Blue

Shining Armor finished his story. The three mares sat near him, not saying a word. Two of them because they were quite struck with recent events, one seemingly not caring about anything. Finally, Vinyl spoke up.

"Sooo... What are the charges?"

"Neglection of duty, manipulating defense faculties to ensure the death of my companions, and destruction of evidence." The stallion's face was hard to read, as if he decided to strengthen himself, and concentrate only on others' problems, not his own ones.

"What?!" Rainbow yelled.

"They think I purposely let my shield dissipate, so the others would die."

"No, no, no, no,nonononononono,noooooooooooo!" Rainbow broke out in a scream. Tears fell from her eyes, and she collapsed on her bed. "I-I can't believe it! Cadence and Rarity... No!"

Her voice dissipated into loud sobs and cries, and she buried her face in her hooves.

"Shhh, it's all right." Vinyl said, gently caressing her back with a hoof, trying her best to comfort her. "Be strong, Rainbow." She turned to Shining. "What should we do now?"

"Gobbles is glad you asked, Throat!" the silent-till-now showmare interjected. She waited until she got all of their attention, then grinned manically. "Gobbles thinks our little merry group of destroyers should break out of this prison!"

"Yeah, right." Rainbow mumbled to herself, her tears slowly drying up, "You and what army?" She dropped her jaw when she saw Shining nod in agreement.

"I hate to say it, but she is right." he spoke softly. "Somepony, or someling is hurting our beloved. If we don't get out of here, they can freely continue their rampage, and blame a handily appearing blue pony for it. We need to prove our innocence, but we can hardly do that with that sadistic director constantly bothering us."

"Um, I think the expression you're looking for is 'crush to tiny pieces', not 'bother'. Besides, uh... whatsyourname, Shining?" Vinyl interjected. "Have you forgotten that Rainbow just broke her wings? Or the little fact that our horns have limiters?"

"Limiters?" Rainbow did not understand a word.

The DJ parted her mane, and showed the pegasus a dark ring at thebase of her horn. Shining did the same. "These suppress a unicorn's connection to magic. Until we can get these off, technically speaking, we're magic-free. Didn't you notice them until now?"

"Uh, I don't exactly go around looking at unicorns' horns all day, y'know." She furrowed her brow suddenly in suspicion. "Wait just a sec, Trixie does not have one of those!"

The two white unicorns stared at the showmare. She looked back at them blankly.

"What? Is there something on Gobbles' face?"

"Why don't you have one of those thingies on your horn?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh, so you don't check out others' horns, only Gobbles'? Should she feel flattered by your caring attention, Spectrum?" Rainbow recoiled a little, blushing.

"How, pray tell, did you manage to get rid of it?" interjected Shining in a menacing tone.

"Funny you should ask, Shield..." Trixie started.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Sturdy Spear neared the end of his wits. This new prisoner was captured an hour ago, completely exhausted, her hoof bleeding through her bandages since, and somehow, she still managed to slip out from her limiter the fifth time, and he couldn't figure out for his life why. If this continues, he could be in serious trouble.

Currently, only he was guarding the blue mare in the prison wagon, that has been outdated at least since a decade. The covering sheet was ragged, the whole thing creaked, and it just radiated splinters— he'd already gotten a few in his hoof. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary on her. Sparkling azure coat, eyes of a bewitching dark purple... she clearly does not fit around these parts. Still, it wouldn't be worthy of mention even, if only her hoofcuffs could keep her still, and no magic would come into the picture. But magic was there, because somehow she took that Celestia-damned bear to the settlements— and that would be a very powerful spell indeed. What the hay was he supposed to do with her? At least the unicorn did not move an inch, which was not surprising, considering her rickety state. Although she was found with an alarming lack of wounds, somehow her condition deteriorated rapidly, and she left drops of blood everywhere. Where did that blood come from?

The cart's dark cover flipped, and the head warden entered. Before the two of them could exchange a single word, the prisoner sprang up, her limiter flying away in a long arc from her, and cast a spell on Strong Walls. Or she would have, but all she could produce were sparks, and an audible fizzle. She kept trying and trying, while the director closed in their distance, smiling sadistically. He suddenly hit the engrossed unicorn on her crackling horn, and made her cry out in pain. As if that was not enough, he kicked her over and over again, with bloodlust clearly visible, until she curled up to a ball, sobbing. Only then he stopped.

"So, what do ya have ta say fer yerself, eh?" he asked her. The mare looked up, her eyes and expression anything, but clear.

"You messed up the tea party, Binky. You should be ashamed, not stuffing your mouth with cake." she said in a monotone voice. The head warden laughed.

"Now this 'un won't cause more trouble." He turned to the stray limiter. "How exactly is this crap not on her horn, huh, Spear?"

"Sir, somehow she gotten rid of it every time I put it on her. It has gone on six times now." the grey pegasus replied, hiding the animosity in his voice. Strong Walls paused to think.

"Doesn't matter. She couldn't shoot me here and now, so I guess her horn's not working properly anymore. Yer off the hook this time, guard."

"Thank you, Sir." the pegasus replied, keeping it professional, in case if others could overhear. "I will reapply the limiter now."

"Forget it, Spear. She can't cast spells, and will take it off again to spite us. Sadly, I can't chop her up to tiny little pieces, but that's fine. If ya wanna do any good, kick her sometimes, so she'll learn her place."

Spear watched the earth pony leave. He then poked out his head, and made sure he was gone. The mare was coughing, occassionally a trail of blood noticeably dripping from her mouth. The pegasus took out his canteen, and offered it to the mare. She eyed him suspiciously,but then her thirst finally overcame her caution, and nearly gulped down the whole ration in one sip. When she finished, he took it from her, and put it away. The mare finally spoke.

"Thank you."

He looked at her, hesitation in his eyes.

"You're a murderer. I should feel hatred towards you, nothing else. Not pity."

"Maybe;" the mare replied. "but then you would be the same as him: a heartless pony, freely abusing those whom nopony cares for."

Sturdy Spear shrugged. If only THAT would not be in Strong Walls' hoof, he would not have to obey him. But the time will come, when he will be able to expose the warden.

________________________________________________________________________________

"And you believe the time is right, warden Spear?"

Celestia was bored with his story. In the past day, many ponies came seeking her, claiming to have some dirt on their blue-colored neighbours, co-workers, or associates. Her plan will take a week to be fully operational, and then the blue problem will be solved. Mostly.

"Yes, Your Majesty. He has gone too far."

"And let me guess." Celestia let disgust show on her face, "he is an evil, evil blue pony, and you are doing your civic duty by telling on him."

"No, Your Majesty. He is not blue in any way, but a dangerous pony, who enjoys hurting others."

The princess perked up with more interest. "Then what, pray tell, kept you from turning him in?"

The warden looked ashamed.

“He... blackmailed me. If I didn't do what he ordered, he would expose his collected facts to the public."

Celestia mused on the 'collected facts' part, but decided to let it go.

“So, why rat on him now?"

The grey pegasus looked determined. "I don't care about consequences anymore, Your Majesty. I feel there are a lot of things burdening my conscience, but none of them more shameful what he made me do. It is better I stop it, and start atoning for them now."

"What did he make you do?"

"Stand guard while he 'punishes' the prisoners, keep quiet about it, and sometimes lie if an inmate really attacked him first."

"Did you participate in hurting them?"

The stallion made a grim face.

"Maybe it is hard to believe, but I have some honor left in me. I don't hurt others for the sake of causing pain, Your Majesty."

"Very well, Sturdy Spear. I shall grant your request, and accompany you to meet and expose him."

"If I may interject, Your Majesty, Strong Walls locks himself in his office for the night. I usually wake him up in the morning, when my shift starts."

Celestia raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know why he does that." said the stallion, anticipating her question. "Maybe to spite me with having to get up early. It doesn't really matter to me. I like sunrises."

"Warden Spear, are you flirting with me?"

The pegasus produced a blush more intense than if he was set on fire.

"N-no, Your Majesty, I-I just wanted to explain my reasons."

Celestia produced a slight smile, the first sign of her self shining through her cold demeanor.

"Relax, my little pony. I just teased you a little. Why is it important that he locks himself inside?"

"It might be easier to confront him when he's not fully awake yet, so he can't depose of any possible evidence."

Celestia sat thinking for a moment, then she looked deep into the warden's eyes.

"So be it, warden Spear. I hope this will be worth my time."

________________________________________________________________________________

"Awww, c'mon! This just means you can't use magic either." Rainbow whined. The showmare's story was hard to understand, because of her manner of speech, but two things were clear. One: she did not have a limiter. Two: she didn't have one, because she couldn't produce magic to take revenge on the pony she hated most.

Trixie walked to the mirror, picked up her brush, and gave it to Rainbow.

"Here, hold this."

The pegasus took the brush in her mouth. "Aih shill hon' geh ih'."

The blue unicor lit up her horn. Something flashed, and the top of the brush suddenly fell off, with a lock of rainbow-colored hair. The pegasus spat out the now useless brush in surprise. "What the hay?!" she snapped at Trixie. The unicorn smiled knowingly.

"This, Spectrum, is better than a key to the front door. Gobbles tested it, and it can even cut steel. Or some strong walls." she smirked.

"That should give us an edge!" Vinyl beamed. "I'd celebrate this with a bass solo mix, but I seem to lack my stuff."

"W-wait just a second!" stammered Shining, desperate to grab their attention. "It's too soon. We need a proper plan, and I admit, I'm not too usable in that aspect now. I'm confused, because suddenly I'm hated far and wide, and my wife is dead. Even with that, I can see that is not going to work by itself. We should wait a bit, and figure out a plan."

"Oh, sure, Dent." Trixie replied, "Wallow in your incompetence as the one who killed her still roams free."

"I don't suppose you could share it with us hmm?" Shining said with a hint of anger in his voice. "The identity of this murderer, I mean."

"Oh, but Gobbles can, Dent!" Trixie replied victoriously. "It must be the evil sorceress, Twilight Sparkle!"

Shining Armor was blistering with rage.

"She is my sister!"

"Bummer, dude." Vinyl interjected.

Trixie seemed to be shocked by this revelation.

"Fine family you've got there, Shield." she finally managed to groan.

Rainbow rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, right, let's play the blame game. If you want old wounds brought into this, then I say you were the murderer, because you were a gigantic ASS a few years ago!"

"Oh yeah? And your mother is – "

"ENOUGH!" Shining bellowed. The two mares stopped arguing, and focused on him. "This takes us nowhere."

"Exactly!" Trixie replied. "On the other hoof, this corridor," she said, pointing a hoof outside, "could take us somewhere. To be precise, the director's office."

"Let me get this straight." Shining said, calming down a little. "You want us to get out of this cell, walk undetected to said corridor, and ignore the dozen or so guards on the way to the office?"

"No, Gobbles expects you to take out one, at most two guards for her, while the others are occupied with the riot."

Shining blinked.

"Riot? What riot?"

"Oh yes, Gobbles has not told you yet, has she? They will riot tonight because of the bad food and the hole in the wall. That reminds Gobbles, don't have lunch today. Gobbles might or might not have poured some lamp oil on the vegetables."

The ex-captain understood even less with that explanation.

"Hole in the wall?"

"Oh, nothing fancy, just a small explosive Gobbles put together. It's amazing, as if they don't know what a bomb is made of, they just leave stuff around, them guards! Anyway, it will explode tonight, a little while after the riot starts in the cafeteria."

"OK, I'll give it to you, I remember your fireworks." Rainbow said, ready for a word-fight. "But how do you know when it will explode?"

"Gobbles has to activate it. With her sparkly unicorn horn producing her magnificiently glamourtastic magic!"

"So, to sum it up: your plan is to go to the office, get the director as hostage, then what?"

"Well, if only you haven't been babbling that much, Gobbles would have already let you on the fine details."

"I'm listening." Shining gestured expectantly.

"First, our little group shall wait for Gobbles' Ultimate Diversion Strategy, GUDS for short, to initiate! Then, the Magically Inclined Gobbles will remove the obstacle that is the cell door. After that, our merry group will waltz into the chief warden's office, while you illustrious cellmates of Gobbles fend off the few present guards. Well, Gobbles could do that, too, but she suspects you'd rather they are alive, and in one piece. In the office, we strictly deny Strong Walls' right to a cup of coffee, and cause a bit of mayhem, get some seemingly important documents, and then, as the final glorious moment, we shall relocate ourselves to a more comfy place."

"Like, how?" Vinyl interjected. Trixie swung her hoof.

"Like, this! Do not worry Throat, there is a way, Gobbles just doesn't want you to blurt it out prematurely! Also, you might leave Gobbles here and escape if she told you!"

"I'd never!" Vinyl swore.

"Never leave Gobbles, or never escape?" asked Trixie sarcastically. "So... you in?"

"Isn't there any other choice?" Rainbow shrugged.

The showmare turned to her with a demeaning look, her voice radiating pity. "Sure, you could always stay here, Spectrum, and wait for Strong Walls to test out the flexibility of your bones."

Shining Armor, who listened to all of this without as much as a tingle of muscle, or a disapproving frown, spoke up.

"Could you leave us alone for a moment? We have to come to an agreement with each other before we answer you."

Trixie smiled victoriously.

"Of course, Shield. Gobbles will come back in five minutes."

Rainbow watched as Trixie marched out of the cell, holding her head high, as if she was a survivor of the deciding battle at Stalliongrad. When they were sure she was gone, the two mares immediately turned to Shining.

"So? Is it possible?"

The stallion was deep in thought.

"I do not know. My only problem is, that this plan does not assure an exit from this place; at least she does not tell us. Every fiber of my being shouts 'no' to the idea of such an act... but we do need to escape. The one blaming us is too smart to be outwitted if we are sitting ducks waiting for a miracle. We must escape, indeed."

"Uh, Shinin' don't mean to rain on your parade, or anything, but, uh, she's crazy! We shouldn't follow any plan that she thinks of in her deluded mind!"

Shining Armor slowly shook his head.

"No, I believe that part is the least of our concerns. Her insanity is the type that lets her have genuinely good ideas... when she is not having her fits. She seems to be delusional, but her skills with fireworks can not be forgotten; also, she proved that she really can cut through matter; if we can keep her in check, we might just escape."

"What about after then?" the pegasus asked.

"We'll have time to think about that if we're out. Now, the point which we escape from is more interesting , than the point we will escape to. We will escape. We simply have no other choice if we do not wish to be silenced."

"Glad you finally decided to be sensible, Dent!" a voice came from the outside, and Trixie stepped in. "Gobbles always knew you'd see the wisdom of listening to her."

The stallion glared at the smugly grinning unicorn.

"You were listening to us outside? No, wait, don't answer to that. We go, and that's final. In the office, there are bound to be keys for these limiters, and if your plan does not work out—"

"It will." Trixie replied flatly.

"—We can still figure out what to do then." The remaining two mares looked at each other, then back to the schemers.

"So, nightfall it is?" the DJ asked.

"Nightfall." Trixie confirmed. A playful, but creepy smile crept across her face. "Don't forget to bring your spare pack of kickass, Throat."