Sunset Shimmer awoke the next day, stiff as a board as her eyes tried to pry themselves open. She hadn’t realized how tired she was yesterday, until she dropped herself on the couch. It had been dark when she had closed her eyes for a quick rest, but now, the sun was already out and there were blue birds flying about together outside the window, along with the honks of some cars outside on the road.
“Wow…” she said, then stuck her tongue out. Everything in her mouth was so dry.
“Hey you, you’re finally awake, sleeping beauty,” Jojo said. He was seated at the dining table with a plate of pancakes in front of his face. “I was beginning to wonder if you would even get up after yesterday.”
“What happened? You didn’t do anything to me in my sleep. Right?” Sunset kicked the blanket off her body and continued to lie there. She was really bushed.
“Relax, nothing happened again, alright?” Jojo flexed one arm. “I’m not that kind of guy. If I wanted you, I’d already be working my way there. Trust me. Where I’m from, I’m a ladies man.”
“Uh huh. I’m sure you had plenty of girls all over you. Speaking of that, Jojo. Where are you from?”
“I could ask you the same, right?” He grinned. “I know you’re not from around here either. But fair enough, to more about you, I’ve got to give some answers of my own. Born and raised in Trottingham. You know where that is?”
“Uh…” Sunset ran a hand through her tangled hair. “I know it’s east of Canterlot.”
“Far east.” Jojo chuckled. “Anyway, that’s where I’m from. I came all the way here once I got wind of that master’s mind control plot. Let’s just say I don’t want it reaching my shores as well, you know? I’ll never let her take Trottingham.”
“Yeah, you’re right about that. I don’t even intend to let her take this city.” Sunset finally pushed herself up and stretched. “Well, I’m from… Well, not here. Like, not even this world.”
“An alien, huh?” Jojo nodded slowly. “Can’t say I’m surprised, then. I had you pegged for an alien. Or at least, it was one of my theories.”
“No no, not an alien. Not exactly. I didn’t come from space.” Sunset shook her head. “I came from Equestria, it’s on another side of a mirror. We’re all ponies, until we cross the mirror, that is.”
Jojo, who had a pancake in his mouth, spat it out, where it went splat against the wall on the other side. “Ponies? For real? And I thought I already knew bizarre.”
“I totally have you beat, don’t I?” Sunset laughed.
In time, Jojo joined her laughing and the whole room was just filled with the sounds of cackling, all the way down the corridors.
Pinkie was the first of them to stop laughing. “What’s so funny? What’s the joke? Come on, tell me tell me tell me! I need to know!”
“Sushi’s just told me she’s from a whole ‘nother world.”
“Ooh ooh, is it like some colorful land of ponies and rainbows and everyone’s using magic and trying to be friendly with each other?” The pink girl slid herself over to Sunset’s couch.
Sunset could only stare blankly at her for a few seconds. “How… did you know that?”
Pinkie shrugged. “Just a hunch.”
“I think Pinkie’s got us beat.” Sunset smiled.
True to her word, the lunch chosen by Rarity yesterday had indeed been really delicious. Sunset was sure she would go there again someday, maybe when all this was over. Right now, they still had an enemy to stop and a world to save from her grasp. She and Rarity had explained what Snips and Snails had said yesterday, about the trophies in the master’s room. Trophies meant she competed in something. Minor detail or not, that would actually narrow down where their evil mastermind could be. There were few things you could win trophies from. One of them was sports, another was for things like chess or reading, another for acting, but whatever it was for, it was for winning some kind of competition. The Stand master behind this was some kind of competitor, it looked like.
Once everyone had woken up and settled down for the day, they gathered around the dining table to plan out their next move. According to what they’ve learned about the Bully Squad, three members remained. Trixie was the leader, meaning she probably won’t show herself until the very end. Whoever the other two were, they wouldn’t be a walk in the park as well, seeing as they were reserved till now.
But at least they had a lead. Trixie. The other girls knew her, which meant they could possibly find her if they went looking.
“I know she lives in the south part of Canterlot, like outside the city,” Pinkie Pie said as she poured a whole bottle of maple syrup on her pancakes. “I don’t remember her actual address, but we can just go look. I’m sure they’ll find us!”
“We should move in teams. Again, like with the mall, one of us will be able to find the enemy.” Rainbow adjusted the scarf around her neck. “Shame that it hadn’t been me, but hey, we’re all awesome people, aren’t we? Each of us is a trained fighter now. Whatever this Bully Squad has to throw at us, I’m sure we can take it.”
“In that case, I’d like to go with Jojo!” Rarity began waving her arm around like a maniac. She only stopped when she realized everyone was looking at her. “Ahem, I find Jojo very attractive. I’d like it if we went together.”
“He’s like, so much older,” Applejack countered. “No offense there, Jojo.”
“Nah, it’s cool.” He slicked back his blue hair after removing his cap. “I’m well aware of the effects I have on women. They love me.”
Fluttershy looked away as a blush spread across her cheeks.
“So it’s me and you, Jojo darling?” Rarity grabbed his arm and leaned in really close. “We’re going to get to know each other better, hmm?”
Instead of being weirded out like everyone else, Jojo crossed his arms in front of his chest and flexed. “Nice! Let’s do that. Applejack, you’re with Rainbow Dash. Sunset, you’ll be with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.”
“Sounds like a plan!” Rainbow and Applejack slapped their hands together in an arm wrestling hold.
“Alright, we have our missions.” Jojo put his hat back on. “We’ll search the south side of Canterlot. Check the suburban areas. One group of us is bound to find Trixie. Or at least the rest of her goon squad.”
“Uh, Bully Squad.” Sunset pointed out.
“Psssh, nerd.” Rainbow snickered.
“Okay, right, so we’ll find our own ways there,” Sunset continued, ignoring her. “Fluttershy, we’ll be leaving the footwork to you.”
“Or should we say… the car work!” Pinkie grinned widely after she grabbed Fluttershy’s shoulders from behind.
“It’ll be like finding a needle in a haystack.” Rarity combed at her hair with her hands. “But at least with us in three groups, we’ll be able to comb the area much faster. Perhaps even find a Stand user or two.”
-----------------------JO-JO--------------------
“I don’t see anything.” Rainbow jumped down from the ice sculptor Running on Ice had made, having more ice appear under her feet before she touched the ground once again. “I don’t think any houses from here to three blocks down belong to Trixie. At least, I haven’t seen her and her name isn’t on any of the mailboxes here. Lulamoon is what we’re after.”
“No Stand users as well?” Applejack pulled her hat lower when she looked up at the sky.
The afternoon sun was burning bright in the sky, reducing the shadows and making their skins perspire and glisten with sweat. Rainbow’s scarf was definitely not helping with that, but she wasn’t going to take it off anytime soon.
“Maybe we just gotta wait for them Stand users to show up to get us,” Applejack said. “Just keep an eye out for anyone unusual.”
“Uh huh. Right.”
Rainbow Dash put a hand over her eyes as she looked around to help shield her vision from the sun. There was a purple haired man in a tracksuit walking a dog, there was a woman with red and blue striped hair carrying groceries in from her car with a kid, Sandalwood sitting on a bench chewing on a whole stalk of broccoli, dressed in some kind of arabian looking attire and Cloudy Kicks walking down the sidewalk, bouncing a soccer ball on her knees, but none of them looked to be a Stand user.
“Something smells fishy here…” Applejack watched all of them go about their day.
“I think we should just check down another street.” Rainbow shrugged. “Maybe Sunset’s and Jojo’s groups are having a better time finding something. Maybe they’ve already found Trixie and they’re beating the crap out of her.”
Applejack reached out and grabbed her friend. “Wait no. I actually mean something’s smelling mighty fishy in the air.”
Rainbow took a sniff in the air and found her friend was right. Something actually smelled fishy. Like dead fish, to be precise, and it began to make her eyes water.
“Gross…” She held her nose and grimaced. “Where’s it coming from?”
Rainbow took a step forward, but her boots squelched and began to sink. They had been standing on the road earlier, so this made no sense. Looking down, she realized wherever they were, it was no longer the road they had been on.
Instead of seeing asphalt or concrete, everything below their feet was now muddy and grassy and as they watched, mangrove trees were growing out of the ground around them as mud continued to creep out to their surroundings, spreading this new terrain all over the street. There were instances of small ponds around them, with dead fish littering its shallow waters.
No one else seemed to see this and continued about their day, with the grocery lady disappearing into her house, and the man with the dog letting it pee against one of the new trees.
“What in tarnation?” Applejack lifted her boot to better look at the mud. “That’s what stinks here. And we’re steppin’ all over it!”
“Someone’s here.” Rainbow watched as mud began to creep up the houses on their street, going up to their roofs, making them look like mounds now. “Someone’s doing this.”
“As Jojo would put it…” Applejack cracked her knuckles and got herself ready. “This is the work of an enemy Stand.”
“A strange one at that.” Rainbow sidestepped a tree that began growing where she was standing. “So what if you grow a swamp under us? What is that going to do? The mud’s not even quicksand or anything. It’s just annoying.”
“Right, so we just gotta find this Stand user before this swamp covers the suburbs.” Applejack nodded and took another step in the mud.
For once, they were thankful to be wearing boots instead of shoes. The mud sometimes reached up to their ankles and that would’ve been very bad for shoes. Rainbow followed after Applejack for another few steps, then gave up and called forth Running on Ice. She wasn’t going to walk on this squishy mud when she could take the high road.
Her Stand began creating ice steps that led over the mud, allowing both of them an easier time walking.
“Neat trick, Dash.” Applejack stepped up carefully onto the first step. “Now if only we had some kinda radar for Stand users...”
Suddenly without warning, two meaty hands the size of dinner plates rose from the surface of the swamp and grabbed Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s legs. Then the arms heaved, throwing both girls out over the swamp and through a fence. The wood cracked and splintered as they flew into it.
“Ooohh…” Rainbow Dash’s eyes were little spirals while Applejack’s hat had fallen over her face. She pulled the Stetson off and jammed it back on top of her head before picking herself up off the ground.
“Oi!” A policeman came running over. “What do you think you’re doing, you vandals?”
“Wha’?” Applejack asked. “We ain’t vandals! We were thrown!”
Rainbow Dash still lay there on the broken fence, her head spinning.
“Rarity, I don’t want to wear the pink dress…” she mumbled.
The policeman squinted at the pair of them. “I didn’t see anything. Have you two been drinking or taking illegal drugs?”
“What? No!” Applejack retorted. “C’mon, Dash. We’re going to find that Stand user!”
The farm girl hauled her friend up and they staggered off back towards the swamp, which was still continuing to spread across the street.
“The Stand’s in there somewhere, Ah’m pretty sure.” She slapped at Rainbow’s face, trying to snap her back to reality. “C’mon, Dash, stop yer daydreamin’. Rarity ain’t here.”
Rainbow Dash rubbed her cheek where Applejack’s palm had hit her. “Ow. That hurt. Not as much as getting thrown by whatever that was, though. You think it’s the enemy Stand?”
“Pretty sure,” Applejack stared at the swampy waters. “It’s hidin’ in there somewhere, waitin’ to come get us again.”
“Let’s go find it.” Rainbow gave her body a shake, then raised her hands. “Running on Ice!”
Running on Ice materialized next to her and started freezing the encroaching mud. It took a while to get it solid, but once she deemed it was frozen enough, Rainbow stepped onto it, not feeling her boots sink into the mud. Applejack did the same and they continued back into the growing swamp, with Running on Ice freezing more of the ground as they walked. From what she knew, the Stand could come out from the ground, so perhaps if she iced it over, it wouldn’t be able to do that.
However, Rainbow’s hopes were dashed when a pair of tree trunk-like arms came out of the swamp and dealt a crushing blow to the underside of the ice, breaking it and launching both girls out of the swamp again. This time, Applejack managed to catch both of them before they could smash anything else by summoning Highwayman to cushion their trajectory.
“Dagnabbit, it keeps tossin’ us out of the swamp!” She pulled her hat off her head and stomped a foot.
“Like, what were you doing in my swamp anyway?” a languid, male voice came from the edge of the marshland. “This here’s my swamp, dudes.”
“It was the road first. Who is that?” Rainbow looked around, but she saw no one in the swamp.
“Whatever it was before, bro, it’s my swamp now,” the voice came back, sounding quite close, but its speaker was still unseen.
“Dude, you may as well throw in the towel now, ‘cause there’s no way you’re going to beat me. Smash Mouth has no weaknesses!” the voice said as the swamp began to creep closer. “The master is very unhappy about losing all her followers, so I’m gonna round them up and bring them back. You two’ll fit the bill as well, since you were both followers too.”
“Well, how can you get us if you keep throwing us out of your swamp?” Rainbow challenged. “Come on out and face us and if you win, you can take us back.”
“Challenge accepted, bro,” the voice said as a stocky, ogre-like Stand rose from the swamp waters and slammed its left fist into its right palm. There were arrows on the back of both hands and one more on its forehead, where put together like this, formed the recycle sign. “Let’s go!”