Day 1: 3:32 PM
“You can not be serious! You expect us to treat our teacher, a fully grown mare like a dog!? It’s despicable!” Truffle, glared at Monobear, having a strong urge to hurt and tear him apart. Truthfully, we all had that urge. I’m sure we did.
But it’s pointless to oppose him. The Monoguards are outside and they’ll just swoop in to tear us limb from limb if we so much as lunge at him.
After all, this kingdom is his. We can’t break the rules.
“Uupupu~ If you don’t, I’ll be sure to take good care of her pelt~!” There’s that strange giggle again “Unless you’d prefer a bear as a pet. But you don’t know where my honey stash is! And don’t count on me telling!”
“You’ve got to be lying! I can’t treat my teacher like a dog!” Truffle hysterically claimed, hoping for some kind of loophole. Anything, so he wouldn’t have to go through with such a degrading rule.
“That’s insulting. I’m an honest bear! Truth be told, she reminded me of a dog that wouldn’t stop barking no matter what I said, so here she is!” Monobear basically just explained why he’s making Miss Cheerilee wear this dog suit.
“Let’s go with it for now.” Featherweight said, earning a mixture of glares and confusion from everypony, but he wasn’t done yet.
“At least one of you get it!” Monobear laughed maniacally.
“No, we’ll only go with it for now, because when we escape, we won’t have to treat her as a dog anymore. We’ll get out together! You won’t win!” Featherweight’s words seemed to silence Monobear for a brief moment. He looked down at the tiled floor, seemingly crestfallen at our plan for escape. But then...
“A~HAHAHAHA!!! That’s a good one! You bastards think it’s that easy!? You’re worse than a typical shounen hero! So cliche! You’re a hero without powers! All talk!” After his sudden fit of laughter and insults, he calmed down and continued. “In that case, I’ll prepare a nice gift for all of you. It seems you won’t kill unless you have a motive.”
“Took you long enough.” Rumble said. What the hell, Rumble?
“ARF! ARF! GRRR!!!” Even though Cheerilee is barking fiercely at Monobear over giving us a motive, hearing it all made me cringe. It’s painful to hear Cheerilee’s words converted into mere barking.
“For bastards like you, those who have been taught the silly little ways of friendship, I need to prepare this one in a special way! In the meantime, be sure to check the rules, if you know what’s good for the class pet!” As Monobear spoke of providing a motive, he became noticeably agitated at Cheerilee’s barking.
“SHUT UP, YOU MUTT!”
At that point, a swift kick landed on Cheerilee’s side, causing her to cry and whimper in pain, the same way a dog would if it were abused.
“MISS CHEERILEE!” Truffle ran up to his teacher and held her close, making sure she was alright. We could see the stream of tears flowing from his eyes as he heard her dog-ish whimpers.
“If that mutt ever gets out of control, call me and I’ll shut her up! That’s in the rules too, so read up, you bastards!” Monobear then hopped from off the table and sat on Miss Cheerilee’s back.
“Get off of her! GET OFF!” Truffle prepared to lunge at Monobear.
“Tsk, tsk...” He shook his head, waving a finger at the enraged pony, “Didn’t your teacher tell you that animal cruelty is bad? But don’t worry! As a pack, we’re strong against beasts like you!” As the stuff bear rambled on, Truffle’s agitation became contagious to everypony here.
“Of course, if you want your teacher back to normal, you just have to kill someone. A normal teacher wouldn’t be happy to be treated as her student’s pets! She’d prefer to be at home, thinking of homework and science projects for you bastards to do! If this isn’t a motive to get you going, then my present will be a guaranteed box office hit!”
With that, Monobear happily left the coffee shop, leaving behind the biggest tank of despair to us all.
“How can you say you’re alright!?” Truffle screamed suddenly.
“What? Are you able to understand Miss Cheerilee!?” Sweetie Belle immediately asked, hoping that to be the case.
“Just look in her eyes! You were all her students too!! Cheerilee’s been with us since we were little colts and fillies! She understood us to the core! You better be able to understand her too!” He tore into us with the intent of making us feel ashamed for not understanding our teacher.
“H-hmph! You’re just bragging because you used to be the teacher’s pet, and now the tables have turned! Must feel nice to have that superiority!”
Diamond Tiara you idiot, WHY NOW!?
“You’re just a problem child. A PROBLEM CHILD! Like whenever you and Silver Spoon would look down on everypony without a cutie mark, I don’t regret ratting you two out every time you went too far!” Truffle glared, swinging his hoof around.
“Oh, so you were the one to rat us out to the teacher. Figures. That’s how you cheaply took the ‘teacher’s pet’ title. Did you cheat your way to the top too? You’re the arrogant one, not us.” Silver Spoon soon joined in.
“ARF!! ARF ARF!” Cheerilee interjected with that mechanical barking, followed by a strong glare at both parties, diffusing the situation.
Even as a dog, she still acts as a responsible teacher.
“Looks like she wants us to stop fighting and just follow the rules. Fighting like this won’t get us anywhere.” Truffle interpreted as best as he could. “And so I shall do just that.”
“I still don’t believe it; she’s barking! You can’t tell what a dog thinks by looking in it’s eyes!” Tiara argued in disbelief.
“But she’s not a dog. She’s Miss Cheerilee. She was our teacher back then, and she’s our teacher now. In our hearts, she’s definitely our teacher. I don’t think it’s that big of a stretch to look into her eyes and figure out what she’s saying. She’s still a pony after all. So please, instead of tearing into each other like a pack of animals, why don’t we finish our investigation of this place?” Featherweight decided to support Miss Cheerilee’s intent to keep this discord and despair to a minimum.
“H-he’s right! Fighting like this always leads to murder! And that’s how serial killers are born too, like Jason Vorhooves, ya know!” Pipsqueak made a comparison to another horror flick.
“Who?” Ginger asked.
“You know, the pony who wears a hockey mask and kills everypony he sees with a machete, ya know?” Even though said serial killer isn’t real, you don’t have to look so excited about it, Pip.
“And that’s utterly and horribly creeping me out.” Snails had no further comment, and yet, I heard Dinky chuckling at that.
“Eh, that’s not exactly the issue you know.” Snips sighed.
“Hah, Ah’ remember watching that film! Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had nightmares!” Apple Bloom said with glee.
“Oooo~ What were they like? The nightmares I mean. I gotta know!” Pip asked, unnerving the mares.
“None of your business! I wasn’t scared at all!” Scootaloo denied vehemently about being scared. She didn’t deny having a nightmare though.
“I know I was! But it was pretty good to mess with Rarity by bringing it up whenever she made me mad.” Sweetie Belle sounded nostalgic, but immediately hung her head low. “I miss my sister... I wish her and her friends would hurry and save us...”
“They can’t if they don’t even know where we are.” Twist said, adding some doubt into their hearts.
“Theeeeeeeeeeere ya go, Twist! Ah wonder if it’s part of a Candy Maker’s talent to add hopelessness to the situation!” Apple Bloom widened her eyes and focused on Twist, causing her to back away, trembling as she saw her smile.
“I mean, err, I’m sorry. I just thought if we’re in some magic barrier, it might make finding us harder... I mean, you don’t know how long we’ve been here. It could’ve been weeks, you don’t know!” Twist, as nervous as she was, spoke her mind.
Now that I think about it, she always seems to speak bluntly with a hint of regret. She looks like she always wants to retract her opinion after stating it, and it’s more prominent when she’s around Apple Bloom. I can’t tell if Twist feels resentment or regret.
“I would think that the princesses or the royal guard should have come for us by now. Twist is simply saying if it has been a long time, that could mean that either they don’t know, or-” Rumble tried to make it clear what Twist was getting at.
“Don’t you dare say it!” Tiara didn’t want to accept that possibility. She didn’t want to believe that the princesses could go down so easily. She didn’t want to believe that the princesses could be defeated already.
That was her own brand of hope. Believing in the princesses was her own factor of hope that she didn’t want to let go for a second.
“I-it... it looks like I’m on doggy duty today.”
We all turned our heads to Dinky Doo, who was looking at the rules on her ID band while the others were bickering, prompting us to take a look as well. She just mentioned “Doggie Duty.”
I hold out my left forehoof and the holographic screen automatically comes up. I move it to the left to scroll through the rules until I find the new one that Monobear was referring to.
8. The one responsible on Doggie Duty for today, Dinky Doo, will feed and walk the dog, to ensure that the dog is well taken care of.
8A. Should the caretaker neglect any of his or her responsibilities or treat the dog like it is no longer a dog, then she will be put down under the assumption that the class no longer wants the pet.
8B. In the event of a murder, should the culprit be the one on Doggie Duty, the dog is automatically counted as an accessory to the crime. In addition, the dog is to be present during the investigation.
8C. Should the one on Doggie Duty choose to investigate the kingdom, they must keep the dog on its leash at all times. Doing this will count for taking the dog on a walk, giving it proper exercise.
“I should be the one on Doggy Duty, ME!” Truffle grumbled.
“That shouldn’t even be an issue! We have to do this in order to keep Miss Cheerilee alive! Besides, I think she’s cute!” Dinky picked up the leash, glaring at Truffle Shuffle, all while ignoring Miss Cheerilee’s barking.
“How do we know you’re not going to kill somepony just to help Miss Cheerilee? If you wanna, then KILL ME! I’ll gladly sacrifice my life for her!”
What the hell are you saying, Truffle!? Are you THAT devoted to Miss Cheerilee? That’s not what being a teacher’s pet is about!
“I should ask YOU that! You sound so freaking obsessed!” Dinky Doo fired back, not backing down for a minute.
“SHUT UP!!!”
Finally, he had enough.
Featherweight has had it with our bickering. He feels he should’ve snapped much earlier, but now is better than never.
He was determined to make sure nopony drives the other to commit murder.
Everypony reluctantly became silent to listen to Featherweight’s words.
“We can’t have all of us constantly worrying about who’s going to kill who! So whenever somepony’s on Doggie Duty, we’ll need at least three others to accompany that one!” Featherweight suggested, walking past everypony and turning his attention to them. He looked as if he were trying to take the lead, hoping to start our investigation.
It was natural, all things considered. Tearing into each other is a waste of time, and it’s what Monobear wants.
Featherweight may have been the most determined to go against Monobear.
I don’t have that level of determination. In fact, he always seemed a lot better at dealing with these situations than I was. I usually would stay silent and just let it blow over, especially if it’s none of my business.
I see this side of him more whenever we work at the Ponyville Express. I know Featherweight’s not the type to be strict, but I guess even a situation like this would have him evolve his normal approach to diffusing a dispute.
“I’ll tag along of course.” Truffle immediately volunteered, making Dinky move to the side just a little.
“In that case, I’ll help too. I don’t like how Cheerilee’s scolding falls on deaf ears now.” Rumble made a good point. He reminded me of Cheerilee barking earlier, and yet the bickering between Truffle and Dinky continued.
It made me cringe to remember that.
“I can go too. The rules don’t limit Doggy Duty to just one pony.” Rumble pointed out another loophole.
“That means you’ll all have to treat her like a dog!” Featherweight noted.
“I say we remove that muzzle!” Truffle walked up to the teacher, reaching out for that muzzle, but Miss Cheerilee rose a hoof at him, signaling him to stop. “Wha- why!?”
“I’m sure Miss Cheerilee has already tried that herself. Maybe she’s saying it can’t be removed by normal means.” Rumble speculated, to which Miss Cheerilee confirmed with a quick nod.
“H-how do YOU know? You can’t understand Miss Cheerilee like me!” Truffle angrily asked.
“It’s something you should’ve picked up on the moment Cheerilee joined the group, teacher’s pet.” Rumble flatly answered. Before Truffle could argue again, Featherweight spoke immediately.
“Well, that said, we should finish investigating the kingdom. We have a long day ahead of us. We can check the time at least with our ID bands, so let’s meet back here in the Coffee Shop at 8 to discuss our findings.” Featherweight laid his plans out. But of course, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon didn’t nod or anything. They simply left without another word, save for Tiara’s usual ‘Hmph!’
____________________________________________
4:00 PM
But everypony else agreed. And with that, our investigation began, or so I thought.
“Err, Shady, we gotta talk.”
Featherweight and I went out to the edge of the district where Rarity’s Cutie Mark was painted on the ground, away from everypony else.
“What’s up?”
“You still got my camera, right?” He quickly asked, feeling somewhat paranoid.
“Yeah, sure, but It’s back at my house.” I calmed him down with a simple answer.
“Ah, good. *phew*.”
“Were you worried about it?” I inquired, based on his mannerisms.
“Well yeah! See, after all that’s happened, I hadn’t even thought about it until now, but truth be told, it’ll be useful. You can hold onto it a little longer, but ya gotta give it back!” He said, putting on a brave smile. But I can’t blame him for forgetting about it until now. There’s enough to worry about as it is. Maybe the camera was the last thing on his mind and he just wanted to keep everypony from turning on each other.
“I never asked, but why in the world do you obsess about that camera so much?” I still had to ask why though.
“Dude it’s not an obsession! I just got that thing from my dad back when I was just a colt. It was a hand-me-down, yeah, but still.” Haha, guess he looked ticked off when I called it an obsession. “What kind of pictures did you think I was taking?”
“Nothing indecent I’m sure.” I quipped.
“Obviously! My dad would kill me for that!” He chuckled a little, then carried on, “At first he thought of letting my brother Snowflake have that camera, but he’s way too big. He’s afraid it’d get crushed!”
“I still have a hard time believing a stallion like Snowflake is your brother.” Seriously. Snowflake’s bulging muscles are ridiculous. I’d never ask him, but I call steroids.
“That’s because I don’t work out nearly as hard as he does. I’d end up having muscles so big, my wings would be tiny! So I decided to be strong in my own way. ‘Charisma’ is the word, I think.” Featherweight said, talking about his own strengths.
Strength: is this what it means to be strong?
“Anyway, about those questions to Princess Twilight; You still have’em too, right?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Oh, those are at my assigned home too! Hahah, Dude, you remember, though right?”
“The questions? They were all a bunch of mundane things like, have you aged any further since becoming an Alicorn, stuff about what her princess life is like now, how she became an Alicorn in the first place...” I trailed off.
But curiously, Alicorns are a mystery aside from the obvious agelessness and awesome power.
“Uhh, mmm...” For some reason, Featherweight went silent, just making a series of grunts as if he wants to say something, but doesn’t know how to put it.
“Well?” I inquired, but this only made him even more nervous.
“Dude, this is a kingdom, right? And Monobear did say ‘promotion’. You don’t think he means turning somepony into an Alicorn, right?”
I hadn’t thought of that one...
“Featherweight, that’s crazy. He can’t turn us into alicorns.” To be honest, I only said that to convince myself. Being an Alicorn is considered the closest thing to godliness.
“But you can’t really deny the possibility, right? I mean, we don’t even know how Twilight Sparkle became one, and becoming an Alicorn is a tight secret in the royal family. I wouldn’t put it past them if killing somepony meant becoming an alicorn!”
“Stop it. Please, just stop that. Stop thinking it. Isn’t our mattoo at the express, “To destroy conspiracies with the truth?” I mean,”
“Ah haha, you’re right. Nothing good comes from murder. I’d be a hypocrite now if I even considered it. Yeah, gotta keep our heads high. There has to be another way.” Featherweight’s voice was cracking as he looked at the ground, wearing a bitter smile.
...
I don’t get it. Why even come to that conclusion? Don’t say things like that, man. We’ve been friends since we were little colts. Don’t stoop to that level. That’s not you.
You’re not that kind of guy.
“Let’s investigate the rest of this place. There was that gate we have to check out, right?” He walked past me and kept his head forward. He never looked back.
“Yeah.” I simply agreed.
Even for somepony as optimistic as Featherweight, I can tell this is starting to get to him.
It’s already gotten to me a long time ago.
But everypony is alive. And I don’t want to suspect my old classmates of wanting to kill. If I suspect, I just don’t have any form of hope.
_________________________________________
4:06 PM
And so, we make our way down the brick road, going cutting through the alleyway to the left of the of the coffee shop, and reach the ‘central courtyard’ according to our map. At this area, we can see a familiar marble statue of Rarity, in her same battle pose.
“Didn’t we see this one in the beginning?” Featherweight asked what I was thinking, and I nodded in agreement.
This is weird. The statues were together before, but now they’re separated? What’s with that?
“Were they moved or something when we were knocked out?” I asked.
“Probably. This might be worth looking into! You took a picture of what it looked like before, right?”
“Yeah, I did! It was one of the first pictures I took!”
“We’re gonna have to develop the pictures we took somehow. It doesn’t look like this district has a photo development place, but the next one might!”
Checking the map on my ID Band, I see an arrow pointing to the left, saying “To the Honesty District”.
I turn my head around to survey the area, noticing that Truffle wasn’t lying when he said that the King’s Court is pretty much off limits due to the number of guards at the doors. I then turn left to see a single guard with it’s wings standing up, ready to slice us at any second if we got too close.
At that moment, I hear a gasp, catching my attention. I turn around to see Sweetie Belle there, by herself.
“Oh, hi Sweetie Belle!” Featherweight greeted.
“I-I-I’ll come back later.” She walked away, crestfallen.
“I think we should leave her alone for now. She’ll tell us what’s wrong when she’s ready, okay?” Featherweight put a hoof on my back.
“Not of my business anyway.” I replied.
“That’s a bit cold.” Featherweight gave a dry laugh.
I walk up to the gate, to find Diamond Tiara standing far away from the Monoguard, hiding behind a trash bin.
Silver Spoon is getting a closer look though.
“Hey, Silver Spoon!” Featherweight called out.
“So it’s only you two.” Silver said.
“That guard can slice you up at any minute, you know.” I said, warning her.
“Somepony has to know what these guards are made of. What kind of mechanics they’re filled with, if their bellies are nothing but nuts and bolts: a work of machinery.” She said with a smile.
“Trying to find out how they work, huh?”
“Yes, I am. I’m intrigued at such advanced machinery here. If only Diamond Tiara would realize the obvious mechanic of it.”
“Obvious mechanic?” I asked.
“If you don’t make any attacking actions, they won’t retaliate. These bots are designed to retaliate! It’s obvious when you consider what happened to that fool.” Silver Spoon must’ve been referring to that night when Grace Lightning tried to attack Monobear. “They don’t seem to attack without his orders either.”
She’s right. Seeing where she’s standing, my tension eased up, if only just a little. Even if Silver Spoon’s been a bully most of the time, I still wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to her.
Yet, she stood close to it, looking closely, but not getting close enough to where she’d get attacked.
“I Didn’t know you were into machines!”
“Well, let’s just say that with the perks of being an heir to the Sterling family name, comes the perks of seeing some of the finer points of the world around you. With the world at your hooves, it’s only natural I’d find an interest eventually.” She told Featherweight.
“What are you doing talking to that blank flank!? H-he’s just trying to act cool isn’t he!?” I heard Diamond Tiara yelling from the bush nearby.
“I’m trying to see if these guards have a weakness!”
I simply sigh at her outburst while I approach her.
“What are you doing?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What’s it look like? Waiting for her to finish looking at that thing!”
“Featherweight’s got her back. He’s not a blank flank, so it shouldn’t matter, right?”
“Muu~ fine, you got a point. I just don’t want her to get sliced or something! I told her over and over that guard might strike, but no, she won’t listen!”
“She’s fine.”
“Yeah, for now! But it’ll attack when you try to get around! That stupid bear said so!” So Monobear talked to them about the guard? That explains a lot. He must’ve sent a shiver down her spine.
“Would you like to be chopped up faster than an onion on an infomercial?”
Diamond told me word-for-word what that bear said.
“Coast is clear!” Silver Spoon shouted.
“O-oh. Just so you know, I wasn’t scared! Not one bit!”
“Sure.” Silver agreed, “Looks like they’re well built... There’s not exactly any openings either. I’m sure it’ll be difficult to destroy them.”
“Well, let’s figure that part out when we look around a little more.” Featherweight suggested, with his voice somewhat trembling. “We might even get in trouble for even talking about that.”
*DING*
“Hey! Don’t go destroying my ponies!”
“Monobear!?” Diamond shouted, slowly backing away.
“I heard you bastards talking about animal cruelty! Does that mean you’ll discriminate against bears next? Maybe I should have this guard slice you all up for sending shivers through every inch of my fur!”
“Not according to the rules.” Silver Spoon said, showing the rule list again, going through all eight rules.
I see. The only thing we can’t destroy are the security cameras.
“Ooooh~, how diligent, Silver Spoon~” Monobear looked down, acknowledging the loophole. “In that case, be my guest! Seeing a pony lose it’s ability to walk will finally give me an excuse to use my brand new shotgun!” Monobear suddenly pulled out a double-barrel shotgun, unnerving all of us. “Pain’s such a despair-inducing element! If you all felt too much of it, this shotgun would be your best friend!” He then took aim at us.
“Aaah!” Diamond quickly hid behind Silver Spoon, then pointed her hoof at Monobear, “Put that thing down, now! I don’t deserve this! I’m not breaking rules!”
“Why so scared? You’re not breaking the rules!” He put the gun down.
Hearing him giggle afterward is pissing me off. I really want to trample this bear.
“But alas, if you commit a murder, I may make this guard step aside to let you bastards pig around in the mud! Consider it a generous gift!”
“We’re not going to commit a murder just to get to the next area.”
“You’re right! That’s why I’ve planted a present in your homes! Doesn’t hurt to give a friendly reminder!”
The motive... he’s definitely talking about the motive he promised us.
“Do remember to have fun, will ya?!” Monobear left with those parting words.
“Well this is troublesome.” Silver Spoon sighed. “If he’s that confident we can’t destroy them, then we’re in trouble. There’s something he’s not telling us. But what?”
“H-how about we figure this out when there’s not too many eyes around?” Featherweight nervously suggested.
I see. Looking at the flower bush, I can see several flower cameras in the garden patch by the gate. For all we know, the guards themselves may be fitted with those cameras, making them impossible to destroy.
Yet, he never mentioned anything about that possibility. Just beating around the bush.
“We’ll tell the others about our findings. What will you two do?” Silver Spoon asked.
“What with you, Sil? You never talked to those two like that!” Diamond asked worriedly.
“Considering our situation, I think I can’t be the same anymore, Dia. I don’t need to spell it out what would happen If we continued our behavior.” Silver trialed off.
I got it too.
“Tch... you two are lucky! Really lucky! Silver Spoon’s a beautiful Mare, just like me! A mare of natural talents! I just can’t bring myself to cooperate with you blanks!” Diamond ranted, then started to storm off.
“There’s no need to worry, you two. We’re going to be fine! We’re gonna get out of this mess! We just need more time, okay? You don’t have to change just because of a temporary situation!” Featherweight gave them a boost of hope with a small statement alone.
I sure hope you’re right, my friend.
___________________________________________
5:21 PM
The two of us decide to head for that doghouse Monobear spoke of. On the way back, we saw a door leading to the back entrance of the Coffee shop.
It must be a storage section of the coffee shop.
Curious, I decide to go and check it out, to see what was there. I never really explored the coffee shop that much, now that I think about it.
Once I was inside, the room was completely dark, save for the light from the sun. I press a hoof around the walls near the door, quickly finding a switch to turn the lights on. What I discover are several empty boxes scattered around, opened already.
I guess that’s where all the extra coffee and products are held?
There’s not exactly much to find, so I leave the room, headed for the first alleyway I see, taking me back to the front of the coffee shop.
Down the street, I head straight to the road our houses are located, to find Dinky Doo, Rumble, and Truffle Shuffle there, with our ‘class pet’.
I could hear Truffle grunting and holding back tears, as he watched Dinky feed the dog through... a straw?
Wow. He actually thought this through. Inside the dog house, there’s a mechanism consisting of two tubes, and a tube attached to both. As a single tube, it looks like the muzzle opens up a small hole to insert the tube to give water and food.
Okay, I get the whole dog shtick, but that’s just plain wrong.
“You feel disgusted, don’t you?” Rumble asked me. “You know, she and I had to hold Truffle back from destroying the dog house. I shouldn’t have to explain why.”
“Yeah. I know.” I said, taking the rules into consideration.
“How did you actually stop him?” Featherweight asked.
“We didn’t. Miss Cheerilee did. A single hug from her was all it took to calm him down.”
“And now he has to suck it up and deal, huh?” Dinky chimed in, earning a glare from Truffle. “What? All I did was say you have to deal unless you want her dead!”
Making puns like that is not a good idea.
“Tch... this shouldn’t be! She’s still too kind! You’re fools for going through with this! Fools, the lot of you!!!” He stormed off in tears.
“Wow, I’m sooooo happy to have a new puppy! So cute!” Dinky waved her hooves around, rolling her eyes through her sarcastic complaints. “Ugh, geez, what a baby. Well, whatever. She knows we’re not malicious about it.”
“You’re right. You follow it because you fear for her life.” Rumble stated in a matter-of-factly tone.
“Yep! What else can we do? Until we know something, we won’t be able to feed our need to free her.” Dinky, you’re doing it again.
“She’s still strong to accept this, and be able to help us. At the least, she’ll be able to calm any one of us down. She’s always been there for us when we needed her, right?” Featherweight said.
“Even I owe her for cheering me up at one point.”
“Yeah, and I wanted to make her proud of me, so whenever she met my mom for any PTA meetings, She’d tell her how smart I am, making mom proud of me! Two bits of smiles in one shot!” Dinky added, making me think of how Miss Cheerilee helped me to get the job at the press.
We all owe her a lot. It hurts to treat her this way, but we don’t want her to die.
I could then hear her barking again, looking at us with determined eyes, but immediately felt dejected since we don’t understand that artificial barking.
But she then gave us a serious stare, one filled with determination.
“Don’t worry about me.” is what she would probably say. I’m pretty sure she’d say something like that.
______________________________________________________
10:00 PM
Several hours later, night time arrived, and we hadn’t found anything new in the kingdom, other than another storage in the clothing shop, naturally, with just more boxes and black tiles, explaining where the one for the killing goods came from to begin with.
The goods are inside the coffee shop, locked away.
But now...
*DING*
The screen lit up from above, showing Monobear sitting in that throne again, holding a chalice.
“Hey you bastards! It’s night time! Hurry and get to your beds! As of now, both stores are locked! May you all have pleasant dreams~!”
Night time’s finally arrived, and with everypony knowing about the present inside their homes, they’re hesitant to go to sleep.
“I saw this coming.” Rumble began walking to his assigned home.
“W-where are you going!?” Sweetie Belle nervously asked.
“I’m going to learn my motive for murder. You can ignore yours, but I’m going to find out now.” Rumble continued to walk off.
“Wait a minute!” Scootaloo called, but to no avail. Rumble had already closed his door.
“Let’s just ignore the motives! No matter what, we can’t look at them!” Featherweight implored everypony, followed by Miss Cheerilee’s barking.
“Miss Cheerilee’s right! Everypony, listen to Featherweight, and ignore the motive!”
“Easier said than done.” Twist meekly added.
“W-what?”
“Doesn’t everypony here have family?! I’m worried about my parents! What about you!?” Twist tearfully struck us with that question.
“I think I see where Rumble’s coming from, b-but there’s no way Rainbow Dash would be in trouble!”
Without a moment’s notice, Sweetie Belle gallops to her assigned home in tears.
“Wha- Sweetie Belle!? What was that about.”
“Just a blank flank being a coward as always! I’ll check out my motive and I’ll be just fine! Watch me!” Diamond Tiara walks off too.
“I’ll show you what makes us different from you!” Scootaloo stormed to her home too, with Apple Bloom nonchalantly walking as well.
“You fool.” Silver Spoon whispered under her breath before walking away as well.
“Oh man, oh man, hope the kids aren’t in trouble!” Snips muttered to himself before walking off.
“Yeah, they’ll be fine! I think?” Snails sighed in doubt, walking away as well.
“I uh, gotta go.” Pipsqueak walked off as well.
“I want to stay by your side Miss Cheerilee, but to bed, I must go...!” Truffle ran off in tears.
“I’ll just take Miss Cheerilee to the dog house now.” Dinky said, trembling as she walked Miss Cheerilee off to her house.
Even Ginger just walked away without a word.
Once again, it was just me and Featherweight.
“No one’s listening to me this time. That sucks. But I’ll try again tomorrow.” Featherweight spoke, not to me, but himself.
“I might even look at it.”
“Guess you’re worried about your family too, huh?”
“Aren’t you worried about yours?” I asked out of concern.
“Well yeah! Now that Twist said that, I’m worried too! We can’t do anything here, but we’ll figure out a plan tomorrow. There has to be something. Promise me you won’t stop thinking!” Featherweight put a hoof on my shoulder. “Promise me!”
“Alright, I promise! But what do you mean? Don’t stop thinking about what?”
“A happy ending I guess? That one thing that makes you comfortable?”
“Not my style. But I’ll try.” I sighed, agreeing to his request.
“Good!” He gave a reassuring smile, lifting my spirits.
______________________________________________________
10:07 PM
Now that Featherweight’s gone, I go to my assigned home. The moment I open the door, I find a small, neatly gift-wrapped present on my bed.
“Huh? The motive’s a gift? Can’t call it generous though.” I mumbled to myself as I approached the box.
I bite onto the ribbon to unwrap it, then open it up.
It was then that I saw what he meant.
The place where I grew up. A large, kinda run-down house, but stable to hold them all. The front yard is a mess due to the fillies and colts playing ball and casting magic all day. It was a mess, but this place is a sanctuary to me.
Everypony there that I know from that place is fine in this picture. She’s fine... He is too... All of them are fine.
I move that picture away, revealing the next one, but this time, a few more ponies are gone. I simply sigh, believing that some ponies missed out on this one.
The next picture, even more ponies were gone, and it was just the two adults left.
“What the hell? Now this is just depressing.” I sighed to myself, before turning to the next photo, which is simply a black card. I rose my eyebrow in confusion.
“With a promotion, only you can prevent orphanage fires!” Is what’s written on the card with a white marker.
“What?”
I quickly moved that stupid message out of the way, revealing that a photo of that place set ablaze.
Why? Why is that place on fire!?
There has to be a way to edit these photos... there has to be!
With a burst of panic and fury, my forearm suddenly swings, striking the box off the bed along with it’s contents.
I’m not even gonna look. I can’t.
And secondly, how the hell did Monobear even know that!? It’s not like i keep it secret, but he’s just a damn teddy bear!!
I my anguish escaped in an instance, echoing throughout these four walls.
I let my voice roar, to the point where my throat began to feel itchy.
I had to. I had to direct this feeling at something, and right now, even that may be a bad idea.
Featherweight said to ignore the motive, yet here I am, out of breath as I lay in my bed, powerless, unsure if what I just saw was real. I let my curiosity get the better of me.
Damn it!