As the ponies stand in a group in the main lobby, the stage from the welcoming ceremony rises from the ground yet again. Layer by layer, it ascends from the floor, and from the center emerges the podium. Philomena descends from the second floor, and situates herself on the podium with the microphone tilted up. She looks at the ponies gathered before her with a smile.
"Hah! There's barely a dent in this crowd!" She laughs. "Why, if I didn't know any better I'd say this is a welcoming ceremony!"
"Don't taunt us!" Rainbow Dash shouted at the phoenix. "You know very well how we all feel after yesterday!"
"Oh I do know, my little ponies," Philomena cooed. "I just wanted to stir the pot a little. I wouldn't want this delicious group of stew ingredients to get... overcooked."
"What the hell does that mean?!" Double Diamond yelled at her. "Stop speaking in riddles already, we've had enough!"
"One of our friends died because of you!" Starlight even called out of the crowd. "You have no room to taunt us!"
"Alright alright pipe down!" Philomena flapped her wings and danced from talon to talon as she complained. "I won't make anymore jokes about that! We should get to the heart of the matter; the reason I called you here. It's because I have a new motive to give to you all!"
"You're giving us another motive so soon?" Twilight gasped. "Why would we want to kill eachother after what you did to Rarity?!"
"Because it's important! For your memories, that is," Philomena giggled. The room quickly fell silent, and anger dissipated. Expressions of confusion and shock traveled through the crowd in waves. Starlight blinked, letting the shock of the revelation sink in.
"Our memories?" Twilight brought life to the room again when she spoke.
"Yes!" Philomena squawked. "Your new motive is simple. After you have killed a pony, I will give you back your memories. You will know how you got into this academy, and you will know what the purpose of the academy is. In exchange for entertaining me, I will change up a few things about the crime scene to benefit you! You'll have a much higher chance of graduating from the academy in the class trial afterwards!"
"What's the catch?!" Rainbow Dash questioned as she flew into the air above the crowd.
"The catch is this." Philomena glared at the pegasus. "I will only provide to you your reward if you come to me after the crime has admitted. You will tell me that a pony has died, and where they are. When I can confirm that the crime has been committed, I will alter the crime scene. When the deed is done, I will tell you exactly what you wish to know, and I refuse to lie."
"How do we know we can trust you?" Twilight asked.
"I will force myself to tell the truth," Philomena stated bluntly. "And it will be using this." Philomena lifted up a bracelet into the air. A red, blinking light was on the bracelet. It looked more like a watch with stringy straps.
"What is that?" Pinkie tilted her head. "It looks like that fancy watch that could track how many paces you've walked!"
"It's something like that," She said as she put the bracelet on her talon and tied it tight. The blinking light turned green when it was wrapped on nice and snug. "Whenever I lie, this bracelet will send an electric shock travelling through my body. As long as I am wearing this bracelet, I can only tell the truth, and nothing but the truth."
"So if you're wearing that when somepony comes to ya..." Applejack mused. "Then if you're lyin' about how they got in here, you'll shock yourself?"
"Basically!" The phoenix giggled. "So if you have any questions, I can answer them wholly!"
"Would you tell us who started this mess in the first place?" Rainbow Dash hissed.
"I refuse to," Philomena said. "It isn't that I can't, because I very well could, I just refuse to. Giving you all such a cheatsy answer is sooo last season. The fun of the game is for you to figure out who did the crimes yourselves!" The group waited in silence, wanting to see if Philomena would get shocked for lying. Nothing happened; she was telling the truth.
"Alright, we believe you," Starlight spoke for the crowd. "And we know our motive, but that doesn't mean we're going to do anything about it."
"You said that last time," Philomena snickered. "You all said you'd never kill eachother, and that you all were going to get out of here alive. But, low and behold, your fashion fanatic friend committed a murder."
"You said you wouldn't bring it up anymore!" Rainbow Dash shouted at her.
"Well, I was lying then!" The phoenix cackled. "I love reminding you deadbeat ponies of your failures. It makes you realize that your hopes are hopeless!"
"No, you're wrong!" Starlight shouted. "Your bracelet may not have buzzed, but we know that we can prove your truth to be false! We refuse to let our hopes die, and one way or another, we're going to get out of this academy and stop your reign of terror!"
"Hoho, good luck!" Philomena spread her wings and laughed. "You haven't even seen the half of what I'm capable of! Good luck everypony!"
No pony else get to object before Philomena disappeared into the second floor once again. The ponies murmured amongst themselves about the events that had occurred. Starlight was beginning to feel sick again, ready to expel the breakfast and her smoothie from her stomach into the trash can. She swallowed hard, refusing to let the bile build in her throat and bring her to panick. The sickness she felt... she would refuse to let it win her over! She leapt onto the stage in place of Philomena and stared out at the crowd.
"Everypony, listen to me!" She called to stop the murmurs in the crowd. She felt nervous seeing the eyes on her again, but she had to say something. "I know many of us want to know how we got here and why we're here in the first place, but are we really so low as to murder another pony for the answers to our questions? We know Philomena won't lie to us, but our lives are more important than that! I have faith in every pony here to do the right thing, and you have to have faith in yourselves that you won't fall so low!"
"Starlight is right!" Shining Armor called out from the crowd, and joined her on the stage. "We can't let Philomena get to us, that's just what she wants! She said it herself, she wants to mess with us so we do things that we're going to regret. She's using us for entertainment, and we can't let her keep getting into our heads!"
"Exactly," Twilight said as she stepped up onto the stage as well. Feather Bangs silently followed her. "That's why we formed the Student Survival Committee."
"The Student Survival Committee?" Pinkie asked. "What's that? Sounds fancy!"
"It's a group we made at breakfast," Feather Bangs explained. "The goal of the group is to try and prevent as many unnecessary deaths as we can. And, if some pony does end up dying, we've made an oath to find out the truth and bring justice to the killer, no matter the reason."
"The whole goal of our group is to make sure that ponies don't have to die for no reason," Starlight said. "For useless motives like this, no lives need to be lost. Our lives aren't at stake here. I could understand where Rarity was coming from in the first trial, and if I was in her place, I might've killed some pony too. But this is different! Philomena wants us to kill for our own selfishness, while Rarity killed Party Favor out of the good of her heart! She didn't want us to die, and I don't want that either!"
"In the Student Survival Committee, we pledged to never kill anypony," Twilight stepped forward to speak herself. "We made it an oath when we formed the group, and any pony who wants in is going to have to take it. We don't want to be the reason that more ponies die, and we want to get out of here as much as everypony else. We want to get out safely and peacefully, without carrying the weight of a dead pony on our backs. All pony lives are important in this room, that's why this group is so important."
"It was my suggestion to form the group," Shining told the awestruck crowd. "My message as the founder of the group is that this group will never kill a pony for any reason, and we will find a way out of this place. As the leader of the Student Survival Committee, I swear on my group and my Ultimate talent that you can trust us. We will never harm eachother, and that is final."
"I want to join!" Pinkie shouted and waved her hooves. She jumped up on the stage. "I don't want to kill other ponies either, even if I wanted to leave this place super badly. I want to stay alive with my friends!"
"Me too!" Cheese followed after Pinkie.
"I want in!" Rainbow Dash flew over the heads of the ponies. "I will stay loyal to the oath, that's a promise I can take to my grave if some pony decides to take me out!"
"I-I would like to join too..." Fluttershy spoke up meekly as she stepped to the front of the crowd, not wanting to stand on the stage again. "I could never k-kill another pony..."
"Does anypony else want to join in?" Twilight asked the crowd. The crowd was silent, no other ponies were sure if they really wanted to join.
"With all due respect," Trixie began with a flip of the hair. "Trixie does not think that this group is going to guarantee the safety of any pony. The Great and Powerful Trixie does not base her life entirely off of hopes and dreams, only what she knows will become true! You talk as though this group is going to guarantee our survival 100%, but Trixie does not believe it to be true, nor does she believe every pony involved is going to truthfully honor the oath. Trixie chooses to stay out of the group, for her own safety."
Few other ponies among the crowd seemed to agree with Trixie's claim. Starlight couldn't believe that Trixie would say such a thing, but she didn't care. She knew one thing for certain; she was not going to kill another pony. She would honor the oath to the highest extent she could.
"The rest of you are more than welcome," Twilight said to the ponies who had openly stepped forward. "Hooves in every pony!"
One by one, each pony that had joined the committee extended their hooves forward. They made a circle as their hooves overlapped. Starlight put her hoof in last, a smile on her face as every pony was so willing to join in. They all made a promise the second they said they wanted in, and she hoped they would all honor it.
"Student Survival Committee on three," She said. "One, two, three."
"Student Survival Committee!" The chorus of ponies shouted, and lifted their hooves high into the air. A brief moment of chatting was had between the group, celebrating that their numbers had grown and that more ponies were more than happy to honor the oath. Starlight felt relieved knowing that the group was so big; she was sure that things could only go right for them.
After the group's cheer, the ponies in the lobby began to clear out of the area. The area fell silent again as the free ponies, and the Student Survival Committee, left to find other things to do. Starlight found herself alone on the stage as the other ponies left her, talking happily amongst themselves. She stepped down, and one thing dawned on her... what was she supposed to do now?