My Little Danganronpa: Your Motive is Despair!

The elevator opened up, revealing a large, circular room with formal looking wooden walls (though on closer inspection, it was clear that they were nothing but fancy wallpaper.) Sixteen podiums were arranged in a circle in the middle. To the left was a large door with a giant TV screen over it, and an identical screen stood on the far right. On the far side of the room, there was a throne which Monokuma was already sitting on in proud anticipation. "So, how do you like my courtroom? Pretty classy, huh? Don't spend too long gawking though, we have a lot of evidence to cover, I'm sure! Find your place and get ready!"

The students made their way around the podiums until they each found one that had their name inscribed on it. Closest to the entrance was one labeled  "Derpy Hooves," and going clockwise from there were podiums for Vinyl Scratch, True Heart, Bulk Biceps, Click Clack, Sunset Shimmer, Snowdrop, Featherweight, Frostbite (Monokuma's throne was just behind him), Zihiri, Yoyo Yolo, Octavia, Rook, Button Mash, Lyra, and Soarin. Notably, Click Clack's place was already occupied by a metal stand topped with a grayscale portrait of Click that had been marked over with an X drawn in blood.

"Any particular reason for that... thing?" Sunset gestured with distaste at the effigy next to her. Bulk was noticeably keeping as far as he could from it, to the point where he was starting to edge into True Heart's personal space.

"Oh, that?" said Monokuma. "It's out of respect for the dead of course! Just because he's gone doesn't mean he shouldn't be represented as participants in our school life of mutual killing! I already made one for each of you. Anypony wanna see theirs?" He held up two unbloodied portraits of Button and Vinyl, causing the real Button to let out a nervous whine.

"I think that's quite enough of that. Death has already taken one and will soon take another, or, more likely, fourteen. Let us keep such things from our minds for now and think toward our of salvation, impossible as the odds may be..." said Rook.

Yoyo bounced in excitement. "Yeah! The trial's the main event here! Let's quit all this mopey-deathy stuff and start the thing that everypony came for!"

Monokuma nodded. "Yes, I think that if Click Clack were alive he would say the same, probably with one of his signature strikethrough jokes. Poor guy, at first I thought he'd just Marty Stu his way to freedom and turn into an alicorn or something... on second thought, thank Celestia he's dead! Anyway, to start, let's review the rules of the class trial: You students have to use the evidence you've already found, plus your own innate powers of persuasion and deduction, to figure out who it was that killed the victim. Once you think you've figured it all out, we can start voting. There's a dial with your names written around it on each of your desks just for that purpose. Snowblind gets Braille, of course. Point it to the pony, griffon, or zebra that did it, and if the majority of you vote correctly, I'll execute the blackened! However, if the blackened manages to trick you all and turn the blame to somepony else, I'll have to let them go and punish the innocent students in their place! Any questions?"

"Actually I have one," said Frostbite, an eyebrow raised. "Monokuma, I was wondering... you doin' anything after the trial?"

"What!?" "Are you serious?" "Now's not the time!" "He's a fricking ROBOT TEDDY BEAR!" "YEAH!" The others burst out in shock.

"What? I've tried almost everyone else already," Frostbite pointed out.

Monokuma blushed and fanned himself. "Um... I... uh... gee, does anypony else think it's getting stuffy in here? Anyway, it's time to get on with the trail! Now begin!"

Octavia took a deep breath and started. "Alright. I suppose the first thing we should do is review how exactly Click Clack was killed, just to make sure we're all on the same page."

"Fair enough," said Sunset. "Obviously, the culprit went into the voting booth when nopony was looking, then set up a trap made from some of the Monomono Machine prizes that Bulk piled up in that classroom."

True Heart nodded. "After that, it was only a matter of time until somepony set it off, and Click just had the bad luck to be that pony. When he opened the door, it dropped a bowling ball on his head, killing him instantly."

"YEAH!" added Bulk.

"No, that's wrong." Rook said, drawing all attention to him.

"Aww, I wanted to be Makoto first..." Button moaned.

Rook ignored him. "You forgot about where the body was. If he died instantly, like you said, his body would have still been in the voting booth. Actually, he was laying just outside the voting booth. Clearly, it wasn't instant. He attempted to walk away in desperate search of aid that was not there, only to succumb as his precious lifeblood fled from his wound, and he died in agony and despair..." said Rook.

"YEAH! That fits even better!" Bulk agreed.

"Thank you for punctuating me in such an appropriately eloquent fashion..." sighed Rook.

"So he took a few extra steps. How does that matter?" Soarin asked.

"It doesn't, but we need to get into the habit of spotting those kinds of inconsistencies," said Featherweight. "Holes in a story like that are exactly the kind of thing that'll reveal the culprit. Speaking of which, now that we've straightened out how Click Clack died, I think we should clarify our prime suspects, too."

"Oh yes. Who did you say they were again?" Octavia asked.

"The suspect knew that there were items they could use for the trap in the classroom that Bulk filled with Monomono Machine prizes, so it's most likely that they had been in that room at some point. The only ponies we know of who took anything from that room were Frostbite, Button Mash, Yoyo, Sunset, Derpy, and Zihiri. Any one of them or Bulk could be the killer. Frankly, my money's on Little Miss Keeps-To-Herself. She's been acting suspicious since we got here, and any time I try to investigate what she's doing, she throws magic zebra stuff in my face."

"So I'm an introvert. What of it?" Zihiri shot back. "If I am guilty, let us see you prove it!"

"Hey, hey, settle down, you two," said Octavia. "We'll figure it out, I'm sure. Featherweight, she's right, we can't go into this with any bias."

"Maybe we should try narrowing it down some more," said Vinyl. "We have the time of death, but that's not the only time that's important here. If we can figure out when the trap was set up, that might help a little.

"I can answer that," True Heart spoke up. "Ditzy Doo and I both voted late last night. Since we're both obviously still here, the trap wasn't set up until after that."

"YEAH! I get it!" said Bulk. "That means the culprit set the trap on the night just before the murder!"

"Ah, yes," said Zihiri. "However, that alone doesn't prove anything. All of us had plenty of time at night. If anything, it casts doubt on True Heart and Derpy Hooves, who were the last ones awake."

"No, no!" Derpy yelped. "It couldn't have been either of us! I swear!"

"Well, that was a fast answer. Do you have any proof?" Featherweight asked.

"Of course we do. Both of us were with each other until we went to bed," said True Heart, smiling.

"In the same room?" asked Frostbite.

"What? No!" yelled True Heart. "Is that the only thing you can think about?"

"If you weren't sharing a room, then there's nothing to say that one of you didn't just wait five minutes and walk back out to set up the trap without the other one knowing. See? I was going somewhere with that."

"Wha-huh?" True was completely caught off guard.

"Hey! That's just a guess, it could have easily been anyone else, like True Heart said!" said Derpy.

"Maybe. I'm certainly not going to assume it was you, but you raised a few red flags," said Octavia.

"Oh!" Lyra said nervously. "Um, Sunset, I just realized something... about the thing?"

Sunset sighed reluctantly. "I suppose there's no point in hiding it longer. When I was investigating the crime scene, I found something that I believed revealed the killer. I hid it, intending to see how far we could make it in the investigation without it. It seems we did well enough. I think this will prove what we've found so far."

She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a small grey feather.

"N-no..." its owner said, "th-that's wrong..."

"I'm afraid not, Derpy." All eyes moved between the grey mare and the feather in Sunset's hoof that matched her plumage so perfectly. "I found this stuck to the tape used in the trap. At first I had assumed you were the killer, but now that I think about it, given the amount of time you're spending with True Heart, perhaps he took it from you and planted it."

Derpy opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She started shaking uncontrollably, and tears began leaking down her cheeks.

"Wait, somepony else could have planted it just as easily!" yelled True Heart. "For all we know, you did it!"

"I have Lyra to back me up. She was right there when I found it, though I told her not to say anything, again so that Derpy would have the chance to listen to her conscience."

"The secret was really burning on my lips during the whole investigation," said Lyra.

"That doesn't matter! Anypony can find a lost feather and plant it at a crime scene!" True Heart insisted.

"Well, that's true," said Soarin. "And normally I would totally agree with you, but if she's innocent, why are you having to defend her?" He pointed to Derpy, who was sobbing and looked ready to throw up. "Just look at her! I know a nervous pony when I see one, and she is completely broken down. If she was innocent, I think she'd be more eager to stand up for herself! For me, that's what really clinches this. I don't want to admit it, but her reaction makes it clear to me that she's been having to suppress some serious guilt for this whole trial. Now that she got caught, the stress is too much for her."

"I... I know it wasn't her," said True Heart. "I can tell! It's my special talent!"

"Stargazing?" Vinlyl asked.

"No, not that. My cutie mark talent and the Ultimate talent Monokuma gave me are different."

Monokuma spoke up, "He's right, you know. I didn't go by your cutie marks every time. Just look at Lyra for another example. Which do you think was more fun for me to use: Ultimate Harpist, or Ultimate Lunatic Imaginary Beast Chaser?"

"My title is Cryptozoologist..." said Lyra.

"That's right," True Heart continued. "My special talent isn't stargazing, it's more like reading ponies' intentions. Basically, I'm a great judge of character. Ditzy is one of the nicest mares I've ever met. She could never kill anypony, I just know it! And then there's you, Sunset..."

"Me?" Sunset raised an eyebrow.

"You act nice to make ponies trust you, but I see right through that! From the beginning you wanted us to listen to you, right? Then Lyra suggests electing a leader, and Frostbite randomly selects you, both seemingly independently, but they've both been hanging out with you quite a bit, haven't they?"

Lyra blushed and Frostbite swallowed nervously.

"You put them both up to it, didn't you?" True reasoned. "You're nothing but a manipulator! In fact, I think if anyone planted that feather, it was you!"

Sunset looked surprised, but was quick to brush off the accusation. "Poor deluded True Heart, pointing fingers to save your friend. Look, even if I did try to make a power grab with this whole presidency thing, why would I go to all that trouble if I was just going to try and escape anyway? And before you go recklessly accusing ponies some more, think about it: is Derpy really worth saving? She was going to let you die along with the rest of us. She doesn't care about you. She doesn't care about anyone but herself."

"Hey, hey, whoa now," Vinyl said. "We need to slow down here a little, you know? All our lives are on the line here, so the last thing we wanna do here is rush things. I'll admit, I'm with Soarin about how guilty she looks, but we have plenty of time to review the case more. I'm sure that if anypony else is the killer, then it'll come out. If we absolutely can't make any progress, then we'll vote for her. Sound like a plan?"

"Finally, somepony makes sense..." said True Heart.

"Actually, that won't be necessary..." Derpy immediately had everypony's attention. "I really do care about you, all of you. I didn't want anypony to die, I just... I had no choice!"

True Heart went white. "Ditzy, what are you..."

"Thank you for standing up for me, True Heart, but I have to do this myself now. It's true. I killed Click Clack, but..." her eyes started tearing up again. "If any of you were a mother, you would have done the same thing!"

"A mother?" Lyra asked.

"But there's no way you're older than eighteen..." said Button Mash.

"Yeah, sexually active teenagers, how unthinkable," Frostbite said, rolling his eyes. "Shut up and let her talk."

Derpy nodded to Frostbite and continued. "I know, I'm a teen mom. It's not something I'm proud of, but I am proud of my daughter, Dinky. She means everything to me. Monokuma's DVD showed her all alone and cold and starving." She got choked up as she spoke. "It said she didn't have much time... that's why I did it. I did it all to save her. And... I know I have no right to ask this, but please, let me go to her."

There were several gasps and shocked looks throughout the courtroom. "Go to her?" Vinyl asked. "But that would mean-"

"I know. I'm asking you to accuse the wrong pony and sacrifice yourselves for her," Derpy's tears began flowing more strongly. "Please, I'm not asking this for me, it's all for her!"

"Hmph," Sunset scoffed. " You really are desperate, aren't you?"

Filled with shame and sorrow, Derpy just nodded. "What else can I do? Please..."

"My gosh, this is low!" said Monokuma. "So this is all that Ultimate Hope has to offer us? A knife in the back and when that doesn't work, grasping at straws trying to appeal to your sense of selflessness?" He cackled. "How pathetic!"

"Hey, you have no right to say anything about this!" Soarin yelled at him. "What she did was wrong, no one's gonna question that, but so far you've done everything you could to make something like this happen!"

"He's right! As far as I'm concerned, you're the one who's really responsible here, not Derpy!" said Snowdrop.

"Oh really? Then maybe you'd like to give her plea some consideration?" Monokuma said with a smirk. He pressed a button on his throne and the TV screens on the sides of the room turned on, showing Derpy's motive DVD. At first it showed a happy infant unicorn foal with Derpy's color palate in the arms of an older pegasus mare, possibly Derpy's own mother. Then, predictably, it switched to a scene of the same filly in a dark concrete room, curled into a ball for warmth. The caption was 'How long can she stay like this? Let's hope she can outlast your conscience!' As the students stared up at the image, Derpy broke down once more.

"Don't try to scare us," growled Sunset. "We know that you faked those pictures!"

Monokuma clicked his tongue. "My dear Sunset, certainly you of all ponies know how hard it is to create fake photographs using magic. It's possible, sure, but only for ponies with a special talent for it. Look closer, let me zoom in for you. Do you see this resolution? Even you, whose talent is magic, can't pull off the degree of realism in these pictures, can you? Besides, even to fake these, one has to know what the photo's subjects look like the first place, which obviously means that I must have access to all of your friends and family anyway! Let's say I did fake them. I still know where your loved ones live, and let me tell you that I have no problem boosting my body count!"

He pressed another button, and the screens shifted to a video of a mare being chased down a hallway by a giant stone hoof until she found a hole in the wall to hide in, only for the hoof to stomp the wall down, spattering the ground with her blood.

The students screamed and gagged when they saw the execution. Most of them had never seen anything die, let alone a pony. Snowdrop alone was left in the dark, but for once she was happy for it.

"Does that look faked to you? I did that, and let me tell ya, I gained precisely jack-diddly-poop from doing it! It was purely for fun! So faked pictures or no, none of your families are safe! However... I have a point to make, so I'll cut you all a deal."

"Oh, this oughta be good," Vinyl said. She put on a brave face, but she was visibly sweating.

"I may be a kidnapper, a murderer, and even an unrepentant jaywalker, but I like to think that I am also beary generous! So if Derpy goes home today, I will personally free your loved ones, heal everything I've done to them, and even make sure they receive a proper compensation for your deaths. If you do vote for her, however, then one in ten of the ponies from your motives gets..." He ran a claw across his neck. "Ssssslit!"

"What? But that's not fair!" yelled Octavia. "You're putting us in a lose-lose situation!"

"Not really, when you think about it..." said Monokuma. "Do the math: each of you had only a few people in your motives. I'll make it easier for you and just tell you that there's about forty of them. Vote for Derpy's execution, and you lose four ponies. Most of you won't lose anyone. Heck, a couple of you only have one person, so you barely have anything to risk!"

The room filled with a silence. Just when they were feeling confident, Monokuma changed the rules to make things even more sadistic.

Snset gritted her teeth and stomped a hoof in anger. "Okay, I'll be the one to say it! I'm sorry, everyone, but it's clear that we have to vote for her. It's fourteen innocent ponies compared to five: looking at it that way, there's no contest!"

"But what about our families?" said Snowdrop. "I don't want to die either, but better me than my brother. If it's their safety we're worried about instead of our own, then I'd gladly give my life."

Monokuma laughed maniacally. "You know, it only requires a majority vote. Only eight of you, including Cross-Eyes herself, have to vote for a false culprit. What do you say, shall we commence with the voting?"

"Hey, I already said we can't rush this!" objected Vinyl, panicking. "I mean, don't forget, all of this is riding on Monokuma's word! I don't care what he promises or threatens, he can't be trusted!"

"That's right, I refuse to let him control me," agreed Zihiri flatly.

"Let's at least think about it though," said True Heart, half in shock. "I mean, I don't want to, but given the circumstances..."

"Not saying I'm committed to anything yet, but I'm not one to shy away from taking one for the team," added Frostbite. "The safety of my friends is my top priority."

"YEAH! Let's save our families! It's the honorable thing! You wanna live forever? Everypony just vote for Sunset or somethin'!" Bulk Biceps said.

"What? Why me? And are you all crazy?" Sunset practically screamed. "We can't just allow ourselves to die! Especially not for her! She actually deserves death!"

Yoyo started chewing her forehooves. "Yeah, and besides, death is the end, don't you realize that? No more partying, no more playing, not even breathing! Living is the most important thing!"

"I can think of a few things more important," Lyra said. "And saving our families is one of those things."

"As a Wonderbolt, I took an oath to save ponies... I don't know what to choose here, honestly..."

"If saving the most lives is out goal, we have no choice but to agree with Sunset," Featherweight said.

"YEAH! That's a good point too! Everypony vote for Derpy! Let's live forever!" Bulk flip-flopped.

"Hahaha! I knew it! You ponies are all out for number one when the chips are down!" Monokuma laughed.

"Alas, such a cruel choice," said Rook, clutching his head. "For so many to die for so few, or to live with innocent blood on our consciences. UGH! This is ungodly!"

Octavia started chewing on the end of her mane nervously. It was a habit she thought she'd outgrown years ago, but now she needed the stability of the ritual.

Then something about what Rook said resonated within her...

For many to die for few, or to live with innocent blood on our consciences.

To live with innocent blood on our consciences.

Innocent blood on our consciences.

Blood.

"Wait a second!" Octavia yelled, drawing everypony's gaze to her. "Everypony, drop this, we're making a horrible mistake! Derpy Hooves couldn't possibly be the killer!"

"What? Is everybody here retarded?" Sunset roared. "First  some of these idiots want to die and let her get off scot-free, now you're saying she didn't do it again? She already confessed!"

"I... I really did do it, Octavia," Derpy said, getting confused.

"Of course she confessed. She did set the trap with the full intention of killing somepony. Click Clack even died as a result of what she did. But none of that matters because when you look at the evidence, you realize that the trap didn't work!"

"W-what are you talking about?" Sunset shouted.

"I'm talking about how there's some very important pieces of evidence that we're all overlooking! We got so caught up in the feather and Derpy's confession that we missed the real clues!"

"Real clues? What's more real than a confession?" asked Button Mash.

"There's at least three that I can think of which were overlooked since this trial began. One of them was even something we figured out already, but didn't think was significant."

Featherweight pondered for a moment. "But the only thing we figured out and disregarded in this trial is... Click Clack's body?"

Octavia nodded. "That's right. He left the voting booth. Sure, him leaving the booth after that is possible, but I personally don't think it's very likely. Which leads us to the next clue, the so-called murder weapon."

"The bowling ball?" asked Button Mash. "What about it?"

"It was missing something. Something that it should have had if the trap was at all successful," she hinted.

"Wait a minute... there was almost no blood on it, was there?" Lyra realized. "Only a little bit where it was touching the puddle of it!"

Sunset thought back to what she saw, and the color drained from her face when she realized that Octavia was right. "How did I not see that?"

"Given the dead body in the room, I'd be surprised if any of us were at the top of our game. Besides, you saw what you thought was conclusive evidence early on, so you didn't pay much attention to anything else," Octavia pointed out.

"But how did an injury that big not leave any blood on the murder weapon?" Snowdrop asked.

"If you all take a look at the Monokuma file, I think you'll find the explanation." Octavia smiled as she saw the other students, even Derpy and Sunset, taking out their eHandbooks and looking over the file.

"That's it!" Soarin realized. "His shoulder! His shoulder was completely shattered, but it didn't bleed!"

"It must have just rolled off of his head and broke it that way," Sunset theorized, though she was clearly losing confidence in herself.

"I don't think so. Just rolling off his head to his shoulder probably wouldn't have caused that much damage, maybe a bruise or a sprain if it fell absolutely perfectly. The real clincher though is that the head injury and the broken shoulder are on opposite sides of the body," Octavia said. "There's no way it could have rolled like that."

"So I missed his head?" Derpy realized. The life left her expression as she realized that her entire escape attempt was all for nothing.

"That's right. Your trap didn't kill Click Clack, just wounded him," Octavia said.

"But you also said he walked out of the voting booth, how's that possible with his leg crippled?" countered Sunset.

"It's not as hard as you'd think," pointed out Button Mash. "I walk on three hooves all the time while I'm playing video games."

"Heck, I walk on two," added Lyra.

Octavia continued with her explanation. "Unfortunately there was another pony in the room at the time who saw what happened. In fact, they're probably who Click was walking towards. Instead of helping though, they realized that if they murdered Click Clack right then, whoever set the trap would end up taking the fall. It was an easy crime that even came with a built in red herring."

"That means if we'd kept believing it was Derpy, we would have gotten it wrong whether we let her go or not!" Soarin said. "So what does that mean for our families and friends?"

Monokuma burst into laughter. "I guess I can't hide it anymore! Since I said your families would be killed if you voted wrong, voting for Derpy would have killed them since it's an incorrect answer! Of course, since I upped the ante, if you want them to be safe you'll have to catch the real blackened! So, who's the real killer then?"

"I haven't figured that out just yet, but I think that this will be a downhill ride from here on," said Octavia. "For one thing, we can establish their location. They were in the room with Click Clack when he set the trap off."

"So that means they were lying in wait for someone to enter, then BAM! They hit him with a hammer or something once he went inside," Vinyl said. "All we need to do now is figure out who doesn't have an alibi for today. After all, they must have been waiting for a while, right?"

"Objection!" Button said. "There, now I got to do it, Phoenix Wright style! Well, anyway, they couldn't have been waiting in the gym, at least not for very long. I went into the gym at around eleven. I didn't actually get to the voting booth, cuz I decided to go to the bathroom and rethink my vote first. Still, I was in the gym long enough to be attacked, but I was fine."

As Button finished his testimony, he felt a couple suspicious glares at him.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Button asked. "I just shot down an incorrect argument. You're supposed to be agreeing and saying how much closer we're getting to solving the case."

Featherweight answered him. "Button, while your claim does make it less likely that Vinyl's theory is true, there's a certain aspect of it that we have to take into consideration."

"What's that?"

"You were in the gym at around Click's time of death, right? But you have nopony to back up your story. You just stepped onto some really shaky ground."

"YEAH!" said Bulk.

"Oh yeah, I guess that does make sens- wait WHAT!?" Button said, panicking. "But I didn't kill him, honest! I mean, what would I have even used as the murder weapon? Monokuma gave me those garrote controllers, remember?"

"That part doesn't really matter," said Yoyo. "I think those weapons were just moodsetters. As for the real weapon, you could have easily found something just lying around the school. Bat, broken desk leg, sledgehammer, it doesn't matter what breaks the piñata so long as candy comes out. He probably ditched it in the trash can in the bathroom after washing the blood off himself. Still, I wish we checked for it while we were in there, that'd prove that he did it for sure. How stupid of us!"

"We shouldn't assume it was him though," interrupted Rook. "Just look at what happened with Derpy, and we had concrete evidence against her. Even though his actions do seem unnatural, it's been established that he tends to act very oddly when video games are involved. Think, is there anything that casts doubt on him as the killer?"

Zihiri shrugged. "Well, let's look through it again. As the theory currently stands, the blackened waited for somepony to come vote, wielding a weapon of some kind. Most likely, he was waiting by the voting booth, as I recall, the front board had plenty of extra space to hide behind. When he heard Click leave the voting booth, he sprang into action and attacked. In a serendipitous twist, Derpy had already set up a failed trap, making her an easy scapegoat. Supposing that the culprit was button, after killing Click, he fled the scene to the bathroom, where he disposed of the weapon and washed away any blood on his person. Resting easy, he proceeded to let himself get distracted by his game. There is no evidence that does not fit this scenario."

"Wait, not so fast!" Soarin interjected.

"You've found something wrong?" Zihiri asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe. I just remembered something from my investigation, and I need to know one thing..." He turned to Sunset. "You use magic to open doors, right?"

Sunset looked at him like he was crazy. "What? Of course."

"Every single time?"

"Yeah..."

"Even when you and Lyra went to the bathroom to wash off the blood from the crime scene?"

"Yes! Seriously, why are you pushing something so minor?" she snapped.

"Because it's not minor, not at all. Did you notice the blood on the door when you opened it?"

"Huh? Blood?"

"Yeah, there was a bloody hoofprint on the mares' bathroom door. At the time I thought it was just one of yours, but then I remembered that Sunset likes to use magic, and Lyra walked on her hind legs anyway, so using a foreleg to open the door wouldn't have made a print at all!"

"I... hadn't noticed that... I wasn't paying much attention, I just reached out with TK and pushed," Sunset admitted.

"And I just followed her right inside without looking," said Lyra.

"Leaving the hoofprint unaccounted for," concluded Soarin. "Other than them, only the blackened would have been in contact with any blood. Obviously Button Mash wouldn't have touched the mare's bathroom door for no reason."

"So I'm off the hook? Woohoo!" Button cheered. "Thanks, Soarin, I owe ya one!"

"What if he did it to throw us off the trail?" suggested Featherweight.

"Not likely. He had plenty of time to point it out during the investigation if it was part of his plan," said Snowdrop.

"And that means a mare is the culprit too, right?" said Yoyo. "She must be a real idiot to have actually used a bloody hoof to open the door! That settles it: the culprit is whoever's the dumbest mare in this room!"

Vinyl was about to say something, but decided to hold her tongue.

"Actually, I wouldn't rule out a stallion yet," said Soarin. "Think about it. If Button's telling the truth, then he was in the bathroom at the time of the murder, with his game's music on full blast. No killer would have gone in there knowing someone might see him."

Snowdrop smiled. "I get it. Hearing his game scared them, so they went to the girls' bathroom instead. In fact, the doors here are pretty thick, so they may not have even heard the music until they opened it. If that's the case, the music probably startled them, and in their haste they accidentally used their bloody hoof to open the mares' door instead of a clean one."

"Just what I was thinking, girl! My money's on it being a guy," Soarin said.

"Oh! That makes sense," said Yoyo. "Still, he mustn't be that smart to have done that."

"I don't think he thought through this murder very much," said True Heart. "In fact, I don't think it was planned at all. Soarin, how complete was that hoofprint?"

"I could make out the whole hoof," said Soarin.

"Not something you'd find on someone who thought to bring a murder weapon, am I right?" True Heart said. "I think that Click Clack and the culprit just happened to be going to vote together. Click went into the booth first, and set off the trap. The culprit just saw an opportunity and went for it. Every piece of evidence we've found points to an entirely unplanned murder!"

"That's correct," said Rook. "And if that's true, then the culprit could only have been someone who hadn't voted yet. A good many of us voted before the morning of Click's demise, sometimes in groups," said Rook. "We just need to figure out who does and doesn't have an alibi. I don't I'm afraid, but thankfully, my talons instead of hooves prove my innocence."

"That's right. Now, who else here voted already? And don't say anything unless you have evidence or a witness to confirm it," Octavia said.

"Me and Derpy voted together, like we said" said True Heart. Derpy was still locked in a daze.

"I voted with Sunset," answered Lyra.

"And I went with Soarin," said Snowdrop.

Button spoke up, "I don't have any witnesses, but I was the one who was playing video games and made the blackened leave the stallion's bathroom. Does that count?"

"I suppose so," said Octavia, "and if you don't mind me protecting myself, I think it's safe to say that if I was the blackened I would have simply let you all vote for Derpy."

"That's fair," agreed Sunset reluctantly

"So the only suspects left are Featherweight, Zihiri, Vinyl Scratch, Frostbite, Bulk Biceps, and Yoyo Yolo. From Soarin's deductions, it was most likely one of the boys," observed Snowdrop.

"No, not 'most likely,' 'definitely,'" said Frostbite. "Think about the way the body was positioned."

"What about it?" asked Octavia.

"He was on his side. If you were gonna stomp someone's head in how would you do it?"

Zihiri tilted her head back in thought. " To get an injury on the top of his head, I suppose I would have to get him on the ground, then stomp repeatedly until I broke through to his brain, which I would then stomp into a thin paste. Of course, the temples tend to cave in easier if I was going to do that."

Even Monokuma's jaw was on the ground after that.

"What?" she said. "You wanted to know how I would do it."

"Can we just say she did it?" asked Featherweight.

"YEAH! She's totally nuts!" said Bulk.

"Actually, as nuts as that is, she proved the point I was going to make," said Frostbite. "See, I know a thing or two about fighting, and Earth Ponies and Unicorns would have to pull him to the ground, onto his belly. If one of them did it, how would he have fallen onto his side? Only one of us pegasi could have left him like that by flying above him and smashing his head while he was standing. No offense, Featherweight, but a sexy, er, I mean skinny guy like you could never have done that in just one hit. Not that I don't think you're sexy..." he moved next to Featherweight and put a wing around him. "You're very sexy..."

Featherweight pushed him aside. "Thanks, but honestly I'm more happy about you finding me innocent."

Vinyl interjected "Wait... But that means the only two possible suspects are..."

"That's right, me and Bulk Biceps!" said Frostbite, pointing to Bulk, who was suddenly looking very nervous. "And between us, who looks like they could hit harder?"

Bulk cringed and froze up. The air in the room seemed to get colder, matching the glares that all of the ponies were aiming at him.

"B-Bulk? It was you?" asked Button Mash, aghast.

"Yahoo! Frostsmitten caught him! That's my bedtime-buddy!" cheered Yoyo.

"Uh..." Bulk said, shuddering.

"You're being awfully quiet, Bulk," said Snowdrop suspiciously. "In fact, you've been quiet for most of the trial except for agreeing to others' ideas. Come to think of it, I don't think you ever once agreed to one that was on the right track. If we'd agreed with you any time you said 'yeah' we would have never gotten this far."

"You jerk! You were trying to push us in the wrong direction!" accused Vinyl.

"Uh... Uh... I... wait, you just said how you could have done it too!" Bulk finally shouted once he had a second or two to think it over.

Frostbite just put on a smug face. "True, but like Octavia said, why would the blackened say anything to help solve the murder?"

Bulk started sweating. "N-no! I didn't do it, I... I... wait..." a grin stretched across Bulk's face. "I couldn't have done it the way you said. I hurt my wing, I can barely get off the ground!"

"What?" Frostbite asked, his eyes widening.

"Hey, that's right!" said Zihiri. "No one else was there for it, but I've seen Bulk fly, if you could call it flight at all."

"B-but... I just said I helped get you here!" repeated Frostbite. "Why would I say something that could implicate myself if I actually did it! I mean that's why we ruled out Octavia!"

"True, but that's just it, helping the case got me declared innocent," Octavia pointed out. "If you felt the noose tightening, then maybe you decided that you'd solve the case completely, only replacing your role with that of the only other pony who you thought might have used your method."

All the blood drained from Frostbite's face. "N-no! Even though I wanna leave, I would never murder a pony to do it! And even if I would sink that low, there's so much I still need to do here first!"

"Stuff you need to do? Like what?" Button asked.

"Everyone in this room, of course!" Frostbite shouted without a hint of humor. "I swear! I didn't kill him! I must have just guessed the method wrong or something! Please, there must have been another way!"

"There is no other way. The method you described fits perfectly," said Sunset, "and the reason it's that perfect is because you were the one to carry it out."

"What? Now you did it!?" said Yoyo. "I can't believe it! What kind of world is this where a pony would go all the way with you after one conversation but not tell you that he's a murderer?"

"Frostbite, how could you?" said Lyra, standing on her hind legs and slamming her forehooves on her podium. "I thought you were our friend!"

Frostbite was getting more and more distressed by the second. "I am your friend, Lyra! I-" suddenly he stopped. "Wait... Lyra, what are you doing right now?"

"What am I doing? I'm standing, duh!"

Immediately Frostbite calmed down. "I see... I really was wrong about how you did it, Bulk." He flew over to the musclebound pony, the size difference between them becoming apparent as they stared each other down. "Put me in a headlock."

"What?" Bulk asked.

"You heard me. Get on your hind legs and put me in a headlock. Show the good students of this court how you're more than capable of holding a pony with one foreleg and smashing his skull with the other. Certainly you're big enough to do that to a pony of average size, like me or Click Clack."

"I... I didn't do it, you bitch!" Bulk shouted, shoving him away.

"Hey, unless you have impure intentions, keep your hooves off me!" Frostbite said indignantly.

"I'll do whatever I want, you murdering STI factory!"

""I'm not a murderer, you flightless glorified forklift!"

The two began firing insults and accusations back and forth at each other as everypony stared between them, now unsure of who to believe.

"I guess I jumped the gun accusing Frostsmitten," admitted Yoyo. "But even right now I can't tell who's right, him or Mr. Muscles (that's my nickname for him, 'cuz of his muscles)."

"I know. I really don't want it to be either one, but I guess we all knew it would come down to something like this," said Soarin.

"We just need a little more evidence, then I'm sure we can nail whichever one it is," said Featherweight.

Rook shrugged glumly. "Perhaps, but what? We've gone over everything, and nothing can get us further than this. Perhaps we should just flip a coin. 50/50 is a hell of a lot better than what we went in with..."

"You've got that wrong."

Everyone turned to Derpy Hooves, who had been almost motionlessly watching the trial in shamed silence since she was cleared as a suspect.

"There's one other thing about how Click fell that sticks out to me," she said. "He was lying on his right side, the side with the wound. If he was standing and hit from the right, especially while his left leg was broken, then it's more natural for him to have fallen on his left side. However, if he was held and then dropped or pushed away, there's any number of ways he could have fallen. That's just an inference, but apart from that, I just noticed that Bulk's hooves are tiny for a stallion. If Soarin remembers the hoofprint on the door, we can see which one matches it."

"Now that you mention it, I do remember it being on the small side. There was a reason I thought it was a mare's," Soarin said. "Why don't we just check everypony's?"

"Alright!" said Frostbite, the first to thrust his foot out. "I've always been rather proud of my huge hooves, wink wink." Indeed, Soarin could tell immediately it wasn't him.

Bulk, however, didn't have such confidence. "Uh... uh..."

"Back to that again? Yup, he's the one, I'm sure of it," said Sunset.

After each pony showed Soarin their hoof, it was clear that the only ponies with exceptionally small hooves were Featherweight and Bulk Biceps, and the former was acting a lot less suspicious. At last, Monokuma himself spoke up, looking fairly satisfied. "Well, well, well! It looks like you've reached a conclusion! Better get to voting then!"

"What? No! We can't yet! They think it's me!" Bulk objected.

"It's too late! This trial was running long anyway. Everypony, time to vote!" the bear ordered.

Everypony returned to their podiums where each pony, some more reluctantly than other, cast their votes. The last one to choose was Bulk, who finally just closed his eyes and picked.

Monokuma stood up on his throne and bounced with excitement. "You're right! The blackened was Bulk Biceps! Congratulations, you solved the easy tutorial murder! 'Course, we could have skipped a lot of this nonsense if one of you idiots had bothered to examine the wound on the body and seen that it was hoof shaped! Seriously, it's kindergarten level forensics! Nonetheless, you eventually figured it out. Bulk was chosen unanimously. He even voted for himself!"

"He did?" asked Octavia.

"Yeah..." Bulk admitted, a few tears escaping "I know it doesn't make up for anything, but wanted the last thing I did to be honest..."

"I see. Why'd you do it, anyway?" Octavia's voice didn't carry any anger at him. In fact, she seemed a bit sad. Nopony in the room was really looking forward to what Monokuma had promised if they caught the culprit.

He could barely look her in the eyes. "It was my mom..." he said. "Me and her live alone together, and I'm all she has. She has a heart condition, and she gets worried when I come home late by one hour, for me to just disappear, I don't know if she could even survive that. Even then, I'm surprised I actually did what I did. When I saw Click get hit by that trap, I acted without thinking, and after that there was nothing to do but try to hide it. I just wanted to get out of here and see my mother, just like Derpy and her daughter. None of that really matters though. All I can do is say that I'm sorry, and I hope you guys get out of here soon. Just don't let Monokuma get to you like I did."

"We won't," promised Snowdrop. "For what it's worth, I think it was good of you to come clean in the end." Several other ponies nodded in agreement. The lack of a 'YEAH' in the crowd was noticeable.

"Is that it?" Monokuma interrupted. "I go out of my way to give you a moment for 'last words/sympathy for the devil' stuff, and you only got one paragraph? How inconsiderate of you. Ah well, I guess this is Bulk Biceps we're talkin' about here. Now if that's done, I've got a special execution planned for the Ultimate Bodybuilder! It's punishment time!"

Ignoring the objections of several students, he took out a small gavel and used it to hit a big red button in front of his throne. The TV screens showed an 8-bit animation of Bulk being dragged off by Monokuma with the caption "Game Over. Bulk Biceps has been found guilty. Commencing execution."

Suddenly, the doors on the left side of the room opened up, and a metal claw on a cord flew out, clasping around Bulk's neck. When it started retracting, Bulk shouted in fear and grabbed for dear life to his podium. Bulk was more than strong enough to resist it; the podium, however, soon splintered in his hooves. The claw yanked him struggling and screaming down a long hallway as the screens showed a title card, followed by a live feed of the execution.

***Die Striker***

Somehow, Bulk had been taken to some kind of carnival scene, with several Monokumas walking about, some playing the part of random carnival patrons, others acting as carnies. At the center of it all was a gigantic strength tester game. It was so tall that it extended right off the screen, and the lever that the player was supposed to hit was the size of a see-saw. What stood out most though, was the metal cylinder that was meant to ring the bell: Bulk Biceps had been strapped to it, so that it would smash him into the bell headfirst.

As he struggled against his restraints, a small Monokuma dressed as a little girl approached the game. Bulk looked in fear at the little robot, knowing that whatever it planned on doing, he wasn't going to like it.

The Monokuma girl stepped up to the lever and pulled out a tiny toy hammer. She raised it high above her head and brought it down... the lever barely moved. She tried again and again, but nothing. Finally, she threw the little hammer away, reached behind her back, and out of nowhere pulled out an enormous hammer with a head easily the size of a carriage. She leapt into the air with unnatural strength, and brought the hammer down with earthshattering power.

In an instant Bulk shot upward. The camera shifted to the bell, which was actually on fire and covered in spikes. Hitting it would not be pretty...

CRACK!

Bulk hit with such force that the bell and the entire top of the game actually snapped off, sending the hapless bodybuilder further and further upward. Finally, just when it looked like he'd continue off into space, he slowed, and fell back, plummeting headfirst. He was so high up that as he fell he actually caught fire passing through the atmosphere. Despite the heat, when he neared the ground he was able to look down where he was about to land, and he could see that somehow the bell had landed directly under him. He closed his eyes, scowling at Monokuma's cruel attempt at irony, his impending death, the whole killing game situation... but mostly at himself for completely deserving his punishment.

Ding!

*** *** ***

The students looked on in horror at the gory result of the impact. Seeing the video of that other mare's execution was bad enough, but Bulk was different. Not only was it someone they knew, but they themselves had been the ones to sentence him to death. Even under coercion, it wasn't an easy thing to cope with doing.

"Hot damn, that was awesome!" shouted Monokuma. "Is anyone else feeling totally pumped up after that? I feel like I could run a marathon! Wrestle a manticore! Tear a pony in half with my bare bear claws!"

"That was awful! I've never seen anything so horrible!" said True Heart.

"Really? That's odd. I would think you'd enjoy seeing justice in action. Law and order, baby! Speaking of which... It's getting rather late in the day, isn't it? You guys are supposed to finish voting for class president, aren't you?" Monokuma reminded.

"Class president? How could you think about something so trivial? Two ponies died today!" yelled Octavia.

"Well your situation will get much worse than that if you ponies don't vote!" Monokuma chided. "The rules clearly state that each student must vote for president, and right now there quite a few votes unaccounted for. In fact, we're technically past the deadline: it's already 10:15! I should be punishing the ones who put it off!"

"What? But- but the trial! I didn't get the chance!" said Vinyl.

"Relax, relax. I won't punish you for the trial running late. Do you think I have a heart of stone?"

"Well... kinda."

"You've already lost two classmates, and much more than two or three at a time would make our little game go too fast. Even four is too much, and five is right out. So I'll tell you what: we're just gonna ignore the ballot box in the gym and all vote again right here. Use your dials, like we just did in the trial."

"Can we change our votes if we went earlier?" asked Yoyo.

Monokuma shrugged. "I don't see why not. It's not like I could tell what your previous votes were. The cameras couldn't pick that up."

"Wait, what?" yelled Sunset. "Why would you want to change it? You voted for me!"

"Well, yeah, but that was before you almost made us all die," Yoyo said casually, "and then Octavia saved us from your wrongitude."

"Yeah, that is a good point. I'm going Octavia too," said Button.

Rook nodded. "As am I. She maintained her composure much better than Sunset, and I would much prefer that in a leader. It's what sets the Celestias apart from Nightmare Moons."

"Why you little-!" Sunset seethed.

"See, right there. Such a sea of rage within her would most certainly spill out and drown us all."

"No, no, no, no, no!" Sunset got angrier by the second. Even Lyra and Frostbite were looking a bit creeped out.

Vinyl cringed. "Sheesh. See, what'd I tell you, Octi? You're made for this. You can keep yourself under control."

"I suppose I can't argue with that," Octavia agreed.

Everypony reached for their dials and voted. It only took Monokuma a second or two to tally up the votes.

"We have a winner!" Monokuma shouted. "In a landslide victory of 11 to 3 votes, your new Class President is... Octavia Melody! Congratulations! Now get the hell out of my courtroom, I wanna go to bed." Without a word more, he vanished.

As they began leaving, Sunset approached Octavia. "So, Ms. President, you won. What are you going to do about her?" She pointed to Derpy, who hadn't left her podium. "She's a murderer, successful or not. I assume you'll be punishing her, right?"

Octavia sighed. She just wanted to go to bed and pretend this day never happened. "I suppose we'll have to keep a closer watch on her, but we can figure out the specifics in the morning. As for tonight, I say she shouldn't be allowed to leave her room at least, if only we could seal her door somehow..."

"I have a spell that can do that," said Sunset. "I can turn doors into walls, then I'll change it back again tomorrow."

"That will work, thank you. By the way... there's no hard feelings about you losing, right?"

"No, not if you do things right," Sunset said in a very unconvincing manner. She turned to Derpy. "Come on, let's get you locked up, where you belong."

True Heart interrupted, "Wait, can I talk to her first? There's something I have to say."

"Go ahead," said Octavia.

Derpy looked up at True Heart nervously. "Do you hate me for what I did?"

He shook his head. "Derpy, even though there's no way to excuse what you did, hating you is only going to make the situation worse. I still think you're a good pony deep down, and I'm willing to forgive you, even if nopony else does."

"Thank you," she said, though without conviction. "Still, some kind of 'Ultimate Hope' I turned out to be..."

"Well, if you ask me it sounds like Monokuma was just setting you up to break you down. After all, you probably got the hardest motive to deal with."

"I guess so. Ultimate Hope being the first to fall into despair was probably just what he wanted, so he picked someone weak like me."

"I wouldn't say you were weak, exactly. It's more like you were hoping for the wrong thing."

She gave him a curious look.

"Ditzy, I know that you're worried about your daughter, and I completely understand why you felt like you had to do it, but our goal should be something different. You were hoping to get away at the class trial, but that's a hope that only you could get behind. Instead, we should all be hoping that we get out of here safely, and that our families will be safe when we do. If me and you and everypony else can cling to that hope, and I promise you everything will be fine."

"Thank you... I'll try." She nuzzled him, then went off with Sunset and Octavia, the latter of the two looking back appreciatively at True Heart.

Still, despite True Heart's brief look on the bright side, nothing could truly alleviate the shadow of death that hung over them and everyone else in Hope's Peak. Regardless of her intentions, Derpy had indirectly brought an end to two ponies' lives. The only comfort the ponies had was the idea that they would escape before something like this happened again.

Somehow, they knew it was a hope in vain. Indeed, it would turn out that the first trial was just that: the first.

Remaining Students

14