Trigger Happy Equines

“Now that the introductions are out of the way, I’d like to lay down some important ground rules before we start the game.”

Monobunny appeared on screen once more, this time dressed in a teacher’s cap and holding a stick against a blackboard with a numbered list of rules. It read:

1. Access to the swimming pool is only allowed between 07:00 and 18:00.

2. Access to the MonoMonoMart is only allowed between 07:00 and 20:00.

3. No breaking any of the security cameras.

4. No breaking any of the magnetic locks on any of the doors or lockers.

5. No attempting to harm Monobunny.

6. Unicorns may only use basic levitation spells, but not on Monobunny or any other living participants.

7. New rules may be added in the future should the need arise.

Breaking any of the rules will result in extreme punishment!

Monobunny read through each of the rules in turn, emphasizing the threat of punishment. I skimmed through the list, not feeling the need to listen as each line was repeated in that sinister tone. Knowing that everyone around me, everyone I was presumably stuck with for the time being knew exactly how much of a (as my introduction had worded it) nobody I was, and amongst such exemplary ponies had sunk my heart. I could handle how much of a failure I was in solitude, in secret, in a contained world of my own making. I didn’t like the fact, but it could be dealt with. In the presence of so many, though, I could feel the immense weight of judgement pull me further into the abyss. I sat in silence as the rest of the group discussed the rules.

“Wait,” Elsie said, adjusting her glasses. “Unicorns aren’t allowed to use spells? What kind of racist, anti-horn nonsense is that?”

“I see your point,” Mesmer began, “but still, our biggest issue remains being here in the first place against our will.”

“Well it’s still racist,” Elsie huffed. “Why are we being singled out? Where’s the rule that says pegasi can’t fly? And what does it mean by ‘punishment’?”

“Didn’t that rabbit thing say it was a game?” Copper piped up. “Whatever it is, maybe being able to cast whatever spells you want gives you an unfair advantage? Most sports have rules of that kind, right Antonio?”

“Ah! P-please, call me Reph,” Reph replied shakily. “A-and you’re right. The majority of professional sports d-disallow magic except under specific circumstances, as well as flight. P-plus, some have different divisions b-between the races p-purely in the name of fairness and equality, so I wouldn’t immediately assume the rules are racist.”

Elsie snorted and turned up her nose. “Well whatever. But what’s this game about anyway?”

“I’m glad you asked!”

A circular hole opened up in the middle of the room and out leapt a two-foot tall rabbit that we all immediately recognized. He struck a triumphant pose as the hole closed back up with a metallic clang. I could hardly believe my eyes. I had assumed that the Monobunny from the video was merely an animated cartoon character, but here he was, walking and talking in front of me, retaining the exact appearance from before.

“He’s real!” Pinkie cried, rubbing her eyes and staring in shock. “But how’s it even possible? I’ve seen tons of bunnies but no bunny that ever looked like this bunny!”

“This is too freaky!” Button exclaimed, pushing his back against the wall. “I wanna go home!”

“Some sort of trick?” Shetland mused, stroking his chin. “Like a puppet or a hologram?”

“It’s no trick!” Monobunny snarled, raising a fist. “I’m as real as real can be! I am Monobunny the game-master, and you are all my chosen contestants!”

“And what if we refuse to play?” Doctor Scalpel asked.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter!” came the response. “And anyway, I have a feeling you’ll all want to take part. For you see, the grand prize, only attainable by one lucky contender, is your freedom!”

Everyone was stunned. “F-freedom?” stuttered Inky, shaking her head in disbelief. “We have to win this game of yours, or we’re stuck here?”

“I knew it!” screamed Button. “We’re gonna die here, chained up in this room! The only way out is to eat through our own legs!”

“Oh, no, no, no,” said Monobunny, shaking his head. “I’ll let you out of those things in a minute. What I mean is, freedom to the outside world! You see, this here is just the initialization room, but soon you’ll have access to the dome. It has a hotel, personal rooms for each of you, swimming pool, dining area, plus there’s the handy dandy convenience store, the MonoMonoMart! You’ll have access to as much food, drink and other various items absolutely for free! No money required!”

“Ooh, sounds fancy,” said Pinkie, who now seemed in unusually high spirits. The informational video was certainly right about her in that regard.

“It sure is! But on the off chance you want to leave here to see your loved ones again, there’s one thing you need to do.”

“What’s that?” Dopple asked.

“Murder someone.”

Silence fell in an instant. I involuntarily held my breath, the severity of the situation finally dawning on me. This is what we’d been chosen for, what Monobunny (or whoever had set this up) had planned.

Inky chortled nervously. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m deadly serious.” He crossed his arms and pulled a malicious grin. “You have to murder someone here without being found out as the culprit. If you can manage that, hey presto! You get to leave here and go back into the outside world. Unfortunately for everyone else, however, as soon as someone wins, that’s it! The game is over, and anyone who’s left will die, choked to death by poisonous gas, drifting slowly to an eternal sleep... However, if you murder someone but are found guilty by the rest of the group, you get to experience an agonizing death! Then the game will continue with the remaining participants. Over and over again until the game comes to a close.”

“This can’t be happening,” Dish Panner mumbled, slowly rocking back and forth and hyperventilating. “This is just… twisted!”

“Oh, quit your whining!” Monobunny snapped, leaping in front of Dish Panner and scaring the life out of the hysterical mare. “There are more rules to go through and you all need to pay attention!

“First of all, a murderer can only kill a maximum of two participants. Otherwise you could go around stabbing ponies left and right and not give anyone a chance to investigate the crime!

“Secondly, as soon as a dead body is discovered by three participants, including the murderer, a body discovery announcement will be broadcast throughout the entire dome and let everyone know where it is. You’ll then have a set amount of time to look for clues before the murder trial begins! Also, no murder is allowed to take place once the body discovery announcement has been broadcast.

“Thirdly, if the number of remaining participants ever drops to five or less, the game is over. But as a little consolation, the remaining participants won’t have to suffer immediate death. Instead, I’ll just stop restocking the MonoMonoMart with food and beverages, and you’ll all stay trapped in the dome and eventually starve. I’d put your time at around five months or so. That is, unless you don’t go insane and start killing each other! However, at this point, you won’t be able to escape even if you do get away with murder.

“Finally, this game has something I like to call the ‘Accountability Clause.’ It states that in order to distinguish between a murder and accidental suicide as per the rules of the game, a death is ruled as a suicide if the victim could have only died by performing an avoidable and grossly risky action. For example, if you trap someone in a room with a knife and they stab themselves to death, that’s suicide! But if you trap someone in a room and a wall of spikes that you’ve rigged slams into them, that’s murder! Similarly, if someone’s about to eat some soup and you poison it while their back is turned, or you swap out someone’s bottle of water for a bottle of poison and they drink it, that’s murder! But if you just leave a random bottle of poison hanging around in a room somewhere and some idiot decides to drink it, that’s suicide! And you’re not allowed to poison anything contained within the MonoMonoMart or you’ll be punished! All produce there must be safe for consumption! These rules are there to prevent any cheap, cheesy, risk-free, and above all, boring murders from taking place. That’s the last thing anyone wants!”

It was all so much to take in. I’d have to kill to have any chance of escape? Any one of us could be out to commit murder? We’d have to figure out who was guilty or we’d all die? And the game would keep going and going until a winner was found? I felt sick to my stomach.

“I get it now,” Mesmer said, retaining his ever-present, stern gaze. “This is why unicorns aren’t allowed to use advanced spells or they’d have an unfair advantage.”

“That’s your thought!?” Elsie screamed, shooting Mesmer an enraged look. “That’s all you can say!? We’re stuck in this deranged, sick fantasy being held captive by a creepy rabbit, and you’re pondering the rules!? What is wrong with you!?”

“I’m just looking at this logically,” Mesmer said calmly. “If we are indeed stuck playing this ‘game,’ we mustn’t panic. We need to clear our heads and act accordingly.” He turned to address Monobunny. “I’m assuming any of these ‘punishments’ you hand out for breaking the rules means death, correct?”

“Oh, no, no, no. Breaking any of the rules will just result in you having one of your limbs sliced clean off! I’m not so harsh as to kill one of you for a tiny slip up.”

“Oh, well isn’t that nice!?” Elsie spat.

“Hey, I’m not all that bad. In fact, there’s one rule you’ll all be pleased to hear. Provided you adhere to all of the previous rules, you’re allowed to try and escape to your heart’s content! No exceptions. Try digging a hole through the wall if you must. It’s one hundred percent A-okay!”

“And why should we listen to you?” Yoko Zuna snarled, stepping forward and towering over Monobunny. “What’s to stop us from just beating you into submission?”

“Careful!” Shetland warned. “Don’t forget he managed to capture us all and bring us here. Him and whoever’s on his side, they managed to overpower all of us, even you.”

“They got me when my guard was down.” Yoko cocked his head arrogantly and smiled. “I won’t let that happen again.”

“Go ahead!” Monobunny taunted. “If you feel like staying here while everyone else goes to the dome.”

Just as he said this a series of shrill beeps rang out, followed by the latches on our shackles springing open and clattering against the metal floor. I instinctively reached down to my hind leg and rubbed at the previously clamped area. It had chafed painfully against my knee joint. I looked up and saw that the same was true for everyone else except Yoko, whose confident demeanor had subtly dropped.

“Well? What’ll it be? You promise to play nice? Or I can leave you chained up in here to rot!”

“Fine,” Yoko said with a smirk. “I’ll be good.”

“Excellent!” Monobunny cheered. Yoko’s shackle beeped and unlocked itself. It was scary to consider how much power the villainous rabbit had over us. “Now I think we’ve all been in this stuffy little room for quite long enough.”

Suddenly, there was a tremendous rumbling sound. The far wall that held the monitor began to judder violently and a beam of blinding white light appeared along the ceiling edge. Squinting, I could make out a hazy blue sky before us as the wall slid into the ground. There was a mechanical clunk as the top section of the wall locked into place at ground level, the outside world in full view, beckoning us forward. It took a few seconds for my eyes to fully adjust until I could make out the scene clearly.

“Welcome to the dome!” Monobunny said as he walked out in front of us. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to give you the grand tour. Follow me!”

The rest of the group began to shuffle out, muttering between themselves. I tentatively followed, keeping several feet behind everyone else. I didn’t want to be left alone but I was too nervous to embed myself into the crowd. It had been a long time since I’d interacted with strangers, and even longer since I’d been expected to hold a conversation. Even considering the terrifying circumstances I was in, and the bigger problems I was now faced with, I still couldn’t break free of my social anxiety. It just so happened, though, that I noticed something strange. I did a quick count and, sure enough, I realized that the room we’d been held in had sixteen shackles bolted to the wall. Yet there were only fifteen of us, including myself. Given the elaborate nature of our capture, the sheer effort involved and Monobunny’s dramatic speech about the rules, it seemed strange that an extra shackle would’ve been installed purely by mistake. Someone was missing.

“You okay over there?” I looked up to see a white-maned pegasus mare with light yellow fur. “It’s Greyscale, right?”

“Y-yeah…” I stammered, speaking for the first time since my arrival. I could feel heat running to my face and tried to shake it off. “A-and you’re Dopple Ganger?”

The mare smiled. “Please, Dopple will do just fine. I think we need to go.”

“Oh, yeah, right. Sorry, I was just checking in here because, erm…”

“You realized too, huh?” Dopple grew serious and stepped within whispering distance. “The extra shackle?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

Dopple sighed before smiling once more. “Let’s not think about it. Come on, we’d better get moving.”

The two of us left the room and joined the rest of the group. The lowered wall juddered into life once more, rising into place and closing over the hole. There was no going back.