Sweetie drops was still in a state of shock about what had just happened. Her plan was to put together a party in order to keep ponies from murdering each other, not for this to happen. It was like in a horror story, how they manage to turn such cheery places into ones that wanted to see you dead. All the nice happy decoration in the pool area made this seem like one of those cases.

“What did I do wrong?” Sweetie Drops asks herself, completely baffled by the seen in front of her. “How did we fail? To think that somepony would be murdered so soon after Monokumas… How did he do it?”

“Call down sugarcube,” Applejack says to the former spy next to her. “None of us saw this coming. How would we know this would? The only thing we can do now is find the murderer before we run out of time to search,”

Sweetie Drops let out a sigh at Applejacks response. “Your right, if we want to survive the only thing we can do is find out who the blackened is. We’ll need to split up however to do this. Applejack, you go tell the others what has happened and tell them to search the rest of the school. Fluttershy, Twilight, the three of us are going to search the pool area and the second floor go it?”

We all nodded in agreement. This wasn’t the time for us to disagree on anything, we could leave that for the actual trial. I looked back to Sweetie drops, who was looking at the ground in disbelief. I could tell how upset she was. She had gone through all this trouble to try and keep a murder from happening. To see all that effort had gone to waste, it must have been heartbreaking.

I went up and put a hoof on her shoulder, and she looked at me with a frown. She sighed as she looked back down at the ground. “What did we do wrong?” She asked me. “Could somepony really be that swayed over a ticket? I thought everypony would have learned after Derpy and Pinkie. Where did we go so wrong?”

“We did what we could,” I responded, trying my best to comfort her. “Like Applejack said, none of us could have seen this coming. The best thing we could do is to try and stop the pony who did this from winning,”

“Awww, how sweet,” I heard Fluttershy let out a small squeak as Monokuma appeared behind us all. “You try and give your friend hope in a moment of despair, what a wonderful action of kindness in such a sad moment. To bad it won’t bring your friend back from the dead, or find you the murderer, or really anything else other than feel better,”

“Go away Monokuma,” I yelled at the stranger bear, it felt good taking my anger out on him. “I don’t want to see you right now,”

“Oh come on miss Twilight,” Monokuma giggled uncomfortably as he talked to me. “I know you have questions you want to ask me, and I will be willing to answer them at a later time. However, I do have something that I think you might wanna see,” He held up three folders with his paws, and I made out the words Monokuma File #2 on it. “Surely this may change your mind about my arrival,”

I couldn’t argue against that, it was nice to see him giving us a little help. That didn’t get rid of my opinion on him, he was still the reason we were stuck in this murder school. Nonetheless, I took the files from his hands and handed them out to Fluttershy and Sweetie Drops; the latter of which took a while to realize what I was holding. Sweetie Drops seemed to brighten up as she saw the file, a look of courage on her face.

“Now I won’t say what side I ultimately cheer for,” Monokuma said. “But if there was somepony here who I think could solve this mystery it would be you three. Of course, I’m still looking forward to the day where the blacken wins, so don’t expect me to do any favors,”

He jumped into the pool, and we watched where he had gone as once again he mysteriously disappeared. We didn’t think of it all that much, and turned away from the pool as I look to Sweetie Drops who was already reading the folder. She was determined to solve this, I knew that no matter what happened, she would keep solving them until we reach Monokuma’s so called ‘grand finale’. It made me happy to see her finally stepping up to the task.

With this, I read the information that the Monokuma file had provided us, knowing that it was the best place to start.

Murder Victim: Rarity

Time of Death: Roughly 5:20 pm

Location of Murder: Pool

Cause of death: Either drowned or strangled to death in the middle of the pool. Small bruises found on the skin but otherwise no injuries.

Monokuma file #2 was added to truth bullets

“So the cause of death wasn’t from a weapon itself,” Sweetie Drops pointed out. “This could possibly be a suicide, or maybe framed to look like one,”

“So the death was, um, indirectly caused,” I had just managed to hear Fluttershy, despite her leaning against me.

“That being said it could have still been a pony,” Sweetie Drops said. “The first thing we should do though is check the body, I need to make sure of something stated in the Monokuma files is right. Fluttershy, would you please,”

Fluttershy hesitated for a second as she looked at Rarity’s body floating in the middle of the pool. She was shaken, it must have been the thought of touching the unicorns dead body.

“Are you sure we have to?” She asked us. “I doesn’t feel right touching a dead body,”

“I don’t want to either,” I admitted. “But it is important that we get this information if we want to survive. Every piece of evidence gives us a better opportunity of finding the blackened. We can’t let a single detail miss us,”

Fluttershy once again looked back at Rarity’s body floating in the water. She let out a small sigh before floating over and grabbing the line the pony had been tied to. With that she slowly made her way back over as Rarity’s lifeless body floated behind her. As she got to the edge of the me and Sweetie Drops kneeled down to expect it.

“Looks like Monokuma was right,” Sweetie Drops said pointing to a small red bruise on Rarity’s face. “Something tells me that this wasn’t a suicide attempt. The bruises means that she must have been quarreling with someone,”

That wasn’t the only bruise Rarity had, they seemed to be all along her body. It definitely helped with the argument that this wasn’t Rarity’s own doing. Why would she injure herself in this way? It seemed weird that she would.

Bruises was added to truth bullets

I looked over to the the rope that was tied to her like a noose. It was white, the same color as the rope that made swimming lanes in the rest of the pool. I thought about it for a second before looking back to Fluttershy and Sweetie Drops.

“Do you by any chance know where this could be found?” I asked them.

“There is some in the closet at the end of the along with other swimming things,” Sweetie Drops replied. “It would have been easy in that case for the pony who did this to obtain a noose of some sort. Not only that, but this obviously wasn’t what was used to kill the pony, it was simply to make sure Rarity didn’t escape. She could have cut through it if we had magic. Sadly, Monokuma somehow took that from us and she was left completely defenseless,”

“I see,” My thoughts drifted to the rope in front of me, wondering who exactly would have thought to do this.

Pool rope was added to truth bullets

The next thing we looked at was the note on her body, which was obviously a ploy to make this look like suicide. Sweetie Drops looked at it, and tilted head as she studied it.

“The note as we all know is meant to make us believe it’s suicided,” Sweetie Drops reminded Fluttershy and I. “However, simply looking at the way it’s written makes me feel weird. I wouldn’t put it past Rarity to make it really exaggerated, but the wording is all weird,” She put down and looked at us. “Can you two keep looking around here? I want to check something real quickly,”

Fluttershy and I nodded our heads. Sweetie Drops grabbed the message and took off out of the room leaving us behind. I couldn’t help but feel like there was something about that message that made Sweetie Drops worried. She did say it was worded weirdly, so whatever it is must have been through that.

Suicide note was added to truth bullets

That was all we found on her body, but we knew that there had to be more in the pool area that could help us. Fluttershy searched around the area on the right side of room while I searched the left, and my eyes caught onto the closet at the end of it. I opened it up and a burst of smoke was unleashed upon my face. I coughed as I tried to swat the smoke away from me. I didn’t see anything that directly caused it, but why was there smoke in the equipment closet?

Smoke was added to truth bullets

As I looked in there, I indeed find a long thing of rope that matched that which was in the pool. It was obvious now where the blackened had found the rope, and it only made me more curious about who the murder could be. As I looked through I found a small amount of what looked like glitter on the floor. I don’t know exactly what it was doing there, or if it had anything to do with the murderer, but I kept it in mind just incase.

Glitter was added to truth bullets

Not finding anything else in the equipment closet, I closed the door and went back to Fluttershy. She was inspecting a knocked over chair with a towel on it, looking at it curiously. I walked up to her and her attention was drawn to me.

“Did you find anything Fluttershy?” I asked.

“Um… I’m not sure,” Fluttershy said, as she went back to looking at the towel. “I was looking around when I saw this towel. I know it may not be really important but, well, it’s damp,”

Picked up the towel and sure enough, it was wet. In fact it seemed recently used by the looks of it. Fluttershy may not have realized it but this was actually rather crucial, limiting the number of ponies that could have done it. I looked to her and gave her a nod of contempt, and she seemed to light up at this.

Wet towel was added to truth bullets

The door opened up behind us as we saw Gilda and Rainbow Dash enter the room. Both stopped as they noticed Rarities body, Rainbow floating to the ground. After a second they both looked away and at us. Rainbow was at our side in an instant while Gilda slowly made her way over to us.

“Heya Twilight,” Rainbow said. “On the job again I see,”

“Sure am,” I did my best to smile, even though it was hard in the kind of environment we are in. “You two here to help us out,”

“Yeah,” Gilda said in her normal grumpy manner. She looked back to the pool “This is not what I expected to happen, especially since everyone seemed so upset after Pinkie Pie and Derpy. Still, I’ll do everything I can to help. As much as I want to deny it you saved me during the last trial and I owe you,”

“Thanks,” I said to Gilda. “Everypony that is willing to help us gives us a better chance. Me and Fluttershy already searched the entire pool area but we should check other places in case. Do you guys have any ideas,”

“Well,” Rainbow thought “I guess that might have something to do with why there was a burner turned on in the kitchen,”

“What!?” I yelled, my fur on end as I heard this.

“Don’t worry we turned it off,” Gilda said, rolling her eyes at me. “That being said you have to wonder exactly why it was on. I don’t think a lot of us here are great cooks, and the one that we do know is dead. So, why exactly would the stove be turned on,”

It seemed strange, there Gilda was correct, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with the murder. Of course, anypony would remember to turn the burner off, which means that the pony that had turned it on must have been in a rush of some sort. Even if it doesn’t matter I thought that I should but it down anyway, in case something about the murder lead to it.

Burner was added to truth bullets

With the pool area completely searched, we decided to move on to see if we could find anything anywhere else. There wasn’t anyplace on the second floor that yielded anything of value, so we moved downstairs to find Cheerilee conversing with Zecora. Remembering that Cheerilee’s information had been a starting point in the last trial, we came up to the two. After telling her about what we found, Zecora shared something of value.

“After the murder I heard somepony murmur,” Zecora said in yet another cryptic sounding rhyme. “That in the victim's room, could be something that lead to her doom,”

“Um,” Rainbow looked at the zebra confused. “What exactly do you mean,”

“What she is saying is that something in Rarity’s room could have played a part in her downfall,” Gilda said, “It’s not that hard Dash, but I shouldn’t expect much less with how little room there probably is in your brain,”

“What did you say?” Rainbow asked, even though she clearly heard Gilda’s insult.

“Please you two, behave,” Cheerilee commanded, “This is not the time to be fighting, we have a murder to solve. Zecora’s right though, I heard Vinyl talking about how there was a piece of paper in Rarities journal that had been taken out. That may be the piece of paper used to write the suicide note you mentioned,”

This was concerning, considering all the time we spent looking in the pool area I thought it wasn’t a suicide. However, if Rarity had used that piece of paper to write the note on her body, then it could be possible that she had actually killed herself. It still didn’t fit however, but no doubt it made worried.

Torn paper was added to truth bullets

We wished them good luck, as they too seemed to be investigating the death. It was nice to see there was more than just the princesses investigating this time, it made me feel like we had a better chance of finding the blackened. We decided it was best to go to the place we thought was more likely to find evidence, and that was Rarities room.

As we reached it we met with Sweetie Drops, who was scanning the journal and note with great focus. We came up to her and I could visibly see the sweat that was forming on her face. She was scared, something I didn’t expect after how calm she seemed when I last saw her. It was getting to her. She was scared of dieing, of losing the coming trial.

“Sweetie Drops?” I called, but she didn’t answer me. “Sweetie Drops, are you alright?”

“Um… Twilight,” I heard Fluttershy’s voice behind me and immediately turned around to the scared pony. “There’s something in the closet over here,”

I followed the scared ponies eyes and spotted multiple things of cloth in Rarity’s closet tied together, the end of it in the shape of a noose. My heart skipped multiple beats and I found myself staring in fear at this. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing at the moment, how did I not see this before. What was going through Rarity’s mind, was she planning murder?

Noose cloth was added to truth bullets

“I couldn’t believe it either,” Sweetie Drops said in a depressing manor. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing either. Rarity plotted her own murder, she really did kill herself,”

Somehow I knew that was wrong. “Sweetie Drops, Rarity didn’t commit suicide,” I said trying to find reason in my words. “It doesn’t make any since, I don’t know why but it doesn’t. Sweetie, please listen to-”

“Times up everypony,” I heard Monokuma on the loudspeaker. “It’s time for the class trial to begin,”

At the sound of Monokuma’s voice everyone stopped moving, not a single sound could be heard. Finally, Sweetie Drops got up and moved over to us. She looked to me with a frown, her eyes barely seemed able to look at me.

“This was suicide,” She said. “Everypony knows it,”

Everypony left the room except for me and Fluttershy, who stayed for a second longer. I was still thinking about what was happening. It seemed so clear, that this was all suicide and nothing else. Yet, there was a part of me that couldn’t believe it. I knew it wasn’t suicide, but why couldn’t I put think of the reason?

“I believe you Twilight,” I heard Fluttershy say from behind me, a rare show of confidence brewing in the pony. “I know I wasn’t much help during the last trial but I promise to help show everypony that this wasn’t Rarity’s own doing. I got your back all the way,”

Looking to Fluttershy I nodded, a smile on my face as I looked at the pony. We finally made our way down to the elevator afterwards, both of his ready for the coming trial. Fluttershy showed much more anger than she usually did. She felt it as well, that we had just lost another dear friend we don’t remember due to our strange amnesia. As we enter the elevator, one thing was on our minds.

We weren’t going to lose this trial, no matter what the murderer and other ponies say...

Author's Note

So glad to be back to writing these sections, I really prefer it over the daily life sections. I am honestly really excited for this upcoming class trial I'm about to write, especially considering how great the first class trial was. Of course, let's not forget the big achievement here: I have made a story with over three hundred view! Considering how badly this story started with more dislikes over likes, I was so happy to see things changes. I really hope I am able to keep this amazing story coming, even though the updates for it are rather slow pace (and will be getting slower in general with the school year). So please tell me who you think the Blackened is this time down in the comments as well as leave a like and follow if you want to.