//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Florence and the Machine 
// Story: SuShi's Bizarre Adventure: Fantasy Friendship 
// by Jojoleopard 
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Applejack looked at Highwayman’s left hand as the notes on it began to grow in size. She had twenty seconds two seconds ago and she was slowly running out of time to stop Lyra and Black Violin. She had to think of something, but with her time so very limited, her mind just wasn’t working the way she wanted it to.

Highwayman could still make its copies of itself to attack Lyra, but she had no way to get to the girl. All she would do was attach the notes to her Stand’s copies and that would gather no closer to finishing this fight. But something Lyra had said earlier stayed in her head. Lyra said that they would not stop unless they were destroyed. They could be destroyed, but punching her way through this wasn’t yielding any results. It had to be done a different way and she didn’t have long to find out how to do that. But first…

“Fluttershy, get away from the entrance, they’ll keep comin’!” Applejack called, then felt her left arm dipping to her side as she spoke. The black notes were already taking effect.

Highwayman split off a second copy of itself and it rushed to the barrier of black notes around Lyra and grabbed one with both hands. With all its might, the copy pulled up, screeching as it did so.

“Don’t even bother trying. It’s too heavy. Just look at the size of these things.” Lyra raised the back of one hand to her mouth and chortled. “You’re just prolonging the inevitable, Applejack. You only have fifteen seconds left before you can no longer move.”

Applejack was having none of it and created two more copies of Highwayman, which also moved to grab the same black note. To both their surprises, the Highwaymen were actually doing it. Bit by bit, the black note was being lifted off the ground.

“Well, color me a dam-builder, it’s workin’!” Applejack tried to lift her left arm, but it was now too heavy for her to lift it from her side. “Keep at it! You’re gonna catch tomorrow now!”

Applejack knew she had just one chance at this. Lyra would not give her all day to lift the black note high enough to attack her. She would have to move fast once she got her chance and with only twelve seconds left now, she had to make it a good one.

“Goooo, Highwayman!” Applejack reached one arm skyward and spread her legs further apart.

Ten seconds.

With no legs of their own, the three copies placed themselves under the note and began pushing against it. Applejack could see Lyra’s face now and it was now or never. She had to do this.

“Here we go, Lyra!” Applejack yelled at the top of her voice. “Highwayman, jackbox volley!”

The real Highwayman brought back its right hand all the way to its shoulder. There was a clicking sound, following by the sound of rushing wind as its spring-loaded hand was shot forward, straight through the gap between her Stand’s copies and Lyra’s black notes.

Six seconds. She could do this.

Highwayman’s hand seemed to fly in slow motion as Applejack plotted the path ahead in her mind. It was a slight curve, but she was sure she was going to hit Lyra right in the forehead. The blow of her attack would be strong enough to knock her out of the master’s mind control and the fight would be over.

Two seconds.

But to her shock, Black Violin appeared from under one of the black notes and pushed Highwayman’s high speed punch up into the bottom of the black note its copies were holding up. The spring of its arm stuck and the punch stopped right before Lyra’s face, who still remained unflinching, now with a new smile on her face.

“Looks like your plan failed.” She gave the Stand’s hand a pat. “Now everything’s gonna come crashing down on you. You see, what was your Stand even going to do against mine? All it can do is punch and punching isn’t going to do anything against Black Violin’s black notes. They can’t be burst by pure force. While they float around like balloons, it’ll take more than a single prick to burst. These notes are made out of a thickness that would put even plot armor to shame. Your time is up.”

From behind her, more of the black notes had arrived and they melted through the door and walls and attached themselves to Applejack. She tried to retreat, to back up, but Highwayman was securely fastened to Lyra’s black note and now that twenty seconds had passed, the black notes on her Stand had grown to the size of car tyres and she was no longer able to move herself.

“It’s all over now.” Lyra clambered over the black note Highwayman was stuck under and dropped down in front of the immobile Applejack. “This knife’s gonna be the last thing you ever see. Any last words?”

“Yeah. Ya ain’t gonna win. Whether ya kill me or not…” Applejack spat on the floor between Lyra’s boots. “Ah’ll be back again and again and again and again.”

“Uh huh.” She slotted the knife into Applejack’s belly with a sickening schlick. Blood ran down the wound and spilled onto the floor. Applejack winced, but she made no cry of pain. “Now what happens if I drag this all the way up your chest?”

Black Violin floated behind her, snickering at Applejack’s predicament. The lights now seemed to change from red to a light blue and Lyra now looked like she was pink instead of her minty green color.

“Stop!” Both their eyes turned to Fluttershy, who was standing with her back to one of the consoles to the generators in the room. “D-Don’t do that to Applejack.”

“Or what? What are you going to do? Stop me?” Lyra removed the knife from Applejack’s body. “You want to be the first? Is that it?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “You mentioned brute force won’t burst your black notes. And you likened it to a balloon.”

Lyra pointed her knife at her. “Yeah, so?”

“There are many ways to pop balloons, one being a needle. But you mentioned how thick your balloons, sorry, your notes are, so I’m guessing needles won’t work.”

“You have a point you’re getting to, Fluttershy?” Lyra looked up to Black Violin, who began creating more notes to shoot at her.

“Pressure.” Fluttershy lifted her left hand, where spectral wires were coming out of her finger tips and attaching themselves to the console behind her. “When the pressure in the room changes, the pressure in your notes won’t be able to maintain themselves.”

There was a rumbling and there was the sound of bursting pipes outside the fountain control room, followed by the splashing of water, which soon began to seep into their room from under the door.

“What have you done?” Lyra looked from the water to Fluttershy.

She smiled, though a bit bashfully. “Fl-Florence is able to control machines with electricity.” The wires in her fingers lifted and made some kind of waving gesture to Lyra. “I just tapped into the water tanks and controls to lock down water where I wanted. Outside the fountain room and inside.”

Above them, the pipes rattled for a few seconds, then burst with an almighty force, sending a torrential downpour of water cascading down over Lyra’s head. With the pipes on both sides damaged, water began to fill the rooms quickly and Fluttershy soon found herself floating as the water reached her chest.

“Are you mad?” Lyra was also lifted, holding on to one of her bigger black notes to keep herself from being swept to the corner of the room. “You’ll drown us!”

“I don’t need to drown you.” Fluttershy clicked her fingers. “I just need the pressure to change.”

As the water level continued to rise and the ceiling got closer, the air was getting pushed into a corner, and Black Violin’s black notes could no longer take the sudden change in pressure. One by one, each orb popped with a deafening boom and Lyra and her Stand were now left defenseless as the water continued to surge from above.

Fluttershy had gotten close enough to the water tank to grab on to one of the rungs with Florence and with Applejack now free from the black notes, she also conjured her Stand and got it to hold her over the water’s surface.

With nothing to hold on to now, Lyra was whisked around, smashing her face into the back wall, then into one of the generators. Thankfully, Florence had also shut down all the power, or they would’ve all been dead in the water by now.

“All yours, Applejack,” Fluttershy said from the water tank.

“Obliged, Flutters.” Applejack tipped her hat to her, then shot a dirty look at Lyra. “Highwayman!”

Highwayman and its three copies dove for the spinning girl and as the current brought her back into its swirling path, Applejack’s Stands released a flurry of spring-loaded punches, hitting both Lyra and Black Violin. Their bodies were pummeled from side to side, with blood flying out at every punch, staining the water around her red. Highwayman had a rather high-pitched voice and whenever it punched, it uttered a sound, which began to get faster the more it punched. It kept it up for at least a minute, leaving Black Violin or Lyra no room to counter them.

With one final attack, one Highwayman punched Lyra up, allowing the original one to deliver an almighty uppercut to her jaw, launching her up where she hit her head on the ceiling. When she returned, she fell face first into the water and stopped moving.

“We did it! Alright, shut it off, Flutters!” Applejack said over the pouring water.

Florence reached from Fluttershy’s hands to the water tank and activated its emergency gates, shutting off the water flow. The water coming from the pipes soon slowed to a trickle, now leaving the room they were in silent once again, with the exception of their breathing.

“I suppose it helps to have studied…” Fluttershy managed a smile and began shivering. They’d been getting wet all day, so she hadn’t thought much more about it, but the water was cold. “You okay, Applejack?”

“Now that Ah can move again… yeah. As good as new.” Applejack spun one arm around, then flexed it. “It took a while, but we’ve got it all sorted out.”

Applejack swam over and turned Lyra over to prevent her from drowning as they waited for the water level to go down. It would be a while, but at least the worst of it was over. They had defeated another Stand user and with it, perhaps they would be one step closer to their end goal now.

“We’re going to stop the master.” Applejack pulled herself up to one of the generators and sat atop of it as she waited for the water to go down. “We aren’t gonna let her control the world. That ain’t how it's supposed to be.”

“You’re right about that.” Fluttershy looked at her hand, where Florence was still swirling about. “You know, I had only known about my Stand for a week when I got mind controlled. It’s thanks to Jojo that we’re even here now, with a chance to fight back.”

“Ah’ve that ta thank him for too.” Applejack twisted her hair to wring water out of it. “And Sunset as well. Ah’d never expect the quiet girl ta want to save the world.”

“You heard her, right?” Fluttershy wrapped her arms around herself to try and stop shivering. “She left wherever she was from to live a life here. She too would do what needs to be done to ensure a peaceful life.”

“And we’re gonna make sure life stays peaceful. But first…” Applejack made a fist and threw it high. “We’re gonna have to take down this mysterious master. Let her throw whatever she’s got at us. We’ll take it, because there ain’t nothin’ we can’t accomplish together as friends.”

Fluttershy nodded. “As friends…”