A Cold Night's Sleep

by CamoBadger

Chapter 5: Messes

Chapter 5: Messes

“Deimos?” Praeses asked skeptically, cocking an eyebrow at the question.

After recovering from her minor shock that the Warden of Tartarus was in fact an alicorn rather than a veteran guard, Luna had quickly moved on to the business she had travelled to the hellish gate for in the first place. No other ponies were in the room with the two alicorns, making the meeting more awkward than it likely needed to be, especially since the Princess felt she should have known, or at least recognized, another alicorn such as herself. Then again, she had never been to the prison before, and from Praeses’ first reaction to the Princess of the Moon, he was a bit older than she was.

The Princess nodded confidently, awaiting an answer from the worn Warden who still remained behind his desk, appearing to size her up as he contemplated the question of who the mysterious escapee was. Despite her confirmation, the soot covered alicorn still offered no response either positive or negative to her. His red eyes drifted slowly up and down her body as they had since she entered; locking on her own blue irises for a moment each time they met. This did make Luna a bit uncomfortable, but something told her that the old pony wasn’t checking her out or admiring her, instead it almost seemed like he was examining her the way a doctor examines a patient.

“The name doesn’t sound familiar Princess,” he stated suddenly, quickly dropping his head back to the desk in front of him. His eyes continued to weave around, but now they were busy taking in the words of his guards’ reports and news from around Equestria. When his wings folded gently to his sides, Luna noticed that since she had entered the stallion’s feathers had been rigid since the moment she opened the door. A light clinking noise gave away that the fibers making up the wings hid some form of weapon, or at least something made of metal.

With a sigh Luna continued to press the Warden for information, asking if he kept any records of the prisoners beyond their names. Her own feathers ruffled slightly at the disregard she was being shown, and her patience wore thin quickly the longer she had to stay in the shack without learning anything.

Praeses rose his head just enough to spin his eyes upward and glare at the Princess, as if she was the one inconveniencing him. “You can check with Ink Blot, she is the pony responsible for all records on guards and prisoners.” He looked back down to his papers, magically flipping a new page to his eyes before quickly adding, “The guards outside can show you where to find her.”

Luna nickered quietly before turning back to the door of Praeses’ office, incredibly irritated with the disrespect shown by the other alicorn. An aura of blue magic slammed the door swiftly behind her, sending a faint echo through the chasm which lay below. Several of the guards who were nearby twisted their heads toward the angered Princess, but quickly returned to their watch both out of diligence, and to avoid further infuriating their nocturnal ruler.

Luna’s own guards stiffened at the crash, but held themselves back from looking toward their charge. Only after Luna had moved passed the two pegasi did they move, obediently following behind the alicorn as she swiftly approached a Tartarus Guard who stood at the edge of the bridge.

“Guard,” she snapped, still agitated. “Where can I find a mare named Ink Blot?”

The black-coated stallion chortled roughly as he turned from the bridge, folding his stained wings firmly to his sides before looking upon the Princess. “Her pigsty is the shack down that way.” The pony waved a hoof to Luna’s right, indicating a small building almost a quarter mile from the bridge. “Good luck getting anything from her though Highness, she’s been tearing it apart since yesterday morning.”

Luna raised an eyebrow to the guard, questioning not only his uncaring attitude toward her; something which seemed to be a theme among the guards of the great prison; but also why he had claimed the archives of Tartarus to be a ‘pigsty’. When he offered no further explanation, the alicorn spun on her hooves to begin walking to the shed the guard had indicated.

While her mind primarily focused on her task of discovering the identity of Deimos, Luna’s thoughts began to venture into wonder what would cause the guards of Tartarus to act as if Luna was just another pony, not the ruler of Equestria. Every pony she’d been around before either bowed out of habit, or at the very least spoke to her with a morsel of respect. The guards here, especially Tartarus, acted as if she was nothing, just some random questioner who had come to bother them further. Perhaps it was having spent so long away from the pomp and circumstance of everyday Equestria, or something more, but regardless it bothered her.

When she reached the shack where Ink Blot supposedly resided, Luna could see what may lead the guards to call it a pigsty. The cobblestone walls making up the structure were stained black by soot, just like everything else around the prison, with several chipped and scarred to the point of almost falling into dust. A series of thin wooden boards made up the roof; a detail which caused the Princess to pause considering the obvious presence of flames in the prison; were rotting at the influence of some unknown force in such a dry place, threatening to fall in on the occupant. The thin wooden door shared a similar appearance, hardly a secure entry.

When Luna pushed the door open, nearly causing it to fall off the hinges in the process, the interior made the exterior look like Canterlot Castle. Scrolls and leather bound books were flung all around, none of them resting on the shelves which lined every wall or on the single desk at the center. Most, if not all, of the papers looked ancient, much older than even Celestia and Luna were, yet they had been thrown about as if they were garbage. Behind the desk crouched the perpetrator, and apparently the only pony in Tartarus who was unaffected by the ever present soot and ash. Her coat was a slightly dirtied beige hue, marred by a spilled bottle of ink on her flank which seemed to fit her style of organization. Her mane was inky black, matching her cutiemark perfectly, and was pulled back into a small bun just behind her ears. Scrolls and the occasional book were lashed across the room in a blur of grey magic as she mumbled “no, no, no” repeatedly under her breath.

At the sound of the door closing, the mare quickly sat up and swiveled her head to the entrance, a quill hanging limply in front of her slate grey eyes. The front of her mane was poorly matched to the bun on the back of her head, sticking every direction randomly and with dried on ink holding many of the strands in clumps. “Oh, uh, Princess,” the mare sputtered, throwing the quill to one side. “What are you doing here?”

“Ink Blot I presume?” the Princess asked curiously, slightly worried by the state of Tartarus’ supposed record keeper.

“Uh, yes,” the mare stated exuberantly, as if she were overjoyed at royalty knowing her name.

“The record keeper?” As she spoke, the Princess took another look around the room, subtly pointing out the disturbing disorganization of the archive.

“That’s me!”

“Uh huh. I was told to ask you about information on our escapee.” Luna cut straight to her reason for visiting, somewhat worried that she might become part of the mess if she stayed too long.

“Oh, yeeaaaah,” Ink Blot groaned, looking around the shack while scratching her neck. “I’m actually trying to find that scroll now…or is it a book?”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Luna mumbled under her breath. “How much more do you have to go through?”

“I’m done with,” the mare paused for a moment, looking back and forth across the room before turning back to the Princess, “almost all of it. I only have these last two cabinets to go through, shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”

The irritation which had been building since Luna spoke with Praeses began to dissolve slightly. At least now she knew that it wouldn’t take long to find the information, thankfully the rather eccentric mare had been apparently searching feverishly for the records she needed since they had discovered Deimos’ escape.

“Thank you guard, I will be waiting outside when you find what you are looking for,” Luna stated bluntly, stepping quickly out the door to avoid her strange worry of becoming one with the chaos.

As she closed the door, she could faintly hear Ink Blot chiming out after her. “But I’m not a guard!”

< < < > > >

With a soft thud, a balled up mass of snow landed within the trees of the forest, adding into the already large pile where ball after ball of cold powder had been thrown. With a satisfied smile, Ice turned her head to allow her magic a complete view of the field around her, the final farm on her route for the day. A soft melody drifted through the air and into her ears as the record spinning nearby reached its end; a perfect time for the mare to finish up her work.

A gentle discomfort grumbled in the unicorn’s belly as she trotted to pack up her music player, the final remnant of her night out with Lug Nut. It had been a rough morning when Ice first rolled out of bed and her head began to pound like a drum, accompanied by a sour taste in her mouth and upset stomach. As a result, she had been slow getting to the first field before the rise of the sun, and focusing on moving the snow caused her headache to increase. It had taken her almost twice as long to clear the first few fields than she usually did, but as she worked the headache faded until she was able to move at her normal pace.

However, despite the long morning, the mare didn’t regret the night before at all. She always enjoyed seeing Tini and drinking one of her personal creations, as well as being around the other ponies in town for a night of fun and unwinding. And that night she’d been happy to have Lug Nut around as well, especially after everything that happened at the scrapyard, or what could have happened if he wasn’t there.

Once she’d gotten the player and her scattered records packed up into her bag, Ice turned to the town and began the trot back home, her belly continuing to rumble in protest at her doing anything more than lying in bed. She silently promised her body that she’d fix up a sandwich once she was home to put her gut at rest, and hopefully put the discomfort to an end for the remainder of the day.

A short burst of cold wind from the south sent a chill through Ice’s bones, a surprising effect considering she’d lived in the cold almost her entire life. Still, it had happened before, and the gust was likely just from a large storm the pegasi must have been cooking up for later that day. The corners of her mouth dropped slightly at the thought of a large storm only hours after she finished clearing the fields, but at least it would teach her to keep up on the upcoming weather better than only checking with the weather planners once a week.

After travelling less than a block into the town proper, Ice’s attention was pulled to one side by a cheery shout. A mental flash brought the image of her friend Lemon Bar waving exuberantly from her stand. The earth pony’s lime-green mane was pulled to one side by a brightly colored broach just in front of her ear, hiding one of her matching green eyes. A bright and mischievous smile was drawn across her muzzle as she waved to the blind unicorn, intent on pulling her over for conversation.

“Good morning Lemon,” Ice chirped as she diverted toward the yellow pony, offering her own smile, though not nearly as large as her friend’s.

“Morning Ice,” the juice-selling mare said quickly, jerking her hoof back to the ground with a soft clop. “So, how was your night?” As she spoke, Lemon’s eyes widened brightly and her ears twitched toward the unicorn, ready to catch anything juicy.

“It was nice, I had a good time,” Ice replied cheerily.

“Aaaand?” The yellow pony fished for more details, leaning toward the unicorn until their muzzles were only inches apart.

“That’s it Lemon. We had a fun night at the bar and then we went home to get some sleep, separately.” Ice was sure to put emphasis on her last word, putting an end to any insinuation her friend might draw.

Lemon pulled back from her lean, the smile on her face flipping to a small frown in disappointment. “He didn’t go for the pigtails then?”

A pale blue hoof smacked into Ice’s forehead as she shook her head slowly. “No, it wasn’t that, but thank you for doing that for me.” The unicorn dropped her hoof to the thin snow coating the street, looking back to her friend with a neutral expression. “He was, is, very nice, and I do like him.” Lemon’s face lit up a tad at that statement, but she was stopped from responding when Ice continued. “But I just don’t think I should get close to him.” Ice’s voice fell to almost a whisper, shrinking her friend’s smile to match her own neutral look.

“Why not girl? You said he helped you out without even asking, so he can’t be so bad.”

The night before, when Ice was waiting for Lug Nut to finish up his business in the scrapyard, she had gone to clean herself up and speak with Lemon, fully intent on explaining exactly what had happened. But when she’d actually started talking, the unicorn couldn’t bring herself to tell the true story, and ended up fudging a tale about how Lug Nut had helped her fix the door to her house after she’d accidentally broken it. The citrus pony had been about to argue why that didn’t make sense, but was distracted when she found out Ice was taking the stallion out for drinks.

As she always had before the two separated years before, Lemon began to freak out about her friend hooking up, and instantly began suggesting new mane-styles and giving her tips on how to keep him interested. It had been a bit annoying to the unicorn, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as if she tried to explain how she was attacked and that Lug had actually killed another pony for her; even though Lemon would probably like him even more then.

So now Ice had to either come forth with the truth, or continue her lies about the stallion. She hung her head in thought, hoping that the earth pony would think she was just nervous about speaking up, weighing whether or not it would be worth it to spill the beans.

“He’s not, he’s a great guy,” the unicorn finally said after a long, awkward silence. “I’m just worried about starting anything when he’s just visiting.” She continued the lies, deciding that telling the gossip-prone Lemon that the colt was technically a murderer, even if it had been to save her life.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun,” the yellow pony joked with a small wink. “Just test it out and see what happens, you two could always try the long-distance thing if you really like each other.” Lemon’s tone was more serious and caring, honestly trying to help her friend out. “And besides, you’re happier when you’re with a guy. The happiest I’ve ever seen you was the day Red asked you out,” she said with a nudge and a chuckle.

The fact that Lemon Bar could remember that after so long brought a smile to Ice’s face which only grew as she thought back on that moment herself, but only for a moment. Her friend was right, that day had been one of the happiest she’d ever known, at least until later in the night. And maybe the citrus pony was right; maybe it had been too long since she’d been in a relationship. She had told herself that she wasn’t going to get involved anymore after Red Lightning had left her. That experience alone had left her bitter toward relationships, and coupled with her history of losing those she cared for, that day had almost lead her to abandon Snowhoof once again.

Instead, Ice had turned to drinking for the first time in her life, spending most nights at the bar trying to throw back shots of whiskey or vodka, whatever she thought would numb her quickest. Unfortunately, she never enjoyed the taste and usually couldn’t take herself to the point of drunkenness, usually stopping after only two shots and leaving to cry herself to sleep. Even thinking about those few horrible weeks caused an icy talon to wrap around the unicorn’s heart, threatening to spread throughout her body.

The only thing that had brought her back from that point had been the invitation to the Grand Galloping Gala from Twilight and her friends, and ever since then she could just remember that night if she started to spiral into sadness. The cold grip released from Ice’s heart, her body once again filling with warmth as she remembered the dress, the music, and above all, the laugher with her friends.

Even if Lemon didn’t know exactly what had happened to her after Red left, Ice still felt that the mare had a point. Just because one stallion couldn’t accept her past didn’t mean that another would do the same. She was scared of Lug Nut and what he had done, but he didn’t do it just because he could, or because he had gotten mad. No, the stallion had killed because another pony was in danger; he did it to defend her.

Ice’s head lifted from its droop, a small smile forming on her muzzle as she nodded once to her friend. “Thank you Lemon.”

“Don’t thank me girl, go thank him for helping you,” the green maned pony said as she waved her hooves down the street. “The fun way.”

Ice chuckled loudly as she turned away from her friend, blushing slightly at the suggestion as she continued her walk home. “You’re terrible.”