The Vengeful Guardians: The Mercs of Justice

Several inmates were talking or working out with others spotting them as the hydraulic door opened and Arkmane yelled "Fresh meat!" throwing Crescent through the door, a few inmates still curious as to who the fresh meat was and walked over seeing Crescent get up.

A grey coated stallion spotting his cellmate looked up and got a good look at Crescent before looking back to his friend who paid no mind to it. "Hey Brine check out the fresh meat, look familiar to you?"

"Don't *huff* give a *huff* fuck." Brine said between reps. "Busy with *huff* my set."

"Well he's looks kinda like what your brother said Red Horn looked like. You know, before..."

The weights stopped moving up as Brine put the bar back. "See how he acts then get back to me." Brine simply said.

"Well look at the pretty boy." A completely bald mare with peach skin covered in white scars walked up to the tied up Crescent, she pulled out a shiv from her...unmentionable.

"It's been so long since I had a cutie to play-" Crescent cut her short as he kicked the shiv from her hooves with his still cuffed hooves.

"Sorry, I'm taken." He grabbed her neck with his hind hooves in a scissorhold and smashed her head to the ground.

"And to make sure you learn the lesson of don't fuck with me." He tightened the hold on her neck making the mare gasp and cough for air.

Two guards ran in separating the two before Crescent could finish it. Some of the other inmates helped her up as she breathed heavily getting in as much air as she could. "I'm killing that son of a bitch tonight."

"No." Brine simply said before he downed some water in the shadows, finishing up his work out. "That two irised freak is mine to kill Harpy."

"I call dibs first Brine, you can have the scraps if you stay out of my way." Harpy threatened to which a clawed hand reached out of the shadows and pulled Harpy in front of the two red angry eyes. "This isn’t a debate, or would you like me to finish what he started?"

"I called dibs to soften him up for you Brine, I mispronounced what I said." Harpy replied sweating in fear.

"Good, when he's alone someone give him the hint of the offer, It goes down tonight.”

Crescent was roughly thrown into a solitary confinement cell by the guards who shut the door without saying a word to him. Crescent sat up growling to himself, his eyes allowing him to naturally see in the dark. “Trying to hide in the dark from someone who can see in the dark, wow you must be dumber than I remember.”

“I’m not hiding from you.” A blue glow shined faintly in the cell, revealing the black and blue garbed alicorn. Her face hidden by both a black mask and a blue hood. “Is it really you, you're not some shapeshifter paid to mess with my mind are you?”

“Heh heh heh.” He laughed as he fell back. “I’m sorry you seem to have me confused for someone else.”

“No I know who you-”

“You seem to think I’m not a pony you tried to murder!” From his mane Crescent pulled Harpy’s shiv and stabbed at the alicorn. She dodged in time for the knife to embed itself in the padded wall instead of her.

“That wasn’t me that was-”

“The Nightmare, I know and I don’t care!” He left the knife in the wall as he sat back down. “I’ve read it all and heard it all, but I remember it was your laughter I heard when you threw me off that building!”

“....New moon.” She said sadly reaching out for him.

“You lost the right to call me that, just like how you lost the right to call yourself Moon Knight.” He slapped her hoof away. “If you're here to kill me I welcome the challenge, otherwise leave me alone.”
He looked away from her as he rested against the wall.

“Twi- Matterhorn told me she found you, I had to be sure she was right.”

“So what, to make sure you the sidekick you murdered was actually dead?”

“I came to say sorry and to help you.”

“I think everything that happened to me after that night was help enough, If you don’t mind I’m in solitary confinement, I’m not supposed to have any visitors.”

Moon Knight sighed before turning around. “You know I’m not gonna stop.”

“I know, that’s why this time’s your only warning.” Crescent said turning around seeing she had vanished then heard a knock on the door.

“Hey fresh meat, back to your cell.” A guard ordered opening the door.

“Awfully quick.”

“Someone wants to talk to you about an offer, I could just tell him you were asleep.” The guard replied.

“I’ll listen.”

“You didn’t really have a choice.”

Crescent went back into his cell finding Harpy there waiting for him.

“What you want some more?”

“No, a friend of mine has a proposition for you, you want out right?”

“No shit I want out skinhead”

“Well he finds you...special. There’s a little something going down tonight, he wants to know if you’re with him or not.”

“A breakout?” Crescent thought about this then looked at Harpy. “One condition, they took my gear I want your help getting it back.”

“Oh you're the sentimental type.” Harpy replied walking away to her cell looking at her cellmate who was reading a book, the only light in the room being his glowing red eyes.

“His answer, now.”

“He’s in, he wants us to pick up his shit on the way out though, I thought you wanted to kill him.”

“Hmmm alright, we’ll get his stuff, but only so I can kill him with his own weapons, let Phil know, we got two hours I want no fuck ups or surprise factors.”

Ruby had been staring down at the prison vans floor for the last few blocks. The collar they had put on her gave her shock for every little move she did, her metal chitin making the tiniest shock spread throughout her body and making it feel like needles were puncturing every inch of her body. She tried her best to stay still but it seemed like the drivers were trying their best to hit every pothole in the Goth’horn streets.

“Rrrhhh!” Ruby gritted her teeth as they hit another. They hadn’t cuffed her to the bars or had anybody restrain her in the van. She was starting to breathe erratically as she started to feel a panic attack coming onto her. “It’s okay, it's not them just some jerk cops, calm down Ruby.”

“Oh shut-” The driver suddenly stopped halfway through his command. A few seconds later the van came to stop.

“...My mouth?” Ruby asked awkwardly but got no response. The doors into the van clicked and opened, but no one was on the other side to open them. A minute after that her collar clicked and deactivated, signaling it was no longer sealed around her neck. Ruby ripped it off and jumped out of the van looking around it and inside, finding no pony there.

Ruby was thinking what could’ve happened for a moment before something else came to her mind.

‘I gotta get Crescent!’ She thought before she flew over in the direction of Arkhoof.

It was getting close to lights out and Harpy turned to Brine who was submerged in the shadows save for his eyes, but they were the only thing she needed to see as he gave her a nod before he closed them and he blended in with the shadows completely. It was time to get out of this mass grave.

Harpy shook the bars but didn’t say anything, most of their crew knew it meant it was time to leave and began rioting, the other inmates not in the crew got involved because it was a riot.

One of Harpy’s crew members opened Crescent’s cell door and pulled him out. “Follow the boss.” He said to Crescent pointing to Harpy.

“Where’s the place they keep all the confiscated gear.” Much like her shiv Harpy pulled out a key card from her unmentionable.

“Follow me, can you believe those idiots keep that shit here?”

“Heard they sell the stuff sometimes, to both criminals who want to use it and weirdo’s who want serial killer, and super villain memorabilia.” Crescent cringed as she held the key card in her mouth.

“To be fair a famous killer’s knife probably gets you laid more than a rock collection.” She laughed through mouth full of stained key card. “Wonder how much my knife sold for?”

“Thirty bits.” He answered pulling something hidden from his long tail.

“Huh?” She asked before a stiletto knife went right into her jugular.

“A lot of ponies say a long tail is unusual for a stallion, but they just can’t see the advantages, like say tying knots in it to hold small weapons.” He looked down at her as she fell to floor clutching her neck. “Like say the knife of Goth’horn’s newest serial killer.”

“Whhyyyaaagggg...?” She choked on her blood as she stared up at with eyes full of fear.

“Well it’s not because you were a dick to me.” He grabbed the knife and twisted it. The entire asylum started to go nuts as they saw her squirm from it. “A year ago I met a little colt in Maretropolis, I saved him from dying of dehydration, he was dehydrated because he had spent weeks getting to Maretropolis to run away from Goth’horn’s shitty foal services and he was in that system because of you, his mother who worked hard to raise him all on her own was one of thirty victims of Harpy the Masochist.”

“Boss shouldn't we help her?” Crescent spabbed one of Harpy’s thirty scars.

“No we'll get our vengeance later, let's use this distraction and escape this place, bring him too.” Brine gave Harpy one last look. She stared right into his eyes and he turned away, leaving her to Crescent.

“I made that kid a promise, that if I ever saw you I’d kill you so you’d never take any ponies mother ever again.” He grabbed the shive he stole from her and cut one of her scars until a new wound lay atop it. “But than you got captured and your location was kept secret, but now here with the luck that avoided me as a kid I found you, I figured keeping that promise was worth delaying my escape.”

Without another word he ripped the knife out of her neck creating a horrible cash were her juggarl was. Blood splattered on the nearby inmates making them scream in horror. The guards ran out to tackle Crescent who smiled at one of them slipping in the growing pool of Harpy's blood.

“By my mother's mane.” Moon knight pulled her mask down as she stared down at the sight from the roof. Her blue lips quivered and her teal eyes held shame, sadness and anger within them. “What did I turn you into?”