They had obviously put just as much thought into what their plan would be as we had, only they seemed to be one step ahead of us no matter what we tried throwing at them. We needed to get out of there, to come up with a new game plan. If we continued fighting the way we were, it would only be a matter of time before they ended up killing someone else, especially now that they had more numbers than we did.

“Girls! We have to get out of here!” I shouted. “Daisy, can you create a diversion?”

“I can try,” she replied, lifting her hands over her head. I could see Onida catching wind about what was going on, but just as soon as she started skating towards us, trying to tag Daisy Quake before she could use her magic, Daisy slammed her hands to the ground, causing a large wave of jagged rocks to shoot up from the ground, separating our team from Last Gambit’s. Onida immediately turned sideways, skidding to a halt before she ended up running into a stray boulder, but we didn’t take a second look to see what they would do. We had no idea just how much range Mother Time had; we just knew that if we wanted any chance in escaping from her, we needed to run now. And fast.

Daydream Shimmer immediately grasped the gravity of the situation and shot a ray of light into the ground by the protruding earth, creating a sea of molten magma that put even more ground between us. That relief was short-lived, however, once we saw a ghost-like figure rising above the barricade on a ramp of ice.

“You’re not getting away that easily!” Frost Lass yelled, reeling her arm back. The moment she swung her palms towards us, however, a black monster raced towards the incoming icicles, grabbing them with its hands and jaws and crushing them with a loud roar.

“Beasty, you stay here!” shouted Miss Monster, to which the monster let out another cry. It looked like Frost Lass was still trying to pursue us, but Miss Monster’s beast managed to stop her before she could get close. It would probably only be a matter of time before she was able to subdue the monster, but a matter of time was all we needed to escape. Besides, I didn’t want to look back anymore.

We could only escape if we kept running forward, and escaping was the only way to keep ourselves alive right now.

“Where are we going, Trixie?” asked Midnight. “This direction just leads us back to the base!”

“Trixie doesn’t care! We need to find somewhere to hide until we can come up with another plan!”

“The base is the first place they’ll look!” Daydream intervened. “We’ll be sitting ducks!”

Her argument made sense, but at the same time, we were sitting ducks no matter where we went. I was sure that no matter where we chose to go, they had probably already planned on us being there and had come up with a perfect strategy to use the new landscape to their advantage. By the same token, though, now I was suddenly being thrusted into a role that I had never had before, one where everyone’s safety and well-being depended on me making the right decisions at a moment’s notice. For the first time in my life, it was my turn to be the leader, and even if I felt like they were just going to catch up with us no matter what we did, I needed to strengthen everyone’s resolve so that they would have both confidence in me as well as themselves.

“Then we’ll go to the cityscape!” I shouted, trying my best to improvise.

“Why there?” asked Daisy.

“They’ll think twice before going there without a plan. With your magic, you can cause the whole city to crumble in an instant. They would be dead the minute we knew they were there!”

The girls looked hesitant, knowing that there was no way it could be that easy, but they nodded regardless, meaning that it was now my responsibility to keep them safe. If only Palette were there… maybe she could have been an even better leader…

It was hard to believe we weren’t in Platinum City by the time we reached the cityscape. Everfree City’s barren land and wooden buildings were quickly replaced by tall skyscrapers, massive, concrete buildings, and roads that interwove with each other in an intricate pattern. I wasn’t wrong when I said that Daisy Quake could level the whole landscape in an instant, but they had a magical girl on their side who could easily negate that power.

The five of us immediately entered into a vacant office building, went up to the fourth of five floors and entered into a completely random room, just so there was as little chance of being found as possible. The room we entered luckily enough appeared like a conference room, even though the layout itself was completely vacant without any chairs or tables to speak of. It wasn’t like that was a problem, though. After all we had been through in the past hour, whether or not we sat on the floor was the least of our worries.

“Those girls are terrifying,” Daisy said, pressing her back against a wall and sliding down to her haunches.

“I don’t know if ‘terrifying’ is the right word,” Midnight began, rubbing her chin pensively, “but they’re definitely able to adapt much quicker than we previously imagined.”

“So what are we gonna do?” asked Daydream, and although I didn’t have an exact answer, I at least knew where to start.

“Mother Time,” I said, gulping in nervousness once everyone’s eyes fell back onto me. “If she can bring her teammates back to life, she has to be the first one eliminated.”

Miss Monster rolled her eyes. “And just how, pray tell, do you plan on us doing that?”

That was where my plan fell apart. It was obvious that we wouldn’t be able to kill her so long as she was with the rest of her team, but there was no doubt that Last Gambit was already aware of that. We had to force their team to split up if we wanted to even out the numbers in our favor. I just had to figure out how, and I had to do it before any of them lost their faith in me as their leader.

“We’ll have to split up and fight them one on one!”

“Aren’t you forgetting one key detail?” Daydream asked, folding her arms with an eyebrow raised. “Even if we decided to split up, that would still leave them with an extra magical girl to do whatever they want, and if they know we’re after Mother Time, they’d probably just have her make a run for it so she wouldn’t have to risk anything.”

“Trixie understands, which means that if we’re going to do this, one of us is going to have to fight two magical girls at once.”

The other four girls and I looked around at each other to see if there was an obvious choice or matchup we could use to our advantage, but no matter how we looked at it, it sounded like we were going to be at a disadvantage no matter what we did. Even just battling one on one would prove to be difficult. I couldn’t imagine how we were ever going to let one of our girls battle two at the same time, even if it was my idea to begin with.

“I can handle Frost Lass,” Daydream announced, lifting up her hand. “Her powers and mine seem to balance each other out. Plus, I kinda want to be the one to kill her after what she did to Palette. She sounds like she has a personal grudge against us for some reason, and I want to find out why.”

“Do you think you can handle anyone else?” I asked, to which Daydream shook her head.

“I might be able to if you really need me, but I can’t say for sure.”

Understandable enough. I couldn’t ask her to push her limits if it meant losing her as a teammate.

“Trixie wants to help you,” I began, “but Last Gambit is going to be focused on me the entire time, and it sounds like she’s been waiting a long time to finally have this chance. Sorry girls, but it looks like the Great and Powerful Trixie is going to have her hands full.”

The girls all nodded their heads sympathetically, allowing me to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they understood the situation and didn’t think I was weak for not being able to take on the brunt of the load by myself. Still, though, that left four more Everfree City girls to disperse between Midnight Sparkle, Miss Monster and Daisy Quake.

“Leave Bloody Mary to me,” said the girl in the black dress. “Her magic won’t have any effect on Beasty, after all.”

“Good idea,” I replied, “but your magic is only suited to battle one opponent at a time. If anything happens to your monster, we’ll have to retreat and come up with a different strategy altogether. We’ll keep you safe until then.”

“I think I’d be best suited to handle Onida,” said Daisy, raising her hand. “If I don’t at least slow her down, she’s gonna be all over the place.”

That was right. With the speed Onida had along with her skates, she would be an absolute nightmare to deal with using anyone’s powers other than Daisy’s. Even if she couldn’t stop Onida completely, just so long as she kept her from interfering with any of the other girls, we would have a legitimate chance of killing Mother Time before she’d be able to escape.

By the process of elimination, however, all of our heads turned towards Midnight Sparkle, who was probably going to have the hardest time out of any of us, and once the message sunk in for herself, she quickly shrunk into her shoulders. Not only would she have the hardest job, but she would be facing the two trickiest members of Everfree City all by herself. I didn’t envy her, but it was doubtful that there were any options better than where we ended up.

“Oh…” Midnight said self-consciously. “That means I’m the one who has to kill Mother Time, doesn’t it?”

“Listen, Midnight,” Daydream began, grabbing her by the shoulders with an empathetic expression on her face. “We can think of another way if you don’t think you can handle it.”

“N-no! I can handle it! I just--”

“No, you can’t.” Suddenly, all of our eyes turned towards Miss Monster, who was folding her arms while scowling at the cowering magical girl. “First of all, you have no way to kill Mother Time on your own. Daydream Shimmer, Daisy Quake, the Great and Powerful Trixie and myself all have powers made specifically for offensive combat, whereas you are predominantly a defensive magical girl. Not only that, but your power is absorbing other magical girls’ powers and using it against them, correct? How is turning back time going to kill someone?”

Midnight flinched, physically hurt by how bluntly Miss Monster was criticizing her. “But…”

“Not only that, but you would also have Panicity to deal with on top of that! How would you even go about absorbing her power? With someone like Daydream Shimmer or Frost Lass, you could easily just touch their attacks to absorb them, but you would have to touch Panicity herself in order to absorb her powers. Plus, not to be harsh, dear, but there’s no way you would survive coming within five feet of her before having a fatal panic attack.”

“That’s enough!”

Again, all of our heads turned towards the new focus of the room, Daydream Shimmer, standing in front of Midnight Sparkle, who was now practically shaking from the verbal assault she had been forced to deal with.

“What’s wrong with you?” Daydream continued. “Midnight is just as qualified to be part of this team as you are, and I think she’s more than capable of handling both Panicity and Mother Time at once, right Twilight?”

“R-right, heheh…”

Miss Monster tapped her fingers along her folded arms while continuing to hold her fierce scowl towards the two magical girls in everyone’s focus. “Interesting sentiment, my dear, but how exactly will she kill Mother Time?”

“Maybe she doesn’t have to!” Once again, everyone’s eyes shifted in my direction to see me holding my chin pensively. “Midnight! Do you think you can survive battling against Mother Time and Panicity by yourself?”

The purple-skinned magical girl shrunk slightly again before mumbling, “I… I think so. Theoretically, they don’t have any kind of magic that should be able to kill me on their own.”

“Then stall them! All of us have powers that can kill someone. I know I said that we have to target her first, but so long as she’s away from her teammates, there’s no one who will be able to revive them if they die. One of us will just have to win our respective battle before we can join you.”

“By that logic,” Daisy said, grabbing her arms like a chill just ran down her spine, “that means we’ll have no room for error.”

She was right. This whole plan rode on the assumption that none of us would die in the process, giving Last Gambit an even greater advantage. Even with that taken into consideration, however, there was no way to advance in this game without taking away Mother Time in one way or another.

“There’s just one more problem, though.” I then gulped, trying to find the best way I could phrase my next sentence as everyone waited with concern on their faces. “Last Gambit… probably has a strategy that’s better than ours.”

“What?!”

“Then what’s the point of even going through with this strategy?!” Daisy exclaimed.

“Seriously, Trixie,” Daydream agreed. “Have some confidence in us.”

“No,” I replied bluntly. “Ever since I’ve met her, she’s always been two or three steps ahead of me. She’s far better at knowing what we’re going to do even before we even think of it, and it’s hard to believe that we’d be able to change that now.”

“So what are you saying?” asked Miss Monster. “Should we just give up?”

“No, we have to get them to play the game our way.” All of the glares in the room suddenly began to fade as their ears perked up with interest. “If they’re going to out-strategize us, we need to be better at adapting than they are. It’s good to have a plan in place, but when they poke holes in our strategy, we need to be able to change directions on the spot. That’s how we’ll win.”

Finally, all of the gloomy expressions in the room began to lighten up, some of them even smiling with a confidence that put my heart at ease. Unfortunately for me, however, that feeling would disappear as quickly as it came.

“There’s just one thing that’s been bothering me, though…” I then turned my attention towards Midnight Sparkle, who was rubbing her chin in deep thought. “These other girls…”

“What about ‘em?” Daydream responded.

“I don’t understand what they’re hoping to get out of this. If what we’ve been told is correct, then a magical creature named Autumn Blaze will escape from Everfree City and attack Equestria if they win. Why would they go through so much trouble to make that happen? How does that benefit them?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Daisy chimed in. “I’ve been trying to ignore it, but what that Panicity girl said earlier is starting to bug me.” Then, with her desperate eyes looking deep into mine and her lower lip quivering, she asked me, “Trixie… There’s something you’re not telling us, isn’t there?”

I had no idea how to respond, but the longer I took to answer her simple yes-or-no question, the more concerned everyone’s faces became. If only Palette could have been there, she might have known what to say.

“I…”

I tried to speak, but words weren’t coming out. Even if I knew what to say, my breath was getting caught in my throat, choking me while I tried to come up with an explanation that I could give them.

“Trixie might… know something…” Everyone’s eyes grew wide, making my heart race. “But not everything! Trixie’s memories have been erased, and now I’m trying to fill in the missing pieces!”

“Well then,” Daydream retorted, putting her hands on her hips, “just tell us what you do know.”

As quickly as I had gained their trust, I had immediately lost it. I was backed into a corner, still unsure of how many gory details I was supposed to share with them, especially since I really didn’t know that much more than they did. Their eyes, however, continued to squint in suspicion, and after another gulp, I knew that I had to at least tell them something before they started coming up with their own theories.

With a deep sigh, I hung my head and mumbled, “This… isn’t the first death game that Trixie has been a part of.” Daisy and Midnight gasped, Daydream’s eyebrow rose, but Miss Monster seemed unphased by the explanation, almost like she was already suspecting something like this to come up. “If Trixie understands correctly… this is the third.”

“But you don’t remember because your memories have been erased?” Daydream continued to clarify. “Who erased them? Why? And why didn’t you tell us?”

“Discord. One of the girls from Platinum City asked him to do it. I’m still not sure why, but I can’t remember either of the death games that I supposedly took part in before now. I don’t even remember how I became a magical girl in the first place.” Everyone’s faces were becoming more sympathetic, but it still wasn’t easy explaining all of the details when I didn’t know half of them myself. “I didn’t mention anything because I didn’t want you to think of me differently.”

Finally, Daydream chuckled and shook her head. “You had nothing to worry about, Trixie,” she replied. “At this point, it would take a pretty big shock to make any of us change our minds about you.”

“What about murder?”

The five of us all shrieked, turning our heads to the doorway to see a younger girl leaning against the wall, rocking her foot back and forth with her spear in her hands. Her skin was pink, she had curly blue hair, and she was wearing a purple cape that fell to her ankles. She’d found us, and it hadn’t even taken her more than an hour to pinpoint our exact location.

“What do you mean ‘murder’?!” Daydream exclaimed angrily. “The Great and Powerful Trixie isn’t a murderer. Unlike you!”

“Oh, really?” Last Gambit replied with a chuckle. “You know, I’m actually being honest when I say that I’ve never actually killed anyone before. Can you say that, Trixie? Oh, that’s right. You can’t exactly talk about that while your friends are here.”

“Everyone!” I shouted. “Be on the lookout for the others! Panicity could be using her magic right now!”

“Hang on,” Daisy said, approaching me hesitantly. “Answer her, Trixie. Have you ever killed anyone before?”

“Daisy!” Daydream shouted. “That’s enough!”

“No! I want to hear it from her own mouth!” Again, Daisy looked into my eyes with desperation. “She’s lying, right, Trixie? Please tell us you’ve never killed anyone before.”

Last Gambit’s smile grew wider and wider while everyone around me began to subtly look towards my direction. None of them wanted to admit it, but they were all wondering whether or not I was actually the murderer that she was making me out to be.

I didn’t have a choice anymore. I would risk my friendship with them if I told them about my past, but unless I told them my side of the story, they would lose their trust in me forever.

Lifting my head towards Last Gambit, avoiding the eyes of my teammates, I said, “The reason Last Gambit wants to release Autumn Blaze…” I gulped. “...is because I’m responsible for the death of every magical girl in Everfree City.”

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay. I'm going to try to update the next couple of chapters more regularly than once every 3 months. I think this story is about 1/3 of the way finished, so I hope you enjoy the rest of the ride!