Klondike beat his wings as hard as he could, trying to keep himself and his ever so precious burden aloft. Adrenaline kept him going over the expansive forests of Snowreach, the roars of the wyvern queen driving his mind to utter terror. But the mare in his hooves kept him going. Aurora, the very mare he had told that he would most likely never see again, rescued from the heart of the wyvern's nest.
But at what cost? Venerax had been killed, Spin was certainly dead, and the damn dragon slayers had been the cause of such a disaster by letting greed get the better of them.
Aurora shifted in his hooves, he wasn't worried about dropping her. Even if he did, he flew fairly close to the ground and she could probably do something magical to stop the fall. She had the reflexes for it, temporarily at least. Some kind of side effect of the wyvern anti-venom seemed to be heightened awareness and a touch of edginess.
Though she had proved to him she wasn't some doormat, airheaded barmaid that was unable to pull her own weight in combat, Aurora was still concerned for Klondike. And he was concerned for her, she had been through so much after being harvested by the queen.
"Klondike, you need to rest." Aurora begged him.
"Not going to happen, not until I get you to safety." he shouted over the wind.
"If you hurt yourself, neither of us are getting to safety! Now find a place to land and rest!"
It was true, he was on the verge of tearing the ligaments in his wings after this much exertion. Choosing a small clearing by a river, he descended from his treetop altitude, gently dropping Aurora. Rolling to her hooves, Aurora embraced her magic to combat any threats that might be nearby. Klondike, exhausted from carrying such a burden so far, crashed into the dirt, rolling and bouncing off the ground.
Aurora ran to the still form of the collapsed stallion, rolling him onto his back. Eyes barely open, she wondered how he had stayed alight the entire way at all. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?" She looked him over for injuries, poking and prodding to see if he reacted negatively.
His eyes fluttered at the mare standing over him, he saw past the blood stains on her fur, past the golden mane matted by wyvern ichor, seeing the beautiful lady he had admired from afar for so long. "Suddenly, things are looking much better." he said, giving a tired smile.
She stared into his eyes, the corners of her mouth dimpling with a small grin. "Lets get some shelter, I don't like the looks of those clouds." With her magic and Klondike's sword she chopped off branches of nearby trees, fusing the ends of branches and weaving them into a wall. Within half an hour she had a decent wigwam constructed.
Staggering into the primitive shelter, Klondike collapsed on the stony dirt floor. Aurora began to pile kindling in the center of the shelter, lowering her horn she sprayed sparks into the tinder.
With an burst of energy Klondike kicked the pile of sticks. "NO! No fire."
Aurora's head raised up, her eyebrows together, her expression saying something like 'well I never!' "And just why not? We'll need some kind of warmth."
"No fire, the wyvern is attracted to fire." Klondike choked, his hazel eyes shimmering with tears, "Venerax told me that with his last words to me...."
Here was the stallion she had admired for his bravery and courage, on the verge of weeping like a lost child. But he was broken for good reason, everypony he had ever known as a friend had been killed or stabbed him in the back. Aurora sat next to the pegasus, stroking his mane with a hoof.
"It wasn't your fault. Spin and Obsidian were brave warriors, they knew what they were getting into when they took this mission into their hooves."
Klondike shook his head, "No, nopony knew what they were getting into. I'm a nopony Aurora, I was supposed to die out there while the heroes killed the monster. I'm the expendable, I don't matter to anypony. It should have been me...."
She lifted his head to look into her amethyst eyes, "You matter to me." He lost himself in her glittering eyes. "And as far as I'm concerned, you are a hero." She leaned down to his cheek and gave him a kiss, a lingering favor from a lady to her knight in shining armor. Rising from her seated position, she walked out the door of the shelter, determined to wash herself off good in the stream. But she would keep an eye on the sky, no doubt about that.
Trotting to a more secluded pool along the banks of the river, she dipped a hoof into the water. Of course it was nearly freezing on its own. Horn glowing with magic, she formed a bowl out of wood and filled it with water. Concentrating she brought it to a steaming near boil. Tearing a piece of cloth from her ruined dress, she scrubbed herself of any trace of the wyvern's foul touch.
A light rain began to fall, pelting the unicorn with cold droplets of water. Levitating her bowl of water she ran back to the wigwam. Seeing Klondike was also fairly nasty with wyvern effluvia, she levitated her rag and delicately began to wipe him off.
Though dead tired and mostly unconscious, the warm rag brought Klondike back to the waking world.
"What are you doing?"
The unicorn scrubbed a bloodstain by his cheek, "You're a mess, just thought you could use a little clean up."
He nodded slightly, "Thanks."
Aurora cleaned up the stallion as best as she could without violating his dignity. Tossing the bowl of water outside, she lay down with him, scooting closer to the stallion. Klondike stood on shaky legs, taking a few steps away from Aurora.
"What are you doing? We need to stay warm Klondike."
Klondike lifted one of his wings, holding the feathers in front of his face, he bit back a great deal of regret. "I can't, I don't want to hurt you."
"What are you talking about?"
Klondike extended the wing to full width, furrowing his brow in concentration. The feathers hardened with a metallic rasp, and he lazily swung the feathers through a thick branch. The branch fell in two, sheared cleanly. "I'm too dangerous." He forced his wings back to normal. Klondike lay down on the ground again, closing his eyes in exhaustion.
The warm body of Aurora lay down next to him, and the stallion opened his eyes to look in her smiling face. "That's a risk I'm willing to take." Aurora lay down her head on her hooves, the warmth of the pegasus being a pillar of strength after so much despair.
Though his warmth was comforting, Aurora shivered in the chill air of Snowreach. Outside the pitter-patter of light rain became a steady drum of fat droplets, but Aurora's shelter held strong and both ponies stayed dry.
Klondike stretched out a sore wing, laying it across the shivering mare. She inched closer, her chill subsided by the warmth of a feathery blanket. Together they felt safe, as if the whole world was enclosed by the boughs and branches of the shelter.
The pain of Klondike's heart and body seemed insignificant in his feelings for this wonderful mare, who was the last pony on earth that actually cared about him.
**************************************
The sun shined bright through the small door of the shelter, shining right into Klondike's eyes. Cracking them open, he never felt more love for the great burning ball of fire in the sky. The wyvern queen hated it with a passion, and the enemy of his enemy is his friend. Retracting his wing, he nudged the mare that had curled up next to his chest.
"Wake up, I'm going to get you home."
After stretching out his wings and making sure nothing was damaged, he grabbed Aurora around the torso, taking off with his passenger. Windshear was another few miles away, Klondike was convinced that he could have made it last night, but time alone with Aurora was like nothing else in the world. They didn't talk, and Klondike's wings threatened to give in to exertion and snap themselves off.
On the horizon he spotted their safe haven, Windshear. But as they got closer, Windshear looked like it was deserted, the only signs of life being ponies that stood on the ramparts, manning heavy crossbows and arbalests. Several militia ponies pointed and shouted at the aloft pegasus carrying the unicorn.
Coming down hard in the center of town, the pair shook themselves off from the exertion of their escape. Militia ponies ran down to the pair, abandoning their posts to help.
"Holy Princess Celestia! It's Klondike, and he brought back Aurora!" Some miner shouted. "You alright kid? Where's Spin?"
Klondike stood from the mud of the street, shaking himself off. "Dead, Obsidian too. They stabbed us in the back, those bucking frauds betrayed us!"
"Who? Who betrayed you, Spin? The dragon?"
Klondike grabbed the militia pony by the collar, "Owayn, that traitor Owayn and his pet squire stabbed us in the back! The wyvern is still alive!" Klondike let go, cursing to himself. Word spread quickly through town about their return, and a sobbing Ruby Rose barreled through the crowd to smother Aurora.
"I told you not to go out! I told you to be careful!" Rose screamed to her friend.
Aurora tried to pry herself away, "I'm alright Rose, I just need some time." Rose refused to let go, her hoofed grip on the unicorn more solid than iron. Finally freeing herself, Aurora grabbed one of Klondike's hooves. "Come on, let's get out of here." Klondike nodded, and together they ran to the Goldrush Saloon, startling the few patrons that were in at this hour.
The owner, Pinch Penny, stood behind the bar, cleaning a glass with a dirty rag. The glass crashed to the floor when he saw the two ponies everypony thought were dead. "You're alive.....you saved Aurora!" Pinch shouted. Jumping over the bar, he grabbed both around the necks and squeezed them tight.
"I knew you could do it Klondike! You slew the monster and saved the fair maiden! Everypony! Free drinks for the next ten minutes."
Aurora interrupted him, "Pinch, I quit." she dragged the pegasus back to her room. Horn glowing with magic, Aurora started dragging out suitcases and bags, filling them with anything that would stow. "I have enough money for us both to take the next ship out of here. We'll start over, back in Equestria. Just you and me against the world!" She smiled as she pecked him on the cheek.
Normally her kiss would have left him elated, but Klondike stood solemn, "I can't go back with you Aurora."
The aura on her horn flickered out, the objects she levitated dropping to the floor. "What? What are you saying? Don't you love me?"
He cradled her cheek with a wing, "More than anything, but I still have a job to do. And I can't just give up. I have to finish this thing, for my master Greyback and for Venerax. They died to give us this chance Aurora, and I won't shame them by running away." Klondike's wing dropped back to his side, turning away he walked out the door of the barmaid's quarters.
Ruby Rose brushed past the stallion as he left, feeling the heartbreak as Aurora stood alone in her room, personal effects strewn about like they had been robbed. "So, I take it not everything turned out as planned."
Aurora stared out in space, her eyes heavy with the pain of rejection. "I wanted to leave, with him. But...he said he couldn't. He has to stay here and kill that thing."
Rose shook her head, walking over to her trunk she opened it up. "When the alarm sounded a few days ago, with you out there, I thought to myself that this couldn't be happening. I thought that you were a strong mare that couldn't be stopped by either a stallion or a monster. So when the militia went to the place where that thing landed and brought back this, I gave up hope." Rose pulled out Aurora's bow and quiver of arrows. "I've watched you grow up from a skinny girl to the proud, beautiful mare that you are now. But so has he, and if anything is possible in this world, he loves you more than I do. And he will protect you until his last breath. That thing out there has taken everything he loves in this world away from him, and he'll never rest until that monster is as dead as our hopes of getting rich out here."
"What do I do Rose? I'm just holding him back by even being here."
Rose pushed the bow into Aurora's hooves. "What you do is your decision, but he doesn't have a choice. He's a pegasus, and pegasus ponies never back down from a fight."
************************************************************
Klondike walked out in the saloon, set and determined to get his revenge against the wyvern queen. At the news of free booze, the saloon had filled up with ponies, with most of the town being inside for a free drink. Coming close to the door, a familiar Company tough stepped in his way.
"Move." he grated to the tough.
Smiling dumbly, the tough laughed. "And where do you think you're goin'? If ya ain't heard, it's a bucking party!" The tough splashed a glass of whiskey on the pegasus, laughing at his stoicism.
Tweed Suit pushed through the door, he and his foremen laughing. "Well, you made it back. Right in time for my victory dance!" Tweed hopped onto his hind legs and clicked his hooves in apparent joy. "With that damn dragon out of the way, we got the 'go' from HQ to restart!"
Klondike snapped, throwing Tweed against a wall, crushing his throat with a leg and aiming a wingtip between his eyes. "Ooh, what are you going to do with that feather? Tickle me to death? I'm sssooooo scared!" Despite having his windpipe nearly shut, Tweed managed to choke out some more laughter. One of the foremen drew a sword, awkwardly chopping at the pegasus. With an unconcerned flick of his free wing, Klondike neatly cut the sword into a dozen pieces.
Tweed's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, his bottom jaw touching his chest. Looking at the wing feather hovering less that an inch from the bridge of his nose, he swallowed the lump in his throat. "Look, uh, sorry about what I said about Obsidian. We can work something out, right? I mean, we're both reasonable ponies here."
The entire population of Windshear had stopped dead to watch the unfolding events. The drop of a pin was louder than the commotion in the saloon. Letting go of Tweed, Klondike walked to the mantle.
"Listen up everypony! I have a few announcements to make. As you all know, a few days ago, a pair of dragon slayers, Old Spin and myself all left town to fight the monster roaming free in our land. We recruited Obsidian to help us, and we would have won! But those damn frauds, hired by Tweed Suit months ago to kill our only line of defense against these creatures, turned against us. Venerax is dead, my master, my mentor Old Spin is dead! And the wyvern is still out there, alive and well!"
The ponies began to shout and scream, each and every one trying to think of a way out.
"We can take the ships downriver!"
"There aren't anymore ships for a month, we take the overland to Yellowblade!"
"We could hide underground!"
"I'm going to build my own boat and get the buck out of here!"
Hundreds of ponies all clambered to get to the door. Klondike extended a wing, hardening the feathers. Placing them against the stone of the hearth he scraped downwards, a horrible screeching silencing everypony.
"Go on, go ahead and run! Run crying back to your mothers! No matter how fast you run, that thing flies faster than you could ever hope to run. Me, I'm through running. I'm going to stay here and fight this thing, even if it means I get torn apart! That damn monster has taken somepony near and dear away from all of us, and I am through with it! I'm going to fight that monster on my terms, for all the friends and family that it has taken from us. Now, who's with me?"
The saloon remained silent, the townsponies looking elsewhere in shame. Brave and strong ponies had eyes downcast. A few even walked out the door.
"I'll stand with you." Aurora pushed her way through the crowd, bow slung on her back.
Pinch Penny walked out from behind the bar, "You got my blade kid."
"I'll weave my magic to your will!" a unicorn shouted.
Several of the miners nodded to each other, "For all our friends and fellows, you have our muscle Klondike."
The militia captain drew his sword. "And our steel!"
Even Tweed Suit took a step forward. "If this thing really is as dangerous as you say, me and my boys are with you."
Somepony in the back shouted, "Klondike the Razorwing! Death to the Sun Eater!" More and more ponies took up that mantra, drawing weapons to salute their leader the Razorwing. Aurora stood with Klondike, a fiery passion burning in her eyes and a grin on her face.
"Looks like you have an army Klondike. How are we going to fight the wyvern?"
Klondike nodded and turned back to the crowd. "The Sun Eater hates fire more than anything. So I say, we give her all the fire she could ever want!"