Opening his eyes, Jethro woke to a dark prison cell. Rubbing his sore head and sitting up, he found an orange pegasus pony in golden armor standing outside his cell looking at him with a sympathetic face. “You okay?” He asked.

Jethro nodded as he kept rubbing his head. “Yeah. Head’s sore, but other than that I’m fine,” he answered. “So, I’m in prison. What’s the crime I’m accused of?”

“You’re awfully calm for something that just commited murder,” the pegasus said.

“So that’s the crime...also, I’m calm because of a personal motto keeps me mostly calm in any situation. Life happens,” Jethro explained.

“Ah, makes sense,” The pegasus muttered. He shook his head before putting his hoof through the bars. “My name’s Flash Sentry.”

“Jethro,” he responded, taking Flash’s hoof and shook it. “So, I hope you haven’t broken my weapons. Regardless if I’m declared guilty or not, I think you ponies would probably appreciate decent weaponry.”

“From what I’ve heard from the other guards, the weapons did more damage to them and they to the weapons, if at all for the second bit,” Flash said. “A unicorn tried pulling that weapon out of your hand while you were unconscious and it apparently shot a millimeter off the tip of his horn. And to tell you how painful that is, think of getting kicked in the dick combined with getting castrated.”

“I don’t even want say how much I didn’t want to hear from that,” Jethro said, while somewhat crossing his legs. A unicorn guard suddenly and silently walked out from around the corner.

“Private Sentry, Captain Armor requests you in the barracks,” the guard said. Flash saluted the guard, and the guard did the same. Flash left and his replacement took up his post.

“So…” Jethro started, but the guard interrupted me with a voice different than when he spoke to Flash.

“You are very convincing, creature,” the guard said before ‘morphing’ into a snow white alicorn with a Sun Fetish. “Your general attitude almost got me to rethink your sentence.”

“Uh...what?” He eloquently asked.

The alicorn sighed. “I mean that you aren’t acting like someone who commited murder. No fearfully denying, or sadistic admission. Just a calm disposition all around,” She said, with a slight scowl. “So, tell me what you did.”

“I’m accused of murder,” Jethro bluntly said. “I’m not sure what the witnesses said, but that seems a bit too much...unless you have a specific definition of ‘self-defense’ and if said definition applies within certain scenarios.”

“...What?” She asked with complete confusion. “What does that have to do with the murder of Spoiled Rich?”

“Who's that?” Jethro asked. “The only thing I shot at with my gun was a mutated pony thing...and a guard on accident.” He said.

“You mean that afflicted? That pony must have slipped through the cracks, but that's not relevant,” the alicorn said.

“It is relevant,” Jethro interrupted. “That afflicted just finished chewing another pony's throat out, I shot it, then hit my head hard.”

“The afflicted aren't mentally capable of doing such an act... even if they weren't afflicted, they wouldn't,” she countered. “But even if one could or did, where's your proof? Where's your witnesses?”

“Try talking to-” The door to the dungeon was slammed open, cutting him off. The rattling of armor and feral snarls reached the two.

“Princess Celestia!” A unicorn guard yelled out as he came around the corner with an afflicted in his magic. “We found another one.”

“Again?!” The alicorn, Celestia, asked in annoyance. “That’s the third one this week! What’s going on? Are the afflicted avoiding treatment? Why would they avoid-”

“DON’T LET IT TOUCH YOU!!!” Jethro shouted, catching the three free ponies off guard. “Now that I see one, I can tell what disease, generally speaking, it has and how to classify it!”

“So you are saying you are responsible for these afflicted?” Celestia asked with a huge scowl. “I will not tolerate actions done to my ponies!”

Jethro gave her a flat look. “In what way did I indicate that?” Celestia went to answer, but Jethro interrupted her before she could start. “I only said that, because those green, crystalline growths and the ‘burnt’ flesh resemble a disease in something in fiction from where I’m from.” He paused to let the information sink in, causing Celestia to cool down and have a look of realization mixed with disdain. “The disease has the unoriginal-ish name of the Scorched Plague. The people and creatures that are infected by that plague are generally known as the Scorched. There are possibilities for cures and/or vaccines, but the details are lost on me. I’m a game nerd, not a virologist.”

“So, then you have presented enough evidence to at least provide reasonable doubt of your guilt,” Celestia said, while waving the guard to continue on his way with the Scorched pony. “To provide full innocence, eyewitnesses are needed to prove your actions.”

“Ditzy Doo and her husband,” Jethro simply said. “They were there when that Scorched or afflicted, or whatever you’ll call them, attacked.”

“Understood. If all goes well for you, you’ll be released tomorrow at the earliest, or by the end of the week at the latest,” she stated as she stood up. “In the meantime, I’m going to get my top scientists on trying to develop a cure, or at the least, a vaccine.” She then left the dungeon. A short while later, Flash came back from wherever he went.

“Urgh,” he mumbled. “As good of a soldier Captain Armor is, I hate his “100% bad cop” policy. It makes us less approachable and more like plotholes.” Jethro nodded in understanding, but paused mid-nod when he noticed something shiny in the corner of his cell. Picking it, a medallion, up he heard a voice in his head.

‘My name is Dark. I'm a web-swinger with a blade and a lot of heart. If you need a companion to talk to, or an ally to help fight your enemies, just toss this medallion to the air and I'll be there. I'm always willing to meet new people. But know this, I will not allow anyone to harm innocents.’

“I’ll keep that in mind then,” He said to himself before walking over to his undersized cot. “Does Celestia even think there are people besides herself that are bigger than a pony?”

Author's Note

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
And hopefully it is better than last year.