I had done it. I had slit my own throat. I was bleeding profusely. My eyesight was dimming. I could feel myself losing consciousness, bringing me ever closer to the threshold where I could finally be with Dreamdrop again. I would finally be able to be done with this hunt forever and spend eternity with the one person who mattered… but for some weird reason, I wasn’t in any pain.

“Dammit, G&PT! What were you thinking?!”

Suddenly, Paradox’s mind-manipulation wore off, revealing that rather than slitting my throat, I had actually sliced right through her arm, which was causing the profuse bleeding that I saw around me. I wanted to feel relief that she had saved my life right when I was about to act out on my emotions, but that wasn’t going to help bring back Dreamdrop, which is what I really wanted in the first place. I didn’t want to live in this world if it meant being away from Summer Breeze for one more minute!

“Discord, could you heal Paradox up, please?” Marrow commanded more than asked, but nonetheless, Paradox’s arm was healed instantaneously.

“Phew! Thanks, Discord! If only we had you on the battlefield.”

“Or…” Marrow continued, placing a finger to her lip as she thought deeply. “What if we brought Divinity here?”

“Didn’t Divinity say that there was a seal on Platinum City that kept her out?” asked Iron Maiden.

“Yes, but I’m sure Discord wouldn’t mind opening the seal just this once, right, Discord?”

“Open the seal? Open. The. Seal?! Sorry, Marrow, but that’s just something I can’t do, and before you ask ‘why not’ in your angry-as-always tone that you seem to love so much, it’s because her magic is much too powerful for Platinum City. Having Dreamdrop here was bad enough, but if you throw Divinity in a place like this, it would almost stop functioning the minute she walked through.”

Everyone had already moved on. Nobody cared but me. They were all focused on defeating Divinity, even though I was the one she was after. They attacked Canterlot High School to get back at me. The whole reason any of this happened was because I didn’t join Autumn Blaze when I had the chance. It was because I made the wrong decision that we ended up fighting Everfree City in the first place. It was my fault Dreamdrop died! It was just like Mr. Fairweather told me back in middle school. Everything always had to be about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, ME!

Again, while everyone was busy planning out their attack, I pulled my spear towards myself, this time at my stomach. It would hurt a lot more, but maybe this way nobody would notice. All my life I wondered if anyone would notice if I was gone, but this time, I really hoped that they wouldn’t. Closing my eyes and taking another silent, deep breath, I then angle my spear towards myself again.

“Trixie! No!”

“Le Blanc! Stop her!”

Just as I was reeling back to jam the object into my stomach, however, I felt something tugging my spear away from me, using more power in one hand than I had in my whole body. As I opened my eyes, I saw that Marrow’s skeleton had prevented my second suicide attempt, making me grit my teeth in anger. Of all the magical girls who could have stopped me, out of any of the powers that could have been used to save me, it just had to be hers.

“What’s your problem?!” I shouted, getting up to my feet as I glared into Marrow’s eyes.

“My problem? You really think that me saving your ass is my problem, or have you forgotten all the times I tried to kill you myself? You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Trixie didn’t want to be saved!!”

“Will you just shut that annoying mouth of yours?! Fuck, Tripsy! It’s like you bringing us all back to life was for nothing!”

I suddenly caused my spear to disappear from Le Blanc’s hands and reappear in my own so that I could charge forward and stab that motherfucker I had hated for so long, hoping that I could beat her skeleton to the finish line. Unfortunately for me, though, even despite the fact that I had managed to outspeed Le Blanc at the time when Marrow needed her most, I was unable to outspeed Iron Maiden and Palette, both of whom were able to shield her right as soon as I came down with my spear. They had betrayed me. They had all betrayed me!

“Great and Powerful Trixie…” Suddenly, my attention was caught off guard. Turning to my left, I saw that the person talking to me in her calm, soothing voice was Storm Rose, who looked more empathetic than she did angry. “I know I’m probably the least qualified magical girl here to say this, but we shouldn’t be fighting our team members. It’s not what Dreamdrop would have wanted.”

As much as it pissed me off to admit it, as much as I didn’t want to hear it from her voice in particular, she had enough truth in her statement to momentarily calm me down, allowing me to step back while Palette and Iron Maiden lowered their shields. I wasn’t breathing normally quite yet, but I was at least giving myself the chance to get ahold of myself for the time being, at least until Storm Rose was done talking.

“Please, Great and Powerful Trixie, realize that we still have a job that we need to take care of. That woman is out for blood, the lives of innocent civilians, and we are going to need all the help we can get if we’re going to defeat her. How would Dreamdrop react if you returned to her now by your own hands rather than fighting to get rid of this enemy before she has the chance to kill anyone else?”

As she said those words, the thought finally came to my mind that changed my mindset altogether. If we managed to kill Divinity, we could use her spirit to bring Dreamdrop back to life, and then everything we did would have been worth it! Why hadn’t I thought of that before?! I still didn’t know the details of how we would defeat Divinity, but if there was any chance in the world that I could bring Summer Breeze back, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second.

“You’re right, Storm Rose,” I said, nodding my head. “Trixie is sorry… to all of you.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Iron Maiden said, slapping me on the back. “Now, do you think you can handle your emotions until we can beat Divinity and save Canterlot?”

“Canterlot?” Storm Rose said inquisitively. “What the hell are we doing in Canterlot?”

Suddenly, half of the girls in the room started laughing, making Storm Rose’s confused expression contort even more. “We’ll have to explain later,” Marrow replied with a chuckle of her own. “Is everybody ready?” Then, with a final nod from everyone in the group, Marrow turned her attention back up towards Discord. “Alright. I think we’re ready to go back.”

“Actually…” Discord began, “...I think I have a better place I could send you to.”

“Like…?”

“Oh, you’ll see.”

He then laughed in his maniacal voice, causing storm clouds and fog to appear out of nowhere, booming thunder and lightning as we were once again forcefully transported back to Equestria. The nine of us then screamed again, seeing the lights flash around us as we traveled through the portal that led us back home, but once the lights finally dimmed into the surroundings of the afternoon sun, I noticed that where we were was completely different than before… but still familiar. It was as if I recognized where we were despite never being here in my life. As we appeared, though, there were several homeless people on a sidewalk staring up at our loud costumes in vibrant colors, which contrasted greatly to the cemetery behind them. Then, still feeling an unfamiliar wave of nostalgia, I looked up at the street sign, just to see if I knew anything about this place.

“B... Street?”

“What are you doing here?” Divinity asked, popping out of nowhere and making the crowd gasp again. “Have you come to take more innocent lives? Is this just your way of getting back at me? I thought you were supposed to be protecting the people of Manehattan.”

“Wait,” Cupid Symphony said, lifting up her eyepatch to look all around her. “This is Manehattan?! I must admit, I’ve never been to a place as dreadful as this in all the time I’ve lived here.”

“But the question now is,” Marrow began, “why did Discord send us here in the first place?”

Divinity then sighed, holding out her arms as the light around her shining body began to dim gradually. Once the light had dissipated, however, the girl standing across from us was wearing a baggy shirt, loose, torn jeans, a pair of tennis shoes that must have been at least fifteen years old, and messy hair that contrasted with the perfect elegance of Divinity. All of our mouths dropped from the total contrast, making us think that this was just a trap to lower our guards until--

“Cross Stitch? Hey, you guys! Cross Stitch is back!”

It was really true. This was the girl behind Divinity, this girl in tattered clothing with messy hair who for some reason associated with the lowest class in all of Equestria. Just as we were trying to wrap around heads around it, though, a woman who must have been in her late forties quickly rushed up to Cross Stitch, smiling wide despite her yellow gums and lack of a few teeth. Even among the standards of the people there, it looked like she had been through the worst of it, wearing little more than a garbage bag to keep herself covered.

“Is that really you, Cross Stitch?” she asked, grabbing the magical girl by the shoulders as she looked away from the homely woman in front of her.

“Yes… mother… It really is me.”

My eyes widened even further. This woman in the most dire of straits, hugging her child with all the love she had, was the mother of one of the most powerful women in all of Equestria? Not only that, but Cross Stitch seemed disgusted by the fact that she was even in the same breathing space together, a stark contrast to how her mother was looking at her.

“So, did you bring any money?”

Then, as Cross Stitch looked back at her mom with an eye of disdain, I began to realize why the two of them might not have got along so well. “Yes, mother.” Then, reaching into her baggy pockets, she pulled out a wad of cash, making the other squatters on B Street rise to their feet and hoot with excitement. “Now, where’s father? I have some for him too.”

“Oh,” her mom replied with a somber expression. “He isn’t with us anymore. He lost a bet three years ago, and, well you know how B Street is sometimes. Who are your friends, by the way? Are they the reason you’re so stacked these days? And now that your father isn’t here, you wouldn’t mind if I just took his portion, would you?”

“Actually,” Cross Stitch replied, turning a sharp glare in our directions, “we were all just leaving. After all, there’s no reason for us to be here anymore, right, girls?”

Suddenly, I realized exactly why Discord sent us here. If we knew where her family lived, she had an incentive not to attack any of our loved ones, including any of the students of CHS. If she even tried to hurt anyone we cared about, we could just return to B Street and attack civilians the same way she attacked the school. Of course, we would probably never do that, but the fact that we could was all Divinity needed to know in order to keep our fight just between magical girls from now on.

“Come on,” Cross Stitch said, leading us away from B Street. “I have a place where we can settle this without anyone else getting hurt.”

The fact that we could settle things on neutral ground rather than being sent back to Everfree City allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief, despite the fact that I had no idea where we were going. As she walked us down the streets of Manehattan, changing back into Divinity once the coast was clear, we all made sure to watch our backs, just in case she wanted to try a surprise attack before we knew what was going on. It could literally be as simple as stopping the heartbeats of anyone who didn’t have a magical orb, but Divinity had always had more honor than that. She would never trick us like that, no matter how much emotion she had behind her motives for killing us in the first place.

Finally, we arrived at what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse with dim lights that barely illuminated the walls painted in blood. I suddenly felt a shiver run down my spine, as if she had used this room to kill people before us, like this was a sort of ritual she had before doing whatever magical girl duties she had. Once the doors behind us closed, however, everything was fair game, but even though we all basically had permission to start attacking, nobody, not even Divinity, moved a muscle.

“What’s the significance of this place?” Marrow asked as Divinity gazed at the blood-soaked walls.

The angel girl then sighed, appearing mournful as she examined the warehouse further. “This was where I took a human life for the first time… Actually, calling it a human life wouldn’t be doing it justice. I was forced to kill dozens of men my first day as a magical girl. It was just supposed to be negotiation, but when they pulled out their guns and Discord told me to choose between dying and becoming a magical girl…” Divinity took another deep breath and recollected herself, looking down at us as she continued. “I did what I had to do to protect those who were close to me. Ever since then, I have refused to do three things: look into my own future, make people love me, and turn back time. Those are the rules that I have created to prevent my powers from getting to my head… but after you killed so many important people in my life, it’s becoming harder and harder to keep the promise I made to myself.”

I wanted to open my mouth to talk to her one more time, to tell her how mad I was at her for giving us no choice, for taking away the one person who mattered more to me than anyone else, but Marrow held up her hand, silencing me before I could speak. “You know what we came here for, Divinity,” Marrow said brazenly. “Is there anything else you want to say to us before we start this whole thing up again?”

“Yes…” Divinity then looked at her feet with sorrow in her face. “When this is all over, I want you to promise me that if I somehow don’t make it out of this alive, you won’t hurt any of my loved ones.”

“Only if you can promise us the same.”

With a smile, the angel lifted her head again. “Of course. Now, how would you like to begin?”

Marrow then grew a long, thin bone from her arm, snapping it off and holding it in front of her. “When this bone touches the ground, that’s when this battle will officially start. Does that work for you?”

“Absolutely.”

Then, with everyone nodding in agreement, Marrow threw her bone into the air while we watched it come down with lumps in our throats. We still didn’t have a very good plan as to what we would do to beat Divinity, but we had held up our own for this long. Just so long as we could keep doing what we were doing, we would be able to outlast Divinity, but if anyone else were to die by her hands, we would need to send her back to Platinum City before Divinity could revive one of her own girls. The bone was now at the apex of the toss, causing time to seemingly stand still as we all waited for its descent. Once it eventually touched down, someone wouldn’t be making it out of this room alive, and all we could do was wait for it to slowly make its way down. I couldn’t tell whether it was Divinity making time go so slowly or whether it was just my imagination, but it felt like something was physically forcing the object to stay in the air longer than it had to. Suddenly, though, I saw everyone’s muscles tighten, getting ready to charge in the second they were given the opportunity…

...and then the bone landed.

Immediately, Divinity snapped her fingers, and everyone who wasn’t holding onto an anti-magic orb flinched backwards as if they were shot in the head while falling to the floor, motionless and unbreathing. “Trixie! Give your orb to Paradox! Once she’s awake, we can start taking care of the others!”

I nodded my head in agreement, not particularly sure whether or not her suggestion would actually work but trusting in her judgement regardless. While Divinity was using her magic to defend herself against Marrow, I placed my orb into Paradox’s hands, causing her to wake up and cough out a black sludge, vomiting the substance like bile. It worked! She had actually come back to life! I wasn’t sure if there was a time limit though, and with all the urgency I had, I said, “Use your magic. Now.”

“Got it!” Paradox agreed, moving her hands to where Divinity began missing some of her attacks against Marrow. Then, without wasting any more time, I rushed up to as many magical girls as were on the ground, giving them the anti-magic orb and watching them cough out the black sludge in their system before heading to the next girl. Once I had brought back four girls, however, Divinity angrily shrieked, creating a blue aura around her and making magic seemingly useless on her.

Even as Marrow tried to stab her with her bones, her magic deflected off of Divinity’s body, leaving her defenseless while Divinity grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her off to the side. While she had committed herself to using this one magic, however, I summoned my spear, giving the orb to Iron Maiden and saying, “Go revive everyone else! Quick!”

Iron Maiden then nodded her head and took off towards Night Seam while I turned towards the angel of death and swung at her with my spear, but just like what happened with Marrow, my blade bounced off of her skin. Then, in the next moment, she grabbed me by the neck and slammed her fist onto my stomach, making me hold back my gag reflexes to keep myself from vomiting. I was then thrown to the ground and stepped on hard while she made her movements to Paradox, but before she could get there, I grabbed her by the ankle, causing her to fall over and accidentally undo her magical barrier.

“Paradox! Now!”

“You’re finished!” the angel shouted, and in the next moment, I saw a bolt of Divinity’s lightning flying past my ear, barely missing me as Paradox continued to manipulate her vision. “So that’s the game you want to play?! Then let’s play it your way!”

This time, lightning soared out of her body in thousands of different bolts, covering the entire room and hitting all of us with an electrical field. Even Iron Maiden and Palette were both being shocked through their shields as the electricity surged through their bodies, but Marrow, on the other hand, was able to charge through the electricity, landing a clean hit into Divinity’s ribcage. As soon as the electricity stopped, though, the gravity around Divinity began to amplify to the point where our bones were being crushed, which was something the orbs wouldn’t be able to save us from. Luckily, though, Storm Rose sent her own electricity directly into Divinity’s direction, causing her to break the spell just long enough for Paradox to gain control over her sight again.

“You think you can control me just by changing what I can see? Then I’ll close my eyes!”

Then, jumping into the air, she created a block of ice that froze us all in our places while giving herself a small opening to move her body as she pleased. As we all continued to struggle through the ice, however, I could feel my skin freezing along with the lower temperatures, trying to do anything I could just to wiggle the warmth back to my fingers. Once she saw that we were all completely immobile, though, she finally laughed, lowering her hands as her magic became physical, no longer needing her attention. She could teleport at any minute and leave us there to die if we didn’t come up with something quick! Somebody needed to do something here!

‘Don’t worry, everyone!’ a voice in my head called out, allowing my heart to slow down momentarily. ‘I think I know a way to get us all out of here, but I need you all to listen closely if this is going to work.’

As I listened intently to Mind Games’s plan, I felt a total reassurance in my mind, allowing me to smile internally as Mind Games finished up her directions to the other girls. Then, as soon as I was given the go ahead, I used my magic to grab Divinity by the leg, making her look down as if she was looking at Marrow’s skeleton grabbing at her ankle. Paradox and Mind Games were also doing their part to hypnotize Divinity into thinking that we had all made it out safely and that I was now using a forcefield to block her attacks.

“WHAT?! But how?!”

‘You underestimated us,’ Mind Games communicated in Marrow’s voice. ‘Good luck getting through our barrier now.’

“No, magical girl. It’s YOU who have underestimated ME!”

Suddenly, a high-pitched energy swarmed through the ice, causing it to shatter instantly, sending flying shards of ice all over the room. Palette then quickly drew another gun and began spraying the ice shards as they came down towards us, causing them to disintegrate in midair with a sizzle. Divinity, however, was completely oblivious to what was going on around her, still believing that she was actively murdering us with the high-pitched soundwaves coming from her hands, but just as Palette was getting ready to shoot Divinity with her gun, the magical girl broke the magical spell she was under again, dodging Palette’s shot and sending a kick into her gut. As Palette fell to the ground, Divinity then stomped onto her back, grabbing the gun from her hands and pointing it towards her. Just as she was about to pull the trigger, however, I used my own magic to pull the weapon out of her hands, making her eyes go wide in response. She may have been able to prevent me from using my magic on her, but Palette’s weapons were still under my full capability.

Suddenly, Divinity looked around nervously, seeing how long we had lasted despite her powers doing everything they possible could to end our lives from the moment she first snapped her fingers. So long as our magical orbs were in play, there was no way for her to kill us all from the inside, but so long as we had our powers, there was no way for any of her other attacks to kill us either. For the first time in my life, I saw that Divinity, the goddess of all magical girls, had fear on her face, as if there was something that she couldn’t do, and it made her terrified.

Then, however, she clutched her hands together and took a deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut as she spoke. “You girls have no idea what you’re doing. You’ve given me no choice!” Tears were now beginning to fall down her cheeks as her chest took in heavy sobs, a complete turnabout from the cool and confident magical girl we had always seen. She looked… almost human. “I’m going to have to break one of the rules that I set for myself. I’m going to have to do something I swore I would never do again!”

“W-w-w-what do you mean?” Mind Games asked hesitantly.

“What else could you possible do to hurt us?” Cupid Symphony added with both panic and frustration in her voice.

Divinity, however, let another tear fall down her face as she took in a deep breath. I had a feeling I already knew what it was, but as soon as she said it out loud, my heart sank into the pit of my stomach. With another sad exhalation, she looked us in the eyes and said, “I’m going to have to go back into the past…”

“No!” Palette shrieked, but even despite her outburst, Divinity still wasn’t finished talking.

“...and I’ll have to kill you all before you ever become magical girls. It’s a good thing I did my own research on all of you before today. Basket Case, Checkers, Quick Wind...” Paradox clenched her teeth. “...Photo Finish, Heartthrob, Dazzling Gleam...” Cupid Symphony and Storm Rose then clenched their teeth as well after apparently hearing their names also called out. “...and of course Fleur De Lis, Trixie Lulamoon, and Lulu Lemo--”

Just as soon as Divinity turned her head to meet Marrow’s gaze, however, she noticed that she was smiling back at her, and the only way for her to see Marrow smile was if--

“Your skeleton!”

Before she could even move to activate another spell, however, a sharp bone pierced through her heart, sending blood cascading down her beautiful white dress as her legs became weak. She did not scream, but rather grabbed at her throat, trying to inhale oxygen that was refusing to make it to her lungs. Her legs were beginning to lose their balance, causing her knees to wobble until she fell to the ground, allowing the skeleton to pull out the bone as she placed one of her hands to the wound. Her hand was glowing faintly in and out, like she was desperately trying to heal herself, but the magic itself wasn’t strong enough to heal her completely. She was trying so hard to allow sound to come out of her mouth, but all she could do was allow whatever tears she had left to trail down her face as the rest of her blood covered the floor where she fell. Then, with one final burst of energy left, she held out her hand in my direction, shaking vehemently as if she were trying to speak to me, and before she left the world completely, I ran over to her side, grabbing her hand into mine.

“MIND GAMES!” I shouted. “WHAT IS SHE SAYING?!”

“Hold on! Hold on!”

Finally, with one last smile, she closed her eyes, gripping my hand as I held hers close to my chest.

“HURRY!”

“She says… ‘I wonder what would have happened if we had become friends instead…?’”

This was playing out exactly the same as when I saw Night Seam die four years ago. It just had to be after she lost that she wanted to be friends! It had to be after my friends were killed that she wanted to make peace! Why couldn’t they have just stopped the fighting in the beginning?! Why couldn’t things have been exactly the way they were when I first announced the hunt to Dreamdrop, when Divinity and I were in my room, shaking hands and forgetting that we were supposed to be enemies?! Why did everyone who ever cared for me have to die right in front of me?!

As I asked my internal questions, however, seeking for answers that probably would go unanswered forever, Divinity’s eyelids relaxed, allowing her one final breath out of her mouth. In the next moment, her form was changing once again to the girl we had seen earlier that day, with messy hair, baggy pants and shoes that were older than some of her teammates. She was much older than me, possibly even twice my age, but that didn’t change the fact that she was still a magical girl, someone just like the rest of us. Even though she was the one who killed Dreamdrop, even though she was responsible for the murder of my future wife, I couldn’t feel anything but loss at the sight of her body, defenseless on the floor with a hole in her heart… just like me.

After a few moments of mourning while everyone else watched in silence, I rose to my feet and screamed at the top of my lungs, venting out all the anger I had felt since this hunt began. “DISCOOOOOORD!”

Then, just as Discord had done time and time again, summoned fog all around our feet as stormclouds appeared above our heads, cracking lightning as thunder boomed around the room. A snake-like shadow then slithered through the fog, zipping around the room at a speed that my eyes couldn’t keep up with. He was building up the moment for as long as he possibly could before finally, he rose from the darkness, stretching out his eagle claw and lion paw while cackling demonically. I, however, was in no mood for any more of his unnecessary theatrics.

“Well done, ladies!” Discord announced, spreading his arms wide in cheer. “I have to admit, I actually thought that Divinity would make mincemeat out of you all, but you always seem to prove just how resilient you are. In fact, would I be overly pompous in assuming that my game was the backbone to your mental fortitude?”

“DISCORD! REVIVAL! NOW!”

Discord flinched at my surprise explosion but shrugged it off nonetheless. “Oh, fine. I guess we can celebrate later.” Then, slithering over to the space between Marrow and her skeleton, he wrapped his arm around the magical girl’s shoulder while his head leaned in uncomfortably close to hers. “And who was it again that gets to choose who I revive next?”

“Me, Discord,” Marrow said matter-of-factly.

“Ah! Your first ever revival! I must admit, it was certainly a shock when Night Seam revived you despite Trixie’s best wishes. It would be awfully ironic if that were to happen again, don’t you think? Oh, but I’m rambling. Who did you have in mind to revive, hmm?”

Marrow then dropped her face, staring into her hands before breathing a deep sigh. “I’ve actually been thinking about this for a while now…”

Wait. What was going on? How could she have been thinking about this for a while? Dreamdrop had been gone at most one hour!

“Quit fooling around, Marrow,” I said angrily. “Just say Dreamdrop and get it over with.”

“Shut up, Tripsy. This is something that needs to be done.”

“What do you mean this needs to be done?! What needs to be done is you revive Dreamdrop, so just say her name and GET IT FUCKING OVER WITH!”

Marrow, however, glared angrily back at me and said, “This decision isn’t up to you. I know what I’m doing.”

“What are you even SAYING right now?! JUST FUCKING REVIVE SUMMER BREEZE!”

“No.”

My heart then fell into the pit of my stomach. This was my entire reason for fighting in the first place. How could she do this to me? Out of all the terrible ways that she had tormented me in her life, was she really just going to refuse to revive my girlfriend--her teammate who had fought alongside her--just to punish me further? Was any of this even going to be worth it?! Someone who wanted to be my friend just died so that we could bring Dreamdrop back to life, and she didn’t even fucking care?!

“Marrow, if you don’t say Dreamdrop’s name right now, I’m going to kill you where you stand.”

“Think about someone other than yourself for once!”

“I’m thinking about Dreamdrop, you heartless bitch!”

Just as soon as I lunged towards Marrow, however, Iron Maiden quickly intervened, holding up her steel plates as a shield while keeping me from tearing into the magical girl behind her. “Hold on, Great and Powerful Trixie! She was the one who killed Divinity, so she gets to be the one to decide! It’s not our place to judge!”

“BRING BACK DREAMDROP!” I screamed, grabbing onto Iron Maiden’s shoulders as tears fell down my eyes. I wanted to fight Iron Maiden off me, to break free and kill that psychopathic bitch, but all my energy had been depleted from the fight with Divinity. There was nothing I could do now but watch. “Please, Lulu… She’s everything that’s ever mattered to me… I promised to protect her.”

“And I have to fulfill a promise I made to someone years ago as well,” Marrow replied, turning her attention back towards Discord. “You’ll be able to change everyone’s memories when this is all said and done, right?”

“Of course! Whatever you wish, Marrow.”

“Then when this is all said and done, I’d like you to erase everyone’s memory of Dreamdrop.”

“NOOOOO!!!!!”

Discord, however, was laughing hysterically at my pain. “Oh, that’s just rich! Anything else you’d like to demand?”

“I just want everyone’s memory wiped as if this whole thing never happened, from the game to now, and girls, I hope you don’t think that I don’t care about each and every one of you. If you recall, though, the reason why Discord’s little game started in the first place was because we grew a little too overzealous in recruiting magical girls, and because of that, Dreamdrop ended up sapping Platinum City of all its magic. If we brought her back to life, we would just have to go through that whole process all over again, so I’m preventing that from happening right now!”

My tears were flooding out of control. She was talking about Dreamdrop like she was a parasite both on our minds as well as on Platinum City. Dreamdrop was the one who saved me from being killed by Lulu in the first place, but now that she was gone, I had no way of bringing her back. I couldn’t forget about her, though! I wouldn’t let myself forget about her, even after Discord tried to wipe my memory! I would force myself to remember her for the rest of my life! They couldn’t take her away from me like that!!

“But I believe the question on everyone’s minds, Lulu,” Discord continued, “is who you would like to bring back to life with Divinity’s spirit?”

“A girl who should have never died in the first place.” Suddenly, Night Seam gasped, making me immediately realize what she was about to do. “Discord, bring Le Blanc back to life.”

“AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!”

“No…”

Suddenly, the skeleton beside Lulu’s body began to change shape, turning into a bright light that hovered into the air. All of us quickly shielded our eyes, trying not to go blind from the dazzling luminescence as the body began to shake and rattle in the air. She was being put together piece by piece from her organs to her veins to her arteries to her skin, all wrapped up in a package along with her hair, nails and clothes. She had the most pristine white hair that blended perfectly with her pink skin, much similar to Fleur De Lis’s natural complexion, but her facial features themselves appeared as though they had been carved by Divinity herself, making the most beautiful teenage girl the world had ever seen. Then, as the light faded, she fell to the floor, mumbling weakly as she breathed life for the first time in six years.

“Le Blanc!” Night Seam shouted, turning back into her normal form and running to Le Blanc’s side. “Le Blanc, can you hear me?”

“F-F-Fleur…?” she said, opening her mouth to release the most enchanting soprano voice. “Is that you?”

“It’s me, Le Blanc!”

“W-where’s Lulu?”

Then, as the two of them turned their head, Marrow returned back to her normal form, falling to her knees and wrapping her arms around her friend, crying deeply in a way that I didn’t know she could feel. She seemed so happy that Le Blanc was back… but I couldn’t hold back the anger in my heart any longer. I couldn’t just let them be happy knowing that they had sacrificed Summer Breeze to make it happen. This was supposed to be our moment where we could be together as a full Platinum City, but she had already forgotten that she ever existed!

Then, pushing Iron Maiden out of the way with my magic, I raised my spear, looking directly into Le Blanc’s eyes. She then cowered with fear, holding onto Lulu as if she could protect her, but now that Marrow’s magic had been brought to life, neither of them had any way to stop me. I would get to bring back Summer Breeze and put Lulu back in the ground. She was never going to fuck with me again!

“Now, Discord!” Lulu screamed. “Wipe our memories!”

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME!” I screamed, but just as soon as I did, I could feel the earth around me begin to spin. “You… can’t…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence, falling to the ground in dizziness as the world began to fade into a translucent blur. I tried gripping my hands to the floor to push myself up, trying to keep the blood flowing through my body, but I couldn’t even prevent my consciousness from disappearing. My stomach was growing nauseous, my hands becoming just as cold as they were in Divinity’s ice prison, and no matter how much I tried to scream for Discord to stop, the only thing that came out of my mouth were high-pitched breaths with no meaning other than my total despair.

Everything was turning black. I was struggling, fighting to keep myself awake, but Discord’s magic was outperforming mine. No matter how much I focused my energy, just so my mental fortitude would forcefully prevent me from falling asleep, I couldn’t stop the darkness taking over my vision. My muscles were now useless. My mouth couldn’t speak, but with possibly the last chance I ever had, I thought a phrase that I would never remember thinking when I woke up.

I love you, Summer Breeze.

Good bye…

“Wake up, you fat piece of shit!”

My eyes then struggled to get open, but once I could finally see again, I saw my mother standing over me, glaring down as if I had done something wrong already. “I’m sorry!” I quickly said, jolting myself up to a sitting position. “Sorry, mom, but Trixie didn’t quite hear what you said.”

“Huh? What’re you talking like that for?” Oh, that’s right. I started referring to myself in the third person at school one day and never seemed to tell my mom about it. Then again, it was probably a good thing that I had kept it a secret for so long, just in case it somehow made her angry. Luckily for me, however, she seemed to just shrug it off this time, although it was doubtful that I would be that lucky a second time. “How long were you planning on sleeping for?”

I then reached out to grab my alarm clock, but to my surprise, it was still only 4 AM. My mother would normally kill me if I stayed up this late, even if she was the one keeping me up, but then again, that wasn’t something I could exactly tell her. “I’m sorry, mom… You’re right.”

“Anyway… We’re gonna be moving in the next couple of days.”

I had to do a double-take just to make sure I was hearing her correctly. Where had this come from all of a sudden?

“Oh, that’s exciting!” I said as happily as I could. “Where are we going?”

“Canterlot. My boss out of nowhere decided to transfer me there. I swear, it’s like there’s some kind of god of chaos that hates me for some reason.” My eyebrows raised. There was no way it could really be… “So I want all of our shit packed by Monday, you hear me? And I’m not hiring a moving team to come help, so you’d better not be on your fucking period that day.”

“Yes, mom. I promise.”

“Good. I’m going to bed. Don’t wake me.”

My mom then walked out of my room, closing the door behind her, but as soon as she did, I pulled out my magical phone and called Discord, summoning him to my room without the clouds or thunder this time. “Oh, my!” Discord said, yawning comedically. “I find it rare that you would be up at this hour.”

“And Trixie finds it odd that you would send her to Canterlot for no apparent reason!”

“Relax, Great and Powerful Trixie. I only have your best interest at heart here.”

“Will I even be able to go back to Platinum City? What about the girls?”

“Oh, we both know you wanted to get away from the fearsome threesome anyway.” I hated to admit it, but he was right about that one. The main thing that kept me home most days--other than the fear that my mother might notice my disappearance--was the fact that if I went to Platinum City, I would have to deal with the worst three magical girls of all time: Fleur, Lulu and Le Blanc. “Besides, I was thinking maybe this way, we could give you a new start.”

“What new start? Trixie is happy where she is!”

“You see, you say that, but do you really meeeean it?”

“Yes, I really meeeeeean it!”

“Oh… well then this is just awkward. What if I just showed you the place you would be moving into?”

I then gave Discord a scoff while rolling my eyes. “Fiiiine. Show Trixie this great and powerful home you’ve picked out for her.”

Then, grabbing hold of seemingly nothing, Discord pulled apart a portal to a place in Canterlot, specifically a bedroom that made me feel… at peace. I had never seen this room before, but it felt like I had lived there at one point, like I had settled down there with my special someone, despite not even having finished high school yet. I had been so hesitant about moving out of the blue, but just as quickly as my mom had made the decision, I felt a growing comfort knowing that I was going to be living there. It wasn’t anything special, but it made me… happy.

“Still opposed to moving?” Discord asked with a sly smile.

“Discord… what is this place?”

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah, but… Trixie feels like she’s seen it somewhere before.”

“Oh, don’t be silly. When in your life would you have ever seen a home from Canterlot before?” I tried to argue with him, but his logic was sound, leaving me to shrug my shoulders in confusion. “In fact, why don’t we give it a name, just so it feels even more cozy?”

“...You want the Great and Powerful Trixie to name a bedroom?”

“Why not give it a try?”

I rolled my eyes again, groaning as I tried to wrack my brain with whatever I could call this place. Almost as soon as I started thinking, though, I found a name that I liked, and no matter how hard I tried coming up with something else, this one name seemed to stick with me without letting any other ideas inside.

“So?” Discord said, seeing my stupid smile. “Let’s hear it?”

I couldn’t hold it back any longer. It was so silly, yet it somehow made me feel at home. It made me feel like the moment I started my new life in Canterlot, I would be protected, like there was an angel looking over me, and I couldn’t stop giggling about it. As I looked into Discord’s portal to see where I would be starting my new life, I felt a warmth in my heart, like someone was right beside me, telling me that this was where I belonged.

“Summer Breeze…”

And just like that, I was smiling again, ready to move onto the next chapter in my life.

- The End -

Thank you for reading!

Author's Note

Thank you all so much for reading all the way through! It's been such a journey getting here, and you all gave me the motivation to continue with my favorite story I've ever written!

Don't forget to check out the third and final installment: Magical Girl Trixie: Last Gambit