Magical Girl Trixie

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8 (Narrated by Marrow)
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
End

Chapter 1

I've done bad things. Terrible things. Things I can never take back. I wish I could begin to describe the guilt I feel, but I can't. I can only revisit my memories, pray that those girls can forgive me and try to shut them out, but it never works. Their voices keep screaming in my ears! Their faces growing more and more vivid in my mind with every. Passing. SECOND!

But, it's too late for sympathy. It's too late to try and justify anything anymore, to myself or to anyone else. I guess the only thing left to do is tell my story… of how I became a magical girl.

***

As I walked to class, I held my head low, holding my books as close to my chest as I could so that I wouldn't end up running into anyone, making them any more mad at me than they usually already were. Even though it was still morning, I wanted the day to be over already, but deep down, I knew that even when I got out of school, nothing would get any better once I got ho--

“Hey! Watch it, Tripsy!”

As soon as I realized that I had bumped into someone and raised my head to apologize, my body was pushed to the ground, leaving my entire tailbone in throbbing pain from the landing. Of course, I just had to run into Lulu Lemon, the prettiest girl at Manehattan Middle School, and in my case, the meanest girl on the face of the planet.

“I… I'm sorry,” I whimpered, picking up my books from the floor and tilting my glasses back up to my face.

“You gonna cry already?”

“I… n-no, Lulu. I’m not g-gonna c-c-cry.”

“Sure sounds like you are.”

Finally, I had all my books collected and was ready to get to class, leaving this whole situation behind m--

“Hey! Don't walk away from me, you bitch!”

Suddenly, I was being grabbed by the hair and forcefully yanked up to eye level with Lulu. I tried to make eye contact, but once I saw how scary her glare was, I couldn't bring myself to look anywhere but our feet. Pain was soaring through my scalp, and I feared that if she held on much longer, my hair would get pulled out completely. Knowing Lulu, she wouldn't care so much about leaving me with a bald spot, but she would be very upset if I fell down again while she was trying to talk to me.

As I glanced around to see if anyone was going to help me, I was met with the familiar giggles of the students who passed by, all looking straight at me, but none willing to help intervene.

“You aren't trying to make a liar out of me, are you, Tripsy?”

“N-no, Lulu! I would never--”

“SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!”

My whole body was trembling. My eyes wouldn't even open anymore out of fear of what she would do when I finally looked her in the eyes, or worse, if I didn't look at her at all. My heart was beating out of my chest, but all I could do was wait for her tirade to be over so I could just go to class.

“Now, I said you were gonna cry, but I don't see any tears yet.”

I couldn't even comprehend what was going on. As I hung there, my body still shaking, I tried thinking of anything I could say to calm her down, but nothing came to mind.

Whack!

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, and then my knees as I was immediately dropped to the floor. Not only had she punched me in the gut as hard as she could, but she let go of my hair as soon as she did it, giving me two type of pain in one instant once my knees hit the ground. That's when the floodgates opened up and I began crying pathetically on the floor.

“Now that's more like it," Lulu said with a smile finally forming on her face. "This was fun, Tripsy. We'll have to do this again the next time you fuck up. Ciao!”

Again, dozens of students passed by, but none offered to lend me a hand. Instead, they all just walked by, laughing, some pointing at my humility. I wanted to be angry at them, but I knew that I deserved it. This was my punishment, and I had no one to blame but myself.

Finally, after getting the strength to pick up my books again, I made my way to class, getting to my seat right before the bell rang. If I was tardy one more time, I can't imagine what would have happened. My teacher probably would have kicked me out of class, and my mother would have beat the sense into me until I learned my lesson. Fortunately for me, though, I could at least avoid that one punishment. Even if I didn't want to see my teacher, even if I didn't want to go home to my mom, I could at least be spared this one thing.

“Trixie? Trixiiieee?”

“Yes? Oh! H-here!”

“Honestly, Trixie, are we going to have to have this conversation again?”

“N-no, Mr. Fairweather. I'm sorry I wasn't listening.”

“You never listen! You're always off in la-la land doodling in your notebook and dozing off in class! Do you even care that you're taking up valuable class time?”

“N-no, sir. I--”

“You know what I just realized? You're just a narcissist.”

“I'm… a what, sir?”

“You need everybody's eyes on you all the time! Just the thought of not being the center of attention must be the hardest thing in the world for you!”

“I'm sorry, sir! I… I…” My words were getting caught up in my throat. I just wanted his speech to be over. I just didn't want everyone staring at me anymore. I just wanted to d--

“Fine. Moving on. Tuscany Sun?”

“Here.”

“Upper Decker?”

“Here.”

Finally, his attention was somewhere else. I knew it would be a bad idea to doodle today, but at least if I could just stay awake, I would hopefully avoid being the center of another one of his outbursts. Staying awake, though, was a problem in and of itself.

My mom would go to work around dinner time, which means that she wouldn't get home until early in the morning, and when she got home, she made it very clear that the house was hers. Whether this meant a loud TV, late parties with her girl friends or just barging into my room to remind me of what a problem I was in her life, I just had to do the best I could to fall asleep. She also worked Sunday thru Thursday, which meant that literally every school day that I had, I wouldn't be getting much sleep.

Of course, I was grateful to have her as a mom. Despite the times she hurt me or kept me awake, she was still providing a roof over my head and food in the fridge for me to eat. I just couldn't complain when I had luxuries like that, but at the same time, every day when the bell rang to send us back to our homes, part of my heart dropped into my stomach, because I knew that when I got home, there was nothing for me to look forward to.

Later that day…

“I'm sorry, mom! I'm sorry! I--gauhhhff!!!”

As my mom sent her broom into my stomach, I did everything I could just to keep my gag reflexes from spilling my lunch onto the living room carpet. If I ever did that, she would never buy food for me ever again. Instead, though, I just fell to the floor, holding my stomach and trying to breathe after having the wind knocked out of me.

“Can you go even one single day without interrupting class?”

“I'm sorry, mom! I'll try harder next time! I'm sor--”

The next thing I knew, her high-heel was striking me across the face, sending me to the floor again with my glasses falling off of my face.

“Pick those up! PICK THOSE UP RIGHT NOW!”

With only half my vision, I felt around the floor until finally I found my glasses, and even better, they were in one piece, but just as soon as I put them back onto my face, my mother gripped her hand around my neck and brought my face to hers.

“I paid good money for those glasses. Just so you could FUCKING see! Now, if you know what's good for you, you will protect those with your life, and if anything ever happens to them, you'll wish you'd never been born.”

“Y-yes, mom. I love you, mom.”

My mom, however, just held me there, and though I tried not to panic, I was losing air. I couldn't kick or flail, otherwise she would kill me on the spot, but at the same time, I knew I only had a few more seconds of air left in my lungs. Then, just as I was about to black out, she threw me to the ground, my head hitting the coffee table on my way down.

”Please tell me I didn't break it!” I thought to myself. Quickly, I turned to look at the coffee table, and to my relief, it was OK. This meant, though, that I had turned away from my mother, and suddenly all the anxiety from before had returned to the pit of my stomach. Without a moment's hesitation, I faced my mother again, and again to my relief, she was already walking towards the door.

“I'm going to work,” she said, grabbing her purse and throwing her broom aside. “If you need to eat tonight, you know where the fridge is. Just promise you won't get any fatter."

“Thank you, mom. I love you. Have a good day at work!”

As I waved good-bye, my mom opened the door and began walking out, quietly closing it behind her. Finally, I could sigh in relief, but that relief was short-lived. The moment I stood up, I felt something wet dripping down my back underneath my clothes. Then, as I put my hand to the back of my head, my worst fear came true.

“Blood? Oh, no!”

Quickly, I pulled my shirt over my head, and just as I had suspected, blood had dripped down all the way to my back, staining my shirt in the process.

“No, no, no, no, NOOOO!!!!”

Without a second's hesitation, I ran as fast as I could to the bathtub, filling it with water and any kind of stain-removing detergent I could find. I then used my hands to try to rub out the blood stains, but nothing was working. If anything, I was making the stain even worse by allowing it to permanently sink into the fabric itself. Once mom found out about this, she would cut open the rest of my body and have me use my shirt to stop the bleeding, which admittedly, was just me being optimistic. At this point, I really couldn't imagine what kind of punishment she would do to me when she saw that I ruined a shirt that she spent her own money to buy for me.

With tears in my eyes, I emptied the water in the tub, cleaned up any evidence that I had been there and made my way to my room. As soon as the door was closed, I threw my soaking wet shirt onto the floor, fell onto my bed and began crying harder than I had during the entire day. I just wanted the pain to be gone. I didn't want to be scared all the time. I didn't want to come home. I didn't want to go to school. I just wanted to feel safe!

“Maybe…” I said to myself. “Maybe I really would make everybody happy if I died.”

Or you'd make everybody's life worse! Imagine the cleanup that mom would have to do! Imagine her telling all of her friends why her daughter just disappeared! Imagine how pissed off the kids at school would be if they had to do a stupid suicide prevention class because of you!

“But… maybe I would be happier if I died…”

There you go again, putting all the focus on you! It's just like Mr. Fairweather said! You always need all the attention drawn to you! Have you ever once thought about what somebody else wanted?

“Isn't there some way to die where nobody will ever find out?”

I thought and prayed and thought some more and prayed some more, but nothing came. The world was going to be stuck with a miserable fuckup like me, and I was going to be stuck with this cruel, uncaring world.

Doing the only thing I could possibly think of to cheer me up, I pulled out my backpack, grabbed my notebook and began flipping through the pages. Sure, most of it was notes about math or science, but there were also some of my doodles drawn inside the margins, the only thing I was proud of.

The pictures were of me, but not the me I saw when I looked in a mirror. Instead, the Trixie on these pages was a great magician, a wizard, a magical girl. With a twist of her wand, she could make the stars themselves realign. The ursa major would be under her control; she would put on a dazzling show and travel from town to town, dazzling the masses. She wouldn't wear these stupid glasses. She would wear a cape and a witch's hat! She would even have a picture of a wand and moon tattooed on her hip! She called herself, “The Great and Powerful Trixie,” and although they were just immature doodles, they were my greatest inspiration.

Holding the notebook up as I laid down on my bed, I said, “One day, I'll be like you and make everybody happy. I can see it now. The Great… and Powerful… Tri…”

By this point, I had lost a lot of blood, and with the notebook dropping onto my chest, my vision faded to black as I lost all consciousness...

Chapter 2

“Help! Somebody save me!”

It was a dark alley, and once she had reached the walls that sealed her escape, the girl turned around and realized that she was cornered. Slowly, but with a menacing look in its eyes, the ursa major, a gigantic bear with razor sharp teeth and a coat decorated with the colors of the cosmos, began to approach the shaking little girl. Drool dripped from its mouth as it bore its fangs, ready to take a large bite out of the frightened child, but all she could do was cry out for help, hoping that someone could rescue her before her time ran out.

Finally, the ursa major lunged at her, making her shield her face with her arms, but she knew that wasn't going to work. Her time was up. She was going to die.

But then, at the last moment…

“Fear not, little one! Your savior is here! The Grrreat and Powerful Trrrrrixiiiieeee!”

The ursa major, just as it was about to put the little girl into its massive jaw, suddenly froze in the air, no longer able to control its body. Then, it felt itself moving backwards, its body rotating until finally, it was face to face with the magical bearer that held it in the air.

“Sorry, ursa major, but you're going to have to find your dinner somewhere else! Begone!” Then, with my hands reeled back, I used my magical abilities to send the bear flying into the background like a shooting star. As soon as it was no longer in sight, I placed my hands to my hips and turned toward the girl, giving her a reassuring smile. “He won't be bothering you again, little one.”

With jubilation filling her face, she quickly got up to her feet, rushed over to where I stood and leapt her whole body forward to engulf me into a big hug. “Thank you, Miss Trixie!” she shouted while laughing. “Are you an angel?”

“I can see why you would think so, but no, I'm just your average do-gooder. In fact, there was once a time when I was just like you.”

“Really?”

Smiling to myself, I patted her on the head while her eyes grew wide. “And you know what else? Maybe one day you can grow up to be just like me!”

“I will! I'm gonna grow up to be just like you one day, Miss Trixie!”

“I can't wait to see what kind of woman you become, but I must be off. There are others who need me, and the only one who can save them is the Great and Powerful Tri--”

“AUFFHHH!!”

Being pulled out of my dream, I was forcefully awakened by a blistering pain in my gut. Upon opening my heavy eyelids, I saw my mother standing over me, out of breath with a bottle of vodka in her hand, and she was looking down on me with the amount of anger I had come to fear.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN FUCKING SLEEP?!” She screamed, again sending another harrowing punch to my stomach. The pain was even greater than from when I had gotten home from school, and all I could think about was what I had done to make my mom so angry. Then it hit me: the shirt!

“Mom, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! Please, just let me expla--OOOGGHHFF!”

Another punch, this one sent to my chest, making me fear that she had accidentally broken one of my ribs.

“You're sorry? You mean to tell me that I spend my hard-earned money to put clothes on your back, and you're sorry?!” This time, she sent another punch, only this one landed into my face, breaking my nose and sending blood flowing like a stream down my face. Quickly, I sat up and squeezed my nostrils closed, using my other hand to catch any blood before it found its way onto my bedsheets. “You see? You know better than to go bleeding on the shit I give you, so why the fuck did you ruin a perfectly good shirt?!”

“I'mb sorry, momb!” I pleaded, doing my best to both talk and breath through my mouth as my eyes started tearing up. “I love you! I won't do it again!”

“If you really loved me, then why don't you care about the things I give you? Was this whole thing a plan to get me to buy you another one? You know, most kids just ask their mom to buy them new clothes and their mom is happy to do that for them, but somehow, I ended up with a daughter who doesn't give any fucking thought as to what her own mother thinks!”

Suddenly, she was grabbing me by the neck. Breathing was already difficult as it was, but this time, when she held my throat, I could physically feel my lungs collapsing in on themselves. When I looked up to face her, though, I was met with a glare even worse than normal. Why did I have to ruin that shirt? Why do I always seem to fuck everything up?

“You know, Trixie, sometimes I wish you were dead. Then I'd have one less mouth to feed, one less back to clothe, and one less worry in my life, but thankfully for you, I'm a good mom. I am doing you a favor by giving you the life that you have. Don't you ever forget that.”

Suddenly, as she let go of my throat, I felt a surge of air rushing into my chest again. Panting like a dog, I heaved the biggest breaths that I could, trying to return to a normal breathing pattern before I accidentally hyperventilated, which would just give my mom one more problem in her life.

“I'm burning this shirt,” she said, picking the fabric off of the ground. “I don't want you accidentally wearing it and giving people the wrong impression, especially since it's probably just covered in your period. How many other shirts do you have?”

“T-two…”

“Huh?! Speak up!”

“Two, mom. I have t-two other shirts…”

“Good. Wear one of those today, and if you ruin another one, next time I really will kill you. Don't even fucking fight me on that one.”

“Yes, mom. I-I'll take good care of the ones I have.”

“Good girl. Well, you go back to sleep. I don't want you falling asleep in class again.”

“OK. Good night, mom. I love you.”

As soon as she walked back into the hallway, I got up from my bed and closed the door behind her. Then, before I made another problem worse, I went straight for my tissues and wiped off as much blood as I could. Fortunately, since I had passed out before putting on another shirt, the blood from earlier had just gotten on my face, hands and stomach. If any fell onto my bra, though, she would have made me go to school topless. I shuddered at the thought.

Once there was no more blood to clean up, I put all the bloody tissues into my garbage can and began working on my homework. Sure, mom told me to go straight to bed, but there was little chance of that happening with the TV blaring as loud as it was, and that was supposing I could actually ignore the pain in my stomach.

Well… as long as I could get everything done that I needed to, I was happy. In fact, all throughout middle school, I had never once been late on an assignment! Sure, my mom didn't put any kind of pressure on me to be at the top of my class, but then again, I never wanted to see what would happen if I came home with a bad report card.

“Well, English homework is done!” I said to myself with a smile, humming as I went to my next assignment. “Next is math. Bleh.”

To be honest, math wasn't that hard for me. In all actuality, I was probably more talented at math than most kids at my school, but doing equations wasn't nearly as fun for me as writing essays. In math, there's a right answer and a wrong answer, but when you write, you get to say whatever you want! It was like when I wrote papers, I was exploring another side of individuality that only came out when--

Creeeeak!

Oh, shit! Oh shit oh shit oh shit!!

“What did I just tell you?” Looking up from my papers, I saw my mom again, only this time, her hand was gripped to the doorknob, squeezing it in a way that could break it off at any second.

“I-I-I can explain!”

“Didn't I tell you to go to bed?”

“Yes! You did, but--I-I--”

“Why isn't your homework done already?”

“I don't--I mean, I didn't--”

“That's it, Trixie. I've had enough of you for one day. You are going to bed right now.”

“Y-yes, mom!” Quickly, I put all of my papers into my backpack and yanked my blanket over my body. As I looked back to my mom, though, she was already back in the hallway. Maybe this meant that it was all over, and all I had to do was put my head on my pillow and pretend to sleep? Well, it wasn't like I had any other option anyway.

“Oh, Trixiiieee.”

Out of curiosity, I squinted my eyes open to see my mom standing in the doorway again, this time holding her bottle of vodka again. Pulling my head out of the covers, I stuttered, “Y-yes, mom?”

“Have you ever tasted liquor before?”

“No! I would never! I p-promise!”

“Is that so? Well, I guess I believe you.” Really? You really believe me? “That just means that now's going to be your first time, then.”

“Huh?”

Reflexively pulling my head out of my blankets completely, my mom sent her bottle of vodka flying towards my face, shattering as it smashed against my forehead. The amount of pain I was in had reached an all-time high, with so much agony in my head that I couldn't even feel the rest of my body. Without a second's hesitation, I reached for where the bottle had hit me, searching my face and scalp for anywhere I might be bleeding, and though I felt shards of glass all throughout my hair, I didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere.

Then, as I looked back at my hands, they began to spin. I was suddenly feeling extremely dizzy and nauseous as the room around me began to toss and turn like a boat at sea. I was now doing everything I could just to not throw up, but that's when my room started getting darker. Suddenly, I couldn't see anything anymore, and with all the feeling lost in my hands and body, I fell back onto my pillow and once again, lost consciousness.

Later that morning…

By some miracle, I actually managed to wake up when my alarm went off the next morning, and to make things even better, I didn't wake my mom up when I left my room to take a shower! Again, I counted my blessings upon feeling the warm shower water hit my face, even if it meant pulling out shards of glasses from my hair and hoping that there wouldn't be any surprise pieces when I tried using the shampoo.

Once I was out and dressed, I made my way to the kitchen to make breakfast. I would need all the energy I possibly could if I were to make it through an entire day of school without falling over, but at least I knew I had gotten plenty of sleep!

Before walking out, I made one more meal, wrapped it in plastic foil and left a note saying, “I had to leave before you woke up, so I thought I would make you some breakfast! :heart: I love you!” My mom never asked me to make her breakfast, nor had she ever been mad about me leaving without saying a word, but I just thought that after all the troubles I had put her through lately, she at least deserved this.

“Alright!” I said to myself, holding my books firmly as I walked to school. “This morning is turning out to be good so far! Now I just need to make sure I don't make anyone mad!”

“Oh, Tripsyyyy.”

No. Not now! Not when this morning has been going so well till now! Can't you just wait until we get to school?!

Turning my head, I saw a figure standing underneath the nearby bridge, folding her arms and smiling at me. “Hey, I just wanted to say sorry about what happened yesterday,” Lulu Lemon said, walking closer.

“What? I-it's OK, really!” I stammered, hoping I could get out of there before something bad happened. “I'll see you at school, then?”

“Actually, I was kinda hoping you could do me a favor.” I wanted to run away so bad, but I knew that she would find me eventually, and when she did, there would be Hell to pay. Instead, however, she lackadaisically approached closer until her arm was around my shoulder, pulling me in closer and covering my skin with goosebumps. “You see, Trixie, I have something I need delivered to someone in the next class over, and I was wondering if you could do that for me.”

Was that all? That would be no problem! But wait…

“Um… Lulu, if you just need it delivered to the next class over, why do you need me to do it?”

“Well, you see, I would do it myself, but I'm super embarrassed about it.” Then, pulling her arm off of my shoulder and reaching into her bag, she pulled out a small baggie filled with a white powder. Cocaine. “You wouldn't mind just bringing it over to him, would you?”

“But… Lulu… th-those are drugs…”

I began slowly backing away, hoping that she would eventually get bored and beat me senseless without actually having me make the delivery.

“Come on, Trixie. I said I was sorry. Plus, you won't get in trouble if you don't get caught.”

“B-b-but, w-what if somebody looks in my bag and finds it?”

“Look,” Lulu said with her voice losing its cheerful demeanor. “Put it in your ass if you need to. Do you want me to pay you? I'll give you the fucking minimum wage! How does that sound?!”

This had gotten out of control. If I went through with her plan and got caught, it would mean the end for me. If I was lucky, I would be thrown in jail, but if I wasn't, I would come home to my mother. As I made eye-contact with Lulu, though, her eyes told me that she wasn't going to give me a choice, and the longer I waited, the more patience she lost.

“I… I…”

There was nothing I could do. I had no choice but to take the drugs, make the delivery and pray that no one ever found out. There was just one problem...

“I… I can't!”

...I was a coward.

Holding my books as close to my chest as I could, I turned on my heels and began running towards the school.

“Hey! Get back here, you little shit!”

I was using all the energy I had and then some to put as much distance between us as possible. My heart was racing, my lungs were pumping, and sweat was already beginning to trickle down my armpits, but even with all the adrenaline moving my muscles at twice their maximum speed, I was no match for Lulu Lemon's speed.

As soon as she caught up with me, she tackled me to the ground, turned me over and began hurling punches towards my face. The first punch slammed against my right temple, sending my glasses flying to where my books had scattered along the grass. The second slammed against my left cheek, making me involuntarily bite my tongue in the process, which was probably now bleeding profusely. The third struck me against my right eye, which then made me worry about how I would possibly face my mother the next time I saw her if I came home with a black eye.

Lulu continued throwing her fists into my face, taking out all the anger she had towards me until her muscles physically ached from the exhaustion. When she finally stood up, I was bleeding from my nose and mouth, my eyes swollen from the wounds as well as my pathetic tears streaming down my cheeks. She didn't look like she was done, though, which she reaffirmed by digging into her bag, pulling out an item from inside and smiling from ear to ear.

The item she had… was a switchblade.

“No… Please… I'll do anything!!”

“You already had your chance to do the right thing, but you made a poor decision. You can't back down from your punishment now, Tripsy.”

“Please! I'll make the delivery! I'll do anything you want! JUST PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!”

Lulu, however, just smirked.

“The world would be better off with you dead.”

My heart went from doing jumpingjacks to stopping completely. I wanted to run, crawl, anything I could physically do to get away from her, but I froze. My voice was caught up in my throat, making it to where I couldn't even make one last attempt to scream. Then, with all my luck having run out, she lunged forward with her knife, and all I could do was cry.

“Bye-bye, Tripsy!”

“Just kidding!”

Suddenly, Lulu froze, her eyes bulging as she looked down on me, not in anger, but in fear. Her entire body had stopped moving until finally, a few moments later, she dropped her knife to her feet, her eyes closed and she collapsed on top of me. Motionless.

Finally, with all the adrenaline collapsing in on itself, I pulled in enough air to my lungs to let out an ear-shattering scream. Reflexively crab-walking backwards, Lulu's body slid off of mine, plopping onto the ground and still not moving an inch. My breathing was picking up so fast that I was going to hyperventilate at any moment.

Is she dead? What the fuck is going on? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!

“Hiya!”

Suddenly breaking my eyes away from the body in front of me, I slowly moved my face up to see a person standing above us, smiling down at my battered face. She was probably in her late teens, and she was wearing clothes that didn't fit anything short of a costume. She had a sparkling dress that imitated the colors of the stars in the night sky, her necklace was in the shape of the moon, and her hair was a loud bright blue. Did she… Did she just kill Lulu?

“Nice to meet ya, little girl! My name's Dreamdrop!” As she held out her hand, I pathetically shrieked and crawled a few steps away, my whole body still trembling from my near-death experience. “Huh? No need to be scared. I’m not gonna hurt you!”

“What…” I began as tears flowed down my face once more. “What did you do to her?”

“Oh, her? Nothing, really. I just put her to sleep is all!”

“Put her to… sleep?”

“Yup, that's my magic. I'm a magical girl!”

My head was still spinning. Who was this Dreamdrop girl? What was Lulu going to do when she woke up? Was I going to die? Was it just a matter of time?

“You knoooow,” she continued while rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, “I still haven't gotten your name yet.”

“My name? My… My name is T-Trixie.”

Suddenly, her face exploded into the biggest grin I'd ever seen. “Trixie! It's so nice to meet you! Oh, we should probably get out of here before you-know-who wakes up. I'd hate to see what she's like in the morning!”

“Will she be OK?”

“Hmm? Sure! My magic only lasts for five minutes, and I hate to be that magical girl, but we've already used up three.”

“When she wakes up, what's going to happen? Is she going to try to kill me again? Is she going to find me when I'm at school? I… I…” Feeling defeated again, I brought my knees to my chest and bawled ferociously into my legs. “I'm so scared, Dreamdrop! I don't know what to do!”

As I continued to weep into my knees, the magical girl put a finger to her chin as she thought. “Weeeeell, the way I see it, you have two options. One, you could go to school and hope that this girl here slept off whatever she was going on about before, or option two, you could come with me!”

“Where are we going?”

The magical girl snickered. “We're going to Platinum City, where all the magical girls go to touch base with each other. That is, if you wanna join me.”

“Is… Is that really OK?”

“Sure! I'm not holding out my hand to stretch, after all!”

Nothing made sense anymore. Just this morning, I was making my mom breakfast. Then, out of nowhere, I nearly became a drug mule. After that, I was almost killed! Now, some teenager calling herself a magical girl was offering to take me to a place called Platinum City?

However, when I looked down at Lulu and looked up at Dreamdrop, I realized that no matter what happened, it would be better than being there when she woke up. Finally, with a smile on my face, I reached out my hand and took hold of the magical girl's open palm.

“OK, Dreamdrop. I trust you.”

“Yahoo! Platinum City, here we come!!”

Chapter 3

Platinum City was not a physical place like Manehattan or Canterlot, which meant that the only way to get into the city itself was with a magical portal device. This was where Dreamdrop's crescent moon necklace came in handy. Once she grabbed my hand and held onto her necklace, she asked me to close my eyes, and after a few moments, my body felt weightless, the air began to feel cleaner, and the smell of flowers and waterfalls filled my broken nose.

“We're heeeeere!”

Upon opening my eyes, I saw something that I could only imagine in my fantasies. It was as if I was in a giant city that had been taken over by lush gardens, tall trees and clear rivers. Everything around me looked, smelled and felt more beautiful than I could have imagined.

“This… is Platinum City?” I asked in astonishment.

“Yuh-huh! Oh! I know! How about I introduce you to the other magical girls? I'm sure they're there!”

“How many magical girls are there?” I asked as we began walking through the gardens.

Dreamdrop put a finger to her chin. “You know, I guess I never really thought of that before. Platinum City is kinda like a parallel-dimension version of Manehattan, so all the girls here actually live somewhere close by!”

“Do… Do you think I might know any of them?”

“Maybe, but if you do, you'll never find out.” She added a wink at the end, which only furthered my curiosity.

“Huh? How come?”

“Well, you know, one of the best parts of being a magical girl is the ability to live dual lives. Even though we love being magical girls and having fun nicknames and using special powers, deep down, we're all just humans like you, living lives in Manehattan the same as anyone else. Even Platinum City is more like an escape than a home, especially when you consider the fact that they're basically the same two places. Even though we don't know of any penalties for exposing magical girls or our true identities, it would lose some of the magic if we did that.”

“That's kinda sad to think about…”

“Are you crazy?! I wouldn't want it any other way! It's almost like we have some kind of dirty little secret, don't you think?” With a giggle, Dreamdrop winked at me, making me involuntarily flinch.

“N-no! I don't think it's like that at all!”

Honestly, I had no idea what to make of the situation, seeing as how I was completely ignorant to the whole concept of magical girls, but Dreamdrop just laughed boisterously at my response.

“I'm just joking, Trixie! Anyway, I'd like to introduce you to the Manehattan magical girls!”

Finally taking my eyes off of Dreamdrop, I looked around me and saw about a dozen other girls sitting by a fountain, all wearing some kind of pretty costume that matched Dreamdrop's in one way or another. The entire scenery combined with the variety of colors was so bright that my head was beginning to spin from the huge contrast of what I was used to. Once all the girls took a look at me, though, their faces grew even brighter as their mouth turned upward into exuberant smiles.

“Is that a new magical girl?”

“She's so cute!”

“What happened to her? It looks like you saved her from a manticore!”

“I… uh… um…” With all the girls clamoring around me, I began to shake in anxiety. I had never been really good at talking to people, and with this much attention, all I could think about was how I was going to ruin their expectations and make them hate me… But their smiles seemed so genuine. It was something I'd never experienced myself.

“Alright! Hold on everyone! Give her some space!” Dreamdrop held out her arms shielding me from the onslaught of attention while I shivered in fear. “This here is Trixie. She was in a little bit of trouble, so I thought I'd help her out by bringing her here.”

“You know only magical girls are supposed to be here,” a voice from the background said. Peering past the other girls, I finally noticed a girl in all black, sitting back on the fountain. She wore high-heel boots that went up to her thighs, a dress that was thin up top but poofy along the seams, long feminine gloves, a cape that went down to the back of her knees, and a gemstone at the pit of her neck, whose redness contrasted with the black color of literally everything else she wore.

“Oh, don't pretend like you're not human deep down yourself, Night Seam!” Dreamdrop said, putting her hands to her hips.

“I… I'm sorry if I shouldn't be here!” I quivered. “I-I didn't know--”

“Oh, you're fine, Trixie,” said a girl wearing a green dress and steel shoulder pads. “Night Seam here has been growing grouchy ever since we started doubling in numbers.”

“Is… is that bad?”

“Yes,” Night Seam said in the distance, making my heart drop despite the fiery looks the other magical girls shot her.

“No, we're glad to have you, Trixie,” said a girl with a love-themed outfit. “She's upset because it means that when there are more magical girls, there's more competition for brownie points.”

“Uh… B-brownie points?”

“It's like our currency,” said a girl whose dress was splattered in a rainbow of different colors. “When we do good things for others, we get brownie points! From those, we can buy things here in Platinum City, and that ranges from anything like magical items to super yummy strawberry shortcake!” The girl licked her lips as her mind seemed to go off in a different direction.

“So…” I started, turning towards Dreamdrop as I began connecting the dots. “When you saved me…”

Dreamdrop doltishly stuck out her tongue, lightly bonking herself on the head as she knew what I was getting at. “I maaaay have had brownie points on my mind.”

“Oh…”

It was all beginning to make sense now. The whole reason she had saved me was so that she could use the earnings for her own profit. I felt idiotic and humiliated for even thinking that there was someone who went out of their way to save me because they genuinely cared about my wellbeing. Nobody did, and this proved it.

“But!” My eyes shot up at Dreamdrop, who was now grabbing hold of my hands. “I don't want you to think that that's the only reason I saved you! When I saw what kind of danger you were in, I would have jumped in to save you even if I wasn't a magical girl! The things that girl wanted from you... the horrible things she was doing to you… I just couldn't ignore something like that, especially when it's happening to such a sweet girl like you, Trixie!”

Tears were now beginning to form in my eyes again, but in a way I'd never experienced before. I was crying… because I was happy? The emotions from somebody finally making me feel like I was important, like I mattered, was just too much for me to hold back. As the other girls looked on, they didn't point and laugh like I was used to; they were smiling, and some of them were even beginning to tear up themselves! I was so happy! I'd never been this happy in my life!

“How…” I mumbled between sniffles. “How did you know where to find me?”

“Oh, that? That's easy! I just used one of these!” The magical girl then held out what looked like a cell phone, only it was a map of Manehattan with red lights blinking in different places. Looking around at the other magical girls, I noticed that they all had the exact same item, which they proudly displayed for me to see. “This is how magical girls see when someone's in trouble! If any of us are nearby, we jump in and help them! Pretty cool, right?”

“Wow…” I said, entranced by this new world I was becoming exposed to. “Umm… C-can I ask one more question?”

“Sure you can! Oh, wait, I guess your question is all used up now. Unfortunately, you won't be able to ask anything else.”

“Huh?!”

Dreamdrop again laughed heartily, holding her sides at her own hilarity. “I'm just kidding, Trixie. Ask whatever you want.”

“Um…” Now that everyone's eyes were on me, I didn't know if I'd be able to get out what I really wanted to say. My cheeks were growing red, and the last thing I wanted was to say something stupid or rude without realizing it, especially since these girls had all been so nice to me. “How…” I took a deep breath. “How do you become a magical girl?”

Suddenly, all the girls looked at each other, then over to Dreamdrop for her answer. Shoot! I messed up again! I'm such an idiot! Now they all probably hate me! Why did I think it would be a good idea to ask a stupid question like that?

“Weeeeeell, I can't tell you that,” Dreamdrop replied, making my heart sink to the lowest depths of my stomach. Typical stupid Trixie, always saying whatever idiotic shit comes to mind. “That is…” My ears suddenly perked up. “...unless you want to be a magical girl.”

“I… M-me…? A m-m-magical girl…?”

“Now, hold on there,” said the girl with a deep purple dress and goggles covering her eyes. “I know what you may be thinking, but being a magical girl is a big responsibility. You're in charge of keeping people safe, and sometimes that can be pretty dangerous. You sure you wanna commit to something like that?”

She had a point. I was never one to take responsibility well, seeing as how whenever somebody trusted me with something, I always seemed to let them down, but… this didn't seem like something I would be bad at. The idea of helping other people had never been an option for me, seeing as how I'd never been able to help myself, but then again, I had never been able to use magic before.

“I-if I do become a magical girl… will I get to use a special ability?”

“Sure,” said Dreamdrop. “Whatever you'd like. For instance, my magic is being able to put people to sleep. Oh, but I guess you already knew that.”

“And mine is the ability to bend metal,” said the girl with the green dress and steel shoulder pads.

“I can make any boy fall in love with me,” said the girl with the love-themed outfit. “Pretty useful ability, if I do say so myself.”

“But you can only choose once,” said Night Seam, finally joining the other girls. “You can't change your mind if you want a different power later.”

“That's OK,” I said, feeling more confident than I ever had in my life. “I'm ready. Dreamdrop, I want to become a magical girl.”

All the girls around me smiled, which just gave me more affirmation that the choice I was making was the right one, and if it was like I imagined it would be, I would have these girls with me throughout my journey. I was always cautious about being optimistic, but there was nothing more that I wanted than the opportunity I had before me in that instant.

“Alright,” Night Seam said with a sigh. “Go ahead and call him.”

“Him?” I asked, looking around at all the magical girls.

“He's the one who gives us our powers!”

“He’s the strongest magical being in the universe!”

“He's the one who decides whether you have the potential to be a magical girl.”

“Wow,” I said, suddenly feeling nervous as the gravity of my decision was beginning to weigh down on me.

“Alrighty, then!” Dreamdrop said, putting her hands to her mouth like a megaphone. “As a representative of Platinum City, I hereby seek you out. Appear, o spirit of chaos! Discord!”

Out of nowhere, clouds began to fill up the sky, covering the once bright sky with a blanket of gray storm clouds. Thunder ravaged through the air, making me fall to my knees in fright, covering my ears to soften the impact. The fountain also began to change, first by draining completely, then by shooting water straight up into the air, sending water flying down in all directions. Then, through the water, clouded by the darkness from the sky, emerged a being that snaked its way around the fountain until it floated in the air above us. Finally, it took its final shape as the water calmed to its normal flow into the fountain’s base.

The actual shape was something I had never seen before, and to be honest, it was a little scary. He had the head of a pony, a lion's paw, an eagle's claw, and all other sorts of extremities that I couldn't even identify. It roared as it stretched, again, making me cover my ears and hide behind my legs, but just as soon as it loosened its variety of limbs, the storm clouds began to disappear, once again filling the land with sunshine.

“Hello, there, everyone!” It said happily. “Dreamdrop, you seem to be bubbly as ever.”

“Thanks! Back atcha!”

“And Cupid Symphony, if I wasn't a deity, I'm sure I would be falling for you yet again.” The girl with the love-themed outfit winked and blew him a kiss. “Ahh, Night Seam. Grumpy as ever, I see.”

“Tch.”

“It really is wonderful getting to see all of--Oh, hello. And who might you be?” Suddenly, his face was in front of me, staring at my bruised face with his big, yellow eyes.

“Me?” I whispered timidly, now shaking and instantly regretting my decision. “M-my name is Trixie.”

“Pardon? You might need to speak up. You see, my hearing isn't quite what it used to be.” Then, like he didn't even feel pain, he tore off his right ear, hitting it across his knee until a giant drum fell out of his ear and onto the floor. “That's alright. I only need one eardrum anyway. Now, what did you say your name was again?”

“T-Trixie, Mr. Discord, sir.”

“Oh, please, Mr. Discord was my father's name, but that was back before the universe was even created, so I guess you probably never met him. Oh! Silly me! I must have gotten sidetracked again. Who was it that called me again?”

“I did!” Dreamdrop said, raising her hand and bouncing up and down. “You see, Trixie here was wondering how to become a magical girl.”

“Ooohhhh? You want to become a magical girl, do you?” His muzzle was practically touching my face, making my breathing stop and palms sweat.

“I… uh… y-yes?”

“Perfect! I love adding new faces to my collection! Now, as I'm sure the girls haven't told you, there are three steps to becoming a magical girl. Number one.” The deity carved the number one out of thin air. “You must pick a name that you will use as your identity. Number two.” Again, he carved out the number two, which floated in the air just above my head. “You must pick which ability you will use to help improve the lives of those around you. Now, for the third and final step…”

So far everything sounded so easy, but knowing my luck, the next step would be something I would never be able to--

“You must tell me who you love.”

Aaaaand that's about when my face went as red as a beet with steam practically sizzling from my cheeks. I had always kept my crushes to myself in fear of being teased, but to openly admit to something like this in front of all these girls?

“W-who I love?”

“Of course! I need to make sure you're pure in heart, after all. I'll give you a little bit of time to think of that last part. First of all, is everybody in accordance?”

Everyone nodded their heads, then turned to Night Seam, who grumbled while looking away from the throng of girls. “Fine!” she said. “Just so long as everyone else is OK with it.”

“Wait a second!” said one of the girls. “Where's Marrow? Wouldn't she want a say in this too?”

“Aww, she's probably trying to score more brownie points,” said another. “That girl has so many at this point that she could probably buy half of Platinum City by now.”

“Well, I guess that settles it,” Discord continued. “If she's not going to show up, no point in waiting. Now then, why don't we start with the basics? What would you like your magical girl name to be?”

Thinking through all the options I had, I knew exactly what name I wanted from the start, but just to make sure, I gave it as much thought as I could. This name would be with me for the rest of my time being a magical girl, so I had to make sure it would be something I would never regret. The more I thought, however, the more clear it became that this was the choice I wanted.

“Discord, sir, I think I know what name I want. I would like to be known from here on out as the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

“Hold on a second!” Dreamdrop said, holding her hand out and giving me a cautious look. “This is going to be your magical girl identity. When you transform, your face, clothes, hair and even body will change! Do you really want your new name to be something that people will be able to identify as you?”

“Yes,” I said, holding my hand to my heart. “All my life, I've wanted to save others the way you saved me, and with this name, I'll be giving my name the meaning that I've wanted it to have for all these years.”

“Very well, then!” Discord said, writing out my new name in thin air, which gradually made its way to my chest, where it evaporated into my body. “Now, what will be the magic you will use to help those in need?”

“Levitation,” I said without second thought. “I want to stop the bad guys in their tracks in a way my body can't handle, and I know that by having this magic, I will be able to make the most amount of good happen.”

“Very good! You know, Night Seam, you could definitely learn a thing or two from her.”

“Tch.”

“And now, for everybody's favorite part, who do you love more than anyone else in the world?”

Everyone's eyes fell onto me in anticipation, but honestly, I didn't know what to say. I had always kept myself from falling in love just because I knew how hurt I would be if anyone ever found out or if I was ever rejected. Maybe that wasn't what he was looking for, though… He said he wanted to see if my heart was pure… As those thoughts went through my mind, I no longer had any doubt as to what I would say.

Staring Discord in the eye with newfound confidence, I said, “The person who I love more than anyone in the world is my mom. She means the world to me, and I would do anything for her.”

“Splendid! You've taken all the steps to become a magical girl! Thus, I hereby bestow upon you your powers and make you a magical girl, and the name you shall hereby be know as is the Great and Powerful Trixiiieeee!!!”

The moment he said those words, my body began to feel light and heavy at the same time, like my bones themselves were changing their shape. My skin began to glow a bright white, which burned my skin while somehow also making it feel like I had jumped into a pool of ice cubes. Then, I was being lifted into the air with orbs of light circling around me as my body grew brighter and brighter until my contours themselves formed into an indecipherable glowing figure.

Finally, with one last bright flash, the light began to fade, gently easing me to my feet, which began to feel as nimble as I had before my incident from the morning prior. In fact, every part of me felt lighter, stronger, and better than ever. As I looked back at all the magical girls around me, I noticed that I must have even grown a foot or two, now being able to look straight into their faces.

“She's so pretty!”

“Discord, you did amazing!”

“She looks so great and powerful!”

With curiosity circling through my mind, I quickly made my way over to the fountain to see what kind of magical girl he had turned me into, and for the first time in my life... I looked beautiful! My glasses were gone. I was now wearing a witch's hat and a long, purple cape. Even my body had matured, giving me a slim waist and the chest I had always been envious of. Looking down at my hip, there was a tattoo of a wand waving a spell in the shape of a crescent moon. My hair was a bluish white like before, but the way it was styled was nothing short of a magical makeover. It was just like in my doodles, like I had always imagined.

“Is…” I began, now speaking with the voice of a grown woman. “Is this really me?”

“It sure is, Great and Powerful Trixie!” Dreamdrop said, reaching her arm around my neck and pulling me in. “Congratulations! You're a magical girl now!”

I looked down at my hands, still in disbelief, even though I was seeing it right in front of my eyes. “I… I can't believe it!”

“Believe it, sister!” said the girl in the goggles. “You're one of us now!”

Looking down at my reflection one more time, then looking back up at the other girls, I couldn't help the large smile that was beginning to grow on my face. I had been smiling so much today that my cheeks felt like they would break if I stopped smiling. Then, with all the energy I had (and with this new body, I had lots of energy), I wrapped my arms around Dreamdrop, squeezing her as tight as I could.

“Thank you, Dreamdrop! Ohhh thank you thank you thank you thank you!!”

“Can't… breathe… greatandpowerfultrixiepleaseletgo!” Finally allowing her message to sink in, I released her from my grip, sending her to the ground as she heaved deep breaths. “Why… does… your… name… have… to… be… so… long…?”

“I guess nobody told you,” said the metal-bending girl. “Now that you're a magical girl, you automatically get lots of strength, which you can use to jump really high or lift things like cars.”

“Speaking of powers,” said the girl with the multi-colored dress, “let's see your magic in action!”

“Yeah!” said the other girls, chiming in.

I was definitely ready to try out my newfound magic for myself, but there was only one problem. “How do I use my magic?"

“Well,” Dreamdrop began, “that's something only you know. You just have to think real hard about what you would do if you wanted to use your magic.”

I still wasn't quite sure how to make it happen, but I trusted Dreamdrop that I would be able to figure it out. Closing my eyes and lifting my hands, I centered all the energy I had to my mind, picturing my surroundings from the back of my eyelids. Then, putting all my focus on the leaves littered around the fountain, I opened my eyes to see them swirling around us, like we were all inside a giant, leafy tornado.

“Wow!”

“Awesome!”

“Wonderful!” said Discord as I lowered the leaves back to the ground. “I see you're getting used to your powers already! Now, I hate to leave you all, but I really should get going. Chaos doesn't create itself, you know! Anyway, farewell, everyone, and it was a pleasure meeting you, Great and Powerful Trixie!”

Then, with the snap of his fingers, he vanished, leaving a billow of smoke in his place.

“So!” Dreamdrop said, grabbing my hands without skipping a beat. “Now that you're a magical girl, you wanna go earn some brownie points?”

As soon as the words escaped her lips, however, I realized a very, very important key detail that I had been glossing over. “Ohhhh, no no no no no! This is bad! Very, very bad!”

“What is it, Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“I just realized that I'm late for school! Oh, no! What am I gonna do?! What am I gonna tell my mom?!”

“Whooooaa whoa whoa whoa! Calm down, kiddo. Take a deep breath. There you go. Now, there's a solution for everything! Don't you think so, Paradox?”

The girl with the purple dress and goggles giggled, pointing a thumb to her chest. “Leave it to me!”

***

Before we left, Dreamdrop used some of her brownie points to buy me a magical phone and portal device, which took the shape of the red crystal that held my cape together. Then, upon saying our good-byes, Dreamdrop led us back to the gate where we entered, leaving Paradox and I to pick up where I had left Lulu before. Of course, my books looked like they had taken a beating once Lulu had woken up, with several pages ripped out and scattered along the grass, but for the most part, everything was in one piece.

Upon transforming back to my normal self, I picked up my things and led Paradox to my school. Apparently, she had the ability to create illusions, which seemed like an amazing power to have, and honestly, I was a little jealous that I hadn't come up with something like that for myself.

Once we made it into the school, Paradox immediately began using her power, making it to where nobody in the halls knew that we were there. Upon getting to my classroom, Paradox quickly hypnotized my teacher and all of my classmates as I quietly made my way to my seat, breathing a sigh of relief. As soon as my notes were spread out on my desk, I discreetly gave Paradox a thumbs up, who smiled and closed the door again, undoing the spell she had cast on the classroom.

“Now, can anyone tell us why this particular year was important?” Mr. Fairweather asked the class. “Can you, Lickity Split?”

“Naw, teach. You know I can't.”

“Figures. How about… Trixie? So nice of you to join us. I didn't see you walk… in…”

“What do you mean, Mr. Fairweather?” I asked innocently. “I've been here this whole time. Although, I don't remember you calling my name during role. Oh, no! I must have dozed off! I'm so sorry!”

Mr. Fairweather looked flabbergasted, being sure that I wasn't there a moment ago, but not being able to come up with an explanation of how I got there. “Well…” he stammered. “Whatever the case, don't let it happen again. I'm not going to give you a second warning.”

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

I had a lot of catching up to do. He must have gone straight through to the next chapter, which meant that I had to take notes at twice my normal pace! When I looked up at the board, though, I noticed that one student wasn't paying attention to class. One student had her head placed in her arms on her desk like she was sleeping, but her head was facing towards me.

Suddenly, I realized that the student at that desk was none other than Lulu Lemon, and as she pulled her glaring face out of her arms, I barely made out the message of her lips.

“I'm going to fucking kill you.”

Chapter 4

Diiiiiiing!

The loud sound of the bell rang throughout the halls and classrooms of Manehattan Middle School, signifying to the teachers that the period was over and for students to make their way to their next class. Luckily, I had managed to completely catch up with my notes in Mr. Fairweather's class despite my late start, but throughout his lecture, my mind raced around what Lulu had said to me as well as her fierce stares throughout class.

I had just barely been given the powers of a magical girl, but I didn't know if there were any rules regarding how I used them or even a sure way of how to transform. Would I need to use my powers already if Lulu tried to attack me? Would she try pulling me somewhere nobody would find us right as soon as I walked out of the classroom? Was she going to wait until after school when I would walk home, then try to murder me when I was somewhere secluded, like she tried to do that morning?

I had no idea what was going to happen to me, but I for sure knew that if I stayed in Mr. Fairweather's class any longer, not only would he suspect something, but he would probably also tell my mom about it. After a deep breath, I picked up my books, stood up from my desk and began walking towards the door, and just as I expected, Lulu was waiting in the hallway for me, wearing a large smile.

“Hey, Trixie! Why don't we walk to class together?” she said with fake jubilee.

“Umm… w-we don't have the same class next period.”

Suddenly, her demeanor changed, furrowing her eyebrows and descending her voice into a whisper. “I'm not going to ask you twice.”

I made a loud gulp, shaking fearfully in my kneecaps. “O-oh! That's right! I guess it's still in the same direction, isn't it? Yeah, l-let's go…”

I had no idea whether or not she was going to lead me out of the building entirely, but if she was still carrying that switchblade from earlier, I really wasn't in the best position to argue. Instead, though, she allowed me to lead her to my next class while she put on her fake smile, waving to all the popular kids she walked by until she finally had a chance to whisper in my ear.

“I have no idea what you pulled earlier or how you managed to sneak back into class, but I promise you, I am going to pay you back with interest for what you did. If you had just done what I said, this could have all been avoided, but because of the shit you pulled, I am going to make sure that your death is as painful and degrading as a human could possibly experience. Do you hear me? I will light a match, stick it up your cunt, and make sure it causes so much damage that you'll have your period through your mouth. You will die choking on your own ovaries, and all just because you felt like fucking with the wrong girl.”

I began shaking from the grotesque imagery but tried to hold my composure as the two of us walked past our classmates in the hallway. If I blew her cover before I even got to my next class, I knew that I would just end up being killed at one point or another. I had to stay strong, at least until she let me out of her sight, which probably wouldn't be until about two steps away from my math class. Finally, though, we made it to the entrance, and as I turned to get her approval to walk inside, she gave me another fake smile and waved goodbye.

“I'll see you later, Trixie!” she exclaimed happily, but as she turned, she said in a much more quiet voice, “Don't try running away.”

Hiding my fear as much as I could, I smiled and waved back as I walked into class, finally free from her grasp and getting a chance to catch my breath. I wanted to cry so bad, but I couldn't blow my cover. Not yet. There had to be something I could do! I couldn't keep living with this fear of death always hovering over my shoulder which could easily strike when I least expected it!

Bzzt, bzzzzzt!

Great. Somebody left their phone on. I personally didn't own a phone. I pleaded with my mom for her to get me one once, but, like any time I asked for my mom to buy me something, it didn't end so well. It wasn't always all bad, I guess. It meant I never had to worry about remembering to turn it off when I got to sch--

Bzzzzzt!

Wait! That was coming from me! Quickly, I remembered the magical phone that Dreamdrop had given me earlier, and as soon as I pulled it out, I saw three new messages from the magical girl herself.

“Heeeey! G&PT! This is Dreamdrop!”

“How did this morning go? Did you make it to class alright? Was Paradox nice to you?”

“Just tell me if you need anything! Remember, I'm here to help!”

Again, realizing that I was holding a phone in my hand in the middle of a class period, I stashed it away into my bag, looking around to make sure no one noticed. I was scared that it might go off again in the middle of class, but was struck paralyzed by the idea of pulling it out and having it confiscated while trying to figure out where the power button was. If a call home to my mom was bad enough as it was, getting a call from school about getting my phone confiscated would end in the most brutal beating I could imagine.

Fortunately, however, my phone didn't go off during class, and after a few minutes of suspiciously jittering in my seat, I was able to calm down and completely focus on the math lesson. Then, once class was over, I quickly ran into the girls’ bathroom, chose the nearest stall and sealed myself in, pulling out my phone and figuring out how to send a message back.

“Dreamdrop, I need your help! I might be in danger! That girl from earlier is back! I don't wanna die! Please! HELP ME!!”

I waited anxiously for a response, gauging how much time I had before I needed to get up and make my way towards class, but fortunately, Dreamdrop was quick at messaging me back.

“Whoa, that super crazy girl? Don't worry! Paradox and I will get you as soon as you're done with school! Stay safe until then, OK? We'll protect you. I promise.”

With a deep breath of relief, I put my phone back into my bag, stood up and began racing to my next class. I couldn't have met these girls at a more perfect time.

After school...

Even with Dreamdrop's words of encouragement, I couldn't stop the feelings of fear and anxiety shooting through my mind and body. What if they didn't know where to wait for me? What if Lulu found me first? What if they forgot?

My feet were shaking, and I literally felt like I was going to fall down and faint with each step I took as I made my way out of the school building. I was so scared that I was going to die. If anything, I just had to make it back home one more time to tell my mom just how much I loved her. With one more wobbly step, I had made my way out through the school's entrance and into the blinding light of the afternoon sun.

“Heeeyyy!!! Great and Powerful Trixie!”

My heart jumped. Just as soon as I exited the school building, I saw Dreamdrop and Paradox waving at me from the gates, both wearing their magical girl outfits and lookingrightatmeOHNO!! As quick as I could, I ran towards them with panic in my voice.

“A-a-are you sure it's OK for you to be dressed as magical girls right now?! We're in the middle of public!”

Rather than react the way I had imagined, though, they immediately began laughing hysterically like nobody would notice, and for some reason, nobody did notice. They just all walked by like there was nobody there.

“Paradox can create illusions, remember?” Dreamdrop said.

With a triumphant laugh, Paradox exclaimed, “That's right! They can't see or hear anything we say. As far as everyone else is concerned, we literally don't even exist!”

“So, you said you were having problems with that girl from this morning, right?”

“R-right,” I said sadly, looking down at my feet. “I think I made her pretty mad after what happened this morning.”

“You wouldn't happen to be talking about that suspicious-looking girl over there, would you?” Paradox asked, pointing behind me. Then as soon as I turned my head, I yelped in fear, reflexively hiding behind Dreamdrop for protection.

“Where did she go?!” Lulu asked incredulously, looking all around her for any trace of where I could be. Following behind her was a boy named Turf Field, a tall upper-classman whose size and athletic abilities made him a top prospect for major universities, despite only being a middle school student.

“You sure she went this way?” he asked.

“She must have! It's the quickest way back to her place! Of course the little bitch isn't going to make things easy on us. You know what to do when we find her, right?”

Turf Field laughed. “Hold her and don't let go, right?”

“Good. Come on. We'll find her eventually if we just follow her route home. She can't run away forever.”

The magical girls and I watched as the two of them unknowingly walked past us, and sure enough, they were walking in the exact direction of where I lived.

“Jeeze Louise,” Paradox said, putting her hands to her hips. “What's with that girl?”

“Well, you know how I met Trixie by saving her from someone trying to kill her?” Dreamdrop said. “I'm just saying that I maaaaaay have possibly kinda sorta used my magic to put her to sleep.”

“Yikes. You really poked the hornet's nest with that one.”

“Am…” I began with tears threatening to pour down my face again. “Am I gonna be OK?”

Then, with a reassuring smile on her face, Dreamdrop put her hand on my shoulder, leaned down to eye level and said, “You're going to be fine, Trixie. We'll protect you.”

“You know,” Paradox began, “it might be a good idea to follow them. It's not like we're not headed that way anyway, and maybe we can find out a little bit more about what she's trying to do while we're at it.”

“Good idea. Trixie, stay close by. Not only are we gonna get you home, but we're going to make sure these knuckleheads don't pick on you anymore.”

“O-OK.”

Easier said than done. As the three of us followed Lulu and Turf Field as they searched high and low on their way to my home, it became more and more obvious not only how desperate they were to find me, but how they knew every road or detour I would take to get home. They were really going to do everything in their power to make sure they tortured me to death.

“Where could that bitch have gone?!” Lulu asked herself angrily as she bit into her thumb. “I swear, she has some kind of trick up her sleeve.”

“What do you mean?” her accomplice asked.

“She has some way of sneaking in and out of situations without being caught. I don't know how she did it, but this morning she knocked me unconscious. Then, she snuck into class without anybody seeing her.”

“Maybe we should try again tomorrow when she leaves for school? Then we can corner her when she least expects it.”

“Fine, but you don't get to see my tits until after we kill her.”

“What?! But I went all this way already!”

“How about this?” Lulu then grabbed hold of Turf Field's shoulder and stood on the tips of her toes to plant a passionate kiss onto his lips. Before Turf Field could even reciprocate, though, she pulled herself off of him with her feet now flat on the floor. “Once we kill her, I'll go all the way with you. Think you can be patient now?”

“Works for me. No one will miss that girl anyway.”

As soon as they turned around and walked away, Paradox and Dreamdrop both cringed with disgust.

“That's terrible,” Paradox said.

“How can anyone even talk like that?” Dreamdrop chimed in.

“Hey, I have one more thing I'd like to ask you two,” I said before realizing how upfront I was being. “I-i-if that's OK with you two.”

“Hmm? Sure,” Paradox said. “What's up?”

“Well…” I was suddenly having a hard time getting out my words. Asking for favors was never something I was good at, and usually when I did, I just ended up getting on everyone's nerves. “I was wondering… if the two of you could help me learn how to be a magical girl some more. Like, maybe we could all earn brownie points together.”

“Ha! Is that all?” Dreamdrop asked boisterously. “Actually, I reeeeeally wanna see you use your magic again. The way you made those leaves fly around like that was soooo cool! I wanna see what else your levitation ability can do!”

Then, I suddenly realized that I would have to wait just a little bit longer.

“Actually,” I said, my voice beginning to trail off. “I just have to wait for my mom to go to work first. She doesn't know I'm a magical girl, after all.”

“Was this your mom you were talking about earlier who you said you loved with all your heart and would do anything in the world for?” Dreamdrop asked as she grabbed my hands and her eyes began to glow in anticipation.

“Yeah… Yeah, she is…”

The other two magical girls exchanged quizzical looks between each other. For being the most important person in the world to me, I definitely wasn't as enthusiastic about talking about her as they originally anticipated. With a long, awkward silence, the three of us traveled the short distance left to where I lived, and as I stood in front of my doorway, I began sweating bullets as I tried to think of what I could possibly say that would prepare them for what they were about to see.

Turning towards the girls, I said with a fake smile, “This is my house! Just… promise that no matter what happens, neither of you will do anything, OK?”

Sharing a nervous glance between each other, the two girls nodded in agreement, and with a long, deep breath, I opened the front door and led them into my house.

“Mooooom! I'm hoooome!”

“You're late,” she said, already dressed for work and messing with her phone. “What took you so long getting home? You weren't fooling around, were you?”

“N-no, mom. I just got a little side-tracked on my way home is all.”

“Side-tracked with wha--” Finally, looking up from her phone, her jaw dropped. Shoot! Could she see Paradox and Dreamdrop? Was her magic not working anymore? As I began to worry internally, though, I started to notice that she wasn't looking at anyone but me. “What. Happened.”

Her question was more of a demand than a statement, but quickly looking down, I realized that my clothes had been dirtied and ripped in my altercation with Lulu earlier that morning, and my face probably matched my outfit. “It's not what you think! I promise it's not what you think!”

Slowly, menacingly, she took one step after another towards me. “Have you been getting into fights? Is that why you're home so late?”

“No! It's not like that!”

“Don't you FUCKING LIE TO ME!” With as much force as she could, she slapped me across the face. Reflexively, Dreamdrop began to move in to save me, but she was quickly stopped by Paradox, who put her arm out in front of her just in the nick of time. “What kind of daughter have I been raising? What was the point of even trying if you were just going to disregard everything I ever taught you?!”

“No, mom! It happened this morning! I was on my way to school when--”

“It happened this morning?”

“Yes! That's what I've been trying to tell you!”

Suddenly, my mom dropped her phone to the floor in shock, freezing like a statue, and at that moment, I realized how terrible a mistake I had just made.

“You…” she started, being shocked into complete silence. “You mean… this entire day… you looked like this? You went to school… looking like this?”

“I-I-I'm sorry, mom! I'm sor--”

This time, my mom silenced me with a punch across my face, again leading to Paradox having to restrain Dreamdrop so that she wouldn't intervene. Then, picking me up by the neck, she slammed me into the wall, repeatedly punching me in the gut with every punch growing stronger and stronger. The wind was getting knocked out of me, but despite not being able to breathe, I still managed to gag with every blow she sent to my abdomen.

“YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!”

I wanted to reply, but all the air that I could pull into my lungs was being spent crying in pain. After several moment of not responding, she let go of my neck and dropped me to the floor, but while I leaned back against the wall, trying to breathe normally again, she drove her foot into my forehead, slamming the back of my head into the wall and leaving a small hole in the aftermath.

“Do you have any idea how badly this could have turned out? Imagine what would have happened if the school had thought that I did that to you. Do you want to be taken away from me? Do you never want to see me again?”

“No, mom! I love you so much! I never want to be taken away from you!”

“You'd better fucking remember that, because if they take you away, you're not going to be in a nice home like this. You'll be taken to a foster home, where you won't have any of the luxuries you have now. So why the fuck did you think it would be a good idea to go to school after that?”

“I-I-I don't know! I thought you would be mad if--”

“I'M PISSED!” Then, just for good measure, she sent another kick to my ribs, only this one wasn't nearly as hard as she leaned onto the wall above me, out of breath from her strenuous activities. “Listen, Trixie. I want you to do whatever you need to do to look presentable for school tomorrow. Wash your clothes, put on some makeup if you need to, I don't care. I'm going to work early today because someone decided to get sick without giving any notice. When I get home, I want you in bed with your homework done. Can you do that for me?”

“Yes, mom. I promise.”

“Good girl. I'll see you when you get back from school tomorrow.” She then pulled herself together and began walking towards her purse beside the door.

“M-mom?”

“What?”

“C-can I hug you, just to prove how much I love you?”

My mom stopped dead in her tracks, not looking back and not looking forward. Then finally, after a few moments of excruciating silence, she said, “Not today, Trixie.” Once she said those words, she grabbed her purse, walked outside and closed the door behind her, leaving me on the floor with a tear running down my cheek.

“Wow!” Dreamdrop said, suddenly running over to embrace me. “What… What just happened?”

“Dreamdrop?” I said with a trembling lip.

“Yeah? What do you need?”

Words were hard to get out as another tear traveled down my face. While holding back my sobs as much as I could, I asked, “Can I transform into a magical girl now?”

Dreamdrop looked like she was about to cry herself, but instead, she wore the biggest, most supportive smile she could. “Yes, Trixie. You can be a magical girl now.”

Finally putting my hand to my knee and wobbling my way up, using the cracked wall behind me to support my aching back, I managed to completely pull myself together, standing tall and taking in a breath through my nose. Then, placing my hands to my heart, I summoned all the magical energy I had, feeling it swirl through every part of my body, entrancing me with a bright white light. Once the light faded, I was once again in my magical girl body, feeling a newfound strength and confidence that changed my demeanor completely.

“Nice seeing you again, Great and Powerful Trixie,” Paradox said with a smile. “What should we do first?”

Tilting my hat over my eyes, I cracked a smile. “Let's just see how great and powerful I really am.”

Chapter 5

“Help! Somebody! Anybody!”

Looking down at my magical phone, I could see myself getting closer and closer to the red dot in the center of the screen, and from the amplified hearing that I now had, it sounded like it was a little boy. I jumped from rooftop to rooftop, looking around my surroundings like a hawk, searching for the exact location of the boy in trouble until finally, I pinpointed a child, no older than seven years old, hanging onto a tree branch for dear life.

What was he thinking? There's no way a branch that small could support someone his age, and a fall from that height would easily break several bones, supposing he didn't fall on his head. How did he even get up that high in the first place?!

With tears streaming down his face, the branch gradually cracked, reflexively making him hold on tighter, which only put extra pressure on the already faulty tree branch. He could feel his body moving forward as gravity slowly pulled him down, and all he could do was hang on long enough for someone to miraculously save him. Unfortunately for him, though, the branch could no longer support his weight and severed along the trunk of the tree, sending him on a face-first collision course with the ground.

“AAAAAHHHHH!!!!”

Just before he impacted into the earth, however, his life seemed to pause in front of his eyes. As he looked at the ground beneath him, fearing that at any moment the nightmare would resume, leading him to hospital trip that he might not make it out of, he began to breathe fanatically with his heart racing at nearly twice its normal rate. Then, looking at his hand, he noticed a bright blue glow around the contours of his skin, making his heart rate soften as he observed his body with perplexity.

“Phew. I made it.”

As soon as he heard the voice, his body was being turned downside up with his feet gently and easily being placed on the floor beneath him. Finally, the light faded from his body, and looking up from his feet, he saw me, smiling down at him with my hands on my hips.

“I hope from now on you remember to only climb up what you can climb down.”

“Who…” he began, staring into my eyes with awe. “Who are you?”

“I am the savior of Manehattan, the vanquisher of evil, the Grrreat and Powerful Trrrrrixiiieeeee!!!”

Suddenly, the boy smiled from ear to ear, pointing at me with joy. “Are you a vampire?”

“What?! I look nothing like a vampire!” I then looked down at my outfit, trying to figure out where the misinterpretation could possibly be coming from. “Is it the cape?” I asked, holding the fabric, but the little boy just laughed and began walking away, waving goodbye as he bounced into a skip.

“Bye, magical vampire lady!”

“H-Hey! You could at least remember my name!” By this point, though, he was gone, leaving me with my shoulders slumped in defeat while my amplified hearing picked up the sound of Dreamdrop audibly choking back her laughter in the background. “Go ahead,” I projected with a sigh. “Laugh it up. I'm the Great and Powerful Magical Vampire Lady.”

Then, in the background, I heard both Dreamdrop and Paradox laughing hysterically at my misfortune. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Dreamdrop laughed so hard she legitimately began rolling on the floor.

“You--You thought it was your cape!” Dreamdrop got out between chortles.

Finally, though, Paradox jumped from her position and landed in front of me, visibly trying to keep herself from laughing any further as she wiped a tear from her eye. “I'm sorry, G&PT,” she said, moving her goggles back into place. “You have to admit, though, you did not see that coming.”

“Wha--? Do you get called a vampire too?”

“Nope, but to be fair, in a little boy's imagination, there isn't much separating vampires and magical girls.”

“Alright, I guess,” I grumbled under my breath, folding my arms. “Dreamdrop! You can come out now!”

“Hang on! Hang on! I think I peed a little. Let me check real quick... Nope! We're good!” The night-themed magical girl then leapt in front of me to Paradox's side, catching her breath from the earlier hilarity. “So! Let's see how many brownie points that got you!”

Pulling out my magical phone once more, I swiped until the screen changed to a balance screen, almost like a brownie point bank. Hitting the refresh button, the number changed from zero to twenty, making the girls “oo” in response.

“Twenty,” I said, looking up at the two of them for some sign of relativity. “Is that a lot?”

“For your first time, yeah,” Paradox said. “It's better than average.”

“What could I buy with this?”

“For twenty brownie points?” Dreamdrop said, sticking her tongue out as she thought deeply. “Oh! You could buy a cupcake from Sugarcube Corner!”

“Or a pack of emojis for your magical phone!” Paradox chimed in, pulling out her phone as I gave her a dull stare.

“...Seriously?”

“I dunno. You tell me.”

Suddenly, my phone began to buzz in my hand, showing one new message from Paradox. Opening the file, her message read, “ :moustache: :pinkiecrazy: :applejackconfused: :rainbowwild: :duck: :trollestia: ”

“Is this what you spend your brownie points on?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not usually. In fact, most of us try saving up for one of the more expensive magical items.”

“Like what? What are the options? How much do they cost?”

“Weeeeeell,” Dreamdrop began, “personally, I'm saving up for a wand. I don't know if you remember Storm Rose from before, but she has one. Her magic normally just lets her shock people, but with her wand, she can project that like an electric laser beam!”

“And I'm saving up for magic contacts that let me see people's underlying pasts,” Paradox chimed in. “Either that or their underpants. I kinda skimmed through the description, and knowing Discord, I wouldn't put something like that past him.”

“So, Discord makes all the magical items?” I asked.

“Yep! Speaking of which…” Paradox, upon looking at her phone, pointed at a red dot near where our location was. “This is new. Come on, girls! This looks like a good one!”

The three of us then jumped onto a nearby building and began leaping from roof to roof yet again, approaching the area where our magical phones picked up on somebody in trouble. Skidding to a halt, we ended up right outside an auto mechanic shop, looking around and searching for who needed us while trying to keep ourselves relatively out of sight from passersby. Then, as I peered through a nearby window, I saw four men sitting in wooden chairs that were spread out in a circle, all looking depressed.

“Girls!” I exclaimed quietly. “Come over here! I think I see something!”

“Where?” Dreamdrop replied, peeking through the other side of the window with Paradox close behind.

“Do you think we'll be able to hear them?” I asked.

“I think so, but we're gonna have to be real quiet.”

The three of us then shut our mouths and tried calming our breathing as much as we could in order to hear their voices coming from beyond the brick wall that separated us.

“It's a shame what happened to Ace Diamond,” one of the men said. “He had a wife and kids.”

“Yeah, we all do,” said another. “I'm just glad he managed to buy us another week.”

“Who do you think is gonna be next?” the third asked.

“Come on! Don't say things like that!” the final man replied. “We don't know if there even needs to be anyone else.”

Suddenly, a pair of lights began to turn a corner, making the three of us quickly jump to the roof of the auto shop as a luxurious, black Lamborghini made its way to the entrance. Peering over the edges of the building, we saw a large man with a cornrows haircut getting out of the driver's seat, moving over to the passenger's seat and opening the door for a beautiful young man in a blue suit. The man in the suite couldn't have been older than twenty-five years old, but the aura he carried about him had the confidence of someone twice his age.

Once the larger man closed the gentleman's car door for him, he made his way over to the auto shop’s garage door, knocking just loud enough for the people inside to hear. Within seconds, the garage door opened for the two men as one of the men from earlier scouted the area, finding nothing and quickly closing the door behind them.

“Well, that was bizarre!” Dreamdrop said.

“Come on!” said Paradox, standing up tall. “Someone might be in trouble! Let's head back down!” Nodding our heads in agreement, Dreamdrop and I followed the girl with the goggles as she leapt from the ceiling and made her way back to our original positions by the auto shop's window. Again, hearing them was still a little difficult, but we could just barely make out what they were saying.

“Alright, boys,” the man in blue said, speaking to everyone in the room. “Let's go over our results from last week, shall we?”

“Yes, sir,” said the first man, standing from his chair. “Last week, Ace Diamond was killed following a standoff with the police. He was carrying 300 pounds of methamphetamine in his car, all of which was seized by the authorities.”

“So, we're down 300 pounds of merch, then?” the young man asked.

“And one man,” said another man sitting down, who was quickly silenced by the larger gentleman with cornrows and his terrifying glares.

“Right. What happened to Ace was a tragedy, and I will make sure that his family is taken care of properly. Please, continue the report.”

The first man glared seeing the gentleman's lack of concern, but continued on. “We also have been asked by Fancypants in the Canterlot district if we would like to merge companies. Seeing as how the trade between districts is starting to get a little messy, we agree that it's within our best interests to merge before Fancypants pushes us out entirely.”

“And?” the gentleman in the suite seemed to chuckle. “What are the terms of the negotiation?”

The four men from earlier all exchanged looks that only they seemed to understand, and with a nod, the man standing up said, “He says that we can use each other's assets, continue our business as usual and feel free to sell to certain permitted sections within the Canterlot district. In return, he wants the ability to sell his merch freely in Manehattan and… he wants total control over both companies.”

“Wait… you’re telling me that he wants to take away my position?”

“These are lives we're talking about, boss. You’d lose your position after Fancypants drove us out of business! At least this way you have some kind of position when he starts moving his men into Manehattan!”

“No, I don't think you're hearing me! You're telling me that I'm going to lose my post because a couple of pussies are too scared to do their job? Don't forget whose paying for your motherfucking electricity every month! Don't forget who took you little bitches off of the streets and put you into stable jobs! You know what else? If you guys don't get your shit together, you're all gonna end up like Ace.” Looking around at the men one more time, he turned to his bodyguard and said, “Come on, Benchpress. I'm tired of looking at these chucklefucks.”

Just as he was about to open up the garage door, however, the fourth man stood up. “We figured you might say that,” he said, along with the others who were sitting down. “Unfortunately for you, though, this is nonnegotiable.”

Turning around in angry confusion, the gentleman exclaimed, “What?! What the fuck are you even going on about?”

“It's funny you mentioned that the same thing would happen to us that happened to Ace Diamond. You see, something you may not realize is that when someone dies, their autopsies go public.”

“Again, what the fuck are you even getting at? He died from a bullet to his fucking skull. What's there to analyze?”

“Not only that, but they found that he had piroxidene in his system. It’s a drug that's supposed to put you to sleep, but if you choose to stay awake and get behind the wheel, it would give you the same effects as drunk driving.”

“So what? You telling me that he was addicted to pills too?”

“Naw, we knew Ace. He would never touch the stuff. He also told us that you changed his routes to the most cop-infested part of Manehattan to do his delivery, two days after he was interrogated by police when his house was raided.”

“...What are you getting at?”

The four men all gave each other the same look as before and nodded their heads. Slowly and silently, the fourth man pulled out a sheet of paper, walking over to Benchpress and handing him the note. Upon looking over the document, his eyes went wide in fear, turning quickly to his boss for some kind of explanation. The paper was a prescription for piroxidene, signed by the boss on the day Ace Diamond died.

“Boss…” Benchpress said in disgust and fear. “You killed one of your own men?”

“No, Benchpress!” the boss said, holding his hands up. “These motherfuckers, they… they forged my signature!”

Suddenly, looking around at the four men standing up, they all had their guns taken from their holsters and were pointing their barrels directly between his eye sockets as he began to shake in terror. Then, turning towards his bodyguard for protection, he saw that he had pulled his own pistol out of his pocket and had stuck it into the gentleman's ribcage.

“Sorry, boss,” Benchpress said, “but I don't work for you anymore.”

My eyes went just as wide as the man in the blue suite who was shaking in fear, grabbing onto his bodyguard's jacket and pleading for dear life. In all my years of abuse, I had never seen a gun in person before, but now there were five, all pointed to the man in blue who was beginning to scream.

“Trixie,” Dreamdrop said, “I need you to use your magic right now!”

“What?” I said incredulously, switching anxious glances between the men and Dreamdrop. “W-w-what do I do? I've never been in a situation like--”

“TRIXIE!! USE YOUR MAGIC!! QUICK!!!”

Squeezing my eyes closed, I raised up my hands, making all five of their guns turn a bright blue before lifting them to the ceiling, just as they all pulled their triggers. With the ceiling pouring down a cloud of dust from the impact, the man in blue used this opportunity to break away from his bodyguard and run towards the garage door, and with her enhanced speed, Dreamdrop raced her way to the other side, using her strength to break through the locks and lift the door open. Then, once Dreamdrop made eye contact with the boss, she grabbed him around the waist and jumped to the ceiling as Paradox used her magic to blind the five men in the auto shop.

Quickly, I jumped to the roof along with Paradox, who then used her magic to shield our image and voices as the boss caught his breath.

“Are you hurt?” Dreamdrop asked with a panicked tone. “Did any of the bullets hit you?”

“What?” he asked, panting at a violent pace as he exchanged looks between the three of us. “Who…? Where…?”

“The three of us are magical girls,” Paradox said, answering the questions he probably wanted to ask. “We're on the roof right now. I'm using a spell to keep us hidden until the three of us can get you out of here.”

“You're out of your fucking minds,” he said, still shaking in fear and running to the other end of the roof, looking for some kind of ladder he could use to make a quick escape.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Dreamdrop asked fervently. “We're trying to save you!”

Suddenly, however, we began hearing the voices from below yelling as they started getting their heads back in order after the unexpected slip up in their plan. Looking down from the edge of the building, we saw the five men run outside, looking around frantically for their old boss.

“You helped him get away!” one of the men yelled, turning towards Benchpress.

“No!” the bodyguard cried. “Something pulled my gun! I couldn't help it!”

“You pulled something back there! I know you did!”

“How do we know you didn't try something back there? You wanted him to get out of there alive so that yo ass could live too!”

Paradox then quickly turned to Dreamdrop and said, “Get down there, quick! I'll protect you!”

“Right!”

Pulling her goggles off of her face, Paradox projected her magic onto all five men, who began screaming in their blindness until Dreamdrop jumped to the ground, pinched them on the neck one by one and put each of them to sleep. As soon as she was sure that she had accounted for all of them, she quickly grabbed their guns and jumped back onto the roof, wiping some anxious sweat off of her forehead.

“Whew! So glad that's over and done with!”

However, just as soon as they were about to celebrate their well-deserved victory, they heard the sound of a gun cocking behind them, and upon slowly turning their heads to the origin of the sound, they found the gentleman in blue with his gun pointed at his own head.

“What…” Paradox mumbled. “What are you doing?”

“It's over for me,” the gentleman responded. “They were right to try and kill me. Now I have nowhere to go. They're just gonna find me eventually.”

“That's not true!” Dreamdrop cried out. “We'll make sure you're safe! You don't have to--”

“Just stop,” he said, cutting Dreamdrop off with a trembling lip. “Just… stop…”

“But…”

Bang!

Suddenly, blood and brains covered the rooftop as his body fell backwards off the ledge and onto the sidewalk. I tried not to look, but everywhere I turned was either splattered in blood or decorated with parts of his head that had blown off after he fired his gun. Unable to control the vile smell or the overall nausea that arose from seeing his bloody aftermath, I crawled to the edge of the building, profusely vomiting until my throat began to burn.

The other girls were in no better shape, either. Dreamdrop's hands trembled, her eyes widened and her shoulders twitched while Paradox pulled out her phone, continually tapping the refresh button while hopelessly waiting for the red dot to appear on the screen again.

“He's dead…” Dreamdrop murmured, still shaking uncontrollably. “He's dead… I just watched a man kill himself… and I couldn't save him… He's dead… and I… I couldn't…”

Before she could even finish her statement, she buried her face into her hands and began sobbing uncontrollably as the sound of sirens began to approach from the distance. Quickly getting to her senses, Paradox put her arm around Dreamdrop and said, “We have to go. Dreamdrop, we have to get out of here now.”

“HE'S DEAD!” she wailed, too distraught to cooperate.

Upon realizing the severity of the situation, however, I wiped the remaining bile from my lips and used my magic to lift Dreamdrop to her feet, pulling her arm around Paradox's shoulder so that we could get out of there before any of the men woke up. The last thing we needed was to see another gun go off once the police arrived. Once we jumped away to the next building, though, I looked back at the ground beneath us to get one last glimpse of the rotting corpse of the man we couldn't save.

***

We didn't end up making it far from the previous location when the three of us decided it would be better to go our separate ways. We could regroup tomorrow once things had cooled down a bit, and we definitely needed to take a night to forget about doing anything magical girl-related.

Once I got home, I immediately transformed back to my normal self, opening and closing the front door as quietly as I could just in case my mom had decided to come home from work early today. Night had fallen by this point, and I'm sure she didn't want me to think I was getting into more trouble than I already was. Then again… I couldn't imagine how I could have possibly gotten into more trouble than I had already experienced that night.

Walking into my bathroom, I put my magical phone and glasses beside me on the sink, turned the faucet on and splashed some cold water onto my face, hoping that it would help reduce how pale my skin was at this point. Instead, though, I just saw myself the way I normally did: wearing a distraught frown with water dripping down my cheeks.

“Rough first day, I take it?”

I shrieked at the sudden sound that appeared out of nowhere, but looking around my environment in every direction, I couldn't tell for the life of me where the voice had come from.

“W-who's there?” I asked, turning towards the door.

“If you really wish to find me, first you must answer these riddles three…”

“D-Discord?”

Suddenly, the spirit of chaos emerged from my phone, putting his hands to his snake-like hips in aggravation. “Oh, for goodness sake! Why doesn't anyone ever let me ask the riddles?!”

“What are you doing here?”

“Here? Oh, Trixie, I'm everywhere!” The draconequus smiled, putting his hands over his face. “I always have my eyes on you.” Then, pulling his hands off of his face, his eyes were now missing from their sockets, and upon looking back into the mirror, I saw an eye resting on each of my shoulders, making me yelp in surprise. “You see?” he said, putting his eyeballs back where they belonged. “Now, tell daddy Discord all about what happened today.”

“If it's alright with you, I'd rather not,” I replied, wiping my face off with my towel and putting my glasses back on. “Today was… well… I guess you saw what happened today.”

“Which part? The part when Lulu tried following you home or the part where your mother welcomed you home with not-so-open arms? Or could you be talking about--”

“I get it, Discord,” I said, picking up my phone and walking back into my room. The last thing I wanted was for him to bring back the imagery of before and have me vomiting in my toilet all night. “Today sucked. I'm just sorry you had to be with me when it all happened.”

“To be fair, you did almost save that drug lord. You managed to save him from five bullets, yet the sixth one is always so difficult, isn't it?”

“But I couldn't do it! He's dead because I couldn't save him! I wasn't a good enough magical girl!”

“So you're saying that Dreamdrop and Paradox were also not good enough at being magical girls?”

“What? No!”

“Because it hardly seems fair for you to take all credit. You can blame yourself as much as you want, but that doesn't make it your fault.” I wanted to retort, to come up with some kind of excuse as to why he was wrong, but the more I thought about it, the less I could argue with his logic. “But that's in the past, and you said you didn't want to talk about today anyway. What would you like to talk about? Makeup? Clothes? Boys?”

My face went red at the sudden embarrassment I felt from the proposed topics, especially that last one. “N-no! That's OK!”

“Oh! I know what will cheer you up! Tomorrow we're having a special gathering in Platinum City! You'll get to meet any magical girls you didn't before, and I arranged it before school so that you won't have to run into you-know-who-lu Lemon. Doesn't that sound like fun?”

A small smile broke through my lips as I giggled gently. “Yeah,” I said. “That sounds like lots of fun. Thank you, Discord.”

“Oh, perfect! I knew you would be excited! Well, I'd love to stay and chat some more, but you have homework to do, don't you? Oh, and the answers are 6, 32, 29 and a half, y=mx plus b, and x equals negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac divided by 2a. Toodles!”

Quickly pulling out my math homework and plugging in all the numbers Discord said, I found that he was right about every single one. I would have to ask for his help every time I did my homework.

Bzzt! Bzzzzt!

Looking down at my phone as I put away my completed assignment, I saw that I had two new messages, both from Dreamdrop, which made me unknowingly smile to myself.

“Hey, Great and Powerful Trixie! Listen… I'm sorry about today. Most days aren't like that, but now you know firsthand how dangerous being a magical girl can be. I'm sorry that you had to go through that, and I'm sorry about how I handled myself at the end there…”

“New topic! So Discord told you about that meetup tomorrow, right? I don't know about you, but I'm suuuper excited! You know, there were a couple girls you didn't get to meet, including Marrow. She's the best at being a magical girl, and I think you can learn a lot from her! Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow! Oh, and if that one girl gives you any more problems, we'll take care of it for you! OK. I'm really going to let you go this time. Bye!”

I rolled my eyes and grinned at her silly message, but honestly, for the first time ever, I felt safe. Even though today was the most terrifying day of my life, I also made my very first friend, and from the sound of it, I was going to make even more. I nearly experienced my own death twice today, and I saw my first actual death right in front of me, but even despite all that, I felt like I had a group who would keep me safe no matter what.

Upon completing the rest of my homework, I clicked off the lights and tucked myself into bed, and for the first time that I could remember, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

“Marrow,” I said to myself as I dozed off into dreamland. “I wonder what kind of girl she is.”

Then, my consciousness faded, and I gently and peacefully found made my way into a deep slumber. Now, if only I had remembered to close my window blinds…

…………………………………………..

……………………………………………

…………………………………………..

Chapter 6

When my alarm woke me up the following morning, I quickly checked the time, curiously making sure that it was set correctly, but surely enough, it was set to the same time it was every morning. The weird thing about that, though, was that if I was just waking up now, it meant that my mother hadn't woken me up. Was she even home?

Silently opening the door to my room, I tiptoed my way over to the living room to see that lying on the couch with a bottle of vodka next to her on the ground was my mother. At first I feared that she might be dead, probably thanks to all the stress I put her through, but when I saw her chest rise and fall as she slept peacefully, I placed my hand to my chest, breathing a sigh of relief. She was thoughtful enough to let me sleep after the horrible day that I had yesterday.

“You're the best, mom,” I whispered to her in my quietest voice. The last thing I wanted to do was wake her up, though, so with the most nimble steps I could possibly take, I made my way over to the shower so that I could begin my day.

Once I was ready for school, I quickly made myself breakfast, checked the mirror to make sure that I was presentable and quickly gathered my things, but today, I wouldn't be going through the front door like I normally did. Once all my belongings were in order, I transformed into a magical girl and used my transportation gem, which suddenly sent me traveling through dimensions until I ended up at the gate of Platinum City.

Even though this was only my second time in this city, I could already feel the nostalgic smell of daisies and clean, rushing water, which made the area feel like a home away from home that would never cease to amaze me.

“Well, if it isn't the Great and Powerful Squirt?” Turning around to see where the sudden voice had come from, my shoulders were suddenly being pulled into someone's chest as she squeezed me with all her vigor. Then, pulling my face out of her cleavage, I looked up to see the girl with the green dress and steel shoulder pads, smiling down at me. “How are you doing? You look much less beat up today!”

“Thank you, uhhh…”

“Iron Maiden. I guess I never told you my name yesterday.” Just then, her smile disappeared into a look of curiosity as she looked down at what I was carrying. “Hmm? Are those textbooks?”

“Yeah,” I said, pulling a strand of hair behind my ear as the two of us walked. “I'm going to school after this.”

“How old are you, by the way?”

“Umm… Dreamdrop said that we shouldn't reveal our identities…”

“That's true, I guess. Well, that just means I'll never find out that you're really a middle schooler with glasses named Trixie.”

“...You may have a point there. Anyway, I'm only twelve. Do you know if there are any other magical girls my age?”

“Beats me. I'll tell you what, though. Since you just told me how old you are, I'll tell you that I'm twenty-three, but after this, no more sharing secrets!”

“Wow! You're almost twice my age!”

As soon as those words came out of my mouth, Iron Maiden's smile faded away, being replaced with a defeated gloomy expression. “You don't have to say it like that, you know.”

“Heeey! Wait up, you two!”

Looking back, we saw a magical girl with a hypnotic black and white dress, long, frilly blonde hair and a silver hairpiece racing towards us, but just as soon as she caught up, she immediately bolted into a sprint, passing us in her dust.

“I'll race you to the fountain!” she said, waving at us in her already sizable lead.

“Alright,” Iron Maiden said, pulling off her shoulder pads, crunching them together and forming a pair of cleats which she attached to her steel-toe boots. “Hang on, Great and Powerful Trixie. If she wants a race, we'll give her one.”

“Wha--AH!” I began to say before Iron Maiden suddenly had me in her arms, already closing the gap between us and the girl in the black and white dress. With the cleats she was wearing, she was able to almost skid across the ground, barely making contact with the earth beneath her as she zoomed her way forward. Then, right as we were hot on her tail, Iron Maiden jumped into the air, leaping over the magical girl who looked up at her in awe. The fountain was in sight.

“We're almost there! That's what she gets for thinking she can get a head start on--”

Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks, still holding me in her arms, but beginning to grow red in the cheeks. “Iron Maiden?” I spoke, trying to figure out what I was missing.

“Don't ask,” she replied, setting me onto the floor. “Let's just save it to say that her magic is being able to send messages through telepathy.”

As the girl in the black and white dress slowed her sprint into a peppy skip, she passed right by our noses while looking back at Iron Maiden and saying, “Polkadots!”

“What?” I said in confusion.

“I said don't ask!”

Well, regardless as to whatever they were going on about, we had made it to the fountain, and luckily for me, Dreamdrop was already there, sitting on a blanket in the grass and waving for me to come join her. She wasn't the only one who was there early, though. There were seven magical girls there in total, not including me, and the only ones whose names I knew were Dreamdrop, Night Seam, Iron Maiden, Cupid Symphony and Storm Rose, whose name I only figured out after seeing her carrying a wand that Dreamdrop had talked about the day before. The other girls included the one I had just raced with the black and white dress as well as one of the girls I had met the day before who was wearing a dress splattered in different colors. I knew that the girl I just raced had the power of telepathy, thanks to Iron Maiden tipping me off, but I had no idea what kind of magic this other girl could use, assuming it fit the theme of her colorful dress.

“Well, if it isn't the Great and Powerful Trixie,” Cupid Symphony said in her love-themed outfit. Her dress was white, but covered in pink and red hearts. She also had a heart eye-patch and heart-shaped hair ties that held up her frilly pigtails. “How was your first day as a magical girl?”

I had completely forgotten about the day before, and just remembering made me want to vomit. “I definitely learned a lot,” I said, trying to avoid the subject entirely.

“Don't worry! You'll get the hang of it soon enough. Then you'll learn about all kinds of creative ways to use your magic.” Pulling up her eyepatch, she gave me a wink, but knowing her magic, the ability to make any boy fall in love with her, I was afraid to ask what kind of creativity she was talking about.

“Hey, look!” Dreamdrop said, tugging at my cape and pointing towards the dirt path. “It's Marrow! MAAAARROOOOW! OVER HEEERE!”

Breaking my conversation with Cupid Symphony, I quickly looked to where she was pointing and saw… an outfit that totally clashed with what all the other magical girls were wearing. I thought I felt out of place for being the only one not wearing a dress, but this girl's black dress was covered in bones, almost like she was wearing a skeleton over her clothes, including a skull over her face. The only facial features I could see were her mouth and eyes, but even those were covered by the shadows that her skull cast on her face.

“Hmm?” Marrow said, now standing over me with one hand on her hip. “We have another new magical girl?”

“Yup!” Dreamdrop said, standing up and pulling me to my feet with her. “Go ahead and introduce yourself to her!”

From what I had heard about Marrow, she was supposed to be a pretty intimidating magical girl, and seeing her up close just solidified that image as she folded her arms in anticipation. “Yes,” I said, switching nervous glances between the encouraging Dreamdrop and the spooky Marrow. “I am the savior of Manehattan, the vanquisher of evil, the Grrreat and Powerful Trrrrrixiiieeeee!!!” I added an extra pose to the end, hoping it would make me not look like a total novice, but even under the skull she was wearing, I could tell Marrow was raising an eyebrow.

“Yup,” Marrow said. “You're a newbie, alright.” With an arrow striking me through my pride, I hung my head in defeat. “So,” she continued, “you decided to go with your real identity, I'm assuming? You look more like a superhero than a magical girl.”

“Is…” I began. “Is that bad?”

“Not necessarily, but I'm sure Night Seam must have given you slack for it.”

“I did,” called a voice in the background.

“What matters most isn't your outfit,” Marrow continued. “It's how you carry yourself about as a magical girl. When you're out there, you need to forget about yourself completely and focus solely on helping others in any way you can. You need to be willing to put yourself in a position where you could die, even if it means saving one life. You don't have to be ready for something like that right now, but eventually, I promise you that something like that will come up, and when it does, you need to be ready to decide whose life is more valuable.”

“She picked a really cool magical ability, too!” Dreamdrop bragged.

“A magical girl's ability is nothing but her will to bring about good in the world. Night Seam demonstrates that better than any magical girl I know.”

Actually, that brought up a question that had been on my mind basically from the moment I met her. “Night Seam,” I said, turning towards her, “what is your magic?”

Suddenly, Night Seam flinched with her cheeks beginning to glow a bright red. “My magic?” she said, no longer maintaining her confident demeanor that she had displayed this whole time.

“Don't be embarrassed,” Marrow said. “You should be proud of the ability that you have.”

With a sigh, Night Seam faced me again and said, “I can turn anything I touch black.”

Wait, what?

“I'm sorry,” I began, “but did you say your magic is that you can turn things black?”

“Yes, I did.”

“...”

“Just like her heart!” Dreamdrop shouted, breaking the silence.

“DREAMDROP!”

Suddenly, however, we all began to hear the sound of someone panting, and looking back at the dirt road, we saw Paradox, weakly running and visibly out of breath as she approached the group.

“Sorry, girls!” she said, putting her hands to her knees as she breathed in and out deeply. “I must have warped to the wrong gate.”

“We're all here, then,” Marrow said, looking around at the group. “Alright, Discord. What did you need us for?”

As if on cue, storm clouds began to cover the sky, just like they had the day before when Dreamdrop had summoned Discord, and taking the same path as he did before, the fountain sprayed upward until a shadow of the draconequus appeared behind it. Then, lifting his terrifying horns through the water, he emerged from the fountain, taking a step onto the ground with his buffalo hoof and alligator foot.

“Good morning, ladies! How good it is to see all of you again! It feels like just yesterday since the last time I got to see you.”

“Uhh, it was only yesterday,” said the girl with the colorful dress.

“Too right you are, Palette! My how time flies.” As soon as he said those words, a clock with wings began to fly around his face like a mosquito. “Get back here, you!”

“So what's up, Discord?” said the girl wearing the black and white outfit. “You didn't just want us here so that we could have a party, did you?”

“Oh, must you always cut to the chase, Mind Games?” Discord then winked at me and whispered, “This should give you all of their names without those awkward introductions, but just in case, I'll do a recap really quick.

“Alright, ladies. As I'm sure you know, we have a new friend with us. The Great and Powerful Trixie has been gracious enough to rise to the challenge of becoming a magical girl, and I would ask you all to open up your loving paws and give her a warm welcome.”

I blushed under the spotlight, but all the girls beside me gave me loving grins, making me forget momentarily about the butterflies in my stomach.

“However,” Discord continued, “you're right in assuming that I had more than one reason for bringing you all here today.”

“Finally!” shouted Mind Games heartily. “Time to find out what kind of challenge Discord has for us!”

“Hold it! Hold it! Before I get into that, I want to make 100% clear that we are all one big happy family, so just to make sure everyone is on the same page, let's all go through self-introductions, just in case anyone has forgotten anyone's name. Let's do this: we'll go in reverse-chronological order of when you became a magical girl, and you can just say your name, ability and something that makes you special.”

Suddenly, all eyes fell on me, making me realize that that meant I would be going first. Self-introductions were always a weak point for me, especially when I was the first one to stand up when I had no idea what I would say, despite Discord giving me an exact script to follow.

“Yes! Uh… Right! I am the Great and Powerful Trixie, my magic is levitation, and… uh… I like… peanutbutter crackers?”

The girls in the group looked at each other in confusion, but still clapped for my courage in being able to get that much out.

“My turn!” Dreamdrop said, rising to her feet. “My name is Dreamdrop, my ability is putting people to sleep, and something special about me is my love for spanish soap operas. ‘¿Por qué, Ignacio?’ I think that's about it for me.”

Another awkward self-introduction down, and like before, everyone clapped, as she sat down and the next magical girl stood up.

“How's it going, everyone?” shouted the girl in the green dress and steel shoulder pads. “My name is Iron Maiden, my magic is bending metal, and I once managed to eat an entire bagel in two bites! Two bites!”

Again, everyone clapped, but if I were being completely honest, that one actually impressed me a little bit.

“Hey, everyone,” Paradox said, switching places with Iron Maiden. “My name is Paradox, my ability is to make people see illusions, and something you may not know is that although you may think we're in Platinum City, this entire time you've actually all been in my living room! Just joking. That's what makes me special. I'm a jokester. Next!”

“Ha! That means it's my turn!” shouted the girl with the black and white dress. “My name is Mind Games, my ability…”

“...is telepathy!” she continued with her mouth closed, making me flinch in surprise.

“And as for what makes me special, before becoming a magical girl, I used to run track, and I always won every event I ever did!”

Wow. Some of these girls were really impressive. Just being in their presence was beginning to make me feel inferior in one way or another.

“Next would be moi. My name is Cupid Symphony, I can make any boy fall in love with me, and something special about me is…” With dramatic tears in her eyes, she lifted up her eye patch, magnifying her theatrical sadness. “I've actually never once been kissed by a boy!”

“”””WHAAAAAAAT?!”””” We all exclaimed, floored by the sudden surprise.

“I know! Tragic, right?! They all tell me that they love me so much that they need to save their lips for marriage. Darn you, Discord! That isn't what I had in mind!”

“Hey, now,” Discord responded, holding up his hands in his defense. “If you wanted them to kiss you, you should have mentioned that in the request, but I think we get the picture. Thank you, Cupid Symphony. Palette, if you would be so kind.”

“You got it, boss!” the girl with the colorful dress said, standing up and saluting Discord. “My name is Palette. My magic is…” Then, pulling out a paint brush from her pocket and dipping it into one of the colors on her dress, she began drawing a picture of a bird in thin air, and as soon as she added the finishing touches, the bird began to take life and fly away into the sky. “...being able to make anything I draw come to life! Something you girls may not know about me is that this one time at band camp--”

“Alright! That's quite enough!” Discord said, silencing her before she could finish her story. “I don't think anyone needs to hear about that one. Thank you, Palette. Storm Rose, if you would.”

“Yes, Discord,” said a girl with black hair and blue highlights. Her dress was yellow with blue frills and a design that appeared as if lightning was striking from all directions. “My name is Storm Rose, my ability is projecting electricity, and I live solely to be a magical girl. I have no friends in Manehattan, and my entire family was killed in a traffic accident when I was eight years old. I was living on the streets until Marrow found me and helped me become a magical girl. I now live here in Platinum City, only ever leaving to take care of my duties as a magical girl. Thank you for having me.”

This time, when all of us clapped, we honestly meant it from the bottom of our hearts. This girl had made all of the problems I had look no different than a little girl who wanted a toy that she couldn't afford. Next, however, was Night Seam, which made me hold in my breath just so I wouldn't give her any reason to be upset with me.

“I'm Night Seam. This is my magic.” Then, putting her finger to the fountain, the stone began to turn into a black shadow, now projecting a dark liquid rather than the beautiful clear water from before.

“Ohhhh, Night Seam, I wish you wouldn't do that!” Discord said, snapping his fingers and making the dark color retreat back to her finger tips. “And what is it about you that makes you special?”

“I'm not special.”

“Cop out!” Paradox shouted from the crowd.

“What do you want from me?! I turn things black and I like puppies. Does that make you feel better?”

Again, we all clapped as Palette turned to me and said, “That's a good one!” Finally, however, it was Marrow's turn, and it seemed that all of the magical girls were just as interested in hearing about her as I was.

“My name, as you should all know by now, is Marrow. I can manipulate the bones on my body to detach from my outfit and become its own sentient being. Like so.” Suddenly, the bones on her body began to rattle and shake until they separated from her dress and reconfigured themselves into a lifesize skeleton. “I can see everything it sees, hear everything it hears, and if I need to, I can toss it aside completely and grow new bones in its place.” As she said those words, the skeleton began to turn to dust, being carried into the wind as new bones grew from her dress, giving her the same outfit as before.

“Very interesting,” Discord said as if this were his first time seeing it. “Now, what's something interesting about you?”

Marrow took in a deep breath as the rest of us held ours.

“I have killed exactly thirteen men and one child. Being a magical girl is not easy, and I have been forced to make difficult decisions with only an instant to weigh the options. I do not, however, regret any of the decisions I have made as a magical girl, and I believe that more lives have been spared thanks to the decisions that I have made. I don't need your pity or respect. I just hope that all of you can learn from me so that when you are placed in situations that I have been in, you will be able to make the correct decision as well.”

Several seconds passed with none of us knowing whether or not we should clap, but as soon as Dreamdrop started, we all followed along after her. With a light bow, Marrow took her seat along with the rest of us in the grass by the fountain.

“Very good, everyone!” Discord cheered. “I'm so glad that everyone is getting along so nicely! Now, as I'm sure you all realize by now, I have some exciting news! Now, let me preface this by saying that I care about each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.”

Uh-oh. This didn't sound good.

“As I'm sure you know, magic is something that keeps Platinum City running, and as you all realize, there's not a grander place in the world than right here. Now, it turns out that I may have made a teensy weensy little miscalculation of how much magic it takes to keep Platinum City running.”

“So you need us to give you some of our magic to keep it running,” Night Seam said, deciphering his words for the rest of us.

“Wellllll, not exactly. How should I put this? The problem isn't that I need your help to keep it running as much as… you're what's causing it to lose its magic in the first place.”

“What?!” The ten of us all began clamoring together, nervously exchanging theories on what this meant.

“So, let me explain further,” Discord continued. “It is with great sadness that we must make a decision. Either we make some cuts as to how many of you can be magical girls, or Platinum City disintegrates, and none of you can be magical girls.” Our worst fears were becoming true, and as we began to discuss with each other once more, Discord quickly intervened. “However, I think I've come up with a great plan! Why don't we turn it into a game! The losers will give up their powers, and Platinum City will continue to go on!”

“How many losers will there be?” Storm Rose asked in panic.

“You see… that's the thing, isn't it? I don't know the exact number. I was thinking we just…” Again, as if he didn't feel pain, he pulled off his ear and placed it on the other side of his head. “...play it by ear?”

“This is ridiculous!” Night Seam shouted, rising to her feet. “Why can't we just cut the last couple of girls who got their powers until Platinum City has all the magic it needs?!”

“Oh, don't be so full of yourself, Night Seam. You think you're better than everyone else just because you got your powers before them? Who says you're more qualified than they are to be a magical girl?”

Night Seam clicked her tongue angrily, clenching her fist and dropping eye contact with the draconequus.

“Speaking of which, let's make that our game! Whoever can use their magic to the best of their abilities will be able to keep their powers and remain magical girls! Now, there's only one catch: I don't want any of you sacrificing your powers for what you may feel is the greater good of the group. You must all participate in this game, or else you all lose. That's why I wanted to make sure you were all a big, happy family! Maybe you could even work together to bring out the best in each others’ magic!”

“But who's going to be the judge in all this?” Palette asked. “You?”

“Me? Oh, heavens no. I'm hardly qualified for something this serious. No, I felt it would be better if you judged each other.”

“But how will we do that?” asked Cupid Symphony.

“Oh, I'm sure you'll think of something. Anyway, I really should get going. How long do you think you need to make your first cuts? Does three days sound like enough time for you? Let's shoot for that, and remember, if you can't make a decision, you all lose.”

With a loud and boisterous laugh that called the thunder clouds back into the sky, lightning flashed all around him, concealing him for just enough time for him to vanish. The ten of us then stared long and hard at the fountain, too upset to face each other knowing that we would now be competing to keep our magic. Instead of talking about what we should do next, we all just sat there in silence, dreading whatever came next.

“DAMN IT!” Night Seam shouted, pounding her fist on the fountain and making it turn black again. “This is exactly what I tried warning you all about!”

“Oh, quiet, Night Seam,” Mind Games retorted. “It's not like you knew something like this would happen.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, why didn't you, Ms. Mind-Reader?”

“Will you quit being a baby,” Paradox added. “You're acting like you've already lost.”

“Actually, girls,” Dreamdrop said, intervening gently. “Can we all just take a break for a little bit? Discord said we had three days, right? I don't think we need to make any decisions right at this very minute.”

“Dreamdrop is right,” Marrow chimed in. “If our magic is draining Platinum City, using more of it right now might mean more girls getting cut right of the bat. Let's take the day to recompose ourselves and come back tomorrow ready to take on Discord's challenge.”

Upon hearing Marrow's words, we all looked at each other and nodded our heads. This meeting was a lot to take in, and I had just barely become a magical girl. I couldn't even imagine what some of the other girls who had had their powers for much longer than I did felt.

With the meeting over, we all went our separate ways, leaving through the gate to our own specific destinations. As for me, I left the gate and ended up in an alley right next to the school where I could transform back into my regular self and walk into the building without anyone suspecting a thing. However, as soon as I got into the building and began walking to class…

“I knew you couldn't run forever.”

There she was again. No matter what I did, I couldn't escape from her! She had some kind of sick and twisted grudge against me that consumed her, and the only way that she would ever feel satisfaction in her life was by torturing me!

“Why do you keep following me?!” I shouted, causing several of the passersby to flinch at my unexpected outburst, including me.

“You wanna know why?” Lulu then approached me slowly, staring angrily into my eyes as she did so, making my already weak knees begin to tremble. Even though we were in the middle of the hallway, I didn't feel safe, especially seeing as how she had beaten the living shit out of me several times in this same place already. Then, once she was less than a foot away from me, she leaned into my ear and whispered, “Because I'm Marrow.”

"...W-what?"

Then, I suddenly felt a sharp pain going through my abdomen. Looking down, I saw her switchblade penetrating through my skin as blood began to trickle down. Then, looking up once more at the sadistic psychopath that had tormented me for as long as I could remember, I could see a smile and eyes that seemed like I had seen them somewhere before.

“Help!” she screamed as my vision began to grow blurry. “Trixie is trying to kill herself! Somebody help her!”

So this is what she had in mind… One less magical girl for her to worry about…

Then, with my vision disappearing completely, I fell to the ground, holding my wounds as the blood continued to pour… and then everything went black...

Chapter 7

Everything was cold. I couldn't feel my body enough to shiver, but I still felt the sensation like I was standing in a freezer, only the freezer was my body, something I couldn't get away from.

What happened? All I remember is black. Wait! Am I still alive? No, that couldn't be. Lulu--or I guess Marrow--stabbed me to death. There was so much blood. I wonder what my mom is gonna say when she hears about this. What am I even going to tell her? Will I ever see her again? Where am I?

I wanted to open my eyes, to look around and see if I was still at school, but I was still too weak to regain consciousness, even though I was self-aware in my dreamlike state. There was nothing around me but darkness, making me naively believe that maybe Night Seam had saved me and that she brought me somewhere dark where nobody could hurt me. Even though I couldn't move my real body, I could at least picture myself falling to the ground and crying into my knees.

“This is it,” I sobbed. “I should have just left everybody alone. I should have just done what I was told. I should have stayed out of her way, but because I just had to believe I could be someone important, here I am.”

“And where is here, exactly?”

“I'm on the brink of death! At least, I think I am. Maybe I'm already dead.”

“The only one who can decide that now is you.”

“Don't give me that! I just got stabbed! I don't always have a choice for what happens to me!”

“You have a choice now, though, Trixie. After all those times when you said to yourself how much you wanted to die, someone hands you a free pass on a silver platter, yet here you are, fighting back and trying to keep yourself alive.”

“What… What should I do, then?”

“How would I know? I'm just a voice in your head.”

“But whose voice is it, I wonder?” I said, giggling as I began to recognize where I had heard it before. “Will I need to answer some riddles first, do you think?”

The voice laughed.

“No, Trixie, but it sounds like you've made your decision. Don't forget, though, that whether or not you decide to play in this game will impact everyone, not just yourself.”

“I know… But… Can you tell Dreamdrop what happened? I think I need her right now.”

“I'm not going to mention Marrow, but I'll tell her where you are and let you explain the rest.”

“Where… Where am I?”

“Why don't you open your eyes and find out?”

The voice began to disappear, but not without a long-winded, diabolical laugh that echoed through the darkness as it faded away. Then, I could feel my body being pulled as the darkness faded away into a bright, blinding light.

***

“Ugh…” I groaned, weakly opening up my heavy eyelids to see bright ceiling lights and white walls. I could feel a rough, thin fabric covering my body, something clamped to my finger, and a severe pain in my abdomen, keeping me from sitting up.

“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice said. “The princess has finally woken from her slumber.”

I couldn't move enough to see who was talking, but I didn't need to think twice about who the voice belonged to. “M-mom?”

“Honestly, Trixie. Can you not go one day without getting into trouble? I get woken up early in the morning from the hospital calling me and telling me that my own daughter tried to commit suicide in the middle of school. Yet, here you are, alive and well. Was that some kind of publicity stunt? What were you trying to prove?”

“Mom…” I said with the little energy I had as tears filled my eyes. “I love you so much. Thank you for coming to see me.”

“...I'm going to go get something from the vending machine. Don't die while I'm away. I've still got a lot of shit that I need to get off my chest.”

I then heard a chair screech across the floor as footsteps tapered out of the hospital room, leaving me again alone to my thoughts. What would this mean for the game? There was no way I'd be able to use magic in this state, let alone compete against other magical girls! Not to mention the fact that it would be at least a couple of days before the doctors would even let me leave the hospital.

“G&PT!” called another familiar voice out of nowhere. Did I just imagine it? Was that Dreamdrop? No, it wasn't bubbly enough to be Dreamdrop. “I came as soon as I heard what happened! The other magical girls wanted to come see you too, but it's just too risky for them to be seen in public or come in their true identities. Oh, and don't worry about your mom coming back in. She thinks she's talking to a doctor right now.”

“Paradox!” I exclaimed in a little more than a whisper, using as much energy as I could to force a half-smile. “How did you hear about what happened?”

“Discord sent us all a message telling us that someone tried to stab you. Do you know who it was? Maybe we could find them and teach them a lesson! I'm sure Dreamdrop and Marrow would come along too!”

Marrow… Of course they didn't know. If I tried telling them what really happened, none of them would take me seriously anymore. They'd never believe that the magical girl they all look up to, the one they idolize as the strongest and most talented magic-user of the group was a schoolyard bully dedicated to making my life Hell.

“No, sorry,” I muttered. “I didn't see who did it. They knocked my glasses off, and I didn't get a good look at their face.”

“That's a shame. Do you have an idea of when the doctors will leave you alone for a little while? We could start looking for them tonight if you wanted.”

“Tonight? I can't move my body. I don't think--”

“Trixie, you're a magical girl. Remember yesterday when Dreamdrop saved you from that classmate of yours? Remember yesterday when your mom--Oh, wait, that's probably a sensitive subject. Well, do you remember transforming into the Great and Powerful Trixie after that and all your wounds were gone?”

“Would something like that work on a wound like this, though?”

“Sure, it would! Oh, and by the way, catch!” I squeezed my eyes, ready for her to throw something at me without realizing how much pain my body was in even when I wasn't moving, but instead of feeling the object land on my head or stomach, she slid the item right underneath my hand. “You didn't think I was really gonna throw it, did you? Don't you know anything about me by now? Oh! Your mom's getting angsty. I'd better get out of here. Let me know tonight and we can do some magical girl stuff! Later!”

I didn't see or hear her walk out, but then again, I doubt anyone in the hospital did. Instead, however, I heard the sound of footsteps walking into my room and falling onto a chair, opening a can of soda and sighing loudly.

“That doctor of yours just would not stop pestering me. The two of you have a lot in common. I think you'd get along.”

Then came the silence. I wanted to talk to her, but what would I even talk about? I couldn't exactly mention that I was now a magical girl, competing in a game against nine other magical girls to see who would be allowed to keep their powers or that one of those girls just stabbed me so that there would already be one cut made.

“So why did you do it?”

“Huh?”

“C'mon, Trixie! Don't make this any harder on me! Why did you try killing yourself?”

“It…” I trailed off. There was no way I could tell her what really happened. “It was an accident.”

“An accident? You're telling me that a switchblade going through your stomach with, from what the doctors said, had enough pressure to kill any other normal girl, was an accident? How the hell did you even get a switchblade?”

This lie was getting harder and harder to keep up, but then again, it would still be easier than telling the truth. "A girl at school asked me to give it to someone in the next class over, and on my way, I tripped and fell on top of it. I was afraid they would make fun of me if I said no. I'm sorry, mom."

“A girl asked you to deliver a switchblade for her?! Who?!”

Crap. Time to make up a name.

“Rarity.”

“Who in the fuck is Rarity?”

“A girl at my school.”

“Ugh…” Following a long, exasperated sigh from my mother came an even longer silence, but even though this kind of silence would be awkward for any other girl, to me, it was the sound of peace, especially with my mom so close by. “You know I have to work tonight, right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I'll stay with you until then, but after work, I'm going straight home! I'm gonna need it after waking up so damn early to be here.”

“That's fine. I'm just glad you're here now.”

“Well, duh! You think I'm just gonna ignore a call from the hospital saying my daughter might die? What kind of monster do you think I am?”

Even though it was painful, I shook my head, smiling from ear to ear as I said, “I don't think you're a monster. You're the sweetest, kindest mom in the whole world.”

Even without my magical girl enhanced hearing, I could hear her heart beating faster from the other side of the room, making me imagine her face glowing a bright red. However, after fidgeting in her chair for a minute or two, she stood up, making the chair squeak against the ground again.

“I need to use the can. Think you'll be alright until then?”

“Go ahead. I'll be alright.”

Then, as soon as I heard her footsteps fade away completely, I quickly grabbed the object that Paradox gave me, ignoring the searing pain in my stomach as I sat up to see what it was. My magical phone! Upon turning it on, I saw over twenty messages waiting for me, and it looked like every single magical girl had sent me at least one message!

“OMG! Great and Powerful Trixie, please be OK! I want to see you as soon as you're better!”

“Whoa! You got stabbed?! You deserve to be a magical girl more than any of us! I'm rooting for you!”

“Great and Powerful Trixie, my dear! I wanted to come see you in the hospital, but you can imagine the consequences of that, can't you? The next time you're in Platinum City, I promise to treat you to anything you'd like as an apology! XOXO”

Most of the girls only sent me one message, some two, Palette sent three, but Dreamdrop, the one I wanted to hear from most, sent eight!

“Trixie! Please tell me you're OK! Please, please, PLEEEEASE tell me you're OK! I need to hear from you right now!”

“I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you! I'm sorry I'm not there now! Please text me back!”

“Trixie, why haven't I heard from you?! You're OK, right? Please tell me you're still alive! You can't leave me!”

“I'm sorry. Your name is the Great and Powerful Trixie. Is that why you've been ignoring me? I'm sorry!”

“Please! I'll do anything! Just let me know you're OK!!!”

“OK, Paradox just told me that she went to see you. She told me that you didn't have your phone and that you're awake now. I feel so much better, but I'm still worried.”

“I'm going to see you tonight. If you can't leave the hospital, I'll come see you in my real identity. I don't care. I just want to tell you in person how sorry I am.”

“OK, last message, I promise! I'm going to get you something with my brownie points. Don't worry about paying me back. This is my gift to you! Trust me, it sounds like you'll need it… K, byeeee!!”

Hearing from all the girls put such a wide smile on my face, and even though it hurt, I couldn't stop reading all the support they were all giving me. That is, until I scrolled to the bottom and saw the last message that was sent to me.

“Why did you have to survive? Do you not realize what kind of pressure you're putting on all the other magical girls? Do you not care? How would you feel if someone ended up losing their powers just so you could flaunt yourself as ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’? You were better as a punching bag, but since you had to go and push things too far, I'm going to make sure you die. I'm just trying to protect Platinum City as well as all the other magical girls. Next time, do us all a favor, and don't survive.”

My smile was now gone. All the joy that the girls had given me through their overwhelming support had disappeared, leaving me emotionless as I stared at my magical phone. Then, once the initial shock had worn off, I finally began to feel something, only it definitely wasn't joy. My teeth were grinding together, my hand gripped my phone to the point of nearly crushing it, and though pain was screaming through my body, I bent my entire upper body forward as I heaved air in and out of my lungs.

Suddenly, however, I heard footsteps once again approaching my room and quickly hid underneath my crappy hospital blanket once more, sliding my phone under my butt as an added precaution.

“You know what, I can't tell you what smells worse,” my mom said, taking her seat again, “the bathrooms or all the old people they've got in here.”

“Mom, you don't need to stay right now,” I said, trying to sound like my normal, sweet self behind surging anger. “Why don't you go home and get some rest before work?”

“But… Are you gonna be OK by yourself for that long?”

“Yeah, I'll be fine, and can you tell the doctors to not come in for a little while? I'm actually thinking about going back to sleep.”

“Alright, but… Do you promise you'll wake up again?”

“I'll be fine, mom!”

I had never snapped at my mom before, mostly because I thought she would break my ribs if I ever did, but in this scenario, my mom was the one showing concern for me while I directed my anger at her. I was cursing at myself internally as soon as it happened, but I knew that I would just inadvertently blow up at her if she stayed any longer. Besides, I had somewhere I needed to be.

“Well… OK. Just ask the doctors to let you use the phone if you need me to come back. I'll come see you tomorrow. I hope you start feeling better.”

“...Bye, mom.”

“...Yeah…”

As she walked out, she closed the door behind her, leaving me all alone. Finally she was gone! I hated myself for being so cruel to her, but I had to get out of there fast. Pulling my phone out from underneath me, I quickly typed a message to Paradox and Dreamdrop that said, “Meet me in Platinum City. I'll be there in 5 minutes.”

Then, once the message was sent, I allowed all the magic within me to rise to the surface, illuminating the whole hospital room as I began to levitate from my bed, glowing a bright white. Once the light dissipated, all the pain was gone. My wound was no longer there, and I had free range over my body again.

Staring down at my phone, I saw that the both of them had already sent me messages back.

“I'm on my way right now! :pinkiehappy: :rainbowwild: ”

“Yay! You're back! I can't wait to see you!”

As I looked down at my messages, though, the one that I couldn't stop reading was the one message sent by that stupid fucking skeleton girl. Despite how angry it made me to look at it, I got a sick thrill in reading how pissed off she made me over and over again.

Clenching my phone with a twisted smile on my face, I said aloud, “Some bitch is gonna die tonight.”

Chapter 8 (Narrated by Marrow)

This chapter is narrated by Lulu Lemon, also known as the magical girl Marrow.

I was about eight years old when I first moved to Manehattan from Las Pegasus, and the first thing that struck me was how different I seemed to be from everyone else. Back in my hometown, I had a few close friends who I'd spend most of my time with every day after school. The five of us would play games together, tell stories to each other and have sleepovers every weekend, going through a rotation where each girl brought the others to her house every five weeks.

Once I moved to Manehattan, though, I didn't have any friends, and the ones from back home quickly forgot about me, instead adapting to a four-girl group which seemed to be easier for them to handle. When I was introduced to my class, I noticed that I even dressed differently than all the other kids. I was completely out of my comfort zone, and I was so scared that I would get teased just for not knowing the social customs of Manehattan.

“Luckily for you, Lulu, we have one seat open right over here!”

As my new teacher pointed to the desk I would be sitting at, I noticed that I would be sitting between two adorable girls, which suddenly made me extremely self-conscious, but at least it was better than sitting between two boys. The girl to my left had long, pink hair that looked like a mermaid along with her fair skin and beautifully long lashes. As she waved at me, her nail polish seemed to glitter in the sunlight, dazzling me by how grownup she was. To my right was a much more humble girl with bluish-white hair, but her eyes and smile projected a sincere altruism that made me feel like maybe I wasn't such an outcast after all.

“Hi, Lulu!” the girl to my right said. “My name is Trixie! Can we be friends?”

“Yeah!” I whispered excitedly, trying not to be noticed by the teacher who had already begun class. “I'm Lulu Lemon!”

“That's such a pretty name!” said the girl to my left. “My name is Fleur de Lis, but you can call me Fleur.”

“Thanks! Your name is pretty too! Your hair is pretty too! And so are your nails!”

“Wow!” Trixie said, lifting herself from her desk to see. “Those nails really are pretty!”

“Hey!” I said excitedly, looking at the both of them as best as I could. “I just had an idea! Why don't we sit together during lunch?”

“OK!” Trixie agreed.

“Sure!” Fleur added. “Then you can tell me if you have a crush on any of the boys here.”

“Eeewwww!!!” Trixie and I said in unison, laughing hysterically and, as expected, getting my first scolding from my new teacher, but it was totally worth it. After being so scared all morning, I had already made two new friends!

The three of us then became super close, being practically inseparable whenever we were at school. After school, I only had Fleur de Lis, seeing as how Trixie's mom wanted her home as soon as school was over every day, but I still got to do all the fun stuff with Fleur that I did with all my other friends back in Las Pegasus! She showed me her makeup collection, her beautiful dolls, her favorite music, and basically everything else that screamed “this is a preteen girl's room”. I was entranced by how feminine she was, almost like a teenager already at age 8, and I was so lucky to have her and Trixie as my best friends.

The problem was, though, that neither of us really knew Trixie all that well. Fleur became friends with her the same time I did, and unlike Fleur, Trixie wasn't as much of an open book. Whenever I asked her if we could hang out at her place, she would get really distant, telling us that we wouldn't like it at her place and that her mom would just say no anyway. There was one time when I actually asked Trixie if she would ask her mom for permission for us to come play, but she said that she didn't even want to ask! It wasn't much of a problem back then, since Fleur de Lis always let me come to her house, and of course, both she and Trixie were allowed to come over to my house any time they wanted, but… Trixie never came over. Not once.

Once the school year was over, it was time for summer break, and Fleur and I had come up with an entire shopping list of things we could do over the summer! Once school let out, though, I didn't see Trixie until school was back in session the following fall. While Fleur and I were having water fights, pool parties, barbecues and slumber parties, Trixie was at home, like she didn't even exist. She wouldn't give me her phone number or give me her address to even think of getting in contact with her. Instead, we grew apart, while the friendship that Fleur and I had continued to grow even stronger.

When the summer ended and the fourth grade started up, I was lucky enough to be in the same class as both Trixie and Fleur again! Trixie, though, looked different than she did before. Physically speaking, the only thing different about her now was her bottle cap glasses, but beyond that, she just didn't have that same twinkle in her eye that she had before. Instead of skipping around the school playground with a smile on her face, she would hang her head down and stare at her feet, tilting her new glasses back every couple of minutes.

“I didn't know you couldn't see, Trixie!” I said to her on the first day back to school.

“Y-yeah!” she said with a smile that wasn't nearly as bright as the smile I once knew. “I didn't realize it either, but my mom said I kept running into stuff, so…”

“Are we still not allowed to play at your house after school?”

“Yeah… Sorry…”

“Does that mean you can't come to my house to play either?”

Suddenly, Trixie began sniffling. “I want to… but… I can't…” Then Trixie began crying out of nowhere! Teachers were all looking at me like I had just pushed her off the monkey bars, quickly coming to Trixie's aid and give her a hug.

“Lulu Lemon!” one of the teachers said in a scolding tone while giving me a nasty look. “What did you do to her?!”

“I didn't do anything! She just started crying!”

“Don't lie, Lulu. Tell me the truth.”

“I am telling the truth! Trixie, we can still be best friends, right?”

With her sobs calming down into sniffles, she nodded her head, and just like that, any friendship problem we had was taken care of. The real problem, though, was that even though we had made up, there would be several times throughout the year where our friendship would be tested.

Shortly after school began, Fleur had made friends with a few kids in our new class, Trenderhoof, Suri Polomare and Upper Crust, who all seemed to share the same elegance that she had. I quickly became friends with all of them, seeing as how Fleur and I already had so much in common, but Trixie didn't warm up to them quite as well. While the conversations I had with Fleur and her friends included things like fashion, new music, pop culture and upcoming trends, Trixie didn't have any way of relating. I would need to have separate conversations with Trixie than with the others, but not only were the conversations hard to hold up, I just didn't want to talk to her as much as Fleur and her friends. Talking to Trixie was a chore, and after a while, the two of us just stopped talking to each other.

Throughout the year, Trixie and I were never enemies, even though we definitely felt a growing awkward tension whenever we were forced to stand next to each other. It wasn't that I hated her or anything, but at the same time, I didn't want to be her friend. In fact, there would be sometimes when I would be talking with Fleur, and Trixie would become the butt of our jokes. Not only was she easy to make fun of, but Fleur and I knew all of her personal weak points, and soon enough, my bond with Fleur almost seemed to depend on making fun of Trixie in any way we could.

This isn't to say that my friendship with Fleur would have stopped if we hadn't been making fun of Trixie, though. Both of our popularities had skyrocketed to record levels, and soon enough, all the kids were beginning to idolize us as the prettiest girls at school. In fact, making fun of Trixie was just our personal way of blowing off steam and getting a good laugh. Besides, it wasn't like Trixie was going to do anything about it.

...And that's when it happened…

It was when me, Fleur, Suri, Upper Crust and another friend of ours named Le Blanc had decided to go clothes shopping with money that our parents had given us. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in March, and the temperature had risen just enough for us to be able to walk outside comfortably in shorts and tank tops. We went to this particular store all the time to try out clothes, but since we never had any money, we could never buy any of the cute outfits that we saw in the window.

This time, though, we each had enough money to buy either a skirt or pair of jeans that we liked the most, and seeing as how spring was beginning to replace the frigid temperatures of winter, we had skirts in our minds from the very beginning. Once we were inside, we didn't think twice about which direction we were heading as we all gathered around the most expensive skirts they had in the store.

“How about this one? Do you like it?”

“That pattern makes you look like an old lady!”

“Spring means bright colors. Get something yellow, okay?”

“Is this one too short?”

“You should just get it and hope you don't get any taller.”

The five of us giggled hysterically as we shopped, making heads turn all over the place, probably thinking that we were on some kind of crazy caffeine high. It was one of the most fun experiences I've ever had in my life, at least until we started walking home. Once we left the store where we did our shopping and walked down a couple blocks, a guy wearing a dirty hoodie, baggy pants and reeking of cigarette smoke approached us out of nowhere.

“Look what we have here,” the man said, giving all of us a bad feeling. “Looks like you all went shopping at that one fancy store for rich girls. Does daddy know you stole his credit card?”

“For your information,” Le Blanc said confidently while the rest of us began to tremble behind her, “we paid for these outfits with money we brought with us. We didn't use any credit cards!”

“And I'm supposed to believe that a girl like you bought that outfit there with money you earned yourself?”

“Well… No… We asked our parents for money, but that's none of your business! Now, if you'll excuse us!”

“Your parents sound pretty important.”

“They are! And they wouldn't want us talking to some stranger off the street.”

“I'll tell you what,” he said, crouching down to eye level with Le Blanc, who still stood firm in her conviction. “If your daddy's really that important, what does he do for work?”

“My dad owns the MLP Investment Firm, and he's more successful than you'll ever be!”

As soon as the words escaped her mouth, the man began to grin underneath his hood while lifting his sweatshirt and pulling something out of his baggy pants. It was a switchblade, and the second it flipped out from its locked position, he grabbed Le Blanc from around the waist, pointing the knife to her throat.

“Girls…” she said in a little more than a whisper as her confidence faded. “H-help me!”

“You all wanna live? Here's what you gotta do. Tell this girl's daddy exactly what's happening. Tell him that if he ever wants to see this girl of his again, he'll have to meet me at the Manehattan Clocktower with all the money he's got. If I think for one second that he's cheatin’ me or that the cops are gonna show up, I'll slice this girl's throat. What's your name, little girl?”

“L-L-Le Blanc.”

“Well, Le Blanc, you're gonna be comin’ with me. The rest of you kids, get movin’!”

We all dropped our bags and began running as fast as we could, praying that he wouldn't come after us too. We had no idea what to do in a situation like this, let alone what to tell her dad when we got to her house! This whole thing was crazy! We couldn't just let him get away with something like that… could we?

“Girls,” I said, halting them as we all caught our breaths, “I think we should call the police.”

“Are you crazy, Lulu?!” Upper Crust yelled. “You heard what he said! If the police show up, he’s going to kill her!”

“But what if he takes the money and kills her? Won't the police know what to do in a situation like this?”

“It's too risky, okay?” Suri added. “We just need to do what he said.”

“That…” I said, looking down and clenching my fist. “That isn't right! The bad guys shouldn't get away with hurting someone! We need to stop him and get Le Blanc back!”

“Lulu, don't be stupid,” Fleur added bluntly. “You would die if you tried rescuing her! The police will catch him eventually, and when they do, they'll give Le Blanc's dad his money back!”

“Go get Le Blanc's parents!” I said, now turning on my heels towards the Manehattan Clocktower. “I'm going to try and rescue Le Blanc.”

“Fine!” Fleur shouted with tears welling up in her eyelids. “You wanna die? Go ahead! See if I care! Come on, girls. Let's go tell Le Blanc's dad what's going on.”

I didn't hesitate. Even if I was the only one in the whole world who wanted to stop this guy, I would make it happen. The thought of anyone dying didn't even register to me. Even though I had seen his switchblade at the pit of her neck and the terrified look in her face, I didn't believe that death was a possibility, since we were the good guys, and the good guys always win!

The main problem was that I was a little girl with the logic of a fourth grader. Since I had never seen someone close to me die, I just automatically assumed that it wasn't even a possibility, like there was someone out there who would protect us no matter what. Unfortunately, despite what I may have believed, the harsh reality was that people die, whether I wanted them to or not.

Once I got to the clocktower and made it to the highest floor, I tried to be as sneaky as I could, taking any precautions I could not to be seen by the hooded figure. He had one hand in his pocket, probably holding onto the switchblade if things didn't go exactly as he said, with his other hand resting on Le Blanc's shoulder, who was crying into her hands.

“Huh?” he said over the sound of Le Blanc's sobs. “Who's there?”

I couldn't believe he saw me already! I debated with myself whether to go back to hiding or to walk out and face him, but what would I even do? My whole plan was to sneak up behind him, grab his switchblade and throw it off the tower, but now that he'd seen me, my whole plan was ruined!

“Get out here! NOW!” Out of reflex more than anything, I popped my head out of the staircase leading up to the top of the tower, apologizing to my friend with my eyes. “What are you doing here? I told you to go get her dad, didn't I?”

“Yeah… The other girls are doing that.”

“Then go join ‘em! Go on! Get outta here!”

“No!” I said, suddenly terrified of the decision I had just made. “You're a bad guy, and bad guys aren't supposed to win!”

“Look here, girly.” Suddenly, he pulled out his switchblade and pulled it from his pocket, angling to Le Blanc's jugular vein as her panicked sobs picked back up. “If you don't do as I say, you're gonna die. Either that or your friend here. Now, do as I say, AND GET THE FUCK OUT!”

“Please, don't hurt me!” Le Blanc screamed with tears streaming down her face. “I'll do anything! Just let me go-ho-hooooo!”

Nobody was going to save her. If I didn't do something, she was really going to die. Without thinking, letting my body react on its own, I ran towards the man with tears in my eye, lunging forward as I aimed at his legs. Fortunately, in that exact instant, he had completely taken his focus off of Le Blanc, who pushed herself out from the man's grip and began sprinting towards the staircase.

As he watched Le Blanc suddenly release herself from his grip, he once again shifted his attention towards the wrong person, allowing me to grab him by the legs as she ran for the exit. “Run!” I shouted. “Get out of here before he catches up!”

“GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!” he shouted, easily pushing me off of his legs and running after my terrified friend. Then, as I watched from the floor, I saw him catch up to her as if she were no match for him, but as the more she struggled, kicking her legs and wiggling her shoulders, the tighter the man held on.

“HELP ME!!!” she screamed for anyone who could hear her. “SOMEBODY! PLEASE! HE--”

Then, there was silence…

There was a slight gurgle, but sound no longer came from her mouth. Instead, a pool of blood began to pour to the ground, spraying in all directions to the beat of her heart. Again, she tried to scream, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was more blood that was beginning to overflow from the wound in her neck. Within three seconds, the entirety of the floor was soaked in red liquid, with more spraying onto the walls while simultaneously soaking the hooded man in a red shower.

Finally, dropping Le Blanc to the floor, he began wiping the blood from his face, but even though she was released from his grip, her body continued to convulse on the ground as her lifeless eyes stared into mine. My heart stopped and body froze. Even though I was seeing it happen right in front of me, I couldn't comprehend it. I couldn't believe that she was really dead, but after several more seconds of flopping on the ground like a fish out of water, she began to lay still, motionless, as the stream of blood descended into little more than a light trickle on the already blood-stained tile.

“You…” the man said, seemingly just as traumatized as I was while looking into my terrified eyes. “You motherfucker.”

“I think I heard screaming!” said a distant voice in the background.

“It sounded like a kid's voice! Come on!” another called out from behind.

Then, with panic and fury contorting his face, the man marched over to where I was lying, grabbed me by the hair and growled, “I oughtta kill you too, but you're lucky I'm so nice.”

Then, I felt something strike against the back of my head, and as I fell back onto the floor, I saw the man running down the staircase… and Le Blanc's dead eyes staring back into mine. After that, my vision went blurry, then black, and then I was gone.

***

Darkness. Never-ending darkness. I felt light-headed along with a searing pain from where I was struck, but other than that, my body was completely numb. This must have been what it was like to die. There was no other way around it. The only logical thing I could come up with was that I was dead, but then… what would happen next?

“I should have listened,” I said out loud, not even realizing that I was externalizing my thoughts. “She wouldn't have died if it weren't for me. I just wanted to help! Why…? Why?!”

Then, like the nine year-old girl I was, I began sobbing until my sobs turned into wails until my wails turned into screams!

“Why what?” called a voice, which I could only believe to be death itself as it led me to the afterlife.

“Why did she have to die? Why didn't I listen?! Now I'm dead too!”

“You're not dead, Lulu Lemon. Did you want to be?”

“But… Where am I?”

“You're still lying down where you fell. You didn't expect your body would just get up and walk away without you, did you?”

“Then… where is here?”

“Lulu, have you always asked so many questions?”

Every time I tried asking the voice a question, it just asked a question of its own. Maybe I needed to try a different approach.

“Tell me what to do.”

“I want you to make a deal with me, Lulu Lemon. I want to give you magic that only you can use. Once you have that magic, you can do whatever you want with it.”

“Why do you want to give me magic?”

“Are you saying you don't want it?”

“No, I'm saying I don't know what will happen if I take it.”

“Nobody ever knows the future consequences of their actions. You should know that better than anyone by now. I’m giving you this magic so that you can stop the man who killed Le Blanc as well as anyone else who tries to hurt anyone.”

“And I don't have to give you anything?”

“What could I possibly want from a nine year-old girl?”

I still had no idea what was going on, what would happen if I said yes or even if any of this was actually real, but when he said that I could stop people from doing what they did to my friend, I knew for sure that he was offering me exactly what I wanted.

“OK,” I said, hoping I was making the right choice. “Give me magic.”

“Your wish is my command, but first you have to tell me what you want your magic to be.”

I was stunned that he wasn't just going to give me magic like all my fairy tale books that just gave them the power to do anything. If I had to choose one magical power, it had to be something good rather than something I could only use once, but I couldn't think of anything! All I could think about was what I could use to stop people from hurting kids like Le Blanc ever again!

Then, suddenly, I knew exactly what I wanted.

“I want to be with Le Blanc again. I want to be with her forever. I never want her to die again. Can that be my magic?”

“...Are you sure that is what you want?”

“Yes. Make it to where anywhere I go, she goes. Anything she sees, I see. I want us to be connected forever! But… I still want to be able to get away from her in case I need to use the bathroom or something.”

The voice then began to laugh subtly until it grew louder and louder until it was a scary, thunderous roar. “Your wish is my command, Lulu Lemon. Just remember what they say about being careful what you wish for!”

Suddenly, my entire body gained feeling again, but it wasn't like normal. I could feel everything growing hotter, my muscles tightening, my brain stretching, all causing me to scream out in pain. Looking down, I saw my arms growing longer with bones stretching over my skin. My hair was being forced under something that was stretching around my face, covering everything but my eyes and mouth. Even my clothes were changing into a fancy black dress, which was also beginning to disappear underneath the stony, white protrusions around my body, but then, before I knew it, it was over.

I was still inside darkness, but I felt different. I felt taller and heavier, yet still nimble enough to jump higher or run faster. “Did…” I began, trying to avoid another question, but failing to see how. “Did it work?”

“What do you mean?”

“Can I use my magic now?”

“Why don't you give it a try?”

I had no idea how to use magic, but the way he said it made it seem easy. Clearing my mind, I concentrated on Le Blanc's face, her voice, any small little detail I could think of, and almost immediately, my body began responding.

“Le Blanc, with my magic, I order you to come to life!” At that moment, the bones covering my body began to separate from my body before reattaching themselves in front of me in the form of a skeleton. “Wait… Is this her? No! I said I wanted to bring her back!”

“And here she is. It's not like she'll be able to die again in the state she's in. She also comes attached with all the features you mentioned before.”

Suddenly, I could see myself, but not like I was looking in a mirror. It was as if I was looking at myself through somebody else's eyes. The way I looked, though, was different. If I didn't see the body moving in complete synchronization with mine, I wouldn't have even thought that I was staring at myself. I had matured into a much older age, probably between sixteen and eighteen, and every single feature from my long legs to my curled hair was gorgeous.

“Are you ready to go back to reality now?” the voice asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, but I have one more thing to ask.”

“Fire away.”

“I want to see who you are.”

The voice chuckled.

“As you wish.”

Suddenly, the darkness disappeared, and I was now in what could only be described as a shining metropolis surrounding a grassy park, complete with a large stone fountain at its center. Then, with fear in my face, I looked up and saw a creature whose figure I couldn't even describe if I tried… but luckily for me, I wouldn't have to describe him as anything but one word.

“Nice to formally make your acquaintance, Lulu Lemon. My name is Discord.”

***

“Hey, little girl! Come on! Wake up!”

“Look! She's moving!”

Feeling groggy and still with a searing pain in the back of my head, I gradually opened my eyes, slowly lifting myself back up and spitting blood from my mouth.

“You're awake!” a voice said with happiness. “What happened? We just walked up the stairs and saw the whole place covered in blood.”

Then, looking up to see where Le Blanc had died, I saw nothing but a pool of blood where her body was supposed to be. I frantically pulled myself to my feet, looking all around the the floor, but her body had disappeared. At first I had thought that maybe the strange man had come back and taken her body, but I knew that he wouldn't have done something stupid like that. There had to be someone who had taken her body, though, and as soon as I realized that, I realized exactly who that person was.

It was me. I had taken her body. Her bones were now my magic, a magic I had to use to stop the bad guys.

“Wait!” I shouted. “Where's the man? Where did he go?!”

“What man?” someone beside me asked.

“The man in the hood! Where is he?!”

“I saw a man in a hood running down the stairs!” another chimed in. “He couldn't have made it far!”

If that was true, I would have to hurry. Without waiting another second, I took off into a sprint, racing down the stairs and doing everything I could just to keep my balance. There would probably be people trying to follow me and stop me, which meant that I had to transform right then and there. Focusing on the same feelings that I had in the void, I called upon all the magic in my body, turning me into a glowing white light before it dissipated, revealing my magical girl form.

Once I was out of the clocktower, I searched around frantically for the man in the hood, but all I saw were people pointing at me and giving me strange looks.

Bzzzt!

“What the--”

Feeling around for a pocket in my frilly dress, I pulled out a cell phone with one new message addressed to me.

“If you want to find him, just use this handy little map. There will be a glowing red dot pinpointing his exact coordinates. You can't miss him.”

I had never read a map before, but there were lines indicating every building and street corner in Manehattan, and not too far away from where I stood, there was a flashing red light, traveling away from my location. He was running. He was trying to get away, but I was not about to let that happen.

The red light made it all the way to a deserted parking garage in a part of town that was desolate of any human beings. This was where he was hiding. I just needed to find him. As I followed the red dot further, the pacing grew slower and slower until it finally stopped at the farthest end of the garage. It wasn't long before I found him leaning against a wall, covered in sweat and panting for dear life. I had never been so angry looking at another human being as I was looking at him in that moment.

Finally, he looked up from the wall, looked me from head to toe and said, “The fuck are you supposed to be?”

“You mean you don't recognize me?”

“You know, I'm not really in the mood for this right now, so why don't you be a good little girl and fuck off?”

“Is that what you told my friend when you slit her throat?”

Suddenly, his eyes began to bulge with panic struck across his face. Pulling out his switchblade once more, he said, “Look, I don't know who you are, but you'd better fuckin’ get out of here.”

“LE BLANC! COME TO LIFE!”

Then, all the bones that covered my body began to rattle themselves off my dress and put themselves back together into a perfect skeleton, causing the hooded man to begin to shake in fear.

“Y-you'd better stay away from me!” he stuttered, holding his switchblade up for protection. However, one nod towards the skeleton was all she needed before slowly approaching the hooded figure, the very man who had killed her in cold blood just minutes earlier. Once she was a little over an arm length away, the man dropped the knife and took off running towards the exit, but as I was pursuing him earlier, I noticed one more advantage from transforming: I could outspeed anyone.

I let him get a five second head start, but after that, I was right in front of him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and holding him up with a sick smile spreading across my face. Watching him struggle in fear brought back memories of how Le Blanc had struggled, but this time, it was going to be him, and who better to do the honors than the girl who he had killed with his own hands?

With no effort at all, I had his arms tied behind his back, turning him around to face the skeleton. “Now you're gonna know how it feels to be on the other end. Le Blanc! I'll leave the rest up to you.”

“Please! You gotta let me go! I'll do anything! I'll turn myself in! They can lock me up forever! Let go of me! Please!!”

Again, his pleas were the exact same as the girl he murdered, and hearing it come from his own mouth was the sweetest justice I could have possibly imagined. Without wasting any more time, the skeleton lifted the switchblade and swung it across the man's throat, creating an exact replica of the scene from earlier as blood spewed from his neck and he convulsed in my hands until I let him fall to the ground, where he twitched and gurgled pathetically until he stopped moving entirely.

This was it. Finally, he was dead. He wouldn't be able to hurt anyone ever again. I didn't feel overjoyed in having killed the man, but I surprisingly felt no remorse, either. At that time, I still didn't grasp the severity of death, and as I grew older, killing would only get easier and easier.

Le Blanc's body was never found, but the official police reports still labeled the case as a kidnapping and suicide. The strangest thing about the case, though, was that the weapon used to kill himself was never found, but then again, they never thought that maybe the person who killed him still had it.

The funeral was set for one week after the incident. Le Blanc's parents held out hope that they would eventually find their little girl, but with her kidnapper dead and no traces of her body anywhere in Manehattan, they felt that putting it off any further would just be disrespectful to her memory. Even though Le Blanc couldn't be there, she could still see the entire service through my eyes. For one last time, she could see her family again before they moved on with their lives without her.

Fortunately, nobody blamed me for what happened to her, but I had to tell somebody. I had to tell the one person I trusted more than anyone else in the world. As soon as I could, I invited Fleur to my house, pretending like it was just going to be a regular slumber party, but when the time was right, I told her about everything from Discord, becoming a magical girl, killing the hooded man and transforming right in front of her as proof.

“Is… Is that…?”

“Yes, Fleur. This is Le Blanc. This is what I can do as a magical girl.”

“So she was the one who stopped the bad guy?”

“We both did, but you're right that it was no suicide.”

“I wish I could have had magical powers. Maybe then this never would have happened.”

Then, thinking for a moment of the consequences that could come about, I asked, “Do you want to be a magical girl too?”

Thus, Night Seam was born. I had asked Discord if he could turn anyone else into a magical girl and if there were any other girls with powers like us. Apparently, though, the two of us were the only two magical girls in all of Manehattan.

“And what would you like your power to be, Miss Fleur de Lis?”

“Well, bad guys won't be able to see in the dark! So I want to be able to touch anything I want and turn it black!”

“If that is what you desire, then your wish is my command.”

Once Fleur had been given her powers, we decided that we needed to have names that differed from our regular day-to-day names, just so it would be easier to talk about it in front of others. Fleur went with “Night Seam” since her clothes were all black, and I went with “Marrow” after looking up bone anatomy in my science textbook.

The two of us made great magical girls, but the stress of keeping people safe was beginning to wear on us, even after Discord implemented a “brownie point” reward system for doing good work. When I got to school every morning, I was a happy, beautiful girl like I always was, but I found myself taking my anger out in the wrong ways.

Basically, this meant that any time Trixie did anything that required patience, such as bumping into me in the hallway or holding back the class during PE, I would take out everything I had and direct it towards her. Sure, I would do this towards any girls that pissed me off, but Trixie was the one who most visibly had so many things that she did wrong. Eventually, I stopped paying attention to the other girls at school and made Trixie my own personal punching bag.

It started out with name-calling, but once it lost its shock value, I started getting more physical, and the best part was, nobody would intervene. They all knew how pretty and popular I was, and they knew that if any of them tried anything to stop me, the same thing could happen to them. Not that anyone even wanted to stop me, though. It almost became a show where people lined up to see what Lulu Lemon would do to Trixie today. It was fun for them to watch, but only because it wasn't happening to them.

Eventually, we started adding more magical girls to the fold. At first, it was just Storm Rose, who was some girl I found on the street who had nowhere to go. I felt bad for her, so I took her into the fold and let her live in Platinum City, but not long after that, the girls started multiplying, with a new magical girl in Platinum City every couple of months.

“Hey, Discord,” I said one night when I was alone in my room. “What do you make of all these magical girls? We're up to six now, aren't we?”

“Yes, we are,” he answered, talking to me through my magical phone. “They're like rabbits, don't you think?”

“Is there any limit to magical girls?”

“Perhaps, but we can cross that bridge once we get to it. Worst case scenario we have to make a few cuts, but I'm sure you'll be fine.”

“Still, I think we should limit the number of magical girls coming in as much as we can.”

“It's a shame that you and Night Seam ended up going to different middle schools, by the way. Don't you have a friend at your new school already, though? What about that Trixie girl?”

“What about her?”

“What if she became a magical girl?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Oh?”

“The magical girls in Platinum City all have unique powers that help them save others who are in danger. If Trixie were to join, she would no doubt slow the group down, which could lead to innocent deaths that could have been prevented.”

“You really don't have much confidence in her, do you?”

“Discord… Le Blanc died because there was no magical girl there to save her. I can't let that happen to anyone else. I will do anything it takes to keep her from becoming a magical girl.”

“I guess that makes sense. You've already killed seven men, after all.”

“...Yeah… Just promise me you'll let me know if she goes sticking her nose in the wrong places.”

“I can promise you that, but if she ever comes to me seeking to become a magical girl, I can't promise you what will happen.”

“Fine. I'll take care of everything myself. I'm going to bed. Good night, Discord.”

“Sweet dreams.”

One year later...

“She's sticking her nose in the wrong places.”

“What are you even talking about?” I yawned, checking my clock. “It's 3 AM. Is this really that important?”

“Well, seeing as how your dreams were boring and about ponies and dragons and friendship, I decided to check out Trixie's dreams instead.”

“Why would…? Discord, it's 3 AM. Can't I just go back to bed?”

“You made me promise to tell you if Trixie ever stuck her nose in the wrong places, and I saw her dreaming that she was a magical girl, saving a small child from some kind of magical bear.”

“No!”

“Yes! That's exactly what happened!”

Pulling the sheets off of my body and rummaging through a box in my closet, I began looking for an item that I picked up one night when doing my magical girl duties. Finally, I found exactly what I was looking for: a small bag filled with cocaine.

“Umm… Lulu? What exactly are you doing?”

“I'm going to stop Trixie from becoming a magical girl no matter what it takes.”

“Soo… you plan to drug her?”

“Idiot! I'm going to plant these on her and get her arrested!”

“My, my. You are civil. Now, what will you do if she gets wind of your plan?” Then, upon digging deeper into the box, I found the second item I needed: the item that I had used in my first magical girl assignment. “Ohhhh. That old, treasure, eh?”

“Whatever it takes to protect Manehattan and the magical girls of Platinum City.”

“And you're sure she would be no good as a magical girl?”

“If she can't protect herself, how can she protect others?”

“Well, whatever you say.”

Later that night…

“I can't believe you, Discord!”

“Well, it's not like I didn't warn you that I would give her magic if she asked me. Besides, Night Seam at least tried to talk her out of it.”

“Tch.”

“Yes! That's exactly what she said!”

“Quiet! She's walking into her roo--Is that YOU talking to her?”

“Are you using Le Blanc to spy on me??”

“Shut up. I'm using her to spy on Trixie.”

“Well, this is just what happens when one of your own magical girls unknowingly foils your plans by putting you to sleep and coincidentally also brings the one person you don't want into Platinum City so that she can become a magical girl.”

“...A meeting tomorrow? Discord, when were you planning on telling me about this?”

“I just did!”

“No, you didn't! You told Trixie, and the only reason I heard was because of Le Blanc.”

“Well, I like to think of it as me telling you through Le Blanc spying on Trixie.”

“What's this meeting about?”

“Just how the number of magical girls has gotten out of hand and that we need to make cuts so that we don't end up using all of Platinum City's magic.”

“What?! What will happen if we use up all of Platinum City's magic?”

“You'll all lose your powers.”

“No…”

My worst fears were coming true. I had to do something about this. Trixie had managed to avoid me on her way back from school, probably thanks to one of the magical girls, but I would stop her at some point in the morning. If she avoided me on her way to school, I would just have to kill her when she got there. I couldn't let her ruin Platinum City.

“This girl has to die…” I said, more to myself than to Discord. “I’m sorry, Trixie, but you've gotten in my way one too many times…”

Chapter 9

Platinum City. Like a utopian city immersed in plants, flowers, grass and rivers, and it was this city that the magical girls of Manehattan called their home.

I was the first one out of the three of us to make it to the fountain, which basically acted as the meeting spot for all of the magical girls whenever we wanted to discuss anything outside of the real world. I needed to talk to them about what was going on, but I had no idea how to tell them that Lulu Lemon was Marrow and that she wanted me dead. Then again, I also wanted her dead, which would also be difficult to explain, but I had to at least warn them that something was going down.

“Oh, Great and Powerful Triiixiiiieee!” called a bubbly voice. Turning to my side, I saw Dreamdrop leaning forward and holding something behind her back. “Who's your favorite magical girl in the whole wide world?”

“Hmm…” I mumbled, putting a finger to my chin. “Not Cupid Symphony, not Mind Games, definitely not Night Seam… Maybe Palette?”

“Awww, come on!”

“I'm joking. What do you have behind your back?”

“Ta-daaah!” she said while pulling out a giant spear?! What the fuck?! “It's to protect you! You know, in case whoever hurt you tries coming back.”

“I didn't even know that Platinum City sold stuff like this!”

“You see, that's the thing! We usually don't, but after you ended up in the hospital, a couple different items like this ended up in the shop. I guess Discord just wanted to make sure we were safe.”

“Well… Thank you!” I said, accepting the spear but not really knowing what to do with it. “Do I have to carry it around everywhere I go?”

“No, silly! It's magic! You can make it appear or disappear the same way you would transform into a magical girl or back into your regular self!”

It seemed simple enough. By concentrating all of my magic to my hand, I emitted the energy into my spear, making it instantly disappear, and doing the same trick again, I made it reappear back into my hand. “This is amazing, Dreamdrop!” I said. “Thank you! How many brownie points did you end up spending on it?”

“Aww, don't worry about it. I just… wanna make sure you're safe, you know? Now! Tell me everything!”

How would I even explain? What kind of story could I possibly tell her? Maybe just telling the truth would be the best thing to do, but if it backfired…

“You didn't see who did it, right?” Paradox said, suddenly appearing out of nowhere and frightening both Dreamdrop and me. “You said your glasses got knocked off, but did you at least see if it was a man or woman? Where did it happen? What motive did they have in stabbing you? Do you think they knew you were a magical girl? But even then, even someone stabbing you so that you can't turn into a magical girl and meddle with them seems pretty hard to believe…”

“Well, maybe if you let Trixie tell the story…” Dreamdrop began, looking at me to help clear things up, but I didn't know what to say. With all the questions that Paradox came up with, I couldn't find a realistic explanation other than the truth, but even that might be too far-fetched for them to believe.

“I…” I began, dropping eye contact. “I don't remember.”

“Then I may have a solution,” Paradox said, tilting her goggles. “I don't have the necessary amount of brownie points to buy it myself, but once I raise enough, I can buy those magical contacts, and by going into your memories, I'll be able to see exactly who did it.”

Crap! If she saw my memories, there would be no way I could play this off!

No! Wait! This was a good thing! If she saw my memories, she would see exactly what happened, and I wouldn't have to explain anything!

“How many brownie points do you need?!” I asked, quickly grabbing her hands.

“I'm still short about two thousand,” she said sadly.

“Awww!” moaned Dreamdrop. “There's no way we can come up with that many in three days! And I just spent the last of what I had on that spear.”

“Then let's just try to figure out what we can. Trixie, where were you when you were attacked?”

“I was… at school…” I said, hoping that the truth would work out somehow.

Dreamdrop gasped. “Was it that girl who tried to kill you yesterday?!”

“Yeah… It was her…”

“Why didn't you just tell us?” Paradox asked with a somber tone. “We would believe you, you know. Maybe we can even help protect you.”

“That's just it, though… you can't protect me.”

“Come on, Trixie!” Paradox slapped my back with a smile. “It's not like we haven't done it before! I'll go back with you as soon as you're out of the hospital, and we'll teach that girl to mess with the Great and-- AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”

Out of nowhere, Paradox began screaming and convulsing in place, her eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, even through her goggles, before falling to the floor motionless with smoke billowing from her body. Before we could even react to the situation, a puddle of urine ran down her thighs with her open mouth drizzling her foamy saliva.

She didn't get up. Her eyes wouldn't close. She was dead.

“Paradox?” I muttered with my chest rising and falling and my body trembling. “Paradox! What… What hap--”

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” Dreamdrop let out an ear-shattering scream and fell to her knees, holding her head with shaking hands and rocking back and forth. “This can't be happening! You can't be dead! I can't keep seeing people die! Why won't you wake up?! What's happening?! Paradox!! PLEASE!! WAKE UP!!!”

Quickly realizing the gravity of the situation, I turned in every direction, looking for any kind of sign as to what could have killed her. Was it Marrow? No. Even she couldn't have hit Paradox with the magic that she had, at least not without being noticed. Unless…

“Dreamdrop! Did you see anything you could use brownie points on that would electrocute somebody?”

The sleep-themed magical girl, however, was still on her knees, holding her arms to her chest while rocking back and forth and saying, “Please wake up. Please wake up. Please wake up. Please wake up.”

I couldn't wait for this, especially if we were in the same kind of danger as Paradox. Grabbing Dreamdrop by the shoulders, I lifted her up and shouted, “DREAMDROP! SNAP OUT OF IT!”

“SHE'S DEAD, TRIXIE! I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANYONE DIE ANYMORE! WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP DYING?!”

“We're going to be next if you can't answer the question! Is there any item that someone could use to electrocute somebody?”

“I-I-I don't think so! I don't know! MAKE IT STOOOOOP!!!”

Dreamdrop was no longer any help, which just meant that I had to figure this out and fast, and to make it even harder, I had to be looking out in every direction to make sure nothing happened to either Dreamdrop or me. This either had to be the work of a magical girl or Discord, but as far as I knew, Discord didn't have any reason to hurt any of the magical girls, which meant that someone in our own group did this.

Then, suddenly, everything clicked.

Grabbing Dreamdrop by the shoulders once more, I firmly asked, “You said yesterday that one of the magical girls has a wand that allows her to project her magic towards a target, right?”

“Y-yeah. It shoots magic like a laser beam.”

“Paradox was just electrocuted. Which magical girl has that wand?”

With her eyes growing wide and her lips trembling even more, she muttered, “S-Storm Rose…”

Storm Rose, the girl with the power to transmit electricity, just happened to have the wand. Everything fell into place except for one question.

“B-but it couldn't have been Storm Rose!” Dreamdrop said, beginning to panic even more than before. “She's a magical girl like us! Why would she kill Paradox? She wouldn't! That's crazy! THIS WHOLE THING IS CRAZY!”

Looking back down at Paradox, however, I noticed that her magic was no longer in effect, leaving her real life body on the ground in her place. The girl inside Paradox was older, about nineteen years old, with short, brown hair, a baggy tank top and high school track pants. It was almost sickening seeing the real girl behind the magic, but maybe that was just me reacting to seeing a body that was alive and well just moments earlier suddenly frozen forever on the floor.

“Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!” Dreamdrop repeated over and over, covering her ears and again rocking back and forth.

“Dreamdrop,” I said, holding her in place while she stared at the ground. “Get out of Platinum City. I'm going to go looking for Storm Rose. Don't transform back into a magical girl until I tell you it's safe. We may just have to wait this out until we all lose our powers, but so long as we're safe, it will be worth it.”

“O… OK…”

After her trembling hands struggled to get a good grasp on her teleport gem, she finally managed to grab on and get herself out of Platinum City, leaving just me and the dead body at my feet. Without even taking a second to think of the options, I summoned my spear and jumped onto the nearest rooftop, searching all of Platinum City for any signs of magical girls. Then, my feet moved before I knew what I was reacting to, and just as soon as I leapt off of the building, a beam of lightning soared past my cheek, barely missing its target.

“There you are,” I said to myself, landing once again by the fountain. My feet then bolted into a superhuman dash towards the light source, with buildings beginning to blur into unrecognizable shapes and colors. Seeing as how she was so close to Marrow, I should have known that it would only be a matter of time before Storm Rose went after me too, but why Paradox? What did she do to deserve this?

I must have caught up by this point. Turning one final corner, I searched for the magical girl responsible for killing my friend, but instead was met with a skeleton sending a brutal uppercut to my jaw, making me fight with my life just to stay conscious. Then, looking up from the ground, I saw Storm Rose behind the skeleton, aiming her wand at me with a look to kill in her eyes. Reflexively, I pushed myself off the ground with just enough force to dodge her attack one more time, just barely keeping myself alive.

“Stop dodging, Tripsy!” said a voice from behind me. Then, looking back, but while still keeping a cautious eye on both Storm Rose and the skeleton, I saw a magical girl with blonde hair and a black dress, almost unrecognizable without her bony outer layer. “Don't you get what you're doing?”

“What I'm doing?! YOU JUST KILLED ANOTHER MAGICAL GIRL!”

“No,” Storm Rose said, making me turn once more. “I did that.”

Once again, she drew her wand, making me draw out my spear, but suddenly, Marrow rang out, “Both of you, stop!” I was a little cautious about lowering my guard, but after seeing Storm Rose put her wand away altogether, I could at least lower my spear. “Where did you get that?” Marrow asked, motioning to my new weapon.

“Dreamdrop gave it to me to protect myself,” I answered angrily. “Why did you kill Paradox?! What did she have to do with any of this?!”

“That had nothing to do with Marrow,” Storm Rose replied. “Don't you get it? We're competing for our lives here. That's Discord's test.”

“You idiot! We're supposed to be competing by using our magic to help people!”

“Then why did he suddenly decide to give us weapons?” My heart stopped and my mind started racing, but I couldn't let her inside my head. “Miss Great and Powerful Trixie, you're so naïve it hurts. If I didn't start this deathmatch off myself, someone else would have, and if I didn't strike when she was still oblivious, I'd never get that chance again.”

“You would really kill someone just so you wouldn't lose your powers?! Is that really all you care about?!”

“Platinum City is my home! I’m not going back to the streets!”

Then, summoning her wand once again, she sent another blast of electricity towards me, and I knew that in a three against one match, it was only a matter of time before one of them killed me. No matter which way I went, though, I would have to deal with either Storm Rose, Marrow or her skeleton, which, in my mind, was an easy decision. With as much speed as I could get, I charged towards the exposed Marrow, lifting my spear over my head.

“Le Blanc! Return!”

As soon as I swung towards her, though, her exoskeleton was attached to her body again, shielding her from my spear with some kind of diamond-hard bone protection. This meant, though, that one of the paths from earlier had opened up, and before Marrow could take another swing at me or Storm Rose could send another lightning strike my way, I turned on my heels and ran as fast as I could away from the battle.

I ran through a labyrinth of trees and buildings, taking as many sharp turns as I could until I was sure I had at least a couple moments to catch my breath. Then, hiding in the shrubbery, I pulled out my phone and began texting the first person who came to mind.

“Iron Maiden, I need your help! Where are you? Are you alone?”

It would be a few minutes before she would reply back, and during that entire time, I was doing everything I could not to give off any clues of where I was hiding. Finally, though, I got a message back that said, “Aren't you in the hospital? What did you need? How can I help?”

“I need you to transform NOW! Don't come to Platinum City. I'll come to you. Just tell me where you are and if there are any other magical girls with you.”

She then sent me the address of where she was, and without wasting another second, I grabbed hold of my teleport gem, traveled through the dimensions and ended up right where she said. Looking up, though, I was at an arcade in downtown Manehattan, which was unusually busy during the middle of the afternoon on a school day. Then again, Iron Maiden said she was twenty-three. Did she work here?

“Yo! Great and Powerful Trixie!” Turning around and nearly having a heart attack at the sudden voice, I saw Iron Maiden completely transformed, despite us being in a very public place. “Sorry, I guess now you see what I do during my free time. Why aren't you in the hospit--”

“Paradox is dead,” I said, grabbing her by the shoulder pads. “Storm Rose killed her. We need to hide!”

“Hold on!” she said, now furrowing her eyebrows and pushing my hands off of her. “Repeat everything one more time! There's no way I heard you right.”

“Storm Rose killed Paradox! She's turning our competition into a deathmatch! Dreamdrop is in hiding right now, but I don't know who else to trust! Everyone knows my true identity. I need someone to help protect me.”

“But…” Iron Maiden froze, still completely shocked from the information overload that her brain was forced to comprehend. “Why would Storm Rose do something like that?”

“Iron Maiden,” I said in a serious tone, “she's not the only one. We're all in danger. It's only a matter of time before this deathmatch turns into a battle royal. If I go back to the hospital, I'll die.”

In all my years of begging, I had never felt more pathetic than I did at that moment. I was basically pressuring her into being my bodyguard, but the way I saw it, there was no other way! Fortunately for me, though, Iron Maiden smiled and said, “I'd better get some serious brownie points for this.”

“Thank you so much!” I said, wrapping her into a hug and making the people around us feel even more awkward.

“Now, I do have one condition, though.”

“What is it?”

Putting her hands on her hips, she said, “We're gonna need some backup in case they find us. Who else do you trust?”

If I was being honest, I didn't trust anyone but Dreamdrop. I was taking a chance with Iron Maiden because I felt that her magic would protect me better than anyone else could. If there was any other girl, though, which one would I pick?

Then, an idea came to my mind, but if I was wrong here, we would both be dead.

“I want Night Seam.”

Chapter 10

After discussing what happened and what we would do next, Iron Maiden and I returned to her house, or rather, her parents’ house, which meant that she was basically disclosing her full identity. The two of us both transformed back into our regular selves, revealing the six and a half foot giant that Iron Maiden was underneath her outfit, complete with messy clothes and unwashed hair.

“I guess there's no point in hiding it now,” she said, running her hand through her greasy hair. “My real name is Basket Case, I'm twenty-three years old, and I live with my parents without going to school or holding a job.”

Her room was just as messy as her hair, with bags of potato chips and empty soda bottles littered throughout the room, her sheets and blankets falling off of her bed and video game cases covering her floor. As she took a seat on her bed, she motioned for me to take a seat on her desk chair as the two of us discussed some more.

“Well,” I began, “my name is Trixie Lulamoon. I'm twelve years old, and I go to Manehattan Middle School… where I was stabbed by another magical girl…”

“Hold on a second! A magical girl did that to you?! Who did it? How do you know her real identity?”

I looked away for a few seconds, but seeing as how we were now in a deathmatch, none of them were free from at least some suspicion. Taking in a deep breath, I said, “Marrow was the one who stabbed me, but she didn't expect me to survive.”

Basket Case leaned back on her bed, suddenly giving me a confused and conflicted look with her eyes. “Marrow? Why would she do something like that?”

“I don't know all the details myself, but… here's something to help you believe me.” Then, pulling out my magical phone, I scrolled down to Marrow's message and showed it Basket Case, whose shock displayed all across her face. “Her name is Lulu Lemon. She's been torturing me for as long as I can remember. Remember when Dreamdrop saved me from a girl who was trying to kill me? Remember when Marrow wasn't there when I became a magical girl?”

“This is insane! I mean, we all trusted her! Now she wants to kill us?”

“Which is why you were right in saying we need backup. The Great and Powerful Trixie trusts Iron Maiden with all her heart, so when I'm with you, I have nothing to fear. The only other girl I feel like I can trust right now is Dreamdrop, but I'm trying to keep her from entering this deathmatch. It'll mean that we all end up losing our powers, but--”

“Still better than losing our lives. I agree, but… Why me? Or rather, why did the Great and Powerful Trixie choose Iron Maiden? Why did you trust her over the other girls?”

A sheepish grin appeared across my mouth as my cheeks blushed. “Because you have a strong magic that I thought would help protect me.”

I shrunk a little in my seat, getting ready for her to be offended in one way or another, but to my surprise, she fell backwards onto her bed, laughing hysterically while kicking her feet. “I can't argue with that logic!” she said. “I guess having the ability to bend metal does have its perks. Well, do you think that Marrow and Storm Rose are the only two we need to worry about?”

“I don't know… To be honest, I just want to crawl somewhere and hide, but I don't want someone to get hurt because of me, either.”

“What do you mean?”

“Discord said that we need to make a few cuts, right? Then maybe if I died, nobody else would have to get hurt.”

“I disagree completely, but if you really think that's the case, then why don't we just ask him?”

I had completely forgotten that I could speak to him any time I wanted, and without skipping a beat, I took out my phone and started searching for any tool I could use to get ahold of him. Unfortunately, though, I didn't have any messages from him, and he was nowhere in my contact list. Of course, he wasn't going to make this easy, but I knew he was watching.

“Alright, Discord,” I said in frustration, “let's try this out. As a representative of Platinum City, I hereby seek you out. Appear, o spirit of chaos! Discord!”

Suddenly, the ground beneath us began to shake, the sunlight peeking through the curtains began to fade, and with a thunderous laugh, the spirit of chaos made his way from my phone, taking up half of Basket Case's room with his enormous size.

“You rang?” Discord said, smiling at both of us.

“We just wanted to talk to you about this game we're supposed to be playing,” Basket Case said.

“Ohhh? And ignore the fact that neither of you are in your magical girl forms? See how much closer you've grown already? I knew this was a good idea!”

“This isn't funny, Discord!” I blurted out emotionally, making me cover my mouth as soon as I realized what I had just said, and just as I feared, Discord's smile vanished from his face. He then slithered his head down to my eye level, staring menacingly into my frightened pupils.

“It's amazing how much backbone you can grow after being a magical girl for one day,” he said calmly before lifting his head back up. “Normally, I would qualify that as an unmitigated success, but it seems that you're not too happy with the game?”

“Of course not!” I cried. “Magical girls are supposed to help people with our powers, right? So then why are you having us kill each other?!”

“What?” Discord said, taken aback as he put his hands to his chest in his confusion. “Me? Kill? Why, Trixie, I-I have no idea what you're saying! I never said anything about that!”

“Then why did you add weapons to Platinum City?” Basket Case asked. “Trixie told me that you added them after starting the game.”

“For your protection, obviously! I added them after Trixie here was put in the hospital, and it sounds to me like it's come in handy already.”

“But isn't there some rule against killing other magical girls?” I asked. “Paradox is dead. Aren't you going to do anything about it?”

“Unfortunately, I promised you already that the only catch would be that you all had to participate. I can't just change the rules or punish someone just because they found a loophole in the system that you didn't like!” As Discord spoke, his snake-like body swirled in circles, making a loophole and slithering through it, tying his body into a knot. “Besides, this does seem like an adequate way of making the necessary cuts to continue operations in Platinum City.”

“You knew.” Both Basket Case and Discord turned their heads towards me as I began to cry with my fists shaking in anger. “You knew the whole time that this was going to happen! You planned this!”

“I wouldn't say I planned it, but I would be lying of I said I was going to do anything to stop it.”

“Why?! Why are you doing this to us?!”

Again, the amused smile on Discord's face faded as he leaned down once more. “Perhaps we haven't met. I am Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony. Helloooo.”

“So this is all just a game to you?” Basket Case asked, now shaking with anger herself.

“That is why it's called a game, after all. I never hid that from you. Maybe you just need to have a little fun with it is all!”

“When this is all over,” I said, now sobbing even harder, “will you bring back Paradox? Will you bring back any of the girls who died?”

“I'm afraid not. You see, life and death is something that even I have no control over. Now, do you have any more questions? I'm late for a very important bubble bath.”

Basket Case and I looked at each other for ideas, but sadly, we both comprehended exactly what this game entailed. We were going to have to kill each other just to keep ourselves safe, which meant that at any point, even someone who we considered our closest friend could turn against us to keep herself alive, which brought up one last question.

Wiping the tears from my eyes, I asked, “How many cuts do we need to make before this is all over? How many girls need to die?”

“Like I said before, nobody needs to die. That's just something you girls decided on your own. As for how many…” Discord scratched his chin as he thought deeply. “How about this? There is one girl in the group whose magic consumes far more of Platinum City's energy than any of the other girls. Once you decide to eliminate her--again, by any means you all come up with, so long as nobody gives up or forfeits the game--I will immediately end the game and let all the remaining girls keep their powers, but that's all the hints you get! Now, where's my rubber ducky? Dagnabit! Anyway, good luck girls! I'm rooting for you!”

With one more flash of light that illuminated the whole room, Discord disappeared again, leaving the two of us alone to make sense of what he said. There was one magical girl that was essentially keeping the game going, but nobody was allowed to give up, which meant that until we figured out who this game changer was, the deathmatch would continue. None of us were safe unless we all unanimously voted for an unwilling magical girl to lose her powers, and even in my naivete, I knew that would never happen.

“Damn it!” Basket Case shouted, punching her bedsheets. “That stupid snake! I bet Platinum City isn't even in danger of losing its magic at all! He probably just said that as an excuse to get us to kill each other!”

“No…” I said, thinking over his words again. “Discord is sneaky and cruel, but he isn't dishonest. At least as far as I know, he has never once lied to us about anything, but…” I firmly grasped the hem of my skirt, wondering if I would regret my next question. “What if I'm the girl who he was talking about? What if this is all my fault?”

“It's not your fault, Trixie,” Basket Case said as she stepped off her bed and pulled me into a warm hug. “He was going to go through with this plan regardless of whoever became the next magical girl. I'm personally glad that I get to play this game with you, and if you really are the game changer, then the two of us are just going to have to make it to the end, then, aren't we?”

Despite having no ill-meaning to her words, I don't think she could have said something that would have crushed me worse than that. The last thing I wanted was for every magical girl to die, just to find out that I was the game changer at the very end, but there was no way I could sacrifice myself without putting a bounty on my head. Lifting my knees to my chest, I wrapped my arms around my legs and began weeping hysterically.

“H-hey! Don't feel bad! I know! Let's see if we can find backup! You call one person and I'll call one person. Sound like a plan?”

Raising my head from my knees and sniffling, I slowly nodded my head. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but if I could get at least one more girl on my team, maybe that meant that one less girl would have to die. Not only that, but I would also have to pick a strong magical girl who would help keep both Iron Maiden and the Great and Powerful Trixie alive till the end. Not to mention someone who would be there for Dreamdrop in case someone found her…

Pulling out my magical phone again, I scrolled until I found Night Seam's name, took a deep breath, and typed the message, “I need your help. Paradox is dead, and it looks like more magical girls are going to die if we don't do something. Can we talk?”

Looking up from my phone, however, I saw that Basket Case was already getting a reply. “Who did you contact?” I asked.

“Cupid Symphony. She says she trusts us and is willing to help us out however she can. Any word from Night Seam yet?”

Just as soon as the words came out of her mouth, a message popped up on my phone that read, “Who else knows about this? Let's meet somewhere tonight.”

With a smile on my face, I wrote back, “Anywhere but Platinum City. I'm going to bring Iron Maiden and Cupid Symphony. Dreamdrop knows too, but I'm trying to keep her as far away from this game as possible. If nobody knows her real identity, maybe the game will end after three days.”

This time, she was much quicker in responding. “Don't underestimate magical girls. If any of us want to know her real identity, we can easily find out by using one method or another. She would probably be safest if you brought her along too.”

“What did she say? What did she say?” Basket Case asked, peering over my phone with her long torso.

“We're going to meet tonight,” I said, reading the messages out loud. “I don't know how comfortable I am with bringing Dreamdrop into this, but if what she's saying is true…”

“It is true. Don't ever underestimate a magical girl. We have the power to end wars as well as start them, and finding out where a girl is hiding is no exception. The best place for Dreamdrop is by your side. Then you'll both be a hell of a lot safer.”

Maybe this was a good idea after all. I wasn't sure how, but maybe if the five of us could figure out who the game changer was, we could come up with a solution to end the game without any more bloodshed. I didn't know how much I could trust Night Seam, or Cupid Symphony for that matter, but I knew that if we just stood there doing nothing, somebody else would die.

Then, I quickly realized, “Shit! I'm supposed to be at the hospital!”

“Trixie…” Basket Case said, giving me a condescending look, “you can't go back to the hospital, or Platinum City for that matter. Storm Rose and Marrow will be guarding both places like hawks, especially since Marrow can essentially be in two places at once.”

“But… What about my mom? What will I do when she finds out?”

“What would she do if she found you dead the next time she came to visit you?” Her words cut me to the core, making me wish even more that I had just never become a magical girl in the first place. “We can think of something as we go, but as for right now, we just need to keep you safe, OK? Now, you just find out where Night Seam wants to meet, and we can just wait here until then.” Then, she picked up a video game controller and smiled. “Besides, it's not like you'll be bored in the meantime.”

I couldn't help but smile back.

Night Seam said that we should meet at the park by the old Manehattan Central Library, and until then, I just had to make sure everyone else was on board with the meeting. Cupid Symphony and Iron Maiden had no problem with it, and even though it hurt bringing Dreamdrop back into the fire, she said that she was on board too. Time seemed to fly by in the meantime as Basket Case and I played video games until the sun went down, but once the light faded in Manehattan, the two of us transformed into magical girls and took off towards the park.

The two of us wanted to be the first ones there, just in case anyone caught whiff of our plan and tried hurting Cupid Symphony or Dreamdrop before we could get there, but as soon as we showed up, Cupid Symphony was already there, talking to some cute boy.

“Pleeeeease? Just this once?” she said, holding her hands together and giving the boy her most pleading eyes.

“I can't, Cupid,” the boy said. “How could I say that I really love you if I can't control my own hormones?”

“But I want you to! Just one small peck on the lips?”

“Please, Cupid! Don't tear my heart out like this!”

“Uhhhhh…” Iron Maiden said loudly, breaking the conversation they were having. “Sorry to interrupt, but…”

The both of them quickly took a step away from each other, looking away bashfully as they grew red in the face. “A-anyway…” Cupid Symphony said, hinting for him to leave.

“Oh, right. I should probably get to that place I needed to go to. You will call me, though, right?”

“Only if you promise to answer.” Cupid Symphony winked and blew a kiss for good measure.

“I will, darling! I'll stay up for days awaiting your call!”

“Ta-ta! I'll miss you!” Iron Maiden and I, however, gave Cupid Symphony the dullest looks we could as the teenage boy ran away. “What? Can't a girl have a little fun in the meantime? If I get killed, I at least want to have my first kiss before I die!”

“Please don't talk about death right now,” a voice said quietly, coming from behind us. Turning around, we saw Dreamdrop approaching, waving and smiling, but with puffy eyes like she had been crying all day. “Is this the place?”

“Yeah,” I said as all eyes focused on me. “I'm sorry for asking you all to protect me like this.”

“Not at all!” Cupid exclaimed, grabbing hold of my hands. “I'm so sorry for not being able to visit you in the hospital, but I can at least promise to keep you safe! So long as the four of us stick together, we will--” Then, cutting off her words, Cupid Symphony's phone began to ring. Not her magical phone, but rather her own personal cell phone. “Sorry. Just one second. Hello? Oh, hi Mark!”

“Yeah, you'll totally protect us,” Iron Maiden said sarcastically. “So long as it's not in the middle of a date!”

“I'm sorry. What was that, Mark? I was just RUDELY interrupted and didn't hear what you said… OK… No! Really? Oh, Mark, have I ever told you how much I adore you?... Mark! You little tease! You know I can't!”

“Should we say something?” I asked, looking to both Dreamdrop and Iron Maiden, who shrugged in response.

“OK, well, thank you so much for calling me, dear. Kisses! Mwuah!” Then, sighing dreamily, she held her phone to her heart while smiling from ear to ear. “He's so perfect.”

“Good conversation, I take it?” Iron Maiden asked with a chuckle.

“Oh, you have no idea. Mark may have just saved our lives.”

As we all leaned in with curiosity, Cupid Symphony smiled mysteriously from ear to ear.

“It looks like Night Seam brought guests.”

Chapter 11

“Good evening, everyone,” Night Seam said, sitting on a marble statue in the center of the park. Of course, Iron Maiden and I were the ones who asked her to come in the first place, but if she had brought someone with her without introducing them first, that meant that she was looking for trouble.

Cupid Symphony had announced a few minutes earlier that Night Seam was accompanied by two other magical girls, but Cupid, Iron Maiden, Dreamdrop and I had all agreed to feign ignorance while keeping our guards up in every direction. So far, it seemed like Night Seam didn't suspect a thing, which meant that so long as we didn't pry too far, we would be able to get more out of her than she would out of us.

“So?” she asked. “What is it you wanted to talk about?”

“We have some news for you,” Iron Maiden began, “but in exchange, we'd also like your cooperation.”

“Does it have something to do with Paradox?” Dreamdrop and I both flinched upon hearing her name.

“More or less. You see, Paradox didn't just die from some kind of accident. She was killed by another magical girl.”

“Do you know which one killed her?”

“It was Storm Rose,” I said, butting my way into the conversation. “She killed Paradox when no one expected it so that there would already be one magical girl cut from the game. She's a coward! She couldn't even strike until her back was turned!”

“I wouldn't judge Storm Rose,” Night Seam said calmly, giving us the creeping suspicion that Storm Rose might have been one of the girls that Night Seam had brought with her. “If we really are fighting to the death, Paradox was the one with hands down the greatest magic of us all, and if Storm Rose had the chance to kill her when her back was turned, I can't blame her.”

“It didn't have to be a fight to the death!” I shouted emotionally. “We could have found some other way!”

“This is exactly what Discord wanted, Trixie. We're just following his plan. The only way we can make this game end is by making the necessary cuts, however many that may be.”

“That's not true! If we all decide together who has the best magic, we could vote on it!”

“The only way that would work is if the one voted out was unwilling to lose her powers, and that would be if we could all agree on who to remove time and time again until we removed the game changer.”

“It's worth a try if it means we all get to stay alive!”

“You don't get it, Great and Powerful Trixie. You haven't lived in Platinum City as long as I have. You haven't learned to call it your home. Platinum City isn't just a place where we play around. You have no problems losing your powers since you just barely got them, but I've had mine for three years! I'm not going to lose everything I have!”

“Girls, diamond formation!” Cupid Symphony shouted, pulling all of our backs together so that we could face all directions. “I thought it was funny how you mentioned the game changer before we brought it up. Care to tell us how you knew?”

“I asked Discord this morning after the meeting. Again, I know him better than any of you, and I know when he has something up his sleeve. The real question is, why have the four of you been so on guard ever since I got here? Do you not trust me?”

“We might have,” Cupid said with a smirk, “if you hadn't brought your friends with you.”

For the first time so far, Night Seam raised an eyebrow in what seemed like genuine surprise. “Very well. Girls, they're not going to do anything. You can come out now.”

As the four of us prepared for a surprise attack from Marrow or Storm Rose, the bushes behind her began to rustle until out popped Palette, holding her paintbrush and Mind Games, holding a rapier, which was probably one of the items Discord added after my injury. The four of us reflexively let our guard down a little bit, knowing that we could at least trust them as much as we could trust Night Seam.

“I'm impressed you knew they were there, Cupid,” the girl in all black said with a laugh. “How did you know?”

“Never underestimate what magical girls can do,” she replied with a wink as the four of us broke formation. “The real question is, why did you hide them from us?”

“Because I needed my own protection. You came here asking for my help, but I have my own favor to ask of you.” Then, pointing directly at me, she said, “I believe that Discord made the game changer either Marrow or the Great and Powerful Trixie in order to make the game last as long as possible. He knew that everyone would go to immense lengths to keep her safe and that nobody would dare challenge the veteran magical girl with fourteen people in her kill count already. If we kill her, there is a fifty-fifty shot of the game ending altogether. Then, no more girls will have to die.”

“That's crazy!” Iron Maiden shouted. “You've got another thing coming if you think you can lay a finger on the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

“Please, Iron Maiden. You’re thinking with your heart rather than your head. Stop and consider things rationally for a second.”

“How is telling us to murder a helpless magical girl rational to you?” Cupid Symphony added, using her magic to summon a rapier that matched the one Mind Games had. The girls around Night Seam took a step forward with glaring eyes, but Night Seam held up her hand, stopping them in their tracks.

“This is a competition, Cupid,” Mind Games said angrily. “If you don't want to win, that's fine, but I'm sure as hell not going to lose when all we have to do is remove one damn magical girl!”

“But you still don't know that it's her!” Dreamdrop cried out. “What will you do if you kill the Great and Powerful Trixie but the game keeps going?!”

“Then we'll go after Marrow,” Night Seam added, as if to put a period on the entire conversation. “None of you know Discord as well as I do. None of you knows what lengths he's willing to go to in order to continue this game as long as he can! Will you put your emotions aside for one second and just listen to me?!”

“We're done listening,” Iron Maiden said, removing her shoulder pads and crunching the metal into a sword.

Dreamdrop then began shaking in place as she switched looks between Night Seam's group as well as our own. “Girls, stop!” she exclaimed in a little more than a whisper. “We're not like them! We don't have to fight!”

“Then why don't you just sit back and watch another one of your best friends die?!” Iron Maiden screamed, catching all of us off guard, especially Dreamdrop, who began crying into her hands.

“Iron Maiden…” I said with concern, but with a desire for blood in her eyes, she would not look down from the three girls looking to kill me. I wanted to side with Dreamdrop on this, to find some way to make it out of this park without a girl having to lose her life, but I couldn't find a single solution.

If this were any other day, I would have probably killed myself on the spot, just so that they would have their answer, even if it did break Discord's rule about self-sacrifice. At that moment, though, the only thing I could think about was my mom, who would sooner or later find out that I wasn't in the hospital anymore. I just wanted to see her one more time to tell her that I loved her and that I was sorry for making her worry, and unfortunately, the only way I could see that happening was to end that fight, even if it meant that we didn't all make it out alive.

“This is your last chance to back down,” Night Seam said, taking her feet in front of the statue. “If you continue to stand in our way, I can't promise your safety, so I'll count down from five. After that, whoever is left protecting the new girl will die. Five…” With no other options left, I summoned my weapon along with Cupid and Iron Maiden. “Four… Three… Two…”

The seven of us squatted slightly, lowering our center of gravity so that we could break out into a run as soon as her countdown was over. Looking over at Dreamdrop, though, who was willing to protect me even with no weapon of her own, I began to pivot on my heel towards her. My plan would be different than theirs.

“One!”

“DREAMDROP! GET DOWN!”

As soon as Night Seam reached the end of her countdown, she put a finger down to the grass, covering the entire park, as well as the trees around it, a thick black. Without wasting a second, I jumped towards Dreamdrop, pulling her down so that she wouldn't be able to get mixed up in the fight. Looking up, however, I saw the other three girls disappear into the darkness while Iron Maiden and Cupid began searching for them.

Then, looking back down at Dreamdrop, I shouted, “You need to get out of here now! Change back into your normal form and run! You have nothing to fight them with! You're just going to get yourself killed!”

“BUT I NEED TO PROTECT YOU! I CAN'T SEE ANOTHER FRIEND DIE!”

With tears threatening to slip from my eyes, I bit my lip and said something I hoped I wouldn't regret later. “You're going to get me killed, Dreamdrop! You're the weakness in our group! They're going to use you as bait and kill both of us!” Dreamdrop was now shaking, her lips trembling as she began to cry helplessly. “Now go! Quick!”

Without another second's hesitation, she bolted herself up and began sprinting away, wiping tears away as she did so. Just as soon as she was about to transform back into her normal form, however, she bumped into an object covered in shadows and fell backwards. Then, looking up, she saw a colorful dress with a rainbow of splotches, and wearing that dress was a very angry magical girl with the perfect opportunity to kill.

“Don't trust Trixie.” She said, catching Dreamdrop off guard as she walked past her. “We're not deceiving anyone. The game won't end if you die, so there's no point in hurting you.”

“Dreamdrop!” I shouted, seeing the situation. “Get out of there! Run!”

“This game is over!” Palette shouted, dipping her brush into her dress and beginning to paint the air around her. With one of the magical girls spotted, both Iron Maiden and Cupid Symphony began charging towards her, but it was already too late. With one final stroke of her brush, two automatic pistols fell into her hands, one pointed at each of the charging magical girls, who both froze in place.

Thinking as fast as I could, I used my magic to levitate anything that I could around Iron Maiden and Cupid Symphony, and as luck would have it, the sudden barrage of bullets hit my magic like a wall floating in midair. I quickly sighed in relief, but that relief was short-lived.

“Your mom is worried sick about you right now,” said a voice in my head. “She's waiting for you at the hospital, but you aren't there. Why aren't you there?”

Mom’s waiting for me? No! This isn't me talking! That isn't my voice!

“She's having a panic attack, wondering where her daughter is. Why did you think this was a good idea?”

This wasn't a good idea! My mom is waiting for me in the hospital! I have to go back! No! Wait! I can't tell whose voice is mine anymore! Focus. I am the Great and Powerful Trixie. I am a magical girl who is currently playing a game in which I--

“Trixie! Behind you!”

That time, it definitely wasn't my voice. In fact, it wasn't even coming from inside my own head! Suddenly, I realized that the voice came from Iron Maiden and turned around just as Mind Games was in mid swing with her rapier, aiming for my neck. Using my magic reflexively, I caught her weapon in midair and pulled it into the ground, pulling Mind Games along with it as she refused to let go. With one hand controlling my magic, I used my other hand to swing my spear at my opponent, but with only half my attention focused on my magic, Mind Games was easily able to break away and block my attack.

“Why are you fighting, Trixie?” the voice in my head continued. “You don't want anyone to get hurt, right? If you die, the game will be over, and everyone will be happy.”

Everyone would be happy with me dead… What if that's true? No. I'm not going to let her into my head.

With our weapons clashed together in the shape of an X, I began to giggle, knowing exactly what I would do to get control over my thoughts again. She made one fatal flaw, and I was going to capitalize on it.

“Use your magic on Palette, Trixie!” the voice continued. “She's going to hurt your friends! Mind Games is no problem! Just leave her alone and go after Palette!”

The more the voice talked, the more I knew what to do, almost like she was giving me the exact instructions I needed in order to beat her. Dropping all of my thoughts about Palette or the girls behind me, I focused all my strength on hitting Mind Games with as much force as my enhanced muscles would give me.

“You can't fight her, Trixie. She's too experienced! You just barely started! A weak little girl like you doesn't have a chance!”

This was working! Mind Games was obviously beginning to panic. The way she tried to get me to stop fighting her just proved to me that she felt like she was losing, which told me that in order to catch her off guard, I just needed to play along.

Stepping back, I threw my spear onto the ground, keeping just enough distance between us to where she would need to close the distance if she wanted to stab me. As she smiled, the voice said, “Good, Trixie. Now just stay there. All your friends are going to be safe.”

Just as soon as Mind Games took one step forward, however, I used my magic to lift her by the neck, choking her as she tugged at my magic to let her go. “You almost got me there, Mind Games,” I said, gripping her neck tighter. “It's no wonder Night Seam asked you to join her little group.”

Mind Games's eyes began to water as she flailed her body in the air, trying to force my magic off of her neck, but the more she struggled, the tighter my grip grew.

“I bet you're wondering how I was able to get out of your trap. At first, everything you were saying sounded just like the things I say to myself every day. In fact, if you hadn't slipped up, I probably would be dead right now. You just got one thing wrong.”

Mind Games's skin was beginning to grow blue in her asphyxiation as she frantically tried tapping out in surrender, but this time, for the first time in my life, I would be the one who called the shots.

“Trixie isn't here. You're talking to the Great and Powerful Trixie, and she does not give up when her friends’ lives are on the line!”

“BEHIND YOU!!!”

Suddenly, looking over my shoulder, I began to make out a black figure standing over me with a black object in her hand, moments away from colliding with my head. Quickly dropping Mind Games from my magic, I toppled to the ground, barely dodging the camouflaged Night Seam, who had somehow managed to pick up my spear when I wasn't looking. Without giving a second thought to Mind Games, I quickly used my magic to halt the weapon in place, making it to where Night Seam couldn't use it.

“Mind Games!” she shouted. “Now's your chance!”

I couldn't move. If I took my focus off of my spear, Night Seam would be able to break away and finish me off, but if I stayed where I was, I was completely defenseless against Mind Games. With no options left, I turned around to check on Mind Games, and just as I feared, she was standing above me with her rapier raised over my head. This time, though, when she looked into my eyes, she had a fiery bloodlust which couldn't be satisfied until I was dead.

I couldn't look. Holding the spear in place as long as I could, I closed my eyes and waited for death…

Cling!

...but death never comes when you expect it.

“You're not going to hurt the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Cupid Symphony said, standing over me and shielding me with her own rapier. “Again, I'm sorry for not being there for you this morning, but I'm here for you now!”

With all the energy she had, she pushed Mind Games off of me as the two began a sword fight of their own, sparks flying every time the two metals made contact. Cupid seemed like a natural the way she moved, somehow managing the perfect reflexes to block every attack and swing when her opponent's guard was down. The longer the two clashed, however, the more and more I began to notice Cupid slowing down, becoming more vulnerable to attacks. Mind Games must have been using her magic again, but Cupid wasn't able to defend herself like I did.

“Cupid!” I shouted. “It's a trap! Don't let her get inside your head!”

I wanted to intervene, but Night Seam was still doing everything she could to pull my weapon away from me. If I even thought of lifting a finger to help her, we would both be dead, but at the same time, Cupid Symphony was beginning to tense up and lose focus!

Then, with a powerful blow, Mind Games knocked Cupid's rapier from her hands, and with Cupid's eyes wide with fear, the magical girl in the black and white dress struck her blade through Cupid's heart.

All that any of us could do was watch as blood began to spray all over the black surroundings, covering the trees and grass in a sea of red. Blood began building up in Cupid Symphony's mouth, making her fall down as she coughed up a mix of bile and blood onto the ground beside her. Grabbing onto her wound, she began heaving in air as violently as she could, but just as if the wind were knocked out of her, no matter how much she tried breathing in, her lungs remained empty until finally, she fell to the floor, motionless, never to wake up again.

“Cupid…” I whispered sadly. “Please… Not you too…”

Then, out of nowhere, Night Seam fell to the floor, releasing her grip from my weapon. Looking up, I saw Dreamdrop standing over us with angry tears streaming down her face, and without another moment of hesitation, I pulled the spear from the ground and used my magic to lift Mind Games into the air by her neck.

“You're not getting away this time!” I shouted, squeezing her neck so hard that it threatened to snap in my grip. Dreamdrop's magic would only work for five minutes, but I only needed two. I wasn't going to let her go until I saw the same kind of agony and pain from her eyes that I saw from Cupid. I wasn't going to drop her until she felt the most painful, terrifying death she could possibly imagine.

With her eyes threatening to pop out of her sockets, she looked down on me with pleading eyes and mouthed, “Please!” but that wasn't going to work on me. With both Night Seam and Mind Games out of the way, the only one I needed to worry about was--

“Mind Games! Cover your eyes!”

However, turning back only for an instant, I saw Palette leap into the air and throw down what looked like a grenade, and the moment it touched the ground, the object exploded into a cloud of green smoke. With gas suddenly entering my lungs, I quickly dropped Mind Games from my grip, held my hands to my neck and began choking violently, struggling to exhale the gas without breathing more in. Then, quickly realizing what I had just done, I used my magic to clear away the gas, just to find Palette with Night Seam under one arm while the other was used to support the coughing Mind Games.

“Sorry, girls,” she said, tugging on her teleport gem as soon as Mind Games had a firm grip around her shoulders. “We're gonna have to finish this another time. See you tomorrow, probably!” And just like that, the three of them were gone, leaving the green gas cloud and black shadows to gradually disappear.

We lost. We lost the battle. We lost Cupid. We lost the only chance we had at stopping this stupid fight once and for all!

As I pouted on the floor, though, Dreamdrop and Iron Maiden quickly sprinted over to the girl lying dead on the ground with a hole in her heart. The girl had ruby red hair, a slim body, long legs, and even through the horrified expression that remained after her death, she projected an intangible beauty.

“Damn it!” Iron Maiden cried, punching the ground as hard as she could. “You idiot! You didn't need magic to make boys fall in love with you! You were beautiful already! Why did you pick such a stupid power when you didn't even need it?!”

Iron Maiden wanted to punch the corpse once for good measure, but instead, she just fell on top of her, weeping loudly as Dreamdrop gently rubbed her back.

When was this going to stop? Who else needed to die? I just wanted to go home, but until this game was over, that just wasn't a possibility anymore...

Chapter 12

Later that night, the three of us went back to Iron Maiden's house just to have somewhere we felt like we could lie low, but since Basket Case's parents also lived there, it meant we all had to transform back into our normal forms. Of course, Dreamdrop was hesitant at first, but it was better than separating herself from our group and putting an even bigger target on her back.

The girl behind Dreamdrop wasn't as strikingly different as when Iron Maiden transformed into a six and a half foot goliath, and honestly, she didn't look too much different than her normal self. Instead of wearing a night-themed dress with bright blue hair, she wore jeans, sandals, a tight tank top and regular brown hair. The age was the same, the height was the same, and the weight was the same, but the one striking difference between the two was how much confidence she lost when she transformed back into a human, just like me.

“Well,” she began, not looking into either of our eyes, “I guess now you know who I am. My name is Summer Breeze. It's nice to officially meet you, Basket Case.”

“C'mon! Don't be like that!” the tallest girl said, slapping Summer Breeze on the back with a smile. “I'm still the same old girl as before, just with a lot less weight on my shoulders.”

“I guess so…”

Looking at her was almost like looking into a mirror and seeing myself. When she rubbed the back of her arm while avoiding eye contact, I thought of all my experiences at Manehattan Middle School and how much I wished I could have been invisible to everyone.

“Well,” Basket Case said with a smile that seemed to ignore the death she just witnessed, “what's our next plan of attack?”

“There is no plan of attack,” Summer Breeze said, still looking down at the floor. “Our plan is to hide until we all lose our powers! If they're all looking to kill us, the only thing we can do is hope that they don't find us!”

“And you really think that doing nothing is going to fix anything?!” I shouted, catching the other girls as well as myself off guard, but I wasn't about to apologize for what I just said. “You're talking like they're trying to kill you, when we both know that if they really wanted to do it, they would have done it when they had the chance!”

“Trixie--” Basket Case said with concern, trying to put her hand to my shoulder before I shrugged her off.

“There is no Trixie here anymore! You're speaking to the Great and Powerful Trixie, and she is not going to let those girls go when they're putting their magical powers over innocent lives!”

“Trixie,” Summer Breeze said while flinching. “You're starting to scare me!”

“There is no Trixie here!”

“Will you cut that out?!” Basket Case asked angrily. “You're not a magical girl right now, so stop acting like you're so high and mighty!”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is only stating the facts. If my life is on the line even in this weak and cowardly form, then Trixie will just have to be a magical girl at all times, and magical girls don't just let the people who killed their friend get away!”

At this point, Summer Breeze was cowering behind her hands while Basket Case was folding her arms with her face visibly upset. “So what's your plan, then, huh? Go after them? And then what? Kill them? Do you expect to just risk all of our lives so you can have whatever twisted justice you're after?”

“Trixie never said that you two have to accompany her. She can go alone if you don't think you can handle it.”

“Hang on! I don't even know who I'm talking to! Is it Trixie or the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“Trixie is always Great and Powerful.”

“AAAAARRRGGHHH! I'M SO CONFUSED!”

As Basket Case ruffled through her hair, Summer Breeze finally made eye contact with me, taking a deep breath before speaking. “What I think she's trying to say, Miss Great and Powerful Trixie, is that maybe you should at least sleep on it? Just for tonight?”

It didn't make sense to me that they could just let something like this go and wait until the morning. If we lost our powers, then none of us would be able to get justice for what happened to Cupid Symphony… and what happened to Paradox...

“Is this really what you want?” I asked. “You want to just go to bed and wait till tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Summer Breeze said, finally with a smile on her face. “Then, in the morning, if you still feel like you need to take action, the three of us can come up with a plan!”

I did everything I could not to click my tongue and give them a fiery glare, but it was obvious that no matter what I said, they weren't going to help me. Just like the rest of my life to this point, I would be alone, fending for myself while others hunted me down. Still, though, even through my anger, I appreciated how much they were willing to protect me, even if I really was the game changer.

“Trixie agrees. The three of us will sleep for now and come up with a plan in the morning. Basket Case, are you willing to let us stay?”

“Huh? Of course! You're both welcome to crash here for as long as you need.”

“Wonderful. Summer Breeze, Trixie hopes that you don't mind sleeping on the floor with her.”

“Y-yeah,” Summer Breeze said. “I don't mind. Um… you know, after the day we've had, if either of you need, I can use my magic to help put you to sleep. It may only last for five minutes, but the magic won't wear off if you wanna sleep longer.”

“Trixie doesn't need any help sleeping,” I said, laying out the blanket that Basket Case provided for us. “Hopefully you don't have any troubles falling asleep yourself.”

“Huh? Me? You know, I made putting others to sleep my magic just so that they could sleep as well as me! Heh heh.” The more she tried to bring Dreamdrop's bubbly personality into the room, the further the visual separation became between her and the magical girl inside her.

After that, none of us said a word to each other, not even to say good night. Once Summer Breeze and I were lying down on the floor with a large blanket for the both of us, Basket Case turned off the lights and we all did our best to go to sleep… At least, that's what I wanted them to think.

Truth be told, I wasn't going to wait anymore. Once they were all asleep, I transformed back into my magical girl self, held onto my teleport gem and traveled through dimensions to the gate of Platinum City. I was not about to let any of those girls get away for what they did to Cupid Symphony, an innocent girl who lost her life trying her best to protect me.

Looking around the gate, I didn't see anybody waiting to ambush me, or at least if they were, they were doing a good job concealing themselves. Fortunately for me, however, even though Manehattan would be pitch black right now, Platinum City was still as bright as ever. Without wasting anymore time, I pulled out my magical phone and whispered, “Discord! I know you can hear me, but could you not do the whole thunder and lightning when you come out this time?”

Instead, a twin-sized bed landed in front of me with Discord wearing flannel pajamas and a matching nightcap, yawning as he lazily opened his eyes. “Trixie, is that you? What could you possibly want at this hour?”

“Can you tell Trixie if there are other magical girls in Platinum City right now?”

“Oh, that's a cute little persona you're putting on. If you survive to the end of the game, I really do hope you keep it up.”

“Discord!”

“Alright, fine. Fine. There are only two girls in Platinum City right now, but I'm not at liberty to say which ones.”

“That's fine, but… I have one more question.” It had been on my mind since Summer Breeze had spoken about all of us losing our powers, but even in that moment, I was afraid of what the answer would be. “If… If someone forfeits the game by willingly sacrificing herself and everyone loses… what will happen to us without our magic?”

“Are you asking if you would die if I were to strip your magic? Hmm… I guess I never really thought of that before.” My heart began to plummet as Discord stroked his beard in deep thought. “I guess it's a possibility. I've never really tried it out before. Oh, well. Hopefully you'll figure out who the game changer is before that happens.”

“That's it? That's all you know?”

“Alright! Since I can't be of more help this way, I'll tell you one more useful bit of information, but after that, I'm going back to sleep.”

With a sneaky grin, Discord slithered his way out of bed, put a claw around my shoulder and whispered into my ear.

“Your mother is on her way to the hospital right now. You should go see her… before it's too late.”

I didn't have to think twice to know what he meant. Grabbing onto my teleport gem and squeezing my eyes closed, I traveled back through the dimensions and landed on top of my hospital bed. Without taking another moment, I used my magic to pull anything I could around me like a giant bubble, and as luck would have it, that was exactly when an electric shock struck against an object behind me.

She's not even going to attempt to make this a fair fight? Too bad you just gave away your hiding place, Storm Rose!

Using my magic to gather all the objects around me, I turned my waist and sent them on a crash course towards the enemy, who used her own magic to blast the hospital equipment away. Once the objects were all out of the way and I finally got a good look at Storm Rose's face, I didn't see any hint of surprise, anger or fear. It was as if she were programmed to do one thing: kill.

“How long have you been waiting here?” I asked in an almost condescending way. “Has it been since Trixie let you live back in Platinum City?”

“You didn't let anyone live! You ran away like a coward!”

“Trixie isn't running away now.”

Despite my smirk, Storm Rose's expression didn't change. Instead, she let out a sigh, took a seat on the bed next to me and said, “Did anyone ever tell you about why I became a magical girl?”

“You told us yesterday, remember?”

Finally, Storm Rose smirked herself. “It's true that Marrow helped me get my powers and introduced me to Platinum City, but nobody ever told you about who I was before that, did they?”

“You're not fooling anyone!” I shouted. “I know you're trying to distract me!”

Then, pulling out of her wand, she approached the garbage can near the door and dropped it inside while taking a seat on the counter next to the sink. “There,” she said firmly. “There is now no way I could possibly hurt you.”

I didn't trust her. She had to be up to something. This all had to be some kind of plan of hers… but whatever that plan was, I couldn't figure out how she could possibly hurt me. Finally, taking a seat on my hospital bed, I folded my arms and listened to her story.

“I was nineteen the first time I killed anyone. I guess you could say it's in my blood. My father was a navy seal; having to kill dozens of people was just part of his job. He told me to carry a gun on me at all times, just in case some lowlife thug tried to do anything to me. You can imagine what his surprise would have been if he ever found out that I was the lowlife.

“I dropped out of high school at age seventeen to join a gang called the Equestria Girls. We broke just about every law you could think of. We vandalized public property, we stole from every shop we could get into, we did every drug imaginable. Then, one day, a rival gang showed up saying that they wanted to expand their territory. I wish that could have just ended with a fistfight, but somebody pulled out a gun.

“Have you ever held a gun, Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“No.”

“Well, I can tell you that it is the most powerful feeling in the world. When you feel the weight of a fully loaded pistol in your hands, you realize that you have the power to control whether someone lives or dies. You see, when that girl pulled out a gun that day, she didn't realize that I had been preparing for that moment my whole life. Then, when she wasn't looking, I pointed the gun at the back of her skull…” Storm Rose lifted her hand like she was holding a gun to reenact the scene. “...and I pulled the trigger.”

“Did you feel terrible afterwards?”

Storm Rose shook her head with a calm smile on her face. “To be honest, I thought I would, but when it happened, it was almost a lackluster experience. I expected to feel disgust, fear and sadness, but I didn't feel anything. Life continued to move on in real time, as if nothing had even happened.”

The way she talked was beginning to make me worry, but so long as her guard was down, I still had the possibility of striking first. I just needed to wait until she was looking away, and then I'd summon my spear and kill her, just like what she did to Paradox.

“Well,” she continued, “after that, the police started looking for me. I was living in Fillydelphia at the time, but even with all the crime they had going on there, they still had plenty of time and resources to go searching for me. Needless to say, I would have been locked up forever if they found me, so I escaped here to Manehattan. Then, without any family here, I had nowhere to go, and since I never graduated from high school, finding a job was next to impossible. That's when Marrow found me.

“Trixie, did it scare you when Marrow said she killed as many people as she said?”

“A little,” I said, silently lifting the garbage can off of the floor with my magic and drifting it away as discreetly as possible. “Trixie didn't know magical girls killed people.”

“Honestly, the only reason Marrow hasn't killed anyone else is because she hates killing more than anything in the world.”

I scoffed. “She sure didn't have any problem trying to kill me yesterday.”

“I know it's impossible to ask, but hopefully you don't judge us. Marrow truly has only the best of intentions for Platinum City and the magical girls who reside there, and as for me…” She began to drift off, taking her eyes off of me completely, which I used to my advantage by pulling in Storm Rose's wand and placing it behind me. “...As for me, I'm really just being selfish. You see, I've killed more people than Marrow has.”

Gritting my teeth at her almost proud way of displaying her achievement, I asked, “How many people have you killed?”

“Honestly, I don't know anymore. Marrow asked me to take care of any missions that involved assassinations. I want to say at least fifty, but it might be more. You see, killing has just never been a struggle for me. In a way, I actually see myself in the people I kill. If I were to die, life would just go on without me, and when it's all said and done, I’m not here to make anyone happy but myself. That's why protecting what I have in Platinum City is so important to me, and that's why Marrow and I have been coming after you and your friends."

“Storm Rose…” I said, clenching my fist. “Why does everyone think they'll be happy if I'm dead?”

Closing her eyes and sighing again, she said, “Because it's true. If someone killed you right now, the world would be a better place, which is why I have… to…”

As Storm Rose peeked into the garbage can and realized nothing was there, I finally saw an expression of fear as she slowly turned her head to see her wand in my hand and a bright smile on my face.

“Looking for this?” I asked, waving the stick in front of her, but just as soon as she lunged forward to grab it away from me, I used my magic to pin her into the wall, holding her back by the neck. “Trixie isn't going to die without taking someone with her first.”

Storm Rose tried to speak, but with her neck completely closed under the pressure of my magic, all she could do was mouth words painfully while my magic held her in place. Then, I began lifting her up the wall as she scratched at her neck, flailing her legs in any attempt she had at freeing herself from my spell, but nothing she did worked. Her face began to turn blue, her eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets, and as she looked down at me, all I could see was a panic that contrasted with the usual upheld demeanor I was used to.

“This time the one who has all the control is the Grrreat and Powerful Trrrrixiiieeee!!”

With no more oxygen left in her lungs, her frantic flails turned into nothing more than pathetic twitches until finally, her head fell to the side and her body went limp. Urine began trickling down her legs, which was a signal to me that she wouldn't be waking up, and the worst part of it all was that Storm Rose had been right all along.

The feeling really was lackluster.

“How could you lose her?!” a voice from outside the door shouted.

“I'm sorry, ma'am, but she must have gotten out somehow,” replied another.

Suddenly, I realized that my mom must have been standing outside the door, yelling at the hospital staff. I was so excited to see her, especially after the day that I just had, but as soon as I looked down and saw a dead girl with clothes that looked like she hadn't changed outfits in three years lying in a pile of her own urine, I knew that she couldn't see me. I would think of some excuse later, but this was not the time or place.

“Ma'am! You can't go in there!”

“I want to see if my daughter's come back!”

With a tear in my eye and more sadness in letting my mom down than in killing another human, I opened the window and jumped to the roof of the closest building, just barely escaping before she walked into the room. As I looked down from the rooftop, I saw her notice the dead body in the room and collapse onto the floor while the staff ran in search of a doctor. I couldn't take another moment of this, and while wiping my tears, I grabbed onto my teleport gem and went back to Platinum City.

Hopefully the girls hadn't noticed that I was away yet, but they would find out soon enough once the morning came around.

Chapter 13

Suddenly, I was back in Platinum City, which is exactly where the three magical girls who killed Cupid Symphony had fled to, and this time, with Storm Rose out of the way, I had one less girl to worry about. Discord said that there were two magical girls here before I went to the hospital, and seeing as how Storm Rose was now dead and Dreamdrop and Iron Maiden were asleep back in Manehattan, that left Night Seam, Mind Games, Palette and Marrow as the only possibilities left. Honestly, at this point, I didn't care who died next, but my top two targets were Mind Games, the girl who had killed Cupid Symphony, and Marrow, the girl who I had my own personal grudge against.

Thus, I sneaked my way from the gate, hiding myself in the shrubbery as I passed through the city, looking for whoever Discord said was still here, supposing I didn't miss them. As luck would have it, though, I knew exactly where they would be: the fountain in the center of the city, where we would always meet if we ever wanted to speak to each other. While ducking lower into the bushes, I made out the face of Night Seam instantly, but it took me a minute to figure out that the other girl was Marrow without her exoskeleton. I'd have to watch my back in the meantime, but I could not let this opportunity slip to miss what they were saying.

“Does our friendship not matter to you anymore?” Marrow asked. “Don't forget that the only reason you have your powers is because of me.”

“Which is why I want to go after Trixie first,” Night Seam retorted defensively, “but we both know that if Discord made you the game changer, you'll die regardless.”

“If we all supposedly die if we lose our powers, then there's no way he would make me the game changer. It would mean the end of magical girls forever.”

“Do you honestly think Discord cares whether or not magical girls exist? For all you know, he could be bored with magical girls and is looking to start his next project! Do you really believe that you were the first magical girl because you were the first one Discord thought was ready? Have you never wondered about the magical girls before you?”

“And you're just going to kill your best friend so that you can survive?!”

“TRIXIE WAS OUR BEST FRIEND TOO!”

My eyebrows raised slightly at what Night Seam said, almost making me blow my cover before quickly realizing how dangerous a position I was in. Still, though, it made me think. Was I supposed to know who Night Seam was? Were we friends at one point?

“So what are you waiting for, then?” Marrow asked. “Le Blanc isn't here. You have the perfect opportunity to kill me, so why don't you take it?”

She was right! This would be the perfect opportunity for me too! As I lifted my hands up, I focused all the magic I could towards her neck, just like I had done with Storm Rose, but for some reason, I couldn't feel my magic connecting. My magic must have had limits as to how far I could be away from my target, and she was just barely too far away for me reach her without Night Seam noticing.

Then, however, I quickly remembered that I should still have possession of Storm Rose's wand! Again, I summoned all my magic to my hand, this time in the way that I would normally summon my spear, but for some reason, nothing happened. I would have to speak with Discord as soon as I made it back to Basket Case's house.

“I can't,” Night Seam said. “You know I can't. I only want to do that as a last resort.”

“Really? Because you sounded like you were completely out of resorts a minute ago.”

“Just… let me start with Trixie. I sincerely doubt that any of the others would be the game changer. It would be too convenient.”

“Why do you think that the game changer is Trixie or me? Please, tell me why I should just give you permission to kill me if it turns out not to be Trixie.”

“Because that's exactly what would give Discord the most entertainment! It can't be Dreamdrop since she's such an easy target. Iron Maiden is tough, but she also throws herself into unnecessary fights and will probably get herself killed next. Palette and Mind Games both have extremely volatile magic, which is exactly why I asked them to help me, but neither of them stack up to the magic that you or Storm Rose brings to the table. If it came down to two magical girls at the end, I doubt either one of them would make it.”

“So then it could be Storm Rose?”

“Actually, no,” said a new voice to the conversation. Upon hearing a sound from her magical phone, Marrow pulled out her device and released a miniature version of the spirit of chaos.

“Discord,” said Marrow. “You've been so secretive about the game changer's ability. Why are you telling us it's not Storm Rose?”

“Because Storm Rose is already dead.” Both girls took a step back in shock, making me hide deeper in the bushes just in case he decided to rat out my location. “She was killed by another magical girl just a few minutes ago, actually.”

“By who?!”

“You know I can't tell you that.”

“I can promise you it wasn't Palette or Mind Games,” Night Seam said. “I specifically told them not to engage with her. That leaves only Dreamdrop, Iron Maiden or--”

“Trixie.” Again, I wanted to hold my breath as the dangers of being there grew worse and worse with Marrow speaking in anger. “I can't believe the little cunt actually went that far. How did she do it, Discord?”

“I never said it was the Great and Powerful Trixie,” Discord replied. “You decided that on your own.”

“You're no help. Do you wanna just go back into my phone or wherever it is that you go when you're spying on us?”

“Says the girl who's using a skeleton to spy on anyone who comes into Platinum City.”

Upon realizing that the skeleton was still somewhere in the city, I jumped backwards to make sure it wasn't behind me, but it would still only be a matter of time before I was discovered. I had to get out of there quick, but I still wanted to hear everything they said, just in case they announced any plans to kill me or my friends.

“Well, I just wanted to let you girls know,” Discord continued. “That means that three girls have died so far, and you still haven't found the game changer yet. Don't worry, I'm sure the fourth time is the charm, though.”

“Tell us this, Discord,” Night Seam said. “Is the girl who killed Storm Rose the game changer?”

“Are you two really going to keep pestering me until I give you another hint?”

“Yes,” Marrow said bluntly. “Now, tell us!”

“Not with that kind of attitude, young lady.”

“Discord,” Night Seam intervened. “This is serious. We all just want to get this game over with as soon as we can. Can't you tell us anything?”

“You see, Marrow? You really should learn a thing or two from your friend here. OK, Night Seam. I'll tell you one more hint.”

The three of us held our breaths as we waited for the clue that could possibly end this game.

“Out of the seven girls remaining, the game changer is someone who knows at least two of the magical girls’ real identities. Hopefully that clears things up for you. Oh, and by the way, Le Blanc is going the opposite direction of where you want her to go. I'll see you all in the morning!”

Fuck! He ratted me out! Quickly grabbing onto my teleport gem, I closed my eyes and traveled back to Basket Case's house, and luckily for me, both girls were still asleep. Even with her little exoskeleton, there was no way of them tracing my location back here.

Feeling exhausted from all that had happened that day, I transformed back into my regular form, put my glasses to the side and collapsed next to Dreamdrop, who was sleeping more peacefully than I could have imagined. What was she dreaming about that put her mind so at ease with everything that was going on? Just thinking about it made me wish I had taken her up on her offer to use her magic to put me to sleep.

Before falling asleep, though, I had to figure out what Discord's clue meant. The game changer knew at least two girls’ true identities, and seeing as how technically all of them knew who I was after seeing me turn into a magical girl in the first place, that just meant that they only needed to know one more girl's real identity! That could have been literally any of us!

Iron Maiden was Basket Case, Dreamdrop was Summer Breeze, and both of them knew who I was, which made all three of us an automatic possibility. From the way Marrow and Night Seam spoke to each other, it seemed like they knew each other outside of being magical girls, and since they were the first two to get their powers, it would be hard imagining them not knowing any of the other girls’ real identities. Still, though, I couldn't say for sure, so I chalked them up as maybes. Then there were Mind Games and Palette, but I didn't have the slightest idea if they knew anyone's real identity but mine!

Regardless of who was the game changer, I couldn't let that bother me. I had done my part in killing Storm Rose, and Mind Games was next on my list. If the game continued after that, I would go after Marrow. I just had to keep killing until there was nobody left. They must not have had any idea just how much they pissed me off...

“Those fuckers are gonna pay.”

Chapter 14

“Wakey, wakey, everyone!”

With the sun barely beginning to rise, Basket Case, Summer Breeze and I lazily rubbed our eyes and looked at our magical phones, all of which projected our own miniature Discord.

“It's early, Discord!” Basket Case moaned weakly before turning back over in her bed. “Can't it wait until later?”

“Are you sure you want to wait until later? I very well could have information that could end this game, but you would never know since you wouldn't take the time to listen to me.”

“You don't, though,” Summer Breeze said, stuffing her face back into her pillow.

“Well, lucky for you, I'm going to tell you anyway. With three girls down, that means that the chances of eliminating the game changer on your next try have gone up by four percent!”

“Wait!” Basket Case said, bolting herself up. “Three girls?”

“Yes! Paradox, Cupid Symphony and Storm Rose have all been eliminated from the game, which means the odds of each of you making it to the end have skyrocketed!”

“What happened to Storm Rose?!” Basket Case shouted, shaking her phone. “Did someone kill her?”

“It was in self-defense, but yes. Storm Rose is dead. Oh! And in case any of you were thinking about stealing her wand, don't bother. Once a magical girl dies, any object that she purchased from Platinum City will disappear along with her magic. I hope that doesn't put a damper on any plans you had.” The Discord projected from my phone added a wink, which I hoped that the girls around me didn't notice.

“Isn't there any way you can tell us who the game changer is so we can eliminate her without killing her?” Summer Breeze asked.

“Unfortunately, no, but since I already let it slip to a couple girls already, I may as well tell you. The game changer is someone who knows the identity of two magical girls already. Oh! Would you look at that. All three of you fit that description perfectly.”

“Hang on a second!” I exclaimed before he could send our thoughts off track. “Does that description fit anyone besides the three of us?”

“Yes, but I won't say who or how many.”

The three of us breathed a sigh of relief just knowing that it wasn't necessarily limited to the three of us, but we still had to figure out which girls knew each other outside of being magical girls. “Trixie is going to guess that Marrow and Night Seam know each other,” I said to the girls more than to Discord, “but she doesn't know for sure. It sounds more likely than Palette or Mind Games knowing anyone else's identity.”

“Who cares?” Basket Case moaned, laying back down. “We're just going to wait the three days so that we can all lose our powers and be done with this whole thing.”

“And why would you lose your powers?” Discord asked, nearly giving all of us a heart attack as we began to panic.

“You said three days!” Dreamdrop shouted. “You said that if in three days we didn't use our magic, that would be considered forfeiting and we'd all lose our powers!”

“Then go ahead and name one girl who hasn't used her magic since yesterday.”

Suddenly, we all froze. Dreamdrop had been the one we were all counting on not to use her powers, but since she put Night Seam to sleep during our fight the night before, she had used her magic to help us make cuts. We had all followed Discord's rules, whether we realized it or not.

“So…” Summer Breeze began, looking for anything she could say that would help us not to kill each other. “Is there any way we can forfeit? Can I just say I don't want to play this game?”

“Unfortunately, saying you won't participate and not participating are totally different, as I'm sure you've seen already. However, there is one way you could forfeit and end the game for everyone involved.”

“Really?!” Summer Breeze asked with a huge smile on her face. “Tell me!”

Discord, however, just gave her a grin, and as soon as the message sunk in, Summer Breeze's smile faded away. She would have to kill herself. That was now the only way she could forfeit the game.

“Anyway,” Discord said, breaking the silence, “I really must be going. I just wanted to give you all an update for where we stand. Good luck, everyone!”

And then he was gone, leaving the three of us to pick our hearts off the ground that he unceremoniously shattered. The three of us all looked at each other, but none of us knew what to say. We knew that we were the prime candidates to be the game changer, seeing as how we knew each other's true identity, but we also knew that there was at least one more girl who could possibly end this game. Even if we found her, though, would we kill her now that forfeiting was basically off the table?

“Who do you think killed Storm Rose?” Summer Breeze asked, giving me one more thing to worry about.

“I bet it was Night Seam or one of them,” Basket Case said, looking up at the ceiling. “Those guys have already shown that they have no problem killing anyone, especially if they went to Platinum City right after fighting us.”

“Good point, especially since Storm Rose almost never leaves Platinum City.”

“So Trixie, you say that Night Seam and Marrow might know each other?”

“Y-yeah, but it's just a hunch,” I said bashfully, hoping I wasn't wrong. “You see, the two of them were the first magical girls, so it would make sense that they might have shared their identities before there were so many of us. Plus, even if they didn't know each other, they might know one of the other girls’ true identities.”

“Hey!” Basket Case shouted, smiling from ear to ear. “I just came up with a great idea! You know how Night Seam said that the game changer was either Marrow or Trixie, right? Well, what if we all decided to vote Marrow out of the game! The three of us want her out after what she did to Trixie, and it seems like she's a prime candidate for the other girls too!”

“And if she really is the game changer,” Summer Breeze added, with a smile that made her look more like Dreamdrop than ever, “then we could end this stupid game without anyone else dying! Plus, we'd all get to keep our powers! Wow! I just got chills all of a sudden!”

“Hold on!” Basket Case said, pulling out her magical phone. “I'm going to ask Night Seam to meet up again tonight in the same place as last night. I'll tell her that we think we can end the game, but we don't want to fight. If we explain the situation, it would be in Night Seam's best interest to at least try it out.”

“But… do you really think this is a good idea after what happened last night?”

“Trixie thinks that it's a splendid idea,” I said, secretly looking for any way I could to pull Mind Games out of her hiding spot. “As soon as we've all agreed that we'll eliminate Marrow, we'll summon Discord and have him remove her powers.”

And then I can show up to school tomorrow and pay her back for the hospital trip she gave me.

“Still, though…” Summer Breeze said with a grimace on her face. “What if something goes wrong?”

“The real question you should be asking,” Basket Case said with a thumbs up, “is ‘what if everything goes right?’! Just think about it! We could legitimately end this game tonight! And we'd all get to keep our powers! How cool is that?!”

Even despite Summer Breeze's lackluster response, Basket Case and I couldn't help but celebrate our enthusiasm at the possibility of knocking Marrow out once and for all. After tonight, our luck would completely turn around.

Later that night…

Night Seam agreed to meet us at the park where we had met the night before, but unlike last time, we specifically asked her to bring along Palette and Mind Games. This way, we would be sure to avoid any sneak attacks, and we would have them right where we wanted them, just in case they turned this into a battle. Like last time, we were the first to arrive, having made it there by foot, but the other three used their teleport gems to come straight from Platinum City.

“Thank you for inviting us today,” Night Seam said politely while taking her place in front of the other two girls. “You said you had news as to who the game changer might be?”

“Yeah, we think you were right,” Iron Maiden said for us. “We think that it’s Marrow.”

“B-but we don't want to kill her!” Dreamdrop intervened. “We have a plan to eliminate her without doing that.”

“Oh, really?” Night Seam said, as if she were more skeptical than curious. “Well, I'd love to hear it.”

“Right,” Iron Maiden resumed. “Since we all agree that Marrow is probably the game changer, all we have to do is call up Discord, tell him that as a group, we unanimously choose to eliminate her, and then he'll take her powers and end the game right then and there! Here, I'll get out my phone right--”

“That won't be necessary.”

The three of us quickly looked up at Night Seam in absolute astonishment. If we were there to remove a girl that she specifically said had the highest chance of being the game changer, why was she suddenly so hesitant about eliminating her?

“Sorry, Night Seam,” Dreamdrop said with a twinge of concern. “I'm not sure we’re on the same page. You see, we think we can eliminate Marrow and end the game, which is why--”

“I'm not going to help you eliminate Marrow.”

“WHAT THE HELL?!” Iron Maiden screamed. “You were the one who told us that Marrow was probably the game changer! Was that all just an act?!”

Night Seam, however, just sighed while resting her face into her palm. “This isn’t just about eliminating every single girl until there's only two left standing. I have a longstanding friendship with Marrow, one that has lasted longer than any that you all share with each other. We are number one and two. You three make up numbers eight, nine and ten in order of when you became magical girls.”

“SO WHAT?! Just because you're friends means you're just going to keep her alive, even if she's the game changer? What happened to not letting this be a competition to the last two girls standing?!”

“It won't be a competition to the last two girls standing. Like I said, there is a fifty percent chance that Trixie is the game changer, and based on my friendship with Marrow, I owe it to her to wait until at least Trixie is eliminated before going after her. However, you said you want to end this game without any deaths, correct?”

“Yeah,” Iron Maiden said, suddenly losing some of her tension from before. “What are you getting at?”

“If we all vote to eliminate Trixie, there is a good chance that the game could end, just like you suggested doing with Marrow.”

“Now you're just being crazy! We would never do something like that to the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie needs her powers more than any of us!” Dreamdrop added. “If she loses her powers, she'll die!”

“She's going to die regardless,” Night Seam said. “It's just a matter of if you want to do this the easy way or the hard way.”

Even through Iron Maiden's resolve, I could still see her weighing the options. Even though she had her pride invested in this, I could still see her looking back at me and thinking what could happen if she went with Night Seam's plan after all. I had to act quick if I wanted any chance of staying alive.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie would just like to ask one question, Night Seam,” I said, trying not to shrink as the other five girls all suddenly looked at me. “Were we friends... before becoming magical girls?”

For the first time tonight, Night Seam's emotionless demeanor broke, causing her to tense up in her hands and face. “Why would you ask me something like that?”

“Just answer the question! Were we friends before becoming magical girls?!”

After a brief pause where nobody spoke and nobody moved, Night Seam casually strode towards me with an intense look of fury ingrained on her face. Both Iron Maiden and Dreamdrop, upon sensing the danger, quickly stepped in front of me as a shield, but I gently moved myself past them. Whatever Night Seam was doing, I wanted to see it for myself.

As soon as she was two steps away from me, she folded her arms and asked, “Would it really change this situation if you knew who I was?”

“How would Trixie know when you're hiding behind that disguise?”

With a smirk and a small chuckle, Night Seam said, “Very well,” and began to grow a bright light. As soon as the light began to dim and her true identity began to reveal itself, however, I took a step back and held my breath as my mind instantly recognized the girl standing before me. She was the same age as me, despite having much longer legs and a more developed physique. Her hair was a strikingly beautiful pink, and all of her facial features were absolutely flawless. Even her nail polish, which sparkled in the moonlight projected an elegance far beyond her years.

Upon seeing Night Seam in her true form, though, my eyes grew wide with my jaw dropping to the floor. “Fleur?” I asked, already knowing the answer. “Are you really…?”

“Do you get it now, Trixie?” said Fleur de Lis, my old friend from elementary school, the girl who was standing before me and trying to convince the other girls to kill me. “My friendship with Lulu has always taken precedence, and that's not about to change. She's the reason I became a magical girl, and I at least owe it to her to keep her alive until I know that you're not the game changer!”

“Fleur…” I said, still shocked at the sudden revelation. “Is that really you?”

“Yes, Trixie. It's really me.”

“Why did you stop being friends with me?” Suddenly, all the emotions I had kept bottled away for all those years were threatening to burst. “Why did you and Lulu start being so mean to me?”

“Trixie, I--”

“Woooow!” Palette exclaimed from the background. “I've never seen a magical girl's true identity before! Have you, Mind Games?” Mind Games shrugged and shook her head, but that little bit of information just gave us a huge advantage.

“You idiots!” Fleur screamed, turning back into Night Seam.

“Dreamdrop! Iron Maiden!” I called while I could. “Palette and Mind Games aren't the game changer! We need to team up and focus on Night Seam!”

“Not if I can help it!” Palette said, dipping her brush into her dress and painting a dozen rattlesnakes, all of which slithered in a direct path towards me while Night Seam jumped several feet back.

Iron Maiden took her metal pads off of her shoulders, crunched them up and formed it into a longsword while I called on my magic to summon my spear. With Dreamdrop hiding behind us, Iron Maiden and I swung wildly at all the snakes leaping towards us, but no matter how many we swung at, Palette continued drawing more and more.

“I'm not going to betray my friend!” Iron Maiden shouted through gritted teeth as she swung at another snake, albeit with hesitation. Mind Games must have been getting inside her head, and if things continued on this way, we would end up losing eventually.

“Dreamdrop!” I said, avoiding a snake's fangs. “We need you to put Palette to sleep! If she even thinks about taking her eyes off of us, Trixie will make sure she regrets it!”

Dreamdrop, visibly terrified of the command, silently nodded and ran off into the darkness, away from all the snakes but still in the direction of the enemy magical girls. As soon as she began running, however, Iron Maiden shouted, “Watch out for Mind Games! She just got out of my head, which means she's probably coming after you next!”

Great. All Iron Maiden and I could do was defend while asking a non-combative magical girl to take on possibly three enemies at once. If we didn't turn the tables quick, Dreamdrop was going to die, and I would be the one to shoulder most of the blame.

Lifting my hand up, I picked up as many snakes as I could in one magical scoop while Iron Maiden hacked off seven heads at once. As the two of us moved in closer, we continued our strategy, killing multiple snakes at a time as we closed the distance between us and Palette. I didn't care about her. She wasn't the one I wanted to go after, but we had to do everything we could to keep Dreamdrop safe.

Finally, we had closed the gap between us and the painter, but right as soon as Dreamdrop was about to use her magic to put the enemy to sleep, a magical girl with a rapier came out from the shadows with her target set on Dreamdrop. Fortunately, Iron Maiden was quick enough to jump in, saving Dreamdrop from what would have been a fatal blow, but this gave Palette just enough time to paint a spear of her own and engage combat with me.

“Don't do this, Palette!” I exclaimed as the two of us began exchanging blows. “Trixie doesn't want to do this with you! You're not the game changer!”

“I know!” Palette said between strikes. “You are!”

“Trixie tried to warn you, but you're giving her no choice!”

Raising my hand up, I used my magic to lift Palette into the air, who dropped her weapon and began grabbing at her neck in a vain attempt for me to release her. She was so strapped for air that even though she tried speaking, even screaming, nothing came out of her throat other than her pathetic gags as her body flailed in the air.

“Trixie,” Dreamdrop said, taking a step back in fear. “What are you doing?”

“Just taking care of a little pest problem,” I said with a small giggle.

“Don't waste your time on her!” Iron Maiden shouted while she clashed with Mind Games. “She's not the game changer! She's not worth it!”

“Trixie will decide who is worth it!” I shouted, gripping her throat tighter as her face began to grow a deep blue with a horrified face imploring me to have mercy on her.

“Trixie, stop!” Dreamdrop pleaded. “Killing her won't end the game!”

How annoying. After all that's happened, Dreamdrop thinks this is still a game? I'm not doing this because I have to. I'm doing this because it would make me happy.

“TRIXIE! LET GO OF HE--”

Suddenly, dropping Palette to the ground as she heaved in heavy breaths, I quickly turned to Iron Maiden, who was halfway through yelling at me when…

“No…”

...she was stabbed through the heart. Even through her imminent death, Iron Maiden looked down to see Mind Games's rapier piercing through her chest before pulling her weapon out, spraying blood all over Iron Maiden's body. With nothing left to send oxygen to her brain, Iron Maiden fell backwards onto the grass, and Dreamdrop fell to her knees with tears pouring down her cheeks. With the only movement in the park being Palette's struggled breathing, Iron Maiden’s outfit began to change until all we saw was Basket Case, lying on the floor. Dead. Gone.

Forever...

“Iron Maiden...” Dreamdrop sobbed. “Basket Case… AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

“THAT'S IT!” I screamed, pulling Mind Games in with my magic. I didn't choke her like I did with the other girls, but rather froze every part of her body while I held her in place in front of me, a sight which made Palette get to her feet and run off in fear. “Do you realize what you've just done?”

Suddenly, Mind Games was in a state of complete terror, knowing that not only had she just murdered one of the only friends I had left, but also that her mind tricks didn't work on me. “I-I didn't--I mean I was just trying to--”

“SHUT UP!” With all my anger, I landed a blow into her stomach, the same kind that I was used to receiving throughout my childhood. “You think you can murder not one, but two of my friends and just walk away like it never happened?!” This time, I punched her in the throat, knocking the wind out of her while holding her body from soothing her throbbing pain.

“Trixie, that's enough!” Dreamdrop shouted, but I was done being merciful. Palette was lucky to survive, but Mind Games wasn't going to be so lucky.

“I'm sorry!” Mind Games coughed. “I'll do anything! I'll vote out Marrow! I'll do whatever you want! Just please! Don't let me die-hi-hiiii!” Mind Games was now beginning to sob hysterically, finally realizing that after all she had done, this time it was her life that was on the line.

“TRIXIE!” Dreamdrop screamed. “PUT HER DOWN! NOW!!”

With an annoyed look on my face, I dropped her to the ground, and like the pathetic wretch that she was, she actually prostrated herself in front of me, kissing my feet like I was some kind of savior. “Disgusting.”

“Huh?” Mind Games said, but as soon as she lifted her head to meet my eyes, I slashed my spear through her neck, severing her head as both pieces of her corpse fell to the floor.

Again, blood started spilling everywhere as Mind Games began to revert to her original form. The sad part was, she wasn't even as old as me. She looked no older than ten years old, yet she was forced into this death game by Discord. I wanted to feel sorry for her, but after seeing two of my friends die by her hands, I felt more relief than anything. My first kill was more of a shock than anything, but I could already feel myself getting used to it.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” Dreamdrop screamed, her entire body twitching in her anxiety. “This isn't happening! This can't be happening! Not you too! Please! PLEASE! MAKE IT STOOOOP!”

“Are you happy, Trixie?” Night Seam asked, finally making an appearance. “Two people died today because of you. I hope you know that.”

“Wanna be the third?” I asked, pointing my spear towards her and smiling triumphantly. “Trixie is getting used to this, after all, especially after the practice with Storm Rose.”

“No…” Dreamdrop said as she began breathing heavily. “Don't tell me you killed Storm Rose too!”

“I thought so,” Night Seam said, folding her arms again. “I doubt Palette is ever going to come back. Normally this would count as a forfeit, but knowing Discord, he's not going to count it unless she commits suicide. Don't worry, Dreamdrop. I'll make sure she doesn't do that, but now you know why I believe Trixie is the game changer.”

There was a long pause where none of us spoke, none of us moved, and none of us had any idea what to do next. Try killing each other again? What for? With Iron Maiden gone and Palette confirmed to not be the game changer, there were only four girls left who were even possibilities. Night Seam's theory was becoming more and more plausible after every death.

“I'm sorry we couldn't be friends, Trixie,” Night Seam continued. “We're just too different.”

With that, the girl in all black grabbed hold of her teleport gem and disappeared. I could have gone after her, but I was too emotionally drained to move anymore. Switching looks between Dreamdrop and Basket Case's corpse, I really had no energy left in me to do anything else that night… even though there was something that we obviously had to do…

Silently, I walked over to Basket Case's body and picked her up in my arms, making Dreamdrop momentarily stop sobbing. “What are you going to do to her?” she asked angrily.

“Come on, Dreamdrop,” I said sadly. “Her parents are probably wondering where she is…”

***

Neither Dreamdrop nor I could handle facing her parents and explaining what happened, whether in our real forms or magical girl forms, so instead, we laid her body down on the doorstep, rang the doorbell and ran. As we waited behind a nearby tree for someone to answer the door, our hearts sank once we saw Basket Case's mother collapse onto her body, wailing her heart out.

The two of us then made our way back to Summer Breeze's house, where we were hoping we could just have one more night of peace. Dreamdrop was obviously still mad at me, but not enough for her to send me back to my home or the hospital where Marrow could have been waiting for me. Fortunately, Summer Breeze lived alone, which meant that we didn't have to transform back into our normal forms, giving us at least a slight sense of security.

“What do you think is gonna happen now?” Dreamdrop asked as she crawled into bed.

“Trixie isn't sure herself,” I replied, getting under a blanket she laid out for me next to her on the floor. “If it turns out that the game changer isn't Marrow or Night Seam…”

“Stop. Please… I just wanna go to bed.”

“...Are you sure you're going to be alright?”

After a long pause, Dreamdrop replied, “Maybe one day…”

After that, neither of us really knew what to say, so rather than saying anything, we just put our heads down on our pillows and tried our best to go to sleep. There had already been five girls die in two days, and that's only because Iron Maiden kept me from killing Palette. In fact, maybe if I had just killed Palette, she wouldn't be dead…

I tried not to think about it, but at that very moment, I felt a buzz from my magical phone. Pulling it up to see what it was, I saw one new message, and to put a cherry on the terrible day that today had been, it was from Marrow, the last girl I wanted to hear from.

“So you killed Storm Rose after all. Then you went and killed someone else when you knew the game wouldn't end there. This is exactly why I didn't want you to be a magical girl. I don't know where you're hiding, but I want you to meet me in Platinum City tomorrow so we can settle this once and for all.”

There was nothing in the world I would like more than that, to kill the girl who put me in the hospital, the girl whose bullying made me become a magical girl in the first place, the girl who made me wish every second of middle school that I could just fall off the face of the earth and die. This time, though, I wasn't going to be the helpless little girl I had been my whole life. With a smile on my face, I texted back, “Ready, bitch,” and fell asleep.

Chapter 15

That night, I couldn't sleep. There was too much on my mind with everything that was going on, and it didn't help that every thirty minutes or so, Dreamdrop would wake up from another nightmare. At that point, I probably should have just asked Dreamdrop to help me fall asleep, but I had too much pride to ask for Dreamdrop to do me any favors, especially since she was having such a hard time herself. Eventually, though, when I finally woke up after what could have been only three hours of sleep once the morning sun forced me awake, I looked over to see how Dreamdrop was doing to find no one there.

Without wasting a beat, I tossed my blanket off of my body and raced downstairs to her kitchen, just to find Summer Breeze, transformed back into her normal form, wearing a long apron and cooking up breakfast. “Oh!” she said with a smile. “Good morning, Great and Powerful Trixie! I hope you like bacon, ‘cause I've got some coming your way!”

This was… weird. It seemed like she was the normal, bubbly Dreamdrop that I had met two days ago, but it was a striking contrast to how she had behaved since Paradox died. Still, though, the only thing I could really do was sit down at the table and wait for her to serve me. She was providing a place for me to live, after all, and the last thing I wanted to do was be rude to my host.

“Here ya go!” she said, placing a plate of crispy bacon down on the table in front of me. “Now, which do you like better, eggs or pancakes? I can cook both if you feel like you can stomach it.”

“Listen, Summer Breeze--” I began before she cut me off with a smile.

“Ah, ah, ahhh! That doesn't sound like eggs or pancakes!”

“Uh… pancakes works for me…” With another smile, she went back to cooking, this time pulling out some pancake mix and adjusting her stove. This didn't feel right, though. We had to talk about what happened. “Summer Breeze, about last night--”

“Weee're not gooonna taaalk about iiit!” she sang happily, reaffirming my fear that she was just trying to keep everything bottled up inside.

“No, I think we need to. Trixie understands why you were so upset when she--”

“I TOLD YOU WE WERE DONE TALKING ABOUT IT!!” she screamed, throwing her ingredients onto the floor and making me flinch in my seat. I was used to being screamed at, whether by my mom, teacher or peers, but seeing Summer Breeze getting so angry at me pierced me in a way that I was definitely not used to. “Ohhh, darn it! Sorry, I'll have your pancakes in a second. I just have to clean up the mess I just made first.”

“N-no. You're fine. I'm sorry…”

There was a long pause while I ate my delicious breakfast and as Summer Breeze cleaned up the mess on the floor, which only added to the tension that the both of us felt until Summer Breeze finally broke the silence. “So, I was thinking, why don't you just stay with me for a while? I mean, I don't know how good I feel about you going home or back to the hospital any time soon, so why not just lay low here until things cool down?”

“Wait,” I began while halfway done chewing a strand of bacon. “You want Trixie to stay here? Do you mean like live here?”

“Yuh-huh! But only for a little while until things calm down. After that, I can let you go back and live with your mom. You probably want to see her as soon as you can. Would you like me to add anything to the mix? I have blueberries, bananas, chocolate chips--Oh! Let's do chocolate chips! Are you OK with chocolate chips? I'm doing chocolate chips.”

“That… really won't be necessary…”

“Oh, do you prefer plain? No problem! Let me just scoop a couple of these things back out real quick.”

“No,” I said calmly, causing her to freeze completely. “I mean… Trixie doesn't need to stay here.”

“W-what do you mean? Where are you going to go?”

The way Summer Breeze looked at me broke my heart. She had almost the exact same face that Basket Case's mom had as soon as she saw her dead daughter, but at the same time, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep my plans from her forever.

“I…” I began, nearly choking on my words. “I'm going to kill Marrow today. One of us is the game changer, and if the game continues after she dies, I'll forfeit. You don't have to worry anymore, Summer Breeze. This game will be over by this afternoon. I promise.”

“HOW AM I NOT SUPPOSED TO BE WORRIED?!” Summer Breeze screamed before setting her bowl on the counter and running to my side. “Please, Trixie! Don't do this! I can give you a good life here! We can just hide here and live normal lives! The worst that could happen is we lose our powers, but at least we would be safe! I can give you a happy life, so PLEASE! DON'T LEAVE ME!”

Summer Breeze's eyes were beginning to well up with tears, she was on her knees at my side, and she was holding onto my arm, begging me to stay by her side. She was offering me the life that I had always wanted: a safe place to call home with a loving caretaker who would protect me, but deep down I knew how imperfect I was. All my life, my mother had told me what a fuckup I was, and at that moment, I finally realized why. Even though she was offering me everything I ever wanted, I knew that I was just going to run away and play magical girl at some point. I didn't deserve her kindness.

“I'm sorry, Summer Breeze,” I said, looking down at my plate. “I'm sorry.”

Even though I wouldn't say anything else, the message seemed to sink into Summer Breeze's head. For the next several seconds, she just looked at me with traumatized eyes, not moving from her spot until finally, she got up to her feet, bawled into her hands and began walking out of the kitchen and back up to her room. The last thing I heard was a door slam, leaving me alone to eat my wonderful breakfast prepared by someone who genuinely cared about me, who I had just crushed due to my own selfish agenda.

Finally, once I had finished breakfast and allowed Summer Breeze to have some time alone, I walked back upstairs and knocked on her door. “Can Trixie come in?” I asked, standing in the hallway for several seconds before finally, the door to Summer Breeze's room slowly creaked open.

“Fine…” she said sadly, wobbling to her bed and falling down face first onto her pillow.

“Trixie… wanted to apologize.”

“What for? I was stupid to suggest a stupid idea like that.”

“Not just about this morning…”

Finally, Summer Breeze pulled herself off of her pillow and shook her head. “No, Trixie, I'm sorry about everything. This is all my fault. You wouldn't even be in this mess if I hadn't introduced you to Platinum City in the first place.”

“Summer Breeze, Trixie is still alive because of you. You giving me my powers and being here for me has saved me from being killed half a dozen times by now. Trixie would much rather have girls trying to kill her than already be dead. Besides…” Moving further into her room, I sat down on her bed next to her and pulled my arm around her waist, leaning her head on my shoulder. “This way, Trixie can protect you too.”

With tears beginning to fill up her eyes again, she collapsed onto my chest, crying her eyes out while I stroked her hair and patted her back. “Can't we just live together like this and not fight anymore? Do you really have to protect me? I'm an eighteen year old veteran and you're still a twelve year old newbie, but for some reason, you're the one everyone is trying to kill. Why are you the one protecting me?”

With a smile and a hug, I whispered, “Because Trixie is the one fighting back.”

“Do you really have to, though? Why can't you just stay here and forget about everyone else?”

“Summer Breeze, do you honestly believe that if you hide here, they won't find you?” Summer Breeze didn't answer. Instead, she just held onto my shoulder while I brushed through her naturally silky hair. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will take care of anyone who tries to hurt you. Then, maybe I really can move in here.”

Suddenly, she pulled herself up with wide eyes. “Really?! But… what about your mom?”

“Perhaps… it would be best if Trixie learned to let go of her mother for a little bit…”

Even though Summer Breeze looked excited, I could still see concern lingering behind her eyes, forcing me to drop eye contact before she managed to change my mind about fighting Marrow.

“I…” Summer Breeze began, dropping eye contact herself. “I understand why you're doing this. You have a grudge against Marrow that I will never understand. My whole life, I've basically had whatever I wanted, and with all that's been going on, I guess I’m just seeing new angles to life that I could never see before. It makes me grateful for what I have, but… it also makes me sad.”

“...Breakfast was really good, by the way. Thank you for that.”

Summer Breeze then squeezed me into a big hug, smiling as she said, “Come home tonight and I promise I'll cook for you every morning, and… next time I really will make you those chocolate chip pancakes. No, seriously, they're super good.”

With a soft giggle, I lifted myself off of Summer Breeze's bed, pulling myself out of her arms. “Time for me to get going. Trixie is going to end this game once and for all.”

“Promise you'll come back?”

I couldn't promise that. I wanted to promise more than anything that I could make it back and tell her that she didn't have to worry anymore, but deep down, I knew that Marrow was the one and only girl that truly terrified me. Either way, though, I would say whatever I needed to make sure that Summer Breeze could smile again, just like she used to when she made me a magical girl.

“Trixie promises.”

With another sad smile, she mouthed the words, “Thank you,” and with that, I grabbed hold of my teleport gem and made my way to Platinum City.

***

The walk from the gate to the fountain was the longest walk I'd ever taken in my life, especially since I was looking for a skeleton to come out of the foliage and attack me at any moment. My heart was doing jumpingjacks in my chest, threatening to pop out of my ribs if I was startled by any little unexpected event. I kept thinking to myself, if I died today, would there be anything that I would have regretted not taking care of? Was there anyone I needed to talk to? Was there anything I needed to say? Would anyone even notice I was gone? Sadly enough, the answer to all of those questions was… no.

Finally, I didn't have to think about it anymore, because as soon as I reached the fountain, there was Marrow, equipped with her skeleton and waiting for me to arrive.

“I didn't think you would actually show up, Tripsy,” she said sarcastically as she sat back on the stony edge of the fountain. “Then again, I didn't expect you to kill two magical girls either.”

“Both of them got what they deserved.”

“They both died so that you could live. I'm ending this right now!”

As soon as she took one step forward, however, I put up my hand to stop her, without using my magic, and surprisingly, she responded exactly how I wanted her to. “Before that,” I said, “can we drop our magical girl personas so I can talk to the real Lulu one last time?”

Again, surprisingly, she did exactly as I asked and transformed back into her regular form immediately. If it were even possible, seeing her in this form made me even angrier, as if it had triggered three years worth of pain that I wanted to pay her back for, but being the fair magical girl that I was, I transformed back into my normal form as well.

“There,” Lulu said, extending her arms to bring more attention to her new appearance. “Happy now?”

“I know about Fluer,” I said, tilting my glasses back and making her flinch with gritted teeth. “I know that the two of you became magical girls together. The only thing I don't know is… why did the two of you decide to stop being my friend?”

“Because you rejected us, Trixie.”

“That's not true! I never--”

“The two of us made friends with kids who were just like us. You just held us back. When we tried to bridge the gap, you pushed us away. You didn't want to be our friend.”

“You're wrong, Lulu.” My hands were shaking at this point as I fought back three years' worth of emotion that I had kept bottled up inside. “I wanted to be friends with you more than anything!”

“It's too late for that now.” Suddenly, she was engulfed in light again, transforming once more into Marrow, along with her exoskeleton counterpart. “I'm sorry, Trixie, but Discord isn't going to end this game unless you die.”

Finally, I cracked.

I began giggling quietly, but as the sensation roared through my chest, I quickly erupted into a boisterous laugh while holding onto my aching abdomen. “There is no Trixie here!” I exclaimed before laughing again. “You're speaking to the Grrreat and Powerful Trrrrixiiieee!!!”

As soon as the words came out of my mouth, Marrow charged forward with her magical girl speed, but by that point, I had already transformed, using my spear to deflect a sharp bone from penetrating my torso. Immediately, I used my magic to push her back, only sending her a few feet away thanks to the added weight her skeleton gave her. Then, switching straight to my trump card, I lifted my wrist, using my magic to pull Marrow by the neck and lift her into the air, but unlike the other girls who had been caught in my spell before, she didn't struggle or fight.

“Are you really that stupid, Tripsy? Le Blanc protects every part of my body, including my neck. You can't choke me like you did the others.”

“Then how about this?!” I shouted, releasing her from my magic and flinging my spear forward towards her heart, but without even flinching, Marrow held up her hand and blocked the attack like it was nothing. My two biggest resources in this fight were now next to useless, and if I didn't come up with something quick, I would be dead!

“Le Blanc, hold her off for a second. I think I can take care of her myself.”

Suddenly, the skeleton broke from her body, holding onto my spear to keep me at bay while the real Marrow approached me with an all too familiar switchblade in her hand. She was getting cocky, which would ultimately be her downfall. Taking advantage of the situation, I let go of the spear and pulled Marrow up by the neck with my magic. This time, she was visibly in pain, but she still didn't struggle. I tried not to let her unexpected response get into my head, but almost immediately, Marrow's skeleton threw my spear to the side and tried stabbing me once again, making me dodge roll to the side, releasing Marrow from my magic.

“You can't attack and defend at the same time, Tripsy! The minute you focus on me is the minute Le Blanc takes you out!”

She was right. At this point, I was trying to figure out if she hadn't killed me because she wasn't able to or if she was just toying with me. Either way, I needed to come up with a new strategy fast.

“You know something?” Marrow said, fusing with her skeleton once again. “If you had just made that delivery like I said, you could be rotting in a jail cell right now, but instead, you had to do the one thing that I was trying to prevent you from doing!”

“Awww. You gonna cry about it?”

With less than a second to react, Marrow closed the gap between us, sending another sharp bone towards my throat and barely missing my jugular vein. “WHY WON'T YOU JUST FUCKING DIE ALREADY?!” she screamed, which is when I saw the exact opening I needed. It would be dangerous, but if I got her angry enough, she would stop thinking clearly and create the opening I needed. I just needed to be smart as to how I did it.

“Kinda hard attacking when you've got that heavy skeleton on your body, isn't it?” I asked with a smarmy smirk. “I guess two dead bodies would be a little excessive, wouldn't it?”

With another scream, Marrow tried swinging at me again, but this time, she missed by a much wider margin. She was beginning to lose her focus, and all I needed was for her to take off her exoskeleton one more time to get the opening I needed.

“How about this?” I said, jumping back and tossing my spear to the side. “Take your skeleton off and we can settle this without weapons. It's not like you don't take off everything else you wear for that Turf Field boy anyway.”

“The fuck did you just say about me?!” Without hesitation, she separated herself from her skeleton. My plan was working. “Le Blanc, go grab her spear so she can't try anything stupid. I'm gonna need a moment alone with this bitch.”

With a grin on my face, I happily walked away from the spear lying on the floor, allowing for her exoskeleton to pick it up while Marrow approached closer. As she screamed again, she threw a punch straight for my jaw, only this time, she landed a clean hit that I wasn't expecting. Before I could even react to the pain, though, she sent a harrowing kick to my gut, making me bend over in pain and giving her an open shot at my face, sending me flying backwards onto the ground.

“This one's for Storm Rose!” she said, punching me square in the nose with all her strength as a magical girl. Even though I was used to getting hit from Lulu, getting hit by a magical girl was an entirely new level of pain. “This one's for Mind Games!” With another punch across my left cheek, I could feel a tooth or two shatter in my jaw. Suddenly, I was fighting just to keep myself conscious.

“And this…” she said, pulling out her switchblade and raising it above her head with a sick smile on her face. “This is to end this game once and for all!”

This was it! This was my chance!

Using every muscle fiber in my magical girl body to release myself from her grip, I lifted my hand to the air, using my magic to pull the knife out of her hand, and with one final sweep, the switchblade slid across her neck, piercing all the way through her throat. With her eyes wide, she tried looking down, but the moment she moved, blood sprayed from her neck, splattering the floor and fountain and covering everything around us a deep crimson.

As Marrow gripped her neck in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding, her skeleton rushed over, attaching to her once more, but by this point, it was already too late. Her skeleton just weighed her down, bringing her to the ground, but not without looking up with all the strength she had left to give me the most disgusting look she had ever given me. I could tell she wanted to give me one last “fuck you,” but with her throat sliced in half, all she could do was see my smile as her world faded to black. Finally, her skeleton and magical girl outfit disappeared, leaving the shallow husk of Lulu Lemon's body to rot on the ground.

“Heh. Heh heh. Haha! Hahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”

I couldn't keep it in any longer. I had finally killed the bitch! I was rid of her forever! She would never cause me any more problems for as long as I lived! I was free! I was finally free!

Without wasting another second, I pulled out my magical phone and shouted, “Appear, o spirit of chaos! Discord!”

Just like all the times before, the sky turned black with storm clouds as Discord made his way out of the fountain, only this time, instead of the fountain raining water, it rained with Lulu's blood that had covered the monument just moments before. With his lion's paw, his eagle claw and snake tail, he stretched from the red shower and brought himself down between Lulu's corpse and me.

“Good afternoon, Tr--GOODNESS GRACIOUS! What happened here?!”

“Trixie took care of her. No biggie.”

“You really didn't hold back, did you?”

“Aren't you forgetting something?”

Discord looked at me in confusion before summoning a to-do list from thin air and looking it over with glasses he didn't need. “Am I?” he finally asked, with sincere confusion.

“The game!” I shouted. “Can we please end the game now? Marrow was the game changer, wasn't she?”

As soon as the question escaped my lips, Discord smiled, giving me the worst feeling I could possibly experience.

“As it so happens, no, she was not. I would say that you didn't need to kill her after all, but it seems to me like you were planning on doing that regardless.”

“No…” I couldn't believe it. I literally could not believe it. “You're lying. I KNOW YOU'RE LYING, YOU DEMONIC BASTARD!”

“Yeesh. No need to get angry at me. You were the one who jumped to conclusions after all.”

“Please, Discord,” I said, doing my best to calm myself down while pinching the bridge of my nose. “There are only four magical girls who are left alive, and only three of us can be the game changer based off of the hint you gave us yesterday. Isn't this enough cuts for Platinum City to have all the magic it could possibly need?”

“I told you before, didn't I? There is one magical girl whose magic is using up the majority of Platinum City's reserves. Without eliminating her, the game won't end, and seeing as how Palette has run off to some remote place where nobody will ever hear from her again, I doubt you'd be able to just vote anyone out like you wanted to do yesterday.”

“Trixie is begging you, Discord,” I said, now prostrating myself on the ground before him. “Isn't there anything you can do to end the game?”

“I can tell you who the game changer is.”

Suddenly, all my anxiety was being swept away. Finally, I'd be able to end this game and go back to living a normal, happy life.

“Who is it?”

Discord smiled sadistically, making my heart plummet once again.

“Dreamdrop.”

End

“What do you mean Dreamdrop is the game changer?” I asked in disbelief. There was no way, after everything that I had gone through to keep her safe, that it would come down to Dreamdrop being the one who had to be eliminated.

“What do you mean what do I mean?” Discord replied. “I'm saying that the ability to put someone to sleep, even for five minutes, requires an enormous amount of magic, and without eliminating her in one way or another, Platinum City as we know it will come to an end.”

“And what will happen to you?”

“I'm the spirit of chaos. I can exist in any dimension and be totally fine. You, on the other hand, have quite the decision to make.”

There was no point in arguing with him anymore. It was obvious that no matter what I did, I wouldn't be able to win this fight, and as much as I didn't want to believe it, I really did have one important decision to make: should I tell Dreamdrop, or just hide with her like she had wanted to do in the beginning? Could I tell her the game ended, just so she could have some peace of mind?

“Anyway,” Discord continued, “I'll let you figure this out on your own. Congratulations on making it this far, by the way!”

“Yeah… Thanks…”

After Discord disappeared, and after sulking by the fountain for a half hour while staring down at Lulu's dead body, I finally grew the courage I needed to grab hold of my teleport gem and transport myself back to Summer Breeze's home. I teleported directly to her room, and to my surprise, she wasn't there, which, to my relief, just meant that I could sulk some more until she inevitably came in. It wasn't long, however, before I felt a buzz coming from my magical phone.

“Dreamdrop?!” I said to myself, pulling it out as quick as I could, but sadly, it wasn't Dreamdrop. Instead, I received a message from the last person on earth that I wanted to talk to: Night Seam. I entertained the thought of ignoring her completely, but at the same time, my morbid curiosity as well as better judgement knew that maybe what she was saying was important.

“I'm at your house. I can easily kill your mother in a heartbeat, but I'm not going to. Discord told me all about what happened with Lulu as well as the big announcement. I'd like to see both you and Dreamdrop tonight at the Manehattan clocktower. Hopefully the two of you will cooperate, but we both know what I'll do if you deny my request. I'll be expecting you.”

With all the fury that had built up over the past few days, I squeezed my magical phone until it crushed in my hands. Now there was no way I could go without telling her, let alone forget being magical girls altogether, just so we could live a happy, carefree life.

“FUCK!” I screamed, completely forgetting that Summer Breeze probably didn't even know I was home. Well, this was as good a time as any to come out and tell her the good news.

After silently opening up the door, I made my way down the staircase and quietly walked to the kitchen, and to my surprise, Summer Breeze was there… looking down at her magical phone… and... crying… Finally, she turned her head towards me with tears continuing to stream down her face as she said, “The game changer is me?”

“Who told you?” I asked in a panic, silently cursing whoever broke the news before I could say anything.

“Discord just sent out a message. Is it true, Trixie? Am I really the game changer?” I wanted to say something, anything to cheer her up, but with the look she gave me, I had no idea if I should lie or--“TELL ME!”

“Yes,” I said reflexively, suddenly regretting my decision as Summer Breeze once again bawled into her hands. “But you know what? That doesn't matter.”

“How does it not matter?! Night Seam and Palette are going to kill me the first chance they get!”

“Trixie won't let them!”

“I can't have you protecting me all the time! I don't want you dying while trying to protect me. I… I think I should kill myself. Then, all the fighting will stop.”

“Summer Breeze, stop!”

“NO, YOU STOP!” I backed away in fear as Summer Breeze's anger reached a height I had never seen before. “This is my choice, not yours! I'm tired of fighting and killing and watching girls die because I can't protect them! I just… I just want to stop being so sad all the time.”

After giving her a few moments to calm down, I slowly walked over to her and brought her into a hug while she quietly cried into my chest. Suddenly, all those times when I said that I wanted to kill myself just because a girl was mean to me at school or my teacher embarrassed me or my mom came home drunk seemed like the pettiest thoughts in the world. Summer Breeze knew that this game would not end until she died, and honestly, she was taking it far better than I ever would have.

“Summer Breeze, Trixie is going to talk with Night Seam tonight.”

“Then I'm coming with you!”

“No, you're not. Trixie is going to make sure that Night Seam never comes after you again.”

“But what if she kills you?!”

“It's better than living without you!”

Finally, Summer Breeze froze. I could tell she wanted to say something, but she obviously wanted to make sure she planned it all in her head first. “If…” she began. “If we both make it out of this alive… Can the two of us just run away somewhere? Like Canterlot! We can move there and not have to worry about this game or--”

Without taking another moment to think any further, I silenced her by pressing my lips to hers while wrapping my arms around her waist. She froze in complete shock at first, but as soon as she had a moment to take in what was happening, she wrapped her arms around my neck as the two of us kissed like nothing was wrong.

Finally, though, Dreamdrop broke her lips away from mine and gently punched my clavicle. “Now you really can't talk to Night Seam.”

“There's… a reason Trixie has to go,” I said sadly, looking down at my feet. “Night Seam is holding Trixie's mother hostage, and if I don't see her tonight, one more innocent woman could end up dying.”

Summer Breeze held her hands to her mouth in shock. “Why is she holding your mom hostage? Isn't it me that she really wants?”

“Night Seam knows that Trixie will show up if her mother's life is on the line, but… she also knows that you'll go if Trixie goes.”

A moment of silence passed where neither of us looked at each other until Summer Breeze took a seat at the kitchen table, deep in thought about something that even I couldn't figure out. “We have no choice, then,” Summer Breeze said. “We have to kill her, don't we?”

Even after all the things Night Seam had done to me, even after using my mother as a hostage, I still didn't want to see another magical girl die, especially by my own hands again. I may have gotten used to killing, and to be honest, more often than not, I've enjoyed the thrill of killing, the feeling of power when I was able to take away a human life. However, I still knew the girl behind Night Seam, and even though she wasn't the friend I had three years ago, I couldn't help but remember all the fun times we shared together.

“Maybe…” I began. “Maybe there's another way, though.”

“What other way is there? Night Seam is still willing to kill people in order to keep her powers. What way is there besides killing her or killing me?”

“Trixie can talk with her!”

“We've tried talking to her before, and every time we do, somebody dies! Now there's only the four of us left, and I can't live in a world where the two of us are in danger every single day.”

“Trixie wants to keep you safe, Summer Breeze.”

“And I want to keep both you and your mom safe, Trixie. I'm coming with you to see Night Seam, but if anything happens to you, I'm going to kill myself.” I was about to interject, but before I had the chance, Summer Breeze put a finger to my lips, silencing me from speaking. “I'm only going to use that as a last resort. If I don't have you protecting me, it'll only be a matter of time before she or Palette kills me. At least this way, I'll be able to leave on my own terms, OK?”

I couldn't agree with her. The only thing I could do was bring her into one more kiss, the kind that the two of us wished we could savor for the rest of our lives. As I held her, all of my doubts and insecurities faded away, and the only thing I could think about was how much this girl meant to me and how I would do anything to keep her with me forever. Unfortunately, however, this would be the last kiss the two of us would ever share. Summer Breeze… Dreamdrop… I love you, and I miss you so much.

Later that night…

The two of us thought through every scenario we could, from ambush attacks to sneaky tricks that Night Seam would be able to use her magic for, but in the end, we still didn't feel safe knowing who it was we were going to talk to and about what. Once the two of us arrived at the floor of the clocktower, we interlocked hands and made the long trek up the winding staircase that eventually led us to the very top, where Night Seam was waiting for us.

“Thank you for coming,” Night Seam said calmly.

“Like you gave us much of a choice,” Dreamdrop said sarcastically, which Night Seam ignored.

“Trixie, I wanted to apologize to you.” I scoffed at Night Seam's attempt at repentance, but nonetheless, I let her continue. “I was so sure that after all these years, I finally had Discord figured out, that I'd finally beaten him at his own game, but as always, he was one step ahead of me. I was a fool for thinking I could outsmart him, and I ended up putting your life in danger. I'm very sorry.”

“Don't tell Trixie you just came to grovel,” I said coldly while folding my arms. “You wouldn't be putting Trixie's family in danger for that.”

“You're right. This is about ending the game. What do you know about this clocktower?”

“How does the clocktower have any relevance to this?!” I asked impatiently.

“This is where Le Blanc died.” The name sounded familiar, like I had heard a magical girl say it before, but I couldn't figure out who or when. “Le Blanc was a friend of Lulu's and mine who was kidnapped and killed in order to get money from her parents. This is where Lulu first got her powers and turned into Marrow, and this is where Le Blanc turned into her weapon.”

“What are you saying, Night Seam?” Dreamdrop asked.

“I'm saying that the reasons Marrow and I became magical girls are completely different. When Lulu saw Le Blanc die right in front of her, something inside her snapped, and she's used her magic for vengeance ever since. When she introduced me to being a magical girl, however, I wanted to do what I could to stop problems before they could happen. I want to keep the world safe, whereas she wanted revenge for all the people who have gotten hurt in this city.”

“And the point is…?” I asked, feeling uneasy about the response I would probably get.

“My point is that if I lose my powers, I can no longer go on protecting Manehattan. More people will end up getting hurt, and the vengeance spiral will continue to grow. If we don't eliminate Dreamdrop, we will all lose our powers, and that's if we're lucky.”

Suddenly, Dreamdrop began to shiver. “What do you mean, ‘if we're lucky’?”

Taking a moment to breathe in a sigh, Night Seam said, “There is a large possibility that if our powers are stripped from us, we will die.”

“No!” Dreamdrop gasped, falling to her knees. “Trixie, don't listen to her! There's no way--”

“I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I'm not about to take that chance. Whether I lose my powers or die, I refuse to let all of Manehattan go without the peace they need just to protect one magical girl. Great and Powerful Trixie…” Suddenly, Night Seam used her magic to summon six throwing knives between each of her knuckles. “I'm going to need you to move.”

Without wasting a second, I summoned my spear and stood my ground in front of Dreamdrop. “Were those weapons that Discord added to the shop?” I asked.

“Yes. Don't let him fool you into thinking that these are for your protection. We both know what his true motive is.”

“And you're just going to go along with it?!” Dreamdrop yelled from behind me.

“He is the puppet master and we are the puppets. We cannot win in a battle with him, and if we try, we'll all end up dead!”

“Hold on!” I said, suddenly remembering something that could potentially save our lives. “Discord said that he can't control life or death! If Discord doesn't lie, then he wouldn't be able to kill us!”

Night Seam began to visibly lose patience, resting her face into her palm while shaking her head. “Haven't you learned by now that Discord has a dual meaning to everything he says? In a sense, he's saying that once he takes your magic away, he can't save you from the effects that it would have on your body.”

“YOU DON'T KNOW THAT, THOUGH!” Dreamdrop screamed.

“You're right, but I do know how to be a magical girl much better than you two.”

With that, the discussion was over, and with little time to react, I had to deflect six knives that came out of nowhere before they could reach me or Dreamdrop, fighting off my initial instinct to just dodge. As soon as they hit the floor, however, they disappeared, and without a moment's hesitation, I was blocking the next six that were making their way back. Dreamdrop and I had planned for almost any kind of attack, but neither of us realized that she might have some kind of magical weapon that we hadn't encountered yet.

I didn't have time to think about my next strategy, though, as the next wave of knives was making its way towards us again. However, upon blocking the knives this time, I only felt my spear ding against five--

“AAGHH!” I screamed as I felt a sudden searing pain in my abdomen. Looking down, I noticed that she had turned one of her knives black, hiding it in the shadows of the others. As soon as I pulled the knife out of my body, though, with blood trickling down my body, the weapon disappeared and reappeared between Night Seam's fingers.

“Give up, Trixie,” Night Seam said. “If you fight, you'll die. Just think of how your mother would react if she found out her only daughter was dead.”

“You…” I said, gritting my teeth. Without thinking any further, I lifted my spear and charged towards her, leaving Dreamdrop unprotected. “You keep her out of this!”

With a smile that made me realize what I had just done, Night Seam touched the floor, immediately changing the entire clocktower's color black, to which she blended in perfectly. Almost instantly, she disappeared, leaving me to turn my head in all directions in hopes that I would see her moving in the darkness, but after seeing nothing, I went back to Dreamdrop, holding my spear up just in case.

“Dreamdrop!” I shouted. “Keep your arms up! If you manage to grab her, we win. Just be caref--AAHHHH!!!”

I couldn't even finish my sentence as three knives pierced through my leg, thigh and arm, but this time, I pulled them out with my magic, giving myself possession of her weapons. My hope was that as long as they were in my magic field, Night Seam wouldn't be able to summon them back, and so far, my plan was working. Turning behind me and using my magic to pick up anything around Dreamdrop, I felt three more knives crash into my magic wall and quickly pulled them into my collection. If she couldn't summon them back, this meant that she was out of attacking methods.

“You've lost, Night Seam!” I shouted. “Give it up!”

After a brief moment of silence, the black tower returned to its normal color, revealing Night Seam standing in the center of the room. “Discord was right,” she said. “I really could learn a thing or two from you.”

“Now leave us alone. I promise I'll spare your life, just because we used to be friends, but if you ever come after Dreamdrop or my mother again--”

“You're an idiot, Trixie.” I couldn't believe that in the position she was in, she would even think of saying something like that, but before I could retort with words of my own, she held up her hand to silence me and continued. “Who's to say that if you kept me alive, I wouldn't go after your mother first and then Dreamdrop? If I'm willing to take your life, what makes you think I'm going to give up once your guard is down?”

“Fine. Trixie will kill you herself, then.”

Just as I was about to send all of Night Seam's knives right back at her, however, Dreamdrop grabbed me by the arm and said, “Trixie, don't!” I wanted to ignore her and end this whole fight altogether, but Dreamdrop's voice made my heart sink too much for me to do anything else. Finally, rising from her knees, she approached Night Seam and asked, “Are you going to try to kill me no matter what it takes?”

“Dreamdrop, you're going to die no matter what I do,” Night Seam answered.

“YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!” I screamed. “I asked Discord myself, and even he didn't know!”

“Because Discord doesn't want to spoil the surprise. If this whole thing is a game to him, how excited do you think it makes him knowing that if we have our powers taken away, we could potentially all lose our lives? I have been wrong before, but this time, I think that's what Discord wants. Either Dreamdrop dies, or we all die.”

“No, Night Seam,” I said, lifting up my spear once more. “You're the one who's going to die regardless.”

Before I could attack again, Dreamdrop grabbed my hand, this time physically stopping me from killing her. “Trixie,” Dreamdrop said softly, avoiding eye contact. “She's right.”

“What… What are you talking about? Let go!”

“No! Trixie, if it's true what she said… then none of this even matters.” Suddenly, Dreamdrop's shoulders physically recoiled as she began to heave in deep sobs. “I'm gonna die, Trixie! I'm gonna die!”

Quickly, dropping all of my weapons, I turned on my heels and pulled Dreamdrop into a tight hug, brushing through her hair as she wept. The two of us had cried so much these past few days, but nothing crushed my heart more than seeing Dreamdrop, the happiest girl I've ever met, break down into tears. When I held her, I wanted her to feel safe, like nothing would ever happen to her, but I wasn't sure if I could do that for her.

“Dreamdrop,” I whispered, “I can't live in a world without you. My life has been so much better ever since I've met you.”

“No, it hasn't! You've been in so much danger because of me! I just want you to live a long, happy life. Can you do that for me, Trixie?”

It sounded like Dreamdrop was about to give up hope, but before I even knew how to respond, I saw from the corner of my eye Night Seam, leaning down to pick up one of the knives that I had released from my magic. “Yes, Dreamdrop,” I said, releasing her from my grip, summoning my spear back into my hand and turning towards Night Seam. “Once I take care of her.”

“TRIXIE! NO!!”

This was it. Night Seam didn't have enough time to attack or defend. As soon as she lifted her head, her eyes went wide at the sight of me standing over her with my spear raised above her head, and for the first time in my life, I saw Night Seam in a state of total fear. The game was over. I won.

Splat!

“Trixie…”

“D-Dreamdrop?”

I hadn't stabbed Night Seam. In my overwhelming anger, I didn't even see Dreamdrop racing in front of me, trying to block my path before… I didn't know she was there! I wasn't trying to--I mean I didn't want--

“I-I told you, didn't I?” Dreamdrop said, coughing up blood that was beginning to fill her lungs. “I was only going to do this as a last resort.”

“DREAMDROP! I--”

I was about to pull the spear out in some attempt to keep her alive, but Dreamdrop held on with all the remaining strength she had. “Don't. If you pull it out, I'll die. Just… promise that you'll live as long as you possibly can?”

“Dreamdrop, I--”

“Promise m--coughcough!”

“Alright! I promise! But we have to save you! We need to summon Discord! He can do some--”

“Please, don't kill any more magical girls. Promise me you'll never kill anyone ever again.”

“I promise! Just please please please please PLEASE, DREAMDROP! DON'T DIE!”

Dreamdrop, however, replied by coughing up more blood and smiling as wide as her dying body would let her, and taking in one final breath, she said, “I love you, Great and Powerful Trixie.” Then, her head fell down, and her sleep-themed outfit gradually began to disappear before all that was left before me was Summer Breeze, dripping in blood with my spear piercing through her lung. Finally, even the spear disappeared from my hands entirely, and catching her as she fell, I gently eased her to the floor, where she could finally rest in peace.

Neither Night Seam nor I looked at each other, but we could tell that we were trying not to look at Summer Breeze's body. I had been fighting so hard to keep her safe. Why did it have to be me? Why was I the one who had to do it? That look of surprise in her face when the spear went through her chest… That beautiful, tragic smile before she died… I just… Everything was…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”

Suddenly, smoke filled the room in the clocktower, filled with the sounds of thunder and lightning and making Night Seam and I both back up in fear. My body was already shaking, but I couldn't even hold my balance anymore, falling back just as a giant snake-like creature rose from the smoke, stretching its eagle claw and lion paw while laughing hysterically. Finally, once the smoke began to clear, he switched gazes between Night Seam and I, smiling his sinister snaggletooth grin.

“Hello, girls!” he said with glee. “Congratulations on finally winning the--”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” I screamed. “WHY DID YOU MAKE DREAMDROP THE GAME CHANGER?! WHY DID SHE HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO--mmfffmmffmfm!”

Before I could even finish my sentence, Discord turned my mouth into a zipper and zipped it closed. “We've been over this, Trixie, but the good news is, you've won! This means that you, Night Seam and Palette all get to keep your powers and enjoy Platinum City to your hearts’ content! I also promise that from here on out, you have my word that I will always double check before signing up a magical girl whose power would put Platinum City in danger. Isn't that wonderful, Trixie? Trixie? Why aren't you answering me? Oh, right! My bad!”

Suddenly, Discord unzipped my mouth, turning it back to normal and letting me heave in all the air I wasn't getting. “That's it?! After all we've been through, all we get is to go back to normal?!”

Looking away, Discord scratched his head, deep in thought before an actual physical lightbulb appeared over his head. “You know something, Trixie? You're absolutely right! You've been through the most pressure of all this game, and yet you still came out on top, not only surviving to the end, but eliminating the game changer with your own two hands!”

I would have bawled my eyes out if I weren't so furious, but I couldn't stop a tear or two from finding their way down my face. “Get to the point,” I said, still gritting my teeth.

“Absolutely! So, I've decided in my infinite chaotic grace that I will grant you any wish that I have the power to give you.”

One wish, huh? My immediate thought was to ask him to bring Dreamdrop back to life, but he had already told me that matters of life and death were out of his control. The next thought I had was for him to kill Night Seam, which would still technically be keeping my promise to Dreamdrop, but then I realized that due to the same logic, he probably couldn't do that either. Basically, I just couldn't ask him to bring someone to life or kill them… but… I could do the next best thing.

I knew that my wish might not be granted, and if it was, I was still running a risk. That risk, however, was exactly why I was making this wish in the first place.

“Discord,” I said, taking a deep breath and calming my emotions. This was it. No turning back now. “I wish…” I closed my eyes. “I wish for you to take away all of our powers!”

“TRIXIE! NO!” Night Seam shouted, but it was too late. Discord began roaring in laughter, the volume growing from a hearty chuckle to an ear-shattering laugh.

“Very well, Great and Powerful Trixie!” he said with a smile. “Your wish is my command!”

Suddenly, I felt an enormous pain in my heart, like a sharp wound beating through my chest, bringing me to my knees and coughing up blood onto the floor. Looking up, I saw Night Seam writhing on the floor, screaming as she went through what was probably the most pain she'd ever felt in her entire life. My skin was growing cold. I felt lightheaded and dizzy. My stomach was growing nauseous and my vision blurred. Then, I couldn't feel anything anymore.

With all of my strength sapped from my body, I fell to the floor, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Night Seam was already motionless. My vision and consciousness gradually faded, but before everything went black, I heard Discord laughing one more time.

Then, everything disappeared, and I would never see Discord again…

***

A light. A bright light. Everything felt light, like I wasn't attached to my body anymore. Was I dead? I still couldn't see straight, but it was a familiar kind of fuzziness, like I was looking through a lens that blurred things in a specific way.

Oh, that's right. I wasn't wearing my glasses. Could I still not see, even though I was dead? No, that wouldn't make sense… would it?

Suddenly, I began to feel the weight of my body along with a few other familiar senses. There was something clasped to my finger, some thin, hard fabric shielding my shoulders down, and there was a searing pain coming from around my stomach.

Oh, that's right. I was stabbed. Wait! Does that mean this whole thing was a dream?! With all the strength I had, I tried summoning my magic to transform myself back into the Great and Powerful Trixie, but all I managed to do was give myself a headache.

“So the princess finally awakens from her slumber.”

That voice. I know that voice.

“M-mom?” I said with tears coming out of nowhere and flooding my face. “Is that really you?”

“What do you think? Can you just not ask any questions for a minute? In case you can't tell, I'm pretty pissed right now, and I don't think I can take much more right now.”

“Oh, OK,” I said in a little more than a whisper, but despite her anger, I was just relieved to have her back.

“Just what in the fuck happened? First you get stabbed, then you disappear, and then I get a call from the hospital again, hearing that you managed to end up with two other girls in the fucking clocktower. One of which was dead, and the other is fighting for her life next door.”

“Fleur de Lis?” I said, trying to get up before the pain in my stomach pulled me back down.

“Oh, so you do remember what happened, then.”

Of course I remembered what happened, but it wasn't like I could just outright tell her about the spirit of chaos and disharmony turning me into a magical girl and putting us into a deathmatch where we had to kill--“SUMMER BREEZE!”

“Huh?”

“Is Summer Breeze here?! Is she alright?”

“If you're talking about that third girl, the doctors said she was dead long before they could do anything. Hey, what did I tell you about asking questions?!”

“Trixie is--I mean, I'm sorry, mom…”

I pulled my hospital blanket over my nose as much as I could to hide my face, but when I looked over at my mom, she wasn't even looking at me. “So, were the three of you kidnapped?”

“I…” I had no idea what to say, so maybe it would be best just to go with whatever she gave me. “Yeah… We were kidnapped.”

Suddenly, my mom kicked a trashcan beside her, making me flinch before being reminded again of the pain in my stomach. “Damn it! The security in here fuckin’ sucks! Who was it? It was some old man who's never been married, wasn't it? Of course he'd go after a bunch of little girls.”

“I…” I still had no clue as to how I was going to keep this up. “I don't know. I don't remember anything. All I remember is Fleur and Summer Breeze.”

“Huh?! The doctors tested you for drugs and didn't find anything. Do you have like amnesia or something?”

“Y-yeah… something like that…”

There was a long pause. Neither of us looked at each other, but we could both feel each other's lingering uneasiness.

“When we get home,” my mom started, “I'm gonna beat you. Then, I'm going to tell you to get up so I can beat you some more, and I'm going to keep going until I physically can't beat you any further without sending you back to the emergency room. Trixie, when you get home, you're going to get hurt.”

“Yes, mom... I'm sorry, mom.”

“Besides, it's gonna be a long trip before we actually get there. This just gives you some time to recover, so you'd better not fucking bleed in my car.”

Not understanding what she meant, I tilted my head in curiosity. “Long trip?”

After another few moments of silence, my mom breathed loudly and slouched in her chair. “Trixie, I quit my job. I'm moving us to Canterlot. Apparently, things keep happening to you here, and… I just want to make sure you're safe.”

I cried again. Most kids my age would be terrified of leaving their life behind, leaving their friends and completely starting over in a new area, but for me… all I felt was a wave of relief that I could finally put all this behind me. I could move on, not just from the place where I became a magical girl, but to a place where I didn't have to be a punching bag like I was here. Even with Lulu dead, I knew it would just be a matter of time before someone else filled her spot, but maybe now, I could make a new name for myself in a new place with new friends.

“Thank you, mom. I love you.”

“...I love you too…”

This time will be different. They won't know me as Trixie the punching bag. They'll know me as the Great and Powerful Trixie.

-The End-

Thank you for reading!

Author's Note

If you enjoyed this story, be sure to check out the sequel! Magical Girl Trixie: Revival

Also, thank you to KinsColt for commissioning the picture at the end! It turned out fantastic!