Palette, Daydream Shimmer and I decided to sleep in Platinum City Sunday night, both because Last Gambit already knew our identities as well as because the idea of going back home to a world where my mom wasn’t there… just didn’t appeal to me anymore. Midnight Sparkle would have stayed with us, but she had her own family to get to who would have been worried sick if she didn’t come home that night, even if it meant running the risk of a magical girl sneak attack. I could understand why she didn’t stay--I really could--even though I couldn’t help the slight envy I felt knowing that she still had a family to go home to.

I also entertained the idea of sneaking out while they were all asleep and trying to attack Cozy Glow to end the game before it even started, but I couldn’t do something that risky, especially when she was probably knew it was coming. If I won, I might be able to bring my mom back to life, but if I lost, Autumn Blaze would be released. As if losing my life wasn’t keeping the stakes high already, I now had that much more reason to win than ever. Part of me wondered why Last Gambit decided to kill my mom in the first place, though. Was she just trying to lure me out? Did she not realize that with the most important person in my life no longer there when I came home every day, I would be that much more motivated to risk my life to the fullest, ready to take any gamble necessary?

“Sleeping alright?” Daydream asked, turning over to her side to check up on me, but of course, my eyes were wide open, staring at the neverending daylight of Platinum City’s beautiful skies.

“Yes. Trixie always sleeps with her eyes open.”

“Aaand I’m guessing you always respond coherently to other people’s questions in your sleep too.”

“...Snore… Snooze… Zzzzz.”

“You know, saying the letter Z over and over again isn’t exactly what normal people do when they sleep.”

“Ugghh.” Finally, I propped myself onto my side so that I could look over Palette’s sleeping body and make eye contact with Daydream Shimmer. “Fine. Trixie is awake.”

“Yeah, me too. Honestly, I don’t know how Palette can sleep at a time like this.”

I then looked down at the magical girl between us, trying to figure it out myself, but when I saw how peaceful she looked, I couldn’t help the smile that came over my face.

“Trixie thinks that maybe Palette’s used to it by now.”

Daydream raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“It’s… a long story. Palette has helped me so much in our time being magical girls together, so maybe risking her life on Trixie’s behalf is just second nature to her by this point.”

“How long have the two of you been magical girls together?”

“I’ve been a magical girl for five years, and Palette gained her powers a little while before I did. To be honest, I don’t remember a lot of the time I’ve been a magical girl, but I can imagine she’s been picking up the pieces I’ve left behind for a long time.”

The girl across from me chuckled femininely. “You know something? I bet you anything that she’s just as grateful to have you here with her as you are.”

I couldn’t imagine the idea of me trying to fix a problem that Palette caused, but I also didn’t want to argue with Daydream Shimmer when she was just trying to lift my spirits up. At the same time, though, seeing her acting so genuinely courteous towards me made me suddenly feel guilty about roping yet another girl into my problems. This whole thing may have been Marrow’s fault to some extent, but she was right in telling me that it was my responsibility to take charge of it. If I didn’t do anything, then everyone would end up paying for it in the end.

“Say, Trixie?”

“Hmm?”

“What made you become a magical girl in the first place?”

“Honestly, I don’t rem--”

‘Nice to meet ya, little girl! My name’s Dreamdrop!’

“Agh!”

I quickly put my hand to my forehead. It was that memory again, and it came right as soon as I thought about how I became a magical girl. Right as soon as the thought went through my mind, however, the throbbing pain that I associated with my forgotten memories split through my brain, making me bend over in agony. Was this Dreamdrop person supposed to be related to how I originally became a magical girl?

“Trixie?!”

I then turned my head quickly towards Daydream, whose face was filled with panic. I guess she would be surprised to see me in so much pain, seeing as how I still hadn’t told her about my memories being erased or that any time I thought about things related to them, I felt a searing pain in my head.

“It’s nothing. Trixie is fine,” I said, laying back down on my side, facing the opposite direction. “We should try getting some sleep. Trixie is starting to feel tired after all.”

Daydream obviously wanted to protest, just to make sure that I was really OK and not just putting on a tough face, but after a few moments of silence, she finally said, “Yeah, maybe you’re right. Big day tomorrow.”

The sad thing was, I felt like I was always putting on a tough act, trying to make myself look stronger than I really was, since on the inside, my heart always seemed to feel like it was shattering. Even though I told Daydream that we should go to sleep, I was begging her internally to rebuttal, to stay awake and keep me company for just a little while longer. My mother had just died, and now I was going to risk my life to protect the world seeing as how my friends back home didn’t care enough to help me. I was a total wreck on the inside! Of course I didn’t want to go to bed!

Unfortunately for me, however, she agreed with what I said and laid down to sleep, the one time I wanted someone not to listen to me. We were going to fight Last Gambit tomorrow regardless, but if this was really my last night alive, it would have been nice to just spend the night talking with my friends.

‘It’ll all be over soon,’ I told myself, wrapping my cape around my body like a blanket as I tried to drift off to sleep. ‘It’ll all be over soon…’

*Diiiiiing!*

30 more minutes and the game would begin.

Seeing as how neither Juniper Montage nor Upper Crust attended our school, I told them to meet us by the front gates of Everfree City as soon as we were forcefully transported. Then, if they happened to run into any of the girls from Team Last Gambit, they already knew what the procedures were.

For Daisy Quake, if she ran into Onida or Frost Lass, she was free to fight, assuming the stakes weren’t too dangerous. For Mother Time, Panicity and Bloody Mary, however, I asked her to flee, seeing as how I didn’t know how their powers would directly influence her battling strategy. As for Miss Monster, I told her to run no matter who she encountered if Daisy Quake wasn’t there. She could use her monster to both create a diversion and fight for her without her being there to command it, after all, and if they ended up killing it and pursuing after her, she would hopefully have recovered enough by that point to create another one. The main focus I wanted, however, was for us to fight as a team. If there was a chance for us to regroup without encountering anyone, I would easily choose that option over splitting up and risk decimating our numbers.

This was all just as a precaution, however. After all, there were special rules set in place specifically for Upper Crust to be transported directly to Everfree City since she would normally be sent to Platinum City anyway. Maybe the forced teleportation sent us all to specific places. For all I knew, we could each be separated into various parts on a map right in front of a member from the other team, thus reducing the numbers to half right at the word go, assuming that neither Last Gambit nor I were the first to lose.

“Perhaps we should speak of this wiz Cozy Glow?” Photo Finish said after she, Twilight, Sunset and I gathered fifteen minutes after the bell rang.

“That might be a good strategy,” Twilight agreed. “It seems she has no issues in playing fair. If she knows any details about the game that we don’t, it behooves us to at least give it a try.”

If she was playing fair, sure, but all she needed to do was lie once to turn the tables and kill all of us.

“It’s too dangerous,” I said, folding my arms and trying to think. “If she set up the game how she wants it, asking for her help would just be putting our guard down. We want to put ourselves at the lowest chance of getting killed possible.”

Just as I finished speaking, however, Sunset placed a hand on my shoulder, giving me a comforting smile. “Anything we do is gonna be risky at this point. If we decide to go talk to her, I promise we’ll keep our guard up the whole time and take anything she says with a grain of salt.”

I then looked back at the other girls to see what they thought of the plan, and with both Photo Finish and Twilight nodding in agreement, it was basically already decided.

“Fine. Trixie agrees. We’ll speak with Cozy Glow about the parameters of the game.”

“That wouldn’t be little ol’ me you girls are talking about, is it?”

The four of us immediately turned our backs to see that someone was walking towards us, her arms folded as she sneered devilishly. I was glad that we didn’t have to go looking for her, but I would have to remember from now on that anything we said at Canterlot High would never be kept a secret. Anything we talked about as a group would have to be done assuming that Cozy Glow was just a few steps behind us, especially since we didn’t know if any of the girls on her team attended our school.

“Were you listening to us?!” Sunset asked in offense, apparently unaware that common courtesy didn’t work when it came to life or death.

“Meh. I caught a word here and there, but I wasn’t really paying attention.” She then leaned backwards onto a nearby locker in the hallway where we were standing, kicking her leg back and forth as if she was anxious to get the game started. “Did you girls have anything you wanted to ask me? You all seem to be really worried that I might have rigged the game against you.”

Sunset shot her a dull look. “Oh, and you’re saying you haven’t?”

Without even looking in our direction, however, Cozy Glow lifted up a single finger as she said, “Rule number one: The game will take place in Everfree City, but Autumn Blaze will not be able to interfere. If any of you believe that Autumn Blaze is impacting the game in any way, we automatically forfeit and you win.”

The girls and I gave each other strange looks in response to her answer. “So what does that mean?”

“I asked Autumn Blaze to set up Everfree City in a way that would be fair for everyone. If anyone is placed strategically in a way that gives my team the advantage, we would be forced to forfeit. Do you really think Autumn Blaze would cheat when her eternal freedom is on the line?”

Sunset Shimmer seemed not to have an answer to Cozy Glow’s rebuttal, but after looking back at me for advice, I gave her a stern stare, reminding her that this was exactly how talking to her could bring her guard down. We didn’t know what she was planning, so it was important for all of us to stay on our toes, even if she was telling the truth.

“So zen does zat mean we are all going to be placed in undetermined places ven we arrive at Everfree City?”

“You girls really don’t update your phones every chance you get, do you?” As the four of us raised suspicious eyebrows, however, Cozy Glow took out her own magical phone, sliding through her apps until she fell upon one that said “map”, which she prominently displayed. “You see what I’m using? This is your cue to open up your phones and do this yourselves.”

We then all reached for our pockets in embarrassment, pulling out our phones and seeing the words “update recommended” across the top of our screens. Finally, after allowing the phones to finish processing, we opened up the new app and browsed through the area, which was entirely different from the Everfree City we knew before.

“This is…”

“This is the Everfree City that Autumn Blaze wanted to create when she first started recruiting magical girls,” Cozy Glow said with an angry tone. “This is the first chance Autumn Blaze has had to use all the magic she’s been storing up since Divinity started harvesting it years ago.”

“Who’s Divinity?” Twilight asked, to which Cozy Glow replied with a snarky smile.

“Good question, Twilight! Maybe your friend Trixie would prefer to answer instead, though.”

That bitch! This was probably why she came to see us in the first place! I couldn’t see how far in advance she had planned this, but I knew she was trying to turn my teammates against me before we could start the game.

Luckily, though, before I needed to answer the question, Sunset Shimmer stepped in and said, “That doesn’t matter right now. Where are we going to arrive when we get to Everfree City?”

“Look at your map!” We all did as we were told, browsing through the new array of information until we all seemingly found what we were supposed to be looking for at the same time. “You see that square that says ‘Trixie’s base’? That’s where you’re going to spawn every day to start the game. Now if you look at the other side of the map, you’ll see a square that says ‘Last Gambit’s base’. See? Now you can’t claim that Autumn Blaze is interfering with the game.”

Whether or not I believed that this was the real reason she had come to speak with us, however, was irrelevant, seeing as how it had already been twenty-eight minutes since the bell had rung to release us from our classes. It looked like the other girls noticed too, each of them nodding their heads towards each other while Cozy Glow’s smile began to widen.

“Don’t forget, Trixie,” the freshman said, a little more seriously than before. “When you get to Everfree City, your base is going to have a spot where you’ll press your hand to officially give us word that you’re ready to start the game. We won’t move from our base until you’ve touched the handprint on the wall. If you don’t touch it in ten minutes, though, I’m going to count the game as a draw and refuse to play.”

“What?!” I exclaimed. “Why are you springing this all on Trixie now?!”

“I’ll see you soon, girls. Hopefully we can end this tonight.”

Why did she even need me to press some stupid hand print to start the game? Wouldn’t it have just been easier for them to start out in their base and go right into whatever their strategy was? I didn’t have time to argue, though. Cozy Glow was walking away, and we only had thirty seconds left. I had to get one last thing off my chest, though, before it was too late.

“Cozy Glow!” The girl turned around slowly with a look of curiosity. “Why…? Why did you kill my mom?”

Then, just before the lights around us began to merge into one large blur, I saw her smile the smallest grin.

“So that you would know what it’s like.”

And then we were somewhere else.

In the next moment, I was in a stone room surrounded by five beautiful girls in exotic dresses. Then, looking down at my feet, I noticed that my body had also changed during the shift, turning me into my magical form before I even had the chance to do it myself.

“Gah! Girls? Where are we?”

Everybody suddenly looked over at Daisy Quake, who was grabbing onto her arms and shivering in fear. I guess it made sense that she would be scared considering we told her that she would be getting transported to a barren wasteland and end up sent to a small brick room instead.

“This is Everfree City,” I explained, looking for the handprint that Cozy Glow told me to look out for. “There have been some changes made since the last time Trixie was here. Have you updated your phone?”

“No. Should I?”

“If your phone ever gets an update, you should install it immediately. Now where is that stupid handprint?”

“Pardon me,” Miss Monster began, making everyone’s eyes turn towards her, “but were you looking for this?”

I then turned my own head towards her, and right where she was standing was a blue outline of a hand, probably the same size and shape as mine. There were no obvious traps associated with it other than the text above it that read “press here to start the game,” but even that seemed too straightforward. There still had to be a reason why she was making me go through with it in the first place, a reason other than just trying to be fair.

“Press here to start the game?” Daisy said quizzically, staring at the handprint. “What would happen if we just left without pressing it? Are the doors sealed without it?”

Right when she asked the question, however, Midnight pulled open the metal sliding door to the room, revealing the blinding light outside. “Nope. It sounds like it’s just as Cozy Glow said. Trixie just needs to press it to start the game.”

“What if it’s a trap, though?” Daydream asked cautiously. “If it ends up electrocuting her the minute she puts her hand there, it won’t matter what the rules are. She’ll already be dead and the game will be over!”

“Zat would be somezing zat was influenced directly by Autumn Blaze, no?” Palette added. “It was Autumn Blaze zat arranged zis room, after all, and if any of us even suspects zat she cheated, she loses. I am not sure myself why Last Gambit refuses to start ze game wizout using ze handprint, but we know zat it is fair and zat ze game will not start until she does.”

“That and we’re on a time limit,” Daydream added, biting down on her finger as she thought deeply. Before Daisy Quake or Miss Monster could ask, however, she continued, “We only get ten minutes to start the game, and it’s already been four minutes. I’m as skeptical as you are, Great and Powerful Trixie, but there’s no point in arguing about it anymore.”

I then looked around the room to make sure that everyone was in accordance, and as I expected, everyone nodded their heads, signaling for me to place my hand down and get it over with. Of course, there was still the possibility that there was something we didn’t know about, but we really only did have one way to find out. I took a deep breath and wiggled my fingers, and then with one final push of courage, I placed my hand on the print, creating a blue light to circle around the outline until the whole wall turned blue.

I immediately took a step back, but even though my feet were moving away from the wall, my hand was stuck in place, held together by some magnetic force that wouldn’t let me go. Just as the other girls were either coming to my aid or backing away in their own fear, I grabbed onto my wrist, placing one foot on the wall as I tried pulling myself off, but that wasn’t working either. Suddenly everyone was pulling on me, tugging around my waist so that I could be freed from the wall, but if they tugged any harder, the only thing they’d accomplish was pulling my arm out of its socket.

“Game set,” a voice said through the wall. “Handprint identified. The Great and Powerful Trixie. Extracting key.”

“Extracting key?! What does that mean?!”

Everyone but me had stopped pulling at this point, spending more of their effort trying to analyze the wall than to unhook me from its magic that was never going to budge in the first place. Finally, though, my hand was released, leading me to fall backwards onto my butt with a painful jolt to my pelvis. As I rubbed my lower back to soothe the pain, however, a timer appeared on the wall, counting down by the seconds to a number that Midnight must have figured out immediately.

“It’s counting down how much time we have left in the day,” she said, nodding as if to confirm her own hypothesis. “The other girls have probably already left their base by now. What’s our plan?”

“Our plan is to find them and kill them,” I said, summoning my spear and using it as a crutch to pull myself off of the ground.

“I would have guessed that, but do we have any more details?”

They probably already had a much better plan, seeing as how each of them had undoubtedly looked at their map before any of us had. They were probably planning on each of us leaving our base and moving to a new area that fit our play styles. Looking over at each of the different terrains from plains, forests, mountains and cityscapes, it would make the most sense for us to go to literally anywhere but the plains, seeing as how the other locations gave us plenty of opportunities to hide and spy on the others. This was probably exactly what they were hoping for, which was why we were going to do the exact opposite.

“We’re going here,” I said, pointing towards the center of the map and making everyone’s eyes go wide.

“Vas?! Do you not realize zat zis is exactly ver zey want us to go?”

“Then we’ll take them all head on. If any of them tries to run, we won’t chase after them. We’ll just use the numbers we have to our advantage and eliminate their team one by one. Does anyone object to that?”

All of the girls then looked around at each other to make sure, but it didn’t look like anyone disagreed. We had our first location picked out, and it was there where we’d have our first all out battle.

“Is everyone ready?” I asked, and as expected, everyone nodded their heads with a confident smile.

“Yes, Mädchen. It is time to make… de magics!”

Author's Notes:

Eleventh day of Trixmas

The twelfth and final day of Trixmas will be the first real battle between Team Trixie and Team Last Gambit. I hope you're all just as excited as I am! Happy Hearth's Warming Eve!