"Ah... hahahaha..." Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously. "Great joke, Twilight, except I don't think now's the time."
"I wish I were joking," I spoke quietly as I stared at one of my best friends, tears threatening to blur my vision. The rest of our friends stared at Rainbow in disbelief, while those of us who were not Elements of Harmony glared or frowned. After a few quiet moments, Rainbow's calm facade began to shatter.
"...Wait... you guys... you really think I did it?!" Sweat began to bead on her forehead. "No! No, I didn't kill her!"
"Then why was some of your fur stuck between the Library's outer air vent grating and the wall?" asked Redheart. Her voice was as smooth and level as ever, not betraying her true feelings.
"Uh... I-I noticed one day, that the grating had fallen off!" Rainbow stammered. "So I fixed it!"
"By bashing the screws into the wall? Then why are the other three gratings like that?" Redheart continued.
"Not to mention, if it did happen 'one day', then you would have had plenty of time to find a screwdriver and fix it properly," added Flam.
"I... uh..."
"Pffffahaha!" Fleur cackled. "'Element of Loyalty', huh? That's rich... so you're the one who did it!"
"I am NOT!" Rainbow pointed at Fleur angrily. As she waved her left hoof, my heart dropped even lower into my guts as I realized it was heavily chipped. Before I could mention it, however, Rarity's eyes widened.
"Rainbow, darling... what happened to your hoof?"
"Er, nothing!" Rainbow quickly tried to hide her hoof under her other one, but that hoof was chipped as well, including a small but noticeable crack. She made a small sound as she realized this, and after fumbling over her hooves for a moment she decided on simply hiding them behind her podium.
"Nothin'? They looked worse 'en mine after a day of apple-bucking!" said Applejack.
"Um... I-It's been a long time since I had a hooficure," she gulped. "Look, it can't have been me! I-I have an alibi!"
"Oh?" Redheart mumbled, unconvinced.
"Y-Yea! Twilight, you, me, and the others were all in Pinkie's room playing board games together! You remember, right?!" While our friends began thinking amongst themselves and agreeing with Rainbow, I hesitated.
Rainbow said that we were all playing board games together, so she couldn't have done it... but something about that statement doesn't sound right...
...I know we stayed together past Nighttime, but until when? ...12am, right. At what time did the murder occur? ...3am, yes... So... she doesn't actually have an alibi!
"...Er, no Rainbow, we didn't stay up together that late," I finally said. "We all went to bed at midnight... the murder happened three hours later."
"But... I... uh..." I could see the panic mounting in Rainbow's eyes, and it absolutely killed me inside.
"So, this would mean that you went to the Library afterwards, right?" asked Coloratura.
"Wha-ah, no! Libraries are for eggheads, why would I ever go in one?!" Rainbow pouted, turning up her nose.
...That's not true...
"...There were some Daring Do books in the library," I pursed my lips. "Just a few, but then again they were some of your favorite ones, if I remember right."
"Yea, they are... Daring Do and the Peak of Hope is probably the best one! I finished rereading that one just last ni- ...shit." As soon as she realized she had all but confessed to being in the Library last night, Rainbow slammed her face on her podium.
"R-Rainbow... you didn't..." Fluttershy began to sob.
"D-Dashie..." Pinkie Pie's mane began to deflate.
"...Why? ...Why did ya hav'ta do it...?" Even the normally-stoic Applejack was beginning to tear up. A painful lump formed in my throat as I watched Rainbow cover her head with her forelegs, unmoving.
"...Zzz... zzz... zzz..."
A strange noise, like a log being sawn in half far away, broke the silence.
"...Zzz... zzz... zzz..."
One by one, we each turned our heads and stared at Lightning Dust. She had fallen asleep.
"Well, that's rude," Fleur snorted.
"Um... Lightning?" Fluttershy gently poked Lightning's shoulder. It was just what she needed.
"Zzz-pbhth... huh...?" Lightning groggily opened one eye, blinking before she opened the other. "Buh... man. About fucking time my head stopped spinning..." She slowly stood up, bracing herself on her podium as she shook her head to clear it.
"You're awake!" Coloratura gasped.
"Finally decided to grace us with your charming presence, did you?" Fleur glared.
"Yea, yea, fuck you very much for your concern," Lightning paused to take a swig from the water bottle on her podium, then glanced around at her surroundings before growling loudly in anger. "...Shit, here we go again."
"You were the target of a Compulsion spell," Redheart stated. "Do you remember what happened to you?" Lightning mumbled an affirmative. "Please, tell us."
"Well... the morning after I watched that video, I took a long shower, trying to think of a way to get out of here... I couldn't think of anything, though. So I noticed that it was an hour into breakfast, and I was hungry... Trixie was waiting for me right outside my door, holding up some piece of paper. Before I knew it, she told me to follow her... and I did. I don't know why.
"She told me to stay in her room until she returned. It was the most fuckin' boring day of my life, she didn't come back until Nighttime started. Not sure why I didn't just leave... but when she did come back, she went straight to her bed, set an alarm for later and told me to stay put until she woke up. I was exhausted and fucking starving and I really had to go piss, but no matter how hard I tried to get up and leave, I just couldn't. So the alarm goes off at around 2:30am, Trixie wakes up, reaches under her bed and digs out some rope and a couple more pieces of paper. She then told me to follow her... and I did.
"She led me to the Art Room, for some fucking reason. She set the papers down on a desk in front, and she tied a noose with her magic. And then..."
Lightning began to shiver. I think this was the first time throughout this whole ordeal that I'd actually seen her be scared.
"...That fucking bitch... she told me to put my neck in the noose! A-And I did! I got right up on the stool she set up beneath it and put it on like a fucking sheep! Why the fuck did I do that?!"
"You were under the effects of Compulsion... you had no choice," Flam swallowed hard.
"T-Then what h-happened?" Coloratura sank behind her podium until only the top of her head was visible. Lightning blinked several times, breathing heavily before she continued.
"Well, then that bitch got all uppity. She started gloating about how ingenious her plan was, that she'd be out in no time and able to see somepony named Starlight again... she began planning how they'd run away together to Saddle Arabia and start new lives. She was laughing, thought she was so fuckin' smart...
"...And then, Rainbow suddenly shot out of the air vent and tackled Trixie. She fuckin' surfed the floor on her, and then she turned around and got me down. I... I don't know why, but I remember feeling like I'd just been bucked in the head, and had to sit for a while.
"But then I heard Rainbow start freaking out. I... I think she said she'd... she'd killed her on accident...! Holy shit, you guys, she fuckin' killed Trixie! I tried to get out, thinking I might be next or some shit, but she grabbed me and threw me back on the floor. I got back up, and I had her mane in my hoof, but then I just... stopped. I just stood there. I wanted so badly to bash her head in and escape, but I couldn't!
"She then told me... told me to tie myself up. I remember trying to. I watched as she lifted Trixie up into the noose, and pulled down hard for good measure. I tried to turn my head, to look away from the body, to watch what Rainbow was doing... It felt like my head was stuck in a vise, and it hurt so fuckin' much, the room was spinning... I just sat and watched Trixie spin in place for... I-I don't even fucking know. I could hear sweeping to my left, then pounding something... and then I guess she left."
Lightning grabbed her water bottle and downed the rest of it in one motion, gasping for air as she slammed it down onto her podium. Everypony was stunned into horrified silence by her account, now that they knew the truth. Even I shuddered at the thought of the traumatizing body horror Lightning had been forced to endure.
"Celestia's ivory asscheeks..." Fleur breathed.
"You were hit by another Compulsion spell, almost immediately after Trixie's was broken by her death," Flam stared at the floor.
"No wonder it took you so long to recover," Redheart mused. A quiet sobbing noise caught my attention; I glanced over to Rainbow, crying and falling into despair. Before I or anypony else could say anything, however, Rainbow sucked in a deep breath and slammed her hooves on her podium.
"I-I... I didn't! I DIDN'T KILL HER!" As she screamed in protest, her fur and mane suddenly stood on end, as if being blown upwards by a powerful wind. A brightly-glowing rainbow aura surrounded her as tears finally fell from her eyes.
"I didn't kill her! Don't you believe me?! I-I'm the Element of Loyalty, damnit! Why would I kill her?! You guys don't understand... I-I had to stop her! I had to save Lightning! Please, I can't die, Equestria needs me!"
"Rainbow..." Her name left my lips in a sob. Around the room, I could see our other friends despairing as well.
...But you know you can't escape... you know it's either all of us that die, or just you...
"You guys don't even know for sure if I used a Scroll of Compulsion! There was no evidence to prove I did it!" she wailed. I wished with all my heart that it it wasn't true, but I knew that she had cried a final, desperate lie.
I'm sorry... but this is my proof!
"There is, Rainbow..." I sighed, defeated. "Most of the ashes from that scroll were found in a waste basket in the Scrollwork Room. Nopony would have questioned a used scroll in the trash, except there was half of a fragment of scroll left inside. The other half... you must have dropped it when you were leaving the Art Room."
Rainbow screamed, full of pain and grief, as if being told she'd been kicked out of the Wonderbolts and banned from ever coming back.
"No... stop this... STOP IT, TWILIGHT!" Pinkie shouted, causing all eyes to fall on her. "Rainbow... D-Dashie didn't do it!"
"I beg your fucking pardon?!" Fleur recoiled. "Have so many sweets rotted your brain?! Lightning witnessed the entire thing!"
"I... I can't believe it, either!" Rarity bawled. "I... refuse to believe it!"
"Well you'd better fuckin' believe it, because I watched it happen!" Lightning snarled.
"I can't stand for this! Rainbow cannot be guilty of this crime!" Discord yelled as he wrapped his arms around a blubbering Fluttershy.
"It doesn't matter if you stand for it or not, miss Dash is clearly the guilty party!" Flam argued.
"Ah... Ah can't... ah won't... ah won't just throw Rainbow to the timberwolves like that! Ah'd rather die than condemn her to death!" Applejack growled, hiding her face behind her hat.
"I know it's unimaginably cruel for you to even consider, but we must find Rainbow Dash guilty!" Redheart tried to reason. "If we don't, we will ALL die!"
"Why are we even arguing about this?!" Coloratura wailed. I tried to speak, to reason with my friends, to tell them I felt so horrible for what we had to do, but I only choked and gagged on my own breath. I felt dizzy, terrified, miserable beyond all comprehension! Why did this have to happen?!
"Hold on!" Monokuma, who had been silently watching on his throne behind them, giggled ominously. "My, my, my... you guys really want to start a Scrum Debate this late in the trial?! Weh-hell, then, the School of Despair is proud to present its very own morphenomenal trial grounds!"
*Split Opinion!*
I watched with trepidation as a set of gears appeared before Monokuma, who pulled a key out from somewhere, inserted it into what I assumed was a keyhole and turned it. Suddenly, the bases of our podiums glowed with bright, blue light. I felt the ground shake for a moment, and my sense of balance threatened to fail me as I found myself being raised into the air. All around me, everypony's podiums, even those of the deceased, were levitating into the dead center of the room in a perfect helix, then sliding left or right until we had been divided into two teams.
Rainbow Dash is guilty: Twilight Sparkle, Lightning Dust, Nurse Redheart, Flam, Coloratura, Fleur de Lis, Bulk Biceps
Rainbow Dash is not guilty: Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Discord, Applejack, Rainbow Dash
I gazed with hopeless resignation at each of my best friends, then those alongside me. Knowing there was nothing I could do but force my friends to see logic and reason, I sighed mournfully.
...I can't save everypony... I'm sorry Rainbow... but I must save everypony I can!
*Is Rainbow Dash guilty? Debate Scrum start!*
"Rainbow spent the night playing games with us! We saw her!" Pinkie cried.
Coloratura!
"Not all night! She went to her room at midnight, just like the rest of you!"
"There was no reason for Rainbow to even be present in the Library!" Rarity asserted.
Flam!
"She was reading her favorite Daring Do books!"
"There was no way she could've gone into the Art Room! The door was locked from the inside!" Discord hissed.
Bulk!
"SHE TORE OFF THE AIR VENTS WITH HER BARE HOOVES, THEN SMACKED THE SCREWS BACK IN PLACE WHEN SHE WENT BACK TO FIX THEM!"
"Trixie probably just tripped or somethin' and whacked her head! Rainbow had nothin' to do with it!" Applejack begged.
Lightning!
"I watched her tackle Trixie right in the fuckin' throat and into the wall! Ya think you can survive a hit like that?!"
"Please... I didn't... I didn't...!" Rainbow sniveled, her eyes red and her cheeks puffy.
Twilight!
"Rainbow... it was your fur that was stuck in the grating, and your mane that was in Lightning's hoof."
"W-We need all of the Elements of H-Harmony together! It's u-up to us to save E-Equestria!" Fluttershy screamed as she cried so hard she was nearly hyperventilating.
Redheart!
"Whether she dies or we all die, the Elements of Harmony are doomed to be separated, no matter what happens."
*Full counter! This is our answer!*
"Guys... my friends... I'm sorry," I spoke slowly, holding back tears with everything I had. "I don't want Rainbow to die, just as much as the rest of you... but I don't want all of you to die instead!"
"But Twilight-"
"...No," Rainbow coughed, interrupting Applejack. "T-That's enough, guys. I can't do it... I can't let you guys do this for me."
"Darling," Rarity whispered.
"It's bad enough I killed somepony when I didn't mean to... heh, what kind of Element of Loyalty would I be if I traded my life for yours?" she smiled slightly, her bravado entirely unconvincing. The rainbow aura around her faded away, and her fur and mane returned to normal. "I'm sorry... really, I'm just... oh fuck I'm so scared!" She finally broke down, shoulders heaving as she cried. "I know I fucked up! I don't want to die! Not here!"
"Why didn't you come to us fer help first?! This wouldn't've happened, then!" Applejack yelled, her voice cracking under the strain.
"There... there was no time... when I left the Library, I could hear Trixie monologuing from the halls... I-I tried to open the door but it was locked, a-and it sounded like she was s-starting to wrap it up..." Rainbow explained quickly through sobs.
"But then Trixie would've been the one responsible... no offense, Lightning," Flam glanced over to her.
"Psh... thanks a lot," she muttered coolly, although her expression suggested that she didn't seem to care at the moment.
"Despite everything, up until a moment ago you were perfectly happy to try and deceive us all..." he continued.
"Who wouldn't?" Redheart remarked. "Even I have to admit, even the most altruistic of ponies would have a fleeting notion of saving themselves. Not doing so goes against all our most basest of instincts."
"...You... you wanted to get out. For your parents, right?" I asked gently. "And Scootaloo?" Rainbow nodded ruefully.
"Especially... for my number one fan."
The sadness was cut through by Fleur's sudden, loud yawn. "Enough of this pathetic drivel. Let's just end this now, hm?"
"Please... let's go over this one more time. Perhaps it'll be what we need to overcome our doubts," Rarity almost whispered, her head bowed. I sighed heavily, sniffling away my tears and gathering my thoughts.
Alright, then...
This is how it happened!
"The crime began shortly after we all returned to our rooms after watching Monokuma's motive videos. At some point during Nighttime, Trixie fetched some rope from the Warehouse. She knew that if she used her magic for what she had planned she would be easily traceable, so she also went to the Scrollwork Room and inscribed a couple of Scrolls of Compulsion. She likely only needed one, but she probably also wanted to make sure nothing went wrong.
"The next morning, after most of us had gone to eat breakfast, she waited outside of Lightning Dust's room, hoping to intercept her. Sure enough, almost an hour into breakfast, Lightning opened her door to join us, only for Trixie to immediately cast a Compulsion spell on her using a scroll. She then ordered Lightning to wait in her room for the rest of the day, while she finally arrived at breakfast and acted as if everything was normal.
"That night, at around 2:30am, Trixie grabbed the rope and the rest of the scrolls she had stashed under her bed, and ordered Lightning to follow her to the Art Room. Once there, she wasted no time in tying the rope into a noose. Her goal was to compel Lightning to hang herself, in order to fool us that a suicide had happened, rather than a murder. Once she was finished, she then ordered Lightning to stand on a stool and put the noose around her neck. But instead of kicking away the stool, Trixie must have felt that, since her plan was just about to succeed, she could safely boast about her genius.
"Unbeknownst to her, Rainbow Dash - apparently unable to sleep - was in the Library reading a Daring Do book. She finished it at that time, and prepared to go back to her room. Once she was in the Hallway, however, she heard Trixie loudly boasting about her plans. She tried to get into the Art Room through the door, but found it locked. She then remembered that the air vents in both the Library and the Art Room allowed access to the outside, so she removed the gratings and crawled through. Once inside the Art Room's air vent, she realized that Trixie was about to have Lightning Dust hanged. Heroically she burst into the room, damaging the grating in the process, but successfully tackling Trixie to the ground. They slid along the floor until coming to a stop at the wall. Rainbow then got up and quickly rescued Lightning from the noose.
"However... it turned out that Rainbow had been too successful. She had crushed Trixie's throat in the process, and she choked to death. As Rainbow began to panic, Lightning began to recover from the Compulsion spell. Realizing what had happened, a small fight ensued between the two of them. Lightning had just managed to grab Rainbow by the mane when Rainbow, realizing that the leftover Scrolls of Compulsion were sitting on a desk near her, grabbed one and cast Compulsion on Lightning.
"Subdued once more, Rainbow ordered Lightning to tie herself up with leftover rope from the noose. While she did that, Rainbow grabbed Trixie's body, put her neck through the noose, and pulled down tight to make it seem like she was the one who hanged herself. She then set about cleaning up the evidence; pounding out the dents she had made in the grating and sweeping up as much of the scroll ash as she could... being in such a hurry due to panic, however, she missed a piece of charred parchment. There was no way for her to reattach the Art Room's grating without locking herself in, so Rainbow resorted to using tape to repair it.
"After returning to the Library, she quickly reattached that room's grating by hammering the screws into the wall, since she didn't have a screwdriver and likely was freaking out too hard to even think about finding one. She then threw away the ashes in the Scrollwork Room, as nopony would question seeing them there... except that was where we found the other part of that charred parchment piece. Finally, she went outside and hammered the screws for the remaining grates back into place, not realizing that she had gotten some of her fur stuck between one of the grates and the outside wall. But, feeling that she had successfully covered her tracks, she finally returned to her room for a nice, calming shower.
"And so, with all the evidence gathered, I propose that this is exactly what happened. Isn't it... Rainbow Dash?"
Having tried so hard to keep my voice steady throughout the speech, it finally cracked as I said her name. Again, I felt no sense of justice or righteousness in my heart... only despair. Tears dripped from my eyes as I looked over towards Rainbow, who had finally managed to stop crying. Her entire face was painfully inflamed and red.
"...Y-Yep... I-I think that about c-covers i-it," she forced a grin. Around the room, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Discord, Fluttershy and Applejack began their wailing anew, already mourning one of our best friends. "Monokuma... go ahead..."
"Roger that!" Monokuma smiled cheerfully, entirely unaffected by the mood of the room.
"W-Wait! H-Hold on!" Applejack begged once more.
"No waiting! No holding on!" the bear cackled. "Time for the moment we've all been waiting for! Grab your lever and give it a yank!"
I looked down at my podium; the lever had returned along with the sixteen large buttons. Three of the faces were grayed out now... soon to be four.
"Who will you elect as the blackened this time around?" Monokuma shouted suspensfully. "Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? What's it gonna be? What's it gonna beeee?!"
Regretfully, I pressed Rainbow's button. Those of everypony else grew dim, while Rainbow's remained alight. The "guilty" beside the lever began to flash, and I dry-heaved as I pulled it down, fresh tears burning my cheeks. The sound of the lever echoed around me.
The monitor behind Monokuma came to life. "Monokuma Vote! Who is found guilty?" appeared, followed by the slot machine. We watched with bated breath as the symbols slowed...
...and landed, three in a row, on Rainbow Dash's face. "Guilty!"
Oh, Rainbow... I'm so sorry...!
*Class Trial End! All Rise!*
"...Uh-oh! This time it looks like... you got it right again!" Monokuma proclaimed with glee. "Yes, it is so... the blackened who killed Trixie Lulamoon was... Rrrrrainbow Dash!"
"Aha! Dashie's name doesn't have five R's in it! She's not gonna die!" Pinkie shouted, pointing and grinning at Monokuma like she'd just found a loophole. Of course, her pin-straight mane and wet, bloodshot eyes made it all too clear that her objection was in vain.
"I mean... except for the hiding evidence and leaving Lightning at the scene of the crime, you could say this was an act of defending another pony... right?" Coloratura whimpered.
"But we know... Monokuma doesn't accept such excuses," Redheart bowed her head.
"Be honest... after learning about Trixie's plan, you saw an opportunity, right?" Monokuma leered accusingly. "You probably thought nopony would find out if you killed her after messing up her plan, right? ...Hey, well would you look at that! I said a pony word! Ah, spending so much time with you lovely students is finally rubbing off on me... But anyway, that's what you thought, right?"
"N-No... I didn't-"
"There's no way a person - or pony - who has no malice... would kill someone - or somepony - like that," Monokuma interrupted, smirking.
"I s-said I-"
"In truth, you were just desperate to kill Trixie... and willing to sacrifice everypony else to survive... right? ...Just be honest, already... at least, in the end."
"NO!" Rainbow screamed, her eyes clenched shut but tears still falling from them.
"If that was the case... she would've just let me die," Lightning remarked quietly, but still loud enough for everypony to hear. Rainbow hiccuped, softening her cries.
"Wha- ...Lightning, why would I do that? I don't hate you."
"I..." Lightning began, but paused. After a moment she shook her head and growled. "...No. I guess you don't."
"I'll admit... the thought did cross my mind while I was waiting for everypony else to get up... but even so, I-I don't think I could live with myself knowing what I'd done..." Rainbow stared at the floor despondently. "Not even... for the little squirt's sake..."
"Rainbow..." Applejack coughed through her teeth. She, myself, all of us... in normal circumstances, any one of us would have gladly given our lives to save her. But when that sacrifice included so many other innocent ponies...
"You could've..." said Lightning, leaving her podium and walking towards Rainbow. "...You absolutely could have let me die, or threw us all under the carriage and escape... but you didn't. Besides saving me... you're kinda saving all of us."
Rainbow sniffled loudly and quieted down, staring at Lightning incredulously. She was not at all known for being sentimental.
"Yea... maybe I was wrong about you... and myself. Thank you... for not letting me get killed." Lightning raised a hoof for a hoof bump. Rainbow stared at her for a few moments before her own hoof met hers.
"N-No problem... I guess... that's just what heroes do." Rainbow grimaced.
"I see, I see..." Monokuma grumbled. "Interesting... and here I thought it'd be more brutal and heartless. Man, how disappointing."
"Please..." Rainbow now stared into Lightning's eyes, full of fear of what was to come. "My friends... Scootaloo... look after them for me, okay?"
"After saving my life? It's the least I could fuckin' do," Lightning nodded.
"Thank you..." Rainbow sighed, a smile spreading on her face. It was very short-lived.
"Boooooooring!" Monokuma yelled. "Noooow then, let's begin! The punishment time brimming with despair!"
"Wha- wait, no!" Applejack cried out.
"This time, for the Ultimate Weather Pony Rainbow Dash... I've prepared a special punishment for you!"
"Please, Monokuma! Don't do this!" Rarity shouted.
"Let's give it everything we got!"
"No! Fer Celestia's sake, take me instead, but not her...!" Applejack begged once more.
"All of you..." Rainbow turned to face us all. "Please... make sure this never happens again!" At that moment I wanted to scream, I wanted to tell Rainbow that I loved her, would miss her so terribly much, that I would make sure no further murders ever took place. I wanted to save her with every fiber of my being.
...But there was nothing I could do.
"It's... PUNISHMENT TIIIIME!"
The large, red button appeared before Monokuma. He grinned with excitement as he pulled out a hammer, hopped and did a somersault in midair, smashing the button as he landed. As he scuttled away afterwards, we watched as the monitor came to life with blood-red graphics.
"Rainbow Dash has been found guilty. Time for the punishment!" My body went numb as I watched the image of Rainbow being dragged away by the mane. A clinking sound made my ears flick; I recognized it as the chain and shackle that would quickly close around Rainbow's neck.
"N-No! You're gonna have to catch me first!" Rainbow shrieked, immediately taking flight. She barely dodged the shackle and sped off into the darkness above.
"Rainbow-" Applejack began to call out.
"Um... if she gets away... does that mean... we'll...?" Coloratura gulped.
"I certainly hope not..." Flam breathed as we turned our attention to the monitor. It had flashed to life, the cameras following Rainbow's attempt at escape through somewhere that looked much like an abandoned factory. She occasionally glanced behind her, finding herself being chased by gradually more winged Monokumas wielding cattle prods. To everypony's horror, the Monokumas easily kept up with her as she dipped, dove and dodged.
Eventually she ducked into another room, swearing as she saw it was packed full of Monokumas. Before she could even bring herself to a stop they attacked her relentlessly with their cattle prods, her body twitching and rippling uncontrollably with each hit. Though her voice was drowned out by the commotion, Rainbow screamed in agony until finally falling unconscious. Once she had gone limp, some of the Monokumas then hefted her up and carried her to another room, and the camera shut off momentarily.
A few moments later, the camera feed returned. Rainbow's eyes slowly cracked open, then shot awake in terror. In the center of a dark, massive room, she was strapped to a board with a seam running horizontally beneath her at chest-height. Her legs were shackled to the corners, and her wings were left sticking out from her sides. However, it was what she was suspended over that made me truly nauseous: a large machine shaped like an upside-down pyramid was directly beneath her, full of thousands of spinning metal teeth. The pyramid sat atop another machine that had seven glass tubes coming out of it. At the ends of the tubes were spigots, and beneath the spigots were glass jars. A spotlight came on in the distance, and Rainbow's face paled as she saw Monokuma standing at a set of controls, waving at her.
*Ultimate Weather Pony Rainbow Dash's Execution: Executed*
*Rainbow Alchemy*
Monokuma's red eye flashed, and he gripped a pair of levers. He paused for a moment as sweat poured down Rainbow's body. And then... he began pushing and pulling the levers back and forth vigorously.
Rainbow's screams brought everypony's attention to her, and they immediately shouted in horror and looked away. My own vision blackened as I watched Rainbow's body being twisted like a towel being wrung out, the crunching and popping of her rib cage echoing in my ears. Monokuma threw the levers faster and faster, and blood began pouring out of Rainbow's mouth. I nearly vomited at the sight, while a few of the others gagged, scrambling for anything resembling a container.
Then Monokuma released the levers, but he was far from finished. Next he threw a different lever, and a pair of sawblades descended from the ceiling. Despite the pain, Rainbow weakly struggled as the sawblades drew closer and closer. I realized with a gasp that at their distance and angle, they would make contact with the base of her wings. Rainbow must've noticed as well, as she squirmed harder and faster as the sawblades came within inches, then plunged down. She screamed again, somehow even louder, and after a few seconds her wings dropped uselessly into the machine beneath her.
At last, Monokuma's paw hovered over a large, red button. Barely conscious, Rainbow gazed over towards him with a look that begged him to end it all. He lingered for a few moments before finally pressing it. The shackles released, and Rainbow dropped like a lead weight into the machine, disappearing in a bloody spray. The camera panned slowly downwards as the machine worked, and at the very bottom after a few seconds of waiting, brightly-glowing liquid of every color of the rainbow streamed through the glass pipes and into the jars. Monokuma then capped and collected the jars before walking over to a market stall, advertising that he was selling Liquid Rainbows.
My legs shook violently, my blood ran cold as ice. The sheer brutality of Rainbow's death rendered me unable to even cry. I kept staring at the screen in shock until it finally switched off.
~
Fluttershy's screams reverberated throughout the Trial Room. What we saw... that was the true face of despair.
"Fucking..." Lightning stared, speechless and horrified.
"H-Holy overkill, Monokuma, was that really necessary?!" Flam stammered.
"GRAAAAAAAH! PLEASE TELL ME THAT DIDN'T JUST HAPPEN!" Bulk cowered, covering his face.
"Isn't it just awful?" Monokuma reappeared a few feet away from us, looking disappointed. "Someone couldn't cut free from their regrets from the outside world, and so more ponies had to die... You guys are still young! You need to place more value on your lives!" he shouted suddenly. "Geez... and here I thought you guys were gonna pass the torch of hope and harmony to the next generation!"
"H-Hope?! H-How could any of us even think about that after what we just saw?!" Coloratura yelped.
"You're all the embodiment of hope, whether you like it or not," Monokuma shrugged. "...And it's my destiny to knock you down one by one! It's sad, yes it is... but that reality just can't be avoided."
"Don't talk... like you're not responsible..." Applejack growled as tears streamed down her face.
"What do you want from us?!" Fleur snapped, glaring at the bear with dread.
"...God, I'm so sick of people asking me that. Give it a rest, already!" Monokuma snarled, suddenly extending his claws as his red eye glowed. Fleur blinked and immediately shut her muzzle, and his expression changed. "You guys act like you can't believe it, but you're all terrified anyway. If you can't believe it, then you're terrified for no reason! And here I thought that humans were the only animal that could tell lies!"
We had no response to that.
"Good. Now, then... hmm, all this wonderful despair is making me feel like I'm about to sneeze." Monokuma suddenly bloated and inflated until he was twice his usual girth, and we all took a step back. "Ah... ah... aaaaah-gly bitch!"
"I beg your pardon?!" Fleur screeched. But in the second it took me to blink in surprise from his weirdly-profane sneeze, Monokuma had vanished. We were silent in shock for a while, trying to process everything that had happened. It felt like hours had gone by when Fluttershy's soft cries soon graced my ears.
"I... I can't take this anymore... even Rainbow was killed so brutally..." Discord moved to comfort her, but she only cried harder.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I DON'T WANNA DO THIS ANYMORE!" Bulk squealed.
"That's going to be me... isn't it...? I'm gonna die... just like that..." Coloratura began to hyperventilate.
"No..." Applejack argued weakly. "...We gotta... gotta stop this. We can't keep killin' each other!"
"She's right," Flam's magic glowed around his hat as he took it off and levitated it over his chest. "For the sake of our dear friends Rainbow and the Princesses, we must persevere!"
"But... won't Monokuma just give us another motive again?" Rarity whimpered.
"Yes... and I suspect he'll continue to do so no matter what we do," Redheart sighed. "It is up to us to disregard them all."
"But how will we get out of here? How long have we looked and there's still no way?" Fleur whined, a mixture of terror and anger across her face.
"We'll find a way," I spoke up. "...We have to. I... I don't know what'll happen to the Element of Loyalty, but I will not allow the rest of them to end up the same way!" Lightning turned her eyes to the floor. "I will not allow any more of you to die! Not here, and not like that!"
"Ah sure hope yer right, Twi," Applejack sighed. "C'mon... let's get outta here. Too depressin'."
And so, the class trial ended, and we left the room.
...But our happy ending is nowhere in sight. But when it does finally come... what will have happened to us by then...?
~
"Oh, Dashie... I always thought she'd go out doing a Sonic Rainboom when she was, like, sixty or something..." Pinkie sighed sadly as we rode the elevator back to the school. My friends and I nodded dejectedly, as that would have been a death Rainbow would've been happy with. There was nothing happy about what had happened.
Despite not having eaten since breakfast, I went straight to my room. I turned on the shower, sat down under the water and cried. My sobs soon became screams, and I begged Rainbow to forgive me. Only when I found myself barely able to stay awake did I leave the shower. I dried myself off and crawled into bed, falling asleep on a damp pillow.