Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Ponies

by Down with Chrysalis

Chapter 1: To Survive (Daily Life) Part 1

Chapter 01:

To Survive

(Daily Life) Part 1

I could feel the others’ suspicious gazes glide over my body. At each and every second, everypony was thinking one of us would kill. Nopony made a move to say anything or do anything, we all just stood there eyeing each other in fear and worry. As we all continued to eye each other, Monokuma's words echoed in my head,

"You must kill someone if you want to leave."

My mind froze and my breath caught in my throat as I thought about that. I could feel a paralyzing fear slowly making its way through my body, dominating every last nerve. The air hung heavy on me, pressing down like a weight around my neck.

But for as heavy as the air felt...all it took to pierce it was her sharp words.

"So what are you going to do now? Just stand around glaring at each other, or are we actually going to do something about this situation?"

Surprisingly it was Sunset who said this. She had a calm and serious look on her face as she directed her question to everypony in the room. While I was surprised that the mare with memory loss was the one staying calm and levelheaded, I can't deny that her words did bring everypony back to reality.

"R-Right... She's right!" Flash stuttered before shaking his head back and forth. "They taught me in the Guard to remain calm in all situations to avoid panicking the civilians. To forget such an important fact and not be the symbol of calm that guards should be in times of crisis, I can't forgive myself! Please somepony hit me or tell me to drop and do 20 for such a disgraceful act as a guard!"

We all raised our brows at this display, but he was deadly serious.

"Jeez, if you have the time to yell about it, you have time to DO something about it," Gilda chided and rolled her eyes.

"True true...but what exactly is it he’s supposed to do?” Discord interjected. “That bear never gave us any mission goals or side quests, he just gave us the plot and left. Talk about not playing fair."

"Discord, I know you’re the spirit of chaos and all, but please try and treat this situation with an ounce of seriousness," Twilight said in her usual annoyed tone. As soon as she finished though, Discord suddenly appeared right next to her with his arm draped over her back with a sly smile.

"Oh dear dear Twilight, I assure you that I am taking this situation very seriously,” he said pulling at her cheek, which caused her scowl to deepen. “For you see the only creature who gets to mess with you ponies and other assorted creatures is me." He then stood up straight adorning a serious face, which looked completely out of place on him.

"Little Mono is trying to take my thunder by doing this little game of his. So I've decided to fight fire with fire, if he's treating this like a game then so am I! Besides, I don't very much like the chaos death causes, too dreary for my taste,” he announced as a small raining storm cloud appeared above his head. This only seemed to make him scowl more.

“Really? That’s all I can manage? One ironic visual? Ugh, I hate whatever dampening field is in place,” he groaned as he crossed his mismatched arms.

“Then save whatever magic you can for useful endeavors you foolish-“ Twilight began, but was interrupted by Chrysalis.

"While I do find the two of you bickering to be very amusing, perhaps we should focus on finding a way out of this...school?”

"Exactly!” Rainbow Dash agreed with a nod, “And we need to find the jerk who enchanted Monowhatsit and kick his flank for starting this whole mess in the first place!"

"...B-But before we do all the beating up and hurting of the bad pony who did this, maybe we should take a look at the hoofbook...?" came a shallow stutter from Fluttershy who had been awakened along with Rarity by Bulk Biceps.

All eyes turned to the shy mare, who in response made an 'eep' sound and hid behind her curtain of hair before continuing in a slightly softer voice,

"I-I mean it's probably a good idea to check out those school regulations that mean bear mentioned before we do anything else. I mean if everypony is okay with that of course..."

"True,” Twilight seemingly agreed. “If we just stumbled around with no clue as to what the rules are, we might end up dealing with another exploding Monokuma."

"Shit," Gilda mutters remembering her near death experience.

"Fine fine!” Rainbow groaned in annoyance. “Let's hurry up and check out the stupid rules already!"

Everypony nodded at this as we all began to open up our e-Hoofbook.

Just like Monokuma said, the first thing that appeared on my e-Hoofbook screen was my name. After a few seconds the screen changed to show four tabs. The tabs being School Map, Truth Bullets, School Regulations and the Student Report Cards with the Truth Bullets tab being faded out.

Student Report Cards? Why would something like that be on here? Given our situation I doubt we're gonna be taught anything. So why...? And what the hay are Truth Bullets?

Deciding to look into it more later I selected the School Regulations icon. An itemized list appeared on-screen, and displayed the rules being imposed on us all.

1.
Students may reside only within the school. Leaving campus is an unacceptable use of time.

Like we even have a choice to leave in the first place!

2.
"Nighttime" is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.

3.
Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.

4.
With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your discretion.

Remembering the blocked off nurse's office and staircase, I guessed that's what this rule meant by 'minimal restrictions.'

5.
Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.

6.
Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.

7.
Any spells that are Magic Level 4 or above are strictly prohibited. Anyone caught in the act of using or activating said spells will be punished accordingly.

8.
Additional school regulations may be added as necessary.

Feeling a little light headed from all the information, I raised my face up from the screen. As I looked around, I saw the same stormy expression on everypony's faces. There were a few moments of silence before it was broken by an enraged Gilda.

"Oh this is bullshit!”

“OI!” Iron Will grunted in offence, but Gilda continued.

“What the hell kinda rules are these!? There's no way I'm gonna follow these!"

Chrysalis giggled at that before saying,

"Well then, why don't you wander around the school without a care in the world and see what happens? Maybe instead of an exploding bear you'd win an acid shower for breaking another rule?"

"And unlike a video game, there aren't any extra lives. So I'm afraid there’d be no respawn point for you," Discord added his two cents. He then proceeded to imitate the Mario death scene, complete with pixel graphics and sounds.

Gilda looked stunned for a bit at their words, but before she could say anything Rainbow flew in front of her and the Changeling.

"Look lady, I don't know what your deal is but knock it off! Ever since Gilda and I met back in Flight School we drilled it into our heads that once a friend makes a promise, they can't even think about dying before its been completed!"

"...So what?" Chrysalis said in a bored manner.

"So we've made a lot of promises to our friends, that's 'so what'!" Rainbow growled.

"Yeah! So we can't afford to die in here!” Gilda agreed in determination. “Especially if we got promises to keep!"

The Changeling Queen rolled her eyes at their antics. "Look, I couldn’t care less about the promises you made, your devotion to completing them, or even why they were made, but I assume that means you'll be following the regulations, correct?"

Gilda and Rainbow looked at each other before Rainbow sheepishly said,

"Uh...yeah I guess you're right there. I don't think it'll be very awesome to blow up after everything hehehe..." This seemed to cause Gilda to simmer down, as she also nodded in agreement.

"I fear I must ask this, but what do you all suppose regulation 6 means?" Rarity chimed in.

6.
Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.

"You're talking about the second half, right? Where it says 'unless they are discovered'?” When she nodded to my inquiry, I held my chin in contemplation. “I was wondering that myself." A scoff from Twilight drew our attention.

"It's pretty simple. If you want to graduate, you have to kill somepony without anypony else figuring out it was you who did it." Twilight's voice carried over the gym as her words brought us all to silence once again. It wasn't until a sniff from Fluttershy did the silence end.

"B-But why...? W-Why do we h-have to k-ki-kill each other?"

"Because apparently that’s how we get out,” Twilight rolled her eyes. “But I don't see any reason to worry about that. Just follow the rules as they are explained to us to avoid death." Twilights stoic stare suddenly turned into a glare as she continued, "So quit your blubbering. Frankly, I don't want to listen to somepony who is too scared to even look anypony in the eye.”

"I-I'm sorry. P-Please don't jab at me..." the Pegasus muttered, wincing at the scathing words.

That was more like a full on stab Fluttershy, I thought in sympathy.

Before Twilight could say anymore on the matter Pinkie Pie suddenly started giggling. My other classmates and I stared at her in confusion before she said,

"Hehehehe you two are gonna be great friends!" Twilight simply glared at the pink earth pony, but Pinkie didn't seem to care as she clapped her hooves together to get our attention.

"Well anyway, let's forget all that silly junk about murders or whatever, we’re all too good of friends to even think about that. Now that we know the rules let’s start exploring the school!"

Despite her cheerfulness, we nodded our heads at Pinkie’s declaration.

"Very true ma’am!” Flash interjected. “We have several questions that can only be answered via exploration. We need to find out where exactly we are, if there is any way out, what our food situation is?" Flash's eyes suddenly burned with passion as he yelled out, "There are tons of questions that need answers!"

A loud "YEAH" from Bulk was the only indication that anypony else shared the guard’s enthusiasm. There were some nods from the others, but mostly they just had looks of resigned unease.

"I'll be going alone then." Twilight's statement seemed to snap the others out of their unease as Chrysalis sent the mare an annoyed glance.

"Ms. Sparkle for one who claims to be so smart that seems to be a pretty stupid idea." Twilight merely scoffed and glared at the changeling queen as she said,

"Someone here might already have started thinking about murdering one of us. Are you saying we should stand around them and make it that much easier for them?"mThe other's eyes widened at that while Spike stuttered out,

"N-Now come on Twi! That would never-!"

Suddenly Twilight's glare turned even harsher then I thought possible as she said,

"Don't bother saying it couldn't happen Spike! You can't deny the possibility, and neither can they! That's why you all seized up with fear when that graduation rule was made clear to you." Twilight's harsh glare suddenly turned into a smug grin as she finished, "Am I wrong?"

Spike flinched at Twilight's harsh words as he stuttered out,

"B-But-"

"So, I'm simply acting in accordance with what I think is best for me. Now if you excuse me..." She then turned around and started to walk away. The lanky dragon tried to follow her, but she turned and glared him down.

“I said alone!” she growled.

“But Twilight, I’m your number one as-“

“I don’t need *Your* Assistance right now!” she interrupted, causing him to look crestfallen. With that, she tried to leave again, but Gilda flew in front of her and blocked her path.

"Hold on! Like Tartarus I'm gonna let you run off and do whatever you want! And lay off the dragon guy already!"

"Out of my way, breezie,” the purple mare spat in indignation.

"Wh-?” Gilda’s eye twitched, “What The Buck is that supposed to mean?!" The purple snob didn’t even seem fazed by the increasing ire of the Griffon and stared her down in her cold glare.

"One tiny little bug, drifting across the land, so miniscule, so insignificant, they wouldn't even be able to fly without the tiniest breeze to guide them."

And like a dam breaking, the pissed off Griffon let out a screech of anger as she clenched her talons into fists.

"That’s it! I'm gonna kick your magical little flank you purple bitch!"

Realizing that the situation was getting out of hoof I tried to get between the two intimidating figures.

"S-Stop it! We shouldn't be fighting!" I tried and failed to deescalate, but it was too late. And it’s safe to say getting between a rock and a hard place doesn’t end well.

"Buck you!"

*Wham*

She punched me...and I flew back in a heap. Before I passed out, it dawned on me just how much stronger a Griffon was than a simple earth pony, and how much stronger many of the other Ultimates were too…

"Ngh..gh..."

My eyes slowly opened as I returned back to the land of the conscious. Staring back at me was an unfamiliar ceiling.

"Where...am I?"

As if it had become part of my daily routine, I woke up in yet another room I'd never seen before.

"Okay, so...Where am I now?"

Getting off the bed I found myself on I started to look around. It was like a normal dorm room, trash can and all, there was even a lint roller at the foot of the bed.

Like the classroom I first woke up in, there were metal slabs bolted against the windows of the room. I tried my best not to think too much on them, and instead decided to focus on a piece of paper hanging on the wall.

"Announcement from Headmaster Monokuma. Each room's lock has been designed to completely protect against tampering, magic, or lock-picking. Remaking an individual key is quite troublesome, so please make sure not to lose yours.

Your room comes furnished with a shower, but please note that the water is turned off at nighttime. Also, the bathrooms in the mare's rooms include a lock of their own.

Finally, we've prepared a small gift for each of you. For the mares, a sewing kit. For the stallions, a toolkit.

The sewing kit includes a map of the body's vital organs. One stab will do the job, mares! For the stallions, we believe a strong blow to the head with any of the tools should be ample.

Don't think! Just feel! And let's all enjoy ourselves!"

"..."

I crumpled up the sheet of paper and threw it in the trash.

"That Monokuma...just what in the hay is wrong with him!?"

Sighing to myself as that unknowable answer, I continued looking around the room and noticed a key on the table in the middle of the room. Walking over to it I picked it up and see that my name was sewn onto the tail end of it.

Well, this is obviously the key to my room if the keychain is anything to go by. Gonna hang onto you.

After slipping the key into my pack, I walked over to the only dresser in the room next to the bed. Above it was a sketch pad, and inside it was the toolkit that poster mentioned.

This must be brand new, the shrink wrap is still on it. Hopefully I'll never have to use it...

Closing the drawer I went to investigate the only thing left in the room, the bathroom. Opening it deliberately slowly, I braced myself for any hidden tricks…but all that was inside was the usual bathroom appliances, a toilet, sink, and shower.

I was honestly expecting...something. Guess that's what I get for getting my hopes up for a bathroom of all things.

Another door was at the end of my little exit hallway, but it was locked.

It must lead to the outside then…

After that observation I headed back to the middle of the room and spoke aloud to myself. “Alright, so we got a bed, bathroom, tool kit, and a key with my name on it. So obviously…”

3.
Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.

“This has to be my assigned dorm room. Someone must have carried me here after I fell unconscious. So that answers that question. The next question is what everypony else is up to?”

With that thought I rushed out of the room to meet up with the others. But there was someone waiting for me there. It was like something out of an old TV show...

*WHAM*

"Ahh!"

"Oh- Sunset?" I said in shock at the mare I’d run into. She was holding her head and was wincing slightly from the impact. Chuckling nervously I helped her up.

"S-Sorry! Are you okay?" Sunset rubbed her head one last time before she said,

"I-I'm fine. Sorry about that..." She had an embarrassed smile on her face. I soon had one mimicking it as I chuckled nervously.

"Are you sure you’re okay Sunset?"

"Hmhm. you make it sound worse than it is,” she chuckled. “I'm completely fine. A little bump with you isn't going to take me down that easily. But enough about me, are you sure you’re okay? You know, from when Gilda sent you flying and all?"

“Oh yeah…that did happen,” I grunted as I rubbed my chin.

I got knocked out right in front of everyone. I guess I revealed my lack of cool right from the beginning... Noticing my downtrodden face Sunset gave me a few pats on the back.

"Ah come on, it’s not so bad. Griffons are pretty strong so getting hit full force like that would have sent anypony flying," Sunsets face morphed into a confused one as she continued, "Well...maybe not Bulk, but he doesn't count because I’m sure he’s half dinosaur!"

I couldn't stop myself as I chuckled at Sunset's attempt to cheer me up. It worked out pretty well, since I was feeling a *little* better about being sent flying by an angry griffon. But there was still something bugging me...

"So Sunset, not that I mind it or anything but...why are you here?" She raised her brow at my question and then her eyes widened in remembrance and she facehooved.

"Oh right! I actually came to get you."

"Came to...get me?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah,” she nodded with a smile. “And since you’re clearly feeling better we can now go to the dining hall. That’s where we’re all meeting up again after investigations are over."

“You’ve all started exploring already?” I asked in surprise. “How long was I out?”

“Quite awhile actually,” she stuttered and laughed nervously. “Luckily we found these rooms right off the bat. I guess we’re neighbors huh?” Looking up, I saw that there were countless other doors in the hallway. I noticed that the door across from mine had an...eight-bit version of Twilight on it. Looking back at my open door, I saw that there was also an 8 bit representation of me on it. Every other door had a sprite figure of my classmates as well.

To the right of my room was Sunset, and on the left was Fluttershy's. Next to Twilight on the left was Gilda's and on the right was Chrysalis's.

“That can't be a good combo,” I pointed to the three rooms and Sunset chuckled.

“I know right?”

And with that, she led me to the dining hall. The room itself was fairly large, with one long table in the middle, and four smaller tables surrounding it. She led me to the long table which was near a large picture, painted to look like a wall window. As with the other rooms so far there was also cameras and a TV mounted on the wall. Looking at the camera gave me a sense of dread that I tried to ignore.

"It looks pretty clean, so that's good," the unicorn mare said optimistically. I sent her a questioning look, to which she chuckled sheepishly. "Er, I guess that's not really important right now, with us being prisoners here and all."

"Yeah, that's true…But at least it’s a clean prison," I jabbed back causing her to smile.

As we were the only ones in the room, we decided to wait for the others to arrive, so we sat down together at the long table. As we waited my eyes began to wander till they fell on the wall clock.

"What!? 7 o'clock!? At night!?" I gasped.

"Yeah, you were unconscious for a pretty long time remember?” she pointed out a bit sadly.

I see... I scratched the back of my head dejectedly. Without being able to look out a window, I've lost all sense of time. If I have to stay in this place for too long...I might just go crazy...

"Hey uh....Lucky?” Sunset's voice snapped me out of my thoughts as I looked over to her.

"Huh? What's up?"

Sunset looked at me sadly before she said,

"Well...its just that...” she stuttered sadly, “Do [you remember what we talked about] before that bear showed up?"

"You...mentioned how you had amnesia and how you can't remember anything but your name and some stuff about the school right?"

"Y-Yeah. At the time I didn't really think it was that big of a deal you know? I mean sure my memories missing is worrying but it wasn't the end of the world. But now..." she sighed.

"Now we have to worry about that bear freak! Plus this whole killing game he wants us to do is just so...so...UGH!"

Sunset slammed her hoof into the table in anger, which caused me to jump slightly in shock. I stared at her for a bit before I placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. She looked at me in surprise, but I just tried to give her my best smile.

"Don't worry Sunset. I know things seem bad now, but that just means we need to do our best to make things better.” She took in my words for a few seconds before chuckling and saying,

"You really are an optimist you know that?"

"It's...just one of my best traits...I guess,” I answered with a shrug. Sunset chuckled again, but I noticed that she still seemed pretty down. So thinking quickly I said,

"Hey, how about after the others get here and we find out what they know, you and me go look around ourselves to see if we can jog your memories?”

"I...I would really appreciate that Lucky," she with a smile.

"Sure, what are friends for?" Her eyes widened at that, but before I could ask why, she began to speak.

"You know what? Here you are cheering me up and I haven't done a thing for you yet."

“Umm, you did get me out of my room and bring me here though,” I pointed out.

“No, no, that’s not good enough,” she hoof waved. “I need to do something more…something…AHA! I know! To thank you for helping me out, I'm going to become your Ultimate Assistant!"

"Huh? My assistant?"

"Yep! I'm your assistant now!” she said with an easy grin. “I'm going to help you out as much as I can while we try to get out of here and find my memories!"

Sunsets words had so much enthusiasm in them that I couldn't help but get pumped up with her. Almost instantly we both put one of our hooves up in the air and shouted

"Yeah!" We stared at each other for a bit before we both giggled.

“So yeah, Ultimate Assistant Sunset Shimmer at your service.”

“Actually, I think you’ll need a different title there,” I said trollishly which made her confused.

“Huh? Why?”

“That dragon guy Spike already has that title.” Her ears pressed to the side of her head at that.

“Aww, really?” she groaned.

“Yeah…though I kind of feel sorry that he does,” I muttered, thinking back to how cruelly Twilight had acted towards him.

“Right…well I’ll still be your Ultimate….Whatever! Something Cool Sounding that I’ll Come Up With Later, and still help you out,” she giggled.

“Sounds good to me,” I said in thankfulness before looking around the room. “Well my Ultimate Whatever, how much longer do you think the others will be?”

Almost like he'd timed it, Flash threw open the dining hall doors right after I’d said that.

"Hey! Lucky! Sunset! So you two got here first, huh?" Flash sighed sadly before continuing, "Too bad... I was sure I'd beat everypony here. I guess that just means I don't have enough fighting spirit yet!" Suddenly Flash pointed at the two of us intensely before he practically yelled,

"Well I won't give up! Next time, I swear I'll win no matter what it takes! Justice shall always prevail!"

"That's a bit much, don't you think?" Sunset asked sardonically. Flash jerked at Sunset's comment before he chuckled nervously.

"Hehehe...maybe a little."

And soon after that everypony else came strolling in one after another. After a few minutes, everypony had gathered seemingly gathered. While most of my classmates choose to sit at the center table, Twilight instead sat at one of the corner tables near the entrance, despite Spike repeatedly trying to get her to come over. That was probably for the best seeing as how riled she made everypony, but besides that, a more pressing matter was on my mind...

How did I end up sitting next to Gilda again!?

The Female Griffon kept darting her eye at me every time I so much as twitched, and it was very disconcerting as she never said anything. Ignorant to my plight, Flash took one last look around the room. Once he was satisfied he slammed his hooves onto the table to get our attention.

"Okay! It looks like everypony's here. Time to start the meeting! Let's all go around and share what we found out during our respective investigations! The sooner we find out what's going on, the sooner we get out of here!"

It looked like he wanted to say more, but before he could Chrysalis interrupted him.

"Wait just a second Mr. Sentry."

"What's wrong!?" he said, glaring at her with a slightly annoyed look.

"What about the pink pony? Ms. Pie, I believe, is still not here yet."

"What!?" he declared as his eyes widened and he scanned the room once more. Sure enough she was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah wonder where she went. Has anypony seen her?" Applejack asked, but everypony shook their heads.

"W-Wait. Y-you mean no-*nopony's* seen her...?" Fluttershy stuttered.

Why hasn't Pinkie shown up yet? Could it be because...? My eyes widened in horror as I remembered Monokuma's words once more.

"Stabbing, strangling, bludgeoning, crushing, hacking, drowning, igniting, magical blasting, how you do it doesn't matter. You must kill somepony if you want to leave. It's as simple as that. The rest is up to you. Give it your all to achieve the best outcome in the worst way possible."

I felt my hooves shaking as my thoughts continued...

Th-There's no way that...No no I'm just overthinking things. Who would want to kill her? She was friendly to everyone right off the bat…

"Darn it!” Flash grunted in annoyance while Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “A tardy member on our very first meeting! Not only is she late, she didn't tell anypony she would be late! A most unbecoming personality trait!"

"You're being a real jackass right now, you know that?" Rainbow admonished the overreacting guard

"Well what do you want me to do!? Punctuality is everything in a situation like this!" he countered. He then put his face in his hooves, gave off a large sigh and stood back at attention "Now then, full attendance or not, I declare that the first session of the Hope's Peak Academy briefings has begun! Now, what have we learned?!”

Everypony just grumbled at Flash's enthusiasm, but not a word was spoken.

“Really? No volunteers? How unbecoming of-“

“Just go ahead and go first Sentry, for Goodness’s Sake,” Chrysalis ordered.

“Very well then.” With a quick cough to clear his throat Flash continued, "I spent some time looking around the dormitory, and there I made the discovery of the century! I found that there was exactly one room for each person!"

Everypony just stared at Flash with deadpanned looks before Applejack spoke up.

"Well yeah, we all figured that out before anything else when we carried Lucky to his-"

"Indeed!” he interrupted causing her to scowl “Each door already has a nameplate on it, so its best to assume that all the rooms have been assigned already. And each key was attached to a keychain with the owner's name precision-etched onto it as well."

Which confirms that the room I was in earlier is, in fact, my room.

"And Fluttershy and I found out that all the rooms are completely soundproof as well," Gilda added. Everypony turned to Fluttershy for her confirmation, to which she squeaked at the sudden attention.

"Y-yes. Your next-door neighbor co-could scream till they were hoarse, an-and you wouldn't hear a-a thing..."

Fluttershy started to sink into her chair as our attention was still on her, but before she could blink out of existence Rarity spoke up,

"Also, each room also had a private bathroom which could also be locked. A bit dull color wise sadly, but what can you do?"

“Yeah, because clearly dull colors are the issue,” Gilda sighed in irritation. "But yeah, they got a bunch of rooms ready for us. They're assuming we're gonna be here awhile..."

"Well, better to have than have not!” Flash said enthusiastically. “At least we don't have to worry about surviving like wild animals." After a few mumbles of agreement Flash said,

"Good. Not that's all for my report! Let's move on to whoever's next!" Seeing the floor open Twilight decided to speak up.

"I wanted to try and find some clue as to who's responsible for imprisoning us here. But unfortunately, I made no such discoveries. That's all from me..."

"Really? That's it?" Flash asked, looking a bit gob smacked at Twilight’s report, or rather, lack thereof.

"If I'd uncovered anything, naturally I would have had more to say. But I didn't. So I don't,” she huffed in annoyance causing the pegasus guard to flinch at the tone.

"R-Right, understood..." he stuttered.

"Well I suppose since Mr. Sentry is busy bumbling over his own words I shall give my report,” Chrysalis spoke up and all eyes turned to her. “Ms Fluttershy, Mr. Spike, Ms. Dash and I traveled all up and down the school, double-checking the windows in all the hallways and classes. We wanted to see if we could get any of those metal plates to come off. And what happened was-"

"Nothing! Not a damn thing! We couldn't get a single one to budge even a little bit!” Rainbow Dash interrupted.

"Y-Yeah.” Fluttershy nodded in agreement. “There wasn't any h-hope of escape anywhere, the school really has been totally cut off."

"Ugh...this sucks so much,” Spike said in dejection, lying his head upon the table. A few more sighs followed his, before Princess Cadence spoke up.

"I guess it’s our turn. Iron Will, Bulk, Gilda, and Myself thought maybe we could find some way to communicate with the outside, so we went looking all over the school. But we didn't find a thing. Sorry..." Rarity put a comforting hoof on the princesses shoulder to try and cheer her up, and as she did Iron Will decided to speak up.

"Iron Will went back to the main hall, thinking maybe we could do something about that giant hunk of metal barring our escape. But even with Bulk’s strength, Gilda’s raw animal ferocity, her Majesty’s Magnificent power and Iron Will’s words of encouragement, it wouldn't budge. If we're gonna get out of here, it's not gonna be through there."

The others nodded their heads at this before Gilda spoke up and said,

"After that bust we started looking around. We found some stairs leading to a 2nd floor in both the school and dorm areas. But the bucking things were blocked off by gates and there was no way of opening them."

Twilight hummed at this fact before asking,

"So what you’re saying is that we're basically confined to the 1st floor of the school and dorm? If that's the case we can further assume that there is potentially something above the 2nd floor as well, which means there could be a way to escape on the upper floors."

"Excellent Hypothesis!” Flash declared. “Now, Rarity, Discord, Applejack what have you to report?!"

"Well if I am being honest, I can't quite say we acted as one…” the fashionista chuckled nervously. “Rather, we did *nothing* as one. We spent the entire time in the gym. I'm not the type to go running around a school like junior detective after all."

Applejack rolled her eyes before saying,

"The only reason ah stayed back was to keep an eye on these two. Ah didn't want miss prim and proper to have another fainting spell, and Discord...well he's *Discord.*"

At the mention of his name Discord, who I was pretty sure was pretending to be asleep the whole time, 'woke up' and said,

"Huh!? Wha...oh that wasn't a dream? Well I guess that's what I get for doing nothing chaotic for so long. Too much boredom *cannot* be good for my health." He then punctuated this with a snap of his talon, and in a Flash of light, Rainbow Dash’s mane turned a shade of green.

“Hey?! What’s the big idea chump?!” the pegasus growled in his face while several of us chuckled. Even Twilight smiled in her cruel twisted way.

“Oh don’t get your tail in a knot skittles, I’m just making levity of the situation,” the god defended.

“Well change it back right now pal, or you’ll be sorry!” she threatened with fire in her eyes.

“Yes, please do. Green is such a horrendous color,” Rarity said in disgust, averting her eyes. A few of us took offense to that, with Chrysalis giving the fashionista the stink eye, while Spike held his head spins forlornly, and I covered my cutie mark with my tail.

“Wow, anger issues much?” Discord drolled as he snapped his claws and Rainbow’s mane was restored. Satisfied, the pegasus sat back down in a huff, while Discord sighed at his claws in melancholy.

“Just simple gags…this is going to drive me crazy,” he muttered to himself.

“You’ll get through it soldier! Just remain diligent!” Flash commanded and we all rolled our eyes. “Now! What other info have we gathered?” At the prompt, Sunset raised her hoof and began to speak.

“While you all were out, I explored this kitchen and dining hall. There’s all the basic amenities, ovens, sinks, refrigerators and the like, but the biggest thing I discovered was the stockpile of food.”

“Stockpile?” Applejack mused. “As in, canned goods and such?”

“Exactly. The pantry in the kitchen is filled to burst and then some with what looks like enough food to feed an army,” Sunset explained. As if to emphasize that statement, several growling stomachs sounded off.

“Well at least food won’t be an issue,” I said listing the one good thing we’d discovered.

“Says you,” Gilda snarled. “I bet it’s all just pony food isn’t it? Nothing but veggies and grain? What about us that eat meat too?”

“Iron Will Agrees! Herbivore food is sustainable, but how else can Iron Will keep his rock hard body without some meat?!” the minotaur punctuated with a flex.

“Well actually,” Sunset started.

“You could just drink a gallon of protein shake mix every morning like I do!” Bulk Biceps shouted.

“No can do roid master! Those nasty powders affect my acid reflux!”

“Guys!” Sunset interrupted the two powerhouses, causing them to look to her. “There actually is…omnivorous options in the pantry.”

Gilda and Iron will seemed pleased at this news, but nearly everyone else paled.

“Oh get over yourselves you wimps, it’s not like we’re gonna make you eat it,” Gilda harrumphed.

“Still, it is kind of unsettling,” Cadance gagged.

“Well then don’t watch us Princess,” Gilda snapped. “You’ve got a Griffon, Minotaur, Dragon, Draconequus and Changeling here. We don’t all follow your ways.”

“Actually, I prefer gems over anything,” Spike interjected.

“Pure unadulterated sugar for me,” Discord added.

“And none of your food truly gives me what I need,” Chrysalis muttered under her breath.

“Fine! More for me and the big guy then,” Gilda rolled her eyes. “Honestly, you ponies have got to get over your freaking-"

A voice cut through the noise, interrupting Gilda.

"Hey guys! Lookie what I found!"

We all looked over to the entrance to see Pinkie Pie grinning from ear to ear. While some of us were relieved she wasn't...that she was okay, others...

"Pinkie Pie! Where the heck have you been!? We already started the meeting without you!" Flash admonished, but the Pink Pony ignored his outrage and hopped over to our table and unfolded a large piece of paper onto it.

"Huh? What's this?” I asked as she unfolded it before me.

"It's a map of the school silly!" she announced.

Everypony's eyes went wide at that.

"Wh-What the? Where did you find this?" Flash spluttered.

"It doesn't matter where I found it silly! Besides the original plot never explained so I'm not gonna either!"

"Wha-What does that even mean!?" the guard asked as we all stared at her in confusion.

"Ah don’t worry about it. This map on the other hoof confirms one thing though,” she said with a sly smirk.” Looking at the map in front of me, I saw the layout, and the labels upon it, and I immediately understood.

"That this place *really* is Hope's Peak Academy?"

"In terms of construction at least. From the looks of things there were a number of strange...renovations done to it" Twilight's deduction was met with stares from the others before she rolled her eyes and said, "Obviously those gates at the stairwells weren't there before if this place was a school. From what I can see of the blueprints it only contains information about the 1st floor."

"B-But then...if this is the school then we weren’t kidnapped and brought somewhere else,” Fluttershy stuttered.

Gilda, probably enraged at the truth behind Fluttershy's words, grabbed her head in frustration as she growled out,

"So stupid it's not even possible. This is where the nation's future elite are supposed to come and learn?"

"But if this really is Hope's Peak, where are all the other students?" Rarity hummed in agreement.

Before anyone could give her an answer Spike began speaking.

"Hey, come on, guys. Let's just stop focusing on the...you know, negative stuff..." I couldn't help but send Spike a confused look at that.

"How can we not? Aren't you worried?”

"Worried? Nah,” he shrugged nonchalantly. “What's there to be worried about? If this is Hope’s Peak, then that means we’re exactly where we should be, which means that all of this is planned by the ones in charge of the school. They’ve given us food and rooms, so this whole thing with the bear is like a test or something.”

“A test for what?” I asked.

"I don’t know, character building or something? Either way, all we have to do is pass this test by obviously not killing each other and everything will turn out alright. Good things come to those who wait, right? So we just gotta chill and everything'll work itself out."

Everypony could only stare at Spike with stupefied looks at his comment, until...

"Ha ha ha!" Suddenly, Chrysalis began laughing in an almost gleeful like manner

"U-um why are you la-laughing Ms. Chrysalis? I-If you don't mind me asking of course..." Fluttershy asked, which quickly ended the Queen’s chuckles.

"I am just happy is all, plus this Drake’s comments are quite humorous, even if he is depressingly wrong.”

“Hey…” Spike whined at the insult.

“Your wrongness aside, It seems splitting up to investigate was a good idea after all with this information we’ve gained."

"Weren't you paying any attention?” Rainbow Dash growled in annoyance. “This whole thing was pointless! We still have no idea how to get out of this dump, and we still don't know who the bucker is that put us in here in the first place! We know absolutely *nothing* and your buggy brain is telling you it was a good idea!?"

"Huh? Is it not crystal clear to you what is going on?" Chrysalis responded in mock surprise, before leaning in with an intense look and monotone voice, "It is perfectly obvious. The drake is right on one account, those in charge of this school are to blame, but there is no waiting to be done. This school is our prison now, and there’s no way out.”

None of us had any response to that. We didn't want to accept that reality-but it was staring us right in the face.

"Now now Chrysie did you really have to go and say that? You've made poor Fluttershy shake like a leaf," Discord scolded. Sure enough, the yellow pegasus was indeed shaking profusely in her seat.

"N-No way out... We're t-trapped here. What are w-we supposed to d-do...?"

"That’s already been explained to us,” Twilight answered. “If you want to leave, you just have to kill-"

"Don't even joke about that lady!" Iron Will interrupted. “Iron Will doesn’t know if this is really just a test or not, but that is clearly not an option here!”

Seeing as things were getting out of hoof Sunset tried to intervene.

"Everypony just calm down, please! We need to stop and think about what to do from here."

"Y-Yeah. There's gotta be something we can do..." While she sounded confidant, Rainbow's face clearly showed just how panicked she was.

"All we can do is adapt. Adapt to living our lives here from now on," Chrysalis said with conviction. The others and myself sent the Queen varying looks of disbelief.

"Live here? Are you saying we should just accept this horrendous situation?” Rarity asked.

"What other alternative is there?” she countered, her face looking intense. “For a changeling, lack of adaptability is a lack of survivability. Survival is not based on who is the strongest or the smartest, It comes down to who can adapt the fastest.”

"But ah thought you changelings got that whole peace treaty? Doesn't that kinda negate the whole need to adapt?" Applejack countered, which earned a sneer from the Queen.

"While that so called 'peace' treaty has helped boost our species survival chances, all you ponies are keen of our presence even to this day, so our need to adapt to survive still stands." Chrysalis punctuated by giving a glare at Princess Cadance who returned it.

"But never mind that. Since I have the most experience when it comes to adapting, may I make a suggestion to ensure our survival?"

“Absolutely,” Flash answered. “If you have some method to ensure our-“

"We all can agree that we are trapped here which means we will be spending the night, and perhaps subsequent nights. However, you all remember the rule regarding nighttime, right?"

2.
"Nighttime" is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.

3.
Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.

"As regards to these rules go, I believe we should add one of our own."

"What do you mean?"

"Why Mr. Lucky it is simple. Going out at nighttime should be prohibited altogether. The school regulations don’t actually tell us to not go out at night. I would like to make it official."

"B-But why...?" Chrysalis merely sent Fluttershy a glance, causing the mare to 'eep', before continuing,

"The way things are now, every time night comes we will all start to get worried and anxious. We will all be afraid someone might try to come kill us." All our eyes widened at her words, causing her to smirk.

"If we worry about that night after night for who knows how long, it will wear us down in no time. Anxiety does not a good bed fellow make."

"I getcha,” Bulk nodded in agreement. “You wanna limit our time at night as a ‘just in case’ measure right?" Chrysalis nodded her head at this and was about to say something when Gilda said,

"Yeah so what? What's to stop one of us if we decided your new rule was lame and went out anyway?"

"Why my feathered friend I'm glad you asked,” the Changeling smirked. “For you see Mr. Sentry here shall patrol the halls at night to make sure we all stay in our dorms." Chrysalis sent a smug look towards Flash before continuing, "He is the Ultimate Guard after all. What better pony to make sure we all follow the rules but him?" Flash sent Chrysalis a confused look.

"I am? Ah, I mean I am! Trust in me to keep you all safe! But to ensure that everyone, including myself gets enough rest, I will draw up an evening patrol chart for us all to engage in. That way we know who is watching at every hour!" Everypony either rolled their eyes or chuckled at Flash's display.

"So I take it we are all in agreement?" Chrysalis asked the table. At our nodding heads (reluctant or otherwise) she said, "Good, then if you excuse me I shall take my leave. It is almost nighttime and I would like to take a shower before it arrives. So...goodbye."

Moving with pure elegance, Chrysalis left the dining hall, Her behavior seemed so natural, I couldn't imagine anypony even trying to stop her.

“Wow…she really takes charge huh?” I said aloud.

“She’s a newly crowned Queen. She thinks she can order anypony around, and take what she wants without argument, even if this isn’t her land…” Cadance said in bitterness.

“Yeah, well someone had to do it,” Sunset said, and several of us nodded.

“Better her than...somepony else,” Spike trailed off, looking at Twilight in the corner of his eye.

Soon after that, Flash called an end to the meeting and we all began to follow after Chrysalis’s example one by one.

“Since tonight is the first night I shall of course take the first watch until the rotation system has been drafted, but until then I’d better not catch anyone outside their rooms!” Flash barked as we all did our best to ignore his enthusiasm.

As I reentered my dorm room I couldn't help but look around and think,

Is this really where I'll be staying for the foreseeable future?

Deciding to save myself a headache I collapsed onto my bed. It came slowly, but eventually sleep took me on my first day.

...

The first day of my life in the school of despair.

Chapter 01:

To Survive

(Daily Life) Part 1 END

Author's Note:

Upupupupu, my my how long has it been since the author posted a chapter?

Why, two years! He must have put a lot of time and effort into this chapter if he took this long to make it. So you better all respect his creative decision to take this long to make it!

Oh, but the despair he would feel if his work was mocked, and if you all complained about the time wait would be...absolutely delicious.

Upupupup...I have a gloriously despairing idea! Why don't all you nosey meddlers, sitting at home in your comfortable chairs watching this joyful killing game, comment on how long the wait was.

Truly that will push the author into total despair, and then I'll get more screen time! Bwahahahaha!

But such a boring note to end this chapter on! Where's the blood!? Where's the gore!? I want my death and despair!

If I have to wait another two years for the author to write more screen time for me I'll-!

Upupupu, oh so that's what's happening next chapter? And he'll work on it as soon as possible? Why isn't that just perfect!

I just heard the most despair inducing news! But I won't tell you~

Who will live? Who will die? Who will succumb to despair and become the blackened!? Or will they cling to their worthless hope and survive?

I KNOW THE ANSWERS! AND YOU'LL ALL FIND OUT NEXT TIME! TILL THEN!

UPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUP!

Comments

[Pogmin]

Interesting... I'm genuinely curious who its going to be, mainly due to the changes.

BIG SPOILS, DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME

Sunset is... weird. I'm not certain whether or not she's a Maizono expy, or Kirigiri, mainly due to the backstory change completely destroying the original motive. Sunset would most likely given a motive much more similar to Kirigiri's, and she really doesn't have anyone that close to her in Equestria, so Maizono's motive is out. Only way it works that I can see is if the motive just gives her her memories back, which... I won't lie feels like it'd be a copout. The only other one here that would be on par with Kirigiri in terms of intelligence is Twilight, but she's obviously a Byakuya expy. Will you... combine the two like you did with Shimmer? That would be pretty interesting if so. The only other two I can see filling the roll are Rarity(maybe, I'm fairly certain she's Celeste, mainly due to her eventual control over Spike) I know who she's an expy of already)or... Chrysalis. The little interaction we've had suggests she's... someone else to me though.

[Dream Seeker]

The best move for Chrysalis would be to take out Sentry tonight with a hard blow to the head. It would be trivially easy for her, she would have no reason to be suspected (after her whole ‘let’s get used to living here rant), and a blow to the head would make the males suspect rather than the females (who were given sewing kits instead of blunt force trauma weapons). She could even pretend to be him for the rest of the night, and make it look like he went missing at another time, perhaps at a time when somebody else would be suspected even more.