Care Root's Bizarre Adventure

by Ditherer the Fussbudget

Harsh Lights

”Do you know why Dagi and I have different eyes than Aria?”

Weeks back, you and Sonata were laying together on the couch in your resident shithole, and she asked you that. Her head was kind of buried against you, so you had to stop and put the hairbrush aside before she could repeat herself.

’Different eyes’...? You hadn’t really noticed, you guessed, but afterwards you could tell. Aria’s were a dark purple that matched the rest of her, but Adagio’s and Sonata’s were pinker, violet. Cerise.

“Why?”

She smiled a secretive smile and put her head back against you. ”I’ll tell you when we go to Equestria.”

That was another interesting thing. She always said “Equestria”, but her sisters said “home”. But it was hard to notice that with her powder-blue cheek against your ribs and her shoulders against your ribs. You hadn’t run to do laundry yet, so she was wearing some of your lay-about clothes, and those few inches you had on her meant the world.

She occupied the small, sleepy space between cuddling and napping, with the faint scent of strong flowers humming in the background. Eyes closed, mouth twisted a wide feline smirk, face scrunched against your chest. It was top cute. God, you'd never thought a girl would be... like that, so close to you.

”You’re excited to find out what it is, aren’t you? Your breathing’s picking up again,” she notes.

You stop, involuntarily trying to calm your heartbeat, and she giggles. Embarrassment swells up for a moment before you shove it back in the corner, and grasp the brush from the carpet. After giving it a solid once-over to ensure there’s no rug-fiber mixed in, you return to the long, sweeping strokes down her beautiful fountaining hair.

”Mmm, Nonny...” She’s still smiling as she falls asleep. You keep running it along her, watching it leave a glossy curtain of lamp-light in its wake. She seems so peaceful, despite everything she’s been through. That smile...

You have to protect that smile.

You're here, now, and Anonymous stands over you like a man possessed, gun on your temple. Time moves in slow motion. C’mon, ｢Pink｣...! Erase just a few steps, maybe getting out of the car! Then you can jump in the front and run this guy down!

The ghost touching you creates some kind of… of interference! It didn’t do that last time! Has he gotten stronger, or have you just--?

｢Nowhere Man｣ keeps you planted while he pulls the trigger. Behind him, the lights go out, and he becomes less than a silhouette while the gun glints faintly in the evening light of the entrance. ｢Pink｣ struggles, trying to outpace his forefinger, but it isn’t fast enough. He fires.

Click.

Click.

He’s out of bullets. As that moment clicks into the tapestry of fate, time starts again - think, Diamond, think. If you can just escape the hold of his Stand, you can summon your own and --

He rears back and smacks you across the cheek with the hilt. You feel the persistent sting of a developing bruise. He’s breathing heavily now, like he's about to cry, and then the words come from behind you.

”｢Tin Cup Chalice｣!” Silver shouts, before a burst of energy singes its way past you and smashes into his ribcage. It doesn’t pierce the skin, but he’s sent sprawling sideways, and the gun flies from his fingers.

The air goes out of him in a moment, and you see Silver, holding two pieces of her Stand. Between them, dust coalesces into a fresh pair of glasses, and the implosion dissipates the ghost on her.

Right! The glasses float in mid-air and start breaking down again, while you angle your own assailant closer to it. The ghost lets go of you, and flies around to Anonymous, who regains his balance just as quickly as he lost it. Unfortunately, with a single roll to the side, he forces her second shot to go wild - but he's given you an opening even so.

You summon ｢Pink｣, feeling its metaphysical weight beside you, and then you dive for the pistol.

The all-encompassing red throws deep shadows.

Your allies inch closer, Sweetie wringing the arrow in her hands. Derpy’s crying breathily over Care Root’s unconscious body. It isn’t pleasant to look at, but it’s better than the alternative.

In the room beyond, the final moments should be playing out just now. The gems have come together, and the portal opened. You’ve done everything in your power to bring this about.

”W-what?” That’s... Sunset’s voice?

”No! No, that can’t happen! They’re complete! They’re all COMPLETE!” And then, a mighty, arcane thundercrack. You stop being able to hear things at the same time as waves of pressure run up your arms. Something’s gone wrong…!

A crimson wind smashes against the three of you, and Sweetie puts the arrow between them. Red, glittering light punches through something hard enough to rattle you, and then disappears. Your eyes go wide, and you run past the cross-eyed girl and into the conference room.

Twilight’s frozen next to the doorway, and Sunset’s laying on the ground, propping herself up with one hand. Flash is looking up at the giant holes in the ceiling - each one is the size of your head, and there are more than a dozen. Sixteen, seventeen... before you can bother counting, you notice Sunset climbing to her knees.

Smoke is coming off of her clothes, like she’s been struck by lightning. ”W-we didn’t have all of the gems.”

Flash comes over and helps her to her feet. ”I don’t think any of them were fake. We checked them, thoroughly. There was no time for a switch.”

”No, all three of them were real. I know that for sure. But they weren’t all there.” Sunset breathes a little, patting down her leather jacket.

”You mean, a piece was missing?” you ask.

She nods. Who wouldn’t have brought them together tonight? Adagio’s had to be complete to use her singing powers. Yours was definitely altogether, unless someone made a really stupid mistake, and the one Care got from Trixie was complete to begin with, right?

As you ponder this, a blur of motion blends through the darkness. All the light’s coming from outside the door you entered from, so you have to squint against your own shadow.

Apple Bloom sees it first, and cries out. ”｢Steam Powered Giraffe｣!” She takes over the Stand, stepping forward and away from both of you, and it smashes a fist against the form. Adagio goes sprawling back into the dark, and Flash and Sunset go on the alert.

Sunset takes the lead. ”They’ve scattered again. We’re not safe here, and there’s no advantage to fighting. We have to retreat.”

Aw, crap. What you just did to Care might not have been a wise idea. But as long as he makes it out...

”I don’t think so.” The low purring voice comes from behind Sunset, and a clawing hand tears at Flash.

The two separate, each moving backwards, but the attack abruptly stops.

Adagio steps into the dim starlight. ”Sunset Shimmer may be as tough as we are, but none of the rest of you will be leaving tonight.” By the door, Twilight’s frozen, and you can’t tell if she’s terrified or calculating.

Adagio makes another swipe at Flash, this time drawing blood on his arm. Then, she steps away from him into the dark of the room. ”Maybe I should start with your unconscious acrobat over here?”

Flash grits his teeth. ”Leave her out of it!”

”How chivalrous. Why don’t you give me some answers in exchange for her life?” The voice comes from another part of the room, now. Is she throwing it? Is that something she can do, without the gem to help her?

Sunset moves toward the table at the center of the room, looking around into the darkness. She doesn’t see anything more than you do, but she speaks. ”Don’t ask him. Ask me what you want to know.”

Silence. Then... ”Why are there Stands in CHS, and nowhere else? And why is it that the only Crystal Prep students who have them are the ones who are expressly helping you?” Sunset is stone, but Flash is nervous. ”I know that you have the answer. If it’s worth more than a girl’s life...”

Okay, you really, really need to shed some light in here... Wait, that’s it! You motion to Sweetie, and grip the arrow.

Flash opens his mouth to speak. The arrow’s power runs up your arm, drawing in a current of energy from you, and forcing a Stand to activate.

｢Gold Guns Girls｣ powers up, and along one wall, your enemy is illuminated, holding Lemon Zest’s body. Above her there floats a giant orange light, created by her own ability. Her eyes narrow as they find yours, and you see a look of murderous frustration on her face.

｢Steam Powered Giraffe｣ speeds towards her, but she’s too nimble - even holding Lemon in a bridal carry, she still leaps out of the way. The light follows her in the air, and then hits a wall. She’s retreating through the far door!

Flash yells and throws a hand out, flinging his energy after her. ”｢Beat Street｣!” Then reality goes wonky where he’s motioned.

A massive chunk of the wall gets caught up in endless high-velocity blacktop, and then the doorway extends out into a rip about four times larger. Beyond is only darkness.

The lights went off a couple minutes ago, and your eyes are only now adjusting. You’ve been separated from the group for too long, and ultimately you just feel very alone, and weak, wandering these halls.

They could be getting slaughtered back there! You want to call them, but your gauntlets aren’t getting service. You’ve already resolved to find an exit and come back in to help them, however long it takes! If you could only find a door, or an opening, or anything remotely window-shaped... Labyrinth rules, you’ve followed the left-hand wall wherever it goes, and you haven’t doubled back, but this building seems mostly made of intersections.

It’s only twenty seconds ago that you heard the humming. Faintly vocal, definitely muffled by something, but present, and not in the direction you came. Someone else is around here - probably a Dazzling. The point was driven home to you, more than once, that they have superhuman hearing; if you can hear her, then...

You keep your breathing silent, fighting the urge to stop completely. Then you kneel down and pop off your flats, one at a time. You realize belatedly there might be broken glass around, but it’s too late. Thankfully your socks are silent against the floor, and you plod forward.

So, out of the three, it can’t be the ringleader or the one you already fought... it's the blue one, Sonata. Like the other two, you have no idea what her Stand is, but she wouldn’t just be standing in a corner somewhere. You meander closer to her voice, your back to the nearest wall.

The hum’s punctuated with breathy clicking. Like her voice is cracking, sans actual talking. Did something happen to her? Yellow electrical warning signs begin to populate the walls, and at the next intersection her voice leads you rightwards.

You’re in the guts of the building, doors lining the walls this way and that, unhelpful laminated signs on the walls, and as you round the corner you can hear her even more distinctly. The completely unwelcome impression of plodding into the underworld comes over you. If you died here and everyone else got to go home happy...

Well, maybe you just aren’t meant to deal with danger. You’ve been testing fate, first against Care Root and now against this whole labyrinth - you’re lucky you didn’t sustain long-term damage from it.

All you want is to be with your sweetheart in France. She told you that if you helped, a full life would be arranged for you: plane tickets, a comfortable bank account, general happiness, even a cure for sterility, which you didn’t know you had and didn’t know how to feel about taking. But it was there, from that other world, along with the rest of their pile of wonders.

You suppose everyone wants children eventually. Well, excepting your Aunt Cinch, though. But to breathe the air of Lorraine, to finally try those oursins along the coast. You and your dearest Aligot Truffade... What was that?

Movement, or the hint of it. It’s hard to tell out in the staticky sea of black, but your ears don’t mistake it. The humming-clicking is louder, punctuated by silence, and the sounds of thick vinyl boots tapping away at the floor. You freeze, pressing yourself against the wall, but nothing about the sound changes.

She hasn’t noticed you yet. No sooner do you think that thought then she stops.

This is a four-way intersection. She’s coming back from somewhere, going somewhere... those are likely to be the places that matter. You could retreat back down your hallway, but it wouldn’t be important; right now you need to make a turn, right or left.

”Listening chair.” The words are a whisper - and then, sleepily, like a reminder: ”Someone’s hiding...”

｢Spinal Tap｣ has fallen away, and there’s just the light. He’s still okay, still breathing. The Crusaders ran past you into the room, and you don’t bother looking back at the noise.

The concrete burns your knees, and you fumble for something to break. You can’t stay here, you have to escape, and you have to open your eyes. Against the brightness you manage it, blinking wetly and trying to focus. It’s real brightness, something between your chest and the ground.

You reach into a pocket and snap something. ｢Spinal Tap｣ scoops up Care, whose head is starting to bruise with a rash of red. He’s not bleeding, but you still don’t look at him. What’s this thing beneath you?

Light, solid, almost flat. You touch it, expecting it to burn, but it’s cool and glassy on your fingertips. A ball. You lift it, and it buzzes against your palms as something twitches in your mind, like an extra muscle. Like a hand pressing into yours...

“｢Timbuk Three｣?” It presses against your mind. An image: you and him, much older, somewhere top-rate, with little masquerade masks over your eyes. Slow dancing, perfectly postured, looking into each other. You’ve always wanted to slow dance...

You shake your head, and it diminishes before it can show you any more. The orb is a little less bright now, just enough to notice.

He gave you one of the orbs to light your way out. He’s letting you burn up his future on his behalf.

...Your. Your future, too. You look down at the orb, and then up at the way out.

And then, gingerly, you set Care back down. They could’ve finished him, and they didn’t. Plus they completely ignored you.

You can’t just run away from that! You won’t!

Luck is not on your side tonight. Is your life just a shitty comedy, or something? A cosmic joke?

No, no more thinking like that. You have to fight, for Nata! ｢Nowhere Man｣ summons up the twenty-third, twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth people to commit murder with their bare hands. Shit, and these ones have pecs. With a gesture you set them on the girls.

”Silver!” Diamond shouts to her friend. She’s holding your pistol now, not that it’ll do her any good, but she’s got a point. You redirect the ghosts, sending them to mob Silver.

One gets smashed by one of those waves of energy, or whatever they are. The second you feel it dissipate, you summon it back to ｢Nowhere Man｣. “Go for her Stand!”

Silver throws something at #24, and it passes straight through. Diamond rushes forward, but her friend’s already held back. The two square plates clatter to the ground, and #23 plunges a hand into her heart. There!

And then, against all odds, a gunshot. It cracks a few feet from you, and you’re stunned. So are the ghosts, temporarily.

Diamond’s facing you, holding it up, a wisp of smoke over her eyes. ”Call them off.”

Fuck. It went wild, but not by much. Was there an extra bullet in the chamber? You thought you ran through the whole cylinder, but maybe there was, or else one of your helpers reloaded it to be useful. You know there’s definitely not another one in it, but just to be safe...

#23 takes a break from stopping Silver’s heartbeat to glide and take the gun. Diamond adjusts her grip and pulls the trigger again. Bang! And another time! Bang!

The first bullet nearly hits your legs, and you throw yourself out of the way of the second one. How did this bitch have ammunition ready?

#23 goes for the gun, and you hear the smacking sound of her Stand pulverizing it. You breathe heavier and summon another, throwing your head back and forth in search of cover. She fires again, over your head, and you remember almost too late that Aria blocked off all of the exits!

As time creeps by around you, you try to calculate some solution. How many bullets has she fired? Four. She fires another one at you, and your latest ghost grabs it out of the air. It falls to the ground, and you make your move.

The two holding Silver lift her off of the ground and position her between her friend and you. Diamond hesitates; she has one shot left.

The ghost in front of you flies to grab it. Her Stand appears, a tiny inky thing, and your ghost dodges around it. Diamond’s eyes go wide, and she dives out of the way, flopping onto the floor. She aims for her last shot, and you run out of the way.

Bang! It clangs and sparks against the wall behind you. You breathe easier at the clear fact that she’s obviously never used a gun before.

And you keep an eye on her to make sure she isn’t reloading. She’s still, just aiming towards you, lining up a shot with one eye closed. Trying to act tough so you'll back down. Bullying bluster was enough to scare you as a kid, when you still didn’t know that people were just not worth the energy, but you’ve healed since then, and it doesn’t impress you.

Your ghost pins her to the ground, reaching through her back to grab her heart. She gasps, and the pistol wobbles. To her credit, she doesn’t let go, but there’s no way in hell that she could reload that thing now. She’d only barely be able to fire it, if there were something in the barrel.

You saunter over to her. She threw herself close to her friend’s… shards, or whatever they are. '｢Tin Cup Chalice｣'. You don’t want her pulling some last minute trick with them, so you pick them up, gingerly, between your forefingers and thumbs.

Then you have the important choice between turning on your heels and hurling them outside, or just smashing them onto the ground. Your eyes meet Silver's for a moments and she winces, turns her head away and shuts them tightly. You almost wish this weren’t so satisfy-

BANG!

The shot’s close, and you can feel the echo that comes with it - your body ripples with it. Like you’re suddenly underwater, not completely solid.

The feeling has a center. The ghost falls away from her as you run two fingers down and find it. Red, just above your hip. It looks like when you ripped out one of your baby teeth a little early...

Your ears are full of cotton and now the world’s moving. Her friend falls to the ground at about the same time you do. Seven. How could there be seven? And then the hard metal of the bullet vanishes under your fingers, just plinks out of existence, and Diamond stands over you, gun in hand.

You planned this! You planned out all of it! You were careful, and your Stand let you run it through with all of the survivors! Care Root, a less powerful version, granted, explained Trixie’s death, and Derpy’s. Other Flashes told you about what casualties you might expect, if you convinced the rest of the Rainbooms to come along.. You knew it couldn’t be perfectly predictable, because Care was bringing the gem instead of Trixie and her group, but... but how could that have affected anything?

It worked in the other universes, you were successful, everything was worth it! Now it’s all back to square one, someone shook up the puzzle and dumped it back into the box. And your allies, not to mention the little sisters of your best friends, are in danger because of it!

Okay, okay. The important thing is to regroup. To regroup, and not to panic. So. You’re going to have to come back the way you came, and hope-

”｢Spinal Tap｣!”

The voice comes from behind you, and the fist immediately follows it. You smash into the conference table, sundering it in two with a primordial crack. Splinters fly, and by the time you can roll over you can hear another impact. Flash hits the wall.

Standing in the room, angry and crying, is Derpy. Under her arm is something unfamiliar, some kind of giant light bulb. The light it's casting leaves none of her feelings to the imagination.

”You attacked my boyfriend who never did anything to hurt anyone, and you made him give up so much-” her Stand appears in front of the Crusaders and cracks the floor with its elbows, making them stumble.

They summon ｢Steam Powered Giraffe｣, which levels a punch back at her. But ｢Spinal Tap｣ punches back at it, holding back its fist. Reversing it!

”And then you though you could lie to trick him into doing whatever you wanted! After you hurt my sisters and made us think it was someone else! There’s no reason for that! He would’ve helped you, any of you, if you’d just asked!”

She’s making it very hard for you to stay cool and think ahead. Flash is getting up.

"But you didn’t! You didn’t ask because it was alright to make him suffer! It was okay!” ｢Steam Powered Giraffe｣ has to throw up both arms to block the following strikes. They’re faster than her Stand should be able to move!

In the light of what she’s carrying, she’s the center-stage of this scene, her motion the only motion.

“All of you, all of you, all of you, all of you, all of you are evil!” The final hit lands, and something cracks. It’s not ｢Spinal Tap｣.

Still clutching the arrow, all three of them flinch and back up, shoulder to shoulder, and then the Stand dissipates back into nothing.

Flash takes his opportunity. He’s positioned himself behind her, and he slips something out of his pocket - a taser. You’re proud of the selection, and keep your eyes pointed away from him. If you can get through past her, you still have to worry about getting Lemon back, and Care...

He pulls the trigger, and twin prods fire from the end. You wince, but then they stop, caught in a field of light. The orb under her shoulder pulses, and her free hand reaches into her pocket. Flash lets go as the light travels up the lines, but it encases his hand, holding him fast.

Without turning around, she produces a popsicle stick, slides it into the corner of her mouth, very nearly smiling if not for her eyes, and then snaps it in half with her teeth.

“Uhhhhh.” You clutch your head and wake up, eyes watering. Cold, floor.

You can’t have been out for long, they haven’t tried to check that you’re dead. Why did you- Oh, yeah. The corpse. Past Sour, who’s at least in one piece, there’s... Zap.

You… honestly can’t say that you liked her very much, but there was something admirable about her anyway. Something that stirs in you, now... Your eyes adjust, adding wobbling depth to the darkness. Are you being attacked by a Stand?

You scramble for your phone, and its light slices through without an issue. (It better, considering it’s only a week old.) And catches someone supporting themselves against a wall with one arm.

You realize who, and lower the light too late. She looks over her shoulder at you, and her glinting eyes are lost in the darkness. You nearly drop the phone, and switch it off as you scramble to the far wall. Giving up your light source is death, here.

Something wet slops around the area you were just in, slithering. You resist the urge to look at it, just planning a route to take when it quests near you. What can you do? You have ｢Pavlov’s Daughter｣, so if you can make her tell a lie, then you can force her to eat... concrete?

Or, if you tell a lie and make it work on yourself, which you’ve never tried before, you can make yourself eat the… the darkness. Oh, this is hopeless. You saw Indigo, Sour. Flash and Lemon probably didn’t even make it to the end of this hallway.

And whatever they did to wind her, it’s not as if your Stand will even attack her! She’s an immortal, and you’re essentially in a giant empty room! Sure, you carry a baggie of sleeping pills on you in case you need to use your Stand on someone, but it’s not going to work on her! Something slides blindly around the room.

You choke down a shriek and hold still as it touches your shoe. It wraps around your ankle, and then you’re forced. You have to give a flash of light from the phone, briefer than a lightning-bug.

It disintegrates, but then immediately another one’s gripping your arm, inches above the phone. So much for discretion. You switch hands and shine a light on it. Switch... hands…? Why does that sound so right to you?

More are already coming, and you turn the light on them. Aria’s standing there, shoulders hunched, striding for you. Her fists comes right at you, but all you have to do is catch it! Your hand moves with the thought.

Huh? Why did you do that?

Her fist connects with your palm, obliterating your phone. You feel the cracking, locomotive force of the punch disperse up your arm in little dark-red explosions. Bones creak, and then your Stand bubbles up to the surface. But that’s…

No. It becomes clear to you - clear as crystal. Yes, right when you were passing out! A name just came to you!

Aria Blaze holds you against the wall just by pushing your fist. And then over her shoulder, with her free hand, she pulls a scimitar out of the darkness.

With deathly speed, and mad eyes, she slices it down for you. If you tried to grab her arm, you would never overpower her, even in desperation. If you tried to make your phone dissipate it, you’d die in seconds even if it worked.

No. There’s only one path forward! You throw your free hand over your head, and catch it!

Aria’s face doesn’t even register your reaction - until the blade stops. Then she jolts, eyes running down the sword to your hand. Possibly noticing that it’s the wrong color for the rest of your body.

In fact, both of your hands look that way. And, even in the low light, hers don’t look right either. She tries to make a retreat, but her body won’t pull away. She’s being held in place, her fist locked in your grip.

“｢Nails for Breakfast...” You tighten your grip. “Demo｣.”

With her hands you can output incredible force. Your crush the hand you’ve switched with her in a single, mean movement of muscle. Except this time, she feels it. She cries out like a child falling off a bike for the first time, and collapses to her knees, letting go of the sword, in time for you to wrest it from her.

The hands you took from her grip the blade and bear it down on her, straight into her chest. She gasps at the power of her own Stand, and throws her head up for a moment, and then passes out.

Even in the low light, you can tell that she’s breathing. Nothing here can kill her. Which means there’s no reason to go easy on her! Go team!

That thought really didn’t seem to come from you. You look at your borrowed hands and wonder why in hell this happened to you. You have so many questions... But you understand where this came from.

Indigo. Somehow, Indigo’s still with you.

You nudge Aria with a foot to make sure she’s out. Then you stoop and pick up Sour, making sure to put all of the weight you can on your fingers. You have a team to reunite.

It’s a relief to not be hoisted into the air like a pinata.

You didn’t think that you’d get out of that one, but you guess you didn’t count on Diamond. When she was near the gun, you recreated the bullet Anonymous shot at you when you first saw him - it had been in ｢Tin Cup Chalice｣, half-forgotten. But even you thought it had only given her one chance to hit him!

No, it was her own strength that saved the two of you. ｢Pink｣, undoing the pulling of the trigger so that every shot was the first shot! You feel something swell in you, like pride but less fatherly. Your friend’s starting to see the power of her own potential!

But she’s also about to shoot someone. You don’t feel as bad about that as you were expecting to - you mean, he did try to murder both of you, more than once, and your whole body is still sore from hanging in the air.

Anonymous speaks, looking up at Diamond. ”Why?”

She doesn’t move the gun, or change her expression. ”’Why’ what?”

”Why are you here?! Why would you bother trying to make my life more miserable?! Why do you want to take away the only good thing that’s ever happened to me?!”

You... have no idea what he’s talking about. Diamond doesn’t either, but she answers. ”We’re here for the people who matter to us. And you’re the one who tried to shoot us.”

He gnashes, going on like he hadn’t heard her. ”I worked forever just to track down that one speck of her gem, and you stole it from us! You did it just to give it to… to that geek and the only woman who could stand him!”

Actually, you remember you didn’t. You hadn’t… gotten around to it.

Oh, dear.

Anonymous keeps going. ”Well, what did they need it for so badly?! What was so important that those two had to keep their grubby hands on the one thing that would make her happy?!” He pushes himself up, kicking out of his pooling blood, right for her.

Wait, what’s that he’s holding? Oh, no.

Diamond fires, right for his heart. But the gun is caught between two tiles of ｢Tin Cup Chalice｣. You try to stop its effect, pushing against it, but you’re too panicked. It senses your fear, and works faster.

The bullet doesn’t even make it all the way out of the barrel before it turns into dust. Diamond tries to use ｢Pink｣, but by the look on her face it doesn’t work, and then the gun disintegrates just after it. Anonymous turns, drawn up to full height, and punts her back towards the door.

You run after her, but she disappears before she can make the impact. She’s back where he kicked her from, and she sends out her Stand. Its surface is mottled and cracking, and it moves slower than normal - she’s abusing it too much.

When it strikes, one of his ghosts flies out of the sleeve of his suit and absorbs the hit. It takes a second attack for it to dissipate. Your heart’s beating so fast that you can’t stop ｢Tin Cup Chalice｣ from activating, and there’s more of that interference, grabbing at you like pulling hair.

Your Stand spits the bullet and the gun back out, and he snatches them up. Another ghost grabs the two pieces of tile and flies closer to the ceiling, playing keep-away. You’re not interested.

He kicks for her again, but her Stand helps her leap out of the way. Then a swipe with the pistol, and she’s back where she started, panting. Then, from under the floor, one of the ghosts reaches up for her.

”Diamond!” You shout, but it’s no good.

She tries to use ｢Pink｣ to dodge it, but there’s nothing for her to erase. Another reaches for you out of the ground, and you hop away from it.

Not again. You won’t let yourself be helpless like that! If Diamond’s going to save you, you have to save her too! You run for the far wall, staring up at the ghost stonefacedly holding your Stand.

Anonymous strides over to you. That ethereal hand grabs your foot, holding you in place - but that’s alright. You can’t stop ｢Tin Cup Chalice｣, but you can definitely do the opposite! In your mind, your hallway’s laid out, including the lockers. And everything in them!

A moment of force, and the storm starts. A maelstrom of paper and pencils, binders and backpacks, magnets and memorabilia. A wave of textbooks pelts Anon, and he covers his skull with both arms.

The force of the summonings blows apart the ghost, and as you throw your arms out the shards fall back into your hands. Anonymous wades through the refuse, bleeding over the paper. He’s still not stopping!

It takes only a few more items to throw off the one on your foot, and then you bring over a pencil. You grab it as he reaches you, and jab it straight into the center of his red wound.

And it deflects, glancing off of a momentary blue barrier. Wh- What was that?!

He growls, and a hand reaches out of the blood to grab yours. It holds you fast, and then the barrel swings at your skull. The impact cracks your neck with the sudden turn of your head.

Think through the pain! There has to be something else to summon! You feel around your Stand, grasping for anything-

Another strike, and your consciousness whipcracks out of existence.

Sonata’s drawing nearer down her hallway. It’s way too wide for you to dash across to the other side unnoticed, and she sounds like she’s closer to the opposite side than you are, which means you’d be running towards her. At this point you’re going to have to face facts.

She’s tracking you somehow, but she doesn’t know where you are yet. And running, even without your shoes on, makes noise. Nervously, your hand stays plastered to the wall.

Sonata talks to herself, breathily. ”Dagi told me to turn all of the lights off, and Aria closed off the hallway. How could someone wander all the way out here…?” You tense, and she continues. ”Ah, right around this corner...”

Your internal fight-or-flight switchboard is at full power. You can suddenly feel yourself sweating in the cold; there’s no way you’re making it out of here alive. Not if you try to take her on. You don’t even know what her ability does!

But you can escape. For your allies, your friends! Your Aligot... You do your best to buck up, taking in a deep breath. It doesn't stay in your lungs for more than three seconds, but you push on anyway.

She’s almost about to see you, and, true to your title, you bolt. Hand still feeling out the wall, you turn the corner you’re already on and pass by her. She sees you, automatically. There’s no jerk of the head, no motion to suggest she wasn’t waiting for you. And over her shoulder, there’s... is that really a ghost?

Oh, you hate ghosts! But you only give them a glance. No turning your head back, as you pass over closed doors and into the deeper darkness. The feeling of being pursued underground wells up inside of you.

You hush the chorus of inner voices begging to wake up right now as she comes after you, and trust that you’re faster. You can hear each of her footfalls, and you know you’re not. But you have the slight advantage of starting distance, and you press it for everything it’s worth.

If she came this way, then there should be a way out. Reasonably, if you just kept running in one direction, you should eventually find an exit. It’s just one building!

She doesn’t talk, which is reassuring. If she monologued at you while she chased you, you might panic and slip up or something incredibly stupid like that. You can almost relax as you work through your marathon.

There comes another intersection, this one without a left-hand path. You can’t tell anything about them from this distance, but your legs sawing through the air won’t give you time to deliberate. Right or straight?

Right. Right is your lucky direction, the way that’s given you a hope to stay alive! Go right! You turn the corner, and there are a lot more doors than you were expecting - all closed, all the same.

None of them have exit signs hanging above them. And your fears are confirmed when you come to the end. It’s a concrete cul-de-sac, a dead end.

You press yourself up against the wall and turn the way you came. She’s walking towards you, steadily. No.

No, you’re not in a dead end! In fact, you’re close to escaping her for good!

“｢Royals｣!” You rasp out the words, voice ripped up by fear and exhaustion. But you’ve had your hand on this wall for well over a minute. And, at your request, it folds itself further into the universe. The whole hallway, doors and all, and the intersection at the end.

You take your hand off, and it holds, and then you sprint through to the intersection, heading straight. Sonata picks up her speed on your heels, but you turn on the spot to face her and snap your fingers, smirking. Her darkened form lunges out of the darkness for a moment, and the walls spring back to their proper shape.

As the rightful spaces reassert themselves, your intersection fills up with machinery. And, in the corner, windows! Big, industrial things, like everything in this choking oily-smelling place. You can taste sawdust in the air, and you do your best to ignore your less essential senses.

Outside you can already see the dinge and grime you were expecting. You run over, careful for any sharp objects on the floor, and feel around for a latch. Your hand passes over one, a foot higher than you can see, and you wrench at it.

It eventually comes loose, and then with both hands pressed against it, you force it up. Shakily, creaking, it obeys. As you put a leg through, something grabs you.

You yelp as it twists you around by your shoulder - but it’s not Sonata. It’s the ghost. Up close it’s almost comical, a sneering face with the illusion of a stubbly beard. Through it you can see poles and switchboxes and big rusty monsters of machinery.

You hate everything about ghosts: the whole stupid Gothic idea of them, the concept of someone’s soul persisting in the world and doing nothing but tormenting people. Things like that shouldn’t live in the first place. You concentrate on your Stand and press a finger on it, which holds.

Suddenly the wispy half of it folds over, and it’s a ball of indistinct greenish energy. Not enough. You tap a second finger onto it, and it becomes more uniform, spherical. A third, a fourth, like tapping at an air-piano. Your fingers buzz like they’ve fallen asleep, and then, under the strain of supporting itself, it pops out of existence.

You smile at your achievement, and let ｢Royals｣ relax. Sonata doesn’t appear, and you don’t wait for her. You hook a leg over the windowsill and jump out.

Then you shut it, slamming, behind you, and run around the perimeter, in search of where you came in.

This time, when you hit Flash, you mean it. He goes flying through the hole that wasn’t there the last time you were in the room. You hope he breaks something.

Then you take the guilt that comes from thinking that way, and crush it like turning a car into a tiny cube. Your family might not be here if these people had their way.

Sunset can’t be hurt, and whatever the arrow is, you can’t seem to touch it. You have no illusions, you can’t keep this up for long.

But, just then, Twilight Sparkle steps in front of you, hands up and placating. ”Derpy, I didn’t know any of this was going to happen! Please, believe me, there has to be some sort of an explanation! Sunset wouldn’t just-”

Sunset weighs something in her mind, and snorts. ”Give it a rest, Twilight.”

Twilight startles, looking at her, as she stands up and dusts herself off.

Sunset speaks to you directly. ”I’m not going to make this any nicer than it is, Derpy. I want to collect those three gems. And I’m going to use whoever and whatever I can to do it.”

Want to…? “You just did.” Your voice is too tight and angry to let it be a question.

”Apparently not,” she sighs.

“But it doesn’t matter. I wanted to make this easy for everyone, but it wasn’t meant to happen. If you get in my way again, then I’ll do more than knock him out.”

Before you can respond, one of the Crusaders screams. Sweetie Belle. You see a blur of orange heading for her. Sunset throws out a hand towards her, and then, in a bright flash of light, a figure blocks Adagio.

In the brightness, another Adagio, a perfect double, knocks into her. They’re frozen, staring at each other in momentary shock. Then, immediately, the summoned Adagio disappears, and Sunset bridges the distance, her fist smashing Adagio's cheek.

The Dazzling actually slides off of her feet with the force of the punch, and the Crusaders, bouncing back, summon their monster of a Stand. It smashes against her, and she backflips, sliding against the floor.

Sunset turns to you. ”Go.”

You sense ｢Spinal Tap｣ fading. You snap something else in your pocket, and with it, all of the others crack, simultaneously. Scootaloo's pointing the arrow at you.

You make eye contact for a moment, and then your Stand’s summoned for its two minutes. Your options just narrowed.

They turn back to Adagio, and you prepare to throw ｢Spinal Tap｣ at them. Maybe you can get the arrow and figure out where it came from.

And then, out of the darkness, comes Sonata Dusk. She moves towards Sunset, who goes on the defensive. You don’t know whether to help or not.

”-cadabra｣!” You turn around, and see Trixie through the door you came through. And behind her...

“Golden?!”

But that means--

Next to you is the unconscious body of Care Root; unconscious twice in as many days, in fact. His face looks red.

It took too long for you to get through the thorns back into this one hallway, but now you’re here, just too late. Derpy comes out of a room where utter pandemonium's reigning, blinding light shining from under her arm.

She runs up to her sister. ”Where’s Silver?!”

”In the car. Something go wrong?”

”We’ve got to leave right now! I’ve only got a minute and forty seconds!” ｢Spinal Tap｣ lifts Care up.

Golden nods, and with her eyes closed, Derpy puts a hand on the light. A solid wall of light appears, blocking the room from the rest of you.

Someone pounds on it. ”Wait! Please! Don’t leave me back here!” ...Twilight.

Derpy turns to look at the searing block of energy. She regards it, for a moment. How much time does she have left, again…?

Then it disappears, and Twilight comes stumbling out. ”Oh, thank-”

”Come on!” Derpy grabs her arm and pulls her, and both of them blow past you and Golden. You trade glances with her, and then the light-shield goes up behind you again, and both of you head after them.

｢Abracadabra｣ pushes you to the head of the group, and Golden catches up on her own merits. Derpy casts light ahead of all of you, throwing your shadows against the walls. You’ll have to ask her about that as soon as you’re out of here.

Most of the conflict’s moved into that room, so it might even be a straight shot. Once you’re inside the parking lot, you can use your Stand to jump everyone to the two cars. Who’s Twilight going to ride with? Suddenly, the light shines on someone coming up the hall. Two people, one unconscious in a bridal carry.

It’s her. Sugarcoat. She stops and squints in the light, and when she sees you, she straightens, ready for a fight.

You don’t have time for this! But before you can blast her against a wall with your Stand, she squints closer to the light. And then, eyes lighting up, she runs straight past you.

Golden looks over her shoulder at the retreating figure, but there’s no attack. Then you see the body of the one who nearly killed you. Despite the bloody mess behind her, she looks like she’s just having a nice dream. And further on, the body of one of the Dazzlings, the one who never gave her name.

She's skewered, eyes fluttering. You resist the urge to vomit. This could’ve been you, you realize. This is what you were running away from. You keep moving, trying to put those sights out of your head. In your mind’s eye, they seem to reach out for you...

You all jog the rest of the way, keeping up without endlessly passing and falling behind each other. Glancing backwards occasionally, waiting for some surreptitious backstab. But your trial turns out to be much more straightforward than that.

You see the limited natural light of the door outside at the same time you start seeing sheets of paper. Pencils, folders... You part the detritus with a couple waves of your hand. But as the light illuminates the final stretch...

”Silver!” Derpy screams.

Hanging in the air are the two kids, and then her light finally goes out, dissipating in the crook of her arm.

They were right. You hated to admit it, but they were right. They’re just fighting for Care, and the girl. You can’t let them get away with it, but you can still sympathize with them. And being down to one bullet, and on the edge of consciousness, narrows your options.

Get to the root of the problem, right now. The fact that you can see them and not one of your employers makes your heart sink.

...You won’t be getting out of this at all, will you? For the first time, you see Care Root, passed out and floating beside Derpy. You can hardly even remember seeing him around CHS. Different circles.

But you recognize her just fine. She sees you, and her entourage gets ready to attack.

Doesn’t matter. You lift the gun and aim - your final ghost holds it up with you. It does most of the lifting, to be honest. Heh.

A pair of birds fly for the two girls out of the hands of the orange-haired one. Didn’t you used to be in a class with her?

Nevermind. A third comes at you, and you don’t pay attention to it. Even if it gores you, you’ll still take your pound of flesh.

Line up the shot... breathe in... squeeze the trigger.

It heads out, moving flatly away from you, spinning angrily. Oh, time’s slowing down. It picks up speed as it goes, and its path sends it straight for Care. The hulking monster of a Stand carrying him lashes out with its tail, and the bullet goes flying away, harmlessly.

No! You’re about to make an ill-advised shamble to pick it up, but you can’t walk, and it’s unnecessary. The bullet bounces off of something. It ricochets in the air five or six times, off little shining panels of glass, or something like glass. It's bright and blue, like sudden odd-shaped flashes in your vision.

You wonder, for a moment, if you’ve developed a new Stand ability. But even in this small doses, you know it’s not you. It’s fate.

Everyone freezes in their tracks to watch it, then it goes flying for the orange-haired one, who shouts. ”｢Fineshrine｣!”

A tree springs up between it and her. It bounces again off of more of these blue screens, twice, thrice, coming around the trunk for her.

”｢Abracadabra｣!” It moves out of its path, back closer to you.

There’s more shouting as it gets sent back towards the group - you can’t make out the words any more. In fact, you’re falling, faceplanting. Oof.

A voice cutting through the gorge of the panic. A shout, an impact. The sound of a body toppling into concrete.

Your ghosts dissipate, but you know you’ve added one more to their ranks, and the sea of trash overtakes you.

Take that, Care Root.

Mid-morning. The last thing you remember was a big explosion, trying to get the gems. You sit up, on what you realize is someone’s couch. It’s grey, and sticks to your cheek on the way up.

You’re sweaty, and your hair’s mostly on one side of your body, but you have both your arms. And the room’s a calm blue, like a sky through fog. On the far wall there’s a television playing infomercials on mute. Where are your headphones?

You search around the books on the coffee table and the stand covered in coasters, but you don’t have any of your stuff. When you stand, your back cricks in four places. It sounds like Velcro.

You wander into the kitchen and see Sugarcoat hunched over three mugs of coffee. Must be her family’s house. She notices you without looking up and slides one slightly closer, which you take. There’s a boatload of creamer in it, so it tastes like caramel.

“Did we win?”

She huffs, and doesn’t look up at you. Fuck.

“Did everyone make it out okay?” She turns and looks at you behind those glinting glasses.

”Indigo didn’t make it, and Flash is gone.”

Gone? “Gone?”

”They have him. We don’t know where.” She looks back to the table. There’s a tablet there, in a chunky blue case twice its thickness, and on it is a roadmap of Canterlot.

“Well, we’d… better go find him.”

”There’s something just as important. The gems weren’t complete, so they’ve been thrown around everywhere, but one of the kids figured out where the final piece was.” The gravity of the rest of the task ahead of your group settles in.

A couple months of work since you got these Stands, a chance at really, seriously owning an indie label, and world-saving, of course. “...Where?”

”Somewhere around here,” she slides over the tablet and taps at its center with one finger. The house is huge and looks like people do croquet on the lawn.

Sunny wanders in, wearing last night’s clothes like the rest of you. ”Briefing her already?”

Sugarcoats nods, curt. ”When Sour wakes up, we’ll decide how we’re splitting up.”

You grab a seat, but Sunny lingers by the strangely barren-faced fridge. At your house, they still had your blue ribbons and certificates stuck on there with vacation magnets.

”Filhy Rich has one of the most dangerous Stands around, and he’s not going to go down without a fight,” she cranes her head at Sunny, who stares pensively into the freezer. And then to you, resting when you make eye contact. ”I’d suggest ransoming his daughter, since she’s basically powerless, but he’d kill every one of us. So I think, if we’re going to heist the gem, we need to work together to get past his security and smash his fuckin’ teeth in before we do anything else.”

She adjusts the glasses, as you digest how... un-Sugarcoat she sounds. “Any suggestions?”

｢To Be Continued｣

Stand: ｢Listening Chair｣
User: Sonata Dusk
Ability: ???

Stand: ｢Nails for Breakfast Demo｣
User: Sugarcoat
Ability: The full nature of this Stand is unknown.