//------------------------------// // ACT 1: What We Know // Story: Super Ponyronpa: Cacophonous Symphony // by TrackdNTraild //------------------------------// I wonder what the second floor of this school has to offer, Starlight found herself thinking as she sat with her group in front of the stage. None of them knew what to talk about, they just wanted to be patient. She didn't like when things got quiet anymore. The awkwardness was killing her inside. "What do you guys think is on the next floor?" Double Diamond broke the silence and lifted his head. He adjusted his sitting position so he was a bit more comfortable. "I hope there's a gym," Rainbow Dash was the first to respond. "Or some kind of obstacle course. I would looove to have more space to stretch my wings." "You fly around all the time," Starlight snorted. "Why would you need any more reason to stretch?" "Your wings get tired eventually!" Rainbow Dash countered. "Flying around isn't stretching, it's repetitive and even we pegasi don't like to fly all the time!" "I can agree..." Fluttershy mumbled, the floor squeaking as she drew invisible shapes on it with her hoof. "I-i don't like flying around all the t-time. My wings get sore after a w-while." "See? Fluttershy gets it!" Rainbow Dash trotted over to the mare and sat down with her. "And I fly around more than her! If it hurts for her, imagine how it can get for me!" "Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Starlight covered her mouth and giggled. Somehow, she just had a feeling that Rainbow wanted an excuse to show off what else she can do with her wings other than fly. Rainbow yawned, and lay on the ground beside Fluttershy with a hum. It seemed like she didn't feel like continuing the conversation, so Starlight was once again lost in silence. Luckily, one of the other groups was returning to fill the room with noise again. Starlight looked up and caught a glimpse of Applejack's group returning. She got to her hooves, and stepped forward to meet with the ponies. "Welcome back," she said. "How was the lounge?" "The sofas are worse for wear." Rarity fake gagged talking about them. "So blah and dusty. For a school, it appears they didn't put much time into making even their lounge comfortable. I do hope my dorm room is better." "Sure it is." Applejack rolled her eyes. "There were some bookcases with em', but it doesn't seem like they've got anythin' we can use. Lots of fiction, not a lotta fact." "I picked out some fun books!" Pinkie bounced in place. "They even had a cookbook stashed away behind some old scrapbooks! That tells me that there's a sweet little kitchen I might be able to bake some things in!" "I want to join!" Cheese nodded to her. "I haven't cooked anything in a while. I hope I don't burn the place down!" "Promise you'll try not to?" Starlight chuckled nervously. "A-anyways, was there anything else of note?" "Nope." Applejack shook her head. "Pretty empty for the most part. Couple of tables with lamps, but the bulbs don't work... and other than them shelves and seats, ain't nothin' important." "Great," Starlight sighed. "Well, I didn't expect much from a lounge. I do hope that the others have found a few other things worth mentioning." "Oh! We explored the bathrooms too!" Pinkie draped herself over Cheese's back and looked at Starlight upside down. "They're big! They've got showers too! Only two of em', suuuper weird. Guess they don't want anypony getting any ideas, if ya know what I mean." "Don't say that," Starlight squeaked, her face blooming with blush at the mere thought. Pinkie became a snickering, snorting mess as she rolled off of the stallion's back. His body was lightly shaking with laughter too. "You sure get embarrassed awful fast, sugarcube," Applejack laughed and pat Starlight on the back. "You're gonna turn redder than a ripe apple, and I'm gon' get confused." "It's her fault for saying that!" Starlight gently nudged the farm pony's hoof off her back. "I never thought I'd hear even the implication of that from somepony like her." "You'd be surprised!" Pinkie giggled. "I know more than meets the eye, Starry Glims!" "Pardon?" That's a new one, Starlight thought. "The next group is coming back," Double Diamond distracted the group, and motioned to the ponies walking back from the trial room. "Welcome back," Starlight welcomed the ponies, and stepped away from Applejack's group. She tried not to let her obvious embarrassment show. "Did you find anything interesting?" "There's an elevator, just like the map says," the Doctor said. Starlight was suddenly aware of how little he had spoken. "Not much else. Most of the time was quite unenjoyable, as this so called 'Prince' was complaining while the rest of us searched the area. I almost left myself on a few occasions." "Suppose you were lucky havin' me around, bud," Feather Bangs nudged the stallion's side. "I got my ways of makin' ponies talk, and makin' em shut up." "Well that's one way of saying you make ponies so uncomfortable they'd rather not talk to you," Party Favor hummed. "I wasn't uncomfortable," Prince Blueblood denied. "I simply find his presence horribly annoying." "So, in other words, you were uncomfortable." Starlight raised an eyebrow. Prince Blueblood didn't respond to her. He simply lifted his head and looked to the side. "Was there anything worth noting, you know, outside of the elevator?" Starlight spoke to the rest of the group. "Lots of paintings," Party Favor recalled. "Mostly old portraits and tapestries of the two sisters. There's even a stained glass depiction of the Crystal Princess." "Very interesting." Starlight tapped her chin with her hoof. "Seems there's also some sorta 'leaderboard' by the elevator too," Feather Bangs noted. "Got no clue what it's for, but there's checkmarks by every pony's name." I'd like to look at that myself when I get the chance, Starlight thought. "Other than those distinguishing features, there was nothing else of interest," the Doctor spoke. "The room was quite spacious, and the elevator is quite large. All 16 ponies could fit in there and still have enough room to wander." "Could you tell which direction it was going?" Starlight asked. "No clue," Party Favor shrugged his shoulders. "Since it's listed as the trial waiting room on the map, we can only assume that the second floor has the trial room." "Or there's a basement that isn't on our map where the trial room is located," the Doctor added. "I would much rather think that option is the truth. It might take up too much 'classroom' space on the second floor." "Ding ding ding!" A squawking voice called out from the back of the crowd. The ponies jumped out of the way and stood in defensive positions as Philomena exposed herself amongst the ponies. "Why, you all act as though you've seen a ghost! Am I that scary?" "After the shit you said during our 'welcoming' ceremony, I think you should've expected this reaction!" Rainbow Dash seemed to growl. "Oh, you're all so dramatic," Philomena covered her beak and yawned behind her feathers. "You act as though you've never heard of murder in your mortal lives." "Not every pony likes murder in the real world." Starlight stood her ground. "In novels and comics, things are different. This is real life; we don't want to kill eachother." "I didn't know you all had such a fetish for starvation," Philomena cooed. "Well, I'm not one to judge! I just came to check in on all of you, and see how you were adjusting to the school! Though, it seems like some of you are missing..?" "They're exploring," Starlight explained. "We want to be sure that we know all of the locations and what they're for. The last of us are checking the last location that we haven't had the chance to look at yet." "Oooh, very very smart!" Philomena bounced in place. "There's a reason so many of you have such a high GPA! I had to admit I was surprised seeing the averages for this class. Were most of you raised in Canterlot by any chance? I hear that the smartest of ponies come from that city." "I'm part of the Royal Guard in Canterlot," Shining Armor spoke as his group returned from their exploration. "Why are we talking about birth places now?" "Philomena came to 'check up' on us," Starlight explained to the stallion. "She was just curious to see if we were raised in Canterlot because most of us have a high GPA." "It's the truth and you all know it!" Philomena danced on her talons. "I'm not saying ponies raised outside of Canterlot are stupid, but I'm not not saying it either!" "You wanna repeat that?!" Rainbow Dash raised her voice and spread her wings in preparation for flight. "R-rainbow..." Fluttershy lifted her hoof, gently placing it on the mare's shoulder. Rainbow Dash reluctantly stood back, a scowl on her face. She let her wings curl back against her sides, and glared at the bird. "So temperamental," Philomena hummed quietly. "No matter! It's almost nighttime, so I would suggest you ponies head back to your dorms now! If you're done exploring, it's time to put an end to your first day here at the academy! Nighttime begins in 2 hours, and I expect you all to know your bedrooms before then!" "And what if we stay out after nighttime?" Rarity spoke up and raised her head high. "Well," Philomena tapped her wings together. "It doesn't matter if you stay out after night, but if you are out for too long you might feel quite tired. You all haven't eaten yet today, so you'll feel more tired than usual. If you don't sleep well, the hunger will knock you out. You do remember the rules in your Phoenix Pad, right? If you pass out from starvation or if you sleep on purpose it doesn't matter, sleeping outside of the dorms will be punished accordingly. Now, goodbye every pony!" Rainbow Dash dived for the bird, but Philomena was too quick. She cackled as she flew up into the ceiling and disappeared into the second floor once again. Rainbow snorted, and stomped her hooves angrily. Starlight was happy that she had missed. She would hate to find out what would happen if Rainbow broke the 'no violence against the headmare' rule. "We have plenty of time left before nighttime," Trixie said. "Why would we waste our time sitting in our dorms, waiting for night to fall upon us? Not all of us have explored the entire campus, and Trixie suggests we do so!" "I'm inclined to agree with her," Twilight spoke up from the back of the crowd, and emerged beside Shining. "I haven't had the chance to properly look at the magical barrier at Restaurant Row, or the pool. I'd like to look at them myself while I've still got time." "Well, I'm going to take that bird's advice for the first time," Rainbow said before yawning loudly. "My dorm looks awfully comfortable, so I'm going to head to bed. The more sleep I get means the faster I can fly the next day!" No pony really objected to her idea. Rainbow lifted herself with her wings and carried herself off to the dorms. She scanned herself at her door, and disappeared inside. A few ponies took her advice. Starlight watched as Prince Blueblood, Double Diamond, Doctor Whooves, and Feather Bangs took to their dorms, leaving the rest of the group. Twilight took to walking off on her own to explore, and Trixie followed shortly after. As the ponies dispersed, Starlight found herself on her own in front of the stairs. She sighed, deciding to follow the first few ponies. She spun on her hooves, and walked back to the dorms. She scanned her hoof on the scanner, and walked back into the dorm. She jumped up on her bed and sprawled out on her back. The bed really was comfortable, she had to admit that she really liked how it felt against her coat. She took a deep breath, the cold air of her dorm filling her lungs. She sighed and rolled onto her side, using her magic to pull the bed's blanket up over her body. She could feel her stomach growling; she couldn't believe she was already so hungry. Now that there was no pony to talk to, and there was no noise to fill her mind, she was well aware of what bad shape her body was in. She was hungry and she was tired; there was no way she had had proper sleep, even before she woke up in this academy. Her mouth felt dry as well, and despite the hunger, she felt nauseous. She knew she was going to have a hard time sleeping, but she would make due with what she had. She let the warmth underneath the blanket engulf her and carry her into the land of dreams.