Canterlot had always been a majestic city and ever since the rule of the two sisters of night and day had been established it had only grown even more as a beacon of hope and joy to all of ponykind. But it was, in the end, a city like any other and a city had problems that needed dealing with. And like any other city’s crime problems, violence was usually the response from criminals to the Royal Guard just trying to do their job.
Violence was not something to be feared. Every member of the Royal Guard, whether they served during Celestia’s day or Luna’s night, knew that; violence itself was an unfortunate side effect of dealing out justice and not something inherently bad so long as it the end goal was a good one.
Razor Back rather doubted that was what the stallions before her had in mind as she ducked a broken bottle and swished a wing forward, drawing a gash along her attacker’s side with the spines that grew along her bat wings. He yelled and drew back while his friends looked panicked, whether they knew of her or not they had plenty of reason to be afraid now.
“Okay, are we done here?” Razor demanded, sounding more bored than angry. “Because I can think of a million things better I could be doing than beating up on you idiots, and two of them are in my bed waiting for me!” This produced a snicker from another Night Guard sitting on a balcony of the bar they had found this brawl happening in, he seemed rather content to let Razor handle this herself.
“We give up! We’re sorry, just book us.” An emerald pegasus begged, sporting a vicious looking black eye.
Razor snorted and swished her black mane out of her face, purely for effect, and gestured to the Night Guard on the balcony. “You can process them Nocturne, since I did your dirty work.”
“Not like you were gonna let them get in the way of you getting some tail.” Nocturne responded, dropping down from the balcony and trotting past Razor with a leer at her.
Razor spat in his direction. “Complain all you like Nocturne, just remember who’s the one getting all the tail in this guard.” Razor mocked before flapping up to the balcony and making her way to her room at the inn.
“I’ll remember the one who shouldn’t even be in this guard.” Nocturne muttered to himself and began dragging the stallions to their hooves; a simple bar brawl that had almost escalated into a full on riot and it was stopped by a half drunk mare, that wouldn’t exactly make a good headline, so Nocturne began planning what to tell the press had happened.
Preferably something about a handsome unicorn of the Night Guard single handedly wrangling them without even needing his magic.
Razor ignored the mutter and slammed her room door open.
Right into an open forest.
“Now where were-” She began, her eyes bulging as she took in the sight before her; the forest she had emerged into had some mist hovering over it and the moon seemed minimal. Even with her naturally good eyesight in the dark shared by all thestrals Razor had trouble making out the forest outside of the clearing she had entered. Turning back around she groaned as she noticed that the door she had come through was nowhere to be found.
“Can we please go back to the hot mares and beating up idiots?” Razor asked, not exactly sure who would be hearing her, she doubted Luna would be wandering into her dreams anymore, not after the last time.
“I still remember it as though it were yesterday.”
The thestral jumped and looked around for the source of the voice
“I still sit here and remember our dear mother.”
Oh not this again. Razor groaned mentally; she had been plagued by this same dream countless times now and it always ended on the same tease.
Sure enough, one look to the side showed them; the Children of the Night, Princess Luna’s own little cult from back during her original rule... and among them was a filly who was very much Razor in miniature.
Razor felt tears stinging at her eyes again, not just from sorrow but also from anger and resentment, as she looked at her filly self sitting with the other thestrals amongst the group, recognising some of them while others were a mystery.
“3, 2, 1.” She counted down, knowing what was coming next and not able to do anything to stop it. Sure enough, the forest and clearing faded away into smoke, which dissipated into black nothingness. All except a screaming, terrified thestral filly, begging for her family to come back.
Then came the splash of water.
***
Razor coughed and spluttered as she was soaked from above, lashing out with her hooves and bat wings at anything in reach but only managing to hurt her hoof when she slammed it onto a metal work bench.
“Sorry Razor, but I need the space.” The tall brown unicorn above her said apologetically as his horn glowed with magic, opening drawers and turning a key to open the shutter in front of his workshop to open it for business.
“Wound up here again then?” Razor asked the obvious question as she climbed to her hooves, seeing that Johnny Maker had generously taken her hooded sweatshirt and washed it from whatever she had done last night. She slipped it on, thankful that it hadn’t been her Night Guard armour this time.
Johnny just nodded and set about working on what looked almost like a grandfather clock, though it’s face was decorated with various arcane symbols and it’s one hand was shaped rather too much like a scythe for Razor’s liking. “So, how’s business?” She asked nonchalantly as she sat down on an unused table on the other side of the shop; she had at least another few hours before her duties judging by the fact the sun was still up.
“Not too bad.” Johnny replied simply. The unicorn had never been a stallion of many words for as long as Razor had known him, which was fine by her; she knew that she didn’t like listening to others and appreciated that Johnny could respect that while also putting up with her tendency towards... ill advised activites. Johnny was always ready to take her to his shop to sleep it off, even if she felt he enjoyed finding new and creative ways to give her rude awakenings a bit too much.
“And not too bad has you working on peoples’ pet projects again rather than building your own?” Razor asked doubtfully as she looked around at the various repair jobs around the workshop.
Johnny didn’t answer and continued his tinkering. There was a comfortable silence for a while, Razor casually toying with the toys she was fairly certain wouldn’t burn her face off, before either of them spoke again.
“Had the dream again?” It wasn’t a question, as much as Johnny worded it like one; to the few ponies she let get close to her Razor’s recurring dreams were no secret and whether asleep or awake, Johnny had always been good at reading ponies.
She considered denying it only for a moment before she shrugged and answered him. “Yeah, same stupid dream. Don’t know why I’m having them either, usually I know why I have my dreams.” Razor said, smirking as she added. “Because more often than not I end up with a hot mare in the end.”
Johnny wasn’t put off by the attempt at a joke and looked at Razor with a frown. “Couldn’t you ask Luna to-”
“No.” Razor dismissed immediately. Johnny just shook his head and sighed; arguing with Razor was about as useful as trying to catch the sun in a net.
“See you later Johnny.” Razor said. It was still an hour until her shift but she wasn’t in the mind to talk about her dreams right now, as good a friend as Johnny was. He waved her off as she stepped out into the twilight and took off into the skies above Canterlot; if nothing else she could at least grab a bite to eat before she had to go on duty.
***
In the Canterlot Royal Archives a chestnut brown Earth Pony was surrounded by scrolls and open journals at a work table, looking rather like a tornado had buffeted both him and the various scrolls; historical records, war diaries even sketches from that ancient time when Luna and Celestia had been at war.
Crescendo Noteworthington Streak, or just Crescendo as he usually introduced himself, had been pouring over these ancient records each night for weeks now. It had certainly taken a toll but he could not lie and say he didn’t share Razor Back’s fascination with the Children of the Night.
Though considering the mare had politely requested him to do this via threats of violence, he doubted their reasons for interest were the same.
But now it seemed he finally had something to go off; a journal entry from a thestral guard by the name of Silhouette. This journal discussed at great length a plan in motion to...
Crescendo practically sent the table flying as he charged out of the archive, knocking two royal guards down in his rush.
Razor Back had to see this.
***
Across the city Razor Back had settled into a small ice cream and milkshake shop for a snack before her shift and had finally found the right mare to voice her plan to.
The unicorn was not enthusiastic.
“Are you mad?!” The green unicorn mare hissed at Razor; Viridian Rain was not one to suffer fools lightly and that included when her particularly foolish friends.
Razor Back ticked every box on her checklist of fools.
“Probably.” Razor replied nonchalantly, sipping from her milkshake. “But since when has that stopped me from doing anything or impeded me from dragging you along?”
“I wish it would more often, then perhaps I would find myself with less mental scars.”
“Hey now not all those are my fault!”
Viridian sighed and threw her forehooves up in frustration, giving up on trying to understand the thestral. Still though, this plan of hers was ludicrous.
“Do you and Johnny even have any clue at all where you would start on this little quest of yours?” Viridian whispered to Razor, aware that some ponies had started to stare at their little verbal spar. “Where did you even get a ship?”
“Johnny remember?” Razor returned with a grin. Having a master builder and engineer for a friend certainly came with it’s perks. “He got the designs from that other mechanic, you know, what’s his face-?”
“Gear Grind?” Viridian groaned, not eager to become reaccquainted with the green unicorn mechanic.
“Yup. He’d designed a ship for long distance travel over a period of weeks, couldn’t actually build it.” Razor smirked, knowing exactly how different Gears’ version of events would be. Probably involve him fighting a dragon for some rare parts.
Viridian didn’t have time to voice her disapproval any further before a pony burst in through the front of the cage, galloping over to their table and slamming down a battered looking book onto the table.
“Crescendo what the hay are you doing, I’m not due on for-”
The stallion didn’t answer Razor, panting for breath as he was, and simply opened the book to a page he had bookmarked. The thestral’s eyes stayed lock on the page for several moments before she swept past Crescendo without a word and took off into the night sky.
“Where’s she going?” Viridian demanded, taking the book from Crescendo to see what he had just shown her friend.
Crescendo looked out after Razor with a worried look. “If I know her, she’s gone to Johnny... I get the feeling that this will convince her to finally make good on all those promises to go looking for them.”
Viridian didn’t need clarification as to who the stallion meant by “them”; the page that he had shown Razor contained only a few words and was mostly dominated by a sketch of a group of ponies wearing long cloaks that concealed most of their features.
But those few words explained all she needed to know.
“Children of the Night- Two days since we have seen our dear mother. We will wait forever if we must.” Underneath the sketch, in lieu of a signature, was a drawing of the full moon with a bat silhouetted against it.
The very same mark that had been Razor’s cutie mark since she was a filly.
Author's Note
Razor Back is created by me.
Viridian Rain created by DualThrone
Johnny Maker created by Johnny Maker
Gear Grind created by Bjornicorn
Crescendo Noteworthington Streak created by Draconis187
You can read more about all of them over on the OC Roleplay group. For those of you who contributed OCs don't panic if they haven't shown up here, it probably just means that I have plans for them to appear later rather than right now.
