A Mercenary's Ending

It had been so long since Megan had seen stars as brilliant as the ones she was seeing at that moment. The stars were a perfect match for the ones from home, she realized. She recognized a few summer constellations, although she suspected that here some of them had different names like they had back during Ponyland’s time. She saw the Summer Triangle, with Vega, Deneb and Altair shining brightly in the heavens. Ursa Minor and Ursa Major hung in the northern sky, with Polaris finally being the northern star. Back in her time, she had seen the same constellations, but the northern star had been a duo, more specifically they had been the two ends of the Little Dipper Kochab and Pherkad.

“Time really has flown by here without us,” Megan muttered. She knew that on Earth, the northern star had changed, but to have had it change here meant that Erda was like Earth in many regards.

She sat up slowly when she heard a distant sound. A familiar one, she realized. The ignition of a lightsaber. That could only mean that Gregory was nearby. She had heard from him that he had been invited to dinner at a farm earlier that evening, something she had privately encouraged although not to his face. The man had clearly had a tough life since arriving on Erda and deserved all the breaks he could get.

Standing, she followed the sound of the distant sound of a lightsaber swinging. No, two lightsabers, she realized with increasing alarm. She began to run with some urgency, pulling out a flashlight she’d brought with her so she could see her way in the dark. She saw green and blue light coming from inside a small patch of trees and heard the sound of lightsaber swings grow ever stronger as she approached.

As she approached, she saw a single figure clad in black. Not only that, but the figure was wearing a mask with glowing blue eyes. He, because Megan figured that it had to be Gregory because of the mask, was holding what looked like a double bladed lightsaber, something that she hadn’t even considered being a possibility. He was twirling it over his head before tossing it up, grabbing it as it was twirling, and stabbing at the air.

Megan watched in awe and worry as the masked man continued doing whatever he was doing with the lightsaber staff. He grabbed it, twisted, then the two blades came apart. They began twirling as he approached an apparently dead tree. With a single scissor chop, the tree was cut, and the small tree fell down. He then stood, looking down at the tree, blades in hand. Blades that de-ignited, leaving only his glowing eyes as a marker.

Cautiously, and keeping out of range, Megan raised her flashlight and aimed it at the ground in front of Gregory. She flinched as he spun around, both blade reigniting. She raised the flashlight to her face, raising one other hand. “Don’t attack!” she shouted in a pleading tone. “It’s only me!”

The masked man didn’t move for a bit, but eventually, he lowered his blades, de-ignited them again, then approached. Megan felt a slight chill running down her spine as a pair of floating blue eyes approached. “You shouldn’t sneak up on someone like that,” he chastised her in a remarkably terrifying modulated voice before she saw him raise a hand to the mask. There was a hissing noise, then the eyes blinked out. She put the light up and saw that Gregory had just removed the mask. “I could have attacked you,” he concluded as he put the lightsabers back on his belt. “I still haven’t figured out how to put these into training mode, yet.”

“I’m sorry for startling you,” she said, wondering what the hell training mode was. “I heard you and wanted to see how you were doing. Did the dinner at Cherry Jubilee’s place go well?”

Gregory nodded as he gestured for her to join him as he left the small wooded area. “It was a delicious meal,” he said.

“And a tense atmosphere?” Megan asked gently.

He chuckled dryly at that. “Pretty much spot on,” he said.

She nodded in understanding. “I understand that,” she said. “Still, it’s a step, right?”

“Maybe,” he said with a shrug.

The two fell into silence. Megan then recalled a brief conversation she’d had with Majesty before she had finally left with Spyke back to Sanctuary in the former Badlands. She had asked Megan to talk to Gregory about her character. Megan had said she’d try, but then told Majesty that since it had been so long, she wondered just what kind of person the former queen had turned into. Majesty had taken that in stride and admitted that two thousand years of life certainly had taken their toll on her, but one thing she was not was a liar. Majesty had relayed the conversation between her and Gregory earlier that day, and it had sparked some worry in Megan.

She turned to Gregory as the two walked back towards the town. “Um, I don’t know if this is my place to talk about, but Majesty told me about the conversation you had with her earlier today.”

“She did, did she?” he asked, not so much as slowing down. “What did she say about it?”

Megan took a deep breath and exhaled. “She was hoping to convince you of her sincerity, at least that’s the impression I got.”

Megan couldn’t see him well in the dark, but something in his posture shifted. “Megan,” he said evenly, “she kidnapped me and held me against my will. Gilded cage or not, it was still a cage.”

Megan nodded. “Good intentions or not, that is a good point. Still, I heard you pointed a lightsaber at her?”

He barked out a single laugh. “Yeah, I did,” he said, sounding a bit more confident. “Let’s hope that means she won’t mess with me or my team without thinking more clearly about it, first. I didn’t ask to be saved. I didn’t want to be saved. I was going to leave Equestria when she decided, on her own initiative, that I needed rescuing from ponykind.” The more he talked, the more he seemed to stiffen, but that was hard to tell in the dark.

As they entered the outskirts of town, with lamplight lighting up the streets, Megan turned off her flashlight. “I’m not going to defend her actions.” Megan said, “but I know who she was before she became an alicorn. One thing she isn’t, or wasn’t, is a liar.”

Gregory turned to face her with a raised eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

Megan looked over at him. “Think about it. She’s claiming to try and restore the tenets of harmony. One of those tenets is honesty. One thing I know about Majesty is that she tried to be the best leader possible. Leading by example is one of her leadership styles.”

Gregory exhaled deeply. “Who’s to say she hasn’t changed in the two thousand years since you knew her?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she admitted, “but again, in her defense, she hasn’t done anything to the innocent. Those she has punished deserved it, as far as I can tell. I don’t know about the changing ponies to human then to humanoid ponies punishment of hers, but they’re still alive and healthy. Even that one pony who murdered another was punished, but not with death. At least, that’s what I was told.”

In fact, Megan had been told about that incident by Spyke before he had left. He had said that when she’d come back from that town, Majesty had been shaken up by how cruel ponies had become. Which made sense, considering how sacred life was to ponies, at least the ponies she knew.

Gregory paused just past a lamp post, making Megan stop just underneath the lamp post. He was hidden in shadow while she was underneath the light. I hope that’s not something prophetic, she mused as she waited for Gregory to speak.

“Megan, I am a mercenary,” he said, and Megan could hear some exasperation in his tone, now, “and the leader of my band of mercs. As such, I have to think of the well being of myself and Shadow Dawn first. What Majesty does here is her business. But she involved me without my consent. She took me, good intentions or not, away from freedom.” He took a deep breath. “I know that makes me sound heartless, but I’m just being pragmatic here. I am magicless, my weapons are limited, and I am extremely vulnerable to pony magic.” He pointed north. “Do you know the gruesome details of what happened to Jason Wright during his three years living in the Everfree?”

“You did tell me a bit,” Megan said.

Gregory nodded. “It was all over the newspapers when he killed himself. Severe malnutrition to the point that he looked like a skeleton with skin. A lightning scar all the way from his head to his foot. Broken bones that didn’t heal properly. Scars from attacks from the ponies of that town. Ponies may be smaller than us, but they are much more powerful than we are! They’re stronger, faster, and they have magic that can vaporize us in an instant!”

Megan heard it in the very last word of his tirade. There was anger in what he said, yes. But something else caught her attention. It was very well hidden, but she had plenty of experience with listening to similar tirades. Fear. He was afraid. Deathly afraid.

She heard some doors opening nearby. A few heads, human and pony, poked their heads out curiously. Gregory didn’t seem to notice. “This place is too dangerous for creatures like us! We are so much more vulnerable here than I ever was back in Thornfall!”

“‘I’?” Megan pressed.

He realized just what he had said and he took a deep breath. “We,” he corrected.

Megan walked over and took his hand, pulling him into the light. Hopefully in more ways than one, she thought. “You have every right to be angry and upset,” she said, keeping the one emotion that was truly driving Gregory a secret. “You are vulnerable. My siblings and I are protected because of our contact and contract with the Rainbow of Light, but you aren’t. Jason wasn’t either. Again, I won’t defend what Majesty did because she did take you against your will. That being said,” she continued soothingly, “all I would ask is that you try and keep an open mind about this sort of thing. If not that, then think of the massive reward you’ll receive if you’re hired. Celestia or Majesty, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure Majesty knows where some old stacks of gold are located, and Celestia is the current princess. She’s probably loaded.”

“High risk, high reward is one of the mottos of a merc,” he said a bit more quietly, “but this risk may cost me and my team our lives. I can’t, in good conscience, risk them if the end result is a high likelihood of death no matter what the reward.” He sighed and stepped away back into the shadows. “I’m going to need to talk more with the others about it…goodnight, Megan. Sleep well.”

And with that, Gregory turned and began walking down the street to the small town inn where every guest had been put up for the time being. Megan watched him go, noting how his shoulders slumped a bit like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders but was trying to shrug it off as not his problem. She wrapped her thin sweater around her as a cold breeze washed over her and headed after him.

“I don’t need to taste your emotions to know that you’re not in a good mood,” Chrysalis said the moment Gregory walked into the large room where most everyone slept save for him (Gregory suffered from night terrors every so often). It was the largest bedroom in the inn, able to sleep eight.

Dengal and Tobias both walked over to Gregory as he slumped into a chair near the door. “What’s wrong, big guy?” Tobias asked, kneeling down and putting two paws on the human’s knees.

Gregory let out a deep sigh. The conversation with Megan had caused his carefully crafted mask to slip. He looked down at the mask he wore almost all the time save for recently. “I just had a very…trying conversation with Megan,” he admitted.

Starfall, who had been welcomed into the mercenary group, was still in her anthropomorphic flutter pony form and still wearing what Majesty had given her. She stood abruptly, fire in those eyes of hers. “What did she say?” she snarled, her new hands unconsciously balling into fists. “If she insulted you in any way-”

“No,” Gregory said, raising a hand to stop her. “She didn’t insult me. She just…” he looked around the room at the group. What had once been two had somehow grown to five, or possibly six if Chrysalis somehow decided she wanted to join. She had been hanging around Shadow Dawn a lot lately, and during dinner a few hours earlier she’d actually made an effort to be civil to their hosts. Her table manners were impeccable, as well.

Coming back to the present, he exhaled sharply. “So…here’s what we talked about.” And with that, he revealed what the two had discussed in their conversation. He left out no details, although he considered leaving out his slip up, but he figured Chrysalis might know he hid something and press the issue. No, best to be honest with them. Especially with Tobias and Dengal, who had earned his complete and utter trust. As for the others?

Well, Sunset had always been one of his favorite characters from Equestria Girls and despite the current iteration of her being a bit rougher around the edges, he could see her starting to soften a bit. He could see a friendship growing between them. A bond over shared experiences as wanderers and their hard lives.

Starfall? She seemed willing to try everything she could to make his, and by proxy Shadow Dawn’s, life easier. She was clearly skilled not just as a maid, if her ‘sales pitch’ to the rest of Shadow Dawn was any indication. Not to mention her new access to Utter Flutter, something that clearly none of the other nox ponies had.

Chrysalis? Well, he seriously doubted she would join his group. Which was a shame because he and Dengal clearly had started a special sort of bond with her. One of teasing her relentlessly in very saucy ways. Not to mention how her new curves just caught his and Dengal’s eyes…and the swaying of her ass as she walked…goddamn…

He finished his retelling of the conversation, and actually felt a bit better for it. Everyone in the room stared at him, then slowly began looking at each other. Even Chrysalis looked thoughtful as she sat down, running a hoof through her new mane. Or whatever it was called, he couldn’t be sure. He looked around the room, and he wasn’t afraid to admit to himself that he was desperate for them to help him reach a decision. Talking about it with Tobias always helped, but they were very similar. Now, there were more people here to talk with. That meant it would go slower, yes, but it also meant more diverse opinions.

Chrysalis was the first to speak. “Out of anycreature here, I might be the best one to speak as to what a ruler would do,” she said. She turned to Gregory. “If I were in either Majesty’s or Celestia’s position, I would probably conscript you and the others into service. But then again, I’m not as soft as someone like Celestia is, and even if I’d tried, it’s not like you’re obligated to help. You’re not a citizen of Equestria, correct?” Gregory shook his head. “Well, there you are then. But if I were to be as soft as Celestia, I don’t know if I would be trying to find a way for you and the rest of the team to help.” She pointed to the lightsabers at his side. “Those cylinders you have there. There’s a certain alien power from them that probably caught Majesty’s attention.”

Gregory nodded. What she was saying made some sense. Still, for all her flaws, he couldn’t see Celestia doing that. Majesty, on the other hand…

The cold claw of fear wrapped itself even more tightly around his heart, but he suppressed the emotion. He didn’t want to think about what she might do. He sniffed, burying the fear deeper before looking around at the others. “What does everyone else think?”

Sunset spoke next. “There’s a part of me,” she began, “that feels a bit vindicated for whatever might be coming. I won’t pretend otherwise. Still, this is my homeland, and a bigger part of me doesn’t want to see it become an icicle if what Majesty is saying about the windigos is true.”

“They do exist, that much is true,” Gregory admitted.

Starfall spoke next. “I…I’ve known her majesty for years,” she started a bit hesitantly, “and after you left, sir, she took that escape quite hard. I think she understood why you felt the need to go, but she just wished you would be safe. I don’t think it was meant as an insult on you that she wanted to keep you close and safe from any dangers.”

So close and yet so far from the truth, Gregory mused. He looked to the two people he was closest to in the world. “And you two?”

Tobias put a paw over Gregory’s hand, and it was then that the human realized that he was trembling ever so slightly. Tobias obviously noticed this due to his single pat of Gregory’s hand but didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he said, “I remember a time back in Thornfall when you rescued a small sand kitten whose mother and poor siblings had died,” he said softly. “We were between jobs, and we’d just gotten a nice sum of change, so you spent your share on keeping the kitten healthy. If you hadn’t stepped in and fed it on your own talon, he would have likely died. That sand cat is still alive out there thanks to you.”

Gregory couldn’t help but smile. He had rescued a sand kitten, raising him for a few weeks until the kitten became a sand cat. One day, the cat had come in and clawed slightly at him, but instead of wanting food, he had led Gregory to the outskirts of town where he jumped onto his shoulder, rubbed his scent all over the human, then jumped back down and began walking out. That had been the moment where Gregory knew the young cat wouldn’t be coming back. It wasn’t like the cat was a house cat. It had hurt him to have to let the cat go, but he had. Thinking about the cat brought a pang of sorrow at the loss back to him, but it also brought forth the fond memories he had of raising the little tyke. In fact, that’s what he’d named the little guy: Tyke.

Last, it was Dengal’s turn to speak. The beautiful goblin woman looked at him, her red eyes full of love and support for him, something he never knew he had wanted in his two years since he’d come to Erda. He’d never gotten it from his cheating ex, after all, and never from the parents who had simply ignored his existence most of the time. “Gregory,” she began, her soothing tone sending waves of warmth down his body, “whatever you think Shadow Dawn will do, we’ll support you one hundred percent. I hope you know that.”

“It’s hard not to miss that little caveat,” he said with a small chuckle before it faded. “Still, what are your thoughts?”

Dengal straightened, her expression sobering. “I’m a blacksmith at heart,” she said, “but I come from a warrior people. I might be ugly in their eyes, but I’m still proud to call myself a goblin. Others of my kind may look down on me, but fuck them. As long as those people who matter to me the most are by my side, the world can go fuck itself.” She looked at Tobias with a friendly smile, then back at Gregory with an even bigger smile full of warmth and love. “What matters most to me is being by your side, wherever that leads us. I won’t lie and say I can’t see both sides of the argument for and against helping against the windigos, but I know one creed of the guild. High risk, high reward. The question is, what is too big of a risk?”

Gregory looked around the room and couldn’t help but smile. He even spared one to Chrysalis, who just rolled her eyes at him. Not that he cared. He put one arm around Tobias’ shoulder and the abyssinian responded by beginning to purr, and even gave Gregory an affectionate head rub. He did the same for Dengal, and she leaned against his shoulder, smiling warmly up at him. He saw Chrysalis sniff the air briefly before shuddering a bit. “I don’t know about you all,” he said, “but I still need some more time to think. Still, I appreciate all of what you’ve said to me, and I’ll keep it all in mind. For now, though, I think we should all turn in.”

As everyone began to either get into their beds or go and prepare for bed, Dengal looked up at Gregory. “Come on,” she said, “let’s get to bed.”

Gregory’s own room was a lot smaller than the one that Dengal had just left, but she didn’t care. The bed was big enough for the two of them and then some. There was one window and a small fireplace which was obviously not lit. The window was open to let in the cool nighttime air that was cooling the room considerably. Dengal watched her tired boyfriend collapse into his bed, bury his face into the pillow. She winced as he screamed into it, something she’d noticed he did often after a long day. When he came up for air, he looked back over at her, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Dengal frowned and crossed her arms. “Babe,” she began, “I have told you over and over again that you don’t need to apologize to me for that.”

“I'm sor-I mean, point well taken,” he corrected when she gave him the stink eye.

Her face softened and she walked over to sit next to him. “You take so much onto yourself,” she chided him more gently now as she rubbed his back lovingly. “Tobias and I are always willing to help, and I’m sure that new girl Starfall would bend over backwards to help.”

He chuckled dryly. “That Starfall is definitely going to be an interesting addition,” he admitted.

“But a good one,” Dengal said. She liked Starfall. She seemed to have a good heart and loved to make others happy. Possibly even to her own detriment. That was something Dengal intended on fixing right away.

“A good one, she may be,” he said, “but she did work for Majesty.”

Dengal leaned over, cupped his cheek in her hand, turned him to face her and locked lips with him. He seemed to be caught off guard by this, but as she closed her eyes, she felt his strong arms wrapping around him. She might be physically stronger than he was, but she still liked the feeling of security she felt when she was in his arms. She pressed against him, hands running through his hair as he did the same with her.

A minute later, the two broke apart to catch their breath, panting a bit as they did so. She felt that her own face was flushed, and his was no better. He looked at her with a smile of incredulity. “Where did that come from?” he asked with a small chuckle.

“From a girlfriend who’s concerned about you,” she said sincerely.

Gregory paused, then nodded slowly. “Thank you,” he said softly. “I guess I have been a bit on edge lately.”

“There’s no shame in telling me that you’re scared,” she said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He looked over at her, then nodded again. “If you could consider an alicorn like Celestia a goddess, then Majesty is…an ultra goddess? I might as well be an ant when compared to her.”

She leaned against him and put her hand over his. “I understand,” she said softly. “Still, I won’t let anything happen to you or to Shadow Dawn. Nobody in that room would.”

She felt him relax, but only slightly. “I appreciate that,” he said.

She gave his hand a squeeze, then her hand began caressing his arm. “Now then,” she said, standing, walking over to the window and shutting it before she drew the blinds and turned down the light, “why don’t I help you relax even more, huh?” She walked up, purposely putting a sway in her hips before she pushed him onto his back. “Brace yourself, big boy,” she cooed, “because I’m coming in!” She reached down and began pulling her shirt off…