//------------------------------//
// Broken by Brokenfang 
// Story: Jailed 
// by ladyanaconda 
//------------------------------//

Razor Whip, more famously known as Neckslicer, could be considered one of the most... influential inmates in Brokenfang. Even the Big Five respected him, and that was a great feat. He was not known for being kind nor friendly, in fact, most of the other inmates thought him 'unbearable', but when it came to 'business', he was very serious. The system was pretty simple; you told him what you wanted, he'd tell you how much it would cost and he'd give you 'time' to think about it-about 10 minutes-, if you agreed with the price then he'd tell you where he'd leave the 'ware' to pick it up, and when you had to pay him. And the problem was not receiving it, the problem was the moment he came to collect his payment. 

If you didn't have it, well... he earned the nickname 'Neckslicer' for something, didn't he? 

If you paid him half of it, he spared you, but he'd give you a certain amount of time to pay him the rest with interests.

If you always paid him on time, he'd have you on his 'regular client' list, and you'd have certain privileges when you asked for something. 

Fire Throat told her he was placed in the coal mines for his prison labour, so they were likely to see him there. After the time for breakfast was up, some guards had gone to their table and ordered them to follow them. The three, along with some others, were taken into the courtyard, where there were carriages made of thick obsidian waiting with open doors, and pulled by more guards. Fluttershy was levitated into one, and she was nearly squashed by the other inmates as they stepped in, muttering things in their native language. Fire Throat barely had time to pull her under his wing before she was squashed by one of the most-overweight inmates. The doors of the carriage were slammed shut, and locked with a magical spell to prevent the passengers from using their 'tricks'.  

"Okay, Fluttershy, here are some tips for when you talk with Neckslicer." Fire Throat whispered to her, loud enough so she could hear him among the small bickers and chats from the other inmates about the little space they were always put in. "First of all, don't call him by his real name. He hatesit."

Fluttershy nodded. 

"Second, always go straight to the point, he doesn't like wasting time rambling. You are only going to ask him if he still has your hair." 

She shivered at the reminder. "Okay." 

"And third, do not try to start a conversation with him unless its about business. He is most likely to ignore you, but I don't recommend you try at all. He is straight to the point, and any sort of sentimentalism will not work on him."

"Is he that bad?"

"Well, it depends on how you interact. Follow my suggestion, only ask him directly about your hair, don't deviate or he'll lose his patience." 

"Well. Fire Throat, what exactly do we do at the Coal Mines?"

"They're a sort of income for the prison. Considering the climate we live under, it's very demanded in most of our country. The colliery near Brokenfang is one of the largest coal mines in Krussia, it's very big and full of coal but it's quite dangerous. Since it's deep mining we are talking about, there are minor temblors every now and then, and there have been collapses in the past."

"How bad are they?"

"Depends on the cause. The pillar structures have to be checked on every now and then to avoid the collapsing." Fire Throat didn't want to recall the last time they had a collapse. "Anyway, when we are at the colliery they will make us go down to the deep mines, and from then they divide us into groups to go work on the tunnels, and divide the tasks according to capacity. On your case..." he wasn't certain how to say it. "I wouldn't know what to tell you, you are a bit too small for this job."

Fluttershy gulped. After a while, the carriage stopped, and the doors were opened. The inmates stepped out, of the carriages, Swift Tail had been put in another wagon, but all the groups gathered in the entrance of the deep mine-a wide but rusty and old elevator on the ide of a large snow-covered mountain that would take them down to the underground caverns and deep mines. The guards escorted them into the elevator in groups of 15, and it took the elevator 10 minutes to go down, and another 10 to come back to the surface. Fluttershy managed to go down in Fire Throat and Swift Tail's group, but her little heart started to beat like crazy when the sunlight disappeared and they were surrounded by darkness once again.

The gears of the elevator screeched in protest as it went deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth, until it came to an abrupt stop, knocking Fluttershy off her hooves, and she barely had time to stand and trot out among the large crowd of Temnokt as they walked into the mine. The cavern system was dimly lit by lanterns, and the roof was held up with wooden structures that seemed to be on the verge of breaking. When all of the inmates had been brought down to the colliery, one of the guards stepped forward and started to divide the large group into smaller ones, each of 20 members, and then sent them down each of the dark tunnels, but the weird thing was that other than their lanterns and helmets, they didn't take any sort of mining instrument, not even pickaxe's or spades of any kind. Much to her worry, Swift Tail and Fire Throat had been put in separate groups and already had been sent down some other tunnels. 

"You, newbie! Step forward!" 

Fluttershy jumped when she was called out, but before she could even walk forward one of the other inmates pushed her, and she fell down to the ground with a small cry of surprise, making the other inmates snicker, but when one of the guards stamped his talon on the ground they all went silent. The guard who was making the groups levitated Fluttershy to his face and started examining her, stretching out her wings and legs to see what she could be useful for, since it didn't seem like she was very strong. Heck, she wouldn't even be able to hold a pickaxe, if they had one. Grumbling, he searched in an old wooden box located behind him, taking out the 'smallest' pickaxe they had, and dropped it in front of Fluttershy, making her yelp in fright. In her perspective, it was the biggest Equestrian pickaxe. 

"Can you pick it up, newbie? Or do you have to use a mini hammer?"

"You have of those?"

The ones who could understand what she said snickered in amusement. That pony was so naïve. The guard rolled his eyes and glanced at one of the inmates. "Neckslicer, step forward!"

A slim drake stepped forward, muttering under his breath. Fluttershy reacted when she thought she heard the word Neckslicer, or at least she thought she did. She turned around to glance at the drake, and took a look at him. He had wild, messy orange locks of hair, grayish orange red underbelly and a pair of twisted-type horns, but she noticed his right horn was broken. His lime green eyes set on her uninterested. Was he the Neckslicer she was looking for?

"Help the newbie with her 'charge', would you?" the other drakes snickered. 

"Why? She'll get some exercise with that thing, if her thin and delicate hooves can handle it." Neckslicer retorted in Krussian,  making the rest of the inmates snicker louder. 

The guard narrowed his eyes. "That wasn't a question, that was an order!" he snarled levitating the pickaxe in front of Neckslicer's face. "Now off with you!"

Neckslicer grunted as he caught the pickaxe in a talon like it was a feather, much to Fluttershy's surprise. She followed after him and the other drakes as they headed down their designated tunnel, followed by a pair of guards. Fluttershy tried to keep up with Neckslicer, but the rough ground of the mine was hurting her hooves, yet she had the feeling they wouldn't make a brief stop just for a 'newbie' (she had the feeling that would be her nickname already, they hadn't called her otherwise). She wondered if he spoke Equestrian. Well, it was worth a try. "E-Excuse me..." she whispered, but the echoes of their clawsteps and the distant picking from the other tunnels muffled her voice and Neckslicer didn't hear her. "Excuse me!" she called out a bit louder, but again he did not hear her. 

Gulping, Fluttershy galloped a bit further to catch up to one of his legs and managed to give a pat on his back leg before he turned to look at her, irritated. 

"What?!" he hissed in low voice, in Equestrian. "It's bad enough to be carrying your 'luggage' to have to bear the bald newbie!"

Fluttershy started to tremble under his glare. "A-Actually, I w-wanted to t-talk to you about t-that..." 

"Oh?" Neckslicer feigned interest, narrowing his eyes. 

"D-Do you still have m-my hair?"

"Who knows?" he turned his attention back to the front, pretending to be thinking. "Depends on who is asking."

Before Fluttershy could reply, the group arrived to their destination. It was a wide cavern, also lit dimly with oil lamps. The group dispersed to their chores; some went towards the mine carts on one side, others to the walls directly, and started smashing at the walls with their tails and claws. Now she knew why they used no instruments to mine, they had them in their body. Fluttershy 'yelled' in fright when suddenly Neckslicer dropped the pickaxe in front of her, making her jump back with her little heart drumming. "Okay, newbie, you're on your own from here on." he said simply heading to his 'wall' and starting to smash it with his tail, breaking through the soil and rock and revealing the precious coal ores under the layer of trash ores. Fluttershy had to drag her pickaxe over to where Neckslicer was, and managed to pick it up for a brief moment before letting it fall on the nearest rock, but it merely made a little crack on it. 

"Um, excuse me..."

Neckslicer grumbled again as he looked down at Fluttershy like she was an annoying mosquito. "What do you want now?!" he snapped. "Fries?!"

"N-No, I..." Fluttershy gulped and thought carefully of the words she was going to use. "Well, did one of the Big Five sell something... unusual to you?" 

"Define unusual, I buy and sell lots of stuff." Neckslicer said dryly, smashing the walls again, separating the coal ores from the trash ores. 

"Well..." Fluttershy pointed at her badly-cut mane. "Bullshot kind of... Well, he cut off my hair and said he'd sell it to you... I'd want it back, if you don't mind..."

At the remark, Neckslicer contained the urge to mock at her, simply giving a snorty laugh. "So you are the newbie who got the 'welcome'." He became serious once more. "Sorry, like you said, he sold it to me. I'm not giving away such a soft, silky fabric away for free, darling." The tone in which he pronounced 'darling' made Fluttershy wonder if he didn't mean the contrary.

"But it's my hair..."

"No, newbie, it was. Now it's mine. Business is business."

Right, he was a businessdrake, she recalled. "And... How much are you asking for it?"

Neckslicer scoffed. "Considering that pony hair is nearly impossible to obtain under our circumstances, especially such a well-cared and soft hair as this one, and the small fee for dyeing it if they don't like such a feminine color... About two thousand obsids."

"TWO THOUSAND?!"

"Quiet!" one of the guards snarled, and Fluttershy cowered nervously when the other inmates glared at her, Neckslicer included, before they went back to work. 

"Do you want to cause a collapse?!" Neckslicer hissed in low voice. "I'm not getting you out of it! You can get squashed as far as I care!"

"Sorry!" Fluttershy quickly apologized. "But... Two thousand just for a bit of hair?"

"It's pony hair. It's not the same as our hair, I don't know if you have touched Temnokt hair. It's all dry, uncared and impossible to untangle with a simple comb. Pony hair, on the other claw, is all soft and warm when prepared in the right way. It would have been cheaper if it was dirty, tangled and had a common color, so you should have thought about that  before caring after your hair that much."

"You kind of make it sound like its my fault that you put such a high price on my hair."

"It is. If you hadn't let Bullshot cut it in the first place, this conversation wouldn't be taking place."

Sweet Celestia, Fire Throat wasn't exaggerating when he said this drake was simply unbearable! Fluttershy thought maybe she should use the glare on him, but he hadn't given her a reason to. He wasn't really attacking her in any way, just disregarding her feelings and blaming her for something that made no sense. "Um, can't you give me a discount? You know, it's my hair..."

"Sorry, no special treatment unless you are one of the Big Five, or you have tons of dough, which is technically the same thing." Neckslicer simply said, picking up the coal ores he had mined out with his tail and placing them on the mining cart when the drake who was pushing it approached. 

"And if I... bought it?"

"Do you have the money?" 

"But I thought... Well, Fire Throat I just had to tell you what I wanted and we were... Well, supposed to negotiate."

"Did he also mention what I do to those who don't pay me on time?" Neckslicer narrowed his eyes, and held out a sharp claw, pressing it against Fluttershy's throat lightly. "Why do you think I'm called Neckslicer, newbie?"

"First Brokenfang administration rule, don't ask him for something you can't afford, newbie." The drake pushing the cart muttered in Krussian, before heading back down the tunnel they had come with the cart. Fluttershy, of course, didn't understand what he said, but she guessed it had something to do about Neckslicer. 

"I'm just giving you a forewarning, newbie." Neckslicer finished the conversation, and went back to his work. "Why don't you tell Fire Throat to write down a list of how to stay alive in Brokenfang for you? You'll need it." He decided to tease her a bit. "By the way, if you want your hair so badly start saving up your money, I already have very... tempting offers for it." 

Fluttershy wanted to ask him who were his 'clients', but she doubted he would tell her, he'd probably ignore her, and she hadn't dug anything from the walls yet. She didn't like how the guard was looking at her, and started to gently pick the nearby rocks with the tip of her pickaxe.





By the time they returned to the Prison that evening, she was all sore and exhausted, and a bit, bit frustrated at how Neckslicer had treated her. She was so hungry she didn't hesitate in eating the mashed potatoes and cold bread served for dinner, while Roachie enjoyed a generous piece of bread donated by the pegasus. 

"Two thousand obsids?" Fire Throat repeated, not incredulously, merely surprised. "Wow, that's one of the highest prices he has given to something."

"It's pony hair, what did you expect?" Swift Tail muttered, devouring his food hungrily. 

"Why does everytemnokt keep saying that?" Fluttershy inquired curiously. 

"I guess Neckslicer gave you the 'why' to such a high price, and you must be thinking it's absurd to ask that much for a bunch of hair, right?" Swift Tail glanced at her. 

"Ummm... Sort of."

"You're the first pony to ever be locked here, honey." Fire Throat explained. "And you must have noticed our... hair is a mess."

"Neckslicer said something about your hair being all dirty and dry."

"Well, yeah, the selling point in this case is the silky texture and the state of your hair. There are drakes here who would sell Neckslicer one of their eyes for it, though what they will use it for it's their problem, he would say. He merely acts as the intermediary."

"By the way, is he always that..." Fluttershy stopped eating and tried to find an appropriate word that wouldn't hurt Neckslicer's feelings if he heard it. "... unfriendly?"

Fire Throat sighed. "Like I said, half the drakes here would like to strangle him at times, but he is the only 'intermediary' here, so they have to take it out on sometemnokt else."

"In other words, they respect him, but they don't have to like him." Swift Tail added. 

"Um, isn't that the same thing?" Fluttershy inquired. "I mean, I think you can be liked and respected at the same time-"

"No, no, you're mistaking it, newbie." Swift Tail narrowed his eyes and pupils. "To like sometemnokt is to actually care for that temnokt. Respect is deep admiration for sometemnokt which is elicited by their abilities or qualities. You can't have both in this place, you won't even find the former, it's very rare."

"But you guys like me... don't you?"

"I do." Fire Throat said quickly.

"Mmm... I'm on it." Swift Tail shrugged indifferently.

Roachie rubbed against her hoof as a positive reply. Fluttershy could tell Fire Throat was being sincere, but Swift Tail looked like he didn't really care what she thought of him. Still, he hadn't told her he didn't like her either, so maybe it was a good thing. She glanced at her hooves, all dirty with mud and coal from the little rocks she managed to dig out in the mines. Her creamy coat was all dusty and stained with black, and her chunks of hair were all dusty. She wouldn't be paid for this since it had been a punishment, but at least she had met Neckslicer and managed to find out about her hair. Still, she felt like taking a small bath to take off all the debris off her, but she'd have to wait till next morning. Just two more days, and she'd get to see her friends after so many days!

"I can't wait for saturday, my friends will come to see me." Fluttershy didn't know she had spoken until Fire Throat and Swift Tail gave her questioning glances. 

"Oh, so you still got friends on the outside world?" Swift Tail rolled his eyes. "Wow. Should I congratulate you?"

Fire Throat grunted, and glanced at Fluttershy apologetically. "Ignore him, he's sore because his wife hasn't come to see him in three years in a row." 

"Please! I don't care what she does, I bet you anything that she's already transacting the divorce while we speak. Oh, wait, she already did." 

"Get over it already, for Bittercold's sake!"

She had the feeling this would escalate into something personal. "You guys have no visits?" 

"No, newbie, we don't." Swift Tail grumbled, pushing his empty tray aside and resting his head on his forelegs. "Not every dragon has 'lifelong friends' like you. No one in here does, actually." 

"Any family? Brothers, sisters?" 

"Nah. Even if we did, just look at Twister, he has lots of relatives and they never come to see him. Even his sister stopped coming." Fire Throat sighed. 

"But notemnokt knows why?"

"No, or what? Do you want to write a letter to her to ask her 'hey, sweetie, why did you stop coming to see your little brother? he is completely nuts without you'?" Swift Tail growled, digging his claws into the table, the tip of his tail twitching in irritation. 

"It would be worth if anyone tried if it made Twister feel better."

"Why would you want to help him?" Fire Throat raised an eyebrow. "In case you forgot, he nearly killed you in your first day here."

"Well, it's wasn't his fault at all. His mental condition makes him unstable, and he can't really control his actions completely. I don't hate him." Fluttershy would never forget those mismatched eyes and crazed gaze as he pinned her to the ground with a large talon, and yet she felt.... sorry for him. "Has anyone tried to... talk to him?"

"Talk to a psychotic lunatic? Oh, what a great idea, why don't we spit on one of the Big Five's faces now that we're on it?" Swift Tail grumbled, glaring at Fluttershy. 

"I'm only saying, maybe if he had a friend he wouldn't be so... Well, like he is..." Fluttershy was reluctant to call him any of those words. She never liked dedicative names. 

"What do they teach you in the 'magical land of Equestria'?" the Dwarf continued, again growing irritated. "Don't you know that you can't just go befriend every single creature in the world?"

"Knock it off, Swift Tail!" Fire Throat glared at his friend reproachfully. 

"I think he is just lonely, that's all." Fluttershy insisted. 

"What Swift Tail means to say, honey, is that not everydrake is open to your... way of thinking." 

"Way of thinking? I'm just saying that having friends can make a difference. My friends and I have met lots of ponies who used to think like you, but the magic of friendship can change somepony if you just give them a chance." 

Swift Tail couldn't bear it anymore. "That's it, if you need me, I'll be vomiting in the bathroom." He left his seat and stomped away, not caring if he stepped on other inmates' tails. The rest of the inmates ignored him, most of them had long finished eating and were looking for ways spend the rest of their time before they would have to return to their cells. Fire Throat, Fluttershy and Roachie stared at the way he had gone, the latter two in confusion, the former in sadness as he shook his head. 

"Did I hurt his feelings somehow?" Fluttershy asked, feeling a small pang of guilt as she started at the direction he had gone. 

Fire Throat shook his head again. "No, it's just that..." He sighed. "Honey, this is Brokenfang. You don't understand right now, but when you spend years in here, you change. Brokenfang breaks your spirit, your vision fades from white to gray, and eventually to a dull black. You stop believing in friendship and love and wallow in your bitterness and hate, you learn to be cruel and malicious, because that's the only way to survive in a place such as this. Some are broken in long years, others in days after their first arrival."

"Oh... I didn't know it was such a... sensitive topic." 

"He wasn't always like that, you know. Swift Tail. None of them were like that when they got here, at least some, I can't say the same for the Big Five. Anyway, most of these prisoners will not live to be released from this place, others won't be leaving at all. Eventually they resign themselves that they will be trapped in this hell, and so they abandon all hope. In other words, they are broken by Brokenfang. I don't mean to crush your hopes, my dear, I'm just warning you because it is inevitable. Even if you managed to stay alive till your release, you won't be the same as you were the first time you came here."

Fluttershy didn't like the topic anymore. Even Fire Throat had apparently lost hope, she wished she could hide behind her mane, it if weren't for the fact that it was cut. She wished she could do something to make him, and Swift Tail, and even the Twister guy feel better, she couldn't tell the same for Neckslicer, he didn't look like he had any personal or emotional problems, but she didn't know him that much, so she couldn't really judge him. Before she could say anything else, the siren announcing it was time to go to their cells rang, and all the inmates started heading towards the door. Fluttershy let Roachie crawl unto her hoof and then under her wing, then she and Fire Throat followed after the rest of the inmates, surprisingly it turned out he was in the same cell block as her, though apparently Swift Tail wasn't for she did not see him among their group. 

Fluttershy parted with Fire Throat as his cell was on the upper rows, and she walked into her own cell, and a few minutes later the room echoed with the grinding of the cell doors as they closed, trapping their prisoners one more night. Fluttershy sighed and climbed unto her mattress, pulling her blanket to protect herself form the cold; Roachie crawled to his hoof-made little bet, a small piece of cotton and a tiny square cut from Fluttershy's own blanket, waving Fluttershy good night with his leg.

"Good night, Roachie." Fluttershy smiled, patting his head carefully. "Tomorrow we will figure what to do next." 

A purring sound coming from the window startled both Fluttershy and Roachie, and when they looked up to the barred window Fluttershy thought she saw a reptilian tail disappearing from view.