Twilight opened her eyes to a dull, lifeless room. She looked around the room and observed her surroundings. She saw many desks in neat little rows in an empty classroom. She had no idea how she got there, but her head hurt slightly. Twilight observed that huge iron gears that were attached to wooden boards. These boards barricaded the windows, allowing neither light nor sound to penetrate the loneliness that engulfed the classroom. She looked around the room and saw a note on the chalkboard: Head to the Gymnasium. She saw that the clock was stopped and no other visible soul was in this classroom. She decided to head to the gym since she may find answers there. She calmly walked out into the hallway and explored the school. She saw that the stairs leading up the second floor were blocked off by iron shutters. She eventually made her way into the gymnasium where she saw the other students.
Twilight recognized her most faithful lackey in the gym, Spike the dragon. Twilight walked over to greet him before she saw an Alicorn standing in her way with her prismatic colored mane. Twilight thought she looked familiar, but could not recognize where she had met her before. As Twilight went to say a friendly hello to Spike, she heard a chuckle of laughter from the center stage.
Popping up from behind a small podium on stage, a small black and white bear emerged. This bear was split down the middle into two colors: black and white. This seamless transition of colors extended from his head down to his small bear feet. On the white half of his face, his eye was just a black circle, making it appear button-like in fashion. On the black side of his face, however, his eye shown bright red; its shape resembling a Latin-style letter "M". On the white part of the bear, a small smile stretched across its face into the creepy, sinister grin on its black side. Upon closer inspection, the bear looked like a stuffed children's toy with its seamless transition of black to white coloring etched and weaved down its midsection. Even its belly button was engorged and out of place with a giant black letter "X" on it. However, it moved as if it were alive and ready to engage with its master. Silence befell the room as it overlooked the crowd before it began to speak.
"Upupupupu! Stand up! Bow! Good morning, you bastards! Well then, I’d like to begin an opening ceremony you’ll remember for life! To start, I have a short statement regarding your bastards’ school life from this moment on… Eh— You bastards are most certainly all geniuses filled with overflowing talent. You bring hope to the world! In order to preserve and guard that hope… You will live a communal lifestyle entirely inside this school’s walls from now on! Welcome, to Hope Peak's Academy! I am your principal, Monokuma. For those of you that are here, you all have been selected because of your super talents that have been determined as far superior than your average creature in Equestria. Now then, since most of you have introduced yourselves, I will bring the late newcomer a head-start on everyone here, so we can progress with the rules of this school faster.
Now then, the first one up is the Super High School Grappler known as Applejack, who is the orange earth pony. She is basically a stallion if she had some undercarriage swinging between her legs, upupupupu! After her is the Super High School Fashion Queen, Rarity, who is a white unicorn and a complete drama queen. She will overreact and play the victim in every scenario. My money is on her to die first. Next is the Super High School Servant, known as Spike the Dragon who is completely obedient to Twilight. He looks up to Twilight as his mother since he doesn't have any. Ooops, did I say that out loud? If you buffoons can't figure which one he is, I think this game will go rather quickly," Monokuma chortled.
"Anyway,let's continue with the Super High School Party-er known as Pinkie Pie, who is a pink earth pony and the Super High School Scaredy-Cat belongs to Fluttershy, a yellow Pegasus. You see, Twilight, Pinkie is the kind of pony to be in your personal face and be completely obnoxious about it. Not only that, but she is constantly happy and always excited. Upupupupu, however, I know your secret Pinkie, but what about your fellow classmates? As far as the scared pony Fluttershy, she is practically a doormat waiting to be skinned and placed at your feet. She's no better than a dead carcass being devoured by vultures, then being tossed aside like a pile of garbage."
"Hey, that's mean! You take it back! All of it!" shouted Pinkie Pie.
Monokuma stopped talking after she shouted...but only for a brief moment.
"Ignoring the peanut gallery, next is the Super High School Speedster known as Rainbow Dash, a blue Pegasus with a rainbow tail. She is very arrogant, but completely loyal to her friends. Pssshhh, yea, ok, we'll just have to see about that! The Super High School Dunce known as Derpy is a grey Pegasus that isn't playing with a full deck, if you catch my drift. And the Super High School Beefcake known as Snowflake is the largest white Pegasus in this gymnasium. That's it? That's all the data I have? Well, no matter, I'm sure you have some kind of secret. Then there's Vinyl Scratch, the other white unicorn with sunglasses, who is known as the Super High School DJ. She listens to dub-step music and is good friends with Octavia. After Vinyl, we have the Super High School Braggart known as Trixie. She is the blue unicorn that still thinks magicians are cool by wearing their clothing. Upupupupu, what an idiot!" laughed Monokuma.
"Hey, the Great and Powerful Trixie will not let you disrespect her like this. I don't care if you are the principal, you will taste Trixie's wrath!" she shouted. She strained herself to try and produce magic, but all her efforts were in vain.
"Upupupupu, can't use magic can we? Well, you see, for you "Unicorn" types, I drugged you while you were all unconscious. You can no longer perform any type of magical abilities at this school. If you somehow recover your magical powers, a swift punishment will be performed on you," Monokuma said jumping off the stage and walking through the students.
"Now, then, we only have five more students to go, so please refrain from your mindless interruptions. Up next is the Super High School Sadist, Gilda, the only griffon in this room. She was known for being a bully in Equestria; she even made a pony cry? Upupupu, that's delicious, way to go, Gilda! Keep up that work and you should graduate from this school in no time. Now then, after her is the Super High School Leader known as Celestia, the only Alicorn in this room. She is known for being a fearless leader and the most powerful Alicorn in all of Canterlot! I wonder how inadequate all of you must feel knowing that an Alicorn is in your presence, yet most of you will never reach her power or noble status.
The only one who has a slim chance of reaching that noble status is the Super High School Noble, Prince BlueBlood, the only white unicorn stallion here. According to the data, he's most known for being a selfish, egotistical, royal asshole. Ooohhh, I'm sweating and getting all hot and bothered by all of this despair and loathing towards him. Ah, our next contestant is the Super High School Musician known as Octavia Melody, the grey earth pony with a musical note on her flank. She's friends with DJ make-random-noises-and-call-it-music, but likes classical music as it is the only music you can feel with your soul. Well, last, but not least, is our late participant, the Super High School Bookworm, known as Twilight Sparkle. She's an egghead, a virgin, and is always studying. What a sad, pathetic life you have Twilight! Well, that being said, let me go over the-"
Monokuma was lifted into the air by Snowflake, immediately interrupting his speech.
"We aren't going to play your little game, Monokuma!" shouted Twilight.
"Yeah!" roared Snowflake as he tightened his grip around Monokuma's neck with both of his hooves.
"Upupupupu, Rule 1: No Harm to the Principal," Monokuma said as his face glowed brightly.
"Quick Snowflake, throw it away!" shouted Applejack.
Snowflake hurled the bear into the sky as an audible explosion was heard throughout the gym. Snowflake let out a sigh of relief as another black and white bear emerged from the stage and began to dance with jazz hands, taunting the entire audience.
"I'll let that be a warning to all of you. If you violate any of these rules, you'll receive a harsh punishment for your crime. Now then, onto the other rules: Rule 2: No use of magic! Any use of magic purposely or accidentally will result in punishment. Rule 3: The only way to graduate is to murder one of your fellow students without getting caught. After a murder has occurred, we will hold a classroom trial to determine the culprit. If you all guess right, the guilty party is punished for disturbing the piece. However, if you all guess wrong, then all of you will be punished and the guilty party will graduate. As far as boarding goes, your rooms will each have a placard with your name above it. Ahahahaha-ehehehehe, now then, let the murders commence! Oh, one last thing; In each of your rooms is a small tool kit, your own personal data notebook, and a random mystery item that you can use however you please! Now then, have fun!" Monokuma waved as he plunged himself into a dark hole within the stage.
"Well, I can't kill anyone. Shoot, I won't kill anyone," Applejack said stomping her hoof on the floor.
"Yeah!" roared Snowflake.
"Hmph, you simpletons bore me. Where are the servants? If this is a place where I'm forced to live, I require servants," replied Prince BlueBlood.
"A little stuck up are we? I can respect that," said Gilda.
"Look, we can't kill each other. It's just...just...not right," said Pinkie. "I mean, I couldn't kill any of you!"
"She's right, we can't go around killing each other. Why, that would just make us all just savages!," chirped Rarity.
"Well, does anyone know a way out of here? I looked around but I didn't see anything," said Trixie.
The other ponies just nodded their heads no, each one thinking of how to escape this nightmare.
"How about this? Every morning we meet in a location to discuss what we have discovered in the school?" asked Twilight.
"Where would we meet up at?" said Rainbow Dash.
"Well, I just got in here from an empty classroom, so I didn't see much. Did everyone else wake up in an empty classroom as well?" asked Twilight.
An echo of "Yes" and silent nods flooded the gymnasium.
"Wait, I saw a cafeteria with a long table for dining off to the side on my way over here!" shouted Spike. "I think we can all meet there."
"Then it's settled, we'll meet over there every morning to discuss what we've found," said Twilight.
"And who put you in charge?" demanded BlueBlood. "As I see it, royalty is the best of the best when it comes to nominating leaders. After all, we do control many different aspects of the commonfolks' lives," he said.
"Well, I think the Great and Powerful Trixie should lead this noble cause. After all, I am the most powerful unicorn with magic," Trixie boasted.
"You do realize we can't use magic anymore, right?" Spike replied with a raised eyebrow.
Trixie's face grew an immediate red and she silently sat down and just pointed her hoof at Twilight. In response, most of the other ponies just followed suit and pointed their hooves at Twilight, nominating her as the leader.
"Why are you all pointing? Do none of you have any mindset?" Gilda said with scorn in her voice.
"Look, Gilda, she did come up with the plan for a meeting place. I think she should take the lead on this cause at least," said Octavia.
"Yeah!" shouted Snowflake.
"Hmmph! Fine, but if we don't learn anything tomorrow, then we should nominate a new leader," Gilda announced as she walked out of the gym.
"Well, I never!" BlueBlood scoffed as he followed Gilda out of the gym.
"Alright, Twilight, what's the plan?" asked Spike.
"Well, what time is it?" asked Twilight.
"Uhhhh, it looks like 7:30 PM," Octavia responded, pointing her hoof at the clock near the exit.
"Oh, yea, it's wub-wub time!" shouted Vinyl as she bolted out of the room.
"Oooook, well how about we meet up tomorrow at 7 AM in the cafeteria and discuss what we've found. As far as tonight goes, we have all night," said Twilight.
"Upupupu! That would violate the rule,Twilight! Rule #3: All guests must be in their respective rooms by 2200, or for you dimwits, 10 PM! Well, I'll be watching you all! Good night, you bastards!" Monokuma announced over the loudspeaker.
"He's w-w-watching us? Eeep!" squeaked Fluttershy as she sprinted out of the gym.
"Dude, that's creepy," said Spike.
All the other ponies slowly nodded in agreement before Celestia spoke up.
"Well, for now, let's use the time we have to explore the rest of the school," she announced.
Everyone remaining in the gym nodded their heads in agreement and went off their separate ways. Twilight headed off alone to conduct her own search, as this was the way she was accustomed for seeing new surroundings. However, she would not be alone as Spike joined her.
"Hey, Twilight, mind if I tag along?" he asked with happiness.
Twilight couldn't resist saying no to him, so she meekly nodded yes as Spike jumped on her back. The duo walked through a classroom, the windows boarded up with huge, metal gears on them. Rust stained the outside as the shining silver of the gears shined brightly back at them. This classroom was the same as the one she woke up in, the writing on the chalkboard the same, everything. The font and style of the lettering, the position of the gears on the boards, even the dim lighting was all the same! She left the room and walked down the hallway to a staircase. The stairs leading up to the second floor were closed off with a huge iron shutter.
He doesn't want us to escape...it's completely futile she thought to herself.
She went back the way she came into the gym and went into the changing lockers. There were different colors of uniforms in the basket to her left. The steel iron shower heads were perfectly in a row and the drain pipes were all polished and neat. The stench of chlorine filled the room as she left the exited the gym. Twilight sighed as she turned left from the gymnasium door and walked down the hallway.
"It's odd. Everything is clean and neat. It's like someone just got done cleaning it," said Spike.
"Maybe no one uses it, but then again..." Twilight responded, her voice drifting off into nothingness.
She followed the hall until she saw another iron shutter, this one blocking off what seemed to be an incinerator in a room to her left . She shook her head and wandered down the hall encountering many other classrooms. Each classroom was an ideal copy to the one she woke up in, so she didn't know where to go. She just listlessly wandered until she saw a sign in the main lobby in the school. It showed all the various rooms on the first floor, but none on the other floors. The lighting was out for the upper floors and the rooms closed off on the first floor had question marks for the room names. The only rooms that were illuminated were: Dorms, Gym, Cafeteria, Classroom A, Classroom B, etc. She turned her head from that sign and looked down to the nurse's office. There was another sign in there, but the markings were the same. She jiggled the handle.
"Locked," she said aloud. "Fantastic, this door is also locked and closed off. What else could go wrong," she said with a frustrating grunt.
"Uhhh, Twilight, you may want to say that line again," Spike said as he pointed to the main door of the lobby.
The main door of the school was a giant vault. The red light that illuminated "LOCKED" shown brightly on the cold, steel metal door. No other way was visible of opening it. There were no hinges, no handle, nothing. Just a gray steel door with lights for "UNLOCKED" and "LOCKED".
"Me and my big mouth," she muttered under her breath.
As Twilight tried to deduce where to find the key to unlocking the door, an announcement was heard over the PA system.
"Bing-bong-bing! 10PM! Get your lazy asses back into your rooms. Sleep tight, don't let the hatchet strike!" the PA echoed throughout the school.
Twilight went back to her room where she saw a few of the other students as she stopped before her door. Spike jumped off her back and waved goodbye to her. Twilight said her goodbyes to Spike and some other ponies before seeing her door placard. The placard read Twilight in purple neon and it showed a crudely drawn stick purple pony with a horn on its head. The pony wore a sign that read "Egghead".
Is that supposed to be me? Well, let's just go to sleep, she thought to herself.
Twilight opened her door with her digital notebook by holding it near the door scanner and stepped into the room. She saw dull, white walls that encompassed her room. Immediately to her right was a large black chest armoire. The top two hinges opened wide to reveal different varieties of clothing and shoes. One dress that stuck out in her mind was a plain yellow dress with white frill that ran along its edges. In addition, there was a small pink ribbon that loosely huung over the shoulder of the dress.
Is that....no, I don't remember the last time I wore that dress she thought to herself.
The bottom two drawers of the armoire revealed emptiness, just black varnished wood. She closed the drawers of the armoire as well as the door behind her. As she rounded the corner, there was a single desk next to a painting of a boat on the wall to her left near her bed. Her bed was a single mattress with just two sheets: one for the mattress and the top sheet. Inside the small desk drawer was just a small toolkit, complete with two different kinds of screwdrivers and a hammer. She turend from her bed and saw a pink and red rug lying on the floor. To the right of it was another armoire with two big golden handles. Twilight tried to open it, but it was locked, and she didn't even know where to begin to look for a key. Twilight saw a small bleak beige door that revealed small bathroom. A small toilet and sink was on the left side of the bathroom, as a bathtub was placed on the right side of the room, making it a small, desolate enclosure. She closed the door and walked back to her bed. Twilight heaved a deep sigh before collapsing on the bed, her body weary and exhausted. Before she knew it, Twilight had fallen into a deep slumber.
The next day approached as Twilight yawned and stretched out her stiff limbs. She smacked her lips a few times before realizing something: What time was it? Twilight sprinted out of her room and into the hall. Twilight saw a clock down the hall with the small hand on the seven and the larger hand at the five tick mark. It was 7:05 AM and Twilight was late to her scheduled designation. Twilight quickly bolted back into the room to discover a small satchel next to her nightstand. She immediately threw it around her hide and headed out of her room towards the cafeteria. The thoughts of fear and tardiness ran through her mind. She arrived in the cafeteria moments later before apologizing to everyone in the room.
"I'm soooooo sorry! I was in a deep slumber, I woke up, and I-I-I amsososorry!" she hastily blurted out.
"Pffffff, ahahahaha!" laughed Vinyl. "It's cool dude, it happens! Take a seat," she said patting an empty chair next to her.
Twilight pulled the chair out and sat down, still embarrassed about being late. Twilight looked around the cafeteria to see who was all there. Applejack, Celestia, Pinkie, Spike, Rarity, Snowflake, Fluttershy, Vinyl Scratch, and Derpy were all sitting down in the cafeteria eating breakfast. The other tardy students to arrive were: Rainbow Dash, Octavia, and Trixie. The last two students to casually stroll in were Gilda and Prince BlueBlood. They both calmly sat down as Gilda's face smashed into the table out of her still being tired.
"Well, now that we're all here, did we find anything useful for escaping?" Celestia asked, sipping her tea.
"I found an old classroom with small computers and a monitor at the front of the class," Vinyl said.
"Applejack and I found that all the stairways had been completely blocked off," said Rainbow Dash.
"I saw that each classroom was identical with the iron gears on the walls. It seems whoever is in charge doesn't want us leaving. On top of that, iron absorbs sound. Any screams we produce will be nullified by these..these mechanisms," Octavia addressed casually.
"So it seems we are stuck here. Oh well, if we learn to get along-"
"Ahhhhh, you guys bore me!" the loudspeaker roared, interrupting Celestia. "Honestly, all this play nicely attitude has got to go. Well, you bastards, you get an initiative. Head to the classroom with the small computers in it. Find the CD that has your name on it, put on the headphones, and watch your tale be told on the screen. Upupupupu, I'll always be watching."
"Initiative?" asked a confused Pinkie Pie.
"Well, let's go find out what he's getting at," Celestia announced as she slammed her cup of tea on the table.
The other students baffled at her sudden burst of anger meekly followed behind her as she walked down the hallway.
"Oh, one thing..." Celestia asked as she looked behind herself, "Where is the classroom?" Celestia gave an apologetic smile and chuckled as she waited for Vinyl Scratch to take the lead.
Vinyl knew where it was so the other students just followed behind her as she guided them to the classroom. Upon entering the classroom, Twilight saw how dim the lighting was. The two lights that illuminated the room were long, worn-out halogen bulbs that hung from the ceiling. She saw the CD with "Twilight" marked in red bold lettering. She put the headphones on and inserted the CD into the computer's disk drive. After a couple of brief seconds, the machine whirred as it started to play the video on its screen. Twilight saw her parents as they both were saying how proud they were of their daughter. Her parents continued to boast about her intelligence and her undying spirit as the video went to static before revealing the nightmarish scene.
The static was on the screen briefly before it went back to Twilight's parent's house. The video feed showed Twilight's father slumped over on the floor with many deep stab wounds in his side. Twilight's mother held the knife as it slowly dripped the fresh red liquid from the end of its blade. Her mother slowly turned her head towards the camera with a deep satisfying grin on her face. Her deviant smile remained there as she started to chuckle about what she had just done, her eyes sunken deep into her skull. The feed quickly shut off, leaving Twilight covering her mouth with both of her hooves, tears streaming down her face.
It seemed the other students had witnessed something of a similar nature, each one either horrified or crying by what they had just witnessed. Celestia remained undisturbed as she sat there, motionless, deep in thought. Twilight saw that Spike was silent as he sat there, his jaw moving up and down in a speaking matter, yet words escaped his breath. It seemed an eternity had passed before the principal broke their silence. Monokuma appeared on a large projection screen in front of the classroom.
"Upupupupu! Well now, will this be enough inspiration for all of you to finally get this show started? Honestly, I do expect as least some kind of murder or crime happening within the hour! Now, then, go nuts and tear each other apart!" Monokuma grinned as he held up his sharp talons on his black paw. The screen cut out as the students just sat there, each one scared and shocked as to what would happen next.