Equestria Girls: Kamen Rider Karasu

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1 - Welcome to Best Match!
Chapter 2 - It's Like Magic
Chapter 2.5 - Because It Is
Chapter 3 - One Smash, Two Smash
Chapter 3.5 - Aftersmash
Chapter 4 - Amalthea

Prologue

Six months prior to the Fall Formal...

The teenager ran through the streets of Canterlot City. She couldn’t look back for fear of who she might find following. After what she’d done, someone would most certainly be following her. Maybe the worst part of it all was that she knew she deserved whatever fate would follow her.

One did not simply steal and erase a decade worth of research files and get away with it. The only things she hadn’t been able to get were the files on the lab’s internal servers, and even then, there was only so much they could do without what she took. Adding on the fact that she’d stolen the only working copy of a device that would revolutionise armed conflict, and she knew that death was the least of her concerns.

If she could just get to the dead drop, she could wash her hands of the entire affair and just disappear; it’d be so easy, too. Her contact had already scoured her existence from the internet and all governmental databases. Even now, there was a worm spreading across the local infrastructure seeking out any trace of her from CCTV systems. Once she got out of Canterlot and stayed clear of the organisation, she’d be in the clear. She’d be free.

The sound of armoured boots behind her chilled her blood. It was distant, but it was a sound she’d heard on the testing floor several times. Outside of the one she’d passed off to her contact, she was sure that she’d destroyed all the Transteam System production models. No, there was one I never got my hands on... That meant that he was closing in. I don’t even know what Fullbottle he chose though. All I know is which one it isn’t.

Although she knew where to go to get to the dead drop, it was starting to seem like she’d never get there in time. She should’ve had longer before they even noticed the sabotage, and yet she knew he was following her. I got careless somewhere along the line... or else, they were always watching... in which case... the drop-off point is likely a trap.

Pulling out her phone, she ducked down an alley. The teen opened the encrypted SMS app and immediately shot a message to the contact labelled Eraser. Hopefully, they were nowhere near the dead-drop, because while she had no doubt Eraser could handle themselves if the organisation deployed a few Guardian peace-keeper robots, leading him to them would not be good.

Am being followed. DD likely compromised. Plz advise. :girlGenius

Eraser: I heard. Even the police know something’s up.

Eraser: A network-wide kill-on-sight order’s been issued for you.

Eraser: Lucky for you, the worm’s doing its job, scrubbing your face from all DBs.

Eraser: Activate your phone’s GPS and I’ll come get you.

Negative. Edgelord in pursuit. Do not engage. :girlGenius

Project Re:Build data cannot fall into their hands. :girlGenius

It occurred to her what she’d have to do. The company couldn’t possibly know about this phone. She’d made sure to build it herself from a schematic, and never had it turned on near any company facilities. Just as much as the encrypted SMS app was to protect her contact’s identity, they could likely crack it with enough time. The phone couldn’t fall into their hands any more than the data and hardware she stole.

I’m gonna ditch the lockbox and my phone. :girlGenius

GPS is now on. :girlGenius

I don’t know what they’ll do to me... :girlGenius

But it’s possible they’ll use me as a test subject out of spite. :girlGenius

If I somehow get out of this... Can I count on your continued support? :girlGenius

Eraser: Naturally. I got you into this mess in the first place.

No, my dad did when he started this project and I got hired on to replace him. :girlGenius

Shutting off her phone’s screen, the young woman thrust her hand back into her messenger bag. She ran her thumb along the scanner for the lockbox within, and then quickly put her phone inside. Before closing the case, she withdrew a small bottle-shaped object, but kept her hand in the bag. Just by the feel of it, of the bird embossed, she knew exactly which one it was.

After dodging through several more alleys and running through traffic, she reached a dead end. Not that it was going to stop her; she knew exactly which part of town she was in, and exactly the sort of terrain that was on the rooftops. It’d be the perfect place to ditch the goods and lead Blood Hunter on a wild goose chase long enough for Eraser to retrieve it.

Finally, she withdrew her hand from the messenger bag and looked at the small translucent bottle full of a grey gas even darker than her skin. It was one of the Fullbottles she helped create and purify for the project. I wish I never got involved. This was meant to save lives, but they turned it all into a weapon of war.

On it was the image of a raven, marking it as the Raven Fullbottle. Although intended for use with the Rider System, initial research showed that specific bottles were capable of granting temporary superhuman power by agitating the gases inside by violently shaking it. Raven was a bottle tested for such properties, increasing the user’s agility and jump height. Flight would be too much for the human body unaided.

While she had managed to lose her pursuer momentarily, she knew he would be here before too long, so she shook the bottle and then gripped it tightly in her hand before jumping at the alley wall. The increased mobility allowed her to effortlessly rebound off the wall to the opposite side, rapidly gaining height. In no time at all, she ascended to the rooftops.

The girl wasted no time at all returning the bottle to the case with the others, and then ditching the case behind an air exchanger unit. Just as she readied herself to start running, an armoured figure hauled itself up over the edge. The armour was bulky, and looked as though it were constructed of metal pipes and wires, overlaid over a blood-red bodysuit. As he glared at her, the golden ‘eyes’ of the visor glowed slightly in the evening dimness.

“Oh, hey there, Edgelord-kun,” she said in a sing-song voice. Honestly, she hated the man’s guts, and knew that antagonising the sadist was normally a bad idea, but she needed him mad. If he was mad, he didn’t think, and that meant he wouldn’t think to check if she ditched the goods. “Fancy seeing you here! Did Mommy let you off your leash to play corporate enforcer tonight?”

“Miss Satonaka,” he growled in a modulated voice. “For the last time, it is Blood Hunter.” He grabbed a pistol-shaped device from his hip. Brandishing it, she could see the dark metal pipes and external wiring glisten in the gloom. “Hand over the Rider System research data now, and I promise not to make what happens next too unpleasant.”

Satonaka pretended to consider this for a moment as she raised her hands. Then her left hand drifted to her face, and she pulled her lower eyelid down to expose the red part with her middle finger. “You and Hag-san can both sit on it and spin,” she replied, sticking her tongue out. “It’s long gone by now anyway! I ditched it a kilometre back!”

With a growl, Blood Hunter pulled the trigger on his device. From the muzzle shot a bullet of concentrated steam. Normally, it would hardly be a threat, and dissipate harmlessly. Unfortunately, the steam was charged with the same sort of energy emitted by the gases found in the Fullbottle attached to the gun, just in front of the trigger guard.

Naturally, she threw herself into a roll. When the projectile slammed into the air exchanger and dented the metal, she started sprinting across the rooftops. It was hard splitting her attention between dodging over and under obstacles whilst simultaneously keeping her movement too unpredictable to hit. Good thing his aim is balls without the Steam Blade converting the Transteam Gun into the Steam Rifle. Firing while chasing only makes it worse!

Unfortunately, she’d been on the run for almost two hours at this point, and hadn’t had much opportunity to rest, so her muscles were starting to ache. It didn’t help that a black transport helicopter had somehow joined the pursuit without her notice. She watched as it pulled ahead of her on the line of rooftops she’d been following. Wonder how they got clearance to fly this low.

When the side door of the chopper opened up, several bipedal figures dropped down to the rooftop ahead of her. Guardians, then, since the edgelord back there is the only one with access to equipment that’d let a person take a fall like that. Sure enough, as she drew closer, she could see the armoured components and the bulky assault carbines and knew that she was screwed. Especially once there were several guns pointed at her.

Sliding to a stop, Satonaka raised her hands slowly and slowly sank to her knees. Even before the self-styled Blood Hunter caught up, one of the combat robots had her in zip-cuffs and was in the process of loading her onto the helicopter. Despite all the noise from the vehicle, she heard him clear as day. He was clapping his hands and laughing. “Oh, we are going to have so much fun, you and I. What will it take to make you turn into a Smash?”

Author's Note

A lot of the rider concepts will be explained either through story exposition or through research notes interspersed throughout future chapters. That said, here are some informational tidbits.

Guardians: In the World of Build, these robots were manufactured by Nanba Heavy Industries Ltd., and used as peace-keepers and to supplement police forces. In this Equestria Girls universe, they are manufactured by Canterlogic Securities, a government-contracted robotics and weapons firm, which received the design from a presently undisclosed third-party research firm.

Ms. Satonaka is, or was, the young head researcher for this third-party firm, having taken over for her father after his death. She held the main responsibility for his brainchild, Project Re:Build, which was a reconstruction of research data retrieved from a source her father never revealed to her. After her employer hijacked the project and started turning it towards dark purposes, her conscience got the better of her.

The Transteam Gun, or Transteam System, is a byproduct of Project Re:Build. It serves as both a transformation device and a weapon. It utilises a proprietary and highly classified energised gas, known to have metaphysical and transformative properties bordering on magical, to power its systems. With a specific bayonet-like attachment, the gun can become a rifle.

Smash will be explained in the next chapter as they are introduced. Basically, though, an interdimensional data-source is gonna cause the city of Canterlot a lot of grief. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about Pandora's Box or some sort of repeat of the Sky Wall Disaster.

Chapter 1 - Welcome to Best Match!

October 14th, 2013

The school building loomed over her like a monolith despite only being two storeys. There was no reason it should seem so big to her, but for some reason, large buildings made her anxious. Her caseworker suggested that it was likely based on some sort of trauma, but nobody knew enough about the girl for them to guess what could have happened. Not even a therapist had had any luck in unlocking any memories, although that was likely to be an ongoing thing.

See, as far as anyone in the city of Canterlot could tell, she just appeared out of nowhere three weeks ago. No name, no belongings, no ID—not even any sort of record that she’d ever entered the country. A police officer simply found her one night while on patrol, wandering about in a stupor wearing only a generic hospital gown. As far as she was concerned, her life began when she was seated in the back of a police cruiser with a blanket wrapped around her and a cup of cocoa in her hands.

At best, they could tell she was maybe sixteen, had foreign features, and spoke two languages. If not for the fact that she spoke English with a perfect local accent, they might have assumed she was some sort of illegal immigrant—or worse, a victim of human trafficking. Still, she’d been given a very extensive examination when she was brought in, bordering on invasive. Aside from some recently healed surgical scars on her abdomen and one side of her head, she was in perfect health with nothing missing.

With nothing else to do while the police tried to find her family, she was placed in a group-home, assigned a caseworker, and told to just hang in there. Of course, that also meant attending school, which in turn brought her here today. It was her first day at CHS, and to her that meant meeting with the principal and a tour. A part of her wished she had something better than just sweatpants and a band tee to present herself in, but with limited resources...

Sucking in a calming breath, she walked across the front of the school grounds. It seemed worth noting that the walkway looked as though a section of it had been completely replaced, and based on the fact that there was a circle of fresh sod laid out around that section of walkway, something had damaged the area recently. Similarly, the front door and surrounding wall looked as though they’d been replaced recently.

Her eyes wandered, looking for any other sort of damage that might indicate what’d happened to the front of the school and the walkway. Yet there was nothing. No sign of an explosion or anything. Is this building built over a sinkhole and in disrepair or something?

As she let herself in through the front door, she quickly found her way to the administrative office. A pale woman with her hair in a dark bun was seated at the front desk, seemingly absorbed in some paperwork. She didn’t even seem to notice the teenage girl as she entered. Given my palette, you’d think I’d stick out like a sore thumb.

“Erm, excuse me,” she interrupted, bowing her head after glancing at the nameplate. “Inkwell-san? I was told I should come here to meet with the principal, Celestia-san?”

The secretary pushed her glasses up her nose and then looked at her. “I don’t recognise you,” the lady replied with a curious hum. “Are you one of our students?”

With a shrug, the girl rubbed her hand along the shaved left side of her head as she straightened up. “My caseworker should have faxed in the enrolment paperwork,” she explained. “It should be under the name Nebula Moonlight?” So far as she could tell, it wasn’t actually her given name, but all the same, they needed to call her something, and Jane Doe wouldn’t do; as such her caseworker used her colouration to inspire a name. Nebula for the Orion Nebula to which her eyes matched, and Moonlight for her nightly shades.

After a few keystrokes, a satisfied smile crossed Ms. Inkwell’s face and she gave a nod. “Yes, I have your file here now, Ms. Moonlight.” She gestured to the door to her right. “Principal Celestia should be ready to see you, but please knock in case she’s in a call.”

Nebula bowed again and walked over to the indicated door and knocked. After a few moments, there was a muffled, “Come in!” With permission granted, she opened the door and stepped in, and gave a polite bow after shutting it behind her. The woman of pastel colouration pointed toward a seat. “Please, have a seat, Nebula.”

She took a seat in the offered chair and folded her hands upon her lap. “Thank you for permitting me to join so late in the year, Celestia-sensei,” spoke Nebula, following the speech-pattern that seemed natural to her. “I realise that I provide an awkward case to accommodate, but I am eager to prove that my being here will not be a hindrance.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow at her, but chose not to make any sort of commentary on the overly formal tone. Instead, the woman kept a friendly demeanour as she led into some basic information about the school and what a typical day would look like. A quick discussion ensued about the sorts of courses she was interested in. There were also some basic questions kept for administrative purposes: preferred name, any allergies, if she was working any part-time jobs, etc. She even made mention of a musical showcase that would be run as a charity fundraiser in a few weeks—not that Nebula had any clue if she could even play an instrument.

After what seemed like an hour, although it was more likely to be fifteen minutes, the principal took out a microphone that she assumed to be connected to the school’s PA system. “If not for all this paperwork, I’d show you around the school myself, but alas the principal’s job never ends,” she joked before depressing the button. “Sunset Shimmer, please report to the office. Sunset Shimmer to the office.” Ending the broadcast, she quickly added, “Luckily, one of our top students has already volunteered to give you a tour of the facilities. She’ll show you around, and then by that point it should be lunch. You’re welcome to dine in the cafeteria, and then come back here to get your locker and schedule. You can officially begin classes as a sophomore tomorrow.”

After a few minutes, the door opened, and in stepped an... interesting character. Between the leather jacket and boots, the girl didn’t seem to be the type to have high grades. Looks could, of course, be deceiving, and it was apparent to Nebula that this Sunset girl was anything but what she seemed. The confidence of her outfit wasn’t reflected on her face. And there’s this strange aura about her. There’s almost something... I don’t know... It feels familiar, and yet I’m sure we’ve never met.

“Sunset, this is Nebula Moonlight, the new student we discussed Friday afternoon,” Celestia introduced, “Nebula, this is Sunset Shimmer.”

Rising to her feet, Nebula gave a quick bow to the newcomer. “It is a pleasure to meet a fellow academic, Shimmer-san,” she greeted. “Shall we go?”

In an almost defensive manner, Sunset raised her hands. “Please, just call me Sunset.” When given a nod of understanding, the redhead smiled. “Let’s show you around, then.”

It became quickly apparent to Nebula that something wasn’t quite right. As her tour progressed, she noticed a lot of glaring and whispering while passing students in the hall. All eyes were on them both when Sunset was showing her the library, and it was starting to make her a bit uncomfortable. How best to address it, though?

She didn’t want to assume that it was because she was of foreign heritage; she’d rather hope for the best than expect the worst of strangers, and yet she could hardly think a new student joining the school late into the semester was that unusual. This is why I prefer working with adults... That thought brought a frown to her face, as she had no indication as to why she would even have such a thought.

“Sunset-san, I must ask,” she said with some trepidation as she was being led toward the computer lab. “Is my appearance so unusual? Everywhere we go, I see people glaring and whispering. Is the student body perhaps xenophobic?”

From her position behind the academic badgirl, she could not see her face, and yet that question seemed to make her freeze up. For a few moments, Nebula thought she had said something insulting to her guide. When Sunset turned around, however, it was not anger or irritation on her face; it was dejection.

“It’s not you they’re bothered by,” Sunset explained with a sigh. She was unable to meet Nebula’s gaze, and somehow, though the girl was taller than her, she seemed very small at that moment. “It’s me. I have... a reputation. I was unkind and manipulative for a long time, to the point that I earned the moniker Queen Bitch of CHS. More recently, I was forced to confront the monster I’d become after earning the title Demon Queen at the Fall Formal.”

Although she thought she ought to say something, nothing came to mind. She couldn’t exactly say, ‘I see,’ because she really didn’t. Nothing about her body-language indicated that she had it in her to be cruel, and yet she seemed to believe this of herself. Plus, she only had the one side of things to base her opinion off of. Others might be able to provide more context, but the way she was throwing herself under the bus did not match.

“Po-people are trying to help me be a better person, but it’s not exactly easy to forgive years of manipulation and lies,” she continued. It almost seemed to Nebula that Sunset was on the verge of tears. “Maybe this was a mistake... This is hardly the welcome you deserve.”

What am I supposed to do in a situation like this? Nebula pondered as she watched Sunset withdraw further into herself. It’s clear that she feels guilty for what she says she’s done, and to volunteer to show a newcomer around shows she wants to make positive change, right?

Hesitantly, Nebula stepped forward and put her arms around Sunset. “The fault for this is not yours,” she said, patting the taller girl on the back. “It is not you who has made this unpleasant, and if they cannot get over themselves long enough to project a welcoming aura for a newcomer, then perhaps they are not worth getting upset over.”

She retreated only enough so that she could lift Sunset’s chin and make her look at her. “I will not call you a liar if you speak true of your past offences,” she admitted in a soft voice, “but if they are willing to make a stranger uncomfortable merely for the fault of having an outcast playing guide, it speaks more of the student body’s character than of yours.” With a bit of a giggle, she added, “They are but children still. If they want to go out into the world and eventually face HR for creating a hostile work environment, that is their prerogative.”

It was slight, but Sunset was definitely beginning to smile. “You sound like you’re speaking from experience,” she replied with a chuckle of her own as Nebula gave her more space. “Thanks, though.”

That got a shrug from the shorter girl. “I wouldn’t know about the workplace thing,” she admitted, never losing her smile. “Celestia-san might not have told you, but my memory starts mere weeks ago in the back of a police cruiser. The rest of my life is a blank to me.” She peered through one of the inset windows on a nearby door. It was a computer lab full of various students and a teacher. It seemed like they were learning about web design. “It may not be exactly the same, but I can empathise with the difficulties of having to start over.”

Sunset took her phone from her jacket pocket and glanced at the time. “Speaking of starting over,” she began. “How about we finish up the tour and go get some lunch. I can even introduce you to the friends who are helping me start over, so you’ll know some people when you start tomorrow.”

As they continued the tour, the two slipped into a conversation about the sciences, and she in turn learned more about Sunset. While Nebula was more interested in chemistry, biology and robotics, Sunset was interested in astronomy and physics. When the former expressed regret that she couldn’t have all three courses in one semester the latter playfully called her a nerd.

It was something of a shame, Nebula decided, that there was no room in CHS’s auto shop class. It seemed they both shared an interest in mechanics. Just as well, I don’t even have a motorcycle to work on. Note to self, ask Sunset-san if you may see her project bike at some point.

The last stop was the combination gymnasium/auditorium. It seemed like something that would be a staple in any high school, and yet it was a necessary stop nonetheless. Sunset made sure she knew where the locker rooms were, and then pointed out the phys-ed teacher. Coach Iron Will looked to be a brute of a man, and was apparently rough on all of the students, but it didn’t deter Nebula much. If anything, she welcomed a challenge.

Lunch was an interesting affair. Another oddity about Sunset was that she was apparently pescatarian; it was just a small thing, but it too did not line up with the bad girl image, nor the past she’d explained. It was a comforting point of relation; the first time the group-home tried to feed Nebula red meat, she’d had a panic attack and ultimately thrown up, so having someone else meat averse around was a definite plus.

Her friends were something else, too. None of them seemed like the sorts of people to get along, and practically seemed like the embodiment of high school drama stereotypes. There was a jock, a farmer, a diva, an eco kid, and then... Pinkie Pie. All of them had that strange feeling of familiarity about them, as well.

First you had Rainbow Dash pencilled in under jock. She was loud, arrogant, and didn’t seem to think much of Nebula—something about too many eggheads. Apparently she was on almost every damn sports team in the school. If not for the fact that she thought it might spoil the surprise, she’d point out she actually enjoyed running. I wonder if that’s natural, or if she dyes her hair to match her name?

The farmer was Applejack, or simply AJ. Her grandmother was the kind old lady who worked the food counter. Apparently her family ran the local orchard, too. Blunt, but she had a bit more tact than Rainbow seemed to. If she goes to college, I imagine it’ll be for horticulture or agri-sci.

Rarity was nice, although how much of that was pity for Nebula’s situation was up in the air. Legitimately, she wasn’t sure how many people would just offer to throw together a few outfits for a complete stranger and not expect anything in return. It didn’t help how loudly the diva was when she reacted to the whole amnesia thing. Wonder if that isn’t gonna cause Sunset-san more grief from people with grudges. I can just imagine people indignant on my behalf for her imaginary advantage-taking.

Fluttershy was very quiet. She definitely lived up to her name, and all Nebula really knew about her is that she loves animals and volunteers at a shelter. If I had to guess, her field would definitely be veterinary science.

Finally, there was Pinkie Pie. No. Just no. I love sugar as much as the next scientist, but I’d have to run a study on her to determine how she can eat so much sugar. Indeed, the girl had nothing but sweets for her lunch, and yet she seemed just as lithe as Rarity or Fluttershy. If she starts calling me Nebby, I might scream. That was the other thing about her. She was a very high-energy individual.

Alas, lunch came to an end and she had to bid Sunset and her friends farewell. Without anything else to do, she headed towards the office. More than once along the way, students approached her and tried to warn her away from associating with Sunset. It didn’t make her any more inclined to listen to them.

When she got to the office, the secretary gave her a rather strange look. “Ms. Moonlight, something very odd happened this morning while you were out getting your tour with Ms. Shimmer,” she explained as she gave Nebula a sheet with her timetable and a combination lock. “A courier showed up looking very confused, claiming he had a parcel for a student.” She set a box wrapped in brown shipping paper on her desk. “Do you know anything about this?”

Leaning in close, Nebula glanced at the box. Sure enough, her name—at least the one she’d been given in place of what her real one was—had been written across the top. “That is... rather curious, I admit.” With a bit of a shrug, she slipped her new lock into the pocket of her sweats. Her locker number and the combination for the lock were both written on a scrap of paper stapled to her schedule, so she folded that and slipped it into the pocket too. “No return address either... Maybe it’s a care package?”

“Regardless, I should hope I don’t need to remind you that it is inappropriate to have your mail forwarded to the school,” Ms. Inkwell remarked as she watched Nebula pick up the package. “If you find out who sent it, please remind them of this fact as well.”

“Will do,” she agreed with a bow. “I apologise for any inconvenience this might have caused.”

With that, she excused herself from the office and began to walk through the hall toward the exit. She didn’t at all recognise the penmanship on the parcel, but that didn’t exactly mean much. All that it did mean was that it didn’t belong to her caseworker or the police officer who found her. I wonder...

Although she had all the time in the world to simply wait for a bus, the group home wasn’t so far that she couldn’t simply walk there from school. It gave her time to get inside her own head for a bit. After all, she would be getting very busy in the coming days, what with all the catch-up work she’d likely have to do.

Tucking the somewhat heavy parcel under her arm, she retrieved her class schedule. At a glance, it seemed to be broken into several standard periods, the same time every day. First period was world history, followed by AP science, and then mathematics. There was a forty-five minute lunch period, and then comp-sci, English, and phys-ed at the end of the day.

Science and maths should be a breeze to do make-up work, but history, English and comp-sci could take some time, depending on what sort of busywork they make of it, she thought with a smirk as she weaved her way through the busy downtown. The hard part depends on my classmates. I don’t really care if they give me a hard time because of Sunset-san, but I don’t want to become a burden on her or her friends. They seem like nice, if eccentric people. God knows I need friends, and if they all get along with a former bully and each other, maybe I...

Canterlot seemed like a pretty safe city, all things considered. If you discounted the possible human trafficking involved in Nebula’s sudden appearance, and the recent monster sightings, you could even say that it was one of the safest cities in Amareica. It was a friendly city where you could walk down the street and get a smile from most folk.

Catching sight of herself in a store window, she shook her head. I should really see about getting some clothes that actually suit me. She paused as she wondered what would look good on her. A graphic tee wouldn’t be too bad, or maybe a band tee of her own choosing would be good, but sweats weren’t comfy. Maybe shorts and leggings? The converse sneakers she’d been given were maybe the only things she’d been given that didn’t clash with her taste. Wonder where I could get my hands on a lab coat though?

Yet as she travelled, something occurred to her. Things were quiet—too quiet for her liking. It wasn’t as if she’d gone deaf. It was more like she’d simply wandered into some alternate reality where nobody was around. Not even the animals were there. She coughed as a particularly potent bit of exhaust washed over her.

Wrenching herself free of her thoughts, she looked around. She found that she was standing near a playground along a run-down suburban street. Some of the cars even looked straight up abandoned. Wait a minute, this is nowhere near the part of town I was just in...

Her eyes widened in sudden fear when Nebula couldn’t recall how she got there. If she had lost time, anything could have happened to her. It might not even have been the same day, and that was what terrified her most; she was already missing more than a decade of her life. The only thing that grounded her was that she still held the parcel she received at the school.

In that moment, she desperately wished that her caretakers at the group home had seen fit to give her a cell phone, if for no other reason than to call for help. Even just a ride home would be nice... but no. Of course a socially awkward amnesiac teenager wouldn’t have a phone!

“So, you’re the one, huh?” came a heavily distorted voice from the playground behind her. “You don’t really seem like much, but then again, neither did the scientist.”

The sight that greeted her was an armoured figure in a red bodysuit, sprawled atop the roof of one of the play structures like some sort of cat. A patchwork of metal plates, pipes, and wires encompassed the torso, with the odd plate affixed to the thighs and shins. The helmet they wore almost reminded Nebula of a horse’s head, but for a tapered smokestack jutting from the forehead.

A visor shaped like a pair of golden eyes was all that kept her from meeting the stranger’s gaze. “What will your choice be, I wonder,” they mused aloud as a loud crash echoed down the street. They sat up and just watched her, their right forearm resting on their knee in a too-casual manner. “Will you run until you’re caught, or will you stand your ground and fight for your life?”

The sight of a car soaring through the air, tumbling harmlessly past her down the street, greeted Nebula when she looked for the source of the crash. If she thought the stranger atop the playground equipment was well-armoured, the creature slowly stomping its way toward her was a veritable tank. Although its legs could’ve been compared to one of those Canterlogic Guardian combat robots she’d seen on the news, its upper body looked more like a blue armoured fist clutching an orange metal orb, with two thin antennae jutting from the front of it.

It swung one of its two heavily armoured arms into a sedan with a loud crash. Unlike the previous car, this one slammed through the front of a boarded up house. Honestly, she hoped there were no squatters in there, because by the time EHS arrived, it might be too late. Not that I could even call them right now.

She turned back to the armoured figure watching her. “Who are you?” It took longer than she’d like to admit for their question to actually register. “Wait, fight? Are you some kind of moron? I’m just a kid!”

The distorted chuckle that escaped the stranger’s mask sent chills down her spine. “Me, I’m just... well, I suppose you could call me a pot stirrer,” they explained in what she assumed to be a casual tone. “I’ve had my eye on you since you escaped their lab, and I thought, ‘Here’s a bright girl who has what it takes to fight back, if only she had the tools.’”

Somehow, the box under her arm felt suddenly heavier. “This is from you, then...” she said in a shaky voice.

With a nod, the self-proclaimed pot-stirrer inclined their head toward the oncoming creature. “Mostly... And now you’re here, and he’s here.” When the glowing visor turned back toward her, she could practically feel them smirking at her. “And unlike all the previous times a Smash has appeared in Canterlot, the Guardians are all experiencing some very inconvenient software issues.” They gestured at the box under her arm. “If you want to know who you really are, take up the mantle of the Kamen Rider, solve the mystery of Project Re:Build, and stop the Smash at the source. Otherwise, run and leave your past behind.”

The choice seemed like a no-brainer. There was no way there was anything in the parcel that would give her a fighting chance against that walking tank. Dangling a mystery and the chance at finding out who she really was had to be a cruel trick intended to get her killed. Nebula wasn’t a fighter!

Nevertheless... If there’s a chance to learn more, it feels wrong not to take it!

Despite the oncoming monster, and her instincts screaming for her to run, she found herself walking over to a park bench. Tearing open the box, she found a brand-new messenger bag, a laptop with charger, and a strange lockbox with a fingerprint scanner. The first two couldn’t have held the secret to defeating the thing, which meant it was inside the hardcase.

If it’s addressed to me, then... She pressed her left thumb against the scanner. There was an audible beep followed by a click as the top of the case popped open. Inside, she saw a custom cell phone with a strange slot, a bizarre contraption with a crank and two slots, as well as four coloured bottles that seemed to perfectly fit those slots.There were also several bottles that seemed to be empty.

She gazed at the device with a critical eye. It was simultaneously foreign, and yet the sight of it elicited a great pain in the depths of her being. Picking it up, Nebula held it against her waist, the side with the crank pointed to her right, with the slots facing the front. The moment it made contact, a golden strap shot out from one side, wrapping itself around her seamlessly.

“How do I...” she muttered in a dazed voice as she picked two bottles out of the case. One bearing the image of a bird had a near-black cloudy substance within. The other had a milky substance within, a scythe etched in red on the bottle. The last two—butter-yellow with a horse etching and sky blue with a revolver etching—she left behind. “Why is this so... familiar?”

Without requiring any explanation she began to shake both bottles to agitate the contained substance. As the Smash drew closer, she began to feel the same sense of excitement she felt whenever she read about something scientific. Even though her brain was screaming in terror as the thing finally noticed her, she found herself saying, “Shall we play mad scientist?” before twisting the caps on the bottles and jamming them into the slots—bird on the right, and blade on the left.

«Raven!»

«Scythe!»

«Best Match!»

The voice the belt emitted sounded like a cheerful young woman. Spurred on by the voice, she began to crank the device several times. From its side, several transparent tubes emerged moving ahead and behind her to form a framework suspending several pieces of armour, a metal runner manifesting from nowhere to either side along the ground.

Suspended before her were glossy charcoal casing that would cover the left half of her head, the right side of her torso and arm, and her left leg. Behind her was a mirrored white set, with red accents. Notably, the left shoulder and right foot bore a slight bladed appearance. And is that a combat skirt? How it would actually get onto her seemed completely unscientific, but all the same...

«Are you ready?»

She ducked into a crouch, one arm stretched behind her while her left fist met the ground before her, then standing to match the armour’s position. It made no sense for her to know the apparent trigger phrase, but as soon as she spoke the word, “Henshin!” the armour before her and behind her slid down the track to slam shut over her. The unarmoured parts of her were rather quickly encompassed in a seamless black bodysuit. a mixture of steam and black feathers shot out from the armour as its two halves sealed perfectly around her.

«The Grim Harbinger! Yabei!»

Nebula stared down at her now-gloved hands, opening them and closing them in wonderment. Power like she’d never felt before coursed through her veins, and her body felt so light. The unease she felt at potentially fighting slowly bled away, and distantly, she thought she heard her unexpected audience clapping. I... I can do this!

When she glanced back down at the case, she found the other two coloured bottles, and two of the empties gone. Now they were at either side of her hip, clipped into straps affixed to her belt. I have so many questions right now, but for the time being I’ll accept the convenience of it.

“That’s what I like to see!” called her watcher. “Now show me you’re worthy to inherit the Rider System, my little crow.”

[Insert Start: Ignite the Night]

She didn’t turn to face them, instead focusing on the Smash. Now, it didn’t seem so undefeatable. If anything, it almost seemed... confused—like it couldn’t understand why she wasn’t running. The two simply stared at one another, daring the other to make the first move.

The creature made the first move, lumbering forward, one of its bulky metal arms drawn back. It was one hell of a haymaker to open up with, and based on how it knocked around the cars, it probably would hit harder than a truck. It should have inspired fear in the teen... and yet it didn’t.

To Nebula, the Smash seemed somehow slower than it had before. She could see the punch coming and the path it would take. It in turn allowed her to duck under the blow, fluidly sliding beneath its singing arm. A few punches into its side—which, based on the armoured beast’s heavy plating, probably should’ve hurt—coupled with the creature’s own momentum to set it off balance, which she quickly took advantage of; using the bladed protrusion on her right boot, she hooked its leg out from under it, sending it sprawling to the ground.

Its mass worked against it, causing a small crater in the small walkway upon which they fought. Thinking it unlikely to be agile due to its bulk and heavy armour, she drew closer, even as she puzzled out how to finish it off. This proved to be a mistake, as it rolled sideways towards her, lashing out with an elbow strike that knocked her backwards; her body carved a small trench in the ground before she finally stopped in the middle of the street.

As she pushed herself back to her feet, she saw that the smash was gone. Further beyond that spot, she saw the androgynous, armoured observer watching with interest, a phone clutched in one hand. Actually, it looked like they were subtly pointing up with their free hand. Wait, what?

She looked up and saw the creature barrelling toward her out of the sky. Once again, its arm was outstretched to deliver a haymaker. Unlike the previous attempt, she only had moments to react, and she threw herself sideways down the street. She managed to stay upright just long enough to watch it create an even larger crater in the street.

“This isn’t working... a scythe is a bladed instrument,” she mused, her hand shooting to the blue bottle at her hip. “It might not be so bad if I had an actual weapon, but I don’t have the power to punch through its armour.” She popped the left bottle out of her belt, and replaced it with the blue one. In the same fluid motion, she clipped the Scythe bottle to her belt.

«Magnum!»

Once more she began cranking the handle at the side of her belt. Again, plastic tubes shot out of the device, forming blue armour-pieces to the left of her. “Cross change!” she shouted, causing the replacement armour parts to slam into her from the side. Aside from the colouring and the smoother shoulder pauldron, the armour at her elbow took on the appearance of a revolver’s hammer. Similarly, atop her forearm there was a metal shroud from which a barrel protruded.

Finally, some firepower!

Before she had the opportunity to puzzle out how to make a shot, the Smash tore through the rim of the crater. It was heading right toward her, and she found herself showered with large chunks of pavement. Shying away, trying to protect herself with her right arm, a wing with metallic feathers emerged from her back.

It shielded her from the majority of the disturbed tarmac, but most importantly, it masked her next action. A smile formed behind her helmet as the wing retreated back into the armour. Once again, she ducked in order to avoid a deadly blow, but instead of flowing around her opponent this time, she struck it with a vicious uppercut.

The moment her arm fully extended into the blow, a loud crack could be heard. A sphere of dark energy emerged from the barrel on her forearm, impacting the Smash just below where she reckoned its face to be. Launched up into the air by the sudden force of the blast, it could do nothing but flail helplessly as it soared ever higher into the sky.

Crank the belt, and jump into the sky, a tiny voice in the back of her mind told her. Let instinct guide the rest.

Choosing to follow her instincts, she did just that; she cranked the handle several times and then jumped. Kicking off with the charcoal grey left leg, she found herself rocketing off into the sky after the smash. There was no rational way for a human to commit such a feat and yet in seconds she found herself just above the Smash.

«Vortex Finish!»

With the announcement of her belt, she slammed her left fist down into the creature’s back. Although the creature started tumbling back down toward the ground, the blast from her arm-cannon flew behind her and gave her the extra thrust needed to slowly exceed the Smash’s own downward momentum. Energy formed around her right leg, so as she accelerated toward the creature, she lashed out with a fiery kick.

Her superhero landing should’ve shattered every bone in her body, but something about the protective suit didn’t seem to agree; the impact jarred her and she imagined she might be feeling that later. The smash wasn’t so lucky. It landed in the crater it made before, kicking up yet another cloud of debris.

Operating purely on instinct at this point, she stood and withdrew one of the empty bottles from the strap on her waist. Walking toward the crater, she threw the bottle in the air and caught it several times. “What am I supposed to do with this, I wonder?” she said aloud, crouching at the crater’s edge. “Thoughts?”

[Insert End]

As she twisted the cap with her thumb and pointed it at the still-twitching Smash, a cloud of red mist surged out of the Smash’s body and into the empty bottle. There should’ve been no way it all could all fit into that tiny bottle, especially as the body of the creature disintegrated; at the same time, it almost seemed like it wanted to be contained.

When the last vestiges of the monster disappeared, there was a man in a hospital gown, covered in scars and prison tattoos. He was still alive, although he was coated in a sheen of sweat. Her gaze drifted from the man to the bottle in her hand, which had swollen up and taken on a black spider web pattern. What is this gas, and how does this bottle differ from the other four?

“There you have it, little crow,” she heard the distorted voice of her watcher and mysterious benefactor beside her. Before she could even turn to look, the equine-themed metal-punk warrior hopped down into the crater and touched the unconscious former monster. “Your big mystery: What is the gas? How does it work? Most important of all, why does it turn men into monsters.”

From their waist the armoured figure withdrew a vaguely pistol-shaped device and pointed it at the sky. With the pull of a trigger, the pair inside the crater were shrouded in a thick smokescreen that crackled with energy. When that smoke cleared, the two had vanished. That left Nebula all alone on a street that looked like a warzone.

With a sigh, she returned to the bench where she’d left her ‘care package’, and placed the strange bottle in the hardcase. The moment she removed the two bottles attached to her belt—what the stranger referred to as the Build System—the armour dispersed into motes of light. The weight of the bottles that had been on the straps at her hips transferred into her pockets, and finally the belt released itself.

She put all of it back into the hardcase and shut it. She then transferred the case and laptop into the messenger bag, where she found a surprise: a quality lab coat in lavender, and a note on a sheet of paper. There was an emblem on the breast pocket of the coat that struck her as very familiar. Finally, she moved her class schedule and padlock into the bag as well.

Putting on the coat and slinging the bag across her torso, Nebula began to walk back to the group home. It was gonna be a long walk, so she examined the note. I wonder what it’s about.

Dear Ms. Moonlight

My name is Argyle Starshine, and I am the proprietor of the Brighthouse Café. Your name came up in a discussion with one of our regulars, and from there I came to know of your story. One of our waitresses, and one of my daughter’s best friends, is no stranger to amnesia. Since she is like a second daughter, the similarity between your story and hers resonated with me.

Since you are starting from zero in a new school, we have chosen to sponsor the furtherment of your education. At first my wife and I considered simply donating the bag and all of the school supplies one might need, but then one of our employees volunteered to donate her old college laptop. Attached to this note is a gift card with what should be enough to get you started for the semester.

Although you are not obliged, I hope that you will consider stopping by the cafe some time. We all would very much like to meet you in person.

Sincerely,

Argyle Starshine

Owner of the Brighthouse Café

Author's Note

I wonder if that’s natural, or if she dyes her hair to match her name?

This was originally written as 'I wonder if the carpet matches the drapes?' I however chose to change that because it felt too vulgar.

On unusual quotation marks:
« »: The use of guillements is intended to indicate call-outs from drivers (see Below) or rider weapons. These are an aspect present in the show intended both as an interest hook to call attention, as well as the obvious "We want to sell toys angle." It wouldn't be a Kamen rider fic without its callouts. When the secondary rider is introduced, the call-outs will become colour-coded.
「」: In Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, these marks are used for quotation just as we use the standard quotation marks. Although not present in this chapter, dialogue enclosed in corner brackets will indicate that the speaker is speaking in ~~Japanese~~ Neighponese.

What is a driver?
Simply put, a Kamen Rider's transformation belt is typically referred to as a driver, a trait that began in the 2003 series Kamen Rider Faiz. Transformation belts are sometimes technologically based, while some have more arcane origins, or some are even a mix of the two. They usually work in tandem with various trinkets/gimmicks that allow for a rider to adjust their parameters or become stronger.

The driver that the yet-to-be christened Kamen Rider Karasu is the Build Driver, appropriated from the series this fic takes heavy inspiration from.

Its primary transformation trinkets, currently referred to in the story simply as bottles, are known as Fullbotles. These devices are containment vessels for purified 'Nebula Gas' [which Nebby will be completely enthused about when she discovers this fact], which can produce unique effects when used with rider weapons or the Build Driver, or grant limited metaphysical boons if held and shaken while not transformed.

In Kamen Rider Build, Fullbottles come in two main flavours. Biotic and Abiotic; or living and non-living things. A successful transformation with the Build Driver typically needs Abiotic and Biotic components, although by properties explained later in the story, two same-type can be used. When specific pairings of bottles are used, it produces a Best Match, which has a power boost in its applicable areas, although it doesn't mean a scythe is gonna become effective against a Strong Smash.

Karasu will be continuing that trend using the two halves theme, although I will primarily be focusing on a more narrower spectrum of 'life-forms' and 'weapons'. Best Matches in this story will contain references, and it is possible for a bottle to have more than one Best Match. This will also tie into something not uncommon in the Kamen Rider crossover movies: Legacy Rider trinkets, which grants a rider the powers of one from another series. For example, perhaps Fox/Magnum would be a best match...

The story will not be making use of the Sclash Driver, so expect some wild surprises where Fullbottles are concerned. Especially since we don't have Misora Isurugi and her special bracelet to purify the Nebula Gas extracted from a Smash.

Smash!
This chapter was almost named 'Welcome to Smash!'
That is because it serves as an introduction to the creatures.

The Smash are humans who have been injected with the Nebula Gas as part of [REDACTED]'s experiments. Nebula Gas is able to trigger rapid cell division and turn a human into a monster. Each Smash is the basis for an equivalent Fullbottle. A Smash has superhuman abilities, but possess little to no human consciousness.

The Smash fought by Nebula in this chapter is a variation on the Strong Smash. We will not be following the show's order, and since I am taking my own twists where Fullbottles are concerned, there may even be smash not depicted on that wiki page.

Who do you think will become the secondary rider several chapters from now? Will they be a half-and-half rider like Nebula, or do you think they will have a special adaptor for their own Build Driver that will let them focus on training with just one Fullbottle, as did Build's deuteragonist, Ryuga Banjo?

Edit: Yes, AI music is typically gross; finding a song that I felt met the vibe, however proved difficult, and then that popped up in my feed last night.

Chapter 2 - It's Like Magic

The first week of Nebula’s time at Canterlot High was what could be generously described as productive. If she was being more honest, she would be more likely to use the term distracting. History came to her as she thought things out, her sciences and maths were a breeze, and it wasn’t like there was much catch-up work someone could do for phys-ed. By the end of the weekend, all that stuff was done with.

English, on the other hand, challenged her. It wasn’t that she was bad with the English language; it came to her just as naturally as Neighponese, and she didn’t know which was her first tongue. No, it was the enforced overanalysis of every little thing. She couldn’t remember her past experiences in school, but as far as she was concerned, it was a colossal waste of her time. She had to read an entire book and provide a literary analysis for the blandest piece of literature ever.

More importantly, time spent with the catch-up work meant that she wasn’t able to examine the mysterious devices. It wasn’t just the mysterious transformation device and bottles that intrigued her; the phone that had been included in the lockbox was clearly a highly customised, top of the line smart-phone, but that wasn’t what was so odd about it. The strange slot on it seemed to match up with the bottles in the case. Something told her that checking that feature out indoors would probably be bad.

The phone clearly belonged to some sort of scientist, and although any personal data like SMS messages and photos had been thoroughly scrubbed, there were several encrypted documents stored on the phone’s memory. Whoever it was had been very thorough in protecting the data, and nothing short of finding the password for each file—likely different for each one—would reveal their contents.

That wasn’t to say it was hopeless; one of them was some kind of introduction that may very well have been intentionally written for her. Put plainly, Project Re:Build was initiated by one Dr. Daisuke Satonaka, a Neighponese-Amareican physicist who, up until that point, was part of a team studying what seemed to be an unstable tear in the fabric of reality itself. A transmission from within the tear, found to be written in Neighponese, revealed the existence of a curious energised gas that possessed near magical transformative abilities.

The gas, referred to in the documentation as ‘Nebula Gas’, could not be normally manufactured, as it possessed several compounds and elements not native to Earth. It was not explained how they managed to synthesise the Nebula Gas, and frankly, she almost worried about the ethical implications of that. You don’t just accidentally find that sort of thing out.

With the transformative and metaphysical properties of the gas, Dr. Satonaka began experimentation into matter compression and transmutation. His ultimate goal was to recreate tools found in the transmission that could help in disaster scenarios, such as a suit that amplified the capabilities of its wearer. Nebula—and she was quite aware how ironic that she now shared her name with this gas—was almost certain that this was the first step toward the suit that she’d worn and fought that Smash in, and that the gas in the bottles were some form of refined Nebula Gas.

She wasn’t able to glean much else from the document itself, but an addendum that was likely added well after the fact noted that Dr. Satonaka’s daughter inherited the project when he was killed in a lab accident; she went on to create several apps and sensors related to the detection, tracking, and analysis of the Nebula Gas, which were apparently installed on the phone itself. ‘Useful for your quest, little crow, isn’t it?’ It was that final line that indicated who had made that document open access.

That had of course led to a Sunday evening testing said apps out. Her theory about the bottles was pretty close to the mark, too. The bottle containing the gas extracted from the Smash gave off somewhat different readings than the other four bottles, and seemed to exist in a more unstable state, perhaps due to impurity. Detection was hit or miss, though. The lockbox in which she kept the belt and two of the pure bottles—it seemed prudent to keep two in easy reach when possible—was apparently able to mask the energy signatures.

Beyond what little she’d been able to glean research-wise, Nebula was managing to get by. It wasn’t an easy thing, however. Although people had made efforts to warn her away from Sunset on the day of her tour, the first actual day of classes was met with cool indifference from most of her new peers. Rarity, who shared her first-period history class, was kind enough to inform her that the rumour mill had run wild with an overheard snippet of the conversation she had with Sunset, which purported her to be an insufferable know-it-all with about as much empathy as her guide. That in turn was quickly followed up with a compliment to her new accoutrement.

Then she had two back-to-back periods with Sunset, in which she apologised profusely for what was now happening. It left her wondering what happened to her to make her like this. At least they were able to make quick work of some group-work in both classes. Those small interactions, and joining Sunset and her friends at lunch was all that got her through the surprisingly lonely fourth and fifth period classes.

Gym was probably the best part of her day, much to her bafflement. Maybe it was just because Applejack and Rainbow Dash were there to mitigate some of the hostility, but it drove her to push herself. See those two had something of a good natured rivalry, and when Iron Will decided to lead the students on a jog around the neighbourhood, the pair turned it into a footrace.

What was I supposed to do when Dash told me ‘See you at the finish line, nerd!’ Evidently, nobody had expected her to keep pace with the pair. There’d even been some staring and a slackened jaw from Rainbow. It was when she finally explained that even if she wanted to end up working in a lab, there was no reason not to keep herself fit. That seemed to raise Dash’s opinion of her by a few points at least.

Things played out roughly the same way over the next several days. After fighting the Smash on Monday, she was somewhat thankful for the normalcy. Every moment not spent fighting was another moment of peace. Somehow, she got the feeling that the peaceful days wouldn’t last.

October 21st, 2013

It was Monday. To be precise, it was lunch hour. For Sunset Shimmer, it was just another trial in patience and humility. In the weeks since her disastrous fall from grace, she’d been doing her level best to keep her head down and to not provoke anything, but it was hard; Mondays made it no easier.

Most students were seemingly content just to glare or whisper. A few of the rougher students, however, weren’t content leaving her be. When students like Gilda or Lightning Dust thought they could get away with it, they’d trip her up or push her. Similarly, she was getting threatening notes slipped through the gaps in her locker. Most of it, she let roll off her back; after all, there was only so much anybody could do to her without invoking the wrath of the administration. No, their goal was to provoke her into lashing out and getting in trouble herself.

It was something she could handle without much problem. After all, she’d faced similar treatment at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns as a result of her being ‘gutter trash’ that was ‘making the princess waste her time’. Getting even had been especially cathartic back then, and that game of attack and counter-attack had prepared her well for her time at Canterlot High and her subsequent rise to the top.

Seeing the way the student body was reacting to Nebula Moonlight, however, wasn’t so easy. Her only ‘crime’ was having been guided around the school by the former unicorn, and then trying to cheer her up. Rather, Sunset didn’t think they were doing it to hurt the newcomer, but rather make her miserable enough to stay away. The other five were too popular among the students, but Nebula was an outsider who, at a cursory glance, could be written off as not fitting in.

As she left the line at the food counter with her vegetable soup and fresh bread, Sunset considered whether she or the others really needed to do anything. If it was ultimately hurting Nebula, she’d feel obliged to help her, and yet by all indications, she was apathetic towards her treatment. What was it that she’d said about them?

“They are but children still.” It also occurred to Sunset that the girl might not be entirely cognisant of the fact that she was being bullied. There were moments where Nebula seemed unsure of how to behave around others. It could have been a result of her memory loss, having to relearn certain cues and the like, but it reminded Sunset of her own time spent observing and adapting to living as a human.

It’d make a certain degree of sense, and some of the facts seemed to line up. On the night of the Fall Formal she appeared in this world as if from the Aether. Being older in Equestria might account for her more mature point of view, as well as the social awkwardness. Going from interacting with nothing but adults to being surrounded by middle schoolers when I arrived wasn’t easy.

While amnesia might be a cover, there were a few data points that conflicted with that theory. There would have been no way for some random civilian to come through the portal; it’d been in a rather well-guarded castle, and she didn’t think there’d have been time to call in a S.M.I.L.E. agent. There was also what Rarity had told her about how well Nebula was doing in history; it’d taken Sunset a lot of work to get her own historical knowledge up to snuff, whereas the newcomer was taking to it like a fish to water. Similarly, she was simply too steady on her feet.

Part of it’s probably just wanting another Equestrian around I can relate with, she thought as she approached the table that her friends—and wasn’t that still a weird thought—were gathered. Pinkie, AJ, Dash, and Fluttershy were all seated on one side, their backs facing her, while Nebula was seated beside Rarity.

While everyone else was eating something from the cafeteria, the subject of her concerns was idly chewing some chocolate biscuit sticks that probably came from the red box jutting out of her lab coat’s breast pocket. Although she seemed to be passively listening to the others talk about Halloween, it was clear that she was more interested in whatever she was reading on that strange phone of hers. Had she already eaten, or was she just having coffee and sweets in lieu of lunch?

“Hey, Sunset!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as the Equestrian took a seat next to Nebula. The athlete seemed to give the group’s unofficial new member a cautious look before seemingly nodding to herself. “You need to come by the music room after school! There’s something you’ve gotta see!”

Sunset fixed her colourful friend with a curious look. “Oh, are you guys participating in the musical showcase?” she asked, picking up her spoon and beginning her meal. “I think I’ve got time.” She glanced at her neighbour and prodded. “Will you be coming too?”

“Music isn’t my thing,” the girl next to her absently remarked around her biscuit stick, although she didn’t seem all that convincing wearing a tee depicting the logo for a local electronica artist. Her eyes never left the display on her phone, even as she took a sip of the steaming black coffee in front of her. “Don’t let me keep you though.”

The group fell into a quiet discussion as the others dug into their lunches. As she ate her soup, Sunset cast a sidelong glance at what Nebula seemed to be reading. It looked to be some sort of research document, but she nearly froze up when she saw a familiar waveform depicted on a chart. It was slightly off-looking, but that was definitely magic that was charted out. Has someone published a paper on it? Or did someone detect it on the twenty-seventh of September and turn to the net for info? None of the research data was legible to her, however; it was in a language Sunset had never taken the time to learn.

“Oh! Oh! Dashie!” Pinkie exclaimed, spraying cookie crumbs across Applejack, who sat between them both. “Did you hear about that Smash last week?”

To nobody’s great surprise, Fluttershy began to hide her face in her voluminous mane of pink hair. The pale girl was rather squeamish when it came to ‘scary’ topics, and little was scarier than monsters. Rainbow, on the other hand, perked up and leaned closer. Much to Sunset’s surprise, even Nebula was listening. “Depends on which one that was,” she replied in casual interest. “Was that the spiky one that rampaged downtown, or the square one that caused a fuss in that Zephyr Heights subdivision?”

Before Pinkie could answer, Nebula shook her head, causing her asymmetrical bob cut to block one of her eyes. “Different one,” she intoned dispassionately, not taking her eyes from her phone screen. Quickly pulling the remains of her biscuit snack into her mouth and chewing, she brushed her hair out of her face and then scratched the shaved side of her head. “Looked like a walking armoured meatball. Based on the video, it looked strong.”

Sunset watched as the girl seemed to have an epiphany, and then backed out of her document to some file browser that noted a lot of locked files, all in that same language. She navigated to another file, typed something into the password prompt, and then another research document appeared on screen.「Yes! I’m in!」 Nebula quietly muttered to herself. 「Thank you, Pink Demon!」

Without missing a beat, Pinkie Pie responded,「No problem, Nebby-chan,」which earned a visible facial twitch from Nebula and a chuckle from Dash. “Anyway, this was in the abandoned part of the old town. Someone in a playground caught some footage of it fighting.”

She does know that anybody can see what she’s reading, right? Her eyebrow rose as she scrolled, although her attention was definitely more on Pinkie’s discussion now. There was, for a moment, a sketch on screen depicted a spiked, armoured biped that had a face like a warship’s conning tower. Wait, wasn’t that one of those Smashes?

With a sip of her bottled water, Rarity threw in her two bits. “I for one am grateful for Canterlogic’s Guardians,” she said. “Even if it was in one of those dreadful, dilapidated parts of town, I’m glad those robots were able to stop it.” With a sigh, she glanced past Nebula to Sunset. “The destruction and casualties inflicted by the previous ones honestly made what Sunset’s... outburst did to the front of the school look like a child’s tantrum... No offence.”

Of all the things Rarity could have brought up right then, it was one of the worst—right next to her being from another reality. It was bad enough that the word demon was bandied around far too frequently for her own comfort. To have it brought up in front of the new girl, who had none of the context only made it worse.

Sunset braced herself and looked over to her neighbour. The girl between them both stopped her scrolling, and Sunset fully expected her to press. What she didn’t expect was her to put her phone away, and then look at each of them before settling on Sunset and shrugging. Oh, there was the expected glint of curiosity in her visible eye, but there was doubt that tempered it. When Nebula simply popped the chocolate-covered end of another of her snacks into her mouth and reclined her head on her hand, Sunset looked away. “None taken.”

“Anywhoozle, it wasn’t the guardians that stopped the monster!” Pinkie benevolently redirected the conversation. The girl then reached down the front of her shirt and took out her own phone and fiddled with it for a few moments before holding it out so most of the table could see it. “All the Guardians in the Greater Canterlot Area apparently all had errors at the time, so instead this mysterious stranger showed up.”

The first thing Sunset noted on Pinkie’s phone was that the figure standing by the bench, looking into some sort of equipment case, was intentionally obscured with white. It was definitely a frame-by-frame edit job, but while the person’s identity was obscured, the device they plucked from the case wasn’t. It was some sort of strange belt which they slotted two indistinct objects into and cranked a handle at the side.

Her mind could hardly keep up with what she was seeing. The transformation sequence that followed defied all that she understood of science. You couldn’t just manifest materials like that; even with magic, it was not an easy feat. All the same magic was the only thing that came to mind.

“It’s almost like magic,” she found herself saying. “Assuming it’s not just someone’s film project.”

Beside her, Nebula chuckled. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” she recited, turning just enough to give Sunset an appraising look. When Sunset grimaced at the adage, she quickly added on, “Although I suppose if I invoke Clarke’s Third Law, I should consider Niven’s converse, that any sufficiently advanced magic would be indistinguishable from technology.”

As the fight played out, Rainbow Dash seemed starry-eyed. Even if it all was ultimately just a hoax to them, it was impressive to see. In that case, the production value was amazing. “Whoa, that was kickass!” the athlete exclaimed a little too loudly as the video ended. “But that’s just someone’s home movie, isn’t it?”

Taking a bite of her namesake fruit, Applejack, considered this. “If’n it was real, wasn’t very good of’em to tear up the road like that,” she commented once she swallowed. “Mac an’ Ah was through there last week goin’ to the scrap-yard. That big hole sure as sugar wasn’t any o’ that fancy CGI.”

Sunset frowned, glancing from AJ, back to the phone, where the video had ended on a still of that armoured fighter in a superhero landing pose. Something was nagging at her, however. Mentally, she replayed what she’d seen from the start, including the moments leading up to the transformation. The parcel... The lack of assurance.

“Something about this doesn’t feel right,” she thought aloud. “It all seems too... convenient.” Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw the corner of Nebula’s mouth twitch upward. “Even ignoring the fact that all the Guardians in Canterlot had simultaneous malfunctions, doesn’t it seem odd that this one struck in an abandoned slum, instead of a populated area? Then there’s the person who transformed...”

“They didn’t wanna be there,” Fluttershy said, speaking up for the first time since the topic arose. “It was almost like someone set that entire thing up, and up until the fight started, they were confused.”

Beside her, Nebula looked like she was getting ready to get up, but instead just turned on the bench. With her arms crossed in front of her, she leaned back against the table and shut her eyes. Something about her demeanour seemed strange. “Fluttershy-san is right. There is also the matter of the gaps in the audio; it is as though whoever was filming was talking to them, but didn’t want it heard in the video.” Swivelling her biscuit stick from one corner of her mouth to the other, she breathed out a sigh through her nose. “What I cannot wrap my head around is... why post it online at all?”

Initially, Nebula was intending to head straight home after gym class. Thanks to a convenient mention of the Smash from Pinkie at Lunch, she’d gotten into a new document from Project Re:Build. It had a lot of details on the Smash, but it also provided important details about the transformation device, which was apparently called the Build Driver Rev. A, or how the bottles were referred to as Fullbottles. She’d only been able to glimpse it before her fight last week came up, and she decided that anything more should be read somewhere private, and now she wanted nothing more than to just kick back and read it.

It wasn’t like she could really start testing anything to do with the Driver until she could find somewhere safe to do so. Ideally, an old warehouse or quarry would work best, as there wasn't likely to be anyone around to see. The interaction between her phone and the Fullbottles was another matter that still seemed like a bad idea to test in public. With that in mind, she decided she was gonna check out the industrial area for any condemned or ‘for sale’ warehouses.

That plan only got as far as the statue out in front of CHS. The detection app picked up low levels of Nebula Gas energies as she passed in front of the statue; they were so low, in fact, that the only reason the sensor even picked it up was due to her passing brushing up against the mirror on the plinth. Once it had her attention, she had an entirely new plan.

Using Ms. Satonaka’s NG-Analyse application, she examined the statue from every angle she could manage. It got more than a few strange or concerned looks from those nearby, but she ignored it in favour of collecting data. After all, if she was gonna understand this stuff, she needed to consider everything, like why those energies existed in low levels outside the school, and if it was affecting the student body at all.

The results were fascinating to say the least. Although the stone around the statue base contained trace emissions, it was primarily the mirror that was the source of it. I wish I had a geiger counter, though. I never even considered if this might be emitting ionising radiation. How the mirror contained it was beyond her, but it was definitely a source.

That being said, when compared to the Fullbottles she’d analysed, the energy waveform was different. It wasn’t enough to make her think this was some sort of false positive, however. Instead, it seemed to her that this waveform had some sort of tie to what granted the Nebula Gas its power.

Curious and curiouser, she mused, as she turned back to look at the school. Dr. Satonaka’s team received their information that led to the formation of Project Re:Build while studying some sort of unstable tear in reality. What are the odds that Nebula Gas has some sort of tie to that tear? If it did, would that mean that...

Whatever thought had been about to complete itself was interrupted as the phone’s detection app began emitting an alarm. “What the?” muttered Nebula as she switched back over. “A surge of that same waveform?” She pointed the phone at the mirror, but found it to be a separate source from what was setting the sensor off. “Oh, this is not good. Please don’t be a Smash.”

Changing over to the NG-Track app, she pulled up the waveform currently setting off her sensors and locked it in. Unlike NG-Detect, the tracker app was geared towards longer distances, and presented as an omnidirectional sensor rather than a geiger counter for Nebula Gas. She swung her phone around, and to her horror, it was strongest when pointed at the school, and if she was reading and judging the distance correctly, it was coming from the second floor’s west wing near the music rooms...

“Weren’t the others...?” She carefully reached into one of the interior pockets sewn into her lab coat and grabbed the Raven Fullbottle. When she was certain nobody was looking, she gave it a shake. A lightness not unlike when she was transformed washed over her body, and Nebula took off towards the front of the school.

Tearing through the halls, she had to take care not to push off from the ground too hard; she just knew that if she kicked off with too much force while she ran through the near empty halls, she’d end up bumping the ceiling. As she darted up the stairs and drew closer, a growing pit began to form in the bottom of her stomach. Please don’t be a Smash!

The power chords of the electric guitar reached her ears long before she reached the door that the app was leading her towards. She slid to a stop, but overshot and found herself having to backtrack. Before she pushed open the door, she checked to make sure it was indeed the right place. Changing back over to the detector, she pushed the door open just as the music and the signal reached a crescendo.

Nebula wasn’t sure what she was expecting... One of the girls or maybe a classmate being turned into a Smash was a high probability. Alternatively, maybe it had to do with her observer from the other day. She was fairly certain that, even if they hadn’t created the Smash, they’d engineered the situation and brought her there in the first place.

What she wasn’t expecting was to see Rainbow Dash start to lift off into the air. A white glow encompassed her body, and when it faded, several mutations had manifested. A pair of equine ears atop her head. There was now a foot or two of ponytail hanging behind her. Finally, a pair of large feathery blue wings had manifested cleanly through her shirt. And why does the pocket I had the Smash essence in feel hot?

Aside from Sunset, who seemed just as shocked, the others didn’t seem all that surprised by the sight. What did surprise them, however, was the sudden appearance of Nebula, who was looking from her phone to Rainbow Dash in confusion. 「What the hell?」 She glanced from Rainbow to Sunset, who was looking at Nebula in horror. 「What is going on here?」

“Um... eheh,” Rainbow stammered as she finally recognised why nobody seemed to be applauding. “There is a completely reasonable explanation for all this... and since you’ve been hanging out with us so much it was probably gonna come out eventually... so uh...”

Any chance for an explanation was dashed when her detector app started screeching again. This reading had nothing to do with the waveform that led her to the room, or the traces at the portal. In fact, it read more like her scan of the unpurified Fullbottle. The tracker app pointed out down the road from the school, but it seemed to be drawing closer.

“Damn it!” She ran to the window behind Pinkie Pie and then cast a glance at the now equally confused girls. “We can exchange deep dark secrets later. You might wanna—”

Principal Celestia’s voice erupted over the public address. “Attention all students and staff still present in the school! Please evacuate towards the back of the building.” The woman sounded terrified.“Do not exit from the front or either side of the building. A Smash has been spotted in the area and is headed towards the school. I repeat—”

“—yeah, you might wanna get out of here.” She pulled open the window, gave a shake of the Raven Fullbottle, and jumped down to the ground floor. There were several calls of alarm from the girls. Without looking back, she could imagine that they were likely staring out the window, trying to wrap their heads around what happened instead of following the evacuation order.

As she ran, she retrieved the Scythe Fullbottle from the other concealed pocket, and the Build Driver from the lockbox in her bag. Finally, she ditched her lab coat and bag, hanging them from a hedge that she had to cut through. The belt snapped around her waist just as it had last week, and she readied the Scythe and Raven Fullbottles.

Before she could twist the tops and insert the bottles into the Driver, a black helicopter flew overhead. Save for the tail markings and Canterlogic Securities’ logo on the side door, it was pretty nondescript. A second glance, however, there was a familiar—albeit barely discernible—marking across the chopper’s belly; it was just the same as the one on the breast pocket of her lab coat. This can’t be good...

Up ahead of her, she could just make out what looked to be a moving pillar of flame. The chopper was headed straight for it, and the moment it got overhead, she saw Guardians beginning to drop out of the side hatch, moving to surround the flame. Then the robots raised their guns and opened fire on the Smash that was surely to blame for the flames.

«Raven!»

«Scythe!»

«Best Match!»

«Are you ready?»

Nebula wasted no time slotting in the bottles and turning the crank. It seemed like the Guardians weren’t really having any sort of effect with their carbines. Even as the armour and its armature formed around her, she watched as a stream of flame shot out from the pillar, to completely scorch the combat droid’s upper chassis and overheat its circuitry. Were their rounds even getting through the flames?

“Henshin!”

«The Grim Harbinger! Yabei!»

The moment her armour snapped into place, she started moving toward the group. As she made her way forward, her mind was racing. This was such a stupid idea... I don’t even have a weapon. However, something she glimpsed in the document mentioned storage, and surely Dr. Satonaka or his daughter would have created something, if for no other reason than testing. What did it say? There’s a mental interface, so... Deploy weapon?

«Tempo Reaper!»

A pair of the same transparent tubes that aided in the transformation shot out the side of the Driver. Between the two endpoints, a long black shaft of metal formed, and at one end, a segmented curved blade emerged. In the centre where the blade met the shaft, there was a slot perfect for a Fullbottle, and a button that she imagined served to empower it with the bottle’s essence or the wielder’s own energy. It looks like it might even rotate. “Shall we play mad scientist?” she asked herself as she gave the scythe a twirl. Angling the blade downward, she tucked the shaft flat against her back and ran forward.

Three more of the Guardians fell before she drew close enough to the brawl for the pilot of the helicopter to notice. “Attention, unidentified armoured figure,” came a woman’s voice from a loudspeaker. “You are intruding upon Smash containment procedures. Draw any closer and you will be marked as hostile in Guardian systems. Retreat to a safe distance and let the Guardians do their jobs.”

She paused, looking up at the helicopter that was lazily circling the combat zone. Are they actually about to order their robots to open fire on me? With a sigh, she stepped back, slinging the Tempo Reaper’s shaft over her shoulder, and gave the pilot a two-finger salute. Fine. I’ll wait until all your toys break.

When there were just four of the Guardians left of the dozen dropped by the chopper, the pillar of flame shrouding the Smash vanished. Its head reminded her of those old mariners dive helmets, with two similarly shaped furnaces over each shoulder. The head, pauldrons and chest armour were all flame red. It possessed one normal looking arm, but its right arm looked more akin to a flamethrower. Just as with the Strong Smash last week, its lower half looked similar to that of the robots currently attacking it.

All four robots stopped to reload at the same time, and in that short moment, the Smash seemingly came to a decision. It lumbered toward one of the Guardians and thrust its flamethrower-like arm into the robot’s belly. Lifting the droid off the ground, the fire monster pointed it toward the helicopter. It’s going to...!

Ignoring the prior warning, she darted forward once more. The pilot seemed to have noticed what the Smash was doing, and was trying to get away, but the monster kept tracking. It completely ignored as the other three robots opened fire, and the lights in its two furnaces began to glow brightly. In a last ditch effort, the three Guardians rushed forward to try and tackle it. They were all shorn in half by a backhand for their efforts.

Nebula glanced at the chopper and extrapolated the pilot’s next move, and accounted for the path the Guardian stuck to the Smash’s arm cannon would take. She jumped the moment flames began to lick the bot’s belly to put herself between the chopper and its doom. As she soared, she swung the Tempo Reaper, which caused her to spin, but not lose her trajectory. She felt the blade impact something, and redirect it before cleaving through it.

When she touched down on the ground, she glanced back up at the chopper. “Sorry, but I can’t just sit back any more!” she yelled, not honestly expecting to be heard as she brandished the scythe at the smash. “I’m all for sitting back if you guys really want to watch your droids get all messed up, but the moment human life is endangered is where I draw the line. As a Kamen Rider, I have to protect life whenever possible, no matter how valuable the research data might be.”

Much to her surprise, however, there came a response. “Much obliged.” They must have had directional mics and other recording equipment on that bird. It was the only way they could’ve made it out over the chopper’s noise. “Since this is all going down in my after-action report, you got a name?”

That threw her for a loop. Was this really the time to have a conversation—in the middle of a fight? Well, that Raven Fullbottle was the first one I ever touched, and it feels right, so... “Karasu,” she called out as she lunged for the Smash. “Kamen Rider Karasu.”

It swung its flamethrower toward her and cut loose with a gout stream of fire. In response, she rapidly twirled her polearm in front of her. The action deflected most of the flames, although she could feel the heat in her hands and forearms. Her charge ended with her weapon forcing the literal firearm down.

The fire Smash’s response was to swing its fist at her face. Although it wasn’t nearly as powerful as the Strong Smash, the impact was enough to knock her backwards. As she tumbled across the ground, she couldn’t help but wince. I feel like I’m gonna have a headache later.

Nebula, or rather, Karasu dug the bladed weapon into the concrete to halt her tumble. She sank to one knee as she withdrew the blade from the ground and propped herself up with it. She watched as it sent another tongue of flame her way, but its attack fell short. “So... You’ve got an effective radius. One that puts me at a disadvantage in this form.”

Karasu stood, letting the Tempo Reaper fall to the ground. Her hands darted to the straps at her hips and grabbed the Pony and Magnum Fullbottles. It was somewhat awkward swapping them out, but she made due. How fitting that I will defend my school wearing their pride colours.

«Pony!»

«Magnum!»

«Best Match!»

«Are you ready?»

Spinning the Build Driver’s crank, she grit her teeth. The armour parts manifested around her. Finally, when she called out, “Cross change!” the pieces of armour slammed into place, replacing her Raven Scythe combo.

«The Equine Opus!»

The Smash charged toward her, firing its flamethrower. With her foot, Karasu kicked her war scythe into the air and caught the shaft with her right hand, swinging it to tuck the shaft against her back once more. As she did so, she cocked her left arm back, priming a shot with the canon on her forearm.

When she threw her punch, she was only partially surprised to find that the energy projectile that shot forth was the same blue as her armour. It flew true, and just as flames started to lick against her armour, the mark was hit—the nozzle for the flamethrower. Almost immediately, the flames cut out as the weapon began to spark.

Not quite finished with her attack, she tapped her heel against the button on the Tempo Reaper. There was a ping emitted from the weapon, and the blade began to glow with white flame. Finally, she heard the call-out she instinctively knew was coming.

«Smash Hit!»

Hmm, don’t mind if I do!

Thudding forward with surprising force behind her steps, Karasu closed the distance with the Smash. Her grip tightened as she brought it up in a diagonal slash. “Hi-yah!” A shower of sparks emitted from the monster’s body as the burning blade scored across the creature’s armoured shoulder and chest.

Kamen Rider Karasu spun on her right foot, and then lashed out with a kick from her yellow boot. Knocked backwards several metres by the sudden powerful kick, the Smash could do nothing but fall flat on its back. I know there’s a person inside that monster, but I can’t let up. If it loses interest in me, it’ll likely end up at the school, so I won’t give it the chance.

“I think it’s time I wrapped this up,” she said aloud as she retrieved the Scythe Fullbottle from the strap at her hip. Bringing the blade close to her face, she slotted the bottle in and turned it to lock it in. There was a mechanical click, and then the blade rotated ninety degrees. In this form it looked more like a naginata, although the cutting edge was backward. She tapped the button twice and smirked behind her mask as the blade was shrouded in a blinding white inferno. “Let’s fight fire with fire.”

«Million Slash!»

With a flourish, she lashed out horizontally toward the fiery Smash. Even as the fallen creature struggled to push itself to its feet, a stream of white fire slammed into it, creating a massive shower of sparks. When the flames dissipated, the monster’s arms gave out and it fell to its belly. Aside from some twitches, it didn’t try to get up again.

Even as she removed the Fullbottle from the Tempo Reaper, she mentally dismissed the weapon. The Scythe bottle was quickly traded for an empty one as she jogged up to the Smash. Before twisting the cap, she pushed the thing over with her foot. No sense in leaving someone face-down on the pavement.

Much like with the Strong Smash, the Nebula Gas eagerly surged into the Fullbottle when she pointed it at the monster. As police sirens entered her range of hearing, its monstrous form burned away. Unlike the previous time, however, the monster took the form of a teenage model that she’d seen missing posters for—a Crystal Prep student by the name of Fleur-de-Lis. She didn’t seem physically harmed either, although a sweat-soaked hospital gown clung to her drenched form.

So they’re not just transforming people who look like they belong in prison... Karasu shook her head and, after clipping the fiery bottle to one of her straps, gently lifted the girl. It still amazed her the amount of strength that her transformed state granted her. The pale-skinned girl was taller even than Sunset, and yet she had no difficulty, as though the strength boost mitigated the awkwardness of lifting her in a bridal carry.

Several police cars skidded to a stop not far from her, and she gingerly approached, stepping over the charred remains of several Guardians. It took some effort to look non-threatening; even then, she had seven service-automatics practically pointed at her face. Confident in her armour’s protection, she walked towards the one police officer she recognised.

He was tall and well-built, but had a naturally pale complexion. The face that watched Karasu with barely contained suspicion was one better suited to smiling. Between his handsome face and messy blue hair, she imagined that he probably ticked a lot of boxes for what qualified as attractive. Not that she’d ever considered it—Officer Shining Armour was the one who first found her, and he already had a fiance.

Sighing, she wished that her suit modulated her voice like that weird armoured pot-stirrer last week. “Officer Armour, this girl needs medical attention,” she said, startling herself when a heavily modulated voice reached her own ears. “I cannot imagine she was willingly transformed into a Smash, and although the mutagen has been purged from her system, I cannot speak to what side-effects this might have had.”

All around her, the police moved in. While several of them still had their firearms drawn, she could see one with her cuffs out. Clearly, they plan on trying to take me in. I suppose I am a vigilante, so I can hardly complain. If she’d kept the Raven bottle slotted in, she might have been able to just leap clear, but right now, her only real option was to barrel through the officers and hope she didn’t hurt any.

The moment the girl had passed from her arms, however, she found herself engulfed in smoke. There was the momentary feeling of someone grabbing her arm and tugging, and then, just as quick as they’d done so, they released her. “You’re welcome,” came that modulated voice she heard last week.

When the cloud finally dissipated, she found herself in the hedge where she’d ditched her stuff. Making sure she couldn’t be seen from the road, she slowly backed to where she left her bag. Letting out a tired sigh, she disengaged her transformation and turned around.

Apparently, the universe decided that it was time to mock her. Nebula came face-to-face with the six girls who had welcomed her into their friend group. Of course. All of them were staringing at Nebula with a variety of emotions.

Sunset’s face was completely unreadable, although it was clear she wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking at in the first place. Fluttershy was simply hiding behind Rainbow Dash, who in turn looked at her with a mixture of jealousy and awe. Applejack and Rarity were both wary, although the former had a smidge of suspicion showing through. Pinkie Pie, of course, was vibrating with excitement.

Nebula dragged her hand down her face, and walked over to where her bag and coat still hung. She didn’t say a word to the girls until she’d put away her gear and slipped into her lab coat. To be fair, they didn’t exactly say anything either. It was just a quiet disbelief-fest, as far as she was concerned.

Turning back, she remarked, “You guys seem to be taking this surprisingly well.” She stuck her hands into the front pockets of her lab coat, and found her hand close around the bottle she’d used on the Strong Smash. It felt different from before. When did it change? “Perhaps we should go back to the music room and have a little chat.”

Author's Note

Rider Weapons:
Most Kamen Riders have one or more signature weapons. Kamen Rider Build's signature weapon was the Drill Crusher, but as much as Karasu is based on Build, I decided that their signature weapon was going to be built based on the design of the Beat Closer, which was Cross-Z's signature weapon. I've made no effort to hide the fact that Karasu's coloration and overall theme takes heavy cues from Qrow Branwen of RWBY. Hell, the Best Match announcement (the Grim Harbinger) practically spells it out. As such, I felt like basing Karasu's Tempo Reaper on Qrow's Harbinger was a natural extension of the gag. Unlike Harbinger, however, the Tempo Reaper is strictly a polearm that can shift between a scythe and a war scythe. No built-in guns or sword form.

Hmm, only thing missing is a red scarf... Maybe for her super form?

The next chapter (2.5) is comparatively short, serving as little more than an 'epilogue' to this one, where everyone sits down and reveals their secrets, and a new mystery is put on the table.

Those who paid attention likely noticed a hint toward what I'm getting at. As it stands, however, I pose a question for you all. What animal do you think the Fullbottle from the Strong Smash will become when purified. If so, what do you think the best match might be?

Chapter 2.5 - Because It Is

Ten minutes later...

The seven girls were gathered back in the music room. Since arriving in the room, Nebula had been giving the girls a brief summary of her own knowledge of the situation. She sat with her back to the wall, the others gathered around her in a semi-circle. On the floor in front of her sat seven Fullbottles—her original four, the one she got last week, the one she just filled, and an empty one. When did last week’s bottle become like the others, though?

“... since then, I’ve been doing everything possible to figure this whole thing out,” she concluded, holding out her phone. “I think this belonged to a researcher on Project Re:Build, and it’s full of all sorts of encrypted data. No first name so far as I can tell, but she was the original project lead’s daughter, one Dr. Daisuke Satonaka.” She let out a sigh. “They’re unfortunately digital ghosts, and someone clearly went through a lot of effort to erase their existence on the net.”

The others seemed to consider this. It’s not every day that you find out that the mysterious new girl started moonlighting as a superhero after being roped into it by an equally mysterious stranger with unknown motives. Then there was the fact that the gear provided to her was created from the same research that led to the Smash. Clearly there was more to things than met the eye.

There were a variety of questions or opinions of course. Fluttershy expressed concerns about how scary it must be for Nebula to fight monsters. Although she hadn’t actually considered it, it was a valid worry. Sure, it was scary, but it was that fear of what might happen if she didn’t defeat the Smash that drove her; it’s what allowed her to ignore concern for what might happen to herself.

Rarity asked if it was possible that Nebula and Ms. Satonaka were one and the same. It wasn’t anything that she’d thought about as of yet, but the way the fashionista explained her reasoning made a certain amount of sense. Sure, it was a reach to assume that because Nebula was amnesiac, and someone had wiped out any trace of Satonaka’s existence from the public eye, the two were one and the same. Her instinctual familiarity with the Build System definitely narrowed the distance for the necessary logical leap, but that also just left her with more questions.

If I really am Satonaka, what happened? I could imagine leaving over the creation of the Smash, but I’m missing pieces of the puzzle. Important ones.

“What I wanna know is how you just happened to show up when I was showing off what I discovered,” Rainbow Dash finally pressed, earning a nod from AJ. “That timing was a little too convenient.”

“Ayuh,” Applejack remarked. “Ya done showed up, hackles raised, like when Winona knows a fox is trying to get in the hen house.”

With a sigh, Nebula held up her phone again. “This has sensors that can detect the energies emitted by Nebula Gas.” Much like when she initially voiced the term, that got immature snickers from Pinkie and Dash. “I was going home when I got too close to the statue out front, and it triggered an alert from one of the apps on it. It detected an energy waveform very similar to the purified and impure NG.”

She set her phone down and picked up the Raven Fullbottle, and the one containing the essence of the Smash she just fought. “These both have a distinct signature, the latter of which is shared by the Smash.” Setting them both back down, she pointed back at the phone and said, “So I was examining the mirror, since it seemed to give off the most energy, when I detected a build-up of that same energy in this room.” She fixed Rainbow with an even look, pointing over at the girl’s guitar and amp, hoping to impress the fact that it was not a small surge. “I detected that all the way from the front of the school.”

Applejack, Dash, and Pinkie all looked as though they weren’t following, but Sunset finally spoke up. “So you came running, thinking that there was a Smash or something, and that we were in danger?” When met with a nod, the redhead frowned. “This will probably sound insane to you, but what you detected here and at the statue? That’s magic—specifically, Equestrian magic. That mirror is a transdimensional bridge that opens for three days, every thirty moons.”

If Sunset expected Nebula to immediately scoff at the idea of calling the energy ‘magic’, she would be disappointed. Just as the others seemed to keep an open mind, she merely raised an eyebrow and cocked her head. There were more things in Heaven and Earth, Nebula, than are dreamt of in your philosophy; challenge your worldview, or become stagnant in thought.

Unchallenged, Sunset launched into what was likely a very abridged tale of her homeland and life. It all sounded very fantastical and very unscientific. A magical land of talking equiforms and mythical creatures, led by a mage so powerful that their solar-system follows the geocentric model. She had been a unicorn apprentice to that all-powerful mage ruler, but grew too prideful and ambitious for her mentor’s liking. Her desire was to ascend to the ruler’s level and rule alongside her, but when she was denied, she fled through the mirror, thinking she’d be able to find the means to ascend here.

Glossing over the several years she claimed to have spent in this world, instead skipping to the point of the Fall Formal. It was a plot involving a stolen magical artefact of great power and importance, derailed by another Equestrian royal following after—the crown’s rightful owner. In only two days, the Equestrian princess completely undid everything Sunset had done over a few years to get the school under her thumb, taking back the artefact in the process.

She spoke of trying to use the magic of the artefact for herself, only to be transformed into a dark reflection of her heart—or a demon, as Rainbow Dash so helpfully chimed in. The pony princess and the five other girls in this room today were then empowered to stop her before Sunset could lead an army of brainwashed teens to Equestria. Ultimately, they used their combined magic—the ‘Rainbow of Light’—to purge the darkness from her heart, and the rest was history. Rainbow Dash’s afternoon revelation was just as much a surprise to the Equestrian as it was to the heroine.

Nebula didn’t exactly know what to think. It all sounded so ludicrous, and yet Sunset spoke with such conviction. Clearly it was something that she truly believed, and the other five corroborated her story. Plus, something was nagging at the back of her mind. This all started from scientists apparently studying an unstable tear in reality. Could it be another portal to this Equestria? It would explain the similarity between the NG waveforms and what I detected coming from the statue.

In the end, she simply leaned closer, a smile beginning to form. “So what you’re saying is that this... magic has remained within your friends, even though it should have returned to your homeland with this Element of Magic?” she asked, grabbing for her phone. “I take it you intend on studying this phenomena?”

The other five began to look nervously from Sunset to Nebula. “We probably should study this, if for no other reason than to check the extent of it, but we might have to take a raincheck.” Sunset glanced at the clock. “It won’t be long until they start closing up the school.”

Nebula nodded before grabbing her stuff and standing up, everybody else following suit. When Rainbow started moving over to where her guitar was, however, she remembered something important. The Fullbottle that had changed outside her notice, that had been in her pocket and gotten very hot in the presence of Rainbow Dash’s transformation. Could it be that...

“Ne, Rainbow-san, before you put your guitar away, could you do me a favour?” She walked over to the stool where Rainbow’s stuff was and set the boated fiery bottle with the spiderweb markings down atop it. “Could you transform again? I do not need to get any readings right this instant, but there’s something I need to confirm...”

The others all looked at her in confusion, so she sighed and fished the other Fullbottle back out of her pocket. It contained a red essence, and on it was an etching of some sort of shrimp or prawn. Mantis shrimp, maybe? “This was like that one this morning, and the only thing I can think of is exposure to that surge that accompanied your transformation,” Nebula explained. “If that one there changes, it will confirm my hypothesis that the NG energy and your equestrian magic are linked and that it’s not a mere coincidence the two seem similar.”

When Sunset nodded as if to encourage her, Rainbow smirked. “If you wanted to hear how awesome I am, you should’ve just asked,” she crowed, picking up her guitar. “Cliffs of Dover, let’s rock!” What followed was an impressive display of shredding. The melody felt chaotic, but flowed with a great degree of grace.

Before too long, her phone’s detector app started altering her to the surge in energies. Rainbow began to glow about forty-seconds after beginning. As she began to float off the ground, the Fullbottle on the stool began to brightly glow as well. By the time the ears and wings manifested, the bottle’s glow dissipated. Rainbow touched down shortly after she stopped playing, and her changes dissipated into motes of light.

“Fascinating,” Nebula said, reaching to pick up the newly purified Fullbottle. Unlike all of the others, this one was a solid gold in colouration, with absolutely zero transparency. Its etching bore the stylized flame. When she took a scan of it with her phone’s sensor suite, her eyebrow only rose. It registers as having the magic waveform. “Thank you, Rainbow.”

As Sunset approached, Nebula held the bottle out to her. “Wait, why are you giving this to me?” she asked, freezing in her tracks. “I can’t do anything like you can.”

With a shake of her head, Nebula grinned. “Maybe not, but this registers as magic and not purified Nebula Gas.” When the redhead’s eyes widened, the scientist forced it into her hand, clasping it between her own. “You are the expert in that field, so I trust you are the one best suited to care for it until we can find a place to begin testing.”

This was clearly not an answer that Sunset Shimmer expected, or wanted to hear, as a slightly scared expression crossed her face. “But what if I turn into a demon again,” she whispered. “I don’t want to lose control like that ever again.”

One by one, the others crowded around. Each of them placed a hand over Nebula’s and Sunset’s. “Darling, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we don’t believe that will happen,” Rarity said. Everyone gave her a soft smile as tears began to rim her eyes. “We believe in you.”

“Research Log: Project Unity. Audio Log #1. Timestamp: 21 October, 2013, 9:27pm. Location: Shady Oaks Group Home.”

“I have debated how to go about this, but in the end, these logs are more of a means to collate my thoughts in regards to everything that is happening than anything else. Getting it all down makes it feel more... real. Given that we don’t even know my real name for sure, having things feel real is important.”

[A period of silence fills the audio recording, followed by a long, drawn out sigh.]

“Honestly, I have not even the slightest idea as to where to start. I have been digging into the Project Re:Build files as much as possible since getting home, and it’s starting to paint a really strange picture. Some would call me a madwoman for even thinking to accept what Sunset-san and the others told me at face value, but who am I to question what my own eyes have borne witness to?”

“The best place to start is Nebula Gas. It is an energised gas that possesses metaphysical and mutagenic properties produced by whichever organisation backed Re:Build. Given that it has been used to turn people into Smash, I am led to believe that—whoever it is that is making it—they have no regard for laws against human experimentation. It also is found contained in the Fullbottles utilised with the Build System, allowing transformation into an armoured form of various interchangeable capabilities.

“There are three separate energy waveforms that I’ve found related to Nebula Gas. The first, which shall hitherto be referred to as Type-I, is the form that is found within the Smash. Although I have been unable to find what other energies are tied up in it to make it impure, it has been shown to have a deleterious effect on the human body. Both the Strong and Burn Smashes I’ve encountered were in a feverish state when purged of the contaminant.”

“The Type-II waveform is the purified form. At first, I thought it was only found within the Fullbottles that Karasu uses. That belief changed this evening, when I took a close-up scan of myself. The sensor practically had to touch me, so perhaps the skin acts as a barrier masking the signal, but it was there, and at a particularly high level, as well. I cannot tell if this is because of my multiple uses of the Build Driver and Fullbottles, or if it was there even before that.”

“Addendum: It is possible that I might have been a human test subject for that organisation like the two Smash I defeated. If so, it may be that either my body itself purified it, usage of the Build System did so, or I myself was exposed to the purifying effects of magic. It would not explain the strange familiarity with the devices, though.”

[The sound of a box spring creaking and cloth being disturbed can be heard on the recording.]

“The final waveform worth mentioning I am referring to as Type-M. My running theory is that this energy is a sort of precursor or sibling to the NG waveforms. Since it is identified as matching magic from the world Sunset-san claims to originate, I have dubbed it Type-M. It sounds unscientific, but to be honest, so does a girl floating in the air growing wings, a foot or so of hair, and equine ears.”

“Type-M energy has been recorded in the previously described manifestation, as well as an object identified as a portal to Sunset-san’s homeworld. It also exists in the form of a Fullbottle that was purified from today’s Type-I collection. As I have no experience where magic is concerned, I have left it in her possession.”

“Somehow, I do not think this Smash threat is going to let up any time soon, and I know I will not always be able to be there for them. I need to dig up more data from the Re:Build project files, but I am legitimately considering whether it is within my ability to give them, even if it is just one for now, the tools to protect themselves.”

“With the Tempo Reaper in mind, I was able to get into another project file. It seems to be schematics pulled from the original data transmission that Dr. Satonaka retrieved: a weapon that utilises the power of a Fullbottle that can be used without being transformed. I think it’s what served as the basis for the Tempo Reaper, and from the look of it, it should not be too hard to scavenge the parts necessary to make it. It’s a longsword dubbed the Pulling Instrumental Sword Beat Closer, but that’s a mouthful, so Beat Closer will do.”

“I think I shall sleep on whether I really want to become a weapons manufacturer, however. Something inside me makes it feel so wrong, and yet... I want to do anything I can to protect those six. This is Nebula Moonlight, Project Unity Lead, signing off.”

Chapter 3 - One Smash, Two Smash

October 30th, 2013, 6:32pm

The Central Canterlot Mall was a crowded place. Nebula couldn’t go a few feet without someone bumping into her, and she felt increasingly paranoid that someone might try and pickpocket her. It wasn’t her wallet that had her concerned; she had that zipped up in her messenger bag alongside the lockbox. No, her concern was that someone might pilfer one of the two bottles she kept in easy reach in one of her coat’s inside pockets.

At least Sunset was sticking close enough that she couldn’t lose her in the crowd. It was amazing just how easy it was to lose a redhead wearing a leather jacket in an ocean of colours. That said, getting separated didn’t exactly benefit their objective. More than once, her friend reached back to grab the sleeve of her lab coat and guide her.

It’d taken her more than a week of research, but she thought she understood enough about the mechanics behind Project Re:Build’s technology that she could probably construct the Beat Closer. She wasn’t exactly sure if she wanted to arm any of her friends as of yet, because that meant they’d be putting one or more of them in the line of fire. That was hardly a responsible thing to do, regardless of whether or not they were willing to do so.

Maybe it was because the Build System had been entrusted to her, or the concern that she really was Dr. Satonaka’s daughter—whom she had yet to find the first name for—but Nebula felt obligated to see this thing through. Anyone who got hurt on her watch would weigh on her conscience; it was not their burden to bear. Anyone who did get involved in the actual fighting would have to know what they were getting into.

That didn’t prevent her from making her contingency plans, however. It was part of the reason that she had entrusted that mysterious Fullbottle to Sunset. Given that she was from the same place the magic originated—and had nearly the same levels of Type-M energy that Nebula had Type-II—she seemed the most suited to work with it. Actually, she might have far more than the scanner let on; there were subtle fluctuations that indicated its level was unstable, and something was keeping it suppressed.

“So everything you need to make that thing, you can get at Transmission House?” Sunset asked, fixing Nebula with a questioning look. “Hard to believe you could make something like that with parts from a hobby electronics store.”

“Most of it,” she responded as the pair of them ducked into the named shop. “I’m gonna need to hit a scrapyard and then I need access to a machine shop in order to machine the outer casing.” A smile crossed her face. “Do you think Celestia-san would be upset if I—”

“You’re not breaking into the school to use the metal shop.” Although there was a bit of warning in Sunset’s voice, there was the hint of a smile. “Rarity’s friends with the theatre kids, since she does a lot of business with them. I think they still owe her a favour or two, so maybe their prop guy can help.” With an embarrassed shake of her head, she added on, “He did make the crown for the Fall Formal, which I tried to swap with the Princess’ Element of Magic back in Equestria.”

Nebula gave a shrug, grabbing a basket and moving towards one of the aisles. “There’s no rush,” she responded, pausing in front of a rack that had various parts: capacitors, transistors, resistors and diodes. “If anything, it seems like the whole you-know-what issue has started to slow down lately. It seems like every single time one of those monsters has appeared, it was on a Monday, but it is Wednesday now and there has been no repeat of the pattern.”

As if the universe was listening, one of the demo televisions elsewhere in the store began replaying a news interview from earlier that evening. Specifically, it was an interview with a helicopter pilot working for Canterlogic Securities regarding the Smash last week. She continued shopping, but listened as a familiar voice played over the speakers.

“What were your first thoughts when this self-titled Kamen Rider appeared on the field, Ms. Rose Well,” asked the interviewer, before a clip from the point of view of the helicopter played on-screen, where a black-and-white armoured figure was spotted at the edge of the camera feed, approaching the scene as the helicopter circled the battle.

“First and foremost, my thought was that some civilian wanted to play at being a hero, and was going to get themself killed,” said an amber-skinned woman in a black flight-suit and aviators. Rose adjusted the Canterlogic Securities cap that seemed to hold back messy dark red hair and fixed the reporter with an uneasy look. “I radioed it in, and someone up the chain ordered me to warn them away under threat of being declared hostile. I guess someone thought that Karasu might’ve been to blame for the outage the week before.”

Playback resumed, confirming the warning that the scythe-wielding figure had been warned away and obeyed. “Had you, at this point, seen the video circulating online of Kamen Rider Karasu’s previous fight?” the interviewer asked. “Or was she a complete unknown at that time?”

There was a laugh from the pilot. “I’d probably have welcomed the help if I had,” she admitted as the Burn Smash on screen destroyed the guardians with ease before finally impaling the one that would have destroyed the helicopter had it not been intercepted. “Unfortunately, I think even if I hadn’t made the warning, the ones issuing the orders to the droids would have still marked her as hostile. Regardless, I wouldn’t be alive today if not for her.”

Nebula glanced at Sunset, who seemed to be watching the combat footage closely. There was a critical look about her gaze while she watched Karasu as she soared through the air to redirect and then bisect the Guardian. She returned to her browsing, not really paying further attention to the television screen, even as she heard her own voice saying, “As a Kamen Rider, I have to protect life whenever possible, no matter how valuable the research data might be.”

Moving on to another aisle, she found herself contemplating whether she wanted to go for quality or economy with the soldering iron. The staff at Shady Oaks gave their wards some spending money, although not nearly enough for what she had in mind. That said, she’d been doing odd tasks around the facility to earn some extra cash—just the odd tech support or mechanics jobs that saved the group home owners trips to professionals that would net heavy fees. As a result, she had more than enough to get what she needed for the Beat Closer, but if she went economical, she might be able to purchase enough parts to construct a second Build Driver.

The desire for redundancy ultimately won out, and she added a middle-range soldering iron to her basket. Within a few more moments, she gathered up most of the rest of her needs. However, as she returned to where she’d left Sunset, she found another girl in her place, watching the fight replay in full after the conclusion of the interview. She looked around, and found the redhead in another aisle, pretending to test headphones as she watched this new girl with a look of terror.

Nebula took a good look at the girl. A Crystal Prep uniform—a bordeaux coloured knitted vest, a white blouse, and a purple tartan skirt—stood out the most about her. Purple and magenta-streaked indigo bangs framed her face. Her inquisitive violet eyes, hidden behind a pair of horn rimmed glasses, were fixed on the screen.

Why is Sunset-san so scared, though, she wondered to herself. Is the rivalry between the schools at an extreme level of antagonism, or something?

“Fascinating technology,” the young woman murmured to herself, watching as Kamen Rider Karasu initiated a finisher with the Tempo Reaper. “I wonder what that suit uses as a power source.”

Stepping up beside the stranger, Nebula crossed her arms, basket hooked in one elbow. “Probably whatever is in those bottles on her belt,” she observed, making commentary as though she wasn’t the person on-screen striking down the Burn Smash. “Did you notice how she slotted one into that weapon of hers before it became supercharged?”

If she was put off by a stranger approaching and engaging her in conversation, she didn’t make it apparent. At most, she gave Nebula a questioning look, as if her appearance confused her, before returning her attention to the screen. “If there was such a compact energy source, you would think there would be countless research papers published on it,” she scoffed, “rather than it being used by some superheroine to fight monsters. That kind of compact energy would revolutionise the world.”

Nebula nodded in agreement, but pointed her finger at the screen, where the Kamen Rider had retrieved an empty Fullbottle from a strap hanging at her belt and pointed it at the fallen Smash. “Maybe that is why. A compact power source is all well and good, but if improper containment could turn someone into a literal monster, I could understand them hushing it up.” The girl watched in horror as the monster was replaced with a girl no older than her; she may even have recognised her from school. “For what it is worth, I believe her to be a force for good.”

Onscreen, the blue and yellow-clad heroine carried the unconscious girl towards the oncoming police with extreme care. When the camera got a good look at the police officer who received the victim, the crystal prep student beside Nebula looked a bit more excited. “Shining Armour didn’t say anything about this.”

From behind them came a voice, “That’s because I was ordered not to.” Out of her peripheral vision, she caught sight of the same man who was currently on screen coming to stand behind the girl, touseling her hair. “You have everything you need, Twily?” He seemed to suddenly notice the presence of the other girl, and did a double take. “Nebula?”

Grinning, she gave a slight bow. “Good evening, Shining-kun,” she greeted, trying not to show amusement at the confused expression visible on the face of his on-screen double. “It is good to see you again.”

This was probably the worst possible thing. Intellectually, Sunset Shimmer knew that this was not the Twilight Sparkle that had bested her at the Fall Formal; that mare was definitely back in Equestria for the next three years. Yet standing next to her newest friend was unmistakably a Twilight Sparkle.

When she first arrived in this world, one of the first people she ever met was Principal Celestia. It was at that point that she knew this world held counterparts to ponies or people back home. Since then, she’d run into several familiar faces. Ever since the princess returned to Equestria, she’d feared this day would come—that she might run into the human Twilight.

It was an emotional subject for the Equestrian runaway. Despite all of the positive progress she’d made in turning her life around over the past month, deep down she felt that she wasn’t nearly ready to face her. Sunset hadn’t done nearly enough to prove that she was worthy of this third chance she’d been given, or so she believed. Bitterness over both how she’d been defeated and just how awful she’d been lingered in her heart.

The only bright side was that this Twilight was significantly different from the transformed pony she’d met. It was unmistakable that the girl she was seeing was shorter than the princess, who matched Sunset Shimmer in height; if anything, she seemed closer in stature to Nebula. There was also the matter of glasses, which the pony didn’t seem to need. That last bit might actually make a difference in keeping the two separate emotionally.

Nonetheless, it made the former unicorn uneasy to see Nebula interacting with the human Twilight and the police officer who just happened to be her brother. If the two of them became friends, she’d eventually want to introduce Twilight to the rest of her friends. That would be an absolute disaster, especially if they went anywhere near CHS.

Pretending not to eavesdrop and trying to distract herself, Sunset continued testing out different headphones for noise cancellation abilities. Even if she’d be unable to participate in the musical showcase herself—on top of all the detention she’d been serving over the Fall Formal, she’d been forbidden from participating in clubs and school functions for the remainder of the year—she wanted to practise her electric guitar; her last pair didn’t work the best when plugged into her amp.

Deciding on a pair, Sunset headed to the check-out and made her purchase. Leaving the store towards the mall’s food court, she decided that it would be best if she shot her friend a text message to let her know where she was. She had, after all, given Nebula a ride to the mall.

Hey, I’m gonna wait out in the food court for you. :ShimmerCode

Sorry for ditching you. It’s hard to explain over text, though. :ShimmerCode

girlGenius: No problem.

girlGenius: I wasn’t expecting to meet Shining Armour-san here.

girlGenius: He’s the officer who found me. Nice guy.

girlGenius: Wanted to touch base and see how I was doing. Invited me to dinner next weekend.

girlGenius: HIs sister’s a bit odd, though. Kept staring at me.

For some reason, Sunset wasn’t at all surprised by that last bit. If she was the human counterpart to the pony that Princess Celestia replaced her with, she would likely be highly intelligent and observant. She wouldn’t put it past the human to grow suspicious of Nebula based on the video. There were just far too many hints toward her being Karasu.

It certainly didn’t help that Nebula Moonlight was just that much of a suspicious person to begin with. Her manner of speaking was overly formal, whilst her writing was surprisingly casual. The haircut she wore was closer to a punk style than anything she’d normally associate with the science nerd stereotype. Personality-wise, she seemed to fluctuate between incredibly chill, hyper-fixated, and having just the right degree of insanity required to deal with Pinkie Pie or accept magic so readily.

At that thought, her hand slipped into her jacket pocket to caress the golden Fullbottle held within. At first, Sunset had been wary of Nebula’s suggestion that the bottle contained magic, but after spending time around it, she was definitely getting the sense that it was resonating with her own dormant Equestrian magic. Now, having carried it around on her person for a week, it felt like her magic was buzzing just beneath her skin, ready for use, but having no outlet. So on top of studying the manifestations the others have been exhibiting, I’ve got to figure this out as well.

Rather than lining up and getting a drink from one of the restaurants, Sunset merely took out some change and made her way over to a vending machine. As she did so, she considered her next move. Whilst they might get away with studying some of their magic at the school, Nebula’s Build System stuff, and the Fire Fullbottle weren’t things they should deal with in such a public setting. Not even the Apple family’s farm would make for a good place to test it.

Perhaps it’s best if we use that place, she mused as a pepper soda was dispensed from the machine. I haven’t been there since the formal, but...

Her thought was interrupted by a piercing scream. She looked to one of the upper levels that overlooked the food court. Sunset’s blood went cold as she took in the sight of an armoured figure leaning over the railing, a child clutched in one outstretched hand. Worse, they were laughing as they did so.

“Kamen Rider Karasu, I know you’re here!” came a distorted, but clearly masculine voice. Covered in a blood-red bodysuit, the figure’s armour seemed constructed of burnished bronze piping and plates. The only thing that hinted what his armour might have been designed after was a respirator pipe that hung down to his waist, and two exhaust pipes jutting out of the helmet like a pair of tusks. “Give back the Fullbottles and Driver that unicorn bitch stole, and the kid doesn’t have to die!”

Unicorn...?

There was no sign of Nebula yet, and Sunset had a really bad feeling in her stomach. With the way the child was thrashing around in the man’s grip, it was only a matter of time until the kid fell. “Come on, Karasu!” the man snarled. “There’s no point in hiding! I detected you the moment you stepped into the food court!”

Except he didn’t... He detected me. Her eyes locked on the boy who was moments from being dropped. The kid couldn’t have been more than seven years old. He’s going to die because of me!

Clutched in her hand, the Fire Fullbottle throbbed, filling her with a soothing warmth. It was a feeling that she knew well; it used to be a part of her life for so long—the feeling of magic building up just beneath her horn as a spell took shape. Except, instead of her horn, it was in her hand.

“Fine! This is on you!” the elephant-armoured freak bellowed, releasing the boy. Much like Sunset, everyone else in the food court had been watching the horror play out; when the little boy began to fall, there was a collective scream from the crowd.

As the child fell from the fourth floor, Sunset unconsciously gave the Fullbottle a few good shakes in her pocket and then thrust her free hand forward. Come on, just my telekinesis would be enough! The comforting sight of an opal light sheathing her hand greeted her the moment before a spectral hand caught the boy.

It wasn’t easy. Her personal magic had gone untouched for almost a decade, and going from complete disuse to catching a child somewhere between thirty and forty-five kilograms was no small thing. The strain was immense, and the only thing keeping her from buckling was the willpower to not let the child fall to his death.

I won’t be the reason someone loses their son! She screamed internally, tears misting her eyes. In response to her desire, the bottle thrummed against her touch, causing the magic within her own body to flare in response. The spectral energy slowly shifted from the bright opal she grew up with to a fiery amaranth. All at once, the burden eased, and she was able to lower the child to the floor.

All the while the armoured psychopath was glaring around, trying to find Karasu in the crowd. Sunset could only hope that he couldn’t see the magical corona wrapped around her hand. There were too many people around her for her to make a clean getaway, and she wasn’t about to start teleporting just yet. If he tried attacking, she’d have no choice but to throw up a shield around her and as many people as possible...

A murmur began to fill the crowd as the boy safely reached the ground. It took sunset more than a moment for her to recognise why. Everybody was parting, giving space to an approaching figure on the food-court’s level. At first, she thought it was Nebula already transformed into Karasu. Instead, she saw a young woman in a tracksuit that Sunset was certain she’d seen the amnesiac wearing after gym, wearing nitrile gloves and a paper bag over her head. At her waist was the Build Driver.

There came a message on her phone a moment later. It’d clearly been sent on a timer, because this was absolutely Nebula standing there. Nobody else wore mismatched converse sneakers like that.

girlGenius: Can you grab my bag? It’s in the planter by Picante Subject.

Nebula turned when she reached the centre of the food-court, she saw at least a hundred people part to give her space. It was a pretty awful disguise as it stood, but she didn’t exactly have much of a choice. This was too public a place to just transform willy-nilly. Especially since there were people who knew her around.

As she looked up at the armoured figure, a pang of pain lanced through the side of her head that had been shaved down even before she’d been found. For a split second, she was no longer standing in the middle of the mall’s food court. Instead, she lay in a liquid, trapped in a glass box with various sensors taped to her body. Even as a gas was pumped into the box, she pounded on the side, glaring at the armoured figure.

Then, just like that, she was back in the mall. Gritting her teeth, she pointed directly up at him. “Edgelord-kun, I wish I could say it’s nice to see you again!” she barked in a more adult-sounding voice, letting the words bubble up from within her. He, whoever he really was, took a step back. “It’d still be a lie. I see you’re still abusing science to torture people.” She slotted the Raven and Scythe Fullbottles into the Build Driver.

«Raven!»

«Scythe!»

«Best Match!»

«Are you ready?»

“Science, even mad science, should only ever be used for the betterment of society!” She bellowed, lowering her hand to the crank and turned it several times. “All you’ve done by using Satonaka’s research to create Smash is make people suffer!” Armour appeared in the now-familiar armature around her. “If you want to play mad scientist, I’ll show you how it’s done!” She ducked into a sprinter’s crouch, one hand behind her while the other fist met the floor, and then rose to catch the armour as she shouted, “HENSHIN!”

«The Grim Harbinger! Yabei!»

The armour crashed into place around her. As the steam and feathers dissipated, Karasu held out her left arm and concentrated on conjuring up the rider weapon stored within her Driver. In moments, the long shaft was clutched in her hand. With a smirk behind her visor, she gave the segmented blade a flourish before draping it across her shoulders.

«Tempo Reaper!»

“You’re supposed to be dead, you turncoat bitch!” the Edgelord screamed. From his waist, he withdrew a familiar pistol-shaped device, alongside some sort of bayonet attachment that served to lengthen the barrel. “I knew I should have shot you myself after you didn’t turn into a Smash after five months of nonstop experimentation!” As he slotted the bayonet onto the pistol device, there came an announcement in a male voice.

«Rifle Mode!»

The elephant-armoured enemy immediately took aim, not at her, but into the crowd. “This time, I won’t make the same mistake!” he exclaimed with manic laughter. “I’ll just have to take all that off your corpse!”

«Devil Steam!»

It took Karasu a moment too late to realise that the steam bullets being fired weren’t aimed directly at her. Even as she jumped into the air, twirling the Tempo Reaper in order to intercept the shots, the first two fired struck two random civilians. All at once, they were shrouded in the gaseous substance. “Bah, ruin my fun,” he snarled as the rest of the shots dispersed harmlessly against her blade. Just like with the unicorn-themed individual, he was wreathed in smoke before disappearing. “Don’t think I’ll go easy on you next time.”

As the mist around the two struck civilians dissipated, there were two Smash dazedly looking around. Both were of the Strong Smash body-type, although differing greatly in appearance from the original. One looked like it bore a dark, rocky exterior, rather than any sort of metal plating. The other seemed to suck up all light that touched it, with only the slightest motes of light shining like stars.

Just like that, it was pandemonium. People were screaming, running every which way, and the Kamen Rider was convinced that she was about to witness several individuals getting killed by the Smash before she could act. Off to the entrance of the food court, she could see Shining Armour staring in horror, even as his sister stood behind him, caught up in a moment of fascinated terror. His hand hovered over a holster at his hip.

Before the rocky and dark Strong Smash could lash out, however, a pair of shimmering amaranthine barriers trapped them both. Over by one of the vending machines, she could see Sunset Shimmer crouched down, one glowing hand extended. Upon her forehead stood the phantom image of a horn, and phantom ears glowing in amaranth atop her head.

Gotta keep attention off Sunset, she thought, glancing back towards the part of the food court leading out into the mall, where Shining Armour still stood. “EVERYBODY!” she shouted in an amplified, distorted voice. “I need you all to evacuate the food court in an orderly fashion.” She pointed over toward the blue-haired man. “There is an off-duty police officer over there. He’s going to help you all evacuate safely. Follow whatever instructions he gives you.”

Unsurprisingly, the cop looked unenthused to be having orders handed to him by a vigilante. He was smart enough to recognise, however, that it was necessary; it probably beat out fighting the two transformed civilians. He held his badge in the air, and began giving orders as people migrated in his direction. Good man.

“Whoever it is that has the smash locked down, can you release just the rocky one once the civilians are clear?” she asked Sunset while trying to respect her friend’s anonymity. As if to answer her, a spectral hand appeared in the air before her and gave her a thumbs up. “Great. Warn me if you can’t hold them.”

Rather than stride forward immediately, in order to engage the Smash, she fetched the red Fullbottle bearing the image of a shrimp-like creature. It was a bottle she’d not yet tested, but she got the feeling it might be useful—especially now. With that in mind, she twisted the cap and swapped it in for the Raven Fullbottle. Scythe was similarly replaced with Magnum.

«Shako!»

«Magnum!»

«Are you ready?»

“Cross change!” A grin crept across her face as the red armour snapped into place where once the raven-black had been. Shako was the Neighponese name for the mantis shrimp. They were creatures known for their powerful, fast strikes and hunting prey far larger than them. Off the glass of a nearby information booth, she caught sight of herself and nodded. It was as she thought; she now bore the antennae the first Strong Smash had.

[Insert Start: Burning My Soul]

The last of the civilians save for Sunset, who’d pulled her jacket over her head to hide her features, finally evacuated the food court. Shining Armour still stood at the route into the other parts of the mall. He no longer had his badge held up, and instead had a smart-phone clutched to his ear. “You have until Canterlogic’s Guardians and SWAT show up to do what you need to do, Karasu,” he called out. “Try to keep the property damage to a minimum!” He remained behind, his weapon drawn as he watched the spectacle.

Without any need for instruction, Sunset released the barrier around the first Strong Smash. At the same time, the hemisphere barrier around the other slowly rose out of the ground, transitioning into a sphere floating high above. Lumbering forward, the stony Smash raised its arms as if ready to strike.

Karasu never gave it the chance. With a burst of speed, she darted forward, Tempo Reaper trailing behind her. Much like the first smash she ever fought, she weaved under a heavy blow that would likely have decapitated any normal human and darted past. The scythe blade caught the Smash’s ankles and tripped it up in a shower of sparks, sending it toppling into a nearby table.

Dropping the weapon, she rushed in and started hammering it with punches. Her blows came with startling frequency, as if her entire body was moving as fast as it possibly could. Repeated cracks of the arm-cannon discharged vivid carmine blasts into the toppled Smash’s face. Bits of stone broke off with every punch.

When the Strong Smash had enough sense about it to try and knock her away with a backhand, she retreated away. This gave it enough room to stand back up. In the time it took it to rise back to its feet, however, Karasu had cranked the handle on the Build Driver several times.

«Vortex Attack!»

Drawing back her magnum arm, she felt a large amount of energy building in the cannon. Thrusting the arm forward let out a loud bang as a red sphere the size of the Smash formed in front of her. A lightning-fast follow-up jab from her other arm slammed the energy sphere forward. Engulfed in the energy, the Smash could do nothing but collapse to the ground.

EMTs showed up at the spot where Shining Armour stood just as Karasu drained away the Smash essence. The woman that emerged was in just as bad a state as the others had been, but she looked like she’d live if she got immediate attention. Without prompting, a red barrier formed underneath the victim and ferried her over to the gurney being pushed by the paramedics.

‘This one’s different. I feel magic in it. Be careful.’ The words rapidly formed and disappeared in front of the Kamen Rider. A fair warning, since she had almost no experience with the subject matter. It meant that she couldn’t expect it to behave like the other two Strong Smash she’d faced.

The moment Sunset released the Smash, it dropped to the ground with a thud. To be honest, she was somewhat surprised by how passive it’d been up until being released. If not for the fact that there was a human being trapped inside, the scientist in her would have been interested to study its behaviour. Alas, it was neither the time or the place.

Without warning, the Smash melted into the floor, becoming an indistinct black shape. It reminded her almost of a shadow. Rather than going for Sunset or the Kamen Rider, however, it was heading straight for the police officer and paramedics. It’s like it can sense easier prey...

Thinking quickly, Karasu grabbed the shaft of the Tempo Reaper and threw it like a throwing axe. The weapon spun through the air before finally lodging into the ground blade first, pinning the shadow to the floor a few metres away from the police officer. “Hey!” she shouted, darting after it. “Your fight is with me!”

It was making an attempt to rise up out of its shadow form, but the Smash could only partially manifest, lunging uselessly at Shining armour. He seemed to consider actually firing his handgun at it, but thought better of it as Karasu approached. She kicked off from the ground, snagging the shaft of the scythe in her right hand as she leapt past. In that same movement, she drew her left hand back.

Touching down in front of the off-duty officer, she pirouetted to face the monster. The moment it fully manifested, she threw her punch. Red energy slammed into the smash’s midsection, sending it tumbling backwards, but not harming it in the least. Karasu was not finished, however; her punch transitioned into a slap of the button on the Tempo Reaper.

«Smash Hit!»

She darted forward as the blade glowed white. Catching up with the tumbling Smash, she swept the blade up underneath it, kicking it into the air as white flame erupted across its chest. Another two taps were followed by her readying another vertical slash.

«Million Hit!»

An arrow of white energy lanced out from the blade as she made her follow-up attack. It seemed to punch right through the Smash, but it didn’t seem to have any other effect. The Smash, on the other hand, seemed ready to go on the offensive, managing to stabilise its fall, and drawing its arm back. Gritting her teeth, Nebula hit the button three times.

«Mega Hit!»

Before she could line up her attack, however, the vantablack Smash rocketed down towards her with sudden intensity. Its stubby arm snared her by the face and slammed her into the ground. The resulting impact created a deep crater in the food court’s floor and her weapon dismissed itself. Pain became her entire world.

Everything began to spin as a series of blows hammered her further into the earth. Karasu could taste blood in her mouth, and she desperately hoped that she couldn’t vomit into her helmet or else she might drown. At first, she thought it was simply throwing her around, but that made no sense given that she could still feel the earth against her back.

I must have a concussion.

The Smash raised its arms to bring them down on her head. Silently, Nebula prepared herself for whatever came next. The killing blow never came, however. “NO!” Accompanied by an almost inhuman scream, amaranthine flames swept into the crater taking the Smash with it. It was carried out of Karasu’s field of view. “Get her out of there! I can’t hold it forever!”

A man dressed like a paramedic climbed down into the crater, and the moment he looked at her, he paled. “Be a gentleman and help me up?” Karasu offered, thrusting her hand in the air. “Pretty sure the suit cushioned the worst of it, but damned if I’m not gonna be bruised tomorrow.”

Against his better judgement, the paramedic grabbed her hand and hauled her upright. Her vision swam, and it took her a moment to realise that she’d nearly collapsed until the paramedic propped her up. It took a bit for her to hobble up to the edge of the crater, and a helping hand from Shining Armour for her to get out. “She needs medical attention,” the medic warned as the Kamen Rider staggered around the rim of the crater. “Somehow, though, I doubt she’ll let us help her.”

She didn’t pay the two any mind. She was too busy focused on the walking pillar of flame in the vague shape of a teenage girl. Both hands were thrust in the air, and it took the heroine a moment to realise that she was containing the smash in a fiery sphere at the highest point in the mall above the food court. Flames flickered about her form, occasionally taking the shape of demonic or angelic wings, and there was the flickering shape of a single horn coming from her forehead.

“I can’t hold this form anymore!” a voice completely unlike Sunset’s cried out. “Any longer and I’ll become something I’m not. I can’t let myself become that again...” Her hands dropped to her sides, and she rushed over to the rider. The only reason she was sure it was Sunset was because of the Fire Fullbottle that was subsequently thrust into her hand. Leaning in close, the flame-cloaked young woman whispered, “Only magic can hurt it... I’ll be where we came in... and I’ll grab your bag.”

Without warning, Sunset took off into the mall along the evacuation route. A trail of fiery footprints followed behind her, even as the flames around her extinguished. Nebula paid her friend no further mind. Instead, she glanced from the bottle to the still suspended Smash up in the air. I hope this works, Sunset-chan.

She swapped out the Shako Fullbottle for the Raven, and replaced the Magnum with the Fire. There was a momentary spark from her Build Driver, and for a moment she was worried she fried something. Instead, she watched the silver accents turning gold. An additional moment was spent ensuring no other changes occurred before she cranked it.

«Raven!»

«Fire!»

«Magic Match?»

«Are you ready?»

“Cross change!” The Raven part of the armour formed as usual; instead of a secondary armature to slam into place, though, a gout of flame shot out from the side of the driver to wrap the portions not covered by armour. Power surged through her, and the ache of some of her injuries lessened. A stray reflection showed her to be covered in raven-black armour and patches of living flame, a pair of fiery equine ears atop her head, with a similarly constructed horn jutting out of her forehead.

«Of Blackened Wings and Fiery Desire!»

She wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab that Smash out of the sky, and the magic responded. At the top of her vision, she saw the flaming horn brighten, and suddenly, a fiery hand the size of a Smash rushed forward from the space in front of her, snatching the deadly Smash out of its magical prison. It seemed to respond to her every thought, as though it were an extension of her soul, and moving it closer felt like the most natural thing in the world.

Oh, she could feel the Smash struggle against her magical grasp. It just didn’t have anything near the amount of willpower to break her hold. In fact, it had almost no willpower or mind to speak of. Strange... how do I know what it needs to break my hold? How is it that I can touch its mind?

She shook her head to put aside the thought. No, this would definitely be the time to finish them off. She turned the crank on the Driver several times and then thrust her hand in the air. “Let’s finish this.”

«Magitech Finish!»

Dozens of spears of flame and steely feathers manifested in the air around the Smash. One by one, the projectiles lanced through the air to skewer her target. It began to look less like a walking void and more like a fiery, quilled pincushion. Once the last feather and fire-lance struck, there was an explosion, and the Smash dropped to the ground.

[Insert End]

Kamen Rider Karasu reached for one of the remaining empty Fullbottles at her hip, only to find one manifesting in her hand. She knelt down beside the fallen smash and twisted the cap, even as Shining Armour and the paramedics rushed over.

As the dark essence was sucked up into the Fullbottle, revealing an old man who looked to be on death’s door even before his transformation, there came laughter from above them. Immediately, she knelt down and propped the elderly man up with her Raven half. “Hazard Level 1,” came the distorted voice of the one she’d called Edgelord. There was no other sign of the armoured figure, however. “Subjects in sub-optimal health cannot survive being transformed into a Smash and back.” The man on the ground was glowing a bright yellow light. “The only thing keeping him alive was the transformation, so congratulations, turncoat. You’re a murderess.”

Panic filled her core as the unconscious man began to break up into motes of light. “No, no, no-no-no,” she whimpered. When the paramedics knelt down beside her, she reached out and grabbed one with her flaming hand. The man flinched, but when he found he wasn’t getting burned, he looked at the heroine with wary eyes. “Please, tell me you can do something,” she pleaded. “I... I didn’t know. I never meant to...”

The man’s partner shook her head. “I’m sorry,” the woman said in a soft voice, putting her hand gingerly on Karasu’s shoulder. “I don’t think there’s anything any of us can do.”

Unable to restrain herself, she began to sob and clutched the elderly man against her chest. Over and over again, she chanted, “I’m sorry!” to the man. The other paramedic and Shining Armour tentatively put a hand on the Kamen Rider’s back in support as she grieved her failure. When the last motes of light vanished, and the man was gone, she let out a distorted cry of anguish and slammed her fist into the tile floor, shattering every tile in a several metre radius.

Turning her face to the sky, she cried out, 「When I find you, Edgelord, I’m going to kill you, and then kill you again!」The others recoiled at her sudden shout, especially as she forced herself to her feet. 「I may have been the tool that killed this man, but make no mistake; you were the executioner!」

She staggered away, the energy rush from the Fire Fullbottle fading. The dizziness returned with a vengeance, and she wanted to get out of there. No, I need to get out of here! In her mind’s eye, she pictured the spot she needed to be in her mind, but for the life of her, she couldn’t picture how to get there. If only the magic could—

A pillar of flame enshrouded her body, and when she next blinked, she found herself in the parking garage attached to the mall, right in front of Sunset’s motorbike. It was dark, and in the corner she could see a smashed security camera. More importantly, though, she saw Sunset on the ground against the wall, her face buried in her forearms and knees.

Disengaging the transformation, she staggered over to where Sunset sat, and slowly slid down the wall beside her. “Sunset-chan,” she murmured in a shaky voice. “I... I do not know what happened with your transformation, but between what happened to you, that bastard making me into a killer, and the concussion I have, I do not think either of us should be alone tonight.”

Her friend sat up and looked at her in horror. When the silence made it clear that she was not joking, Sunset put her arm across Nebula’s shoulder and hugged her close. It was only then that they both broke down.

Shining Armour drummed his fingers on the steering wheel to a beat heard only in his heart. He’d have loved to have just turned on the radio to fill the silence as he drove himself and Twily back to their parents’ home. Unfortunately, ever since they’d gotten into the car, his younger sister had that look on her face that told him that she needed absolute silence while she puzzled something out.

He couldn’t exactly blame her. The evening had given them both an awful lot to think about. There had been a lot of useful information gained from observing the interaction between the Kamen Rider and the one that created the two Smash. None of it exactly alleviated his oncoming headache, but it was something.

Firstly, he’d determined that there was indeed someone creating the Smash. The vigilante had referred to the man as Edgelord, although it was likely a nickname created as an insult. Worse, this man could apparently appear or disappear at will and create a Smash at any time. That made the situation leagues more complex, because there would be no establishing a pattern in appearances.

Next, Karasu had a link to this group responsible for the monsters. Given that she’d been straight up accused of having stolen the technology she now used to fight those monsters, alongside someone who’d been referred to as ‘that unicorn bitch’, he suspected that the Kamen Rider was a conscientious objector. It was likely that she’d destroyed all data related to her gear; it’d certainly explain why they were so desperate to get it back.

Most importantly, however, he’d been given a sobering update on the situation with the Smash. Shining had done some checking up on the previous victim, the one that Karasu had personally placed in his hands, and she was suffering from acute amnesia, and couldn’t remember anything after the day preceding her disappearance. Similarly, the hospital had received an escaped convict into their care in a similar state the week before that. Now, not only did they have to worry about trying to pump victims for useful information, but now there was a straight-up risk of killing a victim if the Smash was created from an infirm person.

Is that going to put a hamper on our little heroine’s efforts to save people? He glanced sideways at his sister, who seemed just as deep in thought. Or is this going to push her to try harder?

Though Shining Armour was lucky to have never needed to kill in the line of duty, he’d seen a number of people that he went to the academy with who weren’t so lucky. More than a few of them didn’t take it well at all. It was one thing to witness death, but to cause it was an entirely different thing. It destroyed some people, and just two months ago he’d attended the funeral of a peer who couldn’t handle the guilt.

“Twily, about what happened at the mall,” he began, taking care not to take the accusatory tone with her. Shining knew damn well that Twilight Sparkle was too curious for her own damn good and had likely witnessed the entire fight and recorded it with her phone, even after he’d advised her to evacuate. “If you ever need to talk about what you—”

Twilight shook her head, maybe too quickly. “I know, Shiny,” she responded in a tone just barely audible over the engine. “I’m fine, though... Really. It’s just a lot to take in.” Much to his surprise, she managed a soft laugh. “Do you want to know what gets me, though? Even though I should have all that occupying my mind, all I can think is how I swear I’ve seen that Nebula girl somewhere at Crystal Prep before.”

He raised his eyebrow and motioned for her to continue as he changed lanes and readied to turn onto a residential street. “I know it wasn’t in person, or anything,” she continued, fretting with the bottom of her uniform skirt. “But I could swear I’ve seen her face in a picture somewhere at the school.” When she turned to look at her brother, he could see a genuine interest in helping in her eyes—even if it was more out of a desire to solve a mystery. “You said that girl doesn’t remember anything until about a month ago, so maybe Crystal Prep would be a good place to find some clues. Principal Cinch is incredibly old-fashioned and has a hardcopy of almost everything.”

Author's Note

A few points to touch on. Firstly, Sunset's manifestation here was not an actual transformation. It is touched on more in Chapter 3.5, but the short of it is that she experienced a magic surge that almost pushed her to the threshold of something more.

She's not quite ready to transform into a Kamen Rider yet. Still, now she can at least contribute a bit in a fight. Plus, as a unicorn, being able to use her magic (and simulate a Pony-up) will likely do wonders for her psyche.

We also get our first post-prologue appearance of ~~'Blood Hunter'~~ Edgelord-kun. He's no less sadistic than when we saw him last, but we can see that he isn't entirely bright... or mature. Before, there was a chance to play the police and Karasu against one another, but now, he's revealed some cards I'm sure that Mommy dearest would rather not be played yet.

He also made a huge mistake by putting poor Nebby into the position where she had to kill. Once she's had time to decompress and recover from tonight, you just know she's gonna be out for blood.

We also get our first taste of a new subclass of Smash: Magic-Infused Smash. For reasons unknown, some Smash are created bearing a degree of Equestrian magic. Not only are they incredibly durable versus normal weapons and dangerous, but they possess unusual powers that the basis form would not possess. The Burn Smash did not possess enough magic to classify as Magic-Infused, but just enough that its essence purified into the Fire Fullbottle. Meanwhile, our friend the Dark Strong Smash possessed the ability to become a solid shadow on the floor and attack from that form, though it could not fully reconstitute itself when obstructed (IE pinned to the ground).

Regarding the new Magic Fullbottles. Surprise! Magitech! Although not initially accounted for in the Build Driver Rev. A, the Magic Fullbottles can serve as wildcard matches to any other Fullbottle—Raven/Fire, or Fire/Magnum, for example. Unfortunately, however, use of them by inexperienced users, such as Nebula, will leave the user magically and emotionally exhausted.

Though Hazard levels are touched upon in 3.5, I will introduce this point early: Secondary Hazard levels, which are of course tied to Magic. Although Nebula was capable of transforming for a short time, her (Magic) Hazard Level is techinically below the threshold of being able to transform with he Build Driver. An attempt with two magic bottles at the present time would be right out, for either of them.

Can you guess the secondary implications of Nebby developing a (Magic) Hazard Level?

Finally, we leave off with an interesting exchange between brother and sister and a twist ending! What could Nebula's ties to Crystal Prep possibly be? In that hoard of paperwork and hyper-competitive students, could there really be a clue as to our girl's real identity?

Chapter 3.5 - Aftersmash

October 31st, 2013

It struck her as a rather bizarre sight. In her time pretending to date Flash Sentry, things had never progressed to the point that involved physical intimacy or shared nudity that often showed up in the various media available in this world. She’d been perfectly content in the knowledge that she’d likely never be in the position to see someone in a state of prolonged undress in the comfort of her own home... and yet here she was—or rather, here Nebula was.

After their encounter at the mall yesterday, especially after they’d both cried it out, she’d come to the decision that Nebula's assessment had been correct. Neither of them should have been alone, but it was especially true of the girl that had been slammed head first into the ground so hard that it created a crater. She’d seemed particularly punch-drunk after being helped out of the crater, but when Sunset heard the broken tone in her friend’s voice when she spoke of having taken a life, that had settled it.

Sunset’s apartment was something she financed with bits she brought through when she first came into the world, so she had no issues of parental permission for having friends over. The group home for Nebula seemed kind of hands-off, and didn’t even press the amnesiac when she called to let them know she was crashing at a friend’s place for a few days. Did they even care so long as they got money from the State to care for her?

The result had been the Kamen Rider crashing on her couch, passing out in the middle of changing out of the track suit. Shorts and a sports bra weren’t exactly what she’d call appropriate guest attire; with the nasty bruising around her abdomen where the Smash had repeatedly struck her, Sunset couldn’t exactly blame her friend for not trying to put on another shirt. Especially when she was so out of it after the fact.

She’d spent most of the night watching over her friend. Strangely enough, however, her friend wasn’t exhibiting many of the symptoms of concussion. Between the fever, full-body ache, dehydration, and increased appetite, she’d have said that Nebula was suffering from magical exhaustion. In the days immediately following her purge by the Rainbow of Light, she’d found herself in a similar state.

The idea wouldn’t have even occurred to her if she hadn’t seen the footage someone had posted online that very night. It’d been taken from one floor up, but it’d captured the transformation involving the Raven and Fire Fullbottles. The presence of the fiery horn and ears reminded the former unicorn of the way that Rarity and Princess Twilight both had transformed when imbued with the power of the Element of Magic. She wondered idly if there’d have been an extended ponytail if the Build System had allowed it.

Still, that wasn’t all that the footage revealed. It wasn’t just that Nebula had been imbued with the power of the Fire Fullbottle’s magic; she’d actively wielded magic in its most basic form—the incredibly wasteful, intent-based ‘brute force’ magic most often used instinctively by foals during surges. And she teleported with it, too! No wonder she’s tired.

If she had any remaining symptoms of concussion, they’d been so mild that the magical exhaustion masked them. It’d been enough to convince Sunset that she was safe to let rest overnight on the couch. That was, of course, after leaving a bottle of water and the acetaminophen atop the coffee table within easy reach.

For her part, the former unicorn did not sleep at all that night. Every time she began to drift off, she found herself back in the mall, reliving the moment her magic surged and she almost lost control. It was enough to jolt her wide awake every single time.

For the first time in years, Sunset Shimmer was beginning to feel like her old self. There was a reason that she had been the personal apprentice to the Princess of the Sun; her magic was at a level seldom seen in unicorns for centuries at a time. Even as a foal, her mentor had been hammering in just the sort of damage she could do without proper control.

Not only was she strong, though; she’d been one of the most learned magi of her era. She possessed archmagus-level certifications in both transmutation and evocation magic at just fourteen, and was able to teach it as well. She’d been in the process of earning one in artifice before the appearance of Mi Amore Cadenza drove her focus entirely into the realm of Ascension.

With the Fire Fullbottle clutched in her hand, she felt as though she could access every ounce of that long-dormant power. It was invigorating, but the more sense she got of her own power, the more she realised just how much she’d taken for granted, and how much more aware of the control she had to keep. The strength of her magic coupled with knowledge gained during her time in the human world created the potential for great destruction; strictly speaking, she could likely level three city blocks in a single casting.

Much to her surprise, though, her magic seemed to be causing the black Smash harm. It was sparking occasionally from the prolonged contact with the barrier spell she was using to contain the creature. More than that, though, she could feel magic within it, trying to fight against her grip.

The moment Karasu drained the essence from the Smash she was fighting, Sunset used a modified barrier spell to escort the poor woman that’d been forcibly transformed over to the police. She even took the time to cast a quick sending to warn the Kamen Rider to keep on her hooves toes. The moment she let down the containment spell, she paused to get her bearings and see how her friend handled the creature.

At first, the Rider seemed to be handling the monster with the same level of ease she’d conquered the first one with, but she quickly noticed something important. In every video that Sunset saw of the fights involving Smash, the body would give off sparks when hit with a damaging blow. Although Karasu was hitting it hard and fast, knocking it around like it didn’t weigh enough to crack the floor tiles when it moved, it seemed to be taking the blows like mosquito bites—annoying but mostly harmless.

With a sudden flare of magical power, the midnight-black monster hurled itself down toward the ground, driving her friend head first into the ground. She waited with bated breath to see her friend knock the creature off of her, but that moment never came. Instead the Smash lived up to the moniker, beginning to rain heavy blows down upon her new friend... and she wasn’t fighting back.

Fear of loss and rage at the creature daring to harm something that belonged to her flared in her chest, and the Fire Fullbottle pulsed violently in response. The sudden, violent emotion loosened her control over her magical power enough that she could feel a surge coming on. Once a surge starts, My Little Sun, Princess Celestia’s words echoed in her head, there are but two options: suppress the magic at the source, or direct it so that the magic acts with purpose.

Magical flames began to leap from her body as she rose to her feet. The power was too much for her to contain or suppress at this point, so she let it form a protective flame-cloak around her body as she formulated the spell needed to save her friend. A moment later, she channelled all of that rage and fear into a wall of flame that surged forward from her hands.

The mass of flames swept into the crater throwing sparks high into the air. When she then redirected the flames upward, the Smash was carried with it. The moment she had it high in the air, she reshaped the spell to create a prison of solid flames around the monster. All the while, her magic sparked and surged around her.

Faintly, at the border of her consciousness, she could feel the familiar sensation of wings beginning to take form. It began as a tingle in her back, but a glance over her shoulder showed them trying to manifest in the flames. One moment, she was there containing a Smash, and the next she saw herself in the air in front of Canterlot High, throwing a massive ball of flame at the pony princess who ruine—

She tamped down on the thought and directed as much energy as she could manage into the barrier. “Get her out of there!” Sunset cried out in that same voice she possessed as a demon. “I can’t hold this forever!”

Sometimes, however, she would transition into that half-asleep state and it was different. In those moments, it always turned into a nightmare where she regained that demonic form, and instead of merely saving Karasu, she turned on her, and then the police officer and paramedics that’d been there to help her friend.

As a result, she was ready to call in sick by the time the sun rose. Of course, she understood why she had that surge and those waking nightmares. It was the same reason she knew she wasn’t ready to face the princess; there hadn’t been enough time for her to really begin getting over what happened, never mind making it up to everyone for what she’d done. The mere thought of power or great responsibility terrified her.

What caught Sunset off guard the most was after she’d showered and gotten a cup of coffee. She’d come out into the living room to check on Nebula, only to find her friend wide awake and upright, looking at her phone. In the morning sunlight, the bruises around the girl’s still exposed midsection had turned a greenish colour, almost seeming luminescent atop her jet-coloured skin. But that’s five days worth of healing in a single night...

“Good morning, Sunset-chan,” came Nebula’s tired greeting. It came out more like a groan, but there was a self-assured smirk on her face—the same way Rainbow got when she tried to challenge Pinkie to an eating contest that time, and called it ‘Worth it,’ despite the loss and stomach ache. “Did you get any rest?”

The former unicorn shook her head. “I was going to call in sick, and suggest you do the same,” she admitted. “There’s kind of a lot about yesterday to unpack, and school isn’t the place to do so.”

Nebula nodded and pushed herself to one side of the couch so that Sunset could take a seat as well. “No kidding,” came Nebula’s agreement. “I... don’t remember much, but seeing him stirred some things loose, and I feel... I dunno, more like myself. More comfortable?”

Silently, she wondered if her friend realised that her manner of speaking had changed. Just yesterday before that whole mess started, she’d been noting how stiff and overly formal and clinical it made her sound. Now she almost sounded like any of the other girls.

“Speaking of,” she tapped something on her phone and then passed it over to Sunset, making sure to point out a sensor on the back. On the screen, there looked to be three graphs labelled Type-I, Type-II, and Type-M. “Can you press this against my forearm and tell me what you see?”

The moment the sensor touched Nebula’s skin, the Type-II and Type-M graphs began to fluctuate wildly for a second. It eventually settled into two similar waveforms, the later of which she recognised to be magic. “You register on the Type-II and Type-M charts.” The longer she held it there, numbers began to appear. “One reads 3.2154, whilst the latter reads 2.3565. What are these numbers?”

Nebula gently took back the phone, pressed a button and looked at it. “Huh, Type-II is up zero point zero one from when I measured it last week.” Her brow furrowed as she looked at the second measurement. “I didn’t even measure on the Type-M last week, so I’m rather impressed to go up two whole points... I have magic... and whatever it was the Nebula Gas did to me.” Glancing down at her bruises, her eyebrow shot up. “And apparently it’s helping me heal faster than I should.”

Turning back to Sunset, she fixed her friend with an even look. “I take it there were videos of what happened last night circulating online?” When she nodded, Nebula continued. “I dunno if anyone caught it, but the Edgelord mentioned something. Hazard Levels.”

Sighing, Nebula brought her knees up to her chest and set the phone down to hug her legs. “In its most basic breakdown, a Hazard Level determines how likely a lifeform is to withstand the effects of Nebula Gas.” She held up her pinky finger, and explained. “At Hazard Level 1—which encompasses the sick, weak, elderly, or infirm—an entity effectively dies the moment it transforms them into Smash, and when purged of Nebula Gas, the strain is too much and their body breaks down into energy.”

The girl then put her pinkie down and extended her ring finger. “At Hazard Level 2—which is most average people—exposure to Nebula Gas immediately transforms a person into a Smash, and can be transformed back without too much risk.” She stared at her friend with a worried look in her eyes.“The strain puts them in a feverish state, and they typically cannot recall anything immediately leading up to it.”

Sunset thought she was starting to get the picture, although not entirely. The device read zero on the value labelled Type-I, and yet that wasn’t at all touched upon. Does that mean that exposure to that type would kill her? Or is it an immunity?

“Hazard Level 2.1 and higher is where things get interesting, at least from a detached point of view,” Nebula explained. “It’s at this level that people exposed resist transforming into a Smash and suffer no physiological effects of Nebula Gas.”

Finally, she put the pinky finger back up. “At Hazard Level 3, a person can utilise the Build Driver Rev. A or Transteam System and transform.” She glanced at the bag leaned up against the coffee table holding all her stuff. “What I find interesting is that I have a Hazard Level above 2.1 where magic is concerned when I was at zero last week.”

Sunset considered that as she took the phone and took a reading of herself. If magic at all behaved like the mutagenic gas derived from it, would it have transformed her friend into another Smash like the weird one yesterday? Or would it have been closer to that of a demon like Sunset had become when exposed? For that matter, had using the Fire Fullbottle really been enough to grant Nebula magic, and would she transform like Rainbow Dash if she got really into something?

The only chart that showed an energy waveform was Type-M, but as she held it against her arm, she saw two Hazard Levels. Under Type-I, it read 2.1001, while Type-M measured out at 2.9062. I wonder how it measures up in comparison to a Standard Equestrian Thaum. What she wouldn’t give for access to a thaumometer, right then.

She passed the phone back to her friend so that she could look. “So what you’re saying is that if my magic was zero point one higher in this ‘Hazard Level’, I could theoretically use your Driver to transform?”

Nebula stood and walked around the coffee table, where she began to pace. “Hard to say. With two magic bottles?” She tapped the side of her chin a few times. “Maybe. It seemed like you were having problems regulating power with just one and it’s possible two would be too much to start out with. I certainly started getting overwhelmed.”

She turned to her friend, chewing on her lip as she considered something. “I honestly don’t know what would happen if you tried with either of the other Fullbottles, and I’m not keen to run a risky test on you like that.”

The two followed through with their plan to skive off class for the day. Instead of staying at Sunset’s place, however, the two ended up going for a walk in Sunset’s neighbourhood. It was a chill October morning, and long past the time most people went to school or work, so it was pretty empty save for the occasional passing car. The relative peace made it pretty easy to converse as they went.

“So, there was something I wanted to mention earlier, before we got distracted,” Sunset started. “I think I mentioned before that ponies in Equestria tend to have counterparts in this world.” Taking advantage of the absence of people on the sidewalk to walk backwards as she spoke to her friend.

Nebula thought she understood where this was going. Her friend had been watching her interaction with Shining Armour’s younger sister with a degree of what seemed to be fear. “Is this about Twilight-san?”

Sunset nodded, managing to look quite guilty as she looked away. “Twilight Sparkle, at least in my world, is the pony that replaced me as Princess Celestia’s personal student.” She crossed her arms and sighed. “Twilight’s also the princess whose crown I stole—the princess who defeated me.”

Of all the things the amnesiac thought she might hear, this wasn’t anywhere close. She’d expected bad history of course, such as someone she used to bully, but that? No wonder the former unicorn had been spooked. It had to bring up so many different emotions, and not being prepared for that, it would certainly risk emotional overload. “Ah,” was all she could say. “I haven’t actually accepted Shining Armour-san’s invitation yet; should I turn them down or say something’s come up?”

When her friend stopped and grabbed her by her shoulders, Nebula nearly tripped. “No! Nothing like that.” Sunset looked uncomfortable, but resigned. “Just... Princess Twilight blundered into this world and still managed to systematically destroy everything I built for myself here in just two days. What could the human Twilight do if she stumbled across the existence of magic?” The image of the detonation of a hydrogen bomb detonating played out before Nebula’s eyes. “Just... be careful around her.”

“Alright,” she responded. The two returned to silence for the remainder of the trip.

Maybe a few blocks down from the duplex unit Sunset rented, there was what looked to be an abandoned indoor hockey rink. The building itself seemed in good shape, although the land around it was fenced in and in disrepair. Nebula followed close behind her friend as the redhead led her around the back, where there was a gap in the fence. From there, Sunset picked her way along a worn path until they reached a fire exit alongside a garage style door.

Opening the door without any sort of resistance, the young woman reached just inside and grabbed a lantern. At first glance, it was an antique oil lantern, but instead of opening it and igniting a wick, she pressed a button, and the lamp began to brightly glow. Once Nebula blinked away the spots of the LED array, she looked around.

Every inch of the polycarbonate rink barriers was covered in street art, even the barrier that would normally open to admit a zamboni. At the centre of the rink sat a tarp-covered sofa, some patio furniture, and a few easels atop tarps. Though Nebula thought each piece was from a different artist, it slowly occurred to her that it was actually a progression of a singular style.

“Welcome to my home away from home,” she explained, moving over to where an easel sat, a sheet over whatever painting had been left there. “It’s where I come to unwind, or practise my art—” Removing the sheet, the former unicorn’s face flushed. “—and apparently stroke my ego when I was a megalomaniac.”

On the canvas was a vaguely equine creature in Sunset’s colour palette. Nebula assumed it to be a self portrait, not of what she’d been, but what she’d desired to become. The painting depicted a winged unicorn—an alicorn, the scientist’s memory so helpfully supplied—posing regally with her wings spread, clad in a silver peytral, crown, and some sort of extended hoof covering. There was a haughty expression on the mare’s face that screamed, ‘I’m your better!’

“It’s how I imagined I’d look after achieving Ascension,” Sunset explained upon noticing her curious expression. “It’s pretty accurate to how Equestrian ponies look, though.” She let out a disgusted snort before shaking her head in an almost equine fashion. “I didn’t bring you here just to show off my art, though.”

She moved back over to the sofa, pulled the Fire Fullbottle from her jacket pocket and gave it a shake. After a moment, a phantom pair of equine ears appeared atop her head, accompanied by the horn shape. Holding out her hand, a mote of light appeared, rapidly growing before she finally threw it into the air to illuminate the whole arena with amaranth light. “This is probably the best place we can work on any of this Rider stuff.” She grinned and then threw the bottle over to Nebula. The pseudo-transformation gave out a moment later. “Nobody but me ever comes here, and you don’t have to worry about trespassing. Believe it or not, I own this lot.”

That got a look of surprise from Nebula. “So why the show of coming through the fence?” she asked. Against her better judgement, she gave the bottle a few shakes. Electric blue light coalesced atop her head to form ears and a horn. She glanced around for a moment before reaching towards a can of spray paint that lay forgotten near a large depiction of the two-toned sun her friend often wore. “Why not go in the front?”

Sunset shrugged as she watched a flickering blue glow encompass the can. “Nostalgia, maybe?” she remarked, smiling as the human girl intuited her way through telekinesis. The can shakily lifted a foot off the floor, only to tumble when Nebula tried to bring it to her. “I spent my first winter here, before I got my finances all set up with the gold bits I brought with me from Equestria. Despite how bad things seemed, I never failed to feel safe here. Since then, I’ve gone through a lot of effort to make sure people keep away.”

The former unicorn paused, as though she’d only just realised something. “With access to my magic, I could probably create a deterrent field, but I’d have to find something to anchor the spell to.” A thoughtful expression on her face, she turned and looked around the rink. “All said, though, we could have worse places for a hideout.”

After making and failing a few more attempts at levitating the bottle over, Nebula sent the Fire Fullbottle back Sunset’s way. Why was it so much easier when I was in my rider form? Hmm. She pulled her phone out and saw a few messages in the group chat she’d been pulled into with the others, giving her well-wishes.

PieMaster: OMG, sorry ur missing Halloween Day @ school!

PieMaster: I’ll throw make-up party 4 u 2 l8r.

DiamondDarling: My goodness, I hope you’re both doing alright.

DiamondDarling: That business yesterday looked particularly nasty.

2Fast4U: That was so awesome!

Appletini: Jus’ give the word an’ I’ll bring some vittles by after school.

FluffyBunni: Feel better soon.

Thanks girls. Will do. :girlGenius

ShimmerCode: At least we have something productive to do on our off day.

Her eye drifted from the screen to the bottle slot, she felt something stirring inside of her. Resonating with the sense of scientific curiosity, she felt an unfamiliar tingle building in her chest. From her lab coat pocket, she withdrew the Pony Fullbottle, and started walking away from the furniture and easels. Something deep inside her wanted out. Why not let it?

«Build Change!»

She slotted the bottle into the phone, which let out a startling jingle, and when it started trembling in her hands, she threw it into the air. Not a moment too soon, as it turned out; impossibly, the phone began to unfold to a larger size than made sense. In response to her mounting excitement, the nascent magic burst free of its restraints. As the phone slowly grew into the form of an off-road motorcycle, her ears migrated to the top of her head and a jet-grey spike of a horn jutted out from her forehead. Lacking a long enough mane of hair, a shock of platinum hairs pushed out the back of her track pants instead.

「Oh, I love this!」 she squealed, not really cognisant of the fact of something swishing beneath her lab coat as she darted over to the bike. 「An XR 230? How did they ever compact this baby down?」 It was definitely a custom, and the touch-screen of the phone sat between the handlebars. The body was the white and charcoal of the Raven and Scythe Fullbottles, and over top of the headlight, there was a decorative gear. In lieu of the rear fender, was a giant version of the Pony Fullbottle. Running her hands down the length of the chassis, she gave her friend a beaming grin. “Ne, Sunset-chan. Get a look at this.”

The moment Nebula turned to face her, she heard the click a smartphone made upon taking a picture. Seemingly content at having documented her friend’s transformation, Sunset came over, just in time for her friend to press a button on the display, causing a helmet to appear atop the seat. “So you’ve got a bike now. The question becomes, can you drive it?

“Research Log: Project Unity. Audio Log #3. Timestamp: 31 October, 2013, 5:30pm. Location: Sunset’s Rink Hideout.”

“Wait, you’re calling this Project unity? Why?”

“I mean, the Build System is a unification of both technology and magic. Plus, I’m still planning on helping you study this whole Equestrian magic thing, especially now that I’m wrapped up in it. Besides, it made sense at the time.”

[The sound of plastic being sat upon can be heard on the recording.]

“Anyway, where was I? Oh! Right. I’m joined by my friend, Sunset Shimmer-san. There’s a lot of things gathered over the last twenty-four hours. Where do you think we should start?”

“Well, for one we ran into an old enemy of yours. I know you called him Edgelord, but I refuse to believe that’s his name. He let a lot of information slip. He seemed involved in Smash research, and indicated that he had been experimenting on you for months before trying to have you disposed of. He also mentioned ‘that unicorn bitch’ having stolen the Build Driver and the Fullbottles now in your possession.”

[A chuckle can be heard, followed by the sound of someone cracking open two soda cans.]

“Yeah, he’s definitely talking about the person that gave me the stuff and then recorded that first fight. Their armour looked vaguely unicorn inspired.”

[Someone slurps loudly from their beverage.]

“They were the one that took that first Strong Smash victim—an escaped convict—to the hospital. After the fight with the Burn Smash, they got me away from the police. Based on the suit designs and the gear they’re both equipped with, I think it’s safe to say that’s the Transteam System they are using, and they are just as capable of creating Smash as Edgelord-kun. May have even engineered that entire situation and not just taken advantage...”

“Speaking of Smash, I feel like I should point out that there seems to be a subvariety not mentioned in that document you translated for me this afternoon. Some Smash seem to be infused with more Equestrian magic than Nebula Gas, and it makes them far tougher than the previous ones you’ve defeated. That dark infused one was kicking your ass until you used the Fire Fullbottle. Fighting magic with magic may become the rule, although you didn’t seem to have as much issue with the Burn Smash. It’s a shame we only have one magic bottle right now.”

“That Fullbottle... I can only theorise what happened with it, but in my body I now hold both the Type-II energy, as well as Type-M energy, or Equestrian magic. I assume that the bottle acted as an infusion to allow me to wield the fire magic granted by using it with the Build Driver. Regardless, it has had a few interesting effects. Firstly, most of my injuries from yesterday have healed at an accelerated rate.”

“Actually, can we stop to check on that right now? Your bruises looked like they were already days old this morning.”

[On the recording comes the sound of the phone being set down alongside an empty soda can. Soon after, the rustling of cloth can be heard.]

“It’s like I thought. Your bruises are almost completely gone... and you have a tail.”

“Why do I have a tail, Sunset-chan? Rainbow just got longer hair!”

“I don’t know! How could I? Maybe it’s an incompatible hairstyle? Anyway! How could you not notice this yourself sooner? You’ve been transformed for hours! Not even Rainbow transformed that long.”

“Hmm, maybe it’s because I never came down from the rush I get from my passion for research? Lemme try something.”

[Nebula can be heard breathing slow, deep breaths for over a minute on the recording. At the end of her breathing exercise, a slight static tinkle registers.]

“Fascinating. We can mark down passion as a potential cause... Wait. Transformation... that released a lot of Type-M energy when it happened with Rainbow, and the Smash essence bottles reacted... Quick, bring over my bag.”

[The sound of a zipper can be heard, followed by a click and a gasp.]

[Manic laughter can be heard, followed by another static tinkle.]

“I don’t believe it. Why did you transform again?”

“Does it matter? This makes things so much easier! Now we both have a magic bottle on us... But is this... Void or Darkness, I wonder? The other is definitely Meteor, though. What do you think, Sunset-chan. Should I test it with the Shako Fullbottle now, or wait for the Edgelord to make his next move?”

“I... I need to go lie down. Let’s go back to my apartment.”

[Both parties can be heard letting out a yawn.]

“You’re probably right.This is Nebula Moonlight, Project Unity Lead, signing off.”

Chapter 4 - Amalthea

November 1st, 2013, 3:33pm

The four-stroke engine roared in her ears, only slightly muffled by her helmet. Her heart pounded with excitement as the speedometer ticked past 100 km/h. Weaving through traffic like this should have been terrifying, but to Nebula it felt as natural as breathing. This is what really makes a Kamen Rider live up to the name.

Thanks to the shock absorption from the armour granted to her by the Build System, she felt almost none of the normal drag from riding in a more relaxed posture. Plus, it was hard to give her a speeding ticket or fine her for driving without a licence if she was armoured up. They’d probably have to use Guardians just to force me to pull me over.

She couldn’t let her internal dialogue distract her too much from her mission, though. It was an early dismissal day, and the idea had been to meet up with everyone at the Brighthouse Café to actually catch up on things, and finally meet Argyle to thank him for the laptop, bag, and the gift card that funded her school supplies. In fact, not even five minutes earlier, she’d been in the back of Fluttershy’s van. Funny how things like Smash get in the way of things, though.

“Get back here, you coward!” she cried out as she ducked a bundle of steel bars on the back of a truck that had been turning left just ahead of her. In her Kamen Rider identity, she’d been chasing after a strange smash for a while now, and she was already caught up. After all, she had to get out of the van, find a place to transform, and turn her phone into a motorcycle, which in turn gave the creature a huge head start. “The rest of your ilk have all been fixated on destruction! So why are you running!?”

It was times like this that she wished she had a ranged option other than the Magnum Fullbottle or her Tempo Reaper’s Million Hit attack. The former’s arm cannon would be too awkward to fire safely from a bike, and the latter was too dangerous to wield in the afternoon traffic. Given the type of Smash she was chasing, she could use all the help she could get. It was bad enough that it could fly, but it also seemed to be another Magic Smash, turning only long enough to try and launch cars at her.

The creature that was keeping ahead of her, just above the traffic line was very similar to the sketch of what had been labelled the Flying Smash in the Re:Build documents, possessing broad hands that resembled the feathers of a bird’s wings, and atop its avian-looking head, a wide-brimmed headpiece that could be compared to a stealth bomber sat atop its head. Unlike the one on file, however it was green, currents of green energy occasionally wrapping around it.

“Come on!” she whined as she whipped past a crowd of civilians with their phones out, taking pictures or recording as she passed. “You’re making me look desperate!”

Finally, the Smash paid Karasu more than just a token bit of attention, slowing to a stop just long enough to wave one arm at her in a back-handing motion. It emitted wind with such force that the vehicles ahead of her were picked up and overturned. A sedan ended up flying straight at her, and she had to throw herself into a slide that almost completely knocked her from the bike.

“I’ve had it!” she growled, grabbing a golden Fullbottle with the black half of a taijitu etched upon it from her strap. She hadn’t had any chance to test this one since discovering its accidental purification yesterday, but if she could grab the Smash with magic, it’d be child’s play. Not trusting she could safely transform on her motorcycle, she pulled over and dismounted. She replaced the Scythe bottle with the new bottle, and began cranking the Build Driver.

«Raven!»

«Darkness!»

«Magic Match?»

«Are you ready?»

An inky-black darkness surged out the side of the driver, looking to cover every inch not covered by the Raven armour. Her entire body felt energised, and somehow more flexible. Flexing the fingers on her left hand, she could just out make out bone white spurs at her fingertips as the shadows shifted. A similar spur emerged at her right knee and left elbow.

«Quoth the Raven, Nevermore!»

Instinctively, she slammed her left fist down into the shadow of a car. To her amazement, her fist rocketed out from the side of a building’s shadow, as though her arm were elastic, and slammed into the Flying Smash. Sparks showered down on the street and the cars below.

As her extended arm began to contract, Karasu grabbed the Smash by its wrist, digging her bony claws in despite the metallic texture. When her arm disappeared back into the shadow of the building, so too did the monster, emerging from the ground in front of her like a radish. She heaved it up over her head and slammed it into the concrete, quickly following up with a rain of blows.

The Flying Smash counterattacked by buffeting her with yet more wind, knocking her back and away. It took advantage of her disorientation to start flying upward, deciding to rain down violent winds upon the city. She could only watch as it flew higher and higher, far beyond the reach of even the deepest shadows... Unless.

«Magitech Finish!»

Kamen Rider Karasu threw a skyward punch into the air. The shadow enshrouding half her body rocketed off of her, leaving parts of her clad only in the black bodysuit and helmet of the armour. The mass shadow temporarily stole all the darkness from around her before taking the form of a massive black bird covered in spurs of white bone. It let out a loud caw before chasing after the Smash.

She watched the shadowy bird intently as it caught the monster in its talons. When the giant raven began diving directly down toward her, the rider prepared to jump. The bird and smash grew closer and closer, but as it cleared the roof-line, it turned into clouds, returning to encompass her body. When she jumped and caught the now-falling Smash with an axe kick, it was like a fireworks factory had exploded around her, showering her and the rest of the street with sparks.

When she touched down on the ground, an empty Fullbottle had already manifested in her darkness-enshrouded hand. There were police and EMTs with gurneys already rushing down in between cars from both sides. They must have been following the chase on the roads to either side. The woman in a hospital gown revealed when the unpurified Nebula Gas had been drained thankfully did not begin to break down into pure energy. Still, she looked every bit as feverish as the other survivors had been.

The moment a paramedic-led gurney came to a stop by the victim, Karasu made her way over to her bike. Not too long after she picked it back up, some of the boys in blue surrounded her, firearms drawn. Several conflicting orders were thrown her way as she mounted her motorcycle, and she couldn’t help but snort.

“Get down on the ground.”

“Don’t move!”

“Put your hands in the air!”

“Turn around, slowly!”

“Dismount the motorcycle and surrender!”

What a fine mess this is, she thought to herself. “Okay, I’m gonna follow exactly one of those orders,” she remarked in a sarcastic tone that likely did not carry over thanks to the distortion effect. “I’ll get down on the ground... very low on the ground... like a shadow.” Carefully, she allowed herself—and her bike by proxy—to sink into the shadow of the nearby building, focusing on coming up in an alley a few blocks from the café. For a moment, she was convinced they were actually going to start shooting. “Instead of wasting time trying to arrest me, how about you go be useful and help the people who are trapped in overturned vehicles.”

Once she was submerged in the shadow, she felt completely disoriented. It was kind of like swimming, except that she was the water and the world moved around her. When she finally came back up, she was in a dark alley nowhere near the combat site. What a detour!

Before she disengaged her transformation, she returned her bike to its normal phone state. She then removed the belt and stuck it in the messenger bag slung across her back, beneath her lab coat. She’d been in such a rush that she hadn’t even thought about it, but thankfully, her stuff was all safe, although she and Sunset would no doubt have a headache trying to figure out where the hell it went in the interim.

As she walked out of the alley, Nebula couldn’t help but wonder why there was another Smash so soon after the two at the mall. Admittedly, that incident was more of an attack of opportunity rather than anything that seemed legitimately planned. Could today have simply been the actual monster of the week, or was this looking to be an upward trend?

If it is, she thought as she strolled down the sidewalk, then I’m going to need to step up getting a new weapon built... There wasn’t much point in building a driver for Sunset while her Hazard Level was below 3, but it might be worth looking into creating either some sort of adapter, or a single-Fullbottle driver for her. Until then, she’d have to hope that the Beat Closer and Fire Fullbottle would be enough...

Nebula took her phone back out of her coat pocket, and began typing out a message to all her friends. At the very least, she wanted them to know she was okay, even if she was beginning to feel a bit run-down. Plus, they needed to know not to wait up for her, and that she’d meet them there.

All done, guys. :girlGenius

Roads should be clear soon, but you might wanna detour around. :girlGenius

I’ll meet you guys there. :girlGenius

ShimmerCode: Moon and stars, girl, that didn’t take long at all.

ShimmerCode: I’m stuck between two road closures, though.

2Fast4U: At this rate, you’re gonna make me look bad.

As she got to the café, she began feeling a bit light-headed. She didn’t feel nearly as bad as she had the night of the thirtieth, after using the other Magic Match. Still, it was a bit of a pain that she felt so drained after a relatively short stint using the Darkness Fullbottle. Then again, it may simply have been that she was still recovering from the other day. “I’ll have to ask Sunset-san about that, since it’s her field of expertise.”

Upon opening the building’s door, she was greeted by a rather unusual sight: maids. They were coming and going from tables with trays of beverages and snacks, or heading to the counter with trays of empty dishes. A majority of the patronage appeared to be male, but the maid-waitresses gave everyone a smile nonetheless.

It wasn’t just one style, either. One wore a black Victorian dress and a simple white apron, her curly hair tied back beneath a cap. Another wore a pink qipao-style dress with a flared skirt and a frillier apron. Yet another wore a camouflage pattern dress, fingerless gloves, and combat boots. One wore a maid outfit with knee-high boots, an apron, and gloves that looked better suited to a steampunk machine shop.

The maid that came and greeted her, however, seemed to be wearing the most iconic black miniskirt style with a ruffled apron and thigh-highs. “Welcome to the Brighthouse Café, My Lady!” she greeted with a smile, dipping into a bow with her tray clutched against her front. As she stood, she brushed some rainbow-streaked orchid locks out of her face, tucking them behind her ear. “I’m Sunny Starscout, and I’ll be your maid for today.” She gave Nebula a questioning look, before asking, “Table for one, My Lady?”

Nebula shook her head. “I’m... meeting a few friends here,” she admitted, realising that it might have been a good idea to call ahead and make a reservation, rather than assuming they’d have space. “Do you have space for a total party of seven?”

Sunny turned and looked to a particular part of the cafe, and then to an older man in a waistcoat and slacks working the counter. The maid flashed him seven fingers before gesturing back to what was almost assuredly her section. “We can certainly get some tables put together for you.”

While the waitress led her over to a cluster of tables, she considered whether it was worth warning her friends just what kind of café this was. It certainly wasn’t the sort of environment everyone would enjoy, and she had no idea how any of them would react—except for maybe Rarity. Rarity-san would likely enjoy examining their outfit designs. Fluttershy-san might be overwhelmed... Wait... is bringing the Pink Demon here really a good idea?

Soon enough, she was seated, and the maid was ready to take her order. “While you wait for the rest of your friends, can I get you anything?” asked Sunny, who watched as the older man made his way over. “I can start My Lady off with just a beverage, or something light to eat.”

At first, she was going to ask for water, but the fatigue from her transformation and misadventure suggested something a bit more. “How about a large black coffee with as much sugar as you are legally allowed to give me?” she asked. “I’m exhausted and have a serious sugar craving.” Nebula opened the messenger bag still hanging from her body and retrieved the laptop that had been donated by one of the café’s own employees. “There was one of those monster attacks not too far from here, and though I was able to get ahead of it, my friends might be delayed.” As she fetched a USB Mouse from the bag, she added, “I’m just going to get some work on a little side project of mine done.”

Although Sunny looked worried by that revelation, she side-eyed the laptop and then nodded. “Understandable,” said Sunny, accompanied by another bow. “I’ll have your drink right to you.”

The moment the maid waitress left to fetch her over-sugared beverage, Nebula opened up an open-source computer-aided-design software and pulled up the schematics for the Beat Closer, as well as one titled the Rotary Sword-Gun Drill Crusher—courtesy of one Sento Kiryu. As much as she wanted to make the weapon from the encrypted documents, it occurred to her that despite the Million Hit and the Fullbottle empowered Million Smash, their arsenal needed a much more versatile tool than a sword or scythe. We need something that can hit hard up close, or from afar.

It surprised her just how easily she began cannibalising the designs. The most important bits were the mechanisms for empowering the edges of the weapon, as well as converting NG energy into a viable projectile. Once she had those isolated, she quickly opened a sketch-pad app and designed a weapon with three forms. It’d be one large blade, although one edge could be separated from the hilt to act as a second single-edged sword. Working in a gun would be the hard part, though.

As she worked, she noticed the man from the counter looking at her bag and then the laptop. He sat down across from her when Sunny returned with her coffee. “You must be Nebula Moonlight,” he said with some interest. Adjusting his glasses with pale blue fingers, he fixed her with a kind smile. “I was wondering when we’d be seeing you.”

Not wanting to be rude, Nebula saved her work and shut the laptop, instead granting him her complete attention. “I apologise for not coming sooner, Argyle Starshine-san,” she responded, taking a sip of her too-sweet beverage. “Things have been very hectic these last few weeks... between catch-up work, making some friends, and Smash showing up seemingly everywhere I go, I’ve had to reschedule several times.”

Near one of the other tables, the maid in the Victorian style maid uniform stumbled, dropping her empty serving tray. Sunny was over in a heartbeat to help her blue friend back to her feet. The girl seemed slightly panic-stricken at the mention of the monsters that had plagued the city for several weeks, and Nebula could just barely hear the girl asking her friend, “Those things aren’t going to come here, right?”

“It’s understandable.” He turned to watch the two girls. “I know Shining Armour has been talking about the incidents lately.” Running a hand through his dark-blue hair, he sighed. “Just like you, Misty over there was found missing her memory, though she was found in the wake of a Smash attack.” That caught Nebula’s attention. It had only been publicised just this morning that the victims of the transformation had been suffering lapses in memory around the time of their transformation, although the Crystal Prep student that became the Burn Smash was missing the day she went missing, too. “That attack was never reported, because the creature that went on the rampage simply vanished before Guardians could engage. This was back in August.”

Did Nebula dare voice her mounting theory that this Misty girl of his might have been the Smash in question? For that matter, if she was, who defeated the Smash? The Edgelord seems more interested in creating Smash than defeating or containing them, and the unicorn-armoured one seemed more interested in getting me to do it.

“I’m sorry she had to go through that,” she chose to say instead. “I’ve been receiving flashes here or there with the right stimuli, but it doesn’t paint a great picture of my life before. Remembering isn’t always better...”

The fire department and tow companies were taking their time clearing the road. If not for the fact that Sunset Shimmer desired to avoid police scrutiny, she’d have just weaved through the parked cars and gone around one of the roadblocks to change streets. Instead all she could do was walk her bike over to the nearest alley and hope that it connected to the next street over.

If she were being particularly honest with herself, she was worried. It was bad enough when it was just Smash she had to worry about, but then her friends started manifesting the magic that should have left with Princess Twilight Sparkle. Then thrown into the mix was the Kamen Rider, Nebula Moonlight, who seemed to be a bigger danger magnet than the infamous Ponyville back in Equestria. Things became complicated enough when it was revealed that Smash were being created using a gas created with Equestrian magic bleeding through some unstable portal elsewhere in the city.

The girls having magic makes some degree of sense, at least; I could feel the Harmonic magic at work when Rainbow showed it off. Now Nebula was exhibiting that same magic manifestation as the girls, and the only thing Sunset could think was that the Fire Fullbottle was the catalyst. It was purified by Rainbow’s transformation, so maybe it acted as a sort of magical infusion. But when Nebula manifested at the rink, I didn’t feel any of that Harmonic magic...

She kicked a can out of her way and then brushed aside some broken glass with her boot as she turned a corner. I can’t imagine she would have had a particularly large magic reservoir if it only manifested after using Fire... yet she manifested for hours without even really noticing it. Admittedly, when she attempted telekinesis by shaking the Fullbottle as a focus, it was too weak, so maybe... No. I need another certified archmage’s opinion before I start making theories; her health could be at risk. I think I might need to reach out to—

“So, here you are, Red,” came a distorted voice from somewhere above her. Unlike the elephant-armoured freak from the other day, this voice was just barely noticeable as having a feminine quality to it. More than that, though, there was something familiar about it. “I was wondering when I might catch you away from her.”

Above her, Sunset saw a figure clad in a red bodysuit, metal plates and pipes affixed to create a sort of armour not unlike the elephant man. What really caught her attention, however, was the helmet. It was vaguely equine, with two gleaming amber eyes making up the visor, and an exhaust pipe jutting from its forehead at the exact angle an Equestrian unicorn’s horn would.

‘Give back the Fullbottles and Driver that unicorn bitch stole, and the kid doesn’t have to die!’

The figure, rendered androgynous by the armour, dropped down right in front of Sunset and her bike. “You and I need to have a little ‘talk’,” she said, placing a hand on both Sunset and her motorcycle. Smoke erupted from the unicorn figure’s horn and pipes on her shoulders, wrapping around the pair. “Let’s go.”

Fumes choked Sunset’s lungs and made her eyes itch. She had to wrench off her helmet as she coughed and spat, trying to clear her lungs, even as the smoke cleared around her. It was faint, but that felt almost like Equestrian magic... but perverted.

When she could once more breathe, she stood up and sat her helmet upon her motorcycle’s seat, looking around in confusion. Instead of the seedy alley behind a pharmacy, she found herself standing in the courtyard of a mansion. It was of a modern styling, but it had clearly not seen any care or maintenance for a few years at least.

The metal-punk unicorn crossed her arms in front of her and slowly strode over to the steps leading into the entrance. Rather than going up and into the building, however, she turned and relaxed against the stone baluster. Her head was angled in such a way that the vaguely pony-shaped face of the helmet was glaring at Sunset.

“I could hardly believe my eyes when I first saw you, and do you know what I found when I went digging?” she asked after staring for several moments. “Nothing. Even my worm wasn’t that perfect in wiping her from existence, and yet here you stand—an impossible person...” There was bitter laughter that sent a chill down the former unicorn’s spine. “Not a trace of you existed until six years ago—only dead-end records belonging to a girl who may as well be dead... So what are you, really? A clone? A demon?”

Sunset crossed her own arms and glared right back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” It was an absolute lie, but she knew how to sell that sort of denial, even if she didn’t like falling back into old tricks. “How about you tell me who you are, why you have that equipment, and why you made Nebula a Kamen Rider.”

For a quick moment, that bitter laughter became genuine—almost wistful. “Stars, you lie and redirect just like she did, Red,” the armoured figure whispered softly. “My name... Project Re:Build took it from me long ago, but you can call me Lady Amalthea.” Sunset thought that might be a popular culture reference, rather than just the Hippolytan myth, but she couldn’t be sure. “Someone very important entrusted the Transteam System and Unicorn Fullbottle to me, as well as what remained of Project Re:Build. I made her a Kamen Rider in order to right the wrongs of Dr. Daisuke Satonaka.”

A frown creased Sunset’s face as she took in what this person was saying. So many things stood out to her, and she couldn’t just focus on one... Especially if the presumption that Nebula was in fact Dr. Satonaka’s daughter was true. Why would she put the sins of the father on the child, especially if she lost her memory.

Amalthea began cracking her knuckles before pointing at Sunset. “Now how about you answer a question of mine,” she snarled. “How is it that you just so happened to end up in her inner circle, using that name, and that face? Why should I let you parade around at her side like you’re even a person?” Her other hand darted down to the Transteam Gun at her waist, and brandished it at Sunset. “And don’t you dare lie about being Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset’s hand slipped into her pocket and gripped the Fire Fullbottle. “I can’t tell you, and even if I could, you’d think I’m crazy,” she answered, slowly stepping away from her bike. “I am Sunset Shimmer, and I don’t need your approval to be Nebula Moonlight’s friend!”

[Insert Start: Tainted]

The unicorn armoured Amalthea let out a disgusted scoff before squeezing off several shots. An amaranth barrier shot up at the last moment, and the steam shots exploded harmlessly against it. Rather than staying still, Sunset performed a quick blink spell, placing her at the top of the steps, behind her attacker.

She almost wished she could have seen the expression on the fake unicorn’s actual face when the mist cleared and she was gone. Instead, she cast a fireball spell into Amalthea’s back. Much like the wall of flame she’d cast on Wednesday, this spell was empowered and felt inherently easier to cast.

The explosion caused by the spell sent Amalthea pinwheeling across the ground, only to smash into a decorative fountain that had run dry long ago. Stonework erupted everywhere from the impact, and Sunset reflexively cast a barrier around her bike. She didn’t wait for the dust to settle, instead blinking forward to slowly approach.

Seemingly unperturbed by having been turned into a wrecking ball, her opponent charged out of the dust cloud. A solid punch slammed into Sunset’s stomach, knocking the breath out of her and sending her tumbling. Nothing felt broken, but the armoured figure could hit like a truck.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Amalthea spat, holstering the Transteam Gun. From across her lower back, she withdrew the same bayonet-like device the elephant armoured combined with his pistol to make a rifle. It was brandished at Sunset like a short sword. “You’ve already seen the lengths Blood Hunter will go to. Do you think he’s going to stop now that he knows she lives?” Her hand came up to twist the valve on it.

«Elec Steam!»

A horizontal slash shot several arcs of electricity Sunset’s way. The pseudo-horn granted by agitating the Fire Fullbottle blazed brightly as she conjured a burning barrier before her. Even as the energy crashed harmlessly into the amaranth flames, Sunset readied another quartet of spells.

Although fire magic was her forté, and was inherently empowered by the bottle, Sunset didn’t have archmagus certification in transmutation spells for nothing. A barrier no larger than a pizza box formed high above her, outside Amalthea’s point of view. The moment the barrier was in place, she cast a gravity reversal spell upon herself and blinked into the air beneath it.

When the firewall disappeared, Amalthea could only look around in search of Sunset. Unlike any unicorn worth her salt, who would have lived alongside those who could move on all three axes, this metal faker didn’t look up. That meant she had plenty of time to overcharge the last spell.

“I might not be the Sunset of this reality,” she admitted, drawing her opponent’s attention. “But maybe that’s a good thing! I’ve witnessed what humans mucking with magic that doesn’t belong to them has wrought, and I’ve seen first-hand how stolen power can distort your very being.” Over a hundred spears of fire shimmered into the air around Sunset’s form. “Nebula doesn’t need whatever Sunset you think I’m imitating; if she’s to solve this mess you’ve stuck her with, she needs a real unicorn archmage at her side, plying her with expertise!”

Even without seeing Amalthea’s face, she could practically feel the hate radiating off her opponent as she began raining fire down upon her. The first several bolts she was able to dodge, but eventually, as the rate of fire began to increase, the armoured figure had to begin intercepting the spears with either her Steam Blade or shots from the Transteam Gun. Not every attack could be intercepted, though; more than once, Sunset saw sparks erupting from the armour, and she thought she might have seen one flame lance strike her opponent in the face.

As the last shots converged on her opponent all at once, creating a large dust cloud, she cancelled the gravity reversal and blinked down to the ground. Conjuring elemental weapons was a bit more complicated, as she was only at apprentice-certification with conjuration. Much of the field was restricted due to heavy ties to necromancy and demon summoning, and she had always been more keen on overwhelming firepower than exerting her physical prowess. Still, she managed to conjure a simple greatsword of fire.

Keeping low to the ground, she rushed toward where she remembered Amalthea standing. The moment she saw the shadow up ahead, she brought the flaming edge down in a diagonal slash. The strike, empowered by the Fullbottle and Sunset’s own magic, created a shockwave that blew away all the dust lingering in the air, just in time for her to discover her blade came down on nothing.

«Ice Steam!»

Freezing gas washed over her legs and up body. Ice formed around her limbs, trapping her in the slashing movement, blade-tip down toward the ground. The only part of her not covered was her face, which she assumed was intentional, and the blade, which was burning.

[Insert End]

Amalthea slowly walked around the front of the frozen Sunset. Many parts of the bodysuit were burned black, and some of the metal plating on her back was melted and warped. What surprised Sunset most, however, was the broken visor piece, revealing a hateful blue-green eye.

With a huff that expelled steam through the exhaust-port horn, Amalthea leaned close in and glared. “You’ve got spunk, Red; I’ll admit that much,” she growled, pressing the tip of the Steam Blade against the underside of Sunset’s throat. “You might even be able to help her, just like you said... but I’m not satisfied yet.”

She stood back up and looked away from Sunset Shimmer. “I have no idea if anything you said is true,” the armoured figure admitted with a sigh. “But before I let you fight alongside her, you’re going to show me what kind of monster hides in the depths of your soul.” She twisted the valve on the weapon three times.

«Devil Steam!»

Dark, energised mist wrapped around the edge of the blade. She turned in a quick slash towards Sunset Shimmer, far too close for her to react in time. Tears streamed down the former unicorn’s cheeks as she felt it trying to claw its way into her every pore. No, no, please no!

If it came down to it, Nebula decided as she spoke with Argyle, she could probably find worse places to work. As she conversed with him, she kept an eye on the goings on. At least one police officer seemed to be a regular, it was clear that all of the young women were close friends, interacting with the same friendly dynamic as her own newly acquired friends did. In fact, after just a few minutes, she could draw direct parallels to each of them.

Misty was shy like Fluttershy and klutzy, which seemed to go over surprisingly well with mellow patient customers. The slightly pudgy violet-haired girl in the qipao maid dress, Pipp, on the other hand, was outgoing like Rarity and had a pretty singing voice. Zipp the army-themed maid, on the other hand, was a bit of a tomboy like Dash, but managed to move with grace even in combat boots. Izzy was an eccentric to rival Pinkie Pie, entertaining her patrons with silly rambles. Then you had down-to-earth Sunny, friendly and straight-forward like Applejack.

After maybe twenty minutes, during which time Nebula got a second coffee and had a tray of cookies brought out, her discussion with Argyle ended, and she returned to her design work, she watched five of her confused friends step in the doorway. The moment they saw her, she waved at them, and then not long after, they were led over by Sunny.

As they all took a seat, a blushing Rainbow Dash, glanced over at the army-maid. “This is, uh, quite the place, Neb,” she muttered. “You come here often?”

She merely shrugged and sipped her coffee, looking around. “First time, actually,” she admitted, gesturing at the bag and laptop. “Argyle-san and the staff heard about me, probably from a police officer I know, and had a care package shipped to me because they know how it can be difficult starting from nothing with amnesia.” She let the implication hang in the air before adding, “Been meaning to come by and thank them ever since. It’s a nice place though. Pleasant atmosphere, good coffee.”

Pinkie Pie stuffed one of the cookies in her mouth, watching as Sunny started approaching with some menus. “It’s no Sugarcube Corner, but I can see why you’d like it here, Nebby,” she babbled, getting crumbs everywhere. “You get to know one Sunny more than the rest of the school, and it must remind you of Neighpon!”

They all fixed her with a variety of stares. “Dangit, Pinkie, ain’t that a mite insensitive?” Applejack finally asked when nobody else worked up the energy to respond. “Just ‘cause she speaks the language don’t mean she ever lived there.”

As they waited for their last friend, they all fell into various discussions. Rainbow Dash was curious about what Nebula was working on, so she quietly explained how she was looking to expand her arsenal to account for the whole range issue she had. Admittedly a lot seemed to go over the athlete’s head, but she seemed to think that a sword that could turn into two swords or a gun was a pretty cool concept.

Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy seemed to be in a discussion about the idea of maid cafés. From partially eavesdropping while she spoke with Rainbow, it seemed that Fluttershy had actually been to Neighpon and visited a maid cafe there. AJ was mostly just listening in as the pair started discussing the dresses, but admitted that nothing short of a lost bet would get her dressed up in such an outfit. An interesting bit of gossip was that Rarity recognised two of the waitresses as Mayor Haven’s daughters.

Note to self. See about setting Dash and AJ against one another so that the loser ends up in a maid outfit. I bet Rarity would love to help.

Pinkie, however, had gone over to where one of the staff was taking a break. It sounded like they were animatedly discussing arts and crafts. Nebula wasn’t as crazy as to assume that’s all they were discussing though. Then again, it might just be that people like them were drawn to each other.

It’d been maybe fifteen more minutes before Sunset finally showed up. The others looked like they were about to lay into her when she stepped in through the door. That idea quickly evaporated when she stumbled and caught herself on a nearby chair. It looked as though her friend lost a fight with a truck.

Or had been a Smash, whispered a voice in the back of her mind. The way she’s sweating, it almost reminds me of those I’ve turned back. Nebula watched as her friend gave them all a tired smile. No, she knows who we are.

“Sorry I’m late, you guys,” she greeted in a weary tone as she took a seat beside Rainbow. Sunset’s eyes locked with hers. “I... ran into an... acquaintance of yours. They were not happy with me... Something about me existing really cheesed her off.” The message was clear: she’d gotten into a fight. “Lady Amalthea says ‘Hi,’ by the way.”

Rarity let out a little titter upon hearing that, while Pinkie was a little less decorous. Rainbow was even less polite, letting out a bark of laughter. Nebula, though, wasn’t sure what was so humorous about it, and apparently neither did Sunset. If anything, it sounded familiar, although she couldn’t place how or why it seemed important.

“Someone must have a sense of humour, darling,” remarked the fashionista, smiling knowingly at Sunset. “That name they gave you was from a book and a movie called ‘the Last Unicorn.’” That got a flat look from Sunset, who looked even less enthused than she had before. “And it was an alias used by the eponymous unicorn upon turning into a human.”

Sunset sighed as she buried her head in her hands. “Sweet sunfire,” she groaned, utilising one of those odd expressions Nebula sometimes heard from the Equestrian. “So on top of getting my ass kicked, they had to heap several layers of situational irony on top of it.”

While Sunny took Sunset’s order, Nebula found herself getting lost in thought. Once that film had been mentioned, she found herself humming along a melody that came to her unbidden. When she closed her eyes, she could almost see a younger version of herself seated on a couch, holding the remote to an old VHS player.

“Come on Taiyo-rin,” she remembered herself having said, turning to look at an indistinct figure. Although she couldn’t see their face, they were dressed in sweats and an oversized hoodie, huddled on the side of the couch opposite her. “This movie always cheers me up.”

“No offence, Mahiro,” the other girl responded in her mind’s eye, wrapping her arms around her knees. “I don’t think a sappy kid’s movie is gonna make me feel better about my Mom and Dad.” Although she couldn’t remember her childhood friend’s face, she could remember the tears that came when her friend finally broke down at the end of the movie and was able to express all that built up grief.

When she opened her eyes, she realised she was smiling, tears in her eyes. Everyone around her was staring. Even Argyle was watching with concern from the counter. “I remember... I remember my name.” She looked at every one of her friends and let out a sobbing laugh. “My name was Mahiro...”

The feeling of the nebula gas seeping into her pores bled away slowly. Sunset didn’t feel any different than before, and her body was still encased in ice, post-strike; the conjured blade warmed her hands, and she could already feel her magic pushing against whatever ice was binding her.

Sunset slowly opened her eyes, and found Amalthea crouched down in front of her, her elbow resting on her knee and propping up her chin with her fist. The metal unicorn seemed to be watching in interest, almost as Nebula might. “Interesting.” The eye visible through the broken armour looked Sunset up and down, searching for any sign of mutation. “I was sure that you would have become a Smash.” With a bit of a whine, she added, “So not fair.”

Nebula’s lecture on Hazard levels echoed in her mind. “Hazard Level 2.1 and higher is where things get interesting, at least from a detached point of view,” she’d explained. “It’s at this level that people exposed resist transforming into a Smash and suffer no physiological effects of Nebula Gas.”

Relief filled the former unicorn, even as she smirked at Amalthea. “Where Nebula Gas is concerned, I’m Hazard Level 2.1001,” she jeered, her phantom horn flaring and displacing her five feet backwards. The ice that had encased her body remained where it was, but her conjured weapon vanished. The explanation seemed to startle Amalthea, because she could just make out the widening of the eye behind that broken bit of visor. “That’s right, she told me about Hazard Levels, and even checked mine...”

Giving the Fire Fullbottle, still clutched in her off hand, a few more good shakes, she conjured several more spears of fire around her. “I also know something you don’t,” Sunset continued, holding up two fingers on her main hand, electricity arcing between them. “Those of us with magic have a second Hazard Level, and though I’m only 2.9 and you’re clearly somewhere above 3, I can hurt you... and even if I can’t beat you, I will make it costly for you.”

Lady Amalthea rose from her crouch and slowly brushed dust off herself. Resting her hands at her hips, she stared down Sunset, whose jacket was billowing in the energy rolling off of her. “Alright, I’m satisfied,” the Transteam System user yielded, sheathing her Steam Blade behind her back. She made her way over to Sunset’s bike, and placed a hand on it, before extending the other. “Go, fight alongside her, and keep her safe. She’s a genius and hardy, but she’s also an absolute idiot without anyone to reign her in.”

Tentatively, Sunset Shimmer dismissed her magic and slowly approached, trying to gauge whether this was any sort of trap. The hate that was roiling off Amalthea had turned to a low simmer, and she could no longer feel any desire for a fight from her. Taking her foe’s hand, she was unsurprised when smoke encompassed her and the bike, and had just enough wisdom to hold her breath and shut her eyes.

When she opened them once more, she was back in the alley she’d been plucked from. Of the armoured figure, there was no sign. “Tell Nebula that Lady Amalthea says ‘Hi,’” came the distorted voice from seemingly all around her. “If she has any chance of regaining her memory, that name should jog something loose. If you want more answers, I think you can figure out where to look.”

The empowerment from the Fullbottle left her system, and she felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her. Although she put up a good fight, she still wasn’t used to using so much magic in this human body of hers, and if she hadn’t bought her bluff, the fake unicorn probably would have killed her. If she was going to recover quickly, she needed to get to that cafe and get something incredibly calorie-dense in her.

As she walked her bike out of the alley, though, she found herself thinking about the interaction. Amalthea wasn’t being very subtle that she cared about the person Nebula used to be; she was genuine when she called that someone very important to her... and if she didn’t still care, she wouldn’t have bothered coming after me.

Getting onto the roadway, she put her helmet back on and began making her way to the café. What I don’t get is why she cares whether or not I am involved. What was this world’s Sunset Shimmer to Amalthea, and to the person Nebula used to be? There was something else about what she said, too. Only dead-end records belonging to a girl who may as well be dead.

I had no luck finding the human Sunset. Were there sealed records out there? Am I at risk of meeting my other self? It was bad enough knowing that if Princess Twilight came through the portal the next time it was open she had a non-zero chance of meeting her human counterpart, but now Sunset had to worry about her own counterpart, and what—if any—ties she had to Project Re:Build.