Chapters A Little Bizarre Adventure: Friendship is Forever
The golden comet streaked across the night sky with such incandescence the stars refused to compete with it. The sleepy towns across Equestria seemed all but oblivious to the sight as their night skies were already obscured by their own lights in their windows and streets, and it continued to remain unseen as it broke apart in mid-flight, sending pieces of the star scattering in all directions as it continued to fall and fall until it finally reached its final resting place burrowed deep within the side of a mountain. It had fallen with such grace and beauty that one could paint a thousand pictures and still not one would come close to the true sight. However, in truth there wasn’t anyone who saw the comet to begin with, so there would be none that could have even tried to actually describe it.
None, except one.
A pale blue unicorn stood several miles away from the mountain, staring fondly at the enormous chunk the star had turned to dust. At last, the day he had been waiting patiently for had finally come to be. He hadn’t been entirely sure it would even happen and even had trouble believing it had even occurred when he felt the brilliant splash of starlight on his skin as it crashed.
But it had finally happened and he could barely contain his excitement.
He began to shake with excitement and contained joy. He trotted left and right on the hill he was standing on picking up the glowing bits of rock that had scattered all over the pasture as he went along. He chuckled and threw them up into the air as the glittering stardust began to settle in the field in front of him like fresh snow.
“Finally! The stone tablets were right!” the pale unicorn said delightedly as he looked to the sky.
The stars were beginning to reclaim their rightful spots in the celestial plane, but he only caught a glimpse of them for a second before their visage was again obscured by another sight. This one ghostly and strange, unlike anything you would ever see in Equestria.
“Oh my! It’s already happening!” he exclaimed. He watched intently as the floating mass started to take a distinguishable form.
The ghostly image became sharper and sharper until it fully materialized, floating a foot away from the unicorn. It started pure white but changed to the color of the golden dust raining around it as time progressed. The soul piercing eyes in its head shifted from the skies to the pale unicorn in front of it and cocked its head as it examined the new sight like a newborn.
”Beautiful. Simply marvelous!” he laughed as he leaned forward to get a closer look.
It was the strangest sight he had ever seen. It was a creature that stood fully erect on two legs instead of four. The appendages that extended from its torso also seemed to be deformed; at the end of each were what appeared to be some sort of paw, but the digits were much longer. Such a terrifying sight should have been enough to make a normal pony cringe in fear, but to the pale blue unicorn, it was the most beautiful thing in the world.
The two stared at each other before the misty visage finally broke its gaze and nodded at the unicorn before rushing towards him. It vanished into the unicorn as he giggled with glee. It filled him with a warm and tingly sensation that proved to be quite enjoyable.
“This is amazing! I can feel the sheer power of it!” he said as puffed out his chest. “Oh, I can’t wait to try it out! But where? Bah! I’ll try it everywhere I go!”
The ghostly being emerged from his body once more to peek out at the golden fields. The unicorn turned his head back at his new companion and looked at him in admiration.
“You and me, friend. We’re gonna rule the world!”
A thousand miles away, in the quiet town of Ponyville, a certain purple unicorn was concluding her third late night study session in a row. Tonight, she was concluding the final chapter of Starswirl: An in Depth Study, an astounding book that explained much of Starswirl the Bearded’s more advanced spells. She closed the massive tome with a thud before she replaced it into its proper spot on the shelf with the rest of its companions. Her assistant, a young dragon, was awoken by the sound of the book closing. He yawned and stretched in his little bed as he turned to his friend at the desk.
“Are you still up? What time is it?” the young dragon said with a sleepy slur. “Twilight, you can’t keep doing this. It can’t be good for you.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine, Spike,” Twilight Sparkle said with the same exhaustion in her voice. “I’ll sleep in later, that’s all. Just go back to sleep. By the way, if I wake up before you, do you want breakfast?”
The purple dragon responded with a snore. He was already fast asleep.
Twilight shook her head and snuffed out the sole candle that illuminated her desk before she ascended the staircase to her room. She carefully recalled each step from memories of many long dark nights, remembering to mind the tenth step from the bottom, and reached her room without too much trouble. The second she opened the door, she headed straight to her bed and dug right in without hesitation. In mere moments, she was fast asleep and drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep without a slight realization of the golden corona of light that filled the sky for a few fleeting moments, the star that had ripped through the sky a few minutes ago, and of the gold pulse that set the room ablaze with light for a few seconds.
And she completely unaware of the ghostly being that stood by her bedside momentarily before vanishing into thin air.
Author's Note
Thought I'd try something new. Leave me some input as I am always trying to improve :)
A Little Bizarre Adventure: Friendship is Forever
It was a little less than two days ago that Twilight had begun to realize that she no longer possessed any manner of magical influence whatsoever. It was in an unfortunate accident involving Spike and an inconvenient vase that led to the discovery and ever since Twilight was beginning to take notice of some things that simply were not normal. Overpowering silence was the first of these to become apparent. The night and the ensuing day were the quietest days she had experienced all summer and the realization was that she had seen no sight of Pinkie Pie at all. Nights resonated with the infectious beats that found their roots in her parties and the days were always marked with periodic visits that served as vain attempts to invite Twilight to one of the events. The night following the accident was not filled with the usual activity and bustle and the following day was unsettlingly serene. It was then the furtiveness of her friends that she took note of. Encounters were kept brief and ended abruptly with Twilight being cut off by an excuse of some sort. It was unusual for even Applejack to end a conversation with only two sentences being said. Already left somewhat tense from the rest of the events, it was the final occurrence that made Twilight begin to doubt her own sanity.
It appeared to be a phantom of sorts, towering above Twilight at a good six feet tall and resembling nothing she had never seen before. It had four appendages and a head but it stood on only two while the other two hung by its sides. Two piercing eyes rested within its head that both seemed to be staring at everything and nothing all at the same time, a strange convex that Twilight assumed to be a nose and mouth set in stone. Cloaked in a flaming purple and Twilights own Cutie Mark branded prominently on its forehead and right arm, it goes without saying that it was quite possibly the most terrifying thing the young unicorn had ever seen. Yet it was only she who could see it; Spike only reciprocated a look of confusion every time she brought it up. She delved into books for the better part of the night to disprove her perceived insanity only to have it grow with each turn of the page.
“Twelve books and absolutely nothing!” Twilight cleared the table violently with a sweep of her hoof. “Grimoires, ghost stories, summoning tomes, I don’t even know what to look for!” Her head fell in defeat into the desk.
“I think you should go talk to Celestia, if you think it’s such a big deal,” Spike said as he strolled by her desk with a glass of milk in hand. He sipped it with a profound calm as he turned to face Twilight only to find her glaring at him.
“I would, but what if she can’t see it either?” Twilight retorted as she shook her head. “And how are you so calm? Aren’t you in the least bit concerned?”
He ascended the stairs without a word. Twilight shook her head again and sighed. The lack of anywhere to turn left her utterly defeated. The answer had to lie somewhere, she thought, within the tomes that surrounded her; she had only but to find it. She rose and turned in a single movement and stopped, along with her heart, as she came face to face once again with the ghostly apparition. In its arms were two tall stacks of books balanced effortlessly in its hands. Unicorn and phantom stood a good minute with eyes locked, unmoving and totally silent. It was Twilight, curiosity growing from her fear, that broke the silence.
“Are those… are those for me?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “Did you get them for me?”
“Well, you can put them on the table if they’re for me,” she asked somewhat stupidly. She blinked and the books were no longer present in the phantom’s hands. She turned to see the books stacked in perfect towers on her desk. Turning back, she looked inquisitively at her companion. She experimented: “Find A Brief History of Magic.”
Almost instantly, the massive book was in its hands.
She smiled as she heard a click within her brain. The ensuing ten minutes saw the fetching of ten books, a glass of water, a sandwich, and a somewhat rough back rub. The phantom performed every task it was given without any objection or any sound at all.
“Do you have a name?” she asked finally after the numerous requests. No response. “I guess I should have figured. Well, you seem to be doing everything I ask of you of your own free will… How about Freewill?”
The phantom made no response, but Twilight noticed that something was etching itself into the left forearm of the phantom with a bright glow. She inspected it to see that a word, giving off a burning pink glow against the purple arm, was engraved boldly into the phantom in ornate and elaborate handwriting: FREEWILL. She smirked and looked up at the newly dubbed Freewill who was staring at her with a blank expression that might have been interpreted as a smile. Twilight had grown somewhat accustomed to it but still harbored an intense curiosity of it. Even more prevalent than this curiosity was the need for sleep, which overpowered all and was first in the order of importance. With a yawn, she ascended the steps leading to her bedroom as Freewill, after extinguishing every source of light in the house, followed silently behind, fading slowly as Twilight sank deeper into a blissful and anxious sleep.
“How much longer do we have to wait?” The black colt paced back and forth through the moonlit grass. “We’ve been here all day and done absolutely nothing!”
“Tomorrow morning,” said his partner sharply in a steely voice. The campfire was prodded by an invisible hand. “We had to make sure that pink pony didn’t get in our way again.”
The black colt named Cornelius stopped his pacing and stared out into the distance, the twinkling night lights of Ponyville prominent in the darkness. “Hard to believe that one pony has caused us so much trouble. What’s so special about her anyways? I thought someone like you would have no trouble with her.”
“I would have no problem dealing with just her,” Sonny responded as he glared angrily at Cornelius. “But there was one hundred of her . I didn’t even get a solid hit in. She completely wrecked me .” Cornelius could feel the ground rumble slightly as Sonny emphasized his last word.
“So that’s it, huh? She can do that?” Cornelius turned away from the glistening lights and returned to sit by the fire across from Sonny. “So why do we want the foal instead the pink one?”
“The foal’s abilities are a little bit more valuable to the boss,” Sonny replied matter-of-factly. “Besides, the pink one has had time to practice with her power. She’s too strong to get under control.”
“I’d like to see her go one round against me.” A hulking apparition appeared behind the sneering Cornelius. “I’d have her begging for me to take her after I was done with her.”
Sonny regarded him with little interest as a ghostly hand appeared before him and prodded the fire. “Get some rest,” he said with increased volume. “Tomorrow’s gonna be a big day."
Author's Note
I'll be putting the stand data here as the story progresses. For now, enjoy the chapter after several months of absence!
A Little Bizarre Adventure: Friendship is Forever
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.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.
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.
“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.
Author's Note
Stand: Romborama
A Little Bizarre Adventure: Friendship is Forever
Ponyville had become silent in just under an hour after the initial moments of destruction wrought by the titanic stand known as Romborama. It was almost startling how quickly the entire town was able to evacuate, and to the naked eye it seemed as if the entire town was vacant entirely. But to Sonny, it was all too obvious that there were still stragglers hiding in their residences. A family of three was cowering in the basement of the house down the street, an elderly pony was still asleep soundly in his bed in the house directly to his right, three fillies were hiding in the attic of a boutique three blocks away. He stopped in the middle of the street as he felt the waves of the air ripple through his stand, materializing directly above him. The stand’s steely dish eyes received hundreds of minute ripples of air, until it was able to pinpoint the exact sequence that its master was seeking. The information was relayed instantly, Sonny’s mouth cracking into a smug smirk in pride.
“It’s one of those three fillies in that house,” Sonny said to himself. “Nothing escapes you, does it Nice Sprite? Now to flex some muscle, Scary Monster.”
The stand suddenly flipped to reveal another torso beneath it, a dull rusted exterior that contrasted heavily to its gleaming counterpart. A sinister smile was plastered on its eyeless face.
“Let’s bring the house down.”
The five mares stood hapless amidst the chaos that was finally beginning to settle around them. Pinkie bounded gracefully and gleefully among the destruction as Romborama staggered to its feet. Thick steam clouds billowed forth from the gigantic black stand as its chest opened to reveal the void within and a bloody Cornelius.
“Ugh, what’s going on?” he spat, blood trickling from his mouth. “You’re STILL alive? I thought for sure that I had you that time!”
“You mean where I tackled you into the house? Yeah! I thought you had me too!” Pinkie mocked as she pranced. Another Pinkie shot forth from out of her Cutie Mark and danced along with the original. “But you only got a Pinkie from Another World!”
Cornelius and Romborama lurched forward with a burst of unnatural speed in an attempt to grab the pink pony, but missed and collided with the ground once more. The Pinkies danced on the fallen stand and continually multiplied until the steam from Romborama ceased to erupt. Cornelius’ head popped out from under the mound heavily wheezing.
“I guess I underestimated the power of your stand! But it doesn’t matter if you beat me here, or even kill me!” Cornelius chuckled. He wheezed again under the pressure of Pinkies. “I’ve already succeeded! My job was to distract you, and I did a damn good job of it!”
“Distraction?” The original Pinkie at the very top of the pile suddenly sobered. “What are you talking about?”
“He’s talking about me,” a chilly voice emanated from down the street. All heads turned to see a gray stallion standing in the middle of the road, a ghostly figure floating above him with a small body clutched in its hands. “Good job with not dying, Cornelius. I thought for sure that Pinkie Pie was going to kill you, but I guess I can live with a little bit of disappointment.”
“Shut up and get me out of under here!” Cornelius struggled under the mountain. “Stop screwing around, Sonny!”
Pinkie bounced off the pile and approached Sonny at the end of the street. Her eyes were trained on the body that his stand was holding in its hands, gasping when she realized who it was.
“Sweetie Belle?!”
Rarity charged towards Pinkie and Sonny the second the name of her sister was uttered, with all the other mares in hot pursuit. Her speed surprised all of present company, as in only a matter of seconds she was standing in front of Pinkie. Killer Queen had materialized in perfect clarity behind its master.
“What in the world do you think you’re doing with my sister?!” she demanded. Killer Queen’s hands clenched in accordance with Rarity’s fury. “I demand you release her or prepare to face my wrath!”
Sonny threw his head back and laughed in contempt for the unicorn before him. “And what are you going to do? Don’t make me laugh! You don’t even know your stand’s own powers, I bet.” He cackled as his own stand tossed the limp Sweetie Belle onto his back, freeing his stand. “Nothing is more pathetic than a Stand user who isn’t even aware of their own Stand’s abilities! Let me demonstrate what a master can do! Scary Monster!”
The gleaming stand flipped suddenly to reveal the rusted monstrosity beneath it. Its jaw groaned as it spread wide open, revealing a large counterpart of the eye dishes that Nice Sprite possessed. A low ringing noise flooded the area as Scary Monster clutched its head.
“With every movement we make, every breath, every bat of an eyelash, a small wave is produced that ripples throughout space,” Sonny spoke as he walked slowly forward towards Rarity. “Nice Sprite receives the waves, but Scary Monster amplifies the natural ripple of any and all objects. That’s what that noise you’re probably hearing right now is.”
“You condescend my stand when all you can do is make noise?” Rarity scoffed. “I at least know enough to do this!” Killer Queen launched itself forward and catapulted its fist straight into the Scary Monster’s dish. Moments before impact, it halted, frozen in midair as the sound intensified. Rarity tried to force a fading Killer Queen forward in vain as she felt her body gradually begin to feel under pressure. In a deathly shriek, she suddenly collapsed to the floor as her body erupted in pain and the air left her lungs. All of the mares around her experienced the same unnatural and intense sensation.
“Noise is a very powerful thing, my dear. At just the right wavelength, I can make these ripples interfere with brain and nerves, even your organs. Your lungs are probably about to collapse as we speak.” Sonny walked right past the writhing group as he laughed. He stopped by Pinkie Pie and kicked her savagely with his hind leg. “You caught me off guard, but now you see my true might! And since I’m such a nice guy, I’ll just let you all pass out so you can always remember how you bowed before me!” With a final triumphant kick into Pinkie’s ribcage, he walked off towards Cornelius.
One by one, the ponies lost consciousness, their final image Sonny and his gruesome stand.
The pink mountain crushing Cornelius dematerialized and allowed the black mare to stagger to his feet. When he realized how badly he was hurt and the limits to which he could move, he summoned Romborama and was scooped up into his void. He puffed from his electronic cigarette in the comfort of his void, glimpsing out into the setting sun. Sonny stopped by and looked up at the titan.
“Do me a favor and carry this filly in there?” the deep green stallion shook his well-kept mane with a flourish. Nice Sprite held out Sweetie Belle to Romborama.
“What makes her so special again?” Cornelius’ muffled voice emanated from his stand. It gobbled Sweetie Belle into the void of its chest. “I sense a stand, but it’s faint.”
“That’s not for us to know. All we have to do is bring it back to Lord Hardwell,” Sonny said as he begun to walk again. “Let’s move quickly. We have a long road ahead of us.”
The bizarre pair of stand and pony walked off into the setting sun, leaving a decimated Ponyville behind them.
Author's Note
Two Stands this time! Sorry for the long wait!
Stand: Scary Monster/Nice Sprite
Stand: Another World