//------------------------------// // ACT 2: Exploring Once More // Story: Super Ponyronpa: Cacophonous Symphony // by TrackdNTraild //------------------------------// "It says that there's a library here," Starlight pointed out to Twilight. "It should be right across the hall." "There has to be something important in there," Twilight said before she put her Phoenix Pad away and began walking to the room. "If nothing else, there might be some books that can keep our attention as long as we're in here." "It would give us something to do," Starlight hummed. "I know I was really bored today, so I'm happy that we got to come up here. Everypony already seems to be doing their own things." "This floor is appealing to a few ponies so far," Twilight said before she opened the door to the library. She walked inside and her eyes sparkled. "Wow." "This library is pretty big," Starlight said when she got inside. "With how long it is, I didn't expect the size, but there are a lot of shelves." "That just means there's a lot of books!" Twilight clapped her hooves in excitement. "This place is like a study pony paradise!" "Twilight." Starlight put her hoof on the alicorn's back. "You're getting distracted." "Ah- right, sorry." Twilight shook her head and lightly hit herself on the forehead. "I need to be more focused on the investigation. Let me see how these books are organized, and maybe that can give us some clues as to what section we should look at?" "That sounds like a good idea." Starlight nodded. "I'm... not much of a reading pony, so I'll just look around the room a little. I wouldn't want to be the pony looking through bookshelves that stretch up to the ceiling anyways." "You're lucky I'm here then," Twilight laughed. "Back home, my favourite thing to do was reorganizes the shelves at my home. My home was basically a personal library, so I was always making excuses to re-arrange things. It wasn't hard because I knew every book in the library by colour, author, the first and last letters, the length, the size, the cover design--" "Okay, I get it, you like books," Starlight cut the princess off. "Twilight, please focus." "I'm sorry." Twilight scratched her head. "It's a habit. I'll get to work now." Twilight spread her wings, and flew up to the top of the nearest shelf. She tapped each of the books in the row as she both counted them and looked at what genre they were. Starlight, in the meantime, took in what the room looked like. She couldn't count how many shelves there were, but they filled up both sides of the room. The space in front of the door was empty, only containing two tables that each had 8 chairs, most likely for the 16 ponies currently trapped. Each table had a vase with a red rose in the middle, though the one closest to the door was beginning to wilt. There was also a ladder attached to each of the bookshelves that could be moved thanks to a pair of wheels at the bottom. Starlight remembered these ladders being called rolling ladders, which made a lot of sense; you needed some way to move them easily even when you were at the top. She realized she was getting sidetracked and shook her head, focusing on the room again while Twilight was busy. There were windows to the outside between each of the bookshelves, the only source of light in the room. There were what looked like electronic candles by the door, but they were turned off because it was day time. Well, that's what Starlight thought at least. She couldn't confirm it herself until it actually became night, and she really did not want to be out at night time. After what happened to Party Favor, she'd hate to make herself a target for any pony willing to use Philomena's motive... She began to walk around the library to search deeper into what was around. She looked underneath the tables, and found nothing interesting. She decided to check some of the shelves herself, and peeked through some of the books. She hoped that she would find something hidden in the shelves, like some sort of note, but found nothing of the sort. She figured it wouldn't be that easy, why would they make it obvious? She looked around the parts of the room she couldn't view when she stood at the door. In both corners of the room, in the empty space beside the shelves, there were two trashcans. Just like the ones in the bathroom before, they were empty. "I sorted out the books, Starlight," Twilight finally said. She fluttered back to the ground beside Starlight. "Every shelf is organized by genre. There's 16 shelves in this room, each with a different book genre. There's history, drama, mystery, romance... the list goes on and on. The history books are the first shelf on the left of the door. That might be where we need to look to find something." "Did you find any books that could give us some obvious clues?" Starlight asked. "Unfortunately, no," Twilight said with a shake of the head. "We'd have to read through the books ourselves. I know you're not a reading pony, so if you'd like, I'd be more than happy to stay here and read through the books myself while you explore the rest of this floor." "If you'd really like to do that, I'm not stopping you." Starlight looked at her Phoenix Pad again. "Besides, I'm a bit curious to check out this greenhouse on the map." "Go on." Twilight waved her hoof, and lifted herself into the air again. "If I find anything potentially useful, I'll come straight out and find you." Starlight waved goodbye to the mare as she flew back to the top of the shelf, grabbed a book, and started reading. Starlight looked down at her Phoenix Pad again before she exited the room, and began making her way down to the other side of the building. As she had said, her first stop was the greenhouse. When she went into the room, she found that Fluttershy and Applejack were both already inside. She wasn't surprised considering their talents. She chose to look around first before speaking to them; this part of the academy had a full wall made of glass that rounded out at the corners. It was split up into sections, but otherwise it was entirely one pane. Dimming sunlight shined through onto each and every plant inside the greenhouse. The room was split into two long sections at the middle, and the walls on the left and right sides of the room were covered with trellises. The left trellis was growing grapes, while the right trellis was growing tomatoes. The two sections in the middle of the room had a wide variety of plants ranging from potatoes, carrots, cabbage, celery, onions, and even eggplants. There were other things growing, but Starlight couldn't tell what they were because they weren't full grown. "O-oh, hi Starlight," Fluttershy said when she noticed her. She walked over with the softest smile on her face. "I-isn't this place wonderful? The a-air is so fresh." "It does smell really nice in here," Starlight had to admit that was true. "I never realized how stuffy it was in this place until I walked in here. Even the outside doesn't smell as nice as in here." "Ah got a feelin' that magic dome has somethin' to do with it," Applejack said. She walked over to the ponies to join in on the conversation. "Blockin' out fresh air and what not, and these here plants are makin' it all free for us! Ah'm bettin' these plants are the only reason we still air in here at all." "Honestly, that wouldn't be a bad assessment." Starlight nodded in agreement. "If the barrier is blocking out air like you said, then this place being the only source of air makes a lot of sense." "H-how awful," Fluttershy mumbled. "A-and with the door being shut most of the time... m-maybe we should leave it open when we l-leave? W-would that make m-more fresh air come into the a-academy?" "Prolly." Applejack shrugged her shoulders. "It's worth a shot, Ah'd say." "I'll leave you guys to it. I don't think there's very much for me to look at in here, so I'll leave you guys alone." Starlight turned to the door. "I'm gonna check out the theatre." "Have fun! We'll be here." Starlight heard Applejack say while walking away, and assumed Fluttershy walked away in silence because she didn't speak up. She walked out of the greenhouse, and put her Phoenix Pad away. She didn't need it because she already knew what this last room had in store. She pushed open the door to the theatre and walked inside. In the center of the room in front of the door, there was a stage in the shape of a hemisphere, and curtains on either side. Based on the size of the room, Starlight could only assume that the curtains covered up what little 'backstage' room there was. There were two rows of chairs in front of the stage. She counted them, and just like with the library, there were 16 chairs for all 16 students. "Ooh, a theatre!" Starlight jumped out of her skin when Trixie's voice sounded behind her. She quickly moved out of the way as Trixie walked in the room. "Finally, a home for the Great and Powerful Trixie! Trixie can now perform a multitude of shows here!" "Well, somepony sounds excited," Starlight said when she finally stilled her pounding heart. "Of course!" Trixie held her head high and laughed. "Trixie has been aching to do something more than laze around and drag on boring conversations. Now, Trixie is free to perform her very own magic shows to enlighten these hopeless ponies, and bring inspiration to the academy!" "Sounds like fun to me!" Starlight jumped again as Cheese Sandwich entered the room. She didn't even hear him use the door. "I'd love to perform some of my own comedy acts here. I hope they have some props that we can use!" "S-something tells me Feather Bangs would love this place too," Starlight said, taking deep breaths to calm down for the second time today. "He's the Ultimate Singer, afterall. I think he'd get the most enjoyment out of this place. He'd want to sing for us all just to prove his talent." "Trixie would not be surprised," The mare huffed. "He seems like quite the overconfident fellow. Trixie is 100% certain that he would only wish to sing so that he could show off." "And you wouldn't want to perform magic shows just so you could show off, Miss Ultimate Magician?" Cheese teased the pony with a nudge in the side. "...That is different!" Trixie pouted and trotted towards the stage. "Trixie is not showing off! She is inspiring ponies with her shows, showing that anything is possible!" "Uh-huh." Starlight rolled her eyes, but she did have a smile on her face. "Keep telling yourself that." "Starlight, let's go check out what's on the backstage," Cheese said down to her. "Who knows what kind of fun fantastical things they might have back there?!" "C-calm down, let's go see." Starlight patted the stallion on the back before she trotted to the stage, with Cheese bouncing happily behind her. She climbed up on the stage, and went behind the curtains. On either side of the curtains, it seemed like there were props and boxes full of things such as balloons and sparklers. "Oooh, fancy!" Cheese pulled a top hat out of one of the boxes and put it on. "I'd say that this looks good on me!" "Haha, it kinda does," Starlight laughed. "Hey, this box is full of a bunch of different shaped balloons." "Oh, man..." Cheese walked over and pulled out some of the balloons. "Party Favor would've loved these. But, I think Pinkie and I could make them work! After all, what's a party if you don't have balloons?" "Do you know how to make shapes with balloons too?" Starlight asked with a tilt of the head. "Of course!" Cheese pulled out one of the longer balloons and blew it up. In a few quick moments, he had tied the balloon up into the relative shape of a giraffe. "Balloon shapes are the easiest thing to make! It's all about hoof control, and not applying too much pressure. Anypony can learn how to do it in just a few months!" "In a few months?" Starlight was baffled. "That's the shortest time I've ever heard for anypony to learn a skill. It's taken me years to do anything, and I still don't even have a talent." "Some ponies can learn late," Cheese reassured her. "It's just like earning a cutie mark, hell, some of my best friends were blank flanks! I ended up getting my cutie mark first when I was a colt, and my friends had to be adults before they figured out what they wanted to do!" "That's crazy," Starlight hummed as she started looking through the boxes again. "Huzzah!" Trixie called from the other side of the room. "Trixie has discovered the most wonderful thing for her shows!" "Let's go see what it is." Cheese nudged Starlight before walking over to where Trixie was. Starlight followed silently after him. Trixie noticed their approach, and pulled herself out of the box she had been searching in. "Behold, pony friends!" She exclaimed as she pulled something out of the box. It was a purple cloak and hat, each littered with yellow and blue stars. "This uniform looks just like the one Trixie uses in her shows on the outside! Isn't it wonderful?" "Wow, it's so sparkly!" Cheese's eyes seemed to turn to stars seeing the pattern. He squished his face with his hooves in excitement. "Trixie is aware!" The mare laughed as she donned the uniform. Starlight had to admit she looked almost better with it on. "It suits you," Starlight said finally. "You really look like a true magician when you're wearing that." "Good!" Trixie flipped her hair and adjusted the hat so the hat faced the right direction. "Now Trixie can truly shine and bring hope to her fellow ponies!" "We should plan a show for everypony!" Cheese bounced in place. "We can have a comedy act with Pinkie and I, Trixie can do a magic act, and Feather Bangs can sing some music!" "That sounds like a most wondrous idea!" Trixie clapped her hooves. "Trixie will inform the other ponies you have mentioned, but first she would like to explore more of the props on this stage in order to prepare." "That's a good idea," Cheese nodded his head. "I wanna know what's here too. I specialize in gags and jokes, so I want to make sure that there are things in here that I can use." "I'll leave you both to it," Starlight said. "I don't have much room to participate... you guys are the showstoppers after all. I'm going to head out and continue looking around where I can." "Good luck, Starlight Glimmer," Trixie said with a wave of the hoof. "We'll be here if you need us!" Cheese smiled at her. "I'll keep it in mind!" Starlight turned and walked out from behind the curtains. She jumped off the stage and headed to the door, making her way into the hall. "There you are, Starlight!" Twilight said from down the hall. She ran to the theatre door to meet with the other mare. "Oh, hi Twilight." Starlight seemed confused. "Did you find anything?" "I found one thing." Twilight lifted the book on her back with her magic and showed it to Starlight. "This is supposed to be a yearbook of all the classes that have ever gone to this school. The book is in better condition than all the other books in the history section of the library, so it has to be recent. It's very thin too, but that's to be expected of new editions." "A yearbook..." Starlight tapped her chin with her hoof. "So that means that other ponies really did go to this school?" "Philomena was telling the truth, but look at this, Starlight." Twilight opened the book and showed Starlight two pages that had yearbook photos. "There are 16 ponies on both of these pages, but they're registered as being from the same class. There are supposed to be 32 ponies in one class, but there are only 16 of us here." "What happened to the other 16?" Starlight wondered. "I don't know, but things get even weirder when you look at the later classes." Twilight flipped through the pages and stopped at the most recent class. She showed the class to Starlight, and Starlight gasped at the contents. In the pictures for the most recent yearbook photos, Twilight was among the ponies there. Pinkie and Sunburst were there as well. A few other ponies were among the class, including one that Starlight had only heard of because of an announcement Celestia had made; Sunset Shimmer. "W-what does this mean?" Starlight felt her heart lurch. "I know what it means," Twilight said as she made the book vanish into thin air. "This school was created by none other than Princess Celestia herself." "T-that's insane!" Starlight objected, stomping her hoof on the ground and letting her ears fall flat. "Princess Celestia would never put us in this mess! She's a kind, gracious ruler; actually, in fact, she's a pony just like us if those newspaper stories were real! Why would she do this to us?" "I don't know..." Twilight glanced around, letting her frustration and determination shine on her face. "Though, I have an idea who we can ask. But if I'm going to be exposing her for this, I want everypony to know the truth too. We need to gather the rest of us together at the stage somehow." "I have an idea," Starlight said with a grin. "Just follow my lead."