//------------------------------//
// A Chance for Redemption 
// Story: Wyvern 
// by PegasusKlondike 
//------------------------------//

Klondike lay in his upstairs bed, cuddled next to the one pony he loved the very most. It had been one hell of a night, the wyvern queen could have attacked and neither of them would have noticed or frankly given a buck. He nuzzled the sleeping form of Aurora, feeling the velveteen softness of her fur under his touch. Gently he ran a wing down her side, accentuating her curve with slow, methodical precision. She shifted and smiled, opening her eyes.

"That tickles, mmm, don't stop." 

Klondike planted a kiss on her neck, a seed of affectionate caring that had blossomed into a flower of love and passion. He began to work his way down her neck, enjoying every inch.

Aurora leaned up, "You are just insatiable now aren't you? Come on lover boy, let's get some breakfast." She stood from his bed, pulling on her dress from the night before, strapping her bow onto her back. Klondike lay on his side, eyes dreamily half closed as he watched Aurora. Her tail swished and brushed his chin. "You coming? Or should we just call it a day?" Her sultry smile could melt the polar ice caps with how much fire it put in Klondike's heart. His wings stood up enthusiastically. 

Rising from his bed, the pegasus stretched out a few stiff muscles, "Can't do that, not with the current situation. What do you have in mind for food?"

"I don't know, I was thinking about some eggs and hay at the saloon."

Klondike strapped on his sword harness, sliding Fireflash's blade into its sheathe. Well, it wasn't Fireflash's sword anymore, nor was it Spin's. He hadn't chosen to wield this sword, it had chosen to wield him, just as he wielded his wings as weapons. 

Walking out the door with Aurora, they trotted in tandem to the saloon. The pegasus pulled ahead of the mare, holding open the door for his lover, Aurora giggled at his unexpected chivalry. Eyes on one another lovingly, they took a seat with Pinch Penny and the rest of his employees. Too early for proper customers, Pinch Penny read his customary newspaper, how he managed to keep getting them without shipping was a mystery to Klondike. Lowering his paper, the barkeep smiled at the young mare and stallion.

"Well, you two disappeared on us last night. There anything you want to tell us?"

Klondike cleared his throat, nervously rubbing the back of his neck, "Nothing sir, nothing at all."

Pinch's wife Silver dropped a pair of plates in front of the two, smugly taking a seat next to her husband. "Well Aurora, how was it?"

Klondike choked on a mouthful of hot eggs. Aurora dropped her fork, her cheeks lighting up scarlet. "How was what? We just just talked for a while. That's it, just talked!"

"Oh don't play that game with me young mare, I wasn't born yesterday. Before today Klondike was scared to death of you, but now he's following you like a puppy dog. And don't think I can't see you two playing hoovesies under the table." Aurora's hooves shuffled a bit away from Klondike's. 

The other three barmaids and Pinch Penny were scrutinizing the stallion, their stares accusatory. Under pressure he cracked like an egg. "It was innocent, I swear! Neither of us started it, it just happened!"

Pinch grinned, "Good for you," and continued to read an article on Equestria's latest military crisis following events at the Gala. 

The rest of the table's occupants resumed breakfast, stopping only to refill their pot of coffee. Klondike and Aurora glanced at each other from the corners of their eyes and shrugged, picking up their forks and eating their eggs. 

"So, uh, Pinch. You done with the market section?" The barkeep slid over that portion of the paper to Klondike, who grasped it up with his hooves and began to check his portfolio. Pretty bad he decided, most of his stocks were sunk into North Enterprise, and the Company seemed to be taking a sharp fall after the embargo on turquoise from bison territory went into full effect and would only continue to drop after the long term effect of Windshear's incapacitation came into play. Little bit late to be sending a letter to his broker.

Ruby Rose and Aurora were whispering to one another, occasionally glancing at the pegasus and giggling. "I always thought you two would make such a cute couple Aurora." Rose made no effort to keep that little tidbit of information private. "With his...you know...do things get a bit kinky?" She placed her hooves in her armpits and flapped them like wings. 

"This conversation is over Rose....but yes there are a few things he can do. Very, very nice things."

The pegasus in question very loudly cleared his throat, angrily turning the page on his paper to announce that, 'yes, I am still here.'

Aurora leaned over and gave her lover a smooch on the cheek, silencing any protest. "It was an innocent question, now finish your eggs." Klondike grumbled as he grabbed his fork and chewed down some more breakfast. Pinch chuckled at the spectacle.

"Hm, watch it Klondike, she's already laying down the law. First it's 'finish your breakfast', next it's 'hold my saddlebags while I try on that dress' and it ends with you cleaning out the gutters."

"Well pardon me if I withhold my enthusiasm."

"Oh no, if she can hone her feminine wiles to just the right frequency, she'll have you doing all that with a smile on your face."

Klondike glanced at the five mares that shared the table, all grinning at the outnumbered stallions. "Let's just hope they never use that power for evil."


*****************************************************


Murderer.

Traitor.

Puppet.

Coward.

Patsy's mind was tearing itself apart, he had committed some of Equestria's worst and most punishable crimes, but murder was something completely new. Monstrous things, evil acts that made him wish for the hangpony's noose. His entire life had been run by that bastard Owayn, and now that he was dead, Patsy had no idea what to do. 

He wasn't a stupid pony, contrary to the insults his old master had constantly berated and degraded the squire with. But after so many years under Owayn's hoof, making decisions just seemed so much more difficult. For the longest time he sat in the entrance of Venerax's cave, staring out into the wilderness. Bloodshot and bleary eyes focused on nothing as his hoof curled around the firing lever on his crossbow, the deadly weapon aimed straight towards his chest.

Patsy remembered the last job they had completed before they came to Snowreach, almost a year prior. They had been traveling mercs, living off handouts and sleeping under roadside hedges. After begging for enough bits to stay in a tavern, they lucked out and managed to find one with a gryphon black market dealer that needed somepony to retrieve a little something. Owayn agreed to take the job before even hearing the mission specs. 

The job; break into a gryphon monastery and steal one of the old demon artifacts there. A collector in Gryph'Kalor, the gryphon capital, paid very well for demon artifacts. It went off without a hitch, until Owayn's brash attitude blew their cover. They had to flee the monastery, and Owayn had burned it down to cover their escape. He told Patsy not to worry, that nopony had been inside and everypony had escaped without harm. Hard to believe, especially since Owayn kept destroying every single newspaper that they came across for the next three months.

Patsy's eyes closed as he tightened the grip on the firing lever. His hoof quivered, sweat poured down his brow and Patsy bit his lip. "Momma, Papa, I'm sorry."

He felt the tip of the arrow at his chest, shaking with his nervousness. With a cry he threw the crossbow away, taking his head into his hooves and sobbing. "I'm too much of a bleedin' coward to take the coward's way out."

Alone in the harsh wilderness with no real motivation to live and no purpose in life, Patsy was reminded of the one reason why he stuck around Owayn all these years. Loneliness was a killer, worse than frostbite or starvation. And Owayn had at least been somepony to talk to after being shamed after that fateful mission where they had been kicked out of the Order. 

Everypony assumed Patsy was some village idiot that had managed to steal a few weapons and marched around with somepony who looked important. Turned out Owayn really was the more backstabbing, cowardly, thieving, and idiotic of the pair. It had been Owayn's idea in the first place to abandon Venerax and go after the wyvern eggs. It was his idea to hold the two pegasi hostage and his idea to leave them for dead when the wyvern killed Venerax.

Patsy hated himself, tears still streamed from his eyes, pooling on the ground. "It's my fault. It's all my bucking fault. I could have said something, I didn't have to listen to that bastard."

His dad had been a real knight of Equestria, a true hero. At least he would have been if he hadn't lost a hoof in his second quest and been honorably discharged. He could almost hear his father's voice, lending a supporting hoof yet chastising him from beyond the grave. 

"Patsy my boy, quit yer blubberin'. You want to be a knight of Equestria? I ain't heard o' no knight blubberin' his eyes out after he made one little mistake. A real knight of Equestria picks himself up, dusts himself off, and is willing to go to Tartarus and back to make his mistake right. A real knightly virtue is ownin' up to yer mistakes and bein' a better pony fer it, even if it is the last thing you do."

"Ownin' up to my mistakes..." Patsy swallowed what little shreds of pride he had left, grabbing his crossbow and what was left of the supplies he and Owayn had brought, and took off onto the wilderness trail.


************************************************


Klondike stood at the head of a table in the saloon, a rough drawing of the wyvern queen splayed out on the table with all of the various leaders of the militia leaned over it. 

Klondike lazily traced a primary feather along the outline, "Quite the amazing creature, the wyvern. Ferocious, tough, agile, strong, and unrelenting. The perfect predator, but dumber than a post. And it is that lack of cognizant thought, of planning and intelligence that we will use to kill her."

Tweed looked over the impressive arsenal of the wyvern, "How? She's literally armed head to tail and everywhere in between."

"We attack here." A razor feather stuck through the drawing and through the wood of the table, stuck right at the top of the breastbone.  "Her offense is quite possibly the most awesome in the world, nothing can get past that. But if we put her on the defensive, we're the ones on top. Attacking the chest forces her on the defensive, right there is where they keep a large sac of antivenom to pump into their bloodstream constantly. She'll defend that spot with her last dying breath."

The militia captains nodded, "We'll get all our boys in the know, aim for the chest, at the base of the neck."

"Captain wait, make it understood that none of your militia or anypony's for that matter are to get into melee range of this creature. Stay behind cover and don't get within fifty yards of her. Stay back, let her take the bait and open fire once the trap is sprung."

The militia captain saluted before running out the door to inform his ragtag troops. The rest of the sergeants and captains did the same, either teleporting away or running out. Klondike stared at the drawing of the wyvern, extending a wing he slashed at the drawing, tearing several long gouges across the picture.

One of Tweed's foremen pushed open the door to the saloon, the impromptu headquarters for this operation. "Chief, you better get to the front gate quickly!"

Klondike diverted his attention from the wyvern sketch to the messenger. "What is it? Is she attacking?"

"No, but you better get down there before they kill him!"

"Kill who?"

"That squire! He just showed up at the front gate and tossed down all his weapons. The militia took him prisoner, but I think the townsfolk are gonna lynch him for what he did to you and Spin." Klondike dashed past the messenger, flaring his wings out and taking off for the front gate. 

A large crowd had gathered around, most ponies shouting and throwing whatever rotted produce they had at the bound and trussed up prisoner. 

"Killer!"

"Traitor!"

"You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Klondike landed between the rabble and the tied up squire. "Enough!" The pegasus turned to the squire, forced to his knees  with his hooves tied securely. Patsy's eyes were on the dirt, the once proud and arrogant dragon slayer reduced to nothing more than the status of a common criminal. "Why have you come here? Where is Owayn?"

Patsy's eyes stayed on the dirt, "Dead, by my hooves dead," the look on his face denoted the greatest sorrow and the epitome of shame.

The crowd stepped back, gasping at the most heinous crime of murder. Frantic murmurs fluttered around, the townsfolk wondering when they should schedule the earth pony's lynching.

Patsy kept choking out his confession, "Owayn was a monster, he controlled my life and did horrible things to so many innocents. He killed an entire monastery just so he could have a few measly bits. And I let him do it..." Patsy struggled to hold back his tears of shame. "I joined the knighthood so I could help people, not make them suffer. Owayn just saw titles and gold. I wanted to make Equestria a safer place...."

Klondike stared down at the broken wreck of a pony, holding no sympathy for a murderer. "Why have you come back?"

Patsy's eyes lifted off the ground, his eyes bloodshot and watered. "I came to turn myself in, to be punished for what I've done."

Klondike lifted a wing, the feathers hardening and reflecting like metal in the sunlight. Patsy closed his eyes and nodded his head, ready to accept his punishment. The crowd murmured and nodded their approval. Staring at edges of his wing feathers, sharp enough to cut through dragon scale, he sighed.

With a downward chop he lunged at the squire. Patsy sat shaking, opening his eyes to discover his bonds had been cut. Looking up, he saw the form of the pegasus silhouetted by the sunlight, wings flared and his form obscured by the bright rays of the sun. Klondike reached down with a hoof, offering it to the squire. With a second chance at life offered to him, Patsy gratefully took the proffered hoof and stood.

Almost immediately he dropped back into a bow. "Master."

Klondike shook his head and grabbed the earth pony by his shoulders, lifting him back to a normal stance. "No, you don't serve me or anypony else anymore. You are your own stallion, the only pony you need to listen to anymore is yourself. But that doesn't redeem you."

"What would you have me do?"

Klondike placed a hoof on his shoulder, "Help us fight, help us kill the wyvern. And if we succeed, none of us will remember an arrogant squire by the name of Patsy. Just a down on his luck pony looking for a clean slate."

Patsy dropped to one knee, "I pledge myself to the ponies of Windshear. Until death or dishonor."