Escutcheon woke up as Dusk walked into the room. He groaned as he sat up on the bed, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Turkeylegs was still asleep in the corner of their small inn room. "Good evening Dusk." He rolled out of bed his body still sore from yesterday. He had been working in one of the mines outside of town, the work was tiresome, long, hard, and low paying.
"Good morning Escutcheon." Dusk nuzzled him. She took the apron off from around her. She worked down stairs as a dish washer in the tavern on the first floor of the inn. She pulled two copper coins out of the pocket of her apron, and put it in her saddle bag. Escutcheon had enchanted it so that only the two of them could open it. "Don't worry I paid the rent today." She sat down on the bed. She pulled out two small things of bread. She passed one of them to Escutcheon.
"Thanks." The two of them ate their bread in silence enjoying each others company. "Dusk?" Escutcheon asked after finishing his breakfast.
"Hmm?"
"Should we head back to the Colony, I mean we can earn money there, and it's not like we'll be in the worst inn in the city, and the labor will be less laborious."
"Yeah I was thinking the same thing, besides we could probably ask the merchants from Slo and Tivi if they know of a ship that could take us across the ocean for less, but we don't have enough money to head back right now. By the end of the week, I was thinking we should have enough to buy the food that we would need to make it all the way back." Escutcheon nodded.
"Yeah, maybe I could do full double shifts?"
"No, you can barely handle 12 hours down there you don't need to do 16."
"Yeah but then I'll be bringing in 5 coppers instead of 4, and every third day I'll get 6."
"Escutcheon it's fine." She nuzzled him again. "We'll be going back to the Colony, okay, don't do anything like that okay. I don't like it when you're down there. All the customers talk about bad things about the mines."
"Don't worry about it. It's completely safe." He nuzzled her again. "Just get some sleep I'll be back by 5 or 6 okay." Dusk nodded with a yawn. She lay down on their bed. Escutcheon's horn lit up and he wrapped her in the covers.
"Be safe, Escutcheon."
"You too." He grabbed his saddle bags and headed out the door. The tavern was right under neath their room. Escutcheon walked through the crowd of ponies that were drowning their sorrow in alcohol most of them were miners that worked in the same mine as him. He walked out of the inn. The moon was still out, and the sun wouldn't be up for the next couple of hours. The breeze off the ocean sent a chill down his back. He headed down the street quickly. He stayed in the middle of the road to avoid any of the alleys. It took him half an hour to get out of the city. The sky was just beginning to glow in the light of morning when he finally made it to the mine.
"Hello horn head. Good morning Coal Colt." His foreman called him over. His boss' was the mine owners son. He was a good stallion. "Hurry up colt I can't count you on the clock until your in the mine." He tossed Escutcheon his helmet. And met him at the pulley elevator. He descended into the mine. "You'll be working in Section 5-A today." Escutcheon nodded. "Be careful there have been reports of support problems down there. There should be a crew down there fixing it today. I'll come and get you at around 6 hours, it'll be 11 and you can have your breakfast out in the sunlight."
"How do you do it. The sun really hurts my eyes." He asked as they continued down. "I'm having to use Dusk's scout goggles when I come out."
"Yeah, you never really get use to it, Coal Colt." They reached the bottom of the elevator shaft. "Now head out and get to work."
"Yes sir." Escutcheon nodded and hurried off into the mine.