The Iron Prison

The mare's ears twitched as he finished his sentence. She hopped off of the rail she was leaning on and narrowed her eyes at him.

"What do you mean: Before all hell breaks loose."

She had assuredly heard him right. But his cell had already been checked, unless...

"Explain."

She had not stepped any closer to his cell, something about how calm he was being unnerved her, coupled with the fact that he was a Unicorn, it made her uneasy. But... They had magic dampeners on site yes? She rememebered that she forgot to ask before and mentally scolded herself.

"You lie to me and you'll regret it."

 

Blackheart yawned.
"I would have thought it was obvious, even to one such as yourself.
Can you not feel it? Something big is going to happen, and it is going to happen quite soon."

He stood up, and approached the bars of his cell.
"Is something wrong, Miss Warnsy? Surely you guards can handle a few unruly prisoners.
It is not as though anything could happen to the magic dampeners, could it?"

He chuckled, and looked her directly in the eyes.
"Of course, such devices are very complicated, and prone to... failure."

 

'Is he able to read my thoughts or something? How does he know exactly what I'm thinking.'

She raised an eyebrow and stared back at him. "A few of the world's worst criminals ever to walk this earth. Yeah."

She ignored his comment about the magic dampeners, thankful that they had them on site, but a bit frightened that they have the potential to fail.

"Hooves through the slot, no sudden moves."

 

Grey got up, "You better get to your post Shadow," He said looking at the clock and sighed, "Don't want to make the superiors mad again."
"Oh! Its that time already, all right I'll see you tomorrow Grey!" Shadow Bliss said as she used some her magic to lift the tray and trotted off.
Grey barbed his tray and turned it in, and started to return to his cell. There was a mare who was forcing a colt to put his hooves through the bars. He walked pass them and greeted both the guard and the prisoner.

 

Blackheart did as he was told, still smiling.
"You fear my kind, Miss Warnsy, and rightly so.
Magic is the true power of this world, and we Unicorns are it's masters.
Deep down, you know that you cannot keep us under control forever."

Even in prison, wealth had its advantages.
A well-placed bribe had bought him nearly an entire day "cleaning" the prison archives, where he had discovered, among other things, the psychological profiles of numerous guards.
Miss Warnsy's, in particular, had been especially interesting to him.
Her fear of Unicorns would make her a weak link... and he intended to break her.

 

Her ears pinned back slightly, before they sprung back up.

"And you're still the one in cuffs. Just keep on talking."

She didn't know how he knew, but showing fear wasn't something she was allowed to do as a prison guard. Starnsy opened his cell and sat him on the bed.

"Sit there and don't move while I search your cell."

 

"Of course.
I have nothing to hide."
Blackheart continued smiling as she searched.
She would not find anything. They never did.

 

Starnsy searched once, in all the usual places, and then she began to search differently. She began to run her hoof along the walls of his cell, closing her eyes and searching for anything that felt different.

"If I find something, you and I are gonna have a problem."

And yet she silently hoped he did not confront her directly. She had never had to face down a Unicorn and she doubted she could.

 

Blackheart's smile wavered.
Her hoof was getting dangerously close to the hidden scalpel.
If she found it, his escape plan would be set back months.
He needed a distraction.

With one quick motion, he pulled his left hoof free of the cuffs, dislocating his fetlock joint and severely lacerating his leg.
Blood pouring from his leg, he walked calmly towards Starnsy.
Placing his uninjured hoof on her shoulder, he whispered in her ear, "So... did you find anything?"

 

Her eyes widened as she froze in place, beginning to tremble slightly. She was trapped in a cell, with a Unicorn. But he was no ordinary Unicorn. She knew something was different about him. But why couldn't she remember?

"I-I..."

What was it? She couldn't remember for the life of her.

"Y-You..."

Her throat was dry, and she had begun to sweat, but still, her brain searched for what missing piece of this Unicorn had her so afraid. What was it...?

And then she remembered.

The blood. His blood magic. With how close he was already, there was no telling what he had planned in the first place, but she couldn't move anything. She forced her nerves and muscles, with all her might in her right hoof to move it to where she had her black cables hanging from her belt. But no matter the effort, the paralyzing fear wouldn't let her move it more than a few inches.

'Please... I have to...'

As she struggled to move her hoof, she prayed to whatever deity would listen, that his blood magic was affected by the magic dampeners too.

"D-Don't even... T-Think about trying anything..."

 

"I think perhaps you should go lie down, Miss Warnsy."
Blackheart patted her lightly on the back, feigning concern.
"You're looking rather pale."

The distraction had worked. Starnsy was no longer focused on the search.
Having accomplished his goal, he used her key to unlock the cuff from his right leg, sat down on his cot, and picked up his book.
"We're done here. Miss Warnsy. You may go now."

 

She let out a deep breath and quickly stepped out of his cell, leaning on the railing and catching her breath.

She still couldn't face down a Unicorn. Even after all of these years. Ashamed, she trotted off to the lockers again to wash off the blood she could feel.

 

Once Miss Warnsy was safely away from the cell, Blackheart allowed himself to grunt in pain.
Slipping free of the cuffs had been no easy task. His leg was still bleeding profusely, and the dislocated joint was excruciating.
He quickly forced the joint back into place, nearly passing out from the pain, and wrapped his leg in a thin prison bed sheet.
When he was done, he finished the last few pages of his book, and laid down on his cot to sleep.

 

Vulcan was taken straight back to his cell, except that he was now required to wear cuff's for the remainder of his life in the prison and was now always under the eye that the guards had been watching. He was placed down into his bed without any problems and was made to take a drug that would send him to sleep. Once Vulcan made contact with the pillow, he went straight to sleep.

 

Barney humphed and sighed. Adrian would be disappointed, but the Doc always had a plan. He smirked somewhat. He knew that there were some scary prisoners around, and he would talk to the Professor about them. He knew that there was no prisoner quite like the Appleloosa ripper. No one smarter, no one deadlier.

Adrian looked into the unicorn's eyes with his own snake-like eyes. He seemed to dismiss the other's own attitude... for now. His voice, mixed in with all the other aspects that made it so hypnotic, was monotone, cold and emotionless. "I am quite fine. I have been taken good care of. How is that little town I went to visit? You know, Appleloosa? Do they miss me yet? I bet they do..."

 

The stallion with green eyes tilted his head. "Hmmm... One question: Are you ready?"

 

Adrian closed his eyes and shook his head. "Tish, tish. You really don't understand exactly how powerless you really are here. You don't seem to understand that as soon as you got the job in your field. You truly are an amateur in the realm of psychology, aren't you?"

Barney knew exactly the person that he could spread the word to. Adrian knew Vulcan well, and saw potential within him. And when the doc saw potential, the person he set his eyes on would certainly come in handy.