“Alright, get up.” Called a changling guard as he kicked the side of my bunk. The shock from his hooves impact knocked me from the top bunk to the irritable drop to the dirt floor. “Time to get to work, now let’s get going.”

I gave a quick sigh and lifted myself off the ground, brushing the light coat of dust off my clothes. “So, where we off to today?” I asked, taking a brief yawn as I stood to my feet.

“Patrolling the castle grounds today. And after lunch, the queen’s asked for you specifically to clean the stables. Normally, it’s cleaned by the stable boys, but she’s given them the day off.”

“Of course she did. Well, I'll get it done.” I turned to the guard and felt my stomach rumble. “Let’s get some breakfast, eh?” I shot him a smile and he returned it in full.

“That’s the best thing I’ve heard all morning. I’m starving.” We turned and made our way towards the mess hall to join the other castle guards and workers. As we made our way towards the cafeteria, I turned to my thoughts on how I wound up in this whole “slavery” business.

After turning down Chrysalis’ offer, she had a couple of guards “escort” me to the barracks to work my time away until Dark had finally managed to convince her to sign the treaty. They arrived as I slept. They managed to sneak into my room, tie a rag across my mouth so I couldn’t call for help, and threw a black bag over my head and dragged me through the halls until they tossed me inside the barracks. Normally one would have struggled and tried to escape, but I had already seen this coming.

I’ve been working around the castle with the others for the past few days now and I’ve managed to keep in contact with a trusted guard. He keeps a watch out for me to see how close Dark is to convincing the changling queen into signing that treaty, and thus far, he’s only made a bit of progress. If I were there to help him, the treaty would have already been signed by now and we’d be off back to Ponyville so he could meet with the others, but sadly, I’m here. Toiling my body’s energy away for absolutely no reason.

Though my body ached, and my mind fried from the long and unforgiving hours working under the bright sun’s rays, it would all be worth it. Even if she were to break my spirit and crush me into the dirt like an ant, I’d still have the memories of Dusk keeping me afloat. For her, I’d work myself to the bone just to see her again.

We finally arrived at the cafeteria and after taking our fill, we began making our way to grab our gear to begin patrolling. As we made our way down the hall, my changling friend named Toothless turned to me and asked,“So, what’d you do to piss off the queen?”

I looked to him and gave a shrug,“Well, she asked me to do something I didn’t want to. I said no, and now I’m here.”

“What about that other guy? Darkmoon? That’s his name right? Is he your brother or something? You two look really similar, accept the age part.”

“We’ll you could say that we’re like brothers, I’m the brains and he’s the brawn. I know more about that guy than anyone else.”

“How?” He asked, slightly confused. “Didn’t you say that you two met last week?”

I thought back to the past and shrugged it off. “I’m just really good at reading people, and he’s a talker... though without me, he’s not really good at it.”

“Coming from the guy who got himself thrown into a mess like this?”

I stopped mid-step before continuing. “Touché.” The rest of the walk was calm and quiet, and after collecting our gear and strapping it on, onto the patrol we went. Just like the days before, nothing too much of interest happened. And once our patrolling was over, I dropped my stuff off in the barracks and made my way towards the stables.

After I arrived at the stable, I grabbed a shovel and a pair of gloves. ‘I hope that Dark gets the treaty signed today, we need to get this story on the road.’ I thought to myself as my shovel dug into the waste within the pen.

The day’s light faded into the distance as the sun began to set. Within the day me and my changling friend Toothless had finished our rounds and figured it was time to finally call it a night. We sauntered back to the guard barracks and sat around talking to each other. I looked to him with exhausted eyes and sheepishly smiled,“I wish Dark would be finished with this, we need to get to Ponyville to meet the others.” As the sentence finished, the words were replaced with a grandiose yawn. “Damn I’m tired.”

“I hear you, I could use a break.” Voiced Toothless. “Too bad you couldn’t be in two places at once, being able to help Dark along and patrolling with your buddy Tooth. But that’s not likely to happen.” He gave an outrageous laugh but quickly changed his tone as he rest his eyes upon the man across the table, a large grin plastered across his face. “What are you smiling about?” He asked.

Lightly chuckling to himself, Condemned looked to Toothless. “You’re a genious Tooth. I don’t know how I didn’t think of this before!” Quickly thinking to himself, a vision came into reality right before Tooth’s eyes. An exact replica of Condemned.

With a twinge of fear, he unsheathed his blade and aimed it for the replica,“Hold foul demon! Or be cast into oblivion!” Cried the frightened changling. Opening his eyes, the author gently pushed the tip of the blade down towards the floor.

“Calm yourself, Tooth. I know a bit of magic of my own and this is going to help me! With his help... my help..” Confusion riddled the author’s mind but was quickly shaken away. “Anyways, with this replica, I’ll be able to work out in the fields with you and be able to help Dark.” Without warning, Condemned’s vision began to change. He could see through his own eyes, but also the replica’s as well. The sudden change was a bit too disorienting, so he quickly sat back down. “Damn it...” Condemned groaned. “This is going to take some practice.”

Author's Note

Well, back on track and feeling good. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and can't wait to see you in the next. Thanks to AhugeAcidTree for proofreading the chapter for me.

Keep it cool, Condemned.