> Apeiron
>  by Markutsk
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Time
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	"How much longer...?"

"Do you really want to know?"

I did. "No.."

"That's right..."

The floor was cold. The only way I could stay in this cell was on my hooves. The bed was no better... The mattress was covered in... reproductive bodily fluids, circular fluids... All kinds of fluids. The stench routed me off to the corner across the room.

"Three minutes" The executioner, and guard, said.

He was my executioner. And my guard at the same time. My destiny was gallows

I looked through the bar door at the unicorn. "Thanks."

For some reason, he smiled warmly at me. "You know.... for a slaver, you're really friendly. And... normal."

I couldn't help but return the smile "That's because, well... Ah, it doesn't matter."

"Oh, c'mon, these three minutes have to pass somehow. If you need it, I'll make it five, and tell the guys I needed to take a leak."

I shook my head lightly, my gaze crumbling down to the floor "I'd rather not delay the inevitable. I'm already mentally scared as is."

"Whaddya mean?" I looked at him, and he held a genuine expression of interest over his soft face. 

The smell was absolutely awful, and I felt the grey stone walls bite onto my mind. I needed something to do, something, to pass the time. To kill it. So, why shouldn't I talk about it? It was interesting to most ponies, why wouldn't it be interesting to him?

"I wasn't always a slaver, you know... At first, it was without the R. I ended up with some... uh... Well... Different ponies. I thought there were only straight ponies in the wasteland. Apparently, my flank made some reconsider."

"Woah!" his eyes widened "Wait, you were a slave once?! What made you become a slaver then? I mean, surely, you must've known it was a bad thing! And how it felt, to be enslaved. Right?"

I smirked and nodded "I did. And it was bad. And I didn't enjoy it. But, I gotta feed myself, right? And I was very good at convincing ponies that I have the bigger gun, so, I thought, hell, why not." I sat on the cold stone ground. Not comfortable, even with my flank...

"Well... You could always... Well, now's too late for that, but... You could've tried going for bounties, or--.."

I cut him off. "That's how I became a slave in the first place."

"Doesn't that kind of.... make you a hypocrite?"

I could feel my brows collapse into a frown "How.... Oh... It does, doesn't it.... Well, I'll be damned."

"So, why'd you become a slaver then?"

"Nature."

"What's natural about slavers?"

"Physics."

"What?"

I smirked, and my face lightened up, the executioner even more confused. "Ever heard of Apeiron?"

It drew closer.

"Pardon?"

"An ancient concept... That's what the ponies of old considered to have been the material of which everything else consisted. Even matter. Well, it was matter kind of."

"A scholarly slaver, that's a new one. So, what does some old concept have to do with a salver?"

I brought my hooves together and chuckled "Physics?"

A frown was enough to make me keep going.

"Alright, alright, I'll elaborate. So, this matter, which makes matter, it can't be destroyed, right? Why? See, it's physics. When you burn a piece of paper, it turns into ash. The matter didn't disappear, it just changed shape. Paper to ash."

His eyes lit up a bit, his head tilting to the side, and back a bit as he was starting to get what I meant.

I continued "Now, this Apeiron, it's not only matter. Our souls consist of Apeiron as well. The whole universe consists of Apeiron. Now, here's an example. A buck goes to school. And he annoys his teacher. Slowly, he chips the teachers time, and patience away, unaware of what's waiting for him. Several year later, the buck is a teacher, being chipped away by a new buck, slowly, who, inevitably, also becomes a teacher, just to be chipped away by another buck." 

The executioner scoffed "A vicious cycle"

"Yup" I smiled widely.

"So, you became a slaver, because you were a slave, and you annoyed the slavers, by existing..." He stopped eyes widening a bit "But wait, if your captors... Did that to you, did you--..."

I cut him off again, waving my forelegs in the air "No-no-no-no! I'm into mares. They're soft and cuddly."

The executioner released a sigh of relief "Good. So then, how did you become... free?"

"A mare bought me off. She was impressed by how I could always keep all the colts and fillies calm, in order, and listening to my lectures. It turned out she needed that because she was a slaver herself, so... I decided to join her, and well, help her with her ventures of earning food."

"Oh... Did we get her too?"

The clock was ticking. I wonder where they'd have found a working one... Maybe they had repaired it. Maybe it ran on spark batteries which still worked. I just eyed at it a few times before answering with a slight shake.

They didn't. "You did." I sighed.

"You're a bad liar, besides, I am your executioner, I am not allowed to share your secrets with anypony else, so you're free to tell me."

I looked at the ground "You didn't. But, she backed away from slavery when you started getting the first ones. I urged her to do it. She said she always wanted to own an Inn, to be an innkeeper, and run it well, and charge fair. I stayed in the business to earn just a few more caps so she could get her business running."

"And then you stumbled upon us." The executioner said, almost sympathetically. 

I looked up at him "So, I did."

"You didn't give up easily."

I scoffed "Are you kidding? I had a promise to fulfill. A mare to please."

The executioner's eyes slowly filled with sorrow. "I was right... You're too friendly for a slaver. Kind, even."

"Ironic, isn't it. In a minute or so, I'll be hanging by the rope."

"And I'll be the pony to sweep the chair from underneath..." He said, his voice shaking.

The clock was killing me. Was it supposed to be so loud? It's impossible that it could outgun our voices, even if it was a huge clock, and it wasn't. Could the long hall actually resonate that well, and make it even louder? Was it the world reminding me that, I will soon be gotten rid of.

Another member of the evil slavers, thrown away, forgotten, killed. It was what I deserved after all.

"Maybe you shouldn't have asked." I chuckled.

He raised his eyebrows, putting a cigarette between his lips with his magic, and lighting it the same way. "What?"

"Shouldn't have doubted, that is."

"What... I- Oh... Right. Well, I'm a nosy pony."

A few seconds later, i could hear a door being opened in the hall, my executioner looked away from the cell, and to the left of the cell. A mare spoke out.

"It's time. Bring the fucker over to the gallows." She walked out, and closed the door, or so I'd have heard.

The executioner unlocked the door, and opened it. I pulled myself onto my legs, and walked out, putting on a forced smile when I noticed that he wasn't doing very well. My back now turned to him, I headed for the door silently.

Though, the silence was broken by a woeful voice from behind. The executioner spoke out "I could help you escape." I looked back at him. He levitated the keys back into one of his coat's pockets.

"No." I responded firmly. "You could lose your job. No more ponies will suffer for my sake."

"You're making it harder." He muttered out and sighed right after he muttered. Kicking a little pebble by his forehoof."

"I raped a filly." I responded with a bit of a shake.

"You're a bad liar." He spoke out. "Lets get going." I only nodded in response, and kept walking towards the door. The hallway dragged on.

It seemed way longer than when I was first making my way in, or well, when I was being dragged in. The clock didn't help either. I for some reason matched my steps with the weak, yet strict rythm it gave out.

Tick-tock, goes the clock.

The walls were all the same, rock. It was a dark shade of grey, the cracks were pitch black, one could look at them and go mad. It was like staring into the void, some of them at least. The door was finally getting closer.

It opened up with an annoying high pitched noise, one it didn't make the first time, and I walked onto a platform.

The stage was set.

It was wooden, fresh, newly set up. I stopped in the middle by the beam holding the rope up. The stage was surrounded by yelling ponies, angry ponies. Ponies who wanted to see me dead. For some reason, their screams were drowned. They were drowned in my head, replaced by the clock.

Tick-tock.

Was the world teasing me? I looked behind myself, and out came my executioner, with a funky mask over his face, with eye and earholes. My lips tilted a bit. I could no longer see his soothing face. He slowly approached me, and I could see his glassy eyes, staring down into mine.	

I nodded, and he gently pushed me onto a stool, I willingly put my head through the rope. The mass of ponies went completely silent. Shocked.

The mare who had called us to the stage started reading out a decree... I wasn't listening. I didn't want to listen. And, in the masses, I had spotted what I was looking for. It made me smile widely. The mass of ponies now seemed even more disgusted, I must've smiled when the mare said something horrible. I didn't care.

I had finally found what I was looking for. It was her. She was fighting her tears back. That made me frown. It was bad for her, to do that. It hurts the body a lot. Makes the muscles around your heart tighten, and strangle you.
It was right then that I noticed that I was being called. 

"Slaver!" The mare who had summoned us exclaimed at the top of her lungs. I looked over at her. She looked stunning. She had a white coat, absolutely white. Almost shining. 

I stuttered, coming back to my senses. It was absolute silence. "Y-Yes?" 

"Your name." She said calmly this time.

I turned to look at the crowd, swept over them once, twice... Then focused on my mare, amongst the crowd. She was obviously not alright.

"Lehrer." I replied accordingly, with a hint of pride in my voice.

"The guilty will now tell me his final wish." My executioner replied sadly, and I looked at him with a weak smile.

It was but a whisper "Don't hunt her down." I spoke out, and in return, earned an honest nod.

I looked back at the crowd, and suddenly, the world below me disappeared. I felt pressure on my neck, an loud crack at the back of my head, and--...

Tick-tock, goes the clock. The vicious cycle continues.