Descrpition: Rainbow Dash gets pinned for murder. She's put on death row, but the ideal of death row is being upheld in Equestrian Court as the other elements of harmony fight night and day to save their friend.
The idea was conjured up by Twilight because she knows how to fight Equestrian legal system and get changes implemented. In the mean time, Dash starts writing letters to Twilight and the rest of her friends.
SPLAT.
Several sickening crunches filled the otherwise silent morning air as a body tumbled through the dew laced grass. A gust of air temporarily flattened the blades of grass as the pegasus, who had been carrying the pony that now lay before her, landed next to the still warm body. Nearly silent sobs filled the vacant air around the two. She had broken the one rule of flying. The only one. Now, laid before her was the results of her arrogance. The pegasus bent down and curled up next to the warm, yet damp corpse. Her body racked with the guilt of her accident.
The multi-colored mane of the pegasus jostled lazily as she walked into the room, an orange jumpsuit clung uncomfortably tight to her athelthic form. The word 'Jailbird', signifying her race, was emblazened in black across the back of the jumpsuit. She stopped and surveyed the room. A small variety of similarly dressed ponies sat in a semi-circle around a mat in the middle of the room.
An orange uniform was standard, and manes were kept to a 15 inch length for mares, and 10 inch for stallions. The nearly uniform dress style hit the downtrodden pegasus hard as she surveyed the group before her. She had considered herself to be unique, different than the other ponies of the world. Yet here, she looked nearly identical to those that surrounded her, save for her unique mane.
Her ears flickered as the door slammed loudly behind her, the noise was accessed by the cavernous stone walls of the room. As the door slammed, another door opened and a white unicorn mare in a light brown police uniforn proceeded into the room. A wooden clipboard, ink bottle, and quill hovered lazily in the air around the unicorn, which moved with her as she walked.
The pegasus walked into the midst of the crowd and filled one of the various empty spots of the semi-circle around the mat. The unicorn had reached the middle of the mat, and laid down. The ink bottle now sat idly upon the blue mat, and the quill was scratching something upon the clipboard.
As the quill stopped its movements upon the parchment, the aura around it dissipated and the quill flitted slowly to the ground. The unicorn looked up from the clipboard and out to the crowd, the orange conglomeration assaulted her eyes. The eyes of the unicron surveyed the group of newcomers in front of her, before she cleared her throat and spoke. "Welcome to your first meeting. During these meetings we will conversewith each other."
Sighs of dismissive disgust rose from various members of the group. The unicorn snorted with nuisance as she rolled her eyes. "That was to be expected. No, it will not be just to me. You will use these sets of alloted times to grow to know one another, while you serve out your sentences."
A few sighs of relief sang out from a handful of them, a fear crushed. Cutting the chance for further intteruption, the unicorn continued. "Today, however, you will being using this time to explain why you are here, since the vast majority of you are newcomers. Now, if one of you would be so kind as to volunteer first. Otherwise, I'll pick based off which of you criminals looks the most interesting."
Tension surfed its way through the members of the group, none of them willing to stand up and introduce themselves because they'd be remembered as the one to do so. Neither did any of them want to run the risk of being randomly selected. Seconds snailed by as indecision reigned over the group.
The silence that had fell upon the group was shattered as a sigh escaped the unicorn. Her body tensed slightly as she went about making her decision of who to pick first, since none of the cowards in front of her seemed to be willing to choose for her. Her eyes surveyed the group of twenty two ponies in front of her. None seemed to stand out, except the seven unicorns in the group and the multi-color maned pony. Intrigued by the theme of the mane, she rose a hoof and pointed at the pony. "You. Stand up. Speak. Tell us your name, age, and why you are here." The hoof of the pony jerked forward slightly with each pause, reinforcing the words spoken.
The pegasus shuffled her legs uncomfortably, the fabric of the jumpsuit had pulled at a few loose hairs as she stood up and felt the weight of twenty two pairs of eyes bore into her. Indecision took over, as she contemplated how to word her introduction. A slight sigh escaped her before she spoke. "Hi."
A chorus of similar greetings sang out before she could make any further progress. Nibbling at her lip with indecision, she spoke again. "The name is Rainbow Dash."
Another chorus of greetings met her ears. "Why am I here? I murdered somepony." At this, some members seemed to shuffle a little bit, a futile attempt to put a little more space between them and the admitted life ender. Others, however, took on a look of slight pity as everyone in Equestria knew what kind of sentence murder eventually carried out in Equestrian Society. This did not escape the pegasus, however. "Now, look, it was an accident, I swear. I know some of you won't believe me, and I don't blame you, but it's the truth." Several pairs of eyes rolled at this.
The unicorn raised a hoof and interrupted Rainbow Dash. "Murder is a heavy charge and won't earn you many friends here. You deny it, but so far we know nothing about what happened. Care to fill us in on the details?"
Indecision decided to show its face again while Dash stood there doing nothing as she contemplated on what to say. She could lie, put on a good face from the start and be better accepted, or she could tell the truth; which might not have been as bad as she thought, but be less accepted. Admittedly, she had already come to terms with her guilt, despite the circumstances that led to the death of the pony she had accidently murdered.
She decided to go with a mix of truth and lies. "I took somepony flying, and I dropped them on accident. I did a trick, they lost their grip, and went flying like a bullet into the ground. It was arrogant, stupid, and I should have known better. I did not intend to kill them, the thought never even crossed my head as I took her up."
A white hoof stopped her speech. "You must have forgotten what you were taught in flight school. One of the first points ever driven into the thick skulls of the pegasi is to never, ever, take someone flying."
"That's why I said my decision was arrogant. I knew the consequences, but I did not listen to them. I listened to a friend who really wanted to go flying."
"Ah, and now you're paying the ultimate price. The mercy table is awaiting your timely arrival one day, that much is for sure."
"Mercy table?" The term had caught the pegasus off-guard, a kernel of fear had planted itself into her response.
"The electric table. The preferred method of execution in Equestria, unless you wanna appeal for a different method of death." The unicorn's voice was vacant, set in an arctic tone that came from practiced repetition devoid of any care for its victim.
Had she been outside, surely a storm cloud would have formed over her. Death wasn't as instantaneous in the suggested method, compared to the guillotine or death by magic, and nothing but wintery unkempt fear flew through her at the thought. The feeling crept into her voice. "V-very well, I wasn't told about the method of death. I may follow up on that offer."
"That aside, how old are you, Miss Rainbow Dash?" The quill was back in the air, poised to write down the requested information.
"Twenty-one."
"Twenty-one? So young and yet your life and aspirations are all but over. Tsk, pity." A hint of backhanded emotion slipped through. Criminals deserved to be punished, but the younger they were, the more pitiful it was. Crime, as rare as it was in Equestria, still carried a heavy stigma that forever attached itself to anypony that wound up in prison.
The tail of the pegasus flicked as though she was trying to swat away a bothersome insect. Despite the truth of the comment, being told outright annoyed her.
The tip of the quill stopped its scratching on the parchment, and once again flitted to the ground. "Very well, that is all I needed to know. You may sit back down."
The pegasus leaned forward and laid down, knocking her mane to a more comfortable position. Another pony stood up from the crowd. A short stubby, pockmarked horn protruded from the pony's brown forehead, through a jet black mane. Long scars covered the visage of the pony. As he spoke, his voice perfectly conveyed his countenance. He used gruff, stunted language in a husky, smoke scarred accent. Repeatedly throughout his speech, deep phleghm filled coughs racked his body. As he proceeded through the questionnare of the officer, Dash learned the stallion was thirty-six, in prison for repeated theivery and drug possession, and his name. When asked about the scars upon his visage, he merely replied that he had had one too many encounters with a knife.
Several more uninteresting ponies went forward and introduced themselves, but Rainbow Dash paid them little heed, till one earth pony with a red mane and light pink coat stepped forward. Dash recognized the pony nearly instantly, despite that, her eyes still bulged slightly as she took in the features of the pony. Berry Punch told her tale, which was one of that she had gotten in a fight over at Shiner's in Ponyville and bloodied a pony so bad that he had spent several days in Ponyville Hospital's ICU.
The rest of the group told their tale, the only thing of interest to note was the lack of pegasi. As the quill conveyed its last word to the final sheet of parchment on the clipboard, the unicorn sent the quill flying into the door that led to her office.
The officer stood up silently, before speaking. "Very well. That concludes this meeting. Other officers will be in here shortly to round you up and take you to your designated cells. These will not be the cells where you came from. You will spend the vast majority of your entire sentence in that 8 x 10 cell. Exception being when you come here and when you are allowed to utilize the exercise room."
"To the lone Jailbird here; flying, as I'm sure you know by now, is prohibited. Celestia have mercy on you, should you try. In the mean time, mingle. Or if your thick skulls cannot warp around that word, talk amongst yenselves." As she finished doling out instructions, she plugged the ink bottle with its stopper, lifted it magically, and walked with it and the clipboard back to her office. When she got there she retrieved the quill, who's tip was now useless.
With the officer gone into the confines of her office, the group had splintered into smaller groups of 4-5 ponies. Dash, not too particularly interested in talking, looked for the rough stallion that had spoke after she had. She surveyed the small groups of ponies, looking for her target. Almost immediately, she spotted him. Sighing, she walked over to the stallion.
"Hi." Rainbow Dash said almost nonchalantly as she walked up next to the pony she had taken a slight interest in.
"What do you want, Jailbird?" Replied the jet-black maned pony.
"The name is Rainbow Dash. Not Jailbird." replied Dash.
"Well, get used to it, cause that's what you're gonna be known as and not just by me. You're the only new pegasi and it's the nickname pegasi get in this here prison. I would know, I've been here more than enough times to see new pegasi. " The pony finished with a heavy cough.
Dash moved to avoid the onslaught of saliva that flew at her from the stallion. Visible disgust grew across her features before disappearing as quickly as it had come.
"Sorry about that. This is a cough developed over years of smoking."
"Well, 'sorry' is the last word I expected to hear out of your mouth." Dash replied.
"I may be a tough son of a gun who can knock those pretty teeth of yours down your throat with a quick jab, but I do have manners. Now, the name is Smoky Soot, but you can call me Smoky." Smoky said.
"Smoky Soot. What's your cutie mark?" asked Dash.
"A pile of ashes. Which is what my life amounts to. Everything I've ever done, I've managed to either accidently, or on purpose, reduce to ashes. So, I guess you could say I was doomed from the start. Not that what your cutie mark is matters in here. Especially for you, jailbird."
Dash shrugged at this. "Probably not."
"Now, unless I'm mistaken, your name is Rainbow Dash." The pegasus nodded in agreement at this. "So, I'm gonna take a gamble here and say that your cutie mark is lightning, representative of speed."
Dash nodded in agreement again. "Well, my cutie mark is a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of it."
"Close enough. So, you're in here for murder." Smoky decided to look for another topic of conversation.
Dash interjected. "Accidental ponyslaughter is a better term. The courts still called it murder because I broke the number one rule of flying and took someone flying. When I asked my friend Twilight Sparkle what the legal definition of murder was, she said it was the 'unlawful and premeditated taking of life from another pony'. I took somepony's life, yes, but it was not premeditated, which she said meant planned. "
"Well, that sucks. Still, you're gonna pay the price for it."
"Yeah, I've been told. My arrogance got me here. I was so confident in my abilities. Little did I know that short morning flight would land me in prison and ground me permanently."
"Being perma-ground bound as a pegasus sounds like hell on earth, to be honest. Being a unicorn, it's not so bad, but having the freedom of the open sky denied to you..." He tapered off with a heavy sigh.
"After I dropped my friend, from the moment I laid down beside her, I've yet to fly. To be honest, I... lost the will to fly. It was like a heavy weight grew upon my wings. When I first got up, I lifted my wings to take flight, to go get help, but before I even got them halfway up, I sighed and tucked them back in. Her death took it out of me, though I guess it's not as bad as being physically restrained by rope." The pegasus lowered her head and closed her eyes as she covered the death of her friend.
"Well, unicorns get this handy little anti-magic brace applied to the base of their horns. It doesn't hurt us to try to call magic, it just stops the magic from flowing, kinda like rope would stop your wings from expanding full mast."
"Where'd you get such a vocabulary?" Dash asked, surprised by some of the language the rough pony was using.
"I may be a criminal, but I am educated. Hardships drove me to crime, and the lifestyle entrapped me in the promise of riches by breaking a few laws. Unfortunately, that was a promise that will forever remain unfulfilled, because this time they gave me twenty years." Another set of heavy coughs racked his muscular form.
Vision proved difficult as the eyes of the pegasus tried to navigate through the thick, invasive fog. The hairs of her body stood as though at attention as a howling breeze passed over the ravine she stood in. Despite her trying, she couldn't recall where she was or how she had gotten there. She trekked forward a short distance to see if she could make out any markings on the canyon walls, but no luck would be had.
A small, silky voice spoke directly behind her. "It's your fault."
The pegasus whipped around to find the source of the noise, her mane creating a small whipping sound which echoed around the cavernous walls. The voice had been behind her, but even she knew she was alone. Utilizing her other senses, she sniffed the air. Her nostrils flared. Rancid. A pure, unadulterated rank scent invaded her sense of smell. The voice echoed through the air around her again, but this time it came from in front of her.
Sheer interest drove the pony forward, her hoof steps reverberating loudly off the walls that towered on each of her sides. Her pace was slow and monotonous, almost too afraid to move any faster, yet an equal fear of losing the voice kept her from slowing any further.
Wet slime splashed up and coated the lower half of her forelegs as she pursued the voice. The minutes snailed by as she continued forward through the slimy muck, much of her lower half was now matted with it. Malice laced through the voice as it materialized again. "She trusted you. Look how you repaid that trust."
Her brain reeled at the statement and her legs snapped forward midstep, causing the pegasus to fall forward. No claim of denial she brought forth could challenge the truth that had just been spoken. A cough escaped from the pony as she rose to her legs, her entire front covered in the muck. Some of the muck flew off as she shook her atheltic frame, but large clumps still clung to her fur.
The voice repeated the line, but it failed to trip her up again. Picking up her pace, she started to trot in the direction of the voice, which still came from in front of her. The voice sounded out three times in a row. As it disappeared after the third declaration, she had noticed something. The voice had kept shifting position, slightly. Confusion took home in the pony's mind. How could the voice keep changing position if it was coming from something physical?
Continuing her trot forward, she noticed that the walls were no longer around her. Tempted to turn around to find them, she went to turn face but stopped as the voice sounded again. "Her death tore asunder your friends, your life, your essence."
The pegasus stopped in her tracks. A thunderous crack sounded off in the distance behind her. She turned to face the canyon again. The fog had dissipated and she could clearly see the entirity of the canyon, which seemed much smaller than she remembered, or perhaps she had walked longer than she had been aware. In the middle of the darkness that comprised the middle of the canyon, a flame burned bright and hard.
The flame split into four, into the cardinal directions. The flame splintered again, but this time into the intercardinal directions. The flame ceased to exist in the middle of the eight smaller, but equally bright flames. A crack sounded, and electricity formed between the edges of the shape that the flames had taken.
The shape grew ten times in size, filling the canyon to the brim. Electrical strands shot from each flame, into the center of the shape. A center of untamed electricity sprung forth to life when the strands of electricity touched. The light show going on illuminated the walls of the canyon and beyond.
The pony looked up to get a better view of the canyon, or what she thought was a canyon. She had been staring at the center, where the electrical light show had been going on, for a while and some things had escaped her notice. As she surveyed the spectacle in front of her, a realization came to her. Canyons don't have fur, and canyons do not move. The canyon had shifted and the lengths closest to her had shifted and rose, as though they were legs. Her gaze extended even further as she raised her head even more.
The shape of a pony materialized in her mind's eye as she looked up from the canyon; an orange furred, pink maned pony. She glanced down back to the light show and saw a pink tail extending beneath the show. A tough knot formed in the pegasus' throat, one she tried to swallow away. Her gaze redirected back up the body of the pony, to where the head should be. The pair of blood stricken, purple eyes stared back at her, from a face all too familiar.
The pegasus clamped her eyes shut as the purple eyes bored into her and her mind reeled again. The sight before her could not be real. Curiosity drove her eyes open again as she heard a fresh crack come from the storm brewing in the canyon.
She watched dolefully as the strands of electricity arced upwards then pulled back at the center, which complied and began to split again. As the center began to break apart, a bloodied, matted multi-colored mane began to materialize from the epicenter. The shattered center grew even larger, and eventually gave way to a head, then to a body. Eventually, the torso finished materializing and legs began to form.
As the phenomenon played out before her, she noticed something... odd about the body. It was not, as it should have been, naked. Instead, it was wearing a black, lace dress. Not just any black dress, but one typically reserved for funerals. Not for the parties attending to mourn, but for the one being put six feet under.
Rainbow Dash's mind cracked then shattered. Her legs gave way and mud splattered over her side as she landed. Screams pierced the air as her mind flooded with guilt, accusations, blame, and memories of disappointed looks.
Minutes etched past as her mind slowly reformed itself, thoughts came in short bursts of simple words. She tried to use her wings to lift herself slightly, but white hot pain shot through her joints at the prompt. A fresh scream pierced the air around the battered pony. She slowly lifted her head and turned her neck, despite the shoots of pain that sprouted from her actions, to look at her wings. The joints at the base were shattered, broken bones could be seen splintering out of the top of various spots around the joint.
Rainbow Dash groaned as she took in the sight. A short, simple thought summarized her feelings. Useless.
Stomach churning cracks and pops sounded as she stood up, careful to not disturb wings. Her body swayed dangerously from side to side, her bones almost refusing to hold her weight.
