The Iron Prison

The green mare got her food and briskly made her way to a seat by herself, peeling the banana as she munched on one of the pastries.

"Mmmf..."

Her ears remained upwards, swiveling ever so slightly to catch little noises and conversations. She didn't really pay attention to them, it was just something to do to pass the time as she ate.

There was something in the air today though... A stillness that she couldn't quite place. Something was... Off. She brushed it off as just her nerves getting the better of her (combined with lack of food of course) and went back to enjoying her food as she listened to the sounds around her.

 

At lunch, Blackout ate the slop he was served with the same disgust he felt every day.
He was one of the richest and most powerful ponies in Equestria, and he had been reduced to living like an animal!
It was intolerable. He needed to get out of this hellhole before he went mad.
More importantly, he needed to save his son, Blackout, from the dirt pony harlot that had corrupted him.

There was something... off... about his son's fiance. When Blackheart had rushed at her with the knife, there had been no fear in her eyes.
Instead, Heart Song had smiled, and started... singing... in a strange language.
For some reason, the song had terrified him. Paralyzed with fear, he had been unable to use his blood magic, and was knocked unconscious by a stunning spell from Blackout.
When he came to, he was sitting in a jail cell in Canterlot, and the criminal empire he had spent his entire life building was crumbling.
After a short trial, built on lies and suppositions, he had been dumped into the Iron Prison to rot.

 

The male pony turned around, anger clear in his blue eyes. "Look here, girl. You're in MY prison. I can make things happen. The warden ain't nothin'. Here, I rank well above you, girl, and you better watch your pretty little mouth before I decide to feed you to the 'gators 'round here." He seemed to have an accent, a kind of cajun accent. It made sense, since he was, in fact, from some place from Louisiana. He smirked for a moment as he spoke again. "Now don't you have something to discuss with the good ol' doc?"

From his room, Adrian spoke loudly so that the other psychologist would hear him. "Could you two finish your little scuffle? I'd like to eat soon." Adrian once got Barney to pull some strings so that he would be able to eat fine foods, prepared for him by experienced chefs.

 

Grey walked with his lunch and sat down at a random table, everypony knows not to mess with him, but those who have were unfortunate to have broken maws. He sat eating what food he harm he enjoyed the food for some reason, but looked around. There were guards, other prisoners, the regular. Shadow Bliss sat down with him, she would share some of her food with Grey, he didn't mind at all. There would be other colts that stared at her, but when they see Grey follow behind her, they would look away.

 

Grey turned his attention to the two prisoners, "Fine." He said.
Normally allowing other ponies than himself and Bliss sit at this table was weird, there was nopony he could trust, but having a good chat couldn't be too harmful, right?

 

Barney mumbled in cajun-french under his breath, and then spoke aloud. "You're a lucky one that the doc wants to talk to ya so badly... have a nice stay." His tone was aggressive, but he went and left to go to the Bishop.

Adrian, still very eager, grinned under his muzzle, waiting for the girl to come back for their conversation. He had been waiting for this first conversation, to smell the new meat, and to see what lies inside the mind of this new... subject. Around here, Adrian was the one who did the experimenting.

 

"My name is Doctor Adrian Ludwig Vogelschueche. Now, for the purposes of audio recording please state your full name aloud. And also state why they decided to pick you. The haven't sent me a female psychologist before. Maybe they thought they'd catch me off guard... perhaps they chose you, or perhaps you chose me. If it was your doing, I'd be flattered, but I'm probably right that they chose you. What the man wants, the man gets, isn't that right?"

___________________________________________________

Barney Matthews went into the staff quarters, where he generally was. He had to figure out how to get the message through to Galtan, but how? He went onto one of the computers, looking through the information on the computer about Galtan. The Appleloosa Ripper had asked the man a task, to delay the riot for now until the doc was ready, and he would get the job done... or at least, he wanted to. He knew better than to let Adrian down, and it was best to comply with his wishes. More than that, Adrian was the only person he was afraid of. He certainly appeared to be a psychopath, but there seemed to be something more behind those dark green eyes.....

 

"Grey," He replied.
"Shadow Bliss," The security mare replied as well.
"Hopefully you two are having a good day?"

 

Finishing her meal, Starnsy tossed away what wrappers and such that were left and popped her neck, wincing slightly with a small "Ow..."

She had remembered, while she ate, that she had a small pouch of hard candy in her locker, and she was going to make sure she got that. The brunch wasn't very filling but it satisfied for now. She thought to herself as she made her way towards the guard lockers.

'Everypony seems so tense around here... Like... Like a bedspring. All coiled up and ready to take off...'

She couldn't shake the feeling, but she pushed it to the back of her mind as she came upon her locker. After grabbing the pouch and popping a candy into her mouth, she tucked it away and closed the locker with her tail on the way out.

"I guess it's just one of those days..."

 

"Tickie...? What?"

Starnsy spun back around to them as she reached the door, raising an eyebrow out of curiousity.

"Did you mean me or...?" She looked around the locker room once, not seeing anypony.

"Where did 'Tickie' come from?"

She wasn't angry, just confused to be honest. She couldn't seem to recall ever talking to these two in the first place.

 

After finishing the swill he been given to eat, Blackheart left his tray at the window and returned to his cell.
He looked forward to finishing his book, even if he did know how it ended.
It saddened him think that a great Unicorn like King Sombra had been defeated by dumb luck.
Still, the story was inspiring.
A powerful Unicorn ruling the weak lesser races... that was how things were supposed to be.

 

"Oh no," Shadow Bliss said denying Fauna's thought, "Some guards are allowed to interact with certain prisoners, I am like Grey's psychiatrist, but I'm also his friend."
"Damn strait," Grey agreed as he began eating.

 

Vulcan had finished eating his meal after opening a slight compartment in his mask to allow food to enter his mouth. He simply stood out of his chair and went back over to get another serving, holding a metal tray to himself and got himself in the waiting line. He stood there for a while until another earth pony stood next to him with a grey coat, brown hair and was known to be particularly untrustworthy. What the guards did not realize was that he had a makeshift knife with the purpose of killing Vulcan. The earth pony approached the giant and began conversation.

"You're pretty famous in here, aren't you?" the pony spoke, other conversation drowning out some of the noise.

Vulcan said nothing, staring at the selection of food that was available to him.

"Did you know that I'm pretty famous to?" the earth pony spoke, turning to a pegasi to his left. "Ain't that right?"

The other ponies simply nodded in agreement as they took a slight step back, knowing what is about to happen.

"Maybe I could give you an autograph..." the Earth pony responded before suddenly attacking Vulcan. The giant responded instantly by turning his metal food tray to not only stop the attack and injuring his hoof while also giving the added benefit of stunning him, but also used to tray to swing as hard as he could to slam the earth pony's head into the glass, causing it to shatter as he layed on the bench. Vulcan then went even further as he grabbed the pony by the mane and dunked his head in the incredibly hot deep fryer before taking out a second later as he screamed in pain as his face seemed to burn before lifting him and throwing him across the room like a rag-doll with his strength.

"Your pen is out of ink" Vulcan responded back to the seemingly dead prisoner.

This completely stunned the prison crowd as Vulcan looked at the crowd, possibly smiling underneath his mask, before a dozen guards rushed towards him and immobilized the behemoth. Vulcan did not even struggle, he just allowed himself to be taken away.

 

"Again?" Bliss asked as she looked at the crowd surrounding Vulcan, "Ponies keep attacking each other, wh-"
"Control, fear, and gain of power." Grey said simply as he took another bite of his food.

 

Starnsy rolled her eyes and sighed as she left the locker room. It was obvious that the two guards had already left and paid her no mind.

"Whatever."

The green guard mare trotted along to a tune in her head, a bundle of black cords hung at her side, small colored discs dangling from the ends of them, and only she, a select few guards, and a couple prisoners knew what they did. It fit together with an apparatus she had on her right hoof and foreleg with similar colored discs on it. It was her "secret weapon," what kept the prisoners from taking advantage of her due to her small stature. When needed, Staensy would bring her hoof back and the bundle of cables would connect magnetically to the device on her hoof, when she brought her hoof back -usually in the form of a jab or uppercut- the device would activate upon contact, sending out a powerful kinetic strike, capable of breaking bone with ease. But that was only the primary function, the secondary function would kick in at the point of contact, sending out an electrical jolt that would (hopefully) render the target immobilized.

She had only had to use it once, but that one time got the message across that, though less imposing than other guards, she was still not to be taken lightly.

She popped another hard candy into her mouth and trotted along to A Block, seeing as how most of the guards were at lunch, she may as well pick up some of their slack. She passed by Blackheart's cell and stopped, trying to remember how he ended up here...

'Right, corruption, attempted murder, etcetera etcetera.'

"Comfy in there eh Blackheart?" She crossed her hooves as she leaned on the railing across from his cell. "How about your new friend?"

 

Blackheart set his book down and smiled warmly at the dirt pony that mocked him.
"Quite comfortable, my dear girl. Was there something that you needed from me?
I would like very much to finish this book before all hell breaks loose."