My Little Pony: Friendship is Incarceration

"Now Twilight," her mother crooned softly as she brushed her mane, "I know you don't want to go back to magic kindergarten, but you have to. What kind of pony are you going to be if you can't get along with other ponies?"

"Every pony laughs at me," she sniffed. "I can't even do levitation right."

"Well you know what you have to do. Just keep focused on your studies. Nothing will go wrong if you do that," her mother assured her.

Her mother had been wrong.

She knew that it was stupid to fight. That the accident in the mess hall had been just that; an accident. That fighting was only going to make this take longer and hurt worse. Still, the thought of having her horn chipped off was more than enough incentive for her to try and fight. Ripper's blood dripped in her face and in her eyes as she thrashed against the two earth ponies that drug her by a pair of cuffs clamped to her forehooves. Ripper was carried after her, blood dripping from the hole in her chest, her eyes dazed as she bled on the earth pony's back.

Back in medical, she was forced into the same standing frame they'd used for the cavity search, only this time they put on an extra thick collar that immobilized her head. On a table, Ripper regained her voice, chanting 'chip chip chip chip' as a doctor tried to control the bleeding. She seemed perfectly happy to bleed out, so long as she could watch Twilight get her horn chopped in two first.

The earth pony medic approached with something that appeared like a U shaped chisel, with the inner edge sharpened. He carefully positioned it against her horn tip and raised a hammer. Iron Wing looked on with bored indifference while Ripper kept on trying to sit up and watch.

"Stop," came a calm voice from the door. The hammer hit the end of the chisel, but without enough force to go completely through the bone. Instead, the effect was rather like having lightning shooting right down her spire and into her forehead. Still, every eye turned back to the door way and the warden standing there.

"Stop? What do you mean, stop? I got a hole in me, Warden!" Ripper suddenly wailed, the tough act now replaced by a mewling mare. "She spiked me!"

"Really, BB0210?" the warden said coolly to Ripper. Something about her casual smile was even more offsetting than Iron Wing's scowl. "It looked like an accident to me."

"Accident! Weren't no accident! What, she accidentally stuck her horn in me?" she whined. "Chip the tip !"

Warden Primrose's smile slipped, and her horn glowed. Instantly, Ripper's wound indented and the mare screamed, thrashing on the table as her wound was compressed. Primrose didn't even look at the mare as she kept up the torture.

"Stop!" Twilight cried out instinctively, feeling her own blood drip from the chip in her horn.

To her surprise, the Warden did, but the look she gave Twilight made her suspect the Warden was thinking about changing her mind. "Well, BB0210?"

"It was an accident... It was an accident..." the tough mare repeated as she sobbed, her orange hide streaked with blood.

"My. Another accident. You have so many, TS0248," the Warden purred. "Clean her up and get her into solitary," the Warden ordered as she turned and headed for the exit. Then she paused and said, "Oh, and make sure you heal that chip."

From the stunned silence in the room, the warden might as well have ordered her a hot bath too.

"Ma'am!" Ironwing said sharply. "Policy for 'accidents' like this is chiseling the horn."

The warden pursed her lips as glanced back at him. "I think we can make an exception for TS0248, don't you think?"

Clearly he didn't think it, standing rigid as steel but he saluted and snapped at the nurse, "Get her out of the stand."

Ripper wasn't taunting anymore. The bloody mare seemed to be focused on two things: breathing and staring at Twilight, as if trying to understand just where she came from. A mare smeared a foul smelling, stinging cream on the crack that burned horribly for a minute, but if it mended her horn she'd not complain. In a minute, she was released from the stand and an earth pony picked her up like a sack of potatoes, carrying her from the room.

And down.

She wasn't sure where exactly they were in the castle, but one thing was certain: they were going down. They reached a long hallway with metal doors cut into the solid stone walls. She was taken all the way back into the end. The door opened to a pitch black void, and a kick to her haunches launched her through. Then the door slammed shut, the bolt slid home, and she was left in silence. In darkness.

The cell was precisely ten steps by ten steps. If she stood on her hind legs, she could just touch the ceiling. A rank smelling hole in one corner, covered by a grate, told her were the toilet was. The only air flow was somewhere up above, but it stank of mildew. Thirty days here, alone, with no one to talk to... Thirty days. Seven hundred and twenty hours. Forty three thousand two hundred minutes. Two million, five hundred and ninety two thousand seconds.

In the darkness she licked her lips and whispered, "One. Two. Three. Four..."

Time had broken. In the general population, time was reality. You woke at the same time. Showered at the same time. Ate at the same time. Slept at the same time. All of that was gone. She slept when she slept. Woke when she woke, and there was no difference between the sleeping and waking. She so yearned for the sound of hoofsteps that she'd wake thinking they were echoing down the hall to her. Bowls of cold oatmeal were slid on a rope through a little flap, and she had only moments to eat it all before the rope pulled the bowl out. A second bowl had water. Then that was pulled away as well. She suspected that the guards were inconsistent in the food and water, and counted. Sure enough, she discovered a three and a half hour difference between two events.

She had to do this, because with no books, no clocks, no one to talk to, she could feel things slipping away inside her. Every now and then she was let out, shackled, marched down to a larger room that was three times her cell, and given an hour to walk around. Ironwing himself watched her from the door. The first time she tried to talk to him, he just stared at her as if he were deaf. Not a word. Stone.

After her 'workout time' she was given a cold shower, dried, and put back in the dark. She used these brief windows of time to try and check her injuries. The crack in her horn was mending, though the color was a bit washed out. Everyone would see her horn had been fixed. But that was a worry for another day.

She saw the 'psychologist' once during a break time. He simply nodded and recommended she 'hold on till she was out'. When she asked about Ripper, he just blinked. When she asked about BB0210 he gave an 'ahh' of comprehension.

"I understand she suffered an accident in the shower. Terrible. Terrible. Still, she shouldn't be bothering you anymore, eh?" he said with cheer that made her want to scream as he walked out.

She masturbated too. One time she had a long stream of touching herself in the dark, trying to feel something good in this endless gloom. She rubbed herself so raw that at her next shower, a nurse had to come down and apply an ointment to her nethers as the guards smirked.

Then Twilight was going was back to the hole of timelessness. Had it been thirty days? Twenty? Ten? No pony would tell her. It was just back to the hole. She'd faced Nightmare Moon, and hadn't been nearly as terrified as she was of that yawning portal. But afraid or not, in she went.

"Twilight?"

She jerked her head up. Of course, she couldn't see any different, but her ear twitched this way and that. "Hello?" she asked. Who could it have been? It sounded like one of her friends but... none of them should be here! She shouldn't be here! Twilight rose on her hoof, her ears straining. Nothing.

"Hey Twilight!"

They're not here. My friends would never be in this terrible place.

"Twilight? Twilight! Snap out of it!"

"I can't!" she shouted, her voice echoing in the darkness. "Spike! Spike!" she screamed. She sat down and her eyes burned. How odd to feel so much shame, crying while completely alone. Yet she did, as hot tears rolled down her cheeks. She was breaking. She could feel it. She deserved it.

"My, you look like you had a long night!" the warden said cheerfully as Twilight entered the exercise yard. A fold out table had been set up, and the tiny periwinkle mare sat perched on a stool behind it. "Or is it day? Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter to you, does it? Not much difference in the hole."

Twilight stared at her, her throat burning from her screams. "Am I... done?" she rasped. "Has it been thirty days?"

"Indeed, it has," she replied cheerfully. But she didn't say anything else. She just tapped her hooves together as she watched Twilight like a fascinating new form of bug.

Twilight swallowed hard. The Warden had a bottle of water beside her. Twilight licked her lips. "So... I'm going back to the others?"

The Warden's smile widened, and panic made Twilight's heart hammer. "You can't. You can't!" she shouted in a panic.

"Thirty more days, I think," the Warden said merrily as a wing closed in around her throat and dragged her from the yard. The door slammed shut, cutting off Twilight's scream.

"One four seven six. One four seven seven. One four seven eight," Twilight whispered in the darkness. She hadn't eaten the last two bowls that had been put through. She couldn't seem to summon up the strength. All she could do was count and hear her friends calling for her. Hear Spike...

"One four seven-" she choked. "One four seven... seven. No... eight. No... One four seven zero. No!" She wept, pressing her hooves to her ears. The numbers, her only sense of time left to her, were breaking down too. But covering her ears did nothing to silence her friends.

"I want out," she whimpered, staring into the darkness. "Please. I want out."

Then she heard the tapping, very faint. Was some kind of creature digging into her cell? She'd almost welcome that! But no, it was coming from one wall. She paused and pressed her ear to it. Five taps. Seven. Eleven. Then a pause. One. Two. Three. Five. Seven. Eleven. Prime numbers?

She tapped her hoof once. Once. Twice. Three times. Five times. Eight times. Then she listened. She repeated it and listened again. Was it in her imagination? Was she finally snapping?

Three sharp taps. Then one soft. Two soft. Three soft. Four. A sharp tap. A sharp and a soft. A sharp and two soft. Base five? She tested it, tapping eight times in a row, the giving one sharp tap and three soft taps. That got her the three sharp taps in reply. Did three mean yes?

All her mind focused on those taps, her cheek glued to the wall. Eight. Five. Two twelves. Fifteen. A long pause and the numbers repeated. Eight... H. Five was E. Twelve was L and fifteen O.

'Hello.'

She let out a sob, weeping as she tapped back eight and nine. 'Hi.'

She wasn't alone.

It wasn't the most efficient form of communication, but it worked.

'Who U?'

'Egghead. U?'

'Nopony. Pegi?'

Twilight paused. If they were in a different herd... but if she didn't answer... 'Uni.' Please don't be mad, she thought desperately.

'Cool,' came the reply, and she let out a shaky breath. 'I pegi,' came a moment later.

'Cool.' Twilight answered. With the exception of Ironwing, she had absolutely nothing against pegasi. 'Ward?'

A pause. 'Yellow.' The psychiatric prisoners. As horrible as it was for her, she couldn't imagine what it was like for them. 'U?'

'Red.'

'U mare?'

'Yes,' Twilight answered. 'U?'

A long pause, and she frowned, repeating the question. Then she got her answer. 'No.'

Twilight let out a strange, hiccuping giggle. 'U boy?'

'Staleeon' came an immediate answer.

'Cool,' she answered. 'colpr'? Damn, she needed to be more careful with her taps.

'Green. U?'

'Purple.'

'Hot?'

She giggled again. 'No.'

'Cute?'

She bit her bottom lip. 'Mazbe.' She closed her eyes. 'I go crazy.'

'Leave,' Nopony answered.

'How?' She asked in a frown. 'Locks.'

'In your mind.'

'huh?'

'Leave in your head.'

'How?'

Two sharp taps and then nothing. She frowned, pressing her ear to the stone. Was it her imagination or did she hear a door close? She moved to the door and repeated it. Nothing? Was she losing her mind again.

But where was there to go? She was stuck here, in this horrible place, losing everything that made her her.

But if you could go... a tiny part of her mind asked... Where would you go?

Home.

She could imagine it: Golden Oaks library. All the shelves. The books. Spike's bed in the corner. She hoped he was getting along well with Rarity. Owlowiscious snoozing on his stand in the corner. The slow tick tock of the clock in the corner. She ran her hooves over the spines, taking in each and every title. She pulled them out and reread them. Some of the words were a bit muddled where she couldn't recall what they said, but she had a library in her head she could return to at any time. A pastry shop that she could visit. Even as her mouth craved something sweeter and more filling than the cold bowl, she could taste the Cakes' cake.

But she still didn't go to Sweet Apple Acres. Or the boutique. Or the tree.

She visited Canterlot too. Her tower. Her classrooms. Her home. It was harder to see things there, veiled by a mist of forgetfulness. Still, it wasn't here. For all their power over her body, they had no power over her mind.

The next time she was in her rec time, she took the opportunity to move, sprinting back and forth and counting how many times she could touch the opposite wall in a minute. Ironwing watched her motion, so different from just standing in the corner. She ignored him, just as he ignored her. His frown became a scowl, and he took her back five minutes early.

She just smiled at him.

'I got out.'

'Good for U. Wher?'

'Home.'

'Home is good.'

'Where do U go?'

'Bar.'

'Bar?'

'Preened fether. Cute mares.'

Twilight lay with her head against the wall, trading tap for tap, ear pressed against the solid stone. There wasn't much conversation you could have with taps, but then again there wasn't much else to do. Nopony hadn't told her his real name, or even what to call him. Apparently he'd been in Cloudsdale, thought the Wonderbolts sucked, and liked jazz.

'Why you here?' she tapped after a long pause.

No answer. Then. 'Hurt people.'

'Who?'

'Me.'

'Sorry.'

'Me to.'

'I think U nice.'

'Im not. i hurt people too. wife. family.'

'I hurt someone too. Foals.'

'U bad.'

Twilight shuddered at that. 'Yes. I bad.'

'Don't do it again.'

'I wont.'

'Good.'

She wiped away her tears. That was more psychicatric help than she'd gotten, and it didn't begin to scratch the surface of what she'd actually done. 'Can I leave now?'

A pause. 'Ha ha.' He paused. 'How long?'

'Five years.'

'Theft?'

'Ponyslaughter 2.'

'Lucky.'

Twilight sniffed a little. Considering she could have gotten twice that, she supposed that to Nopony, she was lucky. Lucky Celestia had been her judge. Lucky that she'd been her teacher. If Applejack had her way, she would spend her entire life in here. And she'd deserve it.

'Dont cry,' came a tap.

'Im not'

'crybabe'

'im not.' she scrunched up her nose, but his nagging had gotten her mind off of it. 'How long you.'

'Forever.'

'That bad?'

'No one leave yellow.'

Twilight started to answer, but then paused. The yellow ward was for psychiatric prisoners. A normal prisoner served out their time and then was paroled, but when did a psychiatric patient stop being crazy? And she utterly could not believe that Blackhorn was good for anyone's mental health. How could Celestia tolerate-

How had Twilight tolerated it? She'd been living outside, free and happy, and had never thought about prison. She hadn't even thought of the prisoners in Yellow Ward until just now. She hadn't thought about being locked up. Being in solitary. Being crazy. If someone had forced her to consider it, then maybe she might have, but living in Equestria it was so easy to just... not think about it. In her own way, she was a tiny bit responsible for Blackhorn too.

'Sorry' was all she could say.

'Ok.' Then two sharp taps that he had to go.

She rolled on her back but didn't go to Ponyville. Instead, she just thought. She'd taken so much for granted. People. Places. Things. Friends. Even herself. And when it had all gone wrong, things hadn't ended as she'd thought. For now, she'd just been reacting. It was time to start acting... but towards what?

What was she to do with her time in Blackhorn?

"What do you want?" Twilight asked Warden Primrose as she was marched out before her again.

"What do you think I want?" she purred, folding her hooves on the folded table before her. It wasn't nearly as impressive as her desk in her office, but it had a similar effect. That mare could sure use a desk.

"I think you want something," Twilight said evenly.

"Go on," She said as with that sure smirk.

"Something that you think only I can provide," Twilight went on. Primrose didn't even blink as she smiled over the hooves clasped beneath her chin. "Something... involving Celestia."

"You are a very smart pony," Primrose replied. She reached into a folder next to her and pulled out a blank piece of parchment and a pen. She slid them before Twilight. Twilight just stared at the paper and pen. "I believe you start with 'Dear Princess Celestia.'"

This was it. Primrose wanted her to write good things about the prison. Lie to make her look good. No doubt anything she sent would be screened. Celestia and she didn't have any kind of secret codes she could use to alert her. If she tried to tell the truth, then she'd get stuck in the hole forever. But if she was a good pony, then the Warden would take care of her. At least until Celestia stopped replying. Of course, the Warden would still know she'd be a 'good pony'.

"No," Twilight whispered.

The Warden's smile didn't disappear. It compressed into a single curving line. "No?"

"I'm not writing letters for you," Twilight replied.

"Ninety days-" the Warden began to say as Ironwing marched up behind her.

"Make it a year," Twilight challenged back. "Make it five! I am never writing that letter for you."

Ironwing put her in a choke hold, pulling her towards the door. Then the Warden raised a hoof. "Wait." Twilight still sputtered, turning blue. "Let her breathe, captain." The wing relaxed enough that she gasped for air. The tiny Warden slipped off her chair and walked around to her. "Clearly the hole hasn't been as effective on you and I would have hoped. After six months, most ponies would sell their first born not to go back. I wonder if you had help in there," she murmured.

"Just my own mind," Twilight countered. She knew that if she did go back for a year, they'd be putting her in the Yellow ward for sure.

Primrose's grin returned. "I guess I'm going to need to find more persuasive means," she purred in Twilight's face.

"You are..." the wing tightened, "...a..." she sputtered. "...bad... pony!"

Primrose's eye twitched. "One more day in the hole. Make it a long day."

And it was a day, because there was no walks. No feedings. No tapping. Either they'd put her in a different cell, or Nobody had gone back. She tapped all four walls, and got no answer. She tried to leave herself, but it was more difficult as time went by and her stomach started to gurgle. No water. Her throat worked over and over again. Then the flap opened and a bowl was pushed through. Twilight rushed to it...

Pee. The bowl was full of rank urine. The analytical part of her mind knew that pee was 95% water and mostly sterile.

The sane part of her was repulsed.

A yank on the rope pulling the bowl back in spattered her with the contents.

Soon, she was laying on the reeking floor. No water. No shower. No exercise. No food. No light. No sound. Just stinking waste.

The second time the bowl was shoved through, she ignored it.

The third time, she drank the horrible, salty fluid.

And the fourth.

The fifth.

Sixth...

The door cracked open and Ironwing stared at her. At her slat slides and her mane tangled about her mended horn. Her eyes watered at the light. Still, Ironwing didn't wrinkle his nose at her. He considered her gravely, like a doctor assessing a terminally ill patient. She didn't care. He was real. Not like the random tapping echoing in her head. Gibberish from her own mind.

He stood there as her mouth worked, teeth aching, body reeking. She had to say this, even if she died. "I'm not... writing... her letter." Twilight muttered, her tongue thick and horrid.

Then, for only a moment, the corner of Ironwing's lip curled. It only lasted for a second. The smallest flicker of reaction, and the first she'd ever seen in him. "Can you walk?"

She'd walk out of here if it killed her. And from how weak her legs were, it just might! Still, she forced herself to her hooves, and stepped out. Slowly she walked towards the exercise hall, where she was sure that Primrose waited.

"Keep going," he said, and she blinked as she looked past the yard at the steps leading up.

Out.