//------------------------------//
// Doing Time 
// Story: Heroism 
// by The_Last_Centurion 
//------------------------------//

This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.


Doing time

“Ow.” I said, my face redder than the sun setting behind me from love and the really hard slap the mare had given me. Her face was just as red and that made me grin like a fool and get slapped again.
“May I have another?” that got me one more slap.
“Kinky.” And another slap.
“I knew you were into me.” I said with a wide smile and was prepared to be slapped again, but one of the pegasi guards holding me cleared his throat and nodded over to the Central Citadel, the massive castle in the center of Oattara. The pegasi mare ruffled her feathers and prepared for flight while the other two did the same, only holding onto me by ropes. I didn’t notice us rising into the air though, as I was already flying on bliss.
As the mare’s backup had landed, they disentangled us and gave the mare strange looks as they pulled me away from her. They shared a silent raised eyebrow to each other, obviously asking the question of why she and I were kissing. Quite frankly, I didn’t have too good of a reason to as why I kissed her, I just knew at that moment I needed to. So I did it. And got slapped. And slapped. And slapped. And I enjoyed it because it was a sign of that she felt it too in our kiss, and because the slap was kinda hot. 
I sighed and then realized that I was miles above Oattara and my stomach did a backflip and I could feel my heart jump into my throat. I must have gotten pale because the mare looked at me with a sneer and laughed icily. “Are you alright? Scared of the heights?” she asked.
“I be less afraid if you kissed me again, love.” I replied, brining another blush to her face and a large, genuine smile to my face. Gods, she’s cute. However, I stopped talking pretty quickly as the two pegasi guards let me slip a little and I jumped, gulping down fear and words as we flew high above the alleys that I called my home.
The sensation of slipping and almost plummeting to my death (or as how my body registered it) would make me believe that the gods made earth ponies on the ground for a reason, but the view from up there was so spectacular that the feelings of untimely doom and death faded away.
Directly in front of me, the Central Citadel loomed, a sandstone spire aspiring to touch the heavens as the setting desert sun outlined it and the desert behind it. I could see the massive walls of Oattara, made from the same massive sandstone the Central Citadel was made of, surrounding my city and the way the sun reflected of the sand and stone in a magic like embrace. I looked up and saw the night sky, clearer and more open than I had ever seen it before, chasing away the last yellow, orange, and red vestiges of the daylight. It made me silently mouth “woah” as I comprehended it all.
Yet, all good things tend to come to an end too fast, or too fast for my liking, and we were landing in the Central Citadel’s roost doors and I was being shoved into one of the high cells. The high cells were basically cages that hung slightly over the precipice of the Central Citadel and would make most ponies piss themselves at the thought of such “torture”. I did piss, but through the bars of my prison and over the edge of the Central Citadel as the guards and the beautiful heroine got the arrest papers and accusations together.
As I was trying to see how far away and where my piss would actually land, the beautiful heroine and her compadres started to ask me questions.
“What’s your name?” one of the pegasi asked.
“Deft Hooves.” I answered, still trying to find out where the stream would have gone in the fading daylight.
“Why were you stealing?”
I gave the guard an incredulous look. “You bucking kidding me? Do I look like a noble? Do I look like a hero?”
“Hardly.” The mare answered harshly, making me smile once more.
“Don’t you ever forget that either, lovely. I ain’t a hero.” 
“Ahem.” One of the guards said, clearly trying to get the questioning back on track.
“Who were the two with you?”
“My brothers, but don’t worry. They’re just urchins like me, so you won’t ever find them.”
“Where do you live?”
“In the gutters of course!” I answered with a smile.
One guard turned to the other. “We’re not going to get any information out of this one about the urchin dens. Buck this, let’s just go get some chow.” The other guard raised a questioning eye to the heroine who just nodded grimly.
“I’ll stay here and try to get a few more answers out of him.”
“Aye, Miss. Star.” They said as they left.
I waited until the door closed behind them and then it was just me, her, the open night sky, and a cage that barred me from what I really wanted to do.
“Your last name is Star? Like the Noble Clan?” I asked with true interest.
She frowned at my questions, but answered them nonetheless “Yes. I am Siren Star, daughter of Seris Dawnbirth and Silvarion Star. I am current heiress to the Star line and am also one who is vying to be the heroine of the city. I can only hope by the grace of the gods that I am worthy.”
I looked away from her an out to the city, now bathed in the darkness of night. I was silent for a moment as I looked over the different districts that grew from the Central Citadel. Closest to the Citadel and lining the main roads and gates into the city were the Rich and Middle class Districts, while my home and the homes of many others like me, were pushed to the sides of the walls, along the great snaking river, and in between the main roads and the districts of the wealthy. A thought suddenly occurred to me and I spoke, breaking the silence of the night.
“Strange, how different our backgrounds are. Hell, earlier today, I would have hated you just the same as any other scummy. But, I know we share the same gods, and the same love-which is more important-so I don’t really care anymore.”
“Stop! Just stop it!” Siren suddenly yelled at me. I was jolted as my cage shook and I snapped my head to the direction of her voice. She was up against my cage and her face was a mask of anger.
“Stop talking about…about kissing me and loving me! You don’t even know me!” she screamed, frustration and confusion streaking across her face.
“Psssht. Buck that shit. I said I love you, so I love you.” I answered back, only making her shake the cage even more. However, I didn’t flinch this time. I kept my eyes locked on hers and let her shake the cage until she was out of breath and I was still sitting there staring into her eyes.
“I’m serious.”
She looked away and sighed, sitting down next to the cage. All was quiet for a moment, but then I heard her speak in a small voice.
“Why did you kiss me? I’m supposed to kiss Lords and Princes. I’m supposed to marry Kings and Emperors if I don’t become the heroine. I mean, this should have never happened.” She said, turning to me with confusion and tears in her eyes.
“Why did you kiss me?”
The sound of her voice almost broke my heart and I knew the answer was the one I had been saying for as long as we talked.
“In that moment, right when I looked into your eyes, when we were both tired and you…well,” I stammered, “it’s hard to explain. I just knew then and there that I loved you.”
“I know what the punishment is for stealing, and the punishment for attacking the City Guard, and also the punishment for attacking you, a heroine, so I know that my chances don’t look to great. At least by…by kissing you, I know I’ll at least feel pretty happy when the executioner comes a knocking.”
Siren started to say something, mushy and all feely no doubt, but I cut her off.
“Plus, you’re really pretty. Pretty bucking gorgeous. And I really, really, really wanted to kiss you, so if you want to ask why, just know the answer is ‘why not?’”
Siren snorted and then was quiet for a moment. 
“You’re overly cocky, you know that?” she said with smirk on her face, the first of which I had ever seen and the first of which almost melted my heart into a fiery puddle.
“I’m a dead pony. I’m allowed to be. Oh, and don’t do that again.”
“What?” she asked.
“The smirk. You almost became my executioner.”
Her laugh sped across the night sky like a shooting star and warmed me up faster that if I were burning up in the atmosphere. I sighed and laid on the bottom of my cell, so happy I could just die right there.
“I think I should get going.” She said after a while of sitting there in silence with me. “It’s getting dark and unless you want to give me some better answers, I have to get back to the heroine barracks.”
“Siren?” I said as I heard her steel armor gently scrape against itself as she got up and the door creak open just a few seconds later.
“Yes?”
“Goodnight. If I die tomorrow, I want you to know I really love you.”
Siren was quiet for a second as she digested my words.
“Goodnight Deft. I hope you’re not dead tomorrow. Tonight was fu…eventful.” She said, closing the door behind her and leaving me to my thoughts. 
The feeling of warmth and content seeped away from me as the cold night winds and the realization of the punishment that would be enforced from my actions chilled my soul. If I had just gone quietly in the first place, after I had just stolen the produce, I would have to give it back and maybe loose a hoof. If I stopped after attacking the city guard, I’d probably get away with just a hoof chopped off, my cutie mark being branded over, and probably exile from Oattara. Not impossible to live a happy, long life afterwards.
But after attacking Siren…my destiny was set.
“Awww, man. Shit, shit, shit, shit!” I said to myself as I pounded a hoof against the metal bars that comprised my cell. It was all going to end tomorrow. What were these sixteen years’ worth? Anything? Something? And what a way to go. Getting caught at what I do best. What a failure. And maybe the family would miss me for a while, but the newborns and the new orphans would take the attention off of one of the many the family had lost over the years. So what the hell was this all for?
I thought about it long and hard, until the winds picked up and shook me and the cage around so fast I saw the stars above me spin in circles. But as hard as I thought, I couldn’t make out why this had happened. The only conclusion that I could come up with was that this whole venture had just been to find Siren, a pony I truly loved, and then escape and…then more events would follow. Hopefully. If not, if I died tomorrow, well, at least I could say I found Siren.
With that thought, I fell asleep. It wasn’t an uneasy sleep, but it sure as hell wasn’t comfortable either.

“Wake up Deft Hooves. It’s time.”
“Adjhfdiuaiuhfjbeiubaubdjjhatypingjibberjaber.” I said confused and bleary from sleep as the door of my cage opened and I was dragged roughly from it and into the entry room of the Central Citadel. I was dragged to my hooves by two strong legs under me and then was pushed through a door and sandwiched behind hulking pegasi 1 and in front of hulking pegasi 2, or the two guards from the night before. 
Any rose is just as rosey by any other name, so the hulking pegasi twins led me down staircase after staircase after staircase until we came out into a room with a large winch and a heavy metal bucket.
“Oh no.” I said as they shoved me into the bucket and then started to operate the winch, knowing I wouldn’t try to jump from the bucket as it lowered me what seemed millions of feet. But then again, they probably didn’t care if I jumped out or not. Anyway, I landed after maybe an hour-judging from how much sun was in the sky when I started out from my cell and how much sun was up now-and I was “helped” out of the bucket by even more guards. Though this time, they were a hulking earth pony and a hulking unicorn.
I wondered if all they ate were steroids as they left me down even more stairs and then through a labyrinth of corridors and corners. Yet, I remembered every turn and twist and every step we took until we passed through an ornate glass door and we walked into the Chamber of the Lords.
Oattara is a strange city by many means, but in terms of the N.E.E, it was even stranger. This was because the Great Empress Twilight Sparkle the Second allowed for Oattara to keep its original form of government: an Oligarchy of the various merchant Kings and Ancient Clan Houses, simply call the Council of the Lords. In this room, the Chamber of the Lords, they met to hammer out the needs of the city, which meant the needs of the wealthy who could afford it and the slaying of poor criminals. Guess which one I was.
The Council of the Lords sat in different thrones in a semi-circle that was raised in front of a large sand-filled arena that could serve as a place for games, fighting, plays, entertainment, and executions. Behind them in similar levels rose seats for the wealthy who were not as prestigious as the Lords themselves, but garnered some pull or control of a family or resource or a trading deal. The Hero candidates and Heroines also had seating and I could see many were here awaiting some entertainment between training. All the faces looked on at me in boredom, except for one. Except for one mare with a silver coat and a dark brown mane. She wore a mask of worry. I loved to see her, but I didn’t want to see her like that. Not now.
I was led to the Chairpony of the Council, thrown down onto my knees, and I saw that the Chairpony had a familiar pair of emerald-green eyes, even though his coat was a shining gold and his mane was an angry argent. All in all, he looked like wealth if it were alive. He wore a pendant of an eight sided starburst and I knew whose father he was. 
“Deft Hooves. You have been charged with various accounts of theft, assault on innocent civilians, helping and assisting in crimes, assaulting city guards, and assaulting a heroine candidate. What say you?”
“I can see where Siren gets her fierceness and those pretty green eyes. Is it ok if I marry her?” I asked, bluffing smoothness when my consciousness screamed “HOLY SHIT BALLS!  YOU GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Murmuring broke out in the Heroes and Heroines seating and some chuckling from the Lords. I looked up and saw one mare had started blushing again and wore a small smile this time. I do love it when she blushes. Not to mention that smile almost saved the executioner a grisly job right there.
However, her father did not approve of what I said half as much as his daughter did. He looked at me shocked for a moment, cast his eyes over towards where Siren sat, and then back to me. This time, his eyes were truly emeralds, just as green and just as hard. 
“You can talk to me about my daughter after this proceeding. If you survive. How do you plead to these charges, Deft Hooves?” he spat.  
I thought long and hard, knowing there was only one answer. However, I tried to think my way out of this situation. I didn’t have a chance if I was held against the Council in a trial and I didn’t have money to pay my way out of this, so there was only one path left to escape. 
“I think you already know that answer, Chairpony. But, before any trial is conducted, I wanna do this by combat.” I said, making a gasp and a buzz of whispers go through the circling rows of the elite. I saw Siren’s face go ashen and I gave her a smile that was ten times braver than I truly felt.
“Deft Hooves, there has not been a trial by combat since before the rule of the New Equestrian Empire. What you ask for is outdated and foolish.” The Chairpony stated, a little surprise in his voice.
“I’m not the Fallen Star, that much is true, but that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to fight like him. Everypony knows his story and the story of his fight. Let me try to match it.” 
The Chairpony looked to his other council members with a torn expression. They quickly conferred for me though.
“Let him fight. It is interesting to see such a…spirited young stallion in this day and age.” Said one skinny mare with sharp eyes. She looked at me with a strange hunger and when she smiled I could see her teeth were filed to points. I repressed the shudder she gave me.
“Yes, it is always good to have entertainment before breakfast. It whets the appetite.” A massively fat stallion said from his reclining throne/bed. 
“If anything, it will be good training for the heroes and heroines. They can all learn from a good match.” The Chairpony’s right had Councilor said. 
“Fine. All those in favor of a battle to the death…”
Almost every Council member’s hooves went up into the air. 
“It is settled then.” He said before turning to the stands, the heroes and heroines seating in particular. “Glaive Morninglight. This battle is yours.”
A toughly built stallion stood from his friends in the stands. He was taller than me and looked three times as big and just as mean. “It would be my honor.” He said as he stomped down the steps to the arena. I gulped when he jumped from the stands to the arena sands, barely flinching as his heavy steel armor clattered around him. He looked at me with ice-blue eyes and his shock of black hair seemed to frame the anger he had in his face.
“Shit.” I said under my breath.
“Choose your weapon, scum.” He yelled to me from across the arena. He was trying to intimidate me as he drew his magnificent long sword.
“The best we had in the alleys were nothing but shoddily made daggers. I’ll fight with one of those.” I replied. 
Morninglight snorted, but unsheathed his dagger and tossed at sand in front of me. I picked it up shakily in my mouth, something I tried not to do often in a knife fight, and readied myself as I saw my executioner ready himself.
But, the gods decided that I would not die here.
A messenger came bursting in through the doors of the Chamber of the Lords and screamed out a single message that made me smile, because I was saved, but my heart became ice as I wondered what it meant.
“Doom! Doom has befallen Oattara!”