"This way, Fluttershy."
Fluttershy followed the guard down the hallway, hanging her head down with shame. The rattling of the heavy chains locked onto her hoofs echoed loudly around her with each short step she took. The noise made her uneasy. Despite having been in jail for ten days now, she still hadn't gotten used to the sound.
There were a lot of things about jail she still hadn't gotten used to.
"Now, you won't have long," the guard informed her. "Visiting hours are almost over."
The pony prisoner just cheerlessly nodded and softly let out a long sigh, trying in vein to collect herself. She couldn't allow for her to see just how miserable she was. She couldn't let her know how hopeless she felt.
She would have to find a way to put on mask of happiness for her.
Somehow.
She trotted along with the officer slowly until she arrived at the jail's visiting area. All around her, inmates were sitting in small booths holding corded phones, talking to their lawyers and loved ones from behind glass walls. She shuddered when she saw them. While many of the detainees were smiling, there was a terrible sense of sadness that seemed to be coming from them, as though they were crying silent tears which they refused to let anypony see.
There were a lot of things about jail she still hadn't gotten used to.
The guard took Fluttershy to a free cubicle and unchained her front hoofs. She rubbed them a bit almost instinctively as she sat herself down, desperately attempting to calm herself down with a few deep breaths.
She began to freak out, wondering how she would react when she saw her wearing orange jail garb. Or how she would feel when she noticed her wings had been chained together in order to prevent her escape.
"You're not going to break down in front of her, Fluttershy," she whispered to herself through gritted teeth. "You're going to make yourself pleasant and upbeat. You have to. For her sake."
She lightly pounded her skull against the desk, thinking that it might help knock some sense into her.
It didn't work.
Now feeling slightly dizzy, she unhurriedly lifted her head up, and that was when she saw her on the other side of the glass.
Her heart simultaneously rose and broke upon seeing her face.
The love of her life. So close and yet so far.
The one she longed to be with more than anything right now.
The one she felt guilty for desiring as much as she did.
The one she was terrified she might lose forever.
She exhaled and picked up the phone, carefully placing it to her ear.
"Hello, Rainbow Dash," she said faintly.