Duckie Deluxe panted as she lay on her side against the cool stoney surface beside her desk. Her right eye was bleeding profusely and she had a wound across her chest that also needed some medical attention.
“That Shiho Sunfast…!” she said to herself. “If I hadn’t recalled Psycho Killer at that exact moment, I would’ve already been a goner. How dare she do this to me. How dare she!”
Duckie eventually mustered up enough strength to drag herself to one of the low cupboards along the wall, opening it to find her roughly put together first aid kit. Her right eye was gone, punctured when Curtain Call pierced Psycho Killer’s eye socket with her spike. Just a few more inches and it would’ve gone right through her brain and if that happened, everything that she had already worked so hard to achieve would all be over.
“Not yet… There’s still so much to do, so many people to kill…” She began wiping down her face with a disinfectant cloth. Immediately, her skin began to feel numb under the light gel and the pain was already starting to become a memory.
She grabbed a long tube with a transparent cap with green liquid inside it. This was a nanoinjector, used only for the most grievous of injuries, as it would leave them in your body for months after use, which had a chance to make you really sick. With a push of a red button on its side, the bottom opened up and an extremely thin needle shot out, gleaming under her portable light by her desk.
Duckie jabbed it against her eye hole and pressed the button again, sending waves of nanomachines down into her body, which worked quickly to fix the dying skin around her eye. The blood soon began to slow and in no time, it had stopped completely, and once she was sure she wasn’t going to bleed out, Duckie got off the floor, grabbing a roll of bandages at the same time.
“They’re going to pay. They’re all going to pay. Especially Shiho Sunfast,” Duckie growled as she bandaged up her eye. “Once I get strong enough, I’ll send Psycho Killer out again and I’ll take them down one at a time. The plan hasn’t changed. They will all feel the terror of my Stand!”
“Not if I’ve already found you!”
Duckie turned to the turn in the tunnel to see a woman with purple hair, dressed in a tight striped attire. “Twilight Sparkle. You’ve found me.”
“I have, and it’s over, Duckie. Stop this now. It doesn’t have to go any further!” Twilight swiped a hand to her right ear and slid her left foot forward. “Your organization is gone. You’re all that’s left.”
“Is that what you think?” Duckie challenged. “I disagree with you, Twilight Sparkle. As long as I am here, no, as long as poor people are here, Die Die Riches will live on!”
“Killing off all the rich people in the world will solve nothing!” Twilight put a hand on her chest. “Believe me, as ruler of Equestria, your mirror world, I know what happens when your leaders fall. It doesn’t work like you think. I’ve had many attempts on my life since the start of my rule and I’ve even had to flee the castle once before. The one who took over thought they knew how to rule the kingdom, but instead, all they did was destroy the relationship between a neighboring nation. If I hadn’t been able to return and stop them, we would’ve gone to war.”
“Some kind of interdimensional creature, are you?” To Duckie’s credit, she didn’t look surprised. “Bien sûr, of course. I should’ve guessed so. I knew our Stands would have to come from somewhere. As a ruler, you definitely have no idea what people have to go through when they have to worry if they can even eat for a day. That is the struggle my activists of Die Die Riches had to go through every day of their lives.”
“And you thought by killing the world leaders, things would change for the better?” Twilight frowned. “Having a bad captain on a boat is still better than no captain.”
“Is it, though?” Duckie asked with a sneer. “Humans will always find a way to survive. Without a captain, we would’ve risen up. We would’ve captained the boat differently, making it better for everyone on board. At least… until I start picking them off one by one…”
“It’s all violence with you humans, isn’t it?” Twilight said, feeling disgusted. “I doubt that a world with you in power would be any better than the one we’re currently in.”
“Typical leaders. You always think you can rule everything better than someone else.” Duckie slid her hand along her table, finding a switchblade hidden under a stack of her notes on Twilight and the others. “The rich are selfish, living in bliss while the rest of the world suffers. The world has been in a decline in the last forty years. When it comes down to us or them, they would never lift a finger to help the rest of us. The world’s resources are fading, everything is getting more expensive. While people on the streets starve, the rich hide behind their glass houses, living like nothing is wrong in the world. I’m sure you do just the same, wherever you’re from.”
“I’ve been a good ruler!” Twilight exclaimed, bristling. “Equestria is a utopia where everyone lives in harmony and peace. Crime is almost nonexistent, which is more than I can say for this world.”
“Then you must know nothing of what truly happens at the bottom!” Duckie grabbed the blade and flicked a button by the side of her desk. A metal cage by her side opened up and she reached inside and dragged out a man in a suit. His mouth was gagged and his arms were tied behind his back. “This is the vice president of my country, France. When all the attention was on the president, I easily grabbed him and brought him here. Like you, he knows nothing of what people go through everyday in our increasingly failing world. And like you, he’s going to learn it the hard way! No world can be at peace while the rich live!”
Duckie hauled him up and held the blade to the side of his neck.
“Do you know how this man lives, Twilight?” Duckie pressed the knife against his sweaty skin. “Everyday, he goes home to a giant estate with five cars and nineteen servants. His home even holds a golf course, a full-sized golf course and he eats more than three meals a day. Just outside his home is a street only known as Lutin Rue, the most dangerous street in Angers. It holds the most homeless people in the country and people would fight and kill each other from scraps dropped from his table. He lives this close to people suffering and does he lift a finger to do anything about it? Why don’t you tell her?”
Duckie yanked down his gag and he immediately began pleading. “Please, save me! Don’t let her kill me! I’ll-I’ll give you anything you want! I have money! I can pay for my protection!”
Twilight stood very still, her mind racing. There had never been any situations like this in Equestria to prepare her for this. Even the worst villains in her home world would not stoop to the depths that she had seen in the past few days. Did this man deserve to die for what he had not done?
“I can’t let you kill him, Duckie,” Twilight finally said. “Two wrongs don’t make a right. If you surrender, then I won’t kill you and instead take you to be judged by the human justice system. You’ll get a fair trial and be sent to prison for your crimes.”
“A fair trial?” Duckie snarled at her. “These pigs control the courts, they control the government! Everything would always go in their favor. The only way the world will change is with their deaths!”
“And what happens after you’ve killed them all? Will you move on to the middle class people? What about the poor who don’t agree with your ideals?” Twilight took a step forward. “There’s no version of this in which you win, Duckie. Give up.”
She poked the knife into the man’s cheek, drawing blood. “Even if I know nothing about controlling a country, I would still do a better job than these selfish dogs.”
“I won’t come after you, I promise!” The vice president squirmed in her grip. Even though Duckie was severely injured, she still held on to him as he tried to shake free. “I-I’ll change the systems, I’ll replace the president, I’ll make sure poor people are looked after, just let me go!”
“Quiet!” Duckie clubbed him on the head. “Empty promises. I know these all too well. You say everything I possibly want to hear, but as soon as I let you go, you’ll rescind everything. Don’t kid me. Do you think the world would still be heading to hell if people like you did something about it?”
“Put the knife down and let the vice president go,” Twilight insisted. “You know that if you kill him, you’ll have nothing stopping me from getting to you. As long as he’s alive, I’m willing to believe you can still be saved, rehabilitated.”
“Rehabilitated? To accept that my place in the world will always be like this?” Duckie laughed. “A change needs to happen. And as long as these people remain in charge, it’ll never happen! I will not ever come to accept this!”
Twilight could see that Duckie was getting more and more unhinged. She had to say something to bring things back down to earth.
“Maybe I could help the world,” Twilight said. “I’ve got experience in leading nations. If I was to apply my knowledge to this world, I know I could make it a better place. We don’t have to continue with this cycle of violence.”
“You think you could do a better job?” Duckie pointed the knife at her. “You think they would let you take their positions from them? They’ll hunt you down and destroy you like they attempted with Die Die Riches.”
“You deserve to die! Every last one of you!” The vice president spat at her. “You were made for the mud and you’ll die in the mud! People like you will never rule this world!”
“Shh, you’re not helping yourself, Mr. Vice President!” Twilight hissed at him. “Duckie, I can do it, I can bring peace to this world. If you let me. Give me this chance.”
“You’ll never have it, Twilight. They’ll never let you!” Duckie tapped the knife against the vice president’s neck. “They all deserve to die. A new world order is coming, and I will be the one to lead it!”
Duckie attempted to press the knife through the man’s neck.
“No!” Twilight reached out and started running. The air shimmered in front of her and Strange World stood beside her, mimicking her motion.
Duckie’s movements had slowed down drastically, moving slower than ever; even Twilight was surprised at how slow she was moving. Moving so slowly, the blade wasn’t able to pierce the man’s skin and instead, just tapped against it as Twilight reached her, yanking her hand away with Strange World and spinning her away from the vice president.
“Qu’est-ce que c’est?!” Duckie tried to swing her knife at Strange World, but a human couldn’t hurt a Stand. “You’ll never change this world, Twilight! They’ll never let you!”
Strange World grabbed Duckie’s wrist and twisted, forcing her to drop the knife onto the floor before restraining the leader of Die Die Riches so that she couldn’t move.
“I told you, you’re going to be tried for your crimes and imprisoned. Somewhere that even your Stand ability won’t be able to break you loose. You can rejoin society when you’ve learned your lesson.”
Duckie squirmed and stared hatefully at Twilight. Then her expression changed into that of shocked surprise.
Bang!
Duckie’s head jerked back with a spray of blood and she moved no more. Twilight whipped around to see the vice president crouched behind her with a compact pistol in his hand which was still smoking. Somehow, he had gotten out of his binds and he had a rather odd smile plastered across his sweaty face.
“Merci for distracting her with your strange powers,” the vice president staggered to his feet. “Now the threat to the elite has been taken care of at last.”
“Why did you-Why did you do this?!” Twilight looked at Duckie’s body as it now fell limp in her Stand’s grip. She put her down on the ground and turned back to the vice president as he walked over. “We could’ve helped her! We could’ve made her see reason!”
“There’s no reasoning with these people,” the vice president told Twilight. “You heard her yourself. As long as people like her exist, they will come up with any excuse to hate those who are better than them.”
There was a patter of footsteps and the rest of Twilight’s party showed themselves around the doorway.
“Twilight!” Spike shouted. “Are you okay? Did Duckie Deluxe hurt you?”
“N-No, but… I could’ve… I could’ve convinced her.” Twilight put her hands by her side in defeat. “You… you didn’t need to kill her.”
“I did the world a favor!” The man ran his fingers along his gun’s barrel. “I ended the threat of Die Die Riches for the world! Finally, the world can go back to the way it was before they emerged.”
“So, she’s dead then?” Shiho went over to the body of Duckie, which was emitting some kind of smoke or steam. Then she summoned Curtain Call. The Stand raised its foot and stomped down on Duckie Deluxe’s head with a crunch. “For my friend, Ban Kai. May you rot in hell for eternity.”
“Here’s someone with sense. I have no idea how you did that to her head, but good job!” The vice president clapped. “You must be the ones sent here to rescue me. Please, take me back above ground! I’ll make sure you’re rewarded.”
Twilight stood there, clenching her fists and grinding her teeth together. This wasn’t how she intended things to go, this wasn’t what she had wanted. Things could’ve been different, very different if the leaders of this world had been like her.
Equestria had seen peace for thirty years straight. When she had first taken over, there had been unrest and discourse, with others believing that Twilight would be an inadequate replacement for Princesses Luna and Celestia. She had locked most of her perpetrators away and she had converted the rest, but once she had proven herself, peace had ensued and she had then moved on to the neighboring kingdoms, establishing good relations with them. The world was finally at peace, and all of it done without any violence at all. Equestria was civilized, unlike this savage world that she had been brought to. Suddenly she understood why Star Swirl had wanted the portal mirror locked away from anypony’s hooves. He didn’t want this violence coming back to Equestria with him.
Since her time here, all Twilight had witnessed was violence, be it from her hands or from those around her. Some of it had been necessary, like stopping an enemy from killing others, but a lot of it had been unwarranted and unnecessary. Shiho didn’t need to do that to Duckie, nor did the vice president have to shoot her with that thing. In her research of this world, it’s had countless wars before her arrival, some of which enveloped the entire world.
Ever since the emergence of Stands here, things had spiraled out of control, even beyond her power as the ruler of Equestria. “No. It’s not beyond me…”
Twilight turned to the vice president. “I know the problem with this world.”
“Oh, do tell,” the man said.
Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she slowly lifted her hand, pointing it at him. “Humans are the problem. Your kind doesn’t know anything about the six virtues of friendship, the Elements of Harmony. Thus, there is no harmony in this world.”
To everyone’s shock, Strange World grabbed the vice president’s arm, yanking him towards it. The man shrieked and fired his gun, but everything about him slowed down and the bullet began flying through the air slower than a mosquito full of blood. Strange World caught the bullet without much effort and tossed it to the ground as it grabbed the vice president’s head with both hands.
“She’s going to kill him!” Josher cried out. “Someone stop her!” He summoned Down Under, but Twilight glanced in its direction and it too slowed to a grinding crawl.
My Stand has grown stronger. Twilight noted. It made sense. A Stand was the embodiment of someone’s fighting spirit, and she had never felt more in a fighting mood than now.
“I have to do this. I have to right this world,” Twilight said with resolve. “Only I am able to bring Equestria’s peace to your dying world. I see that now.”
Strange World pressed its hands together and the vice president only had a fraction of a second to scream before his head was crushed between Twilight’s Stand’s hands. She tossed his body aside, then looked at her friends, all slowed down before her.
“I know, and I don’t expect you to understand immediately,” Twilight told them. “But I know you’ll understand eventually. You will know why I have to do this. I will correct your world. Everything will truly be better. Please understand that.”
Twilight looked up at the ceiling, then grabbed Duckie’s desk and threw it up. Strange World switched gears and everything began to speed up drastically. Shiho and the others moved forward faster than they could react and smashed against the wall on the other side before dropping to the ground. As the desk sped into the ceiling faster than a bullet, it shattered against it and rained debris down over them.
Moonlight poured in from above and as Twilight walked closer to the exit she had just created, she gazed up at the stars, noticing how few there were up there. She had also learned about this at her time in the library. The air was getting more polluted by the year and soon, they might not even be able to see the stars anymore. She had to do something about this before the planet was too far gone.
“Twi-Twilight…”
She turned to see Spike on the floor, weakly reaching out to her. He had hit his head against the wall earlier and a giant bump was forming just above his right brow.
“Spike, you know I have to do this.” She knelt down beside him.
He took her hand in his and gave her a firm squeeze. “I know, Twi. I know. But… you can’t do this alone.”
Twilight smiled. She knew she could always count on Spike to back her up, even in the most difficult tasks.
“Thank you, Spike. You’ll always be my best friend to the end.” And she took his hand.