Rainbow Dash’s Running on Ice dodged around the enemy Stand’s fist as it launched its big beefy arm towards her lithe body. As she glided around it, she began firing icicles at it before trying to freeze it’s arm while it was distracted.
The Stand, whose lower half was just mud that connected to the ground, slammed its fist into the mud, then disappeared beneath it.
“You can’t stop Smash Mouth, dude,” the Stand user’s voice echoed around them. “It and the swamp are one. Just as much as you can’t stop the nature building here, you can’t stop Smash Mouth.”
“We’ll see about that.” Rainbow waggled a fist to the swamp.
Running on Ice continued freezing the mud beneath them, but then the ground shifted and mud from below piled up over the frozen mud before a wave of water and dead fish washed over the two girls, sending them back on their bums with a fish in Applejack’s hat.
“Ugh.” Applejack took in a whiff of the poor animal and tossed it aside. “We’re gonna smell for weeks.”
“Not if I beat it, we won’t!” Rainbow swung a fist in the air and Running on Ice began creating ice under its feet to traverse the air above the swamp to find their enemy.
“Even if ya beat it, we’re still gonna smell.”
“Pretty sure we won’t.”
Smash Mouth erupted from the mud between them, throwing both girls clear as it began swinging its muscled arms around. Highwayman appeared and formed a second copy of itself before throwing their punches at the enemy Stand. Its spring-loaded swings were enough to force Smash Mouth on the defensive, but the enemy Stand raised its meaty arms to block Highwayman’s attacks, then swung an arm low and slapped a fistful of mud into it and its copy, as it ducked down after Highwayman’s next swing, Smash Mouth dived back into the dirt, sending a tidal wave of mud out that attached itself to the mud on Highwayman’s cloak. The ground began to pull Applejack’s Stand down and no matter how hard it pulled against it, it could not break free of the mud.
“Hang on, AJ!” Rainbow called Running on Ice back and it began freezing the mud that had a grip around Highwayman.
The mud splashed around them and Smash Mouth returned from behind Highwayman, grabbing it in a chokehold as it began descending into the ground.
Applejack dropped to her back and grabbed for her neck, trying to breathe as Highwayman began lobbing punches behind its head by bending its arms back.
“Dash…! Dash! You’ve got ta… stop ‘em…!” Applejack gasped as her body also began to sink into the mud. “You’ll… find a way!”
And then both Stands and Stand master went under, with the mud returning back to the way it had been.
“Applejack!” Rainbow dug her hands into the mud, trying to unearth her friend, but she was nowhere in sight now. “Argh, where are you, you dirty Stand user…”
The enemy was still out here in the ever growing swamp and the longer she waited, the more space it would have to roam. She had to find a way to beat this and she had to do it fast. There was one trick up her sleeve, something she’s never tried before, but in theory, it might just work in locating the Stand master. Might.
-----------------------JO-JO----------------------
Sandalwood laughed as he walked amongst the trees of his perfect swamp. There was nothing Rainbow Dash or Applejack could do to him and Smash Mouth. On his home turf, his Stand was just too powerful.
Trixie had tasked him with the mission to deal with the master’s enemies. They were slowly gaining ground against her and she didn’t like that. According to the leader of their squad, if they failed, they risked incurring the master’s wrath and that would probably lead to their deaths.
Sandalwood didn’t want to meet his end just yet. There was still so much to do and so much of the world to take over. With his Stand, Smash Mouth, he was able to easily capture other Stand users, like Applejack right now. He had taken many of them to the master’s base to have their minds taken. Soon, Rainbow Dash would join her and together, they would become thralls of the master once again. Sandalwood relished in the thought. It had been a few days since they had been on the master’s bad side and he very much wanted to do something that would make her praise them once again.
They had already lost Sweetie Drops, Lyra, Snips and Snails to the enemy. He wasn’t about to be the next one. Smash Mouth would toy with her, and then when it was ready, it would take her like it took her friend. In the meantime, he would stay out of sight, where Rainbow would never find him.
This being his swamp, Sandalwood was not affected by the abilities of his Stand’s power. His shoes did not stick in the mud, nor did he smell. The humidity did not affect him and the mosquitoes that came with his Stand’s power did not suck his blood. He was free to roam in the swamp however he liked and he considered it a part of home.
Under him, the mud split apart, revealing a short flight of steps leading into the earth. There was water at the bottom, but even that slid aside to let him in, falling back over him once he was through.
“Bring it on, Rainbow Dash. Like, what are you gonna do in my swamp?” he said to himself with a smile.
The swamp was not infinite, and it had to spread out from a central starting point. But it still could grow to an impressive size, more than enough to engulf the whole neighborhood and then some. Other than Rainbow Dash and Applejack, he was sure to gather up more thralls for the master.
Safe under the surface of the swamp inside an air pocket, Sandalwood watched through Smash Mouth’s eyes to see what was going on above the water. Rainbow was still standing where she had been, looking around the swamp, trying to find him or his Stand, but to no avail.
“Hehe, you got no chance, RD! Smash Mouth, kick her out of our swamp again. I like to see her squirm.”
Rainbow Dash seemed to be having her Stand out, but it wasn’t freezing anything. What use was bringing out Running on Ice if not to freeze things? That was all it was good for.
“What are you doing in my swamp?” Sandalwood wondered. “Oh well. Time to get out, Dash!”
Smash Mouth erupted from the surface of the swamp and grabbed onto Rainbow Dash and Running on Ice’s legs, preparing to hurl them from the marshy area. With its incredible strength, it threw both of them sky high, then dusted its hands before retreating back under the swamp.
“She’ll be back.” Sandalwood could see Applejack under the mud near his Stand, now unconscious. She’ll want to save her friend.
In less than even a minute, he spotted her again, now standing at the edge of the swamp as the mud continued its spread across the land.
“Come on. Step in it, dude. You know you want to…” Sandalwood rubbed his hands together as he anticipated Smash Mouth throwing her out again.
Rainbow Dash, however, did not set another foot into the swamp. She stayed out of it, staring hard at the murky mud as if trying to set it on fire with her gaze alone.
“What are you planning now, girl…” Sandalwood leaned closer in his underground seat and rubbed his chin.
Without warning and very much to his surprise, a sharp spear of ice carved through the mud beside Sandalwood’s head and down into the dirt floor beneath him.
“What the…!” He jumped to the side and slammed his shoulder against the mud wall, sending a tremor through the rest of his body. “Argh!”
As he grabbed his shoulder, the pillar of ice was drawn back out of his hiding space, then came right back down over him and if Sandalwood hadn’t slid himself across the floor to safety, he would’ve probably been skewered.
“There’s no way she found me!” Sandalwood scrambled for the other side of the wall and it slid aside for him, where an underground tunnel was already being formed.
He had only just called out to Smash Mouth to get it over here when more icicles as long as him pierced the ground where he had just been. There was no doubt about it. Rainbow Dash knew his location.
“But how?” Sandalwood pushed through the dirt and ran, trying to get as far away from his hiding spot as possible. “She can’t know I’m down here! She can’t see me. I don’t leave any tracks in my swamp. She couldn’t have followed my footprints.”
From behind, the icicles grew more spikes and they shot out towards Sandalwood, who had to duck to avoid them. Rainbow’s Stand was peppering the area around him with icicle spears, and she seemed to know his exact location.
Sandalwood called for Smash Mouth to eject Running on Ice from the swamp, and the hulking Stand burst out of the wall beside him before tunneling up to the surface, reaching out for Rainbow’s Stand’s limbs.
However, Running on Ice seemed to anticipate Smash Mouth’s usual tactic and skated away from its grasping hands. For a few seconds, Smash Mouth was above the swamp and Rainbow took advantage of its appearance to freeze it in place. The swampy Stand immediately began to free itself, but it gave Rainbow a few more moments to fire three more lances of ice at Sandalwood, one of which sliced him across the shoulder.
“Argh!” Sandalwood held his shoulder and felt warm blood dripping out. It was a shallow cut, but if he wasn’t careful then the next one could well go through his head.
“It doesn’t make any sense, dude,” Sandalwood recalled Smash Mouth and set it on intercepting any more ice projectiles, however the shots fired from Rainbow were quick like bullets, and Smash Mouth didn’t have the speed to catch every single one of them and another pierced him through the calf, dropping him to the muddy ground. “Like, how is she finding me?!”
Sandalwood was finding it harder and harder to maintain control over the swamp. He had to think clearly to keep this dry pocket of air under the swamp, or he would be swimming in the muck as well. Not that it would impede him much, but it would feel unpleasant.
“She’s seeing me without seeing me…” He got Smash Mouth to pick him up and carry him along as they avoided more ice spikes. “Running on Ice is able to turn moisture into ice, liquid, solid or gaseous. Like, how does that help Rainbow find me?”
His swamp would be the most humid place in the neighborhood, with all the mangroves and water everywhere, and that meant there was a lot of water in the air for Running on Ice to scent. He figured that was how she was looking for him, by pinpointing his moisture levels, but with the swamp so overbearingly humid, how was it still able to find him?
Then Sandalwood realized his mistake. She wasn’t tracking his moisture. “No. She’s tracking the lack of moisture! With the swamp forming, the humidity level in this area rises because of the water vapor, but my Stand makes me immune to the swamp’s effects and I will not be prespiring as much as Rainbow would. And she knows this! Dude, she’s like, tracking me by sensing my abnormal level of moisture in this damp place. That’s rad! But sick.”
Icicles speared out of the mud from all sides around them, piercing Smash Mouth’s arms as it lifted them to protect itself. Bloody holes burst forth from Sandalwood’s arms and he cried out in pain. “Smash Mouth, get her!”
With the strength of the swamp, Smash Mouth erupted from the mud with its powerful arms and grabbed Running on Ice, who was floating in the air above them, sliding along on icy slopes. Sandalwood’s Stand raised one fist and pummeled Running on Ice down onto the ground, but as it moved to deliver a second punch, a layer of frost coated its face and Sandalwood was unable to see through his Stand.
“Agh, where is she?!” He rubbed at his face. The labyrinth under the swamp was getting colder now and he could see his breath in puffs of white.
That’s when he realized his second mistake. With the mud being damp, there was enough moisture in them for Rainbow to turn against him. It would take time, but she must’ve already been working on it ever since she started her pursuit. She had set up a trap on his home turf and he had just let her do it.
“Clever gi-” Was all Sandalwood could say as sheets of ice ruptured out from the slowly freezing walls, going all around him and encasing his tunnels in layers of ice, trapping him where he stood. Some of it melted into water and washed over him, only to freeze again, this time with him frozen in place.
Now defeated, the earth around them began to recede and push him back out over the road. The battle was over and the swamp would soon disappear.
Rainbow Dash did a little cheer where she pumped one fist into the air and hopped down onto one knee. She didn’t know how well that plan would’ve worked, but it did, and now as the swamp’s land began to snake away from her feet, she was able to walk further down the street where she spotted Applejack climbing out of the ground as it began to shrink, covered in mud and loose twigs.
“Son of a gun, Ah hate this place…” She accepted Rainbow’s help and took one last step from the hole as it rose up behind her, returning to normal asphalt when the mud dissolved under her. “Ah take it you’ve done it?”
“Very much so. I mean, I am pretty awesome. And I’m also the captain of every sports team in school, remember? I can handle an enemy Stand user.” Rainbow looked to the side on someone’s front lawn where a block of ice had risen from the ground. A frozen Sandalwood was suspended within, his mouth frozen in the middle of saying something. “Turns out it was Sandalwood behind this.”
“Ah should’a known when we saw him sittin’ there.” Applejack wiped her clothes down and flicked the remaining mud off to the side. “Sunset ain’t here, so Ah guess we better go over and bonk him over the head.”
“I do wonder if they’ve managed to find Trixie.” Rainbow began walking over to the block of ice. “Perhaps the others are having a better time than we are.”
Applejack looked down at her muddy attire and stuck out her tongue after sniffing at herself. “Ya think?”
-------------------JO-JO-------------------
On the other side of the suburbs, right at the edge that led to the highway, Jojo stood on one end of the road, with Rarity standing behind him as they faced a boy on the other end of the road. White Buffalo ran beside him, its engine rumbling as it waited for further commands. Jojo had noted something was strange when they had rode in on White Buffalo earlier. The boy had just been standing on the road, like he had already anticipated them rolling up. His arms were folded across his chest, where six iron plates had been sewn to his black shirt. He grinned at them through thick dark sunglasses, then ran a hand through his blue hair.
“Your ride ends here, Jojo…”