As the sprinklers activated, Rainbow Dash felt the water splashing down atop her head and she looked up. The ice she had spread across her body helped with maintaining a better level of calmness, but it hadn’t removed the feeling of the room trying to crush her. Now with the water all around her, she finally had an idea and called up Running on Ice again. A mask made out of ice appeared on both her Stand’s face and hers, and after a few seconds, she found she could find her bearings once more and have a clearer mind. The walls stopped feeling like they were pushing in on her and she was feeling all kinds of awesome once again.
“Awesome!” Rainbow cheered and got up.
The entire restaurant was full of people on the floor now, with some of them already still and unmoving. She guessed that meant their hearts had already stopped. She turned to her friends to check on them and was glad to find they were still alive, but barely. Using her Stand, Rainbow gave them similar masks, hoping it would get them back in shape soon.
“How are you still up and running?”
Rainbow looked past her booth to see Sweetie Drops stalking towards her. Her white dress and skin were charred, but very much still alive.
“Sweetie Drops? You’re the one behind this?” Rainbow got into a defensive stance and kept both eyes on her.
“Yes, Drowning Pool is capable of inducing claustrophobia through his panic gas or his spine stinger.” She conjured up her Stand, which floated out of her body and slightly behind her. “Your friend Jojo has already made the mistake of facing me. I would say he could’ve won, and he did quite the number on me, but he miscalculated his victory by a mile. But you should be down. How dare you still live.”
“Simple trick, really.” Rainbow Dash tapped the frozen mask on her face. “With Running on Ice, I can control ice through any kind of moisture, and I can also change the form of it, be it solid, liquid, or gas. We all know how water has a small component of oxygen in it. I can regulate its contents within these masks and keep your toxic gas away from me while being able to breathe at the same time.”
“Not unless I sting you!” Sweetie Drops stretched her arms out to her sides. “Drowning Pool, finish her off with your stinger!”
The skeletal Stand lunged forward with a low growl, then spun upside down and jabbed its spine forward like a scorpion. Running on Ice created a wall of ice between them, but the spine still pierced right through the solid block, forcing Rainbow back a few steps. Her Stand began firing off balls of ice at the enemy Stand, but it dodged each one as its body contorted and swayed from left to right to avoid all of them.
From below, she created a boot of ice, which swung up and kicked into Drowning Pool, catching it off guard and knocking it into the ceiling. Not wasting time, Running on Ice pointed its fingers up and began firing nail sized icicles, embedding them all over its body. Sweetie Drops felt them pierce her flesh all around her body and she glared at Rainbow with a death stare.
“I’ll show you pain!” She raised both hands and gritted her teeth together.
Drowning Pool picked up a handful of knives from the service counter of the restaurant and hurled them at Rainbow Dash. She used Running on Ice to swat them away, but Sweetie Drops was clever and flung a second volley of knives while Rainbow was deflecting the first. Two got into Running on Ice’s left shoulder, while one hit it in the right thigh. Blood sprayed from the Stand’s wound, and it reflected on Rainbow’s body, where she dropped to a knee as she grasped her wounds in her hands.
Running on Ice tried to punch the other Stand, but instead, Drowning Pool delivered one punch to its face, then another, followed by a shoulder charge, sending the Stand flying back into the conveyor belt, scattering sushi all over the place. Rainbow felt each blow and now she had blood running down the side of her head and her nose.
“You won’t win, Rainbow. The master will have your head for betraying her.” Sweetie Drops waved her fingers. “This has gone on long enough, won’t you agree? Just let me finish it and we can all go our separate ways.”
Drowning Pool floated ever so slowly towards Rainbow, its spine twitching back and forth as it readied to stab it into her body to deliver its deadly payload. Its empty sockets stared at her and even though she couldn’t see its eyes, she knew that whatever look it was giving her, it was one of evil.
“No. This is far from over.” Rainbow looked on as the water from above continued to fall all around them. “Thanks, Jojo. You’ve forgotten one important thing, Sweetie.”
“Oh?” Drowning Pool stopped in its tracks. “What do you mean? Do tell.”
“Running on Ice, like I’ve already said, can create ice from the moisture in the air.” Rainbow pushed back to her feet. “You might’ve taken Jojo out, but he’s already done one thing for me.”
“Oh? What did he do?”
Rainbow stretched her arms out and rotated her body. “He’s given me the ultimate playing field. Yes, the water from the sprinklers all around us, the moisture in the air has grown tremendously and now you’re going to be sorry you challenged the awesome Rainbow Dash! Now, absolute zero!”
Sweetie Drops realized her predicament seconds too late as Running on Ice swung its arms out. The water coming down from the sprinklers instantly turned to ice and everything on Sweetie and Drowning Pool was frozen, sticking them to the ground and ceiling. The skeletal Stand tried to lunge forward and sting Running on Ice, but it was frozen solid a whole foot away from it.
Sweetie’s mouth was open and frozen in a scream, but she could not move or even command her Stand to do anything. The battle was over.
“That’s why you don’t mess with Rainbow Dash!” She pointed a hand at herself, then struck a pose, making her arms into a giant ‘L’.
All around, the people in the restaurant began to awaken one by one, except for those who had already died, they stayed on the ground. Rainbow left the immobilized Sweetie Drops and went over to help her friends back onto their feet. It took a bit of shaking, but finally everyone was awake once more, her ice masks helping to regulate oxygen into their systems.
“Rainbow? Did you do it?” Rarity woke in a daze. She inspected the ice all around the restaurant. “A bit overkill, won’t you say?”
Rainbow shrugged. “The sprinklers were on. I just used it to my advantage.”
“Sushi!” Pinkie Pie suddenly sprang to life and took a bite of the now soggy salmon on the table. “Sushi in the rain! Just like Sunset!”
“Yeah?” Sunset righted herself and swiped her wet hair out of her face. “That’s right. Though nothing Pegasus Fantasy can’t solve. Let’s just get out of here first.”
--------------------------------------JO-JO------------------------------------
“She really caught me off guard. I could’ve been much more careful.” Jojo accepted a glass of water from Fluttershy. “But right on, Rainbow, freezing her up like that. Nice touch.”
“It was nothing. The water was thanks to you, anyway.” Rainbow gave him a friendly punch on the arm.
“Yeah… thought I had her.” Jojo rubbed his stomach where he felt he had been pierced.
Thanks to Sunset’s Stand, he was feeling good as new now. And dry too. They all were. Now the group was seated at the mall’s fountain, which was situated in the middle of the main foyer, between two escalators. Rainbow had thawed out Sweetie and Sunset was now in the process of resetting her mind to remove the mind control on her.
She knew Sweetie. She was another girl from CHS, though they never talked even once before, Sunset had seen her going about, usually with her friend, Lyra Heartstrings. Sunset shuddered to think that Lyra would be under the enemy’s control as well.
“And done,” Sunset said, removing her hand from atop Sweetie Drop’s forehead, where Pegasus Fantasy’s hand was, overlayed with hers.
Sweetie Drops’ eyes fluttered open and she rubbed at them, followed by a very odd sounding, “Huh?”
“Sweetie, you’re okay again!” Pinkie wrapped her in a bear hug and squeezed her hard. “It’s awful, right? Being in control of that nasty master.”
“I can’t believe we did such things…” She rubbed her head and looked at everyone. “Sunset Shimmer is here too? And who’s this?”
“Jostle Joyride at your service, but you can call me Jojo.” The man held a hand out for her to shake. “Do you remember anything? Anything at all that can point us to the master?”
“It’s strange, I actually don’t remember a whole lot…” Sweetie scratched at her cheek and narrowed one eye in thought. “It’s as though my memory’s shrouded in fog. I don’t remember much of what happened, but I do recall a dark room where we get our assignments. I was part of a team. I think Trixie called it the Bully Squad.”
Pinkie, Applejack and Jojo couldn’t help but burst into laughter, with the man falling on the floor and rolling around, much to the wonder and irritation of the other mall patrons.
“Bully Squad, really? That’s the best they came up with?” He wiped tears from his eyes and sat up from the floor. “Funny name aside, what else can you tell us about your squad?”
“It’s made up of people from school. Most of us awakened to our abilities recently, and we never really showed our powers to each other, so I don’t know what else might come after you.”
“But ya know who, don’tcha?” Applejack asked. “Ya know who else is on your team? Ya mentioned Trixie.”
Sunset knew Trixie too. Then again, she didn’t think any soul in school wouldn’t know her. She was a loud and obnoxious girl, always craving attention and fame with her magic tricks and skills.
“Trixie was our leader,” Sweetie Drops continued. “She was the one to receive our assignments from the master before delegating them to us.”
“So Trixie might know who the master is.” Rainbow looked to her friends. “Do you know what this means? If we take on the Bully Squad, we might eventually find out who’s pulling our legs here!”
“Pulling the strings.”
“What?” Rainbow turned to Rarity.
“It’s pulling the strings, darling. Pulling your leg means pranking you.” Rarity explained. “This is a quandary though. Pegasus Fantasy’s power to reset things seems to partially reset the states of our minds before we met the mastermind, at least partially.”
“So we hafta squeeze the enemy Stand users for info ‘afore Sunset resets ‘em?” Applejack asked.
“Oh? Well, how do we plan on doing that?” Rainbow waved her hands about. “They won’t want to talk and we have to make sure they can’t use their Stands too.”
“We can have Rainbow freeze them again!” Pinkie bounced around the group, even into the fountain and then out again. “It worked on Sweetie!”
“It’ll depend on what kind of Stand we’re up against.” Jojo folded his arms and sighed. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Sushi, your next words are, ‘But what do we do now?’”
“But what do we do- Wow, seriously, how do you do that?” Sunset looked at him. She wasn’t even mad. That was an amazing skill.
“Nothing else we can do except wait to see who comes after us next.” Jojo looked around the mall and at the damage they had caused earlier. “I think we should grab some food to go and get well away from here.”
“How do they know where to find us all the time anyway?” Rainbow asked. “They must have some way to locate us without us knowing, unless everything has been just dumb luck.”
“Sorry, I wish I could help you on this, but I don’t know how.” Sweetie Drops rubbed the back of her head and then looked down at her knees. “Though I think…”
When she didn’t continue, the rest of them looked at her. Sweetie Drops was looking down at her hand, where there was now some sort of black ball that was growing in size on the back of her palm.
“What is that?” Everyone stood up and Pinkie even walked over to prod it. It burst and a new one began growing on Sweetie’s hand, while Pinkie’s finger now had one as well. “It’s like some sort of mushroom!”
“That’s not a mushroom, Pinkie,” Applejack said. “Doesn’t even look like one.”
“Well, whatever it is, it’s heavy!” Pinkie tipped to one side and fell, landing on the black orb first, while the rest of her body floated in the air above it for a few seconds, before falling flat on top of it. “Sticky too. Don’t get it in your mouth.”
From the fountain, more of these orbs began to rise and they slowly started to coat Sweetie Drops and Pinkie as they landed on their bodies.
“They keep coming!” Rarity squealed as one touched her right knee. She jumped back, and would’ve done so again, but they were getting bigger and heavier. “I can’t move!”
“This must be the work of an enemy Stand,” Jojo hissed. “I didn’t think we would be under attack again so quickly.”
“Next you’re going to say ‘we need to find the enemy Stand user quickly’,” Sunset said.
“We should spread out and search for clues.” Jojo pointed to various parts of the mall. “Oh, but yeah, we need to find the enemy Stand.”
“Drat. I thought I had you.” Sunset swung an arm down. “Uh, Pinkie, Rarity, Sweetie, just uh, stay here.”
“We’re not going anywhere.” Rarity pointed to the black orb on her knee. “I hate this.”
With that said, they scattered and sped around the mall, hoping to find the perpetrator before it was too late. Unfortunately, none of them saw her as she peeked out from a door to the maintenance hall, a smile plastered on her mint colored face.
“Come face me, Sushi and friends, I am ready for you.”