The few Watchers that still had the need and the ability to eat had just sat down to do so. Twilight had spared some of whatever it was she normally ate, which to Rarity closely resembled- - in mouthfeel, taste, and appearance- -some horrible sludge. Seeing it immediately made her lose her appetite, and she had a sneaking suspicion that it might be made of dead ponies.

Darknight, who was across from her, was eating food that was most definitely made of dead ponies. Or rather trying to. He had only managed to take a tiny amount of soylent with him from the collapse of the Centre, and Rarity felt a pang of pity in her heart when she saw him trying to divide the one small bar of green-white material.

“Are you sure you don’t want to try some of this?” asked Rarity, pushing over the plate of fluid. She could have sworn that she saw it react as she did, as though it felt slighted by her refusal to eat it.

“I already have a hole in me,” said Darknight. “I don’t need to experience gastrointestinal collapse as well.”

“Ah. Yes. That’s the reason why I’m not eating it. I do believe I saw it wink at me at some point.”

“Do you want to know what it is?” said Pinkie Pie, leaning in uncomfortably close to Rarity. “Because I know what it is, and you’re not going to like it!”

“Wh…what is it?”

“It’s delicious!” Pinkie grabbed Rarity’s slop and with one quick motion shaped it into a perfectly decorated cupcake. It was, of course, still gray and chunky, but it at least looked like something meant to be food.

Pinkie Pie reached for it, but suddenly froze. Her entire face drained of color. At the same time, Rarity winced with a small cry. Like most ponies in Ponyville, she had a rather substantial implant that had been installed at birth somewhere at the top of her spine. It was meant to allow her to manage the intense Chaos radiation that Ponyville was saturated with. Since it had been inside her so long, she rarely noticed it- -but now it suddenly burned, and then felt like nothing at all.

Then Pinkie Pie suddenly burst out in laughter. Rarity felt her heart seem to skip and her blood run cold. Something in the sound of that laugh was wrong in a way that she could instantly and instinctively understand, but could not consciously comprehend. It was a true laugh, though. One far happier than any laugh she had ever heard- -and somehow far more terrible.

Pinkie Pie continued to laugh, her eyes looking around the room like mad, and then ran toward the door and out of the room. Rarity immediately stood up.

“Rarity?” said Darknight.

“Darknight, something’s wrong,” she said.

“Because Pinkie Pie laughed? That is not an unusual aspect of her behavior.”

“No,” said Rarity, turning to Darknight and seeing that he understood from the look on her face. “I can feel it. Something is WRONG.”

Rarity ran through the door after Pinkie Pie, and Darknight set down his pitiful portion of soylent and followed, although more slowly because of the wound in his side. The two of them passed through the large central room of before, where Rainbow Dash was walking across the floor with some difficulty.

“Hey,” she said, looking at them with visible concern on her face. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Pinkie Pie,” said Rarity. That was all she needed to say. She saw Rainbow Dash’s eyes grow wide and a look of concern- -or even fear- -cross her face. She felt it too: that something was horribly awry.

Pinkie was amazingly fast. She got ahead quickly, and Rarity should have lost her- -but she did not. Somehow she knew exactly where she was going, even if she did not know how. This resulted in her leading the group, even though Rainbow Dash- -even in her injured state- -was faster when flying.

Rarity felt her herself breathing hard as she moved on, and not because of exertion. As she progressed into the darkness of the castle and illuminated her path with the bright blue light of her horn, she felt more and more afraid as she realized that she was going deeper and deeper- -headed toward Twilight’s experimentation floor.

Then she reached it. It was the last place in all of Equestria she wanted to be, and was only thankful that she did not have to be there alone. That idea made her feel faint, the thought of being surrounded by darkness and strange horrible things. The only thing that made it tolerable was that Darknight and Rainbow Dash, as panicked as they were, were right beside her.

Even they were not alone, though. Twilight emerged from the far side, coming from her laboratory.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “You shouldn’t be down here.”

“It’s Pinkie Pie,” said Rarity hurriedly. “She came down here!”

Twilight shrugged. “Pinkie can go where she wants. I can’t really stop her. Trust me, I’ve tried.”

“No! You don’t understand! Something was wrong! Something IS wrong!”

Before Rarity could even attempt to explain, they heard the sound of laughter. Even Twilight seemed to show some sign of finding that unusual and disturbing, and she joined the others as they quickly moved toward it.

At first, Rarity thought she had lost Pinkie Pie again as the laughter faded. By this time, she had entered the hall of cells that she had seen on her “tour” of the facility before. Then she heard a low giggle that rose to shrill, manic laughter, and she looked around, confused. That was when she finally found Pinkie Pie.

She was in one of the cells. In fact, the same one that the unicorn Moondancer had been in before- -and there was a yellow circle magically projected on the glass.

“Oh no,” whispered Rarity, immediately understanding what was happening.

The others arrived, with Rainbow Dash landing and immediately approaching the glass. “Pinkie!” she cried. “What the BUCK do you think you’re doing?”

Pinkie Pie laughed again and her enormous eyes turned toward the glass. She smiled a toothy grin. “I think it’s pretty obvious, Dashie! It’s all part of the comedy! Who doesn’t love a good ROAST?”

Twilight arrived and looked in at Pinkie almost in disbelief. Her eyes then went to the yellow circle. “Oh god,” she said. “Dash, she’s activated the purge cycle!”

“What?!”

Twilight pointed at the circle as one quarter of it converted to auburn. “The purge cycle! THE DAMN PURGE CYCLE!”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes went wide, and she turned back to Pinkie. “What are you doing?!” she screamed. “Pinkie, get out of there!”

Pinkie’s laughter slowed, and with a long sight it stopped. “It finally stopped,” she said, softly.

“Pinkie! If you don’t get out of there, I’ll- -”

“The screaming. It’s finally gone. I’m finally free. I don’t have to be like this anymore…I can go at last…”

“Pinkie,” said Rarity. “You’re not making any sense!”

“No,” said Pinkie. “For once everything finally does.”

“It won’t activate,” said Darknight. “You know it can’t, Pinkie Pie. The will of the Madgod, the Chaos field- -”

“It’s collapsed!” screamed Pinkie Pie with manic glee before bursting into shrill laughter. “It COLLAPSED! Your ‘Madgod’ is dead, and I’m free! I’m finally free! I don’t have to be in pain anymore!”

The circle shifted again. Now it was half auburn. Rarity began to panic, and as she watched Pinkie gave one last smile before her hair straightened and a confused expression crossed her face. Pinkie closed her eyes, and Pinkamena opened them. She looked around, not understanding what was going on- -until she saw the circle. Then her eyes grew wide.

She ran to the front glass and put her hooves against it. “Rainbow Dash,” she said, her voice shaking. “Rainbow Dash, help me! Please! I- -I don’t want to die! Don’t let her kill me! Please, help me!”

“Don’t worry, Pinkamena!” cried Rainbow Dash. With tears in her eyes, she braced herself and began ramming herself into the glass. It bent, but did not break.

“It’s no use,” said Twilight, hurriedly. “The containment spell is already activated! The glass is unbreakable now!”

“Then shut down the damn spell!” screamed Rainbow Dash.

Twilight looked to the glass, and Rarity knew that it was already too late. Still, Twilght took a deep breath. “I can try.”

Lighting her horn, Twilight adjusted the fundamental spell that caused the cell to operate. It looked to Rarity like a tangle of translucent violet roots pulled out of the glass itself. All of them were turning and twisting, and Twilight immediately went about disconnecting some and trying to reconfigure their alignment.

That was when the circle changed to three-quarters auburn.

“TWILIGHT!” screamed Rainbow Dash.

“I’m going as fast as I can!” retorted Twilight angrily.

Rarity looked through the glass, and saw Pinkamena looking back at her. She saw the panic in her eyes, and the tears- -and then the terrifying acceptance.

Pinkamena put her hoof against the glass. “Rainbow Dash,” she said.

“Don’t worry,” said Rainbow Dash, putting both hooves against the glass. “We’re going to get you out. It’s going to be okay! You’re going to be safe!”

“No,” said Pinkamena. “No I’m not. I’m sorry, Dash.”

The circle suddenly flashed to full auburn. Pinkamena only screamed for a moment as the inside of the room erupted in flame. It was not possible for her to make a sound for longer, as the intense heat seared away her lungs in a flash. That sound, though, was burned into Rarity’s memory forever.

There was no time to look away. It all happened too fast, and yet seemed to take an eternity. Rarity was frozen, and she could not look away. She saw Pinkamena burn, her skin ripped away by the heat of the blast and the rest of her soft tissue turned to dust. Then she fell, and as the flame slowly extinguished, the skeleton that had been her friend struck the glowing stone below and shattered into charred embers.

The fire dimmed and vanished, and the ponies on the safe side of the glass just stood there. Then their silence was broken by a long, horrible scream. Rainbow Dash dropped to her knees, weeping and shrieking all at once. Rarity turned away from the window and put her face against Darknight’s shoulder. He put his hoof around her, as even he seemed to understand the loss that they had just incurred.

Twilight looked into the window for a moment, and then put the representation of the spell she was holding back into place. “I couldn’t stop it in time,” she said weakly.

“No SHIT!” screamed Rainbow Dash. She stood up and punched Twilight in the face.

“Rainbow Dash!” cried Rarity, taking a step forward. Darknight stopped her, though.

Twilight looked up as though she had ignored the blow completely. Her expression was still somber, though. “That’s not going to bring her back.”

“But it’s your FAULT! You’re supposed to be the greatest wizard in all of Equestria, aren’t you? Why didn’t you DO SOMETHING?!”

“Because I couldn’t. It’s how the spell works. Once the cycle is engaged, it’s not possible to stop it. I…” She paused. “I think she knew that. I think they both did.”

“But…but…” Rainbow Dash turned to the glass. “She- -she can’t die! She’s supposed to be immortal!”

“She is correct,” said Darknight, calmly. “The Chaos field that surrounds her should have protected her. This shouldn’t be possible.”

“There’s nothing about the Priestesses that makes them intrinsically invulnerable,” said Twilight. Her tone took a darker note. “If the Chaos field fails, they’re just ordinary ponies. Like the rest of us.”

“But the Chaos field can’t fail. Not as long as the Madgod lives.”

Twilight looked up at them. “Well, then,” she said. “If that is true, I believe we now have empirical truth that Discord has been murdered, don’t we?”