“I can’t believe the streets are so empty now!” Pinkie Pie said from the back as she stuffed a cake in her mouth. A whole cake. “I guess it’s good that we’re finally on the move again.”
“Yeah, good work, Rainbow and Applejack.” Jostle Joyride gave them a thumbs up from beside Fluttershy in the front. “Nicely done! Another Shadowbolt defeated!”
“A-And her dog…” Fluttershy said sourly. She had been upset they had to turn a dog into slime, but there hadn’t been another immediate way.
“It wasn’t pretty, but at least we’re back on track.” Jojo spun his cap on a finger. “We can’t let that Cinch get the Stand Geode. She can already take over minds now. Imagine what she could do if she got even more powerful.”
“I know what I would do…” Rainbow said. “I’d beat the crap out of Cinch and anyone else who wants to take over the world!”
“Yeah, we won’t let her!” Sunset cheered, then chuckled with the rest of them.
It was really nice to be around them. Now she found it difficult to be on her own again. Even though it had only been a few days with this group, if given the choice, she would like to continue being among them and learn more about them.
“Hey, uh, this is going to sound a little weird, but uh… could you girls tell me more about Rarity?” Sunset looked aside as all eyes turned to her. “I just want to know more about her, and who she was, for doing what she did for us without a second thought.”
“I’d like to hear that too.” Jojo nodded as he patted one of his knees with a hand.
“Well, where do we even begin?” Pinkie said from behind. “She was the most generous of us all! She would always be ready to help those in need, even if she has to give away free clothes!”
“Her generosity I knew…” Sunset nodded slowly. Rarity had spared no expense in their last meal together and not to mention her sacrifice to protect Jojo from Trixie.
“She was a great friend…” Fluttershy’s eyes misted and she wiped at them. Thankfully, her Stand could drive the car on without her looking. “But Rarity… she showed us how much we meant to her by giving her life up for us.”
“We’ll never forget her as long as we live,” Applejack took her hat off in respect. “We’ll avenge her.”
As they entered the highway, they noticed one of the signs read that the road they intended to get to was closed for work. Sunset didn’t blame them. She had heard the story from Jojo on how they had faced off against Flash and Sabaton there, resulting in the bridge’s destruction.
“How are we supposed to get there now?” Applejack complained and sighed.
“We’ll have to go off road.” Jojo clapped his hands together. “Step on it, Fluttershy.”
“Al-alright then…” She gunned the engine and headed down the road towards the bridge.
The road twisted and turned and began heading alongside a mountain as the city began fading in the back while trees and open air began taking its place. Far away from the bustle of life, the air here smelled fresher and even mintier, and Pinkie couldn’t resist not winding down the windows.
“Woohoo!” She stuck herself out the car’s sunroof.
Jojo turned around and smiled at the others. “Her next words are, ‘I’m the queen of the world.’”
“I’m the queen of the worldddd!” Pinkie whooped. “Hey, good guess, Jojo! You need to teach me that trick!”
“One day, don’t you worry.” He gave them a thumbs up, then returned his attention to the front.
As they came around the next bend, there were a cluster of loud popping sounds, followed by the shredding of steel on gravel and everyone in the car lurched forward as the vehicle began to spin out of control.
“Fluttershy, what happened?” Sunset grabbed the seat in front of her and held on for dear life.
“I-I don’t know! The wheels suddenly popped!” Fluttershy had Florence trying to stop the car.
“Which ones?”
“A-All four of them! H-Hold on!”
The car skidded dangerously towards the edge and Fluttershy had Florence step down hard on the brakes, but without tyres, the car was unable to stop in time and crashed right through the barrier.
Everyone began screaming, but they had only fallen about two inches before they stopped.
“That was it?” Applejack rubbed her face after it smashed into Fluttershy’s headrest. “Ah expected ta fall a lot longer.”
“You’ve Pegasus Fantasy to thank for that.” Sunset ran a hand along her neck. It felt as though someone had whipped her across it. Pegasus Fantasy’s head lifted up from the windshield and snorted, then lifted the car back to the road with a flap of its mighty wings. “That was a little too close for comfort. Let’s not do that again.”
“That was coooool! We should totally do it again!” Pinkie’s face burst through the middle row seats. “But wait, my ears and tingling, and my left leg is wobbly. Someone’s got their eyes on us.”
“Not just anybody. We’ve an enemy Stand user about. That’s how they blew the tyres.” Jojo wiped a trail of blood dripping from his hairline.
“Sh-she’s right the-there…” Fluttershy pointed ahead.
Everyone looked out the window to see a girl with teal-blue hair standing way away in an outlandish pose, with one arm on her hip and the other over her head in an arc. One leg folded up against her body, while the other kept itself on the ground to keep her standing. A pair of goggles rested on top of her head and her outfit consisted of a loose dark purple shirt, blue shorts and black tights.
“Indigo Zap.” Rainbow Dash poked her head out behind the headrest. “Crystal Prep’s resident daredevil.”
“What’s she doing just standing there?” Applejack grabbed her hat from the floor.
“She’s waiting for us to challenge her.” Sunset kicked the door of the car open. “Let me go see what she’s up to.”
“Be careful, Sunset. We’ll be right here.” Jojo leaned out of the window and gave her a thumbs up.
Sunset nodded and stepped in front of the car. Indigo saw her coming and spun around and flicked one arm to the sky. Behind her, a Stand of purple and black materialized and gave her a greeting with a lift of its black hat. It had what looked like a huge stereo speaker in its mouth and it got into a pose with one leg far behind and its body bent back.
“So, Sushi the new girl is the one challenging me first?” Indigo Zap laughed and lowered her raised hand till it was now pointing at Sunset. “I was actually expecting Rainbow Dash, she’s the most athletic of your whole group. The most skilled. But oh well. It’s you and me, Sushi. I’ll finish you all here and bring your heads back to Principal Cinch, dead or alive.”
“You can’t possibly bring our heads in alive,” Sunset said.
“I’ll be the judge of that.” Indigo opened her palm. “Now the question is, Sushi, are you big enough?”
Her Stand leapt in front of her and brought both arms in front of its oversized head. Sunset got the hint and Pegasus Fantasy erupted from her body and fly a circle in the air, then back into her, melding with her and forming its fantasy armor around her.
Indigo’s Stand swung its arms to its sides and there was a boom in the air, emitting from its large speaker and rocketing right for Sunset. It hit her like a pile of bricks and Sunset felt her lungs rupture and for a second, she couldn’t breathe, but with the help of her fantasy armor, her body was reset and she regained her posture almost immediately.
The same could not be said for her friends as the sonic waves reached the car. The glass shattered and everyone suddenly grabbed for their chests and ears. Jojo coughed up blood on the dashboard and winced hard.
“No!” Sunset looked around to see them hurt. It must’ve been the same for them.
Indigo began laughing and bent forward and dropped to a half crouch. “At the right frequencies, the pressure increases and anything can burst and Big Enough has done just that to all your friends and you only stand there because of your Stand’s ability. But I know of its temporary lifespan. Your armor can only last one minute against me, and that’s without Big Enough blasting your insides to bits. Trust me, this’ll be over soon. You can’t beat me or my Stand. You can’t win against Principal Cinch!”
Sunset knew she had to help her friends, but she also knew that Indigo wasn’t going to just stand there while she reset her friends’ bodies. It was going to be tough, but she had to deal with her first.
“We’ll see about that!”
And Sunset was off, rocketing herself high into the air as another blast of sound wafted through the air below her, just missing her toes as she dived down towards Indigo and Big Enough, one fist in front of herself. The Stand below simply looked up and yelled through its speaker, sending shockwaves booming out to Sunset where it felt as though she had just flown into a wall. It launched her back and at the same time, her ears hurt badly and her senses were now ringing, with even her vision turning blurry.
Before she could even think to reset herself, another shockwave hit her and sent her sailing over the forest, her head spinning and her body feeling as though a truck had driven into her. She dropped lower, managing to grab on to what felt like roots hanging out of the side of the slope, which stopped her descent.
Away from Big Enough now, Sunset used this time to reset her injuries, but this cost her the rest of her fantasy armor and Pegasus Fantasy split off from her, now floating beside her.
“We need to think of a different angle…” she said to her Stand. Till now, she didn’t exactly know if she could actually hold a conversation with a Stand. “My friends need me. They won’t last long without use of their lungs. Indigo’s Stand has greater range than Pegasus, and that means it won’t be able to get close enough without getting blasted by its sound waves. We’ll need to beat it at range, and I have just the idea.”
As Sunset began climbing back up, she sent Pegasus Fantasy ahead to fight Indigo. It wouldn’t be able to go very far from her, but if she wanted to stay out of range of Big Enough’s attacks, she had to hang back while her Stand got to work.
Pegasus Fantasy grabbed a dead tree along the slope and pulled. As dirt and rocks fell away, it yanked the entire thing from the ground and flew up into the air with it. Big Enough saw it flying up from beyond the barrier and looked towards it and let out another shout from its speaker.
Pegasus flew to the side and then tore off one of the roots of the tree and threw it at them like a javelin. Big Enough swatted it aside, but then got hit in the face by the rest of the tree, thrown by Pegasus Fantasy right after the root.
It smashed into pieces and knocked Big Enough down, giving Pegasus the chance to fly closer. Sunset had to climb up higher to give it more range as it stomped down its hooves on the enemy Stand’s chest.
Indigo leaned forward and coughed out blood as she dropped to her knees. “Wh-why you…!”
Before Pegasus Fantasy could take another stomp, Big Enough twisted its head back at it and shouted. The shockwave at that range sent Pegasus Fantasy flying back, its eyes and ears bleeding as it got harder and harder to breathe. Sunset received the same effects and nearly lost her grip on the slope. One lung had burst and it felt as though her eyes had done the same.
“There’s no way… There’s no way to win!” Sunset gasped as she struggled to keep herself from falling off the edge.
It was at that moment that Sunset heard a voice. It was faint and her ears were blown out, but she could swear she could hear something.
“... up, Sushi…”
“What was that…?” Sunset groaned as her feet fought to find some kind of foothold.
“...Sushi. Don’t give up…”
It sounded familiar. Really familiar.
“You must fight on, Sushi. Don’t give up. You can do this. The power of friendship is on your side…”
Sunset knew who it was. It was Rarity’s voice. “But that’s… impossible. Rarity’s gone.”
No, it wasn’t exactly her voice, but it was a memory of her. An echo of her voice. And Sunset knew she was right. She couldn’t give up now. If she gave up now, then Rarity would’ve died for nothing. She had to see this through, no matter how tough things were. Her friends counted on her to save them and she couldn’t stop. Not yet.
“You guys, it’s because of you…” Sunset breathed as her arms found the strength to pull herself up the root she was holding on to. “All of you gave me the strength to do this. It’s because of you that I feel alive for once in my life. I won’t give up, not now.”
With a deep breath, Sunset concentrated Pegasus’ power and slowly, bit by bit, her senses began to return to her and she found her strength returned to her as Pegasus Fantasy floated beside her, its knuckles glowing with light.
She remembered her Stand found its power in the friendships she forged along the way. She had been wrong. This fight was far from over.
“Let’s do this, Pegasus.” Sunset nodded to her Stand and continued her climb. They would do this together.
She soon found her hand on gravel and she hauled herself up over the barrier as Indigo Zap watched from the other side, not looking too pleased with seeing her again.
“Survived, did you?” She looked at her fingers nonchalantly. “Oh well, I’ll just have to kill you again.”
Big Enough launched another sound wave at Sunset, but as if it was moving on its own, Pegasus Fantasy punched the ground and sent up a barrage of rocks and dirt. The cone of noise struck the debris, and from behind the makeshift barrier, Sunset’s eyes widened.
Of course! Sound is blocked by solid objects. If I can block Big Enough’s attacks like this, I can get in close to it.
Big Enough’s sound waves intensified, breaking apart the chunks of rock and earth that Pegasus Fantasy threw up. However, all Pegasus Fantasy had to do was punch the ground harder and buy Sunset a little breathing room to run to the left. Indigo couldn’t see her with all the dirt and stone that was flying everywhere, and for the moment, Sunset was safe.
“You think you can hide from me?” Indigo shouted. “Sound can do a lot more than rip things apart, you know! Big Enough also has a sonar that can see you no matter wherever you hide!”
The torrent of deadly soundwaves ceased and a loud ping! came from Indigo’s location.
“Aha! There you are!” Indigo had Big Enough fire another devastating soundwave as Sunset’s position, but Sunset had already moved. The wrecked tree that she was hiding behind blew up into a cloud of splinters, but it missed her entirely.
Frustrated, Indigo used another sonar pulse to try and find Sunset. Sunset, for her part, stayed behind another piece of cover, this time a car which had unfortunately come from the other direction, only for its driver to run away when he saw what was happening.
“There!” Indigo shouted. “Big Enough! Get her!”
Another blast of sonic energy shot out and smashed into the fleeing man, sending him flying, trailing blood as he disappeared past the railing.
“Kick her to Australia!” Indigo pointed.
Big Enough screamed in the same direction, tearing up part of the road as its sound waves traveled, but missing Sunset as she stayed in her hiding spot behind the car. Though it wouldn’t take a genius to guess where she was, seeing as the car was the only other piece of cover left on the road.
Sunset looked inside the car to see if there was anything inside she could use. There wasn’t anything in there, but she saw something in the rearview mirror that gave her pause. Coming down the way they had come was a police car. Surely there had to be some kind of weapon or useful tool in there.
Big Enough’s sonar ping came again, but this time Sunset stayed completely still, remembering from school that echolocation didn’t work as well on stationary objects. Once it was sure it didn’t find Sunset, Big Enough turned around as the police car stopped to have a look at Sunset’s car with her friends, then over to Indigo as she sneered at them.
“What happened here?” One of them approached her, while the other kept a hand on his holster.
“Big Enough!” Indigo called and her Stand immediately unleashed a scream. Both cops were thrown against Sunset’s car, their eyes and ears bloody messes now.
Both cops crawled around screaming, unable to get their bearings back. Indigo stood there laughing, then remembered Sunset was still out there and turned back to the car on the other end. There was no other place to hide than there and she didn’t have anything to lose anyway.
Big Enough leaned back and when it was ready it sprang forward and screamed as loudly as it could, sending a wave of sound towards the car and watching as its glass shattered and its tyres punctured. But no one ran out from behind the car.
“Hmm, weird.” Indigo frowned. “Just where did she go?”
The Shadowbolt looked around, but didn’t see Sunset. She used Big Enough’s sonar waves again, but instead of hearing the ping! of the sonar, there was a brak! and Indigo felt a stinging pain in her shoulder.
“Arg! What!” Indigo looked down and saw a patch of red spreading across her clothes. “Who did that? Where are you, Sunset?”
“Right here,” Sunset’s voice came from inside the police car. Big Enough immediately blasted it with a torrent of sound, and the car rolled over. But Sunset wasn’t inside.
There was another brak! And this time Indigo was knocked off her feet by what felt like a hammer blow to the stomach.
“Argh, what?” Indigo lay on the ground as blood seeped from between her fingers. “She used the police radio! She went to the car when I wasn’t looking and took the radio and went somewhere else!”
“That’s right, Indigo.” Sunset appeared in her vision, standing there with a handgun pointed at her. “Not a conventional way to win, I know, but hey, it works.”
“I’ll show you conventional. I’ll have Big Enough release the loudest scream you’ve ever heard! It’ll tear these mountains apart, it’ll create earthquakes bigger than anything you’ve ever seen! Big Enough!”
Her Stand appeared in front of her and swiped its hands towards its chest. It began vibrating and the loose gravel on the ground began to float up around it as its body began to shake.
“Not if I have anything to say about that.” Sunset raised a fist and Pegasus Fantasy did the same, with its knuckles glowing brightly on its right hand. “Pegasus Fantasy, end this!”
Pegasus’ wings lifted high and they flapped down hard as it propelled itself towards Indigo’s Stand. Before it could release its ultimate shout, Pegasus Fantasy’s fists began connecting with the enemy Stand, pounding it from head to toe with its glowing fists, punching deep holes into Big Enough’s body.
“Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!”
Pegasus Fantasy launched the Stand up into the air with an uppercut, then as it was coming back down, it drew one arm back and with all its strength, it brought it forward, connecting with Big Enough’s abdomen before it touched the ground. The Stand spun and flipped, crashing into the railing and breaking it in half as it flew into the distance before falling down into the forest below.
Indigo cried out, then coughed out one last spat of blood before she stopped moving.
Sunset stood there, panting and watching as her Stand raised its smoking fists before striking a pose, placing its two legs together and looking skyward.
“One more down,” Sunset exhaled, then threw the gun aside and ran back to help her friends back onto their feet.
She had to close her eyes and focus hard, tuning out the sounds of nature around her. Pegasus Fantasy floated over, its hand merging with hers. Sunset could feel the strength of her friendships empowering her and she smiled. She should’ve known this was the strongest power all this time. Back when she had still been a student of Celestia, she had sought power. True power. She had thought power would come from one’s own strength, but she should’ve seen it from the beginning. There was nothing more powerful than friendship.
“Phew, fresh air!” Jojo gasped and leaned forward in his seat. “That was hard. It felt like forever since I last had air in my lungs.”
“Me too!” Pinkie bounced out the sunroof and rolled down the car’s shattered windshield and stuck her arms out to her sides. “Freeeeeedom! Lemme tell you, freedom is the right of all sentient beings and that includes breathing!”
“Ah certainly don’t miss not breathing.” Applejack sighed contentedly and leaned back in her seat. “Ya did it, Sunset! You showed her who’s boss.”
“Yeah…” Sunset leaned against the car, feeling incredibly tired. “How are we going to get down now?”
“Well, the car’s totalled.” Jojo got out and pointed at the car’s crumpled hood. “But alright, I suppose we’re close enough to the forest now. We can just use our Stands to get down from here. You get on behind me, Sunset. I’ll get us down. White Buffalo!”
Jojo’s Stand appeared next to the car.
“How do we know where to look once we’re down there?” Rainbow asked. “It’s like that expression, finding a hay in a farmhouse?”
“Ah’m pretty sure that ain’t how it’s said...” Applejack placed a hand on her hat as Highwayman appeared behind her and wrapped one arm around her waist.
“Well, good work, Sushi!” Rainbow Dash said. “There aren’t that many Shadowbolts left between us and Cinch now!”
“Two, if the previous years of the Friendship Games are to go by.” Applejack confirmed. “Ah’m sure they’ll be waitin’.”
“Then we’ll beat them too!” Pinkie grinned widely as Golden Ticket ripped off a car door. “C’mon, let’s a gooo!”
She jumped on Golden Ticket’s shoulders as it threw the door ahead of itself before jumping on top of it and surfing down the slope.
“We’re close to the end now. Let’s end this today!” Jojo revved his Stand.
Sunset got on behind him and immediately felt more relaxed after sitting down. Though, that state of relaxing didn’t last long after Jojo drove the bike off the edge.