and Luna Memories appeared around Unicorn’s hands. In her left hand, Unicorn held the Chrome Magnum, and in her left, the Skull Magnum, the Dopants all seemed to take a step back out of pure cautiousness, even if they were just memories, they weren’t completely mindless. Unicorn set to work as she dashed across the battlefield. The hero fired off several shots from the Magnums, the beam blasts didn’t all move in a straight path, some coiled and weaved through the air as the bolts found their targets, when they hit, it was a like a fireworks explosion going off. You’d think there was a celebration going on rather than a battle.

The Arms, Claydoll, Taboo, Eyes, Money, Spider, and Lightning Dopants returned fire, trying to hit the fast-moving target. But their efforts were in vain as the speed powers that were gained from the five Gaia Memories more than made her faster than any of their shots could go, and Unicorn repaid that foolishness in spades as she pelted them with bolt after bolt until the Dopants couldn’t take anymore and exploded.

Unicorn stopped for a moment, but when she did, Heat and Magma unified their powers and sent a blistering wave of lava and flames towards Unicorn coming from her left. On her right was IceAge and Ocean, both of them combining their powers to unleash a torrent of ice and raging waves towards them.

“I got something for that!”

{} GENE! {}

{} ICEAGE! {}

{} OCEAN! {}

{} HEAT! {}

{} JOKER! {}

The Magnum weapons began to elongate and meld with the arms of Unicorn, transforming her arms to four-foot-long cannons. Both cannons had and ornate spiral barrel design, with feathered wing fins coming out of both sides of the cannons. Unicorn aimed her left arm at the incoming fire attacking, while pointing her right arm towards the ice attack. The mouths of both cannons glowed bright as they charged up, and right before the two waves hit, Unicorn fired. The left cannon unleashed concentrated blast of ice and water, while the right shot out a heat ray. The ice and water cannon deluged the magma and flame attack, at the same time, the heat ray evaporated the ice and water attack from the Dopants. Loud hissing sounds echoed throughout the area as a large cloud of steam washed over the area, blanketing everything in its haze.

Memoria flew upward, getting above the cloud to try and get a better read on the situation. Not long after gaining enough altitude to see, did two explosions go off at the same time. Memoria could sense that the Magma, Heat, Ocean, and IceAge Dopants were eliminated, yet more of her ranks destroyed.

Unicorn’s cannon arms returned to normal, her Magnums dismissed. However, in the thick of the steam, a shadow drew nearer, the shadow was adorned in a black cloak, and wielded a large scythe. The creature loomed behind Unicorn and prepared to reap the hero.

“You know one of the best things about being in this form is?”

“No one can seek up on you,” said Pinkie.

“Bingo!”

{} FANG! {}

Blue construct blades formed over Unicorn’s right forearm, using the speed of the five Gaia Memories, Unicorn spun around and slashed right through the reaper before it knew what happened. A thin line of blue light appeared around its midsection as its form shifted and revealed itself as the Dummy Dopant. The creature exploded, and Unicorn went to work, dashing through the steam like a ghost as she moved to her next target. But before she could get to it, two more Dopants flanked her. On her right, the Injury Dopant was prepared to strike, while to her left was the Jewel Dopant.

{} YESTERDAY! {}

Unicorn reformed her Magnums and quickly fired two shots, one hitting Injury and the other hitting Jewel. The Yesterday symbol appeared on the Dopants, and both began to rewind their movements. When Unicorn was out of their attack range her horn flashed, and after, both Dopants began to move forward, the symbol still on them. Unable to stop their movements, the two Dopants could not prevent the inevitable conclusion of their actions. Injury reached out with its right hand, coated in its energy meant to cause detrimental harm to Unicorn, however, that power was about to hit its’ ally. The Jewel Dopant turned its right hand into a diamond blade just as Injury struck the center of the Dopant, a burst of energy shattered the Dopant into pieces at the exact same time as the diamond blade pierced the Injury Dopant through the chest, the result was the same as the others, both meeting a fiery end.

When the steam finally cleared, Unicorn found herself completely surrounded by Commander’s Commandos, along with the Bat, Yesterday, Zone, Accel, Gene, Utopia, and Puppeteer Dopants. The Puppeteer Dopant had set up a dome of razor wire around the entire area, cutting off their escape.

“It looks like they have us in check,” said Unicorn.

“Then let’s put them in checkmate,” replied Twilight. “Want to give us a hand big BBBFF?”

“It’d be my genuine pleasure.”

{} ZONE! {}

{} FANG {}

{} TRIGGER {}

{} LUNA! {}

Unicorn’s left arm formed the blade constructs of the Fang Memory, and in her right hand, the Chrome Mangum appeared, and all at once, many Unicorn’s appeared around the battlefield. The four symbols of the Gaia Memories appeared around Unicorn, and before anyone knew it, she disappeared. A turquoise grid appeared on the ground, and overlaying it was a white grid courtesy of the Zone Dopant. Unicorn appeared next to the Accel Dopant, and sliced it clean through with the Fang Blades, the Bat Dopant to her left was then swiftly taken out by Unicorn’s Chrome Magnum after firing about three charged shots at it. The Zone Dopant moved Yesterday Memory to intercept Unicorn, but the moment the Dopant fired its eight chambered revolver gun, the shot went straight through Unicorn and the image of the hero faded away.

One of the Unicorn clones appeared and fired several shots into Yesterday’s back, destroying the monster. The Unicorn clones began to do battle with the Commandos, Zone routinely switched their positions around, to try and gang up on the real Unicorn, but each time the Zone Dopant would move them into position they would only destroy a clone and not the original. The floating eyeball-pyramid knew the game that she was playing, the King in this game was the Commander Dopant, so long as it remained protected, Commandos could be resurrected.

However, Twilight was a master of the game, and wasn’t about to let it end that easily. Puppeteer felt one of the strings get tugged, and then another, and another, suddenly, turquoise wires were getting entangled with the silver wires.

{} PUPPETEER! {}

{} HEAT! {}

Some of the clones were teleported into positions close to the wire net, and with the superheated wires, sliced through the ones the Puppeteer Dopant made. The wires then wrapped around the Dopant itself, creating a cocoon of heat until the creature exploded. One of the Unicorn clones appeared behind the Zone Dopant and pointed its left index and ring fingers at the Dopant.

{} KEY! {}

“LOCKDOWN!”

Chains appeared around the Zone Dopant, and before the creature knew what hit it, its power was completely cut off. The white grid that it created had disappeared, leaving only the turquoise of Unicorn, another of the Unicorn copies aimed the Chrome Magnum and fired a blast straight at the Zone Dopant, destroying the monster.

“Rainbow?!”

“Let’s do it!”

{} NASCA! {}

{} ROCKET! {}

{} ACCEL! {}

In Unicorn’s right hand, the Nasca Blade appeared, and in her left, the Condor Sword. Unicorn’s body was then outlined in a red aura, and in the next second, she sped through all the Commandos, slicing through them all with such quickness that the Commandos didn’t even have time to react. Unicorn kept going until she found the origin of the Commandos, the Commander Dopant. The Nasca Blade blazed blue, and the Condor Sword green, Unicorn appeared in front of the Commander Dopant and slashed through it, appearing behind the monster as two lines of green and blue formed a cross over its chest before exploding.

At last, there were only two Dopants left, Utopia, and Unicorn. The two Dopants readied themselves as they powered up to fire a conjoined attack.

“Sunset, we’ll help you out with this,”said Starlight and Twilight together.

“Got it!”

{} UNICORN! {}

{} MAGIC! {}

{} XTREME! {}

The left side of Unicorn’s breast plate shined as the Magic, Xtreme, and Unicorn Memory symbols appeared over it. Purple light wrapped around Unicorn’s right hand, red around her left, and her horn glowed turquoise. The two Dopants unleashed a combined energy blast as it roared towards Unicorn, at the same time, Unicorn fired off her tri-beam attack, the three lights spiraled around each other until they merged into one. The two beams slammed against each other, but it was no contest, the tri-beam of Unicorn swallowed the opposing attack and razed both Dopants at once, yet another powerful explosion went off that was quickly changing the landscape of the area.

Memoria growled when she was the last one standing, but there wasn’t much longer left to go, the sun was already halfway down on the horizon, the sky was already turning to the colors of sunset and twilight, the moment the last light faded would be the moment that her victory was assured.

“The sun’s almost set! Do you really think you can beat me with the time you have left?!” Memoria asked.

Unicorn entered a fighting stance as she squared off with Memoria. “That’s all the time I need to end this.”

Memoria and Unicorn dashed for each other, both throwing a right punch at the exact same time. Their fists collided like the sound of heaven’s thunder, shaking the trees and rattling the bleachers. Memoria broke off and threw a roundhouse kick, which Unicorn countered with her left forearm. However, the memory stealer used the momentum of the blocked attack to propel her into a spinning heel kick with the same right foot. This blow connected to the right side of Unicorn’s helmet, making her skid against the ground for a good couple of feet, and rattling her pretty good. Memoria followed up as she charged for her again, throwing a flying kick. But right before her blow connected, Unicorn’s right hand flew up, catching Memoria’s foot in her grasp.

“Our turn!”
“Our turn!”

Unicorn tightened her grip on Memoria’s foot and slammed her straight into the ground, leaving a body sized impression. But she wasn’t done, Unicorn pulled her back up by the same foot and slammed her again, and again, and again, repeating this process for about five more body slams before tossing Memoria into the air like a rag doll. Memoria flailed in the air for a moment before regaining her senses and stopping herself. The dark sorceress channeled her dark magic and the power of the Memory and fired a beam of green and black energy.

The united hero unfurled her wings of light and took off into the air just seconds before the beam hit the ground and detonated. Unicorn summoned the Skull and Chrome Magnums and began firing multiple shots at Memoria. The possessed human created a barrier around herself as the multiple shots struck against its surface, at the same time, Memoria returned fire from the barrier itself. The beams bent and angled themselves as they chased after Unicorn, but the heroine would just return fire, sniping the beams out of the sky before they could reach their target. Unicorn rose high into the sky as the Magnums glowed. The two weapons merged into both her arms until she was sporting a large version of the cannon arms she was using before, but this unified form had six wing fins along its spiral barrel.

Just then, nine more Unicorns appeared around her, and at once, they fired their monstrous cannons, unleashing equally large beam attacks on Memoria. The stealer of memories redoubled her shield as the beams rained down on her from above, pushing her down until her barrier and Memoria herself touched the ground. Just then four more Unicorns appeared, one carrying the Nasca Blade, the second had the Condor Sword, the third wielded the Halo Blade, and the last had the Engine Blade. All four Unicorn’s converged on Memoria, thrusting their swords against the barrier. Cracks began to form as the four Unicorns charged forward until their blades pierced through the barrier and were about halfway inside.

Memoria roared defiantly as she unleashed a burst wave of dark magical power that wiped away the three Unicorn copies. The wave continued to spread as it pushed against the beams and engulfed the nine above. When Memoria was done, the land around her was scorched, and she was alone.

At least that was what she believed until Unicorn flashed into existence in front of her. Her fists glowed with rainbow energy as she focused her strike right on the Memory Stone embedded into her chest. When the blow connected, Ribbons of Memory seeped from the Stone, and visibly pained Memoria.

***__________________________________***

Namby Pampy was, like others, watching as a battle was being waged on the outskirts of town in the forest just beyond White Tail Park. Many believed that this was the work of Unicorn, the vile villain battling it out with the heroes of their city.

“Wait…that…that doesn’t sound right,” said Namby.

A Ribbon of Memory passed through the glass of the window and into Namby’s head. The moment it did, her eyes flew open in shock and realization. “What…What have I done?!” Namby moved to her articles that she had written and the blog posts she had made for CCNN. “How the hell could I write this tripe?! Unicorn isn’t a villain! Sunset…! Oh gods, Sunset!”

Namby looked back at the window where her fellow coworkers were watching the battle, none daring to take a helicopter near the battle as it was far too dangerous to cover. With a confident stride she went back to the window and shouted. “I DON’T KNOW WHO OR WHAT YOU’RE FIGHTNING! BUT GIVE ‘EM HELL UNICORN!”

This, of course, earned her more than a few curious and disturbed looks from her coworkers, but then some seemed to have the same realization as she did.

“Namby, have you lost yer mind?! Unicorn’s the bad guy!” Her editor scolded.

“No, she’s not,” said one of the news anchors. “Namby isn’t crazy, I…I don’t know how to say this, but I remember, I remember Unicorn’s a hero!”

“Me too!”

“Same!”

“Yeah!”

***__________________________________***

Memoria blocked a few jabs that Unicorn threw, returning them with twice the fervor and malice, landing body blows and headshots. Memoria spun with a backhand against Unicorn’s helmet, and then kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying through several trees. The heroine continued to sail onward, and just when it seemed that her momentum was about to slow, Memoria would reappear and punch Unicorn again. This continued until Unicorn ended up slamming against the distant mountains, Mount Eris to be precise.

The snow-covered mountain did nothing to cushion the impact as Unicorn tore herself out of the rock and launched herself for Memoria again.

{} ZONE! {}

{} LUNA! {}

Just then, several more copies of Unicorn appeared, but at the same time, they were disappearing and reappearing at random spots, making it hard for Memoria to determine what her next attack should be. One of them was real, while the others were copies, but they were flashing in and out at seemingly random places. One of the copies appeared behind her and slammed the flat of its palm against her back.

{} KEY! {}

“LOCKDOWN!”

Blue chains appeared around Memoria, and all at once, she felt her power being confined and restricted as well as her body. The copies stopped teleporting around as the real Unicorn appeared and struck the Memory Stone with a strong kick that was blazing with rainbow light. The impact hurt Memoria just like the last time, and just like before, more Ribbons of Memory escaped from the Stone, but there were more than before.

***__________________________________***

Diamond Tiara suddenly felt a rush of memories enter her mind, memories of her horrible mother and how she nearly killed her father and herself. But along with those memories, she remembered, she remembered the hero who saved her life, her father’s life, and made her life brighter.

“UNICORN!” Diamond Tiara exclaimed. The young girl quickly took to the message boards and began posting.

[Listen, everyone! Unicorn is not the bad guy! Something must’ve happened to our brains to make us forget, and whatever that something is, she’s out there fighting it!]

Diamond Tiara punctuated her comment with the hashtag “#UnicornHERO”. As she expected, there were many teens and adults who were saying she was crazy and that she must be one of those psychos who likes bad guys. But then…

[AppleGirl: She ain’t wrong! Ah remember, too! #UnicornHERO]

[SweetSong: I’m with D-Mond! #UnicornHERO]

[BlazinWing: We got your back D! #UnicornHERO]

[SilverShades: Best friends stick together! #UnicornHERO]

[RainbowFans: D-Mond’s right, everyone, she and Nasca are fighting for us all! Let’s support them no matter what! #UnicornHERO #NascaHERO]

***__________________________________***

Celestia and Luna were busy helping the students get into the auditorium while the battle was raging, but while they were doing so, Ribbons of Memory appeared and slipped into their heads.

Both women held their heads for a moment, but then their eyes flew open in stark realization.

“Luna did we –?!”

“I think we did!”

Just then another teacher, Ms. Harshwhinny, came running towards them, she huffed and gasped having run from another part of the school. “Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna, I…I don’t know how or why, but I forgot that Unicorn and Sunset were the same person!”

“I hate to say it, but so did we! Something must’ve done this to us,” said Luna.

“And right now, Sunset’s battling that something,” said Celestia.

***__________________________________***

Night Glider saw a Ribbon of Memory fly towards her and slip into her head, her eyes flew open as she looked towards the explosions taking place outside the city. But she wasn’t the only one.

Double Diamond, Party Favor, and Sugar Belle were all remembering someone important to them, someone they called friend, and the person that saved their friend.

“Starlight,” said Night Glider.

“Sunset!” Double Diamond gasped.

“Take that bad guy down!” Party Favor and Sugar Belle exclaimed.

***__________________________________***

Cracks were visibly forming on the Memory Stone with each attack Unicorn dealt, her decision to attack the Stone instead of Memoria’s body was proving to be the right choice. With each successful attack, the memories that were stolen from everyone were seeping out, like a glass vase leaking water. And with each memory freed, Memoria was getting visibly weaker, but she was still able to keep up with Unicorn in her Unity form.

While she battled, Unicorn and Memoria could feel it, the memories were returning to the people, more and more were starting to cry out for her victory, their voices spurring her to defeat the villain before her. Cracks began to form in the sky as well, the reality bubble that the effects of the Memory Stone and Memory Memory were beginning to fade.

“Freeing a few memories won’t help you! I can still hold onto the strongest of the memories that we’ve taken, and those alone will give me all the power I need to fulfill my goal!” Memoria declared.

“Sunset, the sun’s almost gone, we don’t have much time!” Shining Armor pointed out.

Unicorn glanced towards the setting sun, and true, it was almost gone. “Alright, we’ll wrap this up here and now! But first, we need to take away the other source of her power. Are you with me?”

A collective, “YES” came from the others within her soul.

The united hero flew at Memoria, she slammed into the Dopant and straight back to the football field, impacting in the center of the field itself as she pinned Memoria against the ground. Unicorn raised her right hand as the seventh Memory of Harmony activated.

{} EMPATHY! {}

Unicorn’s right hand blazed with red light at the same time as her horn, slamming it down over the Memory Stone as Memoria screamed in protest.

~*~*~*~

Wallflower Blush was strung up in a vast dark space, chains made of emerald light wrapped round different sections of her body, suspending her in the darkness. Windows appeared around her, showing Wallflower all the horrible acts she had committed against Sunset, replaying them over and over again. With the stolen memories of Sunset Shimmer, Memoria was able to show Wallflower just how much she hurt Sunset Shimmer, and it hurt her. She only wanted to teach her a lesson, to show her that she hadn’t changed at all, that Sunset herself was the true villain. When in reality, the true villain was Wallflower herself. Tears flowed from her eyes as she continued to watch these scenes play out again and again.

“All this…All of this is my fault…the world’s going to end…and it’s all my fault…”

Just then, a red spark ignited in the darkness. It flickered again and again until the image of Sunset Shimmer appeared before her. “Hello, Wallflower.”

“SUNSET?! You… You remember me?!”

“I remember what I saw in the Memories of the Earth, thanks to that, I know who I am. But my memories are still locked away in the Stone.”

Fresh tears fell from Wallflower’s eyes as she tried to move closer to Sunset, but the chains forbade her from doing so. “Sunset, I’m so sorry! I never meant to hurt you like this! Memoria tricked me, but that’s no excuse for what I did! I made the love of your life forget that she loved you! I took away more than just your friends, I took away your family! I’m just as much a monster as Memoria is…Please, whatever you have to do, just stop her! Even if–!!!”

“ENOUGH!” Sunset shouted. “I don’t want you to finish that sentence! Because I’m here to save you! Memoria is the monster, not you!”

Wallflower’s eyes widened with disbelief. “How can you say that?! After everything I’ve done to you, to your friends and girlfriend?! Why would want to save someone as invisible as me?! I’m…No one would miss me anyway!”

Sunset floated towards her and placed a hand on Wallflowers, wiping away the tears. “We would miss you.”

Suddenly, eight more lights flickered into existence around Wallflower, and from them formed the images of Sunset’s friends.

“You’re not the only one here who’s done some bad things, kid. Or did you forget that I almost wiped out all individuality from the world in order to grant it infinite knowledge?” Starlight asked.

“And I nearly caused two realities to crash into each other, and almost killed my girlfriend here,” said Twilight.

“If you really wish to make amends, Darling, then you must live.”

“And don’t go sayin’ no one’ll care if yer gone or not! You exist Sug!”

“The best way to make amends is to fight back, and work towards forgiveness.”

“But…I don’t know if I can do that…? Why would any of you forgive me?” Wallflower asked.

“Well, we did kinda hate Sunset for a while, but once we got past all that she-demon, take over two worlds stuff, we found out that we really love Sunny! So, why can’t we do the same for you?”

“Second chances don’t come around often Miss Blush, and if these girls are willing to give you one, then so am I. Believe me, I’ve seen hardened criminals who’ve shown no remorse for their actions, and that’s not you.”

“Yeah, so enough with the pity party! If you want to dish out some payback, then let us bust you out of here and we can really give it to that witch!”

Sunset reached out her hand towards Wallflower and said, “I can only reach out to you, Wallflower. But it’s you who has to take ahold of that hand. What will you do?”

Wallflower looked around herself, these people, they were willing to risk their lives to save her, to come to this place and free her from this prison after everything she had done to them. “Is this…that Magic of Friendship stuff you’ve talked about?”

“Why don’t you take my hand and we’ll show you?”

The chains started to show cracks as Wallflower began struggling against them. Her bonds seemed to tighten more and more, threatening to crush her organs and bones if she continued to remain defiant. But Wallflower continued to struggle, forcing her outstretched right arm to reach Sunset’s hand.

“We’re with you!”

“We’re all with you!”

“WALLFLOWER!”

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!” Wallflower screamed as she took ahold of Sunset’s hand.

Pinkie, Fluttershy, Shining Armor, Starlight, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight fused into Sunset. Her body shifted until it took on the form of Kamen Rider Unicorn Unity. “Let’s get out of here, Wallflower!”

A rainbow aura surrounded both of them as the world around them filled with light, banishing the darkness.

~*~*~*~

Unicorn began to draw back her right hand as she slowly stood up. As she did, an arm came out of the Memory Stone, and following that was a head, a body, and finally legs. With one last pull, Unicorn ripped Wallflower Blush from Memoria, bringing the young girl close to her as she cried into the hero’s chest.

Memoria’s body began to shift as she stood back up, it went from a unicorn mare and then would switch back to a human form, and at times it would change into an anthropomorphic fused version of both. “W-What have you done?! GIVE HER BACK!”

Unicorn leveled her gaze with Memoria. “Wallflower, we’ll teleport you back to the school, look for Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna. Stay with them and we’ll come back when this is over.”

Wallflower nodded, knowing full well that she’d only be a hinderance at this point. Unicorn’s horn glowed and in the next second, Wallflower was teleported away from the battlefield.

“Memoria, you preyed on the insecurities of a young girl and tricked her into enacting vengeance! As a result, your deeds have not only harmed the target of those feelings, but the young girl and the world itself! Your evil will no longer threaten this or any other world! IT’S TIME TO RESTORE HARMONY!”

The Memory Ring behind Unicorn began glow, at the same time, the seven Memories of Harmony glowed. Before Unicorn formed a pure white Gaia Memory, the symbol at the center was a stylized “M” with action lines coming from it, the “M” itself was colored a shimmering gold color, this was the Maximum Memory. Unicorn inserted the new Memory into the Max Drive port and slammed on the button, at the same time, Unicorn moved both hands to the Phoenix Ascender on her chest and pressed the wings three times in rapid succession.

{} MAXIMUM! {}

{} SHINING! {}

{} UNION! {}

}O{}O{<

The Memory Ring, along with the seven Memories of Harmony, flew off from Unicorn’s armor and into the air. The Memory Ring spun at a rapid speed, blurring until it was a ring of rainbow light, another ring formed from the seven Memories of Harmony right after the first, creating a second ring of rainbow light. Unicorn teleported right above the opening of the first ring, she extended her right leg forward as a burst of mana propelled her forward through the first ring, and then through the second. A giant, spiral horn made of rainbow light and glimmering golden sparkles formed.

Memoria summoned all the power she could muster at once, she didn’t care if she expanded all her power, with victory so close she couldn’t afford to hold anything back. The Memory Stone released a massive beam of black and emerald light that completely washed over Unicorn’s attack, continuing as high as the eye could see. The unicorn witch cackled with sinister glee as her attack completely swallowed the hero.

However, in that dark light, a spark of white light appeared. And in the next moment, that bright light cut the beam off as eight wings of white light unfurled from the spiral horn as it pierced through Memoria’s attack. The horn continued to dive down further and further, parting the massive beam as it did.

Everyone in the city could see this dazzling light battling against the darkness, and, despite what they thought they knew, they felt it in their hearts, they knew who was behind that light. They knew the name of the hero who was battling the darkness, and the name of that hero was a name that all in the city, young and old, small and great, could call out as one with hope and courage.

UNICORN!!!!!!

The spiral horn began to spin out like a drill bit, the wings spun with the horn, creating a sparkling, spiral, comet-like tail of white light as it pierced through Memoria’s attack faster and faster, picking up speed with each passing second.

“UNITED!!! SPIRAL!!! BREAKER!!!”

The horn continued its descent as it finally struck the Memory Stone. The Stone began to crack more and more as the sound of a drill piercing stone echoed throughout the area. Memoria cried out in protest as she tried to pour more and more power out of the Memory Stone and Memory Memory to try and stop this. But there was nothing that she could do, the unicorn witch could only watch as the Stone, after enduring the onslaught, could take no more. With one final crack, the Memory Stone, along with the Memory Memory, shattered all at once. Memoria screamed as her body was engulfed in a blinding radiant light, wiped from existence. That same radiant light shot up into the sky and shattered the bubble that had closed off the city from the rest of the world, and from it shot out several Memory Ribbons, the memories that had been stolen from everyone in the city.

All was quiet now, save for the light breeze that rustled through the leaves of the few trees that remained. The sun had completely set now as the sky grew dark and the stars came out. By some miracle, or coincidence, the stadium lights kicked on, illuminating the playing field. Upon the field lied the heroes of Canterlot City, indeed the whole world. Shining Armor, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Starlight Glimmer, Twilight Sparkle, and Sunset Shimmer.

The first to come to was Twilight, her whole body ached, but from what she could tell she was otherwise unharmed. The closest person to her was Shining Armor, whom she quickly began to shake to awaken him.

“Shiny, are you okay?” Twilight asked.

The young man groaned as he flipped over onto his back and chuckled. “Yeah, but I ain’t driving us back.”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she hugged her older brother. Slowly, but surely, the others were coming around as well, Rainbow was the third to awaken, she then helped Fluttershy, and then Pinkie Pie. Rarity awakened Applejack who then helped Rarity walk over to the rest. Twilight crawled over to Starlight and shook her as well.

The former CEO of PhoenEXE Corp. blinked for a few seconds until her eyes landed on Twilight. “Hey, Twilight.”

“Hey, Starlight…do you…do you know where you are?” she asked.

Starlight sat up and looked around, she then sighed as she said, “Unfortunately, yes. Guess I’m not an amnesiac anymore.” Starlight watched as Shining Armor walked over to her. “Do you remember what I did?”

“I do, yes, everything,” said Shining.

With another sigh, Starlight held up her wrists. “Well, do what you gotta do then.”

Shining Armor pushed her hands down and said, “That can wait until later, right now we need to check on someone.”

Starlight looked to her right as Twilight had already moved to Sunset’s side, her Rider Belt was still wrapped around her, with the Union Memory still inserted. Twilight gingerly touched her girlfriend’s cheek as she said, “Sunset?”

There was no response.

“Please, Sunset, wake up…!”

Everyone gathered around their friend, their memories restored as tears fell from their eyes, remembering their past actions as they looked upon their still friend.

“Sunset…you better wake up! I…I need to tell you how sorry I am that I hurt you! I know what I did was because my memories were stolen! But our bond should’ve been stronger than that, strong enough that I should’ve believed you! Now wake up!” Twilight cried.

The young genius lowered her head and brought her lips to kiss Sunset’s, a gentle kiss, one that would be used to wake a lover after a long night’s sleep. Twilight pulled back as her tears dropped onto Sunset’s cheeks, and, after a moment, Sunset’s eyes fluttered open. Everyone held their breath as the former unicorn mare weakly smiled. She raised her right hand and wiped away Twilight’s tears.

“I know you’re cute when you’re sad, but you’re cuter when you smile, Sparky,” said Sunset.

“SUNSET!” Twilight shouted as she hugged her girlfriend tightly and fiercely.

“We…We did it?” Sunset asked.

“We did,” said Starlight.

Rainbow took out her phone, feeling it vibrate in her pants pocket. The sports girl grinned as she showed it everyone. “And it looks like we’re not the only ones who know it.”

[UNICORN SAVES THE WORLD AGAIN: #UnicornHERO TRENDING ON SOCIAL MEDIA]

Sunset, after Twilight released her from her hug, sat up and said to everyone. “This isn’t my victory, Unicorn was one person today, she was all of us, this is our victory.”

“GROUP HUG!” Pinkie exclaimed.

With the same ludicrous speed that she normally displayed, Pinkie managed to drag everyone into the hug, with Sunset at the center. Starlight managed to evade Pinkie’s grab, surprisingly, and stood there smiling down at them.

“C’mon, Star, get in here,” said Sunset.

“I don’t think I’m there, just yet,” said Starlight.

“Tough, because I say you are. Pinkie, do the thing!” Sunset ordered.

Starlight wasn’t able to avoid Pinkie’s grasp the second time as the “Pink Menace” dragged Starlight down to join them all. Despite herself, Starlight found this closeness, this feeling of togetherness, fill her heart with warmth. Everyone stared up at the starry sky, the threat was over, and the evil had been destroyed. Harmony had been restored.

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and said, “Uh, hate to be ‘that girl’, but, uh, how are we getting back into town?”

A collective groan echoed through the woods.

New Beginnings

One week after the battle between Unicorn and Memoria, things were getting mildly back to normal for Sunset. Her friends, indeed, the majority of Canterlot High School, professed their deepest apologies to Sunset, for treating her like the person she used to be. These apologies were doubled from her friends, which she had to remind them several times to stop, and of course they didn’t listen, which then led to them absolutely showering Sunset with friendship affection for the whole weekend.

Out of all of them, Twilight was the most emotionally wrecked due to the ordeal, still angry at herself for forgetting their special bond of love. Sunset constantly reminded her that their bond was still there, if not for that bond, Twilight would have never thought to have looked into the Memories of the Earth and see the truth with her own eyes. And if not for that bond, Twilight would have never had kissed Sunset in her room so suddenly.

The chase that occurred in CHS when the girls confronted Wallflower was not forgotten, and some had assumed that she was the cause of the memory loss. There was no need to hide it, but neither was there a need to reveal everything. So, yes, they told the story of Wallflower being tricked by a dark entity that resided in a magical relic, and that the entity twisted Wallflower into believing that Sunset was her enemy, as well as making Unicorn appear as the villain.

Thankfully the whole school bought the half-truth, not that it was hard to spin that seeing as to how many times that has happened in the past. However, Wallflower had yet to forgive herself. The young teen had retreated to her little grove, sitting in the center among her flowers as she cried. For a brief moment she thought to stop her bawling when she heard the brush rustle and snapping twigs, but Wallflower quickly dismissed it, nobody knew about this spot, so there’s no chance that it was another person. Wallflower placed her head against her knees as she hugged her legs close to her.

“Figured you’d be out here.”

Wallflower’s head shot up and snapped quickly to the familiar voice. There, standing with her hands in her skirt pockets, was Sunset Shimmer, a sad smile was upon her face as she looked down at Wallflower, who stared back at Sunset with wide shocked eyes.

“W-Wha-Wha-How did you find this place?!” Wallflower asked.

“When we separated you from Memoria, I used the Empathy Memory, which allows me to feel and see the memories of others. The Unicorn Memory sometimes channels that Memory’s power, but essentially, I went into the Stone, your mind, and I saw this place. And combined with the background you have on your computer; it was easy enough to find.”

Wallflower turned away from Sunset, the guilt and shame of her actions forbade her from looking upon the one she had wronged. “If you’re here to tell me off, to yell or…anything else, then go ahead, I deserve whatever punishment you want to give me.”

Sunset chuckled as she walked closer to Wallflower. “I’m not typically into BDSM, but I’d be willing to give it a shot if you’re offering?”

Wallflower’s head shot back up as a bright red blush covered her face. “I-I-I-I-I wasn’t suggesting anything like that! I mean – you – me – you’re with and–!” A stray finger pressed against the rambling girl’s lips to silence her.

Sunset smiled and said, “I’m joking, Wallflower. And no, I’m not here to punish you. You’re punishing yourself enough.”

“Then, why are you here?” Wallflower asked, genuinely curious.

“Because I want you to stop punishing yourself,” said Sunset.

Wallflower turned her gaze towards the flower bed. “How can I? After everything I’ve done, in the name of revenge! I hurt you worse than anyone could ever hurt me…why would you want to be anywhere near me?”

Sunset sighed, she then reached out and wrapped her left arm around Wallflower’s shoulders, bringing the shy girl close to her, and eliciting a small “eep!” of surprise from the sudden embrace. “There was a time not too long ago when I was asking myself that same question. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, those five have been friends for a long time, and in less than a couple of months, I shattered that friendship for a whole year until Princess Twilight came along. They didn’t have to forgive me, or let me into their group, even if Princess Twilight asked them to, they were well within their right to shun me. And believe me, it wasn’t easy to start. But we eventually got over the awkwardness, and the hate.”

Wallflower looked up at Sunset with a bit of hope. “H-How did you manage that?”

“I was just honest with them. I didn’t want to be that person anymore; I didn’t want to be alone. So, I made the effort, I joined them in their activities, I laughed with them, cried with them, and eventually, they accepted me, even though everyone else was still weary around me, they were my bedrock. They can be that for you too, same as me.”

A small smile formed on Wallflowers lips, she even allowed herself to enjoy the embrace.

“Now, be honest with me. What Memoria said, well, what she was about to say, was it true?” Sunset asked.

Wallflower’s face was still red, but she managed to nod her head in a silent affirmative.

“I see, guess that just adds a whole other level of anxiety and such, huh?” Sunset asked.

“It did…still does…I mean…I…hated you, but…at the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Some twisted part of me believed that if I could get you to acknowledge me, that…maybe I’d matter, and that…maybe I’d matter to you,” said Wallflower.

Sunset sighed heavily as she patted Wallflower’s head. “Maybe things would’ve turned out differently, maybe I’d be dating you instead of Twi. I’m not going to lie; you are really cute.”

Wallflower’s blush deepened. “T-Thank you. But I know you love Twilight. And, I’d be kidding myself if you two didn’t make an adorable couple.”

Now it was Sunset’s turn to blush. “Thanks, and don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll find another girl who can show you how wonderful you are. But, if you don’t mind, will you settle for a friend who cares about you?”

Fresh tears began to flow from Wallflower’s eyes as she started to shake, she then buried her face in Sunset’s chest as she began to sob again, but this wasn’t like the times before. Wallflower felt a sense of relief from this act, even more so when Sunset embraced her, comforting her new friend through this pain. “I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…!”

“Shh, shh, it’s alright,” Sunset cooed.

“I don’t hate you…I did, but…I don’t anymore and…I’m sorry!” Wallflower cried.

“It’s fine, if there’s anyone here who believes in second chances, I’m one among seven. So, c’mon, dry your eyes.” Wallflower let out the last of her crying and rose up, using the sleeves of her sweater to wipe away her tears. “How about we start over, I know we may not have that much more time left since graduation’s right around the corner. But, if you want, we can try and do as much as we can, if you want?”

“Y-You’d be okay with that?” Wallflower asked hopeful.

“Of course, just try not to cop a feel or Twilight might deck you,” said Sunset.

The shy girl blushed yet again. “I’m starting to get the feeling that you’re a closet pervert.”

“Oh, I’m way out of the closet when it comes to that. Just one of the many things you’re going to learn about me, Wallflower,” said Sunset with a chuckle.

Both girls shared a laugh as the prospect of becoming friends lightened Wallflower’s heart and her soul. It would be a while before she was fully healed and come to terms with what she did, but Wallflower felt that Sunset and her friends were the experts in healing those who were touched by darkness and seeking the light.

“Well, what do you want to do then?” Wallflower asked.

“Well, what do you want to do? Part of being a friend is sharing in their interests, and I gotta say, your interests,” Sunset waved her hand to indicate the blooming flowers around them, “are beautiful.”

“O-Okay, in that case, I could use some help with the watering, it can kind of be a hassle when it’s just me, but…”

Sunset stood up and offered her hand to Wallflower. “Show me the way, Wallflower.”

“SUNSET SHIMMER!”

Just then, the shrill voice of Trixie Lulamoon echoed through the woods, and from the brush appeared CHS’s resident magician. The silver haired girl approached Sunset and Wallflower and narrowed her gaze at the former. “There you are! Oh, hi Wallflower. How do you explain this?!”

Trixie opened the finished yearbook, and inside was the poster that Trixie had made of herself, showing the Superlative for “Greatest and Most Powerfullest”. Sunset gave Wallflower a knowing look and shot one back at Trixie.

“I figured Canterlot High should recognize the talents of the greatest magician around,” said Sunset as she crossed her arms.

Trixie smiled happily as she closed the book. “So, what’s going on here?”

“Well, Wallflower and I were going to water the plants.”

“Hmmm, okay, I’m in, anything else needs doing?” Trixie asked.

“SUNSET!!?” yelled a raspy voice.

Yet another person found Wallflower’s secret garden, and it just so happened to be Rainbow Dash, also carrying a yearbook. “What the heck?! You had one job, and that was not – I repeat – NOT toput us next to Bulk Biceps in the yearbook! Now it looks like all of us are kissing him!”

“I don’t hear Fluttershy complaining,” Trixie commented.

“Damn right she’s not,” Sunset added.

Rainbow Dash made a few noises like she was going to protest, but the just sighed in defeat. “So, what’re you guys doing?”

“We were about to help Wallflower with the garden,” said Sunset.

“Cool, mind if I help too?”

Wallflower blinked. “You want to help me?”

“Yeah, looks like a lot work for one person, but ya know, it’s better when you got friends helping out,’ said Rainbow Dash.

Sunset looked down at Wallflower and smiled.

***________________________________***

THREE WEEKS LATER

It was a Saturday night, and CHS was closed. The hour was midnight, and not a soul was around, save for three women standing next to the Wondercolt statue. Starlight Glimmer had a backpack full of mementos, at least those she was able to save and ones that were impounded by CCPD after the whole Gaia Impact Incident. A lot of Starlight’s belongs were put away as evidence to look at later, and thankfully, Shining Armor was able to get some of them out, that is after checking and double checking to make sure that they weren’t booby trapped or contained something of a diabolical nature. But they weren’t. They were mostly an old photo album, some trinkets from when she was a child, and an MP3 player with preloaded songs onto it.

“You sure we can’t talk you out of this?” Sunset asked.

“My mind’s made up, Sunset, Twilight, and honestly, this is the only other option,” said Starlight.

“But, leaving Earth to stay in Equestria…that seems a bit drastic, don’t you think?” Twilight asked.

Starlight ruffled Twilight’s hair as she said, “I’ve done too many bad things in the pursuit of trying to save the world, and in so doing I almost ended it instead. I could pretend that I still don’t have any memories of what happened, but it won’t be long before the doctors figure I’m faking it. And honestly, I need to be away from here, where I’m not tempted to access the Earth’s Memories at all, and the best way to do that is to go to someplace where I have no access to that knowledge and begin to reform myself. My other self managed to find her way studying under Princess Twilight, and maybe I can do the same. I mean, it’s a land of magic, talking ponies, and mythological creatures, anything’s possible right?”

Sunset sighed heavily in defeat, but she did manage a smile. “You’re right. Just remember the rules, I did tell Princess Twilight everything that happened, including what just happened with Memoria and how you were instrumental in defeating her. So, you’ll be fitted with magic dampening ring upon arrival, you’ll only be able to levitate, and it’ll be enchanted so that only Princess Twilight or another member of high royalty can remove it. After a probation period, you’ll have the ring taken off and afterwards, Princess Twilight and pony Starlight have agreed to teach you magic.”

“I’m surprised that’s all they’re going to do to me, honestly I was expecting to be thrown in a dungeon for what I’ve done,” said Starlight.

“From what Sunset’s told me, the only other beings she’s encountered who give second chances, are us, and the pony versions of us, so, you’ll be in good hands – er – hooves, I mean.” Twilight corrected.

Starlight rubbed the back of her head as she looked at the cold marble surface. “I’m really going to have to apologize to pony me, I messed up any chances of her ever coming back to see you guys. There’s going to be a manhunt for me soon, and if she comes here, they’ll arrest her on the spot.”

Twilight cleared her throat and said, “Well, you do look older when compared to pony Starlight, and there is a height difference. Plus, I’m sure there are those who would be willing to perpetuate the lie that you have a younger sister who mysteriously looks exactly like you.”

Just then, the surface of the portal rippled like water, the gateway was opened. Starlight faced the two girls and gave them both a hug. “Thank you, I’m sure you both have mixed feelings about me, but I just want you to know, I was really happy having you as my friends.”

Both Sunset and Twilight smiled and hugged her back.

“You gave me a great gift, Starlight, I now exist in this world, and can have a life with the one I love,” said Sunset.

“Despite everything that has happened, it’s because of you I’ve become a stronger person, and I also have to thank you for giving Sunset that gift,” said Twilight.

“So, it’s true, you’re really leaving, huh?”

All three girls parted and turned around to see Night Glider, Party Favor, Sugar Belle, and Double Diamond standing there.

“You guys…” Starlight whispered.

“You weren’t even going to attempt to say goodbye to us at least?” Night Glider asked in an offended tone.

“I…I didn’t think it was wise to contact you guys…plus, after everything, I thought you wouldn’t want anything to do with me anymore…”

Night Glider stomped towards Starlight and grabbed her jacket and looked the genius in the eyes. “That’s not your decision to make! Even though you were kind of a bitch here and there, I thought we were friends, right?! Or were we just deluding ourselves?!”

Starlight’s eyes widened. “You…You still consider me a friend…?”

“We may’ve thought that you were maybe going overboard, but that doesn’t mean we still didn’t care about you,” said Party Favor.

“And, to be honest, if we were any real friends, we would’ve spoken up a long time ago, maybe we could’ve avoided all this,” said Sugar Belle.

Double Diamond sighed. “Well, regardless, we can’t change the past. But, just know, that we never abandoned you, I mean, we did come and visit you when you lost your memories. If we truly resented you, or whatever you thought, do you think we’d go out of our way to come and see you.”

Starlight’s eyes began to tear up as Night Glider’s grip loosened. Night Glider wrapped her arms around Starlight and brought her into a hug. “Thank you, for giving me chance to be something other than just a gangbanger.”

Night Glider released Starlight, and after, Party Favor and Sugar Belle walked up and hugged her at the same time.

“Thank you for believing in us when we almost didn’t believe in ourselves,” said the two unison.

The two released Starlight, and Double Diamond was the last to give her a hug. “And thank you, for having my back.”

Starlight felt fresh tears begin to fall from her eyes, seeing the sad and smiling faces of her…her friends.

“Don’t be a stranger, give us a heads up if you’re coming to visit. You know how to reach us,” said Sunset.

Starlight nodded happily. She turned to face the marble statue, and before she took the plunge, glanced over her shoulder one final time, burning the image of these friends before her. But, whether by a trick of the mind or residual magic, Starlight saw the images of the rest of the girls, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and…

Sunburst……!

Indeed, the phantasmal image of her long dead friend was amongst them, his face smiling and nodding to his old friend. A wide smile spread across Starlight’s face as she said, “Goodbye, my friends.” Starlight stepped through the portal, and not soon after, the surface ceased rippling, and became solid once again.

***________________________________***

THREE MONTHS LATER…

The portal to Equestria rippled as a being stepped through it. The being in this case was a woman, she was the spitting image of Principal Celestia, although, her proportions were a little more filled out than her Earthly counterpart. Greeting the Princess of Equestria was Sunset Shimmer, dressed in her graduation robes, along with Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna. The Sun Princess was dressed in a Romanesque garb, a white dress with golden rope tied around her slim waist, sun emblem broaches held the dress in place around her shoulders, while her feet were wrapped in golden heeled shoes that wrapped around the lower half of her legs. Now, Principal Celestia was already a tall woman, but standing before the goddess pony version of herself, she could see that this one had a few more inches on her, even without the heels she’d still be able to look over her head.

“Mom! You made it!” Sunset exclaimed as she went to hug her adopted mother.

“Sunset!” Princess Celestia called out as she held her arms out and hugged her adopted daughter close. “I’m so glad to be here for this day!”

“Me too!”

Luna stood next to her older sister with a smartalackey smirk about her. Prompting human Celestia to ask, “What is it Luna?”

“Oh nothing, just noticing that the pony version of you, even in human form, is more, ahem, ‘stacked’ than you are big sister,” said Luna.

“I am not comparing myself to her, I mean, she’s a thousand plus year old sun goddess for heaven’s sake!” Celestia picked up on another disturbing part of that observation. “And why are even focusing on something like that?!”

Luna hadn’t lost that look on her face as her eyes narrowed at her big sister. “Well, Tia, I might just ask out the Sun Goddess there to a date.”

“LUNA SOLTARE! I can’t believe you’d say such a thing! She’s – She’s ME!” Celestia whispered harshly.

Luna clicked her tongue as she wagged her finger back and forth. “Tsk, tsk, Tia, even I can tell the difference between you and the other you. She gives off this goddess-like radiance that anyone would have to be a fool not to notice. So, essentially, not incest, since she’s not really you anyway.”

Celestia ran her hands through her hair as she groaned in frustration. “You – I just – UGH! – How would you like it if I went out with your Princess counterpart?!”

“LOOK OUT!”

Just then, the portal rippled again, and from the portal another tall woman stumbled out. She continued to stumble forward until Celestia hurried to catch her, which only ended up with the both of them falling atop each other. Celestia groaned as did the woman she saved from a nasty fall.

“My thanks for your help. Twilight Sparkle did warn us about that ‘first step’, she failed to explain how jarring it was. Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m just fi…ne…” When Celestia looked up, she found herself staring up into a pair of beautiful teal colored eyes. This woman was dressed in a similar fashion as Princess Celestia, but her dress was a deep navy-blue, with sparkling glitter that imitated the starry night sky. This woman resembled her younger sister Luna, but at the same time was not Luna. This Luna radiated a brilliance all her own, like the night was given physical form, just like her pony counterpart had a radiance, like the day personified. “Oh…um…L-Luna?”

“Yes, how did you – Oh, my apologies, I almost didn’t recognize you. You must be the human counterpart of my elder sister. Strange, you are more stunning than Twilight Sparkle’s description of you,” said Princess Luna.

Soon another ripple appeared, and Princess Twilight Sparkle appeared, her entry was a lot more well-coordinated, seeing as how this wasn’t her first trip through the dimensional divide. “Hey, everyone! I…um…did I miss something?”

Sunset’s face was blushing hard as she watched everything take place, Princess Celestia was talking to Luna, and seemingly flirting with her. Princess Luna was talking with Celestia, the fair skinned woman was blushing as the conversed. Twilight looked upon this and asked, “What is going on?”

“Interdimensional incest…that’s what’s happening right now…and I am witnessing it firsthand,” said Sunset in a mortified tone.

“Oh…” Princess Twilight patted Sunset on her shoulder. “I-It’s okay…I-I’m sure this won’t lead to anything. Probably…”

“Thanks, your words bring me such comfort. AHEM!” Sunset cleared her throat loudly, gaining the attention of the older women. “Sooooooo, hate to break up the meet-and-greet, but there is a graduation ceremony that we need to attend!”

The principals suddenly snapped out of their infatuation and regained their normal composure.

“Yes, of course, we should get going!” Luna stated.

“Yes, right away, we need to check on the band preparations, the diplomas, a few other things!” Celestia added.

Both women briskly walked away and left Sunset, Twilight, and the two goddesses behind.

“Your Earthly double is quite fetching, Sister,” said Luna.

“And, yours is rather cute,” said Celestia.

Sunset faced palmed herself, dragging said palm down her face and praying to the almighty Faust that this was not going to develop any further than this. Suddenly, the portal rippled again and out popped another Equestrian. The next to appear was a young man, he wore black dress pants, and a teal colored shirt. The young man adjusted his glasses, but then yelped upon seeing his body.

“Just breathe, Sunburst,” said Sunset.

“Y-Yeah, breathing, so…t-this is a human body…it’s quite strange,” said Sunburst.

Sunset chuckled, “It takes some getting used to, but it has its perks. Is Mom coming?”

Sunburst turned around and looked at the portal. “She was standing right behind me…I know she was a little nervous about going through it, but…”

Sunset and Princess Twilight were a little worried, Stellar Flare hadn’t experienced all the crazy adventures like the younger ponies have, and so might be hesitant to cross over into a different dimension.

“Maybe I should go and check on her?” Twilight suggested.

Before Twilight could do just that, the portal rippled again, and from it appeared an older woman, stumbling forward until Sunset caught her. She wore blue-green business suit, with gold earrings. The older woman had her eyes shut but slowly opened them and looked upon the person before her. She recognized the person before her as her daughter, Sunset Shimmer, but body she was in was unknown to her.

“Sunset, is that…is that really you?” Stellar asked.

“It is me, Mom. And this is you.”

Stellar looked upon herself, realizing she was standing on two legs. She wore white gloves on her hands, and string of pearls around her neck. Stellar went to touch her face but missed when she realized her muzzle had shrunk. Her hooves – hands – wandered to her forehead and she gasped in horror.

“MY HORN IS GONE!” Stellar’s eyes were then drawn to Sunset’s forehead. “HONEY, YOU DON’T HAVE A HORN EITHER!” Stellar looked to Twilight, Sunburst, and the Princesses. “NONE OF US HAVE HORNS!”

“Mother, Sunset did say that ‘hu-mans’ don’t have horns, or wings, and that we wouldn’t have access to our magic here,” Sunburst explained.

Stellar Flare continued to examine her body as she said, “W-Well of course I remember that! But it’s another thing when you actually have it happen!” The older woman’s hands then rested on her chest, and her face blushed. “A-A-And why are these up here?! And why are they so big?! For that matter, why are yours big as well?! Are we pregnant?!”

“Yes, I was going to ask about that, Sunset. These don’t normally get this large unless a mare’s close to giving birth to a foal, but I don’t feel as if I am with foal,” said Princess Celestia.

“I too would like to know, if the portal has done something to our bodies to make us carry, I think that should have been something that you should have warned us about,” Luna added.

Sunset’s face turned even redder. She couldn’t exactly blame them for asking such questions as she too once believed the exact same thing until she read a biology book. What was going to make this even more awkward was that her little brother was going to be standing there while she explained female human anatomy.

Princess Twilight walked up to her friend and patter her on the back. “There, there, I’ll help you in the explanation.”

“Thanks…”

***________________________________***

Thanks to a little magical assistance from Unicorn, the football field was returned to its original location and repaired to the point that you couldn’t tell it was ground zero for an epic final battle. The grounds were littered with students and their families, all of which were excited and a little anxious for their graduation day.

“AJ!”

The young apple farmer turned around and smiled as she saw someone she hadn’t expected to see. “RARA!” Indeed, the famous songstress had returned as she ran up to Applejack and embraced her childhood friend. “Ah didn’t know you were comin’?”

“Did you honestly think I was going to miss my best friend/former crush’s graduation?” Rara asked.

Applejack raised an eyebrow at that. “Wait, ‘former’?”

“Yep, honey, you can show yourself now!” Rara called.

The crowd began to part as a young woman strode towards the two friends. She was in a beautiful black dress, with gold accents on it. Her skin was a warm cream color, her hair was two colors, one side, the right, was black, and the other, the left, was gold, she also wore a large pink bow clipped to her hair in the back. Her feathery bangs covered her eyes, leaving only her nose and mouth visible, but you didn’t need more than that to know who she was.

“Ah, so you’re the cowgirl Rara’s goes on about,” said the woman.

“Sara, stop it,” hissed Rara in embarrassment as her face turned red.

“Y-You’re…You’re…”

The young woman held out her hand to Applejack and said, “Songbird Serenade. But my friends and girlfriend just call me Sara.” Applejack seemed to snap out of her starstruck state and shook the singer’s hand. Songbird got closer to Applejack parting her bangs slightly to reveal one of her midnight blue eyes. She then smiled as she pulled back and released Applejack’s hand. “Well, well, well, now I know why Rara had the hots for you, you’re definitely hot AJ.”

Applejack’s face turned as red as one of her apples from hearing the compliment. Rara came to her rescue. “Babe, AJ doesn’t swing that way.”

“Shame, but,” Songbird whispered low, “you’re missing out.” Songbird smiled and began walking away as she said, “I’ll save you a seat Babe!”

Applejack took off her hat and began fanning herself. “Land sakes, Rara, where’d find that gal?!”

“She likes you,” Rara chuckled.

“Ah can see that, and Ah’m pretty sure in which way she likes me,” said Applejack.

Rara shook her head. “She’s normally reserved in public, Sara only acts like that around people she considers friends, and well, girlfriends.”

Applejack looked at Rara smirked when she saw a smile on her face from watching Songbird walk away. “Yeah really like her?”

“Yeah,” said Rara happily.

“She treat ya right?”

“Definitely.”

“Then Ah’m happy for ya.”

Rara turned to her childhood friend and embraced her once again. “Thanks, AJ.”

***________________________________***

[Oh Rarity, I wish we didn’t go to separate schools, I wanted to walk together,] said Sunny Flare.

“I know, love, but tis our fate, but~” Rarity sang, “we’ll have plenty of time to catch up at the after party.”

*KA-BOOM!*

[Rarity what was that?! Is it another Dopant attack?!]

Rarity sighed as she saw the truckload of confetti being rained down on the entire assembly. “Oh no, that was Pinkie Pie setting off her Party Cannons. No attacks if you don’t count Pinkie Pie Party Attacks. Looks like we’ll be starting soon, ta-ta my love!”

***________________________________***

“Oh, our little Rainbow’s going to rock this graduation!” Windy Whistles announced.

“Mom, there’s nothing to win, I just walk, get my diploma, sit back down and throw my hat into the air, and go party with my friends later,” said Rainbow.

“Doesn’t mean we’re not going to be cheering you on every step of the way!” Bow Hothoof stated.

Rainbow Dash sighed heavily, but Gilda came up behind her and patted her girlfriend on the back. “Just accept it, Babe, couldn’t get them to stop then, won’t stop ‘em now.”

“Yeah, guess you’re right, and thanks for coming G. I mean…I know you probably wanted to do this for real with me and all,” said Rainbow.

Gilda shrugged. “It’s my own fault, but I talked to Principal Celestia, she said I could get my GED, and that she’d help me with that. Not to mention Gabby’s going to be coming to this school soon, gotta show ‘er that her ‘big sis’ ain’t a dummy.”

Rainbow turned around and kissed Gilda on the lips. “You’re anything but dumb, and don’t let anyone tell you different. And if they do, I’ll knock them into next week!”

“That’s if I don’t do it first.”

Windy and Bow just “d’awwwed” at their daughter and her girlfriend. Gilda was a bit rough around the edges, but the girl was loyal, and really trying to become a better person for Rainbow and for Gabrielle, and that was something they could both respect and love.

***________________________________***

Twilight Velvet was currently smothering her daughter in kisses and hugs and crying as she held her girl close.

“Okay Mom, now please, we’re going to be meeting Sunset’s parents!” Twilight stated.

“Oh, c’mon honey, it’ll be fine, they’re probably gushing over Sunset just as much as we are over you, just like any normal parents would,” said Night Light.

Shining Armor chuckled, “Heh, ‘normal’, he says.”

“Shiny,” Twilight warned, but her attention was torn when she noticed Sunset approaching. “Oh, here they come!”

Night Light and Velvet turned in the direction Twilight was pointing, and they couldn’t believe their eyes. At first, they thought it was Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, but they were sure it wasn’t them. These two women were radiant on a different level, like one would see art of ancient goddesses. They were flanked by two others, one was a woman in a blue-green suit and skirt, her complexion was orange rusty colored hair, and next to her was a young man who one could easily see the resemblance in Sunset. And next to the two goddess women was, well, there daughter.

In the past few months leading up to the graduation, Sunset Shimmer had come clean to her girlfriend’s family about who and what she was, and where it was she came from. At first, they didn’t quite believe her, at least not until they introduced them to their daughter’s royal pony counterpart. Needless to say, that was a long conversation, but in the end, like Twilight and Sunset had hoped, they still accepted Sunset as she was, and the fact that she made their daughter happy was pretty much all that mattered to them. Even though Sunset was a magical unicorn from another world. It was going to happen eventually, so they decided to rip the band aid off.

“T-This is going to take some g-getting used to,” said Stellar Flare as she wobbled about.

“S-Same here. I-I have no idea how you and Starlight moved around so easily in this body,” said Sunburst.

Sunset chuckled at her sibling and biological mother’s awkward adjusting to their human bodies. “I know, but I’ve had a few years to get used to this form, and Starlight’s a prodigy like me and Twilight.”

Stellar Flare wobbled again and nearly face planted, that is until Princess Celestia reached out and saved the older mare from a fall. “Thank you, Princess Celestia, I don’t see how you adapted so fast.”

“Trust us, we’re still getting accustomed to this form, we just make it look easy, I nearly fell a few times on the way here,” said Princess Celestia.

The group finally made it to Twilight’ (Sci-Twi’s) family, and the two parents, and Shining Armor, were speechless. Twilight and Sunset looked at their respective parents noticing an awkward tension building.

“Ahem, Mr. Night Light, Mrs. Twilight Velvet, I’d like you to meet my family. My adoptive Mother, and Diarch of Equestria, Princess Celestia.” Princess Celestia waved to Night Light and Velvet. “My Aunt, and the Diarch of Equestria, Princess Luna.” Princess Luna gave a slight bow. “My biological Mother, Stellar Flare.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” said Stellar.

“And my little brother, Sunburst,” Sunset finished.

“Hi there,” Sunburst greeted.

Shining looked confused. “Wait, ‘little brother’? He’s the same age as me, how’s he you’re little brother?”

Sunset made a few sounds as she said, “Eeeh, well, it’s kind of complicated and involves time-space, the different flows of time between Equestria and Earth, and it’s complicated. But trust me, I’m the big sister.”

Stellar stepped forward and nodded her head. “I can confirm that, she is indeed my eldest child.”

Celestia cleared her throat as she too stepped forward. “I understand that this a bit strange, seeing the woman who is a school instructor in your world as a member of royalty. But do not think that of us, today we are parents, status means nothing. And besides, I also have to thank you.” Princess Celestia bowed to Night Light and Velvet, surprising them both. “Thank you for accepting my – our – daughter. Truly, when I learned that you were informed about her otherworldly origins, I feared that you would forbid her courtship of Twilight Sparkle. But I am glad you have judged on her character rather than what she is.”

Stellar Flare walked up beside Princess Celestia and bowed as well, making the parents of human Twilight gasp again. “I am in complete agreement with the Princess, if there’s one thing I only wish of my children it’s that they are happy. I admit that I became a bit too pushy in my efforts with Sunburst and have since learned to ‘back off’ a bit. But when Sunset came back into my life, and told me of her life on this side, I was worried, but after seeing your daughter, and hearing all about her from Sunset. I can’t tell you how happy we are.”

Night and Velvet looked to each other and then back to the two women and smiled.

“Please, you don’t have to bow, like you said, we’re all parents here,” said Night Light.

“Aaaaand, maybe someday In-Laws,” said Velvet. “And with grandchildren.”

“Oh yes, please!” Celestia and Stellar exclaimed.

“Mooooom!” Twilight and Sunset whined.

***________________________________***

All the students and family members were directed towards their respective areas. The teachers had assembled on the stage, some of which looked a bit sad that this senior class was leaving, indeed, this senior class had shown the most growth over the past four years, and it was no surprise as to who was responsible for that change. The group of seven magical girls, a former bully, a shy animal lover, a fashionista, a sports girl, a farm girl, and a party girl, these seven had brought forth the best of CHS, embodying what it is to be a Canterlot Wondercolt. Some speculated that when they left, there would be no one to step up and things would steadily decline, but there were also those who were hopeful that there would be students that would take up the mantle and keep the torch of friendship burning in their school well into the future, passing it onto to the next class after them, and the class after that.

Once everything was in place, Principal Celestia walked up to the podium and spoke into the microphone. “Welcome one and all, families and friends, to the Graduation of the Canterlot High School Senior Class of 20XX. We’ve had some interesting events happen at our school in the past few years, some would say fantastical – magical even, but in my opinion, I believe our students have been made stronger for it. Now, I’d like to introduce this year’s Valedictorian, Miss Twilight Sparkle, and the Salutatorian, Miss Sunset Shimmer.”

The crowds cheered and clapped as Twilight Sparkle ascended the stage and made her way to the podium. The young woman adjusted her glasses as she looked into the vast sea of young faces and families, normally such a thing would make her a nervous wreck, but all she needed to do was look down and see Sunset Shimmer’s confident smile to banish those fears away. And, you know, they have faced world ending events that were way more nerve wracking and stress inducing than this moment.

“Hello to all my fellow graduating seniors. My time here at CHS wasn’t as long as all of yours, but it was no less fulfilling. When I used to go to Crystal Prep Academy, I felt alone. Sure, I excelled, and I honestly felt that I wasn’t missing out on anything. But, on the day of the Friendship Games, I met six girls who changed my perspective on life, and one who has forever made me the happiest person on Earth.”

A string of “d’awwwws” could be heard echoing through the students and families.

“We go into this world, not as children anymore, but as adults, looking to make it a better place. We have seen many things in our past few years in high school, world ending events, superheroes, and monsters. Some of which took place here at our school, but through it all, it was the bonds of friendship, our bonds of unity and love, and compassion that allowed us to overcome the hardships of those times. And while not every problem can be easily fixed by a magical rainbow beam, it doesn’t mean our efforts are any less significant. We must go into the future, with eyes wide open, and hearts full. We must strive to be the best of ourselves, and to never forget the lessons we’ve learned here in these halls. Whether from our teachers, or our friends. These lessons will help us through whatever life may throw at us, because we are Canterlot Wondercolts, united together, forever!”

The senior class and attending families rose from their seats as they gave Twilight a standing ovation for her speech. Twilight bowed to her class and walked down from the podium, she then proceeded to hug Sunset before wishing her luck. Sunset Shimmer mimicked her girlfriend’s movements from earlier, moving up the stairs and standing before the podium with a piece of paper laid out.

“If someone told the old me that in four years I’d be standing before you all giving a speech, well, I’d probably have decked you.” A string of laughter rang out through the class. “But it’s no secret to anyone here, I wasn’t the best kind of person I could be. In fact, for a while – a LONG while – I was the school bully. I did things to this day that I’m not proud of. And while I regret my actions, I’ve also learned – the hard way – what it means to be a better person.”

“I’ve learned that you can’t have blinders on to the world around you, you have to see everything and take it all in. And just because you think you deserve something, doesn’t mean you do, there’s a time and a place for everything, as it did for me. Someone we all know gave me a second chance, and if not for that chance, I would not be here today, be the woman I am at this moment. Because of that act, I too believe in second chances, I used to think that my actions could not be forgiven, but slowly yet surely, I saw that to be false. Because hanging onto hate and resent only eats you until there’s nothing left but the bad. I know, I was that way.”

“So, what’s the takeaway for everyone here? Don’t be afraid of what lies ahead, we’re all bound to make mistakes, it’s just how we are, we’re not perfect beings or anything. When and if life ever knocks you down, remember that you have a choice to make. You can either wallow in pity, or you can rise like the phoenix and blaze a new path! Take it from me, it’s not impossible, but what makes or breaks it is the willingness to stand and fight. Don’t be afraid to fight for what you believe in, Senior Class of 20XX! Never forget the lessons learned here! Loyalty to friends and family. Honesty in all things done and spoken. Kindness towards others. Be generous when possible. Don’t forget to laugh. Show empathy not apathy. And don’t forget to see the magic in life! Good luck everyone! Good luck CANTERLOT WONDERCOLTS!”

Just like with Twilight, Sunset was given a standing ovation, her words ringing true for all in attendance. Twilight stood up and hugged Sunset, and then they kissed, which sent the crowd into an even bigger frenzy. Once the crowd had settled down, the traditional Pomp and Circumstance song was being played by the CHS orchestral band, Principal Celestia began calling out names one after the other, and each student came up and accepted their diplomas. However, throughout the presentation, seven names hadn’t been called and they were already at the last lettered name on the list.

“If you’re all wondering why I haven’t called seven names in particular, it is because I believe, as well as senior class, that these seven deserve to end their high school career the same way they began it, together,” said Principal Celestia. “Miss Rainbow Danger Dash.”

Rainbow Dash hopped out of her seat, at the same time she could hear her parents cheering her on the whole, along with her biggest fan, Scootaloo and her Aunts, and of course Gilda and Gabrielle. The rainbow haired girl walked up the ramp and onto the stage, took her diploma and shook Principal Celestia hand, she then proceeded to do the same for the rest of the teachers before exiting on the opposite side.

“Miss Rarity Belle!”

Just like with Rainbow, Rarity’s parents and little sister yelled loud and proud.

“Miss Fluttershy!”

While Fluttershy’s parents were normally quiet folk, that was thrown out the window for today as they yelled out loud enough for their voices to carry over the band and everything else, surprising the young Zephyr Breeze.

“Miss Applejack Apple!”

A large section of the crowd yelled as not just Applejack’s Granny, big brother, and little sister were yelling, but a few other members of the family that were invited to come, including Babs Seed, her big sister, and parents, Grand Pear, Aunt and Uncle Orange, and of course Rara and Songbird.

“Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie!”

Claps were heard. Igneous, Cloudy Quartz, Limestone, Marble, and Maud were clapping at a steady pace, among them, aside from Maud, all had small smiles on their faces, even Limestone. Some people wondered if they were even proud at all, but those who knew the family knew that they weren’t into big outbursts of excitement in public, and goodness knows when Pinkie eventually came back home, she was going to be showered with affection and congratulations from her family in private.

“Twilight Sparkle!”

Twilight walked up the steps as her parents and big brother cheered her on. She walked up to Principal Celestia shook her hand. Now, finally, we came to it at last.

“Last, but certainly not least. Sunset Shimmer!”

Sunset stood up and walked as she heard her family yell and cheer, even her friends were louder than the crowd itself. Once she ascended the stairs, she couldn’t help the tears from falling from her eyes as she shook Principal Celestia’s hand.

“You’ve grown into a remarkable young woman, Sunset. I’m proud to have been your Principal, and prouder to be your Guardian,” said Celestia.

Protocol be damned, this was probably one of the happiest moments in Sunset’s life. The redhead released Celestia’s hand and hugged her fiercely, to which Celestia returned the hug. When it came to Luna, the younger of the two Principals didn’t even bother with the handshake, she merely embraced Sunset. Once Sunset was seated Principal Celestia returned to her podium.

“Friends and families in attendance, I present you, the graduating Class of 20XX!”

The students all stood up, and in the time honored tradition, the senior class tossed up their hats. All except the “Mane Seven” as they huddled together and tossed theirs at the same time, their high school journey at an end.

Sunset’s journey had been a long one, from a bully, to a friend, and to a hero. Overcoming the past to embrace her future, and making amends for her past deeds, her growth as a person has been extraordinary. After graduation, the girls would all go off and pursue their dreams and goals. But this wasn’t the end, far from it.

For Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, their future was just beginning, a new life together, as well as new journey for them and their friends. However, that doesn’t mean evil will sleep quietly, for there will always be darkness looming and ever waiting for the moment to strike.

But, just like there were always be evil, so too will there always be Kamen Riders to battle them. And Sunset Shimmer would always answer that call, they all would answer the call.

Epilogue

Sunset Shimmer wiped her brow as she looked over her home of four years. The walls were barren now, no longer displaying any pictures of her friends, the TV was gone, the furniture gone as well. The cabinets and refrigerator were barren now, whatever she couldn’t take with her was either packed into storage or sold off for extra spending money. It was just now dawning on Sunset that this was the last time she’d ever step foot in this place she called home for the last four years of her Earth life. Many happy and sad memories were made in these walls, sleepovers, strategy meetings, and some lazy dates with her girlfriend.

But this was the end of this chapter in Sunset’s life as a new one was about to begin. Sunset looked at her hand which held the key to the place she once called home, the locks would be changed later this afternoon, but by that time she would already be on the far side of the city, a few hours drive back and forth. Since Celestia was the one who helped pay on the loft, she said Sunset and Twilight could keep the keys, a memento of their past in this home.

Twilight walked up behind Sunset and placed her hands on her shoulders, she pressed her body against Sunset’s back, offering her girlfriend some comfort. “Are you okay, Sunset?”

Sunset released a heavy sigh. “I didn’t think it would be this hard…I mean, I’ve lived on my own for four years here in this space…I feel like I’m giving up a part of myself, y’know?”

Twilight nodded. “It was the same with me when I was boxing up my stuff in my room. So many years spent in that room, in my house with my family, and now…I’m leaving it all to start my own life. Thanks, for being there, by the way.”

“Of course, I think the only reason your mom didn’t completely break down is because she knew we’d be together. I remember her saying, ‘Take good care of my little Twily’,” said Sunset.

The two girls lingered in the doorway a while longer, their minds playing back all the memories that were made in this place, their minds projected phantoms of their past selves as they watched the memories unfold before them, one after the other, and each one was more emotional than the last. Sunset gripped the doorframe hard, trying to keep herself from crying. Twilight rested her head against Sunset’s and said, “It’s okay to cry, Sunset.”

And cry Sunset did, part of her didn’t want to give up this home, but home wasn’t just a place, it’s with the people you love that make a house a home. Yes, this was painful, it would probably remain that way for a while, but it would fade, amidst the new memories she was to make with her girlfriend, with her lover, it would be soothed by the happy memories to come. Sunset sighed heavily as she released the doorframe and stepped back, closing the door, both literally and figuratively on this portion of her life.

With the final click of the door, Sunset inserted her key into the keyhole of her home for the last time and locked the door. Sunset still felt her tears flowing down, but Twilight was there holding her hand throughout the whole ordeal, her smiling, tearful expression made it known that this was painful for her as well, because Sunset had opened this home – her home – to Twilight, even giving her a key to come and go as she pleased.

“Are you, alright?”

Sunset wiped her tears and turned to see Celestia and Luna leaning against their car.

“It’s going to take a minute, but I’ll be fine,” said Sunset as she and Twilight descended the small steps towards their former Principals.

Celestia’s eyes were misty as she held her arms out and brought Sunset in for a hug. Luna came in from the side and hugged the young woman as well. After a minute, they separated and took deep calming breathes.

“The van is ready, you sure you don’t need any more than what’s in there?” Celestia asked.

“Yeah, we looked at the floor plan for the student apartments, it looks pretty big, but we won’t know until we get there. We’ll have a better idea what we can and can’t put in once we get there, but until then, my bed, loveseat, and tv will be enough,” said Sunset.

Luna raised a mischievous eyebrow. “Oh, just the one bed I see. I hope you and Miss Sparkle aren’t thinking of getting into any elicit activities during the night.”

Twilight’s face lit up at the insinuation. “No, no, it’s not that! W-W-We just thought it would be more ergonomically and economically efficient to use only the one bed until we can fully determine if the space can allow for more than one bed! I promise our intentions weren’t –!”

Luna leaned forward and flicked Twilight on the forehead, earning her a small “ow” from Twilight. “Relax, Twilight, we’re no longer your teachers. And you’re both no longer children, you’re legal adults now, which means you’re free to make those kinds of decisions and not have to worry about us watching over you like that. Although, if you do decide to ‘get busy’, I would suggest hanging a sock on the doorknob, at least that’s how we used to let people know not to barge in.”

“As always, Luna, your wisdom is a boon,” said Celestia in a sarcastic tone. “Still, I do hope you’ll at least let us help with your first car, goodness knows I don’t want you riding that bike to every class and job you have.”

Sunset chuckled. “Why not? That bike’s been good to me, both for everyday and superhero work. But I understand, and I do think it’s about time I got a car, but…” Sunset snaked her hand around Twilight’s waist and brought her close, “That’s something we’re going to do together.”

“A little help wouldn’t go unappreciated though, just until we’re on better financial ground,” said Twilight.

Sunset walked around to the van, she took the driver’s seat while Twilight took the passenger’s seat. The flame haired girl started the truck and both teens waved to their former Principals as they began to drive away, both Sunset and Twilight let out one more heavy sigh as they joined their free hands together. This was the beginning of their lives together, and possibly soon, something much more beautiful.

***__________________________***

Sunset and Twilight arrived at the student dorms about four hours after leaving Sunset’s old home. The apartments were newly built, so they were fitted with better amenities than the older dorms. Sunset parked the van as close to their room as possible. Both girls checked in with the RA and headed up to their room. Sunset stared at the key in her hand, it was so unfamiliar, but she was sure that that feeling would pass as this became her new norm. She placed the key against the keyhole and inserted it, but she hesitated to turn it.

Just then, Twilight placed her hand over Sunset’s and looked to her girlfriend. “We’ll do it together, like we’ll do everything.”

Sunset smiled and nodded. “Together.”

They both turned the key and pushed the door open. Sunset and Twilight took their first steps into their new home, not only as students, but as a couple. Sunset flipped on the light switch and the hallway lit up, on Twilight’s left was a coat closet, further down was the door to the guest bathroom. Once both girls reached the end of the hall, Sunset flipped on another light switch and illuminated the living room/kitchen area. The kitchen itself was relatively small, on or about the same size as Sunset’s old home. The living room was bare, but it did have a balcony with some drapes that were left partially open to show it off.

“Wow, this place isn’t too bad,” said Sunset.

“It certainly better than I was expecting,” Twilight replied.

Both girls went into the bed room, upon inspecting it, it was clear that the space was indeed big enough to house either a large bed, or two smaller beds. To Sunset’s right was the master bathroom, complete with shower, two sinks, and a bathtub.

“So, we have a couple of options, either we can get two beds and divide the space, or we can just get one bed and have a lot more space to work with?” Sunset suggested.

Twilight gave her girlfriend a half-lidded stare as she rubbed her shoulder against Sunset’s. “I don’t see any problem with the latter, besides, I’m kind of growing on the idea of sleeping in the same bed as you.”

Sunset smirked, “Ooooooh, now I see. Now that we’re away from any prying eyes, parental or otherwise, am I going to start seeing a more aggressive Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight moved around until she was in front of Sunset, she then draped her arms over her girlfriend’s shoulders and gave her a very predatory smile. “That depends.”

Sunset’s smiled widened as she wrapped her arms around Twilight’s waist and brought their bodies closer together. “Depends on what, Sparky?”

“Depends on how fast we can get your bed setup, Sunny.”

“I knew it, it’s always the shy, introverted types that are the true perverts,” said Sunset.

Twilight blinked and then blushed as she glanced away for a moment. “D-Don’t misread this! I mean, we’re together now, and we’re living together…I just thought…maybe I should start being sexier for you…I mean, that’s what couples do for each other when they’re living together, right?”

Sunset’s matching predatory smile relaxed into a normal smile as she shook her head and chuckled. The redhead brought her forehead to rest against Twilight’s and said, “You don’t have to act a certain way around me, Twi. I didn’t fall in love with you just because I think you have a nice ass or anything, although that helped.”

“Hey!”

“I fell in love with you for you, and all your adorkableness. If you want to be sexy for me, then you can, but you don’t have to always be that way. Do you understand?” Sunset asked.

Twilight smiled and closed her eyes. “I do, thank you, Sunset. I guess I’m just a little nervous about all of this, but I wouldn’t change a thing about this decision.”

Sunset separated from Twilight and made her way to the door. “Good, now let’s head down and get that stuff up here before it gets too dark. And maybe we can break in the bed room later tonight, if you want.”

“I really did fall in love with a perv.”

“And you love it, Babe!” Sunset called out as she went into the living room.

Twilight exited the room and began tying her hair into a ponytail for the eventual hard labor she was about to perform with Sunset to get the heavy boxes and furniture into the room. Thankfully they were on the second floor, so it wasn’t going to be as hard. Sunset was already tying her hair back as she made her way to the balcony. “I’ll open up the shades so we can get more light.” When Sunset opened the shades to the balcony, her face fell into a deadpan. “Twi, Babe, was there supposed to be a storm today?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that as she thought. “No, it was supposed to be clear skies all today. Why?”

“Because it’s either the weatherman sucks at his job, or I’m going to have to Henshin.”

Twilight turned around and rushed to Sunset’s side, outside she could see a storm cloud forming. The cloud grew bigger and bigger until it eclipsed the sun. Thunder rumbled and then roared as lightning crashed through the sky. The development of the storm was definitely not natural, it formed way too quickly, and the lightning just continued to fire and arc through the clouds, but no rain or wind whatsoever.

Just then, a spark of aurora colored lightning went off and in the next second, that same bolt of lightning aimed itself directly towards them.

“TWI, GET DOWN!!!” Sunset yelled as she lunged for Twilight.

Sunset brought Twilight with her to the floor just as the bolt smashed through the balcony sliding glass doors and struck the back wall. Sunset had used her body as a shield to protect her girlfriend, only when she was certain that there wasn’t any danger did she dare to get up. “Twi, you alright?”

“I’m fine, but what was that?!” Twilight asked.

Sunset carefully stood up and looked back at the charred sliding glass doors. Their eyes followed the trail of destruction until it stopped at the wall, and it was then that they noticed that there was someone slumped against the wall. Sunset immediately recognized this person with a magenta mohawk and eye scar.

“Tempest!” Sunset exclaimed as she rushed to the young woman’s side.

“Tempest…as in Kamen Rider Tempest?! The one who helped you against Sunflower and Clear Skies back during the Gaia Impact Incident?!” Twilight asked.

“Yes!”

Fizz was dressed in her signature black coat and body armor, however the armor looked like it had taken a few hits, not to mention her jacket seemed tattered and dusty. Fizz herself looked a little bruised up, but as far Sunset could tell, there wasn’t any major damage that she could see, surface wise anyway.

“Hey, Tempest, wake up! It’s me, Sunset Shimmer, Kamen Rider Unicorn!” Sunset gave Fizz a light shake as she said this, trying to rouse the hero from sleep.

After a few seconds Fizz began to groan, holding her head as her eyes slowly opened. “Oh, crap, where the…what happened to me?”

“You crashed through our apartment as a bolt of rainbow lightning!” Twilight stated.

Fizz looked to her left, her eyes falling on the bespectacled genius as she blinked a few times. “T-Twilight…but…you’re…Wait a second!” She then turned to her right, her eyes now looking into that of Sunset’s, she felt her face warm up for a little bit before remembering what happened. “Crap! Crap! We need to go! NOW!” Fizz quickly shot up to her feet, an action she was quickly regretting but pushed through it. “Sunset let’s go, we need to start running!”

Before Sunset could offer protest, Fizz grabbed ahold of her wrist and began pulling her out of the room, Twilight ran behind them not understanding what was happening. All three of them were out of the building and in the wide parking lot before Sunset finally snapped her wrist away from Fizz.

“Okay, that’s enough! Why are we running and from what exactly?!” Sunset demanded.

“I’ll explain later, I promise! But right now, we need to –!” A roar of thunder cut of Fizz and her shoulders slumped. “Too late…”

Just then a Veil appeared some feet away from them, it wasn’t the normal Silver Veil that Decade used to traverse through time and space, no, this was gold colored, a Golden Veil. Fizz took out her Driver and had it wrap around her waist, at the same time, she took out both the Horse and Storm Bottles, preparing for the enemy to come.

“Twilight…” Sunset warned.

“I know…” Twilight acknowledged as she slowly backed up towards the building.

Sunset took out her Uni-Driver and placed it against her waist, allowing the device to secure itself to her. She pulled out her Unicorn Memory, at the ready to transform. “Dare I ask what monster we’re about to fight?”

“That’s the problem…it’s not a monster.”

The Golden Veil pulled back and revealed something that Sunset was not prepared for, other Kamen Riders. Before her stood four different Riders, ones she had not seen before. The first had red armor, with red compound eyes and a golden crest upon his helmet. The second had black, red, and violet armor pieces, and looked more like an armored demon rather than a Kamen Rider. The third had red and silver armor, chains, and eyes that resembled bat wings. The fourth had silver armor, with red compound eyes, but in his hands, he carried a saber, which was at the ready.

“Who…Who are you?” Sunset asked.

“Kamen Rider Kuuga.”

“Kamen Rider Hibiki.”

“Kamen Rider Kiva.”

“Kamen Rider Blade.”

Kuuga stepped forward and said, “We’re the Heisei Riders of the main universe. You two, are the Heisei Xtra Riders.”

“Okay, is there something wrong? Did Tsukasa send you guys because he needs our help?” Sunset asked.

“They’re not here because they need our help, Sunset. They’re here to kill us!” Fizz stated.

Sunset looked at Fizz as if she had just sprouted a second head. “You cannot be serious! They’re Kamen Riders, same as us! They’re not here to–!”

“She’s telling the truth,” said Blade.

Sunset looked back to the four Riders with shock. “W-What?! Why?!”

“Suffice to say, our worlds are in danger of total annihilation, and the cause is that of the Heisei Xtra Riders. Your existence is an aberration in universe, and all the Heisei Riders have been tasked with one mission,” said Kiva.

“To eliminate you, and save our worlds from destruction,” said Hibiki.

“Please understand, we have to do this…We promise to make it as quick and painless as possible, that’s all we can guarantee I’m afraid,” said Kuuga with a solemn tone.

Sunset still couldn’t believe it, and neither could Twilight. They’ve met other Legendary Kamen Riders, and fought by their sides, all Riders were allies, so why were these four – rather, the entire Heisei Riders, trying to destroy them?

“Sorry to say it, but he’s right about one thing, they are trying to kill us. I was being chased by another group before I crashed here. Sunset, I don’t have a lot of time to explain what’s happening, but if we don’t fight them, we’ll die before we can figure out what’s happening. Are you with me?” Fizz asked.

Sunset looked back to the four Legend Riders, and then to Fizz. Her gaze narrowed as she nodded in agreement with Fizz. A small smile formed on Fizz’s lips before she turned her attention to the Riders before them.

{=+=} HORSE! {=+=}

{=+=} STORM! {=+=}

{=+=} BEST MATCH! {=+=}

{=+=} ARE YOU READY? {=+=}

< UNICORN! >

“Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

{=+=}GALLOPING THUNDER!HORSE-STORM!{=+=}

{=+=} YEAH! {=+=}

UNICORN! <

A turquois electric field formed around Sunset that materialized her armor, at the same time, Fizz was fitted in her armor as the two halves formed over her body. In no time at all, both women had donned their heroic personas, Kamen Rider Unicorn and Kamen Rider Tempest. Both heroes took on aggressive attack stances, and the Legend Riders responded in kind. Both sides squared off as a great battle was about to be waged.

A flash of lightning signaled the attack, both sides dashed towards each other, with Unicorn’s fists and horn glowing with magical energy, and Tempest’s horn and fists coated in aurora lightning. The Riders all released a battle cry as they charged for the center and–!

Time stopped; the Riders all frozen in place mere inches away from entering combat. Even the lightning that raged overhead was frozen mid strike. A man in his twenties came walking from the side from nowhere, wearing a black scarf and beige coat, and carrying a strange book in his right hand as he strode towards the frozen battle.

“So, it has come to pass, the battle between the Heisei Riders,” the man pointed towards the four Legend Riders, “and the Heisei Xtra Riders,” his left hand pointed to Unicorn and Tempest. “A threat has come to the Rider Worlds, one that could see the end of all Kamen Riders, but hope may yet be on the horizon for you see My Overlord and Kamen Rider Decade are – Oh dear. My apologies, I almost gave away too much.”

The man closed his book and began to walk away from the battle, but he spared the “Heisei Xtra Riders” one last glance as he smiled. “Still, quite the intriguing development.”

Author's Note

Sunset Shimmer and Fizzlepop "Fizzy" Berrytwist, two Riders from two separate universes are about to embark on a harrowing adventure that will pit them against the Legend Riders of the Heisei Era.

To lose is to die, to win, is to see the end of one or more of the Rider Worlds. Can Unicorn and Tempest figure out a way to stop the Rider Worlds from total annihilation? Or will they need to pay the ultimate price to save all worlds?

The epic adventure across time and space will come to pass in the crossover movie...

Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Unicorn and Tempest: Heisei Riders vs. Heisei Xtra Riders!

Public Enemy #1

An alarm was going off, a loud alarm, a very annoying, Tartarus damned, loud alarm. Sunset groaned as she reached from under the cocoon of blankets, despite her name being Sunset Shimmer, and that her cutie mark was that of a brightly burning sun, that in no way made her a morning person. Sunset eventually found the buzzing, annoying machine which dared to rouse her from slumber, and smacked it once with her fist, silencing the contraption.

Sunset smiled in content and readied to head back to the land of dreams, but then another one went off, this time it sounded further away. The teenage girl felt that if she ignored it long enough it would just fade into the background noise, however, that particular alarm seemed to get louder and louder, which meant it was set to increase its volume the longer it was allowed to keep going.

With a growl of frustration, Sunset tore herself out from under the blankets. The last time she checked it was getting closer to the summer months, which meant the weather was steadily getting warmer. Fortunately, Sunset had a loose-fitting tank top and baggy pajama shorts. Sunset grouchily walked down the stairs from her bed to the living room, where she found the infernal machine and silenced it. The teen dragged her right hand down her face and stared at the clock which read “7:30am”.

“Why the hell would I set it like this? I don’t even remember making plans with Twi or the girls?” Sunset dropped the alarm clock onto her couch and went back up to her bed, she sat at the edge. For a few seconds she did nothing, but then decided to look at her cellphone, she checked her calendar app and found that it was displaying Monday. “AH CRAP, SCHOOL STARTS IN THIRTY MINUTES!”

What followed next was a series of frantic actions, teeth being brushed at the same time as hair being combed. A raid on the wardrobe as clothes and other unmentionables were tossed onto the bed. Getting the backpack together and hurriedly making her way out the door, Sunset cursed that she wasn’t going to have enough time to make it to the café for her before school latte, but that was her own fault. Sunset got onto her bike, revved the engine, and took off down the road, thankfully, the school wasn’t too far away, but neither was it close enough for her to get some breakfast.

CHS was coming into view, and Sunset breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly entered the student parking lot, and dismounted, breathing another sigh of relief as she realized she made it with ten minutes to spare, a new record counting the few instances that Sunset did cut it close. Sunset decided to go for a new look, sporting a sleeveless, black leather jacket with spiked studs around the color, an orange blouse which bore her sun cutie mark and showed off much of her neck, collar, and shoulders. She switched from jeans to a violet skirt with black leather straps. And black leather boots that came above the ankle.

As Sunset walked to the quad towards the entrance, she noticed something was a little off. Some of the students were staring at her, she greeted them with a smile and a wave, but when she did, some of them nervously smiled back and waved awkwardly to her.

Was this not a good wardrobe idea? I mean, Rarity didn’t pitch a fit, so I assumed it was a good look…?

“Sunset!” Sunset turned around and saw Snips running towards her, the short boy skidded to a halt as he panted heavily. He then stood up straight and presented Sunset with a Styrofoam coffee cup, from her favorite café no less. “Just how you like it, Ma’am!”

Sunset blinked at the offered beverage, but she wasn’t about to say no to it. “Thanks, Snips, that was nice of you.” Snips stood there stunned as Sunset took the latte and sipped it with welcomed refreshment. When Sunset noticed the look of surprise, he was giving her she asked, “Are you okay, Snips?”

“Uh…y-you thanked me.”

“Yes, I did.”

“B-But you never thank me,” said Snips with confusion.

Sunset quirked an eyebrow at that. “Since when would I not–?”

“Sunset!” This time it was Snails who came lumbering towards them. The taller boy had a sheet of paper in his hand and presented it to her. “Here ya go, Sunset.”

“Um…okay.” Sunset looked over the sheet of paper and saw that it had various names listed on it. “What’s this?”

“It’s, uh, the list of the people you said you wanted,” said Snails.

Sunset shook her head and looked at the boy incredulously. “Why the heck would I want this?”

“Duh, y’know, so you can find dirt on them in case they can do somethin’ for ya.”

Sunset’s brow furrowed, she then crumbled up the paper and glared at both Snips and Snails. “Is this some kind of joke?!”

Snips took a step back. “Uh, ‘joke’? Is what a joke?”

“Getting me coffee, bringing me a list of students, you two know full well I’m not like that anymore! If you were trying to be funny, then it didn’t work!” Sunset nearly shouted.

Both boys cowered as they fell on their rears, Sunset looked around and saw that the other students were backing away. Sunset quickly calmed herself and walked away from them, despite their cruel joke, she wasn’t about to turn down the free latte, besides she needed the pick-me-up. As she entered the building and walked through the halls, Sunset noticed a lot of the students were parting, literally getting out of her way. It wasn’t the normal kind of polite moving, it was more along the lines of “get out of her way or she’ll kick your butt” kind of parting.

What is going on here…? They’re acting…as if I was…No, no that can’t be, I’m just reading too much into this.

Sunset eventually found her friends hanging out in their usual spot in the caddy corner of the lockers. The fiery haired girl walked up to them, and with a big smile on her face she said, “Hey guys, what’s up?”

The girls all stopped talking and turned to face Sunset. All of them had confused looks on their faces, and their body language read as if they were in defensive stances, in the case of Rainbow Dash and Applejack, it was more aggressive, as if getting ready for a fight. Fluttershy hid behind Applejack, and Rarity crossed her arms and gave Sunset Shimmer an incredulous stare, while Pinkie Pie and Twilight frowned at Sunset.

“Is…Is something wrong?” Sunset asked.

“Sunset Shimmer, what the heck do you want?” Applejack asked sternly.

The former unicorn mare was taken aback by the tone of voice. “AJ what’s wrong, did I do something wrong?” Sunset turned her attention to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, if I did something or forgot something, please tell me?”

Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Better question is, what haven’t you done. Did you think we’d be able to forget all the crap you put us through? Fat chance!”

Sunset growled as she asked, “What did I do?! Seriously, everyone’s looking at me like I’m public enemy number one and I just got here! So, it would help if my friends would clue me in on what exactly I did to piss off AJ and make the school act like I haven’t changed?!”

“Us? Friends? Is she pulling some kind of sick prank?” Rainbow asked.

Sunset suddenly felt the world grind to halt the moment Rainbow Dash uttered those words.

“Nope, pranks make people laugh, and I’m not laughing,” said Pinkie.

Sunset suddenly felt her grip on her latte going lax.

“If you think you can bully us this close to the end of our senior year, then you have got another thing coming to you, Sunset Shimmer,” said Rarity with a firm tone.

Sunset ran her left hand through her hair as her eyes widened. “Why are you saying those things to me, Rarity?! Fluttershy! You know I’ve changed! Twilight you know me! You never judged me on my past because you never knew the old me!”

Twilight nervously tugged at one of her bangs, “I just remember you from the Friendship Games,” she then knit her brow, “and I remember you yelling at me!”

Sunset shook her head. “I-I-I did, yes I did, but I apologized to you! Don’t you remember?!”

The moment Sunset took a step forward, Rainbow and Applejack took one as well, putting themselves between Sunset and rest of the girls.

Fluttershy opted to hide behind Rarity as she whispered, “Why is she still talking to us?”

Sunset was feeling sick, really sick, it was if time had been reversed and everything had gone back the days before the Fall Formal, but that couldn’t be happening, this can’t be happening. Sunset turned around and ran down the hall, several students parted for her yet again, Sunset didn’t know where she was running to, she just had to run, she needed time to think. Sunset then ran into someone, a big someone. Her drink went flying behind her as she was sent sprawling to the floor. Several students gasped at what just happened, not because she got knocked down, but for fear of the person who dared get in her way.

When Sunset looked up, she saw that it was none other than the school’s resident gentle giant, Bulk Biceps. The musclebound teen turned around, having just registered that he felt someone run into him and that the other teens around him looked aghast. Turning around, Bulk offered his hand and said, “Oh, sorry, let me help you uh…uh…uh…Sunset Shimmer?”

“Sorry, Bulk,” said Sunset as she took his offered hand and hoisted herself up. “Thanks for the hand.”

Once Sunset was standing, Bulk began to cower in her presence and then swiftly moved out of her way. Sunset could plainly see the fear in his eyes, a fear of what she would do to him for not getting out of her way in time. Sunset hated that, she hated seeing that fear, after everything she had done to stop people from looking at her with those kinds of eyes, it was too unbearable. Sunset picked up her backpack and continued running, she ran and ran until she came to the front doors, burst through them, and kept running until she stopped before the Wondercolt statue, which was still minus an actual statue.

Sunset slumped up against the cold marble and let herself slide down until her rear met the pavement. She hugged her legs close to her, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Okay, get it together, Shimmer! Let’s assess the situation. One: everybody seems to fear you like in the old days, two: your friends…your friends hate you just like before…even T-Twilight…

The flame haired girl felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away as she continued to think. “Okay, this can’t be some kind of time travel incident, otherwise the human version of Princess Twilight wouldn’t be here, she’d still be at Crystal Prep, so we’re in the present, but it’s a different present…So…maybe I can’t completely rule out time travel? Maybe I’m in an different universe? Wait that’s it!”

Sunset immediately hopped onto her bike and sped off back home, once she got there, she hurriedly opened the front door and rushed inside. She frantically tossed her room up, searching for the one item that could explain everything. “If I am in an alternate universe, then Tsukasa can get me out of here! Or at the very least help me figure out how and why I’m here!”

The former unicorn looked everywhere for the communication cube that Tsukasa, Kamen Rider Decade, gave her to call him. But no matter where she looked, the cube was nowhere to be found. Sunset growled in frustration, she would never misplace something so important, it was the same as if she misplaced the journal. WAIT, THE JOURNAL!

Sunset opened her backpack, and thankfully, the magical journal that connected Earth and Equestria was still there. Sunset hugged the book close to her, thankful that this was still around. She opened the journal and looked back through her entries, they were all there, the times she had spoken to Twilight before becoming Kamen Rider Unicorn, and the times after, all the way until the last entry where she told Princess Twilight about what Starlight had done for her, and how much she was looking forward to whatever else she could do. Sunset found a pin and was about write on it but paused.

What if…What if Princess Twilight doesn’t remember me? Sunset thought with dread. Will she even have the journal at her castle? Will she even write back if she sees this message? Actually, knowing Twilight’s curiosity, she would.

With great trepidation, Sunset began writing her message.

Dear Princess Twilight,

I…I don’t know how quite to word this message, but…do you know who I am?

Are we…Are we still friends?

Sunset stopped and waited, her heart hammered in chest as anxiety built up. She could barely stand to have her own best friends and girlfriend forget that they were friends, but if she lost the person who gave her a second chance, the only other pony she looked up to other than Princess Celestia, Sunset didn’t know what she’d do. After a minute had passed the pages began to glow, and much to her relief, Twilight answered.

What a strange question to ask me. Of course, we’re friends! How could I ever forget you?

Sunset felt a wave of relief wash over her, thanking whatever deity was looking out for her that at least Princess Twilight remembered her.

Sunset, is there a reason why you asked me such a question, `cause it’s kind of out of the blue?

I’ll explain…

Sunset spent the next ten minutes giving Princess Twilight the rundown of what had just happened, making sure not to leave out any detail that could help Princess Twilight figure out what was happening to Sunset.

And that’s it…

I’m so sorry that you went through that. Did you want to come back to Equestria? Maybe we can look into something from this end together?

Sunset pondered that idea and wrote.

Nah, I need more information. As much as I’ll hate it, and I mean really hate it. I need to go back to the school, there might be someone who’s unaffected like me, that or there might be a clue there.

I really don’t like the idea of you going back to CHS the way it is now; you already sound like you’re hurting. But I’ll trust your judgement. I’ll see what I can look up on my end, and I’ll keep the journal close to me and have the portal ready in case you need me to open it right away.

Thanks, Twilight…well…back into the fray.

Sunset closed the book and sighed heavily. She really didn’t like the idea of going back, not with the way everyone was acting towards her. But she needed more information, and one of the best places was at CHS, at least for now. So, with a heavy heart, Sunset placed the journal back in her backpack and headed out.

However, when Sunset left the room, something odd happened. On the coffee table in the center of the living room, arcs of lightning began to spark into existence. Again, and again the arcs would shoot out, and as they did, the image of the cube would appear, as if it were turning invisible and becoming visible again. The cube released a burst of energy that seemed to pull at the space around it, making it visible, but then it all snapped back, hiding the cube once again.

***______________________***

Sunset managed to sneak back into the school, no one seemed to question where she had gone or why, it seemed that they were all still afraid of her. Once upon a time, this reaction would have given Sunset great joy, but now, it just made her feel awful. Sunset decided to start with someone that she knew could probably give her a straight answer and not be completely afraid of her.

She wandered the halls until she found one of the band rooms, and sure enough, Flash Sentry was in there with this band, Flash Drive, working at the guitar. Sunset smiled a little, she liked the guy, a little, and he was the one who taught her how to play guitar. At the time, Sunset convinced herself it was just so that she could get a handle on how to use her hands and all ten of the digits. Going from hooves to hands was a strange process, the boney, fleshy, wiggly things were hard to master and often she found herself just balling her hands into fists to mimic her hooves.

But on the inside, she did like how sweet the guy was. He wasn’t afraid of her, and she was hoping that that would allow her to get some kind of answer from him. Once the band had finished their song, Sunset said, “Hey, Flash!”

Flash’s bandmates finally noticed Sunset Shimmer, and just as she expected, both of them were noticeably on edge. However, when Flash turned around, well, he wasn’t angry or fearful, just neutral for now, as if he was trying to assess what the best course was. “Hey, Sunset…”

Sunset walked further into the room and asked, “Uh, this is going to sound strange, but can we talk alone for a couple of minutes? I promise, all I want to do is talk!”

Flash studied her for a moment, and then turned to his bandmates who were giving him silent signals to decline. “Sure, let’s take five guys.” His bandmates slapped their foreheads in dismay but did as he asked. They cautiously sidestepped around Sunset before exiting the room, leaving the two of them alone. “Okay, so what’s on your mind?”

Sunset sighed heavily as she tried to think of the best way to go about this. “Are we…Are we still together?”

Flash looked at her in confusion. “Um, not to sound harsh, Sunset, but we broke up more than a year ago.”

“Okay, okay…and, uh, am I dating anyone right now?” Sunset asked.

“Not that I’ve noticed, or to say it another way, none that you’ve talked about.”

Okay, so apparently, he doesn’t know I’m with Twilight…but does that mean that Twilight is my girlfriend and I’m keeping it secret? Or…*gulp*…am I forcing Twilight to be my girlfriend in this dimension?!

Flash could see the worried look on her face, and asked, “Sunset, you alright? You look like you’re on the verge of a panic attack.”

Sunset shook her head and dragged her hand down her face to try and keep her composure. “No, no, I’m good! I’m great!”

Flash raised an eyebrow at that. “Sunset, we were only together for a little bit, but even I can tell when you’re lying. I knew each and every time you lied to me back when we were dating, and I can tell now. What happened?”

Sunset was genuinely caught off guard by that. “Wait, you knew?! And you still let me get away with it?!”

“Yeah, because I hoped at some point you’d trust me enough to tell the truth. I mean, I didn’t really care that you’re a…pony…from a different world, but I was at least hoping that at some point you’d trust me enough to tell me something or tell me the truth,” said Flash.

Sunset blinked. “Wow…uh…I-I’m sorry, Flash. I…I didn’t know.” The fiery haired girl ran her right hand through her long locks and sighed. “I really was bad at relationships…”

Flash shrugged. “Well, a little, but it seemed that you had other things on your mind.”

Yeah, like stealing a magical artifact and striding into Canterlot as the most powerful unicorn in the world, which then morphed into world domination when I turned into a literal demon. “Flash, thanks, and one more thing?”

“Shoot.”

“Twilight Sparkle…did I really yell at her during the last Friendship Games?” Sunset dared ask.

Flash rubbed the back of his head, still confused as to why she was asking these kinds of questions. “Yeah, you kind of went off on her for unleashing magic and nearly getting you killed on the motocross track. She was crying afterwards…”

“Crap…anything else?”

“Well, you have been kind of in her face about how she’s not as good as Princess Twilight, and constantly comparing her to that version of her, and generally just being mean to her. Sorry, but I gotta be honest, it’s not good, Sunset,” said Flash.

Sunset wanted to puke. “Thanks, again.”

Sunset exited the music room, now feeling lower than dirt. Even if it was another version of Sunset who did that, in the eyes of Twilight and her friends, it was still Sunset. Which is safe to say that we’re not together…well…maybe I apologized, and we’ve been secretly together? UGH!

***______________________***

Sunset tried to make some more headway, but it was a lost cause, Flash was the only other person she could talk to, and who would shoot straight with her. Her only other options were to talk to her friends directly and try to convince them that she wasn’t the Sunset Shimmer they know, and maybe she could start to figure out how to get back to her dimension.

Lunchtime came around and the students had already gathered at their different tables, Sunset was in luck, even in an alternate dimension, they still sat at the same table. Cautiously, Sunset walked towards the table, the students around her murmured and cowered whenever she looked their way. Once she arrived at her friends’ table, all six of them gave her the same varied expressions that they gave her back in the hallway.

“H-Hey guys…”

“Um, what the heck do you want?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Look, I know this is going to sound crazy, but considering the wild magic that takes place here, I think I’m entitled to at least the benefit of the doubt,” Sunset pleaded.

The girls all exchanged glances and then looked back at Sunset, no one seemed to object as they awaited her response.

“Okay…This may sound crazy, but I think I’m not the Sunset Shimmer that you may know. In fact, I think I may be from a different dimension all together!” Sunset stated.

“Yer right, you do sound crazy,” said Applejack.

“Listen! In the world I’m from, I’m friends with all of you! I changed and became a better person! You know what, look!” Sunset pulled out her cellphone and scrolled through numerous pictures of herself and the girls, each one was of them as a group, or with one them individually doing an activity. “See, and look at the timestamp, these were recent!”

“I’m sorry, darling, but do you honestly expect us to believe that these are real? You did make fake pictures of Princess Twilight trashing our Fall Formal decorations,” said Rarity.

Twilight adjusted her glasses as she inspected the pictures. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility that you manipulated these pictures with some digital editing software, I know how smart you are, Sunset Shimmer, and it wouldn’t be out of your range to change the image, or manipulate a timestamp.”

“My only question would be, who the hell got you those pics, I mean one of these is from a slumber party! And…seriously, this is like you were in the room!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Because I was! Because you invited me, because we’re best friends!”

The girls still looked skeptical, very skeptical. Fluttershy continued to shrink away, trying hard not to draw attention to herself less she drew the ire of Sunset Shimmer.

“Fluttershy!”

“EEP!”

Sunset moved closer to the pink haired girl and said, “During Christmas, you said you understood why I did what I did, that you forgave me! You made me so happy on that day, please tell me you remember that?” Sunset made to touch Fluttershy on her shoulder, but the instant she made that move, Fluttershy hunched over as if trying to curl into a defensive ball.

Sunset backed away, her heart sinking at this reaction. Fluttershy, she was acting as if she was going to hurt her.

“I think you’ve been here long enough, Shim-Sham!” Pinkie stated. “This table is a meanie free zone, so please leave!”

“I…but…”

Suddenly, every cellphone in the cafeteria went off at once. When they took them out, it showed an alert put out by the police stating that there was a Dopant attack occurring in the city. Sunset saw the alert and smiled.

“This is great!” Sunset stated.

“Excuse me?” Twilight asked.

“Dash, let’s head out, we–!” When Sunset looked up from her phone, Rainbow Dash was gone. “Where did she go?”

“Uh, um, she went to the restroom,” said Applejack.

The girls all face palmed themselves, even in this alternate world, Applejack was a terrible liar. Figuring out that her partner was probably going to face the Dopant, Sunset decided to head there as well. If there was one thing she could count on, it was that Kamen Rider Unicorn was a hero.

***______________________***

The T-Rex Dopant was rampaging through the streets, smashing through one part of the buildings after the other, and with each strike, it created more debris, and with that debris, it was able to build up its body more and more, becoming a large and quite intimidating Dopant.

Trigger had made it to the scene, already firing on the Dopant with his Chrome Magnum. Just then Nasca swooped in and landed next to him, to which he asked, “What took you so long?”

“Weird stuff happening back at school, I’m actually glad this this thing’s here. I need to blow off some steam!”

Nasca took up her Weather Memory and pressed the button on its side.

< WEATHER! >

{< WEATHER! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

Wind and lightning gathered around Nasca, transforming her into the powerful, Nasca Storm Breaker. With the aid of the wind, Nasca took flight, zooming straight up until she was above the Dopant’s head. The beast of a Dopant roared loud enough that it shook the windows of the nearby buildings and cracked a few of them. Nasca raised her right hand and called on the warm sun’s rays to gather to her right hand, and at the same time, she commanded the fierce power of lightning into her left hand. Once both hands were wrapped in the two elemental powers, Nasca fired both of them at the same time.

The lightning wrapped around the heat ray as it sailed towards the T-Rex Dopant, striking it in the side and creating an explosion that made it take a step back.

< CANNON! >

|^| CANNON! ARMED! |^|

The Dino Dopant was then assailed by a strong energy blast that hit him from behind, taking a chuck of its debris body with it. The Rex turned around and saw that Trigger had used one of his Utility Gaia Memories, transforming his Chrome Magnum into a large heavy cannon. Trigger’s anchoring spikes held fast as he charged up his cannon and fired it once again, the recoil made him move back a few inches, leaving a small gash in the asphalt showing how far he was moved.

The second blast hit the monster in the leg, making it buckle, however, the Dino struck another building with its tail and another with its head. More debris fell from the ruined parts of the two buildings, and collected to the Dopant’s body, essentially healing the damage they had just done.

“Ugh, this thing is annoying!” Trigger griped.

“Guess it’s a good thing I’m here!”

The sound of a motorcycle echoed down the street, Trigger and Nasca watched as Kamen Rider Unicorn came speeding down the road. The turquoise colored Rider held the Metal Memory in her left hand and pressed down on the button before inserting it into her Mimetic Drive port.

< METAL! >

{< METAL! MIMETIC DRIVE! >}

Unicorn’s body was wrapped in gray light, transforming her into Unicorn Iron Heart. The armor-clad hero hopped onto the back of her vehicle and jumped straight up as she pressed down on left hip port.

\ METAL RING! /

The signature weapon of the Iron Heart form appeared before Unicorn, she snatched the weapon out of the air and spun once as she hurled the weapon straight at the Rex’s neck. The metallic ring smashed straight through the neck of the debris dino, making it cease all movement. The head fell right off as the rest of its body crumbled into pieces. When the head finally landed back on the ground the debris covering it fell off and revealed a T-Rex head, with arms and legs that looked very much vulnerable.

The Metal Ring bounced off the side of a building and ricocheted a few times off other surfaces before finding its way back to Unicorn’s hands. “Nasca, finish it off!”

Nasca hesitated for a moment, but then directed her attention to the Dopant. She quickly took the Weather Memory and placed it into the Max Drive port and pressed down on the button.

} WEATHER! MAXIMUM DRIVE! {<

Lightning, wind, heat, and water roared around Nasca; the speedster Kamen Rider formed all this into a sphere of chaotic power above her. “Typhoon Detonation!” Nasca hurled the sphere at the Dopant who was immediately sucked into it. The four different elemental powers that comprised the sphere struck it from all sides before finally reaching its apex of power and exploding. The Dopant was thrown a couple of feet from the explosion, its body changing back to that of its original human form as the T-Rex Memory rose up from his skin and shattered upon hitting the ground.

Unicorn smiled beneath her helmet as she dismissed her weapon and said, “Nice work, partner!” Just then, a blue laser bolt shot passed her head, causing Unicorn to stiffen up at the sudden attack. She turned around and saw that it was Trigger, his Chrome Magnum barrel still smoking from the fired shot. “Trigger, what the hell was that for?!”

“I don’t know what game you’re playing, Unicorn, but we’re not falling for it!” Trigger stated.

“What?!” A lightning bolt struck Unicorn’s feet, making her jump back in surprise. Her eyes fell on Nasca, her right hand was sparking with electricity. “You too?!”

“Do you think I’m stupid or something?! ‘Partner’? What kind of lame ass con job is that?! You create a Dopant, come out and destroy it, and expect us to be buddies? Heh, classic villain trick, not fallin’ for it,” said Nasca. “Besides, I only have one partner, and he’s got his blaster trained right on you!”

No way…even as Unicorn, I’m still the bad guy?! Sunset thought.

Trigger widened his stance and held his blaster tighter. “You have two options, Unicorn! One: you give up now, or two: we make you give up!”

“Please choose option two,” said Nasca.

Unicorn looked to her former partner and her ally; both were very much ready to take her down. The metal clad heroine raised her hands up slowly, but then struck the ground beneath her with her fist, sending a cloud of dust into the air. A turquoise flash went off inside the dust cloud, prompting Nasca to summon the winds to blow the dust away. When she did, Unicorn was gone.

Nasca landed on the ground and cursed as she said, “Dammit, she got away! Sorry, Trig.”

“Don’t worry about it, she’s crafty, but that may not have been her finest hour. Starting to think she considers us a joke,” said Trigger.

“We’ll show her, one day.”

Nasca changed out of her Storm Breaker form, flared her wings, and took off in the direction of Canterlot High. Trigger changed back and began directing the SCU officers in cleanup of the area. All the while, Sunset was watching from an alleyway, and listening.

Sunset changed back to her civilian form and slumped up against the wall. The former unicorn mare took out her cellphone and started to search the internet. As Sunset scrolled through the articles on Kamen Rider Unicorn and she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “What is going on here?!”

[Kamen Rider Unicorn: Scourge of Canterlot City.]

[The Dopant scourge continues, Trigger and Nasca our valiant heroes.]

[Battle Between the rivals, Nasca vs. Unicorn.]

[Since the arrival of Kamen Rider Unicorn, and declaring that the city would be her domain, heroes have risen to stop her. Kamen Riders Nasca and Trigger have continued to fight against this evil villainess, even after she introduced the creatures known as Dopants to try and conquer the city. Who knows what her true intentions could be? But it seems our heroes have gotten stronger in order to combat this evil with the introduction of Nasca’s Star Chaser form and Trigger SWAT.]

“And all of it was written by…NAMBY PAMBY?!!!”Sunset couldn’t believe what was happening, even Unicorn was a bad guy. “That’s it, I need to see Princess Twilight!”

The Pretty-Decent-Assistant-Dective-Helper Person and Sunset Shimmer

Sunset looked upon CHS with a sense of dread and trepidation, a feeling she hadn’t had since after the Fall Formal, when she was stripped of her status of ruler and waylaid by Princess Twilight and the girls. But back then it was because she was trying to be a better person, and everyone was having a hard time accepting that she was sincere in her actions until the Battle of the Bands, now though, it was the opposite. She was feared and hated, and that was worse.

With a heavy sigh, and determination, Sunset began her walk down the hallway, trying to find her friends. As per usual, they were all hanging out around the lockers, Sunset walked towards them and her presence was immediately noted by Fluttershy’s quick retreat behind Rarity. Upon seeing this reaction, the girls instinctively got on edge, with Rainbow and Applejack taking up their guard positions as they stood at the front of the group. Sunset had to admit, that look of suspicion, fear, and spite was not getting any easier to endure, especially from Twilight.

“Look I come in peace.” Sunset punctuated this remark by keeping her hands up as if she had a loaded gun pointed at her. “I’m not here to hurt you or trick you, I just need you guys to listen to me.”

Rainbow Dash scoffed at that. “Please, as if we would believe that! Just because you say you’re not, doesn’t mean you’re not secretly planning it, I trust you about as far I can throw you, Shimmer.”

“Please, just give me five minutes. You can tie me up for all I care!” Sunset pleaded.

That made most the girls look disturbed by how far she was willing to go to just talk to them. Whether it was because of how desperate she sounded, or how far she was willing to go to just speak with them, Twilight couldn’t shake this nagging feeling in her heart that told her to listen to Sunset Shimmer.

“Okay, whatever weird BDSM crap you’re into, we don’t want any part of,” said Rainbow. “Second you can just –!”

“Let’s hear her out,” said Twilight, shocking the entire group, and even herself. Twilight quickly followed up with, “B-But you better not try and trick us!”

The girls all glanced to each other; Twilight was the girl who was on the receiving end of one of Sunset’s recent tirades. On top of that, while “Sci-Twi” wasn’t Princess Twilight, they were similar in looks, personality, and mannerisms, and Sunset had not hidden her disdain of the young genius. So, if Twilight was willing to be in a room with Sunset Shimmer for five minutes, then the girls supposed they could do the same.

“Alright, but like Twi said, if ya try anythin’ funny…” Applejack punctuated her point by slamming her right fist into her left palm.

Sunset nodded and let the group lead the way to a place they felt safe. And as luck would have it, it was the music room where they practiced. It also meant that the walls were soundproof and if any kind of fight went on, then no would be able to hear it. Sunset’s heart sank when she entered the room, her axe that had been resting on a stand next to Rainbow’s was gone. Had they removed it? Did they even know it was hers?

The girls created a semi-circle, with Fluttershy still hiding behind the other girls. With a sigh, Sunset began her explanation. “Okay, look, I know this is going to sound crazy, but magic exists, and monsters and superheroes exist, so I kind of have some leeway here, agreed?”

Each of the six girls glanced to each other and reluctantly nodded, denying such things that happened on an almost daily basis, would be like denying that they transform into anthropomorphic pony girls whenever they play music.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities. One: I’m trapped in an alternate dimension where everyone still thinks I’m a bad person, or two: someone has altered not just reality, but also your memories to make you all forget what we’ve been through together, that we’re friends!”

“Very well, say the second option is true, why and how would someone be able to manipulate everyone’s memories and only leave you unaffected?” Rarity asked.

Sunset ran her hand through her hair as she said, “I don’t know, and that’s what I need help with! Someone is doing this to get back at me, and I need to find them before this gets worse!” Sunset took out the piece of paper that had an illustration of the Memory Stone. “This is what erased your memories of me, it’s called the Memory Stone. It’s an Equestrian artifact that was hidden here on Earth, possibly in Canterlot City, if we can find out who has it, then we can reverse what they’ve done!”

The girls looked upon the picture, while they had to admit, it wasn’t a crazy theory, as the Sirens were thousand-plus-year-old beings that were once denizens of Equestria and were thrown into their world as a form of interdimensional exile.

“I don’t know, I mean it could be true, b-but then how do we know that you aren’t the one who has that stone, and are the one erasing our memories?” Fluttershy asked.

Sunset narrowed her eyes at the shy girl and said, “What reason would I have to put myself through a hell where everyone hates and fears me after spending so much time and effort to put that part of myself in the past and be a better person?! Oh yeah, that makes tons of sense, because I’m such a masochist!”

“EEP!” Fluttershy hid behind Rainbow Dash, scared at Sunset’s angry look and raised tone.

Sunset realized what she had done, and her face quickly morphed to one of deep apology. “I-I’m sorry, Fluttershy! I-I didn’t mean to go off on you! I’m just…just stressed right now…”

“Eh, I don’t know, Sunset Shimmer kinda has a point,” said Pinkie. “But we still haven’t ruled that this could be a trick, or the trick of a trick!”

Sunset’s eye twitched. “What?”

“I think what Pinkie’s saying, is that you’re known for elaborate schemes. While yes, such actions would be masochistic in nature, according to my friends, you have been known to endure some pain if it meant you got what you wanted in the long run, hence the first trick, you deceiving us to believe your story, and then the trick later when your plan finally comes to fruition,” said Twilight.

Sunset wanted to open her mouth to argue that, but when she looked back on her past actions, she couldn’t really deny her shrewdness. As much as Sunset wanted to admit it, they were right, if need be, she could play the long game in order to get what she wanted, and suffering a little pain was not out of the question if the payoff was worth it.

“Look, if ya wanna convince us, then ya best have better evidence then a picture of a relic, until then, Ah think we’re done here,” said Applejack.

The others nodded and began leaving the room, Twilight took up the rear and as she passed by Sunset, the fiery haired girl swiftly grabbed ahold of Twilight’s wrist. It was a strong, and yet gentle grip, not commanding that she stay where she was, but more like asking for her to stay.

“Sunset…please let go of my wrist,” Twilight requested in a shaky voice.

“Twi…please tell me you have some doubts about all this?” Sunset asked.

“I don’t know what to believe right now, while magic, heroes, and monsters exist, I have personally been on the receiving end of your scorn just because I look like someone who dethroned you and took some of your power over the student body away……! So, doubts, I have plenty of concerning you and any of your motives, Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset let her hair hide her face as she released Twilight’s wrist and let her go. The girls watched in the doorway, waiting to jump in should Sunset try something while she had ahold of Twilight, but their fears were for naught, this time around. As they began to leave, Rainbow Dash added, “AND DON’T MESS WITH OUR INSTRUMENTS!” before leaving. Twilight stayed in the doorway a few more seconds, looking upon Sunset Shimmer as her back was turned to the bespectacled girl, and feeling a strange hurt in heart. Twilight dismissed the feeling and followed after her friends.

Sunset was alone, literally and figuratively. No allies, no friends, no way to call for help from the other Riders, and even then, who knew if the same thing that happened to this world would affect them too? All their memories of fighting side by side with Decade, Double, OOOs, Fourze, Wizard, Gaim, and Ex-Aid, all of that just gone. And, an even worst-case scenario, what if they saw Sunset as an evil Kamen Rider? As powerful as Sunset was now, she wasn’t about to risk having to fight seven different veteran Riders, each with their own powerful Final Form.

The former unicorn mare wanted to punch something, kick anything, but doing so now would just wreck her friends’ instruments and that’d just be one more thing to add to the list of reasons not to trust Sunset. With a frustrated growl, Sunset left the music room, her thoughts went back to last Friday, remembering that a certain amateur magician did threaten revenge on Sunset because of a Superlative. It was a long shot, but it was as good as any, with the Memory Stone, Trixie Lulamoon could erase away the memory of any bad performance she ever did, getting a do-over any time she wished. But, to take it to this extent?

She better hope it’s not her, and if it is, she better be possessed by dark magic!

***__________________________***

Sunset stomped through the halls, on the warpath. She had a target in mind, a suspect, and she was going to confront her. As she did so, the rest of the students parted like the Red Sea, they could tell that Sunset Shimmer was coming for someone, and anyone foolish enough to get in her way was going to be incinerated on the spot. Sunset then accidentally ran into Microchips, knocking the young man to the ground, Sunset shook her head and looked down apologetically to Microchips as she held out her hand to help him up. Unfortunately, the frightened Microchips quickly dug into his pockets and took out some money, placing it in Sunset’s hands.

The flame haired girl’s brow furrowed as she growled in anger, she then grabbed Micro’s hand and hoisted him up as she put his lunch money back in his hand. “I don’t want your lunch money! I’m not mean anymore! Got it?! I’m not MEAN!” Upon declaring this, Microchips ran away, along with several onlookers. Sunset growled in frustration, and then snorted – a habit from her pony days that she hadn’t shaken off, nor intended to – as she continued along her route to a certain girl’s locker.

Sunset stopped when she spotted her suspect, Trixie Lulamoon. The locker door was facing towards Sunset, obscuring Trixie’s view of her position, which meant she wouldn’t see her coming. The former unicorn mare marched straight for Trixie, and as soon as the silver haired girl backed away from her locker, Sunset slammed the door shut, startling Trixie for a quick second before she composed herself.

“So…here we are,” said Sunset as she crossed her arms.

“Here we do are!” Trixie replied, mimicking Sunset’s stance, and after a second realizing how ridiculous her comeback sounded.

Both girls stared each other down, an invisible battle waged in the air as their auras flared. The students who were nearby cautiously backed away, part of them told them to stay and help Trixie, but then they remembered it was Sunset Shimmer and that the girl could literally kick their collective asses and not break a sweat. She even made the football team sweat bullets. So, with that in mind, the rest of the students vacated the area.

“You really want to do this here, in the hallway, in front of everyone?” Trixie dared.

“Up to you,” goaded Sunset.

Trixie opened her locker back up, and Sunset readied to summon her Uni-Driver to end this nightmare. “Behold! Canterlot High School’s Greatest and Most Powerfullest Student!” The magician pulled out a rolled-up paper and then unveiled it with a flourish. The paper was in fact a poster, displaying Trixie in a dramatic stance with cards floating about her, with sparkles, and smoke. “If a seven-scale mockup doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will.”

Sunset’s left eye twitched. “I – I don’t – what? UGH! Where’s the Memory Stone?!”

Trixie looked at Sunset with confusion. “Memory what now?”

Sunset slowly advanced on Trixie as she said, “You used the Memory Stone to erase me and all the good things I have done, all the hard work I did to earn the trust and respect of everybody I hurt and wronged, and in just one day, you undid months of progress! Just because I wouldn’t put you in the yearbook as the ‘Greatest and Powerfullest’?! ‘Powerfullest’ isn’t even a word!”

“What in the world are you talking about?” Trixie asked.

“It’s not a word!”

Trixie shook her head. “No, not that, what ‘Memory Stone’?”

“‘What Memory Stone’?! The one you used to erase everyone’s memories you manipulative…bi…bi…BLOWHARD!” Sunset accused.

Trixie was at first confused, but then became very intrigued. “A stone that can make everyone forget all the bad tricks I’ve done…?!” Trixie then looked at Sunset and chuckled. “Which is no tricks! Your puny rock pales in comparison to the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

Sunset then came to a horrifying realization. “I…I don’t believe it…You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

Trixie’s expression fell as she said, “I…don’t. Sorry.”

Sunset felt like crap, not just because she accused an innocent person, but because now she really didn’t know who the real culprit was. Her body slouched as she realized she was back to square one, Sunset walked until she was on the opposite wall of lockers and slumped down until she sat upon the linoleum floor, her face pressed against her hands as she tried to grasp this situation she was in.

Trixie looked upon Sunset Shimmer, she had never seen the mostly tyrannical, mean, and confident girl look so defeated. It should be a happy occasion, but, for some reason, Trixie couldn’t take any joy in this situation. It looked as if Sunset’s whole world had crumbled around her. “Did…Did somebody really erase everyone’s good memories of you?”

Sunset removed her hands from her face and nodded in the affirmative.

Trixie sat down, cautiously, next to Sunset and said, “And even though we all know that you’re the Queen of Mean, you’re saying that that’s not you anymore?” Trixie asked and waited for Sunset to punch her.

“Yes…it’s kind of complicated.”

The hall slowly began to fill back up with students now that whatever potential altercation had been avoided, Trixie looked at the downtrodden Sunset, seeing a similar disappointment not unlike her own. “So, you have this idea of who you’re supposed to be, but no one at school sees you that way, is that it?” Sunset looked up and watched as some of the passing by students looked upon Trixie’s poster and chuckled at the image. “Trust me, I get it.

Sunset watched as the other students got a chuckle at Trixie’s expense upon seeing her poster, and Sunset understood what she meant. “So…you believe me?”

“Well, to a degree, yes. Because I know that you would’ve knocked my teeth in for calling you…well…what I called you earlier. And…” Trixie rubbed her chin as she thought. “I don’t know how to put it, you seem…less off putting? More approachable? Something like that.”

The flame haired girl chuckled as she ran her hand through her hair. “I can’t believe the only person who believes me is the same person I just called a blowhard.”

Trixie raised an eyebrow at that. “Uh-huh, just a ‘blowhard’, I’m pretty sure I know another word you were going to use that started with a ‘B’.” Sunset looked away for a moment, Trixie smiled and then stood up. “I took it as a compliment though. Perhaps you need some Great and Powerful assistance, since this is clearly ruining your life.”

Sunset raised a suspicious eyebrow. “And what’s your price?” Trixie nodded towards the poster she had made of herself, and Sunset furrowed her brow. “No way! Absolutely not!”

Trixie shrugged. “That’s fine, if you’d rather go around being known as the Queen of Mean on campus – and I’m using a very mild term, then that’s fine with me.”

Sunset rolled her eyes feeling as if she was about to sell her soul to the devil, but the way she saw it, it was making a deal with a lesser devil in order to take down a greater one. “We’ll see how this goes, I’m keeping my options open, and consider it.”

“I’ll take it then,” said Trixie as she extended her hand to help Sunset up.

The former unicorn mare gratefully accepted her hand and let Trixie help her back to her feet, figuratively and literally. It was a strange partnership, Trixie often got on her nerves, and everyone else’s, but maybe she hadn’t given the amateur magician as much credit as she should have. Beneath her bravado, she did have a caring heart, even if it meant she needed to be rewarded in this case.

“So, where should we start, partner,” said Sunset.

“How about with what I call you? I’m thinking the Great and Powerful Trixie’s…Pretty Decent Assistant-Detective-Helper Person.”

“Geez, that’s not a mouthful,” said Sunset.

“It’s a working title!”

***__________________________***

Lunch time had arrived, and still, no closer to solving the mystery of who had stolen the city’s memories and altered reality. Sunset sat in the empty table, alone, and from her vantage point, she could see her friends smiling and talking about something, what it was she had no idea. For all she cared it could be the most stupid thing in the world, and even if it was, she wanted to be there and join in. What hurt the most was seeing how they looked so…complete. As if she was just an extra person that was never meant to fit into that picture.

However, her silent rumination didn’t last long as Trixie came to fill in the silence, earning some strange glances as she did so, the other students no doubt believed she was going to toss Trixie like a rag doll for even attempting to sit next to her without permission. “A cafeteria full of suspects, two detectives, and only one Memory Stone. Seems, impossible, but so is pulling a rabbit out of a hat, and I do that all the time.” Trixie pulled out a pin and pad from her hoodie. “Let’s talk motive. Who here hates you enough to erase everyone’s good memories of you?”

Sunset groaned at the question, because the answer was obvious. “If you go back far enough…everyone…”

Trixie nodded and wrote as she said aloud, “Known suspects: all. Have you come into contact with anyone shady lately? Rubbed you the wrong way?”

Sunset took a moment to think about that, and as she scoured her own memories, nothing and no one came to mind. Well, there were two, Clear Skies and Sunflower, they were the only two villains left who knew who she really was. So, far they hadn’t made any direct attacks against Sunset, but she knew that that would only be a matter of time. They were hard at work remaking Gaia Memories, and had caused a few incidents in the past couple of months, but not with the frequency that Starlight did, most likely due to the fact that Starlight had legions of scientists and workers to mass produce the T1 Gaia Memories, and those two were probably using underground workshops and help to make them.

Thank Faust for small miracles, thought Sunset. “Before all this happened…no. No one. The only thing I did was spend time with…the girls…on Saturday, and Sunday, Twi and I went out on a date and I came back home.”

Trixie wrote all this down but stopped when the last part of Sunset’s sentence registered. “Wait, you went on a date, with Twilight Sparkle?!”

“Yes.”

“B-But you hate her! Well, to be fair, you hate the Princess version, but you still ragged on her whenever you got the chance, and you’re saying you’re dating her?!” Trixie asked in shock.

Sunset slammed her hand against the table, drawing a few eyes their way and making Trixie jump a little. “I would never do that to her! I…I love her! I’d do anything to protect her! So, the last thing I would do – in this world – is hurt her! Physically or emotionally!”

Trixie was a little skeptical about helping or even believing Sunset’s story. That is until she saw that fire in her eyes, that wasn’t fake, that wasn’t an act, Sunset genuinely cared about Twilight Sparkle, no, care wasn’t the right word, she was in love with her. “Wow…you’re really serious, not just the good memories…but even the ones of you and Sparkle as a couple?”

Sunset sighed heavily as she turned to look down at her food tray. “That’s the hardest part of this whole thing…to be so close to the person I love most, to have these feelings and know that she only looks at me now with fear, suspicion, and hate…The very things I promised to never make her feel around me.”

Trixie put down her pen and pad and gently wrapped her arm around Sunset in a comforting fashion. “I’m sorry this is happening to you; magic should not be used to tear friendships or love apart! Magic is meant to bring people together, to create wonder and spark imagination, and sometimes even bring two lovers together. Whoever is doing this is marring the very nature of magic, and the Great and Powerful Trixie will NOT stand for this! We will find this memory thief and set everything right! You have my word as a woman and as a magician, Sunset Shimmer!”

Sunset’s sorrow was lifted a little upon hearing Trixie’s declaration of war against the unknown perpetrator of everything that has happened. “Thanks, Trixie. And, just so you know, as heroic as that was, it’ll take a lot more than that if you’re looking to score with me.”

Trixie’s face reddened, her mouth stammered as she tried to form a cohesive sentence. “I-I-I’m not trying – I was merely comforting you and offering my support! I have no intention of forming a relationship with you!”

Sunset chuckled at how flustered Trixie was. “Just kidding, I needed the laugh. And, thank you. Partner.” Sunset meant that word, “partner”, a word she had reserved for her friend, Rainbow Dash, the two were a dynamic duo as Kamen Riders, but now, they were enemies. At least, that’s how this version of Rainbow Dash saw her. “Let’s move out after lunch. Where do you think we should start?”

***__________________________***

The door slammed open, and Trixie Lulamoon entered the room. It smelled sterilized, like that of a hospital ward, or like someone was trying to cover their tracks.

“No, it’s because this is the Nurse’s Office,” said Sunset in a deadpan voice.

Sitting upon the examination bed was Bulk Biceps, and the school’s nurse, Redheart. The older woman looked to the two girls and asked in a confused yet sweet manner, “G-Good afternoon, ladies. A-Are you feeling alright?”

Trixie strode up to Nurse Redheart, her gaze narrowed in suspicion as she looked the taller woman in the eyes. “That all depends on how you answer my questions. Has anyone come in complaining of memory problems in the last few days or even weeks, hmm?”

“Well…” Nurse Redheart took a moment to think before answering, “not that I can recall, dear.”

Trixie stepped back next to Sunset as she took out her pen and pad, “You can’t recall, huh?” Trixie wrote on her pad and whispered to Sunset, “We’re too late!”

Sunset smacked her forehead, and then bonked Trixie on the head and made her go “Ow!”. “Sorry, about the intrusion, Nurse Redheart. We’ll be leaving. Hi, Bulk.”

Bulk Biceps let out a yelp before passing out onto the cot. Sunset’s warm smile turned to a frown as she then proceeded to drag Trixie out of the office by her hood.

***__________________________***

The library, an oasis of peace and knowledge, but also a den for the scheming and conniving. A maze of bookshelves obscured the view of different onlookers, perfect for making sure your shady business would be conducted in privacy or plan dastardly plans.

“Or just spend some time studying or reading or getting some work done,” said Sunset, keeping the deadpan tone.

The two girls happened upon Microchips, nose deep in his computer as his fingers clacked against the keyboard. Trixie came up to the table and slammed her hand against it, causing the young nerd to yelp. Microchips looked up at the two girls before him, one of which was Sunset Shimmer, the poor boy believed that Trixie may have been ringed into Sunset’s gang, and the two were shaking him down.

“W-Will you accept a half-chewed carrot stick?” Micro offered the aforementioned veggie, hoping it would placate Sunset.

Sunset’s left eye twitched for the second time today. “What?! Eww! No, I told you I don’t want your lunch money, and I definitely don’t want your lunch!”

“Speak for yourself.” Trixie swiped the carrot stick from Micro and began munching on it, much to Sunset’s disgust. “Mmm, thanks. Now, word around school is you know a lot about erasing memory.”

“Oh, well, yes, I just erased a ton of memory just this morning.”

Sunset’s eyes widened upon hearing this. “You did?!”

“Yep, four terabytes of quantel-accelerflex memory to be precise!” Microchips proudly stated. It became quiet, and before Micro knew it, both girls had disappeared. “How come no one’s ever impressed by that?”

Trixie and Sunset had left the young man, and Sunset was not pleased by the initial reaction she garnered. Trixie noticed this and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Sunset sighed heavily. “I hate that the first reaction everybody has to me is fear. Like they’re expecting me to beat them up.”

“Wow…you really have changed, the old you would’ve relished in that kind of thing,” said Trixie.

“I hate to admit it, but yes, there was a time when I would have. But that’s not me anymore!” Sunset stated angrily.

Trixie smiled as she hooked an arm around Sunset’s neck and proclaimed, “Well then, let’s go and get back all those good memories of you!”

***__________________________***

The girls were getting desperate, if they couldn’t find the person themselves, then maybe someone had seen the Stone itself somewhere, so they took to asking random students. One such student, which was a long shot even by Sunset’s standards, was Pinkie’s older sister, Maud Pie.

Sunset held up a picture of the Memory Stone and asked, “Is there anything you can tell us about it? Anything at all?”

Maud looked at the picture and said in her trademark deadpan tone, “I can’t tell much from a drawing.”

Sunset frowned. “Oh…”

“Only that it’s felsic-intrusive igneous, granular in texture, most likely arranged in an equigranularity matrix, with scattered biotite mica and amphibole, at least sixty-five percent alkali feldspar by volume, with a melting point of twelve-fifty centigrade, plus or minus ten degrees. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.”

Sunset and Trixie blinked.

“Uh, sure, it’s okay, thank you, anyway,” said Trixie.

Maud nodded towards Trixie; her gaze then lingered on Sunset Shimmer. “Kindly don’t mess with my little sister, Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset’s heart felt like it was punched, but she nodded. Maud then walked away.

Both young women walked out of the building to get some fresh air, Sunset sat on the steps to CHS while Trixie paced back and forth in front of her, trying to figure something out. “Sure, it seems like we’ve only come up with dead ends, so far. But I mean, it could be worse?”

Sunset glanced over to her right and said, “It’s worse…”

Trixie followed her gaze and watched as the “Mane 6” were gathered outside. Twilight was working on a drone and was just finishing up.

“Okay everyone, my new selfie-bot is up and running, time for the Yearbook Group Photo!”

Twilight released the drone, the machine began to hover and floated towards the girls as they all gathered into a group, each smiling and posing as they said in unison, “BEST FRIENDS!” before the drone took their picture. A picture that Sunset was meant to be a part of.

Trixie witnessed this and quickly blocked Sunset’s view. “Oh, stop looking at that! You’re just going to end up winding yourself up! You can’t think if you’re wound up!” Trixie rubbed her head as she attempted make her brain work to figure out this mystery. “Think, Trixie!”

“Ugh, we must’ve interrogated everyone in the school, at least those who I can remember may have a big enough grudge to erase everyone’s memories, and we still came up empty handed!” Sunset stated in frustration.

Trixie glanced over to the group of girls, humming in contemplation as she did. “Well…not everyone, per se.”

“What are you getting at?” Sunset asked.

“Look…I’m not saying it is, but…usually in those detective shows and what not, sometimes it’s the person you least suspect, and you have about six people who you’d least suspect,” said Trixie.

Sunset shot up to her feet and looked Trixie straight in the eyes. “Are you accusing my friends of doing this to me?!”

“Not all of them, but maybe one of them.” Trixie could see that Sunset was still glaring daggers at her. “Look, I’m helping you, and sometimes you need an outside perspective. Maybe, just maybe, one of them wasn’t as forgiving as they led you to believe. I mean, you did kind of manipulate them all and mess up their little friendship group thing. And you did rag on Fluttershy a lot, Dash and her have been best friends for a long time, maybe she finally had enough and decided to teach you a lesson?”

Sunset balled up her fists and stomped her right foot against the stone steps. “Rainbow Dash would never do that! I trust her with my life! We’ve fought together, defended each other, that’s not something you fake! She’s my partner!”

Trixie was following all of that, right up until the last half. “Wait, what do you mean ‘fought together’, do you mean like online games or sports or something?”

“It’s…” Sunset had to bite her tongue; she knew for a fact it couldn’t be Rainbow Dash. Not after all they went through as Kamen Riders, there was no way she was faking all that. Unfortunately, Unicorn was seen as a bad guy right now, revealing her identity now would make Sunset lose the only ally she had right now. “It’s…complicated…just trust me when I say that Rainbow Dash would rather die then put me through this kind of hell.”

Trixie didn’t understand why, but there was something about the way Sunset said all that that made it really convincing, however, she wasn’t completely sold. “I get that, but maybe your trust is what’s maybe blinding you to what’s really happening? What if the Memory Stone is right under your nose and you can’t see it because you’re blinded by your own friendship with them? Any one of them has good reason to do it!”

Sunset grabbed Trixie by the collar of her hoodie, her hand shaking in anger and sadness. “If that’s true, then by your own logic, you’re just as suspect as everyone! You could be helping me just to throw me off the trail and make sure I never find out who it really is!”

Trixie grabbed ahold of Sunset’s wrist, she was surprised at how strong she was, since Trixie felt her feet hover an inch or two off the ground. “Sunset, it isn’t me!”

“Really?! Who can I really trust anymore?!” Sunset accused. “I’m public enemy number one no matter where I go! The only thing I can trust are my own memories of my friends! I know them, and they know me! I would die for them!”

Trixie eyes widened as she saw Sunset begin to cry, all the frustration and anger of this situation was finally getting to her. The strength in her grip loosened as she let Trixie go, she fell back onto her rear, hugging her legs to her body as she cried. Trixie sat down next to her; this was a little awkward for her. Trixie was never the consoling type of person, but, seeing Sunset so defeated and helpless, it felt wrong not to show her some kindness. Gingerly, Trixie wrapped her arm around Sunset’s shoulders and brought her closer, letting the flame haired girl rest her head against the crook of her shoulder.

The girls finished their pose and pictures, and when they did, Pinkie Pie tugged on Applejack’s shirt.

“What’s up, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“Is it me, or is Sunset Shimmer…crying?” Pinkie asked.

The girls looked in the same direction as Pinkie, and indeed, it looked like Sunset was crying, and Trixie seemed to be comforting her. For some reason, this caused an ache in their hearts, why though they were not sure.

“Is…and I hate to ask…is anyone else feeling sad right now, too?” Rarity asked.

“Uh-huh,” said Fluttershy.

“Jeez, it’s Sunset Shimmer who cares!” Rainbow Dash looked back at the bully of their school and her conviction waivered a little. “You don’t think it’s something bad, like seriously bad, right? Not that I care!”

“Um…m-maybe we should ask her? She may be a meanie, but…that doesn’t mean we have to be, right?” Fluttershy asked.

It was a dilemma, on the one hand, Sunset Shimmer had tormented their school and them specifically since the end of the Fall Formal. Then again, what if it was something genuinely bad? Like a death in her family, or something?

Twilight’s first reaction was to say that she would do it, but she stopped herself. Why was that my first instinct? Why do I want to go and comfort her? Sunset Shimmer’s always hated me since I first arrived here…I almost didn’t want to come here because of her. “She’ll…She’ll be fine, it looks like Trixie’s helping her…” Why does that make me angry?

Rarity couldn’t help but hear a twinge of anger in Twilight’s voice, almost as if she was jealous of the amateur magician. The girls moved on, but they still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up.

Trixie continued to console Sunset; the girl had finally stopped crying. “You okay?”

“Not completely, but I guess I just needed to cry it out a little…sorry you had to see that,” said Sunset.

Trixie rubbed the back of her head. “Well, even the Great and Powerful Trixie feels like bawling once in a while…especially if …if Trixie has a bad show. But so long as you’re feeling better, the Comforting and Compassionate Trixie will be here to lend you a shoulder to cry on.”

Sunset smiled as she placed her hand on Trixie’s shoulder. “You’re a really good friend, Trixie and I’m sorry if I haven’t been that appreciative of your help.”

“It’s fine, you’re in a bit of a crisis, so a little tunnel vision is expected. But I’m still not totally convinced that it isn’t one of them, not yet at least.” Trixie noticed the dirty look that Sunset was giving her. “I’m not saying it is them, all I’m saying is that we should keep all options open right now.”

Sunset didn’t want to admit it, but Trixie did have a point. What if one of them held some deep seeded hatred for her that never really went away, and was just looking for the right opportunity to enact their revenge? Sunset really, really didn’t want to think that, not after all they went through, not after each of them went out of their way to make her feel like she was a part of their families

“Sunset Shimmer, Trixie Lulamoon.” Both girls turned around and saw Principal Celestia standing behind them. “Classes have already started; you should be inside.” It was then that Celestia noticed Sunset’s face and how it had tear marks. “Sunset, are you alright.”

“Uh…kind of, a little, Trixie’s been helping me get through something right now,” said Sunset.

“Oh…” Celestia looked to Trixie and then back to Sunset. “Well, if you feel you need to talk, my door’s always open.” With that said, Celestia returned inside the school and left both of them behind, at the same time, she was left with a strange feeling, an almost familial instinct to see if she was alright.

Sunset sighed as she took off her backpack and handed it to Trixie. The amateur magician looked at Sunset with confusion as she asked, “What are you doing?”

“I need to clear my head and…I can’t really do it here.”

“You’re playing hooky? Not that it would go against your bad girl motif, but…”

“I know,” Sunset looked down at the ground, “I just can’t be here right now. Sorry, Trixie, just hang onto my stuff, I’ll pick it up from you later.”

Trixie didn’t like how Sunset said that, she then held out her hand and Sunset looked at her quizzically. “Give me your cellphone.” Sunset shrugged and handed over her cellular device, Trixie quickly took out her own and swiftly went to work. After a minute she handed Sunset’s phone back to her. “Call me when you’re coming to pick up your stuff, I’ll text you my home address. Don’t keep me waiting too long.”

Sunset looked through her contacts list and smirked as she saw that Trixie entered her cellphone number along with the contact name “The Great and Powerful Trixie”. “I’ll be fine, Trixie, I promise.”

With that, Trixie watched as Sunset walked away towards the student parking lot and flew off down the road on her bike. Trixie looked at Sunset’s backpack, all those health class videos about helping other students when they were depressed were starting to create unpleasant thoughts about what Sunset might do. She then slapped herself across the face and said, “C’mon Trixie, Sunset’s too strong to do anything like that! The sooner we find out what happened the sooner I can stop worrying about her! A-And get my Superlative in the yearbook, obviously.”

Trixie walked back into the school building, unaware that there was another who was watching them closely. A figure dressed in black, riding a black motorcycle with a tinted helmet.