Jailed

by ladyanaconda

The Solitaire

Fluttershy was frozen in utter fear as Twister carried her out of the dining hall by her tiny stub of a tail, then he ran down the hall and into the courtyard. The inmates who saw what was going out burst out in laughter, muttering things in their natal language. Twister ignored the other drakes, who simply darted out of his way when he shot them a warning growl, then headed over to a corner in near the walls. The guards on turn glared down at the demented, some of them lifting ballistas and pointed it at him in case he tried to escape, but by then most of the inmates knew it was truffle to even consider trying. Fluttershy yelped when Twister dropped her, but before she could even move Twister had already lay his head on top of her, resting and using her as a sort of pillow. Roachie crawled from under her wing and unto the floor, fluttering his wings at Twister in a 'menacing' way to no avail. Twister stared at the roach for a while before blowing with his nostrils, sending him a few inches away.

Fire Throat and Swift Tail had panicked when they saw Twister carrying Fluttershy out like a rag doll and then lying on top of her. When they tried to approach, Twister hissed at them like a cat protecting her kitten, but his pupils were shrunken and his glance disoriented. Fluttershy mouthed a 'help', trembling.

"Twister, I know you don't like sharing your toys, but the Newbie is not an actual toy... I mean, she look like a doll, but she has fragile bones!" Fire Throat chose his words carefully to avoid making him lose it.

"Right, talk to him like he were a five year old! That's going help us!" Swift Tail rolled his eyes.

"If you have any better idea, then do it!"

Twister hissed again and pulled Fluttershy underneath him once again, ignoring her yelps of fright. Swift Tail rolled his eyes and took a look around to make sure there were no guards nearby before taking out a tiny plastic bag filled with a strange white powder. He shook it in front of Twister, calling his attention. "See this 'candy'? I will give you this little bag of 'candy' if you let the Newbie go."

Almost immediately, Twister abandoned his possessiveness of Fluttershy and lunged towards Swift Tail, who stepped aside quickly and let the little bag fall into the demented drake's claws. As soon as Twister's shadow was gone from above her, Fluttershy gave a surprised meep and rushed to hide from Twister behind Fire Throat in case he changed his mind, but Twister had forgotten about Fluttershy as he opened the little bag and tried to get the white powder out of it, giving deep and quickened breaths and his pupils shrinking as he sniffed the powder.

"W-What is t-that...?" she whispered.

"Cocaine." Swift Tail whispered back to her, still glancing around for guards.

Fluttershy blinked at the unfamiliar word. "Cocaine...? What's that?" She whimpered when Fire Throat and Swift Tail-even Twister-gave her looks of disbelief. "S-Sorry! Forget I asked!" she hid her face in her hooves.

"Are you fucking me?" Swift Tail couldn't believe it. "You don't know what cocaine is? It's one of the most expensive drugs in the Black Market!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what cocaine is."

"Let me guess, there's no drug trafficking in Equestria either? Oh, wait, there is NO Black Market in Equestria, right?"

"I heard there is sort of clandestine market across Equestria, but the Princesses don't allow underhanded methods of commerce."

"You gotta be fucking kidding me, mare!"

"Swift Tail, that's enough." Fire Throat growled before glancing down at Fluttershy. "Cocaine is, like Swift Tail said, one of the most expensive drugs in the world. One little bit like the one we gave Twister..." he pointed at the bag of cocaine, flinching when Twister hissed at him and continued to inhale the powder. "...is worth half a million obsids. The Big Five and prominent drug lords earn their living from trafficking with it mostly, among other things."

"Why is it so expensive?" Fluttershy asked, glanced at Twister in worry. He had started to laugh and his breath was quickening in a frightening way.

"It's illegal." Swift Tail rolled his eyes. "Most western countries have laws against the consume and trafficking of these types of drugs, but everyone wants it."

"What's so... well, special about it?"

"It gives you the feeling of 'being in heaven'. How much dose you take and how you take it affects in how much time it takes effect and how long it will last, but when you take it you feel euphoric, energetic, talkative and mentally alert."

"It sounds like it helps lots of people."

Fire Throat scoffed at that. "Help? It's a time-bomb, honey. Once you're hooked in it, you can't leave it even if you wanted to. It grips unto your system, and your body will eventually ask you for more and more the more you consume it, just look at Twister." He pointed at Twister, who by then had started to tremble as he lost himself into his 'heaven' with a twisted smile on his face. "He can't spend too long without it. Some think his mental state is in part because the guards keep the drug away from him much as he can, and his brain cannot go too long without it."

Fluttershy was afraid of the look on Twister's face. If his demented demeanor scared her, she didn't want to see him on his 'bad days'. Or when under the effects of this thing. "Can we help him?"

"The problem is what help could you get him here. It's a prison, not a rehabilitation center."

"It was my last batch."

Fluttershy glanced at Swift Tail. "You consume it?"

"If I did, I wouldn't have parted with it to save your flank. Since Twister is in my cell block, I keep it in case of emergencies when we need to keep him calm."

"You said it was a time-bomb. What does that mean?"

"When you're hooked and your body asks for more, you do anything to obtain it. Anything." Fire Throat sighed sadly. "It destroys your body, your mind and your life."

Suddenly, Roachie yelped in fear and crawled towards Fluttershy to hide under her wing, trembling. Fluttershy glanced at him while lifting her wing slightly. "What's wrong, Roachie?"

Fire Throat "That."

Much to Fluttershy's surprise, a large lizard stepped back, flicking its tongue in annoyance when its meal disappeared under the pegasus's wing. It was a black monitor lizard with sleek scales, it was the size of a large dog, Fluttershy could tell it would be able to swallow Applejack's dog if it had the chance. The lizard turned its back on them, glaring at Fluttershy with light purple eyes before walking back the way it came. As it advanced, the other inmates got out of its way almost immediately, staring at it apprehensively as it returned to its master.

Against the far wall was a tall drake, who reached out his arm to let his pet climb unto it. His icy blue hair was spread out and pointing in all directions, almost concealing the teardrop shaped Age Mark on his forehead and his orange eyes. His underbelly was a darker shade of persian blue, and he had three pairs of horns with the trademark black rings of Brokenfang, along with a sort of bracelet like the one Warfang had been wearing. His frame was muscular, and in Temnokt terms one would have thought he was quite handsome.

"Who is that?" Fluttershy inquired, gulping at the regal and serious expression and posture of the drake.

"The Solitaire." Fire Throat said. "From the Maximum Security Cells."

"If he's from there, why is he... well, around here?"

"See that bracelet?" Swift Tail pointed at the metal bracelet in Solitaire's left talon. "It shows he's from the Maximum Security cells and he's under much more strict surveillance because his more dangerous than the regular inmate in here, as you saw the others step back in fear when his pet passed by them. Only five individuals from the Maximum Security ward have the privilege of coming out of their cells, Warfang and Solitaire among them. The rest stay in their cells for 22 hours a day.

"And what did he do to get locked up in those cells?"

"Rumors, no one knows for certain, I got the feeling he wants it that way. The most likely rumor is that he murdered 6 people, but there's another that says he had a wife and a child, but he killed his wife when he suspected she was unfaithful. He was arrested before he could do anything to the hatchling, but he got away from the Royal Guard. Days later they received reports from a drady with her hatchling because she thought somedrake was stalking her, and they got just in time to stop Solitaire from stealing the hatchling away. He was condemned here afterwards."

Fluttershy had taken a hoof to her mouth, staring at Fire Throat, then at Solitaire in shock. "W-Why would he do such a thing...? Trying to steal a m-mother's child..."

"No one really knows. Some say the hatchling was too similar to his own daughter, others that he lost his mind and wanted to kill all hatchlings because they reminded him of his lost family."

"Maybe we'll never know, he's not precisely fond of talking." Swift Tail shrugged, warily glancing at Solitaire.

"With telling you Neckslicer, even the Big Five themselves have the willies when he's around!" Fire Throat shivered at the idea. "But as long as you don't touch his pet, you'll be safe."

Fluttershy gulped when Solitaire glanced at her while stroking his lizard's head as if it were a cat. She quickly drifted her eyes somewhere else , hoping he wouldn't notice she had been staring at him. They made him sound like a psychopath even worse than Twister, but the way he stroked his pet's head... Speaking of Twister, he had taken to playing with the tip of his tail.

"So, how was your visit?" Fire Throat changed the subject. "Some of the other inmates who were there in their visit are already saying you have a weird bunch of friends..."

"They did?" She guessed they would be put off by Discord, and that was natural since they had probably seen of even heard of draconequii, but what else could they find 'weird' about the others?

"An egghead, a tomboyish pegasus with multi-colored hair, a cowpony, a diva, and a pink psycho with fluffy mane. They said Neckslicer could sell it like cotton candy if he wanted to."

"You mean Pinkie Pie?"

"That's her name?"

"You're forgetting the mutated monster." Swift Tail commented. "They said he looked like he came out of a nightmare, or he simply played with magic too advanced for him and had an accident that left him like that..." he stopped when he noticed Fluttershy stiffening. She had flinched at the word monster, she might be afraid of these creatures but she would not allow them to speak of her friends like that. Swift Tail felt a fire in her eyes as she gave him a glare, it made him step back. Even Fire throat and Twister felt something off with the the creamy pegasus as she glared a him.

"Don't refer to Discord as a monster. " Fluttershy whispered, but even though her voice sounded gentle there was anger concealed in it as she stepped forward, and Swift Tail stepped back warily. "He might not look normal, but he is a very sweet pony when you get to know him. You have no right to judge somepony if you don't know them at all." As she spoke, she was poking her hoof at Swift Tail's chest accusingly. "So you should mind your words when you speak about other ponies!"

"F-Fine, Newbie..." Swift Tail stuttered, and cursed himself afterwards for showing weakness.

"Newbie!"

Suddenly, Fluttershy's brief bravado disappeared and she yelped in fright when she spotted Neckslicer approaching, and quickly went to hide behind Fire Throat's leg. Roachie could tell Neckslicer wasn't very happy and crawled to hide under Fire Throat's wing as well.

"What business do you have with the Newbie, Neckslicer?" Swift Tail inquired. "She hasn't bought anything from you... yet."

Neckslicer ignored the dwarf and stomped his way towards Fire Throat, glaring behind the wing he knew she was hiding at. "Quit it, Newbie. A blind wolf could see you from a kilometer away." His voice was aggressive.

Fluttershy gulped, but nevertheless she gathered what little courage had remained and stepped out of the protection of Fire Throat's wing. "W-What is it...?" she stuttered nervously.

"I don't know how you found out who my 'contact' is, but he complained to me that one of your 'little friends' just gave him a fright!" Neckslicer growled, baring his teeth. "That pink psycho pony had the nerve to call me with a ridiculous name!"

"What's the point?" Swift Tail frowned.

"If somedrake here hears that ridiculous nickname, I'll lose credibility! And how in tarnation could she have known the identity of my contact?!"

"Well, P-Pinkie Pie has c-certain talents at -m-making new friends...." Fluttershy tried to explain, but yelped when Neckslicer glared at her again.

"And that pink mare apparently wanted to sneak things in here! You better tell that psycho friend of yours to cool it down, I don't do things for free, and much less for psychos...!" He took a glance at Twister, who hadn't apparently realized he was there. "That includes that psycho."

"You can't blame the Newbie for her friend accidentally figuring out who sneaks things here." Fire Throat pointed out.

Neckslicer didn't buy it. "However she did it, the charge for sneaking things from the outside directly will go to the Newbie, since it's her psycho friend."

Twister looked at him with wide pupils. "Me?"

"No! The other psycho, the pink- Argh! Why do I bother do explain you anything when you probably won't remember it tomorrow!"

Fluttershy managed to talk again, this time without stuttering, but she was still nervous. "Me? But I didn't really tell Pinkie Pie to-"

"Doesn't matter, what's done it's done!" Neckslicer snapped at her. "I'll 'take a look' at the stuff she wants to send in so I can figure out a reasonable price for you."

"And in how much time...." Swift Tail muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Fluttershy wanted to protest, but Neckslicer didn't seem to be in the mood to negotiate, at least not with her, and managed to give a small nod. "O-Okay..." As Neckslicer walked away, muttering something about Pinkie Pie and dumb names, she let out a deep breath as she nearly fainted, but a tail different than Fire Throat's caught her.

"Newie is sleepy?" Twister asked with a tilted head.

"She's okay, Twister..." Fire Throat spoke carefully, and noticed the glances the other inmates were giving them. "Though the way things are going, we won't for long..."

Fluttershy felt her stomach growling. "You think the Big Five will take long? I didn't get to eat that much..."

"I'm afraid that when they are playing poker, nothing can move them from there until one of them wins, or they get bored. We're stuck here and without food." Swift Tail muttered. "Even so, the food isn't that good anyway. They give us the same shit three ties a day, seven days a week, and it's boring! What I wouldn't give for a good cut of actual meat..."

"It's not that bad..." Fire Throat pointed out.

"What do you complain about? You work there."

Roachie buzzed his wings, chirping in discomfort. He had eaten a generous amount of food, but he had a big appetite, even for a cockroach. Fluttershy smiled sympathetically at him as she patted his head. "It's okay, Roachie, surely we'll get something decent sometime..."

"Newbie, seriously, why do you talk to a bug as if he were an equal?" Swift Tail inquired.

"He might be smaller and might not talk, but he's still a living creature with his own feelings." Fluttershy said, holding out her hoof for Roachie to crawl on it. "He deserves to be treated with respect and consideration."

"He also deserves to be squashed with a newspaper for crawling unto a table with food we eat..."

Twister took out a newspaper seemingly from nowhere, making Roachie yelp in fright and crawl under Fluttershy's wing. Before They could say something else, the siren ran, signaling it was time for work. Almost immediately, all the inmates headed inside, Fluttershy and the three drakes following suit, though Twister probably didn't even know what was going on and was just going with the flow. Fluttershy wondered where he worked, or if he did at all, due to his mental condition.

---

4 hours later

---

Her suspicions were confirmed when she and her workmates left the sewing room and found Twister waiting for her outside, with a melancholic look on his face. Fluttershy tried not to give any sort of dismissive or offensive glance at him as he followed her around, never removing his eyes off her. This made it difficult for her to go to the bathroom, but she didn't dare ask him to go away, she didn't want to hurt his feelings making him think she didn't want him around... Well, it was kinda true, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings overall. The bathroom wasn't that usable, it stunk and was dirty of.... Temnokt poop, but she had no other choice but to pinch her nose and try to keep her rear from touching the surface of the toilet; the one advantage of having such a short tail now was that she didn't need to worry about the hair getting stained with the toilet's contents.

Even as they got to the Dining Hall, Twister was still following her. The other inmates were snickering at her misery, wondering how long it would take for her to make a mistake that could cost her something, anything. Today's menu consisted of some pieces of cold bread and cheese soup, again nothing fancy. She wondered what the Big Five had to eat everyday, considering they had this 'special treatment' thing. She missed salads, apples and Pinkie Pie's sweets, but she guessed there was no point in asking for them. It was a prison, not a hotel. She had trouble carrying her tray and watching out for Twister at the same time, but she finally managed to get to the usual table. She could tell Fire Throat and Swift Tail weren't happy to have Twister around.

"Newbie, why did you bring him here?" Swift Tail hissed warily, glancing at Twister nervously. It was the first time she saw him like this.

"I didn't, he followed me." Fluttershy said softly, shivering when Twister sat next to her and leaned his head closer. ".... Sort of."

"Why don't you tell him to...? You know..." Fire Throat made a motion with his claws to tell her to send Twister away or something.

"I think he's lonely..."

"What is it to us?!" Swift Tail hissed again. "I don't want to risk him going into full psycho-mood again-!"

"You don't like me?"

They nearly jumped when Twister spoke out of sudden, his voice shaky and his pupils starting to shrink. Swift Tail panicked. "Nonono! No one said that! I just...!"

"He means that...!" Fire Throat had trouble thinking of something to say. "Well..."

"I think he means to say that he's not accustomed to you yet." Fluttershy rescued them. "They just need some time to get used to you being around since it's the first time you sit at his table."

"Oh." Twister accepted the answer and started to eat his soup.

Fluttershy caught another glance of the lizard from before, it was on top of the table with his owner. Solitaire had two plates of warm soup, one for him and another for his pet. Contrasting with his owner, the lizard was devouring his meal noisily, while Solitaire sipped his soup calmly. He glanced at Fluttershy, who quickly drifted her gaze away, hoping he wouldn't have noticed she was staring.

"Don't worry, he's not as sensitive with stares as other certain drakes." Fire Throat stated, glancing at Twister momentarily. "But if you mess with his pet, you'll earn an enemy."

"I would never hurt an animal." Fluttershy said matter-of-factly, petting Roachie's head tenderly. "I take care of them."

"Newbie, animals in Krussia are not like your little furry friends in your magical land of friendship. These animals were trained to kill on word from their owners, they are not befriended as easily, you have to earn their respect, not their love."

"Love is the same as respect."

"Not it isn't." Fire Throat sighed.

"What's the difference? I think the concept is pretty similar."

"Respect is not as easily earned as love, and if you're respected you're less likely to be bullied around. Love won't help you here."

"Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you... Is this a male-only prison?"

"Sort of. Dradies are less likely to lower to a life of delinquency than males, they are carefully raised and given more morality lessons than most males, this is to make sure they will be faithful, decent wives when the time comes. Males, on the other hand, are raised the traditional way. Encouraging strength and courage, but some have different definitions of that." Fire Throat explained.

"It's also for safety reasons. I guess you've seen that since there are no females here, and we males have our..." Swift Tail realized Fire Throat was stiffening again. "Well, you know..."

Fluttershy shuddered at the idea. She could tell most of these males haven't had a female in years, they must be lusting for feminine contact, trying to fulfill it with... she couldn't even imagine it. Were they that desperate to recur to that? This would explain why most of these drakes were glancing at her in such a lustful way...

Maybe she had been lucky that Bullhorn and his cronies hadn't taken more than just her hair...

Comments

[Osiris Grandeur]

Sorry but, who are the triplets? I don't think they've been mentioned as of yet.
I need moar!!!