//------------------------------// // May the Best Pony Survive - Daily Life 2 // Story: Danganronpa vP: Harmony of Despair // by witegrlninja //------------------------------// I actually managed to will myself to sleep in a little this morning, through Monokuma's morning announcement and subsequent mockery of sunrise. Nevertheless, I was up and awake a half hour later, and I made my way towards the cafeteria like normal. The mood in the cafeteria was different today... more sullen, less friendly. My best friends (plus Discord, of course, and Coloratura) all sat at the main table in a happy group, while the others were sitting in twos or threes, or even by themselves at separate tables. I grimaced at the sight, wondering if what Monokuma had said about a traitor was the root cause of this. A traitor... was there really a traitor among us? Somepony who brought us all here to participate in this horrible killing game? I, and as far as I knew, nopony else could recall how they arrived here... teleportation seemed like the obvious solution, but there were realistically multiple ways one could have done it... it was foalish to assume it was any one pony among us. Well... whoever it was, they hadn't struck yet. There was no good reason to begin suspecting anypony. But they could be planning to strike next. Though I eventually chose to sit with my best friends, I ate in silence as I pondered our ever-worsening situation. They must have realized I was deep in thought, as none of them poked or waved at me to join their conversation. We all finished our meals, put the dishes away and went our separate ways, I returning to my room to continue thinking. But after an hour or so, despite all my effort, I came to no conclusion. I sighed in frustration, flopping onto my bed. Ugh... ... Hm... maybe if I talk to the others, I'll get a better idea of what to do...? Besides that... I was pretty bored. With a bit of effort, I pushed myself off of the bed and left my room. ~ I wandered the school halls, looking for somepony, anypony to talk to. As I passed the Infirmary, I heard the soft clank of a bottle tipping over. "Ah, bugger..." Nurse Redheart's voice quietly grumbled from behind the door. I opened it to see her picking up the bottle and setting it back on a shelf where a row of boxes of small adhesive bandages sat. "Oh, need any help?" I asked. Redheart turned her head towards me. "Oh, Princess Twilight," she replied calmly. "No, I just knocked this potion off of the shelf accidentally while getting a bandage." "Are you okay?" "Yes, I'm fine," she smiled slightly as she extended her front left hoof, a tiny vertical line of red just above it. "Just a bit of a hang-hoof, is all." "Ooh, yea, those can sting a bit." I watched as Redheart uncorked a different bottle and splashed a drop of green liquid on the cut, applied the bandage and returned the bottle to the shelf. "So, uh... are you busy?" "Not at all," she replied. "Do you wish to talk about something?" ~~~ Redheart and I shared a careful, but ultimately fruitless conversation about the possibility of a traitor among us. ~~~ "You know, I've seen you around in Ponyville ever since I first moved there," I spoke idly after we'd grown bored of the prior subject. "How long have you been a nurse?" "Long before I moved to Ponyville," she replied. "Let's see... I suppose it's been a good fifteen years since I graduated from nursing school." "I see..." I frowned in thought. "...It's a bit late to say it now, but I was always a bit curious about what kinds of healing magic you'd learn in nursing school. Princess Celestia..."- my breath hitched - "...did teach me a good deal of it while I was her student, but even she said that if I wanted to learn more, then I should consider it. Do ponies with Cutie Marks not related to medicine apply?" "Oh, yes, the classes are often huge. Although the farther in you go, the more ponies drop out when they find they can't hack it. It's not so much the material or the tests, of course, but the actual experience." "Yea, I can see that... it must be hard to deal with so many sick and injured ponies." Redheart snorted. "That's the easy part." "Huh?" "A simple illness, a mere broken bone... things like that have never affected me," she spoke with a bittering tone. "No... I was a lot like you when I was a fresh graduate - optimistic, eager to help, offering a remedy for every need. I was ready to do whatever it took to save every patient assigned to me. I was so sure that I could cure any illness, mend any injury." I thought quietly for a moment. It was true that Redheart was very reserved, somewhat pessimistic and, on occasion, unnervingly pragmatic. "But once you realize why ponies get sick, why ponies get injured, why ponies fail to thrive despite everything... you simply find that life just isn't fair." "Um... what do you mean?" I leaned forward uneasily. "If you knew just how many of these patients wound up in the hospital because of other ponies... if you saw entire NICUs full of innocent foals, doomed to die before their lives even began..." she sighed. "...Sorry. Hardly an appropriate topic given our current situation." "Oh... uh..." I wasn't really sure what to say. Sure, I had always considered that ponies sometimes didn't make it out of the hospital alive. But Redheart seemed to have seen a great deal of death and misery in her career. Was this killing game not... quite so bad compared to her normal work? "Let's set that subject aside. While most of my knowledge of healing magic is alchemy-based, I'd be happy to share what I know with you," Redheart spoke with a slight, sad smile. I nodded, eager to learn ever more about magic, but I couldn't deny that I was a little curious about her past... ~ After putting all of the notes I had taken from Redheart's impromptu lesson back in my room, I set off again. There was still quite a bit of time to kill until supper, and then Nighttime. ...Boy, is it boring around here. But I guess that's to be expected... But then I remembered that I had found that interesting book about unsolved puzzles from the MonoMono Machine in the Student Store, and I had a fair amount of MonoBits in my possession (not only were they lying around in random places all over the school, but we had all received a hefty amount from Monokuma himself for surviving our trial). Deciding I'd spend a few and see what I got, I made my way to the store. Opening the door, I found Flam was already in the process of dumping his entire stock of MonoBits into the machine. A small pile of opened plastic gacha balls were at his side. "Bah, another 'Man's Nut'... what in Tartarus are these for, anyway?" he muttered before noticing me. "Oh, hello Twilight!" "Hello, Flam," I smiled. "Trying your luck, I see?" "Why yes, I was wondering just how many different objects this wondrous machine holds! Although, I seem to be encountering quite a few duplicates despite the posted amount of unique objects inside," he pointed to the pile haphazardly thrown behind him. "I see... maybe I have better luck?" "Perhaps... let me try once more," he paused to insert a coin, spin the lever and open the ball. "...Ah! 'Passionate Glasses'! ...Wait, what comes out of my butt, exactly?!" ~~~ Flam and I took turns using the MonoMono Machine. We sampled the foods and drinks and laughed and puzzled at some of the more outlandish prizes. At one point I got a Ladybug Brooch... it took him ten minutes to stop laughing at my horrified face. ~~~ "So, Twilight, I took your advice..." Flam mentioned during a lull in winning anything new, "and I must say, I'm so very glad I did!" "Oh? You did talk to Applejack?" ...And she didn't immediately kick you? "Yes! True, she was mighty wary of me when I brought up how I wanted to make things up to her. And considering where we are at the moment, she said not to worry about it right now..." "...But?" I leaned forward, sensing there was more he wanted to say. "I... don't know, I just feel so antsy not doing anything," Flam pursed his lips. "I've tried looking through the library for anything useful, and there's nothing in the Scrollwork Room that could lend us a hoof either... then I had the idea that perhaps there might be an item within this machine that could aid us! ...Of course, as you can see, I've spent a small fortune in my search," he gestured to his pile of winnings, now five times the size it was when I had arrived. "So, I... thought at the very least, I could do something for her." "Huh? Who?" "Why, Applejack, of course!" "Wait... you... like her?" I blinked. "Well, I don't know if I'd say 'like', but..." Flam... do you know what you're getting yourself into...?! "I've seen the way she looks at me... as much as I can understand it, it still hurts, you know. I'm certain she thinks that my offer of assistance is simply another ruse, and she doesn't believe me... I want her to know that my offer is entirely genuine this time." My shocked expression melted into a more thoughtful one. He really was serious... in the meantime, Flam glanced at his pile of random prizes. "...Oh!" he suddenly gasped. "What is it?" "Perhaps a gift is in order! A show of goodwill! Tell me, Twilight... do you think Applejack would appreciate receiving any of these things I've won?" "Ah, maybe..." We spent a few silent minutes looking over our assortment of prizes. From packaged foods and drinks to weirdly-shaped clothes and jewelry, to books of various topics to replica weapons (we both decided almost immediately that that was a terrible idea). Thinking about things that I knew Applejack liked, none of these items really fit that description. Rose in Vitro... no, too romantic... Kokeshi Dynamo? ...Oh, it starts vibrating when you turn it on, I wonder why- NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT... "Oh! What about these?" Flam held up a nicely-packaged set of Bunny Apples we hadn't eaten since it was a duplicate prize. "Although, she does live on an apple farm with the most delightful apples, so she may find them of inferior quality..." I smiled. "No, I think she'll like them. She likes any kind of apple! ...Well, not mealy ones, yea, but the ones we had before were pretty good!" "Alrighty, then! I'll... find a good time to give these to her, I suppose," Flam grinned sheepishly, setting the Bunny Apples aside. "Now, then, back to trying our luck?" And so we continued to empty the MonoMono Machine of prizes until we both ran out of MonoBits. But all the while, every time I glanced at Flam, he seemed to have a slight blush on his cheeks that would vanish in an instant when he looked at me. I wonder... ...Does he actually like Applejack? Can't say I can see her liking him back, not after all that's happened between them... she's a stubborn one, after all... ~ Despite all our sampling, I still felt hungry when it came to be time for supper. I first stopped by my room to drop off all the prizes I'd won, then made my way to the cafeteria. The mood seemed a little lighter now that some more time had passed; more ponies were talking to each other quietly. I grabbed a plate, served myself and sat down with my friends to eat. Now that my mind wasn't so weighed down, I joined in my friends' conversation, and soon my worries were compartmentalized. I actually found myself enjoying the moment, as if we were all out at a restaurant together. *boing!* Unfortunately, our peaceful meal was soon interrupted. I nearly choked on my hayburger as Monokuma suddenly dropped from the ceiling above and landed on the table. "Hellllllllo, my dear students!" he grinned widely as his body squirmed and wiggled. "What the hell do you want now, you creepy-ass psycho bastard?!" Lightning spat out. "Creepyasspsychobastard, huh? That's a pretty long name! German, maybe?" Monokuma snorted. "Weeeeell, if ya really wanna know... I'm bored now." "Oh, boo hoo," Trixie muttered sarcastically. "Really! I thought you ponies were supposed to be an easily-frightened bunch. But here you are, thinking rationally and working together!" His red eye flashed as he brought his paws to his mouth in a giggle. "I'm so proud of you all, my dear students!" "Y-You are...?" Coloratura shrank back cautiously. "Yep! So, as a reward, there's something I wanna show you guys!" he leered. "Oh ew, gods no!" Fleur winced, turning away preemptively. "No, no, nothing like that..." Monokuma's cheeks flushed as he began to creepily breathe heavily. "No, I have a little video I'd like you all to see." "Ack! No fuckin' thank you!" Lightning held up her hooves to block her vision. Now Monokuma began to sweat profusely. "Oh, but don't worry... it's not some pervy 'adult' video or anything... seriously! It's nothing like that! It's a special video for each of you showing what's going on outside the school!" Everypony gasped, including myself. Outside... back in Equestria...? "I dunno... I'm pressing 'X' to doubt," Pinkie eyed Monokuma warily as three letters hovered above her head somehow, two of them disappearing as she swatted the floating "X". "And just whut is on these videos...?" Applejack gulped. "Why don't you just watch it and find out?" Monokuma grinned. "I left them waiting for you in the Media Room... go on, they really wanted to talk to you..." His sing-song voice echoed as he clambered back underneath the table and disappeared. My fur bristled as I thought about his parting words... They... really wanted to talk to us...? "Hmm..." Flam broke the silence. "The way he spoke suggests that these videos might not be worth watching." "...He's not talkin' 'bout our families, is he?" Applejack asked, her face now sick with worry. "Oh, now I simply must watch that video!" Rarity gulped. "I don't know," Redheart interjected, frowning in thought. "Knowing him, he's probably done something horrible to our loved ones, in an attempt to spur us into action... this could even be a new motive of his." "Motive... t-to kill each other...?" gasped Coloratura. Redheart nodded. "Well, we're not going to, right?" Rainbow asserted. "And now that he's said this, it's just gonna eat away at us until we go look..." "That's true," Fluttershy sighed, gazing sadly at the floor. Everypony's faces mirrored hers as I gulped down a lump in my throat. Spike... was this why you never responded? ...Starlight? Mom... Dad... Shiny... Cadance...?! I cleared my throat. "As long as we don't let Monokuma influence us any further... I think we should look. Then we can prepare for whatever he's planned next." ~ A few minutes later, we arrived at the Media Room. Nothing had changed, except for all of the computers being switched on, and a lone cardboard box sitting on the teacher's desk. Peering inside I saw fourteen DVD cases, one named for each of us. "Ah, here they are... these go in the opening on the computer modems, the horizontal one that's about the same size as the discs. A window should pop up on the screen within a few seconds. Then use the top-left area of your computer's mouse to click the triangle pointing to the right," I instructed as I passed them around with my magic. Everypony took a seat at a computer and followed my directions with varying degrees of difficulty. My magic was unsteady and wavering as I inserted my own disc, and I fought down another lump in my throat as I pressed "play". At first the screen turned black. Then with a pulse of salt and pepper, a surprisingly-pleasant scene appeared. Within their palatial home, Princess Cadance and my brother Shining Armor sat in Flurry Heart's nursery, smiling warmly as my mother and father played with her. My niece had grown so much... my heart ached, yet lightened upon seeing them all, and I couldn't help but smile myself. It was so good to see them again. Well... this isn't so bad... But as if sensing my own jinx, Spike and Starlight suddenly burst into the room, looking worried. They shouted wordlessly to the others, who only stared in silent surprise. Then just as Shiny stood up in alarm... the screen cut to static. I uttered out a curse and stared in horror as the video returned, but this time... This time, the nursery looked as if a war had been fought inside. Cast in darkness, the furniture was broken and splintered, the blankets and upholstery torn and shredded. The windows and some picture frames had been shattered; broken glass lay strewn about the floor beside a large, dark blotch on the carpet. Even the walls had a couple of large holes punched into them. All around me I began to hear gasps, cries and even a couple of swear words, but my eyes remained glued to my own screen. I couldn't bear to turn away for even a second. What... what happened... where are they...?! And then, after I'd had a few moments to study the quiet damage, I jumped in my seat as Monokuma's voice floated out of the speakers. "Princess Twilight Sparkle... personal protégé of Princess Celestia, Bearer of the Element of Magic, Princess of Friendship..." he sneered. "And her family, her loyal assistant and the protégé of her own, who supported her throughout it all! Aaaaand, her own brother even managed to marry into royalty! Such a lovely family of such high esteem! But it seems like... something's happened to this family's well-being! Oh boy, this is bad... what could have possibly happened to this family's well-being?!" I jumped again when the screen suddenly cut to black again, with only text reading "Look for the answer after graduation!" remaining. After a few seconds the video ended, the screen returning to an innocuous, blank media player. But the images I had just seen flashed through my mind, seared into place behind my eyelids. A cold sweat trickled down my mane as I gasped for breath. My heart raced and my body trembled. Mom... Dad... Shiny... Spike... "You MOTHERFUCKER!" Lightning screamed, snapping me out of my trance. "I will KILL that fucking bear for touching my sister!" Rarity snarled a moment later. Fleur glared at her monitor like she was trying to make it explode with nothing more than her mind. Coloratura broke down into a sobbing mess. Bulk made some kind of high-pitched squeal of terror that I don't think could be replicated by any creature in this universe. Nearly everypony else was somewhere in between. "DAMNIT!" Applejack punched the wall beside her. "I have to get out of here... I gotta make sure they're safe!" Coloratura panicked. "It's fake," Redheart stated matter-of-factly. Everypony whipped around in their seats to face her. "Fake?! What are you talking about?!" Trixie shouted in dismay. "This is clearly Monokuma's next motive," Redheart continued coolly. "I assume your videos all implied that something terrible happened to your loved ones?" She waited a few seconds before speaking again. "Then these videos can't possibly be true. There are far too many victims to go unnoticed, let alone without any resistance." "I-I get what you're saying," Flam cleared his throat. "The chances of everypony's friends and families being a-attacked in such a grisly manner... he surely means to goad us all back into his killing game with these videos." "Besides..." Redheart sighed sadly, "even if somehow, the videos are true... knowing that Monokuma's end game is despair, then even if we all escaped there's a good chance they're all already dead. Either way, there's nothing we can do about it while we're all stuck here." I felt the blood rush out of my face. An ice-cold pit formed in my stomach at the thought. Around me, faces paled and pupils shrank. D-Dead?! ...No... "Like hell there isn't!" Lightning hovered into the air. "I'm getting the fuck outta here, and I don't care who gets in my way!" "Don't tell me you're falling for Monokuma's trap!" Rainbow pointed a hoof at her as she hovered as well. "That's exactly what he wants!" "We all wanna get outta here! But we are NOT gonna resort to killin' each other to do it!" Applejack stomped. "Why the fuck not?! If that fuckwad already killed my baby sis, then why the fuck should I give a shit about the rest of you?!" Lightning raged. "My sis deserves vengeance, and that fuckface deserves my hoof rammed so far up his ass he won't shit right for a month!" "...U-UP HIS ASS...?" Bulk shrank back, horrified at the thought. "Lightning, please calm down," I took a few steps towards her. "Don't do anything rash! We need to-" "We ain't gotta do SHIT!" she interrupted, furiously pointing a hoof at me. "I'm getting outta here, and if you don't wanna die first, then stay the FUCK outta my way!" And with that final outburst, Lightning darted out of the media room before anypony could speak. "Oh no you don't...!" Rainbow was quick to follow after her, leaving a puff of dust in her wake. Those of us left behind sat in our chairs, stunned into an uncomfortable silence. Now that one of us had openly declared their murderous intent, I couldn't help but wonder if the thought was mulling about in anypony else's mind. We shut off the computers and solemnly made our way back to our rooms, as Nighttime was only minutes away. I could hear Rainbow shouting at Lightning as we entered the dormitory, but the others wanted nothing to do with either of them and went straight to their rooms, lest they wind up being attacked. Before retiring to my own room, I quickly trotted up the stairs to see Rainbow yelling in vain at Lightning's closed door. "Seriously, don't even think about doing anything! You hear me?!" she scowled as she beat on the door with her hooves. "Did she go in her room?" I asked. "Yep, flew right in and slammed the door shut before I could follow," Rainbow sighed grumpily. "...I know the rooms are soundproof, but do you think the door is knock-proof?" A chill ran down my spine as I remembered how I had knocked on Princess Celestia's door and never got an answer. "I-I don't know... but maybe you should just let her be alone for now. I'd rather she not come suddenly bursting out wanting to fight." Rainbow grumbled, but ceased her attacks on the door. "Fine... she just... she just better not, ya know? I really don't wanna go back down there again..." "I know... none of us do," I bent my head down. We stood in silence for a few moments until Rainbow yawned. I yawned too just a second later. "Well, 'night, Twi," said Rainbow. "See you in the morning, Rainbow," I replied. We both made our way to our rooms. After a soothing shower, I selected one of the books I'd won from the MonoMono Machine - "Dreams Come True ☆ Spell Book" - crawled into bed and fell quickly asleep from the sheer lack of useful or even use-able spells.