“Hey, Trixie?”

“Hm?”

“After all that’s happened, are you glad that we met?”

I was a little flustered by the question. The two of us were sitting on a skyscraper not too far from the beach, celebrating our three year anniversary with a much needed vacation, especially since Summer Breeze was in the tail end of her university program. Everything around us was tranquil, from the sunset over the shoreline to the blissful ocean air, making the entire area around us seem to sparkle along each of our senses. As Summer Breeze looked me in the eye again, though, her question seemed sincere, making me wonder how she could ever even think about something like that in a setting this romantic.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… You got involved in so much trouble because of me… You had to leave your home and your family to be with me too… Was that really all worth it?”

I couldn’t help but giggle, leaning my head onto her shoulder as she leaned her head against mine, hovering her hand above my own until our fingers were interlocked. As I turned my head to look into her eyes, though, I couldn’t imagine ever going a single day without being able to see her beautiful face looking down on me. As she stared back at my laughing face and began to giggle herself, her hair blocked out the remaining sunlight, leaving her smile as the only thing in my sight to brighten my vision.

“I’m serious, Trixie!”

“Well, duh! Trixie wouldn’t just fall for anyone, you know. After all…” I then gripped her hand tighter, nuzzling my face deeper into her shoulder. “...you saved my life… in more ways than one.”

Summer Breeze giggled again. “And you refused to let me die.”

“Of course. Trixie will never let you die.”

“Ever?”

“Nope! When our bodies are old and frail, we can change back into magical girls so we can be together even longer.”

“Haha! Already thinking ahead, I see. Are you sure that’ll work?”

“Trixie will try everything she can… but I don’t want to ever think of spending another day without you... You’re everything to me, Summer Breeze. Of course I’m happy I met you.”

“I’m glad to hear that, because I was just thinking the same thing. I love you, Trixie Lulamoon.”

My heart began to flutter wildly, causing me to squeeze around Summer Breeze’s waist to show her how close she was to my heart, but as she hugged me back, I could begin to feel the faint sensation of her heart beating in tandem with mine. They were both beating so fast, causing us both to breathe heavily despite the fact that all we were doing was holding each other in our arms. It was so silly, in fact, that out of nowhere, the two of us start cracking up, breaking down in girly laughter until we had to calm ourselves down, just so we could breathe normally again.

“Hey, Trixie…?”

“This better not be another one of your self-deprecating questions again.”

Summer Breeze shook her head with a giggle. “No, it’s nothing like that. I know it’s still early and all, but--”

“Summer Breeze, if you’re talking about early in the day, the sun is about to go down, and if you’re talking about our relationship, we’ve been together for three years. Trixie is sure that whatever you want to say, it’s been too long for you to call it ‘early’.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I was just thinking…” Summer Breeze then began to twiddle her thumbs, looking down at her knees as her legs dangled over the building on which we sat. “You know, since I love you so much, and since--just from my own interpretation--it seems like you m-might like me back…”

“Summer Breeze, you’re doing it again.”

“Right. Sorry.” Then, with a deep breath, she pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. “I was just wondering… if you wanted to get married after this…”

Suddenly, my whole body froze, despite the inside of my chest doing jumping jacks around my ribcage. My eyes had grown wide with my mouth trembling, trying to find a way to put into words what I was thinking or how I was feeling. I had been waiting this moment my whole life, but to hear those words finally come out of her mouth, especially on our three year anniversary, I was just so caught off guard that I couldn’t respond!

“I mean, of course, we have plenty of time to think about it, and you still have to finish high school and all. Plus, it’s not like you have to answer right now or anything, but anyway, I know I’m probably putting a lot of pressure on you with that question, so how about we just--”

“Yes.”

Finally, Summer Breeze looked up from her knees, gazing into my eyes with her eyebrows raised.

“W-what did you say?”

“Yes. Trixie would love to marry you.”

The girl in front of me, though, just seemed to laugh like this was all a big joke, but once she realized that I was serious, a smile formed on her face with her eyes beginning to water. “You mean it? We’re really getting married?”

“Only if you manage to find a ring that fits Trixie’s flawless complexion.”

“Oh, quit it. We both know that there’s no diamond in the world that’s that perfect.”

“Trixie disagrees, and when she finds it, you’re going to be the one wearing it on our wedding day.”

“Uh-oh! Unfortunately for you, I’m gonna be the one with a job.”

“But you’re also going to be the one with student debt, so I’ll still have more money than you!”

“...I hate you so much right now…”

“Good. That just proves that Trixie loves you more.”

“Oh, you want me to prove who loves who more?”

Suddenly, Summer Breeze wrapped her arms around the small of my back, pulling me into the most passionate kiss imaginable while I held her cheeks from her jaw. The way her lips pressed against mine made my heart race, causing my whole body to shudder while I pulled my mouth away, just to find a better angle to kiss her again, exhaling all my insecurities. Summer Breeze was the reason I felt great and powerful, like she was the missing piece in my life that made me who I am today, and as the two of us kissed, I felt myself crying just from the unimaginable bliss she made me feel. It was without a doubt the best memory of my life.

Summer Breeze, I love you so much… so why did you have to die…?

“Alright, Marrow,” Dreamdrop demanded with her hands on her hips. “You’ve got some explaining to do! You seem to know something we don’t. How did you know Divinity wouldn’t kill you back there? In fact, how did you know any of the stuff you knew back there?”

“Well,” Marrow began confidently, “first of all, I knew that we weren’t in Canterlot the moment Divinity told us she was going to end the planet. She told us so herself that she has people here worth protecting, people important enough that she would go out of her way to screw up our directories over, despite the fact that she never once touched any of the other girls’ bios. Same thing goes with La Proxy. I don’t care how bad of a mother you are, nobody is going to watch their family get killed just to end a stupid fight over magical girls.”

“But you seemed pretty cocky out there with Divinity, though,” Mind Games added. “How did you know she wasn’t gonna hurt you?”

Marrow chuckled. “Divinity couldn’t have hurt me. She’s not omnipotent.”

Suddenly, all of us began to clamor between ourselves, trying to make sense of the obvious contradiction in our minds. “Now, hold on a sec,” Paradox added. “I’m still not sure I have a complete grasp on things myself, but I was under the impression she could use any power she could think of. Am I missing something here?”

“That’s the logical conclusion, yes, but there was something I noticed when La Proxy sent us to that outer space dimension. Did you notice that when Discord told her to save X Genesis, she had to chase after her? Why not just teleport her to where she was floating? Because she couldn’t.”

“I don’t know how much more my head can take,” Cupid Symphony added. “Can you please just tell us what the point of all this is?”

“It’s the same reason why she didn’t cut my vocal chords when I was provoking her back in the alternate Canterlot about the same time she was trying to hit us with meteors. It’s the same reason she didn’t just deflect all of our magic and snap her fingers to break our necks. It’s the same reason she created a portal to Platinum City right as soon as she tried closing the one La Proxy made.”

“Out with it, Marrow!” Iron Maiden exclaimed. “What’s her weakness?”

“She can use any power she wants… but only one at a time.”

Suddenly, all of our eyes went wide, realizing that we couldn’t think of a single time when she had used two powers at once. The reason why we had been able to survive as long as we did was because every time she tried attacking us, she let her guard down for another magical girl to strike, and when she wanted to defend herself, she left us room to get away. This only made it easier for us with more magical girls at our disposal. Back when it was seven Platinum City girls against four Everfree City girls, we barely survived, but now that it was literally just her against ten of us, we actually had a chance of winning!

“Think you’ve got all that, Storm Rose?” Discord asked, slithering beside the most recent revival of the team.

“I guess, although I won’t know for sure until I see her for myself.”

“Oh! Then I have great news for you! I’m actually sending you all back right now!”

Mind Games then tilted her head as all of our eyes bulged. “Wait… what?”

“Toodaloo!”

Before we knew it, we were travelling dimensions again, shrieking in fear as the floor unexpectedly fell from our feet, sending us through a variety of different flashing lights as our bodies became weightless in the transitional process. We had all experienced it dozens of times before, but the sheer abruptness of the fall compounded with the dangers of where we were going made the entire trip all the more terrifying. It only took a few brief moments for us to end up where Discord sent us, though with everything that was going through our minds, it felt like we had been falling for hours. Even with all we now knew about Divinity, we weren’t ready to take her on in that exact moment.

“Hello, girls.”

But unfortunately for us, we had no choice.

Then, before we even knew where she was, I heard a crunch, causing Palette to collapse beside me, gripping onto her leg, which was now turned backwards. Then, turning the other direction, I saw Cupid Symphony bleeding out of her eyepatch, screaming and as she ripped it off of her face, gripping her eye socket which was now missing her eye. Before I could even take the chance to look around for where Divinity might be, though, I summoned my spear and swung backwards, hitting nothing despite hearing the sound of wings flapping behind me. Then, I suddenly ducked my head, avoiding a flash of lightning soaring towards my head from Storm Rose as she attempted to knock Divinity out of the sky, but in the next moment, Divinity had teleported directly to her side, grabbing her by the back of the neck and slamming her into the ground.

“Everyone!” Marrow shouted, jumping out of her skeleton while holding onto the anti-magic orb she received from Palette. “Attack now!”

“I’m done playing defense.”

Suddenly, the empty CHS courtyard had turned into a battlefield, with several different arrays of magic flying through the air at once. Divinity first dodged a metal plate thrown by Iron Maiden, which she retaliated by attempting to open the earth beneath her, but just as she faced Iron Maiden’s direction, Paradox began moving her hands towards Divinity, changing what she saw. In the next moment, Divinity broke the hypnosis by creating a blue aura around her skin, sending a kick into her gut and avoiding a flurry of knives thrown at her by Night Seam, compounded with the area around us as well as our bodies turning black in the next instant. Then, with her fist turning into a giant fireball, she slammed her hand into the ground, creating a circle of fire to spread out around us which Palette just barely saved us from after painting a gun and spraying all the flames away.

The two that I felt had the best chance of stopping her, however, were either myself or Dreamdrop, mainly because I had an anti-magic orb and Dreamdrop had the power of surprise on her side. I was trying to get as close to her as I could so that I could swing my spear in her direction, but she always jumped away to try and attack another teammate before I could land a clean hit. Meanwhile, I was also trying to angle her towards Dreamdrop, who was just doing her best to keep herself out of view, but Divinity always seemed to end up opposite of where I tried putting her.

“If you girls give up now,” Divinity said in between jumps, “I’ll make your deaths less painful.”

“Ha!” Marrow replied. “I was just about to tell you the same thing.”

“Then I guess I can start with you.”

In the next moment, a large, jagged rock appeared out of the ground right in front of Marrow’s face, but before she had the chance to dodge away from it, Divinity appeared right behind her, slamming her face into the risen earth so hard that it shattered from the impact. In the next moment, though, her skeleton swiped across Divinity’s body, just for Divinity to grab the skeleton in mid air and shatter the bones into dust. It seemed like she was going to get away until suddenly Dreamdrop showed up behind her, reaching for her neck. Before she was able to touch Divinity’s skin, however, the angel girl snapped her fingers, causing Dreamdrop to fall to her knees, clutching at her throat.

“Dreamdrop!” Marrow shouted, turning around with her skeleton reappearing on her body. “Take this!”

Then, as soon as Marrow handed the anti-magic orb into Dreamdrop’s hands, she quickly coughed out a pool of purple liquid onto the ground by her feet. “Thanks, Marrow,” she said, soothing her throat while I breathed a sigh of relief. “I think she tried to poison me or something.”

“Give that to any magical girl who looks like they’re being affected by Divinity’s magic. Trixie! Let’s go!”

“Right!” I shouted, jumping into the action myself. Suddenly, the two of us appeared on each side of Divinity right after she had dodged another lightning bolt to the face, but just as soon as the two of us were about to strike, she disappeared, leaving Marrow’s skeleton swiping at my neck. “Hey! Watch it!”

“What’s the matter, Divinity?” Marrow asked. “Can’t take it?”

“Divinity?! I’m Trixie! What are you--Wait! SHE HAS YOU BRAINWASHED!” Then, turning my head, I saw that everyone in the area other than Dreamdrop was sending their magic in my direction, causing me to use my powers to knock everyone to their feet while Divinity pulled vines from the floor and grabbed me by the legs. Just as I started whacking at the weeds with my spear, however, the other magical girls got to their feet again, getting ready to attack while I was busy trying to free myself. “Girls! Listen to me! Divinity is controlling you!”

“Mind Games! Catch!”

Then, turning my head, I saw Dreamdrop throw her own anti-magic orb into Mind Games’s hands, making her break free from Divinity’s spell immediately, and in the next moment, I heard a voice echoing through seemingly everybody’s mind. ‘Everybody stop! That’s the Great and Powerful Trixie! The real Divinity is right behind us!’ As soon as Mind Games’s announcement ended, the girls all turned their heads to see a second Divinity clicking her tongue and breaking everyone’s spell.

Just as everyone turned around to attack again, however, she froze everybody’s bodies except for myself and Mind Games, halting for a moment to catch her breath. “I don’t want to fight anymore, girls…” she said, panting heavily as she spoke. “I just wanted us to be sisters. I was hoping that maybe you wouldn’t act out on Discord’s plan, that you would trust that we’re no worse than you are.”

“But…” Mind Games began, “...you tried to kill an entire school.”

“Because you betrayed us. I was hoping that I could change your mind, Great and Powerful Trixie, before you decided to go through with this plan. I was hoping that you would become part of Everfree City so I could change that future from happening. I wanted to prevent this fight from happening, but it only would have been possible had you not trusted Discord.”

“What are you saying?” I asked, now with confusion and anger in my voice. “You told me so yourself that Discord doesn’t lie!”

“But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t have changed your future! I tried! I honestly tried!”

“What do you mean you tried…?”

Finally, Divinity had caught her breath, looking me in the eyes with that divine look that made me come to fear her. “If you had joined Everfree City and never gone back to Discord, this fight never would have happened. That’s why I killed your mother.”

I then dropped my spear, my lower lip trembling as I tried to make sense of what she was saying. “What did you say…?”

“Your mother died of alcohol poisoning, didn’t she? I would know. I was the one who made sure it killed her. I thought that if you knew how terrible it was to lose someone this important to you, you would want to stay away from killing as much as possible. Then maybe you would choose Everfree City and rid of all your ties to Manehattan, including Discord. I had no idea that he would be able to manipulate life itself and bring magical girls back to life by killing my teammates, though!”

“I thought you could have any power you wanted!” Mind Games shouted. “Doesn’t that mean you can see the future?”

“The future isn’t set in stone. What Discord showed you, Trixie, was the future path that you were on. Haven’t you noticed that the events Discord showed you have already turned out differently? That’s because this is the future you chose! TO KILL MY SISTERS!”

“AND YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!”

“Only so that you would choose to start a new family with my sisters and I in Everfree City! Now look what you’ve done to them! The attack never would have happened if you had aligned yourself with us, but instead you chose Discord! Now because of you, I’ve lost Dokaeru, Sonic Boom--”

“Stop, Divinity…”

“Trickster, Lucky Star, Sun Shadow--”

“Trixie said stop!”

“CATASTROPHE, GENNY, LA PROXY!”

“TRIXIE SAID STOP!”

Suddenly, the two of us were both using levitation powers to grab each other by the throat, breaking everyone else free from their frozen bodies while the two of us lifted each other into the air. As everyone watched, however, nobody dared move, instead waiting to see which one of us would come closer to losing first before they even thought about intervening. My blood was so fueled with anger, however, that I would never allow myself to lose before making sure Divinity died by my hands, despite my vision gradually growing darker. Once the two of us were several stories into the air, however, Divinity disappeared, causing me to drop to the ground while she landed safely away from everyone else.

“Le Blanc! Save her!”

Then, just as I was about to collide with the ground, Marrow’s skeleton jumped off of her body, grabbing me in mid air and skidding to a halt on the pavement before I ended up getting hurt all over again. When I looked back up at the angel of death, though, she had a look of anger just as severe as mine, and she didn’t look like she was done with me quite yet.

“You want to take my sisters away from me?” she asked in fury. “Then I’ll take away someone from you. That is my divine judgement.”

Then, disappearing and reappearing again, she managed to pop up right behind the one magical girl who had been doing her best to keep herself hidden from the fight. With my eyes growing wide in terror, I saw her turn around with fear on her face just as Divinity’s hand materialized a thin knife, and in the next moment, time stood still in my mind. I couldn’t physically comprehend what was going on. I couldn’t hear the screams around me. I couldn’t see her hair in Divinity’s hands as she tried to break free. I couldn’t see the red line across her throat. I couldn’t see the blood spurting over her body. I couldn’t see her gasping for air. I couldn’t see her drop to the floor. I couldn’t feel the beating in my chest. I couldn’t feel the tears in my eyes. I couldn’t feel my mouth growing dry. All I could hear was the high-pitched ringing in my ears, shutting out the rest of the world around me, and I was begging for it to stop. All I could think was how I would make it stop. All I could comprehend was someone making it stop. It was literally all I could think. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!

“DREAMDROP, NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”

Storm Rose then shot a beam of electricity towards Divinity’s direction, making her teleport yet again so that we could all race towards Dreamdrop’s body. “Discord!” Marrow shouted. “Take us back to Platinum City before she can bring Dreamdrop’s body to Autumn Blaze!”

Finally, just as the world was beginning to come back to life around me, the ten of us were teleported back to Platinum City with eight of them standing over Dreamdrop’s body. All of them were giving her encouraging words while I knelt a few feet away, unable to move my body, unable to accept that Dreamdrop, my best friend, the love of my life, was dying right in front of my eyes.

“Discord, you can save her, right?” Paradox asked in a panic. “Heal her like you did with us!”

“I’m sorry, Paradox, but half of her spirit has already left her body. I can’t heal her at this point.”

“Then put it back in like you did with all the other dead girls!” Iron Maiden shouted.

“Now you’re just asking for the impossible. Once a spirit has left a girl’s body, it will then reject its original host.”

“So you are saying zat zere is no way to bring her back?!”

“I’m sorry, Palette, but no amount of magic can save her now.”

I continued to watch the girls all panic, trying to keep Dreamdrop alive as if Discord was wrong about his assessment, but in a matter of seconds, Dreamdrop’s body stopped moving altogether. Then, her body began to change shape, turning from a girl with light blue hair and a starry-themed dress into a regular twenty-two year old girl with brown hair, sandals, jeans and a tight tank top. Everyone around her gasped in shock before turning their attention towards me. Finally, getting back up to my feet, I slowly limped my way to the body on the ground, collapsing again when I saw Summer Breeze lying peacefully despite the dark red line permeating through her neck. Tears streamed violently down my eyes as I collapsed onto her body, screaming at the top of my lungs as if my wails would somehow bring her back to life. I gripped her body as close to mine as I could, refusing to believe that this would be the last time I would ever hold her again.

“SUMMER BREEEEEEEZE!!!!!”

The girls around me were now crying too, but nowhere near how much I was crying. Divinity must have thought that she was getting even with me, but even after losing eight of her sisters, it would never even come close to the insurmountable pain I felt when I held Summer Breeze’s lifeless body in my arms.

“We were supposed to get married! We were supposed to live forever together! We had everything figured out! This wasn’t what was supposed to happen!”

Again, my screams grew louder to the point where I couldn’t even breathe anymore, despite how hard I was trying to gasp for air. Despite how hard my chest was thumping, I felt lifeless, cold, like blood wasn’t flowing through my body anymore. My skin was shaking through my nerves, causing me to grip my fingers tighter into her body, waiting for her to get back up so we could go home. No more magical girl hunt. No more danger. Just the two of us. I didn’t care what else happened. I just wanted to be with the love of my life again!

“I’m so sorry, mademoiselle,” Cupid Symphony said, placing her blood-stained hand on my shoulder, but I just shrugged it off and continued to cry harder.

“DREAMDROP! SUMMER BREE-HEE-HEEEZE!”

“You think we should leave her here for a little bit while we go back?” Iron Maiden asked, scratching the back of her head.

“No,” Marrow replied. “We need Trixie with us if we’re going to beat Divinity.”

“Do you not see how much pain she is in?!” Palette replied furiously.

“And yet she’s being comforted by one girl who lost her leg and another who lost her eye. Speaking of which. DISCORD!”

“Oh! Right! I should probably get all that fixed for you.”

They were just going to move on. They were just going to go back to fighting and pretend like none of this ever happened, and they wanted me to come with them? No… I couldn’t go back there. I couldn’t leave Summer Breeze. I had to be there for her when she woke up. This wasn’t the end! There was no way this was the end! Summer Breeze couldn’t just leave me like that! Just like before, I refused to let her die.

“Trixie, now is not the time to mourn,” Marrow said with authority in her voice. “If we wait any longer, Divinity is just going to go around killing more people.”

No… I had to be with Dreamdrop. I wasn’t going to go back there if it meant leaving Dreamdrop.

Finally, I summoned my spear in my hands, but the part that made everyone gasp was where I had it pointed. With my teeth chattering in my mouth and my arms shaking profusely, I hesitantly raised the spear to my throat, making everyone around me shriek in protest. I couldn’t go back there, though. I wanted to be with Summer Breeze forever. I wanted to be with her right now.

“TRIXIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, letting the tears pour down my cheeks as my body shook.

“Good bye, girls...”

*SLICE!*

Author's Note

One more chapter...