It wasn't long before I heard movement. And seeing as the only other person--er, pony? Being, we'll go with that--was a moving shadow, it was rather obvious who it was.

The familiar green and black lump was always a slow start whenever she woke up, and I could swear the 'process' she took was something you could memorize step by step. Here, lemme show you.

First, she would groan. That one's a freebie, I'm not exactly a morning person either. Next, she would kick her rear legs a few times, kind of like a dog getting a belly rub... Don't look at me like that, its a metaphor, its not like I was actually doing that. Finally, her eyes would open just a bit, only to snap back shut as she probably went through every curse in the back of her head as she realized that she was still in a cell.

Yes, that last bit is a guess on my part, but I'd wager it's a pretty safe one.

"Morning Chrysalis." I told her through tears of effort as I struggled to figure out if I was meant to chew or swallow my slop.

Next up was the important part of our daily routine. And I really do mean it, seeing as there wasnt any other bit of variety to look forward to while I was in there.

Figuring out whether or not she was in a bad mood.

"And how exactly do you know that it's morning?" She snided.

Suffice to say, I had an idea of her mood.

I rolled my eyes as she moved onto her stomach, stretching out her limbs and beginning to yawn, only to flinch as a crack resonated from her jaw as it partially dislodged itself from her skull. She rubbed at the bottom of her maw in discomfort while I rolled my eyes and eased back onto the wall.

"Oh, like anyone else, really! I just looked out the window. And what a nice day it is!" I replied sarcastically, placing down my now empty tray with one hand and gesturing to a nonexistent window with the other.

Yeah, we're gonna take a quick little tangent here so that I can bring you a quick rundown of how to deal with Chrysalis when she's in a bad mood.

Yes, it is necessary. You know as well as I do how many times its gone poorly for people when they decide to do something stupid around her when she's like this. If anything, this might help some folks out.

Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah.

Step one: Give the grumpy changeling something to metaphorically gnaw on. Sarcasm, countering remarks, or incredibly stupid insults that are so poorly contrived that it seems like you had to struggle to rub enough brain cells together to make it up usually work best.

"Has the food arrived yet?" She asked, her annoyance still clear in her voice as she narrowed her eyes towards me.

This brings us to step two of our guide: Give her something to literally gnaw on. Ideally food, because if not, she may very well use the nearest living person that annoys her first. And to answer your questions; no, that is not a joke; yes, I know from experience; no, I will not elaborate further.

I pointed in front of her unceremoniously, watching as she followed my finger's guidance. I saw a familiar glint in her eye and shifted ever so slightly more away from her.

This brings us to the oh so elegant step three of the grumpy changeling guide: Get some distance from the splash zone. In some cases, I refer to this metaphorically. In this case though? Well, the bits of the slop that splattered around the room could answer that for me.

If I were a pretentious art critic, I'd make up some random statement about how the small splatters of green against an otherwise dark gray room could be comparable to the struggle of man. Since I'm not though, I will instead mark this display down in history as the brutal murder of the very concept of table manners in front of its wife and children. It doesn't take long for her to finish, the tray completely cleaned out as she lifts her heads and licks off whatever dripping bits of slop hung off her muzzle. She lashed out her thin forked tongue, and let out a content hum.

God, I wanna gag just thinking back to it. Again, for the record, the first time I had tried that slop, I nearly puked it back up in the same, if not a darker shade of gross that it had already been in. Yet she ate nearly two servings worth of the stuff in what I could only assume to be--forever--record time.

She looked towards me with a smile of less than pleasant satisfaction.

"I see that the guards are getting more generous in their servings as of late. About time that they started treating a queen with more respect." She would say, bringing us to the fourth and final step of our quick guide.

Sit back and 'enjoy the show'. Whether that come in the form of her monologuing, bragging, or otherwise cursing some vague annoyance for existing.

She had never figured out that I gave her some of my food on occasion. Instead, she would just make the assumption that the guards were finally starting to respect her. As to why I never told her otherwise?

Look, I'll level with you, and don't tell her I said this, but it was pretty obvious that whatever sense of pride she had was one of the few things kept her going. I'm no psychologist, but it wasn't hard to figure out. So, for the sake that pride, I humored her. I had even asked Nightmare Moon not to tell her, which went better than I had expected. For an 'eternal alicorn of the shadows that had tried to put the world into an endless night', she was certainly rather understanding, eh?

"I guess. That, or maybe they just had a mix up. They've done it before, after all." I returned, doing my damndest to get inso some kind of comfortable position against the cell wall. It didn't work, but still.

Hm? Wasn't I just doing the opposite of humoring her, like I said I would?

There's a grand difference between pride and ego here, you see, but a very fine line between the two. So I was basically the person that... uh... trimmed the hedges as they grew? Wow, yeah, I agree, that was a terrible comparison.

"True, but a mare could always hope, can't she?" Chrysalis said with a shrug and a roll of her eyes.

"Yup. Sure. Respect sure is the absolute important thing right now." I stated blankly.

She didn't respond, instead just raising an eyebrow. It was the look that said, 'you're joking, right? Of course you are, otherwise I would never so much as look your way again.'

I shook my head and looked to the dark wall ahead of me, taking some solace in the whispers I heard reverberating through the room.

Not the kind of whispers you hear when you're going crazy though. I wasn't... Okay, I know thats what every crazy person says, but-- Look, this is literally what happened anytime Nightmare Moon was talking in someone else's head. There was nothing that could be done about it.

It was creepy at first, but I got used to it pretty quick. Plus, at least it gave me some indication that she was having a conversation instead of just making it seem like the other person involved was going nuts.

"What do you want?... No... How should I know?... Then why don't you ask?.... Fine!"

Okay, marginally. It marginally made them seem less crazy.

"Nightmare Moon wants to know if you've made any progress in remembering why you were put in here."

And there it was.

The entire time that I had been there, I had tried whatever I could to remember what I could have possibly have done to end up in prison, but I hadn't really made any progress. Months of waiting and thinking; nothing.

"You know about as much as I do." I answered simply while I twiddled my thumbs.

"Hmph, somehow I doubt that." Chrysalis remarked. "You've been here for over three months, and yet you still haven't managed to remember why?" Skepticism was very clear in her voice as she looked to me with a somewhat knowing smile. I just took it in stride.

"So? You don't even bother to remember my name." I returned.

She blinked.

I had her there and she knew it. I couldn't even keep track of how many times she had forgotten my name. Though to be fair, I stopped caring after around 10. I didn't really care enough to count after that.

"Of course I remember your name." She shot back totally not suspiciously defensive. It was around then that Nightmare Moon had popped back into my head, judging from the chuckle I heard from her.

"Then what is it?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but that was about as far she got. She tapped her hoof to her muzzle, as though she were a philosopher thinking over the angles behind the meaning of life, before a satisfied grin donned on her.

"It's John."

To her credit, she had at least gotten the first letter that time.

"Jeremy. It's Jeremy. It's three syllables for gods sakes. Are you deaf, forgetful, or dumb? Cuz at this point, you're definitely one of them."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

You uh... you might wanna not write this next bit down.

-------------------------------------

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Ye are both so foalish."

This is usually what our arguments would come too. Going back and forth for no particular reason with Chrysalis standing up, hoping to intimidate me, and me standing in return and leaning against the steel doors to this chamber, since they were much cooler to the touch.

Wait, you wrote all that down??? I told you not to. How many pages did you--

Three?!?

Okay, yes, it was stupid, I get it! But it's notable! It was one of the most annoying parts of our days, but it was something.

I was stubborn, Chrysalis was stubborn, but I'd be lying if I said some part of me didn't enjoy passing the time like this. Sometimes, we would argue for hours on end, going late into the night until one of us eventually passed out from exhaustion. Or until Nightmare Moon made one of us stop.

"Are too."

"Are not."

Like I said, hours on end.

"Are t-"

"Allow her to win thy foalish debacle, lest I give thee night terrors that shall haunt thee for a fortnight!" In this case, Nightmare Moon was the deciding factor. And even though I only understood about half of what she said, and I decided it would be worthwhile not to find out.

Chrysalis seemed to notice that I had stopped and smiled. She probably thought she had won. Maybe for now, but Nightmare Moon wouldn't always be around to... actually, she probably would. While we were in there at least.

Speaking of which, a familiar question came to mind.

"Nightmare Moon, you mind telling me what day it is?" I had asked.

I don't know when, but at some point I heard that knowing about the date or time helped someone keep sane in a bad situation, and it seemed to be working for the most part.

Still, from an outside perspective, it probably sounds like it was a stupid question to ask, right? Considering that we were all stuck inside of a dark windowless room. That's where you'd be wrong though.

"It is the fourth day of the week, on the 12th day of the 11th month."

Nightmare Moon was like a living pony calendar. According to her, she picked this up during her time on the moon. She had a lot of free time. And that had not changed all that much, evidently.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." I responded with a nod before walking to the one of the room's corner and trying to get myself comfortable. It was the same thing everyday in this miniature hell. Some of it I didn't mind, some of it I couldn't stand.

The sound of yawning broke me off my thoughts as I looked to see Chrysalis had begun to lower herself to the ground again, scrunching up into her usual lump and going back to sleep.

"Odd how she continually assumes that position whenever she chooses to rest." I barely held back a snicker at Nightmare Moon remark.

"Yeah, but that's her choice." I returned, finding some sense of comfort as I managed to get one of my back muscles to relax against a sharp 90 degree angle.

"You two had better not be talking about me behind my back!" Chrysalis yelled, despite never so much as moving from her place on the floor.

"Yeah, yeah, good night you two." Aside from the tired groan of Chrysalis, I didn't get any answer.

Now, go ahead and take that whole entry. Every last god damn bit of it, from start to finish.

If you want, you can go ahead and write it down again, and again, and again, until your fucking arm falls off. And guess what? It would be a pretty accurate retelling of every. Single. Day. That we were in that cell.

It sucked. It sucked so fucking much.

But at least--at goddamn least--I had those two to keep me company. I probably wouldn't have made it a month alone in that dark metal room. Those two were the closest things I had to friends at the time.

It's incredible how living through monotony can seem different everyday with other people. Even if the people are ponies... changelings... and shadow alicorn things... and- you know what, forget it.

My point is, fuck that cell and everything about it.

Next Chapter: Chapter 3: What Are The Odds? [Here Again] Estimated time remaining: 15 Hours, 43 Minutes