“Miss Sparkle, please tell the court exactly what happened on the night of the 22nd.”
The courthouse was silent as the prosecutor approached the defendant. All eyes were on the purple unicorn mare sitting before the court. A magical shackle was bound around her horn, preventing her from casting any spells. She looked into the cold eyes of the stallion questioning her, and tried to speak as clearly as possible.
“As I have told you before, I spent four hours doing research, in which time I had a few drinks. I then went for a walk to get some fresh air, I returned home, and I went to sleep.”
“During that walk, did you go to the house of Flash Sentry?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you go there, Miss Sparkle?”
“I don’t really remember.”
“Was it to confront him about his affair?”
The mare sat in silence and looked away from the prosecutor.
The stallion looked up at the jury and walked slowly toward the judge’s bench. “How long had you and Mr. Sentry been together? Your testimony says one year.” He turned back to look at the defendant. “When did you find out he was unfaithful to you?”
“On the 22nd," she replied. "I had suspected it for some time, but he finally confessed it to me. He said he was tired of all the sneaking around. We argued for a bit and he left.”
“And you followed him.”
“Not at first, no, I did some research and had a few drinks first.”
“Research on what, Miss Sparkle?”
“How to operate a firearm.”
A murmur went through the court, and the jury scribbled notes on their clipboards. The prosecutor went back to the table to look at the mare. “Then what?” he asked, tilting his head.
“I bought a .38 revolver and went to his house. I saw the silhouettes of him and his mare in the window, and I watched.”
“With what intention did you go there?”
“I’m not really sure. I think I just wanted to scare them.”
“What did you do next?” the prosecutor asked, staring unblinkingly at the mare.
“I watched until the lights went out, I turned around, and I left. On my way home, I threw my revolver into the Fillymak River. These are all things I have stated for you before,” the mare said, returning the prosecutor’s glare.
“I’m aware, Miss Sparkle, but the part I still don’t seem to understand is why was Mr. Sentry and his mare found the next morning RIDDLED with .38 caliber bullet holes?! Now, is that just coincidence?”
“Yes it is,” the mare replied quietly.
“And you still claim to have thrown your weapon into the river before the murders. Law enforcement checked that river for days and they found nothing, so no comparison could be made between your gun, and the holes in those poor ponies’ corpses. Convenient, wouldn’t you say?”
“I find it to be quite the opposite, actually," the mare replied, her lip quivering slightly.
The prosecutor looked up to the audience and cleared his throat. “Mares and gentlcolts, all the facts have been put before you. We have hoof prints placing the accused at the scene of the crime, bullets strewn on the ground with residual magic signatures matching the accused, but most importantly, we have two young ponies that died in a horrible manner.
Yes, they had done something wrong, but did they deserve to die for it? Before I turn it over to the jury, let me leave you with this.” The prosecutor removed a .38 caliber pistol from the pocket of his suit. “This is the model of gun Miss Sparkle claimed to have purchased. It holds six shots. Eight shots were fired; each victim, four times. She fired every bullet into them, and stopped to reload, so she could give each of them an extra bullet—an extra bullet right in the head.”
The prosecutor slammed the empty weapon onto the table in front of the mare, and walked away. He gave one more look to the judge and the jury before taking his seat. The sound of the gun slamming against the wood table seemed to still be echoing through the dead silent courthouse.
At last, the judge cleared his throat. “The jury will now convene to determine a verdict, and if necessary, a punishment.”
“Your Honor,” a stallion of the jury said. “We have already made our decision.”
The judge looked over in surprise. “Well then, you may present your findings.”
A piece of paper levitated in front of the stallion, obscuring his face as he spoke. “We the jury, find the defendant guilty of both charges. We would advise the highest form of capital punishment.”
A sigh of relief went through the crowd as the verdict was read, and the victim’s parents hugged and sobbed into one another's shoulders. The mare who had chosen to represent herself during the trial, sat at her table with an expression of disbelief on her face. The jury member sat back down and the court went quiet again.
The judge looked at the mare with disgust. “Miss Sparkle, I find you cold and remorseless, and it chills my blood just looking at you. I wish there were a punishment I could give equal to that of your crime. Instead, I sentence you to two consecutive life sentences; one for each of your victims. May Solaris have mercy on your soul.”
The gavel slammed down and two guards hoisted the mare from her seat. The courthouse cheered as she was escorted out of the courtroom. She said nothing, keeping her head down as she walked.
----------------
The rickety bus made its way through the countryside, transporting a little more than twenty ponies. There were three armed guards, the driver, and eighteen ponies society had deemed unfit for social interaction. Twilight Sparkle was among those eighteen ponies.
She watched the scenery roll by through the barred window, comparing it to things she’d read in her books. The others on the bus stared similarly out their windows, likely contemplating their future, or regretting their past. The guards sat in the front seats, glancing to the back every now and then.
Eventually, the trees parted and a large stone building rose up in the distance. There were walls surrounding it on all sides, topped with barbed wire to deter any attempts at entry or exit. In addition to that, a strange, yellow aura encompassed the facility; its purpose was something Twilight could only guess.
The bus slowed and turned up the dirt road leading to the prison. Two armed ponies stood at the gate and watched as the bus approached. They gave a nod to the bus driver, and opened the gate with their magic.
Twilight looked out the window as the bus crawled up the path. There were chain-link fences along it, and several ponies in light-blue uniforms crowded against them. The inmates rattled the fence and hooted and hollered as the bus continued past them. More and more ponies made their way from the barren yard to watch the “fresh meat” roll in.
A small group of ponies stayed back and watched from the building’s wall. They’d seen enough poor souls brought in by that bus to know all they needed to from afar. The bus rolled to a stop just across from them, and two guards stepped forward to open the doors.
“Are you taking bets, RD?” a pink mare asked. She reached into her puffy mane and removed a shiny, red apple. “Because I neeeed to win this time! This is my last apple!”
“If everypony goes in, I’ll set the return three to one,” a blue pegasus replied, keeping her eyes on the bus.
“Hell, three to one? Count me in,” a white unicorn mare replied. She removed her sunglasses and wiped the grime from them. “Need to see what we’ve got this time.”
“Octie, are you in?” the pink mare asked, nudging the fourth member of their group.
“I won last time, I’ll let you three play this time,” the gray mare replied.
A small commotion at the gate made the four look up. One of the guards had levitated her nightstick out and started swinging it at some of the inmates. “Back off, all of you!” the unicorn mare shouted. Some of the inmates were trying to squeeze past to where the new arrivals were being unloaded, and the guards were having a hard time keeping them back.
“Looks like Rarity is in top form today,” the pink mare giggled. At that moment, Rarity the guard brought her nightstick smashing against a stallion’s face. His teeth cracked and blood trailed from his mouth. “Ooh, looks like he’s going to the infirmary!”
“Let that be a lesson to you all!” the guard shouted, sheathing her nightstick. The crowd backed off, and the stallion was dragged away. “Alright, get them out here,” the mare said to one of the other guards.
The bus doors opened and the two guards got out first. They stood by the door as, one by one, the eighteen new arrivals shuffled out. They were linked by shackles around their hooves and could only move as fast as the pony in front of them. The mare in front stumbled and caused a laugh to go through the crowd of inmates.
“Put my apple on the gray one!” the pink mare shouted, thrusting her apple at RD.
“Wait, which gray one?” the white unicorn mare asked.
“The one with the yellow mane! Right there!” The pink mare pointed her hoof at the mare that had just tripped. The mare stood up and looked around, her eyes unfocused and a look of nervousness on her face. “The goofy-eye one!”
“Yeah, yeah, I see her, Pinkie,” RD replied. She took a piece of paper from her rainbow mane and exchanged it for the apple. “Your turn, Vinyl.”
Vinyl looked around at the ponies and lifted her sunglasses to squint. “I’ll put five apples on the fat one, third from the back,” she said at last.
“Ten apples on the skinny green one, fourth from the front.”
The three ponies looked to Octie in surprise. She still had a careless expression on her face as she stared at the bus.
“Ten apples for Octavia then,” RD said, scribbling on a separate piece of paper.
“Come on, RD, pick one,” Pinkie said anxiously.
RD looked up from her paper and to the line of ponies being escorted into the building. It looked like a weak bunch to her anyway, and after seeing thousands of ponies led in, she could pick ‘em most every time. It was Twilight that caught her attention this time.
It was like she knew she was being judged, and she turned to look out at the crowd. Her eyes scanned it until she saw the four ponies standing at the back. For a moment, she made eye contact with RD before being pushed forward.
“I’ll put thirty apples on the purple one, second from the back,” RD said at last.
“Thirty apples?! Wh-which one, where?!” Pinkie asked, jumping up for a better view of the arrivals.
“The one walking like she has a stick up her ass—the unicorn at the back,” RD clarified. “Thirty apples says she sings first.”
“That one? Really? I think your judgment may be slipping in your old age,” Octie replied with a small laugh.
“Twenty years has only made me better at this, thank you very much,” RD replied with a scoff. She folded the paper and put it back in her mane.
Rarity stood at the large door to the prison and shoved the last of the new arrivals through. She gave one more look of disgust out at the inmates in the yard before slamming the door behind her.
------
The chains binding the inmates rattled as they were led through the dark corridor. It was much quieter inside the prison than out in the yard, but each of the ponies still felt a growing sense of unease. The dark corridor gave way to a large, empty room lit by what little natural light came in through the clouded windows.
Rarity silently commanded the group to stop when they were centered in the room. The new arrivals stood next to each other and looked around nervously. None dared speak as they awaited instruction. The two guards removed keys from their uniforms and began unshackling all the ponies.
“If you try to move, I will end you,” Rarity growled as she unshackled a pegasus’ wings. When the clanking of metal finally subsided, the guards stood up and walked to the door the ponies had entered through.
The sound of deliberately slow hoof steps came from the darkness, and a shadowed figure emerged.
“Greetings, new students,” the figure said gently. “Let me be the first to welcome you to Sawflank.”
The pony stepped from the shadows so all could look upon her. She was an alicorn; one that towered several feet over the tallest of the ponies. Everything about her was clean cut and precise; her suit, her polished shoes, the glasses that sat balanced symmetrically on her nose. Even her free flowing mane had order to it, somehow.
“You’re all here because you’ve done something wrong on the outside, but I assure you, when you come to Sawflank, your slate is wiped clean,” the alicorn said with a smile. She walked up and down the line of ponies, sizing them up individually. Her presence and tone were both calming; the four different hues of her mane were light, cheerful colors that seemed to match her gentle voice.
“While here at Sawflank, we will attempt to teach you how to act in a civilized manner so you may one day rejoin the masses. You’ll learn values such as kindness, honesty, generosity—”
“What a crock.”
The warden stopped in her tracks. The stallion that had interrupted her continued to look at the wall across from him. His lip trembled slightly as the warden approached him. The other ponies watched from the corners of their eyes as the warden stood still.
She looked into his eyes until the stallion ultimately had to blink. “But most importantly,” she continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted, “you must take responsibility for your actions.” The warden gave a nod to Rarity the guard, and took a step back.
Rarity grinned and levitated her nightstick from its sheath.
“I-I’m sorry, I--*CRACK*
The nightstick collided with the stallion’s head and sent him to his knees. Rarity then brought her hoof up forcefully right below the stallion’s chest. He gasped in pain and collapsed to the floor.
“Are you all brothers and sisters under Solaris?” the warden resumed, levitating a book in her yellow aura. “In addition to my own teachings, I recommend you supplement your education with the Good Book. You’ll find His teachings are similar to mine.”
The warden stopped in front of Twilight and levitated the book in front of her face. Twilight looked from it, and then to the warden. Her rose-colored eyes looked at her with a sort of motherly love that made Twilight uncomfortable. The stallion that Rarity had “disciplined” continued to moan quietly on the floor, and Twilight broke eye contact to look at him.
A hoof pressed gently against Twilight’s cheek and she turned to look back at the alicorn. “Do not stand before me in fear, stand with me in confidence, for I am The Light,” the warden recited, keeping her hoof against Twilight.
Twilight looked at her, and after a pause replied, “And with The Light comes darkness, but through me, you will know no pain, no anguish, or death everlasting. Book of Solaris, 3:22.”
A smile spread across the alicorn’s face. “I’m very pleased. You’ll do well here, my student.”
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief the moment the warden turned from her. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest and her face was red-hot. There was a ringing in her ears, but the way the warden suddenly looked up made her realize it was coming from the speakers on the walls.
“Get them to the delousing chamber,” the warden said harshly to Rarity. While Rarity was unsheathing her nightstick once more, the warden stood back, smiled, and said, “Welcome to Sawflank,” before disappearing back into the shadows.
The bleeding stallion was hoisted to his hooves, and he and the seventeen other ponies were led further into the complex. They reached a room that stunk of industrial cleaning agents and two more guards joined them. Twilight looked around the room and her nose twitched, recognizing the scent of lye.
“Alright, keep on moving, we have a schedule to keep!” Rarity shouted in a shrill voice. Twilight watched as the ponies in front of her were pushed through a doorway and into a room lit with red fluorescent bulbs. Steam hissed and poured from the doorway every time a pony entered, and the smell of lye increased the closer Twilight got.
When it was finally her turn to go through, Rarity gave Twilight an extra hard shove into the room. Immediately, scalding water was poured over her body and she let out a scream. The pony behind her pushed her further into the delousing chamber, sending her off balance and to the floor. She felt powerful hooves hoisting her up, and she opened her eyes to see her scared reflection in the goggles of a hazmat mask. Without warning, the pony in the hazmat suit pulled a lever and a cloud of lye poured down from above.
Twilight barely had enough time to close her eyes before the powder hit her. Her flesh tingled unpleasantly as the corrosive material coated her. She was given another push, and something was placed on her back. The sound of the hissing delousing chamber faded and she could hear the din of several anxious ponies.
“Into your cells, keep moving!” Rarity’s voice came audibly over the rest of the noise. Twilight opened her eyes and looked at the line of ponies in front of her. They were all shaking and covered in blotches of un-dissolved lye, and she assumed she must look like they did. Balanced on their backs were neatly folded prison uniforms that bore their inmate numbers.
There were guards looking at the uniforms as each pony approached them, and they gave them a shove toward their assigned cell. Twilight was pushed up the stairs and to the second level of the cell block.
“You’s a pretty lil’ filly, I can’t wait to get hold’a you!”
“You’re mine, purple!”
“Fresh meat! Fresh meat! Fresh meat!”
Twilight kept her head down as the hooves of prisoners reached out for her. They called to her longingly as she walked to the very end of the line of cells. The gate was already open and a guard was waiting with a key.
RD watched as Twilight walked past her cell, already feeling like she’d put her apples on the right horse. She smiled and resumed doing push-ups with her wings.
The cell door slammed behind Twilight and she turned to look at the guard. He paid her no mind as he turned the key in the lock. When he was sure the cell was locked, he turned and waved down to the first floor.
A buzzer sounded, and a secondary set of locks clicked on each of the cell doors. The guards all filed out and left the inmates to serve their sentences. Twilight set her uniform on her mattress and tried to clean herself up. A simple spell is all it would have taken, but a painful jolt went through her horn as she began to cast it.
Twilight grumbled, finally realizing what the yellow aura had been around the complex. It was a magic suppressant spell, much more powerful than the ones she’d learned to cast. Unfortunately, her studies never included how to undo such a spell, and even if they had, she knew she wouldn’t be able to.
She wiped the lye off as best she could before turning to her uniform. The number forty-two was stitched onto the pocket, and Twilight looked at it. She could only assume the prison reused numbers, and the original inmate forty-two had either been released, or…
Her hooves slid into the sleeves of the starched fabric and she clumsily buttoned it. Once again, it was a task she could have done with a simple spell, and she had to remind herself that it wouldn’t work.
Hours passed and Twilight simply lay on her mattress, staring up at the ceiling. The other prisoners were growing more restless, and making shouts and insults at the newcomers. Twilight tuned them out, but several of the others let it get to them. By sundown, the veteran inmates were breaking out their best insults, trying to get at least one of the newcomers to crack.
Their jeers were interrupted by the slamming of a nightstick against metal bars, followed by a yelp. “That’s enough out of you!” Rarity’s shrill voice echoed through the now silent cellblock.
Twilight looked from her cell and saw the unicorn had curlers in her purple mane. She had a fuzzy, pink bathrobe on instead of her uniform, and still managed to give off a sense of power and authority.
“As soon as those lights go out, I don’t want to hear another sound from here!” she shouted, looking up and down the rows of cells. She took the silence that followed as compliance, and turned to leave the cellblock. With a crash similar to that of thunder, all the lights in the facility went out.
Most of the ponies crawled into their beds; others stayed up and stared out of their cells. Twilight continued staring up at the ceiling, listening to the occasional whisper and unmistakable sounds of somepony clopping themselves off.
“Hey! Goofy eyes in 9A!” an anonymous voice called through the darkness.
The gray pegasus mare in cell 9A tried to ignore the voice. She’d been the victim of torment since arriving, and she just wanted to go home. She curled up on her mattress and put her head between her forearms.
“What are you in for? Possession? Murder? Foalnapping?!” the anonymous voice grew in excitement as it whispered its guesses. “Come on! Tell me, tell me, tell me!”
A weak whimper came from the pegasus in 9A, but no actual reply.
“Want to know why I’m in here?” the voice asked. “I’m here for the fun of it! Every day is a party!” There was a long pause, and the voice finally added, “Oh yeah, I also murdered all of my friends when I found out they didn't like my parties! Thaaat’s why I’m here!”
“Leave me alone,” the pegasus mumbled.
“Come on! You had to have done something for them to throw you in here!”
“I didn’t do anything, I’m innocent,” the pegasus replied, struggling to hold back tears. The ponies in the surrounding cells took notice of the harassment and began joining in.
“Don’t go lyin’, now,” one voice whispered. “We don’t like liars here in Sawflank. You know what we do to liars?”
A gruff voice answered the question by stating, “First, we hold ‘em down, then we spread their legs, and then—”
“Stop it, stop it,” the pegasus interrupted, her voice cracking. A series of laughs rang out in the darkness.
“Don’t you listen to them,” a third voice whispered. “Trixie believes you.”
The pegasus sniffled and looked around, her eyes unable to focus on anything. Across from her was a blue unicorn mare leaning up against her cell door. The voice had come from that direction, and the pegasus waited to hear it again.
“Trixie will protect you, crazy eyes." It had indeed been the blue unicorn that had spoken. "Of course, you’ll have to do Trixie certain favors in return.” The unicorn started grinding her hips against the cell’s bars and looked longingly to the pegasus. “Trixie has certain needs you’re going to fill as payment.”
“No, no, no, just leave me alone!” the pegasus shouted, looking to the unicorn in disgust. “I don’t belong here! I want out!” She broke down and started bawling like a foal on the floor of her cell, and loud cheers went through the cellblock.
“We have a winner! Goofy eyes wins it by a mile!” Pinkie shouted above all the noise. The whole cellblock broke out into commotion, further upsetting the pegasus. She continued wailing even after every other inmate suddenly fell silent.
“Just what in the ruddy hell is going on in here?!” Rarity shouted after storming into the cellblock. Her eyes scanned the cells, looking for the only remaining source of noise. “What did you not understand about not another sound?!”
“Shut up if you know what’s good for ya,” a voice whispered as Rarity stomped to cell 9A. The warning did nothing to stop the pegasus’ cries, and soon the guard was outside her cell.
“What is your problem?!” Rarity shouted, looking in at the pegasus. “Are you blind and deaf?!”
“Please! I don’t belong here! I just want to go home! Let me out!” the pegasus cried, reaching through the bars.
“You have two seconds to shut up before I make you shut up!” Rarity shouted, levitating her trusty nightstick to her side.
“I didn’t do it! I never hurt anypony! I don’t know what went wrong! I just don’t know what went wrong!”
Rarity levitated a key from her bathrobe and inserted it into the cell’s lock. “You’re about to find out what went wrong, darling!” she shouted. A buzzer sounded as the cell’s secondary lock was removed and the cell door swung open. The pegasus landed on the floor and tried crawling toward Rarity.
The sound of Rarity’s nightstick striking the pegasus echoed through the cellblock long after the pegasus had stopped crying. Twilight tried to tune out the thumping noises, but instead found herself visualizing every brutal strike. When the assault was over, the only noise came from the heavy breathing of Rarity. At some point during her rage, she abandoned her nightstick and took to kicking the pegasus, wearing her out completely.
“If I hear so much as a pin drop the rest of the night, I’ll see to it that the warden revokes meal privileges for a week!” Rarity stepped through the growing puddle of blood and back into the guard’s chamber. The buzzer sounded once more to indicate the cells were completely locked, and when it finished, none dared to make a sound.
RD sat and tried to get the noises from her head. Her thoughts soon turned to Twilight, and she pressed her face against her cell door. She could barely see cell 15B, but she could see Twilight’s shadow cast against the moonlight. It wasn’t often RD misjudged a pony, and it was even less often that she was completely wrong. During that whole first night, Twilight made not a single sound; costing RD thirty apples and a bit of pride.