“I’ll just finish up!”

“Whoops, forgot to turn out the lights.”

*Click*

“...in the dark.”

Finally, two hours after Trixie and Photo Finish left Twilight and Sunset Shimmer to finish up with their yearbook editing, the two were finally done, exiting the room and turning out the lights behind them. Neither Twilight nor Sunset thought about locking the door before they left, but even if they had, they would have forgotten one key detail. Or rather, they wouldn’t have even noticed one key detail.

Actually, when I told Trixie that I had already found all five of my magical girls, I was only telling a half truth. It was true that I had a hard commitment on four of the five girls that I needed, but the last girl I had my eye on hadn’t agreed to anything yet, even though I already knew that I could get her to say yes.

As soon as Twilight and Sunset had walked around the corner, leaving the yearbook room behind them, I quickly swooped in and turned the lights back on, illuminating the room as I searched for my target. Unlike the girls who were here earlier, I had found her in less than a second, a girl who had been sitting in the room the entire time while Trixie was talking to the others, a girl who nobody even noticed. Of course, she saw me walk in immediately, but rather than confront me or greet me, she just gave me a dull stare and went back to working on whatever task she had in front of her. She probably had no idea who I was yet, but she was about to.

“Hi!” I exclaimed, making her flinch and drop all of her papers to the floor. She then looked back at my wide smile and nervously bent down to pick up the papers she had dropped onto the floor. “What were you doing here in the dark?”

The girl then gave me a strange look, examining me up and down with confusion written all over her face. “You…” she began quietly. “You can see me?”

Of course I could see her, and maybe if Trixie (or anyone from earlier) had paid a little more attention, they would have been able to see her too. She had light green skin and dark green hair, wearing a turtleneck striped sweater and regular pants that any of the kids would be found wearing. She was so normal, but maybe it was because she was so normal, so average, so ordinary, that nobody even noticed she was there, sometimes even looking straight through her like they didn’t even know she existed.

“Well, of course I can see you! You’re not invisible or anything!”

The girl chuckled, picking up her last paper from off the floor. “I feel like it sometimes. Anyway, I was just finishing up some last minute details for the yearbook club. I guess the others just didn’t notice that I was still here and decided to turn off the lights before they left… They also didn’t notice that I was here at all today… or that I’ve been part of the yearbook club all year…”

“Golly! That sounds horrible! Have you tried talking to them?”

“I have, but they usually just talk over me. I was really hoping that Twilight was going to notice I was here after she heard my voice a little bit ago. Turns out she just ignored it… like everyone else has… the whole time I’ve been alive…”

This girl began to frown more and more as she continued to speak, which made it harder and harder to keep myself from laughing just because of how perfect this was. She was exactly the kind of person I was looking for to fill that last slot, a person who wanted to be noticed, someone who needed her powers and would fight to the death in order to keep them. I couldn’t give myself away that easily, though. I needed her to come to me.

“I’m Cozy Glow, by the way!”

“Wallflower Blush. It’s actually kind of nice introducing myself to someone for the first time. As you can imagine, sometimes even the people who have known me for years can’t remember my name.”

The two of us shook hands, and I could tell just by her grip how much her self-esteem had been impacted by others. It was now my responsibility to make her whole again.

“Wait a second! If the other kids in the club didn’t notice you were here, why did they leave you to finish up the work?”

“That’s just it,” Wallflower said sadly, taking a seat by her computer and sorting pictures into files. “There’s so much that goes into this club that the others don’t even know about. I don’t know if they think that the pictures all sort themselves by magic, but never once has anyone in this club wondered how all the extra work gets done around here. Speaking of magic, Twilight and Sunset had to leave to go fix some kind of magic problem again.” Wallflower then folded her arms on her table, laying her head down sadly. “I wish I had magical powers. Maybe then people would notice me.”

There it was! I could finally blow my cover without scaring her off!

“Weeeellll,” I said, rocking back and forth on the balls of my feet, “how would you like to become a magical girl just like them?”

Suddenly, she jerked her head up and gave me a suspicious stare. “That was the word they used! ‘Magical girl!’ How did you know what they were called?”

I giggled haughtily with my chest puffed out. “Because I’m a magical girl myself!”

“Whoa, really? Does that mean you’re gonna be helping Twilight and Sunset with that terrifying monster who’s going to destroy Equestria?”

I wanted to keep the charade going, I really did, but the way that Trixie and her friends had completely destroyed Autumn Blaze’s character was making me so mad that I nearly screamed out of nowhere. I was still able to keep things under control, but my teeth were clenched in anger while my fists shook by my side, an image that did not go unnoticed by Wallflower Blush.

“Uhh, Cozy Glow? Are you alright?”

“...No, Wallflower. No, I’m not.”

The girl in front of me quickly turned off her computer, stood up and approached me with her hands on my shoulders. “What’s going on?” she asked. I was nervous that I was going to blow my cover, but at the same time, nothing made me more mad than what Trixie had done to demonize Autumn Blaze and all of Everfree City’s magical girls.

With a sigh to calm myself down at least a little, I looked into Wallflower’s eyes and said, “There are two kinds of magical girls in the world, Wallflower. Not all magical girls fight for what’s right.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I’m saying is… There’s a real monster out there named Discord.”

“Yeah, Trixie mentioned that name at some point. Who is he?”

“The god of chaos, the creature who Trixie and her friends are trying to protect.”

Wallflower tilted her head in confusion, and rightfully so. She knew that Trixie and the others had been completely thoughtless towards Wallflower her whole life, but she had probably never suspected that they would stoop so low as to protect an actual deity of destruction.

“And what about this other creature?” she asked. “Isn’t it supposed to be trying to destroy Equestria?”

“Her name is Autumn Blaze, and all she wants to destroy is Discord.” Even though all of Equestria might end up becoming their battlefield. She didn’t need to know that part right away, though. “Trixie and her friends are trying to protect Discord, so she’s raising a group of magical girls to keep Autumn Blaze sealed away forever in a parallel world.”

I could see the gears turning in her head as she rubbed her chin, looking off to the side as she tried to process all the information coming at her from every direction. “They did mention parallel worlds, now that I think about it.”

“I’m in charge of keeping Autumn Baze safe. I’m the only magical girl left to protect her… after Trixie killed all of my friends.”

“WHAT?!”

Wallflower immediately backed away, shaking her head like she couldn’t fathom the idea of Trixie doing anything bad. I was going into risky territory by telling her all this, but at the same time, I couldn’t just sit back and let Trixie say all those terrible things after what she’d done.

“Like I said, Wallflower, there are two types of magical girls in the world. The world I’m from is called Everfree City, an extension of Canterlot, and Trixie is from Platinum City, an extension of Manehattan.”

Again, the girl rubbed her chin pensively. “That’s where Twilight and Sunset are going! I have to stop them!”

“Do you really think that’ll work?” By the time I had finished my question, Wallflower had already leapt to her feet and made it all the way to the doorway before freezing where she stood. Even though I did enjoy the possibility of Trixie losing Sunset and Twilight before they became magical girls, I knew that Wallflower wouldn’t be able to do it on her own. “After all, based on what you told me, they wouldn’t even know who you are.”

“So what? Are we just going to stand by and let Trixie manipulate them like that?!”

“I have a better idea.” Finally, Wallflower walked back into the yearbook room, standing in front of me again with skepticism in her eyes. “Why don’t you join me in Everfree City? You could help me free Autumn Blaze so that we can get rid of Discord once and for all, and maybe then we can bring some justice for all my sisters that Trixie killed.”

Wallflower frowned deeply, openly empathizing with me despite how much she obviously didn’t want to believe it. “Did Trixie really do all the things you said? I mean, I knew she was kind of self-centered, but I never thought…” I sadly nodded my head, acting depressed so that I wouldn’t get angry again and scare her off. Then, with a determined expression on her face, she nodded and said, “I’ll do it. I know firsthand how easily they can miss something that’s right in front of them, and if they really think they can get away with killing human beings while keeping the god of chaos alive, then I’ll use my lack of presence to finally do some good in the world!”

Yes!

YES!

YEEESSS!!!!!

In a little over 24 hours, I had managed to solidify my entire team! They each had their own strengths, and I felt like I could count on every single one of them to keep me alive.

Vignette Valencia would help me learn more about the enemy’s personal information, Adagio would be an unwavering soldier, Moon Dancer would be the analyst, Lemon Zest would keep up our morale and Wallflower Blush would be the prime option for sneak attacks and espionage. I couldn’t believe how well-stacked my team was, and we still had an entire weekend to prepare ourselves for the game on Monday! My dream to release Autumn Blaze was finally coming true!

Sticking out my hand, I gave one final warning. “You know, being a magical girl is a serious responsibility. Nobody has ever become a magical girl without getting hurt.”

Wallflower looked hesitant at first, but as I expected, she hardened her resolve, shook my hand and smiled with the utmost confidence. “If it means that we stop Trixie from hurting anybody else, I’ll do whatever it takes.”

I don’t think I had ever been as happy as I was in that moment. Finally, someone understood exactly what I was thinking.

“Wallflower Blush, I think you’re gonna make a great addition to Everfree City.”

Just one more. We just needed one more girl to join our team… but who?

When Sunset told us to meet her the next day, I assumed that she meant at a park, the school, or one of our houses. Instead, the place she chose for our meetup was…

“Um… Can you explain to Trixie why we’re meeting in the Canterlot City Mall?”

Instead of laying low and going over our plans discreetly, we were out in the open, surrounded by hundreds of people who could easily overhear our conversations. Not exactly the first place I would have chosen to go over plans on how to find our final member. Plus, as an added bonus, Twilight, Sunset Shimmer, Photo Finish, Upper Crust and I were all there, making the chances of someone hearing our plans skyrocket! I hated to say it, but I wasn’t so sure I would be able to have full confidence in Sunset’s strategy on this one.

“I spoke to Princess Twilight last night about how we’re doing a life or death game that could decide the fate of Equestria and asked if she thought that any of our friends would be a good fit as the last candidate for our team,” Sunset explained, making me tilt my head in confusion.

“And she told you to go shopping?”

“Well, when she finally wrote me back, she said that she wouldn’t have been able to come out of any of her dangerous missions alive without the help of all of her friends.”

“...So she told you to go shopping?”

“She actually told me that she didn’t have any good answers for who we could use as our final member, so she had her student Starlight Glimmer try and give me some suggestions instead.”

“Who then told you to go shopping.”

Sunset groaned in frustration. “No! Starlight said she might have an idea, but she’s kind of a wildcard. Twilight and I both know who she’s talking about, and we were kind of thinking it was kind of a stretch. At the same time, though, we both agreed that she was probably the best idea any of us had in mind.”

“Und do we get to hear her name?” Photo Finish asked skeptically.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?” Twilight asked with a smile, pointing towards the spot in the mall where we were all walking.

A movie theater? Was the person we were recruiting supposed to be some kind of cinema critic?

“Are you sure that this is really the best place to find a good addition to our team?” Upper Crust asked, mimicking my thoughts exactly. “We are going to be playing against girls who will be looking to take our lives, after all.”

“To be honest,” Sunset began, “I don’t know, but seeing as how we didn’t have any leads to begin with, I’m going to trust that Starlight Glimmer knows what she’s doing.”

“Forgive me,” Photo Finish added, “but vould it not be a good idea to add zis ‘Starlight Glimmer’ person if she is really as dependable as you make her seem?”

“I thought about that, but I can’t ask her to come here to solve our problems. She has her own troubles back home, some of which are even more serious than this, and even though I know she would probably say yes, I wouldn’t feel good about asking for a favor this huge.”

“Besides,” Twilight continued, “we’re already here! We might as well talk to the girl Starlight recommended and see if we think she’ll be a good fit.”

I was hesitant. My life was on the line as well as everyone in Equestria, but I was too prideful to make this problem about me. I didn’t know who Starlight Glimmer was, but I had a feeling that if I were ever to go to Sunset’s home world, maybe she and I would end up becoming friends one day.

With all of our hesitations momentarily put to rest, the five of us then pushed through the doors of the movie theater, walking up to the counter to see a girl who looked extremely bored, tapping her fingers on the food court counter. She had the beauty of an actress with a fair complexion, a slim waist, adorable glasses and gorgeous greenish-blue hair tied up into twintails that fell down to her lower back. She looked like she should be starring in movies, but here she was, standing behind the concessions stand at a theater, obviously not wanting to be there any longer than she had to be.

Finally, once the five of us got within inches of the food stand, she finally looked up to see us smiling down at her, never changing her unenthusiastic expression despite what her job probably required.

This was the girl Starlight Glimmer had in mind?

“Oh,” she said apathetically. “It’s Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle. And you brought more friends. Neat.”

“Hey, Juniper Montage!” Twilight said happily, trying to change the mood of the conversation. “Long time no see!”

“Lemme guess. Large popcorn, extra butter, salted in thirds, and probably a discount since you know the girl at the register. Am I right?”

From the way Starlight had brought her up, I had assumed that she was at least friends with Sunset and Twilight, but from the way she was talking, it sounded like she wanted us to leave as soon as possible. I was beginning to think that we should just give up and start looking somewhere else, but I ultimately decided to give her one last chance, just in case she turned out to be some kind of diamond in the rough.

“Listen, Juniper,” Sunset said, “I know that the last time we met, things didn’t exactly turn out so great.”

“For me,” Juniper scoffed. “You two got to be in a blockbuster movie, you’ve been on TV for a dance video you made with your friends, and you’re already heroes for saving everyone in the mall from a giant monster. Oh, wait, I was the giant monster, and I haven’t made a single friend since, whereas you two seem to have new friends every time I see you.”

Her tone went from depressed to angry in the span that she had been speaking, basically sealing the nail in the coffin that she just wasn’t going to work out. We couldn’t trust our lives with someone who hated our guts.

“You’re wrong, Juniper.” The girl at the counter looked up with curiosity on her face, as did the rest of us, looking straight into Twilight Sparkle’s determined eyes. “We’re here because a friend of yours sent us.”

“A friend?! Who?!”

“Starlight Glimmer,” Sunset said, making the girl behind the counter flinch. “She sent us here because we asked her for help, and the first person she told us to turn to was you. She believed that you would be able to help us better than anyone else, so could you at least give us a chance? Maybe we could start over from the beginning?”

Juniper Montage’s eyes darted back and forth between the five of us, still holding that embarrassing flinch from before until she finally slumped her shoulders with a long breath. “No… I’m the one who should be asking for us to start over. After all, the reason things didn’t turn out so great between us was because I was so full of myself from the moment I met you. I felt like I deserved things that I wanted, and I put you and your friends in jeopardy because I was so jealous that you all had things that I didn’t. Even then, I could tell you really wanted to be my friend, despite trying to trap your friends in a magic mirror for all eternity.”

“Wait, she did what?” I asked, surprised that this was something they just forgave her for.

“And we’re sorry we didn’t try harder,” Twilight added. “We knew that you needed a friend, but after Starlight Glimmer went back to her world, we kind of just lost touch. We should have been here for you the whole time, not just when it’s convenient for us.”

Juniper then smiled up at Twilight, and for some reason, I could see an exact replica of myself from just a few years ago. I used to be the kid with the glasses who had no friends, someone who desperately needed someone to be there for me in order to feel better about myself, and just like her, I had grown full of myself, trying to make everyone love me by pretending to be great and powerful, a moniker which I still clung to. I didn’t know what this Juniper girl had been through, but I felt like the two of us were more similar than I had initially realized.

Then, like a snap of the fingers, my opinion of her had completely turned around. I wanted her to be a magical girl, just like someone had once asked me to be a magical girl in spite of my imperfections, even if I couldn’t remember it.

“Thanks, girls,” she said with a genuine smile. “I’d appreciate that. So! Who are your friends?”

“Juniper,” Sunset said, gesturing in my direction, “we’d like you to meet--”

“The Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie,” I said, taking a bow, just another gesture that made her flinch uncomfortably. “Oh, and this is Photo Finish and Upper Crust.”

The other girls waved joyfully despite me once again trying to pull all the attention towards myself. I didn’t know why I did that. Maybe I was still nervous meeting people for the first time.

“Nice to meet you,” Juniper replied. “So you girls said you needed me to help you with something?”

“You could say that…” Sunset began, trailing off and rubbing her arm nervously. “But you know something? I think the Great and Powerful Trixie would do a much better job at explaining things than I could.”

All eyes then fell on me to break the bad news, but honestly, I didn’t feel like there was anyone who would be able to explain the situation better than me anyway. “Meh, it’s true. Listen, Juniper. It sounds like you already have an idea that magic exists here in Canterlot, but it comes in more forms than you might realize.”

The girl at the counter folded her arms with a curious eyebrow raised. “Like what?”

“Like a specific magical power that we can use whenever we want. We’re called magical girls, and just like regular people, some are good and some are bad.”

“Right, but… I’m not a magical girl. What do you need me for?”

“We want you to become a magical girl.”

By this point, Juniper’s mouth was hanging open in shock, and understandably so. When she came to work that day, she probably thought that ushering people to their seats would be the highlight of her day, but now there were people coming to see her and offering out of nowhere to give her magic powers. Pretty sure anyone would be a little intimidated by a request like that.

We needed her, though. She had to be our fifth member. I didn’t want to sound desperate, but we really had no other options left.

“You really think it’s a good idea to let me use magic after what happened last time?” she asked, rubbing her elbow anxiously.

“Of course!” Twilight said. “Remember, Sunset Shimmer and I have both used magic for the wrong reason before too, but we learned to overcome our past and learn from it. We came to you because there are magical girls out there who are looking to release something out into the world that could potentially harm all of Equestria.”

“What about your other friends? They seem like better candidates than me.”

“Trust me, Mädchen, we vent to zem first. OUCH! Scheiße! You didn’t have to hit me zat hard!”

After bonking Photo Finish on the head for her unnecessary comment, I approached Juniper Montage again with the utmost sincerity in my voice. “We can only pick one girl, and Starlight Glimmer put her trust in you, out of all the girls in Canterlot. She believes that you can use what happened in your past to get stronger and become a great magical girl, and if Trixie can be candid for just one minute, we need you right now. Please… will you help us?”

Juniper looked back and forth between the five of us again, taking a step back in unease. We were losing her. We must have been putting too much pressure on her.

“I don’t know, girls,” she said unconfidently. “I mean, I just don’t know if I would be the right girl to put the hands of all of Equestria in. I’m shy, clumsy, I’m not the smartest girl or the fastest--”

“If I may…”

Suddenly, everyone’s head turned towards Upper Crust, who had been completely silent up until now.

“Juniper Montage, is that right?”

“Y-yes. Who are you?”

“My name is Upper Crust. I attend Crystal Prep Academy, one of the most elite schools in Equestria.”

Juniper rolled her eyes. “Rub it in my face, why don’tcha?”

“That’s not the point I’m trying to make. You see, when I was younger, a friend of mine was kidnapped by a man who was looking to extort her family for money. I was with her as well as another couple of girls when it happened.”

The green-haired girl gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth in shock. “Oh, my gosh! What happened next?”

“One of my other friends went after him… and made it out alive. I thought I was doing the right thing by running to tell her father about what was going on, but instead, I ended up losing the friendships that I had already made.” Juniper Montage tilted her head in confusion, but allowed Upper Crust to continue. “You see, dear, the girl who charged after her, the one who tried to take things into her own hands, ended up as a magical girl, along with the girl who was kidnapped. Then they asked another one of their friends to become a magical girl, and while their friendships flourished, I was eventually pushed further and further out of the picture.”

“Uh… OK? I’m sorry, but I don’t really see where you’re going with this.”

Upper Crust then took a minute to collect her thoughts, take a deep breath and look confidently into Juniper’s eyes.

“The reason I’m telling you this is because I didn’t grow up like them. I wasn’t born to be a magical girl. Instead of learning how to fight or run, I focused on clothes and school. I am the exact opposite of the typical magical girl. I cry when I break a nail, my hobbies include fashion and makeup, and I spend hours trying on new outfits just to impress boys with tattoos on their arms, yet Trixie still let me become a magical girl, even when the fate of Equestria hangs in the balance!”

“Oh… Wow… Kinda makes me seem like a coward now that you mention it, huh?”

Then, making her eyes turn up from the ground, Sunset Shimmer placed a hand on top of her shoulder, giving her the widest smile imaginable. “You’re not a coward,” she said. “Even Twilight and I were scared at first, and I’m sure it was the same with Trixie and Photo Finish when they first got their powers. Listen, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but we all sincerely believe that you would make a great magical girl.”

Finally, Juniper smiled back. “You really think so?”

“Of course. We don’t want to put the fate of Equestria into anyone’s hands but yours.”

Juniper Montage quickly looked over Sunset’s shoulder to see if anyone might have been unconvinced by what Sunset was saying, but just like she claimed, we were all smiling wide into her face with the utmost confidence. We had all been in Juniper Montage’s shoes in one sense or another, and that’s why we knew that we needed her in particular to fight Last Gambit. She had the potential to become stronger than any of us.

“Alright,” she said with an optimistic energy. “I’ll do it! Should I tell my boss I quit, or--”

“Maaaaaybe you might wanna hold off on that for now,” Sunset said, but Twilight looked as though she might have had other thoughts.

“Actually, that might be for the best. We only have until Monday, and from what Trixie told us, Last Gambit has already found all five magical girls that she needed to complete her team. Plus, we also need to factor in travel times between Canterlot and Manehattan. That already puts us at a severe time disadvantage to the other team.”

“Manehattan?”

Sunset chuckled, wrapping her arm around Juniper’s shoulder, who was continuing to get shocked by even more information coming out of nowhere. “It’s where we officially get our powers. The initiation is gonna be a little bit scary, but once you get past that, you’ll be fine.”

“OK… If you say so…” Once Juniper said those words, however, she pulled her work apron off of her waist and shouted, “Hey, boss! Get someone else to do the popcorn around here! I quit! Oh, and please don’t tell my uncle. He worked really hard to get me this job.”

The girls around me began to giggle at her surprise outburst, but I, on the other hand, was too relieved to feel anything right now.

We did it.

We found them.

We had our team: Photo Finish, Upper Crust, Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and now Juniper Montage.

Now the only thing we had left to do was beat Last Gambit and make sure that Autumn Blaze stayed right where she was. Forever.

Author's Notes:

Eighth day of Trixmas