Normally, moonlight complemented the beauty of certain things. Skyber would usually agree, if she felt poetic. It bounced off her open dark violet coat, the plethora of golden ornaments coating her regal outfit glistering in the gentle celestial light and the rim of her top hat almost mimicking a halo in first glance, an ironic sight on the hollowed eyed towering dragon of ERA.
Skyber had just walked out of the only bar in the academy’s shopping district, where she liked to spend the end of relatively mundane days—which were occurring far too often to her liking. Yes, the kind bartender kept her company and was quite possibly the best listener in the entire campus—possibly due to the fact she was mute—but the thought of herself spending most of her evenings alone at a bar with multiple bottles under her belt wasn’t too cheerful.
She sighed, looking up into the night sky. The moonlight did its usual magic, and Skyber couldn’t help but feel at ease in its majestic aura. The stillness of the air left a calming silence that wrapped the serene view of the empty shopping district, illuminated by yellow street lamps in an almost magical atmosphere.
Almost.
Voices intruded her senses, pulling Skyber out of her trance, much to her annoyance. She couldn’t hear them too clearly, but despite her expectations it wasn’t the hushed whisperings of students that were out way past their curfew. It was muttering of two distinct voices, seemingly alert.
Clearly there was only one thing a sensible person would do in a situation like this. Skyber backed against the wall and sneakily shuffled to stand by the edge of the building, leading to a dark alleyway. She felt a strange sense of deja vu.
“I didn’t think I’d see anything like this around here, not laying on the ground like that, at least,” said one of the two voices Skyber heard. Peeking the corner, she saw it belonged to a tall, strawberry-red furred lion anthro. Joan, was it? She was awful with names.
“In such an obvious spot, too. Somebody probably dropped it in a hurry.” The one responding was human, concealing a metal prosthetic under one of his pant legs. Charlie, she recalled. Skyber remembered threatening him at least once before. Better to not get caught, she was not looking forward to any awkward midnight conversations. Besides, she couldn’t miss out on whatever this is.
“Maybe they saw us coming? They should really find better spots to trade this sort of stuff, this is practically dealing drugs in daylight.” Joan laughed, and earned a scorned gaze from his partner.
“I would think the students here aren’t that stupid, Joan. Hopefully you aren’t speaking from any experience.”
“Hey, my classification forms are legit. I never touched the stuff.” Joan said, arms raised defensively. “And I would think you’re giving them too much credit. Didn’t some students steal your prosthetic leg as some stupid trophy to their dumb-fuck snow castle just a few months ago?”
“Yes, the same students who managed to smuggle makeshift snowball guns on campus to defend it,” Charlie replied, putting a hand over his stubble. “There has to be something going on, possibly right under our noses. We need to look into this.”
“Yeah, there’s no way some student smuggled this on their own. And this connects nicely to some of the weird reports of ‘shady activity’ and the plenty of curfew offenses we’ve been getting every so often.” Joan took out a glove and a plastic bag from his fanny pack attached to his belt, and picked up what Skyber could only describe as a distinctly shaped candy resembling an obese middle aged man in overalls, placing it in the evidence bag. “I think this will be enough to convince Chief Colt to greenlight that raid search we planned for ages now.”
Charlie nodded. “If all goes well, we should be able to do it within forty-eight hours. Let’s bring this evidence to the office.”
And that was the eavesdropper’s que to leave, quickly pulling her head from the alleyway. Taking a few hushed steps away from the officers first, Skyber leapt silently into the air.
She perched on the roof of the bar, watching the two officers walking away towards the department on the edge of campus, passing where she stood a mere minute ago. Her intent glare only grew hotter as she thought about what she just witnessed. It didn’t take her too long until she fully realized what was going to happen.
And the consequences would be severe.
Nova sat on their bed, idly dangling their furry legs from the mattress as they watched their roommate “vibe,” in her own words. Pearl was engrossed in her music as per usual, thumping her head to a beat Nova could barely hear through the blue-head’s huge headset and occasionally springing on her bed, riffing to an air guitar briefly and then falling back to the mattress. Skyber said that particular habit had been a result of bad influence on Nova’s part.
Speaking of the devil, Nova turned their head from Pearl just in time to see the door opening in a hurry and the dragoness herself ducking inside the room in an exhausted huff. Tonight seemed particularly bad—there was that tint of worry in her empty eyes.
They expected the worst. Time for damage control.
“Skyber,” Nova said worried, dripping to the floor from the bed like their entire mass was made of liquid, then springing into solid form right in front of her, wrapping their arms around Skyber’s large frame. “Did you drink that whiskey again? I told you it turns you into a noir melodramatic mess, I’ll start hearing complementary moody jazz again!”
Nova emphasized their concerns by turning entirely greyscale, wearing a fedora and holding a comically large cigar in their mouth. Pearl would find herself wearing a vintage one piece short dress, her hair styled in the most generic 60’s noir traumatized love interest coiffure, if she wasn’t so engrossed in her music.
“Don’t have such little faith in me. I keep my word.” Skyber, as per usual, ignored the reality shattering oddities and instead focused on removing her hat and coat, hanging them in their usual spot by the door. “It’s something else I’m worried about, it could potentially ruin our entire endeavor here and set us back for a decade at best.”
Nova, now realizing Skyber’s moody glare wasn’t an act of a drunken overdramatic haze but an actual concern, released the dragon from their hold and looked up at her tentatively. The world around them returned to normal, for now.
“Golly, that sounds serious! What happened?” Nova tilted their head like a confused puppy, a little worried by Skyber’s tone.
“Our friends at the ERA guard force found some sort of hard drug, a pill of sorts. From their reactions, it seemed to be one of the really bad ones.” Skyber’s tone lowered as she spoke. There was spite in her voice, and Nova could already assume what came next.
“They think it came from the black market?” Nova asked in a gentle voice, trying to calm the growing fire within their companion to no avail.
Skyber nodded, lowering her head. Her tail began to slowly flick on the floor. “They don’t know of its existence quite yet, but they want to launch a raid search on the entire campus. And once they inevitably find it…” She scowled, crossing her arms.
“Wait. What black market?” Pearl stood up, pulling a headphone away from her ear. She raised an eyebrow at the two.
“Oh! Well, Skybie and I were—” Nova began, until the more deceptive lifelong friend cut them off.
“—Discussing the finest yet most elusive species of black mamba I saw tonight. Only saw it once before, in my Vegas days. You must have heard wrong. The guard force managed to capture it, must’ve been from the biology department.”
“Oh… is that right…?” Pearl cocked her head. She seemed to have fortunately been tuned out from the “hard drug” part of the conversation.
“Yes, though I fear that leads to a more private topic of discussion between us, so if you would be so kind…?”
The young student perked up, getting the hint. “Uh, of course! Sorry for butting in!” She put her headphones back on, cranking the volume and turning the other way. Nova smiled at the level of trust from the girl.
“As we were saying,” Skyber continued.
“Hm… So how much time do we have to stop it?” Nova stared at a giant terminal right out of a sci-fi movie, crammed with calendars, clocks, and timepieces, all ticking with various speeds and noises. Skyber turned a dial, configuring every single one of them to one number, counting down.
“Forty-eight hours. We’ve wasted one- about to be two already, just talking about it. We may already be too late. Once they discover the smuggling ring, ERA might be beyond saving.” The clocks struck zero, exploding into the nothing they spawned from for dramatic effect.
“I see.” Nova continued to be the gentlest they could, though by now Skyber was literally steaming. Suddenly, they slammed a fist in their palm, happily determined. “I’ve got it! We can go undercover again!”
The idea didn’t seem to sit well with Skyber, and if it wasn’t Nova she was talking with, a fire would’ve broken out by now. Her glare could kill a man.
“I am not putting on a skirt again for Splats’ sake.” Skyber spat, violet flames escaping her mouth, as hot as the malice in her voice. “This market has crossed all the damn lines I made, bloody LSD on the fucking streets— I should’ve shut that circus down the minute I heard of it! I will find it again, and I will shut it down myself before the guard force could get their hands on it.”
Nova somberly nodded. They always tried to see the good in things, even shady illegal markets—after all, all their efforts in helping Splats and maintaining her reputation a while back would go in vain. If Skyber were to close down the market using her usual tactics, all blame will be put on Splats, destroying whatever shred of social standing she has. Yet it was hard to argue against these kinds of substances, Skyber was ultimately right.
Nova sighed. This was for the greater good.
“That’s not exactly what I meant. Of course, you won’t be able to get any information as you, you have a reputation, and not the good kind!”
Skyber rolled her eyes, for a lack of a better term. “Splats and her large mouth..”
“But, what if you were Splats and her large mouth!”
Skyber opened her maw as she was about to say something only for her brows to furrow silently. She looked to the floor with a grumble and after a few moments of thinking she groaned in defeat, smoke escaping her lips.
“I hate to admit it, but that actually could work. I know no one from that place, she knows everyone. However,” she paced the floor as she thought, “we can’t assume the real one will be absent for all that time. How can we be certain she won’t get in the way of our plans? She isn’t exactly the most trusting of me, mind you.”
“We won’t tell her, duh. And don’t you worry you silly little- err, big dragon!” Nova chirped, stepping up to their companion with a large smile. “I’ll keep her away while you do your business! I could even keep an eye out for you for any trouble!… but.”
“But?”
“Butt!”
Skyber huffed an annoyed flare, making Nova giggle.
“Sorry. But, if I’m not in physical contact while you’re transformed, the disguise will be extra fragile! Any use of your powers or too much physical strain would burn off the orange hair and you’ll look like your angry purple self in zero seconds flat!”
The dragoness deflated, kicking off her leather golden-laced dress shoes off her feet and falling back to her bed, letting her wings sprawl out on the mattress.
“A gamble for certain, but we don’t have much of a choice to make.” She said as she undid her tie, throwing it over at Nova, who didn’t bother catching it and allowed it to rest on the top of their head.
“We can’t risk ERA being shut down like this. The reputation of Electi is shaky as is, and if this comes to light it might spiral completely out of control. Setting our efforts back for who knows how long.”
“Alrighty! We’ll start out first thing in the morning, Splats! Don’t be late!”
Skyber reached into her breast pocket. She pulled out a golden pocket watch and opened it. She looked at the dials intently for a moment and closed it.