All things have a memory, and the planet is no different. The Gaia Memory contains knowledge of everything that has ever existed in the land of Equestria. If knowledge is power, then the power of the Gaia Memory is great and terrible indeed.
Cloudsdale is experiencing a crime wave like no other. Criminals armed with fragments of the planet's memory become rampaging monsters. A mysterious syndicate's corrupting influence threatens to consume the floating city. The city cries out. And a two-in-one detective must arise to dry its tears.
This is the story a young pegasus named Akiko has found herself in. Caught up in a conflict between her father's apprentice and superpowered criminals named Dopants, Akiko must find her place in this web.
In Search of F
is a crossover fanfic between My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Kamen Rider Double by Godzillawolf, and a Spin-Off/Prequel to Friendship Is Showtime, taking place in the same Alternate Universe several years prior to the return of Nightmare Moon.
Tropes appearing in this story:
- Adapted Out: Several of the canon Dopants, some due to wanting to avoid just being "Kamen Rider Double with ponies"), but others (such as Magma and Anomalocaris) being simply due the change of setting to a floating city several hundred feet in the air.
- Alternate Universe: To both series.
- Big Bad: Ryubee Sonozaki, as in canon, but
Word of God is the story will use the Sonozakis similar to how Phoenix and Medusa were utilized in the main fic. - The Cameo: Rainbow Dash has a brief appearance in Case 4 receiving a letter asking for advice on the Icarus case and helping him solve it.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early on, Chain Links receives a new Gaia Memory. It isn't until Case 5 that he actually uses it, revealing it to be Industry.
- Childhood Friends: Shou is one with Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Fluttershy, and Kosuke, as in the main story.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Shou, like in canon, is a goofball, but when he gets serious, he's a very competent detective.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rainbowshine comes off as this.
- Defeat Equals Friendship: A part of Shou's character is trying to invoke this. He's shown visiting several defeated Dopants in prison attempting to reform and befriend them and encourages the same from Akiko. Both seem to be making progress.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Due to Case 3 taking place at the Wonderbolt Academy, Spitfire is in this mindset.
- Establishing Character Moment: Ryubee Sonozaki's consists of him scaring the Tartarus out of Chain Link, a street boss, with the implication he had a certain song Chain Link has a childhood fear of playing just for the sake of psychological manipulation. All the while acting like a polite, friendly grandfather figure.
- Fusion Dance: Shou and Philip becoming Double, as in canon.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Icarus/Wing Dopant's motivation. Turns out to be due to the Wing Memory inducing Motive Decay.
- Handicapped Badass: While not crippled, Shou was born with weak wings, thus why he uses HardBoilder to get around as even a simple flight from Cloudsdale to the Wonderbolt Academy tires him out severely. This does not stop him from kicking flank.
- Feel No Pain: While using the Metal Memory to change his Cutie Mark, Shou gets this ability. He does note, however, this means he tends to take quite a bit more of a beating in that state due to this.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Called Cases, each shares the same style as the original series, having a "<story arc>/<episode>" style and the first part containing a letter that has to do with the arc.
- Large Ham: Shou has his moments, such as specifically waiting in a chair with his back turned until the suspects are in the room for the Summation Gathering before turning around purely for dramatic effect.Shou: ...That's not the point.
- Leitmotif: Word of God has stated that Grindery from Lunar: The Silver Star is Industry's.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Shou has his moments.
- Mighty Glacier: Industry, who while slow, is incredibly strong and durable. Can become a Lightning Bruiser by reving up his engine a bit.
- Monster of the Week: The Dopants, as in canon.
- Case 1 & 2: Avalanche and Pteranodon.
- Case 3 & 4: Icarus/Wing Dopant.
- Case 5 & 6: Hail and Industry (the latter escaping to fight another day).
- Mundane Utility: In Case 5, Rainbowshine points out there's no reason she shouldn't exploit Philip's access to the Gaia Memory to get information on mundane crimes that don't involve Dopants, and does so to bust a smuggling ring.
- Morality Kitchen Sink: Discussed by Shou, who points out while there is black and white in the world, there are also shades of grey.
- Naïve Newcomer: Akiko, who is new not only to the Dopant cases, but Cloudsdale in general.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Ghost Story, Shou's folklorist, is this, having a horror book store and generally loving getting a person to jump. However, she still comforts Akiko when she gets too scared.
- No-Sell: The Industry Dopant has such thick armor that Double needs to be in a Metal form for the Dopant to actually feel their attacks.
- Oh, Crap!: Shou and Rainbowshine have this reaction when they realize Slipstream is Icarus/Wing Dopant and Akiko is Alone with the Psycho.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Several Dopants are changed or removed simply because Cloudsdale is a completely different environment than Futo was.
- Red Herring: Due to the detective theme, there are naturally examples of this.
- Firebrand in particular is one. Everyone reading who had also seen Double immediately thought that she was the second Dopant. Wrong. It was Gilded Cage.
- Shared Universe: With Friendship Is Showtime, being written by a different author.
- Shout-Out: Chapter 3 has Philip doing a search after Shoutarou mentioned a story about an old detective pony Akiko's father told him of who was number one at everything in all of Equestria and searched it for his friend's murderer, leaving defeated criminals with cards for the Guard that detailed their crimes. Now, what could that be a reference to?
- In the same chapter, Rainbow Factory is established as a pegasus myth that inspired an audio drama.
- The Summation: Shou gives one in true detective style when revealing how he figured out Gilded Cage was the Pteranodon Dopant.
- This Is Your Brain on Evil: While Gaia Memories corrupted their users in the original story, the effects are shown more heavily here. As corruption worsens, the Gaia Memory users normally suffer Sanity Slippage, even if they got the Memory for completely innocent reasons.
- Spared by the Adaptation: While not the same Dopant, Frost/Avalanche Dopant survives instead of being killed by his abductor like Magma was.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Shou has this reaction to Akiko's father being mentioned, implying he's still not recovered from watching him die.
- Victim of the Week:
- Case 1 & 2: Gilded Cage, who's apartments are being targeted. Subverted in that he's actually the second Dopant and committing insurance fraud, making the real victim Firebrand.
- Case 3 & 4: Several competitors lined up for the Best Young Fliers competition being targeted by Icarus.
- Case 5 & 6: Gina and her daughter Hope, being targeted by the Hail Dopant and his superior Chain Links/Industry.
- Verbal Tic: Akiko never uses contractions involving the word 'is'. Word of God is there is a reason for this.
- The Watson: Akiko plays this role.
- Wrong Context Magic: Due to the Double Driver, Shou and Philip can use Gaia Memories to change Cutie Marks, something that normally takes very powerful magic.
