A Mercenary's Ending

“Are you seeing anything yet?!” Opal Stryker, one of two crystal ponies who had been dispatched by Empress Cadance to find the hidden realm where an ancient alicorn supposedly lived under their noses, called out to her companion, another crystal pony named Ruby Beam.

Ruby, who was standing a few meters ahead on a hill looking down over the northern part of the land, turned back. “I see the Winterwall!” she called back. “Intel that was brought back by the Empress’ guest indicates that the hidden city is beyond that!”

Opal nodded and trudged dutifully through the snow towards her companion. She had heard tales of the Winterwall that were ancient even before Crystalia was taken over by the tyrant Sombra and before their thousand years of slumber. A massive wall made of ice that could not be melted, she remembered many different myths about the wall itself. Some said that it was built by ancient crystal ponies to mark the borders of their old empire, others said it was constructed to keep something beyond the walls safe from making its way south, and still others claimed that Mother Erda had raised it to mark where creatures couldn’t go.

To Opal, the Winterwall was simply an obstacle they needed to pass. When she joined Ruby, she turned to the dark red mare and asked in a loud voice so as to be heard over the whistling winds, “Can you find a way to pass over it??”

Ruby didn’t answer right away, her pale blue eyes scanning the massive wall of ice which was also now covered with snow. Narrowing her eyes, she raised a hoof. “That black spot there,” she said, “that looks like a cave! Let’s try that way!”

Opal nodded and wrapped her cowl tighter around her, moving down and continuing to trudge through the thick northern snowdrifts. For the next hour, the two didn’t speak as the Winterwall continued to loom large before them. The wall’s size was even larger than Opal expected as one hour later, the wall didn’t look too much bigger or even closer. Yet another hour later, Opal saw that they had gotten closer, but that the wall was even taller than she had anticipated. The ancient structure was simple in its design, stretching from eastern to western horizon easily. Her thoughts wandered back to the ancient stories about this wall and she wondered, not for the first time, who built such a massive structure and how and why.

“There!” Ruby called out, pointing to a spot ahead of them.

Opal looked in the direction where Ruby was pointing but saw nothing. “What is it?!” she called back.

“It’s a cave on the side of the wall, I’m sure of it!” Ruby responded with certainty.

Opal took a second, closer look. Sure enough, a black patch was clearly visible in the wall. She hadn’t seen it because of the snow being blown across the surface of the snowy northern landscape by the harsh winds. “How far?!” Opal called.

“If we really push ourselves, maybe another hour or so!” Ruby shouted.

Opal reached over and put a hoof on the one time use teleportation crystal that the two had been provided by Emperor Consort Shining Armor. She let out a breath of relief when she felt its comforting presence. All she really wanted to do was break said crystal and let the teleportation bring them back home where she could enjoy a hot bath and a warm bed with her stallion. Still, she wasn’t a crystal guard for nothing. She had a duty to uphold and she would do so. So, she pushed forward, wiping some flakes from her goggles.

As they reached the source of the black mar against the wall, it had begun to grow dark. The two saw that what looked like some small mark was in actuality a massive gate made of clear blue ice shaped into an elaborately carved double gate. It towered over them, being much taller than the Crystal Palace. On one gate was a smaller door carved into it, enough for a pony to go through. The door was hard to open, but it eventually did so.

The instant the smaller door was opened, a blast of surprisingly warm air hit the two as well as a glimpse of utter darkness from within. Darkness that was quickly banished by ancient crystal sconces brightening the moment the two stepped inside.

They were standing inside a massive corridor, but a corridor made of not of ice, but stone. The hallway was also warmer than the outside, warm enough that Ruby and Opal were forced to remove their cowls and to tie their cloaks up around their bodies. Above them, the sconces weren’t the only source of light. At regular intervals on the ceiling were half orbs of light that were beginning to brighten.

Whoever had created this passageway had to have been advanced due to the ancient carvings on the walls. Opal couldn’t read them and had absolutely no idea what kind of language it could be. As they continued down the passageway, they took note of how the sound of their hoofsteps weren’t echoing around them. In fact, anywhere they stepped on the impossibly smooth floor, they saw warm white light which illuminated their steps. It had been a surprise to them at first, but when nothing happened after some testing with a small snowball, they concluded that any sort of pressure on the stone floor made the area glow.

As they walked down the corridor, the carvings continued, but then some drawings began to appear. And those drawings depicted familiar and unfamiliar creatures. One of the drawings showed three bipedal figures standing around a larger creature that Opal thought looked like some sort of ice demon. The shorter bipeds resembled humans, although only one matched the human she had seen in the newspaper. The other two were human-like in appearance but with subtle differences. One of them was taller, with ears that came to a point instead of the rounded edge that humans seemed to have. Unlike the human she could see in the drawing, this human-like creature had no beard along with flowing long hair. The third human-like creature was shorter and stockier than either, with a thicker and longer beard and rounded ears along with a stocking type hat. Each one held a weapon in their hands, the human holding a sword, the pointed eared human-like being holding a curved sword along with a bow and a quiver of arrows, and the diminutive human-like creature holding an battle axe along with a staff that had a crystal on it.

“Humans built this?” Ruby, who had stopped to look over the carvings with her companion, asked with confusion.

Opal shook her head. “Only one is human, I think.” She indicated the two near human figures. “These aren’t humans. But we’re wasting time here. Let’s keep going.”

They resumed their journey, keeping their eyes peeled as they walked down the ancient hallway. More carvings appeared, but neither Opal nor Ruby paused to get better looks at the descriptions. That wasn’t their job. Best to leave it to the archaeologists when they reported this back. Nopony had any idea about this discovery, and it would keep archaeologists and historians busy for years trying to decipher this.

Opal did notice one drawing that caught her eye. Everyone in Crystalia had seen the massive eagles as they had arrived from the north, so the ancient carving on the wall depicting similarly shaped birds caught her eye. When she paused to look at the drawing, she saw a number of human figures sitting on the backs of these eagles as they flew above an archway of sorts. No, not an arch, she realized. It looked like this particular carving had once been painted a multitude of colors. A rainbow, Opal realized. They were flying above a rainbow. Opal didn’t have the time to think about that, though. She filed it away for later for her full report.

Thanks in part to the warmth and the light in the passageway, the two guards began to pick up speed, remaining on high alert for any hidden surprises in the hallway itself. They found nothing out of the ordinary, and the passage never turned. The only aberration they found was a set of passages that opened up to their right and let halfway through, leading to the east and west of the Winterwall.

Opal made note of it just in case they needed to come back through, but as it turned out, it wasn’t necessary. They reached another set of massive doors identical to the ones that they had found at the entrance. They had no issues opening the small door built into the gates, only to find that a sudden snowstorm had formed just outside. With visibility dropping to near zero, the two guards decided to stay near the entrance and take a rest, waiting out the storm. Opal took the first watch, opening the door every ten minutes while Ruby lay down, eyes closed as she caught a small nap. The storm, unfortunately, raged on for the rest of the afternoon and well into the night. The two ate some of their rations before settling in for the night.

Near the end of Opal’s rest she was woken by Ruby. “Hey,” the guard said, “the storm’s breaking up. It’s almost morning. The sky is starting to brighten.”

Opal sat up, yawning and stretching before grabbing a small piece of bread along with her canteen. “Can you see anything yet?” she asked her companion.

Ruby shook her head. “It’s still too dark,” she replied, “and I can’t see well in this dark.”

“Should we wait until it gets brighter?” Opal asked.

“Not too much longer,” Ruby said, “but yes.”

A half an hour later, the sun had pierced the horizon, bathing the snow-covered wastes in an orange glow. The storm clouds were already gone in the east, the skies currently peppered with smaller clouds. In the distant west, Opal saw thicker clouds approaching, and she groaned inwardly. It looked like another storm front was on its way, so they needed to act fast before they would need to burrow down. She patted the teleportation crystal in her pack, feelings its reassuring solid weight against her hoof.

For the next few hours, the duo continued walking further north, the sun continuing to climb higher into the sky. The western storm clouds never seemed to get too much closer, although they increased in size. The two crossed several tall hills and low valleys, not seeing anything.

Finally, when Opal was about to suggest that they take a break, Ruby spotted something. A small dark patch in the snow around a large dome shaped hill. Opal saw it after several moments, but her attention was focused on the domed hill itself. To her eyes, it looked too perfect to be a naturally occurring hill. She pointed this out to Ruby.

“Yeah…you’re right,” Ruby said after a few seconds of her looking at the hill, “that is suspicious. We should tell the Empress when-get down!”

Ruby pushed Opal down into the snow before she could object. Opal coughed as some snow had gone down the wrong pipe, but with the winds picking up speed as the storm was now finally approaching, she figured nopony would be able to hear her. Once she recovered, she looked over at Ruby. “What do you see?” she asked.

Instead of replying, Ruby pointed up. Opal turned, squinting, until she saw it. A mass group of creatures flying out of the large black patch, heading straight into the air and to the east. Hovering near the entrance were two figures, a bright pink dragon with dark emerald spines, and a pure white alicorn with a blue mane.

Ruby took out her binoculars and peered through them at the two. “Oh my…that dragon looks remarkably similar to his Highness Prince Spike,” she said, “and that alicorn-oh dear…”

“Ruby, what-?”

“Get the teleportation crystal out now! We’ve been spotted!”

Opal’s training kicked in. Reaching into her pack, she pulled out the glowing blue crystal, grabbed Ruby’s outstretched hoof, and smacked the crystal against her chest, shattering the one time use item. The glow surrounded them and they suddenly found themselves tumbling through the air, falling. Thanks once again to her training, Opal wrapped herself up into a ball to do a tuck and roll.

Which wasn’t needed as she felt herself being grasped in a magical field. Looking around, she saw that the teleportation crystal had worked. She was being held in place by Emperor Consort Shining Armor, who sat in the smaller throne next to the currently empty one where Cadance normally sat. “Your Majesty,” Opal said, her breath being taken from being relocated from an insanely cold environment to the warmth of the Crystal Throne Room.

“What happened?” the Emperor Consort asked as he lowered them to the ground. He turned to some other guards. “Get them some warm blankets and warm tea immediately.”

“At once, your Majesty,” the nearest guard said before he began barking orders to some other guards, who rushed out of the room.

Even after being lowered, Shining didn’t release his magic on the two scouts. Instead, his spell switched so that it cast a warming charm on them. “Are you two alright?” he asked.

“J-Just f-f-fine,” Opal said, the shock now giving her the chills and making her shiver.

“Good. What happened?” Shining Armor asked.

“We found the site where the enemy made their base,” Ruby, who was better at hiding her shivering, replied. “They were commencing with some sort of mass evacuation.”

“Th-the enemy leader s-spot-ted us,” Opal added.

The Emperor Consort frowned at this, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “Damn,” he muttered to himself. Looking back at them, he nodded. “Good work. You can work on a full report when you’ve rested and warmed up.”

“Your Majesty, it might not be too relevant to this situation,” Ruby began, “but we found something else that might be interesting.”

The unicorn narrowed his eyes. “Go on.” As Ruby went on to describe the doorway in the Winterwall and the carvings and writing inside, his eyes widened. “Are you saying humans were involved in the construction of the Winterwall?”

“I’m no archaeologist, your Majesty,” Ruby said. She and Opal were now wrapped up in warm blankets, mugs of steaming tea in their hooves as they made their report. “The carvings depicted a human and two races that had human-like aspects as I’ve described.”

“I see,” the Emperor Consort said. “I don’t know what to make of this. My sister would be better suited for this…an archaeologist even more. It could be significant. You didn’t look at any of the other carvings too much, I take it?”

“We didn’t have the time, your Majesty,” Opal explained, her shivering having all but stopped.

“Understood, and good call,” Shining Armor replied. “When things are calm, we’ll send in a team to study this passage. Thank you for your report. Feel free to go and get some sleep before writing your full report.”

Opal and Ruby both saluted before walking towards the throne room doors. Just as they were opening the doors, Opal stopped and turned around. “Your Majesty, I just remembered something.”

Shining Armor, who was still sitting in his throne while looking out of a nearby window, refocused his attention towards Opal. “What is it?” He sounded exhausted.

“I remember seeing another carving in the walls that was curious,” Opal said. She then went on to describe the eagles flying over the rainbow with humans flying on their backs.

“Only humans?” Shining Armor asked, sounding a bit more intrigued now, “not the other two races?”

“Exactly,” Opal said. “I think the other two races were standing on the ground watching them.”

“I see.” Shining leaned back in his throne. “Try and draw these carvings when you write your full report. Now, was that all? If it is, you’re dismissed. Get some rest.”

“Yes, your Majesty, and no, there’s nothing else,” Opal replied.

“We’ll have those reports to you after we rest,” Ruby promised.

With that, the two turned, exited the throne room, and shut the door behind them.

“I am the righteous hand of God, and I am the devil that you forgot. And I told you one day you will see that I’ll be back, I guarantee, and that hell’s coming, hell’s coming, hell, hell’s coming with me.”

Gregory paused his singing to look at the bed. Despite Empress Cadance having assigned each of them a personal room, Dengal had insisted on sleeping with him like they had when they were in Majesty’s custody. Truth be told, Gregory had welcomed having her there. He likely wouldn’t have slept as well had she not been there. He’d woken up one time to her arms around his head as she held him close to her bosom. She’d told him sleepily that he’d been having a nightmare, which was true, but that particular nightmare had vanished some time before he woke up in said position. He’d fallen asleep with his head still there, and there hadn’t been any nightmares for the rest of the night.

Dengal was still asleep in the bed, breathing regularly. He paused his packing to look at her. A ghost of a smile played over his face for the briefest of moments. He considered himself lucky to have her as a companion, and her presence during his incarceration had been a Godsend. The beautiful goblin woman was unlike any others of her kind in many ways, and not just physically. It was as if she had a touch of humanity’s compassion, drive, and will to live and survive instilled in her.

Turning away, he returned to his packing, only to hear Dengal stirring in bed several minutes later. Looking back, he saw that she was sitting up, the brown t-shirt and bottom undergarments she wore to bed clinging to her curves. She rubbed sleep from her eyes before looking at Gregory and what he was doing. Instantly, she flung the covers away and jumped to her feet. “Why didn’t you wake me?” she chided him, looking a bit peeved as she quickly got to work helping to pack their meager belongings.

“You needed sleep,” Gregory argued as he resumed his own packing, which was nearly complete. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

“The faster we pack everything away, the faster we can get out of here and to Panthera,” Dengal said, “unless you’re considering taking the Princess’ offer?”

In truth, Gregory still was unsure. Celestia was probably rather wealthy, and if they succeeded in actually defeating Majesty, they’d be set for life, but their lives had been what he’d considered the night before. Could he really put his companions, new and old, in danger like that? Could he risk their safety all for the vague promise that they’d succeed with more money than they could spend in a lifetime? He couldn’t see himself or any of Shadow Dawn winning against Majesty, either in an overt fight or covert one. Besides, this wasn’t their fight. They’d just been dragged into it against their will. The ponies had laid their bed, and the ponies now had to lie in it. Gregory had to think of his companions first.

Was it selfish? That was what he had spent a while thinking about last night before Dengal insisted that he go to bed. It had been the nightmare that had helped start solidify his answer. He had been standing in Canterlot’s throne room, at least, the throne room he remembered from the show since he’d never seen the real one. Majesty sat in Celestia’s throne as she looked down at Gregory, now in a set of chains made of beautiful pink flowers. In front of him were Tobias, Dengal, Sunset, and even Chrysalis and Thorax oddly enough.

He remembered pleading for their lives to be spared if she really wanted him captive, and then, while still in his flowery chains, he had been forced to watch as Majesty had agreed before she spoke unintelligible words before casting magic on the group, turning them into marble statues. Even in his dreams, Majesty had kept her promise, but only by twisting his words against him.

That was when the nightmare had vanished, replaced by him dreaming about lying on a large cloud for a while before he woke to Dengal holding him close. His relief at seeing her there alive had almost made him start crying then and there, but he held back as Dengal stroked his hair with her hand, helping him fall right back to sleep.

“I think we should get out of this place as soon as possible,” Gregory said. “Gwaihir promised that he and his other eagles would carry us to Panthera should we choose to leave.”

Dengal looked a bit unsure. “I guess that’s faster than walking or taking a train,” she said.

“And safer, what with the civil unrest in Equestria,” Gregory reasoned.

Dengal nodded before finishing her end of packing. “So…Panthera, huh? Do you think I could open a new shop there?”

“You’d have to ask Tobias about that,” Gregory said. “He knows the place better than any of us do. Still, it sounds like a place that could use an expert blacksmith like yourself.”

Gregory saw her green cheeks get even greener as the young goblin blushed. “Flatterer,” she said with a cute giggle that caused his heart to skip a beat.

He gave her a grin back. “I mean every word,” he said as he zipped his last bag closed. “Come on, I doubt that Cadance will let us leave without some breakfast, and we should take advantage of the delicious cuisine here before we need to rely on rations.”

Dengal nodded in agreement before the two grabbed their bags and opened the door to the room, only to see Tobias standing there, fist raised as if to knock. He, too, had his bag slung over his shoulder. Behind him, Sunset stood, along with Chrysalis and Thorax. “Well, I guess I can safely say I’m not interrupting anything,” Tobias said in a teasing tone as he elbowed Gregory playfully.

Gregory rolled his eyes and gave his best male friend a light smack on the back of the head. “Behave,” he said with amusement before he turned to Sunset. “You ready to go, too?”

“Yep,” the orange unicorn said. “I’m tired of wandering. Panthera’s a really nice continent, even if it’s technologically behind Equestria. I can adjust.”

“We all can,” Gregory promised before he turned to Chrysalis and Thorax. “What about you two?”

Chrysalis huffed. “My hive was destroyed when that alicorn did whatever she did to the Badlands. The hive contacted me last night begging for my return.” She sounded haughty at that.

Gregory put a stop to that real quick. “The same hive that you used in your effort to enslave a population?”

She scowled at him. “I thought that it’s been established that the ponies are just as bad as you say we are.”

“An eye for an eye makes the world go blind,” Tobias said.

“They must really be desperate if they want you back, bug horse,” Gregory said. “Ah!” He held up a hand to forestall Chrysalis’ inevitable tirade. “What are you planning to do?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Chrysalis asked.

“If it was obvious, I wouldn’t be asking you,” Gregory retorted with a scowl before deciding to throw her off her game again. “Why are all the sexy villains so dense and stupid?”

It worked. Chrysalis sputtered and fumed, but it was Thorax who replied. “We’re going to try and set up a new hive on Panthera.”

“Whoa there, no way!” Tobias interjected before Gregory could. “Abyssinians won’t allow it, and the royal family won’t even consider a secret-”

“It won’t be secret,” Thorax interrupted, catching everyone off guard.

This included Chrysalis. “Um…what? How dare you-?”

“Go on,” Gregory said over Chrysalis’ objections, “I want to hear this.”

Ignoring Chrysalis’ muttering, Thorax explained. “We’re going to present ourselves to their government and ask them to allow us to inhabit a portion of land that they don’t use. Abyssinians don’t tend to live in mountain areas, correct?” He directed this to Tobias, who silently shook his head. “We changelings can live very well in mountain areas. We can also offer them our services.”

Chysalis was outraged at being left out. “Hold on, we can’t be beholden to-!”

“Your transformation skills would be useful in spy or combat missions,” Tobias considered.

“Ugh, why don’t you all just follow Thorax, then!?” Chrysalis snapped, throwing up her hooves.

“In the show, they did elect him king,” Gregory said. “Guess you need more than sex appeal to be a ruler,” he added with a teasing grin.

Her jaw was almost on the floor at that. It also earned him a smack on the back of the head from Dengal, despite the fact that she looked like she was stiffling a laugh of her own. “No, bad Gregory,” she said, but there was a glint in her eyes.

“My point is,” Thorax said, his own face a shade darker from secondhand embarrassment for his queen-mother, “we can’t keep living like we have before. We need to change how we interact with the world if we need to survive.”

“He’s not wrong,” Tobias acknowledged.

Chrysalis was trembling with anger, her teeth clenched. “I…hate…that you’re right…” she said. “I just don’t have to like it.”

“You’re a goddamned queen,” Gregory said, “so your duty is to your subjects. Their duty is not to you.”

“But they should follow their queen,” Chrysalis argued.

“They will if they respect you,” Gregory retorted. “Ruling with fear is a horrible way to maintain things. Celestia has her faults, glaring though they may be, but she managed to keep Equestria at peace for a thousand years because she didn’t rule with fear.”

Chrysalis was grinding her teeth as Gregory talked. He guessed that this was a bitter pill for her to swallow. Finally, she seemed to deflate. “Yeah…fine. There’s a lot of work to do now that the hive structure is gone.”

“Have Thorax help you,” Gregory encouraged. “He’s unique for a changeling. Besides, when this is all over, I can share with you a possible way that you can keep from needing to be dependent on emotions to survive. A sort of hyper-evolution, if you will. Before you ask, it’s something I saw in My Little Pony, and since that show full of sunshine and rainbows is only a stupid guideline, I don’t know if it’ll work, but if it does, great.”

There was a sudden knock at the door, and a familiar voice called out, “Mr. Graystone, are you in there still?”

“Yes, one moment,” Gregory said as he walked over and opened the door. Standing there was Emperor Consort Shining Armor and Princess Celestia. “Emperor-Consort. Princess. What can I do for you? We were just about to leave.”

“Does that mean you’re turning down our offer to hire you?” Celestia asked.

“Don’t take it personally, Princess,” Gregory said, “it’s merely the logical thing to do.” He gestured to the room at his companions and friends. “Shadow Dawn is an incredibly small mercenary group. Four current members against Majesty? It wouldn’t be a fair fight. She has that magic mirror, is powerful enough to repel you and your sister, and is incredibly versatile and smart. On our side, we have a human who has absolutely no magic whatsoever, an abyssinian and goblin who are great in a fight but who wouldn’t stand a chance, and even your former student who, while powerful, wouldn’t be able to do much.”

“Hey!” Sunset snapped back.

“Am I wrong?” Gregory asked, turning back to Sunset.

Her ears flattened and she shook her head. “Well, no, but-”

“You can dish out the harsh reality, but can’t take it?” Gregory interrupted her with a frown. That got her to shut up and she looked down. Turning back to Celestia, he continued. “My point is, if you and your sister can’t go against Majesty, how the hell do you expect us to succeed?”

“You still have those artifacts that Discord specifically asked Twilight and the others to get for you, correct?” Celestia asked, stepping forward. “That locket and light weapon.”

He put his hand on his upper chest, feeling the heart-shaped outline of the Rainbow of Light around his neck. Nobody had been able to make it work, and the brief rainbow glow that he’d seen in the locket’s mirror was now gone. “The locket I still have, but you really can have it if you want. If nothing else, then you could put it in a museum as a piece of pony ancient history.”

Celestia shook her head. “Keep the locket. Discord wanted you to have it.”

Gregory scowled at her. “If you’re attempting to guilt trip me, I swear to God-”

Celestia’s eyes widened and she quickly shook her head. “I didn’t intend for it to sound that way, I swear.”

Gregory continued scowling at her, but moved his hand away from the locket underneath his clothes. “Why are you here?” he asked.

Celestia took a breath, then exhaled. “Shining Armor has some new information we just learned from the scouts who were sent to investigate the area where you were captured. Before you say anything, I know that we have no right to ask anything of you after everything you’ve been through, but I was serious about paying your group to help. I also understand wanting to protect yourselves in this moment. Could you at least hear us out before you leave? Your revelation yesterday was certainly a shock, but you clearly know more about our world, and perhaps you could give us some advice on how to proceed next?”

Gregory felt his hands balling up into fists. No wonder she was known to many fans as a master manipulator. Well, he might not be as skilled at this, but he knew two could play at her game. “I will be charging you for any suggestion I come up with,” he said in what he hoped was a dark tone, “and if, and I can’t stress this enough, if, my group decides to let you hire us, I won’t hold back in how much I charge you. Comprende?”

Celestia nodded. “Comprendo,” she replied softly.

Gregory nodded in grim satisfaction before turning to a clearly upset Shining Armor. “What’s this new information you have?” he asked, dispensing with any politeness. He was too angry to be polite in that moment. He was also too scared. He was no hero, not after everything he’d been through to survive in the two years since his arrival on Erda. He hated himself a lot, and only his friends were any source of comfort for him, especially as of late. He was already calming down because Tobias and Dengal were by his side immediately, hand and paw on each of his shoulders.

Shining took a deep breath, clearly trying to calm himself down. “This is what we know,” he began before he filled everyone in on the new information found by the two scouts.

Despite being angry, Gregory listened patiently, his two closest friends by his side to help steady him. He began calming down as his mind began to work, listening carefully to every word Shining relayed to him. And something did catch his eye. “Back up,” Gregory said, holding a hand up to forestall any objections from the unicorn stallion, “did you say they saw a human riding an eagle above a rainbow?”

“Yes I did,” Shining said with what sounded like forced patience.

Gregory nodded. “I see.”

“Does that sound familiar to you?” Celestia asked with a hint of hope in her voice.

Gregory was sorely tempted to dash her hopes out of spite, but even he wasn’t that far gone. “Maybe…but keep going,” he said, gesturing for Shining to continue. When he heard how easily Majesty had spotted the two ponies, he felt his resolve to stay out of it do two opposing things at once. It both slipped and hardened. If Majesty could detect anyone that fast, then that fact was enough for him to stay the fuck out of this fight. She had found him once despite him not being a magical being of any kind. It also slipped because the inkling of an idea was forming in his head. He put a hand on his chin, forming the idea out in his thoughts.

If this idea was feasible, perhaps he could not only outsource the job, but be more out of Majesty’s reach than she could follow. “Where’s Gwaihir?”

“We can do this,” Gwaihir replied to Gregory’s question some ten minutes later. The massive eagle was perched in a temporary eyrie he had made for himself outside of Crystalia. The other eagles were also roosting there with a few flying around in what Gregory guessed was a guard maneuver.

“Could that be why Majesty didn’t want you free?” Gregory asked curiously.

“I don’t see why she would not want us doing something like that,” the eagle replied with confusion.

“Probably out of fear of what you could bring back,” Gregory said contemplatively. A grin formed on his face. It was a massive longshot, but this plan of his could work.

“Mr. Graystone, what idea have you come up with?” Celestia asked.

“One that, if it works, means I can get out of Majesty’s reach until and unless she is dealt with on a more permanent level,” he said, “and also one that means I could outsource the job to someone more qualified to being the damned hero, something which I’m not.” He turned to her. “If this does work, I’m still going to ask for you to pay us all well.”

Dengal reached over. “I’m coming with you, and don’t you dare say no,” she insisted.

Gregory turned to her, then sighed in resignation. “Of course you’d say that,” he muttered. “Very well.”

“I’m coming, too,” Tobias insisted.

“You’re not leaving me out of this,” Sunset added.

In that moment, he realized that he couldn’t use this idea to hide from Majesty, but it still could work as a means of outsourcing. If this idea did work, his friends would stand out too much and be in more danger than he was. He still thought the idea had some chance of working, mostly because it presented the element of surprise for the enemy. The one Element of Harmony missing, he joked to himself. “Fine, we’re all going,” he said. Looking up at Gwaihir, he asked, “How long has it been since you did it?”

“Too long,” Gwaihir said sorrowfully. “Tales are told of how our ancestors taught certain ponies this skill, but ponies have changed greatly since our time as their allies, and not for the better.” He looked at Celestia, who flinched a bit before the eagle turned his attention back to Gregory. “We owe you our lives and freedom. If this is something important to you, we will assist in any way we can.”

Gregory gave him a grateful smile, then reached his hand up. Gwaihir lowered his beak and the human touched it. “I appreciate the assist, Lord Gwaihir,” he said.

The eagle seemed surprised by the title, then smiled. “Is the name you gave me a good one?” he asked.

“In a novel series I enjoy reading, Gwaihir was the leader of a species like yours,” Gregory explained. “He was the leader of the Great Eagles in that book series, and when I saw all of you, I thought of those eagles. Noble beings, the lot of them, and you strike me as noble as well.”

“You honor me,” Gwaihir said with a warm smile which slowly turned into a serious face. “We will fly you where you wish to go, Gregory Graystone,” he promised.

“Thank you,” Gregory said before he turned to his friends. “Saddle up, everyone. Time to fly.”