SuShi's Bizarre Adventure: Darkness Manifest

Smoke poured out of Flurry Heart’s prized shotgun, the tip of its barrel red from the heat created by the explosion of the gunpowder within. She should’ve been smiling now, finally finishing off her aunt’s greatest enemy, but she wasn’t. In fact, her mouth was in the opposite direction.

“No, how can this be?” she said out loud as she continued to stare at the anchor in front of Shiho, manifested from the Stand of Josher Joyride, which stood beside it. “You should all be asleep! There’s no way you’d already be awake!”

Josher stood up, dusting her hands on his shirt before folding his arms across his chest and puffing it up. “If you’re saying anything, I must tell you, I can’t hear you.”

Flurry raised a brow. “What have you done?”

“I saw your mouth moving, but I still have no idea what you’re saying.” Josher tilted his head down and planted three fingers on his forehead after curving an arm forward. “I’ll tell you how I outsmarted you. You see, you toyed around with us too much. That gave me enough time to come up with a plan. Now, see, I remembered Shiho was having some gum in her mouth earlier. I know, disgusting. But it worked, didn’t it?” He tapped the side of his left ear.

“Gum?” Flurry stuck out her tongue. “And you stuck that in your ears?”

“This is gonna take some effort to get out…” Josher dug his right ear with his pinkie. “But maybe I can work some hamon into it. But you’re going down!”

“If you think I’m giving up so quickly, then you’re wrong. Let’s see…” Flurry looked at the others on the floor, sleeping soundly. “I have about five more minutes before they wake up and I’ll have to put them back to sleep again. Watch me, Josher Joyride, I’ll take you and your friends down in four minutes.”

She cocked her shotgun again and had her Stand rush forward towards the larger Stand. Island Song’s strength was in putting its targets to sleep, but it was still an agile Stand and it could hold its own in a fight.

Down Under swung its anchor to the side, just missing Island Song as it slid under its weapon. It kicked its hooves on the ground and leapt over the Stand’s arm, smashing both speakers into Down Under’s head. Josher’s head rung like a bell, but he still managed to get his Stand in the way just as Flurry Heart tried to gun down Shiho again.

“You’re not getting them!” Josher flung a hand forward as Down Under shoulder bashed Island Song into a wall.

Flurry Heart got the wind knocked out of her as she doubled over, but her Stand weaseled its way from Down Under’s attack, delivering a flying kick to its face before Flurry reloaded again and took aim.

“Your Stand is fat and slow. You’ll never keep up with me!” she yelled. “I’ll take out one of your friends to show you how easy it is!”

Island Song dodged another attack from Down Under, but this time it must’ve smashed through a water pipe within the wall because a jet of water erupted from it, spilling over the floor as it began to wash over the hallway.

Down Under immediately turned around, swinging its anchor behind its head as Flurry shot at Leilani’s body. The anchor crashed down in front of her, blocking the bullets before moving with speeds Flurry Heart hadn’t thought it could move at.

“No way, did his Stand get… faster?” She hadn’t heard anything about this Stand from TWI.

Down Under kicked up a foot, knocking Island Song into the ceiling, then spun around and punched it with its other arm.

Flurry coughed and fell to the ground, her body bruised from the impact to her Stand.

“No way. Like this?” She tilted her head up to look at Josher. “I didn’t even get to use Flurrypuffy on anyone…”

“You look surprised.” Josher grinned and grabbed his goggles with one hand and flexed with the other. “You mustn’t know that my Stand strengthens when in contact with water. So basically, you did this to yourself. Watch this, your next words are going to be, ‘this is impossible!’”

“This is… impossible…” Flurry’s eyes widened. “What was that?”

But Josher couldn’t hear her and his Stand pinned Island Song beneath a foot before lifting its anchor in both hands.

“Wait, no no, it can’t end like this, no!” Flurry fired her shotgun twice at the large Stand, but it couldn’t harm it. “No no no no no no, TWI!”

And the anchor came down and Island Song faded away.

Josher spun on a heel and dropped to a knee, stretching one arm back and holding his shoulder with another hand. “Great. That takes care of that. The others should be waking up… now.”

“Good grief…” Shiho rubbed at her head. “How many times did we fall asleep?”

“One too many…” Calypso groaned and began adjusting her hair. “Where’d she go? Oh, there she is.”

“It’s done?” Subterra stretched out an arm and rubbed her back. “Josher, you took her down?”

Josher folded his arms and stared down the hallway, unable to hear anyone.

“It’s a pity I wasn’t the one to take her down.” Shiho stood beside her body and kicked the shotgun away. “I had already done it once. It would’ve been something to do so a second time. I have no idea how she survived, but she’s off to join all those people who have been coming after my family and that dog with potential that they all loved.”

“You people have the best adventures, I must say.” Calypso clapped her hands together. “It’s a privilege to be out here with you.”

Shiho nodded, then walked to the elevator and hit the button. “Thank you. Thank you all.”

“Whatever for, Shiho?” Leilani asked.

“For coming with me this far. For helping me get to my grandmother.”

“It’s not the end yet. We’ve still got to deal with TWI.” Josher stowed his playing cards. “And she’ll be at the top of this elevator.”

Shiho balled a fist. “I’m counting on it. We have to expect her to have used the Stand geode. That means she’ll be at the top of her game, stronger than ever before. We’ll have to be ready for that.”

Subterra listened as the elevator began its descent. Shiho was right. Even though she had been beaten by Shiho eleven years ago, even with her injuries, TWI was still able to establish her will for her followers, including the Equestrian prisoners. If she were to have used the Stand geode, it was going to be far from a walk in the park.

“We’ll do this. We’ll stop TWI,” Subterra said to herself. “We’ll save everyone.”

TWI found herself on her bed when she had woken up. The sudden burst of strength had left her tired, but now that she had awoken from her slumber, she found that her injuries had subsided. Under her skin, she felt power flow, power that she hadn’t felt in years thanks to Shiho Sunfast.

Her Stand now stood before her, gold instead of silver, blue skin instead of pink. TWI swung a fist into the wall beside her bed and her Stand did the same, smashing a hole clean through the rocky surface. It’s eyes now reflected hers, orange and red with a hint of madness behind them.

“That had only been about one percent of my strength.” TWI smiled to herself. Sitting down, she tapped on a console by the bed to contact Flurry Heart downstairs. “Flurry, what’s the situation with the Sushi gang?”

No sound came out on the other end.

“Flurry? Hello, come in. Are they on their way up?” TWI asked again, but there was still no reply.

TWI got up and walked to the elevator outside her room. She could see it now, it was coming up.

“No, Flurry… I told you to avoid them. That I would handle it. Why did you have to interfere? Why…? I said not to go near them! I said to leave them to me…”

TWI dropped to her knees. She’d given up so much to help this world. It wasn’t even her world, but because she took pity on its sorry state, she decided that under her rule, the whole world would benefit like Equestria did. But here she was now, all alone in the world, with those who would see the end of the world arriving on her doorstep.

“Is this what you want?” TWI yelled to the air. “Do you want to see your world destroyed so badly?”

She looked at Sunset in the tank beside her bed, but someone else was standing beside it.

“TWI, is this what you had hoped for when you stayed behind to help the world?” Spike said as he took one step forward. “I told you, it didn’t have to come to this. We could’ve solved this peacefully.”

“No, no, you didn’t see what I saw.” TWI stood up and puffed and panted. “I know what these world leaders are capable and not capable of doing. Humans are greedy. Enough is never enough for them and that is why this world fails in contrast to Equestria. They’ve lost the power of friendship and they don’t deserve it after what they’ve done! They’ve killed my only niece, Spike. My only niece! I didn’t even want Flurry here, but she insisted because she thought she could help me. I thought she could help me…”

TWI slammed a fist on the wall. “My problems boil down to Shiho and her team. It’s because of them my plan to unite this world has failed.”

“They’re still your friends, TWI. They were my friends too.”

“They were. I know where Shiho stands now.” TWI growled. “At this moment, their lives are forfeit. I’ll do it myself.”

“TWI, please, just think about this for a moment!” Spike walked closer. “You’ve gone too far. This isn’t how anything should’ve turned out!”

“I know…” TWI’s eyes began to tear. “I should’ve had her taken care of long before Subterra fled this island. I’ll get her back, Spike. Once I have Subterra, we can still turn this around.”

“TWI, you can’t. Think about what you’re doing-”

“I know what I’m doing!” She lunged at Spike. “They’ve taken everything from me. Flurry was innocent! What will I tell Cadance when I get back home? It’s my turn to take everything from them!”

“TWI…”

TWI looked down at where her hands were. One was on Spike’s right shoulder and the other one was through his body, coming out his back.

“TWI, what did you… do?” Spike said weakly.

The princess held his body closer and rested her head against it. “Spike… My dear Spike… You died a long time ago. Please, just rest now. And let me do this.”

Spike dropped to his knees as TWI ripped her arm from his body. There was now a gaping hole in his body, but there was no blood and all TWI saw was black when she looked through him. “TWI… I don’t… I don’t know who you are anymore. You’re not the princess I knew…”

TWI sighed and let her tears fall. But then she steeled her gaze. “No, I’m not. And if that’s what it takes, then so be it. I will do what I must. This world will be mine and I will make it all right. Starting with Shiho Sunfast and those that dare to ally with her.”

“I’m sorry you think this way…” Spike closed his eyes as he dropped to the floor and closed his eyes.

His body shimmered and grew misty as his color faded and he wouldn’t even give TWI one more look before fading into nothing.

TWI breathed hard and turned her attention to Sunset Shimmer. “Your granddaughter did this, Sunset. Watch me as I tear her limb from limb, as I show her the power of my New Order. She’s made her choice and I’ve made mine. If it’s a battle she wants, it’s a battle she will have. I’m coming, Shiho. Let’s finish this.”

• To be Continued...-