Tear Jerker / An Alchemist Abroad

• This is what makes Marcy's nightmare in chapter 5 stand out among other examples. It's set during her and Anne's confession scene in A Witch in Wartwood - though here, when Marcy asks if Dream!Anne is "...okay with me," she doesn't answer. Instead, Dream!Anne's expression slowly and increasingly shifts to one of disgust and disappointment, the surrounding fireflies going out one by one until Marcy's left alone in the dark. It really sells the poor girl's fears of rejection and abandonment; that she lost one of the few people who genuinely cared about her.
• Sprig begging de-aged Marcy and Sasha to listen to him in chapter 11. In addition to the guilt for causing the situation, it's clear he's genuinely frightened by the idea of Marcy permanently losing her memories of him - thereby effectively losing his sister - and is desperately trying to prevent that.
• Sasha talking about her parents in chapter 16. In this AU, they hate each other, Sasha describing them sniping at each other at the table and having shouting matches late into the night - even if Sasha is there to witness them. Then, they decide to divorce without telling Sasha, and then her father secretly records her venting about her frustrations with her mother and plays it in court to gain full custody and hurt Ms. Waybright - with Sasha present. At the end, you'd want to give her a hug, too.
• The final scene in chapter 22. Marcy, having realized charging the stone would effectively kill Ram, refuses to go through with it and comes up with increasingly desperate solutions and workarounds - only for Ram to pick them apart, bringing up the risk of betraying Anne and Sasha (again), breaking her promise to the king, and the impossibility of charging the music box any other way. But by now, Ram has evolved from magical A.I.-like helper to a person with emotions and a personality separate from Marcy - and a friend she loves dearly. Knowing that not charging the stone would cause more harm and suffering to Marcy, Ram takes possession of her to do it themselves, their final act before effectively committing suicide is to ask Anne and Sasha to keep Marcy from harming herself.
• Anne's realization she broke up with Marcy in chapter 23. What makes it this is that the poor girl never realized that leaving without a word, in the middle of the night, after finding out she and Sasha were kidnapped by their best friend/her girlfriend, and while her girlfriend's family was on the run from the law, would cause Marcy to assume they were over; Anne spent the majority of the fic honestly thinking the two of them were still dating. When Sasha helps her finally understand the full impact of her actions - that she had caused Marcy a lot of heartbreak and ruined their relationship - she breaks down in tears.
• Chapter 24 has two, when the girls get separated in a crystal maze (in the actual second temple) that creates reflections of loved ones to taunt and mock them for their flaws, insecurities, and fears.
  • We get a double-whammy with Sasha and Barrel. While the reflections's mockery do get under her skin, Sasha's still able to resist them. Then she begins getting visions of Barrel's life after losing the music box. In each vision, we see him go from a friendly and outgoing person to a sad, lonely warrior who's unable to make friends due to his job and the fallout from his ruined friendship with Andrias - his last communique with the king written just before his fight with narwhal worm, showing he died lonesome and alone, despite being worshiped as a hero. This knowledge, the fact that she can feel Barrel's sadness and longing for the friendship he lost, and the affect the reflections were already having on her, sends Sasha over the edge.
  • Then there's Marcy. She's faced with reflections of Anne and Sasha that outright tell her they've never forgiven her and that all the good times and fun she had with them were an act on their part to get home. They treat her with impatience and exasperation, mock her attempts to be a better person and friend, and Reflection!Anne even states she fell in love with the "mask" Marcy wore before she admitted to kidnapping them and killing potentially hundreds of toads. The whole scene shows just how much Marcy's guilt has turned into self-loathing - with Marcy herself agreeing she doesn't think she deserves forgiveness and accepting the reflections' ridicule - and her fear that all of her efforts to improve and be better won't amount to anything and she'll be left alone. By the time Anne and Sasha find her, she's surrounded by reflections of them, all of their parents, friends from Wartwood and Newtopia, and the Plantars, all with their backs to her and chatting happily with each other, while pointedly ignoring her desperate pleas for them to speak with her.