//------------------------------// // Chapter 26: SPRORGNSM // Story: SuShi's Bizarre Adventure: Fantasy Friendship // by Jojoleopard //------------------------------// “I see them.” Sunset Shimmer waved both arms as Jojo and Pinkie traversed up the hill towards them, riding atop White Buffalo. “There you are, we’ve been worried sick when you vanished, Jojo.” “No worries were needed.” The man flexed one arm. “Pinkie and I did you girls the favor of taking down the Stands as well. They won’t be bothering us for a while. Best thing to do now is to take down their Stand master before they regenerate again.” “Wait, they can do that?” Rainbow leaned against a fallen log, her shoulder healed when they had realized the Stands were no longer shooting at them. “That’s not fair. Why can’t our Stands do that?” “Long range Stands work differently,” was all Jojo could tell them. He didn’t quite know the specifics of it, but he did know that they operated separately from their masters and as long as their masters were still alive, they could eventually come back, seeing as they were the essence of their master’s fighting spirit. “We should get going. We’ve no time to lose now.” “Yeah, all that’s left is Cinch!” Rainbow raised a fist sky high. “Let’s go cream her!” “There’s no time to waste,” Applejack agreed. “Every second we spend yappin’ here is another second Cinch gets closer to the Stand Geode.” “If we can get there… I c-can stop the drill. Um, Florence can.” Fluttershy wiggled her fingers and her Stand slithered out of them. The run down the slope was quick, with Applejack tripping and rolling the remaining way to the bottom. It was steep, but thankfully, it hadn’t been very high up. The rocky formation in the center of the forest began to get closer and closer and with every step, Sunset felt the weight on her shoulders grow more and more. This was it, their final mission. Their time window was incredibly small, but they had to do it and that meant there was going to be no room for failure. From here on, it was do or die. Cinch had to be stopped, or the world would fall thrall to her. “Hehe, the ground is shaking so much here!” Pinkie had her hands on the ground. “It’s like a massage!” “Where’d they even get a drill thingamajig anyhow?” Applejack scratched at her forehead under her hat. “I have no idea, but we’ve got to stop them.” Sunset slapped another mosquito and groaned. She really wanted to get out of the forest soon, and more importantly, she didn’t want to become someone’s thrall. “So first thing we gotta do is get Fluttershy in there,” Applejack said, pointing to the now very visible maw of the cave. They could see dust and smoke coming out from within it. “Once she takes out that drill, Cinch ain’t got no way to get that Stand Geode.” “Easier said than done. I’m sure they’re not going to let us just wander in there and take out their drill.” Jojo put one hand on his side, then the other folded across his chest and grabbed his opposite shoulder. “Once we’re in there, everyone be on your toes.” “Ooh, I love being on my toes!” Pinkie waved around. “Also on my hands, my butt, and my head!” The team slowed to a walk once they hit the entrance to the cave. It was a lot cooler now that they were in the shade, but the drilling here was echoing all around them and bits of rock fell from the ceiling. “They’re down there…” Fluttershy breathed and took a few more to steady herself. “And we’re finally going to end this. Right here. Right now.” Jojo clenched his fists and threw one skyward. “For Rarity.” “Hey, wait y’all.” Applejack stopped them as they were about the proceed deeper into the cave. “Before we go on, Ah just wanna say that you’re all mah very best friends and Ah could never’ve asked for better friends in life. Sushi, Jojo, we ain’t known you two for long, but in the few days we’ve been together, you’re not any different. Y’all are my best friends too.” “Same here!” Pinkie wrapped her arms around Jojo and Sunset. “You two are official best friends of Pinkie Pie! And the rest of you girls, we’ll be friends forever.” “A-And if we don’t get to say any of this later, you two are have been there for me too…” Fluttershy added on. “And I will do my best in the coming ba-battle.” “Yeah, you’re all my awesome friends, and together, we’ll teach this principal that she can’t mess with friendship!” Rainbow Dash threw a hand in between all of them. “Come on, bring it in.” Sunset looked at all of them and nodded. They were right. These were her very best friends in the world, a world she never thought she would find friendship in, but here they were, standing together through all odds at the very top of their mountain, and the only reason they were still standing here was because they had done this together. “We’ll do this,” Sunset said, then placed her hand on top of Rainbow’s. “We beat Trixie and her Bully Squad. It wasn’t easy, but we did it. We beat Crystal Prep’s Shadowbolts, something some of you thought was impossible, but we did it. We’ve reached the cave that holds the Stand Geode, something I myself subconsciously thought we would never do, but we did it. Right now, one final battle stands in our way from Cinch’s global domination, but we’ve overcome all odds together. There’s just one last thing to do and that’s to kick Cinch’s principal butt!” “That’s right!” Jojo whooped and slapped his hand down on Sunset’s. “To all the friends we’ve lost on the way!” Applejack planted her hand next. “To the friends we’ve had to fight to save them from Cinch’s mind control.” “To the dogs and other animals who had to give up their lives on our journey.” Fluttershy managed a smile and joined her hand with theirs. “For the cakes and goodies and sweet things!” Pinkie hopped up and placed her hand over Fluttershy’s. “Oh, and for stopping the bad guys!” “For all of Canterlot.” Sunset looked at them resolutely, then they raised their hands together and let out a group cheer. “Now, let’s go find that mother-” There was the sound of something breaking and blood was suddenly flung across Sunset’s face and chest. Applejack choked and spat out more blood as all their eyes looked down to her chest. On it was a fist-sized hole, clean through to her back where they could see the downward slope of the cave behind her. And in the middle of all of them floated an arm. It had brown and red plates on it and it ended in a swirling mass of some kind of dark particles, but in its hand, which was now coated in blood, it held Applejack’s still beating heart, its fingers hooked into its surface like the claws of an eagle. “A-Applejack!” Rainbow cried out and her Stand appeared behind her. It tried to fire icicles at the arm, but it dodged all of them and flew higher. “Get back here!” Almost like it was gloating them, it spun around in a circle and held the heart up, then crushed it between its fingers, bursting the organ and spraying more blood across the cavern entrance. Now done, it tossed the deflated heart aside, then seemed to dance around in the air as it flew into the tunnel. Applejack gagged again, then her legs buckled under her body. “No!” Rainbow dived down and caught her, but before she could even think of what to do next, more particles swarmed around her legs and she began to get pulled down the tunnel. No, you won’t have her! No!” Running on Ice floated down and helped hold Applejack’s arms. Sunset and the others ran in to help, grabbing hold of their friend. “Y’all can’t… Y’all can’t help…” Applejack moaned weakly. “Stop her… Ya’ll have to…” And with one final look into their friend’s eyes, Applejack was yanked from them and dragged down the tunnel into the darkness. All they could do now was wail and agony and call out her name, but it was too late. She was gone now. “Applejack!” Rainbow reached a hand out into the darkness, but she knew there was nothing more she could do. “Cinch will pay with her life!” Jojo punched the cave wall, cracking it slightly. Then he rested his head against it and shut his eyes. “N-No… Applejack…” Fluttershy began to sob, covering her face with her hands. “I could’ve helped. I could’ve reset her…” Sunset dropped to her knees, unwilling to accept that another of her friends had been taken from her. “Cinch knew what she was doing…” Pinkie’s poofy hair seemed to deflate a little. “She took her away so you couldn’t do that, Sushi.” “And we’re going to pay her back for that.” Jojo straightened up and tugged on his jacket roughly. “We’re going to make her beg for death.” “That’s right…” Rainbow wiped at her eyes and stood up. “We can’t stop yet. We’ve got to make her pay.” “They’re-they’re right.” Sunset sniffled and rose. “Cinch is still down there and Applejack’s helped us get this far. We can’t waste it by doing nothing now. That’s just what Cinch wants. To discourage us, to keep us from interfering.” “We can’t give-give up. We c-can’t…” Fluttershy lowered her hands. Her eyes were red from crying and fury, a look Sunset had never seen her make. “And that’s exactly what we’re going to do!” Pinkie dipped her fingers in the blood on the cave floor and drew two lines under her eyes. “Play time’s over. It’s time for a little Pinkie Pie berserker sugarhigh rage!” She pulled out a cake from her pocket and shoved it down her mouth in an instant. “We’re ending this today.” Rainbow slammed her fists together. “Cinch! We’re coming for you!” As Running on Ice grabbed hold of its master, it began skating down the tunnel on ice as Jojo called up White Buffalo, using the same icy slope to head down. Pegasus Fantasy grabbed Sunset and Fluttershy and followed after them while Pinkie had Golden Ticket get them down using a door as a skateboard. This was it. They weren’t going to stop now. For Rarity. For Applejack. ----------JO-JO-------- “Your Stands have failed, Sugarcoat.” Principal Abacus Cinch waltzed back into the huge cavern that their drill was in. She dusted at her cloak and tossed off a small piece of rock. “But it doesn't matter. One of them has been taken care of. That should distract them long enough for you to finish this.” “My Stand, The Stands failed?” Sugarcoat poked her head out of the drill’s cabin. “This Sushi group is more resourceful than I thought. The Stands never fail.” “Except now. Do not fail to get me the geode now, Sugarcoat. You don’t want to end up like the rest of the Shadowbolts.” Cinch looked to the wall that was slowly thinning and crumbling away. They had set up lights in the cavern, illuminating the space around them. A short stream of water fell from a crack in the west wall, pooling at the bottom and swirling down some unseen hole in the ground. Other than the sound of trickling water, the drill dwarfed everything else, whirring and drilling into the wall. The machine stood at least twenty feet high and and its gigantic drill head continued to bore its way through the earth, already pushing through seventeen feet of rock. A little device by the new tunnel continued to beep and pulse, revealing an energy signature from within growing bigger and bigger. Cinch couldn't help but lick her lips. She could almost taste it now, a power she had dreamed of since she had been a child. The power to hold the entire world in the palm of one hand. It would be hers soon and once she had that, Sushi and her friends would be nothing but a trivial matter. They could come to her, heck, she would even allow it, and they would be able to do nothing as she beat them without so much as a drop of sweat on her brow. Smoke spewed from the drill’s large engine and thankfully, they weren’t too far from the cave entrance, or they would all probably suffocate. But that also meant that it wouldn’t take Sushi long to get down here. Cinch knew they wouldn’t give up from the death of one of them, but she had at least hoped to buy a few more minutes. That’s all it was now. Minutes. They were minutes away from attaining the Stand Geode. She wasn’t going to let anyone stop her when she was this close to victory, and anyone who stood in her way now, she would just rip them apart. “My legacy will endure! It will never end!” She reached both arms to the sky as her Stand formed up from the ground behind her, its beady orange eyes glowing in the shadows of the cave. “Everybody wants to be famous, but only few can fulfill such a dream. Only those with power may do so. Come and meet your fate, Sushi. You cannot stop me. You never will. You will all die down here and your legacies will come to a swift end.”