Where were we?

As we emerged from a dark corridor, we found ourselves in a weird, round room. The wall surrounding us was barren, but full of clashing colors, mixed into an abhorrent swirling pattern that made me sick. In the middle of the room were sixteen small wooden stands arranged in a circle, and behind them was a large, comfy looking bed with blood red sheets. Monokami was sprawled all over it, waggling his tail as he saw us approach.

"Is everypony here? Yes? Good, good! Then please proceed to look for your assigned seat so we can begin!"

We did as he said, walking around the circle of wooden stands, until each of us found the one with their name on it. I shuddered as I saw that one of the stands was already occupied; not by a pony, but with a large grey-scale portrait of Blue Ray, crossed out in blood.

"What… is that?" asked Rainbow Dash, her voice shaking a bit as she half opened her wings.

"It would be incredibly unfair if Blue Ray didn't get a chance to participate in the class trial just because he got murdered! So I thought of a way to keep him with us, one that didn't directly involve his corpse… Although that was the original plan."

"I hate you… I hate you so much," growled Twitch.

"Same here," spat out Thunder Roar.

"Aww, that's not very nice! You know, I went to such great lengths to save your miserable little lives, you might at least try to show some gratitude!"

"What?" My ears perked up when I heard what Monokami said. What did he mean…?

"Don't listen to the wolf, my friends. He is a cunning beast that fights not with claws, but with words," said Limpid Lake haughtily.

"Enough chit-chat!" exclaimed Monokami. "We are here for the class trial, so let's get this show on the road before you ponies bore me to death!"

"First, a little reminder of how the proceedings will go. The purpose of the class trial is to find out who is responsible for the recent murder, to expose the Blackened. You will all participate in a discussion, presenting evidence and arguments, and once you've reached a conclusion, the killer will be decided by a popular vote! If you select the Blackened, they and only they will be executed, and you will be able to continue your lives here! But if you accuse the wrong pony… I will punish everypony besides the Blackened, and they will be set free! So, without further ado, let's begin!"

"Umm, let me get his straight. So one of us really murdered Blue Ray, one of the fifteen ponies here?" asked Sunny Day.

"I thought that was a given! Why'd you ask something so stupid?" cried out Phoenix.

Sunny Day frowned on him. "I just wanted to make completely sure we didn't misunderstand. Something tells me that we should pay attention to wording of each and every sentence."

"Exactly. Let us cooperate, I am sure we can discover the culprit if we try!" said Fleur, once again using her ultimate weapon: A disarming smile.

"A whole is more than the sum of its parts," agreed Limpid Lake.

"Just out of curiosity, how do you know who the culprit is, Monokami?" asked Thunder Roar.

"I have eyes everywhere, dear ponies, I saw the whole thing play out like in a theater, clear as day!" Monokami barked excitedly.

We looked at each other, waiting for the next pony to speak up. I let out a confused "uhh", my gaze switching between ponies. Caesar? Thunder? Fleur?

"So, where do we start?" asked Bewilderer.

Caesar hummed in thought. "Hmm. I suggest to first focus on how Blue Ray died. His wounds were very unusual."

Fleur was levitating a piece of paper in front of her. "According to Monokami File, he had two broken ribs, dislocated wing, a head injury, and a broken neck. What do we make of this?"

I already had my working theory. But… it sounded a bit silly and it was full of holes. I was sure I was just missing something, so I stayed silent, hoping that others would come up with a better explanation. I would just confuse them…

"Sounds to me like he was brutally beaten to death. Which means Twitch is our main suspect," said A. K. Yearling.

"You're going straight for the jugular, huh?" said Twitch, a wicked smile slowly growing on her face, gradually morphing into a psychotic grin. "Just like me when I face a pony who pisses me off. Would you be willing to bet your life on that little claim, writer?" she hissed.

"Jeebus, Twitch, calm down!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

"You are threatening ponies again!" said Fleur in an urgent voice. "Didn't I tell you that it would only make you more suspicious? You brought this on yourself, you know."

"I'm not threatening anyone," said Twitch, seething. "Did you guys seriously forget already? If we choose the wrong pony, all of us are gonna die. So, writer, are you really so sure that I'm the killer? Because your life hinges on it!"

A. K. Yearling recoiled from that. "I'm… I'm not one hundred percent sure that you're the killer, but-"

"But NOTHING! Save your accusations for the closing argument!" yelled Twitch. "There's nothing that's pointing to me. So shut up and fuck you. You've done no investigating as far as I know. Your theories are biased, no-evidence bullcrap."

Octavia immediately came to life and scolded Twitch. "Watch the language, there is a foal here!"

I took a quick glance at Tot He Tei. Poor colt was just looking at ground, shaking.

"And once again, you are all bickering. We are all dead if this keeps up," remarked Caesar dryly. "Blue Ray died. How? That's what we're here for, simpletons."

A. K. Yearling nodded. "He was beaten to death, that's quite obvious. The killer had to use their own hooves and combat prowess!"

Dislocated Wing

"No, that's wrong!"

"Umm, excuse me?"

I froze, not sure what to say. "I… I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think I can agree with that. You see, Blue Ray's wing was draped over his back. That means his wing was either pulled over him, or it got hit from below as it was extended. An unarmed pony wouldn't be able to hit from such an angle."

"I can attest to that," said Kunai. She's somehow been hiding on her stand, only revealing herself now. "Unlike in armed combat, you cannot perform an uppercut with bare hooves. Those ninja movies from Applewood are… inaccurate."

"They are?" asked Limpid Lake, shock in his voice. "The moving pictures spin tall tales? This is an outrage! I was promised true stories!"

"You were fooled," stated Kunai matter-of-factly.

"Then if it couldn't be done with bare hooves, was the killer armed? But where would they hide the weapon?" pondered Bewilderer.

I saw Trixie giving me a death glare again. But this time, I felt something strange, as if her gaze was subtly different than usual. She wasn't expressing her hate this time. She was pushing me so I would speak up again. She was daring me to talk.

Bloody Mop and Bucket

Bloodstained Support Beam

Oddly Cleaned Stairs

It's all making sense.

"If I may..." I paused for a moment, still unsure if I should share my theory with the others. But then I reminded myself what exactly was at stake here. If I held back, we could all die. I could worry about any embarrassing moments later. "I don't think Blue Ray was beaten to death at all. I think he fell down from the top of the tower. All the wounds, including the wing and the neck, could have happened that way. I found a bloodstain on the support beam all the way up under the tower's roof, and the stairs were cleaned sporadically."

"Wait what? A bloodstain on the beam? I didn't see that," chimed in Rainbow Dash, confused.

"You weren't the one investigating. And I assure you that Twilight is not making these facts up: I personally checked all the evidence she reported," grumbled Thunder Roar. "Now be silent and let her finish."

He directed his intense gaze at me, his eyes begging me to end this trial right now, if at all possible. I took a deep breath and continued. "My guess is that those cleaned spots on the stairs, they were the places... that Blue Ray hit on his way down, leaving them bloodied. The killer then wiped the blood using the mop we found in the closet."

"No, that's wrong!"

That interruption startled me. I whipped my head around in confusion, trying to find the pony who said that.

She wasn't hard to find. Trixie was looking at me with what I can only describe as a shit-eating grin. She was also uncomfortably close, only Rainbow Dash was seated between her and me.

"A beautiful theory you made up, Sparky, but your story has one major hole."

"What would that be? It made sense to me," wondered Fleur.

"Same here. Right, bro?" "Right!" the inventor brothers agreed.

"Not to me, though," Rainbow Dash said, giving me a weird look. "Twilight, Blue Ray was a pegasus. We kinda don't fall, we have wings." She demonstrated by flapping her own set, raising above the ground briefly.

Oh no... they were already poking holes in my theory, I knew I would regret sharing it!

"And what's more," added Trixie, "cleaning up the stairs, hiding the mop in the closet and sealing it with magic, all of that takes time. Time that our killer didn't have. The murder occurred at 6:56 am, do you really believe that all this could be done in four minutes?!"

She was enjoying it. She probably didn't even care if I was right or not, she just wanted to make my life difficult.

A. K. Yearling came to my rescue, to the surprise of everypony involved. "Rainbow Dash: Do you fly even when unconscious? That bloodstain up in the tower might very well have been the killer knocking out Blue Ray. And Trixie: If there was no time to clean, how do you explain the mop and bucket?"

"Red herring, maybe?" Trixie retorted.

"Setting up a red herring and locking it with a magic seal takes time. Time our killer didn't have."

I almost managed to keep my silly giggling at bay. Leave it up to the Ultimate Writer to point out inconsistencies in a story, using the narrator's own words! Trixie looked as if she swallowed a whole cart of lemons, her murderous gaze deflected by A. K. Yearling's disinterested, bored demeanor.

Thunder Roar slammed his head into the wooden stand, heaving an exasperated sigh. This got him the attention of the whole class.

"Why do you think I had Yearling write up the breakfast attendance, you idiots?" he mumbled, rolling his head around and throwing the paper in the middle of the circle. It fluttered to the ground slowly.

"What Roar is trying to say is that only ponies who didn't attend breakfast had enough time to commit the murder and clean up the crime scene," clarified Caesar. "Kunai, Twitch, A.K. Yearling, and, sadly, me."

"Of course I'm a suspect," mumbled Twitch, vitriol in every syllable that went out of her mouth. "Go ahead, I'm already getting used to it."

"Suspicious waves this mare emits," commented Limpid Lake.

"Sounds like a tacit confession to me!" cried out Bewilderer triumphantly.

"Is not. And shut your face, both of you."

Bewilderer didn't let himself slow down. "It's true, isn't it? Out of those four ponies, you are the most likely suspect!"

His mind was latching onto one single goal: To convict Twitch. I had a feeling that Bewilderer and Phoenix had made some sort of bet, one that he was trying to win no matter what. Didn't he realize that choosing the wrong suspect could kill us all? Was his head in the clouds, or just short a few cogs?

I had to intervene, before Twitch started cracking skulls.

Bloodstained Support Beam

"No, that's wrong!"

"Urgh... what is it?" grumbled Bewilderer, annoyed that somepony stole his thunder.

"Have you seen the top-most section of the tower?" I asked.

"No..."

"If you did, you would know that the support beam runs close to the roof and is unreachable to unicorns and earth ponies. I doubt Twitch could jump about ten meters in the air and kill Blue Ray that way. And even if she did, she would fall down the tower, along with her victim!"

"Oh..." Bewilderer seemed dejected, the poor guy. Phoenix, on the other hoof, looked almost smug. He cleared his throat.

"So, the killer must have been a pegasus?" he asked.

"Or a unicorn," I added, not too happy to disclose that fact. My classmates seemed eager to pounce on the smallest opportunity to accuse other ponies, desperate to find the real culprit. "Unicorn could have used a spell at a long range."

"Stun spell, blinding flash, gravity flips, wind manipulation, aerial explosion, or just levitate a stone and hit him with it," listed Trixie with a small smile on her face. "There are many ways to shoot a pegasus out of the sky."

The room plunged into awkward silence for a few seconds. Then Limpid Lake spoke up. "That mare's mad."

"Anyway," I continued, "I can't imagine how Twitch, an earth pony, would go about killing Blue Ray in such a way that would result in a bloodstain on the beam. In my opinion, she is in the clear, and so are all the other earth ponies: Octavia, Tot He Tei, Limpid Lake and Bewilderer."

Phoenix was still smiling, suspiciously eyeing an empty stand. No, wrong, Kunai's stand. I grunted in frustration and focused my gaze on her almost invisible figure. Yes, she was still there, noticing our glares.

"Is there a problem?" she asked silently.

"In fact, there is. Two of our suspects are of unknown race. You and Yearling," said Phoenix.

"A.K. Yearling is a pegasus," I clarified quickly. But Kunai... That's right, I never got a chance to ask her about that. A grim thought crossed my head. What if I couldn't speak with her because she was avoiding me? Could it be that she was... guilty?

"Come on, Kunai, take off that cloak," said Rainbow Dash encouragingly.

"And no tricks, or you're dead," growled Twitch.

Kunai stayed silent, raising her hoof in slow, deliberate fashion. She pressed a black clasp under her neck, and the cloak came loose.

Then it got blasted away by something.

Kunai rapidly opened her wings. Dark olive, massive, beautiful wings. I was stunned. The only other pony I knew who could compete with Kunai's wingspan was Princess Celestia herself. With her cloak gone and her wings fully revealed, The Ultimate Shadow looked... odd, alien.

"Dark angel..."

"Wooow..."

"Scary..."

The wings seemed two sizes too large to her, maybe that was it. No, her muzzle also didn't look quite right, it was just a teeny tiny bit longer than I was used to. She must have immigrated from some very distant lands.

I also got a look at her cutiemark for the first time. I was not at all surprised to see a black, thick blade with a thin handle. Kunai, of course.

Her wings... there was something wrong with them, besides their size. They had darker spots at some places... I squinted, trying to figure out what it was...

"You keep kunais hidden in your wings...?" asked Bewilderer, bewildered.

"Plural of kunai is just kunai," clarified our dark olive, big-winged suspect. "And yes. I keep them hidden among my feathers. It is also how I throw them, with a flick of my wings. So now you know. Does that make me suspicious?"

"The answer is so obvious I'm not even gonna bother," said Rainbow Dash bitterly. Was that... jealousy I heard in her voice? I took a quick glance at her, and suddenly understood where the bitter tone was coming from. Wing envy, of course.

"Blue Ray mentioned to me that he was a martial artist!" exclaimed Phoenix. "That means Caesar or A.K. Yearling wouldn't stand a chance against him! Twitch would, but she had no way of reaching him! That leaves only you, Kunai! Out of all the ponies without the breakfast alibi, you are the only one who was able to kill!" After his accusation, he flashed a cocky smile to Bewilderer. They DID make some sort of bet, the stupid colts. I made a mental note to scold them both after the class trial, and explain to them that this was no game.

Kunai stayed silent, folding her wings. Her countenance stayed calm and collected, as if she was not just accused of murder.

"Is that actually true? Did you do it, Kunai? Why?" asked Thunder Roar threateningly. Fleur de Lis, on the other hoof, assured her: "We have not cast our vote yet. If you explain yourself appropriately, you can save yourself... and possibly all of us."

"Explain myself. What am I supposed to say?" asked Kunai. "Yesterday I opened the box that Monokami gave me. The contents were... distressing, and I faced a hard decision right then. My shrine... my shrine is in danger. And in order to get there in time, I would have to doom all of you."

She sighed. "I almost gave in. Almost. But I decided against it."

Thunder Roar pierced her with his eyes. "And we should believe you why?"

"Because I have never done anything to earn your distrust. Yes, I was absent from breakfast. Yes, I had means of killing Blue Ray. But that is not enough. All you have against me is circumstantial evidence..." She looked at Phoenix. "...and prejudice."

I hated to admit it, but she had a point. Our evidence convicting Kunai was flimsy at best. Still, I couldn't think of another candidate. We had nopony else to suspect at this point. Or were we overlooking something? I felt like we were overlooking something.

"Is there anypony else who we should suspect? I hate to break it to you, Kunai, but you are our best bet," said Thunder Roar.

"Wait. Before you cast your vote..." Kunai went silent for a few seconds and looked at Fleur de Lis. "You are the Ultimate Diplomat, correct?"

"Y-yes... what does that have to do with anything?" Fleur suddenly looked unsure, scared even.

"Good. You will understand the gravity of what I am about to do."

Kunai spread her wings and raised her forehooves, adopting a biped stance. We all recoiled, scared that knives would start flying towards our throats any second now. Twitch wanted to pounce on her, but Octavia, who was standing just to the right of her, gently stopped her.

Kunai shielded her belly with her wings. Staying in this unusual pose, she cited:

"I, silent observer Kunai, daughter of honorable warrior Shuriken and fair foreigner Atlanta, member of Katsuki shrine and sworn enemy of all things evil, vow this on my honor, life and legacy: I was not the one who murdered Blue Ray, our classmate at the Future Academy, and I shall protect the lives of every one of my classmates with all my might until we cease to be classmates."

She unfolded her wings and fell back on all four. We all exchanged confused glances.

"The fuck was that supposed to prove?" asked Twitch, for once showing a different emotion than barely contained anger. She was just as befuddled as anypony else.

"It was just words. Words can be said, written, proofread, translated, read, enjoyed, criticized, but they should never be trusted. Sorry Kunai," said Thunder Roar with heavy voice.

"For once I agree with the critic," chimed in A.K. Yearling. "All fifteen of us could make the same vow right now, and it would get us exactly nowhere."

Fleur de Lis and Limpid Lake both seemed absolutely stunned. Fleur gulped, waving her hoof in front of her, slowly regaining her composure. "No. Friends, you misunderstand, let me explain."

All the eyes were on her.

"As you can... probably tell, I am quite shocked by what I have just witnessed. Kunai, for those of you who don't know, comes from overseas, from the far east. Culture there is... different from ours. What you just heard weren't "words", it was a solemn vow on one's honor, life and legacy. That means... if Kunai lied just now, or broke her promise, she would become a fugitive in her homeland... no, worse than that. A filthy worm. It is legal, even encouraged to harass, hurt or even kill the oathbreakers. Their name is erased from history books, chronicles and genealogy trees, their families live in shame for entire generations. What Kunai just did... happens rarely, about once in pony's lifetime, if even that."

"Big deal!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "Her life is on a line, it is better to swear a fake oath than die!"

At that very moment, Rainbow yelped as a flurry of knives assaulted her stand. Three kunai embedded themselves in the wood, which was the only thing that kept them from burrowing in Rainbow's chest right there.

"DO NOT. Ever say that again," exclaimed Kunai, raising her voice for the first time ever. Her eyes were glimmering in righteous fury, but her face stayed stoic.

"NOW YOU'VE DONE IT!" screeched Twitch, already galloping around the circle towards Kunai. She almost managed to hit her, but the pegasus flapped her wings and leaped back, hovering just out of reach.

"Faux-pas! Faux-pas! That's all it was! Twitch, calm down! Calm down! Rainbow didn't mean to insult your honor, Kunai! Twitch, no!" screamed Fleur desperately, not knowing which one of the two dangerous mares to address first.

Twitch was about to pounce at Kunai, but yelped as she got yanked back by something. It was Monokami, hoding her tail in his terrifying jaws.

"Thish ish a classh trial!" he growled through strands of brown hair, then spat them out and continued. "Order in the court!"

All went silent. Monokami waved his paw towards Twitches' stand, and she begrudgingly obliged. It was a small wonder, I thought, that she didn't pummel Monokami's snout as soon as he grabbed her. I didn't know her much, but I could tell that took a lot of self-control from her side. Just like all of us, she probably still remembered the beating Monokami gave to the last pony who threatened him.

Kunai gracefully descended to her own stand, landing without any noise whatsoever.

"I admit, it is heartwarming to see you guys so eager to murder each other, but it wouldn't be fun if all of you got killed at once! One murder is enough for the day. Actually, let's write that down, shall we? New rule!"

Something flashed in Bewilderer's pocket. He jumped up, startled, his wig lifting off his bald head and landing slightly off.

Bewilderer fixed his fake hair and took out a paper from his pocket; It was his list of "Nightmare Academy" rules. To his amazement, and to the surprise of all of us, they were edited:

--NIGHTMARE ACADEMY: THE RULES AND GUIDELINES--

1) Leaving the school grounds is strictly forbidden. However, you can explore the academy itself with minimal restrictions.

2) Each student has been assigned their own dormitory room. Entering other students' rooms without their consent is considered a serious privacy violation.

3) Any aggression towards headmaster Monokami is strictly forbidden.

4) All the students are obligated to participate in class trials, as well as the final voting at the end of each trial.

5) NEW RULE! Only one murder can occur per day. Headmaster Monokami's executions are, of course, excluded from this limit.

6) Any violation of the above rules will be punished accordingly. There are no exceptions.

7) Further rules may be added by headmaster Monokami as needed.

Monokami showed us once again the degree of magical power he possessed. I could do many things, but writing on a paper I didn't see? That was out of my league. Wait, he even made extra space between the rules 5 and 6, changed their numbers to 6 and 7, and used the space to write down the new rule 5! He could not only write on the paper, he could also edit it!

"Now back to the class trial! Woof woof!" he exclaimed, goading us with a threatening bark.

The atmosphere in the courtroom tensed up after Monokami's intervention. He wanted us to play by his rules, and our escalations into physical conflict didn't seem to fit his image of the game.

"I swear, nopony's gonna have to kill me if this keeps up. I'm just gonna do it myself..." whimpered Thunder Roar, propping his hooves on the stand. "Now listen here! Evidence seems to point to Kunai, but that little stunt with oath is apparently a big deal. Our lives are at stake, so let's think through every possibility! Is there something we missed? Something we've assumed wrong? Anypony has anything, speak up! And if you start any more conflicts, I'm gonna blow a vein!"

The room went silent for a while. Then Octavia raised her hoof. "Uhm, I am sorry if this topic is so obvious that it doesn't warrant discussion, but we haven't touched upon the Magic Seal at all. The one on the closet door."

"Yeah? What of it?" asked Bewilderer.

"I am just saying we didn't talk this one through at all. Where did the seal come from? Who could have cast it?"

"It wasn't just unicorns, if that's what you are thinking," said Thunder Roar. "The origin of the seal was traced back to the 1-1-A classroom, it was contained in one of the scrolls. Anypony could have cast it."

"Who confirmed that fact?" asked Octavia. Thunder Roar went crosseyed, making a face one would make if he was hit by a wet blanket. "Oh goddammit, I know what you're getting at. This information was confirmed by Trixie."

"Who could lie in order to take us down the wrong path. And her magic could allow her to clean the crime scene in a record time, which would mean she would be able to attend breakfast too," claimed Octavia.

Wow. Just wow... I thought the smart ones here were Roar, Trixie, Caesar and me, maybe Fleur or A.K. Yearling in some regards. But Octavia just revealed something I would've never figured out, betraying wisdom that most ponies here were definitely lacking.

"Hahaha, you cannot be serious. To shift blame on The Great and Powerful Trixie, based on such flimsy evidence..."

"Moreover," Octavia continued, "while it is possible that anypony could have cast that seal, only a skilled spellcaster would know where to look for it. I doubt anypony besides Trixie or Twilight would come up with an idea to barricade the evidence in this manner. And let's not forget the advantage that unicorns have over us: Levitation. The cleanup would be very fast with that sort of ability, I imagine."

I gulped, feeling the suspicious glances on me. Now it was me and Trixie who were under scrutiny.

"Guys, this paranoia ain't helping anybody," said Sunny Day. "Trixie's a bit haughty, but both she and Twily are just too cute to be the killers!" He winked at me with a smirk. I didn't know what to do, so I made myself look as small as I could. Trixie let out a derisive harrumph, and Rainbow Dash shot Sunny Day a dirty look.

"While it's a nice thing to say, Sunny, we can't afford to be trusting," said Thunder. "If it was cookies in a jar, fine. But it was a pony's life that was taken. Trixie and Twilight have to defend themselves if they want to be in the clear, we can't assume their innocence because they are quote unquote cute."

"Fine, fine, I'm just sayin', this kind of atmosphere..."

I interrupted him. "It's okay, Sunny. Thanks for your vote of confidence, I appreciate it," I said as tactfully as I could.

"I agree with the son of the pharaoh. Positive waves yield positive result," Limpid Lake whispered dramatically.

Octavia gave Thunder Roar a strange look. "You are a unicorn too, Roar. Wouldn't that make you a suspect as well? Aren't you going to raise any objections against that?"

"I guess it would. And no, I won't," he responded with calmness.

"This is a travesty. Well, since neither Sparky nor mister critic seem too eager to defend the honor of us unicorns, I shall do so in their stead! Bring it on, Octavia!" exclaimed Trixie, her gaudy cape fluttering dramatically and a spark of determination in her eyes. Octavia stepped up, her countenance uncharacteristically stony and clashing with her beautiful, well-groomed mane.

The entire court room went silent as the two mares locked gazes and duked it out in a battle of wits.

Trixie Lulamoon ---X--- Octavia Philharmonica
CROSS SWORDS!

"First off! Let me rebuke those so-called arguments of yours. Regarding the magic seal, it still stands that absolutely anypony could have cast them!"

"I didn't dispute that. I just pointed out that it was far more likely to be somepony who had experience with spells. I, for one, had no idea such a sealing spell even existed."

"It is not my fault you are illiterate. Besides, it would take you a minute at most to enter the classroom 1-1-A and find the necessary scroll! You could literally stumble upon it by pure chance!"

"Are you forgetting the time frame in which the murder took place? Four minutes, Trixie. If I had that little time, I would certainly not go exploring nearby rooms."

"Which is exactly why the main suspects should be ponies who did not attend breakfast, and who would therefore have more time! I still cannot believe you let Kunai off the hook just because of her silly stunt!"

"We did not let her off the hook. We are merely exploring other possibilities."

"Well then this has led you nowhere."

"Are you sure? What if you cast the magic seal yourself, without using the scroll at all?"

"Preposterous. This is... a very intricate procedure without any help or prior preparation..."

"You could have prepared beforehoof. And you led us to believe that you are a skilled magic user-"

"I can't cast it! There. I said it. I said it! I can't cast a spell that advanced, and neither can most of this classroom. Why, Fleur, Phoenix and Roar barely even use their horns! They are not even unicorns, more like mud ponies with ice-cream cones stuck to their forehead!"

"And Twilight Sparkle?"

"Of course, she is a different story entirely. A unicorn can only learn magic pertaining to their special talent. But her talent IS MAGIC, so all bets are off."

"Is this true, or are you making things up?"

"This is common knowledge that even complete country hicks should possess! Go on, ask anypony with a horn. They will agree with what I've just said. So I couldn't have done it, there would simply be no time for a seal."

"You could have taken it before the murder. And you could have saved up a lot of time on cleaning by using simple, everyday telekinesis. You... can cast that, right?"

"Don't play with fire, pony. And would you explain to me why I should even bother with a seal? To my mind, that just screams "Hey, the murderer is a magic user!" Why would I actively create evidence against myself? Do you think me completely dim-witted? Word of advice: It doesn't pay to assume everypony is the same as you."

"You seem to have a bone to pick with Twilight Sparkle. Just a few seconds ago you pointed out how she was capable of casting the seal without the scroll, while you weren't. A simple trick to frame her, maybe?"

"Well aren't you a cocky one. Any proof of that claim?"

"Everything you've said and done until this point. The fact you sent Twilight elsewhere to "investigate" the seal yourself, the fact nopony checked your claims of its origin for some reason, the way you attempted to direct blame on Twilight just now. Need I say more?"

"Twilight planned to destroy the seal outright, I had to step in for the sake of preserving evidence. Nopony checked my claims? Well, as far as I know, that was Thunder's job, and it's not my problem if he failed miserably. And I did not attempt to direct any blame. I merely stated the facts, to whom they point is another ting entirely. To sum it up, your evidence is circumstantial, insubstantial, and just plain wrong. Face it."

"Well, what if..."

"What if what?!"

"..."

The storm had subsided. Trixie was sporting a victorious smile, while Octavia didn't let her defeat subtract from her elegance and charm.

"Nice drama, geniuses. We've moved exactly nowhere," commented Twitch bitterly.

"I wouldn't say that," said Fleur de Lis. "This exchange opened our eyes to new possibilities."

"Exactly, what caught my attention was the bit about murderer taking the scroll with the spell beforehoof. That means it would take almost no time to cast the seal during the cleanup, and anypony could have researched it long before the murder, meaning Twilight and Trixie can't be suspected just because of their arcane knowledge. Why didn't we think of that before?" asked Thunder Roar. "And on that note, why didn't I think of checking the validity of Trixie's claims? That was a major oversight, sorry everyone. Won't happen again."

"Not if we get killed because of it," sneered A. K. Yearling.

"Another thing. Kunai is no longer our only suspect, though she still is the main one," said Caesar.

"What do you mean by that?!" Phoenix was positively outraged by that claim. To my surprise, it was Bewilderer who explained it to him.

"Well, most of us had the breakfast alibi, right? But that alibi is not completely airtight, as it turns out. While we haven't found anything pointing directly to them, unicorns could have conceivably killed Blue Ray, cleaned up the room in time, return to their quarters and then go to the cafeteria as if nothing happened."

"Not cool bro! I have a horn too, you know? You're making me sound like a suspect!"

"So, who are our suspects? Just to revise," asked Fleur. Caesar lazily flexed his wings, cleared his throat and dutifully cited:

"Main suspect: Kunai. Skilled in combat, able to reach Blue Ray up on the support beam, missing alibi. Other suspects: A. K. Yearling and me, Caesar. Also able to reach Blue Ray, also missing alibi, but lacking any combat prowess. Twilight Sparkle and Trixie Lulamoon, also able to reach Blue Ray with magic, alibi invalid due to their abilities. Other unicorns are very unlikely, but still possible suspects: Fleur de Lis, Thunder Roar and Phoenix. Everypony else is cleared, either by being an earth pony, or having a solid alibi."

Something was nagging me, and for once it wasn't Trixie. It was a sudden, annoying feeling. Something was wrong. Completely, utterly wrong. We were missing something. What was it? I got completely lost in thought, leaving others to their discussion. What were we assuming wrong? Where did we misstep? The only thing I knew was that if we chose to vote now, we would be doomed forever.

Bewilderer shared that odd piece of information with me shortly before the trial. He heard doors slamming shut. That could've been literally anything, Twitch lived nearby and she could have had a foul morning. Or it could be something else...

"But that alibi is not completely airtight, as it turns out."

That was it! I got it!

"So... do we take our chances? Do we vote for Kunai and hope for the best? I don't know how to continue this trial, we are stumped," said Thunder Roar, frustration apparent in his voice.

"WAIT!" I screamed. "We got it wrong! There is one more suspect!"

Everypony looked at me funny, as if I just fell off an apple tree head first. I continued, not giving a single flying feather.

"There is one more pony whose alibi doesn't hold up! One more who could have used their talent to commit the murder and clean up in time!"

"Who exactly?" asked Roar.

1) Octavia Philharmonica
2) Tiny Twitch
3) Rainbow Dash
4) Bewilderer
5) Sunny Day
6) Tot He Tei

It makes perfect sense.

"This murder..." I started, suddenly losing determination. I was just about to flat-out accuse a pony. This didn't feel right at all, I would never, ever get used to this.

"This murder took place during a ridiculously tiny window of four minutes. Killing, cleaning up, sealing the mop and bucket, getting back to the dorms and quite likely also cleaning the blood off one's own body, all of that was done before the Monokami's announcement. In other words, this was all about speed. And there is one pony whose forte is exactly that. Rainbow Dash. The Ultimate Speedster."

Not only did I have another suspect, I was absolutely positive it was her.

"Wait what? A bloodstain on the beam? I didn't see that!"

Of course you didn't. If you did, you would have cleaned it with the rest.

She was looking at me with an expression of pure, shocked surprise. Then her expression changed. Slowly. Into an enraged grimace.

"How bucking dare you! You're on the list of suspects yourself, how dare you throw these accusations around! Where's your evidence?!"

Sunny Day was looking almost catatonic. He was switching glances between me and Dash, completely lost.

"D-Dashie, just take it easy! Twily is... she is just joking! Right, Twily? You're joking, right?!"

"This is no place for jokes," I rejected him sternly. "Dash, you had the ability to kill him in time, since you're quite likely one of the fastest ponies in Equestria. But that, of course, is not the only piece of evidence I have."

"Let's hear it, then!" she yelled at me, in the same tone one would use for an enraged death threat. "You have nothing against me! Nothing!"

Bewilderer's Account
Caesar's Map
"No, that's wrong!"

"Tell her, Bewilderer. Tell her what you heard this morning."

Bewilderer got startled by the sudden attention of everypony in the room, including one very, very ticked off mare. "Uuh... yeah... I heard a door slam. Somepony shut their door just before the morning bell. About one minute or so... But that could've been anypony..."

"Exactly! Anypony! And how does it prove my guilt anyway?!" screamed Rainbow Dash. "I swear, Twilight! I thought you were a decent pony, but once we find a real culprit and execute him, I'm never talking to you again!"

"Look at this map Caesar made for us. Phoenix claimed he didn't hear anything, so the slam must have come from somepony very close to Bewilderer's room. He has two neighbors: Sunny Day to the left, and Rainbow Dash to the right."

"Twitch is also in that corridor! She probably smashed the door in rage, that sounds so much like her!"

Twitch growled threateningly. "I didn't slam anything this morning. In fact, that annoying piece of shit announcement from Monokami woke me up. No way I slammed my door."

"I didn't make the noise either," added Sunny Day hesitantly.

"And me neither! So what, was Bewilderer hearing things?" snarled Rainbow Dash.

"You're lying," I retorted.

"Prove it! All you have is slander!"

"N-No! That's wrong! *hic* Wrooong!"

That was... I couldn't believe it.

That was Tot He Tei. He hasn't said a single word during the entire trial, and all of us gradually forgot that he was even there.

His face was all damp from constant crying and his whole body was shaking, ravaging his speech with hiccups. He sniveled a bit before continuing, pointing a hoof at Rainbow Dash.

"That *hic* that was wrong blue! Wrong blue! Wrong blue! He knew it was wrong! He was doubting himself, he was *hic* scared to talk! Everypony was so angry, he was scared and didn't wanna... *hic* But it's wrong blue! He knows!!!"

Fleur de Lis left her stand immediately after he started talking, and was now embracing him in her hooves, gently stroking his mane. The tiny colt never stopped pointing at Rainbow Dash.

"Tot He Tei..." Thunder Roar started his sentence, apparently unsure how to finish it appropriately. "If you want... sorry, if he wants to say something, please say it coherently. We have no idea what he is saying."

"Yeah, what is he babbling on about?" asked Phoenix, genuinely confused.

"The stress got to him, poor thing..." said Sunny Day, shaking his head sadly.

"Shh, shh... Take a deep breath, then he can say what he has on mind. We will listen to him," Fleur whispered gently. Tot He Tei burrowed his head into her fur, making it damp with his tears.

"He... he saw Blue Ray, *hic* he saw him... and the feathers around him... some of his feathers were right, others were wrong! They were wrong blue, not Blue Ray's blue! Her blue!" he screamed, still pointing at stunned Rainbow Dash. She recovered quite fast, though.

"What the buck dude... me and Blue Ray, we were the exact same color! There is no difference in how our feathers look!"

Tot He Tei suddenly pushed Fleur aside by force, then started screeching at Rainbow, his voice reaching an unbelievably high, glass-shattering pitch.

"You Rainbow Dash use your talent, I use it too! I know five different shades of white! I say the feathers are wrong color, they are wrong color! He will get you! Meanie! Bully! Dipshit!"

Everypony went dead silent. Except Twitch, who was trying her best to not laugh out loud.

Rainbow Dash was now hovering above her stand, her wings beating frantically and erratically. "Hey, remember how I was flying above the corpse, guarding it? I probably molted some feathers right there by accident."

"Funny thing is, Tot He Tei wasn't there at that time. He only got a look at Blue Ray for a few seconds, when we first discovered him. That was before you could ever start molting," pointed out Caesar.

"Big deal! Look at that dolt, he doesn't know what he's talking about! He's shocked, yeah, I get that, everypony's nervous from this. But you can't believe him!"

Octavia was staring daggers at this very moment. "And why exactly should we not believe him? How is his testimony any less valid than anypony else's?"

"Look at him! He's just a little colt-"

"He is NOT just a little colt! He is a very brave young pony who overcame his fears and spoke up! Don't you dare bagatelize that!"

"We're all gonna die if he's wrong!"

"And we're all going to die if he is right and we don't believe him. Your point?"

"Aaaargh!" Rainbow Dash grabbed her own head in frustration and she started flapping so furiously that she raised a few meters from the ground.

"To be honest?" said Thunder Roar. "Special talent? Weak evidence. Door slam? Also weak. Tot's testimony? Not enough. Rainbow's weird behavior since accused? Maybe just work of stress."

"Yes! Thank you, Roar! You freaking understand my point! None of this is enough-"

"-on its own. But all four together? That's starting to look like a pattern to me."

"WHAT!"

Rainbow stopped flapping her wings and fell to the ground with a loud stomp. She was hyperventilating, her eyes slowly going bloodshot from the strain.

"Okay then you dimwits! How do you explain this! I didn't know where Blue Ray was! I just assumed he was in his room like everypony else at night, and we're not allowed into the other ponies' rooms! How did I kill him then? Huh?! There's no way to kill somepony if you can't get to them! I had no way of knowing Blue Ray would be, so I couldn't kill him!"

I knew how to put her down. I decided to go for it.

Instincts of Clairvoyant Ray
"No, that's wrong!"

She gave me a scathing look, cold fury and sheer hatred in her eyes. "You again. What do you want?"

"I could point out the fact that you could have just stumbled upon him randomly, but I have a better proof. Do you remember Blue Ray's special talent?"

"Yeah, he was the Ultimate Seeker..."

"Well, I had a talk with him just yesterday. I found out that he could find literally anything that existed. Including, and now it gets strange, a pony who planned a murder. I know it sounds crazy, but he planned to reveal the murderer even before they struck, and so he decided to patrol the school during the night. You didn't need to know where he was, Rainbow; You just went about planning out your murder, and you chose a remote place to do it: The very top of the tower nopony has a reason to go in. You didn't find him, instead, he found you."

"So he told you all that stuff yesterday?" Rainbow asked, suddenly calming down.

"Yes."

She smiled. Then she grinned.

"You know what this looks like to me?"

I raised my eyebrow, expecting something silly and desperate.

"Looks to me like you're full of horseapples, Twilight. But first a small question: How DID the murderer find Blue Ray, really?"

I suddenly got cold hooves. Rainbow continued.

"Methinks you made it all up, Twilight. The stuff about finding a murderer before they even become a murderer? Come on, NOPONY can do that! But maybe, maybe Blue Ray really decided to stay on guard. And nopony knew about it, except one mare. A mare that just accused me out of nowhere and started pulling evidence out of her flank!"

I was frozen. Petrified.

"I mean come on! How likely is that Tot He Tei really recognized those feathers as mine, not his?! Even if he did, maybe Twilight took them from me when I wasn't looking, maybe she conjured fake ones, I don't know. She's The Ultimate Spellcaster, and the ultimate talent alone is apparently enough to convict somepony! So there!"

"No!" I cried out, my heart running million miles per second. This wasn't happening!

"As for the door slam, that's so flimsy I wouldn't even consider it." She snapped her wings suddenly, creating a tiny, but nonetheless loud thunderclap. "See? If I can do it with my wings, she can do it with her horn. Create a boom in a hallway, then run to your own room before somepony sees you. Simple."

She pierced me with her gaze. I didn't even have the strength to say anything. Her eyes were saying it all...

"So each and every argument she had against me is horseapples. But she accidentally revealed something really, really damning: The fact she knew Blue Ray's plan, knew where to find him! And nopony else knew that!"

"But-" she didn't let me finish.

"Didn't you guys think it was a bit suspicious how she suddenly jumped at me like a shark, after a whole trial where I wasn't a suspect for even a single second? That was planned from the start! She laid out a trap, and it almost worked!"

Trixie had a wide grin plastered on her face. "My my my, I must say I severely underestimated you, Sparky. You're a lot, lot smarter than you look. You even had me fooled. To go to such lengths, to plan out the class trial to the tiniest detail to make Rainbow Dash look like she is guilty beyond all doubt... but you got overzealous."

"Wh... what... this is not... I didn't..." I kept stammering, my thoughts entangled and violently strangling each other. I didn't even know what was going on, I lost it completely.

"Wait, how do we know she is the killer?" asked Fleur. Trixie gave her a haughty smile.

"Rainbow Dash said it. None of us had any way of knowing Blue Ray would be on a patrol that night, so none of us could possibly prepare to murder him. Only Twilight knew. She told us herself, the silly moo. To get so far only to trip at such a basic hurdle... that's almost pitiful."

"NO! No, I didn't! He was my friend, I would never... I would never! Please, you have to believe me!"

"We were all so stupid!" exclaimed Bewilderer. "We all knew Twilight and Blue Ray were kinda close, why didn't we suspect her sooner?"

"How could you... how could you, Twily?" Sunny Day lamented.

"I'm not sure... things are kind of shady, I don't know if it was really her..." said Octavia hesitantly.

"It's probably some mind magic, Octy. What if she was the one who caused that outburst to Tot He Tei? You gotta admit, it happened rather conveniently for her..." said Phoenix.

"But... but... wrong blue... wrong blue..." sobbed Tot He Tei.

"This is bullshit! Rainbow is much more likely culprit!" shouted Thunder Roar.

"Agreed..." mumbled Fleur sadly. Not even she could summon a smile in this situation.

"Let's talk about this... Let's get to the bottom of this," said Octavia, tears slowly welling under her eyes.

"Too late, time's up!" exclaimed Monokami out of nowhere. "I'm bored, no more chitchat! The voting starts now!"

I cried. There was no more thought, no more defiance, no more hope. I just cried.

"Sooooo... I see everypony has cast their vote!" exclaimed Monokami with a sickeningly chipper tone of voice. "Let's see how it ended, shall we?"

I was not even listening, I was just hearing. I couldn't stand my classmates' surreptitious glances, their obvious distrust in me, their fear of my magic, their disgusted glares. I was just sitting there, at my stand, my face buried in the cold, hard wood.

Whahahaha, this is most interesting indeed! I wasn't expecting such a contentious vote in the very first trial! I see we have two favorite suspects: One of them is Rainbow Dash, and the other is Twilight Sparkle.

I could hear the heavy breaths. The heartbeats. I didn't want to hear it. Any of it. I just wanted to go home, back to Princess Celestia... or anywhere, anywhere else, even Tartarus, just not here!

"You won't believe this, my dear, faithful students!" Something died in me as he said that. "Out of fifteen votes, one of our candidates has earned eight, while the other one is just one vote behind! Literally every vote counted, this was the closest it could possibly get! Waahahahaha!"

The courtroom plummeted into a dark abyss of omnipresent silence. Nopony dared move an inch.

"And by the decision of this vote, the accused pony, the alleged murderer of Blue Ray iiiiis..."

...

...

...

"Twilight Sparkle!"

"NOOOOOO!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. It was lost! All was lost! We lost!

"Well, now the question is... were you guys correct in your judgement?" asked Monokami mockingly. I already knew the answer.

"I am happy to announce to you that you were..."

DEAD WROOOOONG!!! It was Rainbow Dash!

At that very moment, several things happened all at once.

Kunai's eyes lit up with righteous fury. Her wings turned into a blur as she threw about six or eight kunai all at once, all aimed square at the murderer.

Rainbow Dash yelped, but the kunai never reached her. They stopped in mid-air, levitating about one meter away from her, enveloped in magical ruby light.

"You got it all wrong! Rainbow Dash is the only one who's supposed to survive! Youuu, on the other hand..."

Kunai's wings unfolded themselves as a foreign force tugged on them. She got lifted into the air, trying various moves to break free. All in vain.

"I've had it with your trigger happy havoc, Kunai! You'll be the FIRST ONE TO GO!" the wolf bellowed.

Kunai suddenly started screaming. Her wings got twisted in unnatural angles, and soon the cries of agony were accompanied with vomit-inducing crunches of bone. She barely even breathed, screaming nonstop, at full volume, as her once magnificent wings got crushed and pulverized right in front of our eyes. Then in something that could almost be called an act of mercy, a set of her very own weapons whizzed in her direction and burrowed in her neck and belly.

Kunai dropped on the ground like a bloody bag full of meat. A red puddle started pooling around her.

Limpid Lake puked right there and then. Octavia couldn't look, instead crying with her head on the pedestal. Thunder Roar was standing stock still like a statue, tears passively flowing down his cheeks. Fleur and Tot... I couldn't even look at them. Caesar, Twitch and Trixie were looking away, all three visibly shaken despite their ongoing attempts to sustain decorum. The Ultimate Inventor Duo were holding each other in a hug, screaming and swearing and praying to Celestia. A. K. Yearling had a look of a pony who... gave up. completely emotionless, just standing there, waiting to die. Sunny Day tried to fly away, but he got swooped from the air by a cloud of red magic and was now being thrown around like a ragdoll, smashing against floor, walls and ceiling, much like Kunai not too long ago...

And Rainbow Dash...

I summoned the courage to look at that despicable freak. She kept her head down, flinching with every painful cry from Sunny.

"What's wrong, Dashie? Come on, you win! Show me some of that winner spirit! Go, the door is over there! You'll find the exit wide open, now go! I'll have some fun with these losers!"

She walked, no, dragged herself towards the stairs that brought us into this hellhole. She briefly looked back, and I saw her face clearly for the first time since the verdict.

Somehow, in some way, I think she suffered the most of us all.

There was no hope left for us. We were going to die.

It was over.

Author's Note

No, it is not over.