It had felt so easy at the time… dishing out motivational speeches… turning a dial… all so easy. Maybe it was because it was just a game to them, all so surreal, all so inexplicable, it was easy to believe that everything was going to be sunshine and daisies when they had become so desensitised to the idea of real life consequences. But that was exactly it, games have do overs and retries, real life only has consequences, ramifications of actions bound to a pony's conscience.

The last few weeks had given Pinkie Pie a lot of time to think about what had happened at the Arcane Manor, not helped by the fact that she had been made to recount every detail countless times to countless different ponies. Through all the thoughts clouding her mind, this one had been the most prominent.

It wasn’t a game… it was easy because it felt like a game… but it wasn’t. They’re all dead… and they aren’t coming back.

“I think…” the stallion sitting across from Pinkie began, flicking through his notes. “We have everything we need here.”

“Thank you detective,” Princess Celestia said, approaching from where she had been sitting quietly to the side.

“Will this actually be the last interview?” the other mare in the room asked sceptically, she was the specialist appointed to monitor Pinkie’s mental wellbeing. “I don’t believe Pinkie can begin to make any real improvement so long as she’s constantly being forced to relive this experience.”

“As long as everything matches up, we shouldn’t need to bother Miss Pie any further,” the detective assured them sympathetically.

“It has been a trialling number of weeks for everypony involved,” Celestia interjected, “hopefully we can begin to bring this matter to a close.”

“I will see myself out Princess,” the detective said, standing up and levitating all his files. “I bid you all a good day.”

With that he gave a curt bow, before leaving Celestia’s private study, the guards at the door eying him like hawks as he did.

“How are you feeling Pinkie?” the mare asked, leaning down to where Pinkie sat in a large armchair. “Is there anything I can get you?”

“No, I’ll be fine,” Pinkie lied, her voice quiet.

The mare nodded, and excused herself, following the detective from the room. Pinkie’s eyes followed her, briefly scanning the room in which she sat. It was most unorthodox for any sort of meeting to take place in the princess’s own study, let alone taking a witness statement for a murder investigation. But naturally due to the high profile nature of the case, the princess had been monitoring it very closely, opting to maintain a close watch on all the survivors. However as Pinkie observed the room she now sat in, there was only one thought in her mind.

I wonder if Twilight ever studied in here…

“Gentlecolts, if you could grant us some privacy,” Celestia said to the pair of guards posted at the door. She made it sound like a request, but Pinkie knew there was no disobeying.

As the both marched from the room, the door closing behind them, Celestia went about returning the furniture they had been using for the interview to their original places, while bringing over another armchair which she positioned directly opposite Pinkie.

“You must be looking forward to getting back to Ponyville,” Celestia said, breaking the uncomfortable silence as she sat down in the armchair.

“I…” Pinkie began before trailing off.

“I know your friends will be especially glad to see you,” Celestia continued, “Rainbow Dash was here again today, it took half a dozen guards to stop her from bursting in here.”

“Thank you,” Pinkie whispered.

She loved her friends dearly, and wanted nothing more than to cling to them and never let go, but at the same time she couldn’t bring herself to face them. On the one hand she could confide in them the truth of what occurred, that their friend organised the deaths of ten ponies and that she, Pinkie Pie, sentenced that friend to death. On the other hand she could live by the lie Celestia had weaved to explain to the public what became of their latest princess, that the whole thing was a terrible accident involving experimental magic. Her friends would never have to know the terrible truth, they’d be able to remember Twilight the way she was, but Pinkie would be forced to bare the truth on her own, and she didn’t know if she had the strength for that.

The pair sat in awkward silence for several minutes, Celestia was clearly not accustomed to making small talk, and Pinkie wasn’t in the best state of mind for doing so. While waiting for Celestia to make her next statement, Pinkie’s mind drifted back as it had a habit of doing recently, this time she was remembering what happened after they left the manor. They had only been walking for a brief period when they were discovered and picked up by one of the many roaming search and rescue parties that had been looking for them.

They had been rushed to Canterlot; nopony had been able to prize a word out of them regarding what had happened or where they had been. Whether it had been due to fear of the punishment or refusal to relive it, they had tried to remain silent for as long as possible. However once Celestia and Luna heard of their discovery, the truth didn’t remain secret for much longer. And thus began the agonising long period of investigation, in which they were poked and probed, interviewed time and time again, even dragged back to the manor while it was being stripped down for evidence to point out exactly where what happened.

Soarin had been given leave from the Wonderbolt’s, although he insisted he didn’t need time off. Pinkie knew he wanted nothing more than to drown out all the pain, to fly and perform and pretend it had never happened. Redheart wanted nothing more than to get back to Ponyville, to see her fiancé and fulfil her promise to Cloudchaser. But she was being kept put in Canterlot until the obligatory psychological evaluations declared her safe to leave. On the note of Flitter, Pinkie had heard the direct relatives of the victims had been fed the lie, and Flitter with no other family to look after her, was forced into a care programme.

Fleur was a different matter; Pinkie didn’t doubt she had used her relationship with Celestia to ensure her stay at her own home with her husband Fancy Pants. Beyond that Pinkie hadn’t seen or heard anything of her, she suspected Celestia was keeping her well sheltered. Trixie…

“Is there any word of Trixie yet?” Pinkie asked, looking up in time to see Celestia flinch.

“No,” she admitted, “but I have every confidence the guards will catch up to her before she does anything… too drastic.”

I’m surprised she escaped at all with those injuries…

That just left Pinkie. She hadn’t been allowed to see her friends or family, but she had been constantly assured that once the investigation was complete she would be free to go. It turned out Twilight’s threat was a bluff, while they had all technically been associates in multiple accounts of murder, such a crime was rare enough that with the circumstances as they were the princesses were able to bend the rules.

“So, Pinkie,” Celestia began again, the tone in which she spoke indicated that this was the reason she had asked Pinkie to stay behind to speak with her. “I’m sure you recall yesterday that I offered you… an explanation. Well my offer is still open, if you still want to know the truth… I will tell you.”

Pinkie hadn’t needed to think on it, not even yesterday when Celestia had first approached her with it. However she had insisted Pinkie take the night to a think it over.

“If there’s something about all this that you haven’t told me,” Pinkie answered, “then I have the right to know it.”

“Yes, I suppose you do,” Celestia said with a sigh, clearly disappointed by Pinkie’s response. Pinkie didn’t doubt that if Celestia could have done so without feeling guilty, she would never have brought this up with Pinkie to begin with. “Just know that when you hear what I have to say… you may not look at me the same way again.”

Pinkie looked Celestia squarely in the eyes, her own empty and cold.

“I don’t care.”

“Very well,” Celestia said, hanging her head slightly, her eyes closed. “Do you recall your first trip to the Crystal Empire?”

“Of course,” Pinkie replied, “with King Sombra and the Crystal Heart.”

“Exactly, during that conflict,” Celestia continued, “when Princess Cadance’s shield failed momentarily, and King Sombra almost got in. But Cadance was able to re-erect the shield, and he was repelled, but a part of him was severed in the process.”

“His horn…” Pinkie replied, remembering hearing something about that closer to the time.

“Yes, the horn of King Sombra was cut in half,” Celestia confirmed. “When the Crystal Heart was returned and Sombra was defeated, we had assumed that horn fragment went along with him. But we were wrong… several months ago, a scouting party from the Crystal Empire were investigating a magical disturbance in the frozen north. When they went there, do you know what they found?”

Pinkie had a fair idea what they found, but let Celestia continue her story regardless.

“Sombra’s horn,” Celestia stated, no doubt realising it had been obvious. “It wasn’t actively doing anything; the disturbance they picked up was simply a passive effect of the horn. The team retrieved this and brought to back to the Crystal Empire, where Princess Cadance had it sent here to me so that it would be both less of a threat, and available to better equipped ponies for analysing. However the moment I touched it I could tell it still held great power, a prolonged study of it could have… disastrous consequences.

“I decided the risk was too great, and it was better to just have it locked away where it could do no harm. However my curiosity was too powerful, I needed to know what it was capable of, but no regular pony could have examined it for too long. So if a regular pony couldn’t, maybe Twilight could.”

Pinkie sat up straight in her seat as the story began to get interesting, and she could begin to see where this was going.

“When I asked Twilight to study it, I told myself it was because she was the better one for the job, but the truth was I was too concerned for my own wellbeing. Terrified of facing such a potentially evil force myself, but content to let my protégé risk herself, while I was fully aware of what it could do to her.”

Pinkie Pie stared at Celestia as she continued to speak, now averting her eyes from Pinkie, her voice shuddering. A memory of something Twilight had said to Pinkie during the last trial floated to the forefront of her mind.

However it wasn’t until recently that I began to seriously consider the possibility of taking you under my wing.

“For the next while Twilight reported back her findings to me,” Celestia continued, “her discoveries were… intriguing, so much so that I was able to distract myself from how different Twilight was becoming. I told myself she was just getting in the researching mind-set, because to admit the truth would have been to accept that I had made a mistake, and my hubris wouldn’t allow it. A long time ago I stood by and watched as my sister was corrupted by the darkness in her heart, and now over a thousand years later I’ve made the same mistake. I sat back and allowed the Twilight to fall to it too…”

It was there Celestia’s words failed her, her voice becoming choked, and her eyes clenched to hold back the tears threatening to spill over. Pinkie stared at the princess, not uttering a word of comfort or scorn. Eventually Celestia seemed to reel in her emotions and sat gulping in mouthfuls of air, and Pinkie finally spoke.

“So Twilight was possessed?” She asked, needing clarification.

“No…” Celestia replied, shaking her head, “not possessed, corrupted. It was still just Twilight, but… made to see things differently.”

I wonder to what degree…

Pinkie would probably never know, but for seem reason… she didn’t want to know. She was done, she didn’t want any more answers or explanations, and she certainly didn’t want to talk to Celestia anymore.

Standing up, Pinkie began walking to the door, stopping only when Celestia spoke up once more.

“Pinkie,” she said, almost desperately. “I know this has all been… extremely hard for you. But from what I’ve heard, from what you’ve told me, you showed great skills back at the manor when investigating the killings. You should feel proud of yourself.”

Proud?

Pinkie looked over her shoulder at the princess, wondering where the pony she’d once respected had gone.

“Actually Celestia,” Pinkie stated, her voice utterly devoid of any emotion. “I don’t feel much of anything anymore.”

Looking back ahead, Pinkie opened the door and walked out of the study.

Author's Notes:

If you are reading this, then either you skipped to the end in which case you are a tool, or you have read through the entire story. If it is the latter then I'd like to thank you taking the time to read this, particularly those of you who contributed by proposing theories at the time of writing, it was definitely an effective method of holding me to my deadlines. This story has been a lot of fun to write, and I hope you all got as much entertainment from reading it.
Until this point I have refrained from replying to most comments and messages to avoid accidentally spoiling anything, but now I'll be free to andress any lingering concerns or questions you might have regarding the story.
Finally, a word from our sponsors...
Sarovian Sanguine (my editor... who did not actually edit this story): "Can I burn it?" (also proposed alternative ending: "Derpy comes in at the end and kills everyone... or just ClickClack")
Chloewhatwatt (eye candy #talk about): "How could you make it Twilight?! Kill Redheart, nobody likes her!" (upon realising she was being quoted she meeped and hid in the corner)
MGOtaku (absentee proofreader): No quote could be provided as he has not been seen or heard from in some time