Twilight didn't know what to expect as she was ushered back into the world of people. Her time in the hole, and her long day, had left her feeling wretched and yet triumphant. She hadn't given Primrose the letters she'd wanted. Some how, writing lies for the Warden seemed an even bigger threat than the hole ever could be.

Ironwing, for his part, said nothing as he escorted her back up to medical. She expected to be thrown in the cage, given a humiliating examination, and then thrown back into population reeking of pee and sweat. Instead she was shown to a shower, where she was washed by a nurse with warm water while three guards watched on. Then, to her amazement, her mane was trimmed evenly, and even a bit of horn polish applied to the crack in her horn. She could barely see it. As Twilight started to question this odd fortune, a cart was presented with food... not just the stale cafeteria food. These smelled freshly made! Twilight's stomach made her tuck in before she could question it.

About halfway through, her cheeks bulging with food, she tried to ask what the deal was, but only came out with 'wa ba da wa'? Gulping, she wiped her mouth and then repeated to the amused guards. "What's the catch?"

"No catch. Warden just wants you looking nice," Ironwing muttered, pinions twitching.

"I'll say she's nice," one of the black armored stallions said. It was then that Twilight noticed something... his penis. Now, she knew stallions had penises and mares had vaginas. She just never really thought about it. It wasn't a thing. It was like saying stallions had hooves or mares had ears. But now she thought about it, because this particular dark blue guard was erect. Very erect. Twilight hadn't ever really thought of sex before. It wasn't a thing. But then, she'd also never thought of being in prison until she was. "Heh," the guard chuckled. "She wants what I go-"

Ironwing's wing shot out. The stallion, a full grown earth pony in plate armor, was swept off his hoof by the blow. The guard let out a cry, legs kicking, member flopping, as he tried to get back on his feet. Ironwing didn't let him. Instead, he pressed his foreknee on the guard's neck, pinning the formerly amorous guard to the ground.

"She is off limits. Understood?" Ironwing said as he stared down at the guard. The guard's legs kicked as he struggled to breathe. "Clear?" Ironwing demanded as something in the guard's neck started to make a crackling noise.

"Please, stop!" Twilight shouted, extending a hoof. Ironwing gave her a chilling stare. "I think he understands..." she said as she looked away.

"Yes sir! Yes sir!" the guard shouted, his eyes wide with terror.

Ironwing didn't move his leg for a second before firmly stating, "Good." He removed his knee from the earth pony's neck as he rose. Then he looked at Twilight... but it was like back in population; his eyes remained unfocused as if she were a ghost. He turned to a nurse. "Get him checked out and then wall duty for a week. Or till thoughts of fucking prisoners is out of his head. Get her back in population. I've got reports to file." He said and then trudged off.

"Like you never do," the guard rasped once Ironwing was out of sight. The nurses saw to him while another a unicorn mare guard wiped Twilight's face and pushed her towards the exit where a mare guard waited. She thought she might be the one that had given her a moment when she'd first arrived, but couldn't be sure. The guard was a step behind and to the side. Every time Twilight glanced back, she got a poke with the guard's baton and 'eyes forward'.

Twilight rewalked the steps back towards red population, passing through multiple gates, when there was a buzz and a white gem in the ceiling turned bright blue. "Shit," the guard behind her muttered. "Go down the hall, now!" she snapped, and Twilight ran to a gate, facing the wall while the mare extracted a key. "Where the fuck is Barrel?" she growled as she unlocked the door and Twilight passed through. The guard slammed the door shut and locked it. The mare pointed down the hall with a hoof. "Just keep going to your population. I got to get to blue! Go!" She shoved Twilight past a gate, closed it, and locked it before running off down a hall. Somewhere there was a deep booming shout of rage. It sounded like a fire.

Glanced around... and not really having anything better to do, Twilight started in the direction of the red cell block. She didn't know what was going on, and while some ponies might try to use this to escape, she didn't even know where 'outside' was, let alone how she was going to get past the exterior wall. Still, Blackhorn had no lack of interesting nooks. Would it really be so bad to take a peak? There were a lot of hooves echoing in the halls behind her.

Then she heard a mare giggle and say, "Better finish soon." Twilight's ears pinned it on a door that read 'supply'. Twilight pushed it open, surprised it wasn't closed all the way. As before, she saw a young stallion guard mounting a familiar green earth pony with tan mane spilling across her face. The yellow stallion gaped at Twilight in shock as he stood there with a pained expression on his face. The mare winced, reaching back to pat his hip. "No no. It's okay. I know her."

"Sour?" Twilight remembered, though she'd only seen the mare briefly before being drug away. Sour nodded with a wry grin, and Twilight had to ask, "Are you... okay?"

"Right as rain and twice as sweet, soon as this stud finishes up," she replied, though her grin was a little strained. The stallion slowly pulled out, sweating, and Sour winced, then relaxed. "Aw, baby, I'd see you though but there's a blue alarm. You should run." She gestured at a blue gem in the ceiling.

"Oh... right," the stallion muttered, staggering past a furiously blushing Twilight. "Next week?"

"You betcha. Remember my shopping list," Sour called after him. As he departed, her eyes swapped over to Twilight, and then she gave a little shrug. "So you're back from your vacation, Egghead? You really shouldn't be trotting around if you're not a Trustee. Get in here and I'll walk you the rest of the way."

"There was a guard but then the gem went blue and... um... are you okay?" she asked Sour. The supply room seemed to have stacks of linen everywhere. Well, the clean sheets had to be stored somewhere, right?

"I see what Fifty meant. For a smart pony, you sure do ask stupid things," Sour replied sweetly as she limped over to her bright orange jump suit. "I'm fine. Just sore. Beer Barrel was in a rush there at the end. Code blues are a big deal. Stallions are rioting again." She lifted a paper sack with a casual fling and set it on her rump with a wince.

"A riot? Seriously?"

"Happens every now and then. Guard shouldn't have just left you, but they're always understaffed and it's all hooves on deck for a riot. The only thing worse than a code blue is a code red." Sour said as she trotted to a counter, pulled out a sheet, and carefully unfolded it. Then she opened up the bag and shook out a few odds and ends: A hoof nail trimmer. Some yarn. A banana. There were other parcels, but she stashed them behind a stack of sheets. "Hope you forget these are here, Egghead. I'd hate to have to cut off Mother."

"Wha..." Twilight started to say, then blurted, "Wait? You think I'd steal them?"

Sour blinked at her, then threw back her head with a laugh. "Oh, you're hilarious. This is prison. What do you think ponies did to come here? A third of us are here for some theft or another. It's why I'm here!"

"It is?" Twilight asked with a frown.

"Yup. I was a embezzler at my firm in Manehattan. All the partners were. My boss was the worst of the lot. But when the shareholders found out, I was the one who took the fall. Because the secretaries are always the criminal masterminds," she said with a wink. "Boss had books that made him look innocent and put all the blame on me. DA didn't look much further than that. After all, better to lock me up than a pony that's skimming off the Realm for thousands of bits a year."

"I see..." Twilight murmured as she glanced over her shoulder at the door. "And you... do that... with the guards so they bring things people want?" That got her a cool look. "Not that I think... um..."

"You are such a fresh fish," Sour muttered then sniffed. "Long as it's not too illegal, sure. I don't manage drugs or weapons. Way too much risk. But a bit of makeup here or mane curlers there...? Some sweets? Spices? Generally not a problem. So long no one in population does anything stupid like attack a guard, it's easier to look the other way." She gave a little smirk. "As for the sex, there's mares that want a safer rut than getting raped by a guard, and guards that just want a little fun without feeling quite like shits. So for a little this and that, I can get most folks what they need. Nopony tells Ironwing or the Warden, and it just stays a 'smuggling' problem." Her smile faded. "And if somepony does get me in trouble, there's an entire prison population unhappy with them."

"I won't tell anyone," Twilight swore, and Sour's amused smile returned. "It just seems wrong. You're a trustee. You shouldn't have to do that..."

"Being a trustee's not a walk in the park. It means the gangs generally don't mess with me, but if someone wants to send a message to the Warden, well, no better way than putting a trustee in medical. Or the hole. It also means I work closer with the guards, and if I want to keep my perks... well... there's expectations..." she said, her smile present, but still, like a mask. "You learn to live with it."

"That doesn't make it okay," Twilight muttered.

"I can agree on that!" Sour said with a laugh, glancing behind her with her tail tucked tight before she regarded Twilight again. "You're strange. What got you here, Egghead, if I may ask?" she asked as she carefully put the sheet on Twilight's back. Twilight blinked but Sour's smile suggested she should go along with it.

Twilight hung her head a little. "I cast a spell. It got a lot of ponies hurt. One... one died."

"Ponyslaughter then? Or is that felonious misuse of magic?"

"Pony slaughter," Twilight said. "Five years, with good behavior."

"That's pretty light for Blackhorn," Sour said as she piled more sheets atop the ones with the contraband tucked inside. "Does it have anything to do with what you were doing for the Warden?"

Twilight bristled. "What? No! I was in the hole! Where did everyone think I was?"

Sour arched a brow. "Honestly, Egghead, we didn't have a clue. It's been almost three months since you left. Some people thought you got let out, or that you've been working with Primrose. Honestly, looking at you, I can see why." She rubbed her chin. "Course, Trustees talk. None of us saw you anywhere in any of her offices, so I knew that was roadapples. I thought you just got transferred to Green." She narrowed her eyes. "Still, you should have your horn chiseled for spearing another prisoner. So something's up."

Twilight blinked and flushed. "She thinks I'm... something." Twilight said lamely. "Useful, I guess."

"Wow," Sour muttered. "I can count on no hooves the number of times unicorns don't get their horns notched for getting caught stabbing. Must be pretty useful."

Twilight closed her eyes. She had to give Sour something. All the pampering at the end now made sense. If the prisoners thought she was working for the Warden, she'd eventually have to just to survive. "I used to work with Princess Celestia," Twilight muttered.

Sour's eyes popped wide. "Sweet caramel! No. Really?" Sour rubbed her chin. "Fuck. Anypony else I'd call them liars, but your horn's not blunted so it's gotta be something."

"I can't talk about it," Twilight said firmly. "She wants me to do this. I'm not going to."

"I don't want you to. Whatever the Warden wants is unhealthy for me. I don't want to get any of it on me," Sour replied with a shake of her head, waving a hoof before her as if to ward off whatever the Warden wanted from her. "So since you weren't holed up in an office, I'm guessing you were in the hole?" Twilight nodded. "Shit," Sour whistled softly. "Ninety plus in the hole is rough."

"Can you help me? Tell them I wasn't helping the Warden?" Twilight asked.

Sour's smile froze as she seemed to be performing a mental calculation. "I want you to do Fifty's paperwork for her next appeal." She went on, "Normally I'd ask you to entertain a guard but you're too hot for that. So first thing's first, go over Fifty's appeal with a fine toothed comb and get her out of here. If you can. That'll be worth my vouching."

"Deal," Twilight said. She would have done it anyway.

"Come on. Let me make rounds," she said as she then went to a cloth basket cart and pushed it out the door. "Blue alerts are great for getting stuff in and out. Long as it's not red," she said.

"Why? What's a red alert?" Twilight asked as she followed, struggling with the weight of the sheets on her back.

"Riot on our ward," Sour said without a hint of a smile.

Sour made the rounds, pushing the basket while twilight carried the sheets. Twilight didn't know what she expected, but what she received was bored indifference. She was carefully to keep her look up as she followed Sour around. Most ponies took their sheets, putting soiled linens in the basket. Every now and then Sour would pass sheets from the bottom on the pile to the recipient. Every now and then, though, somepony would ask Twilight where she'd been. Sour immediately would jump in with an explanation about how she'd been in the Hole and how Twilight had kept her horn with some legal fast talk. Twilight just tried not to look, being Sour's mule.

Fifty and Mother didn't seem happy to see her, but the others did. Especially Lullabye. When she rushed forward, Fifty stomped on her tail and drew her up short.

"Mother May I?" Sour said in a sing song voice. She scooped off the sheets, and Twilight marveled with how deftly she extracted one of the small parcels and passed it under the cover of the towel. "Fifty, you'll be pleased to know that Eggy here agreed to help with you appeal. Today, even."

Twilight gaped from one to the other, then nodded. "Yes. Soon as someone shows me the forms, I'll be all over it!"

"Later," Fifty said, nodding to the cell behind her.

"Thanks, Sour," Twilight said as she transferred the stack of linens over.

"I get folks what they need. For a price," she replied with a grin. "See you around, Eggy."

Twilight trotted into the cell, was sat down on the bunk while Fifty and another mare flanked her. Mother's grim demeanor matched Celestia's so much that Twilight felt the same anxiety that came with the possibility of failing a test. "I have questions," Mother said evenly. She asked, and Twilight answered. Everything from what happened in the cafeteria to where she'd been to why her horn wasn't chipped. Whatever punishment Celestia could met out would be nothing if she was caught lying to mother. She even confessed to attending Princess Celestia's school, though omitted that she'd been her personal mentor.

To her relief, Mother seemed to accept that. "So the Warden's worried Celestia might clean up Blackspire," she said as she closed her gray eyes. A small smile appeared. "Good." The curl disappeared. "Unfortunately, you've caused me a bit of a problem."

In that instant a hoof banged against the bars. "M- Mother!" Lullabye blurted. "Duchess is here."

Mother didn't move a moment, her face a mask. Twilight saw the smallest bead of sweat run down the side of her face before she rose. "Wait here," she said as she rose and trotted out the door.

"Where is she!" a mare snarled in the hall. "That nag spiked one of mine! What's she still doing with her horn? What are you playing at, Meridian?" Twilight guessed that was Mother's real name. She shifted up enough to spot a unicorn with a blunted horn flanked by eight others. She was younger than Mother, and her coat was a washed out green. Her mane and tail. however, were buzzed almost completely gone. She also had constellations of scars all across her body.

"She just got back, Duchess," Mother replied evenly.

"She cost me a pony," Duchess retorted, jabbing a hoof at Twilight.

"It was an accident!" Twilight blurted, and she heard Fifty groan, covering her face with a hoof. The two mares stared at her simultaneously as if the fact Twilight hadn't meant to stab that other unicorn was the most irrelevant part of this discussion. "Sorry," she muttered, dropping her gaze.

"You need to learn respect," Duchess said in a low growl before turning towards Mother. "We're down one. Windstorm's already eyeing us. Give her over. We need her horn."

"What?" Twilight gaped, looking from one to the other.

"Egghead's not a fighter," Fifty stated firmly. Unlike the rest of the unicorns, she met Duchess's gaze. "Warden might have left her horn, but she doesn't know dick about using it."

Duchess's mouth curled into a sly smirk. "Then what about you, Fifty? You want to join us and set things square?"

"You want my horn at your back, Duchess?" Fifty said, cool and even. Duchess smirk lingered a moment, then her eyes widened and quickly narrowed.

"We'll find someone for you, Duchess. You're down a pony. We'll deal with that. We don't want trouble with the Raptors or Stone Hooves any more than you do," Mother stated evenly. That brought back the smirk.

"Before tomorrow, Mother. We'll need to initiate them into the Spears," Duchess said as she turned away.

"Wait!" Twilight said, and got stares from three different ponies that made her want to implode. Still, she asked, weakly, "What happened to the mare I hurt? Ripper?"

A vein in Duchess's temple throbbed. "When you thrust your horn into the heart of my enemy, you'll have the right to ever ask me anything," she hissed over her shoulder before walking away. The rest of the spears filled in with her.

Fifty all but picked Twilight up, scooping her back into the cell. "You know! I once knew this stallion. Name was Tiny. Biggest damned stallion I ever saw," the huge, dark unicorn snapped at her. "I'm hoping the same phenomenon doesn't happen with you, 'Egghead'."

"I just... did the warden do something to Ripper?" Twilight asked. "She was hurt. Bleeding, when they took me away."

Fifty covered her face a moment then sighed. "Guard brought her into the ward. The Stone hooves where there, waiting. She lived, but she's useless to Duchess now."

Twilight wanted to ask more, but Mother entered their cell. "You have complicated my life, greatly," Mother said, the elder mare sitting down and rubbing her temple. "We need to send someone to them. Can you think of anypony?" she asked Fifty.

"Lullabye," Fifty stated immediately.

"Fifty," Mother said with a reproachful smile.

"It gets her gone and Duchess get's a horn. Win win," Fifty replied.

"She's not a fighter," Mother said. Fifty's jaw clenched. Twilight looked out the cell over to the blue unicorn and saw the bright smile and hoof-wave in her direction.

"Lemon Pie?"

"Bad knees."

"Socks?"

"More merciful to just kill her ourselves."

Twilight looked at the pair. "Um, excuse me, but why do you need to send anypony to her at all? I mean, they're a gang, right? Should you really be helping her?"

Fifty groaned again but Mother gave her an even look before she took a seat. "Ordinarily, you'd be correct. This is not an ordinary environment though. I'm sure you're aware of the earth ponies and pegasi have their own gangs, yes?"

"The Stone Hooves and Raptors," Twilight answered, earning a small smile.

"Both would like nothing better to do than hurt unicorns."

"Why?" Twilight asked, and the elder rose colored mare seemed surprised.

"Why, because we're unicorns, of course," she replied, as if it were obvious, like gravity. If Blackhorn didn't suppress magic, Twilight suspected it'd be frozen solid from Windigo spirits. "However, they know if they ever target our herd, that Duchess would target theirs. But if they think Duchess can't, or that Duchess is vulnerable to attack directly, then there's nothing to stop them from targeting us." Fifty grumbled again, and Mother shot her a look that silenced it. "And while there are some who think we could defend ourselves without the Spears, I don't want to subject all of our people to it."

Twilight groaned, rubbing her face. "I wish I were back in the hole."

Mother sighed. "It wouldn't have changed the predicament. Your 'accident' might have started this, but the guards all but signed Pumpkin's death sentence when they released a lone spear into population with a dozen Stone Hooves. I'm astonished she survived."

"But where is she? Shouldn't she be with the herd?" Twilight asked, and the two mares shared a look. "She's a unicorn!"

"Don't worry about her. She's no threat to anypony now," Mother said evenly. "Suffice to say, once you leave a herd for a gang, you can't go back. The gangs wouldn't allow it. The only way out is parole, death, or becoming an outcast. We couldn't take her back if we wanted."

Twilight guessed that meant she'd been moved to the other mare ward, or the ward for medical prisoners. "I hope she's going to be alright," she said and then grimaced. "I need to use the latrine," she confessed.

"I'll walk you. Should be safe now," Fifty said as they walked out of the cell. The latrine was disgusting, little more than a ditch you backed up to and did your business. However, you were less likely to be jumped there, especially if you were with someone. Not like the showers, where it was harder to yell for help. "Oy, apples! Out!" snapped Fifty.

Three road apples ran out. They looked emaciated and feral, running for an overlooked corner. They were the snitches. The ponies that refused to pay debts. The punked. "You too," barked Fifty.

The orange mare's mane and tail were a tangled mess, but that was the least of her worries. She walked as if none of her legs looked right. One eye was scarred shut, the other stared at Twilight in horror. But worst of all, where her horn should have been wasn't a rounded tip but a scarred indentation in her face. She froze for an instant shaking as she stared at Twilight.

"Ripper," Twilight breathed.

"Move, Roadapple!" snapped Fifty.

"Please, don't mind me. Someplace else I should be," she whispered as she hobbled out of the latrine.

Twilight had thought she'd had it bad in the hole. Blackhorn had whole encyclopedias of bad she could barely imagine. But it was going to teach her, Twilight realized. It was going to teach her hard.

Author's Note

Person asked for the next chapter. Sorry it took so long. I'd started a lot of it ages ago and never finished. Here you go.