As The City Sleeps

by KarmaPolice

Red-Hoofed

Shift

“What are you doing in here?!?”

Every curseword I knew flooded into my mind and I had to make a serious effort that none escaped through my mouth. I whipped my head towards the source of the noise, fully expecting a knife to be shoved at my throat any second. In my peripheral vision, I saw Slink whip around too.

But, instead of an angry, armed librarian, we were greeted by a little green and purple..thing.

“Is that a… Dragon?” hissed Slink. I nudged him to get him to shut up.

The dragon repeated his question. “What are you doing? You know it’s past closing, right?”

Options, options… I thought frantically. I hadn’t been in this situation in a very long time. Damn it, Slink…

Could I talk my way out of this? Not likely. I was in the middle of a burglary and was wearing a black mask as someone else was in the process of shoving stolen items into my bag.

This little dragon couldn’t be the librarian. I had seen an equine silhouette in the window earlier. There was someone else in here- if they weren’t already alerted, they would be if any shouting were to happen.

I noticed Slink moving back, towards the window. Hopefully, he had come to the same conclusion as I had.

I approached the dragon, who realized too late what I intended to do. I saw his green eyes go wide as he started to scream.

“TWI-” was all he got out as I socked him in the side of the head. I didn’t know a thing about dragon biology but luckily, it seemed, they are capable of being beaten into unconsciousness just like anyone else.

No time to do anything else- our cover was already blown. I turned to head for the window, which Slink was already halfway out of.

I was almost to the window when I found myself unable to move. A familiar feeling that I recognized as a telekinetic hold. I hadn’t felt it since… well, two nights ago. And damned if I still didn’t hate it.

Now comes the angry, armed librarian.

I struggled against the hold as I grunted in exertion.

“What did you do to my dragon?” I heard an enraged voice behind me scream. I was pivoted around to face a young mare, who’s purple eyes glared at me in anger.

Slink didn’t waste time. He grabbed something of his own- namely, the dragon. He levitated it into the air in front of him, and spoke in a voice that seemed to be his best effort at sounding tough.

“Let him go or your freaky pet gets it!” Shouted Slink. He glanced at me before adding “...bitch!”

Despite everything that was happening I still had to roll my eyes at that. I sorely needed to give him a lesson on insults for effect.

A tense air hung in the room as the hostage situation developed.

The mare seemed utterly confused as to what to do. I bet she didn’t expect her evening to turn out quite this way.

Finally, rationality seemed to take over. She dropped me to the ground. I landed in a crouched position, wings flared, ready to charge. Slink, to his credit, held the dragon right where it was. We slowly backed towards the front door, and I kicked it open without taking my eyes off our adversary.

Slink dropped the dragon in a heap before following me out the door. We took off at a dead sprint for the second time in as many nights.

As we pounded down the cobblestone I shot Slink an agitated glance. “See why we do recon now, dumb-ass?”

Slink puffed as he struggled to keep up. “That’s a funny way of saying thank you!”

The unlit houses became a dark blur as we continued our run. Damn these small towns- I had no idea where I was going. An integral part of every job is a getaway route- why the fuck had I let him talk me into this?

We neared the outskirts of town before ducking into an unoccupied shed. I peered around the corner, looking for signs of pursuit.

Finding none, I turned back to Slink, who had a sheepish look on his face.

“Um…. that went well!” He offered. I just shook my head.

“Hey, at least I saved you from the clutches of the evil librarian! That broad looked about ready to snap!”

I had to drop my facade of anger and have an honest chuckle at that. “Yeah. Have you ever seen a real dragon before?”

Slink shook his head. “Can’t say I have. I expected them to be a bit more...ah, menacing?”

I grinned wide. “Well, menacing or not, I bet i’m the only one in this town who’s ever knocked a dragon out cold!”

Slink shook his head. “Okay, Captain Ego. How about we look through our spoils?”

Slink and I spent the next ten minutes looking through the books. Most of them turned out to be junk, so I tossed them in the corner. Some of them might be valuable, but now I had no connections and I wasn’t going to lug fifteen pounds of books around until I found a new fence.

I could tell Slink found something because his conjured light grew brighter with his excitement. I nudged him sharply so he’d dim it again, and he showed me what he had found.

Early in the third age, a splinter sect of the Institute broke off from it. This group, called The Order of the Sun, attempted to usurp power through control of the Sun Stone, a powerful runestone said to have been forged in the sun itself. It was enchanted by the first Alicorns as a means to combat nature spirits, and was the only item powerful enough in that regard. It is said the stone grants it’s wielder immense power and unparalleled connection to the magical realm.

The Order of the Sun worships this object as the centerpiece of their order, and the war they waged with the Institute was said to have destroyed the city. Only through the intervention of Arch-mage Nightshade was the stone recaptured and sealed away in the Institute. The Order of the Sun vanished, never to return.

“Well, looks like they returned.” I said, concluding the paragraph. “Too bad this fucking thing doesn’t say where this ‘Order of the Sun’ can be found.”

Slink shook his head. “That’s not the good part. Read on.”

In the following years, unsubstantiated evidence emerged that the Order of the Sun was a personal force of Celestia and that they had acted under her orders when they carried out the attack. Such rumors, though, are undeniably false and treasonous.

I scoffed at that. Treasonous, my ass. I wouldn’t put it past the sunraiser to have a personal army responsible for destroying a city. And, now, responsible for destroying my organization. As if I didn’t hate our dear leader enough already.

“Wow. This thing goes deep.” Said Slink, taking in the repercussions of this.

I nodded grimly. “All the way to the top.”

I pondered the situation I found myself in. Despite having lived an adrenaline-filled, high-stakes lifestyle for quite a while, it all seemed totally mundane in the face of the conspiracy I found myself in the middle of. You couldn’t go much higher once royalty was involved.

I slumped my head. Why couldn’t it just be some street gang that’s easy to track down? Not some stupid cult called “The Order of the Sun” or some other fancy shit that’s shadowy and potentially tied to the highest power in the realm. Our revenge was shaping up to be no easy feat.

“Shift, if this really does involve the princess… what could we possibly do?”

I smiled. “You mean, what could two lowly street thugs do against the sunraiser? Probably not much. But we can sure as hell take out her cronies. And If I go to Tartarus in pursuit of that goal… well, fuck it. No more exciting way to go than that, if you ask me.”

Slink nodded in agreement.

“So, where do we start?” He asked.

I shook my head. “Well, first things first, we get outta this shitty town before we’re caught. Miss bookworm back there is probably out alerting some local authority right now, and that authority will subsequently alert the nearest guard garrison, probably by sending a pegasi messenger. So that gives us roughly till morning to get the fuck out of here.”

“And go where?”

I pulled the map from my bag. “The Everfree. They’re not likely to chase us in there. We’ll lay low in there tomorrow. That librarian might have gotten a look at you and circulated your description, so if the Guard shows up tomorrow they’ll put up wanted posters for a gray unicorn. In the city, that wouldn’t be a problem, but in podunk towns like this one they all know each other and we’ll stick out.”

Slink considered that. He looked at the floor as he spoke.

“Shift, if the guards are on our trail, they’ll know it was us once they find out that two shady fuckers burgled the local library. And it’s not easy to blend in out here…”

“What are you proposing?”

Slink looked up.

“Well, you’ll have to make sure they don’t find out about it.”

---

Why the fuck do I keep going along with his plans. I’m supposed to be the older, more experienced one here.

I stared down from my cloudy perch, the breeze calm despite the height. I was simultaneously breaking two laws- flying after sunset, and unauthorized cloud manipulation above a populated area.

Oh no. My status as an upstanding citizen was in jeopardy.

I had left Slink in that shed while I came up here. I had surmised that a messenger would be sent to the nearest Guard barracks to report our crime. Now I just had to intercept him. Hopefully I wasn’t too late, but if I was, then they ought to be commended for their response time.

I was sure the good citizens of this fair hamlet would dare not step a hoof out of line and break the law, regardless of how oppressive and totalitarian that law may be. As such, I ought to be the only one out in the night sky. Except for my target, of course.

Hopefully I could see him. But this full moon provided a decent amount of visibility and movement would be easily detected.

I shuffled around on the cloud. Not often I got to be on one. The dealings of the Organization most often took place in buildings and alleyways, not to mention the obvious underground hideout. Didn’t leave me much time to frolic around the sky like some foal. I had tried out for weather patrol, once. I definitely had the ability. But the commander and I had some disagreements. Maybe that involved me stealing his jewelry while he slept. He never officially caught me, to my credit. But he knew. From then on I learned to disguise my talents better.

Yeah, I had a rambunctious upbringing. Kind of like -there!
My internal monologue ground to an abrupt halt as I spied movement. Headed in the direction of the barracks. This had to be it.

I leapt from the cloud and entered a steep dive, gaining speed. I ground my teeth in exertion- I hadn’t gone this fast in a while. The messenger was still pulling away, though. Damn it, he’s fast.

I poured on the speed, gaining ever so slowly. I could make out the features now- definitely a pegasi, definately moving with intent. Come on, pal. It’s just a burglary. No one even died. You can slow down.

I increased altitude- once I was above, i’d swoop down and wrestle him to the ground. The element of surprise was mine.

Painstakingly, I caught up, and with a deep breath, executed my dive. In my head, I planed a swift knockout, then i’d carry the body down and tie it up.

In reality, I hit like a ton of bricks, sending us both tumbling. I struggled to regain control. The other guy hit a cloud hard enough to send a lightning bolt arcing off into the distance. Fortunately we had left the populated area behind.

I managed to get level and headed back, ready to deliver a follow-up hit. As I swooped up to get a view, I caught a silhouette out of the corner of my eye, managing to tuck and roll to evade. Damn it. He wasn’t supposed to fight back.

He came back around for another pass, but I was ready this time. As soon as he got within striking distance, I tucked into a mid-air forward roll. A very unorthodox move, and very unexpected. And it had the intended effect- as I neared the apex of the roll, I brought my back legs directly in line with the other guy’s face. He- or, actually, she, judging by the very feminine cry of pain, caught my hoof square in the nose at a full clip.

I shook off my feelings- chivalry be damned when being arrested, interrogated, and likely executed was on the line. The mare struggled to regain control as she streaked towards the ground, managing to flare at the last second to slightly cushion what was still a very hard impact.

I landed beside her and checked to make sure she was unconscious.

She stirred, struggling for breath, and her eyes fluttered open to look at me in rage. “What the… I’m gonna…!”

Nope, obviously not unconscious yet. A quick knock to the temple solved that problem. I pondered how many individuals i’d been forced to strike in the head recently. Let’s see…. This makes four in two days. Must be some kind of record, I thought.

That didn’t go quite as cleanly as i’d hoped, but it was done.

I crudely hog tied the mare and felt a quick wave of sympathy- we were in the middle of nowhere. But once they realize she never showed up at the guard post, they’d send searchers- by which time we would be long gone. I went ahead and left out the gag- both to allow her to yell out for help, and because she probably couldn’t breathe too well through that broken nose.

I headed back towards town. Hopefully Slink hadn’t gotten himself into any trouble.