Prologue - Twelve Girls Stood on the Moon

Twelve girls stood on the moon.

Around them, around the moon, was a great ring. It stretched out into the black expanse of space: uncountable stones, roiling magma, and long plumes of twisting smoke. The ring was, until recently, Earth.

“So, we messed up a little,” Magical Girl Burning Ultranova said.

She shook her head and her long red hair flicked out behind her. The tips, of course, burned. There wasn’t any oxygen for them to burn, but then, they were standing atop a flattened mountain on the moon without any regard for its lesser gravity or the lack of air to breathe.

That kind of thing wasn’t a concern to them.

The mood, despite Burning Ultranova’s aloofness, was bleak.

“We did win, I guess,” Magical Girl Screaming Bioplague said. She tugged on the lapels of the jacket that came with her magical girl dress. It was an old nervous habit, one they hadn’t seen in a while. Under the circumstances, no one could blame her for being a little worried.

“I-It’s okay,” Fractured Time said. She reached over, across the circle the twelve made, and touched Screaming Bioplague on the arm. It was a small comfort, but it was something.

The Earth continued to hover around them.

“We did win, didn’t we?” Magical Girl Crystal Genocide asked. She tilted her head back and the chime-like lengths of diamond hanging off her costume rang, even if there was no air for them to ring. “It feels like we lost.”

“We’re alive, we can’t have lost,” Burning Ultranova said.

Next to her, Magical Girl Feasting Carnage reached into the folds of her bright orange-white costume and pulled out a box of candy-sticks. She opened it, only to find there were just three left. The girls could see the moment Feasting Carnage cracked, just a little. Her hands clamped tight and the box scrunched together. She threw it aside where it gently flew across the moonscape. “Fuck,” she said.

There was a gasp from Gravity’s Heartbeat, but the others didn’t react, not immediately.

“We can’t give up, girls. We’ve never given up before and... and I don’t want to see us giving up now. We’re magical girls. We can do anything. We can fix this!” Magical Girl Happy Sparkles said. She was as hurt as any of them, but she was also hopeful.

“She’s right,” Magical Girl Rending Nightmare said. She always agreed with Happy Sparkles, but this felt different. “We’re all here, the enemy is dead. Why can’t we pool our powers together and turn this whole thing around?”

“Because everyone we know is dead,” Magical Girl Fractured Time snapped.

“Then we’ll un-dead them,” Rending Nightmare snapped back.

“She’s right,” Happy Sparkles said. She nodded and then shared a big smile with the others, and even if there were tears in her eyes, it didn’t matter. “We can do it. We can make things better. No matter the cost! Please, please, you’re my friends, I love all of you, and I need you to help me.”

There was a beat, then one after the other, they agreed.

Each in turn, the girls summoned their magical foci and together they pointed them towards the centre of the group. As tradition would have it, they started with the first who became a magical girl.

Magical Girl Rending Nightmare extended her rapier down first and their side of the moon gained a blue glow. “Awaken,” she demanded. Ancient magics responded. The rocks that were once Earth shifted, the shadows between them gaining nightmarish forms.

Magical Girl Fractured Time lowered her clockhand staff. “Move on,” she said. The blue glow covering the moon grew and gained darker undertones. Some of the stones in the distance started to flow backwards.

Magical Girl Happy Sparkles grinned, then she pulled her chainsword from her chest with a quick pirouette and pointed it ahead. “Let’s be friends!” she cheered. The glow gained traces of deep, royal purple even as the distant stars seemed to flicker brighter.

Magical Girl Gravity’s Heartbeat just pointed her wand ahead, face set and serious. “Be still,” she demanded. A pink glow reached out. The moon suddenly felt a thousand times more weighty beneath them, but it slowed none of them down.

Magical Girl Burning Ultranova flicked her staff forward and flames danced in the mouth of the dragon at its head. “Burn, bitch.” Space grew warmer and a red glow suffused their surroundings.

Magical Girl Dimension Death flicked her wrist out with one hand while the other adjusted her glasses. “Die,” she spoke. A red-orange light started to appear from slits in reality around them.

Magical Girl Hypertense Breakpoint hefted her warhammer and pointed it ahead. “Shatter!” she called out, and the moon responded by cracking. Orange light slipped from the cracks and joined the forming rainbow.

Magical Girl Feasting Carnage grinned and stabbed forwards with a fork-headed staff. “Devour!” Entire chunks of the once-planet around them were chewed apart even as yellow-orange magic joined the rest.

Magical Girl Silenced Annihilation pointed her wand ahead, then let go of it. It floated there while her hands made the sign for “silence” then she pressed her finger over her lips in a sign that they would have understood even if they hadn’t learned to understand her already. Yellow light spread even as space returned to its proper silence.

Magical Girl Phantom Mist pulled at the string of her bow and a yellow-green ball of magical might appeared at the point of her arrow. “Scatter!” she said.

Magical Girl Screaming Bioplague merely pointed her wand towards the centre, sickly green light burning from the twin snakes biting each other near the head. She screamed, loud, angry and nearly incoherent.

Finally, the newest of them took a deep breath, then pointed her crystal sword towards the middle. Bright blue light joined the rest, finalising the ritual. “Flash!” she called.

The world obeyed. A great flash, faster than light should have been, burst, and with it the entire galaxy shifted and warped out of place.

When it cleared, all that remained was a ragged hole where reality should have been.

Millenia later, those observing the distant Milky Way were disturbed to see half a galaxy disappear.

***