“Button! Are you even listening?” Milano yelled at her son across the table, snapping him out of his train of thought.
After their trip to the dungeons, the group decided to stop at one of cafes in Canterlot. For Rarity and Sweetie Belle it was nice to do so since for once they aren’t in Canterlot for some saving the world business. For the rest they couldn’t say no since they haven’t been in Canterlot until now.
“Sorry mom,” Button replied “I’m still kinda surprised by this whole Sunset Shimmer thing. You’re telling me this mare who died a hundred years ago is now back from the dead? This is incredibly ridiculous I tell you.”
“Then again,” Zecora interjected taking a sip from her tea “The stands we wield are equally ridiculous.”
“Touche.”
“You don’t have to believe me Button,” His mother called back his attention “Just listen to why I know of the existence of Sunset.”
Milano reached into her saddleback and pulled out a camera, setting it on the table and cleared her throat so that everyone listen to her.
“To tell you the truth, around a year ago I too developed a stand.”
“Say what?” Rarity and Button yelled as they heard this.
“Take a good look,” She put her left hoof on the camera and she raised her right hoof high as some kind of purple thorns came out of her hoof “This is how my stand works!”
Milano brought down her spiky hoof and chopped the camera in half, but in the process a picture shot out of the camera to the direction of the teenage colt, luckily he reacted in time to catch the picture in his teeth and putting it down on the table.
“See the vines that comes out of my hoof? That is my stand,” Milano continued rubbing her right hoof “It’s ability is to project an image far away onto film.”
“Sounds like a really lame stand.” Button commented as he frowned.
“It is, but listen carefully Button.”
She reached out for the picture on the table, holding it with her hoof, Milano showed the picture to her son for him to see. The picture was still really dark but it slowly was getting clearer
“The image this photo is about to show, it’s something that will decide your fate.”
“An image is going to decide my fate?” Button asked quickly glancing at his cutie mark “But I already got my cutie mark, what else is there to do?”
“You remember the cutie mark of Twilight Sparkle?”
“Yes I do dear,” Rarity interjected “A big purple star with five smaller stars following it, am I right?”
“Correct, now look at the picture.” Milano shows the picture again for everyone to see.
A mare was standing in the darkness on her hind legs and her back facing away from the angle the shot was taken. The mare’s coat is light pink with a stream of five stars as her cutie mark, her tail seems to be white with a purple streak. But the pink coat ends at her neck, stitches are placed on the part that ends the pink coat to give away a dark orange coat, her mane was styled almost the same as Rarity, her mane was a mixture of dark orange with red.
“There she is, that bastard took the body of Twilight Sparkle’s great great grandmother, Starshine Sparkle, everywhere below her neck.” Milano screamed in anger.
“What happened a hundred years ago I heard it from Velvet, she took that body and survived, I’m sure she’s hiding on the corner of the planet planning something evil. She has been revived four years ago, our stands appeared within this year. It’s probably Sunset Shimmer that caused all of this!”
“Calm down mom, deep breaths,” Button said to her.
“Normally ponies would see this ability as telekinesis,” Zecora interrupted “But since we do not possess horns, it’s hard to believe such thing. Though I do wonder why your stands woke up instead of the six bearers.”
“Maybe I can answer that,” Milano said stroking her chin “There exist a bow and arrows that can draw out the stand of a pony.”
“Wait a minute, I was shot by an arrow the other day!” Button raised his voice.
“Not to be rude, but that sounds really unbelieveable,” Rarity finished her cup of tea and put it back on the table “I’m more concerned about the location of that devilish mare.”
“She has a point,” Milano took the picture and showed it to the zebra “Zecora, can you see where she is?”
“Sadly I can’t, the photo is too dark.” Zecora replied.
“I see, we shall be staying in contact Rarity, give us a call if something weird happens.”
“Hold on a second,” Rarity raised her hooves at her and stared at the cream coated mare “Why can’t we contact my friends? We can do something about this.”
“Rarity,” Sweetie Belle got up and put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder “I don’t think the elements of harmony can get us out of this one.”
“But-”
“I’m with Sweetie Belle, they don’t have any experience with this whole stand thing, they would be taken out really quick.” Button said leaning on his seat.
Rarity stared at the ponies locking eyes with her, with a sigh she sat back down, not wanting to argue anymore. It is true that the element bearers have no chance against stand users if they aren’t stand users themselves, they would get killed really easily. But she wondered why she and her sister could see stands and not have one of their own.
They payed for the check and got on their way to the train station, it has been a long and eventful day with the discovery of a new threat, one that even the elements of harmony truly cannot defeat.
Little did they know that more days like this were waiting ahead of them.
A figure stood in the mattress of a darkly lit room, the red carpet slightly illuminated along with a mare’s cutie mark of five purple stars. The mare woke up in a joint and placed her hoof on her flank.
“I feel, like I’m being watched.” The mare whispered.
She got off the mattress, her yellow and red mane visible in the fireplace’s fire. The mare walked into the darkness to open a door to a corridor, making way for the moonlight to Illuminate the room more. The mare stood in the corridor’s entrance, behind her is a pony that rivals Celestia in size laying down on the stairs, devoid of all life.
“It was the descendants of Starshine? This body is calling to them,” The mare stood there, bathing in the light of the moon as a breeze flowed through her “Fine then, I guess this is destiny. The destiny that should be met. Celestia can wait for the moment.”
The mare smirked as she walked on the corridors of her hideout, already planning her next move against the Sparkle family.
Button Mash and Sweetie Belle walked together to school the following day, so far everything has been peaceful and normal, but she worried about him after discovering this new threat that not even the elements of harmony could handle. It also worried that he could get kidnapped like it happened to a fellow classmate of theirs, even though the teenage colt had a new way of self defense.
For him however, he was mostly lost in thought about this Sunset Shimmer and his newfound inner strength, it felt strange to call upon his stand to help him out and at the same time it felt freaking awesome. He felt powerful, like nothing in the world could stop him, it scared him and he resisted the urge to squeal like his inner superhero fanboy tried him to do, but he had more control.
Behind a bush on their side was a light gray pegasus teen with violet eyes and a brushed back onyx mane, he was drawing some scribbles on his notebook with a pencil on his lips. It was badly drawn, but the pony who the colt is trying to draw is unmistakably Button Mash. The colt looks up at Button who is walking down the road to school, he took another pencil and drew a red line on his left hind leg, causing the dark brown colt to open up a cut on the left hind leg and loose his balance.
Button didn’t knew what just happened, one moment everything was fine and the next he felt his hind leg being torn up, could it be possible that one of Sunset’s minions is attacking already? He didn’t had time to think as his face collided with the ground, he rolled on his back and saw the gash on his hind leg, it didn’t seem to be a deep cut.
“Button! Are you alright?” Sweetie called up to him running towards him.
“Y-Yeah, I am.”
‘He must be nearby’ He thought as he looked around for the Stand user, he heard something moving in the bushes and glanced over there to find a pegasus colt that looks like the same age as him. He was about to talk to him, but Sweetie Belle beat him to the punch.
“Rumble!” She trotted to him “Thank Celestia you are alright! What happened to you? We thought you were kidnapped.”
“I was,” Rumble answered “But I managed to get myself out of their clutches when they weren’t looking.” He gave them a reassuring smile, he didn’t seem to be hurt so she was glad.
“That’s nice and all, but I’m kinda bleeding here guys” Button interrupted them as he held his hind leg.
“Whoa,” Rumble walked to Button and examined his wound, he reached below his wing and gave him a bandage with a smile on his face “Here, I always carry this in case of emergencies, it’s kinda mandatory for pegasi to carry this.”
Button took the bandage and wraps it around his wounded leg, it helped a bit but it still hurt. Another thing came to his mind, a classmate that just rescued himself and just returned to Ponyville. It’s suspicious, but he didn’t seem like a bad colt.
“Can you stand up?” Rumble asked him looking at his wound.
“Let me see,” Button planted his hooves on the ground and attempted to get up, he was able to do it no problem, but it still hurt “Yes, yes I can.”
“That’s good to know,” Rumble smiled again and extended a hoof to him “I’m Rumble, I don’t think we ever met before, I mean we seen each other in class, but you were busy with your videogames and I was busy with my classes.”
“Heh, that does sound like me.” He gives Rumble a hoofshake with a soft smile.
They resumed their walk towards school, talking to each other on the way. Sweetie Belle insisted that Button had his wound checked at the nurse, so he did that as Sweetie and Rumble went to class. When the nurse told him to wait, his bandage fell off and noticed that something was written on it.
Be careful Button, a stand user has his sight on you, don’t let your guard down.
-Rumble
“What the…?” He thought out loud as he heard hoofsteps behind him.
Button turned around to see the nurse with a demented face holding a bloodstained pen walking to him, he noticed something green and black on her hind legs that lead all the way to her flank, that is something that Button definitely didn’t want to know where it ended.
“Oh crap!” Button had barely managed to stop her attack with a hoof, but she was strong enough to jam the pen into his cheek. The brown colt screamed in pain as the blood leaked down from it, luckily he prevented it from being jammed in any further.
“What the hay?” Button winced as he tried to keep her back “I knew earth ponies were strong, but I didn’t think they were this strong!”
“Having trouble Button?” Rumble’s voice was heard nearby and Button spotted him at the window with a wide menacing grin.
“Rumble, quick! Take that chair and hit her in the head with it!”
“You don’t get it, don’t you?” Rumble sighed and facehooved “My stand is possessing the nurse, and I am controlling her. You attack my stand and you hurt her Button.”
“You’re the stand user? I knew that something was off!”
“This is my stand, Hierophant Green.” He held a wood puppet on his wing and moved it around.
“Wait, Hiero-what now?” The nurse tried to jab the pen deeper, but he somehow stopped her from advancing.
“I am the same kind of stand user as Zecora, even though I am a pegasus. I’ve already sworn loyalty to her. That is why, I have to kill you!” The nurse’s eye changed to blue as she tore off the pen from Button’s face, he screamed again as a huge amount of blood flew off from his cheek. However, he did something that Rumble never anticipated.
He kissed her.
At least it seemed like it, Button backed away with his stand biting down Rumble’s stand and pulling it out. Hierophant Green resembles a changeling a lot, only that this one has a shade of dark green and normal green colored wings.
“How do you like that, huh?” Button said with a smug on his face “Your stand now seems like an inferior stand that only know how to hide inside ponies.”
“You know Button,” Rumble glared coldly at him “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“What are you talking about?” He then noticed that Rumble’s stand is charging green colored magic “Aw crap.”
“Emerald Splash!” Rumble commanded as his stand shot five green crystals that used to be it’s magic. He couldn’t block or dodge the attack, so he was flung away through the door as one of the crystals hit him in the chest and coughed up a lot of blood.
“The damaging energy created by my stand probably tore a hole in your chest. Your internal organs should be pretty messed up right now, hers too.” Rumble looked back at the nurse who regained her usual light pink eyes and passed out on the floor.
“What are you talking about?!” Button replied to him as he tried to get up.
“I told you, you attack my Hierophant Green, you hurt her. My stand has a longer range than yours, but it doesn’t like wide spaces.” Rumble explained as he moved the puppet with his wing.
“Geez, would you shut up already?” Button yelled at him angrily as he attempted to stand up “You really are boring me right now!”
“Fine then,” Rumble’s stand got in front of him, charged it’s horn and shot it again “I’ll finish you off with my Emerald Splash!!”
“News flash dumbnut,” He summoned his Star Platinum and it hit away the crystal shards thrown at him with it’s hooves “That attack won’t work twice!”
“What? Impossible!” Rumble started to cough up blood as Button’s stand grabbed his stand hard by the neck, Star Platinum raised it’s free hoof and brought it down to Hierophant’s face over and over again at an incredible speed.
He hit his stand with a powerful uppercut that it sent Hierophant Green flying through the roof, the blows had a powerful effect on Rumble, who was covered all over in blood and his puppet’s strings broke.
“Now that’s….a powerful….stand.” Rumble muttered as he passed out on the floor and his stand disappeared.
Button retreated his stand as well, looking around he saw the nurse’s office completely destroyed, he wondered how he can explain this. Looking at the nurse he got close to her and checked her pulse, she was still alive but she looked like a complete mess. The fatigue getting over to him he sat on the floor to rest for a moment.
“Woohoo! That was awesome!” Button cheered happily.
But that didn’t last long when he saw the destruction and the unconscious ponies before him, he really needed an excuse for all this.
‘Well,’ He thought as he picked up Rumble and put him on his back ‘I’ll skip school for now, I need to get some information from him.’ With that he went through the hole he made on the wall and left the ponies in the dark about this whole incident.
Milano and Rarity agreed to meet back in Carousel Boutique to discuss matters of great importance, to for Rarity that means dresses and her dream of marrying a prince. Milano stood with a bored stare, wishing for something to happen to make this pointless talk end already. Her silent pleas were answered as her injured son walked in the house with an unconscious beaten pegasus on his back.
“Hi mom, I got a prisoner.” Button announced dropping Rumble on the floor.
Rarity screamed as the cream colored mare told them to stay still until she gets Zecora, during the time she was gone Sweetie Belle followed after Button demanding to know what happened in school. Button recapped her the event of the fight, to which it left the two sisters awestruck at such deed that Button did.
Not long after that Milano returned with Zecora and checked out on Rumble, but they shook their heads as they looked down on him.
“I don’t think I can do anything,” Milano said with sadness “It’s too late, he’ll die in a couple of days.”
Button looked sadly at the floor, he didn’t think he would hit him so hard that he would die, he was now feeling guilty about what he has done.
“Don’t feel bad dearie,” Milano spoke to him in a soothing voice “The reason why he swore loyalty to Sunset Simmer is this.” She pointed a hoof to Rumble’s mane, when the teenage colt got a closer look he saw a strange looking pimple very near to his mane.
“Sweet Celestia!” Button jumped back when he saw it “That thing looks like a weird looking plant!”
“It’s a bud flesh created from Sunset Shimmer’s cells, it has reached into this young stallion’s brain.” Zecora started to explain to them “This thing is inserted into his brain, affecting his thoughts.”
Rarity fainted at this point, it didn’t seem to be possible but it was. An enemy like this is really too much for the six mares that has always saved Equestria numerous times, it seemed like only stand users can save it now.
“Sunset Shimmer is using her powers to control him, ordering him to kill us.” Milano spoke up again.
“So what? Operate him, easy as cake.” Button interjected.
“The bud doesn’t die that way, the brain is fragile. If he moves when we try to remove it, he will have brain damage.”
“Not if I have anything to say.” He got close to the unconscious pegasus and held both sides of his head with his hooves as he summoned his stand “I’ll take the bud out with my stand.”
“Button Mash, stop this instant!” Milano tried to warn him, gaining her son’s attention.
“Trust me mom, my stand is not only strong, but precise as well.” He turned back to Rumble, but suddenly the bud grew four sharp tendrils and one of them buried inside Button’s hoof, making him flinch and scream in pain.
“This is what I tried to warn you!” Milano shook her head and wiped the tears that she was about to shed “That’s why we can’t operate it, the bud is alive! It invades the brain of whoever wants to pull it out!”
Button endured the pain as the tendril made it’s way up his hoof, not losing any more time his stand grabbed the bud and slowly started to pull it out. The tendril was visible even under Button’s skin as it was now mere inches from his forehead, he focused on the bud and didn’t pay attention to his mother’s warnings or anything else, he was centred on his task even when the bud’s tendril was making way into his brain.
However, that wasn’t that case as Button successfully removed the bud and broke all four of it’s tendrils, making it fall to the floor with a trail of blood behind it. Milano centred the purple thunder of her hooves on the floor, causing the bud to be electrified and turned into ash.
Rumble groaned as he regained consciousness and rubbed his temples, he stretched his wings for a bit before noticing the trail of blood on his forehead, though it didn’t seem to mind him as he glanced to Button’s direction, who it seems that he was letting sink in what just happened.
“You...You saved me, why?” Rumble’s word seem to have snapped Button out of his trance as he looked at him and smirked at him.
“Come on, you know I’m not a bad guy.” He extended a hoof to Rumble for a hoofshake, to which he didn’t hesitate to accept it.
They had all agreed to spend the night with Rarity in case of another stand user attacking, Rarity did told some of this to her friends so they stay alert and tell Princess Celestia about the stands. Milano had suggested the boys and the girls to be sleeping in different rooms, tell Thunderlane about the sleepover and to search of Sunset Shimmer’s location in the next morning, to which they all agreed.
The next morning Zecora has been the first one to wake up and went to the everfree forest early for some medicinal herbs, as always she didn’t encounter any troubles nor there wasn’t any stand user that had attacked her when she was all by herself. The sun was rising up and the zebra had recently came back to the boutique, suddenly the sound of a breaking plate echoed through the house making the other sleeping ponies wake up. With a feeling of dread on her heart Zecora sprinted to the kitchen as fast as she could, at first all she saw was a messy kitchen, but taking a closer look she found something else.
Lying down out cold behind the table was Sweetie Belle with her back full of thorns and vines and an arrow on her hoof, blood dripping from the wound.
“What’s this?” Zecora thought as she laid her on her back and examined her phenomenon “It’s….it’s a stand! And it’s hurting her!” She picked the teenaged filly up and placed her on the table with fear and worry “It’s Sunset’s curse! She got hurt by the arrow crafted by her. And her stand, stands are controlled by the user’s strong spirit. Poor Sweetie Belle is too innocent to fight the curse, she doesn’t have the determination to control a stand. That must be why it was hurting her.”
Her train of thought was interrupted by certain unicorn’s loud shriek and that said unicorn hurried in to check up on her sister. Milano and Button stood on the door, Button looking at his best friend as, if not more, horrified than Rarity while his mother was as worried as Zecora was, but it wasn’t noted that much. Button thought of what to say at this moment, but as worried as he was at his friend he only could come up with one thing.
“How can we cure her?”
“There is only one way,” His mother replied with a hint of sadness on her voice “We must find Sunset Shimmer and kill her, that’s the only way this curse will be undone!” Her voice grew aggressive but quickly regained her calm and pulled out Sunset Shimmer’s photo again “But I can’t tell where she is, she is always hiding in the dark whenever we try to see her. We even tried all kinds of magic and technology to analyse what’s in the background.”
“But you didn’t try hard enough.” Button too the picture away from her and looked at it using his stand. Amazingly he could see very far into the dark with it and noticed something yellow in it. He then went to Rarity’s workshop with his mother and Zecora behind him. Taking a pencil and a blank paper he used his stand to draw in an incredible realistic detail a strange and big looking fly.
“Wait a moment,” Zecora gasped “I know this fly, these are common in Saddle Arabia!”
“Good job Button,” Milano smiled at her son as she ruffled his mane “Now thanks to you we know that the bitch is in Saddle Arabia.”
“Saddle Arabia?” Rumble spoke as he walked in the workshop “I want to go with you.”
“But Rumble you just got here! Don’t you think you should go back with your brother?” Button walked up to him.
“I can’t, I met Sunset Shimmer in there, I don’t know if she’s building an army against Equestria or something but she doesn’t want to leave Saddle Arabia.”
“And let me guess, you want to pay her back because she was using you like a puppet.”
“Definitely.” Rumble gritted his teeth angrily at the memory.
“Young Button” Zecora addressed to him as she layed a deck of tarot cards on the nearby table “Allow me to name your stand, I am going to draw a card at random and decide. It will symbolize your fate and hint at your stand’s ability.”
“But I already know it’s ability, and can’t I choose the name for my stand?” He asked as he looked at the deck.
“No you can’t.” She placed a hoof on the top of the deck and takes it to see it up close, setting down the card that show a pegasus pony flying through the moonless night sky “The Star card, your stand’s name will be Star Platinum!”