SuShi's Bizarre Adventure: Twilit Curtain Call

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Rebellious Sunfast Shiho
Chapter 2: Jojos in Berlin
Chapter 3: A Strange New World
Chapter 4: The Dschinghis Directive
Chapter 5: A Daring Endeavor
Chapter 6: The Turtles Trap
Chapter 7: The Crane Wife and Wayward Son
Chapter 8: Manifested Strange World
Chapter 9: The Convention Awaits
Chapter 10: The Soul Stirs
Chapter 11: An Angry Circle
Chapter 13: Changing Wind
Chapter 14: The Scorpion Strategy
Chapter 16: A Ghost in the Shell
Chapter 17: Angers Awaits
Chapter 18: Words Can Only Do Harm
Chapter 19: In For My Heart
Chapter 20: A Spectacle Monopolized
Chapter 21: The Voice of Guerrilla Radio
Chapter 22: IAM
Chapter 23: Secrets of Angers
Chapter 24: It's the Day That Never Comes
Chapter 25: Hail to the Chief
Chapter 26: The Abyss of Noir Desir
Chapter 27: Take One Bite Now, Come Back For More
Chapter 28: Time to Eat the Rich
Chapter 29: A Real Live Wire
Chapter 31: Twilight's World
Chapter 32: Twilight's Time
Chapter 33: Twilit Curtain Call
Epilogue: Vows Given
Prologue: House of the Rising Sun
Chapter 12: Callenish Circle VS Blitzkrieg
Chapter 15: The Clacker of Pumpkins
Chapter 30: Psycho Killer, Qu’est-ce Que C’est

Chapter 1: The Rebellious Sunfast Shiho

As the sun began to set across the quaint little town of Kantarijji, a group of students in black uniforms had their backs against a cement wall, with one of them peeking her head out to see the road ahead. The girl peeking out had purple hair with red highlights going through it. Her uniform had its top two buttons unbuttoned, with her bowtie dangling on one side, untied, and she had a large chain hanging at the waist of her skirt, hanging down beside her black stockings. Most people would call her crazy for wearing these during summer, but she didn’t care. In one hand she held a half-empty bottle of beer and in the other a school bag. Unbeknownst to anyone, she also had a birthmark on the back of her left shoulder shaped like a sun, a symbol of her family bloodline.

“Shiho, are they still there?” one of her friends, Kami Kaze asked. He was a stocky boy with a shaved head who was smoking a bent cigarette.

Shiho Sunfast kept her eyes on the street. Everything was quiet now, but she was sure they were still searching for them or waiting for them to make the first move. No, she wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction.

“We’ve done it now…” Another friend, Spinner Udon, was nursing a cut across his head. He had sharp cheekbones and sunken eyes, a sign of his many nights of staying up late. “I told you they would strike back after what we pulled on Monday.”

“We can’t just give up. They started it by burning my homework!” Shiho’s final friend, Ban Kai, shook her fists. She had red hair and was about as skinny as a stick. “If I was strong enough to punch the living daylights out of Starburst’s face, I would do it!”

“Shhh, quiet!” Shiho hissed. She knew they had been following them. There would be no reason they wouldn’t come down this street.

By now, the sun was getting lower and most people were already home, preparing for dinner or having a nice cold shower, but not Shiho and her friends. All they wanted to do today was skip school and drink, but Starburst’s gang had come out of a bush, waiting in ambush as revenge for throwing them all in a lake a few days earlier.

Shiho smiled at the thought, remembering Starburst’s angry, but extremely confused face as he broke the water’s surface, gasping and flailing his arms about. It had been a simple trick, something even her friends didn’t know about, something that only a few people in the world seemed to understand. She had thought about telling her friends before, but they couldn’t see it anyway, so they would probably just think she was high or something.

Movement caught Shiho’s eyes and she pressed herself more firmly against the wall. It was a black school shoe, sticking out from the road going down the right. Someone was peeking across the road, just like she was.

“There, there they are!” a voice rose up in that next street as Shiho ducked back.

“They saw me…” Shiho sighed and flipped the bottle in her hands, emptying the remainder of its contents down her throat. It would at least steel her for some pain. That’s if they manage to hit her. “It’s now or never. We’re gonna teach Starburst who not to mess with.”

Kaze pulled at his shirt collars. “Time to bring out one of my famous punches, then.”

“I don’t think I can stomach another fight…” Spinner groaned. “I’m brainy, I’m not much on brawn…”

“No time to complain now, here we go!” Shiho threw the empty beer bottle to the side and cracked her knuckles. “If you’re so unsure of yourself, you can look out for the cops. They’ve been creeping around lately and interfering with our fights.”

“Man, I don’t want to get arrested again…” Spinner shook his head and got up. He scratched at his cheek, then shrugged. “Let’s do this, I guess.”

Starburst slid out from around the corner, his shirt sleeves rolled up, revealing two dragon tattoos, one just under each elbow, slithering across his arms. He had a messy hairstyle, with strands of hair sticking out at all odd ends, making him look like a porcupine. Behind him followed three of his goons, lumbering down the street like gorillas that had just escaped from a zoo.

“It’s payback time, Sushi!” Starburst pointed a crooked finger at her and drew a pocket knife from his pocket. “You’re not going to run from me again!”

“You couldn’t find me even if you had a GPS right to me.” Shiho stretched her arms out at her sides, welcoming him to attack. “Oh wait, you probably don’t even know what a GPS is.”

“Why you…!” Starburst ran forward, readying a punch behind him.

Shiho ducked under his amazingly obvious punch, then stuck out a leg, tripping him before she spun around and kicked him in the back. Starburst skipped one step, then rolled down on his back.

“To war!” Kaze yelled and was the first to start running.

Shiho’s friends yelled at the top of their voices, then ran along from behind the wall, rushing right past her and throwing themselves at the rest of Starburst’s crew. Seeing that they could likely hold out against the rest of them, Shiho returned her attention to Starburst, who was pushing himself back up.

“Come on, Starburst,” Shiho taunted. “I thought you were made of tougher stuff than this. Or are you going to run away like a little girl?”

“I’m no little girl!” He got back up and wiped at his nose. He had likely hit it on his way to the ground. He whipped his knife in the air. “I don’t care about jail. I’m gonna gut you like the pig you are!”

Shiho eyed his weapon, then snapped her fingers together and smiled at him. “Come and try. Tell you what, I won’t even move out of the way. How does that sound? Try and stab me and when you find that you can’t, then you’ll know how much of a real failure you are.”

“You’re dead meat, Sunfast!” Starburst bellowed before running at Shiho with his weapon.

True to her words, Shiho stayed standing there with her arms at her sides. Starburst went for a stab at her midsection, and felt the knife’s hilt hit his target.

“Wow,” Shiho said sarcastically. “You actually managed to get me. Too bad for you, you brought a knife made of foam. You really should talk to your knife dealer about that.”

“Huh? What?” Starburst looked down at his weapon, which was now a chunk of styrofoam in his hand. “How did you…”

Shiho smirked and pulled back her arm, striking Starburst on the nose with a mighty punch that sent him flying backwards onto the ground. His eyes rolled back and he dropped his arms to his sides.

“Maybe check on your weapons the next time you wanna start a fight.” Shiho turned her body sideways, then wrapped her skirt’s chain around one hand before pointing at him with her other hand.

“Shiho, police!” She heard Kaze call out to her. She turned back to them just to see him get punched in the face. “Ouch. We’ve got to get out of here!”

Shiho ran to her friends, pushing one of Starburst’s groupies off Kaze before kicking another in the side, knocking him to the ground. Three police officers came running at them from the other end of the street, shouting at them to remain in place.

Obviously, they didn’t. Spinner was the first to take off, dashing down a side street as Ban and Kaze followed. Shiho snorted at the beaten boys before running after them.

“Good fight, guys!” Shiho congratulated her friends as they ran. “Beers are on me next time. Now, run for your lives!”

“Stop right there!” A policeman yelled as he chased after the four students. “In the name of the law, halt!”

“Not likely,” Shiho said aloud before shouting over her shoulder, “You want us, you’re gonna have to catch us!”

Two of the policemen stayed behind to round out Starburst’s group, while the third chased after them, waving one arm around wildly in hopes to get them to stop.

Shiho followed along behind her friends, with Spinner Udon still leading the way. The brains of their group, he was the most knowledgeable, meaning he knew the streets better than the rest of them. Or so they had thought.

“You mouse, you led us down a dead end!” Kaze swiped Spinner on the back of the head. In front of them was a brick wall, too high for them to climb and if they weren’t likely to make it out of the alley they were in before the policeman could stop them.

“Watch the head, I’m injured!” Spinner brushed around his hair and rubbed at his cut. “And don’t blame me, I can’t think straight today, alright? Look at this wound!”

“Stop arguing and start hoisting me up!” Ban slapped Kaze on the shoulder and reached up the wall, trying to grab its ledge. “And don’t look up my skirt!”

“That’s what you’re worried about now?” Kaze pressed his index finger to his forehead, then sighed and planted both hands on top of his knee. “Just get it over with!”

Shiho watched them. It would take too long for all four of them to get over the wall. Unless…

“You three, stop.” Shiho ran over to them, getting their attention. “We don’t have time for that. We can just go through.”

“Go through? Are you joking?” Spinner put a hand against the wall and laughed. “We can’t go th… through…”

He looked back to where his hand was resting and there was where the brick wall had once been was now a giant sheet of cardboard.

“W-What the…” Ban ran a finger over it. “It really is cardboard!”

“And no time to be wasted!” Shiho kicked a foot through it, before sliding her hands in and ripping it from top to bottom. “Come on!”

As the four kids raced away, the policeman finally managed to catch up, turning down the alley to inspect it. There were vending machines, a dumpster, buildings on both sides and a brick wall at the far end of the path.

“There was no way they ran down this path. I’ll have to look elsewhere,” he said to himself, then jogged on.

“That was a close one…” Kami Kaze wiped a hand across his forehead, dragging as many sweat droplets along as he could. “I thought we were goners.”

“What was up with that wall?” Ban Kai asked. “I could’ve sworn it was made out of bricks.”

“The light must’ve been playing tricks on you. Or it could’ve been the heat.” Shiho slowed to a walk. For some reason, she wasn’t as sweaty as her friends. “But we were fortunate that someone put a cardboard wall up. It was easy to break.”

“Man, this makes the third time this month that we’ve had a run in with the cops,” Spinner Udon complained. “Why can’t they just leave us alone?”

“You think that’s bad?” Shiho scoffed. “You haven’t met my folks. Why do you always smell like tobacco smoke, Shiho? Don’t drink so much, Shiho. Don’t skip school, Shiho. Bleh.”

“At least you have family that care about you.” Kaze rubbed his hands together. “Mine don’t even care what I do. I could be rotting in a drain for all they know. They wouldn’t lift a finger to even bury me.”

“Don’t say that.” Ban Kai gave him a slap on the arm. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to bury you.”

“Funny.” Kaze rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, we better split up here. We’ll get home on our own,” Shiho briefed her friends. “Just… try not to look suspicious or stand out.”

“Very well.” Kaze dusted his arms and clenched a fist. “Then we’ll see you tomorrow. Update us if anything from Starburst comes up.”

“I hope he gets jailed…” Spinner wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. “Then it’ll be the end for him.”

“Please let that be it.” Ban held her hands to the air.

Shiho bade her group of friends farewell before walking down the opposite side of the street, disappearing around the next turn. Once clear, she let out a sigh of relief, glad that her friends and her had made it out mostly unscathed. Starburst had been making things harder for them in the last month, and if not for what little morality she had left, she would’ve just socked him there and then.

Thinking about it was making Shiho more annoyed, so she took out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a long drag of the tobacco and letting the taste roll over her tongue. Letting it hang out of the corner of her mouth as she strutted back home, she was pleased to see that there was nobody else on the road except some old crone coming the opposite direction. Her head was tilted down and she had on a hat that hid her eyes.

Strange… the old woman looked kind of familiar, though Shiho couldn’t quite place why. Shiho shrugged and kept on walking, putting her hands behind her head as she went.

As she and the old woman passed, Shiho saw her reach out and grab her by the ear, almost making her fall over.

“Oi!” Shiho exclaimed, spitting out the cigarette. “What’s your problem, old woman?” She reached up to remove the elderly woman’s hand, but it stayed clamped onto her ear. “Let me go, or I’ll knock out your teeth!”

“Shiho Sunfast…” the old woman said. “Is that any way to speak to your grandmother?”

The girl stopped struggling and looked up at the woman. Now that she was next to her, she could see up past her hat’s brim into the stern eyes of her grandmother, Sunset Shimmer.

“Good grief, what the devil are you doing here in Japan?” Shiho sighed. “You’re supposed to be back in Canterlot.”

“Am I not allowed to visit my family?” Sunset asked, letting go of Shiho’s ear. “I’ve come all the way here to visit my one and only precious daughter and my sweetest granddaughter, only to learn that my granddaughter has somehow lost all that sweetness! How can this be?”

Sunset reached into the air with both hands, then tilted her body back while lowering her left leg.

“Why the heck are you standing like that?” Shiho said, giving Sunset a confused look. “And I can do what I want. I don’t need someone coming from Canterlot to tell me how I should behave.”

“Why, why has this happened?!” Sunset cried out to the sky. “How did my granddaughter turn out like this! After everything I’ve taught your mother and with her doing the same to you, I was so proud of the way you were!”

“I am my own person. I don’t have to follow someone else’s rules. You should focus on how you live instead of how others live.” Shiho wasn’t impressed by Sunset’s dramatic sorrow. She attempted to walk on, but Sunset grabbed her arm and held her in place. “What now?”

“You, young lady, are coming home with me right now.” Sunset’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head. “I’m going to sit you down and lecture you all about your behavior and your attitude.”

“No chance, granny. I’m going down to the ramen place to eat on my own. I’ve told mom that I don’t want to eat with them, even if she continues to cook for me like I’m going to be there…”

“Why you! How could you say that about my daughter!” Sunset raised the back of one hand. “How could you say that to your own mother!”

The back of Sunset’s hand whizzed in the air, aimed for Shiho’s cheek, but as she stood motionless, a pinkish being with flowing cloth around its shoulders emerged from her chest, parrying the incoming slap with its own hand, sending Sunset back a step from the force of its arm.

“I may be your granddaughter, but I’m only going to say this once...” Shiho slid one foot forward. Her other foot was placed behind it, making the back end of an ‘L’ shape as she raised a palm up, placing two fingers of her other hand on the sides of her right eye. “Don’t ever try to hit me again. Don’t even try to touch me.”

“How dare you use the power of Stands against me! I taught you how to use it!” Sunset swiped a hand to the side. “I’ll have to beat some lessons into that thick skull of yours. I came all this way to visit and this is what I get?”

“I didn’t ask you to come.” Shiho sighed in exasperation. “Now, I’m going to go. And unless you want to go home with a black eye, you’re going to let me go, granny.”

Shiho turned around and attempted to walk away, but then she found herself back in front of her grandmother, facing her again. She blinked, her surprised face quickly turning into a frown.

“Good grief, I forgot you can do that…” She shook her head and ran a hand over the top of her head. “So that’s how you want to do this, huh granny?”

“I don’t want to do it. But if I have to knock some sense into you so that you come back to your senses, I’m going to do it!”

“You didn’t need to say sense twice.”

Sunset grumbled and her Stand burst forth from her, rushing through the air for Shiho as it let out a shrill neigh. Shiho still remembered the name of her grandmother’s Stand.

Alicorn Fantasy.

She had seen her grandmother use it a few times in her life. Her Stand was incredibly strong, able to lift the heaviest of objects and it had the ability to reset something to its original position or state. That would mean if someone were to lose an arm, she could simply reset it back on them.

In Shiho’s case, Alicorn Fantasy reached a hand out and as her Stand left its position to wrestle her grandmother’s Stand to the ground, she found she was back in the same position she was earlier and her Stand was behind her again.

Shiho was caught off guard and she didn’t get out of the way as Alicorn Fantasy delivered a punch to her Stand’s midsection. She doubled over and pressed one hand to the ground as she spat out a mouthful of saliva and bile.

“You’re a madwoman, that you’ll even hit your own granddaughter…” Shiho coughed.

“I only used ten percent of my Stand’s power.” Sunset folded her arms. “I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to educate you, dear. You’re a Sushi. Do you know what your mother and I have done in our time?”

Shiho stood up and dusted her stockings. “No, it’s not like you’ve told me your life story a thousand times…”

She called up her Stand, which did a forward somersault before pulling out a curtain from nowhere, holding it up in front of itself. Alicorn Fantasy tried to grab Shiho again, but before it could reach her, her Stand whipped the curtain away, revealing a fire extinguisher which it used to whack Sunset’s Stand in the face.

Alicorn Fantasy dived to one side, with the extinguisher only barely nicking its snout. A bruise formed across Sunset’s right nostril, but she remained unfazed. Alicorn Fantasy knocked the extinguisher from Shiho’s Stand’s hands, then grabbed it around the neck, lifting it into the air.

Shiho felt a tightness around her neck, her airflow immediately cut off from the Stand’s grip.

“I forgot your Stand could change an object into something else.” Sunset walked closer to her granddaughter as she snapped her fingers. Her nose was instantly reset, healing her injury. “Please just avoid deeper wounds. I’m not as adept as I used to be in my youth. I won’t be able to reset anything too grievous.”

“I’ll hurt you anyway I want if you keep trying to get me to do what you want! And besides…” Shiho hissed as she fought against her grandmother’s Stand’s grip. “I had a plan. C-Curtain Call! Now!”

Shiho’s Stand had thrown its cloth under Sunset’s feet earlier without her noticing. She looked down and widened her eyes, but it was too late. Suddenly the pavement beneath Sunset collapsed and she fell into a pit that was full of water. Alicorn Fantasy lost its grip and hit the ground.

“Bleurgh. Shiho!” Sunset bobbed in the water and sniffed. She grimaced. “This isn’t water!”

She attempted to climb out, but Curtain Call reappeared above, sliding its cloth over the hole.

“I’ve learned how to use my Stand a lot more efficiently in the last two years of rebellion against my parents,” Shiho said from above ground. “Curtain Call doesn’t just change a simple object like my school bag into a fire extinguisher. It can also change the floor you stand on. I just changed the asphalt into paper and your fat butt did the rest. And now, I can just change it back.”

As Curtain Call removed its cloth, the road had returned to normal and Sunset was now trapped in the sewers below.

“About time…” Shiho struck a pose, crossing one leg around another while running two fingers across her face. “I better get out of here before mom or dad shows up too.”

As she turned to walk away, the ground rumbled and a muscular fist shot out from under her, grabbing her around both ankles. Alicorn Fantasy erupted from the ground, flipping Shiho upside down as Sunset leapt back up onto the road from below, drenched.

“Game time is over, Shiho. What you’ve done now is unforgivable!” Sunset squeezed sewer water from her gloves. Alicorn Fantasy attempted to reset her clothes and hat, and it succeeded, but Sunset’s body was still left drenched. “Bah, a perfect time for my Stand’s powers to not work as intended.”

Curtain Call attempted to throw its cloth aside, but Alicorn Fantasy grabbed it firmly, halting it in the air.

“You’re not doing that again. Now, you’re coming home with me, young lady, and you’re going to apologize to your mother for your bad behavior!” Sunset pointed a finger in her face.

“Like hell I am,” Shiho said, her Stand attempting to pry off Alicorn Fantasy’s fingers. “Nobody asked you to come and get me!”

No matter how hard Curtain Call struggled, it just could not overpower Alicorn Fantasy and Sunset began walking back, Stand and Shiho in tow.

But before she could take four more steps, something exploded in the distance and both of them turned their heads over the row of houses on their left.

Smoke was rising into the air further away and there were already the sounds of crying and anguish faintly tapping against their ear canals. Shiho didn’t like the sound of it. This was beyond a prank from her group or Starburst’s. There were reports of violence across the world from certain activist groups, but it had never been anything as extensive as an explosion until now.

“It seems dinner will have to wait…” Sunset clenched a fist. “I was so looking forward to your mother’s cooking. Ugh. I’m sure she’ll understand.”

Shiho suddenly found herself back on the ground, Alicorn Fantasy’s grip on her gone. She dusted her clothes and was about to give an earful to her grandmother, but Sunset had already walked off, heading in the direction of the explosion.

“Foolish old hag…” Shiho watched her go.

She was about to continue on to the ramen stall when her phone began buzzing in her pocket. She fished it out, surprised to see Ban Kai’s name on it. She slid a finger across it before putting it to her ear.

“Shiho quick! Come quick I need help please come!” She received a burst of words from her friend.

“Ban? What’s going on? What happened? Is it Starburst?” Shiho quizzed. “Where are you now?”

“I-I’m at home! I don’t know what’s happening! There are these crazy masked people with guns, they just stormed my home. They blew up our front gate and part of the house! My mom’s dead. I saw her… please, help, I don’t know what to do!” There was a brief pause. “O-Oh. Oh no. Shiho-!”

There was a buzz and something metallic before the phone line went dead. Another explosion rang out across the sky and Shiho’s head jerked back in the direction of the smoke.

“That’s where Ban lives…” She came to the realization. “Good grief. Just what is going on?”

Without another moment, Shiho ran down the street, going in the direction her grandmother had gone. For now, she was going to have to see that wizened old face of her grandmother for a little while more.

Author's Note

Figured I'd give you all another chapter, since the first one doesn't have much content except for setting up.
From now on, Stand pictures will go over to the group so that they'll have a specific place to be, so if you want to check out, here's our first Stand of the new part, Curtain Call!
PS, Golden_Reflection, you can do your thing over at the group. :trollestia:

Chapter 2: Jojos in Berlin

The city of Berlin glowed like a jewel under the sunny morning sky. People walked around the brightly lit streets and buildings, generally just enjoying themselves as best they could. Most people did not remember that the city had pretty much been destroyed some thirty years ago, and that was probably for the best. Berlin had been rebuilt from the ground up into a magnificent city and one of the main attractions of tourists who were planning on visiting Germany.

Every single building had to be rebuilt and unfortunately, that also meant the historical landmarks had been destroyed. One such tourist wearing a fishing hat and sunglasses had been here years ago, the year the city had been destroyed. He had come back here this day to honor the fallen, those who had given their lives defending a country from threats they could not see.

But Cajole Joyride could see them. He could see them all.

“Dad, wait up…” A younger male with light blue hair ran up behind him, holding a map. He had on a loose unbuttoned shirt over a plain tank top and his socks were pulled high up his legs, ending in the middle of his shins. “The map says we’re going the wrong way.” He pointed to a holographic map that was being projected by his phone.

“What, no, it has to be this way. The battle grounds were somewhere here.” Cajole scratched his head. Your mother and I, we defended the world right here in Berlin.”

“Well, it says they built the memorial on the east side of the city.”

“You’d think they’d build the memorial right on top of the actual place…” He ran a hand through his hair and changed his direction. “Right, come on then, Josher.”

Cajole Joyride had returned to Berlin after many years, to pay his respects to the fallen, to those that had been here when a devastating attack had destroyed the entire city. The fighting had been fierce, but in the end, they had triumphed over a great evil and it was all thanks to an old friend, Summer Shine. He wondered now how she was doing in Japan.

He had last heard from his wife, Prism Dash, that Summer was still working as a housewife and that her daughter was quite the little rebel. As for Cajole himself, he had gotten married to Summer’s best friend, Prism, oh so many years ago. He had finally taken up the courage to ask her out and it had taken three long years before Prism had agreed to go out with him. Thankfully, their courting process hadn’t been as long as his wait and they had gotten married in just one year after getting together.

Now twenty-one years down the road, they already had two grown children, Josher Joyride and Color Joyride, but Prism and Color had decided to stay back in Canterlot while he made this trip with Josher. She had said Berlin reminded her too much of what they had to go through in their bizarre adventure across Europe. Cajole didn’t blame her. After all, she had basically been burned to death and had it not been for Sunset Shimmer, Summer’s mother, then Prism might’ve not made it out unscathed. And besides, she worked as a coach for the Canterlot College Firebirds now, and they had to practice during the break to ensure they win the next season. Cajole found he could never pull her away from such things. In all aspects of sports, she was really just like her mother, Rainbow Dash. He wondered what she was doing at this moment. Probably watching a game of dish-quid. It was a reckless sport, with people flying around on personal drones shaped vaguely like mops to catch flying orbs. Just the sort of thing Rainbow Dash would have been into if it had been invented when she was still limber enough to play.

He thought about his own father, Jostle Joyride. Jostle was now retired, living his life at home as a grumpy old man who sat in front of the TV watching football, a classic sport from the old days. For an old man, he was still pretty limber and quick on his feet, likely from all the training he had with hamon, the energy of the sun keeping him from feeling the full effects of old age.

Cajole had attempted to teach his son, Josher, the ways of hamon as well, to pass it down to him like his father had done for him, but he had never really found joy in it and instead, opted to use some of its power for his many card tricks he so enjoyed.

As of now, the sun was still rising in the sky, bearing its heat down around them as they trekked through the city streets of Berlin, looking for anything that resembled the memorial.

“I’m beginning to think we should have just got a taxi there or something…” Cajole looked around for any directions. “Berlin sure is a lot bigger than I thought. Easy to get lost in.”

“Relax, dad. The memorial should be one more block down. We’re almost there.”

“Darn maps. Why’d they have to change the way they looked?” Cajole groaned into a hand. “What was wrong with maps on paper? Or even the ones flat on the phone screen. These hologram ones are a pain!”

Josher rolled his eyes. “You need to get with the times, dad. These holo-maps give you a much better idea of where you are than a paper map would.”

“Psshh, but it just leaves a whole lot of lines across the space…” Cajole drew a finger across one of the streets and the map’s screen got swiped to the side, throwing them way off course.

“Hey, dad, stop, you’re bad with all these!” Josher raised a hand and distanced himself as he used a thumb to search for their current position on the map. Cajole tried to get closer again, but from behind his fingers, Josher brought up a two of clubs card and shoved it in his father’s face. “Here, have a trick instead and ask me, ‘How did you do that?’”

Cajole took the card and flipped it around. “How did you do that? Hey, that’s good. It’s taken me years and I still can’t always do that. Your grandfather is the best at predicting what other people are going to say, though.”

“Yeah. Right.” Josher went back to map reading. “We should almost be there now.”

Following Josher’s map, the two Jojo’s walked down the roads of Berlin towards the memorial. Cajole looked up at all the lights and holographic displays and sighed.

“I don’t know about you, son, but all these fancy projectors kind of take the magic out of sightseeing. Anyone in any country can set up a hologram, but it’s covering up all the architecture.”

Josher rolled his eyes. “Alright, dad. But you have to admit it’s pretty eye-catching.”

Passing by a cafe, the pair discovered a wide open plaza with a tall, obelisk shaped monument in the middle. It had spotlights shining on it and there were some people standing around it, heads bowed. The monument was surrounded by a flower bed, and there was a pair of security guards standing on either side of the monolith.

“And we’re here,” Josher announced. “Good thing it’s not very crowded here. Everyone else must still be at work.”

“That just leaves us tourists.” Cajole pointed to a group of people standing to the left of the memorial, just under the shade of a convenience store, with one of them holding a megaphone to her mouth. “And more activists, I guess. You can’t get rid of them nowadays…”

“Take heed, the rich prey on the poor and weak and while they live in bliss behind their ivory gates and large mansions, there are people suffering from the increased hardships of this world!” she said, her voice full of passion and fervor. “This divide needs to end! The rich need to step down from their thrones and start sharing the resources of this world before it is too late!”

“They’re in every country now, huh?” Josher put his map away as he began shuffling a deck of cards with one hand. “They’re right about one thing, though. The world’s gone the way of a dreg heap.”

Cajole ran his hand through his hair. “It’s not always so simple, son. Just making the rich share their wealth won’t fix everything. It’ll take a lot more than that to make things good for everyone.”

“Well, we don’t give much. Maybe we should start. It’s not like we’re lacking in any way. I mean, we’ve got a mansion to our name.” Josher slipped a card behind his back, then made it reappear from inside his shirt.

Cajole shrugged and walked closer to the memorial. While he hadn’t personally known anyone in Berlin back when it had been destroyed, he still felt that he should honor those who had fallen during the Nugget People’s brief attack. He privately wondered whether Mhagmea, the leader of the Nugget People, was still floating out there, lost in space.

The elder Jojo stared at one particular name that was etched onto the obelisk. Gipsy Dance. The name of one of the brave souls who had teamed up with him and Summer Shine on their quest to stop the Nugget People twenty five years ago. The only one of the group to not make it out of the battle alive.

When they had first met, Gipsy had tried to kill them, thinking they were with a group of elitists called Weather Alternate, who had destroyed her hometown and killed everyone she loved. Since then, they had come to call Gipsy Dance a friend and she had given up her own life to save his wife, Prism.

Cajole Joyride felt eternally grateful to her for her act of kindness and he had decided to come all the way here not just to honor all that had perished in Berlin, but to pay his respects to her. He closed his eyes and silently conveyed his thanks to her. He wasn’t sure if Gipsy could hear him, wherever she was now, but he hoped with everything that he had that she knew just what she had done that day.

Josher’s card shuffling made him open his eyes again and he placed a hand on top of his son’s deck and shook his head. “Really? Now? Put that away, we’re honoring the dead.”

“What, come on, really? I’m not even doing anything. I’m paying attention,” Josher argued.

“It’s distracting.”

“Well, it’s not even that loud.”

“If you want to see another day on this planet, change needs to happen. Now!” the activist with the megaphone yelled.

Josher pointed to her. “See? That’s loud. This isn’t.”

“Shut up, lady!” A plump man with a bowler hat pushed through the crowd and stood before her. “We earned everything on our own strength. On our own hardship. Why should we share what we rightly earned with the likes of you? Nein, go back to where you came from!”

“That guy probably comes from old money,” Josher observed. “Also he’s dressed in a most uncool way. Only super rich people can afford not to give a crap about their clothes.”

“You mean he’s not wearing jackets covered in logos with light up strips?” Cajole snorted. “I’ve seen what you wear to school. How is that cool?”

“Everyone wears them these days,” Josher pointed out. “And besides, they help when you’re in the dark.”

They had missed the last few bouts of words between the man and the woman with the megaphone, but suddenly, the man lurched forward and planted a beefy fist into the woman’s face, knocking her to one side. There was a collective gasp from the crowd, though some of them started cheering the man on instead.

“Eat that, poor trash!” One woman pumped a fist up and down.

“Get out of our city!”

“We don’t need your kind here!”

“When did this world become so corrupt?” The megaphone woman did her best to plead with the crowd. “Humans are meant to band together in times of need! That’s what makes us different from animals!”

“The rich don’t deserve to live!” a new voice made itself known somewhere behind the crowd.

This line caught both Jojos’ attentions and they returned their gaze to the ruly crowd.

“What did you say to me, punk?” The fat man spun his large body around as parts of the crowd stepped back to watch this newcomer.

Behind the man was a skinnier man, his ears filled with piercings from top to bottom and a pink mohawk sat on top of an oval-sized head. He had on a yellow unbuttoned shirt that only went as far as his belly button and he had these sickly green shoes that look two sizes too big for him.

Without warning, the skinny man thrust his head forward, smashing it against his nose.

“Mist! What is wrong with you?” The large man recoiled back, clutching at his injury as blood seeped through his fingers.

“We’ve lived too long in the slums of the world while you rich people get fat and slow.” He waved a finger in the man’s face. “How about a time for change, huh? Make equality great again!”

“The heck is going on over there?” Josher stopped shuffling his cards to have a look.

The two security guards by the memorial approached the commotion.

“Alright, break it up, everyone. Don’t make us involve the police.”

“No. No more. We’ve lived in the shadow of the rich for too long!” The scrawny man pushed the fat man back as he bent down on one knee and raised one arm around the back of his head. “You’ve never lifted a hand to help the likes of us. No. Your chances are over. Today, the rich die!”

As one of the security guards reached for a baton at his side, the wall behind the man blew apart, showering all of them with debris. One chunk of concrete smacked into one of the guards and he went down immediately.

The explosion caught Cajole’s attention. He and Josher quickly moved away behind a protruding wall to see what would happen next in relative safety. As the dust settled, they could see something large in the hole in the wall.

It looked like a truck, but as if it had been made by a mad scientist. The wheels were placed at odd angles, and the front of the vehicle was lifted to show off a huge and powerful looking engine. On its sides were two pairs of machine gun barrels and for some reason, the windshield made it look like the truck was frowning.

“The time has come!” The skinny man hopped up on a step of the truck and opened the door. “Die Die Riches is here to reclaim the world from the rich!”

“This looks to be the work of an enemy Stand.” Cajole sighed and dusted his knees. “And I thought we wouldn’t have to bother with more Stand users for a lifetime. Looks like this is a job for us Jojos, huh, kid?”

“Why do you say enemy?” Josher asked. “He hasn’t attacked us. Can’t we just leave it? Let the police handle it.”

“What do you think the police are going to do against something like that?” Cajole gave his son a slap on the back. “Only a Stand can harm a Stand. If we leave it to the police, they’re all going to die, plus many more innocent people. We can do something about it.”

The enemy Stand user hopped into the truck’s driver seat and spun the wheel. In response, the truck began to do a donut, while its machine guns fired at the fleeing crowd, who scattered. He then drove the truck over the courtyard and out onto the road, smashing apart a bus stop while he was at it. The truck Stand began to drive down the sidewalk, causing people to dive and roll out of the way.

“And there he goes,” Josher sighed. “We’ll never catch up to him while he’s in that monster of a truck.”

“Are you sure about that?” Cajole snapped his fingers and his Stand, Tenacious D appeared at his side, steam pouring from its nostrils as it pounded a fist into the ground. Tenacious D’s lower body had two large wheels and they already began spinning on the spot, gearing for action. “Come on, hop aboard Tenacious Express, son.”

Its internal engine coughed and sputtered, but it still managed to support both Jojos. It had been a long time since Cajole had to ride on top of his Stand, but once he was on again, it felt as though he had never stopped using his Stand. After all, it had two wheels, just like a bike, something you could never forget how to use.

Tenacious D took off after the truck, which was plowing through parked cars and tossing them aside like toys. Police sirens could be heard in the distance, but Cajole didn’t think that they would be much help against this guy. Tenacious D gained on the Stand truck, closing in on its rear.

The skinny man must’ve seen them coming from a mirror, because he tucked his head out of his Stand’s window, his face not hiding his surprise. “Looks like a couple of rich folk are coming to stop me!”

“How does he know we’re rich?” Josher asked his father. “Uh, hey, dude, just stop. Then we won’t have to stop you!”

“Ha! Stop me?” He shook his head. “We’ve been preparing too many years for this! I’m not stopping. The divide between rich and poor only continues to expand and every year after the economy falls further and further away, the poor are being left in the dust! Not anymore! With the rich dead, we have a chance to make living equal for everyone once more! You’ll never stop me, Bumper Rooster! Cacaw!”

He pulled himself back into the truck as exhaust pipes on its side suddenly tilted backwards, now facing the Jojos.

“Get behind Tenacious!” Cajole pulled his son’s head down as fire burst out from the pipes, blasting Tenacious D in the face as it raised both arms to expand its surface area.

Because of his Stand’s resistance to fire, Cajole and Josher were completely unaffected as he got his Stand to speed up, getting closer to the truck.

Bumper Rooster leaned out of the truck window, annoyed to see the Jojos still alive. He pointed at them and a short tube grew out of the back of the cabin.

“His name is seriously Rooster?” Josher laughed. “No wonder he looks like a chicken.”

“Take this!” Bumper Rooster crowed, and the tube fired a rocket at Tenacious D.

Cajole thought quickly and had his Stand use its arms to jump over the blast, but Josher was so shocked at the attack that his hands slipped and he fell backwards.

“Josher!” Cajole shouted in alarm.

But Josher never hit the ground. Instead he landed on something warm and hard and metallic. Something was digging into his leg.

“What the…” Josher said as he looked around.

Josher had landed on the hood of a Marecedes sports car that had been driving behind them. The car was colored a bright red and had slightly tinted windows. Josher could see two people inside the car, though he couldn’t make out their faces.

“Uh… hi. Nothing to see here, folks.” He rubbed his head and looked back at his father and his Stand. He wondered what they could see, since they were normal people. Normal people couldn’t see most Stands, would that mean his father would be floating on thin air?

Bumper Rooster fired more rockets at Tenacious D, but the agile Stand of Cajole was able to avoid them as they blew up the road.

Josher waved to the Marecedes driver. “Hey!” he shouted. “Can you go faster? I need to catch that truck!”

The driver of the sports car didn’t react, but the red vehicle accelerated suddenly, weaving around the rocket craters with surprising nimbleness. Josher also realized now that he couldn’t hear the Marecedes’ engine. Weren’t sports cars supposed to be really noisy?

“Ach, I’ll do more than get you there.” A boy with blonde hair shaped like a plant leaned his head out the window.

“You look way too young to be driving.” Then he remembered the steering wheel was on the other side in Germany. “Wait, then who’s…”

Josher looked over to the other seat and now that he was inspecting it closer, he realized it wasn’t a human driving the car. A tan colored humanoid being decked out in a jumper stood on the driver’s seat, its hands holding the wheel. Somehow, even though its legs weren’t on the pedals below, it was still making the car go faster.

“Is that a Stand?” Josher blinked. He hadn’t expected to see another Stand user today.

“Ja! The boy shouted over the wind. “Now we will go catch your truck! Then after we can go eat weinerschnitzel!”

The boy ducked back inside the Marecedes just as it pulled up alongside Tenacious D. Cajole looked to his side and gave his son a thumbs up.

Bumper Rooster’s face could be seen in the rearview mirror. He had seen the Marecedes and his face was a mask of anger and rage. All of a sudden, the truck swerved and made a sharp spin around, now facing them. It kicked into reverse and kept going, not missing a beat, but this time, it had its four machine guns facing the Jojos and the boy.

“Die, wealthy scum!” Bumper Rooster shouted, the guns on his truck firing at them. Tenacious D and the Stand in the car zig-zagged across the road, doing their best to avoid the bullets.

“Verdammnt!” The boy said as his car weaved around the gunfire. “Hold on, mein freund!”

“Easier said than done!” Josher exclaimed, his hands holding on to the side mirror and his leg braced against the hood ornament.

Blue sparks arced out from the spaces between its hood before the car suddenly leapt into the air, sailing over Tenacious D and the truck’s bullets. Bumper Rooster’s mouth was opened in shock as it crashed down on the back of its cabin, just above its rear wheels.

“The car won’t last much longer, but while it stays together, I will use it to slow down our friend!” The boy pointed the finger of one hand up, then the finger of another hand down. “Blitzkrieg! Reverse and break!”

He got out of the car as it reversed off the back of the truck, and as soon as its rear wheels touched the road, it halted completely, dragging against the road as sparks began to fly. The truck shook and almost threw both Josher and the boy off, but they held on to the truck’s exhaust pipes tightly.

“What are you doing?” Bumper Rooster leaned out of his truck’s cabin to see what was happening. “Stop that!”

Josher was about to respond with a taunt, but then he looked past the truck and his eyes went wide.

“Kid! Turn off your car!”

“Was?” The boy said.

“Trust me!” Josher shouted, grabbing the kid and climbing up on top of the truck’s cabin, jumping off onto Tenacious D.

As the boy deactivated his Stand, the Marecedes’ wheels stopped turning and Bumper Rooster’s truck roared to life, speeding up while the driver laughed at them.

Then he returned his attention to the road and screamed as his truck collided with a fuel tanker that had been driving across perpendicular to his road.

The resulting fireball sent heat waves across the streets of Berlin, shattering nearby windows and scorching the pavement. Tenacious D spun on a single wheel, then dug its fingers into the ground as it came to a stop. All three of its passengers got off its back as they looked on at the fiery mess in front of them.

To their surprise, Bumper Rooster walked out of the flames, his pink mohawk on fire, along with most of his body.

“Fools, this is not the end of Bumper Rooster and Motorhead!” He reached his arms out. “Die Die Riches will be victorious! We will wipe the rich from the face of this earth and you’ll be next!”

He ran for them, but Josher had enough of his crazy antics. He slid one foot to the side and shuffled his cards in an arc above his head, flicking them from one hand to the other.

“Down Under!” He crouched as his Stand appeared over him. It was a humanoid hulking beast, clad in metal armor, leaving only two glowing eyes visible under them. It stomped forward, then barreled both giant fists into Bumper Rooster’s body, one after the other.

"The rich... they always plunder..." The crazy man fell on his back, one eye twitching as the fire continued to burn his body.

“Well done, son.” Cajole slapped him on the arm. “And who’s our little friend here?”

The boy was looking at the remains of the Marecedes sports car in the fire. “Ach. I really liked that one too. Oh, well.” He turned to the Jojos. “My name is Joshi Horner, the son of Dolfy Horner! My father told me stories of how you and your friends saved the world from the Nugget People, and he named me after you. Is that not wunderbar?” He grinned.

“That crazy son of a witch. He did it. He actually did it…” Cajole swiped a hand through his blue hair. “Anyway, thanks for the help, uh, Joshi... I take it Weather Alternate knows what’s going on?”

“Ja, for sure,” Joshi said. “They sent me to find you so we could explain the situation in Berlin to you.”

Josher scratched his chin. “How did you know we were in Berlin?”

“Weather Alternate knows a lot of things,” Joshi explained. “Even though we no longer fight to preserve the purest of bloodlines, we still have the resources of a secret organization. My father remembers the heroes who saved the world very fondly. Once Die Die Riches popped up, he immediately began searching for you and Sushi.”

Weather Alternate, once an evil organization that planned a worldwide genocide, was now a philanthropic organization, using their wealth and connections to build a better world. Berlin’s reconstruction had been their doing.

“Huh.” Josher paused, his mind calculating and processing everything he had just heard.

“Die Die Riches. That Rooster mentioned it.” Cajole looked at the burning body. “What is it?”

Joshi removed a piece of candy from his shorts pocket and unwrapped it. “Another activist group calling for equality, but a more extreme one. They use violence to get what they want and in the last week, we’ve found that they’ve been sending Stand masters out to achieve their goal. Today’s encounter was just another one of many to come. There have been attacks across the world, targeting the rich and wealthy.”

“Great. Another group of Stand users wanting to throw the world off course…” Cajole dropped to his knees and pummeled the ground. “Why? Why does this keep happening? My father had to deal with this, I had to do it, now I have to do it again! Augh!”

“Dad, dad. Relax. Stop it.” Josher grabbed him and tried to get him back up.

“Ja, no use crying over spilled beer.” Joshi tilted one leg to the side and covered his face with a palm. “Joshi Horner is here to assist, as is my Stand, Blitzkrieg!”

His Stand appeared beside him, copying his pose, but with its opposite hand. It was as short as Joshi, but it had baggy shorts, making it look like it had much shorter legs.

“We will find where Die Die Riches is planning its next move and we will stop them before they ruin the rest of the world’s economy. Or what’s left of it…” Joshi said. “It’s hard enough to prevent the next economic collapse as it is without these fanatikers running about and putting their noses where they’re not wanted.”

“Just when I thought I was going to enjoy the break here…” Josher groaned. “These DDR guys are gonna pay for ruining my free time.”

“You can still enjoy your day,” Joshi shrugged. “Weather Alternate will help clean up the mess that this man caused.” He gestured to Bumper Rooster. “Another one for the crematorium, it seems. Go and have yourselves a drink. German lager is the best in the world, after all! I will come find you when we’re done here.”

“Meh. I think the Russians have you beat on this one.” Cajole got up and gave his arms a shake. “But I concur. I could use a drink. Come on, Josher. To the bar it is.”

“Yeah. I want to enjoy every second before we’re thrown back into the mix.” Josher followed behind his father. This was just what he needed during his break. An adventure of his own.

Author's Note

Going with a slightly different route this time around. :trollestia:
You will find Down Under and Motorhead over at the Sushi Group!

Chapter 3: A Strange New World

As the wee hours of the morning passed along in the quiet streets of Canterlot, most people had already retired for the night, waiting for the dawning of a new day to come. But two people still walked the streets, the clatter of their footsteps echoing into the air around them. Around them were rows of houses, each one larger than the last as they went forward down the road.

One of them was dressed in a tight striped outfit of purples and pinks, and the other one had on a purple hoodie over a similarly striped shirt.

“I don’t think I will ever get used to these feet, Spike,” a tall lavender colored woman said, lifting a foot to wiggle her toes. Even though she couldn’t see them through her shoes, she could still feel them moving around, like worms in a can. They felt grotesque, but at the same time, she saw their use.

“I already walk on two feet, Twilight,” Spike shrugged. “This isn’t much different.”

“And you have these fingers too.” Twilight opened and closed one hand. “But it seems we can no longer fly here. Nor use our magic. It’s weird, but I still feel like there’s magic flowing through my body, but more… disconnected. Like it’s a separate part of my spirit, if that makes sense.”

“I feel it too.” Spike looked at his hands. “Like there’s something within me, trying to get out.”

“This is so exciting, coming to a new world. Imagine everything we’ll learn out here.” Twilight grinned and looked up at the night sky.

It had already been decades since Princesses Celestia and Luna had retired as rulers of Equestria, passing the torch on to her. Twilight Sparkle didn’t think she had it in her to replace them, but after years and years of being in charge, she found that it wasn’t all that bad. Under her rule, Equestria was prospering in a state of peace no other princess had ever achieved, but she would never forget the guidance Celestia had given her over the years, secretly grooming her all this time to eventually replace her.

According to Celestia’s journals, she had come to this world some time ago. She had discovered a disturbance within the mirror and she and Luna had gone over to investigate it, discovering this whole world on the other side of the mirror.

And now it was her turn. She had already learned a lot since walking through the mirror hours ago. For one, the sun and moon weren’t raised and lowered by magic in this world. They did it on their own. She had asked around, curious as to how it worked and from knowledge of the humans, it was all the work of spatial gravity. It was a gravity unlike anything Twilight had ever studied and if she wasn’t a believer of gravity, she would be now.

Another thing she had learnt here was that the mirror world was indeed a mirror world of sorts. Right now, she was standing in Canterlot. Its locations were the same, but everything looked different and there was no ruler here. Instead, it was a single city in a larger whole and the only leader here was a mayor, not a princess.

“And everything smells worse here…” Spike scrunched up his nose a few times. “The air isn’t as fresh and clean as back home.”

Being early in the morning now, the streets were completely devoid of people, and Twilight was starting to feel her eyelids drooping. Perhaps it was time to go back, seeing as there was nothing more she could learn if everyone was asleep.

“Maybe we should head back now. Before we lose the moonlight,” she said, remembering the rules in Celestia’s journal. Apparently, the mirror only allowed access to this world once every thirty moons for three days. “We can come back tomorrow when they’re all awake again. Perhaps we can visit the library to learn more of this world’s history. Perhaps there could be some guidance on how I could be a better ruler.”

“But Twilight, you’re already an amazing ruler,” Spike contested. “You’re the Princess of Friendship, after all. Because of you, the world is at peace.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t learn to do better. As Applejack would say, ‘Raise a barn today. Raise another tomorrow, then raise another the next day.’”

“What does that even mean?”

Twilight ran a finger down her cheek, then pointed it to the sky. “Build your best today, then keep building your best everyday. Never be satisfied with how things already are. Always find ways to improve and make the world a better place.”

“Spoken like a true princess.” Spike chuckled, then darted his eyes to one side and pointed a finger ahead. “Hey, Twi. Look, more humans.”

“What? I don’t believe it. At this hour?” Twilight followed his finger, spotting a trio of humans jogging down the road, stopping in front of a fairly large home with a faintly familiar shield sigil on the front gates. “What do you think they’re doing?”

They pressed something against the gates and were quick to flee the scene.

“Something’s wrong here.” Twilight was about to go to the gates to see just what they had done.

Before she could, there was a rush of hot air around her and she suddenly found herself on her back, her vision blurred as she looked up at the sky. There was an orange glow coming from her front and she tilted her head up to see the home’s gates had vanished, along with a majority of its front lawn. Instead, fire had taken over, snaking around trees and bushes, absorbing them into its fiery mass.

“What the hay was that?” Spike exclaimed, who had also been knocked onto his back. “Some kind of magic?” He got to his feet and helped Twilight back up, brushing her clothes down. “This is some welcome!”

Twilight turned her attention back to the inferno. “There must be people in that house! We have to help them!”

Twilight and Spike rushed over to the burning house, looking around for any way they could help. Twilight began to channel a water spell, but then she remembered this strange world’s seeming lack of magic and let out a small scream of frustration.

“The fire will soon spread through the compound, and then to the house itself, because of all the grass and vines.” Spike directed her attention to the greenery all around the house. It was designed to look like plants had grown over places of the building. A bad design for times like this. “Whoever is in there, they aren’t burning yet, but if we don’t do anything now, the fire will eventually reach them.”

Twilight looked around wildly. It seemed the people that had caused the fire were long gone, and right then, she had her decision. Jumping over the flames at the new destroyed gate, Twilight ran through the house’s walkway, darting straight for the house’s front as she brought both arms in front of her head. At the speed she was going, she crashed right through a ground to ceiling window, shattering glass all over the floor as she crashed into a dining table, knocking two chairs over.

“Ow!” Twilight flipped herself around and rubbed at her arms. They were going to be bruised for a while.

“Twilight!” Spike ran over to his friend. “Are you okay?”

Twilight shook her hair out of her face. “I think so. How about you?”

Spike grimaced. “I don’t think I’m fireproof in this world, Twilight. I can feel the heat of the flames and it’s not very comforting.”

Looking back, she noticed that the fire had already spread to the facade of the home and it was already spreading upstairs thanks to the vines along the walls.

They both heard coughing and they turned to see an elderly man walking down the steps, fanning the front of his face with a hand. He had a curly moustache and messy hair, like he had just woken up.

“Who are you? What is going on here?” he asked Twilight and Spike.

“Your home is under attack!” Twilight rushed over. “We came in as soon as we saw the fire spreading. There’s not much time, you have to get out of here!”

“The lady of the house. We have to wake her and her husband before they are consumed.” The man pointed up the stairs.

“Spike, wait here with him. I’ll get them. Call the fireponies or something!” Twilight sprinted up the steps, faster than she had moved since coming to this world. If she still had her wings, she would’ve been able to move faster still.

The house was three stories tall and each floor had at least ten rooms. Twilight had considered barging through each door to find whoever lived here, but she knew the fire would spread faster than she could check each room.

“If only I had my magic right now. I could get to each door quicker than the eye could blink!” Twilight groaned. Complaining wasn’t going to help, but she could use a venting. Perhaps she should’ve just asked the old man downstairs where everyone was sleeping.

Twilight groused about her predicament in her mind, when all of a sudden, all the doors began blowing open one by one, as though they had been struck by some unseen force. She blinked a few times, unsure of what had just happened, but she used this chance to run down the hall, peering through each room. There was not a single soul down here, meaning they would be on the next level.

Not wasting anymore time, she headed back for the staircase and raced up, finding another hallway of doors to look through. Though she willed it with all her power, the doors didn’t blow open this time, but then she heard coughing from one of the rooms and ran forward.

“Hello? Where are you! We’ve got to get you out of here!” Twilight called.

“H-Here!” a voice answered her.

Twilight had listened carefully and determined the voice to be coming from the third door on the right. Running over, she kicked it open, revealing two very surprised looking elderly humans, still dressed in their night clothes, hands over their mouths as smoke poured in through one of their windows.

“Who are you?” the elderly woman asked. She had curly hair of white and pale pink, though the pink was already starting to fade. The man with her had greying hair with some orange near the tips.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, but now’s not the time. We’ve got to get you out. Is there anyone else here?” Twilight ran to their sides and began ushering them out. It had been years since she had to do any rescuing herself, not since she had become Equestria’s ruler, but the actions were not forgotten to her.

“Just the butler, Steel Tongue,” the woman replied. “My children live abroad. I’m Sweetie Belle. This is my husband, Button Mash.”

“Nice to meet you.” Twilight pointed to the door. “The butler’s already downstairs with my friend. We’ve got to get out before your whole house goes down in flames! By now, the fire must’ve already spread halfway across your property.”

“I knew we shouldn’t have grown plants all over the house. I just knew it!” Button Mash threw his hands down.

“We’ll talk about this later. Right now, we need to focus on getting out!” Sweetie Belle replied. She stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled. “REO Speedwagon!”

A green backpack with crab legs appeared at her feet and Twilight jumped back in surprise as it took a few steps forward.

“Yeah, uh… kinda hard to explain.” Sweetie looked apologetic. “Strange, isn’t it?”

Twilight pointed at it. “What is that thing? Yeah. I thought this world didn’t have magic?”

“My world?” Sweetie looked at her husband, then back at Twilight.

Twilight watched their confusion, then shook her head and waved a hand around. “Nevermind. Let’s get out of here. Already, the fire’s spreading to your floorboards from the window!”

True to her words, fire was now zig-zagging in through the window, eating away at the wood supporting it up before spreading to a nearby bookshelf.

“There’s too much wood in the house, we’ve gotta get out of here!” Button Mash wailed.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” Twilight said as a sliver of fire licked out at her arm, scorching her sleeve. She recoiled and quickly patted it out before pushing Sweetie and Button out of the room as the fire jumped from the window to their floorboards below. “Whoever did this really wants you dead!”

“I can’t imagine anyone would want us dead.” Sweetie Belle picked up at her nightdress to run better. “The Crusaders Foundation has done so much to help the world. Anyway, hang on. I’ve got a plan to make things easier for you.”

Sweetie Belle snapped her fingers and her little walking backpack opened its flap, revealing a void within it. It was completely black and Twilight couldn’t see anything inside. Sweetie suddenly stuck one leg in it before giving her a nod.

“No way. You can fit in there?” Twilight watched in bewilderment as the elderly woman slipped into the void entirely. A hand came back out and signaled it was her husband’s turn.

“Just sling REO Speedwagon around your shoulders and you can just get out of here,” Button Mash told her before disappearing into the bag.

“Uh huh. This is definitely magic.” Twilight watched as the bag walked up to her, then bumped into her left leg. “I’ll have questions a plenty once we’re safely away from this fire.”

She picked it up and slung it over her shoulders, shuddering once as the crab legs rolled up her spine. It was weird for a bag to have legs, but then again, she’d seen more stuff that would surprise her back home.

Running down as the fire began to catch up, she found the butler and Spike by the stairs, with the butler holding some kind of device with a projected image.

“Ah, you have the lady and the master in the Stand?” Steel Tongue clapped his hands together.

Twilight squinted one eye. “A Stand? What’s that? You mean this bag?”

“Ah. I apologize. It is not normal for people to know about Stands…” He looked like he had just done something offensive. “I am sure the lady would explain it all to you in due time. I have contacted the fire brigade. They will be over to put out the fire. Hopefully most of the house will still be standing when they do.”

“Do you have somewhere to go in the meantime?” Twilight slipped the bag off her shoulders and opened its flap. “We can’t stay on the streets. Whoever attacked your home might be back.”

“I’ve got a place in mind,” Sweetie Belle’s voice echoed out from the bag. “I’ll get REO Speedwagon to direct you.”

“Then we should go. I don’t want to be anywhere near this fire.” Spike raised a hand in front of his face as a ball of flame blazed across the curtains. “Is it weird that I’m having a problem with fire?”

“No, not really.” Steel Tongue eyed him weirdly. “But we should go. Now.”

“I couldn’t agree more, sir.” Twilight nodded and led the group out, jumping through one of the full length windows, shattering it to pieces as they emerged back outdoors.

If anyone told her she would be saving people when she came over to investigate this strange world, she would’ve laughed it off and left it to the protectors of this world to deal with it, but it seemed this world was far different from Equestria. Very very different. And it seemed there was still so much to learn about it, especially about these things called ‘Stands’. She would have questions for Sweetie Belle once they were safe.

Wait a minute. Sweetie Belle…

Twilight stopped in her tracks and looked back at the burning house. That was a name she hadn’t heard in a while. Sweetie Belle was the sister of Rarity, one of her closest friends. It seems it wasn’t just the world that was mirrored, but its inhabitants too.

“There is indeed still a lot to learn about this world, Spike,” Twilight told her companion before they broke back into a run, leaving the ruins of Sweetie’s home behind.

Author's Note

And of course Twi and Spike are pulled into a bizarre adventure in their first expedition. :trollestia:
Well, no enemy Stand just yet, but stay tuned...

Chapter 4: The Dschinghis Directive

Shiho Sunfast had learned two things about her grandmother today. One, she was still nimble on her feet in her old age, keeping ahead of her, even though she was still only seventeen years old, and two, she was as clumsy as a baboon in a swimming pool.

Shiho had lost count of how many garbage cans Sunset had run into and each time, she would fall over and curse before getting herself back up to carry on, only to crash into another set further down the street.

“Son of a coven of witches!” Sunset Shimmer yelled and pushed the next garbage can aside.

Shiho sighed and followed along, keeping to the center of the road to avoid the cans. It was a mystery to her why her grandmother didn’t do that.

“No. It’s not a mystery.” Shiho shook her head. “She’s just a dense old hag.”

Ban Kai’s house finally came into view and Shiho could see that fire had already spread to the other two houses next to hers. Another explosion rang out from inside the compound and that made Shiho push herself harder, catching up to her grandmother.

“Can’t you reset the fire or something?” Shiho asked as they watched the fire jump to a pine tree in Ban’s compound.

“It’s too big.” Sunset balled a fist. “My powers aren’t what they used to be. We need to get in there and save who we can find.”

“They’re armed inside,” Shiho explained. “This is my friend Ban Kai’s house. She said there were masked people before she lost contact.”

“More unnecessary violence.” Sunset lifted her fist to the air as she placed her other hand on top of her hat. “Let’s teach them a lesson then. With… Stando Powah!”

“Why are you suddenly trying to sound Japanese?” Shiho groaned. “Good grief.”

As the two women reached the destroyed front gates, they could see people with blue masks inside, carrying rifles as a drone followed them around, scanning its surroundings.

“They’re still looking for survivors. So they mustn’t have killed everyone yet,” Sunset deduced. “There’s still a chance for them to get out alive. Let’s go. Alicorn Fantasy!”

Sunset jumped over a burning piece of debris as she summoned her golden-clad Stand. It gave its wings a mighty flap, soaring towards the gunmen as they caught wind of Sunset and Shiho at the gates.

They mustn’t have been Stand users because Alicorn Fantasy clubbed them all in the face without them even seeing it, and they all fell to the ground, bleeding from their faces as Sunset’s Stand grabbed the drone, crushing it between both hands.

“I’ve got an idea.” Shiho walked up to the ruined machine.

Her Stand, Curtain Call, lifted a cloth and draped it over the drone.

“Can’t you make it into a fire extinguisher or something?” Sunset asked, watching the cloth settle against the drone. “We can use it to put out the fires.”

“Curtain Call can only change an object into a singular entity. I could make a fire extinguisher, but it would not have the vapor inside. I had something else in mind.”

Pulling the cloth off, the drone was no longer there. Instead, there was a roll of what looked like a sack of rice or wheat, but a really big one.

“Fire blanket,” Shiho held it up and wrapped it around herself. “I can use it to get through the fire and find Ban Kai.”

“What about me? Don’t I get one?” Sunset asked, stretching a hand out with her palm facing up.

“Sorry, granny. Curtain Call only replaces an object with another.” Shiho faced the house, its garden ablaze, standing between her and her friend. “Just run through and reset yourself or something.”

“Gah. Fine.” Sunset grumbled to herself. “You know what, I’ll deal with the other masked perpetrators outside before I risk burning myself.”

Shiho rolled her eyes and clutched the blanket tightly around herself as she ran through the blazing garden. She hopped on top of flat stone steps leading to a side door on a wooden patio that was also on fire. Thankfully, most of the building was sturdy and concrete, meaning the fire would take a while to wear down the building.

Sending Curtain Call ahead of her, Shiho had her Stand through its cloth over a portion of the wall and when it was removed, the concrete had become paper, allowing her to jump right through it as she entered the house.

Almost immediately, she had been welcomed by the throw of a fist, aimed right for her throat. Shiho bent back, dropping her upper body before leaning to the left and lashing a kick up at a masked man’s head. Her foot slammed into the side of his head and he was thrown over her, back out into the burning patio where he began writhing in pain.

More masked men approached her, but Shiho had Curtain Call throw its cloth over one of them before giving him a punch straight to his jaw, knocking him back. The other two must’ve seen him fly back for no apparent reason, because they suddenly backed away, looking all over the room.

Shiho smiled. That was fine by her. Curtain Call kicked off the ground, delivering a powerful knee into one of the masked men’s gut, launching him across the room and into an ancient vase, shattering it. Swerving around, Curtain Call picked up a chair along the way, then smashed it into the next man, knocking him down and out cold.

“That takes care of these fools. Good grief, they had to pick my friend’s house to burn down…” Shiho rubbed her forehead. “But I need to find Ban Kai. I need to make sure she’s alright.”

She was about to run for the staircase leading up to the bedrooms when an explosion rocked the air in front of her. Shiho only had enough time to bring up her arms as it sent her flying back into the dining table, splitting it in two as one chair went flying out the window.

She groaned and pushed herself up, her ears still ringing. She gave one side a pat as she gritted her teeth together to stave off the pain. Eventually, her hearing resumed, and that’s when she heard the inklings of a maniacal laughter coming from somewhere ahead, followed by slow clapping sounds. A pudgy man whose face looked like it was eating his facial features walked out from behind the kitchen wall, slapping his beat meaty hands together. He had on a gray buttoned up shirt and pants, and he had a long braided ponytail going down the back of his head from the very top and he had a thin moustache curving around his mouth before dangling down his front.

“I applaud you for taking out the rest of my friends,” he said, his accent thick and phlegmy. “I did not expect to see another Stand user coming here to stop us. That was my mistake. A mistake I would not make again.”

“Yeah? Just who the hell are you supposed to be, anyway?” Shiho challenged, dusting soot and ash from her clothing. “Did the circus leave you behind, freak?”

“Leave it to rich people to insult us with meager quips.” He stuck his lips out. “I am Hu Hur Dur, with Die Die Riches. Surely you’ve heard of us!”

Shiho had indeed heard of them. “You’re with those terrorist guys who want some stupid communism world order. That seems bit complex for a clown like you, Hurrderrderr, or whatever the hell your name is.”

The man’s pale skin turned red in anger. “It’s Hu Hur Dur! And we, the less fortunate, we’ve been living in suffering, suffering more and more with each economical downfall, with the latest being the Digitalcurrency Crash. We’ve been sucked dry by the rich, but oh no, this ends now. Die Die Riches has risen up to do what no other activist group is willing to do. The annihilation of the rich! And now with the power to do so, we will destroy the divide between the rich and poor and life for all will become better once more.”

Shiho stared at the man with one eye squinted. “That,” she said. “Has to be the biggest crock of bullcrap I’ve ever heard, and I go to a public school with moron teachers. Destroy the economy? The only thing you’re destroying is your circulatory system, fatso!”

“You rich people have it so easy and still you’re not satisfied with the way you live, instead opting to take what little we have.” Hu took one step to the left, then placed one hand on his belly, before stretching one arm behind his head. It looked like it took a lot of effort to put his arm behind his head. “I’ve had to live off the streets of Mongolia, scraping what I can from the drains just to live. I could never afford education. You don’t know what it’s like!”

“Oh, so you’re actually Mongolian?” Shiho was unimpressed. “Is that your accent, or is it just the lard clogging your windpipe? Don’t you have better things to do than blow up people’s houses? Like go to the freaking gym or take a shower?”

“That’s it. I’m done talking to a child who knows nothing of the world!” Hu bent forward and clutched one arm with one hand. “My Stand is going to take care of you like it did with the family living in this house.”

“Yeah?” Shiho growled. “Unfortunately for you, I’m in a bad mood, and I don’t see anyone else here to take it out on but you, buster. So bring it on!”

Curtain Call reappeared before her, raising both arms as it opened its mouth in a silent growl. Hu, to his credit, was not fazed. Instead, he put both arms behind his back and took one more step back and did nothing.

Without wasting a beat, Shiho sent her Stand forward to punch him in his big face, but before she could land any punches on him, three smaller explosions bloomed in front of her Stand’s face. She would’ve certainly gotten her face blown off if not for Curtain Call’s fast reflexes. Shiho’s Stand dropped backwards, then did a roll before pushing up with both hands, throwing itself in the air before it landed back on its feet a meter away.

“Would you like to try again?” Hu grinned widely, still making no attempt to move.

Shiho kept her eyes on him. This was definitely the work of an enemy Stand, but as of yet, she had not seen anything. The explosions seemed to appear from thin air. But that couldn’t be it. There was something she was missing, and rushing in blindly was just going to get her blown up. She had to figure out just how this man was using his Stand.

“You’re a real piece of work, Durrhurr,” Shiho called. “But don’t think that just ‘cause you can blow things up means I won’t beat your face in.”

“Just you watch. My Stand, Dschinghis Khan will annihilate every cell in your body!” He pointed a chubby finger at Shiho.

This time, through the eyes of her Stand, Shiho saw it. If she were to blink, she would’ve missed it, but close to Hu, a small organism floated past his nose, then through the air between both of them, two tiny legs scuttling in the air as it propelled itself. That was all Shiho got to see before it flipped its abdomen towards her and an explosion followed.

“Oh shi-!” Shiho dived to her left, rolling once to avoid the blast. There was another ringing in her ears from being so close to the explosions but she shook it off. There would be time to worry about her hearing later.

The enemy Stand pointed its abdomen forward again and Shiho had Curtain Call throw a chair at it just as the first explosion went off. The wooden piece of furniture blew into bits, sending wood shards across the space. Shiho did a roll and had Curtain Call throw its cloth over another chair, turning it into a metal shield which she used to protect herself. Hu squeaked and dived behind the wall, his fat frame sending tremors through the house’s floor.

When the wood had finished impaling itself all around the living room, Shiho peeked past her shield to eye to the enemy Stand. It created its explosions through its abdomen and each time, a faint gas would first leak out from the left side of its abdomen before the air looked like it was getting sucked in from the right.

“It uses gasses in the air to create its explosions,” Shiho surmised. “But there are too many gasses in our air to narrow out which one just yet. There must be a way to find out how to stop it from producing these explosions…”

As she watched, Hu’s tiny Stand skittered closer, then pointed its abdomen at her again. But this time, Shiho knew how to interact with it quickly. Curtain Call reached a hand out, catching the enemy Stand between two fingers, with its thumb keeping the Stand’s abdomen pointed towards Hu’s direction.

“Now what do we have here?” Shiho took a closer look at it.

The Stand was insectoid in nature, with only two legs close to its head. Its feelers were long and squirmy like two worms and it had a wicked pair of mandibles that looked like tiny garden shears; they were plenty capable of cutting a finger off if it got close enough to her.

“Unhand Dschinghis Khan!” Hu swiped a hand to his right. “Unhand it or I’ll knock you off your feet!”

“No. You won’t.” Shiho’s eyes narrowed as she raised a hand under her chin. “I’ve been watching you each time your Stand has attacked. You always keep a good distance away from it and its explosions never get within three feet of you. I would assume that you’re not protected from your Stand’s powers. And I know it uses natural elements of the air to create its explosions. I admit, I do not know which ones, as the air has too many compounds, such as nitrogen and oxygen. But in the end, it matters not. I have your Stand in the grasp of my hand and if you want to detonate the air, by all means, do it. I am ready for the consequences, but are you?”

Hu looked at her, then at the abdomen of his Stand as a bead of sweat rolled down his face. His Stand was capable of combining hydrogen molecules with oxygen and with a little spark from within itself, it could merge all this into explosions. He had marveled that such a tiny Stand could create such destruction, but now Curtain Call had it in its fingers, holding it down firmly as it pointed Dschinghis Khan’s dangerous abdomen towards him.

No, he wasn’t going to let it end just like that. As he wiped a pudgy hand across his forehead, he smirked at the thought of one last trick he could pull. A trick that could turn the tables.

Get ready, girl and watch me, one of the greatest Stand masters in Die Die Riches, destroy you before you even know what happened.

Hu fell on his back, clutching at his chest as he began sputtering and muttering. “A-Ah, my heart! My heart!”

Shiho watched him with zero surprise, dropping the shield by her feet. “All that lard finally caught up to you, huh? What I’m surprised about is your size. You keep complaining that you lived on the streets, yet you look like you’ve never missed a meal in your life.”

Curtain Call lowered the hand that was holding on to Dschinghis Khan and in that moment, Hu shot his head back up, grinning madly. “You fool, you’ve made the gravest mistake thinking this was the end for me, but it was actually the end for you! With your guard down, Dschinghis Khan is going to ignite the air around you and it’ll blow your Stand to bits, and by extension, you!”

To his shock, Shiho didn’t look one bit impressed. Instead, she looked as though she had just been told pigs could float.

In the moment of his Stand fueling up the air around its abdomen, Curtain Call tucked its hand back and with its other arm, draped the cloth around the shield once again. It spun on a foot, grabbing the cloth and throwing the enemy Stand towards its master before Shiho picked up the item that was once a shield.

It was a pair of bellows, something Shiho had only seen in the history books, but she had figured out how the enemy Stand’s attack worked and seeing as Curtain Call couldn’t create working machinery, this would have to do.

“Your Stand ignites the air around it, but what if the air is blowing in a different direction?” Shiho said before giving the bellows a powerful pump.

As the air ignited around Dschinghis Khan’s abdomen, an explosion started to spring to life, following the path of oxygen, only for it follow the path the bellows had blown it to, straight towards its own master.

“W-What? No! No!” Hu raised his hands as the explosion changed paths, engulfing him in orange and yellow as the wall behind him crumbled from the blast.

When the blast faded, all that was left of the man was a darkened skeleton with bits of flesh scattered close by.

Shiho looked at her handiwork and spat in the skeleton’s general direction. “Now that is a diet I call death.”

With that done, she raced up the stairs to Ban Kai’s room, looking for her friend, but when she threw the doors open, her hand shook with shock and fury. Ban Kai lay in front of her bed, half her body burnt, her eyes glassy.

“I was too late. I was too late from the beginning…” Shiho remembered the explosion that cut their conversation on the phone.

She pounded the wall beside her as shadows slinked over her eyes.

“Shiho. Shiho!” Sunset’s voice was heard before she appeared at the door. Her sleeve was on fire and she was busy trying to pat it out. “The fire was a real pain. I couldn’t reset everything- Oh. Oh no.”

“Could you reset her, grandmother?” Shiho asked. She wanted to plead, she wanted to beg, but that was unbecoming of her. No matter how much she cared for her friend, that was not who she was anymore.

“Shiho, I’m sorry,” Sunset sighed. “Death is not something I can reset, even when Alicorn Fantasy was at its full power. There’s nothing more I can do.”

Shiho snarled and punched the wall again. “These people. Die Die Riches. They aim to kill the rich to make the world better for everyone. Or so they claim. I’m going to find them and I’m going to kill every last one of them. They’ll pay for what they’ve done to Ban Kai.”

“Shiho…” Sunset put an arm around her granddaughter’s shoulder, only to have it shrugged off. “Come on. It’s not safe here.”

Shiho said nothing, but stalked out of the collapsing building just in time to see the fire trucks arrive on the scene. Curtain Call turned the wall in the back into cardboard and she and Sunset sneaked out the back before anyone could see them.

It was here that Shiho made a vow to herself. She was going to stop at nothing until she wiped out every last member of Die Die Riches. She was going to find out where they operated out of and she was going to end them permanently.

As Shiho and Sunset ran down the streets, away from the burning house, they failed to see a female figure standing on top of the roof of a nearby temple, watching them go through a pair of binoculars.

She placed them back in her backpocket as she ran a hand along a metallic shaft at her side. It was a retractable whip, able to appear when she needed to use it.

“It seems we’ve got more Stand users out here…” she said. “I’ll follow them to see where they’re headed.”

She flicked the whip out from its retractable grip, then wrapped it around a dragon statue’s head before swinging out into the sunset after the two fleeting figures.

Author's Note

I wonder how it goes with Hu Hur Dur having to keep saying his Stand name. :trollestia:
You'll find Dschinghis Khan in the group!

Chapter 5: A Daring Endeavor

Shiho Sunfast had only stopped running when her grandmother had begged her to. She groaned and turned around to see Sunset panting and leaning against a small house, holding her hat in her other hand as she attempted to wave off the heat. Already, the sun was beginning to set beyond the mountains and the sky was turning a dark orange.

“Summer in Japan… This is no joke…” Sunset gasped for air. “Why did your mother have to move here? Why couldn’t she have moved to… I don’t know, Scotland, or something.”

“What do you expect? She married a Japanese man,” Shiho shot at her. “Now stop complaining. Is that what people do in their old age? Complain like there’s no tomorrow? Good grief… If that’s what it’s like, I don’t ever want to get old.”

Sunset grumbled. “If you weren’t my granddaughter, I would sock you in the mouth, young lady.”

“Like I’d let you, granny.” Shiho sighed, then pointed ahead. “We’re home. Not a word of this to mom.”

“Not a word of what to me, Sushi?” Summer Shine hopped down from one of the trees and grabbed her daughter by the ear.

“A-Ah, ow!” Shiho struggled, but she had fingers of steel, which refused to budge.

Summer looked from her to Sunset sternly. “What happened, mom? I expect the truth.”

“Someone blew up the house of someone Shiho knew,” Sunset sighed. “She… didn’t make it. None of her family did.”

“That lardface was a Stand user,” Shiho supplied. “But he won’t be going home. He won’t be going anywhere except the mortuary.”

Oh, Shiho, I’m sorry.” Summer attempted to console her daughter, but Shiho just brushed past her and went into the house. “Are you okay, mom?”

“Had a few burns.” Sunset showed her a charred sleeve. “I reset most of it, but I’m really rusty. It’s been too many years since I’ve had to use Alicorn Fantasy this extensively. It’s amazing how much you forget when you’re not saving the world.”

“Tell me about it…” Summer stretched her arms back. Her hair had been tied back into a loose ponytail, but it still resembled what her mother’s hair used to look like once. “I haven’t had a use for Pegasus Forever’s kinetic energy thing for a decade. Makes me wonder if I still know how to do it. Come on. Dinner’s getting cold. We should eat.”

Sunset Shimmer had forgotten all about dinner and the reminder of it made her stomach churn and rumble. “Yes, that would be very nice. Especially since I had been preparing myself for your spice since getting here.”

Sunset followed her daughter in, finding that the dining table had already been prepared. Everything had been placed atop table mats dotted with tiny suns, with the main attraction of Summer’s spice soup sitting in the center of the table in a large black pot. The smell was even more powerful than before and Sunset imagined herself floating over to it as she sniffed at its smoky tendrils.

“Go wash your hands, mom,” Summer smiled. “I’ll ladle out the soup.”

Sunset did as she was told before sitting down at the table. Bushido and Summer sat across from her and next to Sunset was an empty seat.

“Shiho’s not eating?” Sunset asked as a bowl was placed in front of her. The soup’s aroma wafted up into her nostrils and it made her smile.

Summer sighed. “I told you, mom. She doesn’t join us for meals anymore.”

Sunset shook a fist and bent lower. “That girl. She’s forgotten all that she’s had from young! She has a family that cares about her.”

“I won’t push her today. Neither should you.” Summer tapped her mother’s head with the ladle. “She just lost a friend today. She might not show it nowadays, but she’s still sensitive, you know?”

“Gah. Fine…” Sunset leaned back and folded her arms. “I’ll just take a bowl up for her when I’m done. It’ll be nice to have some food after an evening of fighting.”

The three of them ate their dinner in relative silence, with most of the sounds being the clinking of chopsticks and spoons on bowls.

“Thanks for cooking for us, honey,” Bushido said as they ate. “I’ll do the washing up so you two can catch up.”

“Yes. I want to hear all about everyone back home too,” Summer smiled as she sipped from her spoon. “I also want to hear about dad’s big break. He’s there right now, isn’t he? At the royal family’s palace in England?”

“I wouldn’t call it a big break.” Sunset hungrily scooped up at her soup. The taste was invigorating. “He’s already seventy four. Same as me. Not much time left for him to suddenly get super famous.”

“At least he gets to take photos of the queen!” Summer waved a hand in the air. “I mean, how many people still get to do that today with a queen that’s been alive for hundreds of years!”

“That still mystifies me,” Bushido said. “Here in Japan at least our emperors have the decency to die at a normal age.”

“Maybe it’s a Stand power,” Summer suggested. “She could be the strongest Stand user in the world!”

“Well, it’s a good thing she’s not plotting any global domination, then.” Sunset gulped down a mouthful of soup. “At least, not that we know of. Hopefully she isn’t. As for everyone back home, hmm… I guess you’ll want to hear about Prism first?”

“Nah, she’s my best friend, remember mom?” Summer laughed. “I hear from her all the time. I want to know more about… say… how’s Fuchsia doing? I haven’t been in contact with her for a while now.”

“She’s doing alright. As nihilistic as ever, but she owns her own cake shop now. Though… all she makes are chocolate cakes. Really dark chocolate cakes.”

Fuchsia Blush was Pinkie Pie’s eldest daughter. She had gone with Summer and the gang on their last adventure to stop the Nugget People from destroying the world. She had a complicated internal struggle, and only Summer and her friends knew the real Fuchsia.

“Hey, can’t fault her for doing what she loves.” Summer shrugged and smiled. “How’s Sweetie Belle? I’ve seen her Crusaders Foundation on the news. They’re doing a lot for the world, even if the growing activists don’t think so.”

“Last I heard, she was still living in Canterlot with Button Mash,” Summer said, picking up a piece of pickled radish with her chopsticks. “It’s quite remarkable that she continues to work for the Crusaders Foundation at her age. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo have already taken back seats to this, but she’s still spearheading work outside, hoping to make the world better for everyone in the coming years.”

“That’s right.” Sunset nodded and toyed with the spoon in her bowl. “Sweetie Belle has a heart of gold for the unprivileged. Even though the activists pine against her, she continues to do what she has to to make the world a better place for us all. You know, I don’t even know what they’re going on about her. I think they just want to see some immediate change. Some of them have called for her to give away everything she has, but if she does that, how is she going to continue helping the world? That just doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Just handing out money isn’t going to help in the long run,” Bushido pointed out. “It’ll just encourage people to be lazy and expect free bread. Better that they learn how to work, with some extra capital to start them off.”

“Exactly.” Sunset pointed at him and snapped her fingers. “Crazy activists. But that leads us to a new problem, one Shiho and I had just dealt with. There’s this group called Die Die Riches. They’re a little more extreme and they want to kill all the rich people in the world so that they can remove the divide between the rich and poor and stabilize the economy.”

“That,” Bushido scoffed. “Makes no sense. Money doesn’t just disappear when the owner dies. It goes to someone else. Sometimes the government, but they won’t make a society where everyone is equal just by killing rich people.”

“Not if they kill the world leaders too. After all, they’re all rich.”

Summer exhaled and got up. “Are you alright, mom? They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

Sunset smirked and flexed an arm. “They couldn’t do a thing against me. My outfit just got a little burned when I ran through the fire to help Shiho. Not that she needed any help, though. She took out an enemy Stand master all on her own, the little devil.”

“An enemy Stand user so close to home,” Summer shook her head in disbelief. “What is the world coming to?”

“It’s coming to an end, that’s what.” Bushido picked up the now empty pot and carried it to the sink. “I don’t know how much longer the world will last at this rate. We’re using up all our resources, inflation is on the rise, it’s just more expensive to be alive these days.”

“Perhaps the Nugget People were right. Maybe humans are really heading towards an end of their own making.” Summer looked at one of her hands.

“No, don’t look at it like that. Look at all the technological advancement the world has gone through.” Sunset took out her phone and scrolled through its projected screen. “Look at this thing. You know when I first came to this world from Equestria, they still only had the earlier models of smartphones. Shiho only knows what a lightphone is since she was born.”

“Times change, mom. I mean, none of us used sundials anymore. It’s the same thing.”

“I suppose…” Sunset tapped a finger on the table as she drank down the last of her soup. “Hopefully they get better.”

“Don’t we all hope for that?” Summer sagged her shoulders. “We fought so hard to protect the world. The least it could do is make things better for everyone.”

“Won’t that be something…” Sunset looked at her reflection in her glass of tea.

She had come to this world all those years ago to escape her torment back in Equestria, and she had stayed, enjoying the way this world worked and the conveniences of a human body. With the world like that now, she wondered if she should just take her family and return home one day. Perhaps Equestria was doing better than they were.

What is going on back there, I wonder…
—----------JO-JO—---------
Shiho Sunfast lay on her back amongst dead leaves and dirt as she looked up at the darkening sky. She had climbed out her window and onto the second floor roof about half an hour ago to just think about life and how fleeting it could be. One moment, you could be having fun with your friends and the next, you could be fighting for your life and for the life of your friend, only to fail.

“Mom should’ve just let the Nugget People destroy the planet,” Shiho said for herself to hear.

There was just so much wrong with the world right now and now her friend Ban Kai was dead. If Die Die Riches was after the rich, then at least she wouldn’t have to worry about Kami Kaze, but she had to make sure that Spinner was alright. Spinner Udon lived with his mother and grandmother over at Chirirodo Street, two down from herself and with Kantarijji being the small town that it was, she could easily go over and make sure he was alright, but with technology such as phones, she could just call and make sure he was still alive.

Shiho removed her mobile device and tabbed over to her call screen. She was scrolling through names on her contacts page when something caught her attention. Everything around her had been quiet as the sun continued to set, but there was something above her. It had been faint, but it sounded to her like the heel of a shoe on ceramic.

She stashed her phone and got up, looking at the top of her home. An incline led up to a higher spot of the roof and standing there with perfect balance was a female figure, shrouded in a gray cloak and hood, her arms folded across her chest. Under her cloak, Shiho could make out a pair of greenish safari shorts, dark colored socks and thick orangey boots that looked like they could stomp right through a swamp.

“Who are you?” Shiho asked as she kept both arms at her sides, ready for anything. “What are you doing on my house?”

“I’ve been watching you. You and the old lady since the attack on that mansion earlier… I must say, I’m impressed that you would risk your life for that of a friend, even when you knew saving her wasn’t guaranteed.”

“You watch your mouth. This is my home.” Shiho pointed a finger at the mysterious woman. “I suggest you beat it or feel my fist against your nose.”

“Why so angsty, girl?” She let out a small laugh. “You’ve got a lot of anger built up for nothing.”

“Well, you’re asking for it now.” Shiho lowered her hand and balled both fists.

Without betraying anything, Shiho sent Curtain Call up to attack the woman. It drew an arm back, but before it could punch, the woman was in the air, leaping over the Stand and doing a somersault as she landed next to Shiho, moving a gloved hand out to give her a peace sign.

“Why you!” Shiho threw a punch herself, missing the first one as the woman weaved to the left.

She threw another, then another, and when she found her punches were ineffective, she spun a low kick out at the same time as another punch, catching the woman around the back of the knee, knocking her down.

“I don’t need my Stand to beat you!” Shiho said as she threw another punch, knocking the woman’s hood off, revealing a head of black and gray hair.

“Why so angsty, girl?” She let out a small laugh. “You’ve got a lot of anger built up for nothing.”

“Well, you’re asking for it now.” Shiho lowered her hand and balled both fists.

Without betraying anything, Shiho sent Curtain Call up to attack the woman. It drew an arm back, but before it could punch, the woman was in the air, flicking out a long stick in one hand from a belt at her side. Raising it, it shot out a long whip and she used it to latch around a statue of a sun on top of Shiho’s roof, swinging herself out of reach of Curtain Call before landing on the other end of the roof, facing Shiho as she made a peace sign with a hand.

“Why you!” Shiho ran towards her as she primed one arm to give her a good beating.

The woman lashed her whip out, catching Shiho around the arm as she yanked to one side, throwing her off balance and dropping her on her right shoulder.

“Not a bad move, isn’t it?” The woman gave her whip a flick before spinning her stopwatch by its strap around her arm until it was in her palm. “This reminds me of a time my great-grandmother whipped a stolen aztec idol out of the hand of a thief at the London Museum. He had been twenty feet away and the chances of her grabbing it without damaging it was about one to a hundred, yet, she still did it. And now I’ve just done it to you, albeit a little less epically.”

What is that stopwatch? Did she always have that out? Shiho looked at her opponent, then pushed herself up.

That whip would make it hard to get close to her, but Stands weren’t affected by normal things. She could send Curtain Call to get her again. And earlier, she had dodged Curtain Call’s attack. That would only mean that she must be a Stand user too. Shiho had yet to see her Stand, but if she was this formidable without one already, she had to be careful and keep her eyes peeled.

“Curtain Call, get her!” Shiho pointed a finger at her opponent, watching as her Stand fled her body and rushed for the stranger.

The woman gave her whip another flick and sent its end straight for Shiho’s face, but she moved Curtain Call in the way, and it grabbed it with both hands, giving it a hard pull, yanking the woman off her feet and towards them. She crashed into the ground in front of them with a low grunt, rubbing at her cheek as she looked up at the girl.

“You’ve done it now. Prepared to be knocked square.” Shiho drew a line across her neck as Curtain Call raised a foot over the woman’s head.

“Why you!” Shiho ran towards her as she primed one arm to give her a good beating.

The woman lashed her whip out, catching Shiho around the arm as she yanked to one side, throwing her off balance and dropping her on her right shoulder.

What is that stopwatch? Did she always have that… wait a minute. Shiho blinked. It felt as though she had thought this before. Very recently.

“What’s the matter? Is that it? Are you done, girl?” The woman retracted her whip, but continued to hold it in her hand.

Shiho wiped the corner of her mouth, then got back on her feet. Something was wrong here. She didn’t know what it was exactly, but she felt it in her bones. Something was going on and she was out of the loop about it. She eyed the woman’s stopwatch suspiciously, wondering why she was holding on to it if she was trying to fight her.

“Noticed this, have you?” The woman caught her looking and held it up as the last of the sun’s rays died beyond the mountain range, turning the sky a dark blue hue. “Yes, you must’ve guessed it by now. Yes, this is my Stand, but I prefer to think of it as my lucky charm. Even the best adventurers make mistakes, but thanks to Yesterday, I don’t have to live with them.”

Shiho was careful to not rush into combat again just yet. She had to find out what was making her warning signals go out of the roof.

Even the best adventurers make mistakes, but thanks to Yesterday, I don’t have to live with them… Shiho repeated in her head. The clue was right there in front of her the whole time. That strange sense of deja vu earlier, the stopwatch Stand, and now her words from her own mouth.

Somehow, the enemy was rewinding time.

“I don’t have time to deal with you now, so I’m going to make this quick.” Shiho crossed one arm across her chest and placed the other arm’s fingers against her forehead. “I know your secret now and you’re not going to rewind time again.”

“Clever. Very clever. But what makes you think so?” The woman waggled her stopwatch next to her head. “You won’t even know if I did it.”

“That’s because I’ve figured out how to beat you.”

This time, she sent Curtain Call out, its cloth already in its hands. The woman got her stance ready and as the cloth passed by her, she jumped to one side, flicking her whip out as it extended towards Shiho. From the side, Curtain Call threw the cloth aside, revealing a small pinkish glob between its fingers.

Distracted by the Stand’s object, she failed to see Shiho step to the side, avoiding her whip as she stepped down on it, lodging it in place. The woman pulled, but Shiho held it down firmly as Curtain Call grabbed the stopwatch with one hand.

“Oh no you don’t!” The woman clicked down on the stop button.

They stood there for a few seconds, no one moving an inch. That was when she realized time hadn’t reversed and clicked it again. Still nothing.

“W-What?” Only now she looked down at her Stand, realizing the pink glob Curtain Call had in its fingers earlier was now smeared all over the button, wedged between the gaps, keeping the button from depressing. “What have you done?”

“You see, I knew you had to press a button to rewind time and it definitely had to be the stop button. My Stand has sharp eyes and it was able to see all the buttons on your Stand easily.” Shiho twisted her body sideways as she placed one hand against her hip. “After I determined the button, I had Curtain Call transform one of the many leaves on the roof into chewing gum. It can only change an object to an object of similar size, but I didn’t need that much to get your button stuck. It’ll take you some time to unstuck it, but I only need five seconds to beat you into oblivion.”

The woman gave her a look of approval before swinging the stopwatch down from her hand, raising both into the air as she smiled. “Looks like you got me. That’s the battle concluded then. It seems you’re quite formidable. That’s how you were able to take down Die Die Riches.”

Shiho raised an eyebrow. “You’re not with Die Die Riches?”

“What, me? Pshhh, no way.” She waved a hand. “I’m an adventurer. I’ve been tracking their movements for weeks. You can call me Daring Do.”

“Daring Do?” Shiho didn’t read english books often, but even she knew the name of the famous explorer. “Daring Do’s as old as my granny. You can’t be her.”

“Why not?” Daring Do asked, coiling up her whip and twirling it around her arm. “The Daring Do character is a timeless figure of fiction and adventure! It doesn’t matter how old she is. As long as there’s someone willing to be Daring Do, she may as well be immortal!”

“So you’re not the real Daring Do?”

“What? Of course I’m the real Daring Do!” Daring Do said, looking astounded as she threw her cloak aside. She had on an outfit that would match with a jungle raider. She even had a beige vest with dozens of pouches. “I’m just the newest person to take on the name. I told you, as long as there’s somebody willing to do it, Daring Do will live forever.”

“Uh, right. So why’d you come picking a fight, then?” Shiho folded her arms and called back her Stand. “I would’ve decked you hard if you didn’t say anything.”

“I just wanted to see how good you were. Taking down that Die Die Riches Stand user was no easy task, but I wanted to see if you’d be fit for the rest of the journey ahead.” Daring Do clipped her whip to her belt. “Of course, your family lineage saved me some trouble. You come from a line of strong Stand users, after all.”

Shiho was a little surprised that this Daring Do already knew who she was, but she wasn’t in the mood to give one to her. “So you’ve been following them. You must know what they’re up to next and what they plan to do.”

“Meh, I’m pretty sure everyone knows their plans by now. They’ll be all over the news after today.” Daring Do panned a hand above her head from her left to right. “Die Die Riches, an extremist activist group has taken to eliminating the rich all over the world and to take the world into their own hands. Who will stop these dastardly villains? Well, that’ll be me, of course, the latest Daring Do in a long line of Daring Dos’.”

“Good grief, where do these characters keep coming from…” Shiho brushed her fringe to one side. “But… your Stand is quite useful. It might be good to have you around, at least for now.”

Daring Do’s grin widened and she snapped her fingers. “See? I knew you’d see reason. Daring Do, reporting for duty, Shiho Sunfast. Or is it Sunfast Shiho? I never get which name is the first name in Japanese culture.”

Shiho just shook her head and climbed back down to her window. Explaining this to her grandma was going to be a chore.

Chapter 6: The Turtles Trap

“Now that’s what I call a drink!” Cajole Joyride slammed his empty glass back on the counter and hiccuped. “It’s been some time since I’ve had this much.”

“Yeah, you really need to watch it.” Josher himself only had a single glass to drink, wanting to be on his toes in case Die Die Riches were to do something again. “You can’t save the world if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Hey, we didn’t really know what we were doing when we challenged the Nugget People.” Cajole hiccuped again.

“Alright, how many cards am I holding up?” Josher whisked two cards between his fingers.

“Uhh, hmm, eight.” Cajole tapped his son on the forehead.

“Yeah, you definitely have had too much.” He slid his hands back towards his chest and the cards vanished. “Great. Just what we need. Now I’ve got to carry your weight too.”

Just as a cuckoo clock went off just above the bartender’s head, the main entrance slid open as Joshi Horner walked in, hands in his pockets. Josher was still getting used to his name. It was very much similar to his and it was a little weird that he had been named after both his dad and Shiho’s mother.

“Ah, Josher, Cajole. There you are.” Joshi waltzed over and hopped up onto a stool beside them. “I see one of you had too much to drink.”

“Nah, me?” Cajole chuckled. “I had like, a bottle.”

“More like two bottles,” Josher added. “So, uh, Joshi. I take it you have a plan to track these DDR folk?”

“Ah, that’s what I’m here to discuss.” He ordered a glass of lime juice from the bartender. The bald, skinny man nodded and grabbed a glass from the shelf before grabbing a transparent juice dispenser from the counter. He held it up with two fingers and bent his arm at a strange angle as he poured the juice. “So Weather Alternate is still tracking their base of operations, but it’s definitely somewhere in Europe. We’ve found traces of them transporting cargo along the highways instead of the docks or the airports.”

“That’s good. We can’t let them just kill people like that, rich or no.” Josher shoved his glass aside. “No one should ever take the lives of others into their own hands, even if it means making the world better. You can’t kill a bunch of people for the good of many.”

“Well spoken, Josher.” Joshi accepted the glass of juice from the bartender as he slid it over. “Now, I’m taking you over to our head office, but my father is quite busy now with the aftermath of these Die Die Riches attacks, so he won’t have time to host you, the Berliner Helden, as he calls you. Heroes of Berlin.”

“I wasn’t even there then,” Josher said.

“Well, you get the point.”

“Right. Well, we should at least start by getting out of the bar.” Josher pushed his stool back and got off. “I don’t want my dad ordering another drink.”

“Hey, I can use another drink. It tastes so good. Mmm!” Cajole licked his lips, then suddenly, barfed everything back out. The bartender jumped back in surprise as bile dripped down his counter.

“No, you don’t. Come on, Joshi.” Josher grabbed his father’s wallet from his back pocket and dropped a thousand euro note on the counter. “Sorry, that’s for the drinks and the clean up.”

As Joshi and Josher dragged Cajole away, the bartender watched them go as he grabbed the cloth from his shoulders.

“Rich people… They always think they can do what they want…”
—------JO-JO—-----
Past a few blocks, Cajole had begun to feel a little better and he started walking on his own two feet again. Josher and Joshi let go of him and he started stretching his arms.

“Man, I could use another drink,” Cajole said.

“Nope. Nope. You don’t, dad.” Josher shot him a glare. “You threw up all over the bartender. I gave him a little extra for that. I think I should’ve given him more, now that I think about it.”

“Relax. Your father isn’t the first person to puke in a bar,” Joshi snickered. “But jokes aside, we should head for the train station. From there, we’ll stop at Weather Alternate’s head office to plot where we go next.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Josher nodded. It would be nice to get on some public transport instead of walking everywhere.

The walk to the train station was no more than fourteen minutes. The bar they had been on was at a fairly popular and populated street, and to place a station nearby was a good idea on the town planner’s part. That meant that all the shops along this street would be thriving.

Josher’s father still looked a little woozy and he wasn’t sure how he would handle stairs. Instead, they opted to take the elevator down, queueing up behind all the older folk wanting to do the same. The path curved off from the escalators heading down, leading to a small corridor where a single set of elevator doors stood. It was a boring hallway too, with no ads or posters for them to look at to pass the time.

“Gee, there’s a lot of old people in Berlin,” Josher analyzed. “They must’ve all been survivors of the battle.”

“You’d be surprised.” Joshi twiddled with his phone in his hands. “A lot of people managed to get out, those living at the edges of Berlin, before the wall came up. And this place is all they knew. Once it was up and ready for people again, they came straight back.”

“Well, it’s good they came back. Otherwise, Weather Alternate would’ve built the whole city back up for nothing.” Cajole rubbed at his face and groaned. “This is going to be a while…”

“I told you not to drink so much.” Josher gave his father a pat on the arm. “But not bad. For an old man.”

“You clearly haven’t seen how much your grandfather can drink.” Cajole let out a small laugh as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Anyway, how far is this headquarters of yours, Joshi?”

“It’s situated in Leipzig, near Mount Fegel, which I’m sure you remember,” the boy replied. “The train will take no more than twenty minutes.”

“Ah. Yes, that brings me back…” Cajole shook his head. “To times I don’t wish to go through again. Blast it with this Die Die Riches stuff!”

“If we find the head of the snake, we can cut it off sooner, maybe stopping their future plans,” Joshi said. “If we’re lucky, we’ll get them before they can cause more world panic.”

“Uh huh. With our odds, that’s unlikely…” Cajole sighed and pressed the elevator button as the last person in front of them went down. “The chances of us being attacked, I’d say, is quite high, since we’re aiming to stop them now.”

“What, really?” Josher made a weird face. “They’ll come after us?”

“It’s a possibility. But I don’t think they will.” Joshi lifted a finger. “They want to kill all the rich people in the world. From what we know, they don’t have much resources because they’re against the rich. I don’t think they’ll devote people to specifically hunt you down.”

“I guess you’re right about that.” Cajole shrugged and was the first to walk into the elevator as it opened up.

The elevator they were in was a fairly small one, with four metal sheets as walls. They were sleek white and glossy, letting Josher see a dark reflection of his general shape, but not his detailed facial features. Four lights were positioned in the four corners of the box, giving it decent lighting, but that was it. It was as boring as the corridor they had been waiting in.

There were only four buttons on it, one being this level, the other being the level below, and the open and close buttons.

“Simple enough,” Josher said as he pressed the button for the floor below as the doors slid close with a hiss of air as it sealed them in.

The elevator began to descend and everything fell silent around them. They even stopped talking and Josher was sure he could hear his own heartbeat. The descent was painfully slow, maybe because he was aware of everything that was going on around them without any distractions. It was funny how time seemed to slow down when you were watching it, especially when you wore a watch. People spend so much time looking at the time. But what happens when you run out of time?

Almost as if it was on cue, the metal box they were in shuddered and jumped up a step before halting completely.

“Is… this normal in Germany?” Cajole took attention to this and looked around.

“Nein.” Joshi began pushing buttons randomly. “The elevators don’t even break down anymore with our advanced German technology. That’s why we don’t have an alarm button anymore. Something is wrong.”

“Great. Just what we needed.” Cajole threw his hands up. “We’ve lived all this way just to die in a small metal box.”

“No one’s dying. You forget I have my Stand, Blitzkrieg.” Joshi snapped his fingers on both hands as his Stand appeared beside him, its arms folded. “Blitzkrieg can take over any electrical machine and even make it perform better. German engineering, eh?”

His Stand reached an arm out to the console, but as the lights began to blink on it, there was a groaning from above and the entire elevator suddenly gave way, dropping faster than a speeding car.

“W-What is going on? Joshi, whatever you plan on doing, do it now!” Josher’s feet began to leave the ground and a pack of cards lifted out of his shirt pocket.

“Blitzkrieg, override!” Joshi yelled as the lights above them began to flicker on and off.

The elevator’s mechanisms suddenly kicked in and Josher was caught by surprise, falling back down on his face. Cajole and Joshi dropped on their feet and the elevator wobbled another inch before stopping completely.

“Everyone alright?” Cajole placed a hand against his belly. “I think I might throw up again.”

“No, not in here, dad!” Josher rubbed at his cheek and quickly moved away from his father’s front.

“Kehehe, you foolish rich people. As if Die Die Riches wouldn’t come after you!” a voice echoed around them, coming from somewhere in the elevator.

“Where is he?” Joshi looked around, but the elevator was small and there was no way anyone else could be hiding in here with them.

“I don’t know how you’re keeping this elevator up, but it won’t be for long. That I can assure you!” the voice said. “You think you can just go anywhere and do whatever you want just because you have a lot of money.”

“Where are you, punk? Show yourself!” Cajole beat a fist around the walls.

And then the elevator shuddered again and a metallic groaning could be heard from somewhere above them.

“Wait a minute…” Cajole looked up at the ceiling. “Make some room.”

As he shoved Joshi and Josher to one side, he conjured up Tenacious D, which barely had enough room to stand in as it punched a hole through the ceiling. As the ceiling gave way, its fist hit something metallic and bounced back, knocking itself in the face.

It vanished as Cajole fell against the wall, clutching a bloody nose. “What the…?”

Above them, they could make out a greenish-shape with hexagonal patterns. Then it moved away, revealing the face of a smiling bald man staring back down at them. But it wasn’t just some random bald guy.

“It’s that bartender. From earlier!” Josher pointed a finger at him.

“Kehehe! You recognized me!” His grin widened. “That’s right. I followed you here after you vomited all over my bar! I knew you were rich, seeing how much alcohol you ordered and how you just throw your money around. I decided that you deserve to die and I couldn’t have been more pleased when you walked right into this metal death trap!”

He revealed a pair of pliers in one hand.

“He’s trying to cut the cables!” Joshi surmised. “My Stand can control machinery, but I can’t do anything about that.”

“That’s right. Kehehehe, prepare to die!”

“I’ll get you!” Cajole tried to grab him by the face, but the metal plating moved back in front of his face and his fist rebounded off its surface, smacking himself in the nose again. “Augh!”

“There’s nothing you can do against my Stand!” The man laughed. “Today, remember, it is I, Jared Round, the best bartender in all of Berlin, and his Stand, the Turtles, who ends your rich lives.”

Joshi waved a hand and Blitzkrieg folded back the rest of the ceiling, revealing a second identical shell on top of the man. Both of them folded around him, resembling that of a turtle.

“We’ll just have to crush you at the top, then!” Joshi said and had his Stand power up the elevator to send it back up.

But it could only travel about five inches when the Turtles twisted its position, lodging themselves against the sides, stopping the elevator completely.

“Sorry. But my Stand is invulnerable to all things, kehehe,” Jared Round explained. “Even your Stand will not force this elevator past mine. You’ll just have to wait there until I cut the lines. Then plunge to your richly doom! Kehehe!”

“Joshi, keep pushing the elevator!” Josher yelled. He looked around the metal box they were in and grumbled. His Stand was larger than the space here and that meant there was no way he could use it unless they thought of something fast. He also thought of sending it up above the Turtles and Jared, but there was no way he could get past their invulnerability, even with Down Under’s brute strength.

“Ach. I’m trying, but he won’t budge!” He looked at his Stand that still had a hand on the elevator console. “And if I push it too hard, it’ll damage the machinery faster and we might find ourselves falling the rest of the way down.”

“Maybe we can get up past him.”

Cajole jumped and grabbed the hole in the ceiling, then reached one hand between the shell and tried to pry it out of place as Joshi worked the elevator. His muscles bulged as he pushed with all his strength, but Jared’s Stand was lodged tightly into the wall, scraping against it as the elevator and Cajole fought to move it.

“Kehehehe, your lives are over!” Jared peeked his face out of his Stand again. “You’re not stopping me and soon I’ll be through the wires and you’ll all be pancakes at the bottom of this shaft!”

Cajole shifted his hand to try and punch him, but he ducked back behind his shells of a Stand again and he hit his knuckles against it, only to have it rebound and hit himself again.

Josher got out of the way as his father landed where he had been standing, then looked around, trying to find something, anything that could give them an edge in this predicament.

The impact must’ve snapped one of the cables, because the entire box shifted and shuddered, now tilted down to one side. Jared Round began laughing again above them as he sheared away at another wire with his pliers.

“You’re going to die down here, kehehehe! Jetzt geht's los, jetzt geht’s los!”

“Okay. So we shouldn’t go for a frontal attack again.” Cajole rubbed at his bloodied and bruised face. “Another impact could send us down faster than planned.”

Josher continued to look past the shells of the Turtles. Above them, there was nothing much but an emergency ladder, water pipes, valves and the remaining machinery of the elevator keeping them up. Jared was already through two of the wires and if he even managed to get the last one, their combined weight would surely pull the elevator off its last wire and they’d all find themselves crushed at the bottom of the shaft in less than thirty seconds.

And then he saw it. An opportunity. He didn’t know how well it would work, if it would work in time or if it would even work, but right now, they didn’t have much more to go on.
He was going to have to take a gamble here, but at least he was no stranger to gambling.

Being a master of cards since the young age of eleven, Josher had always been quite the swindler, even back in elementary school. Once, he had bet a bully that he could guess the card he was holding as he stood five feet away. The bully was arrogant beyond reason, so he accepted the challenge.

In actuality, there had been no way for Josher to tell which card he had picked, even if the back had been marked, because the bully stood far enough for the details to blur away. But little did he know, Josher had already planned this before he stepped into the cafeteria. By placing a mirror on the opposite table, once he got the bully to stand in the right spot, he could guess the card immediately. He hadn’t just won four dollars that day, he had also shamed the bully in front of everyone and he would remember that moment for the rest of his life. That had been the first time he stood up against people who tried to force their will on others and today, it was no different.

Reaching an arm out, Josher concentrated and brought his Stand up above the Turtles. Looking through the eyes of Down Under, Josher targeted the pipes along the sides, smashing them with an anchor Down Under carried. They immediately burst, spraying it and the Turtles with jets of water, which began to drip down the shaft.

“Du narr, what are you doing?” Jared poked a head out to watch the water sprinkle around his face. “You can’t smash the Turtles, I am invincible in here!”

“Oh, I’m sure you are, Mr Round.” Josher smiled. He could see water droplets entering the Turtles and it was then that he knew he was going to win. “But I wasn’t aiming for you, if you didn’t know.”

“What? You mean you smashed those pipes for nothing?” They could hear his guffaw from within the Turtles. “Face it, your end will come.”

“No. It is yours. You see, my Stand isn’t just a force of nature.” Josher made Down Under place a hand against its face as it stood next to the Turtles, towering over it. “When it touches water, Down Under gains even more power and speed and that means that it might be able to get your Stand out of the way!”

Reaching around the sides, Down Under bent low and once its fingers were placed nicely against the bottom shell, it began to pull with all its might. As water splashed against it, orange glows began to pour out from its joints and with a mighty roar, it ripped the Turtles from its spot against the walls, freeing the elevator. But they weren’t done yet.

As Joshi stopped the elevator with Blitzkrieg, Down Under began smashing the Turtles and Jared against the pipes, bursting more of them.

“Your Stand might have got me out of the way, but as long as I stay in here, you cannot harm me!” Jared said, still trying his best to tell them they had no hope. “The Turtles are invulnerable to all attacks and the stronger you are, the more its reflected off its shells! You can’t stop me, you rich buffoon!”

“I can’t break through your invincible Stand, yes.” Josher lifted the corner of his mouth as he removed the cards from his deck. He spread his arms apart and launched the cards from one hand to the other. “But if you’ve noticed, water can get in.”

Jared Round’s eyes widened with realization as Down Under slammed him and his Stand into the stream of water from the pipes. Water began pouring into his shells, and it was then that Jared found that the shape of his shells made it bad for him to be in water. It could just collect it and when enough water was collected…

“Nein, I have to find a way out!” Jared pondered his options as water began to rapidly fill his Stand’s hollow space. “If I don’t do something, I’ll soon drown. But if I lower my Stand to try and get away, then these rich people could possibly kill me! Either way, I don’t see how I can get out of this alive!”

He screeched with fright as Down Under peeked its head through the hole between his two shells, but as long as he was between his Stand, it couldn’t kill him. Now he had to decide: was drowning a less painful death than being crushed by a Stand?

Nein, I can find a way out of this. I will make it out once I get out of my Stand! I’m not dying here, not to the likes of these people who think money can just be thrown about!

As the water began to rise up to his nose, Jared decided to risk it and get out of his Stand. The Turtles lifted off his body and faded, allowing him one final kick off as he jumped for the emergency ladder to get out of there.

But before he could even put one foot on it, a giant weight smashed into him and crushed him against the wall.

“Gagh!” Jared coughed up blood and tilted his eyes back. Down Under had smacked the end of its anchor against him.

He already couldn’t feel his body and all his bones were broken. This was the end for him.

“R-R-R-Rich people… How c-c-could you…” He dropped to the ground as Down Under removed its weapon and faded.

“That takes care of that.” Josher arced his cards over his head and around his shoulders, then raised one hand in front of his face as he caught them all, before placing the other arm behind his back. “We outsmarted him.”

“That you did, boy.” Cajole shook his son’s arm. “Well done.” Then the water from above splashed down against his face. “Pleh. We better get down to the train before the authorities find out we’re the ones who broke these pipes.”

Then something brown splashed down on his head and he swiped a finger through it and put it to his nose.

“Oh.”

Author's Note

Do you come from a land down under? :trollestia:

Chapter 7: The Crane Wife and Wayward Son

Author's Note

Nightshroud, your time has come. :trollestia:
As always, Stand images will be in the group thread.

Chapter 7: The Crane Wife and Wayward Son

Twilight Sparkle stood atop a grassy hill, looking on as the moon continued to descend in the night sky. It was still incredible to her how the sun and moon could move on their own without any magic, but right now, she didn’t have much time to examine them more.

REO Speedwagon tapped on the left side of her back and she proceeded down the hill in the same direction. Ahead was a vast farmhouse with orchards of apple trees, and Twilight could already see at least a dozen barns behind the last treeline, their rooftops painted a blazing red, even in the dark.

Sweetie Belle had told them earlier that they were going somewhere safe and it was the home of another of her partners, one of the three owners of the Crusaders Foundation. Twilight looked at the apples and the farmhouse and she didn’t need to be told who this belonged to.

She still remembered the tales of the Cutie Mark Crusaders before she had taken over Princess Celestia. Sweetie Belle and her friends had spent years doing all kinds of odd-work to try and get their cutie marks. They eventually realized their goal was to help others and Twilight could see the same fire in Sweetie Belle in this world. Even in her old age, she still headed this foundation.

Apple Bloom was another Crusader and this had to be her place. If if it was Apple Bloom’s place, then it would also be…

Applejack…

It had been a while since Twilight had left Canterlot to meet her friends back in Ponyville. Over the years, they had become old and wizened, unlike her once she started ruling, but they were always still as cheery as ever. She wondered if this Applejack would be the same.

“Almost there, Twilight,” Spike stuck his head out of the bag. “I can see lights on in the farmhouse. They must still be awake.”

“Probably just waking up instead, Spike.” Twilight watched as the moon continued its descent.

She nodded and walked faster. She had an uneasy feeling about all this, and she looked back over her shoulder to see if there was anything amiss. There didn’t seem to be, but something kept telling her that it wouldn’t just end here with the burning of Sweetie’s house.

The farmhouse began to grow bigger and bigger as they got closer and soon, Twilight found herself standing before a white door on a porch with flood lights blinding her eyes as footsteps could be heard from within. The lights had come on as her first foot touched down against the porch wood. It must’ve been automatic, like how their lamps could turn on themselves if they had enchantments on them back home.

“Who’s there?” came a drawl from behind the door.

Sweetie Belle suddenly popped her head out of the bag and breathed. “Appy, it’s me, Sweetie Belle, Rare Candy’s grandmother.”

The door opened revealing a young girl with bright orange hair and a green ribbon atop her bushy head. She was dressed in dirty overalls and brown boots.

“Granny Belle!” The girl scratched her head as she looked at Sweetie’s detached head. “What are ya doin’ in a bag? And who’s this?”

This young girl was Apple Bottom Jeans, Appy for short. She was the granddaughter of Apple Bloom and she was the youngest of two children, the other being Blooming Tree, who was off in Manehattan for college.

“I’ll explain, but first, may we come in? There’s a lot to cover, but we need to be some place safe.”

“I hope we didn’t wake you. I know how early it is.” Only now, Twilight was beginning to feel the burden of remaining awake and it wasn’t pleasant.

“Uh, come in, come in.” Appy stepped to one side to give them room to walk past her. “Ah was just about to head out to till the ground for fresh seed. Yer not interudin’ on anythin’.”

Twilight walked in and placed REO Speedwagon on the floor and stepped back.

“Thank you, Twilight. Thank you, Appy.” Sweetie Belle was the first to climb out of her Stand, followed by her husband, then Spike and then Steel Tongue. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have come here this early for nothing. Our home was burned down. Attacked.”

“Attacked?” Appy put a hand over her mouth. “Are ya’ll ‘right? No one got hurt, Ah’m hopin’.”

“Nothing serious.” Sweetie lifted the corners of her nightdress. “But that’s why we’re still in our night clothes, you see. Is your grandmother awake? I have to warn her.”

She related to her how Twilight witnessed people blowing up the gates, setting fire to her home, and then their escape here. Appy went away to get them water before retreating upstairs to wake her family. Twilight began to feel a gripping sensation in her gut. She knew what this feeling was, as she felt it every time she received a new book as a gift. It was the feeling of her nerves jumping up and down, excited, but at the same time, anxious to delve into it. Appy went up to wake her family and Twilight was excited to meet this world’s Applejack, to see if she was anything like her friend back home. She shook both arms, trying to calm herself, telling herself that she would take it as it came.

“Everyone alright?” Twilight went over to pull two chairs from a dining table for the two elderly humans to sit. Perhaps she just needed a distraction from her thoughts. “I hope the journey wasn’t too bumpy.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Sweetie Belle said with a wave. “The inside of REO Speedwagon is incredibly comfy and you can’t feel the impacts of the outside world.”

“Tell me more about these… Stands.” Twilight leaned against the table. “They’re fascinating. They’re like magic in a world without magic.”

“I will, but after that, I’d like to know where you’re from, Twilight.”

“Fair enough. It’s a deal.”

Sweetie Belle nodded, then rubbed at her chin. “Where to begin… Stands are like… a manifestation of one’s fighting spirit. Essentially, they’re a part of you, an extension of yourself to do your bidding. Are you… following so far?”

“Basically an inner being of yourself, a construct of your will,” Twilight said.

The elderly woman shrugged. “Sure, I guess you can say that. No one’s ever really studied a Stand, so I’m sure there’s still much to learn about each Stand. So each one is different, like for example, a friend of mine, her Stand can absorb the heat from anything, including people, while mine’s just a backpack with an infinite space inside where we can even take refuge.”

“Interesting. There must be so many different Stands in this world!” Twilight rubbed her hands together. “Did you hear that, Spike? All this Stand power is making my scalp itch!”

“Sure, but shouldn’t we be worrying about the people after Sweetie Belle, Twi?” Spike took a peek outside one of the farmhouse’s many windows. “Whoever started burning down her house is sure to realize they didn’t get her.”

“Yes, they’ll be back. I’m sure of it. I’ve dealt with enough rogue forces in my time.” Twilight looked at her companions, then she remembered she hadn’t yet told them about herself. “Oh yes. I owe you an introduction. I’m Twilight. Twilight Sparkle. And this is Spike. We’re here from Equestria, another world, to study yours.”

“Equestria. You said Equestria?” Sweetie asked.

Twilight was a little surprised. She didn’t expect that kind of reaction. “Y-Yes. You… you know about my world?”

“Another of my friends is from Equestria.” Sweetie nodded. “Sunset Shimmer. Do you know her?”

“Sunset… Shimmer…?” Twilight looked to the ceiling as she creased one brow. “I’m afraid I don’t know her. Has she been here long?”

Sweetie Belle chuckled. “My, she’s older than I am, just slightly. I’ve known her since high school. Uh, do you have high school back in Equestria?”

Twilight shook her head. “We don’t have high school. Or at least, we don’t have something called high school back in Equestria. I would like to meet her. I’m sure we could learn much from each other.”

There was a flutter of footsteps and everyone turned to the stairway, expecting to see Appy again. But it wasn’t the orange haired girl that reached the bottom floor. Instead, it was a boy with rainbow hair, with the exception of red, dressed in a simple white shirt and striped shorts.

“Huh? Who are you?” Spike pointed a finger at him.

“Oh, Skyburn, you’re here!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “Uh, this is Twilight and Spike. Twilight, Spike, this is Skyburn Dash, Appy’s boyfriend.”

“Yeah, it’s summer break. So I’m spending some time helping out on the farm.” The boy rubbed the back of his head, his cheeks turning a light pink. “Umm, pleased to meet you.”

Skyburn Dash was the son of Fractal Dash, the brother of Prism Dash and grandson of Rainbow Dash. That meant he was also Josher Joyride’s cousin and Cajole Joyride’s nephew. A senior in high school, he had just graduated a few weeks ago and he was now waiting to go to college, where he was going to continue on the motocross team. He enjoyed seeking thrills in life and speeding through the wind on his motorbike was one of his greatest pastimes.

After Skyburn, Appy hopped back down the stairs, followed by an older woman with a mostly gray head of hair that was once red. She had on a green nightgown and a pair of red glasses.

“Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle ran over and embraced her friend.

“I heard the news,” Apple Bloom said. “Are you alright? No one’s hurt?”

“No, we’re fine. Twilight here saved us.” Sweetie gestured to the newcomers. “This is Twilight Sparkle and Spike.”

“Wait, Twilight? Spike?” Apple Bloom tilted her head to one side.

“I’m sure you must know our names,” Twilight said as she gave her a short bow. “I know it must be weird. Your sister would have friends with our names, won’t she? But I’m from another world parallel to yours. Is she here? Applejack. I would like to see how similar she is to my Applejack.”

“Ap-Applejack?” Apple Bloom stammered. Then she tilted her head low as she began grinding her teeth together. “Applejack’s… not here.”

“Oh,” Twilight shrugged. “Well, I’d like to see her when she does get back. Do you know how long that’ll take?”

“Uh, Twilight?” Sweetie Belle went over to Twilight and said, “Applejack’s… not coming back. She died when we were in high school, while Sunset Shimmer and her friends were fighting an evil Stand master.”

This revelation struck Twilight Sparkle like a hammer blow to the gut. “She-she’s what?”

Apple Bloom nodded as a single tear rolled down her face. “It’s been a long time since Ah’ve had to think of her… She died as she journeyed to save the world from an evil plot. She’s a hero.”

“Applejack’s dead…” Twilight braced herself against the table, feeling her heart beating wildly against her chest. One of her dear friends, dead. Even though it was not the same back in Equestria, it still hit her like a train to hear the news.

Spike walked over and wrapped his arms around her and she held him tightly. The warmth of another body comforted her and she sank down and closed her eyes.

“It’s okay. It’s a different world, Twi.” Spike gave her a pat. “It’s a different world.”

“I know… I know… it’s just… It’s so similar to ours… except for the… human bodies.”

“She’s from Equestria too,” Appy told her grandmother. “Like Sunset.”

Apple Bloom raised a finger. “That explains why she’s still-”

There was a shrill whistle, then something flew through the main door’s window before disappearing through the kitchen. Everyone dropped to the ground, keeping their hands over their heads as glass shattered around them.

Twilight felt a sting on her neck, likely from the glass. These human bodies seemed to be a lot less durable than a pony’s.

“They found us,” Spike said, getting her attention. “They’ve come to finish the job.”

“What do they want?” Appy cried out as Skyburn put himself over her to protect her from the flying glass.

The whistling came again and again and again. At first, no one saw anything except for all the windows shattering, but as she kept her eyes up and alert, Twilight eventually spotted something flying through the air, faster than any bolt of magic she’d ever seen. It was gray and glowing red and trailed a stream of fire behind it as it flew. Whoever was attacking them didn’t seem to know exactly where they were and they were just firing blindly.

The projectile flew back into the house, but this time, instead of exiting through another window, it flew straight down and tore through the dining table, splitting it in half as it zoomed back up and through the ceiling.

“Stay down. I’ll find out what’s going on. I’ll stop them.” Skyburn Dash patted his girlfriend’s shoulder as he rushed to one of the windows silently.

Broken glass cut into his bare feet, but now wasn’t the time to worry about minor injuries. Whoever was out there meant to kill them and if he could help it, he wasn’t going to let them. He looked outside into the darkness of the early morning, scanning the area for anything that could be hostile. Then he spotted something, just behind one of the apple trees. A head peeking out at him.

“I see someone!” he hissed. “At the apple trees. I think it’s a man.”

Just then, the whistling returned and Skyburn turned around just in time to see the projectile crash through the ceiling, flying towards him. With a somersault, he avoided it completely before something emerged from his back, throwing a long cylinder at the projectile, knocking it in the back. The cylinder bounced and returned to the figure’s hand as it spun around, holding a second one in its other hand. Now that she could see them clearly, Twilight knew these things were batons. The being holding them had pale blue skin and dark armor with a protective visor over its eyes. Seeing something weirdly magical for this world, she knew this had to be another Stand. It seemed they took shapes of all kinds.

The projectile wavered in the air, but made it back outside as it zipped around in the dark, leaving a trail of red behind it.

“There’s no way you could’ve hit Wayward Son,” a voice echoed outside. It must’ve been the figure at the trees. “My Stand is faster than anything in the world. To have reflexes to hit it, it’s inhuman!”

He stepped out from behind the tree and shook a fist. Twilight had never seen a more disfigured human being in her time here. His head was shaped like an egg and his head just went straight down to his body. He didn’t have a neck. His entire body was round as well and he waved a finger at them from where he was.

“I live for danger,” Skyburn explained. “In order to do that, I have to keep my reflexes and my mind sharp, ready for anything, to be able to move at the last minute.”

The man suddenly rubbed his hands together and grinned madly. “You must belong to the rich, to have the opportunity to live dangerously, to ignore the wealth you have to risk it all. Well, I’ll show you something riskier! We of Die Die Riches will see that your money will not go to waste!”

Skyburn creased a brow. “We?”

He realized his mistake too late as another figure stood up from behind the wall, right in his face. It was a female figure with a white face and bright red lipstick, but above its mouth were two glowing red eyes and as he looked into them, he could swear they spun like vortexes. Skyburn’s Stand vanished and his arms dropped to his sides as his face assumed a blank expression.

A woman stood up next to the figure and raised a hand to her face. Where her nose was supposed to be was nothing but flat skin, and her hand only had four fingers, though they were all thicker than the regular finger. She had long auburn hair that dangled down one side of her head and she was dressed in a blue and white dress that resembled something out of a fairy tale.

“You live for danger indeed.” She gave Skyburn a shove and laughed. “Fall down.”

Skyburn suddenly leaned back as gravity carried him to the ground, where he crashed with a thud, landing atop all the broken glass.

“Do a snow angel,” the woman said and Skyburn did exactly as he was told, cutting himself further.

“Skyburn!” Appy got up and ran to him, trying to stop him from moving, but he would not. “What have you done?”

“I just told him what to do, honey, that’s all.” The woman waved her four-fingered hand through the air. “All who gaze into the eyes of Crane Wife become hypnotized and do my bidding. Would you like to join him?”

Her Stand reappeared and everyone kept their eyes low as its eyes began to glow. It floated into the farmhouse, coming right through the broken window as it stayed just an inch above the ground. It had a long flowy dress and it didn’t seem to have any legs under it.

“DeCanter, again!” The woman laughed and pointed at Skyburn. “That’s right. Don’t look. As for you, stand up and walk to the window now.”

Skyburn did exactly as he was told, pushing right past Appy as she continued to try and stop him. He stopped in front of the woman as she stepped two windows down. “All yours, brother.”

“Yes, sister dear.” He rubbed his hands and walked closer. “Wayward Son!”

The projectile reappeared, hovering beside him and it was now that Twilight realized it was shaped like an arrow. She wanted to run to it, to stop it, but she knew if she tried, that enemy Stand would hypnotize her like it did Skyburn. She had to figure something else out.

Just how do I stop the magic of this world?

“Ah’ve got to get on the horn,” Apple Bloom scrambled for the kitchen. “We can’t fight these Stands with what we’ve got!”

Sweetie Belle got up and called out REO Speedwagon before grabbing it by the straps and swinging it at Crane Wife. The enemy Stand stopped it with a hand, then smiled as it pulled it to one side as it gazed into Sweetie’s eyes.

“No!” Button Mash grabbed her, but all he did was get hypnotized as well.

“Standing targets. My favorite!” The man called DeCanter stalked closer. “Time to take them out a few at a time!”

He let out a bad attempt at a whistle as his Stand sped forward, trailing fire. Skyburn was the closest and he would’ve gotten speared through the chest if not for Appy. She had thrown herself at him as hard as she could, knocking him out of the way just by an inch as the Stand tore a hole through the corner of his shirt sleeve. But in doing so, Appy put herself directly in the line of Wayward Son and it pierced right through her chest, coming out the back as it sped for Sweetie Belle next.

“No!” Twilight cried out, reaching a hand up as she tried to run for Sweetie Belle. She had to do something. She wasn’t going to just sit here and let her new friends die. She had to protect them. It didn’t matter how, nor did she know how, but she had to do something, even if that meant putting her life in danger.

Crane Wife noticed her approach and began turning its head to look at her, but it was as though it decided to do it slowly. Its head had begun turning, but only ever so slightly. Twilight knew this effect as she had cast a couple of slow spells in her time. Something was slowing down the enemy Stand’s movement, but she didn’t know what. That gave her enough time to pull Sweetie’s leg, sending her crashing back to the ground just as Wayward Son sped by.

As her gaze switched from Crane Wife to Wayward Son, the slowing seemed to shift and instead, the arrow was the one slowing down now, giving Spike enough time to get Button Mash out of the way.

“W-What is the meaning of this?!” The woman looked at her hands, then back at Twilight. “It’s you!”

Twilight didn’t know how, but she was right. Crane Wife had slowed down when she was looking at it, but when she changed her gaze, Wayward Son was the one to slow. She didn’t know how she was doing it, but she was the one slowing them down.

Is this…? Is this the power of a Stand…?

Something burned within her, like a kindling of a campfire. A warm feeling washed over Twilight, spreading out from her chest to her fingertips. It was as though an instruction manual had been opened in her mind. She suddenly knew what this feeling was and she knew how to use it.

“I’m ready,” she said as she pointed a finger at the woman. “Are you?”

From behind her, a lavender skinned entity emerged, thrusting both arms beside Twilight’s head. It was humanoid in nature and silver armor gleamed in the lights as its blue eyes shone with fury. Five blue orbs , four on its arms and one on its back glowed brightly, its contents swirling as it put both fists together.

“Twilight, is that a…?” Spike watched as the figure raised one hoofed leg up, touching its chest with its knee.

The Princess of Equestria nodded and touched one hand to the ground as she stretched the other one over her head. “A Stand, Spike. Not just any Stand. My Stand.”

This world had been everything she never expected to see in her life. It was unlike anything back home, but at the same time, it was. And then instead of hooves, they had feet. And hands. She hadn’t spent much time in this world, but already, she had learned so much in the single day she had been here, and there was still much to learn, but she didn’t have much time now. Now, she had to first protect her friends of this strange new world.

“Strange World!” Twilight lifted her arm to the woman as her Stand swept past her, bringing a fist forward as it yelled with all its might.

Chapter 8: Manifested Strange World

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 9: The Convention Awaits

Shiho awoke the next morning with a burning desire to punch the next person that crossed her. She couldn’t exactly explain it, but it felt as though she had been wronged and she needed to punish someone.

“Good grief… the start of the day and I’m already miserable.” She pushed out of her futon and got to her feet.

She looked to her right where Daring Do was still snoring away, sucking a fly into her mouth only to blow it away. This kept on going and Shiho watched it three more rounds before shaking her head and walking to the bathroom.

Daring Do had introduced herself to her family the night before after their little scuffle. Her grandmother had been extremely excited to meet her, but Shiho didn’t understand it. Sure, she must’ve read those Daring Do novels, but she didn’t know how meeting the next Daring Do could be as good as the books. In her opinion, books were always better than real people.

Her mother also knew about the book series, but she was also surprised to learn that Daring Do was an actual person who went on actual adventures.

“No wonder they’re such good stories! You’re just telling them from experience!” Summer Shine had said happily.

Shiho had simply shook her head and retired early. She had planned on getting all the strength she could muster today as they began their planned destruction of Die Die Riches. She was never going to forgive them for killing Ban Kai. After killing one of their Stand users, she had likely painted a target on her back now, but Shiho wouldn’t want it any other way. The more they came after them, the more they could learn about Die Die Riches’ base of operations and whoever was pulling the strings.

She didn’t care if people were rich or poor, good or bad, but Die Die Riches had made the mistake to get on her bad side and because of that, they were going down.

After cleaning herself up for the morning, Shiho headed downstairs where she found her grandmother sipping from a cup of tea, dressed in a floral shirt and beige shorts.

“Ah, Shiho, you’re finally awake.” Sunset Shimmer put down her mug and grinned. “I hope you’ve enough strength for our little adventure today. I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk around your lovely neighborhood. You have such nice neighbors. One of them even offered me something called a ‘moo-shi?’ I still don’t know what it is, but it was quite delectable.”

“Good grief, this old woman…” Shiho shook her head and sat down opposite her grandmother. “So, I take it you have a plan to find these fools?”

“For sure,” Sunset said confidently. “We simply need to find someone who is in this Die Die Riches group and squeeze them for the information.”

“And how are you planning on finding a member of Die Die Riches?” Shiho asked, not feeling very impressed.

“Well, that’s where Daring Do comes in,” Summer added, walking over from the kitchen with a pan of eggs. “She’s a well known and wealthy person. If she organizes a public event with her star power, I don’t think Die Die Riches would be able to resist showing up and causing trouble.”

Shiho thought about this. “I’ll admit, it’s not bad as far as plans go, but how long would it take to get an event like this started?”

Sunset and Summer shared a look. “She’s Daring Do. I’m sure she can handle something like that.”

Shiho shrugged. At least it sounded viable. Die Die Riches would surely come calling if there was an event full of rich people. And if they were to show their faces there, they would also certainly draw them out, seeing as they would be out for their blood for taking out Hu Hur Dur. Everything looked like it could work just fine. But that’s what made Shiho doubt that their plan would work. Nothing ever proceeded as planned when there was a plan as grand as this.

“Not like we have anything else to go on…” The girl planted a hand on the table. Since she couldn’t come up with anything better, this would have to do. “We’ll just beat the crap out of anyone that decides to attack us.”

“Now that’s the spirit, Shiho.” Sunset slapped the table and folded a newspaper she had been reading on the side. “Ah, here comes our star of the show now.”

Shiho turned around and frowned at the adventurer as she descended the stairs. Her hair was still in a mess, but she had already changed into her safari clothes she had on the night before.

“Goooood morning, Kantarijji!” She waved before taking a seat beside Shiho. “Are we ready for our grand plan?”

“Don’t you have to set everything up?” Shiho eyed the adventurer as she received a plate of eggs. “You can’t just have an event magically appear.”

“Then you know nothing about Daring Do,” she tapped the end of a fork against Shiho’s forehead. “I’ve made a few calls. The ‘Star of Fuji Awards’ will begin at twelve noon.”

Shiho shoved the utensil aside, but she didn’t believe what she had heard at first. “Twelve noon? How did you do that?”

“Don’t underestimate the connections of Daring Do. I have contacts of three generations ready to roll.”

“Right. I guess we should prepare.” Sunset got up and finished her cup of coffee. “Shiho, put something nice on. You can’t be going to the event in your disheveled school uniform like that.”

“Watch me, granny.” Shiho pointed a finger at her.

When she was done with breakfast, Shiho retreated back upstairs and didn’t come back down till it was twenty to twelve, where Sunset and Daring Do were getting ready to leave.

During her time upstairs, Shiho had gone to the rooftop outside her window and lit up a cigarette. She took out a can of beer, opened it with a hiss and poured it out onto the ground.

“Here’s to you, Ban,” she muttered. “Those dastards with Die Die Riches are going to pay for what they’ve done. In blood.”

She was going to give it to Die Die Riches, no matter what. They were all going to pay for messing with her life.

Back downstairs, Summer was making sure that her mother was all set for the coming trap. She had taken the hat she had bought for her before putting it on Sunset’s head.

“Are you sure you want to stay here, Summer?” Sunset held her daughter’s hand.

“I’ll hold the fort here, mom.” Summer gave her hand a squeeze. “Bushido and I will be here in case they come knocking. We’ll be sure to give them a beating if they’re here. It’s been a while since I’ve used Pegasus Forever in a fight, but I think I still got it. Bushido even more so.”

“Yes, well…” Sunset thought of her son-in-law and she wanted to grumble. She didn’t like it that he brought her only daughter all the way here, but what was done is done, and they had more important things to worry about now. She could at least trust that he would do what he can to keep Summer safe. “Take care. And keep an eye out.”

“I will, mom.” Summer pulled her in for a hug, then pushed her away. “Go on. You’re going to be late. Shiho!”

“I’m here.” The girl descended the last step and groaned. “Good grief, can’t you give me time to walk downstairs?”

“Shiho, what do you call this?” Sunset asked, panning a hand from her legs to her head. “What are you wearing?”

“I’m wearing what I always wear.” Shiho stood there in her school uniform. She hadn’t changed from earlier. “And I’m not changing into something fancy.”

“Bah, we don’t have time for you to change anyway.” Sunset grumbled further and walked for the door. “Come on. The fundraiser awaits.”

On the way there in Summer’s car, Daring Do briefed them about the event they were about to go for. It was a fundraiser for deer awareness and people from all over the world had been invited to attend, not just the Japanese. From the sound of it, it was going to be quite the crowd, even if it had only been arranged yesterday. Shiho blamed it on faster travel times. Someone could fly over from Russia in about two hours nowadays. Travel was more expensive than ever, but everyone flying here for the event was rich, so they probably wouldn’t think twice about it.

They eventually passed out of Kantarijji, heading on towards Tokyo, where the convention was being held. Kantarijji was small and was too suburban for something as big as a convention. The largest building they had here was the town hall, and even then, it was nothing compared to the convention hall they were going to.

As they neared the building, Shiho could already see that it dwarfed their town hall by at least two times, and it even had glowing lines going down from the top of the building, along with a huge glowing sign that told everyone around that the convention was in progress.

The convention hall that they had rented was already decked out with posters of Daring Do outside, along with images of various types of deer, and for some reason, a moose. Living in Japan all her life, Shiho knew that the deer population here was declining as well. With less tourism from outside the country, less people were coming here to feed deer and they had begun wandering out into the cities and some of them even met fateful ends at the front of cars and other motor vehicles.

The afternoon sun glinted off the building’s stark white panels, giving off a brilliance like nothing in Kantarijji could. Shiho had rarely left her hometown, seeing as she was still young and in high school, so everything out here was new to her.

Daring Do herself had been to Tokyo before, as with most places in the world. The only countries she had yet to visit were Hungary and Croatia, but she vowed that she would get to them one day. She just needed to find the time in her busy schedule of adventuring and making sure that ancient artifacts didn’t land in the wrong hands. She was a little disappointed that the Nugget People hadn’t appeared in her time. They had decided to show up when her mother had the mantle of Daring Do, and her mother was a different kind of Daring Do. She never went on adventures like her great-grandmother did. She simply stayed home, researching history through books and the internet.

“Out of curiosity,” Sunset asked Daring Do. “At what point does it stop being grave-robbing and start to become archaeology?”

“Oh, that’s a good question,” Daring Do replied. “There’s no real time requirement, but grave-robbing generally is for self interest and profit, while archeology is more for the learning and appreciation of ancient cultures.”

“Then I guess Weather Alternate would’ve been grave-robbing when they found the tomb of the Nugget People,” Sunset said.

“Please don’t bring them up…” Daring Do groaned. “I hate it that I missed the greatest adventure of a lifetime, because I wasn’t born yet. I would kill to get to see one of them up close. Did you know their ancient name was the Herrakries? People just called them Nugget People because of the gold nuggets that formed from their blood.”

“Yeah, I knew that,” Shiho sighed as she pictured her family around the dining table night after night when she was younger. “My mom and dad love telling that story. Good grief, I’ve heard this story at least three thousand times by now.”

“Speaking of Weather Alternate, I wonder how they’re doing,” Sunset said. “The last I heard they had formed a joint effort with the Crusaders’ Foundation to do more philanthropy work.”

“I’m sure they must be a target from Die Die Riches as well, judging by how successful they’re doing ever since they came into the spotlight.” Daring Do pointed to a giant poster of herself with her whip out, standing atop a sharp triangular rock in the African savannah.. “Ooh, I know this picture. That was the time I saved the last rhinoceros in the world from poachers who wanted its horns. Can you imagine how greedy they are? They were willing to kill the last rhino ever to get a bit of quick cash.”

“If it’s the last rhino, doesn’t that mean the species is doomed anyway?” Sunset asked, worried. “It really makes you wonder how it all got this bad. It wasn’t like this back when I was your age.”

“Well, we can always grow a clone or something,” Daring Do tapped her chin. “Though I don’t know if the science is all there yet. Give it a few years. But no matter what, I’m just glad I was able to do a bit of good for the natural world.”

“You must be proud of your daring work.” Sunset grinned and placed two fingers against her nose as they began walking into the building. It had five front doors, all of them fully glass with automatic sensors. “Your great-grandmother must be proud too.”

“Maybe. But everything I’ve done cannot compare to the legendary adventures she had.” She looked up at the sky and remembered a tale her mother had told her. “My great-grandmother once delved into an ancient temple at the bottom of the ocean and had to stop a rich oil baron from digging through the crust for more oil, because an evil creature lay slumbering below and if it awoke, the world would be destroyed.”

“Is this even true?” Sunset raised her hat a little. “An ancient evil creature?”

“Hey, I’m just retelling the legendary stories of Daring Do. And she didn’t even have a Stand. That’s how great my great-grandmother was.” She looked at the time on her lightphone and snapped her fingers. “I’ve got to go get ready for my appearance. You two stand around, keep an eye out for anyone that looks suspicious. I’ll keep my eyes out from the stage.”

Saying their temporary farewells, Shiho and her grandmother headed for the main foyer where clusters of rich people were already standing around. One of them even had a gold suit, which was a bit much, Shiho thought. She had been so focused on its glaring image that she almost failed to see two people carrying a red and blue parrot in a cage.

“Hey, watch it,” the man barked at her.

“You watch it! Good grief…” Shiho watched them go. “What do they even need a parrot here for?”

Sunset shrugged. “Who knows? I’ve never been to one of these. Maybe they’ll use it to draw the lottery or something. Parrots are smart.”

“There’s such a thing as rich people, but then there’s also all this…” Shiho shook her head. Event or not, it was crazy how some people just needed to show how much richer they were to the common rich person.

“Well, at least we know these people here aren’t Die Die Riches. At least not yet.” Sunset panned her head around the hall. Everyone here looked like they were actually here for the deer event. “I haven’t accounted for the fact that DDR could maybe wear some richly clothes to blend in, but I don’t think they will. No, I think they’re craftier than that.”

“Well, whatever it is, you keep at it, old woman.” Shiho leaned against the wall and breathed out. “I need to sit down.”

“Sit down?” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Are you alright?”

“Nothing you need to… concern yourself with.” Shiho panted. For some reason, it felt as though something decided to take a seat on her shoulders. She was having difficulty keeping herself up.

“Honestly,” Sunset sighed. “I’m four times your age and I’m less tired than you are. Come on, we have to stay vigilant.”

“You stay vigilant, granny.” Shiho just sat down against the wall. “I’m going to sit here.”

Sunset frowned at her. Her voice had lost its usual edge and she wasn’t putting in as much effort to insult her. Something was amiss here.

“This looks to be the work of an enemy Stand…” Sunset surmised. “Something seems to be draining Shiho’s energy.”

Sunset began to look harder at each person in the foyer, even as more began to pour in. However, there were a lot of people and Sunset wasn’t sure what to look for. Usually Stand users tended to dress somewhat flamboyantly, but with all the rich people and their outrageous costumes here, an enemy Stand user could blend in very well indeed.

“Where could this enemy be?” She looked around. “There’s not enough information to go on about. The Stand user could have a long range Stand or a short range Stand. Perhaps it could disguise its user as someone else. Right now, there was no way of knowing what they were up against, except that the enemy was already here.

Sunset was about to go on through the foyer to inspect every table, but for some reason, she didn’t really want to. “Maybe I should just… sit down.”

Her eyes widened and began darting around. “No. This is the enemy Stand’s work. Where is it? Alicorn Fantasy.”

Sunset tried to summon her Stand to reset herself, but as she stretched a hand out, she didn’t see her Stand there. Instead, she just sighed and sat down on a nearby chair, not feeling like doing anything in particular.

Author's Note

No Stand images this time. :trollestia:

Chapter 10: The Soul Stirs

Daring Do straightened her vest as she stood backstage, waiting for her cue to head out. She could already hear all the commotion outside and they were waiting for her to get out there and make her big speech.

“Alright, Daring Do. You get out there and you get them excited.” Daring Do planted her fists together. “And don’t forget to look out for Die Die Riches. They’re definitely bound to show up and when they do, you, Sunset and Shiho teach them who’s boss, just like great-grandma did when she baited her archenemy, Ahuizotl, by placing a gold idol in a forest clearing, and when he showed up, she tied him up around his waist before yanking him up into the air.”

“And now, with great privilege, I announce our benefactor to this fundraiser…” the emcee said outside, past the wall. “Without further ado, Daring Do!”

There was a mechanical click and ding, before the wall hissed and began to slid open, allowing Daring Do to hop out centerstage, raising one hand to the air before she crouched down, sliding one hand down to the end of her vest.

“Thank you. Thank you all for coming!” She began waving. The people began cheering, reassuring her that her translator was working. There was a time it had stopped working just a month ago where she stopped a shipment of Mongolian statues from being stolen. “Is everyone doing alright?”

Most people began cheering, but to her surprise, there were a few that just sat there in place, giving her blank expressions.

Huh. That’s weird. Not what I was expecting. I thought they’d be more pumped.

“Welcome! It’s good to see so many of you still care for Japan’s nature and its animal inhabitants!” Daring Do spoke out of a headset around her ears, wirelessly connected to the foyer’s sound system. “As you know, the population of deer here is dwindling from our economical fallings, and their reduction in food has forced them to venture further out into other cities where some have met grisly fates. I implore you, please! The funds we raise here today will save lives. As always, you do not need to give, but doing so will help them plenty!”

The parrot she had ordered on the right began to squawk excitedly. Beside it was a circular container with colored balls inside. The parrot was to roll its contents and select a ball to pick out lucky winners for some tickets she had to the Bermuda Triangle.

She had actually been the one to finally discover the Triangle after all these years. Perhaps it had been the decay of the atmosphere, or the rising of the sea, but the skies had cleared up enough for her to find a series of jagged rocks and islands about twelve miles north of Puerto Rico where ships of all sizes and ages had wrecked. In the end, there was nothing mystical about it. There were no monsters and there were no spirits. It had just been gravitational anomalies that sent many a sailor to their doom.

But with the rise of modern technology, ships could now sail to the Bermuda Triangle and tourism there had increased a hundredfold, though only those who could afford it could go see one of the world’s many wonders.

“I mean, it’s not like we’re living off the streets,” one man said to a companion. He reached into his red and green trimmed coat and pulled out his phone. “I’ll be sending twenty million, Daring Do.”

“Ten million from me!” Another man shouted from the crowd.

Daring Do smiled and expected more cheering from this, but there was a strange silence among the people in attendance and when she looked to the right of the foyer, she even saw Shiho Sunfast slumped against a wall with a hand on her chin, quite expressionless. Something was wrong here.

Even the parrot beside her had gone silent. Instead, it was just staring blankly at her now, as if waiting for her to do something.

“What’s going on?” Daring Do said to herself. This was not at all what she had expected from a fundraiser. “Sunset. Where’s Sunset?”

She found the old woman easily by one of the tables, just sitting down, her shoulders slouched as she looked to the stage. And behind her, was the most telling sight. Above Sunset, resting giant claws on her shoulders, was a ghostly bird-like creature, its beak opened in a toothless grin as it turned its head towards Daring Do. It had gigantic wings that ended in claws and instead of legs, it just had a ghostly swirl of smoke.

No one else in attendance seemed to notice this and that only meant one thing.

“The enemy Stand.” Daring Do pointed at it as Yesterday appeared in her hand, its strap wrapped around her wrist in case she were to drop it. “So you’re the one making everyone bored and lifeless.”

Some people turned and looked at where she was pointing, but when they saw nothing out of the ordinary, they turned back to look at her quizzically.

The Stand began laughing, which was a sound that sounded like a mix between a bird’s call and a whoopee cushion. It was wheezy, but with a specific vocal tune.

“Foolish Do, you thought you could host a richly event without Die Die Riches turning up, squawk!” The bird flapped its wings. “But we have our eyes on you and your friends who defeated Hu Hur Dur, squawk! You hosted the event. And we came. I have already taken their souls, squawk! Yours is next, squawk! Soul Stirrer will have you!”

The Stand suddenly pushed off Sunset’s shoulders, knocking her over as it launched itself at Daring Do, claws outstretched. The adventurer dodged aside, jumping back on her feet as she got to the end of a roll. Seeing as this was just a Stand, her whip would be useless against it. It would be better for her if she could find its master.

Soul Stirrer let out a ghoulish caw before its body faded into a wisp of smoke, swirling around in the air as it flew through one of the surprised guests. As it emerged through him, it carried what looked like a ghostly apparition, which was then sucked up into its mouth. The man didn’t even seem to notice this and just kept watching her, until he eventually grew more and more expressionless.

“It steals their souls, their spirit to live life!” Daring Do guessed as the Stand returned to its physical form. “A Stand is the manifestation of one’s spirit. If it steals that… that means I won’t be able to use Yesterday! This is bad. I can’t let it steal my soul.”

“I will rend your soul from your body and then tear your soul apart! Squawk!” Soul Stirrer took to the sky and spun around and started back towards Daring Do.

She threw herself to the side again, but this time, she had done so one second too early. Soul Stirrer saw her trajectory and swerved, morphing into a ball of smoke as it readied itself to pass through her.

“No, this is bad! I can’t get out of the way in time!” Just before the Stand could touch her, Daring Do clicked down on her Stand’s rewind button. She had set it to a point when she was about to go on stage, and it was a good thing she did.

Everything around her began to work in reverse and eventually, she was running back out onto the stage again as cheers rang out for her.

“Welcome! It’s good to see so many of you still care for Japan’s nature and its animal inhabitants!” Her eyes darted around, more alert than before. “As you know, the population of deer here is dwindling from our economical fallings, and their reduction in food has forced them to venture further out into other cities where some have met grisly fates. I implore you, please! The funds we raise here today will save lives. As always, you do not need to give, but doing so will help them plenty!”

“Ten million from me!” Another man shouted from the crowd.

As the cheering began to die down, Daring Do kept her wits about her. She remembered. She had just used Yesterday and that meant she had just met with something she had no choice but to go back in time to avoid. When she went back in time with Yesterday’s ability, she couldn’t retain the memories of what had just transpired and all she knew was that she had used her Stand. And she could only use it three times in twenty four hours.

She didn’t know what she was up against, but by keeping her eyes out, she spotted something smokey gliding through people, changing their attitudes towards the fundraiser before it stopped above the man in the gold suit.

“Stand. Enemy Stand.” She watched it go as wings appeared out of the smoke, complete with talons at each end. “That must be why I rewound time! It steals the souls of people. The spirit to live life. A Stand is the manifestation of one’s spirit. If it steals that… that means I won’t be able to use Yesterday! It’s Stand master. I need to find the Stand master.”

As she desperately looked around, she found both Shiho and Sunset sitting around, doing nothing, looking like nothing was going on in their lives. They must’ve already been hit by the enemy Stand. She couldn’t rely on help for this one. She had to deal with this herself.

Okay, Daring. Think. You used Yesterday, so something must have gone wrong in a Stand fight. So think about what you’d do normally, and then do something different. Surprise the enemy and you can win.

She watched the cloud of smoke as it traveled, slowly taking the form of a bird as it passed through two more people. It finally became solid as it hovered over Sunset, revealing a deformed looking avian figure with a white beak and plates along its back.

“The Stand. It’s a bird… Could that mean…?” Daring Do looked at the parrot. It still stood in its cage, staring blankly at her. “A Stand is a manifestation of one’s self. If it looks like that.” She shot a finger out at the parrot. “It’s you isn’t it?”

The parrot squawked. Daring Do suddenly felt a rush of air and turned around. The Stand was now flying straight for her, talons outstretched, ready to tear her apart. She tried to dodge aside, but the claws were longer than she had anticipated and they slashed across her midsection as she jumped. She screamed in agony as she dropped to the ground close to the parrot’s table, bleeding profusely over the stage. No one in the crowd seemed to care anymore and they continued to just watch her without doing anything else.

“Yes, squawk! The suffering!” The Stand stalked forward on its ghostly wisp. “Sweet, sweet suffering, squawk! Soul Stirrer has won here today. You found out about my Stand master, Jimmy, but this is as far as you go, squawk! I will have your soul, squawk!”

“N-Not yet…” Daring Do dragged herself towards the base of the table, her arms trembling. She grabbed it, but Soul Stirrer thrust a talon through her left shin and she let out another scream. “You’re… you’re gonna regret… this.”

“Soul Stirrer thinks you will be the one to regret, squawk!” The Stand began to laugh. “You hosted this event for the rich, squawk! And we came. Did you not think we would leave this alone?”

With her Stand in hand, Daring Do slung its strap around her wrist, then swung her arm out, letting go of her Stand at the same time. Yesterday spun from her hand and hit Soul Stirrer in the beak like a yo-yo, before she yanked on the strap, pulling it back to her hand. The impact knocked the Stand off her leg as it rubbed at its cracked beak. The parrot in the cage squawked and began rubbing at its beak with a wing.

“It’s not over yet.” Daring Do held Yesterday close to her waist with both hands. “Just you wait.”

“You’ll pay for this, squawk! Such suffering I’m going to show you, squawk!” It snarled at her, then lunged forward with both wings spread wide.

Daring Do only had two charges left for her Stand for today. She was going to have to make it count, and she already had. Pressing down on the Stand’s stop button, there was an explosion of light around her Stand as time began to work backwards again. Her injuries healed themselves and she got up and walked backwards, heading back behind the backstage wall as Soul Stirrer returned back to the crowd, going through them backwards as life returned to each of them.

She dusted her vest and looked around. She had used Yesterday to wind back time again. Something must’ve caused her to do so. An enemy Stand, most likely, that had been the reason for this fundraiser anyway, to attract Die Die Riches in order to gain information on their operation. Bringing her Stand up, she looked at the face of the stopwatch, then widened her eyes.

“Of course. It was right there… This must be it.” She put it away and looked at the wall. It was time to do this. Again, most likely.

“Welcome! It’s good to see so many of you still care for Japan’s nature and its animal inhabitants!” Daring Do ran out as the backstage wall slid open. She looked harder than ever at the foyer, trying to find out what she was up against and she saw it, weaving behind the front line of people. A cloud of smoke that went through people, making them less enthusiastic about what they were here for. “It takes their soul. Their spirit to live life. If it touches me, I won’t be able to use Yesterday. I’ll have to make this quick to buy myself enough time.”

This time, she grabbed the cage with the parrot as it squawked in surprise. “Just one second. There was an issue with the parrot’s instructions. Uh, I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere! Support the deer of this country!”

Once the wall closed behind her, Daring Do dropped her smile and held the cage up, shaking it once violently, knocking the parrot’s head against the top of the cage and off its little pedestal. The parrot squawked and flapped its wings, and a hazy image of a Stand appeared above the cage, half formed like an out-of-focus photo.

“I’ll take your soul!” The Stand cawed. “How did you find out? There was no way you could’ve known! Squawk!”

Daring reached out one arm to her opposite side, then held the birdcage higher, leveling the handle with the top of her head. “Yesterday has buttons on it that I can use to type out quick words on its screen. When I rewind time, everything goes back to the way it was, including any injury I might receive or any message I might write on my hands to remind me, but anything typed out onto Yesterday remains, and that’s what you failed to see me do.”

She turned her Stand’s screen to the parrot. On a bar above the timer, there was a single word typed into it.

‘P3rr0+ /V\4st3r’

“I must’ve found out it was you before I rewound time. That’s where you’ve failed. Now you will tell me who sent you or there will be consequences!” Daring Do snapped her fingers.

“I will tear your soul apart!” The bird’s Stand lunged forward.

Daring Do growled and shook the cage harder, banging the parrot inside all around until it stopped moving. The enemy Stand disappeared and little wisps of light flew out of the cage.

“Is everything all right, Daring Do?” One of the technicians from the event came around the back.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” Daring Do smiled. “This parrot has a severe case of bird flu. Someone needs to take it to the vet immediately.”

“It does?” The technician asked. “Looks like it’s passed out. I’ll get someone to bring it to the vet immediately.”

“Also, the parrot should be kept sedated,” Daring Do instructed as she handed over the cage. “So it doesn’t hurt itself.”

“Got it,” The technician took the cage away, holding it under one arm. That was when Daring Do noticed something on the bottom of the cage.

“Wait!” Daring Do ran up to the man. “I just need to have a look on the underside of the carrier. In case it’s important to the parrot’s health.”

“Whatever you say, Miss Do.”

Daring Do peered at the bottom of the cage. There was a sticker there, with a few lines of text on it. “Anniversary Pets and Birds. Hmm… Why are birds separate from pets?”

Whatever this was, this was a clue. If this was where they had obtained the parrot, perhaps they would find more information on Die Die Riches there. With the parrot heading for the vet now, it was too far away for its powers to continue and Daring Do could already hear the life returning to the crowd outside as their voices began to rise in volume.

“Well, I’ve got a fundraiser to complete.” She adjusted her vest and her hair. “I’ll let Sunset and Shiho know my findings once that’s done with. They’re gonna want to hear this.”

Author's Note

Another Stand master out of the game, but not one you might've thought. :trollestia:
As always, with all our Stands for this third part, do find Soul Stirrer on the group thread!

Chapter 11: An Angry Circle

“Wow.” Was all Josher Joyride could say as they walked through the main doors to Weather Alternate’s headquarters.

The doors, which were made of heavy duty carbon fiber glass, slid open with ease once a camera above it scanned Joshi Horner, bringing them into a stark white lobby with a marble counter and four hologram screens at reception. People in suits were walking in and out of the building and there was even a travelator leading somewhere deeper into the facility. Josher could also see a wing for the Crusaders Foundation towards the east side of the building. He remembered his mother telling him that they had teamed up with Weather Alternate to help make the world a better place, but he didn’t think they would be working this closely together.

“Sehr gut, ja?” Joshi stretched his arms out as he walked. “This was where it all began. The reconstruction of Berlin. And now it will be the answer to finding Die Die Riches’ roots to cut them down once and for all.”

“So how does this work? You have some kind of secret room where you monitor everything?” Cajole asked, looking around from ceiling to floor. “Honestly, that’ll be pretty cool. No wonder Weather Alternate could always find us when we traveled to Berlin.”

“And we’re going to find Die Die Riches now.” Joshi curled his arm close to his face and gave them a thumbs up. “Do not worry! Weather Alternate will find them and we can put an end to this meager threat before it's too late!”

Joshi watched the two Joyrides as they walked to the center of the lobby, where a giant sigil of Weather Alternate, which was a cloud and a radio tower, was engraved into the smooth ground. He was still young himself, but he knew that Weather Alternate had come far ever since the Battle of Berlin. About four years after they had changed directions, his father, Dolfy, had met a beautiful blonde woman, his favorite kind, and they eventually married and brought Joshi into the world. His father had remembered his promise all those years ago and named him after Summer Shine and Cajole Joyride, the Berliner Helden.

Ever since he could speak, Joshi had wanted to meet these so-called heroes for himself, hoping to eventually meet them some day. He never thought that day would come, but here he was today with one of them and his own son. They were everything his father had said they would be. He was here today with actual heroes, and perhaps he would have the chance to even fight alongside them.

“Let me bring you to the information center,” Joshi waved. “We can get a better look at all the data we have in there. Maybe even find a pattern to Die Die Riches’ movements.”

The two Jojo’s followed the boy down a wide hallway past reception, going through a series of folding gates that blinked green when they passed.

“We’ve been tracking some suspicious overland cargo,” Joshi said as they walked. “We deduced that since Die Die Riches is made up of less wealthy people, they wouldn’t use an airplane to move their goods. Besides, airport security is very tough in Germany. Using land vehicles is much cheaper and has fewer inspections.”

“But if they’re using land vehicles,” Josher reasoned. “Then their base can’t be that far away. At least, it must be able to be reachable over land. Right?”

Joshi snapped his fingers. “Ja, correct. I’m betting they’re from Poland. But we’ll have to wait to see.”

Josher and Cajole shared a look, then both shrugged and kept going.

The hall they were in led by various control rooms, filled with rows and rows of computer stations and giant screens at the front of each room. Wires ran along the floors like vines, with some even going up and through the ceiling. Joshi explained that all these rooms were used to coordinate efforts for restructuring cities and sending out aid for those that needed it, though usually, the aid was handled by the Crusaders Foundation. Another function the rooms had was to keep tabs on unsavory folk, and Die Die Riches was one such group they had been monitoring.

Eventually, they arrived at a larger and more empty room, with only a few computer stations at the sides. Three giant screens were plastered on the walls, with the exception of the wall that housed the entrance. The floor here also had a huge logo for Weather Alternate and people were swiping through screen after screen at their stations. This was the information center, where all valuable data was checked and sent out to their various divisions. Everything Weather Alternate learned would first come through here.

To their surprise, there was a hunched old man standing by one of the large screens, looking up at it. He didn’t have shoes on, so Cajole could recognize a pair of metal legs sticking out from under his pants.

“Papa, you’re here,” Joshi said. “I thought you weren’t coming down?”

The man turned around, and when he saw Cajole and Josher, one arm shot up into the air at a forty- five degree angle as he leaned forward more.

“Mein Berliner Helden!” he said at the top of his voice. “You’ve returned! As spry as you always have been, I see. Unlike me.”

Dolfy Horner had aged considerably in the last twenty years. Most of his fine blonde hair was gone, turned grey with age, and his face had sunken lower, along with his body.

“Dolfy! Good to see uh, that you’re doing well,” Cajole said before shaking his hand. “Not bad. For an old man. And this is Josher, my son.”

“Hello, sir.” Josher held out a hand for Dolfy to shake.

After shaking it, Dolfy turned his hand over to see an ace of spades in it. “Oh. A trickster, eh? That’s good, I didn’t even see it until I felt it.”

“The ace of spades.” Josher flicked his fingers as the king of spades appeared between two of them. “You can never go wrong with an ace.”

“So what’s our situation here, paps?” Joshi joined him at the large screen. “Have we found anything else?”

“I think it’s safe to say they’re coming from the west,” Dolfy said and tapped the screen, bringing up a map of Western Europe. Lines began to draw themselves over the screen, indicating trucks or other vehicles. “See how they start to thin out the further east they go? They’re not coming from Poland.”

“Ach. I thought for sure it would be Poland,” Joshi slapped his fist, making a smack sound. “Alright, if they’re not coming from Poland, it must be somewhere else that is near the west. Let’s go over the data again. They will not be further than Spain, that’s for sure.”

Dolfy’s fingers skated over a holographic keyboard as he gestured to the map. “These are the major trade routes that Die Die Riches have been using to move their people around,” He pointed to several thin red lines that were scrawled on the map. “You know, the name Die Die Riches is funny to me. Because, in German, it means ‘The The Riches’. Ha! I bet an Englishman or an American founded this group.”

“Uh… right.” Josher spiralled a card into the air, not even bothering to catch it as it began floating back down like a leaf. “What do they even hope to gain by killing all the rich? The world’s not going to change just because there’s no more rich people.”

“I see it as a takeover of the world,” Dolfy groused. “If they eliminate every rich person in the world, including our world leaders, they would take over all the governments by force and enforce their will. Who knows what will happen if someone without knowledge of politics and leadership takes over.”

“They can’t possibly take down whole governments, can they?” Cajole threw a fist downwards and then raised one hand and placed it over one ear. “We’ll stop them. We’ve fought against tougher enemies, Dolfy. We’ve saved the world before. We can do it again.”

The elderly man laughed. “Just what I like to hear, Jojo. I mean, Weather Alternate had the resources to awaken the Nugget People and face them in battle! What could a group of ragtag poor people do to the likes of us?”

Just then alarms began to sound throughout the facility, coming out of speakers in the ceilings. They sounded with two quick ones, followed by a longer drawn out blare, repeating over and over again.

“We’re under attack!” Joshi bent lower and raised both arms to his chest level. “It has to be Die Die Riches!”

“Kotzbrocken!” Dolfy swung an arm down. “They think they can attack us in our own headquarters?! How dare they! Do you know how long it took us to get established here?! I took years to find Berlin on the map, and this is what we get now?!”

Dolfy yelled and flipped a chair, throwing it into one of the computer stations, smashing the screen to pieces as the technician there got up and hopped away.

“Papa, calm down.” Joshi raised both hands. He knew his father’s angry problem, but this seemed different.

“I won’t calm down until I figure out what’s going on!” Dolfy clenched both fists as his Stand appeared behind him, standing tall and proud.

Joshi had never seen his father’s Stand, Dragonforce, in action before, but he knew the stories. He had burned masses of people down with its flames and if the Berliner Helden hadn’t made him see the light, they would be in a completely different place today, perhaps as a different Die Die Riches, trying to takeover the world.

“Dolfy, stop it.” Cajole put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve got other things to worry about.”

From outside, there was a rattle of gunfire and everyone instinctively ducked. There were shouts of surprise, followed by more gunfire.

“We need to deal with this, now!” Joshi looked at his companions and his father. “I’ll handle this. Electrical machinery is Blitzkrieg’s forte!”

“But guns aren’t electrical,” Josher said.

“I mean I can handle this. Just make sure my father doesn’t burn this whole place down, please.” Joshi looked at his father’s blue and orange Stand, its long teeth gritting together in a snarl.

As the doors slid open, Joshi Horner peeked his head out, not wanting to run into a group of armed men if they were just outside in the hallway. Fortunately, from where he was, he couldn’t see any armed assailants, but the gunfire was louder out here and from the sound of it, Weather Alternate was already firing back. Weather Alternate security used HK520’s, the latest in a line of pure German genius. With the advancements of technology, the HK520 had a unique magazine rail, allowing three other magazines to be swapped in with a push of a button. He doubted Die Die Riches would have the level of tech they did.

“Time to lend my hand.” Joshi ran on with Blitzkrieg floating along behind him.

Just before the main lobby, Joshi spotted a firefight between their security and a group of armed humans he didn’t recognize. They didn’t wear any notable gear to determine where they were from and instead, most of them were dressed in normal clothes, with the exception of combat gloves and vests. From where he was, he could see they carried older rifles, AK12s, by the looks of it, the predecessor of the Russians’ AK65.

They fired against the Weather Alternate security, who had already deployed their bulletproof glass shields, using them as cover as they shot down more Die Die Riches members.

“Time to engage the Blitzkrieg defenses.” Joshi smiled and cracked his knuckles.

With Joshi’s Stand in mind, Dolfy had gotten the engineers to build defenses into their headquarters that only Blitzkrieg could use. With its mastery over electrical machinery, it could activate any of them at a whim, should any emergency like this one occur.

Joshi had never once got to try them out, but today, he would have the satisfaction to do so. Most of them had been built with the intention to keep Nugget People at bay, should they return, but they could still serve well against regular humans.

Nodding to his Stand, he watched as Blitzkrieg placed a hand against the wall, its eyes glowing a light red as electricity sparked from its fingertips.

From above the reception table, two giant bulbs descended from the ceiling, facing the approaching enemy force. They suddenly activated, blazing bright blue UV lights into the enemy eyes, temporarily disorienting them. The security used this chance to open fire, taking down three armed soldiers before the rest began scrambling back for cover amongst benches and potted plants.

“Next up…” Joshi’s Stand transmitted another set of instructions through the circuits in the walls.

A buzzing sound began to fill the air and all of a sudden, the ground under the assailants crackled with electricity and they all immediately stood up, stiff as a board as they began convulsing on the spot.

Weather Alternate security took this chance to finish them off while they couldn’t move.

“Blasted poor people!” One of the guards threw his rifle to the ground hard and stomped on it. “Why do they have to do this?! Do they not see how we’re trying to help the whole world?!”

“Hey, calm down!” a female guard yelled at him. “You don’t have to shout in my ear!”

“Don’t yell at me, sandwich!” He turned to her and to Joshi’s horror, he picked up his rifle, pointed at her face and fired.

“Scheiße! What have you done?” Another of the guards exclaimed.

They all looked at each other, emotions swapping from shock, to confusion, to horror, then to anger as they began pointing fingers at each other. One by one, all their rifles were raised at each other and Joshi threw his hands over his ears as they began firing on each other.

Weather Alternate’s security wore plated body armor, able to blunt standard projectiles, but their faces were unprotected and one by one, they began to fall as they fired to kill. Eventually, only one guard remained and he stood there, panting, his face a picture of anger and anguish. By now, Joshi wasn’t the only one in the hallway to investigate the gunfire and more people were coming out of their respective rooms.

“You maniac!” one scientist yelled and ran towards the guard. “What do you think you’re doing?! Du forellenschnuffler!”

The guard turned his angry eyes on him and leveled his rifle with the man’s chest. Joshi realized he had to act now, or there would be even more casualties.

He had Blitzkrieg initiate another of the building’s failsafes and an automated turret dropped from the ceiling, sporting purple glowing lights and twin steel barrels. It turned to the guard before he could fire and shot out two circular purple discs. They attached to his back and conducted electricity through his armor, knocking him down on his face. These were non-lethal rounds, to maybe knock out Nugget People by assaulting every nerve in their body in order to study them. They worked just fine against normal people too.

With the guard down, Joshi had been sure that their troubles were over, but behind him, he started hearing scuffling and he realized to his horror that the other Weather Alternate staff had begun fighting each other, with one even biting deep into the arm of another.

“What is going on?” Joshi watched his father’s colleagues tear into each other. Something was amiss, and he could only think of one thing that could be the cause of all this. “There’s an enemy Stand about.”

As Joshi stood there, a small metal cylinder bounced down into the hallway, where it exploded into a thick cloud of white smoke with a hiss. Joshi covered his mouth and backed away into a corner, waiting to see what this was.

In the smoke, the faint outlines of people could be seen, people dressed in military gear and holding guns.

Joshi leaned further into the shadows. Thankfully he was rather short and was able to hide behind a piece of the air conditioning unit nearby. Peeking out through a gap in his hiding place, Joshi watched as six armed men came out of the smoke. Behind them was one that shimmered with a telltale light that told Joshi he was the Stand master. But where was his Stand?

“Area secure, Commander Jalebi,” A soldier with numerous badges and patches on his uniform said. He had an accent that Joshi couldn’t place. “All hostiles down. It seems they took each other out.”

“Excellent work, Other Yusuf,” The Stand master, who was presumably Commander Jalebi said. His accent was thicker than the previous man’s and had a lot of spit in it. He turned his head around to survey the surroundings. “There was less resistance than I expected. But then I had expected no resistance, so maybe not.”

Joshi continued to watch them, keeping silent behind his piece of cover. These people seemed too well armed and equipped to be from Die Die Riches. But there was no mistaking it, their leader was a Stand user. He had a thick moustache that curved around his lips and bushy, greasy curly hair that stuck out from under a bright red fez hat. Below, he wore a brownish suit with white stripes going down its entirety, and he had something that looked like a jellyfish coming out of his jacket pocket. Unlike his comrades, he wasn’t wearing any protective gear.

“Spread out and eliminate everyone,” Jalebi ordered as he struck a match against his suit. “Remember to keep your emotions in check. We don’t want another casualty like Muggy Sandals.”

“He was a good man, sir.” The one called Other Yusuf saluted with a stern face. “Breaker, Khaki, you’re with me. Ali, you Gazi and Wheels take the left hall.”

The six gunmen split up into threes and three of them began heading down Joshi’s hallway. The boy began to panic as they came towards his position. If they came around the processor, he would surely be seen. He was going to have to try something he didn’t know would work or not.

It’s better than getting shot.

Joshi pushed one finger against the processor and his Stand appeared and did the same. The metal folded around the point of impact and began moving itself apart, shifting and breaking apart as it opened up.

“So far so gut. Now let’s see if we get electrocuted from this…” Joshi held his breath as the hole grew as big as him. He shuffled himself inside and flicked his finger in a down motion. The processor’s surface began to fold back as the group of gunmen got closer, sealing him inside silently. “Now the moment of truth…”

Careful not to touch any wires, Joshi kept quiet as the men began to pass, slowly making their way forward as they checked from room to room. He would’ve been content to just wait it out here, but then he started hearing gunfire and he remembered they were picking off the rest of the building systematically. That would mean they might eventually get to his father, Cajole and Josher.

His father’s anger had been uncalled for earlier and after seeing the guards turn on each other, he now knew why. That must’ve been the enemy Stand’s ability… to amplify feelings of rage. Whoever this was, he had been working his power through the building even before the gunmen walked in.

But Joshi returned his focus to his friends and his father. Who knows how much they’ve been affected by anger now. It was like a spreading virus, jumping from target to target when they felt any bit of anger from the way their colleagues and friends were behaving. He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself and his emotions. That was the key, like Jalebi had said earlier. If he was to keep his emotions in check, perhaps he could find a way to stop him.

But first, he had to deal with the other gunmen, and as long as he could see them, he could deal with them with the building’s defenses.

Joshi had the processor’s surface that faced the wall open up slowly, giving his Stand some space to put a hand through as it pressed a palm against the wall. Energy passed from Blitzkrieg’s hand into the wall, through all its hidden circuitry and machinery as it searched for the means to take out the armed troops.

And there it was. With a flick of its index finger, Blitzkrieg brought up a tempered glass frame in front of the doorway the men were headed towards. The sudden hiss of air and the rising of the frame caught one of them off guard and they started firing at it. The bullets scratched at the glass surface, forming grooves across its sleek form, but otherwise did not shatter it. From above it, three nets were fired from tiny holes embedded in the frame. The gunmen were already stunned from the frame appearing and two of them failed to get out of the way as the nets enveloped their bodies, knocking them to the ground as an electrical charge began to pass from one side to the other.

“We’re under attack!” the one Joshi remembered was called Other Yusuf cried out and scrambled away, the last of his group of comrades who had been incapacitated by the electric nets. “Breaker and Khaki down!”

Joshi wasn’t done with them yet. Through Blitzkrieg, he sourced through the facility, finding a station one section down that housed one of his pet projects. And by pet project, Joshi literally meant a pet project. Activating it, a small door buzzed open and a four-legged machine darted out, its claws clacking against the smooth floor as it raced for his location. Where its head should be was a single bulb with a red eye and it had a long and wiry tail that ended in a stub.

He called this the Jaeguar, designed to help survey territory and coral targets back towards them for capture. In the event their target could not be captured, the Jaeguar was also outfitted with three dagger-like claws on each leg that could tear through the likes of steel. As he had said, it was a pet project and he had never thought he would ever get to test it out.

“Hey! What’s taking so long to capture this base?” Jalebi’s voice yelled. “I wanted this done now, not in four hours!”

He groaned and walked over to the right hallway where Other Yusuf had responded earlier. Instead of seeing dead Weather Alternate people, he saw Other Yusuf on the ground and Breaker and Khaki spazzing on the ground, caught in nets.

“Other Yusuf!” Jalebi exclaimed. “What has happened here? Who took down Breaker and Khaki?”

“Traps, sir. This building is boobied!” He pushed up and grabbed his gun tightly.

Jalebi looked annoyed. “Well then, we must find the command room! If there are traps, there must also be a way to disable them. Now let us go! The only thing I had for breakfast was Gatorade and chicken jerky, and my stomach feels like it’s about to fly off to the right and explode with emptiness.”

“Yes, sir!” Other Yusuf saluted and marched off. “Ali, status.”

“Proceeding, sir. We’ve captured one room. A mail room. There was something. A trap. Gazi is down, but Wheels and I are untouched.”

Joshi licked his lips. Gatorade and chicken jerky sounded like a good snack right about now, but it was no time for a nibble. He had to stop these foreigners from seizing control of the compound. He went back to the Jaeguar and commanded Blitzkrieg to take over it as it rounded the corner, catching sight of the two assailants.

“Oh ja,” Joshi smiled. “Time to give you a ride to hell, you scoundrels.”

The two men stopped walking as they saw the Jaeguar coming toward them. “What is that?”

Other Yusuf fired upon it, but the Jaeguar leapt from side to side, avoiding most of the bullets as it ran. The bullets that pelted against it slid off, leaving nothing more than grooves along its metallic surface.

“And now to cool you down,” Joshi grinned, triggering the fire extinguisher system in the hallway where Other Yusuf was. Jets of thick, freezing mist gushed out of vents in the walls, obscuring the vision of everyone inside. Joshi, however, was watching through the cameras mounted on the Jaeguar, and they were not hampered by the fog at all. Jalebi’s Stand might work on annoyed or angry people, but Joshi was having a great time.

It suddenly cleared the fog, claws already raised above its head as Other Yusuf tried fanning the air in front of his face. He only realized where the Jaeguar was too late and its claws raked through his combat vest, tearing through fabric and skin, as blood splashed out against the white walls in three lines. Other Yusuf spun on a heel and went down with a yell.

With him incapacitated, that just left Joshi with Jalebi and he sent the Jaeguar on, keeping it moving as it tore through the smoke, claws raised as it poised itself to attack again. But before it could take down Jalebi like it did Other Yusuf, the man suddenly brought both arms together, faster than Joshi thought was possible. His gun was tossed aside and all of a sudden, his body shimmered, glowing white before dark red metal that resembled segments of an insect’s exoskeleton formed over his body and his head, leaving only his eyes and nose out, covering him in a protective coating just as the Jaeguar’s claws slashed his body. Sparks flew, but no blood was drawn.

“Was?” Joshi was taken aback. He had not been expecting this from Jalebi’s Stand. It appeared that its ability to make people furiously mad was only one of its powers.

“This must be the work of a Stand master…” Jalebi clapped his armored hands together. “Come now, master! Come and face me! Come and kill me! I am but a man, not a god! I will give you a fair fight.”

Joshi kept his Jaeguar back, its body low and its legs bent as he did his best to analyze his project through its eyes through his Stand’s eyes. It would be unwise to attack Jalebi again so quickly without first learning more about what he could do. If he made a presumptuous move here, he could very well end up like Other Yusuf on the ground, maybe except not as lucky.

Chapter 13: Changing Wind

It was the fifth time Skyburn Dash had shaken Twilight Sparkle awake and she got up as groggy as ever, shaking her head wildly.

“I’m awake. I’m awake.”

“You should really get some proper rest. You’ve been up all night.” Skyburn sat down beside her. “Spike has the right idea. He’s out cold.”

They both looked across the table where Twilight’s companion was in the process of inhaling a sheet of paper.

They had already spent more than a day in the Canterlot Library, looking up anything they could about Die Die Riches and how to find their main headquarters. As he looked out the window, Skyburn could see that dawn was already breaking once again. Sweetie Belle was off at the Crusaders Foundation, going through what they had on Die Die Riches from around the world. That made Skyburn think about his uncle and cousin. They were off visiting Berlin and perhaps they had become targets of Die Die Riches as well. Trouble never seemed to stop finding them.

They had been searching through the internet since leaving the Apple Farms, but nothing had come up on where Die Die Riches was operating from. Unlike the other activist groups, there was no information on how they started or who their leader even was. He didn’t know how much Twilight and Spike had gone through on the net, seeing as they had never once used a computer before, but he had gone through just about every news article and wiki, searching for anything, anything that could point them to Die Die Riches’ roots.

He had to make them pay. For Appy, his dear Appy who was now gone. He had known her for a majority of his life, ever since elementary school and though they hadn’t always liked each other, their relationship had taken one step further four years ago during one of his biking events in school. He had fallen off his bike on a trial run and Appy wouldn’t even let him bandage up his wounds. She had done it all for him, no questions asked, and something in him ignited that day and they had been hanging out more ever since, and that soon blossomed into a romance that lasted until the morning before where she was taken away from him by people who wanted to see the end of rich people all around the world.

Skyburn had pictured a family he would one day have with Appy. He wanted at least three children and they would all be as sporty and thrill seeking as he was. They would go on adventures around the world, climbing the tallest mountains, biking down the greatest of slopes, even jumping into the deepest lakes. But his dreams had all been crushed and it was all thanks to Die Die Riches.

They had pushed their agenda into his life and now, he was going to push back. As long as they could find something about Die Die Riches on the internet.

Both his mother and his aunt had stood up against rising evils and now, it was his turn to do his part for the world. Die Die Riches may think killing the rich would benefit the world, but it didn’t, at least not to him. He could understand the plight of less fortunate people in the world they lived in today, but he would not accept murder as a way to change that.

As Twilight took his advice to get some rest, Skyburn continued through the internet, browsing through site after site after site as he searched for more articles about the rising activist group.

As the day drew on and people started filling the library, Skyburn began to feel himself wearing out and he stopped to find a quieter section to get some rest, leaving Twilight and Spike by the tables.

His first corner was rather quiet, with only one kid with huge glasses sitting on a beanbag, but his constant sneezing forced Skyburn to find another location, which led him to his second spot, behind a whole column of bookshelves at a triangular corner of the library. It was quiet here too, but that must’ve been why a couple had picked this place. There was a woman sitting in the lap of a man behind the last bookshelf and by the way she was moving and the expressions they were making, he wasn’t going to get much sleep here without thinking of what they were doing.

His third location was close by, still behind all these bookshelves, but it was nothing but a long corridor of dusty shelves. People definitely hadn’t come this way in years, so he opted to just lie on the floor and close his eyes.

He had only just done so when a shrill scream broke the silence and made him jump back up on his feet.

“Yo-you’re a man!” a male voice yelled. “Who are you?!”

“Who am I?” came another voice. “Who are you? You’re a woman!”

“Ugh, my clothes are so tight! Why am I wearing a bra?”

“I have boobs!” the other voice exclaimed.

“Wait… did we… did we swap genders?!” the woman’s voice said.

“I don’t know! Let’s get out of here!”

There was a rush of footsteps and Skyburn jumped aside as the two people from the back ran by him. He had only caught glimpses of them earlier, but he was sure the man was dressed in a loose red flannel shirt and the woman in a tight pink shirt. Now, it was the other way around.

“That’s odd…” Skyburn scratched his head, then he realized something. Something odd. “Wait, why do I have a girl’s voice?”

Skyburn looked down and moved his hand around his body. He was shocked to learn that his body had become leaner and curvier, and more importantly, feminine. His hips had widened and there were two small mounds sticking up from his chest.

“I-I’m a girl!” he shuffled his hands along his body and then pressed his cheeks together in surprise. “But how?”

He only realized he was shouting after a few seconds and remembered he was in a library, a place of quiet and reflection. But at this point, he wasn’t the only one shouting.

Skyburn could hear gasps and shouts of surprise as probably everyone in the library had found out their genders had been swapped.

There were varying degrees of outbursts, but what Skyburn managed to pick up were, “Mommy, help! I have a peepee!”

“Whoo, I’m a girl! I’m gonna touch myself so bad!”

“What is going on?!”

“Heeeeelp meeee!”

“I just ripped my pants!”

Then there was an explosion outside and Skyburn ducked, turning his head to the nearest window. There was a plume of smoke rising up from the window ledge and there were more screams from outside.

“This has to be the work of an enemy Stand!” Skyburn peeked out and saw a buff woman lying on her back next to a fiery ball of a truck on its side. “She must’ve been flung out from the blast after realizing her gender had swapped.”

More people ran about the street, most of them horrified that they were now a different gender. There were even two men strangling each other, likely fighting over the fact that they had become men.

Another car crashed into the burning truck and exploded as well, forcing Skyburn down as the explosion shattered the window he was looking out from.

“Runaway!” he yelled as a bluish Stand emerged from him, swiping at the blades of glass with two batons.

It had a blue helmet over the top half of its head, covering everything above the tip of its nose and it had an outfit that resembled a motocross suit, but to his further surprise, his Stand had also taken on a female appearance.

“I gotta find Twilight and Spike.” He shook his head. He wasn’t going to get used to hearing a female voice come out of his throat.

Back at the main foyer of the library, everything around him was a mess. A girl was pulling her hair out and wailing to the air, a man was throwing books as far as he could, two children were poking each other and running all over the library and the librarian was running circles in her booth. Twilight and Spike were somehow still asleep at their table, though Spike was now a woman and Twilight a man with huge biceps and thighs.

“Twilight! Spike! Wake up!” Skyburn shook the pair of them roughly. “We’re under attack!”

Twilight was the first to open her eyes. “Huh? What? Where? What’s wrong with my voice?”

“It’s an enemy Stand,” Skyburn told her urgently. “It’s changed the genders of everyone in the area. We need to stop it before everyone goes nuts!”

“Changed genders?” Twilight looked at her hands, then at her body. “I guess I do look different now and I sound different. Human bodies are interesting. I’ll have to study them more when I have the time.”

Another explosion sounded from outside and people were screaming and there seemed to be a full onset of panic going on out there.

“Twi? What’s going on?” Spike got up and wiped the corner of his mouth. “Why is my hair so long? Did you do something to it?”

Spike’s hair, which was normally a green mohawk, was now draped down the right side of his head, going all the way down to his shoulder. His body had slimmed down, especially his neck and Skyburn’s heart skipped a beat before he remembered Spike was actually a guy.

He coughed and pointed to the door. “We need to get out there and find out what’s going on. We need to find the one responsible for this. Ten bucks says it’s Die Die Riches again.”

“This Stand business is really crazy.” Spike got up and tried to brush his hair out of his face.

Now that Skyburn had brushed a hand behind his head, he realized that his hair had also grown down to the small of his back, long and multicolored like his mother’s hair. Twilight’s hair, on the other hand, had grown short and spiky, slicked back horizontally from the back of her head, looking like an airplane of sorts.

“Whatever this Stand is, it has the power to change our genders and while it doesn’t seem like much…” Skyburn panned a hand across the carnage on the street as they emerged from the library. “The confusion of becoming the opposite gender has plummeted the city into mass hysteria.”

Across the street, two women had grabbed a large piece of debris and threw it through a store front, shattering its glass before hopping in to grab what they could. It seemed people were taking advantage of the situation to get what they needed.

“We’re all going to die! This is the end!” A man ran down the street, dressed in a skirt and crop top. “The world’s gonna come crashing down!”

“Overly dramatic, but okay.” Skyburn looked around at all the different people. “We need to find the Stand master and stop this.”

“But how do we know who it is?” Twilight folded her arms across her wide chest. “By the looks of it, this Stand is able to affect a very large area. The Stand user could be hiding anywhere.”

“True…” Skyburn sighed. “It’s ability isn’t very strong or even offensive, meaning that the Stand could likely travel further. For example, your Stand, Strange World, hits hard and fast, meaning that it wouldn’t be able to travel far from you.”

“There must be a way to smoke them out, then!” Spike pounded a fist against his other arm. “Think of it. Carnage like this… I’m sure the Stand master must be somewhere they can see all of this. They’d want to see everything they were causing.”

“And they won’t be panicking like this. They’d be used to seeing this…” Skyburn looked at the top of the buildings. “A good vantage point would allow them to see the carnage unfold. I bet I could get up there easily.”

“I’ll check the streets then.” Twilight nodded. “Spike will come with me, since he doesn’t have a Stand.”

“Changing a mare into a stallion and vice versa is highly advanced magic,” Twilight was telling Spike. She was a little confused by her body changing, but since she had still been adjusting to her transformation from pony to human, it wasn’t quite as bad as the other humans seemed to be taking it. In fact, the massive muscles that she had been given made it easier to move around without exhausting herself.

“Yeah, it’s amazing and all,” Spike said, trying to keep up as Twilight pelted ahead at top speed. “But we gotta figure out a way to change everyone back! I can’t let Rarity see me like this!”

Twilight glanced back at Spike. His hair was streaming behind her in the wind, like a green flag. “You’ve gotta stop. She already has grandchildren.”

“Old habits die hard, I guess.” Spike shrugged. “Let’s just get to finding this Stand master so we can go back to normal. Well, normal in this world.”

“I’m working on that, Spike,” Twilight said back over her shoulder. “All this Stand stuff has so many unknown variables, and I want to make sure whatever plan I come up with has the best chance of success.”

Skyburn watched them go, then ran up to the closest building, which was the library and summoned his Stand just as a woman ran out from the entrance, carrying a handful of books.

“All mine, mine!” she said as she ran off.

“People are taking this chance to do whatever they want…” Skyburn shook his head as his Stand grabbed ahold of him and began jumping up the side of the wall, using its baton as handrails along the building as it jammed it into the wall. “We’ll just need to find this Stand master and put an end to this!”

The roof of the library was clear, devoid of all life except for a raven on the other end of the building, but it paid Skyburn no mind and he examined the rest of the city from what he could see. There were fires on most of the streets near the library and she spotted Twilight and Spike running down to Porky Park, which was across the street as a brawl began about twenty feet ahead of them, near the park’s fountain.

“The whole city’s gone to pie.” Skyburn rested on a knee at the edge of the roof. “Now where are you, you little Stand master… Runaway and I have a score to settle with you for killing my girlfriend.”

Everyone was either busy feeling themselves up because of their changed gender, fighting each other because they were in a full on panic, or robbing stores, taking advantage of all the hysteria. Except for one man, tossing a football into the air on an apartment building’s rooftop. He was dressed in a black suit and he had long dark curly hair falling down beside his face. He looked… pleased.

“If that’s not a suspicious looking man, then I’m not a man myself,” Skyburn said, then remembered his body. “Well, now I’m not a man, but I’m a man trapped in a woman’s body, so I’m still a man. Well, I just have a slimmer body. And my boobs are really tiny, so there’s not much difference. Bah, the least this Stand could’ve done was give me a better body…”

Skyburn called up his Stand again and with a running jump, it threw both of them off the roof of the library, sailing through the air before landing on the adjacent building, breaking into a run without a pause. His Stand was agile, capable of moving quickly, and where it lacked in physical strength, it made up for it with acrobatics and maneuverability.

He had first discovered his Stand when he was seven years old and at first, he had thought it was just his imaginary friend, but once his grandmother clarified everything for him, he had begun practicing to control his Stand. Today, he could proudly say that he knew everything his Stand could do.

After his next jump, the man saw him coming and to his credit, didn’t turn tail and run. Instead, he turned his whole body to face him as he continued throwing his football into the air.

“So, you’re here. I knew you would find me eventually…” he said with a rather thick accent. “You like what I’ve done with the place? Simple, but it makes people revert to their inner evils.”

“What do you mean?” Skyburn landed on the roof the man was standing on and pointed a finger at him. “It’s because of your gender swapping that everyone’s gone hysterical.”

“Oh, no.” He threw the football to his other hand. “They’re acting out their inner evils, boy. Look at that one down there.”

Skyburn followed his gnarly finger to an old woman by a drinking fountain at the edge of Porky Park. She had pulled a strangely red gun from her backpack and she had begun mowing down a group of teenagers.

“See? I didn’t do that. I didn’t cause her to shoot people,” the man said. “She’s doing that herself. She’s taking a chance during this mass panic to do what she’s always wanted to do. Well, he, but you get it, aren’t you? You are a boy in a girl’s body.”

Skyburn creased a brow at the man’s english. “Whatever it is, it’s you who’s started all this. I know you’re with Die Die Riches!”

“Ah, yes my boss wants me to kill rich people.” He grabbed the football tighter and held it high. “See my Stand, Wind of Change. It has the ability to change the genders of any living thing in the vicinity and it can do it for hundreds of meters. See, all I do is have to change the genders and people start killing themselves for me. There will be less rich people in the world after I’m done.”

“Not when I’m here to stop you, dude.” Skyburn bent his body to the right, then angled his head so that it was leveled with the ground. “Your group killed my girlfriend. You’re all just making the world worse. I’m going to make sure you don’t get the chance to achieve your goals.”

The man bent back and laughed a really fake sounding laugh. “What a story. I’m afraid you’re not going to kill me. Not today at least. Did you really think I was here on the roof without backup, right?”

Skyburn sent Runaway forward, who brandished both batons, ready to cave the man’s face in, when from the corner of his vision, he saw something spinning towards him. He turned towards it, noticing it was a thick boomerang the size of a trash can lid, colored in red and yellow. He was about to dodge it, but unexpectedly, the man threw his football at his Stand’s head, hitting it dead in the center of its forehead, knocking it back.

He did the same, falling back a step as blood spurted from his head, only for the boomerang to add to it, hitting him on the bridge of his nose and sending him flying back into the roof’s raised ledge as stars burned across his vision.

“Ha ha ha! You just fall like a chicken! Cheep cheep cheeeeep!” The man began flapping his arms like chicken wings. Then he caught his football as it bounced back to his hands. “Ha ha ha, you cannot be actor, girl. You don’t even know how to fall like a human.”

“Wh-What?” Skyburn pushed himself off the ledge and stood up. “Who said anything about acting, you lunatic? Where are you even from?”

“Not gonna say…” he tapped a finger against his chin. “But I will tell you my name, because I like to tell people my name before they are kill. My name is Wiseau Sirius and I was sent here by Die Die Riches to kill. You must be rich that you’re trying to stop me. Only rich people don’t like me.”

From a door to the roof walked a woman in a red tank top and blue jeans and she had black hair that stuck straight up into the air almost like a pillar. From behind her, Skyburn could see a humanoid figure with red and yellow markings. It had a strange mask on its face that only revealed its eyes and its arms and legs were in circular segments with fingers and toes at the ends.

“Oh, High Mark, you’re coming out of the stairway.” The man turned and held his football in both hands. “Why are you a wo- ah, that’s right, Wind of Change affect you too.”

“Oh, hi Wiseau.” She stuck her hip out to one side and ran a finger up her right leg. “I don’t mind from time to time. It makes me look hot.”

“So there’s two of you!” Skyburn raised both fists in front of himself as Runaway flipped its batons in its hands. His head hurt, but now was no time to feel pain. He’d suffered worse than this before, putting up with this was going to be easy. “Die Die Riches is going down.”

“Today you face Wind of Change and Taken by Force. Get ready!” Wiseau stood sideways and lifted both arms up like he was pretending to be a plane.

High Mark stood beside him and folded her arms. His arms. Her arms. Skyburn shook his head. He would only make it more complicated if he kept thinking about it.

Author's Note

Runaway's stat chart can be found here!
Part 3's Stand Charts.

Chapter 14: The Scorpion Strategy

Skyburn Dash eyed both enemies warily, keeping his own Stand back for the time being, at least until he could figure out a winning strategy here. From what he knew so far, Wiseau Sirius’ Stand, Wind of Change, which took the form of a football, was able to change people’s genders, and alone, that wasn’t a very powerful ability, but that just meant his Stand had a longer range, able to affect large areas around itself.

To him, this meant nothing, but to the simple minded, it would cause them to wreak havoc across the streets as proven by the violence that was happening below.

The other one, High Mark, who was supposed to be a man, had the Stand, Taken by Force. As of now, Skyburn still didn’t know what it could do, but it had thrown a boomerang at him earlier and it had hurt pretty bad. He wanted to assume that it had the power to throw boomerangs, but another part of him pulled at his gut, telling him that there was more to it.

“You do know that killing all the rich people in the world won’t solve a thing, right?” Skyburn said. He just had to buy enough time until he could think of a good plan.

“Do you understand life?” Wiseau suddenly burst out. “Do you?”

Skyburn waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t say more.

“Do you know what it’s like? To struggle to get by everyday?” High Mark was the one to continue. “I was once an aspiring actor, but not one of my movies took off and year after year, I was getting hired less and less and now I’m a nobody, left to rot on the streets. I took up jobs to at least pay off my apartment rent and my meals, but the prices rise every year and my job no longer pays enough.”

“And I make movies, but my movies don’t earn millions like I wanted to,” Wiseau said. “And all people do is laugh at my movies, which are serious, not comedy. Everybody betray me, so I’m fed up with this world. That’s when Die Die Riches came to me. We might be poorer people, but our leader, she is capable to find out what she needs without money and then she sends us to accomplish our task.”

“You’re a long way away, then.” Skyburn picked up on what he said. Their leader was female. “You must’ve come from somewhere beyond Canterlot. Beyond America.”

“You have no idea. I hate plane rides. So many hours…” Wiseau began fanning at his face with a hand. “Ten hours of flying. And your summers are so hot. I hate your country.”

“Whereas I’m native born, right here from Canterlot.” High Mark bent lower on a knee and leaned forward as she folded her arms. “That’s why I’m dressed appropriately, Wiseau.”

“Bah, I just want to finish killing everyone in Canterlot, then I can go back and report…” the strange man groaned. “You, girl, you must die first so that we don’t have more opposition. I didn’t know there are Stand masters here.”

“Oh, you’ll be surprised. I’m one of many.” Skyburn got into a combative stance. “If I fail here today, if I lose my life, I know many more who would take you down easily. But you know what?”

“What, what is it?” Wiseau waved a hand, asking him to hurry.

Skyburn clicked his tongue twice. “I’m not going to lose. Die Die Riches killed my girlfriend right in front of my eyes. Before that, I was willing to let you carry on, but now you’ve made it personal. Do or die, I’m taking your entire movement down. How’s that for a plan?”

“I don’t like it. Do you, Mark?” Wiseau looked at his companion. “His plan is nasty. I want to kill him.”

“Sounds good to me.” High Mark cracked her knuckles as a red and yellow sword appeared in her right hand.

Her Stand snapped its fingers again and a red and yellow cannon appeared beside it, just by the door that led down the building.

“Let’s see what you can do, puny one.” High Mark rushed at him from the right, holding her sword high. Skyburn sent Runaway to engage her, swinging a baton just as she threw her sword forward.

With a well-timed deflect, it sent the sword spiraling away, only for Wind of Change to hit it in the side of the head, the blow knocking it off its feet. Taken by Force took this chance to grab Runaway’s feet, before swinging it round and round as Wind of Change bounced back, hitting Runaway in the face once again as the cannon’s barrel began to glow orange.

Skyburn had stumbled back with each hit to his face, but he kept his eyes on the cannon, spotting their attack pattern. Wiseau would throw Wind of Change from his right, while High Mark and Taken by Force would attack him from his left.

“You’re trying to keep me in line with the cannon,” he surmised. “One of you attacks me from the right and the other from the left, keeping me from getting away as your cannon charges its power.”

“Perceptive one, isn’t she?” Wiseau chuckled as he caught his Stand again. “We call it our scorpion strategy. Normally our enemies don’t notice our cannon, too busy fight against us to pay attention and then boom, they die only realize too late.”

“Though our last opponent didn’t die. She just ended up in some hospital on Burrito Street,” High mark added.

“What a story, Mark.” Wiseau laughed again.

“But… there’s no hospital on Burrito Street.” Skyburn recalled. He knew his city well and there were only two hospitals in Canterlot and they certainly weren’t on a street that was famous for Mexican food.

“Is so hot out here. Just die, will you?” Wiseau threw his Stand at Runaway again as Taken by Force let go of its legs. “I want to leave your country. It doesn’t like me.”

“Here’s a better idea,” Skyburn said, deflecting Wiseau’s Stand with one of Runaway’s batons. “How about I pulverize you both?”

Runaway spun in the air, then got out of the way just in time as the cannon fired its payload. A giant orange fireball blazed past it and Skyburn, breaking apart the corner of the roof as it detonated just past the building in the air, shattering all the windows facing the road.

“That’s big. I better not get hit by that.” Skyburn looked at the damage, then back at the cannon as it began charging again.

“You’re fast, and so is your Stand,” High Mark remarked. “But you can’t contend with the both of us together! Taken by Force, do your thing!”

A bright yellow sword appeared in High Mark’s hands and he swung it at Runaway. Skyburn’s Stand deflected the blow with its batons easily.

“Keep deflecting them and I’ll keep them coming!” High Mark stretched her arms out to welcome Skyburn to keep trying. “Taken by Force has the ability to manifest almost every kind of weapon in someone’s hands! I have already equipped people around the city with my weapons as they go crazy from Wind of Change’s power. And these weapons are made by my Stand, meaning they can hurt Stands as well!”

She opened a palm and a shuriken appeared in it before she threw it at Skyburn. He got Runaway to deflect it, but then another two shurikens came at him before he could see them and they struck his Stand in the chest.

He gritted his teeth together in a silent groan as bloody cuts appeared on his chest, staining his shirt red.

“Your ability to make weapons is powerful, I admit,” Skyburn said as he sprinted towards High Mark. “But a Stand is still stronger than a human! Yeeargh!”

Taken by Force gave High Mark a throwing knife and she threw it without hesitation, but Runaway knocked it out of the way before throwing its other baton against the ground at a forty-five degree angle. It bounced off the concrete and flew straight up into Taken by Force’s face, stunning it and its master.

Skyburn tackled High Mark around the torso and knocked them both to the ground, where Skyburn began driving his fists into High Mark’s face. The two of them rolled around on the ground until High Mark got her Stand to pull Skyburn off him.

“Ha! Good effort, but you’re just a kid. I’m an adult! You can’t outfight me!”

As he stood back up, something fell out of her tank top pocket and fluttered onto the ground.

Wiseau Sirius glanced down at it. “High Mark. What’s that?”

High Mark looked down and a panicked look came over his face. “Oh, uh, nothing! I’ll just take that,’ He tried to pick up the small piece of paper, but Wiseau was faster.

“Why do you have a picture of Lisa in your pocket?” Wiseau asked slowly, forgetting about Skyburn for the moment.

“I don’t… even know who that is. I… found it.” High Mark stuffed the picture back in her pocket. “It’s nothing. Come on, we have to finish what we started.”

“I saw it. It was Lisa. My Lisa. I recognize her everywhere!” Wiseau threw his hands up. “Oh I miss her back home, I’ve been here too long.”

Skyburn looked between the two Stand masters and a lightbulb went off in his head. This was exactly what he needed to turn the tide, and now he had a chance to take them both out at the same time.

“Hey. That’s Lisa, yeah. I saw her. In Mark’s pocket.” Skyburn waggled a finger at the woman who was normally a man. “You know her well, don’t you? That’s funny. Now what is she doing with you, Mark?”

“No, I’ve never met her in my life. How can you believe this boy, uh girl, uh boy, whatever he is. She never knew who we were until now!” Mark pleaded. “She’s trying to turn us against each other!”

“I know enough to see that you’re going behind Wiseau’s back about Lisa,” Skyburn told them. “Why do you have a photo of Lisa in your pocket if there’s nothing between you then?”

“Why do you even know Lisa?!” Wiseau grabbed High Mark by the shirt. “You only been to France once, did you meet her then?”

“I told you, I don't’ know what you’re talking about!” High Mark shoved Wiseau away. “It’s… it’s just a joke, okay? Why so serious? I found this picture in your coat and it fell into my pocket, okay?”

“Wow, that’s so many inconsistencies strung together, dude.” Skyburn shook his head. “Are you even trying?”

“Shut up, kid!” High Mark snapped. “There’s nothing going on with me and Lisa. Nothing at all. I just have her picture because… she asked me to give it to you, Wiseau! Yeah, that’s it.”

“You liar!” Wiseau reached out and grabbed High Mark around the neck. “You’re sleeping with Lisa I know it now, aren’t you?”

High Mark stuck her tongue out and began choking, but then Taken by Force grabbed Wiseau by the coat and tossed him back. Skyburn scurried back on his hands as Wiseau got back up and threw his Stand at her. Electricity buzzed around Wind of Change before Taken by Force caught it in one hand. It pulsed blue and the electricity coursed through to the humanoid Stand. High Mark began to shake and convulse as her Stand did so, but it she managed to get a sword materialized in her hand before throwing it at Wiseau.

It punctured through his shoulder and he fell back on a knee, but he yanked it out and yelled at the top of his voice, “I do everything for you and Lisa! And you do this to me? When you come to visit in France at our base, I am always glad to have you and you sleep with Lisa?”

“Come on, man, she just doesn’t love you anymore, you got it?” High Mark got on her feet and wiped blood off the corner of her mouth. “She doesn’t want to live with a man who can’t make a decent movie anymore.”

Wind of Change returned to Wiseau’s hand and he pointed at High Mark as more electricity started to burst from his Stand. “Now I’m serious. So get out! Get out of my life!”

“What planet are you on, man?” High Mark pointed back at Wiseau. “Lisa likes me, not you. You can drop off the Earth.”

“You are tearing me apart, Mark!” Wiseau bellowed, falling to his knees and throwing his arms down. “It’s over. Between you and me. It’s over.”

High Mark blew a raspberry. “What are you going to do?” She stretched her arm out and a boomerang appeared in it as Taken by Force slid an arm down to its waist and raised the other one to the side of its head. “I have a Stand that can give me weapons. You have a football. Why don’t you just keep your stupid comments in your pocket and die so Lisa and I can be together?”

“You- You’re not good, you’re just a chicken, cheep cheep cheep!” Wiseau flapped his arms like a chicken again. High Mark’s face contorted in anger and he tried to grab Wiseau, but he was repelled. “Don’t touch me, melon farmer!”

He bent back and he threw his energized Stand at High Mark’s chest point blank as she brought the boomerang down on Wiseau’s head. The edge of the boomerang broke through his skin and stuck into his skull as Wind of Change launched High Mark back as she got shocked by its powerful charge. Skyburn could see her skeleton for a few seconds before she dropped back to the ground, smoking.

“Auuugggghhhhhh, my head!” Wiseau Sirius fell back and held his head as he screamed in agony and rolled around. “How you do this to me?”

High Mark pushed off the ground, panting hard as blood dripped from his ears and nose. “I got you… I got you… Dead. Dead. Lisa is mine now. Once I’m through with you, you won’t even go to Burrito Street. I’m sending you… straight to the cemetery.”

“I’ll kill you!” Wiseau recovered from his anguish and got back up as he charged at him, the boomerang still in his head.

Skyburn watched as the two men grappled each other and it was here that he realized that High Mark was indeed a man now. He looked down at himself and blew a sigh of relief as he realized he was back to normal as well. Wiseau Sirius must’ve dropped the enchantment when he got hit in the head.

“That means that everyone below will be cooling off…” Skyburn patted down his body. “About time. I never knew I would ever miss my normal body. Now to end this…”

High Mark and Wiseau Sirius continued to club each other with their fists and rolled around the roof. Wiseau kicked High Mark in the face, but Taken by Force jumped over them and pulled Wiseau away before sticking a knife in his gut. The director coughed out blood in Mark’s face, but still managed to throw his Stand far into the air above them.

Wiseau suddenly leaned back and grabbed High Mark’s arms, pulling him down on top of himself. Mark struggled to get out of his grip, but Wiseau held strong as Wind of Change began falling back down towards them, buzzing with electricity.

“You’ll doom us all, just let go!” Mark struggled more, but to no avail. “Lisa is mine now! She wants nothing to do with you anymore!”

“I don’t care you betray me! Lisa betray me!” Wiseau spat in his face. “You stole from me the only person I have left beside you! And then now you betray me too. Everybody betray me!”

Wind of Change returned and dropped against High Mark’s back. The impact almost bent his body in half and the discharge of power shocked him till his tall hair had gone frizzy and puffy. Wiseau let go of him and kicked him off as he unsteadily stood up, clutching at the knife in his belly.

“Ah, it hurts…” he gasped as he yanked it free, spurting blood out on top of High Mark. “Now you, child, you will join Mark. After I’m done with you, I will go back to France and find Lisa and finish her as well for her betray before I report back…”

“So, France, huh?” Skyburn said. Wiseau Sirius realized he was no longer standing where he had been and turned around, finding him by the cannon. He had forgotten Mark’s cannon was still there, charging all this time. Skyburn had angled it lower, its barrel now pointed at them. “I’ll be sure to pay your boss a visit. Say hi to her for me, will you?”

Waving, Skyburn ducked as smoke poured from the side of the cannon. With a deafening bang, it blasted out a giant fireball and Wiseau could only swing his arms up and down before the fireball consumed him and High Mark, launching them off the roof and into the air before it detonated with a furious might. Both men were sent flying into the sky, screaming as they grew smaller and smaller and smaller until Skyburn could no longer see them.

“Have a nice trip back!” he called, then he spun on a heel and gave Runaway a high five. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

He walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down at the streets and Porky Park. All the fighting had stopped and people were busy shaking out of their earlier madness. He spotted Spike and Twilight headed back this way and he waved to them before heading for the stairway. They were going to want to hear what he had learned from the two imbeciles.

“France… I’ve never been to France. We’re one step closer now. One step closer to taking down Die Die Riches.” He looked to the sky and smiled. “Appy, I hope you’re watching me. We’re going to finish this. For you. Then you can rest easy knowing the ones who had caused your death have been dealt with.”

He pushed the door open, more determined than ever. They had a location now and things were working out for them. With Die Die Riches out of the way, the world would certainly be a better place to live. But he couldn’t blame it all on them. The world had been going the wrong way for years now and it was going to be hard to get it back on track. Hay, he didn’t even know if the world could get things back on track at this point. They were running out of resources and inflation was on a sharp rise. People were getting displaced more than ever and with global warming picking up speed, it was also getting harder and harder to survive on this planet, man or animal or plant.

But Skyburn did know one thing. He was going to avenge Appy and bring justice to her killers.

Author's Note

Two for the price of one Stand chart today! If you proceed here.

Chapter 16: A Ghost in the Shell

“So, what do we have on him?” Josher Joyride leaned closer to the camera’s screen as Dolfy Horner interrogated the man inside, yelling and slamming the table between them repeatedly. The man had a mess of curly blonde hair on his head and a nose sharper than a kitchen knife. Under that was a black shirt and a green utility vest with ammo pouches, and similarly green pants and boots.

“His name is Desert Wheels. Thirty years old, from Pakistan, same as Jalebi and the rest of his crew.” Joshi Horner held up a transparent screen that was projecting data on the mercenary. “When he was five, he lost his entire family of sixteen to a flood and eventually joined up with Jalebi’s group when he stumbled upon them as they attacked a magnate in Hyderabad. Nasty pieces of work, these guys.”

Cajole stood behind them, but after a while, he sighed and walked over to a larger screen in the control room, where the face of a woman was being projected. She had black hair that was tied up behind her head and she had on a white suit and white gloves. There were multiple photographs of her, one of a close up of her face, another of her walking through a prison hall, and one of her from behind.

“Duckie Deluxe,” Cajole read out from the text on the screen. “First incarcerated when she murdered her older sister when she was just six, then again when she got out on a murderous rampage in America. Of course, the prison couldn’t hold her and she got out again, this time staying hidden since. “Sounds like a real piece to me.”

“I’m at least seventy-five percent sure that this is the Duckie Jalebi was talking about,” Joshi said. “A criminal like that would surely want the world to change.”

“We’ve got nothing on her location?” Cajole pointed at her profile, then at the camera feed. “If we have her, we don’t need to keep interrogating this guy. Even Dolfy can’t get him to break, it seems.”

“You can’t expect them to be easy. They’re mercenaries.” Joshi stuck up a finger as he explained. “Imagine if they broke each time you quizzed them on who hired them. They have to know to be tough and resilient to all forms of aggression.”

“Well, I can think of a different kind of aggression we can use.” Cajole looked at the door to the room. “Joshi, your next words are, “What do you mean?””

“Ja, I know where you’re going with it. Go on,” the boy replied. “I’ll see what I can dig up on Duckie in the meantime.”

“Right. Let’s see what I can help wring out from this guy…” Cajole shook his shoulders and pushed the door open into the room, shutting it behind him.

A mechanical hiss and whirring gears let him know that the door sealed him in. Joshi had explained to them how the lock worked earlier. Anyone could open it from the outside, but to prevent dangerous criminals from escaping, even at the expense of the interrogators, the door would never open from the inside and whatever deadly force was at work inside would never see the light of day. Literally, since there were no windows in the room.

“Dolfy, how’s it going?” Cajole asked. He first needed to get a read on how far the German had already pushed it.

“Ah, Jojo, you’ve decided to aid me. Wunderbar.” Then he glared at Wheels. “He will not break, even when I threatened to burn him into nothing more than melted bone.”

“I will never tell you anything,” Desert Wheels spat at him. “Do you think you are the first to capture me? I have never broken, not under any circumstance.”

“Yes, but no one’s coming to save you. Not this time. Your whole team is dead.” Cajole walked closer as Dolfy wiped his face with a handkerchief, already seething with anger. “And Die Die Riches owes you nothing. They won’t be here to help you either. You can either tell us and go, or stay here for the rest of your life.”

He struggled against the fibrous cables holding his hands to the steel table that was built into the ground. “I will tell you nothing! I will get out of here on my own power. Then you’ll all pay!”

“Yeah, sure…” Cajole looked at Dolfy. “I think we’ll have to rethink our methods.”

“I could always just burn him into a schnitzel.” He raised a hand and Dragonforce appeared behind him, snarling at Desert Wheels.

Cajole knocked on the door and Joshi opened it for them. He ushered the elderly German man out before continuing. “We still don’t know where this Duckie is holed up at. If we burn him, we lose that.”

“And he knows it…” Dolfy grumbled. “That pompous schwein…”

“I don’t think you can call him that in this day and age, vater,” Joshi said.

Dolfy just shrugged. “Old habits die hard. I need a drink.”

He reached for a mug on a nearby table filled with beer, but before he could touch it, it moved just out of reach, sliding across the table. Everyone standing there saw that and Josher rubbed his eyes.

“Did that… just move?” He looked at his dad.

All of a sudden, one of the technicians in the room was lifted off his feet. His hands instantly went for his neck and he began choking and gagging as though something was strangling him.

“Meine gute, what is going on?” The other technicians got up and backed away.

The floating man’s neck suddenly twisted and his body dropped back to the group in a heap.

“What just did that?” Josher looked around, stowing his cards. “I didn’t see an enemy Stand.”

Dolfy’s mug flew across the room and hit him in the forehead, shattering it and sending him down on the ground. “Ach! Mein beer!” He began lapping around his mouth with his tongue.

“Where is it? I don’t see anything.” Joshi whipped round and round, trying to spot their assailant. “Blitzkrieg!”

His Stand glided out from his position and planted both hands on the floor. Joshi took control of the camera systems and analyzed each of them. There were four cameras in the control room, each one at a different corner of the room and it was through the north most camera that he spotted a fleeting shadow. If he blinked, he would’ve missed it, but he could keep his eyes open long enough to spot something dark darting past him and to his father.

“Vater, look out!” He reached a hand out.

Something lifted Dolfy into the air and he summoned Dragonforce, which started blazing with fire from head to toe. Whatever was holding him suddenly dropped him and he activated the jets on his mechanical legs to land upright.

“It’s moving!” Joshi signaled to the others. He could see the shape flying around the room, never once touching the ground. Whatever this ghostly apparition was, it didn’t seem to have legs, nor did it obey the laws of gravity. “How do we fight this thing?”

“We know we can hurt it. It fled from my fire.” Dolfy patted down his collar. “We just cannot see it.”

“But I can,” Joshi said with a nod. “If I can tell you where it is, do you think you can hit it?”

“We can certainly try.” Cajole rammed both fists together. “Just point us to it. Tenacious D has you covered.”

Another of the technicians got picked up and Dolfy sent Dragonforce out there as it projected two ethereal hands around the man. It stuck a finger between them and pushed out, feeling something bouncing off before catching the man with the other hand.

“We need to get them out of here. Go to the safe rooms! Gehen!” Joshi ushered the other non-Stand users. “I’ll seal this room.”

Once the last technician was out, Blitzkrieg shut the doors, keeping them and the enemy Stand in.

“Come on now…” Joshi kept his eyes on the camera feeds.

The enemy Stand was moving now, zipping around the room like a shadow cast by a swinging lightbulb on a motor.

“The Stand master has to be somewhere.” Joshi pointed to the right. “It’s there now, but it’s moving fast. I think it’s inspecting us. Looking for our weakest point before it strikes.”

“The technicians are all gone. What if I leveled the place?” Dolfy had Dragonforce rise up and lift both arms. “We have money. We can always repair the room.”

“If you do that, I’ll lose visual on it,”Joshi warned. “We’ll have to keep damage to a minimum. Josher, behind you!”

Tucking into a roll, he brought up Down Under behind him, which stowed its anchor and thrust out both arms, one above the other. He felt its right fist connect with something and a faint cry of pain coming from another room. A very nearby room.

“Wait a minute…” Cajole quickly ran to the interrogation room feed.

“Don’t break off on your own!” Joshi quickly snapped his fingers. “Cajole, it’s coming for you. On your left, eye level!”

“Tenacious D!” Cajole shot a hand out.

Tenacious D swung itself up on its arms and smacked its wheels down, but then its arm got grabbed and it was thrown against one of the monitors, smashing it to pieces. Cajole dropped to the ground and tipped to one side as Josher was next to go over, summoning his Stand to protect himself as he helped his father up.

“It’s swerving around the room. It’s coming right for you, Josher!” Joshi warned. “Above Down Under, left shoulder!”

Down Under bent lower, then tilted its body and jerked back up. But instead of feeling an impact this time, he felt hands wrap around his Stand’s bicep, but Down Under held strong and kept its feet on the floor.

“Dad, you realized something, didn’t you?” Josher had Down Under grabbed the invisible force with one hand, feeling a thin body within its grip.

“It was when you hurt it earlier.” Cajole sat up. “It’s Desert Wheels. I’m sure of it.”

“I thought he wasn’t a Stand user.” Dolfy flung the door open. “I guess some of them hide it pretty well.”

Desert Wheels jumped when the door was thrown open. His blonde hair had streaks of blood coating it, likely from when Down Under had hit his Stand earlier. His bindings had been undone and he backed away into the corner.

“So it is you!” Dolfy tilted one of his legs up and a section opened revealing a trio of small gun barrels. “So, shall I be the one to finish you, Herr Wheels?”

“Not yet! Death Grip, to me!” He yelled and at that moment, Down Under’s fingers were pried open and he felt the Stand escape.

Dolfy felt something wrap around him from behind, then it started to squeeze. He called forth Dragonforce again, and with its flames, it began to heat up the Stand, along with Desert Wheels, whose clothes started smoking.

“It’s no use. You tell us where your boss is now or die!”

As his Stand tried to escape again, Dolfy found the end of it and grabbed it with Dragonforce, holding it back as it projected an ethereal hand and clamped it to the surface of the table. Desert Wheels dropped to the ground, his face pressed into the floor as he struggled to move.

“I’ve got him now.” Dolfy called back. “Find out what you can before he breaks free again.”

“You’re gonna tell us now, where is Die Die Riches working from?” Cajole rushed in and grabbed Wheels by the vest. “Where?”

Dolfy pressed down harder on his invisible Stand and the man gasped in pain.

“You better give us something now or there isn’t going to be anything left of you to salvage,” Cajole swatted him across the face. “Your next words are, “Alright, I’ll tell you.””

“Eat my boots, American!” Wheels spat.

“Why you…!” Cajole was about to hit him again, harder this time, but his phone began ringing and he took it out to inspect it. “Prism?”

“Really? Now?” Dolfy looked at him with bewilderment. “Get it over with first!”

“Hang on, it could be an emergency, you said Die Die Riches was attacking all over the world, did you not?” He accepted the call and held his phone up so his face would be seen. “My wife could be in danger. Just keep him there, will you, Dolfy? Prism, what’s going on?”

“Jojo, are you okay? Is Josher okay?” Prism’s face appeared on his lightphone. She had on a sports cap and her hair was damp. She had likely just finished a training session. Cajole had already told her all about the attack in Berlin and the attack in the elevator, but since then, he hadn’t called back.

“We’re fine, honey.” Cajole gave her his best smile. “We’re just trying to wring some information out from a mercenary sent by DDR. I think he can tell us where Die Die Riches’ main base is located.”

“Oh. Well, that’s why I’m calling,” she said. “Summer just called. Apparently they’ve struck in Japan as well. Japan, can you believe it? And they’ve been through Canterlot as well. It’s all nuts! You know why? I missed everything! I can’t believe I didn’t get to see a single piece of action! You know how long its been since I’ve used Coldplay to fight evil?”

Cajole nodded and whipped his eyes from Dolfy to Josher and Joshi outside as his cheeks colored. “Uh, honey, now’s not the time. What are you calling to tell me? Keep going.”

“Hey, don’t interrupt me when I’m going on.” Prism sighed. “Whatever, you broke my train of thought. Uh, oh yeah, anyway, Summer told me that they found out that Die Die Riches was working out of some French city called uh, Angers. Yeah, Angers. Pretty sure that’s it. Weird name for a city, right?”

“Sure is…” Cajole smiled, then looked back down at Wheels. “You sure that’s the one?”

“Pretty sure. Summer said her mom and daughter got it straight from a pet shop’s computer system.”

“Nicely done. Tell her that for me, will you? Guess we won’t to continue our interrogation now. Dolfy, all yours. I’ll take my call outside.”

“Gut.” The German man looked at the now fearful Wheels, whose breathing began to grow shallower and quicker.

“Wait, Dolfy is there too?” He heard Prism’s voice say. “As in Dolfy Horner? That madman who woke up the Nugget People?”

“I told you, we met his son, remember?” Cajole’s voice trailed off as he got further away.

“So, Herr Wheels, as you’ve heard. We have the location.” Dolfy cracked his knuckles and smirked. “You know what that means for you now.”

“No, please, let me go and I’ll stay away. I won’t even attack you again when you least expect it,” the man pleaded.

“You’re breaking much too late, mein freund. Dragonforce. Do it.”

Dragonforce pushed down harder and Wheels’ Stand sunk into the ground. His body did the same and all the bones in his body shattered.

“Joshi, Angers,” Dolfy told his son. “Crosscheck that with Die Die Riches’ travel routes. I’m sure this is it. And what do you know, we have Sushi to thank for this! The Berliner Helden saves us again!”

“Already on it.” Joshi had Blitzkrieg tap into their computer systems and was already inputting information on Angers and bringing up the travel routes. Josher walked over to inspect the screens as the city of Angers popped into view. “There. They’ve been sending their agents through Angers to Le Mans, to Paris then to Brussels before branching out to the rest of the world. Clever. But not clever enough. We have them now.”

“I guess that’s where we’re heading then.” Josher clapped his hands together and he made an ace of spades appear between them with a buzz of energy. “My very own adventure. So this is what it’s like.”

“I’m coming too.” Joshi put his hands on his hips as Blitzkrieg appeared beside him and put both palms together. “I want to see Die Die Riches removed permanently. It’s the only way we can continue to make the world better. Or at least, stop it from getting worse with them involved.”

“Yeah, why not?” Josher gave him a fist bump. “Glad to have you onboard, Joshi. You can get us a nice new ride for our trip there.”

“Ja! I hope there’s another Marecedes that’s decent nearby.” He chuckled. “The one I used the other day was really wunderbar.”

Josher looked at his father on the phone, then at the two Horners. He had only known Joshi and Dolfy for a few days, but he felt as though he had already known them for weeks, especially Joshi. And he had never seen his father so pumped up and quick before, and he had gained some newfound respect for him since coming to Berlin. Perhaps adventures did change people.

This was it. This was the turning point in their fight with Die Die Riches. They had their destination. It was time to stop them for good, to make sure no more innocent people would have to die just because they were rich.

Deep in the catacombs under Angers, Duckie Deluxe spun in her seat as an associate of hers stood before her desk, her eyes rolled back and her mouth gaping open as though she was gasping for air.

“So they know now? Because of… a parrot?” Duckie flicked at her fingernails under her gloves. “This is most inconvenient that they’ll be coming here to stop me.”

The woman before her desk suddenly collapsed, her body bending back as her knees tipped forward.

“Oh, looks like it caught you.” Duckie eyed her body as two more of her assistants dragged her away. I hate being told bad news. The rest of you, remember that, oui?”

She spun her chair to face seven of her agents, shrouded in darkness. After witnessing what she had done to their colleague, just because she brought bad news to Duckie, they knew better than to cross her as well. When she was mad, she was like a real live wire.

“We’ll take care of them, Duckie. We’ll make sure they never get here.”

“See that you do. I have plans, you know?” Duckie looked back at the Nugget People carving by her desk. “But because of our unexpected heroes coming to play, we’ll have to push our plans forward. Forget America for now. We’ll start with France itself. Our president will be the first to fall. An opportunity is about to open to us in a few days.”

She stood up and gestured to her agents to leave. The seven of them nodded and hurriedly got out of her room. They feared her, and that was good. Fear kept people in line where money couldn’t. Duckie herself had come from a wealthy family, but all of that had been lost to her once she murdered her older sister in cold blood. Ever since then, she had been on the run from the authorities to see who she could kill next. Her goals might not have been the same as the rest of her organization, but at least they wanted the same thing. They wanted the rich gone and what better way to ensure that than to do it themselves.

She sighed as she pictured all the other agents who had fallen around the world. They had been taken out of commission by other Stand users. She should’ve guessed there would be Stand users that would resist her, but no matter. The other seven were stronger than the rest and now that she knew these Stand users were coming, she was going to be ready.

Duckie scattered pieces of paper across her desk, detailing the faces and abilities of the Stand users that opposed her. It wasn’t complete, but there was enough about each of them to know what they were and what they could do. And that was how she was going to beat them.

“As the old saying goes, ‘Know your enemy’. And I will know my enemy well. That’s if they do make it this far. They will wish they hadn’t.”

Duckie sat back down and kneaded her fingers together. The world was going to change and it was through her that everything was going to be better for the less fortunate. The rich had their time in the light. Now it was time for them to return to dust. Literally. At least, that's what the bombs were for.

Author's Note

Because our enemy Stand here doesn't quite have much in terms of how it looks, I've decided to spare Cinders this one and instead, I'll just type it out here like most of you do. :trollestia:

Stand Name: Death Grip
Stand Master: Desert Wheels

Power: D
Speed: B
Range: B
Durability: C
Precision: C
Potential: B

And that's the end of our first arc for now!

As always, comments and criticism are appreciated! I would like to constantly get better and better at what I enjoy here.

Chapter 17: Angers Awaits

“How is this even safe?!” Twilight Sparkle screamed as her plane landed and bounced up and down on the runway.

Spike, who had been equally as terrified, had been holding her arm the entire time. “Thi-this is crazy. To think a machine like that could fly people across the world!”

“You really don’t have planes where you’re from, hmm?” Skyburn Dash watched them with an amused grin. “Don’t worry. Everyone’s like that on their first flight. It’s not everyday you fly through the sky.”

“Well, we can fly just fine, actually.” Spike raised a finger. “We both have wings in Equestria. Twilight, in fact, can teleport. She actually never has to travel anywhere if she doesn’t want to.”

“Teleportation? For real?” Skyburn groaned. “Man, I wish we could do that. Then we don’t have to fly all this distance. “There’ve been plenty of technological advancements in the last few years, but even then, we don’t have teleportation. At least, not yet. I’m sure scientists will figure it out one day.”

“Yes, that’s something I’d like to study more of once we have the time.” Twilight nodded. “I want to learn everything there is about this world and how it works and maybe even bring some of these ideas back home.”

“Yeah, imagine if you had phones back where you’re from.” Skyburn sat with them until the seatbelt sign was turned off.

He had explained to them everything he knew about planes before they boarded and though he didn’t know the mechanics or their inner workings, he at least knew enough about what they needed to do on planes to avoid an embarrassing situation.

As for their current situation, it had already been two days since they had deduced Die Die Riches was in France. With Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom using the connections and resources of the Crusaders Foundation, they had easily gotten last minute tickets to France for the three of them and here they were now.

Loire Airport was the closest airport to the town of Angers, situated about a hundred and ninety miles away from Paris. While its name might seem weird to English speakers, one would have to look back to its history to understand its name. When it had first been set up during the Roman Empire, the town’s name was first called Juliomagnus Andecavorum, named after the ancient Gallic tribes that once inhabited the lands. After years and years, the name started to change little by little, eventually losing the Juliomagnus completely, before eventually ending up as Angers.

Museums dotted the city’s streets and it was one of the few cities left with old castles that showed the old way of life, as opposed to many other places Skyburn had visited during his vacations to other countries. Many cities had already progressed with the times, rebuilding their deteriorating buildings to house advancements like glowing light panels, holographic projections or just overall sturdier plating. Angers was not such a city, which now stood as a stark difference from the country’s capital of Paris, which could now color the night skies with animated holograms of the city’s past.

“So our best bet would be to take a train down to Angers,” Skyburn told Twilight and Spike. “I’m not sure how the others are doing, but we’ll all meet up in Angers to discuss what to do then.”

Twilight nodded in understanding. Skyburn’s aunt had apparently rang up allies in places called Japan and Germany. Twilight knew Equestria didn’t have such names, but then again, Equestria was a complete landmass without giant bodies of water separating cities. Apparently, their friends had also been at work taking down Die Die Riches and it was the group in Japan that had identified the exact city in France Die Die Riches was operating from.

That was the group that apparently had another Equestrian, Sunset Shimmer. Twilight had never heard of anypony called Sunset Shimmer, but perhaps Princess Celestia would know her, or maybe Pinkie Pie.

She had learned a little bit more about Skyburn on the trip here as well. He was an avid motocross rider, according to him, it was a sport where you would ride a motorbike around a track. Twilight hadn’t known what a motorbike was, but Skyburn had been kind enough to explain it to her. In her own thoughts, it was basically a cart with one wheel in front and one behind. He enjoyed seeking thrills in life and he had done things like jumping off a cliff into a blue hole, skydiving, knife throwing, and even running from rooftop to rooftop in an acrobatic fashion the humans called parkour.

Also, to her astonishment, she found out he was the grandson of Rainbow Dash, another of her closest friends, and from the rainbow hair, she should’ve already guessed that when she first met him. It was nice to see that Rainbow’s grandson and Applejack’s granddaughter had been together, and Twilight would’ve given anything if she could bring Appy back to life for them to one day see their own grandchildren running around.

She had promised them she would do her duty as Princess of Equestria to do what she could for this world. She was going to do her best to uphold that. As Equestria’s mirror world, she could not bear to see it fall. This was as much her duty than it was to Equestria.

As she followed the line of humans out of the plane, Twilight began to wonder about home. Her friends had assured her they would watch over the land in her absence and after all, she did have her students, like Luster Dawn, just like how Celestia once had her. Perhaps she would lead the next generation forward to a safer kingdom one day.

“What’s on your mind, Twi?” Spike walked along beside her once they were out of the plane’s narrow walkways.

“Just thinking of home. I wonder how they’re doing,” Twilight admitted. “You know how bad guys always tend to show up when you least expect it?”

Spike nodded.

“I hope Equestria’s not going through any rough patches while we’re here…” she sighed and looked out one of the connector’s huge windows at the runway outside. “By now we would’ve missed the mirror’s timeline and we’ll have to be here for another thirty moons.”

“We don’t have to worry. I know it.” Spike gave her a pat on the back. “Luster Dawn and her friends will handle it. You handled much of Equestria’s dangers for Celestia and Luna even before you became an alicorn. I know she’ll do the same now. She’s learnt a lot from you, you know?”

“Thanks, Spike. You’re always there for me.” Twilight turned around and gave him a thumbs up, a gesture she’d learned in this world. She had also learned one with another finger, but that one was reserved for her greatest foes.

The process through the airport was long and Twilight found herself waiting behind people for a very long time and occasionally peeking past them to see how many more remained in front of her before it was her turn. There was something she had been really interested in and that was the x-ray machines. All she had to do was stand in a machine and they scanned her from head to toe to make sure she wasn’t smuggling anything inside her body. She wanted to know how it worked, but the security answered nothing and told her to move on.

“Oh, I’ll find out one day…”

Sweetie Belle had acquired passports for them so that they could get into France. They were these little booklets that had your face and name and everything. She said that a passport would normally take months to process, but with the Crusaders Foundation’s help, they managed to push all that down to a few hours.

When it finally got to her turn, she gave the woman at the booth her best smile and did her best to look like herself in her passport photo to make sure they knew it was her. Soon, she was out and she found Spike and Skyburn by the exit, already done with their checks.

Outside, the air was warm, but it wasn’t as burning as Canterlot was and the wind was cool against her skin whenever it blew by. Now, according to Skyburn’s map, they first needed to head to the train station. The walk wasn’t far, and so they began making their way to the station. All three of them got to take in the sights along the way, which were mostly great fields of grass and flowers, something Twilight hadn’t seen much of since coming to this world. All the scenery reminded her of home and it was great to be among nature again, if only briefly.

“Hey, guys, I’m going to ask a rather important question now,” Spike suddenly said, breaking her imaginations of home.

“Yeah, go ahead, man. What’s up?” Skyburn asked.

Spike scratched the back of his neck. “How are we going to find Die Die Riches once we reach Angers? Will they have a building with their name on it or something?”

“You know what… somehow I doubt that…” Skyburn looked up at the sky.

“Come on, why not?” Spike shrugged. “Bad guys love to let everypony know where their evil lair is. It’s like a common trait amongst them. They just can’t help showing off.”

“Is that how it’s like back in Equestria?” Skyburn raised an eyebrow. “That’s a little… basic.”

“What, and your bad guys here are tougher? Smarter?” Spike shook a fist.

Skyburn just stared at him for a few seconds. “Well, uh, judging from what I’m hearing… yes. Yes they are.”

“Well, Twilight’s stopped her fair share of villains.” Spike waved at her. “She can tell you that some of them are pretty ingenious.”

“I’m not sure we should be comparing villains,” she added in. “Many of them had conquered Equestria for a time, but we’ve always managed to fight them back and prevail. I’m sure you can say the same about your world.”

“Well, two, in fact.” Skyburn held up two fingers in front of his face. “I mean, there’s been plenty of wars and stuff, but the entire world has only been on the brink of catastrophe twice. My grandmother was on the first adventure to save the world from a Principal Cinch and my aunt was on the second journey to save the world from the Nugget People. Do you have Nugget People where you’re from?”

“Nugget People?” Twilight shared a puzzled look with Spike. “Not remotely. I guess they must be called something else if they’re in Equestria too.”

“But see? Our bad guys are way more competent!” Spike clapped a hand against Skyburn’s cheek.

“Are we still on this topic?” Skyburn was so busy with his conversation that he failed to see a whip wrap around his wrist. “What the…? Woooaahh!”

It yanked back and he was pulled aside.

“Hey!” Twilight was about to follow it when a white stallion in golden armor shot down from the sky in front of her, cracking the road and sending debris flying up. One would’ve hit her in the face if she hadn’t summoned Strange World to slow it down, allowing her to bend lower to avoid it. “Another enemy Stand!”

Strange World threw a punch at its snout, but the more muscular Stand grabbed her palm, then lifted itself in the air with its golden wings and began pushing Strange World down. Twilight had it lean to one side, then sped up the enemy Stand, sending it right past Strange World and into the road. Her Stand jumped into the air, and while its body was parallel to the ground, it began throwing punches at the enemy’s back. She only managed to get in three good punches before she found herself standing by the hole in the ground again, in front of the enemy.

“Wait, what?” Twilight managed to say before the Stand whipped a hand out, sending her flying.

“Twilight!” Spike ran for her, but the Stand turned and faced him, breathing steam from its nostrils. “Hey, who are you? What are you doing?”

Spike looked at his hands, then tried to summon a Stand like Twilight had. He knew he had it in him. He felt it when they had first come to this world, but until Twilight used her Stand, he hadn’t thought twice about it. Now, it was as good of a time to use it as any. His friends were in trouble and they needed him to step up.

Come on, Spike. You’ve always been there, the sidekick ready to help protect Equestria. Step up this time. Take that power and use it!

A blue aura formed around him and he opened his eyes as the enemy Stand grabbed him by the hoodie collar. It tossed him aside and as he flew in the air, it was as though it had been a part of him for life. He knew just what to do.

A white and blue figure with an enlarged upper chest and wings came forth, spreading both arms wide as it tilted its head to one side.

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” Spike cheered. This time, it was his turn to protect Twilight. Seeing as it was his, he got to name it, and he already had the perfect name.

His Stand stretched both arms to the side, then bent them at the elbows and met in the middle, clapping both palms together. An ice storm began to form around him and his Stand and icicles formed throughout, swirling into the enemy Stand, pelting its armor with ice spikes. It tried to swing a punch at his Stand, but Spike had it flap its wings, creating a gust as it flew higher in its own storm. The winds began to blow harder and the enemy Stand’s wings could no longer keep itself flying inside Spike’s storm and it immediately began swirling around with the current, unable to break free.

Something tapped him on the shoulder. Spike turned around, only to get a faceful of fist as something pinkish punched him in the forehead.

“Aagh!” He fell back and hit the ground as a pink and purple figure with cloth around its shoulders stood over him, carrying a similar cloth in one hand. “There’s another one!”

It raised a fist to pummel him, but Spike had his Stand flap its wings, sending frost building up on the enemy Stand’s cloth and elbows. It flicked its cloth at him, twirling it until it was as thin as a spike before it thwacked his Stand between the eyes.

“O-Ow!” Spike curled up and rolled on the ground as he cradled his face. That stung.

It lifted its cloth over him, holding it with both hands, but its movements suddenly slowed and Strange World flew in, ramming it with its left shoulder, knocking it into the air as it spun in slow motion. The equine Stand returned behind her, its muscles bulging as it punched forward with both hands. Strange World slowed its movement, then ducked under them, but before it could walk around the Stand, it found itself looking at Spike again and the fists connected with its chest, knocking it down against Spike’s Stand, knocking the wind from his lungs.

“That hurt…” Spike coughed.

“Surrender now. Or die.” A young girl with purple and red hair emerged from behind a pillar, a scowl on her face.

“Like we’ll… surrender to the likes of you!” Twilight rubbed blood away from the corner of her mouth and ran over, crouching down beside Spike.

The girl looked unfazed and she nodded to her Stand. “Curtain Call. Do it.”

But Spike wasn’t done. Not yet. Pushing to his feet, he raised a fist under his chin and put his other arm behind his back, yelling the name of his Stand as he found the enemy had walked into a trap he had set up earlier.

“Winter Wrap Up!”

His Stand floated into the air as frost began to build up around its hands, spiraling down around its arms and body as the air started to mist over, growing colder by the second. The enemy Stand, Curtain Call, attempted to take a step forward, but found that it couldn’t. Spike smiled to himself as it looked down and saw that a thin layer of ice had spread across the road and it had latched on to both its feet, creeping up its ankles now. From above, Winter Wrap Up curled both hands inward, creating a giant icicle above its head, which continued to grow bigger as more ice pooled into it.

“You’re done for now!” Spike pointed a finger at the girl, whose feet were also stuck to the ground. “While you weren’t looking, I had Winter Wrap Up spread out a thin layer of ice like a spider’s web and as soon as you stepped in it, you were already trapped and I had it create more ice over your feet once that had happened.”

Something tapped him on the shoulder. Spike turned around, only to get a faceful of fist as something pinkish punched him in the forehead.

“Aagh!” He fell back and hit the ground as a pink and purple figure with cloth around its shoulders stood over him, carrying a similar cloth in one hand. “There’s another one!”

“O-Ow!” Spike curled up and rolled on the ground as he cradled his face. That stung.

“That hurt…” Spike coughed. Then he blinked. It felt as though he had gone through this before. Something about it felt familiar to him. “Twilight, are you okay?”

“Yeah… Something about this feels odd…” She pushed to her feet as a girl with purple and red hair walked up to them, a stern look on her face.

“Seems like Daring Do is at it again,” the girl said, then shut her eyes and shook her head. “Good grief, three of you at once. It would’ve been better if it was still one of you at a time.”

“Wait…” Twilight’s mind took a second to register what she had just heard. “Daring Do?”

“Yes, I’m sure you’ve heard of her. And us. Didn’t expect us to get this far, did you?” The girl placed one hand against her hip and pointed the index finger of her other hand at Twilight. “Now you’re going to regret coming into my life.”

“The only ones regretting anything will be you,” Spike pointed a finger at the girl. “You and all your Die Die Riches cronies!”

The girl let go of her scowl for a second, giving way to confusion, which disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared. “You’re not… with them?”

“Wait!”

From the corner, Spike and Twilight spotted a female figure clad in green swing in on a whip before she retracted it into a metallic handle, which she stowed at her side. From behind her, Skyburn came running, a little beaten, but faring quite well.

“They’re not Die Die Riches,” he said, running between Twilight and the girl.

“What?” Twilight and the girl both turned to Skyburn. “But she has a Stand!”

"Good grief, and you just assumed that all Stand users besides yourself are with Die Die Riches?" The girl placed a hand on her forehead. "And I thought Granny Shimmer was dim."

“Well… Well, you attacked us first!” Spike started pointing fingers at everyone.

“Yes, sorry about that…” An elderly woman walked out from behind the girl’s position. “I had reason to believe you were the enemy. Skyburn! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you. If I had known you were traveling with them, I wouldn’t have attacked immediately.”

“No trouble, Mrs. Shimmer. I was too caught up in the moment of the attack.” Skyburn looked at the woman in green beside him. “You’re traveling with Daring Do! I can’t believe it! I should’ve recognized her from the outfit!”

“Wait, Daring Do?” Twilight looked at her. Only now did she realize how similar she looked to her Equestrian counterpart. They had roughly the same hair color, and they wore a similar jungle-trekking outfit. The only difference was that her Daring Do was a wizened old pony. This one was young and springy, younger than even her Daring Do was when she first met her.

“That’s right.” She put her hands on her hips and grinned. “Well, Daring Do the fourth, but you get the idea. The mantle’s been passed down from generation to generation.”

“Huh.” Twilight blinked. Then she returned her gaze to the other two women. “Maybe I missed something. And who are you? And why did you attack us?”

The older one tipped her orange hat to them. “I’m Sunset Shimmer. This is my granddaughter, Shiho Sunfast.”

“Sunset Shimmer?” Twilight remembered this name. Sweetie Belle had mentioned. “I’ve heard of you. You’re from Equestria too!”

“Too? That explains it!” Sunset snapped her fingers. “So you have no affiliation to Principal Cinch.”

“Who’s that?”

“No one important. Not anymore.” Sunset shook her head. “So you’ve come to this world too. You’ve picked a bad time, I’m afraid. Times aren’t exactly the best right now.”

“I’m well aware.” Twilight nodded and put an arm around Spike. “Spike and I came to explore the world after reading through Princess Celestia’s journals.”

“Spike…” Sunset looked at him as he waved and slicked up his green mohawk. “How is Princess Celestia? Is she well? I was once a student of hers before coming here.”

“Oh! So was I!” Twilight ran over excitedly. “It’s good to finally meet you, Sunset Shimmer. Celestia is well and so is Luna! They’ve retired from their duties and are enjoying life somewhere along the coast.”

“Twilight’s ruler of Equestria now. And the Princess of Friendship!” Spike said proudly.

Sunset smiled and bowed. “It is an honor to meet you, Princess Twilight. I must apologize again, you are very different from your human counterpart.”

“You’ve met her?” Twilight clapped her hands together. “Oh, I’d like to meet her. There’s much I want to discuss with her!”

Sunset scratched the back of her head and looked at her granddaughter, who just snorted and looked elsewhere. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. You see, years ago, the human Twilight and her dog, Spike, they attacked us. We were trying to save the world from Principal Cinch and Twilight was one of her Shadowbolts. We had no choice and she was killed in battle. That’s why I attacked you. I thought you were her, hunting us down once again.”

“She’s dead?” Twilight took a step back, her mind reeling as it tried to process it all. “And she’s been dead for such a long time. And Spike too?”

“I’m afraid so.” Sunset looked down. “I’m sorry. There was too much at stake. If we were to fail, the world wouldn’t still be free today. Cinch would’ve taken control of the minds of everyone on this planet and enforced her will.”

Twilight thought about that and frowned. “Well, the world isn’t doing much better for being free, is it?”

“No, I don’t suppose it is…” Sunset sighed. “I’ve wondered about that myself over the years… I’ve lived through two world-ending threats. Perhaps we prolonged something that was meant to change, that was meant to die out.”

“No use thinking about that now, Sunset.” Daring Do kept her whip and walked over. “We live in the present. Unless you have Yesterday, you can’t go back and change things. You did what was right for all of humanity. It’s not your fault that other people have made things worse.”

“Like Die Die Riches.” Skyburn clenched a fist. “They killed Appy, Mrs. Shimmer. They attacked Sweet Apple Acres and they killed her.”

Shiho growled and Sunset walked over to put a hand on his shoulder. The girl might look fierce, but Twilight could tell she cared about her friends and family. “I’m sorry for your loss, Skyburn. She was a sweet girl. Die Die Riches is going to pay more now. For Appy. For Shiho’s friend, for all those who have lost their lives to DDR.”

Shiho folded her arms and angled her head down so that shadows covered her eyes.

Twilight began pondering the state of the world and how it had only been getting worse over the years. Perhaps it would’ve been better if she had come years ago, like when Sunset first arrived here. Things would’ve certainly not been this dire back then. But she wouldn’t have met those she’d already met if she did, like Skyburn. He wouldn’t have even been born yet and over the last few days, he had proven to be a good friend. Twilight could see a lot of Rainbow Dash in him, and that made her happy to know that her friends’ legacies continued on, even Applejack’s through her sister’s family.

She mused about her dead counterpart and hummed. She must’ve been deadly enough to warrant her death. And Spike’s too. If he was a dog, unlike what he was now, then was he even a threat worthy of death? Did animals develop Stands too? There was still so much to learn about this world and all her counterpart had been through. Perhaps there would be time for that later.

“We’re expecting more allies,” Daring Do was the first to break the silence. “But they’re coming in closer to Angers by special transport. We’ll meet them on the way.”

“More allies, hmm?” Twilight rubbed her chin. It seems most of them have been affected by Die Die Riches. It would be good to stand with others against this threat.

“Well, it’s nice to meet all of you.” Spike shook the hands of the three newcomers. “I’m Spike. I’m Twilight’s aide.”

“No, Spike.” Twilight smiled and ran a hand through his mohawk. “You were once my aide. You’re so much more than that now. You have duties beyond just helping me. Why, you represent all dragonkind in Equestria now.”

“Dragon? Did you say dragon?” Daring Do got closer and looked into Spike’s eyes, then the top of his head and his behind. “You don’t look like a dragon to me. Can you transform into one or something?”

“I think there’s much to explain to you about Equestria.” Twilight laughed.

“We can do that on the way.” Sunset gestured to the train station, then curled a hand around and to her waist, before placing her other hand on top of her hat. “Come, there’s still some ways to Angers. I can fill you in about this world, princess, while you fill Daring Do in about Equestria.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Twilight snapped her fingers and followed. “But please, just Twilight is fine, Sunset.”

Author's Note

That's why you never jump to conclusions, eh? :trollestia:
Anyway, we finally have Spike's Stand here. I decided to go with another MLP song again, because why not? And instead of the usual Stand with a 'dragon' in its name, I decided to do something a little... different. Let me know what you think. Especially you, Nightshroud...

Chapter 18: Words Can Only Do Harm

Shiho had never been to Angers before, but at the same time, she’d never seen a town as rustic as this, even compared to Kantarijji, that hadn’t yet received most of the technological advancements the rest of Japan had. Angers still had ancient castles standing tall and proud, though their facades were already beginning to crumble from age. A lot of the buildings here were still supported by wooden beams and Shiho didn’t know how people were able to keep these standing over the years. Nor did she care.

“Die Die Riches…” she said under her breath. Here they were now, standing before Angers, the city that held the leader of the activist group that murdered her friend, Ban Kai. It was here that they had come into existence and it was here that she was going to see them destroyed.

“This is the meeting point.” Sunset kept her lightphone after checking through it. “They should be arriving any time now.”

“Hey, as long as they don’t attack us for nothing.” Spike looked at Shiho and Sunset.

“Good grief. I said I was sorry, didn’t I?” Shiho grumbled.

“He didn’t mean anything by it.” Twilight defended Spike. “It’s just not everyday you get attacked out of nowhere. Well, actually…”

Sunset listened intently as Twilight went on about the various threats she and her friends had to deal with in Equestria time after time, year after year.

“I’d heard of a few incidents when I was still studying under Princess Celestia,” Sunset said. “But this is madness! You’ve saved the world more times than I can count!”

“That we have.” Twilight couldn’t help but smile. “I couldn’t have done anything without my friends. They might not have come to this world with Spike and I, but we’ve had Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Appy… and Skyburn to help us out here. And now we have the chance to work with you too, Sunset Shimmer. I must say, it’s nice to have someone from home.”

“Never thought I’d ever meet another Equestrian myself.” Sunset and Twilight met hands in the middle in a thunderous handshake. “It’s good to have you, Twilight. And you too, Spike. You’d be surprised at how many people would love to see you alive and well. If they were still alive.”

“Seems you’ve all witnessed a lot of death and destruction.” Spike folded his arms. “Can’t say I envy that.”

“That we have…” Sunset sighed, remembering the friends who had given up their lives to ensure Principal Cinch wouldn’t get the Stand Geode. “Hey, this is the spot. They should be here soon.”

Their group had stopped just outside a small cafe with tables along the pavements. From here, they could see many more shops down the street, most of them selling vintage items. In one of these buildings, they would find the main base of Die Die Riches.

Shiho grumbled something inaudible, then stuck a cigarette in her mouth.

“Hey, you need to stop.” Sunset grabbed it out of her mouth before she could light it. “This isn’t good for you.”

“You know what’s good for you?” Shiho shot her a scowl. “Minding your own business, granny. Give it back.”

“Curious little article…” Twilight leaned closer to look at it. “What does it do?”

“It, uh, makes smoke when you light it and you breathe it in?” Shiho said, not having needed to explain what a cigarette was before. “Don’t you have smokes in your world?”

“Oh, tobacco!” Twilight’s face shone with understanding. “Yes, we have pipes in Equestria. I don’t use them, but some of the members of my council do. I’m not very fond of the smell, to be honest.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Sunset said, pocketing the cigarette, earning her a glare from Shiho. “Why don’t you chew gum instead?”

Shiho rolled her eyes. “And why don’t you try eating grass instead of bread?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, I do eat grass.” Sunset looked up at all the eyes that had turned towards her. “Yes, grass is edible. And I put them in my sandwiches from time to time. Twilight, back me up here.”

“Humans don’t eat grass, huh?” Twilight tapped a finger against her forehead. “Interesting… It seems your diets are also very different from ours.”

“And you think I’m a strange person,” Shiho grumbled. She jerked a thumb towards a building across the street. It looked like some kind of tavern. “I’m going to get a beer or something. If I get attacked by an enemy Stand, I’ll try to make a lot of noise when I die.”

Shiho swaggered across the road and into the bar before anyone could stop her. Sunset Shimmer merely sighed and put her hands into her pockets. “I blame my son-in-law’s genes for how she turned out. Ah, Shiho was always such a sweet girl until recently.”

Twilight shrugged. “Children can be rebellious sometimes. Some of my pony friends’ children were kind of similar.”

“I guess it’s just a phase.” Spike shrugged. “Maybe. Someone should go with her.”

“Yeah… Spike and I will keep an eye on her, Sunset.” Twilight gave her a smile before waving for Spike to follow her.

“You don’t need to sweat it, Sunset.” Daring Do gave her a pat on the arm. “Shiho might act all tough and wayward, but I’m sure when push comes to shove, she’ll be right there to defend those she cares about. That includes you.”

Sunset looked at the retreating form of her granddaughter and nodded. She wanted to believe that, but she didn’t know if she could.

There was a honking of a car horn and everyone turned their heads over to a red sports car that had just rolled up alongside the cafe’s pavement. Its engine roared with incredible power and its wheels were thick and huge, likely for off-road travel. Behind the wheel was a humanoid figure in a hoodie and when it vanished into thin air, the car powered down and three of its doors swung open. Sunset knew Cajole Joyride and Josher Joyride well. Cajole was the son of an old friend, Jostle, one of her friends who had helped her stop Cinch all those years ago. As for their third companion, she’d heard about who he was, and she had expected him to be taller.

“Heeeey, Skyburn!” Josher Joyride was the first to move himself over to the rest of the group, giving his cousin a handshake. “Glad to see you in one piece. Didn’t expect you to get caught up in all this as well.”

“Things aren’t good all around the world, Josher.” Skyburn shook his head. “Die Die Riches are popping up everywhere. I’m… I’m sure you heard. About Appy.”

Josher nodded solemnly. “I’m so sorry to hear about that. She was my friend too. I can’t believe they killed her.”

“Trust me, we’ll stop them. We have to.” Daring Do gave him a thumbs up. “For all that is good in the world.”

“I can’t believe you have the real Daring Do with you!” Josher put his hands to his cheeks and squished them. “Daring Do, it’s an honor.”

Skyburn agreed. If it weren’t for the trying times, he would’ve asked her for her autograph.

“We’ll need all the help we can get against another group of Stand users.” Sunset clenched a fist tighter. “So this is him?”

“A pleasure to meet you.” The boy bowed.

Cajole smiled and pointed at their third companion. “Joshi Horner, son of Dolfy Horner himself. Too bad Summer’s not here. She would’ve loved to hear his name.”

“She would.” Sunset smiled.

“It’s been some time since I’ve seen her. I wonder if-”

Sunset had looked down at her shadow for a few seconds as he talked, but when she realized he had stopped midway, she looked back up to see Cajole pulling at his mouth.

She was about to ask him what was wrong, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out.

Hmm? Odd. I don’t hear my words coming out…

Sunset opened her mouth and stuck a finger down her throat, and when it got irritated enough, she removed her appendage and coughed, but no sound came out. Her next thought was that she had just gone deaf, and in her old age, that wouldn’t have surprised her, but a white van drove by and she could still hear its engine running.

She turned to look at her friends and the other occupants of the cafe and realized everyone had realized they could no longer speak or utter a sound.

If everyone can’t speak at the same time, it has to be the work of an enemy Stand!

Daring Do tried to say something, but when she realized no sound would come out of her mouth, she began wriggling her arms around, pointing in all directions.

Sunset had enough of it and she called forth Alicorn Fantasy, resetting herself to a previous state, but when she tried to say something again, she still could not. Whatever was causing them to remain silent was still ongoing.

At least it’s not immediately harmful… Sunset took solace in that. Wherever this Stand was, it seemed to only be able to turn them all mute.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to see Skyburn Dash gesturing around with his hands, then pointing down the sidewalk.

What is he trying to tell me? He knows something? He knows where the Stand master is?

All of a sudden, Josher dropped to the ground, cradling his stomach as he winced with clear pain, though no sound could come from his mouth. His father was quick at his side, putting an arm around him as he tried to find out what was the problem.

Josher could only shake his head and rub his stomach as blood ran down the side of his mouth.

Something is plaguing him? Sunset didn’t know if it was related to their silence, but something was seriously wrong, maybe inside of him. Another ability of the enemy Stand? Maybe to injure our vocal cords?

She looked around, trying to spot the enemy. This Stand didn’t seem to be an offensive Stand like Alicorn Fantasy was. That meant it could likely affect a larger area, and the Stand master could be hiding anywhere on the street.

Wherever they were hiding, it was impressive that they knew they would have already arrived in Angers. Die Die Riches wasn’t as resourceful and rich as Principal Cinch or even Weather Alternate; finding them so quickly wouldn’t have been easy. Unless…

Maybe their base is nearby…

That was the only explanation that made sense. Sunset and her friends must have accidentally wandered into range of Die Die Riches’ headquarters.

Opening her mouth, Sunset tried to tell the others about this theory, but she instantly remembered why she had come up with it in the first place. They were being attacked by an enemy Stand user.

Skyburn gave her a pat on the shoulder again, then pointed to the side of the building as he kicked off the ground with his Stand’s leg, soaring up a good height before it lodged one of its batons into the side of the building.

Sunset understood better now. He was trying to get her to go to the roof. She didn’t know his exact reason, but they could at least get a clearer picture up there. She gave Cajole a stern look, trying her best to communicate to him that she would handle this.

He just nodded and stayed by his son as Sunset flew up after Skyburn with Alicorn Fantasy. They didn’t come all this way just to get stopped now. They were going to stop Die Die Riches, and they were going to do it soon. She just hoped that Josher would be alright.

Deep inside Josher Joyride, everything was not alright. Just beside his gallbladder, a small organism pushed its claws through the organ, creating three holes where blood and bile could flow out.

It laughed a monotonous laugh before skittering through blood vessels to its next target, Josher’s lungs.

This small figure was a plated beast clad in maroon colored armor and it had three sharp claws at the end of its arms and legs. A gaping mouth moved up and down at the center of its body, dripping saliva as it anticipated its next attack.

This was Moves Like Jagger, a miniscule Stand capable of entering the body of anyone to injure them from within with its sharp claws and spikes. Because the Stand was small, it couldn’t immediately kill anyone from inside. Instead, death would only happen once it had torn apart enough of its victim’s body, putting them through torture and anguish for as long as they could hold out against it.

Its master laughed and leaned back against a bean bag as she twirled a finger around a lock of her blonde hair. This was Playtime Jax Jamas, better known as PJ Jamas to all those around her, especially to the group she belonged to, Die Die Riches.

Being in the comforts of her apartment, she was dressed in a pajama top and a pair of glittering pants that reflected the sunlight that came through her window. A lightstrip went down the side of her top, and she curled one leg to her chest as she stuck a thumb under her chin.

“That’s right… destroy him. Take him down…” she laughed as she watched Moves Like Jagger cut through a vein on its way. “And you can’t tell anyone what’s going on, hehehe…”

“Are ya winning, PJ?” Another woman wandered into the living room. She had bright orange hair and green skin and she wore a dark green tube top and white short shorts. Behind her, a golden figure with no arms and legs floated along, clad in a thick red cape with a furry collar and a similarly golden crown atop its head. “Giving it to them good?”

“Very good, Ivy…” PJ flicked the lock of hair from her finger and reached a hand out as Ivy took it, sauntering over behind her to sit on the bean bag. “With Enjoy the Silence at work, they cannot state the nature of their medical emergency, which is Moves Like Jagger tearing their insides apart!”

“Yes, very much so, PJ…” Ivy leaned down and pressed a cheek against the top of her head. “This is going to go so well… The enemies of the world will fall to our genius plot and there’s nothing they can do to stop us now. How will they even find us? Both our Stands are long range and we’re thirty meters from the cafe.”

Ivy LeVine was another member of Die Die Riches, born and raised in Angers, the same as PJ. They had known each other for thirteen years and their parents had passed ten years ago after a road trip towards Germany ended in front of a drunk truck driver. Only PJ and Ivy had survived the accident and ever since then, they had been scrounging through the muck just to survive one more day. Most of their possessions at home had been found in dumps and donation booths, things that the rich no longer wanted.

PJ had been a drummer for a small-time band and Ivy was a makeup artist before they had lost everything. When their parents had died, two uncles from their respective families had teamed up to steal all the assets their families had ever owned before escaping to Switzerland.

It was through Duckie that the two women had eventually found their uncles, but they had already squandered all the money and were living in a rundown apartment, always at each other’s throats. Seeing them like this, their hatred for the rich only grew and after killing the two of them slowly, the two women returned to Angers, ready to help Duckie wage war against the privileged.

“Mmm, it always feels so good to know a rich person is dying because of us…” PJ wrapped Ivy’s arm around her neck. “Ever so slowly and being unable to say anything.”

Author's Note

As always, do find the Stand charts in the Sushi group!

Chapter 19: In For My Heart

Sunset Shimmer gazed across the city of Angers from her perch on top of the roof of a residential building beside the cafe. The sun was high in the sky now and with it burning down on top of them hotter than ever, it was hard to see where an enemy Stand master could be hiding.

She put a hand on top of her hat and sighed contently. At least Summer got me this hat to keep my head cool. But I’m still sweating buckets so close to the sun.

Skyburn Dash slammed a fist against the roof ledge. He shook his head and pointed down to the streets and the rooftops.

Sunset groaned. It was a hassle that they couldn’t make any sound, but she guessed he meant there was no sign of the enemy on the rooftops or the streets. That would mean that they had a long range Stand. She looked down at Josher and the others below and stretched a hand out.

Willing Alicorn Fantasy’s power to work, she noticed the blood on Josher’s face disappear, but a second later, she spat out a mouthful of blood on the sidewalk and doubled over again.

Sunset cursed in her mind and punched the ledge. She could reset him, keep him alive, but she couldn’t see the enemy Stand, meaning she couldn’t pinpoint any part of it to reset to a previous location, away from Josher.

Skyburn had been watching her and knew that she had just tried to reset his cousin and the enemy Stand afflicting him. They were missing something here. He knew that much. Everyone on the street below had become mute, unable to make a sound from their throats, but only Josher was getting hurt. If he had to guess what was going on, he would guess that there was more than one enemy Stand, and something else was attacking Josher.

Something must be inside him. The enemy Stand must be inside him, he thought. Perhaps if he were to get it out, Sunset could reset it to where it had come from and they could track its master down. As for how I’m going to get it out… It’s risky, but I think Runaway’s ability might just work. I have to try, or Josher’s going to end up dead.

Skyburn crouched down against a condenser and pointed down before squirming an arm to mimic the movement of a worm to show Sunset. Then he pointed to the side of his head and widened his eyes.

Sunset just raised her hands and shrugged. He couldn’t blame her. It was a pain not being able to talk. He now had a greater appreciation for people unable to speak. They go through so much everyday. He just hoped she knew that he was going in and that once he got the enemy Stand out, she would go after it.

He tapped a hand against the side of the building and Runaway ran out from within him, running down the building’s facade as it raced for Josher below. His Stand had the ability to squeeze through the tiniest of gaps, meaning it could escape an enemy through an air vent, or it could continue pursuit of an enemy through the tightest of alleys, but one thing he had yet to try was for his Stand to squeeze into the body of another human being. It could shrink to a comfortable size its area allowed, meaning it should be able to travel through a person’s insides, and he could always look through his Stand’s eyes to see what was going on inside.

I guess there’s a first time for everything. Here goes nothing…!

Runaway spun in a circle around a pipe, then dashed forward and stretched an arm out as it aimed right for Josher’s mouth. Skyburn’s Stand shrunk down and squeezed through the gap between his cousin’s upper and lower rows of teeth, then hopped down his gullet as it kept its eyes out for the enemy Stand.

Skyburn’s vision blurred slightly. It seemed that as it grew smaller, his Stand was taking in less and less oxygen and that was reflecting itself on his body as well and he felt the air was thinner around his nostrils now and he was barely getting enough oxygen per breath.

This is dangerous. I better find the enemy fast. I won’t be able to keep Runaway this small for long. I can last maybe two minutes in here.

Everything was darker inside the body, seeing as no light was coming in, but for some reason, Skyburn found he could still see the paths through the body, slipping out from a small pore between the gullet and the stomach. It was here that his Stand started to pick up sounds of tearing flesh. The enemy was close.

Where are you now…?

Blood sprayed in Runaway’s face from the right and he stopped his Stand in its tracks. He was next to Josher’s right lung now and there were dozens of slash marks across his organ, only for them to suddenly disappear as though they had never been there before. He smiled. That must’ve been Alicorn Fantasy’s power at work. Though it could reset Josher’s body to a time when he had yet to attain these injuries, it could not remove the enemy Stand from his body.

“And what might you be, swimming around inside a human being?” a voice echoed around them.

Runaway twisted its head from side to side, looking for anything out of the ordinary. It had been fortunate his Stand had started keeping a lookout, as a metallic figure suddenly dashed past him with both arms pointed in front of itself, brandishing three spikes on each one.

Runaway kicked away, then flipped upside down as it cartwheeled away from the enemy Stand’s attack, before throwing one of its batons at the Stand’s back. It hit it between the shoulders, bouncing off and returning to his Stand before it righted itself and held both batons out in front of itself.

“A fast one, aren’t you?” The enemy Stand spun around and slashed its claws together, creating a small cluster of sparks. “Surely not faster than I. I am Moves Like Jagger and you’re going to regret coming in here to face me.”

Skyburn opened Runaway’s mouth to speak, but then he remembered he couldn’t and instead opted to point a finger at the enemy Stand, then to its feet.

“Ah, yes. You can thank Enjoy the Silence for your lack of vocals…” The small Stand guffawed, its voice scratchy and mechanical. “I am PJ Jamas, and as you might’ve already guessed, Die Die Riches wants you dead!”

Skyburn nodded. So there were indeed two of them.

The one that made them unable to speak was of no threat at the moment, so he decided to keep his focus on Moves Like Jagger. The faster he dealt with this Stand, the faster Josher would feel better and the faster they could track the Stand masters down.

“Don’t you want to see the world improve? Don’t you want to live in a world where everyone gets equal rights and privileges?” The enemy asked, clashing its claws together again. “Your quest to stop us shows us just how much the rich are willing to keep their wealth all to themselves.”

Skyburn just had Runaway lift its batons. He couldn’t say anything to defend himself anyway. He would just have to do so with weapons.

“Have at you, scum!” Moves Like Jagger threw itself forward, rolling like a ball as it stuck its arms out at its sides. Spikes along its body began to spin as well, effectively turning the Stand into a wrecking ball of death.

Runaway kicked off Josher’s ribcage and tumbled out of the way, before throwing one of its batons at the enemy Stand. Moves Like Jagger’s rolling knocked it away, but it bounced off the left lung and ricocheted back to Runaway, who used both batons to strike Moves Like Jagger as it came barreling back. Runaway’s attack bounced right off its moving form, which then uncurled and slashed at its midsection.

It tore right through Runaway’s abdomen, which reflected itself on Skyburn as he dropped to a knee.

I saw that coming, but it still hit me. I have to be more careful… He looked at his wounds. They weren’t deep, but blood was now staining his shirt.

“Hee hee! You’re too slow!” Jagger taunted as it curled up like a hedgehog and spindashed around the fleshy walls, slicing them open in the process. Sunset had Alicorn Fantasy heal the lacerations in a blink, but Skyburn didn’t want Josher to suffer any injuries, temporary or not.

This Stand is faster than Runaway, it’s true. Skyburn thought as he had Runaway dodge out of the way of another spindash. And I can’t afford to fight recklessly or I’ll hurt Josher more. I have to think of what advantages I have in this battle.

“What do you think you can do against my Stand?” Moves Like Jagger laughed again. “Moves Like Jagger has armor plating like a rhinoceros beetle! Sure, if your Stand was bigger, perhaps you could crush mine easily, but now that your Stand is the same size as mine, you’re like an ant trying to take down a beetle! Impossible! Impossible!”

Skyburn raised the corner of his mouth in disgust, but he was still unable to say anything. Sunset looked at his face and raised a hand, touching her index finger to her thumb as she lifted the other three fingers. She was asking if everything was okay.

He just wiped blood from his mouth across an arm, then gave her a nod. He’d experienced worse injuries from his motocrossing accidents.

He had Runaway drop to Josher’s gallbladder next, keeping one foot in front of the other as it raised one arm above its head and lowered the other one below its pelvis. Moves Like Jagger curled itself up again and came rolling towards it. Runaway sidestepped it, trying to find a weakness in its form as it rolled on by, but when it bounced against Josher’s bones, it ricocheted faster than he had anticipated and it slammed itself into Runaway’s chest before it could get away, lodging spikes deep through its body.

Skyburn leaned forward and coughed out blood, the surprise almost sending him off the rooftop if Sunset hadn’t caught him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and had Alicorn Fantasy reset his body, but it didn’t help much as Moves Like Jagger bounced back again, tearing off a chunk of Runaway’s side, then sliced through its left ankle.

Skyburn opened his mouth to silently scream, and each time, Sunset helped to heal his injuries, only for the enemy Stand to injure Runaway again and again.

It’s much too fast. I can’t beat it with speed… But Runaway definitely has better precision. And I think I have an idea…

Runaway hefted its batons and readied itself the next time Jagger came rolling around to hit it. As Moves Like Jagger came spinning around like a marble, Runaway threw its left baton at the fleshy ground beneath its feet. The baton jabbed into the fleshy floor and Jagger rolled over it, and like a ball, it bounced up into the air in an arc.

Still spinning, Jagger fell downwards with gravity, and Skyburn timed it just right. His Stand had rather good precision and he had spotted the only weak point available as Moves Like Jagger continued rolling around. He would have one shot, but he was sure his Stand could manage it. As the enemy Stand fell, Runaway threw its second baton forward, slotting it right between Moves Like Jagger’s teeth, forcing them open.

In its distraction, it rolled past Runaway and crashed into a fleshy wall, lodging its spikes into it.

For a few precious seconds, Moves Like Jagger tried to dislodge the offending baton. More than enough time for Skyburn to enact his plan.

Runaway could squeeze into small spaces, no matter how tiny the gap. Skyburn had never even tried to get it into a human before, but if no gap was small enough for Runaway, then perhaps his limits were still far away. In a flash, Runaway had slithered into Moves Like Jagger’s mouth and inside, growing even smaller in the process. Skyburn began to feel his head throb from immense pain. His Stand was receiving even less oxygen as it shrank further and at this stage, he could not even get a whiff of breathable air. He had to end this. Now.

“Hey! What are you doing in there! Get out!” PJ Jamas said through her Stand.

Outside, Skyburn had a theory he wanted to test. If a Stand was just a manifestation of a person’s fighting spirit and tenacity, then they shouldn’t be bound to the laws of physics like real items. However, he knew that most Stands had a preferred size and he bet that if a Stand that didn’t have Runaway’s properties was to change size, it might take a while.

However, Runaway’s ability was to change size and to squeeze into tight spaces. Skyburn’s Stand could change mass much quicker. And now he ordered his Stand to expand slightly, to about the size of a small marble.

“Wait, no!” PJ Jamas’ voice said as Runaway began to grow inside Moves Like Jagger. “Stop it! It’s too tight! Too much! Get out! Come out of me!”

Moves Like Jagger blew up like a balloon, its limbs sticking out in all directions before bursting with a pop! Runaway stood where Jagger had been, watching as the shreds of the enemy Stand drifted down around it and dissolved into nothingness.

Skyburn clutched his chest and began breathing hard. That was much too close for comfort… But I did it, Josher’s safe now. He’ll be okay.

The boy wasted no time in getting his Stand out of Josher’s body, allowing him to breathe normally once again, though they still couldn’t utter a sound. He smiled and gave Sunset a thumbs up. The job here was done. At least… the one that posed an immediate threat.

Sunset gave him a pat on his shoulder before resetting his injuries, then pointed into the air and traced her finger down a street. If he had to guess, she must’ve picked up something about where the enemy Stand master was hiding. Perhaps she had caught a trail of fighting spirit when he had blown up Moves Like Jagger. Seeing as its master could still talk through it, they would’ve likely been affected too. That was something he didn’t want to see.

Sunset kicked off the roof with one of Alicorn Fantasy’s powerful legs before flying down the street and around the first corner, past the cafe. Whatever Skyburn had done inside Josher, Sunset had felt the enemy Stand’s presence diminish, almost like it had faded from existence completely. She would’ve asked him how he had beaten the enemy Stand, but they still couldn’t speak.

But that was all about to change. I can feel it, almost like a trail leading back to its Stand master. It’s like an inkling of energy going back when it was destroyed. The Stand master must’ve been far away enough to survive Skyburn’s attack, if only barely. I know where they’re hiding. And I’m going to find them…

A few moments earlier…

PJ Jamas leaned back into Ivy LeVine’s legs as she smiled to herself, twirling at two locks of hair now, one on each hand.

“He’s so done for! This Stand can’t match Moves Like Jagger’s speed!” she proclaimed. “Once I’ve dealt with him, I’ll get back to killing this other child. If only his body would stop healing!”

“It’s that old woman with them.” Ivy stroked a hand down the side of PJ’s head. “Subset Shiner or something. Her Stand has the ability to revert anything to a previous state. That means removing injuries.”

“We should’ve invaded her body first…” PJ grumbled. “Hey! What are you doing in there! Get out!”

She suddenly jumped to her feet, almost knocking Ivy off the bean bag in the process.

“Merde, what’s happening?” Ivy asked, alarmed. PJ had sounded caught off guard. That was never a good sign. She had never seen her so worried, not even in front of Duckie. “PJ, talk to me.”

“It’s in me! It’s in Moves Like Jagger!” PJ began clawing at her chest. Then her eyes bulged and her mouth dropped open. “Wait no! Stop it! It’s too tight! Too much! Get out! Come out of me!”

Ivy got up and took three steps back, horrified at how panicked PJ looked. Something was happening to her, something bad. And then PJ Jamas was thrust up into the air as blood burst from her eyes, mouth and any opening. She dropped back down and fell against the bloody floor, which stained her white rug.

Everything had moved so fast. Ivy couldn’t even believe what had just happened. PJ had suddenly exploded from the inside, and there she was, lying motionless on the floor. They shouldn’t have been able to beat them, not when they worked so well together. They shouldn’t have been able to find Moves Like Jagger, at least not this quickly. They had misread their enemy greatly.

“T-T-They got u-us…” she gasped, then closed her eyes.

“PJ, PJ, no. Stay with me!” Ivy ran back to her side and grabbed at her shoulders. “I’ll get them. I’ll make sure they pay for this!”

And she would get her wish. The window to PJ’s apartment shattered inward and Ivy shrieked as she fell back. Glass shards had embedded themselves in her arms and chest, and one had even made its way through her tongue. Ivy winced as she pulled it from her mouth, then looked up at the shimmering, floating form of Alicorn Fantasy. Sunset Shimmer stepped down from her Stand, then slid a foot forward and brought two fingers up to her face.

“You! You did this!” Ivy scrambled back as she brought out Enjoy the Silence between them. “The privileged and connected people always take everything from us! Why must you hold so tightly to this world of yours? We deserve to live comfortably as well!”

Her Stand spread its cloak out and angled its head lower as its eight eyes flipped up to look at Alicorn Fantasy.

“You’re going to wish you never broke into PJ’s apartment, Subset Shiner!” Ivy stretched her arms out at her sides, then bent them at the elbow to form a triangle under her waist. “You thought Enjoy the Silence’s only ability was to make you all shut your traps?”

Sunset narrowed her eyes, but made no move yet. She was smart, Ivy gave her that. She knew not to just rush into combat without knowing what the enemy was going to do.

But Ivy smiled. She didn’t need to step closer for her ability to work. “Enjoy the Silence. Through air and space, violator!”

There was something like a pop in Ivy’s ears and she knew that sound well. It was the sound of her area of silence reducing, returning vocals to everyone around her as Enjoy the Silence narrowed its ability to one target…

“Subset Shiner, you’re going to be violated by Enjoy the Silence’s most powerful attack!” She waved a hand to one side and struck her hip out and tiptoed on one foot. “Enjoy the Silence has the power to stop all forms of sound from your mouth by disabling your vocal vibrations. If it concentrates that power, it can stop more than just your vocal cords.”

Sunset took one step forward, then froze as her eyes widened.

“That’s right…” Ivy began laughing as she placed a hand under her chin. “That means your whole body would stop vibrating. That would mean you would stop breathing, and your heart would stop beating! You’ve already lost! This is for PJ!”

Sunset had stopped moving completely and as all vibrations stopped within her body, it was only a matter of time before her brain would cease from the lack of blood flowing to it from her now-stopped heart.

Before Ivy could celebrate her victory for even one more second, there was some kind of static buzz from Alicorn Fantasy’s form and Sunset took one more step forward, before stopping again for a second. Then there it was again and Sunset took another step forward.

“No, what are you doing? How can you still be moving?” Ivy raised a hand, taken aback. She wasn’t expecting this. She had been expecting to win, to get revenge for PJ’s injuries. “Your heart would’ve stopped! All vibration should’ve stopped!”

Enjoy the Silence leaned forward more, its eyes glowing red as its cape began fluttering more intensely. The rug under its form began to wobble and float up as well as its concentration began to increase in power.

But Sunset continued to stalk forward, ever so slightly and Ivy remembered Alicorn Fantasy’s power. “Your Stand is constantly resetting your state to before Enjoy the Silence stopped your vibrations! But you can’t beat me! I’ll just increase the focus on you! The rich will never win!”

But even as the ceiling began to crack and the wooden floorboards began to bend, Sunset Shimmer continued to press forward, getting closer with each second. Enjoy the Silence’s aura began to glow brighter and brighter, but so did Alicorn Fantasy. Once it was close enough, it opened its mouth in a silent yell before driving a fist forward into Enjoy the Silence’s forehead. Its crown shattered in two and cracks began to snake out from the center of its forehead.

Ivy fell on her back and clutched at her own head as blood seeped out from her fingers. Her head throbbed and she couldn’t even open her eyes from the pain. She heard footsteps approach her before someone cleared their throat above her.

“So, you’re going to tell me where your leader is hiding.” It was Sunset and she was now squatting over her position on the ground. “Where is your secret base?”

Ivy groaned and rolled around. “I’m… I’m not telling you merde! Tu Blaireau!”

She heard her sigh. Ivy cracked an eye open, allowing her vision to adjust itself before checking her surroundings. She could see Sunset’s feet and she didn’t look like she was prepared in any way for a counterattack. And that’s just what Ivy tried to do. A counterattack.

“Enjoy the Silence!” she yelled as her Stand shot out from her, ramming its head against Sunset’s chest.

Only… it never rammed Sunset’s chest. Alicorn Fantasy had gotten in the way and it now had one hand against Enjoy the Silence’s head and though its hooves weren’t touching the ground, it held strong, stopping Ivy’s Stand in place.

“They never learn…” Sunset made a clicking sound with her tongue.

With a bray, Alicorn Fantasy dashed through the air, swinging both fists at the injured woman as it began to deliver blow after blow to her body.

“Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!”

Ivy was launched back into the wall leading to the kitchen, smashing it to bits.

Sunset breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the battle was finally over. “It’s good to speak again… She had a powerful Stand. I can’t imagine how I could’ve won if not for Alicorn Fantasy. Thank goodness its power didn’t fail me. If it did, even for one second, I might’ve been a goner at my old age…”

With their enemies defeated, it was time to make it back to her allies. In the end, they didn’t get a location out of Die Die Riches, but she was certain they were close by.

“They have to be.” Sunset looked out the window she had come from. “They’re here somewhere. And we’re going to find them. The world’s messed up enough as it is. If only Alicorn Fantasy was strong enough to reset it to how it was fifty years ago or so.”

Sunset remembered the world she had escaped to when she had first come here. Where she was now didn’t feel like the same place anymore.

Crime was becoming more rampant, the divide between the rich and the poor was increasing day by day, the weather was getting hotter and the sea levels were rising, resources like food and minerals were dwindling, and here they were, trying to do their best to stop the world from declining further. Sunset didn’t know how much they could really do, even after taking down Die Die Riches, but she knew they would have to try. They lived on this planet, and that meant they had a duty to make sure it would become a place everyone could live in comfortably.

She shook her head. “But for now, Die Die Riches is our main focus. If the world is to continue on existing, they will have to go.”

Though they didn’t know Die Die Riches’ exact location, they weren’t going to stop until they found it, and they were close, that much she knew. All they had to do now was to wait for the activists to slip up, and that was the moment she would have them.

Author's Note

Enjoy the silence, friends, over on the group thread, of course. :trollestia:

Chapter 20: A Spectacle Monopolized

Shiho Sunfast groaned as she sat herself down at a small circular table, resting her head on one palm as she gazed across the city street. She had been sitting there for quite some time, waiting for her beer to show up, when people had started going crazy and running around and pointing at their mouths. She had sighed then and that was when she realized no sound could come out of her mouth.

Twilight and Spike had sat down with her and tried to work through this issue, but after a while, their voices returned again and everything in the cafe went back to normal.

“Good grief…” Shiho stuffed her cigarette back in her mouth and grumbled. “Took long enough…”

“I wonder what all that was about?” Spike looked around, but none of them could guess what had just happened.

One of the waitstaff came by with Shiho’s beer and set it down in front of her. Shiho cracked it open with a well-practiced twist and took a long drink. She had never tasted French beer before, and it was different from beer in Japan. It was more fruity tasting and not as intense, but overall it wasn’t bad. It did quench her thirst, so that was well worth the price. She could have drunk water, but Shiho hadn’t ordered water from anywhere since she had left middle school.

“You seem to like what you’ve got there,” Spike said, sitting across from her. “But it smells… fermented.”

“It’s beer,” Shiho said bluntly, taking another gulp of the drink. “What did you expect?”

“There’s still a lot to learn about your world…” Twilight drummed her fingers against the wooden table as she leaned back. “So you’re Sunset Shimmer’s granddaughter? I wonder how that works. Tell me, Shiho, are you like all the other humans here?”

“How would I know that?” Shiho slapped a hand to her forehead. “As far as I know, we’re not any different.”

“It’s strange…” Twilight looked at one of the passing cars. “Once you come over from Equestria, it’s like you were never a pony to begin with. Maybe that’s why you don’t feel any different. Other than Stands, this world doesn’t have any magic. That means we don’t carry anything over. So it would be logical to assume that Equestrians here and humans here could be one and the same. That means that if you were to go to Equestria, you would become a pony, just like us, and you could have pony children and they wouldn’t be any different.”

“Right.” Shiho nodded. “But remind me again why I should care about this?”

Twilight tilted her head to one side. “Don’t all these mysteries intrigue you even the slightest?”

“Nope.” Shiho downed the rest of her drink. “Die Die Riches killed my friend. I’m here to end them. And someone’s gotta watch the old granny…”

“Yeah…” Twilight nodded, remembering her own friends’ mortality. They had all passed her in age and she made it a point to help them out whenever she could to avoid giving them any strenuous tasks. “Look after your grandmother well, Shiho. Don’t wait until she’s gone before you start appreciating her.”

“That much I know…” Shiho groaned and flicked her cigarette away. “How long do we have to wait before the others show?”

“They might’ve already arrived.” Twilight stood up. “We’ve been here for quite some time, through all the silence. Maybe they’ve already found out where Die Die Riches is.”

Shiho grumbled to herself and was about to get up and go look for her grandmother and the others, but she decided to continue sitting down and ordered another beer.

“And stick some cherries in it,” she called after the waiter as she left. “Wait, what?”

“What, what happened?” Twilight and Spike turned their attention to her.

“Why would I ask for cherries? I hate cherries…” Shiho growled. “Good grief, as if the day can’t get any worse.”

“What’s wrong with cherries?” Twilight leaned forward. “I think they’re delicious.”

“They’re sweet and you have to peel off the stalk before eating it.”

“O-Oh. Humans do that, huh?” Twilight scratched her chin. She suddenly turned around and looked at a man having a sandwich. Shiho watched her look at him intently and raised an eyebrow. “Do you think that man’s suspicious? He looks suspicious.”

“Does he?” Spike asked, turning around in his chair to look.

Now that she thought about it, Shiho did find him suspicious too. He had blonde curly hair and a rather thick moustache, obscuring his mouth, and he was dressed in a blue suit with a red tie. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but something about him was making her brain go haywire. Every nerve in her head was telling her that this man was fishy and that he meant them harm.

Shiho wasn’t going to have any of it. She was going to make the first move and take him out.

“Curtain Call,” she said as she pushed away from their table. Shiho’s Stand slid out from her position and threw its cloth over one shoulder.

With a yell and a burst of strength, it closed the distance between its master and the man, before delivering a solid punch to the side of his jaw just as he was about to take a bite of his sandwich. The punch threw his mouth sideways and he bit down as his sandwich flew out of his hands, slicing off the tip of his tongue as he fell off his chair.

The patrons of the cafe got up and looked at the man as he grabbed for his mouth and mumbled in pain. Since no one else could see Stands, it had looked as though he had just fallen off his chair and dislocated his jaw.

“Hmm… he didn’t summon a Stand.” Twilight eyed him warily. “Something’s off about this.”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Shiho’s eyes blazed as she turned to face Twilight. Curtain Call rose up behind her like a guardian angel.

Twilight waved her hands in front of herself defensively. “What? No! Why would you think that?”

“That’s because I know you think so.” Shiho balled a fist. “If you want to pick a fight, I’m all ears.”

“No, I don’t want to fight, Shiho,” Twilight said, but still called forth Strange World behind her, which stretched one arm up in the air. “But I do want to know why you look so suspicious right now!”

“What? It’s you who’s suspicious!” Shiho threw one finger forward. “You think I’m a liar, therefore, you’re the enemy!”

Spike looked between them, then all of a sudden, thoughts of summoning his Stand to turn everyone to ice filled his mind and he decided to do so.

“Winter Wrap Up!” Spike pushed both palms forward as his Stand did the same above him.

A wintery storm began to envelop the cafe front, and people began to get up, but instead of leaving, two of them pulled out guns and began shooting other people.

What is going on? Shiho kept herself low as bullets began flying. It’s like everyone’s gone mad all of a sudden, and… I have to kill Twilight. There’s no other way. She has to die. Wait, did I just think that?

Shiho shook her head and when that didn’t work, she hit the side of her head and screwed her eyes shut.

What are these thoughts? These aren’t mine… Twilight has to die right now, or I won’t be able to sleep in peace! Die Die Riches may use violence, but what they’re doing works. What? No!

Twilight seemed to get to that conclusion first. “Someone’s controlling our thoughts. It’s like… a whisper in my head, resounding over and over again. I’m thinking that I need to eat more burritos. What even is a burrito?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Shiho looked at Spike as his Stand began to create a cyclone around them. “Spike must be thinking he has to kill us as well.”

“We just can’t listen to our own thoughts.” Twilight called up her Stand as she focused its ability on Spike.

Winter Wrap Up began to slow down and the ice storm around it did so as well. This gave Twilight room for her and Strange World to get in there towards Spike.

“Spike, stop! Something’s wrong. These thoughts aren’t our own. You have to stop your Stand’s ice storm!” Twilight said as she grabbed him by the shoulders.

“I don’t trust you, Twi!” Spike shoved her away as his Stand directed what it had of its storm at Strange World, enveloping it in an icy gale. Frost began to climb up its legs. “Something about you is wrong. It’s your nose! Because of your nose, I have to kill you.”

“What’s wrong with my nose?” Twilight’s mouth hung open in confusion. He’s after your boyfriend. He wants him for himself, that’s why!

Twilight shook her head when she thought that. She clearly knew she didn’t have a boyfriend, nor was Spike interested in one. Their thoughts were definitely coming from somewhere else.

“Spike, someone’s feeding thoughts into our heads! What you’re thinking isn’t what you’re thinking!” She used Strange World to slow Spike’s and Winter Wrap Up’s movements, allowing her to get her Stand around him as it wrapped an arm around his Stand’s neck.

“Let go of me, I’ve got to kill you!” Spike thrashed around as his Stand tried to escape.

“Spike! Realize these thoughts are not yours! Please!” Twilight held him down with her Stand. “Think, Spike! What’s wrong with my nose?”

“It’s the same color as my grandmother and you’re sullying her grave!” Spike struggled, then he widened his eyes and his movements began to slow, apart from Strange World’s slow. “I don’t have a grandmother… At least, I’ve never known her.”

“That’s right, Spike. Stop Winter Wrap Up’s attack.” Twilight let go of him. “These thoughts are not your own. This has to be the work of an enemy Stand. Whoever they are, they don’t know your past.”

Winter Wrap Up lowered its hands and faded away.

“I’m sorry, Twi. I couldn’t tell these thoughts apart.” Spike sighed. “This is some sick person putting their thoughts into our heads.”

Twilight nodded, then looked past him and frowned. Spike turned around, following her gaze. Behind him was a woman with wavy brown hair and a tattoo of a flower on her left cheek. She was dressed in a crisp white suit with a rose attached to her pocket, which looked fake beyond belief. She stopped walking once they spotted her and she threw a hand down at her side before raising the other one in a ‘V’ shape in front of her body.

“I hate it when people figure out my Stand powers…” she said. “It’s only ever happened to me once and I nearly paid for it with my life, but instead, I was recruited into this cause. The cause to wipe the rich from the earth!”

“So you’re with Die Die Riches.” Shiho pointed a finger at her and raised the corner of her lip in disgust. “You go around killing whoever you want to try and fulfill your sick master plan. You’re the ones who should be wiped off the planet.”

“Please, you think you can beat me?” The woman waved a finger. Her voice had a trace of Spanish in it. “My name is Flower Castle, and I am one of Die Die Riches’ strongest members. You’ve witnessed my power first hand. My Stand, Guerrilla Radio, has the ability to influence the thoughts of anyone in its vicinity.”

“We’ve already outsmarted you.” Twilight pointed out, keeping Strange World’s ability at the ready in case she tried anything else. “Your foreign thoughts won’t work again. I think I’ve learnt how to tell them apart.”

“A clever one, aren’t you?” Flower Castle flicked her tongue at the roof of her mouth, producing a sort of clicking sound. “Most people simply listen to their thoughts, since thoughts exist within our own brains. You might not be so easily fooled, but there are still plenty of people in the cafe. If I tell them to kill you because you’re suspicious, they will. Observe.”

She snapped her fingers and an ape-like figure in a beret jumped up onto her shoulders and sat down, scratching at its nose. It had on some kind of military getup and it had a huge thin mouth, which didn’t seem to have any teeth. It tapped at two mics that were positioned in front of its mouth and breathed into them a low hum.

People all over the cafe, still reeling from the sudden ice storm from Winter Wrap Up, suddenly turned to face Shiho, Twilight and Spike with varying degrees of confusion on their faces. However, that didn’t stop them as one man grabbed an empty glass and hurled it at Twilight. Strange World turned its attention to it to slow it down before catching it in one hand. Then another decided to join in and more and more people started grabbing what they could before throwing them at Shiho and the others.

“Good grief, now we’ve got to deal with regular people too.” She called out Curtain Call, which swept its cloth over an array of flying objects, turning all of them into red bouncy balls, which clattered to the ground harmlessly. “You’ve really done it now, Flower Castle.”

“All this power…” Twilight looked at the Die Die Riches member. “And what, you use it to kill the rich? With a power like that, you could be using it to help people! There’s so much that could be done with influencing people’s thoughts.”

“Bah, the world has never done anything but laugh at me!” Flower Castle held her chin high as she narrowed her eyes. “I was from the world famous Yarelian Flying Circus, one of three in existence. I was known as the Glider, the one capable of flying from perch to perch with the use of my mechanical instant-wingspread glider. I was so good at my job I could do it with my eyes closed. But instead of cheers from what I thought were my fans, I was constantly laughed at!”

“That’s because you were working in a circus.” Shiho rolled her eyes.

“A Flying Circus!” Flower Castle spat back quickly. “One of three! Do you know how rare it is to be able to fly in the sky while performing for an audience in a floating mechanical dome? But they laughed because I was a nobody. Well, this nobody has now seen the bigger picture, and I’m about to pull the rug out from under the spoiled and privileged rats that lead our world.”

“You talk too much. We’re wasting a lot of time here.” Shiho was already charging in, sending Curtain Call out ahead of herself as it flipped its cloth over a flying plate.

When it whipped the cloth away, the plate had changed into a billiard ball, which Curtain Call chucked at the enemy Stand master with all its might. But Guerrilla Radio beat its chest and gave a hoot before it swiped one of its chunky arms down, deflecting the ball before growling into its mics.

“Die foreigner scum!” one of the cafe patrons yelled as she threw a full glass of champagne at Shiho.

“Shut your trap!” Shiho yelled at them, but before Curtain Call could whip its cloth over the champagne glass, she spotted Flower Castle smirking, which made her a little suspicious of her enemy. “What so funny?”

“Oh, nothing much…” Flower Castle waved a hand nonchalantly, then tilted her head down and shrouded it in shadow. “But did you think all Guerrilla Radio could do was to put thoughts into people’s heads? Shame on you for that.”

Her Stand raised an arm and stuck its index finger out. It opened its mouth and Shiho felt her arm hairs stand on end as something invisible brushed past her. She didn’t know what it was, but she could feel it. It was as though something heavy rolled by, but at the same time, it was able to move fast and vibrated as it went. And then the champagne glass shattered into a million pieces, splashing alcohol and glass towards Shiho as Curtain Call tried to bring up its cloth to defend its master. It managed to swipe some out of the air, but a majority still found their way to Shiho’s left cheek and neck and she fell back on the ground with a thump.

To her credit, all she did was let out a grunt of surprise as she began yanking out the glass from her face. “Sonic waves. She’s using sound to shatter glass.”

Flower Castle bent back and lifted both arms as she laughed to the sky. “Si! Si! Si! Did you think projecting thoughts was all Guerrilla Radio was capable of? It can send its voice out across spaces to influence thought at the slightest whisper, but if it were to raise its voice, the sound waves manifest, vibrating towards its target and anything along the way, especially glass, will be shattered!”

“Not if I have anything to say about it!” Twilight stepped between Shiho and Flower Castle. “Stay back, Shiho. I’ll deal with her.”

“Oh, I’ve heard all about you…” Flower Castle pointed a finger at her. “The ability to slow time or to speed it up. What good do you think that’ll do against sound? Do you know how fast sound travels? Even if you were to slow it down, you won’t be able to avoid my attacks!”

Guerrilla Radio continued to speak into its dual mics, and the people of the cafe continued their onslaught of throwables, sending them towards Twilight and Spike. As Guerrilla Radio increased its volume, the various glasses in the air began to shatter, raining down glass over them. Twilight got her Stand to slow down the incoming projectiles, but there was one issue she hadn’t thought through. Strange World’s power range was narrow, meaning it couldn’t slow all the glass at once. Its power could only focus on single targets, and when this translated over to the falling glass, it meant it could only slow the shards in a rough cone in front of itself. The rest fell around her, cutting into her arms and legs, but Twilight held strong as she turned her gaze to Flower Castle. She had to get away from all this glass and close the distance between them.

“Strange World, go!” Twilight dropped to a roll to avoid more glass as she ran behind her Stand. With her Stand being a close ranged Stand, she had to get closer in order to put her in a world of hurt.

But Flower Castle must’ve known this, because she suddenly darted down past the end of the cafe, heading down the street as her Stand began waving its arms around. Twilight turned the corner in pursuit, but it was halfway down the street, as she felt her hairs begin to stand, she realized her mistake. This street was a whole street of store fronts, including florists, pet shops, other eateries and even one hairdresser. They all had giant glass windows on their fronts and in that instant as she stopped in her tracks, the windows all shattered at the same time, sending shards in all directions and towards her.

With nothing else she could do, Strange World began punching them out of the air, its arms becoming a whirl of purple as it shattered what it could with its powerful fists. But there was just too much glass and one stabbed her in the back of her thigh, sending her to the ground.

“Aagh!” she cried out as she watched the retreating form of Flower Castle. “Spike!” Her companion was at her side in an instant, checking on her leg. “No, don’t worry about me. You’ve got to get her. That way!”

“A-Are you sure?”

“Just go, Spike. She’ll get away. We need to find out where Die Die Riches is!”

Spike looked between Twilight and the end of the street, and after taking a deep breath, he got back to his feet and ran after her.

Author's Note

As always, go to the group thread for Stand charts! :yay:

Chapter 21: The Voice of Guerrilla Radio

Spike had called up Winter Wrap Up and with a flap of its wings, it pushed him through the air, closing the space between himself and Flower Castle as she ran into an incomplete building at the next road. The building was only a skeleton at the moment, about five storeys high with metal rods sticking out from pillar to pillar, buried into concrete.

He didn’t know the basics of construction in this human world, but he would guess that the rods would be used as support when they layered more cement over them.

Construction tools and mechanical devices were left unwatched across the site; the workers must’ve headed off for lunch at this time. There were panes of glass left against one of the pillars and as Spike guessed, Flower Castle stopped next to them as Guerrilla Radio picked one of them up and held it over its oversized head.

“Take this!” she yelled as her Stand threw it towards Spike.

Winter Wrap Up grabbed the pane, but vibrations surrounded it and Spike and the glass shattered in its hands, cutting it across the arms all the way to the elbows.

Blood began to spread out across Spike’s sleeves and he clutched at them and barred his teeth at the enemy Stand master.

“I’d give you points for following me all the way here. But what did you plan to do?” She grinned. “Did you not see me destroy your friends with glass all around? And then you decided to catch it with your own bare hands? Nicely done.”

“I’ll stop you yet!” Spike swung his arms back at his sides. “And you’ll tell me where Die Die Riches is!”

Flower Castle put a hand on her collar and smirked. “As if I’d ever do that. We might not be wealthy like you, but we still have our ways of getting things done. Soon, the very world you stand on will change and the lowly and less privileged will take over, ushering in a new age of peace and prosperity! And it all starts here, right here in Angers… with the death of our president.”

“What?” Spike raised both eyebrows. “You intend to kill the leader of your home?”

“World leaders only care for themselves. Believe me, I know…” Flower Castle put her fingertips together. “They hide behind their gigantic mansions, while some people live in cardboard boxes that can’t even fit a cat. This wealth should be shared and once they’re out of the picture, the divide between rich and poor will cease to exist.”

“You can’t possibly think the world will heal just because you kill all the rich people off!” Spike threw his arms down, then winced as more blood oozed from his wounds.

“Oh, but it’s a start.” Then her smile faded and she glared at Spike. “But you. You and your friends wish to undo everything Duckie has strived to accomplish. For that, you will die, here and now. You won’t live to see our new order.”

“We’ll see about that.” Spike nodded to Winter Wrap Up. “The world should be at peace, helping each other towards a better future. This isn’t the way.”

“How it is now isn’t the way either! Humanity is innately selfish and greed has brought our world to where it is now. On the brink of extinction! If nothing is done, there won’t be a planet left to live on!” Flower Castle growled. “You’ll never understand. Guerrilla Radio, get him!”

Her Stand bounced off one of the pillars and rushed Spike and Winter Wrap Up. Spike had his Stand whip up a wintery storm, raining icicles down from its position to Guerrilla Radio’s.

To his surprise, it opened its mouth and all of a sudden, its icicles all shattered into tiny particles. He blinked, but then had his Stand try again. Guerrilla Radio constantly shattered his icicles with each growl or breath and Winter Wrap Up grabbed the enemy Stand’s arms as it barreled into it, pushing it back. Winter Wrap Up flapped its wings, taking to the air, but Guerrilla Radio grabbed one of the pillars and swung around it, smashing Spike’s Stand back into the ground.

But before it could push off the pillar and attack again, Guerrilla Radio found itself stuck to the pillar, where a buildup of ice was already spreading over its hand and down its wrist. But to Spike’s dismay, all it did was speak towards it and the ice shook and broke into pieces before it fell towards Winter Wrap Up.

“Stay still, will you!” Spike called out as Winter Wrap Up began throwing icicle after icicle.

And then it raised both arms and began to form an ice storm around them, and as wind began whipping around, Flower Castle stepped further away, putting her back to one of the pillars as tiny bits of frost flew into her eyes.

Ice began to snake out from under Winter Wrap Up, coating the floor in a thin layer as they made their way up some of the pillars. Guerrilla Radio continued to speak into its mics, shattering what ice it could as they flew towards it, but still Winter Wrap Up could not hit it.

“You can forget about trying to catch my Stand now.” Flower Castle buttoned her suit jacket more as it began to flutter around her body. “Guerrilla Radio’s speed is definitely higher than your Winter Wrap Up. You may be able to freeze the place, but at the right frequency, ice shatters. You can’t stop me!”

With a bark, Guerrilla Radio’s next sonic blast shook Winter Wrap Up to its core, sending Spike down on his knees as vibrations passed through his body from head to toe.

“The louder it speaks, the more powerful… its sonic blasts are…” Spike gasped for air. “If it shouts, it may very well tear the solid ground to pieces.”

He looked up as the enemy Stand rushed forward on all fours, swinging one arm up against Winter Wrap Up’s chin, knocking its head high before using its other arm to launch it back. Spike felt a tug on his body and he flew along with his Stand, crashing against the icy floor and sliding for a few feet. His vision blurred and he rubbed his chin before spitting out a clump of blood.

“Your two friends couldn’t stop me. What makes you think you’ll be able to?” Flower Castle began laughing again as the icy winds died down. By now, the construction site looked like an arctic wasteland, with ice coating everything around them with exceptions of circular areas where Guerrilla Radio had spoken against. “Man or machine, there can be nothing between me and Die Die Riches’ goals of saving this world. I know my cause is just and I will give it my all to see it through.”

“Whether it’s good for the world or not, that doesn’t give you the right to kill!” Spike rubbed his chin and pushed himself up. This fight was far from over. “That’s why I’ll stop you yet.”

Guerrilla Radio huffed and thumped a hand on the ground.

“You’re welcome to try again, mohawk.” Flower Castle raised a palm up. “But there’s nothing much you’re going to do. You can’t use your ice powers. Guerrilla Radio will just shatter them all.”

“There’s so much more Winter Wrap Up can do than shoot ice at you.” Spike staggered forward one step.

Winter Wrap Up stood behind him and raised both arms as an icy gale began to swirl around them again. It brought the winds closer to itself, shrinking its radius before stretching its arms out, sending the wind erupting into a cloud of mist, which quickly filled the area around them.

Flower Castle raised an arm to protect her face, but the drop in temperature was immediately apparent and she already began to shiver. “Not if-if I h-h-have anything to-to say ab-about that…”

Guerrilla Radio made its way back towards her, but then it slipped and skidded into one of the pillars, cracking it. Before it could even bounce off the pillar, Winter Wrap Up was already on it, grabbing it behind the head and smashing it against the pillar twice.

Flower Castle cried out in pain as she grabbed her forehead. Blood was already seeping through her fingers and staining her white suit, but her eyes bulged in her head and she breathed angrily as her fingers hooked forward. Guerrilla Radio opened its mouth and uttered a quick shout, sending sonic waves up around its face, throwing Winter Wrap Up back as the pillar in front of it shattered into tiny particles. It turned around and shouted again, each time only using it for a second.

“I know my own power and its devastating effect…” Flower Castle said to herself at a volume only she could hear. “If Guerrilla Radio were to shout for too long, I could lose control and destroy more than I want to. Even I’m not strong enough to contain the power within me, that’s how powerful my Stand is. And that’s why I’ll win!”

Winter Wrap Up spread its wings and flew around the site, spinning and dodging its shouts as it did so. The shouts began tearing apart the construction site, starting with a few pillars and even bits of the ceiling, shooting straight through the unfinished building to its highest floor. All the while, Spike had his Stand continue creating icicles, sending them out at the enemy Stand as it shouted again and again.

“Try this one on for size!” Spike exclaimed as Winter Wrap Up sent a larger icicle crashing into Guerrilla Radio, but one of its shouts hit it in the wing and his Stand went down, sliding against the icy floor before Spike managed to create a frost barrier to stop it. “I’m going to be feeling that one.”

Guerrilla Radio had also been thrown back and the icicle now stuck out of its left shoulder. Flower Castle had screamed in pain before tearing off her white jacket and clutching at a gaping hole between her neck and shoulder.

“Aaaaagh, how dare you! You’ll die, you’ll die!” She jumped up and down, waving a finger angrily at Spike. “I don’t care anymore! Guerrilla Radio has yet to unleash its full force. I’ve never used it on anyone before, but today you’ll have the chance to witness my true power, a power no one will ever know because after that, you’ll be dead! Guerrilla Radio, Lights Out!”

Guerrilla Radio stood on two legs, then sucked in air, puffing up its chest. Spike recalled Winter Wrap Up and bent his knees, ready for anything. When it was ready, the enemy Stand released it all in a shout that rang out louder than a ship’s horn, sending ripples through the air in a radius around itself, cracking ground and shattering ice as Spike was blown off his feet, slamming against a half-finished wall of iron rods, bending two of them.

But Guerrilla Radio was not done. Its shout continued to ring out as its body began to flail around, unable to contain the power of its voice and Spike was kept from dropping to the ground from the sheer force of its voice and soon, even the rods could no longer withstand his weight and they bent at a ninety-degree angle as he was thrown to the road, out of its range. Spike rolled to a stop in front of a moving black truck, but to his relief, the driver managed to stop in time, an inch from rolling over his nose with his front tyre.

“Stop, stop it already!” Flower Castle tried to stop her Stand.

Guerrilla Radio reached up with both hands and forced its mouth shut, finally quelling its enormous power.

“We did it… We did it!” Flower Castle looked at Spike’s body beside the truck as she brushed a hand through her messy hair. “Die Die Riches always wins! We will not be defeated. Not until we’ve accomplished our great goal! You hear that? We’re going to change this world!”

Spike pushed up and rubbed at his chest. It felt as though he had been run over by a road roller. His ribs were definitely broken and he was having difficulty breathing. Then he spotted the pillars keeping the building up and he smiled. It seemed his enemy had not yet realized her mistake.

A cracking of ice drew Flower Castle’s attention over to the pillar behind her and she watched in horror as it shattered, destroying the pillar completely.

“The ice. The ice had frozen the building to the extent of turning everything it touched into ice!” she understood. “With Guerrilla Radio’s immense power earlier, all the ice around us is breaking and that means the whole building’s going to come down on top of me!”

Spike grinned. “That’s… right. When we were fighting earlier… I had Winter Wrap Up inject ice into all the surfaces. I knew your power’s vibrations would shatter all the ice around and that meant it would collapse the whole building. The fight’s over…”

“No, I’ve got to get out of here!” She whipped her body round and round and then towards the east, where she could see another road and a few store fronts. In front of them was a manhole and she had her eyes set on it. “The manhole. I’ve got to get to it! Once I get there, there’s no way they’d find me again!”

She made a mad dash towards that direction, dodging a huge chunk of ice as it dropped down beside her right foot. Another one clubbed her in the back and she dropped to her knees. She spun around and narrowly avoided another one landing on her before getting back up, but all of a sudden, her actions slowed and no matter how fast she attempted to run, it was as though she was running through a pool of sludge.

“No, what is… Strange World. That girl!” She looked to Spike and behind him stood Twilight Sparkle and her Stand, Strange World. “No, no! I can’t! Not here!”

Another chunk hit her in the side of her head and she went down silently. Twilight released her power on Flower Castle as the entire construction site caved in around her, crushing her under its immense weight. If they weren’t sure whether they’d beaten her for good, one of the cranes tipped to the side and landed on top of all the rubble with a metallic crash.

“Spike, you okay?” Twilight helped him up, only for Spike to wince as he grabbed his chest. “Your ribs are broken, I think.”

“I think so too…” he breathed. “But we did it. We got her. And there’s bad news.”

Twilight tilted her head to one side, waiting for him to continue.

“The president. They’re after this country’s president. I think they plan to take out all the world leaders first,” Spike said. “If the world goes into disarray from losing their leaders, there would be chaos, and nothing would stop Die Die Riches as they rise to power.”

“Not if we can help it, Spike. We still have time.” Twilight looked at the fallen building, then to the direction Flower Castle had been running to. “She mentioned something. A manhole.”

He looked where Twilight was pointing and nodded. “That could be it. That’s why we can’t find them. They must be hiding underground!”

“Rats hide in sewers. That makes sense.” They both turned to see Shiho standing beside the truck. “My granny called. They’re on their way. She said they could hear the commotion from where they were, across the street from the cafe.”

“She’ll be able to reset your broken ribs, Spike.” Twilight smiled.

“I’d like that. She’s got quite the ability. Wish I had it too.”

“We wouldn’t be here if not for your Stand’s ability.”

Spike ran a finger along his chin. “Mmm, okay, I’ll take that. Yeah! It’s great to have Winter Wrap Up!”

“Come on. Let’s go.” Shiho helped Twilight in hoisting Spike along. “I’m sure my granny and the others will have an elaborate plan instead of just jumping down there.”

Author's Note

Are you on the side of 'Gerilla', or 'Gehriya'? :trollestia:

Chapter 22: IAM

“Underground… that makes sense.” Daring Do clapped her hands together as she leaned back on a green sofa. “Reminds me of the one time my grandmother was tracking an old cell in the jungle who were trying to ship drugs and stolen treasure overseas. She discovered tyre tracks coming from one of the mountains and she soon found a rather obscure tunnel leading down where they were hiding.”

“She’s right. No one would think to look in the sewers.” Joshi Horner nodded as he sucked his orange juice out from a metal straw. “The perfect place for poor people.”

“You know, we need to stop treating them like they’re lower.” Cajole Joyride grabbed his shoulder firmly. “That’s what’s gotten us into this mess in the first place. The divide.”

“Ja, I guess you’re right. But still, they’ve done enough to warrant their destruction.” Joshi pounded a fist on the table.

The group had met up in a more proper restaurant overlooking the manhole that Flower Castle had attempted to reach. With the help of Sunset’s Alicorn Fantasy, everyone was feeling much better and their injuries had healed right up. Twilight had been extremely fascinated with her Stand’s power; it was as though they had never even engaged in battle. All the weariness was gone and she was feeling rather energized.

One of the waiters brought over a plate of snails and both she and Spike had never looked more disgusted in their lives.

“You eat snails here?” she had asked.

Sunset had given her a rather good reply. “Well, humans eat pretty much anything, especially in Asia.”

“What’s Asia?”

“It’s another continent. The one we’re in now is Europe. Western Europe, to be precise.” Joshi raised a finger. “And it is where I am from. Berlin, Germany.”

“Your world is indeed truly fascinating…” Twilight picked up one of the snails to inspect it, but put it back down when slime flowed out from inside the shell. “We do have other cities in Equestria, like Manehattan and Canterlot, but nothing like what your world has, with borders and passports.”

“Man, I’ve got to see this world one day…” Josher shuffled his pack of cards. “And you said they have magic there? Imagine that! Real magic.”

“You should all come have a visit.” Twilight gave him a smile. “Of course, when our worlds open up again. They do so every thirty moons, at the portal in front of your Canterlot High School.”

“I guess that’s something to look forward to after we deal with Die Die Riches,” Josher laid his cards out in a fan formation before skillfully returning them into a deck. “We can’t be that far now.”

“It would be nice to see home for a while…” Sunset closed her eyes and imagined her old world. “But first, we’ll need to settle this DDR problem. And fast.”

Everyone at the table nodded. It was no longer a secret that Die Die Riches was after France’s president and planned to assassinate him.

Daring Do took out her phone and tapped a few keys. “According to this news report, the President of France is going to be passing through this area in less than twenty four hours,” She said, projecting a map and a news article up for all to see. “According to the Chairman of Public Relations, it’s meant to be a gesture to remind the people of France that their president hasn’t forgotten them. I’m willing to bet my grandmother’s hat that this is when Die Die Riches plans to make their move.”

“Think we should let the president know?” Cajole asked. “Maybe if we tell him, he’ll cancel his trip.”

Joshi shook his head. “Nein. This trip is important for building unity in France, where many people are already losing trust in their government. Besides, I do not think that the president’s security detail, no matter how skilled they may be, are ready to go up against Stands.”

“Besides,” Skyburn added. “If we play it right, maybe we can use the president to lure the remaining members of Die Die Riches out into the open where we can eliminate them.”

“Do we have to kill them?” Twilight asked. “Maybe we can work something out without any further bloodshed.”

Shiho snorted. “No way. They killed my friend, and for that I’m going to send every single one of those rich-hating degenerates right to hell.”

Sunset sighed. “Shiho’s right. We don’t have time to plan a parlay here. We’ll have to stop them here and now before they attack the president.”

“So, what, we have a few hours to settle this?” Josher dropped his stack of cards in bewilderment. “How are we going to do that? That means we have to go guns blazin’ down into that manhole.”

“Either that or we should sit here and wait for the president to appear and protect him from DDR.” Skyburn shrugged. “Any alternatives?”

“We can’t risk the president’s life to take DDR down.” Spike looked between the others. “Doesn’t the life of your leader mean anything?”

“Well, for one, he’s not mein leader,” Joshi said.

“That doesn’t mean we just use him as bait!” Twilight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How could you even consider that?”

“Twilight, I’m sure Joshi didn’t mean it like that.” Cajole stretched a hand out in front of him. “But… we have to consider the chance we might not get to Duckie Deluxe to wipe out her operation before they attack the president. What then?”

“Then we’re wasting time.” Twilight stood up and pointed at the manhole. “We have to go down there now. We have to find Die Die Riches.”

“I’m with Twilight on this one.” Daring Do joined her in standing. “We can’t afford to lose more time. We should find them and stop them before their attack on the French president. Who knows how many other countries they’ll be attacking at the same time? If I were a terrorist, I’d hit countries worldwide to send a message.”

“But Die Die Riches is a bunch of broke people hiding in a sewer,” Shiho grunted. “Like they’re going to have the resources to hit world leaders all across the globe. The fact that they’re waiting here for the president of France to come by means they don’t even have a way to get him when he’s not traveling.”

“Sunset shrugged and scratched her chin. “They had enough to send their agents all around the world. That’s what brought all of us here, anyhow. But I agree. I think we should strike now.”

“If there’s machinery down there, I could have Blitzkrieg tap into them. Perhaps I could find out where they’re hiding. They won’t be sitting in the dark for sure.” Joshi tapped his fingers on the back of his other hand. “They might be poor, but they still need lights.”

Shiho didn’t like any of their plans. “Daring Do, how many charges do you have left for today. We might need it if things go south.”

She called out her Stand and tapped a finger on its side. “Yesterday can reset time two more times today. I used one earlier when we met up with the others.”

“Good. Hopefully we won’t need you to use your Stand, but it never hurts to be careful,” Sunset said.

“Blindly rushing into the sewers, then?” Josher let out a short laugh that sounded more like a snort. “Down Under and I can handle that. The sewers are full of water.”

“We need a plan, Josher!” Skyburn slapped him on the shoulder. “We can’t just blindly charge down there. Who knows what could be there. We could very well lose our lives before anything happens.”

His cousin gave him a weird look. “Are you really Skyburn?”

“Hey, uh, of course it’s me, but this is the fate of the world we’re talking about here. We need to risk it all if we want to win big.” Skyburn raised a fist.

Shiho sighed and shook her head, going back to her beer, and the rest really paid him no mind, but Josher narrowed his eyes as he watched at least three beads of sweat suddenly trail down from Skyburn’s hairline.

What was that just now? That was weird.

“Skyburn? Taking a riskless approach?” Spike seemed to pick up on it as well. “That’s not what you’d normally do.”

The boy’s sweat only continued to drip and he managed to crack out a weary smile. “C-Come on, what are you guys talking about?”

“He has a point,” Twilight said. “When it comes to as high risk an operation as this, we can’t afford to be reckless. Nice to see Skyburn being sensible for once.”

“Twilight and Skyburn are right. We can’t just run in there without any info. Even with Sunset’s Alicorn Fantasy behind us.” Cajole gave them a thumbs up. “Sensibility’s what we really need right now, so close to the end.”

Skyburn sighed with relief, then nodded along, though Josher noticed his shaky breath. He wasn’t behaving normally and Josher knew his cousin well. He was never one to shirk from danger, nor did he ever feel nervous like that. But there was the possibility that, like Twilight had said, this was a high-risk operation, one they had thankfully never had the chance to experience until now. Perhaps he was just being paranoid now.

Josher decided to calm down and pulled out his pack of cards again, sending flying from one hand to the other before beginning to shuffle them with one hand. The conversation had steered back to how they were going to proceed here, even as their mains arrived at the table. Josher had ordered a plate of creamy fettuccini himself, and yes, he knew he was in France, but a plate of pasta never hurt anyone before. Unless it was a Stand. But it was not.

But even as he put a spoonful of it up to his mouth, he could not shake the feeling that something was off about Skyburn. He didn’t seem himself and even now, as he continued to dab at the sweat on his forehead with a tissue, the way he moved made Josher continue to question what was wrong.

“Sunset, you’ve helped save the world twice.” Cajole motioned to the older woman. “Surely you have some ideas of what to do.”

“You saved the world too, dad,” Josher reminded.

“Yeah, well, she’s done it one more time than I have.” Cajole shrugged. “Just trying to get the strategies out there.”

Sunset sighed and took off her hat and placed it on the table. “You know, we just… went. Perhaps if we had an actual plan, some of my friends would still be alive today. But as for the time you and Summer went to save the world, Cajole, we split our focus into two parts, if you recall.”

Josher’s father snapped his fingers. “That’s right! When Summer, Prism, Fuchsia and I left for the Nugget Run, Sunset and the others stayed back to be targets for Weather Alternate.”

“Some of them nearly got us too.” Sunset let out a small laugh. “Your people were persistent, young Joshi. It was too bad they didn’t realize their mistake until it was upon them.”

“Ja, how the only Stand users in Weather Alternate are my vater and I.” But then he beamed up at them and clenched both fists. “But you showed us the error of our ways! If it were not for the great Sushi and Jojo and friends, Weather Alternate would not be trying to make the world a better place for everyone.”

“So, all in favor of splitting the team, then?” Cajole raised his hand. “That way, just in case, another group can protect the president when he comes rolling through.”

“Wait, no, we shouldn’t split up!” Skyburn interrupted as the others were beginning to see reason. “We should stick together above ground. That way, we know they’ll, uh, surely come to us.”

And there it was again. Everytime he spoke now, he seemed to sweat even more and he continued to dab his forehead as Josher watched intently. Ever since Josher had pointed it out, it was as though he had suddenly become conscious that someone knew something was wrong.

“Skyburn, what’s going on?” he finally asked. “You’ve not been yourself.”

“What, no, I’ve never been more myself…” Skyburn laughed and dabbed his forehead some more. “I’m uh, just a little nervous of our coming battle. If we go underground, it’s so narrow and tight. If anything happens, we’ll be… in more danger.”

“Okay, something’s really going on here.” Josher stood up and stowed his cards. “Skyburn, come on. I grew up with you. You’d think I’d know more about you than anyone else here.”

With all eyes on him, he began to sweat even more and already, the tissue he was using had become so wet that it began to drip sweat onto the table.

“Ugh, gross…” Shiho shook her head.

“Hey, come on. I mean… this is stressful, thinking of ways how to… to kill the enemy…” Skyburn looked between everyone. “Josher, as my cousin, you should know me the most.”

“That’s why I’m asking you.” Josher placed one foot on his chair. “Skyburn, how are we related?”

“W-Wh-What? What kind of question is that?” He threw his arms to his sides. “Everyone knows this. There’s nothing to prove.”

Sunset seemed to catch on to something and she leaned closer. “Come on, Skyburn, it won’t hurt to let us know. It’s a simple question, is it not?”

“This is s-some kind of prank, right?” Skyburn began laughing, though it broke at times. “As if I wouldn’t know I’m related to Skyburn because of his dad?”

There was silence at the table and Josher narrowed his eyes as he shared a look with Cajole.

“Di-did I say dad?” Skyburn began croaking. “Ha, I mean, his mom.”

“Okay, that’s it!” Josher pushed is chair back and pointed forward. “Down Under!”

His Stand charged out from him like a freight train and it barreled right into Skyburn, throwing him back off his chair and into the wall, cracking it.

The other patrons of the restaurant scooted away from them, but because they weren’t Stand users, they hadn’t seen Down Under crash through the table and into Skyburn.

“Josher, what are you doing?” Twilight called out her own Stand as it waited behind her. “Why did you do that?”

“He’s clearly not Skyburn. He doesn’t even know how he’s related to me!” Josher bent low and then drew one arm from his side over his head. “And Skyburn would’ve avoided that. His Runaway is much faster than my Down Under.”

Skyburn peeled himself off the wall as blood dribbled down his chin. He took two steps forward, then reached a hand out. “How did… How did you know…?”

Josher slid one foot back, then folded his arms. “This is an easy one. It didn’t take me long. You see… I didn’t actually know. It just started out as a harmless comment. You know me, I joke quite a bit. I was just messing with you, asking you if you were really Skyburn. But ever since then, you’ve gone out of your way to make it a point to prove you weren’t Skyburn by being all sheepish and fearful. Skyburn would never do that, not even in the face of death.”

“D-Darn…” Skyburn looked up and glared at him. “Well, I’m not through yet. Watch this…”

Raising both arms up, Skyburn’s body turned into a rainbow colored sludge, swirling up in the direction of his arms as his body grew and stretched, eventually turning white and gold. When the sludge swirled back down, Alicorn Fantasy now stood in his place, swinging its arms at its sides as it let out a deep neigh.

“It’s a shapeshifter!” Joshi brought up an arm. “And it can turn into a Stand! Amazing!”

“Be careful!” Sunset reached a hand out as her own Alicorn Fantasy slid out from her position. “Don’t let it reset you!”

But Josher stopped her. “No. He imitated my cousin. He’s mine.”

“Did you just assume my gender?!” the shapeshifted Alicorn Fantasy growled and stomped forward, bringing an arm back to punch him.

Down Under brought up its anchor and when Alicorn Fantasy’s punch connected with it, the shapeshifter was knocked back and it clutched its hand. “Y-You broke it!”

“It seems our enemy’s shapeshifting doesn’t copy a Stand’s power.” Daring Do sat back down and drank from a cup of tea. “That’s good.”

“W-Wait, stop!” Alicorn suddenly dropped to its knees and raised its one good hand. “I… I surrender. Don’t kill me!”

“That was, uh, that was quick,” Spike said.

“What have you done with the real Skyburn?” Twilight demanded and stepped forward, brandishing Strange World next to the false Alicorn Fantasy.

“Nothing! Nothing!” It waved its hands around wildly. “I just slipped laxatives into his drink. He’s been in the restroom all this time!”

Everyone nodded, remembering him getting up to go to the restroom earlier. When he returned, they had just assumed he was the real Skyburn Dash.

“So, Die Die Riches doesn’t want us to go down to the sewers, huh?” Daring Do planted a leg on its back and leaned on her knee. “I wonder why’s that? Where’s your headquarters located?”

“I can’t! Duckie will kill me!” Alicorn Fantasy wailed uncharacteristically.

Shiho grabbed Alicorn Fantasy with Curtain Call, hoisting it up. “If you don’t tell us, I’m going to pound your face in.”

“You don’t understand. To cross Duckie is to cross death itself! Gaagh!” It choked as Curtain Call held it higher. “I can’t… I can’t say! I’ll tell you, you were right, it’s in the sewers! But that’s it, okay? That’s it!”

Shiho grunted, but then put it down, recalling her Stand.

Alicorn Fantasy dropped to the ground and its Stand undid itself, flying around in balls of sludge-like liquid before forming back into a thin girl with freckles and short blue and turquoise hair that covered one eye. She was dressed in a striped blouse that had light strips near the collar, along with a similarly striped pair of pants with a torn hole on her left knee.

“Qu’est-ce que c’est…” Shiho said, her voice gaining a second tone over her normal voice. “Poor poor Stripes Stash…”

Stripes did a doubletake on her, then looked up as shadows began to creep across the restaurant.

“No… No. Du-Duckie?” she asked as a smile formed on Shiho’s face. Everyone else around them had vanished, leaving Stripes alone with her. “How… How? How are you reaching me from the base?”

“You didn’t think I’d have a plan if you were to give away information on where we’re hiding, did you?” Shiho walked closer as her body began to grow dark and change shape, shrinking down. “I know my Stand’s limits, but there’s something I haven’t told any of you. I planted dreambugs into your heads, extensions of my Stand, and I can listen in on everything you hear, I can see everything you see, even as you retreat past my Stand’s range. You were going to break under pressure. You were going to give us away.”

“N-No, I would never, Duckie! I would never!” Stripes crawled back on her bum and her hands. “I… I will use IAM again, I will run, become someone else, they’ll never find me!”

Her back bumped into something and she turned around. The scene around her had shifted and she was no longer in the restaurant. Instead, she found herself against the wooden banister of a two-storey house, with only a dim lamp above the staircase lighting up her immediate area.

The walls were shaded in a dark blue hue and there were photo frames hanging from rusty nails sticking out of the walls, depicting a young girl or a young woman in a white suit.

“D-Duckie…” Stripes Stash immediately recognized as she stood up, using the banister as support. She knew the frightening tales of Duckie’s Stand, but she had never thought she would ever be on the receiving end. “I have to get out of here!”

She ran around the banister for the staircase, but suddenly, the door just opposite the staircase blew open and an unnatural gale sucked her towards it.

“Aaaah, no!” Stripes clawed at the banister as she tried to hold on. “Duckie, please! Duckie! Don’t kill me! I can still prove useful! Please! Please! No!”

She dropped to the ground, but before she could even catch her breath, the door on the other end of the hall opened with a slow creak and the shadow of something malicious spread out across the wall. It was small and walked on two legs, but the weapon it held was at least twice its size and Stripes couldn’t tell what it was; sometimes it looked like a giant mallet, and sometimes it looked like a giant kitchen knife.

The figure stalked towards her, holding its weapon high as its shadow slid over her cowering body. Stripes couldn’t take it anymore. She took flight, fleeing, or rather, rolling down the staircase in her desperate attempt to get away.

Once she uncurled herself at the bottom of the steps, she raced for the front door, just a few feet ahead of herself, but just as she touched it, she noticed wooden planks had formed across it, barring her from opening the door. She grabbed the handle with both hands and began pulling with all her might, but the planks kept the door secure.

There was a clicking sound and she turned around, pressing her back to the door. The shadowy figure had reached the bottom and its shadow was now cast all the way from the staircase to the front door and up the ceiling. It raised its weapon and Stripes dropped to her knees and covered her face as her screams rang out across the desolate house. After that, there was an eerie silence in the air.

Author's Note

A little glimpse of what's to come... :trollestia:
Here's another Stand without a Stand Chart. I'll be putting the stats here, for anyone curious.

Stand name: IAM
Stand master: Stripes Stash

Power: E
Speed: C
Range: E
Durability: B
Precision: D
Potential: B

Chapter 23: Secrets of Angers

“What’s going on? What’s wrong with her?” Shiho Sunfast kicked at the comatose Alicorn Fantasy again.

“Stop, stop it, Shiho.” Sunset waved her off.

Their enemy Stand user was now standing straight as a stick. Its eyes had rolled up and its mouth hung open as though it was in some kind of trance. It had been like that ever since they attempted to question it. Without warning, the false Alicorn Fantasy collapsed like a marionette dropping their puppet. Its limbs were splayed out across the floor before its disguise melted away, leaving behind a skinny woman with short hair, whose eyes were still rolled back in her head.

“She’s… She’s dead.” Cajole got up after examining her body.

By now, the rest of the restaurant had crowded over and some of them were already in the process of calling an ambulance.

“We better go before they come asking questions.” Daring Do tapped their shoulders.

The group left and headed back out into the street, standing over the manhole cover, making sure that there were no cars around before doing so.

“So, down we go, then?” Spike placed his fingers under the cover as he yanked it up. “We need to find Die Die Riches before the president’s ride through the streets.”

“And that we will, but Sunset did give us a sensible thought.” Cajole looked at the elderly woman. “If we split up, even if one group fails, at least the other one can still get the job done. We can’t let more innocent people die.”

Joshi sighed. “I guess we’re splitting up after all. If that’s how it is, I should stay up here.” Blitzkrieg appeared behind him, floating through the air as it curled its legs up under itself. “I can take control of the street cameras and other electronics. That way, I would be able to keep an eye on the French president and his surroundings. You see the lengths I go through for another country’s president?”

“We appreciate the effort, Joshi.” Josher clapped him on the shoulder. “I should go down to the sewers. Down Under will be stronger there.”

“I’m going.” Shiho pounded her fists together. “Die Die Riches still needs to pay for interfering with my life and for killing my friend.”

“It’s my duty to protect your world, and that means I’ll have to go down there too. I think the faster we stop Die Die Riches, the better.” Twilight put a hand on her chest. “It’s dangerous, but I will help you stop this Duckie Deluxe.”

“Then you can count me in too.” Spike put his hands on his hips. “Where Twilight goes, so do I.”

“I’m going too.” Daring Do spun around and held out her Stand. “Yesterday and I could prove useful down below.”

“Don’t you mean… down under?” Josher snickered.

“There’s already five of you going to the sewers.” Cajole held up all the fingers of one hand. “Looks like you’ll be stuck with me longer, Joshi.”

“Spend more time with the great hero that helped stop the Nugget People?” Joshi beamed. “That does not sound so bad.”

“Most Stands gain power the closer they are to the Stand user,” Daring Do swung Yesterday around her fingers like a yo-yo. “We’ll be heading into enemy territory, and who knows how many Stand users are down there. If we run into some trouble that we can’t get out of, it’s up to you guys to stop Die Die Riches from killing the president.”

“Looks like I’ll be here above ground as well…” Sunset dusted at one knee. “Don’t worry. I can keep the president alive. As long as he doesn’t die, I can reset him if he gets injured.”

“Looks like we’re as evenly split as we can be.” Cajole nodded. “We know what we have to do.”

“Dad, you stay safe, you got it?” Josher gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Oh, and don’t forget to get Skyburn once he’s out of the restroom.”

“You too, Josher,” Cajole said. “I’m leaving you in capable hands. Watch out for our friends. Die Die Riches may be backed into a corner, but it’s the cornered ones who you need to look out for. They’re even more dangerous that way. And yes, I won’t forget your cousin. I’ll fill him in once he’s back with us.”

Shiho pointed at him, then furled one brow. “Look after my granny.”

Cajole looked between them and smiled. “Will do, Sushi. You can count on me. I owe it to your mother.”

“Don’t have too much fun without us.” Daring Do waved.

After a quick slew of goodbyes, the two teams moved to their respective positions, with Shiho Sunfast tossing aside the manhole cover with Curtain Call, before peering down. From the amount of light piercing the darkness below, she could make out a small stream of running water, traveling further down the tunnels. The smell instantly filled her nose and she crinkled it and groaned. She was no stranger to strange smells, but even she had standards.

“Looks like it’s time to head down under.” Josher looked past the space between Shiho’s head and the edge of the hole.

The sewer hole led to an old rusty ladder and it began to flake as they grabbed each rung as they made their way down. Shiho was the first to reach the bottom and her frown deepened as she looked down the waterway. The smell down here was even stronger and it smelled horrible. It wasn’t just the waste flowing down the tunnel, but the walls were green and slimy, coated in some kind of disgusting sludge that smelled like dead horses that were dead for hundreds of years.

“So these are the sewers, huh?” Daring Do dropped down after her, wiping her rust coated fingers against her vest. “They’re old. They definitely don’t have thermoregulators down here to keep the bacteria down. Don’t touch the walls. We don’t know what could be living in them.”

“Wasn’t planning to, anyway.” Josher eyed the green sludge and stuck his tongue out. “Nasty stuff.”

“Which way do you reckon we go?” Daring Do pulled out her lightphone and activated its light orb feature, pointing it down both the left and right paths. A holographic ball of light appeared out of the screen and shone brightly in the dark tunnel.

“The stench of weakness comes from the left.” Shiho pointed there. “I say left.”

“The right does seem to flow downwards.” Spike pointed at the water. “If your sewers are the same as ours back in Equestria, that should bring us to one of those converging chamber things that’ll lead out to the sea, right?”

“Yes, you should be right about that.” Daring Do clutched her phone tighter as she gritted her teeth. “You’ve got to blame the creator of sewage systems for that. Years of polluting the sea with our wastes hasn’t done the oceans any good. Especially now as life in the ocean is starting to run dry.”

Josher shrugged. “Well, at least efforts are going out to preserve ocean life, right?”

The adventurer shook her head. “I think it’s much too late for that. Who knows how long our oceans will remain habitable? Maybe I should’ve hosted a fish convention back in Tokyo.”

“The state of your world is… really sad.” Twilight tapped one foot against the last rung of the ladder. “Our worlds may mirror in some sense, but things are far bleaker here than in Equestria.”

“Good grief. Can we stop talking and start finding Die Die Riches?” Shiho interrupted them. “We’ve come down here to locate them. Let’s find them and get out of here.”

“Shiho’s right about that.” Twilight sighed and took a few steps towards the left tunnel. “All this talk is making me depressed. Let’s go on. We’ll worry about the state of the world later once this is over and done.”

The rest of the group had no qualms about that and they decided to head through the left tunnel that led straight through the darkness, away from the sea. Die Die Riches would surely not put themselves so close to another opening, further through town seemed like the better option.

“Do you think people even still clean the sewers these days?” Josher snorted as he watched a rat struggle around in a glob of sludge. It must’ve accidentally fallen on it. “My bet is no.”

“This isn’t Paris,” Daring Do said as she stepped over a hole in the ground. “There’s no dedicated clean up crew or robots here.”

“Yeah, these are the boonies,” Shiho hopped over the hole. “The hell is Die Die Riches doing in a place like this? I know they’re dead broke, but do they have to revel in it like this?”

“I suppose they have nowhere else to go…” Twilight shook her head at the state of this world once more. “No matter how poor, there’s always a place for everypony back home.”

“The number of homeless people has been on the rise for years now.” Daring Do stuffed her hands in her vest pockets. “With inflation getting worse each year, its been getting harder and harder for the less fortunate ones to keep living in proper homes. Community apartments have been the more popular choice of housing in the last seven or so years, but even so, some people can’t even afford to live in those.”

“I see why they would pick the likes of this.” Shiho carried on. “They should’ve just stayed down here like the filth they are. Instead, they decided to surface and interfere with our lives. They killed my friend, just because she was rich.”

“That’s all they do with their warped ideology.” Twilight folded a fist. “Things don’t need to be like this.”

“And yet they are.” Shiho exhaled. “Die Die Riches deserves to be stopped, before they can do more harm to the planet.”

“It surely won’t end here.” Twilight caught up with her to walk alongside her. “Who knows when another rogue group like that might show up? Your world isn’t doing too well. That needs to be taken care of, or more like Die Die Riches would show up again.”

“Easy.” Shiho cracked her knuckles. “We’ll just pummel them so far into the dirt, no one else will try anything stupid like this again.”

“Surely you know it won’t end here, even with your threat,” Spike said. “They’ll keep coming if the world continues to decline.”

“You think I want this planet to get worse?” Shiho shot back at him. “Good grief.”

“Don’t you worry, Twilight.” Daring Do flexed an arm. “I’ll do all I can to help the world. And I know I’m not the only one. Weather Alternate and the Crusaders Foundation are also hard at work to help the world.”

“If Die Die Riches was right about one thing, it’s that we need new people in charge.” Josher thought about taking his cards out, but then he saw the sludge on the walls and decided against it. “We need leaders who will work towards the betterment of our world, not just to fill their greedy pockets.”

“Well, if you think so, why are we bothering to save the French president, then?” Shiho looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Because… we can’t just kill off everyone we don’t like?” Josher waved both hands. “That’ll make us no better than Die Die Riches. We have to work for it.”

There was a twist at the end of the tunnel and unfortunately, it led them right into a huge pile of sludge in the middle of the walkway they were on. It reeked and Josher immediately had a hand flying up to his mouth.

Daring Do lifted her light up to the other side of the path and they could see a pile of debris beside an opening in the sewer walls, leading down into a different tunnel where a faint orange light was coming from.

“What do we have here?” she said in a low voice.

“I think we might be onto something.” Twilight pointed ahead. “We should check it out.”

They had to carefully walk around it, but to do so, they had to hop across the waterway to the opposite walkway. Everyone got across easy enough, but Spike almost slipped and fell, but with a quick burst of ice from Winter Wrap Up, he created a trio of ice steps, getting him back to the other side unscathed.

“Imagine falling into that.” Josher nudged him. “I can’t imagine the smell. It’s already bad enough as it is.”

“Uh huh.” Spike dusted the sleeves of his hoodie. “Not a big fan of sewer water myself.”

He dusted his hands, then looked up at his fingers and narrowed his eyes. The others saw him looking and stopped.

“What? What is it?” Josher leaned closer and shone his lightphone orb at it. Then he took a step back into the greywater. “W-What the?”

With the light cast over Spike’s form, they could now see that the tips of his fingers were flaking away, dissolving into the air as they left his skin. Josher pulled his foot out of the water and groaned, but then as he looked at his own hands, his eyes widened. It was happening to him too.

“Hey, what’s going on?” He pointed to the others. “It’s happening to all of you too!”

Shiho looked at her hands and clicked her tongue in disgust as she saw her skin flaking away into the air in the light of their lightphone orbs. Even the bones of her fingertips were flaking away into nothing, and that meant they were slowly breaking down into particles and if this kept up, there would be nothing left of any of them.

“Good grief. These enemy Stands can’t just leave us alone…” she grumbled.

“We need to get out of this area!” Spike motioned to the broken wall. “I’ll bet the Stand master’s in there somewhere. We’ve got to find them fast!”

“Wait, Spike, we don’t know what to expect!” Josher tried to grab him, but his fingers scraped the end of Spike’s hood and he leapt over a pile of sludge and through the darkness.

Spike reached an arm out towards the hole with the orange glow, but all of a sudden, his dissolving sped up and spun through his fingers as they cracked and fell apart, traveling down his arm as they faded away into nothing.

“Aaah-Aaaagh!” Spike stopped and fell back into the sludge, coating his purple hoodie in gunk as the others ran over to help him back up. When they had reached him, the speed had slowed again and now the end of his elbow flaked off slowly like before. “M-My arm’s gone!”

“Something determines how fast we fade away!” Daring Do equipped her right hand with her Stand. “I’m sorry, Spike. I should’ve set Yesterday’s starting point earlier!”

“At least it’s not bleeding. You won’t die from blood loss.” Shiho raised a hand and Curtain Call emerged from behind her, flinging its purple cloth over a pencil she held out in her other hand. Once it pulled off its cloth, she now held a brown wooly glove, which she quickly slipped on her dissolving hand. To her dismay, the glove began to flake away too. “It doesn’t work. Anything on you will disappear with you.”

“Then we need to move.” Twilight lifted and inspected Spike’s arm. Everything past his elbow was gone, bone, flesh, everything. Reduced to atoms. Maybe even the atoms were gone. “When Spike left the group, his arm completely disappeared. Maybe the key is to stick together! Maybe it’s our body mass!”

Josher lifted his lightphone to see the flattened pile of sludge Spike had fallen on and grimaced. They carefully made their way past it, not wanting to end up like Spike as they headed for the tunnel through the broken sewer wall.

Eventually they came into view and they spotted a row of crates, messily arranged against a wall of-

“Coffins!” Daring Do ran through the hole to inspect them. “I didn’t know there were catacombs under Angers as well!”

In here, there were orange fluorescent tubes tossed about on the floor. Temporary light sources that lit up their surroundings, but Shiho frowned at their placements. These lights didn’t last long, maybe about an hour or two, but there were two lying almost side by side in front of all the coffins in the stone walls.

“Someone was here recently.” She kept her ears open, hoping to hear something that could point them towards the enemy Stand master. “They’re still here. They must be the ones responsible for our predicament.”

There was no way she could’ve known how right she was as a mechanical device swirled on a stand just outside the entrance to the catacombs, positioned between two wads of sludge in the sewers. Its mechanical eye watched silently in the dark as Shiho and her friends stumbled around in the dark. It had been bought off the market at an incredibly low price of four hundred dollars, but for someone in Die Die Riches, it was as good as spending a year’s worth of money, but it was entirely worth it.

“Hee hee…” A mischievous voice said deep inside the maze of catacombs. “Thought you rich people could just come into the stronghold of Die Die Riches? Too bad for you, you’ll all be dust before you ever find Duckie! All the rich must die, die, die! Ha ha! Die, die, rich scum!”

A grey figure shimmered in a white glow beside him, raising one of its arms to its domed forehead before placing it on the ground between them. The air pulsed around them and as a rat scurried into the crevice beside a coffin, it squeaked and evaporated into particles.

“I have to kill all the rich…” He twirled a black crystal in his fingers. It was a family heirloom he had, passed down through the ages. It was worthless, but it always reminded him that anything could be perceived as useless. And that was how he saw the rich. They only existed now to die. “Soon they will come. And I will face them. Come, rich. Come and die by my hand.”

Author's Note

A new baddie to deal with now, they do. :trollestia:

Chapter 24: It's the Day That Never Comes

“The attack seems to have slowed down further…” Twilight looked at the particles floating away from her fingertips. The ends of her skin were already gone and her fingernails were starting to disappear now. “We have to stick closer as we head down the catacombs.”

“We’ll have to be careful where we tread,” Daring Do cautioned. “If these catacombs are anything like the one under Paris, we could easily get lost and die in here.”

“We’re already going to die in here if we just stand around,” Shiho said. “We’ll have to find the Stand master and beat them to a pulp.”

“I’ve primed Yesterday to reset us back to the entrance if we fail,” Daring Do held up her stopwatch Stand. “But I have two charges left for the day.”

They proceeded down the tunnel of the catacombs, keeping close together, walking quickly as they looked for signs of Die Die Riches. The tunnel soon split into two different paths, one leading straight ahead and another curving back and lower down.

Twilight looked at her dissolving fingers and then to the path that led down. “I think it’s getting stronger again… It must get worse the closer we are to the enemy Stand. I think it’s this way.”

“They’re gonna pay for what they’ve done to my arm!” Spike summoned Winter Wrap Up, which swirled a ball of ice into existence; it still had both arms.

Shiho narrowed her eyes at the path. She wanted a piece of the enemy too. “Then down we go.”

They were soon led past another row of coffins on both sides before trudging down a flight of stone stairs. A spider had made quite a large home here and Twilight felt sorry as she accidentally broke through part of its web. The spider quickly scurried back into one of the recesses, but quickly faded away just as it tried to enter a crack.

She raised her eyebrows, but there wasn’t much time to think about this as a creepy laughter echoed around them, coming from the room ahead of their tunnel.

“Welcome, foolish rich…” It was a man’s voice, but it was low and at the same time, a little nasally. “You have come to your death.”

“Where are you?” Shiho called out as she smashed one of the coffin’s with Curtain Call’s hand, breaking part of it and allowing a bony finger to fall out. “Show yourself so we can kill you.”

“I am not one to shy away from battle, no, not like my other comrades you have faced…” the voice continued. “Come to me. I’m waiting for you in the next room.”

After the flight of steps, the Sushi group found themselves in some sort of chamber with four pillars holding up the ceiling. There were five rows of coffins leading up the walls on all sides and in the center of the room, standing beside a holographic brazier, the only thing emitting light in the room, was a man wearing a black fedora with short grey hair and a scar along his nose. He was dressed in a black t-shirt with what looked like his own face printed on it, along with black jeans.

“So you’re the Stand master.” Josher pointed at him.

“You’re the one that took my arm!” Spike growled and called out his Stand, still holding the ice ball. “You’re going to regret-”

“I don’t give two fox legs what you have to say!” The man interrupted him and called out his Stand, a white and grey mechanical-looking figure. It had no visible eyes and it had ridges going down its arms and legs. “I have to kill the rich. That is my one and only desire in this world. I am Garland Greyness, strongest member of Die Die Riches next to Duckie Deluxe.”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve all said or thought that…” Shiho wasn’t impressed.

“Enough talk, witness the might of The Day That Never Comes!” He placed a hand on his hat, then slid one step back.

A white glow enveloped his Stand as it raised both hands and balled them into fists. Spike was the first to act and had Winter Wrap Up throw its ice ball at him. The enemy Stand spun on its heel before slamming the back of one hand against the ball, shattering it to pieces before placing the hand on its chest.

“The Day That Never Comes?” Shiho scoffed. “What the hell kind of a name for a Stand is that? You going to say the full name every time you use it? Nice to see you guys are short on brains as well as money. Curtain Call!”

Shiho’s Stand flew out and aimed a flurry of punches at the enemy. But to her surprise, The Day That Never Comes matched Curtain Call’s blow for blow, punching with the same ferocity and speed, pounding their knuckles together.

Seeing the futility of attacking like that, Shiho got her Stand to spin around, avoiding the next set of punches as it threw its cloth forward and spun its arm in a spiral. The cloth rolled itself up and grew thinner near the end, forming into a kind of tendril before striking the back of The Day That Never Comes’ right foot.

Garland Greyness took a step back as a tear formed across his black shoes, dripping blood as he glared at Shiho with renewed rage.

Curtain Call did the same again and again, lashing out its cloth like a spear, but The Day That Never Comes had already seen it work before and it avoided the attack each time, sliding its body from side to side as it avoided Curtain Call’s cloth.

“All I have to do is avoid you. You can’t avoid The Day That Never Comes’ power.” Garland pointed two fingers of one hand at Shiho and the others. “Already, its ability has eaten away at you, slowly turning you to dust. That shorter friend of yours has already experienced more of it firsthand. Where is your hand, my friend?”

Spike balled his other fist. “Why you! Get him, Winter Wrap Up!”

Spike’s Stand flew high and unfolded its wings as it released a fog of frost, coating the coffins and pillars on the sides as it fired ice spike after ice spike at The Day That Never Comes and Garland. He sidestepped what he could as his Stand smashed the rest with its punches.

But it was a losing battle for Spike. As his Stand continued to fire ice at them, it strayed too far from the group and its wings soon dissolved away, sending it plummeting down on its face. Spike fell back onto the ground as Winter Wrap Up collided with the floor, knocking him out.

“Spike!” Twilight ran to him. “We have to stay together, or we’ll turn to dust!”

“Stay together?” Garland laughed and drew a finger down his cheek. “Do you think staying together will save you from my Stand’s ability? Oh, no. Its ability, Death Magnetic, will continue to eat away at you until you are no more. Staying together does not change the speed at which you disappear.”

Then he hopped back as Curtain Call punched the ground where he had been standing. The Day That Never Comes grabbed it by the shoulders, then spun around and drove it into one of the pillars before delivering a series of punches into its chest.

Shiho coughed up blood and bent one knee slightly.

“Down Under!” Josher sent his Stand charging out, smashing down one of the pillars as it swung its anchor at The Day That Never Comes. But without any water touching it, its movements were slow and lumbering, allowing the enemy Stand to easily avoid the attack before punching it in the knees.

Down Under dropped lower, allowing The Day That Never Comes to jump on its back and cutting down with an axe kick in the center of its forehead.

“A-Agh!” Josher clutched his face as blood dripped down his eyes.

Down Under swung its anchor again and Garland stepped back as it swept away the holographic brazier in the center of the room, shattering the device into tiny pieces, plunging the room into darkness, save for their lightphones.

Josher could see his Stand fumble in the dark, but then as it staggered back, its body began to fade. Josher looked down at himself and to his horror, his body was starting to disappear as well, mimicking his Stand’s disappearance.

“Josher!” Twilight reached a hand out to him, but all she could touch was dust as it rose up into the air. “No!”

“You fools!” Garland Greyness laughed from the darkness as Shiho also began to disappear. “You destroyed the only source of your survival in this room!”

“You… you fu-” Was all Shiho could say as her body vanished.

“No!” Twilight sent her Stand out to try and slow her down, but all it could do was slow the speed of the dust being blown away.

“That’s right. Do you dare come out here into the darkness to face me?” Garland stretched his arms out, palms facing up. “That’s right, the darkness helps Death Magnetic bring the end to you. The less natural light there is, the faster your body dissolves and now with the brazier gone, there’s nothing more you can do! The lights coming from your phones will only give you a few minutes more at best. You will all die down here, you rich fools!”

Daring Do gritted her teeth, but then she pulled out her Stand and nodded to Twilight. “I have to do it. None of you will remember a thing, but I will do my best to beat this guy!”

She began typing on its surface, doing her best to get the words she needed to understand later.

“What do you plan on doing?” Then Garland saw Yesterday in her hand and remembered Duckie’s notes. “It can rewind time. No!”

“Yes!” Daring Do gave him the finger as she clicked down on the reset button.

There was a blinding flash of light and everything was dark again, save for their lightphones. They were back in the sewers, just before the entrance to the catacombs.

“We’re already going to die in here if we just stand around,” Shiho said. “We’ll have to find the Stand master and beat them to a pulp.”

“Wait, I just used Yesterday! Something must’ve gone wrong.” Daring Do held up Yesterday and looked at its screen. It read out, ‘4v01d D4rkn355’.

“We must’ve just charged in there blindly and had our faces served back to us on platters,” Josher said. “What’s it say, Daring Do?”

“It says to avoid darkness.” She tapped the side of her head. “Could it be that the dark is what’s making us turn to dust?”

“Wait a minute…” Josher moved his phone away from his left hand, allowing the darkness to creep closer. As soon as he did, he could immediately see it eating away at the tips of his fingers faster, already taking apart half of his fingernails before he brought the light from his phone back. “It’s true!”

“That’s why Spike lost his arm when he ran ahead!” Twilight looked at her wounded friend and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “It’s because he left the safety of your light.”

“Could’ve been helpful to know this sooner…” Spike sighed as he looked at his stump of an arm.

“Turn up the brightness of your lightphones,” Daring Do instructed as she did so herself. “And let’s find that enemy Stand master and take them down.”

The rest of the group nodded and kept the light close to their bodies as they entered the next tunnel. Because of time resetting itself, they had yet to experience the catacombs and the coffins and location served as a surprise for them again as they trudged through the hidden necropolis in search of the enemy.

“The dissolving seems to be stronger down this way.” Twilight pointed to the path that led down a flight of steps.

Shiho nodded and took the lead, carrying one of the light tubes with her that had been left at the entrance. She figured a stronger light source would slow their return to dust further. Perhaps a more natural light might even just stop it completely and that gave her an idea.

“Welcome, foolish rich…” Following a bout of creepy laughter, they heard a man’s voice, but it was low and at the same time, a little nasally. “You have come to your death.”

“I am not one to shy away from battle, no, not like my other comrades you have faced…” the voice continued. “Come to me. I’m waiting for you in the next room.”

Past the steps, they reentered the vast chamber with the four pillars. Garland Greyness again stood by the holographic brazier, waiting for them beside his Stand.

But this time we know your little secret… Daring Do smiled to herself.

“So you’re the Stand master.” Josher pointed at him.

“You’re the one that took my arm!” Spike growled and called out his Stand, still holding the ice ball. “You’re going to regret-”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve all said or thought that…” Shiho wasn’t impressed.

“Enough talk, witness the might of The Day That Never Comes!” He placed a hand on his hat, then slid one step back.

Shiho’s Stand flew out from within her and opened its mouth as it rained blow after blow against The Day That Never Comes. To her astonishment, it matched her Stand punch for punch, deflecting each fist with its own, but this time, Shiho would be better prepared.

Curtain Call pulled back and spun its cloth out, lashing it out in a spiral at The Day That Never Comes like the thrust of a spear, before striking the back of The Day That Never Comes’ right foot.

Garland Greyness took a step back as a tear formed across his black shoes, dripping blood as he glared at Shiho with renewed rage.

“I can avoid all your attacks now that I’ve seen them!” Garland leaned to one side and brought a hand close to his chin as he laughed. “You can never escape The Day That Never Comes!”

“You think you’ve won already, have you?” Shiho pointed a finger at him and frowned. “You see, we already know how to-”

“I don’t give a double pig’s trotter what you know!” Garland Greyness swung a fist through the air as his Stand did the same towards Curtain Call. “I have to kill the rich. It’s all I know and it’s what I’m going to do!”

“Then I guess you won’t know how you’ll die.” Shiho stuffed her hand in her skirt pocket. “Curtain Call.”

Her Stand spun its cloth around, then blocked The Day That Never Comes’ view as its punch flew past her Stand. It collided with one of the pillars, but the pillar suddenly shattered as though its surface had become…

“Glass?” Garland said in disbelief as the integrity of the pillar failed, sending cracks across the rest of it as it began to crumble under the weight of the ceiling. “You turned stone to glass!”

“You would’ve known more about it if you hadn’t interrupted me!” Shiho had her Stand kick back as it fell away from The Day That Never Comes. Its foot connected and sent the enemy Stand crashing into the brazier. “Curtain Call has the ability to turn anything into another object. I just turned a portion of the pillar into glass when you weren’t looking and you were foolish enough to shatter it. Now comes the part where your plan fails.”

“Shut up, it’s where your plan fails!” Garland wiped blood from his mouth as his Stand got off the brazier. It had crumpled under its weight and was now shooting sparks into the air. “Without light, you’re all going to return to dust faster than I can count to three!”

As The Day That Never Comes turned around, it slashed a hand across the device, breaking it in half and plunging the chamber into darkness.

“It’s over now!” Garland began cackling in the dark as he spread his arms wide. “The Day That Never Comes’s ability, Death Magnetic, will continue to eat away at you until you are no more, and the darker it is, the faster you are consumed! It’s over now! You will all die down here and Die Die Riches will succeed in killing a handful of you rich fools!”

But as the pillar broke down under pressure of the street above, the ceiling came crashing down as Shiho dived away from a huge chunk of debris. Garland had The Day That Never Comes punch at the falling stone, but with the stone came the rays of the afternoon sun, cutting through the darkness like a heated knife, almost immediately illuminating the area as sparkles flew through the air around them.

All at once, all their dissolving stopped and Josher looked at his fingers before giving Shiho a thumbs up.

“Awesome!” Spike looked at his stump and then at Garland, who was still standing among debris, alive and well. “You’re so going down now.”

“No! How did you know?” Garland snarled at the group.

Daring Do took a step forward and pointed a finger at him as she placed her other hand on the rim of her hat. “It was easy. You told me yourself. Once I rewound time with Yesterday, I just relayed the information I received to the others. And what do you know, the more natural the light, the weaker your powers. Under the afternoon sun, we’ve stopped turning to dust completely.”

The Day That Never Comes’ glow faded away and it looked at its hands before ducking low to avoid one of Curtain Call’s punches. With renewed vigor, it weaved around two of The Day That Never Comes’ punches, then sprung back up from underneath its arms, ramming its head into its chest before spinning around and wrapping its cloth around the enemy Stand’s left arm.

With a powerful tug, Curtain Call tore it right out of its socket, with the effect copying over to its master. Garland Greyness yelled in agony as blood sprayed from his shoulder, where his arm had once been connected to his body. Curtain Call next wrapped it around The Day That Never Comes’ right shin, then kicked it in the chest as it pulled back. As it spun around in the air, Curtain Call tore its leg off and Garland fell to the ground by the ruins of his holographic brazier. He would’ve cried out more, but then Shiho’s Stand grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up.

“You were saying?” Shiho asked.

“You rich people always think you can do what you want just because you have money!” Garland croaked at her. “I hate the rich. You all deserve to die. Die. Die. Die! I have always felt the intense desire to kill the rich and my anger is righteous!”

He swung a punch as his arm turned into The Day That Never Comes’ own arm, curving a strike to the side of Shiho’s head. But she deflected it with Curtain Call’s own arm, knocking it high before grabbing it by the wrist. Stepping back, she repeatedly kicked Garland in the groin, over and over again.

“Let’s see you try to make babies now, you poor sod.” Shiho kicked him again. Then she spat in his face and wiped the corner of her mouth.

“Hey, he’s had enough, Shiho.” Twilight took a step forward. “We don’t need to go this far.”

“How can you say that?” Shiho snapped. “Die Die Riches killed my friend. They’re trying to turn the world over. This one’s been trying to kill us, and he almost succeeded. I’m going to send him off to the afterlife in so many pieces, that the devil won’t even recognize his sorry face!”

“This is unnecessarily violent.” Twilight reached a hand out. “If you’re going to finish him off, just punch him like normal.”

Shiho growled and sent Curtain Call to punch Garland Greyness in the face, then as he was flying back, used her Stand to turn the wall behind him into a nest of razor wire.

“Wait, no!” Twilight’s Stand copied her movements and reached its hand out as well, but from its fingers came a vibration of air, distorting the space before her.

Shiho felt it blow by her ears and turned around, but her movement had slowed drastically and by the time she had turned her head ten degrees, Twilight had already walked past her towards the equally slowed Garland Greyness.

Strange World grabbed him by the foot, then swung him away from the razor wire before he could touch it. Garland’s speed then sped up and he crashed and tumbled on the ground before stopping against one of the pillars.

“It seems…” Twilight looked at her hands, then clenched them. “It seems I can affect more than one target at a time now. With greater effect. There’s still so much to learn about you, Strange World.”

“What did you do that for?” Shiho’s speed resumed and she raised her arms at her sides. “I wasn’t through with him.”

“I couldn’t just let you kill a person in cold blood!” Twilight exclaimed. “You hate Die Die Riches because of what they did to you. That’s fine. But we have to be better than they are, otherwise our entire journey will have been pointless! Didn’t we come all this way to save the world? What kind of world are we making if we can’t show a little mercy?”

“For your information, I didn’t come here to save the world,” Shiho shot back. “I’m here because I made a promise to myself to stamp out every single member of Die Die Riches for killing my friend. Do you think the dead care about honor and mercy? Get over yourself, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Hey, don’t talk like that!” Spike ran to Twilight’s defense. “This is so much bigger than just yourself, Shiho. Did you not realize that?”

“They’re right, you know?” Daring Do knocked her on the back of the head with one finger. “If Die Die Riches eliminates our world leaders, the world would be plunged into chaos. They know nothing about leading a country, much less the whole world.”

“I hate their guts too, Shiho.” Josher nodded. “But we’re better than them. We don’t have to be like them.”

She looked at the downed Garland Greyness and widened her glare as her fists shook. Then she turned and walked past them, stopping past Twilight and without turning around, she said, “Fine. The old granny wouldn’t want me to, anyway.”

Twilight looked back at her slightly and nodded. “Thanks, Shiho. I think he’s had enough. We should keep going. We still have to find Duckie.”

“Whatever.” Shiho said. “This punk must know the way to get to their leader. Be a lot better if he just told us.”

“He must have had some way to navigate the catacombs in case he got lost,” Daring Do pointed out. “Maybe we can take that.”

“Let’s see what we have here…” Josher reached into Garland’s pockets and dug around. “Hey, got something.”

He held up a blinking circular device with a dot in its center. But before he could get back up, Garland’s Stand reached out and grabbed him around the neck.

“No… It’s not over! The rich… must… die!” He growled. His eyes were red, filled with blood. “The Day That Never Comes will destroy you all!”

“Let him go,” Daring Do warned, taking out her wire whip. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be; you’re in no condition to fight us any more.”

“I’m… the second strongest member of Die Die Riches!” Garland yelled at them. “And I have… a duty to kill all the rich in the world! I will not stop and I will never stop, not even if it kills me!”

But before he could do more, Josher summoned Down Under, which pumped up under The Day That Never Comes’ elbow, bending it at a weird angle as its armor cracked and shattered.

The force broke Garland’s remaining arm and launched him into the air as Twilight and Shiho brought their Stands out. Both Strange World and Curtain Call began throwing their arms forward, their fists pummeling Garland Greyness and lifting him higher with the force of their punches. Daring Do and the others looked on in awe as the air filled with the sound of what was very similar to cannon fire as each punch hit its intended target.

With each punch, Twilight’s Stand yelled, “Nicker! Nicker! Nicker! Nicker! Nicker!”

And Shiho’s continued to deliver a barrage of ‘neighs’ all the way.

“Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!”

The beatdown ended with one final “Neigh!” and “Nicker!”, and Garland Greyness’s body was propelled through a column of coffins and into the darkness beyond.

“Gee, you think that’s enough?” Josher asked, looking into the hole and seeing no signs of life.

Shiho dusted her shirt and looked at Twilight. “So much for all that saving the world crap you were saying earlier.”

Twilight shook her head. “There’s… there’s much that can still be changed in this world, but when it comes to stopping those who would hurt those around me, I did what I had to do…”

“I thought that was pretty warranted, all things considered.” Daring Do reached up and adjusted her hat, which had become slanted from the wind from all the punching. She took out Yesterday and gave them a cheeky grin. “Who wants to do it again?”

“No!” everyone said collectively.

Author's Note

Here's our nine-page neigh at last. :trollestia: Hope y'all enjoyed it.
As with the other Stands, you can find the chart for The Day That Never Comes over on the group thread.

Chapter 25: Hail to the Chief

“And that’s where we’re at. All good so far?” Cajole Joyride sat back down, having explained the plan to Skyburn Dash.

“All that happened while I was in the loo?” Skyburn rubbed his stomach. Even now, he was still feeling inklings of bowel movement. Whatever the enemy Stand master had slipped in his drink earlier must’ve been quite potent. “Wish I could’ve given that Stand master a good beating. What do you think took her out?”

“If I have to hazard a guess, another enemy Stand did so.” Sunset planted a hand on top of her head, where her precious hat rested. “Seems like a dangerous Stand, whatever it was. It seemed like it invaded her mind.”

“Have you dealt with anything like that, Sunset?” Cajole asked. “Summer and I haven’t. I don’t have any experience in this area.”

“I’ve dealt with a Stand like that before.” Sunset gripped the top of her hat firmly. “But I’ve never had the opportunity to have my mind taken over. Skyburn’s grandma would be able to tell us more about it. I had to fight her to break the enemy’s control over her mind.”

“Achtung, I’ve managed to take over a few surveillance cameras and a drone,” Joshi told them as he sat down drinking a soda. “They are clearing the streets and marking out a path for the French president’s car to travel down. It looks like he will be here in less than an hour.”

“How many sodas have you had?” Skyburn looked at the can in his hand. “I swear, that’s all I’ve seen you drink since meeting you.”

“Well it’s not like I can drink the German brew yet,” Joshi said. “And juice these days tastes like pisswasser. It’s all artificial anyway, so I drink soda.”

“You could try water…” Skyburn mumbled. “Or a sports drink. Those are pretty healthy.”

“Eins, I have tried sports drinks. And because I’m not so active, it wouldn’t be healthy for me to drink it as much as I drink soda.” He held up a second finger. “And zwei, you clearly have not been to Germany. Water there had become contaminated during the process of rebuilding Berlin. We can no longer just drink water out of the taps like you Americans can.”

Sunset looked around. She could see some military police looking types cordoning off the main road and setting up patrols around Angers.

“Where are all the people?” Sunset asked. “You would think the president coming to town would be a big deal.”

“That was the idea.” Cajole looked around. “It seems this publicity stunt isn’t too well received. Hey, at least the French government isn’t in total disarray like the UK government. I don’t know how much longer they can last before anarchy rears its ugly face. At least France still has a fighting chance.”

“Not if Die Die Riches succeeds here today, they won’t,” Joshi said. “Remember, the president takes all priority. He cannot die.”

“Agreed,” Sunset said grimly. “We need to make sure that whatever Die Die Riches tries to do, we stop them.”

“Not an easy task when we don’t know the enemy’s plan of attack…” Skyburn pointed out. “And that’s if they decide to attack with a Stand. It could just as easily be a bomb or a sniper attack too.”

“The police will have those secured.” Sunset pointed to the rooftops. They could just make out the shape of an armored police officer leaning against the edge with a long barrel in his hands. “But they won’t be able to put a dent in a Stand.”

“You think they’ll play a presidential anthem like they do back home?” Cajole laughed. “Like, you know, Hail to the Chief.”

“I have no idea, Cajole. But we’ll have to keep our eyes out.” Sunset looked around the streets. “I’m sure people will be out of the buildings once the convoy comes through. Like you said, it could be a bomb, or a sniper, but I’m willing to bet my gloves it’ll be a Stand attack. Die Die Riches knows we’re here. They’ll know that we can stop them.”

“I wonder what the others are doing now?” Skyburn tapped a finger to his head as he pondered. “I hope they’ve found the leader of Die Die Riches. Twilight and Spike are strong. I know they can handle themselves.”

“I can say the same about your cousin, Skyburn,” Cajole added. “He might not be too quick on the draw for homework, but he’s a fine fighter. Especially with Down Under at his side. That thing’s like a tank.”

“Not forgetting my granddaughter and Daring Do.” Sunset chimed in with a bout of laughter. “They’ve pulled me out on more than one occasion. Shiho might be a delinquent one, but she’ll still do what she can to protect those around her.”

“Ja, you all have the blood of Berliner Helden in your veins!” Joshi flexed an arm. “We will earn victory today and Die Die Riches will cease to exist!”

Skyburn sighed and rested his head on the table. “But what’s to stop another group from rising up? As long as the world continues declining, another Die Die Riches would certainly show up again.”

“Then the world will have to change.” Cajole tapped his fingers on a table top. “Perhaps we should start lending our efforts to the Crusaders after all this is over.”

“Ja, and not to mention Weather Alternate will have your back as well,” Joshi said proudly. “True German engineering at your service, the finest in the world. If not for the dwindling resources and the rise in prices, perhaps we could just give our machines away for free.”

“We’ll figure it out, Joshi. We will.” Cajole thought about the future of this world. Perhaps what they needed was a Stand that could just recreate resources from nothing. At least that way they’d have one less problem to deal with. “So what’s the plan for the president?”

Joshi looked at the time on his lightphone. “The president is still fifty six minutes away. Too bad Josher isn’t here. I could use a card trick or two now. Or at least a brew of fine German design to take my mind off the terrible French drinks here.”

“Looks like we’ll just have to sit here and wait…” Sunset sighed and tipped her hat over her eyes. “You’re all capable Stand users. I’m an old woman and I need my nap. Wake me when it’s time.”

Sunset was jostled awake by Cajole and nearly fell out of her chair. She lifted her hat off her face and looked around with blurry eyes before yawning; it seemed she really needed the nap.

“What time is it?” she asked with a stretch of her arms.

“Right on time.” He pointed as a white car rolled around the corner with two police motorbikes in front of it, flying the French flag behind them.

The car was pristine and sleek, rounded at every corner and the glass was tinted so black that there was almost no reflection from them. From behind it, there were two more motorbikes, then an armored truck with an automated swiveling turret on top of it.

Some people had already flocked to the streets during Sunset’s slumber and though there were barriers keeping them back, some of them attempted to climb over, forcing the watching officers to push them back down.

They began yelling in French, but Sunset guessed they were likely telling the president he was wasting his time doing this.

“Any sign of Die Die Riches?” Sunset asked as she stood from her chair. It was time to get to work.

“I’ve seen some suspicious ones. In the crowds,” Joshi said as he looked through the surveillance systems. “Breathing masks and hoods. They look like rioters. Could be Die Die Riches waiting to strike.”

“Everyone at the ready then.” Sunset shot an arm out at her side. “We’re about to start.”

The sound had reached her ears long before she had paid any attention to it. It was a low hum, almost like electricity buzzing, but she didn’t think much of it. It was only when she saw sparks flying from under the closest motorbike did she start to pay more attention to it.

Without warning, a portal opened up underneath the motorcycle as the humming expanded into a boom of something that sounded like static. With nothing under him now, the man and his vehicle fell right through the orange portal, completely disappearing from sight as it closed behind him.

The entire convoy stopped moving as officers began barking orders and warnings at one another. That was when the hooded people began moving. Two women from the right side of the street pulled pins off two cylindrical objects before letting them fly, trailing red smoke in the air as they made their way over to the convoy.

The police on the streets were already pulling out their firearms and civilians were already scrambling for safety as more masked individuals arrived to toss in their own share of red smoke.

“Six, no, seven. Maybe eight!” Joshi began saying as his head turned from left to right.

“Tenacious D!” Cajole called out as he hopped up on the back of his Stand and sped towards the fray.

The others nodded to each other, then ran along after him.

The first activist was caught completely off guard as Tenacious D sped right into him, launching him into the air as it grabbed the neck of another activist. The man squirmed in its grip and pulled a pistol from his side, firing it at the Stand’s face, but it just swiped the bullets and gun away with one arm, then punched him in the face before tossing him aside.

“Two down…” Cajole said and turned to face another member of Die Die Riches who was running for the presidential car.

A strange humming began to fill his ears and as he had his Stand throw a punch at the approaching activist, a portal suddenly appeared in front of him with a burst of staticy sound. Tenacious D’s arm went through it and immediately, Cajole felt an icy grip sting his skin. He looked into the portal, which was dark as night and pulled his Stand’s arm back as something black slithered across its arm. And it was just in the nick of time too as the portal closed not long after Tenacious’ hand was out of it.

“There it is again…” Cajole breathed. “I was sure if I didn’t pull Tenacious’ hand back, it would’ve gotten chopped off.”

“There are worse things in there than having your arm chopped off…”

Cajole hopped off his Stand as he had it swing around with a punch. He didn’t recognize that voice and it had to be the enemy. But just as they turned, a portal closed behind them and Tenacious D hit thin air.

One of the president’s officers had gotten off his motorcycle and was in the process of shooting down another activist when a portal opened under him. Cajole had Tenacious D race over to grab him, but even with Tenacious’ speed, he could only pull the man out halfway before the portal closed, cutting him off at the waist. The man coughed up blood and his head slumped down.

“Shoot. Too late.” Cajole put his body down and looked around. “The enemy can traverse by coming through portals seemingly anywhere. How do I find them?”

Already, the other members of the president's security unit were running around, trying to find their enemies in the thick smoke. The snipers up top were unlikely to see anything with Die Die Riches’ smoke cover, but at least Cajole still had his Stand to aid the president. But first, he needed to deal with the enemy Stand master.

“This enemy can open portals between spaces…” Cajole said to himself. “But if it can just open a portal to anywhere, then it could already take the president. The fact that it has yet to do that means its portals could be limited in small spaces…”

“Thinking out loud, are you?” the voice came again. It had a tinge of French, but at the same time, something else. Maybe Scottish. “But you’ve caught me. Noir Desir cannot open portals in smaller spaces. Unfortunately, I am not as educated as you privileged people are, but I know it has something to do with density. So I won’t be able to get the president from inside his vehicle, but I can still get him from the outside…”

Cajole spun his Stand around to attack again, but by the time he looked at it, the portal had already shrunk to the size of a pin, sparkling off orange energy before disappearing from sight.

“An enemy that can open portals and appear somewhere else…” Cajole spun round and round. “Even with Tenacious D’s speed, I might not be able to hit him. I’m going to have to do this with brain over brawn.”

There was the hum in his ears again and he looked down just in time as a wave of static burst in his ears. He leapt back from the opening portal under him as the enemy Stand looked out at him from inside. It had grey features and looked like it was wearing a pair of sunglasses as it pointed a finger at him. It sank back into the portal as it swirled to a close before Cajole could think to rush forward to grab it.

He gritted his teeth together as he thought of a way to deal with this enemy. There was an electrical humming each time before its portals opened, so it took time to do so. He would be able to tell before one appeared, but it was hard to tell where it would open from. And attacking the Stand inside of it was out of the question. Should Noir Desir decide to close its portal, whatever was still out here would be sliced clean off, and he wasn’t about to stick his Stand’s arms in there to try and get the enemy Stand out that way. And if he were to jump through the portal after it, there was no telling how long he would survive in there. From his experience of having Tenacious D’s arm inside, there were some freaky things beyond the portal and the feeling they were giving off told him he didn’t want to mess with them.

“The others can handle the other Die Die Riches activists…” Cajole breathed and waved his arms at his sides. “You’re mine then. Watch me, I’ll find a way to beat you yet.”

“Enough games. It’s time to end you, Stand user,” a voice said to his left. Cajole didn’t even have time to turn his head before a fist found its way into his cheek, knocking him down.

But from all the training he received from his aged father, he dropped to his fingers, then breathed in as he spun around, swinging his body back up as Tenacious D did the same with its bottom half, but before its wheels could connect with the enemy, Noir Desir leaned back into its portal and it shrunk into nothing.

“His portals warp the space and air around where it appears,” Cajole said and ran forward into thicker smoke. He already had an idea forming in his head. “That’s why it creates a humming in the air, before filling our ears with static once it appears. But if you don’t strictly pay attention to it, you could easily miss it opening. I’ll have to be careful and rely on my ears instead of my eyes.”

Cajole forced himself to calm down and listen carefully. He channeled all of his concentration to his ears, which was not an easy task with the commotion that was going on. The president’s car was surrounded by police and other armed law enforcement that were pointing their guns at anyone who came too close to the president’s vehicle.

Then there it was again, amongst the gunfire around him. A low buzz of the air, slowly getting heavier and heavier. Cajole readied himself and Tenacious D, then closed his eyes and listened. Someone screamed in the distance, then something heavy dropped to the street before more bursts of gunfire was heard.

And then the hum had built up enough and it was released in a burst of static to his rear. Tenacious D put its wheels into reverse and swung an arm back. The muscles in its arms bulged as its fist made its way through the air. Cajole felt it connect with something and there was a gasp of surprise before he closed Tenacious’ fingers down around something rounded.

“Got you now,” Cajole grunted as Tenacious D pulled hard and he felt the Stand drag something out.

“I thought you’d try to find my portals based on sound…” the voice said, sounding unfazed. “I was prepared for this.”

“What?” Cajole blinked, then looked through the portal.

He thought he had grabbed the enemy Stand’s head, but as he looked through the portal, he had a large dark tentacle instead. It squirmed in his grip, then shot out and wrapped itself further along Tenacious’ arm.

Cajole tried to recall his Stand, but it was caught in a vise-like grip. The tentacle had a death grasp on Tenacious D, and was slowly dragging the Stand into the portal. Tenacious D’s wheels screeched on the floor as it tried to back away, but it was a losing battle. Whatever was in the portal was far too strong. Cajole ground his teeth and pulled harder with Tenacious D. Normally only a Stand could affect another Stand, and Noir Desir this tentacle was not. Unless it opened a portal to some other eldritch place that didn’t obey the rules of Earth.

“That’s right. You will soon become a feast for the denizens of this universe!” Noir Desir began laughing, raising both arms at its sides as it gazed at him through the portal. “They only know one thing and that is to consume all they can. You are just the next to fill their bellies!”

“Tenacious D!” Cajole threw a hand out. “Time warp!”

His Stand’s wheels began to spin and it would’ve sped off to the other side of the street, but the tentacle held tightly and instead, Tenacious D was blown off its wheels and soon found its back on the ground. Without anything keeping it away from the portal now, the tentacle pulled and Cajole’s Stand began sliding along the road towards the portal.

“Aagh!” Cajole got pulled along as he grabbed his arm, trying to break free from the creatures in Noir Desir’s portal.

“I’ve got you now! It’s over for you!” Noir Desir laughed as it stepped to one side, giving way to a man with black hair slicked down on side of his face. He had black eyeliner and bright red lips. “You’ll live with the darkness for the rest of your life! Even I don’t know what happens to people dragged in here!”

As Cajole continued to glide along the ground towards the portal, he eyed the dark denizens behind the enemy Stand and its master. This wasn’t it. He was going to find a way to beat this, but he had to do it fast before they ate his soul or something.

Author's Note

We will have the Stand chart by next chapter!

Chapter 26: The Abyss of Noir Desir

Tenacious D and Cajole Joyride were eventually dragged right up against the portal, and it was in that moment that Cajole found the strength to fight back again. As his Stand’s body was dragged up into the air, its wheels touched the ground again and they began to run in the opposite direction, giving him some space to deal with the tentacle once more.

However, it still proved to be ineffective and he could not dislodge the tentacle. “It’s no use! I can’t get it loose!”

“Face it, this is the end for you, blue.” The man leaned out of his portal and smirked. “I suppose since you’re going to die, I’ll tell you my name and why I’m doing this. My name is Grandeur Black, strongest member of Die Die Riches apart from our leader, Duckie Deluxe. You see, the world, it’s getting worse and worse by the year. No, by the month. In a year’s time, there could be nothing left. The rich take what they want and live in their luxurious mansions while the rest of us have to fight over the scraps you leave behind. Tell me, is that okay in your eyes, blue?”

“No, it’s not!” Cajole yanked and yanked, still trying to free his Stand. “But that doesn’t give you the liberty to just kill people like that! What do you think will happen if the world leaders all vanish? You think you’ll do a better job in their place?”

“We certainly will!” Grandeur Black picked at his nose. “The rich only care about their wealth and health. You don’t see them helping us as things get more and more expensive. Forty dollars for a simple plate of pasta? That’s too much! With Die Die Riches in charge, we’ll reduce all the prices worldwide! The gap between the poor and rich will fall and we’ll all pull through this world together.”

“It doesn’t work like that!”

“I didn’t expect you to understand. You’re one of them. You’ve had everything you’ve ever wanted in life, haven’t you?” He tapped a finger against the portal’s edge. “Have fun in my realm. They’re going to love picking through you.”

As the tentacle began to pull again, a blue baton shot out of nowhere, smacking Grandeur in the center of his forehead as he tumbled back into his portal. Noir Desir looked up as Runaway swooped down in a roll, catching the baton as it bounced back into its hand. As Runaway began charging, Noir Desir made the decision to close its portal, slicing off the tentacle midway as it disappeared from view.

Cajole and Tenacious D dropped to the ground and his Stand tossed the still writhing tentacle off its arm before it melted into a pile of goo by the roadside.

“Uncle Cajole, you alright?” Skyburn was by his side, helping him up. “I came as soon as I saw that portal and the enemy Stand.”

“Skyburn, am I glad to see you.” Cajole brushed a hand over his head. “I thought I would’ve been a goner. The enemy, Noir Desir, can open portals wherever it pleases to some dark dimension. The things in there can harm a Stand, so I don’t think you want to be trapped in there.”

“How do we stop him? Do you have a plan?” Skyburn kept his back against his uncle’s as they looked around the red smoke-covered street. “We’ll have to take him out of his portal.”

“Easier said than done.” Cajole recounted his failed attempt, only to have grabbed one of the tentacles inside. “But with two of us around, there’s a better chance of coming out of this on top.”

“His main target is the president,” Skyburn said. “But if he wants the president, he’s going to have to get through us.”

“Agreed,” Cajole grunted. “How’s everyone else holding up?”

Skyburn kept his back to him and said, “They’re taking care of the other activists without Stands and they’re helping to get people away from this. At least, last I saw, that was what was happening. Then I saw you in trouble and I came over.”

“I hope Josher and the others are faring better.” Cajole made a sucking sound with his teeth. “Wait, do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Skyburn turned his head slightly.

“Back!” Cajole spun around and kicked him forward as a portal appeared between them.

Noir Desir threw a fist out and caught him in the jaw, knocking him to the ground before ducking back into the portal and vanishing. Skyburn attempted to help him up, but then another portal appeared over him as Noir Desir threw blow after blow at him. Runaway materialized and deflected its attacks with its batons, but just as it tossed one of its batons at the enemy, the portal closed as its baton flew into the air before falling back into its palm.

“This guy is too slippery,” Skyburn exclaimed as he and Runaway surveyed the area, looking and listening for any sign of a portal. “How are we supposed to get him if he can just pop up anywhere?”

“I tried listening for it, but all that got me was Tenacious D’s arm getting attacked by that squid thing…” Cajole grumbled. “We’re gonna have to be smarter about this.”

“If these things can hurt Stands, there’s no way this ‘Noyer Deser’ can just walk amongst them like that,” Skyburn said as Runaway spun its batons around its body. “There has to be something differentiating it from us. If we can find that out, maybe we can flip the tables on this Stand.”

Cajole thought about what Skyburn had said. It was indeed a bit unreasonable to think that one Stand could be so powerful as to control a whole alternate dimension. It made more sense that all it could do was open doors to this outer plane. And if it could only travel between worlds, then it must have some kind of property that kept it from being attacked by the creatures in the other world.

But what was it?

There was the hum again, and the static came sooner than they realized as a portal appeared below Cajole’s feet.

“W-Woah!” He dropped in and would’ve disappeared completely if not for Skyburn grabbing his hand with Runaway before pulling him out.

Just as his legs passed the portal’s rim, two tentacles with hooks lashed out and wrapped around both Cajole’s ankles. They dug into his skin and blood began dripping into the portal, which then began floating like bubbles. Gravity didn’t seem to work the same way down there too.

"Hey! Get Off!" Cajole barked as he kicked out to dislodge the tentacles, but he only served to lodge them deeper in his skin as they raked down.

“It’s no use. Just surrender and enter the void!” Grandeur Black reared his ugly face out again. His smile looked especially wide with his bright red lips against his pale face. “You cannot defeat the rulers of the depths. When I first discovered them all those years ago when I first gained my Stand, I tried to destroy them. They cannot be destroyed. They can never perish!”

“Just you watch, we’ll get you yet!” Runaway dashed in and began swiping its batons at the Stand master. “Everyone has a weakness!”

“Just try and find it!” Grandeur got out of the way as Noir Desir began deflecting Runaway’s attacks, using its palms to push the batons away with each strike.

Another tentacle squirmed out of the portal and lashed at Runaway, but it slid back, then batted it with its weapons. Unfortunately, they were useless against the fleshy form and it wrapped around its waist and pulled it closer to the portal.

“Aha, I have you both now! It is time to join me in the void!” Noir Desir began laughing.

The Stand rose up as it swung both arms at its sides, bellowing hard. Its chest rose up and Skyburn could see a rotating purple orb, swirling and churning with energy just under its chest plate.

Grandeur saw him looking and clapped. “Congratulations! You’ve noticed the power field of my Stand! Yes, that’s what keeps me safe in here. It serves to protect me, but once you’re in here with me, you’ll witness true horror!”

Skyburn looked at Cajole as he fought to keep himself out of the portal. By now, his feet had gone past the rim and was still inching closer towards the tentacled horrors. He was going to have to do something, and he was sure that spinning purple orb was the answer.

As the tentacle pulled him closer and closer to the portal, Skyburn could make out several moving shapes behind Grandeur and Noir Desir. One was at least as big as a bus and he thought he could see rows of razor sharp teeth glinting back at him.

“There’s nothing you can do to defeat me,” Grandeur reiterated. Again. “My Stand can create portals anywhere. I can bring anyone or anything into this void and the creatures in here are invulnerable to Stands. With my power, Duckie will be able to kill all the leaders of the world, starting with the French president. But first, you and your friends will join me here for all eternity.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.” Skyburn nodded to his Stand.

With a yell, Runaway’s body bent and twisted like it had no bones and it slipped out of the tentacle’s grip. It stood on the appendage, then ran along it towards Noir Desir.

“What?!” Grandeur leaned back in shock, then his eyes widened. “The notes! I forgot it mentions your Stand can squeeze through anything!”

“Got that right, d-bag,” Skyburn said through clenched teeth. “Runaway, you know what to do!”

Skyburn’s Stand jumped over a lashing tentacle and with deadly precision, threw one of its batons like a rocket into Noir Desir’s chest. The projectile impacted against the purple orb and cracked it.

Light began to pour out from the crack as Runaway sped for its target. More tentacles snaked out around Noir Desir and attempted to grab it, but Runaway bent and ducked, maneuvering its body around like a contortionist before it grabbed the enemy Stand’s orb.

“Stop! What are you doing?” Grandeur Black pressed both his hands to his pale face. “You can’t!”

More tentacles began swarming towards their location and even though Runaway could probably avoid getting grabbed by some of them, it wouldn’t be able to do it with so many around. He was going to have to change his plan here.

“In you go!” Skyburn waved a hand and Runaway ducked towards Noir Desir’s core, slipping in through the cracks and disappearing from view.

“It’s… it’s in me!” Noir Desir ran its hands along its body.

Skyburn held his breath as his Stand continued to shrink. The amount of oxygen he was receiving now was miniscule, but it was all going to pay off soon. More cracks began to snake across Noir Desir’s core and bits of it began to blast off, releasing light into the dark world it was in.

“Appy, watch me now.”

Grandeur Black clutched at his chest and began groaning in pain as more bits shot out from his Stand. In no time, the entire core was crackling with light and with one final push, it shattered completely, letting out a shockwave of light that made the tentacles let go of Cajole before recoiling back into the shadows. Noir Desir and its master flew back further into the void as the portal shut behind them.

“No, no, no!” Grandeur clawed at his Stand’s chest in the darkness. “That was the only thing keeping the creatures away! Noir Desir, open a portal. Now!”

His Stand began swirling its hands and the familiar humming began to fill his ears. Grandeur looked around the dark, but then tentacles shot out from every direction, grabbing his arms and legs as the growls of the denizens let him know that they were hungry.

“No! No!” Grandeur struggled. He ordered his Stand to aid him, but all it did was get caught up in the same armada of tentacles and there was nothing more he could do. In front of him, a gigantic creature rose up from the depths as it brandished its five rows of teeth. Its big blank eyes stared into his, showing him visions of burning cities and red flags across the land.

Grandeur knew what this was; it was a future unchanged. He closed his eyes and began laughing. In the end, the world was going to get what it deserved and that made no difference to him now as he and his Stand were swallowed whole, though as the creature’s mouth slammed shut, a sliver of blue escaped Noir Desir, dancing away into the darkness of the void.

Cajole whipped out his arms as he fell, binding them with hamon energy before touching the ground, allowing him to get up unscathed.

“Skyburn, you did it!” he cheered as he looked for his nephew, but for some reason, he was nowhere in sight. “Skyburn?”

As the red smoke began to fade and more of the street became more visible, he could see his other friends around, finished with the other members of Die Die Riches and getting citizens to safety, but there was still no sign of Skyburn.

The last he had seen him was when he had sent his Stand through the portal to destroy Noir Desir’s core.

“No…” He looked back at thin air where the portal had once been. “Skyburn…”

Author's Note

As always, Stand charts are over on the group thread!

Chapter 27: Take One Bite Now, Come Back For More

The air of the catacombs was dank and musty and Shiho Sunfast cursed under her breath as she brushed another cobweb from her face. This was the third one since they had left the big chamber behind. The tunnels had trails and trails of wires going down them, stopping periodically at a portable spotlight each time. Even if they didn’t have the tracking device on hand, Die Die Riches had practically given them the directions to their secret lair, but Shiho wasn’t complaining. The faster they got through this, the better. The device would still prove useful if the lights decided to go off in the wrong direction.

She still had a couple of punches with Duckie Deluxe’s name on them.

“This takes me back…” Daring Do said as she ran a hand along a coffin with a half-broken lid. “To another of my grandmother’s tales. She had hunted a vampire in her time, did you know that? She had eventually tracked it through a dark forest in Romania before cornering it in its huge mansion. Instead of preparing a trap to take her down or something, it just retreated to its coffin where my grandmother finished it off with a stake.”

“Okay, I’ve believed your stories up until now, but a vampire?” Shiho asked. “That one has to be embellished.”

“I’m telling the truth,” Daring Do insisted. “Vampires can only be killed by a stake to the heart or decapitation.”

Shiho snorted. “Pretty sure that would kill almost anything.”

“Vampires are quite real. We have them in Equestria too,” Twilight said.

“Next you’re going to say ghosts are real…” Josher rubbed one of the coffin lids. “A-Are they? How about zombies?”

“Okay, enough.” Shiho glared at him with her steely eyes. “The whole place is going to know we’re here if we keep talking. We’re finding the leader of Die Die Riches, and we’re turning her into a ghost. Any objections?”

“None here.” Josher gave her a thumbs up.

“I suppose she does have to be stopped.” Twilight shrugged. “That’s why we came all this way. We’re with you, Shiho.”

Shiho just nodded and kept going. They were close now. She knew it. They had been walking through tunnels for at least twenty minutes now and they were surely getting closer to Die Die Riches.

“I wish I still had both my arms…” Spike held out his remaining arm and wiggled his fingers. “Once we get back, could your grandmother still get it back for me, Shiho?”

“I don’t know.” The girl kept going. “I don’t know the extent of her powers or how far back she can reset you.”

“Don’t worry, Spike,” Twilight assured her friend. “We’ll find a way to fix it. Maybe if we return to Equestria, it’ll grow back.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Shiho said. “Now be quiet. We don’t want them to hear us coming.”

The group continued on in silence, following the tracking device that they had looted of Garland Greyness.

Shiho was in the lead and heard something from behind her.

“I thought I told you lot to be quiet,” she whispered.

The rest of the group looked at each other. “We didn’t say anything.”

Shiho frowned deeply. “But I definitely heard someone make a noise.” She scowled even more. There it was again. A sort of sound that almost reminded her of those dumb tourists who came around her school back in Japan and bought takoyaki at the stall nearby. Always chewing with their mouths open, they were.

“Something’s not right here…” Daring Do muttered as she drew out her whip. “No sudden moves, everyone. I have a feeling we’re not alone.”

The chomping sound grew louder and now all of them could hear it. The entire team called out their Stands and pressed together in a rough circle, eyes jumping about in the darkness looking for the source.

“There! Watch out!” Josher cried out, pushing Twilight and Spike away as something rushed at them from the darkness of the tunnels. In the brief moment that Josher was able to see it, he saw something that was a nightmarish blend of a pair of muscular arms and a massive, chomping maw full of tombstone teeth, gnashing open and shut as it blurred past and back into the shadows of the catacombs.

“What the hell was that?” Shiho grunted, having pressed herself against the wall to avoid the monstrous mouth.

Daring Do dropped down from the ceiling where she had jumped up to before.

“I don’t know, but it seems that Die Die Riches still has a few tricks up their sleeve. Whatever the devil that thing was, it’ll be back. Count on it.”

“We must be getting close if we’ve tripped their next line of defense like this,” Josher reasoned. “But I don’t like the idea of going on in the dark like before if there’s a monster Stand like that prowling the tunnels. If there’s a spider in the room, I’d like to be able to see it.”

“Good attitude to have when confronting danger,” Daring Do remarked. “You wouldn’t make a half-bad adventurer archeologist yourself, Josher.”

“Let’s just focus on surviving for now,” Spike had Winter Wrap Up floating next to him like a bodyguard. “We can talk about adventuring later.”

“Right. Of course.”

“About time too. I hear it again.” Twilight turned to the darkness as the chomping sounds resumed. “Strange World!”

Her Stand hopped into the air and activated its ability, slowing down everything in a cone in front of her. The Stand with the big mouth returned, colored bright yellow under the portable lights, slow enough for them to see this time.

“What in oblivion is that?” Spike took a step back as Winter Wrap Up began firing icicles from its palms.

The icicles bounced against the yellow Stand’s skin and shattered into the sides of the tunnel. One broke open one of the coffins on impact and sprayed wood in all directions.

“Back!” Twilight ordered as her Stand fought to slow the enemy.

When it got close enough, Strange World began pounding it with fist after fist, but each blow felt like it was connecting with rubber and it didn’t seem to even harm the enemy Stand. She was about to call it back when it opened its mouth wider and dragged itself forward with unimaginable speed, swallowing both Twilight and Strange World whole.

“Twi!” Spike called out and froze the ground with Winter Wrap Up, but the Stand just hopped and crashed back down, shattering all the ice with its weight.

Shiho grabbed Spike and ran back around the first corner, knocking over one of the lights in the process. Daring Do held Yesterday in her hand, looking to her friends for advice as she held a finger over the button. Shiho waved at her not to do it. There was still so much they didn’t know about this. If they reset time now, she would be out of charges and they would still know nothing.

“Okay, screw this,” Shiho had Curtain Call throw its shroud over a stray bone, transforming it into a long metal spike. Shiho brandished the metal stake and looked around in the darkness. “Next time that big mouth comes, I’m introducing it to this toothpick.”

“Spike!” Twilight’s voice called out from the tunnel they had come from. “Help!”

“Twilight!” Spike shouted, running down the passage. “Hold on, I’m on my way!”

Shiho watched him go. “No, you buffoon! We have to stay together!”

Shiho started after Spike, but Spike had a head start and in this darkness, it was impossible to see which way he had gone. All Shiho could hear was Spike’s receding footfalls in the catacombs.

“Ah, crap,” Shiho growled. She glanced back, making sure Daring Do and Josher were still with her. They were not.

“Good grief. Every time.”

Earlier, Josher reached out for Shiho as she went running off after Spike. He would have followed, but Daring Do grabbed his shirt collar and held him back.

“Don’t do it, Josher,” Daring Do warned. “That’s exactly what they want us to do. Whoever’s behind this Stand attack wants us to go running around scared. Well, ‘panic’ isn’t even in the vocabulary of an adventurer like myself. We’ll stay calm and figure it out.”

“Not much I can do to help here,” the boy said. “I can’t use Down Under here, the tunnels are too narrow for its size, unless we want to collapse the roof on top of ourselves. And no offense, but your Stand doesn’t attack as well.”

“Attacks don’t seem to hurt it.” Daring Do peeked around the next corner. All they could hear was the enemy Stand’s large body shuffling along the ground, but in these catacombs, it could’ve been coming from anywhere. “You saw what Strange World did. Its punches did nothing. There must be something else we can do to beat it than a straight up fight.”

The shuffling sounds began to get louder again and both their eyes turned down the dark tunnel they had come from. By now, they had left the path of lights Die Die Riches had set up behind and the catacombs had expanded into tunnels that led all over the place.

“These must lead around some time.” Daring Do pointed down a curved tunnel. “Maybe we can circle back around and find Shiho and Spike.”

Josher nodded, putting on a brave face. “Sure. I’m not going to let Die Die Riches get away with their crimes.”

“And neither am I.” Daring Do gave him a pat on his shoulder. “Whatever this Stand is, we’ll beat it. Just you watch. We’ll figure out just what it’s capable of and we’ll stop it.”

A low bellow came from the darkness, followed by more scraping. Josher recognized it as the Stand’s fingers dragging its grotesque body across the ground. Wherever it was, it was close now.

“Let’s go. No time to waste.” Daring Do grabbed his hand and shook it to usher him on.

The two of them ran down the curved tunnel, throwing a couple of coffins to the ground in hopes of slowing the Stand down. They knew it likely wouldn’t do much, but it was better than doing nothing.

Their footsteps clattered against the stone floor as they rounded another corner, leading to a pathway that led down a flight of steps. The next chamber had three tunnels and they decided to go to the one to their left, which then led to two more tunnels. The air down here was starting to smell slightly less stale, Josher noticed. That must mean that they were closing in on Die Die Riches’ base. Not even poor people liked to breathe in air that was laced with the bone dust of centuries past.

“There are no lights here,” Daring Do noted. “This must be a different path leading to their base. If we can get there, maybe we can disable the Stand’s master and get it off our backs.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s do this!” Josher looked back and waved to her. “The faster we find them, the faster we can rescue the others.”

“Wait, hold on!” Daring Do reached out, but just then, a yellow shape emerged from the tunnel on the side, cruising straight for Josher as it opened its mouth wide.

“W-Woah!” Josher kicked back and threw a coffin forward as he summoned Down Under’s arm to punch the enemy. Even with Down Under’s incredible power, he felt as though he was hitting rubber and it bounced back as the enemy Stand turned in their direction, clawing at the air as it hauled itself on. “Da-Daring Do, back, back!”

The Stand began chomping the air as it chased after them, smashing aside coffins to get to them. Josher broke open more coffins and threw bones at it, but all it did was swallow them and press on towards them.

“I can’t shake it!” Josher called out.

“Just keep moving!” Daring Do gestured, running ahead of him. “It only speeds up in bursts when it lunges, otherwise, it can’t drag itself faster than we can run. We can keep ahead of it if we keep moving!”

They made a right turn, then exited through a tunnel on the left before following a flight of steps up to another crossroad. Josher took out his playing cards and began firing them off from the top of the deck down the path ahead, making a line of cards leading down it. Daring Do gave him a nod before they proceeded down the left path, ducking around the next corner to catch their breath.

Josher peeked out from the corner slightly, trying to see if they managed to lose the enemy Stand. To his great displeasure, the Stand emerged from the darkness, not even stopping to see his trail of cards leading off in the other direction. It just turned towards their tunnel without a pause and hauled itself closer.

“It’s tracking us somehow!” Daring Do pulled Josher to get him to move again. “But how?”

“Yeah, I even laid out a decoy for them to follow!” Josher pocketed the rest of his cards and ran along after her.

The Stand burst through the curve of the wall and rained showers of debris down around them. Josher tripped over one and dropped to the ground, shearing his elbows as he fought to get back on his feet, but before he could even plant one foot firmly on the ground, the enemy Stand was upon him, its mouth opened wide.

Daring Do looked back and stopped, but Josher waved at her and shook his head. “Keep going! You have to find a way to stop this Stand!”

Josher closed his eyes as he waited for the inevitable, but then the enemy Stand flew right over his head and he looked up in disbelief. It smashed apart another column of coffins as it dragged itself through the air towards Daring Do. Both of them stared at the Stand, linking eyes for a moment before the large shape enveloped Daring Do, sliding to a stop in the tunnel ahead.

“W-What?” Josher got back up and rubbed at his injured elbows. “Why didn’t it eat me?”

The enemy Stand raised its body again and Josher didn’t need to be told twice before he got moving back the way they had come, but this time turning down the path he had thrown his cards to earlier. Already he could hear the Stand coming, smashing through more stone as it started chasing after him.

“It took Daring Do first… Why?” Josher ran on, looking back occasionally to make sure it wasn’t close to him just yet. “Could it be she knew something I didn’t? Was she more important?”

He heard a crash behind him, followed by a burp. It was coming and again, it knew exactly where he was.

“It’s not tracking me by smell or sound. No way,” Josher said to himself. “It jumped clear over me to get to Daring. What does she have that I don’t? That’s how it’s tracking us and now it’s coming for me! Think, Josher, think!”

He pressed his fingers to the sides of his head, but with the enemy Stand pursuing him like this, he didn’t have much room to think besides to get himself as far as he could from it. He had seen its sides bulging earlier as it ate Daring Do; it looked like someone was trying to escape from inside and that led Josher to believe that all his friends were still alive in there.

“But for how long?”

He skidded past the next turn, almost running into a pillar as he entered a large chamber with a second floor of tunnels leading in all four directions. He stopped in front of the pillar and turned around. This was it. This room was big enough to house Down Under and if it was a fight this Stand wanted, it was a fight it would get.

The tunnel was filled with the sounds of scraping and the chomping of teeth and though he couldn’t see anything yet, Josher could already feel the anticipation racing to his heart. He began taping his left index finger against his pants and he refused to blink as he peered into the dark tunnel, just waiting for that spurt of yellow to appear.

“Tracking… How is it doing that…?” Josher continued to ask himself. This was the crux of the situation. If he could figure that out, victory would be as good as theirs.

He thought back to how his friends had been taken in the tunnels. Twilight had been swallowed first, so it was definitely after her. He didn’t know if Shiho and Spike had been eaten as well, but he had to assume the worst, unless they weren’t being targeted, like he hadn’t been when the Stand went after Daring Do. It was clearly coming after him now, so he thought about what he had that the others didn’t.

“Think, Josher! Use that ol’ noggin of yours!” He tapped the side of his head repeatedly. “Twilight… Then Daring Do…”

The Stand was definitely a long ranged automatic Stand, meaning it was unlikely its master would be directing its actions. That means it must have a way to differentiate Die Die Riches activists from them.

Only one thing popped into his mind when it came to differentiating them. They hated the rich. What if…

Josher didn’t have more time to go over it as the grotesque Stand came into view, dripping saliva as its teeth clashed together repeatedly.

“Here we go now.” He planted his feet further apart as Down Under swung its anchor up into its other palm.

He had his other hand on his lightphone. Thankfully, phones these days had coverage even deep underground. There were recorded findings that the signal could go all the way down to the Veryovkina Cave, the deepest known cave in the world.

“Technology these days. Sometimes it scares me…” He tapped away on a few buttons as the enemy Stand charged, smashing its hands against the ground as it came chomping for them.

Down Under swiped its anchor at the Stand, smashing it against its left side. It bent under the blow like rubber, but the force of Down Under’s blow still sent it flying to the second floor, breaking down a part of the wall.

He cheered quietly to himself, but then it shook off debris and turned its whole body to him. With a roar, it leapt off the second floor and stretched its arms out to grab Down Under, but it spun around and smashed the anchor into it again, knocking it to the ground before it repeatedly pounded its anchor against its back.

“Stay down!” Josher called out to it, shuffling both feet together before standing on his tiptoes, stretching one arm to the sky.

But the enemy Stand was not to be beaten and instead, it squeezed out from Down Under’s next blow, angling its body forward as the next strike came down. The anchor smashed against its rear and the attack launched the Stand from its spot, sending it right for Josher.

“It angled its body so my next strike would launch it towards me!” Josher put his phone away and braced himself. “It’ll have to be up to them!”

The Stand closed its mouth behind him and landed against the pillar with a squelch. It pawed at the ground, then turned around and and proceeded down the tunnel it had come from.

In the further reaches of the catacombs under Angers, a man with a large belly sat on a pile of cardboard boxes, slowly chewing into a muesli bar. He scratched at his chin as he wondered about what his Stand was up to now.

Eat the Rich was hungry. Then again, it was always hungry. Just like him, it had a voracious appetite, but unlike him, Eat the Rich could eat anything it wanted whenever it wanted. For him, to even have this puny muesli bar with chocolate bits was tough to get. Everything was so expensive now and he had to be careful about how much money to have right now.

“But it doesn't matter. Duckie will be safe as long as I’m around…” He licked his lips and got off the boxes. He walked down one of the tunnels and lifted up his shirt to scratch his belly button. “I, Dirty Chains, will be the one to take out that enemy Stand team. They will never stop Die Die Riches. Never. Eat the world, Eat the Rich. Eat them all!”

Author's Note

We're here, finally. To all those that totally saw this coming, you can find the Stand chart over on the group thread as always. :trollestia:
Know that I had to put this Stand in...

Chapter 28: Time to Eat the Rich

Shiho ran down the next tunnel, continuing to follow the lights as she dragged Spike behind her.

“I told you, let me go! I’ve got to help Twi!” He struggled to dislodge her fingers.

“Stop it. I told you, you’re just going to get yourself eaten,” Shiho barked.

Earlier, they had escaped the yellow Stand as it bypassed them completely, not even stopping to sniff at them. Shiho had wondered why for the longest time and she eventually surmised that it wasn’t tracking them by scent, or anything conventional for the matter. It had first taken Twilight, and then it went after Josher and Daring Do, wherever they were headed.

But she had more information thanks to Josher. His signal had gone out since his last message and Shiho could only guess what had happened to him, but thanks to him, she knew exactly what she had to do, but she didn’t know if he would make it in time.

“The enemy Stand master has to be down here somewhere. These catacombs are their hideout and even if it’s a long range Stand, we can take-”

Shiho whipped around faster than someone could pull out a gun. She heard it. A faint chomping sound somewhere behind them.

“It’s coming,” she said. “We need to move, Spike.”

“No, let me at ‘em, I’ll give it a good beating for taking Twi!” Spike swung his fist.

“Spike, if we find the Stand master, you can beat him up all you want.” Shiho tugged at his hoodie again and used Curtain Call to pull him on. “The enemy Stand’s coming. It can’t be damaged by normal means. We’ll have to wait and find its master in the meantime.”

Spike grumbled, but then he called out Winter Wrap Up, which began freezing the tunnel behind them. “I’ll slow it down at least.”

Shiho looked at him, then let go of his hood and waved for him to move. “Then let’s go. I want to give this Stand master a piece of my mind.”

The chomping sounds soon disappeared behind them, and Shiho knew they could outrun it, but before she had any time to be happy about this little fact, something yellow lunged out at them from the next tunnel to their right, chomping thin air as she ducked back, summoning Curtain Call to throw its iron spike at the enemy Stand.

The metal spike prodded into the Stand’s body as it sailed away into a neighboring tunnel, but it didn’t seem to do anything.

“Winter Wrap Up!” Spike yelled.

His Stand began freezing a solid block of ice at the tunnel’s entrance, then built upon it as the two of them ran past. Something crashed against it on the other side, cracking the ice, but as Winter Wrap Up continued to build more ice against it, it continued to hold up, allowing them to gain more distance between the enemy.

“Follow the lights. We’ll get there eventually.” Shiho picked up another piece of debris and had Curtain Call transform it into another metal spike.

“You go, I’ll make sure you get as much time as you need!” Spike planted his feet on the ground. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

Shiho cursed under her breath, but kept going. At least he wasn’t running into the unknown to get himself eaten this time. She commended him in her mind. He had more resolve than she knew. Spike was not easily swayed and he would do what he needed to do for what he thought was right.

Perhaps the people she was traveling with weren’t all that bad. Including her grandmother.

Around the next corner, Shiho ran right into another human being who was sitting on a crate looking in her direction. She saw her coming and got up, startled. She pulled out a switchblade, but Curtain Call had already thrown its metal spike, pinning her to the wall as Shiho ran up and yanked the knife away from her.

“So, you’re the Stand master…” She glared at her. “Call of your Stand. Now. Or I’ll beat you to a pulp.”

“W-Wait, it’s not me!” She waved her hands, then groaned in anguish as blood seeped from her pinned shoulder.

“Yeah, and I’m the king of Thailand.” Shiho slapped her hard.

Curtain Call threw its cloth over the switchblade and turned it into a hammer, holding it up to the woman’s eye, but she didn’t seem to see the Stand, nor did she react to it.

Shiho spat at her. “You’re not the Stand master. Where is the Stand master? Tell me now!”

“I… he’s somewhere in… he’s in the catacombs somewhere!” the woman wailed. “I don’t know!”

But before she could be quizzed further, Shiho spotted the enemy Stand slinking down the tunnel towards them.

“No freakin’ way…” She pulled the woman off the wall with Curtain Call and threw her at the Stand.

The Stand kept going, not even reacting to the woman bouncing off its head as her body spun off behind its large form.

“Seems Josher might’ve been on to something…” She took out her phone and ran on.

It completely ignored the Die Die Riches woman, and the people of this group were poor, lacking in money. Josher had mentioned it went for Daring Do ahead of him and Daring Do was a great adventurer. She made a lot of money from the treasures she and her family had found over the years. Twilight was a princess and whether she was from another world or not, she would surely have plenty of money to never know poverty again. Josher was from the Joyride family and they had been wealthy way before her grandmother had come to this world. He would surely have more money than her.

Shiho tapped at her pockets and nodded. “I don’t carry physical money with me, so this Stand… it doesn’t track us based on how much money we carry, it must be tracking us based on our net worth. That’s it. That must be it. It targets the one who has the highest net worth.”

Shiho stopped and opened her bank account on her phone. There was only one way to test this hypothesis and if she was wrong, then she deserved to be eaten. With a push of two buttons, she transferred everything she owned into her mother’s account, leaving her with nothing.

“I’ll get her to pay me back when Die Die Riches is eating dirt,” Shiho said and pocketed her phone to face the enemy Stand. “But for now…”

The yellow Stand approached her, its teeth clacking against each other as it crawled along, but all of a sudden, it stopped and breathed, letting out hot air from its mouth. Then it turned around and approached the woman as she was trying to get up.

She couldn’t see Stands, so she didn’t even let out a cry as the Stand swallowed her whole. Now that Shiho had nothing, even a lowly member of Die Die Riches would have a higher net worth than her.

“That’s right. Target your own now. Don’t mind me while I search for your master…” Shiho let herself smile as she went ahead through the tunnel, following the lights towards their base.

She encountered another two Die Die Riches activists playing with a rubber ball, and when they saw her, they ran at her with more switchblades, but Shiho just threw her hammer at the first one’s face, knocking him down and out before kicking the second one in the chest as she ran to her. While she was on the ground, Shiho stepped on her face multiple times, then proceeded on. The enemy Stand would deal with them when it caught up.

It was at the next turn that she encountered a man with a large belly walking down the tunnel towards her with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t seem bothered by her presence, nor did he look like he was threatened.

“So, you’re here,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “How do you like my handiwork? You must be exhausted by now, running all throughout these catacombs. It’s easy to get lost, you know?”

Shiho had no doubt about it now. “You must be the Stand master.”

The man chuckled and nodded his head. “That’s right. I am Dirty Chains, master of Eat the Rich, which has been plaguing you the moment you entered these catacombs. Somehow you got past Garland Greyness and his uh, That Day That Comes Early, or something. I can’t remember, his Stand’s name is really long. And he always prided himself on being the strongest. So does Grandeur Black. But no! It is me, Dirty Chains, who is the strongest Stand master of Die Die Riches besides Duckie Deluxe!”

He bent his arms at his sides and faced his palms up as he laughed till he choked.

“You have to be the last one of your friends now. Tell me, how does it feel to have a Stand’s unending hunger chase after you?”

“You want to know, huh, Dirty Chains?” Shiho pointed at him. “You activists disgust me. But I won’t be worrying about your Stand anymore. You should though.”

“Pffft. And why is that?”

Shiho narrowed her eyes. “Because I have you all figured out.”

“Oh? Do you now?” Dirty Chains looked amused. “Then do tell. I’m all ears.”

Shiho allowed the corner of her mouth to curve up as she held her phone’s screen towards him. It showed her bank account’s main page.

Dirty Chains was taken aback by the numbers on her screen. “It’s all zero, zero, zero! Oh no!”

“That’s right. And I’m sure even you have more than zero.” Shiho put it back in her pocket and folded her arms. “And it’s going to get a lot more interesting in no time.”

There was a beep in Dirty Chains’ pocket and he took out his own phone. It was nothing fancy like the modern lightphone, but it still had a touchscreen and everything.

“He must already be done. You’re going to enjoy yourselves. At least for a moment.” Shiho took out a cigarette and sat herself down on one of the boxes.

Dirty Chains’ eyes widened as he watched the numbers on his screen shift and change. “One zero, two zeroes, three zeroes, four, five, six, seven, eight… I… I’m rich? I’m rich! Look at all this money!”

But then a rumble came from down the tunnel and he realized his predicament.

Joshi Horner snickered to himself as he sifted through pages and pages of data as Blitzkrieg’s fingers moved furiously across the laptop’s keyboard. He had gone to an internet cafe nearby when he got the message from Josher earlier. It was all an assumption, but he would gladly play along if it meant the end of Die Die Riches.

“L-o-d-s-of-e-m-o-n-e,” Joshi chanted as he logged into Weather Alternate’s funds. He would have to explain this to his father later, but with any luck he could just reverse the transaction after this was all over.

While he was accessing the funds, Joshi took a fork and speared it into a plate of his favorite food, sausage eggs. Incredible that they served it in France, to be honest. He had thought it was a dish that existed only back home in Germany.

With the president safe from the attacking Die Die Riches troop, he now had time to slip away to assist the others below the streets to enact this nefarious plan.

“That’s right. All of them at once. What a perfect plan!” He clapped before stuffing another portion of the sausage eggs into his mouth. “Sehr gut, mein freund!”

With Blitzkrieg in play, he could sense them, all the electronics down below the streets. Being with Josher and the others for a while, he already knew their electric signatures and instead of pouring money into their accounts, he removed them, setting them to zero, just like Shiho’s account. She had been standing still in front of another signature for quite some time, so he guessed it must’ve been a Stand master. He made sure to put three more zeroes into that signature’s account for extra measure.

Once he was all set, Joshi gave Blitzkrieg a high-five and leaned back to enjoy the show. And the rest of his sausage eggs.

“O-Oh no! I’m in a pickle!” Dirty Chains pressed his cheeks together as he dropped his phone. His account had increased from twenty-seven euros to eight million in just a few seconds and for once in his life, he felt as though he could do anything, he could buy anything he wanted and he would be able to eat a full meal more than four times a day. But all that instantly turned to mush as he saw Eat the Rich crawl up behind Shiho.

Now that her bank account was zero, zero, zero, Eat the Rich bypassed her, not even noticing she was standing there as it crawled towards the next person with lots of money: himself.

“N-No, wait, Eat the Rich, it’s me!” Dirty Chains took a step back and tripped on nothing, bouncing on the ground as his own Stand lunged at him, its mouth opened wide. Its jaws closed around him and he vanished from view as Eat the Rich burped and scratched at its face.

“One more piece of trash taken care of…” Shiho sighed and took another puff of her cigarette.

With Joshi in on this, she knew it would only be a matter of time before he cracked their systems and sent the remaining activists lots of money. With so many zeroes in their accounts, Eat the Rich would be sure to go in search of them instead of her and her friends. And just on schedule, Eat the Rich turned to the side and belched out Twilight, Spike, Josher and Daring Do before wiping at its mouth and crawling down the tunnel, knocking over each portable light as it went.

Already, she could hear their screams echo through the catacombs as they were swallowed by something they couldn’t see.

“Good grief, what a bizarre Stand…” She puffed out another cloud of smoke before dropping her cigarette to the ground to stomp on it. “Everyone feeling okay?”

“Gross…” Spike wiped a handful of thick gooey saliva off his face, stuck his tongue out, which was a mistake, as more saliva dripped on it from his upper lip. “Aaaugh!”

“This reminds me of a story my great-grandmother had passed down over the ages…” Daring Do took off her hat and put it aside as more saliva dripped down their bodies. “She had been swallowed by a giant venus fly trap somewhere in Peru when she was searching for a lost city of gold. Turns out that the plant had been feeding off the gold for years and its properties had somehow made it grow to gigantic proportions. But my mom had always said she had emerged from that covered in the plant’s secretions. This reminds me of that.”

“I’ve dealt with plenty of plant threats back in Equestria, but this one’s new…” Twilight shook her body, spraying saliva on the walls and coffins.

“Hey, at least this counts as a liquid.” Josher slicked his blue hair back. “It empowers Down Under. So I’m feeling good, I suppose.”

“Where’d it go, anyhow?” Spike pointed down the tunnel. “Why’d it spit us back out?”

“Aha, I called in a little help from Joshi.” Josher held up his lightphone. “Don’t be alarmed, but he emptied our bank accounts.”

“He what?!” they all said at once.

“I said don’t be alarmed, jeez.” Josher continued. “That was the only way to get us out of the Stand’s radar. He put lots of money into the accounts of everyone else down here, meaning-”

“That’s a great idea. The Stand will be targeting their own!” Twilight gave him a pat on the back. “Good job, Josher!”

“The one you should really thank is Joshi.” Then he held out his phone. “And lightphones. These things rock.”

“I will have to get one myself one of these days…” Twilight patted her pants down. “But how did you take money out of my account? I’ve only been here a few days.”

“I can only assume it was through Blitzkrieg’s Standoh powah!” Josher covered his mouth and nose with one hand, then put the other arm behind his head. “You know what, we should move on. We can ask him later.”

“Very well.” Twilight brushed a hand through her hair. “I just hope he can get me my money back. I brought a lot of bits from Equestria’s treasury in case I needed to make any purchases.”

“So won’t your wallet still have this money or something?” Daring Do asked as more screams rang out from down the tunnel. “It’s physical money, right?”

“It turned into something else when I came into this world.” Twilight held out a blue card in her hand.

“Ahhh,” Josher and Daring Do said at once.

As Eat the Rich continued scouring the base for more rich, it knocked through a barricade three of the activists had set up, shattering wood across the area as it chomped down on two of them before throwing itself at the third. The man squealed and raised both hands, but just as it was about to swallow him, he looked up and his eyes glowed red. With a palm, he knocked Eat the Rich aside and all of a sudden, knives flew out from the coffins, pinning its hands to the stone walls.

As it touched the walls, Eat the Rich was no longer in the catacombs. Instead, it was in a two storey house and the moon shone in from one of its windows, lighting up the hallway it was in.

“You’re not going to reach me…” a voice echoed out from one of the rooms. Its door was open and all that could be seen was darkness. “You have gone out of control long enough. It’s time to end.”

Eat the Rich dislodged the knives and rushed for the dark doorway, but a shadow rose out from within it, towering even over its large form. Two arms wrapped around it and pulled it in, followed by the sound of tearing and squelching.

Whimpers erupted from inside and Dirty Chains began crawling out of the doorway. He had blood running down his head and from various cuts across his body, and his shirt was in tatters, barely kept on over his shoulders.

“N-No, Duckie, no! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! No, no, oh no!” He crawled, scraping his knee against a loose piece of floorboard. “I didn’t expect them to do that! Rich people can do whatever they want and get away with it. Please, no!”

The house rattled and a vase fell off a small table and hit him on the head, sending him down to the floor as the shadows around him grew in size, stretching across the wall from some unnatural light source. Two pinpoints of light opened from within the shadows and the man screamed in fear as a giant mallet crashed down on top of his chest. He coughed out blood and attempted to retreat when the mallet became a knife, slicing across his stomach as he pulled himself away with one arm.

“You let your Stand get out of hand…” Duckie’s voice echoed around the house. “If I let Eat the Rich continue, it will consume all that we are. Therefore, your time is up, Dirty Chains. Die Die Riches thanks you for your efforts as a Stand user for the cause.”

It raised the knife again, which phased from knife to mallet, then back to knife again in the shadows. Dirty Chains still attempted to get away, pulling his body with his fingers, but it could do nothing more than that as the knife came down above his head.

As everything turned dark, Eat the Rich froze for a moment, then dropped to the stone ground of the catacombs and faded away, leaving only the still alive bodies of those it had swallowed earlier. One particular body, that of a man with a large belly, lay on his face as white dust began leaving his lifeless body.

Further down a tunnel, at an old desk before a carving of Nugget People, a woman in a white suit turned around in her chair and planted her hands together. “There’s nothing left between them and me. Let them come…”

Author's Note

We're really getting there now, folks... :trollestia:
I do hope some of you have enjoyed this part so far. I myself am still not so pleased with how it turned out, but I hope to do much better next time.

Chapter 29: A Real Live Wire

The rest of the catacombs remained silent as Shiho and the others traversed through them. They had been on alert ever since leaving Dirty Chains and Eat the Rich behind, keeping an eye out for any remaining members of Die Die Riches. Spike had thought he had seen people peeking at them from around corners, but whenever they got there, they were gone.

“There! I see someone!” Spike pointed again, but this time at a different location. “There, between the two coffins. Someone’s looking at us!”

“Where? I don’t see anyone, Spike.” Twilight squinted harder, but she still saw nothing.

Daring Do pulled out her whip and ran over, but as she searched between the coffins, she too found nothing and she straightened herself and shook her head.

“Stop it, there’s nothing there…” Shiho growled. “You’re just seeing things. Again.”

“The darkness is just playing tricks on your mind,” Daring Do said and handed him the tracker. “Just use this. It’ll get us there in no time.”

Earlier, when Eat the Rich had gone on its rampage, it had knocked all the lights down and plunged the catacombs back into darkness, but thanks to the tracker they had received from Garland Greyness, they didn’t need to worry about following the lights.

“It’s amazing how this place hasn’t been discovered till now,” Josher marveled at the expanse of the catacombs. “Daring, you should totally get it out there, being an adventurer and all.”

She nodded. “Once we’ve settled this DDR thing, sure! I’ll get these catacombs on the map.”

Spike held out the tracker and watched as the blinking light in its center began to increase its beat. “We must be getting close now. I’m going to take this Duckie down for taking my arm.”

“Wait in line.” Shiho flicked at her fringe. “She’s mine. I’m going to give her the beating of a lifetime.”

“But we still have to be careful,” Twilight warned. “We don’t know what kind of power she possesses.”

“Whatever power she has won’t stop me from beating her to the ground.” Shiho held up a fist. “She made the mistake of killing my friend back home in Japan. I would’ve been content to let them continue protesting. She brought this upon herself.”

“According to Weather Alternate’s database, she’s a wanted criminal,” Josher said, walking a little faster to walk in step with Shiho. “She killed her older sister or something, when she was young.

Spike nodded his head, but as he looked back up from the tracker, he saw another face peeking at them from around the next corner, just dimly visible from their lightphone orbs. It looked to be a woman this time and she had curly black hair dangling down one side of her face.

“There’s…” Spike started again, but then decided against it. They wouldn’t believe him after he had been debunked so many times. “The only way to get them on my side would be to capture this elusive person!”

Spike ran off into the tunnel on his own, aiming for the side passage through their tunnel. The figure darted their head back and Spike sent his Stand out past himself, freezing the air in the next tunnel.

He heard a gasp and when he rounded the corner, he saw the most beautiful human in the world, crouched down and clutching at her shoulders. She wore a loose red dress that had a really short skirt and one leg was up, revealing a slender thigh all the way down. Her hair was indeed black, so black that it seemed to reflect light and she looked out past it with shimmering green eyes. Her body shook as she cowered before him and the icy air he created.

“W-W-Who are you?” Spike asked as he sent Winter Wrap Up away. He couldn’t harm such a beautiful woman.

“I don’t know where I am.” The woman shook. “I got lost in these tunnels and I can’t find my way out. Please, please he-help me!”

The woman got up and ran at Spike and buried her face in his shoulder. Her red dress slipped off her shoulders and began to sag down, allowing Spike to see something he’d never seen in the human world before and it made him feel warm.

“Uh-uh, ah, hurm… I can uh, you can come with me, I’ll show you, uh, the way…” Spike blurted out as his face turned bright red.

“O-Oh thank you, sir!” The woman wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “I’ve only known you for a few seconds, but I feel like we’ve made a connection here!”

“O-Ohh, re-really now?” Spike let out a nervous laugh.

“Yes, please, would you do something for me?” The woman leaned her head closer to his, pushing her bright red lips closer towards Spike’s.

“W-What is that?” Spike trembled.

The woman’s lips curved into a smile and a shadow fell over her eyes. “Die for me.”

Her left arm spun around and she produced a knife from between her index and middle finger. But before she could thrust it into the back of Spike’s neck, A blue fist was thrown into her cheek and her face squished together before she was flung back into one of the coffins, shattering it as her knife clattered to the floor. From Spike’s missing arm, Winter Wrap Up’s arm had emerged, its fingers still wrapped tightly into its palm.

“But I know an enemy when I see one,” Spike said as he thrust Winter Wrap Up’s arm to his side.

The woman groaned in pain and plucked a splinter from her cheek and winced. “H-How did you know I was the enemy…?”

“Simple.” Spike pointed to the icy walls all around them. “I froze the walls of this tunnel and ice as thick as this acts like a mirror. I made sure I could see behind myself in case anyone tried to sneak up on me. I was right to do that.”

“I… I misunderestimated you.” The woman clutched at her jawline. Instantly, her body began to bubble and warp, before it began sagging down along with her dress.

Spike took a few steps back just in case, but he kept Winter Wrap Up at the ready in case she were to try something else. She was definitely a Stand master, but as of what she could do, he was still unsure.

When he looked back up, the woman was no longer lithe and attractive, smooth and slender. Where the woman once stood was a shriveled up elderly woman with a severe hunched back and missing teeth.

“W-Woah, who are you?” Spike stepped back more as his Stand emerged behind him, creating a ball of ice between its palms.

“I am Hagatha Crispy, the longest-standing member of Die Die Riches…” she coughed and gagged. Her black hair had turned frizzy and white and she was missing hair at various patches on her head. “My Stand, Agar Agar, is supposed to enthrall you and then I would’ve eliminated you one by one.”

“What are you, like a thousand years old?” Spike asked incredulously.

“Only ninety-six,” the woman said. “Now, you wouldn’t harm an old woman, would you?”

Then she spat out blood and rubbed at her jaw. It seemed to be off one hinge.

“Not if you tell me where Duckie Deluxe is!” Spike pointed at her as the rest of his friends appeared around the corner. “And what kind of Stand does she have?”

“Spike, what happened? We heard a commotion,” Twilight was the first to speak.

“Yeah, some old crone tried to trick me,” Spike didn’t take his eyes off Hagatha in case she tried something else. “But now she’s going to tell us the secret of Duckie’s Stand, or else.”

“I… I will tell you anything, I promise!” Hagatha put her hands together and gave them a smile full of missing teeth. “I-I know all about Duckie’s Stand, I do!”

Shiho pushed her way up to the front. “Less useless yapping, more spilling. What’s your leader’s Stand power? If you don’t answer or lie, I’ll beat you so badly you’ll wish you were dead.”

And to punctuate that threat, Shiho called forth her Stand, which cracked its knuckles menacingly.

“Come now… you wouldn’t hurt an old woman… right?” Hagatha timidly asked.

Shiho’s eyes were unyielding. “Do you think this is the first time I’ve beat up an old granny?” She spat. “Now stop stalling and tell us about Duckie’s Stand before I lose my patience, and believe me, it’s running thin as it is.”

“I will, I will, Duckie’s secret, it’s… it’s… She’s able to, she’s able to-”

Shiho suddenly leaned forward and thrust a hand through Hagatha’s midsection. The old woman bent over her arm and spat out a torrent of blood.

“It was a good thing I put that dreambug on you. I knew something like this would happen, Hagatha…” Shiho was gone and Hagatha found herself in a basement with old rusty shelves and old equipment scattered around. A single lightbulb swung from side to side above her, occasionally blinking out and letting the darkness in.

“N-No, Duckie, let me out!” Hagatha crawled across the floor, reaching for one of the shelves.

There was a hiss and when she turned around, she could see a large shadow approaching her, wielding a giant mallet. Each time the lightbulb turned on, it disappeared again, but each time darkness returned, it got closer and closer towards her.

“No, no, no, Duckie, no! Not meeee!” Hagatha screeched as she accidentally pulled one of the shelves down on top of herself, trapping her frail body there.

“Goodbye, Hagatha.” The shadow rose high above her and raised its weapon, which turned into a knife. “I would say thank you for your service, but you’ve been quite the useless one.”

Shiho Sunfast and her friends watched as Hagatha Cripsy’s body convulsed on the spot as her eyes rolled back into her head. She began gasping and shaking from side to side before grabbing at her chest.

“Shiho, what did you do? Did you hit her already?” Daring Do ran past her and inspected the old woman. “She’s having some kind of convulsion.”

“Yeah, I know that much.” Shiho frowned. “But it’s not me. She’s just old.”

Hagatha shook and opened her mouth wider, then she suddenly collapsed down in a heap, letting out one final breath of air before ceasing all movement.

“What the hay?” Josher raised a hand. “What just happened?!”

“It’s just like back in the restaurant.” Shiho whipped around from side to side, looking for the enemy. “I bet it’s Duckie. At last, we’re close to ending her and her rogue organization.”

“But we still have no clue what kind of power Duckie’s Stand has,” Twilight said, frowning at Hagatha’s body. “We could be walking right into an ambush.”

“Either way, we’re finding her.” Shiho barreled past Hagatha. “I’m ready to put her in the ground.”

“We have to be careful. We don’t know where she can strike from, if Hagatha just died like that,” Spike warned them. “She could have a long range Stand.”

“This is it, everyone!” Daring Do gave her whip a flick as it extended out of the handle. “The moment we’ve come all this way for! The end of DDR is in sight. Eat the Rich must’ve taken a whole lot of them out of commission. But we can clear up the rest in no time. The only tough one left would be their leader herself! May I say, it has been an honor traveling with you folk all this way. I’ve never gone on an adventure with more than one other person before. I will remember this for the rest of my life.”

"Let’s talk memories after the deed is done,” Josher advised. “It’s like the saying goes, ‘celebrate when you’re half done, and the finish won’t be near as fun’.”

“I have never heard that saying,” Spike grumbled. “And I read almost as many books as Twilight does.”

“Must be a human thing.” Twilight shrugged.

“But Daring’s right.” Josher flicked a card to each of his comrades. When they turned them over, they found that they each had an ace. “I’m glad I got to go on this adventure with all of you. Even with you, Shiho.”

“Good grief, don’t start with that kind of thing now,” Shiho said. “Saying things like that is just asking to get killed. Me, I’m looking forward to stepping on Duckie Deluxe’s corpse. That’ll be enough celebration for me.”

“Of course you would say that…” Josher shook his head. “You’ve never wanted friendship, you’ve always despised it. You push everyone away and you’ve never done what’s right.”

“I came on this whole misbegotten adventure because of a friend,” Shiho growled. “A friend who might still be alive if Die Die Riches hadn’t shown their ugly faces. Don’t lecture me about friendship, Josher.”

“Friendship…” Twilight started. “You know nothing about it, Shiho. Did you ever stop to think what would’ve happened if you had taken care of those around you instead of just your rich friends?”

“With your powers, you could’ve changed the world for the better. All of you could,” Spike continued where Twilight had stopped, making Shiho blink twice. “But you are all selfish with what you have. Every single one of you. It is because of you that the world is the way it is.”

“How about you shut your trap?” Shiho glared at Twilight and Spike. “Who I choose to be friends with is none of your business, nor is it any business of yours who I spend my money on. And I would definitely never consider giving it to a bunch of braindead radicals like Die Die Riches.”

“Your friend would still be alive if you weren’t like this…” Daring Do grabbed her by the wrist and spun her around. “You did this, Shiho. Maybe if you had been faster that day, you could’ve done something.”

Shiho looked at her eyes, but all she saw in them was white. Her pupils had disappeared and her mouth was turned up in a crooked grin.

“What the hell?” she said rather flatly.

“Your end comes, Shiho Sunfast…” Daring Do began laughing. Her voice had become layered, as though someone else was also speaking over her own voice. “You came down here seeking justice, but death is all you will find. Death in the most painful and torturous way you have never experienced before.”

Shiho didn’t know what was happening, but she knew enough to know that these weren’t her real friends.

“Duckie Deluxe…” she deduced.

“Glad to finally meet you. Not quite in the flesh, but make no mistake, you are before my Stand right now…” Daring Do walked forward as her whip morphed into a large kitchen knife. “You have foiled my plans countlessly across the world, and your friends even helped to protect the French president.”

Shiho summoned Curtain Call, which immediately threw its cloth over a vase, turning it into a metal ball before kicking it at Daring Do.

“Qu’est-ce que c’est,” Daring Do slashed her weapon across the space, shearing the ball in half as they sailed past her on both sides.

Shiho turned to run down the catacomb tunnel, but suddenly found her face in a wooden door and she smacked her forehead against it before falling flat on her back. Stars danced around her vision as she sat up and for some reason, everything seemed to have grown even darker and more blue around her.

“Your Stand can turn anything into something else…” She heard footsteps behind her. They sounded like they were being made by something flat. “But it will not help you here. This is my world now.”

After adjusting her vision, Shiho realized she was now in some kind of dining room, complete with a round table and six chairs around it. The table had been set with a rotting turkey and it smelt really bad. At the other end of the room, at the entrance to the kitchen, stood a shadowy figure that somewhat resembled a duck. It held a giant knife over one shoulder and as it took a step out of the kitchen, its webbed foot caused a shadow to spread out over towards Shiho, which formed into a four-fingered hand.

She summoned Curtain Call and changed the door into a piece of paper, tearing through it as she backed away from the shadow. The doorway led to the front entrance of a two-storey house and a stained-glass window with a rubber duck sat in the middle of the door frame, colored red and yellow. A wooden staircase led up beside it to a small hallway upstairs with a wooden banister.

“Where are you going, Shiho?” She heard the voice call from the dining room. “You can’t escape my Stand!”

Shiho first chose the main door, but from nowhere, wooden bars appeared over the door, sealing it shut. She flung Curtain Call’s cloth over the planks, but they turned to paper briefly before returning to wood in the blink of an eye.

“Screw this.” She kicked off against the main door and leapt up the staircase two steps at a time as the shadow emerged from the dining room.

As she turned back at the top of the stairs, she could see the enemy Stand’s head peeking out from the doorway, perfectly parallel to the ground, about midway up the door. She got Curtain Call to turn a nearby photo frame into a discus and it threw it down at the enemy Stand, only for it to bend away like a snake, avoiding the discus completely.

“Qu’est-ce que c’est, that was a good throw, but pointless…” The duck waddled out of the dining room as its shadow edged up the staircase, its knife warping and shifting into a giant mallet. “There’s nothing you can do against me, against my Psycho Killer!”

A piano began playing somewhere in the house. It constantly played only three notes, but it was enough to irritate Shiho, who whipped Curtain Call’s cloth around until it was a spiral. She was done running. Duckie was going to learn that she shouldn’t mess with a Sushi.

As the shadow raised its mallet high, Curtain Call flicked its cloth at its arm, but to her dismay, the cloth smacked against the wall, not harming the shadow in the slightest bit. She turned her attention to the approaching Stand, which was now on the third step up.

She had Curtain Call glide down the steps as it brought up a fist to attack it. The duck raised its own weapon, an oversized wooden mallet, but it was very much slower than Curtain Call and its fist connected with the Stand’s bill. Seeing her opening, Shiho had it continue to barrage the enemy with punch after punch after punch.

“Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!”

But before another punch could land, Psycho Killer was no longer standing there. Shiho was left in the darkness of the house with Curtain Call and all she could hear was her own ragged breathing.

“Where did you go?” she called out, looking in front and behind periodically.

“You don’t get it, do you, Shiho?” Duckie’s voice echoed around her. “You cannot win here! This is my world, and Psycho Killer is god here! I control everything in this world.”

“Yeah?” Shiho glared at the surrounding gloom. “You’re going to need a crowbar to get my foot out of your backside when I’m done with you, Duckie, Stand or no Stand.”

“Crowbar, you say? Oui, oui, what an idea…”

Something hooked into Shiho’s left ankle and she widened her eyes before she let out a yell of pain. She looked down, finding two ends of crowbars piercing her leg, lodging into her bones.

Psycho Killer reappeared in front of her, two steps above her. Its giant mallet had now become a long rusty crowbar and it swung it across the space, clipping Shiho across the cheek. She crashed into the wall, shattering a photo frame of a young girl with a knife and would’ve rolled down the stairs if the two crowbars below weren’t holding her down.

“Hoh hoh hoh hoh!” Psycho Killer smashed the crowbar into Shiho’s head repeatedly. “You cannot win, you cannot win, you cannot win!”

Shiho raised her hands and had Curtain Call whip its cloth around, tying it around the crowbar, but all it did was resume its knife form and it cut clean through the cloth before speeding down for Shiho’s face.

“It’s the end for you now!”

Author's Note

We're getting there for real this time. I know I say this a lot, but for real this time. :trollestia:

Chapter 31: Twilight's World

Duckie Deluxe panted as she lay on her side against the cool stoney surface beside her desk. Her right eye was bleeding profusely and she had a wound across her chest that also needed some medical attention.

“That Shiho Sunfast…!” she said to herself. “If I hadn’t recalled Psycho Killer at that exact moment, I would’ve already been a goner. How dare she do this to me. How dare she!”

Duckie eventually mustered up enough strength to drag herself to one of the low cupboards along the wall, opening it to find her roughly put together first aid kit. Her right eye was gone, punctured when Curtain Call pierced Psycho Killer’s eye socket with her spike. Just a few more inches and it would’ve gone right through her brain and if that happened, everything that she had already worked so hard to achieve would all be over.

“Not yet… There’s still so much to do, so many people to kill…” She began wiping down her face with a disinfectant cloth. Immediately, her skin began to feel numb under the light gel and the pain was already starting to become a memory.

She grabbed a long tube with a transparent cap with green liquid inside it. This was a nanoinjector, used only for the most grievous of injuries, as it would leave them in your body for months after use, which had a chance to make you really sick. With a push of a red button on its side, the bottom opened up and an extremely thin needle shot out, gleaming under her portable light by her desk.

Duckie jabbed it against her eye hole and pressed the button again, sending waves of nanomachines down into her body, which worked quickly to fix the dying skin around her eye. The blood soon began to slow and in no time, it had stopped completely, and once she was sure she wasn’t going to bleed out, Duckie got off the floor, grabbing a roll of bandages at the same time.

“They’re going to pay. They’re all going to pay. Especially Shiho Sunfast,” Duckie growled as she bandaged up her eye. “Once I get strong enough, I’ll send Psycho Killer out again and I’ll take them down one at a time. The plan hasn’t changed. They will all feel the terror of my Stand!”

“Not if I’ve already found you!”

Duckie turned to the turn in the tunnel to see a woman with purple hair, dressed in a tight striped attire. “Twilight Sparkle. You’ve found me.”

“I have, and it’s over, Duckie. Stop this now. It doesn’t have to go any further!” Twilight swiped a hand to her right ear and slid her left foot forward. “Your organization is gone. You’re all that’s left.”

“Is that what you think?” Duckie challenged. “I disagree with you, Twilight Sparkle. As long as I am here, no, as long as poor people are here, Die Die Riches will live on!”

“Killing off all the rich people in the world will solve nothing!” Twilight put a hand on her chest. “Believe me, as ruler of Equestria, your mirror world, I know what happens when your leaders fall. It doesn’t work like you think. I’ve had many attempts on my life since the start of my rule and I’ve even had to flee the castle once before. The one who took over thought they knew how to rule the kingdom, but instead, all they did was destroy the relationship between a neighboring nation. If I hadn’t been able to return and stop them, we would’ve gone to war.”

“Some kind of interdimensional creature, are you?” To Duckie’s credit, she didn’t look surprised. “Bien sûr, of course. I should’ve guessed so. I knew our Stands would have to come from somewhere. As a ruler, you definitely have no idea what people have to go through when they have to worry if they can even eat for a day. That is the struggle my activists of Die Die Riches had to go through every day of their lives.”

“And you thought by killing the world leaders, things would change for the better?” Twilight frowned. “Having a bad captain on a boat is still better than no captain.”

“Is it, though?” Duckie asked with a sneer. “Humans will always find a way to survive. Without a captain, we would’ve risen up. We would’ve captained the boat differently, making it better for everyone on board. At least… until I start picking them off one by one…”

“It’s all violence with you humans, isn’t it?” Twilight said, feeling disgusted. “I doubt that a world with you in power would be any better than the one we’re currently in.”

“Typical leaders. You always think you can rule everything better than someone else.” Duckie slid her hand along her table, finding a switchblade hidden under a stack of her notes on Twilight and the others. “The rich are selfish, living in bliss while the rest of the world suffers. The world has been in a decline in the last forty years. When it comes down to us or them, they would never lift a finger to help the rest of us. The world’s resources are fading, everything is getting more expensive. While people on the streets starve, the rich hide behind their glass houses, living like nothing is wrong in the world. I’m sure you do just the same, wherever you’re from.”

“I’ve been a good ruler!” Twilight exclaimed, bristling. “Equestria is a utopia where everyone lives in harmony and peace. Crime is almost nonexistent, which is more than I can say for this world.”

“Then you must know nothing of what truly happens at the bottom!” Duckie grabbed the blade and flicked a button by the side of her desk. A metal cage by her side opened up and she reached inside and dragged out a man in a suit. His mouth was gagged and his arms were tied behind his back. “This is the vice president of my country, France. When all the attention was on the president, I easily grabbed him and brought him here. Like you, he knows nothing of what people go through everyday in our increasingly failing world. And like you, he’s going to learn it the hard way! No world can be at peace while the rich live!”

Duckie hauled him up and held the blade to the side of his neck.

“Do you know how this man lives, Twilight?” Duckie pressed the knife against his sweaty skin. “Everyday, he goes home to a giant estate with five cars and nineteen servants. His home even holds a golf course, a full-sized golf course and he eats more than three meals a day. Just outside his home is a street only known as Lutin Rue, the most dangerous street in Angers. It holds the most homeless people in the country and people would fight and kill each other from scraps dropped from his table. He lives this close to people suffering and does he lift a finger to do anything about it? Why don’t you tell her?”

Duckie yanked down his gag and he immediately began pleading. “Please, save me! Don’t let her kill me! I’ll-I’ll give you anything you want! I have money! I can pay for my protection!”

Twilight stood very still, her mind racing. There had never been any situations like this in Equestria to prepare her for this. Even the worst villains in her home world would not stoop to the depths that she had seen in the past few days. Did this man deserve to die for what he had not done?

“I can’t let you kill him, Duckie,” Twilight finally said. “Two wrongs don’t make a right. If you surrender, then I won’t kill you and instead take you to be judged by the human justice system. You’ll get a fair trial and be sent to prison for your crimes.”

“A fair trial?” Duckie snarled at her. “These pigs control the courts, they control the government! Everything would always go in their favor. The only way the world will change is with their deaths!”

“And what happens after you’ve killed them all? Will you move on to the middle class people? What about the poor who don’t agree with your ideals?” Twilight took a step forward. “There’s no version of this in which you win, Duckie. Give up.”

She poked the knife into the man’s cheek, drawing blood. “Even if I know nothing about controlling a country, I would still do a better job than these selfish dogs.”

“I won’t come after you, I promise!” The vice president squirmed in her grip. Even though Duckie was severely injured, she still held on to him as he tried to shake free. “I-I’ll change the systems, I’ll replace the president, I’ll make sure poor people are looked after, just let me go!”

“Quiet!” Duckie clubbed him on the head. “Empty promises. I know these all too well. You say everything I possibly want to hear, but as soon as I let you go, you’ll rescind everything. Don’t kid me. Do you think the world would still be heading to hell if people like you did something about it?”

“Put the knife down and let the vice president go,” Twilight insisted. “You know that if you kill him, you’ll have nothing stopping me from getting to you. As long as he’s alive, I’m willing to believe you can still be saved, rehabilitated.”

“Rehabilitated? To accept that my place in the world will always be like this?” Duckie laughed. “A change needs to happen. And as long as these people remain in charge, it’ll never happen! I will not ever come to accept this!”

Twilight could see that Duckie was getting more and more unhinged. She had to say something to bring things back down to earth.

“Maybe I could help the world,” Twilight said. “I’ve got experience in leading nations. If I was to apply my knowledge to this world, I know I could make it a better place. We don’t have to continue with this cycle of violence.”

“You think you could do a better job?” Duckie pointed the knife at her. “You think they would let you take their positions from them? They’ll hunt you down and destroy you like they attempted with Die Die Riches.”

“You deserve to die! Every last one of you!” The vice president spat at her. “You were made for the mud and you’ll die in the mud! People like you will never rule this world!”

“Shh, you’re not helping yourself, Mr. Vice President!” Twilight hissed at him. “Duckie, I can do it, I can bring peace to this world. If you let me. Give me this chance.”

“You’ll never have it, Twilight. They’ll never let you!” Duckie tapped the knife against the vice president’s neck. “They all deserve to die. A new world order is coming, and I will be the one to lead it!”

Duckie attempted to press the knife through the man’s neck.

“No!” Twilight reached out and started running. The air shimmered in front of her and Strange World stood beside her, mimicking her motion.

Duckie’s movements had slowed down drastically, moving slower than ever; even Twilight was surprised at how slow she was moving. Moving so slowly, the blade wasn’t able to pierce the man’s skin and instead, just tapped against it as Twilight reached her, yanking her hand away with Strange World and spinning her away from the vice president.

“Qu’est-ce que c’est?!” Duckie tried to swing her knife at Strange World, but a human couldn’t hurt a Stand. “You’ll never change this world, Twilight! They’ll never let you!”

Strange World grabbed Duckie’s wrist and twisted, forcing her to drop the knife onto the floor before restraining the leader of Die Die Riches so that she couldn’t move.

“I told you, you’re going to be tried for your crimes and imprisoned. Somewhere that even your Stand ability won’t be able to break you loose. You can rejoin society when you’ve learned your lesson.”

Duckie squirmed and stared hatefully at Twilight. Then her expression changed into that of shocked surprise.

Bang!

Duckie’s head jerked back with a spray of blood and she moved no more. Twilight whipped around to see the vice president crouched behind her with a compact pistol in his hand which was still smoking. Somehow, he had gotten out of his binds and he had a rather odd smile plastered across his sweaty face.

“Merci for distracting her with your strange powers,” the vice president staggered to his feet. “Now the threat to the elite has been taken care of at last.”

“Why did you-Why did you do this?!” Twilight looked at Duckie’s body as it now fell limp in her Stand’s grip. She put her down on the ground and turned back to the vice president as he walked over. “We could’ve helped her! We could’ve made her see reason!”

“There’s no reasoning with these people,” the vice president told Twilight. “You heard her yourself. As long as people like her exist, they will come up with any excuse to hate those who are better than them.”

There was a patter of footsteps and the rest of Twilight’s party showed themselves around the doorway.

“Twilight!” Spike shouted. “Are you okay? Did Duckie Deluxe hurt you?”

“N-No, but… I could’ve… I could’ve convinced her.” Twilight put her hands by her side in defeat. “You… you didn’t need to kill her.”

“I did the world a favor!” The man ran his fingers along his gun’s barrel. “I ended the threat of Die Die Riches for the world! Finally, the world can go back to the way it was before they emerged.”

“So, she’s dead then?” Shiho went over to the body of Duckie, which was emitting some kind of smoke or steam. Then she summoned Curtain Call. The Stand raised its foot and stomped down on Duckie Deluxe’s head with a crunch. “For my friend, Ban Kai. May you rot in hell for eternity.”

“Here’s someone with sense. I have no idea how you did that to her head, but good job!” The vice president clapped. “You must be the ones sent here to rescue me. Please, take me back above ground! I’ll make sure you’re rewarded.”

Twilight stood there, clenching her fists and grinding her teeth together. This wasn’t how she intended things to go, this wasn’t what she had wanted. Things could’ve been different, very different if the leaders of this world had been like her.

Equestria had seen peace for thirty years straight. When she had first taken over, there had been unrest and discourse, with others believing that Twilight would be an inadequate replacement for Princesses Luna and Celestia. She had locked most of her perpetrators away and she had converted the rest, but once she had proven herself, peace had ensued and she had then moved on to the neighboring kingdoms, establishing good relations with them. The world was finally at peace, and all of it done without any violence at all. Equestria was civilized, unlike this savage world that she had been brought to. Suddenly she understood why Star Swirl had wanted the portal mirror locked away from anypony’s hooves. He didn’t want this violence coming back to Equestria with him.

Since her time here, all Twilight had witnessed was violence, be it from her hands or from those around her. Some of it had been necessary, like stopping an enemy from killing others, but a lot of it had been unwarranted and unnecessary. Shiho didn’t need to do that to Duckie, nor did the vice president have to shoot her with that thing. In her research of this world, it’s had countless wars before her arrival, some of which enveloped the entire world.

Ever since the emergence of Stands here, things had spiraled out of control, even beyond her power as the ruler of Equestria. “No. It’s not beyond me…”

Twilight turned to the vice president. “I know the problem with this world.”

“Oh, do tell,” the man said.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she slowly lifted her hand, pointing it at him. “Humans are the problem. Your kind doesn’t know anything about the six virtues of friendship, the Elements of Harmony. Thus, there is no harmony in this world.”

To everyone’s shock, Strange World grabbed the vice president’s arm, yanking him towards it. The man shrieked and fired his gun, but everything about him slowed down and the bullet began flying through the air slower than a mosquito full of blood. Strange World caught the bullet without much effort and tossed it to the ground as it grabbed the vice president’s head with both hands.

“She’s going to kill him!” Josher cried out. “Someone stop her!” He summoned Down Under, but Twilight glanced in its direction and it too slowed to a grinding crawl.

My Stand has grown stronger. Twilight noted. It made sense. A Stand was the embodiment of someone’s fighting spirit, and she had never felt more in a fighting mood than now.

“I have to do this. I have to right this world,” Twilight said with resolve. “Only I am able to bring Equestria’s peace to your dying world. I see that now.”

Strange World pressed its hands together and the vice president only had a fraction of a second to scream before his head was crushed between Twilight’s Stand’s hands. She tossed his body aside, then looked at her friends, all slowed down before her.

“I know, and I don’t expect you to understand immediately,” Twilight told them. “But I know you’ll understand eventually. You will know why I have to do this. I will correct your world. Everything will truly be better. Please understand that.”

Twilight looked up at the ceiling, then grabbed Duckie’s desk and threw it up. Strange World switched gears and everything began to speed up drastically. Shiho and the others moved forward faster than they could react and smashed against the wall on the other side before dropping to the ground. As the desk sped into the ceiling faster than a bullet, it shattered against it and rained debris down over them.

Moonlight poured in from above and as Twilight walked closer to the exit she had just created, she gazed up at the stars, noticing how few there were up there. She had also learned about this at her time in the library. The air was getting more polluted by the year and soon, they might not even be able to see the stars anymore. She had to do something about this before the planet was too far gone.

“Twi-Twilight…”

She turned to see Spike on the floor, weakly reaching out to her. He had hit his head against the wall earlier and a giant bump was forming just above his right brow.

“Spike, you know I have to do this.” She knelt down beside him.

He took her hand in his and gave her a firm squeeze. “I know, Twi. I know. But… you can’t do this alone.”

Twilight smiled. She knew she could always count on Spike to back her up, even in the most difficult tasks.

“Thank you, Spike. You’ll always be my best friend to the end.” And she took his hand.

Author's Note

Anyone expected this? :trollestia:
It’s good to be back.

Chapter 32: Twilight's Time

Sunset Shimmer had almost fallen on her face when she felt the ground shake beneath her feet. People began looking out their windows as Twilight Sparkle climbed out of the ground, carrying Spike with her.

“Twilight!” Sunset ran over as fast as her legs could carry.

Spike looked like he was hurt badly, so she called out Alicorn Fantasy to reset his injuries. Unfortunately, his arm had been lost too far back and she couldn’t bring it back.

“That feels so much better…” Spike shook his face, then cracked his neck.

“What happened down there?” Sunset looked past her into the hole below. “Is Shiho alright?”

“They’ll be fine. Duckie’s gone.” Twilight looked at the moon, then down the street. “I have to find the president. Where’s Skyburn? I would like to speak to him before I go. There’s something I have to tell him. There’s something I have to tell all of you.”

Sunset looked down and took off her hat. “Skyburn, he… He disappeared.”

Twilight blinked. “He what?”

Sunset shook her head. “Cajole was the last to see him. They had been fighting an enemy Stand when Skyburn sent his Stand through the enemy’s portal to some other dimension. When it closed, he was nowhere to be found.”

“Skyburn’s gone…” Twilight looked down as her hair hid her eyes. He had been one of her earliest friends in this world and he still had so much to live for.

Cajole Joyride ran over to join them. “Twilight, it’s because of him that I still stand here now.”

Twilight sniffed. “It’s because of this world. This world is corrupted beyond human hands. Die Die Riches wouldn’t have made it better, but if we let it go the way it’s going now, the world’s leaders would gladly let this world fall to ruin to protect themselves.”

“Twilight, what are you saying?” Sunset asked. She wasn’t sure where this was going.

“I’m saying…” Twilight turned to face them, tears in her eyes. “I cannot let this world continue towards its destruction. I have to act now, while I still can.”

Sunset didn’t quite like what she was hearing. It gave her a weird feeling in her stomach. “What do you plan to do?”

“Equestria has had peace for years.” Twilight kicked the toes of her left foot against the ground and folded her arms. “I know it hasn’t been all my work, but since taking over, Equestria has had no known villains, nor have they suffered through what your world has gone through in its history. I have to change it, Sunset. I have to intervene before your world destroys itself.”

“But we can’t go back. Not until the portal opens again,” Spike said as Twilight began walking circles around them.

Twilight shook her head. “We won’t have to, Spike. Not yet. There’s much we can do in this world while the portal remains closed.”

“What else do you plan on doing?” Cajole raised a hand. “You said it yourself. Duckie is done. That means we don’t have to worry about Die Die Riches anymore.”

“They’re the least of our problems now.” Twilight lifted a hand, palm facing up. She curled her fingers in slowly and gripped hard. “To correct the world, I will have to continue Die Die Riches’ plan. I will have to cleanse this world of those who wish to send it to the depths of Tartarus.”

“No, Twilight, what are you saying? This is madness!” Sunset cut her arm to one side. “Die Die Riches was crazy! You can’t attack the rich too!”

“You wouldn’t understand…” Twilight sighed. “Nor do I expect you to at this moment. I know it’ll take some time for you to get it, but you will see it one day. You will know that what I’ll have done is for the greater good of your world. I have to right it, there’s just so much… so much that goes on that needs to stop!”

She brought out Strange World and it posed behind her by curling both arms behind its head and tilting its body slightly to one side.

“I will go now. I will find the French president, and one by one, I’ll remove the evil from your world.” Twilight grabbed her Stand as Spike’s Winter Wrap Up swirled up an icy tornado.

The two of them were caught up in its gale and they began floating up into the air.

“Wait, Twilight!” Sunset called out Alicorn Fantasy and attempted to reset them, but there was a wave of air and her movements began to slow drastically.

Alicorn Fantasy reached out an arm to reset them, but with Winter Wrap Up, Twilight and Spike were cast off far into the air, way beyond Alicorn Fantasy’s range before Winter Wrap Up spread its wings to take flight out of its tornado.

“She’s… She’s after the president!” Cajole narrowed down. “We’ve got to get to them!”

“But we don’t even know where he is now!” Sunset looked around. “Where’s Joshi and the others?”

Then out of the hole in the ground came other voices.

“Is there anyone up there?” Josher’s voice asked loudly. “We need some help getting out of here!”

“That’s my son!” Cajole ran past Sunset and crouched down by the hole.

“Dad? Dad!” Josher was down there, jumping up and down with joy. “Boy, is it good to see you. Think you could give us a hand? I don’t want to bring the ceiling down over our heads with Down Under.”

Sunset poked her head down the hole next to Cajole. “Shiho, where is she?”

“Here, granny…” came the girl’s voice. She walked over with a limp, holding on to her bloodied head. “Twilight, she’s-”

“We know, she just left. We couldn’t get her in time. Just what happened?”

“I think she’s lost it,” Shiho said plainly. “Now she thinks she can rule the world better than our current leaders and Die Die Riches.”

“I think she’s after the French president,” Daring Do said from below, before extending her whip. “Mind grabbing this?”

She gave her whip a flick and Cajole had Tenacious D catch it on the other end, holding it tight as it rolled back on its wheels. Daring gestured for her friends to grab on and in no time, Tenacious had pulled all of them out of the catacombs, back into the cool night air again.

“Never thought I’d feel so good above ground again…” Josher whistled. “How do we find Twi?”

“Aha, that’s where I come in…” Joshi was standing behind him. Blitzkrieg was tapping away on a tablet and all kinds of data was flowing out onto the screen, followed by video footage of different streets in France. “Achtung, when the French president left here, his life was in danger. As with French protocol that I just learned in the last two minutes, they have now brought him to the closest safehouse to the city. That would be something called Sauce de Maison. It is just outside the city in an old bastille.”

“Sauce? For real?” Josher began snickering.

“It probably means something else in French, son,” Cajole said.

Joshi shook his head. “Nein. It actually means sauce.”

“Uh… oh.”

“How fast can we get there?” Sunset pushed past them and stopped in front of Joshi. “We have to protect the president from Twilight!”

Joshi looked down the streets, then spotted a blue shiny car and his eyes glinted white. “I can get us there in seven minutes!”

Sunset counted their group. There were six of them present, but the car only seated five.

Cajole noticed this too, but then smiled and gave Tenacious D a pat. “Not to worry, I will travel on Tenacious D. Actually, Tenacious is faster. I’ll speed along ahead to make sure we’re not too late. I’ll buy you all as much time as you need.”

“Then you’re not going alone, dad.” Josher thumped his chest with a fist. “You could use some brute strength. Down Under’s got you covered for that.”

“It feels like forever since we first started off in Berlin a few days ago.” Cajole laughed. “That was the last time we rode together on Tenacious D, huh? Let’s do this, then. Let’s go stop Twilight before she does something stupid.”

As the others piled into Joshi’s newly acquired car, Josher joined his father on Tenacious D’s back. It bent low and snorted steam from its nostrils before speeding down the street, heading towards the location Joshi had given them.

The drive through Angers was cool enough, with the night wind blowing against their faces as Cajole’s Stand sped down the streets. There were a few cars heading home for the day, and they would’ve surely thought themselves crazy when they saw Cajole and Josher riding invisible air.

“What, cousin Skyburn’s gone?” Josher was taken aback once his father had filled him in on what happened above ground. “I… I can’t believe it… Just like that. He was supposed to avenge Appy.”

“And that he did, my son. That he did.” Cajole looked ahead as the last of the buildings gave way to lush fields. “Die Die Riches is gone now and he can rest easy knowing that Appy can be at peace now, knowing that her killers are finished.”

“Almost finished.” Josher noticed the flying forms of Twilight and Spike in the air way ahead of their position. “Skyburn had spent the most time with them compared to us. He would want us to right this, to help Twilight see that this isn’t the way.”

“And we’ll stop at nothing to make sure she understands that.” Cajole nodded. “Tenacious D, time warp!”

His Stand bellowed smoke and sped down the highway, leaving fiery trails in its wake. The distance between Twilight and them started to shrink, but once they got to a winding path, they had to slow down again, but they were almost there now. They would have to protect the president from Twilight as long as they could, until the others could get to them.

“Hang on, Josher. I’m going to try something crazy!” Cajole had Tenacious D speed up again, going off the road and over a small hill.

The sudden burst of speed sent them flying through the air, sailing over two curves and landing along the grasslands, continuing up the hill before defying gravity, speeding up a sharp incline towards a looming stoney structure ahead. The bastille had a wall of stone around it, complete with barbed wire on the top and security cameras. Inside was a fort of at least five stories and they could already see Twilight and Spike landing somewhere within the compound. Cries of surprise were heard, followed by a rattle of gunfire.

“We’ve got to get in there. Make us a way.” Cajole pointed to the wall.

Josher nodded and got Down Under to throw its anchor at it. It smashed through the wall with so much force that debris was thrown into the air all around the area. Tenacious D kept going, smashing through one leftover piece of debris with its horns before the two Joyrides leapt off Tenacious, stopping with rolls as they took in the sight before them.

All the gunfire had slowed to a crawl before Twilight and Strange World was already in the process of collecting their bullets one by one. Some of the security detail kept firing, but they would be able to do nothing against Strange World.

Winter Wrap Up floated in the air above them, flapping its wings hard enough to create an icy gale that began to freeze up their weapons. Soon, bullets had ceased flying and Strange World gave them their bullets back by throwing them towards the group of guards. They spread out like a shotgun shell, taking out more than half the guards. The rest attempted to run, and one even got into one of their black SUVs to try and run Twilight over, but she simply stepped out of the way before Strange World sped everything up. The SUV rammed into one of the building’s columns and exploded in a ball of fire while the remaining guards ran into objects all around them, knocking themselves out.

“Too easy, Spike.” Twilight picked up a pair of sunglasses and dangled them before her eyes. “If this is all it takes to perfect this world, we will have it ready in three days. Would you help me make a way into the building?”

“On it, Twi.” Spike pointed and Winter Wrap Up sailed ahead, placing its hands against the wall’s surface. Frost spread out from its fingertips and coated the entire surface. Backing up a step, it smashed a fist into the wall, shattering the entire facade, revealing a living room with a lit fireplace and plush red sofas on top of an ugly green mat. “One entrance fit for the princess of Equestria.”

“Twilight, Spike, stop!” Josher called out, running closer to them than his father. “This isn’t the way!”

Twilight turned to them and sighed. “It is the only way, Josher. I see that now. Most of humanity is cruel. Your world is in such a terrible state because of the way it is managed. Imagine if someone could do it all the right way. That’s me, Josher. My world is proof enough that it can be done!”

“I agree, I know you’ll make a great leader here, Twilight, but you can’t just kill everyone to achieve this!” he tried to reason. “That makes you no better than Die Die Riches.”

“No, I am not like them.” Twilight shook her head as Strange World took steps around them. “They would’ve never made good leaders, because they don’t know what it takes to be one. I do. I know exactly what to do to protect this world. True, I might not know everything, but I can still learn it all.”

“Come on, Josher. You’ve fought alongside us for a while,” Spike said, standing beside her. “You know us. You know that we’re only trying to do good. I trust Twi. What she’s doing might seem harsh, but it’s the only way.”

“Humanity will never willingly let me take control.” Twilight put both hands on her chest. “They will fight to the last straw, even if it means the destruction of their world. I cannot continue to sit back and let this happen!”

Cajole shared a look with his son. “Twilight, we can’t let you do that. You know that, right?”

She sighed, then shared a similar look with Spike. “I know. I will do what needs to be done. Spike?”

Her companion nodded and called his Stand over, placing himself between the Joyrides and Twilight. Twilight took one more look at her friends, then stepped into the building.

“Why can’t you see it?” Spike thrust both arms down, bending his fingers into claws as the air began to get colder around them. “Twi can change everything! All she has to do is remove the leaders, just like Die Die Riches intended. When they’re gone, the world will recover. Things will be amazing for every single human here.”

“But at the cost of more innocents?” Cajole raised a hand, clenched his fist, then cast it back down at his side. “We can never allow that!”

Spike’s eyes seemed to glow green as he tilted his head lower. “They’re far from innocent. Winter Wrap Up, do your thing.”

Ice balls began to form around him, sailing forward at the Jojos one at a time. Josher got Down Under to charge forward, smashing three of them out of the air with its anchor before dropping to a roll towards Winter Wrap Up. Spike’s Stand flapped its wings and created winds strong enough to give Down Under some resistance before spreading ice along the ground.

Tenacious D charged forward, pushing its arms against the ground just before the layer of ice, propelling itself into the air before using its time warp. It blasted forward with a wave of fire, spinning itself into a fiery drill.

Winter Wrap Up fired more ice balls at it, but they melted when they got close to the fire. At the same time, Down Under pushed through its wind and icy ground, closing the distance as it swung its anchor with incredible speed.

“Ice, Spike,” Josher explained. “Ice is just the solid form of water. When Down Under makes contact with water, its speed and strength increases drastically. You’ve just helped me get stronger!”

Spike clicked his tongue as he took a step back. Tenacious D crashed into Winter Wrap Up, knocking it to the ground and melting all the ice around it before sliding back on its wheels. Down Under brought down its anchor, smashing Winter Wrap Up further into the ground.

Spike dropped to his knees and clutched at his chest. It felt as though his ribs had just shattered from the powerful hit.

“I’m sorry, Spike. I didn’t want to have to do this,” Josher said. “But once Sunset gets here, she can reset your injuries.”

Spike stayed on all fours, trying to breathe through his broken ribs. It was always like this. Someone always came along, stronger than he was, and it was usually Twilight or the others who would swoop in and save the day. He had rarely any chance to prove himself. He knew it was because of him that they had forged the alliance with the dragons, but another part of him had always told him he was inadequate. Compared to the others, he was always lacking at something.

But no, he couldn’t. Not this time. Twilight had entrusted him with buying her time. She trusted him. Even if he didn’t believe he could defend her from her friends, she did. And that was enough. With all his power, he would do what needed to be done for her.

Spike slowly lifted his head, spitting blood on the floor in front of him. “I-I… I can’t… Twilight… trusts me to handle this… I can’t give up now. Not now, not ever.”

Sticking his arm out, Winter Wrap Up sailed over and took it before frost began to seep into his skin. In no time, Spike got back on his feet and hopped a few times, then brought his arms up like he was readying for a fight.

“I had Winter Wrap Up freeze my ribs back together,” he explained. “It’s cold, but it’ll give me time to stop you. Twi needs to do this and until then, I can’t let you reach her.”

“Spike, I really don’t want to fight you!” Josher said, but had Down Under approach him with its anchor up anyway.

“I wouldn’t want to have to fight me either.” Spike placed his arm low, past his pocket. “Winter Wrap Up!”

His Stand surged towards Down Under, drawing an arm back as it swung high with its anchor, then bringing it down faster than Spike believed it could move. But this time, he was ready. Winter Wrap Up exuded a cloud of frost under its chin, which rapidly traveled all across its body even before the anchor could hit it. The giant weapon knocked it to the ground, but Spike didn’t crash down with his Stand this time.

When Down Under lifted its weapon, Winter Wrap Up was completely unharmed, now clad in a layer of white reflective armor that covered even its wings.

“Hardened ice,” Spike started, lifting his arm, then pointing down at them. “Winter Wrap Up has multiple frozen layers crammed together, forming it into a substance tougher than even diamond. You’ll have a hard time getting through it now.”

“We’ll see about that.” Cajole clutched the edges of his shirt, then drew lines down both sides with his fingers. “Tenacious D can burn right through it.”

“Come and try!” Spike sent his Stand out at them.

Down Under swung its anchor at it again. Still wet from their fight, its movements had doubled in speed and it began cutting through air with each strike, but Winter Wrap Up countered each blow with its arms, holding strong against them as it continued to pile ice over the ones that cracked from the blows. Between each block, it fired ice spikes at Down Under, keeping it between itself and Tenacious D, which tried to light it on fire with its wheels.

Winter Wrap Up planted both hands on the ground, creating a sheet of ice across the stone floor, then before Down Under could attack again, it sped off between its legs, forming a blade of ice over its fingers, it slashed behind its knees, spilling blood into the air.

Josher gasped and went down on his hands, unable to stand.

“Why you!” Cajole sent Tenacious D over Down Under’s back, doing a somersault before crashing down with its fiery wheels.

Winter Wrap Up leapt to the side, its leg armor melting off from the fire, but it simply formed more ice back over it before aiming more ice spikes at Tenacious D. It knocked its head through them, shattering them. Tenacious D threw a flurry of punches forward, but Winter Wrap Up blocked each one with its ice armor, and as Tenacious tried to breathe fire through its nostrils, Spike’s Stand grabbed its snout with both hands, stuffing its thumbs down its nostrils.

A burst of ice shot through it, going straight into its head as its snout began to freeze over. Cajole took three steps back as his own nose began to freeze. He began clawing at his face, but he couldn’t get it off and his oxygen was starting to get cut off.

“Please, stay down now!” Winter Wrap Up delivered two punches to Tenacious D’s head, knocking it to the side. Cajole’s body followed, crashing into a bush where he stayed for the rest of the duration. “I’m sorry. I had to do this.”

“Spike, please.” Josher crawled forward. “We can’t kill the president!”

Spike shook his head firmly. “Twi knows exactly what she’s doing. She does. She’s not being irrational or anything. This is the best course of action for your world. You’ll see in time. Once Twi starts ruling, things will change for the better.”

There was a rumble of an engine and Josher tilted his head back to get a look through the hole in the wall. A screech of wheels notified them of a blue car speeding through the air, crashing right into the rubble by the wall before sliding to a stop, its hood crumpled slightly.

“Nein, it’s the nice ones that break down easily…” Joshi Horner got out of the driver’s seat and scratched his blonde hair.

“Spike…” Shiho Sunfast got out first, walking over with a stern look on her face.

Josher looked back at him and smiled. “They’ll stop you and Twilight, Spike.”

Spike looked between them, then closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He had Winter Wrap Up cast Josher aside to where Cajole was, then froze them both to the bush. “Why must you make this harder than it already is? This is Twilight’s time! She’ll make your world better!”

“Not when you do it like this, Spike.” Sunset stood by the car’s back door. “This is no way to get things done.”

But Shiho raised an arm and shook her head to her grandmother. “It’s no use, granny. He’s convinced. There’s no changing that. I recognize the glint in his eyes. It’s a look I see all the time.” She walked forward with big strides towards him. “I’ll just have to show you my resolve, Spike.”

Curtain Call appeared behind her and spun its cloth in an arc above them. Shiho was ready and she was going to take them down.

Chapter 33: Twilit Curtain Call

As Shiho Sunfast glared down Spike from across the grounds of the president’s safehouse, Sauce de Maison, she thought about everything that had happened in the last few days traveling with her grandmother. They had come all this way to Angers, because Die Die Riches had decided to come out violently, they had killed her friend Ban Kai for being rich. Since defeating her killer, Shiho had vowed to see the end of Die Die Riches, and she had finally done it. Their mission was supposed to be over and she was supposed to be back home in Kantarijji. But here she was, staring down Spike as his Stand floated before them, poised to attack Curtain Call the moment it made its move.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but Twilight seemed to have had a change of ideals and now she was attempting to change the world with the deaths of many.

“And here I thought I would be done with all this…” Shiho groaned to herself. “Spike, if it’s a beating you want, it’s a beating you’ll get. Just don’t regret it later.”

Spike twisted his hips to his right, then raised his left leg like a flamingo and brought his arms up, one in front of him and the other behind.

Curtain Call spun its cloth in the air, then dropped to a crouch and flicked the cloth over its head, catching Spike by surprise as it flicked against Winter Wrap Up’s forehead. However, Winter Wrap Up’s ice armor held strong and Spike didn’t feel a thing. Creating a row of icicles above its head, it began firing them one at a time at Curtain Call, which flipped its cloth around each one, turning them into metal balls the size of bowling balls.

They jumped at each other, punching faster than bullets as they tried to overcome each other. Winter Wrap Up’s fists hit harder than Curtain Call’s, but because it was faster, it was able to maneuver away from its punches to deliver a couple of its own, though Winter Wrap Up’s hard ice armor prevented Curtain Call from landing anything worthwhile. Both sides failed to yield to the other and soon, Curtain Call planted a foot on Winter Wrap Up’s chest, pushing them both apart.

Shiho knew she was going to have to try something else, and she had just the idea.

Winter Wrap Up then spun upwards into the air, spreading its wings wide as mist began to bring the temperature down around them. Shiho had her Stand pick up the balls and using its cloth, it flung them like a makeshift sling, propelling them into Winter Wrap Up’s chest. The ice armor held strong, but as a second, third and fourth metal balls were thrown, crashing into the first one in quick succession, each one faster than the last, further cracking the armor before Curtain Call threw a fifth ball, keeping the momentum it had built up with each toss.

“No, I won’t be able to regenerate the ice in time!” Spike cried out.

The fifth metal ball shattered the armor at the chest, and for a split second, before it could reform ice around there, something metallic flew by faster than he could notice. It speared through Winter Wrap Up’s chest, impaling the second floor surface behind it.

Spike looked behind his Stand and spotted a bloodied metal pole sticking out of the wall, then down at his chest, which had a similar injury before Winter Wrap Up’s armor could reform.

“A-Aaugh!” Spike spat out a mouthful of blood and dropped to one knee as his Stand dissipated. The pole had gone through his chest and through one of his lungs. Compared to the broken ribs from earlier, it was even harder to breathe now and he couldn’t concentrate enough to get his Stand to freeze up the wound. “Y-You…”

“I didn’t want this to happen, Spike.” Shiho walked past him. “But even I know what you’re both doing isn’t right. Just stay here. My grandmother can reset your injuries once I’m done with Twilight.”

“N-No, don’t… please, Shiho…” Spike turned his body, but dropped on his side when he tried to grab her.

She watched him cough on the ground behind her and for once, Shiho seemed to feel something within her, something that tugged at her, trying to tell her that this wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

“I’m sorry, Spike,” she sighed. “This is not how I wanted the end of Die Die Riches to be like. But I do not wish for more people to die.”

Spike’s arm dropped to the ground as he lay there, only able to watch as Shiho continued on into the building, walking past the bodies of the president’s security detail. One of them had punch marks all over his body and another had a gaping hole in his chest. Shiho clenched her fists as she thought of how far they’ve come, only for Twilight to sink into some kind of madness. Sure, she might have the right intentions to change their world for the better, but this was no way of going about it.

She followed the line of bodies to a staircase that led down through a bookshelf that had been torn in two, which were now lying at the far ends of the room against the walls. There was an orange glow coming from below and Shiho could still hear the screams of people down there as they tried to defend themselves against Twilight and Strange World. It didn’t sound like it was going well.

“Good grief, what has she done?” Shiho started descending the stairs.

The stairway led down to a turn, going further down on her left and when she got to the halfway landing, she could see more bodies below, along with a spreading fire across one side of the wall, where bookshelves and what looked like packets of food were already burning down.

“How the hell is one Stand that focuses on speeding things up and slowing things down do this kind of damage?” Shiho grumbled. “I’d better find Twilight quickly.”

A body came flying towards her and she sidestepped at the last second to get away from it. It crashed into the stone wall beside her, shattering a portrait of a former president before crumpling to the ground. The man’s face fell at his side, now facing Shiho. She’d recognize him from anywhere. He had been the one Joshi had shown them before they took down Die Die Riches.

“The president… I’m too late.”

“That’s right.” Twilight was at the bottom of the staircase, looking up at her with one arm behind her back and the other going through the left side of her long hair. “France has been liberated, Shiho. Once I do this for the rest of the world, I can truly assume rulership and start correcting it bit by bit, till it would become like Equestria, free from evil and corruption!”

Shiho was unmoved. “You’re out of your mind.”

“I’m the only one in the mind, Shiho. I’m the only one that can see what needs to be done for the better of everyone.” Twilight raised one leg and curled it around her other leg. “I know you can’t understand that right now. But just let me finish my mission, Shiho. You’ll see.”

Shiho frowned and Curtain Call appeared next to her. “Not going to happen, Twilight. This will end here and it will end now. The easy way or the hard way.”

Twilight sighed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that. But I will do what needs to be done, Shiho. For the good of your world, even if you can’t see it. Strange World!”

Shiho had Curtain Call spin around, pulling its cloth from its shoulders as it spiraled it up to attack. Strange World already had its hands up and before the cloth could even be sent out, everything around Shiho had already slowed down and Twilight and Strange World walked up the stairs around them as the cloth began extending out to where Strange World had once been standing.

“You cannot beat me, Shiho. You can’t stop Strange World,” Twilight said beside her.

Then Strange World kicked her in the side and both Shiho and her Stand crashed into the wall as their speed returned to normal once again. They bounced off the wall, then tumbled down three of the steps before she planted one foot at the bottom, stopping her descent.

Blood trailed down her face, but Shiho wiped it out of her left eye and deepened her frown against Twilight.

“That nutcase from Die Die Riches got to you, Twilight. What’s the difference between you and them if you carry out this mad plan of yours? Answer me!”

Twilight put a hand to her chest and leaned forward. “I can lead this world to a better tomorrow! Die Die Riches only cares about the rich and poor divide. I want to help the entire world!”

“Not to those who will die because of you!” Shiho stepped to the side swiftly as Curtain Call flicked its cloth at her from behind her back.

Twilight had Strange World grab the cloth on its way to her, but then the cloth unfurled and a baseball bat dropped from below it. Shiho grabbed it, then spun around to swing it at Twilight, but Strange World was fast and grabbed the weapon from her hands before thrusting it into Shiho’s gut, speeding it up to throw her back down the steps. Again.

Shiho crashed next to the president’s body, which at least softened her fall.

“Just… please, Shiho. Just stay there. Let me finish what I need to do.” Twilight looked at her for a few seconds, then turned and began walking up the stairs.

“You missed something.”

Twilight stopped and half-turned her head. “What do you mean?”

“You think I really intended to run at you with a baseball bat?” Shiho got back on her feet. “I did that so you wouldn’t see what my Stand was up to.”

Curtain Call pulled back its cloth and Twilight looked up to see where it had been. The ceiling above her was no longer made of stone, but it was now a thin sheet of paper, which quickly tore as the rocks above it grew too heavy for its weight to support. Twilight could only raise her hands as the ceiling crumbled down on top of her, burying her in a pile of crude rocks as dust sailed across the air.

Shiho tugged at the chain on her skirt and took a few steps up to examine the debris. Not a thing moved for a few seconds and she thought her work here was done, but a deep rumbling made itself known before one of the rocks flew in her direction. Shiho dodged it, but then found her speed moving faster than she was expecting and she smacked her forehead into the wall beside her, spinning stars across her vision as more blood flowed down her face.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” Shiho picked herself up and turned around grimly. “What’s it going to take to stop you? Am I going to have to haul you back to your portal and throw you back into horseland for you to freaking stop?”

The rocks fell aside and Twilight stepped out. Her outfit was ragged and torn in various places, her hair was a mess and she had blood coming out of her nose and mouth, but Twilight showed no signs of weakness.

“You’re not going to stop me, Shiho. Not even if you kill me.”

Shiho’s countenance darkened. “Oh yeah? Is that a challenge?”

Twilight brought out Strange World, which pounded its fists together. “It is a challenge I’m going to win.”

Both Curtain Call and Strange World launched themselves at each other, yelling at the top of their voices as their fists crashed against each other, echoing resounding booms across the safehouse air. Neither side was willing to give way, but though they kept up with each other, Curtain Call’s knuckles were already starting to crack and Shiho knew she wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever.

Shiho had her Stand duck low, then with both feet, it sprang up, catching Strange World around the neck and launching themselves through the remains of the ceiling, crashing back out into the open air as fire raged around them, already spreading through most of the furniture. Strange World spun in a circle, then kicked down on Curtain Call’s head. It only had enough time to raise a single arm before the blow struck, cracking the bones in Shiho’s arm before her Stand crashed down through a dining table. Strange World descended slowly, landing beside its master as she watched Shiho crawl up the remaining steps, clutching her left arm.

“Shiho!” Sunset Shimmer and the others began to run over.

Strange World lifted an arm and all of them slowed down. Yesterday and Alicorn Fantasy were in the process of materializing and Twilight knew she would not be able to stop them once they used their abilities against her. While everything moved slowly, Twilight and Strange World made their way towards them, dodging a strike from Josher’s Down Under and Cajole’s Tenacious D. Grabbing the Stand by the horns, she threw it off to the side towards Daring Do, while she first approached Sunset Shimmer and Alicorn Fantasy.

Strange World sped up time for a split second, allowing Twilight to close the distance as everyone else stumbled forward from the sudden burst of speed before resuming its slow ability.

Tenacious D had crashed into Daring Do during the speed up and she was in the process and crashing to the floor, face first. That would keep her down for a while as she finished her goal here.

Alicorn Fantasy was already out and it was getting ready to reset her, but Twilight wasn’t going to have any of it. Walking around Sunset, she grabbed the old woman around the neck and bent backwards, squeezing at the same time, cutting off her airflow. Sunset began to struggle, attempting to fight back against her, but her arms would never reach her in time.

Twilight let go of her as her eyes rolled back in her head, letting her fall to the ground slowly as she spotted Spike by the wall, lying on his side as blood pooled around him.

“No, Spike…” Twilight was by his side, holding his head up under a knee, dropping her Stand’s slow down. “Spike!”

His eyelids fluttered open and he gave Twilight a weak smile. “Still alive. I’m sorry… I wasn’t able to stop them…”

Twilight shook her head. “No, you did good. The French president is dead. We’ve done our work for this country. When we do the same for the rest of the world, we’ll be able to start the healing process. This world would become like Equestria. A perfect new order.”

Spike lifted a hand and placed it on Twilight’s arm. “I know you will, Princess Twilight. You’re the only one who can do this.”

She let him rest on the ground again as she got up. The only former friends that were still standing before her were Josher Joyride, Joshi Horner and of course, Shiho Sunfast.

“The world needs change.” Twilight walked away from Spike’s body as he pushed himself to sit up. “And against your wishes, I’ll make it a better world for all.”

“Weather Alternate had been the other way around, eliminating the weak. My father failed, but he saw the truth when he was defeated. Nothing we say is going to change your mind besides a good beating.” Joshi shrugged and raised both arms up. “Uh, Josher, I will have to leave it to you. There’s not much technology here to use against her.”

“Yeah, I got it.” Josher took his pack of cards from his pocket and flicked them out of their box. Down Under stomped down behind him, then lifted its anchor over one shoulder.

Shiho looked at her grandmother lying on the floor and stalked forward, taking big strides to close the distance between herself and Twilight.

“You cannot win. Why do you still approach?” Twilight put her hands on her hips and shook her head.

“I can’t beat the crap out of you if I don’t come closer.” Shiho continued at her pace, sliding her bad arm into her pocket to hold it in place.

Twilight had both arms outstretched. “Then come. Let us finish this now.”

All three of them began walking towards each other, but Down Under was the first to attack. It bent back, then swung its anchor forward, sending it hurtling high in the air before it began descending towards Twilight and Strange World. Strange World slowed it down, giving itself more than enough time to get out of the way as it punched the side of the anchor, changing its course. Everything around them sped up and Strange World was immediately beside Down Under as the anchor crashed through one of the safehouse’s walls, destroying it completely. It cracked an elbow against Down Under’s knee, then spun around it and punched at its right shoulder. Down Under’s plated armor began to dent from Strange World’s blows, but it twisted on one foot and kneed Strange World in the chest. Or, it would’ve if it hadn’t slowed again. Strange World managed to get away from it as it slowed before its face and grabbing Down Under’s foot, it pushed up with all its might, sending the tanky Stand into the air as everything around them sped up, sending Down Under crashing through a second storey window, before it broke through the ceiling, landing just outside the house’s walls with a bounce.

Before it could get back up, Strange World was on top of Josher and as he tried to throw a punch at Twilight, it grabbed his wrist, then flipped him upside down, where he crashed into a wooden chair, breaking it in two. Josher lay on the ground, groaning as he turned to his other side.

Before Strange World could look away, Curtain Call was upon it, punching it in the face as it dashed past. Twilight’s head leaned to the right, but then she righted herself and wiped the corner of her mouth. Strange World recovered and jumped at Curtain Call, spinning a kick at it. Shiho’s Stand attempted to swing its cloth at the appendage, but its movements slowed down and the kick crashed against the side of its head.

Shiho staggered and managed to stop herself from dropping to her knees, but her left ear was ringing and her vision was starting to wobble. This time, Twilight didn’t give her room to rest and attacked with a series of punches to her Stand’s midsection.

“Nicker! Nicker! Nicker! Nicker! Nicker!” Strange World yelled.

But Curtain Call caught its next punch, grabbing Strange World’s arm before sliding its body away from the attack. Blood dribbled down Shiho’s face and chin, but her resolve kept her going and Curtain Call kicked off the ground and tilted itself back. When it landed on the ground, it kicked backwards over its head, launching Strange World into a nearby pillar, then got back up and whipped its cloth around, catching a few pieces of debris along the way, turning each one into a glass ball. Curtain Call flung them at Twilight, each ball shattering into sharp fragments as they impacted around Strange World’s master.

“Stop!” Twilight yelled and the remaining glass shards and Shiho slowed down in the air. She peeled one from her cheek and one from her nose, wincing at each removal. “This has gone on long enough. Strange World will keep you slowed down while I finish this!”

Twilight began approaching slowly, step after step. Her Stand followed along behind her as her pinkish aura began to grow in size. Shiho’s yellow one started to grow as well, but with everything around her slowed, it didn’t match Twilight’s aura immediately.

She tried to break through the slow effect, but this wasn’t something that could be overcome with brute force. It was something that had to be overcome with wits.

“It’s useless, Shiho.” Twilight continued to walk closer. “Strange World can slow everything down in a cone before itself, man, machine, nothing there in between. No matter how hard you try to push through it, you will never be able to do so. You can’t defeat Strange World. Face it.”

“Yes, I won’t be able to defeat you like this…” Shiho said extremely slowly. But then a corner of her mouth lifted into a smirk. “But I had already expected to be slowed again.”

Twilight stopped in place and raised one eyebrow. “What did you do?”

“Before we started fighting, I already had Curtain Call set up a little.”

Twilight looked around, trying to find out what Shiho had done, but she failed to look down as the floor beneath her gave way, splitting down the middle.

“P-Paper!” She stretched an arm out to grab the ledge before her, but that too crumbled away. She splashed down into water and swallowed a mouthful of water that tasted absolutely disgusting.

The water began to melt the rest of the paper floor and it all began falling away, all the way to Shiho’s feet, where the floor still remained as stone. The slow down on Shiho ended and she took a breath before walking around the pit to where Twilight was.

“That’s right. I turned the pipes to paper as well.” She bent lower as the water surged and churned around Twilight, breaking her concentration. When the water reached its optimal height, the paper below you began to give way and collapse. This will give me enough time to stay away from your slow field.”

Curtain Call held out a hand and in it was a trio of round pebbles. It pulled its arm back and skipped them into Twilight’s face. Each one battered her and caused her to yelp.

“This is it, Twilight,” Shiho said.

Before she could sink down below the water, Curtain Call grabbed her out and as hard and fast as it could, it began to pummel her with its fists.

“Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! NEIGH!”

Twilight crashed against the rocky back and her head smacked against it, leaving a splatter of blood there. Her legs dangled in the pouring water, and the rest of her body lay splayed out on the rock floor.

“W-W-Why…?” Twilight couldn’t even manage to look at the girl. She couldn’t even lift a finger to defend herself. “I wanted… I wanted to help your world, Shiho… Why would you… refuse that…?”

“The ends don’t justify the means, Twilight,” Shiho said, staring hard at her. “Mankind doesn’t need a savior like you and Die Die Riches. You want to help fix the world. Fine. But don’t go around messing with things like you own the place, because you don’t. This isn’t ponyland.”

“All I’m doing… for your world…” Twilight’s voice was hoarse in her throat. “I’m doing it for all of you. Why can’t… you see that your world’s leaders… will never help the world? They’re selfish… they will never… aid the world at their expense. As long as they live… your world will never… be perfect.”

Shiho couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “So you think your way is better? A better world born from the blood of the humans in power? You really are out of your mind. Did you really bring peace to your own world, or did you kill all of your detractors there too?”

“There was no need… The evil in my world is nothing compared to yours… I imprisoned those who would threaten my kingdom, but you… do not have a single ruler. My… imprisonment would not work on them.”

“Good grief. You still have that messiah complex even after such a beating?” Shiho called forth Curtain Call, which floated beside her menacingly. “Guess I’ll have to pummel more sense into you. If that’s even possible.”

“Do what you will… But your world… will only get worse from here without… my help.” Twilight closed her eyes.

“We’ll be sure to do something about it. The Crusaders Foundation and Weather Alternate have been hard at work doing what needs to be done.” Shiho’s Stand cracked its knuckles. “Watch us, Twilight. Watch us fix things.”

“You’ll fail…” Twilight’s strength seemed to be coming back little by little and she clenched her fist. “You won’t be… able to.”

Curtain Call raised its right fist in front of Twilight.

“Well, whatever happens, you won’t be around to see it. Sayonara, Twilight Sparkle.”

Curtain Call’s fist was about to come down on Twilight’s head, but then a shard of ice exploded against her Stand’s shoulder, knocking her forward.

With a yell, Spike dropped down on her from above, landing on her shoulders as his Stand’s arm swung at her from Spike’s shoulder, where his arm was missing.

Curtain Call blocked its attack, but had to pull away from Twilight to do so.

“Twilight, I’ve got you, I won’t let her!” Spike thrust his Stand’s arm down repeatedly. His chest had been iced over, allowing him to breathe and move once again. “I had to turn my organs to ice, but I’ll have enough time to protect Twilight! She’s going to change the world! And that means I’m with her to the very end, making sure her goal will one day succeed!”

“Spike, you-!” Shiho grabbed his thighs, then bent down and spun forward, smashing his back into the ground.

She slipped out from under his legs, then grabbed them with her Stand and flung him away. But Winter Wrap Up’s wings spread out from Spike’s back and he righted himself before flying back at Shiho with amazing speed. Curtain Call swooped between them and swung a fist, trying to protect its master.

There was a crash, followed by a shattering of ice as Spike crashed into Shiho, knocking her to the ground.

“T-Twi, you need to go,” he turned around and said to his best friend. “You can’t… stay here.”

“S-Spike?” Twilight managed to regain control of her neck and she looked up and widened her eyes.

Spike now sat on top of Shiho, but Curtain Call’s arm had gone through his chest, coming out the back, still clenched into a fist. It had shattered the bones and organs completely, creating a gaping hole that was almost circular. He leaned forward and spat out a mouthful of blood on Shiho’s face as his eyes began to droop.

“Spike…! Aaagh!” Twilight forced herself to move, putting all of her willpower into her limbs as she kicked back out of the water. “No, Spike!”

Tears rolled down her face as her lips trembled, but she saw a determination in Spike’s eyes, something she would only see in the most dire times.

“Twi, you can do this. I believe in you. Go. Accomplish this goal of making this world perfect…” Spike smiled as particles began to float away from his body. “I’m with you… to the end…”

“Spike, Spike, no no no no, you didn’t have to…” With a burst of strength, Twilight painfully pushed herself on her feet, staggering two steps before gaining a foothold. “Spike… Spike. What have you done, Shiho…?”

“He… I…” Shiho stumbled with her words. She had Curtain Call remove its fist from Spike and he dropped off her, landing with a thud. “None of it had to be this way, Twilight. If you had just stopped.”

“It all had to be this way!” Twilight cried out. “But you can’t see it. You… you never will. Fine. But you had to do this to Spike…”

She watched as his life seeped from his body, floating up into the air. In the clouds above, under the glow of the moon, she thought she could make out the shape of her friend, turning back to face her while giving her a resolute fist.

“There’s… still so much I have to do…” Twilight kept her eyes on the clouds as tears poured down her face. “You believed in me, even if it meant aiding me against our former allies…”

Then she looked back down at Shiho as she began to stand. Shiho, the girl who had just taken Spike away from her, the one who would stand in her way for world peace and perfection. She had known about her selfish goal from the very beginning, how she had only taken action now with her grandmother because her friend had been killed by Die Die Riches. She should’ve known that that was all Shiho was after. Once she had been done with her avenging, there was nothing more she wanted, even if that meant saving the world from its own destruction.

Twilight lifted a finger and pointed it at Shiho. “You did this. Mark my words, Shiho Sunfast… you’ve hurt me more than you will ever know. When this world sees its perfection one day… you will not be here to see it.”

Strange World lifted both arms and the air around them vibrated as she sped out past the wall in a blur. Shiho had been in the process of bending down and she found herself down on her knees as the speed up wore off.

Twilight was now by the rest of her friends and Strange World picked up Sunset Shimmer around the waist and hauled her over one shoulder.

“There’s much I still have to learn about this world…” Twilight clutched at the back of her head as blood spurted from it. “And I will make this world perfect. Till we meet again, Shiho.”

“W-Wait!” Shiho reached her good arm out, but with a blast of air, Strange World and Twilight launched into the air with Sunset Shimmer, flying high like a speeding missile, shrinking into the distance in less than a second. “Granny…”

She pounded a fist against the floor. She had no way of chasing her down, not like this. As her exhaustion finally gripped her, Shiho collapsed on her side and closed her eyes.

Author's Note

And here we are now. Glad those of you still here stuck around with me all through this. I am ever thankful for having readers for my stories. I hope to do much better next part, as I keep constantly saying. I am hopeful to deliver something substantial. :trollestia:
Stick around for the coming epilogue!
To Nightshroud, Tokurider has Spike's Bizarre Adventure .

Epilogue: Vows Given

Shiho Sunfast sat up in her bed, looking out at the low-rise buildings of Angers for the third time that day. The noise below had quietened and all she could hear now were the steady beeps of hospital equipment and coughing from someone in the opposite bed.

Daring Do waved her hand, then cleared her throat. “Sorry. Just choked a little on a banana.”

Daring had a small fracture on her skull, along with her right shoulder, when Tenacious D had been thrown against her with Twilight’s speed boost activated. She had said that once she was done here, she was going to help her scour the world for Twilight.

Shiho looked at her own untouched bowl of fruits beside her bed, propped on a long rectangular table that also acted as a drawer. There was a word scribbled on it in pen reading, ‘droor’. She shook her head in disgust. Even though English wasn’t her native tongue, she at least still knew how to spell the word. Though she didn’t hold it against them, seeing as they were in France.

Josher and Cajole had been the ones to come over with fruits earlier this morning. They had escaped the battle with minor injuries, though they were still sore from getting their butts handed to them by Twilight and Spike.

Speaking of them…

Shiho sighed and returned her gaze to the sky outside the window. She spotted a lone bird flying across and she tried to think again about where Twilight could’ve possibly taken her grandmother. She wasn’t necessarily close to her, by no means, but she was still her grandmother, related by the blood of the Sushi family.

Her mother had expected her to look after her grandmother, but here she was, resting up in a hospital while her grandmother was out there somewhere with Twilight. She had failed her.

“I have to find her. I have to find that granny…” Shiho said to herself. She could only imagine what Twilight wanted with her. “Mom would want that.”

“There’s much I still have to learn about this world… And I will make this world perfect. Till we meet again, Shiho.”

She held those words in her mind. Twilight had only been here for a few days. To take over completely, she would need to research the world more.

“And she needs time to recover. Curtain Call did a number on her body. I’ll have to find her and I have to rescue my granny. Easier said than done. Good grief… What have I really gotten myself into?”

Joshi and Weather Alternate would work to warn the world leaders of Twilight and do their best to keep the world leaders alive, but at the same time, Twilight’s words were not ignored and they would also work with them to try and make the world better for everyone, bit by bit.

Josher and Cajole would work with Sweetie Belle and the Crusaders Foundation to find out where Twilight had disappeared to. Shiho didn’t know what she was planning now, but it couldn’t be anything good for the world.

One way or another, she was going to find her and she was going to make sure Twilight would pay for taking her grandmother away.

“I will find you, Twilight Sparkle. Mark my words. I’ll rescue the old granny and I’ll find you, even if it means searching till the ends of the world. I’ll get my granny back and you’re going to wish you never took her.”

Twilight Sparkle crawled through a dense brush, pushing aside leaves and branches as her Stand sheared some off with its hands. She had brought back more supplies today, food and metals to start her plan. But first, she had to check on her prisoner.

Strange World placed a hand on a nearby rocky surface past the bramble and a portion of it slid down, revealing a crude stairway leading down into darkness. She descended, taking each step slowly as a pain shot up her legs with each step.

Shiho Sunfast had severely injured her and because of that, she had to take things slow, at least until she could fully recover.

Below, in her current secret lab, Twilight had already arranged rows of wooden tables with various metal compounds and glasses under makeshift magnifying glasses. There was also a fragment of a reflective surface attached to a metallic claw on the center of the table.

Before arriving here, Twilight had made a stop over at Canterlot, where she had first come over. She had chipped a chunk of the statue’s mirror surface off, taking it with her to further study it. This was the only known way back home to Equestria and if she could figure out how to get it to work, there was a chance she could go back to get what she needed to further her goal here.

She looked into the shadows where a giant capsule was standing, filled with various gasses that would keep a human unconscious for as long as she needed. Sunset Shimmer lay inside, dead to the world, at least until she could find a way to get her answers from her without Alicorn Fantasy interfering. Sunset had been here long and there was much she could find out from her, especially along the lines of Stand Geodes, the mysterious magical jewels that had the power to grant one Stand power.

“Spike, if only you were still here…” Twilight said and placed a hand on the table. All her life, he had always been by her side and now that he was gone, there was an empty hole in her life, something that could never be replaced again. “Shiho Sunfast…”

And it had been all because of Sunset’s granddaughter. Twilight knew she had to make the world perfect, she had to right all the wrongs the corruption of humanity had caused, but there was also this tug at her heart, this need to extinguish Shiho’s flame for what she had done. She would have her vengeance for taking her precious Spike away.

“Shiho, you will die for what you’ve done. I make this vow here today, that you will not see the new world I will one day create,” Twilight said as she put her arms around her shoulders. “Whether it takes me one year or twenty, I will have what I want and everything will be right, the way it should be.”

She let out a short burst of air, sounding faintly like a laugh. Then she did it again and again as she grabbed her face. Her pupils began to glow orange as her grunts soon turned into a cackle. It echoed out around her cave and out into the jungle surroundings.

Author's Note

And with this here, Sushi part 3 is officially completed. Thank you for reading this far, all of you. As I move on to plan part 4, and perhaps a little side-story collaboration, I do hope to continually improve on these. :trollestia:
Stay tuned for more madness...

Prologue: House of the Rising Sun

It had been so long since Sunset Shimmer had been back in Japan that she had almost forgotten how convenient it was to get through immigrations at the airport. With almost everyone packed with portable translators these days, everyone she had to talk to at the airport had their machines to reply her in English, and there were no longer long lines of people waiting to get their passports stamped. Now, she could just check herself into any country she wanted by going through a self-serving kiosk with an automated attendant that would record down her credentials at speeds her brain couldn’t even reach, which Sunset thought was very good. She didn’t want to speak to any Japanese officials, they were a constant reminder that her daughter had moved so far away when she had gotten married.

“Bushido Spirit…” Sunset groaned as she exited the airport’s sliding doors. “I thought he was such a nice man… Until he stole my only daughter from me… Now I have to put myself through hours of travel just to see her for a few days.”

Sunset walked over to the nearby train station, where there were numerous super-advanced trains waiting to take off. Sunset had read somewhere that these new Japanese trains were even faster than the bullet trains that had come before them, traveling well over four hundred miles per hour. Meanwhile the inside was cushioned with state of the art gyroscopes and g-diffusers so that the passengers would not feel a single bump on the way there.

Sunset Shimmer bought a first class ticket and made her way to the front carriage. On the way, she had passed by another group of activists as reporters attempted to interview them. They were all carrying huge yellow banners and calling for equality between the rich and poor.

She sighed and kept going. There were so many of these groups these days. The economy of the world had taken a sharp turn downslope in the last fifteen years or so, especially after the Digitalcurrency Crash of ‘56. Fortunately Sunset and her family had managed to survive that event mostly unscathed, though she did feel bad for those who had been affected. Sunset picked up her bag and entered into her cabin. It was going to take about an hour to get from the airport to Kantarijji, so she made herself comfortable in one of the squishy chairs and took out her phone. It was a small, matchbox sized device that was only three millimeters thick. She scanned her thumbprint on the surface and it projected various icons in the air in front of her face.

Its wallpaper was a picture of her and her friends all the way back in 2012, when she had first learned the power of friendship. A few of them hadn’t made it out of that fight, but Sunset would never forget them, not even in her old age, not even in these difficult times. As for the rest of them, those that were still alive, they were always there for each other and they would continue to be.

Looking out the window, Sunset tried to imagine her husband snapping pictures of the English royal family. That was the reason he wasn’t traveling with her right now and Sunset didn’t blame him for it. He loved taking photos and when the offer to follow the royal family around came up, she was the one who pushed him to take it. After all, it was such an honor to stand beside the queen, who till this day, remained healthy and able, surviving past even some of her great-grandchildren.

More people began filling the train and one walked into her cabin, thinking it was hers. She apologized profusely, but Sunset waved her off, telling her it was no problem. Though she had put on a smile, she continued to seethe inside, hating the Japanese for making her daughter move here. It was a petty thing, but in her old age, she figured she should allow herself the small joys of life.

Sunset busied herself playing a game of the popular VR game Fortfight on her phone. It was about that time in America where there would be lots of little kids playing, so she was able to win all the matches quite handily. She enjoyed listening to the other players rage when she killed them.

Eventually she got bored of winning and put her game away, just in time to hear, “Next stop, Kantarijji.”

“Finally,” Sunset grunted. She picked up her traveling bag and made her way to the nearest set of train doors.

Out here in Kantarijji, away from the bustling cities of Japan, technology hadn’t quite taken over everything yet and the train station was still a shabby building without automatons. They were still using the same gantry posts they had thirty years ago and whoever was running the country now didn’t seem to think they should be upgraded too.

Sunset slid her phone over the gantry’s screen, then walked on through as she returned back outside to the blazing sun. Now in the middle of summer, she removed her coat as soon as she had put her phone back in her pocket. Summer in Japan was much hotter than it was in Canterlot and she had no intention of dying from a heatstroke now, fashion or not.

“I’m too old to keep up with fashion anyway…” Sunset pushed her greying hair away from her face as she searched around for any familiar faces. She didn’t see any, but her nose picked up something that was familiar.

“Summer’s own secret recipe spice soup.” Sunset perked up and followed the aroma down the street. It wasn’t long before she arrived at a large set of gates that were set in a high wall. There was an intercom set in the bricks next to the gates and Sunset pressed the button with a small smile on her elderly face. She had always liked her daughter’s cooking. That was something she’d missed since Summer had moved to Japan.

“Hello?” A male voice said. “Is that you, Sunset Shimmer?”

Sunset knew the voice of her daughter’s husband well. She turned around to see the man standing there carrying a box of groceries. He wore a flowery blue shirt and beige khakis and he was starting to grow a beard on his face.

“Bushido.” She gave him a nod. “You look like you’re doing well. Treating my daughter well?”

Bushido laughed. “The best anyone can do. Don’t worry. Come, she’s got a surprise waiting for you inside.”

He unlocked the gates with an app on his phone, then led the way through a stone pathway over a small creek, complete with one of those odd little bamboo devices that held water and made a small noise when it tipped the water out.

Bushido pressed a button on his projected phone screen, unlocking a circular set of wooden front doors. The smell of spice soup was stronger in here, and Sunset and Bushido took off their shoes before heading in.

Summer’s and Bushido’s home was a more traditional Japanese building, untouched by major renovations as most buildings were these days, with the exception of minor conveniences. The wooden floor here was pristine and even reflective, somehow. Sunset followed Bushido down the hall, dumping her suitcase in a guest room close by before venturing out into the dining area. There were paintings of suns on the walls, along with a few ornaments on a drawer beside her room. It was no surprise that they were ornaments of suns, though there was a plant in a jar seated on top of the drawer beside all the sun ornaments. It was a sunflower.

“My daughter and her suns…” Sunset grinned. She liked suns too, seeing as they all had a birthmark of a sun on the back of their left shoulders, but this was a little extreme. “Welcome to the House of the Rising Sun.”

Summer Shine stood in the kitchen, her back to them as she rotated between a frying pan, a pot and the sink. The smell here was stronger than ever and it made Sunset’s mouth water.

It is a pity I have to come all the way to Japan just to have my daughter’s cooking.

“Hey mom, you have a good trip over?” Summer asked with a smile as she continued to stir the pot’s contents. “Just give me a sec, I’ll be over.”

“Summerrrr!” Sunset wasted no time and charged at her daughter, grabbing her in a bear hug, almost making her spill the soup. “My dearest daughter! My little girl!”

“Yes, it’s good to see you too, mom,” Summer chuckled and tried to pry Sunset away. “Come on, I’ve got to cook.”

“Oh, it’s so good to see you! It’s been so long. Why, Japan is ages away from Canterlot and I have to go through so much just to get here!”

“We’ve talked about this, mom. You said it was okay for me to move here all those years ago. And besides, you get a change of scenery coming here.”

“True… But I don’t get to see you everyday…” Sunset groaned. Then she gave Summer’s shoulders a rub. “Your dad and I are so lonely now without you.”

“But you have all your friends back home.” Summer wiggled herself. “Now come on, time to let go, mom. The food’s not gonna cook itself.”

Sunset complied and let go to look around. The table had been all set. There were four placemats sitting in front of four seats, along with gigantic spoons that looked like ladles. Bushido had said there was a surprise, but other than that, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Well, except for a new potted plant by the staircase.

“Where’s Shiho? I want to give her a hug as well.” Sunset clapped her hands together before removing her gloves.

“Honestly, I don’t have a clue.” Summer turned back to cook. “These days we don’t really get a read on where she goes and what she does.”

“Unless it’s a run in with the police,” Bushido shook his head. “Then she’s at the nearest station.”

Sunset blinked. “Wait… police? Why would Shiho be at the police?”

“Shiho’s gotten very cheeky in the last two years,” Summer explained. “She and her friends like to do reckless things which sometimes brings them into conflict with the local law enforcement.”

“No, Shiho? Not my sweet little Shiho…” Sunset’s hands began to shake. She could still remember her granddaughter smiling at her as she came home from school before running right up to her to give her a hug. Then she would tell her all about how day and how well she did in her classes. What she was hearing now, this wasn’t the granddaughter she remembered. “I have to go find her. I cannot believe what I’m hearing!”

“You shouldn’t go far, mom. Dinner will be ready in about half an hour. And there’s still that surprise for you…” Summer motioned with a hand to Bushido and he ducked off into one of the rooms. “It’s something useful.”

Sunset looked between her daughter and the entry hallway. “Fine, I’ll see what it is before I go look for my granddaughter. She’ll be up to no mischief as long as I’m here.”

“I don’t know.” Summer shrugged. “She’s a Stand user too, you know that. And now that she’s what she is, she doesn’t get told what to do without a little resistance.”

“Oh, my little Shiho…” Sunset turned around as a shadow passed over the front of her body. “How could such an obedient girl become a rebel? It’s Japan, it’s got to be. It’s no good for her here.”

“Here it is…” Bushido returned, carrying a cardboard box.

Sunset accepted it and flipped its lid open, revealing a dull orange cloche hat within, afixed with a red sun insignia.

“Oh my goshhhh, this hat is so beautiful!” Sunset pulled it out and dropped the box on the floor. “This will be perfect for keeping the heat away from my face!”

“Told you she’d like it, Bush.” Summer flashed her husband a wink. “Mom was an artist, so she has an eye for beautiful things.”

Sunset wasted no time in trying on her new hat. It fit snugly on her head, and already, it felt cooling, even indoors.

“The hat’s made out of nycron fiber,” Summer explained as she returned to her preparation. “It’ll always feel cool, no matter the weather or the temperature.”

"And it's also waterproof," Bushido added.

“What a swell daughter. Any mother will be lucky to have you.” Sunset ran back over and squeezed her daughter. “It’s a good thing you’re mine. Okay, so while you cook, I’m going to head out there and find Shiho and get her back in time for dinner. By now I should have… twenty-eight minutes before you’re done. I’ll be back on the dot.”

“Well… I guess I would like to have Shiho back for dinner on time for once…” Summer twiddled her fingers together. “Okay, thanks mom. But be careful out there, alright? Some of those activists out there have been getting more violent. I don’t want you to get caught up in something like that. Just last week, a politician got shot. And this isn’t even in America.”

Sunset pressed a thumb against her nose, then moved that arm and gave her a thumbs up. “We’re Sushi’s. We can look after ourselves. How do you think I’m still this strong seventy-four years into my life?”

“You are, mom. I’m glad my mom’s as cool as she is.” Summer grinned and pointed her ladle at Sunset. “If you want to find her before dinner, you better get to it. Don’t worry about us. You can come back and catch up with us over soup.”

“And that I will. I’ll never miss your soup for anything.” Sunset kissed Summer on the head before scrambling for the door, putting her new hat on her head. It really felt cool. “I’m gonna find my granddaughter and give her the biggest lecture of the century.”

Summer laughed and waved. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”

Author's Note

And we're back! Back to another round of SuShi's Bizarre Adventure. It feels like it's been quite some time since we finished part 2, but it's really only been a little over a month. That feels weird.

For this part, I've taken inspiration from Jojo part 3, of course. :trollestia:

Anyway, it's good to back and let's get to it! Jooooooooooojo!

Chapter 12: Callenish Circle VS Blitzkrieg

Yusuf Jalebi was born in Pakistan in 2033 to a single mother who owned nothing more but a shack along the Nurri. Everyday, once he was old enough, she would send him and his six siblings out into the wetlands to fish for anything they could get their hands on. Without money to buy even fishing rods, Jalebi and his siblings learned how to fish with their own hands, learning to be quick enough to catch passing fish or crustaceans.

One day, as Jalebi was out fishing, he heard the screams of a man who was being attacked by a crocodile. Yusuf quickly jumped into the water and wrestled with the reptile, getting him off the man. Jalebi fought the crocodile for two hours, until he finally managed to kill it by drowning it in the water. During the battle, he had discovered the ability to cover his body in a protective shell, defending him from the crocodile’s teeth throughout his battle. It was only later that he learned this was the power of a Stand.

As it turned out, the man he had saved was a high ranking member of a terrorist group that was being hunted by the Pakistani local government. As a show of thanks to Jalebi for saving the life of one of the captains, the terrorists took him in and offered to look after his family for him. Over the next fifteen years, Yusuf Jalebi honed his skills as a soldier of fortune and Stand master and helped the terrorists overthrow the Pakistani government and install a new leader.

Once everything in the country had settled, more or less, Jalebi had started up his own private military organization, selling his soldiers and military might to the highest bidder. Standing in a firefight gave him a thrill like no other, especially as he watched whole squads attack each other because of his Stand’s power.

It was there, after a takedown of a group of special forces sent to take out a guerrilla camp in Bolivia, that he met Duckie Deluxe, the charismatic leader of Die Die Riches, a group bent on eliminating the rich of the world to balance the economical gap that was only getting worse every year. Coming from a lowly background, Jalebi happily accepted her offer, knowing that too many people like himself had suffered over the years because of money.

The rich had been in power long enough, but no more. Today, they would feel his might, his rage. And that was what he and his Stand, Callenish Circle, had come to do today, except now another Stand master stood in his way.

“Show yourself!” Jalebi called again. “You hide and cower while your machine fights for you? But your machine can attack me, meaning it must be controlled by your Stand, because only a Stand can harm a Stand.”

“Astute observation…” a voice crackled from the machine. It sounded like a young male, no older than fifteen. “But I will stay where I am while my Jaeguar deals with you.”

“The power to control machines?” Jalebi folded his arms across his chest and stuck his pelvis out and forward. “Not bad for a child. But can you handle the likes of my Stand, Callenish Circle? I’m sure you’ve already seen it at work.”

“Ja, but you underestimate me because I am young. I’ve defeated one of your Die Die Riches members before. I can do it again.”

“But I am not of Die Die Riches.” Jalebi struck an arm out, before pulling it back into a curl under his waist. “They have simply hired me to take down the richly powers of this world. I gladly accepted.”

“How did they even hire you? They’re poor.”

“My money is received from what I find from the rich,” Jalebi said. “Duckie bought me with the promise of vengeance against the world. And with blood and rage of crimson red, I will carry my duty out and eliminate every single one of you!”

“Duckie, huh? That’s a name to check out once we’re done here…”

Jalebi narrowed his eyes and stuck both arms out, one on top of the other, both palms facing forward. “You won’t survive to do so!”

Rushing forward, he was the first to attack, swinging a haymaker downwards, crashing a fist against the paneled ground, bending it at the point of impact as the Jaeguar moved, throwing itself against the wall before kicking off, spinning a tail swipe in his direction. But Jalebi raised an arm, blocking the whip as he grabbed it with his other hand. Ducking low, he threw the Jaeguar over his shoulder, then smashed it against the ground, sending pieces of metal flying off from its body.

“Do you like it that I’ve damaged your machine?” Jalebi called out as he pounded a fist into the Jaeguar’s back. “Do you feel your anger rising? Let it out! Fall to my Stand’s power! Once that anger takes over, you will become reckless, you will become thoughtless. All you will feel is rage and you’ll take it out on anything around you!”

Then he threw another fist at the Jaeguar and shattered the glass covering its single eye.

Joshi Horner sat in his air-conditioning processor, watching everything through his Stand, which had tapped into the building’s camera feeds and his very own Jaeguar. He gritted his teeth as the Jaeguar’s protective head casing shattered into a million pieces. It was made out of the same tampered glass that Jalebi’s men couldn’t get through earlier and he had just destroyed it with a single punch.

“Not only does his Stand form a protective shell around his body, but it also amplifies his strength,” Joshi evaluated and tapped a finger against the processor’s flooring. “He was able to break glass that not even gunfire could break with a single punch.”

Joshi took a deep breath. Then another. He could feel his anger rising, his want to destroy this enemy Stand master that had invaded his base and damaged his Jaeguar. But he couldn’t be angry. If he did so, he would lose this battle. He had seen what his father’s colleagues had done to each other under the influence of Jalebi’s Callenish Circle. He would not make that mistake. No. He was going to win, and they were going to stop Die Die Riches.

“Not now, Joshi.” He looked at all the wiring around himself. “If I get angry and lose control, I could very well electrocute myself. I have to remain as calm as possible. I cannot allow him to get under mein skin. Nein. He will be the one to lose today, for I have German engineering on my side.”

Before Jalebi could deliver another punch to the Jaeguar, Blitzkrieg activated the sprinklers above them, sending water cascading down all throughout the hallway. That momentary distraction allowed the Jaeguar to squirm out from under Jalebi, spinning its tail out as it hit the man’s left ankle.

The blow sent Jalebi falling to his side and before he even hit the ground, Joshi had Blitzkrieg overcharge his Jaeguar. The lights all over its body blazed brilliantly, glowing brighter than ever before as its plating hissed hot air and smoke.

It leapt at Jalebi and slashed at him with one leg, and as the man raised an arm to protect himself, the appendage suddenly sped up and slashed deep grooves through his armor, before the Jaeguar kicked off his chest and landed six feet away.

“That’s right,” Joshi spoke through his pet project. “My Stand has the ability to overcharge any machine, making it perform far better than it had originally been made to do, at the cost of wearing down its durability the more I use it. You might’ve been faster than the Jaeguar earlier, but now, it’ll move faster than you can say Deutschland.”

“Fast, yes.” Jalebi looked at the cuts on his Stand’s armor, then raised the arm to show Joshi. “But it’s nothing but a scratch. I’ll get through your emotions before you get through my armor, I assure you.”

“We’ll see about that.” Joshi made his Jaeguar shift one leg back, then stretched two more forward. “Jaeguar, overclock flight!”

Crouching low, the Jaeguar threw itself off the ground, jumping from wall to ceiling to floor all around Jalebi, becoming a blur of motion. The mercenary kept his arms up in front of his head, ready for anything as his eyes lost track of the speeding machine.

Blitzkrieg’s power was still surging through the Jaeguar, though Joshi knew that if he didn’t pull this off, his own Stand’s power might render the machine inoperable for another strike. The Jaeguar’s jerky and rapid movements reminded Joshi of a bad old movie he had seen once, one that had featured an undead tiger.

“Hey Jalebi, want to play a zombie game?” Joshi muttered as he closed in on the enemy Stand user. “You’re gonna be the zombie.”

The Jaeguar slashed at him as it passed back and forth, still gaining speed as it bounced from location to location. Jalebi kept up his defense, unable to hit the Jaeguar as it passed, cutting more grooves across his armor. The latest one actually got through his armor and it sprayed blood against the walls from his arm as it cut deep enough to eat into his skin.

“You think you can keep this up with me doing nothing?” Jalebi suddenly raised a foot before the Jaeguar could strike, much to Joshi’s surprise. It slid under his limb, then crashed against the floor as Jalebi brought his foot back down on top of the machine. “I learned to catch fish with my bare hands! I learned to be patient and to watch, to look out for signs of movement even when I couldn’t see it. And now I have just caught your mechanical fish.”

With one foot on top of it, Jalebi began pounding it, fist after fist, smashing metal apart as cogs began to fly from the Jaeguar’s body. Joshi winced with each blow. He couldn’t feel the blows his pet was receiving, because it was just machinery being controlled by his Stand, but watching all his hard work break apart like that didn’t sit well in his stomach. But that was Jalebi’s mistake. He shouldn’t have done that.

“You’ve lost now, Jalebi,” Joshi said, his voice intermittent through his Jaeguar as its right leg was torn off and tossed across the floor.

“Oh?” Jalebi stopped punching the Jaeguar and leaned closer. “What makes you say that? Your machine is destroyed. Surely your anger must be burning now. Rage! Do it! Give in and surrender!”

“Not today, Jellybean.” Joshi raised an arm and held the top of his head. “You forgot what transpired earlier. Look all around you. Did you remember me activating the sprinklers?”

The mercenary looked all around and true to Joshi’s words, the floor was still coated with a layer of water, further adding to the reflective paneling. Then he looked back at the Jaeguar, but it was too late.

The machine sparked and hissed, tilting its head up to him. “My Jaeguar, my amazing creation, has been damaged by you. My Stand, Blitzkrieg, is able to overcharge machines, if you recall, even if it means breaking them. I cannot break my Jaeguar further than you already have. For bringing it to its destruction, I will never forgive you, so it pleases me to know you just delivered some payback to yourself! Blitzkrieg!”

The Jaeguar pulsed a wave of electricity as it shot back on its three legs, turning the entire floor into an electrical death trap.

Jalebi had Callenish Circle to protect his body from physical harm, but its armor was a perfect conductor for electricity, especially after getting wet. Blue sparked through his body from his legs and his eyes bulged through his helmet and his nostrils flared bigger than ever. His voice erupted from within his helmet, echoing around the hall as his body spazzed from left to right.

The Jaeguar shook on its legs, then its body exploded, blasting Jalebi back as it crashed back to the ground, its power cells spent from going overdrive for too long.

“You’ve… served me well, Jaeguar…” Joshi saluted his fallen project. He could always build another one, but it was sad to see all his hard work give its life up to protect them. “Go and rest.”

Jalebi’s body continued to shake and convulse as Joshi exited the processor with Blitzkrieg floating out behind him.

“That’s that. The anger should have worn off. That means no more killing each other…” Joshi breathed a sigh of relief. “I had been afraid my father would burn this whole place down. It looks like I managed to stop him in time.”

Joshi went to pick up what remained of his Jaeguar, looking at the pulpy wreckage that was one a state-of-the-art German machine. A tear rolled down his cheek as he dug through it for anything he could salvage. He had spent two years putting this together and it was time he wasn’t getting back. But he resolved his next Jaeguar would be better, stronger. If he could’ve learned anything from this fight, it was that he needed to make the Jaeguar’s plating thicker and maybe give it more weaponry that Blitzkrieg could control.

“In time. I’ll get back to you in time, don’t you worry now…” Joshi stroked a hand down the Jaeguar’s destroyed back and stood up. A hand clasped around his foot and he squirmed back, only to trip and fall on his back when he couldn’t loosen the hand’s grip. “Was?”

“Did you think… that was it?” Jalebi yanked him closer and got to his knees. “It’ll take more than some corporate child to stop me. Nyah, see? You done fu-”

“Blitzkrieg!” Joshi called out as his Stand ran in and punched him in the face. Unfortunately, he still had his Stand wrapped around him and all the punch did was tear Blitzkrieg’s knuckles open, doing the same for Joshi. “A-Aaagh!”

“It’s over, child. You put up a good fight with your machine, but now you die.” He raised a fist back as he grabbed Blitzkrieg by the hood.

Joshi closed his eyes, but then he heard the sound of footsteps and someone jumped over him. He opened his eyes to see Josher standing in front of him and his Stand towering over Jalebi, anchor in hand.

“So you’re the one, huh? The one who caused Dolfy to go berserk with anger.” Josher raised both hands as cards flew from his left to right.

Jalebi tried to swing a punch at his Stand, but Down Under stomped down on his arm, its strength cracking the ground as it pushed it down into the plating. Jalebi’s armor might’ve saved his arm from being crushed, but he couldn’t get it out from under Down Under. Then he remembered something Duckie had told him about the Stands that he had to go up against and looked down.

“Water increases the power of your Stand! Of course the rich people have such powerful Stands!” he exclaimed. “Just because you come from the land of plenty!”

“That’s right.” Josher cracked his knuckles and punched downwards, with his Stand doing the same with its anchor.

Down Under continued to smash its anchor down upon Jalebi’s back while keeping him trapped under one foot, sending cracks snaking out from his back as Callenish Circle’s armor began to break under pressure. To Jalebi’s horror and Joshi’s interest, Down Under’s swings only continued to increase in speed and soon, he was through Jalebi’s Stand, hitting him straight on before delivering a final kick to his head, knocking him back towards the entrance where he lay on the ground, unmoving.

“That takes care of that…” Josher gave one hand a flick as his Stand disappeared.

“Thanks for the backup,” Joshi said as he continued to watch Jalebi’s body.

“Hey, you’re the one who wet the floor for me.” Josher pointed down. “Plus, you handled most of them.”

Joshi’s eyes widened. He forgot there had been another group of mercenaries in the other hallway.

“Hold your horses, you’re thinking about the other mercenaries, aren’t you?” Josher stopped him. “They made the mistake of crossing your father when he was raging away. My dad managed to stop him from melting one of them and he’s tied up in the back. Maybe he can get us the information we need.”

“Sehr gut!” Joshi let his excitement show and he gave Josher a fist bump. “Maybe now we’ll finally get somewhere!”

Joshi remembered the name Jalebi had mentioned. Duckie. Duckie must’ve been the leader if he or she had been the one to hire him. They were going to make this mercenary talk, one way or another. This was the final piece of their puzzle and through him, they could finally find the head of the snake and cut it clean off.

Die Die Riches was about to suffer a devastating blow, that he knew as he followed Josher back to the control room. But first, they would have to assess their situation and see how much Jalebi had damaged.

Chapter 15: The Clacker of Pumpkins

Anniversary Pets and Birds.

That was the name of the store in front of them, printed big on the ugly comic sans font. A picture of a red parrot stood beside the words, its mouth open with zig-zag lines coming out of it. Its entire front consisted of windows, allowing them to peer inside at all the various animals in their little glass cages. There was a chow chow at the main window and it gave them one look before turning around and lying down, smooshing its behind against the window’s surface. Bird cages hung from the ceiling, holding various species of colorful parrots; one of them was even a toucan. There was a single cashier standing inside, toying with her phone nonchalantly.

“Good grief, they couldn’t pick a better font?” Shiho Sunfast ran a hand over her head. “So what’s the plan, old woman? We bust in there and beat up the owner?”

“I don’t think it’s gonna be that simple…” Sunset Shimmer rubbed her wizened chin. “We’ll need to go in there and quiz the cashier.”

“I can handle that. People-talking’s my specialty!” Daring Do snapped her fingers and held out her Stand. “If I say the wrong thing, I can always use Yesterday.”

“Shiho, you better watch and learn.” Sunset waved a finger. “You could learn a thing or two to cease that bad attitude you have.”

“Don’t talk about my attitude, granny.” Shiho sighed and pushed the door open. “Whatever. Not like I have anything else to do. Let’s go, Daring.”

Sunset watched both of them enter the shop, but didn’t do so herself. She figured two people would be enough to quiz the cashier. As for herself, she had something else in mind. She turned around and made sure no one was looking before disappearing down the alley between the pet shop and a flower shop.

Inside the shop, it smelled of fur and feathers, as well as animal droppings. As soon as they went in, the birds all started cawing and chirping to each other. However, Daring Do didn’t seem bothered, as she had worked with many animals in her past. Shiho merely scowled and walked faster up to the counter.

“Lady, you sent a parrot to a fundraiser yesterday?” Shiho wasted no time in getting to the point.

The shopkeep looked up boredly. “A parrot? Dunno about that. People buy lotsa animals from this joint.”

She had a distinctly English accent. Odd for someone living out all the way in Kantarijji. That made Shiho keep her eyes out. They were definitely in the right place.

“Look, we can do this the easy way… or the hard way.” She put a hand on the counter. “Your answer will decide which path we take.”

The cashier squinted at them. “What are you gettin’ at? This is a pet store, not a bank. Go somewhere else if you have a necessity for money.”

“So, you’re not prepared to give me what I want?” Shiho clenched her fingers into a fist. Daring Do gulped as she watched, instinctively reaching a hand down for her whip.

“Yes. I am not. Look, if you don’t want to buy anything, buzz off will ya?” The cashier pointed to the door. “You’re scarin’ off me customers.”

“What customers?” Daring Do asked, looking around at the otherwise empty shop. “I can’t imagine many people are buying pets in a recession.”

“You’d be surprised, love.” Suddenly, Shiho reached over the counter and grabbed her collar. “Look here, you’re going to tell me what I want to know, now!”

“Aaaieeee! I don’t know nothin’, honest!” The woman tried to get away, but Shiho held on to her tightly. “We sell parrots out all week long! People love parrots, ya know?”

“This particular parrot was called Jimmy,” Daring Do told the shopkeep. “It’s customary for a shop to write down every customer’s details in case something happens to the animal. Mind if we have a look at your records?”

“Hey now ya can’t look at our customer records, yeah?” Then Shiho waved a fist in her face and she gulped. “Un-unless you use your fist, that’s the password. Yeah! U-Umm, right here, under the counter. Let me pull it out for you.”

There was a skylight in the ceiling of the pet shop, and above that, on a second floor that overlooked the front of the shop, stood a man looking over a railing with a frown plastered across his lips. He had blonde hair that looked like someone had left a mop on his head and in his right gloved hand, he held a pair of metal balls, which he twirled together.

“Seems they’ve found me. If they’re here, then Jimmy must’ve failed…” He growled. “Just as well, really. Relying on a dumb animal to take down the rich wasn’t a great plan. They ain’t got no motive or drive to kill the rich. Not like humans do. It was only so because of Duckie’s love for birds. Now here we are. I guess I’m going to have to succeed where the bird failed. I see now why they use the term bird brain…

“That’s where I come in.” He rubbed his hands together slowly. “It’ll be Curb Cobble that takes down these rich Stand users. Mark my words. Curb Cobble has never been put on his backside, that I’ll tell you.”

There was a flap of something that sounded metallic. He raised an eyebrow and turned around, spotting an old woman in an orange hat standing there with a equine figure standing behind her with wings of gold.

“I knew I’d find the one responsible if I looked past the store front.” She held up a gloved hand and pointed a finger at Curb’s face. “So you’re the one with Die Die Riches who sent the parrot.”

“Yes, that’s me. Curb Cobble.” He gave her a small bow. “I expected Jimmy to fail anyway. Parrots should never have to do a human’s job.”

Before he could say more, he found the woman’s fist in his face and he fell back against the railing.

“You activists are all the same. You talk too much before I give you a beating.” She cracked her knuckles of both hands. “This time, I’ll just go ahead with the beating.”

“A-Agh, how dare you!” Curb got up and attempted to throw a punch at her, but suddenly, he found himself lying against the railing again.

He blinked, then attempted to attack again, only to end up looking over the railing at the store below. Suddenly, he was picked up by the shirt collar and tossed back into a wall. He bounced off against the hard concrete and rolled to a stop near the staircase leading down to the alley, winded.

He turned back to her and dragged himself away, scuttling back like a crab for the staircase. The woman approached and he let out a sound that sounded like a mouse dragging its voice through a rubber tube. She snapped her fingers and he flinched, but nothing happened. He cracked open and eye to see her irate.

“Come on, now? Really?” She groaned. “I’m really out of practice.”

Curb Cobble immediately understood. She was a woman into her old age and he knew that if you don’t use your Stand powers, you can get rusty. He’d gone through his fair patch of rustiness in his life, even at his younger age. He had suffered from crippling depression for four years and during that time, his Stand had completely failed to manifest. But now, since he was all better, that put him a step ahead of her and he could use this to his advantage.

“Oh, this is going to go well…”

Sunset Shimmer grumbled to herself as her Stand’s power faltered again. It had been decades since she had to use Alicorn Fantasy to protect the world again. Normally, she’d just have it lift heavy things she couldn’t normally lift, like the refrigerator or the car, but resetting the state of something or someone wasn’t really something she had to do in her day to day life.

“Well, maybe I had used it more when I was still painting…” Sunset scratched her chin. She had used her powers to reset a few mistakes, like a real life control Z. “Guess I’ll just have to resort to pummeling you with Alicorn Fantasy’s strength, then. Unless you tell me where your leader is working from.”

“I, Curb Cobble, will tell you nothing!” He spat at her and scrambled back, rolling down the first flight of steps as he did so. “Die Die Riches will achieve its goals! The rich will all pay!”

“Hey, come back!” Sunset chased after him, but by the time she got to the stairs, he had already gotten to his feet and was running down the rest of it. “Why you…!”

She tried to reset his position again, but perhaps it was because she was rushing that she couldn’t concentrate enough to get him back. Sunset gripped the railing tightly and swung herself over the side, using Alicorn Fantasy to descend to the bottom. Before she even touched the ground, Alicorn Fantasy had swung a punch out, catching him in the back of the left leg. Curb Cobble misstepped and went crashing down the final flight of steps, smashing face first into a trash bin, leaving an imprint of his face in it.

“You’re going to tell me now, or I’m going to have to do the ‘neigh’ thing.” Sunset stopped behind him, raising a fist to the sky. “Trust me, you don’t want to be on the other end of Alicorn Fantasy’s punches. I might not be in my prime anymore, but I promise you, they will hurt.”

“I’m… I’m…” Curb crawled forward, shoving the trash bin out of the way. “I’m not telling you squat! I’ve been sent here on a mission and I’m going to achieve it!”

He swung an arm out, but he was too far away to hit Sunset. Instead, two spinning pumpkins tied to rope came sailing out from under his palm and Sunset was caught by surprise, doing nothing as it tied itself around her legs. She immediately found that they had been securely fastened and she couldn’t take another step forward without falling flat on her face.

“H-Hey!” she called out as Curb Cobble stood up and dusted himself. “Alicorn Fantasy!”

Sunset raised a hand up, hoping to get her Stand to reset her to an earlier moment, but again, the ability refused to work. In fact, her Stand didn’t even appear this time.

“What?” She looked at the smiling enemy and bared her teeth. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“Foolish idiot hag!” Curb pressed two fingers on top of his left eyelid and one under his chin as he stuck his tongue out at her. “You’re done for now! I thought I was going to be the one to be done in, but you made it easy for me!”

Sunset looked at the pumpkins around her legs. Now that they had stopped moving, she recognized that they were a pair of bolas, with one head being a grinning jack o’ lantern, and the other one a frown. She reached down and tried to pry them off, but they had latched around her legs pretty tightly and no matter how much she strained, the rope wouldn’t even budge.

She tried to step forward, but it was as though the bolas were getting heavier by the minute and she could only inch herself forward about an inch before tiring out from exertion.

“You’ve fallen prey to my Stand, Smashing Pumpkins!” Curb stood as straight as a plank before holding up an arm in a ninety degree angle, clenching his fists. “Smashing Pumpkins might not be able to win in a full-on fight against something like your Alicorn Fantasy, but once it's tied around you, be it your arms or legs or body, it will weigh you down and continue to increase its gravity! Thirty seconds have passed since it attached itself to you and the gravity would’ve already made it hard for you to get to me! Muahaha! Revenge!”

Sunset swung a fist and tried to summon Alicorn Fantasy, but it still refused to appear.

“Ah, another thing…” Curb rubbed his hands together and his left eye began twitching from excitement. “When Smashing Pumpkins picks its target, the hopelessness it brings you weakens your fighting spirit even if you don’t realize it and therefore, you become unable to summon your Stand! No matter how strong your Stand is, it can do nothing once Smashing Pumpkins attaches to you!”

“Why you…!” Sunset forced her body forward, getting one more inch ahead before her legs gave out and she fell forward on her face. “Ow! Son of a witch!”

“Now, now.” Curb’s smile somehow got wider. “I’m going to report to my leader how you’ve all been a thorn in our side since we came to Japan. You’re going to stay here and wait until gravity claims you. Muahaha! Revenge! It’s over for you, hag. Over! Over! Over!”

Curb Cobble shot his hands to the sky before pulling out an old flip phone from his shirt pocket. He began dialing as he walked away, leaving Sunset to her own devices as Smashing Pumpkins continued to increase its gravity. The rope was getting tighter around her legs and it was cutting off blood flow to her legs; she couldn’t even feel her toes wiggling at this point.

Sunset attempted to drag herself backwards to get back to the store to warn Shiho and Daring Do, but the gravity had already increased and she found she could no longer haul her weight forward.

Sunset could only think of one more thing she could do. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her lightphone, quickly dialing Shiho’s number. It took a few rings to pick up, during which Sunset felt her weight increase even more. Small pieces of debris were being attracted to her position, sticking around her ankles.

“Yes? Who is this?” Shiho’s annoyed voice said on the other end.

Shoot! She didn’t save my number! Sunset cleared her throat. “Shiho, it’s-!”

Thwack!

The trash can lid flew past her, knocking her phone out of her hand as it attached itself to her left calf.

“Ohhhh noooooo!” Sunset clutched her cheeks. “The gravity has gotten strong enough to start pulling in small objects! It’s only a matter of time before it pulls the entire building down on me. I’ve got to find a way to get out of this before that happens!”

There was nobody around to see her struggle, and even if there had been, how many of them would be able to see Stands? No, Sunset Shimmer was on her own, without Alicorn Fantasy as well.

I need to find a way to flip myself around!

Sunset looked back at her legs where her phone now was. She was no contortionist. There was no way she was going to flip her upper body around, get up, reach for her phone, then lean back forward. There was no way, especially since her body wasn’t what it once was.

“Think, Sunset. Think!” she reached for a random brick and held it next to her head. Perhaps with enough force, she could throw this back and shatter the back door of the pet shop. That would certainly get someone’s attention.

Taking a few breaths in, Sunset swung her arm back as hard as she could, but the gravity around her ankles had already increased and the brick curved back and smashed her right ankle.

“Gaaaah, son of a witch, that hurts!” She pounded the floor with a fist.

“Enjoying yourself, oldie?” Curb Cobble had returned, carrying a large pane of glass in his hands. “The boss knows all about you now. She’ll know that it was I, Curb Cobble, who had stopped these protectors of humanity from throwing a wrench in our plans. And we have big plans, mind you. Huge plans. Like… president level plans…”

Sunset’s mouth hung low. “You don’t mean…”

“Yes, all these attacks are but distractions!” He held the glass pane over his head. “The world will react to this news and send guards to protect the citizens of the world, leaving less at places of power! Just you wait, a new world order will rise and the rich won’t be the ones in charge of it! They’ve ruined the world enough. You’ve ruined the world enough. Look where it’s headed. Our oceans are polluted, our skies are thinning, our planet is heating up, all because the rich continue to get rich and the poor continue to plummet.”

“You don’t know… what you’re doing!” Sunset growled at him.

“Oh, we do. We know exactly what we’re doing.” Curb clapped a hand on his glass pane. “Do you know what it’s like scrounging around just to provide for myself? Do you know what it’s like to lose all hope in ever living the life I dreamt of? I’ve attempted to end it all countless times, but I could never go through with it. Why? Maybe it was because a part of me still clung to the hope that this world could be better, that as one race, we would be able to bring about a new age, one of balance, one of peace, and one of selflessness where the wealthy do not hide in their ebony towers.”

“It’s ivory towers!” Sunset corrected.

“Whatever. Not everyone could afford world-class education like yourself!” He threw the glass pane high above their heads and then picked up a stone and launched it straight at his payload.

The pane shattered into a dozen pieces and the gravity from Smashing Pumpkins pulled them down towards Sunset. She screwed her eyes shut at the coming barrage, but nothing could prepare her for the pain that ensued. The broken glass had homed in for her ankles and they had lodged themselves through her flesh, staining her pants in areas and shredding the rest, along with the skin beneath. A larger piece of glass shaped like Australia had pierced through both calves at a forty-five degree angle, cutting deep enough to sever her tendons.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyy goshhhhhhhhhhhh!” She yelled at the top of her voice. Feeling to her legs had been completely cut off at this point, but the pain still lingered like twin pairs of lasers drilling into her skin, cell by cell, tearing each one apart with pristine accuracy. “Ah, the glass! The glass! Aaaaagh! I’ll get youuuuu, Curb Cobbbleeee!”

“Don’t plan on it.” Curb folded his arms as he watched the scene unfold. “Already, Smashing Pumpkins’ gravity has begun to work its way through the buildings and walls at your sides. Cracks are already starting to form across their surface and soon, the entire weight of two storeys will come crashing down on you. I’m sure no one can survive that. Revenge!”

Blood continued to spray from Sunset’s wounds and because the most grievous of them all was above Smashing Pumpkins, she could still feel the pain radiating from the deep cut through her leg. It felt as though it could tear off any moment if she struggled.

“Wait a minute…” Sunset looked back at her legs. It would take everything she had, but perhaps she could just make it work.

She planted both hands firmly on the ground, curling her fingers into hooks digging them into the spaces between the cobbled floor.

“It’s no use!” Curb watched her try to pull herself forward and he bent back with laughter. “You foolish old hag! I told you, it’s useless. Useless! Smashing Pumpkins’ gravity has already increased tenfold since it first attached to you. You couldn’t pull yourself out then, you definitely can’t now!”

Sunset took off her hat and put it in her mouth, biting down hard. With all her might, she pulled with her fingers, doing her best to ignore the pain as her punctured flesh began to rip from the enemy Stand. Bit by bit, she began to make her way forward, ripping through the incisions the shards of glass had created. The pain had shot all the way to her brain, but there was no stopping now. She just needed to endure this a little longer.

“Stop, stop it! What are you doing? You’re crazy!” Curb swiped a hand to the side. “You’re willing to tear your own legs off just to get me?”

“Rrrrrgghhhhhhh!” Sunset continued to pull. At this point, her pants also began to rip just under the knees and the flesh tore off completely, bleeding all over her bones and the ground. “Curb Cobbbbllleeeee! I’m going to pound your face in!”

“Stop, stop it! Get away from me!” The man lost his cool and stumbled back over a trash bin as it flew by to attach itself to Sunset’s legs.

With one final burst of strength, Sunset bit down hard and ripped herself free from Smashing Pumpkins, using her bloody skin to slide out of the Stand’s grip. What remained underneath her skin was shredded meat where her bones could be seen. Now freed, Sunset quickly crawled forward with no more resistance and snapped her fingers.

Now that she was out of Smashing Pumpkins’ grasp, Alicorn Fantasy was able to manifest again and stretching an arm out, it reset Sunset’s legs, fully healing them, with the exception of her pants, which still remained torn.

“I guess I shouldn’t complain…” She stood up and shook a kink from her back. “Now, where was I, Curb Cobble?”

“No, no, spare me!” He dropped to his knees and put his hands together. “I didn’t mean it! I just hate rich people so much. They caused so much pain in my life!”

“That’s no excuse to what you tried to do to me.” Sunset glowered at him as Alicorn Fantasy floated closer. Its arms weren’t as muscular as they were back in 2012, but they were still large enough to ensure a good beating. “Prepare yourself.”

Alicorn Fantasy glided forward as Curb Cobble shrieked and fell on his butt, but he could not get away from Sunset’s Stand’s barrage of punches.

“Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!” Alicorn Fantasy roared. “Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!”

Sunset stopped the next punch before it could crash into Curb’s face again and she had her Stand hold him up by the shirt collar. “Oh, I’m not ending this yet. We came here for information. You’re going to give it to me.”

“I-I’ll give you… anything you want…” Curb Cobble said through his broken and bloodied mouth. “Just don’t… kill me. Please… I’ve learned my… lesson. No more.”

“Where is Die Die Riches situated?” Sunset had Alicorn Fantasy’s fist pull back. “Where are you getting your instructions from?”

“F-France. It’s France! Don’t hit me again!” Curb waved his hands wildly. “Oh. Oh no. Duckie’s not going to be pleased with me…”

“Duckie? Is that your leader’s name?”

Curb nodded. “She’s frightening. She’ll… She’ll kill me if she ever finds out I told you!”

Sunset threw him to the ground and huffed. “Then you better leave and go somewhere no one will ever find you again. Especially me. If I see you again, I won’t stay Alicorn Fantasy’s neighs.”

Curb scrambled back and nodded furiously. “You got it. You got it! You’ll never see me again.”

Sunset put her hat back on her head and began heading back towards the store. They had found what they needed. It was time to let the others know.

However, after three steps forward, Curb Cobble turned and a shadow fell across his face. “Like I’d just let you get away… You should’ve killed me when you had the chance. Now I’m going to prove myself to Duckie… Smashing Pumpkins!”

His Stand appeared in his hands and he tossed it at Sunset again. She turned around, but she was not going to be able to react in time. Curb smiled. He knew he would win this time. He wouldn’t make the mistake of throwing glass at her again.

But before Smashing Pumpkins could attach itself to Sunset again, the back door to the pet shop was blasted open and it sailed over her head before landing on top of Smashing Pumpkins, knocking it down.

“Wuh-What?” Curb couldn’t help but utter.

From the doorway, Shiho Sunfast walked forward with a look of extreme displeasure on her face. “I had a feeling you were off fighting an enemy Stand, granny.”

“Yes… and it seems I should’ve finished what I started.” Sunset turned to look at Curb and frowned.

“No, no, please!” He dropped back to his knees, but it wasn’t going to work a second time.

Both Alicorn Fantasy and Curtain Call yelled and charged at him, pummeling him fist after fist after fist, all the while shouting, “Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!”

Circle marks began appearing all over Curb Cobble’s body as each fist connected with him over and over and eventually, he was launched up into the sky, where he sailed over the next building, landing with a crash of metal on the other side.

“You need to take better care of yourself, granny…” Shiho dusted her shirt. “It’s a good thing we finished interrogating the cashier inside. We know where the parrot came from.”

“So do I.” Sunset pulled at her torn pants. “I need a new pair. And some new shoes too. Ugh. Anyway, France. That’s where Die Die Riches is operating from.”

“I’ll do you one better, old woman,” Shiho said. “Angers, France.”

“Angers?” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You’re making that name up. Now why would they name a city with a name like that? Happiness would be better. Or even Fun.”

“Good grief. It’s French. I don’t expect to know what it means.” Shiho sighed. “We’ve got what we need. Now let’s get out there and find the head of Die Die Riches and end this.”

Sunset nodded as Shiho returned to the store. They did it. They got a location. And she even knew the name of this mysterious leader. Duckie. Whoever this was, she was planning something big and they had to stop her before Die Die Riches really plunges the world into a state it can’t recover from.

For now, to France it was. More accurately, Angers. Sunset shook her head. That name still didn’t make sense to her.

“Why not name it something like… Attitude? If you’re gonna go with that, you might as well have a Revenge, or a Madness… Even Stoic would be a better name...”

Author's Note

Should've gotten this out on Halloween. A late Happy Halloween, all. :trollestia:
As always, do check the group for Stand images!

Chapter 30: Psycho Killer, Qu’est-ce Que C’est

Back in the real world, Shiho Sunfast was still standing before her friends, dazed and like in a trace as she gently swayed from side to side. Her mouth hung open and her arms lay limply at her sides.

Daring Do had tried shaking her out of it multiple times, but to no avail.

“It’s dark in here,” Josher said, putting away his lightphone. “My phone’s out of battery. Does anyone have a light?”

“If this was Equestria then I could make a fire,” Spike said regretfully. “But as a human, I can’t do anything like that.”

Daring Do patted herself down. “All I’ve got is my lighter, and it’s out of juice. So is my phone. Anyone else got one?”

“Shiho should have one.” Josher rushed to her side as she occasionally opened her mouth like she was gasping for air. They didn’t know what was happening, but they had to figure out some way to wake her from her trance or she was going to end up like Hagatha.

He gulped as he dug around her skirt pocket. If she knew what he was doing, she would surely give him a good beating.

“H-Here, she has one!” He wrapped his fingers around a lighter, but as he brought it out, he found he had already accidentally lit it. Shiho had one of the new lighters that had just come out in the last four years. It could light immediately, but with the press of a button on the side with the base of the palm. He must’ve accidentally lit it when he had grabbed it earlier.

A small fire was starting across Shiho’s skirt and Josher put his hands to his face in a silent scream as he began jumping on the spot from foot to foot.

“Don’t just stand there!” Twilight gave him a slap on the arm. “Strange World!”

Twilight’s Stand glided over to Shiho and slowed the spread of the fire, buying them more time as Spike brought up Winter Wrap Up, which blew in a frosty wind. It quickly cooled the fire, putting it out, but then they all began to smell something weird, something they had smelt occasionally on their journey.

“Gross…” Josher stepped back and covered his nose. “You know, I tolerate her smoking and all, but I really hate the smell.”

Daring Do reached over and pulled out a half burnt packet of cigarettes from a tatter in Shiho’s skirt. The fire had gone out, but three of the cigarettes were still smoking, releasing the foul stench into the air around them.

“She’s gonna be mad, you know. If she finds out what you did.” Daring Do shook the packet between two fingers.

“That’s if we can get her out of this!” Josher reminded her.

“Have faith, Josher. We’ll get Shiho back. We will.” Twilight clenched her fists. “We’re not letting Duckie have her.”

Strange World rose up on one leg behind her, then bent its arms into ‘V’s’.

All of a sudden, Shiho gasped and her eyes rolled back into place as she collapsed to her knees. Everyone had jumped at her sudden burst of life, but they were quick to gather around her as Twilight grabbed her under one arm and helped her stand.

“Shiho, what happened?!” she was the first to ask as the girl began coughing.

Shiho clutched at her neck, then winced as she inspected her legs and then her face. “It’s… it wasn’t real…”

“Was it Duckie, Shiho?” Daring Do stowed her whip and held her shoulders. “What happened?”

“Her Stand, Psycho Killer, it has the ability to trap you inside your mind, like a dream,” Shiho said. She went on to tell them about the house she was trapped in and how the enemy Stand and its shadow couldn’t be attacked. “And it will pursue you slowly but relentlessly. It seems to have no weakness.”

“Every Stand has a weakness. They must have.” Twilight balled her fists. “We need to find Duckie. That’s how we’ll beat her.”

“Wait, we first need to determine how you escaped, Shiho,” Daring Do interrupted, holding Twilight’s shoulder. “There’s a way to escape her dream attack. But how? You have to tell us what happened.”

“That bloody duck was about to stab me in the face,” Shiho said with some heat. “I couldn’t even beat it in a running race, even though it moves so slowly. I only woke up because…” She frowned. “Why did I wake up?”

“I accidentally set your skirt on fire,” Josher volunteered. “Maybe that was it.”

“Normally I’d kick your butt for something like that, but if you really did wake me, then I have to say thanks. But it was something else, I think. Something familiar…” Shiho felt her eyes growing heavy, and she sank back into the clutches of unconsciousness.

“Uh, Shiho? Shiho?” Josher shook her, but her eyes had rolled back again and her body started shaking on the spot periodically. “Duckie’s got her again! We need to get her out of there!”

“But how? Should we set her skirt on fire again?” Josher held up the lighter.

“We can’t waste more time!” Twilight shook her head and groaned. She pointed down the tunnel and then at herself. “You three find out how to wake her. I’ll try and find Duckie. If we can’t figure it out again, maybe at least I can reach her and take her down before she catches Shiho.”

“Go, we’ll take it from here, Twi!” Spike waved at her and grabbed the lighter from Josher. “We don’t have time to lose, Shiho could be in serious danger!”

Spike placed it below the hem of Shiho’s skirt and pressed the button at the side with his index finger. After two seconds, the flame clicked on at the top of the rectangular shape, forming into a thin jet of fire that instantly started to blacken the edge of the skirt before it caught fire again. As the fire spread, Josher kept his eyes on Shiho’s face, willing for her to wake up any moment, to see what they had done and beat the crap out of them. Anything was better than watching her crumble like Hagatha and the other Die Die Riches agent from before.

“I don’t think that’s it.” Daring Do swiped the lighter from Spike and inspected it. “There has to be something else we did earlier…”

“Think, Daring, what did we do? What did Shiho say?” Spike tapped a finger against the side of his head. “She said… she said… Something about something being familiar! Something we did must’ve been something she does!”

“Something familiar…” Daring Do rubbed her chin and hummed. “Good grief is what she would say. Unless…”

Josher and Spike watched as she held out the packet of cigarettes. “The cigarettes. You don’t think…?”

Josher snapped his fingers. “The smell! That must’ve been it. Shiho recognized the stench of cigarette smoke and familiarity of something from the real world must’ve shocked her out of the dream!”

“Light ‘em up again!” Daring wiggled the pack in front of Spike as he reactivated the lighter.

He swung the open flame straight over all the stubs and each one of them caught on fire as Daring removed five of them, stuffing them in Shiho’s mouth and pushing it shut.

“Here goes nothing!” she said.

“Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!” Curtain Call yelled with each thrust of its arms, desperately trying to take apart Psycho Killer as it waddled towards them, now holding a giant machete in its hands. Instead of wings, this duck had long human hands with snaky fingers. It looked almost comical, but at the same time, it was extremely disturbing, even to Shiho.

“Just give it up, mademoiselle, you cannot defeat my Stand, even if you had all the muscles in the world!” Duckie’s voice rang out around her. “Submit. Submit to your end. The rich will die and the world will move on, it will endure and it will revive! What am I saying? These are the ideals I used to attract the others to join my cause. Do you know why I really do this, Shiho Sunfast?”

“No, nor do I care. But I’m sure you’re going to tell me anyway…” Shiho shook her head in disgust as she hopped back a step and opened one of the wooden doors on the second floor, revealing a rather pristine bathroom with blue tiles.

“I have a penchant for killing, you see…” Duckie continued as Psycho Killer swiped its machete down on Curtain Call’s shoulder, cutting deep. Blood splashed out from Shiho’s wound across the bathroom walls and she dropped to a knee as her vision began to blur. “It started all those years ago when I murdered my sister. Why had I done it? Other than the need to kill, I do not have any other reason for you.”

“You sick f-”

“But that was only the first! I had been sent to a correctional home after that, seeing as I was just a young girl… But over the years, I had killed others in the home, including one of my officers. I escaped when I was thirteen and ever since then, my killcount had risen greatly. The world couldn’t contain me and I continued to prey on those I seeked out. Eventually, a warrant was issued for my arrest. The authorities would not tolerate my spree any longer. But they have failed to kill me, because I had awakened to the power of my Stand, Psycho Killer! I no longer had to follow my targets home. I could simply track them from a distance and send Psycho Killer into their minds once they were home where no one would see them until it was too late.

“Once this world loses its leaders, once it falls into the hands of Die Die Riches, imagine the kills I could make. And no one would stop me ever again! Not you, not your friends, not the police, not the president! No one!” Duckie began laughing all around.

“Enough!” Shiho yelled and thrust an arm out, pointing at Psycho Killer. “You’re crazy. And all your talk about your group taking over the rich or your need to kill people is irrelevant, because you’re not going to see another day.”

“Oh, and what makes you say that?” Psycho Killer turned its eyeless face to Shiho and its machete turned into a fire poker that extended another four feet past the handle.

Before Shiho could make another attack, chains lashed out from below her and wrapped around her wrists and thighs before receding back, slowly pulling her limbs in four directions.

“G-Gah!” Shiho winced. “Curtain Call!”

Her Stand arced forward, spinning its cloth as it shrouded Psycho Killer’s head with it. It began punching rapidly as it grabbed the fire poker’s head, pushing it aside to keep it from attacking her.

But all this while, the chains continued to pull and Shiho was finding it harder and harder to breathe as the pain began to grow intensely. There was a tearing sound from her arms and she could feel the skin ripping right off at her armpits.

She gritted her teeth together and was about to shout when she found herself back in the catacombs, her mouth ablaze. She looked down and spotted five cigarettes cramped between her lips and she spat four of them out on the floor as she looked into the proud faces of her friends.

“What are you doing wasting my cigarettes like that?!” Shiho yelled at them.

She took a puff of her remaining cigarette before inspecting her arms. Like before, the injuries didn’t translate to the real world and for that, she was at least grateful.

“Good grief, this duck…” she sighed, but then she spotted Curtain Call standing to her side, still clutching an oversized fire poker in its hands.

“Shiho? Where did you get that from?” Spike pointed with his one arm.

“The dream…” she said and sucked in another mouthful of nicotine as she came to the realization. “If I’m holding it when I wake up, it appears here with me. How did you wake me? Tell me now.”

“Smell,” Spike began explaining. “We think that familiarity is what wakes you from your dream. Once you’re able to distinguish dream from reality, I think you wake up. You’re incredibly fond of your cigarette sticks, so the smell brings you back.”

“And I’ve the perfect idea now.” Shiho stubbed out her cigarette and looked at the pack in Daring Do’s hand. “Get another one ready. I’m going back in.”

Josher seemed to understand what she was up to and began fanning the smoke away.

“What, what is it?” Spike blinked.

“I’m going to give that psycho a taste of her own medicine, that’s what.” Shiho crushed the cigarette between her fingers and let the ash pour out before dropping it on the ground. “Two minutes. In two minutes, give me another smoke.”

“Then what?”

Shiho narrowed her eyes. “Then be ready.”

She shut her eyes and she steadied her breathing. Now that she knew its weakness, any form of anxiety was gone. She knew exactly what she had to do and she was going to see this through.

Everything eventually grew silent around her and when she opened her eyes again, she was back in the house, though this time she was in a bedroom with a white dresser against one wall and a row of boy band posters along the opposite wall. The bed at the back of the room was messed up, with the sheets spilling over along the floor beside two muddy pairs of shoes.

“Welcome back, Shiho Sunfast…” The door to the room opened and shadows swept into the room like a raging tide.

Two red eyes opened in the gloom and arms began reaching out for Shiho as Curtain Call swung the fire poker at it, doing nothing against it. With a grunt, Shiho spun around and kicked at the window, shattering it outwards as she immediately jumped through it. Wooden planks began forming across the window, but Curtain Call smashed them apart with the poker as Shiho made it through.

Two minutes. I’ve just got to last two minutes.

Shiho began counting in her head as she rolled to a stop in a backyard that had overgrown grass and a rusty swing attached to a withered tree. The backdoor slammed open and Psycho Killer emerged, holding a kitchen knife once again as its shadow creeped across the grass towards her, its knife growing in length as it sliced through the blades of grass on its way to her.

“Come to me, Shihoooo…” Duckie’s voice drawled through the air.

Shiho picked up a rock and threw it to Curtain Call, which whipped its cloth around it to replace it with a baseball bat. Her Stand curled it back, then threw it towards the enemy Stand like a boomerang. It collided with Psycho Killer’s neck and sheared its head off, but it never stopped walking forward. With each step, its shadow continued to grow and soon, the glow of red pierced the blades of grass as they gazed at Shiho and her Stand.

Shiho turned and ran, rushing for the treeline just past a broken white fence that led to further darkness. Thirty seconds had passed since she had reawoken here and she still needed to get through another minute and a half before she could enact her plan.

As the tall grass opened up to a dark forest, Shiho began weaving through trees, attempting to break Psycho Killer’s line of sight. Unfortunately, this was Psycho Killer’s world and just as she thought she was putting as much distance as she could between them, the ground before her split open and white arms began clawing at the air, just nicking her shoes as she threw herself back, falling on the ground.

That had been a mistake and more arms broke out of the ground around her, grabbing at her limbs.

“Curtain Call!” Shiho called.

Her Stand began punching away at a nearby tree, shattering it in half before throwing its cloth over the top half. As it fell, its shape began to change and as Curtain Call’s cloth was removed, the tree had become a Scottish claymore. It grabbed the weapon around the grip and swung it through the arms on Shiho’s right, cutting clean through them as it swung to the other side, freeing its master.

Shiho rolled away and kicked off the ground just as more arms appeared, trying to grab her. She grabbed a nearby tree branch and hauled herself up, standing on top of it with her hands in her skirt pockets.

“Good grief, what else can this Stand do?”

Unfortunately, her question was answered as branches from the tree she was standing on moved and wrapped around her wrists and ankles. They attempted to pull her apart, but Curtain Call returned with its weapon, slicing the branches off as Shiho broke into a run, jumping off to the next tree.

Fifty five seconds left… Shiho was still counting.

The next branch disappeared below her and she widened her eyes as she plummeted down to the ground. Curtain Call grabbed her by the arm and lightened her descent, allowing her to plant her feet on the ground first instead of her face.

“Why do you even bother?” Duckie’s voice echoed through the woods. “This is my world, Shiho Sunfast. There’s nowhere you can go to avoid Psycho Killer. It controls every aspect of this place.”

Psycho Killer melted out of the shadowy floor and its weapon turned back into its mallet. It swung at Shiho as Curtain Call swung its claymore at it and because the mallet was wooden, the claymore cleaved through its head and then through half of Psycho Killer’s bill.

Shiho smiled at that brief victory, but the mallet’s head began to change shape in the air and it dissolved into a metal hand with four claws, slicing at her as it dropped to the ground. Four lines formed on Shiho’s chest before blood sprayed from them, sending her back a step as her vision blurred a little.

All of a sudden, the world around her shifted and the house looked like it was getting pulled towards them. The grass parted to the sides as the scenery moved, bringing Shiho back into the kitchen on the first floor as the backdoor shut behind her. Psycho Killer stood to her right, stabbing its giant knife into her shoulder as she was pushed to the ground.

“Aagh!” She coughed out blood as Curtain Call pushed against the enemy’s weapon, trying to get it out of her shoulder.

Psycho Killer reached out with its off hand and grabbed Curtain Call around the throat, squeezing hard with abnormal strength.

“Your end comes, Shiho Sunfast…” the enemy Stand breathed in her face as it pushed its knife through her shoulder bones. Shiho felt something give way and she could no longer feel her right arm. “After you, I’ll be taking your friends down one by one. And then none of you will be left.”

She cut through further and Shiho’s entire right arm was torn right off her shoulder, spraying blood against the kitchen table and its cabinets above and below. She yelled in anguish, but with her arm gone, she was able to duck under the knife and grab Psycho Killer around the neck with her elbow.

“Ooh, Qu’est-ce que c’est,” Duckie said and her Stand’s mouth crinkled up into a smile.

Before she could tighten her grip, Psycho Killer lifted its other arm, bringing Curtain Call’s feet off the ground and it began to get harder for Shiho to breathe and maintain her grip on the enemy’s neck.

Thirty seconds now. Just thirty more…!

“It is useless. Ever since I received my Stand from some crystals I found in a lost mine, I have never known defeat, not even to the strongest of Stand users!” Duckie began laughing as Shiho lost her grip on Psycho Killer’s neck. It lifted her off its back and held both her and her Stand before its face as it tilted its head to one side. Though it didn’t have eyeballs, Shiho could feel the glare of its eye holes gazing into her soul, like they could just reach in and squeeze her heart dry. “The world is filled with power beyond your understanding and I have inherited one of such powers! You have put up a brave attempt, but you were never going to win from the start. Jamais, jamais. Now, how should I end your life? I don’t want to just strangle you. That would give me no satisfaction.”

Shiho’s head was starting to get light from the loss of blood and the hand around her throat, but she still managed to gather her saliva and spit at the enemy Stand’s bill. “How about you go screw yourself?”

“A screw, huh?” Psycho Killer threw her and her Stand down before a giant screw grew in size from its left palm. “That’s it. I’ll pin you to the wall.”

A look of determination suddenly flashed across Shiho’s face. “Not gonna happen. You’ve lost now.”

“Oh?” Psycho Killer lowered its weapon. “And what gave you that idea, mademoiselle?”

“Because I know just how to defeat you.” Shiho pointed a finger at the duck Stand.

Psycho Killer raised its arms at its sides. “Defeat me? I control everything in this world. I can make the roof cave in over your head to kill you, I could have the ground swallow you whole, I could even stop your heart right now. But what would be the fun in that? It’s always better to chase you around, to give you hope like you have now. But in the end, you will die like all the others before you. You’re no different, Shiho Sunfast.”

“I’ll show you what makes me different, Duckie Effing Deluxe.” Shiho got on her feet. Her two minutes were up and she could smell it, the faint traces of nicotine. It was time to play her hand. “It’s because I don’t operate alone. I have the power of friendship on my side. And you’ve always been alone.”

Shiho barreled into the enemy Stand, using Curtain Call to hold its arms back as it tried to pummel her with the giant screw. She wrapped one arm around the Stand’s waist as Curtain Call wrapped both arms around the Stand’s shoulders, holding it in place, if only briefly.

As the smell of nicotine got stronger, Shiho opened her eyes hard, finding herself back in the catacombs with her right arm still intact. Her left was wrapped around Psycho Killer and now that it was away from its house, it looked a lot less frightening.

“W-What?” Psycho Killer turned around. “What is this?”

Curtain Call spun it around to face it as Shiho took a whiff of the cigarette in her mouth. “Welcome to my world, duck.”

And Curtain Call drove a fist into Psycho Killer’s cheek, knocking it to the ground with a loud crash.

“No! This is not possible!” Psycho Killer lifted itself as its screw rolled away down the catacomb tunnel. “How is my Stand here?”

It sprang up and ran for Curtain Call, but the air suddenly turned cold and frost formed across its feet, trapping it in place before a giant armored hand crashed into its chest, winding it, but it was unable to drop to its knees as the ice held it down.

“Anything we touch returns to the real world with us when we wake up.” Shiho folded her arms and glared at the enemy Stand. “That would mean if I held on to Psycho Killer, I could also bring it back into the real world if I woke up.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that I will kill you here and now!” Psycho Killer waved its knife around before slashing it towards Curtain Call.

But this time, Shiho’s Stand caught the blade with both hands, then with a yell, it snapped it in half as it bent to the side. With a spin, it stuck the blade through Psycho Killer’s abdomen, piercing it out through the enemy Stand’s back.

Psycho Killer bent forward and a waterfall of blood burst from its mouth. “I-Impossible…”

With a torrent of punching, Curtain Call began smashing its body all over, yelling, “Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!” with each blow. Psycho Killer’s body began to crack from the force, but somehow, it managed to slip a foot out of the ice trap and kick out at Curtain Call, temporarily stopping its attack.

Daring Do attached Yesterday to the end of her whip and swung it at the enemy Stand, knocking it in the side of the face as Winter Wrap Up shot ice spikes at its body, impaling it and freezing more of the enemy as Curtain Call swiped its cloth in a spiral between Psycho Killer’s eyes. The blow knocked it back as Spike melted the ice holding it in place. Psycho Killer staggered and tumbled on its back before Spike turned the water back to ice, freezing it in place.

Shiho looked smugly at the enemy Stand, then picked up a loose piece of stone and had Curtain Call turn it into a metal spike that looked like a giant stake. “Now it’s your turn.”

As Shiho drove the spike down into Psycho Killer’s head, it screeched like a duck before fading from view, leaving behind its icy binds in the shape of its body, along with a pool of blood.

Author's Note

Another chapter for you readers early. I'll be out of the area for about a week, so think of it as an early Christmas present, I guess. :trollestia: Won't be seeing ya for Christmas, so an early Merry Christmas to all from here!