Danganronpa: Pony Nightmare

"Rise and shine, sweethearts! It is 7 am., and nighttime is officially over! Another day full of joy, friendship, and magic, waaaauuu!"

The lights turned on, and once again, I closed my burning eyes and grunted in frustration. Why did they have to turn on by themselves, couldn’t we just have a switch or something? This was only a second time I got woken up by Monokami’s annoying announcement and harsh light, and I was already going mad.

I eventually got up and headed to the cafeteria for a breakfast. On my way, I met Sunny Day and Rainbow Dash again, and we exchanged nods. They were together all the time, weren’t they.

We were the first to arrive, and we used the advantage to make our breakfasts undisturbed and claim the best seats. Sunny Day convinced Rainbow to try out some fish, I just made myself a hayburger. Not that I had anything against meat eaters, as long as they kept it for themselves, but I would never touch the stuff.

Eventually, the cafeteria filled up. Fleur arrived shortly after us, accompanied by Limpid Lake and Thunder Roar. The next one to come was Trixie, who I still had to get back for that stunt she pulled yesterday with my dinner. When the inventors stormed in, they almost knocked over an entire table. They were like little foals, only bigger, heavier, and therefore more dangerous to their surroundings.

Octavia arrived later, with Tot He Tei hopping around her. The room was getting pretty lively, with eleven ponies eating, chatting, and laughing. Then the door opened once again…

…and Monokami rushed in, coming to a screeching halt in the middle of the cafeteria. He jumped in place, then started chasing his own tail. "So excited, so excited! Wauu! I can just taste it in my mouth! Oooh, are you two eating meat? We have so much in common! Wauu, wauu!"

This felt weird. Monokami was usually acting a bit different, what got him so pumped up? "What do you want?" asked Thunder Roar with contempt.

"Oooh nothing, there’s absolutely nothing I need from you! Ooooh my gosh, this is gonna be good!"

What was going to be good? Why was he so happy? What happened?

And then it hit me. Monokami’s goal all along was to make us murder each other, right? And if he was so pumped up…

Several ponies were missing. I’ve come to expect it from some of them, true. But there was one…

One pony that shouldn’t be missing…

Oh no…

Oh no!

"I… g-guys, I-I think we should look… look around!" I stammered in terror. Some of my classmates looked around the room, and in their eyes I could see that they came to the same realization I did.

Without a word, we rushed out of the cafeteria, each one of us running somewhere else. I headed for the magic classroom, maybe he was there…

…but then I saw something right in front of me. Something in the central tower.

A pony lying on the floor.

Unmoving…

His white mane all soaked in blood.

Lifeless…

His right wing sticking out in an unnatural angle.

Dead…

His blue feathers scattered all around him.

Blue Ray!

BLUE RAAAAAAY!!!

I screamed like never before. It was coming straight from my lungs, an involuntary cry that just wouldn’t stop. My legs collapsed, I ran out of breath. Then I hiccuped, my eyes fixated on the bloody corpse before me.

"NOOOOO!" I shouted once again, shakily getting back on my hooves and stumbling closer to him. "Blue Ray… What did they do to you?! Why? WHY?! Why Blue Ray?!"

I was hyperventilating. My breathing was so rapid I was beggining to feel light-headed. Somepony screamed. I didn’t know who, I didn’t even see them. All I could see were those lifeless eyes, staring into my own.

It looked so morbid… So haunting… So nightmarish… Poor Blue Ray got brutally murdered!

"Twilight!" Somepony grabbed my shoulder. It was Thunder Roar. "Focus on your breathing! Deep, slow breaths! Come on, don’t pass out!"

His commanding voice somehow got through my shock and I did as he said. I took a deep breath, filling up my lungs completely, then let it all out. In a few seconds, my breathing was back to normal.

And then I broke. I burst into tears, unable to form a single thought in my head. I just cried for Blue Ray, hiccuping against my will and shaking like a leaf in the wind. You… You didn’t deserve this, Blue Ray! Why you? Why…

"A body has been discovered! A class trial will start in a certain amount of time. Make sure you are prepared until then! Wauuu!"

The announcement only made me feel even more miserable. I wasn't hallucinating this, Blue Ray was really, truly dead!

By the time my senses came back to me, everypony had already gathered in the central tower. Most of us panicked, Fleur and Thunder tried in vain to calm them down. That was it. We lost our classmate. He was killed. And the one responsible was…

"This is so priceless! The thrills, the chills, the kills! I am so excited I am about to fall apart from all that shaking!" exclaimed Monokami, running down the stairs.

"You! You predatory, bipolar monster!" shouted Limpid Lake.

"You murdered him in cold blood!" screamed Sunny Day.

"How could you?" cried out Rainbow Dash.

"Now now, sweethearts, hold your horses! As much as I approve of this particularly nasty murder, I am not the one who did it! Nooo, it’s way better than that! I saw the whole thing unfold right in front of my eye, and the killer who offed Blue Ray is one of you!"

"No… This isn't…" lamented Phoenix.

"You're lying! You have to be lying!" screamed Bewilderer.

"Wanna bet your life? I am Monokami, everything I say is always true!"

"This killer… They were motivated by that giftbox you gave us all yesterday, right?" asked Thunder Roar.

"You're right on the money, girly face! And if they manage to conceal their identity from the rest of you during the class trial, you know what will follow! Wha-ha-ha!"

Class trial… He really wanted to force us to go through with it. This sick, perverted game of his…

"Please recall the rules by which the class trial is conducted! They will be very important in the following hours! If somepony lost their copy of the rules, feel free to get a new one from the teachers' cabinet, there's a huge pile of them right on the table."

"I… actually have my copy on me," said Bewilderer as he pulled the paper in question from a wide pocket in his overalls. We gathered around him to read the rules once again.

--NIGHTMARE ACADEMY: GRADUATION--

1) The only way of graduating, and by extension leaving the school, is to become "blackened" and pass the class trial.

2) The student becomes "blackened" after murdering one of their fellow classmates.

3) When the body is discovered, there is a brief preparation time before the class trial starts. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.

4) During the class trial, the collective goal of the class is to discover who the blackened is. The culprit is decided by popular vote.

5) If the voted culprit is "blackened", they alone will be punished. If an innocent classmate is accused instead, everypony BUT the blackened is punished, and the killer will successfully graduate.

---

So this was it… In order to see the light of tomorrow, we had to convict whoever was responsible for this crime. It was either them, or all of us.

I felt sick…

"Oh, one last thing and I'll be out of your manes! It would be a bit unfair if you were left to fend for yourselves, after all, the only one who had some investigating experience is lying broken right here! So for this reason, you will be provided an autopsy report to help you figure out whodunnit! Fillies and gentlecolts, behold! It's a Monokami File!"

With those words, he magically sent a flurry of papers right in our faces. As usual, each of us got one, so we could all read an autopsy report describing how Blue Ray died. Part of me didn't want to see it at all, but I forced myself to.

MONOKAMI FILE #1:

The victim was Blue Ray, a 17 year old pegasus. Time of death is 6:56 am. He has suffered numerous injuries: Two left ribs have been broken, his right wing has been dislocated, and his head has suffered a blunt force trauma. The killer also managed to break his neck, which can be safely assumed to be the fatal wound. No foreign substances (poison, sleeping drugs etc.) were found in his bloodstream.

New Truth Bullet: Monokami File #1

When I raised my head, Monokami was already gone. Blue Ray… Why did you have to go on that gamble? I should've been more adamant, I should've stopped you!

Thunder Roar put his hoof on my shoulder. "Twilight, how are you feeling right now?"

"He's dead, Thunder! He's dead! It's my fault!" I sobbed.

"Don't you dare feel guilty for this! The only one responsible is the killer, nopony else," he said in a harsh voice.

"B-but I knew he was in danger! He put his neck on the line, and I didn't stop him!"

"…You might want to tell me the whole story."

I nodded shakily, and started recounting what I knew. I told Thunder everything about my last conversation with Blue Ray, about his instincts, about his vow to find the killer, and about his night watch.

New Truth Bullet: Instincts of Clairvoyant Ray

When I reached the end, Thunder was giving me a strange look of disbelief. "That is… Pretty bizarre. Is something like that even possible?"

"It's what he told me! I d-don't know if it was real or not!"

"Sure." He kept silent for a while, then coughed and shifted his balance a bit. "Hey, I know this is all really devastating, but could you suppress emotions for a while and investigate this murder for me? I still need to wrangle this herd of panicky horses," he said and pointed vaguely in the direction of our classmates, running around in shock.

I stayed silent for a while. "It… it doesn't seem like I have a choice. We're all… going to die if we d-don't figure this out…"

"That's the same mindset I put myself in," said Thunder, making a little, sad smile. "You're stronger than you think."

That surprised me a lot. "You… think so?"

"Yes. Now come on, let's get to the bottom of this. I noticed something weird about the closet under the stairs, there seem to be some magic on it. Can you take a look at that first?"

I nodded, feeling a bit better after Thunder talked some sense into me. Grief for my murdered friend was still burning like a hot ember, but I knew what I had to do. I remembered what I promised myself: Never become a killer, or a victim. Right now, I had to do all in my power to discover the killer, because if I didn't, it would all go down the drain. Me and my classmates would all die, the killer would go free, and I would never be able to help my friends outside.

I approached the closet door and noticed the weird thing Thunder mentioned. It was a magical seal, floating just in front of the door, locking it in place. Who would lock the door like this and why? What were they hiding in there?

New Truth Bullet: Magic Seal

I started preparing a spell to break the seal, I felt that whatever the killer hid in the closet would help us greatly. But I got stopped by somepony.

"Not so fast, Sparky."

Trixie came up to me, her condescending tone made me remember why I had been trying so hard to avoid this mare. She continued:

"Use that brain of yours every once in a while, will you? Were you seriously considering to just break that?"

"Yes! Do you have a better idea or are you just smack talking?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie enjoys the benefit of both, in fact. Coming up with a better idea than you, AND putting you in your place at the same time. Killing two birds with one stone, as they say."

"Will you just get on with it? What am I supposed to do, if not break it?"

"It would be prudent to confirm where that seal came from, BEFORE we destroy it for good. It was most likely from one of the scrolls in the magic classroom. But that's just a theory, we need facts."

I was caught speechless. "That's… I admit, that's actually pretty smart."

"Naturally, it was MY idea after all. I will look into that, you do whatever you want. Try not to destroy any more evidence while I'm gone, will you?" said Trixie as she let out a bitter laughter and walked out of the tower.

This pony… Wasn't she the only one besides me who was proficient in the field of magic? I looked at the seal once again. I sure didn't put it there…

"Thunder?!" I yelled. The turquoise pony in question was debating something with Fleur, but he turned his head as soon as he heard me.

"Yeah?"

"That weird thing you saw is a magic seal. It's preventing us from entering the closet, I can break it, but Trixie doesn't want me to. She says we should first find out where it came from. But the thing is, she is the only one besides me who is a skilled magician. Don't you think it's suspicious that we found a magical seal here and she doesn't want us to touch it? She might be hiding something."

Thunder paused for a moment, thinking it through, then called Caesar and whispered something to him. Caesar nodded and left the tower.

"There, he's keeping an eye on her. I don't think even the Ultimate Illusionist can pull some tricks on that guy," said Thunder.

I nodded in agreement. Trixie was acting a bit suspicious right now, but if she really proved that the seal came from one of the scrolls, then anypony could have cast it, not just unicorns. If she couldn't prove a connection, then only unicorns would be suspects. That would include me…

I stopped that train of thought before it even started, and instead thought about what to do next. I really wanted to just break that seal, but I didn't feel like unnecessarily angering Trixie… yet. I decided to check something else instead.

There was that body on the floor, right in the middle on the tower… I really didn't want to do this. Blue Ray looked as if he got run over by a stampede, just a bit worse. Whoever did this to him didn't hold back, and I felt nauseous just thinking how painful it must have been for him. But I knew I had to investigate his corpse sooner or later. Might as well do it now…

I approached his lifeless body, but then Twitch stopped me dead in my tracks. "No intruders, beat it."

"What? What is the meaning of this?" I asked, confused.

"Twitch and I are on guard duty," said Rainbow Dash out of nowhere. She was hovering above us. "She's the muscle and I'm the lookout, so nopony can alter the crime scene! Thunder's orders."

"But I've been appointed the investigator! I have to at least take a look at him, right?"

"We weren't told anything," retorted Twitch.

"Since when are you following orders?"

Rainbow flied down and landed next to me. "Heeey, don't piss her off, let's just be glad she cooperates, okay?"

"Yeah. Be glad," grunted Twitch. Rainbow Dash shook her head, then continued. "Thunder! Can Twilight look at the body?"

"Urrgh, yes she can! Wasn't that obvious?" he shouted back, obviously irritated about ponies bothering him constantly.

Twitch rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever. Look around. But if I see you doing anything suspicious, there will be a whole lot more blood than there is already, you hear?" she growled.

"Umm… yes?" I answered, trying to stay out of her reach. Twitch was smaller than me, but had muscles and scars all over her body, and that, combined with her title of the Ultimate Fighter, made her one of the most intimidating ponies I knew.

I took a closer look at Blue Ray. I felt like crying again, seeing him like this and knowing that he would never wake up, that I would never hear him speak again. I breathed out and tried to focus on investigating instead. A dislocated wing, a bloody wound on his head, a broken neck, and according to Monokami File, he had some broken ribs too. I couldn't help but wonder: Was all that necessary? Did he get in a fight with his killer? Maybe the killer themselves got some wounds as well?

I looked back at Twitch. At her terrifying posture, her numerous scars… Some of them might have been fresh and nopony would've even noticed. I felt like I found another suspect, but as long as Rainbow Dash was flying around, I didn't need to worry about Twitch destroying any clues. They were watching each other as much as they were watching everypony else.

I took a closer look at the wing. It was actually lying on Blue Ray's back, which made it look very disturbing. No pegasus was able to move their wings into such an angle that they could cover their own back, no wonder Blue Ray's wing got dislocated.

So what did this mean for me? If Blue Ray was standing upright when he got hit, and his wings were open, in order to get in this state his right wing must've been hit from… below? Was that some sort of uppercut? I've never seen a pony do it with their bare hooves, did they have some sort of blunt weapon?

New Truth Bullet: Dislocated Wing

"I… think I'm good for now," I said. I didn't want to look at the corpse any more than necessary, I'd have to ask Thunder or somepony to investigate that for me. I just didn't have the stomach to check him thoroughly.

"That was brief," commented Rainbow. I ignored her and walked up the stairs. I needed to go somewhere, anywhere, just away from Blue Ray and other ponies. I needed to clear my head, I needed a moment of peace, I needed…

What was up with those stairs?

My eyes slowly scanned the stairs below and above me, and I figured out what was so weird about them. The last time I came here to look for enchantments, the stairs were pretty dusty. But now, they were cleaned and even a bit wet…

…But only at some spots.

It was like somepony cleaned random parts of the staircase while not bothering with the rest. I ran up the stairs, looking for all the clean spots. Overall, it looked like roughly one sixth of the stairs got cleaned, while the rest remained untouched. What in Equestria could that mean?

New Truth Bullet: Oddly Cleaned Stairs

I found myself at the top of the tower once again. Somewhere deep below me, my classmates were running around, trying their best to figure out the mystery. I sighed out, thankful for this moment of peace. I looked up, taking deep breaths.

Blood?

There was blood over there!

And my moment of peace was gone in a flash. There was a support beam right under the roof of the tower, and it had a small bloodstain on it. What would it be doing way up here? Could I explain it somehow, using the evidence I've discovered so far?

A picture started forming in my head. Maybe, just maybe…

New Truth Bullet: Bloodstained Support Beam

I fell into a trance as I descended down the staircase. I was mulling over the entire case, wondering about who could be the culprit. Could I trust that theory I had? If yes, then roughly one third of us were already clear of suspicion.

I stopped myself before I could elaborate more. Don't latch onto a theory, Twilight. In one of the books I've read, there was a detective who would always collect all the evidence first, and only then he would start making theories. This way he made sure that he would always alter his theories according to new evidence, and not the other way around.

Blue Ray read this book too. It was his favorite.

I clenched my teeth. I just couldn't stop thinking about him! He just went and died, just a few minutes ago! If the Monokami File was accurate, then he died just as we were being woken up by the morning announcement. Just a few minutes ago!

I arrived to others with tears in my eyes. I wondered: Could somepony cry infinitely, without a break?

"Just in time, Sparky! Look at what the Great and Powerful Trixie discovered while you were slacking off!"

Go away. Just… piss off. You're the last pony I want to see. That's what I wanted to say, but my mouth let out some completely different words. "What is it?"

"I opened this peculiar closet, and look at this evidence I found!"

I would've found that evidence if you didn't stop me. Is fame really so important to you that you have to steal discoveries from others? I looked inside the closet, and what I saw was…

"Is that… A bucket with a mop and bloody water in it?"

"Exactly. No doubt left by the killer after a little clean-up." She glanced over to Blue Ray's messy corpse, and there was a very brief moment of hesitation in her eyes.

"I wonder though…" she mumbled, "what exactly they cleaned."

"Take a closer look at the stairs, Trixie," I said, enjoying this little triumph over her. I figured it out before you did, ha!

New Truth Bullet: Bloody Mop and Bucket

Trixie came back to me, a bitter expression on her face. "So stairs, huh? How did you notice that? Are you used to looking at the floor as you hang your head in shame?"

"No, I just don't keep my head in the clouds all the time, unlike you," I retorted. Where did that come from? Since when was I so vitriolic?

Trixie snorted. "Well… I… If you think that I…"

She grunted in frustration and turned around, storming out of the tower. She shouted back: "And by the way, that seal really did come from the magic classroom! You're welcome!"

Truth Bullet Updated: Magic Seal

And she was gone. It felt good to get her back, but seeing her angered and hurt like this…

I suddenly felt horrible for insulting her. Why did I have to do that? Yes, she was belittling me ever since we met, but I was supposed to be a better pony and ignore her, not to sink to her level! I sat down, feeling ashamed and exasperated from all this. I've had enough. I just wanted to lie down on my bed and sleep it off.

Thunder Roar came in, tired and annoyed. "Why is Trixie walking around the hallway and cursing?"

"Twilight showed her what for!" answered Rainbow Dash. Dammit, Rainbow! Why did you have to say it?

"Yeah, that arrogant bitch was annoying us all to no end. Twilight shut her up," said Twitch.

Thunder Roar looked like he was about to explode. He pulled at his scarf, clenching his teeth. "We have… A bloody corpse… Right here on the floor… And you… Still bicker… Among yourselves?"

"I'm sorry, I lost my patience! I didn't mean to insult her!"

"She deserved it!"

"Yeah."

"But that's not important right now!" Thunder was almost shouting at this point. "We have to discover the killer, or we're all done for! You ponies have your priorities all scrambled, I swear!"

He took a deep breath. "Please tell me you at least found something."

"I did…" I just wanted to die. Thunder was right, I screwed up big time. The murder was important, our petty squabbles and rivalries were not. I felt the shame burning in my chest. I just hung my head, telling Thunder about every piece of evidence I found so far. He listened without interrupting me, nodding his head every once in a while.

"So, is that everything?" he asked after I finished.

"Yes, there's not much else…"

"Thank you for doing this for me. Why don't you go to the cafeteria to calm your nerves? I'll take it from here." I couldn't tell if he was doing this because he saw how distressed I was, or because he wanted to throw me out of here due to the Trixie fiasco. I just nodded and left without another word.

Oh Twilight, you stupid, stupid little filly.

When I entered the cafeteria, I found out that most of our class was here. Trixie was absent, probably sulking in her room. Caesar still had a task of tracking her, so he was nowhere to be seen either. Rainbow and Twitch were on guard duty back in the tower, and Thunder was investigating Blue Ray's death. Everypony else was here, counting ten ponies in total.

Fleur and Octavia were taking care of Tot He Tei, who was just staring off into space. He looked even worse than usual. I approached them slowly, trying my best not to cause any more trouble.

"Is he alright?" I asked.

"Poor colt, he saw the corpse before we could stop him…" said Fleur.

"It was just for a second or two, but still enough to scar him for life," added Octavia.

"Tot He Tei… wants to go home…" The words were lazily rolling off his tongue as if he was in a trance. Fleur gave him a gentle hug.

"We all want to go home, Tot. Don't worry, we'll get out. I promise to him."

"He… wants to go home…"

I couldn't watch anymore. Tot He Tei was apparently so devastated that he couldn't even feel anything. He was just out of it, not even hearing the ponies around him.

We were all pretty much adult ponies. We were shocked from the murder, true, but we could cope with it somehow. Why did Tot have to end up here with us? Why him, why a little foal? Was this meant to make the entire killing game even more cruel?

I wandered around, until I stumbled upon the two inventors. They looked surprisingly well, sounding only a little glum as they discussed the possible culprits.

"I still think it was Twitch. You know, if it turned out this wasn't her first murder, I wouldn't be surprised at all," said Bewilderer.

"But isn't that a bit too obvious? I mean, she would be an ideal pony to frame," retorted Phoenix.

"Bro, it's clearly Twitch. That door slamming this morning, it was her returning from the crime."

My ears perked up. "Uh, I'm sorry I was eavesdropping, but what was that about doors?"

"Oh, hi Twilight," said Bewilderer, changing his tone of voice to be a slightly more chipper. "It's about something that happened this morning. Just before the announcement, I got woken up by somepony slamming the door. It was crazy loud, at first I thought something exploded!"

"I didn't hear anything, though!" protested Phoenix.

"Well, you're a heavy sleeper. And you snore like a chainsaw, no wonder you didn't hear it."

"Shut up."

"Did you check out the hallway?" I asked.

"I did, but there was nopony there. Twitch went inside her room and shut the door behind her, it's logical she wouldn't be there."

I suddenly got an idea and looked at the map Caesar gave us yesterday. This could turn out to be a vital clue.

New Truth Bullet: Bewilderer's Account

New Truth Bullet: Caesar's Map

"This might be important. Thanks a lot, Bewilderer."

"No problem, Twi! Do you have your suspect yet? Phoenix here thinks it was Kunai, but I'm pretty sure it was Twitch."

"I don't want to jump to conclusions, sorry…" I said, but I already had a theory. It wasn't pointing to any specific pony, but it could narrow down the list of suspects considerably. And speaking of Kunai…

There were two ponies who didn't reveal their race. Both Kunai and A. K. Yearling were wearing clothes to hide any potential wings, and they might very well be unicorns as well: Kunai was so good at hiding that she might very well hide a horn under her cloak, and A. K. Yearling was constantly wearing her hat.

I said goodbye to the inventors and headed straight for A. K. Yearling, the Ultimate Writer. I never talked to her, did I? She was such a shut-in and we had so much to worry about in the past few days that I didn't even get to know her properly. If only the circumstances were better…

"Um… Excuse me, miss Yearling?"

She lifted her head from a notebook. Apparently, she's been writing something down. "Hmm?"

"I'm sorry to ask, but… What is your race? It's not exactly easy to tell…"

"Is that relevant to the case?"

"Yes! Yes, it is!"

"Alright. In that case, pegasus. Is that all?"

"Yes, thank you…"

She didn't say one more word to me, instead she went back to scribbling. I walked away, feeling slightly stupid for some reason. Nevertheless, I knew what I wanted to know, A. K. Yearling was a pegasus. Now for Kunai…

"Kunai?" I cried out. There was no answer. Was she even here? I could never tell, what with her invisibility tricks.

"Kunai, are you here?" No answer.

"Did anypony here see Kunai?" I asked everypony. The inventors shrugged, Limpid Lake shook his head and Sunny Day whinnied. "Nopony ever sees Kunai!" he remarked.

"See, bro? She's suspecting her too," said Phoenix with a touch of pride in his voice.

The door suddenly opened to reveal Thunder Roar and Caesar. They were talking about something.

"That reminds me, Caesar, I need to know who was here in cafeteria for a breakfast and who was absent."

"Don't look at me, I wasn't here."

"…Alright. Hey, ponies, we need to put our heads together! We have to make a list of ponies that were absent when we had our breakfast today!" Thunder was addressing all of us.

"Uhh, why exactly do we need that?" asked Sunny Day.

"Whoever wasn't present in the cafeteria during the breakfast is automatically a suspect. The murder happened sometime around 7 am, so the ones who were here have a pretty solid alibi," explained Thunder Roar.

"I am a suspect? Interesting," said Caesar. He stretched his wings a bit, then looked at us. "So? Who is going to make that list?"

"A. K. Yearling already has her notebook out," pointed out Phoenix. The pony in question just sighed in resignation.

"Fine, fine… Just dictate the names. I'll write them down."

"Caesar," said Caesar.

"Tiny Twitch was gone too, obviously," said Bewilderer.

"Tiny? I was not aware of that nickname. Did you conjure it in your mind?" asked Limpid Lake.

"That's her full name, you didn't know? It's right on her door, and Caesar wrote it in his map, too! Just don't say it when she's around."

"Okay then, Caesar and Twitch. I also don't remember seeing Kunai, but that might just be her hiding," said Thunder.

"Nopony ever sees Kunai!" exclaimed Sunny Day.

"We didn't see her here, which means no alibi. Write her down," ordered Caesar.

"Wait a minute, I didn't see you either, Yearling!" said Phoenix out of nowhere.

A. K. Yearling, who was silently writing down names until now, raised her head and burned Phoenix with her gaze. "Don't shout at me."

"But, you weren't here with us, were you?" asked Fleur hesitantly.

"…No, I suppose I wasn't," sighed A. K .Yearling and she reluctantly wrote her own name on the list of suspects.

New Truth Bullet: Breakfast Attendance

So this was it. The ponies who missed breakfast and therefore had no alibi were Caesar, Twitch, A. K. Yearling and possibly Kunai. I compared it to my own theory and realized that out of four ponies, I ruled out only one. There were still three suspects left…

…Assuming everything we've assumed was correct, which it most likely wasn't.

I got startled by a ringing bell, a telltale sign of Monokami's announcements.

"Time's up, sweethearts! Everypony please gather at the garbage disposal, the class trial is waiting for us! Remember, participation is mandatory, waaauuu!"

The garbage disposal? Why there, of all places?

"Is this wolf for real?" asked Sunny Day.

"He plans to condemn us to the pits of Tartarus by the means of unholy fires. The nerve!" shouted Limpid Lake.

"He's not gonna burn us like some trash, for Celestia's sake," said Thunder Roar. "Let's just go there and see what happens. Knowing Monokami, this is probably some demented joke."

He left, closely followed by Caesar. We all got up one by one, leaving as well. We went straight to the dark, spacious warehouse, which was pretty much right across the hallway, and there we entered the door to the garbage disposal. It didn't take long before Twitch and Rainbow arrived, with annoyed Trixie right behind them. She was avoiding me, and while that was certainly an improvement over constant bullying, I wasn't sure I was happy with it. Kunai probably arrived as well, I couldn't tell. This was pretty much the darkest part of the entire school, and she could disappear even in the most illuminated rooms.

The garbage disposal really wasn't a room anypony would want to hang out in. A shadowy, cold room full of dust, the only features being some shelves with forgotten items of zero value and a big burner at the far side wall, humming and spewing out flames. I felt like I was in a crematorium.

Monokami fell from the ceiling and shattered himself on the floor, startling us. Then he put himself back together, with a goofy grin on his black-and-white face.

"Thank you sweethearts for arriving so early! I'm so happy to see your eagerness to crack this case wide open, and then crack the killer's head, also wide open! Just like they cracked poor Blue Ray's head, am I right?"

"So are we supposed to hold a class trial in this garbage pit?" asked Thunder Roar, obviously exasperated and annoyed. He had to deal with so much stuff today, I didn't envy him at all.

"Oh no no no! This wouldn't do at all! I have prepared a glamorous courtroom, this is just where the entrance is!"

The burner made a weird, squeaky, metallic noise as the flames disappeared and the whole thing pulled itself apart. The squeak turned into a screech, and soon many of us were sitting down, covering our ears with our front hooves. When the unbearable noise stopped, what was in front of us wasn't a burner anymore. It was a stairway going somewhere deep below the building.

"If you are prepared, please proceed in an orderly fashion," said Monokami with an overly pompous voice.

"B-burning in the flames of T-Tartarus," stuttered Limpid Lake, visibly shaking. Fleur started consoling him as we walked into the open metallic jaws one by one. Thunder and Trixie went in first, then Rainbow and Sunny Day went straight after them. I went next, followed by Caesar.

Were we really walking down the pits of Tartarus, forever to be consumed by flames? Probably not literally…

…But we could easily end up dead in the next hour.

We were all silent. There was not a single sound but clopping of our hooves against cold stone stairs. It was a long way down, longer than I was comfortable with. The air was weirdly hot, only reinforcing that "stairway to Tartarus" feeling.

There were two possibilities. Out of fifteen ponies going down right now, only fourteen would go back up. Or only one, depending on how we decide. Blue Ray wasn't going to be our only casualty, and that made a lump form in my throat.

One of us killed him.

And because for that, we must participate in the class trial.

Deadly, cruel class trial.

The stairs were really, really long.

The clopping of our hooves was making the silence all the more oppressive.

I wasn't going to die today. No. Spike needed me. Princess Celestia needed me.

Everypony needed me.

I need to do this. I need to win.

PREPARATION: Can you figure it out?

MONOKAMI FILE #1:
The victim was Blue Ray, a 17 year old pegasus. Time of death is 6:56 am. He has suffered numerous injuries: Two left ribs have been broken, his right wing has been dislocated, and his head has suffered a blunt force trauma. The killer also managed to break his neck, which can be safely assumed to be the fatal wound. No foreign substances (poison, sleeping drugs etc.) were found in his bloodstream.

INSTINCTS OF CLAIRVOYANT RAY:
According to Twilight Sparkle, Blue Ray has been trying to use his Ultimate Talent in order to discover any soon-to-be murderers before they even strike. His alleged abilities led him to believe that one such pony was already lurking in the school, and he stayed on a night watch in order to disrupt their plans.

MAGIC SEAL:
The door to the closet under the stairs has been locked by a magical seal. Its origin was traced back to the magic classroom, containing many scrolls with similar seals. Therefore, the perpetrator was not necessarily a unicorn.

DISLOCATED WING:
Blue Ray’s right wing has been dislocated from a powerful blow that tore away many of his feathers, which were scattered all around him. The nature of the wound suggests that the blow was dealt from “below”, as if with an uppercut.

ODDLY CLEANED STAIRS:
The stairs in the central tower have been cleaned very recently, but only at certain spots scattered randomly along the staircase. The rest was left dusty.

BLOODSTAINED SUPPORT BEAM:
Near the ceiling at the very top of the tower, there is a wooden support beam. A small bloodstain was found on the side of it.

BLOODY MOP AND BUCKET:
The closet in the central tower was hiding a mop and a bucket full of bloody water.

BEWILDERER’S ACCOUNT:
Bewilderer got woken up just before 7 am by a loud noise in the hallway. According to him, it sounded as if somepony smashed their door closed. He looked outside, but saw nopony.

CAESAR’S MAP:
A map made by the Ultimate Mathematician. It displays the locations of all the rooms we can access.

BREAKFAST ATTENDANCE:
The murder occurred immediately before breakfast and it is highly unlikely that the culprit went straight from the crime scene to the cafeteria. The ponies who missed breakfast are Tiny Twitch, the Ultimate Fighter; Caesar, the Ultimate Mathematician; Kunai, the Ultimate Shadow; and A. K. Yearling, the Ultimate Writer.

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