//------------------------------//
// The Ballad of the Palace Jail 
// Story: Rebirth of Magic: In the Mists 
// by JimmyHook19 
//------------------------------//

As I moved over to make my escape, I must have tripped something on the wall, as alarms suddenly began blaring throughout the palace.

"INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. ALL ASSETS MOVE TO CAPTURE AND DETAIN INTRUDER. INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. ALL ASSETS MOVE TO CAPTURE AND DETAIN INTRUDER."

Oh horseapples, I thought to myself. I had to escape, and fast, or else I would be caught, and throne in prison. Or worse, forced to listen to Pipp's singing! I did not want that at all!

As I made my way towards the door, the two guards from earlier cornered me. "Stop right there, criminal scum!" one of them shouted. "You violated the law!"

I dodged around them as best as I could as the doors to Queen Haven's suite suddenly burst open. "Guards! Intercept them immediately! She stole the crown!"

I continued as fast I could through the building, doing my best to maintain as much speed as I could towards the exit of the region. It was proving to be a little easier said than done, though. The lights had all come on, and the corridors were filling with troops and other figures. Many of them were household staff, who had gotten out of bed to try and figure out what was going on. I pushed past a butler with a trolley covered in cake, and sped down the corridor to where I thought the next section was. I had to think quickly to escape. Jumping out of a window probably wasn't the best of options as it could end very messily. I checked to the left, and then remembered the way I had gotten up. I sped through another door and found myself back in the place I had been previously, where all the wires and cables were.

I turned around to see my attackers closing in on me. The first of them was an older pegasus, it seemed. Possibly the guard commander? "Come with us quietly and there won't be any trouble," he said, his accent a rather curious mix of British and what I can only describe as vaguely Dutch.

I saw the control panel on the left, and punched it into down with my grappling hook, before leaping backwards onto the rapidly descending wires. "You'll never take me alive, pegasus!"

I was move of the way down when the wires stopped, and I was flipped the other way up. Now my head was down at the bottom, and I couldn't reach to disconnect myself from the wires around my waist. I was hauled back upwards to where I had been previously, and sure enough all of the guards were still there, looking intently at me. Queen Haven and the two princesses were there as well.

The old one spoke. "You, miss, are in a lot of trouble tonight." He indicated to the others. "Haul her in."

As the cables reeled me into position, Queen Haven pulled the crown out of my back. "Mine," she replied. "We shall deal with you in the morning. In the meantime, place her in the cells. Colonel Opwinden, see to it that this is done."

"Yes, your majesty," the old one replied. So he was called Opwinden, eh? Interesting name.





After a night in detention cells whilst being watched by two guards, I was hauled out before the Court, still in my gear and goggles. The world looked piercingly bright with the goggles on, as sunlight flooded into the Palace. Eventually, the guards stopped, and held me in place.

"Her Majesty, Queen Haven, and the Assembled Court!" called a voice. Before long trumpets were blaring everywhere and drums were playing as most of the court filed in. There were soldiers and courtiers, what looked to be dukes and duchesses, servants of every shape and size, and finally the piece de resistance- the Royal Family flew in from on high, supported by the same cables that I had tried to escape on the previous day.

All three of them were wearing sunglasses for some reason. Probably all the light flooding in through the windows.

"Guards, we have the prisoner to attend to," the Queen said. "Remover her goggles so we can get a better look at her."

"Yes, Your Majesty," said one, and pulled the goggles off. This also removed part of the bodysuit which revealed my mane, and something else.

There were collective gasps of shocks from the assembled crowd.

"What is wrong with her face?" asked one of the courtiers, seemingly having never seen a unicorn before.

Queen Haven seemed to be the most surprised. "A unicorn? Here? In the Palace?" She glanced to the Colonel, who was standing to the side. "How did she get in? How did she bypass security?"

"My team are still trying to establish how she bypassed security, Your Majesty," the Colonel replied. "Please accept my apology for this most severe of slip-ups."

The Queen looked back to me. "What are you doing here? Who sent you? Clearly it is somebody who wants to attack us!"

I registered her use of 'somebody' rather than 'somepony' almost immediately. That was odd. I decided to speak. "Your majesties, I am me-"

"No speaking unless spoken to!" the guard on my left bellowed.

"But the Queen just spoke to me," I said, confused.

"Let her reply," the Queen said. "Zephyrina, ensure that the equipment in the cells is in order. Pipp, I want you to monitor communications. No news of this must get out, understand?"

Zipp left whilst Pipp looked to her phone. I took the opportunity to speak. "I come with news of a dire warning. Opaline, the one who lives far from here, comes with a warning of a grave threat. The One with the Stripes is here, and I don't know much about him but apparently he is a problem."

"What are you talking about?" a very fat pegasus asked. "Who is this one with the stripes?"

The Queen looked more confused than anything else. "So you came in to steal the crown so you could give a warning? I suspect there's more to this situation than meets the eye. Move her to the holding cell until we can interrogate her properly. In the meantime, I want the city on maximum alert. Nothing can be permitted to go wrong, not least with the second stage of the Jubilee beginning next week."

The guards saluted. "Yes, Your Majesty!"

The Colonel looked over. "You heard Her Majesty. Move the unicorn to the holding cells."

As I was dragged away, a last order was given. "Take her equipment so we can study it!"





So, there I was, in a holding cell, which just so happened to look out over the city which I was now a prisoner in. Admittedly, I've known worse views in my life. I looked down over the world, seeing machines flying back and forth carrying passengers and cargo. A loud horn sounded the passing of a train somewhere down below the towering maze of skyscrapers and pathways, which were elevated well above the road surface.

Pipp was doing a stream on one screen whilst an advert for perfume played on another. The narrator only told us that 'this mare smells'. I can only assume he wasn't a fan of the Royal Family. I had no clue how much time had passed since then.

It wasn't the worst prison cell I've ever been in. It was oddly comfortable. There was a chair, an HDTV with a wired up disk player (whatever the pony equivalent of Blu-Ray was), and a multitude of other things. Even some fruit in there to help us stay healthy.

The treadmill was a nice touch, and I fancied something to do, so I popped open the side cabinet and found some boxes inside.

They have Mission Impossible here? I thought. They had the entire series! I took a glance, and noticed a few subtle differences to our own world. First off, the main actor was Tom Hooves, not Tom Cruise, and some other little details were different too. The one I took a glance at was about a mission to stop an evil unicorn from flooding the world in mayonnaise.

Well, that's just playing into offensive stereotypes, I thought to myself as I put them back. If nothing else it showed how deeply engrained in pegasus culture the propaganda against the other races were, as the antagonists were either members of the other tribes or pegasi who wanted to be allies with those groups.

I hid down below a chair as voices approached. "It's going to be slightly crowded in there," a voice explained. "We've already got a prisoner in there. You'll just have to learn to share."

Moments later the door popped open, and two more ponies were pushed inside. "Play nice, you three," said the guard, who then walked off.

I popped out from behind the chair to see Sunny and Izzy there. "Err, hi guys! I'm Misty!"

Sunny looked very confused. "Misty? What are you doing here?"