04. Chapter One: "Lost Memories in the Desert Sands" Part 2
Chapter One:
“Lost Memories in the Desert Sands”
Part II
Sunset and I didn’t get to hold each other for very long before a familiar tone rang through the complex, making Sunset shudder.
DING-DONG BING-BONG
Monohuman’s grinning face popped up on every monitor in the area. “Attention! Attention! This is your Caretaker Monohuman. Please report to the stage in the central plaza immediately! I have a wonderful announcement for you all. Attendance is mandatory.”
“Oh god,” Sunset moaned as the screens winked off. “I think I know what this is. Here we go again…”
“What, what is it?” I asked as Cranky left the breakroom, pushing his way past us. Out the corner of my eye I saw Pear Butter exiting her office, giving me a nasty look as she walked past us, guitar in her hands still.
“...you’ll see soon enough,” Sunset said, her words dripping with bitterness. “Just don’t take anything he says seriously, okay? Just… don’t.”
“Wasn’t planning on it,” I snarked as we made our way towards the plaza.
As we approached and everyone crowded in, Sunset brought out her pad, tapping a couple of keys. “What’re you doing?” I asked her.
“Getting ready to record this,” Sunset said. She held up the pad. “Turns out these things can record and play audio, so I’ve been using it to make notes. Keeping track of things… trust me, it’s important. Every little thing matters.”
Curious now, I pulled out my own pad. I’d more or less ignored the thing after first reading the rules, since I wanted nothing to do with it, but a proper examination showed she was right. It also had a section for typing in notes, and even an app for drawing things with an accompanying stylus I hadn’t realized was built into it.
And now that I knew I could take notes, I decided to start doing just that. Record observations, keep track of things people said to me… maybe I could use those to help figure out some of my lost memories.
If I wanted to figure any of them out. Given how easily I took to paranoia and caution… just what in the hell was I forgetting?
Zephyr Breeze was the last to arrive, strutting up and tossing finger signs at various people. “Hey hey, everybody, the Breeze is here, so don’t you sweat.”
“Oooh, lovely, a waste of space has arrived,” Sour Sweet snapped.
“Aww, come on, no need to be so harsh on him,” Cheese said, clapping a hand to Zephyr’s shoulder. “He’s just being friendly.”
“Too friendly…”
Monohuman’s hologram swirling into existence silenced the crowd. “Now now, my dears, no need to bicker about minor inanities,” he said as he swirled his baton around, pointing briefly at Zephyr and Sour Sweet before setting it back down and leaning on it. “Not when we have something much more fun to discuss. Actually, two things. First is really quite simple.”
He snapped his fingers and everyone’s pads bleeped. Since mine already had the screen on, I saw a notification pop up about a new survey. Checking it showed it was a series of simple questions, basic ones about what people thought about their first couple of days, how they were getting along, enjoying accommodations, etc etc. Nothing important.
And apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought that, judging by all the groans from the crowd. “Seriously?” Juniper Montage said. “Is this what you brought us here to waste our time on?”
“Not at all,” Monohuman said with a dismissive wave. “But don’t forget to answer the survey by the end of the day--that’s 10:00 PM for those unaware. Speaking of unaware, does anyone here not know about the new pantry rules? Ignorance of the rules is no excuse…” He held up a hand to his mouth. “Puhuhu, I would so love an excuse to execute one of you for breaking the rules.”
Fortunately it seemed everyone was aware of the rules, as no one bothered to speak up.
“Ah, a shame,” Monohuman said, seeming to deflate. “And I was looking forward to it too… oh well. Time to move on to the real reason I brought us together… and this one, you should find very exciting, oh yes.”
I saw Sunset tense, and found myself tensing as well, so much so my lower back hurt.
“What, what is it?” Autumn Blaze asked.
“Why, nothing other than our very first motive, of course!”
Sunset cursed under her breath. “Yep, I called it,” she muttered.
“Motive?” Zephyr spoke up. “I don’t get it. What motive?”
Everyone else looked at him as if he was a complete moron. “He’s obviously talking about a motive for murder,” Shining said with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I expected him to do something like this. It’s not enough to give us all these rules… he has to drive us towards it.”
“Of course he does,” Cranky grumbled. “This guy must love bloodshed.”
“That you are most certainly correct about, Mr. Doodle,” Monohuman said, nodding to Cranky. “What is life without death? And what fun is there in a lack of violence, in peace?” He spat the last word like it was a piece of filth. “So, before I can go into the details of how this first motive works, I must let you in on a little secret.”
He waved for us all to come closer, and without thinking about it, most of us leaned in a little to hear him better. “This is not the first killing game! This is, in fact, the second that has been held.”
Everyone stared at him, some in shock, others in mute bemusement, and a few, like Sunset and myself, in a manner asking ‘So what?’
“Then Sunset wasn’t just making up a bunch of crap to act out?” Juniper asked. “She was being serious?”
“Of course I was being serious, Juniper,” Sunset snapped. “I’ve been through this before. I’ve seen people kill. I’ve seen trials, executions, more dead bodies than you’ve ever seen in your life! And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it happen again!”
Monohuman let out a massive sigh. “Oh please, Sunset, we just went through this yesterday during the rules announcements. Please don’t waste our time with a repeat performance. We all know you’re just as helpless now as you were then.” He looked right at her. “Puhuhu, there’s nothing you can do. People will kill… maybe they’ll kill you. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Then I’d no longer have to deal with your pointless heroics.”
“Please,” Sunset retorted. “If there’s one thing I am, it’s a survivor. You even said it yourself yesterday. Even if… god forbid, even if the killings start again, I’ll figure out who did it. I’ll stop them, just like I did before.”
“Oh yes, I’m sure you’d love to do that, wouldn’t you?” Monohuman grinned toothily. “You sure seemed to enjoy sending people off to their executions last time, wouldn’t you say?”
Sunset took a step back, her jaw falling open. “N-no! I didn’t mean it like that! I hated doing that… it was one of the worst feelings of my life.”
“Then why bother declaring you’ll investigate every crime, hmm?” he asked her, pointing his baton at her. “You know, I do believe you’re placing a target on your back. Everyone is hearing what she says, yes?” He set his baton down and scratched his chin. “Then again, if someone properly eliminates a pony, which is the whole point of this exercise, there won’t be a need to investigate. The only true need will be if someone kills a human.”
He slapped one end of the baton on his palm. “Very well then. In that case, investigate away, Sunset Shimmer, to your heart’s content. Make it clear to anyone who kills how much you’ll work to stop them from getting away with it. I’m sure that places you under no chance of threat whatsoever.”
Sunset crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ll deal. I always do.”
Monohuman shrugged in an exaggerated fashion. “As you wish. Now, with that pointless digression out of the way, allow me to announce the motive! Specifically, the motive is this: an extra-special prize awaits you if you can recreate the first murder from the first killing game!”
“...oh god no…” Sunset whispered.
“Yes, that’s right. All the materials you need are located in accessible areas, and if you can manage it, an amazing, one-of-a-kind prize will be yours. What is that, you ask? Why of course I won’t tell you. You’ll have to find out. Careful though: if your victim turns out to be human, you’ll still need to beat the trial if you want to escape. Of course… don’t expect me to be on your side if you do that. You’re here to eliminate the enemy, not murder humans.”
He shrugged. “Though really, I do expect to lose a few of you in the process. You outnumber the enemy, after all, so someone’s bound to make a mistake.”
“Question, Mr. Monohuman, sir,” Derpy said, raising her hand.
“How polite! By all means, go ahead.”
Derpy withered under the glares of the others as she spoke up, “W-well, it’s just…how’re we supposed to recreate the first murder if we don’t know the details?”
“Ah, the details. Very important, yes. So much so, I have crafted a few sets of instructions and hidden them about the place. You’ll have to look very closely to find them! Of course, you don’t have to reenact the first game’s first murder in order to kill someone, but you’ll be missing out if you don’t.”
“Oh… that’s… good to know.” Derpy withdrew into herself as she paled considerably. She glanced around and then grabbed Big Macintosh’s arm as he was closest.
“Now, there’s no time limit for this murder–even though the real one occurred within the first couple of days–so feel free to relax, enjoy your scavenger hunt looking for the clues, and put together the crime. I’m eager to see if any of you can do it.” He tapped his baton once on his podium. “Ta ta now!”
As his hologram disappeared in a flash of colors and light, Sunset grabbed my arm while muttering apologies and dragged me as far away from the crowd as possible. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, brushing me off afterwards. “But I needed to speak to you privately.”
Grimacing and rubbing my arm where she’d yanked it a little too hard, I replied, “Why?”
Her pained face told me more than mere words could. “I… shouldn’t say. Look, just trust me, okay? We need to stick together right now. I want to keep you safe.”
“...alright.” It was true, I could use a bit of a safety net. And if Sunset Shimmer really had been through something like this before, and survived where presumably a lot of people died, then she knew her stuff.
She and I wandered, chatting for a bit about possible ways we could help keep people safe, with Sunset giving as much help as she could despite being unable to disclose information about the past game. “I really wish I could,” she said, “but revealing information to others has been used against us before. If I tell you about something in the past game–”
I raised two fingers to stop her. “I get it. So you said guards didn’t work, right?”
As we kept walking, our route took us past the dorms. Out of one of the upper story windows, we could hear Pear Butter’s guitar playing again, something somber this time, almost mournful. The strength of emotions conveyed by it almost had me crying, and from the looks of it, the same was true of Sunset. “She’s so good with her guitar,” Sunset murmured.
“...yeah…”
Shaking her head, Sunset looked back at me and replied, “Yeah, guards didn’t work.” Then she frowned. “Well, not exactly. It’s… complicated. It both did and didn’t…the way it did doesn’t make up for how it didn’t, I don’t think.”
I stared at her quizzically. “What?”
“Nevermind, it doesn’t matter. Point is, guards won’t work, but maybe…” She glanced at the two of us, then at a couple of other pairs of people walking around, like Cheese Sandwich and Zephyr, or Juniper and Vignette. “Maybe sticking to pairs?”
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” I said, nodding in understanding. “So then that way we’re safer, we… know who it likely was that killed someone, and if one of us is the mastermind of this whole thing then we might even learn some clues about that.”
Her head snapped to look at me, her eyes narrowed. One of her fists began to curl. “...what did you just say?”
That was a good question. Where had that idea come from? I scratched my head. “Uh, well, I uh… I figure someone’s gotta be behind all this, right? And since the only ones who’re supposed to be here are the sixteen of us, that means one of us is the one that’s done this, right?”
Her hand immediately uncurled, the look in her eyes fading as she nodded in understanding. “Oh, right… that didn’t occur to me. Good thinking, Wallflower.” She grinned and patted me on the shoulder. “We’ll have to bring it up with everyone at the next meeting.”
Which, I realized after glancing at my pad, wasn’t long from now. “It’s about lunch time anyway. We should get over there and make something.”
“Right…just have to remember the pantry rules,” Sunset muttered to herself. “I don’t get that rule… why does it matter if we use up an entire package? It’s like a restaurant kitchen–not everything gets used up right away.”
“Maybe it’s to force us to make larger meals, to make it more likely someone gets poisoned?” I suggested. “Or at least force us to spend more time around each other.”
“Probably the latter,” Sunset said, sighing. “Trying to stay away from everyone… doesn’t work.” She glanced at me and for the briefest of moments, I saw… tears? But then she looked away and they were gone, so maybe I was imagining it.
When we entered the kitchen, we found we weren’t the only ones working in there, so we ended up pooling together with Juniper, Vignette, Cheese, and Zephyr to make a whole bunch of sandwiches; Zephyr tossed anything not fully used up in a baggie to take to his room, muttering something about always having to midnight snack to maintain his beauty sleep. A pot of Prench onion soup was also slapped together to accompany the sandwiches.
We brought the platter and pot out to the group table, to the appreciation of many, especially Shining Armor, who after briefly checking over the sandwiches, nodded in approval. “Good variety, good choices.” He glanced around. “No one here’s allergic to onions, right?”
A chorus of noes answered him. “Good. Well, let’s sit down and eat, everyone.”
“Hah!” a voice protested from across the room. Trixie stood in the doorway, fuming. “Clearly none of you know how stupid you’re being! But Trixie is great and brilliant, so she doesn’t trust this meal!” She stomped to a table and sat down at it, alone, glaring at us with suspicion and contempt. “She brought her own food!”
Sure enough, she brought out a plastic bag with slices of bread and personal-size little cups of peanut butter and jelly and promptly made her own sandwich. It looked frankly pathetic next to what we made for everyone. She took a bite, smug and triumphant.
“Are you seriously trying to isolate yourself from everybody while also simultaneously trying to call as much attention to yourself as possible?” Juniper called over.
“Trixie contains multitudes!!”
“Oh, just ignore her,” Cranky grunted. “It’s her business if she wants to be paranoid.” That made decent enough sense to me.
“So, Pear Butter,” Sour Sweet said, a rare soft smile on her face. “You’ve been playing your guitar a lot lately. It’s really beautiful.”
Pear Butter chuckled bashfully. “Y’all can hear me when I’m playin’ in my office? Goodness, thought closing the door would block it out. Ah hope Ah’m not buggin’ anyone.”
Cranky opened his mouth to speak, but Derpy beat him to it. “Oh no, it’s so beautiful!” Cranky grumbled and rolled his eyes but thankfully decided not to comment after all. “The sound goes into the mess hall when the door’s open,” Derpy continued, oblivious. “I could even hear you out in the courtyard, when you were playing that song earlier. It was so sad, it made me want to cry.”
Zephyr burst into tears, slapping his hands to his face. “Oh it made me cry, alright. Cry for my mommy…Mommmyyyyyy! Come save me mommy… I don’t wanna die!”
Cranky sighed. “Lord, save me from these idiots…”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes and patted her brother’s shoulder. “...there there, Zephyr.”
Zephyr immediately perked up and gave her an overly enthusiastic hug. “Oh thank you thank you, Flutter Butter, you always know how to cheer me up.”
“Anyway,” Juniper continued after glaring at Zephyr, “I was wondering where you learned to play.”
“And for that matter, how’d you end up keeping your guitar?” Rarity asked politely. “I brought my keytar with me but it went missing yesterday.”
Pear shrugged. “Can’t rightly say, but Ah can tell you Ah’ve been playin’ mah whole life, off and on.” She smiled softly. “Ah even won over mah husband with this here guitar. Played him a catchy song and ended up tellin’ him Ah loved him for the first time.”
“Awww…” Rarity, Fluttershy, and Sour Sweet all said with matching expressions. “That’s so adorable!” Sour added, though her face fell as she muttered, “But I bet you miss him right now.”
“...Ah do. More than you know, Miss Sweet,” Pear Butter said, her expression dimming. “He passed away years ago, savin’ mah life. Sometimes Ah wonder what things might’ve been like for our kids if Ah’d died with him… Ah almost died as it was.”
“... I heard about that incident,” Cranky said, giving her a frown. “My condolences…I always thought it was a shame. Bright Mac was a good kid.”
I glanced at Big Macintosh, who’d drawn his left fist by his side, his right clenching his sandwich hard enough to spill contents out the sides of the bread. “...eyup,” he muttered, sniffling.
Pear Butter sighed a little and smiled at everyone. “‘S’alright. Was years ago now. Ah miss him, sure, but it ain’t like Ah can’t talk about him. ‘Sides, Ah’d rather remember the good things and be happy.” Somewhat suddenly, she cringed slightly. “Gosh, Ah’m still a little embarrassed y’all heard me playing so often. I’ll try to have my noise machine on when I want to play. Ah’d lose a big piece of mahself to not be able to make music.”
“I used to think that too,” Sunset sighed. “But…” She glanced at her arm again and fell silent, then lamely added, “I guess I got used to not playing.”
Pear Butter raised her eyebrow in skeptical suspicion. “Huh. Funny, ‘cause you’re the one who wanted everyone to try to play together.”
Sunset gaped at her, baffled. “I did?”
‘Ohhh,” Cheese spoke up. “That’s why you asked me what instruments I could play!”
“Had to know what to put into the music shed,” Pear Butter confirmed. “You thought it’d be symbolic if ponies and humans made music together. You still wanna do that?”
“No!” Sunset exclaimed. “No. No shows, no events. They’re dangerous.” She rubbed the back of her neck nervously and glanced at the floor. “But everyone should get their instrument if playing alone would make them happy. I remember how it felt to jam on my own.”
Pear Butter just nodded. “Ah think so too.”
Mutterings of interest rose from the crowd. “We’ll head down to the shed as a group after the meal,” Shining Armor said.
“We should speak up now, while everyone’s in a good mood,” Sunset said, elbowing me.
“...right.” Sighing, I raised my hand. “Everyone, we have a suggestion.”
The conversations fell away immediately, all eyes on me. I squeezed my eyes shut momentarily, taking several shuddering breaths and using every anti-anxiety method I could think of to keep from shutting down and fleeing, then opened my eyes again. “Sunset and I were thinking about how to stay safer, and we decided it might be best if everyone went around in pairs at all times, with no one alone.”
“That’s right,” Sunset picked up to my everlasting relief. “The idea behind it is it would make it less likely anyone would try to hurt anyone else, because we’d have a far better idea who would’ve done it, and, err…” She looked back at me.
“If it turns out that the person behind this whole game is one of us, we’ll have a much better chance of figuring out who they are,” I finished.
A number of faces tightened at that statement, especially Pear Butter, whose lips thinned so much they practically disappeared.
Vignette held up her fingers to make air quotes “You really think it’s that simple? Just pair us up and ‘whoever’ is behind this will be stupid enough to show themselves?”
“Even the smartest of criminals eventually make mistakes,” Shining retorted, crossing his arms. “I think it’s a great idea.”
Autumn Blaze opened her mouth and everyone, myself included, braced for the coming storm. “Oooh yeah, and then that way we can totally get to make new friends this way! Cause okay, I know, I know, we’re not supposed to really be asking much of each other so no one figures out who might be Equestrian because that’d be such a good way to get yourself killed and that’d be such a bummer I know I wouldn’t want to die just because someone thought I was Equestrian so really sticking together in pairs is great because then we’re never alone and no one wants to be alone being alone sucks it’s the worst.”
Cheese laughed and clapped Autumn on the shoulder. “Girl’s got a good head on her shoulders. I’m with her. Besides, I already know who I’d be sticking with.” He pointed a pair of finger guns at Zephyr.
“Haha, you better believe it, Cheesy!” Zephyr said, pointing right back. “Cheesy and Breezy ain’t never gonna be broken apart!”
“I think it’s a good idea too,” Derpy said as she scooted her chair closer to Big Macintosh, which did not go unnoticed by the huge man, judging by the flush that came to his cheeks. “I’d feel safer that way.”
“Oh my, yes,” Fluttershy agreed. “It’s a splendid idea. I can start helping draw up schedules if people want to rotate–”
“Hold it up there, little missy, not everyone agreed to this,” Cranky said with a disdainful snort. “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly the pairing-up type.”
“Yeah it sounds like such a great idea!” Sour Sweet chirped, her face plunging into anger. “Until your partner kills you! It’s stupid. We’re better off grouping up however we want.”
Trixie slammed a fist on the table. “Trixie does not trust a single soul among you and this will not compel her to stop being by herself!”
“Ah agree with them. Ah think it’s a stupid idea.”
Everyone stared in shock as Pear Butter made her declaration. “Wait, what?” Shining demanded. “What the hell, Pear? I thought we were on the same page on things.”
“Not on this one, Shining, Ah’m sorry.” She scowled at everyone till her eyes focused on me, her lip curling up in the most hateful sneer, completely ruining the beauty of her face. “Ah find this idea mighty suspicious, in fact. Feels like somethin’ that stinks. Like that guard duty Sunset warned us about. How do we know this won’t just result in someone gettin’ to know someone else so well they end up realizin’ who they are and murderin’ them and gettin’ away with it? Huh? Or how do we even know there is someone behind this that’s playin’ with us? Ah refuse to believe someone capable of runnin’ a show like this would be stupid enough to subject themselves to the same risk they’re puttin’ us through.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Shining said, glowering at Pear with a look so disdainful it gave the impression he was about to clap her in handcuffs and haul her away. “That is the biggest crock of shit, Pear Butter, and you know it. We already agreed not to get to know each other. Sticking to pairs won’t change that. But it could potentially save lives.”
“Only if everyone obeys the rule. And Trixie already said she would not!” Trixie intervened.
“It’ll still protect the ones who do obey it,” Derpy said, scooting even closer to Big Macintosh.
“Not against a murder trial, it wouldn’t,” Sour Sweet said. “Not if there’s too many refusing.”
Rarity crossed her arms. “Well how could you possibly know–”
“How many won’t follow it?” Cranky said, groaning. “Listen, kid, have you been paying attention? At least four of us have said we won’t. I’m sure not. I have my cave, I’m sticking to it.”
“And Ah sure as shootin’ won’t be followin’ it,” Pear concluded. “And that means even if everyone else did you’d still have a minimum of five murder suspects. Assumin’, of course, that it weren’t someone else that did somethin’ behind someone else’s back when they looked away for a few minutes. We ain’t always gonna have eyes on each other. Bathroom breaks, sleepin’, eatin’, any number of things’ll distract people.”
“Oh horseshit,” Shining snapped. “All of that is complete horseshit. I--”
“Funny, you sayin’ horseshit insteada bullshit like most folks,” Pear interrupted, a brief mirthless grin on her face. “Is it ‘cause they say it like horseshit in Equestria?”
Shining recoiled, visibly shaking with rage. “Excuse you?” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “What the fuck are you saying?”
“Well, ain’t the Equestrians horses?”
Shining’s face twisted up further, a vein visibly pulsing on his forehead. “No, they’re ponies. Huge difference.”
“Pretty sure a pony is a type of horse…” Cranky grumbled.
“Um, and Twilight said there’s other animals, too,” Fluttershy very hesitantly piped up. “Dragons and talking cat-people and yaks and lots more.” She shuffled her feet. “I asked her a lot of questions about the talking cat-people.”
“This is not the point and you all know it!” Shining snapped. He whirled back to Pear Butter. “What the hell are you doing? There’s nothing more dangerous than throwing around accusations and who’s from Equestria and who isn’t! Why are you acting like this?”
Pear Butter huffed and stood up from the table. “Ah’m makin’ a point, Shining Armor. And that point is, y’all can’t be trusted to do the job you’re pretendin’ you can be, if all I have to do to upset you is stick you a few times with a few well placed words. Imagine if we were somewhere way up high, like a catwalk or somethin’, and you tried attackin’ me ‘cause I provoked you. All I’d have to do is step out of the way then push you over.”
Everyone went quiet at that, a cold, dark feeling settling over the crowd. Shining stood up as well. He stopped shaking, and when he spoke, his words came out in a frozen monotone that made me cling to Sunset just for a modicum of warmth. “Are you threatening me, Pear Butter?”
Pear rolled her eyes so hard I almost thought they’d pop out of their sockets. “If that’s what you’re takin’ away from all this, Shinin’, you’re an even bigger fool than Ah thought you were.” She pivoted on her heel and left the room, heading for her office.
No one remained at the table for long after that, save for those responsible for clean-up for this meal. I sat there awkwardly for a moment, but then I heard a faint sound coming from the direction of the admin wing. Pear Butter was playing her guitar again. Gritting my teeth, I decided to just go to my room.
Halfway down the dormitory hallway, a voice called out from behind me.
“Wallf–OOF!!”
I spun around to see Derpy lying face-down on the floor. She groggily pushed herself up to her knees, then gave me a grinning thumbs up. “I’m okay!”
I approached her cautiously, but when she reached up it was pretty automatic to just take her hand and pull her up to her feet. She tittered, blushing slightly. “Thanks! Hey, so even though everyone’s mad and stuff, I still wanted to go to the music shed and get my instrument. And I wanted to see if you wanted to come with me! Do you play anything?”
“Um, yeah. The guitar, a little.” It was embarrassing even saying that. “I’m not very good.” There was a weird pause before I remembered she had asked me something else. “Oh. Yeah. I guess, let’s go.”
Beaming, she led me to the music shed, on the opposite side of the succulent garden from the dorms. It seems that at least one other person had the same idea we did, as we met Juniper exiting the shed, a synthesizer tucked under her arm. Derpy waved and Juniper, after an awkward glance around, waved back.
“Oh wow,” Derpy greeted, “nice synth! How long have you been playing?”
“I don’t really play,” Juniper answered, somehow both awkward and haughty. “I mostly just use it to compose. Film scores.”
“That’s pretty cool,” I said, surprising myself by meaning it.
She shrugged. “I try to practice every aspect of filmmaking. I used to only want to be an actor, but the craft and artistry are amazing, and I can’t bear to limit myself. Every job is important. No one wants to grip, but the difference between a grip who cares and one who’s slacking off is just…” She caught herself, then chuckled. “Uh, sorry. I’ve been trying not to annoy everyone talking about movies, but it’s hard.”
“No, it’s really interesting!” Derpy assured her. “Let’s talk later. I wanna hear about gripping!”
Juniper nodded. “Well, I bet you don’t, actually, but I appreciate it. I’ll think of something more interesting.” She waved and headed on her way.
Derpy smiled after her and went into the shed. I followed, marveling. She wasn’t charismatic like Sunset or Fluttershy, but it was still so easy to like her just from pure, cheerful friendliness.
I got a little nervous. That was a dangerous skill in a killing game, wasn’t it?
“Found it!” Derpy announced. She was off next to the wall, holding a music bow in one and and a… something in the other hand. It looked like a handsaw.
“Is that…”
“It’s a singing saw!” Derpy declared happily.
I noticed there was a cable attached to the saw. Unable to speak, I pointed.
“It’s electric,” she confirmed. Giggling, she pointed to another wall.
There was a sign there with a list of instruments and names.
- Guitar: Sunset Shimmer, Pear Butter, Trixie, Bic Mac, Wallflower Blush
- Synthesizer: Rarity, Juniper Montage, Cheese Sandwich
- Accordion: Cheese Sandwich
- Electric saw: Derpy
- Violin: Shining Armor
- Tambourine: Fluttershy
- Turntables: Cranky Doodle
“Electric saw,” I read aloud. “...Sorry, I was just surprised.”
“Wait until you hear me play!” she boasted just a little facetiously, and again her natural likeability shone. “C’mon, let’s find you a guitar.”
We searched, but I kept one eye on her at all times. She was just being really nice, and it was kind of weird, and I didn’t want to be stupid.
The search was a loss anyway. There were no acoustic guitars; there wasn’t even a place for them to be stored. We did find three electric guitars, but I certainly had never played anything like that. “Shucks!” Derpy grunted. “I’ve seen Sunset playing an acoustic guitar, but I guess being in a band with Rainbow Dash’ means she mostly thinks about electric. Oh well, maybe you can borrow Pear Butter’s?”
I looked at her in sharp surprise, and she wilted slightly. “Or not.”
“It’s fine. Like I said, I’m not any good anyway.” I headed out the door and she followed; I made sure she never got too close. We turned off the lights, stepped outside, and closed the door. Then we stood there.
“Uh. I guess I’ll get some sawtime in,” she said. “Haven’t practiced in a while!”
I nodded, but she still didn’t move. Instead, she blushed. “Wallflower, do you, um, remember me?”
I gawked at her. “...no?”
“Oh. It’s just, we’re kinda friends. Or we used to be. I wasn’t really sure myself.”
I frowned. This could be the innocent explanation for her niceness, but I couldn’t get the doubts out of my head. This could also be a lie to make me let my guard down. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember. Everything’s gone after high school, so I just remember Sunset, Rarity, and Fluttershy. If we met in the past few years, it’s blank.”
“No, we…” She caught herself, then fell silent. Finally, she said, “It’s fine! I just wanted to ask. Thanks!” She turned and quickly began walking away. “Gonna practice, bye!”
I watched her go and felt weird. Had I hurt her feelings somehow? Was she faking it? I felt like a jerk for not trusting her and for forgetting her, even though none of that was my fault. It made me want to sulk.
I knew I wouldn’t feel like showing up for dinner that evening after the big blow-up fight earlier anyway, so I headed to the kitchen and snuck a couple of sandwiches and a container of soup back to my room, and ate there. Still, I could only spend so long stuck in a nice room without having access to some kind of actual television or the internet, so I found myself getting up around eight or so to go for a walk.
I kept to the well-lit paths, fully aware I was fighting a deep, ingrained instinct. I really didn’t like thinking of shadows as unsafe. When I saw Rarity and Vignette walking towards me on the same path, I forcefully tried to feel relieved they were out in the open instead of skulking around and being suspicious.
It didn’t work. I was mostly struck with a vague panic that I didn’t know how or when to acknowledge them. I shifted my path to keep from plowing into them and fretted whether it was worse to wave too soon or too late.
“...well, you know how she is,” Rarity was saying. “Everything has to be completely practical. Do you remember when you called her stetson an ‘accessory?’ She has to pretend she has no fashion sense just to keep up her image…”
I was glowering before I knew it. They were just openly talking about their shared past, even though that was against the rules. (And they were talking about stuff I didn’t know or care about, which made the imminent interaction even more nerve wracking.) Still, as we neared one another, I looked up and tried to make eye contact and do something approaching a smile.
“...but once she starts giving actual feedback, it’s invaluable. Why just this winter, I asked her…” And they just kept walking, right past me. As if I wasn’t even there.
I stopped in place, staring back at them. I was offended and relieved in completely equal measure. They didn’t even notice me. Rarity kept talking, cheerfully and nervously.
They didn’t. Even. Notice me.
Just as I was getting over my shock about that, and just before they turned a corner, something else happened. Rarity was looking up, admiring the sky. Vignette glanced back, directly into my eyes, and smirked. Then they were gone.
I stood there for a minute or so, just dealing with my bafflement. Being ignored was awful, so it was wonderful she noticed me. Being ignored was safe, so it was terrifying she noticed me.
While I was still addled, the universe decided it still wasn’t done with me. A voice called out from behind me, “Hey, pick a card.”
I stiffly turned around. Cheese Sandwich stood a meter or so away, holding out a deck of cards. I wanted to ask him how he snuck up on me so quietly, but I realized that would sound paranoid so instead I didn’t say anything.
Cheese grinned awkwardly. “Pick a card,” he repeated, even more awkwardly.
I reached out and took a card. It was the four of diamonds. I handed the card back and he shuffled it into the deck. “So!” he declared. “Hey, so Shining Armor asked me to talk to you. Or, well, actually he asked Zephyr, but Zephyr was going to be too busy planning things, so he asked me.”
“Talk to me?” I asked.
“Yeah! Because of your memory loss, see if there’s stuff you need help with. I was supposed to talk to you and Trixie, but whoa, talking with her did not go well. She…” He paused, glancing at the cards with obviously feigned confusion, then he nodded as if suddenly realizing something. “Ohhhhh. I can’t find your card, because….. It’s in your left sleeve!!”
I gazed at him, nonplussed, then rolled up my left sleeve. There was obviously no four of diamonds in there.
“Oh, well, shucks,” Cheese groused. “I thought for sure that would work.”
I rolled my sleeve back down, giving him a side-eye. “Trixie does magic, right?” I asked. “Did she teach you that trick?”
“No, no, mostly she just told me she didn’t trust me. Many times. Then she yelled. Um.” Cheese frowned, then grinned again. “But! I thought hey, maybe I can do magic too! But I guess I can’t.” He shrugged, tossing the cards onto the ground. “So how’s the memory loss?”
“Pretty annoying,” I replied truthfully. He leaned forward as if inviting me to speak more. Grudgingly, I kept going. “I’m mostly just confused about why I even came here. Wherever this is.”
“Oh, well, this is an old, abandoned town!” Cheese said. “In the desert! And… that’s all I know about it. I think they might have bought it to use for this test, but that’s just the rumor.”
“They bought an abandoned town?” I asked.
Cheese could only shrug. “Wanted it to be really remote, I guess. It took a couple of hours to get here in those pod things.” Before I could even think of asking about the pod things, he continued. “And I dunno why you agreed to come! I just know why I did. And it’s… to meet you!”
I took a step back involuntarily. “Me?!”
“Yeah! Well, not just you. Everyone!” He flung his arms out. “See, I’ve always felt like there’s someone out there who can show me… y’know, what I’m meant for! So this idea was great, I get to meet a whole bunch of ponies and people and whatevers! And maybe it’ll still work out. I guess my thing isn’t magic, but maybe it’s something else I’ll find here.”
I squinted at him; he was just the oddest mix of gregarious and awkward. “Good luck, I guess,” I mumbled.
“Thanks!” he replied, all sincerity.
“Well, you can tell Zephyr to tell Shining Armor that I’m okay,” I said, hoping he would pick up the hint.
“Will do! But I’m glad you’re doing good, too!” He waved, then walked past me toward the dorms.
Feeling exhausted, I finally got started on my walk.
It took a while to feel better, but eventually I did. I found my way to the garden-like area of succulents, and as I wandered, the tumult in my mind slowly eased. Even if succulents weren’t my favorite kind of plants, they were still cute, adorable little things, with their spiny segments for defense and unusual shapes, all to hold onto their modicum of water. I admired them, in a way. They had no issue showing the world exactly who they were, challenging it, and telling the world to fuck off if they tried messing with them.
I could only wish I’d had even a sliver of that courage.
“Wally?”
Spooked for a moment I spun around, fists up, only to let out a sigh of relief when I saw Sunset standing not far away, shadowed in the corner of the fences. “Sunset, you startled me.”
Sunset gave me an odd look, then smiled softly, her eyes narrowed just a little. “Sorry, Wally… come over here, hmm? I want to go somewhere… private with you. Just you and me.”
I froze for a second, remembering the last time we’d been alone together at night. My brain had done all sorts of feelingsy things that were completely inappropriate and off.
But even though I didn’t trust myself, I did trust Sunset. I nodded and followed her as she led us to a secluded portion of the gardens, where there was no chance we’d be overheard, save for one of the ever-present Monohuman cameras that turned to point directly at us once it noticed we were present. “So what’s up, Sunset?”
She sauntered up to me, sashaying her hips (no no she’s just WALKING NORMAL stop it brain!) and giving me a coy (friendly! friendly!) smile. “Wally,” she said, her voice low as her hand intertwined fingers with mine. “Can we be honest with each other for a second?”
A strong warmth bathed my cheeks. “U-u-um, s-sure.”
“There’s something you need to know about the first game, related to the motive.” She took a deep breath, steeling herself, and even that looked sexy to my stupid self. “Monohuman wants us to reenact the first murder, right?” I nodded. “Well, how does he expect us to do that if the first victim weren’t with us? But they are.”
A deep cold attacked my bones, leading me to draw warmth off of Sunset as I shivered. “..w-what are you saying, Sunset?”
“I’m saying, Wally… that you were the first victim.”
While a portion of me panicked at the notion, the rest of me found it such a bizarre, ass-backwards statement that all I ended up doing was raising both my eyebrows. “What? That’s not possible. I’m standing right here.”
“In a way it was my fault,” Sunset muttered, looking away for a moment. “I inadvertently encouraged you to isolate yourself entirely, and that led to your death. I abandoned you..”
“You abandoned…” My head was swimming; her expression was serious and haunted. “Sunset. I’m alive. I–”
“I saw it!” she hissed, squeezing my hands tightly. “I’ll never, ever forget. Lying on a dining cart. Still and quiet. With a bloodied…” She shuddered, voice catching in her throat. “A. A bloodied cleaver sticking out of her stomach. The cold, dead body of…”
“Sunset…”
“The cold dead body of Wallflower Blush.” She stared right at me, through me, with hollow, helpless eyes. “Don’t tell me it wasn’t you. Not when I can’t ever forget it.”
I had no clue what to do, so I just blurted out the same thing I’d been saying. “But I’m right here, Sunset! This doesn’t make sense!”
She laughed, a barking, humorless, ugly sound. “Oh, it makes sense. It makes perfect sense. But you…” She looked down at our clasped hands for a moment, and when she looked back up, she seemed a little calmer. “Listen. Just… maybe you won’t be able to remember, and that’s okay. But for the next few days, try. Think about everything I’ve said, and try. If things do come back, talk to me alone, like I said before, and it’ll really help.”
Still baffled and lost, I nodded. “Sure.” The word felt solid. Nothing made sense, but I had a goal, and I could help, and that was something.
She smiled and tilted her head down, resting her forehead against mine. I froze, but she just sighed and said, “You know how important you are, right? I feel like I’d go crazy if you weren’t here.”
She sighed again, and I kept not moving a single muscle. Especially when she spoke again. “Wally.” She just breathed it, like saying it made her calm.
She pulled back but left our hands together. She was smiling, but it became a smirk when she realized my brain was exploding from shyness. “Sorry. I know you don’t like physical contact sometimes. I’ve always been touchy with my friends.”
Friend, right, I thought, Wallflower friend. Friend friend friend. “It’s never really a problem with you,” I mumbled.
“You really do trust me, huh?” she mused. Then she pulled back slightly, quickly. “Why?”
I gawked; she looked kind of stern, but she was still holding me all distractingly. “Why what?”
“Why do you trust me?” she asked. “You know I’m a bad person, right? You remember everything I did in high school and, well, let’s just say I’ve done other bad things since.”
She loves Rarity, I thought. Rarity wife, Wallflower friend. “Sunset, we’ve been friends for a long time. I might not remember everything, but… I know I can trust you. You’re like the only person here I trust at all!”
She frowned, almost angry, and I felt anxiety start to spark in my chest. “Um, you said you’ve done bad things, and… I guess you have. I know you’re not perfect. But you forgave me when I… you know.” I faltered, but she still didn’t respond. Maybe to fill the space and maybe because it was important, I kept going. “Trust is really hard for me. But you’re a good person. I just know it.”
“A good person,” she echoed, eyes oddly dark. “Everybody I meet. They all know deep down I’m such a good person.”
“Um…”
“I guess I’m pretty amazing, huh?” she asked, voice sad but eyes cold. “Would it even make a difference if you knew what I’m capable of?”
I blinked a few times. “What are you talking about?”
Sunset’s beautiful face screwed up in anger. “You have no idea what I’ve done.”
It suddenly hit me: she had lived through a killing game. “Oh… oh God, Sunset. Did you have to…”
She glared at me, then realized what I was saying and shook her head. “I’ve never killed anyone. I did something worse.”
“Worse?”
“Just one instant.” Her voice was shaky, not like before when she was upset. I recognized this. It was self-loathing. “No hesitation, I just acted, I did what my heart told me to do, and it was the cruelest… … it was the worst moment of my life and it was my own stupid fault!”
She squeezed one of my hands hard enough to hurt, prompting me to pull it away. “Hey, that hurts! Be careful!”
Sunset let out a quiet sigh. “Sorry, Wally.” She grabbed for that hand again, stroking it gently. “I just want you to… to be careful. So promise me something, okay? Let’s be safe about this.”
“Safe? What? Sunset, you’re not making any sense. What are you talking about?”
She squeezed my hands again, and stepped close enough to press her body against mine. For a moment, our body heat mingled in the cold air of the desert night. I’d never been this close to another human being and it felt… strange. But good. Very good.
She leaned her face in, close enough our lips could touch (bad thought bad thought). “Promise me you’ll never mention this conversation to anyone, ever. We can never know who might overhear, alright? They could misinterpret things.They might use the information against you. You have to be vigilant in a game like this, if you want to survive. So be careful who you trust, okay?”
“...uh, sure.” Wallflower friend Wallflower friend Wallflower friend. “Sure, okay. I’ll be careful. I promise.”
She smiled, then patted my face with her hand. For a moment, her lips pursed and I thought she was going to--but no, she was backing away. “That’s my good girl, Wally. Now run along. Get to bed.”
My whole face steamed hotter than a furnace as I nodded and blitzed my way back to my room. I found myself huffing and puffing as I closed the door behind me, feeling waves of cold and warmth running through me in equal measures. And there was an uncomfortable tightness in my--
…shower. I needed a cold shower. Stat.
I tossed off my clothes and hopped in, using the spray to drown out the evening, especially Sunset. She was married to Rarity and cared too much about her to give up on her. I was just being stupid, seeing things that weren’t there. I had probably gone and fallen in love with her like an idiot.
No, what mattered was what she told me about the first game. How I was the victim. How was that possible? How did I die--
“Aaah!”
I stumbled and hit my elbow on the side of the shower as a stab of pain surged through my head upon thinking about it.
Then I held my hand to my head and moved it down. No. The pain wasn’t in my head. It was in the back of my--
“AAAH!” This time I avoided banging my elbow, but I almost slipped despite the no-slip mat.
I ended up sitting down in the shower and switching it to warm water just so I could recover. The pain had been excruciating, like some of the worst pain I’d ever felt. Trying to remember this was clearly a bad idea. And who wants to remember how they died anyway?
Feeling more confused than ever, I got out of the shower, toweled off, and tossed on some fresh underwear and pajamas. I curled up in bed, covering myself up in every blanket and turning the heat on in the room for good measure.
It took me a long time to fall asleep, and when I did, all I dreamt of was the sound of ocean waves and the slow, steady thrumming of a ship’s engines.
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that a death flag
Uummmmmmmm... Are we on the matrix somehow? Like we have pod things, dead people back to life, Sunset acting creepy, and more questions than answers. Is it all a simulation? I AM LOSING MY MIND
Man, not knowing the first one to die is tearing me up. Especially with so many characters just acting weird. There's so much not being said that could save lives, but now everyone's in paranoia mode. Oi, this is going to be a rough one.
That was another fascinating chapter and seeing the characters progress is really amazing.
About their motive, I can't figure out how should the "clues" give hint about the last game, will it be notes or video clips? And how much should they "recreate" to get the prize? Above all, why should any of them trust Monohuman that the "prize" will be worth it? They obviously wanted nothing to do with him.
I shall eagerly await for what comes next.
Hmm, now that's an interesting motive. It was a gruesome death, too. I had a nightmare like that once.
I really love how Wallflower's personality is written, really captures the feeling of constant anxiety.
I'm calling it! Sunset going to die! Not first tho...
Well this was certainly an interesting one. The motive of trying to recreate the first murder from the first killing game is an interesting one. That probably means Wallflower will be in danger, assuming one of the recruitments is she must be the victim again.
I have to admit, it was a surprise to see Pear Butter acting so antagonistic, especially towards Shining Armor. I guess that just shows it can be surprising who can turn out to be an antagonist or even a "rival" in these games.
I did feel a bit bad for Wallflower and how she still feels invisible, but at least Derpy was there for her. Good girl, Derpy. I have a bad feeling about Sunset though. It feels like she is putting too much of a target on her back, and it almost feels like she could be the first victim of this game, sort of like what happened with "Byakuya" in the second game (until his true identity was revealed, but you get the point).
Very heart pounding. I don't know who's gonna bite the dust (I really don't think you'll copy the twist of V3), and I don't know who's gonna do the deed, but I do know how I'll spot the killer. The killer is whoever Dewdrops describes as drinking a lot of water. Monohuman's arbitrary rules ALWAYS exist to facilitate a murder or provide a clue for the investigators, and right now he's really driving it home that anything you take from the pantry must be consumed. Now obviously someone's gonna be foolish enough to recreate the Wallflower murder, which involved bludgeoning her with a bag of ice. But then they have a problem, because as per the rules, they now have to completely consume the bag of ice (a 10-pound bag is about a gallon and a quart). But there's no rule about how fast they have to do it, so instead of trying to eat the ice, they just have to let it melt and drink all the water. Of course Dewdrops might be more subtle, and have them make drinks for everyone, or take an interest in gardening so they can water the plants (that counts as the plants "consuming" the water, IMO), but that won't fool me!
So I am going to make some calls.
1. Rarity is a Pony, hence she gets confused by Sunset's behavior.
2. Derpy is likely a pony, she seemingly implied that she knew Wallflower from high school or before.
3. I suspect Sunset is Human with pony memories, why? Because of death flags setting her up as the first victim and since this is Danganronpa, I doubt the first case is without a trial.
4. Since I am predicting Sunset as the first victim, the culprit will fail to get the motive.
5. I am going to assume that someone will find out that Wallflower is supposed to be dead and thus try to murder her as a freebie, but with no success.
Will these be the right calls or dreadfully wrong ones? Upupupu...
Howdy, hi~!
Great heightened tension in this. Love the burgeoning of new relationships and connections between characters and all the different interactions between them. I can already see some points that will become relevant later on, but we'll see if I'm right on that one.
MC Donkey Man!