An Alternative Battle Tendency

by Clacker Volley

Chapter 2: The Living Legends

Chapter 2: The Living Legends

“Are you sure?” Rarity questioned the passerby once more.

The passerby pony, at this point, was getting annoyed, “Yes, your violet boyfriend went that way.” He pointed behind him. Before he needed to get any more lip, the passerby decided to just trot on.

“Boyfriend?! Why, I never-!” Rarity scolded him as he started walking away. Applejack put a hoof onto Rarity’s shoulder to try and calm her down.

“Well, Rarity, ya were pesterin’ him. Why were you doing that anyways? You did the same thing to the last two ponies we asked, too.”

“Well, this part of Manehattan is meant for the elite. The absolute wealthiest of ponies! Not to mention the fact that there aren’t any real hospitals in the area, so why in Equestria would he immediately come here?” Rarity explained as they walked.

“Maybe he-wait, there he is!” Applejack said as they rounded a corner. Jojo was walking backwards, with a pleading expression. “I can’t hear what he’s sayin’ though.”

“Follow me.” Rarity whispered as she led Applejack behind a large bush in the center of the street. After all, wealthy ponies like having flora on their streets, much to the convenience of criminals and in this case, eavesdroppers.

“Oh c’mon, Granny Erina! I took care of the unfriendly neighborhood vampires! Ach!” Jojo exclaimed as a purple umbrella came down upon his head.

“Then why did Smokey get that hurt?!” An elderly pony came the corner and started hitting Jojo into a more private area. As the elderly unicorn looked around for bystanders, Rarity and Applejack ducked out of vision. With no other ponies in sight, Granny Erina continued her assault.

“Oh my Celestia, Applejack. Why is that, that ruffian calling her Granny? She’s Erina Ponington Joestar!” Rarity loudly whispered to Applejack.

“Am ah supposed to know who that is?” Applejack whispered back, looking over to make sure the other ponies didn’t notice.

Rarity gasped, putting extra effort to do so quietly. “Why, she’s one of most wealthy ponies in Equestria! She married into the elite Joestar family and inherited the fortune!” Sighing at Applejack’s blank expression, Rarity continued, “...She’s also a dear friend to Rapid E. O. Speedwagon?”

“Oh, the pony that came up with the train system? And the Speedwagon Foundation thing-a-ma-dooder? Huh, guess ya learn something new everyday.”

Rarity sighed before they continued their eavesdropping. “You almost got a friend killed, Jojo!”

Jojo replied, “He got hurt because to push some stupid mare with an exceedingly dumb hat out of the way!”

As Rarity preemptively calmed Applejack, Erina's expression only became more enraged, as she continued, “So, Smokey got hurt because you got innocents involved! If the Speedwagon Foundation hadn’t already been on standby, who knows what might’ve happened?!”

“It’s not like I can control when vampires come out! I saved their lives and the victim, too! Just please forgive me, Granny Erina!” Jojo pleaded.

Erina sighed, “I suppose that in time I will, you are my grandson, after all, but not right now, Joseph Joestar.”

Jojo cringed as he heard his full name be used, showing how mad Granny Erina was. Before he could say anything else however, a voice screeched behind him.

“HE’S AN ELITE?!” Rarity screamed in surprise.

"Ack, one of them found me! SHOCK!" Jojo immediately responded.

Applejack sighed, and walked into line of sight with Rarity, prompting Jojo to say, "No, they're both here! DOUBLE SHOCK!"

Reeling back from Jojo's exclamation, Applejack looked over to Erina, and explained, “Ah- Ah would say we didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but that would be lying.”

Erina turned to face towards the new company, “Oh, well I at least appreciate your honesty.” Erina’s eyes darted towards Jojo, and she said, “So am I to believe that these are the nice mares you got involved?"

Jojo held his hoof to try and say something, but drooped his head down when he realized he couldn’t think of anything to say but, “Yes.”

“Well, you could at least introduce yourself, before we have to explain everything due to your blunder.” Erina scolded.

Jojo sighed, “Yes, Granny Erina.” He approached Rarity first and shook hooves, before doing so to Applejack. And with a smirk, he finished, “I’m Joseph Joestar.”

“But his friends call him Jojo, so I suggest that you may do the same.” Granny Erina addressed Rarity and Applejack.

As Jojo glanced at Erina with concern and extreme critical prejudice, Rarity introduced herself, “Well, my name is Rarity, and I’m a fashion designer at Ponyville who would absolutely love your company, Miss.”

“Oh, how sweet.” Granny Erina commented before suddenly gaining a suspicious look, as if she remembered something from the back of her mind and she was trying to place what it is.

“And my name is Applejack.” Applejack introduced before continuing, “And if you don’t mind, Ah would love some explanations right about now.”

Jojo thought to himself, ‘Granny Erina just give them something so that they go away… you know, so random ponies don’t need to get involved! Especially ones who annoy me about their bad sense of fashion!’ Looking over to Erina, Jojo’s eyes lost that hope as soon as he saw her smiling face. ‘Wait, is she actually going to explain things?

That question was answered as Erina clapped her fore hooves together, before saying, “Oh, how wonderful! I’m glad my suspicions were correct!” Considering the confused looks on everypony’s faces, Erina looked over to Jojo, and continued with a slight scowl, “Jojo, have you already forgotten about the Elements of Harmony?”

“Whaaaaaat?! They’re the chicks who saved Equestria a whole bunch already?!” Jojo held his front hooves to his face. Which caused him to fall over awkwardly as he lost his balance without the support of said front hooves.

Applejack looked to Rarity who had a similarly surprised face. “You know about us? But ah thought Princess Celestia kept our names secret... Other than Twilight, anyway.” Looking over to Jojo, who was still on the floor, crawling around for some bizarre reason, Applejack couldn’t help but ask, “Err, do you need some help there?”

“No.” Jojo continued crawling around the floor, with exasperation and annoyance flowing through him. It was eventual that he had to meet the ex-Elements of Harmony at one point, but Jojo certainly didn’t want it to happen so soon. Because that meant more work. And if one word could ruin his mood, it would be work.

“Oh, Speedwagon and I are close friends of Princess Celestia. But we do have a relationship more than just that, Celly wouldn’t give out precious information just to close friends.” Erina explained.

“C-Celly?” Rarity couldn’t help but voice her confusion.

“Yes, we do share the same political agendas, as well as helping to protect Equestria.” Erina continued. Taking a moment to look behind Applejack and Rarity, Erina took on a look of impatience. “Jojo, please refrain from tying the nice mares’ tails together.”

Applejack and Rarity both quickly turned around, their tails separating after being on the verge of being tied together. As Rarity began to tend to her tail’s style, Applejack couldn’t help but wonder how they didn’t even notice Jojo tying their tails together in the first place.
Joseph looked towards his grandmother, completely ignoring her previous comment and groaned, “We don’t really need to tell them anything, right? Their work can be their work, and I can do my own thing!”

Granny Erina sighed, “Jojo, I’m sure you already knew that you needed to join Celestia’s personal unit, you are one of the greatest assets to Equestria, after all.”

“A-Asset?” Rarity questioned, mimicking her earlier confusion, and sharing a skeptical look with Applejack as to how Jojo could be so important.

Much to Jojo’s annoyance, Erina continued to explain, “Just like how you have your harmony powers, my grandson is one of the few in the world that can use Hamon, a specialized form of breathing that very few possess.”

“Yeah, so I’m an Element of Hamon-y.” Jojo was happy to hear Applejack and Rarity groan, but quickly silenced him from Granny Erina’s glare. Jojo then thought to himself, ‘Granny’s really glaring a lot today, hope she doesn’t get too many wrinkles…’

“Ignore him.” Erina coldly stated, and continued her explanation as Jojo inwardly took back his previous thought. “All that you require to know is that there are a lot of things in this world that even you have yet to face, or even know. And Hamon is one of the premier ways of stopping them. After all, we can’t always have you on standby throughout Equestria for every individual struggle. Jojo has been to almost every corner of Equestria in order to protect ponies.”

“More like you, Speedwagon, and Celestia kinda force it on me.” Jojo sighed. “Luna’s the only one who’s on my side.”

‘L-Luna?’ Applejack and Rarity simultaneously thought. ‘Do these ponies know the entire royal family?’

“Oh, I thought you preferred the presence of Cadence or Shining Armor, less of an age differential there. Luna's often the one to assign you your missions after all.” Erina sidetracked.

‘They do….’ Applejack and Rarity once again thought in synchronization.

“Well-“ Jojo started before a pony called from beyond the corner that they had previously came from.

“Miss Erina! You have a message!” A butler came around, surprised to find more company than he had expected. Nonetheless, he hoofed over the letter to Erina, and whispered in her ear, “It was just sent.”

Standing over his master, the butler observed as Erina opened the letter and started reading. Jojo started scowling as he saw his grandmother’s expression turn to one of worry.

Erina looked over to Applejack, “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’ll have to cut this conversation short.” Switching her focus to Jojo, Erina said, “Speedwagon found that there’s a massive herd of vampires coming from the Griffon Kingdom. However, we don’t know where they’re headed…”

“I’ll contact the Speedwagon Foundation and see if we can’t coordinate with them. I won’t be able to travel to wherever they’re going in time if they show themselves first.” Jojo started moving, but Erina held a hoof out.

“You know just as well as I do that if Speedwagon sent this message, they won’t be able to find them unless we’re exceptionally lucky. They won’t let themselves be revealed so easily. We only need to wait.”

Jojo clenched his hoof, before saying, “I can’t just sit here though, I can at the very least get to Canterlot, and be in a more central location to get to anyplace I need to be.”

“We have a map.”

Jojo indifferently looked to Applejack. “I have a map, too. In fact, I have one in my head since I basically memorized Equestria.”

“No, ah mean we got a map that shows problems in Equestria!” Applejack elaborated.

“But, I thought you only got the map a short while ago, do you understand how it works?” Erina asked.

“But at the same time, it couldn’t hurt too much to at least check, right? Canterlot’s real close to Ponyville, anyways.” Applejack pointed out.

“Hmm, I suppose you are correct about that. Jojo.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I’m going with them. Oh goodie.” Jojo said with an exhausted tone.

Author's Note:

I'm going to be honest here, this is one of the chapters I haven't really planned for yet, and was written all at once kinda thing.

Comments

[Chapelseed]

...so are the "vampires" going to be Sirens in this or...

[HB_DS2013]

So, if Twi and the girls are under Celestia, Jojo's under Luna?

[Dirty Bit]

I love reading Jojo's lines in Ben Diskin's voice

That pun.

[Clacker Volley]

I'd like to apologize for the late reply, sorta just blanked there...
6730021 No, they're not going to be Sirens, they're the same vampires and zombies from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

6731145 Well, Twilight and the Mane 6 aren't exactly under Celestia, but Joseph Joestar is already recognized as a hero even at the start of the story, his talents being noticed by higher powers: Celestia and Luna. As vampires are only active during night hours, it makes sense that Joseph gets his orders from Luna, but he isn't exactly a night guard, more like a free agent.

6813750 I've been imagining Tomokazu Sugita's tone of voice when I've been writing, but I'm glad that people can also picture the dubbed voice actor as well. And the pun was something I thought of while writing it. And I'm so sorry.