My Little Danganronpa: Your Motive is Despair!

Before long, every student was gathered in the gym around the body. The only one missing, for whatever reason, was Button Mash. At first Vinyl had only been able to find Octavia and a few other students who came when they heard her screaming, but once she brought them back to the gym, Monokuma had made an announcement.

*Ding dong, bing bong*

"A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin!"

After that, the other students came from wherever they were in the school, and were able to find the rest of the group.

"Wow! I can't believe it! He's really dead?" Yoyo said when she saw the body. "Alas, poor Yorclick! I knew him, Frostbite." Frostbite gave her a 'now's not the time' glare.

Rook could barely stand he was so distraught. "I knew it... it was only a matter of time. Soon everyone will be trying to kill before they meet their demise themselves, and we will fall into anarchy..."

"This... this is... dammit! Are you telling me we couldn't last one fucking week?" Sunset yelled.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up!" Monokuma's voice echoed through the room. "It was bound to happen sooner or later." The students turned and saw him standing on his podium, like he had on the first day.

"Monokuma! What happened here! Tell us right now!" Octavia shouted furiously. "Are you the one responsible for this?"

"What? Me?" Monokuma gave an innocent look. "Of course not. The rules only allow for students to kill one another. I can't dirty my little paws unless someone breaks a rule, and Clicky didn't do anything like that. However, I was watching the murder on my cameras, and I saw plain as day that it was one of you students that did it."

"It was Button Mash, wasn't it?" asked Featherweight. "A murderer becomes -what was that word you made up for it? - 'blackened,' and gets set free. He's not here right now, so you must have let him go, right?"

"What? You think it's that simple? That all you need to do was become blackened?" Monokuma burst into laughter. "Look at the rule again, dum-dum!"

7. Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.

"You're forgetting the second part: 'unless they are discovered.' And you all haven't even gotten the chance to prove his guilt!" Monokuma pointed out. "Not that I'm saying whether Button's guilty or not. I don't know why he hasn't shown up yet."

"I see. Then that's what you meant in that announcement when you mentioned a 'class trial.'" observed Sunset. "You want us to solve the crime."

"Bingo! You identify the blackened, and I'll execute them for ya and get revenge on your poor friend Click Clack."

Yoyo actually smiled. "I see, it's a game! It's just like Hide-and-Seek, and 'blackened' is the word for 'it!'"

"Yoyo, have you ever actually played Hide-and-Seek? Or do you just need a refresher course on the rules?" asked Soarin.

"But why should we play your game at all?" Zihiri asked Monokuma curiously. She was wearing the trenchcoat from the day before, though rather than using the sleeves, she'd used her brooch to fasten it around her neck like a cape. "Suppose we do not care for revenge, then what's in it for us? What if we choose not to entertain your demands even if it means letting the blackened get away?"

"Well, you could if you want to, I suppose..." Monokuma mused. "Of course you wouldn't live that long if you did. After all, if you can't catch the perp, I'll have no choice but to execute the rest of you instead."

"What?" Zihiri gasped. The rest of the students all reacted likewise.

"You never said everypony had to die, just the one victim!" Derpy accused.

"Well, I didn't say it, but it was heavily implied." Monokuma said casually.

"No it wasn't! You just completely pulled that out of your ass!" Vinyl yelled.

"I get it," said Sunset. "You didn't tell us that until now because you wanted to make it easier for somepony to give in and commit murder. Sacrificing one life to save your whole family... it almost sounds reasonable, right? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. But killing fifteen? I don't think anypony here had that many others relying on them. Am I on the right track?"

Monokuma scratched his head. "Wow... that's a brilliant idea! Er- I mean yes, that was exactly what I planned, hence its brilliance! Regardless, if you guys wanna see tomorrow, you'd better start looking for evidence before the class trial starts! Here, just to show you I'm not completely against you, I'll even get you started. This is your first piece of evidence: the Monokuma File!" He held up a black folder marked with a 1. "This contains all the information I can give you about Click Clack's death!"

Monokuma File 1: The victim was Click Clack. The time of death is estimated to be sometime between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. The body was discovered in front of the voting booth in the gymnasium. The cause of death was a single blow to the top and back of the skull, behind the right ear. The victim's  shoulder was also completely shattered.

He passed out a copy of the Monokuma File to each one of the students. "Well, that's all for me until the class trial starts. Happy investigating!" Monokuma said before disappearing again.

"I can't believe this is happening..." Snowdrop said, on the verge of tears.

"I know, it's utterly horrible, but we have no choice in the matter. We'll just have to figure it out and hope this doesn't happen again. Let's check the scene of the crime first," Sunset said, making a beeline for the voting booth.

The floor in front of the booth, as well as a good portion of the inside, was covered with Click's blood. This kept most of the other students away, but Sunset decided that there was no alternative but to risk getting her hooves a dirty. Lyra was the only other one to get close, standing on her hind legs to minimize contact.

The second Sunset stepped inside, she saw that something was odd. The first thing she noticed was a foam sword dangling in front of her. She looked up and saw it duct taped by the handle to a trombone that somepony had laid across the booth's roofless walls. It was set up so that when someone opened the door, the door would push the sword, moving the trombone forward. The second thing she noticed was a bowling ball that had rolled into the front corner of the booth.

"I get it...!" Lyra said, looking in over her shoulder. "It's the bucket of water above the door trick. They wedged the bowling ball between the trombone and the front board of the voting booth. When Click opened the door, it fell on him!"

"That sounds about right..." said Sunset. "Of course, if Click had opened the door with magic like a normal unicorn, this wouldn't have worked, but clearly the blackened's gamble paid off."

She levitated the trombone down and examined it more closely... that's when she saw something stuck in the duct tape, a piece of dead-givaway evidence.

Lyra gasped, but before she could go out and tell the others, Sunset stopped her. "Don't say anything just yet," she said, subtly moving the evidence into her saddlebags. "Trust me on this."

She looked at her oddly, but decided to bear with her for the time being.

Sunset levitated the trap pieces out of the voting booth and set them on a clean area of the ground before explaining her deductions to the other students.

"Those are some of the things I got from the Monomono Machine," Bulk said, pointing to the murder weapons. When some other ponies looked toward him he immediately clarified, "Not that I did it or anything. I was putting all of them in one of the classrooms, remember? And I told plenty of ponies where they were, so anypony could have went in and took them."

"That's true. Maybe the culprit left some evidence in there," True Heart suggested. "Somepony should go check. I'll do it."

"Take someone else with you. Remember, one of us can't be trusted, so when we search anywhere, we need to be at least in pairs, probably more, so they don't tamper with any evidence," said Sunset.

"Fair enough. Ditzy, wanna come?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, okay..." she said, shaking.

"I'll go too, since I know that room pretty well," said Bulk.

"Count me in too," said Frostbite.

"Other than that, the room that'll likely have the most evidence in it is this one. I'll stay here and search some more, I'm still not sure we have all the pieces to this..." said Octavia.

"I'll stay as well. Click was one of the ponies here I got along better with here, I might as well stand vigil over him while I wait for the investigation to fail and my life to end," Rook said.

"Dude, not a cool way to think right now," said Vinyl. "Anyway, what else is there to do? Whatever my job is, I don't want it to be in this room."

"It's possible that the culprit hid some evidence in their room thinking it was safe. You can come check there with me," said Featherweight. "But I want Zihiri to come too, so I can keep a closer eye on her. After all, letting a murderer get away with their crime... odd suggestion, isn't it?"

"I simply meant that we should refuse to let Monokuma command us further, but if you want my company, you shall have it."

"Aww, you guys are digging through everyone's drawers? I picked the wrong group..." muttered Frostbite.

"I wanna go look for Spinny-Head, (That's my nickname for Button, cuz of the hat)," said Yoyo. "Whatever he's been doing must be fun to keep him away from a murder mystery game!"

"I should do that too," said Snowdrop. "I might be able to hear him if he's nearby."

"Me too. I'm worried about him, what if he was a witness and the blackened killed him to keep him quiet?" added Soarin.

"I guess I will too," said Soarin. "That's the thing that's bugging me the most here."

"Alright then. That just leaves me and Lyra. We'll go wash this blood off our hooves, then meet up with the ones searching the rooms, since they have the most ground to cover. Everyone else, give Featherweight your room keys. Soarin, when your group finds Button, get his key too and bring it to us. Alright, let's move out!"

*** *** ***

"So Sunset, why didn't you show anypony the thing?" Lyra asked, once the two were out of earshot of the rest of the group.

"I'll let everyone know, when the time comes," said Sunset. "But first I want to see what the other students can do. I mean, what if a second murder happens? I'd rest a lot easier knowing if the others were capable investigators." Or incapable, should I choose to be the next blackened, she thought to herself.

She reached the nearest mare's bathroom and walked in to wash her hooves off, with Lyra following right behind.

*** *** ***

"So, you see anything that sticks out?" Rook asked Octavia as she looked over the pieces of the trap.

She didn't know what exactly she was looking for, so she took in everything, though nothing seemed to jump out at her. "Nothing at the moment... I mean, something does seem strange, but I can't quite place it..." Octavia answered.

First she looked at the bowling ball. It was blue, marked as 14 pounds, and it looked brand new aside from a small scratch (most likely from when it hit the ground) and a small red spot from where it had been touching the bloody floor. There were also three holes in it, but she'd seen them on other bowling balls before, not that she knew what purpose they could possibly serve.

Next she went to examine the trombone and sword. Carefully, she unwrapped the tape from the two and looked over it on its own. She'd hoped that she could find a hair or something stuck to it, but no such luck.

The sword was made of firm, stiff foam, but had a hard inner core. It was about three feet long and had a handle that was made from a soft material meant to be easy on a wielder's teeth. The whole thing was dark grey. "That's the kind used for Live Action Role Playing," pointed out Rook. "I have some friends back home who were into it. It's a lot sturdier than the ones you find at foals' toy stores."

Next she examined the trombone. Regardless of her specialty, she was familiar with most common musical instruments and knew enough to see that there wasn't anything structurally unordinary about this one. The sword had been taped between the slide braces, and there was a small scratch on the bell, which was probably where the bowling ball had been leaning. There were also scratches on the main slide and tuning slide from where it had scraped against the boards from the voting booth.

"Figured anything out?" Rook asked.

"Nothing in particular..." Octavia sighed. "How they did it is clear, but who it was is impossible to figure out from just this... Maybe we could check the body?"

"We might as well. Perhaps a friendly touch will be good for Click's restless spirit."

"I want to look at that shoulder, at least. It was the only thing on the body besides the head injury."

"I'll do it. The better to avoid more contact with blood," Rook said, eyeing the trail that Lyra and Sunset had left on their way out.

He hovered above Click's body and carefully examined his shoulder. Fortunately, Click was lying on his right side and the broken shoulder was on his left, so it wasn't in his blood.

It was instantly clear that the shoulder was broken. There was a huge lump where a bone fragment was protruding, but nothing had broken the skin. When Rook parted the fur out of the way, the entire area was horrifically discolored by internal bleeding. He wasn't an expert by any stretch, but he reported everything he saw to Octavia to the best of his abilities.

"I see... I'm really hoping that the others find more evidence, because this isn't helping much at all," Octavia said. "Curse that bear! First he forces one of us to commit murder, then he expects the rest, with no training, to figure out who! Nothing about this is fair!"

"It certainly isn't," Rook said. "But when is life ever?"

*** *** ***

"Stay in the air here, Snowdrop. Sunset and Lyra got blood everywhere on their way down here," Soarin said as he escorted Snowdrop and Yoyo through the hallway. The Unicorns had been so messy that a couple of drops splashed in front of the stallions' bathroom, and there was even a dainty little hoofprint on the mare's bathroom door.

Speaking of the bathrooms, the group only had to go that far before finding Button. "He's in there." Snowdrop said, pointing to the stallions' bathroom. "I can hear the music from that game thing of his. I think it's actually a remake of a tune from one I heard Luna playing one time."

When Soarin and Yoyo listened in too, they could hear it as well. It was quiet, but definitely there.

"He's been in the bathroom this whole time?" Soarin said, almost offended.

"Well, let's get him out!" Yoyo chirped, opening the door.

"Wait, that's the stallions'... aw screw it," Soarin said, deciding that worse things had already happened than ignoring gender segregation. He followed her in as well, Snowdrop alone opting to stay outside.

"Ooh! Soarin, what's this thing?" Yoyo asked, examining a urinal.

"It's... just don't touch it. Stallions pee in 'em," Soarin said, a little exasperated that she was being so ridiculous so soon after a death. The only saving grace to the situation was that Button Mash's hooves were hanging visibly in one of the stalls, his game's music playing loudly.

"Wait, you pee in this thing? ... How?" she asked. "Come to think of it... how do toilets work for us too? Especially for stallions!" She looked back at her hind legs' anatomy, baffled at the prospect of sitting in a way that would let her hind hooves hang down like Button's did (even though she did have regular experience using a toilet herself). "Maybe I'll ask Lyra. She's good at doing weird stuff with her joints. Heh heh. Joints. Like with pot. Speaking of which, after this I'm gonna need to de-stress a bit. You got any on you, High-Flyer? (That's my nickname for you, cuz you like to fly and look like a stoner)."

"Yoyo, stay focused!" Soarin said. "We're only in here for Button." Soarin went and knocked on the stall door. "Button? Hello?"

"Come on out, Spinny-Head!" added Yoyo, pounding on the door as well.

Button didn't seem to hear them or react at all, even when they knocked and called louder. "Wow, it's as if he wasn't even alive back there..." said Yoyo.

"I know. Honestly, I might actually be nervous if he hadn't done this once before already," said Soarin.

"Regardless, forget knocking! Time for the easy way!" Yoyo said. Before Soarin could stop her, she rolled onto her back and shimmied under the stall door.

And then she screamed in terror.

... Oh, wait, did I say 'she?' I meant 'he.' Button screamed. Though Yoyo did give a little yelp as he literally kicked her out from under the door.

"What just happened?" Snowdrop asked, running in.

"It's nothin'. Basically Button's fine." Soarin explained.

The sound of flushing could be heard before Button opened the door and stepped out, his game now stored in his saddlebags."Yoyo, what's wrong with you? This is the boy's bathroom, and that is not how you tell somepony to hurry up!"

"Button, how long have you been in there? There's been a death!" Soarin said.

"Wh-what?" Button's eyes widened. He was sure he'd misheard.

"Click Clack's been murdered, and if we don't find out who did it, Monokuma's going to kill the rest of us," Soarin summarized the situation. "You didn't even hear the announcement?"

"N-no! You know how I am when I'm in the zone! I've been in here for the last couple hours or so. I went to go vote, but once I was in the gym I started having second thoughts on who I wanted, plus I had to go to the bathroom. So instead I came in here to think about it and work in some play time, but then while I was on the toilet I got to the boss level. Then once I beat him there was this big plot twist, so of course I had to watch it play out a little longer, and then... well, you get the point. And don't act like you've never wasted time on the toilet yourself!"

"Not for two hours," Soarin groaned. "Well, come on and help us look for clues. I'll fill you in on the way," Soarin said, leading him out.

"And fill me in on those pee things!" Yoyo said, following after.

"Pee things?" Snowdrop wondered aloud, though she decided that she was better off not knowing.

*** *** ***

Bulk Biceps, Derpy Hooves, Frostbite, and True Heart found the prize room in complete disarray. Bulk had been placing the items he won into a pile on the teacher's desk at the front of the room, but somepony had scattered many of the items around all over the floor.

"Huh, it looks like whoever was in here didn't know where to find the parts for their deathtrap," observed Frostbite. "Anypony who was wouldn't have had to dig through the pile like this."

"However, the sword and the trombone were more than big enough to protrude from the pile. Perhaps the blackened saw them immediately and just pulled them out, spilling the pile in the process," True Heart interjected. "If that were the case, even Bulk, who should know these things perfectly, could have done it."

"YEAH!" Bulk said. "Er, not that I did it, I mean, but I remember the trombone was buried about halfway down. The bowling ball was actually on the bottom. I remember it because I had trouble getting it to stop rolling around, so I put a bunch of other things around it. See, there's a hole in the pile still on the desk right there."

"Hm... What about the sword?" asked True Heart.

"It was one of the last things I got. I left it leaning up against the side, so the blackened would have seen it straight away."

"I remember that," said Frostbite. "I was in here yesterday and found that sexy pinup calendar you won. Thanks for that, by the way!"

"It was nothing. Hey, wait a minute..." Bulk said, picking something up off the ground. It was a partly used roll of duct tape. "Look at this. I think this is what the blackened used to make that trap. Think it's a clue or something?"

"Maybe. Wait, was it just another thing in the pile, or did they bring it from somewhere else?" asked True Heart.

"It was in the pile, why?"

"Because this could be proof that the blackened has been in here before! Otherwise, the culprit would just have to come here hoping that there was a big T shaped object instead of the sword and trombone! Whoever the culprit was had to have known about the tape!"

"Hey, yeah! So you're saying the blackened must have been one of the ponies who took something from here before!" said Frostbite. "I wouldn't say that's conclusive, but it's the best we got so far, right?"

"YEAH!" added Bulk.

Ditzy, who still looked incredibly nervous, just nodded.

*** *** ***

*Ding dong, bing bong*

"Erm, so ah... I'm getting tired of waiting. Shall we just plunge right in? It's the moment you've all been waiting for... the class trial! Please go through the red door on the first floor of the school. See you soon!"

Monokuma's words set shivers down the students' spines.

"So, I guess that's it then, and not a second later than we needed..." said Featherweight. His group, which had been joined by Soarin's and Sunset's groups, had only just finished searching the last room. He'd wanted to do a second sweep, but now it looked like that was impossible. "So, are we sure nopony found anything useful?" he pressed his hoof against his forehead in frustration. They'd found out each pony's weapon from Monokuma, but none of them seemed relevant to the crime at hand. Other than that, the only thing that stuck out about each room was the personal effects that some of them got from the Monomono Machine.

"Ugh... I got nothing!" yelled Vinyl. "This can't be happening!"

"M-maybe Octavia's or True Heart's group found something..." suggested Snowdrop. "We can't give up hope now!"

"Oh no, we're dead!" Button wailed. "That's it! I'm just gonna cram in all the playtime I can before I die!" He pulled his game out of his saddlebags and started playing.

"Now, now, my beloved students..." Monokuma's voice came over the intercom again. "Failure to give the class trial your undivided attention is a violation of the school rules. Please turn off all personal electronics and report to the elevator on the first floor next to the gym. Any further failure to comply is punishable by detention, in-school suspension, and/or death, and I'm feeling in a 'deathy' mood today."

Button reluctantly put the game away and slowly marched to the gym along with the other students. They found Octavia and Rook already there, and True Heart's group came shortly after.

"Did you guys find anything?" True Heart asked.

"Not much, you?" responded Featherweight.

"YEAH! We figured out that the blackened is probably someone who's been to the room where I kept my unwanted prizes," said Bulk.

"I see. As a matter of fact, our group found out which ponies had prizes from that room," said Zihiri. "As far as we can tell, the list includes Button Mash, Derpy Hooves, Frostbite, Sunset, Yoyo Yolo, and myself, plus Bulk obviously knew that room inside and out. It's not perfect, but it's something. At the very least, we can improve our odds from one in fifteen to one in seven if we have to guess."

"Guessing... yeah, the blackened would really like that I bet," Featherweight griped.

"It won't come to that. Everypony calm down and we can get through this," said Sunset. "Whoever betrayed us will be found out, I swear. They're the only one who's going to die today."

"That's the spirit, ponies!" said Monokuma, still on the intercom. "You just gotta be positive! That goes double for you, Miss 'Ultimate Hope!' You're supposed a symbol of perseverance and optimism, but you're shaking in your horseshoes! Shape up! Do you want the blackened to win?"

She just shook more, tears falling from her eyes.

"It's okay, Ditzy. Just ignore him," True Heart said, hugging her tightly. "We can do this."

She hugged back, crying freely now.

As the elevator began descending to the school's basement, Rook took the moment to say one last pre-trial poem.

"And so the curtain on our final day closes.

A deadly judgment,

A deadly deception,

A deadly betrayal,

A deadly riddle,

A deadly defe-"

Sunset swatted him. "Will you just shut up?"