The building was barely standing as it did, completely wrecked apart by our struggle. Yet I paid no heed. I simply would not—could not—take my eyes off the ruined body of Rainbow Dash. Even though this mare I never knew, there was an eerie connection between the two of us. She was not Rainbow Dash. She has never been. The pegasus who lay in front of me was, in fact, me.

I felt a strange warmness at my hooves. I did not have to look to know what it is. The dark redness of her blood slowly fought its way through the blueish colour of the stone flooring, expanding into the sanguine pool of regret in which I now stood. My low-hanging tail was soon filled with the deathly substance, soaking up the blood of my once-friend. And I did not even care.

For worse still was my facial complexion. My decision to stab Rainbow Dash in her heart with my horn—meant only to provide a quick end to her torment—brought with it a consequence so obvious that I did not even think of it. My horn was coated with her blood, and now I could feel the drops rolling down onto my face, seeping into my hair and fur, rolling and dripping as they descended past my mouth to my chin. Such did I stand in the that empty hall, looking at my macabre piece of art, coated in blood from head to hoof.

I must have been quite a sight.

It was after several minutes of silent contemplation that I finally made my way outside, leaving the broken building behind me. Emerging from the hall at the snowy town centre glowing in the Moon's light, I began pondering upon what I should do next.

Am I to finish my task now? Am I really supposed to continue murdering in the name of a princess twice dead?

In the end, I decided to seek out the Oracle. I cared not for what manner of game she was playing—all I wanted were answers to my questions. Answers that, one way or another, she would provide. I hoped, for both our sakes, to find her in forthcoming mood.

I remembered that she spoke up for the ponies of the town back in the hall, before my battle with Rainbow Dash. The frightened crowd was asked to follow her lead outside, and so they did. It was not hard to track them down, for so many ponies in one place are bound to disturb the silence of the night. All I had to do was listen and follow the racket.

I made my way through the dark alleys and streets of the empty town, leaving a trail of red snow behind myself as I closed in on the gathering of terrified townsfolk. Yet the closer I came to them, the more the pattern of their noise worried me. It was nothing like I expected; while I thought that I would be following a disorganised cacophony of yells and screams, I instead heard a strangely orderly cycle of sounds. Brief periods of the barely audible speaking of a single mare alternated with unanimous outcries of the crowd, short yet powerful, as in response to whatever was being said.

The gathering, as I finally found, was taking place just outside the town, on a snowy plain where the Oracle stood on a small mound of earth, preaching horrible words to the gullible crowd that surrounded her. I stood back and listened to her poisonous speech. Her voice sounded nothing like I remembered from before—it was not the fragile old mare that had visited me on the train, neither was it similar to the threatening tone she took up before leaving me. Truly, the Oracle was a mare with no face and of many voices. I was eager to see what lies beneath that unholy snake-mask she so desperately clung to in all her acts.

“Do you think it is a mere coincidence that the return of the Lavender Unicorn coincides with the disappearance of the great Princess Celestia?” She asked the crowd loudly.

“No!” They responded in perfect unison.

“Then tell me: would you stand idle as parasprites destroy your crops?”

“No!” They cried out again.

“Would you let a spreading fire consume your home?”

“No!”

“Would we have been freed of the plague if even one city had gone uncleansed?”

“No!”

“Would you spare the last wolf of the pack that had devoured your foals?”

“No!”

The Oracle paused before proposing her next question. Even through her golden mask I could see a glint of satisfaction in her eyes.

“Do you believe?”

“Yes!” The crowd responded, louder than ever before.

“Will the wickedness end?”

“Yes!”

“Will the unicorns pay?”

“Yes!”

All of a sudden, the Oracle looked straight at me and lifted a hoof, directing the gaze of the rallied mob towards me.

“She is the last!”

Every single one of them turned around to look at me. In their eyes I saw as much confusion as hate. These ponies, all of whom I once knew, have probably never hurt anyone in their lives, living in the shelter and safety of their little town. Had it not been for the blood-boiling sermon of the Oracle, they would never have considered assaulting any pony. Not even me. Even like this, hyped as they were on her infuriating words, they were more afraid of me than they were angry.

The delicate balance between us hang by a thread. I was inclined to calm them down, for should a confrontation between us occur, it could only end in tragedy. A blood-drenched unicorn pushed past her breaking point against a group of simple villagers afraid for their lives. Was the outcome even a question?

“Destroy her!” The Oracle shouted from on high, demanding that the townsfolk kill me right there.

“Do not come near me.” I spoke out to them. “Step aside and you will not be harmed. I have business with the Oracle, no pony else.”

I could see some understanding looks in the crowd. Many of them longed for an excuse to stay as far away from me as possible, that much was obvious. It was only the commanding presence of the Oracle—and that of their more violent peers—that kept them from running straight home.

“Look at her!” The Oracle yelled again. “See what she has done! Rainbow Dash is gone, and it is her blood splattered on unicorn's mane!”

“Rainbow Dash made the mistake of opposing me. I had no choice but to fight her off. Stay away, and the same will not happen to you.”

The ponies in the crowd whispered quietly among themselves. For every mare backing away slowly, however, there was stallion beating his hooves against the ground in fury.

“See through her lies! Do not believe a single word she speaks! She is a unicorn, a treacherous and deceitful creature! Princess Celestia once chose to eradicate them for their very nature. Do you think that the Princess of the Sun was wrong in her decision? She must die!”

The tension in the air was nearly tangible. The crowd was drunk on the Oracle's words, and it became horrifyingly clear that I would never be able to sway them from her path. I began preparing myself to do the unspeakable—to use force to dismiss the crowd. It was just when the tension reached its peak, when the violent mob and I were about to clash, that the scene was interrupted by a strangely fortunate event.

“Aaaiiee!”

A small earther foal, a simple young colt still lacking his cutie mark rushed at me, leaving the crowd behind as he screamed at the top of his lungs. The poor thing knew not what he was doing. My heart skipped a beat as I turned my head to see the foal running at me as his terrified mother watched, undoubtedly frozen in place in shock. I realised, then, that this might be my one chance to avoid bloodshed.

With a fast spell, I lifted the colt from the ground and levitated him high in the air for all to see. The entire crowd before me took a step back and gasped in either awe or fear.

“Have you ever seen magic, citizens of Ponyville?”

I asked them, floating the terrified colt down beside me to head-level. We looked in one another's eyes. From his gaze, I could tell that he was more afraid than he's ever been. Too frightened to even scream.

“I have slain dragons and I have murdered the Princess of the Night. Have you any idea what I could do to this foal? If so much as a stray thought of hurting him crosses my mind, he is dead.”

“Let him go!” Came the terrified scream of the colt's mother as she jumped out of the crowd.

I waited before responding. I needed them to be afraid.

“Stand aside.” I commanded them coldly, ignoring the crying mare.

“Please, let him—” The mare cried out again, but I interrupted her by repeating my command.

“Stand aside.”

The mare—and all the rest—fell silent. They eyed the foal and myself up and down, frozen in their place in terror.

“I said,” I spoke again, suddenly raising my voice. “Stand aside!” I yelled powerfully, my voice bouncing off the houses behind me and the trees in the distance.

In an instant, the crowd opened up, creating a clear path to the Oracle silently watching the scene. I walked down this road they paved for me with my head held high—and the foal still floating by my side. The ponies did nothing but watch as I trotted past them.

The Oracle seemed awfully calm as well, not even trying to flee and run. She stood her ground and waited for me to walk up onto the small cliff from which she had preached. When I reached her, I pushed my nose right up against her mask. In her eyes I still saw no fear, but only a calm certainty that I had, again, done exactly as she predicted I would. Her sheer arrogance made me sick to my stomach.

“You have nowhere to run now, do you, Oracle?” I whispered.

She responded only by keeping up that satisfied gaze.

“Very well.” I tilted my head. “You will provide me with the answers I desire, one way or another.”

With that, I turned around to look at the crowd below us. I lifted the foal high again.

“Hear me, citizens.” I spoke to them. “Return to your homes. Rest easy, for I will not hurt you.”

Silence.

“And neither will I harm the foal.”

I gently put the young colt down onto the snow. Without looking back, he ran down the hill and straight into the open hooves of his mother. They came together in an unshakeable embrace, clenching each other tight as they cried in release.

“Go now, back to your village. Do not turn back.”

Thus, the crowd dispersed and the ponies scattered back into the town, returning to their homes, more than likely locking their doors behind themselves. The crisis averted, I turned back towards the Oracle. She stood still, unmoving.

“Well done, Twilie.” She said in a joking manner. “Here we, finally! I've been waiting a long time for this, you know.”

With a blast of magic, I knocked her off her hooves.

“No banter this time, Oracle.”

“Oh, here it comes!” She giggled in a foalish manner as she lay on the snow before me.

“You are such a subtle, deceitful creature. I wonder, just who are you exactly? Who lies behind that abominable mask?”

She said no word, struggling to contain her laughter, trying not to burst. I myself took a deep breath, and with a quick use of magic, I removed her mask and gazed upon the pony who wore it.

Of course.

I finally reached the punchline of the Oracle's blasphemous private joke. Oh, the delicious irony of it all!

It could not have been anyone else.

Her constantly changing moods, the madly shifting tones of her voice, the ability to see the future, appearing and disappearing at the most unlikely of times and locations. The Oracle was—and always had been—Pinkamena Diane Pie.

And I had followed her advice!

How much of my quest had been of her design? The corruption of Princess Luna, the turning of my friends and the death of Celestia. The battle of Canterlot, destined to be lost. My own trip back in time, the murder of Luna, and its horrifying results.

“If only you could see the look on your face.” She said with an innocent smile.

“Silence!” I burst out at her, delivering a powerful blow to her head.

I paused for a moment to take it all in. The pieces of the puzzle finally started falling into place. I looked at her as she still grinned in utter satisfaction.

“Yes, Pinkamena. I understand now.” I shook my head. “It was all so expertly orchestrated. You had Princess Celestia murdered, then you spread the corruption among our friends. You made sure that Canterlot will fall at the hooves of the megalomaniac Nightmare Moon and her stolen changeling army. Then you provided me with an opportunity to go back in time and murder the young Luna.”

I sighed.

“And in my wisdom, I did so.” I continued. “Except you knew exactly that by destroying that tyrant, I would only create one far worse. Princess Luna never became Nightmare Moon, dying instead a martyr at the hooves of a demonised unicorn. You created the myth of the Lavender Unicorn—the tale of my return.”

“Celestia was enraged.” She continued weaving the tale with me. “In her fury, she declared war upon the unicorns. One day, they were citizens of Equestria like any other pony—and the next, they are hunted down and murdered without question.” She smiled. “Thanks to you.”

“And thus,” I finished the story for her. “You made me become the catalyst for the extermination of my own race. Yes, Pinkie, it's all been so elegantly choreographed.”

“And you've almost got it all right, too.” She smirked. “You're wrong about one little thing, however.”

“Just what might that be?” I frowned.

“I did not spread the corruption.”

“Who did, then? Why did it happen now and not before?”

“It needed something. A nudge, if you will. Something to set it all off.”

“Go on.”

“You created a spell once. A sort of mind-link, I think you called it. It stopped working, didn't it?”

“Yes, Pinkamena. Yes it did. Ever since I visited Canterlot and saw the bound spectre of Celestia in the Chamber of Harmony, I haven't been able to use it to contact any of you. Everything fell silent.”

“Think back, Twilight! What happened before you entered the Chamber of Harmony?”

“I saw the—dear stars!” I grasped at my head in sudden revelation. “I looked upon the dead body of Celestia. That was the instant! That was when our connection was broken!”

“What did you feel, Twilie?”

“Nothing.” I paused. “Everything.”

“It's hard to put into words, isn't it? Yet its effects are clear.”

She closed her eyes and her expression became utterly plain. Under her eyelids, I saw her pupils move swiftly back and forth, up and down as if she were dreaming. Then, she started speaking quickly, so fast that I was barely able to follow.

“Twilight Sparkle is crushed and changed by the sight of her dead mentor. She does not realise it but she dies inside and she is reborn. She is no longer who she used to be. In the end the uncontrolled emotional implosion overflows and through the spell she herself created it infects all her friends connected to her mind.”

She suddenly opened her eyes, breathing in with one huge gasp. Then she looked at me and spoke again.

“I didn't spread the corruption. You did.”

I bashed at her stomach with a hoof, then proceeded to weigh down on her by standing over her body.

“Why?” I asked, leaning close to her face and looking deep into her blue eyes. “Why?” I shouted my question. “Why?!”

“It's all for you.” She replied, painfully squeezing her words out. “You are more important than you've been led to believe, Twilie. You just needed the proper, well, persuasion. To be dealt the right cards.”

“Lies!” I yelled at her, finally taking my hooves off her body, standing next to her instead. “You could not have foreseen all this!”

“Eternity is relentless, Twilie. You should know better than any other pony. You've had the opportunity to glimpse into the vast abyss of time. You saw its paths and streams trace out into the infinite!” She laid her head back onto the snow, staring up at the sky. “I can see them right now. I can always see them.”

“If that's true, how do you cope? A pony is not meant to contain such truths. Even my mind was on the brink of collapse when I gazed into the flow of history.”

“It was the generous gift of our good princess, Celestia. When she took me in, when she 'trained' me—this was what I had to endure. Over the years, my mind was, shall we say, accustomed to it. So much that I can no longer stop it.” She chuckled. “It's a mad, mad world, Twilie.”

“And so you devised this brilliant plan.” I said condescendingly. “I still don't know your reason.”

“Tell me, Twilight.” She asked innocently. “Have you ever wondered? Has it ever occurred to you that there are six Elements, but only two princesses?”

I was taken aback by the question.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Celestia is not who you think she is. She is not what you think she is.”

“Explain!” I ordered her.

“Do you remember that one time, when Discord escaped from his stone prison?” She asked nonchalantly.

“I believe I do.”

“Then can you remember what Celestia told us before we saw him? What was it that she said about the Elements?”

“That she and Luna discovered the Elements. They used them to defeat Discord. Thus, the two of them reigned over Equestria—until the corruption of Princess Luna.”

“Yes, and that is entirely true. Except she's left out a few details. Four little things, to be more exact.”

“Wait—are you implying..?”

“Yes, Twilight! Yes, she did!” She laughed. “After the six of them used the Elements and sealed Discord in stone, Celestia began her own quest. Similar to yours, in a way.”

“She killed four of the six Bearers.”

“And that's not all! She didn't just kill them, oh no. She took their Elements. You see, Twilight, she who wields all six Elements becomes the princess of both the Sun and the Moon.” She smirked. “I'll let you figure out the rest.”

I was at once reminded of my conversation with Nightmare Moon.

Were you, perhaps, sent by the others? Is this petty revenge for my sister's past deeds? Who are you, you little lavender unicorn?

So that is what she meant. Those 'others' she spoke of—they were the other four, the former comrades of Princess Luna and Celestia. The six Elements of Harmony.

“So Celestia killed the others to be able to control their Elements.” I said in understanding. “Yet even she couldn't bring herself to murder her own sister.”

“And so they agreed to rule together. 'To bring harmony to all the land,' I believe the books say.”

“The eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the Sun at dawn.” I quoted from the old tales.

“The younger brought out the Moon to begin the night.” She finished for me.

The terrible revelation rushed in on me like a gigantic tidal wave.

“Do you understand?” She asked. “Do you see it now, the monster that you serve?”

Her smug grin was wiped off her face by the impact of my hoof.

“Oh, you two are a pair!” I shouted in anger. “You and Celestia. You play with ponies' lives, their emotions, you shape them according to your design. And then you move them about like mere pawns on a board.”

“Destiny is a game, Twilie.”

“You disgust me. Both of you.”

We stared at one another for a while.

“So?” She finally asked, breaking the silence. “What now, Twilie? What now?”

“You know I'm going to kill you, Pinkie. Aren't you afraid?”

“Oh, Twilight, Twilight.” She sighed, shaking her head condescendingly. “I've seen eternity! I live and breathe in infinity! I do not fear the silence, neigh!” She chuckled at her awfully clever joke. “I welcome it. It is my ultimate reward.”

“You've always known it would end here.”

“Indeed I have. And I've made peace with the fact long ago.”

“Then tell me one more thing before I end your life. What happens afterwards? What am I to do after killing the last of my friends?”

“My death is not the end of your journey. Oh no, Twilight. Fate promises more twists before this drama unfolds completely.”

“How so?”

“My death will leave one more to take. And for that, you will go to Canterlot. You will see Celestia once more. There, in the cursed chamber of the Elements, the stage is set for the grand finale.”

“What exactly is going to happen?”

As I proposed my question, I could see the puffy tail of Pinkamena starting to bounce and twitch under the concealing rags she called clothes.

“What's that?” I asked.

“Oh, look at that!” Her face lit up in uncanny glee as she looked at it. “My tail is twitching!” She looked back at me, her face sporting a joyous smile like that of a filly before opening a birthday present. “Can you remember what that means, Twilie?”

“Humour me, Pinkie.”

“You will fall further than any pony ever has.” She grinned, her eyes bright with anticipation. She let her mouth hang open, as if she was going to laugh, yet no sound escaped her lips.

“But I already have.” I replied plainly.

With one fast pull of a spell, I tore her forked tongue from its place, leaving Pinkamena lying on her back in the snow, spewing blood around herself as she choked. Keeping her head steady—and her mouth upwards—with magic, I leaned closer to make sure she would hear me.

“As have you.”