The first thing Subterra Shiver saw as her vision cleared was Shiho standing over her, giving her cheek a few light slaps to try and stir her.

“Good grief, you had us worried.” Shiho gave her face one more pat before helping her up, holding one arm over her shoulder and the other on her arm. “You did it, Subterra. You got rid of him.”

“I did…” she sighed with relief. “But I don’t get it. Why don’t they help us against TWI? They clearly don’t like her.”

“If I didn’t know better, TWI wouldn’t have set them loose if she didn’t first have a way to ensure they won’t fight back against her.” Ocellus folded her arms. “TWI used to rule with friendship, but look at what that’s become. She probably had a show of strength, to prove that there would be no way to fight back against her, not with the strange powers she has.”

“Tsch, I’ve beaten her.” The left corner of Shiho’s lip twitched. “But she’s indeed clever with her abilities. Even though I’ve won, she’s not an opponent to underestimate. I didn’t even know she was going to betray us. She fooled me. She fooled us all.”

“I’m sure… I’m sure she didn’t mean to,” Subterra said. “I mean, since her goal is to heal the world and all.”

Shiho glared at her. “Did you hear what you just said? Why are you suddenly defending her?”

“I’m… I’m not. I’m just saying, I don’t think she planned to betray you.” Subterra rubbed her upper arm anxiously. “I… nevermind.”

Shiho huffed and walked away.

Ocellus gave Subterra a pat and shook her head. “Part of me wants to believe TWI hasn’t gone mad. Trust me, she and her friends and the ones who taught us about friendship and defending Canterlot. I owe her everything I am today. But here we are, working to stop her. I still can’t believe it… I’m sure Shiho doesn’t either.”

Josher nodded as well. “Hay, I don’t want to believe it myself. I hate what we had to do to try and stop her. We even had to kill Spike.”

“That was her companion, right?” Subterra remembered the name. “The one who came to this world with her.”

“Spike was TWI's assistant back in Equestria,” Ocellus told Subterra. “He practically worshipped TWI and the ground she walked on.”

“And look where it got him,” Shiho said from a short distance away. “Six feet in the ground is what.”

“I'm sorry it had to come to that,” Josher sighed. “Spike had so much potential to do good, but he followed the wrong person.”

“Only potential he has now is to be mulch,” Shiho snorted. She took out a stick of gum and put it in her mouth. “Between that dog Spike and the TWI Spike, it seems like way too many people are wound up about them. They need to get over it; it's not like Spike was ever the center of their lives or anything.”

“Come on, Shiho. Spike was your friend too.” Josher took one step forward.

“Him and TWI betrayed us, remember? We were this close to finishing Die Die Riches and then TWI decides to assassinate The president of France,” Shiho growled. “That duck got to her. TWI was weak minded and easily manipulated into becoming evil. Even worse, Spike just decides to back up TWI without once thinking for himself if it was the right thing to do. Good riddance I say.”

But as she turned away, shadows fell over Shiho’s face and Subterra could tell she was doing all she could to keep her composure.

Josher and Ocellus must’ve seen it too, so they decided not to push that conversation further. In fact, Ocellus knew it better than anyone else here, because she had spent years on end with TWI. She had been close with both TWI and Spike, she and all her friends who studied under them. The day her mother attacked them was the last day she had seen TWI, the day she had learnt TWI had changed.

“I hope my friends are doing okay. They were still in bad shape when I left them at the hospital to pursue my mother…” Ocellus looked at the sky. There were fewer and fewer clouds each year and out here in the ocean, there were drastically fewer. “My mother’s on this island somewhere. She has to be. TWI is sending Equestria’s prisoners after us. She’ll be coming. I know it.”

“Then we should be on guard.” Calypso dusted her vest and added more green lipstick around her mouth. “All set. Whatever Stands TWI sends at us, we’ll be ready.”

“Here’s hoping…” Subterra herself wasn’t as confident.

The group reentered the prison, this time heading deeper inside without having to find somewhere to camp for the night. Subterra remembered these pathways well, and in no time, they arrived at a circular room with six pillars supporting the ceiling above them. Light shone in from a hole above, carved out perfectly to the mountain’s surface. Dried blood stained the concrete floor of the arena, along with broken pieces of metal or wood, leftovers from a time Subterra wished remained forgotten.

Rows of stands around the ring were positioned on a second floor, places where spectators could sit to watch the battle unfold below.

“Get up!” TWI’s voice rang in her head as she remembered falling across the concrete circle again and again and again. “You must find your strength within. Get up, Subterra. You hold yourself back. Realize your true power and reveal it to us all!”

“This is where TWI trained me to harness my Stand power,” Subterra told the others; a swift shudder passed through her body. “I remember each time she had me face off against one of her Stand users. She had turned all her followers with the arrowhead she created from a Stand geode.”

“An arrow?” Josher shared a worried look with Shiho, who had stopped in her tracks upon hearing it. “She still has this Stand arrow?”

Subterra nodded. “I don’t see why she would throw it out. With it, she can always make more and more Stand users to face us.”

“Not if we get to her first,” Leilani chimed in. “But where would she even get something like that? A geode that makes Stands? It doesn’t sound natural.”

“That’s because it’s not,” Shiho said. “Stand geodes are concentrated veins of Equestrian magic, buried within the earth. One doesn’t simply come across a geode by chance. She must’ve gone looking for it after I beat the crap out of her the last time.”

“This isn’t good…” Josher leaned against one of the pillars and slid down. “What if she decides to use it on herself? Like your grandmother did, Shiho?”

“But if she does, then she can’t get anymore Stand users. There’s no way she’ll just throw that away, right?” Ocellus ran a hand along her chin to her left ear. “She can’t do this without help.”

Shiho clenched a fist. “Let’s hope it never comes to that. I don’t know what kind of power her Stand will gain should she merge the geode with it. I still have to beat the crap out of her for taking my grandmother.”

“In my opinion, she should’ve taken her sooner…” a voice rang out in echoes around the arena. “Maybe then we’d have been free sooner too.”

“Where are you hiding?” Josher had Down Under by his side in an instant. It smashed its anchor on the ground, sending cracks snaking away from the epicenter.

The wind seemed to bend and warp in the center of the arena and suddenly, what looked to be a little girl appeared there, almost as though she had appeared out of thin air. It was a girl in her teens, dressed in a frilly blue dress that matched her curly blue hair. Her white socks were pulled up really high, though her left sock was loose and fell back down to about her knee level.

“Another one of Equestria’s prisoners, then?” Josher asked Ocellus. The girl’s eyebrows twitched upon hearing the word ‘prisoner’.

Ocellus folded her arms and scowled. “You haven’t seemed to age a day, Cozy…”

“Ah, Ocellus, I knew I’d see you again sooner or later.” Cozy placed a hand under her own chin, then spun to face her side to the team as she raised one leg up, pointing her toes down. “How are your friends? I heard the queen put them in rather bad shape. Hehehe…”

Ocellus growled at her. “They’ll fare better than you once we’re through with you.”

The girl let out a strange, somewhat fake laughter through one of her hands. “You may have beaten the brothers, Tirek and Sombra, but I consider myself to be better than they are. I have been granted great powers through my own magic manifested in this world. There’s no beating Blue Hole and me.”

“A child… is a criminal of your world?” Calypso watched her get into a more outrageous pose than before. “Really?”

“Cozy Glow had grand designs, with herself in charge of our school.” Ocellus sighed and shook her head. “And then she allied herself with Equestria’s greatest villains and paid the price for it.”

“But here I am now, full in my youth, while you’ve grown into an old goat, Ocellus.” Cozy twirled a finger in the air. “Who’s laughing now?”

“I am.” Ocellus slid one foot back and pointed at her. “Cause you’re the one going down today! Forest Rangers!”

Her Stand burst into a charge from the shadows, running on all fours before jumping straight for her, arms outstretched. Cozy Glow didn’t even bat an eye. She just remained there, arms now behind her back as she waited patiently for Forest Rangers to reach her.

“Something’s not right. What is she up to?” Josher took out a pack of cards and began shuffling it profusely. “She’s too calm. She’s planned something.”

“That or she’s just too overly confident in her abilities.” Shiho groaned. “Good grief, these enemies are so showy.”

As Forest Rangers reached out for Cozy’s face to give it a good beating, its arm suddenly slid to her right side as the entire Stand followed, unable to stop itself from its mad dash. Its entire body deflected away from Cozy as though she had some sort of invisible barrier between them and it crashed onto the ground behind her.

But Forest Rangers was not to be defeated just yet. Getting back up and spinning around almost instantly, it split into three swarms of smaller Forest Rangers, then converged back on Cozy from her back and her sides. She didn’t even bother to turn around, but before the smaller drones could touch her, they were rounded around her body and to her front again, crashing into the ground in front of Ocellus. This time, she called her Stand back, which reformed beside her.

“Given up, I see?” Cozy raised both palms to the air. “There’s nothing you can do against me.”

A Stand appeared above her head, about half her size. It was a blue armored creature with blue energy coming out of its back and where its legs should be. It pointed its stubby pink fingers at Ocellus as Cozy did the same.

“Dare to try attacking me again?” Cozy smirked and brushed her curly hair back. “Blue Hole will never let you.”

“We’ll see how you deal with Down Under’s brute strength!” Josher sent out his Stand.

Down Under trudged over to Blue Hole and Cozy, dragging its anchor along before swinging it high over its head. As it was coming down towards the enemy, even with all its strength, the anchor curved at the last second, smashing down into the concrete surface beside her. Down Under tried again, this time swinging it to the side where Cozy was, but it rounded in front of her body and swung into its own right knee.

Josher gritted his teeth as the blow shook the bones within his body, shaking him from the knee up. “Oohh, that’s gonna leave a mark…”

“See?” Cozy stuck a finger forward, then curled it upwards as she planted her other hand under her armpit. “There’s nothing you can do about Blue Hole. It will redirect everything you can throw at it, punches, projectiles, anything! Why, it can even redirect light!”

In that instant, there was a flash and Cozy disappeared from sight in a blink.

“That’s how she’s doing it…” Calypso put her back against Subterra’s. “Her Stand can reflect anything we throw at her. Strength will never beat her.”

The rest of the Sushi team faced in all directions, listening closely as Cozy’s overconfident laugh echoed in the space around them.

From thin air, magical blue bubbles popped into existence and began floating towards the team at the speed of descending volley balls. For a split second before they appeared, they could see Cozy and her Stand again, standing exactly where she had been before she disappeared.

“Cover!” Josher had Down Under swipe its anchor through the descending bubbles.

As soon as it came into contact with them, they popped in watery explosions, knocking even Down Under back as it crashed into one of the pillars, smashing it to bits.

“Ow…” Josher rubbed at his own head. “But did you see that? She can’t attack and hide herself at the same time. She first has to reveal herself.”

“That means when she attacks, she has to stop redirecting things.” Shiho pounded her fists together. “That’ll be the time to beat the crap out of her with Curtain Call.”

“But if she moves, how will we even know where to look?” Subterra asked.

Shiho narrowed her eyes. “Redirecting light works both ways. If light isn’t reaching her, then in theory, she won’t be able to see us as well. She’ll have to rely on her ears… I have a plan. Leilani, I need you for this.”

• To be Continued...-

Author's Note

Blue Hole here!