Chapter 2

The discomfort in the room was so thick that it formed an almost visible wall around the group of friends that had repelled Spike as well as prevented anyone from leaving with a lethal efficiency. Twilight didn’t quite know exactly what she was thinking when she called the meeting or exactly what she had in mind to say, but she did know that she had to say something. Through the night, she had thoroughly convinced herself that she was indeed not going insane and instead settled on some sort of ghostly possession or haunting. In her mind, she reasoned that she would call her friends together, tell them the nature of her problem, and the six of them would solve the issue together as they had done so many times in the past. But then she reasoned that there was still the very real possibility that they would conclude that she really was going insane and that she’d have to be locked away in some loony bin miles away from everything with nothing but her books and one visitor a month as her sole companions (She actually entertained this idea for a time, believing that it wasn’t such a bad way to spend the remainder of her years, but then again it may have just been the exhaustion. Or maybe not). Either way, she felt that she had to confide in someone.
The five mares stared at the floor in mutual silence, made loud and obnoxious by the notable absence of Pinkie Pie, all seeming to search for something of great importance that had fallen to the ground. The intense search lasted for a good minute until one of them finally made the grand discovery.
“So… you’re saying there’s a ghost following you?” The cyan Pegasus’s gaze shifted to Twilight. There was something in Rainbow Dash’s voice that was far from the expected disbelief of hearing such news.
“Kind of. It doesn’t really look like anything I've seen before though,” Twilight said as she too changed her point of view. “It’s really bizarre. Kinda looks like a bear when it stands on its back legs.”
“Why is that only you can see it? That seems rather odd that none of us can see it,” chimed Rarity. There was a hint of something suspicious in her voice, but Twilight couldn't quite place it. “Is it in the room right now?”
“Not at the moment. It only comes out when I tell it to,” Twilight reassured her. “All I have to say is ‘Freewill’ and it just… appears.” Almost as if on cue, the rippled and feminine visage took form with one arm wrapped delicately around Twilight’s neck. The sudden appearance should have had a very different effect on her but, for some odd reason, it almost felt natural now. She regarded Freewill with a vague interest before returning to view her friends.
The volume of silence had grown noticeably louder. The last of the two mares who had been regarding the shag carpeting were now fully focused on Twilight with faces as pale as death. Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“What’s the matter Applejack?” she inquired as she cocked her head slightly. “Fluttershy?”
“Y-your shoulder…” said the two in shaky unison. Twilight could see now that their eyes were not focused on her, but indeed directly at where Freewill was casually floating in a front reclining position with arm draped across Twilight’s back. She was about to say something before Rarity aborted the attempt for her.
“Oh my dear Celestia!” she cried as she startlingly moved closer towards Freewill. She inspected it closely the same way Twilight had seen her inspect dresses in the past. “I’m convinced that this can no longer be a mere coincidence…”
“What are you talking about?” Twilight inquired. It was Fluttershy who reciprocated the question.
“Well, earlier… we kinda had a meeting earlier… just like this one,” meeped Fluttershy vaguely.
“You see, turns out you aren’t the only one with one these here ghostly fellas,” Applejack clarified.
Twilight looked around at her friends with a look of profound confusion. Recognizing the emotion in Twilight’s face, they looked at each other and nodded silently in solidarity.

The sun’s beating rays had reached their apex in intensity as the day reached noon. It was just another day of the smoldering heat wave that was persisting through the final week of the summer and many ponies who had grown wary of the treacherous weather were hiding away in the shade cast by umbrellas and enjoying the soft wind blowing from their portable fans and air conditioners. But despite the earnest attempts at resisting the heat, nature was a sovereign and fought fiercely to maintain its dominance. In the cover of heat, a jet black colt had failed notice resting against the statue in front of town hall. He puffed ever so gently on his state of the art electronic cigarette, something he valued greatly for allowing him to happily fuel his addiction while still allowing his phantom to perform at full strength. As he drew deeply, a ghostly hand materialized and smoothed his silver mane back. He glanced at the clock above city hall.
“High noon,” he mumbled to himself. “I guess it’s time to get started.”
After a final deep draw, the ghostly hand appeared once more and snatched the cigarette into oblivion.
“Let’s do this, Romborama.” From the same oblivion that the cigarette had disappeared to came a phantom rivaling the size of the statue next to it. Thick billowing clouds of smoke accompanied it that ran down the ground and poured into the plaza until covered a fair portion of it, much to the alarm of several bystanders who were very much aware of the black colt at this point. He sneered as he saw the terrified looks in their faces. The phantom stared in the same direction as the hapless ponies as it raised its bulky right arm in their direction, cloaked in the white wisp. The cloak surged forward with such blinding speed and quiet intensity that one could have easily missed it if they blinked. White engulfed the living targets before they had any time to react with little more than muffled screams. The smoke lingered around the ponies until the screams abruptly came to an end. When the smoke cleared, only two singed and shriveled husks remained, fused together by the intense heat that emanated from the cloud. The black colt chuckled maniacally as he cried out into the stifling air.
“To hell with rules! I’ll kill whoever I want! They want a distraction? I’ll give ‘em one!” The unicorn’s phantom outstretched another hand towards city hall and let loose another deluge of smoke that crashed like a bomb into the side of the building, reducing the entire eastern portion to rubble with the rest of the building toppling with it. His laughter persisted in the air as he continued to send spheres of super-heated vapor in every direction that violently and indiscriminately mangled anything that came into contact with them. “No one can stop-“
A pink hind hoof slammed straight into the colt’s nose with a sickening crunch that sent him reeling backwards into the statue. His phantom reached out and managed to stop his head from slamming into the granite monument and repositioned him back to his former place. He wiped his bloodied nose with his forehoof as he scrambled to see where the blow had originated. A fluttery voice piped up from somewhere on his right. The furious colt quickly turned with a snarl, phantom following suit with hands outstretched and ready to send a volley of spheres, but both hesitated when they discovered the identity of their assailant.
“That’s enough of that, mister!” roared the voices of one hundred Pinkie Pies in synchronization.
“You’ve gottta be kidding me,” mumbled the colt as his face melted into an annoyed frown. Smoke roared out of Romborama as it felt the hidden tension building inside of its master. “I thought you were finished!”
“No one gets rid of Pinkie Pie that easily!” ringed the horde as they rushed forward.

“So, all of you have one of these things?” Twilight said with a sort of relief that still reeked of fear. Rarity took a seat next to Twilight accompanied by her phantom.
“We discovered we had ours just two days ago. We call them ‘Stands’.”
“Stands? What kind of a name is that?”
“That’s what Pinkie Pie called them. On the account of them standing straight up like a bear.”
“Yeah, and they can do some pretty crazy things,” Rainbow Dash chimed in as her minute stand materialized and took a seat on her head. It had a somewhat impish appearance; it appeared to have a permanent grin etched on its face with two wide and deep blue eyes just below its conical head. It was in the same shape as Freewill but much more compact and curved much more dramatically in some places. The entirety of its bullet-like little body was painted black and white in the same manner as a checkered flag would be, much to the amusement of Twilight Sparkle who saw the color contrast rather ironic yet understandably fitting. It looked as if something was strapped onto its back, but it was obscured from view. “Isn’t it cool? I called mine Rush.” The stand seemed to chuckle in response.
Twilight was silently analyzing the curious little stand that Rainbow Dash possessed. She turned then to Rarity to inquire on the nature of her own stand who was floating just behind her.
“To be quite honest, I don’t know what it does exactly. All I know is that it can’t do half the things my magic could do, sadly.” Her stand was as tall as her own and maintained the same bipedal shape, but that was where the similarities finished. It was a white and deep purple that was remarkably reminiscent of Rarity, with large eyes whose pupils were thin slits, like those found on a feline. Actually, she realized that a large amount of features on Rarity’s stand strongly resembled a cat’s. “Naturally, I had to think of a name that was both fierce and elegant. I spent quite some time toying with some names, but finally settled on the name Killer Queen.”
The stand dubbed Killer Queen looked down on Twilight with its unblinking eyes that made her slightly uneasy.
It was then that Twilight suddenly felt all the hair on her body stand on end. Freewill turned its head quickly towards the door as it sensed a slight vibration in the air. “Did you guys feel that?”
The other mares stared in confusion. It was only Fluttershy, who was noticeably more disturbed than usual, who expressed her concern.
“I felt it too… Like an earthquake but different,” she whimpered out. An odd butterfly fluttered around her.
“We should probably check it out,” Applejack asserted as she rose from her seat. An arm materialized from out of her side clutching an odd and silvery object. “Whadda ya think, Twilight?”
The unicorn nodded as she once again felt another vibration in the wind that set both her and her stand on edge. The other mares rose from their seats and followed Twilight to the door as they all experienced a violent shockwave that felt dangerously close.
Rushing outside, they were greeted to a mountain of Pinkie Pies wrestling a giant stand through a house.

Author's Note

Stand: Romborama
Stand User: Cornelius
Destructive Power: A
Speed: C
Range: C
Durability: A
Precision: B
Development Potential: E
Abilities and Powers:
Moisture Control- Can draw moisture out of objects by heating the air around them and condense it into dense, super heated clouds that can be used as projectiles and a functional shield.
Super Strength: Possesses immense physical strength that can easily crush most obstacles.
Void Storage: Has an infinite void located within its chest that functions as a storage unit.