The sun was harsh on his eyes. He couldn't see what he was looking at, but it was vaguely pony shaped. He tried shielding his eyes with a hoof, but it didn’t help. He couldn’t make out any details.
"H... Hello?"
Night Runner woke up with a start. Looking out of his window, he saw the sun setting over the City of Canterlot. With a yawn, he realised it was already evening- and that he was very likely going to be late for work.
Rising from bed, the purple-coated thestral yawned, brushing his long, tangled mane out from his eyes. It was awkward and spiky and stuck from his head at many an odd angle, but he was proud of the jet black mop that was his mane. With a casual stretch of his membrane wings, he felt a gentle crack in his spine and let out a sigh of relief. "I love that feeling." He muttered, rubbing his heterochromatic eyes - the right a deep red, the left a hawk-yellow - with his forehooves.
Night Runner worked the night shift at the castle, as his race was well equipped to work in the dark; he had excellent Night vision, keen hearing, and could meld into the shadows if needed be. Not that a secretary to the Captain of the Guard needed any of those traits; nor was he particularly adept in their application.
That train of thought led him back to the one, irrefutable fact that caused his mood to droop as he halfheartedly set about his breakfast.
Night Runner was fully grown now. He was taller than most ponies, with an impressive wingspan, and had been letting his mane and tail grow out for quite some time but, unlike every other pony his age, he still hadn't found that one thing he was destined to do, to be good at; his special talent… and his cutie mark.
Finishing his less than appetizing breakfast and brushing his mane back as much as it would allow, he stepped out of his small flat and onto the streets of Canterlot. As usual, just across the street were three ponies who, upon seeing him, walked over.
Night Runner facehooved dramatically in frustration. "Jackhammer, Ivy, Headstrong." he greeted with an almost sardonic tone as they approached. Jackhammer and Headstrong were both earth ponies, and very well built earth ponies at that: the former a muddy brown colour with a bronze mane, as short and simple as his personality; the latter sanguine with a burgundy mane, longer than that of her companion.
Ivy, in contrast with her lackeys, was coated in a pristine alabaster, and had a long stylish braid in a leaf green colour. The others followed her orders unquestioningly and she had been a particularly stubborn thorn in Night Runner’s side ever since she dropped out of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and transferred to his own class.
Beginning the unpleasantries, Ivy opened. "Hey there, Blank. Off to work are you?"
"Without paying up, I might add." Jackhammer immediately noted.
Night Runner sighed. "Come on guys, I've paid you once already this week. You know I work in the guardhouse, do you really want to-"
He was cut short by a blind-sided kick to the flank from Headstrong. Or was it a head butt? The red pony was aptly named.
Ivy smiled. Despite the dying light, her smile was dazzling; a sexy but venomous smile that set Night Runners spine tingling. Ivy was incredibly appealing physically, but her personality simply appalled him. She wouldn't lift a hoof against him herself, but her father was his superior in the guard and had already ruined Night Runner’s own father - his threats against her were futile and they all knew it.
Her previously dazzling smile turned sour, to more of a sneer "If you want to keep that damn pet of yours, you'll pay for our silence when we tell you to. Otherwise, that nasty little fuzzball is going back into the bins where it belongs."
Reluctantly, and slightly winded, the accosted thestral turned on the spot and trotted back into his home to count out nine bits from his savings. It was such a stupid thing; they were blackmailing him over his illicit care of a docile, overly sleepy badger. They knew the poor thing was docile as well but still robbed him of nearly half his twenty bits weekly salary to keep quiet about it. Handing them the money, he ignored Jackhammer’s jibe of "See you Monday, Blank-Flank."
As Night Runner watched them depart, Sydney, the small badger it cost so much to protect, crept from the shadows to join him. He gave it a brief pat before setting off for work.
On his way to the castle, Night Runner occasionally liked to visit a good friend of his who, despite their wildly different taste of style, were both united by a love of classical music. Figuring he was already late for work anyway, he decided to stop by the house of Octavia Philharmonica. She was always there to listen to him; never scolding him for slacking off work or for turning up after sundown. As she so often said, "When one is a friend of Vinyl Scratch, late nights are the norm." So, as he found himself walking up the garden path to her large house, he found himself beginning to smile for the first time that day.
Knocking on the door, he was mildly surprised to find it answered by Worthy, Octavia’s unicorn butler, dressed in his nightgown levitating a cup of some hot beverage. "Oh my." the unicorn exclaimed, "Apologies, but I am afraid to say that Miss Philharmonica is not here at present, Sir. She has gone out of town." Night Runner’s mood sank again like a stone in a pond as he realised it was going to be one of those days.
"It’s fine, Worthy. It’s fine.... Where has she gone exactly? Will she be back soon?"
Worthy simply shook his head in a tired, sluggish way. "I'm afraid I do not know when she will return, sir. She's headed to Ponyville to visit Miss Scratch in anticipation of a performance together for a local fashion event."
Night Runner sighed in reply and nodded. "Alright. Thanks Worthy. Sleep well, and sorry for disturbing you so late." Worthy offered a small bow before softly shutting the door on him.
Turning around, Night Runner peered into the dimming sky. The sunlight was almost completely gone now despite it being rather early. The days were shorter-lived as the year drew to a close and winter was his favourite season, even though the cold. The moon peeking over the far horizon started bringing idle thoughts to his mind. "I wonder what it would be like to meet the Princess of the Night." he sighed lightly as his trudge to the castle continued.
'I should have realised that it was going to be a bad day when I had to deal with Ivy before lunch. If I could get away for just a while...'
It quickly dawned upon the thestral that he could get away from it all any time he wanted, if only for a night or two. He might put his job at risk, but it’s not as if he’d never missed a little of the secretarial busywork they put him through before. Something Worthy had said crossed his mind. "Ponyville... I could go for a trip to Ponyville." A grin split his muzzle, revealing the sharpened canines that thestrals alone bore, before leaping into the air and flying back to his flat.
He rushed inside and began throwing items - a hairbrush, a hoof-cleaning kit, his toothpicks, a blanket or two, all that remained of his savings and a very confused looking badger - into saddlebags, slinging them over his back. Sydney, seeing a new, mischievous spark in his caretaker’s eyes, tightened the strap of the saddlebags and ducked back inside. Like a shot, Night runner was off again, rising into the skies over Canterlot. Turning towards the moon as it rose before him, he smiled as the valley between the mountains around the city opened up and a burst of speed saw him heading in the direction of Ponyville.
