I’m so sorry…

It was the only the way to begin the letter Twilight reasoned, as her hoof shakily scribbled the letters out before her, her magic far too occupied giving her these last moments of lucidity to be of any use in writing.

I’m sorry for all the things that I’ve done, and that I’m going to do. For all the pain and suffering I’ve caused… and all that will be caused by my foolishness.

She took a moment to steady herself, to focus her mind, one little slip and she would lose herself, and this final warning would never go out. She turned to look at a half-eaten dandelion sandwich sitting next to her on a fancy china plate. Her mother had brought it down for her on hour ago, saying something about how Twilight always forgot to eat when she threw herself into her work. She focused on the sandwich, that tiny spark of light in the dark of her old study in the basement of her parents’ house.

When she was sure she had enough resolve to continue she began again.

Whoever finds this will no doubt know of the things I have done, although you might not realise that I was the one responsible for it. I’d like to say this began when I was tasked with examining that accursed horn, I’d like to say I was never really in control of my actions… but I know it truly began when I met her, I know that it was my dark thoughts and ambitions that allowed this vile fiend to take me over.

Twilight’s mind drifted from the sandwich to her friend, the one who lay at the centre of everything that was about to unfold. She felt a stab in her heart as she imagined how Pinkie would look at her if she knew the things she was about to bring about.

She intrigued me, all my friends did, but there was something about Pinkie Pie that would always draw my thoughts. I wandered if Celestia had looked down at me the way I looked over at her…

I should explain myself; explain how the things you’ve no doubt heard about occurred. It was when Princess Celestia tasked me with examining the broken horn of King Sombra, at the time I had been honoured by such a request. I learned so much from my research into it, I learned of the existence of five divine spirits whose power was central to maintaining the balance of the world. Discord is one, he helped me understand how the spirits worked, he told me of the others, of Gaia, Grim, Bliss… and of Despair.

Twilight froze, her teeth gritting at the thought, before quickly turning back to sandwich.

It was Despair, the spirit of negativity who had made King Sombra into his host, and it was Despair who I had so naively exposed myself to. I hadn’t even bothered to put up protection spells!

The longer I worked around the horn, the more those old thoughts of Pinkie began to creep up. I began to formulate plans and scenarios, things that I never would have considered in my right mind, and at no point did I realise it was the lingering power of Despair that was corrupting me, changing me.

I want to say that I’m possessed, it might make everything I’m doing more justifiable, but Despair never needed to possess me, not yet anyway. No, all he had to do was whisper in my ear and watch as I did the rest.

Twilight reached up and brushed a stray tear from her cheek.

I’m not the same pony I once was, I’ve been changed, my moments of clarity in which I am truly myself are getting fewer and far between, and I fear this may be the last, my last opportunity to make amends.

I have begun plans for a game, a sadistic game designed to test Pinkie to her absolute limits. This game is going to bring about the deaths of many innocent ponies, and the suffering of many more. If the pony reading this is one of the victims of this game, then I’m incredibly sorry, although I know no amount of apologies can fix what I’ve done to you.

What I can do however, with the last of my willpower, is see to it that neither Despair nor this game can harm anypony ever again.

Twilight braced herself; this was the important bit, the pivotal bit that could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Despair cannot be destroyed unless he takes a host. A temporary vessel will not suffice, as it will only set him back temporarily, but a true vessel… Sombra was Despair’s true vessel, and if the horn had not been severed, he would not have survived the destruction of Sombra at the Crystal Empire. I have already tried to destroy the horn in my more lucid states, but it cannot be done, it no longer qualifies as a true vessel, merely a receptacle. In order for Despair to be destroyed once and for all, and his dark influence removed from this world, he needs to take another true vessel… and that pony must die.

In order to see this end met, I am creating the game with certain ‘conditions’, detailed fully in my notes. I pray that whoever reads this letter can use the pieces I’ve left behind, turn Despair’s game against him… and make up for the mistakes I’ve made.

Twilight’s vision began to go blurry.

I feel myself slipping, in a moment the Twilight Sparkle who saved Equestria alongside her friends will be gone. I will infuse this letter with some protective magic; neither I nor any of Despair’s acolytes will be able to read it. I hope that whoever does read it will be able to do what I could not, or deliver to somepony who can, if the pony reading this is someone I once knew, someone I once called friend, then know that I cherished everything you gave me in my life, and that I go out fighting a losing battle. If the pony reading this is Pinkie Pie…

Twilight stopped, staring at the paper for a few seconds before scribbling that last part out. She was running out of time, and she didn’t know where to begin in apologising to Pinkie Pie. With a shuddering sigh, she simply finished the letter and began casting her charms. As soon as she redirected her magic to the paper, her mind began to slip, her seconds counting down.

Signed, the former Princess of Friendship,

Twilight Sparkle.

P.S. Never forget, friendship IS magic.

Vinyl Scratch stared at the letter in… surprise? Shock? Truth be told she didn’t really know how she felt. Confusion seemed most apt… No, what was there to be confused about? It was all here in writing, signed and everything. Twilight Sparkle was the Mastermind, Princess Twilight Sparkle had orchestrated this entire ordeal, and for what? To test Pinkie Pie? The notion would have made Vinyl laugh before any of this, but this game had brought out a whole new side to Pinkie, one that Vinyl had never seen before.

No, not Twilight, not exactly. There was all this information about spirits and ‘Despair’, the whole thing made Vinyl’s head spin worse than any party could, it made her feel… scared! This whole time they had been massively out of their depth, they were dealing with something beyond any of their abilities to comprehend, pawns in a game they had no control over, flies in a web… But it was clear as day who the true villain was in this game, and it wasn’t Twilight Sparkle… not entirely at least.

This ‘Despair’ had been using Twilight’s obsession with Pinkie to manipulate her, bending her into starting this game in which they were encouraged to off one another. They had all been selected for the sole purpose of being picked off in order to test Pinkie, to find Despair’s new ‘true vessel’… and now Vinyl was the next fly to be devoured. Her insides went cold as she thought back to the message she had received from Trixie, it had seemed too good to be true, and when she arrived and found the stairs open for her she hadn’t even thought to question where Trixie actually was.

No, Twilight or Despair or whoever had laid a trap for her, and like an idiot she walked right into it. She dropped the letter to the ground from her telekinetic grasp, spinning around, half expecting Twilight to be standing there now… but she was alone. Vinyl took a few shaky breaths, she could try running, she could find Pinkie and tell her what she had learnt, or…

Whether it was out of bravery, spite or pride, Vinyl didn’t know, but a plan began to form in her mind. Twilight’s letter had made it clear that she, as in the real her, had specified certain conditions to the game within her writings, which could be used to turn the game on Despair. Vinyl presumed the notes Twilight had written of were the ones scattered before her now, on the table in the centre of the secret room she had discovered. Beyond the desk and the stacks of paper scattered across the top of it, the room was bare but for a large computer console, no doubt where Twilight was controlling the game from.

Making up her mind, she turned away from the hidden door, and perhaps her only hope of coming out of this alive, and began sorting through the various documents. While it may have come as a surprise to most ponies, Vinyl included, she was far from dim-witted. Her parents had her well educated and she excelled in many subjects, particularly in fields of advanced technology and above all, in music. She was capable of reading through and processing huge amounts of information in a relatively short time, true she had to be well motivated to do so, but Twilight’s letter had given her enough of that to get her working quickly.

As she read, understanding began to develop as to the intricacies of the game and the circumstances that lead to it. More than that, plans began to unfold. Twilight had requested in her letter that the reader either bring an end to Despair’s schemes or pass on the knowledge to someone who could, well Vinyl was going to do both… even if it was the last thing she managed to do.

When she set the final sheet of paper down, she knew what needed to be done. It pained her greatly, it felt like she was turning her friend into a lamb for the slaughter, but after everything they had been through in the manor, she knew if there was anypony who could see this through to the end… it was Pinkie Pie.

That left only one final thing to do, she needed to pass on everything she had learnt to somepony who could take her place when she was gone, watch over and guide Pinkie to the bitter end. It needed to be somepony she trusted implicitly, but who?

The question was entirely unnecessary, there was only one pony Vinyl trusted like that, and yet throwing her into the line of fire hurt her more than the thought of what she doing to Pinkie. Vinyl sighed, she knew any argument with herself would only end one way, it had to end one way, and she was just wasting more time by drawing It out. She didn’t know where Twilight was, or what divine mercy had granted her as much time as she had already had, but that time was running out, and she needed to act.

Walking around the desk, she approached the computer console, slipping off her hoof computer as she did. She would have been bollocks’d in trying to get a message out without this, but as it was she was easily able to connect the two devices together and access Twilight’s private system, allowing her to send a message beyond the magical barriers around the manor. Vinyl knew this was the kind of message that could only be delivered face to face, so once she locked onto the correct frequency, she sent out a video chat request…

The seconds ticked by, Vinyl’s rapid heartbeat sounding like a drum in the deathly silence of the room. She was beginning to fear it wouldn’t work, that she wasn’t in the flat, that…

And the screen which was previously white with the icon of a wobbling telephone flickered to display a grey mare peering back at her, a look of confusion on her face, a cluttered apartment in the background.

“Tavi!” Vinyl exclaimed, half surprised and half relieved she was able to pick up; she had after all sent the call to their television.

“Vinyl!” Octavia replied, her eyes widening in shock, her voice disbelieving. “Vinyl, is that really you? Please tell me it’s you!”

“It is, it really is me,” Vinyl replied, laughing a little with the joy at seeing Octavia again after all this time. “Who else could hack our T.V.?”

“Oh my goodness, Vinyl…” Octavia’s eyes began to well up. “Where have you been? You’ve been missing for weeks, tell me you’re alright.”

“I… I can’t tell you that,” Vinyl said sadly, her joy at seeing her roommate evaporating when she remembered why she had called. “I’m not alright, far from it actually. That’s why I’ve called you.”

“What… What do you mean?” Octavia asked sounding confused, her voice shaking.

“I’ve been abducted,” Vinyl began; she had a lot to get through. “Along with like a dozen other ponies. We’re being kept prisoner inside this mansion by this freak who calls themselves the Mastermind. Tavi… a lot of us have already died.”

“Died…” Octravia repeated, the colour draining from her face.

“It’s all part of the game we’ve been forced to play,” Vinyl explained. “We were promised freedom if we killed another pony, and while most of us refused to… some weren’t quite as patient.”

Octavia just stared back at Vinyl in silence, as if she couldn’t comprehend what she was hearing.

“I’ve made it this far, but now my time’s up,” Vinyl stated, trying desperately not let Octavia see the fear she was feeling.

“What?! No!” Octavia screamed, her eyes welling up again even after she had managed to force her tears down the last time.

“Tavi, listen!” Vinyl interrupted with such surprising authority that Octavia did just that. “My time is up, I’m not getting out of here, I’m… I’m not coming home.”

“No…” Octavia whispered.

“But I still need your help Tavi,” Vinyl continued forcefully. “I know who’s really behind all this, I know how to stop them once and for all, and I know the only pony who can do it. I won’t be there to help them, so I need you to do it in my place.”

“Who?” Octavia asked weakly.

“Her name is Pinkie Pie,” Vinyl informed her.

A few minutes later Vinyl relayed everything she knew to Octavia, all the knowledge and instructions that would see her through the coming months. Octavia cried and begged, but Vinyl held her ground, only when all was said and done did she finally relax.

“There has to be another way,” Octavia muttered in a hopeless tone.

“There isn’t,” Vinyl replied. “It has to be this way, we have to end this once and for all, or the ponies who died here will just be the first of many more.”

Octavia nodded, sniffing loudly. Vinyl had never seen her so uncivilised in all her years of knowing the mare.

“Tavi, I need you to promise me one more thing…” Vinyl began, causing Octavia to look up once more. “Promise me that when this is all over, when you win... and you will win! I have faith in that. Promise me that you’ll live your life, that you’ll… try to find happiness somewhere else.”

“Vinyl I…” Octavia started to say.

“Promise me!” Vinyl exclaimed suddenly before wilting. “Please.”

There was a drawn out moment of silence before Octavia finally replied.

“I promise.”

Vinyl nodded gratefully. That was it, there was nothing left to be said, nothing, except…

“Tavi,” Vinyl began, her voice hesitant. “I…”

And then she was gone. The screen flickered to black, and Octavia was gone. Vinyl simply stared at the blank screen, blinking a few times before she heard it. The sound of hoofsteps, slow and purposeful, marching down the staircase to meet her.

Vinyl stood up from the console, turning to face the herald of her doom. She had been given time, more time than she expected, and she was pleased with how she used it. Proud that in her final moments she fought back, content in the knowledge that her death wouldn’t be for nothing.

Twilight Sparkle stepped around the corner, a calm, collected look on her face, the revolver she had stolen from Pinkie Pie gently hovering in front of her.

“Hello Vinyl,” she greeted, resembling the true Twilight Sparkle so much, but being something much worse. “I’m sorry I’m so late, I honestly don’t know why I delayed as long as I did. Maybe some part of me wanted to let you live.”

Vinyl didn’t react, but in her mind she gasped. Perhaps there was a little bit of the old Twilight left after all, and perhaps that bit had bought her the time she needed.

“Still, I’m here now,” Twilight continued. “And no doubt you’re bored of snooping through my things, so why don’t we step outside and do what we both know is going to happen.”

Vinyl gave a stiff nod, and began walking towards the alicorn who was smiling back at her. She hoped Twilight wouldn’t notice the tremble in her legs; she didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that Vinyl was afraid to die. When she reached the door, Twilight gave the gun a small tilt towards the stars, Vinyl took the hint and began walking, Twilight keeping a few paces behind.

Once they were out in the open of the entrance hall, Vinyl walked a few steps before turning to face Twilight again who was raising the stairs into their usual position.

“This spot good?” Vinyl asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“It’s perfect,” Twilight replied, sounding like a teacher marking a particularly well done homework. “I must say Vinyl, I’m quite glad none of the others offed you. When I started all this, I hadn’t even considered what a pivotal role you could end up playing…”

I bet you didn’t.

Vinyl resisted the urge to smirk.

“You and Pinkie have grown quite close over these past weeks,” Twilight continued. “So much so that it makes you the perfect sacrifice for bringing on, what I like to think of as the end game.”

Vinyl still didn’t respond, which was becoming increasingly difficult. She wanted to laugh in her face, to scream, to shout, or to say nothing and simply give her a smile that said ‘I totally beat you’. But she remained silent and still, it was critical that she gave nothing of her plan away; otherwise it could all come crumbling down.

“You’re surprisingly quiet,” Twilight said with a frown. “Is there really no final words you want to say?”

“I have final words,” Vinyl replied stiffly. “But they’re not for you.”

“Then by all means, think them to yourself,” Twilight suggested, pointing the revolver directly at her. “You have until I pull this trigger.”

Good luck Pinkie Pie…

Twilight pulled the trigger with her magic and the bullet exploded from the barrel and began hurtling through the air towards Vinyl Scratch’s obscured eye.

Goodbye Octavia.

Maud Pie looked down at her sister, pleased that she was finally asleep, even if it was because the doctors had drugged her. Things had been unstable since her and the other survivors had been found, as one would expect after what they had been forced to endure, Maud didn’t know if Pinkie would ever truly recover from what had happened to her. She was glad she had been allowed to see her sister, from what she heard, even her friends weren’t being allowed in.

Princess Luna had apparently put in a good word with Celestia, convincing her that Maud should be allowed to see Pinkie. Maud wondered if Luna was only doing it out of fear that Maud would reveal her secret to Celestia if she was refused access to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie hadn’t asked Maud how she got to Canterlot so soon after their recovery, so Maud didn’t have to reveal that she was actually staying in her own ward nearby, and that might have led to some awkward questions from her sister.

“I’m sorry Maud,” a voice spoke behind her.

Maud recognised it; they had conversed enough since her arrival at Canterlot.

“If we had acted sooner,” Luna continued, striding up to stand beside her, “perhaps we could have avoided this, or at the very least, saved some more lives.”

Maud didn’t reply, she wanted to be furious at Luna. She had imprisoned her inside a nightmare for weeks when she could have been out searching for Pinkie, and then when she offered Maud the chance to save her sister… it failed spectacularly.

“Is this a dream?” Maud asked suddenly, she never could be sure around the Princess of the night.

“It is,” Luna confirmed. “I levitated you up beside your sister before I came in here, I thought you’d be more comfortable.”

Maud nodded appreciatively before standing up.

“So why are you here?” she asked, turning away from the peaceful sight of her sister sleeping.

“We haven’t had a chance to discuss what happened the other day,” Luna began sternly. “Sister Dearest is of course asking questions…”

“I haven’t told her the truth,” Maud interrupted. “I just said you had to use force on me when I refused to co-operate.”

“Thank you for that,” Luna said, slightly relieved. “Still, I think we should talk about it, and this seemed like the safest place where Tia would not be able to overhear us.”

“I don’t see what there is to discuss,” Maud began, walking past Luna as the room began to dissolve and be replaced by the familiar landscape of the rock farm. “We tried something and it didn’t work. Not that it would have mattered, we acted too late to prevent any of the damage and Pinkie saved herself that very day.”

“Yes, we were very lucky in that regard,” Luna agreed walking alongside Maud who began busying herself with chores. “But still, the ritual should have worked, in fact it did work to some degree, but the effect was not what we predicted. I need to know what it was.”

“The effect was me confined to a hospital bed while a platoon of armed guards went to recover my sister,” Maud stated bitterly, pushing a stone into a pile with her muzzle.

“But the ritual was supposed to bring Pinkie to us,” Luna argued. “But all we got was two words, both undeniably crucial, it meant we were able to be there when the barriers went down and bring the survivors straight back here.”

“Well why are you talking to me about it?” Maud asked as she broke a boulder beneath her hoof. “I’m an expert in rocks, and you’re an expert in dark magic, you tell me why it didn’t work.”

Luna frowned, perhaps at being accused of being an expert in dark magic, not that she had any right to argue after what she had revealed to Maud.

“I’m bringing this up with you,” Luna continued. “Because I’d like you to watch through your memory of the ritual, see if you can’t pick up any anomalies that you missed at the time.”

Maud let out a sigh and ceased her work.

“I suppose if I have nothing better to do during this dream,” she relented, causing the rock farm to dissolve away just like the infirmary room had.

This time their surroundings were replaced with that of Luna’s own bedroom, the opulent furniture pushed back against the walls to allow the dream Luna to start marking out runes on the floor. Maud looked over to the memory of herself, standing alongside her little purple box. When Luna finished her preparations she turned to Maud, a look of urgency in her eyes.

“Remember, what we do here nopony must know of,” she instructed. “Celestia has forbidden the practice of dark magic, and must never know I still study it. Do you have your item?”

The memory Maud opened the purple box revealing a stash of colourful rock candy necklaces.

“Any one of these will do the job,” she explained. “They were all made and sent to me by Pinkie over the years.”

“And you don’t mind if one of them is destroyed during this ritual?” Luna asked.

“You can destroy them all if this bring Pinkie back to me,” Maud replied in a determined voice.

Maud watched as her past self selected a random one and stepped into the circle Luna had drawn out. She watched as Luna’s horn lit up and she began her chanting, she kept on watching even as the lights around the room began to dim and a great shadow began rising from Luna’s body. Maud remembered it all so clearly, it was hard to forget when the shadow descended upon her like a thousand needles, each one impaling her body, mind and soul.

Her past screams shook the very walls of the dream world, and Luna placed a hoof on her shoulder as if it would keep the real Maud from waking up so she didn’t have to relive that horrific experience. She saw the rock candy necklace shatter, something she hadn’t been able to see at the time, being too blinded with pain. As it did, wisps of some ethereal energy seeped out and began flowing into Maud’s body. Something about that raised a red flag in Maud’s head, but she raisied no objections, allowing the memory to continue unfolding.

“What do you see Maud?!” the memory Luna shouted over Maud’s screams. “Pinkie isn’t appearing, I’m not getting a hold of anything! Speak to me Maud, what do you see!”

Maud heard her past self try desperately to spit the words out, instead only blood started to trickle from her facial orifices. Eventually after much agonised screaming, which Maud was surprised didn’t attract the entire castle guard, the memory finally managed to utter those two words.

“Arcane… Manor!”

The memory ended, fading away to leave the pair of them standing in endless pitch black. Maud only knew what happened after from what Luna told her, she passed out, nearly died too, but Luna delivered her to the infirmary before rounding up as many guards as she could and sending them to the manor. When they arrived they found the final survivors just leaving the manor grounds, and they escorted them back to Canterlot.

“So, did you see anything unusual?” Luna asked Maud.

“Maybe,” Maud admitted. “Could you go back to when the necklace broke?”

Luna nodded and instantly the blackness was replaced once more with the memory of Luna’s bedroom, only this time it was a freeze frame of when the necklace was destroyed, the wisps flying from it on their way to Maud’s body which hung in the air.

Maud walked over to the strange wisps, as she drew nearer she began to make out shapes and colours within them. Curious, she kept walking until her eyes were almost touching the nearest one. It was like looking into a tiny photograph, showing herself standing in a vaguely familiar library talking to…

“Twilight Sparkle?” Maud announced in surprise.

She moved onto the next, seeing an image of her being introduced to Twilight. The next showed Twilight talking to her on the rock farm about their shared love for Pinkie Pie; the next showed Maud confiding in Twilight about never eating any of the necklaces Pinkie gave her.

“These are all of me and Twilight,” Maud pointed out, looking over to Luna who looked equally confused.

“That shouldn’t be the case,” Luna pointed out. “The necklace came from your sister; those memories should be of the two of you.”

“Unless…” Maud began, her eyes widening as her mistake dawned on her. “Unless I put the necklace from Twilight in with the ones from Pinkie, and that was the one I pulled out.”

Luna was completely silent for a moment as this new information sunk in.

“That could explain why nopony was summoned,” she began, more to herself than to Maud. “Twilight Sparkle was supposedly the first to die, but a body would still have been brought in that case, unless… Unless my sister really is hiding something from me.”

“Princess Luna?” Maud said, drawing the alicorn’s attention back to her.

“I’m sorry for forcing you to remember that,” Luna stated, looking directly at Maud. “One time was more than enough, but now we know what went wrong, and more…”

“So now what?” Maud asked walking over to her.

“Now I will leave you,” Luna answered. “You and your sister have been through enough. I’ll make sure you’re allowed to stay by her side until she is permitted to leave.”

“Thank you Princess,” Maud replied gratefully.

As Luna made to walk away, Maud called out one last time.

“You once told me there would be a price to pay if I agreed to go through with the ritual,” she reminded the Princess. “What was that price… since the necklace came from Twilight and not Pinkie?”

“Have you felt different at all since the ritual?” Luna asked.

“No…” Maud began to say before hesitating. “Well maybe something… have you seen a change?”

“You do seem to talk more,” Luna pointed out. “Maybe that’s Twilight’s influence.”

“You’re not suggesting I’m channelling Twilight are you?” Maud asked sarcastically before hesitating. "Are you?”

Luna looked her straight in the eye, her own widening as if she had seen something in them. She opened her mouth to respond…

Maud snapped awake, feeling something wriggling next to her. Glancing across she saw Pinkie tossing and turning in her sleep, mumbling in a distressed tone, tears fighting to break free from her closed eyes. Maud snuggled up closer to her sister, wrapping her sleeping form in a tight hug and began stroking her hair.

“It’s okay Pinkie,” Maud cooed softly. “I’m here now, and I’m not leaving you again.”

Pinkie managed to sleep peacefully with Maud watching over her, and in the morning she would ponder on how at a certain angle, Maud’s green eyes looked a little… purple.

The Grand Galloping Gala, eight months of preparation had led to this moment. Eight months of blood, sweat and tears but the long awaited night was finally upon her, and Octavia was ready to give her most spectacular performance yet. She hardly had to focus on the notes she played as she stood on the stage, it gave her time to allow her mind to wander… at least until her target showed up.

Octavia was a changed mare, she knew that, a part of her was lost the day she received that call from Vinyl, and she didn’t know if it would ever return. While things had seemed so clear at the time, she still refused to act for a few days while she waited for confirmation of Vinyl’s fate. When it finally did, under the guise of collateral damage from a failed magical experiment, Octavia fell apart. She should have begun preparations then and there, but the hurt was too raw, and instead she spent a week hidden away from the world. She didn’t eat, she didn’t socialise, she didn’t even open the curtains let alone step outside the front door.

She was content to lie down and die, saving the world be damned, it was a period of weakness she deeply ashamed of. When the mourning period finally passed and she remembered what Vinyl had died for, she threw open the door of her apartment, a blazing fire in her soul. Vinyl had used her final moments to entrust Octavia with the details of her plan, Octavia owed to her dearest friend to see that plan through, and make sure that Vinyl and all the others did not die in vain.

It began with uncovering the truth, while Vinyl had explained most of the details, there were still some parts Octavia was sketchy on. But so long as the rest of Equestria was fooled by the princesses' lie, she would have to take more radical approaches in digging up information. It was during this time Octavia truly learned to hide her emotions, to wear mask after mask until it was hard to remember the pony she had been before it began.

She engaged in many activities to get a hold of information, not all them legal. She seduced, she blackmailed, she even broke into the castle on a number of occasions. Eventually her efforts paid off, and Octavia knew every sordid little detail about the events at the Arcane Manor as well as those preceding it. Finding out what exactly had happened to Twilight Sparkle and how this ‘Despair’ tied into everything was the hardest part, the letter Vinyl had found had disappeared without a trace, and it seemed Celestia was determined to bury any evidence of what happened with her prized pupil.

Once she had all the information she needed on the past, she had to move onto the next stage of the plan, which was the difficult part… predicting the future. Vinyl had believed a second game would unfold sometime after the first, and that would be the place where Octavia had to act, where Pinkie Pie would carry out her destined role. This was especially difficult, because even once she narrowed it down to the upcoming Gala; she still had no way of infiltrating the game. Twilight Sparkle’s documents contained an in-depth list of all the ponies Pinkie had ever known half well, it was this list that the first game’s players had been drawn from, and it would almost certainly be used for the second.

But Octavia wasn’t on the list, her and Pinkie had interacted once, and it wasn’t enough to classify her for consideration it seemed. No, if left to chance Octavia would never be selected for the game, and if she wasn’t there in person she couldn’t ensure the plan went smoothly. This left one, and only one course of action…

Octavia had always had a passion for music, which anypony at the Gala could see, or hear rather. Vinyl had a great variety of talents, some of which she’d tried to pass on to her, like her affinity for technology, but Octavia lived and breathed music. Ever since she was a little filly, watching her first live performance by the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra, she felt a great sense of tranquillity, there had never been any doubt in her mind what her destiny was.

But then she learned to play herself, and she discovered something nopony could have predicted or understood. It had worried her parents, frightened her peers and distressed her teachers, so they swiftly stopped her from practicing. She cried and begged, still being young and lacking any civility, and eventually her parents relented. Terrified of having music taken away from her again, Octavia learned to suppress that part of her that wished to make itself known whenever she played, the very thing that had earned her cutie mark.

She squashed it down for so long, that eventually a part of her forgot all about it; it never truly re-emerged until she met Vinyl Scratch.

Vinyl Scratch, the one pony she was ever able to open up to and truly be herself, the one pony who knew about her secret and didn’t judge her for it, but seemed to actually like it. In Vinyl’s own words, Octavia’s ‘gift’ was ‘fuckin awesome’. Even now it brought a smile to Octavia’s face like nothing else could. Vinyl helped her accept that part of herself, but still she had never awoken it in front of anypony else… until tonight.

Octavia saw her, not quite matching the photographs she had seen, but still undoubtedly Pinkie Pie. Octavia watched her from the corner of her eye, never letting up in her playing. She saw Pinkie stop to talk to her sister, Maud Pie. Octavia had already looked into her, she was certain Maud would end up being one of the players in the upcoming game. She watched as Pinkie and her sister separated and Pinkie began making her way through the ballroom.

She was briefly bothered by a rather excitable stallion, but she quickly shook him off and continued on her way. She was walking in Octavia’s direction, presumably to get closer to the band she was playing alongside. This was her one chance, as soon as Pinkie stepped into range Octavia began…

The change was subtle, in fact to the untrained ear it was as if Octavia was still paying the same sombre piece she had been for the last several minutes. But something had changed, something that was causing ponies to stop talking and stare up at her. Pinkie didn’t seem fazed like the rest of the ponies crowded around her, they were all staring straight at her with a glazed look in their eyes, even her fellow musicians seemed a little off put by Octavia’s new style. Pinkie was looking up at her, but with more focus than the rest, she probably didn’t even hear the music over her own inner turmoil.

Octavia wasn’t bothered, sensory information was registered unconsciously, she didn’t need Pinkie to pay attention to her music, just have her stand there long enough. Octavia glanced down at her from the corner of her eye, so subtly that Pinkie wouldn’t even know for certain that she was even if she looked directly back at her. As Octavia watched, the physical world slowly began to melt away, one by one ponies in their dresses and tuxedos evaporated to be replaced with formless clouds of vibrant colour, wavering and shimmering in a sea before her.

Octavia was looking beyond the ponies corporeal bodies; she was looking directly into their souls. And there, the single soul she cared about, the one that would be her ticket into Despair’s game, and her tool to ensure they won. Pinkie Pie’s soul was smaller than the rest, shrunken and dulled down, Octavia could tell Pinkie was still suffering a lot; she was sure all the survivors' souls were in a similar state, she wondered if hers was…

Now that she could see her target stripped bare, she began to reach out with her music, watched as the strands of sound flowed out of her instrument like silk. She watched as the strands reached Pinkie’s soul and began wrapping around her, entwining and entangling her. Then when Octavia was satisfied with her work, she began weaving the other ends, allowing them to caress her own soul. The process was intricate and beautiful; Vinyl had shown her that, she didn’t know how she could ever have thought it was something to be ashamed of.

To all the ponies around her, the whole experience lasted only a few seconds. Even as the world reassembled itself around those mesmerised souls, Pinkie was already walking away from the stage, completely unaware that her and Octavia’s souls were now bound together. The second stage of the plan was complete, when Pinkie got pulled into the next game, Octavia would go with her, even Despair would not see or be able to break the connections Octavia had forged between them.

And when the game began, Octavia would use her newly formed link to aid Pinkie, she would plant notions and impulses, send her hunches and suggestions. She would be Pinkie’s guardian angel, watching her from on high and guiding her every step of the way. Together they would bring an end to Despair and his games, Equestria would be safe and all those who had lost their lives in this quest would be avenged.

Octavia stopped playing, aware that even after Pinkie had left the rest of the ponies gathered were still watching her with barely disguised apprehension.

“Noteworthy,” Octavia said looking over to the pianist. “Could you have someone take over for me? I need to take a break.”

Noteworthy nodded dumbly, still stunned by what had just happened, what he and nopony else there could comprehend. Octavia walked off the side of the stage, scanning around for a waiter. Stage two may have been ‘the hard part’, but stage three was going to be killer, Octavia was going to need a stiff drink.

With a little grunt, the unicorn lowered Pinkie’s unconscious body to the ground, making sure she wasn’t lying in any damp. Pinkie wasn’t exactly heavy, months of starving herself had seen to that, but the unicorn still struggled due to her own injuries. Once she was satisfied Pinkie would sleep comfortably, she turned her attention to the area she had brought her to.

It was a secluded little courtyard, just off the main street; it could have been cosy if not for the lack of warmth. Craning her neck to look beyond the high brick walls, she could see the dark silhouette of what used to be Canterlot Castle. It was there, lying before the great gates and the luminous clock face that she had found Pinkie, unconscious beside her sister until the unicorn spirited her away.

Looking back to her immediate surroundings, she noted the narrow iron gate that led back to the rest of the town. She hadn’t bothered to close it fully after carrying Pinkie through, nor had she taken the key. Pinkie was going to need that key for when she returned to this place, which the unicorn knew she would. She had the key specially enchanted so that only it could reveal the entrance to this place, useful for if Despair sent any of his lackeys or acolytes snooping about.

Beyond the Pegasus known as Fluttershy, the unicorn wasn’t sure which of the other players were working alongside Despair. Safer to suspect them all and leave determining their innocence to Pinkie Pie. Turning away from the gate, she looked to the final feature in the confined space, the one that would serve as her final resting place, the well.

Stepping over she leaned on the side, peering down into the overpowering darkness. Months of preparation had brought her here, and she wasn’t about to back out now. Stepping back once more, she took hold of the heavy, battered cloak that shrouded her, and pulled it off before casting it into the well.

Trixie took a long breath; she had forgotten how stuffy that thing could become. She began looking herself up and down, going over a mental checklist; she couldn’t afford to have left anything out at this late stage. She barely resembled the pony she used to be, Trixie knew that, what little of her original midnight blue fur remained was unkempt and grubby. But for the most part her body had become a miasma of scars, like she had tried to carve a very detailed map into her own flesh.

The guards and nurses at Canterlot had thought she had attempted to take her own life, that she was lucky to be alive, they were wrong on both accounts. When Trixie had done this to herself, her mind was as clear as day, every slice with the blade had been intricately thought out, planned to the letter to ensure she would live to fight another day. Since her initial carving, she had engaged in the act several more times, giving her just enough time between each so as not to bleed to death, until what began with just her legs spread to the whole of her body.

She had been set back slightly when the Canterlot guards raided her hideout and stole her materials, but despite the delay she was still ready to act when the Gala came around. Trixie stood for a moment, remembering back to those days after they had been brought back to Canterlot. She remembered how she longed for death, how she spent every waking moment either screaming and crying or deluding herself into believing she was Twilight Sparkle’s faithful student, that had been before she found the letter…

It had been a stroke of luck so brilliant she often wondered if Discord hadn’t a hand in it. If Celestia had stayed and watched, made sure that Twilight’s letter never saw the light of day, Trixie never would have been able to get hold of it. As it was, she surmised that Celestia didn’t have the strength to watch it burn, didn’t have the strength to face what she was doing, so she walked away from the fire as quickly as possible giving Trixie the perfect opportunity to rescue the letter before it was lost forever.

It was as if angels had descended from on high and bestowed Trixie with the very key to her salvation, Twilight had been innocent… well mostly, Trixie held the evidence in her hooves. More than that, she had a chance to see Twilight’s final wishes fulfilled, see to it that the one responsible for Twilight, Pinkie, herself and everypony else’s sufferings was stopped. With a clear mission and goal in her mind, Trixie was able to work quickly, sneaking away from her guards and into the Canterlot archives.

Despair was to be her opponent, and he was a spirit like Discord, so she searched for ways that had been used in the past to fight Discord, stumbling into some very dark magics she was sure Celestia would have had destroyed, had she known it was there. The prospect of what Trixie had to do was daunting, mutilating her own body with forbidden glyphs and seals that would allow her to act under Despair’s radar. At the time she had been afraid, but had soon quashed it by re-reading Twilight’s letter to remind herself what she was doing it all for.

That first time had been… unpleasant to say the least. As a result she was put under tighter security, everypony under the false impression she was trying to kill herself. It became clear she would never be able to find the peace to work on her plan while in the castle, escaping was her only option. Doing such a thing would have been difficult, but Trixie now had access to dark magic, and any qualms about using them had been cast off when she set out to avenge Twilight Sparkle.

Once she was free of Canterlot, she had all the peace she needed to begin preparations for her plan. Preparations that were set back on two occasions, the first being the raid on the abandoned farm house she was using, the second being the cellist in Canterlot. Trixie had been genuinely surprised to uncover a second of Twilight’s apostles working to defeat Despair, while it hadn’t been clear to her how this seemingly random mare had come to read Twilight’s letter she wasn’t about to complain.

True, her sudden involvement had meant a lot of rethinking for Trixie, she needed to know what this ‘Octavia’ was planning and work her own schemes around it. It wouldn’t do either of them any good to screw each other’s plan up. When she learned what Octavia was planning she had been extremely hesitant to support it. Pinkie Pie and her had grown quite close during their time in the manor she felt, leading her to her death definitely did not sit well with Trixie, even if it meant carrying out Twilight’s final wishes.

Eventually Trixie came to accept the plan, realising that Pinkie, much like herself would probably be willing to give her own life if it meant stopping Despair. With her doubts smothered, and Octavia’s own plans uncovered and learnt, Trixie got back to her own work. The dark magic she had experimented with would allow her to defy Despair, ensuring that she could infiltrate the game secretly, allowing her to place certain… items around the castle that would aid Pinkie during the game.

The first was her own medical assessment, stolen from the nice stallion who had examined her. While she was reluctant to part with it, preferring to destroy it, she relented, hiding inside the infirmary after jotting down a quick message. She needed to be vague so Despair wouldn’t uncover her meaning before Pinkie did, but she hoped writing ‘Back to the beginning’ would help Pinkie realise where Trixie was hiding out during the second game.

The next items were the book and the dagger, both left on the altar in what appeared to be a chapel. The dagger had been the very one Trixie had stolen from Celestia’s private collection in order to carve the symbols into her body, specially imbued with a deception enchantment that Trixie was sure Pinkie would make use of come the end of the game. The book was more complicated, crafted from the memories of Discord after Trixie had imprisoned him in stone. She knew Despair’s first course of action once the game began would be to try and eliminate him and the Princesses, so Trixie got in there first and saw to it that he wouldn’t be able to touch them.

The book itself would help Pinkie uncover the truth about Despair, since the letter Twilight had wrote was lost when the guards raided her hideout. Trixie made sure to lock it with a glyph, hiding the key within a picture of Twilight and her family which she would hide inside Twilight’s own house alongside the documents and plans for the games and Starswirl’s machines. Finally Trixie hid the gun inside the tower vault after Fluttershy departed with the horn. It pained Trixie to rely on the tool that killed Vinyl Scratch, whom she remembered fondly, but like the dagger, she was sure Pinkie would make good use of it.

She thought briefly of Fluttershy, the one who had been tricked into becoming Despair’s puppet. She felt sorry for her, but knew that she would just have to be one of the many sacrifices needed to bring an end to Despair. Trixie hadn’t lied when she told Fluttershy she was on the right path, many ponies were going to be hurt, herself included, but Trixie knew and accepted that a small sacrifice was better than allowing Despair to win. So many more lives were at stake than the few in this game, it was a sad fact that most of them wouldn’t live, but that was the way it had to be, their fates had been sealed when Celestia tasked Twilight with examining that horn.

Trixie let out another deep breath, everything was in order. Octavia’s plan was already in motion by the simple fact that she was here, and now Trixie could enact the final stage of her own plan. The unfortunate part about dark magic, was that so much of it required sacrifices, and while Trixie had already sacrificed flesh and blood, she still had to give life in order to unlock all the magical effects. She looked down into the well once more, knowing that when she went in she would never come back up; it was unlikely even when Canterlot was restored that anyone would discover her body.

Trixie didn’t mind though, long gone were the days when she fantasised of a state funeral in which everypony in Equestria cried for weeks on end at the loss of such a great and powerful individual. Now Trixie was content just to fade away, happy in the knowledge that her death served a role, and that in her life she had some truly wonderful friends, even if it was only towards the end. When Trixie was gone, her body would act like a magical beacon, creating an aura around this whole area that the Mastermind would not be able to pierce. It would create the perfect blind spot for Pinkie to do what she had to.

Trixie looked back once more at the unconscious form of Pinkie Pie, a rare smile appearing on her face.

“Thank you Pinkie Pie,” she whispered. “You were a good friend.”

Then, without wasting any more time, Trixie climbed up onto the edge of the well. Standing tall for just a moment on her hind legs with her forelegs spread wide, before allowing herself to fall into the abyss.

“Hey Pinks,” Vinyl Scratch said in a cool voice, a winning smile on her face. “Did ya miss me?”

Pinkie didn’t answer, just stared back. It didn’t take long before Vinyl’s smile slipped and was replaced by a frown.

“I wanted to say I was sorry,” she said in a low voice. “Before the end, you know?”

“There’s nothing be sorry about,” Pinkie tried to say, but Vinyl was quick to snap back.

“Nothing to be sorry about?!” she repeated in disbelief. “I came up with the very plan you’re enacting right now, I signed away your life like it was mine to give!”

“You did what you had to,” Pinkie replied calmly. “Maud accepted her sacrifice, and so do I.”

“What about all the rest?” Vinyl asked coolly. “Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and all the others who didn’t ask to be a part of this.”

“I know it wasn’t our right to decide who should live or die for our cause, but some lives had to be lost or it would never have worked,” Pinkie stated. “You know I’m right, you know you were right, it’s just hard to accept that something bad could actually be for the greater good.”

“I tried to tell myself that,” Vinyl responded, “when I set things in motion, that was the very excuse I used.”

Pinkie walked up and reached out with a hoof, surprised that she was able to rest it on Vinyl’s shoulder without falling through.

“Come on,” she said in a weak attempt at her old cheery voice. “I don’t have long left, I’d like to spend time with my friend before it’s all over.”

Vinyl gave a small smile before joining Pinkie in walking out of Twilight’s old house.

“So everything worked out,” Vinyl said after several minutes of silence in which the pair left the house and started navigating the side streets. “I can hardly believe it, after everything we’ve all done, in just a few short moves we’ll be able to close the book on this whole thing.”

“And we owe that to you,” Pinkie replied, hoping to cheer her up. “It was a clever plan, you can’t deny.”

Vinyl’s smile widened.

“Clever?” She repeated. “Admit it Pinkie, it was beautiful. We were completely out of our depths, fighting an enemy we stood no chance against, but we all came together, lent each other our strength and our knowledge. This plan wasn’t made by one of us alone; it took all of us, adding to it bit by bit over time.

“It all started with Twilight,” Vinyl explained. “I discovered a letter she wrote before my own death, she wrote it in the hopes that somepony would find it and be able to right the wrongs she made. Twilight may have started these games, but she was also the first to start trying to end them.”

“I know,” Pinkie said with a little smile and a nod. “Just before she died, I saw the real Twilight for a moment, the one I remembered. And I knew that if that Twilight still existed, she would help us.”

“With the information Twilight left us,” Vinyl continued. “I devised a plan that would end Despair once and for all, a plan which you now know very well. But I needed to entrust it to somepony who would be able to see it through after I was gone.”

“Octavia,” Pinkie stated, earning a nod from Vinyl. “It was the video call you sent out, I saw it on your hoof computer during the investigation into your murder, but I couldn’t tell who it was you contacted. I only realised she was your agent when I found this…”

Pinkie waved the sheets had found.

“Octavia’s name wasn’t on it,” Pinkie explained before putting them away in her saddlebags. “I already figured out how you and Trixie fitted into all this, so it was just a matter of putting the final pieces together.”

“Oh yeah, I was a bit surprised that Trixie ended up helping,” Vinyl admitted. “I never knew what to make of her, but I think it’s safe to say we wouldn’t have made it this far without her help, even if none of us knew about it. Heck, even Tavi didn’t know that Trixie was spying on her, building her own plans around the ones I passed on to Tavi.”

“I hope I get an opportunity to thank Octavia,” Pinkie said forlornly. “She risked a lot coming here.”

“I know,” Vinyl replied, now sounding miserable. “It killed me to toss her into the lion’s den like that, but she was the only one I would have trusted to look out for you. Which leads us onto our final players, a plan’s only good if it can be executed well, and I think it’s safe to say that you and Maud have done perfectly.”

They stepped out of the last alleyway onto the main street, looking up at the twisted, warped gates to the castle courtyard.

“Looks like this is my stop,” Pinkie said turning to Vinyl.

“It’s frightening, isn’t it?” Vinyl said, causing Pinkie to look at her in surprise. “You know you’re going to die, you’ve accepted it, but still you’re terrified. It was the same with me, it doesn’t matter how much you’ve planned or whether your death is for the greater good, you’ll always cling to life, but that’s just instinct I guess.”

Pinkie nodded slowly as something occurred to her.

“I never asked any of the others,” she said, her eyes fixed on the gate ahead of her as if it were the hangman’s gallows. “Is there… something after? Like an afterlife?”

“You want to know whether you’ll see us all again,” Vinyl stated, Pinkie nodded as a lump formed in her throat. “I’m afraid I can’t answer that Pinkie, I’m not exactly the real Vinyl Scratch you know.”

“I suppose,” Pinkie agreed looking over to her, only to find that she had disappeared.

Realising that she was all alone again and had no more reason to delay the inevitable; Pinkie began the slow march up the main street. Every step carried her closer to the final trial, closer to the end of the plan that had begun with Twilight and was built upon by Vinyl, Octavia and Trixie before finally ending with Maud and herself. Every step brought Pinkie closer to the end of her life, and as scared as she felt deep down, she didn’t run away, didn’t hesitate and didn’t falter. No, this was the end, and Pinkie was ready to close the book.

Author's Notes:

Second bonus chapter, intended to show how Pinkie, Twilight, Vinyl, Maud, Octavia and Trixie all worked together across the timeline of the stories to bring an end to Despair.
This is pretty much the end, so if anything still remains unclear then it was either meant to be vague or I'm not doing my job right.
Hope this sheds some light on many of the mysteries hanging over the stories... that everyone forgot about after the story was initially finished six months ago. I imagine this would have had more impact had it not been so late.