Chapter 1: Stone Walls.
Times Up.
Chapter 1: Stone walls.
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Time is a priceless thing, from a few seconds to 100 years. It’s kind of hard for me to tell time, when it has been a long time since I've seen the lights of day.
All I could see as I looked around is the hay covered slabs of stone that made the floor. The more I looked though, the more I recognized that this cell had been used more often than most. I could tell from the looks of how the hay was bunched up in the far corner of the cell next to a warped plank of wood. The hay in the corner had a lumpy, old sack on it. I guess it was a pillow. The darn thing looked and probably felt like it was filled with rocks, along with some of the same hay that covered the floor. Imprinting that it was a bed. Well, I wouldn't call it one, and I never got around to using the thing. The fact of the matter is, it was in use!
A light charcoal-colored stallion with a partially singed crimson-grayish mane was sleeping on top of the pillow with it under his back. He'd been sleeping there and - up to this point - facing the wall cuddling a bucket full of water. Every now and then I’d hear him mumble something under his breath or in a snore. I never did understand what he was trying to say.
He threw the bucket at an adjacent wall screaming something about a marmot in a bathtub. I just rolled my eyes and started to follow the bucket that had caught the corner of my eye. It rolled on the floor for a second, and then it spun to a halt. The bucket's broken handle pointed to an old but well crafted door made of solid mahogany with a rusted iron frame. There was a little opening on the door that had sloppily placed iron bars that looked like somepony just tossed them on with no regards for craftsmanship. Light came from a torch on the outside wall, but it was only enough to illuminate the corner of the cell that I found myself looking at.
I remember hearing the scampering of a couple of rats probably searching for some food followed by the sound of rattling keys coming down the hall. The sound became louder and louder until it came to a halt. I assumed it was one of the many guards that patrolled the grounds.
I heard a very deep voice. “It looks like everywhere you two go, trouble is always right behind you,” was all I could make out.
I muttered to myself, “Ya, you can say tha-”
“This is an outrage! I demand to speak to whoever's in charge here!" interrupted the unicorn that was asleep in the corner of the cell I found my self incarcerated in. He was obviously suffering from madness or one too many salt-licks.
“Oh, for Celestia’s sake; Can you take anything seriously, Grease Monkey? You know as well as I that we would not be here if you just did your job and didn't poke around in other ponies’ business!” I replied.
That’s when the cell door opened to reveal a very familiar unicorn with a braided, navy blue mane and her gentle, dark blue coat, which seemed to absorb the sudden burst of light that came with the cell door opening. The mare spoke in a motherly tone. “You know? Thorn has a point, Monkey. That lack of boundaries is really going to give you one heck of a reputation. You really need to start listening to him more often.”
“Thank you, Night Watch! You have no idea the week I've had: All that running around just to be followed by his shenanigans!” As Grease Monkey and I exited the cell, I found myself giving him an all too familiar glare.
“I wouldn't know, Thorn. It’s not like he’s my older brother or anything,” Night Watch said in a joking manner, chuckling at the expression of anger I was shooting in Grease Monkey’s direction. Her sarcasm was thick in the air.
Grease Monkey just stood there and smiled. “You know that your face is going to freeze like that, Thorn.”
“No it won’t, Grease Monkey!!!” I yelled as I shook my face to make sure that it was not going to stay the way it was.
“Anyway, what’s the verdict Night Watch? Are we free to go, or what?” I asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject.
Night Watch slowly put a hoof to her chin and pondered for a second. “I don’t know, Thorn. The shop keepers are quite upset that you two kind of… blew up their shops! They’re thinking about pressing charges!”
I threw my arms in the air. “Great, just great! Could this day get any worse?!?”
“Look at the bright side, Thorn: No more work for the rest of the day. Think of it as a win,” Grease Monkey cheerfully beamed in his happy-go-lucky attitude.
“And that’s a good thing!?! Are you mad? If we don’t work, we don’t get paid. If we don’t get paid, we can’t pay rent. What will happen to us then?” I ask pacing from one end of the cell to the other. I noticed that Grease Monkey and Night Watch trying really hard to hold back a smile. “What’s so funny!?!” I said with anger towards the two.
Without hesitation, the both of them burst into a fit of tears and laughter. Grease Monkey rolled over onto his back and was holding his sides. Night Watch was a little more controlled with her outburst, but she still found herself sitting on her haunches, Hiding her face by putting a hoof up. The fact that she was laughing wasn't helping her out in any way.
“Come on you two, this isn't funny. Grease Monkey and I could get in serious trouble for this. We could get banished to Celestia knows where, or worse: Executed!” I said, frantically trying to get some common sense into them.
“Thorn, you can be REALLY thick sometimes. You know that?” Grease Monkey stated, gasping between words from laughter.
“Come on! Even you Night Watch?” If there was a pony that new what I was saying it was Night Watch.
“(cough) Okay, okay Thorn! Don't get your tail in a knot. The hearing isn't till the morning.”
“IN THE MORNING! But tomorrow was to be my day off.” - I never seem to get a break around here.
“That may have been the case. But the both of you should have known better than that. Especially you Monkey!” She was clearly agitated, from the way she stated that last remark.
“Hay, hay, hay. How was I to know that a nitrogen crystal would have a reaction like that?” Grease Monkey said. Shrugging as if he truly didn't know the outcome of that so called little experiment.
Night Watch and I just glanced over to each other, and we could tell that we were thinking the same thing. “Ya right?”
“ Anywho, I take it we're free to go? For now.” Somewhat still confused from previously.
“Yes Thorn. You both are free to go at any time you like. But remember, first thing in the morning you are to be at the castle, for the trial.” Night Watch being her usual motherly self, but you could hear the enforcing tone in the end.
“Thanks Night Watch! You truly are the best pony!” I remember hugging Night Watch out of sheer excitement.
“THoRn!”
“Yes Night Watch?”
“CHoKing. NoT BrEAthING!”
“Oh!!! Sorry. I guess I don’t know my own strength?” Releasing Night Watch from the hug. I could see that her face was bluer than normal.
“(coughs) It’s okay Thorn. I've come quite accustom to it. I've forgotten how big and strong you've gotten over the years you lived with us.” She was rubbing the base of her neck with her forehoof.
“Surprising what can happen in three years, sister deary. I mean sense after the academy, all we did there was read, study, and take those stupid exams.” Grease Monkey said with excitement but quickly turned to a sigh, as flashbacks of the seventeen years we had at the academy rushed to his head. The same with me, but I remembered it somewhat differently.
“Are you talking about all the work that I did, for you! All you did was sleep, eat and complain about all the work you had to do!”
“Can the two of you just simmer down! Or do the both of you want to spend the rest of the day in here?” Night Watch stomped her right forehoof to the cell floor. Then started to rub the base of her horn. I didn't blame her, I got migraines, after some of the arguments that Grease Monkey and I have from time to time.
”Okay Night Watch. I understand. We'll stop with the fighting.” -But he started it.
“Amman. And here I thought he was going to get mad. It’s funny when he gets all mad and pouty. I guess you can’t get what you want, from time to time.” Grease Monkey shrugged.
“Well it's almost noon, so let's go get a pizza or something?” Night Watch asked with a tees.
Then with a wink she added. “It's my treat you two.”
“Did, did, did, you say Pi-Pi-Pizza???” Grease Monkey and I both looked at Night Watch, the two of us were both drooling at that this point imagining our perfect pizza. Grease Monkey’s would have had avocado, eggplant and anchovies. - Just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach. Mine would have some pepperoni, mushrooms and sapphires. And if there's anyone who knows the two of us, its Night Watch. She normally gets a basic cheese pizza slice with carrots.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!” I said enthusiastically. Grease Monkey was practically pushing Night Watch out of the holding cell. I followed right behind the two unicorns all the way to our favorite pizzeria.