Part 7-1: No Mercy
In a room devoid of all light, a lone man sat quietly, thinking to himself, contemplating what his next move should be. He switched on a small monitor on his table. Despite the monitor's illuminating glow, its light reached no further than a few inches, as if the surrounding darkness consumed the rest, keeping the man hidden in shadows. The monitor showed live footage of Sunset and her friends practicing with their Stand powers after another day of school.
“Yo!” Cried Gilda in a gruff tone. “You spying on Dash and her friends on that small TV again?”
The man didn’t answer.
“The silent treatment... man, all you do is sit around watching that thing, like a creepy weirdo. Are we actually going to do something or what?”
Still no answer.
“The least you could do is open some curtains.”
Still silent.
“Hey! Are you-” Gilda suddenly stopped. The moment she tried to approach the man, her legs were frozen in place, as if something had clutched onto them, but the room was so dark she couldn’t even see her own feet, let alone what was trapping them. She figured the man wasn’t in the mood for small talk and promptly backed off.
“I’m just sick of sitting around doing nothing, especially now that we’ve lost the arrow. It’s so obvious that Sunset girl has it, so just let me go get it back. I’ll be in and out in, like, five minutes!” Gilda offered, growing impatient.
Once again, the man gave no answer.
“Oh, whatever! I’ll just go fight them now! It’s better than sitting around here all day, accomplishing nothing.”
“You won’t win.” The man spoke, in a cold tone.
“What was that?”
“If you wish to retrieve the arrow, then go right ahead, but you can't beat them.”
“Can't beat them?” Gilda was offended, like the man was implying she couldn’t trust her to get the job done. She despised people underestimating her abilities. “I’ll do a way better job than the those other chuckleheads did!”
“You can’t win.” The man repeated.
“What!? You think I'm gonna fight them all at once!? Like I'm stupid!? Well, you won't be thinking that when you're begging for the arrow back!” Gilda stormed out of the room in resentment, wondering why she even put up with the man’s cryptic instructions and anti-social nature.
Once Gilda left, the man returned to monitoring Sunset and her friends, plotting his next move. “These girls. They’re strong, but are they strong enough?” The man leaned back in his chair in thought. “I should continue monitoring their progress before I jump to any conclusions, wouldn't want to reveal my hand too soon.”
The man continued with his observations. Silently watching from the shadows, biding his time. However, as he felt around his table, he noticed something was amiss. “It seems one of my subordinates has borrowed my notes.” The man chuckled to himself. “The one time I jot down my thoughts and they're immediately stolen. If this thief is so eager, then I'll have to monitor them, too. They can figure out the puzzle for me.”
Just outside the school, in an open field, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy were practicing with their Stands while Sunset watched. The girls were desperately trying to get Fluttershy to fight with her Stand but she refused.
“Come on, Fluttershy.” Applejack insisted. “All you gotta do is punch that tree.”
“N-no thanks...” She whimpered. “Maybe this wasn’t a very good idea, I should just go home.” Fluttershy was more nervous than usual. She attempted to weasel her way out of her training by slowly backing away, but Dash’s Ride on Time pushed her back in from behind, causing her to let out a scared squeak.
“Where do you think your going?” Rainbow Dash asked with an amused look.
In an attempt to encourage Fluttershy, Applejack gave her a demonstration of what she was looking for. “Just watch me, okay?”
Her Stand pummeled the trunk of the tree, chipping away at the bark. “See that? Just do what I did.”
“But, why?”
“It’s just so we can gauge how strong your Stand is.”
“Just watch me!” Dash interrupted, dying to show off her own Stand’s strength. Ride on Time slashed away, stripping the bark from the tree, effortlessly. “Pretty strong, right?”
Preoccupied by her own awesomeness, Dash failed to realise that her Stand’s attacks hacked off too much and after a loud crack, the tree tumbled over. Dash looked up, petrified by the sight of the tree that was about to topple onto her. She braced herself but nothing happened, as Fluttershy’s Stand, Freesia, caught the tree by the trunk, holding it up with just one hand.
Applejack was impressed, this was exactly the kind of strength she was looking for. “See! I knew you had it in you! But why didn’t you just attack it like I told you to?”
Freesia casually tossed the tree aside as Fluttershy explained. “I don’t really like fighting, or hurting people.”
“But, you fought Bulk?”
“I know and I feel just awful about what I did. It wasn’t his fault he attacked us. I feel like such a bully.”
The girls sighed, it seemed Fluttershy had a long way to go.
Sunset rushed over to the girls after hearing all the noise. “What happened?”
“Rainbow Dash nearly crushed herself with a tree, you know, the usual.” Applejack answered, with Dash blowing a raspberry. Sunset was just relieved no one was hurt.
The girls continued their attempts to train Fluttershy, but elsewhere, in the hallways of Canterlot High, Gilda had slipped into the school unnoticed. With no students left wandering it’s halls, she was free to causally examine each locker at her own pace.
Although her investigation for the Unicorn Arrow had only just started, she was confident Sunset had left it sitting in her locker, hoping it was hidden in plain sight. She checked each locker for any tell-tale signs of their owner. She found one covered in cute, pink stickers of cakes, sweets and other treats, just looking at it irritated her for some reason.
Eventually, she came across a locker with a lone red and yellow sun sticker on it. No doubt, this was Sunset’s. The locker was obviously locked, but Gilda had her patented lock picking technique. She gave herself some space, pulled back her leg and mercilessly kicked the locker door repeatedly until the lock broke. The door sluggishly swung open, just barely hanging onto its hinges.
She scanned the inside of the locker, but only found a collection of boring possessions like photos of her friends, a weird notebook addressed to some princess and a book on building self-esteem. None of it interested her, what really drew Gilda’s attention was the bag sitting at the foot of the locker. She rummaged through it, finding exactly what she was looking for.
“Jackpot!” She cried in triumph, pulling out the Unicorn Arrow. “Well, that was easy, but I ain’t complaining, in and out, just like I said.”
Unbeknownst to Gilda, something was watching her from the ceiling and upon witnessing her stealing the Unicorn Arrow, it sprung into action.
Gilda heard something drop down onto the floor from behind her, but before she could turn around, it grabbed her from behind, locking her in a full-nelson.
“What the heck is this thing!?” Gilda struggled, but it had her arms and legs locked in place, she wasn’t going anywhere.
Back in the field, Sunset suddenly felt a little fatigued. Rainbow Dash took notice of her sudden dazed expression. “Woah, Sunset. You feeling alright? You’re looking a little woozy, there.”
“Ugh, I feel like there's a ton of pressure being pushed against my body.”
“Did you not get enough sleep last night?”
“No, I...oh!” Sunset remembered. “My Stand!”
“What about it?”
“Sky Should Be High! I left it at my locker! I told it to make sure no one stole the arrow while we were out here!”
“Did you're Stand catch something?”
“Definitely, we need to get to my locker right now!”
The girls rushed back to the school, although Sunset's daze was giving her some trouble.
“Woah, there, had a little too much apple cider did we?” Applejack joked as she caught Sunset before she stumbled over and let her rest on her shoulder, as they hurried across the field.
Sunset was right, as soon as the girls arrived at her locker, they found Sky Should be High holding back Gilda, who was aggressively yelling at the Stand, tightly grasping the arrow.
“Gilda!?” Dash cried. “What are you doing here!?”
Gilda was shocked that Rainbow Dash and her friends even knew she was here to begin with. “What!? How did you find me!? You guys were over on the over side of the field!”
“It was my Stand!” Sunset explained. “Sky may not be able to do... well, anything. But at least it has a huge range to work with. I left Sky here to guard my locker while we were all busy with school. As soon as it catches someone, I can feel it, too.”
Gilda simply glared, she should have known they'd have something up their sleeve.
Dash was concerned for her old friend, but she put on a brave face. “Gilda, just give the arrow back and we can let you go.”
“Oh, yeah? And what if I say no?”
Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all summoned their Stands in response.
“Oh right, that...”
Handing over the arrow wasn’t an option and Gilda was determined to find a way out of this predicament. She desperately wanted to fight all four of them, believing she could defeat them all without trouble, but considering how tied up she was and that he was probably watching, she needed to escape instead.
She quickly noticed a fire extinguisher on the other side of the room, if she could nail it just right, it could make for the perfect cover. Gilda summoned her Stand, which appeared to be two, small, floating turrets, stylized to look like eagles. The turrets targeted the fire extinguisher and fired sharp, energy darts from their open beaks, like bullets from a rifle. The darts easily pierced the extinguisher, releasing a stream of white powder from the puncture.
The powder quickly filled the room with a white fog, blinding everyone. The girls coughed uncontrollably, they had to leave the area immediately before they suffocated, giving Gilda the perfect opportunity to make her escape in the opposite direction.
The girls ran outside, into the fresh air to recover, but they couldn’t see Gilda anywhere. In an act of quick thinking, Sunset used her Stand to fly high into the sky, to try and spot Gilda, she couldn’t have gotten very far.
Dash stared up at Sky with amazement. “Wow, your Stand really does have huge range.”
“About the only thing it’s good for...” Sunset grumbled.
“Hey! Now don’t go saying stuff like that, or you’ll never figure out it’s real powers.” Applejack scolded.
“Right... sorry...”
Sky observed the surrounding area and was eventually able to pinpoint Gilda’s location. Sunset instinctively shared her vision with her Stand, seeing what it saw.
“What is it?” Dash asked. “Can you see her?”
Dash’s question broke Sunset out of her trance as she realised what she and her Stand were doing. “Um... yeah... I can see her.”
“Wait?” Applejack asked. “You can see what your Stand sees?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t before, but it just sort of happened when I needed it to.”
“Well, what I tell ya? You’re already starting to figure it out.”
Applejack’s compliment made Sunset blush a little, but she quickly returned to looking for Gilda.
“Oh, no...” She muttered.
“What? Where is she?”
“Well, she’s still got the arrow, but she’s heading for the park.”
“What!?” Applejack yelled. “That’s where I fought Trixie, yesterday!”
“Wait, you fought Trixie?” This was the first Sunset had heard of this. “Is Trixie a Stand user, too?”
“Aw, shoot. I knew there was something I was supposed to talk to ya’ll about today. I must've blocked it out.”
“You can’t just block out important details like that, AJ!”
"If you had to deal with Trixie, you'd block out those memories, too."
"Well, yeah, but she's still a Stand user!"
“We can talk about it later, but we need to catch Gilda first!”
“Alright, Rainbow Dash. You go catch up to Gilda.”
Dash reacted with sudden hostility. “What? Why do I have to go?”
“Because you’re the fastest out of all of us. You’ll catch up to her in no time.” Applejack explained.
“Also, your Stand would be a good match up against hers. Gilda’s Stand seems to focus on firing projectiles, close range, Stands like mine and Applejack’s would have a much tougher time dealing with her.” Sunset added.
"Sky is clearly not a close range Stand."
"It's not much of a fighter, either."
Dash continued with her excuses. “So? My Stand may be fast, but one wrong move and she could knock me out of the sky, it’s too risky.”
Sunset considered Dash’s assumption for a moment. “You may be right. Fluttershy, you go with her!”
“What!?” She squealed. “W-why do I have to go? I can’t fight.”
“You won’t have to, you just need to provide backup with your barriers.”
"Oh, well, when you put it that way..." Fluttershy suddenly perked up, she felt much more comfortable with protecting instead of attacking.
Rainbow Dash on the other hand, disagreed. “What? You can’t just drag Fluttershy into this, you know she hates fighting, right Fluttershy?”
“Actually, Rainbow Dash... I want to do this.”
“What? No you don’t. Don’t be stupid.”
Fluttershy put a determined face to hopefully convince Dash she was serious. “I really mean it. If my powers can help protect my friends from some horrible danger, then that’s what I’ll do, even if I’m scared.”
“Oh, come on. Of all the times for you to grow a backbone...”
Fluttershy quickly tugged on Rainbow Dash’s arm. ”Come on, if we don’t hurry up and catch her, she’ll get away!” Dash couldn’t bring herself to say no to Fluttershy, not when she was having one of her, rare, confident moments and so, was helplessly dragged along with her.
The remaining girls waved them off before Sunset turned to Applejack with a scowl. “And you! We’re going to see Rarity and Pinkie and have a little chat about what you got up to yesterday.”
“Oh, gimme a break...”
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash arrived at Canterlot Park, but Gilda was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, Sunset wasn’t the only one with a flying Stand, Dash sent Ride on Time into the sky to find Gilda. The park was quite large, with the back end leading into a forest, with most visitors sticking to the main path to avoid getting lost in the woods.
Ride on Time spotted Gilda amidst the trees, but didn’t share Sky’s sight sharing power and instead signaled to Dash and Fluttershy to Gilda’s whereabouts. The girls followed the signal and headed into the forest only to be presented with another problem. The forest was thick, they still couldn’t see Gilda anywhere nor could they see Ride’s signals with the trees blocking their view. Dash had no choice but to return her Stand and the girls searched on foot.
Seeing how thick the forest was and what little time they had, Dash came up with a plan. “Alright, Fluttershy, if we’re gonna find Gilda, then we’ll need to split up.”
“What? Why?” Fluttershy asked, distressed by the very idea of being left alone in the woods.
“It’ll be faster.”
“I thought we were supposed to stick together? We’ll stand a better chance of winning if it’s two on one.”
“W-well, maybe...” Dash needed to separate from Fluttershy, not because she thought she was a detriment, but for a more personal matter she needed to attend to, something she wanted to do on her own.
“I mean, you’re not scared of being on your own are you?” She poked, hoping it would trigger Fluttershy to be more brave.
“Y-yes! Please don’t go.”
Not the answer Dash was expecting. “What happened to all the confidence from earlier?”
“I-I think I left it at school, maybe we should go back and get it.”
“Fluttershy, it’s not enough to just act confident. You gotta stay strong no matter what.”
Fluttershy simply meeped to herself.
“Come on, Flutters. How can you be scared when you’ve got something as powerful as Freesia protecting you?”
On cue, Freesia appeared above Fluttershy, resting a hand on her shoulder. For some reason, her Stand’s presence made her feel less anxious. It was like she had her own personal guardian angel watching over her. Perhaps she did have the confidence to stand on her own.
“A-alright, we can split up.” Fluttershy spoke up, with gusto.
“Are you sure?” Dash asked, having second thoughts.
“I’ll be fine.”
Dash took Fluttershy at her word and the two separated.
Fluttershy kept her Stand out at all times to watch over her, as she jogged through the forest, searching for Gilda. Suddenly, Freesia’s attention was drawn to something, as it came to a complete stop. Due to it’s short range, Fluttershy was helplessly yanked back toward her Stand.
She followed Freesia’s line of sight to see where it was looking. She spotted an old, abandoned cottage, hidden away and forgotten in the middle of the woods. It gave off an eerie presence, like it were haunted. Despite the numerous thoughts of ghosts and monsters that could possibly be lurking in the abandoned house, Fluttershy knew it was something she had to investigate, it was simply too suspicious to ignore.
She cautiously approached the house, taking care not to make too much noise, but as she got closer, her breathing started getting heavier and her heart pounded more wildly. She made it to the front door and was about to grab the handle, when something caught her off guard, overwhelming her.
Her vision of the door and all of her surroundings suddenly faded, consumed by a monstrous shadow. Even though she was petrified, Fluttershy was certain she hadn’t fainted as she could still see her Stand, but that’s all she saw. The rest was a black abyss.
She didn’t understand what was happening. Was she still in the forest, inside the house or somewhere else entirely? Fluttershy's anxiety grew worse by the second, she tried calling for help, but no one answered. She tried to run, but didn't go anywhere. She couldn’t hear or see anything, she was trapped.
Fluttershy felt like she was going to be stranded in this void forever, but just then, a dark figure manifested in front of her. It looked as if it were made of dark mist and tar as it rose from the floor and morphed into a human shape. It’s body was mostly featureless, like a silhouette, but it did have a distinct, piercing red eye on it’s face and look, flowing black tendrils for hair. This only terrified Fluttershy further.
The creature reached out to her, but only got so far as tapping her forehead before Freesia jumped in and pummeled it with it’s powerful fists. The creature retreated as it melted away again, but the torment was far from over, as Fluttershy started hearing voices, echoing from all directions.
The voices called out to her, as they drew closer. Out from the darkness, Fluttershy’s friends appeared.
“Girls! I’m so glad you found me! Where are we? What is this place?!” She cried, relieved that friends arrived in the nick of time.
“Geez, Fluttershy. Why are you so useless?” Rainbow Dash complained in disgust.
“What?”
Applejack added her own comments. “Weren’t you and Rainbow Dash supposed to fight together? You couldn’t even stick with her for five minutes?”
“But, she’s right over...”
“And look at what you did!” Sunset ranted. “You just walked right into some dark dimension and now you're trapped! What were you doing? What were you thinking!?”
“I was just trying to...”
Even Pinkie was mad. “She’s right, you know. What were you doing? You couldn’t even defend yourself! What are you, an idiot!?”
“I-I’m not an... idiot...”
Rarity sternly paced around Fluttershy. “Honestly, Fluttershy. Maybe you should have stayed home. You’re much more suited to cowering under your bed than helping us, or are you too scared of the monsters hiding under there as well?”
“But I... want to... help...” Fluttershy felt emotionally drained, as her friends continued hurling abuse at her, their voices growing louder. Calling her worthless, pathetic and useless.
Fluttershy didn’t understand what she did wrong, she pleaded them to stop, but they ignored her. Their insults were too much for her to bare, as she fell to her knees, trying to hold back her tears for as long as she could. All she could do was apologise.
She apologised over and over again, but nothing happened. She felt completely hopeless as the darkness slowly began to swallow her. Just then, a miracle occurred. A bright light broke through the darkness and melted away the evil thoughts that were plaguing her. The light was intense, but also strangely warm and familiar. All Fluttershy could make out in the blinding light, were what appeared to be, angel wings.
The light melted away the darkness and consumed Fluttershy. After whiting out for what seemed mere moments, her vision returned as she found herself in the middle of the park, by the Time Dial, as if nothing had happened.
Fluttershy observed her surroundings, she wasn’t sure what happened, but she at least wanted to thank whatever saved her, but it seemed they had already left. She thought about the experience she just had and quickly realised that the friends she saw in that dark dimension were fakes, like she just woke up from a bad dream. There was no way her real friends would ever think of her as useless. Still, even if they were fakes, the dark dimension itself felt too real.
Just who or what could have possibly created such a nightmarish space?
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Or Pinkie could be Gambit. Also, is safe to asume that the mastermind of this whole Stand madness is Sombra? Dark places, red eyes, doesn't speak much, show your worst nightmares/fears.
At beginning I was a little disappointed that Sunset's power in LoE was just some sort of telepathy, but after watching the movie I kinda started to like it. A little unfair though that her power can only be used for detective work or helping to understand other people, in a combat -or at least in a dangerous situation- it's really useless... It doesn't betray her character, but I was hoping for something "better", I think?
KO awesome chapter, Fluttershy will have to find out the secret of the illusions and help Rainbow Dash fight against Gilda and get the arrow back.
other
Good chapter, weak character development.