//------------------------------// // Chapter Four // Story: The Prisoner's Dilemma // by AYC //------------------------------// Canterlot Dining Hall The fabulous meal was coming to a close. The chefs hastily carted out dessert, a scrumptious looking slice of chocolate cake for Celestia and a small bowl of strawberries for Luna. The younger Princess ate very quickly, taking large mouthfuls and chewing loudly. She was done within seconds, and immediately hopped out of her seat. "Well, I'm off to check on the prisoners!" announced Luna. She was grinning like a madmare, her voice chipper and a spring in her step as she bounced away from the table. "Did they decide? Did they choose right?" asked Celestia eagerly, looking up from her pastry. "Did they choose correctly, sister, and I think they did. I hope so! Guards," she nodded to a group of Night Guards. "With me, please." "What do you need them for?" inquired Celestia. "No reason." Luna giggled innocently. "Luna..." "See you latter, Tia!" "Luna!" "What?" she turned around, halting the guards. "Prison is that way." said Celestia, pointing with her hoof the direct opposite direction of which Luna was heading. "Oh! I know. Good night, sister!" she walked off with her posse of Night Guards in the exact same direction, ignoring her sister entirely. "But... but..." Celestia watched in confusion as her sister rounded a corner out of sight. "Forget it! I'm going to bed." Canterlot Castle Sewer Entrance "This is why I married you, Coin." Russet was beaming. His wife had thought her way through this thing to the letter. They'd paraded through the castle, almost noisily, posing as an inebriated pair of lovers, a guard and a servant. They'd giggled, acted embarrassed when noticed, and generally acted the entire time like they were heading for a bedroom. It had worked flawlessly, and they'd avoided any guards and nobody seemed to know or care who they were. "You mean, my body didn't help any at all?" she asked, fiddling with the lock with a manepin she'd stolen. "I didn't say that." They were standing in the Castle Sewer Entrance, which was located in a small room in the castle kitchens. It was the exact opposite side of the castle as the prison, so they'd had to walk a long time to get there. They'd shut the door behind them and barred it with a shelf that was used for storing food. The lock clicked open. Gold Coin stood up proudly and slipped the manepin back into her mane. "These sewers lead out of the city?" asked Russet, opening the grate. There was a ladder leading to a damp-looking passage below. "Yeah. They wind up at a sewage plant about half a mile aways and below the city. We'll have a bit of walking to do." replied Gold Coin, taking the first steps down into the sewers. "Lovely. Where to from there?" Russet followed his wife. "Probably Manehattan. It's closer than the other cities and it'll be easier to blend in there. Hold on a sec'." Gold Coin cricked her neck muscles and squeezed her eyes shut. The dark tunned loomed in front of them, black and foreboding. "What is it, honey?" Russet Apple turned to his wife, concerned. "You alright?" "Yeah, it's just that dumb magic-negater has some after-effects. Lucky the guard I knocked out had a clipper on him or we'd be in trouble." a small burst of magic shot from her horn, twisting before settling as a glowing golden orb that hovered merrily around the pair's heads. "There we go!" "Very nice." Smiled Russet. He shut the grate behind him, then took a few steps to catch up with his wife. "I didn't tell you yet, because I didn't have the chance," he began, walking steadily alongside his wife. "But this was really quite clever. You really outsmarted the Princess." "Faust yeah I did! I hope she learns that not everypony will play her little games." Gold Coin smirked. There was a pause where only the sound of their hooves on the stone damp stone floor could be heard. "Russet?" asked Gold Coin. She didn't sound as confident as she had a minute ago. "What option were you going to take?" "Eh?" Russet looked sheepish. "I don't really know. I think I was leaning towards staying silent, though." In the half-light of the magical orb, Gold Coin smiled. "Thanks, Russet." "No problem, Coin. Can I ask you something as well? "Of course!" she said. "Why did you wait two days? Couldn't you have broken me out earlier? I'm not complaining, no, just, I guess, wondering." "It's okay, you don't need to sound so nervous. I needed time to regain a bit of magic. That magic-negater didn't stop my magic from recharging, it only stopped me from casting." "Oh. I suppose that makes sense." The walked on in silence. "I wish I could see the look on that Princesses' face when she realizes we escaped." laughed Russet Apple. "Haha, yeah." Gold Coin grinned. "She think's she's so smart. And yet we managed to outwit her within two days. Some Princess." she laughed loudly. Then a third voice came out of the darkness, one the two criminals knew only too well. "Some Princess indeed, if she did not consider all the alternatives." the voice came from directly in front of them. Within seconds, the passage was awash with dozens of blue orbs. Princess Luna stood about five feet infront of them, backed by two Night Guards on each side. Russet turned to run, but four more Night Guards had appeared in the tunnel behind them, their reptilian eyes glaring. They were surrounded. "Gold Coin and Russet Apple," smiled the Princess as her magic scooped up the wayward felons and casted a sleeping spell upon them. "I'm glad you both made the right choice." Canterlot Hallways Luna walked happily away from the prison, confident that both prisoners were indeed secure this time around. She'd guessed that Gold Coin would make an escape, but had decided to allow it. This gave her the opportunity to instill a bit good old-fashioned fear in the two of them. She hoped she came across as the fearsome, 'All-Knowing Empress of the Night!' She snorted with laughter. No, she didn't want that, merely she wanted to let them know that she was ready for any situation. She could handle whatever they threw at her. A slightly unkempt-looking Celestia turned down the hall in front of her. Upon seeing her younger sister, Celestia called out to her. "Luna! I figured it out!" "Oh did you?" asked Luna as her sister walked to her. "Yes. Okay. So. Here's how it works, right? Okay. So each prisoner has two options, say Option A and Option B, right? So Option A is to stay silent, and Option B is to rat out on their partner. If they both choose A, it's three years. Right so far?" "Yes, you are correct so far. Here, walk with me." They meandered through the halls, heading to Luna's bedroom. "And then if one chooses Option A while the other chooses Option B, then the squealer gets six months and the other, who stayed silent, gets six years. That works both ways. Correct." "Yes." "But if they both choose Option B, then they both get five years. Right?" "Correct again." "So which did they choose? Did Russet choose A? I feel like he would. Did he?" "No." replied Luna calmly. "He chose B? But Gold Coin was going to do that! I thought so for sure!" Celestia was exasperated. "They both made the same choice, I'll tell you that." Luna was grinning that grin again, and Celestia had failed to notice. "They both chose Option B? I didn't see that coming at all-" "Tia. They didn't choose Option B." They were outside Luna's door now. Celestia's exasperation became pure confusion. "Then what in Faust's name did they choose?" Luna grinned her winning grin as she entered her room. "Option C." she responded giddily, before shutting the door behind her. Celestia sat in the hall for a good minute straight. Her eyes were not focused on anything in particular, but her brow seemed to be furrowed in concentration. "Ach! I give up!" she shouted. "I'm going to bed!" Canterlot Dungeons Gold Coin listened as the jailer shut the door behind her. She counted to ten, forcing herself to count slowly. Then she sprang into action. The Princess had seen to it that her front hooves were chained to the wall this time, but she had neglected to do anything about her back hooves. Gold Coin leaned in to her belly, like her mother had taught her, and raised her back hooves to her head. She sifted around in her mane in a very awkward fashion, until she felt it dislodge and fall to the floor with a faint tinkle. She grabbed the bobby pin with her mouth. Some Princess, she thought. She set to work on picking the lock. To be continued...