The park was calm and quiet with nothing but the sound of a gentle breeze blowing through the trees and the soft sound of passing cars in the distance. The cold air brushed over Sombra’s face, sending a chill through his body. He had just regained consciousness.
"Stupid girl." He laughed to himself. "Did she really think I would fall victim to my own Stand power?"
He slowly picked himself off the ground as every inch of him ached, still not fully recovered from the beating he received from Sunset.
Despite the calm silence that had befallen the park, he could tell the battle was still raging on. The immense power radiating from Starlight’s Stand, he could feel Black Soul calling him to find it, to stop it, before history repeated itself. He had no plan, the only thing spurring him on was the determination to see his plan through to the end, to witness the power he had created before it inevitably destroyed everything.
He doggedly limped through the park, only to come across Sunset’s friends, who recovered before him.
“Hey! Guys, it’s him!” Rainbow Dash called.
The girls turned their attention to Sombra, with Applejack marching over to him, grabbing him by his shirt. “Alright you! What happened to Sunset!? Where’s Starlight!?”
Black Soul covered Sombra’s body and Applejack backed off, but having been weakened, his Stand could only muster the strength to cover his chest. “I may not be in peak condition, but that doesn't mean my Stand can't still fight.” He warned. “But, I doubt you girls can say the same.”
The girls awkwardly looked away, their bluff was called before they could even pretend to say otherwise.
“As I thought.” Sombra continued. “I can’t sense the power of the Elements within you anymore, which means your Stand powers are gone.”
“That won’t stop me from kicking your butt!” Dash retorted.
“Spare me your childish outbursts. I have no interest in you, now that your powers are gone.”
“Come on, girls.” Rarity rallied, getting her friends back on task. “There’s no point fighting him now, we'll find Sunset ourselves.”
“Finding that girl should be the least of your concerns...” Sombra called.
“Excuse me?”
“There is a massive amount of magical energy close by, it's most definitely Starlight’s Stand. If we don’t stop, this world's reality will collapse.”
“I’m sure it would, but finding Sunset is our top priority. We can't do this without her.”
“Starlight's powers are rather erratic, which means she must be in a confrontation somewhere. It's possible the one she's fighting is Sunset.”
“Could you tell us where they are? Pretty please?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“What's the point? You girls are powerless without your Stands.”
“What!?” Dash objected. “Like you can do any better in your condition!”
“You’d only get in the way. You're frail bodies wouldn't even be useful as meat shields.”
“Um, excuse me.” Fluttershy spoke up. “With all due respect Mr. Sombra, but Sunset is our friend. She’s out there, risking her life, fighting a powerful enemy and if we can’t help her, the least we can do is show her our support. Knowing that her friends are okay and that they're still cheering for her, is exactly what Sunset needs right now. Her friends support saved us before and it will save us again, whether we have Stand powers or not is irrelevant.”
Sombra wasn’t in a position to criticise their blind faith in the power of friendship, after being soundly defeated by it himself, but even so, it didn't sound feasible for the Element’s powers to return to the them with just friendship alone, but after giving it a moment's thought, perhaps there was a way.
“Where is the Unicorn Arrow?” Sombra asked.
“I believe Suri had it last.” Rarity answered.
“Find it and bring it to the shopping plaza. I don't know about this power of friendship, nonsense, but that arrow may hold the key to getting your powers back.”
Those were the instructions he left Sunset’s friends before arriving on the scene of the battle between Sunset and Starlight in the ruined plaza, but he had no idea why all his previous underlings had arrived as well and neither did Sunset.
“Suri!?” Sunset called. “Last time I saw you, you were blacked out in Sombra’s room!”
“Don’t remind me. I thought I’d be wondering that nightmare forever. I have no idea how I got out.”
“I bet it had something to do with those girls giving you a run for your money, right Sombra?” Discord added, Sombra merely gave him a look of contempt.
"But, why are you all here?"
"It was our Stands." Coco explained. "They suddenly started reacting to something, like something was wrong and needed to be stopped. Our Stands helped us find the source of the disturbance and we all ended up here."
“Hey!” Starlight yelled. “What’s going on!? I thought I put at least half of you in the hospital!”
Gilda and the others paid her no mind. “Yo, Bulk. Bring Sunset over here, it's our turn.”
"YEAH!" As instructed Bulk enthusiastically used his rings to teleport Sunset to the back of the plaza, while Gilda and crew prepared for battle.
Starlight looked over the Stand users that stood before her. Seven in total, only Sombra and Sunset stayed back as they were too weak to battle Starlight head on. Discord however, opted to watch from the sidelines.
The mad diva couldn't help but gloat at the fools who dared challenge her. “It doesn’t matter how many Stand users you throw at me. My powers have ascended, risen to heights far beyond anything you idiots could ever hope for. Diva of Despair has made me immortal!”
“Shut up.” Gilda held nothing back. She pointed to Starlight, summoned her maximum of ten turrets and immediately opened fire. A storm of arrows ripped through Starlight’s body, shredding it apart.
“Woah!” Cheese yelled. “You turned her into tattered up taffy!”
Even Gilda was shocked, she thought for sure Starlight would put up a better defence than that. Her body was riddled with holes, but thanks to Birthday Train she was still alive and her body soon regenerated back to normal.
“That was a close one.” Starlight admitted. “Guess I've already figured out who to take out first.”
Starlight strolled over to Gilda who opened fire again, but this time, Freesia’s barrier kept her arrows at bay.
“You jerk!” Gilda berated, clenching her fists. “That’s Fluttershy’s move!” She unleashed an even stronger barrage of arrows, upgrading her storm to a typhoon, but even with her unstoppable firepower, Starlight switched to Birthday Train again and withstood the storm.
Starlight continued strolling over to Gilda, but was unaware of the object drilling through the ground beneath her. Coco’s Stand, Make Oneself had tunnelled underground by hardening itself. Just when Starlight charged at Gilda to attack, the cloth transformed into a rope and laid itself in front of her, tripping her up. Starlight, not paying attention to the ground, fell flat on her face.
She immediately healed her body before switching back to Freesia's barrier. Following suit, Suri’s Hunter Soul entered the hole Coco created and used it to infiltrate the barrier. Despite her protection, Starlight was still trapped within her own bubble with two enemy Stands.
Make Oneself tied itself around Starlight’s feet, locking her in place.
“What are you doing!?” Starlight demanded.
“Taking control.” Suri replied as her Stand entered Starlight’s head. She screamed and thrashed around, but Hunter Soul refused to leave. The plan seemed to be working, until Diva stepped in and promptly tore Hunter Soul from Starlight’s body, throwing it aside.
“Suri, are you okay?” Coco asked.
Suri was more than a little shaken. “Well, that hurt like heck. I figured that would be too easy. I’ll just have to do this instead.” Hunter Soul possessed the debris scattered inside the barrier. Small pieces of rock floated in the air, bombarding Starlight.
Discord was impressed with the girl’s on the fly thinking. “Not bad. They’ve trapped her inside her own barrier and if Gilda keeps up her assault, she'll rip through that protection in no time and Starlight will be soundly defeated.”
“I wish it were that simple.” Sunset added.
Sombra paid particularly close attention to how Starlight's Stand would act.
Just as predicted, as soon as Starlight felt trapped and frustrated, she used her trump card. The hands of time turned back and in the space of a split second, everything was reset to when the battle first started. She reverted time.
The other Stand users were baffled.
“Wait, what happened, did we win?” Asked Cheese.
“Didn't we have Starlight pinned down in her barrier a moment ago?” Coco questioned.
“What happened to the damage I took earlier? It feels like it never happened at all...” Suri added.
Gilda was frozen with shock, she had no idea why she was suddenly pointing toward Starlight again, they had her on the ropes just a second ago, but now everything was back to normal.
Taking advantage of their confusion, Starlight flew at top speed with Ride on Time, targeted Gilda and crashed into her, sending her flying.
Starlight laughed in glee. “I’m pretty sure I broke a few bones with that one. What’s wrong? Weren’t you going to shut me up?”
With Gilda crumpled on the ground, Starlight was free to finish her, until a sudden, gut wrenching pain pierced Starlight’s stomach. She looked down to find a dart lodged in her abdomen. With the last of her strength, Gilda summoned a final turret for one last shot.
"There... I shut you up..." Those would have been Gilda’s final words, but the shock of her stomach bleeding out, caused Starlight to immediately revert time again, to undo the damage.
Everyone returned to their original positions, with Gilda back on her feet. Starlight wasted no time and shot toward Gilda again, but one Stand user predicted her next move and took immediate action.
With a puff of smoke, a giant stage appeared over Gilda. She ducked as the stage covered her, blocking out Starlight.
“What the!?” Starlight was baffled. “Where did this thing come from!?”
An obnoxious cackle echoed throughout the plaza. Standing atop the stage was none other than The Great and Powerful Trixie.
“Ladies and Gentlemen! Watch and be amazed by The Great and Powerful Trixie’s, Great and Powerful Stand: The Midnight Carnival!”
“What!? Diva of Despair is the only Stand that deserves the title: Great and Powerful!”
“Aw, jealous that you’ve been upstaged at your own show?”
“Not if I tear the stage down!”
Starlight summoned Gimme a Break’s strength to relentlessly pummel the stage, but she soon learned it was much tougher that it appeared.
Although she was confident, Trixie was still worried that Starlight may eventually break through, based on her own experience with that Stand, but thankfully Starlight didn’t have the patience nor discipline to commit to such a task and soon wore herself out.
“What is this thing made out of!?” Starlight gasped.
Trixie laid down on her stomach to get a better view of Starlight’s struggle. “You know, I’m starting to think your Stand isn’t as powerful as you think it is.” She taunted.
“Then come down here and fight me, coward!”
“Fight you?” Trixie giggled to herself. “I’m not here to fight you, I’m just the distraction.”
“What?”
From behind Starlight, Cheese had already prepped Nothing Out of the Ordinary, turning it into a massive rocket launcher, his biggest one yet and took aim. “I call this one: The Party Crasher!”
The massive, cartoonish rocket launched itself at Starlight, the roar of its exhaust paralysed her, but just as it was about to collide... time reverted.
Cheese was dishearteningly disappointed. “What? Where’s the boom? I've been cheated out of my boom!”
Starlight laughed, amused by her adversaries troublesome, but ultimately futile, attempts at defeating her. “You idiots still haven’t fully grasped Diva of Despair's powers, yet!? I’d say you were all wasting your time, but that would be technically incorrect. Diva will keep you chuckleheads locked in the same time loop for as long as I please!”
“What do we do?” Lightning expressed, as the pressure as the futility of their actions quickly got to her. “What’s the point of all this? Even if I knew how to use Rift in the Cloud's powers to fight Starlight, it wouldn’t matter. Starlight would just hit the reset button and make it all pointless.”
“Don’t say that!” Gilda yelled. “If Dash were here she wouldn’t care how cheap her powers were. She'd find a way to break the loop, either through skill or dumb luck...”
“But, how?”
Gilda had no idea, she didn't have the guts, nor the lack of brains to be as manic and unpredictable as Rainbow Dash.
“You children need to be more observant.”
Sombra hobbled into the center of the plaza.
Starlight couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Oh, come on. What are you going to do? Glare at me?”
“An amusing insult, but funnily enough, glaring at you has been most helpful.”
“Oh? You sound confident. Still got a trick up your sleeve?”
“No trick, just an educated guess.”
“Have you really been watching me or did you pass out during the last few resets? You can’t beat me! Throw in as many Stand users as you want! Come up with as many elaborate plans as you possibly can, I’ll just revert everything back to zero again. Diva of Despair's powers are absolute!”
“Oh, I’ve been paying very close attention. I noticed it when you first reverted time, but it wasn’t until I saw it repeatedly that I was certain. So, Starlight, care to put your ultimate Stand to the test?”
“You’re bluffing, are you implying Diva of Despair has a weakness?”
Sombra made a gesture, urging her to look below. By her feet was a puddle of shadow. Although small, Black Soul was still capable of using its powers. It morphed into a blade that struck upwards, but Starlight simply sidestepped out of the way.
“Was that it? A sneak attack? I didn’t even have to revert time to avoid that one.”
“Perhaps you should have, because it wasn’t you I was aiming for.”
Starlight could feel that something was wrong, she looked up at her Stand. Black Soul’s blade had penetrated straight through Diva’s torso, but more importantly, it shattered the clock on it’s gut.
“Well, Starlight, care to revert this?” Sombra provoked.
“What?” Starlight tried, but nothing happened, the hands of time could no longer move, they were broken, no matter how hard she tried time continued marching forward.
“Whenever your Stand reverted time, it did so by turning the hands on its clock backwards, returning to the same point, with each use, down to the specific second. So I wondered, why would such a powerful Stand need such a specific set up to use its power? But, more importantly, what would happen if its hands could no longer turn? I think the results of my hypothesis speak for themselves. With Diva’s hands of time destroyed, so to is the safety net you've relied so heavily on.
So, Starlight, what will your ultimate Stand do now?”
Starlight was surrounded, but she wasn’t out of luck just yet. Her powers couldn’t be pacified so easily much to Sunset’s shock. “No! The clock is already repairing itself!”
“Unbelievable... when it's damaged, instead of reverting time, it’s reverts the damage I dealt instead.” Sombra groaned. “I’ll just have to keep destroying it, then.”
Black Soul shot its blade out from the ground again, penetrating the clock face, but this time, Diva grabbed the shadowy creature, ripped it out of the ground and tossed it back at its user.
With confirmation of how Starlight’s new powers work and with them temporarily nullified, Sunset finally had time to express her thoughts on how to counter these powers based on her own experience with them.
"Everyone regroup! I know how to counter Starlight's time reversions! Quick, while she's still recovering!" Sunset called out to the other Stand users.
"Why don't we just attack her now!?" Gilda protested.
"As long as she still has Birthday Train, attacking her is pointless. We need to use this time to prepare our next move!"
Although skeptical, Gilda and the others decided to listen.
"You really think I'll just let you leave, like that?" Starlight berated.
Utilising Lady Fascination’s power she turned the debris around her into deadly blades, planning to cut them, now that they had turned their backs on her. However, being the last to leave, Lightning Dust caught a glimpse of her sneak attack and used Rift in the Clouds’ wind to defend her allies, dispersing the projectiles.
"Stay right there, Starlight!" Lightning ordered. "Unless you want Rift's winds to rip you apart!"
"Oh, yeah!? I'd like to see you try!"
"Only if you attack us again."
"What!? Since when were you so honourable!?"
"Ever since I made the same mistake you did, but was still given a second chance. And if I got one, then so can you."
"W-what? F-fine, I'll stay right here... and let Diva throw more sharp debris instead!"
Diva pummelled the ground, creating more broken stone to use as projectiles, while Lightning defended the group with her wind.
The Stand users gathered together, curious as to what Sunset’s plan could possibly be. Gilda was especially agitated. “This better be good, Sunset.”
“Well, it's better than nothing. See, the more you back Starlight into a corner, the more dangerous she becomes. Without her safety net, she could go berserk. So, if we want to beat her, first we have to find a way to contain her destructive powers.”
“Fine... so, what’s the plan, then?”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned fighting Starlight is that she’s impatient and impulsive. The moment her time reversion powers are restored she’s going to want to use them immediately and we’re going to take advantage of that.”
“Guys.” Lightning called. “I can’t hold her back much longer...”
With the shopping plaza being so large, Rift had to create a massive whirlwind to keep Starlight locked down from all sides, but after a couple of minutes, exhaustion was already setting in.
“Stand down, Lightning.” Called Discord. A couple of minutes was thankfully, all Sunset needed to explain her plan. “I can take over from here, Sunset will fill you in on the details.”
Lightning regrouped with the others, leaving Discord alone with Starlight.
“Oh please.” Scoffed Starlight. “And what’s the old man going to do? Bore me with bad jokes?”
“With you around, telling a bad joke would be redundant.”
Starlight snapped and rushed Discord, throwing a devastating punch to his face, as his head burst into pieces.
“Ha! I guess that joke was dead on arrival.”
“Meh, five out of ten.” Discord’s mushy remains quickly returned to his neck and rebuilt his head, good as new.
“What!? I’m supposed to be the only one here with immortality!”
“You never did understand Good Manners and Customs. Perhaps if you hadn’t run away like a spoiled brat, you would have figured my Stand out by now.”
“Quiet!” Starlight thrusted her fist through Discord’s stomach, but he was hardly bothered about it.
“I never could stomach noisy children.”
“Stop!”
“Oh, don’t be so gutless.”
“STOP!”
“What’s wrong? Having trouble digesting the situation?”
Starlight screamed in fury as magic built up inside her, her eyes glowing a pure white. Discord wasn’t sure what was happening, but before he knew it, Starlight threw all her built up magic into a charged smash that blew him to pieces. Even Starlight wasn’t sure what she just did, but as long it kept Discord quiet she didn’t care.
The small pieces of Discord retreated to the back of the plaza, where Trixie had set up her stage, once again. It was then that Starlight watched as the Discord pieces hid underneath the stage and deduced that the other Stand users must be hiding under there as well.
She flew over and scanned the entire stage, but couldn’t find a way to break in and she didn’t want to waste the energy trying to force herself inside.
“Ready for the final show, Starlight?” Trixie asked having suddenly appeared on the stage in a puff of smoke.
“Final? Are you implying that I’m going to lose?”
“Well, it’s not like you’ve had any luck defeating us so far.”
“Excuse me!?”
“You’re free to take to the stage and prove me wrong.”
Insulted, Starlight took Trixie's bait, eager to wipe that cocky grin from her face. In a few seconds her powers would be restored, so she had nothing to lose. The moment she landed on the front of the stage the barrier appeared.
“Trying to trap me?” Starlight laughed.
“Just making sure you won’t wuss out when you lose. After all, all you’ve got to do is beat me and the show's over.”
“You really think this barrier is enough to keep my power contained?”
A sudden vortex of wind wrapped around the stage.
“Now what?”
“Just another precaution. Can’t have you flying away crying, when you lose, I mean.”
Starlight suddenly burst into laughter again, confusing Trixie.
"What's so funny!? Don't mock Trixie!"
"Diva of Despair’s clock is fully restored." Starlight explained. "Which means my time reversions are back and as long as I have these powers, you don't stand a chance at beating me! I don't care what tricks you have up your sleeve, Trixie, your efforts are worthless before my powers!"
“Alright, Trixie gets it! And they call me a blabber mouth...”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Starlight rushed Trixie and threw a punch so hard it disintegrated her entire being.
“All talk, as I thought...” But, even though Trixie was defeated, the stage remained.
With a puff of smoke, Trixie reappeared on the other side of the stage, applauding Starlight for her efforts. “Nice punch, although it pales in comparison the spectacular beating Applejack gave me.”
“What!? How did you survive that!? I punched you out of existence!”
“A magician never reveals her secrets.”
Upset by such trickery, Starlight rushed her again, but right as she got close, Trixie spawned a large ring in front of her which Starlight tumbled into, falling through it and landing face first onto the stage.
“Whuh? How did-?” She looked up and saw a second ring above her. She knew she'd seen this power before, but couldn’t remember from who.
“And now, ladies and gentlemen, watch and be amazed as The Great and Powerful Trixie reveals her greatest trick yet! Behold, my second Stand!”
Above Trixie, a large, hulking being with large arms and no lower half hovered over her.
“No...” Starlight was stunned in disbelief. “That’s impossible, I recognise that Stand. That’s Bulk’s! But, how!? How are you wielding it!?”
“Magic, duh.”
“That didn’t answer my question! I’m the only who’s allowed to use more than one Stand power!” Starlight charged Trixie again, but was tripped up suddenly and fell again. She looked over to see a familiar, red cloth behind her.
“That cloth again!? Trixie, are you doing this, too!?”
“Who can say?”
Trixie’s smug attitude was grating on Starlight’s nerves, she’d never seen Trixie’s Stand before and was completely bewildered as to what its powers could possibly be.
She switched tactics and opted to use a ranged attack with Ride on Time to cut Trixie down. Trixie simply stood there and took it, as she was sliced in half. Both she and Burly Heart disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared behind Starlight.
“I got you now!” Trixie went on the attack, but before she could land a hit, time reverted.
The two returned to their original positions on the stage, the barrier still up and the vortex still raging above them.
Starlight’s patience was rapidly wearing thin, she was amused at first, but Trixie's attempts at defeating her had already gotten tedious. “I don’t know many times I need to repeat this, but it doesn't matter how many Stands you have, Diva of Despair has no weakness!”
“Really?” Trixie retorted. “I think you’re just talking big because you’re terrified of losing. Why else would you rely so heavily on resetting the fight as soon as you got into a little trouble?”
“With my powers, I don’t need to be afraid of anything!”
“You should be...” Trixie pointed down to the black shadow underneath Starlight, just like earlier Black Soul dove out of the ground in the form of a sharp blade and pierced through Starlight’s stomach.
She was so caught up in Trixie’s smack-talk she barely had time to react with Birthday Train’s invincibility. She was about to revert time again, before her injury crippled her, but there wasn’t any pain, or blood for that matter.
That’s when Starlight figured out the trick. “An illusion? It’s an illusion!?”
Trixie was unfazed by her realisation. “Oh dear, I’ve been found out.”
“Looks like you carelessly revealed your hand. These Stands aren’t real, they’re just fakes!”
“You got me, none of the Stands my Stage summons can actually harm you, but I still have access to all their powers.”
“But, how are you accessing them?”
“My, you’re looking a little flustered, maybe you should cool off.” The vortex of clouds dumped a stream of rain over Starlight’s head. It didn’t help her cool off at all.
Starlight’s magic exploded again, with an intense sparkling aura. “I'VE HAD IT WITH YOUR STUPID GAMES! I’M RIPPING THIS STAGE APART!”
“Alright, you need a time out.” Trixie opened a trap door and dropped Starlight inside. Her anger immediately subsided, replaced with bewilderment.
She fell on something, but couldn’t make out what it was in the darkness. Whatever it was, it wasn’t happy with Starlight using it to break her fall. Starlight had no idea what Trixie had planned for her under the stage, but having been robbed of her sight, she couldn’t be bothered to deal with it and reverted time, again.
“I hope that wasn’t your best shot.” Starlight berated. “I’d say your tricks were a waste of time, but thanks to my powers, they can’t even accomplish that.”
“Bleugh! Now you're repeating jokes, too? I need to shut you up.” Trixie manifested, Cheese’s Stand and transformed it into his trusty Party Crasher.
Starlight wasn’t impressed. “What are you doing? I already know those illusions, can’t hurt me.”
“Then you should have no problem taking this rocket head on then, right?”
“I don’t know what kind of bizarre mind games you’re trying to play, but you can’t fool me. You already revealed you Stand’s weakness. That rocket can’t hurt me!”
“Alright, but when this is all over, you'll only have yourself to blame.”
Trixie fired the rocket. Starlight was confident that no harm would befall her, but a split second before the rocket detonated, she immediately regretted her decision.
The rocket exploded, the force of which threw Starlight to the front of the stage, smashing her back against the barrier. Bloodied and bruised all over, she was so overwhelmed by the pain she could barely comprehend the damage she sustained, her only hope was to revert time before she completely blacked out.
Although her wounds were now nonexistent after the reset, her heart was still racing from her near death experience. She had no sarcastic quips, or cocky comments, she was in utter shock.
“WHAT!? HOW!?” She wailed, still breathing heavily. “First your powers were an illusion and now they’re not!? I don’t understand! How do you keep doing this!? Your stupid stage makes no sense! And why is my immortality only working some of the time!? Are you doing that, too!?”
Starlight was falling apart, she fell to her knees in despair. She thought Diva of Despair was so powerful that she could just steamroll her way through anyone who dared challenge her, but now she wasn’t even sure if she knew how her own Stand even worked anymore.
“Looks like we finally broke you, Starlight.” From behind the back curtains, Sunset stepped onto the stage.
“Sunset!” Trixie yelled. “My assistant isn’t supposed to be on stage, unless I request her assistance, hence the name: assistant.”
“It’s fine, Trixie. I think we’ve made our point.”
Starlight looked up at Sunset. “You... were you the one behind all of this!?”
“Yeah, I was.”
Trixie was a little peeved that Sunset revealed their trick so early, but at this point it didn’t seem to matter.
“I used Sky’s power to absorb Cheese’s Stand and then I just handed it to Trixie. Trixie may have been the one wielding it, but I was the one firing it.”
Starlight stood back up. “Thanks, although it’s pretty stupid of you to reveal your strategy to me.”
“I don’t think you’ve fully grasped the situation you’re in. Stands aren't the only thing The Midnight Carnival can replicate.”
“Oh, I know exactly what situation I’m in and I already know how to get out of it!” Starlight set out Ride on Time to slice Sunset to pieces, but just like Trixie, the moment it landed a hit, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
“What!? Again!?”
Sunset immediately reappeared next to Trixie. “It replicates people, too and that's just one of many combinations we have at our disposal. That one mistake with the Party Crasher, nearly destroyed you. With the power of all of our friends’ Stands combined, there are hundreds of possibilities at our disposal and you’ll never be able to predict them all.
Which Stands are fake and which Stands are real? Should I defend myself or is this just another ruse? Should I attack this person, or are they a fake, too? Those will be the thoughts tormenting your mind as you struggle to fight back against an infinite number of ever shifting strategies and possibilities.
Which is in stark contrast to your Stand. Diva of Despair is incapable of combining its powers, whenever you use one of my friend's Stands, the others become inactive. You can’t use them all at once, all you can do is switch between them and pray you've made the right choice for the current situation.”
“S-so? Who cares if my immortality only lasts as long as Birthday Train is active. Who cares if I have to leave myself vulnerable in order to use any of my offensive powers. Even if you score a lucky hit, I’ll always be able to revert time. You can’t defeat me no matter how many “possibilities” you have!”
“Your time reversion powers have already been completely dismantled. Sombra already proved how they can be nullified and with all the Stand combinations at our disposal it's only a matter of time before we eventually catch you out. Even if you revert time, you’ll be brought right back onto the stage, trapped in an eternal loop. Your defeat isn’t a possibility, it an inevitability.”
Starlight's nerves snapped, she was running the numbers in her head as the realisation started to slowly seep in. She was truly trapped, locked into an unwinnable situation by her own Stand powers, defeat was her only hope of escape. She cried in anguish and immediately started pounding against the barrier, desperately trying to break through it, with no success.
“LET ME OUT!” She screamed, but nothing changed. She tried flying out of the stage only for Rift in the Cloud’s wind to blow her back down again, she ran to the stage curtain, but the barrier was there, too. She was completely sealed in.
In a blind rage she made a break for Sunset, but Sunset had more than one power aiding her, as she summoned Burly Heart to create two ring portals. Starlight, unable to slow herself down, flew into the first one and then out the second, her momentum then carried her back into the first one again. She repeatedly flew out one ring and into the other, trapped in another, endless loop.
“Geez.” Trixie lamented. “That was a bit harsh, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know, I think it’s rather appropriate.”
The girls watched as Starlight flew helplessly through the ring portals, her will completely broken. She couldn’t even bring herself to revert time as it would only lead to more misery.
“Sunset, it’s time.” Sombra stepped onto the stage, giving the signal for the final phase of the plan.
Sunset understood and headed behind the curtain. Backstage, Sunset’s friends had finally arrived with the Unicorn Arrow.
“Sorry it took so long.” Rainbow Dash explained. “The arrow was back at Sombra's hideout and then we got lost or something? It felt like we were passing the same buildings like ten times.”
“I’m just glad you’re all okay.” Sunset responded.
Sombra hurried them along. “Yes, yes. You can do your friendship talk later. We can’t keep this barrier down for long.”
Dash quickly handed the arrow to Sombra who entrusted it to Sunset.
“Are you sure this will work?” Sunset asked.
“The Unicorn Arrow is designed to unleash the magical potential within you, but if that magic is stolen by someone else, then it only makes sense that the arrow would be able to release those powers from their captor and return them to their rightful owners.”
“And you’ve tested this, right?”
“Not at all, but it should work... theoretically...”
"Well, it's our only hope, now."
Sunset hurried back onto the stage and dropped Starlight out of the ring loop. Still dazed from the never-ending ride, Sunset handed the arrow to Sky Should Be High, who rammed it directly into Starlight’s chest.
“Ow! What!?” Starlight tugged at the arrow, but it refused to come out. A bright light radiated from her chest, causing her to freak out again, as she desperately tried to pull the arrow out.
“What is it doing to me!? My magic’s going haywire!”
“It’s returning the powers you stole from my friends!”
In a frantic struggle, Starlight eventually pulled the arrow out of her body, causing her powers to become dangerously unstable.
“Trixie! Lower your barrier again!” Sunset ordered.
With the barrier down, Sunset proceeded to use Burly Heart’s strength to catapult Starlight out of the Stage, sending her straight across the plaza through the entrance of the mall.
“Wow, you really sent her flying.”
“I just hope that was enough to calm her down.”
Suddenly, the mall was engulfed in a towering light that pierced into the sky. A destructive magical force ripped the entire building to shreds, tearing apart the ground beneath it, as the pillar of light expanded, causing chaos and destruction to the surrounding area as reality began splitting apart at the seams.
“Uh oh..."