//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Killing Game Clarifications // Story: What's Black And White And Red In One Eye? // by TundraStanza //------------------------------// "Before you begin your inevitable purge, there are some restrictions and other information you may wish to hear." Kevin grabbed something near his belt. After about a second, his entire body was covered in a layer of metal. He ran up and punched the robotic wolf. "Killers are forbidden to take more than two victims. Violators of this restriction will be severely punished." Puss-In-Boots hopped and flipped onto the podium. He jabbed with his thin sword multiple times. In a flash, the robot wolf chomped its jaw around the cat's torso. After shaking him around, it flung him away. "After three persons other than the culprit discover a body, a class trial will be held. There, the living must argue and ultimately determine who they believe is the killer." Min Min and Dr. Coyle pulled out tubes of yellow energy. Crushing those containers, they proceeded to throw multiple punches from their stretchy arms. After a spinning cloud of smoke, an unharmed robot wolf stood tall. "If you correctly guess, the culprit will be promptly taken away and executed. If the majority guesses wrong, everyone besides the murderer will be punished instead." Button Mash dashed over and hugged Screw Loose's hooves. Meanwhile, Chrono and Shobu were holding up glowing cards. Two dragons of clashing art styles flew in and smacked the robot wolf around. But even after its parts scattered into dust, it reappeared at the podium. "Accomplices are heavily discouraged, as only one killer will be allowed to leave in the event that the majority votes incorrectly. Should that come to pass, the winner will be decided by a virtual coin toss." Silver lifted a hand and levitated the robot wolf. Nilin shot blasts of distorted energy from her gauntlet at the floating robot. "If the cause of death is suicide, the killer will be unable to die a second time, so their punishment round will be skipped. Why does that make this one... sad?" "Going ghost!/Dragon up!" Glowing white hair and red scales marked a ghost kid and a dragon respectively. This was swiftly followed by an ice beam and a ring of fire. The clash of elements working together cracked the robot and it blew up. Yet, it still stood in perfect condition. "There is no traitor working for an outside organization among you. This is not a virtual reality. This is not a game show made for the entertainment of thousands of viewers." Moondancer magically lifted the robot. Moxxie pulled out a sniper rifle and fired right at the red eye. The unicorn thought she heard a second trigger pop, but there was only one hole in the robot's head before it exploded. Then, it appeared standing at the podium without any damages. "This one simply wishes to observe an experiment: How far are all of you willing to go to survive? Will you kill for the sake of escaping, or will you allow trust to form, knowing that doing so could trap you for eternity?" Connor flipped his coin and caught it in a clenched fist. "Analysis confirmed. Whoever owns this Headmaster has an indeterminable stockpile of them in case we overpower one." Nilin pushed her hair out of her eyes. "You don't say." Akechi pulled his hand out from his jacket opening. "Hmm, this is quite the predicament we're in." "That will be all for now. Curfew is at 11PM. Your dorm rooms are through the gymnasium entrance and all the way to the right. Follow the rules and regulations to the letter... or this one will make you wish you could die. Oh, by the way, this one has implanted a hypnotic suggestion into all of your craniums similar to that of a profanity filter. This is to instill a more creative application of vocabulary. Goodbye for now." With those words echoing faintly in the gymnasium, the robotic wolf vanished on its own. Everyone went silent where they stood. The various powered-up states fizzled out. Moxxie's eyes twitched. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuudge!" Kevin tilted his head. "What? Are you really that upset about losing some filler words?" Moxxie grit his teeth. "It's the principle of the matter, filthy human! Cursing is my choice, not an on-off switch to be played with like a frosting toy!" "If you're done throwing a tantrum, we have bigger problems," said Dr. Coyle. "Can't believe I'm agreeing with her, but she is right." Min Min shook her head. "We need to find a way to get out of here." Button Mash managed to stand on his own hooves. "But what about the school year? Shouldn't we still try to learn what we can?" "Read the room, kid." Danny held out his hand beside him. "Somebody high-jacked this place and there isn't any normal staff left." Chrono glanced back at the stage. "All that's left is that dumb-looking robot and whoever is controlling it." Nilin tapped her gauntlet in a few spots. "It's not running any software I've ever seen. I could only hack one of them at a time and that was for split-second bursts." Moondancer adjusted her glasses. "So, we need to find a way out of here. But the catch is that the place has been reinforced with magic-proof and power-proof floors and walls." Shobu hummed to himself. "Maybe if I change the number of different civilizations in my deck, a way will open up." Chrono blinked twice. "Uh... mixing card clans is illegal." Shobu chuckled. "Not in my world, it isn't." Akechi crossed his arms. "Truly? None of you are even entertaining the idea of what the Headmaster told us?" Screw Loose tilted her head. "What are you talking about?" Akechi held out an open palm. "Just a moment ago, all of you attacked its copies without hesitation. How can we know for sure you won't decide it's worth the risk to kill another student?" Silver furrowed his brow. "You can't be serious." Akechi feigned surprise. "You're accusing me of joking? But you don't even know me. As a matter of fact, none of us really know each other. We only met today. For all I know, one of you is planning their method of attack as we speak." Moondancer stared at the young man. "There is something wrong with you." Connor walked closer. "Being a stranger does not necessitate being an enemy. It can allow partnerships to start from scratch and build a foundation from the ground." "Coming from an android, those words mean nothing." Akechi smiled coldly. "Perhaps you're in league with your fellow robot that's holding us captive." The humanoid stopped walking. He put his hand behind his back and pulled out a pistol. The other students gasped. Then, he flipped it around in his hand. He reached out and grabbed Akechi's arm, shoving the pistol into the leather glove. "If you're certain that I cannot be trusted, then go ahead and prove it." Connor positioned the boy's arm. The pistol was now aiming at its original owner's forehead. "If you want your words to carry weight, you should be willing to take the action yourself." "Are you crazy?!" Kevin stepped forward. "Please stay back, Mr. Levin." Connor's expression did not change. "I would prefer you not get hurt." Shobu's eyes were wide open. "I'm pretty sure he's not the one in danger right this second!" Akechi stared dumbfounded at his 'hostage'. He had suggested aloud that he suspected the android of duplicity. Yet, here that same android had practically put its life in his hands. He didn't get it. He... really could not understand it at all. So, he laughed. "Ah ha ha ha ha ha! My, my, you are hilarious, Officer." Akechi lifted his hand away. He shoved the gun back into Connor's possession. "Perhaps this will be an interesting semester after all." He turned around and walked. "Wait, where are you going?" asked Moondancer. "Well, in all the excitement, I've grown a bit peckish." Akechi smiled. "So, I'll be stopping by the food court before retiring to my dorm room. Good day, everyone." As soon as the doors swung behind Akechi's departure, the students' eyes turned to the center of the gymnasium. "Was that really necessary?" Moxxie's tail swished once. Connor holstered his pistol. "He attempted to put all of us on the spot. I predicted that he would dislike having the reverse hold true. My choice had an eighty-seven percent chance of de-escalating the situation. I acted based on that probability." Moxxie sighed. "Look, dude, I'm normally fine with killing. It's part of my job. But when somebody that seems innocent puts themselves on the chopping block, that's not okay. Don't pull that stunt again." "Seriously." Chrono exhaled. "I couldn't breathe in that atmosphere." Connor slowly blinked. "Thank you for your concern. I will keep that in mind for future reference." There was a collective sigh as the tension in the gym was released. "Maybe it's time to call it a day." Shobu clasped his hands together. "How about we break off for now? Go get some food, wash up, take a nap... whatever you need to do, let's find ways to relax." "Sounds great," said Jake. The rest were either non-combative or silently in agreement. Slowly, they departed from the gymnasium and went about the rest of their day. "Fascinating." Dr. Coyle rubbed her chin. "I wonder if there's something inside that android I could use in my next lab project." --- Moondancer secured a filled paper bag from one of the multiple restaurants inside the food court. She looked around at the seats and the other students that were present. She briefly considered finding the two other ponies for some sense of familiarity. She stopped and looked up into empty space. 'When Twilight was first making friends, she didn't start with some pony that was most comfortable for her. Maybe, I should take a dive into this new school environment.' She trotted over to the girl who was currently tinkering away on her gauntlet. "Is anyone sitting here?" Nilin paused, shrugged her shoulder, then resumed her idle task. "Go ahead." Moondancer sat down and pulled out a sandwich and a canned drink. On the can, there was an image of a lemon semi-fused with a green pineapple grenade. She took one sip of the drink and started coughing. Nilin glanced over. "Er, you alright?" It took Moondancer a moment and a quick nibble of her sandwich to calm down. "Y-Yes. I just wasn't expecting that soda to be so sour. It felt like it was turning my mouth into a house on fire." "Really? Hmm... may I see?" "Sure, just be careful." Nilin grabbed the can and chugged it down. After about five seconds, she pulled the can away and crushed it. She tossed the can behind herself and it rattled against the floor. Puss-In-Boots dashed by, stabbed the can with his sword, and ran it over to the garbage can. Moondancer adjusted her glasses. "I guess you liked the sour flavor?" "Had a bit of a craving today." Nilin shoved a different bottle along the table. "Here, you can have this. I haven't even opened it yet." "Uh, thank you." Nilin returned to fiddling with some parts on her gauntlet. Moondancer continued to eat her meal in silence. Her ears flicked every time Nilin muttered something about edges, memories, and a missing booster. The rambling about code almost started to make sense to the unicorn. --- A high-pitched pattern of ringing marked the end of the day. Moondancer trotted up to a room at the end of the hall. An image of her face had been plastered onto the door. She tried to open the door and go inside, but the handle was stuck in place. "How do they expect us to go to bed if they lock us out?" she asked. She heard a low growl behind her. Her spine tingled before she forced herself to turn around. The robotic wolf was staring at her. She couldn't find her voice. The metallic mouth opened and dropped a small item at Moondancer's hooves. The wolf then vanished into the floor. Moondancer tapped her head a couple times. After remembering how to blink and breathe, she levitated the item up to eye-level. It was a key. She turned back to the door and fit the key into a space on the handle. It clicked and she was able to open the door easily. She trotted inside the room, closed the door behind her, and sighed. "Why didn't it just give me the key earlier?" A screen in a top corner of her room flickered on. "Consider that karmic payback for destroying a vital testing dog while this one was explaining the rules." "Yaaah!" Moondancer yelped. "Y-You heard me say that?" The robotic wolf in the picture leaned in close. "This one hears everything." Then, the screen switched off. 'I guess privacy is a foreign concept to this Headmaster.' Moondancer shook her head and plopped onto the one bed in the room. 'Tomorrow, we'll try to find a way out of this place.' --- *Knock knock knock* "Hello? It's Screw Loose. Some of the guys want us all to meet in the food court this morning. Whenever you're ready is fine." Moondancer heard a set of hoof steps getting quieter. She pulled herself out of bed and trotted around. After rinsing her face in the bathroom, she put on her glasses and headed out. If the meeting was meant for everyone in that school, then it might be a good idea to stop by. As she trotted along the hallway, she saw she wasn't alone. Button Mash was scooting along the floor while juggling his video game between his front hooves. The lit screen and tiny noises indicated that it was on. Moondancer rolled her eyes and levitated the Joy-Boy a few inches ahead of the colt. "No, come back." Button stood up and walked on all fours. "If you scooted all the way to the food court, you'd scrape your tail off," said Moondancer as she trotted beside him. "Wouldn't it be better to have a seat where you didn't have to multi-task?" "Hmph, fine." Button pouted as he mumbled something unintelligible. Upon entering the food court, Moondancer looked around. Most of the other students were gathered around a cluster of tables. The exceptions were Akechi sitting off by himself, Dr. Coyle taking up three tables with one arm, and Button Mash who grabbed his game and plopped himself on a side chair. Moondancer chuckled before grabbing a seat with the larger group. "Good morning, Moondancer," said Screw Loose. "Morning." She nodded. " 'Sup, unicorn?" Jake Long reached a couple fingers behind her ear. Moondancer raised her brow. "Uh, what are you do- oh!" Her irises shrunk as a gentle scratching overcame her nerves. She fell into a state of pleasure as her surroundings faded away. Her eyes felt heavy. She couldn't stop herself from smiling, pressing her head deeper into this new sense of touch. "That's just precious." Puss-In-Boots' voice broke through the euphoria. Moondancer blinked twice. "W-What?" "You just pet another sentient being... and she enjoyed it." Kevin Levin looked perplexed. "Yeah, I've encountered unicorns a few times now." Jake clasped his hands behind his head. "Picked up a few tricks to calm them down, earn their trust." He glanced at her. "Is that alright?" "I suppose." Moondancer cleared her throat. "But remember to ask before you ever do that again." "No problem, Dancer." He grinned. Shobu Kirafuda stood up and lifted a cup of water. "I suppose you're all wondering why we called for this meeting." "Well, it's obviously to spitball ideas to survive and escape this place." Moxxie rolled his eyes. Shobu's hand faltered for a second. "Yeah, it isn't exactly rocket science," added Danny Fenton. "Come on, guys. Let me have this one." Shobu's head drooped. "Yesterday, I scanned the perimeter of the space we are in." Connor spun his coin atop his left index finger. "There are no doors or windows on this floor of the university. Furthermore, there is no elevator. While I did find a staircase, it is blocked off by a physical gate coated in sphinx hair, ecto-thermite, several locks made with bullet-proof alloys, holy water residue, and some unidentifiable materials." "So, our captor has made it practically impossible to leave this floor of the building." Nilin leaned back. "That's annoying." "Who would go to all this trouble?" Chrono Shindou scratched his head. "And why even say that we're part of some killing game?" Silver psychically folded some napkins into paper swans. "If their aim was to end our lives, they would have done so right away, not leave us in a facility with plenty of food and shelter." "Then what is their goal?" asked Min Min. As if summoning the demon to a ritual, the robotic wolf appeared near the tables. Immediately, those closest leaned back. Weapons and powers of the students were readied, but not activated. "This one has noticed that one day has finished without any bloodshed. A system left untampered with will not change. Comprehension confirmed. This test sample is lazy." "Get this through your thick circuits, wolf." Kevin sneered. "We have no intention of killing each other, especially not for your amusement." "An interesting hypothesis, Mr. Ultimate Mechanic." The robot turned around. "Let us test it with your first of many motives." Moondancer tilted her head. 'Motives? What is it talking about?' "Please follow this one. Disobedience will not be tolerated." --- After a few turns in the hallway, Headmaster led the group to a computer lab. Multiple monitors were plugged and running. Everyone was told to stand in front of one monitor each. Then, individual DVDs were passed out, labeled with the intended recipients' names. "How old is this school to still be using DVDs?" wondered Dr. Coyle. "Yeah, you'd think everyone would switch to Netflix and Chill by now," said Moxxie. "What the-? I thought you lost your ability to swear." Danny looked at the imp. Moxxie grinned. "The individual words aren't anything inappropriate." He blinked twice. "Oh, gosh. I'm turning into my boss." Akechi looked over at the robot wolf standing in front of the door. "Am I to understand this correctly? You believe the contents of these discs will push one of us over the edge?" "Three pieces of catnip says these are just hour-long versions of dead memes." Puss-In-Boots chuckled. "Eugh, you can keep your stinky plants." Button shook his head. "Please put on your ear pieces and watch your motive video in silence." Moondancer took a deep breath. 'Okay, this is no big deal. I've been tricked into watching horror movies by my friends. There's no way that some bad footage will convince me to kill someone here. Lock myself in my room for two days? Most likely.' As she braced herself for the worst thing she could imagine, she followed the instructions. Her monitor showed an old-style countdown prior to a movie starting. 5... 4... 3... 2... START --- The day Moondancer received her invitation to Dimensional Aspiration University was the most important day of her life. It was a time to celebrate, a time to prepare, and a time to say farewells. Among these farewells were from many friendships that had been rekindled in Canterlot. Not least of these was Princess Twilight Sparkle. The picture froze on the smiling faces of several different unicorns. Also in the shot was a slightly taller pony, an alicorn, in full regalia and levitating a handkerchief. 'Twould be a shame if something happened to those friends shortly after Moondancer left to pursue her dreams. There was a sudden shift in the picture to a dark sky. A broken crown and four hoof braces littered the dry grass. Several distinct screams played one after the other. Building debris toppled down. Blood splattered on the camera. The end. The screen cut to black. --- Her ear piece clattered onto the desk in front of the monitor. Moondancer involuntarily took two steps back. Her throat felt dry. Words escaped her. She couldn't even blink. "Noooooooo!" Button yelled. "Bu...Bu...Bu...Wha..." Screw Loose struggled to say more than syllables. "This is a trick, right?" Kevin's eyes were stuck open. "That can't be..." Danny hyperventilated. "Mom... Dad... Hailey..." Jake sputtered. Dr. Coyle, Silver, Goro Akechi, and Connor were completely silent. Puss-In-Boots nibbled on something wrapped in paper. Despite that, his legs continued to shake. Moxxie slammed a clawed fist through his monitor. "Who would...? Why her?!" "This isn't real." Min Min shook her head violently. "No, no, no..." Shobu clenched his jaw. "Somebody wake me up." Chrono bit down on his thumbnail. Nilin blinked twice and looked around. "Hold on, what did everyone else get? This video just looked like rubbish." Akechi turned his glare toward the robot wolf. "How very disgusting of you, Headmaster. What you've presented is unforgivable." "This one will leave you to prepare." Headmaster vanished. Moondancer's face felt like it was burning up. Her vision was going red. She had to get out. She needed to get out. She needed to- "Miss Dancer, please get a hold of yourself!" The unicorn recovered her ability to blink. Her eyes recovered some other colors on the spectrum. She breathed heavily. She felt a pair of lukewarm hands. She looked and followed the arms until they reached the long-sleeved uniform of the police android. "Connor?" she managed to ask. Connor nodded. "That's it. Just keep breathing. Remember that your feet are on the ground. Focus on a steady heart rate." "But... in the..." She pointed a hoof at the monitor. "I understand." Connor held up one hand over the pony's hoof. "I think we were all shown something that feels like a personal sleight against something we care about deeply. But losing ourselves to our anger cannot help solve whatever crises may or may not have happened." Moondancer magically lifted her glasses to rub her eyes with her hoof. "May or may not have?" Silver psychically floated over. "He has a point. There's no way to know for sure how much of these videos have been edited. For all we know, Headmaster staged pictures to look like that." Dr. Coyle huffed. "Of course. We cut out the failures from our scientific progress videos all the time. Manipulating footage is as simple as altering the numbers." Min Min pointed an accusatory finger at Coyle. "I knew it!" Moxxie pulled back his hand and chuckled nervously. "Uh, yeah... it was obviously fake." Kevin patted his face a couple times. "Right, heh heh. Where did they get their special effects? From a D-movie?" Danny shook his head. "Wha... huh?" "Could have been a bit of mind magic mixed in too." Jake crossed his arms. Akechi covered his mouth. "How quickly people attribute 'lie' to what they do not like." Puss-In-Boots sighed and pinched the space between his eyes. "I need a milk... maybe two." Button sniffed while tears dripped from his eyes. "So... it didn't actually happen? Oh, thank Celestia." Nilin looked around. "Seriously, what did you all see? My screen just had a bunch of gibberish." Screw Loose cleared her throat. "If I had to guess, each of us saw the implication that one or more loved ones were in danger the longer we stayed at D.A.U." "Oh." Nilin looked at the palm of her gauntlet. "That explains why it had nothing on me. My family and friends are already dead to me." Chrono gasped. "I'm sorry to hear that. I've lost parents too." "Don't be sorry." Nilin shook her head. "It was my choice to let them go." Shobu blinked twice. "Well... shoot." After a sobering moment, the students decided to leave and break for the time being. They still hadn't exhausted every nook and cranny this school had to offer. Moondancer couldn't quite shake the image from her video out of her head. However, she could at least think straight instead of blinding herself. One source wasn't enough to deny or confirm how much she saw was true. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything today. With that, she galloped to the food court. She could tackle this weird situation one problem at a time. --- Moondancer ate from her tray so quickly that she didn't even remember what it was. She was more interested in getting her mind on anything else. That was why her magic was flipping open a book. Studying was comfort for her, something she could fall back on when she needed it. This particular book was about a world shared by magical creatures and humans. Several nations had a specific dragon to act as the keeper of balance in the magical side of the world. These guardian dragons were tested by a dragon council to discern if their masters were the right fit for their training. "Yep, that's my home turf." Moondancer yelped and looked around wildly. "Oh, shoot. Was I reading out loud again?" "Like a movie narrator." Jake chuckled and took a seat next to her. "So, whatcha think?" Moondancer tapped under her muzzle. "When you introduced yourself yesterday, you said you were an... Am-Drag? And when we were trying to take out that Headmaster, you actually shape-shifted into a dragon." "Aw, you sound a lot less surprised than I was expecting." Jake looked at her in disappointment. "I'm a unicorn from a world that's filled with creatures that some of our classmates think are either extinct or nonexistent." Moondancer adjusted her glasses. "Dragons with changeling powers aren't exactly mind-blowing." "Heh." He perked back up. "When you put it like that, it all sounds mundane." "That's not to say it's boring." She shook her head. "It means there's far more varieties to culture and history just switching from one world to another." "Heard that!" He pumped a fist. "And all the different ways to kick tail are fine and slick!" She smiled. "I don't even know what that means, but I can't help agreeing." ---