My Little Bizarre Adventure: The Midnight Riders

by Lemon Lime Light

Crimson at the Gates, Part 3

Over two millennia ago, long before the Discordian Era, long before even the founding of Equestria itself, ponykind was divided by race. Each race was further divided by regional tribes, constantly at conflict with one another. The Earthen ponies inhabited the plains and drylands, farming and cultivating the land. In the secluded depths of the forests and hills lay the Unicorns, practicing their magic and forging new spells. And in the highlands and mountains inhabited by the various Pegasus tribes, a meteor was witnessed falling from the sky and colliding into the top of the tallest mountain.

For generations the Pegasus would tell stories of the event, passing along each their own interpretations of what they had all witnessed and what it meant. An unexplained phenomenon became legend over the course of a century, yet none had the courage to venture to the mountain’s peak and see it for themselves. For some, it was the fear that the myths of their ancestors that kept them away. For others, it was the prospect of how dangerous flying that high could be. For most however, it was simply because there was potentially nothing to be gained from the venture.

It wasn’t until the turn of the century after the meteor had first landed that it was first bared whiteness by ponykind. A group of six Pegasus from a single tribe formed a party that braved the treacherous flight up to the mountain’s peak, seeking to gain whatever lay in wait for them. Upon reaching the top, the group discovered a creator created by the meteor’s impact. A lush, green valley had thrived inside the impact sight, with the meteorite at its center.

At the first sight of the extraterrestrial rock, each of the six felt an almost supernatural force compelling them to touch it. The jagged edges of the sediment pierced their skin as soon as their palms made contact. A material foreign to the very planet traveled their bloodstreams and bonded with the souls of the six Pegasus who had found it. Moments later, they all passed out. Only one woke up.

When the lone Pegasus awoke, they made the discovery that there was an apparition, completely at their command. Through sheer luck they had been the only one to survive and gain this familiar. The Pegasus viewed this as fate willing them towards a higher purpose. With this power at their disposal, the Pegasus would force the tribes of their kind to unite and together they would stand against all others. They had become the very first Stand user.

Upon uniting the tribes, the now ruler of the Pegasus had the space ore smelted down into a set of arrowheads. They would use these arrows to create new Stand users as they saw fit, picked from those most loyal to them. For a brief moment of time, the Pegasus were an unstoppable force containing power that not even the Unicorns could understand.

That was, until the arrows began to fall into the hands of the opposing tribes, and along with them, the power of the Stand. Rumors had spread about the power the Pegasi had, and with it the legend of the arrows. Now the constant fighting between races escalated into bloody and destructively skirmishes. The way was paved for nothing to the icy winds of hatred and disharmony to take hold of the land.

The Pegasus leader, now in their elder years, foresaw this path ultimately leading not to the extinction of just the Pegasus, but all of ponykind. Realizing that there was only one hope for their race, the Pegasus summoned their Stand for a final time. In a feat that stretched across the entire continent, the Pegasus leader erased all Stands, as well as any memories of the subject, from existence before their body crumbled to dust.

However, the power of the Stand had already taken route in the bloodlines of those pierced by the arrow. Once in ten generations would a foal be born with a Stand of their own. Many more with the potential for developing such. In addition, even though in their will the Pegasus leader ordered all of the arrows retrieved and destroyed, six were kept by his family as heirlooms.

As ages passed, the six arrows were passed among the descendants of the Pegasus family, five of which becoming lost, fates unknown to the family. The final arrow was kept safe by the direct descendants of the leader, never leaving their estate, moving wherever they did. With each passing generation, Stands became less and less common in the family.

The last descendant of the first Stand user to have the arrow in their possession, as fate would have it, was also the one to witness the rise of the Discordian Era. Knowing what needed to be done, they offered the arrow to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in hopes of giving them the power they needed to end this chaos once and for all.

Having willing given up the last arrow, every descendant of the first Pegasus Lord afterwards would fail to develop a Stand. It was thought that Stands were no longer a part of the bloodline. More time passed, and the memory faded away.

However, the bearer of the arrow was not the last descendant to develop a Stand. It wasn’t until a full millennium later until another foal, as direct a descendant of the first Pegasus as possible, was born. In the city of Cloudsdale, a young, pink haired, yellow maned Pegasus had a Stand from the moment she was born. But her will and mind were too frail to realize its presence.

The apparition laid dormant in the filly all her life. Having not the strength of soul to control it, the Stand developed a mind of its own. It waited inside of her, for a moment to fulfill its basic instincts and protect her from danger. For years this moment never seemed to have come. Another had taken up the role in the Stand’s stead.

Another young filly, nearly five years the yellow filly’s junior, grew a close friendship with her. This younger filly had a much stronger will, a much harder drive, and a much shorter temper than the younger. For years, should anypony looking to put the yellow filly down for her timid nature, they would immediately have to answer to the younger one.

There was one exception to this. On a day in which the younger filly was recovering from her first broken wing of many. The many times thwarted bullies knew that they could take advantage of her absence. It was on that day that the yellow filly was left defenseless, and thus the bullies struck. They formed a group and encircled the filly far from escape. With her completely at their mercy, the group of bullies unleashed a vicious torrent of the cruelest of insults they could conceive.

The yellow filly curled into a ball and covered her eyes as she felt the sense of despair and worthlessness that the bullies were trying to instill on her overtake her. She began to believe everything they were saying. She began to wish she didn’t exist. Her entire body felt heavy with the weight of her sorrows.

Then, the burden was lifted as suddenly as it overtook her. The yellow filly no longer felt any negative emotions. Not only that, but she also noticed that she no longer heard the insults of the ring of bullies. Cautiously, she uncovered her eyes. Every pony who had surrounded her dispersed. As she stood up, however, the filly was horrified to see where they had gone.

Each and every one of them was attempting to commit suicide. All in various different ways. It was not just the bullies either. Everypony in the whole vicinity, from the youngest of the students, to the adults themselves, were all attempting to commit mass suicide. It was only the faculty from inside the school rushing out and restraining everypony they came to their senses.

When interviewed later, everypony involved in the incident would all explain that they felt a massive wave of depression and hopelessness wash over them. They all had instantaneously felt like miserable stains who held no worth in the world. It was classified as a rogue magic in the area below whose spell had gone wrong. Though no traces of magic were ever discovered in the area.

As the pink haired filly stood in horror, witness her peers all attempt to take their take their own life, she saw something for a brief second. A pair of hands rested themselves on her shoulders, as if attempting to comfort her. As soon as she turned around however, they hands were gone.

~~~

All eyes turned to Fluttershy. Crimson reached up to press his fingers against his wrist, his eyes staring at her with a curious but cold glare. Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie each were filled with mixtures of confusion, fear and disbelief. Rainbow, however, was unable to shake the anger that had been building inside her towards the one stallion present in the area.

“Your Stand?!” Rainbow shook her head, “When did that happen, Fluttershy?!”

“I’ve always had it,” Fluttershy sighed gently before taking in a deep breath through her nose, “Rainbow Dash, do… do you remember… that day? The really horrible one when you were absent with your first broken wing?”

“That… day?” Rainbow turned her head down for a moment before a glint filled her eyes, “Wait, are you talking about flight school?”

“Yes… that day exactly. I figured it out. It was me,” Fluttershy exhaled with her head held low, “Everypony at school, they all nearly died because of me.”

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, everypony almost died because of you?! That was some crazy Unicorn! Not you!”

“No,” Fluttershy declared. “It… it was me. I was the source of all of that horror!” She put her hands to her chest and looked down on the ground with a head as heavy as her heart, “I’m not just realizing this, either. I’ve always known it was me. After it happened, I saw it. I don’t know how I knew it at the time, but I knew it was a part of me.”

“What dear Fluttershy is trying to say,” Discord chimed in. “Is that she has had her Stand ever since she was born. And ever since that unfortunate day in elementary school that required so many extra guidance counselors afterwards, she has been aware of it.” The draconequus snapped his fingers to form a stool for him to sit on, “Isn’t this right, Fluttershy?”

“But I didn’t want to be,” Fluttershy continued ignoring Discord’s question. The Pegasus gently took a tentative step forward. Then another. She kept walking forward, away from Discord, and to the site where the skirmish was brought to a halt, “Because, if I was, then I’d be admitting that I was a monster. A monster who was worse than anything anypony had ever said to me.”

“Stay back!” Crimson took a step back himself, “Your precious Princess has already given up. Do you want to responsible for your friend’s death?!”

Fluttershy turned her gaze to Crimson, meeting his angry ones. But Fluttershy did not tremble, nor did she shake or frown. Instead, she seemed completely relaxed. And as she turned away from him, that only sparked Crimson’s ire. With Fluttershy now only a few yards away from him, his mind was set. His fingers moved to press down on Applejack’s charm. He’d teach this mare to be overconfident in her abilities.

Nothing happened. Crimson did not know why he was standing still. He tried to open his mouth to say something. In his mind, he knew that he should be ordering Applejack to go through with it, then for Clear to help him escape. But he didn’t want to. He did not want to make any acts of aggression. Crimson felt unnaturally calm.

Everypony felt unnaturally calm. Rarity forgot the pain of her broken leg. Twilight lost all sense of stress she was feeling in this situation. Applejack lowered the vine she was threatening suicide with. Even Rainbow Dash couldn’t even think about punching anypony by the name of Crimson in the face at the moment.

“Now, though,” Fluttershy walked on, as if she was aware of this fact, “I have no choice. Everypony is in danger, and only this monstrous side of me... my Stand,” She turned to look at Discord, “Comfortably Numb, can resolve this.” Discord beamed as his hands detached to clap in the air.

Fluttershy stood completely still. She took in a deep breath and closed her eye. Behind her, a new Stand manifested. A Stand of golden yellows and soft pinks. The Stand bore the appearance of a golden angel with heavy chains wrapped around its wings, preventing them from opening. Over its mouth was a pink veil, and across its eyes lay a blindfold. Its arms were extended wide, palms up towards the sky. A gentle yellow light seemed to be radiating from behind it, along with a breeze that made Fluttershy’s hair sway.

Not missing a beat, Fluttershy proceeded to calmly walk straight up to Applejack. She got on her knees and looked her friend right in the eye. Using her own hands, Fluttershy took Applejack by the face and made her look at her. Comfortably Numb bent over Fluttershy and draped its hands over Applejack’s shoulders.

“You’re confused,” Fluttershy whispered in a hushed hum, “You’ve been taken and used. Everything inside your head has been made wrong. I can feel it. The real you isn’t there. But, it’s not lost. It's just covered up in a maze of lies. I’m going to help you get through the maze, and you’re going to remember everything.”

Comfortably Numb’s hands radiated a brilliant light. Applejack’s eyes went wide. Her mind became flooded with emotions. Memories of her friends flashed vividly in her mind. She remembered every time she spent with all of her friends who she had been trying to kill. Every time they laughed together. Every time they fought. Every time they helped her. Every time she helped them.

Applejack remembered the emotions she felt during those memories so strongly that they were almost tangible to her. They were real. In comparison, every memory at the top of her head about Crimson Spirit, everything she knew about him, felt nonexistent by comparison. True to her element, she was able to tell the lies apart from the truth.

A charm bracelet formed on Applejack’s wrist. In her own mind, Applejack saw the memories and feelings she had of Crimson for the falsities they were. She declared with resolve that the memories she was feeling of her friends were real, that this is who she was meant to be. Crimson Spirit was not her only friend in the world. She had numerous friends, and Crimson was not one of them.

The bracelet shattered into shards of dust in the wind. Tears started to flow from Applejack’s eyes. Her best friends in the whole world were all around her right now, and she tried to kill them. Her real friends were right there, and she betrayed them for a stallion who only wanted to use her. Tremendous shame and sorrow fell over her.

“Shush,” Fluttershy whispered, turning her face hold into a tender embrace. “It’s ok, it’s all over now. Everything’s going to be ok.” Applejack was still bound by Diamond Dogs’ string, but even without a hug back, Fluttershy knew that Applejack was returning the sentiment.

At first, Clear Skies was unsure of what to make of the scene she was witnessing. But then she realized that she wasn’t feeling calm anymore. The aura of calmness had left. Clear immediately reacted by aiming Midsummer Station at Fluttershy and Applejack. Buit just as soon as she prepared her attack, Clear Skies froze in place.

Comfortably Numb was looking directly at her. She had on hand on Applejack’s shoulder, and the other pointing at Clear Skies. Slowly, Applejack’s tears of shame started to subside. At the same rate that Applejack was calming down, Clear Skies began tearing up. The same shame Applejack was feeling overtook Clear.

Clear’s arms began to shake. She remembered what she’d felt when she’d fought. The feeling of determination as she’d attacked Rainbow Dash. The pride she felt in defending Crimson from Rarity’s first attempt to catch him. The anger she felt when Pinkie Pie had taken him. All of them bubbled to the surface. And in turn a remorse, a guilt, a pure regret filled her entire body. Her body slowly lowered to the ground.

The Pegasus dropped her shovel and fell to her knees on the ground. Rarity ordered her Diamond Dogs to run over to Midsummer’s Station with their rippers. As fast as they could, the cloth mutts tore the stand from the tool. But its user paid them no mind. She was feeling shame. The shame of all the ponies she had hurt, every despicable thing she had done, all for that vile stallion. Just as it did on Applejack’s wrist, a bracelet formed and shattered on Skies’.

“Empathy,” Twilight gasped in realization. “Fluttershy’s Stand, Comfortably Numb, it’s empathy!”

“Empathy?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow in confusion. “You mean, like understanding how ponies feel?”

“No, not em-puh-thee.” Twilight corrected. “Em-pa-thee. The magic of manipulating somepony’s emotions.”

“It can control how ponies feel,” Fluttershy confirmed. “But that’s only part of it. It can take emotions ponies feel naturally and give them to other ponies.”

“Or disperse them to everypony around,” Discord added.

“Yes,” Fluttershy looked back down. “Because, its my Stand, it takes any strong negative emotions I feel from me and spreads them out, everypony feeling them just as strongly as I did. That’s why everypony at Cloudsdale Elementary tried to kill themselves that day. Comfortably Numb made them all feel just as hopeless as I did. I made them feel just as hopeless as I did.”

“Fluttershy…” Twilight was speechless. Empathy was one of the highest forms of magic. Even with grand wizards, they couldn’t hope to pull off the level of manipulation Fluttershy could with Comfortably Numb, “I understand that it did that, but there’s more to it than that! Look! It broke Crimson Spirit’s Stand when none of us could! It’s like you managed to completely overwrite, whatever his Stand did with your own!”

“No,” Fluttershy looked up, “That’s not what I did,” She smiled over towards Appleajck and Clear Skies, both unable to look her in the eye, “After I saw how Golden Harvest and Aloe acted, I knew that the stallion was somehow manipulating their memories. But, there’s more to a memory than, just the event. Comfortably Numb made them realize their feelings in those memories and what they were doing weren’t real.”

Twilight nodded her head in awe, still staring at the beautiful form of Comfortably Numb. Rarity nodded beside her before suddenly stumbling forward, grunting hard as blood gushed down her leg. Twilight quickly gasped and caught her friend, holding her upright with her right arm. Pinkie Pie likewise smiled before falling down onto one knee.

“That’s… wonderful darling…” Rarity grimaced, “I don’t suppose you could do what you did earlier again, could you? It took the mind off the pain rather well…”

“Yeah… me too!” Pinkie chimed in, “But I think it’s super cool-awesome you got a Stand! Now we all got one! Isn’t that amazing, girls?!”

“Hey!,” Rainbow Dash broke the mood as she whipped around along with 2M2M, “Where did he go?”

In a moment of realization, all the ponies realized that Crimson was no longer with them. Rarity raised her arm as Lennon ran over to quickly undo Applejack’s bonds. Clear stood up quickly, Midsummer Station crawling up her arm and affixing itself to her shoulder. Rainbow growled and quickly hopped up onto 2M2M’s back.

“I won’t let him get away!” Rainbow hissed out, “He’s gonna pay for hurting my friends!”

“N-No!” Pinkie Pie mustered up the strength to manifest Ta-Dah. “I won’t let him get away from me again! I’ll look all around the farm, I’ll find him in a…”

“Shut up you loud obnoxious rude party pony! That is enough!” Crimson shouted from the top of his lungs. Everypony turned in the direction of his voice.

Crimson, his suit torn and his hair unkempt, now stood on the second floor of the Apple house, looking down at them from one of the many newly created holes in the building. His gaze of hatred was turned down towards the group, focused equally on all seven present. Yet rather than being alone, he had a hostage clutched to his body. A hostage whose disappearance had sparked this skirmish in the first place.

“TWILIGHT!” Spike shouted. Crimson’s forearm was wrapped around his neck, holding him a foot above the ground. His legs were shaking, and his claws wrapped around Crimson’s arm. He looked up at Crimson, then back down to his friends on the ground.

“Spike!” Twilight shouted back. Crimson had her little brother, right there! “Crimson, let him go right now!”

“Really, Sparkle?!” Crimson yelled out, “I’m done playing games! All each of you had to do was simply die! There’s nothing hard about that! Each of you with your inferior weapons, waving them about like some flashy toy!” Spike coughed out hard as Crimosn tightened his grasp, “I’ve spent years honing my power, while each of YOU have barely had a month to even learn what a Stand even is!”

A bit of wind blew Crimson’s tattered sleeve open. A bit of light glinted against something, something metallic he had gripped in his hand. Something he was holding to Spike’s neck. While it was hard to see fully, Twilight gasped out the answer.

“T-That’s a Pegasi Arrow!” Twilight shouted, “Where did you get an arrow, Crimson?!”

“Not the issues here, Sparkle!” Crimson shouted, “If anypony,” Crimson spat, shaking on his own two feet. “Anypony or their Stand gets any closer to me, I’ll cut this dragon’s throat!”

“Twilight, what’s going on?!” Rainbow turned to face Twilight, “What’s so important about that arrow?!”

“Then you’ll just give him a Stand” Twilight shouted up at him, ignoring Rainbow Dash, “He’ll attack you with it! It’s over Crimson! Let him go!”

“Will I?” Crimson’s lips were twisted into a fierce grin, but even the harsh edge in his voice was wavering, “Will he get a Stand? Is this dragon’s soul strong enough to have one? I think you and I both know the answer to that already, Princess!”

The sound of 2M2M’s engines quietly firing up filled Twilight’s ears. Right as Rainbow was about to kick back on her Stand to get it flying, ink encased her foot.

“Stop!” Twilight’s eyes were wide. Her entire body was trembling, “He’ll kill Spike before you even get close, Rainbow!”

“No he won’t!” Rainbow struggled against Twilight’s ink, “I can get there before he can even raise his arm!”

“Rainbow NO!” Twilight darted forward, grabbing Rainbow’s forearm hard. As Rainbow turned, the sheer look of terror on Twiilight’s face made her freeze. Twilight stammered out, “H-He’ll kill Spike, he already killed somepony already! W-We can’t risk Spike’s life on your Stand!”

“Just calm down my little pony,” Discord said, raising his hand. “I’ll just have him over here in a literal snap of my…”

“No!” Twilight shouted even louder. “The second he sees Spike teleport he’ll cut him!” She was hyperventilating. She shouldn’t think reasonably, and was distracting Discord.

Fluttershy looked to Twilight. The confidence she shouted up to Crimson just a moment ago was gone. She was just as scared as the captor was. This was a checkmate situation that nopony was sure how to get out of. Everypony was scared.

Everypony but Fluttershy. She knew that she should have been feeling fear, but she wasn’t. She was level headed. Due to the fact that she was thinking clearly, Fluttershy was able to realize the reason why she was doing so. She was also able to see the ramifications of this. She tried to stop Comfortably Numb as fast as she could, but it was too late.

Fluttershy’s own Stand had taken away her fear and dispersed it. Everypony was feeling an increased amount of fear in addition to the fear they were naturally feeling in this situation. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, but most importantly, Crimson Spirit. He was already a cornered animal, meaning he was unpredictable. But the extra surge of fear sent him over the edge and caused him to immediately pierce the arrow through Spike’s throat and drop him.

Time moved slowly. Twilight shouted and reached out towards Spike as he fell to the ground. In an instant, a multitude of Stands reacted at once. Clear Skies attached Midsummer’s Station to a discarded tree limb and used it to freeze Crimson in place as he tried to run into the home. Diamond Dogs String pulled back on the tree limb, causing Crimson to fly out of the home and come crashing to the ground. Two shurikens pinned him to the ground by his shirt, followed by Applejack’s vines erupting from the ground to wrap around Crimson. Crimson’s mouth hung open from the shock of hitting the ground.

Everypony crowded around Spike’s body as he laid there motionless. The arrow stuck out of a newly formed hole, gushing blood out in a crimson puddle around him. His lips gasped out for air, only for his mouth to fill with more of it. Twilight, shaking, reached up to pull the arrow out of his neck, but hesitated after a moment. Instead, she fell to her knees, reaching out to lift Spike’s head up even as her arm turned red.

“Spike…” Twilight whispered, gently shaking his body. “Spike, come on, wake up.” Her lower lip quivered and tears started to form. “It’s…it’s over now Spike. We’ve won, we all won. And, and you’re going to get a Stand! The arrow is going to give you a Stand. You’re going to wake up, you’re going to have a Stand of your very own…and, and, and I’m going to teach you how to use it. I’ll start teaching you how to use it…as soon as you…wake…up…”

Twilight wanted to stay in denial. She wanted to hold onto the fantasy that everything she was saying was true. She wanted to hold onto the delusion that Spike was going to wake up. But in her heart, she knew it wasn’t. Twilight knew Spike wasn’t going to wake up. She said nothing more, only hovered over Spike’s body as heavy, silent, tears cascaded from her eyes.

“T w i l~i g h t…” Spike coughed out, reaching up with his hand towards her to try and take her hand. Yet just as he did so, blood fountained from his lips as his head rolled back against Twilight’s arm, limp.

“S...S...Spike…” Twilight’s body went cold as she held onto him. She turned her head to the side, shaking hard as she tried to hold back her tears any further. But the warmth on her arms wouldn’t let her, “I-I’m sorry… I-I wasn’t strong enough… I couldn’t… I couldn’t save you… I… I… Spike no… no… please… please, don’t leave me, don’t leave me…”

With a wail, Twilight buried her face in Spike’s chest, letting out an anguished cry. Applejack stared at the scene, her expression firm but filled with regret. Pinkie and Rarity entwined their hands, Rarity starting to shake and Pinkie following suit. Clear turned her head away and instead reared her foot back, delivering a harsh kick directly into Crimson’s face. And standing directly next to Twilight, her expression dark, stood Rainbow.

“No…” Rainbow whispered.

“No…” Rainbow Dash whispered again, “No. Crimson… he doesn’t get to decide this for us…”

“No. No. No No No NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!” Rainbow reared back and stomped the ground as hard as she could, “THIS CAN’T HAPPEN! I DON’T WANT IT TO HAPPEN!”

2 Minutes to Midnight, having stood stoically behind her this entire time, reacted to Rainbow Dash’s outcry. It stood up. Its engines started to roar to life, shattering the remaining ice cover Midsummer’s Station had clogged them with. From under its goggles sparked two glowing red eyes, burning brightly underneath the normally opaque cover.

“I REJECT THIS!” Rainbow Dash shouted in blind rage. 2 Minutes to Midnight acted on its own. With its fist powered by a burst of flame, the Stand drove a punch right into Spike’s gut. But there was no impact. Even after 2M2M pulled its arm away, Spike laid completely still.

Then, suddenly, Spike’s body started twitching and convulsing. Every part of him started to shake rapidly. Twilight pulled her tear stained face away as Spike’s body suddenly lifted itself up from her arms, hovering in the air. From where 2M2M’s fist had landed, a small, tiny vacuum formed. It hovered over Spike’s body silently.

Spike erupted an inferno of green fire from his mouth. The inferno shot into the air, bathing the entire farm in a brilliant green blaze. As it burned, the fire began to flicker and shake, attempting to rise into the air. The brilliant light continued to rise, rising into the air at a slower and slower rate. Until it was pulled towards the vacuum. The air shook as the fire was sucked into the blackness, filling it until it burned with the same color. With a final burst of heat, the vacuum was filled, leaving a glowing green orb to descend into his body.

Twilight, during the ordeal was staring vacantly towards Spike’s still lifeless head. Yet as his lips had loosed his flames, she’d shrieked and dropped his body to the ground. The sheer heat was enough to push her backwards, and as she put her hands in front of her face to shield herself, she blinked away her tears to try and see what was happening.

The now green vacuum disappeared once it entered Spike’s chest once more. For a long few seconds, his body did not change. The dragon still laid there, lifeless. Twilight started to shake again as she reached forward to take Spike’s head, looking up almost angrily towards Rainbow Dash.

Then, a cough. To the shock of all present, Spike suddenly took in a massive gasp as he coughed out the blood in his mouth. The hole in his neck was smaller, and though it was still bleeding, it no longer was a full puncture. Spike’s glassy eyes slowly regained color as he looked towards Twilight with a confused expression.

“SPIKE!” Twilight shouted, grabbing him and hugging him hard against his chest. Spike attempted to speak, but the rasp his voice had made him instead just weakly wrap his hands around her instead.

Yet while Rarity and Applejack both started to shed tears of joy, Crimson’s body struggled in his multitude of bonds. His gaze snapped towards Rainbow Dash, letting out a snarl, “What… What did you do?! He shouldn’t have developed a Stand! He should be DEAD!”

With a growl, Clear raised her hand to send her Stand out to attack Crimson’s face. Twilight turned to face him, a look of anger spreading over her features. Yet before any of them could do anything, Rainbow’s arm suddenly shot out to hold Clear back from doing anything.

Turning, Rainbow took breath. Raising her finger up in front of her face, suddenly she pointed to 2M2M’s hand, “You’re right, Crimson. Spike should have died. If whatever you’re saying about the arrow is true, then yeah, he shouldn’t have survived that. But I didn’t want that to happen. So I didn’t let it happen!”

2M2M suddenly shot a pinpoint vacuum above it, causing the air around it to get sucked in towards it. Rainbow’s hair shot out behind her her as she planted her right foot in front of her, “I don’t much about these vacuums, but I know this: I refuse to let Spike’s Soul vanish due to you! I defied your choice, Crimson, and instead used my own! I put Spike’s Soul inside my vacuum so he cannot die from it!”

As the vacuum above Dash grew, Dash reached up to point her finger towards the sky, “I defied you, Crimson! You may have turned my friends, my coworkers and my town against me, but I refuse to let you take them away! And I stopped them at 2 Minutes To Midnight!”

The vacuum above Dash faded, leaving Dash to bring her fists up in front of her to strike an elegant pose. She pointed her wrights downward and made a piece sign in both of them. With her fingers pointing downwards, they appeared to be two M's. 2M2M. Her stand slid to her right, striking a mirror image of that same pose as its engines roared to life.

“Uhm… it’s six forty five, Dashie!” Pinkie suddenly spoke up, “Yare, yare daze, you’re five hours and thirteen minutes off!”

“...I knew that, Pinkie…” Dash sighed, dropping her pose and brushing her hair back, “I was just being awesome.”

Crimson rolled his eyes, leaning his head down and pressing his forehead into the dirt. He rubbed it gently against it, sighing hard. Twilight slowly stood up on her feet, cradling Spike in her arms and giving a tearful smile towards Dash. Even if she did roll her eyes gently in the same vein as Crimson at her little speech.

A loud clapping sound filled the air. Before any of them could question where it was coming from, the ground beneath them turned yellow with a red eye in the center. The strange surface suddenly sucked itself up like a balloon, inflating to create a shape in the air as it hovered above the ground. The balloon then shifted to form Discord’s face on it, sending a wave down itself to turn it back into Discord’s true form.

“Oh bravo, bravo my friends!” Discord continued to clap, “Though I think an especially warm huzzah should go to Fluttershy!” His arm outstretched to yank Fluttershy towards him, who let out a tiny squeak as she was hugged into his side.

“Bravo?” Rarity spoke up, her eyebrow peaking, “This was not some show, Discord! We were fighting for our friend’s life here!”

“Oh yes, yes and you did a fantastic job with that! Solid use of abilities and character dynamics! Though you did allow your party to take massive damage during Phase 1, so I’m afraid you only scored a solid 7 out of 10 here…” Discord snapped his fingers, bringing an MMO style screen in front of him to write something down.

“Hey wait a minute!” Pinkie Pie turned towards Discord, “If you were watching us this wwwhhhhooollleee time, why didn’t you come down and help us?!”

“Oh I could have, but that would be a high level player helping out a low level guild!” Discord beamed, only to be brought down by a solid frown from Fluttershy, “Oh fine, perhaps I’ve played a few too many games here with Spike. Ahem!” Discord landed on the ground and made his way over to Pinkie, “The answer is simple, my dears. I wanted Fluttershy here to finally realize what she’d been hiding away inside her. I could have stepped in and solved this little problem, but alas, you wouldn’t learn nearly as much from the experience!”

“God you’re even more annoying in person…” Crimson huffed on the ground, “I don't know which of you is worse…”

“Hurmph…. Speaking of you, my little stallion,” Discord snapped his fingers, detaching his head form his body to lower itself down to Crimson, “Why didn’t you prostrate yourself before me the second you saw me? I thought you were a member of those little prancing cultists I hear are all the rage these last few centuries!”

Crimson didn’t even looked phased, instead scoffing, “I’m not a fanboy like some of the others. We all know what she did to you!” His eyes shot towards Fluttershy, “If anything, I worship the Discord that defeated Celestia and Luna single handedly and shrouded the world in chaos. Not a silly trickster who acts as Celestia’s dog!”

“And here I was hoping for a full on declaration of loyalty to my… oh well,” Discord’s head reattached itself to his body and turned to Twilight, “You can take him away, I’m already bored with him.”

“Like you did with him?!” Crimson snapped back, “Do you just cast aside anypony that doesn’t entertain you enough?!”

“I’d go ahead and lock him up, Princess,” Discord’s eyes suddenly turned fully red, “He tried to hurt Fluttershy, and I’m not sure what I’ll do to him if he says another word.”

As the two locked eyes, for a long moment Crimson’s hate filled gaze didn’t waver. But as though Discord was pushing him down physically, the stallion slowly shrunk backwards until he was looking fully at the ground. He gave a small scoff before muttering, “Not worth it…”

“Y-Yes!” Twilight quickly made her way over to Crimson, his horn lighting up and forming shackles around his hands still bound under the dirt, vines and ice, “Crimson Spirit, in the name of the Princess of Friendship, I hereby arrest you for one count of murder, several counts of attempted murder, assault, coercion and conspiracy to commit crimes against Equestria!”

Twilight turned to her friends, whom each responded in releasing their Stand’s hold on Crimson. With a growl, Crimson felt himself being lifted from the earth, lavender chains forming around him to fully seal himself in Twilight’s mercy. The anger in his eyes slowly turned to that of annoyance, simply staring at the mare as she began to lead him away.

“Savor your victory all you want, Sparkle….” Crimson muttered so low only he himself could hear, “When he comes for you, you won’t know what to do…”

~~~

Within a large dark chamber, a small gasp filled the air. Torchlights slowly flickered on, sending dark red light across the room. In the center of it, sitting on a rocky throne, a figure stirred and took in a deep breath.

“Sir?” Another figure, one standing beside him, reached out to take the figure’s hand, “Are you alright?”

“He… he has… failed…” The figure’s face twitched as he pulled himself upright, “The usurpers… they’ve… g-gained the power… o-of the draconequus…”

The second figure blinked hard, “Are, you sure about that, sir?” He turned his gaze towards the ceiling, “Only Sparkle reflected any traits of that from our scouts.”

“I feel… I f-feel it….” The figure’s voice suddenly shifted to a low whisper, “He failed… he failed… he failed…”

“Then… should we postpone the plan..?” The assistant moved in front of the figure to take his hand and gently stroke it.

“NO!” The figure suddenly shouted, loud enough that his assistant flinched, “We cannot wait! We cannot wait! W-We must… we must… we cannot wait…”

Pausing, the assistant let go of his hand and moved to stand beside him again, “Then… should we continue?”

“Yes… yes…” The figure lifted his head up, his piercing red orbs filling the room, “Go ahead… w-we depart tonight…”

Author's Note:

Stand Name: 「Comfortably Numb」
User: Fluttershy
Namesake: Pink Floyd Song

Parameters:
Power: ---
Speed: D
Range: A
Durability: C
Precision: A
Potential: B

Abilities:
「Comfortably Numb」 possesses the power of emotional manipulation. It is able to manipulate the emotions of any being. This ranges from amplifying the emotions they're already feeling, to completely taking away those feelings and transferring them to a new target. This can be done to a single being, or in a wide area around it. By instinct, 「Comfortably Numb」 will take any strong negative emotions its user feels and transfer it in an aura around them to mitigate the effects its user feels from those emotions.

And here's the chapter and Stand I was most excited to show off. From the beginning I wanted Fluttershy's Stand to be called Comfortably Numb. Took me a while to think of its ability though. At first I had the idea of just a big tree that makes people calm. Yeah, come a long way from that. Now it's a deceptively simple Stand with a cool power.

Comments

[Black--Soul]

How could Celestia ever make a mental wreck like Twilight a Alicorn?