It started off like any other normal day, Robert Williams supposed as he mulled over the morning paper over a cup of latte. He was sitting in the dining room of Carousel Boutique, watching Rarity see her younger sister off to school Zephyr being the unfortunate chaperone. He chuckled a little at Sweetie’s energetics for today’s show and tell, before going back to his paper, the Ponyville Chronicle it was called. Hardly wasn’t the Guardian, but it never failed to keep him up to date.

Outside, Vapor Trail was sitting on a bench, and playing a tune on her guitar with the song drifting through the open kitchen window.

“Riding on the city of Neigh Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail

“All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulled out at Kankakee
And rolls along past houses, farms, and fields…”

Robert smiled, she was getting rather good. Wouldn’t have surprised him in the slightest if some big record company picked her up and made a star out of her some day. But enough of that, this case had his attentions.

It seemed to be a standard child-kidnapping case on the surface, the former SPD detective mused, but it was a mass kidnapping. And the details, they always happened at night and at schools. No child should have been in school at those hours. They should have been in bed, really!

Yes, it was a curious case. Why schools, why there? Why not just kidnap them from their beds and steal them away in the night that way?

“Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have Bridge or Philip Sonozaki with me right now. Need a bit of off the wall thinking here…” Robert thought, as he took another sip of his latte. Then, a thought came to him, and Robert leaped up from his chair, and stood on his hands letting all the blood rush to his head in hopes of jarring the little grey cells into thinking of a solution.

Rarity, at this precise moment, happened to pop back in, and gave him a concerned look.

“Er dear,” she asked cautiously. “What are you doing?”

“Using an old technique that an old friend of mine used to use to try and get his brain cells into top gear. Thought it might help me solve these serial kidnappings. Can’t honestly see the appeal, really…” Robert remarked, righting himself.

“Oh yes, I’ve heard about these in the daily blues,” Rarity sighed sadly, shaking her head as she did so reminding Robert of one Martha Louise Hudson of 221B Baker Street. “The poor dears, I hope they’re returned safety. Their parents must be worried sick! Mrs. Cake, she’s been going around distributing pot roast to the parents. Might be thinking of joining her really…”

“Well, sitting on my arse thinking about this crap isn’t going to do anything, and neither is fretting about it. Only one way to solve this mystery, and that’s by actually going out and gathering clues! Rarity Belle, you wouldn’t happen to be free for a day or so would you not?” Robert requested, grabbing a trilby off the side of a nearby hatrack and placing it atop his head. “It seems I need a Watson to my Sherlock.”

“Well, as it happens,” Rarity replied, pulling on a old trench coat and a fedora making her look like some sort of old film-noir detective or Shroud from Kamen Rider Double. “I just so happen to be a fan of the Shadow Spade novels. Her stories are always full of mystery, suspense, and best of all, fabulous costumes!”

“You think you know a mare…” Robert mused. “Well, in that case… Ms. Spade, I believe the game is afoot!” he exclaimed, holding up the keys to his car.

“First stop – the scene of the crime!” Rarity declared.

“We had a long road ahead of us, Robert and I. Well, not too long because we didn't have much time before the next kidnapping, but the point is... I was up for the challenge.” Rarity/Shadow Spade narrated to herself, in true film-noir fashion.

Sadly, detective work wasn’t as romantic as the hard-case crime novels made it out to be. In real life, it was very, very dull. As Rarity had just found out having been sitting in Robert’s Mustang for a few hours after interviewing parents all day. They were on the outskirts of a small town outside Ponyville, called Hollow Shades.

“There I was, surveying the crime scene, and looking très chic while doing it. And bored out of my skull.”

“Sorry Rares,” Robert sighed, eating a bucket of ramen noodles marked ‘Ako-Ramen’ and observing the local schoolhouse with a pair of binoculars. “Investigation when it comes to staking out a place, 95% patience, and 5% luck. But it’s on our side today, I believe.”

“How so?” Rarity asked curiously, leaning over towards him.

“Well, criminals are creatures of habit are they not? If they know a crime works for them one way, they’ll probably do it again. Let me present to you a hypothetical situation,” Robert explained. “Say someone burgles a place by getting into through the chimney like some sorta evil St. Nicholas. If they know that works, they’ll do it again. In short, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! So, one can presume, with a few children still left in this town, maybe whoever our crook is will return to the scene of the crime and gather up the remaining foals and fillies.”

“I see…” Rarity mused, cursing herself for forgetting this little aspect. “So, we might just catch a glimpse of our perp tonight?”

“Quite.” Robert mused. “Now, it’s interesting about this case. To quote the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, father of all literary detectives, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Now I believe, whatever kidnapped these ponies, was not a pony in itself.”

“Quite,” Rarity agreed. “No normal pony would do such horrendous acts. Let us look at the facts as presented to us. We’ve had a few eyewitness reports of some creeper -possibly a pedophile, that I am not sure of- sneaking about Equestria for the past few nights and they have always been consistently described with glowing yellow eyes. Almost demonic in nature. Now we know the only pony with those features is in Canterlot, and decidedly not a pedophile or a kidnapper.”

“I’d look to Zen-Aku,” Robert admitted, “But although he’s a bit of a creeper and a traitorous worm, he is definitely no pedophile.”

Rarity gently nudged him on the shoulder and pointed out the window where a decidedly wolfish figure was stalking the schoolhouse grounds complete with golden eyes.

“...Then again, I have been wrong before…” Robert muttered, leaping out the car door with Rarity swift to follow…

“So, want to explain this?” Robert asked, one of his hands reaching for his Crystal Saber. “Go go, give me a very good reason why I shouldn’t just shoot you now and be done with this whole sordid affair, Vapor Trail and her feelings for you be damned.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow about the feelings remark, but decided not to comment and instead crossed her arms.

“Your temper is clouding your judgment, Robert Williams,” Zen-Aku stated calmly. “I have hardly anything to do with these kidnappings.”

“Damn well right I’m pissed you rat-bastard. I’ve got every reason to be very, very hacked off at you right now,” Robert snarled. “You going traitor like that, as if everything you’ve ever done never mattered. Thought I knew you, guess I was wrong. And now, here you are, showing up to the scene of the crime and fitting a hell of a lot of eye-witness reports!”

Robert and Rarity both thought back.

“Yes, yes, I did see this mysterious creature lurking around town now that you think of it. Piercing golden eyes, never left my mind. Haven’t been able to sleep because of them!” one Apple Brown Betty had told him.

“Those eyes, they stick out to you, ya know?” a hippie pony named Tree Hugger remarked. “Totally not righteous man, they interfere with my inner peace. Upset my balance and all that.”

“He was tall, I know that much,” a pony named Neon Lights had said. “Dude was impossibly tall, humming this song under his breath. Couldn’t make out what it was or even what he looked like, but the dude had these gold eyes. Cool, but creepy. Wonder what kind of contacts he uses?”

“Gold eyes,” Robert remarked. “That’s what they all said. All of them, each and every single pony I interviewed. From this hippie Tree Hugger, right down to one of the Apple Family relatives!”

“Well, if you were using your brain instead of your temper, you’d start thinking straight,” Zen-Aku pointed out. “Gold eyes, that could fit the entire bat-pony race. Sure, some of them are in the guards, but quite a few live up in the mountains and only come down at night. Who’s to say one of them isn’t kidnapping children for one reason or the other?”

“He’s got a point,” Rarity noted. “I mean, golden eyes is about the only common descriptor between what we’ve heard, and as you said yourself that could apply to a lot of creatures, not just Zen-Aku. And there was something else, yes? This song Neon Lights mentioned. Zen-Aku uses a flute, he doesn’t sing or hum under his breath from what you’ve told me about him.”

Zen-Aku gave Rarity a respectful glance before speaking once more as Robert rubbed his chin remembering this little detail. Now that Rarity mentioned this, it was awfully curious. Perhaps, just perhaps Zen-Aku wasn’t the real culprit here after all loathe as Robert hated to admit it. He wanted him to be the mastermind, just so he could have an excuse to deck him.

“I’ll deliver a coffin, one just for them to enter. They don’t need to pay, all I need in exchange is their lives…” That’s how it went,” Zen-Aku explained, and both Rarity and Robert shuddered. Whether it was from the chilling breeze that passed through the area just then or the song they weren’t sure. They hoped it was only the wind.

“And how do you know this?” Robert questioned.

“I’ve been following it’s singer, for the past few nights now,” Zen-Aku explained. “As a way of making up for my past misdeeds while serving under Retinax. I figured stopping a pedophile would be one way of doing so. Sadly, this is not a pedophile you are dealing with,” he stated as he began growling a little and baring his fangs at the thought of what the two were really dealing with.

“Oh?” Robert asked, arching an eyebrow. “Explain, quickly. Before I decide to shoot you.”

“Hold your horses, Dirty Harry,” Zen-Aku stated. “This… this may have been my fault. You recall how I got to the scene of the battle between your Megazords versus Goldar and Thrax so quickly correct?”

The blast hit them at full force sending the Megazord far out of Ponyville and back into the Everfree and knocking it to the ground. The earth shook from the sheer force of the fall, but slowly but surely with the sound of metal groaning the Animaria Guardian Megazord regained its footing. It then picked up the fallen sword and shield.

“So, back for more hmm?” Thrax chuckled. “Goldar, hit them again!”

Goldar fired again, but before he could hit his target another beam blasted his own out of existence. The Predazord had arrived, Gator Staff in hand.

“Now, this is an even fight.” Zen-Aku snarled as the two powerful titans stood together.

“Thought you were busy in the Crystal Empire?” Vapor questioned.

“Things there have been handled.” The Duke Org replied simply as the Predazord turned to look at its counterpart. “Besides, I was… concerned.”

“Yeah… I do now. It’s always nagged at me how you got there so fast,” Robert admitted. “I’ve just assumed you had some sort of special ability being a Duke Org and all.”

“And you’d be correct about that, but it’s an ability unique to me, albeit mind you a risky one,” Zen-Aku explained. “I can shadow travel, I suppose you’d call it, between this dimension and one made purely of darkness. However, each time I do it, I risk opening the door between them a little wider. It seems something has crept through into this world and from the looks of it, is kidnapping children. So yes, in a way, this is my fault partially, but I intend to stop it.”

Robert took a long sigh, before pulling out his judgment scanner and awaited for the Guilty Verdict to come in. What he was waiting for, he wasn’t quite sure in his rage. Zen-Aku being a kidnapper or letting a monster into this dimension. Time passed slowly, it seemed as Robert awaited Zen-Aku’s judgment to come in. Whatever the case, he got an innocent verdict.

“How…?” he trailed off, tapping it to make sure it wasn’t getting a false reading even if he knew very well that was quite impossible.

“While I’m not quite sure of how that device of yours works,” Rarity mused. “I believe it’s judged Zen-Aku innocent quite simply because he never kidnapped these children. Sure, he may be in part responsible for this, but he never did the deed himself.”

“I… suppose that makes sense,” Robert admitted, loosening the grip on his Saber and extending a hand. “I’m… I’m sorry Zen-Aku. Don’t mean I’m still not pissed at you and want to punch you, but I’m sorry.”

Zen-Aku smiled and nodded, saying: “Only fair.”

“Hey, you hear that?” Rarity spoke up, her ears twitching at the sound of a deep baritone voice ringing out across the night. Zen-Aku’s ears perked up as well, hearing the voice as well.

“I’ll deliver a coffin, one just for them to enter. They don’t need to pay, all I need in exchange is their lives…” the voice sang. Then, they looked across the street and saw children marching towards a light like rats following the Pied Piper. They seemed to be in some sort of trance, if their glazed and glossy eyes were any indication. The lack of their own regards for their life seemed to be an indicator as well.

All three shared a nod and ran after the children, trying to shake them away in any format as they watched the children march towards the local train station outside the town gateway. In front of them, was this orb of white light like some sort of lure, along with a skeletal figure with piercing gold eyes. In one of his hands, he held a massive gold chain attached to this coffin.

“Oi, you two!” Robert shouted. “We need to have words!”

Suddenly, a hat not that far removed from Oddjob’s smacked him in the head and sent him sprawling to the ground below before returning to its owner. The man in question was nicely dressed in Victorian age clothing like that of an aristocrat’s with a crooked nose making him resemble an Italian plague doctor. In his right hand was a walking cane.

“Oh, so unbecoming,” the monster said. “Real man, he shouldn’t let his emotions sour his resolve. Carry himself with a class and an elegance. You, I’m sorry to say, do not fit the ticket.”

The other monster, the one with the light revealed himself. He was a green-toned monster, carrying a nasty looking scythe with a lamp attached to it. “You shall not touch Baron Nero. My duty does not allow it.”

“And who…” Robert growled and wiped away blood from his mouth as the scythe swung only to be blocked by Zen-Aku’s blade. “Are you?”

“The Lamp Shade, one of the personal retainers of the Shadow Line. Funny is it not, a creature of shadow and yet I use a light in my arsenal,” the monster stated, before twisting his scythe in such a way so that Zen-Aku was momentarily blinded by the light before being kicked in the stomach. “I really must give you sad creatures some credit, figuring out what was going on, if only partially.”

“Partially?” Robert asked, not sure if he really wanted to know.

“You see,” Zen-Aku explained as he blocked another strike from the Lamp Shade. “They can only stay in your world so long, because of that fact that light is toxic to them. It’s all in the name, the Shadow Line. They need energy to survive in this world, or any other. And I’m willing to bet,” he growled out as he watched the kids become a fine mist and enter the coffin with the lid slamming shut. “Their lifeforce is the key.”

“T-That’s…” Rarity whispered. “That’s abominable. You’re sick.”

“Well, miss,” Nero said, tipping his hat. “We are monsters after all. But you’ve seen too much, time for you to die. Lamp Shade, take care of them. I have better things to do than waste time with these… commoners.” he said, waving his hand dismissively.

Nero snapped his fingers, and from out of nowhere a massive black iron train with a skull on the front of it appeared from out of nowhere, with Nero and the Coffin Shade vanishing as it passed.

“Alright then,” Robert muttered. “So that’s how it is… Right then. Lamp Shade, you have a lot to answer for, both you and your partners. You’ve made this town shed tears of sorrow, and there’s only one way to repay that. With blood. Now, all three of you, best you begin counting up your crimes! SPD, Emergency! SWAT Mode!”

“A valiant effort,” Lamp Shade observed dolefully as he watched Robert morph in a green flash of light and a Delta Enforcer land in his hands. “But futile all the same. Crows!” he barked, snapping his fingers, and creatures dressed like old-time mobsters complete with Tommy guns rose up from the ground. They had pale faces, and hollow sunken eyes.

“...Yeesh, and I thought the Tengas and Putrids had cornered the market on ugly…” Robert muttered to himself before his eyes widened under his helmet when he saw Rarity knock one of the Crows flat with a kick to the face.

“...I thought you were this refined lady,” he remarked. “Hated getting your hooves dirty.”

“Yes well, that may be true,” Rarity admitted, brushing some of the dirt off her trench coat before she spun around to avoid the gunfire from the Crows and then knocked around flat with a left cross. “A lady may not be able to start a fight, but she can finish one.”

The Lamp Shade could only chuckle as he twirled his scythe and watched Zen-Aku bring out his dagger and level it at him. “So, that’s how it is huh? Well, bring it on. I welcome the challenge. Let the battle be joined.”

Robert fired blast after blast at the Crows, dodging an ax swing from one, and using his rifle to block the next swing before he let them both have it with rapid-fire laser shots. Running through the crowd towards Lamp Shade, he broke off into a slide along the pavement and fired a selection of blasts at the monster just as Zen-Aku kicked it towards him.

Letting out a roar of rage, the monster’s scythe glowed, and he swung firing a purple blast of light at Robert, who only barely rolled to the left to avoid being cut down.

“You don’t get it do you?” Lamp Shade laughed, as if at some hidden joke, before the little lanterns atop his shoulder pads glowed ominously, and he fired a barrage of flaming orbs at Robert and Zen-Aku knocking them back, and catching their clothes alight.

As they rushed to put out the fire on their attire, the Lamp Shade swung again, and caught them both in the chest, drawing blood, and knocking into the murder of Crows.

“Even as we speak, and I cut you up,” the monster spoke with a dark chuckle. “Baron’s Imperial Kuliner, and the Coffin Shade, they ride the rails farther and farther away from here. See, I don’t need to beat you, just buy the Baron some time!”

“He’s right…” Robert thought as he struggled to pick himself off the ground and reach for his weapon, Zen-Aku doing the same. “We got played, just like a Stratovarius!”

Suddenly, he heard a distinctive cry of “Bomb!” and watched as Rarity pulled a red toned Gaia Memory from her coat, along with what looked to be Shroud’s magnum. She inserted the Memory into the slot, and fired a collection of energy orbs at the Crows, blasting them into little clouds of dark smoke. “Bomb, Maximum Drive!”

“Shadow Spade was right. In order to solve the mystery and bring these foul beasts to justice, we had to be focused. Driven. One hundred percent in the zone. Even if that meant unveiling a little surprise a bit too early for my liking.” Rarity thought to herself.

“Rarity… where’d you get the…?” Robert coughed out as Rarity twirled the gun in her hands, and blew smoke off of it like an old Western gunfighter.

“Well, a femme fatale must have some secrets, non?” she asked. “Plus, one must be able to defend themselves against the foul beasts popping up right and left nowadays. And I do so love a functional accessory.”

She fired two times more, making the Lamp Shade stagger backwards before she soundly kicked him in the face. When he tried to fire the barrage of flame orbs once more, she just teleported away out of range and shot him again.

“Well, up with you two! We’ve got children to save!” Rarity commanded. “Zen-Aku, I assume you can stay here and handle the monster?”

“Yes, but how are you going to…?” he trailed off before Rarity held up a light-blue phone that distinctly looked like a rhino beetle. And then he heard a very distinctive train’s whistle and saw a red headlamp cutting through the mountain passes and saw a gold and blue train with a massive gold sun emblazoned on the front rocket after the Kuliner.

“I took the liberty of calling ahead.” Rarity smirked. “Just in case, a lady always comes prepared you know.”

“Rarity, I have never been more thankful for you than right now,” Robert replied, kissing her on the cheek. “But you are going to explain where you got those Gaia memories as soon as this as over.”

Rarity simpled just dragged him by the hand and up the path back into town, before veering off and into the forest. “Where… where the hell are we going? We should be teleporting into the Solar Streak.”

“Yes, well as fashionable as that thing is, I believe this is more your speed!” Rarity proclaimed, pulling him into a heavily wooded area of the forest, where a massive orange train with a crane arm atop it resting upon what looked to be tank treads was sitting, waiting to be used.

“During our drive up here, I just so happened to peek out the window while we were driving over a bridge, and see this thing resting in the woodlands below. Thought nothing of it at the time, but now?”

As Robert and Rarity clambered into the train’s cockpit, with multiple pulleys and levers surrounding them each controlling a different function of the train, Robert let out a sigh of relief.

“Okay, I admit this is more my speed. And colour. Now…” he trailed off, before pointing ahead at the rails laying in front of him. “Shuppatsu Shinkou!” he shouted, before the train lurched forwards the rails clattering and rattling beneath the Build Ressha’s treads.

Wasn’t long before Rarity and Robert had caught up to both the Kuliner and the Solar Streak. Pulling one of the pulleys in the cockpit of the simply massive train downwards, the whistle blew sharply, cutting through the night.

“So glad you could join us,” Celestia’s tired voice chimed in, as the Solar Streak tried to ram the Kuliner off the tracks. “Could use the extra help.”

“Well, glad to be of service. So, here we are again. Working together.”

“That offer for the position in the Royal Guard’s still open, you know,” Celestia said, as the Solar Streak and the Kuliner both took to the skies on rails made of light snaking around each other, with the Kuliner’s cannons turning broadside and letting loose with a volley of shots. Celestia protected her train with a magical energy shield, as the Build Ressha surged forwards and took to the skies as well, using it’s crane arm to rip off one of the cannons.

“Yeah, I think I’ll have to pass up on that offer,” Robert remarked. “Already got a job sewing and stitching suits and dresses, quite happy with it.”

The three trains continued snaking through the night sky, moon illuminating them and their forms as they fired energy blasts at each other snaking and twisting all around each other like three great dragons on rails of light.

Down below, Zen-Aku was fighting the Lamp Shade tooth and nail, teleporting behind him to dodge his strikes, but whenever he tried to get in one of his own, the Lamp Shade seemed to predict where the attack was coming from and strike him.

“Time to end this little dance.” Rarity remarked, pulling another pulley, and the Build Ressha’s front bucket surged forwards just as the train got behind the Kuliner, ripping off the entire back end of the train and creating this massive gaping hole.

As the trains took to the ground once more, reaching the outskirts of Ponyville, both Rarity and Robert were about to take their chance and leap onto the Kuliner, before a dark portal in the sky opened up and another Kuliner descended from the skies and pulled up alongside the Build Ressha before parts shifted and standing in front of them was this giant six-eyed mecha.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me…” Robert muttered before the Solar Streak rammed the new Kuliner in the chest and transformed to Megazord Mode.

“Relax, I have this one. You two, go get the children!” Celestia ordered, slamming the Kuliner mecha across the face with a powerful right hook from her Megazord.

“And I didn’t even get to say Ressha Gattai…” Robert whimpered to himself, Rarity slapping him over the top of the helmet knocking him back to his senses. “Right, best we listen to the lady. Here goes nothing…” he said with a trace of understandable fear as he leaned out the Build Ressha’s side window as it pulled up alongside the first Kuliner. He braced himself, and leaped inside with Rarity quick to follow.

The Build Ressha, meanwhile just surged on ahead with a life of it’s own, and took a switch point before vanishing out of sight into this gold portal never to be seen again. Lamp Shade swore, before slamming the tip of his scythe into the ground and vanishing in a cloud of smoke.

Robert, shooting his way through the Crows with his Delta Enforcer or using his Kitsune Spirit on them, followed Rarity in making their way to the front car where the children -and no doubt Nero and the Coffin Shadow- were held.

Looking out a window, Rarity observed the Solar Streak knock the Kuliner mecha backwards with a blast of hot scalding steam. Firing her magnum several times, she downed several more Crows.

Eventually, the front car was reached, with a coffin in front of them. Nero, he was nowhere to be found having probably jumped ship once it was clear the tide was turning. Of course, there were more important issues at hand with the coffin being hooked up the train itself, green lifeforce energy flowing from it into vital systems. Taking careful aim, Rarity blasted the coffin open, and the children appeared scattered all over the floor. Tired, but alive.

Rarity helped some up, and noticed some… peculiarities amongst them. One of the children was this orange dragoness with sapphire eyes and another was this gray-feathered griffon girl.

“...I thought it was just ponies that the Shadow Line was kidnapping?”

“Guess not,” Rarity replied to him. “So, guessing you were some of the first to get kidnapped.

“Yeah,” the dragoness replied with a scratchy voice. “Name’s Smolder, and I think the griffon gal’s called Gabby.”

Rarity suppressed a snort as she saw the griffon chattering excitedly away to a blue male griffon about the two heroes in their midst. She could see why.

“Yeah, we were some of these first to get kidnapped by these creepazoids,” Smolder continued. “Thanks for the help, miss.”

“You’re quite welcome dear, now get these kids and get out of here. Me and my friend here, we’ve got some unfinished business…” Rarity growled as she saw the Coffin Shade reappear. Outside, the Solar Streak had started its finisher, opening up its torso and pulling the Kuliner inside. “Checkmate, darling.” Rarity thought before she and Robert raised their weapons.

“Bomb, Maximum Drive!”

“Kyuubi Seibai Blast!”

Both shots hit the Shade, ripping him to pieces as Robert gave a thumbs down, fighting back Eternal’s catchphrase and instead opting for: “Well, looks they’ll be needing a coffin just for you.”

“So, in the end, all’s well that ends well. Every child’s been returned to their parents, and the cities of Equus are tear-free. Still, I do have to wonder, where’d this Shadow Line come from, and what happened to the Build Ressha? I suppose one day, maybe I’ll find out…” Robert mused, typing away at the keys of a typewriter.

Meanwhile, worlds away, in a dark tunnel a figure shrouded in shadow clutching a miniature version of the Build Ressha along with a smartphone approached a certain massive orange train.

“So, that’s my ride huh?” the figure asked. “Well, all aboard I suppose…”

Author's Notes:

Okay... so the elephant in the room. The Shadow Line. I admit, I've been building up to an appearance from them for a while now, maybe write a spin-off fic adapting ToQgers. However, my good friend and sister in all but blood RuinQueen got one out first, titled Rails of Reality. Go have a look-see eh?

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/414881/power-rangers-rails-of-reality

So yeah, this chapter starred her version of the Shadow Line and what eventually will become the counterparts of Build Dai-Oh and ToQ Six. She hasn't given up the names for them in the fic yet, but that'll come in time. Now, Rarity having the Bomb Gaia Memory and the Beetle Phone. Yes, that will be explained in time I assure you. This chapter was mainly to get Zen-Aku back in the story as a hero or at least back in the Ranger's good graces and to wrap up the Shadow Line build up.

Now, on the Lamp Shade, AKA Lamp Shadow's counterpart. I remembered your critique on depowering certain villains in the past so that's why neither he nor Nero got defeated, so their power limits stay up in the air.

Speaking of that, your critique along with comments and thoughts are very welcome indeed.