//------------------------------//
// Caged Birds 
// Story: Fate After Failure 
// by Antisocialtwilight 
//------------------------------//

Fate After Failure

Chapter 6: Caged Birds

Rainbow Dash didn’t like prison. It wasn’t for the usual reasons, the hostilities of the other pegasi, the terrible food, or the uncomfortable beds. All of those were problems, clearly, but that isn’t what she hated about the prison. What really bothered her was it was all inside. She couldn’t fly fast, the rec-room was much too small for anything her speed. After hitting the walls of the rec-room for the fourth time while trying to make a turn, she realized how lame she looked, and went to go sit down for a while, feeling defeated.





It was Rainbow Dash’s second night in the Cloudsdale Juvenile Correctional Facility when she got her new cellmate. Rainbow Dash had been lying down on the top bunk of her bed, not ready to sleep when the guards brought her in. She looked mostly angry at first glance, but as Dash looked deeper into her eyes, she sensed-

“What are you looking at?!” she said with a snarl, noticing Dash and mistaking her look of curiosity for a glare.

“N-nothing, I was just thinking.” Dash stammered quickly.

“Hmph. Whatever.”

The room was silent for a solid minute. The girls were studying each other, each contemplating their next move. The new girl was a griffin, the same age as her, and had a natural purple eye shadow that complemented her yellow eyes. Then, to Dash’s surprise, it was the new girl, not her, who broke the silence.

“What’s your name, featherbrain?”

“Rainbow Dash, and who are you calling featherbrain, featherface?” Dash retorted carefully, wanting to seem playful, not insulting the short-fused griffin.

“Heh. My name is Grizelda, but you can call me Gilda. So, Dash, what are you in for? Did the fashion police get you for being too colorful?”

“No! I was racing, then I lost control, and accidentally broke a barn. What about you?” Rainbow Dash said, reciting it the same way her lawyer told her to, plain and simple.

“I got caught stealing money….from the mayor.” Gilda explained slyly, trying to shrug it off.

“You stole from the mayor? How much?”

“Enough for a pretzel from the pretzel stand, but they make a bigger deal about stealing from important people. But you broke a barn just by flying into it? You must have been going fast.”

“I wasn’t going fast; I was going really fast.” Rainbow Dash said, laughing for the first time in a week.

“We should stick together, Dash; watch each other’s backs.”

“Definitely,” Rainbow Dash said, not-so-secretly glad that Gilda suggested it. “It’ll be nice to have a friend in here. Besides, we’re already roommates!”

“Yeah, friends…look, it’s getting late, and we should go to bed. G’night, featherbrain.” Gilda said nervously.

“Oh. O-okay, Gilda, see you tomorrow.” Rainbow Dash settled into her new and uncomfortable, standard-issue prison bed and flat pillow.

End of Chapter 6

To Be Continued...