We got lucky.

On the first day, we were just moments away from taking Last Gambit’s first team member away from her, but this time, we had managed to eliminate one of her pieces with only seconds to spare. We had successfully eliminated two of her magical girls, which meant that the numbers were now officially on our side, five to four, and not only that, but we’d managed to remove their biggest threat altogether. There was hardly any reason to worry at this point… until I realized where I was.

‘My body!’ If I was transformed back into my human form, I was as good as dead!

I quickly felt all around my torso for the area where I had been injured earlier, but surprisingly, the wound was already gone. The weirdest part, though, was that I was back in my human form without a single scratch on me. Normally, when I transformed from my human form to my magical girl form, my human injuries would disappear, but if I ever got hurt in my magical girl form, the damage done to my human form would be multiplied. Here I was in my normal body, though, and all of my wounds had magically healed. Was this Discord’s doing?

“Ah. We are back, so it vould seem.”

I quickly turned my head towards Photo Finish, who simply folded her arms while awaiting the news. I couldn’t comprehend what it was like for her to be dead during the entire time we were stuck in the game. Did time pass for her, or was it like a blink where nine hours passed in between? Was it no big deal, or was it as terrifying as I imagined?

“So,” she continued. “Vut did I miss? Anyzing worth mentioning?”

“Yeah, a lot, actually,” Sunset mentioned. “Mother Time and Bloody Mary are both dead.”

“Und how about us? Did we lose anybody?”

“No, I think we all made it out OK. Trixie, how are you doing?”

Both Photo Finish and Sunset turned to face me, Sunset with her hands on her hips and Photo Finish with her arms folded. It was hard to face them knowing how close I was to death today, how close I was to losing this game for us, especially since my injuries nearly led to Daydream’s death after her fight with Last Gambit.

“Trixie is fine,” I replied. “It seems our injuries from the game are gone now. Discord’s doing, I bet.”

“Nope!”

All of us then turned towards the direction the voice had come from, and standing in the center of the hallway was Cozy Glow, completely alone and unguarded. She had such a smug look on her face, even though the cards were completely stacked against her right now. If we all transformed at once, we could probably eliminate her before we were sent back to the game the next day, but I couldn’t give away my thoughts just yet. I still wasn’t sure whether or not she had any backup, especially in the darkness of Canterlot High School in the depths of night.

“What do you know, Cozy Glow?” Sunset asked in annoyance.

“Just that I always think two steps ahead of you guys,” the freshman replied, shrugging her shoulders as she paced between us. Now would be the perfect chance to transform and end this once and for all… but after what she just said, I had to at least take into consideration that she already knew her disadvantage. She could easily be planning something, leading us straight into a trap, and there was a chance I was falling for the bait. “Actually, it’s more like I don’t want you girls to think I’m cheating.”

“Und why vould we assume zat?”

“Because I knew that Discord was just gonna heal you up at the end of the day anyway, and if I ever asked Autumn Blaze to heal up my party, then what would happen if Discord ever changed his mind and left you girls to suffer? I wouldn’t want you girls to think I had an unfair advantage, now, would I? Besides, Discord is kinda fickle like that, am I right?”

Sunset growled in anger, but I held up my hand to calm her down. The last thing I wanted Cozy Glow to think was that we were about to start a fight, especially if I wanted any chance of catching her off guard. “So when we return from the game, anyone who suffered any injuries is automatically healed. Is Trixie correct in that assumption?”

Cozy Glow rolled her eyes. “What do you think? It’s not like I’d be able to talk to you girls if my jaw was still broken, after all! Oh, and speaking of which…”

Cozy Glow then walked up to me and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, making the other girls flinch before I held up my hand to calm them down again. Discord would make sure nothing happened to me here, but we couldn’t just initiate a battle while she was aware of her surroundings enough to defend herself. We might still be able to ambush her, but everyone needed to relax for just a couple more seconds.

“...that girl that busted my jaw. What’s her name again?”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Daisy Quake. What does that have to do with anything, though?”

Cozy Glow chuckled quietly before clenching her teeth onto her bottom lip, a scowl returning to her face with more vitriol than ever. “Daisy Quake, huh? You let that bitch know that she’s going to be the next one to die, and before she does, I’m going to take her powers away for good. You can fucking bet on that one.”

Once she was done with her threat, she released my shirt from her grasp and turned around, walking back down the darkened hallway. I waited as quietly as I could for a few moments, listening for the sounds of footsteps or anything that would reveal if any of her teammates were nearby. Nothing so far. I then quickly held up my hand just as Sunset was about to retort. I didn’t want anything to turn her attention towards us again. We just needed to wait for her to take a few more steps away, hopefully forgetting we were even there, and then…

“Get her.”

I quickly changed into my magical girl outfit, summoned my spear and charged towards her with as much speed as my magical form would allow. There was a sick irony in knowing that Autumn Blaze was the one to heal my body, just for me to use it to kill Cozy Glow the minute the game ended, but I couldn’t risk any more failures. I was going to end this war right here and now.

Suddenly, Cozy Glow turned around, and it was clear from the look on her eyes that she hadn’t been expecting a surprise attack, which meant that for the first time, I actually had the upper hand. The amount of time she had left didn’t even give her the opportunity to transform into her own magical girl form. Instead, she just fell backwards, holding up her arm in a vain attempt to shield herself while I swung my spear towards her. This game was ov--

“TRIXIE! WATCH OUT!”

If I didn’t have my magical girl reflexes, I would have been dead. I quickly jumped backwards just as a pillar of fire separated myself and Cozy Glow, sliding backwards on the floor until I lost my balance and stumbled onto my butt. Then, turning towards my teammates, I saw that Sunset Shimmer was still in her human form, not yet transformed into Daydream Shimmer and running towards me to lift me back onto my feet. Photo Finish, likewise, was still in her regular form, but if neither of them started the fire, then what just happened?

“Hey!” Cozy Glow shouted beyond the flames, pulling herself back up to her feet and patting the dust off of her skirt. “That’s a foul, Trixie!”

“That was close,” Sunset said, ignoring the girl on the other side. “Are you hurt at all?”

I rubbed my head in confusion, looking around for any clues I could get. “N-no, Trixie is fine, but who…?”

Did I even need to ask? Before I had the chance to finish my question, I saw a shadowy figure snaking its way through the wall of flames, laughing a maniacal cackle that echoed throughout the empty school hallways. It seemed so illogical, so self-destructive that he of all creatures was the one behind this, but if there was anything I’d learned from him, it was that he found no fun in things making sense. Finally, with one more rapturous laugh, the draconequus lifted his body from the burning border between us, thunder booming and lightning striking out of nowhere upon his arrival.

Discord, the god of chaos, had just saved Cozy Glow’s life.

“Goodness gracious!” he shouted with glee. “You really don’t pull your punches, do you, O Great and Powerful Trixie?”

I clicked my tongue and pulled myself the rest of the way back to my feet, shaking off Sunset’s helping hands as I stared the demon down. “What the hell, Discord! Trixie almost had her!”

“That’s right! If I hadn’t stepped in, she’d most certainly be dead by this point! I guess you really don’t have any reservations about taking away human lives anymore, but based on your past, that’s basically a given at this point.”

Cozy Glow immediately motioned her hands towards Discord while looking directly at my teammates. “You see?! Straight from the dragon’s mouth!”

Ignoring her comments as best I could, I focused my attention on Discord again, whose smile never faltered. “Then can you explain to Trixie why you just ruined everything by nearly killing me instead of her?”

Discord scoffed. “Oh, puh-lease. I can’t just kill you whenever I want like that. It’s against the draconequus code!” He then reached into his fur like it was a pocket, searching comedically until he pulled out a giant scroll of paper that was far too big to fit into the small dimension it came from. As it quickly rolled to the ground, Discord used his spare claw to pull a pair of reading glasses from behind his back, despite the words on the paper being written large enough to see from across the hallway. “Hmm… Let’s see… Section Q subparagraph eleven--Ah! Here we are! ‘Trans-dimensional gods cannot kill humans by their own means!’ See? You were safe the whole time! You could have gotten burned, but not killed!”

While my teammates and I palmed our faces and shook our heads, however, Cozy Glow looked down at her wrist, pretending she was wearing a watch and tapping her foot impatiently. “Yeah, that’s cool and all, but can I go now? You’re not going to let them kill me, right?”

“You have my word. Think of it as a favor for Divinity.”

I had completely forgotten. The whole reason we were doing any of this was because Discord was upset at Autumn Blaze for taking Divinity away from him, the same Divinity that had given Cozy Glow her powers in the first place. That still didn’t explain his motivation for saving Cozy Glow, but it at least bought her enough time to walk away, waving her hand like she wasn’t a split second away from dying just a minute ago.

Then, once Cozy Glow was gone, I immediately grabbed the god of chaos by the fur and pulled him in, glaring daggers into his eyes while he continued to smile smugly. He’d done so much to make me suffer in my life, but this… This was a completely new level of betrayal that even I would have never expected, even from him.

“What game are you playing at, Discord?”

“Oh-ho-ho! I think you might have the wrong idea about what the game is and who’s playing.” I lifted an eyebrow in confusion, but the draconequus simply peeled away at my fingers until he was free from my grip, rubbing down the strands of fur that were left sticking up. “Do you remember last night when I saved you from Cozy Glow after she tried sneaking up on you?”

“Yeah? So what?”

Discord comedically slapped his paw to his face, running it down and pulling his cheeks along with him until they snapped back into their normal position. “I told you that I want you to play this game fair and square. That goes for the both of you. Don’t forget, it’s in my best interest for you to lose.”

“So you really just want Trixie to die?!” Sunset screamed, jumping into the argument and making Discord roll his eyes.

“Why does everyone always jump to that conclusion? Doesn’t anyone ever consider the alternative where people don’t die? Yeesh.”

It took me a minute to figure out what he meant, but then I remembered that if the game didn’t end in the next three days, then my team automatically lost, setting Autumn Blaze free whether or not anyone died. Discord honestly didn’t care whether or not anyone survived. All he wanted was Autumn Blaze, and that would only happen if Cozy Glow was kept alive for as long as possible.

In the next moment, though, Discord raised an eyebrow, craning his long neck past me and sneaking up on one of my teammates, who suddenly shrieked upon seeing his big eyes in front of her. “You’ve been awfully quiet lately,” he said with a large grin, making the girl step back hesitantly. “You aren’t having second thoughts about this game, are you, Twilight?”

The girl in the glasses gulped, looking away as her hands began to shake nervously. “I’m just worried about my friend is all. She said some things that I didn’t expect to hear when we were in there…”

“Oh?”

“I…” A small tear fell down Twilight’s cheek, and in the next moment, she darted past us, running towards the fire which opened up like a gate to let her through. “I’m sorry, girls! I need to go check up on her!”

Before any of us could question her any further, though, she was already out of earshot. I’d never seen Twilight run so fast in my life, but then again, I don’t think I’d ever seen her that worried in all the time I’d known her.

“This must be about Moondancer,” Sunset said, folding her arms. “I can’t imagine having to kill one of my own friends. She must be a wreck right now.”

“Zat is part of being a magical girl, sadly,” Photo Finish chimed in. “It means protecting vut is most precious to you, and sometimes, ze answer of vut you value most isn’t always as clear as you vould think.”

It was all fake, though! Nobody actually died! Even though the pain was real and the situations seemed realistic, it was all just a simulation! At least, that’s what I wanted to tell them, but I couldn’t even tell myself that after hearing what Bloody Mary had said during the game…

‘If I can’t do that, if I can’t surpass you when there are people who are depending on me with their lives, then maybe I should just kill myself!’

Moondancer’s life was in actual peril right now. Twilight must have been terrified out of her mind. If I had to be the one to kill one of my friends, even if it was just a simulation, the responsibility I would feel if they ended up dying in real life… I couldn’t even say for sure. After all, apparently I’d already done it before. Did I feel remorse for what I’d done back then, or was I just as blithely unphased then as I was now?

“Maybe we should go check on her,” Sunset said, breaking me out of my train of thought.

“No,” Photo Finish interjected. “She must deal wiz zis herself. Vut we should really be doing right now is getting some rest while we still can. You girls have a big day ahead of you tomorrow, after all.”

Sunset dropped her gaze to the ground, folding her arms while sighing loudly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I just wish there was more that we could do.”

While Sunset glared down at her shoes, however, Photo Finish walked over to her side, placing a hand on her shoulder with her own expression of sadness. “Welcome to ze world of magical girls, Mädchen. Come, Trixie. We go.”

We had completely forgotten that Discord was right there eavesdropping, and by the time we turned towards the exit, the pillar of fire had already fizzled into cinders. The moment Photo Finish dropped her hand from Sunset’s shoulder, the three of us then began walking out of the school building together, trying our best just to stay positive about the situation. We had just managed to win Day 2 of our death game, which finally gave us a reason to celebrate for once.

Even still, there was always more to worry about then there was to be excited about. We couldn’t afford any more close calls if we wanted to win. We had to play offense the whole time, which was increasingly difficult with how easily Last Gambit managed to continually outmaneuver us. We needed one more major victory before we could celebrate, but we could think about that in the morning.

I think what we all needed was a chance to rest, especially after the previous night where I’d basically stayed up the whole time. Even after getting probably five hours of sleep over the past three days, though, I still wasn’t sure if I’d be able to relax with all the adrenaline still pumping through my body. I just hoped that the other girls would have an easier time resting tonight than I would.

If only that one magical girl were here, the one with the power to put people to sleep…

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

Day three of the magical girl game.

Once the school day was over, the other three Canterlot High girls met me in the hallway where we normally came together, along with Uppercrust and Juniper Montage on a conference call. For the first time in a long while, I was actually rested enough to feel confident about the day ahead of us, especially now that two of their biggest threats had been eliminated. The real question now, though, was to determine who would be our next target.

“You think we should just go straight for Last Gambit?” Juniper asked. “I mean, if they can’t bring her back anymore, then there’s no real reason to try wasting our time with the others, right?”

“I wouldn’t be so hasty,” Sunset replied with a finger on her bottom lip. “If we put all our energy on Last Gambit, we’d be sitting ducks against her teammates.”

“Then who would you say is the biggest threat?” asked Uppercrust.

The question made me think for a minute, but it didn’t take me long to come up with the obvious answer. “Panicity,” I said. “She has the power to make us completely useless. Trixie was able to come to the conclusion yesterday that she needs to divide her magic between her targets, which means that if we attack her, it needs to be all of us in unison.”

“I agree,” said Uppercrust. “While I still don’t know for certain, I want to say that Beasty will be able to withstand her magic, so feel free to utilize me as much as you need.”

“It vould be doubtful zat she vould be alone, however. If you cannot focus on her, zen who vould be ze next likely alternative?”

The three of us took a minute to think before Juniper Montage added her own thoughts. “Onida has been a bigger problem than I thought she’d be at first. I almost had Last Gambit taken care of yesterday before she showed up.”

“Trixie agrees. Onida was the one who kept us from killing Panicity yesterday as well. If we run into all four of them at once, we should prioritize Panicity, but the second she’s gone, we need to put all of our efforts on Onida.”

Suddenly, Sunset turned to her friend, who had been completely silent up to this point. “What do you think, Twilight? Does this sound good to you so far?”

I had noticed that she’d been quiet during the whole meeting, making me wonder if things had been alright after she’d left to check up on Moondancer, but then, giving us a smile that helped me relax for a minute, she nodded her head and said, “I think that sounds perfect. Now the real question is where we should start.”

“You think we should have a meeting place like before?” Juniper asked.

“Trixie thinks that would be a good idea, but preferably some place different than where we chose last time.”

Uppercrust scoffed. “It’s not like that place is much use after Daisy’s little debacle yesterday anyway.”

“Heheh. Whoopsie.”

I then turned my head towards Twilight, who flinched in surprise. “Where do you think would be the best place to start?”

Twilight’s phone was currently being used to call Juniper Montage, but after having Sunset’s phone handed to her with the map of Everfree City pulled up, the quiet science girl tilted her glasses back and squinted her eyes as she meandered over the different possibilities. “It has to be somewhere that works to our advantage more than Last Gambit’s, just in case they ambush us again like yesterday. Plus, it would need to be somewhere that has a six mile radius that wouldn’t be difficult to traverse in the process.”

“Then how about the cityscapes?” Juniper added. “If they try to ambush us, I can just tear down the city.”

“Unless Panicity shows up and makes you useless,” Uppercrust chimed in. “If we’re going to be six miles apart, I would suggest a star formation around the new base. That way we can regroup more quickly than if we had someone at our base from the start.”

“What? Wouldn’t that just take longer?”

“No, she’s right,” Twilight replied. “If we originate at five points in the shape of a pentagon, you cut one of its equidistant sides in half to get three miles, and using the angles of 36, 54 and 90 degrees respectively, you use the sine to divide the distance of the hypotenuse, which gives you a total mileage of 5.1039048…”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...Vas?”

Twilight suddenly put her hands behind her back, shrinking with a sheepish smile as she looked away, trying to hide the awkward blush on her face. “Er… I agree with Uppercrust.”

“How about here?” Sunset said, pulling our attention back to the map and pointing to a completely random building. “There’s no way they’d be able to find it unless they followed us there, and since the cityscapes have so many obstacles, it’s not like we’d be able to give ourselves away as easily as last time.”

“Trixie’s biggest concern is whether or not we’d be able to recognize it enough to remember where to go.”

“Look.” Sunset then pointed to a distinct crossing not far from the building she alluded to earlier. “We can use that as a landmark. We’ll meet up five buildings to the west on the south side of this road. Just use the map up until that point and we’ll all meet at the center.”

I then looked up at Twilight, the only other girl present who was still alive, and with a confident grin, she nodded her head. “Trixie agrees. I can start on the north end.”

“I’ll take northwest,” Twilight responded.

“Give me southwest,” said Juniper.

“I’ll do southeast,” said Uppercrust.

“And that leaves me with northeast,” replied Sunset with a large grin on her face. “Then we can all go after Cozy Glow together!”

“Cozy Glow? What’s up with her?”

Suddenly, the four of us turned around, flinching in terror as an unexpected bystander snuck up behind us. Luckily for us, it wasn’t one of the Everfree City girls, which at least let me breathe a quick sigh of relief, but somehow, the real person who showed up might have been even worse in a way.

“Who was that?” Juniper asked. “He sounded cute!”

Twilight and Photo Finish quickly hung up their phones while I stepped in front of the group with an awkward smile on my face. “F-Flash Sentry! What are you doing here?”

“I was kinda worried after not seeing you girls around for the past couple days,” the blue-haired boy replied with a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his neck. “Cozy Glow isn’t messing with you again, is she?”

“What?! No! Actually, why don’t the two of us talk waaaaaaaay over there?”

“Huh?”

Before he could interject, however, I immediately began pushing Flash away, making his eyebrows reach towards his hairline while Twilight and Sunset clumsily tried acting as casual as they could.

“You know what I just realized?” Twilight said. “I should probably see how Moondancer is doing.”

“Yeah!” Sunset agreed. “And I should… go check up on Rainbow Dash!”

Again, Flash Sentry turned in confusion. “But Rainbow Dash is the other w--”

“Come on, Flash! There’s a reeeeeeally important conversation I wanted to have with you!”

Despite how much the teenage boy practically tossed in my hands, I had to do everything to make him as confused as possible, just so there was no chance of him ever piecing things together. Finally, once I was free of every student within view, I pushed him into a vacant room, locked the door behind me and slowly slid my back down to my haunches, leaving Flash with an even bigger look of shock on his face.

“Uhh… Trixie? Is this what I think this is?”

“Huh?”

Suddenly, I looked around my environment and noticed for the first time where we were. The two of us were in a vacant classroom with the door locked behind us. Boy and girl. Together.

Alone.

“WAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! No! Flash! It’s not what you think! Trixie just--”

“R-right! Sorry!” Flash quickly put his hand over his eyes, turning his face away like there was someone naked standing in front of him. “I shouldn’t jump to conclusions like that. A-anyway, what did you need to talk to me about?”

“O-oh… Uhh…” Now I was the one looking away, rubbing my elbow with my cheeks burning red. I hadn’t quite thought this far in advance yet, leaving Flash Sentry tilting his head in confusion while my anxiety skyrocketed. “Trixie wanted to talk to you… about… THE SHOWCASE! That’s it!”

Finally, the two of us could look each other in the eyes again, albeit still with slight hesitation. “OK. What did you wanna talk about?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh.” Shoot. Where would I go from here? “Could you get Trixie some materials?”

“Sure. What did you need?”

“...A fish.”

“...A fish?”

“Yes! Trixie needs a fish! A halibut, to be precise.”

“You know, now that I think about it, I don’t think we’ve ever really established what we were gonna do for the magical showcase.”

“Trixie will take care of it!” Then, opening up the door again, I moved behind Flash Sentry and began pushing again, shoving him out just as forcefully as I had led him in in the first place. “You just go get that fish and everything will be made clear later.”

“OK,” he muttered, looking back with concern written all over his face. “Do you know where I would even find a halibut?”

“Nope! That’s why Trixie needs you! You’d better hurry before the fish markets close!”

The moment Flash Sentry was out of the classroom, I propped my hands on my knees, breathing heavily both from exhaustion and anxiety. Why did boys have to be so heavy?

The boy in the hallway, though, shrugged his shoulders and gave me the most sympathetic smile he could. “Well, alright. Whatever you say, Trixie. Later, Twilight! Later, Sunset Shimmer!”

Flash Sentry then turned away and started walking down the hallway, and turning my head to my left, I saw the two girls he was referring to, both with deep, red blushes on their cheeks.

“Sorry if this sounds blunt,” Twilight began, dropping eye contact and pushing her glasses back, “but… w-w-what were the two of you doing in there, exactly?”

“Talking about fish! Now, get in here!”

Before either of them could discuss the matter any further, however, I pulled the both of them into the empty classroom, slamming the door behind them. We were going to be transported any second now, and the last thing I wanted was for any of my classmates to see us disappear out of nowhere. The other two girls may have been rubbing their backs in pain as they pulled themselves off the floor, but I was breathing another sigh of relief, knowing that I had momentarily avoided another awkward event that would have ended even worse.

I checked my phone. One minute left.

“Hey, girls,” I muttered, making them look at me with their eyebrows raised. “Trixie just… wanted to say thank you again for doing this for me.”

Both Sunset and Twilight looked at each other in confusion before turning back to face me with huge smiles. “Of course, Trixie,” Sunset said. “We’re your friends.”

“Not only that,” Twilight agreed, “but we’re doing this for a much bigger cause. I promise you, from the depths of my heart, the right team is going to win in the end. No matter what happens, everything is going to work out.”

I smiled again, but quickly looking down at my phone once more, I saw the minutes change, and before I could blink, the scenery around me had shifted into something else entirely. Then, pulling my face up from my phone, I saw that I was now in the cityscapes where I had set my destination before, in a completely different body than what I went to school with. Day three of the magical girl game had officially started, and now I just had to make it back to the base before I ran into any more magical girls.

One step. Two steps. Three steps. And that was as far as I made it before I felt a chill run up my spine. A chill from the outside. A cold, frigid, frosty chill that was suddenly making my arms shake, and turning around, my mouth dropped as my eyes went wide.

No. Not already! We’d just barely started!

“Oh, so now you finally notice that I exist?!”

I had taken three steps, and I was already face to face with a ghost-themed magical girl, floating in the air, being lifted by a snowy current underneath her feet. They knew exactly where to find us. Somehow, they’d found out exactly where we were going to spawn, and if I didn’t take care of Frost Lass quick, it would only be a matter of time before her teammates showed up to finish me off.

It was going to be one-on-one, and I would have to win this one by myself.