> Jailed
>  by ladyanaconda
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Behind Bars (edited July 2018)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------





Chapter 1



Proof-read by ChudoJogurt






"We find the accused guilty of all charges."

Fluttershy would never forget those horrible words the judge had spoken, depriving her of her freedom and condemning her to a life behind bars. 

What had started as a harmless vacation had taken a completely unexpected turn.

Fluttershy hugged her legs and shivered, trying to remember the name of the prison she was being sent to: The Broken Fang... Judging by its name it didn't sound like a pleasant place, at least not to a timid mare like her. 

She found herself inside a cold, dark carriage made of obsidian. It was mostly to transport newly-condemned prisoners to their respective confinement or transfer inmates to another prison.

As she retreated into one of the corners, she wrapped her wings around her body to keep her body warmth. She remembered her friends' attempts to help her and the despair on their faces as she was taken away.

She was nearly thrown aside when the transport finally came into a stop. Her ears twitched at the sound of clawsteps outside.  Fluttershy gulped and started to tremble when the doors flung open; she had to close her eyes shut because the light was blinding after having been in the dark for who knew how much time. 

Before she knew it her four hooves were shackled together; they must know a pegasus kick wouldn’t be able to hurt them, but they probably were taking safety measures due to the severity of her charges. Before her eyes could adjust to the light, she was blindfolded again, obscuring her vision a second time. 

Fluttershy was roughly pushed outside without any consideration, making her release a tiny cry. She didn't know where she was going- she was guided by the guards pulling on the chain around her neck, like a blind dog. 

The bitter, freezing temperature made her shiver and she could feel the snowflakes fall on her coat and mane, and the layer of snow crunching beneath her hooves.

The sound of metal creaking and voices yelling in Krussian sent shivers down her spine, but she didn’t dare to express her discomfort. 

Fluttershy started walking again when the guard tugged at the chain, and this time she felt not snow underneath her hooves, but marble. Perhaps they were inside now, which was a great relief, she had been freezing out there. 

After advancing for a few more minutes, finally the guard had her stop by holding her down with a talon momentarily. At long last, the blindfold was removed, but she still had to squint her eyes until they adjusted to the light. 

When she could finally see her surroundings, she opened her eyes wide and her pupils shrunk. 

They were in a dark room, illuminated by lamps that gave it an artificial atmosphere. There was a counter on one side of the long room just next to a large iron door with a camera and section on the wall painted with black and white lines just in front of it for photographing the newly-arrived prisoners. 

The inhabitants of this place reminded her of the dragons back home, but their scales were jet black, they moved in all fours and they had access to dark magic. Their horns would glow in purple and green whenever they cast any spell, and their eyes changed into shades similar to that of King Sombra’s when he’d use his dark powers.

Temnokt, they were known as. 

Infamous in Equestria for stealing unicorn magic to keep their own, their people had been banished a thousand years ago. 

Though these recent years things had smoothed out considerably between the two species, there were still a few tensions rising from the temnokt’s macabre reputation.

Fluttershy jumped when the bulky guard behind her pushed her forward with a paw, towards the drake at the camera whose expression was no friendlier than her captor's.

"Move." The black drake with yellow underbelly clad in iron armor growled in Equestrian, which surprised her. 

Assuming this was the part where they photographed her to make her record, Fluttershy chose not to make any of them angry unless she wanted to go to solitary confinement straight after having arrived, so she quietly trotted towards the the place the camera was facing. 

However, the drake frowned and muttered something in Krussian at the guard, who rolled his eyes and walked away into a small door only to return a few seconds later with a high chair. If it were not for the muzzler, Fluttershy would have gasped when the guard levitated her unto the chair. 

The picture was quick, she was taken one facing front, and left and right, before the pegasus was taken off the chair and motioned towards the door next to the counter. 

Gulping, Fluttershy walked towards it, trembling when it opened. She was met by yet another guard, clad in obsidian armor as he looked down uninterested at her. "I suppose you’re the… new addition."

Fluttershy could only nod her head slowly. 

"Come on in, your new 'home' awaits you."  he said, dryly

His tone made her wonder if he was mocking her under themask of cold apathy. 

She froze in fear at the thought of stepping inside. 

The drake noticed this, and muttered something under his breath.His horns glowed and he levitated Fluttershy inside,slamming the iron door shut with his tail. His golden eyes still didn’t seem to show sympathy towards the pegasus as he walked down the corridors. 

Fluttershy saw more guards, all drakes clad in obsidian armor and wearing stern expressions on their faces, as they walked to different parts of the prison. The walls and floor were made of ivory, with dim lamps illuminating it, which made her wonder why the temnokt were so fond of the dark. 

"My name is Lieutenant Meltdown, but you may refer you meet as 'Lieutenant' or 'Sir'. I suppose you know how things work here, right?" 

Timidly, Fluttershy shook her head, which made Meltdown sigh in annoyance. 

"Great. I guess I'll have to give the whole monologue again." He turned on yet another long, wide corridor, heading towards a more... Fortified area of the prison. "This is the Broken Fang Maximum Security Prison - BroFaM for short, if you wish - where the scum of our Empire are sent for crimes against the Royal Family, High Blood Houses or the Empire itself.

“Here you will find murderers, drug lords, psychopaths, kidnappers, and etcetera. 

“I've been told you tried to murder a High Blood, right?" When Fluttershy shook her head frantically, Meltdown frowned. "Denying it won't do you any good here. You better think of your reputation -- within the walls it can save your life, or turn you into someone’s dog. And guess what? We have a place reserved especially for you in Cell Block Five." 

The terror came again when they came upon another great heavily fortified metal double door. His eyes emanated purple mist and the locks opened. He pushed them open with his magic as well. 

The temnokt in that place were all confined in their cells. Many of them looked like they had been in there for decades, others were just like her: frightened and confused, wondering why they were brought here. 

Most of them were marked not only with the common Age Marks painted in their faces and shoulders, some had additional tattoos painted, some others had gruesome scars on different parts of their body, and she even caught sight of a few who had certain limbs missing. 

As soon as the doors opened, within started yelling and whistling, throwing down wrinkled paper, paper planes among other things. 

It was a cell block with about two hundred cells in tiers, each containing two prisoners, all gathered around an open central space with a security booth -- a kiosk protected by metal mesh and glass for the guard in charge of the prisoners. Every cell had thick obsidian iron bars that seemed completely unbreakable. Inside of each cell there was a metal nest tray and a bunk above it for the two inmates to sleep, a toilet and a sink. 

As Meltdown walked down the block, levitating Fluttershy and ignoring the taunts from the inmates, Fluttershy had a better chance to get a glimpse of the prisoners. 

Some of the inmates taunted her. Others ignored her. And a few others made her know with a glimpse that she was playing with the big boys. 

"Here we are." 

They stopped in front of a cell that had been apparently specially altered for her. 

The cell bars were covered with a layer of thick metal wires to keep her from slipping away, this was also applied to her barred window. Her bed was a mattress cut in half to fit her considerably smaller side with a small square of cloth to act as a blanket and an old worn down pillow, but they couldn't do anything about the sink. 

The cell door was open. 

Fluttershy cried out when the guard abruptly pushed her inside, and the muzzler and collar were removed from her; she spat the rag from her mouth, cringing when the door was slammed closed and locked shut. 

"Welcome to The Broken Fang." 

Those were the last words the guard said before stalking away, snickering. 

That was the last straw. 

Fluttershy rushed towards the cell bars and tried to hit one only to retreat her sore hoof. The wires had spines. 

Fluttershy had to bite her lip to contain a sob, but as she saw the guard walking away without a care in the world, she yelled. "LET ME OUT OF HERE! I'M INNOCENT! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" 

Her cries of despair where responded with whistles and mocking laughter from the other cells as some of the other inmates snarled something in Krussian, apparently directed at her, but she didn't care. 

"LET ME GO! PLEASE!" 

The sound of the aggressive words in the foreign language soon made her retreat deeper into her cell, whimpering when they turned into roars of annoyance as her pleas turned into whispers. 

"I'm innocent, I'm innocent..."

Fluttershy leaned against the corner of her new residence sobbing and hugging her forelegs, hiding her face into her hooves. 

The sounds coming from the rest of the cells soon quieted as the lights turned off, leaving everything in complete darkness. 

She was scared. 

What was she going to do now? She was alone, her friends were out there doing their best to get her out, but she wasn't certain of how long it would take to achieve anything. She couldn't understand how a harmless vacation could have turned into a nightmare. 

She remembered her friends trying to appeal her case, but the words of a few Equestrians convinced no one. 

Twilight wrote to Princess Celestia explaining what had happened, and the alicorn said she would do everything in her power to secure Fluttershy's release, even if she had to appeal the case to King Bittercold himself. 

Unfortunately the King was absent due to some skirmishes in the borders between Krussia and Bullspain. No one knew exactly how long it would take him, and Fluttershy would be at risk until then.

She was starting to think she would never make it out alive.

She was surrounded by, as the guard said, the 'worst criminals in the Krussian Empire, the scum of the temnokt, the worst of their kind', and not only were they larger and stronger, but she was apparently the only female in this place. 

She had been condemned to twenty years in this place.

She’d have to get used to it. She wasn't certain of what she'd do, but she had to make it out of here. 

It wasn't long before she cried herself to sleep in the darkness of her new 'home'.
> First Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy was abruptly awakened when a loud siren ran and echoed through the cell block, then she heard metal sliding and banding... and hundreds of claws stepping against the ground. When she opened her eyes, she saw her cell door was open-as well as the rest of the cells, and she saw all the inmates going out of their cells and walk down the corridor to some spot. Gasping, the pegasus quickly rushed to hide underneath her blankets as she watched the Temnokt pass by her cell, some of them glancing at them mockingly, while others licked their fangs as they passed, as if indirectly telling her that she was in for a big kill. Fluttershy just hid under her blanket, trembling in terror until she heard the clawsteps fading away. 

"You! Get your flank out of your cell and to the showers!" 

Fluttershy timidly poked her head from underneath the blanket and saw a guard staring at her in an unfriendly way. She wished she could reply, or even move, but she was frozen in fear at the idea of sharing the.... shower with those creatures. The guard lost his patience and his horns glowed as he threw the blanket off Fluttershy and levitated her out of the cell, dripping her abruptly on the ground, then painting at a door on the other side of the cell blocks from the way she had come in last night. 

"Down the hall, then turn right at the first crossing, there you'll find the showers." he growled. "You better hurry unless you want to bath with cold water." 

Fluttershy didn't say anything. She simply galloped down the cell blocks, through the doors and down the corridor, more to get away from the Temnokt that to actually reach the showers before hot water ran out. As soon as she turned right in the crossing hallways the guard had indicated, she bumped into someone's leg, and was harshly kicked back as the inmate glared down at her. 

"Zhdat' svoyey ocheredi, kak i vse ostal'nyye, brodyaga!" He snapped in Krussian, pointing at the long line of Temnokt ahead of them.

Fluttershy didn't need to speak Krussian to know he was telling her to wait like everydragon else, but she DID need to speak Krussian apologize. That made things harder, and potentially more dangerous. "I-I'm sorry..." she trembled when the drake narrowed his eyes at her. "S-Sorry!" she cried out softly. Oh, sweet Celestia, at this rate she wasn't going to last five minutes. Thankfully, the drake lost interest in her soon, and took a few steps forward as the line advanced. 

Fluttershy just stood behind the drake, waiting, taking about ten hoof steps for every single step the drakes in front of her took. Surprisingly the line advanced rather quickly than she expected, and as they got closer to the showers more and more inmates walked out and headed back down the corridor and heading somewhere, looking more refreshed, but some of them still dripping a bit with water. She calculated some twenty minutes passed before the line was finally coming to an end, and but she was afraid to step into that place with so many drakes to take a bath. Maybe if she waited for a while until it was empty... 

Another five minutes passed, and the few drakes still inside, including the one she just had an unpleasant experience with, all walked out. When she saw them turn around the corner, Fluttershy shyly walked into the showers. The room was very, very big, at least in her perspective, but she could tell only about ten drakes could bathe in here at the same time. Speaking of which, she was worried about the sanitary conditions in this place. The walls were surprisingly white, but there was humidity on the ceiling and walls that gave it a disgusting greenish color, the tiles were a silver gray, but they were dull, and a few were missing, with claw marks everywhere, and a bit of moss. The stall-type showers were in no better conditions, they were all rusty and a few lacked the heads, which only sent a simple jet of water down unto the inmates. If Twilight saw this, she would demand to see the warden and give him a lecture on sanitary conditions.

Fluttershy took a look at the showers, and walked into the 'cleanest' she could find. Fluttershy managed to open her wings and fly up to one of the handles of the shower, which she had to grab with both her hooves, but she couldn't turn it. It was either too rusty, or it was too big, or she was too weak to turn it on her own; she better be careful unless she wanted to cut herself with this contraption, and cutting oneself with rusted metal was not a nice experience. Fluttershy struggled for a while, but she managed to turn the handle to the left, and a stream of cold, freezing water sent her straight to the ground. She contained a whimper as she quickly jumped out of the water's way, shivering and trembling as she shook the water off her coat. Damn it, it was freezing. She would get a cold with this water! And it poured down too heavily for her to step in the stream of the shower! 

Out of sudden, she didn't feel like bathing anymore. Fluttershy surrounded the stream of water and flew up again to the handle, managing to turn it the other way around to stop the water. As the cold became unbearable, fluttershy quickly galloped around the room to try and find a towel, but there was none. She was shivering, the air was very cold, and she even let out a sneeze. On the corner of one of the showers, she spotted a white towel, apparently unused and dry. She quickly rushed towards the ridiculously big towel (in her perspective, at least), but as she lifted it she shrieked when she found a large cockroach underneath it. The bug cowered and looked up at her fearfully. 

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to disturb you!" Fluttershy spoke soothingly to the roach, dropping the towel in the process. "I was only looking for a towel...!"

At the word towel, the cockroach crawled down the floor, motioning her with its antennae to follow it. Fluttershy followed the large bug as it crawled up the wall to a couple of shelves, and motioned with its antennae once again, this time signaling a set of white, dry and apparently clean towels. Fluttershy grabbed a medium-sized towel-in Krussian standards-and flew back to the ground to wrap herself in the towel. The cockroach crawled down the wall again and rubbed its body against the towel.

"Thank you, little guy." Fluttershy smiled at the bug. 

The cockroach waved its antennae amicably at her. 

"How long have you been down there?" The cockroach lifted three of its legs. "Three days?" it shook its head. "Hours?" This time it nodded. "Poor you, how did you get underneath that towel?"

The cockroach stood on its two lower legs and extended out its wings and other four legs, making an intimidating expression. It grabbed a piece of toilet paper nearby-Fluttershy didn't want to imagine how it got there-and threw it on the floor, then crawled underneath it and made whimpering sounds. Fluttershy gasped. 

"A Temnokt threw a towel on top of you?" 

The cockroach crawled from underneath the paper and nodded its head. 

"That was mean on that Temnokt's part! I bet you must be very hungry and cold." Another nod. Fluttershy smiled. "How about you come with me to the dining hall, or wherever those Temnokt eat to have something tasty...? Well, I don't know what they serve in this place, but maybe there's something decent to eat here." 

The cockroach buzzed its wings enthusiastically, and Fluttershy allowed it to crawl unto her hoof and then to her back. Fluttershy trotted out of the showers, now dry, and headed down the corridor, then rightwards, like she had seen the drakes do. There was a large, gray door at the end of the hall, which she presumed led to the dining hall. 

"By the way, little guy, do you have a name?"

The cockroach made a sound with its wings that she took as a negative reply. 

"Mind if I name you? I could call you Roachie." When the cockroach fluttered its wings enthusiastically, Fluttershy couldn't help but smile lightly. "Okay. Roachie it is, then." 

With more difficulty, Fluttershy pushed the door open with a bit of effort, and as soon as she stepped inside Roachie hid in her mane. It was a very large room, filled with large, rectangular metal tables and chairs, white light lamps hanging from the ceiling, and wide but barred windows with magic-proof glass. The dining hall was overrun with inmates from her cell block, and the others from the rest of the prison. A great number had formed a line, holding metal trays in one of their front talons. Fluttershy saw a few other inmates behind the kitchen counter serving breakfast into the trays, then the awaiting inmates left the counter and went to a table with their 'groups', as Twilight said. There were various guards glad in armor guarding the room like hawks, some of them centering their attention on certain inmates.

They were all drakes.

Oh, sweet Celestia. 

Fluttershy made her way to the line of the counter, this time trying not to bump into anydragon, lest she wanted another misunderstanding. She flapped her wings to fly up and reach out for a tray....

"NO FLYING INSIDE THE BUILDINGS!" 

Fluttershy yelped when one of the guards, one of the few who apparently spoke Equestrian, roared at her. Almost immediately, her wings trembled and pressed against her back, she fell to the ground with a loud thud. The dining hall echoed with the laughter of the inmates, some of them muttering mocking words in Krussian. The inmate in front of her looked back at her, snickering, and picked a tray, letting it fall in front of her with a loud clang. Fluttershy cringed at the loud sound of the metal touching the ground and the laughter around her, but she managed to calm down as she picked the tray-very large in her hooves- and advanced behind at the line. 

When she was at the counter, she called out to the drakes behind it. "Excuse me." 

The drake thought he heard something as he put a bowl on the last in the line's tray. 

"Excuse me?" 

The inmate looked down at the source of the noise, and found a cream-colored pegasus with a long pink mane and tail. She was looking up at him, barely managing to hold up the tray. He stared at her curiously. "You must be the newbie, I guess."

Fluttershy was surprised that this inmate spoke Equestrian. He had spiky dark aqua green hair that pointed backwards, with a blonde equally wild bang that was pointing forwards, his eyes were a dark blue color, there were little spines on top of them that looked like eyebrows almost, and he had four pairs of horns, the top ones being the longest and the other three being smaller than the other. There was a pinkish scar across his left eye, contrasting with the rest of his dark scales, she didn't need to imagine how he obtained it. Like most of the inmates, now that she thought of it, there was a ring on each of his horns. 

"You speak Equestrian?" Fluttershy inquired curiously. 

"About forty percent of the inmates here speak it, there are Equestrian language classes among other things for killing the time when you're not in your cell or in the exercise yard." the drake explained. "But I'd be careful if I were you. The word's spreading around about you, miss..." 

"Oh, sorry! My name is Fluttershy." The pegasus was surprised that this drake had not snapped, or growled, or gnashed his teeth at her, not shown any signs of hostility. 

"I'm Fire Throat, at your service." The Temnokt smiled. "Though you might hear the others call me Dark Wing." 

"You have two names?"

"Dark Wing is a sort of a nickname. My real name is Fire Throat. In a few days the others will think of a nickname for you."

"Oh, well, It's not that I don't like the idea, but... Well..." Fluttershy was abruptly interrupted when a Temnokt suddenly pushed her forward with a talon, and behind him there were other inmates who were glaring at her, holding their trays in their talons.

"Pereyekhat!" The inmate who had pushed her snapped. 

"He's telling you to move forward." Fire Throat quickly translated for the pegasus as he placed a bowl of... something in Fluttershy's tray. "Go look for an empty table, there's always one in the corners. But be careful, they have the tendency to play pranks on newbies, and they're looking at you like a snack. Keep your eyes open!"

Fluttershy had to move forward to avoid the wrath of the inmate behind her, glancing back at Fire Throat as she walked away, watching as he hastily placed the same bowl of who-knows-what in the trays of the other Temnokt. With a bit more of difficulty in carrying the tray now with the bowl, Fluttershy walked down the dining hall looking for an empty table, or an heisted spot where she could eat in peace. The dining hall was echoing with chattering, and as she passed by the inmates glanced at her amusingly. Roachie crawled close to her ear inside her mane and whispered something to her. 

Fluttershy saw an empty table at one of the corners. Thank Celestia! Now she had to get there without getting chomped off by one of the inmates. She quickly made her way to the table, trying to keep from the inmates tails or any sort of body parts as much as possible, hearing them snicker when they noticed which table she was heading to. Fluttershy managed to reach the table safely, and placed her tray on the chair to climb unto the seat of the table. 

When she took a look at the contents of the bowl, her stomach churned in disgust. It was a greenish, semi-dense soup with some white things-she thought it was some kind of meat- and it had a disgusting odor. What was this thing made of?! Roachie crawled out of her mane and unto the tray, then to the edge of the bowl. He didn't seem to find the food as disgusting as her. 

"You c-can have it if y-you'd like..." Fluttershy gagged, taking a hoof to her mouth in disgust. "I lost my appetite..." 

Roachie chirped happily and cannonballed into the bowl, devouring the contents happily. Fluttershy couldn't help but smile a bit as she watched Roach enjoy the meal. Suddenly, she felt a shiver running down her spine, and had the sensation of being watched. She looked around, and saw the rest of the Temnokt were apprehensive, as if there was something inside the room that was disturbing them. Even the guards seemed on alert, staring right at the corner near her table...

Gulping, Fluttershy turned towards the corner and found a figure in the darkness. Another inmate, but there was something... off about him. He had purple locks of hair, two pairs of horns bending downwards, and triangular Age Marks. She noticed there were four small horns on his chin that almost worked like a sort of goatee. His lilac pupils were shrunken, and his gaze was fixed on her completely. Fluttershy didn't like the way he was staring at her. She tried to ignore him and looked down at Roachie as he continued to eat the mysterious soup, but the feeling of his eyes on top of her was very, very uncomfortable. 

But as she tried to leave the dining hall, suddenly she found the drake standing in front of her. 

"Hi." he said, looking down at her with a somewhat disturbed look.

Fluttershy was frozen in fear. "H-Hello..." He must be of the few who spoke Equestrian too. The other inmates had stopped eating, and were staring at the scene, all stiffened and anxious, though others snickered at the sight of the newbie being haunted by him. 

When he just kept staring at her with that.... disturbed look, Fluttershy shivered. "C-Can I h-help you....?" 

"Are you cold?" the inmate tilted his head curiously, in an almost comical way, and maybe she would have laughed if he wasn't freaking her out. 

"N-No... I'm j-just..." 

"Why are you talking funny?" He was leaning his head uncomfortably closer to her. Roachie had a bad vibe about this drake, and almost immediately crawled to the safety of Fluttershy's mane. The drake followed it with his eyes. "Is that a cockroach?"

"Oh, ummm... H-His name is R-Roachie..."

"Do you want to be my friend?" 

Fluttershy gulped. She didn't know what to say. "W-Well..." What could she say? She didn't know this dragon, and she didn't like how he was looking at her possessively. When a few seconds passed without her saying anything, the drake's expression started to turn hostile. 

"Do you want to be my friend?!" he repeated, loudly and more aggressively. 

Oh, no she had made him angry! And she didn't even know how! She better get out of here. "I-I'm sorry, I have t-to go..." but as she tried to gallop away, he stomped on her tail like a cat would do on a mice's.

"WHY ARE YOU TREMBLING?!"  he roared. "WHY DO YOU FEAR ME?!" he was hysterical, and the disorientated look on his eyes was even worse. Fluttershy whimpered in terror and hid her face in her hooves.

The rest of the inmates flinched and quickly turned their heads around then they heard him screaming. The guards immediately reacted and flew towards. One of them rammed into the inmate and they crashed against the table. Fluttershy quickly crawled away from the scene as she saw the guards overrun the apparently mentally disturbed inmate, who was roaring and screaming something in Krussian. Her little heart was drumming inside her chest and she was certain she would get a heart attack at any moment. She watched, frozen in utter fear, as the guard quickly put a muzzler on the inmate's maw, and another forced a straightjacket on him and tied his wings closed with thick leather straps. The inmate continued to give muffled screams, struggling to get free of the guards' grip as they pinned him to the ground, whipping his tail at them in a desperate attempt to get them off.

"Vzyat' yego v odinochnuyu kameru!" on of the guards roared. "I skazhite medsestre prinesti uspokoitel'nyye sredstva!"

Fluttershy and the rest of the inmates watched as the guards dragged the thrashing, screaming drake away, but what terrified the pegasus was the fact that the drake eyes never left her. He continued to glare at her even as he was dragged away, until he was taken out of the room. One of the guards that remained behind glared at the rest of the inmates. "Tam net nicheg , chtoby videt' zdes',vy donoschikam! Vernites' k vashim veshcham!"

The Temnokt went back to eating, but most of them glanced at Fluttershy, snickering at her terrified expression. She was certain she would get a heart attack in any moment, still shaking. Roachie crawled to her ear and whispered comforting words to her. 

"Are you okay?"

"AHH! DON'T HURT ME!" Fluttershy reacted and quickly stepped away from her aggressor, slipping unto a bit of spilled soup and falling to the ground with a loud thud. The rest of the inmates burst out in laughter, making fun of the creamy pegasus. Fluttershy had to bite her lip to contain her cry, and Roachie hid inside her mane again. Much to her surprise, a talon was held out for her. 

"Let me help you up." 

Looking up, she saw Fire Throat's familiar face. She wasn't certain if she could trust him, but right now any kind of friendly interaction was gladly received! She took his talon and was pulled up to her hooves. "T-Thank you..." 

"You're welcome, Fluttershy." Fire Throat smiled lightly at her. "I must say, you were lucky."

"L-Lucky?"

"Twister usually tries to gorge eyes out of newbies, but he only yelled at you."

"Twister?" Fluttershy glanced at the doors of the dining hall, trembling. She remembered that disturbed gaze drilling into her in such a possessive way, sending shivers down her spine. 

"Twisted Claw, we call him Twister. He's got...." Fire Throat rubbed the back of his head. "...sort of a loose screw. He's always getting himself taken to solitary confinement." 

"Solitary confinement? You mean... where they put you in a small, small cell and you don't get to see or talk with any pony?"

"Yeah. I actually think that isolating him only make things worse, but well, it's better than having your eyes gorged out, right?" Fire Throat glanced at the doors, then at Fluttershy. "We're surprised he went easy on you."

"Easy on me?!" Fluttershy 'yelled' in a very low voice. "He was about to crush me!" 

Fire Throat chuckled lightly. "Just wait till his bad days."

"Bad days?" Whatever that meant, it didn't sound pleasant. 

"He screams all night long and you can't sleep. He screams something about stopping to hit him, or something like that. It's not like we can ask him, can we? You saw his mental condition is not... normal." He noticed the cockroach in Fluttershy's mane. "Um, Fluttershy... I don't mean to freak you out but... there's a bug on your hair."

"Oh, Roachie?" Fluttershy glanced back at the cockroach in her mane with a small smile. "It's okay, he's juts a friend."

Fire Throat was staring down at the bug in disgust, though he tried not to show it. "Friend... with a cockroach?"

"They're not that bad once you get to know them." Much to her surprise, Fire Throat motioned her to come closer so he could whisper into her ear. She leaned her head and lifted her ear.

"Sweetie, If you keep making friends with bugs here, you'll get a nickname in less than five minutes. I'd hide your... friend from the others, most of them don't like roaches." 

"Oh, ummm..." Fluttershy glanced at the rest of the inmates, and noticed they were standing up and heading back to the counter to pace their trays back on where they grabbed them, before heading out the door. "Where is everytemnokt going?" 

"The excursive yard. We'll be able to exercise for two hours, before they send us to labor." 

Fluttershy gulped. "Labor?" 

"I'll explain later, right now we have to head to the excursive yard before the guards drag us there." Fire Throat placed his wing over her. "Stay close to me and don't call the attention to yourself. The other inmates have been talking about you, they think of you as a snack. If you are not careful in here, well... You can imagine."

Fluttershy gulped as she barely trotted at her potential new friend's pace, trying to remain underneath the protection of his wing.
> Brokenfang's Survival Guide
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The prison courtyard gave her no better spirits than the inside of the prison. It was very, very large and surrounded by tall, gray obsidian walls, and there was a hoof-err, clawball court (nothing more than a clumsy-drawn large square of chalk) , an excursive yard with weights and other kinds of gymnastic things, as well as rows of seats at the side of one of the walls. The numerous inmates had parted ways, each in a particular area, some were exercising their wings and muscles to keep their form, others were playing clawball, or flew in laps around the courtyard under the supervision of the guards posted in the watch towers. In the seats, there were groups of inmates Twilight had told her about. Fluttershy spotted a fenced area of the prison, where there were much more less Temnokt than in the rest of the courtyard. Those had scarier looks to them, and there were iron bands around one of their wrists. Other inmates were removing the accumulated snow from the floor and then salting it to melt the ice that had formed beneath it, all manually, again without using any sort of magic. 

Oddly, when she looked upwards at the cloudy sky she saw no kind of wires or fences that would prevent the prisoners from escaping, and yet she noticed that none of the airborne inmates made an attempt to escape. In fact, they didn't fly higher than the top of the walls nor the watchtowers. Maybe they knew something that she didn't...

Fire Throat apparently guessed what she was thinking. "There's an invisible barrier all around the courtyard, all who have these..." he pointed at the obsidian rinks on his horns. "Cannot go past the barrier, we receive an electric shock that sent us down to earth again, and we earn a week in solitary confinement." He noticed no rings had been placed on Fluttershy yet. 

"So, if I don't have those...?" She quickly shook the idea off her. She wouldn't reach three inches before any of the guards caught her, and she was slow, weak flier anyway, if she panicked her wings would fail her, and she'd fall to her death, or into the claws of one of the guards. Perhaps that was the reason they hadn't placed any of those obsidian rings on her, maybe they could tell she didn't have the stamina-or the courage-to try and escape by air, or to escape at all. "What are those rings for, by the way?"

"Apart from keeping us within the prison's boundaries? It cancels all kind of magic, and they can't be removed except by the one who put them there in the first place, and that would be the Head of the security guard." Fire Throat looked around and noticed a group of drakes was roaming around the courtyard, as if they were looking for.... 

Oh, no.

"Fluttershy, whatever you do, stay under my wing." he said, covering her with his wing completely as he sat down. 

"W-Why?" Fluttershy didn't like the sound of his voice. 

"The welcome committee is looking for you."

"Oh, you have a welcome committee?"

"Not of the type you're imagining, honey. Don't move a muscle, and don't make any noise. If they find you, you'll be in big trouble." 

Fluttershy froze in place when she heard claw steps scratching against the stony ground as a group approached them, and she managed to see their talons. they were sharp, and she thought one of them only had two fingers in the right talon. Fire Throat tried to keep his casual facade when the group of drakes, about ten, approached him. Their leader, a bulky, large Temnokt with sharp bull-shaped horns, crimson eyes and silver spiky hair with scars all over his body, stared at him indifferently. 

"Bullshot, nice to see you." 

"Dark Wing, have you seen the newbie around here?" Bullshot simply said, ignoring the sarcasm and stiffening his expression, though soon a cruel smile replaced the hostility. "We have to receive her properly." At this, the other drakes snickered, one of them-one even larger and bulkier than Bullshot making a punching motion with his talons.

"Which one? I mean, we have had a few newbies these months. there's Trashcan, or Dog Wail, or-"

The cruel humor left Bullshot as he snapped. "The pegasus who arrived yesterday, don't act like you don't know. Some of my boys saw you acting quite frienly with her in the dining hall." 

"Oh, her! I have not seen her ever since, she's probably hiding in some room by now. I mean, It's not like she'll survive for long if she exposes herself."

"Maybe, but it's been so long ever since my boys and I have been near a female..." Bullshot's words were venomous, circling around Fire Throat tauntingly, speaking in Equestrian momentarily. "We might have some... fun with her." 

Fluttershy managed to contain a gasp in the last moment, but she was trembling in fright. What did he mean with fun? 

"Come on, Darkie, why don't you cooperate for once?" another drake, slimmer and with navy blue hair and underbelly, snickered. "Bullshot's on a good mood today, you might get a share yourself."

Fluttershy felt Fire throat shiver at the comment. "Thanks for the offer, but Equestrians are not of my... taste. Too weaklings, they are not such a challenge. I like the harder ones." 

"I'll just say this once, lizard." Bullshot growled, towering over Fire Throat with a threatening expression. "If you're hiding her from us..." He unscathed one of his claws and pressed it against the younger drake's throat in a threatening manner. "... You will share her welcome." He glanced back at his lackeys. "Let's get out of here. Keep your eyes open, she must be around here somewhere.."

"Hehe, with such ridiculous colors she has I don't think it'll be that hard to spot her among all these dark tones." Another drake laughed as the group passed by Fire Throat, some of them bumping their wings in Fire Throat's shoulder on purpose, and stalking inside the prison. As soon as he was certain they were out of sight and earshot, Fire Throat lifted his wing and glanced at Fluttershy. "Are you alright?" 

Her heart was drumming, and cold sweat was trickling down her coat, but Roachie tickled her ear with his antennae to make her react. "Oh, um...! I think... I think I'm okay.." she whispered, but she couldn't get the voice of that drake out of her head. "What was all that about?"

"The welcome committee." Fire Throat sighed. "They're looking for you, you can guess for what."

"Umm, can you tell me... Well, what is this welcome you are so worried about?"

"It depends." Fire Throat shrugged as he started walking down the courtyard, followed closely by the pegasus. "Sometimes they cut off a talon, or break a wing, or cut off horns, it kinda depends on the reason you are brought here. They always come up with new ways to torture newbies like you." 

"That drake you were talking with..." Fluttershy tried to get closer to him when she saw some of the other inmates eyeing her in amusement or half-interested. 

"Oh, that was Bullshot. He's one of the oldest here, he has been here for about five hundred years, he has a life sentence." 

"What did he do?"

"No one really knows. He has so many charges he changes the story whenever you ask him. But the point is that he is much stronger and ferocious than the average Temnokt, so you better not earn him as an enemy. He's one of the big five."

"B-Big five?"

"It's a long story, we should get comfortable first." 

Fire Throat led Fluttershy to a half-isolated corner of the courtyard, near the fences at the side. For some reason the other inmates seemed to be avoiding that part of the courtyard, but well, as long as they could be safe from the 'welcome committee', she didn't really mind where he took her. Fire throat lay down, so Fluttershy did the same. The size comparison was intimidating. Once he was certain he was alone, Fire Throat looked down at Fluttershy and started with his explanation. 

"You must already know this, but Brokenfang is not a picnic. It's where the worst criminals of our country are sent, the vast majority are of level 3, high risk to society with violent outbursts every now and then, a smaller number are level 4, the highly dangerous who must be locked up at all times in a maximum security cell and are only allowed out for an hour a day," He motioned his glance to the fencing next to them. Those were probably the little spaces where these level 4 inmates where allowed to go out during their only hour outside their cells. "Usually the level 1 and 2 inmates go to other, minor security prisons, but if they committed a grave crime they are also sent here. But they don't last long among sociopaths, drug lords or serial killers." 

Fluttershy gulped. 

"There are three ways to survive your sentence in this place. The first is to be very powerful and have lots of dough, those always receive special treatment even from the prison staff. Food and cell privileges, they can have items delivered from outside the prison, and are technically untouchable. Those are the Big Five, the most important Drug Lords in all of Krussia. Even in here their business continues on the outside, and they receive the income. Bullshot is one of the Big Five, the rest are Cloudslicer, Unicorfang, Skunk Breath and there's one in the Maximum security cells, but we don't know his name." 

"The second way is to be a sheep. You become part of a group in here, but you do anything to stay within that group. Loners are the first to be targeted by the Welcome Committee or the Big Five as a prey. You have to remain in the ringleader's good graces for the longest time you can, you have to please him in every way, if he tells you to jump off a bridge with clipped wings, you do it. If he tells you to massage his talons, you do it. His wishes are your orders and his words are your law." 

"The third way is more... disgusting. As you can see, there are no females here apart from you, and to put it lightly, we males have certain.... necessities that need to be quenched." Fire Throat didn't want to continue. "And considering there are no females here, there's only one way to do that. The Big Five, or the ringleaders around here pick the weakest to be their... concubines." He paused at Fluttershy's gasp. "Usually the newbies, or those with the weakest personality." 

"I-Isn't there any way to stay out of trouble without involving having be one of... those?" FLuttershy whispered, trembling.

"Well, if a ringleader or one of the Big Fives in particular take an interest in you, you can pay a protection racket. As long as you give them money, they won't lay a finger on you, but if you don't pay them on time..."

"Can't the guards protect me?"

Fire Throat scoffed. "As if. It's everytemnokt for himself in here, the guards only intervene when it goes too far, like sometemnokt getting killed or critically injured."

Fluttershy yelped in dismay. Then again, the guards that received her hadn't been very kind either, so she guessed they were only paid to keep the prisoners alive if possible, not out of trouble amongst themselves. "What do you recommend?"

"Honey, in your case, since you're both a newbie and a female, everytemnokt here is going to target you." Fire Throat sighed sadly, sitting up. "You're small and weak, you would never stand a chance against a full-grown Temnokt, and I can see you have a very weak character. They'll take advantage of that. Your best option would be to pay a protection racket." 

"But I don't have any money!"

"I'm afraid you'll have to figure that out on your own, honey, I can't help you with that. You can get a job in here, but with your... well, situation I doubt you'll be able to handle it." 

"What kind of jobs are there?"

"Well, most of them include physical labor. There's carpentry, hard labour, sewing-don't ask me why it's included in an all-male prison-, carriage license plates making, and cleaning out snow and the cells." Fire throat pointed at the inmates who were removing the snow with the shovels, and placed it on large carts which when then pulled away by other inmates to dispose to it, then returning with the cart empty so it could be filled again.

"Oh, I think I could take sewing! I know a bit of it, my friend Rarity is a fashion designer and she taught me a bit..."

"As long as you can earn money, sweetie, you can pick any job you want."

"Dark Wing! There you are!"

Fluttershy jumped at the newcomer, nearly making Roachie fall off her mane, and instinctively galloped behind Fire Throat for protection in case the 'welcome committee' had returned, but when she took a peek she saw only one drake. Unlike most of the other inmates, he was very short, not even half the height of a normal Temnokt. His underbelly was a dark fuchsia, but he had a large light pink spot on his head, along with three small tufts of hair that matched the color of his underbelly. His swirly, ram-like horns were big in comparison to his head, and there was a small spike on his nose, and two more on his chin. His eyes were a deep aqua green color, all cold and uninterested. 

"Where have you been, why are you in the corner near the Maximum Security cell yards?" the smaller Temnokt sighed, shaking his head. "You know the Big one who lives there doesn't like any intruders in his 'personal space'..." The drake caught a peek of Fluttershy behind the other drake. "You're hiding the newbie from the welcome committee?"

"Sort of."

Once she was certain the drake was not hostile, Fluttershy slowly made her way forward from behind Fire Throat's larger frame. "Um... Excuse me, Fire Throat, is he a friend of yours?"

"Well, we're more in a sort of mutual agreement." Fire Throat explained, and motioned to the shorter drake. "Fluttershy, this is Swift Tail, known as 'The Dwarf', but don't call him like that if you know what's good of you." Then he motioned to Fluttershy and glanced at Swift Tail. "Swift Tail, this is Fluttershy, the newbie form Equestria." 

Swift Tail glanced down at Fluttershy uninterested. "Nice to meet you." The tone of his voice made her wonder if he actually meant it. 

"H-Hi..." Fluttershy waved her hoof. 

"I heard you had an... unpleasant encounter with Twister in the Dining Hall." 

"Um... Sort off..."

"Has Fire Throat told you the luck you had?"

"Yes, he did." Fluttershy said, she didn't really want to remember the drake's crazed eyes. "Can I ask something... regarding him...?"

"What is it?" Fire Throat inquired.

"Well, if he has... mental problems, why wasn't he taken to... Well... a mental institution?"

Fire Throat obviously had no idea of what she meant. There were still some words in the Equestrian language he didn't understand at all. 

"She's asking why he is here instead of a nuthouse." Swift Tail said curtly, his expression not changing the least, ignoring Fluttershy's cringing at the word 'nuthouse'.

"Oh, that! Well, he kind of comes from a wealthy family, and they thought it'd be less... scandalous to put him in jail than an asylum."

"D-Do they come to-?"

"No." Swift Tail said. "As far as we know, Twister has never had any visits." 

"He used to have, I think..." Fire Throat pointed out. "A drady a few years older than him, if the rumors are correct. Maybe a familiar..." 

"Oh..." Fluttershy looked down in thought. "Wait, you said he used to have." she looked up at him in confusion. "Did she stop coming?"

"Yes. One day, the usual day she came to visit him she didn't appear. At first everydrake thought she couldn't make it today, but weeks passed, then months, and then we knew she would not come back. Ever since she ceased coming, Twister's mental estate worsened. He started to wail at nights to the point that he had to be sedated, he'd get into fights with other inmates and when he was on solitary confinement the guards reported he'd often mumble and whisper incoherent things." 

Fluttershy couldn't help but feel sorry for... Twister now. Perhaps he missed the drady who visited him, but that didn't really justify how he had lunged at her. Though she was still confused as to why he had not hurt her if he was supposedly so violent and disturbed. Fluttershy jumped when suddenly a bell rang, and all the inmates started heading back inside the prison. 

"Oh, time to work." Swift Tail muttered. "Wee..."

Fire Throat rolled his eyes, then glanced down at Fluttershy. "Well, Fluttershy, it's time you choose a penal labour."
> New Job.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just like Fluttershy suspected, this place was larger than it appeared. There were lots of corridors, doors and rooms, all gray and cold, some led into more showers, others into the cellblocks, the kitchen and mess hall, laundry room, and many other places. The rooms were the inmates worked were apart from the rest, and all had the materials and tools according to what job they were doing. Fluttershy could hear different sounds of machinery among others coming from the inside of the rooms. A part of her was curious as to how the inmates worked without using magic if those rings prevented them from using it at all.

Finally they came to a metal door from where she heard the familiar sound of sewing machines, the first familiar sound she had heard in a while, which gave her a bit of relief. Fire Throat turned the knob on the door and pulled it open, motioning her to go inside. "This is the sewing room."

Surprisingly, the 'sewing room', if it could be called as such, was a bit more colorful than the rest of the rooms. Not that much, but it was something. There were wooden tables, the working stations, and there large, black, metal and apparently worn out sewing machines, most of them were being used by inmates who, in their majority, were sleek and slender, with little to no muscle at all, and they didn't have as many scars as the rest of the inmates. The machines creaked as they were used, and a few had to be given a good smack it's the tail to unstuck them and have them work properly again. On a desk in one side of the room was a boring-looking guard, who had been apparently fallen asleep a while ago, surprisingly undisturbed by the loud sound coming from the machinery. On the opposite side of the desk there was a long fie of wooden tables with cloths and fabrics on top of them, all strewn out and scrambled, different colors and fabrics intermingled with each other, which would make it more difficult to find a suitable piece of cloth to start with.

If Rarity saw this, she would have given the drakes a long lecture on crimes against fashion.

When they heard the door opening, they glanced to see who had entered, only to go back to their work when they saw it was just Dark Wing, The Dwarf and the Pegasus newbie.

"What exactly do they make here?" Fluttershy inquired. 

"Second-hand clothing." Swift Tail retorted curtly. "The cheap clothing you can buy at low prices."

"It's mostly for low and middle-class dradies and sometimes drakes." Fire Throat added. "In your case, I think they'll place you in the dradies department." He led Fluttershy to the desk. "Sir." 

The guard grumbled and shifted awake, letting out a yawn and cracking his eyelids open, glancing at Fire Throat irritated. "What the hell do you want?"

"Is there any place for the newbie here?" Fire Throat said, motioning down to Fluttershy, who waved her hoof shyly at him. "I don't think she'll survive five minutes in the hard labour."

The guard stared at Fluttershy for a few moments, before shrugging. "As long as she doesn't run a needle through her hoof, I guess it'll be fine." He left the desk and motioned Fluttershy to follow him, and she trotted after him, becoming nervous when both Fire Throat and Swift Tail waved their talons at her and left, probably to their own labour. The guard stopped in front of an old sewing machine, apparently the smallest they had (in Krussian standards, at least), and motioned her to get closer. Fluttershy climbed unto the high chair with a bit of difficulty, and took a look at the machine. It was a bit rusty and worn, but she guessed she could figure out how to make it work. 

Thankfully, the guard spoke Equestrian. "Start with making a dress, can you handle it, newbie? A simple dress?" he said with a bored expression. 

"Sure, what kind of-?

"Good, then get to work." 

Fluttershy was a bit upset from the way he had just dismissed her, but didn't feel in the position to complain, and simply watched as the guard went back to the desk, probably to continue with his nap. The only sound was that of the other inmates making dresses, but they were making them remarkably quickly, almost in a sort of auto-pilot mode: cut, sew, stitch in the machine, place aside. Cut, sew, stitch in the machine, place aside. She could tell they had been doing this for a good while. But the guard hadn't told her what type of dress they were doing. What if she made the wrong one? One of the other inmates ran out of fabric, and left his working station to go to the tables were the fabrics were, conveniently passing by Fluttershy's table. 

"Excuse me..." she whispered, lifting her hoof timidly, hoping to catch his attention in case he didn't hear her (and praying to Celestia that he understood Equestrian). "Mister..." 

The Temnokt stopped and turned to her curiously. "Do you need something?"

Thankfully he seemed to be the tranquil type of inmate, though he didn't speak Equestrian, apparently. She could try and use corporal language. "What dresses are we making...?" Fluttershy moved her hooves in the manner of a dress, but she wasn't certain if he understood. "Dress." she pointed at the fabrics, then grabbed a small napkin (in her standards it was a small blanket) and wrapped it around herself. 

The inmate understood, apparently, and grabbed one of the finished dresses from the nearby table, holding it out for her to see. The red was... to put it lightly, she could tell these guys didn't bother to put effort into their work. It was a large, large gown fit for a fully-grown female Temnokt, red wine in color with only a few black patterned trimmings on the skirt and a bit of satin on the sleeves, though she had to give credit that the stitches that held the pieces of the dress in place were perfectly placed. Nothing fancy, but too simple. Either these guys didn't have any sense of fashion, as Rarity would have said, Krussian fashion standards were different and this was considered decent, or the inmates didn't really care if their finish products were garbage as long as they got paid. Then again, Swift Tail had mentioned these were second-hand clothes. 

"Thank you". Fluttershy smiled politely at the inmate, who surprisingly returned a smile of his own before placing the dress back on the table and heading towards the fabrics. 

Roachie finally crawled out of her mane and unto the table, crawling around in circles excitedly. It seemed he was excited about the idea of designing a dress. "I guess you could lend me a hand... or six." Fluttershy smiled at him. He hopped in delight and crawled towards the sewing machine. 

Thankfully, there was already a generous surplus of dark mint fabric in her working table, so she could start with her work. But now that she thought of it, the guard hadn't given her any kind of design to make, and she didn't see the inmates looking for any kind of reference. Did this mean she was supposed to... invent a design and do whatever she imagined? If that was the case, then maybe she could improvise, but she didn't know anything about Krussian sense of fashion. What if they didn't like what she did? She recalled Rarity had a special song for situations like these, perhaps it wouldn't hurt, a little music would help her creativity flow. Fluttershy pulled a long, wide piece of fabric and tried to think of a design a Temnokt would use. 

And in a very low voice, she started to sing. 

Thread by thread,
stitching it together.
A Krussian dress
You cut out the pattern snip by snip
And I have to fold the fabric nicely
With a perfect color and a hip.
Always gotta keep my mind in pacing
Making sure the clothes' correctly facing. 
To stitch a Krussian dress...

The nearest inmate nearby, the one who had shown her the dresses they were supposed to make, a young drake of lilac hair and underbelly, and blue eyes that was apparently just entering adulthood, heard tuned whispering nearby and interrupted his work to look around, finding it came from the little Pegasus from before. She was apparently singing something as she cut pieces of the fabric and he thought he saw a large cockroach helping with the needle and thread. Fluttershy continued to sing as she sewed patterns on the pieces of fabric she had cut, oblivious to her public.

Yard by yard, they don't fuss on details. 
Silk neckline
Cause a stitch in time will save me nine
Make them something perfect to inspire
Even though these aren't formal attire
I will mind those important details
They are not really concerned with the scales
A drady's new dress

The drake tapped the shoulder of the worker next to him, a bit older and with silky long gold hair and aqua green eyes, and motioned him to look at the singing Pegasus. Soon, the rest of the inmates were glancing at Fluttershy, even their supposed supervisor had cracked an eye open when he heard a sound other than the machines working (after noticing they weren't working at all), and noticed they were staring at the newbie in an almost curious way. Fluttershy hadn't yet noticed she was being stared at, and now adorned the dress with teal satins. 

Dressmaking's not that easy
No pink, yellow, white or green
Something wild and almost torn
Blend color and form...

Fluttershy whispered to Roachie. "Do you think it looks bored?" Roachie shrugged, and passed black thread through the needle of the sewing machine. Fluttershy continued singing. 

Temnokt are brash
Maybe they'll like fetching.
Hook and eye, they don't fit with this color of dye
Maybe they'll do good for a small veil
Some love and care into this new dress
Just like Rarity does back at home
But these clients are so big like tanks
I'm stitching a Temnokt's dress...

A few of the Temnokt were trying to figure out what she was singing, while others moved their heads around in tune with the melody, even the guard's tail was tapping unconsciously after he went back to his nap.  Now she proceeded with the sewing machine, which Roachie turned on and made sure she didn't make any mistakes.

Piece by piece
Snip by Snip,
Croup, dock, haunch, shoulders, hip
Thread by thread, primed and pressed.
Yard by Yard, never stressed
And that's the art of the dress-

Fluttershy nearly had a heart attack when suddenly she heard loud clapping, and lost her balance on the chair as she fell back, squealing when she was caught by a thick tail, and placed on the ground. When she looked up, all the other inmates they were staring down at her in delight and amazement, and one of them-the one she had talked to earlier-took a look at the newly-made dress. It was smaller than the ones they usually made, but it would fit for a small Temnokt yearling. It had much better quality than the other dresses as well. It was a simple but beautiful dark mint dress with satin at the bodice and light aqua green skirt with black patterns and a bit of crystals. 

Fluttershy was beyond embarrassed, her cheeks were so red her coat nearly looked orange. Had they heard her singing?! She tried to hide behind her mane, not really minding if they were looking at her dress as if they had never seen one before as long as no one made fun of her singing.

After a while, one of the inmates spoke at her. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"You idiot, she's Equestrian, she doesn't understand Krussian." Another growled at him. 

"Lighttalon, you take Equestrian classes, right? Ask her where she learned to sew like this."

Lighttalon, casually the Temnokt she had spoken to a while ago, passed the dress back to another inmate and spoke to her in crude Equestrian. "Where you learn make dresses?"

Fluttershy managed to calm down enough to give a decent reply. "M-My friend R-Rarity is a f-fashion designer... She t-taught me a b-bit and... I-I know a b-bit about sewing..."

Lighttalon tried to translate her words to his language and spoke to the other inmates. "She says she has a seamstress friend who taught her how to sew."

"Well, she must be a renown one." Said the Temnokt who was looking at the dress. "This is well made, and it's neither too simple nor too overwhelmed."

"And that tune was simply delightful! A bit too cheery, but sticky!"

"What's going on there?!" The supervising guard was irritated that the inmates had stopped working and were losing precious time with the newbie instead of continuing working, so he left  his desk and stomped his way to Fluttershy's working station, barking at the inmates. "What's with the ruckus?! Get back to work!"

"S-Sir, take a look at this!" Another of the inmates showed the dress to  the guard, gulping a bit.

Fluttershy felt nervous when the guard levitated the dress closer to his face, narrowing his eyes as he examined it with critical eyes. He made a sound that reminded her of a cat's purr, and froze when he looked down at her, rather uninterested. "Did you make this, newbie?"

Lighttalon assumed she didn't understand what he had said. "He asked if you make it." 

"Y-Yes, Sir." 

"She says she did it, sir."

The guard placed the dress with the rest of the finished products. "Not bad for a fingerless pony. A bit too small for a drady, but it can fit into a yearling." He turned to Lighttalon, assuming he was the 'translator'. "Tell her to make more like that, and get back to work!" he growled, and glanced at the rest of the onlookers. "That goes for the rest of you as well!"

As the guard returned to his post and the inmates back to their working stations to resume with their work, Lighttalon glanced down at Fluttershy. "He says that you make more that... and go work..."

Fluttershy could tell he couldn't yet speak complete sentences in her languages, and there were some words he didn't understand, or weren't in the Krussian vocabulary, perhaps. "I'll do my best, thank you." She smiled at him a bit. "I could... you know, help you a bit with your Equestrian if you'd like." 

He seemed surprised, but before he could reply, the guard whipped his tail against the floor, making a loud sound and snapping his teeth. "BACK TO WORK!"





8:30 P.M. 
Dining Hall..





"So you made new... friends." 

Fluttershy nodded shyly, staring down at the... cut of meat in front of her, her stomach growling in protest and also churning in disgust at the sight, so she let Roachie have it, he was very hungry after helping her sew dresses all day. Thankfully, they had also served an apparently edible thing... they were called fries, apparently a sort of small, rectangle-shaped potatoes fried in oil and seasoned with a bit of salt. They were tasty, but they tasted a bit too greasy. "Sort of. They kind of liked how I made the dress." 

"And they say you started to sing?" Swift Tail added, taking chunks of meat and swallowing them without chewing, complimenting with some fries. "That was daring on your part."

The dining hall was bustling that night. It was half-an-hour before they would be sent back to their cells,  so the inmates were rushing to eat all they could. When all the individuals had been served, Fire Throat joined Fluttershy and Swift Tail at their newly-reclaimed table away from Bullshot and his cronies, placing his tray of meat and fries on it and sitting down. "What were you saying?"

"Newbie here started to sing in the middle of work and the other inmates took a liking to her dress design." Swift Tail said with his mouth full. "And she hasn't touched any food, all day judging by how she's trying not to collapse." 

"I'm f-fine..." Fluttershy whispered, though in truth, she was trying her best not to faint at that very moment as her stomach continued to growl in protest. She was dying for a milkshake or some salad, but there weren't any vegetarian options in the menu, and doubted it would ever be added considering all the inmates were predatory creatures, they would not add a salad bar for one Pegasus. "I ate some fries..."

Fire Throat was not fooled, however. "You have bags under your eyes, my dear. You look terrible."

"I think I can go through the night, I'm not that hungry..." her stomach betrayed her and let out a loud growl that perhaps a few tables around could hear. "Well... maybe a bit..." 

Swift Tail and Fire throat looked around to made sure there were no guards, and the former looked beneath the table as if he were expecting to find something, chuckling dryly as he emerged holding two apples-

Wait, apples?!

"Well, Neckslicer did keep his end of the deal." Swift Tail said. 

Fluttershy gulped at the nickname. "N-Neckslicer? Who is that?"

"A sort of a mole, he has contacts here that bring him things from the outside." Fire Throat explained. "If you want something, he's the right person to ask from, but he doesn't give things away for free. You have to pay him, on time."

"What happens if you don't have money? I mean, he could surely give a few days-"

"There's not a few days with him, honey." Swift Tail remarked. "When it's due to pay him, it's due. Believe me, he didn't earn the title Neckslicer  for peeling potatoes." 

Fluttershy gulped and stared at the two apples on Swift Tail's talons. "Did he leave those here...?"

"It's easy, you ask him for something, he tells you when and where to find it, and when you have to pay him. You can either save up money from your labour, or ask a loan from another inmate, but in the latter option you must also pay the individual back when he asks for it. No later." Fire Throat shivered in discomfort. 

"Anyway, newbie, gobble them up." Swift Tail placed the apples in front of Fluttershy. "The others don't really eat apples, but they may rob them from you just to annoy the fuck out of you." 

Fluttershy didn't need any more words. She quickly grabbed one of the apples and gave it a large bite: there was a party of sweetness and flavor in her mouth as she devoured the fruit in seconds, quenching her growling stomach and her thirst, and then moved on to the second one. Ah, sweet apples! Sweet, juicy, delicious, meatless apples...

Apples...

"Alright, girls! Who's ready for some apple cider from the Apple Family on the house!"

Applejack... 

Rarity... 

Everypony... 

"Honey?" Fire Throat panicked when Fluttershy stopped in the middle of eating the second apple and her eyes swelled up with tears. "Fluttershy?" 

"She's having an emotional flashback." Swift Tail shrugged. "She's probably remembering her family on Equestria and got all teary-eyed, I think."

"Could you try and be more sensitive?"

"Sensitive? This is Brokenfang, Dark Wing. Since when has sensitivity being useful to survive here?" 

"She's not like us! Aren't you seeing her right now?! How would you feel if you were locked up with foreigners and lived under constant fear of death?!"

Swift Tail bared his fangs. "She has to get used to it! She'll be spending years, if not the rest of her life, here!" 

That sentence finally did it.

"E-Excuse me, I-I..." Fluttershy couldn't help it any longer. She jumped off the table and galloped down the hallway, ignoring the inmates as they watched her in confusion, trying to hide her glossy eyes from view with her mane, heading to the doors and pushing them open with some difficulty, leaving the dining hall altogether. 

Fire Throat and Roachie had watched her go in complete surprise, feeling a twinge of compassion for her, before they turned to Swift Tail with a severe glare. 

The Dwarf simply shrugged. "What? Was it something I said?"

They didn't notice a group of Temnokt sitting near the doors leaving their seats and going through the doors a few minutes later.





Fluttershy looked for an isolated corner among the dimly-lit hallways to hide, and then she started to weep. The tears flowed down her fur like waterfalls and she hid her face into her hooves. Swift Tail's words were still echoing in her mind like buzzing bees.

She will be spending years, if not the rest of her life, here!

The rest of her life... She had been sentenced to twenty years here, maybe for a Temnokt that was a minor punishment, but for a pony that was a very long time. She wondered if the judge had been planning on giving her the typical time in prison for a Temnokt, only to change his mind when he recalled it was not a Temnokt he was judging, but a pony. The rest of her life... Could it be possible? She hadn't thought about it. Twilight had said they'd do everything in their power to have her released, even Princess Celestia herself would try to appeal to King Bittercold to reopen the case and have the real culprit caught, but she hadn't taken into account that this was a prison, not an inn. It was a jungle, the strongest survived, the weakest perished. She might as well die from another inmate's claw, heartbreak, or any virus caught in any of these anti-hygienic conditions before King Bittercold could intervene at all, if he could at all. 

She'd never leave this place? Would she never return to Equestria, to her home, her cottage? Who would take care of her animals? Who would take care of Angel? Would she ever see her friends again? They'd come to visit, they had promised, but even she knew they wouldn't be able to stay in Krussia forever. They had their own lives back in Equestria. They wouldn't abandon her, but they would eventually have to return home, and even though they'd send her letters and pictures, it just wouldn't be the same without them. 

She missed them. 

She missed her friends. 

Her animals. 

She missed home.  

Fluttershy had lost the track of time between her sobbing and her thoughts, before she knew it the bell announcing it was time to return to their cells rang. Wiping the tears off her eyes, she stood up from the ground and made her way down the deserted hallway back the way she had come, the darkness dominating at this hour sent shivers down her spine, it felt as if she was being watched. She quickened her step into a trot, but when she turned around one of the corners suddenly a large black talon grabbed her back, and she let out a low-pitched yell of surprise as she was pulled into a room, and the door slammed closed. Before she could scream for help a rag was forcefully stuffed into her mouth and another piece of cloth was tied around her muzzle, and her hooves and wings were tied up to keep her immobile. 

Fluttershy let out muffled sobs and yells of fright, and they augmented when she saw glowing pairs of eyes staring at her, one of them flashing a toothy grin.

"Looks like the pony's out of the corral, boys."
> The 'Welcome'
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been so easy.

The newbie had just galloped out of the mess hall, all by herself, at the perfect hour, when the guards were all gathered here, and it would be easy to ambush her. It was perfect. Bullshot gathered his group, silently motioning them to go ahead and deal with the newbie. He had waited a few more minutes to join them into one of the laundry room, just as the newbie was about to turn around the corner. As the pony was passing by the door, she was immediately dragged inside, bounded and silenced. Bullhorn watched wiggle and let out muffled screams, failed attempts to call for help. And he smiled maliciously when she noticed she was not alone, and even more when she gave him a frightened expression. 

"Looks like the pony's out of the bag, boys." he said in Krussian, making the other drakes snicker, before looking down at the helpless pony. "Now, what shall we do to welcome you into the Brokenfang family?"

Fluttershy had never been so frightened in her entire life. Well, maybe when she had to face the dragon back in Ponyville, or when King Sombra had attacked her and her friends on their first visit to the Crystal Empire, but this was different. She was alone, and at the mercy of these creatures. Who knew what kind of tortures they had in mind? She shook her head, giving Bullhorn a pleading look as her sobs were muffled by the gag, tears of fright rolling down her cheeks. Bullhorn only laughed. 

"Well, well, boys, looks like our little pony here doesn't appreciate out welcome." He said. 

"Let's cut one of her ears, boss!" One of his cronies suggested, snickering. 

"No, let's gorge out one of her eyes! I bet Neckslicer would give  us a good dough for a pony eye, and one so pretty such as this!" Another laughed. 

"How about we pluck her feathers? She doesn't seem to use her wings that much, anyway."

"She doesn't use them at all. Let's cut the limbs off."

Bullhorn growled, making the other drakes growl silent, before he bent down his neck to sniff at Fluttershy. The Pegasus's heartbeat was beating like crazy, and she tried to crawl away from him, but he held her down with his talon, making her whimper. Fluttershy let out a  muffled scream when she felt a slimy tongue run down her neck, and a claw press against he back. 

Bullhorn spat. "She doesn't taste like all sugary things, like they say." 

"Maybe if we add a bit of sugar..." one of his cronies snickered. 

"Could we have her, boss? It's been a while since we were this close to a lady!"

Bullhorn glanced back at them, then down at Fluttershy. He had to admit, the idea of some feminine contact after half of his life  having to satisfy his carnal desires on the weaklings in this cage, but then again, he never had a thing for Equestrians. After all, they were more fragile than a twig. He didn't care if his boys wanted to have fun with the mare. When the Pegasus sobbed and tried in vain to hide behind her mane, he started thinking again, running a claw through the pink hairs. It was very soft and silky, unlike their thick, spiky and dry hair. He smirked when the newbie started to sob loudly. He knew where to hurt her where it hurt the most.

"Scissor Cut, do you have your scissors with you?"

Said drake took out a pair of sharp but half-rusted scissors with a malicious grin. "At your orders, boss."

Fluttershy's eyes widened when the drakes closed in to her. 





"Oh, fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck...!" 

"How did you let her go alone?!"

"You didn't precisely go after her either, did you?"

"Besides, it was only a matter of time that the 'welcome committee' found her!"

Fire Throat groaned in frustration and barged another door-this one leading into the laundry room-open, just to find it empty. If they didn't find the newbie and fast.... The cockroach she had dubbed as Roachie was likewise running across the floor and sliding underneath the doors, then crawled back outside and continued to look frantically. The bell that signaled it was time to go back to the cellblocks had rung a while ago, but they couldn't just leave Fluttershy out there like that. Besides, it was only a week of hard labor as punishment for ignoring the bell, no big deal. Swift Tail thought he heard something; muffled screaming and wailing, and snickers and cruel laughter coming from one of the rooms... 

They were too late.

"They're in that room." He pointed out, but spread out a wing before Fire Throat and the cockroach could go check it out. "Don't."

"What do you mean 'don't'?! She's in there and who knows what Bullshot is doing with her!" Fire Throat snapped, trying and failing to go past Swift Tail's wing. 

"If you get in there, they'll know that you were indeed hiding her from them, and don't forget Bullhorn said you would share her welcome." 

"But-!"

Even Roachie couldn't get past Swift Tail's tail, and the Temnokt pressed its tip against his back gently but tightly enough to keep him on place. "You shouldn't do that, bug. They'll squash you in a matter of seconds."

When the door swung open, the two Temnokt barely had time to hide in the nearest door, the janitor's closet, dragging Roachie along. They heard clawsteps from the outside, and saw shadows through the window, as well as snickers when the figures passed by. 

"I wonder what we can do with so much hair...!" 

"Maybe they'd make a good pair of horn warmers."

"Or we could sell it to Neckslicer and get some more dough."

"Maybe he can dye it of some other color..."

Hair... what were they talking about? Roachie took a peek from beneath the door, and caught a glance of Bullhorn and his cronies walking away, passing what seemed to be long and silky pink hair among each other. Realization hit the  insect, and as soon as when they had turned around the corner, Roachie went back inside and walked in circles frantically, then crawled out the door, motioning the Temnokt to follow them. Fire Throat and Swift Tail swung the door open and rushed outside, then towards the open door from where they had come out. Thankfully they wouldn't have done their usual welcomes on her, considering she was much more fragile... had they?

The sight was pitiful. Fluttershy lay on the ground, crying her eyes out, and trying to hide her face into her hooves. She didn't seem to have any sort of physical injury, but they couldn't say the same for her.... Her once beautiful mane and tail were gone, now there were only short, mismatched chunks of pink hair, badly cut, reducing it to a spiky and almost lacking mane on her skull and scalp, and a small stump of bushy pink hair on the case of her tail. Her bounds lay aside, forgotten, but Fluttershy didn't seem to care about the fact that she was free. 

"Fluttershy?" Fire Throat whispered as gently as he could.

She didn't reply. She continued to sob, not even when Roachie crawled on top of her and tried  to tickle her ear with his antennae did she react. She was frozen in fear, weeping for her lost hair and for the trauma inflicted unto her. Swift Tail wondered if the actual reason she was weeping was because of Bullhorn and his boys assaulting her sexually, he would bet his life on it. He knew even them eventually grew tired of the newbies, who were all males, anyway. He was not proud to say he took part in this tabooish ritual every now and then. "Newbie, we have to go back to the cells."

No reaction.

"Fluttershy, can you move? Do you want me to take you?" Fire Throat inquired. 

Nothing but sobs.

"Just take her back to her cell, we're already very late, we should go before the guards-"

"YOU!"

Swift Tail sighed in dismay. "Find us."

Two fully-armored guards stomped their way towards the two inmates,  glaring daggers at them. "The bell rang twenty minutes ago! Get back to your cells, scum!"

"The newbie was... 'welcomed' and she doesn't move."

The other guard snickered. "About time. It's time she got used to life in here, she's not in the 'Magical Land of Equestria' anymore!" he pushed the inmates aside, and lifted Fluttershy with his magic, making the mare gasp in terror, and she instinctively wrapped her wings around her body, still hiding her face in her hooves. The guard rolled his eyes, and his companion barked at the other two inmates. "GET MOVING OR YOU WILL GET DOUBLE HARD LABOR THIS WEEK!"

Seeing they didn't really have any other choice, Swift Tail and Fire Throat hastily made their way down the hall and towards their cellblock. Roachie crawled after the guard who was taking Fluttershy away. Fluttershy didn't react, she only felt the dark magic keeping her on the air and being carried away by the guard, she was carried into the cell blocks, and heard the other inmates laughing at her from within their confinements, commenting on their new 'hairstyle', which further made her sob loudly. The guard entered her cell and dropped  her on top of her mattress without any care in the world, momentarily shaking Fluttershy out of her 'protective shell', then he stepped out of the cell and slid the door closed, the lock automatically setting. Roachie managed to crawl into the cell without the guard noticing. 

"By the way, newbie, you got mail" The guard said uninterested, slipping a Temnokt-sized envelope into the cell. "I wouldn't read now if I were you, though. The lights will be out in a minute." With that said, he walked away.

Fluttershy had no idea of what he said, but when she saw the envelope falling on the floor of her cell, she immediately rushed towards it and managed to grab it, then she immediately went back to her bed just as the lights went out, and everytemnok went silent, leaving everything in complete and utter darkness, except for the moonlight coming from the barred window. Fluttershy just stared at the moon, trembling and sobbing, her hoof running down the little hair she had left. She wanted to read the letter so badly, she wanted to hear word from her friends so badly, even if it was written on paper. Fluttershy opened the envelope and slid the various papers out of it. She guessed all her friends had written individual letters, but judging by the claw marks on the edges of the paper, she guessed the guards had checked her letters before bringing them to her. Fluttershy picked the first letter and started to read with the moonlight as her only illumination source. 



Dear Fluttershy

Are you alright? Is everything okay?! You're not hurt, are you?! We'll go to visit you as soon as possible, Fukkuteru said we have to wait until weekend because it's your first week, and Krussian Law states that before a new inmate can receive visits he must spend at least one week in the prison-oh, sweet Celesia, I'm getting out of the subject. Princess Celestia has sent a letter to King Bittercold, and he said he will see what he can do to help you, but he can't do much. Even Kings in Krussia have to follow the laws, all he can do is to reduce your sentence. Anyway, Princess Celestia will send you money so you can pay for protection as soon as she can, meanwhile, please be careful! I've spoken to various Krussians with Fukkuteru's help, and Brokenfang Prison doesn't have a good reputation. If you need anything, write us a letter whenever you can. Don't forget we'll always be there for you, because you're our friend.

Twilight.






Hey, Fluttershy!
It's Rainbow Dash here! If any of those giant lizards annoy you, I'll give them a good beating for messing with my friend! You can count on me! See you on the weekend! 

Rainbow Dash. 





Sugarcube,

Take care of yourself. Don't forget you've faced lots of perils back in Equestria, I believe you'll be able to handle a cattle of bad-tempered lizards. Always use your head before anything, you know these guys are not very smart, and when we get back home we'll have a good jar of apple cider on the house!

Applejack. 





My Dear Fluttershy,

Be very careful! It must be horrible, I can bet those brutes don't have any sort of spa or relaxation place, nor any sense of fashion if they have uniforms. But anyway, I'm looking forward for the visit! I'll bring a little gift for you, darling!"

Rarity






FLUTTERSHY!

Hello, how are you doing? Everypony, plus Stormfly and Fukkuteru and even Dissy, misses you very much! I'm already thinking of making a welcome back party for you! When you come out, that is. Anyway, those meanie guards wouldn't let me bring you balloons and cupcakes! They threw them to the trash can! THE TRASHCAN! I'll sneak some when we go visit you, don't tell the guards!

Pinkie!




Fluttershy's tears fell on the papers as she started to sob, this time out of homesickness, and she held the letters close to her chest, sobbing. Roachie crawled closer to her and snuggled against her coat; the Pegasus picked up the little bug in her hooves, sobbing. "Oh, Roachie, I m-miss them s-so m-much...!" she whispered between sobs. "And t-those.... They c-cut my....! How could they...?!" She couldn't forget it, how they had cut her hair, their haunting and mocking laughter as she cried, begging them not to, but they ignored her and continued to torture her emotionally, and then they started touching her.... her.....

A sudden, but distant scream nearly made her have a heart attack as she jumped back, falling off her mattress, dragging Roachie along. Who was screaming like that? Was that Bullshotguy torturing another victim, but it couldn't be, everydrake had been sent back to their cells a while ago, but then again, Fire Throat did say Bullshot was one of the Big Five, and that they got special treatment and all that. Then she recalled he had also mentioned that the mentally disturbed inmate Twisted Claw tended to scream at nights, it might as well be him. Fluttershy heard mutters of complaint (at least she thought they were complaints) and irritation coming from the other cells, so she guessed this happened so often they were used to it.

Maybe it would be best to try and get some sleep, even if her heart beat like crazy and her senses were on alert for any potential threat. It wasn't likely that one of the other inmates could break out of his cell and come to hers to 'finish the job', right? Fluttershy climbed back unto the mattress and curled up into a ball, Roachie coming closer and snuggling against her. He would have hidden in her mane, but it was gone, and there was nowhere to hide anymore, but he didn't care. Fluttershy would have actually hidden her face in her mane in these rather disturbing circumstances, but it was gone, so she guessed she'd have to get used to it. 

The screaming never stopped, not even after she finally managed to drift into a deep sleep. 





Next morning, it seemed the rest of the inmates were on a bad mood, and most of them looked like they hadn't had a good night. She guessed it had something to do with all of the screaming from last night. She couldn't get sleep at all either, but not because of Twisted Claw's wailing, but rather because of the experience from last night. In fact, she hadn't wanted to leave the cell at all, afraid to run into Bullshot again, one of the guards had to technically drag her out and take her to the mess hall, not even bothering to ask her if she wanted a bath. With his hiding place gone, Roachie had to hide under Fluttershy's wing, which gave her a ticklish sensation, but she didn't have the heart to laugh, especially when she spotted Bullhorn in one of the farthest tables with his followers, all of them showing off all of the 'dough' they obtained for her hair. She hoped they wouldn't give the idea to the other inmates.

Once the guard dropped her in the back of the line to get breakfast, Fluttershy tried to hide from Bullshot's view, uncomfortably close to the drake in front of her, and he wasn't liking it in the least, letting her know by pushing her back with his tail. She hoped that at least they varied their menu, she wasn't certain she could stand another day without eating nothing more than two apples and some fries. This time she didn't see Fire Throat behind the counter, however. Maybe he only had turns certain days of the week. She didn't need to call out for the inmate in charge of serving breakfast,  he handed her a tray, but it was heavier than yesterday, and Fluttershy had a bit more of trouble carrying it. Roachie crawled from down her wing and took a look at the food, then crawled to Fluttershy's ear and whispered today's menu.

Dried meatballs, mashed potatoes, a small dessert, a piece of bread and a glass of milk. Thank heaven, there were things she could eat! 

Fluttershy gasped when out of sudden she tripped, dropping her tray and spilling some of its contents, particularly her milk and the sauce of her meatballs, most of it right unto her face. Laughter from both the inmates and the guards echoed loudly in the mess hall, and Fluttershy looked up at the drakes sitting in the tables around her, all snickering and looking at her as if she were nothing more than an insect. She saw one of the inmates, a burly drake with broken horns, red hair and lots of piercings on his face, retreating his tail back under his table, giving her a mockingly innocent look. With him was one of the drakes from her labor station, giving her a sympathetic look.

"What?" he shrugged. "That's what you get for not seeing where you're going, newbie."

Fluttershy didn't understand anything he was saying. Again. "Um, excuse me, m-mister... I think you put your tail in my way by accident. I'm sorry if I hurt your tail..." she whispered timidly. 

The drake rolled his eyes and motioned her to go away. She didn't need any more warnings. She picked up her tray and what was left of her meal and scrambled away with some difficulty, careful as not to step on somedrake's tail again. She spotted Fire Throat and Swift Tail on a nearby table, and they waved at her, motioning her to hurry. Fluttershy managed to get to their table without stepping on another drake's tail, and Fire Throat caught her tray as she was about to drop her again. She placed some of her food aside for Roachie, and bug crawled unto the table to enjoy hismeal. 

"That's anti-hygienic, you know." Swift Tail frowned. "You don't know where that insect has been and you let it eat from your food?"

"Well, on the bright side, your mashed potatoes, bread and Kievcake are intact." Fire Throat commented. "Thought it's a pity you lost the milk, it tastes better with the dessert."

"Kievcake?" Fluttershy inquired, pointing at the small slice of cake on her tray. 

"Don't worry, it has no kind of alcohol in it, it's only two layers of meringue with cashew, chocolate glaze and buttercream filling."

"Oh. That's good enough for me." 

"You  should be careful around the others, you know." Swift Tail commented, devouring his meatballs hungrily. "No offense, but with how Bullshot left what is left of your... hair, they know you've been 'welcomed into the family'. Don't be surprised if they have already picked a nickname for you."

Fluttershy shifted in discomfort at the reminder. Fire Throat decided to change the subject. "So, Fluttershy, why are you here?" 

"Huh?"

Swift Tail rolled his eyes. "You know, what did you do that you ended up here? It had to do something terrible, this place is no picnic."

She nearly gagged on her mashed potatoes. "Nonono! I didn't do anything! It was a big, big, big misunderstanding." 

"That's what everydrake says, honey. The type of crime you committed affects the 'welcome' given to you, and considering that Bullshot only cut your hair and sold it, you only murdered a High Blood."

"I didn't kill anypony!" Fluttershy 'yelled', though to them it sounded like barely a whisper. "It was a misunderstanding!"

"If you had committed sexual assault on-"

Suddenly, Fire Throat stiffened and his grip on his milk of glass became so tight it broke. "I don't think you should talk to her about all the welcomes here." He hissed the word 'welcomes', and Fluttershy swore she could see some old pain reflected in his eyes, like the comment had opened an old wound. Right, he had also been a newbie once. 

"Umm..." She didn't feel like it was right to ask at this moment, but they had brought the topic up, so... "What did you guys do....?"

"Me? Let's say I caused a 'little accident' that took the lives of hundreds." Swift Tail simply said it as if it was nothing. It bothered her. He killed thousands and he discarded it just like that? Didn't he have a conscience. 

"On my case, I..." Fire Throat hesitated. "Well, I was quite skilled in theft and fraud. I sold non-existing properties to some High Bloods and got a lot of dough, but they found me out and I ended up here." 

For some reason, Fluttershy had the feeling there was something he wasn't telling her, like there was something he didn't want her to know. Swift Tail's solemn expression strengthened her suspicions, but she didn't want to upset FireThroat and risk losing the only ally she had in here. Fire Throat decided to change the subject, permanently this time. "I guess you heard the screaming last night, didn't you?"

"Y-Yes... Was it Twister?" 

He nodded. "One of his 'bad nights'. He screams all night, and no one can sleep well, that's why everydrake here looks tired and stressed out."

"I wish they'd just transfer him to a nuthouse..." Swift Tail muttered under his breath. 

"He consumed drugs, remember? That's the other reason he was brought here." 

"Hey, guys, is Neckslicer around here?" Fluttershy inquired, looking around. "I haven't seen him around." 

"He doesn't have many friends. He prefers to work 'solo', his motto is 'don't trust your own shadow, because when the light disappears, it's gone'." Fire Throat explained. "He's a businessdrake."

"But surely he must have someone who cares for him... right?"

Swift Tail chuckled humorlessly. "Honey, it's Brokenfang. There are three golden rules here. You're here until you die, they've all forgotten you, and you're standing on your grave. We made a song about it, if you'd like to hear it-" 

Fire Throat noticed Fluttershy was getting pale again. "Knock it off, Swift! She'll hear it... eventually. And she might meet Neckslicer, now that we're on it. We have hard labor for a week." 

Fluttershy gagged on her kievcake. "H-Hard labor?" she whispered, trembling. 

"You know, since we didn't go to the cells when the bellrang. When we're done eating we have to go to the courtyard and the guards will take us to the coal mines."

"Coal mines?!" 

Swift Tail rolled his eyes. "Seriously? What do you do in Equestria to earn a living? Live in a hut full of cute little animals?"

Fluttershy blushed. "Uh, yes..."

"You have to be kidding me. They earn money for wasting their time while we break our backs here and only get paid a misery...?!" Swift Tail growled at Fire Throat.

"We're in jail, remember? You don't expect they will pay us the same as they pay to the citizens outside these walls, do you?"

Fluttershy gulped when they started to speak in Krussian, and exchanged a glance with Roachie. She had the feeling the 'hard labor' wouldn't be a pleasant experience at all...
> Broken by Brokenfang
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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. 
> Visit Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two days she had to wait for Saturday felt like a thousand years. Fluttershy made her best to stay out of trouble, but it was hard when trouble seemed to be looking for her. After what happened, she tried not to touch the subject again with Swift Tail, though he seemed to have forgotten about it and went back to his apathetic manners and stoic expression, while Fire Throat tried to get as much information out of the other inmates about Neckslicer's other bidders for Fluttershy's hair, but Neckslicer seemed bent on not giving the hair back to her, either out of spite or because he simply wanted to annoy her. From what he could extract from other inmates, however, it seemed two of the other Big Five, and a few of Neckslicer's 'regular clients' were offering him lots of dough for it, though when it came to who could offer him the most it would come down to the two members Big Five, and the highest bid of any of those two. Her mild skills at making dresses soon proved to be a bit useful, she had already earned a bit of the respect of the inmates working in her area, but that didn't give her any advantage in the 'hierarchy', considering most of those inmates were 'sheep' or the weaklings. Twister had been taken out of solitary confinement, but she had not seen him around, at least not yet, and she hoped she wouldn't encounter him alone.

At eleven o' clock, Fluttershy and a few other inmates form other cell blocks were taken back through the doors she had come in when she first arrived, but led through a different corridor. Fluttershy trembled at the sight of the black wolves the guards kept in that part, probably to sniff out possible 'mules', the ones who smuggled contraband into the prison. They were led into a room with frumpy gray walls, but it didn't seem as intimidating as the rest of the rooms of the place. It looked like a serious cafeteria, but there were a few hatchling-made drawings on the walls, and another barred door from where the visits would come in. The other Temnokt headed towards any table they had nearby, but as Fluttershy was about to head to one, she was pulled back by the wings -since she no longer had a tail the guards could pull her with they had taken to pulling her by the wings-by a guard. 

"Newbie, your circumstances are... complicated." he said, unsympathetically. "Since you have too many visitors and no more than two are allowed in here and the visits last until one o' clock you'll have one visitor at once for ten minutes. Is that clear?"

She wouldn't get to see her friends at once? And she only got to see them for ten minutes each?! That wasn't fair! But then again, she was in no position to complain. "O-Okay..." Fluttershy whispered. 

"Good. Now go to your table and wait."

Fluttershy headed towards the table nearest to the barred door, and it opened. A few drakes or dradies-some drakes accompanied by a small hatchling-stepped in, going to the tables where the other inmates waited. Fluttershy heard greetings-some filled with joy when they say their loved ones again, others having a rather neutral response-exchanged, before a very familiar voice called her attention. 

"FLUTTERSHY!"

Fluttershy whipped her head around and saw Twilight galloping towards her. "TWILIGHT!" She immediately left the table and galloped towards her friend, the two wrapping hooves around each other, and Fluttershy bursting into tears of joy as she felt the familiar warmth of one of her friends once again. 

Twilight pulled back, her own eyes glossy from the joy of seeing her friend again, only to gasp in utter shock when she saw the chunks of hair left of Fluttershy's mane and tail. "What the-?! What happened to your hair?!"

"It was h-horrible, one of the B-Big Five, he... He c-cut my hair... I d-didn't want to..." 

"I can't believe this...! One of the Big Five, you say?" Twilight had the feeling of who those 'big five' were, she had read everything about Krussian prisons, this one in particular, and asked some drakes around in order to find useful information Fluttershy could use to keep herself alive in this hell. She motioned Fluttershy to sit to the table; they managed to climb unto it with some difficulty. "What has happened? Tell me everything." 

"Well, I've been getting by, sort of... I made two friends here..."

"Wait, wait, friends?"

"Um, Fire Throat and Swift Tail. I wouldn't say we're close friends, but they are the only ones who have been nice to me..." 

"Fluttershy, you know I would usually encourage you to make new friends, especially with another especies, but this is a prison. You can't trust them completely, they were put here for a reason. What makes you think they are not just hanging around you because they want something?"

Fluttershy hadn't thought about that possibility, but up to now they hadn't given her any reason to distrust them. "I know, but being alone is very dangerous... Are the others outside?"

Twilight knew she was changing the subject, but there were important matters she had to tell her, anyway. "The guards didn't let us come in all at once, they said we only had ten minutes each to see you. Princess Celestia has gotten into talks with King Bittercold about your case, he says he will do what he can to have the case reopened, but unless we have actual proof that it was somepony else who committed the crime there's little he can do." Twilight handed Fluttershy a large bag. "Princess Celestia sends this for you, it's two thousand obsids. You can buy protection with this for some time, she'll be sending it each month, the average time the influential inmates take in collecting the payment."

Fluttershy accepted the bad. "Thank Princess Celestia for me, please." She had one thing less to worry about, until suddenly she recalled the price Neckslicer had put for her hair... She temporally shook the thought off her head. "How are the girls doing? How's Discord and the triplets?"

"Everypony's worried about you, especially Discord and Rainbow Dash. They are afraid the other inmates could have hurt you." Twilight sighed. "The triplets miss you too. Fukkuteru's sister is looking after them while we're here, but..."

"Time's up, egghead!" a guard from the entrance called out. "Get your flank out of there or I'll drag you by the tail!"

"Seriously?!" Twilight couldn't believe even the guards had to call her that just because she was constantly taking notes. Fluttershy either. Had time flown so fast? Twilight turned to her friend sadly, and held her hoof reassuringly. "Be strong, Fluttershy." 

Reluctantly, Fluttershy waved Twilight goodbye as she left through the door. Soon after, the next visitor was allowed to come in, a cyan pegasus with rainbow mane.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash flew half-way to the table when one of the guards yelled. "NO FLYING"! he startled the other inmates and their visitors, including one of the young hatchlings. Rainbow Dash growled and landed on the stone floor, but soon her irritation faded away when she saw Fluttershy again. "Holy-! Fluttershy, your hair-!"

"I know." Fluttershy sighed as Rainbow Dash came to sit next to her. 

"Those-! I swear, if I had them in front of me I'd give them some buck sandwiches!" Rainbow Dash cracked her hooves. "Tell me their names and I'll deal with them!"

"Rainbow, believe me when I tell you that you don't want to deal with the guys who did this..." 

"Nopony, or Temnokt, messes with my friends and gets away with it!"

"These are no normal Temnokt, Rainbow Dash. They are criminals."

"When Rarity sees this, she's going to have a heart attack. You should have seen her face when we went to Fashion Row, according to Fukkuteru it's Kruscow's créme de la créme when it comes to boutiques in Krussia, but when Rarity tried to go into one a bucking giant spider opened the door!" Rainbow Dash burst out in laughter, pulling Fluttershy closer by the shoulders. "The look on her face! Fukkuteru forgot to mention that fashion designers have a certain breed of spiders as workers... I don't recall their names, but Rarity fainted on the spot! I mean, come on! It's not like it was Mothra or something!" Rainbow Dash felt something crawling on her hoof, and spotted a large bug on it. 

Wait, BUG?!

"WHOA!"

Fluttershy gasped in fright when Rainbow Dash fell back out of sudden, shaking Roachie off her hoof as she did so. Roachie quickly crawled up the table and under Fluttershy's wing, trembling. "Rainbow, you scared Roachie."

"I scared him?!" Rainbow Dash pointed at the hidden cockroach. "Who is him, by the way?!"

"His name is Roachie, he was my first friend here."

"Oh. In that case, any friend of Fluttershy is a friend of mine!" the pegasus got back on her hooves and did a small hoof-leg bump with the cockroach. "Just don't come out when Rarity comes in, because she's going to make a ruckus about it." 

The guard called out to Rainbow Dash. "Time's up!" 

Rainbow Dash grumbled under her breath as she glared at the guard, but nevertheless she shared one last hoof-bump with Fluttershy as she trotted out of the room. Shortly after, Applejack galloped in, completely ignoring the guard's yell of no running, and jumped unto the table, earning glares from the guards in turn, but she didn't bucking care about what those scaly rears thought. She wanted to make sure her friend was okay. She didn't mind the large cockroach on a side of the table.

"Fluttershy, are you hurt?! Twilight told us one of the Big Five cut off all of your mane and tail!" 

"I'm okay, thank Celestia..." she sighed. "But I'm still a bit shaken..."

"I'm glad you are alright, sugarcube." Applejack sighed, smiling sadly. "But when you're dealing with mean ol' drakes like these, you have to tae some extra precaution."

"Twilight told me not to trust anytemnokt in here..."

"I have to agree with her on that one, Fluttershy. These are no normal outlaws, I can tell with one glance they are more dangerous than they appear, and those guys who call themselves 'guards' don't seem to be helpful at all, are they?"

"They aren't at all... It seems they will only intervene when there's a life-threatening situation, otherwise they just.... stare at us, sometimes they even bet on somepony..."

"And what was that about a psychopath attacking you?!"

Fluttershy froze. "Oh... That... Who told you...?"

"When we came in, the lizard faces made fun of you saying you nearly got 'broken by brokenfang', whatever the hay that means! The only thing that kept me from giving them a good bucking was that Fukkuteru said I could spend six months in jail for aggression towards a security official." Applejack's grip on Fluttershy's hoof became tighter. "But tell me exactly what happened." 

"Umm... He is called Twister by the other inmates... He just came to me asking me a question, but his eyes were... A bit... Well, I don't know how to say it, but I could tell he was..."

"Say it, sugarcube, he was nuts."

"Yeah, that. Anyway, he turned hostile when I tried to leave, and that was when the guards put him on a straightjacket and took him away to solitary confinement." 

"I don't know how Krussian law acts regarding mentally ill individuals, but that drake should be in an asylum, why is he in a prison instead?"

"One of my... friends here told me his family sent him here because it would be less scandalous than having him sent to a mental institution. He was okay till his sister stopped visiting him..."

"That doesn't excuse mixing green apples with red apples! You don't place mentally ill people with dangerous inmates, the result could be disastrous! I may not know that much about laws, but I do know that mixing sheep and goats together can only end one way-"

"NEXT!"

Applejack sighed sadly, and squeezed Fluttershy's hoof once more. "We're getting you out of here no matter what, sugarcube. Don't doubt that. Meanwhile, watch your back, you can get backstabbed before you know it." 

With that, Applejack hopped of the table and walked towards the doors slowly, Fluttershy could tell she was spiting the guards in turn, judging by her smirk as the guards stared at her in irritation. When Applejack crossed the door, Rarity took her place and galloped towards Fluttershy, making sure the chair of the table was clean before hopping on it; Rarity gasped in shock when she saw the horrible state Fluttershy's hair-or at least what was left of it-was in, even going as far as to take a hoof to her chest as if she were afraid of having a heart attack. 

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA DID THOSE BRUTES DO TO YOU?!" she screamed in fright. 

"Not so loud, Rarity. There are other Temnokt here who are trying to enjoy their time with their loved ones." Fluttershy whispered. 

"The first thing I'm going to do when you are out is to take you to the best manestyling saloon in Equestria! Your mane was so beautiful, how could those brutes put a claw on it?!"

Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably. "That was sort of the problem... My hair was... Well, they say their hair is dry and brittle... That's why they were so attracted to my hair..."

"They clearly don't have a sense of image! Dearie, you have to get your hair back!"

"The drake selling my hair put it on two thousand obsids. That's the amount Princess Celestia sent me to pay for protection."

"If you have the chance to get your hair back from those... drakes, then you should make it, darling!"

"Actually... Twilight said I should use it to pay for protection, maybe she is right." 

"Fluttershy, it's your hair we're talking about!"

"It's okay, Rarity. It'll grow back, but I can't waste the money just like that. Princess Celestia is being generous with me, and I don't want to take advantage of it..."

"Why I know that, Fluttershy... I guess now's not the time to worry about your hairstyle. But tell me, other than cutting off your hair, did those uncivilized creatures harm you?"

"Oh, no. I made two friends...."

"Dearie, if I were you I'd use the word acquaintance. You can't seriously think you can trust the drakes in here, do you?"

"Well, a few aren't that bad. My little knowledge of sewing and your tips for making a dress helped me earn a little money, and a few acquaintances in the sewing department."

"I'm glad I could help you somehow, even if indirectly..." Rarity's eyes were swelling up with tears as she stared at her friends' one long, flowing mane. "Oh, Fluttershy... The idea that you are trapped in this awful place while we are outside is simply unbearable. If I hadn't taken you to that dumb store none of this would be happening...!"

"No, Rarity..." Fluttershy grabbed her hoof. "It wasn't your fault. Even if we hadn't gone, the murderer apparently had similar traits to me, if the witnesses identified me as the culprit..."

"Prima Donna, get your flank out of here already! Your time's up!" the guard growled at Rarity, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the white unicorn. 

"Everything will turn out alright, Fluttershy. Be strong, and keep making the best of dresses so you will earn enough money to stay safe..." Rarity smiled sadly, taking out a napkin and wiping a few of her tears away as she had to leave the room. Fluttershy felt like weeping too, she didn't like to see her friends suffering like this. When Rarity stepped out of the room, a pink shape dashed across the room and lunged at Fluttershy, sending the both of them to the ground. 

"FLUTTERSHY!" Pinkie Pie yelled, wrapping her hooves around Fluttershy's body. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Pinkie..." Fluttershy couldn't contain her small giggles and tears of joy as she returned the hug, ignoring momentarily the disturbed glances they were receiving from the other present Temnokt; hay, even the guards looked frightened of Pinkie Pie to some extent. "Umm, how about we go sit? I mean..."

"Oh, right? I have a super secret to tell you!" Pinkie stood up and pulled Fluttershy back to the table, looking around warily before whispering into her ear. "I was going to bring you cupcakes, but Fukkuteru said they didn't allow any treats inside the prison!" she glanced around again, then whispered. "I tried to sneak some in inside my mane, but these guys have creepy, big, black doggies who took a sniff at me and growled! Then the guards shook me and all of my cupcakes fell out! They even confiscated my party cannon and said something about introducing unauthorized weaponry and drugs!"

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Pinkie..." Fluttershy grabbed her hoof. 

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "The funny thing is that they wanted to take me 'somewhere special', but when Fukkuteru heard it he looked like he had seen a Windigo and started to speak funny things with the guards." 

"Did something else happen?"

"Well, I tried to pet one of the doggies but the guards wouldn't let me! What's their problem, they clearly need to go out more often!" A light bulb popped on top of Pinkie's head. "I know! We could throw a big and fun party for them! And your new friends could come!"

"I'm not certain they would like it..." Fluttershy admitted, sighing sadly, still feeling guilty about Swift Tail's reaction to her words from a few days ago. "They are a bit.... I'm afraid they don't like parties like we do them, Pinkie..."

"Oh, that's okay. Instead of balloons, we could decorate with those carpets they are always hanging, and we could add some of their drinks to the desserts to make them feel more like at home! If we do manage to sneak all that stuff in here, that is!" 

"Um, well..." Fluttershy wasn't sure if she should tell Pinkie about Neckslicer, she didn't want to imagine how he would react to Pinkie Pie's attitude if the Temnokt around them at that moment were already thinking she had a loose screw. "There's a sort of drake here who does that kind of things..." 

"Oh, is he one of your friends? Cool!" Pinkie Pie chirped and whispered into Fluttershy's ear once more. "He could sneak the things for the party." 

"If he doesn't sell them, that is..." Fluttershy thought momentarily, before shrugging. "I wouldn't say we're very close, but maybe he could sneak some things in here... But it's actually a contact of his that sneaks things in here, I'd have to ask him who that contact is to help..." 

"Okay, then it's settled! I gather the stuff for our party, your friend Neckslicy and his friend will sneak it in here and then we party without the guards noticing!"

Fluttershy smiled lightly. "That sounds fun..." She wondered how Neckslicer would take the nickname Pinkie Pie had just made up. Not very well, she assumed. 

"Hey, maybe if you calmed the doggies down it would be easier to bring the things here."

"They guards would't let me if I tried, I think those wolves are trained for a specific purpose..."

"Well, Fukkuteru did mention something about the wolves sniffing out strange substances, but I don't understand what has to do with the cupcakes! The guards acted like they were mini confetti bombs or something!" 

"Hey, you!" The guard snapped at Pinkie Pie, but his tone sounded forced and a bit nervous like he were talking to a demented pony. "Time's up." 

"Aww, man!" Pinkie Pie groaned, glancing at the ground. "I have not seen Fluttershy in days! Could you try not to be a party-pooper?"

"No special treatment, miss." 

"Ah, well." Pinkie whispered once more in Fluttershy's ear. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to look for a better hiding place for the cupcakes next time!" With this, she waved the guard goodbye-Fluttershy noticed him flinching when she did so-and trotted through the room and back to the doors. Soon after, Discord suddenly popped into the room in a small white flash, sitting across Fluttershy. 

"Fluttershy, my dear, are you okay?!" he asked, his heart skipping a beat when he saw her hair. "What am I saying?! No you're not! Look at what those overgrown lizards did to you!" He heard the guard in turn coughing at the insult, like he were subtly saying 'I'm here, you know. Discord glared at him. "Yes, I'm offensive!" 

"Discord, maybe you shouldn't get on the guards' nerves, they only do their jobs and you don't have to be rude to them..." Fluttershy said gently.

"My dear, I can make your hair grow back if you'd like." Discord offered. "You know, a snap of my fingers and you'll be as lovely as you were!" 

"Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not." FLuttershy rubbed the chunks of hair in her head. "It'll grow back. Besides, even if you make it grow back the drakes who did this might take advantage of it and cut if off again."

"I guess you are right... But if there's something I can do for you, just let me know. The triplets miss you very much..."

"Twilight mentioned it."

"Yes, she is very worried too." Discord sighed sadly, laying his head on the table. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy..."

"No, Discord. None of you have to apologize."

"I just... to see you in this place, with all these criminals... You don't belong here, Fluttershy. You are the kindest soul on the face of the earth, you would never do something to deserve being brought to such a place, and yet here you are! And the worst thing of all is that I can't do anything to help you...!" Discord was trying not to cry by then. "You were my first friend ever... If something happened to you I wouldn't be able to live with it..."

"Shh, that's okay." Fluttershy grabbed his eagle talon, smiling sadly, her own tears flowing. "I will hang in here somehow. I promise you." 

"I know that. You may not be as big as these creatures, but you are not helpless. I've seen you face worse problems than this, I'm certain you will make it. But could you at least promise me that you will stay safe?"

Fluttershy wished she could say it for certain, but the truth was that she wasn't sure. She tried to stay out of trouble, but in this place it seemed trouble seemed to find her. She didn't want to imagine if the other inmates were planning to do more things to her, but she didn't want to worry Discord nor her friends either. The least she could do was to give them a bit of relief, if it was already hard enough for them to see her in here.

"I promise."
> The Big Five
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saying goodbye to her friends was perhaps the hardest thing Fluttershy had to endure. She'd have to wait another week to see them again, and just like Twilight had said, many things could happen in this lapse of time, that was why she had to spend the obsids she had received wisely. On one side, Twilight suggested she pay the protection racket to stay safe for one month, while Rarity insisted she retrieve her mane if she now had enough money to buy it from Neckslicer. But for the time being the protection was the best option, her mane would grow back, anyway. 

However, the inmates who had been present in the visit room with their own loved ones had seen the purple mare handing a large bag of money to the 'Newbie', and this started a rumor among the inmates that the Newbie was more resourceful than she appeared. Some of them were already starting to spread rumors about her 'visitors', among them a pink, overly-joyful and incredibly scary feminine version of Twister, and a creature that looked like he had been the result of a disastrous magical experiment. Still, Fluttershy's status remained the same; as long as she was within the walls of Brokenfang, she was at their mercy. 

That day, at lunchtime, Fluttershy felt nervous as she received glances and heard whispers while heading towards the table. She caught a glimpse of Neckslicer, who just gave her an indifferent glance before continuing with his meal. She quickened her steps, until she was at the safety of the table where Fire Throat and Swift Tail were already waiting. However, she froze when she caught a glimpse of a certain purple-haired drake a few tables away, just staring blankly into space with half-shrunken pupils, ignoring his tray of food. All the tables near his were empty, and even the guards keeping an eye on him were a good distance away, as if he carried a plague they didn't want to catch. Fluttershy a pang of compassion for the lonely drake, and she swore she could see a deep sadness in his eyes. 

Until Twister glanced at her. 

As soon as she felt his gaze on her, Fluttershy ran to the table and climbed unto it, managing not to drop anything. She tried to ignore the feeling, but it was almost impossible. Roachie crawled into the table and rubbed against her hoof in an attempt to comfort her.

"Well, looks like Twister is back." Swift Tail sighed. "Better be careful, Newbie."

"Twister's the last thing she needs to worry about right now." Fire Throat retorted. 

"What do you mean?" Fluttershy inquired, taking a small sip of her cheese soup. For some reason, every time she took a spoonful the inmates from the nearby tables would snicker. 

"I don't know if you've noticed, but the word's spreading around about your fortune." 

"Fortune?"

"Newbie, you don't just obtain two thousand obsids in the blink of an eye, unless you inherit a fortune, or make your living from drug trafficking." Swift Tail rolled his eyes. 

"Oh, the money? It's not mine, Princess Celestia gave me a loan, that's all."

"The others don't know it. I doubt they'd believe you if you tried to explain. Don't be surprised if any of the Big Five come over and ask you to pay for-"

"Well, look who it is." 

Fire Throat sighed in dismay as Bullhorn and his cronies approached their table. ".... Protection." 

Fluttershy froze in terror when she felt the drake's claw run down her spine, her whole body was trembling as she brought her hooves to her cut hair. Bullhorn smirked at her reaction; she knew her place in the 'food chain', that was a good thing. Especially now that it turned out she had more to squirm of. "Good to see you, Newbie. How long as it been? A week?" 

Fire Throat started to growl, but Swift Tail elbowed him badly when Bullhorn's henchdrakes returned the growling tenfold. Making enemies with one of the Big Five was a grave mistake. 

"I t-think..." Fluttershy stuttered, terrified, especially when Bullhorn casually sat down next to her, taking a look at her soup. Her little heart would burst out of her chest at any moment. 

"Say, a little bird told me you got quite a gift from your visit."

"Y-Yes..."

"Well, now that we're good friends here, you wouldn't mind sharing a bit of your gift with us, would you?" 

"Just tell her you want her to hand over the obsids and save us your fake sympathy, would you?" Fire Throat frowned dryly, only to regret it when Bullhorn's smile disappeared and he received a glare from him.

"Shut your maw and mind your own business, Osvernitel." 

Fire Throat winced at the nickname he had been given by those who knew. He sighed in defeat and looked down, not saying any other words. 

"Hey, boss, look at this!"

Suddenly, before Fluttershy could prevent it, one of the drakes who accompanied Bullhorn grabbed Roachie by the wing, and lifted the cockroach carelessly, ignoring its equals of pain. "No, leave Roachie alone!" Fluttershy reached out for the bug, but the drake lifted him higher and out of her reach, staring down at her mockingly, and the rest of the Temnokt started to laugh at the pegasus. 

"Roachie?" another drake snickered. "Who would have thought? The Newbie likes filth!"

"Aww, the poor little pony can't live without her loyal pet!"

"Hey, Newbie, I have a dead rat in my cell! I can introduce you to it if you'd like!"

"Please! He has done nothing to you!" Fluttershy tried in vain to rescue Roachie as the drakes started to toss him between one another as if he were a rubber ball. "You'll hurt him!"

"Do we look like we care, Buggy?"

"Hey, that's a good one!"

"Please! I'll do anything!" Fluttershy handed over the bag of money to Bullhorn. "Take it! But please leave Roachie alone!"

Bullhorn continued to smirk as he snatched the bag of obsids from Fluttershy, then he snapped his fingers, and the drake who was fidgeting with Roachie dropped him back on the table, Fluttershy caught him into her hooves and pulled him closer to see if he was alright. "It was a pleasure to do business with you, baryshnya." Bullhorn snapped his fingers again, and waved his hand, leaving the table with his cronies following after him. 

"I hate that drake." Swift Tail muttered, glaring at Bullhorn's back. 

"Roachie, are you alright?!" Fluttershy asked the cockroach in worry as she rubbed its back gingerly. Roachie had a bended antenna, two broken legs and his wing was hurt, but he lifted one of his good legs to assure Fluttershy he was alright.

"Seriously, if you want a pet, why don't you tell Neckslicer to get you a panther?" Swift Tail commented. "Cockroaches are not precisely hygienic." 

"He was my first friend here." Fluttershy noticed Fire Throat's glance was blank, he was just staring down at his half-touched food in deep thought, but she could see some sort of pain in his eyes. "Fire Throat?" 

"He's drifting off."

"Why? Does it have something to do with Bullhorn?"

Swift Tail shifted uncomfortably. "I don't have the right to talk about what doesn't concern me." 

"Fire Throat? Um, are you alright...?"

Fire Throat blinked a few times and glanced at Fluttershy. "Did you say something?"

"I was asking you if you were okay. You looked like you were remembering something... unpleasant..." 

"It's in the past." The answer was dry, it sounded like he didn't want to talk about it. 

Fluttershy shivered in discomfort when she felt Twister's gaze upon her once again. She caught a quick glance of him, and noticed he still stared at her, his food apparently untouched. She didn't understand why he was so interested in her, if he had never seen a pony before, or he thought she was funny-looking with her lack of hair. Maybe if she was careful, she could manage to talk about it with him. Leaving Roachie on the table for the time being, Fluttershy warily jumped off the table and was about to head towards Twister's when Fire Thoat stopped her. 

"What do you think you're doing?!" he hissed in alarm.

"Um, I'll try to talk to Twister..." Fluttershy whispered.

"Are you nuts, Newbie?! Do you want to actually lose your eyes?!" Swift Tail growled with narrowed eyes. "He nearly killed you the first time!"

"Perhaps he felt frustrated that I didn't understand what he wanted. Maybe if I can clear things with him, he won't be as lonely."

"Fluttershy, you can't reason with a mentally unstable person! They can't reason if they wanted to!"

"I think it's worth a try... And I think I should apologize for him going to solitary confinement."

"You don't have to apologize for that! He brought it on himself, not get back on your seat or you'll regret this the rest of your stay!"

Fluttershy chose to ignore the drakes' this time, and still made her way towards Twister's tail, despite Fire Throat and Swift Tail whispering her urgently to come back. However, as she approached Twister and noticed his pupils shrinking, her resolve started to crumble as those empty but disturbed eyes fixed on her, staring at her like he were a predator. The other inmates glanced at the future scene, wondering if the pegasus wanted to die so badly. Neckslicer just stared at them indifferently, though there was an amused smirk on his face when he noticed Fluttershy was trembling. 

Fluttershy stared up at Twister nervously, gathering her courage as she managed to smile at him, but her legs had started to tremble. "H-Hi..." she whispered, stuttering. 

Twister just tilted his head to the side curiously. 

"I'm F-Fluttershy... And y-your name is T-Twister, r-right?" She still got no reply, other than the curious but possessive stare. The whole dining hall was in silence, staring at the scene with tension and anxiety, as if knowing something was going to happen. "Hey... I'm s-sorry for-"

"Who are you?" 

Fluttershy blinked in confusion when he asked her name. "Um... I just t-told you... My name is Fluttershy..."

Twister tilted his head in an almost comical way. "What's a Fluttershy?" 

"It's me... I'm a Fluttershy. Well, actually I'm a pegasus, but I'm called Fluttershy." 

"You talk funny." 

Fluttershy didn't know if he was talking like that on purpose to freak her out, or he really had difficulty processing most things told to him. "I talk like this when I'm nervous..."

"Am I scary?"

"Oh, no, no. You're not scary, you are... peculiar." 

Twister remained silent afterwards, just staring at Fluttershy. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. "Well, it was nice talking with you, Twister, but I have to go..." she slowly and carefully stepped back. 

"Where are you going?" 

"Um... B-Back to my t-table..." 

"Why?" 

Fluttershy panicked when Twister left his seat and started approaching her. "Err... Well, I... Roachie is there, and I was t-talking about... I..." 

"Why don't you stay?" Twister pulled her closer with a leg, his pupils shrinking and his voice becoming shaky. "I am very lonely..."

"I'm s-sorry for that..." Fluttershy was trembling in fear. "D-Don't you h-have any f-friends?"

"No, nodrake wants me around. They just s-step away from m-me and... T-They give me w-weird glances, and... S-She stopped coming..." 

"Who?" 

"S-She... She s-said she'd always b-be here...! B-But she left... W-Why did she...?!"

Much to Fluttershy's shock, suddenly Twister stepped away from her and curled up into a ball and rocking himself as if trying to bring some comfort to himself, but his pupils were shaking and his words became incomprehensible as he started to speak in Krussian, completely forgetting about Fluttershy being in front on him, the tears starting to roll down his cheeks. However, the inmates simply turned their heads away as if accustomed to this 'scenes'. The guards simply kept an eye on Twister, but made no movement to console him in any way, like they didn't care. Fluttershy couldn't believe they simply dismissed Twister's feelings like that. 

However, before she could move in to try and comfort him, she was pulled back by Fire Throat. In fact, suddenly most of the inmates grew silent, and a few started to clear the center of the dining hall, as if they knew something was going to happen. Twister remained unmoving, however.

"What's going on?" Fluttershy inquired, yelping when Fire Throat hid her beneath him. Roachie immediately crawled up her left and hid under her right wing.

"The Big Five are coming together tonight." Fire Throat whispered quickly. "It's Saturday." 

"What's so special about saturday?"

"Póker night." Swift Tail retorted. 

"But why does everydrake make such a fuss about it?"

"See, remember about the special treatment I mentioned about the Big Five because they have tons of dough?" Fluttershy nodded at the question. "Well, this is one of their 'privileges'." 

Soon enough, the doors opened and four drakes stepped into the room. The first had a slender build, tail spines, swirly Age Marks and curved horns pointing downwards. His mohawk pointed backwards, and it was colored a very pale blue green, much like his underbelly. His eyes were a contrasting golden. The second had a much more stocker build, his Age Marks were triangle-shaped and his wings were a bit torn, there was a fin running down his neck, and a pair on the tip of his tail. He lacked any sort of hair, but he did have a bit under his chin in the form of a red beard, the same shade as his underbelly. The peculiar thing about this drake was the shape of his horns and fangs; they were swirly, like unicorn horns. His eyes were lavender. The third had a sort of western look to him. He had a black and white wild mess of hairs, and his horns were concealed under a dark brown stetson hat, though he did have a pair of ear-like fins. His Age Marks ran down his sides like lighting, and his underbelly and underwings were a frumpy gray, there was an axe-like appendage on the tip of his tail. The fourth drake was seemingly the oldest, much more older than any of the other inmates. His whole body was all wrinkled, and his skin was clingy in some parts, particularly his legs, and it was covered in scars. His eyes were hidden under thick eyebrows and a lion mane-like blue hair. There was a pair of long hairy mustaches hanging from under his nostrils. the tip of his tail had been replaced with an actual appendage in the shape of a knife. Unlike the other drakes, he had a sort of bracelet in his left talon. 

Soon, Bullhorn joined the other four drakes in the center of the dining hall, where the tables had already been brought together to make an individual space for each. A guard came forward and placed a deck of cards, the expensive sort, apparently, in the center of the table. Fluttershy noticed each of the other four drakes was accompanied by a few drakes, surely their own group of followers. Some had stoic expressions, others were depressed and sullen, and a small number were nervous, particularly the smaller ones with the bald drake. One of each of the Big Five's followers placed a bag of obsids on the table. 

"So that's why Bullhorn wanted my obsids so badly?" Fluttershy inquired. 

"In reality, he has his own stored away safely, but he is so stingy he'd rather bet others' money." Swift Tail muttered. 

"Who are they, by the way?"

Fire Throat pointed at the first drake with blue green hair. "That's Cloudslicer. You could call him the 'most reasonable' of the Big Five, but stay away from his tail." Then he pointed at the bald drake with swirly fangs and horns. "Unicorfang is not very smart, but he is very aggressive, one could say even more of a psycho than Twister when he wants to be, so try not to cross him. Next we have Skunk Breath." Fire Throat glanced at the drake with the hat. "And no, he didn't earn his nickname just because of the color of his hair. All I will tell you is to stay way from his mouth, it has sent people to the nurse's office because of nausea or vomiting." The last was the oldest drake. "And last but not least, we have Warfang. It's rumored he has spent the most time here out of all the inmates, so he knows everything that happens inside these walls."

"Long story short; try to stay on their neutral graces as much as you can, kiddo." Swift Tail muttered. "Bullhorn technically claimed you as his 'property', so don't be surprised if he exchanges you with one of the others."

Fluttershy glanced up at him in confusion. "Property? What do you mean?"

"You pay him protection to stay alive, that makes you his property until he decides otherwise."

"That's unfair. I am not an object."

Swift Tail rolled his eyes. "Newbie, if life were fair, Brokenfang wouldn't exist."

Meanwhile, Unicorfang had already shuffled the deck of cards and handed out to the rest of his companions. Then he glanced at Neckslicer. "Hey, Neckslicer, did you get what I asked you?"

Neckslicer nodded and snapped his fingers. One of the guards stepped forward and placed various bottles of unknown beverages in the center of the table. "White wine of Rkatsiteli grapes, Ruskova Zyr Vodka and all your favorite brands."

Satisfied, Unicorfang snapped his claws and motioned one of his cronies to give Neckslicer the payment. The small drake walked over to Neckslicer and handed him two large bags of obsids. Neckslicer accepted the payment with a satisfied, but respectful smirk. "A pleasure to do business with you, dhentlezen."

"You know the drill. Whoever loses invites the drinks next saturday." Skunk Breath stated, lifting his cards to plan his strategy. 

"You better not have any aces under your hat, Skunk Breath." Bullhorn narrowed his eyes. "We know your tricks." 

By then, all of the inmates-at least those who were not under the Big Five's possesion-were leaving the dining hall, most of them heading over to the courtyard, the guards were leading them away. Fluttershy thought it wasn't fair, but this time chose to keep her words to himself. However, as she was about to follow Swift Tail and Fire Throat, she noted Twister had not moved an inch, and kept mumbling things to himself about her not loving him anymore. Apparently, the Big Five had noticed.

"Could somedrake drag that loony out of here? He ruins my concentration." Cloudslicer frowned at Twister, who remained oblivious to their presence. 

"One of my boys already lost an eye dealing with him, so forget it." Skunk Breath growled, pointing at one of his own henchdrakes who, in fact, had an eyepatch in his right eye, said inmate flinched nervously at the reminder. 

"Well, somedrake has to get him out." Warfang said, glancing at Twister, and noticed there were still three othes outside their 'circle' inside. "Maybe those three..." he noticed one of the inmates was not a Temnokt at all, but a pony. "Hey, where did that pony come from?"

Bullhorn glanced back at her. "Oh, her? That's the Newbie, the Equestrian who supposedly tried to murder a High Blood."

The other four drakes merely took a glance at Fluttershy to let out chuckles of disbelief.

"That puny thing? Against a High Blood?" Skunk Breath snickered. "She wouldn't have even gotten here in pieces if that were the case." 

"Don't underestimate Equestrians. I've heard the Royal Sisters Luna and Celestia have a 'flawless' defense mechanism to protect their little country." Cloudslicer stated, staring down at his hand of cards. "Elements of... I don't know what. But apparently that's the reason Bittercold hasn't dared to start a war with Equestria."

"Judging by her lack of hair, I can assume that's where you got that pink fabric from." Unicorfang added, staring at Fluttershy's badly cut strands of hair greedily. "I wonder how long it'll take for ponies to grow back their hair..."

Bullhorn stared at Twister, then at Fluttershy, then he had an idea. "Dhentlezen, would you like to see something amusing?" he chuckled evilly. 

"What do you mean?" Warfang raised an eyebrow, though his eye remained unseen. 

Bullhorn glanced at Fluttershy. "Hey, Newbie!" 

Fluttershy froze in place and tried to hide behind Fire Throat, but nevertheless she peeked out her head. "W-What is it?" she whispered.

"What did she say? I didn't hear it!" Skunk Fang snapped. 

"Speak louder, Newbie!" Bullhorn yelled again, losing his patience. 

"W-What is it...?" Fluttershy inquired a bit louder, but not audible enough for them to hear. 

"Is she deaf?" Cloudslicer inquired, frowning. 

"More like mute." Unicorfang retorted. 

Rolling his eyes in irritation, Bullhorn gave a sign to one of his cronies, who walked toward Fluttershy menacingly. Fire Throat was quick to speak. "She asked what is it!" he yelled in panic.

Bullhorn snapped his finger, and his henchdrake stopped. "Drag the loony out of here." he pointed at Twister, who still didn't react. 

"M-Me?" Fluttershy gulped.

"Do you see any other Newbies around here?" Bullhorn rolled his eyes. "Go on, we're trying to play here!"

"Now that we're on it, tell her to bring me a pig sandwich." Unicorfang snickered. 

"You two, out." Cloudslicer glared mildly at Fire Throat and Swift Tail, motioning them to leave.

"B-But..." Fire Throat didn't want to leave Fluttershy alone with Twister and the Big Five.

"Okay, we're going! We're going!" Swift Tail didn't give him time to react, and pushed his friend away and out of the mess hall. 

Fluttershy gulped as she warily approached Twister. As incredible as it seemed, he still hadn't caught on to what was going on around him, and was hidden inside his little 'ball' inside his wings. How would he react if she just disturbed him like that? Would he attack her or gorge an eye out? Or both? It seemed the Big Five wanted to see a blood spectacle if they didn't mind her being potentially hurt by a mental unstable drake. Gulping, Fluttershy came close enough to touch Twister's shoulder. "Um, Twister..." she jumped back when suddenly Twister uncurled from his ball, lifting his head to look at her. His eyes were bloodshot from all the tears, and his gaze was almost disoriented. 

"Oh, this is going to be fun..." Skunk Breath snickered, leaning his head forward.

"Let's see how the Newbie handles it..." Warfang stared at the scene apprehensively. 

Fluttershy hadn't felt under so much pressure, not even back when she had been caught impersonating BigMac's singing voice that time when he lost his voice. At least that audience wouldn't have ripped her to pieces at the slightest mistake. Gulping, Fluttershy managed to speak. "T-Twister, the B-Big Five are asking u-u to l-leave..." she pointed her hoof at the drakes in the table. "H-How about we g-go outside to...." she tried to find a suitable word. "...p-play?"

At the word play, Twister picked Fluttershy by the wings, his mood the opposite of a few seconds ago, and carried her away and out of the mess hall despite her fearful whimpers. The Big Five and their henchdrakes just stared at the direction they had gone, disappointed at the lack of blood or a freshly plucked member of the pony's body. Skunk Breath breathed out the smoke of his cigar through his nostrils. 

"The next time we should make sure Twister is on his bad days." 
> 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...
> 'Hospitality'
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy soon learned the status of Newbie was a temporary one, something she was thankful for. Whenever a new inmate, either a single one, or a group, arrived, all the attention and teasing left her and changed over to the newly-arrived. Sure, she still got her share of attention since she was the only pony in that place, but whenever another inmate came he would be the new victim, the new punching bag, and she soon learned the welcome given to her by one of the Big Five wasn't exclusive to her. Apparently, it was a sort of tradition that the Big Five who lived in the same cellblock, or the nearest to the cellblock, as the newbie was to provide the poor bastard his welcome according to the crime that had brought him here in the first place. 

This initiation was known as the 'Welcome', a twisted version of the actual meaning of the word.

Fire Throat didn't want to go into details of what despicable acts occurred in a Welcome, Fluttershy soon noticed his mood went sour whenever she tried to ask what had been done to him, so she decided to stop asking. 

Swift Tail was not very specific either, he simply said there were certain rules that affected the outcome of the Welcome, and what karmic punishment was given to the newly-arrived according to their personal sins. 

Twister wasn't of much help, unfortunately, his mental state made it even difficult to communicate with him, or for him to properly communicate what his broken mind thought. 

Neckslicer... Well, Fluttershy hadn't the courage to go near him to hear his version regarding the Welcome. 

The good thing was that she was getting sort of adapted, just enough to stay out of danger. The teasing and both physical as well as emotional bullying was still there, but she soon learned that if she stayed out of others' business, they wouldn't look at her unless they wanted form of entertainment. Fluttershy soon learned about the types of inmates, and how the 'penitentiary underworld' worked to some extent. 

Each group of particular inmates had their Khozyain, or boss, the Big Five were a clear example of this, and they were in charge of showing newbies their 'place' in the penitentiary hierarchy, in their particular group at least. This place was usually at the bottom, doing tasks to the 'higher-ups' for anything they required, from protection to a cup of coffee on Neckslicer's part. 

The Law of the Silence was always present among the inmates. Telltales, or Predatelkys as they were called in the Krussian language, were despised in all the ranks of the hierarchy, the first rule of this place was to never blow the whistle, this rule contrasted with the slams and hits on the walls and bars, in prison morse code, from the inmates when the lights went out. 

Corporal language was a key factor. Gazing to an unknown inmate directly at the eyes was more likely to bring trouble, just like messing into others' business without having been asked to. There was a different hierarchy of delinquents, murderers, homicidal bank robbers, condrakes, rapists, pedophiles, etc. Apparently these last two were the most hated and worst treated both by guards and inmates alike. These last two tried to hide or lie about the reason which brought them to Brokenfang, but were usually discovered eventually, and when they were... She still hadn't been told what was done to these particular types.

That was, until that evening. 





7:00 P.M
Labor Rooms Corridor


She had just finished her last batch of dresses when the bell rang, signaling the end of the day's shift. Her surprising talent at making simple dresses had earned her a bit of admiration among the inmates in that work, but most of them were scapegoats who had no influence in the hierarchy. Some would even try to steal Fluttershy's work and make it pass as their own, but Fluttershy didn't really mind. She didn't want to get any trouble, besides she still earned a good few two hundred obsids. It should be enough to buy something edible from Neckslicer... unless he augmented the price just to mess with her. She hoped it wouldn't be the case.

However, as they were making their way out of the sewing room, suddenly Roachie's antennae twitched and he ran towards another of the rooms. "Roachie!" Fluttershy called out for him, watching in worry as he crawled towards the door avoiding the large talons which could squash him. She galloped after him and into the room, though none of the others noticed. Fluttershy followed Roachie to one of the other work rooms, it was filled with metal tables, and on top of most of those tables were some sort of hand-used machines to make who knew what, maybe metal objects. Roachie crawled under a desk and jumped in delight when it found a chocolate bar, apparently a few days old since it was opened, and started devouring it.

"Roachie, we shouldn't be here...!" Fluttershy whispered to him urgently. "It's dangerous, those devices don't look nice. We have to get out before-!" Before she could say anything, suddenly she heard a noise and quickly ran beneath the desk to hide. A drake of about thirty with slim body, dark blue hair and brown eyes ran inside with a terrified expression, only to find there was no way out. Fluttershy noticed he was all bruised and his upper lip was bleeding, as if he had just been beaten and wanted to get away from his tormentors. 

"Trapped like a rat." 

Both Fluttershy and the drake jumped in fright when they heard that voice. Fluttershy tucked deeper into the desk when a group of drakes entered, they were led by the one of the Big Five. It wasn't Bullhorn, it was the drake with the hat and black and white hair... Skunk Breath, if she recalled correctly. The drake tried to step back, but there was nowhere to run. 

Skunk Breath chuckled. "They were right when they said you were a coward. You cannot bear a little welcome after all you did outside?" 

"P-Please, d-don't hurt me...!" the drake begged, trembling. "M-My family t-turned their b-back on me...! They don't send me any money, please help me!"

"Help you?!" At that, Skunk Breath burst out into laughter, followed suit by the other inmates. "I told you, Princess, you pay for protection, we give it. You don't, then don't whine like a little drady and bear your welcome with dignity!"

Fluttershy had to take her hooves to her mouth to keep a gasp from escaping and alerting the drakes to her presence when two drakes grabbed the blue-haired drake from behind and towards one of the machines. The drake was yelling in horror as he was dragged to one of the machines, Skunk Breath snickering in delight. "Your filthy hands destroyed everything they touched, so we better take care of them." 

"No! Please, no!" 

Fluttershy gasped when the drake's hand was forcefully put into one of the press-machines, and the wheel was turned, making the drake scream in pain. However, Skunk Breath seemed to reconsider, and motioned the drake at the press to stop. "Well... how about we go a bit easier on him? Instead of a hand, we'll cut off two of his fingers." She didn't understand what he said, but her eyes widened when she saw another of the inmates picking up a pair of large pincers, only for Skunk Breath to mutters something to him, and he put them down, picking up a smaller, but apparently sharper pair. The blue-haired drake pleaded and yelled, but he was tightly held by the other, much more stronger inmates, and they held out his right arm as the drake with the pincers approached, smiling evilly...

Fluttershy realized what they were going to do. 

She would have hidden in her mane, but by then she was used to the idea that it was too short for that, so she closed her eyes shut and hid her face in her hooves. She started to tremble when she heard the drake's screams of pain, the sound of bones snapping and blood dripping. She heard the pincers slicing through flesh and bone twice, and of two small things falling to the ground, but she also heard the laughter of the inmates who were watching. How could they be so sadist and be happy at other's suffering? The smell of blood reached her nose, and she did her best to contain her breathing to keep the horrible odor out, but it was futile. 

A while later, the snapping stopped, but she screams of pain and the sobs continued. Skunk Breath said something in Krussian and left, followed by the other inmates in his group, leaving the trembling, terrified and agonizing newbie behind. Roachie made sure the others were gone before he patted Fluttershy's head and twitched his antennae, telling her it was safe. But Fluttershy was afraid of what she would see, a bath of blood? Broken and discarded limbs? But the smell of blood was overwhelming, she had to get out of here before it worsened. 

She regretted at the first glance. The victim was on the ground, clutching his hand as he screamed and yelled at the agonizing pain. There was blood all around his hand, it wasn't enough blood to worry about, but it was plenty enough to scare the heck out of the pegasus. And a few inches next to the drake, there were...

There w-were.... 

T-Two...! 

Fluttershy couldn't bear it any longer. When she saw the two discarded, cut-off bloody fingers on the ground it nearly did it. Her stomach churned inside her as she ran out of the room, not minding if the drake noticed her, galloping through the halls towards the bathrooms, Roachie barely clinging to her mane. The contents of her stomach started tops their way upwards into her throat because of the disgust at the horrible scene, and Fluttershy barely made it into the bathroom and to one of the toilets to throw up, the acidic sensation of vomit piercing her throat as she continued to vomit her lunch. When she was done, she collapsed into the floor, sobbing, trying in vain to erase the image from her head. Roachie tried to console her with his antennae and legs, but Fluttershy wasn't paying him mind for the time being.

She was afraid. That would have been her had Bullhorn decided to take more than just her hair. An ear, a limb, a wing, maybe even an eye... She didn't know what she'd do, if she'd be able to go through with the pain should any of these... creatures decided to take something else from her. 

She was unaware that she wasn't alone until she felt something brush against her leg.

Fluttershy jumped when the last person she wanted to see at the moment spoke. She hit her head against the dirty toilet from jumping back in fright, and she had to bite her lip to contain another sob. The large, black lizard had brushed his thin reptilian tongue against her leg to make her react, and a few steps away was....

Fluttershy did gulp when she found herself face-to-face with the Solitaire. 

She froze, as if he would attack her at the slightest movement. But Solitaire was just staring at her coldly, with an air of curiosity with a bit of inquisitiveness to it. Roachie crawled under Fluttershy's wing to hide from the lizard, lest he wanted to be his meal. The lizard hissed in annoyance again when Roachie disappeared, and a pair of collar-like fins perked up, giving him a rather funny look. Unfortunately, Fluttershy's animal knowledge didn't extend to reptiles that much, Pinkie's alligator was the only domesticated reptile in Ponyville. And this was a different type of reptile. Did he bite? Or scratch? Or both? And she didn't want another unintentional enemy, much less from the Maximum Security Cells.

"Umm...." Fluttersy tried to break the ice. "H-Hello..."

Solitaire didn't respond, but his eyes were still fixed on her. Fluttershy wondered if they were right when they said he was mute, or he simply didn't talk to keep appearances. Eventually, his pet took a step forward, his collar fin spread out, his pupils turned into slits as he tried to find any trace of his potential meal. 

"Um, excuse me..." Fluttershy recalled she didn't know the lizard's name, and the didn't think Solitaire would tell her. "...Mister Lizard, Roachie is my friend. I'm afraid I can't let you eat him..." 

The lizard seemed disappointed at this, he stared at Fluttershy with contempt and stepped back, hissing. Fluttershy trembled when Solitaire frowned at her for a moment, before his expression softened again. The silence made her feel uncomfortable, how was she supposed to know what he wanted if he didn't tell her? When his lizard went back to him and climbed unto his arm, however, she could tell he was an animal person, that was the one thing they had in common... maybe.

"You have a nice pet, mister Solitaire..." Fluttershy whispered unaudibly, which she noticed when Solitaire narrowed his eyes in confusion and leaned his head closer to hear better. "You have a nice pet..." she said, a bit louder. This time he did seemed like he heard her, for he gave a grunt, it startled her, it was the only sound she had heard from him. Was he planning something...? 

The siren signaling dinner made her literally jump, the sudden and loud noise after minutes of utter silence except for her nervous stuttering and the lizard's grunts and growls. "Umm, we should... You know, it's dinner time and I'm a bit hungry..." Fluttershy gulped internally at Solitaire's cold gaze performing through her skin and into her soul, if he looked hard enough. "W-Well, s-see you later...!" she finished the one-sided conversation and galloped out of the room, but it seemed the feeling of Solitaire's gaze still followed her even when he was not in sight. 





Tonight's menu consisted of 'mystery meat' salisbury steaks, something which she didn't crave for, but of which the other inmates were so fond of that they often asked for double rations.  Instead, she was content with some gruel, a secondary meal that was not as popular, but some inmates still ate it for nutritional purposes. As always, Fluttershy sat in the table with Fire Throat, Swift Tail... and Twister had apparently thought he had been accepted in their little group, though as much as disturbing as he could be Fluttershy didn't have the heart to tell him to go.

"Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost." Swift Tail commented when he noticed Fluttershy had not touched her meal, and she was staring apprehensively at their meat. "I know, we don't know what kind of meat it actually is, but it's the closest thing we have to actual meat."

"You're not helping." Fire Throat growled at him.

Twister sat next to her, fidgeting with her gruel, watching as Roachie warningly tried to get his claws of his meal, but which the Temnokt found entertaining. Fluttershy didn't respond, she was still in shock over what she had seen at the room, she didn't want to vomit again, yet the memory of those t-two... she couldn't bring herself to remember it. 

"Hello?" Twister noticed she wasn't listening. He tapped her head with a claw gently. "Any...pony in there?"

Fluttershy reacted with a 'meep', and she would have fallen of the table if she hadn't been caught by Twister's tail. It took her a few more seconds, but she managed to speak. "I'm sorry, I was thinking of something..."

"You were pale, honey, that only happens when you're thinking of something that either frightens or disturbs you." Fire Throat pointed out. "Did something happen?"

"N-No..."

"You're a terrible liar, mare." Swift Tail rolled his eyes. "If you stutter, we notice you're nervous, which is a synonym of 'I'm hiding something'."

"I don't like lying, it's not right." Fluttershy said.

"Telling the truth doesn't save your scales here. Sometimes you have to resort to things you don't like to keep yourself breathing." 

"Did you see new Newbie?" Twister inquired, spontaneously changing the subject. "He has eight claws!" 

"Eight?" Fire Throat repeated. "You mean ten."

"No, eight. His hand is all covered in bandages, and there are red spots on it." He pointed at a table, where at the corner sat a blue-haired drake, who clutched his bandaged hand, staring at the empty spots where his two fingers once were in shock and horror, trembling when he spotted Skunk Breath a few tables away, enjoying a much more luxurious meal with the rest of the Big Five. "Look, there he is."

"Oh, you mean Erick the Newbie?" Fire Throat said. "if you ask me, it's little compared to what he actually deserves."

Fluttershy's curiosity was spiked at it. Just what had he done that even Fire Throat wanted to see more harm inflicted than just lying two fingers. "W-Why is he h-here?"

"If we listed it down it would take a while. You want the short or long version?" Swift Tail inquired, taking a big bite of his meat. 

"Mmm... is there a medium version?"

Fire Throat sighed. "He was the kid of one of the High Bloods, but apart from being spoiled he was greedy, immature, not a real drake, and you know what I mean. Anyway, his father didn't realize it until it was too late. But since he was a mama's boy he couldn't discipline him like he wanted. Things went downhill after his younger sister died of drug overdose. His parents discovered he had purposely asked her to meet him at a certain place where the drug dealer who had been selling her cocaine was waiting for her, pushing her into drugging herself, and to her death."

"That was the last straw for the family. He was cast out like the parasite he was, but it didn't end there. Other things came to light: he orchestrated the kidnapping of his own kid to take the hatchling custody just to mess with his ex-wife because he didn't want her to be happy, he had raped his her because she refused to sleep with him anymore, since she had fallen in love with his more mature, kind and loving brother. His parents returned the custody to the child's mother and then he was sent here. As far as I know, they don't even send him protection money." 

Fluttershy stared at Erick in horror. "That's awful..." Rape... She knew where it was going... As she stared at the trembling inmate, the mere sight of his bandaged hand to send her into a panic attack as the image returned. 

"Fluttershy?" Fire Throat panicked when Fluttershy became pale, and she started to sweat and breath in a rapid succession as she slid out of Twister's grasp and under the table. Unfortunately, the inmates in the nearby tables saw what was going on. A few snickered, others wondered what she had seen that she was making such a ruckus. "Honey?" 

"I got the feeling she saw something." Swift Tail added. "If you noticed, it started when she saw Erick's bandaged hand."

"You think she was present? The others would be bothering her with it."

"Maybe they didn't know she was there... Otherwise, Skunk Breath wouldn't have let the opportunity pass..."

Twister soon joined Fluttershy under the table, still looking at her curiously. "Who are we hiding from?"

No reply. Fluttershy merely continued to tremble, her breathing becoming more frantic, her heartbeat increasing, wrapping her hooves around her body in an attempt to protect herself. 

"You look scared." Suddenly, Twister's behavior mirrored that of Fluttershy's, and his pupils started t shrink. "Are y-you afraid of m-me...? You d-don't like m-me...?"

"Nonono!" Fire Throat reacted before Twister could start another episode, taking Swift Tail's hidden stash of 'emergency cocaine' and slipping it under the table. "Here, have some candy!" 

Fluttershy finally reacted when Twister unknowingly struck her wing with his talon to grab the small bag, opening it and sniffing, relaxing almost immediately. She bit her lip to contain a cry of pain as she felt something in her wing bone snap, not something very serious, but when she tried to retreat her wing a sharp, unbearable pain overcame her, so she kept it extended. With some difficulty, she climbed back unto the chair, trying to contain her tears of pain to no avail.

"What happened down there?" Swift Tail inquired, staring at her wing. "Did Twister do something?"

"H-hurts...!" Fluttershy whimpered in pain. 

Fire Throat leaned in his long neck closer take a look. "Oh dear, looks like it's mildly dislocated, not too much but it needs to be put back in place before it gets worse."

Swift Tail snickered humorlessly, taking a drink from his cold coffee. "And that's why you don't sit in the same table with Twister."





The prison's infirmary could be called, to some extent, the most comfortable room so far. The walls were a pasty-off white, with metal furniture where various medical utensils and medicines accommodated perfectly, though all the etiquettes were in Krussian and could not be read by ponies. Unlike many of the rooms, there were actual windows in that place, though there were bars on the outside to keep any attempted escapes on the inmates' part. 

The doctor working there was a lovely drady with beautiful lavender curls and underbelly, who wore a white coat over her dark scales, and her cyan eyes were so unlike the cold, hard and hostile eyes of the rest of the staff and inhabitants of the prison: warm and caring. Fluttershy was relieved to have found the first actual friendly face in that dreaded place, apart from Fire Throat and... Swift Tail and Twister, sort of. 

Fire Throat had kind of exaggerated, he told the guards that her wing had been broken and she needed immediate medical attention. Fluttershy's expression of pain and tearing up for a mild dislocation was enough for the guards to buy it, she guessed they thought she was like a glass menagerie that could be easily broken... which wasn't completely false. Apparently, a dislocated wing wasn't enough of a serious injury to be sent to the infirmary, only actual serious wounds were sent to the medical ward, like amputations, drug overdose and other things Fluttershy didn't want to remember.  

The doctor, whose name was Skyler, was taking a look at her dislocated wing quizzically, every now and then peeking into a book, which Fluttershy assumed was a sort of book that explained how to treat ponies.  

"Looks like it's merely dislocated a bit." she sighed, glancing at Fluttershy's wing. "I have to put it back in place, but it's going to hurt a bit."

Fluttershy gulped. She had heard it wasn't a pleasant experience. "Isn't there a way to make it hurt less?"

"I could cast a spell to numb your wing so it won't hurt, but when it fades it's going to be sore and you won't be able to move it."

"I think that's okay." 

Skyler nodded as her horns glowed, the magical aura flowing to Fluttershy's wing. Fluttershy shivered when the aura flowed through her wing, leaving behind a cold sensation, but soon she felt relieved when the pain started to subside. The terror began when Skyler placed her large talon on top of her wing, and she closed her eyes shut waiting for the agonizing snap; much to her surprise, she merely felt a tug on her joint, putting the bone back into place. 

"Done!" Skyler chirped. "Be careful the next time you go flying, sweetie. Especially with such short wings." 

"Thanks, though I don't really..." Fluttershy processed the word short wings. "Short wings?" She was a pegasus pony, it was normal that her wings weren't as large as a Temnokt's. 

"A pegasus pony's wings are usually 5 feet long, but yours are only 3.5 feet long. Shorter wings usually affect flight negatively, since they don't have as much power or resistance as longer wings are. I don't exactly know how pegasus flight works out, but in any flying creature shorter or longer wings than usual can cause a few problems." 

"Well, I was never good at flying..." 

"You don't have to feel bad about it." Skyler smiled sympathetically. "Half of the people here have wings that are too short or too long too. Just be careful when you fly near the larger inmates, okay?" 

Fluttershy nodded, smiling. "Thank you very much, miss Skyler." 

"Oh, there's no need for formalities, sweetie. You may call me Skyler. See you around!" 

Fluttershy allowed Skyler to levitate her off the table and down unto the floor, then she made her way out of the infirmary. Since it was located in the less restricted area of the prison, injured inmates were brought by guards, though in her case only one guard was needed. Fluttershy followed him back to the area where the inmates lived. She noticed there were more guards around this area, having coffee, or preparing to go home for the change of shifts, and having a much more enjoyable meal. 

They crossed another set of doors that led into the inmates' area, and was led to her cellblock. By then Fluttershy had gotten to know where her cell was located. Most of the other inmates were in the cells, the doors still open, and most of them merely gave her a glance upon hearing her hooves clopping against the floor before going back to whatever they were doing. thankfully they had lost interest in her for the time being, so Fluttershy wanted to enjoy it as long as it lasted. As soon as she was inside her cell, all the doors to the cells closed, trapping her inside once again. 

Roachie crawled from underneath her blanket, waving his antennae in a friendly way, then it pointed at Fluttershy's wing in worry. 

"Don't worry, Roachie, it's okay. I feel much better now." Fluttershy smiled at him. "And the doctor was very nice too." She lay down on the old mattress, slipping underneath her bed covers. It wasn't long before the lights were turned off, leaving everything in complete darkness again, save for the light from the barred window. Fluttershy was sad that all the sky was cloudy and snowing, with not a single sign of stars or even Princess Luna's moon. She wondered how her friends were doing, she just couldn't wait for the next visit to see them again. Her eyes swelled up with tears at the thought. 

Fluttershy closed her eyes and slept. 
> Negotiations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


7:00 A.M.- Cellblock 5


The next day, the effect of Skyler's spell wore off, and Fluttershy stirred awake to very painful, sore sensation on her wing. She tried to move it, but a great stinging sensation coursed down her spine, and she had to retreat her wing. The wings worked with the vertebral column, if her column was damaged, there was the possibility her wings would be deeply affected, including the possibility of permanent immobility. Fluttershy noticed the joint of the wing looked swollen, and there was a blackish hue to it that made her worry. Maybe she should visit Skyler later today, if she managed to convince one of the guards. 

The bell rang, and the doors to the cells opened. Fluttershy made her way out of her cell, managing to keep enough distance from the other inmates as they walked out of the cellblock, though she was uncomfortable at the uninterested glances they were giving her. She had never liked to be stared at by multitudes, much less non-friendly multitudes like this. She hadn't taken a bath in days, but she didn't like the idea of sharing a whole bathroom with so many males, especially since some of them looked like they were desperate for feminine contact of any sort. So she waited a a good twenty minutes before most of the other inmates when in and out of the showers, their hair humid and their scales gleaming lightly, though she could tell some of them simply took a quick dip on the water. 

When she was certain there was no one else inside, Fluttershy trotted inside and looked for any towels that hadn't been used by the other inmates. She found a small-sized towel, which in her perspective was like a normal towel. She picked it up, but due to her swollen wing she wouldn't be able to fly up to the handle, so Roachie crawled all the way up and with some difficulty managed to turn the handle, but this time she was careful not to be in the way of the water when it shot down. It was still cold, but Fluttershy really needed a shower. Little by little she cooped her hooves under the water to gather some, then she'd splash it on her back, her face, her mane and rubbed all of her body with a bit of soap, but it was very hard to touch the parts that were not filled with Temnokt hair. At the lack of shampoo of any kind, she rubbed the soap in her hair in an attempt to clean it. It didn't work the same way as  a shampoo, but it was better than nothing. 

When she was done with the soap, she gently poured small scoopfuls of water on top of herself and rubbed again to remove all the soap. When she was free of any soap left, Roachie turned the handle again, this time to the opposite side, to close the water. Fluttershy rubbed the towel on herself until she was dry. As she made her way out of the showers, she walked over to the dining hall, where all of the other inmates were. 

When she entered that morning, though, she found it empty, except for a group of five sitting on the center...

Oh, no. She had forgotten, today was when the Big Five had their 'weekly' meeting. But before she could gallop out, the door was closed shut behind her by one of the Guards in turn, who merely snickered maliciously at her.

"Well, look who decided to join us." Skunk Breath snickered. "Flutteroach." 

Roachie buzzed his wings at the drake, as if asking him if he wanted a fight, but Fluttershy hid him under her good wing, gulping. "G-Good morning..." 

Cloudslicer noticed the uncertain look in her eyes. "I think it's a bit to cruel to leave her in the dark. We should speak to her in Equestrian."

"Why do you care about whatever that pony thinks?" Unicornfang inquired, taking a sip of his wine.

"Well, for starters, she won't be able to do what we tell her to if she doesn't know what we want her to do."

Bullhorn snorted. "Smartscales. You were always too smart for your own good." 

"I might as well be the only reasonable drake here." 

Warfang coughed loudly, his furry blue eyebrows twisting into a frown, then he glanced at Fluttershy with his unseen eyes. "You. Come closer." 

Fluttershy felt she was in no position to say no, so she fearfully stepped closer "Y-Yes?"

"Since you're here, go and bring us some drinks." he said, pointing to the kitchen counter. "Just make sure not to drop them on the way."

Fluttershy felt intimidated by the aggressive air the Big Five showed towards her, and galloped towards the kitchen. There were a few inmates of the less bulky kind, more like they were the type of 'dogs'. They were hurriedly mixing some substances, probably the alcoholic beverages of which the drinks were made of, and were very meticulous in details like a little paper umbrella on Cloudslicer's drink, or the position of the cherry in Skunk Breath's. Fluttershy glanced at the Big Five from behind the counter, meanwhile, and she noticed they were listening to a sort of radio. it was large, and they fidgeted with the antennae until ti caught the frequency, then Unicornfang started to move the button till it was on the station they wanted.  

Fluttershy yelped when one of the inmates placed a silver tray on her head, and she struggled to keep it balanced on her head. "Take it to the Big Five, and whatever you do, don't drop it." He told her nervously. 

She had no idea of what he said, but she had the feeling he told her not to drop the drinks. Warfang himself had told her not to drop them, so she guessed this inmate meant the same thing. With some difficulty, Fluttershy slowly made her way back towards the table, whimpering every time she felt the tray about to fall off. As she approached, she heard the radio transmission more clearly, but unfortunately she didn't know what they were listening to. However, judging by the loud voice speaking over lots of other, cheering voices, she could tell it was a sort of event. 

"Ha! I'm betting everything on number sixteen!" Skunk Breath cackled. 

Cloudslicer rolled his eyes. "Go on, waste your money on that old mule. I'm betting on number eight."

"Instead of just betting to the one who looks faster, shouldn't you take other things into consideration?" Warfang spoke. "Sometimes the ones who look healthy hide a sort of defect under their hires, like Silver Antlerss."

Unicornfang sighed nostalgically."Too bad, it was a nice deer."

When Fluttershy was finally next to the table, each of the drakes grabbed his respective drink from the tray, lifting some of the weight from her head. However, before she could walk back to the kitchen counter, a scaly tail stopped her. 

"Hey, Flutteroach." It was Unicornfang. "There's a small piece of napkin on my glass. Come up here and remove it." 

Fluttershy gulped nervously, her ears flattened against her head. "B-But..." she whispered inaudibly.

"What did you say?" Bullhorn inquired. "Speak louder."

"I d-don't reach..."

"Louder." Cloudslicer snapped coldly, frowning deeply. 

"I d-don't reach!" 

Unicornfang scoffed. "You are a pegasus, aren't you? Just fly up here, and I might not bite you for such insolence."

Knowing they would get even more annoyed if she didn't obey, Fluttershy tried to open her wings, but as always they stuck to her body and refused to extend when she was under too much stress or fear. She tried a few times, but her wing bones were stiff and refused to obey. And Unicornfang starting to tap on his hind leg made them stuck close to her body even more.  

"I'm waiting..." he hissed.

"I'm s-sorry, m-mister..." Fluttershy stuttered.

"What? You don't fly?" Skunk Breath snickered. His grin widened when he saw Fluttershy's expression at his word. "Ah, let me guess. You're afraid of heights?" 

"Um... Sort of..."

Fluttershy froze and 'yelled' in fright when suddenly Cloudslicer grabbed her with his talon and lifted her to his eye level, his expression stoic and unimpressed, but she could see the maliciousness in his gaze. 

"Is it so hard for you to just extend out your wings?" he asked in an almost casual way. He reached out to one of Fluttershy's wings and forcibly extended it. Fluttershy whimpered in pain when she felt something snap in her wing join, and she felt her fixed wing being pulled out of place again. Her eyes stinging with tears and her sudden stiffening told Cloudslicer what he needed to go. "Oh, so it was hurt? You could have mentioned it, Flutteroach." 

He dropped her half-way from the ground, making her whimper again in pain. But Fluttershy's shoulder blade was in too much pain for her to even try and run away, the tears finally trickled down her cheeks as she started to sob in pain. The burning sensation was unbearable, she felt as if her wing had been torn from her body, and it still hung to her back. 

"Great, I think you broke her." Bullhorn glanced at Cloudslicer with a frown. "How is she going to tend to my needs now?" 

"You don't seriously think you're going to fit in her, do you?" Warfang raised an eyebrow. "She won't last five seconds, from what I can see if she can't bear a simply dislocation."

Unicornfang pushed Fluttershy away with his tail roughly, ignoring her yelp of pain. "Flutteroach! Go to sob somewhere else! We can't hear the race!"

Finally, Fluttershy managed to gallop away, her wing joint burning as it hung from her back. Roachie barely had time to cling to her tail. Fluttershy galloped into the yard, where most of the inmates were gathered, all of them thankfully ignoring her as she went to the corner near the metal seats, and hid just behind them, trembling from both the cold and the pain. Fluttershy glanced back at her broken wing and paled when she saw the horrible purple bruise just on the joint, and which now extended over to her shoulder and back.

"Fluttershy, are you okay?"

Fluttershy continued to sob as she heard both Fire Throat and Swift Tail approach. Twister was absent, she wondered if he was looking for her or if the other two Temnokt had managed to convince him to stay away for a while. 

"We heard from the other inmates you went into the Dining Hall with the Big Five." Swift Tail stated. "We thought they were going to eat you alive..." he noticed the large bruise on her wing. "Oh, dear. That looks pretty bad."

"It hurts..." Fluttershy whimpered, wiping some of her tears with her hoof. 

"Let me take a look." Fire Throat said gently. He knew she probably couldn't even move it, so he leaned his head closer and examined the bruise. "It's severely out of place. It's going to get worse if we don't get it treated, how did it happen?"

"P-Pulled..." Fluttershy managed to say. "Drink... C-Cloudslicer..."

"Try to speak with more coherence, would you?" Swift Tail frowned. "We can't help you if we don't know what's wrong with you!"

Fluttershy took a deep breath, and managed to speak in fluid sentences. "Unicornfang asked me t-to f-fly up to his d-drink to remove something, b-but... I was too nervous, I c-couldn't fly... Cloudslicer lifted me and-" she whimpered at another stinging sensation. "...pulled my wing."

"Oh, he put it out of place again." Fire Throat concluded correctly. "Explains why it looks like that."

"I need to see the doctor!"

"Sweetie, Skyler won't be able to do much. She's a physician, not a chiropractic. What you had yesterday was a simple dislocation, she could fix it because it wasn't serious. But now that dear old Cloudslicer snapped it out of place again, it got worse. You need a professional." 

Swift Tail chuckled. "As if. You think she'll be able to withstand him? She couldn't even bear and accidental hit from Twister, technically that was what cause this whole mess."

Though her pain, Fluttershy inquired. "What d-do you mean...?"

"If we could ask Bonesnap for help. He was a chiropractic, but got arrested for unethical practices and purposely killing two of his patients. And before you ask, we don't know why he killed them. Some murderers simply do it because they like it."

"Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that despite his charges, he's very good in what he does." Fire Throat stated. "He'll probably charge you a small fee, since it's your first time. How much do you have at the moment?"

"I earned two hundred o-obsids..." Fluttershy said.

"That should be enough. Come on, Fluttershy, he's usually found in the old infirmary."





8:00 A.M- Old Infirmary


The old infirmary was located in the ground floor, in an old door located in the dark corner of the main building. However, eventually it was closed down since it was deemed too risky for the doctor to work too close to the inmates, and so the new infirmary was built in the off-limits area for the prisoners. The old one was abandoned, but curiously the warden didn't forbid any access to it afterwards, which often turned the Old Infirmary in a secret meeting place when it wasn't being used as an actual infirmary by the inmates who had knowledge about medicine. 

Fluttershy felt a bit frightened when she had to cross that metal door, Swift Tail and Fire Throat behind her, but it was oddly illuminated quite well. The walls, once white, had turned a grayish green from years of being unused, with lots of mould growing on the corners, the furniture was mostly covered in dust and being devoured by termites. However, the main table on the center of the room was surprisingly clean, though there were signs of rust on its edges. Next to this table was a Temnokt with black and orange hair, and orangish Age Marks shaped like what seemed to be bones. In fact, this Drake had a small but long bone going through his nostrils, possibly a fashion trend of some sort, or the 'doctor' simply wanting to look intimidating. There was another 'patient' already on the table.

Fluttershy stopped in her tracks when she heard a bone snapping, and she froze as she heard a painful grunt coming from the other inmate, but it lasted for merely a few seconds as he rose, taking a look at his fixed wing, and stepping down the table as he gave Bonesnap a thankful nod. Swift Tail and Fire Throat stepped aside to let him leave, while motioning Fluttershy to go on ahead. Bonesnap stared at her in surprise but guessing she didn't speak Krussian, he spoke to Fire Throat and Swift Tail. "How can I help you?"

"Hey, Bonesnap. Flutteroach needs help with her wing." Fire Throat said, glancing down at Fluttershy. He didn't like to call her that, but that's how most of the other inmates called her, unfortunately. Word had spread quickly about her little 'pet'. "One of the Big Five moved it out of place when she had it fixed."

"Oy vey. That sounds nasty." Bonesnap glanced down at Fluttershy. "I guess you can't fly to the table then?"

Fluttershy had no idea of what he said, so Swift Tail had to translate it for her. "He asks if you can't fly to the table." Fluttershy shook her head lightly. 

"Fine, then if one of you could lift her to the table." 

Fluttershy whimpered when Fire Throat wrapped his tail around her waist as gently as he could, lifted her off the ground and placed her on top of the table, she started to tremble when Bonesnap stared at the bruise on her wingbone, now a deep purple, and the pain was unbearable by then. She whimpered when Bonesnap's claws grabbed her good wing gently and spread it out, but when he tried to do so with the other she barely let out a cry, and her eyes stung with tears again, which made the large drake release her. After a few more seconds, Bonesnap glanced at Swift Tail. 

"Hold her down." 

The shy mare had the feeling of what was going to happen when suddenly Swift Tail's talon pressed against her back, pinning her to the table to keep her from moving. She started trembling again when Bonesnap took the tip of her wing gently, and closed her eyes shut-in expectation of what was coming. 

Bonesnap pulled.

Contrary to popular belief, Fluttershy didn't let out a piercing, blood-curling scream, but a small, tiny scream that was more like a whisper. However, tears were streaming down her cheeks because of the pain. However, after the few seconds of excruciating pain on her shoulder blade and ringbone, suddenly the pain lessened, and she found herself able to move her wing again, though she felt a small ache on it since it was just put back in place.

"Done." Bonesnap said, though he seemed a bit disconcerted that Fluttershy's 'scream' was that pitiful when most of his 'patients' gave roars of pain . "It will be one hundred fifteen obsids."

"Pay up, girl." Swift Tail translated curtly. 

Partly relieved that the pain had diminished considerably, and she could at least move her wing again, Fluttershy placed a small pouch with all her savings, which Bonesnap took, and he slid out the corresponding amount from the pouch, giving the fifty obsids of change for Fluttershy. He just said something else in Krussian, Fire Throat placed her on the ground and she followed after them just as another drake, one of the younger ones, stepped inside, limping one of his hind legs.

As they walked back into the courtyard, Fluttershy felt relieved at finally being able to tuck her wing in, though she still felt a slight aching in the joint. 

"Mare, try not to get on the Big Five's bad side again." Swift Tail stated. "You were lucky they didn't pluck the wing off completely."

"He does have a point, my dear." Fire Throat added. "You can't be the lapdog forever! You should start thinking of how to defend yourself!"

"I don't like to mess with anypony." Fluttershy replied. "It's mean."

"What if they start first?" Swift Tail frowned. "Girl, with that attitude you'll be dog food in less that five minutes! This is not your magical land of Equestria, you won't win anyone here by being 'nice to them'!" It wasn't that he had something against the mare, he just was frustrated she acted as if everything was colored pink. 

"I already tried acting mean to other ponies to get my way, and I ended up hurting my friends Rarity and Pinkie Pie." Fluttershy looked down in regret when she took the assertiveness class, and she turned into a 'monster' for misunderstanding the meaning of it. She didn't have to be mean and cruel to defend herself. And this was different, it wasn't ponies she would defend herself from, it would be larger, more powerful and much more dangerous Temnokt inmates. She had the feeling they wouldn't feel intimidated in the least, anyway. "I learned that you don't have to hurt others."

"And how come you could talk me down the other time?" Swift Tail stated. "You know, after your first issue with the Big Five we were talking about your... friends, and I made a comment about one of them. I barely recognized you, mare! You changed from being a push-over, weak little mare to a time-bomb! I thought you were going to do something!"

"He does have a point" Fire Throat pointed out. "You freaked us out those few seconds before Neckslicer arrived and you became... you again."

"You were talking ill about my friends, I couldn't let you do that." Fluttershy explained, surprisingly blushing. "You were calling Discord names without even knowing, you judged him just because of his looks, and that was not right." 

"Why don't you do that more often? It would gain you some reputation among the others."

"Umm, it doesn't work like that." Fluttershy's face became even redder. "I only use The Stare when somepony's life is in danger or to maintain order, but I don't like to use it... I don't use use it randomly, it wouldn't be nice if I just used it on everytemnokt." 

"Stare? Is that how you call it?" Fire Throat shuddered at the thought. "Sounds fitting..."

Fluttershy noticed something. There was no sign of Twister around. It wasn't that she was precisely fond of him, but she was starting to get use to him following her around. "Hey, guys, do you know where Twister is...? I haven't seen him around..."

Swift Tail noticed she was right. They had not seen Twister all day, something of which he was grateful for. "Maybe he went to get some cocaine... He has enough sanity to remember how to do that, I think..."

Suddenly, Fluttershy felt her stomach growling. She recalled she hadn't had anything to eat, since the Big Five had occupied the dining hall for the day it seemed. Asking Neckslicer if he could get her something was the only apparent option, but she didn't like the way he behaved. She was scared of him. "Um, guys, do you think we can somehow get something to eat? I mean, we didn't have any breakfast because the Big Five are in there..."

"Well, you could ask Neckslicer if you want something green." Fire Throat suggested. "You still got fifty obsids, it's enough to get an apple or two." 

"I don't think I'd like to bother him..."

"Don't worry, like he often says, 'business is business'. In fact, down in the mines you mentioned he told you that in a rather unpolite manner." 

"Well, we should find him before he leaves for the mines. When he comes back from there he will be in a bad mood, which means he will probably put any wares he has on a higher price." Swift Tail said. "At this hour he's probably taking a nap somewhere. He always takes one before his labour." 

Fluttershy followed the two drakes across the courtyard, she was glad none of the other inmates seemed to be interested in her anymore, instead they were tormenting the new Newbies, the fresh meat, some of whom had been given their Welcome, it seemed, she had glanced one of the newly-arrived hiding beneath one of the seats, trembling and trying their best to hide from someone. She had even glimpsed the Erik drake being attacked by those from Skunkbreath's group who weren't accompanying him inside. 





They found Neckslicer, just like Swift Tail had said, taking a nap near one of the walls, his head resting on top of his front legs, the guards on the top keeping an eye on him cautiously in case he was going to do an escape attempt, though frankly at that moment Neckslicer could care less about that. 

Fluttershy had the feeling he wouldn't take kindly to being disturbed while asleep. "Should we bother him when he's asleep? I could always wait until dinner..."

"Nah, don't worry. He won't mind." Swift Tail simply said as they approached, but he continued to advance while Fire Throat stopped, and kept Fluttershy from advancing any further. "Neckslicer!"

Neckslicer muttered in his sleep and turned his face the opposite side, grunting in annoyance. However, a few seconds later he was abruptly awakened when a cold snowball came into contact with his face. 

"Kakogo cherta?!" Neckslicer growled, jumping to his feet and looking around for the poor idiot who had dared to do that, and when spotted Swift Tail a few feet away. "Why you little-!"

"Before you try to strangle me, and I know you will want to, I wanted to tell you Flutteroach wants to make a deal."

Neckslicer almost immediately settled down at the word 'deal', and glanced at Fluttershy. "Does she?"

Fluttershy almost instantly started to shiver when she felt those lime green eyes on her. She could feel the masked interest in it, but overall his potential hostility should she say something wrong. "Y-Yes... S-See, I didn't g-get to e-eat today and... I was hoping..."

Knowing Neckslicer had little patience for prolonged conversation cause by stuttering, Fire Throat answered for her. "She wants to know if you could spare her one apple or two."

Neckslicer wasn't really surprised. He knew she technically needed him to provide her the food she could actually eat. By just looking at her flat, small teeth, he could tell she was not made to eat meat of any kind, and judging by her weak character he guessed she wouldn't even dare if her life depended on it. And if there was something he had learned throughout the years was to take advantage of chances like this. "It would be thirty obsids."

Swift Tail narrowed his eyes. He had the feeling Neckslicer was putting them more expensive than they really were, he was the type of Temnokt to squeeze as much from a lemon as he could when he got the chance. "Let me guess, fifteen per apple, right?"

"Right."

Fluttershy wanted to ask why they were so expensive, but she figured it must have something to do with it being something the other inmates didn't ask for every day. "Okay..." Besides, she had enough to pay for them. Much to her confusion, Neckslicer spat into his talk and held it out for her. It took her a few seconds to realize what he wanted. 

"It's his way to seal a deal."  Swift Tail said. "Spit on your.. hoof and shake his talon."

Fluttershy was used to saliva to some extent due to her animal friends often licking her face as thanks, but having to actually shake hooves... or talons, with a Temnokt she barely met didn't seem appealing at all. However, another growl from her stomach made her reluctantly spit a small, tiny amount of her own saliva into her hoof, and she reluctantly held it out, internal wincing when Neckslicer grabbed it and she felt his saliva staining it.

"We have a deal then." he simply said.  "Look forward to receiving a note with instructions." with that, he walked away. 

As soon as she was sure he was out of sight, Fluttershy gently wiped her hoof against a nearby pile of snow to wipe the saliva off it. If Rarity had been forced to go through this, she would be washing her hoof in three liters of soap and purified water, along with disinfectant. But as mentioned before, Fluttershy was used to saliva to some extent, so she didn't really mind. 

"What will he do now?" she inquired.

"He'll talk to his 'contact', and you'll find a note in your cell detailing where to find your 'request', and in how much time you will have to pay him, though judging by how small yours is he'll ask you to pay by the day after tomorrow." Fire Throat explained. "

Suddenly, they heard a ruckus going on. They turned around and found the other inmates were heading off somewhere, and there were yells of excitement in Krussian, which of course Fluttershy didn't understand. However, when Fire Throat and Swift Tail heard what was going on, they seemed concerned, or at least Fire Throat looked like it, Swift Tail merely opened his eyes slightly. 

"G-Guys..." Fluttershy poked shyly at Fire Throat's leg. "What are they saying? Is someone in trouble...?"

Fire Throat's voice was serious as he responded. Fluttershy's eyes widened in horror. 

"It's Twister..."
> Pod'nok
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn't that hard to find out where it happened, considering there was already a large group of inmates gathered in the middle of the courtyard, all of the muttering in Krussian. It wasn't that hard for Fluttershy to squeeze between their legs, ignoring the glares and growls she received, until she came to the center. She gasped at the sight of the familiar purple-haired drake, but the state he was in frightened in. He was laying down on the ground, on his side, completely immobile, his pupils shrunken and his tongue hanging out from his mouth, with a little pool of saliva just next to his head. She could tell he was shivering, and his abdomen rose and fell in a slow motion, signaling his slow breathing. Fluttershy's ears prickled when she heard a sound coming from Twister's throat, trapped words he was trying to express. 

He was trying to ask for help. But he couldn't talk, he couldn't even move, and it hurt him. 

"Somepony do something!" Flutteshy yelled in despair as she rushed to Twister's head, but as she tried to touch him she retreated her hooves when she felt his scales were a deadly cold, perhaps even colder than the snow and the air around them. When Twister felt her touch, his pupils moved towards her direction with great difficulty, and he tried to say something, but no words came out. Only a wheezing sound. When she glanced around she saw all the other inmates kept their distance, and stared at her in surprise, though others seemed rather amused. "Aren't you seeing how he is?! Somepony go get help!"

But none of them moved, and if they did it was to go back to what they were doing before. She couldn't believe it, they didn't care? Did they have no heart? Had this place truly erased what was left of their humanity? Twister's attempt to tell her something broke her heart, and the other inmates' indifference infuriated her. She glared at the group of Temnokt, her eyes swelling up with tears. 

"How dare you...?!" 

Fire Throat and Swift Tail felt the same shiver down their spines when they saw the look on Fluttershy's, so unlike the timid and submissive title pegasus they knew. The other inmates seemingly thought the same, at least some of them did, and they stepped back in surprise when the pegasus started raised her voice and started growling. 

"There's somepony who needs help, and all you do is stand there and watch?! You should all be ashamed of yourselves! Would you like to be ignored and brushed-off when you're in trouble?!" 

Neckslicer watched the scene amusingly from the benches, taking a good inhaling from his cigarette before releasing a big cloud of smoke from his nostrils. So the little pegasus wasn't as much of a scaredy cat as he originally thought, too bad her words were falling unto deaf ears. Only five percent of the inmates in this prison understood Equestrian Language, and even these limited pony-speakers only understood part of the language. He was partly surprised she was standing up for Twister after he nearly killed her, either she was stupid or too kind for her own good. The drake chuckled at the second option. He was certain he'd enjoy when she was broken by Brokenfang.

Fluttershy soon noticed the inmates either weren't paying attention, or they didn't understand what she was saying. Realizing she would obtain no help from them, she went back to the side of Twister's head and tried to keep him awake. "Twister, hang on! You'll be fine! I'm here with you, everything will be okay!" 

Soon, the inmates started parting when two prison guards came forward, staring at Twister calmly, almost as if they knew what to do. One of them pushed Fluttershy aside as he and his companion picked the paralyzed inmate up, then they placed him unto their backs to take him away, one of them glanced back at the large group of inmates with a frown. "Get lost! This is not a spectacle!"

Soon after, the group scattered completely, but Fluttershy stood there, frozen, sobbing as Twister was carried away. Fire Throat and Swift Tail took the cue and went closer to her, Roachie crawled up to her shoulder and tickled at her neck with his antennae in a concerned way. 

Fire Throat noticed the angry air around her had dissipated, replaced with a sorrowful, impotent air. The question was there, but she didn't have the courage to ask, she was still shaken by what she had just witnessed, it was notably the first time she ever saw it. "...He had an overdose." 

Fluttershy momentarily lifted her teary gaze from her hooves and towards the direction he had been taken. "... A w-what...?"

"Cocaine overdose. He probably inhaled too much, and his brain couldn't handle it."

"Poor Twister! I c-can't...! I can't believe it...! N-None of them...!" she wiped the tears from her cheeks with her hooves. 

"First rule: don't peek your nose into others' business if they don't ask. Especially when there's a life on the line, you could be held responsible even if you didn't do anything for it." 

"H-He could have died?"

Swift Tail shook his head, sighing. "You seriously should get out more, mare. Yes, he could die. It's a drug overdose we're talking about."

The rest of the inmates stared at Fluttershy from afar, intrigued, wondering how such a weak, whimpering creature could have shown such change in character when she saw the deranged drake dying, only to go back to her weaker self just afterwards. Solitaire, in particular, gave a small growling sound as he watched the little pegasus weeping, stroking his lizard's head in an affectionate way. The drakes who were within earshot jumped in surprise when they heard it, it was the first sound they had heard from him in decades. 

Some thought it was a sign of interest in a certain person. 





Saturday, 7:40 A.M
Visit Hall





"D-Drug overdose?"

Fluttershy nodded, still trembling and letting out sniffles every now and then. She hadn't heard from Twister the rest of the day, and the guards refused to tell her anything (or simply didn't understand Equestrian). And yet, the other inmates somehow found out his condition and started chattering about it, though considering the information passed from one mouth to another the actual truth had been twisted and changed according to the version. From what she could tell was that Twister had a seizure provoked by a cocaine overdose, and he was in the infirmary, connected to tubes and being supervised by Dr. Skyler.

Twilight's expression was one of utter shock, but there was also a glint of sympathy in her eyes, even though she wouldn't say it outloud. She knew better than to show pity for a criminal, no matter how tough their situation was: they had brought this upon themselves, after all. 

"N-Nopony... None of them wanted to help him! They just stood there...!" 

"They don't care about anyone other than themselves, Fluttershy. That's why I say you shouldn't trust your companions, they can stab you in the back at any moment."

"Visit's over, unicorn!" the guard snapped in Equestrian. 

Twilight muttered, but she handed over another pouch with two thousand obsids to Fluttershy. "Here are some more obsids for protection. Whatever happens, Fluttershy, watch your back. I know you would never look for trouble, but those drakes are certainly to look for it." She shared one last hug with Fluttershy before she left the table and walked out of the room, her eyes wet. Fluttershy sniffled as she took the bag, sensing the greedy stares the other inmates, and some guards, were giving her. She skipped all the way back into the mess hall, all the tables back into place, boiling with activity. She had no appetite as she made her way to the table. 

On the way, she saw a few inmates with that infamous white powder, either sliding it across the table and receiving another item in return, or being sniffed in tiny quantities. She couldn't understand how come they  consumed it despite knowing how dangerous it was, and having seen it on Twister. Then again, Swift Tail had said that stop using it wasn't as... easy as she made it sound. 

Sadly, she was so distracted she failed to notice one of the inmates putting the tip of his thick tail in the way, and she barely had time to react as suddenly she tripped and fell to the ground with a painful yelp, muffled by the sounds of laughter from the other inmates. 

"Watch where you're going, Flutteroach!" the culprit, an elder drake, snickered. 

"S-Sorry..." Fluttershy apologized, swiftly standing up and making her way towards the table. She hated not being able to understand a word, but she did manage to catch the last 'Flutteroach' part, undoubtedly her new nickname based on her friendship with Roachie. Speaking of Roachie, she noticed he was happily feasting on a bowl of cold porridge, which prompted both Fire Throat and Swift Tail to push their trays of food away in disgust.

As soon as she climbed unto the metal seat, Swift Tail muttered. "Seriously, Flutteroach, must you bring the least hygienic insect on the planet to the table?"

Great, now even he was calling her like that. "I can't leave him alone, he might get squashed by somepony."

"So what? Those bugs carry more bacteria than rats, but they are easier to get rid of." He noted how she was getting stiff. "Don't tell me you haven't had an infestation in your house."

"Not really. I keep my house clean, and all bugs stay outside." 

"Lucky you." Fire Throat muttered. 

There was a commotion nearby Fluttershy was reluctant, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she turned towards the other tables. There was a fallen tray in the ground, its contents spilled over the marble floor, and its owner, a burly, scarred and one-eyed drake, was growling at a smaller, but as equally menacing younger Temnokt. The two were exchanging heated words in their native language, probably they were arguing over who was to blame for the dropped meal. Then they started to violently push each other, snarling. 

Fluttershy had a bad feeling about what was going on, especially when the rest of the inmates abandoned their tables, including those behind the kitchen counter, and gathered around the bickering pair at a safe distance. They were smashing their tails against the ground, and excitedly chanting as the two dukes circled each other like wild animals about to break out. 

"Pod'nok! Pod'nok!" 

"W-What are they saying?" Fluttershy asked. 

"It's a one-on-one fight." Fire Throat said. "A sort of duel between two individuals who think they have been offended, and seek to punish the aggressor both to teach them a lesson and to set an example to others. In other words, they defend their 'reputation'."

"It's the only real entertainment we get here!" Swift Tail said, snickering. "If you will excuse me, I'm gonna see how it turns out this time." He left the table and walked towards the large group, chanting pod'nok excitedly, joining up with the chants. 

"Why can't they just talk about it?!" Fluttershy asked in alarm. "Surely they can solve the issue without resorting to violence-!"

"They could, but they don't want to. In this place, we think that's for weaklings." 

"And the guards?! Why don't they do anything?!" The yellow pegasus had noted there were about three or four guards inside, and they just... watched. In fact, two of them were even exchanging words, maybe betting on who the victor would be. 

"They don't get much entertainment either. They will only intervene when one of them gets seriously hurt."

Finally, the fight broke out. The one-eyed Temnokt (known as One-Eye) and the younger one (known as Ripper) lunged at each other and fell to the ground. One-Eye dug his teeth into Ripper's shoulder, and Ripper retaliated with kick in the ground.  When Ripper managed to get free of his rival's teeth, he dug his own into One-Eye's wingbone. With a shriek of pain, One-Eye's claws came into contact with the side of Ripper's face, knocking him away and leaving him with three bleeding cuts. Meanwhile, the rest of the inmates continued to chant around them, almost deafening the sound of the growls and snarls.

It wasn't until a one of the two rivals fell to the ground, half of his blood pooling underneath his body, that the guards finally intervened, pushing the inmates aside roughly to get to the center. One-Eye stood triumphantly on top of Ripper, who was barely breathing by then, his whole body was covered in fresh slashes of One-Eye's claws, one of his eyes was purple and he was missing three teeth, which were scattered across the ground. Two guards violently subdued One-Eye against the ground, while the third guard put two of his fingers on Ripper's neck to check his heartbeat, telling the fourth guard to fetch a stretcher as soon as possible. 

One of the guards holding down One-Eye snarled. "It's off to solitary confinement, you rat!" 

One-Eye simply grunted, spitting out some blood casually. "Whatever." 

Fluttershy watched as he was dragged away from the scene, and out of the room. "W-Where are they taking him?"

"Solitary confinement, also known as the 'Hole'." Fire Throat explained, staring at the doors through which they had disappeared. "You are put in a tiny cell, isolated from any sort of contact, and left to rot for days, or weeks, it depends. It's main purpose is to break your spirit, and it does the job pretty well. One thing is being alone but surrounded by people, and a different one is to be completely devoid of any contact at all, inside a tiny space, with only your shadow as your company.

Most prisoners in the Maximum Security Cells are subjected to this, except for a few who show a considerable change in their behavior and are allowed to interact with the rest of the inmate body, though they are still under a much stricter vigilance than the rest. Some end up losing their minds from spending so much time by themselves, but they cannot take their lives to escape the hell even if the idea actually crossed through their heads. Those cells have no items to do the job."

Fluttershy gulped internally, it didn't sound like a pleasant place to be in. 

Two guards burst through the doors, bringing the stretcher with them. They set it down on the ground and carefully placing Ripper on top of it, then they lifted it once again and carried him out of the room by the door they had came, leaving a trail of dark blood as they did so. By then, Fluttershy had gotten quite a bit accustomed to seeing blood around the place, but the sight was still gruesome enough to give her nausea. The rest of the inmates went back to their business, avoiding the pool of blood as they did so.  Swift Tail had made his way back to the table, and noticed Fluttershy's face was obtaining a greenish color due to the sight of the blood on the floor.

"Hey, mare, are you gonna eat your stew?"

"T-Take it... I have no appetite..." She replied, sliding over her tray over to his side of the table as he went to sit down. Swift Tail pulled it closer, sliding his own tray with the empty bowl aside, and shooing Roachie away with his claw despite the bug's protests.





Sunday, 9:00 A.M.






Much to Fluttershy's surprise, it turned out there were educational programs in this place. Even though most of the inmates would never leave the place alive again unless they got a Royal Pardon (which wasn't likely to happen anytime soon), the limited group of prisoners who did count in their calendars how much time they had left before being free took part in educational activities, being prepared for life outside Broken Fang once again and enhance rehabilitation. 

Said programs were divided in two categories: academic, which meant the individuals in question could learn to read, write and perform basic mathematics (turned out most of the inmates were under-educated), and vocational. The latter one, however, was very limited due to the Maximum-security status of the institution, and it was exclusive to particular inmates with good conduct. Fluttershy wondered if said activities weren't just a way to keep the prisoners busy so they'd cause less trouble. 

She was shocked to find that Lighttalon, Bonesnap, and even Neckslicer were enrolled in 'Basic Equestrian Language', along with her. She inscribed in that class because in a way she thought it would remind her of home, and because she felt a hobby of this sort would do good to kill the time. She wondered why such a class existed in such a place, though, it wasn't like they would go to Equestria on vacation, would they? 

The classroom was almost bare, and it didn't give her the relaxing air she had hoped. The walls were marble gray, the tables were bare, and the windows were barred from the outside. Most of the tables lacked chairs, since the Temnokt's size made it hard for them to sit on such frail and thin-legged furniture, only one tall chair was put for her... right next to Neckslicer, who didn't seem happy to have her as a table-mate. It turned out each table was meant for two individuals. 

Remembering all of Fire Throat's tips to avoid Neckslicer's wrath, Fluttershy went to the chair, but once she was next to it she noted it was too tall for her to climb it, and since her wing was still recovering she couldn't fly up. Fluttershy timidly glanced at Neckslicer, who was entertaining himself by scribbling in his notebook. 

"Um, excuse me," she called out to him quietly. He didn't hear her. "Hello?"

"Mare, raise the volume of your voice," Neckslicer said simply with an annoyed frown. "With that little voice not even a bat could hear you." 

Fluttershy spoke again, in a more-or-less proper volume this time. "Sorry, but I wanted to ask you if you could help me get on top of my chair." 

"Why should I?"

"It's just a little.... thing I'm politely asking you to do," Fluttershy responded, avoiding the word 'favor' in fear he might charge her for it. 

"A little thing that doesn't benefit me at all." Neckslicer retorted, catching up to her loophole. However, a few moments later his tail grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up to the chair abruptly. Confused, she glanced up at him. 

"Thanks..." she whispered thankfully, though she had a bad feeling in her gut when she saw the evil glint in his eyes. 

Fluttershy glanced back at the rest of her 'classmates'. Lighttalon (who waved amicably at her) was at the table at the bottom with a red-haired drake, Bonesnap's 'tablemate' had merely a little tuft of dark and neon hair and underbelly. Other of the drakes who caught her attention was a particular drake with green hair, orange eyes and a pair of yellow fins on both sides of his head, with matching fin-like eyebrows who was carving on the table with his claw. 

"Neckslicer, sorry to bother you, but who is he?" she timidly asked, glancing subtly at the green hair.

Neckslicer didn't reply. Instead, he tore a sheet from his notebook and wrote on it, then slid it over to her. Fluttershy tentatively took it and read.

If you're wondering why I wrote it here instead of answering straight out, I'll let you know that speaking behind someone's back when they're in the same room is... dangerous. 

It made sense. She wouldn't like to hear ponies talking bad things about her when she's in earshot. 

That's the Boa. Serial murderer, his favorite method is strangling because for some reason he's obsessed with constrictor boas. Perhaps you'd get along nicely.

Fluttershy gulped, wondering if what he meant with nicely wasn't actually the opposite of what the word meant. He seemed to enjoy toying with her. She had another doubt, but since it didn't have anything to do with any of the other inmates, she guessed maybe he'd answer normally. "Who is the teacher?"

She was right. "Mrs. Mriksha, the living proof of the Equestrian/Krussian war. Unfortunately, since she's the only Temnokt of fluent Equestrian who is willing to impart classes in this place." 

Just then, an armored guard stepped into the classroom, looking both afronted and irritated. "Okay, you dogs, I must inform you that unfortunately, Mrs. Mriksha will be unable to attend for... health reasons." the inmates chuckled. 

"Um..." Fluttershy had no idea of what he was saying, but she didn't dare to ask Neckslicer for a translation.

"Until she gets better, a substitute teacher will take her place. You better don't cause her any trouble." He coughed uncomfortably. "Allow me to introduce you to your substitute..." 

When the substitute teacher stepped into the room, Fluttershy gasped.
> Basic Equestrian #*!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Good evening, gentledrakes. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I'll be your substitute teacher."

Fluttershy could not believe it. Twilight? How had she even gotten the job? She didn't think the prison would accept ponies in, but she guessed they were really desperate, and maybe Twilight was the only willing applicant for the job too. Although the other inmates were surprised to see they'd have a literal Equestrian for Equestrian language, they seemed unimpressed. 

Twilight made her way towards the larger desk, though she didn't bother climbing on the chair, and instead she merely stood next to it. "Well, now that you know my name, I'd like to know yours. Who wants to go first?"

"Why not ask Flutteroach?" one of the inmates inquired, though his Equestrian was... not very good. "Feeling she'll be pet." The rest of the class, excluding Neckslicer and Lighttalon, snickered. 

"I'd thank you if you didn't use any names like that, it can hurt other ponies or temnokt's feelings." Twilight said, arming herself with patience. 

"You're the first one who actually mentioned the word feelings in the same room as us, ma'am." The Boa said in Krussian with strange politeness.

Fluttershy was surprised at how Twilight was handling the situation, it was like she knew how to deal with these kind of people. Perhaps she had read about it or one of the degrees she had taken at Celestia's School was psychology. 

"Psst!"

Fluttershy's ear twitched when she heard the low hissing, but when she looked around she saw no one that might have made that sound. 

"Fluttershy, down here!" 

It was coming from the table, but the only things she found were the sheet of paper and the pencil... until she noticed a drawing that hadn't been there in the first place. She recognized it almost instantly. "Discord?" Fluttershy whispered.

"It's been a while, my dear!" Discord chirped in delight, leaning on one of the letters in the paper. He looked like a hoof-drawn version of himself, and he was slithering around the paper like an animated illustration. "Remember when I said I wouldn't let any of those overgrown lizards hurt you again?"

"How did you get in there?" Fluttershy asked in low voice, glancing worriedly up at Neckslicer, who luckily hadn't noticed him.

"My dear, I'm the master of chaos! I could get into that gal's brain if I wanted to!" Discord chirped, snapped his fingers and made a pea-sized brain appear right next to him, also in hoof-drawn style. 

"Does Twilight know you're here?"

"Well, she wouldn't have me as an assistant because she thought I'd go 'over the edge', but she didn't say anything about me being a drawing made out of boredom, did she?" 

"Miss?"

Fluttershy nearly jumped on her seat, though she calmed down when she recalled they where in class, and Twilight probably just asked her to introduce herself so she would start on equal grounds as the others. "My name is Fluttershy."

Twilight nodded approvingly and then turned to Neckslicer expectantly, but it took him a few more seconds to notice.

"Neckslicer." he said simply.

"Is that your real name or...?"

"Miss, you are more likely to win a Nobel prize than to learn the real name of anyone here," Neckslicer stated matter-of-factly, in fluent Equestrian, much to Fluttershy's surprise. "...With all due respect, that is."

"Oh, I see you're familiarized with Equestrian language." Twilight pointed out.

"Oh, really, captain obvious?" Neckslicer retorted, which caused the other inmates to snicker. 

He was doing his best to annoy Twilight, and though she didn't show it, he was doing it with exquisite skill. Instead, she changed the subject. "Okay, who wants to go next?"

The class would last for an hour and a half, but Fluttershy didn't really need to pay attention since she spoke Equestrian perfectly for evident reasons. Instead, she silently communicated with Discord by writing into the paper, and then he'd respond by changing the order of the letters. She had to admit, it did cheer her up a bit. 

She was worried about Twilight, though. She was doing her best to stay calm, but the temnokt annoyed her and irked her at every little chance they saw, like launching paper planes or crumpled up balls at her head, or making bizarre drawings of her being eaten by wolves, stuck in a toilet, among other things. 

Only Neckslicer paid any attention at all, and though he did make sarcastic or infuriating comments every now and then, most of the time he wrote down what Twilight put in the board or did the assignments impeccably. This made Fluttershy wonder: if he was already good at it, why did he take the class at all? 

"Is he a friend of yours?" Discord 'wrote' into the paper with his claws, staring at Neckslicer apprehensively.

"Umm..." Fluttershy didn't know how to answer that, but after some pondering she wrote under Discord's questions in her cursive hoof writing.

We're not exactly close friends-friends, rather out paths cross sometimes.

Discord snapped his fingers and changed the letters to form a new phrase. "He doesn't look like the friendly type, anyway."

"Okay, everytemnokt," Twilight said outloud to call their attention. "I will make a small drawing on the board, and then you will write the Equestrian word for it." 

She levitated the piece of chalk and drew a bunny on the blackboard. A few inmates started scribbling in their notebooks, Neckslicer among them. Fluttershy was among the others who didn't, though in her case it was because she technically didn't need to; she was Equestrian and perfectly spoke the language, after all. 

Seconds later Twilight went from table to table to check the writing, but she had a hard time keeping a professional expression when she saw the words in the paper. Some didn't have to do with the drawing at all, or they were used in such a manner that made her wonder if the inmates were making fun of her. When she finally came to Neckslicer's table, he had written the actual Equestrian translation of bunny. 

"Good, I see you've been paying attention," Twilight stated. "What's your name?"

"Neckslicer." he said curtly.

"Well, Neckslicer, since you seem to be pretty ahead of your classmates, think you could share some more words?"

Neckslicer left his seat, walked to the chalkboard and wrote something in Krussian.

Pash'ol na'hui

When he finished writing it, the other inmates either snickered or burst out in laughter. Fluttersy found it odd, but Discord seemed... disturbed. 

"Is something wrong?" she wrote in her sheet.

"Let's say I've heard a few drakes say that phrase," Discord answered, gulping. "It's not pretty."

"What does it mean?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know."

Twilight walked up to the chalkboard. "Interesting. What does it mean?"

Neckslicer looked at her uninterested. He opened the Krussian-Equestrian dictionary on the desk, looked for the words he had written and pointed at it with a claw. Twilight took a closer look at the signaled translation. 







Dining Hall.
Ten minutes Later.





"Potatoes again! Puagh!"

Fire Throat rolled his eyes at Swift Tail's complaints. "Just be grateful you get to eat at all."

"I mean, come on, three days in a row! The warden's so stingy we're always hungry!" Swift Tail protested, pointing at his tray of meal. "In the menu there's only mashed potatoes, potato salad and prench fries and I'm sick of them!" 

"Well, with all those potatoes you should be quenched!"

"Potatoes digest quickly!"

Realizing he was getting nowhere, Fire Throat instead turned to Fluttershy and changed the topic."So the new Basic Equestrian teacher is your friend?"

"Hm-hm," Fluttershy explained, still a bit shaken. "Her name is Twilight."

"I bet she won't last another week," Swift Tail snickered as he took another bite of potato salad rather reluctantly. "Who knows what Neckslicer wrote in the board that made her end the class early."

"Discord seemed to know, but he refused to tell me."

"You mean the... fella who looks like tons of animal that were thrown into the blender?"

"Yes, that's Discord."

"You mean he was there too?" Fire Throat asked.

"Not exactly," Fluttershy said, fidgeting with her mashed potatoes and put a bit aside for Roachie, who devoured it avidly. "I mean, he was in my notebook page."

"Wait, what do you mean in your notebook page?" Swift Tail said, raising an eyebrow.

"He was almost like a drawing that moved by itself."

"You mean he plasmated part of himself into the paper?"

Fluttershy had no idea of what he meant with that, but she could guess the idea behind it. "I think so. Then again, it's Discord we're talking about. He can do anything he wishes."

Meanwhile, Twister was toying with his food, particularly the fries and the salad. "Potatoes, tomatoes..."

"He's been singing that damn song thirty times," Swift Tail muttered. "I'll have that insufferable tune in my head the whole day, if not the whole week!"

A few tables away, Fluttershy managed to overhear Neckslicer over the other chattering and talking of the numerous inmates. 

"Potatoes again," he growled in Krussian, his gaze bitter. "Looks like I'll have to talk with the Big Five again."

Fluttershy could hear more complaints-at least she thought they were complaints judging by the tone of their voices-in the surrounding tables. It was probably about the food. Fire Throat and Swift Tail looked worried, though.

"Is something the matter?" Fluttershy asked.

Fire Throat seemed like he wanted to answer her, but before he could suddenly Swift Tail spoke ahead of him. "Hey, Fire Throat, think I could tell you something in private?" He didn't even wait for Fire Throat to give him a positive reply, he merely dragged him away from the table despite his protests.

Fluttershy found it weird that they'd go just like that, leaving her alone with Twister. Thankfully he was still centered in his song and his potato tower, as he was calling the salad, so it was likely he wouldn't pay attention to her either. Instead, she centered her attention on Fire Throat and Swift Tail; they had gone to one corner of the dining hall and were talking in their native language.





"We have to tell her!" Fire Throat snapped.

"You cannot protect her forever, Dark Wing," Swift Tail responded coldly, using Fire Throat's nickname instead of his real name. "You should worry about yourself. You've been in Bullhorn's crosshairs for months, he'll  probably try to take care of you when it happens."

"I can take care of myself, thank you very much. But she can't."

"So what? Why should you even care about that?" Swift Tail continued. "Have you forgotten the first rule of Broken Fang? Every Temnokt for himself."

Fire Throat glanced back at Fluttershy subtly, noting how she continued to feed her pet roach. He would have smiled a bit, but he didn't want Swift Tail to think he was going soft, so he spoke with all the seriousness he could muster. "She's not a Temnokt."

"Then she won't live through it."

"That's why I have to help her!"

"Why are you so bent in helping that mare?!" This time there was an undercurrent of anger and frustration in Swift Tail's frozen voice. "You've never done this for anyone before, what's so special about her that out of the blue you want to be her protector?" A look of realization glinted in his green eyes. "Unless..."

"What?" Fire Throat asked.

"This isn't only because she's a pony, is it ? This is because she is a female," Swift Tail said flatly. "The first female you've had nearby in decades. You're trying to help her because you finally have a chance to make up for-"

"Shut up," Fire Throat growled darkly, glaring at the dwarf. He did not want to be reminded of his sins. "I don't need you to be reminding me of my past sins. I might not be able to turn back time, but I will do my best to correct them."

Swift Tail had been in here long enough to know when it wasn't wise to add salt to a wound. "I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into."

Swift Tail went back to the table, but Fire Throat didn't feel hungry anymore. Instead he went to the opposite direction, intending to go back to his cell early. 

Swift Tail's words had struck him hard, even if he didn't get to finish his sentence. It was true, Bullhorn had been his tormentor during his time here, ever since he first put a talon in this place. 

Back in those first days Fire Throat was young and reckless, he didn't understand the real danger of being in this prison in particular. He tried to act tough to keep the other inmates from finding him a weakling, but he hadn't considered that the most experienced ones-the Big Five in particular-knew the difference between an actually tough criminal and a desperate facade from a weakling.

Another factor he didn't take into account was the type of welcome given to those that did the things he did.

"Poor, little dark wing. Did nobody told you what we do to scum like you?"

Fire Throat closed his eyes shut, becoming stiff as the memories of that horror resurfacing. He'd never forget, no matter how hard he tried to bury the memory in the darkest corners of his minds, it always returned one way or another.

That welcome was just the beginning. When word about his crime spread out, the whole inmate population soon was making his life a living hell. He was their slave, their punching back, whenever something went wrong the frustration would be taken out on him. Even the 'dogs' were considered a higher rank than him.

Every time he was sent to the infirmary he'd pray to die and be free of the torment, but it never came to pass, almost as if the gods themselves punished him. 

This torture lasted for years until another inmate came, one whose crime was similar to his but in a bigger scale and with a worse method. All the hatred and spite was turned unto that poor bastard, giving Fire Throat a break for the first time in a decade; he felt fortunate when the newly-arrived inmate was found brutally stabbed in his own cell, thinking how that might have been him.

Even though the treatment lessened considerably, he was still sometimes stalked and treated as scum, particularly by Bullhorn himself and his minions as an extension. 

As he turned around the corner, he was abruptly pulled into one of the darker rooms and was struck in the head with a heavy object, causing his vision to go black.





When Fire Throat started coming back to his senses he found himself partially immobile. He felt his legs tied up, both the rear and front legs were joined together by what seemed to be a rope along with his wings. His jaws were clamped shut with thick piece of cloth tied around his snout. 

As his vision got adjusted and he got a better look at his surroundings, his pupils shrunk and his heart accelerated when he found it very familiar. It was the boiler room in its dark, half-abandoned glory. Buried echoes of helpless begging and wicked laughter returned to haunt him.

"Well, well. It appears you do remember this place."

Panicking, Fire Throat looked around in the darkness. He noted many glowing pairs of eyes staring at him, but his attention was set on a particular pair of icy blue eyes.

"Remember it, Dark Wing?" Bullhorn chuckled. "We brought you to this very room for your welcome."

Fire Throat momentarily forgot he was gagged as he gave a muffled cry.

"I guess you're wondering why you're here after all these years, are you not?" Bullhorn stated. "I guess you've heard what is coming. Only the strongest will make it alive, and given you're not in that group I guessed I'd do you a favor and hide you here until it's over," Bullhorn stalked around Fire Throat. "That little creamy pony, though, is another story."

Fire Throat's eyes widened even more, if that was even possible. 

"She's not that bad, you know. I'll give her credit for still clinging to her innocence even after the welcome, but how long do you think she can last on her own? Think she'll make it without her lapdog to protect her? Now will be a good chance to find out for ourselves."

Bullhorn had to step back when suddenly Fire Throat lunged-or rather, tried to lunge-at him only to fall to the ground with a muffled growl of pain. Snickering, Bullhorn pressed his talon against's Fire Throat's head. 

"Oh, don't worry, I promise you not to hurt her too much, I'm not like Skunk Breath. I don't intend to cut off her ear of tear one of her eyes; I'm not really the type to stain my claws with blood. But my boys have been getting frostbite in their own talons, and her fur is very soft and warm..." 

The rest of the inmates laughed. Fire Throat would have glared daggers at Bullhorn, but the current location was severely deflecting his courage.

"Well, I'll leave you be, my friend," Bullhorn turned his back on his captive and headed for the door, followed by his minions. "Do svidaniya."

The door slammed shut, leaving Fire Throat alone in the darkness.