... and never fear the worst
“How is Rainbow Dash doing?” asked Spike.
Twilight had to think about that one before answering. Since she had received that letter from her father, she hadn’t ceased to be amazed by the capacity of her pegasus friend to find happiness everywhere. It was like nothing had happened at all.
Of course, she knew it wasn’t the truth. Something had happened. But it was comforting to know that Rainbow Dash had accepted to see doctor Nothing every week.
“She is very resilient.” Twilight finally replied to her assistant.
“And what have you decided about that arson case of yours?” the dragon continued. “I imagine you’ll free the suspect, right?”
“Why do you think I would free him?” asked back Twilight.
“So you’re going to throw him in jail?” assumed Spike.
The alicorn smiled. Yes, she clearly envied that spontaneity, that capacity to see the world in a Boolean way.
“Why would I throw him in jail?” asked Twilight, thinking she should teach something to her assistant while having the little pleasure of messing with him at the same time.
“But you just said…” began Spike. “I don’t understand you anymore. Just make your mind.”
“Well, what would you decide?” the alicorn asked.
Spike thought about it a little and then replied:
“Well, the guy says he is innocent, so I should free him, but the others say he is guilty, so I should lock him up, but there isn’t enough proof to be certain he did it, so he should be free, but it is most likely that he did it, so the best bet would be to throw him in jail.”
Twilight quietly listened to the dragon’s thought.
“If he ends up in a cell, there is no way he could threaten anypony anymore, so that’s good, but if he is not guilty, then the culprit can still threaten somepony, which is bad, and if nopony is actually guilty and it was all an accident, then I would have sent an innocent into jail, but being locked up in jail isn’t such a bad thing. I mean, they have a cinema and a pool. We don’t even have a pool here. Why don’t we have a pool?”
Twilight frowned, but let her assistant continue.
“Okay, so you told me that he looks like a nice stallion, and she looks like a nice mare, even if they are both weird, so there is no indication there. And you can’t ask princess Celestia because she was wrong that one time. And you won’t send the stallion in jail, because you are afraid he will end up like Dash’s father. So you’ll free him, right?”
“You can’t do something just because you feel bad about something that happened to your relatives.” stated Twilight.
“Then you’ve decided to condemn him to prison.” Spike brilliantly deducted.
“I did ask princess Celestia.” Twilight said.
Now Spike was confused again. He couldn’t understand why that pony couldn’t just make her mind, take a decision and call it a day. She really liked to complicate things in his opinion.
“And what did she tell you?” he asked.
“To apply the law the way the law had been made to be applied.” Twilight answered with a little grin, knowing what effect it would have on the little dragon.
And what effect indeed. She could have told him that the division by zero is actually possible under the paradigm of the exploration of the limits of equations and he would have still felt just as lost.
“Okay, stop playing with me and just tell me what you’ve decided to do.” Spike said, frustrated.
“Fire Anthem is to be found guilty of arson and be sentenced to six months in prison and two and a half years of suspended sentence.”
“So you do think he is guilty!” triumphantly deducted the dragon.
“I’m just doing my duty as a princess of Equestria.” explained Twilight.
Spike sighed first and then began to laugh.
"Still, all that fuss for six little months of jail..."
Twilight didn't answer that. She just began to stare into the horizon. So the dragon asked another question:
“And what if you are wrong?”
Twilight didn’t answer. She had asked that to Celestia and Celestia hadn’t answered either. At least not directly. She had just said that the best they could do was hoping for the best.
And never fear the worst.
THE END
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Why'd you publish these all at once?
4551949
I couldn't find a good reason to publish them one by one. It doesn't seem to benefit the reader to publish them one by one. And I'm not sure it would benefit me either.
4553331
If you update your chapters individually you get more chances to be on the home page which equals more views and likes. Also, more views means more potential for readers giving their thoughts which can help improve the story as well as the direction it may head. Make sense?
4555837
.
It makes sense
Yeah, the Dash storyarc and the case could be separated into two stories, but, as it is now, chapter 8 did give me "unexpected feels".
You have my fave and like, not only because of that moment, but because of how much Twilight this was. I mean, how she dove into the case and had a hard time adapting to non-concrete evidence. And, even with the ruling as is in Equestria, Celestia herself doesn't feel completely at easy with these decisions - rightfully in my opinion.
So, yea, thumb'd and fav'd.
M
4706036
It is probably the biggest weakness of that story that I created the whole "Dash's dad ark" just for that revelation.
And to show how much jail can (at least I think it can) affect someone and therefore how important Twilight's decision actually is.
In my opinion too, because in our world, the lack of evidence would normally lead to the suspect's liberation because of the significant doubt.
If I had wanted to follow my own principles (and the legal system of my country), Fire Anthem would have finished free. But as the Equestrian system I describe basically ask the population (in the form of one pony) to give its opinion (inspired by the US jury system and the good old "12 angry men"), I had to go with the most probable way the population would go for, which is putting in jail just to be sure...
It may have something to do with the population in my country having voted about a judicial question and that vote going against the very principle of proportionality in the sentence.
Well, in the end, I'm glad you could enjoy the story even with that extreme weird Dash's dad ark that, in retrospective, I shouldn't have done that way...
I liked this story.
OK, I know it wasn't the point of this story, but I just have to say this:
I bet it was the neighbor. He was in love with Face Full and wanted her to himself, so he pland this whole thing to get Fire Anthem out of the way.
And that is how my mind works when presented a story that ends like this.
6416270
Thanks
. I wish I had done it differently (kicked out the whole Rainbow Dash arc and found another way to say how terrible prisons can be), but I'm glad you could appreciate it.
And for a moment in my head, it was. But if it had been him, that would have weakened the moral of the story... What if I were to tell you Faith Full did it?
6416477
What a twist!
Not really. Still believable.
SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO DASH'S FATHER
7780937
I didn't consider that he could have simply left. That would have probably been a good compromise. Yet Dash would have tried to find him.
7781671
wait, suicide?
7781885
Yeah, I know, it's too extreme. And yet... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4520329/
I didn't know at the time, but it seems it's not that extreme after all.