//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Verdicts and Lockpicks 
// Story: Looking Through Windows 
// by ShadowThePony 
//------------------------------//

After few days later of slowly deteriorating sanity, Silver was roughly grabbed and carried out the cell door. He was grateful to see the outside again, even if that meant being slung over a vexated guard with hooves shackled. He cracked a smile as the mid-morning sun flitted along his face. He was carried to the familiar building that was town hall. He remembered the gruff voice of the prison food deliverer talking about his trial. He was brought into the courtroom and manacled to the chair. Mayor Mare was already on the judges stand, and one of his classmates, Wind Snarer, was doing an interview.


“...and Red Glory was...um…violent, I guess. Silver, he was angry at him for...I don’t know.”


Silver grinned. Wind Snarer and always been a snitch, but the growing pressure from the audience was pushing her to the breaking point.

“

That would be all Snarer. Will Red Glory’s family please step up to the stand.”


Silver snapped out of his stupor and looked up. Mayor Mare turned towards him and smiled. Her eyes were icy daggers, and there was no familiar glimmer of consciousness. It seemed her pupils were pits of pain. Silver shuddered. He then turned to the family, who were at the stand.


“Red Glory was a nice colt who cared…”


Silver put his head down in disgust. Naïve parents were common in Ponyville. During the midterm conferences over half of the mares and stallions objected to the sliding grades and bullying reports. Diamond Tiara’s father, Filthy Rich, looked close to blows while heatedly defending his filly. Silver observed that Diamond was the equivalent of Red, but she used words to snipe at ponies. A group of fillies took the blunt, but they seem to handle it better than him. He hated those kinds of ponies: the bullies and the naïve defenders.


“...and we wish that Silver Ocean is proved guilty, that son of a…”


“That is enough.” Mayor Mare cut off, seemingly reluctantly, “The jury will now decide the verdict.”


Silver shook his head. It had seemed that he had fallen asleep and missed the last few interviews. He watched Princess Twilight Sparkle step down from the stand and walk through a door in the back, deep in conversation with Mayor Mare. The guard pushed him off the chair and walked him to the door. The occupants of the courtroom shot him dirty looks as he was pushed out of the room. Whatever was said in the last hour of two had changed the outlook. He was walked back to his cell and sadly said goodbye to the nature around him as he walked into the desolate room. 


Silver had managed to straighten out a nail he had found, and with the ambition achieved from the small glimpse of the outside, he attempted to use it as a lockpick. After hundreds of unsuccessful tries (which include almost swallowing the nail) the door creaked open. He ran down the hallway and bounded up the stairs. He slowed as he rounded the desk where the visitor attendant usually resided. He sneaked pasted him as he refilled his coffee cup. Silver sprinted toward the door, but to great disappointment he was hit in the head by a hoof. Looking up, he saw a guard bring the iron-clad hoof onto his skull for a second time. This time, his vision faded, and hopelessness covered him. When his vision cleared, he found himself back in his cell, a stolid nurse tending his aching cranium. She finished wrapping the bandages and left. Silver sighed and rolled over, ignoring his head’s complaints. He remembered his flashback of the view of the cell window. A magical barrier covered the space in between the bars and prevented anyone from seeing, hearing, or overall interacting with the inhibitant and vice versa. Silver concluded that the isolation was causing his insanity, and it was happening fast.


Silver woke up in the courtroom. His fetlock was slightly bloody, and Silver inferred that someone and tranquilized him and brought him here. Mayor Mare clearing her throat got Silver to look up. He suddenly snapped to attention realizing what this was: his verdict.


“On behalf of the jury we hereby pronounce Silver Quill Ocean…”