//------------------------------// // Together Forever, In Life and in Death - Deadly Life 2 // Story: Danganronpa vP: Harmony of Despair // by witegrlninja //------------------------------// I don't want to do this. I don't want to condemn another pony to death. Even if they murdered and brutalized Pinkie Pie... Is this real? I feel like I'm watching a horror movie that just never ends. I'm not even sure if I know what hope means anymore. What is hope...? A burden...? But as soon as the thought graced my mind, I gasped and shook my head until it was empty. I can't think about things like that anymore. The only thing I need to think about now is survival... our survival. The elevator finally ground to a halt, and we stepped into the trial grounds. I barely noticed the industrial makeover Monokuma had given the room, with its unadorned grey concrete walls contrasting against the scarlet curtains, azure panels and gold trim. As we took our places without a word, Monokuma sat cheerfully on his throne. "Ahhh, a battle like this takes me back..." Monokuma sighed wistfully. "After all, hope and despair are natural enemies. Yes... this is a truly magnificent theme! Puhuhu... only esteemed works of fiction have themes as magnificent as this!" "If only this were fiction, indeed..." Flam lamented, hanging his head. "Let's just start," Nurse Redheart sighed. "We have much to discuss." "This feels impossible, though," Lightning Dust groaned. "So much fucked up shit happened this time..." "Yea... but we have to," I gulped. "...Or else." "Now, let's get started," Monokuma goaded. "Mix equal parts life and death, add a dash of lies and truth, bake it in fires of conflict... and when it's golden brown and bubbling, you have yourself a truly decadent class trial!" "At least he doesn't seem to be repeating himself any longer," Flam mumbled under his breath. I would have agreed, had I not been suffering under a sea of despair. Once more, we faced a class trial. Was the pony who died really Pinkie Pie, the Ultimate Party Planner? If not, then where was she? And if so, then... which one of us killed her? And why did they desecrate her body? As much as it pained me, I was determined to find out. I needed to know the answer. It was up to us to figure it all out... it was up to me. *Class Trial! All Rise!* "Let's begin with a simple explanation of the class trial!" Monokuma began once more. "During the class trial you will present your arguments for who the killer is, and vote for 'whodunnit'. If you vote correctly, then only the blackened will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one... then I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that pony will earn the right to graduate!" "Ugh... wherever do we even begin with this one?" Rarity swooned. "Yea, this is a wild one here," Lightning exhaled deeply, closing her eyes. "We're not even sure if the victim really is Pinkie Pie," Redheart frowned, holding up her hoof before anypony could argue. "I know what you're all thinking... if we found Rarity, then Pinkie must be dead... but since we cannot actually identify the victim, it would be foolish to assume." "You think... the body is one of those from the morgue?" Flam gulped. "It's a possibility," replied Redheart. "Why don't we start with that? Let's see whether the body is freshly dead or not." "Alright, well... the bodies in the morgue were everypony that was with us here, right?" asked Lightning. "First would have been Princesses Celestia and Luna," Rarity counted on her hoof. "I... really don't think the body could be either of them." "Celestia was burned to shit and back, and Luna was blown the fuck up," said Lightning. "So the body can't be either of them." "THEN THERE WAS TRIXIE," Bulk Biceps chimed in. "I THINK HER BODY WASN'T IN THAT BAD OF CONDITION, IT MIGHT BE HER!" "Possibly," nodded Redheart. "We can count Rainbow Dash out... you don't need to be a medical professional to know you can't hang a liquefied corpse on a meat hook." "The body couldn't possibly be Discord's... he wasn't even a pony!" said Flam. "And Miss Fleur was crushed to death... Miss Fluttershy's body was intact, however." "Might've been Applejack," Lightning tapped her chin in thought. "Coloratura was squished, so it can't be her." "Alright, so out of everypony, that leaves Trixie, Fluttershy, or Applejack as possible bodies," hummed Redheart. "Now, I think if we compare the injuries those ponies died from with the victim's, we'll at least be one step closer." "Well... Miss Applejack was stabbed straight through the heart," Flam shivered as he remembered the sight of her corpse in a pool of blood. "I'm sorry, but that's wrong!" I shouted. "If I remember correctly, wasn't Applejack stabbed at a diagonal angle beneath the ribcage?" "Right," Redheart nodded. "Although the area where the meat hook pierced the body was in the same area as Applejack's stab wound, I checked the victim's heart - there was no sign of injury there." "MAN... HOW DO YOU DO THINGS LIKE THAT AS A JOB?" Bulk grimaced, his face a little green. "You get used to it," Redheart shrugged. "So, we can rule out the body as being Applejack's. That leaves Fluttershy and Trixie." "Poor Fluttershy was poisoned," sighed Rarity. "Hmm... I can't help but think that would leave some evidence behind." "Indeed. The poison would surely have damaged her stomach, esophagus, lungs and blood vessels to the point of necrosis," agreed Redheart. "My autopsy of the body uncovered no damage to any of those organs, or the circulatory system." "So that just leaves Trixie... she was hanged, right?" asked Lightning. "No, wait... Rainbow throat-punched her to death, that's right." "Correct... now this one's a little tricky, as Trixie died from blunt force trauma to the throat, and the throat of the victim has been ripped out," Redheart frowned. "...A proper coroner would be able to tell." "WAIT... YOU CAN'T TELL?!" Bulk shouted in surprise. "I'm afraid not," Redheart cursed under her breath. "And without the victim's skin, there's no way to tell if there were bruises and scratches on the victim's back to compare to Trixie's wounds." So... the body could possibly be Trixie's...? But then where's Pinkie...? "Well, so we have a potential identity of the body," said Flam. "But that doesn't change the fact that Miss Pie is still nowhere to be found." "It does seem odd that she'd be allowed to miss the trial if she were still alive," Rarity pressed her lips together in concern. Instinctively, we all glanced towards Monokuma for an answer. "Eh... just makes things all the more interesting!" he shrugged. "Wait... don't tell me you think I'm gonna spoil the surprise for you guys?!" "The... surprise...?" Flam's voice quivered. "Oop! I've said too much already," Monokuma clapped his paws over his mouth, giggling to himself. "Hmm... so either the victim is Pinkie, or the victim... isn't actually a victim at all," Redheart mused. "Ugh! No more fuckin' mind games," Lightning groaned, holding her head in her hooves as she shook it. I agree... we could spend hours debating on whether the corpse belongs to Pinkie or Trixie... "...Why don't we set that aside and try something else?" I suggested. "If we look at the other bits of evidence we found, maybe we can figure it out that way." "Capital idea," Flam coughed. "What should we talk about next, then?" "Well... Rarity and I could go over what happened to us," I turned to Rarity hopefully. "Ah, yes... I think I could do that," Rarity nodded, although cringing hard. The memories of being knocked out and locked in a bathroom next to the secret room were undoubtedly ones she'd have preferred to bury as deeply as she could. "W-Well... Twilight and I went to search for Pinkie around 6pm, when we were all gathered in the Cafeteria for dinner. I thought she might've been swimming in the Indoor Pool area again, as she seemed to have grown very fond of that place." "But she wasn't there," I frowned. "I remembered that I had seen Pinkie coming out of that Strange Room earlier that afternoon, so I suggested that we search in there." "I went inside to look, but... when I turned around, I saw that Twilight hadn't followed me in," Rarity pursed her lips. "Oh? Why not?" asked Flam. "Uh..." I hesitated, remembering what had distracted me. "...This is gonna sound really dumb of me, but... I couldn't stop looking at the Teacher's Lounge doors," I hung my head. "The weird metal doors? You thought Pinkie might've found a way in?" Lightning tilted her head. "Not really... it was like I just couldn't stop looking at them for some reason. They were way more elaborate than the last time I had noticed them, I know that." "More elaborate? How?" said Flam. "Well... the handles were really nicely carved, with stars and comets... and the sun on one handle and the moon on the other. And there seemed to be some empty divots where a keyhole should've been." I groaned quietly to myself and squeezed my eyes shut, the concentration it took to remember every detail was starting to hurt my head. "Interesting..." Redheart hummed. "WHAT DO YOU THINK IT MEANS?" asked Bulk. Redheart remained silent for a few moments before shrugging. "Nothing I can think of at the moment makes any sense to me," she shook her head. "Let's just continue with Rarity and Twilight's accounts. So after you stared at the doors...?" "I yelled for Rarity to come look at the doors, but..." My head throbbed as if I were experiencing my ordeal all over again. "...I remember feeling like somepony bucked me in the back of the head. My face got smashed into the doors... I don't remember anything else after that until I... woke up." "Oh, darling..." Rarity breathed, her hooves covering her muzzle. "I should never have left you alone! I ran back into the hallway after I'd realized you weren't with me, but you were nowhere to be found!" "What happened after that?" asked Redheart. "Did you think to come back to us so we could help you search for Twilight?" "Yes... but..." Rarity shivered, wrapping her forelegs around herself. "...On my way back to the Cafeteria, I just suddenly lost consciousness... I'm not sure why." "Lost consciousness?" I asked. "Must've been whoever knocked Twilight out," reasoned Lightning. "Do you remember anything about it?" "Only that I felt a cloth being pressed to my face from behind," Rarity gulped. "After that, I'm afraid I don't remember anything else until I woke up. It must've been chloroform or something..." "Couldn't have been chloroform," Redheart cut in. "Contrary to popular belief, you need to inhale it for at least five minutes before syncope occurs." "Oh..." Rarity blinked. "...Well, something in that cloth must've made me faint." "Right, the cloth by itself wouldn't do it, especially not instantly," nodded Flam. "But now that explains how the two of you went missing," said Redheart. "After an hour had elapsed, we all decided to search for you two. We were all separate from each other, but we made sure to meet every hour in front of the Gym to touch base and make sure nopony else went missing in the process. Finally, after twelve hours, Flam found Twilight in a secret room behind the bookshelf in the Physics Lab. He came and got me, we rescued her, and it took about another hour for her to wake up." "You did say that you woke up once before Miss Redheart and I found you, correct?" Flam asked. I gulped as the memories of impending doom came creeping back. "I-I'm sorry to bring it up, my dear, but it may shed some light on the case." "R-Right..." I shivered, steadying my breath. "I woke up in that secret room at some point. It was completely dark, and I was chained up to the point of total immobilization... and there was a leather strip with anti-magic runes on it tied to my horn, so I couldn't use magic to free myself or even see." Flam's fur bristled as I mentioned the leather strip, absentmindedly producing a spark from his own horn as if making sure he could still cast magic. "I... I-I don't know how long I was awake... but then I heard something creaking to my left, a-and it laughed silently to itself when I asked who was there. It walked to the right and lit a candle, and... a-and..." "Breathe, Twilight," Redheart gently reminded - I hadn't noticed that cold sweat was dripping down my trembling body as I recalled those events. "You can do this." I swallowed hard before continuing. "...I saw the room... and the body... and the thing that laughed," I whimpered. "I-It was horrible... it had too many arms to be a pony, and there were spikes down its back... i-it had covered its face with a big p-piece of rotten flesh... it held up a huge k-knife and... a-and..." "AND...?!" Bulk peeked out from behind his podium, teeth chattering and knees knocking. The others looked on with grim, anxious interest. "I... I don't know... I-I was so s-scared, I f-fainted again... the next time I woke up, I was in the Chemistry Lab. Flam and Nurse Redheart were there with me," I exhaled as I gripped my podium, feeling dizzy and lightheaded. "Sweet-fuckin' Celestia..." Lightning shuddered uncomfortably. "D-Darling..." Rarity swooned as if she were going to faint again. "...I THINK I JUST PEED A LITTLE..." Bulk squeaked. "Bro. Eww," Lightning grumbled, glaring at him. "You were so close to death..." sniffled Rarity. "I'm so glad that horrible creature didn't follow through..." "Though it begs another question... why didn't it finish Twilight off?" Redheart asked as sensitively as she could. "We saw the chains and shackles and the anti-magic strip... she was entirely helpless until she was rescued." That's right... why was I spared...? Was it because...? ... ...Oh! That must be it! "Well, that secret room is right next to the Physics Lab," I replied. "It only takes moving the correct book on the bookshelf to reveal it. Maybe that thing heard somepony enter one of those rooms and decided to play it safe and leave before they could be caught." "Perhaps," nodded Redheart. "There are only so many places to search inside and outside the school... we did each search the rooms multiple times." "Now wait just a fuckin' minute!" Lightning suddenly shouted, pointing her hoof at me. "There's no fuckin' way that thing could've snuck out of that room without anypony knowing it!" "Huh? How so?!" I recoiled in disbelief. "You're telling us that there's only one way in and out of that murderhobo room: the bookshelf in the Physics Lab! If somepony had managed to open the secret door, then there's no way in Tartarus they wouldn't have seen each other!" "Of course there is!" I retorted. "Besides being right next to the Physics Lab, the secret room is also right behind the Mare's and Stallion's Restrooms!" "Oh, right, and you're saying that thing could've escaped through the fucking toilet plumbing or some shit? How stupid do you think I am?!" Aha! I see your weakness! "Not quite," I thumped my hoof on my podium. "There were secret passages in the secret room leading to both the Mare's and the Stallion's Restrooms! That gives that... thing... three possible means of escape!" "...There were?" Lightning was now the one to recoil in surprise. "Where the fuck was I when you found this?" "Keeping watch in the Physics Lab, I believe," murmured Flam. "You only poked your head inside on occasion, if memory serves." "Oh," Lightning shrugged. "My bad. Forget I said anything." "Well, no actually, it's a good thing you brought it up," said Flam. "After the investigation began, Miss Redheart, Miss Twilight and myself were on our way to look over the secret room when we happened to find Miss Rarity in the Stallion's Restroom." "Oh, right!" Rarity gasped. "I remember waking up on the floor with a terrible headache... I was so desperate for relief that I ran warm water in the sink to soak my head. Just as the water had finally reached an acceptable temperature, Nurse Redheart bucked down the door and we were all reunited." "Yes, although... as joyous as it was to finally locate Miss Rarity, there is a problem now that I think about it," he stroked his mustache. "A problem?" I echoed. "I definitely checked the Stallion's room a few times before while the two of you were still missing... Miss Rarity wasn't there any of those times," he frowned. "I wasn't...?" Rarity parroted, surprised. "No... even when I checked again right before finding the bookshelf in the Physics Lab and discovering dear Twilight. Furthermore, the door wasn't locked until the time we found you inside," he continued. "Whomever is behind all this must have moved Miss Rarity into the Stallion's Restroom whilst still unconscious during that time." "Ugh! Why couldn't they have hidden me in the Mare's Restroom?!" Rarity whined. "I concur!" I yelled. "I don't know if you noticed, Flam, but the door to the Stallion's Restroom wasn't exactly locked." "It wasn't?" he asked. "No... it was like the locking mechanism was frozen in place by something. Something transparent and hard." "Transparent and hard..." Redheart hummed in thought. "...Didn't you find something like that in one of the secret passages?" I did...? What did I find that's both transparent and hard...? ... ...Oh! That must be it! "Right... the superglue!" my eyes widened. "There was a tube of superglue in the secret passage connecting to the Mare's Restroom!" "That certainly explains that mystery," agreed Flam. "So whomever abducted Miss Rarity must have hidden her elsewhere, perhaps in one of those secret passages... and right after Miss Redheart and I rescued Miss Twilight, they must have moved her into the Stallion's Restroom and superglued the lock shut!" "Well, whoever it was, I wish they had been a little more courteous in where they hid me," Rarity huffed, blowing a dust bunny off of her shoulder. "I'm positively filthy now!" "True... you look kinda grimy, not gonna lie," Lightning smirked. Wait... she's right, Rarity's fur is covered in dust! ...In that case, I may be able to figure out exactly where she was hidden... ...If Rarity did not appear in the Stallion's Restroom until after I was found, where could she have been hidden? ...In the secret passages, right. And one of those passages in particular was dusty... which one was it? ...The one leading to the Stallion's Restroom! "You had to have been hidden in the passage to the Stallion's Restroom," I spoke. "The one leading to the Mare's Restroom was spotless, but the other one was full of dust... it had only been used maybe once or so." "Those passages were just big enough to fit a single pony inside... except Bulk, however," Redheart pointed out. "Much too muscular." "YEAAAH!" Bulk grinned, flexing his pecs one after the other as if making them dance. "Uuugh... why couldn't I have been in the other one?" whined Rarity. "Whomever did this had to have dragged you through the passage so they could hide you in the restroom," Flam explained. "Then they superglued the door shut so we couldn't stumble upon you without difficulty, and so you couldn't escape if you woke up!" "And when the culprit wasn't trying to murder Twilight in the secret room, they must have been hiding in the passage to the Mare's Restroom while we were all searching the school," added Redheart. "But why, though?! Don't tell me whoever did this... they were trying to pin poor Pinkie's death on me...!" Beginning to sob, Rarity grabbed at her mane and pulled downwards in anguish - hard enough that a rather large clump of her hair came straight out of her scalp. Noticing this, Rarity gasped loudly. "AAAAAUGH! MY MANE!" she wailed. "Goodness, dear, are you alright?!" Flam recoiled in alarm. "Hair loss can occur after an exceedingly stressful event..." Redheart grimaced. "Usually it's gradual and not instant, though..." "Well, if the past couple weeks don't count as 'exceedingly stressful', then I don't fuckin' know what does," grunted Lightning. "Anyway... that's that for what happened to Rarity and I while we were missing, I guess," I frowned. "...I don't think we're any closer to figuring out the culprit, however." "THERE'S GOTTA BE SOMETHING ELSE WE CAN TRY," said Bulk. "I dunno... we looked this place over for twelve fuckin' hours and that was all we found," Lightning scowled. "...Wait just a moment!" Flam shouted. "There is! Miss Twilight and I found something else!" "Ah! That's right!" I remembered. "We went to the Indoor Pool room just before the investigation was ended... it was very faint, but there was a little bit of blood splattered on the highest parts of the tiled walls in the shower area!" "There was?" Rarity jumped, eyes widened in surprise. "Hmm... for blood to splatter that high up, that would have to have come from an arterial spray," said Redheart. "Are you sure it was blood?" "Yes... it was quite old and oxidized, however," Flam pursed his lips. "Whenever it happened, it wasn't anytime recently." "I see. Then I would estimate that the splatter is at least a day old," Redheart replied. "Is that so? But... that doesn't make any sense," Lightning growled. "If the murder took place in the shower area, the killer could wash away any evidence with ease," Redheart continued. "Either the murderer couldn't reach the very top of the tile walls, or they didn't even notice the splatter had reached that high." "I s-see... so the killer made their move while Pinkie was showering off after swimming..." Rarity moaned despondently. "T-To take advantage of something that allowed her to forget these horrors for a little while..." "But... a while ago, apparently," said Lightning, suddenly pounding one of her hooves into her podium. "AGH. This makes even less sense!" "How so?" asked Flam. "If the old blood means that the murder took place over a day ago, then who and when the fuck did they do it?! You, uh..." Lightning paused for a few moments as she mulled something over in her head. "...Yea, math checks out. Didn't you say you saw Pinkie yesterday, Twilight?" "Yes, I did... why?" I asked carefully, not exactly sure I liked where this was going. "Well..." Lightning eyed me warily. "...You weren't lying about that, were ya...?" "Wha- no! I would never!" I flailed my hooves in alarm. "Pinkie was one of my best friends!" "SHE'S THE PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP, DUSTY," Bulk shouted. "TWILIGHT WOULDN'T KILL ANYPONY." "Are... are we sure about that...?" Lightning's voice shook. "I mean... this place, this fuckin' place... it keeps driving us into killing each other... ponies that were otherwise decent." In a rare moment of genuine concern, Lightning stared sadly at the floor. We were silent for a while as her words rolled over in our minds. "I see what you're saying, Miss Dust," said Flam. "This killing game is destroying our sanity, one murder at a time. Who can we really trust? But Miss Twilight has been our saving grace in these trials this whole time, and she... is my friend. Our friend. I'm putting my trust in her... I trust her." "Her injuries were genuine," added Redheart. "I find it extremely unlikely that if by chance she is the killer, she would go to such lengths to prove her innocence. I trust her as well." "Thanks, you guys..." I sighed happily, glancing around the room. Bulk and Lightning hesitated a moment before smiling thinly and nodding in agreement, but Rarity... Rarity remained silent, her face still and unreadable. Rarity...? "So, we are agreeing that Pinkie was definitely alive yesterday?" Redheart questioned. "Then the true question is... how is this possible?" "I mean, if that is the case, then we've arrived at a paradox," stated Flam. "Pinkie would have been dead and alive at the same time!" "SCHRODINGER'S PINKIE!" Bulk yelled, his face wracked with confusion. I wracked my own mind for clues, anything I might have missed, but it wasn't long before my head began to hurt from the exertion. "...The answer has to be among you three," Redheart mumbled, gazing pointedly at Rarity and myself. "Pinkie is dead, and you two disappeared for twelve hours. Although the death seems to have occurred at an impossible time, I'm certain that the answer lies within one of you!" "You... think so...?" Rarity finally spoke with a whimper. It wasn't me... I was nearly killed myself...! But it couldn't have been Rarity... could it...? Frantically I poured over my memories, retracing my steps over the past few days, ignoring the pounding of my head the best I could manage. Exploring the 5th floor together, sharing supper, going to the pool- ...Pinkie and Rarity had been the last ones to leave that evening. And then after that... I only ever actually saw one of them at a time, either Pinkie or Rarity. Feeling my confidence wavering, I stared with wide eyes at Rarity, hoping to see something, anything at all that would instantly exonerate her. "B-But... it c-couldn't have been me..." Rarity stuttered, gently stroking her own mane as tears fell from her eyes. I watched as they dripped down her cheeks and onto her neck and throat... while they should have continued their downwards travels, they seemed to vanish when they reached a certain point on her neck. Her neck... I suddenly remembered what I had seen when she fainted: that long, thin line of missing fur that stretched all the way across her throat. My mind then whipped back to a vision of the body in the secret room... the flayed corpse, hanging on the meat hook, its throat torn out- My eyes widened until they were painful. My jaw dropped to the floor. My mind writhed and swirled and screamed as it realized the truth. It was so dark, so twisted, so unbelievably, unimaginably wrong on so many levels, it couldn't possibly be the truth... but it was. It had to be. It was the only possible explanation! ...How... Tears began to fill my twitching eyes, but I couldn't decide whether they were of sorrow or of rage, or of something different entirely. My emotions battled against each other to the point I could almost feel my own brain being split into fragments. Anger, disgust, shock, fear, grief - they all wanted to force themselves out of my eyes, my nose, my ears, my throat. I audibly gagged as I struggled to piece them together into something coherent, something I could understand. "Twilight? Are you alright?" Redheart asked, no doubt worried about my condition. But I barely heard her over the maelstrom of my own dying conviction. What I had to say next... I almost wanted to just cast a spell and explode my own head rather than say it. "You look like shit..." Lightning grimaced. "You also look like you've realized something quite terrible," Flam gulped, biting his lip and remaining silent afterwards. Bit by bit, syllable by syllable, I summoned all the inner strength I had left and spoke. I'm afraid... it actually... was you...! "...H-How... why... Pinkie... w-why...?!" I could barely keep my hoof from trembling out of control as I pointed it directly at Rarity. She recoiled slightly, shivering with fear. "W-What...?" she asked in confusion. "...UH... THAT'S RARITY, TWILIGHT," Bulk tilted his head. "Yea... Pinkie's the dead one, remember?" added Lightning. "No..." I insisted, my hooves slamming down on the podium as the shuddering began to weaken my knees. "You d-don't understand, you g-guys... t-that's not Rarity..." "...What?" Rarity recoiled further, raising an eyebrow. "Not Rarity? Are you saying that she's some sort of doppelganger?" asked Flam. "I... I think she is..." Redheart breathed, her eyes widening exactly like mine as she gasped. "That's not R-Rarity..." I clenched my teeth together until my muzzle burned with a sharp pain, as I commanded myself not to faint from trembling exertion. "...T-That's... That's Pinkie Pie...!"