My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of  SIBLINGS and  SHOWERS

Chapter 2 - New Prospect Fishery

Fresh fish, fresh fish today

I was woken up by a CP officer poking at me with a baton.

I turned my head around and came face to face with the characteristic metallic white gas mask that was part of the CP uniform.

“*Wakey wakey, whatever the fuck you are.*” the officer said.

“*The cruise is over.*”

I glanced at his shoulder badge, he was nothing but a private.

"Show some respect when addressing your superior officers, private."

He flicked the baton and beat me once with it.

"Argh!"

"*You don't get to talk to me like that.*"

"I'll prove it to you! I am opening my satchel."

The officer stepped back while I did so.

I searched for my orders, those would be proof enough.

They weren't there anymore.

Bob must have confiscated them while I was unconscious.

"Bob that motherfucker..."

"*Well well, where is your proof then?*"

"I don't have it."

But wait, I had the badge.

"Actually, wait."

"I could show you my badge."

I brought up the badge that Manie had stolen from me.

The officer snatched it out of my hoof and looked at it.

"*Really. So you are... Captain Tombs of the Manehatten Precinct 2?*"

"Yes."

"*Nice try. As if I would believe that a Captain of CP from the eastern end of Equestria would show up all the way over here wearing nothing but his badge.*"

"It's the truth. I am on a special assignment from command, I am to-" the officer hit me again.

"*HEY WHAT'S WITH THE HOLD UP IN CELL 42, SIMONS?*" another officer barked while coming into the cell.

This one was a sergeant.

"*Sir, this con claims to be a Captain of CP.*"

"*Very funny Simons. Do you think we have all day to haul these scum off the ship?*"

"*No...*"

"*Then stop dicking around and do your fucking job.*"

"*Yes sir.*"

Officer Simons poised his baton ready to strike again.

I got the gist of it, they weren't going to listen.

"Okay okay, I am going..." I muttered.

We were brought up to the deck of the ship, there were about fifty other convicts gathered up there, there was still plenty of room on the deck, so the guards were still probably rounding up more convicts from the cells below.

Several squads of CP officers wearing both the standard and border guard uniforms wielding SMG's and pistols were guarding us.

From our elevated position on the ship's deck we could see the new land and what I assumed was Shellbeach Prison.

Built almost entirely out of cement and metal, gray low buildings stretched out all along the coast in both directions.

A kilometer inland, maybe less, I could see a forest spreading out in all directions, I could see that a large area had been cleared in front of the walls that lined the entire constructed area guarded by countless towers an an endless amount of barbed wire.

I spotted a wide black road leading from a point in the wall into the forest, it would likely lead to other settlements further inland.

The atmosphere was heavy and the sky looked very gloom, I wondered if the weather in the continent was controlled by the pegasi or if it was left to rule itself.

Rainbow Sea was furiously staring Manie Manie down, making her feel uncomfortable.

He had been brought back to us shortly after we had been brought up to the deck.

The two were separated by the group, Manie Manie was standing beside me and Blizzard Candy, Rainbow Sea was behind the others.

“Sooo...” Brook Cotton began, attempting to break the tension. “A pink heart huh?”

Where did that come from? Why was my cutiemark being brought up now?

“Mind your own business.” I said dismissively, trying to avoid talking about it.

“Comooon, its nothing to be ‘shamed of having a pink heart cutiemark” Brook pressed.

Rainbow Sea chuckled, his attention turning to me now.

“You have a pink heart cutiemark?”

“Stop it.”

“You could be a nurse.” he remarked.

“Stallions cannot be nurses.” Nurse Swirly said.

"Why not?" Blizzard Candy asked.

"I don't know. They just can't."

“That seems kinda sexist.”

Nurse Swirly shrugged.

“That’s just how it is, it has always been like that and no one really knows much about nurses, we just know that stallions can't become nurses for some reason.”

“Tell us about your cutiemark Sweetie.” Rainbow Sea continued.

“No. Stop.”

“Tell ussssss.” Rainbow Sea insisted.

“Why are we talking about my cutiemark?” I wondered, everyone had seemed so hostile against each other yesterday after learning about my true self and now they were all ganging up on me like a bunch of school fillies trying to coax me about my cutiemark.

“What is there to be afraid of Sweet Heaven?” Manie interjected, “It is just a cutiemark.”

“Why won’t you tell us about it?”

This was getting annoying, even Manie was getting involved now.

“Because it is personal.”

“So was my crime.” Manie answered.

I glared at her.

The atmosphere turned heavy and quiet again.

"This is different."

"I don't want to talk about it, so stop asking."

“Aww, don’t be like that! We don’t mean nothing bad about it!” Brook Cotton said cheerfully.

Then he frowned and looked sad, clearly simulating sadness.

“Why is this so important to you?” I questioned, calling his little bluff.

“So what if I have a heart shaped cutiemark, what’s it to you?”

“We are just wondering how a pony with a heart shaped cutiemark could have ended up as a hardass Civil Protection officer.” Blizzard Candy explained.

“Why is that strange? Do you really expect an officer to have a cutiemark related to Civil Protection?"

"Civil Protection has barely been around for, what, 8 years? I am 32 years old, I got my mark ages before.”

“Just tell us the story already!” Rainbow Sea called again.

“No! It isn't something I would just go around telling a bunch of strangers like that!"

"You know we'll be pressuring you until you tell us."

"Fine, you do that! I am still not going to tell you."

"What if... we told you ours?" Strawberry Feather timidly suggested.

The group looked at him, he felt uncomfortable being the center of attention like that.

"No...?"

"Ah'd be up for that." Brook said.

Everypony except for Manie Manie cheerfully agreed.

"Well Sweet Heavens? Is that an okay trade? 6 stories in exchange for one?"

I was appalled.

What made them think that I would just agree to that, or that I would even be remotely interested in knowing their stories?

Why couldn't they just let it go?

"Why can't you just respect my privacy? Why is this even important to you?"

"Well ah I just want to get to know ya better." Brook explained bluntly.

"Dun know about the rest of them, but ah intend to follow you once we get out of here."

He was?

"Yeah, me to." Nurse Swirly said.

"And me..." Strawberry Feather joined in.

"I guess I'll come with you too then, it's not like we have anywhere else to go." Blizzard Candy said.

Only Rainbow Sea and Manie Manie didn't say anything.

But it was good to know that they weren't going to ditch me first chance they got, hopefully...

"Thank you, I guess. But you don't have to..."

"Blizzard is right, we ain't got anywhere else 't go, it will be safer if we stick together."

"Brook, you KNOW where we are headed, right?"

"Yeah..."

"'Beyond the frontier' hardly counts as 'safe'."

"Are you guys really sure about this? Do you really want to follow me? Even though it means near certain death?"

There was a moment of silence, this gave them new perspective.

Brook broke that silence.

"Aye." he said, sincerely.

"Ah will follow you, even though ah would risk my life doing so."

The others agreed.

That was brave of them.

Brave, and stupid.

"If... if I tell you about it... do you promise to stick with me, and never to mention it again..." I asked softly.

"I will." Manie Manie spoke up.

We all looked at her.

"I understand that it may be hard for you to talk about, especially with us, but if you would be willing to share something like that, to trust us, with that, I would follow you, out of trust and sincerity."

...

"I can't believe I am agreeing to this... I swore not speak of it, ever... but when you put it this way I guess it would only be fair if I did." I took a deep breath.

It began to rain.

The ponies gathered around before me waiting with anticipation as if I was about to tell them the most amazing thing they had ever heard.

I felt that my unwillingness to tell them about my past had hyped and overblown the importance of my story.

“Well...” I began slowly, pausing a bit, “before Celestia declared herself Queen of Equestria and before I signed up with CP, I was working as...” I hesitated slightly.

They would never believe me, this was fucking stupid.

“Working as...?” Brook Cotton coaxed me.

“I was working as a...”

They will just call bullshit on me, I know they will.

“Yes?”

“I was... a priest.”

They took that revelation with shock, just like I expected. Me? A priest? No way!

“Now ah think you are just pulling mah leg here, there is no way you could have been a priest!”

Brook Cotton said in disbelief.

“How does one go from being a priest to becoming CP officer?” Blizzard Candy asked.

The others seemed really doubtful.

I shook my head, I knew they wouldn’t believe me.

I had go into more detail to explain.

I cringed slightly, remembering the story of my cutiemark, my painful past.

It is amazing how I am just telling these random strangers the story of my cutiemark as if we were talking about the bad weather looming over us.

But here goes nothing.

“My father was a priest before me, and his father, my grandfather, had been too."

"My grandfather was the priest that wed Applejack and Applesnack (you remember the old wielders of harmony right?)."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"My father and mother were loving parents, believing that there was good in all of us and that true love would always triumph over the evils that spread to ponykind during the Golden Age."

"They believed that the guidance of priests was needed to guide ponies through darker periods, to make sure that they didn’t fall down the path of ruin (murdering, crime, greed), they used Princess Luna as a prime example of how a pony could go on the path of betterment. She was considered by my parents to be an inspiration to ponykind.”

"We were so called 'priest of Luna', we offered advice and guidance to those who willed it."

"So like a religion?"

"No. Not really. There were no sacred texts or beliefs, we had no members, prayers or anything. All we did was offer our guidance to those who came to us seeking a way to redeem themselves or come clean, we'd use Luna and her kindness as an example to show ponies that there was always a chance to improve yourself, become a better pony, a good pony.

In function we served as normal priests, we wed couples and held sermons."

“I grew up with Princess Luna as my role model, she was a great alicorn and I showed her great respect in all regards. This sounds a bit cheesy, I know, but bear with me here.”

“At the age of four my father let me wed my first couple, I was sort of his apprentice back then, helping out at the church with various duties, preparing sermons and such. The couple I wed were young, a charcoal unicorn mare and a crimson red pegasus, I... don’t remember their names, but I do remember that the mare was expecting a child."

"They had explained to me and my father that they were poor and were living in a cramped apartment and that with the child coming they were to expect a long period of economic hardship, typically in a case like this in that day and age the couple would either separate or abort the child. But these wanted to keep the child and share their love with it, regardless of the consequences.”

“The day of the wedding eventually came and their few friends had assembled on the pews of either side of the aisle, they hadn’t afforded much else and the bride's wedding dress left much to be desired when compared to those of many of the other couples we had wed, but it was still beautiful all the same."

"The couple radiated happiness as the music began to play and the bride’s father escorted her down the aisle.”

“The wedding was a success and I flawlessly recited the wedding ritual just as my father had taught me. When I finished with the phrase ‘you may now kiss the bride’ they had given each other a passionate loving kiss while their guests had stood up and cheered them on.”

“That was when my cutiemark appeared. My ceremony having strengthened their love even further, my father was so proud of me, it was the happiest day of my life.”

“Aw, that is so sweet!” Nurse Swirly said.

“Well his name IS Sweet Heavens.” Rainbow Sea remarked.

Obviously my name was not Sweet Heavens, but my story had unintentionally made the name seem plausible and real.

“What happened next then? How did you become a CP officer after that?” Blizzard Candy pressed on.

“I had been a priest for... 18 years...” I paused momentarily, looking up at the sky.

It sure had become dark all of a sudden, dark clouds were covering the skies above us, giving of distant rumbling.

Floodlights begun to turn on all over the prison facility.

I was wondering when we would be moving on.

“Um...” I lost my train of thought for a second, “...then the discovery of the new continent happened and all the bad things it brought along...”

“After what happened to those pegasi me and my father had been busy performing memorials and burials for the fallen, it was a tragic ordeal, there wasn’t as much as a tiny beam of joy anywhere, the memorials were worse, because the weeping widows and mothers had no one to mourn over and were often deeply depressed and dejected over their sons and daughters bodies being left to rot in those terrible jungles overseas.”

“It was way too grim for us. We hadn’t ever performed this many funerals, and it had never been related to war or killing.”

I could feel a warm tear run down my cheek, their expressions had turned compassionate and caring.

“My... father...” I began with much difficulty, this was what was burdening me, I was unable to stop the flow of tears now, “He... he... he couldn’t take the pressure and grimness... He wasn’t as strong and mentally prepared as... as the new generation was... and...” I closed my eyes, trying to block the tears and bowed my head.

This was an incredibly difficult and sensitive thing to talk about for me.

It had begun to rain heavily, flashes of light could be seen among the distant clouds, occasionally flashing the dark rain clouds in a white light, followed by rumbling thunder moments afterwards.

I felt two forelegs envelop me, I opened my eyes and saw Manie Manie hug me, patting me gently and whispering “there there, it's okay” in as a motherly tone as she could fathom.

I was as surprised by this as the others were, but no one said anything, I honestly wasn't sure whether I should feel uncomfortable about it or consoled the way she had acted against me yesterday.

The two of us just stood there in the rain hugging each other, the group standing silently staring at their hooves in respect.

I sniffed, reaching up a hoof to wipe the tears of my face, Manie gently let go of me.

"Things only got worse after that... ponies stopped coming to the church, no one cared anymore, the power of love and betterment meaning nothing to them."

"One day my mother disappeared, she left to go down to the local store, and never came back... I was left all alone, she had been the only family I had left."

"A few long lonely months passed in the church, I lost faith, and eventually gave up, it was a lost cause."

“I fell into a period of serious drug abuse, I took some serious amounts of Psycho chem to deal with the loss of my parents.”

“I was like that, a junkie, all the way up until Celestia snapped and declared herself Queen and until they began recruiting for volunteers to work in Civil Protection, I liked their ideas of 'ridding Equestria of it's rot' and signed up with them.”

"When Luna got banished to the moon I lost it completely, I stopped believing in 'the goodness of ponies', everything I had learned during my time as a priest meant nothing. Everypony could go to hell for all I cared."

"Since then I just followed my orders as an officer, only to end up betrayed and sent to the frontier. With you."

The end of my story was met with respectful silence.

I wasn't sure of the impression I had given.

I noticed that I was shaking slightly.

"And now you know..."

"ALRIGHT YOU PILES OF WANK, LISTEN UP!" someone yelled over a megaphone, interrupting the moment.

We directed our attention to the source of the voice, it was an officer wearing a different design of the CP uniform that I didn't recognize, it had a yellow and blue color scheme. The officer wore a cap.

Besides him were four officers wearing the same type of armor, these wore helmets with red lenses and held some type of shotgun with one hoof.

I was too far back to make out any details, but the helmetless officer was probably of a higher rank.

"TO THE LEFT OF YOU IS A RAMP, I WANT ALL OF YOU TO FORM UP IN AN ORDERLY LINE AND TO FOLLOW THIS OFFICER!" the officer yelled, I wasn't entirely sure of what officer he was referring to, but there was probably someone up ahead.

In a few minutes the crowd began moving towards the ramp, and a few minutes after that we reached the ramp.

The ramp was slippery and wet, an earth pony mare ahead of us slipped and caused a whole mess, dragging down a good eight other ponies down the ramp, the officers were not too happy about that.

We were led past a sizable perimeter wall and into a huge courtyard with a single path leading up to a large door, dividing the path from the rest of the courtyard was a puny chainlink fence behind which hundreds of other convicts were gathered behind, cheering and jeering on the new arrivals, calling us "fresh fish" and making fishing puns.

"That's funny, 'fresh fish' because we came from the sea." Rainbow Sea commented.

"Yeah, thanks Rainbow, we got it." Blizzard Candy replied.

Ahead of the line a burly unicorn stallion took offense at something one of the convicts said and tried to pick a fight with him, but an officer rushed ahead and beat him down much to the amusement of the resident convicts.

Eventually we found ourselves in a huge and very dark hall, surrounding the room were several armed guards wearing the blue and yellow uniform from before, we, along with the two hundred or so other new arrivals were instructed to form a single large block and stand in an orderly line, somehow the seven of us ended up up front.

Before us was a brown middle aged unicorn stallion wearing a neat business suit, red tie and golden glasses, on his chest was a large golden emblem of a sun, representing Celestia's cutiemark.

Next to him was the ranking officer from before, now I could see that the captain had a light gray coat, black officers cap with the symbol of a golden alicorn aligned in the center and that the insignia on his shoulder said 'NEW PROSPECT PRISON'.

The officer had the cap pulled down slightly over his eyes, he looked incredibly mean and was observing us with a smug expression, he rest his eyes briefly on me and gave me a look of utter disgust before continuing to scan the rest.

When we were all alined and in formation the unicorn began to speak.

“This is Mr. Hudson, Captain of the guard. I am Mr. Wade, the warden.”

The warden pointed a hoof at us.

“You, are sinners and scum, that’s why they sent you to me.” he said, smiling.

“Rule number one: no blaspheming. I’ll not have the Queen’s name taken in vain in my prison.”

"Rule number two: no killing and no crippling of other inmates. You are no good to us if you can't hold a pick, if you are caught doing this, you will be executed."

“This is your new home, this is where you belong, until you are requested elsewhere.”

“Any questions?”

A young pegasus stallion down the line spoke up.

“When do we eat?”

The warden glanced at Mr. Hudson, the captain.

The captain pulled out his baton, he flicked it on, walked up to the pegasus and towered up above him, screaming right in his face.

“YOU EAT WHEN WE SAY YOU EAT! YOU PISS WHEN WE SAY YOU PISS! YOU SHIT WHEN WE SAY YOU SHIT! YOU SLEEP WHEN WE SAY YOU SLEEP! YOU GOT THAT YOU MAGGOT-DICK MOTHERFUCKER!?”

Then he slammed the baton right along the side of the pegasus face, sending a powerful shock through his skull and knocking him unconscious.

The ponies next to him gasped in terror.

“Any other questions?” the warden asked, grinning.

There were none.

“I believe in two things. Discipline, and Celestia’s wisdom. Here, you’ll receive both.”

The warden unfastened his sun emblem from his suit and floated it up for all to see.

“Put your faith in Celestia. Your ass belongs to me. Welcome to New Prospect Prison.”

NEW PROSPECT? But my ship was supposed to take me to Shellbeach!

I gathered courage and spoke up.

"Sir, I have a question."

The captain was about to charge up to me, but the warden held up a hoof, instructing him to hold.

The warden looked at me curiously and slowly walked up to me, looking me slowly from top to bottom.

"You are a curious one." the warden said.

"What happened to you?"

"This is a scramble suit, it was issued to me by Civil Protection, for whom I work for."

"Civil Protection eh..." the warden waved the captain over to him and whispered.

"Have him take the suit off when you delouse him, I want to take a closer look at it."

"You can't take off the suit." I pointed out, having heard his whisper.

"That isn't an option for you."

"You don't understand. Sir. I can't take off the suit, it is sealed on me, it cannot be taken off."

"And how do you unseal it then?"

"I don't know. Unicorn magic perhaps? Do you have a spell that allows me to take this thing off?"

The captain gave me a right hoof, jabbing me in the jaw. I tasted blood.

"Show some fucking respect for the warden!"

I ignored him.

"My question, sir."

"Very well, I will answer this one question for you. I am feeling generous today. What do you want?"

"What happened to the ship that was supposed to go to Shellbeach Prison?"

"You were on it. The S.S. Sea Killer was redirected on the way to dock here instead."

Before I could say anything else the warden dismissed me and walked away, leaving the room,

The captain walked back to his previous post and began yelling again.

"ALRIGHT, I WANT EVERYONE DIVIDED INTO IN GROUPS OF 10, AND QUICKLY I DON'T GOT ALL DAY!"

The crowd began to form disorganized groups, the officers around us approached the crowd helping to form groups of 10, with force as needed.

Our group, being among the closest up front formed up first, but Rainbow Sea got divided and pushed back into one of the groups further back.

Captain Hudson walked past us and waved a hoof.

"You there. You're the lucky first, follow me."

He led us through a long corridor into a smaller room with a metal cage, a pile of gray sacks marked "D-POWDER" with an emblem of a giant zoomed in image of a lice crossed over with a large X. Delousing powder.

There were five armed officers and two ponies in lab coats in the room, the two manning a water hose.

"Off with whatever you are wearing!" Captain Hudson barked at us.

After not even two seconds he added "And I didn't say take all day doing it, did I?"

As the others undressed and left their gear in a pile I approached the captain, I had to try and get this sorted out, I needed to get going with the mission.

He had his back turned at me and was speaking to two of the armed officers, as soon as I approached they aimed their weapons at me.

"Captain, listen, there has been a mistak-"

"You again? What is your major malfunction, scumfuck? Did your mama drop you on your head as a kid? What part of 'don't fucking talk unless spoken to' is it that you just don't get?"

"Why wont you listen to what I say? I am a fucking Captain of mainland CP, there has been a mix up! Command has t-"

But he ignored me, he reared up and bucked me square in the chest and I was too slow to avoid the kick.

I felt one of my ribs crack under the pressure and fell over wheezing.

I was really making it a habit of getting abused like this, if only my fellow officers weren't all violent assholes.

The captain leaned over and tore my satchels off of me, throwing them off into the pile of clothes and bags.

I heard him trotting away from me and then returning, I opened my eyes and looked up at him only to get a sack full of delousing powder right in my eyes.

"AAGGHHG YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!" I cried out in pain, the burning was unbearably painful!

I felt two hooves grab onto my shoulders and dragging me away as I desperately tried to rub my eyes, I felt metal under me, they had dragged me into the cage.

"Stand up." the captain ordered.

I refused, the burning was too much.

"Are you daft? Stand the fuck up or I'll break your kneecaps!"

Against my own eyes protesting I blindly managed to get up on my legs, still attempting to rub out the worst of the delousing powder from my eyes and face.

The second I had stood up they had turned on the water hose, the force of the jet of water caught me of guard and sent me slamming into the back of the cage, the bastards were laughing at me.

"FFSTOP PPFFT STOP! TURN IT OFF!! TURN IT OFF!!" I spluttered, and they did.

I got up again and turned towards the captain, my vision was blurred and my eyes still burned like hell, but the water had helped somewhat.

"Alright, delouse that piece of shit."

WHAT?! AGAIN!?

I quickly covered my eyes with my right foreleg just in time before I was hit by a scoop of delousing powder, but I had opened my eyes too soon and the cloud of powder that formed soon after got in my eyes, burning them yet again.

"He's done, next prisoner!"

Someone grabbed hold of me and dragged me out of the cage, I was shoved and pushed until I walked into a wall, I regained my sight slightly, there was a metal slot in the wall, in it was a set of prison clothes.

"*Hey, prisoner, grab the damn clothes already.*" the officer who had shoved me prompted.

So I did, but I didn't put them on, good thing too, because apparently we weren't supposed to do that just yet.

The next pony was beaten down by the captain who yelled at him that he hadn't been instructed to do so yet.

That bastard seemed to find all kinds of excuses to beat us up, fucking sadist.

When everyone were done getting deloused the captain ordered us to stand in a line

"I wont be going with you ladies from now on. Instead, you will follow sergeant Huxley to the infirmary, you will comply and you will answer any questions asked by the docs there. If you don't, well..." he tapped his baton twice on the helmet of the closest officer, it gave of a metallic clinking.

One of the officers led us to the infirmary, we were instructed to wait in the small waiting room just outside, CP probably didn't like plants because the two potted plants in the room were both dead.

As soon as I sat down to catch my breath a pony wearing a white hazmat suit with a black polarized visor came out of the other room, the pony slowly looked through the ten of us, eventually pausing on me.

"You. The shapeshifter. You're up first."

"It's my lucky day today..." I wheezed.

"Try not to say something that will make them beat you again." Nurse Swirly said concerned, none of them had really said anything since we got off the ship, they were either scared, intimidated by all the abuse that I and other ponies around us had taken or just keeping to themselves.

"I'll try not to..."

This was an operating room, it was very dark, a bright set of lights gynecologist table in the center.

"Have a seat." the hazmat pony instructed.

"What... on... that?"

"Yes."

A gynecologist table?

Yeah...

"I'd... rather not."

The hazmat pony sighed deeply.

"First pony to resist for the day... ok guys, you can come out now."

Four more ponies in hazmat suits came out from the shadows in the back of the room, two of them held pistols and another held a bonesaw.

"You... have got to be kidding me."

"You are not leaving this room until you have been examined. Well, not in one piece anyway."

"Why are you all so violent over here? We weren't remotely as bad back in the mainland."

"'We' who?"

"Civil Protection."

"Former CP officer?"

"No. I'm still with CP. Still trying to figure out how to proceed with my mission, the guards I have spoken to thus far haven't been very civil with me when I mentioned it. Maybe you guys could help me out with that?"

They all looked at each other.

"Yeah, well, no."

"Did you by... uh... any chance, speak to the warden about it?"

"As a matter of fact I did..." I turned my head to the left, showing my bruise on the right side of my face.

"Here is proof."

"Ooh, then there is really nothing we can do about it."

"Why not?"

"The warden is the only pony that could do anything about that really, and if he doesn't believe you..."

"Oh common man, I really need to get out of here, and quick."

"The thing is, I don't really believe that you are an officer either, what proof to you have to show for it?"

"For gods sake, I am wearing a goddamned scramble suit, what kind of citizen would even own that kind of gear?"

"What the hell is a scramble suit?"

"The thing I am wearing now! There is no way you can have missed it, you even called me 'shapeshifter' before."

"Hmm..."

"Hey Cutter, are we going to do this or what? The captain doesn't like holdups." one of the ponies called from the back of the room.

"Yeah yeah..." the first hazmat pony responded, it turned back to me. "Look, we need to get this over with, but tell you what."

"I'll look into it later, make a call to mainland CP to check if they really sent somepony overseas. But for now you really need to get on the table so we can clear you through here."

"Thanks..."

I slowly went up and got up on the table, it felt really awkward and uncomfortable, I felt really vulnerable and... exposed on this thing.

The hazmat ponies approached me from all around, having laid down their weapons.

"Are you seriously going to call CP for this one guy, Cutter?" one of the ponies asked, preparing a long needle.

"Well, yeah."

"He's a greenie, Ephy, what did you expect?" another pony said.

"Don't be like that, everypony deserves a chance."

"You'll say that when you begin working here, hell, I did, but with all the ponies we process here and who always try to worm their way out of it somehow you just give up and let it pass. You just can't save everyone Cutter."

"I know, but listening to what they say and giving them a chance to speak their mind is the least I could do. That is just who I am."

"For now... You'll tire of it eventually, you'll see."

They all looked down at me.

"Hey there buddy, you seem nervous." the pony I identified as 'Ephy' said to me.

"Do I really have to be spread out like this?"

"Of course, it's the only table we have in here, and if you don't you'll just slide off of it like a sack of potatoes."

"Why do you wear hazmat suits?"

"To protect ourselves from disease. And from accidentally come into contact with infected blood during some of the invasive surgeries we perform."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it, we are trained medical professionals, you are in good hooves."

"Before we start however we must know, is this shapeshifting thing of yours really a suit or is it a medical condition?"

"It's a suit... I told you that."

"Thank you, this is all we need to know."

Ephy flipped the syringe he had prepared and jabbed into my chest.

"Ouch! What the hell!"

"It's just a needle, don't be a baby."

"Alright, you guys know what to do, check him for wounds and injuries, I'll be off checking the blood sample."

"Sure thing Ephy."

The four medical ponies began touching and prodding me all over, twisting, turning and lifting my legs and head, they pressed a hoof on my chest and I growled in pain.

"Wow, broken rib, you didn't sound especially hurt when you were talking before. You sure took the pain like a real stallion." one of the ponies commented.

"Working in Civil Protection really gives you a tolerance for pain over the years." I said.

"Right, right..."

Ephy returned with a clipboard.

"His blood is clean, aside from some minor levels of psycho. What was the diagnosis?"

"Several bruises, swollen bulge on his forehead and a broken rib, also his eyes are really red, I think Hudson gave him a bit too much delousing powder."

"My, that's pretty serious. And he got all that just on the way between his holding cell in the mainland to here? He must have really been picking fights with the guards."

"What do you want to do Ephy?"

Ephy raised a hoof and looked at what appeared to be a digital watch strapped to his wrist.

"We don't really have time to do any conventional surgery right now, we have already wasted enough time on him as it is. Give him a potion."

"A potion? Are you sure?"

"Yeah I know it's a bit excessive for an inmate, but what the hell, why not? We got plenty of the stuff anyway."

"Eh, if you say so..."

What did they mean by potion?

How would a potion help me fix my broken rib?

One of the ponies went away and returned with a small red bottle marked with 'Angel Pharmaceuticals Super Healing Potion', the medical pony gave it to me.

"Drink all of it for full effect."

"What does it do...?"

"It does what it says on the tin, it heals all your wounds."

"What? Just like that?"

"Yes. Amazing isn't it?"

I drank the entire potion, it tasted mildly of strawberries but had a horrible aftertaste.

A warm feeling of comfort flowed through my body, my eyes stopped burning, the pain from my rib and bruises went away, my forehead didn't feel swollen anymore.

I raised a hoof to touch my forehead, to see if the bulge was still there, but it was gone.

"That's incredible. Why don't they use this thing more often?"

"Because it's expensive. And can only be made using certain herbs from the Everfree Forest back in Equestria. You are actually really lucky to have gotten one, you might just be the only pony to get one today unless someone shows up with something worse which we don't have time to... rectify."

The pony I spoke to went away.

Ephy spoke to me again.

"Before you go we'll just need your name."

"Captain Tombs of CP."

"We can't use that, besides 'Captain' and 'of CP' isn't part of your name."

"Just Tombs then."

"No nicknames."

"Let's try that again. Give me your real, full name."

"Sweet Heavens."

"Yeah, right, you better stop dicking around, I really don't have time for this."

"No really, my name is Sweet Heavens."

Ephy sighed and stormed off to the door, he opened it and peeked out.

"Does anypony know this guy's name? He is refusing to collaborate."

I didn't hear the answer.

"What, really?"

Silence.

"Uh, okay." he shut the door and trotted back to me.

"My apologies, I really thought you were jerking around there."

"I bet..."

"So are we done?"

"We sure are, off you go."

I left the room and sat down beside my group.

Nurse Swirly was called in next.

"So how'd it go?" Brook Cotton asked. "Ya were in there fer a long time."

"They were actually the nicest ponies I've met so far, it wasn't so bad, aside from the gynecologist table, they gave me a magical potion that healed all my wounds somehow."

"G-gynecologist table?" Manie stammered.

"Yep..." what was her problem with gynecologist tables? I thought that was a pretty normal routine thing for mares.

"Why?"

She blushed.

"I... don't like gynecologist tables..."

Oh-kay, this was heading in the wrong direction.

"What's a gynecologist table?" Strawberry Feather wondered.

The four of us looked at each other, Manie Manie and Brook shook their heads at me.

"That's something for you to find out when you are a bit older." I explained.

"Ooooh, I get it... so it's that kind of table."

"What? No Strawberry it's no- just forget about it."

We didn't really say anything between then and Nurse Swirly's return.

She came out blushing and walking strangely, she sat down beside me and crossed her legs.

Brook was up next.

"How did it go?"

"No." she cut shortly.

"No?"

"No."

"No what?"

"No."

"Okay..."

Again, there was silence until Brook finished his examination.

Likewise, he came back looking appalled and walking oddly.

"Brook?"

"Nope."

"What happened?"

"Nope. Just, nope."

"What did they do to you two?"

Neither of them gave me a response.

Manie Manie was clearly shaken up and nervous about this, clearly she had gotten some sort of strange idea about what happened and was fidgeting in her seat.

"You there." Ephy leaned out of the door and called.

"The black mare."

"M-me?" Manie whimpered.

"Yes, you. Hurry up in here and this will be over before you know it."

She looked at the rest of us.

"...help me?"

"Help you with what?"

"NOW DAMNIT." Ephy sounded really impatient.

Manie gave us one last nervous look before heading in, the door slammed shut behind her.

About five minutes passed and then I just had to ask.

"Seriously guys, what did they even do to you in there?"

Neither of them responded, their lips were sealed shut.

"Nurse Swirly?"

Nothing.

"Brook?"

"It... was different 'alright... ah don't really want 't talk about it."

"What do you mean? What did they do?"

"Well... there were probes 'an..."

Oh hell, PROBES!?

"I think I see where this is going... you don't really need to tell me."

"Did they seriously not use the probes on you?"

"No, no probes."

"Lucky bastard..."

We heard a scream, a stallion and something topple over in the examination room.

A few seconds afterwards I heard faint yelling coming from the door.

[size=8]"Hey hey hey! Rippasplitta! Take it easy! Put the gun down! You knew that would happen, you should know better than to get that close!"[/size]

Something was going on in there, Manie must have reacted to this probe thing Brook mentioned.

In about a minute Manie came out, unscathed.

She was blushing, but wasn't walking strangely like the others, she seemed really upset.

"Manie!" I called to her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes! They wanted to stick probes in m-"

"They wanted use probes on me!"

"Well, did they?" Blizzard Candy pried.

Manie gave him a mean look.

"No, of course not!"

"The guy holding the probe got a little to excited about his job and I kicked [size=9]him in the face, which broke his visor and made him really pissed...[/size]" she trailed off.

"You... did the right thing defending yourself."

The door opened again, Ephy peeked out again and gave Manie a stare before saying anything.

...

A long stare.

"The purple kid." he called.

Strawberry Feather, who had remained largely silent jumped off his seat and calmly trotted into the examination room, Ephy gave Manie another glare before shutting the door.

In roughly ten minutes Strawberry Feather came back out, looking just as passive as he had been going in.

He was chewing on a lollipop.

"They seemed nice." he said as he climbed back onto his seat and leaned back.

"You really hurt Rippasplitta though, Manie. He got a shard of glass in his eye."

"They didn't use the probe on you?" Manie asked him.

"I am six years old. What sexually transmitted disease could I possibly have?"

That kid was smarter than I thought.

"Good point..."

"Plus, I was too short to get up on that gyneio-colo-gist table, so they just took a blood sample and asked me if I was hurt and I said no and they gave me this lollipop and everything. They were really nice."

"Yes you mentioned that..."

"Which flavor?" Blizzard Candy asked.

Strawberry Feather gave him a wide smile.

"Strawberry."

An officer led us to another room, it was empty and had nothing but a single slot in the wall, similar to the one I had seen before.

We were instructed to pick up a a sheet and a pillow rolled up neatly by a thin mattress each, once we did that we were brought to a large empty room which was entirely white and brightly lit.

There were cameras in each of the four corners of the room, the door had no handle on it.

When we tried to speak a voice would yell at us over a hidden loudspeaker instructing us to keep quiet.

When one of the cameras spotted us doing an activity, any activity, be it tapping our hooves rhythmically on the floor, or standing up and walking around the voice would return saying things like 'YOU CAN'T DO THAT', 'THAT'S NOT HOW YOU DO NOTHING' and 'STOP HAVING FUN'.

After almost an hour another group of 10 were brought into the room, the voice went through the same thing with them.

And then the third group. And the fourth. And the fifth. The voice gave up when the sixth group came in, the ponies gathered in here with us spoke freely at their hearts desire.

"We have been waiting for hours now." Blizzard Candy said, annoyed.

"You should be enjoying idle periods like these." Manie responded.

"Nooo, it's so slow, and boring."

"Manie is right, sometimes, boring is good." Nurse Swirly said wisely.

"Prison isn't fun, Blizzard. Enjoy the quiet idle moment while you can."

"I'm hungry..." Strawberry Feather said in a low voice.

"I'm sorry dear, but there is nothing we can give you." Swirly consoled.

"Hey," an elderly stallion who sat next to us called. He held a small wrap of paper with a diced up piece of cola candy.

"I know this ain't much, but your kid can have one piece if he'd like."

He was right, it wasn't much, it was really nothing but a tiny piece of candy split into 8 equal pieces, I was touched that someone would be so generous despite having to little.

Strawberry Feather stood up.

"Wait." Rainbow Sea stopped him.

"What did you use to dice the candy?"

The elderly stallion looked at Rainbow querying, then understood his concern.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I understand why it would seem suspicious."

He showed us a tiny pocket knife.

"I kept this in my tail, the guards never found it. Look, I am putting the knife down before you, but please, whatever you do, don't tell the guards about it."

Strawberry went up and took a single piece of the candy.

Then he nodded and said "Thank you for being so kind, sir."

"My pleasure kid, we all need to look after each other. It's our responsibilities as good ponies."

Indeed... if only more would follow his example.

Some time passed and I began to think, generally about what had happened thus far, Bob, the boat, the misunderstanding which has trapped me in here... but my thoughts eventually wandered to my gear, I began to wonder what the guards did with all the clothes they confiscated.

"I wonder what happened to my bags of supplies..." I muttered.

"They were confiscated. You'll probably never see them again." Manie told me.

"Maybe. I hope not. There were important things in it, there was a gift, from a friend in there."

"You mean the ecstasy?"

I gave her a look.

"I saw the note plastered on the bag." she explained.

"Who is 'Cake'?"

"A friend."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Tell me about her."

"I don't see how it is any of your business."

"Aw, don't be like that. We are all friends here, right?" she smiled.

"You are not going to let me keep anything to myself are you?"

"Nah." she laughed, I knew she was joking, but part of me wasn't so sure.

"It's not really a deep secret or anything."

"Cake was just a mare that I met on the train between Manehatten and Vanhoover. We had a nice talk. Nothing to it."

"What race was she?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, yeah, I want to know who wrote that tiny message."

"She was an earth pony."

"Wow, an earth pony? That's pretty impressive."

"That she was an earth pony or that she can write that small?"

"Gee, what do you think?"

"ATTENTION INMATES, PREPARE TO LEAVE THE ROOM." the hidden loudspeaker announced.

"THE DOOR WILL OPEN IN ONE MINUTE, WHEN IT DOES, PROCEED THROUGH IT IN AN ORDERLY LINE."

"YOU WILL BE BROUGHT TO YOUR CELLS FOR THE NIGHT."

"DO NOT CAUSE ANY TROUBLE, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

I felt that the pony on the loudspeaker was having a bit too much fun with his job.

"This is it, I guess." I said.

"Finally." Blizzard Candy replied with eagerness.

"Don't be so happy about it, we will probably be sharing cells with the older cons. Remember the scene from earlier today?"

"Whatever, I just want to get out of this room."

After some time we were funneled through the one door, Strawberry Feather kept close to me after we got separated from the others, biting my tail when we began to drift apart and pushing his way through when somepony tried to get ahead of the line.

We were brought to a long multi-tier cellblock with 5 floors, there appeared to be at least 400 cells in the room of which over half were filled by the time me and Strawberry got there.

There must have been over a hundred jeering inmates cheering us on and taunting us with even more fish puns, many of them reached through the bars of their cells waving their hooves as us and attempting to grab any passerby's, we all did our best to ignore them.

The bottom cells through floor four were all filled, so me and Strawberry were directed to the topmost floor, the two of us got cells next to each other somewhere down the way along the catwalk close to one of the cellblock ends.

When the last of us had made it into a cell the guards shouted at the inmates to quiet down and the block fell into silence.

The guards spend a few minutes making sure that everyone were properly in their cells before a hidden officer somewhere on the bottom floor the all clear signal before heading downstairs, when all this is done an officer shouts from down below:

"LIGHTS OUT! Good night, ladies."

The lights bump off in sequence and the officer leaves, his hoofsteps echoing away in the cryptic silence of the cellblock.

I waited for a moment, taking in the cramped space of my own cell before beginning to prepare my bed.

As I did I began to hear ghastly tittering and muttering from below, voices, prisoners taunting the new arrivals.

I slowly went up and leaned on the bars of my cell, looking out into the dimly moonlit darkness of the cellblock.

"Fishee fishee fisheeee...." a deep voice whispered, "You're gonna like it here, new fish."

"A whooole lot..." another one whispers.

"Make you wish your daddies never dicked your mommies." The voice of a rugged sounding stallion was heard saying.

"You takin' this down, new fish? Gonna be a quiz later." one of the prisoners laughed out loud, his mean spirited laugh echoing through the block.

"Shhh! Keep it down! The screw'll hear..." the voice of a mare whispered.

"Fishee fishee fishee..."

I heard knocking on the wall to my left.

"Shapeshifter, you there?" the dark raspy voice of a stallion whispered to me, from the left, just high enough for me to hear and still low enough to keep it between the two of us.

He sounded like the kind of stallion with a century of experience in his voice, the descriptions 'seasoned' and 'wise' that Cake had attempted to give me came to mind.

"Who's asking?" I whispered back.

"Redding." the dark voice whispered.

"Nice place you got here, Redding. Do new arrivals always get the same welcoming party?"

"They always go fishin' with first timers... and they don't quit til' they reel someone in."

The voices keept on, slyly taunting us in the dark.

Some of the younger and more squeamish ponies were now beginning to break, some could be heard sobbing quietly in their cells, others could be heard pacing around, the clattering sound of their horseshoes audible on the cold cement floors.

"Lovely..." I replied.

I thought of Strawberry Feather, poor kid must have been horrified! How was he holding up?

I moved to the right side of my cell and leaned in as best I could to listen, I couldn't hear anything.

"Strawberry?" I whispered.

"Yeah?" he responded in a hushed voice.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay..."

"Don't let them get to you, that's what they want."

I waited but didn't get a response, I went back to the left side of my cell.

From just below us I could hear a raspy sounding stallion speak, he sounded as if he had throat cancer by how badly raspy his voice was.

"Fat ass... oh, faaaat ass." he called out.

Who was he referring to?

"Hey, Redding. Who is he talking to?"

"Chubby stallion, new guy down the bottom floor..."

I peeked out trying to make out shapes down below, but it was too dark to see anything.

"Talk to me, boy." the stallion continued, "I know you're in there. I can hear you breathin'."

I listened carefully, trying to make out the distinct noise of a pony hyperventilating in one of the cells below over the incessant hissing and tittering.

"Now don't you listen to these nitwits, ya hear?"

"This ain't such a bad place. I'll introduce you around, make you feel right at home." he said.

The hyperventilating faded away.

Was he trying to console the pony?

"I know some big ol' bull queers who'd love to make your acquaintance... especially with that big white mushy butt of yours..."

I should have known.

The hyperventilating pony broke out into a bellowing cry and wailed out loudly in despair.

"OH CELESTIA! I DON'T BELONG HERE! I WANNA GO HOME!!" he cries out, he sounded really young and panicked.

The inmates all around the cellblock went nuts, the stallion from the cell below cheers out victorious.

"WE HAVE A WINNER!"

"AND IT'S FAT ASS, BY A NOSE!"

The entire cellblock starts chanting.

"Fresh fish, fresh fish, fresh fish, fresh fish..."

The crying stallion from the bottom floor cried out again.

"I WANNA GO HOME! I WANT MY MOTHER!"

A voice is heard down the cellblock saying nonchalantly,

"I had your mother! She wasn't all that great!"

The lights bump on around the cellblock and the sound of several officers coming in is heard down below, from where I was I could see two, but I knew there were more.

One of the officers had a particularly heavy step, his hoofsteps being heard audibly over the others.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS HAPPY SHIT!?" Captain Hudson bellowed, his anger echoing throughout the cellblock.

"He took Celestia's name in vain! I am tellin' the warden!" an inmate called out from our level.

"You'll be telling him with my baton up your ass!"

I could see the cell in which the crying pony from before was in, he was standing shaking by the bars looking really scared, the captain stormed up to his cell. He really did look a bit overweight.

"YOU GOTTA LET ME OUT OF HERE! YOU GOTTA!"

"What's your malfunction you fat fuckin' barrel of monkey spunk?"

"Please! I ain't supposed to be here! NOT ME!" he stallion cried out.

"Me neither!" another prisoner shouted from his cell, "They run this place LIKE A FUCKING PRISON!"

The captain looked up trying to determine where it had come from, but turned back to the cell.

"I ain't gonna count to three! I ain't even gonna count to one! Now you shut the fuck up before I sing you a lullaby!"

"Please...! Please! There's been a mistake! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!"

The overweight stallion went crazy with panic and started blubbering and wailing.

The captain drew his baton and flicked it on with a quick ZAP! gesturing at his men to open the cell.

The cell door pulled open and the captain reached in, yanked the stallion out of his cell and immediately began to violently beat him with his baton, brutally raining blows, sending electric shocks through his shivering body.

The cellblock went completely dead silent, the inmates all just watched the captain mercilessly beat the life out of the broken stallion, he squirmed and whimpered under the beating.

The captain kept beating and beating up until the baton ran out of charges, at which point the captain paused looking dumbstruck at the baton before resuming the beating.

All that was heard now was the THWACK-THWACK-THWACK of the uncharged baton landing blows on the stallion.

The stallion passed out on his back and began to bleed profoundly from his ears, captain Hudson got a few short kicks in before stopping the abuse.

He sheathed his baton and adjusted his hat slightly before looking up high at the cells, for a brief second the two of us looked eye to eye.

"If I hear as much as a MOUSE fart in here for the rest of the night, by Celestia and Luna merciful, you'll ALL visit the infirmary. EVERY LAST MOTHERFUCKER IN HERE."

"Call the trustees, get this tub of shit down to the infirmary." he muttered to his guards as he walked away.

Two of the guards go up to the unconscious stallion and grab him by his legs, as they drag him out of the cellblock the lights bump off again and darkness befalls the cellblock.

Nopony said a word for the rest of the night.

Early in the morning a loud alarm went off, waking everypony up.

Disgruntled complaints were heard all around the cellblock as everyone yawningly got up on their hooves.

I didn't feel very tired, I had been given plenty of time to rest the days prior on the way here and the potion I had been given yesterday made me feel rejuvenated.

I went up to my cell bars and looked out down below, there was a small pool of dried blood where the stallion had fallen last night.

"Another day, another rough awakening." Redding was yawning from his cell.

"You up, Shapeshifter?"

"I'm up." I replied.

"What happens now?"

"Morning routine. It's time for breakfast.."

I didn't say anything in response, but breakfast sounded nice.

I could really go for something to eat, I hadn't eaten in... two? Maybe three days?

It was hard to tell, I barely remembered that the last thing I had eaten was a bundle of thistles back in Vanhoover which I had bought while walking around, and that wasn't a very fulfilling meal to begin with.

"So what is the deal with that shapeshifing of yours?" Redding asked me.

I probably shouldn't tell him where I got the suit, or who I worked for.

I doubted the inmates here would be so lenient if they knew that they had a CP officer in their midst.

"Why do you care, Redding?"

“Because it will be to your advantage.”

“How so?”

“You’ll soon see that things are… bad in here."

"Surely you have heard of what happens in the kingdoms prisons?”

"Not really..." but I could guess.

"This place is a zoo. In here, anything guess as long as you don't break the one rule of New Prospect: no killing or crippling of fellow inmates. For as long as you can walk, see, hear and hold tools, the guards wont lift as much as a hoof to help you."

"In here everyone are left to roam mostly free all day, and all day long rape, violence and other nastiness happens."

This would be problematic, I had Nurse Swirly, Strawberry Feather and Manie Manie to worry about now, I needed to get back in touch with Blizzard Candy, Brook Cotton and... Rainbow Sea, if he would be willing to help, to protect them.

"What was this about 'bull queer' I heard yesterday?"

"Stallions who tick on stallions, if you get what I mean."

"I see..."

"I suppose it wouldn't help if I told them I'm not homosexual..." I guessed.

"Neither are they. You need to have soul for that."

"They don't."

"Explain."

"They are cruel soulless bastards, as you'll soon find out."

"Bull queers take by force, that's all they want or understand."

"I'd grow eyes in the back of my head if I were you."

"Word of advice? Don't get caught alone, stay in public crowded areas, don't go anywhere on your own. If you see somepony keeping an eye on you, stay as far away from them as you can."

Reminds me a lot of the advice I gave Cake regarding Civil Protection and it's abusive officers.

"Thanks for the advice."

"That comes free. But you understand my concern."

I did.

I would do best to pass this on to the others.

"About my shapeshifting..."

"Yes?"

"How would that be an advantage to me?"

"If you pass it off as a disease, others might just leave you alone. Or at least, they won't... 'get to you'."

"Makes sense, I guess."

"I like you, shapeshifter. You seem different from the usual newcomers."

"How would you like to join us for breakfast?"

"Who are 'us'?"

"Me and the gang. You'll see."

"Don't worry, we don't bite."

“I don’t know Redding…”

“Please. Call me Red.”

“Okay. ‘Red’.”

“I sort of need to look after somepony… some-ponies actually. I didn't come here alone.”

“Who are you looking after?”

"Six ponies."

“But most importantly, a kid, from the cell next to mine… he is… shall we say... under my responsibility…”

“Pink colt? 6 years old?”

Well observed Red, nothing seemed to slip by him.

“I am purple actually” Strawberry Feather was heard calling from the right.

Red laughed, "I like you kid." he called back.

“Hey it’s alright, bring him with you, the guys won’t mind.”

“I’ll take your word for it then, Red.”

"I notice that you are very observant. Perhaps you could help me find the others?"

"What do they look like?"

"There are five of them."

"One earth pony mare, completely black, white outlines."

"One unicorn mare, white coat, caramel mane."

"And three earth pony stallions, one southern farmer looking type, dark gray coat, white mane."

"Second one is a bit more than a kid, blue coat and cobalt mane."

"Third is entirely green, the acid bright kind of green. He should stick out fairly easily."

"Already found three of them."

"You did?"

"Look ahead, just down below."

I checked the cells opposite to me, carefully scanning them cell by cell.

Then I saw them, Brook Cotton and Nurse Swirly, on the third tier, cells next to each other.

Blizzard Candy was on the fourth floor a few cells right of the two.

They hadn't seen me, probably.

They were all minding their own business, Brook was leaning back against the wall by his bed yawning, Swirly was looking at the wall of her cell grooming her mane (there must have been a mirror in her cell judging by the way she kept focused on the wall), Blizzard wasn't doing anything.

A loud buzzer buzzed throughout the cellblock, the master locks were thrown off and the cell doors all pulled open in a synchronized KA-THUMP!

"This is it, step out of the cell and look inconspicuous." Red instructed.

The inmates all stepped out of their cells out of sheer routine, it took some time before many of the new arrivals stepped out of their cells, when they did they came out shivering out of fear for what was to happen, this was just as alien to them as it was to me.

"Sweet Heavens." Strawberry whispered to me.

"Yes?"

"What's 'inconspicuous'?"

"It means 'don't do anything that stands out'."

"Oh."

"I can do that."

Yes, yes you can little one.

The cellblock was soon filled with guards, there was a guard on every tier counting the number of inmates per floor.

Sometimes an inmate would be missing and the guard would walk up and into the cell to drag out the pony inside with force before returning to count the rest of the ponies.

When they finished counting they gave the total headcount to a sergeant down below who then jolted down the numbers on a clipboard.

I looked to my left, wanting to see what this 'Red' guy I had been speaking to looked like.

Red, or Redding, was a rugged looking old earth pony stallion with a very deep brown coat, his short mane appeared black but had noticeable streaks of white in it.

He wore a very ragged looking set of prison clothes and had somehow procured a gray beret and a blue jeans jacket, both of which looked just as rugged and consumed as him.

How long had he been in here? I wondered.

He noticed me looking towards him and nodded hastily to me to look straight ahead as to not draw attention to myself, really fucking easy with the way my appearance sticks out like a sore hoof.

I looked briefly to my right at Strawberry Feather, he looked tired, but seemed otherwise okay; he was blankly staring forward and showed no emotion that would indicate concern or fright for his situation whatsoever.

Tough kid.

Then I looked forward finding the cells of my other group members.

Brook spotted me just as I found him, he looked up and nodded discretely at me, I nodded back.

He leaned in to whisper something to Nurse Swirly who then looked up and smiled at me, she tried to wave at me but Brook stopped her by barring her hoof quickly and shaking his head at her.

The guards finished their headcount and the sergeant below signaled for everyone to get moving, the entire cellblock cleared out in an orderly and organized manner, there was hardly any arguing or fighting in the line, everypony just wanted to get their breakfast and be over with it.

The long congo line of inmates led into the prison's mess hall, it looked big enough for 500 ponies, but it was hard to tell with the crowd that was there when we arrived.

The mess hall was... well.. messy.

Seated by long tables were prisoners of varying age, gender, color and appearance, chatting, joking, smoking and eating.

Around the edges of the room, by the mostly empty tables were the new arrivals who sat by themselves glooming and melancholy, they picked at the food as if there was something wrong with it, one of the ponies I saw was staring at his spoon green with disgust.

At the lunch line I noticed that Brook Cotton and Blizzard Candy had somehow ended up only a few ponies behind the three of us, there was no sight of Nurse Swirly but I assumed that she was further back behind the line.

Strawberry Feather kept close to me and was right behind me, behind him was a creepy looking old stallion with crazed looking eyes and patchy thin mane, he looked frail and bruised, his patchy hair seemed really greasy as if someone had cooked bacon in his hair earlier this morning.

As the line moved along the creepy stallion taps Strawberry Feather on his shoulder.

"Hello little one," the creepy pony said, "Are you here all alone?"

Strawberry Feather didn't respond to him and just looked in front of him, ignoring the creep.

"Ah, I see, the quiet type. I like that."

"Perhaps you would like to make a friend, little one?"

"I got some candy back at my cell that I would just love to share with you..."

Fucking pedophile scum.

Before I had turned around to say something Brook and Blizzard had already cut ahead of the line and restrained the creep who yelped and tried to get out of the grip, but his frail physique was no match against Brook's strength and while Brook kept him locked Blizzard Candy punched the old creep right on the nose, breaking it.

A cascade of blood seeped out of his nose as he fell screaming in pain on the dirty floor.

The lunch line was broken and the inmates gathered around the creep silently looking down at him, two guards came pushing through the crowd to see what was going on.

“*And what the fuck is going on here?*” one of the officers queried with a menacing and demanding tone.

“This creep here was making advances on our Strawberry Feather.” Brook explained daringly, pointing to the silent purple young colt.

The officer glanced at Strawberry Feather briefly and then down at the creep.

“*Got ourselves a colt cuddling little stallion, eh? You fuckers make me sick.*” the officer said disgusted.

“*Stand up.*” the guard demanded.

The creep didn't move.

“*Stand up or I will shove my baton so far up your arse that your dead mother will squirt.*”

The creep shakingly stands up, clutching his bleeding nose.

The guard pulls out his baton and forcibly shoves the creep’s hoof off his nose to get a better look, then, using the baton, he tilts the stallions head left, right and then up, carefully observing the wound.

“*Just a broken nose, he can still work.*” the officer determines before jabbing the creep in the stomach with the butt of the baton, making him retch and fall over. He turns to his companion while sheathing his baton.

“*Katz, call someone to cart this asshole to the infirmary. And have someone get this cleaned up before somepony slips on it.*”

Then the officer turns to Brook and points menacingly with his hoof.

“*You should consider yourself lucky as fuck that the only thing you broke was his nose. There is a death penalty for crippling or killing fellow prisoners, can’t use you scumfucks if you are dead or limbless can we?*”

“*If I catch you breaking the order in the line again I’ll personally come over and thump your skull like a fucking egg. Have I been clear enough?*”

“Yes…” Brook mutters.

“*Yes what?*”

“Yes sir?”

“*Good. Now get in line for your morning grub, fucknuts.*”

The two officers leave and the ponies reform the line.

“Asshole…” Brook Cotton muttered as the officers left.

Without protest the others in line simply let Brook Cotton and Blizzard Candy settle in with the three of us.

We were given some sort of gray-yellowish slob with white bits in it and a glass of water, that was our breakfast for the day.

As Red was about to lead us to his usual table Brook and Blizzard caught up.

"Uh, mind if we join you guys?" Brook asked.

Red looked at me.

"Are these your guys?"

"Yep." I confirmed.

He looked back at the two.

"Sure thing, follow me."

As we made our way through the maze of tables and eating ponies Brook muttered to me.

"We are still missin' Swirly, Manie and Rainbow Sea."

"What happened to Swirly? I saw her with you just earlier."

"We got split up."

"We need to find her, and Manie fast. This place isn't safe for them to go around on their own."

"I hear ya."

We got to the table where his gang was seated, there was only room for three ponies at the table, but on Red's arrival the table next to theirs quickly cleared, leaving room for Brook and Blizzard.

Red took his seat between two similarly looking ragged stallions, both wearing caps, me and Strawberry were instructed to sit in between a big buff stallion with several deep old scars over his face and a middle aged mare who had her yellow mane tied up in a ragged old blue bow.

They were all busy eating when we took our seats, deeply concentrated in trying to swallow the disgusting looking grub.

I took a spoonful of my own food and spotted something squirming in it just as I was about to eat it, I brought it up close to get a better look, it was a white worm.

"Is that... a worm?" They put worms in our food?" I was mildly disgusted.

The stallion sitting just right of Red looked up at me, as soon as he saw me he dropped his spoon into the mushy grub and stared at me in surprise with his jaw open.

"The shapeshifter!" he exclaimed in a very raspy voice, I recognized it, it was the stallion that had taunted the chubby stallion the night before.

I felt someone tap me on my back, I turned to look who it was.

It was an elderly frail looking stallion wearing a jacket, he had a pale brown coat and silvery gray mane.

He shakingly reached out a hoof at me.

"Are you... are you gonna eat that?" he asked almost gasping.

I looked at my spoon.

"You mean... the worm?"

"Yes."

"I... hadn't planned on it, no."

"Can I have it?"

"Sure..." I said, carefully picking the worm out with my hoof and giving it to the elderly stallion, who greedily snatched it.

He opened his jacket revealing a small chirping black baby bird, he gave the worm to the bird which devoured it and swallowed the worm whole.

"Th-this here is Jake. I am taking care of him til' he is old enough to fly." he explained, giving me a weary smile.

I gave him a nod and turned back to my table.

They all stared at me, well, almost everyone, Strawberry Feather was busy passively eating the pulpy yellow mass on his plate, not caring what he was eating and not paying attention to his companions.

"Who are you?" the raspy stallion asked me.

"My name is Sweet Heavens." I introduced myself.

"This is Strawberry Feather."

"And our companions are Brook Cotton and Blizzard Candy." I signaled towards the two who nodded back at us.

"Sweet Heavens? T-that is the girliest name for a stallion I've ever heard of."

"Thanks. My dead mother gave it to me."

"Luna bless her soul..." he responded, looking down to eat his grub in shame.

"So who are you guys then?"

Redding hints to the left of him, where a similarly aged ragged stallion sits, his coat is black, his mane is light brown, shifting into streams of white and silvery gray, he appears to have a stubby scruff of grayish white beard on his chin and cheeks.

“This here is Randy. Been in here almost as long as me.”

Randy gives a quick nod before resuming eating.

Red signals to the right of  me, where the buff stallion is sitting

The stallion reassembled more of a horse than a pony, his face appeared longer and slimmer, his eyes appeared smaller and his ears seem longer somehow, his neck was significantly longer and more muscular than ours.

Yep, he was definitely a horse alright.

Horses aren’t entirely unheard of in pony society, but they were few and far in between.

The stallion’s coat was that of a rocky gray, his mane was gleaming white, his muscular body bore several large scars, the coloring of his coat mixed with his buff sturdy physique and the scars made him seem more like a living statue than a horse.

He wore a belt with some smaller pouches around his waist.

“That’s Floyd, he is tough as a rock, and damn near looks like one too. He used to be in the Infantry. Came to us a few years ago.”

Next pony up was the mare to the left of Strawberry Feather, who was observing Strawberry Feather eat.

It kinda looked like she wanted to hug him, but she didn’t.

Her mane, was as mentioned, yellow, her coat was purple, to about the same degree as Strawberry Feather’s.

She wore a torn jacket.

Out of sheer curiosity I leaned back slightly to have a look at her flank.

Interestingly her cutiemark was that of a pink bird, I wasn't sure if this was connected to Strawberry's pink feather or if it was just a coincidence.

“This is Grayheart.”

“Hello.” She greeted gently.

“What’s with the nickname? If you don’t mind me asking.” Sweet Heavens asks.

“The guys joked about me being cold and distant, so I ended up with this name. Gray-Heart, as in heart of stone, emotionless.”

“That’s not very nice.”

“Eh, I don’t really mind. I think it suits me.”

“What is your real name then?”

“I’d rather not say…”

“Oh, okay. Sorry for asking.”

She gave me a weak smile to show that it was alright, and then looked down at Strawberry Feather again in an almost motherly way.

Red then put a hoof on the raspy pony to the right of him, who smiled widely at us revealing a yellow and broken smile.

This stallion seemed considerably younger than the others in the group, but still looked very worn out, he had a short pale yellow mane and a light beige coat.

Red sighed deeply.

“This, this merry fucker is Heywood.” He says.

"And do you know why I am merry?"

"No. Wh-" I began.

"Don't encourage him or we'll never hear the end of it." Red interrupted.

"Alright guys, you know the deal, hand them over."

“Son of a bitch.” Randy mutters as he pulls out a pack of cigarettes.

Floyd and Grayheart do the same, each giving him five cigarettes each, which he lined up neatly in a row.

“Lucky fuck.” Red says as he gives his share of cigarettes, Heywood adds these final to the row and then bows his head and inhales deeply, smelling the sickening aroma of the cigarettes.

“Hmmmmmm… Baltimerian.” He says.

“Smell my ass.” Floyd mutters to him, annoyed.

“Hmm, wait a second.” Heywood says.

He grabs one specific cancer stick from the row and sniffs it deeply.

“This one is from Dodge City, hah!  I am savoring this for later!”

“You are really enjoying this, aren’t you Heywood?” Red says.

“Hell yeah! Terrible shame though, Red, your horse comin’ in last and all.”

With a big grin he looks at Strawberry Feather who looked up startled by the yellow wide smile.

“That kid has some balls, that’s for sure.”

“What? What do you mean?” Strawberry Feather wondered, not having followed the conversation.

“They all bet against you, kid. Thanks to you I won all these here cigarettes!”

“Eh… you did what?”

“Sorry. We really expected you to break first. The young colts and fillies always do…” Grayheart apologized.

“Here kid, take some, you deserve ‘em.” Heywood said as he passed over 5 cigarettes to Strawberry Feather, who just stared at them confused.

“I… don’t smoke…”

Heywood grinned at the young colt again.

“Don’t have to. Currency.”

Heywood bundled the cigarettes together and stuck them in an empty pack which he drew from a pocket, he tucked the packet back in his pocket and resumed eating.

“Hell, I sure do love that horse of mine. I believe I owe that boy a big sloppy kiss when I see him!”

“Give him some of your cigarettes instead, cheap bastard.”

“Know what? I might just do that.”

Heywood leaned back towards the table behind him and lightly taped a white mare on the shoulder.

“Hey Tyra, you pull infirmary duty this week?”

“I always do Heywood.” The mare replied without turning to look at him, “I am a fucking nurse.”

“How’s that winnin’ horse of mine?”

The mare drops her spoon and turns to look at Heywood over her shoulder.

“Dead.”

Heywood turned pale and serious.

“No…”

“Hudson busted his head pretty good. The doc had already quit for the day so there was nopony to stop the bleeding in his brain. Poor bastard lay there until this morning. By then… well…”

The mare shook her head and turned back to her food.

Slowly Heywood glanced back and gloomily resumed eating, the others did the same.

Softly, Blizzard Candy asked,

“What was his name?”

“What? What’d you say?” Heywood irritatingly replied.

“I was wondering if anypony knew his name...” Blizzard repeated.

“What the fuck do you care, new fish?” Heywood responded.

“Doesn’t matter what his fuckin’ name was. He’s dead.”

Nopony says anything for the rest of the breakfast.

We had to find them, and fast, that was the main priority right now.

There were no mandatory jobs in New Prospect Prison, while still a prison, it was mostly intended as a transfer and processing facility where convicted felons from the mainland are sent to be organized into work groups who are then sent out to perform dangerous and physically straining labors all over the frontier.

From what I gathered the convicts here were released at random and sent to reinforce settlements who had sustained work force losses, as such, some inmates had been in here for years and others for only a few weeks.

During the day the prisoners of New Prospect were free to roam about as they wished and were are pretty much free to go to whichever cellblock they wanted and do whatever they want (which again, was as long as it didn’t involve the crippling or killing of other ponies), there were multiple shower blocks and mess halls throughout the prison which were always open (the mess halls only served food at certain times however).

This was a problem for us, as the prison was huge and held thousands of ponies, and Nurse Swirly and Manie Manie could be anywhere.

We went out to one of the main dirt courtyards and almost immediately stumbled across Nurse Swirly who looked slightly shaken up.

"Swirly!" Strawberry Feather called to her, running up to to give her a hug.

"Strawberry! I am so glad I found you guys!" she said in relief.

"We were looking for you, are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yes, thankfully."

"The cons in here are nothing but a bunch of perverts and grabby hooves!"

"I've been groped seven times this morning, SEVEN times."

"That's bad..."

"Yeah." she looked at the group.

"Where is Manie?"

"I was actually just about to ask you the same thing."

"I thought she was with you guys."

"We need to find her quickly."

"No kidding!"

"The inmates here will eat her alive!"

Poor choice of words.

"Do you have any idea where she could be?"

"No, I haven't seen her. Not since last night."

"Do you at least know if she was in the same cellblock as us?"

"I think so, I mean, she was in the same group so she must be."

"No," Brook inserted, "Some of 'em got diverted 't another cellblock."

"Ah think Rainbow Sea and Manie both got diverted."

"That is bad news then..." I said.

I thought about the situation.

We had found Swirly, so she was taken care of.

But now we had two defenseless ponies to worry about, and there were only three of us capable of defending them, if we split up they would likely end up getting attacked and overpowered, so there had to be at least two of us remaining with them while one of us went to look for Rainbow and Manie.

"Okay... look."

"Brook and Blizzard Candy will stay with you and Strawberry, you guys need to stick together at all times, if any of you need to go to the bathroom or elsewhere you need to go with them, do not split up."

"And try to stay in this courtyard, we have a larger chance of stumbling across them if you stay here and keep an eye out."

"What about you?" Brook wondered.

"I will go and search Rainbow Sea and Manie Manie. If I don't come back do NOT go look for me."

"Got that?"

"Yes, stick together, don't leave the group. Got it."

"Alright... I'll be back as soon as I find them."

"Good luck."

Yeah, luck, I would need it.

I was searching for needles in a haystack here.

I was beginning to feel worried sick and I didn't even know why, neither of the ponies I were looking for had had a particularly friendly stance against me, one uncovered me and tried to turn the others against me, and one despised me.

But damn it, they were still my responsibility, I promised that I would let them choose their own path once we were on our own, not that I'd be abandoning them for their choice and leaving them to get horribly abused in this fucking hole.

I'd be damned if I were to just leave them like that! I had to find them!

I rushed through the corridor leading to a cellblock that I had already been through twice, just as I rounded a corner I briefly spotted Rainbow Sea's green tail and cutiemark way down the hallway, it quickly disappeared, I galloped down the corridor to catch up with him but he was gone, he had proceeded further into the prison through several identical looking corridors leading to various storage and supply rooms, most of them were dimly lit and had pipes running along the ceiling.

I ran around the corridors like an idiot for fifteen minutes until I found a corridor filled with steam, the pipes running along the ceiling were hot, I could hear running water down the corridor.

The shower rooms, there was someone there and using it right now.

I went down the corridor, keeping a slow pace as to not give away my position in case the pony using the showers wasn't who I thought it would be, I approached and went inside a locker room which had several rows of lockers and benches.

Why there were lockers in a prison shower room intended for inmates is beyond me, but they were there nonetheless.

I could hear talking inside the shower room proper.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't end you here and now." Rainbow Sea said.

"Please Rainbow, listen to me. I had to do it, there wasn't a choice!" Manie Manie responded, she sounded nervous.

"There WAS a choice, your life isn't worth that of 58 fucking ponies Manie, you should have accepted what was coming to you!"

I heard trotting coming from the corridors outside.

"I think he went this way." a stallion said.

Shit.

Someone must have followed me.

I scurried towards the back of the locker room.

The door was kicked open and the sound of several pairs of hooves were heard stepping inside the room.

"Well, where is he?" a mare said.

"Hshh!" they stood perfectly still in silence, they heard Manie Manie and Rainbow Sea in the shower rooms, the two had also gone silent having heard this group of inmates enter the changing room.

I heard the inmates go towards the shower room.

"WELL HELLO! LOOK WHAT WE GOT HERE!" one of them called out from the shower room.

"THIS IS BETTER THAN THE SHAPESHIFTER, THIS IS A REAL JACKPOT!"

I peeked out from around the lockers in the back, there was nopony on the right side, I did the same for the left, there was no one there either, they had all gone inside the shower room.

"Take her," Rainbow Sea said warily, "I am not looking for any trouble."

I went closer.

"That's to bad! Because trouble found you!"

I peered inside, sticking just enough of my face around the door frame to see them.

They all had their backs turned to me, there were 3 inmates, two stallions and one mare, surrounding Rainbow Sea.

Manie Manie was cornered in one of the shower booths by the four ponies.

"Stay away from me." Rainbow Sea warned.

"Get them!" the mare ordered, the three jumped Rainbow Sea, he was outnumbered and was knocked back almost instantly.

Manie Manie tried to use the opportunity to escape but she slipped on the water running along the floor and fell flat on her belly next to one of the stallions, who immediately seized her.

The entire group turned towards me and I leaned back in just before they saw me.

My heart was racing.

What was I going to do?

I was outnumbered 3 to 1.

But they were both in trouble, I had to do something!

"NONONONONONONONONO! DON'T! DON'T!" Manie cried out.

I peeked back in to see what was going on.

The mare was holding Rainbow Sea down.

The two stallions were busy with Manie, holding her above the floor by her legs, the stallion holding her rear legs had his waist between her legs.

"Damn it, it wont-"

"You can't force it like that, you need to rub it first or it wont go." the second stallion said.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what they were talking about, I had to act immediately, and fast.

Without really thinking my strategy through I charged out from my hiding spot right at the two stallions, just as I closed in I slipped on the water and slid full force into the first stallions rear legs.

Standing on two legs and on a slippery surface, the stallion fell over like a bowling pin, landing face first against the floor in a forceful thud.

The sudden loss of balance and with Manie slipping from the first stallions grasp the second stallion slipped and fell, hitting his head against the cemented tile wall of the shower both and dropping Manie on her back, the stallion began to bleed from his head and blacked out.

The mare had no idea what to do, being busy locking Rainbow Sea down and now having to deal with me getting up at her as well.

But as I got up I was tripped and fell with a smack against the wet floor, just short of Rainbow Sea's rear hoof, I looked back and saw that the first stallion hadn't been knocked out and had grabbed onto my rear leg as I was about to get up.

"I LIKE IT WHEN THEY FIGHT!" the stallion taunted me, grinning widely.

I tried to loosen his grip on my leg by kicking but I couldn't manage a good hit.

"LET FUCKING GO OF ME!" I growled at him.

The stallion wobbled up and was about to take a step towards me when he was tripped by Manie, he landed on top of her rear leg and she yelped in pain, having gotten the full weight of the stallion on her leg.

Being tripped made the stallion lose his grip on my rear leg, this gave me the opportunity to stand back up and gain the advantage on him, but just as I was about to stand over him I was tripped yet again.

This time by the mare who in an act of utter stupidity had gotten off Rainbow Sea to help the stallion in fighting me, she laid flat on her belly on the floor holding onto my rear leg with both her forehooves, Rainbow Sea gave her a strong kick in the rear from where he laid which made her loosen the grip on my leg and turn back around.

The second stallion was beginning to quicken up and recover but Manie had managed to aim a strong punch at his groin, which made him fall over nauseated.

The first stallion had during this time managed to aim a forceful kick right at my face, I narrowly avoided breaking my nose by tilting my head downwards, the kick landed right on my forehead which made me feel disoriented.

Manie managed to pull herself up in a sitting position and punched the stallion right in his right eye giving him a significant horseshoe shaped black eye.

"YOU BITCH, YOU BLINDED ME!" he grunted.

I pulled myself up at him and landed a heavy hit in his stomach with my elbow which made him wheeze for air, at this point he lost the brawl and desperately tried to flail his legs at the two of us, but we were at a significant advantage against him and managed to knock him out by hitting him in the face repeatedly. But not before he landed a good left hoof right in my left eye.

We pulled the stallion off Manie's leg and turned to help Rainbow Sea, but he had already overpowered the mare and knocked her out just as we looked toward them.

He had a bruised jaw, black eye and was bleeding from his nose.

"Thank Luna you found me!" Manie cried out to me.

"You can thank her later, we need to get the hell out of here!"

And so we got up and ran.

We ran and ran, putting as much distance between us and that shower room as our legs allowed us.

He looked very serious and grave, he hadn't reacted well when I had told him about the fight.

We were all sharing two tables in the mess hall, everyone were gathered around Red, Manie and me listening to what had happened.

"We won out of sheer luck, I would never have stood a chance against them if they hadn't-"

"Do you have ANY idea what you even did?" Red interrupted.

"I defended my own people,"

'My own people' who the hell did I think I was?

I was referring to the six of them like some glorified shepherd.

"What the fuck was I supposed to do? Just leave them?"

"He saved me, Red. They were about to... rape me." Manie said softly.

Red glared at her.

"That would have been better than what you just did."

"No one screws with the Sisters, when they want something you let them take it. It's that simple."

"You can't really mean that."

"How can anypony say something like that." Manie was visibly hurt.

"You don't get it." Red stressed.

"You have flipped the balance of power in here, things are going to go really bad, really fast in here, it is just a question of who will make the first move."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Grayheart and Floyd leaned in.

"There are two sorts of ponies in New Prospect," Grayheart began, "the Sisters, and everyone else."

"The Sisters are the dominant group in here, they rule everything, they own everything, they are second only to the guards."

"For years the Sisters have ruled unchallenged, anypony who stood up against them would wound up 'missing', until recently when another group began to form against the sisters, calling themselves 'the Brothers' to mock them."

"The Brothers draw a lot of their support from new arrivals such as yourselves and never hesitate to stand up for their own."

"Okay. And what does this have to do with us?"

"Don't you get it?"

"The Sisters are going to attack you in force for what you did, and the Brothers will be backing you up."

"What this means is that the prison is now risking an open war between the Sisters and the Brothers, when the fighting starts those who aren't part of either group will choose one during the fighting, there will be those who side with the Sisters to get on their good side and those who side with the Brothers to get protection."

"This is a fight that involves everyone, it will be a full scale riot." Floyd explained.

This was ridiculous.

"ALL THIS just because we defended ourselves?" I said in disbelief.

"It's a thing that has been going on for some time now, in a snowball effect." Grayheart said.

"The snowball can roll and roll down a slope, but eventually it has to hit something and break apart..." she gestured, rolling up an invisible snowball with her hooves and making it fall apart.

"YOU are that something, and now everything will break apart."

"When?"

"Depends how quick the news travel." Red said.

I looked around us, the tables adjacent to ours had all been vacated.

This did not bode well for us.

We had nowhere to go, all we could do was wait and hope.

Serious tension was in the air all over the prison, ponies had begun to keep to themselves and dividing into groups, ponies all around were whispering and giving each other suspicious looks as they walked past each other and brooded in the corners.

Something was definitely going down this evening, it was only a question of time.

During the afternoon a gang of twenty ponies had approached us, at first I had thought that they had been Sister hit-men, but they had identified themselves as leading members of the Brothers and had wanted to thank me for doing what I did.

I had asked if it was possible to avoid the conflict altogether, but they had said that it wasn't possible, stating that the Sisters were planning an attack on me.

They had offered to guard me and my group of six, and now we were idly waiting around in a mess hall which had been claimed by the Brothers, there were roughly a hundred or so other inmates in here with us, all of which were apparently either part of or supporters of the Brothers.

Grayheart and Floyd were also with us, Red, Randy and Heywood wanted no part of what was to happen and had went back to their cells to wait it all out.

Frankly I was surprised that the guards hadn't done or said anything, there was no way they could have missed what was going on.

We were all a bit nervous, none of us wanted this, I never intended for this to happen.

Manie had gotten over the rape attempt on her surprisingly quick, but she had kept a wide berth from Rainbow Sea ever since we made it back to the group, even now the two were tables away, with Rainbow Sea preferring to be on his own than with us.

I knew that something was going on between the two, I had heard Rainbow Sea threaten to kill Manie in the shower rooms and something about her life not being worth that of 58 ponies.

I connected this with Manie's crime, the 58 ponies must have been the pilots of the Air Force helicopters.

Rainbow Sea had mentioned something yesterday about losing his brother and sister in Manie's betrayal, which was probably his motive for wanting to kill her.

I hadn't brought it up or said anything about it as I honestly didn't know what to say about it.

I didn't know enough about it to neither condone or condemn Manie's actions, yes, it was a horrible crime that cost the life of innocents, but it wasn't the kind of thing you'd do for laughs, she must have had a reason for it.

If we survived the night and the opportunity come I'd be sure to ask her about it to clear things up between us.

But for now, we had an impending riot to worry about.

Blizzard Candy was shaking, yet he had been the most eager to get going when we had been waiting around yesterday.

"Blizzard." I called.

"Y-yes?"

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"I'm just feeling a bit cold."

Odd, we had a perfect room temperature in here, despite the size of the room.

"Strange, I don't feel cold. Does anyone else feel cold?"

"Maybe he is sick." Nurse Swirly suggested.

"It is normal to feel cold before a battle." Floyd said.

We looked at the statuesque stallion.

"It's called 'nervousness'."

"The boy is just afraid."

"I'm not nervous!" Blizzard protested.

Nurse Swirly went up to him and put a hoof on his forehead.

"He doesn't have a fever."

"Not nervous eh?" Floyd said.

"Hold out a leg before you, son."

Blizzard did as instructed and held out his right foreleg.

It was shaking visibly, he saw this and held out his other leg, which was also shaking.

He tried to control the shaking but couldn't do it.

"Okay so I am feeling a bit scared."

"But is it really wrong for me to feel that?"

"Of course not, don't be silly."

"Everyone can be scared sometimes." Nurse Swirly reassured him.

"Sometimes you need to gather courage and be strong, because fear breeds weakness, and weakness puts yourself and others at risk when going up against the enemy. Be it an armed opponent, a wild animal or even an environmental hazard, like a fire." Floyd said, speaking wisely out of experience.

Something about it made me think about Cake Frosting, the way she had described Infantry's doctrine, the belief that it was better to have a small elite force than a big regular one, because anything less than the best of the best would allow room for weakness which would compromise and put your fellow soldiers...

Then it struck me, Floyd had been in the Infantry according to Red.

"Tell me about the Infantry, Floyd." I asked him.

The stone faced stallion simpered.

"I have left those days behind me."

"Any particular reason?"

"Yes."

He paused.

"They didn't like the way I dealt with disagreements during planning sessions."

"Which was?"

"Beating my fellow field commanders into submission." Floyd grinned.

"So you were an officer within Infantry?"

"I was. A colonel."

"They promoted me on account of me being a horse."

"What? They made you colonel for being a horse?" Brook Cotton said.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Infantry likes to have a varied chain of command, because different races think in different ways and come up with different strategies for the same scenario."

So what Cake said about that had been true.

"Back when I was in Infantry we had all sorts of races commanding the army, aside from the three races of pony, we had minotaurs, alicorns and a bunny."

"A... a BUNNY?" Brook didn't believe it, just like I hadn't when Cake told me.

"A bunny." Floyd repeated.

"I heard that it was a rabbit." I said.

Floyd smiled.

"That's silly, rabbits are just dumb animals."

"Who told you that?"

"Cake Frosting, an Infantry private I spoke to before-" careful Tombs.

"A few days before being arrested."

Manie's eyes widened.

"Really? You never told me she was an Infantry mare."

"It's not important."

"I guess not. I am just surprised that a soldier from Infantry, can write that small."

"Why is that surprising? It's a skill you learn like any other."

"No Sweet Heavens... Infantry soldiers are... different in that regard."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Ah hang on a second, she does actually have a point..." Floyd said.

"Infantry soldiers aren't exactly known for their grace and precision... in fact, I don't think any of the troops I met could write their names clearly. Are you sure it was an Infantry mare?"

What the hell were they talking about?

What was this stupid shit about?

"I think you are screwing with me, this is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever heard."

"Oh it's no joke I assure you. They are really imprecise."

"Worst part is, it extends to their aim as well. They are all terrible shots, well, most of them anyway."

"Are you serious? The best infantry ground force in the world is composed mainly of soldiers who have terrible aim?"

"Do you even realize how retarded that sounds?"

"I thought so too at first, but then I arranged a shooting competition for the entire regiment I was in charge of."

"In the shooting competition you needed to hit 30 out of 100 targets to gain the lowest acceptable score to be eligible for the leaderboard. The targets were set to be exactly 100 meters away, which isn't all that hard to hit with the kind of weapons we had."

"If I remember correctly, around 1600 soldiers participated."

"How many of these do you think hit over 50 targets?"

My god, he was serious wasn't he.

"Were they really that bad? Fine then, I guess a thousand?"

"Exactly 274."

"What."

"Of the remaining 1300-what-it-was around 200 scored between 30-49 hits, 600 scored 20-30 hits, 300 scored between 10-20 hits and the last 200 scored under ten hits."

"Mind you these are rough numbers, I don't remember exactly how many hit what number of shots, but I clearly remember that only 274 of my men could hit targets at a hundred meters."

"Tha's pretty embarrassing." Brook said.

"That's ridiculous! You can't be serious!"

"No I am serious alright."

"Then how the hell could they possibly be classed as the 'best' infantry force in all the world? It doesn't make sense!"

"That's easy."

"First off they have one of the best standard issued suits of armor in existence, are required to be tough, strong and resistant to damage, so they are really hard to kill and are capable of taking beatings that would kill a 'normal' pony several times over."

"Second, they have the best strategists and tacticians of any force. They never rely on just one set of tactics, they can almost always be expected to use something unusual or different."

"And third, they have the meanest and most powerful close combat armaments of any force, ever in existence. They don't rely on ranged weapons, their main armament consists in weapons such as powered blades, chain based swords and axes, chainsaws, hammers, flamethrowers (and other assorted flame based close ranged weaponry), you name it, they have it."

"On top of that, they all usually carry some form of guided rocket launcher of sorts to deal with air threats and ground vehicles, and those don't even need aiming to use!"

"Strangest fucking army I've ever heard of..." I muttered.

"Terrible marksmen, melee centric and they all wear white suits of armor."

"If anything they should be wearing red, not white."

"Don't know how to explain that part, I never understood why our troops wore white armor."

"Seemed like a stupid choice of color to me, I even tried suggesting the use of camouflage and less protruding colors, but they wouldn't hear it, they were all about the white armor."

"But what was that about the bunny? Do you really have a bunny as one of your officers?"

"Oh yes, he was a mean bastard. We called him 'Doombunny'."

"White furry little type, hardly bigger than this."

Floyd gestured, holding his hooves apart to show how big the bunny was, it was barely 20 centimeters.

"Doombunny."

"Why the name?"

"I told you, he was a mean bastard, and I mean it. He never took no for an answer, he showed little regard for the safety of his men and was always furious about something."

"Furious? The bunny was furious?"

"Yes, all the time. He'd stomp his little feet and jump up and down, and if you laughed he'd jump in your face and try to bite your eyes and nose."

I couldn't believe it, the more I heard about Infantry the dumber it got.

"How did you talk with it?"

"With him" Floyd corrected.

"It sounds strange, but he'd communicate with us by gesturing and stomping and we'd understand exactly what he meant."

"He couldn't write or anything, but he was damn good at drawing, he'd draw complicated maps and drawings which roughly explained how things were meant to play out, and it would work, once we figured out how to execute his plans."

"Right... right..."

"Some say he is immortal."

"Immortal? Really?"

"He was around before the Infantry even existed, and before Celestia went crazy."

"Bunnies only normally live for around 10 years."

"So... how'd he even end up with Infantry anyway?" Brook asked.

Excellent question Brook, how the hell did a bunny that doesn't talk or write end up becoming an officer?

"Fuck if I know."

"I was in the Infantry, but that doesn't mean I know everything about it."

Five inmates approached our table with Rainbow Sea in tow, the lead pony, a red unicorn stallion which had spoken to us before went up to me and put a hoof on my shoulder.

"Listen up folks, we need you to come out with us to the main courtyard." he told us.

"Things are about to go down."

"Why do you want us to go?" I wondered.

"For morale, a loooot of ponies are out there supporting what you did for the Brothers, and it would help if you came out and showed yourselves."

"I didn't do anything for the Brothers, I fought them off to save two of my own, I didn't know all of this was going to happen."

The stallion gave me a long hard stare.

"Listen, between you and me, you don't have to participate in the actual fighting, I don't care if you go and stick your head in a hole, but you need to be there when the fight breaks out."

"Or else what?"

"Or we'll just seize you and your... friends and quietly hand you over to the Sisters and use you as martyrs for our own."

"This is our chance to change things around here, and we are not going to let you fuck things up for us."

I looked at my companions who had been listening to everything he had said.

They were scared and were looking to me for the big decision.

"Fine, I'll go with you to show my 'support'. But if I get killed in the fighting you need to promise to take care of my group."

"I am not going to drag them into this."

"No. They must come too."

"Why? They have nothing to do with it."

"Your Rainbow Sea and Manie Manie are just as much part of this as you are, and by just being with you, the rest of them are too. They are your 'gang' so to speak."

"The Sisters don't know that! Only me, Rainbow and Manie were there!"

"This is a prison you idiot, the Sisters know everything about us and we know everything about them. This place is full of snitches and spies who do anything to be treated more fairly."

"They know alright, so stop arguing with me and let's get this over with."

"Alright, fuck, we're going. But how about Floyd and Grayheart?" I said pointing at the two.

"They aren't part of my 'gang' and they have nothing to do with this, can they at least be excused from the fighting?"

"They can, they can... but it would be pretty fucking strange if they did."

"They are two of the most prominent members of the Brothers, they even have ties to Red, a neutral party who knows how to smuggle things in. They are pretty important to our effort."

I glanced over to them.

"Is this true?"

"Yeah." Grayheart admitted, Floyd just nodded.

"Don't worry about it Sweets, we'll be backing you up 100%."

"I don't care if you back me up, just protect Swirly, Strawberry and Manie, keep them safe."

"As you wish."

"Hey! I don't need protecting, I can fend for myself!" Manie protested.

I tilted my head at her.

"Just like you fended for yourself earlier today?"

She didn't respond.

"Enough! Let's fucking go!" the stallion interjected.

We were brought out into the adjacent courtyard followed by most of the inmates in the mess hall.

It was now dark outside, early night had fallen and the courtyard was lit up brightly with a number of floodlights which were mounted all around the walls and on rooftops pointing downwards giving the impression of being surrounded by a wall of light, it was hard to make out anything on the walls and beyond, I couldn't tell if there were guards observing us or not.

The way the courtyard was now reminded me loosely of a soccer arena, except that the two competing teams were composed of over 500 ponies each. A thousand angry ponies who were out for blood.

We were cheered on by the Brothers and it's supporters on our side of the courtyard as we were shuffled through the crowd towards the no pony's land up front which divided the two opposing groups.

Up front about halfway across the field were twelve ponies waiting for us, five brothers, likely the leader figures and 7 members of the Sisters, I recognized two of the Sisters, the mare and one of the stallions who we had fought, they looked just as bruised and beat up as we did, the stallion had an eyepatch over his right eye.

Brothers aside, the seven sisters looked really pissed.

Floyd and Grayheart stayed behind.

As we approached the group both crowds went completely silent.

One of the brothers, a blue middle aged mare with swirly red hair smiled at us and looked towards the Sisters retinue of leaders.

"See? I told you they were with us."

I wanted to say 'You didn't give us a choice', but I felt that this wasn't my fight and that it would be best if I kept out of their exchange as much as I could.

"Just face it, Maddy, your time is over. The Brothers rule New Prospect now."

The lead sister, a brown elderly pegasus stallion with bandaged wings went out.

"Like fucking hell you are! You ain't got SHIT on us Cydia!"

"Look around you!"

"We outnumber you 2 to 1, we have been pushing you back day by day! What chance do you think you have?"

"You could outnumber us 100 to 1, that still doesn't chance the fact that you are nothing but a bunch of pathetic sorry ass weaklings, we have had you all under our horseshoes for years and years, we OWN you."

"You don't own anypony Maddy, not anymore." she said softly.

"We are giving you a choice, give up and avoid unnecessary bloodshed. You will never lay another hoof on any of our inmates again," Cydia looked behind Maddy at the crowd of sisters with disgust, "I don't care what you do with your own, pillage and rape them all you want, but don't you ever touch any of our own ever again."

Maddy let out a sickening maniacal laugh.

"OH WOW! WELL THEN LET'S JUST AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND SUBMIT!" he yelled for all to hear.

"Are you DENSE? Are you fucking RETARDED? Why would I ever agree to anything like that!"

"No. I am giving YOU a choice, a proposition if you will."

"Either you hand over these seven," he said pointing at me and my group, "Or Rita Gumdrops gets the knife."

Cydia's eyes went wide with shock.

"Don't you dare touching Rita!"

"AHA! I thought that would catch your interest!"

"Bring her out here!" he called.

In a moment a yellow unicorn stallion came out with a little bright blue filly holding a serrated knife to her throat.

She hardly looked older than Strawberry Feather.

She looked absolutely wrecked, her fluffy yellow mane was all tangled up and sticky, she was covered in multiple small cuts and cigarette burns, her coat was covered in smudge and dirt. Her inner thighs were caked with blood and... something else.

"Mommy!" she cried out at the sight of Cydia.

"Rita!" heavy tears began pour down Cydia's cheeks.

"What have you done to her." Cydia growled at Maddy.

"Let's just say that we had a little fun while waiting today."

"She was a bit tight at first, but I loosened her up real quick." Maddy laughed.

Cydia went crazy and tried to get at Maddy, but she was held back by the other leaders from the Brothers.

"Hoh there you wild bitch. Let me remind you that if you lay as much as a hoof on me this little talk will be over."

"I am giving you five minutes to decide, so think fast."

The two groups split up a bit and got closer to their respective crowds.

Cydia was completely torn up over this.

"Hand them over! Hand them over!"

"Cydia..." one of the other leaders, a white pegasus stallion, said softly.

"I don't care! I want my daughter back!"

"I did all this to protect her from them! I built the entire fucking gang for that sole purpose! AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!"

"Cydia, I know you are upset, but we can't just hand them over."

"I fucking ORDER you to hand them over!"

"We are not like Maddy, we don't run things like that, remember?"

"We are in this together."

"EASY FOR YOU TO SAY, WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE A FUCKING SEVEN YEAR OLD DAUGHTER WHO HAS BEEN RAPED AND TORTURED BY THE SISTERS!!" the snapped.

"Hey!! Have you decided yet? Some of us have shit to do!" someone called from across the field.

"We don't have much time, what do we do about this?"

Floyd knelt down by Cydia.

"Challenge them to a duel."

"W-what?" Cydia sobbed.

"Their best fighter against our best."

"Choose me, I will fight for you. I will get your daughter back."

"You will?"

"Yes Cydia, I promise."

"Thank you...!"

Floyd and the pegasus helped her up.

We all returned back to the neutral ground halfway across the field.

"So! Have you made your decision?" Maddy asked.

"We..." Cydia began, trying to hold back the tears, "We would like to suggest a counter proposal."

"That was not what we discussed."

"We would like to pit our best fighter against your best fighter, the winning party gets... my daughter."

"No! Why would I-" an earth pony stallion next to him leaned in and whispered something in his ear.

"Interesting. Yes that would help..."

"Very well, we will agree to this duel. You don't stand a chance anyway."

"Bring out, Boggs Shredder!" he called at his crowd.

In a few moments some kind of monster of an earth pony stallion came stomping out of the crowd.

He was bald and lacked a tail, his thin coat was of a bloody red crimson and he looked overall unnaturally muscular and veiny.

His eyes and expression looked incredibly crazed.

"WHO DIES FIRST?" he snarled.

"Yes." Maddy said nodding proudly at his champion, "Who do you bring to the fight?"

"I call... Floyd Stoneface."

Floyd came slowly trotting out of the crowd, looking completely fearless.

He wasn't as monstrously built, but he was significantly larger overall and looked as solid as a marble statue in the light of the courtyard.

"Impressive, you brought the trojan horse as your champion. This could actually be fun to watch." Maddy said nonchalantly.

"Let us begin then."

"Champions! Get in position!" he yelled.

The two champions walked further out into the open field and stood face to face with one another.

The monster Boggs was madly staring the horse in his eyes, he said something which we couldn't hear from our distance and the passive and calm Floyd responded.

The two then began to slowly circle around one another, their gaze unmoving from one another.

Then suddenly, Boggs threw himself right at Floyd, who dodged the attack, landing a solid strong elbow right at his back.

The counter attack had little effect as Boggs quickly turned back around beginning to throw rapid punches at Floyd who parried them again and again, Floyd eventually found an opportunity to land a well aimed kick at Boggs knee, which fell the monster.

Floyd threw himself at Boggs, but Boggs managed to get a grip on him throwing him off himself, Floyd landed on his back several meters away, he slowly got up but Boggs was quicker and had already crossed the distance by the time Floyd had gotten up on his feet.

With no defense Boggs reared up and threw a strong rear kick at the staggering Floyd, landing it squarely on his throat, the kick was supposed to have killed him, but instead it revealed something shocking about Floyd.

A solid chunk of Floyd's neck and left shoulder broke off and fell in pieces, solid pieces of rock, the entire courtyard went completely dead silent.

Boggs was frozen with shock and surprise, Floyd grinned widely and let out an unnatural ghastly laugh, grabbing the frozen Boggs by his neck and twisting it with all his might, Boggs tried to resist but by the time he snapped out of it it was too late.

First the neck snapped, draining the life of Boggs and leaving his body limp and lifeless, then he kept twisting until the neck slowly started to rip, then he laid the body down and while pressing a rear leg down on the body Floyd ripped the head off it's body and threw it towards Maddy and his group.

It landed perfectly at Maddy's hooves.

Maddy stared at the head, pale with shock, looked at Cydia briefly and then turned his head at the stallion holding Rita.

"KILL HER."

"What- NO!!" she cried out, but it was too late, the yellow stallion sliced the filly's throat, draining the life of her immediately.

The stallion let go of the body and it fell limply on the ground, blood gushing out of filly's neck.

Things went completely haywire as both sides realized what had happened, charging each other without thinking twice about it.

It all seemed lost when the prison alarms suddenly began wailing loudly across the courtyard just as the two sides were about to clash against one another, everyone froze in place, fearing the prison guardsmen more than they feared the opposing side.

The floodlights went off, shrouding the entire courtyard into a near pitch black darkness.

All around up on the walls were the terrifying red dots of the prison guardsmen helmet lenses and the red rays of their weapon's laser dots scanning wildly through the frightened crowd of inmates.

Somewhere in the darkness a door was kicked open, two of the floodlights closest to one of the walls on the Brother's side of the courtyard turned on.

"THE PARTY IS OVER LADIES!" Captain Hudson barked over a megaphone.

"SWEET HEAVENS, GET OVER HERE."

"EVERYONE ELSE, RETURN TO YOUR CELLS BEFORE WE GAS THE LOT OF YOU AND PUT THE ENTIRE PRISON INTO LOCKDOWN!"

"AS FOR YOU WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FUCKING MUMBO JUMBO POLITICAL GANG SHIT, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A SERIOUS TALK LATER.

All the lights came on again and everyone began to vacate the courtyard, the seven of us began shuffling through the crowd going towards Captain Hudson.

Captain Hudson was impatiently waiting at one of the secured doors connected to the outer prison facilities with a squad of 10 guardsmen, which all had their weapons aimed at the surrounding crowd.

Hudson didn't look angry or upset when I approached him, in fact, he almost looked a bit ashamed.

"Captain Tombs, of Civil Protection, Special Tasks and Assignments?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Command contacted us... there has been a mix up..."

"Has there now."

Hudson turned red, I wasn't sure if he was containing anger or shame.

"We apologize for the... ehrm... inconvenience... and..."

Inconvenience.

That's rich.

"You can just skip this horse shit, Captain. You did a mistake, and now you are correcting it."

"So let's just get going and I'll pretend like nothing of this ever happened."

"Does that sound good with you?"

"That's... fine."

"Come with me, I'll take you and your group to the warden. He want's to talk to you."

He led us through and to the administration building, it was a gray concrete building like any other in the prison, the interior was ornate and well kept, there were several offices and rooms in which various ponies were working with typical administrative duties, such as keeping track of incoming and outgoing prisoners.

When we came into the wardens office the warden was talking with someone on the phone.

"Sir, sir, calm down. Captain Hudson has returned with the prisoners... yes yes, with the agent." he waved at us to come closer and put the phone on loudspeaker.

"Who is this?" I asked.

"Captain Tombs?"

"Yes, that's me."

"This is Civil Protection mission command".

"Your name is 'civil protection mission command'? You mustn't have been very loved by your mother."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Very funny agent Tombs."

"Yeah, just like my mission and the mistake you guys did."

"So what do you want?"

"Your ship, the S.S. Sea Killer, was meant to dock at Shellbeach Prison where the warden was expecting your arrival with instructions on how to proceed with your mission. It was thanks to a certain doctor 'Cutter' that we could find out where you were."

"Or you could have just... tracked the ship here."

"We did. But your name never came up in the New Prospect systems."

So I could have avoided this if I just gave them my real na- goddammit.

"So I..." fucking hell I am retarded, fuck fuck fuck!

"Are you alright?" Manie asked.

No! I did something really stupid that could have avoided this entire day!

"No... I mean yes, sure, whatever." I turned back to the phone.

"So these instructions..."

"Basically since you are at New Prospect and not at Shellbeach the supplies we planned to give you wont be there, and the route has been changed."

"That's fine, I didn't even get a route to begin with."

"...instead they have been diverted to the next town you should be coming across, Helsinghoof."

"You are to proceed on foot to the town of Helsinghoof where a wagon containing all the necessary gear and supplies for your mission will be waiting for you."

"In the meanwhile the warden has been instructed to give you back your gear and to offer you what you'd like from the assortment of gear confiscated by the convicts."

"What? Stealing their gear?"

"It's not stealing if they are never going to get it back... they wont mind."

I never knew that mission command would be such scumbags.

"Will there be more instructions at Helsinghoof or...?"

"No. But there will be more info along the way as you go."

"How will I know where this info is at?"

"And why can't I just get to know everything about the mission here and now?"

"Sorry Tombs, need to know basis. We simply don't think that it is necessary for you to know more than you should."

"What kind of an asshole logic is that? I am going to go risk my life in some shithole past the border and you aren't even going to tell me why?"

"You don't have to like it, just do your job agent Tombs."

I looked around for tables to flip, but there were none.

"That is all, captain. Command out." the phone clicked and the call was closed.

I sighed deeply and rubbed a hoof against my forehead.

"Luna almighty, I work for the worst ponies in all of Equestria..."

"You need to leave. Now." warned the warden.

He seemed annoyed with what had happened.

"By ALL means warden, show me the way to the gear I was promised and we'll get out of your mane right away."

"I have seen enough of this fucked up place to last a lifetime, you run a prison like demons run hell."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Did you know that there are two warring gangs trying to kill each other in there?"

"One calls themselves 'the Sisters' and is composed of rapists and pedophiles, the other is called 'the Brothers' and is nothing but ponies trying to do the job your guards is supposed to do."

"And what it is my guards are supposed to do? Hmm? Play babysitter for the ponies who ruined Equestria?"

"They are not all like that warden, they didn't all deserve to end up here on the frontier."

"Is that so? Then explain to me how they ended up here in the first place, we are not the ones making the arrests, you are."

Yes how was I going to explain that to the warden?

Would he be willing to believe that we did mistakes in CP? That we would often end up arresting innocent model citizens?

"We are making mistakes... we have been arresting non-criminals for a while now... I don't know why, but citizens have been getting arrested by accident and sent here without trial."

"I have a few in my group here who have been arrested for accidental killings, and-"

"There is no such thing as an 'accidental killing', captain. A life is a life, the laws are simple and easy to follow, you break them, you pay the price."

"So you are really going to accuse this young colt for being a cold blooded murderer for accidentally running over a trespasser hiding in the strawberry fields he was working at with his combine harvester?"

"How could he have known? What could he have done to avoid it?"

"By looking where he was driving for one, how hard can it be?"

"It's not that simple... I can barely see the field from the driver seat of the harvester, it wasn't my fault that..." Strawberry spoke up.

"Nopony asked you to speak, boy." the warden interrupted him sternly.

"Look, I don't have the time nor patience for this, I am not going to stand around being lectured by some CP officer and his gang of... thugs and scum, on how to run my prison."

"Now if you would be so nice to follow Captain Hudson to the warehouse to get your things so that you can leave the premises, and me, as soon as possible. You have overstayed your welcome."

"You'll regret running things like this one day, warden, your prison can't run like this forever."

"Oh but it can, and it will."

"Mr Hudson, if you will."

"Everyone, out of the wardens office." Hudson instructed.

We went out and followed him through the prison to the warehouse, a large windowless gray structure close to the main prison gates connected to the black road I had seen yesterday from the cruiser ship.

The captain of the guards left us in an office inside where an elderly mare was sitting behind an old desk, behind several stacks of paper.

"Now you speak to Mrs Clip for your gear and access to the warehouse, when you are done just approach the gate and you'll be let through. And be quick about it." the captain said to us just before leaving.

I went up to the desk and peered over the stacks of paper, the elderly mare looked up at me with a querying expression.

"N'yes? Can I help you?"

"Yes. I am Captain Tombs, of Civil Protection. I would like to get our gear back and gain access to the warehouse."

"Why?"

"Well for one, our gear is our gear, so I'll want that back."

"The warden said we'd be allowed to take whatever we wanted from the confiscated gear taken from the convicts."

Mrs Clip sighed.

"Are you sure you want that? It's nothing but old clothes and bags..."

Patience Tombs, be nice.

"Yes, I am sure. I'd rather not make the travel to Helsinghoof naked."

"Fine, fine, just... ergh... give me your names and I'll fill out the paperwork..."

We gave her our names and she took a while to fill out whatever paperwork she needed to fill out.

"Fantastic..." she muttered, "Alright then, you now have legal access to the warehouses, just exit this room and go down the hallway, the warehouse is behind the big steel door."

"You'll need the key. It's ehm..." she shuffled some papers, "It should be around here som- ah, there it is." she handed me a small stainless steel key. "Do whatever and come back with it when you are done, remember to lock the door when you leave the room."

We left the old mare to her own devices and proceeded down the hallway, I unlocked the steel door and Brook Cotton helped me pull the heavy door open.

As we stepped inside dim lights flickered on throughout the massive room, bathing the row upon row of dusty old gray shelves in poor light, barely good enough to see anything in.

It smelled dusty and stale, kinda like an old attic.

I reckoned that the room didn't get many visitors by how dusty the floor was.

"This place is huuuge." Blizzard Candy said in awe.

"How are we going to find your gear?"

Yes indeed, how were we going to find out gear?

It didn't seem like it was very organized, there were thousands of boxes and stacks of clothes in here piled up on the various shelves, even if we did find the most recently added boxes we'd still have to sort through hundreds of clothes and bags to find ours.

"Let's split up, search for boxes that look new, you should be able to tell by the amount of dust there is on them." I said.

Everyone began to split up, before I left the group I glanced over to Rainbow Sea who was tracking Manie Manie with his eyes, waiting for her to separate from the group.

No no, we don't have time for more incidents right now.

"Not you Manie." I called after her.

She turned around and looked at me questioning.

"What?"

"You are coming with me." I hinted towards Rainbow Sea looming behind a shelf with my eyes, she seemed to catch the hint and slowly walked up to join me, Rainbow Sea disappeared into the rows of shelves.

The two of us slowly trotted through the rows of shelves, scanning the shelves for boxes that looked like they had been recently added.

"Thanks for the heads up..." Manie whispered quietly to me.

"No problem. Last thing I need right now is more fighting." I replied.

"It's been a long day as it is."

"Yeah..."

"Poor filly..."

"Don't talk about it, it's better if we just forget all about it."

"How can you forget something like that?"

"I don't know, just try not to think about it."

"If it were that easy..."

I hear ya sister, I hear ya...

"Ah found something!" Brook called from further within.

We rushed to were we had heard his voice come from and soon found the rest of the group pulling and floating down boxes of clothes.

"There ya are." Brook said as we approached.

I looked around, there were but a dozen boxes on the shelves around us that looked new.

"Are you sure these are the right boxes?" I asked.

"Sure they are, these new boxes hav' been marked." he turned a box around to show us.

"See? '1984-05-28'."

28th? Had it already been 3 days since I left Equestria?

It felt like yesterday...

"That's pretty convenient." Manie said.

"Ah know right, and there's only a few boxes ta' search through too, we'll be outta here before you know it."

"How come there are so few?"

"There were hundreds of us on that ship."

"Maybe all of them didn't have gear with them?" Nurse Swirly suggested.

"I didn't have anything."

"You are right," I said, "Now that you mention it, the only ones who brought any gear with us was me and Manie, and all she had was that hat of hers."

"Speakin' of..." Brook said as he dug through a box, "Here's yer hat Manie."

"You found my stetson hat?"

Manie looked exuberant, she snatched the hat and put it on immediately.

It suited her, it really did.

"Thank you!"

"Dun know why you'd have a stetson, you don't seem like the southern kind 'o gal to me."

"I'm not. It was a gift from my dad, he gave it to me when I was 12."

"That's sweet." Swirly said.

"Did you... hmm... find my satchels in there?" I asked.

"As a matter of fact..." he threw me the satchels, I caught them just before they hit the floor in fear of the... contents breaking.

I checked inside to see if it was really mine and yep, sure enough, there were the two bottles of Dandelion Vodka, the food, the small case of psycho chems and the little baggy of ecstasy.

I felt a mixed feeling of shame and relief to have my stuff back.

"Ah guess that's it? Should we be going?"

"No, no, let's get something to wear for the travel, even if you don't come with me I am pretty sure you wouldn't want to brave the frontier naked, grab a coat, or at least something to cover yourself from the bad weather."

They began pulling down boxes and emptying it's contents on the floor, grabbing what what would fit and what they wanted.

I simply took a heavy dark gray coat with a hood.

Brook found a straw hat and grabbed a sleeveless vest and two large saddle pouches.

Rainbow Sea grabbed a heavy black firepony coat and the thick resistant full face helmet and rebreather which came with it.

Blizzard Candy took to a simple jacket, a basic hat and two smaller saddle pouches.

Nurse Swirly found a white doctor's coat and two metal medical boxes which she hung by her sides, much in the same way I had seen army combat medics do in old documentaries to protect themselves from some damage.

Manie took two small leg pouches (which were fastened on her forelegs for easy access) and a black plastic raincoat with a hood. She also found four long black socks.

Socks.

Fucking socks.

I never got why mares were so obsessed with socks, they all had socks, even those who didn't appear to have socks had socks laying around at home.

But I have to admit, they did look pretty good on her, in fact they looked really elegant and-

"...Heavens, Sweet Heavens!"

"Hmm?"

"Snap out of it, stop looking at my socks."

What?

Fuck, had I been staring?

Think fast.

"Um... why socks?"

"I get easily cold when walking around outside bare-legged. You told us to grab gear that protected us from bad weather and the cold, and I wanted to get something light, so I settled for socks."

"You sure seem to like them a lot, they way you stared at me..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

"That's alright, but don't make it a habit. It's kinda creepy, you understand."

We packed the clothes and gear we had discarded back into the boxes and put them back on the shelves, then we left, locked the door and gave the key to the old mare, Mrs Clip.

She looked at us wide eyed.

"Wh- how much did you take?!"

"We took what we needed." I responded.

"Why, is that a problem?"

"No... not... really."

"What do you do with all this stuff anyway?"

"Stockpile it mostly. It doesn't really go anywhere."

"Sometimes we burn some of the older boxes when the decay starts to settle in, but otherwise, not much."

"Then I guess you wont be missing these."

"Thanks for the gear, we'll be going now."

"Uh, alright, goodbye."

We left and went outside.

It was early night now, while it was dark before in the courtyard, it was even darker now, the only really visible areas were those lit up by the many floodlights all over the complex, in the distance the red lenses of lone guards could be seen moving through the darkness and on the perimeter walls.

It was beginning to rain softly.

We approached the main gate, there was a lone guard guarding it, as he saw us he pointed his shotgun at us alarmingly.

"*Hold it right there!*" he threatened.

"I am Captain Tombs," I introduced myself for the hundredth time, "of Civil Protection. We have clearance to pass."

"*Do you now? Let's hear what the captain has to say about it.*" the guard lifted a hoof to his helmet, pressing some sort of concealed button. "*Captain, sir. I got some guy named Captain Tombs and six ponies at the gate.*"

"*Huh?*" the guard lowered his weapon.

"*Yes sir, understood.*"

"*Gate control, open the gate, I am letting seven ponies through.*"

The gates slowly opened, revealing the dark road and forest ahead.

"*You may pass. Safe travels.*" the guard said to us.

We passed on through and crossed the cleared field between the forest and the perimeter wall, the gate shut close behind us and we left the light and relative safety of the New Prospect penitentiary.

I didn't know how far off Helsinghoof would be, but I assumed that we'd be traveling for a few hours at least, it was quiet and dark and as soon as we were just a bit out of range of the light I stopped, turning to the group.

"Okay. So this is where we decide on what to do." I announced.

"I did as promised and now we are on our own, if you want to leave you are free to do so now."

Nopony moved.

"No one is leaving?"

"Nope." Brook said.

"Why not?"

"We trust you." Nurse Swirly said.

"You genuinely care about our safety, you went looking for Manie and Rainbow even when you didn't have to."

"But it's my job, you are under my responsibility, it's my job to keep you safe for the duration of the mission."

"Yes, but you said on the boat that you'd let us decide whether to stay or not ourselves, and both Manie and Rainbow showed reluctance. You could have just left them to whatever the Sisters had in mind, yet you didn't. You saved them."

"I think that is an admirable thing to do, so I would really not mind following you."

Brook, Blizzard, Strawberry and Manie agreed.

"Even though you know that my mission leads to almost certain death?"

"Do you even know what lies beyond the secured border of the frontier?"

I wasn't so sure myself, but it didn't sound like there would be candy and ice cream waiting for us.

"There ain't much of a choice." Brook said.

"Ah think it's mighty respectable of you t' give us a choice ta' follow you or not, but the way ya put it, that we'd be branded as escapees an' hunted down..."

"I understand. So it is more of a matter of 'you can't' than actually wanting to go with me."

"No no, ah'd still follow ya."

"Let's make this perfectly clear then."

"I could talk to the leaders of the various settlements we will be coming across, with any luck I could probably transfer you to them where you will be working alongside the other cons, it's rough work, but it would probably beats death, if you ask me."

"Now, I don't know exactly how that is going to work out or if it is even a possibility, but if you want to I could try talking to them about transferring you to spare you from this mission. Now how many of you want to go and how many of you want to stay?"

"This is a simple question, answer carefully."

"Stay." Brook Cotton said almost immediately.

There was a pause, the others were thinking it through.

"Stay." Nurse Swirly said, followed by Strawberry Feather.

"Stay." Blizzard Candy said.

It was up to Manie and Rainbow Sea to decide now.

The two were intently staring at each other, I knew for a fact that their choices pended on what the other decided.

Manie looked at me, I could barely see her in the darkness but I could tell that she was afraid.

I nodded slowly at her to show my support for her and then she decided.

"...stay." she said slowly.

"Well heh, if you're all staying I guess I'll be staying too." Rainbow Sea said, trying to pass it off as a joke.

"Very well. Thank you guys, this was more than I could hope for."

"We should get moving, we probably got a long way ahead of us."

"It'd be easier if we could see where we went..." Brook remarked.

"I can fix that." Swirly said.

"Oh?"

Her horn frizzled and then slowly lit up with a warm glow, emanating a good amount of light in a hefty radius around us, this was much better.

"That's amazing Swirly!" Brook said impressed.

"Well I AM an unicorn after all." she said flattered.

"Well done Swirly, this is sure to make our trip a little less worrisome."

We began walking down the road to Helsinghoof, tired, hungry, weary from the bloodshed... and a bit wet.