An Alternative Battle Tendency

by Clacker Volley

Chapter 1: Manehattan's Jojo

Chapter 1: Manehattan’s Jojo

Rarity and Applejack were walking away from the neighborhood of Manehattan that the Cutie Map had sent them to. Having successfully put on the Midsummer Revival with the help of Coco Pommel, Rarity was about to reveal to Applejack what exactly she understood to make perfect sense.

Buying a replacement Stetson from the nearby hat salesman, Rarity started walking back towards Applejack, proceeding to explain, “I know why the map called you here.”

“You do?” Applejack asked while Rarity levitated the new Stetson onto her head.

Rarity continued with her explanation, “If Twilight had used her magic to fix the park, it wouldn’t have solved the real problem, which is that these Manehattan ponies didn’t think they had time to do something for their community. But by building that stage and making sure the play went on, you showed them just by doing something small, you can make a big difference!”

Applejack motioned with her hoof, exclaiming, “Well, I’ll be!”

Rarity, in the meanwhile, pointed a hoof at Applejack’s chest, “It means you have more in common with Manehattan ponies than you thought~.”

Applejack chuckled, “Well, all the same, I’d sure like to head back to Ponyville on the next train. I want to check in with Apple Bloom and find out how the Sisterhooves Social turned out.”

Rarity, voicing her approval, “Oh, absolutely my dear,” Rarity’s eyes quickly shrunk as she caught onto a new fashion emergency, “Just as soon as I stop that pony in that shop over there from purchasing that dreadfully hideous scarf! STOP!”

Rarity ran towards said pony, only for said pony to use that dreadfully hideous scarf and flap it around her face awkwardly. Which certainly seemed childish for a stallion of his gigantic stature.

“What? But the yarn of this scarf is perfect!” Motioning to his violet torso and his brown spiky hair, “And the green and yellow motif goes perfectly with both my coat and mane! Are you sure, you know your fashion sense, lady?”

While the gigantic pegasus did have a lovely Trottingham accent, Rarity could not let such a ruffian deplore her sense of fashion, especially when it seemed he had none of his own! “Why, I, at the very least know a hideous scarf when I see it, which you, sir, clearly do not!”

At this point Applejack had caught up, hoping that the two would finish arguing soon, and for the stallion to eventually give up as they almost always do, the pegasus continued, “Well, we don’t always have to follow other ponies’ stupid opinions, plus I need an accessory.”
What came next came to a shock for everypony, as the stallion touched the scarf, and it produced sparks of electricity from absolutely nowhere! “What? Rarity, you saw that too, right?”

As Rarity nodded, the stallion sweated uncomfortably, “Wait, did you see that?”

“Of course we did, ya doofus.” Applejack eyed him suspiciously, as the stallion clearly didn’t seem surprised. “Would you mind explaining exactly what that lightning stuff was about?”

The stallion back away slowly, in clear discomfort. The mares approached him with suspicion. The shopkeeper stood there with confusion but wanted money for the scarf, and watched as the stallion held up a hoof.

“Wait!” Rarity and Applejack stopped at the stallion’s words. “I can explain! I have one way of showing exactly what I did!”

“Well how are ya gonna do that, sugarcube?” Applejack asked the stallion, watching to see if he made any sudden movements. He merely reached over and paid the shopkeeper the bits, much to Rarity’s silent but extremely noticeable disgust. The stallion put his hoof back towards pointing at the girls and slowly opened his mouth.

“By running the hell away!” The stallion made an instant 180 and galloped down the street faster than anypony of that stature should be physically able to. Rarity and Applejack, recovering from their shock and very small urge to laugh, chased.

Another stallion, with this Earth pony smaller with a brown coat and a short black mane, came around the corner, saying, “Hey, Jojo. I-“

He couldn’t continue however as ‘Jojo’ ran straight past him yelling, “Run away, Smokey!!!”

Smokey, throwing up his hooves for a second before running away himself, exclaimed, “What the hell is wrong with you?! What did you do now, Jojo?!”

“Less talky! More runny!” Jojo sprinted straight through a small group of ponies, even knocking one of the unfortunate colts down.

“I’m so sorry,” Smokey apologized to the knocked down colt while continuing to run. “What did you even do?! You didn’t hit on them or something like that did you?!”

“What?! How would being hit on by me of all ponies make them mad?! Plus they’re not pretty enough to be my type!” Jojo yelled over his shoulder to Smokey, and also his pursuers.

“WHAT?!” Rarity’s shrill voice pierced the air, tempting Jojo to block his ears and stop moving forward, and by the time his mental debate was over, the voice had already passed.

“Oh no! Smokey stop asking me these questions! They’ll just make everything worse!”

“But you’re yelling louder than me, Jojo!”

“That’s not the point here!” Jojo spotted an alley further down the sidewalk, hopefully it would lead to a safe haven so that he wouldn’t have to go through the painstaking process of explanations….oh, and the beatdown that would likely commence due to his previous comment.

“Wait, Jojo! I was asking around and I found the guys we were looking for!” Smokey saw Jojo dart into the alley up ahead.

“They were apparently walking with some mare-“ Smokey fell backwards after colliding with Jojo, who had stopped after turning the corner. Getting up with the sight of Rarity and Applejack in close proximity, Smokey interrupted his previous thought, “Jojo, they’re catching up. I think we need to move…”

“No can do Smokey…because we’ve got bigger problems now…” Jojo pointed his hoof at three ponies that were hovering over an unconscious body of a young girl, one of which seemed to be slumped towards her neck. The shadows of the alley engulfed them however, leaving only their outlines to be visible.

“Oh seriously?! We meet the guys I learned about here?!” Smokey exclaimed, catching the attention of the three dark figures. Jojo took a preemptive step and moved in front of Smokey.

Applejack was the first to turn the corner, and noticing that the two stopped, said, “Why in Equestria are you two even running in the first place?!” Before she could continue, Rarity nudged her in a small sense of fear, which got Applejack noticed the glowing eyes glaring at them from the alley’s darkness.

Smokey, noticing that both Applejack and Rarity were going to become involved, turned to face them to warn them of what would happen soon. “You girls have to get out of here! It’s too dangerous!”

“What, but they haven’t done-“ Rarity started before the three figures simultaneously leaped. Jojo, managed to wrestle two of them back to the ground, but the third had gotten past his guard. “Smokey!”

Smokey wasn’t fast enough to turn around, but Applejack who had still been facing the alley was. And she bucked the leaping stallion back to the ground in front of her. Seemingly unfazed but confused nonetheless, Applejack moved forward, towards the stallion that was still sprawled on the floor. “What are y’all doing? There’s no reason for you to attack us!”

Jojo, pushed back one of the two ponies he was wrestling with, and the hoof he used to push the attacking stallion away started to pulsate with the same spark from before. Jojo used that same hoof to crush the skull of the mare that was still attached to his fore hoof. The sickening crunch from the hoof’s impact as well as the subsequent impact with the wall sprayed blood onto Jojo, and the slightly glowing dent in the strange mare’s head clearly signified her fate.

Rarity and Applejack, who at this point had never witnessed something so horrifying, especially not by another pony like themselves, led to the former screaming in fear and disgust, and the latter writhing with anger towards Jojo. “What in Celestia did you do that for?!!! Did you just kill her for no reason?!”

Before Jojo could answer, the stallion that was hit back by Applejack earlier suddenly jolted and lunged at Applejack’s hoof while he was still on the ground.

“Get back!” Smokey tackled Applejack out of the way, which let the stallion on the floor grapple onto his hoof instead. From the ground, the unnerving stallion flipped all the way around, twisting Smokey’s hoof at an impossible angle.

“GAHH!” Smokey yelled, before the stallion’s flip flung him straight into the wall further down the alley, splitting his skull open to blood. The stallion creepily regained standing posture, and walked towards the severely injured Smokey.

“SMOKEY!” Jojo attempted to run for his friend, only to be stopped by the other stallion he had pushed back earlier. Jojo, in a fit of anger, rammed his electrified hoof straight through the stallion’s head, so that a very visible pocket was made when Jojo removed the hoof. Applejack could only move slowly back towards Rarity, sharing in a traumatized silence, as the stallion slumped to the ground.

Before Applejack could get too far back, Jojo grabbed the Stetson off her head, and charged it with the sparking energy that he was attuned with, and through it towards the other stallion who was already upon Smokey. The hat’s brim sliced through the air with a loud whizzing noise, and cut the unsuspecting stallion’s neck straight off.

Jojo quickly approached Smokey, who was still groaning with pain at his broken hoof and cracked skull. “Smokey, are you okay?!”

“Jojo, I’ll be fine…” Smokey winced, “Thanks for saving me from getting my blood sucked out…again…but first you need to worry about them,” Smokey motioned with his head to the body of the stallion in front of him, “And them.” Smokey looked to the still trembling Applejack and Rarity, still too stunned to speak.

Jojo, following his gaze, could only mutter, “Uhh, umm…well first I need to…” Jojo scratched the back of his head uncomfortable before going to each of the bodies, including the detached head, and charged each one with electricity which caused the remains to become pure dust.

While most ponies that spectate this would have likely ran far, far away by now, figuring the whole event to be a disturbing delusion, Rarity and Applejack have faced life-threatening dangers before, and did not flee. Instead, despite having their trembling of fear, the mares stiffened, prepared if ‘Jojo’ were to attack them next.

Jojo could only sport an uncomfortable grin, “Its fine! Trust me!” Seeing the fear and skepticism in their eyes, Jojo continued, “They’re vampires! The blood-sucking monsters! I just fought some soulless vampires, is all!”

“Jojo…is the mare over there still okay?” Jojo could hear Smokey mutter behind him.

“Oh crap, right.” Jojo rushed over to the unconscious mare that the three vampiric ponies were hovering over earlier. As he inspected the body, Rarity and Applejack attempted to move forward to see if they could do something for the extremely hurt Smokey, although they could only continue their suspicions towards the other duo, particular Jojo.

“Don’t worry, it seems we got lucky and ran into them right before they bit her.” Jojo walked back towards the other three ponies. “Listen, I’ll explain later. But right now, I need to get Smokey back home so the doctor can see him.” Jojo loaded the much smaller Smokey onto his large back. He pointed the sides of his front hooves towards the mares, saying, “Just know that I’m the good guy here, okay?”

As the violet pegasus flew away, Applejack and Rarity exchanged glances, confirming that the recent chain of events did indeed happen. And that they needed to get some answers.

Author's Note:

This idea originally came to me upon watching the end of season five’s episode sixteen, Made in Manhattan, where Rarity commented about a scarf. That’s it.

Hope the story's to your liking and that you're at least willing to try the hopefully better non-introductory chapters...if I ever get to them.

I had some kind of weird writing buzz while doing this, so when I stopped writing I started a second story which can be found: Here. Comment if there's one in particular that you would rather have me put more time into.

Comments

[Moongaze14]

Joseph's first interaction with Rarity and Applejack was solid gold. I hope to see more of this story.

[The laid back hunter]

The thought of the Mane 6 getting involved in Joestar business for some reason annoys me let someone else save the world.

[Clacker Volley]

6670955 I hope that I can keep up the story... first time ever posting anything... Figured it might help me actually continue something.

6673453 If you're talking about the Mane 6 being the heroes, they're going to help... but more Old Joseph Joestar style than Joseph Joestar style, if you get what that means.
And on the off chance that you meant Jojo, No.

[HB_DS2013]

You were inspired by the scarf scene in Applejack Takes Manehatten?

[Ignotus]

For some reason I read the narration in Speedwagon's voice.

[FoldabotZ]

Jojo, pushed back one of the two ponies he was wrestling with, and the hoof he used to push the attacking stallion away started to pulsate with the same spark from before. Jojo used that same hoof to crush the skull of the mare that was still attached to his fore hoof.

(Deep breath) HAMON... OVERDRIVE!!