My Little Danganronpa: Your Motive is Despair!

"Ooh, this room looks fun!" Yoyo said, tossing the doors open and bouncing in. Derpy and True Heart were following behind her.

"You've said that about three ordinary classrooms and a broom closet so far," True Heart said, though when he actually got inside he privately conceded that she might have been right about this one. The room was smaller than most of the classrooms, but filled to the brim with all kinds of knick knacks and decorations piled up on shelves. From toys to posters to full sized suits of armor, the place had almost anything a pony could think of. At the center of it all was a counter with a capsule vending machine on it. "Wait, what kind of room is this? It's nothing like I'd expect in a school."

"That's because this is no normal school," said the voice that the group had learned to hate even after only a single meeting. The ponies turned around to see Monokuma sitting on Derpy's back as she walked in.

When she saw Monokuma, Derpy shrieked and reflexively tried to buck him off, but he kept on surprisingly well, eventually quieting her down with a smack upside the head. "Quit it, you bastard, I'm about to provide important exposition!" Once she stopped, he continued. "Thank you. This room is the school shop. Since you will be living here for the rest of your lives, I figured you'll probably want to decorate your rooms and stuff. Therefore, I have invented this," he gestured to the vending machine, "The Monomono Machine! Inside each capsule is a piece of paper showing what you've won. As for money, the Monomono Machine only takes these." He reached into who-knows-where and pulled out a small bronze coin with a picture of his face on it. "This is a Monocoin. I've scattered them about the school in drawers and under tables and stuff for you to find, plus I give them out as rewards on occasion." He turned and offered the coin to Derpy. "Here, Cross-Eyes, since you made such a comfy chair, you get your first try free."

Derpy took the coin, though from the look on her face she didn't exactly like the new nickname Monokuma had come up with. She put the coin in and twisted the knob on the front, causing a little capsule to pop out. Inside was a small piece of paper bearing a picture of a star chart.

"Ooh, that's a good one," said Monokuma. "Now just look for the star chart in here, and you can take it to your room. There's a special enchantment here that prevents items from being taken by anypony other than the one who won it, by the way, so none of you better get any ideas about stealing!"

"Okay, but what if I don't want a star chart?" asked Derpy.

"Well... tough shit I guess. Maybe you could trade it to somepony, or give it as a gift? Honestly, I don't care about you all enough to really put much thought into making sure you get what you want."

"At least he's honest..." True Heart muttered.

"That sounds like so much fun!" Yoyo squealed. "It's just like collecting trading cards, except you can win stuff that's more than glorified paper!"

"I'll take the star chart if you don't want it, Ditzy. We'll just say I owe you one," True Heart said. "I'm kind of a night person, and I've always thought the stars were pretty cool."

"Alright," she nodded. "If you could get me some muffins, that'd be great. That's it on the top shelf up there, right? Let me just get it..."

As she grabbed it, however, she accidentally bumped into a VHS tape, which tipped over a framed and signed portrait of Sapphire Shores, which fell into a Cloptimus Prime action figure, which hit a Neightendo Wii, which then somewhat fittingly knocked over a replica of the Goddess's Harp from Legend of Zelda, which collided with a giant novelty domino, which fell off the shelf and hit a suit of armor, causing it to drop its sword, which fell directly onto Monokuma, slicing off a good chunk of his head. Fluff and sparks began flying out of the wound, and he collapsed.

"Oh my... I... I just killed him! Why does this keep happening to me?" Derpy cried.

"What do you mean it 'keeps happening?'" asked True Heart.

"Wait," said Yoyo, "He was the bad guy, right? So was that a good thing?"

Just then Monokuma's red M eye began to pulse, and a strange beeping began to emanate from his body, gradually getting faster and faster.

"Oh crap, that can't be good!" True Heart yelled.

Derpy was the first to react, grabbing the body and chucking it out the door. No sooner did she get it closed again than an explosion was heard from the outside.

"He was a bomb! I can't believe he was a freaking bomb!" she yelled.

"Wait, what if somepony was out there? Open the door again!" True Heart said.

She did so, revealing soot and shrapnel everywhere, but thankfully nopony caught in the blast.

Yoyo bounced with joy. "Yay! Nopony died! It would suck if I lost somepony before I got to have any real fun with them!

"Yeah, it would be awful if the first murder was committed by accident!" cried Monokuma. "Plus with two witnesses, Cross-Eyes would be in direct violation of rule 7!"

Everypony's jaws hit the floor.

"You just died!" True Heart yelled.

"Oh, that? Nah, my bodies are all artificial, the perfect marriage of magic and technology! If one breaks, another pops right up in its place." Two more Monokumas emerged from behind the shop's counter, and all three spoke at once. "I could die a thousand times and never be killed. I have literally nothing to worry about!" Each of the two new Monokumas demonstrated this by pulling out machine guns and shooting each other to pieces. Thankfully, these two didn't explode. "Keep in mind, however, that that doesn't give you license to destroy them willy nilly," continued the remaining one. "Attacking any of my bodies is still a violation of rule 5. These things cost hundreds of millions of bits apiece you know!"

"But you just destroyed two of them to prove a point that had already been made," said True Heart.

"Oh, don't you worry about that! If I get low on cash I'll just raise tuition to compensate!"

"But we never paid any tuition! And earlier you said this place had an unlimited budget!"

"Just shut up and accept my statements without question like a good student already, you bastard! Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Oh, and FYI, I figured not all of you would have the best of luck with the Monomono Machine, so if you go to your dormitories you'll each find a unique gift on your beds. I picked them out special." With a last chuckle, he disappeared.

*** *** ***

Sunset screamed in frustration, firing bolts of lightning at the vaultlike door where the entrance to the school should have been. Her lockpick spell had failed miserably, even when she was sure she'd done it perfectly. She'd even tested it on a few other doors with some success, but found that the rooms in the dormitory were somehow enchanted against picking. She hadn't quite remastered being a pony again, and many of the bolts flew wildly off target or fizzled out mid-spell.

"Damn it..." she muttered.  "First that Monokuma drags me all the way back to Equestria somehow, then my magic won't work right, and now there's no way to open this stupid door!" She bucked a nearby wall and laid down, finally too tired to fight off the day's frustration. For the first time since she settled into the human world, she was genuinely at a loss for what to do next. She needed some time to cool off and get her thoughts together. "Alright, Sunset, you can handle this... You just need to adapt, like before... maybe get a couple of willing cronies. Once you get some followers, that'll give you power, and when you have power, you can protect yourself from murderers and even possibly commit one easier, though you'd better save that for a last resort. All you need to do is find another couple ponies as easy to control as Snips and Snails were in the human world. Those morons would do anything for a pretty face."

"Did someone say 'human?'” Lyra asked, suddenly at her left. Sunset hadn't seen her come in.

"Did someone say 'pretty face'?" Frostbite said, at Sunset's right.

Sunset stood up and yelped. "H-how much did you hear?"

"I came in at 'last resort,' but didn't catch the first part of that sentence," said Lyra.

"I followed you in from the beginning, but I was too distracted  and didn't hear anything," answered Frostbite. "You have an amazing plot by the way, hence the distraction."

An instant later, a bolt of lightning coursed through him from Sunset's horn. It was a bit more intense than she intended, but those are the risks of shooting lightening when one is out of practice.

"Hey! I only deserved like half of that..." Frostbite objected before falling on his side, twitching.

Lyra looked at him with a mixture of sympathy and disdain, then wrapped a foreleg around Sunset and led her a little ways away. "So, anyway, I think I was putting my wrong hoof forward with you earlier... you mentioned a world full of humans?"

"Oh! Yeah, that's quite an interesting story," Sunset said. "And I'll be happy to tell you all about it... if you're willing to do a few things for me."

"Anything!"

"I can do a few things for ya too," offered Frostbite. "If ya get my drift."

"Take a hint!" Sunset sent a hoof into his nose. However, a second too late for Frostbite, she had another idea. "Actually... I wouldn't mind having you as a helper too." She picked him up with her levitation and set him next to Lyra so she could speak to both at once. "Listen, I've been thinking about our situation here. Monokuma seriously wants us to kill each other, and I don't think anyone wants that to happen. However, there are a lot of ponies here, and a lot of opportunities for someone to crack. As I see it, the best way to deal with this is to have someone in control, a leader, a... well, a class president, if we wanna continue Monokuma's  high-school theme. Personally, I think I would be the best candidate for that, as I do have a certain amount of experience. If the two of you will do whatever I ask to make that happen, not only will everyone be a lot safer, but you, Lyra, will get to hear about everything I learned in the human world, and you, Frostbite, will be allowed to work under the delusion that helping me will slightly boost your chances of getting some."

"Yes Ma'am!" Lyra said, standing straight up on her hind legs and saluting.

"This may be the fried brain talking, but that sounds good to me!" agreed Frostbite, slurring his speech a little.

"Alright! Now listen up, I'm going to tell you exactly how this is gonna work..."

*** *** ***

"So, seeing as you're the strongest pony I've ever seen, I was wondering: is it actually possible for somepony to use a sword as big as their own body, like in Pony Fantasy 7, or is that just a video game thing?" Button asked Bulk Biceps.

"YEAH! ... To the second part," clarified the bodybuilder as he twisted at one of the bolts attaching the metal plates to the windows.

"Oh..." Button looked like he'd just found out Santa wasn't real. "Are you really sure?"

"YEAH! ... I mean, the weight's one thing, the problem's with the leverage," he added, mentally blaming leverage for his inability to loosen the bolt as well. Bulk didn't have a lot going for him in the brains department, but most of what he did know all revolved around strength and how to apply it.

Button was more concerned about video game realism, it seemed. "I guess Monokuma already got to you. You just murdered my childhood. Well, I think that's all the windows in this room anyway. Next one I guess..."

Meanwhile, just outside, two other students were making their rounds. "This hallway... it's all normal classrooms, right?" Snowdrop asked Soarin, who was trotting beside her. The two of them had been taking a less thorough approach to exploring the school than some of the other students. Rather than figuring everything out and looking for escape routes, Soarin was helping Snowdrop memorize her way around. The only place they didn't go in were the occasional rooms they found locked, and the upper floors, the staircase to which was blocked off by a metal gate. Even though they passed over some rooms, like the Store, without realizing their significance, they were able to go through the whole school several times, cementing the routes and locations of each room in Snowdrop's memory. Fortunately, like most schools, this one had Braille signs near most of the doors. By now, Snowdrop felt she was ready to navigate on her own, and Soarin turned out to be really surprised by her capabilities. She'd only erred once or twice, and that was early on.

"It's like you've got 20/20 vision, girl!" Soarin said.

"Thank you. Really though, you don't need to feel sorry for me about anything, or worry about me. You'd be surprised at what I can still do without vision. Even my assistant Helping Hoof doesn't need to do much for me. She's mostly there to take care of the house and my brother while I'm busy sculpti- Ow!" As she was talking, Button and Bulk left their classroom, opening the door right into her face, knocking her onto her haunches.

"Oh crap! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Button said as he and Soarin rushed to help her up.

"It's alright. I was just being careless," she said. "I was just walking much too close to the wall, it's not your fault."

"Er, alright. You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, it was just a little bump," she said, smiling. In truth, the door wasn't nearly as bad as the looks of pity that she just knew they were all giving her. "Anyway, what were you two doing in there? This hallway has nothing but classrooms, right?" she said, changing the subject.

"Oh, me and Bulk here were trying to get those metal plates off the windows... well, mostly Bulk, since he's the strongest, but I'm keeping him company. It's a boring job without somepony there, and he's been at it for a couple of hours."

"YEAH!" said Bulk. "So far they're all on pretty tight though. Can't loosen any of the bolts with just my hooves."

"Oh, that's too bad..." said Snowdrop. “But you should probably try a different route. After all, you said the plates were bolted on, right? In order to remove any of the plates, all of the bolts would have to come off. Even if you got one bolt, all of the others on that window would have to be loose too, or it wouldn't matter."

If Snowdrop could have seen the look on their faces, she probably would have regretted telling them that. "W-we wasted two hours on a one in a million shot?" Button muttered.

"Well, who knows, maybe it would have worked," Soarin suggested, trying to soften the blow just a little bit.

"Definitely worth a shot," said Snowdrop, nodding. Now was her turn to pity someone, though she tried to hide it.

"Uh... YEAH!" said Bulk. "But still, I think now might be a good time for a break, right Button Mash?"

"Yeah, that sounds perfect," he said. "But since you're here, Snowdrop, I do have one question: Does being blind really give you super senses, or is that only in comic books?"

She rolled her eyes. She'd heard it all before. "Sort of. Mostly I just pay attention to my surroundings more, so my hearing sense of touch are more acute. It doesn't get anywhere near the levels you see in fiction."

Button squeaked and cringed like he'd woken up to see his mom swapping a lost tooth for a quarter. The four of them continued to talk for a while, during which time they moved on to other topics, ones which had no risk of making Button cry.

*** *** ***

"Sweet, they got a soft serve machine!" Vinyl said before dispensing the treat directly into her mouth. She, Octavia, Click Clack, and Rook had managed to find the cafeteria.

"Vinyl, stop that. You're getting your mane on the machine," said Octavia, but the way she smiled and laughed made it clear that she didn't mind her antics all too much.

Rook sighed. "What does it matter? A little stray hair never killed anybody. Such things are better left to our fellow students, it seems."

Octavia placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Rook, don't talk like that. Nopony here is mad enough to do such a thing. It's only a matter of waiting in this gilded cage until we can escape."

"And boy is it gilded! Just look at this pantry!" Vinyl said, digging through it. "They have Coke and Pepsi!" She drank some of the latter warm and straight from the bottle. "Carrying different brands of the same product shows just how much they care about our individual tastes."

"See Rook? The worst the other captives are going to do is not use a glass. I'm sure we'll all get along just fine."

He sighed. "If you say so. Though, to be honest, I get the feeling that you're jinxing yourself, saying that. You might end up first..."

"From what I've read in TVTropes, noticed through extensive reading and movie-watching, the first ones to die in fiction tend to be the black guys, actually. So by that logic the first would be you or Zihiri, depending on how one interprets black in the ponyverse. Plus with the way you've gone on about how death is inevitable, you might be the one jinxing yourself," Click added.

"No, my pessimism will cause me to somehow survive the whole ordeal, albeit with severe PTSD, giving me even more severe depression than I have now. That's how irony works." Click knew due to creating the character had a hunch that that was Rook's warped way of hoping to survive.

"Come on you two! Ironic twists don't happen in real life! What do you think this is, some cheap amateur fanfiction?" said Octavia.

"Yeah, if that were the case, Octi and I would be back in one of our rooms, making sweet, lovely music together," added Vinyl. "Wait... Come to think of it, that actually sounds like a good idea! Er... In the literal sense, I mean: checking out our rooms and maybe doing some songs later. Come on, let's go!"

"What? But what about investigating the school?"

"We're still doing that, just focusing more closely on our rooms," she bounded to the door, practically dragging Octavia behind her. "Click, Rook, ya coming?" she called back.

"I suppose so I might as well see where I'll be doing most of my brooding for the duration of my stay," Rook said, following slowly.

Click seemed a bit stunned at first. "... Amateur?" he said with teary eyes. Whatever it was though, he got over it and followed them.

They soon arrived at the dormitories, where they saw Featherweight ringing the doorbell to one of the doors, which bore a nameplate for 'Zihiri,' as well as a pixel art portrait of her. "Come on! You can't just lock yourself in there forever! What are you hiding? You can't keep secrets from the Ultimate Investigative Reporter! The truth will be revealed!!"

Octavia approached him and pulled him away. "Featherweight, let her be. If she doesn't want to talk, she doesn't have to. This is a very stressful environment and making it worse on her won't help anypony."

"But it's so suspicious!" He pulled at his mane. "What if she's in there chatting it up with Monokuma, or Discord, or Nightmare Moon?"

"Featherweight, Princess Luna turned good again."

"Yeah, that's the official story."

Octavia rolled her eyes. "Well, all that aside, clearly Zihiri's not answering her door. Poor thing's probably terrified... Come on, it would be much better to check out our own rooms."

Yoyo appeared seemingly out of howhere behind them. True Heart and Derpy were following behind her, though at a much more relaxed pace. "Oh, did you guys come to see that too?" Yoyo asked Octavia. "Monokuma said he put some cool, fun stuff in our rooms for us! I hope mine has a disco ball, or a party ball, or a yoga ball, or a party-disco-yoga ball that can be all three at once! Oh my gosh I can't wait to see!" She zipped away to her room as soon as she appeared.

"Wait... Why a yoga ball?" Octavia pondered.

"Yoga balls are fun," said Vinyl as she passed by on the way to her own room. "At least if you use them for anything but yoga."

Octavia just shrugged and went to investigate her room. Featherweight looked uncomfortable leaving Zihiri's supposed evil machinations unchecked, but eventually followed Octavia's example, conceding that there was nothing he could do about it now.

Each room was identical in layout, with a table, a chair, a bed, a nightstand, a wardrobe, and a personal bathroom with little more than a toilet, sink, and shower. Each wardrobe contained a few sets of clothes, mainly school uniforms but there were a few more unique garments for the ponies to change their styles a bit. The most significant thing in each room though were the little presents left on the foot of each bed: individualized gifts for each pony, with little red bows placed on each.

"Yahoo!" Yoyo squealed as she ran out of her room. I got a Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Pony set!" She bounded out of the room, holding a fake tail.

"He gave me a laptop," said Click Clack. "But I think it's only got a word processor on it. Funny thing is it's really heavy for something with such minor software."

Rook stepped out of his room, looking disappointed. "He gave me a bunch of razor blades. Ha. Ha."

Octavia came out, holding the bow to a cello and looking rather irritated. "I think I can see why we all got what we did." She took the bow and jammed it into one of the walls: the end of it had been sharpened to the point that it penetrated easily. "These things are thinly disguised murder weapons."

Her theory ended up proving true for all of Monokuma's gifts: Yoyo's pins were far longer and sharper than were necessary for her game, but just right for stabbing; Click Clack's laptop as well as Vinyl's and True Heart's gifts (a portable synthesizer and a telescope, respectively) were all given hard, sharp edges and meant to be swung at ponies; Derpy's weapon was a miniature oven, the kind meant as a toy for fillies, but it was so full of sharp metal parts that it may as well have been a knife set; the application of Rook's razors was obvious; lastly, Featherweight had for some odd reason received a sharpened screwdriver. Obviously the other ponies had probably all received things in the same vein.

"So, what do we do with this stuff then?" asked Derpy. "Get rid of it?"

"I don't think we need to do that," said Click. "After all, would you throw away all of you kitchen knives on the off chance that they might be used for murder? This stuff is still useful for their normal purposes too. Besides, all the precautions in the world won't change the genre of this fic  stop a determined murderer. What's really important is that we all trust each other and peacefully wait for a rescue."

"I agree," said Octavia. "Anyway, we should be heading back now. It's almost eleven."

"What about Zihiri?" asked Rook. "She wasn't there to hear you tell us when to regroup. She is alone, isolated from the simple social interactions that we all so callously take for granted. Even now, she gradually falls into despair until a murderous escape becomes the only solution she can see..."

"There's not much we can do about her now. Let's just wait until we get a chance to speak to her again and make sure she feels welcome."

With that, she led the group back to the gym. The only one apart from the group was Featherweight, who lagged behind a bit, smiling thoughtfully as he looked over his screwdriver...

*** *** ***

Once 11:00 arrived, everypony aside from Zihiri reunited in the auditorium to review what they'd found.

Sunset, eagerly taking the initiative, started the conversation. "I combed over every possible escape. There was a big vault door where I would expect the exit, but there's no way to open it, and it was immune to lockpicking magic. Everything else was a dead end. However, I did find out that the dormitory rooms can't be picked either, so we can at least feel safe in there."

"Me and Bulk Biceps tried to find a way out too... kinda," said Button. "We tried getting the plates off the windows. It didn't pan out."

"But in order for that to work, all of the bolts would have to be-"

"We know that now!" Button said, nipping that line of thought in the bud.

"Snowdrop and I focused more on mapping the place out. It's exactly what you'd expect in a school, lots of classrooms and bathrooms in every hallway. A few of the rooms were locked, like the storage room, the nurse's office, and these strange red double doors. There was also staircase that was blocked off with a metal gate. Did you see that too?" Soarin asked Sunset.

"Yes. Again, couldn't pick the lock on any of those, or even teleport past them."

"I suppose whoever's controlling Monokuma must be in one of those places..." mused True Heart.

"Wait, 'controlling Monokuma?'" Octavia asked.

"Oh! Yeah, we forgot to tell you. Yoyo, Ditzy, and I met Monokuma again. Ditzy accidentally destroyed him, but it turned out that his body was basically a glorified toy. A new Monokuma jumped right out to take his place. Somepony is controlling him from behind the scenes, and whoever they are, they have some serious magical ability, not to mention they're obviously rich if they can afford this place and all those Monokumas."

Featherweight stomped a hoof "I knew it! Magic, money, this has the Templars written all over it!"

"Um... I think you've been playing too much Assassin's Creed. That means a lot coming from me," said Button Mash.

"That game was made to inspire just that kind of thought. 'It's just a game, it isn't real.' But just replace 'Abstercolt' with 'Canterlot Medical Inc.' and you start to notice a lot of strange coincidences."

"Uh, moving on," said True Heart. "We also found a few other things. Namely, there's a machine here that gives you things if you put these little Monocoins into it. Some of the prizes looked kinda cool, but they're given randomly and a lot of them are the kind of thing that only have niche appeal."

"And we got stuff in our rooms," interrupted Yoyo. "They're a little better because they're meant specifically for us. The thing is they were all meant to be usable as murder weapons."

"I see... Well we have to get rid of them then," said Sunset.

"I don't think so," said Octavia. "Mine was a cello that had the bow sharpened. I can just file that down, and most of the other stuff is only dangerous if you really try. Like Click said earlier, you may as well destroy all the kitchen knives."

The two mares locked eyes for a moment. Octavia did her best to smile and look friendly, but Sunset had marked her rival, and nothing could change that. Already she was thinking of ways to top what she did to Rarity at the last Fall Formal.

Click Clack sensed her emotion and got between them. "So anyway, the only other thing to talk about is the cafeteria. Basically it's just like any school cafeteria, except we have to make the food ourselves. Fortunately they have everything we could ever need there, so no worries about variety."

"Yeah. Incidentally, if we ever meet up again, let's do it there," said Vinyl. "They have chairs, and more importantly, ice cream."

"Alright, but there's a few things I think we might as well discuss now, while we're here," interrupted Lyra, eager to put Sunset's plan into action.

Frostbite perked up. What he wanted to say wasn't related to Sunset, but he felt he might as well test the water for his own adjenda.  "Like a breeding program? Because we really do need a backup plan in case we really are trapped forever, and-"

Lyra offhoofedly punched him in the face. "I'm talking about leadership. I think we need to elect somepony to be in charge. Monokuma is trying to coerce us into killing each other after all, so I think we need somepony we can all rally around and who can keep us organized. They could probably lay down some ground rules too, maybe in regards to sexually suggestive language," she gestured toward Frostbite. Sunset hadn't told her to add that part, but Lyra figured a bit of improvisation wouldn't hurt. From the approving look her new boss was giving her, it seemed Lyra had figured right.

Before anypony could respond, Monokuma crashed the party yet again. "An excellent suggestion! Clearly what you kids need is a Class President! And yes, I was listening in on everything you were saying!" He gave a subtle sideways glace at Sunset and Lyra. "A Class President... what a unique twist! Just think of the possibilities! You have my wholehearted support!"

Featherweight yelled back up at Monokuma, "Well, now that you're in favor, I for one think it sounds a lot less appealing."

"Well, too bad!" Monokuma roared. "Because I happen to like this new idea! In fact, I'm adding a new rule!"

9. A Class President must be elected for this class by the end of the third day of school, and all students must vote. The Class President will have the ability to create rules and set punishments for breaking those rules. The Headmaster will assist in dealing punishments, however it is the President's responsibility to investigate whether or not their rules were broken at all. Also, the President may not make any rule or punishment which will directly result in the death of another student.

"There! Now hurry up and nominate a couple of ponies so I can subject you all to the despair inducing experience of politics." He seemed to be relishing the idea.

"So... I guess my suggestion is getting a little more traction than I expected..." said Lyra.

Rook sighed. "Such irony. An attempt to pave a road to peace and safety twisted by a devil's whim into a path of assured disaster."

Soarin just shrugged. "Hey, he's only forcing us to elect a leader, it's not like he's forcing us to elect a bad one, even if he wants us to."

"You say that now, but you forget about the lack of limits Monokuma gave. To bear the weight of unlimited power is to set your very soul on the precipice. The greatest of saints cannot avoid having their hearts defiled by the acquisition of power. What hope do us common wretches have? We cannot hope for a good leader, but merely a lenient tyrant."

Now Frostbite took his turn to help Sunset. "Aw, don't be so melodramatic. We'll just elect somepony who doesn't want all that power! And the best way to do that is to pick them at random." He pointed to Button Mash, then started counting around the room clockwise. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a griffon by the toe..." He went around the whole room until he finally stopped on Sunset Shimmer. "Her. She'll do just fine." He mentally chuckled over his trick. Figuring who to start with to make sure he ended on Sunset was easy, especially for someone with a head for math like his.

"Me? Well, I guess I could. I do have a little bit of experience from back at my old school," Sunset said, putting on the perfect mask.

"Actually," Vinyl interrupted. "I think the best way to do it would be to pick somepony we know we can trust. The only two ponies here who knew each other really well before today are me and Octavia, and I can say that Octavia is one of the best friends I've had. I'd trust her with anything. Besides, if we're looking for somepony who doesn't want power, shouldn't we remember that she was asking us to all follow her earlier?"

"Oh, well, that was just me trying to be protective. I was part of the Student Safety Team back at my old school, plus I worked as a counselor's assistant at summer camp last year," Sunset lied. She didn't even know what a 'Student Safety Team' would actually do, assuming one really existed somewhere.

"You know, I think it would be better to choose somepony based on what they planned to do more than anything else," suggested Button.

"A very good point," agreed Frostbite. "Sunset, if you were elected president, what would you do? Aside from look gorgeous, that is."

She gave a faux-modest look. "Well, just a few basic things. I'd probably make sure everyone knows where everyone else is, so no one can go off and secretly commit murder, and we'll keep a closer eye on all the weapons. You know, common sense stuff."

"I don't know if that's necessary," said Octavia. "We're all sensible ponies, and giving up privacy and access to potentially useful tools isn't going to help us at all. Whoever the President is probably shouldn't use their power except in an emergency. I think Monokuma is just trying to make us stress ourselves out with an extra source of rules."

Vinyl thrust a hoof into the air. "Yeah! No rules, no regulations! That's not what I expected from you, Octi, but I like the way it sounds! Now I can vote for you for more reasons than just friendship!"

"Wha- uh... I never said I was going to run myself..." Octavia protested, but Vinyl wouldn't have any of it.

"Come on, Octi, you know you'd be great."

"But I..."

"Come on," she said, politely but annoyingly.

"Bu-"

"Come oooooonnnn!"

"Okay, fine," she said. She'd learned years ago that Vinyl could keep that up for hours. "If I can lead my band, I can lead us, I suppose," Octavia said, sounding a bit more confidant then even she expected of herself.

Sunset's eye twitched ever so slightly before returning to her sweet, sincere look. "But how do we know the others are as sensible as you think they are? We need to be as sure as possible if our lives are at stake."

The rest of the ponies began murmuring between themselves. It was a freedom/security conflict straight out of a philosophy textbook.

"Well, I think it's safe to say we have our candidates!" declared Monokuma. "Then it's settled. In three days, one of these young mares will be your class president! Choose carefully now! In the meantime, I need to start working on something for the election. Bye-bye!" With that, he vanished again.

"Ugh, I don't think I've ever hated someone this much... "Octavia shuddered.

"Hmph. That's one thing we agree on at least," said Sunset.

Before anyone else could comment on the situation, a loud gurgling noise echoed throughout the room. Everyone instinctively turned to the source, a certain Wonderbolt, who placed his hoof over his stomach, embarrassed. "I haven't eaten all day," he admitted.

"Oh yeah, me neither. I guess we have three days to think about electing somepony. Didn't somepony mention a cafeteria?" asked Button Mash.

"Oh yeah! I'm kinda thirsty too, hey, Vinyl, did you say they had Coke or Pepsi back there? I forgot and I'm too lazy to scroll back up to see what I wrote about that." Click asked.

"Both, but that's just the big two. They had Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Sprite..."

"Pibb Xtra?"

"Yup, I think so."

"Why are we not there right now?"

"Sounds good to me. Besides, I owe Derpy some muffins," said True Heart.

"YEAH!" By now I shouldn't have to tell you who said that.

The group soon departed to the cafeteria, the topic of a Class President set aside for the moment. Only Sunset Shimmer refused to let it leave her mind.

*** *** ***

Zihiri too was beginning to feel pangs of hunger, but she chose to ignore them, at least for a little bit. She could eat later; now, she only wanted to learn.

Zihiri was a markedly introverted zebra. She didn't have any friends outside of Hope's Peak Academy, and she didn't care one way or the other if it turned out any different inside. All she needed normally was a quiet place to practice her craft, or at the very least read a good book. As it happened, immediately upon entering her room she'd found a very interesting little tome resting on her bed...