Sunset paced atop the concrete rooftop plaza of Rarity’s theater castle, staring down Coco Pommel as the vampire stood in the shadow of the door to the roof, vaguely illuminated by the twinkling neon lights that dotted the so-called ‘sky’ above, a cheap imitation of the stars from the surface.

Coco was pathetic; a mewling lapdog for Rarity, who herself was just a bootlicker for the Empress. Not that Sunset was really in a place to throw stones, but at the very least she felt like she could look down on Coco, or at least beat her in a fight.

“I’m sorry it has to be this way,” Coco said, her voice dripping with a gross mock-politeness, “but Lady Rarity needs that soul, and you’re just in the way.”

“Shut up, simp,” Sunset scoffed and flicked flames in Coco’s direction. “You’re nothing more than a lapdog, this isn’t even gonna be a warmup for me.”

“Is that right?” Coco closed her eyes and tilted her head slightly, her plastic smile widening.

The featureless, pony-shaped mannequin standing before Coco started to twitch and fidget, mirroring the movements of the vampire’s fingers; a puppet. Funny that a puppet would be using another one to fight.

“I may be Lady Rarity’s thrall,” Coco said softly, before opening her blood-red eyes and glaring daggers into Sunset, “but I am still a monster of the Fifth Circle. You should be more polite.”

Ah.

Well.

That changes things.

The mannequin charged at Sunset, its awkward mechanical movements putting Sunset off, but not nearly as much as its frightening speed. Sunset charged fire into her fist and punched the mannequin square in the chest, and it felt like she shattered every bone in her hand.

“Is that all?” Coco hummed disappointedly, Sunset gritting her teeth and jumping away from the mannequin.

Sunset was no match for a monster of the Fifth Circle, and she was well aware of that. Hell, Sunset was barely a match for the monsters of the Second Circle!

But Nightmare Moon told Sunset to destroy the woman standing in front of her. Granted, Nightmare had chosen to give Sunset of all ponies a fragment of her power, so clearly she didn’t exactly have impeccable judgment.

The mannequin swung its arms at Sunset, who dodged out of the way of its awkward attacks. She had a feeling the thing was more than just creepy, and that if she let it touch her, she wouldn’t like what happened next.

The magic of the Fifth Circle was on an entirely other level from the First, with monsters there having impenetrably powerful defenses and oppressively powerful offense, at least according to Nightmare Moon.

Meanwhile, Sunset? Could spit little flames out of her fingers. Wow.

Yeah, Sunset wasn’t winning this. So instead, Sunset jumped off the roof, hoping that she could at least lose Coco’s trail in the narrow roads of the Paradise village. Unfortunately for Sunset, as soon as she hit the ground, the very next corner she turned she ran into a smiling Coco Pommel.

“You can’t get away from me that easy,” Coco said with a smirk, and Sunset was suddenly intimately aware that the mannequin was standing behind her with its hands outstretched.

Sunset teleported away, leaving an explosion of flame in her wake before appearing right behind Coco and throwing a punch. Coco easily blocked it with her bare hand, turning to face Sunset and getting a face full of flame for her trouble.

But when the flame subsided, Coco was completely unfazed.

“That puny magic of yours isn’t going to work on someone like me,” Coco giggled. “Lady Rarity doesn’t just take anyone as her obedient pet.”

Sunset clicked her tongue and pooled magic in her horn, but Coco put a stop to that by turning into mist and phasing right through Sunset’s body, sending a chill up her spine that froze her until Coco could reappear behind Sunset, grabbing her arms and putting them behind her back, the vampire sealing the deal by letting her fangs gently graze Sunset’s neck, but not quite penetrate the skin.

“Come on now, Sunset Shimmer,” Coco whispered seductively, “there’s no need for all this fuss. All Lady Rarity needs from you is the soul. Just give it up and we won’t have to fight.”

Sunset was breathing heavily as Coco held one of Sunset’s hands behind her back, the vampire slipping her other hand into the pocket of Sunset’s shorts, the demon’s cheeks getting hotter and hotter as she felt the touch of Coco’s fangs on her soft neck.

“Being a pet wouldn’t be so bad,” Coco let her fangs sink into Sunset’s flesh, the demon moaning as her knees buckled, “would it?”

“I…” Sunset gasped, Coco’s fangs digging deeper and Sunset’s body tightening in her grasp. Sunset’s mind flickered with thoughts of Twilight, of how Sunset needed to… to do what? Was Twilight in danger?

Well, if Rarity had sent her minion to get Sunset out of the way, then yeah probably.

“No!” Sunset growled and tore herself away, putting her hand on the bloody gash in her neck and facing Coco, walking backwards. “I’m no one’s pet! And I’m not going to let you and Rarity do whatever you want to with Twilight!”

“Oh, Sunset,” Coco giggled into her hand, wiping the blood off her mouth. “Twilight Sparkle has already agreed to be the Lady’s pet.”

“Wait, wha—”

“But maybe the pet role doesn’t suit you, that’s okay,” Coco said with an eerie glint in her eye, “maybe you would prefer to be a doll.”

Sunset’s eyes widened and she grit her teeth as she suddenly felt the presence of the mannequin behind her. She turned around to face it, only to see the puppet’s featureless shell had split open down the middle, revealing a mass of squirming tendrils inside that reached out and grabbed Sunset.

They pulled Sunset’s arms behind her, and even though she fought them with all the might she could muster, she couldn’t even remotely resist their pull, especially after they wrapped around her legs and her stomach and her neck and even her mouth.

As she was being dragged backward into the mannequin’s embrace, Coco walked over and put her hand on Sunset’s chin.

“You’ll make a cute doll,” Coco giggled, a truly haunting sound given the position Sunset was in. “I almost hope Lady Rarity doesn’t want you, I could keep you all to myself.”

Sunset tried to scream but it only came out as a muffled growl, the tendrils pulling her back into the embrace of the mannequin before it closed on her, sealing her inside where the tendrils caressed her skin, and Coco’s voice whispered in her ears.

“Don’t fight it,” Coco suggested, and honestly that sounded like good advice right now. “Just let it wash over you. Let me take care of you.”

Sunset’s struggles got weaker until slowly she just let herself fall prey to whatever the tendrils wanted to do to her. So far all they were doing was wrapping her up and convulsing along her body, and it wasn’t so bad. Almost felt kinda pleasant.

So Sunset let it happen.

“That’s a good girl,” Coco said. “Let your thoughts slip further and further from your mind, as you fall into my comforting embrace. Dolls don’t need to think. Lady Rarity will take such good care of you. You don’t need to struggle anymore.”

Sunset felt her skin becoming soft and light. She felt her vision blurring, and she could vaguely hear her own pleasured moans. Something was happening to her, but she wasn’t sure what.

It felt so good though, she didn’t want it to stop.

There was a glimmer of light shining from outside, and it hurt Sunset’s eyes so she closed them. She immediately snapped them open as a loud crack resonated in her ears, and what she saw was a familiar looking muscular werewolf, ripping the mannequin open and tearing it apart.

“Get the hell up,” Applejack grabbed Sunset by her hair and dragged her out of the mannequin, “you look pathetic.”

“E-easy for you to say!” Sunset balked, returning to her senses and feeling utterly ashamed of herself. “Miss ‘I’m resistant to all magic’!”

“Mm,” Applejack rolled her eyes and put her fist through the wall of the building the girls were in the shadow of. “Quit makin’ excuses and follow me.”

Sunset did as she was ordered, following Applejack through the hole she made through an empty, collapsing house until they reached a wall that Applejack just put another hole through and the two kept going.

“So are we going somewhere, or…?” Sunset asked. “Cuz I’m guessing that vampire probably is gonna need a sec to put her head back on after you interrupted her spell like that, let alone tearing her weapon apart, but that’s not gonna stop her.”

“Yeah,” Applejack nodded. “We’re gonna need an advantage. That girl’s tough, but she ain’t unbeatable.”

“You think?” Sunset asked incredulously. She seemed pretty unbeatable to Sunset.

“Of course,” Applejack scoffed irritably. “You think I’ve been sittin’ on my ass this whole time waitin’ for my revenge? I’ve been plannin’ some things. I’m prepared for this, and I ain’t even got a soul like someone.”

“Oh yeah, the soul,” Sunset put her hand on her chest. She’d forgotten the soul.

Haha, that wasn’t quite right, was it? She wasn’t using the soul, because that way when she inevitably lost, she had something to blame for her failure other than her own pathetic self.

Damn, she was so stupid.

Sunset took a deep breath as she came to a stop next to Applejack.

“So,” she said, “you have a plan?”

“I do,” Applejack chuckled. “We’ll just have to get a bit creative.”

Sunset looked down at her hooves, at the cliff she stood in front of and the vast void below that led no one knew where.

Huh. That actually was kinda clever.

“So where’d you come from anyway?” Sunset asked. “You sure showed up just in the nick of time.”

“Twi was worried ‘boutcha,” Applejack shrugged. “Told her I’d find ya. Simple as.”

Huh. That made sense, Sunset supposed. Twilight was really worried about…

Huh.

Coco arrived with her stitched up mannequin in tow, the puppet looking good as new and the vampire looking mildly displeased.

“I’ll go for the mannequin,” Applejack said, “you handle the vampire.”

“Sure, sounds good,” Sunset sighed. Not like she had much of a chance against either.

Applejack charged the mannequin, and Coco transformed its shape, the puppet gaining sawblades and shit that jutted from its body, shredding Applejack up as she tried to wrestle with it.

Meanwhile Sunset was charging for Coco in a futile attempt to land a hit, but with Applejack forced to jump away from the mannequin so she didn’t get sliced into bits, Coco was free to drag the puppet over in front of her, the mannequin opening up and revealing those tendrils and forcing Sunset to freeze in her tracks.

Applejack managed to grab Sunset and pull her away, the mannequin lunging at Applejack in response and the werewolf grabbing it in her claws and holding it at bay, albeit just barely.

“If yer gonna hold onto that damn soul,” Applejack snarled, “you might as well use it!”

Sunset fell onto her back and just… marveled. Applejack was here going toe to toe with a monster from the Fifth Circle, even defending Sunset from it, and here Sunset was whining about being a failure. Like, of course Applejack had beaten Sunset in a fight, so she was clearly the stronger of the two, but then again Sunset hadn't really given it…

…her all.

Oh.

That’s just how it was gonna be forever, huh? Damn, how many people was Sunset gonna let down before she got her head outta her ass? And like, even as she was thinking this, she still knew it didn’t matter, she wasn’t strong enough to defeat Coco.

She wasn’t strong enough to help Applejack, or beat Rarity, or save Twilight, or serve Nightmare Moon, or rescue—

Fuck.

Welp, if nothing else, Sunset always said she was a mare of her word. And she promised to destroy the woman standing in front of her.

Sunset dug deep into her chest, conjuring from within the soul a weapon into her hand, a sword with a glowing blade of magical red fog, and she sliced through the mannequin with it, the blade phasing through the enemy’s weapon without resistance, and then doing its work and disabling the spell on the puppet that allowed it to function.

“W-woah,” Applejack said as she watched the mannequin crumble at her feet.

“It won’t last,” Sunset said, pointing her weapon at Coco, who looked similarly shocked. As well she should be; it wasn’t for nothing that Sunset was called a prodigy, and between her skill and the magic of Twilight’s soul, Sunset was almost certain she could do anything… almost. “Let’s take her down before she can restore it!”

“You can count on me!” Applejack snarled, a bloodthirsty grin on her face as she charged Coco Pommel.

Coco dragged her faulty mannequin in front of herself; even without its magic, it still had weapons to use as a defense, but it didn’t matter as Sunset teleported Applejack behind the mannequin, allowing the werewolf to wind up a powerful punch and lay it into Coco’s face.

Applejack’s attack barely seemed to register, Coco glaring at Applejack with little more than mild bemusement. That said, Sunset hurling a flaming spear through her wholeass head was bound to leave more of an impact on her.

Coco stumbled back, Applejack throwing another punch at her but she was able to clumsily dodge it, right into Sunset who had teleported behind her and stabbed her with a shining red sword.

“Wh— how— your magic is too weak to—” Coco stammered.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Sunset let out a single scoffing laugh. Quite frankly she was almost as surprised as Coco.

Coco turned into mist to free herself from the pair’s attacks, and as she passed through her mannequin, it sprung back to life. She returned to flesh with her back to the cliff and Sunset couldn’t believe how perfect that was, though obviously she and Applejack would have to get through the mannequin first to get to her.

The mannequin lunged at the pair and Sunset transformed her shining sword into a shield that deflected the weapon’s attack and sent it flying back, Sunset breathing a sigh of relief.

“How long have you had all these tricks up yer sleeve?” Applejack asked incredulously.

“Haha, I’m a bit rusty,” Sunset said awkwardly. “Just think, if I’d busted out some of this stuff, I probably could’ve beaten you!”

“Let’s not go that far,” Applejack grumbled.

Applejack charged the mannequin and held it in place, so Sunset could come in and swipe it with her fog blade to disable it again. Coco had grown wise to that trick though and the puppet was able to free itself from the werewolf’s grasp and dodge Sunset’s attack.

Exactly as Sunset had planned, leaving the path to Coco herself free and clear.

Applejack charged at Coco while Sunset distracted the mannequin, threatening it with her fog blade. What Sunset was not expecting was that she wasn’t able to land a hit on the thing at all; she thought she’d be able to outmaneuver or predict the mannequin’s movements, but she couldn’t get a read on it and she couldn’t get her attacks to connect.

The mannequin opened its shell and revealed its tendrils, and Sunset realized she could either try and dodge or try and attack, and she couldn’t force herself to take the risk of attacking so she jumped back, the mannequin swiftly moving behind her and grabbing her with its tendrils, squeezing her wrist and her horn until she dropped the fog blade and it disappeared.

Without the fog blade, Sunset was no longer a threat, and she was quickly devoured by the mannequin and sealed inside it, those familiar tendrils caressing her skin and making her ache with a sort of uncomfortable pleasure.

Sunset didn’t have a great concept of time while sealed inside the mannequin, but it didn’t seem like it was long before it opened up again, only to swallow Applejack and bind her as well, the tendrils pressing the two girls up to each other chest to chest.

Applejack was snarling and trying to speak, but the tendrils held her maw firmly shut. Her magic resistance was putting in work to let her struggle like that, because Sunset already felt her body becoming fluffy and weightless.

Sunset was drifting off, Coco’s voice resonating in her ears and reminding her how simple everything would be if she were just a little doll, and how Coco would take such good care of her, and how little dolls didn’t need to think or to struggle.

Sunset didn’t need to think, or to struggle. She was just a little doll.

As it turned out, Coco’s suggestions were more than just theoretical, as Sunset found her body physically transforming into a small plush doll version of herself, the demon shrinking out of her clothes as she became entranced by Coco’s magic.

All she wanted was for Coco to brush her mane and tell her she was a good girl, maybe put her on a shelf where she could be admired by Lady Rarity.

Applejack recognized a losing situation when she saw it, and it didn’t get more ‘losing’ than being restrained and sealed inside a mannequin with a demon who was too chickenshit to fight back. Or at least that’s what Applejack thought until Sunset suddenly transformed into a tiny plush doll right in front of Applejack’s eyes. That was definitely more losing.

Even with Applejack’s magic resistance, it was hard to ignore the tactile feeling of the tendrils all over her body, and it was harder still to ignore the voice in her ears whispering to her to stop struggling, to just give in and let her take care of everything.

It was an appealing thought, especially considering how bad Applejack had screwed everything in her life up until that point.

But she’d be damned if she just gave up now, especially when there was still a little tiny window of hope for her. Sunset may have been outta commission, but the soul’s magic was still inside her; there was a chance Applejack could take it while Sunset couldn’t fight back, and that would give Applejack the power she needed to free herself and crush Coco Pommel.

Applejack pushed herself to her limits, struggling against the tendrils that tried their damnedest to keep her in place. All she had to do was touch Sunset’s chest, and she could extract the soul from there.

She inched closer, and closer, and—

The mannequin opened up, ejecting both Applejack and the plushified Sunset Shimmer. Applejack was still tied and muzzled by the tendrils, but Sunset was free, if you could call becoming a doll being free, and Coco bent down and picked her up.

“Were you trying to get your paws on this?” Coco asked with mocking sweetness, holding up the doll for Applejack to see, the werewolf just growling in return. “Such a bad puppy.”

Coco put her hand under Applejack’s chin, and Applejack swore she would bite the vampire’s fingers right off if she could open her mouth. She could feel her magic resistance putting in work though, and she almost felt a little slack in the tendrils around her muzzle.

The tendrils forced Applejack to the ground, with her nose to the dirt and her arms behind her back. She kept her eye on Coco as the vampire examined the Sunset doll.

“I suppose I should just take the soul now,” Coco hummed. “It would be bad if you managed to get your grubby little paws on it. I don’t know how you would do that all trussed up like that, but still. Better safe than sorry.

“Hmm,” Coco looked down at Applejack dismissively. “I suppose it’s just as well that I couldn’t tame you. I’m sure Lady Rarity wants those honors for herself.”

Again, Applejack snarled, and again it did nothing but heighten her own humiliation. She wasn’t under any delusions that she was anything other than a captive at this point… even if she could feel the tendrils’ grip loosening ever so slightly. If Applejack tried to make a move, she knew that Coco would have her restrained even tighter before Applejack had a chance to do anything.

If Applejack was going to make a move, she would only get one. And it would need to be quick.

No sense giving up just yet though.

Coco put her hand on the Sunset doll’s chest, and it glowed with red light. Coco let her fingers submerge into the light, until—

“OW!” Coco screamed as the light repelled her, the vampire instinctively tossing the doll to the ground. Applejack had no clue what just happened, but she knew an opportunity when she saw it.

As the Sunset doll fell to the ground, Applejack took her chance and tore herself away from the tendrils, Coco gasping as Applejack opened her mouth and closed her jaws onto the Sunset plush, the energy of the soul caressing the edges of Applejack’s mind like a cozy hearth fire.

Coco stepped back and readied herself, gritting her teeth and glaring at Applejack, who chuckled as she held the plush Sunset in her maw. Applejack knew exactly what she needed to do.

So she jumped off the cliff behind her into the void.

She didn’t let herself fall all the way down, of course. She grabbed onto the mountainside with her claws, keeping Sunset in her mouth as she looked up and waited for Coco to look down at her. She expected Coco to either not be able to see her or to not check for her, but if that gamble didn’t pay off, Applejack was in trouble.

Applejack waited.

And she waited.

Between the darkness covering the Circle and the fog of the void clouding around her, Applejack couldn’t even see the top of the cliff anymore, but still she waited.

And nothing happened.

Applejack allowed herself a slight sigh of relief, but she didn’t let her guard down.

For now, she needed to get out of the Paradise, so she started scaling the side of the mountain, slowly digging her claws into its face, making sure she was secure, and then moving an inch to her left before starting the process again.

It would be a long trip, but she’d get there.

i've honestly been struggling alot to nail down a concrete fighting style for sunset shimmer. like fire seems the obvious choice, but without the visual element, fire isn't very fun or interesting to write. i kinda like the weapons thing tho

either way, this was a super fun fight scene to do, and i hope u enjoyed it!