(Diaz Household, Star's Bedroom)
Marco went inside, only to see the room was completely pitch black. Then, once he turned on the lights, he saw that not only Star was nowhere to be seen, but there was a card on the ground that, upon closer inspection, had a familiar figure on the image above the description.
"Psychai, the butterfly witch with a mischievous nature. Originally training to use a powerful wand, her road to perfection will bring chaos and havoc to everyone around her. Now she practices inside her barrier, where she won't hesitate to use her wand's power on friend or foe alike, in an effort to get better. To defeat this witch, fight magic with magic."
After reading this, Marco could only sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose as he whined, "Star, what did you do this time?" before getting out of the room and go look for her.
(Destroyed streets of Echo Creek)
The teenager ran around the streets as he soon realized just how utterly blasted the streets where, with various magical stuff popping on the ground among the rather bleak environment. Obviously, this meant that Star was somewhere nearby.
Then, just as he continued to look around the vicinity, Marco went through an invisible wall and suddenly arrived in a mysterious realm, looking like a mix between the devastated streets of Echo Creek and an average training ground. "Did I seriously just get here by accident?" thought Marco as he looked at his surroundings.
He took a couple steps forward, and then he found two cards similar to the first one. He looked at the first one, which had a headless pony body with eight horse legs on the picture.
"Headless Spider-Ponies, the witch's minion. Their duty is to gather objects and people alike for target practice. If needed, these familiars will attack anybody who might stop them from performing their duty."
With this done, the guy heard a neigh in the distance and snapped to the source of the noise, only to be met with dead silence. Believing nothing was there, he focused on the remaining card. This one had a picture of a hybrid between a snake and Star's mother on the picture.
"Lamia, butterfly witch's minion. Their duty is to reprimand and scold the witch for her failures, and congratulate he for any successes. Due to the nature of their duty, they remain in the background and don't engage in combat."
And then, a headless spider-pony passed by with a tied-up Jackie on it's back struggling to break free. Once he saw this, Marco ran after the headless spider-pony and stopped after he arrived at an area where Janna, Alfonzo, and many other students of the echo creek academy were tied up in some pillars, with the spider-pony placing Jackie on the last empty pillar as a rather huge cocoon fell down the sky, held only by a string-like web.
After seeing the cocoon's arrival, Marco immediately headed for Jackie started to free her. "Marco?!" exclaimed Jackie in disbelief.
"Don't worry, I'll try to free you all!" Marco answered, trying his hardest to break the ropes restraining the skateboarder.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but save us Diaz!" pleaded Brittney.
"And do it quick, before whatever's inside that thing comes out!" added Justin.
And then, literally a couple seconds later, the web holding the cocoon broke and it hit the ground, breaking and allowing what was inside a chance to get out. "Too late." uttered Jackie as Marco got off and watched a pair of lamia's fly down and land to the sides of the thing.
This thing was viewed more clearly after the smoke cleared, revealing that it was practically giant, tied-up Star in a mix between her mewberty and baby form, with six arms working as her legs while a pair of stitched up wings spread from her back. She also had a copy of the royal wand levitating in front of her. "Is that..." Marco uttered, coming to a realization as he took a closer look at the witch. "Star?!"
Psychai flew high in the sky and aimed her wand at her first target, Jackie, who tried their hardest to escape as the wand got charged with energy. However, Marco managed to grab the girl's pillar, cut it down with a single karate chop...somehow, and rolling her away as Psychai shot an energy blast in the form of a narwhal. It landed on the ground and exploded a couple seconds later, with the failure to deal with the target earning the witch some scolding from her lamia familiars.
"Thanks for the help, Marco." told the girl to the guy as he tried to break her out.
"Save your thanks for when I actually save you all from...whatever Star's supposed to be now." after a couple more tries to break the rope-like web, Marco gave up. "I can't break these dang things, what are they made of!?"
A headless spider-pony came out of nowhere and tackled Marco down, allowing Psychai to head up close to the guy and charge another attack. However, Marco managed to flee and the headless spider-pony got evaporated by the attack. The lamias approved and gave the butterfly witch a pat in the head.
Eventually, Marco stopped to try and catch his breath, only for some headless spider-ponies to come out of nowhere and restrain him as Psychai charged another attack. However, Marco got an idea and looked around, eventually spotting a particular wand on the ground. He took it and aimed it at Star as he yelled, "Narwhal Bomb!", unleashing a bomb in the shape of a narwhal just as Psychai shot her attack.
By the time Psychai realized her mistake, her attack caused the narwhal bomb to explode in her face, instantly killing her.
With the witch dead, the barrier and familiars ceased to be, allowing everybody to return to the alley it used to be, with some of the students promptly falling from the ground once their restraints and pillars vanished as well. Marco's wand also vanished as a grief seed fell where Star died, landing perfectly on the ground without shattering.
Marco got up and headed for the object, but just as he scanned it, a familiar voice spoke. "Impressive. You actually managed to defeat a witch without the help of a magical girl. That's not something I get to see everyday."
The guy turned around and spotted Kyubey resting on top of a fence, giving the guy his frozen smile and stare. "Who are you?!" hissed Marco before showing Kyubey the grief seed. "Are you responsible for this!?"
"Yet another human who reacts to this chain of events negatively." said Kyubey, scratching his ears. "I honestly can't understand you."
"Answer me, darn it! Are you responsible for what happened to Star!?"
"You could say I am responsible, in a sense." replied Kyubey, tilting his head. "All I did was grant her wish...even if it wasn't what she wanted."
This statement changed Marco's attitude from being pissed off to contemplation. "What do you mean?"
"Your friend said that she wanted to learn how to use her wand efficiently, supposedly to protect those she cares about, including you." Kyubey jumped off the fence and went closer to Marco as he continued. "In reality, what she wanted to do was learn how to use the wand so she could make her mother proud. And what better way to make her mother proud than to destroy the monsters they've been fighting for so long?"
Hearing the creature's explanation, Marco fell to his knees and watched Star's grief seed, tears falling on his palm as Kyubey walked away. "Anyway, if you ever feel like having another friend of yours die for the sake of a noble cause..." Kyubey turned around and his eyes glowed red as he finished, "Let them know I'm available."
Kyubey ran away and Marco tried to give chase, only to be stopped on his tracks by Jackie. "Move, Jackie, I need to go after that critter!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Didn't you see that little white thing that told us about what happened to Star?!"
Jackie frowned and sighed before bluntly telling the guy, "Marco, there's nobody here other than us."
After hearing this statement, Marco took a quick look around to see the rest of the students looked weirded out at Marco's anger. Then, as everybody left the alley, Marco took another look at the grief seed and then, without warning, the royal wand fell on his head and onto his free hand. With these two items in hand, Marco saved them in his pockets and walked back home, thinking that was enough for one day.