SuShi's Bizarre Adventure: Fantasy Friendship

by Jojoleopard


Prologue: The Coming of the Stand

Sunset Shimmer had first started experiencing it a few months after arriving in this world through the portal. She had ignored it at first, chalking it up as a side effect of losing her magic in this world, but now she knew it was the opposite.

When she had come through the portal, she realized magic must’ve leaked into this magicless world from Equestria, because even now as she sat there in the dying sunlight, looking at the Wondercolt statue on the front lawn of Canterlot High, a teacup floated towards her, filled with something piping hot.

She accepted it and drank its contents. “Ah, green tea. My favorite.”

To the normal person, it would’ve looked as though the teacup had simply wandered over to Sunset as she sat there on the steps, now taking some time to enjoy the sun setting beyond the city. But Sunset could see something no one else could: the figure holding the cup of tea for her.

A humanoid pegasus-like creature floated in the air in front of her, clad in silver, with wide metal wings extending behind it. It was bipedal in nature, with fingers and thumbs on its hands and hooves for feet. It floated there for just another second, gazing at her with its yellow striped eyes, before it hovered towards her and vanished.

Sunset had seen this a few times already and she had surmised it lived in her and it was simply returning home. From what she could tell, it couldn’t go very far from her and it would always have to come back eventually. 

She would’ve talked to someone about this, but she didn’t exactly have any friends. She had run away to this world because she felt as though her teacher, Princess Celestia, had been withholding information from her, information that would make her smarter, more powerful and more loved. She had tried to tell what friends she had back then, but instead, all they did was ridicule her. In the following weeks after that, they had begun tormenting her every moment of her life. She had been called SuShi by the other students of Celestia, a combination of the first few letters of her first and last name, and what used to be an affectionate nickname was now one of spite and jest. One of them had even put dead fish in her saddlebags, just to ridicule her name further.

When she had enough, Sunset had packed her things and fled through the portal, never intending to return again. And here she was, sitting alone in front of the school she went to as the sky began to darken into a dull purple, with some kind of new power that she barely understood.

It was summer break now, and she didn’t need to be here at school, but it was somewhere she could go to think about what she was going to do with her life here. Done contemplating for the day, Sunset was about to head home, when a soft rumble made itself known to her.

She looked up and spotted a man on a motorcycle rolling in, slowing down next to the row of bushes up front. He had on a black helmet with a dark visor, so she couldn’t see his face, but if she would give just one word to how he looked, it would be ‘suspicious’.

He turned his head in his direction and to her surprise, he began riding his motorbike over, crashing through one of the bushes as he flattened the grass under his wheels.

“Hey, who are you?” Sunset began stepping back as he got closer. “You’re damaging school property.”

“You can see my bike, can’t you?” a low voice exited the man’s helmet. “Just like how I saw your Stand earlier.”

“My… my what?” Sunset felt her foot hit the first step up towards the front doors and stopped. “What are you talking about? What do you want?”

The man stopped his bike. “I could tell. You have a lot of questions.”

“Really? What gave it away?” Sunset waved her hands in the air. “Was it because I kept asking you questions that you haven’t answered?”

“I’m getting to that. I’ll ask again. You can see my bike, can’t you?” Suddenly, he let go of the handles and placed one arm in an ‘L’ shape near his face, while the other pointed to his right as he looked at Sunset. “You’re going to ask me, ‘What do you mean? Of course I can see your bike.’”

“What do you mean? Of course I can see your bike.” Then Sunset recoiled back as she realized he had just predicted what she was going to say. “How did you do that?”

He got off the bike and removed his helmet. Under that, he had a cap that was flipped backwards on top of a head of greasy blue hair. Sunset didn’t know how his cap could fit under his motorbike helmet, but she wasn’t going to ask.

Now that he was closer, she could see his vehicle in greater detail. It looked like any other black chopper, but this one had a silver skull of some unknown horned animal adorning the space between the handlebars and its eyeholes had glowing fireballs in them.

The man tugged at the corners of his black leather jacket and gave Sunset a grin. “My chopper. It’s a Stand, just like your winged friend.”

“A Stand?” Sunset knew he was talking about her new power.

“That’s what I’ve taken to calling them, yes.” He reached out a hand. “Jostle Joyride. Though you can call me JoJo.”

“Uh, Sunset. Sunset Shimmer.” She hesitantly shook his hand. She still didn’t know exactly what was happening. “If I had friends, they would call me SuShi.”

“That’s a cool nickname,” Jojo commented. “Though it does bring raw fish to mind. I’ve been looking for the source of this Stand power, but this is the first time I’ve met a Stand user who wasn’t immediately hostile.”

“What, hostile? Why would anyone be hostile for no reason?”

“You’d be surprised. Something has been going on in your city, and I need to find out what.” He flexed one arm, then reached the other one down like he was trying to touch his knee. “You’re going to ask, ‘What is going on in the city?’”

“What is going on in the city?” Then Sunset drew back again. He had done it again.

“That’s what I’m here to find out. Perhaps you’d like to help me?” Jojo raised a hand up and his motorcycle disappeared. “In return, I can teach you to harness the power of your Stand.”

“You can?”

“I can, and the best way to do that is through experience and practice,” Jojo replied. “Since a Stand is a manifestation of someone’s fighting spirit…” Jojo struck a pose that had him stretch one leg out in front of himself while pointing at Sunset with one finger over his head while using his other hand to hold the brim of his cap. “We shall do battle!”

“Battle? You want to fight me?” Sunset wanted to make sure she was hearing him correctly.

“But not just you. We shall do battle with our Stands.” Jojo stepped off the grass and onto the concrete floor. “White Buffalo!”

The air shimmered beside him and his motorcycle was once again there, its engine still running, though this time, it seemed to growl at her.

“This is my Stand, White Buffalo.” Jojo waved a hand at it as it rumbled beside him.

“Your Stand is the whole motorbike?” Sunset watched as it began moving back and forth.

“Every Stand is unique to their user. As is yours. Now, conjure it.”

“Um…” Sunset raised a hand forward. “Go. Fly. Up up and away.”

Nothing happened.

“I can’t seem to get it to work,” Sunset said.

“It’s all in the mind. You must control it through your spirit. Observe.” Jojo turned his body to the side and planted his legs very closely together. “White Buffalo!”

Jojo’s Stand suddenly revved up and sped towards Sunset. Without warning, the skull head on the bike’s handlebars extended out like it was some kind of snake and zig-zagged towards Sunset’s face. She sqeaked and ducked, but all of a sudden, her Stand emerged from her body and grabbed the skull around the neck, stopping it in place.

“There you go.” Jojo laughed and stretched one arm out. “Now, continue, Sushi.”

White Buffalo put itself into reverse and began pulling Sunset’s Stand along, but she willed for it to move and it reached out its other hand to the skull’s neck and pulled, stopping the bike in its tracks. Then the horns on the skulls head shot out like more serpentine creatures and stabbed themselves into Sunset’s Stand’s chest.

“Aaaah!” Sunset fell back to her knees as blood sprayed from two holes in her chest.

“Ah, yes. One important lesson, Sushi, your Stand is essentially a projection of yourself. Should it get hurt, so too will you.” Jojo pointed at her again. “Avoid my next attack.”

White Buffalo drove in a circle, then came charging back towards Sunset’s Stand, its horns at the ready once more. Sunset’s Stand tensed itself, then just before they collided, it did a flip over White Buffalo and kicked it over. As the motorcycle skidded, the skull extended from it again and twisted in the air once before sailing down towards her from above.

Sunset’s Stand reached out and grabbed the horns, stopping them in place. But White Buffalo’s horns twisted, throwing Sunset’s Stand into a nearby lamppost. The metal pole bent and the glass of the lamp shattered.

People nearby turned to see where the noise had come from, but when they only saw Jojo and Sunset standing there looking at each other, they hurried away.

Sunset’s Stand grabbed the fallen lamppost and as the horns came for it again, it swung it hard into White Buffalo, knocking it aside before it closed the distance and delivered a flurry of punches to the Stand. With each blow, Sunset’s Stand shouted out what sounded like “Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!”

White Buffalo was launched into the air and came back down with a crash. Jojo coughed and blood ran from his mouth as he smiled at Sunset. “Now you’re getting there. Your Stand is a strong one alright. I think you’ve got the basic hang of it now.”

Sunset recalled her Stand and took a breather as she ran her hand over her chest wounds. Thankfully, it was nothing serious, but she would still need to stop the bleeding.

“Now, all that’s left of tonight is to find the power of your Stand.” Jojo dusted his hands and rearranged the hair sticking out from under his cap. “Look into yourself, Sushi. Find your Stand power.”

“Uhh… okay. I’ll uh, see what I can do.”

Sunset closed her eyes and concentrated, with no idea how exactly she was going to accomplish her given task. She tried to picture her Stand, with its wings spread far and flying amongst the stars like a pegasus back home in Equestria. For a moment, it all felt like she was back home, now living out some equine fantasy as her Stand soared through the sky at supersonic speeds. It was then that what felt like a slab of information began making its way into her head. It was one of the most bizarre things she had ever experienced and soon, it was as though she had known about her Stand and its power all this time. She now knew exactly what it could do and what it was called.

Taking a breath, Sunset formed a fist and jumped it to the air, while her other hand grabbed the waist of her skirt and yelled, “Pegasus Fantasy!”

Her Stand returned, this time floating above her as it reached its hands towards her head. Sunset felt a great deal of concentration and as it did so, her body glowed and she felt herself begin to buzz with something that felt similar to static electricity. A funny sensation in her chest wounds made her look down, and her injuries had stopped bleeding. There was nothing to be done about the stains on her clothes though.

“A healing ability, hm?” Jojo rubbed at his squarish jaw. “Useful.”

“Tell me about it.” Sunset felt like she hadn’t even been hurt before. “I think it was actually a reset of my body before I was hurt. It takes a great deal of concentration though. I need to be uninterrupted to do it.”

“So, Pegasus Fantasy. Nice name. So now that you’ve realized your powers, how about it, would you like to help me save the world?”

“Save the world? From what?”

“I’ve intercepted foes before meeting you here tonight,” Jojo began to explain. “They’ve been mind controlled by someone and from what I’ve gathered from them, whoever is doing this aims to control the entire world, to rule over everything. I will not stand for that. Will you help me?”

“You mean just the two of us?” Sunset asked, not feeling hopeful. “I barely just learned about my Stand. I don’t think I’ll be able to tip the scales in our favor that much.”

“I’ll need all the help I get.” Jojo took a few steps away and White Buffalo reappeared beside him, along with his helmet. “And who said anything about it just being you and I? Come, I’ll take you to my safe house and I’ll arrange a meeting with the others. You’ve awakened your Stand’s true potential now. Whoever is out there brainwashing everyone else, it won’t be long before they find you too.”

As he got on his bike, he turned to look at her through the visor of his helmet. Sunset gulped. She’d never been tasked with such a heroic mission before. After running here from Equestria, all she wanted to do was to live life away from those who ridiculed her, but now someone needed her help to save the world? That was a huge stretch from what she was looking for, and she really didn’t know if she could do it. But Jojo was right. Her peaceful life of solitude would be ruined by whoever wanted to take control of the world. She was also living in this world, she had to defend it, or lose everything.

Sunset sighed and did the most unbelievable thing. She took Jojo’s hand and he swung her up atop his motorcycle with ease, handing her a helmet that seemingly materialized out of his palm. As they drove off, Sunset was still having second thoughts about this whole thing, but there was one thing she was very sure of, and that was that she had quite the bizarre adventure ahead of her.