//------------------------------//
// Episode 7: Surf's Up, Surfer Blood 
// Story: SuShi's Bizarre Adventure: Darkness Manifest 
// by Jojoleopard 
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It had been a bright afternoon day when Ocellus and her friends received the news from TWI herself. She had been wheeled over by a royal guard, critically injured atop a wheelchair that was much too small for her long body. It was there that they had learned everything about TWI’s visit to the human world, a world much talked about from her predecessor’s journals. Princess Celestia had talked about a world where only a few would know the magical value of friendship, but many had the potential to learn. But after her adventure there, TWI had a very much different opinion.

“I will right that world. I will,” she told them. “It is corrupt, teetering towards disaster. Only I can set this right.”

She had created a portal back to Equestria through a piece of the actual portal in the human world’s Canterlot and with the best magic in Equestria, she had managed to recover enough to begin her plans again, though still seriously wounded from her battle there against the humans.

“I have been working hard here and I have done much in preparation for my return.” TWI looked at the Young Six. “My friends may be too old to join me, but you six, you have years to go, you have potential to grow stronger. Join my conquest. Equestria has been united by my rule. You see the peace that I have brought. Join me and we will fix the human world, one piece at a time, starting with their world leaders. To solve a problem, we must first deal with the root issues.”

“What? What are you saying, TWI?” Smolder flapped her wings a little harder.

Ocellus blinked hard. “Y-You can’t possibly- you’re not like that, TWI.”

“We’re all about friendship. That’s what you taught us, remember?” Sandbar said. “We can’t just go take over another land.”

Gallus nodded. “You don’t want the griffons to just fly here and take over.”

TWI shook her head. “This is not something I need guidance with. I know what I have to do, but I know it is hard to accept. I will give you time. Once you understand, I’m sure you will join me. For now, I have other matters to tend to, as do you as Equestria’s protectors.”

Ocellus couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. All these years serving Equestria under TWI, she had never once doubted her, but right now, there were plenty of doubts running through her mind.

“Just what will happen to Equestria?” she asked herself as her friends talked amongst themselves. She had a bad feeling about this.



Ocellus had split Forest Rangers up into five swarms, sending them burrowing under the sand as they scattered, making it harder for Surfer Blood to hit them. She made sure to keep Subterra behind her at all times, ready to move them both if the enemy decided to attack them directly. While Crafteon was a Stand with an unfathomable ability, she didn’t see it moving fast enough to reach Surfer Blood before its razor sharp water jets would reach them. At this point in time, they were just too far away and the enemy’s speed outmatched them.

She would have to play this smarter.

A cluster of Forest Rangers erupted from the sand close to Surfer Blood, flinging themselves at it as they formed into a tiny version of Forest Rangers’ complete form. Surfer Blood turned on them, pointed both arms forward as water was pumped down to them. From their nozzles, thin pinpricks of water were fired in a stream, puncturing holes through its body as its momentum was cut short, sending it tumbling back to the sand in pieces as each individual Forest Ranger scattered back under the sand.

One more swarm burst forth next to Surfer Blood’s leg, narrowly missing as it swiped a sickle-like shape at it as Surfer Blood kicked into the air, somersaulting once before firing a blade of water at the third swarm, which ran at it with spidery legs. It avoided one of its water blades, but the second one cut off all the legs on its right side, dropping it to the sand before Surfer Blood punctured it through the head with a beam of water.

Ocellus yelled in pain as blood dripped from her head, covering her left eye as she dropped to a knee.

Doo Doo Doot laughed from his roost, leaning back against the cabin wall. “What are you going to do, man? You’re too slow.” Surfer Blood released a torrent of water from its nozzles, washing away the swarms of Forest Rangers, breaking them apart. “The pressure of Surfer Blood’s water is too great. Your Stand cannot maintain a solid form against me. And as they slow down further in water, you will certainly never beat me!”

Subterra couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. “Crafteon, we need to help.”

Crafteon appeared beside her, flailing its tentacles around. “Surfer Blood’s water jets can reach us faster than my darkness can creep to it. I don’t know what good we’ll do.”

“We have to try. We have to help Ocellus.” Subterra grabbed her under her arms and helped her back up. “I’m not just going to stand here and do nothing, Crafteon.”

Her Stand nodded its large head, then stretched its tentacles out as darkness began to spread from under its tail towards Surfer Blood. Doo Doo Doot put a hand to his mouth and faked a yawn before grinning madly.

Surfer Blood eyed the darkness coming, then pointed its arms at Crafteon and fired off a beam of water like that of a fire hose. Crafteon sailed away in the air, its spreading darkness dissipating for the moment as it tried to avoid the enemy’s attack. Surfer Blood turned and followed, aiming the spray towards it as it stepped towards the sea. As it stood over it, water began flowing into its feet, flowing through tubes that stuck out the back of its soles. As it circulated through its body, the water pressure from its arm cannons began to increase, shearing clean through a rock as Crafteon attempted to hide behind it.

“I told you, there’s nothing we can do against this enemy,” Crafteon told its master.

“Not yet, anyway.” Subterra nodded to Ocellus.

The older woman understood and got her Stand moving again. “The enemy’s attacks may be fast, but it’s still one against two. Or maybe five.”

Forest Rangers reformed themselves into four swarms, and now that Surfer Blood was no longer hosing them down, they were able to cluster back up again, forming four distinct beetle-like creatures on four legs each. One ran to Surfer Blood’s legs, biting it with its mandibles as it sprayed away at Crafteon, spilling blood on the sand.

Doo Doo Doot hopped on one foot and held his injured foot in his hands as he cursed. “Get that Stand!”

Surfer Blood kicked it away, then fired a salvo of water blades at the rest. It sheared one of the Forest Ranger swarms to pieces, but the other three managed to avoid the rest, going off in different directions.

“Surf’s up, bugs!” Doo Doo Doot put both hands to his mouth like he was holding a musical instrument and wiggled his body from left to right. “You’ll never stop me!”

“I won’t be so sure about that.” Ocellus raised the corner of her mouth in a smile.

Doot saw her change of expression and put his hands down, narrowing his eyes. “How do you plan on that?”

Ocellus put her hands on her hips and bent her back to her right. “Did you think you were smashing apart my Stand all this time and making them run for it?”

“Well, yes I-”

Ocellus flicked a finger up, pointing at him. “You forget my Stand exists as tiny little organisms. And each Forest Ranger has the ability to chew through even some of the strongest metals, given the time.”

Doot waved his hand lazily. “I don’t see how that applies. Surfer Blood is still going to tear you to pieces with its high-pressurized water jets.”

His Stand slammed both arms together, then pointed them at Subterra and Ocellus. Water pumped down from its tubes, but they never made it to its arms. Instead, water spouted out from the tubes just above its elbows and back.

Doot did a double take. “Wuh-what?”

Surfer Blood looked down at its arms and it was here that Doot realized what Ocellus was talking about. Along the tubes rested dozens of Forest Rangers, eating away at the tubes or snipping at them with their two-fingered hands.

“Y-Your Stand ate through the water tubes of Surfer Blood!” Doot exclaimed, putting both hands to his blonde head. “Your Stand has been crawling up Surfer Blood each time it broke your Stand up!”

Ocellus nodded, her finger still pointed at him. “Exactly. The game’s up, Doo Doo. Time for you to be flushed down the toilet. Forest Rangers!”

As her Stand formed themselves back into a singular figure, Ocellus looked back at how far she’s come from her days studying in TWI’s school. She used to be a shy one, but after years of being bolstered up by her friends by her side, she was able to break out of her shell, both metaphorically and literally, able to take charge when the going got tough. That was what a protector of Equestria did, anyway. And that was what she had to do now. If TWI was going to lead Equestria down a dangerous path, it was her job to do something about it.

Forest Rangers ran at Surfer Blood, who was now unable to fire back at it.

“No, don’t do it!” Doot pleaded. “TWI only means well for this world!”

Forest Rangers balled both fists and repeatedly slammed them into Surfer Blood’s chest over and over again, hitting it against the hull of the beached ship. With each pound, the hull bent and groaned, sinking under Forest Rangers’ blows. Spinning around, it delivered a final straight kick up into Surfer Blood’s chin, smashing it through the hull as Doo Doo Doot was flung from the deck, falling away into the ocean on the other side.

Forest Rangers spun once, then pressed one arm to the sand as it raised the other one in an ‘L’ shape above its head.

“That takes care of the doo doo.” Ocellus spun around and faced Subterra as Forest Rangers vanished. “You alright?”

Subterra dusted sand from her sleeves and nodded. “That was cool.”

Ocellus chuckled and looked back at the boat. “It was, wasn’t it?” She turned her attention to the lagoon within the atoll and the rubbish floating along its shore. “This place is nice. Or at least, it would be if humans stopped throwing their rubbish everywhere. The sea is nothing like this in Equestria.”

Subterra looked at a plastic bottle washing up and down the water and sighed. “If people don’t do something now… I guess that’s why TWI has a bunch of followers.”

“But odd… That doo doo, he mentioned an arrow…” Ocellus recalled. “I know not all the people of your world are born with Stand power. If she’s able to give them Stands with this arrow, who knows how many Stand users she has on her side.”

Subterra found herself wondering more about her origins. Was she the same? A product of TWI’s arrow? There was only one way to find out at this point, and that was to recollect her memories, starting with investigating the rest of Tikehau.

Ocellus suddenly began waving and Subterra looked up to see Shiho walking over, a grumpy look on her face.

“Took you long enough,” Ocellus told her. “We even dealt with an enemy Stand while you were busy docking that boat of yours.”

“I was getting hustled by some dude hoping to make some quick money.” Shiho pounded her fists together. “Had to show him it was a bad idea. Good grief, you can find these people all over the world…”

Ocellus rolled her eyeballs. “Uh huh. Right. We better get going before another Stand user tracks us down.”

As Ocellus led the way past the destroyed boat, Subterra walked alongside Shiho with news to tell her about TWI and her mysterious arrow.



Clouds swirled in the sky above the island’s peak, curving unnaturally towards the middle as the air around them shimmered and moved like there were mirages in the desert. Because of this, the sky was dark and overcast, preventing light from entering the room of a structure built into the mountain’s surface. A rustic balcony led into a dark room with wooden floorboards that had piles and piles of clothes strewn all over. At the far end was a large bed with four posts that connected with the rocky ceiling and on it sat a woman shrouded in shadows, dressed in only a pair of striped pants. Her back revealed a line of scars, cuts and bruises sustained from her fight with who she used to call her friends all those years ago.

After eleven years, her body still hadn’t fully healed, leaving her vulnerable and weakened. In the end, she had to resort to returning to Equestria to collect allies for her work here in this world. Now with the portal she had created with a piece of Canterlot’s statue, she could come and go as she pleased, but she knew her duty would be to bring peace and order to this world, just like she had done in Equestria.

In her right hand, she clutched an arrow. It had a black shaft and a gold fletching, but what really stood out about it was its head. The arrowhead was made of a brilliant blue crystal, glistening in the faint light as she turned it in her hand. From that, she looked to the side where a tank filled with water sat against the wall across from a doorway. Inside this tank was an old woman with grey hair that was once red and yellow. She was hooked up to tubes and devices, along with a respirator over her mouth that allowed her to breathe.

TWI had been learning from Sunset Shimmer all these years. That was how she got her hands on a Stand geode. It had come straight from the horse’s mouth. Literally.

With the tubes attached to Sunset, TWI could pump in drugs and concoctions, stuff that would dull Sunset’s edge and keep her from using her Stand. In her weakened state, TWI knew she couldn’t afford a fight with Alicorn Fantasy, one of the most powerful Stands she’d ever known. Right now, she was asleep, but TWI would occasionally have conversations about the world and her family.

“I’m not a monster, you know?” She watched Sunset’s still form, then turned her attention back to the arrow. “I’ve given people of your world hope again. Hope for a better future, hope for all, rich or poor, weak or strong. You just don’t see it. Why don’t you see it?”

From Sunset’s information, TWI had found the geode out in the Everfree Forest of this world, near the site of an old cave Sunset had gotten hers from. She had also told her of Cinch, the woman she had defeated so many years ago, doomed to repeat every second for the rest of eternity.

TWI had wanted to go see her for herself, but she didn’t want to risk accidentally releasing her. “Perhaps I will go once I am fully recovered.”

The geode had allowed her to give Stand power to the humans of this world. Though not all of them survive the process, those that did became stronger than ever, able to help her change the world. She has fashioned it into an arrow to better administer it. As long as she kept getting it back, she could use it as many times as she wanted, though she knew it would disappear should it be used on a Stand user, like Sunset had done.

A cold draft blew into the room and for a second, TWI thought she saw Spike, her old friend, standing by the balcony, facing her.

She gripped the arrow tighter, then got off the bed as she placed a hand to her face, looking out between her index and middle fingers. Her orange eyes gleamed in the darkness as she limped out to the balcony overlooking the tumultuous sea. Imbibed Man rested on the beach below, restful as ever as he worked on his tan. TWI let him be, since it was his Stand that kept this island safe.

Her thoughts drifted to Subterra Shiver and her other followers that were searching to bring her back. Subterra was key to her plan. She needed her back, able or not.

“You can come back willingly, Subterra, or by force. One way or another, I will have you again. My followers will find you and they will not stop until you are back here once again.”

- To be Continued...-