//------------------------------// // Chapter 21: Something For Your Mind // Story: SuShi's Bizarre Adventure: Fantasy Friendship // by Jojoleopard //------------------------------// Principal Abacus Cinch had been a principal for as long as she can remember. Her family had always prided itself on being the best of the best and she had taken that to all the schools she had been to, with the latest being Crystal Prep Academy. Crystal Prep had been Canterlot’s number one, and probably the country’s number one school for the last decade and it was all thanks to her and by extension, her students. She had handpicked her students and her prized Shadowbolts to make sure the weak were not welcomed to her school and they had reigned over all competitions and academics for years because of how well they excelled in everything. Cinch thought she already had everything with how well she was stamping down her legacy. Until her Stand manifested one fine day. At first, she had been confused and a little terrified that something started following her around, but now, after knowing it was a part of her and what it could do, she knew she would be able to push her goals even further out. With the world slaves to her, she would be able to be anything and do anything she pleased, and there would be no one to stand against her. Admittedly, she thought it would be a straight shot forward when she had found articles and ancient recordings of strange geodes that could grant more power to whoever possessed them, but now, only two of her Shadowbolts were left and Sushi and her band of misfits were still on their way. She had expected Indigo to stop them, but even she had been beaten by those lowlifes. “It seems I may have to do it myself,” she said as she trudged along the forest floor, now heading down a rugged slope. From here, she could already see the mouth of the cave, a gaping wound in the earth’s body that led down into darkness. Sugarcoat was already there, trying to find a way through the tight crevices within. By now, she could hear the sound of her excavation ringing around the heart of the Everfree Forest. It seems Sugarcoat was more resourceful than she had first thought. “At least one of my students has pleased me today.” she smiled. “As for Sunny, whether she pleases me or not, I just need her there to keep Sushi busy enough till I have the geode. After that, they would’ve come all this way for nothing.” Cinch took one more step, then found her feet floating over the ground. She tried to step forward again, but now, she was making no progress forward. “Hmm… I know this Stand.” She narrowed her eyes and stowed her glasses. “A trivial matter I must take care of. Show yourself, Trixie.” From above, Trixie Lulamoon and her Stand, Gravity Kills, descended from the air. Gravity Kills had its legs crossed and its arms opened wide, while Trixie had hers folded and she had a smug expression on her face, one Cinch wanted to wipe clean off. “Trixie’s found you, master.” The girl swiped her white hair from her face. “Did you really think I would’ve let you get away easily after you made me a pawn to your schemes? No, here, the Great and Powerful Trixxxxieeee will show you your mistake of thinking you could control me.” “You are mistaken, Trixie.” Cinch stepped back and folded her arms. “How can you be so sure you can even match my power?” “Because there is nobody with more power than The Great and Powerful Trixie and her Stand, Gravity Kills!” Cinch watched with dull surprise as Trixie called forth her Stand. Gravity Kills levitated chunks of the ground up with antigravity, then sent them shooting at Cinch.  “You think your Stand is a match for mine?” Cinch said haughtily. “Let me show you just how mistaken you are, child.” A dark cloud of swarming particles came out of Cinch, forming a wall and turning all the rocky projectiles into harmless dust. Trixie scowled. “So your Stand is just a swarm of bugs? Ha! Let’s see how well you do when gravity increases tenfold!” Cinch felt herself become heavier and heavier, but she stood her ground. Her Stand floated around her like a dust cloud. “It seems you should have paid more attention in your studies, Trixie,” Cinch smiled darkly. “Do you not know that the smaller an object is, the less affected by gravity it is? My Stand is more resistant to your Stand’s gravitational powers than anything else! Now fall!” Cinch’s Stand flew at Trixie, covering her in a dark cloud of churning particles. As they flew close to her, half-solid claws and fists formed, battering Trixie from all directions and falling apart before gravity could affect them much.  Trixie recalled Gravity Kills to defend herself, using the Stand’s own arms and legs to parry Cinch’s attacks. There was not much Trixie could do here, the magician realized. Her Stand was completely unsuited for fighting the principal of Crystal Prep. “But I have to try,” she said through gritted teeth. “Gravity Kills! It’s black hole time!” The meter on Trixie’s Stand’s body began to sweep into the red, but before it could do so, a dark hand materialized and grabbed the meter, stopping it from moving towards its destination. “No, you can’t stop it!” Trixie grunted, feeling as though something had also grabbed her around her heart. Gravity Kills clawed at Cinch’s Stand, but as gashes formed along its arm, it was quick to fill it back as more of those particles swarmed in. Pulling one arm back, it punched deep through the cloud of particles, only to feel a sharp pain all the way up to her left elbow. Trixie screamed as Gravity Kills’ arm began to dissolve, dropping away like it was melting, but nothing ever touched the ground. Her arm began to do the same and she managed to get her Stand to cut away Cinch’s hold on it and floated back until their backs were to a tree. By now, Trixie’s left arm was a disintegrating mess and she could do nothing to quell the pain. “What… did you do?” she groaned as she grasped her wound, her blood dripping down to coat the forest floor. “Like I said, there is nothing you can do, Trixie.” Cinch snorted and tilted her chin to the air. “How did you think my mind control worked in the first place? All it takes is sending part of my Stand into your head, where it can assimilate with your body, turning your cells into mine and allowing me to send signals to it to make you do my bidding. And you’ve learnt now that that is only a fraction of my power, Trixie. As you can see, each piece acts on its own and they can eat away at your body like a shoal of hungry piranhas.” “No, I can still stop you…!” Trixie tore off her robes and binded it around her stump of an arm. “Gravity Kills!” Her Stand floated above her and a ring of boulders broke off from the ground and began spinning around it. It raised its arm and then flung them down, sending the boulders spiralling out towards Cinch and her Stand. The dark particles splattered against the first boulder and began eating through it, but the rest managed to get past it and would’ve hit Cinch if her Stand didn’t materialize through her, forming into a solid being with brown plated armor, glowing orange from within. It thrust a fist forward and the remaining boulders all broke into shards as they smashed against it. But that had been exactly what Trixie wanted and Gravity Kills raised the gravity’s intensity and even the trees around them began to crumple under its weight. “Gotcha.” She grinned. Cinch’s body was bent down and she fought against its overwhelming density. Part of her Stand appeared under her in a form of particles and held her up. The rest of her Stand, on the other hand, continued to stand, its body warping and breaking apart as it fought against Gravity Kills’ attack. “Gravity Kills, fifteen minutes!” Trixie called out. Now was her chance to get a fighting chance. The meter on Gravity Kills’ chest dipped to the red and the air in front of them began bending and twisting as a black spot appeared in the air. From there, orange began to circle around it and soon, it started growing in size, sucking in branches and stones as it continued to expand. “You’ve had it now!” Trixie began laughing. “I’ll soon win, you’ll see! You can’t stop gravity!” The particles from Cinch’s Stand that were not attached to anything began to fly towards the black hole and without anything to hold on to at such close range, the whole Stand began shifting towards it too, bulkier and heavier than its tiny counterparts. The gravitational force was considerable, Cinch realized. But she was Principal Abacus Cinch, the one whose legacy would endure for all of time. She was not going to be bested by some second rate stage magician girl. With the black hole still increasing, there was no way to get particles past it to Trixie. She would have to employ a different method. Trixie stood behind the black hole, concentrating all her power into making it as big as she could. As she was standing there, Cinch made her Stand pick up a large stone that had been unearthed during the battle before. It was about the size of a beer keg, but with the gravity in the area in flux, her Stand was able to lift it easily.  Cinch had been top in her physics class when she had gone to college, and now she put that knowledge to use. Black holes didn’t just suck things in. Like anything with a strong gravitational pull, if objects entered its field of influence at just the right angle, it would cause the object to be slingshotted around at great speed to the other side and beyond. It was all just a matter of timing and precision. Cinch’s Stand rose up, straining against Trixie’s black hole and threw the rock to the left of the singularity. As expected, the gravity took hold of the flying projectile and pulled it closer. However, at the speed and angle that the rock was flying, the gravity couldn’t keep a tight enough hold of it and the stone was curved in its flight path straight into Trixie and her Stand. “What…?” Trixie stepped back and her Stand glided down and reduced the gravity to stop the boulder in its place. In that fraction of a moment, Cinch’s Stand dropped into a cluster of swarming particles, taking an arc around the black hole, staying as far as it could from it while at the same time snaking its way towards Trixie and Gravity Kills. “What, did you think I could not stop a rock if you threw it at me?” Trixie pointed at Cinch, then drew a thumb across her neck. “You’ve played your last hand, you old hag. Enough!” Gravity Kills raised its hand and the trees around it were ripped from the ground and began circling above it, their trunks smashing against each other and breaking apart into shards of wood. “You see, Trixie, as a student, you will never be as smart as someone who’s lived at least four decades ahead of you,” Cinch called out to her, holding on to a boulder to keep herself from getting any closer to the black hole. “Your time is up. Superorganism!” Trixie realized too late that bits of Cinch’s Stand had begun climbing her, eating away at her skin as they got on her Stand as well. The top half of her Stand emerged from the particles and grabbed at Gravity Kills’ meter again, but instead of just holding on to it this time, it crushed the entire thing in its strong grip, then tore it out and held it high as Gravity Kills fell back slowly, almost like it was in slow motion. Trixie felt something in her chest give way and suddenly, it was all too hard to even breathe and she dropped to her knees and spat out a mouthful of blood. With Gravity Kills’ control over Gravity lost, the black hole began to stutter, then sucked in on itself, before disappearing for good, returning sound to their vicinity as time and space around it returned to normal. “N-No… It can’t be…” Trixie gagged and threw up more blood. “Like I said, your time is up, child.” Cinch walked right up to her and stood over her, looking down smugly at her weakened form. “You might be strong, but you failed to determine that I am far beyond you in power. As a little token of respect, I will leave you your last moments of life to do as you wish. If you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere to be.” Trixie turned her head as she watched Cinch head down the slope towards the gaping maw of a cave down below. “I underestimated her…” she gasped, finding it harder and harder to breathe as darkness began creeping in from the edges of her vision. The smell of iron was strong around her, with all the blood she was coughing up. Cinch had ruptured her heart and she didn’t have long left. She had come into the battle too confidently, never thinking that she could lose as easily as she had. All her years of bullying and taking advantage of others in school, if she knew her life was going to end here, she would’ve lived differently, been a better person. Trixie had grown up with parents that were rarely around. Her father traveled the world to do business, while her mother would follow him just to be with him. That meant she was home alone most of the time and she would only get to see them maybe once a month, if she was lucky. Lacking attention, she resorted to garner as much as she could from her classmates and teachers in school, sometimes even forcing them to watch her do a magic trick or humiliate another student to show how great she was. “I’m sorry, all of you… for always trying to show off…” Trixie coughed and gripped her chest tighter. “Trixie should… never have been so mean…” It was ironic. For wanting attention and not being alone, she had chosen to go off and face Cinch and turn down Sushi’s offer to team up. Perhaps things would’ve been different if she had actually worked together with them. “Sushi, you have to… finish this for me. You’re the only one… who can beat her. No.” Trixie looked at Cinch’s retreating form. She wasn’t going to just sit here and die. As long as she still breathed, there was still a chance she could take Cinch down before she breathed her last, or at least make it easier for Sunset to finish her off later. “G-Gravity Kills…” Trixie croaked. “Finish… her…” Trixie’s Stand dropped to its feet and raised its one arm, flashing its claws in the sunlight. As it ran for Cinch’s position, the principal didn’t seem to even know it was approaching her. This was it, this was her chance to take her down before she realized what was happening. As Gravity Kills’ hand began descending towards Cinch’s head, she still did not move and continued proceeding down the slope without a care in the world. Trixie still found that odd, but she understood why after something pierced through her Stand with a splatter of blood. Gravity Kills did a spin in the air and Trixie fell back as her side came away with blood, and that was soon followed by the crack of a gunshot in the air. “O-Of course… I never stood a chance…” A second round pierced her in the head and her hand dropped to her side as her breathing finally came to a stop.