“Any news on the Unity?” was the first thing Lethal Force asked when she came back into the office the next day to one of her staff.

“Only vague leads m’am, we’re checking them out. I’ll let you know when we have something concrete.” the stallion replied before burying his head at his workstation. Lethal Force made her way to her office, what was on the agenda today? Oh right, that meeting…

She checked her messages first, then the mare trotted her way to the sole meeting room that occupied the prison for staff get togethers. She had been working on this for quite a while. Something had to be done.

She was the first one to arrive, her colleagues and some outsiders who needed to be signed in and then escorted to the room came in shortly after them. All in all there were five ponies in the room, a few were pad users. Lethal Force tried to be as courteous as she could to her bloated guests, despite her own thoughts, they were working with her after all.

At the table were two stallions and three mares. Two from a construction firm, one from their financial department, one from legal and then the warden herself. She smiled at her guests.

“So, we all know what we’re here to discuss. Apologies Foundy, I’m unfamiliar with your rather large accomplice.”

Solid Foundation just smiled back. “Ah, my top pony. This is Red Roller - he’ll be overseeing the work on your new prison. I have to admit his plate is rather full at the moment, but he’s the best stallion for the job.”

“His plate looks full all the time…” Lethal Force said, catching herself saying it just a little too late for her to notice the gigantic stallion blushing. “Sorry, that was rude.”

“D-don’t worry, I get plenty of comments.” Red Roller just replied, settling into his flabby mass on his pad.

“Okay, well this is Lawgiver, our legal mare.” Lethal Force continued, with the mare just nodding through her glasses a hello. “And the stallion is Budget Cuts, he’s our here to make sure we can afford all this.” Lethal Force said. “Foundy, I believe you have the plan outlined?”

Solid Foundation pressed a few buttons on her pad, a small projector from it pushing out a ray of light that projected a number of technical drawings and plans. The mare started pointing out and explaining each one with her flabby hoof.

“As we are all well aware, ponies on Sleipnir are just getting bigger and bigger. I believe Lethal Force can attest to that, don’t you have a pony in your current prison that hardly fits in their cell? Crammed up against the bars?” she asked. Foundy knew how to win ponies over, it got a smile from the warden.

“Indeed we do, still not sure what to do with that one actually. I fear their mass will destroy the bars at any moment.”

“Exactly, this just proves my point. Ponies may be getting bigger, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to stop breaking the law and that also means our esteemed police force need cells big enough for the gigantic offenders. I believe the most common crimes these days from what I’ve heard is food theft which makes sense. In the housing trade, all we’re doing now is building bigger and bigger housing to accommodate their mass. Although we have some upcoming changes to sort that little problem out right Red?” she asked, craning her fat neck over to her colleague.

“Oh yes, should be interesting if we can perfect the technology for the colony…” was all Red said. He let his boss continue.

“That is why we have a plan. We could build a much bigger facility here on Sleipnir, but how long until it is full? A few decades? Less? Ponies are gaining at an exponential rate. Just a few years ago sizes mares and stallions are now would have been only something to dream of. So this is our idea…” Foundy said, looking and pointing to the first technical drawing. The plans clearly showed a space station, boxy in nature. The whole construction was an extremely large grey cube with a single docking port in the middle and a number of antennas and what looked like claws at its side. She moved to the second projected image which showed it in more detail.

“Lethal Force I present to you the S.P.D Sugarland. An orbiting prison to be built high above the colony. The design and location gives us many advantages. Firstly, we’re not taking up precious space for our law abiding citizens by building on what land we have left. Secondly, the design is modular…” a third technical drawing came up, showing a multitude of the blocks that made up the original drawing all bolted together. “Expandable modules can be added as needed as the population increases. Thirdly, only one docking port on the central module to bring prisoners in and out, heavily defending by a multitude of cannons and other weaponry. Like the modular outer parts also, the cells are modular too - you can quite literally build the cell as big as you like within the complex to house whatever size your prisoners are. Right now the limit is one hundred thousand pounds, but I am sure we can look at bigger cells, should it be required in the future. But those are Equestrian sizes we’re accommodating for.” Solid Foundation said. It was a simple explanation, but she could see already that Lethal Force liked the idea.

“Indeed, it all sounds like you’ve taken into account quite a lot for the perfect prison.” Lethal Force replied. “We just have some issues.”

Lawgiver spoke up first. “I’m sure we can get it sorted out, but currently all transportation of prisoners off-world has to be approved as simply taking a pony, no matter what they’ve done off the planet they’ve committed the crime on is quite difficult bureaucratically. Even if it’s just into orbit. I’ll need to speak to the Planetary Governor to get a change made to this law.”

“Alright, so that’s hurdle number one which I think we could get over. Now the next one…” Lethal Force said, letting Budget Cuts speak next.

“The cost is astronomical for this, whilst it would be an ideal solution - it’s not just the construction cost of the prison. We have to man it with ponies, have a fleet of accompanying ships that granted, only have to get into orbit to deliver prisoners but we’d be looking at purchasing and building a small fleet of three of four ships from Equestria’s shipyards to accommodate the large prisoners. I hate to live up to my name but we’d have to well...make some cuts somewhere to be able to afford all this.” the stallion said.

“The money is the problem?” Foundy asked.

“Indeed.” he just replied.

“Hmm…”

“Hmm?” Lethal Force asked her. She could feel a solution was coming her way. But it didn’t come from her, instead her colleague spoke up.

“Well we could halve the build costs if we built the modules here on Sleipnir.” Red Roller said. “The plan was to have the modules built at Tulpar colony who are known for their excellent crafting skills with orbiting stations. The bulk of the cost was actually paying them to do it for us and then shipping the station in parts here for assembly in orbit. We can build it here but, I can’t vouch for the quality because Sleipnir workers are not used to constructing something like this, although I’d do my best to find the best ponies available for the job.” Red said. “As for the staffing and fleet costs, we can’t do anything about that. Unless like I’ve suggested for the station, you have the ships built elsewhere cheaper…”

“It’s certainly a lot to think about. We’ll look at our budgets and what we can do but I at least approve the plans for the station. Just not sure on the name though, we might have to think about that.” Lethal Force replied.

“It was just meant to be something that sounded more inviting to outsiders, I guess until they learn it’s the colony orbiting prison.” Red Roller said. “I’d quite like to go to a land of sugar.”

“Looks like you’re there already.” Lethal Force said, once again too late to catch herself, the rest of the ponies in the room smiled, Lawgiver even giving a few chuckles. “Sorry again...I can’t help myself sometimes, we imprison a lot of fatties.”

“Evidently, that’s why you need this new facility.” Foundy replied.

“Indeed...indeed. Anyway, let us reconvene in a month. We’ll have an answer for you about local manufacturing then.”

The ponies left the meeting, Lethal Force returning to her office. Of course there was 100 messages waiting for her and a number of different issues to deal with, ranging from panic to the downright petty ones. One message caught her eye though, leaving her office immediately to go talk to the pony who had done the good deed.

Lethal Force,

E.M.F Unity tracked down. How do we proceed?

End message.