At the courthouse by Pan

 

(24/10/2017)

 

 

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Orange jumpsuits. Normally Scootaloo felt embarassed when she was the only pony not wearing clothes. At the Ponyville jail and courthouse, she was one of three ponies wearing clothes in the whole facility, and she was mortified. Orange, only a little darker than her coat. She pleaded with the police officers to not bind her wings; some of them knew that she couldn't fly.

 

Scootaloo's co-conspirator wasn't as lucky. Sweetie Belle had functional magic. Had. It was now locked behind a filly-sized horn inhibitor. How did it come to this. Not a question, just a despairing thought. What happened to helping foals get their cutie marks? That was the goal. Soon money was swirling between hoofs to plug holes in unsustainable promises. Young colts and fillies were their only investors. Some foals invested their savings entirely into the Crusader Trust.

 

The crusaders did not know that the reading of charges, the interrogation in which all three immediately cracked, and even the mugshot were essentially ruses. What they did was technically illegal, but the damages were low. A major city like Canterlot or Cloudsdale would sentence them to community service and a night in jail to scare them straight and further the prison-industrial complex, but that's just not how Ponyville operates. They don't have enough ponies on hoof at the courthouse to administrate programs like those, especially not with the extra regulations surrounding juvenile offenders.

 

The ponies' caretakers appeared at the courthouse. The guilty fillies joined them before the judge. "Due to your history of good deeds in Ponyville, and your parents' assurances that you will make things right, the court is provisionally dropping all charges without prejudice. However, you fillies would do well to heed this incident and strive to never return here. I hope to not see any of you on this side of a decade. After that, I won't begrudge you finding a special somepony and needing a marriage license."

 

The levity was welcome, cracking each parent's desperate professionalism. They were nervous wrecks. Their children's rambunctiousness had finally caught up to them. The judge could tell that the fillies were almost ready to pass out from the stress. But, she had a duty to ensure these fillies chose the right path in the future. There was one piece of important business before the court.

 

"Allow me to remind the parents here that they are under oath. For the record, you swear to inflict a punishment on these fillies that you find appropriate for their crimes?"

"Yes, your honor." Mrs. Belle was the calmest of the three, speaking on behalf of her blubbering husband. Following her example, Granny Smith said the same. Scootaloo's father, a pony who was hardly ever seen around Ponyville, also swore to uphold his parental duty.

 

"It is the opinion of this court that you three fillies have earned a good spanking. Although it is within the court's power to sentence such punishments--"

The judge lingered. She always lingered when talking to offenders for which corporal punishment was a viable option. It was legal in all cases, but she hardly ever mandated a paddling for mares or stallions older than college-aged. Like all the other delinquents in the "potential corporal punishment" category, the fillies' eyes went wide. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle even reached a hoof back to their rumps in shock. The judge always loved seeing especially scared ponies like those two before she issued the next part of her pronouncement.

 

"--and it has the ability to see them through to completion..." She pointed to the paddle hanging at the front of the courtroom by the judge's bench. Apple Bloom and Sweetie flattened their ears and it looked like some tears were forming in their eyes. Upon seeing the paddle, even Scootaloo grabbed her backside, hoping she would escape such a fate somehow.

 

"The court finds that it is up to the parents in this case to choose how to discipline their children."

 

...

 

Small extra by Anon