As the days leading up to the election for Chief Judge passed, the violence grew stronger and stronger. The Judges were working over time. Reports of mutant murders came flooding in; so did reports of normal pony murders. It seemed the mutants were standing up for themselves.
Dash hadn’t slept for forty-eight hours; but that didn’t bother her. What bothered her was the injustice in the city: Why did the “Norms” have to violent and hostile towards the mutants? They were ponies after all; just with an extra limp or two. It was bothering Dash so much that she had become more violent herself.
She was walking down a street when she heard some angry shouting. She galloped towards the source, holding her baton tightly in her mouth. She stopped at the entrance of an alley, and, low and behold, there was a group of four ponies beating up two mutants. Dash raced towards them, “Stop where you are! This is the law!” she shouted.
“Grud! It’s Dash!” exclaimed one of them.
“Get her!” yelled another.
“Looks like it’s going to be the hard way then.” she muttered under her breath.
The first was extraordinarily eager: he threw a punch at her; Dash grabbed his fist, broke it backwards and smashed her baton into his side. The second came from behind: Dash kicked him square in the face with her rear hooves. The remaining two looked at each other, contemplating whether or not to try their luck. Dash casually retrieved her lawgiving from under her right wing and cocked it; that was a good excuse to run away... and so they did. They didn’t make it out of the alley however; Dash saw to that.
“Control, I need a meat Chariot. Got two wounded and two dead.” she said over the radio. As she was doing that she noticed the mutants lying on the ground. “Make that four dead.”
“Good evening Cantorlot, this is Flim and Flam with the 6 o’clock news.”
“That’s right Flam, and the question on everyponies lips’ is who will be the next Chief Judge of Cantorlot? Will Judge Luna take the title from Chief Judge Celestia? Or will Celestia retain her title? Tonight we hear from both Candidates.”
“That’s right Flim. We will give each candidate two minutes to say why you should vote for them.”
“That’s right Flam. Just a reminder here from Justice Department: All voters must be eighteen or over and must produce identification.”
“Thanks Flim. Well without further ado, here are the candidates.” The news desk vanished and Celestia’s office came into view. She was sitting at her desk with a serious look upon her face.
“We all know what this is about, so i’ll get straight to the point.” she began. “You either agree with allowing mutants to return to the city, or you don’t. It’s too late now to change anypony’s mind, and I won’t try to. For good or ill we opened are doors and invited them in – people upon whom we have perpetrated a long-standing and systematic injustice. To turn them away again – many to their death – would be an act of inponyanity that will stain our name forever. Vote with your conscience.” Celestia’s office faded and a hospital ward appeared with a single bed. Lying in the bed was Judge Luna.
“I regret... this address must of necessity be short...” she stammered. It was clear that she needed further medical attention. “My opponent has in so many ways... been an excellent Chief Judge, yet on one issue been wrong... disastrously wrong... If left uncorrected I believe the mutant act could destroy us... destroy our integrity as ponies. So I say... Judge Celestia, I respect you... I honour you... but for the city’s sake, go.”
The news desk came back into view.
“There you have it folks, the two candidates. The voting will start at 9am tomorrow morning.”
“That’s right Flim. Remember to go to your sector’s hall to vote.”
“That’s right Flam. One final reminder from Justice Department: No weapons of any kind are allowed; they will be checking. And no violence, you have been warned. That was 6 o’clock news with Flim and Flam. Goodnight.”
Dash had been assigned to sector 3’s hall and of course public didn’t heed their warning. Over four-hundred firearms were confiscated within the first two hours and over one-hundred arrests were made due to violence. Anything from jeers to hand gestures were considered an offensive. The mutants were allowed to vote too; resulting in the unnecessary violence. After some demonstrations of what would happen to somepony who decided to be violent – at the hands of Dash herself, the violence soon ceased and the voting continued as normal.
“Good evening Cantorlot. This is Flim and Flam with your 6 o’clock news.”
“That’s right Flim. Tonight we reveal the winner of the election for Chief Judge. The final votes are being counted as we speak.”
“That’s right Flam. We’re all on the edge of our seats here folks.”
“That’s right Flim. Chief Judge Celestia has refused an interview with us – what do you gather from this Flim.”
“She’s probably too busy packing her desk. She knows the game’s up.” As Flim finished his sentence, a pony came onto the set and whispered in Flam’s ear.
“I’ll have to interrupt you there Flim. I’m just the result is in – Holy Equestria! Quite... quite remarkable. We expected a close result, but never this... It’s Luna! Luna by a landslide! Judge Luna is the new Chief Judge of Mega-Cantorlot one.”
To be continued...