Magical Girl Trixie: Revival

12 years ago…

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The girl on the TV was so powerful, so majestic, so beautiful. The way she managed to fight off monsters and save the world was so inspirational for my four year old mind, especially since she was able to do it all with her special magical powers. I would have given more than anything to be that girl on the television, and everyone would know me as the Great and Powerful Trixie.

Suddenly, the door to my home slammed shut, revealing my mom walking in and removing her work shoes, immediately making her way to the fridge where she would pull out her nightly glass of gin. As she poured the liquid contents into the glass cup, I approached as excitedly as I could, running up beside her and tugging on her skirt. “Mommy! Mommy! Come look at the TV!”

“Mommy’s busy right now,” she said, chugging down the glass in a few quick gulps. “Why don’t you be a good little girl and go to bed?”

“Awwww! But I don’t wanna go to bed! I want to see what happens next to Super Hero Lillie!”

“Trixie,” she said in a much less pleasant tone than before, “I told you I wanted you to be a good little girl. Now, are you going to do what I ask, or do you want to find out what happens to bad little girls?”

I didn’t hesitate to run back to the television, turning it off and running to my bedroom, crying as soon as I shut the door. All I wanted was to find out what happened next, but when my mom mentioned anything about bad little girls, I did whatever she told me, no matter how much I wanted to stay up and play. At first, bad little girls got spanked, which I tried to avoid as much as any kid my age would have. Then, eventually mom my got to thinking that maybe spankings were for little babies, and since I was four years old now, I should already know how to be a good little girl. That’s when she started coming up with all kinds of new ways to punish bad little girls, from belts to cigarette burns, and one time, she even dunked my head into the toilet, refusing to let me breathe until I learned my lesson. I thought she was going to kill me, but she said that if I was a good little girl from now on, she would never do it again.

Ever since then, as soon as I went into my room and closed the door, I crawled into bed, pulled out my notebook and began doodling, just to take my mind away from the terrors of my mother’s punishments. They were simple stick figures at first, with the words “Grayt and Pawerful Trixie” written in big letters at the top, but they helped calm me down whenever I thought my mom would discipline me again. At that point, she had never punished me just so that she could take her anger out on someone; I had always deserved whatever pain she gave me, but it would only be a matter of time before eventually, she would stumble into my room drunk and hit me for something out of my control. The first time, she slapped me because of something her boss did. The next time, she hit me because she was raising me by herself while my father was out playing magician in Las Pegasus. I never knew when the beatings would end, but the whole time, I would cry and cry and cry until eventually, she started slapping me for being a crybaby. The surprise punishments would end to a certain extent eventually, but she soon found a way to replace them by correcting me for any little thing I ever did wrong.

Those doodles I drew during those hard nights were the only thing that gave me hope. In fact, I was just eight years old the first time I ever thought about taking my own life, but when my mom wasn’t home, I saw another episode of Super Hero Lillie and became inspired all over again. For some reason, I honestly believed in my mind that if I truly believed in myself just like Lillie said at the end of each episode, then all my dreams would come true, and my biggest dream of all was that my mom would be happy. I decided not to kill myself that night because one day, my mom wouldn’t want to hurt me anymore, and maybe then I could show her all the drawings I made. I could show her the Great and Powerful Trixie, the girl I had always dreamed of becoming, a super hero that saved the day with a cape and a witch’s hat. As soon as the episode was over, I drew for hours, hiding in my bed when my mother came home to draw some more. One day, I would be able to show her these pictures and say, “I was going to kill myself, but then I realized how much I love you! This is who I want to be for you, mommy!”

The next day, though, would be a day that would change my life even more, making me regret for years to come that I hadn’t killed myself at eight years old when I had the chance…

“Hi, Lulu! My name is Trixie! Can we be friends?”

“Hellooooo! Equestria to G&PT!”

I quickly shook my head, turning towards Iron Maiden as the six of us continued our route to the house of Sun Shadow and Catastrophe, where we would hunt down and kill two more magical girls. “Sorry, Iron Maiden. What were you saying?”

“I was just saying that you look kinda nervous. Are you sure you want to come with us?”

Of course I was nervous. I was about to kill a four year old little girl and her twelve year old sister! All I could think about on the way there was how much I wanted to be a magical super hero when I was four and how I actually became one at twelve, which may have been the worst decision I ever made. Iron Maiden and Mind Games hadn’t had the chance to look up the personal information on Autumn Blaze’s magical girls before we made our way towards their house, so there was probably no way they knew how young these girls were.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is never nervous… but if you wanted to turn back now, nobody would judge you.”

“Turn back? Are you kidding? These girls sound like trouble, and the whole reason I became a magical girl was to stop trouble before it happened. Besides, these girls should be no problem now that you’ve got me and Mind Games helping you.”

Iron Maiden then laughed heartily, completely oblivious to how dire the situation was, and with my anti-magic orb in my pocket, there was no way for Mind Games to read my mind and figure it out herself, either. They would figure it out eventually, either when we got to their house or when we managed to kill them, revealing their true identities underneath the mask that came with being a magical girl. I just hoped that when the time came, I would be able to forget about their age and treat them as what they were: threats to the safety of Canterlot High School. In the meantime, though, I was having a hard time disguising my unease, which apparently everyone had noticed by now.

Finally, though, we arrived at a small house in northern Canterlot where the two of them were supposed to live, standing on top of buildings in the neighborhood that made it too difficult for a normal eye to spot us. If they were transformed into magical girls right now, they would have no problem catching us, but if they were still in their regular forms, we would be basically invisible from the distance we were. They had no cars in their driveway, giving us the impression that they were home alone, which could not have made this anything less than the ideal ambush. Night Seam took the lead for us, getting close enough to where she would be able to see through the window to their room until eventually, she gave us all a thumbs up, signaling the start of the attack. This was it.

We were really about to kill two little girls.

Just as we made a mad dash towards their window, however, a girl who must have been twelve years old caught us coming out of the corner of her eye, and transforming herself at an unimaginable speed, she pushed the younger girl out of the way just as Night Seam’s knives went soaring through their window, causing glass to crash everywhere. Then, out of nowhere, there were six of us in her room, jumping through the opening Night Seam created for us and using our magic to take out the two magical girls, one of which was still in the process of transforming. The moment Sun Shadow had fully transformed, however, she quickly dissolved into the floor, moving her shadow over to Catastrophe’s as she dodged every attack that we tried throwing at her.

“Sun Shadow! Now!”

Then, jumping into the air, Catastrophe changed into a vibrant rainbow of colors until her body morphed into a large shuriken, just in time for Sun Shadow to lift herself back out of the shadows and throw the weapon straight towards Night Seam. I almost didn’t make it in time, but at the last second, I used my magic to freeze the shuriken in midair, inches away from Night Seam’s face, which was perfect until Catastrophe changed back, pulling a knife from her pocket and slashing down. This time it was Iron Maiden’s time to save her, removing her steel shoulderpads and blocking the attack just over Night Seam’s head. Just as we had taken all of our attention off of Sun Shadow, however, she had disappeared again, making us all look down at our shadows, just in case she was hiding right under our noses.

“Don’t! Hurt! My! SISTER!”

Then, pulling herself back out of the shadows, Sun Shadow held out her hand as Catastrophe turned into a sword, which the younger sister used to swing towards myself, Mind Games and Iron Maiden, all of which we were able to barely block. Once she noticed Palette on the other side of the room, though, carrying two painted guns, she quickly threw her sister into the air and disappeared once again into the shadows, leaving her sister to transform into hummingbird, which flapped its wings rapidly towards her. As soon as she arrived in front of Palette, however, she changed once again, this time into a scythe, which Sun Shadow grabbed immediately upon popping out of Palette’s shadow, swinging it towards her. This time, it was Dreamdrop who was able to stop the weapon before Palette had been sliced open, but with Catastrophe turned into an inanimate object, there was no way to put her to sleep. Plus, with both of her hands holding onto the transformed magical girl, keeping her from slicing Palette into pieces, there was no way for her to put Sun Shadow to sleep.

Finally, before anyone could recompose themselves and throw an attack towards Sun Shadow, Catastrophe turned back into her normal form, interlocking her fingers with Dreamdrop and throwing her to the other side of the room. “That’s enough!” Catastrophe shouted, beginning to glow a rainbowlike color again. “If any of you makes a move, I’ll turn into an atomic bomb and destroy the entire city of Canterlot.” There was a very good chance she was bluffing, especially since Sun Shadow would also die in the process, but if they knew something we didn’t, we would just end up dying for nothing. We all seemed to look at Night Seam as if she were the one to give us the final verdict, and with her head nodding, we all put down our weapons, allowing Catastrophe to stop glowing.

“What’s wrong with you girls?!” Sun Shadow asked, glaring at us.

“You wanna talk about what’s wrong with us?!” Iron Maiden replied angrily. “You two are planning on wiping out a whole school’s worth of kids!”

“Only because you started it!” Catastrophe yelled back. “We don’t wanna kill anyone either, but you girls gave us no choice!”

“You always have a choice,” Mind Games added, eliciting a scoff from Sun Shadow.

“We’re choosing not to die, idiot! I may hate being a magical girl, but I’ll do everything I can to keep Catastrophe safe!”

Sun Shadow then disappeared into her own shade again, making us all pull out our weapons in response, but no sooner had we done so when Catastrophe started glowing a rainbow color again. “WHAT DID I SAY?!”

“So you expect us to just vait for your sister to kill us one by one?!” Palette asked furiously.

“You’re going to die either way, so at least you’ll be saving Canterlot if you decide not to move!”

Night Seam scoffed, glaring daggers at Catastrophe. “You’re not very good at bargaining. This just makes us more likely to attack you, seeing as how this way, we at least have a chance to save ourselves as well as your neighborhood. I would really recommend telling your sister to come out now.”

I couldn’t believe it! Night Seam was calling Catastrophe’s bluff, using our lives as bargaining tools as if there was no way she could be wrong. Fortunately for all of us, though, Catastrophe returned to her normal cat-like appearance, shrugging her shoulders. “Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now, Sun Shadow!”

Then, appearing right behind Night Seam, the younger sister leaped out of the ground, pulling a knife similar to Catastrophe’s out of her dress pocket and swinging it towards Night Seam, this time being blocked by the very girl she tried to target. The rest of us didn’t waste a second. Palette immediately pointed her guns towards Sun Shadow, who leapt away just in time to avoid it, causing Iron Maiden to barely block the attacks meant for the enemy before she was accidentally killed by friendly fire, soaking her shoulder pads in paint. Again, before anyone could catch her, she disappeared into her own shadow, sliding into someone else’s, although it was difficult to tell whose with all of us standing so closely together in the small room. Meanwhile, as we were searching for Sun Shadow, Catastrophe turned herself into Iron Maiden, smacking away her shoulder pads and grappling with her to the floor. As cliché as it sounded, by this point, we really couldn’t tell which one was the real Iron Maiden, which meant that with Sun Shadow disappearing into someone else’s shadow, we no longer had a clear target to attack.

“Change back!” Iron Maiden shouted.

“No! You change back!” the other replied.

As the two of them grappled, however, Mind Games quickly pulled out her rapier, shouting, “Iron Maiden! Get away from her!” Then, swinging her sword towards the magical girl on the right, the Iron Maiden on the left jumped away, leaving the other girl to fall to the ground, just barely missing a fatal blow.

“What are you doing?!” she screamed. “It’s me!”

“I can read minds, Catastrophe. Your power won’t be able to fool me.”

The Iron Maiden on the floor immediately clicked her tongue with a scowl. “Time’s up, Sun Shadow!”

Then, as soon as the words came out of her mouth, her sister rose from Mind Games’s shadow behind her, raising her knife and reeling back to slash through her neck. I almost didn’t make it in time, but at the last possible second, I was able to pull her knife away with my magic mid-swing, making Mind Games shiver from the wind whipping at her skin. As I pulled the blade closer to myself, I noticed that this was a handcrafted throwing knife, not a magical knife like Night Seam used. The pattern that I’d seen with Sonic Boom, Trickster and Sun Shadow was beginning to come together. Autumn Blaze wasn’t giving them tools to work with like Discord was!

“Dreamdrop!” I shouted, throwing the knife at the wall beside her, making her jump in surprise. “Take that and make sure neither of them can get it back!”

“B-but can’t she just summon it back?” she asked.

“No! None of Autumn Blaze’s girls have magical weapons!”

Once I had spoken, though, Sun Shadow immediately turned back into a shadow, sliding through the floor and reappearing in front of Dreamdrop, putting one hand to her neck and the other on Dreamdrop’s knife-wielding hand. I didn’t waste a second in closing the gap, but no sooner had I done so when Catastrophe grabbed my cape, pulling me back just enough to get in front of me while turning herself into a knife exactly like the one Dreamdrop had in her hand. Suddenly, Sun Shadow had her new knife pointed directly at Dreamdrop’s neck, making her yelp in fear, pressing herself as close to the wall as possible to avoid accidentally cutting her own throat.

“If you move, she dies!” Sun Shadow exclaimed, making me freeze in fear. Unlike the last time she tried bargaining with us, this time I had much more to lose if I tried intervening. If I tried using my magic to pull Catastrophe out of her hands, I might not be able to break her free from Sun Shadow’s grip before she slashed Dreamdrop’s neck open. Likewise, the other girls saw the imminent danger and backed off as well, leaving Sun Shadow with all the bargaining chips this time. “All of you on the ground! NOW!!”

Again, we did as she said, dropping our weapons and slowly getting down onto the floor, staying alert just in case we had to jump up and save Dreamdrop from a surprise attack. To our surprise, though, Sun Shadow pulled her hand away from Dreamdrop’s throat and dropped her knife, which transformed back into Catastrophe before hitting the ground. I knew that Catastrophe still had a knife of her own, but we would be able to stop her if she even tried pulling it out of her pocket.

Catastrophe then looked at the mess around her room and grimaced, from broken glass to paint splotches to just overall disorder that had been caused by the fight, leaving the area a total wreck. “Ugh…” Catastrophe groaned. “Mom’s gonna kill us when she gets home.”

“She won’t kill us if we don’t survive,” Sun Shadow retorted, keeping her grip on Dreamdrop’s neck.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true, which brings meow into my next question!” Catastrophe then turned to face all of us. “Why are you killing us in the first place? Autumn Blaze says it’s because you want to start up chaos. Is that right?”

“What?!” I exclaimed. “No! We’re doing it to keep Canterlot High School safe!”

“Don’t lie to me! We never would have planned our attack if you hadn’t killed Dokaeru! If Sonic Boom hadn’t told us where you go to school before she died, we would have had no idea where to even strike! Now tell us the truth! Why are you trying to kill us?!”

Things weren’t adding up in my head. Discord had explained how the attack would have still happened even if I had decided to join Autumn Blaze and her magical girls, but it still felt like this whole chain of events could have been avoided somehow. Discord never lied, which even Divinity confirmed for us, but even so, I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that no matter what we did, it would have ended in this magical girl battle, which was exactly what Discord wanted.

“We are telling you ze truth,” Palette responded, voicing her honesty as best she could.

“STOP IT! YOU’RE LYING!”

“Hey! Wait a second!” Iron Maiden intervened. “I have an idea! You want us to prove that we don’t want to hurt you, right? Maybe you could join our side! If you stand with us tomorrow in protecting the school, that’ll prove that we’re really just trying to keep everyone safe!”

“You’re so stupid!” Suddenly, everyone turned towards Sun Shadow, who was now beginning to cry. “I didn’t know being a magical girl would mean people getting hurt all the time! I don’t wanna be a magical girl anymore, but I can’t let anything happen to my big sister!”

“H-hold on! We don’t want to hurt your big sister!”

“Yes, you do! You’re gonna make her fight Divinity! She’s gonna die if she fights Divinity!”

“We will protect her from all of Autumn Blaze’s magical girls,” Night Seam said, stepping in.

“And you just expect meow to fight all of my friends?! Even if you didn’t betray me at the end, I’m not going to turn my back on Everfree City!”

“Then you leave us no choice,” Night Seam said, rising from the floor and summoning her throwing knives, leading the rest of us to get back to our feet and summon our own weapons as well. Sun Shadow then immediately let go of Dreamdrop, falling into the floor and slipping into Catastrophe’s shade, giving Dreamdrop the opportunity once again to catch her breath.

Again, Catastrophe changed shape, this time transforming into a gun which Sun Shadow rose up to grab, firing an immediate shot towards Night Seam that Iron Maiden had just barely managed to deflect. Palette and Night Seam then sent off a couple of their own attacks, which Sun Shadow dodged by descending to the floor again, leaving Catastrophe alone on the surface of the ground. Just as I was about to use my spear to stab her before she could get back up, however, she glowed a rainbow light and transformed once again, this time taking the shape of a pony with a lion’s mane and crooked horn, burning a blue flame along her black body.

“This is a little present from Autumn Blaze!”

Suddenly, the entire room was engulfed in a blue blaze, shooting fire everywhere other than the floors, walls and ceilings, burning our bodies immediately. If we didn’t do something in the next couple seconds, we would literally burn to death, but right in that second, I noticed a single shadow, barely avoiding Catastrophe’s hellish fury. I then levitated a chair in the corner of the room to shield myself as much as possible from the fire, making my way over to the shadow on the ground while I summoned my spear, raising it over her.

“Sun Shadow!” her sister cried out, ending the flame attack and jumping over to deflect my spear with her horn, glaring at me with the same fire in her eyes. “So you wanna die first, huh, Trixie?!”

“Trixie isn’t here, you ingrate! You’re speaking to the Great and Powerful Trrrriixiiiiieeeee!”

Then, using my magic to levitate her body, I threw her across the room, turning my attention back towards the shadow on the floor, raising my spear above her. Finally, I had the shot I wanted, winding up my shoulder to deal the final blow, but just as soon as I was about to attack, Sun Shadow lifted herself back onto the floor, covering her head with her arms and whimpering anxiously. Rather than seeing Sun Shadow, though, I saw myself when I was four years old... waiting for my mother to stop hitting me as I tried protecting myself against her blows in the exact same position Sun Shadow was in now.

“Mommy! Save me!”

*SLICE!*

I then swung my spear down to the floor, reaching a perfect arc as my weapons swung in a semicircle. To my surprise, though, even though Sun Shadow hadn’t moved, I had missed her completely, instead slicing the ground behind her without leaving the slightest scratch on the girl I was supposed to be attacking. My whole body froze, my eyes going wide as the two of us looked at each other, both surprised that I wasn’t able to kill her when I had the chance.

“Trixie, you idiot!” Night Seam shouted, summoning her throwing knives back into her hands. “You had the perfect shot!” Before Sun Shadow could risk getting hit by someone else, though, she immediately turned back into a shadow, joining the other magical girls’ shadows and doing her best to blend in. “I think I know where she went! Palette, I need you to jump, and try staying in the air as long as you can! I don’t want you getting hurt here.”

Just as soon as Palette was about to do as she was told, however, Catastrophe quickly changed back into her normal form, swinging at Night Seam with her knife that the girl in black was barely able to avoid. Suddenly, the two of them were in a knife fight, clashing blades at a rate too fast for any of us to be able to use to our advantage. If Palette, Mind Games or I tried to slip in with an attack of our own, there was a good chance that we would miss and end up hitting Night Seam instead, and knowing the aim that I’d had recently, I wouldn’t hit the right person.

The two of them were moving their hands so fast, exchanging blows that I couldn’t even see, making their arms nearly disappear as a clang sound echoed repeatedly throughout the room. It almost looked like a dance the way the two of them were moving their feet, stepping back flawlessly to center their weight as they blocked one attack, stepping forward at the perfect angle to unleash one of their own. Night Seam slashed through the air towards Catastrophe’s gut, which she avoided by arching her spine backwards, creating a right angle with her body threatening to snap at any moment, but when she stood upright again, she jumped forward, sending another strike towards her face that Night Seam just barely deflected. Once the attack was finished, however, Night Seam used her spare hand to push Catastrophe’s attacking hand forward, pushing her off balance and causing her to stumble.

I couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. Catastrophe was falling forward with Night Seam’s knife raised over her back, leaving no way for the other magical girl to defend herself in time before she was stabbed. The cat-eared girl then looked back with horror on her face, her mouth and eyes wide open, seemingly trying to find anything she could do that would save her life, but even a transformation wouldn’t be able to save her in time. Reeling her hand up higher, Night Seam immediately thrusted her hand downard, piercing skin and sending blood spurting along the floor. The thing that surprised everyone, though…

“Candycorn?”

...was that she hadn’t stabbed Catastrophe.

As soon as Catastrophe had been thrown off balance, Sun Shadow immediately leapt out of Palette’s shadow, lunging forward and taking a direct hit to the heart, saving her sister from the attack by sacrificing herself. Once Catastrophe fell to the floor, Sun Shadow followed quickly behind her, spraying like a fountain into the air with each heartbeat, which grew faster and faster as her body flailed on the ground. The cat-eared girl then weakly staggered her way over to her sister, ignoring all the girls around her as she tried applying pressure to the hole in her chest, covering it with her hand as blood sprayed through her fingertips.

“Candycorn! No! Please don’t die! P-p-please don’t die, Candycorn! What am I going to tell mom? You have to survive!”

“It hurts,” Sun Shadow replied, crying quietly as the blood loss was beginning to sap her of her energy. “Make it stop, Sweet Tooth!”

“I’m trying! J-j-just please stay with me! And you know what? After this is over, I’m going to take you to the candy store, just like you’ve been asking me to do!”

“I don’t wanna die, Sweet Tooth! I don’t wanna die-hie-hiiiiie!”

“S-s-stay with me! I promise you won’t have to be a magical girl anymore! I’ll stop being a magical girl too, and we’ll spend every day watching your favorite cartoons! We don’t have to stay up late fighting crime anymore! We can just play games and watch TV all day after school! Doesn’t that sound fun, Candycorn? C-Candycorn? No! Answer me, Candycorn! Don’t die! Don’t die!! Please don’t die! NO! CANDYCORN! ANSWER MEEEEE!!!”

Finally, Sun Shadow’s heartbeat gradually slowed down with each beat releasing less blood until it trickled into a small red puddle leaking from her chest, and as Catastrophe’s body shook above her, Sun Shadow’s body glowed a bright light before turning into a four year old girl with a hole in her chest, her eyes wide open in fear and her skin a pale gray. Catastrophe then lifted her hands away from her sister’s chest, her whole body shuddering as she looked down at her blood-soaked hands, causing her to shake even more. She shook her head in disbelief, looking back down at Candycorn like she would somehow get back up and keep fighting, but that never happened. Catastrophe’s sister was now dead, and there was no bringing her back.

“No… No! NO!!!”

Then, in a flash of light, Catastrophe changed her appearance again, changing into Autumn Blaze and immediately releasing an inferno of blue fire, covering the room in the most scorching flames imaginable.

“CANDYCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORN!!!!!”

“We have to get out of here!” Night Seam shouted, trying to raise her voice louder than the cackling flames around us.

The rest of us nodded our heads, jumping through Catastrophe’s window and running for our lives. We may have been able to deal with her Autumn Blaze form before, but that’s when we had Sun Shadow to use as a decoy. At this point, the only decision we had now was to escape, praying that she wouldn’t turn into something like a jet that would be able to catch up with us with no problem. By the same token, though, we couldn’t split up either, knowing that if she did eventually catch up with us, we would need all six of us there in order to keep ourselves alive. Catastrophe was much stronger than every single one of us was individually, which only made things scarier when I considered the fact that when school started tomorrow, she would be joined by three of Everfree City’s most elite magical girls.

The six of us then finally made it back to our homebase, panting heavily from the speed at which we were running. It didn’t seem like Catastrophe had tried pursuing us, which I took to mean that she was probably still crying over her sister, too distraught to chase after her killers, let alone take them on in a six-on-one battle without her companion at her side. Once we made it inside, though, none of us changed back into our normal forms, probably because we were all too scared that someone would track us down and attack before we had the chance to transform.

“Wow,” Iron Maiden said, falling back against the wall in our bedroom while still trying to catch her breath. “That… was a lot.”

“We did what we had to do,” Night Seam replied, uncharacteristically panting as well.

Mind Games, though, tilted her head. “You so sure about that? It’s not like you didn’t have the perfect shot to kill Catastrophe while she was crying over her sister.”

Dreamdrop then got to her feet in anger. “Show some decency, Mind Games!”

“Sit down, Dreamdrop,” the girl in black responded. “She’s right. I had a moment of weakness. I had the opportunity to strike, but I let my emotions get the better of me. I’m sorry I let you all down.”

“You did not let anyone down,” Palette said, putting her hand on Night Seam’s shoulder. “You managed to act better zan any of us, despite not being able to use your powers in zat situation.”

“Speaking of which,” I said, rising to my feet, “Trixie thinks it’s time to summon Discord, before Sun Shadow’s spirit disappears.”

Everyone then nodded in agreement as I called the spirit of chaos into my room, creating the usual fog and booming thunder as Discord snaked his way through the darkness. The shadows were a little bit too much, considering all that we had been through tonight, but finally, he emerged from the darkness to stretch his limbs with a maniacal cackle. “Hello, girls!” he said in an exuberance that contrasted with our own expressions. “Good job tonight, by the way! You had me on the edge of my seat the whole time.”

“Discord,” Night Seam interjected with annoyance. “Must we always deal with your facetious comments every time we try to summon you?”

“Yeeees! But I guess you do have a point. The six of you performed admirably tonight, despite Night Seam’s moment of weakness there at the end. I think you’ve earned the right to revive one more person, whomever you would like.”

I then stepped forward for the group, taking a deep breath as I faced the god of chaos. “Trixie would like to bring back Cupid Symphony, along with her powers. She doesn’t need to fight, and honestly, her powers wouldn’t be well-suited for this situation, but--”

“Whoa! Whoa! Slow down, O Great and Powerful Trixie! I’d love to hear more, but I’m afraid that’s just not an option I can give you.”

My eyes went wide, along with most of the girls surrounding me. My heart was beating so fast that it felt like I was going to throw up with all the emotions surging through my nervous system. I was so angry, so scared, so confused at what he had told me, making me wonder if he had planned to set this whole thing up just to get the girls to attack the school, where he would then stop reviving girls as we fought in yet another magical battle royale.

“What do you mean Trixie doesn’t get that option?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Oh, Trixie, you know you can be so entitled sometimes. Why should I give you the choice of whom to revive next when it was Night Seam who did the dirty work for you? If I recall, you did have the opportunity to deal the final blow, if I recall.”

My eyebrows furrowed in fury, pissed off that he could treat me this way, especially adding insult to injury at the end, but he had a point that I wasn’t the one who actually deserved the credit. Turning my attention to Night Seam, I waited for her to state her wish, which I assumed would be the same as mine, especially since Palette and I had planned out the entire sequence of girls that we wanted to revive.

“Thank you for this opportunity, Discord,” Night Seam said, bowing her head respectively. “I’ve been thinking very hard on this for a while now, actually.”

“Night Seam…” Dreamdrop said nervously. “What are you doing? Just wish for Cupid Symphony to come back to life.”

“I’m sorry, Dreamdrop, but I can’t do that.” My heart immediately fell into my stomach with everyone’s eyes growing to the size of dinner plates. I couldn’t believe what was happening. She was actually going against the plan that we had carved out in the beginning. “Discord, with this spirit, I would like to bring back…”

Discord smiled.

“...Marrow.”

My lower lip trembled. “No…”

Discord, however, roared with laughter, making the ground shake with the volume of his voice. “That sounds like an absolutely wonderful idea, Night Seam! In fact, since I already have her in Platinum City, why don’t I just deliver her to you?”

“DISCORD, NO!” I shouted, but by that point, it was already too late. With the snap of his finger, he disintegrated into dust, leaving behind a figure in the darkest corner of the room. I couldn’t see the figure clearly, but it was vivid enough to bring back the haunting memories I had experienced growing up, giving me another jolt of terror. I would have preferred just not reviving anyone, but now, my greatest nightmare was back to haunt me, weakly standing up and revealing the complete image of the only girl I had ever grown to hate.

She wore a black dress with large bones along her limbs, covering her legs, arms and especially chest with thick, white bones that acted like body armor against her outfit. Her skull covered her entire head aside from her eyes, which steadily opened to reveal a pair of dark green irises beneath the shadows on her face. Then, looking down at her body, she once again began moving from muscle to muscle, just to verify that she was actually in one piece.

As soon as Marrow lifted her eyes towards the girls in the room, she was met with a variety of shocked faces waiting for her to speak. “Girls?” she said with confusion. “Are we… dead?”

“No, Lulu,” Night Seam said, approaching her old friend, grabbing her hand and looking her in the eyes. “Welcome back to the world of the living.”

“Wait… does that mean… Did I really die? Who killed me?!”

Suddenly, everyone’s eyes in the room fell back onto me as I sent her the most condescending smile I could muster. I expected her to be embarrassed or angry, but she just looked intrigued, letting go of Night Seam’s hand and walking towards me. Dreamdrop quickly moved in front of me, but Marrow silently motioned for her to step away, causing Dreamdrop to back away slowly with her eyebrows furrowed, leaving just the two of us to stare into each other’s eyes.

“Tripsy? Were you really the one to kill me?”

“I think you mean, the Great and Powerful Tripsy.”

Despite how cocky I was trying to be, however, Marrow didn’t seem to be angry. In fact, she was more surprised than anything, making me question whether or not this was really the same person as before.

“You know something,” she continued, “I specifically tried to keep you from being a magical girl so that you wouldn’t weigh down the team. How the hell did you manage to kill me?”

“Magic,” I replied with a smug smile, summoning my spear.

“And was I the game changer? Is the game over?”

“Actually…” Dreamdrop said hesitantly, raising her hand. “I was the game changer, but that’s all over now.”

Marrow then put her hands to her hipbones. “Good! Now, who are we missing? Storm Rose, Cupid Symphony and Paradox? It looks like you managed to bring back a couple of us already, so how do we go about bringing them back to life?”

“That’s actually one of the reasons I brought you back,” Night Seam said, making Marrow turn her head in curiosity. “We need your help. It turns out there are other magical girls in the world, only they’re out for blood. They’re planning on attacking Canterlot High School tomorrow, and their powers are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

“What kind of powers?” Marrow asked, to which we all looked away unconfidently as Night Seam sighed with sadness.

“You may want to sit down for this next part. We have a lot of explaining to do…”