*Razor*
Razor opened his eyes to see… Grey. Just the color grey, nothing else. After a few moments, his vision cleared enough to see the wall in front of him, as well as the piles of rubble that were stacked up against it. It did nothing to alleviate the grey.
After blinking a few more times to clear his vision up a little more, he covered his mouth with a hoof and let out a yawn before he sat up from the booth seat he was sleeping in. He then turned his attention to the hole in the wall. The one he was supposed to be watching for most of the night. Outside, nothing had changed. The sky was still the same, purple hue it had been since they got here, and neither the sun nor the moon were anywhere to be seen. At the edge of the hole in the wall however, leaning against the wall just a bit to the left of the hole, lay a sleeping, black unicorn.
Seth had offered to take up the second watch after the little talk the two of them had last night. Or was it only a few hours ago? Time was impossible to tell in this place. Either way, it seemed as if the harsh mistress that was sleep had gotten to him too. Suddenly, the sound of another, much more feminine yawn caught Razor’s ears as he turned his attention to the back of the bar to see an orange alicorn stretching both her wings and forehooves as she sat up from the booth she was sleeping in. Filia Solis. That was her name was.
She stretched her wings and hooves out for a few moments before she slumped back into the seat she was sleeping in and rubbed her eyes. Seeing her roused Razor enough from the half lidded, dream like state he was in enough to actually stand up from the booth bench he was sleeping on and walk over towards the still sleeping Seth.
“Yo, dude, wake up,” Razor said as he nudged Seth in the shoulder. It did nothing to rouse him from his sleep. “Yo, Seth, come on, Seth, get up.” Razor tried again as she shook him a little bit.
“Mmmmmmm…..” Seth moaned in his sleep as he rolled his head around. “Mmmmm, just five more minutes Rainbow…”
“Um… Seth,” Razor said, the look on his face would have been absolutely priceless if anypony would have been here to laugh about it. After he said that, Seth slowly opened his eyes and looked right at him.
“Oh, it’s you,” Seth said to him in a very monotone voice before bringing up a hoof and rubbing his eyes a bit.
“Hoping it was all a dream?” Razor asked.
“Yeah, you could say that,” Seth replied as he brought both his hooves up to his head and rubbed them against his temples for a little bit. Razor didn’t want to say anything to him, but in all honesty, he was hoping for the same thing when he woke up.
“Well, you two seem to be getting along better,” the two of them turned to see Filia walking up towards them. Razor almost had to struggle to keep himself from laughing at her. Perhaps it was because she hadn’t slept in any kind of bed, but she had the worst bedmane ever right now.
“Thanks,” was all Razor could say to her. Thankfully he was able to hold back his laughter enough.
“Morning, Filia,” Seth said as he stood back up.
“Good morning, Seth,” Filia replied to him politely, blissfully unaware of her aforementioned bedmane. Seth either seemed to be taking it better than Razor was, or he didn’t find it as hilarious, but he showed no reaction to it.
The awkward moment (for Razor anyway) was broken by the sound or rumbling. The sound of a pony’s stomach rumbling. Both Seth and Razor turned their attention to Filia, who only gave them a confused look.
“What, it wasn’t me,” she said to them. At that, both Razor and Filia turned their attention to Seth, who just laughed for a little bit and rubbed the back of his head with a hoof.
“Okay,” he said. “I guess I am a little hungry. I mean the last time I ate was yesterday at breakfast.” Both Razor and Filia responded with looks that might have said ‘are you serious?’ At this, Seth dropped his hoof and lost the humorous expression he had on before. “Oh come on,” he said. “Seriously, when was the last time you two ate anything?” Filia opened her but stopped herself before she could say anything. Razor just looked up towards the ceiling. When he thought about it, Seth was right. The only thing that Razor had eaten since well, ever, was that bagel with peanut butter that he had for breakfast.
“Okay…” Filia said as she let out an exasperated sigh. “I guess we can take a moment to get some breakfast.” At that, she looked up towards the ceiling like Razor. “That is, if we can find anything edible in this Celestia forsaken place.” Seth seemed to give her an odd look at that, but Razor, at that, thought of something.
“One second,” he said to Filia and Seth as he turned around and trotted over towards the bar. The two of them glanced at each other for a moment before they looked back towards Razor, who had hopped behind the bar and started rummaging around through all the cabinets back there. “F*ck where is it?” Razor said aloud as he searched. “Come on I know they gotta have at least one around here somewhere.”
Curious, both Seth and Filia walked over towards the bar. The couldn’t quite see what Razor was doing behind it, but they could see him moving around quite a bit. They could also hear the sounds of things being knocked on the floor as if he had no care in the world for them, which he really didn’t. Again, both Seth and Filia looked at each other, but again, they gave each other the same confused look.
“YES!” Razor finally shouted to himself as both Seth and Filia looked back to him. When he stood back up, in his magical grasp was an unopened bag of mixed nuts, which he dropped on the bar counter in front of Seth and Filia. The two of them just stared at the bag for a moment while Razor leaned against the bar. The bag really was unopened, and expiration date on them was still good.
“Nuts?” Seth said.
“Why would a place like this have a bags of nuts?” Filia asked.
“Because ponies like eating them,” Razor replied, only to receive silence from both Filia and Seth. “I take it neither of you have spent much time in bars.” At that, Filia shot him a look that basically screamed ‘Nah! You think so,’ Seth on the other hoof, just looked away from both of them. Apparently the corner of the ceiling was very interesting to him. Filia’s jaw practically dropped when she saw the reaction he gave. It was almost like she didn’t expect it.
“Argh, fine,” she said as she pulled up a barstool. “Lets just eat. It might be a while before we get to eat anything else.” At that, Razor looked down under the bar for a moment and pulled out three bowls, two of which he put in front of Filia and Seth.
-One bag of mixed nuts for breakfast later-
Razor, Seth, and Filia all sat in the booth that Filia was sleeping in earlier. The suggestion to move there having been brought up by her, since it was really more comfortable there, something which Razor could not argue with. Either way, they had already finished their breakfast with about half of the bag to spare. Both Seth and Razor were still kind of hungry, but Filia had suggested that they leave some, just in case they would have to be here for a bit longer. Again, Razor could not complain about the logic in that.
Also during breakfast, Filia seemingly realized just how bad her bedmane was and combed it up real quick using a brush she made from magic. The same way both Seth and Razor made weapons from their magic. Razor was… surprised to say the least, that that technique could be used like that. Either way, it was kind of funny to watch her reaction.
“So, Filia…” Seth finally said after a rather silent breakfast. “Last night you mentioned that you had some type of plan.” That perked Razor’s interests. If this alicorn really did have a plan to get out of here, then he wanted to know what it was.
“Right,” Filia said. “Now that we’re all here, and nopony is trying to kill us, I might as well let you two know exactly what I need you two for.” Razor kept silent. “The plan,” Filia began. “Is to get into the High Tower.”
“And just how are we going to accomplish that?” Razor couldn’t help but ask, which frustrated Filia a little bit.
“Well,” she continued. “As I told Seth last night. When we were all standing in front of the High Tower, I felt some kind of strong magical field around it. Like a forcefield.”
“Yeah, I felt that too,” Razor said. “In fact, I’m pretty sure everypony there did.”
“Dude, let her finish,” Seth butted in, giving Razor a look that pretty much said ‘chill out’. Razor didn’t say anything in response, Filia however, looked even more frustrated. ‘Wow, she really is Princess Celestia’s daughter,’ Razor couldn’t help but think to himself.
“As I was saying,” she continued. “After we all got teleported into the city, I ended up close to the tower. I tried to get inside, but as you can see, that went about as well as you would expect.” Both Razor and Seth remained silent at that. “So, as the two of you can probably guess, I need some help getting in, and that’s where you two come in.” At that, she stopped talking and looked between the two of them, as if expecting both of them to say something. Razor however, remained silent, as did Seth.
‘Okay, no, you’re not going to get me with that one,’ Razor thought to himself as he inwardly smirked to himself. If she didn’t want him to talk, then he wasn’t going to talk. At least, not yet. Razor couldn’t have guessed Seth’s reason for being quiet though. Though it was probably just because he was being polite. After a few moments of not so awkward except for one of them silence, Filia let out another exasperated sigh.
“Okay, in short, I need to the two of you to open the barrier surrounding the tower for me so that I can get inside and defeat the Stallion in the High Tower,” she continued. A few moments after she was done talking, Razor slowly raised his hoof, just like he was in school again. If he wanted to speak, and now he really did want to now, he was going to do so on her terms, whether she liked it or not. The look on Filia’s face suggested that it took all of her willpower to NOT say what she wanted to. “Yes,” she said to Razor.
“Okay, that’s all well and good,” Razor said as he put his hoof back down. “But you still didn’t answer my question. Just how in Celestia’s name are we going to accomplish that?”
“The barrier surrounding the tower isn’t that much different from a regular magical barrier,” Filia explained. “At least as far as I could tell. There is a spell for high level unicorns that can get through magical barriers, so if the barrier surrounding the tower works the same way, then theoretically it should work.”
“If you knew about this spell,” Seth butted in, “Then why didn’t you try it yourself?” Razor was kind of surprised that Seth asked that. In all honesty, he was going to because he knew Seth wouldn’t. This guy just kept surprising him.
“The spell isn’t as easy to perform as you might think,” Filia explained. “For weaker barriers sure it’d be no problem, but depending on the strength of the barrier sometimes two, maybe three ponies are necessary.” Both Razor and Seth just stared back at Filia with looks of obvious confusion. “Picture it like this,” she continued. “Imagine a very large, very heavy, set of double doors. Doors that are too heavy for a single pony to move on their own. Now, by yourself you could maybe, MAYBE push one door open just enough for you to dash inside before it closes on you. Now, imagine if you had somepony helping you hold the other door open, then maybe you could slip inside while he’s holding the door for you. Now, in this case, imagine that you have two ponies helping you, one to hold open each door. With the two of them holding open the doors for you, ideally they should be able to hold it open long enough for you to dash inside before it closes on them. So basically, the more ponies you have holding the doors open for you, the better. For the barrier surrounding the tower, since I couldn’t get it open myself, I knew that I needed at least two other ponies helping me, possibly more if I could get them, but-”
“But we don’t exactly have the luxury of asking other ponies for help right now,” Seth said. “And I’m guessing it’s a pretty strong barrier.”
“Exactly,” Filia stated. “I know you’re a powerful magic user Seth, and Razor,” she said as she looked at him. “I may not know you, and to be honest, I’m sorry we had to meet like this, but if you really are powerful enough to beat Seth’s flank here, then you’re really the only chance we have at pulling this off.” She paused for a moment at that. Razor didn’t say a word. “Seth and I can’t pull this off on our own, and even if we could, there’d be no guarantee that one of us could get inside. So please…” she paused another moment after that. “We need your help.” Razor could see the desperation in her eyes. Hell, he could pretty much tell that if it wasn’t for her dignity as a princess, she would practically be begging him to help right now. He quietly took another deep breath before he could answer her.
“Look,” he said to her. “For what it’s worth, I’m more than happy to help.” At that, Filia’s face seemed to light up again. “But there’s still one, kind of not exactly small, problem.” Even if Razor was going to help, he still had to be realistic about this. That was one thing Daedalus taught him. “I can’t speak for Seth, but I don’t know this spell.”
“Don’t worry,” Filia said, her frustration seemingly long gone. “I’ll teach it to you. I kind of figured that you two wouldn’t know a spell like this. So I’ll show you how it’s done.”
“Okay…” Razor replied. He couldn’t argue with that logic. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Seth, who had been silent for a while by this point, with his hoof to his chin.
‘Huh, wonder what’s on his mind,’ Razor couldn’t help but think to himself.
*Seth*
I tapped my hoof on my chin. The others seemed to notice this.
“Is something wrong, Seth?” Filia asked.
“Maybe. There's one thing about all this that still bugs me.” I said.
“What is it?”
“You two remember that mare with the silly hat? And what happened to her?”
“Kinda hard to forget,” Menrums or whatever his name is replied.
“Well, she got struck down by lightning because she suggested for none of use to fight. Yet, here we are discussing taking down The Stallion in the High Tower, and here we are, perfectly fine.”
They both looked at each other, thinking about this.
After a few moments, Moorams said, “Maybe he just wants to see how long this alliance of our will last. Think about it, he said that he’s done this many times. I doubt we’re the first ones to decide to work together, and this battle royale thing does have a time limit. When time is running out, what then? Do we stick together to the end or do we try and tear each other's throats out. To him, watching that probably just gives him some extra enjoyment in this game of his.”
I thought about this for a second and said, “So, you think he’s testing our loyalty? Makes sense Ma… May… Mur..”
He just let out an exasperated sigh and said, “Just call me Razor. Everypony else does.”
“Okay, sorry Razor.” I said before I turned to Filia “So we have to make it to the tower. What if we run into anypony on the way there?”
“We either try to avoid them, or at least try to defeat them without killing them. So just knock them out or something. I mean we don’t want to be responsible for the death of an entire universe, right?”
At that my eyes started to shift back and forth nervously, and I couldn’t help it.
Filia seemed to pick up on this, “You didn’t...”
I sighed and told her, “I ran into a minotaur. I tried to pull out a few brick to use as projectiles, but the whole building ended up falling on him. I doubt he’s walking away from that.”
“I ran into some buffalo before I met Seth. I ended up burning him alive.” Razor admitted with shame in his voice.
“Seriously, you two?!” Filia shouted.
“What? We didn’t exactly have our heads on straight.” I said to her. “Besides, if I remember correctly you had no problem with me when I killed Dopple.”
“That was different! He was one changeling. What you two just did, those were whole universes.”
“I know. I realize that, but we can’t dwell on that now. If we get guilt tripped because of this, we might not be able to focus. On the matter at hoof.”
“He’s right. We did what we had to. It doesn't matter now. What does matter are the lives of all the remaining universes and the ponies that live in them. Besides, I seriously doubt that Seth and I are the only two in this that have killed somepony so far. Hell, that buffalo killed an earth pony before he fought me.” Razor said.
“Same case with me and the minotaur,” I added.
“Fine," Filia replied, but still not really liking it. "I guess you guys are right, but seriously, we need to avoid killing anypony else. You got that?” Filia said.
Razor and I didn’t say anything, but we both nodded in agreement.
“Okay,” Filia said, getting out of the booth, “Time to head out.”