Shadow prison, home to some of the deranged and heartless monsters of society, if any prisoner were asked the last prison they'd want to be, the answer would probably be this.
The only tolerable thing about this place though, would probably be the visiting hours, and right now the three visitors are one unicorn named Joey and two earth ponies named Oliver and Clark. When the visiting hours soon ended, Mason, also a unicorn, and the skipper in charge of the boat, began preparing for the trip back to the mainland. The three visitors soon boarded, and the little boat soon began leaving the dreaded island.
For a while, all was silent. Despite the noise of the ship's motor, nopony spoke a word, until Clark broke the silence.
"Hey buddy, it's going to be a while until we reach the shore, you think you could play some music to help pass the time?"
"Certainly sir." Mason said, turning the dials on the radio, until a song finally started playing, the ironically calm music playing over the brooding boat ride.
https://m.For a while, things were alright. The three passengers were busy minding their own business with the music playing in the background, when halfway through the song...
"we interrupt this song to bring you this warning- a prisoner has recently escaped from the supposedly escape proof Shadow Prison. The prison is 30 miles off shore, any attempt to swim that distance is certain death. The only other escape route is the mail boat currently on it's way back to the mainland at this moment. The convict is a ruthless Murderer who won't hesitate for a moment to kill. And now here's Ollie Williams for the punishment report, Ollie?"
"HE'S GONNA GET IT!"
"Thank you Ollie."
Mason turned off the radio, but the damage had already been done...
"Did you hear that!" Oliver said on horror, "One of us is a murderer, it's got to be one of you."
"What do you mean we're killers?" Clark said in disbelief, "How do we know You're not the murderer, I was visiting my brother."
"And I'm a lawyer." Joey said, "Who are you supposed to be?"
"I'm just a bookkeeper that's all, I was sent to transcribe the prison's records."
Before they could argue any further, the motor starting making noises, prompting Mason to inspect...
"Looks like somepony slipped gas into the tank." He said, which lead to Oliver's eyes widening in horror.
"Then one of you IS the murderer." He said, "one of us has to call the police."
"I tried, but the radios dead."
The three ponies turned towards Mason, "What do you mean it's dead?" Clark asked, it was fine a moment ago."
"I mean just that- a tube is missing, somepony had removed it while we were distracted."
Hearing this did not raise their spirits, if anything it made them more suspicious of the other. "Right now, the only thing we can do is drift until we're spotted or we reach the mainland."
Suddenly the boat jerked a little, almost throwing the group off balance. "We've must've run aground." Mason said, looking over the side, "If it weren't for the high tide, we'd walk the rest of the way, I don't suppose either of you can swim or know a teleportation spell do you?"
All three shook their heads no, leaving them with one option; wait until the low tide comes in and attempt to walk to shore.
"Hey, what's this?"
The group turned to look at Clark and saw that he found a shotgun, and by the looks of it, it hasn't been loaded yet.
"I was afraid you'd find that." Mason said, sensing the growing tension. If either of them was a killer, then they would surely use the shotgun to bump each other off.
Oliver seemed to sense this too, taking out the case of shotgun shells, "Okay, how about this. We'll let Mason hold the gun and I'll hold the shells. We'll stand watch for two hours, and then you two stand watch for two hours watching each other."
No pony said anything, they just silently nodded and Clark handed Mason the shotgun. If things weren't so tense before, it sure is now.
Night soon fell, and the tension was still growing strong. For the last few hours the group had been keeping a close eye on each other, still unsure whether or not one of them is a murderer. Mason eventually broke the silence when he noticed the tide.
"The tide's dropping, it should be shallow enough to wade."
He and Clark never even noticed Joey silently make his off the boat, until Oliver shouted, "Hey! He's getting away."
The two looked where he was pointing, and saw he was indeed trying to make a break for it. Oliver had suddenly wrenched the shotgun from Mason's grasp, loaded bullets into the gun and fired, the others could do nothing but watch as Joey suddenly fell, his body now being dragged by the water.
Mason and Clark stared at him with shock. "What're you looking at me for!" Oliver said in defense, "Can't you see he's the murderer! He was was trying to get away from us, that's gotta mean he's a killer!"
"I don't know, you sure seemed eager to soot that guy." Clark said, "If anything, you look more like a murderer than him."
He tried to wrestle the shotgun from him, resulting in a brawl between the two. They punched, kicked, and shoved each other, until Clark bumped his head on the ship's controls, knocking him out.
The two were so busy fighting each other that they never noticed some pony reloading the shotgun. It wasn't until he heard the cooking of the gun that Oliver turned around and saw...
"YOU!!!"
He never got to say another word, because Mason fired, and Oliver slumped to the floor.
That's right, Mason was the murderer. He planned it all out while in prison. He would bump off the original captain of the boat, take the boat, and escape to the mainland. The other three were just unfortunate enough to be caught in his path.
And now, here he was, about to make his getaway. Since the boat was still stuck, he would do what one of couldn't, and wade the rest of the way to shore.
He was only a mile away from the shore, when he noticed the tide, it was rising! Panicking, he tried to get back to the boat, but that too was a mile off from where he was. Desperate, he tried to keep his head above water since he couldn't swim, but unfortunately, he was in a bad spot, so he couldn't keep his head up for long. And eventually, the water made its way above his head, filling his lungs with water.
The sun stood high above the water, casting a picture perfect view, over an otherwise deceptive boat ride.