//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Stacked Odds // Story: Blood of the Sunstrikers // by Clacker Volley //------------------------------// Her vision was blurred. She could feel Hamon rippling (heh) throughout her whole body. The bright lights that blanketed her limited vision was quickly dashed away as a figure blocked out the sunlight. Dizzy with the thought that these may be her final moments, she felt as her life quickly flashed before her. She couldn’t help but wonder… how did she get here? And then Chrysalis realized that she knew absolutely nothing. That’s why as your faithful narrator, I will tell you what happened before these not-so-precious moments! Starting from the end of the last chapter… “Oh? What’s this? Did you two transmogrify yourselves into a different species? With those stupid princess amulets? You’re fools if you didn’t realize we can sense the magic that they soak up, Twilight.” Chrysalis stated, facing the space between Jonathan and Jotaro. ‘Wait, does she believe us to be the two ponies? I suppose the rules of magic can be quite flexible…’ Jonathan thought to himself before his musings were interrupted. “Really? Well, I suppose you are a fool, considering you’re addressing Twilight and looking at the space between the two of us. What? Or can’t you tell the kind of magic we’re using?” Jotaro stated. “Yare yare daze, I shouldn’t a bug like you to be that smart, I guess.” “I agree. My friend here does raise a valid point that makes me personally wonder where your head has gone.” Jonathan added. Chrysalis, while enraged, decided not to lower herself into the obvious provocation. Instead, she held herself with a cool exterior. “Can you both honestly be so bold? I’ve brought almost half of my hive with me, ready to extinguish both of your lives!” When she talked about half of her hive, Chrysalis was already aware of how massive it was. At least two hundred of her soldier blanketed the skies above Appleloosa, and five of her trusted elites stood behind her, their black chitin scratching the dust beneath them. “What a f*cking pain. Then try it.” Jotaro met Chrysalis’s gaze with his own penetrating steel eyes. One instant happened. Two things happened. First, Chrysalis had been building up her magical reserves and let loose a shining green magical beam straight at Jotaro. However, it was the second thing that held the interest of Chrysalis. One of the elites behind her voiced his confusion and posed a thought. “Wait, didn’t Nightmare send a report that she broke Twilight’s horn?” Chrysalis’s eyes widened in the next instant. She held in her thoughts as two things happened. First, she recognized that the beings in front of her were likely not Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. Second, she stood, bewildered as Jotaro vanished. If perhaps, the beam was aimed at his feet and kicked up dust, then the capped human might be dead. But she aimed straight at his chest, but with no traces, her target just vanished. Where could he have gone? I’m sure all of you readers already know. “I was right. You really are stupid, aren’t you?” In the next instant, Chrysalis could feel the shock hit her all at once. Somehow, between two instants, Jotaro was behind her. However, that sudden realization wasn’t the shock. The shock was the twenty or so impacts that were currently on her torso and abdomen. She barely had time to register her pain before she could turn her head to see the back of one Jotaro Kujo. And then she was sent flying. And not of her own accord. And it was in that instant, that the fight was no longer in instants. “Queen!” The elites all yelled as Chrysalis crashed into a purple barrier, the same that around twenty of her changelings were blocked by to try and catch their queen. The impact let her see one smug-looking Twilight Sparkle walk out of a building with her horn emblazoned with her accompanying purple-colored magic. Her damn horn. Now, another question that may arise is that why were only twenty changelings ready to help Chrysalis and were attacking the barrier when the fact was there were two hundred or so flying above Twilight’s barrier. That answer is simple. There was currently a phenomena cutting through them, ravaging through the changeling ranks. And it was very colorful. “Ah, whoops. Guess that might’ve been a dead giveaway to where we are.” Rainbow Dash said, looking back as her Sonic Rainbow had an additional color added to its edge. Black. Back on the ground, three of the five elites lunged at Jotaro whilst the other two awkwardly pointed at him and said in disharmony, “Get him!” Jotaro took a moment of thought before swinging his left arm and with no other word for it, whacked the changelings back. With no damage seemingly taken. One of the changelings said what they all thought. “That didn’t hurt.” They could feel their smirks reach their cheeks as Chrysalis herself flew back that down, right behind Jotaro. Despite what her changelings thought, Chrysalis was in tremendous pain. She only decided against showing it. But before she could attack Jotaro, a strong voice resounded behind her once more. “I must apologize. But I’m your opponent for this brawl.” Jonathan said, readying himself as Chrysalis turned around. For Jotaro, this entire fight was relatively easy. And obviously a pain. Why? Even though his strike dealt no damage? It was because he simply thought one thing. He needed to hit harder. Jotaro, taking his own initiative, took a step straight into the space in front of one of the idiotic yelling generals before sending him straight into the ground with Star Platinum’s fist. With enough force to make a crater where one changeling named Boser Lug stood. It made a fitting grave. The other idiot changeling that decided to yell, this one actually named Dolu Yell, leaped at Jotaro’s head with a hoof, mouth agape to let out a menacing hiss. He was the only one quick enough to recover from the shock. Or perhaps too stupid to realize what happened, since it was definitely stupid. “Have a nice flight.” Jotaro said before Star Platinum’s fist collided with Dolu’s chin, shutting him up and sending him flying straight up and straight through Twilight’s barrier, leaving a changeling-sized hole in it. However, Dolu’s flight had not ended there! No! It was a connecting flight! Dolu, flight path readjusted by Twilight’s barrier was sent hurdling far into the distance, was being carried so quickly by momentum that if he had more color variety, he would have had his own Sonic *Insert Arbitrary Shortening of a Color Scheme Here*Boom! His body narrowly avoiding a direct collision with Rainbow Dash, causing her to yell down towards Jotaro angrily. “Hey, watch it!” “And don’t break my barrier!” Twilight yelled out, still fatigued from the recent reattachment of her horn. Spotting the twenty or so changelings that crowded around the hole for the opening, Twilight called out, “They’re breaking in!” The three smarter changelings, who for reminder are the elites, could only watch in fear and inwardly panic. And one of those unfortunate souls were grabbed by Star Platinum. But instead of getting punching him in the face as usual, Jotaro threw him straight towards the gap in the barrier, the elite changeling’s body carrying the other twenty along as they tried to join Dolu Yell’s flight themselves. “Heh, what a pain. He was such a weakling.” Jotaro stared towards his right, curious as he saw himself in a gloating posture, and delivered that crappy line you just read. And then he looked to his left, where another Jotaro Kujo stood. This one had the color of his shirt wrong. “Yare yare. Shapeshifting? Seriously? You’re both idiots if you think you can confuse Star Platinum with a stupid parlor trick.” “Star Finger!” Star Platinum’s fingers extended tremendously where Jotaro swung them as if they were a sword, launching the wrong color shirt Jotaro into a building. And out the other side. “Do you understand?” Jotaro slowly turned, his eyes shadowed over by his hat. Fake-Jotaro could feel sweat dripping down with droplets flying as he flinched back when Jotaro pointed towards him. “And if you really want to be Jotaro Kujo…” “Then try reincarnation.” “ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!” Star Platinum cried as it took its time rupturing Fake-Jotaro’s organs and causing massive internal bleeding. Being unable to maintain the form, the elite changeling was sent flying down the street, past a small door that Twilight made as to not feel her magical construct take damage again. Looking upwards, Jotaro could see a rainbow streak darting around the remaining changelings. Seeing that there was barely a few left, Jotaro picked up a small pebble at his feet. As Rainbow Dash approached the small hole in the magical barrier that he made, Jotaro took the effort to jump. Feeling wind behind her, Rainbow Dash turned to see Jotaro standing atop Twilight’s barrier. ‘Wait, did he just jump, like, four stories?!’ Incidentally, the number four is taboo in Korean. Why? Because it can also mean death. Jotaro, using Star Platinum’s strength, threw the pebble at the remaining changelings, who grouped up to feel the power with numbers. That pebble lodged itself into a skull of changeling, before bouncing off and knocking another one unconscious, their bodies slowly sliding down the spherical barrier. A single glare was all it took for the remaining number to flee. “You know, I totally had that covered right?” Rainbow Dash motioned with her hoof. Rather than answering, Jotaro jumped straight back down as the barrier began to dissolve. ‘Yup, still rude.’ Rainbow Dash thought before diving back towards the ground herself. “Jonathan Joestar.” “What?” Chrysalis spat. “It is mere courtesy to give one’s name before a duel such as this. But I suppose I am from a distant culture…” Jonathan said, mentally preparing himself for battle. “Oh, Jonathan! Do you need this? It was over here!” Twilight poked her head out of the sheriff’s building, levitating an artifact over her head. Jonathan, taking great care to not let Chrysalis gain an unexpected advantage, took a quick glance towards Twilight, not turning his head at all despite the fact that she was behind him. After his surprise wore down, Jonathan shot his arm out to motion throwing the sheathed item over. As the object flew over, Chrysalis decided to take action and intercept the sword with her own magic. Unfortunately, this meant that her focus was no longer on Jonathan for a few precious moments, and that Chrysalis was unaware at how much distance Jonathan gained. “Zoom Punch!” Jonathan shot out his arm, dislocating his own shoulder to let the attack gain distance. Chrysalis barely managed to get a shield covering her face before she was blown back by the Hamon-infused punch. As she regained her footing, Chrysalis watched as the scabbard she intercepted lost the magic surrounding it and Jonathan waited it to fall straight into his hand. Pulling the sword from its sheath, revealing a magnificent sheen, Jonathan thumbed over the handle where a word was engraved, with a single letter written across the handle in blood. 「The Sword of Luck and Pluck」 Holstering the scabbard at his waist, Jonathan pulled the sword towards his body, filling it with enough Hamon to produce an aura of fire around it, and silently charged towards Chrysalis. As Jonathan took a short hop to take a downward swing Chrysalis, his sword clashed with her horn, which was enveloped in her own magic to strengthen it. As they both held their ground, Jonathan began to realize that magic was coming from the horn, seemingly draining him of…something. Jumping back to quickly inspect himself, Jonathan thought to himself, ‘S-she drained something…is she a kind of vampire? No, my blood is still in circulation but I-I can still feel something missing.’ A bright light enveloped Chrysalis, and green fire appeared to block Jonathan’s vision even more so as he took a hand to cover his eyes from the glare. When Jonathan looked back, he could feel his grip on the sword waver. Because there stood Erina Pendleton. “E-Erina?!” Jonathan called out. But before he could say anything else, a purple beam shot over his shoulder before ‘Erina’ quickly swiped it aside. “Changelings can turn themselves into other ponies.” Twilight explained as she walked herself beside Jonathan. Trembling a little as a small group of changelings attacked the barrier, Twilight found herself being steadied by Jonathan. “In that case…” Jonathan readied「The Sword of Luck and Pluck」. Chrysalis could feel Jonathan’s cold gaze piercing through her. “Then I will not be fooled by a coward who hides behind another’s face.” “Tch, and here I was hoping you would hold back against the one you love. But those eyes tell me otherwise. So I suppose I must resort to killing you outright.” Chrysalis said as her figure began to become invisible. “Stay away, Twilight. Take caution.” Jonathan gestured a hand backwards as he began to make his walk towards to where Chrysalis previously stood. Suddenly, Jonathan could feel his shoulder being stabbed, blood spurting in front of him. Although he swung behind him immediately, Jonathan knew that he was merely swinging at air. After his whiffed attack, Jonathan felt himself blasted in the back with magic. Jonathan kneeled to the ground, hand supporting his weight as his weapon clanged to the ground beside him. Chrysalis was arrogant. She was already planning on her attempt to fight the other creature that seemed much stronger. Nothing this one did could amount to anything, even if she had to dispel with her magical protections in order to gain this invisibility. “A dead man has no right to call others cowards.” Taking her time to dash around Jonathan after revealing her location, Chrysalis stood at the direction where Jonathan was facing. It would all end with the next attack, and Chrysalis sent a spell right at Jonathan’s downwards head. “False!” Jonathan gripped 「The Sword of Luck and Pluck」and dodged around the spell. “I can feel your every movement!” When Jonathan had kneeled previously, he had done so on purpose! He sent his Hamon energy straight into the ground, using his own senses to detect Chrysalis’s every movement! And Jonathan knew exactly where Chrysalis stood. “Oryaa!” Using the flat edge of the blade, Jonathan sent Chrysalis’s head downward, dispelling her invisibility. Twisting the sword in his hand, Jonathan prepared the flat end of the blade to be used in the next attack. “My heart resonates…hot enough to burn! The beat of my blood is razor-sharp!” “Metal Silver Overdrive!” Jonathan assaulted Chrysalis with an absurd number of sword swipes. The last attack of his barrage sent Chrysalis flying away, dragging along the dirt in her path. Chrysalis could feel the Hamon reverberating around her body, and even in her pain, she felt something being cleansed. Chrysalis’s eyes darted open. She found herself in a pony town, and while she wondered exactly how she had gotten here, there was a more pressing concern. There was currently something holding out an appendage as if to help her up. “Have you regained your wits?” it said. “Perhaps we could try our introductions again?” “My name is Jonathan Joestar.” 「QUEEN CHRYSALIS」 「RETIRED…SORT OF.」