You can already feel your heart pounding in your chest as you approach the camp, its smoke stacks rising higher than its fortified walls, and in an instant you wonder if it was a bad idea to approach like this. Actually, it surely was, but you're already here, having blatantly approached the front gates like a traveling singing telegram from door to door. But what impressive gates they were, no matter how morbid the builders were. Even from afar, you could tell they were made with intense care. Sturdy logs topped with metal spikes and barbed wire encircling the area on a wide margin. inside, you could see not all of it was hand-crafted, as the inside of the camp seemed to be well-kept stone buildings from days gone by: ruins, if not terribly destroyed ones. Lupina growls from by your side. "They have cleared the interior of all vegetation," she rasps out with a sneer. "Mongrels."

"Actually, seems as though they repurposed it," Canny idly notes as she looks up at the intimidating smoke plumes. They rise to cover Celestia's sun like a shadowy Eclipse. "Flint and other fuels. Damn crying shame."

Something eats at you, and you realize what it is as soon as Canny points out the fuel for their flames: reindeer don't eat meat. Similar to Pony-kind, they're mostly herbivores. "What do they need this much fire for, anyways?" you ask with a slight frown. It's such a simple question, but every simple answer is one you don't want to hear. "I, uh, I doubt they're roasting marshmellows or corn."

"Forges," Ziggy responds simply with his arms crossed. Unlike the rest of you, with the obvious exception of Zecora, his Stand is at the ready, looming over him in its strange suit.

Fluttershy gulps, but nods and responds "Like a blacksmith."

"Precisely, babe," Ziggy tells her. He floats a little off the ground and stares up into the inky black of the plume of smoke. "All of Lupi's precious trees and Star's favorite arranged shrubbery is a part of their damned war economy." Lupina looks, surprisingly, bemused at the nickname. "Possibly bones, too, if they can manage some."

"They're creating...weapons?" Lupina asks to make sure. "They're violating the sanctity of the Everfree to forge weapons?"

"Oh, no doubt. Not a shred in my mind," he answers back. His arms uncross as one paw grips his chin in thought. "Though, of course, with Thieves and tricksters of this caliber, they are actually probably also smelting all the precious metals in there that have been procured through the years."

Canny smirks and chuckles a little. "I've seen this racket," she tells you all. "Back in Trottin'ham, Ogre Street, the riff raff would smuggle and smelt the stolen bits into whole bars of gold. It was heavier, sure, but it was a lot more value in a more managable size. Dunno how effective it was..."

"How do you know that?" you ask. She rolls her eyes and scoffs a bit.

"I lived there? You underestimate how dumb they were over there."

You mentally smack yourself for such an obvious question, but oh well, you had to make sure she wasn't currently a gold smuggler. Currently. "Well, this certainly isn't a very subtle operation," you change the subject quickly. "Between the dragon and the fires, it's almost like they're inviting victims."

"It's an affront to the Everfree," Lupina growls. "They must be stopped." Zecora places a calming hoof onto her shoulder, which actually seems to rouse her out of her anger.

Zecora smiles softly at her, before returning her expression to something more neutral as she makes her point. "It is a disgrace, that much is true. But without vegetation, what are you to do?" she asks.

Lupina grits her teeth and looks away with an aggravated look on her muzzle. "There is still vegetation living in my body," she tells Zecora. "But when that's gone, there will be no way to replenish it."

A lightbulb goes off inside your mind, a quick eureka replaced with the will to act. "I've got an idea," you tell her, capturing her attention. You gesture your head back towards the forest and the two of you walk back. With your plan in motion, Lupina begins to gather a small section of the forest together. Trees, bushes, vines, you're not picky. It just has to be a lot of it, and when its done, you can see a good amount of teeming flora spread out in front of you, almost enough to fill a whole living room. Using New Divide, you proceed to fold it all together, allowing you to bring it with you. "Ta-da," you tell her with a smile.

"Ah, that's clever," she tells you, with a smile dancing across her features. "It all still lives, and it's portable."

"Yep!" you respond happily. Good plan! "I'll stay close to you, so when we get inside and I unfold you, your options are doubled."

"It's still not as much as I would prefer," she does admit. "But it'll have to do. Thank you, Shooting Star." She sounds genuinely thankful with you, and your smile can't help but grow bigger as the two of you reunite with the group on the walk up to the camp.

"Oh, welcome back," Ziggy responds casually. "So, anywho, just wanted to mention, if you're going to be handling all the grunts, the normal thieves with no Stands, no Praising the Sun or whatever, you should try and stay within range of the stone structures if you can."

Lupina sighs wearily, and shakes her head. "I can track them wherever they may be," she says defensively.

Ziggy nods with an "mm-hmm," and then raises a finger in protest. "But you forget, this camp seem to be full of pyrophiliacs and your "all natural body" is quite, shall we say, unhappy with fire, yes?" Lupina lets out a low growl. You personally think he has a point, and Canny at least is also nodding along with Ziggy's answer. "Now, the stone structures are the sturdiest. That's how wood and stone work. Which means the forges will be in them. And I know, but you just said fire bad," he continues with the end of the sentence trailing off into an exaggerated, feminine sounding high cadence, "But where there are forges then comes quenching. And quenching involves water. And water sources, for the quenching and also when your top brass dehydrate waitin' for their fuckin' swords."

Canny whistles a bit, impressed, even as Lupina has to sigh and admit internally that he's not wrong. "Wow, Pup, bein' selfless and caring about our safety?" she asks cheerily. "Someone's in a good mood."

"Well, you lot insist on diving neck-first into a den of snakes just to avenge a China Doll you've never seen with me. I feel I should at least try and give tips to minimize the amount of bites," Ziggy defends with a slight blush. In spite of his defensive tone, it seems he does care after all.

Suddenly, Fluttershy gasps behind you all and moves you aside, muttering apologies under her breath, to see if her eyes deceive her. And they seemingly do not. She gulps down and points her hoof out towards the camp. And then you all see it. Lupina lets out an offended growl, barely restrained by Zecora as you, Canny, and Ziggy all bear horrified looks, with your eyes wide and your own blood running cold. It's more crosses. Smaller than those of the dragon's, but still used to restrain what are now many corpses. Some are even thin and stark-white, and you assume them to be skeletons. They are all in front of the largest stone structure of them all, resembling what can only be described as a Church. Disturbingly, out of all the miscellaneous structures and ruins, this Church is the most intact, with even decorations like windows. "I-I'd rather be in an actual den of snakes..," Fluttershy stammers out, clearly afraid.

"You and me both," you respond as you just stop and stare for a second. It's horrifying, but infuriating. You've never seen ponies ever do this. They'd start wars and kill other ponies, sure, but...mass crucifixion? You can feel your blood boil as fear coils in your belly. This has to end.

Ziggy seems unfazed, your polar opposite in emotion. After the dragon, and especially after chasing Emeritus for years, you suppose he'd used to this level of sheer atrocity. Resolute, he says "That's where he'll be, and that's where I'm going," before leading the charge in a slow float towards the entrance.

"So, how are we going to do this?" you ask.

Again, just walking up all willy-nilly sounds like an awful, awful idea, but as Ziggy leads forth, he doesn't seem to care and it emboldens the rest of you to follow suit. You march up like a pack of roaming misfit crusaders, up to the gate and into full view of the squad of bucks that are guarding it. One is interrupted by his conversation with another, and hoists a spear towards you with a vicious growl of "Halt!"

A second buck, slightly smaller than the first, also brings his spear up to confront you. "Savages, all of them. What evil do you bring before us?" he growls through gritted teeth as the polearm is hoisted tip first towards your party.

Lupina speaks first as she begins rearing back into a pounce with her own fangs sharp and ready, "You are the evil defiling this forest! Your condemnation of the land ends now!" The two deer look at eachother, shocked and incredulous.

Ziggy swoops up behind her and slyly retorts "Well, of course, that's her agenda. Mine? Well, me and the bastard caribou you ruffians have crucified giants for go way back. It's time for us to catch up." He snaps the fingers of his paw together as it suddenly recalling something. "Oh, bother, did I say catch up? I meant, it's time for his brain to liquefy and putrefy out of his ears." The threat of hostility makes the deer guards stand their ground to defend themselves, and you note that these two have decent armoring, unlike the Ponyville Bandit.

You frown a bit as you realize that this plan kinda sucked, and you whisper to Canny "So why did we just walk up again?"

"Oh, I dunno, maybe because these two canids decided to throw subtlety out the window?" Canny whispers back sarcastically with her tone laced with exasperation.

Fluttershy gulps as you hear something behind you begin to bark ravenously. "M-Make that three canids," she corrects as you realize, without your eyesight ever leaving the deer guards, that Powerwolf is hungry for blood.

"You mongrels!" One of them shouts. "You dare threaten us on our turf?" The other nods in agreement.

But Lupina isn't having it. "Your turf? You're both interlopers! All of you, interlopers! Trespassers!" She growls back with a vengeful bite to her bark.

The second deer guard turns his nose up to you and, smugly, states "It's our turf now, doggie. And since you have raised hostilities, it's time for you to meet our Papa."

"We can find the way ourselves, thanks," Ziggy states in a low monotone, as Space Oddity begins to float behind him. With a wave of its gloved hand, the two guards are suddenly slammed down into the ground via insane gravity, and begin grunting and yelling in pain. "Freebies for you, babe!" he tells Lupina. "The rest will have to be by your paw!" Using Space Oddity, he begins to float gently above the guards.

Lupina sighs, and then huffs out "Stop calling me that!" Looking to you expectedly, you unfold your little slice of heaven from New Divide, and she immediately begins to hoist her plants through the air with Evolution. Soon, both guards are cocooned in otherwise beautiful green vines, and as they yell in shock, they are suddenly shaken up before being hurled through the air into the forest proper. Not dead, maybe. But certainly retired.

Nodding approvingly, Ziggy turns his attention to the wooden gates. He cracks his knuckles, and then hums "Well, then, what are we waiting for?" as Space Oddity suddenly pushes forward with its hand. Under the sudden force of gravity, the doors splinter open into a burst of wooden shards, only just flying a past a poor guardsdeer with a piece of toast still hanging limply from clenched teeth. You and Canny both give him a sarcastic wave as Ziggy looks down on the poor bastard with a smug grin. The awkward staredown between you and him lasts but a moment before his jaw clenches to the point that he chews off a piece of the toast and lets the rest fall to the ground, followed by him turning tail and trying to bolt away.

Quickly, however, the guard is stopped by a pair of clackers (or bolas, if you want to be picky), sparking with golden electricity, wrapping themselves around his legs. He lands with a groan, kicking up dirt from the harsh impact, all courtesy of an effective throw by Zecora. After you see him get incapacitated, you see another deer, this time partway through his bowl of soup, frozen in surprise whilst sitting on the ground. Quickly, before he can react, Canny draws her hat and fires a gear right into his forehead, knocking him out cold. With a cocking of the internal mechanism, Canny replaces it on her head and asks "Seriously? Did we interrupt these sods at suppertime?"

Nodding, Fluttershy quietly responds "A-Apparently so," while pointing to a building not too far away, apparently the camp canteen and kitchen judging from the deer walking around with plates of grain and vegetables. They're too engrossed in their delicacies to even notice the subdued guards they've taken for granted. You look at her as she says "Well, at least they haven't noticed us yet, so we can-" Before she can finish the sentence, you see something run past your vision, and you turn back to see the vicious Stand Powerwolf suddenly burst into the building. Immediately, you hear a commotion coming from the canteen as screams, animalistic roars, and the sounds of shattering glass fill the air. "...At least he's just subduing them?" Fluttershy tries to offer just before a sudden splash of blood hits one of the kitchen windows. "...Nevermind."

"Then let us not delay the cleansing of the Everfree," Lupina responds before turning to you as vines begin to grow from her back, thanks to Evolution. "Come, Star Pegasus! Let us show that their debts cannot be repaid with money!"

You, at first, don't see the point of the vines. After alll, you're about to lead an assault, and you seem to be the only one here who isn't a neurotic mess or completely insane. "No, no, my name is Sh-" you start to correct her, only to be interrupted with a yelp as the vines grab you. Lupina carries you with her without delay or consent, leaving you trapped in a shifting, but somehow comfy, plant cocoon.

Lupina charges away with you helplessly in tow, floating in the air suspended only by the vegetation, as you watch Ziggy cheekily wave at you with that damned smug smile still painted on his muzzle, as Canny shouts to you "Stay safe, Star! I'm stickin' with the doggo!" As a shrill-sounding alarm pierces through the camp, Fluttershy and Zecora nod at eachother before diving for cover and beginning to make their way through a flank in the camp.

You grunt as you're pushed through the air in a way a Pegasus probably shouldn't be, as you grunt to Lupina "We-agh! Really should be more-CALM DOWN! ORGANIZED!" you shout, before suddenly being flung away from her. As the vines leave you, you are carted through the air by the heartless whims of momentum before suddenly slamming into two disoriented deer guards. You land on the dirt, unharmed but obviously peeved, while the guards are knocked right the Tartarus out and kick up the soil as they collapse hard against the ground. You sputter before getting up quickly, as you and Lupina huddle together to continue fighting.

Perspective Shift: Fluttershy

"Oh, no," you respond as you and Zecora are surrounded by a small platoon of enraged Deer guards soon after entering the flanking route through the left of the entrance gate. With curved blades and sharpened spears, they seem ready for blood as they encircle you and give you cold stares. You back up almost instinctively, even as Zecora bravely steps forward. "Allow me, Fluttershy. I will not permit you to die," she reassures you, before breathing in deeply and settling into a fighting stance. Overconfident, one guard charges right for the both of you. Zecora blitzes towards him as the yellow sparks of Hamon cover her hooves, with which she quickly lays into him with a barrage of punches straight to the jaw. With one final crack, he is catapulted into the group, knocking over a few more deer in his way. Before you or they can react, Zecora's right hoof suddenly stretches away from her body, zooming towards another one of your adversaries and clocking him right in the jaw.

Right afterwards, Zecora runs towards a nearby wall and suddenly begins walking on it, golden Hamon connecting her to the stone like an arachnid. She runs across the wall, before leaping off and diving right into the small, but armed crowd of deer. You immediately hear the sounds of a scuffle, and see several deer get catapulted right out of the mob with punches and kicks galore. One deer is pushed away from the fight, losing his helmet, before turning to notice you.

You yelp and back up as he comes toward you slowly with a sick grin, before charging right at you! But right then, a door to his left and your right, specifically the back door to the canteen, bursts open and splinters apart as a guard is thrown through it. The flying victim impacts the deer coming for you and knocks them both out as Powerwolf slowly slinks out of the shadows with eyes filled with rage. He looks to you, and then towards the mob that Zecora is fighting. "Um...okay, but please behave," you tell him, to which he grunts and nods. With that said, you and Powerwolf charge in, with Powerwolf making his entrance in by spiking one deer Zecora kicked into the air, like a volleyball, into the dirt.

With a combination of claws, teeth, and hoof-to-hoof combat, Powerwolf and Zecora begin laying waste to the platoon, with you watching and help direct both of them as a bystander. Teeth are knocked out, blood is spilled, and deer are bruised as a maelstrom of melee assaults them. And as messed up as it is, you're glad that you aren't being beaten senseless like the deer are.

Perspective Shift: Canny Clockwork

You were kicking all kinds of flank with Ziggy, and you could tell immediately that he was in his element. The two of you were synchronizing beautifully during combat, so well that it was almost unfair to the myriad deer you were knocking through. Using the gravity abilities of Space Oddity, Ziggy hurled the guards face-first into the dirt, caking their teeth in the earthy browns of Equestria and throwing them for a loop as dizziness set in immediately. With them already neutralized on the ground, it was an easy matter of using Smooth Criminal to sink them into the ground, keeping them at bay even as the ringing cleared from their ears and they began either shouting for help or trying to vain to dig themselves out.

You do this to the latest armed thug to cross you and the doggo, sinking him in to his chest. "Let go of me! Release me!" he screams as he recombobulates, quite a fun word if you think about it, buried in the ground.

"Who's next?" Ziggy asks rhetorically, before spotting a guard charging to him. With a wave of the technologically gloved hand, Space Oddity suddenly lifts him up off the ground, leaving him to kick his hooves in a futile attempt to find frictiojn against anything that can catch his fall. So close to the Church, you think he's earned that cockiness. Which is why you don't pay enough mind to him to notice the other deer charging behind him until it's too late. "GRAGH!" he suddenly growls in utter agony.

You snap your focus to Ziggy to see that the interloper in the engagement, a shorter but more lean deer, has driven his antlers straight through Ziggy's right leg, just below his knee. Blood begins soaking the white pants immediately as the leg buckles and shakes. The deer pulls back, ready to deliver another blow, before Space Oddity grips him in another gravity well and forcefully rams the two guards into eachother with the loud crack of broken bones, or at least broken craftsmanship and shattered armor. Space Oddity hurls them to the ground hard, as they lay unconscious and limp. You rush forward. "Ziggy! Are you alright?" you ask, serious and concerned as he lands on the knee, unable to fully support his weight with the wound.

He shakes his head and hisses. "No...no, I don't believe so," Ziggy honestly responds. "That was a hard blow."

"We need to get you out of here," you decide immediately. "Or at least wrap the wound u-"

Ziggy snaps a glare to you, fury burning in his eyes as he begins floating, thanks to Space Oddity. "NO!" He shouts without his usual decorum. "He's here, Emeritus is here! No pain will stop me from my vengeance. Out of my way!" He yells, as Space Oddity thrusts a hand forward and uses the force of gravity to bash the doors to the church wide open and begins quickly floating in.

"Ziggy!" You yell, concerned, before sighing and beginning to rush in after him. "You literal son of a bitch, wait up!'

Perspective Shift: Shooting Star

As your battle with the platoons and garrisons of deer take you close to the blacksmith's forges, you're pretty glad you listened to Ziggy's tip about water and blade quenching. The deer begin to pull bows and light their arrows ablaze, as well as draw torches off the walls and approach you. As they fire or swing, New Divide's folding-transportation and Lupina's Evolution work together to extinguish the inferno, before moving in to take advantage of the resulting vulnerability. You do whatever you need to in order to keep Lupina from killing them outright, such as folding the sharper thorns of Plundervines into the black vegetation or folding the wounds of the unconscious closed to stem whatever blood loss does eek out.

Otherwise, you both steamroll right through them, shouting "VENDAVENDAVENDAVENDA!" as New Divide's latest Stand-Rush smacks the last guard of the group into a cocoon of vines, of which Lupina then hurls towards the left flank, only for him to be smacked upwards into the air by an errant kick of Zecora's. As he plummets back down, Powerwolf finishes the combo by punting him with one of its hindlegs right over the impressive walls of the camp. "Well...that's them taken care of," you comment casually as Fluttershy and Zecora approach. "Everyone good?"

Zecora wipes some sweat from her brow, but other than that, both of them seem fine. "Y-Yeah!" Fluttershy tells you and Lupina. "Thanks to Zecora and Powerwolfie, we didn't get a scratch on us." You choose to ignore "Powerwolfie," for now. "But we haven't seen Canny or Ziggy since we split up."

"I did," Lupina responds. "They were both approaching the Church." She walks towards the structure in question, and the other three of you follow her lead. There is a veritable trail of crimson, splattered blood leading from the dirt right into the Church. "Ziggy's," Lupina comments warily. "I can smell him."

"Damn, Ziggy's hurt?" You ask rhetorically, double-checking quickly. "Well, we need to head in there and-GAH!" you are interrupted quickly by Canny and Ziggy themselves suddenly rematerializing out of the ground right in front of you. And they are seemingly in terrible shape. Both are panting heavily, clearly winded, and have cuts all over their bodies. In addition, Ziggy's right hindleg is bleeding from just under the knee, likely the wound Lupina sniffed out, and his face is swelling up and bruised from blunt force trauma, especially around one of his eyes.

"Star...we have to-" Canny can't even finish before having to take a knee, breathing heavily and raggedly after what seems to have been a hell of a fight.

Fluttershy and Zecora rush in to tend to their wounds as you move towards Canny and place your hoof on the less cut-up of her shoulders. "What happened?" you ask as worry enters your heart quickly.

Canny looks up into your eyes and huffs out "It was...dark...it was so dark. We were ambushed and couldn't see a damn thing..." A shiver claims her spine as she shakes in discomfort.

Ziggy sputters and pants out "It was...him!" He slowly begins to use his paws to support his weight, wincing as he places a bit of weight on his injured leg. His non-swollen eye stares off into the distance, as if trauma claimed him and he was focused on all the past trails and encounters. "I don't know how I didn't see it...Emeritus!"

Your eyes widen and you stand back up and into a combat stance, along with Lupina by your side. "His Stand was that powerful?" you ask. "What's its power? What does it do?"

Canny sighs and looks up to you. "That's not...an easy thing to answer, mate," she tells you softly. She stands up, and adjusts her hat with a grit in her teeth.

The cold rush of fear takes you as the sun begins to set, Celestia covering the sky in brilliant gold even as you realize the gravity of the situation. "How...?" Ziggy asks to himself in horror. "All of these years and I never found out? How? H-How?!"

"Never found out what?" you demand to know, clearly spooked by the raw terror in his voice.

Ziggy looks up into your eyes, and your cold rush of fear turns into a blizzard of terror as you see just how thrown-off and scared the otherwise cocky and dapper Diamond Dog is by whatever revelation he had just learned about. "Emeritus," he whispers. "Forge...Copia, they're...they all exist! I thought they were all the same reindeer, all aliases...I was wrong!"

And then another voice, one unfamiliar to you, speaks. "Ah...this is where the sacrifices had run off to." His voice is emotionless, stoic, measured. The lack of emotion is as chilling as the words he speaks. Then, the same voice speaks again, but now filled with emotion. "And they dragged four more down with them!" he responds to himself, mirth and joy overwhelming his tone. The six of you look up to where the voice is coming from, the rooftop of the Church, and see a reindeer with a brown coat and black and white facepaint towering over you. Standing taller than even Lupina or Ziggy, the reindeer is dressed in strange religious vestments of an orange color and ornaments in his large, spindly antlers. His right eye is glowing white with seemingly mystical power.

He stands to the right, and to the left emerges...the same Reindeer? Other than the orange vestments being brown on this one, he seems exactly the same. Same facepaint, same coat color, same glowing eye. And then, in the center, emerges a third identical reindeer. This one has black vestments, and this time is wearing an oval-shaped hat between his massive antlers, but is otherwise the exact same reindeer. Confusion swims over you, before you realize that this, exactly, is what Ziggy meant. The one in the middle speaks, his tone being a merger of the first voice's measured voice and the second's emotional and "normal" intonation. "And five of them...touched by the miracles of the stars. Beautiful!"

With a bark of utter fury, Ziggy turns to face them and shouts "EMERITUS!" This only makes the black-vestmented one in the middle smile. A smile that is too wide and bares far too many teeth. Like that of a predator.

The one in orange, to the right of the one you guess is Emeritus, says in the emotionless voice "He speaks your name so brazenly, Papa. So much disrespect in this one's soul."

The deer in brown, to his left, then says in the overemotional voice "Well, that can't stand! We can teach these mongrels respect, right, Papa?"

Emeritus regards the one to his right first. "Copia," he says, "you cannot expect all in Equestria to follow our example at first." He then says to the one to his left "And Forge, all in time." Looking back down to you all, Emeritus looks right at Ziggy, or perhaps right through him, and asks "...Do I know you?"

Ziggy gasps, and then snarls "Of course you do, you cold-blooded bastard! Ten long years ago, you took my beloved China Girl from me!"

There is a pause as Emeritus hums and looks away in thought. In the meanwhile, Fluttershy, Canny, and Zecora have moved the wounded Ziggy closer to the group to keep him safe. With a quick gasp of excitement, recollection flashes behind Emeritus's eyes. "Yes! The "China Girl", I remember her soul!"

You gasp, and you and Canny meet eyes. "Her...soul?" You ask her.

Canny realizes at the same moment what you do and looks back up to Emeritus. "The China Girl...was never a doll..."

You finish her thought with a gulp and your eyes back on the fearsome trio. "It was his love."

With an uproarious laugh, sounding deep and yet almost passing out of his throat far too quickly, Emeritus nods. "I remember you now! Ziegfried, I believe? You're the pup I backhanded with this!" He raises his left foreleg, revealing a silver scepter held behind the cloven toes of his hoof. "I see the eye never fully healed." Ziggy growls and clenches his fists helplessly. "That...was a long time ago. Far before the stars fell to our lovely family." He provides another deeply unsettling, toothy grin down to you all. "But the past is meant to be buried...and so are you." He nods to Copia and Forge, and they leap down to confront you six. As soon as they stand ready to fight, Emeritus begins to sing, carrying his voice across the camp.

"Well, I was born an original sinner..."

You leap forward to protect your friends, angry in Ziggy's place as New Divide prepares to fight, only for Copia's own Stand to leap up and uppercut you directly in the chest. You cough and wheeze as you are balanced in the air on top of his Stand's hoof. Dressed in blue coveralls, his Stand has a shock white mask on with pitch-black eyeholes, and slicked-back auburn hair. With another hard punch, you are slammed hard into a nearby wall, and thrown for a loop.

"I was borne from original sin..."

Lupina stands back and uses Evolution's vines to fight back, only for Copia to grab them in his teeth and suddenly yank her towards him. She flies over his shoulder and lands against the stone wall of the Church, before a downward blow from his Stand knocks her unconscious, making her body fall apart. For a second, in your concussed state, you think she's died. Zecora leaps towards him with Hamon sparking against her hooves, only for him to quickly snap his head towards her and headbutt her right in the snout, knocking her unconscious without much further effort. Almost like he's tracked her movements. Is that his Stand?

"And if I had a Silver Bit for all the things I've done...

Forge, meanwhile, first goes up against Powerwolf and looks at the monstrous Stand with an almost impressed smile as it roars in his face. Ducking a claw blow, he weaves a circle around the beastial apparition before swiftly diving towards Fluttershy, and somehow sinking into the ground itself. Fluttershy yelps and looks around for him along with Powerwolf, before he rises right up out of the ground and uppercuts poor Fluttershy in the face. She is knocked out by the blow, disappating Powerwolf with no fanfare. The injured Canny tiredly swings a physical punch to his face, but he blocks the blow and just smacks her in the jaw, sending her to the floor.

Emeritus hops down from the roof himself and approaches Ziggy. The Diamond Dog, in an act of defiance, spits at the reindeer and lands the saliva against his face. Emeritus steps back and nods with an amused grin, before suddenly stepping right on the stab wound in Ziggy's leg and making him howl in pain before ducking in and knocking him out with two blows from the scepter. And then he faces you. He walks towards you as your vision quakes and blurs from the blow to your head. But you can clearly see his scepter change shape. From scepter to staff, to club, to sword in his hoof. All just a show, however, as he changes it back to the scepter and just winks at you before sending it right towards your head. The last thing you hear before you are knocked out is more of his song, ringing out in your ears.

"There'd be a mountain of money piled up to my chin."

Stand for Equestria: Origin of Harmony

Author's Note

Doing the Author's Note before I finish the chapter, XD.

Sorry for taking over a year to complete the chapter! Felt like every day I set aside to do it, I'd get sidetracked or my progress would get deleted. Then I stopped setting aside days. :(

But it's here now!

The three Deers' names are Emeritus (the main one who destroyed the China Doll), and his Brothers Forge and Copia.

Emeritus' Stand, Square Hammer, is a Stand bound to his silver scepter. When activated, the Stand can shapeshift into most any weapon. The weapon must be melee, but can be blunt or sharp.

Forge's Stand is Cirice, and grants him the power to hide within other people's Shadows. When within a shadow, he becomes undetectable, as immaterial as the Shadow itself, and travels with the victim and the Shadow itself. He can leave at any time, but a shadow ceasing to exist through darkness or shade will damage him as it kicks him out.

Copia's Stand is Hunter's Moon, and behaves as a strong Ghost-type Stand during the day. At night, however, it gains additional powers of Tracking. Hunter's Moon can detect any form of track, including blood splatters, fingerprints, footprints, the sound of movement, and smells, and highlight them for the User to make Copia into an unstoppable hunter/tracker.

All three Stands are named after songs by the Swedish band Ghost, with the three Users being named after the lead singer Papa Emeritus/Cardinal Copia, all played by Tobias Forge.

So, with this chapter done, I have a bit of a hard ask. So, I really wanna sell that these are the arc villains. I need them to be dangerous. So...I will permit you to really hurt a main party member. That does not mean you have to do so, nor that I will permit killing anyone unless you have an idea that would fanatically aid the storytelling. Basically, if you have an comment that will help sell that the deer are just as vicious as they've been built up to be, I will allow it.

And now the chapter-ly question!

What episode in Season 1 would make a truly badass arc in this fic?

We skipped straight to Season 2, so what Season 1 plotline might have lead to some crazy stuff?

Thank you for your continued support!