The air around me was cold, making me look all over just in case I’d spawned in the same area as Frost Lass, but after taking a quick survey around the area, I managed to breathe a small sigh of relief. I was safe for the time being, at least as far as I was aware, but unfortunately for me, I didn’t exactly have the luxury of being able to sit and wait for reinforcements to show up. If this game was ever going to end, I would have to go on the offensive and catch the enemy off guard before they knew I was there. That’s what they were able to do for the entire first day, and because of that, my team was left running away the entire time, suffering our first casualty without even making the other team nervous.

Our target was at least six miles apart from the rest of her team, which meant that I had the perfect opportunity to either kill her or one of her teammates before she had the opportunity to revive any of them. They were no doubt planning on regrouping at a specific location, similar to what we were doing, but that also meant that if they were able to assemble themselves together before I did, I would be as good as dead.

I slapped my cheeks before I could dwell on it too much, knowing that no matter what they were planning on doing, there was no advantage to sitting around worrying about it. My objective was to get to the rendezvous point as fast as I could and eliminate any Everfree City girls that I found on the way… that is, unless I ran into Bloody Mary... I still had no idea what made her so dangerous to the point where Twilight nearly broke out into a cold sweat just thinking about her, but if Twilight honestly believed that she was that much of a threat, I wasn’t about to wait around to find out for sure.

I then made my descent down the mountains in the direction of our meeting location, stumbling down rocks as my eyes travelled from left to right. One misstep, one unnecessary sound, or one wrong turn, and I’d give away my location to anyone nearby, basically losing the game before we ever got the upper hand.

“C-c-cold.”

Maintaining balance was hard enough as it was when trying to quickly--yet quietly--run down the slope of a mountain, but once the frigid temperatures were added in, I was basically a clumsy mess. Why did I think it would be a good idea to create a magical girl outfit without any sleeves? With my hands rubbing frantically against my arms to keep myself as warm as I could manage, I had no way of catching myself whenever I fell down, skidding my knees against the rocks just before they tumbled down the cliff of the mountain range. I needed Daydream Shimmer to show up fast, for more than one reason.

It felt like hours were passing, even though I knew that I probably hadn’t even spent thirty minutes climbing down the mountain landscapes. Again, I looked up at the sky, impatiently waiting for my teammate to find me, but again, the only objects above me were the white clouds that blocked out the sky. I’d probably be able to tell if she were coming from a mile away just from the light source she’d create from using her powers, something that the opposing team would no doubt take advantage of.

Maybe they’d already found her. Maybe they’d already found one of my other teammates. Was there any way to know if someone had been killed before the game ended that night?

I had to sit down just to help clear my mind from all the anxious thoughts I was having, only made worse by the mental effort it took to not slip and fall down the rocky hillside. It hurt my butt sitting on a surrogate chair made of gravel, but the pain wasn’t nearly as bad as the aching sensation in my muscles. Even with my magical girl strength, I had severely underestimated how exhausting it was trying to keep myself moving on such rigid terrain.

Just as I stopped moving and allowed the sounds of soft winds blowing past my hair to fill the silence of the terrain around me, however, I noticed one strange detail that I hadn’t recognized before: there was no silence. Even though I’d stopped moving, the sounds of rocks awkwardly tumbling down the mountainside were continuing to echo throughout the environment.

Immediately, I turned to my side, and that’s when I finally noticed her.

“Weeeell. It took you long enough. I thought I’d be halfway to the cityscapes by the time you turned around.”

Suddenly, my hand wouldn’t stop twitching, my heartbeat racing at twice the speed it was before as the magical girl walked towards me at an almost leisurely pace. My mouth immediately dried up and my eyes went wide, but that wasn’t even the beginning of the emotional rollercoaster that had taken hold of my thought process. Yes, a surge of adrenaline had suddenly spiked through my veins, and yes, a good portion of what I felt was a sudden fear that I was about to die. Once the initial shock wore off, though, my eyebrows furrowed, my fists clenched, and my teeth ground together with enough friction to destroy normal bones.

It was her, the one who killed my mother and left me alone to bury her body.

“Can’t say I’m surprised, though,” Panicity continued. “You never did seem like the observant type to me. What was your plan for choosing the mountain side first? You obviously don’t seem like someone who enjoys long hikes.”

“Shut up…”

Her ears perked up. “Hmm?”

She was probably using her magic without me realizing it, but whether I was under her control or not, I had completely lost control of myself. Everything I saw was red, my mind now functioning solely on the bloodlust rushing through my mind, and suddenly my body began moving on its own, charging at full force towards the magical girl in front of me. That’s when she smiled, but by the time I realized what had happened, it was already too late.

“Like mother, like daughter.”

*slice*

Then, with my spear raised over her head, my body froze like a statue as my head slowly travelled down to the searing pain within my ribcage. Again, all I saw was red, but this time for a completely different reason than before. Blood was suddenly beginning to gush from my body onto the pile of rocks between us, covering her already red dress with an even darker tone that dripped onto her legs and shoes. Then, with another painful twist, she pulled the utensil in her hand out of my side, revealing a dagger now soaked with my life liquids.

I then fell to my knees, no longer able to comprehend the pain they must have been in after hitting the stones below with the force of my full body weight. Gripping onto my wounded area as tight as I could, praying that I could at least slow down the bleeding, I finally began to realize how stupid I’d been in charging at her. Did I really think it would be that easy? Was I going to die now, to lose everything I’d worked for in one shortsighted act of selfishness?

“You…” I mumbled, wincing with even more pain thanks to my diaphragm pushing against the wound in my torso. “You don’t… know what you’re doing…”

The girl above me raised a curious eyebrow, followed by a smug smile. “Oh, don’t I? Why don’t you fill me in on those gaps?” She then lowered her lips to my ear and brought her voice down to a gentle whisper. “That is... while you still can.”

The world around me began to spin, losing all of its color as a dim black void crept its way into my peripheral vision. My muscles were starting to lose their strength, but I had to keep myself conscious for as long as I possibly could, if not for me, then just to give this bitch one last piece of my mind before the world turned to darkness. “You picked… the wrong side…!”

Suddenly, the smirk on her face disappeared in one quick instant, and the next thing I knew, I was now back on my feet, staring into her eyes as she held me up by my hair. Blood was now seeping through my fingertips, and with the added adrenaline making my heart pump even faster, I was doing all I could just to keep my eyes open and see the seething scowl on her face.

“Who the fuck are you to lecture me, you hypocrite?! How many girls have you killed in your life?! Yet you want to stand her and tell me that I should have joined your side this entire time?!”

“If Cozy Glow wins, Equestria will--”

“I don’t give a shit about Equestria!”

My eyes widened just slightly, my eyebrows raising as high as my weak body could lift them. Was this really all she was, a psychopath who didn’t feel any remorse for any of the pain that she caused others? If she was part of the reason everyone in Equestria died, would she be proud that she had just picked the winning side? Still, though, if I could keep her talking, I could use this to my advantage. If she was going to use my emotions to her advantage, I was going to do the same thing to her.

“How can you not care?!” I exclaimed weakly, discreetly using my magic to wobble a large stone a few feet behind her. “If Autumn Blaze is set free, her battle with Discord will--”

“Then take that up with Discord! I finally have powers again, and I’m not going to lose them all because you want to protect the god of chaos!”

She was falling for it! I could see pure malice in her eyes. If I could keep her attention on me for just a little bit longer, if I could just distract her for a few more seconds, maybe I wouldn’t lose here after all.

As I looked into her eyes, trying not to glance past her shoulders at the stone that was now slowly beginning to levitate off the ground, I quietly shouted, “It’s not about Discord! Innocent people are gonna die too! People like Trixie’s mother… are going to die just so you can keep your powers.”

Her teeth grit tighter together, her hand letting go of my hair so that she could pinch her fingers around my neck. “I never asked to be part of this world. I’ve spent years wishing I could leave this place altogether, but if I’m going to be stuck here, I’m going to live on my terms. Even if people get hurt…” Her hand gripped tighter. “...it’s nothing compared to what this world has done to me!!”

Now! This was it!

I then channelled all the magic left in my body and sent the rock flying as fast as I could, and to my absolute surprise, it was a total bullseye, slicing dead-center into the back of her head. Her forehead nearly bashed into mine from the recoil, but once her eyes went wide in shock, the rest of her body went limp almost immediately. In the next moment, her hand let go of my throat and her body fell to the floor, motionless and lifeless aside from the bright light that encased her corpse out of nowhere. I had just enough energy to grab hold of my wounds, stopping whatever blood was still leaking from my ribcage, and after wobbling back a few feet, I saw her body slowly revert back to her original form.

Once again, I was faced with a dead body. She had poofy blonde hair, a worn-down purple hoodie, and a spiked hairband that took some of the attention away from the rock lodged in the back of her head. Seeing Palette’s corpse was traumatizing enough already, but knowing that I was the one responsible for taking her life away filled me with so much disgust that I nearly threw up everything in my stomach. Even knowing that she’d come back to life at the end of the day, seeing her dead body with its eyes wide open in shock made my insides churn in discomfort. Was this what it was like to kill another human being? Had I really already done this a half dozen times already?

Finally, I gently lowered myself back to the floor, still lightheaded from the blood loss and morbid scene in front of me, but at least cognizant enough to keep myself conscious before I ended up just like her. At least… until what happened next.

“Sorry, dear, but we just can’t have this, now can we?”

No… Nooo!!! Of all the times to appear, she had to choose now?! We were finally one step closer to winning, but before I even had the chance to collect my thoughts, the fingers of the corpse in front of me began to twitch.

Lifting my head, my field of vision became encompassed by a holographic clock, whose hands began to slowly turn backwards in front of her palm. Then, before I could react, a bright light once again encompassed the corpse at my knees, lifting her back up to her feet, and once the light subsided, she was once again wearing her red dress and black high heels. The main difference now, though, was that the rock that I’d used to kill her was now back where I’d picked it up, completely devoid of a single drop of blood.

That’s when Panicity opened her eyes again, and just like that, I had gone from being the lone to survivor to fighting for my life in a two-against-one situation.

“Wha--?!” she shrieked, grabbing onto the back of her head and looking all around her. “What did you do?!”

“She knocked you unconscious, dear,” the magical girl behind her said with a smile, making Panicity flinch as she turned around. “And when I say unconscious, I mean she totes killed you. You really shouldn’t let your guard down so easily, you know.”

“Can it, Mother Time. I’m not in the mood for a lecture right now.”

“Very well, love,” she replied, taking a seat on a boulder behind her, placing her elbows onto her knees. “Carry on with what you were doing.”

Panicity clicked her tongue at her teammate before looking down at me with annoyance in her eyes. Her dagger once again rose in the air above my head, but I no longer had any way to escape, my energy having bled out of my body with the rest of my strength being used to keep myself alive for as long as I possibly could. I still had enough stamina left to use magic, but even if I did, now that the time-turner was here, anything I did would just get reversed immediately. Even if I went after Mother Time instead, Panicity would just kill me on the spot, and the game would be over just like that.

Think, Trixie! Think, Trixie! Think, Trixie!

Then, just as I was about to lose all hope, I saw the clouds begin to disperse out of the corner of my eye. It was still faint, probably just faint enough for someone to mistake it for the sun emerging in the sky, but if I was right, it was exactly the backup I’d been waiting for. The other two magical girls didn’t seem to think anything of it so far, which meant that if I could just stay alive for a few more seconds, I might make it out of here alive.

In the next moment, though, my time had run out, and the dagger in Panicity’s hand swung down towards my forehead. Immediately, I let my reflexes act on their own, using my magic to send a rock flying to my safety, colliding with Panicity’s wrist. She then let out a painful grunt, dropping her weapon to the side and using her spare hand to soothe the agony in her hand.

“Urk! You little shit!” In the next moment, Panicity lifted her high heel shoe and slammed it into my face, sending me to the ground with my already aching ribs colliding with the jagged mountainous terrain. “Why are you making this harder than it needs to be?! Why won’t you just give up and--”

“PANICITY! USE YOUR MAGIC! NOW!”

Suddenly, Panicity looked into the sky with terror in her eyes, and before my mind could process what was going on, she had already jumped back several feet as a solar flare cascaded towards the ground in a rain of fire.

“Shit!” Panicity exclaimed. “Mother Time, get her out of here!”

“I can’t! She’s out of my range!”

The magical girl in red clicked her tongue again. “Figures I’d have to do everything myself.”

Then, as I pulled myself back up to a sitting position, a girl in a pink dress with wings made of flames descended to the ground in front of me, looking straight ahead with fireballs crackling in her hands. She made it! I was still alive!

“Both of you,” she announced in an authoritative tone, “leave now and I’ll let you live.”

Let them live? What was she talking about?! If she could kill them, now was our chance!

“Oh?” Panicity suddenly smirked, walking towards Daydream with confidence written all over her face, her hips casually swaying with every step she took. Daydream, though, took a hesitant step backwards, still facing forward, albeit with her body gradually shrinking the closer Panicity came. “You know, I died for the first time today, and if we’re all being honest here, I really underestimated how much it would hurt.”

Panicity was now face to face with Daydream Shimmer, who was literally leaning backwards while her opponent practically pressed their noses together. All Daydream had to do was use her magic and Panicity would be dead, but she wasn’t moving! She was doing anything except… shaking…

“S-stay back!” she said, trying to sound as confident as she possibly could, but her attempt was so futile that Mother Time began cackling in the background from how pathetic she sounded. “I’m warning you! I’ll--”

“You’ll do what? Give me a sunburn?” The magical girl in red chuckled femininely again as she reached down to pick up the dagger she’d dropped earlier. Meanwhile, Daydream Shimmer was literally shaking in her boots, taking another step backwards to put more distance between them. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t I give you a five second head start?”

Daydream once again froze motionless, but after a few seconds had passed, she looked backwards, seeing me giving her a frenzied stare before she turned towards Panicity again. Was she weighing her options? Was she legitimately taking Panicity’s offer seriously?!

“Daydream…” I muttered. “What are you doing?”

“I… I don’t know!” Again, Panicity took another step closer, causing Daydream to step backwards as her smug grin grew even wider. “W-w-what should I do?”

“Kill h--!” I tried to shout my answer, but I couldn’t even get two syllables out before I started coughing my lungs out, feeling the lights growing dimmer after every breath. “Quick!”

“I--I can’t kill her! She’s too strong! I don’t wanna die, Trixie! I DON’T WANNA DIIIIEEEE!!”

Daydream then collapsed onto the ground, holding her hands over her head to hide herself from the magical girl before her while she wept loudly, sobbing as if she were moments away from an inevitable death. Was Panicity’s magic really this strong? I quickly looked up at the girl in the red dress, who smiled back down at me with a sadistic grin on her face, but by the time I realized that I was also falling under her spell, it was too late. Suddenly, I was paralyzed in fear, squeezing my eyes closed to block out the reality of my surroundings.

“Quit playing around!” Mother Time shouted with annoyance in her voice. “If you wait any longer, someone might show up!”

“Ohhh, trust me,” Panicity replied in a low voice. “I’m willing to take that risk.”

I refused to open my eyes to see what was going on, but the next thing I heard was Daydream grunt and hit the floor, making me shriek as I wrapped my arms around my waist in terror. This was it. This was the end. I was really going to die. Why did I think that some weak, insignificant girl like me could ever hope to save Equestria?

“Get up.”

Finally, I opened my eyes, and Panicity’s grin was now gone, standing angrily with her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed in animosity. As I quickly looked over at Daydream, I was able to breathe one quick sigh of relief. She seemed to be OK, just knocked over by Panicity’s high heel shoe as the magical girl approached me closer. Even though I was afraid to move, however, the last thing I wanted to do was make her even angrier, even if it meant losing even more blood as I shakily made my way back up to my feet. Once the two of us were at eye level, Panicity made the dagger in her hand magically disappear before she reached down and picked up a rock that was roughly half the size of her head. Her eyes seemed to examine every depression and protrusion that made up the stone’s surface before looking back at my face in annoyance.

“Was this the one you used earlier?”

“I--I don’t think--I--I don’t know! I’m sorry!”

The magical girl in red groaned in aggravation, rubbing her temples with her spare hand. “Well, you’d better find out quick. Otherwise I’ll just have to hit you with every single rock on this mountain until you can figure out which one you used to kill me!”

“Panicity! We don’t have time for this!”

“Quiet! You can tell me what to do after you know what it’s like to die!”

“I… I can’t…”

Suddenly, my vision went out, and the next thing I felt was my body once again crashing into the stony ground beneath me. I could still breathe, but everything else was all a blur. I knew that Panicity and Mother Time were still yelling at each other and that my life was still in danger, but by this point, I had lost so much blood that now all I could do was make peace with reality. I was going to die, and if I just gave into the dark clouds surrounding my vision, maybe the pain would finally go away.

Finally, I’d never get hurt again. Just the thought of it made me smile, and with my mind now made up, I laid my head back and allowed the blissful sensation of death to take away the pain...

“Trixie? Trixie?! No… No, no, no, no, NO! AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!”

...But Daydream wasn’t quite ready to let me die just yet.

Just as everything went dark, a bright light suddenly entered my field of vision, and even though it took all of my remaining energy just to open my eyes again, I was suddenly met with the visage of a giant pillar of flames rising into the sky. Panicity then stumbled backwards, taking several steps away to avoid being caught in the growing fire, and suddenly, all the anxiety that had been building up in my heart was beginning to disappear.

I could think clearly again! We could still win this!

As Panicity looked up at the magical girl flapping her giant, fiery wings, I once again grabbed hold of the bloody wound in my ribcage, which seemed like it had finally begun to clot. My sight was coming back to me, but there was still no way that I’d be able to fight in the condition I was in, not even enough to use my magic. If I so much as reverted back to my original form, my body would probably die on the spot from overexertion, which meant that it was now up to Daydream Shimmer to handle two magical girls at once.

“Mother Time! Get over here!”

“Got it!”

The moment Mother Time leapt to her feet, a wave of fire rained down from the sky, headed straight towards Panicity with nowhere to escape. Just as Panicity helplessly held out her arms to block the onslaught of flames, however, Mother Time quickly jumped in, turning back time just far enough for the flames to rescind back into Daydream’s palms.

“What happened?!” the girl in the white dress asked her teammate, keeping her hands out for whenever Daydream would strike next. “Why isn’t your magic working?!”

“I think it might have been a little too effective,” she responded, grimacing from how quickly the tables had turned.

“Well, go take care of Trixie! Hurry! I’ll hold off her friend in the meantime.”

“R-right.”

Now what was I supposed to do?! I couldn’t move my body anymore, I couldn’t run away, and I couldn’t teleport back to Equestria until midnight, which was still hours away! Instead, I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out the world around me and praying that everything would work out. There was nothing else I could do. My entire life was in someone else’s hands.

Meanwhile, Panicity marched closer to my body, and whether or not she used her magic on me was completely irrelevant at this point. I was already panicking to the point where I was close to fainting again, my heartbeat only increasing as she magically pulled her dagger out of thin air. If only I could summon my spear, I’d at least be able to do something, but as soon as I tried summoning magic back to my fingertips, I felt a brief flash of darkness taking over my vision again.

Suddenly, a pillar of fire cascaded towards Panicity, but like before, Mother Time used her own magic to recall the attack, leaving Panicity without a single singed hair on her head. The magical girl in red was now standing above me, raising her dagger in the air, ready to strike down without another moment of hesitation. Thousands of thoughts travelled through my mind at once, collecting together into an ocean of information funnelled by my remaining adrenaline. If I could pull something, anything from that sea of ideas, then maybe, if I was lucky, I could find some way to keep myself alive for at least a few more seconds.

And at the last second, it came to me.

“DAYDREAM! GET OUT OF MOTHER TIME’S RANGE!”

Daydream Shimmer raised an eyebrow but nodded regardless. Then, just as Panicity began to swing her dagger downward, the sun-themed magical girl soared backwards and released another burst of flames, barely missing me and immersing the other in fire.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

“Stand still, Panicity! I’ve got you!”

Standing still while engulfed in flames, however, was a request easier said than done. Immediately, Panicity dropped to the floor and began rolling in agony, making it even more difficult for Mother Time to reverse what had happened, but while the two of them were busy trying to douse the fire, Daydream Shimmer descended to my side, picking me up and carrying me away.

“Let me handle this,” she said quietly. “I’m just gonna set you somewhere safe for right now. You can leave the rest to me.”

“What… *cough* are you going to do?”

“...I’m finishing this.”

Daydream then flapped her wings and took off into the sky again, flying towards a nearby cliff from the next mountain over. Meanwhile, the inferno encasing Panicity’s body began to disappear, leaving her body shaking with her eyes the size of saucers. Panicity was still alive, but there was no doubt that she was shaken from the torture she’d just experienced. Now she was the one too anxious to fight.

Then, Daydream set me down onto the surface of the nearby bluff, turning her attention immediately to the magical girls on the ground below. “I think I know how to beat them now.” She didn’t elaborate any further, but I had a feeling that I was thinking the same thing she was.

Nodding my head, she returned to the battlefield, hovering hundreds of feet into the air above them, looking down at them as if they were ants on the playground. I could hardly see what was going on from my position, but I could see the look of absolute terror on both of their faces, barely making out the sounds of Mother Time’s voice.

“R-run. Panicity, GO! YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE! QUICK!”

“I--”

“PANICITY, NOW!”

Without arguing any further, the magical girl in red quickly nodded her head and began running as fast as her legs would take her in the opposite direction while Mother Time stood steadfast in place. Panicity nearly fell over multiple times, but despite how easy a target she was, Daydream didn’t even bother looking in her direction, and if I understood what was going on, I didn’t blame her. That’s when Daydream’s hands once again began to engulf in flames, subtly at first until the fire gradually grew to the point where it encased her entire body.

Finally, the entire sky lit up in a bright light, the clouds disappearing as far as the eye could see. Then, with a grimace on her face, Mother Time tossed her tophat to the side and held out both of her hands, summoning a large holographic clock in front of her body. That’s when Daydream finally unleashed her attack, summoning so much fire that it encased a half mile of land almost the moment it touched the ground.

The light was so blinding that I couldn’t see everything that was going on, but within the flames was a small opening, a small area where I could see Mother Time’s magic pulling the flames back towards Daydream Shimmer’s hands. My breath caught in my throat, believing that our plan had failed, but in the next moment, I saw that opening slowly begin to close. As much as she tried to reverse time, as hard as she tried to stop Daydream’s attack, there was just too much for her to handle on her own, and in the next moment, the flames coming in from all around her began to break through her range, consuming her flesh with searing fire.

Even past the roaring of the crackling flames, I could hear her screams, wailing in agony as loudly as her lungs would allow. I could feel in my own body how much pain she was in, experiencing the most brutal end a person could endure, slowly burning to death, wishing it could all be over despite your body trying to save you from its inevitable demise. It seemed to go on forever, but Daydream couldn’t stop until the screaming ended, not until we knew for sure she was dead. Eventually, however, the sound of cackling flames began to drown out the sounds of her voice, and after just a few more seconds to make sure that the job had been done, the fire gradually fizzled out, leaving behind nothing but cinders of what used to be a magical girl.

Daydream Shimmer breathed a sigh of relief, but I knew that our mission wasn’t finished yet. “Daydream! Panicity is escaping! Go after her before she gets away!”

“Huh?! Oh! I’m on it, Great and Powerful Trixie!”

Daydream then flapped her wings down the slope of the mountain, chasing in the direction of where Panicity had tried to run away, but there was no way she’d be able to outrun Daydream on the rocky mountain terrain. I saw Panicity look back with horror in her eyes, breathing so hard that she grunted with every step she took. She knew that she’d never be able to escape like this. In a matter of moments, Daydream would catch up and do the exact same thing to Panicity that she’d done to Mother Time. Her death was inevitable.

At least… that’s what we thought.

“Tag! You’re it!”

Then, out of nowhere, a girl with pink hair, a yellow dress and green roller skates came skidding by, slapping Panicity’s hand the moment she entered our field of vision. In the next moment, however, Panicity was gone, catapulted to a completely different location at a speed we’d never be able to match. Just when we thought we’d had one more magical girl eliminated, she slipped right through our fingers.

Onida then came sliding to a stop along the jagged landscape, dust billowing behind her as she wiped sweat from her forehead. “Phew. Came just in the knick of time. Speaking of time…” The magical girl quickly turned her head to the side, but as if she already knew what had happened, her face contorted into a disgusted scowl, making her gorgeous face almost unbearable to look at. “You… What did you do to her?!”

“We did what we had to do,” Daydream replied, to which Onida scoffed.

“What you had to do?! Dude! What’s wrong with you?! She was only trying to help our friend!”

“And you think that helping her release Autumn Blaze into Equestria is a good thing?!”

“If it means getting rid of Discord, hell yeah it is!”

Daydream groaned, her hands once again lighting up into balls of fire. “I’ve had enough of this.” Almost immediately, fire once again rained down on the floor below, but unlike Mother Time, Onida wasn’t going to stand still and take the attack head on. As if it took no effort, she quickly zoomed past all of Daydream’s attacks, skidding along the ground like socks on a kitchen floor. Daydream grunted again, shooting off attacks in different patterns, doing her best to either outspeed her or trap her, but no matter what she tried, Onida was able to outmaneuver her, the smile on her face growing wider and wider.

“You’re gonna have to do better than that, bro!”

Then, pulling in as much energy into her body as she could, Daydream sent down an eruption of fire similar to what she’d done against Mother Time, searing the terrain as far as the eye could see. Seconds passed, Daydream’s face filled with anger as she waited to make sure that she had hit her target, but unlike what happened to Mother Time, there was no screaming. Even past the roars of the fire, we should have been able to hear something. Once the flames sizzled out and the ground was once again visible, however, all we saw were skid marks from where the magical girl had escaped.

Not only had she gotten away, but so did Panicity. Normally, with the death of Mother Time, that would mean that our numbers were even, but seeing as how I couldn’t even move my body, I would be basically useless until Discord could heal me up later that night. We were still outmatched, and I was the weakest link on the team.

Daydream sighed, flapping her wings sadly as she slowly hovered over to where she’d placed me earlier. Then, holding out her hands, she quietly said, “C’mon, Great and Powerful Trixie. Let’s get out of here.”

I tilted my head curiously. “Where are we going to go? Wouldn’t it be better if Trixie stayed here until midnight?”

“Don’t be silly. Now everyone in Last Gambit’s team knows where you are. We need to get you to the base where the four of us can protect you together.”

Of course. I need them to protect me, because if I died, then all this effort would have been in vain. Some leader I turned out to be…

Regardless of the bitterness in my heart, however, Daydream slid her hands under my knees and back, making me wince from the sudden pain coursing through my body. I had barely made it past the brink of death, but at least I’d made it out alive. Even though we’d failed in eliminating either Onida or Panicity, we’d managed to eliminate the one we were targeting from the beginning, and now we were one step closer to ending this game once and for all.