Magical Girl Trixie: Revival

“Palette, what are you doing h--”

“Ssshh!” the girl with the oversized glasses whispered, putting her finger to her lips and covering my mouth with her hand. “Don’t use zat name! I am Photo Finish here.”

“But,” I began pulling her hand away, “why does it matter now that the game is over? No one is going to hurt you anymore.”

“Ssshh!”

Again, she placed her hand over my mouth, making me roll my eyes as she tilted her glasses to look at the crowd around her. So far, it didn’t seem like anyone was watching us, but I couldn’t even remember the last time I had to do reconnaissance since the game had ended, which meant that if there was someone listening, I would probably never notice.

“Is Dreamdrop here?” she asked in a whisper, still looking around to make sure the coast was clear.

I instinctively raised an eyebrow, still unsure of how much I could trust a girl who had tried to kill her just four years prior, especially since I didn’t know a single thing about her outside of the game. “She’s not here,” I replied hesitantly, to which Photo Finish slumped her shoulders.

“I see. She is safe, though, I presume, yes?”

“Yes. Trixie is going to make sure nothing ever happens to her.”

“I would expect nozing short of the MVP.” Her words, although congratulatory in nature, stung me to my core, which she didn’t seem to pick up on in the slightest. “I must say, seeing you here is a pleasant surprise, especially since you seem to have been avoiding your magical girl duties here in Canterlot.”

Again, I raised an eyebrow. How was it that she knew that I hadn’t been transforming since I had moved to Canterlot? Before I could ask her anything else, however, the faculty opened up the doors to the school again and began escorting everyone inside, but before Photo Finish lost sight of me, she quickly whispered in my ear, “See me on ze school rooftops tonight at midnight. I shall make everyzing clear. Until then, I go.”

Before I even realized she was there, she had disappeared into the crowd of students pushing each other along to get into the school building in a magic act much better than my own. Had she used her teleportation gem to go back to Platinum City? No, there was no way that she would leave during school hours to teleport to a magical parallel world, especially in a sea of people, but I still shuddered just thinking of the memories that Platinum City had given me.

***

“We’re moving.”

“What?! Hold on! Just give Trixie a moment to--”

Before I could say anything else, Summer Breeze turned around and pointed her finger at my face, giving me a fiery glare that communicated how little she wanted to hear from me right now. “No, Trixie! We have both worked too hard to lose everything all because some magical girl showed up and ruined our lives again. I’m not about to take any more chances, so do us both a favor and help me pack.”

“But, can’t we just talk about this?”

“What is there to talk about?! Do you want us to get killed? I know that Palette may not need to kill us with the game being over and everything, but who knows what her motives are anymore? After all, you were the one who killed Mind Ga--” Before she even finished her sentence, she immediately realized how cruel her words sounded and turned back with a restitute face, seeing me now shaking and on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry, Trixie. You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

With my hand trembling, I sniffed hard and said, “Trixie gets it. She’s a murderer.”

“No, honey! That’s not what I--”

“Trixie killed four innocent girls and will never be able to bring them back!” At this point, I fell down onto the bed by my side, sitting down with my elbows in my knees while I cried my heart out, and although it looked like Summer Breeze wanted to say something comforting to calm me down, she couldn’t get a word out due to how loud my loud tears were. Then, with another sniff, I said, “Trixie knows what the risks are, but she needs to do this. No… I need to do this, Summer Breeze. If she wanted to kill me, she would have had plenty of chances by now. If we run away, if she really wanted revenge, she could easily track us down and kill the both of us when our backs are turned. Please, trust in my judgement just this once!”

Summer Breeze then stopped pacing around the room and stood frozen, pinching the bridge of her nose while exhaling a deep breath. Then, turning towards me, she placed her hands on my shoulders before bringing me into a hug, nestling her face between my neck and shoulders. “You know I trust you, Trixie. It’s Palette that I don’t trust... but... I guess you’re right that I should trust your judgement. Maybe she has changed. However!” Summer Breeze then held up one finger in front of my face. “If she hasn’t, I want you to promise me that you’ll get out of there immediately. I’ll put her to sleep and meet you back at the house. Got it?”

I smirked at her cute face, then gave her a kiss on the cheek. “The Great and Powerful Trixie agrees. However!” I then held up one finger to Summer Breeze. “I want you to take back your spear.”

Summer Breeze flinched at the thought. Dreamdrop gave me that spear when I first became a magical girl so that I could use it to defend myself, but I had already used it to kill four girls. The last thing I ever wanted to do was see it again, but if it meant that Dreamdrop could use it to keep herself safe, I would be fine revisiting those memories for a little while longer.

“I… I don’t know,” she replied. “I want you to be--”

“If you say you want Trixie to be safe one more time, she’s never going to let you borrow her blue sweater again.”

“WHAT?! But--but--but that’s my favorite sweater! And it has your scent on it! You wouldn’t take that sweater away forever, right?”

I couldn’t help but giggle. It had taken a while after the death game had ended for Summer Breeze to feel comfortable returning to the bubbly personality she had when we’d first met, but ever since then, it felt like she had never changed. Every day with her felt like the best day of my life, which is why I couldn’t let anything happen to her. No matter what, I would never let anything happen to Summer Breeze…

*************

Midnight…

*************

Before the two of us arrived at the rooftops of Canterlot High School, we had both changed into our magical girl forms. Summer Breeze had transformed into Dreamdrop numerous times since the game ended, mostly just to help me sleep at night, but this was the first time that I had transformed since the night Night Seam died. Once I transformed into the Great and Powerful Trixie, despite my reservations, I felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity flow through my body, and despite how much I had been trying to avoid this new form, it felt like I hadn’t spent a day without it. Even though my breasts were larger, my hips were narrower and my legs were longer, this body felt more at home to me than my real body did, which made me shudder more than once.

Fortunately, I didn’t live far from CHS, and once transformed into a magical girl’s body, the school was literally just a hop, skip and a jump away. Even with such a short amount of time, though, doubts and anxieties came swirling through my mind. What if this was a trap after all? What if we weren’t the first ones there? Would she try to ambush us? Of course, we had made preparations for these kinds of scenarios beforehand, just to make sure, but now that we were actually back in our old bodies again, it was only natural that my emotions were the same as how I’d left it.

Fortunately for the both of us, though, Palette was apparently alone, standing on the roof of the building with no immediate threats nearby. The minute our feet touched down, she audibly gulped, tensing up her body and looking over at Dreamdrop whenever her eyes accidentally made contact with mine. “G-good evening, Dreamdrop and Trixie--I mean--The Great and Powerful Trixie!”

What was that reaction? Was she scared of me?

“Hey, Palette!” Dreamdrop said, waving her arms with a friendly smile, almost as if the whole trying to kill us thing was water under the bridge. “Long time no see!”

“Yes, it would appear so. Anyvay, ze reason I brought you both out here ton--”

“Whoa! You sound different! Then again, I guess I haven’t seen you in four years. Gosh the time flies by super quick, doesn’t it? Have you always sounded like that?”

“Enough!” Palette shouted, but once she looked back into my eyes, she flinched and returned an apologetic smile to Dreamdrop. “I’m sorry. What I meant to say was, yes, I have spent a few years abroad. So nice of you to notice. Heheh.”

Dreamdrop folded her arms, tilting her head in confusion. “You know, you’re acting awfully funny.”

I could see Palette visibly tensing up, but before she even had the chance to come up with an excuse, I cut her off and asked, “Why are you so afraid of me? You were the one who invited us out here tonight, weren't you?”

She immediately shrieked the moment I opened my mouth, which just proved me right. “I’m sorry! It’s just… you know, with you being ze top player of ze game and after what you did to Mind Games and Night Seam. You understand, don’t you? I was on zeir team after all, but that’s all behind you now, right, Great und Powerful Trixie?”

Just like that, all the memories from before came flooding back into my mind. The look on Mind Games’s face when I cut her throat, the sight of Fleur de Lis once she had changed back to her normal form, Lulu’s lifeless body, Storm Rose flailing as I choked her to death, all of it flashed through my mind in a wave of anxiety. It felt like I hadn’t left the game, like the deathmatch was still going on, and all I could do was scream, making Dreamdrop fall to my side while Palette shrieked again in terror.

“Calm down, Trixie,” Dreamdrop said, rubbing my back while I attempted to catch my breath again. “It’s gonna be alright. We’re gonna be fine.”

“What…” I asked as soon as I could breathe again. “What did you bring us here for, Palette?”

“I’m sorry!” she shouted, falling onto the ground and prostrating herself. “I just vanted to talk to girls from the game again! I vanted to see how you handled adjusting to Canterlot and Everfree City! I’m so sorry! Please don’t be mad, Great und Powerful Trixie!”

Suddenly, my ears perked. Then, lifting my head to make eye contact with Palette, I asked, “What’s Everfree City?”

At that moment, Palette froze, and after several long moments, she looked up and asked, “When was ze last time you went to Platinum City?”

Dreamdrop and I looked at each other in confusion. “Not since the game ended,” Dreamdrop replied. “Has something happened to Platinum City?”

“I… vould not know… since we can no longer go zere. I thought you knew?”

“Wait,” I said, cutting her off. “Why can’t we go back to Platinum City?”

“Because we are not in Manehattan anymore. Platinum City is just a parallel reality of Manehattan, and since we are in Canterlot now, we get transported to a new city called Everfree City.”

“Which means…” Dreamdrop began, and without her saying a word, I already knew what she was thinking.

“More magical girls…” I blurted out, to which Palette nodded her head.

“Yes. It would seem zat every city has zeir own magical girls. I have only been there once myself, but zen again, I haven’t exactly been living here for very long. I was actually hoping zat maybe the two of you…” Palette finally rose to her feet, holding her teleport gem with one hand while reaching out with the other to help me to my feet. “...would come with me to officially meet zem?”

I could see Dreamdrop beginning to lighten up, but before she had the chance to accept, I quickly slapped her hand away, rose to my feet, summoned my spear and shoved it into Dreamdrop’s hands. “And how are we supposed to know this isn’t a trap?! You’ve been acting awfully funny, after all.”

Quickly, Palette fell back to her knees, bowing herself again while exclaiming apologies. “Please, Great und Powerful Trixie! I did not mean to offend you! I don’t vish you any harm!”

“How can we be so sure of that?!”

“Trixie…” Dreamdrop then put her hand onto my shoulder, calming me down enough to see a poor girl literally kissing my feet. “I don’t think she wants to hurt us. You were the one who said she might have changed, after all.”

I switched several looks back and forth between Dreamdrop and Palette, getting frustrated with my own indecisiveness. “Then what do you want us to do?”

“I want to go to Everfree City. I want to meet the other magical girls. Maybe then…” Dreamdrop chuckled. “Maybe then we can finally move on from what Discord did to us.”

There wasn’t much I could say to argue with her. Even though I did want to keep the both of us safe, I knew that deep down, there was no such thing as safety, and the only way I could ever feel safe again would be to allow myself vulnerability. Looking down at Palette again, I thought back to the day when I killed Mind Games, her teammate. She had been in that exact same position when I severed her head, begging for my forgiveness, but instead of showing her mercy, I took out my frustrations by killing her. Mind Games died because of my ego…

...but I wasn’t going to let that happen again.

Holding out my hand, Palette hesitantly grabbed hold, lifting herself to her feet and brushing the dust off of her colorful dress. I never really noticed it before, but she was staking her own life as well by taking the chance to meet us. She had taken a chance the moment she first approached me, knowing that I would have never expected her to be a magical girl if she hadn’t flat out told me, but now that I had recognized that, I began to feel a small wave of relief rush down my body. It was small, but at least I could trust her a little bit more.

“Alright, Palette,” I said, folding my arms to show her my hesitancy. “Show us this Everfree City.”

Dreamdrop immediately grabbed hold of my arm, bouncing up and down at my change of demeanor while Palette legitimately smiled for the first time since we had arrived. Grabbing onto her teleport gem once more, she said, “Very well. I just want you to know beforehand zat Everfree City is not like that of Platinum City.”

“What do you mean?” Dreamdrop asked, eliciting a smirk from Palette.

“You’ll see…”

Suddenly, with all of us grabbing onto our teleport gems, the world around us began to shift, changing colors and morphing into different shapes while the air around us became warmer. It had been four years since either Dreamdrop or I had used our teleport gems, and unfortunately, the short trip brought back more feelings of dread than a comfortable wave of nostalgia. With the two of us holding onto each other for emotional support, we held our breaths until the colors around us eventually solidified into stable shapes in the form of a giant city, and as Palette had said, this place was far different than Platinum City.

Letting go of Dreamdrop, I slowly began to take in the surroundings, which instead of running streams and forestry growing along the buildings was more of an old town, not unlike a peasant village. Whereas Manehattan had the smells of fresh flowers and clear water, Everfree City smelled more like wood and dirt, which was admittedly still cleaner than the normal air of Canterlot. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it still left an underwhelming impression for a magical girl who had seen other parallel worlds.

“This is it?” I asked, turning towards Palette.

“Not exactly,” she replied, walking down the dirt path before us. “Come. Let me show you what makes zis place so different.”

Dreamdrop and I exchanged looks and shrugged shoulders, basically following orders with no more expectations. By this point, most of the precautions we’d had before had diminished into a feeling of tranquility, mostly due to the quiet atmosphere around us. There were houses all around us, yet it didn’t seem like this place had any residents, or at least if it did, nobody was home. Everything seemed pretty boring, at least until we saw a shadow zip past us, making me reflexively step in front of Dreamdrop with my arms outstretched, looking around in all directions for a surprise attack.

“Do not worry, Great und Powerful Trixie. Zere is no one here who wishes you any harm.”

I hesitantly lowered my guard, knowing that even if nobody wanted to hurt us, there was still someone there, watching us as the two of us followed Palette down the dirt path. Dreamdrop didn’t seem too worried, which was all I needed to keep myself at ease, especially since at this point, we could finally make out a destination ahead of us. There were several people there, and if I wasn’t mistaken, a fountain as well. This seemed like exactly where a meeting point would be for magical girls, which Palette only confirmed by running towards the center with an excited skip.

“Look! It’s Palette!”

“Hey, you’re back!”

“I was so scared you’d leave us forever, Palette!”

Both Dreamdrop and I followed behind her, although neither of us picked up our pace, nor did either of us try particularly hard to make the girls notice we were even there. Of course, it didn’t take long, however, before the group of girls in the distance finally became clear images, all of which tilted their heads away from Palette to get a better look at us.

“Who’re you? Are you here with Palette?”

“Are you magical girls too?! Oooohhhhh, you’re both so cute~!”

My cheeks were now unexpectedly starting to burn up as my social anxiety kicked in. I thought I had finally gotten a better grip of that once I moved to Canterlot, but it looked like the nervousness from my preteen years had stayed with me at least a little bit. Luckily for me, though, Palette turned towards us with a smile before taking the reins herself.

“Everyone, I vould like you to meet my friends, Dreamdrop and ze Great und Powerful Trixie!”

Suddenly, a throng of about seven magical girls all cluttered around Dreamdrop and I, either trying to make conversation or gawking at our outfits as if they’d never seen real magical girls before. This was definitely outside my comfort zone, even despite all the crowds I had drawn at school with my show-offy shenanigans, and looking over at Dreamdrop, it looked like she was feeling the exact same way. Fortunately for both of us, however, Palette quickly moved in to intervene politely, at least enough to give us some breathing room.

“Wait a second!” a girl with cat ears shouted out, silencing the clamoring girls around us. “How did you girls get your meowgical powers, anyway?” She then turned to Palette, putting her paw-like gloves on her waist. “I was meaning to ask you yesterday, but does that mean you’ve met Autumn Blaze already?”

“That’s right!” added a girl with metallic skin and a blue outfit. “She never leaves Everfree City. Have you three somehow found a way to get here without the use of teleport gems?”

“You idiot!” shouted a girl with thick, dark eyeshadow and a bright pink dress. “No one can get here without a teleportation gem!”

“If that’s so, then how did those girls get their powers?”

Palette was obviously beginning to sweat, hoping that introducing us hadn’t started some kind of argument, but before she could even break them up, a soft sound began to echo throughout the city. It was almost like the sound of windchimes, mixed with the elegant tone of violins and harps brought together by the wind blowing the leaves along the barren city until a figure emerged in the distance. Then, lying on her back against the fountain was some kind of horse-like creature with a lion-like mane and a horn in the shape of a tree branch. She was definitely a creature born of magic, similar to Discord, only instead of being terrifying and nonsensical, she was quiet, peaceful and beautiful…

...until she started talking…

“Hey, girls! Oh, you have no idea how nice it is to see some smiling new faces around here! I mean, it’s not like I don’t appreciate the other smiling girls here, and it’s not like you girls aren’t smiling anyway, but I cannot believe, I repeat, CANNOT believe that there were magical girls that I didn’t even know about! I’m with the others. I am SO intrigued about how the three of you managed to get your powers without me. Then again, it’s not like you could come here without powers in the first place, and it’s not like you could get magical powers without coming here. Talk about a paradox, am I right?”

I couldn’t help but cringe, not only at her long-winded speech, but also at the sound of her bringing up a name of a magical girl that I had seen die, which no doubt she noticed.

“Oh, my bad! Am I rambling? I tend to do that sometimes. You know how some people’s minds run a thousand images per second? Well, that’s kinda like how my mouth works sometimes. It just keeps going on and on without stopping, you know? Haha! Oh, right. I’m literally doing the exact thing that I’m trying not to do. Anyway, my name is Autumn Blaze. This here is Lucky Star, La Proxy, Catastrophe--she gave herself that name, not me--Sun Shadow, Trickster, X Genesis volume nine--although I usually just call her Genny--and last but not least, we have Divinity. There are a couple of other girls as well, but they’re probably sleeping right now. I mean, come on! It’s just barely after midnight! It’s midnight, right? I haven’t been to the human world in forever! It’s so difficult for me to keep track sometimes haha. So! Who are you three?”

We couldn’t believe that we could actually hear silence again, which we had a feeling we would need to enjoy while we still could, but just as I was about to introduce myself--

“Hey, Autumn Blaze! My name is Dreamdrop, and this is my girlfriend Trixie. Oops! I don’t know if I was supposed to tell everyone that. Sorry! We’re here with Palette. Have you met her yet? It sounds like the girls know her, at least. So are you like the magical being that watches over this realm? Does every city have one of those? We all got our powers a long time ago, actually. Four years ago for Trixie and me. How about you, Palette? Four years for you too? I’m going to take that look to mean yes. These aren’t even all the magical girls here?! How many are in Canterlot? Sorry, I’m not sure if I’ll remember all of your names right off the bat.”

As Dreamdrop and Autumn Blaze continued their conversation, I pulled my hat over my face to hide my simmering cheeks as Palette nudged at my shoulder with a cocky smile. “So zis is your girlfriend, yes? You definitely found a keeper.”

“Please stop talking,” I said into my hat. “Trixie wishes everyone would stop talking.”

“Oh, my goodness!” Autumn Blaze continued, still intertwining words with Dreamdrop. “It has been forever since I’ve found someone who can keep up a conversation with me. No offense to anyone here, but they are not the best at communication sometimes, especially Sun Shadow. Oh! I’m sorry. I just realized that I said ‘no offense’ and then immediately said something that was probably hurtful. Ehh, you’re used to it by now, aren’t you, Sun Shadow?”

“Can I die now?”

“Ignore her. She’s just crabby because she missed her nap. By the way, I don’t think you’ve mentioned how the three of you got your powers yet.”

Dreamdrop’s face quickly lit up again. “Oh, that? The three of us are actually from Manehattan. We got our powers from a magical draconequus named Discord. There were originally ten of us, but--”

Autumn Blaze was no longer smiling, although it appeared that she was still trying to fake it. With her lips twitching as they tried to remain curled up her cheeks, she muttered, “Did you say… Discord?”

“Yep! Wait, do you know Discord?”

Immediately after hearing her response, it looked like parts of her body were beginning to turn black, even turning into flames around her mane, but before I knew for sure, she quickly shook her head and was smiling just like she was when she first appeared. “Oh, it’s been forever since I’ve seen his face! How is he doing? Still up to chaos, I take it? Well, that basically answers all my questions! Especially why you three left, am I right? Anyway, it’s so good to have new magical girls here! I’m sure the three of you are going to love it here in Everfree City.”

“Can you even call it a city?”

Suddenly, everyone’s eyes turned towards Palette, who looked around at her environment completely oblivious to everyone’s reactions. “I’m sorry,” Autumn Blaze began. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I’m saying zat zis place is all dirt! Maybe a few houses, but other zan zat, it’s a complete wasteland! What about having tall buildings, small rivers and lots of gardens und trees?”

Autumn blaze tilted her head. “That… would need a lot of magic to create. Heck, if someone were to have the ability to put people to sleep, it would basically mean that I’d have to cut down the number of magical girls by at least half!”

Her convenient response hit all three of us at our cores, but it also left me with a sudden question. “Wait, what about us? Are our powers affecting the amount of magic you need to keep Everfree City alive?”

Autumn Blaze shook her head. “Since you three are from a different city, your magic comes from wherever you got you powers, so whatever parallel world is connected to Manehattan is the only place that could be affected by your magic. Did Discord not explain all this to you when he made you into magical girls?”

“No,” Dreamdrop answered. “He’s not the best at communicating sometimes.”

“So I remember! It must be so hard for the three of you to have had to deal with someone like that for so long. Actually, if you wanted to transfer your magic here, you could be citizens of Everfree City and finally be rid of him forever. What do you say, girls?”

I held my breath. After all these years, there was a chance that I would never have to worry about Discord entering into our lives again, and if I was lucky, all the bad dreams that I had about the game he had forced us into would finally disappear. I would finally be able to transform into a magical girl without worrying that there would be a caveat to it, like I would be under the supervision of a creature that wasn’t trying to hurt us. From what it seemed, Autumn Blaze would just talk up a storm if she ever got bored, whereas Discord would create chaos, but before I had the chance to agree to anything, Dreamdrop stepped in.

“That sounds great, actually! But… would you mind if we took the night to think about it? It’s just kind of a lot to think about right now.”

Again, I saw a small flicker of black spreading on her coat before quickly vanishing. “I’m sorry,” Autumn Blaze began, “I guess I’m not sure I understand. What is there to think about? You want to be rid of Discord, right?”

Those were my thoughts exactly, but at the same time, it seemed a little too good to be true, a sentiment that Dreamdrop obviously shared as well. “I just want to make sure we’re not walking into anything too quickly. Can we see you tomorrow and give you our answers then?”

Autumn Blaze took in a deep breath through her nose and exhaled out her muzzle, quickly returning to her signature smile. “Absolutely! Take your time! In fact, let me add my number to your magical phones, just in case you need anything from me.”

Suddenly, I felt a buzz coming from a pocket I didn’t even know I had, and glancing over at Palette and Dreamdrop, it looked as though they were experiencing the same phenomenon. As I pulled out my magical phone, I saw a new message that said, “Autumn Blaze’s number has been added to your contact list!” It had been so long since the last time I had used my magical phone, with my last memory being the night that I killed Night Seam, but that just brought up a new question.

“Wait a second!” I exclaimed. “How did you know we even had magical phones?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” the girl named Trickster asked. “We all have magical phones.”

The answer did seem simple enough, but when I looked into Autumn Blaze’s snarky smile, it seemed like there was something that she wasn’t telling us, something she didn’t want us to know. Still, though, looking around at all the other magical girls, I noticed that they were also pulling out their own phones, asking the three of us to exchange numbers. They all seemed so carefree, so trusting of one another, just like the three of us had been before we discovered Discord’s true motive, and maybe I was just being paranoid, but for some reason, I had had goosebumps since the moment I met Autumn Blaze, and not in the good way.

***

“I’m soooo sleepyyyy!” The minute we got home, Summer Breeze collapsed onto our bed, grabbing onto her pillow and snuggling with the covers, too lazy to even tuck herself in. “Tell Palette that midnight is too late. Next time let’s go at 7:30, OK?”

Seeing her almost cat-like face made it impossible not to smile, but now that we were back home, there were a lot of things that I wanted to talk about. “So, what did you think about Everfree City?”

“I thought it reminded me of how much I love to sleep. That’s why I made it my magic power.”

“Summer Breeze, I’m serious.”

“And I’m seriously tired. Can’t we talk about this in the morning?”

Rolling my eyes, I pulled my hair back and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Fine, but Trixie expects full attention in the morning. Do we have a deal?” Rather than respond with any coherent affirmation, however, she answered with a loud snore, making me wonder how she could have possibly fallen asleep so quickly. “Sleep really is your special talent, isn’t it?”

“She looks so peaceful, doesn’t she?”

I immediately yelped, surprised not only from the surprise voice coming from seemingly nowhere, but also because of the ominous way its familiar tone rang through my ears. My skin was growing cold with goosebumps despite my heart heating up the inside of my body, causing me to break out into a cold sweat as my whole body began to tremble. Not only was my skin changing colors, but also the entire room, which turned dark, blackening the electrical light until the only colors in the room were emerging in front of my eyes. I knew whose voice that was, and it was one that I had hoped that I would never hear again.

“Good evening, Trixie!” the figure said, taking the shape of a colorful draconequus. “My how time flies. What have you been up to these past four years? I see you and Summer Breeze are still together. Isn’t love wonderf--”

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!”

Discord flinched, taken aback by my sudden rage. “My, my! Touchy, aren’t we? You know, that’s not how people normally welcome back and old friend. Besides, you wouldn’t want to wake up your little shmoopy doo, would you?”

I quickly turned my attention to Summer Breeze, who would have a total heart attack if she saw Discord again, but luckily, she was still out like a light, too engrossed in her dreamworld to be woken by my screams. With a sigh to calm myself down just enough to where I wouldn’t raise my voice, I asked, “What do you want, Discord?”

“Why is it that I have to want something? Can’t my only desire to be catching up with an old friend?”

“Discord, you and Trixie are not friends. Now please, get out of my house and never come ba--”

“Hey, you were the one who called me here.” With my heart rushing, I quickly looked down at my magical phone to see that, as he said, I had accidentally called him through my pocket. “So what was it that you wanted to talk about? I thought you would have thrown out your magical phone years ago, but I guess you knew that you’d never be able to forget your old buddies.”

“Discord, please leave us alone. Trixie is sorry for accidentally calling you, but she’s had a long night and needs some sl--”

“Speeeeaking of magical phones, I couldn’t help but notice that you have a few new numbers in your contact list. Now where might you have gotten those, I wonder?”

I then pinched the bridge of my nose, realizing that no matter how many times I asked him to leave, he was obviously here to do more than just answer my butt dial. “From Everfree City. Where else?”

Discord’s smile was beginning to fade, which was something that I had never seen before. He was already terrifying as he was, but I could only imagine what kind of terror he could unleash if he ever got mad at anybody. “Everfree City, you say? Ohhhhhh, do tell me all about it.”

“Do we seriously need to go over this? Palette told us that since we’re in Canterlot, if we use our teleport gems, we’ll end up somewhere other than Platinum City, so the three of us went to Everfree City, met all the magical girls and some magical horse girl named Autumn Blaze.”

Suddenly, Discord’s fur was beginning to burn into a bright green flame until it engulfed his entire body from his lizard foot to his lion paw, burning through the darkness in his seething anger. Fearfully, I backed myself up to the headboard of my bed, grabbing onto the blankets like they could somehow save me from Discord’s fierce eyes staring straight into mine. His teeth grinded together, his neck extending closer and closer until his fiery muzzle was only an inch from my face, causing my breath to stop short in my lungs. In all my life, despite my childhood, despite the death game I had been forced to participate in, I had never been as scared as I was in that moment.

“Did you say… Autumn Blaze?”

“Y-yes, sir,” I replied, reverting back to my childhood speech patterns. “Did I do something wrong? I’m sorry! I just--”

Before I could finish, however, the green flames suddenly vanished, along with most of Discord’s enraged demeanor. Instead, however, he stood there at the base of my bed with his claws behind his back, gazing down at my trembling body with a look of almost disgust. Finally, though, he turned away, looking at my bedroom wall as if there were something interesting about it.

“Trixie…” he began, making me even more uncomfortable. “Do you want to see something?”

Of course, I wanted to say no, and on most occasions, he would leave if I asked him to, but the somber tone of his voice made me fear what would happen if I said no this time. Knowing that he could see me even with his back turned, I nodded my head, and in a quick flash, the scenery of my room turned into a different place, one that I recognized very well. It was a large building with long hallways, hard floors and plenty of rooms, but the eerie thing about it was how empty it was.

“Discord, why did you send Trixie to Canterlot High School?”

“Seems awfully quiet in here, doesn’t it?”

“It’s night time. Why would it be any different?”

Discord snickered deviously, making me gulp again. “No, Trixie. We’re not in the present anymore. In fact, the time on my watch says 11:15 AM on Tuesday, two weeks from today.” He then showed me the watch on his wrist--which I was sure he wasn’t wearing before--to prove that sure enough, what we were looking at was supposed to be a school day where the hallways would normally be filled.

“What are you getting at, Discord?”

Without saying a word, he began walking down one of the vacant hallways, holding his paw behind his back while keeping his pace relatively slow. Immediately, I realized what he was doing and quickly caught up to where he was, looking around for any clues of what he was getting at by bringing me here. If left to my own devices, I would have believed that it was just a snow day, which was entirely believable based on how early Canterlot got snow as well as how dark it was outside, but there was always something more to everything Discord did.

Finally, we arrived at a doorway which would normally lead to my homeroom, where the draconequus stopped moving and raised his claw to the doorknob. “Would you like to do the honors, or would you prefer I did it for you?”

I tilted my eyebrows, still hesitant about doing anything Discord wanted me to do. “Trixie would prefer if you opened the door for her. You are a gentleman, aren’t you?”

Again, Discord snickered. Then, with my heart standing on edge, his claw grabbed hold of the doorknob, turned it upside down, and slowly pushed the door open, finally revealing what was hidden on the other side.

The second my eyes caught a glimpse of the insides, however, I fell to my knees and threw up, if not by the sight, by the smell. I then coughed out whatever I could to bring the air back into my lungs, but another round of bile made its way out of my throat.

“Terrifying, isn’t it?” said Discord with a wily smile.

“What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck?! What happened here?! W-w-what’s going on?!”

Inside the room were several bodies scattered throughout the layout, all splayed as if they were each trying to escape or hide from something, the terror still edged into their faces. The worst part of all, though, was that these were my classmates, not just random people who I never thought I would meet again. The sight of someone who I believed moments earlier would live a long, prosperous life mangled on the back of a chair or protecting another student’s body just to have a hole piercing them both made all the feelings I’d been trying to hold back for four years return in an instant. In all my time as a magical girl, I had seen a total of eight dead bodies, but there were ten in front of me right now.

“Applejack!” I shouted with tears in my eyes, rushing over to my friend’s body. “Soarin! Cloud kicker! Fluttershy!” One by one, I addressed their bodies as well as gauged their method of execution, which just got worse and worse as I moved through them. Gun wound to the head. Severed jugular vein. Crushed bones. Bones sticking out. “No… Miss Cheerilee!” My old teacher, however, looked like she had suffered the most, with half of her body burned to a crisp, leaving only a skeleton with remnants of flesh and clothing.

“That’s not all, Trixie,” Discord said, making his way out of the room. “There’s more you need to see.”

“Explain what’s going on first!”

Unfortunately for me, however, Discord continued walking, and I really wasn’t in the position to be demanding anything from him right now. I quickly followed behind, dreading wherever he was taking me, but as I looked through the windows of each classroom and saw a vague representation of what I had seen before, I knew that I needed whatever answers he could give me.

Finally, we arrived at the auditorium, which made me panic even more about how bad the carnage would be once we entered inside. Putting my fears behind me, however, I took the reins and pushed my way through the double doors, but once we entered inside, I froze in place, a single tear running down my cheek. My body tensed up with my insides gripping like I was about to have a heart attack. The sight before me literally made me feel like I was about to die.

“No…”

I then fell to my knees, collapsed forward and bawled my eyes out. The body that I saw before me… was Summer Breeze’s, torn in half with both pieces just a few feet apart.

“NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!”

“Look at her, Trixie! This is the future that we’re on the course for right now!”

“Summer Breeze! PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME! PLEASE DON’T DIE!”

“It’s too late, Trixie!”

“NO! PLEASE! I’LL DO ANYTHING! JUST DON’T LET SUMMER BREEZE DIE!”

“You think Summer Breeze is the only one you have to worry about?”

Raising my head just slightly, I finally began to make out the other bodies along the auditorium floor. Rainbow Dash. Sunset Shimmer. Principal Celestia. Vice Principal Luna. And...

“Palette…?”

With my legs shakily pulling myself up, I wobbled my way forward again to make sure I was seeing things right, but sure enough, this body belonged to Palette, or rather Photo Finish, who had a purple dart piercing through her right eye, shattering her signature glasses. Turning my attention towards Discord again, my lip began to tremble. I needed answers, anything to help me make sense of the gory envelopment of my surroundings.

“What is all this?”

“This is a warning of things to come.”

“But… who did all this?”

In an uncharacteristic fashion, Discord fell to his knees and lowered his head to meet my gaze, placing his paw on my shoulder. “The creature you went to see tonight is not your friend, Trixie. She did this. She will murder everyone at this school, as well as anyone who tries to stop her.”

“Autumn… Blaze…?”

“No, Trixie. Her magical girls did this, under her command.”

“But… why?”

“Because she has a heart even colder than mine, and she will do whatever she can to get revenge for what this world did to her.”

“What do you mean?”

Without even acknowledging my final question, however, Discord rose to his feet, walking slowly again towards another part of the room. This time, I couldn’t find the strength to follow him with anything more than my eyes, but finally, he arrived at the edge of the room, just beyond what I could see in my current position.

“Trixie… Come see this.”

With a deep heave, I squeezed my eyes shut, weakly forced myself to my feet and made my way over to where he was standing. I held my left arm to my side, staring down at my feet as I walked, using my memory alone to guide me to where I remember his voice originating. Eventually, however, I was side by side with Discord, and with only enough willpower to lift my eyes to his claw, I could make out his finger pointing forward towards the stage. Finally, I lifted my head up just enough to see where his finger led, making out a leg dangling from the edge of the stage. The only problem now, though was…

...I knew that leg…

With a newfound urgency sending adrenaline through my veins, I rushed over to the stage, trying not to trip over my feet as I ran. The more I saw, though, the more I recognized the corpse lying motionless on its back. Then, I saw her. There was no mistaking it.

And I screamed.

“TRIXIE! WAKE UP!”

Before I knew what was going on, I was heaving deep, heavy breaths, holding onto my chest as sweat trickled down my entire body, which was seizing uncontrollably. I wasn’t in Canterlot High School anymore; I was back home, and upon realizing that I was finally back where I was safe again, I keeled over and began to cry hysterically into my hands. Summer Breeze, however, held me close on her lap, brushing one hand through my hair as I bawled pathetically like I did when I was twelve.

“Shh! Shh! Shh! It was just a dream, Trixie. It’s all over now. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

“Summer Breeze?” With timidity in my voice, I slowly turned my head to see Summer Breeze smiling down at me, filling my heart with joy, but for some reason, my mind immediately went back to the visage of her corpse rended in half on the Canterlot High floor, and I immediately began to cry again.

“It’s OK, Trixie! It’s me! You’re safe. Just breathe.”

Despite how much she tried to comfort me, which would have calmed me down completely on a normal day, I couldn’t stop shaking. I couldn’t stop seeing what Discord had shown me. The smell of their bodies, the detailed colors of blood mixed with entrails, the horrified faces of the kids who knew they were about to die, all of it was too real to remove from my mind. The worst part of it all, though, was that corpse lying dead on the stage. I had an idea of who it belonged to at first, but after getting an up close view, there was no doubt. That body was…

...mine...