CoCoBA Episode 2: Something for Nothing

Coco’s Bizarre Adventure - Chapter 2: Something for Nothing

Coco gritted her teeth and stared up at the dragon.

No, the dragon’s -image-. There was nothing of the real beast there, just its sparkling majesty, bottled. It was, in fact, completely silent, and its massive claws had fazed through the marble-tile floor - after all, both were only solid to -her-.

“Why do you call these abilities ‘Stand’?” she shouted.

“Because they ‘Stand’ beside us, of course,” Joy said, and ｢The Holograms｣ appeared beside her, almost sliding out of her aura. It stood in front of the glass coffin, defending it.

Scootaloo, seeing her opportunity, snarled. “｢Go Zone｣!”

THUD!

Part of her Stand had emerged, a single orange hoof decorated in bands of black rubber, but it stopped on contact with the glass, squeezing the filly tightly against one side.

“Here’s a perfect example of Stand,” Joy declared, and the dragon froze while she trotted closer to the glass. “They’re connected, you know. When the user’s trapped, the Stand’s trapped. When the user’s hurt-” ｢The Holograms｣ threw a sudden punch to Scootaloo’s barrel, and as she gasped in pain ｢Go Zone｣’s hoof retreated, “-so’s the Stand. See how simple it is?” She smiled.

“You didn’t have to do that!” Coco said. “I just wanted to know what the name meant!”

And during that explanation, for all the sympathetic pain Joy’s attack had brought her, she’d realized that there was something in her waiting to be summoned up. It was like a song in a dress store that you only noticed if somepony else mentioned it, but now it was needling the inside of her being and waiting to be released.

[So. That’s what saved me.]

And then, as all the pieces clicked together, she knew its name.

“I know I didn’t have to, I just wanted to. Just like I’ve decided I’m going to put you in a coffin when I’ve beaten you. Then you can keep each other company in the river! Oh, I almost forgot.”

And then the dragon started moving again.

...

From the moment she realized she’d fallen off of her balcony, Coco had a total of twelve seconds before she hit the ground. Flailing, she righted herself by pure accident, straining to get close to a ledge or discover some kind of parachute.

Below her, the empty sidewalk threw off its pretense of being a stone pathway, and revealed that it was death in disguise, the object that had been waiting to take her out of life since the moment she was born, since before either of them had even been conceived. It was in that moment that she had time to consider everything she’d done up to this point - and all the many, many things she hadn’t.

It’s been said on many deathbeds that the most important things in life are friends, loved ones and family. Coco Pommel realized these things in the course of a few seconds, and at the same time realized that she’d had so few of any of them. She’d never known her parents, and she’d always kept to herself in school. It wasn’t because she’d decided to, but her grades had been average and she hadn’t spent her free time on anything that mattered. It was just the way things had turned out.

By all accounts her life had been unremarkable, and she’d been nothing more distinctive than a timid, hardworking mare. In her mind, there weren’t any great reasons she -shouldn’t- fall onto the sidewalk, really.

But...

[I haven’t used my time well. I’ve stumbled in life, and I’ve been too weak to stand up for myself, and that’s my own fault. I accept that.]

[But I can’t die today! If I die, I can’t help Rarity! I can’t tell her I love her, and find a family, and give my life meaning! I can’t die knowing everything I should’ve done!]

[I have to help Rarity!]

[I have to LIVE!]

She was too far away from the building now to grab onto something, but there were still objects between her and the ground. Lampposts, cars. Nothing soft, but she angled her head away and tried to remember how to land. Backs of the frogs, maybe a bend to the knees, and keeping the impact on a small radius. Just kick off of one, and the momentum will die down a little. Maybe.

[I’ll break a few bones... at least. But there’s no other option. I can’t die here!]

[I won’t let the generosity she showed me be for -nothing-!]

As she exerted her whole being to this task, the end of her flight approached. She steeled herself, shut her eyes, and shoved all thoughts of pain out of her mind. In that second, her entire being was aligned to one purpose!

Just when the rush in her ears became unbearable, she bounced.

Her hoof lashed out like it was springloaded, but nothing connected.

She snapped her eyes open. Under her was a white sheet, wrapped taut between two lampposts like a hammock. No, she recognized it, it was like the nets fireponies used! She fell onto it again, and bounced a little less, and by the fourth time her limbs answered her and she could relax. When her fall was finally broken, she untied one end and slid down to ground level.

As soon as her hooves touched the sidewalk, she fell over on her side and let out an exhale that turned into heavy breathing. She was suddenly aware of her heartbeat, and she let her head rest on the stone. Now the fall was over, the spectre of death had abandoned it, flying off into the future to take some other form. Maybe not too far in the future, either. It didn’t matter to her. She was alive -now-.

Once she had her breath, and her heartbeat, she stood and inspected the sheet. Who put it there? What material was it?

When she touched it with a clearer head, she could feel something in it resonating with her, like reaching out with a phantom limb. She focused on that feeling, pushed against it with a feeling like holding a serious face for a few minutes, and it glowed cyan underneath of her with-

W-with… -magic-.

[This is mine.] The realization startled her. And then, in her hooves, the sheet evaporated.

She grabbed at it, tried to halt the process, but faster and faster it gave way to air, and then there was no evidence that her fall was broken at all.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and tried to replicate the willpower she’d experienced during the fall, desperate to repeat whatever miracle it was. To her surprise, it took the slightest mental push for the sheet to reappear, draped on the ground. And then, after a minute, it disintegrated back into the air again.

That night she packed and left, but the trains were already gone. She spent her emergency funds on some camping supplies and nonperishables, and spent the walk experimenting, trying to understand this strange new ability.

It didn’t have to be white, or a sheet. In fact, it could be any color or shape, even complicated or silly things like polka-dot reverse bows or a camo polonaise (not counting the underpanels, though; she couldn’t conjure metal bigger than zippers or buttons). Even big things were easy up to a certain point; her attempt at a carnival tent started evaporating before she could finish creating it.

Past that, everything she made was keyed to her like she was a unicorn. She could lift them effortlessly, manipulate them, make dizzying fabrics figure-eights in front of her own eyes. She could also break and mend the fabric using her ability, and she could stop anything from evaporating by pushing some more energy into it, although even the smallest items didn’t last more than three hours that way.

She hadn’t known what to call it until the dragon-image bore down on her.

...

The claw was easily quadruple her size, and it sliced through the air silently. This dragon couldn’t breathe fire, but it could still crush her, or bite her head off, or throw her into a wall.

“｢Something for Nothing｣!” she yelled, and like an old friend, it was beside her. A unicorn in an opera mask, coat haphazardly striped blue and cream, wearing an elegant white dress tasseled with sewing needles and bits of thread. It turned and kicked her out of the way, and she flew out of the dragon’s shadow, colliding with a hastily-constructed cushion.

｢Something for Nothing｣ leapt out a moment later, and Coco was amazed by its speed, and how quickly it wove, as it barrelled up the arm and around the neck. She didn’t know if she could still use the power herself while her Stand was away from her, but this was no situation to find out in.

Joy, for her part, was applauding. “This is more like it! It’s so much fun to watch somepony try to slay a dragon, even if it’s completely pointless!” she said, and then turned to Scootaloo. “Don’t you think?”

Scootaloo was silent.

“Suit yourself,” Joy said, shrugging, and then while ｢The Holograms｣ punched the filly she called out across the chamber, “I’m going to attack you again now, dearie!”

Coco didn’t have time to worry about that, because ｢Something for Nothing｣ had just finished. As the dragon lumbered and turned in the chamber to reach her, a long ribbon of fabric swung down to eye-level, and she gripped it in her teeth as her Stand swung it. She lifted off of her feet, and like a pendulum she swung away from the dragon and then towards it.

The fabric passed through the arm, but she didn’t. She had no choice but to abandon it to the barrier, and hugged the faux-scale while the other claw swatted for her retreating Stand.

Joy watched as the attempt to swing upwards failed, and her entertainment’s Stand bolted away down her dragon. It was so much fun to watch somepony else’s plans fall apart. Just like seeing all the hard work put into keeping ponies in neat little civilizations being broken down in under a week. And just a little tragic, she supposed. This mare could’ve made a decent Stand user, if she’d only had a little training.

Suddenly, ｢Something for Nothing｣ disappeared and reappeared next to Coco, lashing out a hoof as she let go of the dragon. She’d thrown herself - clearly a last ditch effort - but it was still impressive to see her sailing through the air, scowling with concentration as her Stand disappeared again. As she soared nearer and nearer, Joy almost wanted to let her land the hit.

But not enough.

The chamber blinked out of existence, and then there was a bright flash of light. When it cleared, Coco was trapped in an adult-sized glass coffin.

“Well, that was fun!” Joy smiled. “Shame you didn’t slay the dragon. I think I’ll just let it step on you anyway. I mentioned that my illusions can pass through each other, didn’t I?” She giggled.

“Let her go,” Coco said as her coffin was laid down and the dragon’s foot raised. Her horn sputtered on in anger.

Joy trotted over to look at her, pretending to be pensive. “Hm… No.”

“You’re going to pay for hurting her.” ｢Something for Nothing｣’s hooves appeared on either side of the trapped dressmaker, pushing against the glass uselessly.

Joy laughed to the sky. “Oh, how noble! How virtuous! You’re so much fun, dearie! I’ll make it slow to get as many of these reactions out of you as I can!”

But Coco wasn’t fazed. “I know the weakness of your Stand. I saw it from a distance, when you were standing lower than the rest of the room. Your hooves had passed through the floor. When you make your illusions ‘selectively permeable’, you can’t choose yourself and other ponies at the same time. That was the first half of your defeat.”

Joy frowned. “You’re not as interesting while you’re stalling. All of my illusions are one-pony-only, and I’m not one for the receiving end of a mind-game, so I suppose I’ll leave you to it.” She turned her back to the coffin and trotted back toward Scootaloo -

Until she was pulled back by the white fabric tied around her back leg!

She looked over her shoulder and gaped at it. “When did you...?! That’s not possible!”

Coco smiled. “My Stand’s fabrics aren’t part of it or me. They can pass through your barriers with no problem.”

“But I saw you this whole time! How did this get on my…” Joy trailed off as she realized.

Coco’s newfound magic let go of the rest of the fabric in the air, and it fell out of the dragon-image. “That’s right. I wanted to tie a knot around one of your legs, but I knew I’d never be able to sneak up on you with it from inside something like a coffin, so I hid it inside of your dragon!”

Joy saw the other end fall into the coffin, gripped between ｢Something for Nothing｣’s hooves, and she panicked. Just before she could get the dragon to stomp down, she was pulled off of her hooves and spun around. Coco’s Stand mended the fabric before it could tear, and extended it into wider and wider circles, pushing her through the dragon like it was nothing.

Joy was close to puking, and her sunglasses were torn away by her windspeed. She tried to command the dragon, imagine it stomping its foot down, but with the world spinning around her it was impossible to picture anything. She couldn’t think straight about anything, and back on the ground ｢The Holograms｣ was spinning in place and holding its faceless head like a widow in mourning.

“The second half of your defeat was something I discovered on my own. Stands have limits of distance, ranges of how far they can move from their users. That’s why you had to chase this filly, instead of letting ｢The Holograms｣ do the work for you. Which means that if I throw you far enough, all of your illusions will break!”

“-No!-” Joy screamed as ｢Something for Nothing｣ let go of the fabric, and then she couldn’t tell which direction was up. The illusions and the fabric disappeared at the same time, and Coco stood watching the crystal pony sail upwards.

“That looks like a hard landing,” Coco said, smiling.

“Not hard enough. Let me finish this.”

Coco turned, and Scootaloo was kneeling in the dirt, reaching for Joy’s blocky, reflective sunglasses and putting them on. Then she stood, breathing hard, and waiting for an answer. One look at the expression on the filly’s face, and Coco nodded.

Up above, Jewel Joy tried to create something, -anything- that would help her fall, but all she could think of was the drop remaining. She hit her head on abstract paint-splotch shapes, and she realized that in a thousand years of trying she’d never be able to use her Stand to make something -soft-.

Then she saw the dot of orange that had been sent up to meet her, slingshot upwards wtihout a speck of air resistance, and fluttering its tiny wings without a hint of vertigo. She could only look at the rising pegasus with empty eyes and think:

[Hey, those are my sun--]

“｢Go Zone｣!” Scootaloo shouted over the roar of the air, and her Stand finally appeared. An orange pony, the color of a safety cone, wrapped in lines of black rubber that turned into directional arrows, staring down at her through goggled eyes.

It hit her straight in the stomach, and she flew further, out and out past Coco’s horizon, until she was too small for Scootaloo to make out.

When Joy landed, she wasn’t in Equestria any longer.

When the pegasus landed, it was on a big, soft trampoline.

“That was some good work,” she said as she slid off.

“Yeah,” Coco said. Scootaloo smiled up at her, and she returned the quiet feeling of victory.

Then Scootaloo was out cold.

...

“One more at the gate!” Sweetie called to the rest of the room as she sat in the corner.

“What do they look like?” asked Pip, standing at attention.

“Purple, a lot like Ms. Punch. She’s alone as far as I can tell. What’s word from Bloom’s camp?”

“Still clear,” said Aquamarine.

She nodded. “Good. We might be able to do the move today, if Spike’s still prepared.”

Featherweight burst into the boutique. “Message from Diamond Tiara! She’s challenging you for rights as Ponyville’s chief defense specialist!”

Sweetie sighed. “She -can’t- be doing this right now. Ignore her, we’ve got to defend the perimeter.”

“We can’t! She’s got Button’s support, he won’t defend if she’s not in charge,” the foal said.

“-Boys-,” Sweetie muttered. “Alright, I’ll go out to talk to the newcomer. Pip, Aqua, look after the base. Feather, go stall here however you can. Make sure she knows what’s really important here.”

On the outskirts, Berryshine waited patiently, as stony as a mountain, the power of the gods bubbling away over her shoulder.

｢To Be Continued｣

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78yioWJhUJA [Rush - Something for Nothing]

Stand Name: Something for Nothing
User: Coco Pommel
Stats
Power: B
Speed: B
Range: C
Durability: D
Precision: A
Potential: C
Abilities: Weaves temporary fabrics out of air.