"Halt! Stay where you are!" a guard shouted, as many had ran in to point their spears at the elder Hamon user. Jonathan, in an honorable panic, held his hands up with a confused smile.
"Whoa! I'm not an enemy, we just saw this portal and—" before Jonathan could finish his sentence, DIO barreled out onto his face. The guards turned back to Celestia, who sighed and ordered them to stand down.
"I apologize," Celestia said, "I did not expect another to come from the portal."
"Well, here I am," DIO muttered, knowing it wasn't him she was referring to. As he got up, a squee of excitement came from Fluttershy, who had flown to him at such a force that it knocked him down again. Aside uttering a few "I'm so glad you're back" 's and some other almost-words, she was unable to vocalize much of anything comprehensible between happy sobbing and having her face tucked into DIO's chest like a mother holding her lost child, except her lost child was a behemoth of a creature with very sharp teeth and the ability to stop time. And the mother was an equine with no actual relation by blood. Is there really a point to using similes?
"You are all dismissed," Celestia said to the Counsel, who all nodded, leaving along with the guards. As DIO was being coated with Fluttershy's purely platonic love, Rainbow Dash decided to step up to Jonathan.
"So, who are you?" she asked. Jonathan turned to her, shaking his head briefly, replying with an apologetic tone.
"Oh! Uh, my name is Jonathan Joestar," he said with a smile, "I'm DIO's adopted brother, or he's my adopted brother. We didn't get along well in the past."
"Try not to taint my image any further," DIO muttered slowly getting up as Fluttershy kept clung to his chest. As she lost her grip, he caught her, holding her like a newborn puppy, "I think they're content with the present."
"Ah, yes," Luna said with a chuckle, before gradually turning serious, "we are rather content with the present version of you, which is why we need your help. An equine of unknown origin had stolen the Stand Arrow used by Lyra and used it on an old enemy imprisoned centuries ago."
DIO pondered for a moment.
"You know, there are ways to solve issues without stopping time, right?" he asked, "but I suppose I was hoping for some entertainment after ten years of Go Fish, mobile games, and watching Jotaro fight a priest."
"I told you," Luna said to Celestia, who grunted in response. DIO stepped to the wall, as if looking out of a window. He was going to, but seeing there was actually no window there, he figured he would pretend to look at the design instead to add to the dramatic effect.
"So, tell me," he started, "who is this enemy you speak of? I have read about many, none that really struck me as dangerous except—"
"King Sombra." Celestia interrupted. DIO fell silent, turning around with almost an expression of concern. "He was given Stand Power by this equine, who was capable of fighting off our most powerful guards and revoking our most powerful spells. Both of them are incredibly dangerous, and we haven't the military or even societal strength to fight them off."
"What of the Elements of Harmony?" DIO asked. As he spoke, he felt Fluttershy's grip tighten as she had quickly stopped smiling. There wasn't an immediate response either, as the princesses fell silent.
"Decommissioned," Dash said with a blatant tone, "Me and Flutters are the only ones who stuck around Ponyville. The rest left, even Twilight."
. . .
"Dio. . .are you. . .okay?" Jonathan asked cautiously. It seemed even he was speechless, but just for the reason that it was a saddening fact to hear, but that he was wondering,
'Was that my fault? Was I too hopeful?'
"It's not your fault, Lord DIO," Fluttershy said quietly in the silence, "It's just reality, and even the Princesses aren't used to it. We need your help, you've experienced that harshness all of your life, and you experienced our hope, so you could teach us to compromise and live with it in a better way."
DIO thought about this for a moment. He knew, deep down, that there was no way to alleviate reality, but he didn't want to take their hope away. He cleared his throat.
"Then you have made the right choice," he said, convincing himself that it was a necessary lie, "we will deal with this threat directly, and I will make sure that, before I leave again, this world will be safe and happy."
His words brought joy to everyone.
Everyone but himself.
"This will be the perfect target," Phoenix said, putting her hoof down on a map of one of the Great Equestrian Cities.
"Why not Canterlot, or the Crystal Empire?" Sombra asked with genuine curiosity, passed off with a 'testing his servant' expression. Phoenix looked up, and with a nervous smile she thought for a moment, before beginning to speak as quickly as possible.
"This city here has a population more willing to accept your rule, and, being one of the great cities, still provides military strength for the products coming in and going out of the city," she explained, "We have the advantage of scouting the region, nightfall superiority, perfect positioning in the mountains, and cultural deloyalization."
"Is 'deloyalization' a word?" Sombra asked, before Phoenix popped back quickly with a response.
"No," she said, "I just made it up and it sounds good. Now if we come in from the North East, the possibility of a QRF from a Cloudsdale Royal Division is reduced by several hours of flight-arrival time. We can begin there, making our path to the city hall, you can announce yourself with local media, then rumors will spread."
"Why not announce myself upfront?" Sombra asked again, this time not hiding his curiosity for why that was a better idea.
"Rumors create thought, not fear," Phoenix explained, "which means, rather than having the fear of knowing your coming, they will simply ponder it. While it may not seem a significant difference, it will be monumental in it's results. Citizens will be able to more objectively envision the benefit of your power over the Sister's. You will be accepted with minimum fatality."
"I never thought of it like that," he said, stroking his chin, "you are far more intelligent than the equines I have come to know over my years."
"The withdrawal allows us to think as individuals," she said, "it allows us to behave for ourselves to our discretion, rather than the princesses'. Our freedom is a threat to them, but with you there will be no threat, as they have freedom to do something that they never had before, the only thing that barred your success."
"And that is?" Sombra said, quirking his eyebrow with a stabbing skepticism.
"The freedom to follow a new leader," she said with a grin, revealing the new and sharp fangs. Sombra couldn't help but to grin as well, knowing that he had the power now to fight the only thing that had stopped him before. This servant was truly the greatest gift from fate.
It was dark, now. The time it took them to get there was a bit longer than they had anticipated, and as they walked no words were spoken. When they arrived at the cottage, they all took a seat somewhere and rested themselves, still remaining silent as no one really knew what to say.
Fluttershy was curled up beside DIO on a sofa while Dash was sitting back in a chair, looking down to think of something to break the silence. She didn't think of herself as close to DIO as Fluttershy was, but she was really fond of him. Out of the equines she knew her entire life, he was the only creature she'd ever gotten along with. In a strange way, she felt like he was a closer friend than any. Even though she was wrong before, she hoped she was right this time, with the knowledge of Celestia's stand being removed, she felt it was genuine anyway.
"Dash." DIO said. Rainbow looked up suddenly.
"Oh, uh. . .yeah? What's up?" she asked nervously, trying her best to keep cool about it.
"You're thinking, a lot," DIO pointed out, "why is that?"
"It's just uh. . ." Dash thought for a moment, before sighing, "we missed you, a lot. Especially when our friends broke away from us, we really needed you. It's not your fault that you weren't there, but maybe it was our fault for being unprepared."
"No, not at all," DIO quickly corrected, leaning forward, "your faults lie in what you can improve and choose not to, not in your inabilities to prepare for a large-scale change of environment that you have no foreknowledge of. It was something you could not help, so while you must deal with it, that doesn't require you to apply fault to yourself."
"Hard to believe you were heartless at one time, DIO," Dash said with a chuckle. DIO smiled.
"Well. . .what are we going to do about this "Sombra"?" Jonathan asked. DIO turned to him, before he could speak, Dash suddenly spoke over him.
"Oh, I just remembered to ask you, who is that guy? I didn't get to talk to him much at the little ritual thingy," Dash said suddenly, pointing at Jonathan who felt as if he were suddenly being accused of something.
"My brother by adoption," DIO said, "we quarreled in the past, but after stealing his body I grew to respect him more."
"A very. . .heartwarming way to. . .put it?" Jonathan said, scratching his head with an uncomfortable smile. After a hundred years or so, he never really thought about the awkwardness of that fact. However, since he's thinking about it, we don't have to.
"Ohh, so the one that you said keeps getting stronger?" Fluttershy pointed out. DIO sighed.
"Yes."
There was a sudden knocking on the door. Rainbow Dash flew towards it to open it, revealing a patiently-waiting Spike. Though he wasn't out of breath, or panicking, his expression showed that he had a serious message.
"Come in, Spike," Rainbow Dash said, cautiously, "you don't look so happy."
"I'm not," he said blatantly, walking in and greeting DIO with a gesture, "Fillydelphia was just attacked, and there were only 120 casualties out of the entire population."
"Why is that bad?" Jonathan asked with confusion, "Doesn't that mean there were more survivors?"
"No," Spike answered quickly, "the only casualties were those who did not decide to join under Sombra's rule after local messages were broadcast. Not only that, but out of the times Sombra has attacked Equestria, they have never been done like this."
"What do you mean?" DIO asked, stroking his chin.
"Sombra is a brute-force kind of guy," Spike replied, "according to record, he has never used much strategy due to his warmongering nature, he just relied on his substantial power. This time, he's using propaganda and positioning his attacks and timing well to perfectly-evade Royal Guard Reaction Forces. I mean, learning to strategize is one thing, but he's deviating from the use of mind-control into actually changing the hearts of Equestrians."
"Because he never could before," DIO said coldly, "Friendship kept it from happening."
"Damn," Spike shook his head, "it's never going to be simple again, is it?"
"Well, that doesn't matter!" Rainbow Dash said suddenly, noticing that Fluttershy was beginning to think too much again. Everyone directed their attention to her as she continued, "If we can defeat Sombra, it'll be the perfect way to show everypony that we're still able to win! Friendship can still prevail without the elements! That's what we were always taught, right Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy thought for a moment, before smiling and nodding. DIO looked at Jonathan with a smirk.
"Then lets go to Fillydelphia and take a look at it. . .from a distance" Spike said, walking out as the rest followed.
"Dear Celestia," Spike muttered, looking out with a pair of binoculars, "they're already taking down Equestrian Banners."
DIO squinted a bit, having better eyesight he was able to make everything out without the binoculars, following another group of equines who were standing out in a street. They were normal, but wearing armor with some kind of magical weapons. Restrained on the ground, and at the edge of a spear, were Royal Guard members.
"It looks like they're taking prisoners," he pointed out, "Royal Guard members, probably, and. . .wait. . ."
". . .They're not taking prisoners," Spike said slowly, "they're executing them."
"Wh-what do you mean?" Fluttershy asked softly, before catching a glimpse of a nearer group stabbing down a few guards just barely out of detailed view. She winced, turning away with a suppressed gasp. Rainbow Dash quickly turned to her and gave her a hug.
"This is what lied in the hearts of ponies for so long," Spike said, "the need to follow the strongest one, even if they're evil."
"It was my fault, wasn't it?" DIO said quietly to Spike, who looked over with an amused grunt.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't consider it bad," he said, turning back to look down at the city, "it revealed the truth of heart, it was bound to happen anyway when Celestia died."
DIO thought about this, but not for long as Rainbow had shouted from behind them.
"Watch out!"
A large blast of magical energy was directly in front of DIO's face before time had stopped. Having only thirty seconds of time given ten years of not using his ability, he acted quickly to use The World to punch away the blast, before looking for where it might have come from. Within the last ten seconds, he spotted small distortions in the air as the sun had only then begun to rise. The World hovered forward, grabbing pieces of the magic and throwing them in a scattered blast of bolts towards the flying creatures.
"Time resumes," he said quietly as the magic was suddenly blasted away, and a few explosions in the distance indicated that his aim was correct, "we need to get out of here. They might have anticipated us."
The group began to run, being chased by more of the creatures who were no longer invisible. Pegasi with staffs, and equipped with something similar to the mind-control helmets. After the timestop had recharged, DIO grabbed all of them, stopping time again and escaping the creatures quickly.
"So they did bring him back. . ." Sombra mused, as the remaining of the group that chased down their perpetrators stayed in front of their leader, bowing.
"The human you call DIO was capable of some kind of instant teleportation, but it left behind no residue. They were able to leave our sight completely without leaving a trace," one of the guards said. Sombra simply chuckled.
"That is good, you are dismissed," Sombra replied, readjusting himself as they left. It seemed DIO was able to provide a bit of a challenge. He looked forward to fighting with DIO and winning, but he still had a rational concern for ignorance of DIO's exact capabilities. Sombra turned to his loyal servant, "I would like to see their capabilities before we engage them, what do you think of that?"
"I think that is a wonderful idea, my King," Phoenix replied with a smile, "we can advance a small military group into Manehattan, rules of engagement will be to kill only immediate threats until DIO arrives."
"What of that other human that was with him?" Sombra asked, "do we know of any special abilities he might have?"
"We don't but it'll be good to find out what he can do here," Phoenix replied, "shall I order the troops?"
"No, I will do that," Sombra said, "you have yourself a cup of coffee and some dessert, you should have rest from your fervent work."
Phoenix smiled. The appreciation from her highest and most idolized figure, Sombra, gave her a joy she had never felt in her life. It was as if God came down to her, and gave her his personal thanks. No princess could top that feeling, and at that point she was well convinced that she had done the morally-right thing. She felt that she had saved Equestria from poor leaders, and given them a strong and ruthless one. She believed, firmly, that Sombra was the key to the world without Friendship, and through him they would reach a great new age.
She was probably crazy, too, but the rest of Equestria was too divided to know that.