CoCoBA Episode 6: Godspeed You Black Emperor

To say that Sweetie Drops had made a long and arduous journey to get to Ponyville would be an understatement. It was true that she hadn't been forced to walk the whole way from the Crystal Empire, the Stands on hand at the castle had made that unnecessary, but she'd still been dropped off miles away from anywhere useful. Berryshine was probably well ahead of her, but she took comfort in the fact that they were both keeping to schedule.

The forest was a black and unwieldy thing, like the Empire writ in plant-matter. Something important was buried deep in the dayless clearings. It wasn't what the other agents were combing the country for, because it was too much of a double-edged sword, but it was exactly what they needed to raze the King's enemies' hometown from the map.

As she prodded at the rocks nearby, Drops wondered if she'd be remembered in some obscure book for her scorched-earth campaigns.

Even with her Stand’s help, the goal seemed to avoid her. It took an hour's searching to find it, blocked off and marked like she'd been told. The boulder would've taken Herculean effort to force away.

She reached into her saddlebag and grabbed a book in her teeth, then threw it onto the ground. The inside was hollowed-out, bearing a complex digital readout and tangles of wires. She activated it, slid it towards the rock, and ran for cover in the brush.

The explosion was earth-shattering, literally. Hot debris smashed into the dirt like hail. Drops waited until she was sure she wouldn't catch a shard in the back, and then returned to the site. Where the book had been, there was only a sooty outline. Where the boulder had been, there was darkness. Drops' mouth twitched upwards for a moment at the hint of soft cerulean light inside.

Beyond the mouth, in the stillness and damp air, lay the Mirror Pool.

* * *

The Everfree seemed much bigger at night, without a townful of sleep keeping at bay. The only thing contesting the shadows was frantic firelight in the middle distance, and it was better off not existing. Button felt pins and needles in his hooves.

Stiff upper lip. He'd always been the stallion of the house, but now he was the only member. Best not to dwell on that. And, although he wasn't quite old enough to permit the thought openly, Diamond was watching him. Diamond with her long eyelashes, who could read secrets just by looking at you through them...

If Button had spent some time thinking clearly about it, he might have realized that she was already aware of his cloak-and-dagger affections. But he was the sort of colt who thought in terms of winning and losing, and since nopony had blown a whistle and held her fetlock up in victory, he had to assume the game was still afoot.

All this to say that he was very quiet. Not shy, because shyness implied that there was no reason to be so silent. And she was quiet too, watching the trees and mulling over the prospects of testing ｢Misery Business｣'s speed against the jaws of a roving manticore.

It would have made her very happy to not encounter any animals in the night. And, considering where they were heading, she was right to be in a funk. Not to mention that the unrepeating jag-pattern of branches became more and more distracting the further she went. Could something out there know she was here by smell...?

Button stopped and held her back with a hoof. With a whisper, ｢Electric Funeral｣ appeared, and he fiddled with the sight, squinting. Diamond briefly entertained a silly thought that she should probably duck for cover, and then he pulled the trigger. The sound was a thick plastic ker-chuk, but there was no projectile.

On the outskirts of the forest, the cottage filled up with light. The warmth blurred the darkness around it, removing detail, creating only their goal. Button found this as reassuring as Diamond found it concerning.

Even with light close-by, she moved closer to him than before. He didn't react, through willpower.

Closer, peering through an uncurtained window, they couldn't see her. The whole cottage seemed deserted, and the door wouldn't budge. He'd been about to shoot the lock when her Stand appeared and opened it from the inside.

"She's probably in the bedroom," Button murmured, half to himself.

"Is there one?" Diamond asked louder, trotting inside. Fluttershy's home smelled like seven kinds of fur, but all of the cages were empty and the entryway was lifeless.

Button stepped in second and scanned for other doors. He found the right one by the little white shape in front of it. At first he thought it might have been a statue from a garden, and then it moved.

"There's a bunny," he said out of the corner of his mouth, nudging her from inspecting the cages.

She turned and said, "Awww." That wasn't so bad, she guessed.

It looked peeved at her expression, and scampered closer. She lowered her head a little to make better eye contact, and spoke rather condescendingly.

"Do you know where Fluttershy is?" She put extra emphasis on "Fluttershy" in case the rest wasn't getting through.

The bunny put back his ears and shook his head.

Button hmmmed. "We need to find her. Did something happen?" He felt silly talking to a rabbit, and sillier when there wasn't a response.

Then the rabbit startled and jumped back, away from the window. Button turned to see what had frightened him, and then threw himself at Diamond, throwing them both into the floor just before the glass shattered.

Outside were three miniature planes, fighter jets smaller than his head, hovering in the air. In unison, they let out a barrage of gunfire, battering the window, the wood floor and the furniture beyond.

* * *

The dark halls stretched onward, endlessly curving in the same direction. Scootaloo realized, belatedly, that the outer section of the first floor was just a ring, and that if she didn't get some altitude, she'd run away directly into her opponent.

She went up the first staircase she could find, a long alabaster thing. ｢Go Zone｣ struck with its hooves in an exhausting combo, forcing the couch upwards and onto safe ground, and then getting them moving again. Scootaloo panted as the world lurched back into motion around her.

When she'd gathered her breath, she called upwards, "Spike?"

There was no answer. She debated shouting louder, wondered if she'd be giving her position away and if that was acceptable. As far as she knew, both sides were in the dark for now.

Then there was an answer, from all sides: "Y-yeah?"

She passed through a corridor in the ring with a low ceiling, and then back out into an open passage. Toward the ceiling she shouted, "I'm heading your way! Where are you?"

For a moment, silence. Decision. "Th-third floor!"

Scootaloo nodded, then realized Spike couldn't see her. "Stay there, I'm coming!" The next corridor loomed, and as it swallowed her she looked for another staircase.

"Anypony... I don't... I don't see anypony..."

Scootaloo jerked her head at the sound, ears perked. It was Sweetie's voice, coming from down the hallway.

"Get behind us, girls!"

"What did you do to them?!"

"Heeeeelp!"

Voices, young and old. The same that supplied the background chatter of life in Ponyville. She raced the couch towards them, around the bend.

There was nopony there. Only the Stand, hovering the air, its non-mouth hanging open to spit out the noise. She stopped the couch in its tracks immediately, straining to defy momentum, as the user and Stand bolted for her.

She shouted, "｢Go Zone｣!" But it didn't appear in time.

With a violent leap, the unicorn and her Stand bridged the distance, and struck the body of Element of Generosity. And instantly, beside Scootaloo, there was a CD being absorbed into the hoof of the Stand.

She roared as ｢Go Zone｣ appeared, and suddenly the disc stopped moving. The friction between it and the hoof had become too great! And then, before there could be any counterattack, her Stand let out a single left hook on the outstretched metallic fetlock.

The hit dented the metal, and the enemy grunted and stumbled sideways. Then she fell flat on the floor, all friction gone from it, and ｢Go Zone｣ shoved her away.

The enemy and her Stand went sprawling back a few meters, outside of range, and then stood up again. When they did, they saw the couch rushing backwards away from them, and an orange pegasus filly holding the CD of Rarity.

Snarling, the unicorn regained her balance and searched for a staircase.

* * *

By the time Diamond was sensible enough to look at the source of the bullets, the jets had already passed through the corpse of the window, gliding into the cottage. They zoomed overhead and began to turn in midair.

Outside, everything was too dark to even make out shapes. An enemy Stand user could be leering at her from just outside of the ring of light, and she would never know. If this Stand had some range to it, they could be anywhere in the dark. Privately, the part of her that wasn’t still sore wondered how Sweetie Belle would deal with circumstances like this.

But the truth was that Sweetie Belle had dealt with it by sending two of the more offensive Stand users she had and hoping that it would work out in the end. In this position, she’d probably be just as helpless as...

Remembering the bunny, Diamond suddenly jerked her head up. In the darkness, behind the staircase, he was hiding. She breathed a sigh of relief and summoned up her Stand. Button, for his part, was already ahead of her.

｢Misery Business｣ lashed out at one of the model planes as it doubled back, but it dove to one side and away from the hit. ｢Electric Funeral｣ bullseyed one of the remaining two, and it clattered to the floor on its side like a discarded toy while its brother let out a stream of vengeful gunfire. Button jumped back and scurried for cover, knocking over a table and a stand before diving behind the couch.

While that jet was distracted, Diamond picked up the fallen one with her Stand and threw it. When the two collided, it spun in the air and dipped, and she was able to smash it. Button popped up from behind cover and took a careful shot, which she only noticed afterwards by the ineffectual thump of the jet hitting the ground beside her. It had been aiming, she realized, for the back of her head.

When no more bullets were fired, she rushed to the window and stared out with her Stand activated. Where were they hiding?

There was only nerve-wracking silence, no matter which direction she tried searching in. She even tried the sky and the ground beneath her. Nopony. The user was long gone, or else they were never in the area to begin with.

Or...

The bunny scampered back into view, inspecting the damage and fallen Stand-bits. Nearby, Button caught his breath, kicked one of the disabled vehicles across the room like a can, and asked, “Know who’s doing this?”

“I have an idea. Before we do anything, we need to make sure Fluttershy’s here. Otherwise we’ll have a lot more work after this.”

Button nodded, and they approached one of the only closed doors on the first floor. He held his rifle at the ready, and she tensed as she shoved the door inward. The rifle-barrel filled the doorway as soon as there was space free, and it took a few seconds for Button to unclench his hooves at the empty bathroom behind.

He stopped pressing his face to the black plastic and looked up at her. She looked back at him, and then he shrugged and nodded imperceptibly. The next door was a little to the left, and they scooted over to it, assuming the same position. The bunny stood behind Diamond, glancing around the rest of the cottage in fear.

She twisted the knob and threw the door in, stepping out of the doorway again. Button followed the same steps as before, stared into the sight, and then yelped. He sprung back as fast as he could, and then a wall of bullets tore away the floor where he’d been standing.

They came pouring out in a steady stream, five planes, ten, a dozen, more. Button clutched his Stand to his heart and stared at the procession, bug-eyed and unselfaware. They circled and looped and patterned themselves in the air above him, getting into position to cream him.

With shaky hooves he looked at all of them. He could force out two shots, maybe, in the time before they fired. She watched him raise the rifle, point the laser at random, fumble, fire. It was out of the way before he even pulled the trigger, and the shot flew wild and struck one of the lights.

Oh.

And suddenly, the cottage was dark again.

* * *

Spike was hiding in an alcove when he saw Scootaloo coming. He hadn’t been able to see what she was riding on earlier, but he recognized the sofa. It halted and she dismounted as soon as she saw him.

“Spike! I’m really glad someone else is okay!”

“Wh-where’s Rarity?”

Scootaloo frowned, then hoofed over something he hadn’t noticed she was holding at first. “Here.”

Spike went cold. “Then there's only Twilight left…”

“I’ll stop her before she can do anything to Twilight. But you have to keep this safe until I’m done. Since she’s storing the CDs inside her Stand, I bet she’s got a limited range, so we just need to beat her and get them somewhere else for them to turn back into ponies!” Scootaloo was smiling as she made this explanation, and then pressed the disc into his talons.

He stared down at it, and then nodded. “J… just keep Twilight safe.”

She made herself level with him, close enough that he had to choose which eye to look at. “I will. Don’t worry. Where is she?”

He thought for a moment, then pointed with a free claw. “Down that hallway, past the library, second door on the left.”

“Good. Hide, and don’t come out until there are ponies here again.”

And then she was off.

In less than twenty breaths after their conversation ended, he saw the shadow of the enemy around a corner, and ran desperately down the same hallway. Most of the doors would’ve made some noise at being opened, and the only option that didn’t need him to open anything was…

He could hear her hoofsteps coming up to where he’d just been.

With shaky legs, he ran into the darkness of the third-floor library.

* * *

There was a fine art to cloning. Drops didn’t know it, but she knew what she liked.

Her own face in a repeating line, moving from one wall to the next. Organized, reliable, trained. Each copy was imperfect, and they would deteriorate more the longer she relied on them, but they were steadfast and loyal. She could trust them to do the right thing, whatever she’d think it was. This was something generals must’ve daydreamt about, she was sure.

The only flaw was the Stand. The others had the aura, the sight, the feeling that came with wielding one, but they couldn’t manifest it. At least, not all at once. She summoned it, a squat porcelain sphere hanging dumbly in the air, dangling a curtain of tiny silver tools for some deeply arcane arts-and-crafts project. Its one eye, a hematite hexagon, stared passively out on the damp dimness.

Then she dismissed it, and motioned to her closest copy. It grunted, exerted itself for a moment, and then the Stand rose, hovering, out of its essence.

So it was just one at a time. It would do.

“Alright, ladies, we’ve got a big couple of hours ahead. Let’s get everything ready.”

* * *

Button was in survival mode. The sporadic gunfire was keeping his eyes from adjusting, and keeping him moving, unable to get a shot off in response. He’d only bought himself time, not a way out.

He was only a few hooves away from the next volley, and the air filled with buzzing as the jets entered a new formation.

Maybe, he thought to himself, long-range work was really his specialty.

“Button! Turn the lights back on!” Diamond called over the humming chaos. The planes adjusted themselves in mid-pattern, no doubt aiming at her now.

“Get behind cover!” he yelled, half-hoping that they’d go back to focusing on him.

“Just trust me, Button! They won’t fire if you turn on the lights!”

She sounded certain. He squinted and thought he made out the closest lamp. The buzzing was dying down as the planes settled in, and very few seemed to be pointing at him.

“Hurry!”

They thrummed with the sound of approaching gunfire. Button pulled the trigger.

The cottage burst into existence around him again, and the jets sputtered and went quiet. Between them and Diamond, held up by ｢Misery Business｣, was the body of Fluttershy.

“You might as well come out now,” she said to the room at large. No one did, but she stood patiently in her frozen stalemate..

He turned around, and checked to make sure nopony was hiding anywhere. He couldn’t see anything, except that the bunny had resurfaced, peeking out from behind a potted plant. It bounded closer toward Fluttershy, staring up at her dumbfounded.

“You can drop the act,” Diamond said. Fluttershy lay still in the air, eyes closed, and all was silent.

It took Button a moment to understand who she was talking to. It took the rabbit a while, too, and then he stared at her, puzzled.

“You hopped away from this Stand before either of us saw it. Before it even broke the window, or fired any shots. And only Stand users can see other Stands.”

The bunny stared at her. And then his expression changed, becoming grimmer. Something like a smile formed on his face, and the jets started moving again. Now they were circling around each other, flying in vertical rings above where he stood.

“I can’t read animals’ minds, but I know what you’re thinking. You think you can shoot me without hurting her. You think you’re faster than my Stand, and I probably wouldn’t risk Fluttershy’s life. And you’re right, about all of that, but you’ll still lose.”

There was no answer. The Stand slowed over the bunny, who looked tired of the game, and revved up once more. The combatants stared at each other with powerfully stoic expressions!

Button raised ｢Electric Funeral｣ up toward the swarm. The bunny only paid attention to make sure the shot wasn’t aimed directly at him, and rolled his eyes at the measured breathing and plastic click.

One plane suddenly turned into dead weight, and hit their opponent square on the head. It bounded off onto the floor a moment later, but the damage was done. He slumped over, unconscious, and the planes disintegrated from the air and the floor.

Diamond let out a breath, and looked at their enemy. “He did a good job protecting her.”

Button, who felt considerably less mature about the whole thing, said, “Not good enough for us.”

She smirked a little, and then didn’t. Her eyes didn’t leave the fallen animal, and then, gingerly, ｢Misery Business｣ placed him on top of his owner.

When they left the cottage, they turned out the lights behind them.

* * *

DJ PON-3 had been in Ponyville for a long time. She wasn’t one of the new invaders, she was a long-standing community member. Waiting, watching, silent for so many years.

It was only recently that she got the Stand, of course, and things had been happening very quickly since then, but Sombra had spoken to her in dreams. Well, not exactly “spoken”, but she understood as well as he did that words were unnecessary sometimes. They were both overlooked, underappreciated. Both of them would be better off at the top, and unlike anyone else she ever heard complain about the unfairness of the world, he was willing to change it. She loved him, in a way. They were kindred souls, even if time had placed them so far apart.

｢Antennas to Heaven｣ had been a bonus, a gift during her dream. The chosen few didn’t have to endure the nightmares and trauma to be granted their power, and she was possibly his most patient acolyte. She’d rounded up so many in Ponyville without ever risking herself or her cover, and, although it barely mattered by now, she had the Elements of Harmony almost gift-wrapped for him.

...Almost.

She’d discovered in the last few minutes that her Stand gave her a sense of where her discs were when they weren’t being stored. This was the first time one had been taken from her, and by one of the little brats from town. Where had a filly like that even worked up the nerve from?

The disc had come here, then stopped, and then quickly after it moved away again, down that hallway… It was inside that library, maybe tucked away in a corner. The DJ walked toward it softly, questing into the dusty darkness. Her Stand floated beside her, casting a thin bar of red light on the affair, and it swept with her towards her prize.

“Ah! S-stay away!”

When she saw Spike, backed up into one corner and clutching the disc, shaking at her like he needed a paper bag to breathe into, it was no big surprise. He didn’t matter, but it was nice to have his thread tied up along with the others.

“No closer, I m-mean it! You can’t have Rarity!”

That one was more forceful, and he looked genuinely serious. It was almost comical to notice the look on his face as the disc tugged away from him on its own and floated in midair, gravitating towards a Stand he couldn’t see. ｢Antennas to Heaven｣ held out a hoof to absorb the CD, and the DJ couldn’t help but sneer a little at the sudden intensity in the dragon’s eyes. It was too much like what she’d seen in that filly’s face a few minutes ago, and it was nothing more than posturing in the end.

Then Spike released a burst of bright green dragonfire into the air. It sailed clear of her, and didn’t even damage her Stand, even if it was pretty, and it was gone as soon as it came.

And so was the disc.

“She’s in Canterlot now,” he said quietly. “How’s that for range?”

He chuckled as her Stand raced forward and slammed its hoof into him. There was no pain, but it was cathartic. The Element of Generosity could be dealt with later, it’s not like she was mobile.

After she’d taken a couple of deep breaths, she replayed Spike’s words in the dark.

“...ow’s that for… can’t have Rarity! ...oor on the- ary, second door on the… Down that hallway, past the library, second door on the left… keep Twilight safe...”

With her bearings, she wandered back into the hall, looking for the right room. It wound up being the first one ajar, only a crack of it open. There was very little natural light inside, only what the moon spilled on the floor, and against one wall a bed with the Princess Twilight Sparkle in it. And, standing over that final target, the brat, with her Stand hovering above her in the dark.

“About time you showed up, lady.”

“...” PON-3 shrugged past the door and entered the room.

“｢Go Zone｣ can get those CDs out of your Stand, whether it has to rip them out or hit you until you cough ‘em up. We can do either, or you can give them up right now. Your choice!” Scootaloo threw a hoof out at her opponent like she was flinging the decision at her.

The DJ rolled her eyes. She could deal with this without trading blows.

Beside her, ｢Antennas to Heaven｣ opened its mouth, and Sweetie Belle’s voice burst forth. “I don't see anypony...” The filly bristled, and gritted her teeth as the disc was ejected, held in one hoof.

“A trade?”

Nod.

“...No deal.”

Frown.

Shrug.

DJ PON-3 threw out a hoof, and the disc went flying towards Scootaloo, who stood on her back legs to catch it and fell backwards onto the comforter.

At that same moment, the unicorn raced across the room, seizing her opportunity! Scootaloo fumbled as the disc ripped itself from her hooves and rose up into the air, toppling dizzily. Even if she made Twilight immoveable with her power, it wouldn’t stop either of them from being converted!

｢Antennas to Heaven｣ feinted a swipe for the filly, and she let go of the disc and jumped back, noticing too late that she was falling off of the bed! As she left range, her Stand disappeared. Then the metallic hoof connected, hitting the Princess directly and turning her into sweet, sweet FLAC. The DJ grinned and leaned onto the bed to grab her prize.

And then the couch, which had been stuck to the ceiling by friction alone, fell on her. Or, rather, on her hooves. The sudden weight bore upon her skin, and she jolted back, only to find herself unable to move.

When Scootaloo dashed around the bed, it only took one clean motion. She pivoted and slid in a wide arc, unmoving, and then she stopped, looking up at the older mare.

DJ PON-3 summoned her Stand, but its front hooves were locked down. She tried to kick off the couch, but it didn’t budge. There was too much friction.

“｢Go Zone｣!” Scootaloo shouted, and the punch came before the rest of the body could manifest, smashing into ｢Antennas to Heaven｣’s flank. Another came, then another, and soon a glinting inside cavity was revealed, stacked with vinyl discs.

With one powerful rip, the Stand tore them free. The DJ gasped once, and slumped, unconscious.

Scootaloo surveyed the scene, the stack of CDs larger than the Stand that had housed them, the darkness, the empty bed and the sudden silence of the castle. She still had to navigate back to ground level and deal with Ponyville’s assailant before the night could truly be over.

Tired, she kicked the couch away, and it went sailing to the other side of the room and halted neatly against a bare wall. Then, she got to work.

* * *

The fires had burned themselves out by now. Button could still smell the thick black ash, like a campfire magnified. Smoke lingered in the air, but most of the damage had already been done. He wondered if there was a Stand user somewhere who could control water, and then realized that it was something pegasi did in general.

...Where had they all gone?

“Button…” Diamond said, behind his right shoulder. She had kept her voice down.

“Hm?”

“There’s… I don’t know. Three o’clock.”

It took him a moment to understand what she was saying, and by the time he did he’d already turned his head where she was pointing him.

It was Bon Bon. An advancing line of Bon Bon, maybe twenty-five of her, all identical. All of them were holding things; big sticks, rocks, suitcases. Above the whole mass floated an orb that he knew on instinct was a Stand. He rubbed his eyes for a moment, and they were still there.

“Did Bon Bon always have a Stand?” he asked.

“Bon Bon was in the castle,” Diamond said softly, “I… I saw her on our last trip.”

Button’s eyes narrowed. Why all of the impostors up to now? Were these changelings? And if they were, why all disguise as the same person and walk together in formation? He stared at them, hard, searching for some sort of answer.

And then some of them looked back at him, and immediately turned to each other and their items.

The two foals didn’t wait long enough to see what would happen next. They bolted into town, Fluttershy in tow, heading castleward.

Behind them, the army advanced.

｢To Be Continued｣

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

Stand Name: Twenty One Pilots
User: [spoiler]Angel Bunny[/spoiler]
Stats
Power: B
Speed: C
Range: A
Durability: C
Precision: C
Potential: C
Abilities: Takes the form of 21 miniature fighter jets equipped with guns. Each part of the Stand follows the orders of the user exactly, and any damage must be repaired manually over time.

Stand Name: Antennas to Heaven
User: DJ PON-3
Stats
Power: B
Speed: C
Range: E
Durability: B
Precision: B
Potential: C
Abilities: Converts living things by touch into high-quality FLAC-format sound on compact discs. Discs can be stored inside the Stand itself, played like CDs, or damaged to harm anything within them. Discs are reverted back either by the user's willpower or when they leave range.

Stand Name: ???
User: Sweetie Drops
Stats
Power: E
Speed: D
Range: B
Durability: B
Precision: E
Potential: E
Abilities: ???