Maud’s face betrayed no emotion as she stared down at the newspaper before her, she refused to let it. The headlines had been more or less the same for the past two weeks, after all a Princess of Equestria didn’t just drop off the face of the Earth without someone taking notice. The articles paid little attention to the others reported missing along with her, offering little more than a footnote mention of them.

It was infuriating, sitting here letting the torment she could not vent build up inside of her, to do nothing while her beloved sister was missing. Here she stayed, earning a degree she cared little for, while Pinkie suffered a miasma of unknown horrors. Maud tried desperately not to think what fate had befallen her, but every night the possibilities were painted in her dreams. She wanted to scream her heart out, to break everything in her tiny apartment, to turn Equestria upside down until her sister was returned to her.

Not for the first time, she jumped to her hooves and stormed over to the door, and not for the first time was she met with the royal decree of house arrest pinned to her door alongside the letter from her parents begging her to stay put and leave the search to the Royal Guard. Maud leaned against the door and slid weakly to the floor, there she stared off into space, her mind a raging sea of thoughts.

Pinkie had always led an adventurous life, particularly in these last few years what with her responsibilities as an Element of Harmony, but those crises came and went before Maud even caught wind of them. Nightmare moon was around for a single night, Discord a day. That Changeling Queen had been around longer, but once things kicked off it only took a couple hours to sort it out. This however, nothing like this had ever happened. Pinkie was gone, spirited away for almost two weeks, and she couldn’t even rely on the power of friendship to save her when half her friends were still in Ponyville.

Not for the first time, she wanted to let it all out, to cry until there was nothing left, and not for the first time was she met with her greatest flaw, her inability to express herself. Pinkie always had the uncanny ability to tell exactly what Maud was feeling, proof that they possessed a connection beyond that of ordinary sisters, but now Pinkie was gone, Maud was alone.

As she buried her head in her forehooves she remembered the last time she saw her sister, from a train window, sprinting alongside the locomotive even as it picked up speed and she was left behind, becoming nothing more than a pink speck. If Maud had known that would be the last time she would see her dear sister, she would have thrown everything to the wayside, her career, her education, her future. She would have leapt from that train, ran back to Pinkie and never let go. She would caress her mane and whisper in her ear that she was not alone, that she would never be alone.

“You’re not alone…” Maud whispered a loud to herself as she slowly lifted her head up. “I am not alone.”

Maud turned back towards the door, looking one final time at the letters pinned there before ripping them off. She was going to find her sister and damn the consequences, she would tear apart every inch of this world if she had to, she would not rest until Pinkie was returned to her. Maud threw open the door and marched out, determination burning in her heart, drowning out all the fear and doubt that had plagued her since she had been confined to her home.

The front door was just ahead of her, the portal to Equestria, the start of a search that would not end until Pinkie was home and safe… but as Maud reached out to open it, a tired voice behind her made her stop.

“Where are you going Maud?”

Maud froze, she knew that voice. Turning around slowly she came face to face with the midnight blue Alicorn who stood mere inches in front of her, looking down upon Maud with an expression that could rival her own in being unreadable.

“Princess Luna?” Maud uttered, confused at her presence.

Something was wrong, everything about this scene was wrong; it was… familiar, but Luna’s presence… that didn’t feel right.

“Every day it’s the same,” Luna began, still staring down at Maud with those deep, mysterious eyes. “Every day you try to leave and I am forced to reset this.”

Maud opened her mouth to respond, but stopped as everything became clear, as she remembered exactly what happened. She remembered charging off to Canterlot the day she heard Pinkie was missing, she remembered forcing her way past the guards to the princesses, demanding to know what they were doing to find her sister. She remembered… screaming, behaving in a way that she had never known was possible. She remembered feeling very sleepy and then…

“This is a dream,” Maud uttered as everything became crystal clear. “You trapped me in a dream!”

“You gave us little choice,” Luna replied, her voice still neutral. “We tried letting you go a number of times, but you would always act up the same way. Your actions were getting in the way of our investigation, so I made the decision to keep you pacified until your sister and her friends were found.”

Maud gritted her teeth, as Luna spoke she began to remember the past few weeks much more vividly. She would writhe in torment before finally finding the strength to leave and search for Pinkie herself, and every time she opened the door the dream would reset and she would repeat her actions again and again, the only change being the occasional addition of another newspaper on the desk.

“If this is a dream,” Maud began coldly, “then why did it have to be this?! Couldn’t you have shown me something good?”

“I tried, but you wouldn’t let me,” Luna explained. “Your mind refused to focus on anything other than your missing sister.”

“Then why are you here?” Maud demanded, turning away from Luna to face the closed door. “I suppose it’s too much to hope you actually found her.”

“We’ve been doing everything we can,” Luna tried to say, ignoring the snort Maud gave her. “But we’re getting nowhere. For two weeks we’ve tried everything, but our usual methods are coming up short and…”

Luna drifted off, her voice sounding odd causing Maud to glance back at her. Something about Luna had shifted, she looked doubtful.

“It feels like I’m being kept in the dark,” Luna continued, sounding more like she was talking to herself than Maud now. “Things Discord said… The way Celestia is behaving…”

“Princess Luna?” Maud said, slightly concerned now at the sudden switch in tone.

“You are right Maud,” Luna said with a small sigh. “We have not made any progress in finding your sister, but not because we aren’t doing everything in our power…”

Luna turned her eyes back on Maud, showing the life that had suddenly ignited in them.

“Maud Pie, I fear that if we continue down this path then we will not find your sister or the others in time,” Luna explained, her voice low and ominous. “But we have other options available to us…”

“What options?” Maud asked slightly warily.

“Every day you open that door to set out and find Pinkie yourself,” Luna continued. “Well now you can. Open that door now and you will wake up, or you can choose not too and allow this cycle to continue.”

“That’s not even a choice…” Maud said, quickly turning and grabbing hold of the door handle.

“But if you do wake up,” Luna interjected, making Maud halt. “If you do wish to help… there will be a price to pay.”

There was a moment of silence as Maud and Luna stared at each other, finally broken by the click of the door as Maud turned the handle.

“Then I’ll pay it.”

Day 16, 06:00

Every step was slow, every step was deliberate. Perhaps she was trying to hold off the inevitable, perhaps she was trying to bide time so she could quickly piece together the solution she didn’t yet have. But try as she might, the twisted iron gates drew ever closer to Pinkie Pie, and much sooner than she would have liked, she reached the top of the main street and marched into the castle courtyard where the other three already stood waiting patiently. Looking beyond the courtroom set up, she noticed the smoking remains of the castle portcullis, numerous chunks of metal lying scattered about.

“You are l… late,” the Mastermind informed her, sounding bitter.

Pinkie’s eyes briefly flickered to something, confirming what she already knew.

“My apologies,” she replied insincerely. “I got a little distracted, but I’m here now, here to end this.”

“You sound confident for someone who just lost their sister,” the Mastermind mocked causing Pinkie to grit her teeth, determined not to let her pain show.

“Shut up,” Rarity spat. “We’ve heard quite enough from you; let’s just get this over with.”

“Very well, however I feel we need to c… c… clarify a few things,” the Mastermind agreed. “As per usual you must have a majority vote in order to sentence the culprit. Being that there are only four of you, you must have at least three correct votes in order t… to win.”

“That condition hardly required mentioning,” Octavia pointed out, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

“I’m simply making things clear,” the Mastermind assured her. “Other than that, this trial is the same as all others. Argue, debate, p… p…present evidence, do whatever you feel necessary to reach a final conclusion.”

“Hang on,” Octavia cut in again. “This trial is the final one, so what happens if we win or lose?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” the Mastermind replied dismissively. “Now if you are all ready, I call this f… final trial to order.”

Trial 6: Maud

“Are you alright Pinkie?” the Mastermind asked in false concern. “You don’t look like your head is in the game.”

“Ignore him Pinkie,” Rarity cut in. “Just focus on winning this trial and we can end this nightmare.”

Pinkie nodded half-heartedly before lifting her head up to look at the others.

“Alright,” Pinkie agreed slowly, the gears in her mind running slightly slower than usual. “So, where do we begin?”

The others glanced awkwardly at one another.

“Well usually we start by discussing the scene of the crime,” Fluttershy answered with a concerned look.

Pinkie nodded once more, not looking like she really registered what Fluttershy had said to her.

“Well for starters,” Octavia jumped in, “the victim was Maud, found by you three in the town around midnight.”

“Speaking of which,” Rarity cut in. “How did you know where to find us?”

“What do you mean?” Octavia asked, sounding genuinely confused. “The Mastermind announced the discovery of the body like always.”

“No he didn’t,” Rarity argued. “We would have heard it if they made that announcement.”

“Actually Rarity,” Fluttershy interrupted. “I heard the announcement too.”

Rarity opened her mouth but didn’t say anything, looking over to Pinkie for some confirmation one way or another.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Pinkie informed them honestly.

“We’ll ignore that for now,” Octavia stated, waving it aside with a hoof. “It’s possible all these nightmares and illusions interfered with it.”

“Alright then,” Rarity agreed rather reluctantly. “Other than that, the only thing we know for sure regarding the crime scene is that Maud was killed using the dagger found in the chapel and stolen from Pinkie’s room.”

“Is that really how it happened?” Fluttershy asked, earning her a few curious glances. “Well I mean, like Pinkie once said, in the last game Twilight was stabbed, but it was actually a poison coating the blade that killed her. Are we sure this isn’t something like that?”

“I don’t think so,” Rarity replied unsure. “We would have noticed some symptoms of poisoning if that were the case.”

“But the blade did have runes engraved upon it,” Octavia reasoned. “Perhaps there was some magical element to the murder.”

“Chrysalis said it had something to do with deception,” Pinkie recalled, her voice distant. “But that’s vague enough to mean anything, I never did research it properly myself.”

“Besides, can we really trust the word of a Changeling?” Fluttershy asked.

“Chrysalis had no reason to lie once she was revealed,” Octavia pointed out. “She seemed fairly honest regarding everything else, why would she lie about a detail like that.”

“As of right now we can’t be entirely sure it was as simple as a stabbing,” Rarity relented. “So let’s discuss the rest of the scene then.”

“Well…” Pinkie began, still trying to figure out the contradictions. “We all know the crime scene looks like a struggle took place, but Maud was in a very peaceful state, one I don’t think could have been achieved simply by altering the body. Besides, the trail of blood suggests the murder didn’t even happen there at all.”

“Well if we play by the assumption there was a struggle,” Rarity continued, “then who among us could have killed Maud? I doubt even Pinkie was a strong as her sister.”

“No,” Pinkie agreed. “Maud stayed on the farm while my sisters and I moved on; she was easily the strongest of us.”

“Well Rarity and I could hardly have done it if it’s a measure of strength,” Fluttershy chipped in.

“Well Rarity does have the advantage of magic,” Octavia reminded them, before quickly adding, “And no I’m not accusing you, and yes I know you’re not an expert in magic but I’m sure telekinesis would suffice.”

“Well what about you Octavia?” Rarity asked, barely concealing the annoyance. “You’re an Earth Pony.”

“Yes, I am an Earth Pony,” Octavia agreed, with a little roll of her eyes. “An upper class Earth Pony musician. My cello is about the heaviest thing I could lift, and that’s only on my back.”

“Point taken,” Rarity muttered. “Still, this pretty much proves my point that if there was a struggle, none of us could overcome Maud.”

“Could have been a surprise attack,” Fluttershy suggested.

“From the front?” Pinkie cut in, raising an eyebrow. “The killer would need to have been very stealthy to pull that off, but that doesn’t support the struggle theory either.”

“Well we have no guarantee those boxes and barrels were still whole before Maud came to be there,” Rarity reminded her. “What was that area even used for? I don’t think I’ve even seen it in the few times I’ve been in the town.”

“Just storage I think,” Pinkie replied with a small shrug. “I was there once much earlier on…”

Pinkie waited, when nopony spoke she carried on, her voice a little steelier.

“If the murder took place elsewhere,” she continued. “Then it was just a convenient place to hide the body.”

“But that blood trail didn’t even lead very far into the street either,” Octavia pointed out. “If Maud was moved, she would have to have been carried to that point before being dragged the rest of the way.”

“If anyone would go to the trouble of carrying her that far, why drag her the last stretch and give away the hiding place?” Fluttershy asked.

“They needed the body to be found at some point for the trial to be called,” Pinkie stated. “Moving the body was simply to hide where the murder actually took place, damaging our investigation.”

“So now we’re assuming the body was moved from somewhere else?” Rarity questioned. “Well if it were the case, the obvious question is where did the murder occur?”

“We certainly didn’t find anywhere that jumped out during our search,” Octavia stated, resting her chin on her hoof thoughtfully. “Did you two find anything from the library?”

“Alas, we did not,” Rarity replied. “As Pinkie predicted, there was far too much interference. I did however, return to the clockwork room and use the spell.”

“You did?” Fluttershy asked, her voice odd. “When was this?”

“After you left to report back to Pinkie and Octavia,” Rarity explained before carrying on. “Now this lead was a little more fruitful considering we’ve spent hardly any time up there.”

“What did you find?” Pinkie asked curiously.

“Well, I picked up on your trail when you first arrived there,” Rarity explained, “as well as that of our elusive thief.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened and she leaned forward, eager to learn more about the incident that almost had her skull cracked open like an egg. She subconsciously raised a hoof and felt the back of her head where she had sustained the blow; she had discarded the bandages the day before, much to Maud’s disapproval. She could feel the wound roughly sealed with several metal staples.

“The trails were faint, but I managed to confirm that the thief did follow you,” Rarity continued, “and then after knocking you out there approached where the horn was before leaving. After some careful snooping I managed to follow to the same store room where the food had been discarded, there I found this…”

Rarity reached into her saddlebags and produced a simple wooden cane.

“A stick?” Octavia uttered, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s been broken off something,” Rarity explained, gesturing to one end. “As well as that, there’s blood on it.”

“Can I see that for a moment?” Pinkie requested.

Rarity nodded, hovering the stick over to Pinkie who took it in her hooves and began looking it up and down. There was indeed a dark brown smear of dried blood on one end, but as well as that there was some hardened grey splotches over the other side. The stick was heavy, and indeed very hard, and Pinkie noticed the splintering at the end Rarity had indicated, proving it had been broken from something else.

“This was in the storeroom?” Pinkie asked.

“That’s where it had been left, yes,” Rarity confirmed. “After that I lost the track of the trail when it re-entered the hallway.”

“Well that is interesting,” Pinkie murmured, before raising her voice. “However let’s not get side-tracked, are we all sure there wasn’t somewhere else in the castle the murder could have taken place?”

“It’s like you said,” Fluttershy began. “The murderer needed us to find the body; they could have made the trail so we would know where to look.”

“Which implies the murder did in fact take place at the scene,” Octavia finished. “And that leaves only one other possibility, that there was no struggle and the damage was done before or after the murder, either in some unrelated circumstance or in order to throw us off.”

“Well this is more difficult in a way,” Pinkie pointed out. “For that kind of murder, Maud would needed to have trusted the killer to let them get close, but there’s so few of us, Maud would have trusted us all.”

“True, so why don’t we take this opportunity to tell everyone where we were since yesterday?” Rarity proposed, before taking a little cough. “After the disaster in the library, I came by just as Maud left and stayed to help Octavia sort through the wreckage for a bit. I had gone there after cleaning my dress in the wash room following the flooding earlier that day. After the library I went to the kitchen to prepare some food, I used the last bits and pieces we had but then I couldn’t find any of you once it was ready.”

“So you had been cleaning in the wash room?” Fluttershy interrupted.

“Yes, why?” Rarity asked, confused.

“Nothing,” Fluttershy said quickly.

Pinkie knew she was thinking of her earlier point about Maud’s dress being cleaned.

“Yes well,” Rarity continued. “After that I went looking for everyone; however it wasn’t until much later that I found Fluttershy in the infirmary and Pinkie outside. That was just before the discovery though.”

“Why did it take you so long to find them?” Octavia asked.

“Well I had a little incident…” Rarity replied awkwardly, before adding simply, “A nightmare. What about you? I never did find you.”

“After you left I had to run damage control on the machines,” Octavia explained. “They shouldn’t have just fallen apart, so I needed to make sure something wasn’t going terribly wrong. I spent the rest of yesterday running between the three machines, that’s why you didn’t find me.”

“Well…” Fluttershy began quietly. “With everything that was going on I didn’t want to get in the way, so I stayed in the infirmary and laboratory, running inventory and generally tidying up.”

They all looked over at Pinkie.

“After Maud and I returned to my room and found the documents missing,” Pinkie began, “we split up to go searching for them. It was during this time that we came across the machines while they were breaking down. After that Maud and I met up back at her room, she told me what happened and we split up again, continued searching for the documents… That was the last I saw of her.”

There a was a long moment of silence.

“Well that wasn’t very useful,” Rarity muttered. “We could all be lying and none of us would ever know.”

“Well… maybe there’s something else we can discuss,” Fluttershy said. “Do we have any evidence?”

“Well there was those flight goggles you found in Maud’s room,” Pinkie reminded her, pulling them out of her saddlebags and holding them up for the others to see.

“Are those Rainbow Dash’s?” Rarity asked, cocking her head.

“We don’t know,” Pinkie admitted. “We can’t remember if she was still wearing them when she got taken.”

“It could have been one of the other Wonderbolts,” Octavia suggested. “Soarin was around for quite a while before he was eventually taken.”

“Maybe,” Pinkie agreed. “But again, that depends on us remembering if he still had them before he disappeared, or if he didn’t then we need to know where they ended up.”

They all stopped speaking for a moment, each pondering the possible whereabouts. As Pinkie struggled to remember, her eyes panned over the courtyard, coming to rest over the still smoking remains of the portcullis.

“Oh yeah,” she said suddenly. “That reminds me, how did you get through the portcullis?”

“A bomb,” Octavia explained.

“A bomb?!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Yes, I went to the armoury because I knew they had some old ones lying about,” Octavia continued. “They needed a little fixing up, but luckily there was the ghost of a tinkerer who lent me a hoof. Although it wasn’t easy to understand him with his lisp and he kept going on about magnets.”

“Lisp? Gizmo?” Pinkie whispered to herself, only looking up again when Rarity tried to get her attention.

“Uh Pinkie, what about that other thing we found?” Rarity asked, looking at Pinkie. “In Celestia’s room.”

“What thing?” Octavia asked curiously, earning a slight look from Rarity.

“We found Maud’s necklace in a jewellery box there,” Pinkie explained, pulling it too from her saddlebags. “We also found some hair caught on the window.”

“Whose hair?” Octavia asked.

“Yours,” Rarity replied simply, causing Octavia to spin around facing her. “Several long stands of black hair caught on the window overlooking the courtyard and gate to the town. Now, if the Mastermind hadn’t really made his announcement as you claim, and you were indeed up there as the presence of your hair would suggest, then you would have been in the perfect position to see us heading towards the crime scene.”

“I can’t believe you’re really accusing me again,” Octavia muttered in disbelief. “Is this still because I’m not one of your best friends?”

“No, it’s because I can place you at the same place where we discovered a crucial piece of evidence!” Rarity retorted.

“I never touched that necklace!” Octavia snapped.

“Enough!” Pinkie shouted, silencing the pair of them. “We’re getting nowhere. Now Fluttershy and I searched the wash room, we think one of the showers was used by the killer to clean up after, although we can’t be sure as it’s not very clear.”

“Well that seems like a fairly basic step in covering your tracks,” Rarity pointed out. “But it doesn’t really mean anything for us as our alibis can’t be falsified.”

“Then lets step back from the case,” Pinkie proposed. “Let’s take a different direction.”

“What direction?” Fluttershy asked uncertain.

“I’m not stupid,” Pinkie muttered. “I know how this game works, I’ve been here before. This is the last trial and there’s only one individual capable of pulling this off, and that’s the Mastermind himself.”

“You called?” the Mastermind announced.

“So here we are again,” Octavia stated. “The ultimate question, do you have any ideas?”

“At first I was convinced the Mastermind was Trixie,” Pinkie explained. “Everything seemed to be pointing towards her, her cutie mark etched in the back of the throne, her name being the password to the vault, the mental assessment Fluttershy found in the infirmary, her apparent presence at the Gala under the name ‘Great and Powerful’. Yeah, it all seemed to be pointing towards her… but then I opened the book and learned some interesting things. Ever since, I’ve had another idea of who the Mastermind could be.”

“Who?” Octavia asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Yes, t… tell us who,” the Mastermind begged in a mocking tone.

“We thought Sombra’s horn was simply a tool used by the Mastermind,” Pinkie continued, ignoring the Mastermind’s interruption. “But what if I said it was the other way around.”

“Um, Pinkie,” Rarity cut in. “I think you missed a step. What did you learn from the book?”

“The Sombra we knew was nothing more than a vessel for something much worse,” Pinkie explained. “Something much more powerful. When Sombra was destroyed, Twilight, Celestia, Discord, they all assumed he was destroyed too, that it was only his power that still resided in the horn. But that wasn’t the case at all…”

Pinkie voice became low as she began addressing the Mastermind directly.

“Losing your horn saved you from the destruction that you should have met,” Pinkie declared. “Your vessel was broken but it was still a vessel, thus it kept you very much alive. I’m right, aren’t I…

“Despair.”

The other three all stared at Pinkie with varying degrees of confusion, but Pinkie paid them no heed, carrying on before she lost her momentum.

“You are the Mastermind,” Pinkie continued. “Or more precisely, the Mastermind is your puppet; your temporary host like Twilight was before. Like Discord said, even with all your power, you need a host to be able to exercise it. A pony you could manipulate into doing the things you were unable to, from activating the machines at the Gala to retrieving your horn before I could reach it.”

“Pinkie, what are you talking about?” Fluttershy asked, looking just as bewildered as Octavia and Rarity.

Pinkie turned her head so she met Fluttershy’s eyes.

“How long are you going to deny it?” Pinkie asked in a cold voice, still staring at Fluttershy. “You said yourself, it’s becoming difficult to project your voice, so why don’t you do yourself a favour and show us who you really are.”

There was a long period of silence following Pinkie’s speech. Rarity and Octavia looked back and forth between Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, while they both locked eyes. Eventually the latter broke into a wide grin.

“At last…” she said, in a voice that bared no resemblance to the real Fluttershy’s tranquil tone.

Pinkie, Rarity and Octavia all opened their mouths, but didn’t get a chance to say anything as an explosion of force knocked them all off their hooves. Crumpling to the floor, Pinkie lay smothered against the invisible barrier as Fluttershy spread her wings and rose into the air, her body pulsating a vile dark energy. Pinkie clenched her eyes shut as all around her the light intensified until it threatened to burn through her retinas.

When the light began to fade, and the force began to alleviate from Pinkie she risked cracking her eyelids open. Craning her neck, she looked over at the place directly opposite her in the courtroom where Despair now occupied. Standing up, Pinkie surveyed the body that once belonged to Fluttershy. The yellow was now drastically faded, her wings were spread wide, showing off their new increased span. However the feathers were ruffled and broken giving them an undead quality. Her eyes were deep pools of inky blackness, emanating a dark hue that seemed to creep around the entire courtyard in the form of a black mist. Finally, jutting up through her skull, ripping right out of her forehead, was the familiar stone grey and blood red horn.

Fluttershy was practically an Alicorn now, a gruesome, augmented one admittedly. She stared straight at Pinkie, her black eyes seeming to pierce into her soul while her mouth was split into an impossibly wide grin. Rarity looked in horror at what her friend had become, while Octavia bared her teeth and glared her, all the while edging back against her own barrier to put as much distance between herself and the monster directly to her left.

“Ah,” Despair uttered, breathing deep. “Eight months, a mere second for a being who lives for an eternity, but to be trapped in a broken prison that entire time… It’s good to be free again.”

“F… Fluttershy?” Rarity stammered, her eyes wide, her face pale.

“That’s not Fluttershy anymore,” Pinkie stated coldly. “The Fluttershy we knew is long gone, just like Twilight. That… is Despair.”

“Ah Pinkie,” Despair said, addressing her directly for the first time. “I’m glad that you’ve finally come to know me personally. It was the contents of that book I presume? I would love to have seen what Discord tried to hide in there, but it was sealed off to me, leaving me option-less but to burn the thing. But do indulge me, however did you figure out Fluttershy was the puppet?”

“Besides her obvious personality change after the horn went missing?” Pinkie asked rhetorically. “I’ve noticed for a while that Fluttershy has been acting increasingly odd, snooping around in certain areas and trying to pass it off as being nothing as well as plainly lying about leaving the room that night Fleetfoot was murdered. The real hint came when I was examining the statues after Cadance got destroyed; I noticed a symbol etched in the stone as well as this blade discarded by it.”

Pinkie took the broken blade from her saddlebags and held it out for the others to see.

“It’s a scalpel blade,” Pinkie explained. “Easily found in the infirmary, and the ground down edge suggests it was used to etch that symbol into the stone pedestal.”

“But what does that have to do with Fluttershy?” Octavia asked curiously.

“Fluttershy had left me in the infirmary for a while,” Pinkie explained. “She told us she went to her room to look for painkillers but then didn’t return with any. I never told her, but I searched her room after that and found the painkillers she had meant, they weren’t exactly well hidden.”

“So she lied about the painkillers and instead took the scalpel and carved some symbol into Cadance’s statue,” Octavia summarised. “But what has the symbol got to do with anything?”

“The symbol was a circle with a horizontal line running through it,” Pinkie explained. “I didn’t recognise it as any specific rune, but then I thought, ‘do the maths’. If you ignore the circle, you can easily picture the one line as being a subtraction symbol, and what does a minus symbol mean on a magnet?”

“Negative,” Octavia replied, realisation dawning on her.

“Exactly, I noticed a few changes in the statues of Cadance and Discord over time,” Pinkie continued. “Early on something caused Discord to change position, he looked sad about something, but later he changed again as if he were struggling not to be. Cadance changed similarly after Shining Armour died, you could say she gave into despair.”

“And all it took was a little ritual to break to protective seals around her,” Despair finished. “No doubt you’ve realised it then.”

“You didn’t turn the princesses to stone,” Pinkie stated. “Someone else did in order to protect them from you. Like I said, you would have had no need for them so you wouldn’t have risked keeping them about unless you physically could not destroy them. But when Cadance’s protection began to weaken, you took advantage of it and destroyed her during the trial to make it seem like you really were in control of them. And don’t forget that only a Pegasus could have followed me into the clockwork chamber, I injured myself trying to jump up; Fluttershy was able to fly through safely and silently.

“The final nail came when Rarity showed me the stick that Fluttershy used to knock me out with,” Pinkie continued, lifting up said stick. “It’s one of the perches from the aviary, given away by all this dried bird poo coating it. Naturally the aviary was locked so just like with Filthy Rich’s death, only a Pegasus could have gone in there to get this.”

“Very good,” Despair complemented, wearing a genuine and genuinely creepy smile. “There is no end to your brilliance Pinkie Pie.”

“I… don’t understand,” Rarity murmured weakly. “What is that thing? What happened to Fluttershy?”

“He’s a spirit,” Pinkie tried to explain. “Like Discord, but where Discord is the embodiment of Chaos, he is the embodiment of negative emotion, he is Despair. Like I said, Sombra was his host, but when Sombra was destroyed, he didn’t go with him, instead staying trapped in the horn that was cut off.”

“And from there I was greatly weakened,” Despair picked up, sounding bitter. “Without a physical form to extend my reach through, but not a soul to manipulate either. Lost and alone in the frozen wastes.”

“My heart goes out to you,” Pinkie muttered sarcastically. “Until the horn was found and sent to Canterlot. Celestia knew being around for too long would be dangerous, so she tasked Twilight with it instead. Before I thought she had just been corrupted by the dark energy coming off it, but it was more than that, you turned her into a temporary vessel; you were pulling her strings all along.”

“If you’re trying to save Twilight in your memories, don’t bother,” Despair cut in. “As your dear Princess told you, I simply extenuated what was already lurking in the darkest corners of her mind.”

“But everything Twilight did…” Octavia said quietly. “All the ponies that died, it was because of you.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie confirmed. “And it didn’t even end there, Twilight was only a temporary host, her death simply pushed you back to the horn, and the next pony you would come into contact with was Fluttershy.”

“But how?” Rarity asked, still stunned. “When did Fluttershy ever find that accursed horn?”

“The letter in Celestia’s room,” Pinkie reminded her. “It said somepony had tried to steal it, but what if that wasn’t the case at all, what if coming across it was an accident.”

“An accident she would never fully regret,” Despair finished. “Canterlot is a big place, it wasn't sweet little Fluttershy’s fault when she got lost breaking in with Rainbow Dash to visit you in your time of need. It certainly wasn’t her fault when she stumbled upon me. Oh, I had lost all hope of ever achieving freedom. Twilight Sparkle's schemes failed before I could bind with her completely, and I was sure I would never get another opportunity like it again… Until she came.

“A fragile little thing,” Despair continued in a deep, sickening voice. “Just having learned one of her dearest friends had died alongside many others, and that a friend she cared… very dearly about was in trouble. She was the perfect candidate, so much turmoil, so much despair, all I had to do was reach out, to plant a single tiny seed. I didn’t have long, the guards quickly came to investigate the break in, but I had been successful. I was inside her mind, all I needed was to grow there and I would have my second chance.”

“What did you offer her?” Pinkie asked in a low voice. “With Twilight you simply tapped into her id, but Fluttershy… what did you offer her?”

Despair grinned wickedly at Pinkie Pie, her whole form somehow growing darker.

“You.”

Pinkie was as still as a statue as she stared at the grinning façade of Despair.

“Me?” Pinkie replied confused.

“Are you really so surprised?” Despair asked in a slow, mocking voice. “Did you really have no idea? You always claimed to understand ponies, to know everything about them, and yet when it came to one of your dearest friends you were utterly oblivious to how she truly felt.”

“That can’t be!” Pinkie snapped, sounding a little desperate. She looked over at Rarity who was squirming uncomfortably. “Rarity?”

“She never said,” Rarity replied, not meeting Pinkie’s eye. “But I always had an inkling.”

“Don’t feel too bad,” Despair continued, chuckling slightly at Pinkie’s shock. “She only ever confided in Rainbow Dash, sure that if there was anypony she could trust it was her childhood friend… She never would have predicted Rainbow Dash could be so cruel in her final moments.”

Pinkie’s eyes went slightly wider as she remembered what Fluttershy had said as well as the line in Rainbow’s suicide note.

She brought up some… personal things.

Fluttershy, I’m sorry for what I said.

“All she wanted was for things to go back to the way they were,” Despair said, still smiling sadistically at the others horror. “When I told her I could grant her wish, that I could turn back the clock and make it so the terrible things you suffered never happened, Fluttershy leapt at the opportunity. I had her in my grasp, she carried everything I commanded of her all the while clinging to her naïve hope that I would stay true to my word and make everything right.

“Such a fool,” Despair added. “Such a delusional, love sick fool. But in the end if it wasn’t for her, none of this would have happened, I would not be here, and for that I am deeply appreciative.”

“You…” Rarity began, her whole body shaking with rage. “You monster! How could you do that to her?! To us?! What could any of this possibly achieve?”

“Pinkie already told you,” Despair answered. “I need a host to assume direct control of my powers. But it can’t be any host; it needs to be a true host, a vessel that embodies my spirit completely. As adequately as Fluttershy has served me, she is not worthy of being the host I take when I reveal myself to the world. No, that was supposed to be Twilight, the Princess of Magic.”

“But Twilight’s gone,” Octavia pointed out warily, still watching Despair with narrowed eyes.

“Yes, most disappointing that her plan failed and she was killed before I could achieve my own goals,” Despair admitted. “But, I’m not disappointed, because during her little game I found someone else. Somepony who would make a far greater host.”

“Me,” Pinkie stated coldly.

“Precisely,” Despair replied. “Once again Pinkie it was all about you, all those ponies died because of you. My host needs to be overcome by negative emotion, so I had to throw you into the one thing that could achieve complete and utter despair, the very game you had fought so hard to escape. Luckily for me, Twilight had left quite a lot of spare pieces behind from the last one, it was easy to set this up. I just needed the perfect moment where all the players could be reliably gathered and then our game could begin thanks to the machines Twilight had so kindly left for me.”

“So this is it,” Pinkie murmured. “Everything that you’ve done, everyone who’s died, all because of me… again.”

Pinkie’s head snapped up, her nostrils flaring and her eyes wide with anger.

“This is why you killed my sister!” she bellowed.

Despair raised an eyebrow slightly.

“You said you didn’t control the nightmares,” Pinkie recalled, “but you were talking out your ass. You used those creatures to trail us around the castle as was necessary so you could raid my room and steal the knife before pushing us all to our designated areas so you could murder Maud. She never would have suspected Fluttershy of being your thrall; you could have gotten right up in her face before you stuck the knife in her.”

Despair was still smirking at Pinkie, not saying a word.

“Only the Mastermind, having complete control over the environment could have made the crime scene as confusing as it was,” Pinkie continued, still furious. “Not to mention all the red herrings like Octavia’s hair and the clean dress and… Everything!”

Pinkie seethed with rage, gripping the bench in front of her, staring daggers at Despair even as she continued to smile back at her.

“You killed my sister,” Pinkie stated, her breath laboured. “You’re the final murderer, admit it.”

“No,” Despair replied after a split second of silence.

Pinkie took a double take.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Despair said laughing. “Were you expecting a confession? Well I hate to disappoint you, but I did not kill your sister. I guess your winning streak had to end sometime.”

“What?!” Pinkie exclaimed. “But… it had to have been you. You’re the Mastermind!”

“Yes, indeed I am,” Despair acknowledged. “But there’s no rule stating that I have to be the final killer. Besides, I never lied, at least, not about the nightmares. I have no more control over them than you do, and now that I’ve been separated from the machines I can’t even confine them.”

“But… but…” Pinkie stammered, making Despair’s grin grow even wider so that it was now a gruesome gash splitting Fluttershy’s head in two. “Then who? Who else could it have been?”

Pinkie looked between Rarity and Octavia, the former still trembling with fear and revulsion and the latter shaken but trying to remain calm.

“That’s for you to figure out,” Despair replied. “Which of your friends will you sentence? Oh, and don’t forget that you need at least three votes in order to pass the verdict. Needless to say, I will not be voting.”

Pinkie felt the blood drain from her face; she knew exactly what that meant. Rarity, Octavia and herself all had to agree on the same suspect if they were to have any hopes of winning, but if the killer was one of them and they weren’t prepared to confess…

“We’ll lose,” Pinkie finished out loud, her voice hollow.

“What?!” Rarity exclaimed. “No, we can’t lose now. Surely we can still figure this out.”

Pinkie glanced at Octavia; she could see the gears turning behind her eyes while she clutched her head, trying desperately to piece it together herself.

“I…” Pinkie uttered, her eyes swivelling in desperate panic.

Rarity watched her, her own eyes wide and full of fear. Octavia glanced between her and Despair, her jaw grinding as if she was struggling to understand something. Despair simply smiled, its breathing becoming more fervent and animalistic as it watched Pinkie struggle.

“I…” Pinkie said again, searching through her saddlebags for something, anything that could be of use.

“Pinkie!” Octavia shouted, suddenly sounding terrified.

Pinkie was too focused on trying to deduce the crime to notice what Octavia had seen, that the darkness around Despair was growing more intense, creeping out over the courtyard, feeling through the air like shadowy tentacles.

“I don’t know,” Pinkie admitted, her whole body shaking as she stared down at her hooves.

“It’s over Pinkie,” Despair began, a new purr in its voice. “You put all your chips into me being the killer and you came out broke. The trial is at an end, and you have no more suspects. You… Have… Lost”

“What…” Pinkie began, her voice weak. “What will happen now?”

“The machines are deactivated,” Despair replied. “Destroyed even, there’s no stopping the shift back. Soon Canterlot will return, and while I had preferred to take a more ideal host, Fluttershy will serve me well enough. When I take her as my true vessel, my powers will be limitless, no longer will the Princesses’ pitiful stone armour be enough to save them from me. Once they have been removed I will reveal myself to the rest of Equestria and the true suffering can begin, to which you will have a front row seat.”

“Pinkie, don’t listen to him!” Octavia shouted, trying desperately to get through to Pinkie who still stood paralysed. “If he could do that he would have by now. He’s just lying to make you…”

Octavia didn’t get any further as a jet black chain burst from the pool before her and wrapped around Octavia’s neck, silencing her instantly as she began to choke.

“Don’t think,” Despair hissed, briefly turning his attention to her, no longer smiling. “That I’ve forgotten about you. I look forward to torturing you later and finding out exactly why you’re here at all.”

Pinkie barely took notice of this interaction, still frozen. Rarity took this opportunity to turn to Pinkie and attempt to get through to her.

“Pinkie, please!” Rarity begged. “You have to think of something, you always do.”

“I can’t,” Pinkie whispered, unable to look up.

“If he wins then everypony dies for nothing!” Rarity exclaimed, tears welling up in her eyes. “Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash… all of them.”

“And Fluttershy…” Pinkie added, craning her neck so that she was once more face to face with Despair.

She deserves to be happy.

“I’ll try Rainbow,” Pinkie muttered to herself before raising her voice. “You want me as your vessel, don’t you?”

Despair didn’t say anything, just flashed her a sickly grin as usual.

“If I do…” Pinkie continued hesitantly, “what will happen to Fluttershy?”

“What do you want to happen to her?” Despair asked smoothly.

“I want her to be happy,” Pinkie replied. “Even if she’s the only one I can save…”

“Then you have my word,” Despair assured her. “Fluttershy will be… happy.”

“Pinkie, you can’t be serious!” Rarity exclaimed, horrified at what Pinkie was saying.

“It’s over Rarity,” Pinkie muttered in response, not meeting her friend’s eye. “We lost; I might as well get something out of it.”

“But you never lose!” Rarity insisted. “There has to be another way!”

Pinkie glanced at Octavia who was clearly struggling to breath with the chain cutting off her windpipe. The look in Octavia’s eyes was a haunting one, a look of betrayal. Pinkie turned back to Despair, her mind set.

“I’ll be your host,” she said, her voice echoing the despair she felt in her heart.

Time held still for a second after the words left Pinkie’s mouth. Rarity stared in horror at her, while Octavia struggled to remain conscious as the chain tightened around her throat. Pinkie stood up straight, but there was no energy in her stance, just grim acceptance. Despair was its most inequine, Fluttershy’s face utterly torn apart by Despair’s disturbing visage, his dark influence fully enveloping the courtyard around them, reaching down around Pinkie like nightmarish claws.

The explosion was both instantaneous as it was devastating.

All at once, the darkness ripped free from Fluttershy’s body which snapped taught in response, at which point it began rushing through the air to its new and willing host. Pinkie briefly recalled the end of the first game, when all Twilight’s magic was forced back into her body. She wondered if this would a similar experience, she wondered if it would hurt…

It didn’t just hurt, it was the single most excruciating feeling she had ever experienced. The ice cold feeling washing over her body as something unnatural forced its way into every single cell of her body, taking root in the very deepest corners of her mind making her feel like her whole head was about to explode and rain blood down on the courtyard.

It only lasted a few seconds for Rarity and Octavia, who were both forced to their knees by the sudden surge of dark energy all around them, the latter free from the chain that had been whisked away along with the rest of Despair’s power. For Pinkie it felt like it was never going to end, a few seconds stretched out into an eternity.

Eventually, after what could have been eons, Pinkie’s body collapsed to the ground, limp and unaware.

At last…

At last, after a thousand years of isolation swiftly followed by years of imprisonment in a horn fragment, Despair was free, truly and utterly free to spread its will and influence to the farthest corners of Equestria and beyond. This body was his, completely his. He could feel the long, straight curtains hanging over his face; this body could still do with a little remodelling.

But no rush, we have plenty of time for that. Right now I’m going to savour this moment, how best to do that?

There was really no question in Despair’s mind, while he had plans for Octavia, Rarity was of no use. As of right now she was his play thing, a pony sized doll to test his new powers on.

Smirking slightly, Despair made to stand up, to reveal himself in all his terrible glory to the two ponies who were most likely quaking with fear…

But nothing happened.

Hmm?

Despair tried again, but again yielded no results. Perhaps he was out of practice controlling a body directly like this, but it should have been as simple as willing it, and yet the signals didn’t seem to be reaching his new legs.

Forgetting something?

Despair froze as the voice echoed inside his own skull, the voice that should have been eclipsed.

Impossible!

Despair felt himself stand up, but this time he wasn’t the one commanding it. He could feel his limbs acting in rebellion, obeying a power that was not his own. He felt his new mouth open, felt the lips form words, and heard Pinkie Pie’s voice emit.

“We’re still on trial,” she announced, her voice was unsteady but determined.

Now that they were standing up straight, Despair could see through Pinkie’s eyes at the others. Rarity and Octavia both stood, staring with a mixture of apprehension and confusion. Fluttershy lay crumpled just as Despair had left her.

What is this?!

A second ago Despair had felt liberated, but now the very body that had been responsible felt like a brand new prison as he began to feel something re-emerge all around him. It was…

It can’t be! You were broken, beaten, you lost everything! How can you still have this much strength? How did you hide it from me?!

“It’s alright,” Pinkie Pie said, ignoring Despair’s voice raging inside her head, instead addressing her friends. “It’s me; I’m keeping him at bay.”

“But how?” Rarity asked, the tiniest amount of hope now shining through in her voice.

“It’s all part of the plan,” Pinkie replied calmly.

Plan? What plan?! You lost, your sister is dead!

Yes, she is… but like I said, we’re still on trial, which leaves the question, who really killed Maud?

Despair didn’t respond, if he had eyes he could control they’d be twitching right about now. The truth was, while he hadn’t carried out the murder or made Fluttershy do it, he in turn had no idea who the killer was. As Mastermind he saw everything that happened, but somehow, impossibly, this one murder evaded his eyes.

Pinkie Pie took a breath using the body that was very much still under her control, all the while Despair screamed internally at what was happening.

“My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie,” Pinkie began suddenly, silencing Despair. “And I murdered my sister Maud Pie.”

“What?!” Rarity uttered, looking shocked.

“What?” Octavia muttered, looking amazed.

What?! No! It can’t be, you loved your sister, why would you ever do that?!

“There was one thing I may have failed to tell you girls about Despair,” Pinkie continued, Despair shut up and listened intently, feeling something he had never felt before growing inside his spirit. “The spirits are eternal, but when they take a true host they can be destroyed… when the host dies.”

NO!

“No!” Rarity screamed. “Pinkie, please tell me this isn’t what I think it is!”

Pinkie looked at Rarity apologetically.

“We had no choice,” Pinkie explained. “Maud and I have accepted our sacrifice. I’m only sorry we didn’t realise sooner, we might have been able to save more…”

I won’t allow this! You think you can trick me, I am the Mastermind! This is my game; I can end it whenever I say!

Despair reached out with his power, feeling for the intricate magical webbing constructed throughout the courtroom. He tried to sever it, to call the game off, but try as he might nothing worked. Every attempt he made was met with blockades and failure.

I wonder if there was ever a small part of Twilight that knew you were manipulating her. That tried to fight back? Perhaps it was the part that made sure the game was so perfect, predicting this moment, making sure that you would not be able to dig your way out.

Despair wanted to scream as the memory off all those documents Twilight had wrote came flooding back, all the hours of testing and retesting, the constant improving until the game was a metaphorical fortress of rules and regulations, just as Twilight adored. Could it really be though, that she had done it all to defy him?

While Despair struggled to find a loophole in Twilight’s plans that would allow him to call this off, Pinkie turned her attention to Octavia.

“Octavia…” she began.

Octavia met her eyes, and there seemed to be a moment of understanding pass between them.

“Thank you,” Pinkie finished, smiling.

“No Pinkie,” Octavia replied, her own smile quivering as her eyes began shining with tears she refused to let spill. “Thank you… for not letting it be in vain.”

As if on cue, the dials before them lit up.

“I guess you passed that test after all,” Octavia said with a smirk as she turned her own dial.

Despair’s screams became incoherent as Pinkie’s face swam to the surface of the pool in front of Octavia; Pinkie just ignored him as she turned to Rarity who was quite openly crying.

“Rarity…” Pinkie began, but Rarity quickly cut her off.

“No! I won’t do it!” she screamed. “I won’t sentence one of my friends to die.”

“Rarity, if you don’t,” Pinkie began again, “then everyone who’s died, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, it was all for nothing. But more than that, how many ponies do you think will die if we don’t end Despair once and for all. Think about Spike, think about Sweetie Belle.”

“But what about you?” Rarity retorted. “After everything you’ve done, is this the ending you deserve? It’s not fair!”

“No, it’s not fair,” Pinkie agreed with a slight sniff. “But how many ponies didn’t get the endings they deserved because of Despair? How many more will lose theirs if he is allowed to escape?”

Rarity’s body began to give out as her whole body was wracked with sobs, but she caught herself on the bench in front of her. Pinkie didn’t say anything, she simply waited, allowing the sound of her friend’s anguish drown out the raging Despair inside her. After a few minutes Rarity’s horn glowed with a faint blue aura, and Pinkie heard the clicking of the dial and saw her face appear moments later.

“Thank you Rarity,” Pinkie whispered, but Rarity didn’t answer, unable to look up.

You can’t do this… You can’t, I won’t let you!

Despair reached out one last time, using every ounce of power he had to try and take control of Pinkie’s body. But try as he might, he felt his power sapped, as the images of all the ponies who had died flashed before his vision.

I can… for them.

Pinkie reached out and turned her own dial right around until it was once again pointing at herself. Despair let out a wail that threatened to shatter Pinkie's skull as the pool rippled and the three faces of Pinkie Pie vanished to be replaced by the clock hands which began their rotation of the pool.

Suddenly as Despair watched the hands speed up, he was overcome by the feeling he had never known, the feeling that would haunt him for all of eternity…

Fear.

This!

The hands were a blur as they sped around the pool.

Isn’t!

The hand began to slow down, the seconds to their demise literally ticking away before their eyes.

Happening!

The hands came to their final resting place, overlapping one another, pointing directly at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie opened her mouth one last time, even as the runes flashed beneath her.

“Game Over!”

Day 15, 19:40

Maud peered into the dark well, turning her nose up at the smell.

“So this is where you woke up when this all began?” she asked Pinkie who was standing against the wall, sorting through her saddlebags. “How did you end up here?”

“I’m not sure but…” Pinkie began, smirking slightly. “I think an old friend was looking out for me. Our computers don’t work in this area, so the Mastermind is blind to us while we’re here.”

Maud didn’t reply, she just stepped back from the well and watched as Pinkie withdrew Twilight’s documents along with Trixie’s mental assessment.

“Did you have any trouble destroying the hourglass?” Pinkie asked as she approached the well.

“Not really,” Maud replied. “Octavia showed up while it was falling apart, but I was able to pretend it had done it itself. Although I did manage to get a bit of her hair.”

Maud passed the hair over to Pinkie in a small plastic sample bag from the infirmary.

“Hopefully she won’t be any the wiser,” Pinkie stated as she accepted the bag. “Nopony came by while I destroyed the orrery so there are no complications there.”

“And the clock?” Maud asked.

“It fell apart after the horn was removed,” Pinkie reminded her. “While it’s not exactly destroyed, it’s not functioning either, and once I get the designs from Octavia and have them destroyed, nopony will be able to fix them.”

“We can’t allow Despair to fall back on them,” Maud pointed out. “And after all the trouble they’ve caused, I doubt anyone will miss them.”

“No,” Pinkie agreed as she stared down at Twilight’s documents. “Good riddance.”

With that she cast the documents into the well, debating over Trixie’s assessment for only a moment before throwing it in as well. She then pulled the picture of Twilight’s family out of her bag, which she had pieced back together after taking it apart to get the key to the book.

“I’ll sneak this into Rarity’s bag,” Pinkie explained, looking at it one last time before putting it back in her own bags. “She already has Rainbow’s letter, I’m sure she’ll know what to do with this.”

“And the gun?” Maud asked.

Pinkie grimaced, it was the only factor she couldn’t account for, the wild card that could royally screw up their plan.

“I never found it,” Pinkie admitted. “But I don’t think Fluttershy has it, so it should be okay.”

“About Fluttershy…” Maud began, noticing Pinkie flinch at the mention. “Do you think she’ll come out of this alive?”

“No,” Pinkie whispered. “I’ll have to act like I think there’s a possibility but… Fluttershy was dead the moment she took that horn. There’s nothing we can do for her besides granting her peace.”

Maud walked over to Pinkie and pulled her into a gentle hug.

“I’m sorry,” Pinkie muttered. “I just feel bad… I had so many opportunities to be honest with her, to let her down, but I could never do it. I just didn’t have it in me to tell her I didn’t feel the same way.”

“Rejection is hard on everyone,” Maud stated. “Especially between close friends.”

Pinkie sighed as she pulled out of her sister’s embrace and paced around the courtyard. Maud watched her sister, biting her own lip as she thought.

“Pinkie…” she began, her voice a little desperate. “Are you sure there isn’t another way?”

Pinkie looked up in surprise.

“Not for me I mean,” Maud rectified. “I don’t mind dying if it means stopping Despair. But does it have to be you? Couldn’t we try to trick Despair into doing it himself?”

“No Maud, it has to be me,” Pinkie replied solemnly.

“But…” Maud began, only to be cut off.

“You were right Maud,” Pinkie said as she looked down at her hooves. “I’m not the pony I once was. This game… it’s changed me. There’s no place for me out there, not this Pinkie Pie. No, it has to be me. It began with me and it will end with me.”

Maud sighed and approached her sister.

“I’m not going to lie,” she began, “I wish you didn’t have to do this. But I’m not going to stand in your way, if you really feel like you have to do this… then I’ll stand by you. We’ll be together just like we always have.”

“Thank you Maud,” Pinkie replied hoarsely.

There was a moment of silence as Maud internally debated over coming clean or not, eventually she spoke up.

“Pinkie…” she began hesitantly. “There’s something you need to know, something I haven’t been honest about.”

“I know,” Pinkie replied simply.

“You know?” Maud repeated, her eyes wide with shock.

“I always knew,” Pinkie stated with a sad smile. “I knew you never ate those rock candy necklaces, I knew why you really made them with me and I loved you all the more for it.”

“Oh,” Maud said, slightly unsure. “Yeah… that’s it.”

Pinkie pulled her into a tight hug, burying her face in the nape of Maud’s neck so that she didn’t see the pained expression on her sister’s face. When Pinkie pulled back, Maud saw that her eyes were welling up with tears. She reached out and brushed away a few strays that had begun sliding down Pinkie’s cheeks.

“We should do this now,” Maud stated, Pinkie nodded with forced determination.

Reaching over, Maud dipped into Pinkie’s saddlebags, pulling out the knife.

“Deception,” Maud muttered as she placed the knife in Pinkie’s hooves. “Fitting.”

Pinkie shook from head to tail as her grip on the knife tightened. Planning had been one thing, but now that she was here, the true magnitude of what she was about to do caught up with her.

“It’s going to be alright Pinkie,” Maud assured her, although her own voice betrayed her fear at dying.

The pair stepped closer together so they were almost embracing, their foreheads resting against one another, their breathing heavy.

“It’s okay,” Maud whispered. “You are not alone.”

Pinkie gave a small smile, as she remembered the most distant of memories.

“Neither are you,” she replied.

Both sisters held each other closely, their faces buried in one another’s shoulders. Maud felt one of Pinkie’s hooves slip away from her own, that was the only warning she received before she felt the blade pierce her body. Once the blade was well hurried in Maud’s chest, Pinkie relaxed her grip on her sister, lowering her to the ground.

Maud’s body convulsed, her breathing became erratic as she went into shock. She reached up with a shaking hoof and pulled Pinkie head down so her ear was just over Maud’s mouth. From there Maud fervently whispered something with her last breaths, but Pinkie only made out two words.

Love… You…

The pain Pinkie felt now was nothing, she liked to think no amount of pain could equate to that of having Despair force into her body. She felt herself hanging in an upright position, her limbs spread out, the source of the pain at the end of each hoof. Craning her neck weakly she could see a large meat hook driven straight through her leg, attached to a chain which trailed off into the darkness. All her limbs were the same, a gruesome hook butchered through them, stretching them out so she was hung spread eagle.

Despair continued to thrash and screech inside her body, but she had long since stopped caring about when he had to say. As she hung there in the pitch black waiting for her executioner to come along, she briefly noticed how her own blood washed down her legs, absolutely ruining her dress. She could imagine Rarity having a fit over the state of it, the thought made her smile.

Never let go of that part of yourself, never stop smiling.

There was a loud clanging noise as all around her the darkness was banished, the entire room she was hanging becoming filled with light, revealing her executioner.

Mounted several metres ahead of her on a metal frame, was a very big gun. It had about a dozen long barrels in a circular formation, all pointing towards her. From the back of the gun she noticed dozens of long belts trailing down, comprised of hundreds of shiny golden bullets clipped together. Pinkie knew those belts would be fed into the machine and it would fire every one of those bullets into her, she would be ripped apart in a storm of bullets until only four hooves dangling from chains were left.

Pinkie’s smile widened, a funny feeling rising in her gut. Before she knew what was happened she was sniggering.

What is so funny?!

Pinkie tried to answer, but her laughter quickly turned into guffaws making it hard to breathe.

How can you laugh when you’re about to die?!

A loud whirring noise began as the gun barrels began rotating slowly, much like the clock hands steadily picking up speed, clicking as they did. But the noise of the gun warming up couldn’t drown out the sound of Pinkie’s laughter.

“A storm of bullets!” Pinkie exclaimed breathlessly through her mirth. “Get it?!”

Pinkie burst into another fit of giggles as tears of joy spilled from her eyes, a soft springing noise as her poker straight mane burst into a mess of curls. Her laughter only faltered as the first bullet shot out of the gun and tore through her, flying straight out the other side. She refused to let it stop her though, using every ounce of her dying strength to keep the laughter alive even as the bullets rained into her.

The laughter died away eventually, but its echo seemed to last forever in the chamber, and the bullets firing out in their thousands couldn’t drown it out, even when Pinkie Pie and Despair were long gone, ripped apart in a bullet storm.

Author's Notes:

...
I'm not really sure what to say here, I think I'll let the story speak for itself.
In relation to theories, nobody was completely right, however some people picked up on tid bits of information here and there. So shout outs to Lunaria, Basic13 and ClickClackTheBrony, all had excellent theories in their own rights and managed to identify many correct details. I'd love to give additional shout outs to everyone who commented regularly, but I'd be loathe to accidentally leave someone out, so instead I'll just give a big thank you to everyone who commented, whether you were offering a theory or just leaving a random statement, I appreciate it all.
This leaves only the Epilogue... and some other stuff.