Copperbutt's Been Volunteering for Laundry Washing Duty

The next morning Texas was ready to begin her investigation into Maria's lead. At morning meal time everyone was ordered out of their cells and to line up. Guards stood ready and watching as everyone was ordered to turn as one. The guards moderated the line as Texas marched with the others to the canteen. The guard presence there was still strong and a combination of Texas keeping a low profile, and Maria's presence was enough to dissuade most of the criminals who were all just waiting for their opportunity to get her alone. She got her breakfast slop alongside Maria, ignoring all the jeering and mocking words from the prisoners around her. She tried to keep focused on her goal. She needed to see what Copperbutt was doing. There was no way she was volunteering for what sounded like one of the worst jobs in the entire jail, especially considering the state of the prisoners, out of some form of respect or hope of parole. She was doing it for some reason. And honestly it was surprising any laundry was done at all.

As they sat down at the end of one of the tables, Maria nodded towards a door to the side, one that a guard was stood in front of. "Aquél. It leads to a service corridor. There's no external exits that aren't locked so they don't tend to lock it. You just need to get past la guardia. Now I have a plan for-"

"The two of you might have won last time, but I think we're due a rematch!" Maria was interrupted by two inmates walking over to growl at them, changing the plan just a little. A pair of hyenas that Texas remembered were some of BB Winterbottom's cronies.

"The Giggle Girls," Maria replied as if respectful. Then she went and slammed her metal food tray right in one of the hyena's faces, a *SPLAT* sounding as her entire face was smooshed into a rectangle. "Run," she called to Texas. "Rápida!" she added as she clenched her fist then slugged it into the other hyena before all hell broke loose. Guards whistled, prisoners raged and everything flew into a frenzy, a frenzy which Texas was able to slip out of, ducking under a charging rhino and leaping past a fat skunk's backside seconds before a fox was rammed into it. She charged the door that one of the guards had been watching and slipped past it. Outside of the canteen it was easy enough to follow the main corridor to the laundry room. She ducked down a side corridor as a pair of guards came sprinting down the hall in the opposite direction. She waited for a moment before rushing onwards, pushing through the door and ducking into the room.

Inside the laundry room the air was warm and moist, and utterly reeked. What clothes and bed sheets were sent here were normally so utterly rank that even their owners were uncomfortable. A big tub of water bubbled with suds but looked an unpleasant grey, and fishing around inside of it was the infamous Copperbutt. The mare was on a later meal schedule so she could put in the early hours and take the early morning shift alone. She picked up sodden rags and scrubbed them against a washboard, grumbling as she did so. "Can't believe ah'm cleaning shit stains... when all ah want to do is scrub out that damn weasel," she growled. Her enormous cheeks were squeezed into a tight fitting pair of stripy pants of her own, her top pushing upwards from the amount of copper gut pushing up against it as she leaned over into the tub. Her wings stuck from her back as the towering pegasus scrubbed at the clothing with a growl. Once she was done with a strip of cloth she hauled it up and slapped it into the automated roller beside her which scrunched it flat and squeezed the water out, drying it before sending the pressed flat and clean rag into another bin on the other side.

Texas frowned. There was nothing suspicious going on here, which was suspicious in itself really. She'd need to observe for longer, that much was clear, though she couldn't help but feel exposed where she was. The second Copperbutt turned around to grab some more clothing she would be plainly visible. She needed a good place to watch from. Looking around the room there were a few obvious candidates...