//------------------------------//
// City of Cloudsdale vs. Dash 
// Story: Depression is Tragic 
// by artistwithouttalent 
//------------------------------//

	Rainbow Dash looked out her window and sighed.

The sun was shining, foals were at play, and there was even a rainbow out.

It was at this point that Dash decided she hated sunny days. 

It had been several weeks since the incident at flight camp, and since that time she had been locked up in the Cloudsdale Correctional Facility. Flight exams had passed, and no one had come for her. This made for an interesting development in her case: pegasi were seen as legally fillies and colts after such time as that they were supposed to have completed flight camp, so the question on everypony’s lips was whether Dash was going to be charged as a foal or a filly. Most ponies (including Dash herself) were in favor of her being charged as a filly. The buzz around the case had started the day of her arrest, and it had come to a head today. Today was the day of the trial.

Dash sat in her cell, waiting anxiously for the bailiff to come and lead her on to her fate. 

After what seemed like forever, Dash heard hoofsteps coming down the cellblock. She looked out her cell, and sure 	enough, the bailiff was heading for her cell, keys in mouth. The bailiff opened her cell and said in a deep, smooth voice, “It’s time, Rainbow Dash.”

Fearfully, Rainbow got up and followed the Bailiff to the courtroom. Dash went to the defense table and sat down. The bailiff re-entered from a different door and called out to the court, “All parties in the matter of City of Cloudsdale vs. Dash, please rise, honorable Judge Yeager presiding.”

Dash stood until the judge motioned for everyone to sit.

“Rainbow Jane Dash,” the judge began. 

For some reason Dash felt compelled to stand again.

“Yes, Your Honor?” she interjected.

The judge looked up and Dash thought she could see a glimmer of a smirk. “You may be seated. To the charge of unintentional wing clipping, 2nd degree, Rainbow Dash, how do you plead?”

She replied, “No contest, Your Honor.”

“Well,” the judge said, taken aback and thrown off a little, “That settles that. As to the matter of your sentencing, since this was an unintentional consequence of actions that were nevertheless malicious, and you have been so cooperative with the authorities, I sentence you to 20 years in Foalsom Prison, with—“ at this point the judge had to bang his gavel and call for order at the general outcry and astonishment of all assembled parties, including Dash. Once he had re-established order, he finished.

“I hereby sentence you to 20 years in Foalsom Prison, with your first parole hearing to be 5 years from now. Dismissed!”

As he banged his gavel down, Rainbow felt a flood of emotions, all good; the minimum she saw herself being sentenced to, and indeed the original precedent, was a minimum life sentence. She saw her parents, relieved that they would able to see their little foal again in 5-20 years. After the initial wave of relief subsided, Dash realized the true significance of a minimum 5 year prison sentence in Equestria’s toughest prison. Fretfully, she tried to look at the positives: she wasn’t going to be killed (by the state), and she was going to be able to live a life after this (in theory). 

“5 years,” she thought to herself. “That’s a long time. But at least it’s not 20 years, or life.”

Then and there, Rainbow Dash made it her goal to be out of Foalsom in 5 years flat. As she was led out to the carriage taking her to Foalsom, she was greeted by an angry mob calling for the impeachment of the judge and brandishing signs like “Hang the Rainbow” and “Celestia hates Wing Clippers”. As she entered the carriage, the full force of what had happened hit her like a brick, and she fainted, making the 2 ½ hour journey seem that much less arduous.