Babs straightened in her bed and opened a newspaper. Technically, she wasn’t allowed to read it. The guards didn’t want to give her any informations about what had happened, hoping that she’d confess to some crime. There was always a guard behind the door of her room, carefully questioning anypony who wanted to talk to her.
It was, however, impossible to hold her like that for long. The nurses liked to talk, and the shots could easily be heard from the distance. As a result, the guards gave up and let Babs have an access to newspapers.
She checked out the article on the first page. The news about Lightning Dust’s stunt had already been old. Now, the paper was filled with descriptions of shootings, brutal murders, and the actions of brave guards, who were questioning every passerby whom they found suspicious.
Manehattan abhorred vacuum. After the boss’ death, the fights between the various factions of his empire started almost immediately. Babs knew that ambulances were bringing the victims of that war to the hospital every day. Each night she was staying awake, hoping that her family was safe and sound.
Not that they had taken it lightly. After the initial shock after she’d been raped passed, it was quickly replaced by disappointment, especially after Sunflower visited the hospital and learned about all those nights Babs had been “spending” at her place.
Babs put the newspaper on the nightstand and wiped her eyes. The memory of her parents’ looks was still haunting her. It was even worse than Sunflower’s reaction.
“Are you fuckin’ out of your mind?” her sister exclaimed, pacing around Babs’ bed. “What were you doin’ with that gun?”
“Sunflower!” their mother exclaimed. “Watch your language! We’re in a hospital…”
“I don’t give a fuck, mom!” Sunflower shouted and turned back to Babs. “I just wanna know how my little sister became a thug! A murderer’s helper! Hell, there’s even a whore in the corridor who claims that she’s your friend!”
“Nightcap is okay,” Babs muttered. “And that guy raped me if ya don’t remember! Lightning asked me to do somethin’ for her…”
“If she asked ya to shoot yourself in the head, would ya do that too?” Sunflower asked, rolling her eyes and blowing her mane off them. “Mom, I don’t get how ya can listen to her…”
“Maybe I would!” Babs exclaimed. “I wouldn’t have to listen to ya!”
“Sunflower, please…” Babs’ mother said. “Babs needs rest…”
“Fine!” Sunflower shouted. “Just don’t ask me for help when she lands in jail!” With these words, she left the room, slamming the door shut. Babs’ parents left soon after, not telling a single word.
It all happened two weeks before. Babs’ parents visits became rare. However, as soon as she’d recovered slightly from her wounds, other ponies started to visit her.
First were the reporters. Babs would never say it, but she was actually glad when the guard didn’t let them in. Then a psychologist came – a green earth pony mare with thick-rimmed glasses and mane tied in a bun. She sat next to Babs’ bed and took a notebook from her saddlebags.
“So… Babs,” she said. “How are you feeling today?”
“Better,” Babs replied and yawned. “I feel much better since I’ve heard that the guy who did it bites the dust. You’re wasting your time.”
“Babs…” the psychologist said. “Even if you feel well now…”
“Yeah, right…” Babs rolled her eyes. “Trauma and so on. I’ll tell ya when I have nightmares and ya’ll analyse ‘em as long as ya want. Okay?”
“Well, you don’t look like you were okay,” The psychologist looked into Babs’ eyes. “It’ll get better if you talk to me.”
“Fine!” Babs exclaimed, rising from her bed. “I was raped, I can get arrested, my own sister hates me, and I have to sit here and listen to ya!” She sighed. “Could ya give me some peace?”
The psychologist shook her head. “I’ll come back later,” she said. “You can tell one of the doctors if you need me.”
After she left, Babs lay back on her bed. She wanted to fall asleep, but soon the door opened and another earth mare entered her room. She was younger than the psychologist; she had purple fur and her dark mane was styled in two braids. “Hello, Babs,” she said in a soft voice. “My name’s Twinkie Defense and I’ll be your lawyer.”
Babs opened her eyes and looked at her. “I have a lawyer now? B-but I have no money...”
“Don’t worry about that,” Twinkie Defense said. “I volunteered. You see, there are hundreds of foals like you, who are forced to work for mafia… They made you do it, didn’t they?”
Babs smirked, but quickly changed her expression, seeing that Twinkie Defense raised her eyebrows. “O-of course,” she said. “L-lightning Dust came to me and told me that if I don’t help her get rid of the gun, she’ll kill my sister. I dunno who he killed with it...” She sobbed. “Then I’ve heard that she killed the mafia boss… Y-ya know, he raped me...”
“I’ve heard about that.” Twinkie Defense wiped her eyes. “Did you work for mafia before?”
Babs hesitated. At first she wanted to talk about drug delivery, but she wasn’t sure how Twinkie would react to that. Also, it’d mean Raz and Hedgehog would have problems too. “No,” she said. “I… I’ve heard other kids were deliverin’ drugs, but I’ve never done that…”
“Yes, it’s quite common,” Twinkie said. “That girl who was killed recently… She also was smuggling drugs.”
“White Dove?”
Twinkie Defense’s eyes opened wider. She looked at Babs curiously. “Have you heard about her?”
“I knew her from school,” Babs replied quickly. “She, umm… wanted me to join her. B-but we got into a fight.”
Twinkie nodded. She then wrote something in her notebook. “So, you’ve never did anything other than that?”
“No,” Babs said. “I try to stay outta trouble. It’s hard when ya live in such a place, but I’m not a bad pony…”
Twinkie wrote something in her notebook again. Then she raised her head. “I believe you,” she said. “Actually, I lived in such a neighbourhood too. That’s why I want to help you.”
“Thanks,” Babs muttered.
“You’ll thank me later,” Twinkie Defense said. “It’ll be a few weeks before you get better. We’ll prepare to talk to the prosecutor by then…”
It looked different than what Babs had imagined. There was just a judge, a prosecutor and Twinkie Defense. No jury and no audience. Babs thought that it was better – she wasn’t supposed to be tried as an adult, and since, according to Twinkie, the crimes she’d committed weren’t her fault, she hoped that she’d get away free.
Despite that, she shuddered when she entered the building of the court. During her stay at the hospital, she’d dreamed about that day. In some versions of that dream the judge would start to ask her about the dead griffons. In the other, she herself would admit that she’d killed them. Once she’d even dreamed that they’d appear in the courtroom themselves – rotting bodies, surrounding her, with their claws aimed at her.
So far, nothing like that happened. Her parents didn’t appear in the court; Babs thought that it was probably Sunflower’s fault. Her sister still didn’t want to talk to her and, what was worse, she’d managed to tell their mother about her suspicions. Babs walked down the corridor, Twinkie Defense trotting by her side.
For a moment, Babs hoped that Nightcap would appear in the court to support her. However, when she thought about her, she unconsciously clenched her hooves and gritted her teeth.
When the guard stopped watching her, she’d finally gotten rid of the last piece of Nightcap’s letter by tearing it apart to the smallest pieces she could and throwing them into the toilet. She’d, however, kept the beginning of it. She didn’t exactly know why – part of her wanted to go and strangle Nightcap for betraying her. The longer Babs thought about it, the less she cared. After all, Lightning Dust had done the dirty work for her and it seemed that Babs would only get a smack on her hooves. From what Twinkie Defense knew about the judge, he’d spent most of his career fighting rapists. She planned to show Babs as a rape victim to help him sympathize with her.
Twinkie Defense greeted an older unicorn with glasses trotting to them. “This is Mr. Jailhouse Rock, the prosecutor,” she said to Babs.
Mr. Jailhouse Rock barely paid attention to them. He looked at Babs, sighing and levitated some documents, as if he was comparing his notes about her to what he’d just seen. Babs looked at Twinkie Defense unsurely, but before she could say something, someone trotted to Babs.
“Hey! It’s you!” the mare said. For a moment Babs thought that she was Jailhouse Rock’s daughter. She had glasses too and her expression when she saw Babs was similar – a pure contempt, which, however, soon changed into a menacing smile.
“This is my new secretary, Grace Manewitz,” said Jailhouse Rock calmly. “Grace, dear, what do you mean? Do you know her?”
“Of course I know her!” Grace exclaimed. “I mean, I recognise her… She looks exactly like that cu– I mean, that filly who robbed my friend, Coco Pommel. Good to see that you’ve finally found her…”
Twinkie Defense looked at Babs. For the first time since they’d met, Babs shuddered and tried to shrink herself under her lawyer’s gaze. “Is that true?” she asked. “Did you rob Grace’s friend?”
“I don’t even know Coco Pommel!” Babs shouted. “Who’s she?”
“Answer the question…” Twinkie hissed.
“I can bring Coco in a few minutes, boss,” Grace said. “She lost all her money and one of those fucks tried to rape her…”
“Hey! I told him to stop!” Babs exclaimed. An image of a pale yellow mare appeared in her mind; their last “client”, before everything started to fall to pieces. It had to be Coco Pommel.
Jailhouse Rock looked like the Hearth’s Warming Eve came a month early. “So, you were there…”
Babs sighed, her head drooping. “Yes, I was. Happy now?”
Twinkie Defense gasped and gave Babs a nasty glare.
Jailhouse Rock didn’t smile. “I’ll talk with the judge,” he said. “Grace, dear, go and bring that friend of yours.”
An hour later, Babs was sitting in the courtroom, listening to Coco Pommel’s testimony. She’d recognised her immediately – it turned out that she’d gone to the guards after all. Babs’ facial composite had been lying, forgotten, somewhere in the station since then.
There were also others. The guards who’d caught Babs, Hope and Tricky Case. The psychologist from the hospital. Another guard called Baton Charge. Mr. Venn Diagram and the principal of Babs’ school.
Babs didn’t even protest. She knew she was guilty and she admitted that. Now she sat in her seat, hoping that the judge wouldn’t be too harsh for her.
“I’d say it’s an interesting case,” Jailhouse Rock said after listening to the last witness and Babs’ confession. “I’m not even sure if we should’ve put her on trial today.” He clicked his tongue and looked at Babs. “This filly is like a box of chocolates… You never know what you’re gonna get.”
Twinkie Defense sighed. “Can you spare us tired metaphors and get to the point?”
“Sure.” Jailhouse Rock smiled professionally. “At first it was just possession of an illegal firearm, and since said firearm had been used in a shootout, tampering with evidence. That could be, however, blamed on that filly’s stupidity, what my friend Ms. Defense tried to do. However, as we heard from the witnesses, Ms. Seed isn’t dumb. She’s, when she appears at school, quite a good student. She’s no dumber than an average teenager. Yet, she was also involved in assault and robbery. I guess it wasn’t the first time…”
“Objection,” Twinkie Defense said. “You have no proof…”
“Sustained,” the judge muttered.
Jailhouse Rock didn’t seem to care. “That’s why I don’t want to judge her today… I guess if we dug deeper, we’d find much more than that… I could send Grace to the railway station to ask, umm… the ladies working there if they know her.”
“They’re poor and they have to stand there for the whole day,” Twinkie Defense said. “If she showed them a bit, they’d testify that I keep dead foals in my basement. Even though I don’t have a basement.”
Jailhouse Rock sent her a nasty glare. “Who’s playing with metaphors now?” he hissed. “Anyway, I guess there’s a reason why a sixteen-year-old filly, who’s not dumb, is a friend with a gangster’s marefriend? And it’s a close friendship, because I don’t think Lightning Dust killed Mr. Estrangulador out of sheer sympathy for Ms. Seed…”
Twinkie Defense stood up. Hope, who was sitting in the first row of seats, sent her a meaningful look. “Have you ever seen the streets of Manehattan?” Twinkie asked.
“Excuse me?” Jailhouse Rock raised his eyebrow.
“The streets of Manehattan,” Twinkie repeated, sighing heavily. “You said that Babs is a wise filly. Do you know what happens when a wise filly from a poor family goes into the streets? She’s doomed from the very beginning. She has to fight everyday to survive; mafia, drugs, crime, prostitution… It’s a jungle. Only some of them make it. Most of them get tangled in the vines…”
“...and some of them plant vines themselves,” Jailhouse Rock deadpanned. He pointed at the psychologist. “We all heard what Ms. Racing Thoughts and the teachers told us. Ms. Seed is borderline sociopath. She despises any form of authority over herself. She doesn’t trust anypony. Ms. Defense, you say that many young ponies get tangled in the vines of the jungle Manehattan is. The ecosystem, as my assistant says. I must admit that it’s true. Yet, there are lots of ponies who made it. You, for example. Ms. Hope, who is present here, is another one. If I did my research correctly, even Ms. Seed’s sister – and remember that they both grew in the same bad neighbourhood. Ms. Seed made it even worse.”
Babs saw that Grace Manewitz rolled her eyes. She smirked; she thought that she knew who did the research for the prosecutor. Jailhouse Rock gave her a nasty glare and she immediately stopped smirking.
“Even though I want to believe otherwise, Ms. Seed isn’t yet another filly lost in the jungle,” the prosecutor continued. “She’s a predator. Not a jaguar… yet. She’s just a cub, but if we don’t do something, she’ll soon grow…” He gave out a silent chuckle.
Babs hid her face in her hooves. Jailhouse Rock didn’t even suspect how much she’d grown… Each of his words was right; yet, he underestimated her.
“So, you want to put her in jail,” Twinkie Defense muttered. “Rock, do you really think it’d help? Continuing your metaphor, she’ll either die or become an even bigger predator there…”
Jailhouse Rock clicked his tongue. “I’ve never said that I want to put her in jail,” he said. “If I learned something in my life is that nopony is beyond redemption. I’d rather teach her than punish…”
Babs looked at him unsurely. Then she looked at the witnesses and noticed that Hope nodded her head. She furrowed her eyebrows – the guard used to support her. Why did she suddenly started to listen to that old faggot? Babs thought. She reached to the place where her knife used to be. Too bad, both her knife and her jacket had been taken away from her. They’d even confiscated a remaining piece of Nightcap’s letter.
“Teach rather than punish…” Twinkie Defense smirked. “I’d never think you’d show that you have a soft heart, Rock. What’s the catch?”
“Have you ever heard of that new facility near Appleloosa?” Jailhouse Rock asked. “I think spending some time on hard work and, umm… some training would teach Ms. Seed the life in modern society…”
“So, you want to send her to a boot camp?!” Twinkie exclaimed. “Are you crazy?”
“Ms. Defense!” the judge shouted. “I think it’d be the best solution. I don’t want to put such a young filly in prison, but, as we’ve seen, her crimes were quite serious. First assault and robbery, then hiding the evidence… I think it’s better for her to spend some time in such a facility… Say, two and half years... instead of staying among the convicted criminals for much longer...”
Twinkie wanted to say something, but then Babs stood up. She was shuddering slightly, but she looked straight into the judge’s eyes. “I… I think it’d be better too,” she said with a sigh. “I… I don’t wanna go to jail…”
“Should’ve thought about that earlier…” Babs heard Tricky Case’s voice. She looked at him and saw that Hope was also giving him a nasty glare.
“Right then,” the judge said. He started to officially announce the sentence, but Babs didn’t listen to him. She lowered her head, hiding her eyes behind her mane.
She knew she didn’t deserve that. She deserved much more severe punishment. But, on the other hoof, she wanted to live. She wanted to walk freely, enjoying herself. Boot camp was much better than a small, crowded cell.
Babs knew she deserved to be punished. The very sight of Coco Pommel was enough to convince her about that. She was determined to spend her time in the boot camp well and walk out of it as a better pony. She understood what she did wrong…
...then why it was so hard to hold back tears?