Here lies Octavia
Let her soul rest, in hopes of her love ones success.
The sight of a tombstone marked the recently departed, and I was once again subjected to the weight of digging somepony’s grave. Rainbow had joined me and A.K. in our attempt to give the Ultimate Cellist a proper burial, but we all were having our troubles doing it. My night was filled with nightmares, and I had woken up a few times during the course of the night thinking Octavia’s limp body was in front of me. Actually, that wasn’t the worst thing that happened, as I had another hallucination during the entire thing.
A.K. had come to my room late last night, knocking on my door and waking me from yet another terrible dream. I was awake, or at least one half of my brain was considering I remember the events that took place. I had heard her voice through the door, but when I went to open it I had seen the very last thing I want to see. As far as I knew, it was Monokuma who was right in front of me, and not thinking I almost club the Ultimate Author. After some misconceptions we were able to get everything sorted out spent the night together, feeling a little more comfortable that way.
However, while Octavia might have been the pony who caused such an incident to occur, she wasn’t the only dead body. That was evident with one glance at the grave between Octavia and Twilight. Just like she had the Ultimate Cellist, A.K. had given the Ultimate Dressmaker’s gravestone a heading with some tools Monokuma enthusiastically provided to us.
Here lies Rarity Belle
Let her family know she died with a smile, and with hope of another's happiness.
“I never thought I’d be doing this again,” A.K. said as she finished the message. “This isn’t something I wanted to experience again, but the they need to be remembered.”
The only gravestone without words on it was that of the Ultimate Magic Researcher, Twilight Sparkle. It wasn’t because she didn’t need to be remembered — Celestia knows that would make us look bad — it was more because nopony knew what to put on it. In three days a pony who had managed to become the pupil of the princess had lost all will to live, and nopony even noticed it. What exactly was one suppose to write? It’s possible that everything she said was simply to keep that fact hidden. No matter what the answer was, I decided it was best to not find out.
“Let’s head back,” I recommended to my fellow pegasi as we finished with the graves. “The others are probably waiting for us anyways.”
With Rainbow now knowing about Trixie’s escape, it was only fitting that we let her into our group. We had promised Flam and Doctor Hooves to meet them in the first floor living room after taking care of this, knowing it was important the dead are put to rest. I wasn’t around for it, but apparently things had turned ugly between Flash and Flam after Octavia’s execution. No doubt it was over the latter’s treatment of the guilty culprit, Flash seeing it as another excuse to tie the Ultimate Con Artist up when this is done.
“Hello?” A.K. called as she opened the door to the living room, finding Flam and Doctor Hooves in the middle of a discussion. “We aren’t interrupting something personal, are we?”
“Nope,” Flam said with a smile on his face, seeming to pretend nopony had seen the one-eighty his personality did yesterday. “Just getting the confirmation from the doc that chivalry is indeed dead. Has been for a good century or two now.”
“You know that doesn’t make up for what you did, right?” Rainbow reminded him, getting a role of the eyes in response.
“I’d rather not get on that topic again if you wouldn’t mind. Back still hurt from being piledrived into a pillar,” Flam told us all as he pointed to his back, though I couldn’t see any damage through his fur and shirt. “Anyways, me and the doc are thinking it’s best for us five to take a little more action than we did before.”
A.K. seemed puzzled by this decision. “Please tell me you have a reason for this, Flam.”
“We most certainly do have a reason for this,” Doctor Hooves replied, stepping forward and onto the living rooms rug. “The four, now five, of us got together because we had to take some initiative, right? We’re trying to keep everypony alive so that Trixie doesn’t come back to a field of corpses, and so far we aren’t doing all that well,” He did have a point. We didn’t really do anything to try and stop what happened to Octavia and Rarity, but at the same time we had no control over it due to the letter. “Therefore, Flam and I think that it would be to our advantage if we took a little more initiative whenever a motive is introduced.”
They did have a point, but I wasn’t sure what we could do in order to take initiative. In the end, even if we tried to do something to stop a murder a part of me saw it as inevitable for one to happen. We couldn’t just go around saying how wrong it was, because as long as Monokuma has one good reason for us to try and kill each other he would get his way. Who knew how long it was till one of us five were murdered, or ever what it took for us to do the same. I hated to think it, but the only pony I actually trust out of everypony in here is A.K.
“So you’ve proven your reason, but what exactly would you have us do?” The Ultimate Author asked. Her response came in the form of two pairs of wide eyes from the stallions in front of us. “Look, I understand what you’re saying, but please make sure you have a plan before hoof next time.”
“Don’t mean to interrupt, but anypony else wondering about what Monokuma opened up downstairs?” Rainbow asked us as she flew in front of everyone.
Monokuma had already opened the next floor of the castle to everypony when calling the morning announcement, but it wasn’t the third floor like I had expected. Instead, the stairway leading down in the left wing of the castle opened. Part of me already knew what was waiting down there, but Rainbow wasn’t the kinda pony who thought about castles and ruling a kingdom. I really wish that dream was true.
“Well we might as well,” I replied to Rainbow. “Don’t think much is really gonna get done if we stand around here anyway.”
“That it won’t,” Flam confirmed as he walked past us. “Besides, even if we don’t know how exactly to do it, we can at least do what we can to interfere with Monokuma. You know, interfere in a way that won’t get us killed.”
He and Doctor Hooves left ahead of us, and after a few more seconds the rest of us left for the new floor. The walked to the stairs was rather uneventful, as most ponies seemed to be ahead of us. The moment we reached the stairway, we realized that had an entirely different look to it than that of the current floor. Where as everything on the main floor seemed to be made out of one single slab of stone, one look down the steps showed walls and floors cut into rectangular bricks. Barely any light seemed to reach the bottom, or at least I assumed that was the body.
“Yep, already getting a dungeon feel from this,” I murmured to myself.
Heading downstairs, I couldn’t have been more correct about what I had felt. The dim lighting gave the entire area a rather somber feeling to it, and that only grew as I noticed the brick seemingly tinted red. The hallway was split at a right angle with two old, wooden doors straight down one way and a single door with multiple cells against the wall to my right. It was as cliche of a dungeon as one could expect, but after the stark contrast between the first and second floors of the castle I had expect this.
“Well, this isn’t as awesome as I expect,” Rainbow Dash stated, staying behind A.K. and I. “I was hoping for something a little more… cheerful looking, to be honest.”
“It seems like he’s pulling from countless different eras of equestrian history,” A.K. explained as she made her way in front of us. “If I’m correct, than one of those two has to be...”
She trailed off as she walked up to the door at the far end of the hallway straight in front of us. She tried to open it, but found that it was currently locked. She swore under her breath before turning to the other door in this part of the hall, which I now noticed had a small part of it jutting inwards, and turned it. This time it did open, and before I had even laid eyes on the room we were entering I saw her smile.
“Bingo.”
Looking up, I found myself terrified at what was in front of me. Countless strange, wooden devices were scattered around the room, all of which I knew had only one purpose: torture. Some had spikes, others had various gadgets that looked just as painful as somepony would expect. I could hear the sound of water dripping, though I had no idea where it was coming from. This entire room screamed death and pain, making want to leave almost instantly. A.K., however was slightly intrigued at it all.
“I can’t remember the name for half of this stuff, but this is definitely a medieval torture chamber,” She confirmed, as if one glance at the room didn’t do just that. “All hoof made no doubt, but it just makes me further question how old this castle really is.”
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I turned around to see the wide eyed Nurse Redheart gallop past us and into the room. She proceeded to hug a large rotating piece of wood in the middle of the room, petting it as if it was a puppy. “Ponies of old really were creative in their way of torture, and I’ve always wanted to see one. A torturer is like a pain doctor, trained to make you feel pain instead of relive it. It’s really a shame that Celestia doesn’t use these things anymore, considering just how effective they can be.”
“Why would you… actually, nevermind,” I quickly bit back the question in my mind as I realized the answer I would probably received. Redheart seemed like one of the nicest, most trustworthy ponies here, but that was all gone now. I turned to my compatriots, a look of horror on my face. “How the hey is that mare a nurse?”
“Don’t ask me,” A.K. whispered to me. “I’d rather not ask, especially when she is in this state.”
Leaving the Ultimate Nurse to her own business, we made our way out of the dungeons torture room and back into the hall. I think most of us swore to never enter the room again after that, seeing it as the perfect place to get killed. We made our way back to the dungeon’s entrance and turned to the left (or right if you were looking out from the stairway) hallway. Just as I had seen earlier, empty cells lined the sides of the hallway, each with an open door and key hanging next to it. I didn’t want to check, but I was positive a pony wouldn’t be able to reach the key from inside.
“This,” I said, looking around me. “Is what I a pony would expect in a killing game. I’m surprised Monokuma didn’t just stick us all down here and waited for who cracked first.”
“I don’t know, Dee,” Rainbow replied as she entered one of the cells. She left just as quickly as we entered. “I hate to say it, but Monokuma doesn’t seem like that much of a psychopath. This is more like one of those old social experiment you see in horror novels.”
“He’s the scientist and we’re his lab rats,” A.K. said as we reached the door located at the end of the hallway. “Yeah. Sounds exactly like one now that I think about it.”
The door suddenly flew open in front of us, closing just as quickly as Bulk Bicep blocked it off. Unlike the last time he opened something in front of me, the door stays where it was supposed to. Before I could say anything he’s stubby hooves grabbed me, and I was instantly brought to the ground under his tremendous weight. His eyes were so wide they might have popped out if not for the muscle keeping them in. He was breathing heavily, like he had just did a marathon.
“Um… Bulk?”
“Don’t go in there!” He screeched into my ear, and I was lucky I didn’t loss my hearing all together. “It’s weird! One step inside and I just wanted to… wanted to… it’s too terrible for words! If I didn’t have some urge of self control I might have actually done what she wanted!”
Rainbow and A.K. looked at each other confused before looking back. “Done what who wanted?” The former asked.
Our answer came in the form of Fluttershy, looking as if she was only half awake. She was giggling like a filly, tongue hanging from her mouth and panting. I was obscenely worried, as well as confused, curious, and hopelessly intrigued by what the Ultimate Animal Caretaker had been doing in their. Then, as if an invisible switch had been turned off, Fluttershy turned from looking as drunk as a sailor to absolutely clueless as to what was going on around her. I could hear Bulk whimpering as he looked to the mare, who was utterly confused as to why he had that look on his face.
“Bulk, is everything oka-”
“Get away from me!” The Ultimate Bodybuilder vanished from my view, his cries of terror resounding against the walls as he fled from the dungeons. I was lucky he hadn’t crushed my shoulders.
“So… what happened to him?” I asked as Rainbow helped me back to my hooves. “Seems like you gave him quite the fright in there.”
“Oh, that’s why he acted that way,” Fluttershy said as she turned around and looked to the door she had come out of. “Funny. I remember entering the door, but I don’t remember anything after that. Guess I must have been in some sort of trance,” I then saw her turn to an engraving I hadn’t noticed next to the door. My eyes widened as I read the words ‘Pit of Desire, dili dili’ on it. “Actually, that might explain why Monokuma was encouraging me to go inside.”
“Your still hanging out with him?” Rainbow asked, looking rather disappointedly at the Ultimate Animal Caretaker. “Haven’t you realized that he is a bad influence? You’re only hurting yourself being around him.”
“Says the pony who waited to save my flank during the first trial,” The venom in Fluttershy’s words as she spoke took me by surprised. “If it wasn’t for Ditzy, you probably wouldn’t have said a thing, would you?”
She trotted past us, giving a deadly glare to the Ultimate Stunt Flyer as she did. I didn’t expect the mare to hold a grudge like that for so long, but it was probably Monokuma who kept reminding her.
——-Chapter 3: Dungeons and Death——-
Everypony decided to meet at the dining hall after exploring the dungeon beneath us, including Flam and Flash who more than prefered to not see each other again. Most of the ponies still alive had already gathered inside by the time we got there. Those who didn’t arrive before us did a few minutes after, with these mainly being Thorax, Bulk Bicep, and Redheart. However, there was still two ponies missing from the group.
“Where’s Pinkie and Bon Bon?” Applejack asked. “Ya don’t think that party mare is hiding in her room after what happened, right?”
“You already know the answer Applejack,” Flam told the Ultimate Farmer as he proceeded to take a seat at the table. “I think everypony had a poor reaction to Octavia’s execution, and considering Pinkie didn’t speak a word during the trial-”
“Like you’re one to speak, filth,” Flam stopped talking as he heard Flash say those words. It was clear as day what the Ultimate Guard was trying to bait. “Harming a mare, even if she is accused, is absolutely disgusting. You may claim to be good, but we all saw how you acted yesterday you low class swindler.”
I, like most ponies in the room, had expect Flam to loss his mind in the same way he did with Applejack during the first trial. What happened instead was no reaction whatsoever, not even a scowl. In fact, the Ultimate Con Artist smiled as he looked to the Ultimate Guard. I suddenly remember what he had said earlier, and now knew exactly why he had said it.
“Chivalry is dead.”
I saw Flash bit his lip as he heard that. “Why you-”
“Has anypony seen Pinkie today?” Everyone’s attention turned to Bon Bon, who had just entered the room out of breath and with a messy, uncombed mane. “I haven’t seen her since I woke up this morning.”
“I’m pretty sure the poor mare is in her room Bon Bon,” Doctor Hooves suggested. “I doubt she is going to leave it anytime soon, given what happened yesterday.”
The Ultimate Candymaker sighed as she heard that. “Yeah, I guess you're right,” She said as she sat at the table. “I worried about her. When we first woke up here Pinkie was as chipper as foal on caffeine, but after Twilight, Trixie, Rarity, and Octavia, she seems to be getting more and more scared.”
“We just have to give her a little space,” A.K. told Bon Bon, taking a seat next to her. “I hate to say it, but it would probably be best for everypony to give her some space, for her comfort and our safety. Last thing we want is somepony dying because we got a little too close for comfort.”
Everypony agreed with this, though Bon Bon seemed more reluctant than the rest. She did seem rather close to Pinkie, considering what she had done for the mare during the last trial. I could only imagine how badly this must be scaring her, not having seen the Ultimate Party Planner. However, considering we haven’t heard anything from Monokuma, it’s safe to say she’s still alive.
Things grew a little more cheerful as we all got ourselves breakfast, though Octavia and Rarity’s fates were still hanging over our heads. There were many attempts to lighten the mode, some of which did better than others. When we finished eating we all went our separate ways, leaving me in the dining hall to finish eating. I hated the lack of muffins, but I could see why Monokuma had called these hope bagels. It made me feel a more cheerful, and I was more than determined to share that cheer with somepony else.