The world was growing darker.
Every second, shadows grew longer and everything in sight slowly became a shade closer to pitch black. The night was closing, and not the night of the moon. The night she'd heard so much about. The night that came for you in the day, while the sun was high. The night that didn't care who or what you were, where you lived, how much you owned. The night that came for everyone eventually.
The night of Magical Girls. The everlasting night of tragedy and sorrow. Of pain. Of terror. Of despair.
Elisa Celjska, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, member of the Order of the Dragon, and queen now in her own right, was at her end. The world was closing away from her, and she was truly surprised that it was happening now of all times. There was little sense, near as she could find, to this day being the last of her days on Earth.
Most Magical Girls, she knew, died very young. All the ones she knew, both her age and younger, had gone before her. The noble girls she grew up with died off one by one in the first few years, unable to handle their station. The villainous ones she'd met were all killed in battle, often by her own hand. Then she'd met more. Jeanne, Melissa, and Riz. Three of the strongest Magical Girls Elisa had ever encountered.
Jeanne had disappeared in the fire, taken before turning twenty, long-lived for a Magical Girl. Riz and Melissa went their separate ways from Elisa after that. Melissa couldn't hold on for too much longer after Jeanne was gone. Riz vanished in the mists of the war, that endless war, next to Melissa's father.
Now, outliving them all by nearly a decade, Elisa had to wonder if any Magical Girl before her had ever lived so long. And wasn't it funny, a humor to her in her final moments, that her end was brought about by a mortal man. He'd poisoned her somehow, and she couldn't fight it anymore.
Magical Girls were never supposed to last this long anyways.
Elisa collapsed onto her bed, feeling her breath getting short. The darkness was almost all-encompassing now. She could hardly see a thing around her. Her soul gem was clouded from the poison. Somehow, he'd found a way to poison her soul. He'd aimed for the one weakness that no one should have ever known about.
A light shone in the darkness.
A beautiful maiden reached out her hand to Elisa, beckoning her up into heaven. Riz and Melissa stood behind her, reaching out to her as well. And beyond them was Jeanne. Tart. The little girl who'd given so many hope. They were all waiting for her.
Elisa closed her eyes and slipped away, allowing Madoka to carry her to be with her friends once again.