//------------------------------// // Ch. 3 Who Will Uphold the Judgment // Story: Twilight's Bizarre Adventure: Star Dust Crusaders // by Za Waruldo //------------------------------// The sun was rising over Ponyville and one dragon was running about town heading to his destination. Spike could see the town slowly start to stir as the sunlight started to wash over the houses. He continued down the road until he made it Rarity’s. He stretched out his arm to knock, but quickly pulled it back. What if she wasn’t up yet, what if she was still sleeping he wouldn’t want to wake her. Then the door suddenly opened and Rarity walked out. “Why hello there Spike, ready to go dig up some gems?” Rarity went around the back of her Boutique and came out with a cart hooked up behind her “Well let’s be off then.” They approached a clearing next to the mountain and Rarity lit up her horn revealing where the largest caches of gems where. “Don’t worry Rarity I got this” Spike walked up to the pile and started digging away throwing the gems out and into the cart. After the fifth hole Spike was starting to get tired a sweat building up on his face with his claws resting on his legs trying to catch his breath. “Just give me a minute and I’ll have the gems ready in no time.” “Oh Spike don’t worry I can finally try out my new spell I learned while away” Spike Looked up to see Rarity standing in the middle of the field she simply stood there a minute before a slight rumble was felt through the earth. The earth seemed to deform around Rarity as if something was trying to burst out from below, then the tops of gems started to poke through; rubies, emeralds, topaz, and amethyst. The gems seemed to flow from the earth and form a pool around Rarity. Molding themselves into a flat surface over the ground forming a shimmering surface under her. “Such a beautiful surrounding, almost as dazzling as me.” Spike could only look in amazement at the changing surroundings, what used to be a barren rocky field was transformed into a shining gem that glistened from every angle. "How did you do this Rarity?” Spike brought a claw to his eyes rubbing them to make sure nothing was in them; he still couldn’t believe his eyes once he checked again. As Rarity walked to him the floor seemed to move beneath her keeping Rarity at its center like a Gem being shown for all to adore. “This is something I learned from that handsome Stallion over in Saddle Arabia. He had so much to teach me before I left, unfortunately I couldn’t learn everything he had to offer, but the results do speak for themselves. He even named came up with a name for this skill of mine. He called it Demon’s Dance Floor.” Rarity seemed to almost dislike the name. “It may appear a bit garish with that title ,but he gave me a satisfactory reasoning behind the naming he said, ‘That this floor will remain pristine and pure even if a demon were to dance upon it’ I may not like the Demon portion of the name though and was thinking of just shortening it to Dance Floor.” The gem floor was now underneath Spike and continued to slide under him as Rarity approached. “Your name for it is great Rarity” Spike looked back over to were Rarity originally was standing and could see that the earth was torn up with many holes coming out from where the gems were pulled. Could Twilight even accomplish what Rarity just had with finding and excavating most likely a majority of all the gems in the imminent area? Spike was brought back from his thoughts when Rarity picked Spike up to hug him. “Thank you so much Spike you have no idea how much this was bothering me, I couldn’t exactly run this by Twilight you know how she gets with new magic” Rarity sat him back down onto the Gem floor before heading over to the cart the floor pulling Spike with it. She lifted her head and the floor slowly came apart forming the gems used to craft it. The Gems then levitated into the cart. “Spike, do you know where this pony Ripple Star is? I would like to make his acquaintance if he is new to town, he might even want some clothing made” “No, I don’t Rarity sorry; you might try Pinkie though she knows everypony in Ponyville.” “No problem darling, now we just have to get these back, I may have taken just a tad much.” Rarity and Spike looked back to the cart to see that the gems continued to stack themselves onto the back of the cart forming a tower composed of gems. “This might take a few trips. Unfortunately I can’t carry all these back to Ponyville even though my new spell may not be to taxing on me carrying all of this back will definitely exhaust me.” Almost all the gems in the cart were lifted out and sank into the ground forcing their way back into the earth. “Oh well, we can always come back latter come along Spike I can manage this just fine” The cart was just barely full when Rarity took it and started her walk back to Ponyville with Spike alongside her. Twilight was back at her desk starring down her book “There has yet to be I book I couldn’t understand and that is not changing today” she tore out a page to find that it disintegrated once it left her hoof. Twilight quickly dropped the book and grabbed another before hitting it with her hoof. She inspected the book that she tore a page out of to make sure it wasn’t damaged. “Whew, that was close I thought I damaged one of you.” Twilight said to herself as she pulled over her Stand to see if the page was still torn out. The book had all of its pages accounted for. “Why do you have to be so difficult? Why don’t you have instruction or anything written in you?" Twilight paused half expecting an answer hen the book failed to respond she resorted to more drastic measures. "Fine then I’ll just use you as a journal.” Twilight pulled up a quill with an ink bottle next to the book. “Journal entry one this book is evil and refuses to cooperate.” Twilight quickly jotted down. When she went to make the second entry in the book she saw that the ink was being absorbed by the page and vanished into the book. She just looked at the book anger filling her eyes before she yelled into the pages “Arrgghhhhh! Why won’t you work with anything?” Twilight threw the book on the floor and it slid across the floor until it hit the wall. She walked over to the book before picking it up in her hooves and staring over the cover. “This can’t be healthy for me, I need help.” Twilight walked through Ponyville with her saddle bag on heading to the Golden Oat Inn to hopefully acquire some aid in figuring out her Stand. When she approached the counter a unicorn mare came out from behind the desk. “How Can I help you today Miss?” “I’m actually looking for somepony that’s currently staying here. His name is Ripple Star.” “Oh, we were told to let you up, his room number is 132, just down that hall” She pointed down the hall to her left. “Thank you and have a good day Miss” Twilight curtly said as she left down the hall way. She stood in front of room 132 and knocked on the door. “Ripple I’m sorry for blowing up on you yesterday and I need some help this Stand business is going to drive me crazy, I’m yelling at books and starting to panic I really need some help” The hallway stood silent and Twilight fell to the floor in worry before she spoke up again “Please.” The door creaked open to reveal Ripple standing in the door frame with a hoof extended out to help Twilight up. “Look I shouldn’t have loaded all that information on you. Any sane pony would call me crazy. I also shouldn't have let you leave yesterday without first helping you call forth your stand and learning how to utilize it.” Twilight grabbed his hoof as he pulled her up to her hooves. “I just can’t believe everything you told me, sure your knowledge on Stands has been proven true but I still won't believe in your tale of a vampire lurking around the world.” “Look you don’t have to believe me just let me help you. It’s the least I can do for showing you this world. Let’s go outside it should be less disastrous if summoning you stand causes fire to spew forth or causes the earth to quake with power.” Ripple joked as he turned to leave the Inn when Twilight stopped him. “I kind of already summoned it I have it in my saddle bag” She pulled the book out of her bag and showed it to Ripple. “So your stand is a book, what does it do exactly; power over paper, bringing stories to life, the ability to rewrite history.” Ripple continued listing off fantastical powers causing Twilight to lower her head in a slight shame. “Why do you look so down this is amazing you managed to summon it without any aid or extreme stimuli, so what does it do?” Twilight raised her head and turned away before talking “I don’t know what it does. I tried everything; tearing out a page causes it to disintegrate, writing in it makes the ink vanish, I can turn any book into a copy of this book, and it can’t be destroyed since I can just create another.” “Well we have a starting point come on let’s get outside and try to figure this out. Know any good deserted fields” Ripple held the door for Twilight as she exited the inn. “Don’t worry not all Stands are intuitively known by the user some take years to fully understand and some ponies just have to use trial and error to figure theirs out?” They both walked into an empty field at the edge of Ponyville. “Good doesn’t look like we’ll be bothered while out here so let me get a good look at your Stand.” Twilight set it in front of him to examine. “So it already has a name have you translated the title yet?” Ripple started to flip through the pages looking for anything that could be in the book. “Yeah that was one of the first things I did, it translates to ‘The history of disasters’ not really a cheery name for my Stand.” “So have you tried writing down past disasters yet into this book?” Ripple slide the book back over to her opened to a blank page. Twilight quickly pulled a quill and ink bottle from her saddlebag. She started to write about the storm that caused Rarity and Applejack to take shelter in her home and have slumber party with her. She even wrote down the date before waiting patiently for something to happen. As she looked hopefully at the book as the ink was once again sucked into the pages and leaving them blank. “Not again!” Twilight was yelling at the book in frustration as she ripped out the page and tossed it. As soon as it left her hoof it crumbled away into dust and vanished, another failed test. “Twilight calm down, you need to be thinking with a clear head if you’re going to figure this out. Besides we have learned a few things about your Stand from this. Your stand reacts to the pages being torn out and being written in. With this info we can figure that you most likely have to write in it to get it to function, my best guess is we’re just not putting in the correct words or the situation isn’t right for it to function. Besides the name is one of your greatest clues this book is used to record disasters so all we need is a disaster of some kind.” Ripple went on, proud of his deduction abilities. “Well I’d love to test that theory and Ponyville is a very disaster prone town for its small size. So what do we do now?” Twilight asked as she put the book and quill back into her pack. “Now we wait for a disaster and document it as soon as it happens and hope that you’re Stand does something." They both sat in the field observing the world go by for hours until the sun began to set. "Well I’m going back to get some sleep not much we can do now. If you need me or have anything to tell me you know where to find me.” Ripple left Twilight behind and walked back to the inn. Hopping to get back before the sun goes down. When Ripple entered the inn the receptionist turned around to greet him. “Mr. Star while you were gone a unicorn mare came by looking for you. I told her to come back later but she told me that she wanted to give you something so I took her to your room to drop it off.” “Well thanks for the heads up.” Ripple slowly crept through the halls keeping an eye on every door listening to every sound heard through the building. He slowly approached his door and placed his hoof on the door before opening it to look inside. Sitting in a chair at the back of the room was a white unicorn mare with diamonds for a cutie mark. “What is a such a lovely mare doing here?” “Moi, nothing just doing some investigating. Tell me do you know a pony named Dio?” The mare stared at Ripple looking for a response of some kind and she saw it as Ripple tensed at the pony’s name. “So you do know him then this makes this much easier.” Ripple couldn’t see any Stand visible in the room and as a gut reaction to facing an unknown force, he resorted to his families most powerful secret technique. He leaped backwards out the door and took off at a full gallop. “Oh phooey, he ran away now I have to actually get him, come along Dance Floor.” As Rarity stepped out of the room, a spider as large as a pony entirely composed of gems dropped from the ceiling, its legs cutting into the floor before scuttling out the window to follow Rarity. The sun was setting over Ponyville as Rarity walked the streets looking for Ripple as her Stand jumped roof to roof keeping pace with Rarity. “Come out Mr. Star I just want to give you a present maybe give you a less tacky hat. That color goes atrociously with your coat color by the way.” Throwing taunts out hoping to draw Ripple out from hiding. The Sun had finally set when Rarity made it to the town square standing by the fountain. “Ripple you can’t hide from me forever just come out and make this easier on yourself and me, I think I chipped a hoof running around town looking for you.” Rarity circled the fountain looking down every street as she did trying to spot her target. When she suddenly spotted him walking towards her. “So you’ve finally shown yourself, well I’m glad you came to your senses.” “If I can get a last request I want some answers Madam.” Ripple stopped roughly 10 meters in front of Rarity who stood her ground unmoving. “Please you can call me Rarity it’s not like you’ll get to use my name much longer anyways. Besides what kind of lady would I be if I couldn’t give a last request to some stallion, ask away”. Ripple kept an eye on her Stand as it stood poised on a nearby roof top. “Why do you even serve Dio?” “Why do moths travel towards flames Mr. Star? Why do sunflowers follow the sun? I follow Dio because he is what we all need. He is beauty incarnate the apex of art. I was drawn to him and he showed me how wrong and ugly the world is. He asked to help him make it better to rebuild the world, what greater purpose could anypony ask for.” Rarity’s eyes glossed over recounting the events that led her to meet Dio. “Justice is what is right and what is right is decided by the victor. The loser is the evil one and it will be you. My Stand will stand for justice once it kills you.” Rarity seemed to be lost in her rant when Ripple interrupted. “Evil is that which preys upon the weak, only to serve their own selfish desires. Therefore my stand shall judge you and your actions.” As Ripple finished he raised one of his front hooves to show purple vines digging into the ground beneath him. Suddenly vines erupted from the fountain behind Rarity grabbing her barrel and neck. Dragging her back to the fountain and under the surface of the water. Ripple could see her thrashing about under the surface as he held his ground.trying to maintain his stand at his distance. “Don’t worry!” He yelled over to the drowning pony. “I’ll pull you up once you lose consciousness!” When he finished shouting a very large and heavy object tackled him from the side, throwing him across the street he skidded to a halt. The purple vines holding Rarity vanished and she surfaced gasping for air. She stepped out of the fountain and turned to see Ripple lying on the street motionless. “Weird I thought Dance Floor would stab you. Guess I need line of sight for more precise control, oh well the more you know.” Dance Floor returned to Rarity’s side and flattened one of its legs to form a mirror as she restyled her mane with her magic. “Do you have any Idea what it takes to keep my mane looking this good?” Rarities continued to look into the mirror as she was finishing up her mane returning it to how it was before her unsuspecting dip into the fountain. “Now where was I, oh yes” Rarity turned around to find Ripple missing and nowhere in sight. “Pony feathers” Rarity was not happy, that was an understatement, she was furious. This stallion ruined her mane and was keeping her from getting some much needed sleep. Rarity continues to look around town until she heard a sharp whistle in the distance coming from a construction site on the edge of town. As she approached she saw the iron frame that had been bolted into place along with a crane which had a girder hanging off its chain. Rarity walked through the front gate to see Ripple just standing in the open right of the structure and next to the crane. “So you finally showed up, you do realize it’s impolite to keep a stallion waiting.” “You do realize it is also impolite to leave a mare alone at night, how would I ever defend myself.” Rarity started to walk straight towards Ripple with Dance floor in front of her before she changed course and started walking the edge of the building as she approached. “Do you honestly think I would fall for such a simple trap Star? Were you going to drop that hanging girder on my Stand? What do you take me for a child?” As Rarity got half way past the building she saw the pile of explosives lining the girders on the interior. This building wasn’t under construction it was up for demolition. “Dance Floor!” Dance Floor leaped at Rarity shifting its body trying to form a cocoon around her as the explosives went off. The building was still standing with the most of the beams still holding in place. The structure was defiantly going to fall, but not without a large push. When the smoke cleared Rarity was still standing just fine with Dance Floor missing six legs and chunks of its body, it couldn’t even get up in its current condition. “Next you’re going to say ‘you fool were you trying to kill us both’ ” Ripple stated as he pointed his hoof at her. “You fool were you trying to kill us both? Huh!” Rarity had no time to react as one of the cranes came crashing down on top of the building. This caused the structure to finally succumbed to the extra force and started to collapse inwards. Rarity dove for Dance Floor as it used what little of its self was left to once again protect its User. Ripple stood still as the crane fell next to him kicking up dust and lifting off his fedora. Once the cloud of dust dissipated Ripple approached the building to find Rarity mostly fine her stand was shattered and laying in pieces around what was left of the structure. Her mane was off her face simply lying across the side of her head without its curls. When he got closer to inspect her for any wounds he could see what looked like a flower bud on her head that her mane was previously hiding. When he looked closer at the bud he could make out four small tendrils attached to it and the bud had a long needle like stem going down into Rarity’s head. “I’m going to need some help with this.” Ripple threw Rarity on his back and quickly made him was to the library. Twilight was getting ready for bed with spike when a series of hard knock were heard at the door. “The library is closed, come back tomorrow.” She answered down the Stairs. “Twilight we have an emergency!” Ripple yelled back still pounding on the door. “Spike quickly open the door” Spike ran down the stairs and opened the door with Twilight right behind him. When he opened the door they could see Ripple standing in the street with Rarity on his back bruised and injured. “What happened to Rarity is she OK” Twilight ran up to Ripple, she could now that Rarity wasn’t the only injured pony. “Twilight we need to get her inside now she needs help and a hospital won’t be able to help her until we cure her of this parasite.” Ripple walked into the tree house and placed Rarity on the floor. When he pulled her mane back both Spike and Twilight could see the pink spider like bud attached to her head. “What is that?” Twilight asked in disgust over the vile flesh bud. “That is a Flesh Bud composed of Dio’s own cells; it’s stem is reaching into her brain to manipulate her mind. Dio was controlling her through his strong charisma and attracting personality along with the bud to make her follow his order to kill me.” Ripple looked away from both of them while inspecting the flesh bud. “We have to take her in for an operation that thing is going to kill her if we just leave it in there.” Spike said, hopping that Rarity wouldn’t come under any more harm. Turning his head to her, “Twilight I need you to pull it out with your magic, you need to precisely remove it while I hold her head still can, you do that?” he waited for her answer. “OK I’ll do it, keep her still while I pull it out” Ripple placed both hooves on either side of Rarity’s head to keep her still while Twilight stood at her head trying to calm herself before she used her telekinesis to grab the bud. As soon as Twilight got a grasp on the bud a tendril reached out into Ripple’s front leg. “It’s trying to invade the brain of the pony trying to remove it," Ripple said keeping a firm grip on Rarity's head. "Twilight don’t lose focus keep going” Rarity’s eyes suddenly shot open and she looked up to see Ripple and Twilight standing over her. Ripple took notice and looked back at her. “Don’t move Rarity, if we fail your brain is lost.” Rarity stared back at Ripple her eyes wide with shock and fear. The Tendril could be seen snaking its way up Ripple as it moved under his skin and up his body working towards his brain. Then it reached his neck. “Get your hoof away Ripple, it’s up to your neck!” Spike yelled in a panic over the Stallions well being. The flesh bud was being slowly lifted out of Rarity until the 3 inch stem was completely out with the bud. “its out!” Spike excitedly yelled. As soon as Twilight pulled out the bud she ripped it away from Rarity causing the Tendril that was working its way up Ripple’s face to be pulled out of his body. “Twilight hold it still.” Ripple ordered as the Bud was floating midair straining against its magical restrains. He raised his hoof now covered by his Stand ready to strike, when his hoof started to radiate with a crackling yellow spark flowing over his Hermit Purple Ripple brought his hoof across the bud reducing it to ash. Rarity sat up slightly and looked at everypony in the library until some blood started to slide down her forehead and over her muzzle. She then passed out on the floor. “We really should take her to a hospital now she needs medical attention; I kind of dropped a building on her while she was trying to kill me.” Ripple picked up Rarity and placed her on his back before walking out of the library with Spike in pursuit. Twilight sat in disbelief over what had just occurred in front of her, one of her best friends had just tried to kill Ripple on the orders of a hundred year old vampire who stole the body of Ripple’s Grandpa. Twilight quickly recovered from her daze to chase after Ripple, Rarity, and Spike as they headed to the hospital.