Rise of the Equestrians

by Doodle Note

Chapter 14: The Castle of the Alliance Part 1

"We made it." Sunset said. "The Castle of the Alliance."

Petra rubbed her eyes. "We're here already?"

"Looks like it."

The gang got off the horses and started walking up to the castle.

Spike looked up at the castle as he jumped off the horse. "I remember this place. It reminds me of the time we met Sunset."

"If I had a reaction of this castle, it could be 'whooooooa'." Lukas said.

"Well, at least you fully recovered from all that lightning." Rainbow replied. "That's a good sign."

Lukas laughed.

As the gang walked up to castle, they hid after they saw Changelings standing guard.

"Great. Now we have Changelings." Jesse whispered.

"How are we going to get in without getting caught?" Olivia asked.

Spike turned and saw a hatch in the ground. "Maybe that hatch." He said pointing to it.

The others turned to the hatch and walked up to it.

Twilight picked up Spike and patted his head. "Good boy, Spike."

Applejack opened the hatch and saw a ladder going down. "Now that is deep."

Jesse looked at the others. "Who would like to go first?"

Pinkie raised her hand. "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Me!" She ran to the hatch and started climbing down the ladder.

Axel followed and climbed down. Twilight picked up Spike and climbed down.

---

"Um, hi there." Sonata said in a kind tone. (Even if she's still evil on the inside) "I was just wondering how you are doing. I just want to have a small talk with you. Okay, I'll go first. I'm Sonata Dusk, a member of the Alliance of Darkness. What I love about my job is that I get to keep people hostage! And I get to torture them! Well, that's just one thing I like about my job. And I have friends. Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze, the best friends I've ever had! So, what's your name, little heart?"

Sonata was talking to a red glowing heart, which is a human heart.

"You like to build, you said?" Sonata asked. "What a coincidence! I love building too! And you make things out of ordinary things? You're awesome, little human heart! Can you tell me more about the Formida-Bomb? Uh huh. Uh huh. You are amazing! We're gonna be great friends!"

"Sonata!" A voice yelled.

Sonata turned and saw Adagio behind her. "Yes?"

"Why are you talking to the human heart?" Adagio crossed her arms.

"I just wanted to have a small conversation." Sonata explained.

"Sonata, you know how things work here. We're only doing this for revenge. Once we raise the Supernova, we will finally take down every single human and soon-"

"We'll resume the war?"

Adagio sighed. "Yes. We'll resume the war. And once we do, we will soon-"

"Grow victorious, send the Equestrians to the underground and watch them suffer?"

"Yes. And once we see them suffer-"

"We'll be the only living people on this planet?"

"STOP FINISHING EVERY SENTENCE I MAKE, SONATA!" Adagio yelled.

Sonata went silent, but then smiled and spoke again. "Okay." She turned back to the heart. "So, where were we?"

---

The gang were now walking in a dark tunnel under the castle.

"Axel, you stepped on my foot!" Olivia yelled with annoyance and pain.

"Sorry. It's just dark." Axel replied. "I can't even see."

"You're not the only one." Rainbow said.

"I know a solution!" Pinkie exclaimed as her hair lit up, putting the Order in awe.

"How did you do that?" Lukas wanted to know.

"It's one of my abilities." Pinkie continued walking with the others following her.

"Okay. That is now part of my weirdest-things-I've-seen-in-my-entire-life list." Jesse added. "Things get even weirder everyday."

"Pinkie is just being Pinkie." Sunset replied.

Twilight turned to Spike. "Stay close, Spike."

The gang stopped and saw a wall with a ladder in front of them.

Spike looked up and saw another hatch. "Looks like a way out of this tunnel."

Sunset walked up to the ladder and started climbing it as she grabbed the hatch and opened it. She poked her head and saw herself in an empty hallway, then looked down at the others. "All clear."

The others started climbing the ladder up to the hallway. As everyone completely climbed up, they closed the hatch. Then they saw six paths.

"Looks like we need to split up. Again." Olivia said.

Sunset turned to the others. "Applejack, you take Olivia. Fluttershy, you're taking Rara. Pinkie, you get to take your super-close friend. AKA, Axel. Rarity, Petra goes with you. Rainbow, you're going with Lukas. Twilight, Spike, you two are a team. I'll stick with Jesse."

The others nodded and went separate ways.

Sunset and Jesse walked in the middle right hallway.

Jesse turned to Sunset and saw the gloomy look on her face. "You must be very familiar with this place."

"That's because I remember growing up here." Sunset said. "I lived here for the rest of my childhood. I even remember my first battle with the guardians. And the time I kept Starlight prisoner."

"Hey. That's all in the past."

"Speaking of, my past started with light and harmony. No problems, no fights, no grudges held by me. I had some scrapes and scratches that my mother always takes care of. And my dad was the guardian of the family and he encouraged me to follow my dreams to be the greatest fighter he was. Mom would always tuck me in at night when I was little. But then one day when I was walking home from my last day of school, I started hearing rumors about my parents saying that they vanished. I didn't believe that was true, but days later of waiting for them to return, there was no sign of them. So my decision was made, and I stormed off to find them. And you already know the rest of my story."

"Well, Sunset, you're not the only one who lost someone."

Sunset looked at Jesse. "Hm?"

"Well, I don't know how to say this, but on the day my friends and I took down the Wither Storm, I lost a good pet of mine. His name was Reuben and he was a pig. The greatest pig I had in my entire life."

"You had a pig for a pet?" Sunset laughed. "What are you? Crazy?"

"Call me crazy all you want, but yes. We were inside the Wither Storm because it's only weak spot is a powerful block called the Command Block, which was inside the Wither Storm itself. I took two hits on the Command Block, but as I was going for the last hit, I dropped my sword. But Reuben managed to fetch it for me, but then the Wither Storm took hold of Reuben, then the little guy fell out. But as I hit the Command Block one last time, I fell. Then it exploded, and I fell into the water. Then I found Reuben, hurt. And then, I lost him."

Sunset wore a face of pity. "Jesse. I'm sorry. He was a great pig."

"I know. But what I know is that he'll always be in my heart, forever."

"I guess we only have one thing in common." Sunset said. "We lost the people we know and love the most."

Jesse stopped walking, then Sunset stopped with him.

"Are you okay?"

Jesse turned to Sunset and hugged her, putting Sunset in shock. "I guess we're not that different after all."

Sunset smiled and hugged him back. "Yeah."

---

Queen Chrysalis, a woman with dark skin, long dark cerulean hair and her sclera was bright green and the color of her eyes were green, and she was wearing a dark green dress, a black crown with teal gems, and green flats, was holding a crystal ball watching Sunset and Jesse hugging as she watched them break away and continue walking. "Oh. Looks like Sunset Shimmer made a new friend."

King Sombra, a man with pitch black hair and his sclera was green and the color of his eyes were red with purple wisps flowing out wearing red and silver armor and silver headgear watched. "I can smell a bond within that traitor and that human. I can sense it growing stronger. I can see the future within the two."

Lord Tirek, a man with white hair and a beard and with sclera was black and the color of his eye were yellow wearing silver armor and red gloves laughed. "Sunset Shimmer is here? That traitor is here with a human? Ha! Wonder what's she's going to do. Take back good ol' Luna, I guess." He pulled out a dark blue heart. "But we have her heart right here. And with every heart we needed, we will soon raise the Supernova and soon revenge will be ours! It's obvious that an Equestrian's heart is much powerful than a regular human heart, because the human heart is weak! But we still need that heart. But since we have that heart from that cowardly architect, we now have 100 hearts for our secret weapon!"

A prisoner pounded on a cell door from inside the cell. "None of you will never get away with this!"

"Oh, foolish human, we already have." Chrysalis said. "Aria Blaze!"

Aria went into the room. "You called?"

"Get the prisoner out of here and put him somewhere else. We want peace and quiet."

Aria walked to the cell and opened it. "Alright, you're coming with me."

---

"Does it blow up?" Pinkie asked.

"Yep." Axel answered.

"Is it red?"

"Yep."

"Is it used by griefers?"

"Yep."

"Can it destroy anything?"

"Yep."

"Is it TNT?"

"You are correct!"

Pinkie squealed with joy. "Nailed it! Okay! My turn!"

"Is it scary?" Axel asked.

"Uh huh." Pinkie answered.

"Is it white?"

"Uh huh?"

"Does it hold a bow?"

"Uh huh."

"Is it part of our system?"

"Uh huh."

"Is it a skeleton?"

"It is!"

Axel laughed. "You know, Pinkie, you're the coolest super-close friend I've ever had."

Pinkie smiled. "Aw. Thanks, bestie. Want to hear a joke?"

"Sure."

Pinkie cleared her throat. "What did the human say to the Enderman?"

"I don't know."

"Wanna go to my house? I'm a few 'blocks' away."

Axel laughed hardly.

Then Pinkie joined along.

Axel smiled. "Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"Who do you think?"

Pinkie laughed. "Not bad! Not bad at all!"

---

Applejack turned to Olivia. "So, what does all that redstone do?"

"It's a kind of element used to create redstone torches, repeaters and many useful things." Olivia said.

"Oh."

"Ever used redstone before?"

"No, but my little sister, Apple Bloom, used it for her project for a building competition at her school. And she got an A+ on it. She even won in first place!"

"Who won second place?" Olivia asked.

"One of her classmates, Button Mash." Applejack answered. "He made a real cannon out of wood and used nothing but a lever to shoot out a pumpkin."

Olivia laughed. "You know, for someone with super strength, you're a very great and honest friend."

Applejack smiled.

---

Petra and Rarity walking out of the hallway into a large, quiet and empty room of the castle leaving a door open.

"This place sure is quiet." Petra said. "And dark. And creepy. And so large."

Rarity placed a finger on her chin. "This place looks quite, I don't know, familiar."

"Why?" Petra asked.

"This place reminds me of the time I was fighting Adagio." Rarity explained. "It was just me and her."

The door behind them slams closed by itself, getting their attention.

"That was odd." Petra said.

"Why, hello." A voice behind them said menacingly.

The two turned seeing Adagio far away from them.

Rarity glared. "Adagio Dazzle."

"Why hello, Rarity." Adagio said. "Did you miss me?"

Rarity clenched her fist. "I bet you want another fight."

Adagio laughed. "Oh yes. But this time, I prefer fighting with the human."

Petra glared and walked, but Rarity stopped her.

"Petra, what are you doing?" Rarity whispered.

"Listen, it's me she wants." Petra whispered back pulling out her sword. "All I have to do is slash her and that's it."

Rarity shook her head. "Using weapons made by humans is worthless." She took our her gem and lent it to Petra. "It's better to use my crystal for now. I insist!"

Petra nodded and took the crystal from Rarity, then slowly walked up to Adagio. She lit her hands with the purple light as gauntlets made of magic appeared on her hands. Petra was shocked, but she felt ready. "I'm ready."

Adagio laughed and took off her cloak, revealing her black, orange, purple and yellow armor. "Just as I expected." After she spoke, she started singing.

Step aside, Blade
Don't you try
Bet you never fought a siren like me before
Just step over the line
Just get over here and have a bad time
Go ahead, don't follow the rules
Give all you got, make yourself look like a fool
Let's go, me versus you
Think you have strength? Oh, ha! Me too

A circle of light formed around the two as Petra ran to fight Adagio. She tried to punch Adagio, but she kept dodging each of Petra's attacks.

Go ahead and try to hit me if you're able
Can't you notice that my powers are so stable?

Adagio lit her hands with a red light.

Go ahead and try to stop yourself from dying
I can sense that you're not even trying

Petra growled with anger, thinking that what Adagio said was an insult. She was about to hit her, but Adagio lifted Petra with magic and threw her to a wall.

You're not gonna win, stay down forever
You look strong with you and friends together

Adagio made a spear out of her magic and ran up to Petra.

Try to break me apart, let's see how far you've come
But I'll be twice as powerful than you are

Petra weakly opened her eyes and saw Adagio run up to her with her spear.

You must be made
O-o-o-o-of
Lo-o-o-o-ove
O-o-o-o-oh

Adagio was about to stab Petra with the spear, but Petra grabbed it and kicked Adagio away.

Petra got up on her feet, using the spear to support herself. She looked around for Adagio and started walking with the spear. She looked up and saw Adagio floating above her using magic.

"Oh, human." Adagio laughed. "You and your determination. It's so weak to fight a siren like me."

"Say whatever you want." Petra growled pointing the spear at Adagio. "I'm not afraid of you! Go ahead! Come at me!"

Rarity just watched the fight.

Adagio continued singing.

This is where it starts
This is where it ends
If you think you can beat me,
Then I think you need your friends

Adagio floated down.

Because I have a feeling
That you'll never die
Go ahead and try to stop me
I would like to see you try

Petra and Adagio ran to each other to fight.

Adagio grabbed Petra's fists.

Go ahead and try to hit me if you're able
Guess you've really known that mercy's off the table

The two broke away as Adagio started floating again and lit her hands.

Guess how much I love the way you are stressed out
But we both know what this battle is all about

Adagio started shooting magic, seeing Petra dodge each of her attacks.

I can tell how you've come so far
I can even tell just what you have

Adagio carried Petra with her magic again and slammed her on a pillar three times.

You have the fury
You have the patience
You have determination

Adagio deactivated her magic and dropped Petra as Petra fell to the ground.

You must be made
O-o-o-o-of
Lo-o-o-o-ove
O-o-o-o-oh
But I'm stronger than you

Petra was about to get up, but Adagio pinned her down with her foot.

Adagio lit her hand with magic and was about to finish Petra, but Rarity stopped her when she threw a snowball at her face. She turned to Rarity, who was now holding her ice spear.

"Leave. Her. Alone." Rarity growled.

Adagio laughed and walked away from the room. "Next time, Rarity. Next time." She walked out of the room.

Rarity ran to Petra and held her head. "Oh my, please be okay!"

Petra weakly opened her eyes and coughed. "Okay. That hurt."

Rarity sighed on relief. "Thank goodness you're still alive."

Petra sat up. "She was too powerful for me. And why did she just break into song?"

Rarity shrugged.

Petra took out Rarity's gem.

Rarity took it from Petra and slipped it into her pocket. "Let's hope you'll heal."

"Yeah."

---

"And that is the story of how I won my first tournament in Cloudsdale." Rainbow said. "I was determined to prove myself that I was worthy enough to be like the other Cloudsdale residents."

"Whoa. You have one heck of a history, Rainbow." Lukas replied.

Rainbow laughed. "I hate to brag about it, but I am the tough one of all the other guardians.

"Wow. You're pretty cool."

"You mean 20% cooler?" Rainbow asked.

"Yeah. 20% cooler. Whatever that means."

Rainbow laughed and wrapped her arm around Lukas. "Dude, once we finally get rid of the Alliance for good, everyone in Equestria will so know your name. They will soon even know your friends. And soon, everyone in the whole wide world will know that a group of humans saved Equestria with the Guardians of Equestria." Rainbow sighed. "I can feel that turning into reality right now!"

Lukas laughed. "Well, can't wait for that to-"

Rainbow stopped Lukas. "Hear that? That is the future audience calling our names."

"All I hear is silence."

"Exactly."

The two turned and saw a door next to them.

"Looks like a way out of this dark tunnel." Rainbow walked up to the door and grabbed the knob.

"Wait, Rainbow." Lukas said. "What if it's a trap? What if a Changeling is in there? It could be a death trap."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Chill out, you big wimp." As she opened the door and walked into the room, she saw a whole bunch of large blue crystals.

Lukas joined Rainbow. "What are these things?"

"These are Crystal Prisons. These were used in the Crystal Empire."

"The what Empire?" Lukas was confused.

"It's an empire made with nothing but crystals, which is how the empire got it's name. Cadance and Shining Armor reigns there."

"Strange." Lukas mumbled.

Rainbow turned to one of them as she walked up to the Crystal Prison and wiped the fog off, revealing that Spitfire was inside. "General Spitfire!"

Lukas turned to Rainbow. "They got Spitfire?"

"Something tells me they took her heart." Rainbow looked around. "Wait," She started counting the prisons. "That's 98. Which means Luna must be," Rainbow paused, then spoke again. "She's inside the Supernova!"

"Why would they put her in there?!" Lukas yelled.

"How am I suppose to know?!" Rainbow yelled back.

The two turned and saw a Changeling at the door, who was looking at them.

The Changeling slowly backed up.

"Oh, no you don't!" Rainbow ran up to the Changeling and shot him with lightning. Then she grabbed his shirt. "Tell me, where is the Supernova?!"

---

Jesse and Sunset kept walking in the hallway they were in. They couldn't tell how long they were walking. They thought it could be minutes or hours. As they kept walking and walking, they stopped when they saw a pit in front of them.

"Oh, that looks deep." Jesse said in a tone of anxiety.

Sunset bent down on one knee and looked down at the pit. "I still remember this. I was always curious about this pit. What's down there, how deep is it, where does it lead to." She lets out a sigh. "But it's about time that I know. But I don't know if it's just a bottomless pit or not. We have to throw something down."

Jesse pulled out a stone block and tossed it into the pit and started counting. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9," He heard splashing from the pit. "Looks like nine seconds deep. I guess we should go down there. But who is going down first?"

Sunset looked at Jesse.

"Seriously?"

Sunset carried Jesse with her magic and carried him slowly into the pit.

Jesse closed his eyes. "Don't look down, Jesse. Don't look down. Don't. Look. Down." He opened one of his eyes and saw some water below him and laughed. "Well, what do you know? There's water down-"

Sunset deactivated her magic, dropping Jesse into the water. Then she jumped in. As she plopped into the water, she opened her eyes seeing little blue glowing dots floating around. She turned to Jesse, who was now shocked about the little blue glowing dots. She looked down and saw a hole that was sucking water in and pointed.

Jesse turned to what Sunset was pointing at and swam to the hole as it sucked him in.

Sunset followed, also getting sucked into the hole.

---

The two were pushed out of another hole.

Sunset looked up and saw the surface above. As she turned to Jesse, she saw his face turning purple, which meant he was running out of air. She quickly swam to Jesse, grabbed him, and swam up to the surface.

Then the two finally reached the surface and poked their heads out of the water. They walked out of the water and lied on the ground, catching their breath.

"What? What were those things?" Jesse asked trying to catch his breath. "What were those blue glowing dots?"

"Those were Aqua Stars." Sunset answered. "Only found in the waters of Equestria. You can't see them above water, but you can see them underwater. They only appear at night or when it's dark."

Jesse sighed. "That's another weird thing I've seen in my entire life. But how can you even manage to hold your breath for an eternity?"

"Us Equestrians are very different to humans. We can do the impossible and make it, well, possible. We're just a strong type of super human, but we have different powers, colors of blood and a different color of heart. Also different genetics. Which explains why we have colorful hair and eyes. We're much different than any other super human." Sunset sat up and placed her knees on her chest. "And us Equestrians found out that every human is special in their own way. But you, you're more special. Even you're friends."

Jesse sat up and smiled. "Well, you might be just a regular super human that's a former member of an Alliance of Darkness, but you're special too."

Sunset looked at Jesse. "You really mean that?"

Jesse nodded.

Sunset smiled. "Thank you, Jesse."

The two got up and continued walking as they found a door in front of them.

Sunset grabbed the knob of the door and opened it, revealing a library.

The two walked inside the library.

Jesse walked up to one of the shelves and started looking at some books. "History of Equestria. Equestrian Prophecies. The Tale of Nightmare Moon? Sunset, who's Nightmare Moon?"

"She was Luna's dark side." Sunset said. "I forgot to mention that Luna was once corrupted by the Alliance until she fought Nightmare off and got herself out of corruption."

"Huh. I guess Luna was always a goodie goodie and always goes against her bad side." Jesse said.

"You can say that."

"Well, I'm gonna keep poking around." Jesse walked away from Sunset.

Sunset started walking, looking around at each shelf of the library. She still remembered what Jesse said when they were in the hallways. She sighed. "Yeah. Not that different after all. I mean, I'd call us friends, but I'm not sure if he actually trusts me like Celestia did. Well, we have one thing in common. I lost my parents, he lost his pig, we might lost different people doesn't mean we're not the same. Well, we both think we're special. That's another thing I heard from him." As she looked in front of herself, she stopped seeing a girl with white and blue hair wearing black, purple and blue armor looking for a book.

"Where is it?" The girl asked herself. "Where could it be?"

Sunset shook her head. "No. No. No." She backed up. "Trixie?"

The girl looked behind her and saw Sunset. "Hello, old friend."

---

Jesse was looking at every book in every shelf. "Magic and Alchemy. The Tale of Discord. History of the Crystal Empire." One book caught Jesse's eye and he pulled it out. "The Harmony Circle?" He sat down as he opened the book and started reading it.

Long ago, the founder of Equestria, Starswirl the Bearded, walked into a cave and found a symboled circle on the walls of the cave. It stated seven Equestrians and five humans, the seven Equestrians, a Silent Shadow, a pacifist, a party-goer, an Ice Queen, a storm controller, and someone with the powers of an Enderman, and a former member of evil, and the five humans, a warrior, a redstone engineer, a griefer, an architect, and a leader, will step into this circle. The symbols on the circle were an apple, a butterfly, a balloon, a diamond, a lightning bolt, a six-pointed star, the setting sun, a sword, a piece of redstone, TNT, a bow, and the amulet of the Order of the Stone. With these symbols, they will take down the Supernova and bring peace to Equestria once more. And soon the races between humans and Equestrians will be pure harmony.

Jesse closed the book and got up. "I better go check on Sunset."

---

"Trixie, I know I have betrayed you and the others, but I wasn't meaning for this to happen." Sunset said. "Please, you have to understand. I don't want war. I want peace!"

"Oh, Shimmer, you and your merciful actions." Trixie replied. "You know you can't force a happy ending to occur. Mercy is not going to save you from your own misery. You think mercy is going to help? I don't think so. But too bad I have to destroy you."

Sunset pulled out her sword, but Trixie used magic to slap it out of her grasp. "Trixie, please! I don't want this!"

"Oh, shut up and hold still."

"Leave her alone." A voice scolded.

Trixie turned and saw Jesse holding his sword. "You. You're that human who helped Twilight escape!"

"Why, yes." Jesse said. "I am."

Trixie pulled out her sword and ran to fight Jesse. "Foolish human! You are nothing but a pathetic weakling!"

"Call me a weakling all you want, Lulamoon. I'm not letting you go anywhere!"

"I'm not letting her go either." Sunset said pulling out her sword.

"Good."

Sunset ran to Trixie and slashed her away from Jesse. "Trixie, I know I betrayed you, but I'm not that girl anymore! That girl is dead! And she's never coming back!"

"You are no match for the Alliance of Darkness!" Trixie yelled. "Not you! Not the guardians! Not Celestia! Not anyone! Don't make us the villains of your story, Shimmer."

Sunset clenched her sword. "You already are."

"You might have attacked my home, but I won't let you destroy my kind!" Jesse yelled. "I'm not letting Sunset's kind be destroyed either!"

Trixie laughed. "Your determination isn't going to help, human."

"Listen, I have been called a loser, encountered a Wither Storm for the first time, went into the Nether, walked into the temple of the last Order of the Stone, went to Boom Town, got locked up, almost got killed from a grinder, walked into the End, disguised myself as an Enderman, used Super TNT to take down the Wither Storm, but failed, walked into the Far Lands, almost got attacked by witches, got trapped, had to solve some puzzles, discovered the secrets of the last Order, got this super-cool armor, had to use Endermen on the Wither Storm, got thrown inside the Wither Storm, destroyed a Command Block and lost my freaking pig! But all of that was just my first adventure with my friends, and now with Sunset, I'm starting a new one!"

"And why do you think that?" Trixie asked.

"Because I'm the freaking leader of the Order of the Stone!" Jesse ran to Trixie to fight her.

Trixie pushed Jesse away and ran to Sunset, who pulled out her sword and blocked every attack Trixie gave to her.

"Give it up, Shimmer!" Trixie yelled. "You have no right to be a fighter!"

"Make me!" Sunset yelled back pushing Trixie away from her. "I'm not afraid of you!"

Trixie laughed. "Don't tempt your future, Shimmer. You honestly think you can fight us without those pesky guardians you call friends? You can't even fight all by yourself."

"True, but I'm not alone. I have Jesse! He has more power inside of him and more potential no one in Equestria has ever seen."

"I'm not afraid to prove to you that Sunset is correct!" Jesse yelled clenching his sword.

Trixie dropped her sword and lit her hands with magic. "Bring it on!" She started shooting magic at Sunset, seeing her dodge every attack she was given. She turned to Jesse and lit her hand once more. "This one's for you, human!" She threw a ball of magic at Jesse, but Sunset made a force field around him as the ball of magic ricocheted off the shield and started bouncing around the library, then back at Trixie, who fell over.

"You're not going anywhere, Trixie." Sunset growled.

Trixie got up and smiled. "Oh, Shimmer, not even a fight is going to stop me." She used magic to push Jesse to a wall. "Where was I? Oh, yeah." She lit her hand with magic and threw it at Sunset.

"NO!" Jesse ran to Sunset and took the hit for her as he rolled on the floor and hit a shelf. Sparks of purple lightning bounced around him.

"Jesse!" Sunset ran to him and turned him over, revealing that his eyes were now bright purple. She turned to Trixie. "What have you done?!"

Trixie laughed again. "Your new friend has been stunned. And now is the time of you to suffer!"

A chain of magic appeared on Sunset's wrist. Sunset looked and saw a chain attached to a wall.

Trixie walked away. "Goodbye, Shimmer. Hope you have fun dying."

Sunset ran after Trixie, but the chain stopped her every time she pulled. "Trixie, get back here and fight!" Sunset pulled one last time on the chain, but she stopped and placed her hands on her knees. "Who am I kidding? She's not going to listen to you, Sunset." She turned to the stunned Jesse and ran back to him. Then she fell to her knees and shook him. "Jesse? Jesse, please wake up! Jesse, please! The others need you! I need you! You're my only friend! Wake up! Please wake up!"

Jesse didn't move.

Sunset sat next to Jesse, wrapped her arms around her legs, buried her face into her knees and sobbed. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. Why must this happen? Why me? This was not what I wanted."