Pictures of Me
Birds tweeted in through the barred windows to Featherweight's holding cell. The melody felt like freedom in song form, taunting him from the outside. He flipped faceup on his cot and held the rough pillow firmly over his head, wishing he could suffocate himself with it.
The sound of hoofsteps didn't budge him from where he lay, nor did the jangling keys and the creak of the door opening.
"I know you're my court-appointed lawyer but I have nothing to say to you," came the muffled voice from beneath the pillow.
The cell door shut and locked. "I'm not your lawyer, Featherweight," said the Princess of Friendship.
Featherweight removed the pillow and sat up, a curious look on his face. "Oh. Hello, Princess Twilight," he said. His eyes were red and puffy, and they refused to make contact with her face. "I'm going to guess you're not here to pardon me."
"Well... I'm here to talk," said Twilight Sparkle, her magical mane billowing behind her with the hues of the earliest shade of evening. "I'd like to understand a little more about your situation." She sat down on the cold floor of the jail cell so she could face him eye to eye on the bed, if only those sore eyes would face her back.
Featherweight huffed. "What's to understand?" he asked. "I was caught with foalnography. End of story. End of my stupid life."
"You were caught with pictures you took of yourself as a child," said Twilight. "This is an unusual case, legally speaking. You're the perpetrator on two counts—manufacture and possession—but you're also the victim."
"So should I pay myself restitution?" he joked. "What do you want from me?"
"It's not about what I want. It's about what serves the best interests of society," said Twilight. "The charges on manufacture have already been dropped, which is appropriate, but the possession is still a problem. I'd like to know why you never destroyed your pictures."
He shrugged. "I never destroy any of my pictures. That's not a 'why', though. It's just a habit."
Twilight sighed and gave a half-smile which Featherweight could glimpse out of the corner of his eye. "Featherweight, listen to me. As a somewhat reluctant princess, I understand how important it is to feel attractive to others. I can imagine that holding onto images of yourself as a handsome young colt, images you know some ponies would kill to see, would make you feel better about yourself. It isn't inconceivable—"
Featherweight looked Twilight Sparkle dead in the eye. "Stop."
Twilight leaned back in surprise. The young stallion's face had taken on a look of anger.
"I'm attracted to colts," he said.
"You don't have to—"
"I do have to. Okay? I'm not going to lie about this. I'm tired of living in fear and silence," said Featherweight, frowning. "I know how stupid it is to admit it, but I've been caught red-hooved and everypony knows what I am so I'm not going to go back to pretending. I like to imagine being a child again when I masturbate. I like to think of other children I knew back then. I keep the pictures because I use them. Kept, I mean."
Twilight sat with him in silence for a short time before she spoke again.
"I don't like the way the law works. You have a mental problem that should be treated, not criminalized—"
"There is no treatment, Twilight. We both know that. And as far as the 'mental problem' goes, I've never laid a hoof on a foal and I never would."
"I... see," said Twilight, pausing for a moment. "Do you have any questions for me?"
"What's going to happen to me, I guess, though if I were as smart as you I'd have found a way to kill myself already," he replied. "I just don't care. I can't live in Ponyville anymore, even if I get out of prison. Everypony who knows me knows what happened. You're the only visitor I've had. My parents won't even visit me."
A deep look of concern crossed Twilight's delicate muzzle. "That isn't right," she said. "It's unfortunate this has happened to you. I almost wish you hadn't been caught."
"Almost. That's real magnanimous of you," he said, narrowing his eyes. "At the end of the day, you're punishing me not because of what I did, but because of who I am. For something I have no control over. Do you want to know why I'm like this?"
Twilight grimaced. "I'm sorry, Featherweight. But yes, you can tell me."
"I was socially awkward when I was younger," he explained. "The only kids who would play with me were much younger than I was, so all my experiences with flirting were with really young kids," he said. "That's why I'm so screwed up inside. I never had sex with any of them, but it was enough to ruin me forever. I never asked to be like this."
"We want to do what's best for you, Featherweight, and this has been a learning opportunity," said Twilight. "We can try to help you now."
"Like I said, there's no help for me," he said. "And you still haven't told me what's going to happen next."
After a deep breath, Twilight spoke, "You won't be facing any jail time, but you'll probably be on probation for five years, and you'll be on the registry for the rest of your life."
Featherweight turned over and buried his head in the pillow. "I don't want to live," he mumbled.
"We'll have you in twenty-four hour mental care until we're certain you are no longer a danger to yourself. You still have a long life ahead of you, and things will get better."
A minute passed in silence, followed by the sound of the cell door opening and closing shut again.
Twilight Sparkle sat at the Cutie Map, idly squeezing a stress toy with her magic. Her section of the magical table was littered with legal papers. Lines of worry etched the corners of her eyes, and she sighed and tapped a hoof against her throne.
"It doesn't matter if it's self-inflicted. He's a danger to society," she said aloud to the empty room. The obvious truth didn't make her feel any better.
There was a loophole in the law, Twilight knew. The law itself didn't care about danger to society; that was the job of sentencing guidelines. The law only cared about what had happened, and in this case she could make the argument a typical pony might not have known the act of keeping the photos was a crime. Even if Featherweight knew what he was doing was wrong, that was enough leeway to justify a pardon.
"But then we can't force him into counseling," she said, and leaned back in her throne, eyes skyward. Above her dangled the magic memory trinkets from her earliest years in Ponyville.
One of the crystals caught Twilight's attention. It was the image of her friends bowing before Princess Celestia, begging for her mercy after she'd used an illicit spell on the entire town. Celestia hadn't needed to forgive her that day. Twilight had shown execrable judgment, and perhaps worse, proven that she didn't truly understand the purpose behind her friendship lessons.
But Celestia forgave her anyway, because she decided to place her trust in Twilight. It was a dangerous move considering what Twilight was capable of, but sometimes dangerous moves are worth the risk when a pony with an otherwise clean slate has their future on the line.
Twilight grasped an inked quill in her magic and hovered it over the pardon she'd already prepared. The risk here was at least as great. What if he molested a foal? He was certain to leave Ponyville once freed, in which case he'd most likely be under Luna's jurisdiction if anything were to happen. How could Twilight justify what she'd done?
The princess took a deep breath as a drop of ink spattered onto the paper, still waiting for her signature.
It was time to decide.
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Kinda brief and telly. Thought-provoking, sure, but it ends up missing a bit of 'meat,' if that's the right word. Some points where a silence or just heavy thinking might have added a little more impact to it.
Also, the cover art is a strange choice for this sort of story. Still, good for thought-provoking.
Edit: full disclosure, though, this is coming from someone who overthinks things way too much, and would have expected more twists as a result. It's good as a straightforward story.
8805946
I agree for the most part.
This is a story that would work well in a much longer form with actual choices, consequences, and character growth. But it'd be psychologically painful to write and wouldn't add to the message (for me at least), which is why I left it as a minific.
8805968
Yeah, I can understand that. Some stories are experiments, and I'd say this one's a successful one. I hope you get more feedback on it, gather some data for future works.
Interesting and valid issues.. I for one am glad I am not in Twilight's shoes FOR ANYTHING. From a quick glance this is strait forward but as they say the devil is in the details
i'd have pardoned him. no question. he was charged for the crimes and accused from pictures of himself. i frown at being considered a criminal for that. and he's made t clear he has never, nor would ever do anything.
This is good. I like this kind of questions. What is right and wrong? What makes right right and wrong wrong? If you were in the characters positions what would you have done and felt? Personally, I would have signed the pardon and I argue like this: I don't think it is right to imprison every man because they might rape a woman. Following that principle, a risk alone does not make a crime.
And then she did
And maximum expected number of ponies all lived happily after
In relation to the show itself I've always seen this:
bristlesbabbles.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/maxresdefault1.jpg?w=656
as a very similar kind of decision (with even higher stakes).
... And then Twilight deemed him guilty, which then set the legal parameters of foalnography.
The next day all the parents of Equestria was arrested for having foalnographic pictures of the newly born foals in their family albums....
8806255
Plus, what Featherweight wants and how it's approached aren't outside the realm of possibility. He says there's no cure. He's a pegasus, how would he know? Any qualified unicorn can burn it out of his mind and no longer make his illegal desires a risk. Likewise, he can be given therapy and false memories, but would he still be himself? Getting into issues of nature vs nurture there. Or he can take the harmless indulgence route. This is a setting where regression spells have been shown to exist, consenting adults can be regressed for a time. Heck, an animated doll could do the trick.
It's probably the wealth of options that makes the open ending such an appealing option. There's a lot of ways for it to go well beyond Twilight's decision, but there's a lot of ways it can end horribly, horribly wrong for everyone involved.
I'd have pardoned Feather, they're only pictures of himself and that alone was what he was accused for. He hasn't actively done anything wrong, and from the looks of it, he really doesn't want to molest anyone. The very idea alone seems to sicken him. Very thought provoking story.
I wish more people were like Twilight here. Everyone is so obsessed with punishment these days. No one has any empathy for criminals.
8806110
There is an enomous difference between a pedophile and a man. Use another example.
8806998
Perhaps a highly autistic/shy man who has no hope of having sex unless it is rape?
(I'm not saying autistic = rapist here, this is just a fictional example.)
8806332
I think you kinda intended to reply to Makuta, not me
I would pardon him. He is no criminal, he just has a mental illness that he needs to learn to live with. Then again I would not need to pardon him, when he made the pictures he would not have been able to be convicted, therefore the charges of production are moot. At best his parents might be convicted because they did not have enough of an eye on their foals activities. The photos were made by himself, of his own free will without any coercion, therefore there is no victim. No Victim = No Case.
8807147
The charges that weren't dropped were related to him keeping the images as an adult. If ownership is a crime, he's guilty for what he's done only recently. (I'm not arguing for or against it, just explaining the legal rationale.)
8807392
True. If you take the letter of the law. But the reason why such images are illegal in the first place is due to the mental damages inflicted on the victim by their creation and continued existence. Since there was no victim, there are no damages done which technically robs the pictures of what made them illegal in the first place. But that is as stated just a technicality and the letter of the law tends to be more often than not be treated as gospel. In my humble opinion, pictures of yourself you make yourself of your own free will should never be illegal no matter what they might depict.
He should be pardoned as they were pics of himself, and if they were naked, MLP ponies are naked most of the time.
8807478
they were not simply nudes. That would not be pornographic in nature and therefore not illegal. They become illegal once they fulfill one or more of the following criteria: The person depicted is in some manner visibly aroused (Hard penis, wet vagina, etc)
The person is touching himself or others in a clearly sexual manner (Masturbation, petting)
The picture shows sexual intercourse of any manner
Since he stated to have never interacted with the subjects of his desires (colts of a vastly younger age then him at that time) we can assume that the pictures at least depicted him in a state of arousal if not outright while masturbating
mind: This was the law here in Germany the last time i bothered to check. I do not claim that this is universally right.
And... you're in the featured stories scroll on the front page... again.
8807130
No, I was replying to you. You make a good point about Twilight looking out for the best possible result for everyone. My take on it is that she might find a solution even Featherweight hasn't considered yet.
Starlight is another good comparison: she didn't want to do evil deeds, she wanted her friend back and her means were evil, while her revenge was so petty she didn't realise she had what she wanted right at her hooftips; all she had to do was change history to keep Sunburst around or even follow him. But she got what she wanted in the end because another solution was offered.
8807916
I do that sometimes, yeah. Unfortunately I'm not hitting the larger box (the one that includes Mature stories)—there was too much porn in the box this weekend.
(This is actually one of my worst stories rating-wise, but it's easier to hit the box on a Monday.)
8807101
Why use the word ¨man¨ again? gender and mental illness are two different things.
A better example would be;
-Would you let a psychopath runs free because he said he woudn't kill?
-Would you let a pedophile runs free because he didn't do anything yet?
interesting story
always remember there's a difference between child abuser and pedophile
That's why common sense should also play a role in lawmaking. Are they going to jail colts who masturbate in their sleep for foalrape too? I mean, they couldn't give consent, right? They were asleep.
I read this shortly after it came out. Sorry for not commenting until your blog poked me, but... I'm really not sure what to think here. This is such a tangled knot of moral and ethical issues that I don't feel like there's any right answer. Every option sets a dangerous precedent.
Put bluntly and flippantly, it's a Tricky story.
8808608
Well first you have to explain to me what the differences is between a man and a pedophile (yes I am serious). Does being a pedophile somehow prevent you from being a man? Or a woman for that matter? My point in my argument was that that one has to be consistent in ones beliefs. If I think that by simply being a risk is not enough to be imprisoned then that has to hold true for everything. So if men are a risk for women but I do not think that is enough to justify their imprisonment I must thereby also say that just by being a pedophile and a risk for children, you are not a criminal. And yes, the same goes for psychopaths.
As for mental illness: Just being a psychopath for example is not illegal and should not be. Murder however is. Yes there is a risk. But If being a risk is enough for imprisonment then you have to be consistent.
8808702
You are comparing the risk of a voclano to the risk of a stick and a stone.
8808931
Prove it.
8808931
Actually this isn't true. We can't assess the risk without knowing what proportion of pedofoals offend, and the taboo is so incredibly strong it's impossible to assess how many people are secretly attracted to children. It could be a substantial portion of the population, in which case the analogy would be comparable. Plus rape of adults is more common than sexual abuse of children.
8808087
)
A teeny-tiny nerdy correction: there is no such thing as "best possible result for everyone" in the presence of multiple conflicting interests --- only lots and lots of Pareto optima. Realization that even in the very best and happy case Twilight will have to trade off one Pareto optimum for another is a major source of unease here (in addition to reasoning on incomplete information).
(rational choice theory, yay!
8808608
I don't see fundamental difference from example with men here: if I remember correctly, psychopathy prevalence in population is ~1%, so there are ~7*107 psychopaths in the world and most of them are running free and not killing anyone (like most of men are running free and not raping anyone). Although prevalence among prisoners is significantly higher, so psychopathy is indeed a Bayesian evidence of being a bad guy,
8806110
Yea that’s one of the reason I hate the whole involuntary incarceration for mental patients things. It’s locking up people for the possibilty they might commit a crime, not the action it’s self. And that’s a short road to authoritarianism there.
And on top of all of that from what I’ve heard “Prisoners” at mental institutions are on average less likely to commit a violent crime then your average person. Hell, if you’re going by probability of commiting a crime a justification for incarceration, myswell arrest all black ghetto teenagers while you’re at it.
Edit: Fuck mobile keyboards
8809619
Not directly killing anyone, just becoming CEOs, politicians, and doctors so that a blue-collar worker is paid so little that she can't afford to pay Grandpa's incredibly expensive medical bills...
8878271
Unfortunately that kind of stuff doesn't necessary require the presence of evil guys among politicians and CEOs at all
"To modify an old aphorism: usually, when things suck, it’s because they suck in a way that’s a Nash equilibrium."
Topics like what the appropriate age to be considered of age of an adult, what rights are where and why has always been of huge interest. And how times change things. Even just in my lifetime. I just wish that talking openly and considering all points of veiw wrong or not, ya know like thinking adults, turns a lot of people into rage machines.
Interesting topic to be tackled. Could be expanded more. Though I love th open endedness of the ending leaving readers to decided what they think the best course of action
This is going to be the rare story I read and do not review because I simply have no thoughts on it. None whatsoever.
10914307
That's an interesting thought.
10914379
Definitely fine with the T-rating though.
8806895
I'm looking at this comment years later and continue to be saddened by the number of downvotes it received for merely suggesting people should have empathy for criminals. Most bronies learned very little from Friendship is Magic.