Discord returns, and a stranger must now step up to fight against a campaign of destruction. The world must grow cruel once more to survive, this will be the first step.
War is coming. Discord was not the first God to come to Equestria, but neither is he finished with it. His capture by the Elements of Harmony was only a clever trick, as befits a God of disceipt and trickery. His farce has bought him the time to resume his plans for the miserable world he's been trapped in, and has dredged up the relics of Equestrian History. The Elements failed to trap him the second time, and the Princesses barely managed it the first time. It will take older magic to put a stop to Discord this time. Harmony can dispell him, but not the Harmony of song and dance. Harmony is a balance of give and take. The Blaidd are experts in the art of taking. Bred for the war against the Gods, they present the single greatest threat to Gods of all kinds. But now there is only one.
Gunfire and shouts filled the air in the distance, the flashes of light peppered out in suppressive fire in the dark trees. A fire had broken out in that direction, the smoke curled away into the snowy night sky. The bare winter trees howled and bowed under the weight of snow and shuddering as stray bullets pelted them.
A solitary grey speckled wolf fled through the deep snow, he glided over it on his wide paws and left a spray of snow in his wake. The bag wrapped around his neck made it difficult to breath, but clouds of steam billowed forth forcefully nonetheless. A ragged bullet wound bloodied his chest and left the smallest trail of red against insistent white.
The wolf knew that the gunmen could continue to litter the forest with bullets until they found him, if the footmen didn’t find him the trucks would supply them until they did. It would be the wolf’s last chance to flee them, hopefully for good this time. They’d chased him across the world and back, caught him more than once, but this time he would go where they could not follow.
The wolf could see the clearing he was looking for through the trees, the throb in his head grew all the more insistent the closer he got. He lept through the trees and willed himself to stand tall again. He took only a few moments to wrestle the bag from around his neck as his spine spasmed and he was able to stand fully once again. He was suddenly very cold, his fur fell away as he changed.
A muscled man stumbled into the clearing, naked save for the bag that he held close to the long scrape across his scarred chest. The brass rings around his arm glinted in the moonlight of the clearing and sweat glistened in his grey speckled hair. He panted as he examined the clearing, the throb behind his eyes confirmed it was in fact where he was supposed to be.
This place was far separated from its surroundings, nothing grew here and no snow had fallen within its borders. In its center an abnormally flat slab of stone sat smugly, covered in a fine layer of topsoil, too level and symmetrical for it to be natural. But what truly set it apart were the five crumbled pillars set evenly around the stone slab; each depicted a faded figure who stared infinitely toward the slab.
He flinched, clasped his head in his hands and growling, “Shut up!” He dropped the bag onto the bare earth and rummaged through the few items he owned until his hand found the severed pommel of an ancient sword. It was deceptively heavy in his hand, despite being no bigger than a doorknob. Only a single marking decorated the bottom of it, an old rune, while the other side was the jagged end where the hilt had once been.
He stumbled quickly to each pillar as he donned the bag over his shoulder and wiped a smear of his thick blood from the wound on his chest onto the face of each figure: A stag, whose horns surrounded his head in an intricate halo; three unicorns, two with wings that cupped their manes and one with a horn that stretched up the highest pillar; and finally a pegasus whose wings splayed back around the entire pillar.
When he was done, he stood before the stone slab. With one last look at the unseemly heavy pommel, he threw it in a tall arc over the center of the slab and listened to the throb in his skull all the while.
The pommel, as was its nature, did exactly as the man had not expected: it stopped. The pommel’s momentum was suddenly halted, hung impossibly in the air over the stone. The sound of gunfire and of men and their shouts abruptly stopped, and he was no longer alone in the clearing.
Standing behind each pillar, staring over its ruined remains, were the figures depicted on each. A noble stag stood resolutely at the opposite side of the stone circle, his crown of bones stretched skyward all around him. Two mares stood imposingly behind their own pillars on either side of the stag, horns held high and wings spread majestically. Closest to the man was the pegasus and the unicorn, each holding their respective features as if they would strike with them.
Five points of a star, five parts of a whole. And every one of them had their eyes aimed squarly at the man in the clearing. These were not creatures of the flesh, this world’s reality did not apply to them. These were spirits, fae, Guardians at the Gate.
The man stood completely still, the only sign that he hadn’t been instantly turned to stone were the clouds of vapor that steadily billowed out of his nose. The stag lifted its head, giving the man a decisive glare of warning. He only clenched his fists, leaned forward, and took the first step onto the stone slab.
The soil flowed away from his foot as it fell and rolled off the stone like water. The guardians reacted instantly, their stares intensifying. They began to sing as he slowly walked toward the pommel, their voices nearly halted him.
Their voices flowed seamlessly together in perfect symphony, beautiful and ominous all at once. Below every ancient word was a tone of warning, one that spoke to his bones and urged him to turn away. The man had to fight for every step to reach the center where the pommel stood, the dirt and dust cleared from the stone with each footfall to reveal the tiny carvings all across its surface.
He lifted his hand, held it over the pommel as if were to strike it from the air. The spirits paused and watched carefully. His arm fell atop the pommel like a hammerstrike, and the spirits’ sang with renewed and dangerous vigour. The man flinched, a wave of pressure descended upon him from their words. He shook visibly under their verbal assault, and fought to keep from being flattened to the ground by their will alone.
The pommel glowed with harsh golden light that dripped like water to flow through the carvings at the man’s feet. The spirits sung all the louder, their voices wailing and saddening. Sometimes it was a sirens song, and in the next instant it was a psalm that bore crippling grief into his soul. He watched the light desperately as it agonizingly slowly stretched across the entire surface of the stone, eventually building up underneath the pommel.
Painfully slowly, the blade of a sword began to form at his feet. It crawled upwards to meet the pommel. Again the spirits doubled their efforts, tossing their heads and wailing out those ancient words that held a meaning beyond language. The man’s hand twisted as the guard of the blade haltingly filled out, a wave of the spirits’ own power slipping off of him and striking one of the stag’s legs. It tumbled and the pressure around the man suddenly fell. His hand shot up to where the hilt was just coming into being.
The spirits’ singing suddenly rose, panicked. The force returned in full upon him, slammed down on the entirety of the slab and cracked it explosively down the middle. The man lifted on the sword the moment the hilt of light connected with the pommel, muscle rippled as he pulled with all his might even as the buck rejoined the singing.
With one final note of protest from the spirits, the man pulled the sword free from the grip of the slab. With a sound like ripping paper he pointed the spectral blade to the sky. In a flash of light intense enough to throw the entire forest into daylight again, he was gone.
The clearing was empty when the men in uniforms flooded out of the trees to look around the strange clearing in confusion. All that was there were some old pillars, and a dirt covered slab of rock. The snow slowly fell for the first time into the timeless grove.
---
From here, the world spread out below like a map- or an intricate, delicate toy. One that was often distastefully peaceful in the eyes of the creature that looked down at it now.
He smiled his jagged, lopsided smile, the one that he’d groomed over the millenium spent on this mudball. The foolish creatures that wallowed below had thought he was captured again, but they were so blissfully, deliciously wrong. Not even Luna and her all seeing dreamscape could find him, here he could pull his puppet’s strings unmolested.
But something suddenly broke the intense silence all around him, a chaotic shift in the balance of the world that called to him like a sweet wine. He turned to examine it and watched as cosmos shifted and another, abandoned bubble of dirt stretched toward this one. He hummed thoughtfully as he watched, fascinated. His yellowed eyes grew wider with his smile as he recognised the creature that rode the wave of power.
“Twinkle twinkle, little star,” he sang in his mocking voice, a fantastically constructed tone that he’d perfected over centuries just for his precious sister. “How I wonder what you are,” he flexed his eagles claw hungrily and reached out toward the northbound ball of energy. “Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky-” the stretch was about to reach its limit, he could see the fabrics of the world as they lost their hold on the bundle of arcane power, “-How I wonder who … you … ARE.”
The claw shot out as the equilibrium was overcome, snatching the tiny ball of power before it could dart to its intended destination in the world. He cackled merrily as he tossed the creature between his paw and his claw, deliciously chaotic thoughts bursting forth at this new plaything’s presence. He paused, the creature struggled and warped violently in his claws, ready to take on its more violent, true form.
He smiled devilishly, he knew exactly what to do with a rare creature such as this. It would be the perfect thing to spice up dreary old Canterlot, and he’d always hated his statue in the garden anyway.
Discord donned a pitcher’s uniform with a thought, wound up his claw as if it were a spring and sent the hurled the creature through the atmosphere toward the mountain city. He laughed merrily to himself at the thought of the intricate and even subtle chaos he had just set into motion, it would be beautifully distracting. Hopefully for an extended period of time.
“Oh,” he giggled in pure mirth as he fell into a theater chair and called forth a bucket of popcorn with extra butter that was more akin to a bowl of yellowed teeth. “This is going to be interesting.”
---
For Luna, if not for her meals with her sister and her night courts, her nights would all be exactly the same. Though her schedule was often considered strange or backwards to what is expected, she spent much of her free time as most nobles and intellectuals do: reading. She entertained herself by learning of new discoveries magical, historical, geographic and scientific, and studying the ones that intrigued her.
Though often her reading was extremely interesting, it was often dull and repetitive a schedule. Far too often she found herself comparing today’s Equestria with the war-torn and struggle filled past, not that she regretted how far the peace that she and her sister had sought for so long was so nearly complete.
But how could tax petitions compare to threats of Gryphon insurgents at the borders, or Diamond-Dog raids in mountain villages? How could the intricacies of politics compare to the raw power and grace of single combat, or the modern festivities compare to a tournament and its melees? Sometimes it seemed that no matter what intricacy or importance was involved, it couldn’t.
She often debated the values of this current era with the one she was familiar with on long nights when she was alone, such as this one. Her tower in the Lunar Wing of Canterlot Castle was often abandoned in the light of day, though at this hour late in the night her own ponies brought it back to life. From here in her seat upon her balcony she could see the dew dappled gardens and the city that hung on the mountain below her.
She looked over her stars, as she did most every night. She did it so often and with such frequency she had begun to feel the days and weeks blending together, a not uncommon feeling for somepony as old as she was. But for some reason this night felt different, a feeling she could not shake away.
She recalled the weather schedule with narrowed eyes, her regal wings tested the air. Too warm by her reckoning, and far too still if the pegasus teams were as capable as had been impressed upon her. She could make out the dark, silver lined absences of stars where clouds lay in rebellion to the clear skies on the schedule.
Bad portents when the earth and its weather pressed its superiority upon them.
But rather than feel threatened, Luna felt almost exhilarated. It was a break to the hungry pattern that had swallowed her, and she felt prepared to embrace it. Whatever this turn of events brought, if it should come and she had no doubts that it would, it promised to be extremely interesting.
She felt it build rapidly in the air, the tension around her turned to a palpable tingle of magic. It built until she could quite clearly feel in what direction the disturbance had come from, almost directly South of Canterlot.
And then it was there, an explosion across the sky in a streak of brilliant white fire. It curved out from the clouds, a ball of fire on an unnaturally shallow arc toward the hanging city. Luna eyed it carefully and admired the gentle and graceful movement of it. With a thought, her magic reached out and attempted to halt it but found that she could not keep a grip on it.
It was with widening eyes that Luna realized that this ‘meteor’ would not be swayed so easily as the shooting stars she so often herded. She squared her stance, put more and more power and concentration into taking hold of the projectile. Once she was able to grasp it through brute force, she was able to recognise the missile for what it was: alive.
She nearly lost it again when she realized it was not in fact a fiery ball of cosmic rock, it was someone or something that had lost control in a disastrous way. She wrestled with it, able to just slow its path as she contemplated what could possibly have caused such a brilliant display.
Could it be an injured dragon? No, there was too much momentum and it was too small. A pony perhaps? But what stunt could have possibly produced the condensed cone of slippery magic such as this?
Luna grunted, feeling her hooves sliding along the marble floor of the balcony as her magic slowly brought down the speed of the creature. She couldn’t stop it outright, the force of the stop could kill whoever was within. She would have to steer it into a controlled crash.
She didn’t have time to consider all of the options she might have, the ball of fire was too close now. She simply had to hope that the emergency personnel would be prepared to respond appropriately.
It rocketed past her with a wave of heat and sound and snapped her head back as her tether of magic continued to try to slow it. Through the whiplash she heard it hit the ground and tear through earth and sod.
She turned to look only to see smoke rise and debris fly away from the maze gardens. She bolted out of her study and barked orders at Lunar Guards as she passed. “EMERGENCY WITHIN THE GARDENS! CLOSE OFF THE PALACE GROUNDS!” she bellowed as she tore down the stairs. Her Lunar Guard of Thestral ponies jumped into action, all with a flinch into motion at the intensity and volume of her voice.
A group of Thestrals formed around her as she made her way through the Palace. A General at her side threw a glance her way, his throat worked underneath his gorget.
“If it is of your opinion that this is a matter my Sister should be aware of, then yes. Wake her and bring her to me posthaste!” Luna answered quickly, never breaking stride. The General broke away without any other word to her. Luna and her entourage raced through the castle, rousing as many ponies to help as they could on the way, until they finally made it to the doors leading to the gardens.
When she emerged onto the large decorative patio there were already firemares on the scene, barely able to hold back the fires that raged in the hedges away from the palace. It stank of old, broken magic. Everything was covered in smoking sod, every statue bench and decoration had been damaged. Luna looked out at it and cursed under her breath in a desperate hope that the crash hadn’t hurt anypony.
“Luna!” Celestia’s voice whipped through the air, quickly followed by the sound of hooves as they hit the ground hard. Celestia’s landing was rushed, she didn’t even have her regalia on. “What happened?” she asked immediately, looking out at the state of the maze gardens in shock.
“We think that somepony has crashed, disastrously so,” Luna explained.
“That was a crash?” she asked in disbelief and once again took in the fire and sod that had spread everywhere.
“We know little, but whomever was within that fireball was alive,” Luna confirmed. She jumped into motion as Celestia took a determined expression and started to walk toward the epicenter of the destruction.
They didn’t bother to follow what was left of the mazes, their magic bent away the hedges that were left until they could simply follow the destruction. The fires shied away from them, the Sisters’ natures let them counteract the fires with just their presences. The ground was horribly decimated, sod and the underlying soil was churned away and scorched by magical fire.
“There!” Luna shouted as she broke into a trot. The trail of destruction ended suddenly at an oblong crater, the furthest end hidden under a pile of rubble and debris. An abandoned satchel lay in its own crater atop the pile, mostly unharmed, but it was further evidence that it was indeed a pony that had fallen.
Celestia’s magic began to pull at the rubble on top of the pile. “They must have been buried!” she huffed as she lifted away huge clods of dirt and chunks of broken statues.
Luna joined her, her magic lifted away large portions of the pile. It only took a few minutes for any guards or emergency ponies to catch up to them and join in the search. After a few minutes more, somepony called out:
“Here!” a guard yelled as she started to dig with a renewed vigor. Luna was at her side in an instant to clear away dirt with a magical wind. In only a moment she could see thick grey fur, but as soon as its owner was revealed Luna and the guard were ripped away by a cloud of golden magic.
“Stand back!” Celestia bellowed, magical fire leapt along the long length of her horn. The other guards and personnel nearby reacted instantly, they jumped back and brought whatever weapons they had to bear. Luna and the guard were roughly dropped onto the hot earth behind Celestia, but the Solar alicorn barely noticed. There was a strange twitch to her ears.
Luna was on her hooves again instantly, she sputtered as she stared at the thing laying in the dirt in front of them. “That isn’t-”
“It is.” Celestia’s gaze never once wavered from the furry shoulders poking out of the rubble. “Come, we need both of us to destroy it,” she said, her voice shook with fear.
“Wait, we have not seen one of them in thousands of years!” Luna protested, a look of incredulity aimed at her sister.
“Its existence is dangerous.”
“Its young, and alone.”
“One was too many!”
“We’ve witnessed nothing but an accident tonight, it would be-”
“Did you forget?” Celestia whirled suddenly on her sister, a wild fury in her eyes. “The fires? The rivers of blood? What about the screams in the night as ponies were slaughtered?” Celestia’s voice shook dramatically now, enough that the guards gathered around could notice it. “Their sins are written in blood and bone and cannot be erased.”
Luna couldn’t believe the harshness of the words that came from her sister, they were incredibly unlike her. Luna’s face hardened into a grimace. “It was not so long ago that We had the same thoughts,” she said as she fought off tears, “about Ourself.”
That was able to knock Celestia back. “What would be done with it, then?” Celestia finally settled to say, though it seemed she struggled to find the clarity to do so.
“We understand your concerns, but let Us take care of it,” Luna said, her last attempt to appeal to Celestia. “Please, dear Sister. Let Us help it,” she said as she sidestepped around Celestia carefully.
A large white wing cut off Luna’s path with a loud snap. “No!” she barked as she stepped in Luna’s way protectively. “You are not to touch it, let the guards take it.” Her eyes shifted to the few well armed ponies around them nervously. “And keep it in the Goloid Cage.”
“That’s unkind,” Luna protested, but Celestia only shook her head.
“Kinder than letting it run wild through the streets.”
“Sure hope they haven’t closed up the exercise yard today on account of the accident,” Lightning Dust remarked as she and Rainbow Dash flew laps around the training facility.
“Yeah, I’d hate to be stuck with only the weights we have here,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, she shook her head as they barrelled around another turn.
The Wonderbolts Training Facility was well equipped, but during the junior recruit training camp it became fairly obvious it was mostly meant for the forty actual wonderbolts and not the few dozen trainees on top of that. There were barely enough cots, let alone weights or even towels. They’d finish doing laps and then sprint their way to Canterlot Royal Academy every other day for strength and agility exercises for just that reason.
“You know what happened?” Dust asked, pushing the pace faster.
“I heard it was some sort of magic explosion, but I haven’t heard anything from my friends so I’m not sure,” Rainbow said, she’d barely broken a sweat. This was an easy pace for them, even if they just lapped the other teams left and right.
“Oh well. Race you, wing-pony?” Dust said with a smirk.
Rainbow rolled her eyes, still somewhat sore about that ruling. But so far Lightning Dust had been pretty cool about it. “Last one to ten laps buys the shower tokens!” Rainbow cried as quickly as she could, she smiled as she took the lead.
---
The guards shifted nervously around the cage, spears aimed unsteadily toward it. Celestia herself had assured them that morning that the antique cage was made from a metal stronger than any other, and that so long as the wolf was kept inside it and the door unopened it could never be forced open from the inside. But still, none of them had ever seen a dog bigger than themselves before, let alone a wolf.
The grey wolf paced tiredly within the small boundary of the deceivingly delicate metal lattice, his shoulders brushed the ceiling of it a good head above even the tallest unicorn amongst the day guard there. The injury on its chest had been seen to before it woke up, a neat white bandage now covered the gash. They had each asked about the decorations on the wolf’s upper foreleg and pierced into its left ear, or why its skin hissed and burned when it touched the cage, but none had been given an answer.
They’d been informed to stand on guard until further notice from either the doctor assigned to the animal by Princess Luna or from Celestia herself. That didn’t make watching the muscles under its grey dappled coat ripple as it walked any less unnerving to them. And yet, as disturbing as it was, watching the dark grey of its back blend into the lighter around his legs was almost hypnotizing.
The wolf would often stop and stare intently at one of the guards until the pony was ready to piss in their chainmail. But then it would shake its head with a snarl, which made the entire regiment jump, and then it would start to pace again.
The tension in the dank dungeon room built as such, until a pin drop could have set off a tremendous fright amongst them. Which is why when the doctor crashed down the stairs, every guard jumped high enough to scrape their horns against the ceiling. Which of course, set off the wolf; it snarled and banged against the cage in a violent fury.
“Doctor!” Filibuster, the ranking officer on this assignment, snapped angrily at him as he approached the cage. He wrinkled his nose at the smell of the wolf’s singed fur and burnt flesh as it made its displeasure known. “Is it so necessary for you to make such a scene when you enter?” he panted, his heart raced from the scare.
The pale green unicorn only smiled wider as he came down the stairs, he avoided an icy puddle on the floor idly. “Yes, especially if it makes you uptights shake loose a little bit.” He blew his shock of fiery orange mane out of his eyes as he approached. “Besides, if that polearm had been any farther up your ass you’d have been choking on it!” he laughed and skirted around the wall of heavily armed guards and approached the snarling wolf unphased.
“Oi!” he yelled at the wolf as he smacked his medical bag against the bars to get the wolf’s attention. It snarled, scratched and bit at the latticework despite the pain it caused him. “Yes, yes. I know you’re unhappy, no need to throw a fit now-” The wolf barked loudly, a deep rolling thunder that filled the stone chamber completely. “Rude,” the Doctor remarked as the wolf paced on the opposite wall from him. “Here now, this will help with any pain and should calm your nerves some,” he muttered and pulled out an envelope with his transparent magic.
Rather than touch the contents with his magic, he used a set of tongues to pull out the clump of purple flowers and leaves. He tossed the clump of herb into the cage and watched as the wolf stopped to sniff at the leaves immediately. The Doctor made careful note of this in a small black book, he could tell now that the wolf was already familiar with the herbal treatment.
The doctor leaned in carefully toward the cage as the wolf snapped up the flowers. “Are you ready to speak to me, old friend,” he said in as calm a voice as he could manage, he made sure to keep his voice far below the usual volume he used. “I know you can. We should start with names, yes? I am Clean Cut,” he said. He motioned toward himself and repeated his name.
The wolf stared silently back at the doctor, much calmer now but no less threatening as it chewed on the flowers. Filibuster snorted, he had grown extremely tired of the eccentric doctor’s masquerade. Luna had allowed him to care for and examine the animal before it had been caged and woke up, and he’d been incorrigible the entire time. “It’s a beast, Doctor,” he said as he motioned for his guards to return to their positions. “It can’t speak, it can’t think, it can’t understand. The most this thing wants to do is eat, shit and fuck its way to death in the dirty woods hundreds of miles-”
“Clean Cut.”
In that moment, the dungeon room seemed very small, because the wolf’s gravelly voice had just repeated the doctor’s name. The thin unicorn gave a cheer as the wolf repeated his name again and stared directly at the doctor. “Yes! Yes! Now-” Clean Cut motioned from himself to the wolf, who growled out something incoherent as it shook its head. “That’ll be difficult to pronounce …” Clean Cut mumbled to himself, he motioned again for the wolf to speak its name once more.
“The most I can make out is … Coalback? And that’s only a partial best guess,” the doctor noted to Filibuster, who merely glared at the wolf that had instantly made his point moot. “I need to inform the Princess of this, there may be hope yet,” Clean Cut said, he tucked the book away and turned back up the stairs. “Don’t antagonize him!” he yelled back as he went through the door.
“This is gonna be a long shift,” Filibuster groaned.
---
“We shouldn’t be keeping him locked up,” Luna said desperately as she tried to keep up with her sister’s longer gait. “Clean Cut says that he suspects the wolf has been kept in captivity before under extremely harsh conditions and that continuing this kind of treatment any further-”
“I’ll hear no more of this, Luna,” Celestia said tiredly, her brow furrowed. “There is too much real danger to allow it to be given any freedom, that cage is our best defense at the moment.” She didn’t turn to look at her sister as she walked, a feeling overcome her that she often only felt when she had to deal with politicians; detachment.
Luna was able to recognise it instantly, and she would not have it. With a grunt she lept into Celestia’s path, she stopped the taller alicorn with a glare. “We often meet our fates on the paths we choose to prevent them,” she said sternly, which only earned a glare in return from Celestia.
Celestia didn’t have to raise her voice, or light her horn, or even spread her wings to cow Luna. All she had to do was take two steps forward and look down her nose at her younger sister. “It stays in the cage,” she said, low and calm, “until I say otherwise.” Celestia turned her gaze away again. She stepped around Luna and swept her wings over Luna’s head to further seal in her statement.
“Now if you don’t mind,” Celestia sighed, “I have to attend a press conference to keep your guest a secret.” Celestia walked around her sister unimpeded this time, she didn’t notice Luna’s downcast expression.
---
Coalback lay on the floor of his enclosure, paws under his chin, and fumed in anger and revived fear. He hated cages almost as much as he hated the ones who put him in cages. But now he was exhausted, hungry, and stung all over from when he thoughtlessly threw himself against the cage.
He hadn’t understood any of the words that the little horses spoke, he still found it surprising that they spoke at all. The pain in his head was confident the speaking was normal, though by no means very happy about it. It had been a strange realization, but recently he’d found that worrying over details like pastel colored animals was not worth his time. He had more important concerns at the moment, these realizations were simply facts at this point.
The guards’ leader, or who Coalback assumed was their commanding officer, was unhappy with the thin green one- Clean Cut -that had come in and offered him the wolfsbane. It had been so long since Coalback had tasted that flower and the euphoric wave of relaxation that came with it that he hadn’t bothered to show restraint. Now he simply felt like sleeping as he basked in its fading effects, and would have if not for the displeasure that nagged him. Coalback needed to get out of this disgusting dungeon and fill his belly, hunger gnawed at the edges of his mind.
He glanced up, and locked onto the commanding guard again in thought. They’d made no overt moves to antagonize him, nor had they punished him when he banged against the cage- if the burning from the silver in the cage’s metal wasn’t a punishment itself. Whoever had put Coalback in here had given orders that he was not to be harmed, maybe even to keep him alive. Would they let one of them inside to try and revive him if he ‘died’?
He supposed there was only one way to find out.
Coalback rolled over onto his side and let his breath whoof out from him. Here was where the act started; he didn’t breath in again and let his eyes stare blankly through the guard. Coalback knew how long he could hold his breath before he began to blackout, far longer than any dog should have been able to. Especially long enough to be worrying.
The head guard stiffened as soon as Coalback fell over and stared intently at the wolf. “It’s not breathing,” Coalback supposed he said to himself, he didn’t even believe his own words. “It’s not breathing! Get help!” he yelled and pointed a hoof at one of his subordinates which sent him running. The polearm in his hooves spun around, the blunt, metal tipped end slipped through the lattice and jabbed at Coalback’s ribs to try and revive the wolf on his own.
Coalback didn’t move, but before the guard could try anything else the air beside him shuddered. The thin green horse exploded into existence, he appeared with a thunderous snap of the air. It only took the clashing colored pony a moment to fall for Coalback’s ruse, a key materialized in front of its horn.
Coalback was surprised at the sudden authority in this one's voice, Clean Cut quickly overtook the room as he commanded the guards. The guards bristled around the his shoulders, spearheads aimed steadily toward the door of the cage. The key slid into the lock with a translucent green glow, tumblers slid over themselves.
Coalback moved the instant the lock clacked open heavily, long toed paws underneath him in the time it took to blink an eye. His shoulders hit the door and smashed it open with a crash of protest, the door bent outward against its hinges now that the spells strengthening the otherwise soft metals were interrupted. The metal pushed apart the wall of guards, and smashed into the doctor’s nose, and burned against Coalback’s hide as he burst through.
A paw found purchase on an equine leg, the bone snapped and stole some of Coalback’s grip but he shot toward the stairs in a single bound. He only barely heard the screams of pain, shock, and anger that erupted from the guards past the fury that screamed inside his skull. Fear! Blood and bones! Feed! it screamed to him, but he could not listen to it now: He wanted out, and then he could eat.
Coalback was up and out of the thin stairwell as fast as his long legs could carry him, his shoulders and hips brushed against the walls. He blew past another group of guards, knocked them over and barrelled toward the first door that didn’t look like a cell. He snapped at a guard that came around a corner and made them jump back as he went through an archway and up a much wider set of stairs.
The hallways and ramps rushed past, the guards shouted and gave chase all around him. He leapt over groups that cut him off or flanked him, if he stopped to kill them like the drum in his skull told him to he would be overrun: By the sheer number of opponents if not the piles of the dead to slow him.
Before long he was presented with a more fortified group that cut off a brightly lit palace hall with shimmering walls of light in various colors. Coalback slid to a stop in front of them, his claws ripped through thick carpeting and into the stone beneath. He knew in an instant that the wall was no illusion, the pain in his head quite clear with its message on that.
Coalback snarled and twisted around only to find the way behind him blocked by a wall of charging horses who marched down the hall toward him. He barked at the ponies in their fortified position as they tried to move forward. He let out a bellow more befitting a bear than a wolf at the ponies who bore down on him from the end of the hall.
Cornered! His mind’s eye flashed with chains, tables covered in knives and his own blood, a mirror made from windows where he could see his own guts spill from his stomach and into a molesters grip. Fight, Kill, Eat! He could practically feel the needles pull on his flesh again; always drained, always in pain. In a moment of fear fueled adrenaline, he turned toward the brightly lit windows of the hallway … and jumped.
The ground met him in an instant, three stories down a white marble wall and onto mulch. Long shards of glass fell around him, some bounced off his hide and others dug into him. Coalback stood shakily and ripped what pieces of glass he could out and stalked away from the wall.
A meticulously cropped garden stretched out away from him, it extended in all directions and climbed up a tall castle wall where more guards patrolled. Coalback needed to move, a few had stopped on the wall and started to turn his direction.
He loped to the bushes and found his way into cover to get his bearings and pull the rest of the glass out of his skin. Now that he was outside he could hear much more: The wind that howled around what could only be mountain peaks; Hooves marched frantically along the stones, they would try to find him; But far past that noise he heard something else, the hum of a busy crowd - a city. He smelled more horses on the chilled winter air, could tell where the paths were and how commonly they were used just with his nose.
It was a tense crop of minutes that he spent under the frosty bushes to work the glass out of his skin with his tongue and teeth, let the flesh close itself. He calmed his heart as he watched the edges of the hide stitch together again and the hair follicles regrow, like a timelapse video. The ground was stained black and red around him before he was done, one leg drenched in saliva where he still slowly bled but he didn’t want to wait around to groom the fur around every cut.
By now the guard ponies had spread out through the gardens in a search line that wandered past him in a rush. Most find it surprising that simply a low position was extremely effective, enough to break the line of sight: Coalback knew it by instinct. Now all he had to do was follow their scents to the exits. He avoided gravel paths where he came across them, but on dirt his pads were silent. He only had to dodge one guard who ran back along the search line, he took a sloppy dive through a hedge before the horse stomped around the corner.
The gardens were increasingly expansive, and it seemed to Coalback that he’d found his way along the opposite direction of the search party. The throb was dull now, simply a hum of pain at the base of his skull, soon his nose was able to find a reason to revive it however: It was a strange smell, one he could only describe as hot, musty flesh; it reminded him of cooking alligator meat.
The smell was wrong, inherently unfit amongst the horse-stink. Coalback could feel the throb ready to leap into a fury at the smell: A part of Coalback recognised it, instincts ignited where they were usually buried underneath his will.
Coalback saw red. He could tell now what he smelled: another predator. It didn’t matter that this wasn’t his claimed place, his hunting grounds. He was no passing visitor; his blood called for the sation of his hunger, to install his dominance across every range he passed through.
Competition! Kill the challenger! Eat its heart! the drumbeat called in concert with the hunger in his gut, the rings on Coalback’s arm burned with fury. Dragon! the pain in his head screamed, Dragon! Slay the beast! Kill off the tainted breed!
It was an old hatred that the smell revived, bred into his blood and his bones. He knew it immediately, his ancestors hunted that smell with the express intent of culling its owners into submission. Coalback could not resist the pull of the hunt when it called him.
The idea of subtlety was abandoned there, claws dug into the dirt as he tracked the smell to the trail it had left in the gardens. He followed it to a partition in the castle’s grounds, drank in the stink of brimstone and dead flesh down a ramp and through an archway in the wall. He could ignore the paved path and the intricately inlaid carvings along the walls, he didn’t care about that anymore.
He could see it now, across a sports field covered in equipment. It had slithered its way across and into a hidden, shadowy alcove and curled up inside there. It lay in wait, Coalback could see its slitted eyes track something on the field.
The horses passed in a blur, and Coalback jumped back into a corner where he was less visible in the archway. They were of all different colors and rocketed above the track in small groups. It was with a start that he realized these horses had wings, they practically were part of the air. He spotted more at the ends of the field, they made use of different exercise equipment or did various exercises.
For just a moment he forgot about his quarry, hypnotized to watch the pegasi fly. He was mesmerized by how they simply twisted through the air and demonstrated an agility that he would never have expected from an equine. They were a part of the wind in Coalback’s eyes.
The unicorns had hardly been a shock, his first assumption that they were some sort of deer or moose breed. But now he realized, with 12684 the fog of the hunt temporarily at bay, that he knew these creatures from mythology: Pegasi, Unicorns, Dragons. Each name produced a wave of hate from the blood in his veins.
Perhaps it was fitting that a werewolf, one of the Blaidd, found himself amongst other fantastical creatures such as these.
His eyes snapped back to the dragon unbidden as a particularly colorful pair of Pegasi towed heavy weights past it, he watched the dragon track them and shift its shoulders. A growl snuck its way into Coalback’s throat as the pegasi started to approach the wyrm again, he could see a pounce ready in its shadowy stance.
Now, while it hunted. That was the time to make his strength known to the interloping dragon and any who followed it that Coalback was at the top of the food chain: First in the pecking order, Alpha. Apex Predator.
Coalback was across the sports field before he even realized he’d started running, he snarled explosively the whole way. He heard a scream of fear from one of the horses as he streaked under the path of the colorful pegasi and dodged just under their tucked hooves as the dragon lunged at them.
Coalback’s teeth sank into the wrist of the claw as it came down, not able to stop the momentum but caught the dragon even as it nearly slammed him into the ground. Something wet and warm and smelling of horse splashed across his muzzle, red flashed across his vision as his teeth dug down to the bone. The Pegasus was thrown away and the heavy block it was held went down with it.
The dragon pulled against Coalback’s grip, shocked dumb as they struggled out onto the field. Horses shrieked in fear and fled as Coalback pulled the scaly beast into the light, he twisted with corded muscles in his neck to throw it off its feet and drag it along. Pink tendon tore under his fangs, the dragon screamed in pain.
A guard shouted from the wall, yelled at the Pegasi in the field to get clear. The dragon's black horns whipped through the air and sliced through fur and flesh. Flames surrounded the wrestling blur of blood red and graveyard grey with a roar from the dragon. Coalback fled with only a singed tail and a bloody flank, slipped out with a swipe of his claws along one of its legs.
Blood sprayed from the wound and steamed on the ground. In the moment that the dragon stumbled on its bleeding leg Coalback spun back around and locked his jaws back onto the dragon, snapping his teeth down on the dragon’s pale neck beneath its jaw. It gurgled and roared in rage, tried to turn its black horns again to dig into Coalback’s hide but the wolf’s grip was too close to its head. Its undamaged claw shot out and dug into the wound that its horns had rent in Coalback’s side but able to do little else.
Coalback had complete control now, he held all the leverage he needed at the base of the dragon’s skull. Coalback shook his head mercilessly, his fangs scraped across hard scales that didn’t allow a single moment of reprieve. A low growl leaked out from his throat as slowly, agonizingly slowly he pressed his fangs through the thick scale armor. A single tooth broke through with a spray of blood, quickly followed by the others until the dragon poured blood from the wound in its throat like a fountain.
The dragon became fatigued in only moments, its struggle ground to a halt. The dragon let out a death keen as it finally allowed its legs to collapse under it, it had surrendered to its fate.
Coalback succumbed to his hunger instantly and tore into the searing, tough meat of the dragon. The flesh grated on his throat and tasted much stronger than he expected from raw meat, but it was incredibly able to sate his unending hunger. He didn’t stay concentrated on its throat after he wrestled the tongue out through its shredded larynx. He needed more; the fat between the organs in its gut were much better than its meat.
But what he truly desired was the heart.
He was too eager for satisfaction to attempt to break through its breastplate, and he had already spent too much time. Instead he clawed out the diaphragm to rip the heart out through its abdomen, he dug through flesh as if he were to make a den in its chest. He wrapped his teeth around the still lightly fluttering organ and pulled mercilessly, he shook his head violently to snap the arteries that impeded him.
The fact that the dragon was still momentarily alive as he feasted only added to the flavor of the meal.
Coalback’s front dripped with gore and dragon’s blood. He stood in the desecrated corpse of his enemy as he chewed on the ball of muscle. He barely noticed the horrified mob of guards all around him until he had bitten the heart in half and choked down whatever chunk was left in his mouth, he let it fall with a sickening squelch amongst the shredded organs he was ankle deep in.
Coalback shivered with ecstasy at the feeling of his full stomach, the stench of the dragon’s blood was all too satisfying. He could never have called the euphoria of the kill bad, but he knew he was addicted to it all the more because of the satisfied pulse in his head.
He came to his senses in waves, and only noticed the still form of the colorful pegasus from the corner of his eye. He stepped out from the carcass heavily, his full stomach already made him feel drowsy. Here he could examine the mythical curiosity up close, and he made no effort to not drip dragon blood onto the powder blue fur. Coalback had to lick the blood out from his nostrils in order to get any decent grip on its scent.
Before he could lean down to prod at the small wings on the mare's back, a nervous shout from one of the guards made him freeze. Coalback looked up lazily at the miniature horse - devoid of horn or wings - as it shook in its thickly padded armor and its spear tip danced unsteadily. He barely had to raise his hackles to cow the guard into a retreat, but he made sure to press his tongue against his bloodstained teeth for good measure anyway as he looked around the field.
Now he could see the sheer number of guards that were within the sports field, though none came near Coalback or the steaming dragon corpse. Several hundred had rushed in with spears and shields in hoof only to freeze as they came into sight of the feeding wolf. Unsteadily sparking barriers formed in front of unicorns; pegasi guards flew in slow, nervous circles at a distance with grimaces on their muzzles; more ponies, thicker and bulkier than the rest, stood in a “resolute” line of shivering armour.
The pegasus stirred weakly at his paws, he hadn’t noticed the steps he'd taken to stand over her possessively. He leaned down again to look over her and prodded the diminutive wings with his nose. He flinched when the pegasus hissed in pain, which brought Coalback’s attention to the swollen joint in the middle of the wing and the blood that flowed from a tear in the shoulder of it. There was more blood than he would have expected, but he couldn’t tell if the powder blue flier had turned pale yet.
Time to learn, Pup the pressure in his head intoned and clouded his thoughts as it tingled along his arm rings. The clouds cleared in only moments, but once they were gone he retained most of the intention behind it.
He stepped carefully around the pegasus and took careful care not to disturb her further. An innocent bystander, he couldn’t let that wrong go unrighted. He needed to help the pegasus. Just until she could care for herself again, he told himself. With an apologetic sigh he leaned forward and ran his tongue over the injuries as gently as he could.
The pegasus grunted weakly at first in her dazed state, the pressure from his tongue enough to set the pain anew. Coalback’s saliva worked quickly though, the natural painkillers took effect as they seeped into the skin. The gentle attention of his tongue, though it still spread dragon blood with every lick, would soon be able to start the healing process for the Pegasus in its own way. He could already see the swelling start to go down, some satisfaction came to him past a wave of guilt for the Pegasus.
Coalback didn’t notice his own black blood drip into her wounds, but he did notice the spark of prismatic energy that arced from the Pegasus onto his tongue.
~~~
Rainbow could barely concentrate, and her eyelids felt like they’d been weighted down with cinder blocks. She couldn’t figure out what had happened, one minute she was flying with a fifty pound weight along the track and the next thing she knew she had her cheek pressed against the grass. And her wings hurt like nothing she’d felt from a workout before.
When she was able to force her eyelids up she could only make out vague shapes and colors, mostly a red lump but she couldn’t tell what it was in her haze. The images came in waves with the strength it took her to open her eyelids: A red lump jerked spasmodically; an unevenly speckled, grey and red blur crawled over the lump; she could almost make out the shape of somepony’s muzzle, stained red, as they leaned down in front of her.
She tried and failed to ask them what happened, the effort sent new waves of exhaustion through her past the throbs of pain in her wing. The pain exploded suddenly and she flinched despite her exhaustion. Then it happened again, but this time the pain quickly faded. It rose and fell in weakening waves, enough so that she could tell it was her joints in pain instead of just a blinding wave of pain from the general direction of her wing.
Rainbow struggled to thank whoever had made the pain go away, she could feel it massage away gently now. A loose thought determined she must have pulled something in the workout and that, for some reason, a masseuse had come to melt the pain away with her hooves.
She started to fall to sleep as the pain faded and the skin on her shoulders started to feel tight, but not before she noticed the tell-tale tingle of magic. Not the magic that a unicorn uses to carry their groceries or cast spells, but rather the unique and warm feeling of the Elements of Harmony at work. She could practically feel her Element thrum inside her for some reason.
She fell into mercifully numb sleep as somepony picked her up off of the grass.
A constant, steady beep filled Rainbow’s ears, though she struggled to realize it as she slowly slipped out of her dreamless sleep. She couldn’t ignore the painful ache in her shoulders though, which was more than enough to finally force her to get up and find the source of her discomfort.
She pushed herself up with a groan of protest as she started to emerge from between the course sheets. For a moment she wondered when she’d changed her sheets and started to feel around for her cloud comforter, but a tug on the inside of one of her elbows stopped her dead.
The sight of the IV taped to her arm was both shocking and unsettling. She couldn’t even remember what happened to put her here, but now she could realize the hospital bed for what it was and the heart monitor that was wrapped tightly around the same arm. She looked over her shoulder at the wrap around her pained wing in despair, and groaned ar the itchy gauze that felt like it was far too tight.
She twisted around in the covers when she heard a door open, unable to see anything past a pale colored curtain partition. It parted as she sat up to reveal a stocky, olive colored unicorn, his striking red mane clashed enough to make Rainbow’s eyes hurt just to look at him. His white lab coat had overly stuffed pockets with both the normal medical supplies she’d come to know from her previous visits to hospitals, as well as a few small bags and a large pair of salad tongs for some reason. His smile was strained around a large bandage that was holding together a thin gash on his nose.
“Good … afternoon, sleeping beauty!” he said loudly as he checked a clock somewhere outside the curtain. Rainbow flinched at the volume of his voice and inadvertently bumped her injured wing against the headboard behind her. When she flinched and clutched at her shoulder with a grimace the doctor lost his joviality, he checked the IV drip before he came back over to her.
“I’ll increase the anesthetic for the pain, but first could you tell me how much pain you’re in?” he asked, his voice at a much more tolerable volume and surprisingly serious. “On a scale of one to ten, with one being almost no pain and ten being the worst pain you’ve ever felt in your life,” he instructed, removing her hoof from her shoulder with a bit of magic to look over the injury himself.
“Freaking ten!” Rainbow grunted, pulling her hoof away angrily. She couldn’t say why she was angry, mostly the pain, but she felt a little bad for snapping at the doctor. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
“It’s fine, I get it,” the doctor said, he waved a hoof as he moved over to her chart at the end of the bed and penned something down. He paused with a start, seeming to have realized something. “I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself,” he said with a wide smile that could have rivaled one from Pinkie Pie. “I’m Doctor Clean Cut. Scholarly gentlecolt, all around extraordinaire and personal advisor to the Princesses. At your service.”
“Rainbow Dash,” she said reflexively, even though he was probably already aware of who she was. He seemed awfully proud of all those titles, but something told Rainbow that most of them were self appointed. “I’ve never seen you around- Wait, where am I?” she mumbled as she rubbed some of the sleep out of her eyes.
The doctor laughed, but Rainbow didn’t see anything funny in what she’d said. “Honey, you’re in the Royal wing of the Canterlot Hospital,” he said once he’d stopped laughing, he paused though at her shocked expression. “You don’t remember what happened?” he asked with concern once again snapped into place on his features. He hummed in thought. “Some slight amnesia isn’t abnormal, that bump to your head probably didn’t help you any.” At Rainbow’s confused expression he said “When you fell we think you dropped the weight you were carrying and it hit your head. Or did you think that bandage on your temple was just to make you look tougher?”
“Huh?” Rainbow’s hoof instinctively went to the side of her head and immediately found the thickly folded piece of gauze that held down a rather largely swollen spot.
“How much can you remember? Please tell me as much as you can,” Doctor Clean Cut asked as he offered her a glass of water from the table near her bed.
Rainbow took the water in a haze and rubbed her scalp in a vain attempt to kickstart her brain. “Uhm … I remember getting to the training camp with the Wonderbolts. And - Uh … We left to go to the … the Guard training grounds to use some of their equipment, we were running weights around the track …” She shook her head, that was all she could recall about the last few days.
Clean Cut let out a steady breath as he nodded. “That’s fine, from what I heard you were knocked down almost immediately. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d blacked out for the whole thing,” he said with a wave of his hoof. “The important thing is that you’re safe now-”
“But what happened?!” Rainbow said, not ready to hear somepony’s sad excuse for a reassuring talk.
“A juvenile dragon snuck its way onto the palace grounds during a kerfuffle in the gardens, while the Guard’s attention was away and it curled up in a hidden alcove next to the track on the training grounds. The official story is that it was looking for a new place to start a horde, and that when the wonderbolt trainees went to use the grounds it became agitated and attacked you,” he explained, but she could tell the scripted description by the sour frown on the doctor’s face.
“The official story? Does that mean something else happened?” she asked incredulously, which was enough to make the doctor shrink into himself. “I have a right to know! I'm gonna have to leave the training program because of this!” she yelled, anger built in her again. She groaned as she realized what she’d just said and how true it really was, it would take months to get back to the peak condition she was at before she’d gotten into the program.
“I have instructions from Celestia to not tell anyone what happened, but I think that’s mostly because she wants to keep the true gravity of the situation out of the public’s attention. So I’ll tell you,” Clean Cut relinquished. He shrank down into himself somewhat as his magic pulled the curtain all the way open.
Rainbow’s breath caught in her throat as she looked out into the rest of the room. Several other beds were occupied by what she could only guess were Royal Guards, most of which sported injuries to their faces or forelegs.
“You see,” Clean Cut continued, “this is a rather ... delicate situation we find ourselves in. The - ah ... pony who intervened was being held under heavy guard by order of the Princesses, when he escaped he went to the fields where you and the dragon were. We all just happened to get in the way-" He motioned toward his nose and the bandage there. "Unfortunately the situation becomes more complicated because of the fact that his kind haven't been seen in thousands of years, and Princess Celestia is rather concerned about how dangerous this individual is.
"The dragon was killed in the fight and you both were injured, thankfully as his doctor that means I now hold sovereignty over what happens to my guest. The reason you're here with these Guards is because you were all directly injured by him or effected by him, and I'm concerned about ... infections," he finished as he eyed Rainbow carefully.
Rainbow huffed in agitation. "That brings up a lot more questions than answers, Doc," she said unhappily.
Clean Cut nodded in understanding as he twisted a nob on her IV, a subtle increase the medicine that dripped out of it for her. "It's like I said; complicated and delicate. You shouldn't have to worry though, from what I can tell, he saved your life." He smiled as he turned back to her and took in the surprised look on Rainbow’s face. "You would have bled out in the grass if he hadn't stepped in and stopped the bleeding for you, but again the Princess expresses concerns of infection-"
"You keep saying 'infection,' can't any old doctor prescribe some penicillin or something for that?" Rainbow asked incredulously. She almost let herself smirk at the doctor’s surprised expression, he obviously hadn't expected her to be that perceptive. Yeah, that's right, she thought smugly, I can be smart when I want to.
Clean Cut nodded and offered her a smile. "You're absolutely right, miss Dash. But just the fact that he snuck into the country, noble intentions or no, brings up the concern of communicable diseases. But-" He gave a frustrated sigh and knitted his brows together, "-how to do this without being too obtuse ... There's also his heritage to consider, we're afraid that the method he used to help you could cause adverse side effects in the near future.
"It's a special magic that his kind have, one that can heal as much as it can hurt. His methods come into question, your status comes into play, and it's a big mess," he explained.
"Alright, fine. So, what? I just sit here for however long you tell me to until you declare me 'clean'?" Rainbow made sure he could see her air quotes and frowned in his direction as she folded her hooves across her chest.
"Well, no," he said, much to Rainbow’s surprise. "I wouldn't object to allowing you to get up and stretch your legs, escorted of course. And there'll be no using that wing of yours for at least three weeks, and then I want to put you into a bit of physical therapy to make sure it's healed properly," he said.
Rainbow nearly leapt out of the bed as soon as he was done talking, eager to be anywhere but stuck in a bed in a room doing nothing. Unfortunately her body wasn't ready for something like that and she immediately stumbled into Clean Cut while she fought off tunnel vision.
"Take it easy," Clean Cut grunted as he set her down on the floor, he had surprisingly strong hooves for a unicorn. "You might be a little weak and lightheaded, you lost quite a bit of blood before you came in here," he explained. Once Rainbow recovered he helped her back to her hooves.
"So," Rainbow said once she could stand on her own, "Does this dragon-slaying pony have a name? I've gotta meet somepony who can take on a dragon in a fight and win!"
The doctor chuckled. He took her IV drip bag and hooked it to a wheeled stand for her. "Oh, Uhm ... he's not exactly the knight-in-shining-armor type that one might picture. We think his name is Coalback," he said. He pushed the IV drip stand over to her and disconnected her from the heart monitor. "I could attempt to arrange a visit, but he's been extremely uncooperative since we brought him back in ..."
"What's that supposed to-"
A crash outside the door cut off Rainbow’s question, quickly followed up by loud yelling. "Damnit," Clean Cut hissed under his breath as he trotted off. He paused at the door to turn back to her with a hurried explanation. "I need to go take care of this, stay here!" He was out the door and down the hall before Rainbow could voice a protest.
Rainbow stayed in her spot for a few moments, she listened as the noise grew. Finally she let out a frustrated grunt, pulled the pole along behind her and lurched forward on achy legs. There was not a chance in the world that she was going to just sit around in the otherwise boring hospital room while something so obviously interesting happened just down the hall! She ducked her head out of the door and caught sight of a Guard helmet as it skittered out of a heavy door at the end of the hall. She headed towards it and the noise.
The only word in the yelling Rainbow could understand was a very forceful “NO!”, broken only by the now familiar sound of the doctor’s voice as he yelled orders, berated somepony and attempted to calm whoever else was yelling all at once. A loud crash overtook all the noise as Rainbow got to the door, a deep baritone started up again in what Rainbow could only call very angry gibberish filled the air in the following silence.
When Rainbow finally came into the room it was in disarray, Clean Cut stood firmly on one side with a cowering nurse behind him. Several Guards, one missing his helmet and a gash on his forehead, pointed their spears down at a pony being held down by the doctor’s greenish magic. A table was smashed next to the bed in the room, which itself was a complete mess. The baritone, unintelligible voice erupted from the crouched, grey pony under Clean Cuts hold, backed up against one of the walls.
An argument between the Guards and the doctor had erupted over the yelling of the subdued stallion, they crowded the air with their voices. Clean Cut more pointedly yelled at a muscular Unicorn who hefted both a spear and syringe with something clear and silvery in color inside it.
"Put down the spears!" Clean Cut yelled at the guards.
"No, we're putting it down!" The injured guard bellowed back, met with a surprisingly real snarl from the grey pony at the end of his spear.
"You're only making this worse for everypony, put down the spears!"
"He'll rip us to shreds the first chance he gets!" The large Unicorn bellowed, she jabbed at the trapped pony with her spear and raised the syringe threateningly.
"Especially if you keep threatening him with your sun-damned spears!" Clean Cut barked back. His curse made the guard give the doctor a glare of protest.
"Back off already!" Rainbow yelled, loud enough that her voice nearly gave out and so it cut off whatever protest the Sergeant could come up with. She stomped into the room and planted her hooves down right in front of the Guard and got right in her face, an admittedly less threatening display than she'd hoped as the IV scraped along beside her and with one of her wings pinned up at an odd angle.
"Now, Sergeant," Clean Cut said, calmer now. "I'd like to remind you that not only am I the superior authority in this room, but that as an Element of Harmony, Miss Dash also outranks you. So be a good soldier mare and take your post along the wall," he said, a grim warning hid underneath the sober facade.
The guard stared down at Rainbow with a hard glare, which made her think that it was more a lack of brainpower than it was insubordination that was keeping her there. She might have even stuck with that theory for her own amusement if her angry glare hadn't shifted to the pony behind Rainbow; who literally growled in response.
Rainbow spun around on instinct alone, her hindbrain screamed at her but she could not discern what it said. The grey pony she'd seen before seemed a whole lot bigger this much closer to him, especially with his face twisted into the very image of fury: Teeth that did not look like a pony's bared to the gums, thick pink tongue pressed behind them and held back the sound of a rockslide. The shaggy grey fur on his withers rippled with the muscles in his shoulders as he pushed against the magic draped over him, intense green eyes locked on the Sergeant through an unkempt black salt and pepper mane.
His whole coat was dappled in a pattern that, while somewhat symmetrical, looked like someone had dropped a bucket of black paint onto the grey Pegasus' head. His wings were bunched up at an odd angle underneath Clean Cut's magical grasp, their dappled gradient only making the stallion look even bigger as they bristled around him. A tattered set of bandages hung off his flanks, whatever had been wrapped around his wings were completely ripped off and a large swath of stained gauze hung precariously off his barrel.
One of his hooves scraped at the floor, Clean Cut's magic crackled but never touched the three brass rings on the upper half of that arm. The pony's other hooves were solidly resisting Clean Cut's grasp, but their positioning was awkward. It was like the stallion's hooves were too long for him, and he kept trying to put his pasterns down on the floor only to shakily correct it.
"You see, you’re wrong, doctor," the guard hissed behind Rainbow. "It doesn't care about her, or any of us. You should have let us put it down while it was still properly contained-"
"You are dismissed, Sergeant!" Clean Cut barked, any semblance of companionable suggestion completely gone now. "Report to your barracks until I or your CO have summoned you. Now soldier!" Rainbow never expected to hear it from the kindly doctor she'd just met, but he sounded a lot like Spitfire; a very powerful voice backed up by a long career in the military. The thick guard finally gave up, she didn't surrender her attitude through the entire march out the door and left her spear leaning against the frame of it. The other Guards reluctantly backed into positions along the walls without their leader present and donned the telltale 'as indifferent as a statue’ look with practiced ease.
The stallion relaxed his face once the Unicorn Guard was out of sight, but turned his glare to the cowering nurse next. Or rather, the shattered syringe on the floor next to her. Rainbow could almost see anger boiling up inside the stallion as he stared at the syringe, watching the muscles in his neck and jaw tighten until she was sure they would snap like high tension wires.
She stepped around until she was between him and the syringe and he seemed to notice her for the first time. The low growl in his throat fell but didn't die, and he donned a confused expression.
"Cool it down, dude," Rainbow said, she talked like her friends did whenever she got too hot headed. Although, to keep her own cool with the rather threatening rumble from deep in the pony’s chest was not easy. "It's cool, that jerk's gone. Now can you ... sit down so the Doc can take a look at you?" she asked him, his eyes narrowed in contemplation this time rather than anger. She wanted to glance Clean Cut’s way, either to get support from him or to hurry him up in doing what she’d just said, but she was unsure what would happen if she looked away from the stallion for too long.
The grey pegasus let out an explosive sigh through his nose and practically collapsed onto the floor as he let his hooves relax. His wings drooped to the floor with an audible thump, eyes blank as the stallion simply took a moment to visibly pull himself together. Now that his ears weren’t pressed flat to his skull, Rainbow could see a pair of ivory spikes pierced through the left one.
Before Rainbow could say anything, the doctor had already sidled up to the stallion’s side. The doctor immediately started to fuss over the ripped bandages, cut them free with his magic and simultaneously summoned fresh gauze. Rainbow flinched as she caught sight of the ragged hole in the stallion’s barrel that Clean Cut worked on. She watched despite herself as Clean Cut unpacked a small plastic bag and retrieved a purple erb with the salad tongs in his coat, she turned a sickly shade of green as he pressed it between the raw and bruised flesh around the large wound.
“Nurse, get her back to her bed,” Clean Cut mumbled as he fussed over the multitude of torn bandages on the stallion. “We’ll be having a discussion about reading patients’ charts later,” he growled, his magic swept away the broken syringe and its contents to deposit it into a biohazard container on the wall.
The stallion flinched and snorted in discomfort as he was tended to, but was surprisingly calm under the doctor’s hooves. “Yes, yes. I know, Coalback,” Clean Cut mumbled under his breath to the pegasus, he retied his large wings down so that they wouldn’t inadvertently stretch out the injury again.
The Nurse’s nervous hoof jumped Rainbow out of her trance, which nearly scared Rainbow into emptying whatever was in her stomach. “Oh crap, don’t touch me!” she spat on reflex, she curled in around her stomach to try and keep a hold on her awakened gag reflex.
The Nurse recoiled instantly, but responded to a hurried request for a “Pan!” from Clean Cut and slid a shiny bedpan under Rainbow’s nose.
Once she’d recovered from her bout of nausea, thankfully without any retching, Rainbow came to a reeling realization. “Wait a second, this is Coalback?”
Clean Cut sighed, glared at the shivering Nurse and finished up the bandages without looking at them. “Yes, and as you can see he’s been rather upset lately. The circumstances he finds himself in are understandably stressful, which is why I’d hoped to delay him meeting you properly until things had smoothed out,” Clean Cut said and stepped back from the grey pony.
Coalback rose unsteadily to his hooves and stood more than a hoof’s width taller than the doctor’s horn. His legs were longer than Rainbow expected them to be, which made it almost look like he stood on raised horseshoes even though he wore none. The doctor steadied Coalback and started to lead him back over to the mass of bedsheets that was the bed.
Coalback’s hooves clattered on the floor as he unsteadily resisted the doctor’s coaxing, instead he wobbled forward a few steps toward Rainbow. She froze as, without a word, Coalback leaned in close and started to sniff her withers.
“Woah there, dude!” Rainbow jumped back away from him. “We just met,” she said pointedly. Whether Coalback understood a word she said was unclear, but he did seem to understand that his invasion of space had gone unappreciated. He stretched out his neck in her direction anyway, still sniffed the air, but didn’t try to follow her this time.
Instead he pulled back, and an expression of realization sparked onto his rough face. “Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?” he asked bluntly. Everyone in the room froze at the sound of his words. Rainbow had taken the assumption that Coalback simply couldn’t speak, and the suddenly very clear linguistics skills he demonstrated surprised everyone. “Talar þú íslensku?” Coalback tried after a moment, ears aimed forward at her expectantly.
“Uh …” was all she could come up with in response.
“An bhfuil Gaeilge agat? A bheil Gàidhlig agat? Vy govorite po-russki? ¿Habla usted español? Parlez-vous français? Sprechen Sie Deutsch?” Coalback rattled off, growing more crestfallen with each unanswered question. Each was obviously in another language but none that Rainbow knew. She’d never learned any other languages anyway, and usually just tuned out when other ponies spoke in them. Finally, as a last attempt, Coalback sputtered out “Rih la dohla ri Fadoh Fafala?”
In an instant Clean Cut jumped up. “That! I recognise that!” The doctor bolted around Coalback’s side and took up position just beside Rainbow. “So rih! So dohla laso fafala!” he said, another beaming smile on his face.
“You do?” Rainbow asked, Coalback’s surprised “La rih?” came at the same time.
"This is incredible!" Clean Cut yelled, giddy like a school colt with a new toy. "It's been centuries since anyone has spoken this language, not even the Princesses will speak it anymore!" he gushed, whatever professionalism that had held his manners in check forgone.
He was off like a rocket, spat off words and questions at Coalback as fast as his lips would move. The Unicorn was starting to act more like a love struck yearling than a doctor at this point. Though when Coalback shook his head and sputtered out “So rih rih so laso fafala la,” the doctor drooped visibly.
"What did he say?" Rainbow asked, her curiosity overcame the feeling of nausea that still hung over her.
Clean Cut sighed. "He was just explaining that he only knows very little in this language. Which is somewhat frustrating for me considering that none of those languages seemed familiar at all," he said and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Thefa fathe' rihthe fa Coalback. Therih fa la rihthe?" Coalback asked, swallowing as he looked directly at Rainbow Dash expectantly.
"What did he say?" she asked Clean Cut, and broke his thinking expression with a prod from her hoof.
He gave a start and had to catch up to the conversation with a few hurried glances. "Oh!" he said as he finally realized what he'd missed. "He was asking you for your name," he said with a warm smile and stepped out from between them.
"Oh, uh ... Rainbow Dash," she told Coalback. She shook her head when he repeated exactly what she’d said as her name. "Rainbow Dash," she said pointedly. She motioned to her chest with a hoof and stumbling as she inadvertently stretched her sore shoulder.
Coalback leaned in faster than she ever would have expected the large and unsteady pony to have and caught her with his withers, he pushed her back to her hooves. "Rainbow Dash?" he asked and eyed the bandages wrapped around her wing with a sniff.
Rainbow froze, unsure what to do as the stallion simply leaned over her: Practically leaned on her. One part of her screamed to push him away, another that she couldn't push over a pony as injured as he was. As a result she ended up short circuited with her reddening face pressed into his throat as he stared at her wing, and her at the scars hidden in his thick fur.
Finally, apparently satisfied that her wing was attached correctly, Coalback leaned back. Though he never backed away. With a curious look on his face he twisted around to stare at his own shoulders and flexed his wings against his own bandages.
"La do may sola, Coalback. Fathe may may rihri may the," Clean Cut said gently, using a hoof to coax Coalback back towards the bed. Clean Cut's magic instantly remade the bed for his patient and helped push the large stallion onto the bed. The doctor didn't seem concerned about the immense amount of creaking coming from the bed as the pegasus climbed on.
"You too, Rainbow Dash," Clean Cut said once Coalback was settled on the bed. He turned to her and started to lead her out of the room. "This was far too much excitement for the both of you, I'd like you to lie down for the rest of today."
"Wait!" Rainbow protested and twisted around the doctor to look back at the stallion who tugged at the sheets to make them to his satisfaction again. "Thanks," she said to him and made him pause to look at her. He paid attention even though she knew he couldn't understand a word. "You know, for helping me out," she explained quickly, she gave the doctor an expectant look until he translated for her.
Coalback stiffened, as if he were surprised. Then, trancelike, he bowed as best he could without standing from the bed.
---
“FORE!” Discord bellowed, his giraffe shaped golf club swung out to send the golf ball sized mouse down his “range” - which was actually just a large expanse of the wastelands that he’d specially adjusted.
The ball arced high over his latest masterpiece, which let him look over it yet again and smile. The ball made a satisfying squeal as it flew away over the sideways beaks that reached skywards and filled the valley floor with teeth and green gums in hope of a treat. The mouse fell out of sight and disappeared among the maws, the satisfying sounds that Discord’s creations made as they fought over the morsel only made his smile grow all the wider.
He watched for awhile as their rippling greenish flesh writhed, a strange effect produced by the creatures crawling over each other. There were already so many, almost enough but not quite. Discord didn’t care though, this colony he’d planted only a short year ago when he escaped had already multiplied at such a fantastic rate that even if he had been “imprisoned” again they would have eventually achieved an immense amount of chaos.
The skittering hooves of a changeling worker brought him out of his musings. “What do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy?” Discord asked without a glance their way, he flicked his golf cap and reached down the throat of the jaguar he’d changed into his bag and pulled out another mouse. The jaguar glared at him, but his magic kept her powerless.
“Queen Chrysalis has requested to be informed of when exactly you will be fulfilling your end of the bargain,” it buzzed, the greenish glow behind its blue eyes pulsed dimly at him. “She is concerned that you are taking advantage of her hospitality.” It’s bug eyes narrowed in a vain attempt to pressure Discord into giving an answer.
Discord only rolled his eyes at the bug creature and took up his golfing position again. “I’m working on it,” he said. He dropped the ball onto its unicorn horn tee and eyed it carefully. It would be so much easier if his golf club didn't shiver in fear. “I think that the Queen,” he said sarcastically, “has forgotten that if not for moi then she, and all of you insects, would be nothing more than smears in the dirt … or meals for my pets,” he said as he took his next swing and sent the next mouse to its doom as punctuation to his last statement. His bag even looked just a bit more appreciative of her current position.
Discord threw his club over his shoulder and wrapped it around his neck like a coat as he donned a thoughtful expression. “However, since poor Sparky didn’t get along with Fido, I will need a new way to break up those damned Elements,” he mused as he eyed the golf bag he’d been carefully cultivating for his purposes for a moment. He looked to the worker, who shot fearfully in front of him, and a smile grew. “Yes, your kind might just be useful after all …”
He leaned down to the worker and finally took the moment to look for the very subtle signs of gender on their faces. He found it so blissfully chaotic how only one or two ever really became fertile, it almost made him sad for this little female. Almost.
“My dear,” he said after a moment as he draped his lion paw over her shoulders and pinning down her wings forcefully. “Call me that little gryphon flock we detained awhile ago, and my little ‘separatist’ friends,” he said and grinned with a smile that could have curdled milk. Her eyes flashed green for a moment, then the same yellow of his eyes.
The changeling sped away as fast as her thin and torn wings could carry her, rocketed toward sharp-edged mass that was slowly being built on the side of a nearby crag. He leaned against his jaguar bag as he watched it speed away and drummed his claw in thought between her ears.
The control he had on Chrysalis and her Changelings was not one he was completely used to: he liked to work off of ponies’ weaknesses, but had little experience with non-chaos-magic methods to his control. Even his jaguar bag was a new experiment for him. He wanted followers, lots of followers. So that even if he was occupied elsewhere and could not stretch his will over them, they would be utterly and completely ready to follow his orders anyway. A long term plan was needed, even if he was to enact his revenge in only a short time.
He needed to save as much energy as possible, he’d already stretched so much in this damned demesne. Discord turned his head at that thought and glared at the horizon. As he watched a near invisible flash from a storm hundreds of miles away confirmed his slow and steady sucker punch was still in effect, which drained his power even if only on a cosmically miniscule scale it was significant here and now. He could still feel the tiny seed of chaos he'd planted the day of his 'reimprisonment' pulse away and angrily grow and influence it's 'potting'.
Several changelings barreled back toward him, slats with each “guest” tied down to it drug behind them. He smiled as they came to a halt. He stood and leaned down so he was eye to eye with the first rust red Unicorn that made up the rag tag group of ponies and gryphons. “Hello,” he said, whimsically he dragged out the word as if he’d just stumbled across some oddity on a normal stroll. The stallion flinched, his magic flickered around the ring over his horn in fear. “Time to make you germs useful,” he snickered, his eyes flashed with chaos magic. He smiled his toothy smile when he saw the resistance drain out of the stallion like a plug had been pulled, his yellow eyes reflected in the stallion’s for just a flash.
"I see trees of green," he sang as he strolled down the line, his magic easily ripped out the useless mortal minds and filled them with thoughts of him and his will at leisure. "Red roses too ..."
Coalback twitched subtly from his perch atop the hospital mattress, the slightest reaction to a voice only he could hear. The guards around him were getting sleepy, perhaps they thought that Coalback would never move from his seat, he hadn’t for over four hours. Whatever daylight he could see before was faded entirely now, twilight had fallen.
You’re getting stronger ...
Coalback’s muscles twitched subtly, bouncing his hide up as they tested themselves. His may have been no bigger than a boxer's arms, but the muscle in his limbs were as strong as woven steel.
That strength and hardiness flowing from your bones. This is the second great secret of our blood that I’ve shared with you, my pup.
Coalback held back a growl as he felt the rings around his arm tighten. He could feel it though, despite the dull pain that still plagued him from the slowly healing wound on his side. He’d felt it from the moment that he’d looked at the pegasus mare and made himself protect her, he could feel himself getting stronger. His muscles were shifted under his skin, tightened into thicker ropes, so tight he wondered if they would snap.
He knew what it was: The third form, this other other him, this new face: Once before, when he was younger and only just coming of age he’d compared himself to two beings with all their mind-power and muscle all crushed down into one. That was why, he had reasoned, that he had to change, so he could stretch every muscle or a part of him would simply atrophy away. Now he was three, and all of his strength was built up on itself.
His heart thudded in his ears: Lub~Dub Lub~Dub Lub~Dub. He could hear the hearts squirt away inside the sleepy pony guards’ chests: lub-dub … lub-dub. For a moment he felt the hunger come back, a desire to feast on the meat and blood he could hear rushing through their veins, but the wolfsbane that padded his wounds made him far too calm to be able to give in.
In ancient days our kind would roam far and wide to gain strength in this same way, some were revered as invincible they had gathered so much power.
He could understand why, if he’d felt like this before he never would have had to run. He could have simply hunted down and killed all of the people involved with that sinful enclave. He felt like he could tear down the walls with his new hooves.
This … ability has been kept a close secret by all who have ever possessed it, I hope you are appreciative.
He was, and he wondered what he could do with it. He hungered to know how it worked just as much as he hungered for fresh food to hunt and eat. He had so many questions, he felt like a pup again; curious to know everything and why.
The sword pommel flashed through his mind. He felt the smooth inlaid stone against his thumb, could feel the jagged edge where it had broken off from the rest of the hilt. He felt the life flowing through it and into him and back out again, like his body was simply a part of a river that could wash away anything. The message was there, not exactly in words: Now, get it back.
---
Rainbow grunted as yet another stretch only served to send a painful lance through her shoulders. She stood slowly and twisted around to rub at the tender muscles. She hadn't been able to get to sleep once the sun had gone down, she simply was not tired enough to sleep after doing so little in the rather short day. The guards in her room were too mopey to be of any entertainment, which wasn't all that unexpected going off her previous experience with the Guard. So she had settled on doing a few quiet stretches next to her bed while they snoozed, hoping it might be just enough to make her at least a little sleepy.
No luck.
She resisted the urge to let out an explosive yell in frustration. She sat there for several long moments and just fumed over how lame it was that she was grounded. She started to pace with the hope to lull herself to sleep with the repetitive motion.
Her hoof stopped, only just far enough to catch the bar of light that came in through the door across from her. The sound had come and gone so fast- There it was again! Three more heavy thumps, each louder than the last came in quick succession from the hall.
"This again?" Rainbow wondered aloud to herself. She was sure it was Coalback, who else could it be. She pulled the IV out from her arm, snuck toward the door and peaked out. Her eyes widened at the sight of a Guard passed out on the ground, half inside Coalback’s open door.
She rushed over to his side, her breath came in gasps the whole way as her wing bounced painfully on her shoulder. The guard was still breathing, and from what she could see of the other Guards from the door, so were they.
A stumble of hooves and a mumbled, cryptic curse echoed up the other hall from her. She turned, looked around the corner and just caught sight of Coalback’s black tail as he rounded another turn. She trotted after him as best she could without banging her wings around any more.
She caught up with the wobbling stallion easily, but before she could get his attention he spun around and pinned her to the wall. Rainbow nearly screamed in pain, but to her surprise her wing had not been pinned against the wall as she'd assumed it would have been, though that didn't stop Coalback or his hoof in her mouth.
"Shh!" he hissed in her ear. He loomed over her, eyes aimed past her blankly as his ears swiveled around.
She had no choice but to follow the command, all the while completely confused. She wondered what he was doing out here in the middle of the night, or why he took out his guards to do it. Clean Cut's explanation of how the Princess had ordered Coalback to be put under heavy guard came back to her then, as well as the whole "illegal immigrant" thing.
Finally he took his hoof away from her mouth and looked disapprovingly at her but did not let her go yet. "Don't look at me like that, dude," Rainbow hissed at him. "You're the one sneaking around at night and tackling ponies-"
"Shh!" Coalback hissed again. He shook his head at her, his disapproving look changed to annoyance. But this time he let her go, even put her back on her hooves. He motioned with a hoof for her to go back and made to continue down the hall carefully on his wobbly hooves.
"No way!" Rainbow whispered and stepped around in front of him. "You're supposed to stay in your room just as much as I am!" she protested, surprised when the stallion just walked past her. He scoffed once he was shoulder to shoulder with her and motionef with his head for her to follow.
He continued down the hall, head low enough for his muzzle to brush the floor with a shoulder leaned against a wall. Rainbow followed hesitantly, her hoofsteps echoed in the empty halls but Coalback made almost no noise while he walked. They took only a few steps before Coalback turned back around with a hurried hush. When they continued and it seemed she was still too loud for him he turned around to stop her.
Coalback took one of her hooves in his and shushed her again when she tried to protest. He picked her hoof up off the floor and gently set it back down in a rolling motion. He did that a few more times to make sure that Rainbow understood that this was how to walk silently.
They continued, silently this time. Coalback with his head low to sweep over the floor, and Rainbow followed as silently as she could. Her mind wandered again, aflutter with questions: Why would a pony be so violent one moment and so … still the next? Or have so many scars - as cool as they were - alnd still be alive? And just what was it that he wanted from all of this?
There had to be a reason; a reason why he didn’t simply run away when he was free of the guards the first time; a reason to stop a deadly dragon attack; a reason to save one pony’s life and be ready to take another’s. A reason why he had come to Canterlot at all.
Rainbow’s thoughts were interrupted rudely as Coalback grabbed onto her and pulled her into a shadowy alcove with a scramble of hooves on marble. His hoof found her mouth again before she could protest, which gave her a chance to hear the hoofsteps as they came their way. His large frame leaned against her, his whole body pressed over her. It was with a start that she realized he'd used himself to cover up her brighter colors, which let them both blend into the shadow with his colors.
Her breath caught in her throat as the guard came around the corner, Coalback wasn’t breathing but she had a feeling that he'd done it on purpose. A Lunar Guard, dressed in black metal and silver chainmail, with dark grey fur and reflective yellow eyes appeared. The tufts on the tips of his ears flicked as he made his rounds, he paused only a moment at their alcove but walked on without a glance at them.
Coalback waited a full minute before he even started breathing again, even longer before he let them leave the alcove. He started silently down the hall again and walked even faster now. Rainbow struggled to keep up silently, even though now both of them seemed to be unable to remain completely silent.
He slid to a stop at an intersection, his legs shook with the effort of keeping himself upright on his hooves. Rainbow watched as he swung his head back and forth, only now able to see that he had sniffed along the floors, following some sort of smell. He took a hall and led her up several floors of carpeted stairs.
When they reached the top of the stairs and Rainbow was able to see where it was that Coalback wanted to go, she had to intervene. “No way!” she hissed and jumped in front of him again. “There is no way I’m letting you break into Princess Luna’s rooms!” she hissed. She pushed against his chest with a hoof when he tried to pass, and gulped at the concrete wall of a stallion she tried to hold back.
A large door emblazoned with Luna’s cutie mark and the emblem of her Guard was behind her, and while she’d only ever once been here during the Gala, Rainbow was pretty sure that uninvited guests were usually punished very severely for intruding on the Princesses’ privacy. She didn’t know what Coalback wanted, only that it involved going into that room, most likely to take something. Maybe that’s the reason why he was here, she thought to herself briefly, to steal some sort of artifact from the Princess or something!
She pushed harder against him when he tried to walk around her and met his scowl with one of her own. “No!” she hissed, certain that was a word he understood. He paused at that, thankfully, and gave her a considerate look.
Coalback took a step back from her 14df1 and lifted his arm up to show her the brass rings tightly pressed into his upper arm. They sat above his biceps, unable to be removed now. He touched the rings with his nose, and then motioned with his head to the door. Then he made a motion toward his chest with a hoof, but if it meant anything Rainbow couldn't be sure.
"What is that supposed to mean?” Rainbow asked. She could only guess at what he truly meant, he merely pointed between the rings and the door again. However he took advantage of the moment she took to consider what he was trying to say, and slipped around her and through the door as quick as a shadow.
"Hey!" she nearly shouted, she was able to stop herself long enough for it to only become a hiss.
She rushed in after him and collided with his barrel just inside the door. He gave her a withering glare and pointed with his hoof to the deep blue carpet under them, a motion for her to stay where she was. He crept forward carefully, low to the ground.
Luna’s study was surprisingly spartan for a royal chamber in the Canterlot Palace, though she was guilty of keeping quite a few memorabilia. Paintings, normally of a dark hued pallet, hung over most any spare wall where cabinet bookcases - filled with innumerable books, specimens and relics - weren't. The room was unlit but not dark, the curtains had been pulled away from the many windows across the ceiling and silver moonlight glazed over everything. Other than her desk, very little furniture was actually decorative, most seemed well used but by whom Rainbow couldn't be sure.
Coalback circled Luna’s desk. He sniffed at the stained wood of the ebony furniture, a grimace grew the longer he inspected it. Finally he centered onto a single drawer. He pulled it open without hesitation and the lock shattered and sprayed wood splinters across the floor. He barely seemed to have noticed the lock.
"Coalback!" Rainbow hissed, a useless try to stop him. Breaking and entering was already bad enough, but burglary was way over the line.
Coalback ignored her and reached into the deep desk. He pulled out a single, well worn saddlebag and cradled it in his arms. He just sat down and held it for a moment with a look of extreme relief on his face.
Rainbow could only shake her head in disbelief. This was what he'd been after, a ratty old satchel? She'd almost taken him for some sort international jewel thief with the way that the guard had treated him. But jewel thieves didn't worry over a bag the way Coalback was now. He fussed over a few of the rips in its side, emptied out a pocket of a cloud of soot onto the carpet, and played with the few straps that were left on it.
She let out a sigh, but whether she was angry or relieved even she couldn't tell. She walked over to him and made her glare obvious to him. "Okay, you got your satchel, now let's get out of here before somepony finds us with this mess!" she whispered to him. She tried to grab his arm and pull him up to his hooves, but he flinched and grunted in pain at her touch. "Oh my gosh! You ripped out your stitches, dude," she said, able to see the blood stain his bandages in a quickly spreading dark spot.
He stood up carefully, his hooves shook under him as he started to dig through the saddlebag. A tattered book shifted into view worked itself out to thump heavily into the carpet. In a moment he stood up fully and dropped a small object into his hoof. He showed it to Rainbow, his breath came in short bursts to keep the pain from his injuries at a minimum.
It was a gem, dark and red in the light of the moon, imbedded in the end of a shattered rod. Something old and cracked still clung around the base of it, a sign of its age if the rust in its creases wasn't enough. He smiled as she looked over it, perhaps amused by her confusion.
"Coalback," he said with a motion toward himself. "Rainbow Dash-" He pointed to her next, and Rainbow got the nagging feeling that he was leading up to something. He held up the old piece of metal and gem, put it right in front of her nose. "Fenrir." The gem glittered in the moonlight, and though it was just a trick of the low light she could have sworn that she'd seen something move inside it's dark, faceted center.
"Wait," Rainbow grumbled. She gave a hard glance between Coalback and the gem. "This thing has a name? It's ... alive?" she asked. It seemed a bit too strange of an assumtion, but Coalback nodded.
"Alive." He pointed to her, then himself, and then the old gem. "Alive," he repeated. Without another word, he twisted around and ground the gem into his side. He pushed it into his bandages and grunted, and this time she was sure she saw something move.
It swirled around behind Coalback, circled him and stirred the thick carpet with its silent movement. It disappeared as quickly as it came, but after it was gone Coalback set the gem on the ground and ripped his bandages off his barrel.
The purple herb came out with the bandages, stuck to the gauze with his blood. The wound gaped, torn edges of flesh waved a sickly purple in the open air where the stitches had torn out. But as Rainbow watched, the edges began to seal back together. She couldn't see how or why, but with the static tingle of magic in the air she had a good guess. Whatever it was that was in Coalback's gem had healed his wounds. Coalback flinched with each sealed laceration, his long wings raised high in agitation.
The sickening sight of flesh as it was pulled back together over his white ribs finally ended with a relieved sigh, only a purple bruise remained. Rainbow flinched, she heard metal creak and then crack. It wasn't until Coalback stumbled and nearly fell that she noticed the bottommost ring on Coalback's arm had actually gained a large crack along its length.
He let out a satisfied sigh as it finished and his wings drooped down to the ground but didn't fold away. Rainbow stared, frozen by the shock of what she'd just seen. Coalback looked to her as he recovered, he probably expected some sort of reaction but she had none. He gave a smile more like a grimace as he leaned down to retrieve his gem.
He took a step toward her and her legs reacted before she could. She was backed against the door quicker than she imagined she would have.
Her heart pounded in her ears. She wouldn't have been able to explain it if somepony had asked her about it, but for some reason she felt like this stallion really was more dangerous than she'd originally thought. After all, who just shrugs off a wound as crippling as that?! It was so impossibly wrong, and she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd suddenly been locked in a room with a hungry manticore.
Coalback paused at her reaction and approached her more carefully this time. He mumbled a cryptic word to her, tried to be reassuring as he approached. Rainbow didn't try to run this time, but she kept her eyes trained on him with an unblinking stare. "Coalback ... fix?" he asked. He held out the gem, an offer. "Fenrir fix Rainbow Dash," he said with a nod at his near spotless side.
"I- Uh- N-" Rainbow tried to answer, but for some reason she couldn't unclench her jaw enough to get the words out.
Coalback was unphased, still carefully and calmly he stepped toward her. "Coalback fix, no hurt," he rumbled calmly, it surprised her with just how much Equestrian he did know. He held out the gem to her, his dark blood was still smeared across it.
Rainbow tried to protest again but Coalback was already right in front of her, the gem in his hoof innocent and unassuming. He didn't wait for her to actually say anything, he just reached around her and gently placed the rusted metal and its gem between her shoulderblades.
Rainbow gasped, the gem was surprisingly warm and it spread out from between her shoulders and into her wings almost instantly. In the back of her mind, like a key, she felt something click into place and open. It was there for only an instant, but she felt what could only be this "Fenrir" enter her. Not just into her mind but deep into her bones and her soul, her Element shuddered in her heart but rang with confusion and inaction. The warmth grew as her Element’s shuddering did, they grew until both were a deafening hum of power.
And then it was gone.
Just like that the feeling of another presence, another soul to caress hers and pull on a string she hadn’t known was there, her Element more active than it had ever been since Discord was imprisoned, was gone. It made her shiver, she suddenly felt like something was missing but at the same time like something was there that hadn’t been before.
Coalback smiled at her, and she gave a start when she realized she’d just been staring at him for the last few minutes. Rainbow looked away quickly, still upset with the large pegasus. She snorted in agitation, and only then noticed that her wing didn’t hurt with the movement of her barrel. She turned a surprised look toward her wing, she half expected it to be missing.
Coalback’s hoof moved fast, took a piece of the gauze wrap and tugged. He ripped open the wrap and pulled away the rest from her wing with a single motion. Rainbow gasped, she expected the pain to come back, or for her wing to be a horrible, misshapen wreck.
But it was fine. A little messy perhaps and still marred by a sickly bruise - it would definitely need some well deserved preening - but otherwise, completely fine. She knew what a bad dislocated wing looked like, this one hadn’t been her first, maybe her worst though. The joints could turn purple and even swell to the size of baseballs. The worse she’d seen could become infected, which would ground a pegasus for life. But her wing looked … just the way it had before she’d woken up in the hospital.
She looked back to Coalback with disbelief. He only smiled, took a look at his own wings, and with an expression of intense concentration, lifted them off the ground again. He lifted them up and flexed them at his sides to inspect the muscle there, then he looked to her expectantly, waited for her to do the same with a smile that was unfit for such a large stallion.
Rainbow watched his wings arc up high over his head, the muscles bulged with iron-rod strength. She almost couldn’t help but follow, despite her embarrassment that a stallion would make such a display toward her. Not that it was very impressive, his wings looked like they hadn’t been preened once in his life. But with wings as long and muscled as that, she wondered if he really needed to preen them to keep his lift. Her face nearly exploded with heat when she realized she’d ogled his wings, and she most certainly turned a shade of red when she realized that he was doing the same to her.
She folded both her wings quickly and pressed hard against the doors. She hoped she could just melt through them, or that they would open against their hinges so that she could make a run for it. This was so embarrassing, she’d just shown her plumage to a stallion she’d just met! And his wings were still open!
After a few more moments, Coalback’s foallike grin faded and he turned back towards his saddlebag. His wings sat awkwardly on his back, left limp and forgotten now. He bounced the gem in his hoof as he looked at the bag in thought. He picked up brass cylinder and put it in the bag, he threw the strap over his neck carelessly and it landed atop his tangled wings. He gave a sigh, one last look at the gem, and swallowed it.
Rainbow could only stare at his strange behaviour, it was almost like he didn’t notice his wings. And why in the world would he swallow something like that? How was she supposed to react to that?
Rainbow’s thoughts were interrupted, however, by the sounds of hoofsteps from the other end of the study. Coalback heard it before she did, his ears perked up and he started to back away from the desk and the direction they came from. A growling noise filled the room but it wasn’t until Coalback had nearly backed up against Rainbow that she realized he was where the noise came from.
“Therih rih rithethe ri may sothe rih fa fa themay dohmaythe la.” Luna’s voice drifted out from the darkened end of the study, and in a moment so did she. A thin smile graced her young features, a playful glint shone in her eye. She dressed in intricate black decorations, inlayed silver traced out star maps and glittering patterns all across her hooves and chest. Her mane billowed out behind her, the colors of the cosmos floated inside it and cast glittering shadows out in the moonlight. “Step aside, misplaced Blood-Born,” she said, her civility gone and in its place a grim, warning, calm tone. Her voice echoed in the small study, the panes of the windows shook with her voice.
Coalback growled louder, nearly to a snarl. His wings arced up on his back but didn't spread out to make himself look bigger, instead they made it look like his back was arched unnaturally high.
"Princess! Hi! Uh ..." Rainbow sputtered, unused to the intense look on Luna’s face as she looked between each of them and the broken desk. Rainbow groaned in defeat, she should have just gone to bed.
"Be not afraid, Rainbow Dash," Luna said calmly but her eyes never left Coalback, "We shan't let him hurt you." Her voice was low, while she slowly stepped toward Coalback. The Princess of the night slowly lowered her head, magic rippled within her fur and her horn reached out menacingly toward Coalback.
"But he didn't hurt me!" Rainbow protested.
Coalback snarled something menacingly in that old language Clean Cut had been so excited about and the Princess flinched. "We are the sole cause of the breath in thine foul throat!" She yelled, no longer concerned with Rainbow. Her voice echoed loudly, she spoke in twelve different languages at the same time and nearly shook the glass from their frames above. "Yet you, defiling cretin, defy Us at every attempt to aid thee! Now thou hast desecrated Our chambers. Are We to assume thou hast slain thine guard as well?!"
Coalback flinched, shrunk into himself but did not move. Rainbow could see his chest move shakily with each breath. Luna’s tirade went on, but now in a hundred languages and Rainbow could not understand her, but Coalback did. And Rainbow knew then that she had to do something, she couldn't stand to just watch as somepony yelled down at a stallion like the Princess was.
"Hold it!" she yelled. Her wings sprung open and launched her up and between the two goliaths. She wasn't exactly sure what it was she planned to do, especially since she had just yelled at one of the Princesses and a pony who knew little to no Equestrian. But she had to try. "Okay, look. I'm not usually the pony that breaks up the fights, but you both need to cool it!" she yelled, she made sure to make it clear to Coalback as well as she could.
"Rainbow Dash-" Luna started.
"No, you listen to me!" Rainbow said forcefully, a surprise even to herself. "I don't know what exactly is going on, but I know for a fact that you're both overreacting!" she said, a dear hope that she was right fluttered at the back of her mind. "As far as I know, Coalback's been pretty much treated like crap, so give him a little break for wanting his stiff back," she fumed. She'd started to lose momentum with Luna's glare the way it was, but she had too many unanswered questions to back down now. "Why was his stuff locked in here anyway?"
Luna’s glare persisted for several moments before she answered: "Protecting them," she said, much to Rainbow’s surprise. "One of Our guards found the saddlebag after he was detained, we kept it so that we could return it to him once he had recovered."
"But he was being guarded, like a prisoner."
"That is because he has broken the law and trespassed on Royal Grounds," Luna said calmly. "Do not worry, We have secured custody of him under the Night Court, he will be getting the best care and supervision from Our Guard and from Doctor Clean Cut."
"Yeah, I've met him. He said that Coalback was being held because he had some sort of disease that he could have given a bunch of the guards. And why is Coalback under just your custody?" Rainbow asked. Her wings set her down gently between Luna and Coalback, who was backed against the door now but silent.
"His trespassing occurred while on Our half of the sky, and all manners of creatures of the night fall within Our demesne. But Clean Cut is an expert, there's no need to be afraid. He's expressed a surety of only a minor risk," she explained, her stature relaxed, and Coalback shrank into himself behind Rainbow Dash. "As long as Coalback cooperates with us, he will be treated with the utmost fairness. Now, Clean Cut ..."
"You summoned me, my Princess?" Doctor Clean Cut said. Rainbow jumped, he wasn't there in front of the desk an instant ago.
"Please resettle Rainbow Dash and Coalback into chambers in this wing, it will be easier to prevent issues if Our Guard can be close to them rather than allowing Celestia's Guard to parade around them." Luna gave one last, thoughtful glance at Coalback before she turned around and disappeared back up the shadowy staircase at the rear of her study.
"The night lives on." Clean Cut bowed as she left and relaxed once she was gone. "Now, before either of you agitate the authorities any further, let's be off," he said as he gently ushered the both of them out of the door.
Lunar Guards now lined the walls, presumably they had come to respond to the Princess’s yelling, but now they stood at attention as Clean Cut passed them. Rainbow followed robotically, mostly just to process what had just happened and to hope Coalback was alright.
She stared at the huge grey stallion as they passed the guards and headed down the halls. He drooped now, no longer the defiantly strong stallion on the search for his possessions but rather defeated, deflated. Earlier, he had seemed big and proud as a house, now he was no bigger than a kitten and just as dangerous. Rainbow could tell that whatever the Princess had said, it had hit him hard.
Clean Cut brought Coalback to the first room, all he had to do was open the door and Coalback stumbled weakly inside. But Clean Cut didn't move on, and both Rainbow and the doctor just stood in the door to watch. The stallion wobbled on legs just too long for his body, whether wandering or not he made his way to one of the bolted shut windows where the starlight streamed in. He collapsed against the sill with a whump of air from his lungs, fog spread across the window and slowly faded as he stared blankly out of it.
"I think it's finally setting in for him," Clean Cut said, his voice barely interrupted the silence it was so quiet. Rainbow just gave him a curious look, unwilling herself to attempt such a feat in silence as solid as this. But Clean Cut didn't answer he only stared as Coalback weakly hummed a low tune into the window panes.
After a long moment of just listening, the doctor spoke softly, barely a breath in the thin night air Coalback’s sad humming filled. "I am alone. The world which shook at my feet ... and the trees ... and the sky, have gone. And I am alone now ... alone."
With a start Rainbow turned to the doctor, eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Are you translating?" she whispered.
The doctor nodded and closed his eyes to listen to Coalback's plaintive song. "Alone. The wind bites now, and the world is grey, and I am alone here. Can't see me. Doesn't see me. Can't see me." Clean Cut stopped there as it seemed Coalback would only repeat the same thing now. "But who? Who can't see him? I recognise that, I studied wolfsong for ten years. I had to hide out near the den of a grey wolf pack for ten years and never in that time did I ever hear something so ... lonely," he mumbled.
"But why is he lonely?" Rainbow asked, only to gain a sad look from Clean Cut. "I mean- We're here. I stood up for him. Why does he think he's alone?"
"It's very possible to be surrounded by allies, but totally and utterly alone. And he is not like you or me, Rainbow Dash," the doctor said as he gently closed the door. "We know next to nothing about his kind ... strange, beautiful creatures that they are. We thought that they'd all died out, but now ..." Clean Cut looked at the door again, Coalback's humming was getting louder, almost a wail or a moan. "He may be the last one left. It may be why he came here, he's lost."
They sat there for another moment, just to listen. Rainbow caught one of the Lunar Guards with his ears up and a far off gaze in his eyes, the Guards could hear it too and they were just as enraptured.
"Come on," Clean Cut said as Coalback finally stopped, "you need to sleep, magic healing ability or no. Tomorrow we'll arrange a physical therapy session to make sure everything is healed properly. Do you want something to help you sleep?"
"Yeah, there's no way I'm gonna be able to sleep now." She let Clean Cut lead her away, all the more confused.
It was a long night for Rainbow, filled with half formed dreams of big dogs and dragon shaped boats filled to the brim with red wine. She swam with barely thought questions throughout the night, unable to remember any once she’d woken up; only that they had been there. She was certain she’d seen a hoof step in dust and leave a pawprint.
She didn’t pay any mind to it, she just blamed it on the sleeping spell. She was pretty sure that that kind of stuff did that to a pony, just magic induced dreams.
Her room was thankfully absent of the constant filigree of the rest of the castle, instead it aimed for comfort and convenience over fashion. Though the dark tones and thick curtains told her that these rooms were most likely structured toward nocturnal species, she found it comfortable. But not so comfortable that she'd bothered with the liquor cabinet in the suite's kitchenette.
She eventually settled herself to fly lazy circles around her room, no clue if she was permitted to leave since there were no guards to ask outside. She wasn't entirely sure how this was supposed to work, but she assumed that the requirement of an escort was still there even after last night's events.
She dropped unceremoniously onto the large four poster bed in frustration, nearly swallowed by the mess of covers and sheets she'd made of it the night before.
Rainbow simply couldn't fathom it, all this worry and fear of Coalback even from herself. He was just a stallion, big and mean and strange, but still just a stallion. Then again: He'd been able to take out four Solar Guards in as many seconds; He knew, down to a science, how to move silently and invisibly; he was big too, extremely big for a pegasus, and obviously extremely strong if the rippling muscles and broken lock was any indication.
And another thing: The scars. He had so many, but at the same time they simply weren't right. The scars didn't go through his coat, it was like his fur just grew back over them. And the amount was staggering, just from a glance Rainbow had seen them on his neck, across his chest, and all up and down his arms. He must be either very lucky or very unlucky to have them all.
The Guards and the Princess had called him things too: "Misplaced Blood-Born," "strange, beautiful creature," or just simply "it." What was she supposed to make of that? Or how she was tied up in it? He looked like a pegasus to her, again larger than most any other pegasus she'd met, and strange in his linguistics. But otherwise he seemed fairly normal.
Did this have to do with his legion? Rainbow herself came from a branch of Imperial Pegasi, which did occasionally become an issue with a few ponies. Coalback didn't resemble any Legion she was familiar with though: His wings were too long to be Imperial and his build was too heavy to be a Roamane Legion like Fluttershy.
Rainbow mumbled to herself over it for some time before somepony knocked on her door. She groaned, it was just her luck that when she finally found a way to keep herself busy, somepony interrupted her. When she opened the door, Clean Cut greeted her drowsily.
"Afternoon, sorry I left you here for so long, had to get some shut eye before we started on the ... the uh ... The therapy! Physical therapy," he struggled to say, very clearly still half asleep. "Even if your wing feels fine, gotta check and make sure that it wasn't healed incorrectly, and if it has we can correct it," he explained.
"Okay," Rainbow said as she stepped out into the hall with him. "That’s better than sitting around here, I guess."
"Indeed, and I've also been instructed to tell you that the other Elements are on their way to Canterlot as we speak. The train should get here by suppertime," he said as he led her back up the hall.
"Hey, Doc, I been thinking," Rainbow decided to say. With all her questions, the doctor was bound to know something.
"A dangerous practice," was Clean Cut's snarky reply.
"I know, but-" she suddenly felt unsure. The hostility of the Princess the previous night still lingered in her mind. "Why did you call Coalback a creature?" she spat out.
Clean Cut stopped in his tracks and gave her a surprised look. "Observant but blind," he said under his breath and grinned. "You haven't noticed the difference between him and you? They're subtle, I know, but you especially should have seen them," he said, and Rainbow was certain he was teasing her.
"Of course I can tell he's different, he doesn't look like he belongs to any Legion I've ever heard of," she explained. "But I don't get why you and the Princess and all the guards keep calling him things like that."
"He's more different than you realize. Haven't you been watching him? He acts nothing like an Equestrian, barely acts like he has equine instincts. More ... wolf-like if you ask me," he said with a smirk and Rainbow was forced to agree. "Perhaps raised by wolves?" He winked.
He had a point. Coalback hadn't whinnied, knickered or made any sounds she would have expected from another pony. He'd growled and snarled. He hadn’t spread his wings to make himself look more threatening like somepony might expect from a pony, instead it looked like he didn’t know what to do with them at all. Clean Cut was right, Coalback didn’t act like a pony at all.
“You really think that’s why he’s the way he is?” she asked, incredulous. The idea of being raised by wolves seemed ridiculous, especially a pony.
“Not even in the simplest sense,” he said with an excited smile. It looked like he would have gone on, but he stopped himself. “I’m sorry, I’ve gotten a bit excited over this, and I’m really not supposed to talk about it with you. However, Coalback has made no such promise yet, maybe once he has learned some more of the language he can tell you himself - if you can convince him to that is,” he said as he continued down the hall.
It wasn’t a moment before they were back at Coalback’s door, which was slightly ajar. “Not again,” the doctor mumbled as he pushed open the door in a panic. But when he revealed the room they both froze in shock.
The room had been devastated, even destroyed. And that’s not just to say that Coalback had toppled all the furniture, or broken open the locks on the liquor cabinet and drained it of its contents, or destroyed all the furniture, or broken holes in the walls to the other rooms of the suite. No, he’d done all of that only to collapse in a heap of destroyed couch cushions, surrounded by empty bottles and was soundly asleep.
“Coalback!” Clean Cut screamed, whether in anger or fear Rainbow couldn’t tell, as he trotted hastily into the room. Coalback woke with a snort, his head shot out of the cushions instantly awake and on edge. “Therih fa la may?! Therih maythe la therifa?!” the doctor nearly screeched as he yelled at Coalback, obviously beyond angry at the pony but unwilling to do anything more than reproach him.
“Fa thethe may rihfathe the! Fa la may rihdoh!” Coalback bellowed back, all at once on his hooves and big as a barn again. Rainbow could smell the liquor from where she stood at the door, but Coalback didn’t look like he suffered from the overhang at all. “Fa rihmay may, Fa rih therihfa so,” Coalback said calmly after a moment. He walked out of the mess of cushions and retrieved his bag. He slung it over his shoulder and started toward the door and Rainbow Dash.
“May la fa may,” Luna said from behind Rainbow and gave her a start. Coalback stopped in his tracks. Luna’s voice echoed again, this time only in the other language and in Equestrian: “We are afraid that you owe Us a debt, and We know well that your kind do not enjoy leaving debts unpaid. So you will stay.”
Coalback shrunk down to proper size, only as big as his body should have been in the Princess’s presence, which was still abnormally huge. His growl was low in his throat, but remained that way and would not rise so long as the Princess was there.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow asked, a slight bit more accusatory than she'd intended.
The Princess grinned confidently. "Not only did We defend him when he himself could not, We also have arranged a Royal Court hearing to determine his fate where others would simply have him imprisoned or executed." She turned to Coalback before she spoke again. "But that can wait until thou hast learnt the language properly. We are sure the Court would prefer to hear your side of things first. Is seven days enough time?"
"A week?! How's he supposed to learn how to speak Equestrian in a -"
"Yes," Coalback's voice rumbled among his unbroken growl.
"Very good," the Princess said with a nod, one that Coalback returned hesitantly. "Now, We believe you both have your first therapies today, We will allow you to proceed," Luna said as she turned away. "Oh and, Rainbow Dash? We will be hosting dinner with the other Elements, and We had hoped that, should thine doctor approve, you would join us at some point," she said, though her stiff outer appearance robbed from the friendly tone of her voice.
"Yeah, sure. I guess."
"Excellent, We look forward to it," she said. She left the door and the resentfully cowed stallion only to drop her veil once she was out of sight. She'd done it, actually out-threatened one of the Blood-Born. She'd bought some time, but now she just had to use it.
She would return to her sepulcher, attempt to discern some meaning from the bird's letter and the strange dreams that had lurked in the ether. They couldn't mean anything good, the sense of foreboding within the dreams was enough to make her suspicious, and her sister's recent strange behaviour was more than enough for Luna to suspect something of Celestia herself.
The only thing she knew was that she needed to protect the Elements, perhaps attempt to train them to better use the artifacts. And she needed all the help she could get, even if it meant she had to bully an ancient apex predator into doing it.
---
Rainbow had quickly passed every test the assistant pegasus nurse could come up with, her wing was in perfect condition and she was practically free to go. She'd spent enough time in the disinfectant stink of the padded mat gym room but she stayed to watch Doctor Clean Cut work with Coalback.
First, Clean Cut had Coalback simply walk back and forth slowly between a set of bars meant to keep the stallion from falling over. When Clean Cut had determined that Coalback had practiced walking on his significantly less shaky hooves he moved them on to an exercise with his wings. It was absurdly simple, and Rainbow had wondered if the stallion would gain the same frustrated scowl he'd worn while he walked. But Coalback was enraptured in the simple exercise of that moved his long wings in slow, jerky circles.
Rainbow was surprised at this. A stallion as old as Coalback shouldn't have this level of skill with his wings. Anypony should be able to at least get off the ground with their wings, but he seemed to barely be able to control them.
She realized something else strange while he practiced: Without his exceptionally large wings in the way, she could clearly see that Coalback had no cutie-mark.
It wasn't unheard of - for a pony to never have gotten one. However Coalback didn't seem the type to not know that sort of thing about himself, not with the surety with which he held himself. Which only left the fact that he had lost his.
Losing the thing that makes a pony feel whole, alive, unique ... It was not something easily misplaced. Maybe that was why everypony treated him strangely, or why he was so inequine.
By the time they were done with Coalback's wings he had worked up a light sweat and had pushed a breeze across the floor of the physical therapy gym. Clean Cut led Coalback through several stretches, most of which Rainbow herself had done after her short session.
If not for the clock that chimed out the sixth hour, Rainbow never would have realized that Coalback and Clean Cut had exercised for almost two and a half hours. A Lunar Guard came to collect her before she could consider that Luna hadn't told her when nor where dinner was. Clean Cut had taken Coalback over to a table the doctor had set up, which kept the large stallion occupied in a way that he never noticed Rainbow leave.
---
Rainbow was immediately barraged with questions when she met up with her friends. They fawned, questioned, hugged and swooned over the drama of it all. All before she could get a single word in.
Their voices filled the private dining room with their worries, teasing and reassurances. She had to explain, with some help from the Princess, that there was nothing to be worried about. The conversation drifted away from the events of the previous few days, much to the relief of Rainbow Dash. The conversation was lively throughout the light meal, it drifted as conversations between close friends tended to:
"And then the crusaders absolutely destroyed my newest dress," or "I've been really busy settling in all my animals for the winter ..." and "WITH BALLOONS AND BIG BANNERS AND TONS OF CAKE!!!"
Luna enjoyed a more contained conversation with Twilight Sparkle but with a look of realization announced: "My friends, I have something to ask of you." The varied and laughter filled conversations around the table came to a fluttering halt before Luna continued. "We wish to extend an invitation for all of you to stay as Our guests here in the palace for a time. We would enjoy it very much if all of you would."
"Like a sleepover?!" was Pinkie’s immediate response to which the Princess only smiled wider. "WAHOO! Princess slumber party!" Pinkie cheered.
"Oh, how marvelous! You see, Applejack, I told you there's always a good reason to pack all of the essentials," Rarity said. She lifted her nose in triumph toward her friend who only rolled her eyes and mumbled something about full train cars.
The doors at the end of the dining halls slammed open and brought any idea of continued conversation to a grinding halt, the sound echoed off of the polished floors and carved wooden frames. Coalback walked through with determination in each step, his intense green eyes locked on Luna instantly.
"I'm sorry, my Princess, I've tried to stop him," Clean Cut said, hot on Coalback's hooves.
Luna stood carefully from her seat, her gaze and entire demeanor aimed at Coalback. Twilight followed Luna’s example and voiced her shock.
"Excuse me! What do you think-"
"Lafa, dolathe fa!" Coalback barked. “The the therih la the, Mayfa Fa, may the the rihthe so!” he demanded of Luna, he stopped at the end of the table opposite her.
Rainbow slid down in her chair, a desperate attempt to disappear alongside Fluttershy. Applejack stood with Twilight and the Princess, her eyes roamed over the strange stallion. Rarity only flinched at the stallion's offensive entrance and elected to remain silent as the Princess handled the situation. Pinkie was uncharacteristically silent.
“Coalback, fa fa ririh may la ri rih maydoh,” Luna snapped at the intruding stallion, which thankfully for her stopped him dead. “Ladies, We are sorry to say that we must continue our date later, We have something rather important to attend to at the moment,” she explained, but Rainbow knew that she was probably just going to yell at Coalback some more. “Clean Cut will escort you to Our chambers.”
Luna didn’t wait for Clean Cut to gather the girls, with a flick of her hooves she sailed over the dining table and forced Coalback to move back or be crushed under her gilded hooves. Coalback scrambled back, and without a word Luna swept him through a side door. Rainbow never had a chance to even come up with some sort of request for explanation.
“Ladies, I suggest we leave now,” Doctor Clean Cut announced as he stepped aside of the door and motioned for them to exit. “We’ll not want to be around for Her Majesty’s … conversation.” He hesitated with the last word as if he were unsure it was appropriate.
The girls shuffled out in confusion, their eyes flitted between the door Luna had left through and each other. All except Rainbow, who only looked to the door. Should she follow the Princess? She felt an obligation to keep her from going overboard; she didn’t want to see that stallion break down again like she had the night before.
“Miss Dash,” Clean Cut whispered to her, a hoof took hers and turned her toward the exit. “I understand that you are concerned for your friend, but the Princess has only good intentions behind her actions toward him. You can be certain that she will not harm him,” he said to her as he ushered her back to her other friends.
“I barely know him, he’s not my friend,” she denied on instinct.
“Perhaps you should change that,” he hissed as she pulled away. Before Rainbow could turn around to tell the doctor how much that wasn’t his business, he’d already walked past her to the front of the group. “This way, ladies.”
He ushered them through the halls quickly. Purple and dark blue tapestries whipped past them, much faster than Rainbow would have expected even at this pace. They were ushered into one of the only other intricate doorways in the entire Lunar Wing: Luna’s Bedroom.
Like Luna’s study and the rest of her Wing of the palace, this room lacked the filigree and decoration of most others. However, despite this her bedroom was much more homely and welcoming than her study. Large pillows spread around the room in place of chairs or couches, her bed itself lacked a head- or footboard and instead was simply open to any side of the room. Thickly padded curtains were half open to reveal the fading light of of the sunset. Every book on her shelves were well worn, as few as there were in there.
And it was totally empty save for Rainbow and her five friends, Clean Cut was simply gone. He walked through the door ahead of them, but he wasn't inside.
"How strange," Rarity mumbled as she carefully selected a pearl colored pillow for her to take a seat in. "To think anypony would have the gall to burst in on the Princess like that! And a stallion no less!"
"Ah'll say," Applejack put in as she took a light blue pillow as a seat for herself, though she opted to simply climb onto it instead of sitting against it as Rarity had.
"Ooh! Maybe that was the Princess’s special somepony, and they had a fight or something!" Pinkie conjectured as she jumped into one of the larger pillows with a "Woohoo!" and disappeared within its near black confines.
"Oh please," Twilight scoffed as she hopped onto a silver cushion. "It's more likely he's a displeased emissary. Did you hear that language he was speaking? I'm sure I recognise it from somewhere," she said with a thoughtful expression.
"Yeah," Pinkie hummed from within her cocoon of pillow, "but then why did Luna send us out of the room instead of him?" Pinkie popped her head free of the purple pillow and gave Twilight her best "explain that" look that usually accompanied her Pinkie-sense rebuttals.
"What do you mean, Pinkie?" Twilight asked, more confused as to how that was an argument than why it mattered.
"Well, whenever a pony comes to see Princess Celestia when we visit her, she always sends them away. The only time she hasn't done that was when it was really, really, really important to her. Like the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness: She wouldn't talk to anypony until she had eaten her piece!" Pinkie explained quickly with her usual exuberance. "So obviously Princess Luna must really, really care about what he has to say!"
"That is ... surprisingly logical of you, Pinkie," Twilight said, surprised. Pinkie smiled wide at the praise, if that's what it was - it didn't matter if it wasn't to Pinkie anyway.
"That is so not what that was about," Rainbow said, unable to put the image of Luna swooning over the muscled, scruffy, rebellious Pegasus stallion into her head.
"You know that stallion, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked scandalously. Before Rainbow could deny that though Rarity had already gained her answer from the blush that had crept into Rainbow’s cheeks unannounced. "You do know him!" Rarity said, whether elated over the gossip topic or just Rainbow’s obvious embarrassment the blue Pegasus could not tell.
"Well, who is he?" Twilight asked, joined soon by all but Fluttershy who simply sat on her own pillow and tried not to be embarrassed in sympathy for Rainbow.
"I don't know him know him!" Rainbow protested. "I barely know him at all! He just showed up when that dragon lost it! He helped me out, that's all! I haven't even understood a single word out of his mouth since I met him!" she spilt, she only realized she'd started flying in agitation once she was done.
"We didn't accuse yah a' nothin', sugarcube." Applejack smirked.
"However, now I'm starting to think we should have, darling," Rarity said, just as smug as Applejack. "You must know something, dear! We're at the disadvantage here; tell us everything!"
Rainbow sighed and unceremoniously dropped onto a thick cushion next to Pinkie to share as much as she could remember about the last few days.
---
Discord hummed to himself in thought. His paw drummed on his Jaguar’s head, her chains rattled with suppressed rage.
The image in front of him rattled and he corrected it with a slap of his claw against the ancient television. The black and white image cleared to reveal his program.
"Aha!" he bellowed in triumph. "Don't move!" he ordered his jaguar as he left her posed on top of the television, he ignored her yowl of protest. His yellowed eyes locked onto the screen with the same intensity a child would at the Saturday morning cartoons.
He watched carefully as Luna dragged a grey stallion out onto a balcony. "Scandalous," he smirked, a shovel full of popcorn found his mouth. But as he watched Luna yell and bear over the painted pegasus, he realized something disastrous.
"No!" he bellowed, his eyes locked on the stallion as he resolutely rode out the Princess’s tirade. "No! No! No! You've ruined everything, you idiot!" His popcorn bucket impacted the screen and sunk into the glass as if both were made from gelatin. "He's too young! He couldn't have-" he cut himself off with a scream of rage and snatched his jaguar from the top of the television with his claw.
He jabbed the large cat's face toward the screen, the image frozen. "That is not a pony! And if those cretins I sent ahead of us cannot take care of the Elements, then you will kill them, the Elements, and that thing!" Her face slammed against the glass, pressed against the jittering image.
She mewled in pain but did not deny him. The television grew long legs and scuttled away in fear.
"I need this to work perfectly, any delay will destroy our chances of success," he mumbled to himself as he tossed the jaguar aside like a toy he had become bored with. She scrambled away as her chains turned to jelly and crouched beside the walls of the hive.
"Entropy, disorder. These are mine, even in this world. I command them, and they will not alter this!"
---
That night Coalback went missing from his room again.
That night something killed a deer in the gardens, but the body was gone. All the Guards found was a set of dismembered hooves and the shattered bits of bones that were not eaten.
That night Coalback made a promise sealed with magic.
“They’ve reached the inner wall!” an earth pony bellowed, her ear cropped to the base by a previous battle. Smoke and ash rose above the Gatehouse she mounted, more earth ponies poured cauldrons of boiling oil over the edge of the wall and were rewarded with screams from their invaders. The stars were hidden by the white phosphorus that bloomed all over the city.
“Fire-mages to the square, now!” Necessaria screamed, her broken horn glinted in the firelight with her wing blades. Her short cropped, purple of the dawn mane smoked with the embers that fell into it. She was an alicorn; one of the six new gods on the earth, her demesne was thought, cooperation, and the joining of the disparate. “Bring forth the artillery, post haste!” she bellowed as ponies rushed around her. Muscle bulged under her lustrous coat and, despite the fires, stars danced in her eyes.
“Mages approaching the wall!” the mare with the missing ear called again. “Fall back!”
Unicorns dressed in red tinted, boiled leather armor gathered around Necessaria. Their horns glowed, carved magical runes stood out in stark relief. The process to create them was painful, and it robbed the unicorns of the ability to use many other high powered spells, but the spell carved into the bone of their horns was amplified to a deadly level. These unicorns were prepared to launch a wall of fire toward the gate.
Voices filled the air from the other side of the wall, glorious and harmonious they rose in song. Magic built in the air, palpable and visible as the enemy’s mages shaped it. In an instant the gatehouse imploded, its own mass used against it to compress it into a momentary singularity.
“Fire!” Necessaria bellowed, and her fire-mages let loose with their deadly attacks. The circle of mages that had meant to enter immediately were burned to ashes and their supporting forces were pressured into a short retreat.
“Your Majesty! Princess Gracia is under heavy attack in front of the Southern Gate!” a pegasus mare shouted to Necessaria. Her pink emblazoned tunic looked red in the fire and smoke.
“Don’t let them break the line! Get those ballistae ready to fire on the double! The fire-mages can only keep the heat on for so long!” Necessaria bellowed to her troops as she spun around and took to the air. Her powerful wings whisked her away toward the South Gate, she had to fight off a cough in the ash of collapsing city and burning flesh.
From up here the battle took on a whole new light. Orange and red fire spread in a spiderweb out across the once great oceanside city. Once the greatest trade center of pony kind, now a deadly pot of horror and suffering. The Enemy had come by land, the white phosphorous had set half the city aflame before anypony was able to react. Everything but the inner walls burned now, and she could see the metallic glint of the enemies’ armour as they marched through the once proud streets.
And something else darted through the shadows between the fires.
Necessaria cursed under her breath in fear and anger, her wings beat double time to speed her toward the South Gate. Ponies were locked in combat there with the enemy, spears and swords flashed, shields rang, ponies screamed in pain and fear.
But there was her Sister: Gracia, all her pink and golden glory aimed toward the battle. She fought not with the rage or fear or determination that anypony else fought with, instead she fought with words. Her voice rang out over the battle, a light in the darkness for her power was Hope, a hope that drove the battle into the hearts of her ponies but endeavored to ask for peace. And yet her words could Dash the enemies' legs out from under them and rob them of the will to stand and fight again.
The shadows around her boiled.
“Gracia!” Necessaria tried to call to the other alicorn, magic enough in her shadow of a horn to make her voice loud enough to crack the armor of anyone who was too nearby, ally or enemy.
But it came too late. A flash of black and brown fur, claws and teeth alight in the fires of the war, and dressed in armour as hard as diamond but liquid like water. They slammed into Gracia’s side and cut off her voice, teeth dug into her beautiful neck. Gracia did not scream, she hardly had the time to. One giant wolf was joined by another and then three more, in less than an instant pink turned to gore splattered red.
Necessaria let out a vicious battle cry as she divebombed, magic lances impaled the gruesome beasts and killed them instantly. Necessaria slammed into the ground, a spiderweb of cracks exploded from the cobbled street below her. Somepony screamed out “Blood-Borns!” in warning to their comrades, but what they should have screamed was “RUN!” Too late again, a pack had descended on this district. Quickly they allied with the marching enemy, their masters, and decimated the tight formations and battle lines of the ponies.
Necessaria saw none of that, she saw only the dead body of a god. Gracia had been a god of hope and grace, now her body lay empty of life, hope, her ever present optimism and most of her blood. This was not a god anymore, it was only a body that should have lived a thousand thousand more years without any marring to her beautiful coat. Necessaria dropped to her knees beside Gracia’s body despite her mind screaming to her to move, that Gracia wasn’t there anymore, and she embraced her dead sister. She closed the blank, fearful stare that haunted her.
Bones cracked and shifted, one of the Blood-Borns was still alive despite Necessaria’s devastating attack. His limbs snapped back into place even as they shifted into a new shape. Forepaws turned to hands, the chest broadened and the shoulders squared, the head shifted and flattened out. The liquid armor shifted around it, never for a moment was it left unprotected. It pulled a shard of stone out from its leg and stood to its full height, impossibly tall on two legs.
A flat face stared back at her, much like their masters’, predator’s eyes shone back at her. It didn’t say anything, it had bitten off its own tongue when it was hit. But she saw the hate in that flat scowl, the immobile ears constantly against its head. The man swung its mangled arm at her, impossibly back in its proper shape with deadly sharp and heavy blades swung at the end of its wrist.
Necessaria’s wing blade cut it in half groin to jaw faster than the blink of an eye. The blades sparked and dented against its armor, ruined, but their task done with the wet splat of the dead impossible creature.
...
When Celestia and Luna arrived with their reinforcements, the city was already dead. Its keep was no more than a smoldering pile of rubble. They found Necessaria in the bay belly up amongst the shells of merchant ships and fished her out; perhaps the enemy had mistaken her for a simple pegasus and left her for dead. The wound in her neck was hardly mortal to an alicorn, but the light had left her eyes. Necessaria was not dead, but she was well and truly defeated.
It took all of Luna’s skills amongst the dreaming to pull their sister from her self imposed exile within her mind. But when she returned to the waking world all she had to say was: “Dead … she’s dead,” her voice echoed, it questioned itself. Necessaria barely believed the words herself, but she knew it was true. “Gracia is dead,” she confirmed, "What are we if we can be so easily destroyed?"
"He's read through half the dictionary in a single night," Clean Cut reported with his excitement carefully in check. "He came to me this morning with a long list of inquiries. He's practically half able to speak the language! He processes information at an incredible rate, I'm wondering just how much the Blood can effect."
"Blood-Borns are often able to process more quickly than most. But We digress, once he is able to speak enough, We would like you to introduce him to our laws. We will not have him detained for something as petty as theft if this plan is to work."
"Of course, My Princess," Clean Cut said without hesitation.
"And keep him out of trouble, We will have our hooves full keeping the Elements distracted as it is. We will not accept any more interruptions like the last."
"Understood, Your Majesty. I'll do my best to find distractions for him," he said. "... What did you say to him last night? If I may ask, 'Majesty," he asked after a moment, his heart hurt in his chest as he spoke.
"We didn't have to say anything," Luna replied with a knowing glance toward the doctor. "All We had to do was raise the moon. Do not be worried, he will be a part of this ... whether he likes it or not."
"You ... did something? 'Majesty?" It was more a statement than a question, but Clean Cut had already spoken. The answer was one he had hoped to be wrong about:
"We did what was required of Us, as much as We may come to regret it."
---
There was nothing Rainbow loved more than an early morning sprint. She liked the feel of her hooves as they pounded down a track. She liked the tease of the wind on her feathers. She wouldn't be going back to the Guard’s training grounds on the North side of the palace again anytime soon, not with the accident so fresh on her mind.
And that was the only thing she would call it for now; an accident. It made her feel better to think it was all just a horrible coincidence.
For now, she could simply fill her days with a recovery workout schedule at the mountainside grounds - far away from any of reminders of the attack - and the welcome vacation in Canterlot. She didn't know what she would do on such a vacation, but if she was with her friends, and a Princess, it promised to be pretty awesome.
She knocked off another lap to complete her four hundred before she stopped for a break. When she was done there was a burn in her legs and almost no air in her chest, and she still loved it. When she ran or flew, she didn't have to think, just move, and that was better than any hooficure or spa day in her mind.
Not that she wouldn't need a shower.
She'd worked up a good sweat, which was what she'd really wanted in the chill of the morning air. Canterlot might wait a long time to put snow down in the palace grounds itself, but it couldn't keep the cold out. She probably looked pretty awesome as her breath steamed in the air along with her legs.
She snorted as her breathing returned back to normal and started to make her way inside. Luna had promised to "stay up late" to come with them around town for the next few days and Rainbow didn't want to keep them all waiting.
She trotted up the stairs to get back into the palace, though this part of the castle was more like a gym. Rainbow knew these were the Elite Guard's training grounds, which is why they weren't quite as spartan as the ones she'd used as a Wonderbolt trainee.
She would definitely make a habit out of this for as long as she was here. But as she made her way to the locker rooms, she noticed a familiarly clashing flash of color and she took a small detour.
Doctor Clean Cut rushed around a corner and Rainbow followed. She found him in an empty weight room, his magic gripped one of the weight racks.
"Haven't done this in a while," he mumbled as he grunted and pulled up the entire rack with all its weights into his magical grasp. He only noticed her when he turned to try and go back out the door Rainbow stood in. "Oh! Hello there, Miss Dash!" he said joyfully, though it seemed a bit forced as he started to sweat under the weight of the rack. "What brings you to this part of the castle?"
"Luna told me I could use this place if I wanted," Rainbow explained as she stepped into the room and out of his way. The doctor nodded and slowly began to shuffle his way through the door. "What the heck are you doing? And how are lifting that thing?"
"I may not look it, but I'm not the personal advisor to the Princesses for nothing, you know!" he boasted as he wriggled the full weight rack through the door and out the hall. A weight tried to fall but Clean Cut's magic managed to flick it back on. "You are looking at one of the few heavy lifting unicorns in all of Equestria! I've won a few trophies for it!"
"Okay, that's pretty cool," Rainbow admitted, even though she'd personally seen Twilight do some much more impressive magic than this. "So what are you taking this thing for?" she asked as she followed him down the hall. Rainbow was sure she could have just left, but she still felt a little bad about the hell the doctor had gotten because of her, in some way she hoped to make up for it.
Clean Cut barked out a laugh. "Trying to keep Coalback entertained enough that he won't try to beat the next Solar Guard he sees into a pulp. Big guy like him, thought he might like to get a few good workouts in while he was ... shall we say: 'on leave'?" He wrestled the rack over a drinking fountain, the corner slapped the head of it and bent the faucet in a funny direction.
"Coalback's here?"
"No actually, he's in his room," Clean Cut said with a grunt. "Reading the dictionary, I presume. I'm setting up a whole slew of things for him to do before he gets tired of that." A door at the end of the hall popped open at a spark from his horn and he set the rack down inside next to three others. "If you'd like, we'll be down here around midday."
"Nah. I should probably go, actually: My friends are all waiting for me," Rainbow said. Plus, she wasn't so sure she wanted to be around the strange stallion anymore. She just wanted everything to go back to normal in all honesty.
"I understand, a personal vacation with the Princess is probably a bit more interesting than this," he said. Without another word he turned around and began to slide the racks into a neater position, which meant moving a few other machines.
Rainbow took that as her opportunity to leave and went back out to the locker rooms. "Wait, reading the dictionary?"
---
"Those Loonies are going absolutely nuts about that thing," Invisible Barrier mumbled over her cup of coffee to the other guard at her table.
Filibuster scoffed as he turned to look too. "Fitting that those freaks of nature would be hanging around that thing."
They both glared across the large mess hall to the small group that had secluded itself next to the kitchen doors. The Lunar guards stood in a protective circle around the grey stallion who yawned as he waited for food. Everypony gave the corner glances, and there were certainly whispers about them that circulated the room. However the Lunar Guards and the stallion all seemed to remain unmoved by it.
"So smug," Filibuster grunted as he choked down the rest of his coffee. "You'd think that if they could commandeer the officers' facilities that they could get it it's own cook too. But no! Unfortunately they must 'dine' with the normal ponies," he groused.
"Freaks shouldn't even be allowed in the palace, the lot of them," Barrier agreed with another sip of her coffee. "I got fucking latrine duty for a month because of that thing!" she nearly yelled, instead her magic managed to crack the empty clay mug.
"What's up with the Loonies?" a thickly built earth pony mumbled around his tray of breakfast as he took a seat next to Filibuster. His white dyed fur rippled with muscle as he shifted into a comfortable position on the bench.
"Luna’s pet is here, Iron Bar, and apparently it has its own personal Guard assigned to it," Filibuster explained as he helped himself to one of the muffins piled on Iron Bar's tray.
"Luna’s who-now?" he asked. Confusion sat comfortably where it usually did on his face. As dedicated a soldier as he was, Iron Bar had never been the best at putting two and two together, not unless it came to fighting anyway. He turned curiously to look past the group of Lunar Guards.
"Don't look, stupid!" Barrier snapped, her magic whipped Bar's head back around to look at his tray.
"Are you guys talking about that pegasus behind t 132d5 hem?" Iron Bar asked, nonplussed by the mare's forcefulness. "What's wrong? Did he not like your flanks?" he jabbed, with a harsh kick aimed at the bottom of Barrier's bench for retaliation.
"No," she growled.
"'He,' if you can call it that, isn't even a pony. It's at least ten times worse than those moon worshipping Loonies are," Filibuster grumbled.
Iron Bar shrugged and stuffed a protein bar into his mouth. He turned again to look at the pony who towered over the smaller Lunar Guard, appreciative of what toned muscle he could make out past his dark guards. He did like a stallion who could actually hold his own ...
An empty tray smacked Iron Bar in the back of the head. "Don't ogle him!" Filibuster hissed with a glare.
"Gettin' jealous?" Iron Bar quipped with a grin as he rubbed the back of his head. Filibuster turned red with anger, which only made Iron Bar smile wider.
Before Filibuster could lay into a long berating over how disgusting that just was the kitchen doors smacked open on the other side of the mess hall. All conversation froze as a pony dressed in as much protective gear as she could have found in the kitchen dragged out a large steaming pot.
The grey pegasus jumped to his hooves instantly and rushed to the pot as its scent wafted across the tables. Ponies gagged and retreated quickly in a spreading wave, even the Lunar Guards seemed a bit off put as they retook their positions around the pony and his meal. The stallion's head disappeared into the pot as he began to devour its contents.
"Now there's a colt who knows how to eat-" Iron Bar began to say, even prepared to fire off a whistle in his direction. But the smell of cooked meat had finally reached their table, and Iron Bar had to flee to the nearest trash can to empty his stomach.
Iron Bar finally understood what Filibuster meant: That definitely was not a pony. And it scared him.
---
"Apologies if We fall asleep, dear friends, this is far too relaxing," Luna announced with a yawn as she slid a little deeper into the hot spring's water.
Pinkie giggled as she paddled around in the large sunken pool. Rarity only sighed as she and Fluttershy relaxed in the steam from the earth heated water on a ledge in just an hornwidth of water, her mane and tail carefully pulled up into curlers. And Twilight found calm entertainment in reading through a few pamphlets for places they planned to visit.
"Now this is how to start a day in Canterlot," Rarity sighed in satisfaction, Fluttershy nodded in agreement beside her. "Much better than getting yourself sweaty and tired out, don't you think, Rainbow Dash?" she asked toward the bubbling end of the bath.
Rainbow popped out of the water and took a desperate breath of air as she asked "What?"
Applejack immediately popped out beside her. "Hah! Ah win!" she declared.
"No fair! Best two out of three!" Rainbow protested. And then they were both back under the water.
Luna snickered at the banter and returned to her relaxing soak. She could hardly remember the last time she'd done this, surprisingly. She supposed that she had never had the incentive to wander through this part of the palace grounds before.
---
Clean Cut was worried.
He had hoped that if he started off Coalback's day with a hot meal that he would enjoy would put the other stallion in a good mood. However Coalback had said little and had simply marched along in a zombie-like trance with his newly appointed chaperones.
What was worse was the intensity with which he had attacked the workout Clean Cut had set up earlier. Coalback had come in and put himself through what should have been a rigorous workout session. Instead, two and a half hours later he had told Clean Cut that he was bored! And he'd barely broken a sweat, despite having used nearly every extra weight in every strength exercise he'd performed.
He was upset about something. And he was bored. That is what worried Clean Cut the most. He didn't want Coalback to venture into different parts of the castle for fear of interrupting one of the Princesses, or of finding any of the Solar Guard for that matter. He seemed to have gained a rather specific dislike to the gilded armour and white coats.
Clean Cut suggested that perhaps Coalback could translate something to help him practice his Equestrian. But the stallion had requested something slightly more physically demanding, and Clean Cut didn't see any reason why not to find something else. He suggested, though hadn't planned ahead for it, that he and Coalback set up a training session to work on his flying. To which, thankfully, Coalback seemed extremely interested in.
Clean Cut led Coalback out of the castle grounds for the first time without too much worry. The stallion still couldn't fly, after all. And there was Luna's assurance that weighed heavily on him, unforgettable.
The stallion appeared much more like a wide eyed colt as they climbed to the top of the mount where the Wonderbolts were still training their recruits. Coalback looked extremely surprised as he looked over the facility, though impressed or not was difficult to tell. He took in everything: from the smooth, black granite landing strip to the cheapest and strongest buildings Equestrian ingenuity could come up with while still remaining somewhat pleasing to the eye.
"This is where the Wonderbolts train," Clean Cut announced with pride, happy to see the sour mood lifted from the pony if only for a moment. "And hopefully where you will as well."
Clean Cut led Coalback into the cluster of buildings near the runway and into a surprisingly well decorated entryway to the office building. Plaques and statues and framed newspaper articles lined the walls, which Coalback went to with his ever present group of Lunar Guards. The receptionist looked surprised to see the entourage but greeted Clean Cut respectively and asked how she could help.
"I'll be needing to commandeer a Wonderbolt for a basic training session as soon as possible," Clean Cut explained with an ear still aimed toward where his charge examined a plaque. "And I do mean extremely basic. If they ask questions tell them that this is by Royal request of Princess Luna."
The receptionist stiffened and darted away as soon as he was finished speaking, presumably off to recruit one of the higher ranking Wonderbolts for the "Royal Request." The receptionist returned with a Wonderbolt in full flight gear right behind her only a moment later. She directed the Wonderbolt to Clean Cut and retreated back behind her desk to try to look busy.
"Hey, I'm Soarin," the grey-blue Pegasus said with an offered hoof to the doctor, who gladly met the hoof with his own. "Would have been here sooner but I was helping drill what's left of the trainees," he said.
The doctor checked a clock on the wall in confusion.
"So who's the new trainee? We got lots of spots open now," Soarin went on as he looked around the room. His eyes locked on Coalback instantly. "Holy cow, is that the guy?" he asked with a pointed hoof at the other stallion.
"Yes, but I think I should explain that Coalback has no experience with flying," Clean Cut interjected even as he had to trot beside Soarin as he moved towards Coalback.
"That can't be true, look at his wings!" Soarin remarked as he gladly admired the bulging muscles on Coalback's shoulders. "Even if he's never used them for flying, the basics should soar on by-" Soarin paused as he finally got a close up look at the stallion and the state of his wings. "We may want to start with how important preening is though."
Coalback gave both of them a confused look. "Preening?" he asked through his thick accent. He seemed to have only just noticed them as he had been occupied reading the long list of brass plated names and marks on the wall.
"Oh! I get it," Soarin said, "He's from a Stalliongrad squadron, isn't he? I once met somepony from up there, they told me most Pegasi just don't risk flying because they'll freeze solid in the high altitude winds." Soarin nodded in understanding and put out his hoof for the other stallion. "Soarin."
Coalback looked at the hoof for a moment in confusion before he extended his own. But rather than the traditional hoof bump, he wrapped his wrist around Soarin's in a hard grip and pumped the other stallion’s arm once.
"Oh my-" Soarin grunted at the surprising greeting. "That's a new one, though," he mumbled with a grin. "Yeah, preening, buddy. Come on, we got a lot of work to do if we want your wings ready for flying!" he said as he swept up beside the larger stallion and began to lead him out of the building.
Clean Cut followed to observe, his little black book scribbled away in his magic. Soarin took Coalback to one of the outfitting rooms first and demonstrated, with some direction, how Coalback should preen. Soarin was satisfied only when Coalback had extended his wing fully and ran his lips over every primary from root to tip. And even then Soarin made a note to Clean Cut about how Coalback would be needing a lot of practice before his wings would pass any inspection and mumbled something about lift to weight ratios.
However Clean Cut was ready to step in on some of the "stretches" Soarin asked Coalback to do. He at first thought Soarin was just making fun of the larger stallion. It was during a stretch with a wing against one of the many cloud pillars that Clean Cut realized Soarin was mostly using the opportunity to watch Coalback twist in suggestive ways. It was especially noticeable when Soarin quite openly appreciated Coalback's crotch during a leg stretch, despite his aviator glasses mostly hiding his eyes.
Coalback didn't seem to notice, or if he did, didn't care.
Finally, after Coalback had thoroughly stretched, Soarin had Coalback run through several simple, "ground-bound" drills: A simple pattern of up and forward, down and back until Coalback could easily perform it at a fast pace, then a simple run and jump while doing the same. Coalback was able to extend his leap by several yards and scrape out a landing at the end of the hour. He even fell into Soarin more than once, much to Soarin's delight. By the time the sun had begun to reach its zenith Coalback could glide and change his altitude as well.
Coalback was obsessed with the act, for once actually excited as far as anyone could tell. Soarin didn't give Coalback anything more advanced, instead he took the stallion on laps around an abandoned racing track around the back of the facility. Occasionally he would make them perform an imaginary slalom, which he proudly announced was to help Coalback with his control, but neglected to mention how much he enjoyed watching Coalback's flanks swing back and forth in front of him.
They went on with it for several more hours, so long in fact that Clean Cut and even the guards dozed off. When he woke up he and Coalback’s group of guards were alone in the field and the sun was setting.
"Shit," the doctor mumbled to no one in particular. The Lunar Guards felt the same.
~~~
"Shaky as you were in the air, you did real good. Don't worry about it too much, big wings are less maneuverable than you might think. You're probably a better fit for long distance flight than you are for stunts and aerial acrobatics," Soarin said encouragingly as he and Coalback stood under their respective shower heads in the locker room. "Though your landings could use some work ... and your form, and your timing, and your wing maintenance." Soarin scrubbed out some of the sweat on his chest. "You don't talk much, do you?"
"No," Coalback replied. He never once turned to look at Soarin, he only kept his face in the hot water and let it roll over his worn muscles. But there was a smile there, barely, but one that encouraged Soarin to go on anyway.
"You know, the best way to keep your wings preened is to let somepony else do it for you," Soarin said, though the offer wasn't all that well hidden. Who was he kidding, he'd do anything to get his hooves on those muscular flanks at this point. Soarin rarely met anypony quite as dedicated to wing strength as he was, and not just in speed. He loved keeping fit, and he was purely intoxicated by other ponies that were the same.
Coalback just shrugged, either he didn't understand Soarin's hint, or he didn't notice it in his meditation under the running water. Which didn't help Soarin's achingly stiff wings.
"You doing anything later?" Soarin asked straight out. He turned toward Coalback with a hopeful grin. "I know a few great places to eat in town, I could take you around to 'em," he offered.
Coalback paused to give Soarin another confused look. "No."
"'No' you aren't doing anything or 'no' you don't want to come?" Soarin asked, now actually confused.
"No."
"Aw, come on. Is 'no' the only word you can say?"
"No."
"Then come on, dude!" Soarin pleaded while he tried to sound like he wasn't begging. "There's nothing more fun than seeing who crashes harder after a long workout followed up by by a carbo-loading session in town! Plus, the looks on the owners' faces when you clean 'em out is hilarious!" he said.
Coalback gave a thoughtful look before he grinned. "There, you see? We'll have some fun!" Soarin said with a lighthearted, and rather ineffectual shove on Coalback's iron tough shoulder. "So what do you say? Come to dinner with me?"
"No."
---
Far south of Canterlot, Ponyville and any other pony settlement were the Macintosh Hills. Snow had already covered these rounded peaks in the winter. But beyond them lay the eternal wastelands, or as the ponies called it: the Badlands.
Hidden atop the mountain, and what little remained around the edges of the death desert, were ancient ruins not of pony kind. Their once proud constructions had been nearly choked out by creeping weeds atop the mountain, or beaten into rubble by the wind and sand of the desert below.
And among them creeped an ancient terror of the world: Tundra Wolves. A strange sight, an outside observer might assume, so far away from the true tundra of the North. But these Hills had belonged to them for nearly a thousand years, and everything that set foot there belonged to them.
But this was hardly a unified, stepford force. Often the wolves fought each other with tooth and claw, metal and marrow, or song and soul. What tied them together was only their shared exile from the home that lived on in their stories, and their Empress. The wolves spread across the mountains in an immovable barrier; none could pierce through their boundaries without a wolf's say so.
And in that way the ponies owed the wolves their lives.
A pitch smoking battle had begun on the far side of the Hills, one that the wolves had been stirred into a frothing blood frenzy to fight. The copper within the mountains glinted on their thick hides and in their deadly mouths. They held forth fire and death and trickery, but the wolves fought without fear of fire or death. They were larger and stronger with their sideways heads and bear-like strength, but the wolves were faster and deadlier. They were an ancient evil that had once ravaged the world at their God's whim, but the wolves had their own God behind them.
That night, anypony outside would have sworn that the Northern Lights had exploded over the Macintosh hills. But that was absurd, everypony knew the Northern Lights were in the North, made within the boundaries of the Crystal Kingdom.
The wolves hold the line between light and darkness, the civilized world and them ... for now.
"Hitotsu Futatsu wa Akago mo Fumuga" -Voices filled the repairing hive as workers scurried and rushed to build walls, dig tunnels, care for crops and pump furnaces to keep the hatchlings warm and the iron flowing- "Mittsu Yottsu wa Oni mo Naku, Naku" -Where the song had come from only one could say, she was the worker who had first sung it and led the other workers in the song- "Tatara Onna wa Kogane no Nasake" -They were happy, the changelings, despite the fact that their only food was what few plants could be grown inside the hive- "Tokete Nagarerya Yaiba ni Kawaru."
The worker who led them in song was herself at one of the huge bellows. Her rear hoof rested strongly on the top of the bellows, and with all her weight and the weight of the five other changeling workers beside her they forced huge winds into the furnaces from the double sided bellows. However, unlike the smaller fires that burned deeper in the hive for the hatchlings and the larvae, this furnace was hot enough to melt down the iron scavenged from the wastelands.
For the siege on the Macintosh Hills, Discord had demanded every warrior changeling in the hive and as much weaponry as they could forge. Though little of the scavenged iron was kept for the changelings, most of it went to Discord who molded it himself for his favourite creatures. His creations of iron were nothing like the graceful edges of changeling blades, they were wrong somehow. But there was nothing a lowly worker changeling could do about it.
"Hitotsu Futatsu wa-"
"Bring that one to me! Now!" The Queen's voice cut through the hive like a knife. Everyone froze as one of the Queen's warrior drones cuffed the lead singer's ears and more dragged than led her away from the bellows. The changelings atop the furnace yelled in panic as the changelings on the bellows froze, they scrambled to start again.
This time there was no singing.
The drone's unblemished chitin and large wings glinted in the lantern light as he tossed the worker prostrate before her Queen. The little worker didn't dare look up for fear that she would be punished, she pressed her nose to the floor in respect. She felt the drone's Kojiri against the back of her skull as a warning.
She didn't have to look up to know what the Queen looked like, even if she was only a shell of her former self. One of her wings was nearly gone, her horn a shattered wreck of the pillar it had once been. Her chitin was healing but it still held many cracks and tears, especially around her mouth. In truth the worker was fearful she wouldn't be able to stop staring if she looked.
"Yes, that's the one," Discord said with disinterest. "Now, make her take the place of the leader of Ponyville, she's to make sure they cooperate with my insurgents once they arrive," he explained as he fiddled with a rusted piece of metal from the desert.
"Do you hear that, child?" the Queen asked, but the changeling did not answer except to press her face harder into the ground. "I have generously chosen you to go on an important mission in enemy territory." The Queen grinned as she said it, happy to send off this changeling on a dangerous mission alone. "Take their pathetic overseer's place and keep the ponies unaware of our plans until we have arrived, am I understood?" she asked coldly, anger boiled under the buzz of her voice.
"Yes, my Queen," the poor worker sputtered into the floor. The worker's eyes flashed green for an instant and the Queen's will and knowledge flowed into her, but only a taste.
"Send her back to work," the Queen commanded her drone.
He picked the worker back up, and with a whirl of his powerful wings swept her back to the bellows. The few workers who rested between turns on the bellows rushed to her side and huddled her over to the mats nearby. They all began to coddle her with questions, but the worker only smiled and took her place on the bellows again.
"Akago mo Fumuga, Mittsu Yottsu wa," she sang as she started to work alongside the others. Soon the hive buzzed with song again, but somehow there was less cheer there.
"Trouble child," the drone muttered as he buzzed away. The Queen would be content once more when that uppity worker was dead and gone.
---
"What did you find in the gardens?" Celestia inquired of the horror stricken Guard that had whispered in her ear.
"It was a bloody hoof," the stallion stuttered. "Something killed a deer in the gardens," he reported.
Celestia took a deep breath in through her nose before she spoke, certain to compose herself before she spoke aloud. "Court is dismissed for the day, please leave now," she said calmly, "everypony," she insisted to her Guard.
The sharply dressed nobles here to offer petitions and bills were filed out quickly by the Guards. The doors boomed shut behind them and left the spacious throne room empty. The late morning light streamed through the stained glass hall, and behind Celestia the bas relief sculptures that depicted the founding of her nation glinted in polished marble.
And in this solitude Celestia’s visage twisted into a rage filled scowl. Her coat shimmered with heat, and her mane flickered like fire. Thoughts unbidden took root in her mind, and she only grew all the more furious.
What if a foal had found that foul beast's leftovers? Or worse, had caught it in the act! It could only have been that creature Luna was harboring. If Celestia ever caught sight of that thing again, she'd -
Celestia took another deep breath, her throne had started to burn. Something heavy and hard sent a shiver of pain through her ribs, but she resisted her anger and her pain.
No, she told herself, no. She would not allow herself to trump Luna’s authority over the matter, as much as it enraged her not to. She would not invoke a political power struggle over this, even though the threat certainly gave her reason to.
Her mind flashed with ancient images of teeth in the darkness, swords as heavy as a chariot but thin as paper and armor as liquid as their shapes. Rivers of blood flowed through city streets and one those things, bigger than a bear, stood over the dead form of one of her sisters.
For now, she said to herself, but soon she would set things straight.
For now ...
---
This truly was a part of the castle that Rainbow had never been to, though it made sense why not. She'd left the daily spa session early today in exchange for a bout of exploration, she just wasn't up for a hooficure was all.
Just the fact that this part of the castle, so close to the gates of the palace, was dedicated to the predominantly male Guard was strange alone, but it certainly wasn't meant for the higher society members to see. Everything was clean of course, but also somewhat plain. Everything here was clearly labeled and designed for the quick deployment of troops should they be needed, not the hoity toity decoration that the rest of the castle was famous for. But that really wasn't what made it strange.
In most other military establishments, the ponies enlisted were mares and rarely stallions. There just weren't enough stallions that were interested in that sort of thing. But here it seemed that ratio was reversed. Rainbow wasn't too savvy on the history, she'd always fallen asleep in that class, not that she wasn't interested in it. She knew for a fact it had been a joke from Celestia to her Captain of the Guard a few hundred years ago about being surrounded by gorgeous stallions all day that had been taken, much to the Princess's surprise, very literally.
And Rainbow had to admit, they certainly were gorgeous. She stopped quite happily on her way past a training session where many of the muscled stallions were drilled, matted with sweat and breathless. She caught sight of the melee practices in another courtyard, the scrawny squires rushed around to polish armor and dress their knights with dulled weapons to bash each other with. Blacksmiths and their wiry apprentices were nearby to repair armor and take orders for new equipment.
It was all very entertaining for Rainbow, even if she only stayed for a little while.
However, after that she needed something to let steam off, so she returned to the mostly abandoned officer's gym. A few laps or some weight lifting should do the trick.
The receptionist was strangely absent, even though she'd been there the day before. Rainbow let herself in anyway, Luna had given her permission. She searched for the weight room only to discover most of them empty and missing their equipment, but she eventually found them and the stallion using them.
Coalback was too busy on an overloaded squat bar to notice her, and the Lunar Guards that spotted him never flinched away from their task. However Clean Cut turned with a surprised look toward her, his black notebook shut itself and tucked away into his labcoat.
"Miss Dash," he greeted. "What a surprise to see you here! Does the Princess know you're here?" he asked as he stepped between her and Coalback. But Rainbow wasn't about to be distracted that easily.
"No," she said as she dodged around the doctor. "Holy cow! That's gotta be at least two hundred pounds!" she said as she counted the disks that were nearly bending the bar balanced on the painted Pegasi's shoulders.
"Two hundred and thirty, actually," Clean Cut mumbled automatically. "Is there something you needed?" he asked to bluntly change the topic.
"Well, yeah," Rainbow said once she'd gotten over the shocking feat. "You guys are hogging all the weights, I want to get in a little workout before we all go on a 'Historical Tour' of Canterlot," she said, it was a wonder how Twilight had convinced them all it was a good idea last night.
"I see, I suppose that's nothing unreasonable-"
"Rainbow Dash!" The bar came back to rest on its stand with a loud crash and a creak as it settled under its uncommon weight and Coalback turned to face them. He cleared his throat and said "Hallo." He took a towel in his hoof before he walked toward them, somewhat unsteady as he got back to his hooves. He wiped the sweat off of his face as he came astride of Clean Cut. "Rainbow Dash does ... Exercise?" he asked through a heavy accent.
"Holy cow! That was totally Equestrian!" Rainbow said in shock, it truly was strange to hear it from somepony who'd only a few nights ago had only been able to communicate with his hooves and a few strangled words. "Yeah, I totally do. Can you share the weights, dude?"
"Share ... weights?" he repeated and rolled the words in his mouth as he contemplated them. "Ah! Yes, Rainbow Dash does share weights!" he said resolutely once he'd pieced together what she had asked. He made a familiar motion with his head for her to follow him and he walked back toward the literal wall of heavy objects.
Clean Cut only sighed in defeat, he'd faced worse than a pushy mare or stallion in his life. But he didn't stop them.
Coalback picked up a fifty pound barbell with a hoof and propped one hoof on a bench to start work on his shoulder with quick reps, otherwise he didn't bother to say anything else to Rainbow. Rainbow took some much lighter weights in wing and began a few lifts, it was her wing day and she was not about to miss it.
Even if Coalback continued to glance at her wings past his own reps. Fine, he wanted to get a look then she'd get some answers:
"What do you do, Coalback?" she asked only for the big pony to pause and look with a confused expression at her. "I mean, like, what sort of stuff do you do? Fire Rescue? Storm Chasing?" she asked, she knew it wasn't that simple but she wanted at least an idea of what interested this pony.
"I fight," he answered after a moment and returned to his weight. He switched arms.
"Oh, right. I guess that makes sense," Rainbow trailed off. That hadn't gone as planned.
"What is it Rainbow Dash 'do'?" He asked her after a moment, which was surprising to her. She still had the impression that he was displeased with everything in the world. The fact that he wanted to know something about her was ... charming.
"I race," Rainbow said proudly. She went on when his ear perked up in her direction. "Oh yeah, that wind in your mane, blood pumping, wings aching they're moving so fast! I live for that stuff," she said, and she could have sworn she saw the ghost of a smile on his face.
"Sprint or ... marathon?" he asked after a moment.
"A little of both I guess," she said as she switched to a different position to work her aviary pectorals. "I mostly do speed, but I can outfly just about anypony," she bragged. She wasn't sure how effective that would be with the stallion, but it made her feel more comfortable around him.
"Rainbow Dash should fight," Coalback said after a moment as he set down the barbell and picked up a hundred pound weight fashioned from two fifty pound disks strapped on top of each other. "It keep Rainbow Dash alive more th'n running," he grunted as he laid himself out on a bench and started on crunches with the disk clutched to his chest. His accent bent the words into strange shapes.
"Huh?"
"Where I come from, the things that hunt you will chase you down for however long it takes for you to drop dead on your own," he said carefully, his breathing remained steady with his crunches. "They only catch flies dead, yeah?" He glanced coldly in her direction, and Rainbow got the feeling there was a lot more to what he was saying than she realized.
"I ... guess that makes sense," she said. Suddenly this was a lot less comfortable. "Is that why you're in such a bad mood all the time? You think you're being hunted here?" she asked, though she wasn't so sure she liked his answer.
"Something is watching, and it isn't a pony."
---
That night Rainbow Dash and her friends learned all about the conceivement and construction Canterlot: The Cantered Slope City of the Rising Sun. How Celestia had called upon every engineer and architect the ponies could muster to design her grand city, and how it would be able to stand for a hundred thousand years after they had long passed. Even how the palace was really originally supposed to be a keep, but had been altered to be slightly less functional and far more fashionable.
They visited museums that memorialized past conflicts between ponies and the mares that died in those battles. How the City-States had been divided and warred amongst each other before Celestia could band them together. Rarity swooned over Romantic paintings. Applejack became puzzled over the pieces of art constructed purely of geographic shapes that Pinkie seemed to find absolutely hilarious. Fluttershy admired the sculptures while Rainbow admired the old wing blades on display. And Twilight had fawned over ancient texts displayed in protective cases that magically turned the pages.
Meanwhile, a changeling in the deserts far to the South learned all she could of her prey. Her mannerisms, linguistics and habits. How she thought, what she held highly and what she looked down upon. Even what products she bought, or how often she used the bathroom.
~~~
That night Coalback simply wouldn't acknowledge anypony. For some reason he'd dropped back into a bad mood, it was surprising that he tolerated the Lunar Guards at all.
He didn't say anything when he left the room, and for some reason his Guard didn't stop him either. They traveled as a group through the palace, steadily on their way to the hospital wing. It was abandoned save for the few doctors that treated the few injured from putting out fires in the garden only a few days ago.
Burn victims mostly, and the few guards that had been injured by the grey Pegasus himself. Strangely enough, Coalback stopped outside of the Burn Ward and simply stared in at the bandaged and pained ponies.
Burns were harsh on the body. They cut away flesh and damaged nerves, the pain rarely ever simply disappeared on serious cases. Skin grafts were all well and good, but until the burn was totally healed the pain would always be excruciating.
Coalback knew all this, he'd been through far worse than some of these ponies. Not that he couldn't sympathize, quite the opposite actually. If he had a god or gods to pray to, he would have. But all he had were memories that he regretted, hated himself for, and grieved over. Of no help to the living.
His Guards remained stoic and sympathetically silent in their thick cloaks and heavy armor, they didn't bother to keep a tight circle around him. Somehow they understood the stallion where nopony else could.
The servants of the Night could recognise remorse, no matter how well it was hidden.
However, the Solar Guards stationed in this wing of the hospital would not be able to. Nobles from birth the only violence they'd ever seen was behind city drinking holes and after large concerts or festivals. In truth they had all actually fought in the Changeling invasion, and for it they considered themselves champions.
And the sight of this criminal outside a hospital's burn ward, where pain and suffering were the norm, made their skin crawl. Filibuster was all but finished with this stallion, especially since he continued to pop up outside of a cell.
"You are disgusting," Filibuster growled, positively fuming. Coalback flinched at the word, ears and intense eyes turned, confused, to the Solar Guard. "Do you just enjoy watching ponies suffer? Is that it?!" Coalback turned fully toward Filibuster, but the emotions on his face conflicted with confusion and the Guard went on. "You caused that! Are you here to admire your work, you disgusting cretin? I'll never understand what the Princess sees in your black heart, but I hope she sees how horrible you really are soon so I can put a spear through your eye!"
Coalback moved before any of the Guards in the hall could react. In the blink of an eye he was across the room and Filibuster was slammed against the plastered wall hard enough to crack it. Coalback pushed the other stallion up so that only the tips of his rear hooves could touch the floor, the painted Pegasi's arm pressed hard into Filibuster's larynx.
"You don't know anything!" Coalback hissed into Filibuster's ear, he didn't even have to stretch over the smaller stallion. "You call yourself a killer but I donnae see it!"
Filibuster choked, his hooves dug at Coalback's thick arm in a desperate attempt for air. But just as Filibuster was sure that he'd pushed the stallion too far and he was going to die without even a chance to defend himself, Coalback was gone. Filibuster dropped to the floor and gasped for air, his partner was quickly there to pick him up again. Coalback had fled with his Lunar Guard just behind him.
---
Luna was at dinner at one of the finer restaurants in Canterlot when her Guard came to her. It was far past sundown and they'd nearly finished their food, but the Lunar Guard's rushed entrance shattered the mood. Her dark blue shemagh wrapped around her withers shifted as she bowed to the Princess.
"Calm thyself and explain clearly," she ordered the young mare. She bowed lower and took a moment to shake out her leathery wings and calm her nerves before the shemagh shifted again. "That is worrying news, and extremely inconvenient. Stop apologizing," she ordered and the shemagh was still again.
"What's wrong, Princess?" Applejack asked from across her empty plate.
"It's nothing to be concerned about," she said as she stood. "However it is unfortunate that I must ask you all to continue without me for a few moments once more, if you will excuse me," Luna said as she began to leave.
"This is about Coalback again, isn't it?" Rainbow said more than asked. She recognised the Guard from the weight room, there was no doubt in her mind.
"Unfortunately," Luna confirmed, but she barely paused on her way out the door.
"Then I'm coming with," Rainbow announced as she leapt away from the table to follow Luna. But this time the Princess did pause.
"We would prefer if you went back to the castle, Rainbow Dash," Luna insisted.
"Rainbow, dear, what ever has possessed you to need to be involved with this. From what you told us he's a brute, hardly worth worrying over," Rarity said with a frown.
"I'm not gonna let you walk all over the guy, I don't care what you say," Rainbow insisted to Luna.
"Very well, We lack the time to diffuse this. The rest of you may finish your meal-"
"No way, if Rainbow’s goin' then so're we," Applejack spoke up, the whole table agreed even if Rarity was somewhat upset about it.
"We must make haste," Luna insisted as the Guard led them out the door. "This situation is spiraling out of control," she muttered under her breath.
The cloaked Lunar Guard led them through the streets as quickly as she could with the ground-bound ponies in tow, Luna’s personal Guard of heavily armored bat-ponies formed quickly around them. Through darkened boulevards and past stores just about to close for the night. The few crowds that still were on the streets at this hour quickly made way for the Princess and her Guards. It wasn't hard to find the location, half the street had been locked down by Lunar Guards.
The bar they surrounded was nearly empty, but the owner's voice was unmistakably livid. The mare stood out front with a Lunar Guard who wrote down everything she said. "He came out of nowhere and demanded, demanded, that I bring him a keg, a whole keg, of my hardest stuff! Then he had the gall to call it watered down! And now he refuses to pay for anything and he's still in there drinking!"
Luna rushed into the fray with the Elements in tow. They slid to a stop on the frosty cobbles as Luna opened the door to the bar. Inside was surprisingly tame to how the exterior appeared: It could have easily been assumed that somepony was holding hostages inside with how the Guard had reacted, but no one was inside except for the rest of Coalback’s personal Guard regiment and the stallion himself.
The mares froze as they entered, the difference was shocking. The only damage appeared to be where the stallion had apparently dragged the kegs of liquor across the floor to a bench and had drained them. But he just sat there and stared at one of the paintings on the wall that most bars seemed to have just to add some sort of atmosphere but were never meant to truly be art.
"Why hasn't anypony done anything yet?" Luna asked the nearest guard, the scarf around his neck shifted in answer. "That is understandable. What of Clean Cut?" Luna asked, her head whipped around to the only fully armored Lunar Guard there. The dark, sharp horned unicorn with the same glowing yellow eyes that were the staple of the Lunar Guard didn't appear to say anything but all the same Luna responded. "Gone? Where could he have gone?"
Rainbow looked between Luna and her Guards in confusion. She was practically having only half a conversation, none of the guards were even speaking. It was only then that Rainbow noticed that every Guard wore something over their withers, whether or not it was armor.
Finally Rainbow simply turned to Twilight. "What's going on?" she whispered. "How are they talking to Luna?"
"Those are Thestrals," Twilight explained. "They don't talk like Equestrian ponies do, they don't have vocal chords like us. They talk with their throats, but I don't know how," Twilight admitted with a shrug.
It was only once Luna paused her investigation with her Guards that a quiet sound was able to be heard. In the commotion that had sprung up, nopony had been able to hear the quiet singing. But once the noise had dropped it became apparent.
It was in a language none of them could understand, but it was there all the same. And it came from Coalback. He never seemed to have noticed them, he could have been singing from the moment they entered. Everypony stopped, if only just to try to make out what he sang.
Coalback faced the wall, head on the table, and sang through clenched teeth. He sang with the sorrow of a drunk stallion, which he had apparently only won once he had emptied three kegs of their contents and started on a fourth. His eyes were locked on the painting hung from the wall of a pack of wolves running on a nameless snow field.
And then he sang in Equestrian, his sorrow rose with his voice. "O' all the money that e'er I've spent, I spent it in good company." He seemed to droop with the words only to raise his voice in spite. "And all the harm that e'er I've done, alas it was to none but me. And all I've done for want of wit, to mem'ry now I can't recall. So fill to me the parting glass: Good night, and joy be with you all."
Coalback’s head rose unsteadily from the table it had rested on, his voice filled the empty bar. "O' all the comrades that e'er I had, are sorry for my going away." The windows hummed with his voice, and the table gained a tear. "And all the sweethearts that e'er I had, would wish me one more day to stay. But since it falls unto my lot, that I should rise and you should not ..."
Coalback cried as he stared at the painting, all too many happy memories mixed in with horrible truths in his mind. It was too much for his inebriated mind. "... I'll gently rise and I'll softly call ..." his voice fell and stopped and his heavy head fell back onto the table.
Luna huffed with hesitant impatience. "We believe this display has gone on long enough," she announced to Coalback, unsure if the emotions he so strongly demonstrated were genuine. "Halt this, it is pathetic for one of your station, Coalback," she said, ready to pull the pegasus back to his hooves with a strong hoof. She was reluctant to drop the facade of strength she had built for the stallion, even if it might mean that the Elements saw her in a harsher light for it.
"I never wanted this," Coalback muttered, he didn't seem to have noticed Luna's voice. "I didn't want to hurt them, I didn't want any-" He hiccuped as he spoke, tears choked him, "-anyone to die." His hooves held down his ears, almost like his own voice was upsetting to him. "I didn't have a choice ... no choice, no choice," he mumbled between sobs. The empty kegs shivered with the timber of his voice, a reminder of what had spiraled the strong stallion so low.
Rainbow could only watch with a mixture of sympathy and disgust. It was so wrong seeing the pony that had lifted two hundred and thirty pounds for a squat and then a hundred more for crunches as deflated as this. Or the pony that had supposedly taken down a dragon bawling his eyes out like a foal. But it also reminded her, unfortunately, of her father. And that she would not put up with any longer.
Rainbow broke from the group without a second thought. She grabbed the stallion’s shoulder and pulled him off of the bench as best as she could with his large frame. "Stand up!" she ordered with all the ferocity she could muster. "Stand up!" She didn't know exactly what it was that Coalback had grieved for just then, but enough was enough. "That's enough! No more drinking, no more crying! You're a stallion, damnit, I get it but you need to stand up!"
To the surprise of everypony in the room, Coalback responded. He stood shakily, tears streaked his face and matted the patterns of his fur. He was still deflated, no more than a foal in a stallion's too-big-body, but standing all the same.
"Now come on, time to go home," Rainbow said, surprised with her own ferocity. Almost like she had been a long time ago.
But this time, Coalback resisted. "There isnae home," he grunted in his strange accent, worsened by the drink. "Home burned, no home with ponies," he almost snapped as he wrenched his arm free from her.
"No!" Rainbow said, not about to let the stallion sit back down. "You listen," she commanded with a rough pull on his withers to force him to face her. "This is what you've got, buckle down and deal with it. 'Cuz this-" She motioned to the empty kegs and all the Guards in the room, "-This won't cut it!"
Coalback aimed a half drunk glare at her, but she could see him consider her words. Finally he simply slumped over, his admittance of defeat.
"Good. Now come on, time to go," Rainbow said firmly, but this time she made sure to be gentle as she led him.
Nopony said anything, most were afraid to try. They led Coalback back to the palace with little event, Rainbow brought him back to his room and settled him onto the mattress shredding nest he had created, on his side. She made it clear to the Guards that he needed to be kept under watch pretty carefully so he wouldn't choke in his sleep.
At the end of it she shut the door with a huff of frustration. Only to turn to the shocked expression of her friends, and the strangely calm face of Luna. "Don't ask me about it, okay. It's over, can we just go to bed now?" she said without the patience to actually wait for an answer. She pushed past them to start toward the room they'd all been sharing.
She didn't want to talk, but she didn't want to be alone at the moment either. Her friends understood. Luna contemplated whether she had been too harsh in her methods with the Blood-Born.
But Coalback contemplated revenge on the Solar Guard that had brought forth the memories he'd carefully buried, and the voice in his head was all too eager to help.
It was a normal morning as far as Filibuster was concerned. He woke up, bathed himself, and prepared to start on morning training. His squires, blank flank colts in apprenticeship to the Guard, dressed him in his heavy chain jerkin and sword belt. Heavy boots protected his hooves, and a pair of vambraces made sure that should he chose to wield a sword, it would remain securely attached to his foreleg. Today would be a melee training day, dull swords and bruises and a lot of sweat. Then he would don the rest of his armor and take up the long, arduous duty of palace watch.
It was a testament to a Guard's strength to be able uphold their stoic visage after a hard morning of rigorous training. One all of the Solar Guard were happy to boast to each other about, often and loudly.
Filibuster felt powerful, nobler even than any other position fit for his pedigree when he was dressed in the golden armor of Celestia’s Guard. He not only was strong and we'll trained, but his authority could stretch all the way to the goddess herself.
And that was what really made him happy.
Filibuster was no fool, at least of that he was sure. He didn't just act above others, he made sure he could hold it. With discipline, strength, wit, and skill he had earned his rank. Even if it wasn't high enough to exempt him from palace patrols and guard posts. He often liked to make sure that was obvious to the other Guard members in the sparring fields as well.
His spear and sword skills were unmatched by any of the Earth pony or Pegasi Guards, even without magic. And his magic was some of the strongest in his division. He hoped to rise to the rank of Captain as soon as possible, only an old crone stood there now where Shining Armor once had.
Filibuster grinned as he made his way to the sparring field, now he had no competition without that pony in the way. A Sparkle as the Captain of the Guard, it was laughable that a non-noble had ever held it. Disgraceful that a non-noble would be married to the Princess of the Crystal Kingdom as well, but not something Filibuster had the authority to deny.
For now he could vent that sort of frustration out on the other Guards in the arena. He started with the spear, his personal favourite. It had a long reach and a deadly speed when swung correctly. The training spears were dulled, but they still held the shape and weight of a real spear and could leave one hell of a bruise on anypony if used correctly.
He entered the Courtyard under the shaded partitions that held warming fires at this time of the year. The simple covers only provided protection from rain or snow, but the squires, smiths and Guards all gathered under them when they were not on the fields themselves. These frosted grass platforms were a luxury for the Guard this high in the mountains, the triple circle of grass was one of their prides and joys: Mostly because this was where most of the blood they shed in training fell.
Filibuster ducked past a jab by one of the other Guards, a twist of mauve magic knocked the spear tip away. He blocked another strike in the same motion from another Guard. The two were suited up in the same jerkins that Filibuster wore, though both had taken the caution to don padded helmets. Filibuster didn't get hit, he didn't bother to wear one of those obstructing devices, they muffled his hearing.
A wooden pole whipped toward his head, it whistled past his ear as he dodged and the Guard who wielded it overextended the strike. Filibuster's training spear whiffled as he gave it a spin, the other Guard’s spear sailed away. In the same motion his other opponent took a harsh, breath taking hit from the metal capped end of Filibuster's spear. Filibuster gave one final flick against the retreating Guards' flanks as they went to retrieve their weapons and recover in the shade.
As Filibuster turned away from the field, prepared to get a drink from one of his squires with a laugh on his lips, he caught sight of a blood chilling scene:
Coalback walked with purpose through the Guard. Most recognised him from his newly frequent visits to the mess hall that never failed to clear the room, but none dared to stop him. Not even the Lunar Guards that scrambled in behind him dared to make a move to halt him.
Coalback had already locked eyes on Filibuster, but stopped short of the field. Instead he squinted at Filibuster, and then observed the rest of Guard that had paused on the field. In a moment he seemed to have reached a decision and turned to one of the Lunar Guard next to him.
Filibuster could not hear what the stallion said to the Looney, but he was certain it wasn't good. With a nod the purple clad bat-pony sent one of the other Lunar Guards to collect a chainmail jerkin from one of the squires and a heavy belt. By now Coalback had attracted a crowd of the all stallion Guard, most watched but several lent the use of their squires to dress the huge pegasus.
Among the Guard, if a stallion wanted to fight, there would be nopony who would try to talk them out of it. Even if all they could do was try, or even if they truly did not belong. Comradery amongst stallions, as they say.
Coalback's eyes never left Filibuster as squires scrambled around him to fit the jerkin and the boots properly to him. Some of the squires presented Coalback with several training weapons: swords of various lengths and weights, spears equally as varied, and several wooden shields both for the wing or the foreleg. Coalback selected a blunt wooden sword with a metal core.
One of the stallions in the crowd guffawed. "We use those to train the colts," he yelled, the laugh ready before it ever left his throat. "You know, before their balls drop!" The crowd erupted into laughter, one that Filibuster gladly joined in as he leaned on his spear.
Filibuster truly enjoyed the spectacle the painted pegasus put on amongst all the white coats and brightly colored manes. Even if he wasn't sure what the purpose of it was. Some of the older squires laughed along with the stallions, but Coalback and his entourage remained stoic as the arm length stick was attached to his foreleg for him.
Coalback stepped onto the frosted field and walked toward Filibuster, who only grinned wider. "I heard about your little spectacle last night," Filibuster announced as Coalback approached, loud enough that the entire courtyard could hear. "I heard you ran into the first bar you could and drank 'till you cried your eyes out. Perhaps I was wrong about you, you're nothing more than a sniveling welp. All bark, no bite!" he taunted.
Coalback stopped just outside of the reach of Filibuster's spear, the wooden sword's tip sank into the cold sod. "That 'bark' was a warning," Coalback said just as loudly, calm much to the surprise of the entire crowd. They grew silent as Coalback's deep timber settled over them. "You should be honored that you got even that, prey," he growled with rolling 'r's.
Coalback’s stance widened, the wooden sword brought to the ready. Filibuster's eyes widened in mock surprise as he followed suit. An intricate twirl of the spear brought it to the ready. Coalback feinted with a jab and went right, Filibuster followed with a vicious swing of the spear.
The crowd of Guards spread in a wide circle around them, jeers and cheers alike filled the air as they watched Filibuster dance with Coalback. Bets were made: How many moves Filibuster would use or how long the newcomer would survive.
Coalback wasn't quick with his blade like Filibuster could be with the tip of his spear, but the other stallion was better than he would have originally expected. Coalback dodged when he couldn't block and the lead-core wooden sword knocked the tip of the spear away whenever it could. But Filibuster knew he held the advantage with his longer reach.
Even though Filibuster was aware that the stallion was strong, he never realized quite how much. Several times Filibuster got the blunt, pointed tip of his spear on a path that should have smashed through anypony else's defense, but Coalback demonstrated an expert amount of speed and strength to bat away the tip. Several times it opened up Filibuster to attack, dramatically so, but Coalback hadn't struck yet.
He toyed with him, that's what he did. He wanted to judge just how good Filibuster was. And Filibuster realized it, and it made him furious.
Filibuster twisted his face into a grimace as he retreated a step. With a grunt he rose to his rear hooves and swung the spear in a deadly fast swing with a flick at the end to drive Coalback into a retreat. The stallion flinched back as the tip of the spear whistled just in front of his scarred throat and lunged into the opening between swings.
It was a tiny window, Filibuster had been able to make sure of that. With a quick twist from his hooves, the rear end of his spear slammed down. The capped end caught the wooden sword and snapped it and the metal core in half.
Coalback didn't even flinch. His huge, chainmail bolstered shoulder slammed into Filibuster's chest and knocked the wind and his spear from him. Coalback never let up once he'd gained the advantage, a snarl on his lips as he found himself in close combat with the other pony.
To his credit, Filibuster didn't give up. His hooves came up to protect his core as Coalback aimed for his barrel. He managed to turn a hoof away and open Coalback's own side to attack, but before he could strike the painted Pegasi's wing shot out. It impacted his armpit with extraordinary force and Filibuster was robbed of air as his chest spasmed. Coalback’s hooves found the back of his head and Filibuster's muzzle met Coalback's knee in a single motion.
Filibuster cried out, suddenly blind with pain. He felt his rear leg snap under a hoof far before he felt the actual pain. And then Coalback's huge forearm was pressed into his throat in a stranglehold.
The crowd was shocked silent. It had ended so quickly, and not in the favour that they'd thought it would. Bits changed hooves.
When Filibuster was able to see again he found the bloodied tip of the broken sword in front of his gushing nose. He could feel blood roll down his heel where the broken sword had hit him. Coalback pressed his arm into Filibuster's throat but had yet to actually strangle him.
The Lunar Guards that had escorted him to the training fields surrounded them the moment they realized Coalback's intent, their heavy halberds were aimed in a bristling wall around the locked pair. The crowd behind the Lunar Guards quieted and split as somepony else entered the field. The Lunar Guards in front of Coalback didn't even have to check behind them, they merely stepped aside as a fully armored Luna stepped forward. Light wavered around her black armor, almost as if they could not meet properly.
"Any closer and I'll kill him!" Coalback bellowed over Filibuster's shoulder, his voice rang in Filibuster's ears. "All I have to do is squeeze!"
"Put. Him. Down." Luna's command echoed off the walls around the fields. Coalback swallowed, Filibuster could feel it against the back of his head. "Now. Or you will fight Us."
"Is that a challenge?" Coalback roared, his voice shook the ground. Filibuster's ears rang.
"Indeed," Luna said without hesitation. Her horn lit with blue magic and a heavy mace pulled free from her belt, it hovered above and behind her head ready to strike. Her wings shook loose to bring the two large, slender shields emblazoned with stars to bear.
Coalback growled deeper, more the sound of a bear. "He can't walk, someone come here and take him from me!" he finally bellowed, his arm slowly released Filibuster. Several Guards and their squires rushed through the line and collected him, almost too afraid to approach the Pegasus.
When Filibuster was clear of the field, a thin trail of red in the cold grass, Coalback ripped the stump of the training sword off of the vambrace he still wore.
"This will be Our final warning, Coalback!" Luna said, her voice filled the fields with her presence. "Surrender now and you will not be punished! It is too late to stop this from becoming an affair of both crowns, but not too late to still be able to fulfill thine promise to Us."
Coalback glared at Luna, he barely had to look up at the alicorn. He growled low and his snarl deepened. "Defeat me here, and you will have won my loyalty. But if you fall, I will leave this place and never return, Child of the Earth," he growled.
Luna stiffened, she hadn't been called by that title in thousands of years. It was not one that brought good memories with it. She calmed herself quickly with a recitation of the ancient rules of combat, older than herself: "By the laws of the ancients We must offer thee a weapon, and by right we must not use Our magic and thou must swear to keep to thine hooves."
"Done. An axe," Coalback demanded with a twitch of his ear. One of the Lunar Guard pulled free a heavy single-hoofed axe from his own belt and strapped it to Coalback's vambrace. Another Lunar Guard retrieved a wing shield and fastened it to Coalback's opposite wing. Coalback rolled his shoulders to test their weight, for him they were like toys; easily broken against others' bones.
Luna took a step forward and the Lunar Guard retreated, the crowd moved back in silence. Coalback stood his Ground as Luna readied her stance, and neither moved for what seemed an eternity. Their eyes were locked, but as still as they were both searched the other for any weakness and formed their plan of attack.
Coalback moved first, a glint in his eye the only warning Luna was given before a chunk of sod was thrown toward her face. She raised her shields reflexively and, unfortunately, closed her eyes for an instant. Coalback didn't slam into her front as she had assumed the stallion would attempt, instead he slid on the cold grass around her, axe embedded in the soil as his fulcrum, and delivered a harsh kick toward one of her hooves.
However, an alicorn's reflexes were far beyond the limits of mortal flesh and blood. Luna could not have dodged the attack, but she was able to roll her leg away from the strike enough to save the tender bones there. In a vicious swing her shield moved, nearly enough to stumble Coalback from the back draft alone.
Coalback retreated and was back on the assault in two powerful bounds. His axe whistled through the air and Luna was forced to huddle behind a shield as he battered it relentlessly. Luna’s mace swung with her head over her shield but the most it did to the pony was make him dodge over to the other wing.
Coalback surprised her again when he slammed into her shields, he used the pressure to lock the hook of his axe under her shield and slip into her reach. His thick hoof impacted the point between breastplate and pauldron, nearly enough to knock the Princess’s breath away.
Luna recovered quickly, she used her momentum from the impact to pull herself to her rear hooves and deliver a devastating front kick directly to Coalback's sternum.
The tip of Coalback's axe nicked her chin as he flew back, just enough to draw blood.
He was launched back by her might only to fall into a reverse roll and land back on his hooves. The single drop of blood turned to red pearl as it fell and landed with a light thud in the grass between them.
Now it was Luna's turn to gain the offensive, and she took her opportunity with great haste. She swung her mace in a close arc to herself, she let it swing out toward Coalback to keep him on the retreat but only gained a few passing blows to his wing shield. He batted it away most of the time, but the lighter hits he took to his wing. And once they'd found a pattern, Luna broke it in a spectacular way.
Just when she would have feinted with her shield, she ducked in the other direction and swung her mace hard at his shielded side. The heavy weapon impacted Coalback's side with a sickening crunch, his shield shattered with his wing as he was thrown by the impact.
The crowd cheered, nearly enough to drown out Luna’s command for her opponent to "Submit!"
Coalback's snarl quieted the crowd quickly enough for them to hear his wing snap back into place. The bloodied wreck that had been his wing jerked as the bones realigned themselves and snapped back into their joints, completely whole. His green eyes glinted in the morning sun as he turned a deadly glare to Luna.
And she panicked. In that moment she saw more than a beast or a pony. She saw pain, terror, sadism and hate. In an instant she saw a war, a battle to the death, and the fury of a civilization that should have died out nearly a millennia ago.
Before Luna could retaliate to these images, a spell that surely could have put the creature down, a mauve force-spell rocketed over her shoulder.
Coalback reacted faster than Luna did to the outside attack. His axe arm shot up across his chest and caught the spell only for it to sizzle against his borrowed chainmail and be deflected. The spell detonated against the stone walls behind him and left the stallion with his only injury to the decimated jerkin. His arm rings, unmarred, glinted in streams of light that swam through the dust thrown into the air.
In the same instant Coalback reversed the motion and flicked his hoof back down. The axe ripped free from its compromised fastenings and sailed through the air past Luna.
Luna didn't look to see who his target had been, she barely heard the heavy, wet, crawk it made as it struck. Instead she tackled Coalback to the ground, she pulled a knife swiftly from her belt and held it to his throat. Coalback smirked for only a moment, and laid his head down in the grass in submission.
A scream filled the courtyard, a wail of animalistic pain and fear. When Luna looked, she nearly cried out in shock. Coalback's axe had flown true; severed Filibuster's horn from his head with barely an inch to spare and imbedded itself in a post. Scarlet splattered wood, axe, grass and Guard alike around the severed appendage.
Blood gushed from the wound and the other Guards struggled to keep Filibuster still. His broken leg flopped uselessly as he clutched at his drenched face and tried to run from the pain at the same time. Somepony yelled for a medic, but mostly the Guards just stared at the subdued Pegasus with silent awe and hate.
"Actions speak louder than words," Coalback rumbled from under Luna’s hold, he looked directly at her through one, iridescent green eye. "He acted ... poorly."
---
"You mean you actually spent your spare time here?" Rainbow asked Twilight incredulously.
"Yep, I loved watching the court hearings. Mostly just politics and petitions but I found it extremely educational," Twilight said proudly. "The Royal Throne Room is where all of Canterlot's important cases and inquiries are held, where significant events in history are recorded, or sometimes even take place, and where judgement is made by a high judge and the Princesses during a trial," Twilight recited proudly. "Look, that mural is the oldest one in here! It shows the origin of pony kind," she said with an excited skip.
She led them toward the raised thrones and the wall to wall bas relief that covered the majority of the end of the hall. The Princesses were easily recognisable in the center, the only alicorns present. To each side were night and day, represented by a stylistic combination of the sun and moon above their heads. They looked out on a mirrored image of ponies being created: Pegasi pulled themselves from the clouds or simply were formed from a cloud; Above them, unicorns tentatively stepped down from the stars and rested on mountaintops; And nearest the Princesses the earth ponies shook clay from their manes and helped each other out of the ground. They came in the thousands.
"I'd nearly forgotten about that story," Rarity remarked as she admired the mural. "It's quite Romantic, don't you think?"
The grand Throne Room doors swung open on silent hinges under the guidance of two Solar Guards and Celestia walked into the room. The mares smiled and gave a deep bow to her as she climbed the raised platform. Celestia’s smile was more slight than gentle, forced.
"Good afternoon, my little ponies," she greeted and returned the bow with a nod. "It's good to see you all safe and sound, I've been fretting since I heard you arrived," Celestia admitted as she embraced her faithful student.
"You were worried 'bout us, Yer Majesty? We'll what fer?" Applejack asked, taken back by Celestia’s expression.
"I was worried more for worry's sake it would seem, you're all safe now and that’s what matters," Celestia said, she walked past them and relaxed into her throne. "I'm afraid that a Royal Case has been moved up to today," she said with a sigh and a reassuring smile. "It promises to be short though, I think. So if you'd like to wait for Luna afterwards you may, I won't take away from her time with you."
"Princess Luna’s coming here too? How important is this trial?" Twilight asked, her curiosity pushed her forward more than her concern.
"Merely a case that has transcended it's ability to be contained politically by just Luna. I'm only involved for minor reasons, mostly to soften the blow," Celestia assured.
Luna entered the chamber then, a small white bandage taped over her chin. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of the mares. "Girls! What are you doing here?" she asked, her trepidation barely hidden.
"What happened to your face, Luna!?" Pinkie exclaimed, already in a doctor costume by the time she'd zipped to Luna’s side.
"It is nothing. What are all of you doing here? You must leave," Luna insisted.
"Let them stay if they like, Luna," Celestia interjected from her throne. "Take a seat my little ponies, the trial is about to begin," she said. She motioned with a hoof to the side of her throne, and a wing for Luna to take to her own throne.
Luna frowned and obediently sat in her throne. The mares, with confusion evident on their faces, sat on the plush carpet beside Celestia. In only a moment the doors opened again and a large regiment of Solar Guards trudged into the throne room. It took a moment for the sound of dragging chains to reach them.
In short order the Guards split, they used the tension of the chains to keep their prisoner in the center. The Elements gasped in shock as they witnessed the pony, chained up so heavily that they couldn't even walk on their own, dragged forward until they were directly before the throne. The Guards grunted in unison as they tugged and twisted the chains to make the pony to sit up.
Coalback stared up at the Princesses blankly from behind his gag. Rainbow stiffened at the sight, her breath stopped in her throat.
"Isn't that-" Applejack began in shock.
"Coalback," Princess Celestia announced to the empty throne room. "You have trespassed on Royal Grounds, burgled my Sister's personal study, resisted arrest and assaulted members of the Guard multiple times, and mortally wounded a Guard in this most recent case. You have even assaulted Luna, she will hold a scar because of you. If not for my sister's generous heart, and had this been a different time, I would have had you imprisoned again or perhaps even executed."
The Elements looked between the chained up stallion and the Princesses, who only offered the barest glance their direction. Luna grimaced at her sister's tone, but was surprised at what she said next.
"However, in fairness I cannot ignore what you have done to the contrary. You saved Rainbow Dash from a brush with death, and not only that but you went out of your way to help her recover from her injuries. And you have surprised me with your civility in the face of uncivil treatment. And for that I apologize," Celestia said, nopony but Coalback saw how difficult it was for her to force those words out of her chest. "If you can swear to uphold our laws and endeavor to better yourself and the ponies around you, we would both be more than happy to grant you freedom and protection in our kingdom," she offered.
With a nod from the Princess a Guard used his magic to remove the gag from Coalback's mouth from afar. He stretched his jaw and spat out the flavor of the cloth.
"Will you accept this offer of peace, Coalback?" the Princess asked, an expression of hope clicked robotically into place.
"No," Coalback rumbled.
The mares shifted in surprise: How could anypony refuse such a generous apology? From the Princess herself no less.
"Then what would you have me do with you? I cannot in good conscious allow you to roam freely amongst my little ponies," the Princess rebutted.
"I would have you let me free. I am not your broken toy to mend, I should not even be here," Coalback said in surprisingly clear Equestrian, his accent rolled. "But Princess Luna has bound me to her service, so I must stay."
The Princess’s surprised expression was barely hidden, however her glance to Luna was not. "This is an interesting response, Coalback," Celestia said as she formulated some sort of appropriate response. "And what has my dear Sister asked of you, Coalback?" she asked.
"The Princess has tasked me to serve and protect," Coalback said.
"You would join the Guard?" Celestia said with a smile. "A noble endeavor, I think it would do you well-"
"I will not be made into one of them," Coalback growled loudly and pointed his chin toward the Solar Guards that still held his chains taught, his voice drowned out the Princess’s. "I don't know what they are, but I am to serve and protect from harm the Elements of Harmony, not you and this time forsaken palace," he said with malice
The throne room fell silent.
"When was this?" Princess Celestia all but demanded, a hiss barely made its way into her voice. She turned her accusative glare to Luna, whose ears fell as she straightened in her throne.
"Two nights ago," Luna responded calmly, "I took Coalback aside and forced him to swear his loyalty to me through the power of his Name, which I cannot speak again," Luna explained, she turned to Coalback next and spoke, her Sister ignored for the moment. "The Elements of Harmony are Equestria's last line of defense in the face of evil and chaos. In ages past they ended wars and set the balance anew. More recently they have pulled the balance back to where it belongs when others would have tipped it toward darkness and chaos," Luna said with a wave of her wing toward the stained glass windows. Coalback turned his head to look at the windows himself, and the image of Nightmare Moon and Discord as the Elements' power was released on them. "Now the Elements of Harmony reside within their bearers: these mares," Luna said once Coalback returned his attention to her, she used her wing to point to the six mares beside Celestia’s throne.
Coalback’s intense gaze turned to them, but Rainbow was certain that he looked directly at her.
"We have spent many hours traversing the dreamscape, and We can only come to one conclusion," Luna continued. "A force of evil has risen again, one that the Elements alone cannot defeat. We fear that they have been targeted and that without discreet and effective protection they may be lost forever."
"This is an extreme response to an assumption, dear Sister," Celestia said after a moment. Whether worry or irritation tinted her words was indiscernible.
"As is an execution before a trial," Luna shot back instantly. "Coalback's origins may be a subject of debate, but according to the laws you put down nearly a thousand years ago; an execution may only be performed without a unanimous vote of the Royal Council, the Archmage, and both of the Princesses," Luna recited.
The throne room was silent again, this time in shock that the Princesses had argued over something. It was silent until Rainbow simply could not remain still anymore.
"You really wanted to kill him?" Rainbow asked weakly, her voice nearly failed her as she realized what may truly be why Coalback was so on edge around the Princesses.
"Yes, but it is far more complicated than-" Celestia admitted and began to elaborate.
"Because he's from some really old legion, or something?" Rainbow blurted, her anger on the rise.
"He is not-" Celestia began, ready to launch into her own speech. But again she was cut off, this time by the rattling of chains.
"We killed thousands of you, hundreds of thousands of ponies," Coalback spoke, his voice filled the room without rising to a shout. "Armies marched through cities and blood followed them in floods," he growled, something shifted the air behind him and rattled the chains. "We hunted alicorns for sport; that is why she hates me," Coalback finished, and for just an instant he looked surprised at his own outburst.
"Exactly," Celestia said after a few moments of tense silence. With an extremely deep breath she sighed and stood from her throne. "I expect an official apology to be made to the Guard you injured, and ample compensation for trauma to be provided," she said calmly. "I also expect you take great care with the Elements of Harmony; should any of them come to harm by your hooves you will have me to answer to. And I have never been defeated by one of you," she added. And with that she descended from her throne and teleported out of the room with an intense flash of pure sunlight.
The room remained in an awkward pause, nopony quite sure what was the appropriate action. At least until Coalback barked "I've been pardoned, take these damned chains off o' me," to the guards that held his bonds.
The mountains around the Canterhorn were not tall enough for Clean Cut's purposes, he needed to be where no life existed. So he had traveled far to the North, where the mountains scraped the stars far above the termination line.
He sat on top of his heavy Lunar-Blue cloak, the only insulation from the deadly cold of the rocks he had brought with him. He didn't breath up here, there wasn't really enough air for him to bother with it. Besides, it was a simple way to slow his heart. He listened carefully past the harsh winds for his own heartbeat, the longer he waited the louder and slower it became. It slowed ... and slowed ... and finally stopped entirely.
The clouds around the mountaintop rumbled and swirled, they gathered around him until the sunlight that rose over the horizon was little more than a sliver of light. Clean Cut blinked and his audience appeared.
The being stood before Clean Cut cloaked head to foot in darkness. The light from the horizon leaned heavy and solid on its shoulders. Its body stretched unnaturally far down the steep side of the mountain so that it could stand in front of Clean Cut but still be connected to the world below, its feet were nearly a hundred body lengths underneath Clean Cut.
"Hello again, my friend," Clean Cut breathed, what little air was in his lungs would have to be carefully rationed. Once he took another breath, the apparition would disappear.
"Have you come to ask for your release, I had warned you," it said, something shifted under its black hood as it spoke. "It would be simple, peaceful. You have spent so long here."
"If only," Clean Cut risked to say. "I ask to know the fate of the near future," he managed to hiss.
The apparition shifted its shoulders and the horizon's light broke away from the horizon and broke the illusion. Now it was easy to see that it was not the light on his shoulders, but instead a massive curved blade. "I am a shepherd, not a seer," it said.
Without warning the apparition lunged toward Clean Cut. Its head extended out from its hood on an impossibly long neck, the sound of scales on fabric even though it's skin was pale and wrinkled. But worst of all was it's skinless face: A pony’s skull stared blankly into Clean Cut's eyes.
"However," its wretched breath stank of blood and rot and washed over Clean Cut, "I do foresee death; a new genocide. I will be very busy," it hissed.
"Does this have to do with the Gods?" Clean Cut asked, his lungs were nearly empty.
The creature rattled and shook, a laugh. "Do you speak of Discord?" It laughed again. "He is a fool, my way I and She both win," it said, red flickered in its eyes. "He was a fool when he tried to use his strength in its entirety while within Her grasp. He may as well not be a God anymore."
"And Celestia? Luna?" No reaction. "Delicae?"
It recoiled at the name that uttered from Clean Cut's lips. "That joke of a goddess is no better than a necromancer, a leech!" it bellowed. "She and her dogs and her demon child will all fall to mortality, I am patient," it said and pulled it's head back into its hood. "Tell your bird that I said hello," it cackled.
Its huge scythe blade swung off its shoulders in the grip of a cloaked arm and whipped out at Clean Cut. It sparked as it impacted the shield Clean Cut had been sitting within, but the shock was enough to make the Unicorn jump and gasp for a breath.
Reflexively he reached for his mask, a magically pressurized tank hung from the front to deliver the proper amount of oxygen to his lungs. Clean Cut's heart jumped back into motion, and the being was gone. The sunrise continued unimpeded. Clean Cut cursed under his breath, a hoof pressed to his chest to calm his racing pulse.
Luo Cha was never a God Clean Cut was excited to see, but unfortunately he was without choice in the matter. Their contract demanded that at least twice a year, on the solstices or sometime close to it, he had to summon the Master of the dead so that it could make its offer for eternal rest once more. Every time Clean Cut was either able to refuse the offer or change the subject with a question. Each time left him feeling wretched and empty.
A thousand years was a long time for a pony to cling to the mortal plane.
---
"I'm not sure I like the way that went last night. The Hearing, that is," Rarity said to the others. They were back in Luna’s chambers, where they'd been spending the last few nights, however their host was absent.
"I don't get it: what happened?" Applejack spoke up. "What's all this 'bout some sorta evil that we can't handle?"
"What if Luna found out that there're Elements of Disharmony?!" Pinkie blurted out, she put her face right up in front of Twilight. "You know! Like kryptonite to Supermare! Or matter to antimatter!" She widened her eyes with each pair of opposites for emphasis.
"I doubt that's what this is about, Pinkie," Twilight grumbled as she pushed the invading pony out of her space. "Luna is probably just worried, maybe even rightfully so. We all live right next to the Everfree Forest, nopony really knows all that much about it," Twilight said strongly, determined to be the voice of reason.
"Okay, I can get that," Rainbow said, ready to defend Twilight’s hypothesis but at the same time doubtful herself. "But why make Coalback our Guard? Why not some of her Guards? There's six of us, how is one pony supposed to 'guard' six of us?"
"Perhaps he will bring a Guard with him, some ponies to help?" Rarity suggested.
"That’s not what it sounded like," Twilight said. "In order for Coalback to be in charge of that she would have to make him a Captain, which doesn't seem right for the situation," Twilight said, her mind back on the study sessions she'd helped her brother through after his apprenticeship. "He must be her only choice though, otherwise the Princesses would have sent the Guard."
"This doesn't make any sense!" Rainbow yelled in frustration, one of Luna’s pillows became an effective vent for her frustrations. "What's he going to do? Sprint between our houses to check on us?"
---
"Patrol the Everfree Forest?" Coalback parroted, his eyes trained carefully on the incomplete map of the said wood. His wings shifted uncomfortably under a Lunar-blue cloak, one he had picked up before he had answered the Princess’s summons.
"Indeed. If what We fear is to come, it will come from there," Luna confirmed, she used a quill to illustrate a few points on the map. Her chin still stung from the cut, but only the thinnest line of pink flesh showed as a scar. "Here are where the Elements reside, thou shalt be responsible for fortification as well." Her quill scratched against the hard, dark wood of her desk under the parchment. She had summoned several warm mage lights to light the room, her curtains closed so that no sunlight entered.
Coalback growled lightly in the back of his throat. "The forest surrounds all but the Northwest side of the town, that is a large place to ... secure," he said with a pause to search for the proper word.
"We trust thee to be able to, the forest still remembers thine kind, We are sure," Luna said as she made more notes on the map. "Our suggestion would be to claim the entire town as thine own, mark it thoroughly and the normal inhabitants of the forest should be no trouble. Then thou might simply watch and wait for what does not belong."
"Am I deterring an animal or more ponies?" Coalback asked as he eyed the forest.
"There is a difference?" Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Animals are not as stupid," he mumbled as he traced a trail through the forest with his eyes. Through his peripheral vision he eyed what trophies he could around Luna’s study, as well as the frown of disapproval that flashed to her face. "I'll need armor and weapons more for intimidation than I will for want or need if I am trying to deter ponies," he said.
"You have experience with this?"
Coalback looked up at her with a nonplussed frown. "Weapons make ponies think they are strong, then I have to kill them. If I look like I will cut off heads, I won't have to," he grunted.
"Very well. All considered, there was a smith seeking to speak with thee. Send for her," she ordered a Guard at the door to her study. He bowed low and left quickly.
When the Guard returned with an aging unicorn mare and a wiry colt Luna had already begun to debrief Coalback on the various recorded creatures that inhabited the Forests. Her dusky coat was unbrushed and spotted with soot, her Mark was simply an anvil. Her mane and tail was short and starting to grey, the edges still remained a shadow of the rich brown it once had been - or perhaps it was simply roasted from long days in front of a hot forge. She announced herself.
"There you are!" she rattled off, a smoldering pipe bobbed in her lips. "I've been looking all over for you." She walked up to Coalback with a grin in her eyes. She nodded to the Princess as an afterthought and the colt with her paused to bow with his nose to the floor for the Princess. "I was out there on those fields, I saw you fight that Guard: You fight like a demon, where did you learn to fight like that?" she asked Coalback, her apprenticed colt whipped his head back up to listen to the conversation.
Coalback’s eyes narrowed dangerously but the old smith either didn't notice or didn't care. She took a long pull from her pipe as she looked up at him. The embers glowed hot, and when she spoke smoke billowed out from between her lips and out of her nostrils.
"I can see you're a colt of few words, I can appreciate that. But let me tell you, kiddo; I know legends when I see them, and you are certainly something." She extended a hoof as she puffed on the pipe with her wrinkled lips. "You can call me Steady," she said as Coalback took her hoof, she didn't flinch at his strong grip but instead turned his hoof over to examine it herself. "Listen here, soldier, all the other smiths and Guards might look at you and see some sort of freak of nature, but I see a colt just itching to put his Mark up there with legends like Starswirl the Bearded. And salt and sand be damned if I'm going to miss the opportunity to put my Mark right there next to yours," she said, her eyes wrinkled as she examined the strange multitude of scar and muscle in his forearm: There seemed to be too much muscle in his forearm for a normal pony, but it could have just been her age and this colt's remarkable strength.
"I'll need measurements of course, but we can do that later," she mumbled as she chewed on her pipe. "Do you prefer heavy or light armor, m'boy? And how heavy a weapon do you use? I'll need to start gathering the materials," she asked. A flick of her head to the colt and he extracted a pad of paper and a piece of charcoal with his budding magic.
"I would prefer no armor," Coalback grunted.
"He will take the armor," Luna insisted.
"Something flexible but strong, I do not want to forget about it and bend it if I flex the wrong direction. It needs to be easily fitted and removed quickly. I want the most protection on my front hooves and around the neck and face. Something to shield the back of the rear legs as well, I want to avoid being ham-strung," he listed off quickly in response to Luna’s not so subtle order, many of his words fitted together on the spot. The colt's charcoal scribbled furiously. "I'll need something heavy and sharp that won't bend or shatter, I expect an alloy of two different steels to work best. The shield I used on the field was too light, I need something much heavier but no larger," he added.
He watched the mare take the colt's notes and add a few marks to it before she responded. "Of course, sir," she said with a respectful nod and a puff of smoke. "We should have all the materials collected and ready to begin forging by tonight if we're lucky. I'll send my boy to get you when we're ready," she said.
The colt put away his notes and pulled out a small wooden box and bowed low to the Princess as he presented it to her. "Also, Yer Majesty, my boy found something that I believe belongs to you," Steady said with an equally deep bow.
The Princess took hold of the box in her own magic and pulled open the lid. She froze when she saw what was inside. Nestled in a carefully wrapped length of silk, much like an egg in a nest, was the single drop of blood Coalback had liberated from her: a single, perfectly round, red pearl.
Luna gave a single glance to Coalback, who watched her carefully from across her desk. "Forge it within a piece of his armor, or his weapon," she said, much to the smith’s surprise. "Tis not often that somepony can bloody Us, We shall not ignore the skill it took to be able to." She closed the box and gave it back to the colt who held it gently as if he had been given the crown itself.
"Thou art dismissed, Steady," Luna said with a respectful nod. The blacksmith and her apprentice bowed low to the Princess and were led away by the Guard at the door.
Luna had to stifle a jump when she turned back to Coalback, his intense eyes were trained on her. "The blood ... It was not ..." he began to say, an intense look of concentration furrowed his brow.
"Indeed," Luna said, already aware of the source of his confusion. In truth Luna had been just as surprised that she had not bled like a mortal, but she supposed that his kind had never used weapons against her before. "You truly do have much to learn," she said, her eyes flicked to the disturbed in the carpet behind Coalback.
---
Iron Bar was outside of the hospital room when Coalback arrived, the earth pony fully armored and armed with a heavy mace. He stood when he spotted the painted pegasus, anger and fear in equal measures in his stance. "Halt!" Iron Bar barked in his most commanding and threatening yell.
Thankfully for him, Coalback followed his order immediately. The withered leaves of a bundle of olive branches hung limply from his mouth. He wore a blue sash around his barrel now instead of the cloak, it was wrapped low enough to cover his flanks. Several Lunar Guards, dressed in thin, darkly colored cloths that swaddled their necks, paused behind him in the dusk-lit halls of the hospital. One in particular was dressed with a medical bag.
"You gotta lotta nerve showing your face here, you bastard," Iron Bar snapped, his mace at the ready.
"I have come to offer my apologies for injuring ... your friend," Coalback said around the vegetation in his mouth. He was calm, collected, and infuriatingly enough completely unthreatened by Iron Bar's display.
"Apology not accepted." Iron Bar hefted the heavy armor on his back, both to demonstrate his strength as well as his integrity inside it. "Now get the fuck away," he said, he scowled at how much his voice shook.
"That is not for you to decide," Coalback said, nearly a growl. "I don't like empty words any more than you do, I want to fix the damage I've done," Coalback said with a deep breath to reign himself in. The guards behind him remained stoic and silent.
"I'm making it my decision, and if you don't back the fuck up I'm gonna bury this mace into your skull!" Iron Bar bellowed. A threatening forward step and heft of his mace did nothing.
"Five days ago I was bedridden and another pony was grounded," Coalback said, his eyes narrowed. "Today we both can fly and I am healthier than ever," he growled, which did well to make the large earth pony reconsider his plan of attack. "Would you like your friend to make that sort of a recovery?"
Iron Bar paused, he had to concentrate hard to work past the red haze of anger that he had built up. "You're ... gonna help him?"
"I will give him a chance to redeem his strength and his honor," Coalback said with a respectful nod, "if he will accept it."
"I shouldn't let you in; his herd just left and he's restin'," Iron Bar mumbled.
"I brought a medic," Coalback said, the Lunar pony with the medical bag nodded behind him.
"I have to come in too," Iron Bar said after a long pause, his own eyes narrowed in fear of foul play.
"If he accepts my gift, you must either leave or give the same oaths he will have to," Coalback warned.
"Done," Iron Bar said. He felt a distinct niggling of doubt at the back of his mind, afraid he would make a stupid decision. But if what the other stallion said was true, and Iron Bar was uncommonly sure it was, then this might be Filibuster's only chance at an unhandicapped future. And Iron Bar had mixed feelings about Filibuster's final actions in that fight; it was against the Guard’s code of Honor to strike at an opponent's back, especially when they couldn't use magic themselves.
Coalback stepped back and with a flick of his wing took the medical bag from the thestral. He stepped up to the large earth pony as he backed through the hospital room door. The Guard took off his helmet as he entered and walked around to the opposite side of the bed. Iron Bar took up a large portion of the small room, and their entrance did not go unnoticed by the unicorn.
Filibuster had been given a private room, one that surely had a view of the sky if not for the tightly shut curtains. A bedside lamp was the only light in the room, a few opened cards and a chewed but uneaten bouquet sat beside it. Filibuster himself lay on his back in the bed, his broken leg hung from a pulley on the ceiling to keep it elevated. His head was wrapped thickly with bandages, a tube exited his broken nose to keep the airway clear.
But when Coalback entered the room, any protest or greeting that would have come from Filibuster froze in his throat. He recoiled as Coalback gently placed the olive branches across the foot of Filibuster's bed. When Filibuster said nothing, Coalback chose to speak.
"In my culture; olive branches symbolize peace. I came to apologize to you," he said in as clear a diction as he could muster with his limited practice. "I know that my words mean little to you, so I want to offer you something," he added quickly when he saw the scowl come to Filibuster's face.
"I don't want anything you have to offer," Filibuster wheezed past the tube keeping his nostril from collapsing. He managed a scowl in Coalback's direction past the swelling in his face and the thick bandages around his forehead.
"I understand," Coalback said. "You are angry, I took something precious away from you. I would feel the same way if you had managed to remove one of my arms," Coalback shifted his wing, the medical bag dropped to the floor with an unexpected lack of noise. "But I saw your skill for what it was on that field yesterday, I want you to understand that I respect your strength and your determination," he explained. Once again his wing moved to open the bag, the flap fell away and revealed the sealed container inside.
Gently, Coalback laid it next to Filibuster's arm on the bed. He leaned in, he took in a deep breath from the air around Filibuster. "I think I can give back what I have taken by giving you the greatest gift I can offer," he said in a low voice. His intense, predator-green eyes stared intensely into Filibuster's. "The Blood of a Blaidd," he growled.
Iron Bar stiffened on his side of the room. "Is what's in that box what I think is in that box?" he asked shakily. A nod indicated the sealed container on the bed, the one that Coalback’s hoof rested on possessively.
Coalback pulled back wordlessly, his hoof came with him to open the lid of the container. Inside, nestled in thick layers of frozen cloth, was Filibuster's disembodied horn. "I can give it back to you, and so much more," Coalback said softly as he watched the horror and longing grow on the lamed unicorn's face.
Filibuster's eyes had to flick between Coalback's face and the bloody base of his broken horn before he finally choked out a reply. "What's the catch? I know that these kinds of offers always come with some sort of repercussion!" he added quickly, an accusing stare seemed more full of fear than malice now.
"You would become like me, though a lesser form. And you would have to remain loyal to me now that I have bested you," Coalback said calmly. "You would not truly be one of the Blaidd, but you would enjoy many of our gifts," he continued. "Strength, cunning, fertility ... longevity and remarkable vitality. You would never be able to wear another face as I can, but I assure you that you will change in many ways. It will be hard at first, the urges will seem unbearable. But I think you could survive, and be stronger still for it," Coalback said. His voice turned into a low, strangely comforting, growl.
"I would have to answer to you?" Filibuster asked shakily, his eyes could no longer leave the sight of his slowly thawing horn. That was a part of him, the thing that practically made him a pony and it lay nearly a meter away from where it was supposed to sit. Who would he be if he couldn't have his horn? It certainly wouldn't be the same.
"Only that you would follow my rules and remain loyal to me in a fight," Coalback said. "I would allow you to remain here, with the ponies you love," he said, surprisingly gentle. "You would have to keep the nature of your recovery a secret for now, but perhaps one day it can come to the light shamelessly."
Filibuster flicked a worried glance to Iron Bar; the poor sod was frozen in place.
"I understand your reluctance, I felt the same way when I learned the true nature of the tradition I had been born into. I never wanted to leave behind the people I thought I belonged to," Coalback said, so low Filibuster was almost certain that only he could hear it even in the small room. "But I discovered the exclusive gift I had been given slowly, and soon I could not think of living any other way. I assure you this will be worth it," he whispered gently.
Filibuster's heart raced in his chest. "So this is the ultimatum you want to give me? Live a meaningless life as a cripple, or take this 'gift' of yours and be loyal to you?" he sputtered, barely able to muster the courage to look Coalback in the eye.
"If that's how you want to see it, yes," he said bluntly.
"Fine, let's do it then," Filibuster relented with shameful reluctance.
"Last chance," Coalback said to Iron Bar. "Leave and speak to no one about this conversation, or stay and swear on your soul to remain silent about everything you will see." Iron Bar swallowed nervously, with a drop of sweat he set his mace down and planted his hooves firmly on the floor. "Very well. Pray to your gods, for this is the last you will have faith in them," Coalback said with a growl.
He waited patiently as Filibuster and Iron Bar gave a fleeting curse and a request for strength from the ceiling tiles. Once they were finished Coalback wasted no time.
With the practiced flick of a hoof he used Filibuster's own horn to cut away the bandages on Filibuster's head. Once the scabbed over stump of his horn was visible, Coalback stood on his rear legs and towered over the two other ponies menacingly.
"In tenibris," he said, his voice rang in the small room as he sensually dragged out each vowel of the strange words. He raised the disembodied horn above his head, the rings around his bicep glinted in the light of the lamp as they dimmed. "Into darkness," he growled. The horn's sharp tip edged close to his arm, the veins bulged under his thick fur.
Something stirred the curtains as it circled around the room. Filibuster felt a presence wash over him, and compelled, spoke. "I will follow you anywhere, take my soul and lead me there." It was only after he had said it that he realized Iron Bar had done the same, or that he had no idea where the words had come from.
"In the silent night you kill the lights," Coalback breathed. The light dimmed until it was nearly gone, the magelights flickered as if it was a dying flame. Coalback’s eyes glowed with whatever light was left in the room, lit from behind like a predator's.
Filibuster felt a wash of surety and determination, rush through him like a fever. Iron Bar must have felt the same way because they both began to speak again, overwhelmed with anticipation for whatever was to come even though neither was sure of what it truly was. "I will follow you to the end! Take my heart, my love, and then ... lead me into darkness."
With that, his oath apparently satisfied, Coalback met a vein with the sharp tip of Filibuster's horn. He used it like a blade to cut a long furrow down the length of his forearm. Blood poured freely from the wound and splashed across Filibuster's forehead. The blood was black as pitch, and marbled with red. It stained Filibuster's fur and soaked into the broken base of his horn.
Coalback coated the end of the horn with his black blood and, violently, slammed it down on the stub it had come from. It slipped easily into place, the clean grooves of the cut proved to fit almost perfectly together. More blood washed across Filibuster's face and he had to sputter to breath past it. Pain exploded from his forehead all the way down his spine and to the tip of his tail, it was all he could do not to scream in agony.
"Drink," Coalback ordered breathlessly as he pressed the horn harder against Filibuster's skull. The thought to resist the command was blotted out by the pain, and he drank in the black blood that still flowed from Coalback's arm. "You too," he ordered Iron Bar, who leaned in to lap at the wound almost hungrily.
"Shadow me," Coalback began again, the abstract singing only now revealed for what it was with the Blood on their tongues. They could hear the orchestra of voices all around them, a thousand others that had been given this gift the same way. "Into darkness."
Filibuster's mind was forced to a blank, all of his attention focused on the pain and the blood. Iron Bar licked at the wound on Coalback's arm as if it were the last water he would ever drink, and Filibuster had a hard time disagreeing with him. The Blood was bitter and tasted of iron, but somehow neither of them could stand to halt now that they had begun.
But just as the Blood began to ebb in its strange flow, Filibuster and Iron Bar both cried out in shared pain. Their stomachs contracted, both to try and repel the blood they had so happily drank and to try and allay the intense fire that had burst to life there. Iron Bar collapsed as Filibuster curled into himself.
"I am burning," Iron Bar breathed from the floor. He struggled to stand again only to fall and take the curtains down with him. They fell with with a clang and the room filled with silver light from the full moon. Iron Bar gave a strangled wail. "The fire is growing inside me!"
A moment later and Filibuster knew exactly what Iron Bar meant. Warmth blossomed quickly from his stomach and intensified at an alarming rate, within moments he felt as if he had swallowed burning coals. His vocal chords tightened of their own volition and he yelped in pain. The fire spread out from his stomach, engulfed his barrel and burned into his limbs. He shivered as the temperature suddenly dropped, he felt cold and naked. His limbs quaked, and his body convulsed against itself in pain. The walls of the room stretched far away, he felt like he had shrunk to the size of a fly.
As the hot and cold flashes only intensified Filibuster caught sight of Coalback again, and he almost forgot the pain he was in. Coalback crouched over himself as well, the cut arm was soaked in black blood with a small puddle had formed beneath him. His wings shook against his back in what could only be a painful, twisted position. As Filibuster watched, with a sickening crunch of bone on bone his wings collapsed into his back. Coalback’s neck twisted obscenely as he growled in a mixture of pain and ... something else. In a moment the only sign he'd had wings at all was the cape of feathers that were quickly falling off of his back. Blood spurted from his arm as he clenched his muscles.
Coalback’s face twisted into a horrible snarl as he looked back up at Filibuster, his pointed teeth bared. With a crunch as his bones shifted, his jaw seemed to pop out of place and stretch forward unnaturally. His muzzle cracked forward unevenly and a moment later his upper jaw followed. Fangs sprouted from his unnatural teeth, a quintet on each jaw that fit together neatly. His brows pressed forward as his entire skull narrowed down and his eyes shrunk with the sockets into the intense, threatening gaze of a wolf's.
His hide rippled like water as his body writhed underneath, his mane fell back and grew in all around his neck. His fur grew longer and longer until it was truly the winter coat of a wolf. His tail whipped behind him, lengthened and much of the hair receded or fell to the floor in place of the fur that belonged there.
Finally, with a deafening quintet of explosive cracks, his hooves split. Filibuster watched in morbid fascination as Coalback’s legs writhed and thickened, soon the toes of Coalback’s paws flexed unimpeded to break away the excess keratin that clung to his claws.
"Beautiful," Filibuster's lips said without his command. But Filibuster found that he agreed, the wolf before him no longer seemed the beast it had the first time he had seen it. Now he could somehow appreciate the beauty of the perfect predator that had graced his presence for what it was. He was mesmerized.
Coalback growled low in his throat, it filled the room and shook the walls and window panes. Around him, the excess of his change withered. The blood quickly dried on his arm, not even a raw red line of flesh where the wound had once been. He took a single step forward, his paw echoed on the polished floor and the huge dew claw behind it glinted in the broken light of the desk lamp.
On instinct alone Filibuster broke his gaze away, he whined at the back of his throat in submission. It was only then that he realized his horn was once again attached to his head.
---
When Clean Cut arrived Coalback was outside of the hospital room with one of the Lunar Guard. He had a towel stained with blood and ink that stank of medicinal alcohol. "They will appear to atrophy dramatically, but keep them on the painkillers and an extremely high protein diet. When the painkillers stop working switch to root of wolfsbane, the pseudaconitine will not kill them." The Guard committed it all to memory.
Clean Cut rushed the rest of the way to the Pegasus' side. "I've only just returned," he said breathlessly, "What happened?" When Coalback ignored him and continued to give instruction to one of the Guards Clean Cut stepped between them. "Coalback, what did you do?" Clean Cut asserted, his hoof indicated the blood soaked towel.
Coalback paused to give Clean Cut an unamused glare. "What the Princess requested," he said with finality.
If not for the incredibly powerful twinges of pain in her wing Rainbow was chronically plagued with that night she would have slept perfectly and dreamlessly. Instead, though she remembered little of it the next morning, she had strange dreams of forests and a chase. If she could have remembered them, she would have realized she'd been on both ends of that chase at once all through the night.
She shook it off the next morning with a short jog and a shower. It was only some silly dream, she told herself.
---
Steady's smithy was a humble affair that at first glance would have appeared no different from any other that prepared ceremonial armor for the Guard. But with an appraising eye a pony could easily find what set it apart from the rest; the distinctive shimmer of glamour covered every blade and plate to hide the fact that they were just as sturdy and deadly as any other functional piece. Steady's arms and armors were as much tools of war as they were pieces of art to her. Even the furnace - a huge, bulking wall of carved granite and magically treated cast iron that could create temperatures that would normally evaporate the metal most other smiths used - was a decorative piece that took the shape of a crouching dragon with a huge maw.
"We do not approve of how thee hast settled thine dispute with Filibuster," Luna scolded from the wide doorway. Several tools hung in her face, but her irritation was so much that she could not be bothered to move them for the loss of the glare she had on Coalback.
"Is that his name? How fitting," Coalback grunted with the ghost of a grin as Steady's magic tightened the straps around a steel jerkin of woven ringmail around his barrel. How she had fashioned one in such a short time was something that the old mare had settled any curiosity for by declaring it a trade secret.
"Tis not a laughing matter!" Luna snapped, which made Steady's apprentice stumble with the metal working tools he held. "Thou hast taken away their futures!"
"Filibuster seeks glory and honor like a fool!" Coalback said even as Steady swatted him into the stance she wanted him to stand in. "My way he gets what he wants without making himself into a ... I do not even know a word that means 'a pony who enjoys others' misfortunes'."
"Schadenfreude," the apprentice mumbled as he laid out the tools for his master.
"Speak up, boy," Coalback growled. Steady and Luna turned a questioning look to the stallion. The orange colt froze with wide eyes as he realized he had been heard, Steady glared a warning to the boy. "If you have something to say, do not try to hide it," Coalback said with a direct glare in the shivering colt's direction.
"'Schadenfreude', m'lord," he sputtered out. "The word you asked for is 'schadenfreude'." The colt shivered as Coalback turned his head to look fully at him, his fiery mane fell into his eyes but the colt refused to fix it. He did not like the sudden attention he had received, caught as he was in the act.
"Schadenfreude," Coalback said with a roll of his tongue. "Yes, I think so. Thank you," he said genuinely. The colt grinned happily when he recognised the praise from the much older male and went back to his work.
Luna raised a questioning eyebrow at the exchange but continued nonetheless. "That is not for thee to decide, We would prefer him to make that decision for himself."
"I did not make the decision, Celestia did," Coalback grunted. He had to speak quickly when Luna made to enter the smithy fully. "I have no money to my name in this place, yet she demanded a recompense. It was the most valuable thing I could offer him and he accepted it. What is done is done!" he nearly bellowed, and a lesser being might not have noticed the shake in it. "They belong to me, you cannot take them away now."
Luna's eyes narrowed; had that been concern in his voice? "Thou hast overstepped the bounds of our agreement, Coalback," Luna replied in a voice that filled the smithy. "There will be consequences for these actions. And do well not to forget, We shan't."
"What you seem to forget is that our agreement is just that," Coalback barked, his head whipped around and his heated glare fell on her. "I agreed to your ... proposal out of what little patience and kindness I have left for you ponies. But I am not bound to you like some lap dog."
"We hold thy Name."
"You hold part of my Name, and less still by not saying it properly," Coalback said with a heavy finality. The smithy fell silent for all but the crackle and roar of the flame in the forge.
Steady wrapped a length of twine around Coalback’s covered chest and counted the knots to where the length met itself. Her magic adjusted a crude wooden ponnequin with a screw crank until the size was the same. She'd be using it to fit the armor itself, that way she wouldn't have to worry about the finished ringmail as well. The wings would have to be taken into account, but she was no ameture, she would work around them.
---
Mayor Mare sat in her office, absolutely buried in paperwork: bills for the most part. Roads needed repairing, buildings maintained or renovated, water was another big one. She had to work through a hundred letters and decrees from upstate that did or did not apply to her area, from there she would have to adjust the town's policies themselves.
Thank the goddesses she didn't have to be the treasurer as well, then she might actually go grey.
The door to her office opened meekly and closed quietly. Mayor Mare noticed all the same. "I'm so sorry to be rude, but I am extremely busy. Unless this is an emergency please ask my secretary to set up an appointment," she said as she shuffled through her papers again: Where did that contracting paper make off to?
"I'm so sorry that this had to happen today, especially since I'm just taking over for you," Mayor Mare said, but not the one sitting behind her desk. Mayor Mare froze, she recognised her own voice but couldn't truly process where it had come from if she hadn't spoken. "You must understand, it's actually surprisingly much easier to do this during the day; when the sounds outside can mask any noise in here."
Mayor Mare peeked up from behind her desk and saw ... herself? 'Mayor Mare' stood rather meekly in front of the door. It looked exactly like her, down to the roots of her mane where some of her natural pink showed. Even the scroll on her flanks was perfectly duplicated.
"What?" the real Mayor Mare managed to sputter.
"Well, you see," 'Mayor Mare' said, "I sort of need to replace you. Unfortunately that means I have to deal with you." Mayor Mare blinked, too shocked to formulate a reaction. "I really am sorry, it's not personal. In fact, if it were up to me, I would have done this a very different way. Unfortunately many ponies will be dying soon anyway." The other 'Mayor Mare' gave a sad sigh.
Mayor Mare was only just given the chance to realize the doppelganger's intentions before a magical green bolt impacted her head and knocked her unconscious. 'Mayor Mare' gave another sigh, mostly to give herself strength.
Quickly, her changeling magic wrapped up the unconscious mare and dropped her into the closet of the office. She took the mayor's place behind her desk and nearly gagged. "Why are ponies so disorganized?" she wondered to herself. Again her magic came to life atop the earth pony head she'd taken the shape of, the papers swirled and organized atop the desk. Quickly she found the forms she needed to fill out, a steady stream of information from the sleeping mare in the closet helped her finish them easily.
She familiarized herself with the Mayor's storage method and improved it accordingly. Eventually, not only did the doppelganger behave just as the Mayor Mare did, she also knew everything Mayor Mare did. Not that she kept much of it as hers alone, the Queen collected what she desired.
In an hour a knock was at the door and the young mare that worked the reception desk announced that her eleven o'clock had arrived. Momentarily three cloaked ponies and a single gryphon entered.
"Where is she?" the unicorn at the head of the group asked in a choppy baritone.
"In the closet, you can move her tonight," 'Mayor Mare' said as she stamped 'her' hoof print onto a few final documents. "Or we could let her live," she mumbled hopefully and her head ached painfully in response.
The stallion's grin glinted from under his hood. "It would be more a mercy to kill her. And don't even think about trying to make a meal out of her, only two of His children lived long enough to get here and they're awfully hungry," he said. A kick to her new desk reminded her who was in charge here.
"Of course. What was I thinking?" 'Mayor Mare' asked rhetorically. "I can keep your presence off the official record here. But it will be expected of me to do something if you cause too much trouble. Please keep hidden for now," she almost begged.
"We'll see," the leader said with a condescending smile and a shrug. His pony compatriots laughed behind him. "But we don't have a lot of time, so we might as well enjoy a town full of pretty mares while we can!" he laughed. "Those spa mares are quite the catch!"
With that they left and the changeling was 'alone'. She almost convinced herself of just that, and if not for the snoring from the closet and the throb of the Queen's influence, she might have succeeded.
Her head impacted the desk with a groan.
---
"This blade is damascus steel, just like the one ye requested, m'lord," the small apprentice colt explained nervously as the large pegasus took the curved knife from him. "It's shaped in a modern style, ye c'n see how wide i' tis along the edge but not the back. Good fer hard swings and heavy hits, it is." The colt swallowed nervously as the Pegasus's arms flexed and the first five inches of marbled steel was revealed for his inspection with a muffled snicker. Coalback sat like that for what seemed like an eternity to the small colt.
"You needn't worry, lad," Steady called from the anvil where she was busy pounding out another sheet of metal for his armor. "The boy is young but his swords are top rate, if the boy says it's a good sword then it surely is!" Coalback glanced over to her, and then back to the knife.
It was true, the curved blade was heavy and well weighted for hard swings. Coalback didn't know all of the proper terms for the parts of the blade, but he could tell each was lovingly made and fitted together perfectly. "Well made," he remarked, which brought a smile to the colt's face again. "What is your name? It isn't 'Boy', is it?" Coalback asked next.
"Well- Damascus, sir," the colt replied.
"A fine name," Coalback replied as he closed the knife into its sheath with a snick. "And when will the sword be done?"
"Just as soon as I can put me hooves on some good steel, sir. I should be able to hammer it out lickity split. It's going to be a short sword, heavy an' thick as yer arm," he explained. The colt smiled nervously as Coalback offered a look of approval. "Your helmet's ready as well, sir. If'n you'd like to see it?" Coalback set the knife down and stood to follow the colt.
He was quickly led over to the ponnequin. The colt reached down to pick up a cloth bundle, he struggled to lift it but managed to heft it up for Coalback before the stallion could try himself. Coalback caught it in one hoof as Damascus pulled away the cloth covering it.
"Lunar steel," Damascus exclaimed breathlessly, "all yer armor's gonna be made of it. It's forged in magic fire, near as hot as the sun. Once it's hardened, nothing short o' a mountain fallin' on it'll dent it," Damascus bragged. "My master's one of the only ponies in all of Equestria who can forge it!"
Coalback hardly heard any of this, he stared at the helm and could see nothing else. The black steel glinted in the light of the forge and Steady's hammer echoed in his ears. The helmet's shape was of a wolf, his entire head would be encased and his eyes would see through slats hidden in the creases of the wolf’s snarling face. But what truly made his blood run cold was the quarter moons inset under one eye of the wolf.
Coalback couldn't help but see, in his mind's eye, the similar scars under the eyes of a face he hadn't seen in years. And the expression on his face as Coalback had twisted off his head was nearly identical. He jumped as the image flashed through his mind's eye, the helmet fell to the floor with a loud clang and did not bounce.
Damascus scrambled back to avoid having his hooves crushed. "Is something wrong with it, sir?" Damascus asked in surprise.
"No," Coalback answered quickly, "it's fine. I just need a moment."
Coalback turned away and shouldered past the guards at the door of the smithy who followed behind him silently. Luna stood from her seat in a calmer corner of the smithy, ready to go after Coalback as well. She was stopped, however, when she found Steady in her path. This was especially surprising since her hammer still beat out the shape of the armor by the forge without her.
"If it's not too bold to say, 'Majesty. Most are insulted when they here I have the boy make the most of their arms and armor. Not that lad, it says a lot about him," she said stoically.
"If there is a point to thine speech, We suggest thee to make it," Luna said sharply. She couldn't sit around while Coalback stormed off anymore, she would need to take a more proactive role in conditioning him. She didn't want another pub incident.
Steady gave a smoky snort that sputtered out around her pipe. "What I mean to say, Yer Majesty, is that yer too hard on 'im," Steady grunted. "I may be an old mare, but I know a broken pony when I see one. My fool mother was like that; fought in some battle or other afore she had me. That colt - and no matter what you or him tell me he is a colt - is at his core a shattered and tormented pony. The fact that he hain't turned to froth and shouting just now-" Steady used a hoof to point sharply to where her apprentice struggled to replace the helmet where it belonged, "-is a testament to just how strong a soul you have on your hooves."
Luna paused for only a moment. "That is too bold," Luna said in a warning tone.
"Beggin' yer pardon, ma'am. 'Twasn't my place to say," Steady apologized quickly and walked back to her work at the forge.
However, Luna felt the old smithpony might have a point. Perhaps she would allow his indoctrination of those two Guards, for now. She would have to have a talk with him over his intentions toward them - in a less accusatory manner, of course. There was nothing to be done about it now anyway, and the slight possessiveness she had spotted earlier could actually have been his way of showing he cared; a rather strange way but there all the same.
---
Filibuster paced frantically in the manor attic, his mind and body unable to stay still a moment longer. Iron Bar slept restlessly in one corner smothered with every comforter that had been brought at his request. The room was clean when they had arrived, but in order to occupy himself Filibuster had cleaned it again. He'd used his hooves for the majority of it, something he hadn't done since he was a colt; the pain in his horn was too great to use magic for very long, but he could still use it.
Filibuster thought back to the rushed trip to this manor just outside the palace grounds; one of the oldest wooden buildings in the entire city and - unknowingly - the home of one of its oldest residents.
Clean Cut had full out ordered them both to be removed from hospital grounds and delivered to his personal home so that Filibuster and Iron Bar could be cared for and observed properly by the doctor himself. Clean Cut was back every hour on the hour to check on them and ask them many questions: Some about pain; others about sensitivity, sight, hearing and strength; and then tests pertaining to all of that. Both Filibuster and Iron Bar complained of the constant cold and hot flashes, the soreness that seeped deep into their bones, and the constant crippling hunger most of all. All of it was scribbled into the doctor’s little black book.
Clean Cut brought them enough water to douse half of Canterlot and enough food to feed half of Filibuster's previous regiment, but both of them were still weak with thirst and hunger and they only seemed to get thinner by the day. Neither could truly keep down all the food their urges drove them to consume, but they ate all the same. Filibuster had never imagined to see his own ribs before, and especially not Iron Bar's.
Not to mention the fever dreams: It seemed that every time Filibuster even closed his eyes he would be haunted with images of what he could only call a hunt. Sometimes he felt as if he were the hunter, with his legs burning and his heart racing in joy and the pure exhilaration of the chase. But other times he felt himself on the other side where fear and heart crushing adrenaline was all that could fuel his exhausted body to run, run, run away!
Between the hot and cold flashes and the polar fever dreams, Filibuster felt as if he were being torn apart body and soul. And Iron Bar faced the same, if not worse. Filibuster had had to console and even hold down the once larger stallion on more than one occasion. He feared more for the skeleton of pony his friend had become than he did for himself at this point.
There was only one relief either had to the pain and the dreams: the anesthetic that brought dreamless, blissful sleep and halted the pain. However, already it seemed that even this was not enough. The doctor increased their dosage nearly with every visit now, but it lasted less and less each time.
A single night was all that they had suffered, but it felt like weeks of slow torture.
Filibuster laid his head against the cool glass of a window that broke the slope of the roof over his head, thankful for the chilling air outside that provided this little relief from the heat in his head that had lasted for nearly two hours now. His mind flashed back to the hospital room through some convoluted stream of tangents and he remembered the horrible, beautiful sight of Coalback as he changed in front of them.
He shivered despite the sweat that rolled out of his mane and into his eyes. He was both disgusted and fascinated by the sight and the incredibly vivid memory of it. Before it had been so simple to convince himself that this Coalback pony was nothing more than a cruel and ironic twist of fate: a wild animal changed into a pony by one of the Elements of Harmony. But now there was no denying that Coalback and the wolf that had been trapped in the dungeon barely a week ago were not only the same, but also completely outside of the Harmony that the Guard’s creed prayed to.
He wondered just how powerful Harmony could be if something like Coalback could simply reverse it's actions with barely the blink of an eye. He even found that he wondered just how powerful the Princesses were when that same stallion could continue to so easily spit in their faces, sometimes literally. Filibuster felt like his world was falling apart around him.
The door to the attic opened and Filibuster jumped, a spark of paranoid fear shot down his spine before he realized it was only Clean Cut. The unicorn rushed to Iron Bar instantly. "Come on then, Filibuster. Let's move you two to a warmer room, we need to get Iron Bar warm," he said as his magic wrapped up the shivering earth pony and began to levitate him out the room.
"I'm too hot, I'll stay here," Filibuster croaked. He was surprised at the sound of his own voice; had it gotten deeper? He couldn’t tell with the fact that his throat almost tore open every time he tried.
"Coalback made it quite clear that neither of you were to ever leave the other's side, no matter what." Clean Cut's magic picked Filibuster up without hesitation and began to pull him along behind Iron Bar. "We can get you an ice pack."
Filibuster was gently guided down from the attic, where Clean Cut had hoped that both would be left alone and unmolested by any of the maids or other house servants. In truth, the house was empty from top to bottom save for them. Perhaps Clean Cut had simply wanted to make sure they didn't wander off, or that someone wouldn't wander in. Filibuster wasn't even sure how he would react to somepony unfamiliar invading this place in his weakened state.
Clean Cut ran them down two flights of stairs before he set them in front of the grand fireplace, where the largest and warmest fire could be made. He moved a heavy rug next to the dark fireplace and set Iron Bar down on it. With a neon spark from his horn the fire came to life; magically started, stoked and fueled.
The manor's great entrance hall was thrown into light, the shadows danced somewhat ominously in the closed curtained darkness. Forgotten statues of forgotten heroines were covered with tarps, like their owner was too ashamed to look at them anymore. Paintings hung in similar anonymity and the furniture looked and felt unused to his new guests. Filibuster settled in uncomfortably on a stiff cushioned couch within reach of Iron Bar’s resting spot, an ice bag was summoned and settled onto his head.
Iron Bar seemed much more comfortable now, much to Filibuster’s relief. The earth pony had rolled over to face the fire and shivered less, but his haunted eyes stared vacantly at the flames. Clean Cut summoned blankets for the both of them but Filibuster had to refuse and simply lay himself out in a way that kept him as cool as possible.
“Make yourselves comfortable, boys,” Clean Cut said. “Coalback is coming to visit you tonight, he wants to talk to you both. He wants to speed your recovery.” Clean Cut’s magic flared but it wasn’t until a pair of trays laden with hot and cold drinks, and bread that Filibuster doubted he could eat without spitting back up.
“Coalback,” Iron Bar groaned from in front of the fire.
“Relax, soldier. You need rest,” Clean Cut said in his most commanding voice. Iron Bar followed the order on reflex, shut his mouth, and returned to his staring contest with the fire.
It wasn’t a moment later when the large door opened with rush of wind, and all three of them lifted their heads to observe the sudden intrusion. A cloaked pony with a large satchel on his back swung inside, he stuck his head back out to address somepony else before he closed the door behind him but none of them could hear what he said past the rush of wind through the door. The cloaked stranger shook himself with a jingle of metal buckles and walked toward them.
Filibuster felt a protective surge rise up in him, he instantly assumed a threat in this stranger and he felt a surprising growl come out of his throat. The stranger chuckled as he stepped into the light and Coalback’s grin was revealed, the growl died in Filibuster’s throat instantly and his ears fell back in reactive submissance.
“Hello to you, too,” Coalback chuckled. “Keep up that attitude and I might have to start trusting you with important things,” the large pegasus walked past Filibuster’s seat and to the prostrate pony wrapped in blankets. He shook off his hood and leaned down next to Iron Bar’s head, he whispered something to the other stallion and he visibly relaxed. He stood up and nodded to Clean Cut, “Doctor.”
“Mister Coalback,” Clean Cut replied concisely, “or is it ‘Sir’ now?”
“I was given the papers last night, I am officially a knight of the Lunar Court by her majesty Selena Noctus Eternae Luna,” he said completely sincerely but without a smile. It surprised Filibuster to see Coalback nod respectfully at Luna’s full name, especially since the same pony had spat in her face only a few days ago.
“Congratulations, Sir.”
“I didn’t come to exchange pleasantries, I came to feed these two,” Coalback said as he slung the bag off of his back.
Filibuster coughed when he tried to speak but was able to recover quickly, “Haven’t been able to keep anything down,” he croaked.
“Of course not, you’re stomachs are attempting to adjust to newly introduced enzymes; the bacteria that normally live in your gut are being killed,” Coalback paused at the surprised looks from Clean Cut and Filibuster. “Your body thinks you have a stomach flu. Did you think I was some sort of brute with no education at all? And I suppose none of you thought I went through the same thing as these two?”
Coalback didn’t wait for a reply, he simply sat down beside Iron Bar and began to unpack the bag. “This was all I could get my … hooves on, so you’ll have to forgive the lack of … ah- choice in foods.” He unpacked three bowls wrapped in paper and a few forks. “I also was able to find some wild wolfsbane growing in the gardens and I brought some of that for you two - as much as I would like some you need it more than me,” Coalback said as he pulled out yet another package. “You’ll start with that.”
He unwrapped the purple, bell shaped flowers and offered them to Iron Bar first. The other pony grimaced and tried to turn away at first, but Coalback used another hoof to force open his mouth and stuff the bundle of flowers into his mouth. Iron Bar coughed and spluttered, but chewed the leaves and swallowed.
Filibuster stood up, an accusation ready on his tongue: Wolfsbane was a poisonous flower, the Guards learned how to identify edible foods during their training and Wolfsbane was definitely on the hazard list. But Iron Bar let out a satisfied sigh and laid down to appear to actually rest for the first time since they’d gotten to Clean Cut’s manor.
Coalback looked to Filibuster with a deadpanned glare and tossed a bundle to Filibuster as well. “Eat,” he commanded as he started to unpack the food he had brought.
Filibuster struggled with his magic to pick up the poisonous plant, his horn sparked with magic feebly but managed to pull it to himself for inspection. He eyed the treacherous flower and struggled to convince himself that Coalback would not attempt to kill him again, not after that strange ritual and all the show to make them ‘belong’ to him. When he glanced back at Coalback the pegasus stared at him even as he fed a forkful of something to Iron Bar.
Filibuster placed a flower on his tongue and cringed expectantly. Filibuster nearly choked on his own spit when his mouth started to water on its own, the taste was just as much a shock in that it was not the bitter poison he had expected but rather a subtle, sweet taste that doused the fire in his throat and his head. Before Filibuster realized what the flower was doing he had already started to tear into the bundle Coalback had given him.
Filibuster vaguely heard Clean Cut and Coalback talking about the flower’s chemical reactions with the lymph nodes in the body. He probably would have remembered it too if not for the fact that simply the not-pain and the cool air of the manor was almost euphoric. He barely noticed when a bowl, sitting in the paper wrapping Coalback had brought it in, was presented to him. Filibuster took it in his hooves in a haze, the smell of hot food swam in front of his nose stronger than he ever would have expected it to be.
He tore into the food without thought, the offered fork forgotten to eat through the food as fast as he could shove it into his mouth. He managed to realize rice, egg, and some mix of vegetables in the hot mixture. It was delicious.
“There, you see?” Coalback said as he left Clean Cut to feed Iron Bar and began to open his own bowl. “I learned this recipe a few years ago, it takes a few ingredients and it never quite satisfies but it has enough to survive on,” Coalback explained as he shoveled his own food into his mouth.
“And what exactly is in this?” Clean Cut asked. He examined the mixture on the fork as he fed more to Iron Bar.
“Rice, some sauces I had to make myself, butter, sesame seeds, green onions, carrots, peas, scrambled eggs,” Coalback listed off as he ate more. Filibuster was able to pick out the taste of the ingredients as he ate it. “And diced pork, from a wild pig that I asked one of the guards to get me. All cooked on a hot skillet.”
Filibuster choked, spraying rice from his mouth as his body tried to reject the food. Coalback caught the bowl in a wing before it could tumble to the floor. “Pork!?” he bellowed. “That had pig meat in it!?” he struggled to keep himself from vomiting purely out of disgust.
“You need protein to fill back out, a large amount,” Coalback said calmly. “You’ll find that the easiest way to get that much protein without eating an entire farm’s worth of beans is by taking it from an animal, you will no longer survive on a vegan diet. Keep eating.” The bowl was shoved back into Filibuster’s hooves.
He recoiled at first, but the thin Unicorn’s stomach twisted hungrily at the sight and smell of the food and he had little choice but to give in to the urge to eat again and began - albeit less excitedly - to eat again. At least it didn’t taste like murder. Even Clean Cut seemed to be just a few shades greener, but Iron Bar appeared deaf to the world as he whined for more food.
They ate in silence for awhile after that, not quite with the enjoyment of company but full and warm all the same. Filibuster felt sick and relaxed all at the same time, but Iron Bar was warm and seemed content so he made himself relax as he chewed on wolfsbane. And as the fire began to die Coalback spoke softly with a comforting hoof on Iron Bar, who finally appeared to be in a restful sleep.
"Do not go easy into that good night," - Coalback's voice was low and soft, but it crackled much like the fire as if it were unused to being so gentle. - "Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Filibuster's ears perked at the words, dumbfounded at the strange turn of mood in the huge pegasus. He'd never heard anything like this, it sounded almost like a lullaby; although it lacked the comforting iambic of song. Coalback’s voice did however give the words a certain life that made the hairs on the back of Filibuster's neck stand on end.
"Though wise thought at their end know dark is right," Coalback continued, almost mournful. "Because their words brought forth no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good acts, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay," his hoof stroked Iron Bar's limp mane not possessively but in a comforting way, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
"Wild things who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night." Filibuster caught sight of Coalback’s ear as it turned to face the door, where nothing but the wind could be heard outside. "Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
"And you, my father-" Everyone in the room turned in surprise to the voice, because it was not Coalback who spoke now. "-there on the sad height,-" Iron Bar took shaky, shallow breaths. He struggled to lift his head, and in the firelight Filibuster could make out his bloodshot eyes as they looked up at Coalback; a silent plea in his eyes for the pain he knew would return to end. "Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night." It seemed then that whatever strength or bout of delirium that had allowed him to join in Coalback's 'song' began to fade. "Rage," he said with a single sigh, "rage, rage ... rage ..." he mumbled and finally fell limp in exhausted rest.
"Wow," was all Filibuster could muster to say. Clean Cut nodded in his peripheral vision, silent agreement.
Coalback’s ears flinched again, more so this time as he turned his head to the door. "We have guests," he said.
It was then that the door slammed open. Wind howled and a small group of mares piled in past the Lunar Guards that had been there. Filibuster stiffened in dread, his ears fell flat to his head. "Oh no," he groaned.
"You!" Invisible Barrier all but screeched as she caught sight of Filibuster and Coalback. "I should blow your brains across the wall for what you've done to my stallion!"
There is no fury like a mare scorned. A truer statement in this case Filibuster was not sure existed, but it seemed to be a concept that escaped Coalback who stood to meet Invisible Barrier around the back of the couch.
The enraged Unicorn mare stomped up directly in front of the Pegasus, his large stature made all the more clear by the comparison. The other two mares, Filibuster's other wives, were right behind her though seemed to reconsider once they realized just how big the pony they were after was. The size difference, bulging muscle, and ever so slightly highlighted scarring on the stallion did little to sway Invisible Barrier however.
A hoof swung and struck true against Coalback's face with a clearly audible thump of frog to cheekbone. Coalback’s head whipped to the side and a hoof had to be moved to keep him from stumbling, but he stood his ground and looked Invisible Barrier in the eye when she spoke.
"First off!" she screamed, her fury echoed off the walls. "If you knew anything you'd know that maiming is strictly forbidden on the training field! You should be flogged for that!" Another slap, this time with the heavy back of her hoof and the louder crack of broken cheekbone. "Because of you Filibuster'll never be able to rejoin the Guard! And now they won't even let us in the hospital to see him!"
She made to hit him again, but Coalback caught her hoof in a strong grip and twisted it to force her to her knees. She struggled angrily and didn't even notice the bone shift back into place on his face. He said only one thing:
"I remember you, you tried to poison me," he growled slowly, and somehow his voice filled the room with more hate and rage than any of Invisible Barrier's screams.
"I wish I had!" she yelled spitefully. Her horn sparked dangerously, sputtered, and went dark again. "Hey- What are you doing to my magic?! Why can't I blast you!?"
Her struggling shifted his arm just enough to let Coalback's cloak slip, and the rings on his upper arm glinted in the firelight. "Magic, poison," he spat contemptuously. "Coward's weapons."
He turned his head to look over the other two unicorns with Invisible Barrier: A plump, young, daisy yellow mare who smelled of flour and sugar; the other, much thinner unicorn smelled of ink and old parchment with a coat to match. He sniffed again, their scents he set aside in his mind.
"Let her go," Filibuster croaked from the couch. "Sir," he added after a pause to catch his breath and push himself to a more seated position.
"Filibuster!" the baker screeched. The two mares sped around Coalback, his threatening appearance forgotten. Coalback dropped Invisible Barrier's hoof, and though she paused to glare at him she too ran to Filibuster's side.
The mares clutched in a rushed embrace around the seated pony, and kissed and coddled in equal measure. He embraced them all warmly to try and reassure them. The mares exclaimed at his horribly thin appearance; the shivering, the sunken eyes and hollow cheeks, bone thin legs and showing ribs. But it was Invisible Barrier who realized the most surprising change in the herd's stallion: his mended horn with only a thin crack to marr it; a permanent mark ringing the bottom of his horn the only sign that it had ever been missing in the first place.
"You," she said in breathless realization to Coalback. "You did something," she said, more to hear the words than to hear an answer from the 'Pegasus', "Didn't you?"
"Speak with respect to your highers," Filibuster coughed, a reassuring hoof kept her from flying after the other stallion again. "And he didn't do anything I didn't ask for," he admitted with a heavy shame.
"Like cut off your horn?!" Invisible Barrier snapped, her frustration turned on him.
"He fixed-"
"Nothing can fix what he already did!"
"Which is why I'm here instead of the hospital!" Filibuster barked, loud enough to shock Invisible Barrier into silence. "I attacked him after I left the field- I used magic against someone who couldn't in a fair fight and he nearly killed me for it! Don't you get that?" he admitted, a shock even to himself. "'Strike on equal footing, standing without Honesty is standing without Honor,' Solis Harmonia, scroll three of the Guard’s creed. I should be discharged for what I did."
Coalback's hooves clopped on the wood floor behind the mares, his silhouette cast over them by the firelight. "From what I know, there is still honor to be had in the Lunar Guard. I will see over him as a knight of the Lunar Court," Coalback rumbled gently, his eyes glinted in echoed green light.
“No!” the little librarian mare wailed. “The Lunar Guard is for criminals and murderers! And he’ll have to take the Black Mantle and be turned into a Thestral!”
“They have taken my mantle,” Coalback growled. “I will raise them up again, this is my reparation for taking away his horn.”
“You!?” Invisible Barrier screeched. “You’re going to change him into a beast like you!?” she screamed. “That’s a thousand times worse than a Thestral! How could you think that was better!? How could you agree to this!?” she yelled and turned back to Filibuster in a livid rage. “Why would you ever agree to let a monster like him change you!?”
“I didn’t exactly have a lot of options!” Filibuster barked back. “I would have been dishonorably discharged, and unemployed without even any basic use of my magic! What other options were left?!”
“We could have taken care of you! You didn’t have to go back into service!”
“You know that wasn’t an option,” Filibuster growled.
“Enough!” Coalback barked, the mares jumped in fear and turned back to the Pegasus. “Filibuster and Iron Bar need rest, and your bickering is only adding to their stress.” He turned his flickering eyes to Invisible Barrier. “I assure you that your mate is safe with me, his honor will be restored and when all of this is over he will be stronger and more beautiful than ever before: He will live longer, run faster, and think more clearly than ever,” he growled but the words sounded more sinister than reassuring to the mares. “Their names will echo in history, and their enemies will tremble at the sound.”
“You make it sound like there’s a war coming,” Filibuster said, his voice sounded haunted.
“There will always be wars,” Coalback said with a smile that did little to reassure.
The librarian shook her head again. “Equestria has been at peace for centuries, and we have been promoters of peace for even longer,” she said. But in front of this strange stallion, it sounded more like a weak plea or a lie.
Coalback shook his head with a chuckle, like he had to explain a simple fact to a small child. “There will always be wars. It is the nature of all things to desire more, and no one can have everything: Conflict is inevitable.”
---
Spike huddled in the darkened library, his claws clutched in front of his muzzle. He coughed desperately but only managed the smallest of sparks to spray out of his throat. “What a time for this baloney!” he muttered. He coughed again and watched the sparks dance over his claws and quickly die in the chilled air of the empty library.
Glass smashed outside, muffled, but Spike could easily hear ponies jeering and others screaming. He clenched his fists in anger.
Ever since that weird group of travelers had rolled into town, everything had been going downhill for Ponyville. They only ever came into town to cause trouble, and once they’d had their fun they just retreated back into the Everfree where nopony would follow them. He’d heard them asking questions around town, and threatening ponies when they refused to answer them. It seemed like now the candy shop just up the road was their object of entertainment, and apparently so was the plate glass window in the front.
Ponyville was full of tough ponies, but it seemed that when faced with a group of battlemages and gryphons they would much prefer to cower in their homes than expel the problem. Even the Mayor had simply told Ponyville not to get aggressive with them: some hogwash about hate bringing more hate.
If only he could get his fire going, then he could contact Celestia directly; she would never stand for this kind of stuff. But he hadn’t been able to get much more than a spark even before Twilight had left with the others to visit Rainbow after her accident. Twilight called it Salamanderitis: essentially the equivalent of a cold for dragons. Symptoms included inability to breath fire, stuffy nose and sinus headaches, and a drive to seek out hot coals to curl up in. So far he’d only had the stuffy nose and the fire problem, but Twilight had left him an enchanted blanket that could - in theory - become as hot as a furnace when it was wrapped around somepony, or in this case; somedrake. It was the next best thing to the inside of an industrial furnace, which according to the book Twilight had gotten would be the only thing that would get hot enough for Spike once he needed it.
Spike sneezed despite himself, more ineffectual sparks flew in a cloud from his nose. He was really starting to consider wrapping himself in that blanket and just sleeping it off, let the ponies deal with those jerks like they usually could with the random stuff that goes on around here.
Twilight would wash his mouth out with enough soap to make the floors shine if she could hear the amount of dirty words he wanted to shout at the frustration of it all. He hadn’t bothered to even address Ponyville’s newest terror, he had just activated Twilight’s wards and huddled inside. From their persistence he could tell that these ponies were after something and it was most likely not something he wanted to give them the chance of taking.
This library might not often look like it was all that much of a treasure, it was just a small town library after all. Unfortunately, with such a powerful spellcaster living in it, not to mention an Element of Harmony, this building had gained a few artifacts that could very easily be misused in the wrong hooves. There were books that very directly taught black magic in here - for the purpose of defense of course but again easily misused.
Spike didn’t want to have to fight off a lich while Twilight was away. So for now he had locked himself inside and everypony else out. Obviously there must have been a bug in Twilight’s spells, since they should have informed Twilight the moment they had been activated by him, but that had been a day ago. Twilight would have been here by now.
Spike had never felt more isolated, frustrated, or sickly as he did now. He wondered if he let himself get greedy- if he got big he could get rid of these guys on his own. But then he would cough and sneeze and the idea would die and be replaced with a decision to curl up and go to sleep.
Magic flared and the sleepy trance Spike had lulled himself into broke. He sat up quickly, heart aflutter as dust rained down from the ceiling. The wards rumbled and flared in strain as somepony pounded on the outside with their own magic to try to break them. Spike told himself that Twilight was the greatest spellcaster there was, and that nopony but the Princesses could break those wards.
But still …
“You gotta come out of there at some point!” a stallion yelled from outside as the wards gave one last final flare. That was the end of it though, the stallions and their gryphon pals left for the day.
“Where the heck are you, Twilight?” Spike muttered to himself. “Ponyville could sure use the Elements right about now.”
---
“What do you mean ‘we can’t leave’?” Twilight demanded of the Solar Guard at the gate of the Palace. All six of them stood before the lightly frosted, gilded gates to the Palace, which were uncharacteristically closed. A pair of guards stood before the pony sized door in the gate and more looked on from the gatehouse above.
“Orders directly from Princess Luna,” the Guard explained, his companion silent. “You are not allowed to leave the palace without your guards.” His armor glinted in the afternoon light and his spear glistened with oil and a perfect razor edge.
“Guards? So there is more than just Coalback?” Rainbow asked from the air, her hooves crossed in front of her.
“I have been informed that a large pegasus wearing black armor going by that name and his two squires are to be attending you at all times, especially if you want to leave the palace,” the Guard said again.
“We saw him leave earlier today with the Princess, but the Princess returned without him. Until he returns we suggest you retire to your rooms,” the other Guard said. Their spears clacked together for emphasis, crossed as they were in front of the gate.
“This is so lame,” Rainbow grumbled as she and the rest of the girls turned back to the palace.
“You can say that again,” Applejack agreed as she wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck. “Seems like the Princess thinks we’re in a awful heap’a trouble if she wants yer friend with us all the time.”
“He’s not my friend!”
“Oh, would you stop teasing her already,” Rarity said. But just before Rainbow could thank Rarity for acting like an adult Rarity continued. “Yes, Rainbow’s choices in stallions are her own.”
“Shut up!” Rainbow protested yet again, but her red face only managed to make the others laugh alongside Applejack. “You guys just wanna make me blush! You know I’m not that into him!”
“As funny as it is, I’m more worried about getting home,” Twilight said. “It seems at this point that we’re stuck waiting on this Coalback guy until further notice, and I really was not planning on this kind of a delay. Spike is home alone, and he can’t really contact me if something goes wrong.”
“M-maybe he just needs to get ready?” Fluttershy offered meekly.
Rarity scoffed, “I doubt a ruffian like him has any consideration to how rude he is, doubtful he cares about his appearance at all. Keeping ladies waiting, honestly,” Rarity said. She’d heard of stallions taking their time to get ready, but there was no way that that barbarian was at all making himself presentable. “More likely he’s gone off and gotten drunk again.”
“Can we talk about something else, please?” Rainbow pleaded as she flew to the door of the palace. The others followed her in as they began to make their way back to the Lunar wing where their room was.
“But he’s right there!” Pinkie exclaimed, she was off like a rocket before anypony could react. She reached the approaching Pegasus in half a second and bounced in front of him happily. The clanging from under his dark blue cloak halted with Pinkie’s presence, and from the sound of his steps whatever was under there was extremely heavy. For some reason he looked different but none of the girls could quite place it at the distance they were at.
Pinkie immediately began asking questions about where has he been and what has he been doing all this time that they’d been waiting on him; because the Guards at the gate said to do that, and then they were sad and they couldn’t get any answers out of the Princesses which was weird: did he think it was-
Coalback used a single hoof to clamp the pink pony’s lips shut and halt her bouncing, a worried express flashed across his face but it seemed he was more worried she would vibrate straight through the floor than anything. He waited for the other mares to approach silently.
It was only once they had gotten closer that they realized why Coalback looked different: His mane was cropped neatly as well as his fetlocks, his coat was brushed and clean, and he stood straight instead of the slouch or angry hunch he usually had. And none of them would have denied it at that point, but Coalback cleaned up well and looked the part of a military pony. Rainbow caught Rarity give a surprised, lady-like cough.
“There you are!” Twilight said with a relieved sigh and a forced but polite smile. “We were just looking for you, actually. We were hoping we could discuss when we could depart. You see, some of us have businesses to run and ponies waiting at home so …” Twilight rolled to a stop in her words, stuck fast under Coalback’s heavy gaze.
“Tomorrow, early morning or late afternoon?” was all he asked. At her confused expression he reached into his cloak and pulled out a train schedule with his mouth. “The first train leaves at six o'clock in the morning and the last at six o'clock in the afternoon. You may leave on one or the other but at no point in between, I want us there as either the first train or the last train,” he explained.
“But nopony is ever on the first train, or that last one! Who the heck would wanna get ready that early or get there that late?” Rainbow protested.
Coalback’s shining green eyes fell on her next. “Exactly: there will be no one there. Easier for me to keep an eye on you all and easier for me to spot potential threats,” he said in a deadpan. Rainbow blinked, she hadn’t actually expected a reply and not one that made that much sense.
“Why tomorrow?” Twilight asked. “Why not leave tonight? We already have our bags packed.”
Coalback shook his head. “I have only a few more things I need from the smith, and my squires cannot be moved at the moment,” he said. Pinkie struggled in his grip, hoping she could pull away to put a word in. Reluctantly, Coalback let go.
“You mean that Guard at the gate wasn’t kidding?!” she nearly bellowed. “You’re a knight, Coalback!? Congrats!” she yelled and attempted a tackle hug. She clanged against something in his bags and fell back on her flanks.
“Wait, what?” was the general reaction among the mares, who turned to Pinkie for explanation.
“Guards get squires too, but Twilight said Coalback wouldn’t be made into a Guard: Doesn’t that mean he has to be a Knight?” she asked, she only became more confused as everypony looked at her like she’d grown a fifth leg - which she hadn’t, she checked.
Coalback smiled in a silent laugh but nodded. "It is written and sealed that I am a knight of the Lunar Court. Now, again: When do you wish to leave?"
"M-morning, I think would be best," Twilight said shakily, she was met with a few nods in agreement by the others. In a moment of weakness to her own curiosity she asked "But Lunar Guards are all rehabilitating criminals, so then how did you get any ... squires?"
"They are older than the colts that served under them before," was his simple reply.
"Guards?! Solar Guards? How-?"
"How does the saying go? Bad seeds ... something, something bunches," he said flippantly with a roll of his shoulder that made one of his heavy bags fall with a dull thump to the floor. "I should go, I need to drop off some food for them before I go back to the smith." He motioned with his head to the fallen bag. "We will meet at the gate thirty minutes after five o'clock and arrive at the station five minutes before departure," he said as he turned to pick up the bag.
The bag twitched and started to roll away but Coalback hit it with a heavy hoof and with a whine it stopped moving and he tossed it back over his shoulder. He walked past them without another word and trotted away.
"Five thirty! I'll have no time to do my mane!" Rarity protested with obvious futility, her hoof touched her forehead in a dramatic swoon. "This is the worst possible thing!"
"Did nopony else notice his bag ... movin'?" Applejack piped up once she'd let Rarity get her drama out of the way.
Rainbow paled as she realized that Coalback had actually called it "food". She had to explicitly remind herself that Coalback had not really been raised by wolves and that he would never ... eat an animal. The denial made her feel more comfortable.
---
"Are you sure you can replicate it?" Coalback rumbled. The smithy was closed up tightly, and they spoke in near complete darkness. The subject was one that Coalback wished to keep desperately secret.
"You're talkin' to the greatest smith in all of Equestria, kid," Steady immediately replied, her magic flicked through the papers the Pegasus had given her. "Looks easy to produce, but the container and such won't be."
"I only need the powder and the iron, follow these diagrams and they should do fine for my purposes," Coalback replied.
"I can scrape together one of each for you, and a good amount of that stuff too. But I have your permission to keep making them?" she asked. She could see a huge market for these springing up once the word got out, she wanted to keep the monopoly as long as she could.
"Keep them off the market ... for now," Coalback growled, he glanced over his shoulder in paranoia of the wind outside. "But it might be good to have some stocked up if a need arises."
"And I can take the credit for the idea?"
"Of course, consider this a sort of repayment for your kindness," Coalback said. "Just get me these before tomorrow morning," he said; his one condition.
"They'll be done by the time the sun rises," she assured him.
"I'll be at the station, departing for Ponyville with eight others."
"I'll be waitin' fer ya," she said, even as her magic began working at a breakneck speed around the shop. The forge roared and metal screamed as it was turned on a lathe. Before Coalback could leave again she called him by name. "What exactly do you think yeh need these fer!?" she yelled over the noise.
He didn't say anything, he only gave her a sharp toothed smile from the gloom by the door. He reached up with an uncovered hoof and dragged it down the wooden header above the door, wood chips sprayed away and when he left four distinct claw marks marred the stained wood.
Steady shivered despite the heat of the forge, her heart felt cold with a shameful fear. "What have ye got yerself into now, Steady, old girl?"
The train whistled impatiently in Canterlot's grand train station. The open air station boasted white polished walls and smooth edges like much of Canterlot's architecture. A plaque proclaimed that while it was not the largest station in Equestria it was the most popular. The station was busy despite the early hour, with many drowsy eyed ponies boarding trains or dragging sleeping foals off arrivals.
Unfortunately this did not hide the strange group sitting in front of the early morning Friendship Express to Ponyville. Six mares struggled to load their luggage with the help of the sleepy courier. A tall, cloaked pony escorted them but offered no help, his hooded figure rose over all but the tallest unicorns as he scanned the thin crowds.
The girls paused as a small group approached, laden down with more bags on two of them. It took a moment for them to recognise doctor Clean Cut in his jacket. The two other ponies followed him; an earth pony and a unicorn with a cracked horn, both looked sickly and weak like they hadn't eaten for a few months. Coalback greeted them from under his cloak and took their bags from them. The doctor departed with a bow and a wave just as quickly as he'd come.
They loaded onto the train in short order, but Coalback waited outside the door as they all settled into the car. The girls nervously took seats at the farthest end of the car as the two thin stallions took a seat at the front just in front of the door they came in. Both looked horrid and exhausted and were dressed in dark armor that fit far too loosely on them.
"Are those really his squires?" Rainbow hissed to the others with a glance over the seat backs. Neither of them were watching the mares, they had collapsed onto a bench and looked like they'd fallen asleep.
"Well, their coats are still dyed like a Solar Guard's," Twilight said. "But I don't understand why they look like that. Plus, that's Lunar Guard armor."
"Coalback did say that he couldn't move 'em last night," Applejack offered with her own glance to the seated ponies. "Wonder what he's up to cartin' around a couple a' fellers so sickly like." She glanced out the window where Coalback still stood in apparent anticipation for somepony else.
"Perhaps he finds the idea of body guarding us as ridiculous," Rarity said as she fussed with a brush through her mane. "I know I do. We can take care of ourselves, thank you very much," she said, though her attempt at a snooty raise of her nose was undermined by the lock of mane that fell in her eyes.
"He doesn't look like he's not taking it seriously," Rainbow said doubtfully. "You heard him walking earlier didn't you? He's got something heavy under that cloak and he is definitely wearing metal boots."
"Perhaps he likes to dress up," Rarity suggested. Pinkie met it with a giggle.
"I think we all know that's not what's happening," Twilight said. "He didn't have to agree with Luna, he could have just left if he wanted to. I think that he does want to help, or at least try-"
"Oh look!" Pinkie exclaimed from the window. "Coalback's got a friend with a present for him!" she tapped the glass in excitement and tried to wave to the pony Coalback was talking to.
The girls gathered around the windows and looked out to see what Pinkie was talking about. True enough, Coalback was talking with a brown unicorn and had something on his back. The package was a simple wrap of course cloth and rope, but it was long like a bundle of spears on his back. She handed him two smaller packages before they shook hooves and the brown unicorn departed into the crowds.
Coalback hopped into the car just as the train gave it's last whistle and began to roll out of the station, the car shook as the train sped foreward. He was in the cabin momentarily and dropped all but one of the packages with the two squires. He brought the last package to the back of the train but didn't bother to hand it to anypony, he simply tossed the brown paper package to Twilight who had to react quickly to catch it.
"Hey-!"
"Open it," Coalback commanded, indifferent to Twilight’s offence at the treatment. Twilight grumbled but carefully began to unwrap the package. "Each of you will take one of these, keep it with you at all times. If there is an emergency you can call us with them," he explained as Twilight revealed the contents of the package.
She pulled out six simple, metal whistles on thin necklaces. Each one was a simple cylinder of metal, almost slim enough to be called a toothpick. Twilight distributed them to the others as she examined it.
"Is this a dog whistle?" she finally asked, it seemed so pointless that she wasn't sure if he was serious.
"This is a dog whistle," Applejack said obtusely as she took one.
"Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to," was Coalback's deadpan response. "I have a few questions for all of you, mostly just to help me make sure I do my job properly," he growled as he pulled out a sheaf of paper from under his cloak with a flash of the armor on his hooves. "I need to know if any of you live with other ponies, family, or others; which home between you is largest, and which of you owns the most land; I also need a compiled list of all of your personal and shared enemies and where they are located," he read from the list, a fountain pen found its way to his lips.
"What in the world sort o' questions are those?" Applejack asked, her words swam in incredulous suspicion. She did, however, slip the whistle under her hat and around her neck.
"I am constructing emergency and lockdown plans," he grumbled around the pen, he spat it into an armored hoof before he continued. "I need to know whose home can hold all of you and the ones you want protected, and which of those choices is most easily defended against someone wishing to ... intrude. I also need to know who to get where and who to expect to cause problems. There is more to a defensive strategy than just standing around looking shiny and polished and impressive: Something I think the Guards of Canterlot seem to forget," he said somewhat loudly, the stallions at the other end of the train clearly heard.
“Preparation shall keep rats from being nailed to your doors, bricks away from your windows, and your loved ones from being kidnapped and raped," he added as a last thought.
The car suddenly felt much smaller to the mares. Not a single one of them had ever heard of a pony doing those kinds of things. The fact that Coalback had rattled them off like they were commonplace occurrences was the worst part of it though. They'd never even thought that a pony could be capable of that kind of hate.
"I take it," Rarity said, "that this is more recurring of a problem where you come from?" She fanned herself hurriedly, hoping to stave off a faint at the horrible images he had so vividly put in her head.
"Common?" His smile flashed under his hood. "Where I come from some of the most popular modern media entertains with things just as bad and worse," he chuckled at the green tinge that suddenly jumped into the mare’s face.
"He's just trying to scare you, Rares," Rainbow grunted from her seat on the back of the bench. "None of that stuff happens here, dude. Ponies look out for each other here." She scowled across at the other Pegasus with a growing irritation.
"Doesn't matter," Coalback said, his smile died quickly under his hood. "Look," he sighed, "I don't like our situation any more than you do. So I want to do this right the first time and then get out of this country as soon as possible. But that means you have to follow my orders; I will attempt to respect the petty thing you call a life here and disrupt it as little as possible but things are going to be different while I'm around. End of discussion." His head scanned over the mares and their myriad of frowns. "Now, the questions that I asked?"
They spent the next half hour explaining, in great detail, who lived where and how "defendable" it had the opportunity to be. At the end of it Coalback left them alone and went to sit with his squires, where he began to talk to them in hushed tones over a new sheaf of paper.
"You see," Twilight said to the other girls, "He's trying ..." her voice was melancholy in the wake of the depressing discussion. "The Princesses know what they're doing, they know best," she said, more as a reassurance to herself than anything
"Yeah," Rainbow grumbled as she tossed the whistle between her hooves carelessly. "Well I'm starting to have my doubts," she growled. It was, unfortunately, how they all felt.
---
"Filibuster, Iron Bar; take Applejack and Fluttershy to their homes and stay with them until I call you. The rest of you will come with me to your homes," Coalback commanded once they had gathered their respective luggages. The twigs that were his squires bowed to him shortly and hefted their charges' bags, a surprising sight considering that they looked like they could barely hold themselves up.
"Wait, all that talk about keeping us all in one place and you just want to take us home now?" Rainbow asked incredulously.
"Or your place of work," Coalback shrugged, he carried his bags and his squires'. "That is only for an emergency, I don't want to interrupt your lives any more than I have to. I don't think you all need a ... a sitter of babies. Besides, I have other work to take care of while I am here." He grunted and sent his squires on their way with Applejack and a very frightened looking Fluttershy.
They left with Coalback at the lead, surprising since they all knew for a fact he had never been to Ponyville before. Pinkie was dropped off without incident, though Coalback was forced to agree to come back for cupcakes and a welcome party at some point. And Rarity departed their company with a carefully aimed cold shoulder for Coalback. Everything went smoothly until Twilight realized the library's wards were activated.
From the outside, the Library looked perfectly normal besides the perfect line in a circle around it where no new snow had dusted itself across. That and the gentle shimmer of purple magic in the air. Twilight skid to a halt in front of them, her magic flared in her horn and a set of runes spun and interlocked in the air much like tumblers in a lock. With a groan of stressed wood the magic dissipated and Twilight darted inside.
Coalback followed with feigned calmness at the sight. "I had not realized she lived in a tree," he growled under his breath with a puff of fog. He followed the purple unicorn inside just behind Rainbow Dash only to find the librarian nervously dancing in place.
"Spike?" Twilight called nervously. She darted from one side of the room to the next, a careful eye examined every inch. She pranced up the stairs with another call to her scaly assistant.
Coalback lowered his head to the floor and sniffed, he examined the library much like one might expect an animal in a new environment might. "Does Twilight often use magic in her home?" he asked, and it took Rainbow a few moments to realize he had asked her.
"Huh? Yeah, I guess. Why?" Rainbow replied automatically.
"If she is as good as the Princess seems to believe she is then this may make the best lockdown location. I had been considering the farm before since it was more secluded from the town, but magic changes the game."
"Twilight’s the best there is," Rainbow said resolutely. "Why do you always question what the Princesses say?" she asked. She winged in front of him so he would talk to her face.
"Why don't you?" Coalback asked simply. He continued his examination until he came to the stairs where Twilight had disappeared.
"Because their thousands of years old and I trust their advice. Plus they've been happily ruling Equestria for much longer than I've been alive," Rainbow explained. It seemed obvious to her that if there was anypony to ask advice from it was somepony who was older than Canterlot was, and that narrowed the list down to two pretty quickly.
"Seems that that would be all the more reason to question them," Coalback growled. "After all, how can you know their intentions, what motivates them, or for how long they have been lying?" he explained. "Is anything wrong?" he yelled up the stairs.
"We all trust the Princesses, there's no reason to question them," Rainbow protested under her breath. She'd heard of stubborn before, but this ...
"Everything's fine," Twilight said as she came back down the stairs. "Spike says he turned on my wards because he saw some shady looking ponies going around town. He's upstairs in the blanket I made him," she explained.
"Can he describe them?" Coalback asked, suddenly very interested.
"He's not feeling well, he could barely tell me that. But do you think that this is the kind of thing that the Princess was talking about?" Twilight asked.
"Maybe. We shouldn't jump to conclusions," Coalback said with a thoughtful growl. "I think you can make your way home on your own, Rainbow Dash. Stay there or stay with one of the others, just don't be out in the open alone. I have to get started on something now," he said as he turned quickly back to the door. He ducked through the door quickly and left them.
"Is Spike okay?" Rainbow asked. She couldn't be sure but she felt like she had to hear it again. "Why did he get scared?"
"He's going to be fine, he just needs a few days of bed rest. He said something about bad guys but I feel like he could be suffering from delirium. It's probably nothing. I knew I shouldn't have left him home alone."
A howl cut through the air and vibrated glass, any continued conversation came to a halt as both of them looked out the window. Coalback stood outside with his hood down and face pointed straight up, a steady stream of fog billowed from his lips as he very literally howled to the sky. The sound rose and fell once before he cut off the howl. Then he was off at a run, headed toward the Everfree.
"What in the world?" Twilight sputtered, flabbergasted by the spectacle.
"You could say that again," Rainbow said, she flittered over to the window and peered out at the similarly confused looking ponies that had just started their day. "This guy keeps getting weirder and weirder." She shook her head alongside Twilight, both of them no less confused over the enigma that was their unwanted Guard.
"And what about his squires?" Twilight asked. Her horn lit and an Encyclopedia flew down from a shelf and opened in front of her nose. "I don't know much about Luna's Night Guard, but if I remember rightly ..." The book flipped pages rapidly in front of her.
"What are you on about?" Rainbow asked. She set down next to Twilight and resend attempted to catch a glimpse of whatever the unicorn saw. She couldn't make out anything among the blocks of text.
"Aha! Right here!" Twilight announced. Her hoof landed on the page, indicating a certain passage. "This says that before the Celestial Wars, when Celestia and Luna ruled from the castle out in the Everfree, that Luna’s Guard was actually made up from criminals and murderers. She recruited them and had them accept 'The Black Mantle' to turn them into Thestrals exclusively loyal to her. The tradition persisted when she began to reinstate her position in the Diarchy." Twilight slapped the book closed and nearly took her nose with it. "Coalback's squires were wearing Lunar Guard armor, but instead of looking like Thestrals they just looked malnourished."
"Twilight, you're starting to pace." Rainbow cringed inwardly. She'd failed to catch the lecture before it could begin and Twilight was quick to build a head of steam when it came to this sort of thing. She had the "I've discovered a conspiracy" look.
"But Coalback did mention that they used to be Guards recently, so that can't be the case; which only means that they must have had something else magical change them in different ways because there's no way that they could have had that sort of muscle degeneration-"
"Twilight!" Rainbow yelled, which was finally enough to break the Unicorn out of her rambling. "You lost me awhile ago, egghead."
Twilight blushed, but with a deep breath she tried to explain again. “I think that the reason Luna was so interested in having Coalback as our Guard is because he might have been able to change the Guards somehow, like how Luna does to her Thestrals,” Twilight whispered conspiratorially. "Maybe that's somehow connected to what we just saw."
"What are you suggesting," Rainbow had to ask carefully, "exactly?" She wasn't sure, but Twilight's textbook neat hair seemed just a bit mussed: which was not always a good sign.
"Maybe ..." Twilight paused and leaned in closer as if there were other ponies nearby who could listen in. "Maybe he's a werepony," Twilight whispered.
"Pfffft!" Rainbow rolled her eyes and had to bite her lips to keep a guffaw from flying from then. "Alright, Twi. Just how much sleep did you get last night? 'Cuz right now it looks like none," Rainbow chuckled.
Twilight deflated but a smile grew on her face. "You're right. What in the world am I thinking?" Twilight said, she put a hoof to her temple and groaned. "I'm not really sure to be honest, maybe I will go for a nap," she consented.
"I know I want one- Aw horseapples!" Rainbow groaned with a slap to her forehead. "I totally forgot! I gotta go talk to my manager about why I was a day late back to work," she grunted. She'd nearly made it to the door and out on her way to Cloudsdale but Twilight’s magic ground her to a halt.
"Where are you going? Coalback said not to go anywhere alone!" she said.
"Who the heck is gonna fly with me all the way to the weather office in Cloudsdale?" Rainbow protested. She tugged fruitlessly against the magenta magic. It was a short flight for her, but anypony else would slow her down.
"Couldn't you take Fluttershy?"
"Flutters has to take care of her animals, I'm not gonna ask her to go with me right after she got home," Rainbow said, an excuse but the truth nonetheless. She knew for a fact that that rabbit of Fluttershy's was vicious when he didn't get fed, and Fluttershy had missed a whole day's worth of meals. Rainbow shuddered to think of getting into that mess, she knew Fluttershy could handle the furball thankfully.
"Then ask Coalback, he's a Pegasus," Twilight suggested.
"What?!" Rainbow’s voice nearly cracked. "Why? So you guys can tease me some more?" Rainbow growled. "'On a romantic flight to have brunch in Cloudsdale with your new love interest, Dashy?'" she said in her best impression of Rarity.
"Okay, I'll admit that we dragged the joke along a little too far. But he has a point. You should have somepony with you, and right now he's probably your best option," Twilight said.
This time Rainbow caught the signs of an impending lecture however, and submitted. "Fine," she said reluctantly.
"The Princess seems to think our lives are in danger, the least we can do is-"
"Yeah yeah yeah!" Rainbow yelled to stop the Unicorn before she could start up again. "Okay, I'll listen to Coalback! Whatever! Just let me go!"
---
"I think we may have a problem," one of the ponies said from the darkened window of the abandoned bed and breakfast that the renegade group had "borrowed." He peaked back out of the closed curtains as two scrawny looking stallions barreled past the window to answer the howl from the strange, large Pegasus.
"We can work 'round it," one of his cohorts said confidently as he finished of the mini-muffins in the kitchen. "It's just a few Guards, we've taken out more with fewer resources than we have now. Plus, the Master said not to let anypony get in our way of getting rid of at least one Element."
"I dunno, that big fella looks like he could be real trouble," the stallion at the window said. "He was walkin' with the mares, they might be onto us," he shivered, a shard of his personality slipped through the orange tinge to his scleras.
"The gryphons can handle him, we can take out the two guards. And if the gryphons can't do their jobs, then the Master's children will," the Unicorn lounging on top of the bar said as he took a swig from a bottle there. "We go ahead as planned; watch them, lie low till they can be cornered, then slaughter them and be on our merry ways," he chuckled. "Besides, we only need to kill one Element for His plan to work flawlessly: How hard can it be to kill a bunch of mares."
The other two nodded and the Unicorn in the kitchen sent a signal through his horn to their camp in the woods: a green glow that would appear on another Unicorn's horn to indicate that the plan was a go despite the new complications.
---
When Rainbow spotted Coalback and his squires they had nearly finished setting up a camp on a clear hill just outside of the Everfree Forest. The squires worked together to set up the second tent while Coalback sat to one side and looked over a map.
She winged down and landed in front of him. He barely looked up at her before he returned to his map. "Yes?" he asked simply, in the most bored tone that Rainbow had yet to hear from him.
"I gotta go talk to my boss in Cloudsdale about why I didn't show up to work yesterday," she said simply. She hoped she could make the trip quickly and get back as soon as possible.
"You work in another town?" Coalback asked in the same bored tone. But he packed away the map and stood up.
"Cloudsdale is just where the weather manager for this region of Equestria is, I run Ponyville’s weather team," Rainbow explained. "Now come on, we gotta start flying now if we wanna get back before lunch."
Coalback grunted and pulled off his cloak. Metal armor glistened in the cold afternoon and a sword hung in a silver lined scabbard on his flanks. He pulled off the armor quickly, starting with the heavy shield on each wing.
"You've been wearing all that since we left this morning?!" Rainbow nearly choked. It would certainly explain why the train had rocked when he stepped on.
"Fortune favours prepared ponies," he grunted as he pulled off the heavy boots on each hoof and unhooked the plates around his hocks. He pulled off the ringmail jerkin and stood with nothing but a thick blue sash wrapped around his flanks. "But, if you say we must fly I will have to ... make do without," he grumbled, though he made sure to tuck a large knife into the sash’s folds. “Finish setting up the camp, then circle the edge of the forest at a fast-march,” he said to one of his squires.
“For how long?” the unicorn with the cracked horn asked as he pulled a rope tight with his teeth. Rainbow wasn’t sure which one was Filibuster and which one was Iron Bar, which she was pretty sure was their names.
“Until I get back,” Coalback said simply. He unfurled his wings and looked like he was about to take off, but in unison all three of the stallions turned toward the wall of frosted foliage behind them with raised ears. The big earth pony grunted at the back of his throat and started to step toward the forest. "Finish setting up camp. Go on your march," Coalback said slowly to his squires, "but under no circumstances go in the forest without me." The big earth pony turned around and continued with his tent, but Coalback and the Unicorn continued to stare expectantly.
"What's going on? I don't hear anything," Rainbow asked in as quiet a whisper as she could manage.
The Unicorn huffed through his nose and turned back to his work. Coalback turned around. "Nothing, just the breeze in the branches," he said. "I will follow you to 'Cloudsdale'," he grunted as he hefted his wings back up.
"Right," Rainbow grunted, perturbed yet again by his strange behaviour. "Let's go." She twisted her wings, a miniature tornado of feathers that served to launch her in the air and turn her around. She heard air rush in harsh wing beats behind her and knew Coalback had followed her into the air. She banked slightly over Ponyville to aim back toward the train tracks and began to climb gradually.
She glanced behind her as she flew, she’d flown the same path a hundred times before and wasn’t so. Coalback flew more like a clumsy vulture than anything, with one large flap and a long delay of glide before he would shunt himself up and forward with one big push. She nearly groaned, at this pace it could take most of the day.
She dropped back to fly just over him. "Hey!" she yelled over the wind, Coalback looked up at her immediately. "Keep your wings out straight and do smaller circles, you'll fly a bit faster and you can climb easier!" she advised. He tilted his head to the side, clearly confused. She demonstrated, though her wings weren't quite large enough to actually make use of the technique.
He stared, and rather than continue his previous pattern, locked his wings out and carefully imitated her. The tips of his wings dragged in long circles and he slowly began to rise.
"Yeah, now grab the air with the front of your wings on the pull to go faster," she yelled. She smiled despite herself as he did pull forward, finally at a decent pace. "Now if you really wanna go fast," she yelled over the brisk wind, "you just gotta do more of that." She grinned and sped ahead of him.
When she spun around and glided on her back to watch him catch up she was surprised to see that he had already sped up significantly. Almost enough to catch up to her. And wasn't that the ghost of a smile on his face? She made sure he saw the unimpressed look on her face.
“I have never flown before I came here," he called out over the wind.
"You gotta be joking," Rainbow protested and flipped back to fly right side up. "What did you do with yourself before now?"
"I told you, I fight. No way to get in the air before now," he yelled, his voice reflected off the clouds.
They climbed in altitude until they grazed the underside of the overcast cloud ceiling. Rainbow doubted that Coalback would be able to punch through with what she knew of his flying ability -of which she was certain he had none of at this point- so they’d have to find a patch of thinner stratocumulous. But this was practically the first time she'd seen the big stallion smile, and it was kind of nice.
"You know," she called, "I don't think it would be all that good for my rep if I was seen with a bodyguard who can barely fly better than a foal in flight school." She pushed the pace a little faster and forced him to keep up. "So if you've got time in that busy schedule, you know all that protecting you've gotta do, I could show you some stuff," she said with a roll of her eyes.
"About flying?" he asked as he caught up.
Rainbow raised a brow in surprise: by this point most ponies would at least be a winded. So it wasn't for a lack of stamina or strength that he had never flown before, that was for sure. "'Course. What else would I be talking about?" She pushed the pace forward again and switched back to her more natural pattern of flight instead of the one she'd shown Coalback. She spotted a beam of light through the clouds and turned toward it. "We can get above the clouds over here!"
Coalback took a wide turn to follow her as she disappeared through the gap in the cloud cover. One of his wings splashed into the side of the hole and he flipped through until he landed on the ledge of cloud. Rainbow’s laugh was muffled to him, but she couldn't help herself.
He dug his head out of the cloud only to stare around him in surprise. "Hvað í heiminum?" he spat, completely unintelligible as far as Rainbow was concerned.
She set down gingerly on a mound of cloud just next to him. "Are you telling me you've never been on a cloud before either?" she tried.
He stared at her for a moment before he pulled himself out of the cloud fluff he'd nearly been buried in. He stared at a clump stuck to his nose and blew it off before he spoke. "This is normal?"
"Dude, if this is surprising to you, then you're gonna flip out when you see Cloudsdale," she laughed as she directed his eyes with a hoof pointed behind him.
Rising above the hill of clouds they'd landed on was the flying Pegasi city. Spires of sculpted cloud speared up toward the upper atmosphere, grey snow clouds fresh from the factories circled in rings and spirals, and waterfalls of the famous liquid rainbows flowed freely off the sides of its main platform. Pegasi in droves and flocks flew between buildings, both chaotic and somehow perfectly in synch with everypony around them as they went about their days.
“Mikill grár drauga ...” he said breathlessly. He stood shakily on the clouds, the floating fluff gave way a surprising amount underneath him but it sprung back as well made clouds always did.
“I guess you could say that again,” Rainbow chuckled. She’d suspected the reaction; if he’d never flown before he’d never seen a Pegasus city. “All that tough talk and a trip to the city leaves him speechless,” she teased.
---
“Now. That soldier’s away.”
“What about the other two? They’re still here.”
“Couple of skinny kids off the street is what they look like, nothing we can’t handle.”
“We can herd the targets all together; it would be easy.”
The wind howled here, so high above the solid earth. But this deterred none who lived in the cloud city, they simply spoke over the wind in the same way that they seemed to float in it: effortlessly. Among the cloud spires and currents of tamed air the Pegasi were one with the sky. Here they never had to land, where flying was as common as walking was down below. Streets were only a concept here, seeing as Pegasi chose to construct their cloud roosts at whatever elevation they wanted.
The city was alive with ponies: Couriers, businessponies, and overzealous lovers all mixed together in large, loud crowds. Legends persist that before the end of the city-state age this was one of the greatest trade centers between all the legions of Pegasi, from the Imperial children of the west winds to the slim south wind Romanes. It was home to the largest weather factories in the world and one of the sole sources of their uniquely produced rainbows. Cloudsdale was the home of the Pegasi, one of the oldest and last flying cities left from the age of the city-states. The Pegasi here felt at one with their birthright: the clouds, and the skies, and the winds from all directions.
All but one, it would seem.
Coalback was tense and stressed, of that much Rainbow Dash was certain. At first she had assumed he was simply awestruck, but now she was certain that he hated the city just as much as anything else. Once they had gotten to the city proper he had immediately demanded they land and walk the rest of the way. His excuse had been that he would lose her too easily in the flying crowd, but he still seemed unsteady on the cloud walkways. As a result it took them nearly half an hour to walk what would have been a five minute flight.
Thankfully Rainbow did reach the factory, and once they were inside she was able to get him back in the air and she was able to find her boss. He waited outside the office, to glare at any passing ponies she presumed. Hopefully no one would get too creeped out by him in the cloud office space. Maybe the view could help him loosen up.
It only took a few minutes to work things out with Rainbow’s boss, and just a simple form to fill out in order for her boss to fix everything. It turned out that her weather manager would simply ignore her unplanned extension of her vacation on account of the consistently good quality of her and her team's work. No docks in pay, no complaints. But those were the perks of being as awesome as Rainbow Dash was.
"Alright. Everything's good, dude," Rainbow said to Coalback as she stepped out of her boss's office. "We can go now." She walked past him and nearly got to the end of the hall before she realized he hadn't followed her.
He stared out the window intently, eyes and ears pointed off in the general direction of Ponyville.
"Hey," Rainbow called out to him, "are you ready to go or what?" His ears twitched but otherwise she was left without a response. "What's up-"
"Shh!" Coalback hissed, he held up his hoof to forestall any more words. His ears jumped up and turned, focused finally on his target. "The whistles; the others are in danger," he growled.
"What? I don't hear anything," Rainbow protested.
"I'm certain of it now, three whistles are being blown," Coalback was quick to say. "What's the fastest way back to town?" he asked her urgently.
"I could bust a hole through the clouds for us, but it'll still take a few minutes for us to get there with your speed," Rainbow said.
"What if I used a dive to accelerate? Like a falcon."
"That would work, but a dive is a pretty advanced flying technique-"
"I learn quickly. Get us out of here, now!" he commanded, his ear twitched back to the window and apparently the sound of the emergency whistles he'd given the mares.
"Alright! Stick close!" Rainbow yelled. She ducked past him and out the window. She started to climb as soon as she was sure she would have enough room.
Coalback shouted at anypony who flew into their flight path, far more than enough to startle the Pegasi to dodge out of the way. At least Rainbow knew he was right behind her. She'd have to get high up if she wanted to accelerate the big Pegasus to a speed fast enough to get them back to town as soon as possible. She shouted instructions to him as they climbed up to the height of the tallest skyscrapers in the city.
"When I start the descent stay right on my tail, I'll cut through the air and you can ride in my draft! But if you deviate too much you could get knocked into a tumble!" she explained over her shoulder. "We're gonna roll over into the dive, keep your hooves on the outside of the loop or you'll red out! Then you just gotta stay in my draft!" She wasn't sure how much she could really put emphasis on that, but if he didn't then she'd probably end up saving him and they'd never get to town.
~~~
Fluttershy blew desperately into her whistle, silently though if it hadn't been clenched between her lips she'd probably be screaming. Applejack simply ran, both the yellow pegasus and her shocked little sister thrown over her back. Applebloom did scream.
The gryphon behind them cackled as he chased after them; a crossbow slung over his back and a menacing looking hammer in his claws that he swung dangerously close to Applejack's hocks. Leather armor adorned the gryphon like a morbid proclamation of its intentions.
As Applejack ran toward town, and hopefully some help, more ponies and another gryphon joined the chase. It only took the practiced farmer a moment to realize she was being herded. But with a pony brandishing a cattail whip to one side and another with a fiery crackle on his horn to the other she had little choice but to keep running.
They cajoled her and goaded her as she ran. Various slurs and insults, or more often teasing of Applejack's two passengers, filled the air around her and didn't give her her a moment to properly think. She barely noticed when they had been driven into town, herded down the main street. What townponies she could see were in a panic, either cornered or running for cover.
Applejack saw a cloud of smoke and a flash before she heard the bang or caught sight of the battlefield that Twilight’s home had become. One of the gryphons cried out behind her. The ponies herding her scattered and it was all she could do to make the last sprint to Twilight’s door.
"Close it!" somepony shouted as Applejack burst through the door and collapsed inside. Magic hummed and the outside world was muffled. "Hurry up! Reload! Reload!" Metal scraped and the sound of sand being poured into a pot graced the air. Something heavy was handed back to the speaker.
“Now!” The door was kicked back open and with a rush of wind an explosion filled the air with smoke. The door was closed and the wards reactivated just as a volley of magic was fired. One made it through and impacted explosively with the doorframe, splinters sprayed across the floor.
Applejack picked herself up, now free of her charges, and tried to knock the ringing out of her ears. A hoof helped support her and she was met with the welcoming sight of a slightly distressed Rarity. "Oh! Thank goodness you're here!" she shouted over the sound of more impacts on Twilight’s wards. "We were so worried they'd gotten to you! They mean to kill us!"
"What's goin' on?" Applejack managed to sputter out.
"Those ruffians broke into my house! If it were not for Pinkie I'm sure they would have done whatever they found appealing; and from what disgusting things they said I can assure you it would have been unpleasant!" Rarity rattled off. If not for the smeared make up and actual dirt in her mane, and the fact that the same had just happened to Fluttershy and herself, Applejack might have thought that Rarity was exaggerating. "Thank goodness Twilight is as paranoid as our new guard, she has this place locked up tight."
"You should've seen it, Applejack! It was incredible!" Pinkie piped up, dressed all in pink camouflage with a matching pink army helmet atop her head. "At first I thought they were just a bunch of REALLY hungry ponies but then they tried to stuff me in a sack! I've played that game before though, so I knew how to get out! But then I realized that this was exactly what Coalback said might happen so I went to go grab Rarity so we could go someplace safe, like he said we would do in an emergency! Thank Celestia the Cakes are visiting family in Manehatten!" Pinkie only had to take an instant to take another breath. "But those meanies were trying to play the same game with Rarity too! So I grabbed her and Sweetie Belle and we came here, and that's what happened!"
"Don't ask me how she got us in here with Twilight’s shields up, but she did," Rarity added. "Then those two showed up with their 'rifles'," she said, and as if to punctuate her point the stallion set off another explosion through the door and the wards, which closed quickly once he was done.
"Missed! Damnit!" the unicorn cursed.
"Don't ask me how they work," Rarity proclaimed, "but they seem to be very effective."
Applejack would have stopped her to ask about Twilight, but the question was quickly answered when Applejack looked to the rear of the room. Twilight stood at the absolute center of the tree, where the rings in the wood shrank to a single point and she stood blanketed in magic.
Twilight stood in a cloud of bright ley lines, runes, and a crude representation of the street outside. It appeared that her attention was split between opening and closing the wards for the soldier as he set off his explosive 'rifle', and constructing some sort of spell in the air in front of her. Twilight flinched with every shake of her wards, her horn flared as she pumped more power into them. Magic wavered in the air around her, crackled dangerously between her runes, and shifted wildly at her behest.
"Where's that derned Guard a' ours?" Applejack yelled at the stallions.
The earth pony didn't reply, too busy with a rod that he pumped down the short length of the 'rifle'. The rifle itself looked more like a spear with a bloated, blunt head. A dragon's head was carved in silver at the open tip, smoke and ash had already begun to tarnish the decoration but only served to make the device look all the more sinister. An unused rifle remained just behind the earth pony.
"Sir Coalback left with lady Rainbow Dash about an hour ago. The lady had business in Cloudsdale and he accompanied her-"
The library shook violently as a particularly powerful volley of magic struck Twilight’s wards. The purple unicorn cried out as feedback lanced through her horn, but she did not falter.
Applejack looked outside through the nearest window and the distortion of a thick, purple shield. Several Unicorns, dressed in ragged cloaks and armed to the teeth, had lined up and were charging another volley against the shields. More ponies and gryphons were gathered outside, all armed as if to storm and castle. The mob scattered as the door opened again to release an explosion; a sister explosion tore apart a gryphon's chest plate and knocked the brute to the ground.
"He had better get here soon," the earth pony grumbled as he poured a black sand down the metal dragon’s throat. "We’ll run outta iron far before they run outta bodies. I don’t know how many of them we can take on without him here." He spoke quietly, although a turmoil of emotion showed through.
~~~
The tops of trees scraped Rainbows hooves, and behind her Coalback's wings attacked the air. Occasionally she heard trees groan and branches crack as Coalback pushed himself back into the air before the forest could claim him.
"The camp! I will need my armour!" he yelled over the wind.
"I thought we were in a hurry?!" Rainbow yelled back incredulously.
"I can dress on the fly!" he replied.
The air on Rainbow’s hooves grew warm and she could tell that despite his lack of experience Coalback was very literally right behind her. "Alright- I see smoke!" Rainbow yelled and pointed a hoof toward the town.
"And I smell black powder! They must be sheltered somewhere in town!" Coalback replied. In the span of their conversation they had already neared the edge of the forest and could very clearly see the smoke rising from the middle of the town. The echo of an explosion punctuated Coalback's sentence.
They left the forest edge with much the same feeling of leaping straight off of a cliff. Coalback broke away with a roll. His hooves hit the dirt only once in a bounding leap, sod flew but his speed remained and when his hooves next touched down they swept up a bundle of black metal.
He twirled in the same way Rainbow had to lift off, a near perfect imitation that somehow ended with the ringmail jerkin over his shoulders. His hoofguards slipped on as if they had a mind of their own and his chest plate was on before he was beside Rainbow again in the air. His coif wrapped around his neck like a familiar scarf, and his fearsome helmet encased his head to nearly complete the image. Rainbow didn't even see him mount the heavy shields to his wings, only his hooves struggle to tie off his sword at his side.
Everything was practiced, precise, and as fast as the blink of an eye. Though Rainbow could not hear it; adrenaline pumped the other Pegasi's heart into overdrive and focused his mind down to a fine point. The black blood of his kin screamed in his veins and the world around him moved at only the pace he desired.
"Stay back from the fighting!" Coalback barked from within the muffling confines of the snarling helmet. "Stay out of sight! Do not interfere!" Coalback broke away again, this time to climb high over the town and pull ahead of Rainbow.
Coalback rushed through the air with with a single minded fury, and Rainbow had no choice but to break away and wait behind. Not because she could not keep the pace but for fear that Coalback would force her to break away if she did not. Coalback’s wings pumped against the air, his silent will bent it to the task of lifting his armour's tremendous weight. He rolled into a dive and maintained control through it.
His landing site was a battleground, several decimated corpses littered the cobbled street. Still more ponies stomped over the dead to avoid the thunderous wrath of the weapon in the library's door and join the fate of their comrades. Coalback didn't bother to wait for an opening, he simply chose a spot and landed as quickly as possible.
His hooves hit the cobbles hard despite a powerful braking flap from his wings. He bounced as his ankles tried to absorb the impact and hopped into the air. He landed once again directly outside the bubble of magic in front of the door to the library. In a moment of lost self control he let out a bellow that shook the bones of his opponents into a shocked stillness, so primal was the noise that every pony of the group reared in surprise. The deep, throaty voice of a stallion ready to charge.
A gryphon brandishing a spear did not react so skittishly, however. With a screech the large predator rushed Coalback. The assault lasted less than a second: Coalback smacked away the tip of the spear with one armoured hoof and took control of the weapon with the other. With a twist he drove the bottom end of the spear into the gryphon's sensitive underbelly. The simple move drove the air from the gryphon's lungs and left him completely helpless as Coalback liberated him of his heavy hammer and took the beast into a solid headlock with his other hoof.
"Consider that a warning!" he snarled to the rest of the shocked attackers, his breath came in heavy huffs that filled the air with steam. "Leave now and you all may have a chance to live. Challenge me and you all will die! Run from your challange; and die tired!" His voice reverberated within the wolf’s face that encased him.
"Wait!" One of the Unicorns lined up in the street protested. "Your friends have already proved that they have mastery over magic that we have never witnessed before, and that they are capable fighters. But my Master insists that if I have the chance to I should speak to you and make a request!" The hooded stallion announced.
The gryphon in Coalback's relentless grip struggled weakly against the Pegasi's hold, but a growl from his captor quickly stopped that. "Then make your request and decide: leave now or paint these streets with your blood," Coalback said. The hammer hovered over the gryphon's head, ready to smash it's skull at the first sign of deceit.
"My Master has great respect for your kind, not-pony," the Unicorn said with a bow. "He has extended an offer for you to join him in his glorious journey, one that will only be offered thrice!" he announced, he stepped forward slowly from his line of Unicorns. The ragtag group of ponies from all tribes split, and slowly began to surround the tree-house. "Turn your gaze away from us and hand over the mares, my Master can ensure that every desire you have can be fulfilled and more-"
"Don't do it, Coalback!" Rainbow Dash called from the clouds above. Instantly, every eye in the street spotted her prismatic pastels against the grey sky.
Coalback struck with a roar. The hammer impacted the back of the Unicorn's head before he could have a chance to spit the order of death on his lips. With a squeeze the gryphon in Coalback's arm was reduced to a limp corpse and tossed aside. He had already crushed the skull of two more of the Unicorns before the group had refocused on him.
One of the spellcasters tried desperately to charge a retaliation. His magic exploded unfettered as Coalback's armored hoof shattered his horn. Another Unicorn was luckier, but his magical blast splashed harmlessly across a wing shield and revealed the magical runes woven into the Lunar steel. The nearest earth pony dropped his spear and turned to flee.
Before Coalback could respond to the attack one of the few gryphons left tackled him from the air. Fur and feathers flew as the two warriors scuffled across the ground. The struggle ended suddenly when Coalback's armored hoof caught the curved beak of the gryphon and tore it free from the sky cat's face. Its scream of pain was cut short by the keen edge of its own blade.
A coiled whip found its way from the gryphon's belt and into Coalback's hoof. The whip uncoiled with one flick, and at the second it cracked through the air and wrapped around the leg of the last gryphon. With a yell Coalback yanked the feline falcon free from the air and slammed it into the final group of ponies even as they turned tail and fled. The fliers of the group that could not boast claws and sharp beaks never even bothered to attempt an attack, but only the bravest of them remained and circled the battlefield.
The Unicorns regrouped and fired a concentrated blast of magic fire at Coalback. The whip dropped from his hooves, but rather than huddle behind the shields on his wings he presented his left arm to the flames. The fire screamed as it rolled over the metal, a golden shimmer at his shoulder dispelled the mage fire and left the armored Pegasus with hardly a singed feather.
Coalback spun to face them, hooves spread as he reached for his sword at his side. But in that instant a new foe entered the field. It moved like lightning and where Coalback had been standing one moment was only a cloud of dust the next. A building shuddered with impact, snow and dust filled the air around it, and the last of the attackers turned tail and ran.
A whiplike tail stroked at the air through the cloud around the building, as long and thick at the base as a tree. The struggle continued in a shocked silence, the fight almost enough to break through the weakened wall of the shop that had absorbed the initial attack. With the crack of metal hoofguard against bone the beast that had attacked was finally revealed: It stumbled out on legs with one too many joints, sabered claws swiped at the air as it tried to regain its balance. Its green hide of leathery scales seemed to suck what little color there was out of the snowy land around it, a wrinkled and distended belly hung under its narrow chest. Its head reared, fins along the lower half of its face stirred the air and a sideways beak spread to reveal its needlepoint teeth. Beady eyes flickered with hate as its long neck swung around, it screeched horribly as it stumbled away from another kick from Coalback.
It burbled as it slunk around its prey in a whirl. With barely a moment for the Pegasus to stand again the creature struck, a full body tackle that rolled the both of them back out into open ground. Rocks and splatters of slush flew around them as the beast clawed at what it could only perceive as canned food. Another thick impact and Coalback’s wings flared out from the cloud of debris and flapped to keep him on top of his attacker.
The cloud of flying debris cleared and it was apparent that it was all the creature could do to keep Coalback hitting him with just one arm. The stallion was wrapped in claws, the tail of the creature around his neck and tightening, all but one arm that he relentlessly pounded into its neck even as it bit at his other arm. Coalback made another grab for his still sheathed sword but the creature twisted and demanded the stallion’s attention again.
“Let us through!” Filibuster commanded. The shields around Twilight’s home shimmered and both of the armored squires clanked out. Filibuster dropped into a crouch and braced the back end of his rifle against the ground, the tip exploded into smoke and flame and the creature wrestling with Coalback bounced as an explosion detached its tail.
Filibuster only had a moment to celebrate as the tide of the fight turned in favour of Coalback. Iron Bar shouted his name as warning before he pushed the smaller stallion out of the way and braced his own rifle. A hot piece of flint found its way into the head of the dragon in his hooves, and with a roar, a column of flame spread from the end.
Another creature was swallowed in the flame and screamed as its flesh was seared by the bright fire. It reared and hunched over before it managed to tear away in another direction, all that was left was a trail of smoke and smoldering layers of skin as it whiffled back into the forest at the edge of town. The flame died in the dragon’s metal mouth at Iron Bar’s hooves.
Coalback yelled out, his struggle against the deadly creature had reached its inevitable end. Coalback had broken free from the creature’s deathgrip, and now the abomination struggled to free its head and flee but Coalback had it held tight in his arm. With a snicker his sword was pulled free from its scabbard, its marbled steel length shimmered in the overcast light and a single red point within a widened tip of the sword was all its decoration. With a single swing and a snack the blade twirled and the creature’s head separated from its long neck with a spray of pale grey blood.
He turned on his rear hooves toward his squires, sword in one hoof and the head of the monster in the other. He raised the bloody stump high in triumph as the corpse collapsed behind him. He raised his head to the sky and howled out from his helmet in victory, in only a moment the two other stallions joined him and raised their spent rifles in salute.
Coalback only took a moment to rest, hot puffs of air swirled out of his helmet. With a rush of air his armored shoulders pumped his wings and took him to the air. He hovered jerkily above the rooftops, the creature's head held aloft, and spread his voice on the wind.
"Ponies of Ponyville!" he yelled, his voice loud enough to carry far outside of the town. "This province is now under martial law by the authority given to me by your Princess of the night! For your own safety, a curfew is now in effect; nopony is to be in the streets, and especially in the forest, after the sun has fully set! Anyone found outside in the dark will be subject to questioning, and anyone found in the forest at night will be punished to my discretion!" The bloody head dropped from his hoof and bounced wetly off of the corpse of its previous owner. "And as for the ponies who dared to attack and threaten the safety of this town; keep running, because when the sun sets we will hunt you down like the cowardly animals that you are!" he snarled toward the closest border of the Everfree. "This place," he bellowed, "is protected!"
Ponies' heads peeked out from shuttered windows and doors to peer up at the armored killing machine that had just driven off a hoard of evil in as much time as it took to peel an orange, and with just as much ease. Their angel of death descended with a crash of his metal hooves as he dropped himself from the sky and began to survey the fruits of his labour. His sword, which shimmered with blood and metal that shifted in the light, snicked back into its scabbard. Used, but only once and to cause the greatest act of his will on the battlefield; a true instrument of war.
Tentatively at first, but with growing confidence, somepony shouted: "Three cheers for the monster slayer! Three cheers for the champions of Princess Luna!" The two colts who had brandished fire instead of steel looked to each other and smiled at the praise, but their hero's expression remained unseen. He did turn to face the sound as the cheering grew and grew, but his frightening face mask remained closed.
He only listened for a moment before he selected a body, and slung it over his shoulder. The corpse groaned and revealed that he had left a single survivor. He coaxed his fellows back into the tree of the town's librarian without a word, and only paused to let a rainbow blur slip into the door.
Though they were few, with soldiers as skilled as that working beside the Elements of Harmony, the ponies of Ponyville felt the safest they had in nearly a week. Which was a stretch for a town as strange as this one.
---
“They took a gamble, a good one. We hadn’t settled in yet and you all were still recovering from your trip.”
The basement to the library was lit with only a candle on a single work table, and though scattered with various instruments and papers, there remained just enough space to keep a single prisoner tied down to a chair. Dust stirred in the dank air, disturbed mostly by the large pegasus as he spoke.
“I would suggest you all remain in this house for tonight, we will arrange trips to your homes so you can collect anything you need.”
“What about this guy, or all those … bodies?” one of the mares asked from the staircase where they had all huddled to watch the Guards and their prisoner.
“When he wakes up I will interrogate him. And I will dispose of the corpses.”
“What if he don’t talk?”
“Then he will sing,” Coalback replied with the hint of a smile in his muffled voice. His helmet glinted in the light of the candle, it seemed the helmet’s fangs stood out in stark relief. “Twist his horn, maybe that can shock him back awake,” he told the earth pony.
The large, thin pony reached over to a table covered in tools and selected a strap wrench. With a flick he wrapped it around their prisoner’s horn and twisted hard, only once before he winced and struggled back into the waking world. With a signal from Coalback Iron Bar ceased his twisting but kept the strap wrench where it was.
The dirty red unicorn groaned as he tried to open his eyes, one of which was red from a trail of blood that had seeped under his eyelids. His burned orange dreadlocks fell into his eyes, or perhaps they were just full of dirt that hid a more vibrant colour. His weapons were gone, but the straps of boiled leather and toughly woven fabric remained. He smacked his lips and ran a dry, sandpaper tongue over them to no avail.
“There now, you six should wait outside,” Coalback said calmly toward the stairs but nopony moved. The prisoner flinched at the sound of his captor’s voice, but the stern grip of the earth pony on his horn kept him from moving too much. “Let’s start with names,” the tall, dark armoured pony rumbled, “The pony behind you is named Iron Bar, and this one is called Filibuster. You may address me as Coalback, or Sir.” He waited expectantly, but the burgundy unicorn did little more than glare in return.
Coalback only had to roll a shoulder and Iron Bar twisted hard on the Unicorn’s horn. The prisoner grunted and tried to twist his head to relieve the pain, but it did little to dissuade the angry Guard behind him.
“Let me explain how this is going to work,” Coalback growled. He shifted his weight slightly and his armor slid and clinked quietly. “I will ask you a question politely, and you will answer. The more you refuse to answer, the less polite I will become. I will only be asking each question three times.” The sound of a smile, this time with the twist of mockery. “When I lose my patience, which you have the good grace of for only so long, then I will start cutting and you will answer my questions whether you like it or not.”
“You can’t do anything to me, I know all about the codes of conduct for the Guard,” the prisoner smirked despite the pain that was making his jowls shake. “You’ll throw your weight around, maybe let me stew for a few days, but in the end you can’t really hurt me-”
His speech was cut short by the heavy impact of Coalback’s large knife as it sank into the back of the chair that the prisoner occupied, straight through the meat of his upper arm. The stallion let out a desperate scream, more in shock than in pain as blood began to soak his arm.
“You are making a grave mistake if you think that the laws of ponies apply to me!” Coalback roared. His chest bumped against the table between them, as if it were the only thing in the world that could have kept him from leaping at the secured Unicorn. “Your life means nothing to me!” With a visible breath to calm himself, Coalback leaned back from the table. “I know your type; you think you have protection, that you can use the law against the people they are meant to protect. But in here that doesn’t matter. The only value you have to me, is what is hidden inside that little head of yours. Let me make it clear that I know ways of getting in there that do not allow you the formality of this interrogation,” he growled, dust stirred down from the ceiling and turned to smoke in the candle between them.
“I’m not … afraid of you!” the unicorn growled through his pain.
“YOU STINK OF FEAR!” Every instrument and cabinet in the basement shook. With a bang Coalback’s armoured hoof slammed down on the table and threatened to topple the candle. “Second time; Your name?”
“Hard Tack.”
“Twist the knife,” Coalback commanded. Iron Bar hesitated for only a moment before he took the still imbedded knife in his hoof and slowly began to turn it. Wood creaked and the bound unicorn wailed.
“Red Star! My name is Red Star!” the prisoner wailed desperately.
Iron Bar didn’t need any command to know to remove the knife from the other stallion’s wound. With a gesture from Coalback he tossed the blade back to its owner, who examined the blood coating it in the light of the candle. “Lick his wound, apply pressure,” he commanded Filibuster.
The thin Unicorn had so far only stood in stoic support of the apparent progress that Coalback had made, but now he turned to his commanding officer with surprise and disbelief. Lick the wound? Surely he was joking. But, of course, Coalback remained silent and expectant of his orders to be carried out. He might as well have replied with a snarky rhetoric and finished with ‘don’t call me Shirley.’ Filibuster had to take a moment to stifle a groan, lest he gain a similar punishment as the stallion in their possession.
He stepped around the table and, reluctantly, approached the wounded Unicorn. He recoiled at first when the smell of blood, but with everypony watching he relented and licked away the blood from Red Star’s wound. Surprisingly, and disturbingly, Filibuster did not gag as he had expected. His stomach rumbled hungrily. He stopped once the wound was clean and pressed his hoof to it.
“Good, Red Star,” Coalback rumbled encouragingly, though for some reason it seemed that he was more addressing his squire than his prisoner. “Next question; what were you after?”
“The mares who bear the Elements of Harmony, to clear the way for the cleansing march,” Red Star grumbled, it seemed he did not want a repeat of Coalback’s anger.
“Your Master. Who is he?”
“The only one who can stand up to the Princesses and their source,” Red Star sneered.
“Name him.”
“No.”
“Name your Master,” Coalback growled.
“Not to you, and not to the mares who would see him destroyed,” Red Star growled back.
“Thrice asked and no more: Who is your Master?” Coalback rumbled.
“Thrice I refuse, oh master of change and death,” Red Star sneered. “You’ll get no more from me about him."
“You six, out,” Coalback commanded, the soft tone of his voice only seemed to make the command all the more urgent. The Elements of Harmony stood and filed out the door above them, but not before they could be witness to what Coalback planned.
The armored Pegasus stood and removed his helmet, which in turn revealed that the only wound he had sustained was a thin cut above one eyebrow. He walked around the table and shooed away both of the stallions. And then he started to sing, loudly and surprisingly well:
“Are you, are you Coming to the tree? They strung up a man, they say who murdered three. Strange things did happen here, No stranger would it be If we met at mid night In the hanging tree.” Even as the door closed, they could still hear Coalback’s rising voice. But the moment the door closed Red Star’s protests began to rise and were quickly drowned out by the singing.
“Are you, are you Coming to the tree? Where the dead man called out For his love to flee. Strange things did happen here No stranger would it be If we met at mid night In the hanging tree.” The screaming started then, it rose and fell even as the other two Guards joined the singing. “Are you, are you Coming to the tree? Wear a necklace of rope, Side by side with me.”
The screaming continued for only a few moments before, above the singing, Red Star screamed: “Discord! Discord commands me! DISCORD!” The screaming ended there with a gurgle but the singing continued for another, somber line.
“Strange things did happen here, No stranger would it be If we met at mid night In the hanging tree.”
"You mustn't exert yourself so, 'Majesty!" a pony cried, but past the winds of magic they were unheard.
"Please, let us lend you our strength at least!" yelled another.
"No, assist in the evacuation! If they will not lay down their arms then I will fall and they will overrun the city," the pink alicorn yelled, her voice strained as her magic billowed in waves around her. Her dawn colored mane rippled in the magical winds, it moved like the passionate fires of her soul that held her there.
Her light blue magic refracted through the crystal walls of her palace and spread across every inch of land for miles in every direction. But it was a fruitless task, Men in adamantium armor struggled through her magic like the storm it was: slowly but surely marching on her Crystal Kingdom. Far away her magic projected feelings of love, forgiveness, understanding, and the plea for an armistice to the army. All to no avail. Her projections and apparitions were dispelled with steel, tooth, and their own magic songs. She tried projections of herself, and even took the shape of a woman to try to beg for forgiveness. She even threatened them with images of revenge and the feats of magical prowess that the unicorns of her kingdom were known for.
But these tasks were draining her and the reserves living inside the kingdom itself, within the crystal walls. For a mortal Unicorn, the task would have instantly reduced them to the stardust they had risen from if they tried to add their power to the flow: much like a string of yarn pulled away by the strong currents of a raging river. All but her Archmage, Somber Light, who had never quite been bound by the same limitations of his mortal brothers. His robes billowed around his dark fetlocks as he struggled to protect the both of them from the magical backlash and help as much as he could.
Outside a dome of pink aurora protected their citadel of glass, it swirled angrily but could do little against the hate of their enemy. While one fierce army marched in, another trembling procession trailed out. This would not be the massacre of the innocent that the fall of the Stormsinger Kingdom had been, where the ocean had turned red with blood. Amora's sisters could not be with her, occupied as they were with the skirmishes along that coast, but this city would not fall.
She would even sacrifice herself to black magic if she had to. For her ponies.
"They have reached the edges of our walls. There is nothing we can do to hold them back from here," Somber said, his horn flared with violet light as he compressed the expanse of their power into a condensed shield that finally brought the marching army to a halt and left the remaining ponies fleeing from the other side of the city trapped.
"No! They slow! I feel their uncertainty; they want, somewhere inside them, to stop the death! I know it!" Amora begged, turned to her last confidant in desperation. Her lovers had been among the first to flee the city, but Somber had stayed as his duty had demanded.
"There is nothing left!" Somber yelled, tears in his deep eyes. "Their hate spreads like wildfire in their hearts! They would much rather have us dead than struggle amongst themselves over us! You know that! This was a desperate ploy from the start," he croaked. "Please abandon this city! Live to fight again!"
"Not if it means I must condemn the souls still trapped here at their mercy," Amora yelled, her magic flared and fire raced along the domed shield. In the distance an army jumped back for fear of being burned to ash by her passion. "I know the rights as well as you! Take me and use that power to save this city!" she begged.
Amora lunged for Somber's knife, ready to use it for a black magic ritual that would surely bring them enough power to do something.
"No!" Somber pushed her away with a burst of magic. The slight struggle was enough to shake the alicorn's concentration and the wall of magic outside flickered and rippled weakly. "The shield!" Somber yelled with a gasp.
Amora grunted and with a flash the shield recorporealated and pulsed outward angrily. For a moment they both stood in shocked silence, too afraid to move in wake of their near slip.
Outside the shields, the army of tall Men had regrouped. A thick armed Blaidd led them, his angry barks pierced the air even inside the shield. Fire and huge stones hurled themselves through the air and shattered against the shield, they came in faster and faster intervals until a constant barrage assaulted the barrier. Soon it would be a constant and unstoppable force, they would fold quickly.
"Please, Somber Light," Princess Amora begged. "We have to stop them here. If we can't do that we may have no hope. If we can deny them this one victory maybe there will be a chance ... All I ask of you is this one, last betrayal; it will save them, I know it," she begged. And though it broke her heart to, she exerted her power over love on him, and Somber drew his blade.
Somber Light was no ordinary archmage, his Princess knew that. His talent had always been in dark magic, and black magic had a distinctive lack of effect over him. No one had accepted his talent before the Princess had found him, she had loved him and he had loved her in return. But now she was asking him to perform the most forbidden of black magics: a sacrifice. The ending of a life could magnify a caster's magic to godlike levels, the more powerful the creature sacrificed the more power that the caster would gain. So to somehow take a god's life ... the power would be unmatchable.
The blade slowly slid from Somber's belt, not with the soft hiss of metal from the scabbard, but rather the dull dry sound of bone against leather. His greatest accomplishment had been the death of a Blaidd-Ddyn, and in turn had granted him the one and only weapon capable of taking a god's life: the greatest sin of any pony. Instead of shattering, the bone would cut through alicorn flesh as if it were wet papyrus. His hoof shook with the horrible, short, sickle blade made of the demon claw. He could not even hold it in his magic, the bone dispelled all of it.
With Amora's compulsion upon him, he moved almost without thought. His lips recited black words that left his lips feeling oily, he tasted blood on his tongue even as his hoof wrapped around Amora's graceful neck. Her regalia was gently pulled aside and the tip of the blade met her flesh. An alien bead of red blood ran down her throat, and with a simple flick it was joined by a waterfall of ichor.
Amora's life force fled fiercely fast, safe, but in its wake it left a vacuum. The shield imploded as the ambient magic of the world rushed to fill the gap. Before her body had even begun to fall to the floor the magic had rushed into the nearest vessel to the vacuum: the unicorn Somber Light. The crystal around the castle warped as magic was pulled through it and drained, it blackened as if burned and cracked with hard edges. Even Somber began to be burned as the magic realized its dark origin and twisted: his coat became truly black; the edges of his mane and tail began to smolder in a fire that would not be extinguished and his eyes burned in the same flame; with a screech of protest his horn grew from a once modest size to a curved and sickly shape and his teeth twisted into a terrible fanged grin; he could even feel his soul smoldering in the magical fire.
But he did not burn, he was born anew. His will splashed out in waves of black smoke as half of the palace crumbled under its own weight, and he found that the power continued to flow into him from the infinity that had been Amora. The smoke rushed over pony and Man alike, and where it struck metal black crystal grew like wild vines; in but a moment the front lines had become nothing more than a wall of bristling, black crystal.
A hissing voice, like the corners of wooden splinters against the screech of a blackboard, rose above all else even as the army smashed through their crystallized comrades: "C҉́̕R̷Y̡ŞT̢͢AL̵̕S," the abomination that had been Somber hissed. By the time the army had broken through, the cities of crystal was gone; it had simply disappeared into the nothing and the ice began to move in on the army and the fleeing refugees. “̶̛҉TH̶̷E̛͢ ͏̵͟K̶̕ING͠D̡̨͢O̷M̶ ͝W̶̛ÍLĻ̡ ͏R̡͠E͡T͢Ú̧͞R͡N.”
Few from the army would return, and those ponies that had witnessed Somber’s betrayal did not survive for long. However, their frostbitten throats were able to tell of his black magic and croak out his name, mangled by exhaustion: "Somb ... er ... Sombr ..." And those that heard them told the Princesses of King Sombra, of Black Magic, and the fate of the Crystal Kingdom.
This forest was new and different: new smells, new terrain, new prey, new competitors for territory, new trees, new soil. Even in the carefully scheduled start of winter it remained with only spatterings of snow, and the air was humid and heavy even as it chilled the throat. The stars and moon were hardly present past the patchy canopy of branches that were still shedding leaves. The forest was ready for its own winter, and would commit to it at the time of its choosing only.
That mattered little to the forest's newest residents. They moved carefully through the underbrush, as silently and methodically as they could. A large wolf led the trio, his paws silent even in the piles of dry leaves and grasses. His grey speckled, dark coat fit well with the nocturnal forest, and perhaps with more snow he would be all but invisible. A long dark tongue hung between a double set of sharp fangs, the only definitively unusual characteristic of the huge wolf. Two ponies followed the perfect predator, much like wide eyed puppies on their first hunt which was exactly what this was. Their eyes reflected back what light there was and more, one of their many gifts from their new master knight.
They even felt as if they could move more quietly in the wood than they would have before. It was a strange feeling, like their hooves knew where to step and how on their own, though they were limited to hooves rather than paws. The Unicorn and Earth pony felt a strange union in a sense of anticipation, like they could both feel the rush of the hunt that their leader promised before it had even begun. Though he had said there would be little chasing in these thick woods.
Coalback never spoke as they crept through the wood, he only employed body language to point out certain details in the surrounding. He silently taught them how to pick out the trail: a set of broken twigs all in the same direction; a tiny tuft of fur; the subtle but distinct scent of pony sweat; even, especially, fresh piss or droppings. Their noses and eyes found all of it, in need of all but a direction to search.
They were close on the trail of another pony that had fled the town, the third that Coalback would have caught but the first of his descendants'. With a growl that barely ruffled the still night air, Coalback crouched and his squires followed suit quietly. Coalback’s grey head turned slowly to point for his followers to their prey.
With a rustle of brush that was like a thunderclap in the silence that had been there before, a pony stumbled through the forest. "The ca ..." he mumbled, breath quick and cloudy in the air. "Where did ... where was it?" He walked past them, too caught in his own mind to look for threats. He must have been wandering this part of the forest for hours, lost and more importantly; alone.
With only a glance Coalback was able to convey an order to remain. Silently the giant wolf stood again and slunk away. Iron Bar and Filibuster were left, bright eyed and anxious, in wait for some sort of signal. Hearts beat heavily in anticipation, it was all they could do to keep themselves from shivering in excitement.
It came suddenly and loudly: A bark and a snarl cracked through the night. The pony’s scream was piercing and set the hearts of Filibuster and Iron Bar racing. With the thunder of a dumb animal barreling through the brush the pony approached, chased forward by the herding of the snarling wolf behind him. Chased straight into the bottleneck that was where Filibuster and Iron Bar waited.
Blood rushed in their ears, the pony was in sight. The thud, rush, thud of their hearts filled them with anticipation, but they waited until the whites of their prey's eyes could be seen by their superior sight.
Filibuster moved first, the closest to the pony as he tried to rush past their hidden forms. His teeth closed around furry hide instinctively and he tumbled into the prey bodily. The panicked pony tried to keep running even with Filibuster clinging on and a good chunk of its neck being ripped out by his dull yet tearing teeth. But Iron Bar's much heavier frame soon joined him and they dragged the pony to the ground with growls and snarls. The pony went down with a panicked scream and a whimper of pain as they settled.
Soon, panting happily, their leader rejoined them. In a rare show of affection the large wolf gently licked each of his ponies behind their ears. It was only when he realized their prey was still alive that he regained his fearsome facade; bared teeth, tongue, and gum sent their prey squealing again.
"Filibuster, first to kill is first to eat," Coalback growled with liquid words, they slid strangely on lupine lips. Filibuster looked down at his captured prey, it shivered and shook in shocked silence, but his stomach growled. "If I have to do it, neither of you will eat it," Coalback barked.
"Must we be turned to cannibals, Sir?" Iron Bar whimpered, an expression of how they both felt.
Coalback’s growl turned into a chuckle. "No, I suppose not. We will hunt other game for food later," he rumbled. His glowing green, iridescent eyes fell on the pony between them and what hope their prey had gained died with a sob as his last, weak protest.
With a growl and a snarl Coalback lunged forward. His jaws closed around the whimpering pony’s neck and pulled him away from Filibuster as easily as somepony would a rough bundle of cloth. He whipped his head to the side and, with a crack as the pony’s own body twisted on itself, the whimpering stopped. Coalback dragged away the limp body between his front legs, his converts followed.
This one would join the growing pile of bodies that he had gathered just within the edge of the forest. Outside of sight of ponies. Soon though, Coalback would employ them as a deterrent for any further attacks. There were still more to find; the Pegasi and remaining monster would be the highest priority.
---
No horror could escape the Everfree, and it seemed that the forest was content in keeping it that way. The sun rose on a quiet and once again peaceful Ponyville.
At the edge of the forest Filibuster and Iron Bar slept in their tents, exhausted from the nightlong hunt. But Coalback sat nearby, a whetstone to his sword. On the edge of the town, behind a hill, it was almost possible for him to believe he had simply found a new pack to run with and that he was alone.
But then he would simply catch sight of his hooves, or the blade and its blood red pearl. The whetstone hissed across the metal, the wavy patterns in the metal shone with oil in the early light. And he remembered the situation he had allowed himself to become tied to.
This alone was different from the solitude of the wild valley or the pine forest, this alone was familiar and choking.
He had to take a deep breath, the sword’s tip sank into the soil easily and he left it there for the moment. With a groan he cupped his ears, his hooves were hardly comfortable to him but he felt stress leave him as he rubbed them. The spikes of ivory stung with the fresh stimulation. He thought of his accomplishments for the night, a common meditation for him:
The night had been successful, as much so as he could expect from the relatively inexperienced Blood-Kin. They had managed to find the insurgents’ camp and track down every last ground-bound pony that had fled there in an attempt to regroup. It was a simply matter to pull information from some of them after that, at least until they experienced the same rapid and unplanned death that had ended his first interrogation.
Something else was in play here, this ‘Discord’. It seemed his familiar knew of the demon, but would speak no more of it. A strange instance; that Fenrir would keep quiet on something. It was disconcerting, but it didn’t matter:
He had all the information he needed. The pegasi would have dropped back to ‘Las Pegasus’ and Cloudsdale, where they could remain relatively anonymous - but Coalback had the scent and would begin sniffing them out soon. The monster’s scent was also fresh in his mind, but the beast had been slippery in the night and would take much longer to track down. The pile in the forest had grown into a mass grave of bodies that, for once, had not all been desecrated by him.
That was it; simple. The danger was not quite passed, but Luna’s contract would soon be fulfilled and he will have earned his freedom.
He stood with a growl; he despised the deal that had been forged with her. He had more hoped she would simply kill him for his supposed ‘crimes’ and his insubordination that had followed, Fenrir stirred in the depths of Coalback’s mind at the thought. The hollow sound of glass and metal against tooth echoed in his mouth as he pulled the gem from his hiding spot. It had taken his last captors almost a full year to discover one of those hiding places, his stomach, and he had suffered a long surgery in which he was fully lucid for. He held it in his hoof and stared, Fenrir huddled quietly as the ‘pony’s’ thoughts raced, angrier and angrier with each moment.
“I was wondering where that thing went.” Rainbow Dash’s voice was a surprise among the silence of the morning. Coalback flinched, the broken hilt piece suddenly held tight in his hoof, protectively. “So you didn’t actually swallow it?” the Pegasus asked as he finally turned to her.
“No,” Coalback said, his artfact was tucked into his gorget. “Did you need something?” he asked in return.
“I was being serious about the flying lessons, I’m not making my errands with a pegasus that can barely stay off the ground,” Rainbow said, though if she was teasing him or not was difficult to tell. “And, also, you know, we’re all pretty freaked out. We wanted you to stick around after last night, but you guys just took off. What did you do with that guy anyway? He wasn’t moving when you left …”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to,” Coalback growled. “I am on watch while the other two sleep, I cannot leave. We were in the forest all night hunting down those attackers that could not fly away. The Pegasi among them are still running free, so no ‘errands’ until I dispatch them.”
“Really? But where are the- Wait. ‘Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to,’ right?” Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes even as Coalback opened his mouth to give that exact reply. “But I’m really serious,” Rainbow deadpanned. “You could fight in the air better if you knew how to fly properly,” she offered with a smile.
“I find it hard to believe that you only want to help me,” Coalback said in an equally deadpan tone.
“Okay, first of all,” Rainbow groaned, “not everypony has some sort of secret agenda against you, dude.” She paused for only a moment under his continued blank stare. “But yeah, I sorta need to fly all over town to do the weather, and … you’re going to make me say it aren’t you?” she growled. The barest ghost of a smile appeared on his face, but he waited. “I don’t want to be alone”- he waited, and though his deafness was feigned, he was unashamedly enjoying her discomfort -”I don’t want to be out there alone. Okay? Happy now?”
Coalback huffed through his nose, but he nodded and turned around toward one of the tents. He pulled aside the door flap much to the occupant’s discomfort. “Take my shift, I’m needed … No, we’ll discuss everything tonight. Once you both are rested and hungry again,” he whispered inside. He left the tent and as he left with Rainbow Iron Bar staggered out.
---
Far to the south, armies continued their deadly clash hidden from the world by a bowl of mountains that drank in the sound and the smoke and let nothing pass them.
The Wolves fought with a fury that had not been seen in thousands of years. The Great Pack had been gathered, and every Clan, pack, and outcast had joined the call for honor and a glorious place among the spirits above. Drums and wolfsong filled the air where clashing metal and the roar of fires did not. The wolves sang almost as passionately as they fought.
Very few had fallen. Many were injured, or even lamed, but none stopped the fighting until they had fallen dead in the dust. And even if they were not fighting, they were singing: their voices reached the heavens and further, to call out for strength from their far away holy land.
However, the impregnable exclusion zone had been breached, and pockets of the Enemy fled past the wolves over the mountains - only to die a coward's death at the sight of The Empress in all her eternal glory.
She stood without armor, without weapon, without even a snarl of warning to her foes. She merely stood in the harsh light on the only pass for leagues; her regalia, made from chains of gold and silver woven like ropes of silk that braided small skulls and bones carved from blood red gems along it. Her feathers, of the huge hawk wings that spread in the only sign of her agitation, ruffled in the stiff breeze. Her paws, the size of boulders which sported claws that could rip through steel and bone alike, rested on the sharp stones of the desert mountains. Her rack, a huge crown of bone that truly connected her to the symbol of her great mother, hummed gently with power.
Clouds boiled angrily on the distant horizon, held back by only the loosest of grasps.
"Clever, Demon," she mumbled even as another twisted one of his creations was obliterated. Its soul fled at her behest, and with it she destroyed its vessel. "Fine, you will have your wish. But not yet. Soon."
---
Clearing clouds tended to be boring when toting around a new trainee, it was worse so considering Rainbow had to coach Coalback as well. She'd never realized he couldn't hover until he'd started circling her. Not to mention that he flew about as well as a refrigerator.
"No! You have to lean into your turns!" she yelled to him as he followed her around a cirrus that was about to clump into a cumulus if she didn't flatten it back out; no snow scheduled for today. "You got big wings; you gotta use your surface area for control! You fly like a drunken filly!"
Though Coalback had not worn all his armor, it seemed that he had reconsidered the idea of flying without it. His chest plate and gorget glinted in the afternoon sun as he dodged around another potential cumulus. The blue sash around his flanks flapped wildly in the winds. His wings batted at the air, and while there was an attempt at control he merely proved to her that he had never truly flown before.
"I don't get how you can grow up never flying once," she exclaimed as she pounded down the clump of clouds.
"It was simple, I could not," he shouted over the wind. His wing dipped into a cloud as he tried to bank hard and he flipped into the cirrus as it caught.
"What is that supposed to mean? Did your parents tie your wings down or something?" Rainbow asked. She darted over and helped him stand again on the thin cloud layer, his unshorn hooves nearly sank all the way through.
Coalback hesitated, and for a moment Rainbow feared she'd touched on a sensitive subject. "It is very cold where I come from, my wings would have frozen the instant I tried, so I never did," he grumbled, his eyes looked wearily around them. Though Rainbow could not tell, it would not be the last time Coalback would blatantly lie to her. Thankfully Coalback could remember the comment that Soarin had made about him.
"Really? That must be really cold to freeze Pegasus wings." Rainbow grimaced at the thought. Pegasi were naturally resistant to the cold, part of the reason they could live so high above the ground without all having chronic hypothermia. But totally frozen wings was not a pleasant thought, and Rainbow felt that with a danger like that she might have opted out of flying as well. "Alright, I'll give you that then. But if you wanna be as good at flying as me you gotta start thinking of this aerodynamically."
"Aerodynamically," Coalback parroted.
"Yeah. You're not as streamlined as me, so you gotta think about how you cut through the air. You're also a lot heavier than ... most Pegasi, so you gotta consider how your momentum is gonna play into your turns."
Coalback hummed in thought, but only for a moment. "So it is like swimming, but in the air instead?" he offered.
"Whassat?" Rainbow sputtered. A Pegasus that swims? She'd heard weirder but she'd never expected it from somepony like him, plus he couldn't have a talent for it: not without a Mark.
"When you swim, you have to keep your body in a very straight streamline if you want to go fast. Strokes stay close to the body and kicks use the whole leg," he explained. In a surprisingly limber display Coalback stood on his hind legs and stretched his arms over his head, suddenly much taller. "So I should do that, but with wings?" he finally asked as he fell back onto all four hooves.
"Um, yeah. I guess," Rainbow muttered. "But you don't want to use your legs, only foals gallop while they fly. Keep them close, like tuck 'em in, but use your wings. You gotta grab the air and push it down, like it's a ball. But don't sweat about altitude so much as control," she said with a slow demonstration using her own wings. "You gotta think of it like walking almost: you push your wing back, you go forward; push forward, you go back; push down and you'll go up; and so on," she explained.
Coalback took a thoughtful look at his own, speckled wings. "What about clouds?" he asked abruptly.
"Well, what about 'em?"
"Why can we stand on them? Can everyone stand on them or just Pegasus?" he rattled off. Rainbow had to remind herself yet again that Coalback had literally no experience.
"Only Pegasi can walk on clouds without a special spell from a unicorn. I don't remember all the technical jargon around it - something to do with false surface area, or rapid redundancy, or something - but it's Pegasi magic that lets us walk on them and shape them the way we want: but that last one takes some talent to get right," she explained.
"Interesting," he rumbled with an eye on his own hooves. In the moment that he took to do that Rainbow flipped back over to the clump to smash it flat again. For a while he seemed content to just watch her work, which was fine by Rainbow as she could finish faster. When she was done she circled back around to him.
"Did you give up?" she asked with a frown. It would have been a strange thing, she'd almost been certain that he was a bit more stubborn than that.
"I learn better by watching, I think," he said. "But one thing I don't do is leave favours unpaid: So since you helped teach me how to fly better, if you want I can show you how to fight better." He nodded respectfully to her and Rainbow was surprised by his sincerity.
"You're serious?"
"Absolutely. I would like very much to teach you to fight. I think you might have an appreciation for it that most ponies lack," he rumbled with a smile.
"You really don't have to. Besides, you're already doing a lot: you fought off those guys ..." Rainbow protested. However Coalback shook his head.
"I owe that to Luna, not to you. You helped me with this, so now I want to help you."
Rainbow only had to think about it for a moment. "Alright, I'll give it a shot. But on one condition," she said.
"Name it," he said without hesitation.
"You have to stay with us tonight at Twilight’s house." The gentle smile immediately left Coalback's face and Rainbow had to scramble to try and find some better justification. "It's just that after last night Fluttershy never even left Twilight’s house, she's too scared to even sleep. Can't you just come and stay there for the night? I think it would make all of us feel safer if you were close."
"I can stay until midnight, but if I wait much longer to go after the Pegasi they might regroup and try to make it back to their master. Or they could come back with a better plan than last time. But yes, I agree to these terms," he said and stood from his seat on the clouds. Water soaked his blue sash and Rainbow almost thought she caught the glimpse of something on his flank through the fabric, but it could have easily been a fold in the sash. “I will meet you all during sunset.”
---
Discord hummed to himself as he worked, his jaguar sat nearby. He'd broken her will just right and shaped it into the useful and unbending tool that he needed. She would do well, even if she failed to kill the Elements or the Blaidd that waited at their sides, she would weaken the foundation that held him back from his prize.
His Gryphon's claw sparked against blackness in an unusual bout of distractedness. So much going on, so little time to keep it all in its unrecognizable but distinct path. No plan of Chaos ever went perfectly, that was its nature: Celestia remained a powerful piece on the board, but she had realized his play too soon it seemed and had made herself somewhat less useful to him; the insurgent ponies had been ineffective in their original purpose, though their failure left an opportunity for the Blaidd to be revealed for what it was and driven out by the ponies it protected, which in turn would leave the Elements vulnerable again; Luna remained a wild card, astride the lines of reality as he knew her to be. And all the while he struggled against a growing storm and a stubborn, poor excuse for a god.
His jaguar let out a gentle hiss and only a moment later the Queen's palanquin came into his dark chamber. He had created the tunnel to this chamber himself, and if not for his presence the hive might have used its natural geothermal warmth to incubate their young. He turned slowly, his dragon’s tail slithered across the ground as he lowered into a relaxed, seated position.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" he said in his silky smooth voice, one that taunted as much as it assumed to seduce.
"My warriors grow stronger in number by the day. Why do you not send them to the front lines?! They could cut through those animals in mere hours!" the Queen bellowed. The cracks in her chitin glowed with an inner fire, a furious green ember. She may have been injured, far past the point of wasting her energy to walk even though she found plenty to shout. All of her energy went toward multiplying the power of her hive.
"In time, my dear," Discord said soothingly, suddenly perched upon the palanquin beside her. His body wrapped around her in what would have been a loving embrace if not for the scaly tail, eagle's claw, and solitary yellow fang. "We must wait. The point now is not to break through the line, but to hold it, keep it occupied and tiring until the time to move is right," he whispered into her ear. "First the settler towns will fall, then the few military outposts will crumble. Then Ponyville and the Elements will be plucked up and eaten," he mimed the action, yet somehow managed to swallow some tasty morsel that could have been meat as easily as it could have been something scraped right off of the wall. "Then we take Canterlot and fell the false gods, and you will have every single little pony in your grasp! We both win," he grinned.
"But what do you get from this, oh God of chaos and ruin?" Chrysalis asked, surprisingly sober considering Discord’s influence.
"The world," he hissed. "I want Her!" he bellowed.
With a roar the chamber filled with light and the true purpose of its existence was revealed: Carved out from its stony prison was a blood red ruby that defied definition in size. It took up an entire wall, and through it no opposite end could be seen, it was as if it existed all the way into the fiery core of the earth. Light emerged from the gem in waves and within it the light flowed as if from a river. A crack stretched across its face, laden with a material so black it simply sucked away the light of the gem.
And for the slightest of moments, a form revealed itself in the light of the gem.
"Her power will be mine! I swear it by my nature! She stole my power and I will have it back and more!" he bellowed. His voice shook the chamber, and as if beckoned by his words the choking black churned and grew. With a grin the chimera unwound himself from the palanquin and lunged toward the crack. His paw pulled free a chunk of the impossible black and added it to a growing pile beside him, a spare piece was snapped up like black liquorice by the jaguar.
"Soon, my dear," Discord roared, his silhouette ringed in the sunset red of the gem. "Soon you will have the revenge you seek! When the storm rolls, the bells of death will call your enemies to the grave!" he promised even as the Queen's seat bearers scrambled to make their way out of the chamber. "CHAOS! WILL REIGN!"
---
Though all he had done was stare at the fireplace, Coalback's presence was surprisingly reassuring. He exuded a certain calm strength in his silence, one that said nothing could disturb the safety of the tree. His deep blue cloak had never left him, though it seemed his armor was at the ready beneath, and a large bulge revealed that his sword was with him. There was no question now that he was taking protecting them seriously. His wolf’s head helm sat beside him, at the ready.
Applejack and Rarity both had brought their families with them, though Rarity's parents were away on one of their many vacations. And the three fillies had all but demanded the presence of the third Crusader in the "sleepover". And although Spike remained upstairs, bedridden with his continued sickness, which still made twelve heads turned toward the darkly clad warrior Pegasus for protection and assurance.
Shaky at first, the necessary sleepover had begun with a strained silence broken only by the strangely happy voices of the fillies. They seemed the only ones unable to see the danger they had just been in, though most might have labeled it off as the norm living beside the Everfree. Unfortunately this had been no rogue hydra, or a surprisingly playful three headed guardian of Tartarus; this had been a planned attack with the malicious intent of violent murder. Somehow the Crusaders had come to the conclusion that the attackers had been pirates and that the only one Coalback had killed had been the beheaded monster.
The fillies hadn't seen the bloody mess that had left the basement that night, and none of the ponies present had seen what Coalback had done to the bodies of the rest.
However, once Coalback had arrived the tension had quickly dissipated. Big Mac had even taken the liberty of gifting the equally large pony a bottle of their best aged cider in thanks for keeping his family safe, and both sat silently near the fire. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity had taken a corner to console and comfort the delicate yellow Pegasus. Pinkie happily kept the fillies occupied while Applejack sat with Granny Smith with the intent of following the older mare's example and sleeping. Rainbow had taken the time to curl up with her Daring Do book, which she was nearly finished with.
Inevitably the three fillies' curiosity overwhelmed their ability to be distracted by a pink party pony. He was a new pony, and certainly not some boring old anypony just passing through: no one in town would deny that, even if they hadn't been there they had heard all about the battle in front of the tree. It was Applebloom who first approached, with a simple question of Coalback’s name. He gave it bluntly, in a low growl that could have meant he was displeased by the question or the answer but certainly not both. However, the answer was all the three intrepid friends needed as an excuse to bombard him with yet more questions.
Where had he come from? Why was he still wearing his cloak? It was awfully warm in here. What did he mean that he was wearing armour? Could they see it? Did he like apple cider or apple juice? Did he like Ponyville? Was he friends with their sisters?
Some he answered, some he didn't though with each new question he seemed to grow less and less comfortable with the little fillies. Applejack stood to attempt to relieve the poor stallion, but Rainbow stopped her with a grin: A small payback for her flustering that morning that he had forced her through.
"Do you have any stories?" Scootaloo finally asked, a question among them that sparked a storm. Within a moment each filly was all but demanding a story from the large Pegasus. He had to have been on adventures, surely. Nopony could be so big and tough without at least a few. Oh! What about one about pirates? Or fighting evil wizards? Or a scary story, did ponies like him even get scared?
"You don't want to hear my stories," Coalback eventually grumbled. "Go play," he dismissed them with a wave of his metal-clad hoof.
"Maybe it would be a good idea, Sir Coalback," Twilight spoke up. "You're probably going to be here for a while. Why not let us get to know you a little better? I know I'm a bit curious to know more about you," she said. It was a bold move, to call out their guest like that. But Twilight felt that the best course of action was to make an effort at friendship, or at least friendly acquaintance.
With the assent of voices rallying the idea Coalback snorted in frustration. "Fine," he huffed. "I ... suppose I could tell you about the time I hid on a ship without realizing it was about to depart and ended up stranded in ... a faraway land where no one spoke my language," he consented.
In a blur Pinkie had already gathered pillows, blankets, and popcorn for all the ponies present so they could all gather around and listen intently. Coalback growled in the back of his throat in frustration as the ponies did just that: although he did not object.
"Why'd you have to hide?" Sweetie Belle squeaked.
"Someone was chasing me," Coalback grunted. He shifted under his cloak and thrust a rear leg from underneath. "There, you can see the scar their first trap left." He used a hoof to spread apart his fur to reveal the pale, deep, jagged lines of a fading scar. "They managed to hide it from me, a bear trap with huge metal jaws snapped shut around my leg while I was out in the woods one day. The silver teeth cut right down to the bone. I managed to get away that time, but I was on the run for awhile afterwards. I couldn't stop to eat or sleep or drink, I just had to keep moving," he rumbled.
"Eventually they got me cornered," Coalback continued. "I thought I could lose them in the big city; lots of people, lots of noise, easy to lose one in a crowd of one thousand. They still managed to corner me at a dock, my last options were to either jump on the ship or wait for them to leave or to see how long I could hold my breath. I picked the boat," he confirmed when he noticed the confused look the fillies gave him. "Next thing I knew the ship was off, thankfully some kind farmers took me in and fed me," he said with the slightest smile.
"How long were they chasing you? You make it sound like it was days, nonstop," Rarity asked.
"Were they bandits? What did they want so badly?!" Sweetie Belle added, much to her sister's chagrin.
"It was months. And they were not bandits, they were hunters after my hide," Coalback said. "They had the most experienced trackers and persistence hunters in the world after me, a bounty of enough money to buy Canterlot city three times over," he explained. "But I gave them the slip there and it took them much longer to find me, even among all the people I looked nothing like. It was a search for a needle in a haystack the size of a sport's field."
"You said 'persistence hunters'," Twilight said, suddenly caught on the story. "What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, now that's a scary story," Coalback said with a grin. Perhaps he enjoyed telling the story more than he let on. "Persistence hunting is what turned those people into the single most successful species on the planet. Their bodies were always designed for it, it only took a bit of skill to really put it to use. You see, unlike a wolf, that hunts in a pack and picks off the weakest of the herds, these people hunted alone and could hunt the same animal for weeks on end where a wolf would have left for easier prey."
"You're not talking about ponies, are you," Twilight said. She knew the answer but she felt she needed to hear it.
"Of course not," Coalback snorted. "Ponies are prey, these were predators cut from a whole new cloth. Imagine it; you run from one only for it to catch up to you before you have a real chance to rest, and it keeps finding you, tireless even as you struggle to stand because you've been running for days with barely a chance to stop to drink or sleep. It carries both with it until it simply runs you into the ground! Then all it has to do is walk up and give the killing blow," he expounded, his excitement somehow shown in his slight pantomime of an arm tossing a spear.
"You lived with these things?" Twilight asked, her voice hollow and her face pale.
"It is surprisingly easy when you don't stay in one place long. But yes," Coalback said, nearly gloating.
"And what exactly did they look like?"
"Great tall things, gangly looking and not particularly fast or strong. But, again, they don't have to be. They are natural born distance runners," Coalback said. He took a moment to think, to put together a description that would work. "They're not like ponies. Flat faces, and their ears don't move like yours. Mostly hairless as well, no fur coat to call their own."
Coalback paused. His nose twitched and he examined the hollow look of fear on the ponies' faces around him. The old mare in the corner made a warding gesture with her hoof and mumbled a prayer to Celestia under her breath. Even the muscular Earth pony sitting beside him seemed shaken.
"Coalback," Rainbow finally said, her book forgotten, "do you realize what you're talking about?"
"Of course I do, but I wonder if you do," Coalback said. He shifted under his cloak, armor slid against itself and his sword's hilt was revealed.
"There's only one thang that's like that," Applejack assured him.
"Thousands of years ago, before Luna became Nightmare moon, ponies fought in a huge war with them. We both nearly fought each other into extinction, in the end they were the ones that disappeared though. They fought like demons if the legends are true," Twilight explained.
"Name them," Coalback commanded.
"Don't you dare!" Granny Smith wailed from her seat. "It's the worst of luck to mention their name!" she warned.
"Tell me," Coalback insisted. "It's important."
Twilight looked around the room nervously. Most turned toward her with fearful glances, the fillies turned their alarmed curiosity to her, and Applejack shot her a warning with her eyes. But under the pressure of Coalback’s gaze she decided:
"Man."
---
"Well," Braeburn sighed as he scratched under the brim of his hat. "Now ain't that just the strangest thing?" he grumbled toward the sky. The clock tower chimed the late hour nearby.
A snowflake gently fluttered down onto his nose, it melted instantly in the temperate air. It certainly wasn't cold enough on the ground for the snow yet; but there it was. Far above, wispy clouds sat lazily in the quickly darkening sky, the apparent culprits in the otherwise clear sky.
Being a frontier town, Apploosa tended to lack proper weather control. A small Pegasus population meant the most they could really do was encourage what rain they had to fall on the farms. It also meant that there was nopony available to attempt to steer the incoming weather away.
"A storm's a'comin'," one of the older mare's of the town commented from a nearby porch. "My ankles are achin' somefin' fierce!"
"Eyup!" Braeburn agreed in an uncharacteristically dry tone. "Don't bode well," he said.
Braeburn wasn't sure, but something in his bones sensed tragedy in the air. His eyes were drawn south toward the distant, impassable range of the Macintosh Hills. If his ears had been sensitive enough, he might have heard the distant sound of drums.
---
This part of Las Pegasus was well and truly abandoned at this hour, all except for a single soul who walked slowly down the paved road. The warehouse complexes were barren and seemingly lifeless around him. His armored hooves echoed off the walls and spread far in the still, cold air of the night. Thankfully, for his purposes, even in the large city ponies tended to retreat to their homes at nightfall.
The hooded stallion blended well with night, dressed in his dark blue cloak with only flashes of his pitch black armor revealed step by step. However, his intent was not to hide.
He halted with a heavy stomp of a hoof that boomed like thunder in the quiet street. He snorted and a billow of steam whipped out from between the teeth of his snarling helm. His armor glinted in the moonlight where the thick cloak could not cover it; a quarter moon to keep him on his task.
Cloudsdale had been completely devoid of their scent, an interesting find since the clouds tended to amplify what scents there were. But now he could clearly smell the dust and musk that marked his quarry. There was already blood in the air.
He stepped into a complex of buildings, the scent of blood only stronger. Every nerve stood on edge, he stepped carefully and slowly. They would already know he was there, it was a matter of reacting faster than they could spring a trap.
This was the kind of hunt that truly required skill; when neither party was predator or prey, nor did they stand on equal ground. It might have been comparable to a form of guerrilla warfare if there were truly a difference between attacker and defender. This was truly the greatest hunt, where luck played as much a role as strength or cunning. Nothing like hunting down scared and confused prey, with their eyes that stared back in a dumb haze; or a battle where victory might be determined simply by who ran away first.
No rules. No sides. Only the one who chases and the one who is chased, neither prey nor predator.
Gravel crunched under armored hoof as Coalback tracked the scent through the warehouses. He'd played this game before, from the other side however. It was a strange feeling for him to be the one intent on capture rather than escape. It had always been him who felt chased, with short episodes as the chaser to gain distance from his enemy.
It had never felt so right before.
A puddle, black in the darkness but clearly blood by its smell, seeped out from the doors of one building. Coalback approached carefully, fully prepared for a trap. Perhaps they'd kidnapped an killed someone in the hopes to draw him out, and like a fly to the fetid meat Coalback approached. With a snicker of the scabbard he drew his sword. He gave a grunt as he used its hardened point to shatter the wooden bar that held the large doors shut. With a groan and a rush of air that brought the stench of death and decay with it the door creaked open.
Coalback jumped back as body after bloody body fell out into the gravel road. They splashed out in a waterfall of gore, their blood spattered the ground and onto Coalback's hoofguards.
The bodies settled and the silence that followed was heavy. Coalback lifted his eyes from the pile of dead, all of them Pegasi and if he had to guess most of which were the ponies he was after. But something didn't sit right. They were piled against the door; had they been trying to escape? Or had one of them piled up their comrades in hope that Coalback would stumble upon what they had wrought.
Coalback lowered his stance, ready for a rush from the darkened interior, and let out a challenging snarl that shook the panes of the windows all around. Silence was his reply.
A quick count proved that every missing pony from the band of attackers lay at his hooves. Perhaps their Discord had simply gotten tired of them and destroyed them the same way that the captured pony had been. With a snort in a vain attempt to relieve the stench of blood from his nose he turned away from the bodies.
He found a still puddle of murky water, rimmed with ice. Luna had given him specific and cryptic instructions on how to contact her "if he were to require more supplies or to make a report." He snorted in frustration as he attempted to remember the process.
"Luma arcterra," he hissed as he touched the edge of the puddle with the tip of his blade. Ice rippled across the full face of the puddle until it was completely solid. The ice rippled again as magical forces smoothed the surface into a perfect mirror. But when Coalback leaned over it, it was not his frightening helm he saw, Luna stared back out of the glass.
"Good evening, Sir Knight," she greeted. The ice vibrated subtly, leaving her voice tinny and slightly muffled. "Doth thee require something of Us?" she asked, her voice was honey but Coalback sensed the mixed feelings of annoyance and hope that he brought good news.
"Forgive me for not contacting you sooner, it has been difficult to settle in," Coalback rumbled. He could hear the faint murmur of voices from the ice-mirror, and hesitated to reveal what had transgressed should someone else hear it. "I bear news of an attack that I have thwarted, I spent my last two nights attempting to hunt them down and have just succeeded in locating the last of them." He hoped that whoever Luna was meeting with was trustworthy, or at least ignorant enough to not fully understand who had been attacked.
If a ponies' face could have paled, then Luna’s certainly did. "The Midnight Court is concluded, leave," she said coldly, the murmuring ceased almost instantaneously. "There was an attack? Explain," Luna demanded once her guests had left.
"It seems your concerns were well placed, my Princess," he growled, he had to fight himself to keep the words from seething with hate. "Not twelve hours after our arrival a band of rogues attempted to capture, and I assume execute, the Elements in their homes. I was away, escorting Lady Rainbow Dash, they were able to hide with Lady Twilight Sparkle until I could arrive and dispatch them. Some escaped, but I found them all dead in a warehouse in Las Pegasus," he summarized.
"I will send ponies to remove them, We cannot allow panic to take root on this. Dost though know of their motive?" Luna asked. Her horn blazed with light, presumably to dispatch a cleanup crew.
"I was able to capture one yesterday, he mentioned a name before his body was destroyed," Coalback growled.
"What was this name?"
"I would take caution in speaking it, I believe it to be some demonic spirit that had taken their souls hostage."
"Speak its name but once, I must know of it."
"Discord."
Luna's image froze, and for a moment Coalback thought that she might have cut the magic that allowed them to communicate. But in a moment he was able to pick out the subtle shudder she let out. "You are correct to call him a demon. Return to Ponyville, posthaste! Speak nothing of that thing's name again," she ordered. With a sweep of her wing the ice and the image that it had facilitated became brittle and cracked in a web across the puddle.
Coalback flinched as a few stray shards of ice bounced off of his helm. He snorted again, both to clear the smell of death and in frustration.
"A demon," he muttered under his breath. "How much stranger could this get?" he grumbled.
So enraptured with thoughts of this attack, and the subtle chiming of the ice as it continued to crack and melt back into water, that Coalback did not notice one of the bodies lift itself from the pile behind him. The gore covered pony, slicked by the blood of his fellows, was able to draw a thick blade from his belt silently. Even slicked with blood, the thick blade and sharpened point proved that this blade was only for stabbing, specifically through heavy armor.
Coalback roared in pain as the blade found its mark, only just deflected away from his spine between his shoulders by how abnormally heavy his armor was. He twisted, the light weight of the Pegasus attacker barely noticeable past the feeling of blood rushing into his lung. He turned to face his attacker only to find that another had stood and flung blood into his eyes.
Blinded and in pain, Coalback stumbled into the slush of the icy puddle. He snorted, blood filled the air and he coughed as he tried to clear his lungs of the blood that was drowning him from the inside. He blinked past the blood enough to fend off another attack, only realizing the blade was still in his back when he could not close his left wing.
Sword forgotten, he swung a hoof wildly as one of his attackers attempted to bring him into a grapple. His heavy coif caught the pony in the temple, enough to shatter his skull and break his neck. His fellow had begun his charge even before the first had realized his fate. Coalback dropped and attempted to sweep the other's legs out from under him. The Pegasus simply took to the air, a vain attempt to bail out of the attack. Coalback’s sword was already back in his hoof, all he had to do was flick the tip up and the pony's stomach split open from ribcage to groin.
The Pegasus flopped back to the ground, his entrails left a bloody trail behind him. The colt screamed and writhed, his hooves clawed at the steaming organs to try to move them back into his stomach even as his legs tried to pick him back up and run away. Coalback thrust his sword into the meat of the pony’s hind leg, the blade sunk into the gravel below him and speared him in place.
"No!" the bloody colt screamed, in so much pain that it had begun to fade to the inevitable fear of more. His brain was shutting down, attempting to survive the pain. "No, please!" he yelled, his writhing only cause for more pain to shoot through his body. "Please!" he wailed as Coalback stepped over him.
"Why should I show you mercy?!" Coalback bellowed, steam billowed from the jaws of his helm. "Why should I try to save you from your fate!? Why? When no one would save me from my own; why would you deserve better?!" His voice echoed across the city, as loud and imposing as a titan's. "I killed no innocents! I forged no bonds with gods! I freed a Giant and stole his soul! I have walked ten thousand miles and been the bane of a thousand lives! Still I live! I would have begged to be like you! To be mortal enough to die!" The colt had given up trying to scream, he only shook in fear of the tirade that Coalback had opened upon him.
Coalback ripped free his blade with a spray of blood. He let the blade fall again, this time to cut the wings off the colt's back. "I burned! And I suffered! And when I tried to leave for the safety of everyone around me," his blade sank into the gravel and he drew his other knife, "they dragged me back!" The sharp knife split open a nostril on his prisoner's face. "And now I'm here! Alone! More alone than I have ever been! And you beg me for mercy?!" The knife took an ear next, but the colt had lost so much blood already that he could not react to the new pain. "If I could have what I wanted, I would already be dead," Coalback growled, the knife found its place back in its scabbard. "But that's not how the world works. So why should I give you what I have been denied?" He replaced his sword and stepped away from the dying pony.
Without another word, Coalback turned and began the long trek back through the forest to his camp. There was a hospital in the town, he would raid it for medical supplies by morning. His wing hung limply at his side, forced open by the thick blade still lodged in his back.
He left his opponent to die a slow, pain filled death.
When One Falls Another Shall Stand and Take Its Place
-When One Falls Another Shall Stand and Take Its Place-
Ponyville awoke the next day peacefully. It was a pride of the town that they were so easily able to recover from the hardships that wandered out from the forest nearby. Whether it was a young dragon on a greed rampage or a tantrum throwing Ursa Minor, the town was often able to bounce back almost as quickly as it had been swept into chaos. This recent event was no different, except that maybe it had been someone besides the local heroes who had resolved the issue. And the fact that it had not been monsters as the cause for the threat, but more ponies instead.
Indeed, rumors were abound in the small town; most centered on the new arrivals that had accompanied the beloved mares back to Ponyville, or the exact nature of the attack. Some had decided they were a band of wandering knights in the search of some truth in a pilgrimage and that it had been chance that they had arrived. A few believed that the attackers were actually enemies of the warrior ponies and that they had unintentionally drawn the town into harm's way. However, none disagreed that if the warrior ponies had not been there that things might have ended very differently.
In fact, it was a strange find that day that the ponies of Ponyville realized the leader of the small brigade was missing where he had been almost omnipresent the previous day. Only his two slightly built subordinates could be found, stood watch outside the Golden Oaks Library or escorting a few of the Elements into the early morning market. Thankfully things had a way of working out around Ponyville, unfortunately it seemed that things fell apart equally as commonly around Coalback.
The hospital's clinic was no operating theater, but it held more than enough supplies for the Pegasus's purposes. It was dark inside the room, he'd arrived just before sunrise and walked right past a sleeping nurse at the front counter. He began a search for supplies once he'd managed to lock the door. Bandages were what he really needed, he could make do without stitches or disinfectant if he had to. But the real problem came from the deepest point in the blade stuck fast in his back.
On the long walk here Coalback had worked the hole in his chest cavity even wider, which allowed more fluid to flood into his chest. However, his thick blood had congealed around the hole in his lung and held it shut in a tentative grasp. If he didn't stop the internal bleeding soon, although he had considerably more time than most, then it could begin to cause potential organ failure. He had to stop the bleeding somehow.
Cabinets clattered as he searched. Gauze strips, absorbent pads, a glass pitcher of medicinal alcohol, and a set of forceps were all he needed to get started. But with a sigh he gathered one other element; a sterile cup, normally used for urine samples, that he unwrapped, clamped between his teeth and slowly allowed it to be filled with saliva. It was the only thing he could think of that might help the bleeding.
With a grunt he took the forceps in his good hoof and, once sterilized with the alcohol, clumsily began to manipulate them into any position that they might be able to pull the dagger free from his back. The small clamp was able to lock closed over the hilt of the dagger, just long enough for Coalback to get a grip with. He realized the instrument was incompetent for the task, more suited to close an artery that to grab a blade, but it was what he had and he had wasted enough time with the dagger in his back. It locked with the jagged edges of metal around it and tugged against the flesh that had stuck to it with his own congealed blood.
He had to stifle a yell when the forceps slipped and the heavy blade sank back into the wound. His breathing came in harsh gasps, he could feel the tip of the blade digging into his lung lining, ready to flood his breath with his own blood again. He could already feel pressure from the blood that had trickled into the cavity around them. With a grunt he locked the little forceps around the dagger again and pulled. He felt the knife lock against the armor on his back, but only a moment before he was able to force it to overcome its friction violently.
Metal screeched as whatever edge had caught the blade was twisted and scraped. The dagger itself clattered to the floor, finally free. Something hot and wet rolled down his back underneath his armor, which was next to go.
Steady had been true to her word; as easily as the armour was donned it was removed. The straps took use of a design that clamped together the leather, which meant they could be released and tightened with only a flick of his hoof. He dug under the edges of his armour around the joints in search of those latches that would free his shoulder to make way for bandages.
The door shuddered behind him. Coalback jumped, his senses instantly tuned to the door and the pony behind it. He could hear their breathing and their heartbeat far before he heard a mare's demand to know who was inside.
"Go away!" Coalback grunted. The plates of armour around the shoulder of his wing fell away with a clatter to the floor, followed quickly by the other wing's and the ruined plate that had once sat between them. He managed to wrestle the heavy ringmail jerkin off of his back and slide his limp wing out, but the effort left him exhausted. He'd lost so much blood, the plates and ringmail were covered in dry, black blood and he could feel more slowly trickling down his back.
He shakily took the cup from his mouth, now bearing a puddle of his drool, and slowly poured it across his shoulder. The wolf’s spit slowly seeped into the wound, it clotted the blood and began the healing process. A soft hiss filled the air as it hit the last remnants of metal shavings left in his shoulder.
The door shook again, more forcefully than before. "Open this door!" It was a stallion at the door this time, most likely security. When Coalback gave no answer the doorframe shook as the pony tried to force their way in. A growl grew in Coalback's throat and his anger lent him new strength. The flimsy door lock shattered under the force of the security pony's assault, and if it had been anyone else inside the pony might have appeared threatening.
The earth pony stallion jumped back only just in time to avoid his hooves being split by the damascus knife that imbedded itself in the floor where they had been an instant earlier. "Stay away!" Coalback warned, fury in his voice. Coalback’s chest heaved and he coughed forcefully, when he looked down blood had splattered across the floor in front of him.
It seemed then that the security pony realized the state of the intruder, and he shouted for a doctor. Coalback growled again, he could feel blood leak into his lung. He grunted and lobbed a nearby stool at the door. The security guard balked and scrambled out of the way, the rushing nurse just behind him skidded across the floor as she attempted to stop. The stool crashed against the doorframe of the cramped room and fell just inside, a short barrier that Coalback hoped to deter any more ponies from bothering him.
He lifted his left arm up, braced against his barrel in an attempt to allay the pain in his shoulder that ached and burned. He stopped to try to catch his shallow breath, which halted when his eyes fell on the dagger he'd pulled from his back.
With the light from the hall now on it, and a scratch across its thick blade that lacked an edge, he was able to see why his wound burned so. Silver glinted in the hall light below a thin layer of varnish.
"They knew," he hissed.
---
Dark whispers leaked from the pages, so infused with power and emotion that their construct could not fully contain them. But their history was pure, and Luna poured over every symbol of the old text. Its pages were covered in interlocking circles just to keep the words attached to the paper, and to anyone but her it would have been illegible. It was not in any language spoken by mortals.
These were her recordings of the time before her banishment. And though now she could see the madness overtaking her thoughts in her past self through this text its history was plainly there. This was during a dark time in pony history; the Grey Wars had ended and Discord had been imprisoned, but monsters and dark magic roamed free in the aftermath of the fighting. Little resemblance of their previous empires remained, and the ponies teetered on the edge of renewed conflict that would become the Solar Wars.
And spattered throughout every wilderness was what remained of the Grey Wars, the final struggle for a fading power that would end in the absolute disappearance of Men and their creations. Their demise came nearly 300 years before she was banished.
It was for this reason that Luna scoured the pages, in hope of some explanation or clue as to their eventual demise. Because with Coalback's return it would seem that they had been incorrect to assume their eradication: at least one had been able to keep their bloodline alive and the last remnant of them had returned into their midst.
Was it an omen? A sign of some new age to come -- of tragedy or prosperity? Or was it simply that he had had nowhere else to flee, and that in whatever shadowy land he had come from another calamity had nearly wiped them out? Surely a clue existed! Some note on their migrations or the shifts in their power, she was certain that with her previous fascination with beasts of the night that she must have dedicated some time to them!
Nothing.
She sighed and closed the book. Her head ached. It physically pained her to see the ruin she had become in those days, much as it poisoned her to attempt to control the lost Beast she'd made a knight. She hoped to save him from an absolute extinction, even if it seemed that was all he was after. Her nature demanded the preservation of life just as much as it allowed for the passage of time and the inevitable deaths that came with it. Balance -- Harmony -- demanded a check on their power as goddesses, and his kind had been meant to fill that niche; she was sure. Without them back in the world it would not matter if Discord found a way to overthrow them.
"Bah!" Luna grunted as she tossed the book aside. The moment it left her grasp it returned to its enchanted shelf, sealed with wards that would keep anyone else from seeing it.
Discord. Her mind felt sluggish and strained with just the thought of its name. Some historians had labeled the chimera god as her brother. How wrong they were. While it seemed that she and her sister truly did hold a relation to him, it was not in the same way. She and her sister shared the same blood, the same flesh. But Discord had neither. In more ways he was related to their Mother, and like many royals, he endeavored to replace her.
After all, Luna was only a Princess. It was her mother who was Queen.
---
"Next week won't work for me, I'm not even sure if I'll be able to get away for the one the weather patrol saw moving our way over the Everfree for this week," Rainbow groaned. She slumped back into the cloud cushion she'd constructed from an extra bit of cover for the day, it was only supposed to be partly cloudy anyways.
"Come on, Boss!" Flitter lamented, almost desperate at this point. "Storm chasing is no fun when it's just us! When you're with us you make sure we push it to the next level!" she tried, desperate to convince Rainbow to reconsider. She and several other ponies from her weather team sat around with her, either to help negotiate with Rainbow or just to rest now that most of the day's work was already done.
Rainbow only huffed in irritation. As much as she enjoyed the tradition of storm chasing with the Ponyville weather team, her next few weeks were promising to be packed or to be anything but 'sleeping over' at Twilight’s place. "I'm sorry, girls. But with Wonderbolt tests coming up and with how freaky everything is right now I'm booked! Twilight says she wants to spend all week next week studying with me; and I really don't want to but I really, really need this to happen!" she grunted.
"Come on! I heard that some warm fronts from down South moved in over the Everfree and that that storm is totally getting bigger!" Cloudjumper all but yelled.
"It isn't up to me right now, okay?" Rainbow yelled in her frustration. "Right at the beginning of storm season too. Sheesh," she grumbled.
"I guess it'll just be me and the ladies then," Thunderlane said with a cheeky grin.
"Yeah!" Flitter smiled. "It'll just be us girls!" she guffawed. Thunderlane slumped as the mares around him began their uproarious laughter at his expense, which was not uncommon.
"Yeah, yeah!" Thunderlane deadpanned. "Laugh it up! You won't be laughing when you’re eating my wake!" he chuckled, his wing flung a clump of chilly cloud over a few of the others. One clump of sky fluff soon turned into two, then twelve, and soon every Pegasus perched on the cloud had been drawn into the fray of flying moisture. The impromptu cloud fight quickly destroyed the small stratocumulus they had all piled onto.
"Rainbow!" The group of Pegasi jumped back as a pink blur bounced up in between them through the thin layer of cloud below. "You have to come-" Pinkie began to say before gravity pulled her back out of earshot and underneath the clouds.
"Pinkie?" Rainbow spat out in surprise. She looked down the hole in the cloud to find the party pony returning to their height thanks to a rather large, and pink, trampoline. "What are you doing?" Rainbow asked as Pinkie came to the top of her arc.
"Youhavetocomequick! Coalback'sinthehospitalbut-" she managed to spit out before she fell back down. "Buthewon'tletanyofthedoctorsnearhim, andtheythinkhe'sbleedingontheinside, and-" she spat out on her next jump. "Andifhegetssickwecan'tthrowhimabigThankYouslashWelcometoPonyvilleParty!" she screamed in a panic.
Rainbow hooked her arms under Pinkie’s before she could fall again and another Pegasus got behind her to help keep the heavy earth pony in the air. "Hold on," Rainbow grunted. "What's up, Pinkie? You look ... freaked out," Rainbow noted as her eyes worked over Pinkie. Other than the grimace on her face, there was no limp mane or pale fur that would otherwise indicate something bad on an entirely different level.
"Well I got up this morning and was getting ready to put some donuts out when my tail went all floppy and my eyelids were all itchy and then my knee got all achy and that was a combo I'd never had before so I followed it outside and-" Pinkie paused to catch her breath for a moment and Rainbow began to slowly descend toward the ground far below. "-and then I found Nurse Redheart running around, and she was yelling about finding the Guard. So I asked her what was up and she was like 'I have to find those Guards, that big one is in the hospital trashing everything' and I was like 'that sounds a lot like Coalback, but I don't think that he'd do that' he's a pretty nice pony, he wouldn't just smash somepony else's stuff for no reason, I don't think. But then she was like 'and he's bleeding and he won't let anyone help him' and I went-" Pinkie demonstrated the large gasp she let out when she had spoken with the head nurse. "-and then I went and got Twilight and she went to go find those Guards and then I went to get Applejack and Fluttershy because I thought that if anypony could convince Coalback to let someone help him it would be one of them and then I went and told Rarity because I thought that she might be able to help the doctors fix anything that Coalback broke because it sounded like he'd broken a lot of things, but then I remembered that you were able to convince him to not be such a big meanie to that bartender in Canterlot when he wouldn't listen to anypony else so I came to get you because I thought you might be able to help!" she said as her hooves finally found the ground again and the Pegasi holding her let her drop back onto her hooves. "So let's go!" she yelled as she began a mad dash in the direction of the Hospital.
"I better take care of this, guys. Talk to ya later!" Rainbow called over her shoulder to the others as she winged after Pinkie.
They made for the hospital with a speed that only the fastest flyer and best partier in Equestria could manage. In only a moment they were able to go from one side of town to the other. But it seemed that even that was not enough to halt the scene that had sprung up around the hospital's entrance.
A mob had surrounded the door, where Iron Bar stood in full combat gear as an imposing bar on their passage. It was only once they got close enough that they realized almost every pony there held either a camera or a notepad and were lobbying for entrance or an interview with the stallion at the door himself. Pinkie managed to bounce through the crowd without any trouble and Rainbow met her by the door.
"What the heck is going on?" Rainbow tried to ask the Guard past the voices of the crowd held back only by the swing of Iron Bar's rifle.
Iron Bar made to answer only to be interrupted by a loud journalist who shouted "Miss Pinkie Pie! Who's your new Guard?! Why was the town attacked the same day that they arrived?!" Iron Bar turned back to the crowd with a grunt and stomped on the icy ground to make them back up. However the camera flashes resumed and similar queries continued to be shouted in their direction.
Iron Bar grunted at them and motioned for them to go inside even as he shouted "This is an operating Hospital! You are causing a blockage at the entrance! Remove yourselves at once!" He made for an imposing figure, but he was unfortunately not able to actually remove the crowd of paparazzi and it seemed they were aware. There was an emergency entrance that they were not blocking, so Iron Bar's words served as a weak deterrent.
Rainbow and Pinkie ducked inside, once the doors were closed the crowd was dulled into a low roar. Rainbow locked onto the other Guard instantly and she darted over in search of an explanation.
"You! Filly Bust or whatever your name is- What the heck is going on? What's with all the cameras?!" she demanded.
Filibuster snorted in irritation. "Somehow word got out in Canterlot that Luna knighted somepony, then after word of the attack two days ago got to Canterlot they all piled on the first train here this morning to try and find him: They all want the first scoop on Luna’s new knight and what he's doing," he explained. It was short, but it got the point across. The political importance of it was more complicated. The Lunar Guard had been all but rumor until Luna’s return, and with the legends of Nightmare moon so closely tied to them any news about them tended to attract a morbid curiosity that made the journalists drool at the potential headlines. This was no exception.
A crash echoed up the hall followed by a loud "Ekki snerta mig!" in a very familiar growl.
"This isn't exactly helping," Filibuster grumbled. "Coalback is in there bleeding all over the place and rambling in some sort of gibberish. He won't even let us near him, nearly took my head off with a cabinet door. It looks like somepony punched through his armour with a misericord, how he managed to walk all the way back here-"
Another crash drew their attention down one of the halls. "Go see if you can help him, we'll keep these jackals out," Filibuster said with a dismissive shrug. He shouldered his rifle on its spear shaft and moved to join his fellow at the door.
Rainbow walked down the hall toward the clump of ponies. A few nurses holding emergency kits and a rolling cot stood impatiently outside with Rarity and attempted to peek through one of the doors. Rainbow was just able to spot Fluttershy huddled at the end of the hall as they approached the group. One of the nurses noticed and made to stop them before Rarity could rush over to Rainbow and Pinkie.
"It's absolutely dreadful, Rainbow!" Rarity spouted as she grabbed Pinkie into a hug. "He got hurt after he left last night; those ruffians sprung a trap on him," her voice shook and her normally prim appearance was ruffled.
Pinkie bounced around them on her way to the door. "Come on-"
"Wait!" one of the nurses hissed as she grabbed Pinkie by the tail and tugged her back from the door. "Don't barge in! It's taken us this long to get him to a point where he'd let those two in there with him. We have to keep him from panicking again," she insisted. "He's stopped bleeding for now, but if he gets worked up again his injuries could get worse."
"Just leave!" Coalback yelled from inside the room, stress shook in his voice.
"We're tryin' to help you!" Applejack's voice echoed out of the room, just as frustrated and angry as Coalback's.
"I don't need help! I want to be left alone!"
Rainbow huffed and pushed past the nurse anyway. She slipped in past the broken lock of the door and let a "Holy cow," drop from her lips.
Coalback was backed into a corner, most of the armor missing from his back. Blood, blackened and mostly dry, had soaked his barrel and glistened on top of what was left of his armor. Sweat foamed red with the blood around his shoulders and beneath his armour. One of his wings was held loosely at his side and the spotted feathers were rimed with scarlet. A swollen wound, ragged and purple, wept still more dark blood from between his shoulders. And the floor next to a smashed cabinet was smeared with even more. His ragged breathing filled the room.
Applejack and Twilight stood well back, careful not to antagonize Coalback. He paced in his corner, unwilling to approach or to calm himself. Coalback turned to Rainbow as soon as she entered and a growl slowly built in his throat. His head was low, ears slayed back, and his slightly pointed teeth were bared. But it was his eyes that stopped Rainbow right in her tracks.
Dark bags hung under the bloodshot orbs. Thin, sharp eyebrows were hung low in a way that could have been a scowl but just as easily could have been exhaustion that weighed them down. Crow's feet pinched in the corners as Coalback blinked and squinted at her with heavy eyelids. They were intense eyes despite the exhaustion that had taken its toll on them, but Rainbow managed to find the desperation hidden underneath.
Rainbow swallowed a lump in her throat before she started forward again. If anything just to stand next to her friends and offer what support she could. She didn't get far before her hoof kicked something heavy.
The knife clattered and spun on its guard, and the bloody tip stopped to point at the bloody stallion on the other side of the room. Rainbow held back a gag at the sight, it was almost too easy to imagine how that had been stuck in Coalback's shoulders not that long ago. A breathless growl drew her attention away from the chunk of flesh still stuck to the weapon.
Coalback’s breathing had escalated, but it didn't stop him from trying to growl. Blood trailed out of the corner of his mouth and Rainbow was unsure if he looked cornered and scared, or just plain rabid.
"How long has it been since you got some shut eye?" she finally asked him. Applejack and Twilight looked at her incredulously, mostly to shake their heads and try to keep her from talking. But Rainbow pushed it. "I know you didn't sleep last night, and I'm pretty sure you didn't the night before that. Why don't you just lay down and take a rest?" she said as calmly as she could.
"Can't," Coalback huffed. His eyes darted between her and the metal spike of a knife. "They knew! I don't know how, but they did! And now they'll come for me!" he shouted. His hackles rose and the wild glint in the pony’s eyes grew.
"Nopony's coming for you. We'll all keep watch and make sure," Rainbow said in the most reassuring way she could muster. "Just lay down and shut your eyes for a bit, okay?"
"No," Coalback grunted. "You don't know- you can't know. How could you? Too long ago, no ponies around. You haven't seen what they do to people who get in the way! What I've done to get away!" He backed up until his rear pressed against the wall and he could go no further. "You have to get away from me before I do something we regret!" he growled, his voice suddenly big enough to fill the room.
"Is that supposed ta be a threat?" Applejack grunted back, a warning tone weaved into her words.
"You don- you don't understand," Coalback gurgled as more blood leaked out his mouth. His scowl grew as a few errant drops of blood fell from his lips.
"I think I understand plenty! Yer actin like a cornered coyote!" Applejack yelled.
"I'm going to use a sedation spell, it should calm him down," Twilight said as her horn began to glow.
“Wait!” Rainbow tried to warn, but the damage was already done. Whatever care for not harming any of them vanished from Coalback and the fearsome, tooth bearing snarl returned to his face.
Coalback jerked his head under his wing, and with a flick the shield detached and was flung at Twilight. Twilight jumped and the shield crashed against a purple bubble with a shower of sparks. Coalback braced his front legs and bucked against the wall with a snarl. His hooves punched through the drywall without a problem until he found a space between the studs, another kick punched through the insulation and the outside stucco. Coalback twisted around and quickly kicked a hole out of the wall between the studs and squeezed through.
Applejack pranced in place before she decided to stop and check on Twilight. Rainbow rushed to the hole in the wall just in time to see Coalback disappear into the Everfree only a few acres away. A light snow had started to fall -- off schedule.
“Are you all right, darlin’?” Applejack asked Twilight as she helped the Unicorn stand back up.
“Just shaken,” she muttered. “Why do you think he did that?”
“He’s a shadowy fellah, that’s what I say,” Applejack insisted angrily. “Maybe Rarity had the right idea a’ bein’ careful o’ this fellah,” she growled.
Rainbow snorted in irritation. “I thought it was needles at first, but it’s being drugged,” Rainbow grunted.
“What did you say?” Twilight asked.
“When I first ran into Coalback, he was freaking out over an injection they tried to give him. I thought he was just afraid of needles or something, but now,” Rainbow shrugged. “He must have heard you say that you were gonna knock him out and freaked. I bet it's PTSD.” She turned back to see the similar realization appear on their faces as well. “I gotta go after him before he hurts himself,” she grunted.
“What! No, Rainbow! Wait!” Twilight started in a panic.
“What in the hay do you wanna do that fer?” Applejack asked, equally concerned.
“You can’t just leave somepony alone when they panic like that!” Rainbow grunted as she started to climb through the ragged hole in the wall.
The stucco scratched against her coat as she edged through the large hole. Coalback had ripped all the way through the chicken-wire and left a pile of shattered stucco and drywall among a rat's nest of insulation outside. The dull clamor of the paparazzi on the other side of the Hospital pressed in on Rainbow’s ears and she rushed for the forest edge.
She rushed into dim forest, wary of its mostly dead trees. Rainbow followed a straight path in the vain hope of stumbling back across Coalback. She didn't know him well enough to say how far he would run, or if he would stop at all, or where he might try to go to. She didn't want to see him come back with even more injuries because he panicked and ran off -- if he came back at all.
The forest was behind the season, not quite ready for winter but done with fall. However this did little to help the choking atmosphere of the place or the heavy air that made Rainbow’s wings itch so close to the ground. The grass was still here, but crisp and half dead. And the trees seemed more sinister without their leaves: like feral abominations riddled with mange. The stink of rot, a strange smell in such cold weather but not uncommon for the forest, stuck to the back of her throat as she ran.
She slowed down as she entered a clearing, a wall of grey-barked trees all around her. She looked around for any sign of where Coalback must have gone, but as far as she knew he'd left no trail for anyone to follow. It was by sheer luck that she spotted the tiniest flash of dark red in the tall, dead grass. She trotted toward it, hoping and dreading that there was a trail to follow. If he'd started bleeding again then this would be harder than she thoight.
"Don't come any closer!" Coalback's voice rasped out from behind the trees, hidden by dying bushes and old curtains of dead leaves. Rainbow stopped instantly, unsure what Coalback would do if she pressed forward. She could hear his struggled breathing, and she had swallow a lump in her throat before she spoke.
"Coalback, you're hurt. You should let somepony help you," she said as calmly and as reassuringly as she could. She was very out of practice at doing this.
"The last time someone tried to help me I was locked in a hole for two years!" Coalback bellowed. The forest shook and what few birds there still were took flight and fled. "The last time someone tried to help me," he said again, "hundreds died, and a hundred thousand more followed. So just go away!"
"Not gonna happen," Rainbow said; stronger voice now, she had to sound confident and in control. "You need my help and you're getting it whether you like it or not."
A snarl shook out of the bushes and Coalback ripped out from the branches. He skidded to a halt in front of her, his larger frame loomed over her. He scowled down at her, teeth bared. But Rainbow stood her ground, she wasn't going to let him try to bully her into leaving.
"Friends don't let friends get hurt," Rainbow grunted up at him, her eyes locked on his. Their scowls matched each other as Coalback clenched his jaw. Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow could still see all of the blood that had stained his fur. He breathed out a cloud of steam from his nose and Rainbow saw his anger ebb, just barely in the corners of his eyes.
"Friends ..."
"Yeah, that's right." Rainbow nodded and let her own scowl relax slightly. "Remember that? We're friends. And I do not leave my friends hanging when I should be there."
Coalback snorted, but he took a step back and finally gave Rainbow some breathing room. "What would you know? You can't help."
"You're right, big guy" Rainbow admitted with a shrug. "I know jack squat about you. But I know you've lived through some pretty heavy stuff before you came here: and I know what that can do to a pony." She waited, and when his scowl slowly left his face she swallowed her pride and continued. "My dad was a Search and Rescue pony. When a wildfire got out of control a crew went to go reign it in, but he went to the logging cabin where two ponies had been trapped inside by the fire. He couldn't get them out, he barely made it back himself. Mom left after that, we were a small herd so that only left me to take care of him. He drank, he got freaked out by all sorts of things, and it was my job to reign him in. One time I didn't and now he's in a hospital in Cloudsdale staring at a wall and drinking his food through a straw," Rainbow swallowed the lump in her throat again. "So I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about when I say that you're freaking out and you need to calm down."
Coalback stared at her for a long moment before he finally sat down heavily on the cold ground. His armor rattled as he let out a long, shaky breath and looked away from her. “I don’t like doctors, or needles, or ‘medicine’,” Coalback whispered, so quietly Rainbow almost missed it. “They kept telling me they were helping me, and that I was helping people, as they cut me open and rooted around inside me. I will never let myself be that helpless ever again,” he growled under his breath.
“You don’t have to be, not in Ponyville – not anywhere in Equestria,” Rainbow said. She slowly took a seat next to him, which thankfully made his shoulders lose their tension.
“That’s what I thought about the Valley of Headless Men, I thought that no one would bother me there … I planned on dying there, but now I’m here instead,” Coalback choked out.
Rainbow was silent for a long moment, completely unsure how to respond. “Well, we’re glad you’re here,” she finally said. “If the Princess hadn’t asked you to come and keep us safe, we might not have been able to hold off all those ponies,” she admitted. “I was really freaked out when you jumped in there, and I was … don’t tell anybody but I was scared that you would get hurt.” Her ears folded against her head and she looked down between her hooves.
“I was scared, too,” Coalback rasped, “scared that I wouldn’t be able to stop.” When Rainbow looked back up he had his eyes locked on the trees around them. “The last time I lost control like that I ended up killing a lot of … a lot of people. But I kept remembering that you were still stuck outside with them and that if I didn’t keep it together that one of them could get away from me and go after you while I was distracted,” he said with a glance at her.
“You were scared? While you beat the crap out of those guys?” Rainbow asked, she dropped her concern in the wake of her confusion.
“I know I act scary, but … most of the time I’m terrified,” he admitted. “That I’ll hurt someone; that I’ll get run out of town; that a mob of furious ponies will come after me and I’ll screw up and I’ll hurt more people. Or that they’ll just look at me and realize I’m not normal like them,” he growled, the tension in his shoulders returning.
Rainbow scooted closer across the floor and reached a tentative hoof out to touch his. “I got some good news for you, dude,” she said. Coalback turned to her with his ears up in surprise. “Ponyville is anything but normal, you’ll fit right in.”
---
“I know,” the raven whispered from its perch at Clean Cut.
“That’s the one you think she wants?” he asked incredulously.
“He’s the first male that’s shown any sign of the same abilities as her,” Luna shrugged.
“Just because a bird starts whispering ‘I know’ at anypony who’ll listen doesn’t mean that it has any ability to read the Fates; only that it thinks it does. There’s more to it than that,” he sighed. “What kind of books do you like?” he asked the raven.
“I know,” the raven whispered.
“Not much of a conversationalist either. Merletta will hate him,” he concluded.
“Fine, let the raven decide for herself. I just wanted to offer a choice in hopes that he might help purify the bloodline,” Luna relented.
“Thank you, your Majesty.”
“And how useful has she and her ancestors been for you, Clean Cut?” Luna asked.
“Extremely, although I still haven’t solved how to be in two places at once. The only solutions I can find range from attempting to control more than one projection of my consciousness or time travel, neither of which is preferable,” Clean Cut explained. “But otherwise her family’s insight and guidance have been invaluable. Although Merletta has been a particularly entertaining companion.”
“Very good,” Luna said as she turned to leave. “We wish thee luck in finding her a mate. Fare thee well, my ever faithful student.”
“Farewell, your grace.” Clean Cut said with a bow.
The herd of ponies drowned out all other sound as they crowded around Coalback. His return from the forest had not gone unnoticed, and it had only taken moments for the paparazzi to close in. However his fully armored visage appeared unfazed even in the unending barrage of flashing cameras and yelling ponies. They all made for quite the seen just outside the forest’s edge.
“What is your name?” they demanded, ignorant of the falling snow.
“What house do you hail from?"
"What does your position mean for the continued integration of the Lunar Guard?"
"Is it true that Princess Luna personally trained you?"
"What is your position on foreign relations with the Gryphon Oligarchy?”
"Is it true that you've sparred with the Princesses and won?"
The questions came so fast and loudly from the fifty-some mouths that it more resembled an interrogation than an interview. Camera flashes threw strange shadows across his armor, some revealed patterns normally hidden in the dark coloration of the metal.
“CEASE!” Coalback’s voice boomed, suddenly as loud as a clap of thunder. The shocked silence of the paparazzi left a deafening hollow in the air. When he spoke next the only sound that accompanied his voice was the hasty scribbling of chewed pencils on pads of paper. “No pictures. I want you to leave,” he stated simply, his accent clipped the words ever so slightly and made the vowels slip just enough to be noticeable. Snowflakes stirred in the air around his snarling helmet, the steam of his breath forceful enough to melt ice.
"But, Sir!" one brave pony shouted from the crowd. "Ponies all over Equestria want so desperately to know about you! You're the first Lunar Knight in over a thousand years!"
"I am not a knight," Coalback barked. "I do not hail to any royalty. I am not a part of Lunar Guard. Your politics bore me. Your questions bore me." Coalback's voice echoed and the trees behind him shivered in the cold.
"All we ask is that you take this seriously," another reporter shouted.
"The only thing I take seriously, pony," he spat, "is trespass into the forest. You are very close to stepping into danger, and this will be your only warning. Entering the forest is forbidden," he growled.
With his short speech completed, Coalback pushed through the crowd and made his way back toward the hospital to collect his charges.
The crowd slowly dispersed, the disgruntled reporters snuck their last few photos as they attempted to collect whatever shattered dignity they had left. Surely many would be skulking around the town for a few days to get a few more flashy photos or sneak a bit more information out of the town, but most would be leaving on the next train with frowns on their faces.
Coalback ushered the mares back out of the Hospital, his squires took up the Guard position as they began to escort them back into the town proper. However, Coalback pulled Rainbow to the side as they walked for what amounted to a private conversation. “Thank you,” he whispered to her. “For the talk and for bringing my armour back out for me so I could deal with those fools,” he nodded.
“No problem, dude,” Rainbow replied with a smile. It had taken a lot out of her to let the less cool side of her out for him, even if it was only for a bit. But as stressful as it had been, she hoped the effort would make things run smoother between them.
“Also, if you are still interested, I will be doing training before we make to track down that last creature. You are welcome to join us if you wish, I hope you have no issue with me treating you the same as the others?” Rainbow could not see his face, and his accent made it difficult to fully understand him, but she felt like there was some amount of concern -- or worse, sympathy -- in his voice.
“Hey,” she said with a friendly tap to his breastplate. “You’re talking to the greatest athlete in Equestria! If you weren’t tough on me it would be an insult!” she said with a smile. He nodded and she was almost certain she heard a chuckle.
“We’ll see.”
---
The town square was particularly busy today, especially with so many journalists looking to get lunch before they left on the trains. Ponies bustled to and fro, either on business or finishing up any morning shopping. The heavy cloud cover told anyone familiar with weather that even though the snow had started early it certainly wouldn't end any earlier than scheduled. The weather ponies had all voted against attempting to stop the snow now that it had started.
Still, a few ponies ate outside, snuggled in scarves and coats and nursing warm drinks. Winter would be in full swing any day now, and they wanted to enjoy the cool air before it became too chilly. They would enjoy the light dusting of snow before it became a thick downfall.
Twilight had insisted they move ahead with their lunch plans since it was already on her schedule. So all six of them had come together to eat at their favorite cafe, two of their stoic Guard standing just outside. The other Guard had gone to watch the farm where the fillies had gone for the day.
Thankfully this cafe did not seem to be fancy enough even for the Canterlot journalists, so it was mostly quiet inside. It could have also been the fully armored Knight and Guard standing by the door. But that was fine by the mares, it gave them plentiful opportunity to talk and forget about their troubles.
"So Braeburn just looks at me an' says; 'that ain't mud'." Applejack said with a mimic of her cousin's grim expression. She was rewarded with laughter from most of her friends and a hilarious green tinge to Rarity's expression of horror. "The look on mah sister's face when she realized!" Applejack said with a bark of a laugh.
"That's horrid, Applejack!" Rarity grimaced and shivered.
"But much funnier than your story about Opal," Rainbow teased.
"Oh, well then I haven't told you about what happened with the yogurt this morning, have I?" Rarity asked, she waited patiently until she had garnered the attention of the table. "It turns out that Sweetie had been planning on making breakfast for us. And with her magic just coming in, she wanted to try to do everything with it. It should have been easy; nothing to burn, nothing to cut or mix. But when I walked into the kitchen every wall had been covered in yogurt! Fruit squares and yogurt everywhere! It looked like I'd just walked into a murder scene," she explained to the rising giggles of her tablemates and a few sympathetic 'oh no's.
"At least she hasn't started spell casting," Twilight said sympathetically. "When I was her age I tried to clean the house for my parents with a 'come to life' spell and I nearly flooded the house. Now I've got the opposite problem; a baby dragon who likes to cook inside our very flammable library," she snickered.
"Tank just likes to punch holes in my house," Rainbow grinned. "I'm always patching up some new spot where he's been wandering around. Yesterday I found a tunnel in the clouds from my bathroom all the way to the kitchen." She shook her head as Pinkie managed to fall out of her seat.
She popped back up with a gasp. "Yesterday Gummi came home with a bushel of Poison Joke in his mouth!" Pinkie beamed as her audience gasped with grins of joy. "He grew a big tooth ... on his tail!" She grinned madly as she realized the Fluttershy was red with laughter behind her pink mane.
"When we came back to Ponyville," Fluttershy managed to stutter out between giggles, "Angel Bunny was tangled up in ribbons and caught in the ceiling fan! I don't know how he got up there," she said.
"That rabbit," Rainbow groaned in sympathy.
Slowly their mirth died back down and they concentrated more on their warm drinks. The snow would really be falling once the sun went down. So, until then, relishing the nearly private setting of their company was what they planned on.
"Hey," Pinkie piped up. "Where's Coalback going?" She pointed out the window and when the rest of the girls turned to look they were able to make out his armored form through the windows as he crossed the square.
"It looks like he's going to the post office," Twilight said. "Do you think he's expecting a letter?"
"Wait a second!" Pinkie exclaimed. Her hooves slammed down on the table and nearly toppled half the drinks as she stood up. "We still haven't thrown him a Thank You slash Welcome to Ponyville Party!" she all but screamed.
"Oh no, I can't imagine how he would act if his previous behavior is any indication," Rarity huffed. "For all we know his idea of Partying involves countless hours of booze and smashing everything in sight with a chair."
"Come off it, Rarity," Applejack scoffed. "I'm sure he's just stressed. I know you get a might hard to deal with when you ain't got any sleep in a while," she said.
"Yeah," Rainbow said. "I don't think he's slept at all since he got here, give him a break,” she insisted. She was starting to get tired of Rarity’s stubborn dislike of their new Guard. “He did keep those thugs off of us, and he’s been cleaning up that mess since he got here.”
“Oh,” Rarity said with a scowl, “I suppose you’re right. Even if he is brash, he does have our well-being in mind,” she admitted. She pursed her lips in thought for a moment before a revelation brightened her expression. “What if we all did something nice for him and his Guards? A thank you from each of us to show that we appreciate what they’ve been doing for us!” she suggested.
“That’s a great idea, Rarity!” Twilight beamed. “I’m sure they might appreciate some reading material, I could get them some books on the local area. They might find those useful,” she said.
“Well Granny Smith always did say that the best way to get on a stallion’s good side was through his stomach. I’d bet a whole day’s worth a’ buckin’ that they’d like some good home cookin’,” Applejack said with a thoughtful expression.
Rarity pouted in thought. “Now that I’ve said it I realize I have no idea what I could possibly do for the fellows,” Rarity admitted.
“You know,” Rainbow said, “Coalback’s actually really smart. I bet he actually grew up in a pretty high society sort of setting. And those other two guys are from Canterlot, so I know you could come up with something for them. ”
“Whatever do you mean, dear?” Rarity asked.
“Well Coalback did basically learn a new language in, like, three days or someth-“
“What?!” Twilight screeched. “How?!” she demanded.
---
"I feel like your plan may be backfiring. Your forced authority over him might be less of a controlling factor and more of a stressful one for Coalback, Your Majesty," Clean Cut said as his eyes scanned his notes. "He's had several outbursts since you sent him to Ponyville. The stress may cause what you had hoped to prevent."
"Zounds," Luna cursed. "But how else should We have accomplished anything? Thou hast already espoused that sympathy and kindness are only suspect in his eyes," she said as she paced about her study. A raven sat in the windowsill and stared at her as she walked. “We could not allow him to slip away, especially now that this barrel of cnidarians has been opened,” she said in frustration.
"’Can of worms,’ my Lady,” Clean Cut corrected quietly. “Perhaps if we had tried further with kindness, or simply showed some honesty?" Clean Cut offered. "It seems to be working well for Rainbow Dash."
"Elaborate on this claim," Luna asked more than ordered of him.
"It is often difficult to decipher things like this: especially with my own limitations in Astral projection and Merletta's small knowledge on modern pony body language," he said with a nod to the raven at the window. The bird seemed to scowl back at him for pointing out her shortcomings in the Princess’s presence. "But her loyalty in the friendship she forged with Coalback, as tentative as it still is, has led to both kindness and honesty. He seems more relaxed around her than any other pony," he explained.
"However, tis far too late to simply say 'sorry' and make amends for him," Luna said with regret. "We have made this worse, have we not?" she asked as she grasped at the bridge of her nose with a hoof.
"It's certainly no easier, My Lady," Clean Cut admitted with a low bow. "Perhaps, if you began by praising his actions the next time he contacts you? Or better yet treat him as if he were to stand on equal grounds to you. He may appreciate humility, or even an apology. We know too little of his personality to say," Clean Cut said with a shrug.
Luna took a deep sigh. "Concordia super omnia amatur. Libra est pax," she said with conviction. "The world has been out of balance too long. Do you know what truly makes that pony so significant? So powerful a weapon against our kind, the alicorns?" she asked Clean Cut.
"I know that somehow their claws could do what steel and fire could not: they can make you bleed," Clean Cut admitted.
Luna’s hoof reached up and tentatively touched the tiny pink scar on the underside of her chin. "Indeed," she admitted. "However it is the nature of their conceivement that truly grants them power over us. They were born from the womb of a goddess, one of my sisters'. As such they, as a people, became a force of change in that ancient world. They are gods of change in their own right; and change is far preferable to chaos, discord, and entropy."
"How do you mean, My Lady?"
"Change," Luna said, "brings with it progress, evolution, and drives a march forward of all life. Not always is it good, nor bad, nor more often is it able to be seen as either." She walked behind her desk and sat heavily on the large chair behind it. She slowly pulled put a chess board from one of the many drawers. "As such it allows either player in a game to challenge the other, succeed or fail, and for both to improve themselves," she explained as she pushed out a small white pawn.
"And chaos? Discord, and entropy?" Clean Cut asked as his magic pushed forward an unsuspecting black pawn into the playing field.
"No one wins," Luna said simply. She slid out her bishop, suddenly a dominating presence on the battle field. “Chaos and it’s like end only in one thing: Destruction. It is a carefully coordinated and balanced dance of, shall we say, give-and-take that allows existence to prosper.”
"And your hope is that by keeping Coalback on your beck and call that he will readily risk life and limb to prevent this chaos?" Clean Cut asked, some of his incredulity slipped out with a raise of the eyebrow and a lilt to his voice. One of his knights leapt over the line, challenging the authority of the bishop.
"If anyone can," Luna said as she considered the board, "it will not be creatures of Order such as my sisters and I," she admitted with another pawn on the field. "I have known so since I first saw him. Even if Discord has not returned, we need him desperately."
---
Rainbow arrived at the Guard camp to be met with the heavy sounds of bone against flesh. She crested the snowy hill, work out gear in hoof and work out sweats donned, to find the Coalback and his earth pony Guard locked in an intense grapple.
They had reared onto their back hooves inside a rough dirt circle and struggled to keep the other from gaining a perfect grasp around the other's neck. Even from the hill Rainbow could see the earth pony’s muscles quiver with exertion. All three of the Guards had removed their heavy armor, and even Coalback stood with little more than the Lunar banner wrapped around his flanks. Coalback’s wings had flared high above him, his shields glinting in the late afternoon sun. Coalback had yet to break a sweat as he slowly kept the pressure on to his subordinate. The Unicorn Guard sat closely nearby, his eyes trained squarely on the two grappling ponies. He was apparently already through with his own sparring match, evidenced by the bruises along his arms and the thick foam of sweat in his fur.
With a grunt Coalback shifted his weight. Before the earth pony could react one of Coalback's hooves shot out and knocked the earth pony’s legs out from under him. In less time than it took to blink Coalback took the large pony to ground and had him pinned helplessly with his face in the dirt.
Coalback released his hold on the other Guard and stood. "A baby keeps his footing better than you! What do you think that tail of yours is for? Use it!" Coalback said as his opponent picked himself up. Coalback's ear twisted around as Rainbow started toward them again, somehow able to hear her over the earth pony’s grunting as he shook feeling back into his hooves. "Iron Bar, take Lady Rainbow Dash to the side and see what she knows while I find out if Filibuster has figured out his mistake," he commanded.
The earth pony gave a loose salute before he exited the circle and the Unicorn entered. Rainbow made sure to note down their names somewhere in the back of her mind.
The sweaty stallion approached, his hurried breathing slowed as he walked off his session. "Good afternoon, Lady Dash," Iron Bar said, he smiled when she returned the sentiment. "Have you ever sparred before?" he asked.
"I got a black belt in the martial arts class I took when I was in school," she offered. "But that was a few years ago," she admitted. "Haven't done any since."
"Alright, show me your ready stance," Iron Bar said with a thoughtful nod.
Rainbow tossed her workout bag to the side and spread her hooves apart. She felt her center of gravity lower ever so slightly as she loosened up her knees. She remembered vaguely when instructors would have to remind her to keep her hooves just wider than her shoulders and hips.
"Good," Iron Bar said as he reached out and gave her chest an experimental shove. Rainbow’s stance stayed strong and she easily kept from swaying.
A loud thwack behind Iron Bar and an equally loud clang of metal against skull shook the air.
Iron Bar spun around as Filibuster dropped to the ground, his hooves clutched at the sides of his head. Coalback snorted loudly before he turned and left the sparring circle. He returned with a canteen of water that he took a loud swallow from before he offered it to Filibuster who simply held the relatively cool surface against one of his temples.
"What's going on?" Rainbow asked Iron Bar in a whisper.
"Coalback thinks our defenses are crap. He wants us to improve them," Iron Bar said with a shrug. "There's no denying it, he can take us both down instantly. But he says the best way to improve is to find out what we're doing wrong first," he explained.
"I'd think that getting beat up all the time wouldn't help anybody," Rainbow remarked with a frown.
"That's how he said he learned," Iron Bar said with a noncommittal shrug. "It's really the hardest he's been on us, I think he puts a lot more stock in that than anything else. Discipline, you know? Besides, ever since he drafted us for this we've been a lot tougher. The bruises never last for long." He smiled and turned back to her as Coalback helped Filibuster back onto his hooves. "Now, throw me your hardest punch. Right here," he told her as he presented his shoulder to her.
"You sure you don't want, like, a mat or something for me to hit?" Rainbow asked. She didn't really take to the idea of punching Iron Bar, especially if Coalback had just finished doing more of the same to him in the name of training.
Iron Bar shrugged again. "If you wanna learn to fight better you gotta get used to the idea of hitting ponies. It's part of the deal most of the time," he said with a grin as he spread his hooves into his own ready stance.
"Whatever you say, dude," Rainbow said. She didn't wait for him to ask again. Her strategy had always been to hit hard and fast when she sparred as a filly, and she saw no reason to change that now.
She jumped forward with a quick, one-two punch to his shoulder. Iron Bar's heavier, earth pony frame easily absorbed the impact with the same reaction a rock might have. She danced back out of his reach as soon as she'd finished.
"Ha!" Filibuster shouted in triumph. However the moment quickly ended and before Iron Bar or Rainbow could turn to see what had happened Filibuster was flat on his back.
Coalback stood over him, a streak of soil across his own back. "Just because the enemy is down does not mean you've won the fight!" he shouted as if he could barely believe such logic existed at all.
"But the Code says-" Filibuster started.
"Fuck pony Code!" Coalback bellowed. Rainbow jumped at his volume, and was surprised to realize that that had been the first time she’d heard Coalback curse at somepony. Coalback leaned down and dragged Filibuster back to his hooves forcefully. “From now on,” he snarled in Filibuster’s ear, “the enemy is more clever than you.” He didn’t bother to allow Filibuster to stay on his hooves, he simply pushed him out of their sparring circle. “From now on the enemy is stronger than you,” he said as he made a point of meeting Iron Bar’s eyes.
He let that sink in for the two Guards for a moment. “Armor back on, Iron Bar. Three fast-march patrols around town, I want you to check in on each of the mares. Filibuster, leg lifts. When Iron Bar come back, switch places,” he commanded. With a sigh both the stallions split away from their makeshift training yard, Iron Bar back toward the tents and Filibuster toward a large stack of logs. As Rainbow watched, Filibuster lifted a large, uncut log onto his back and began the assigned exercise.
“Come here, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow jumped as she realized that Coalback’s attention had apparently been redirected to her. She cautiously made her way to the torn earth of the sparring circle, but hesitated to enter. She stared down at the line in the frosty dirt as if it were a snake waiting to bite her.
"You can back out at any time," Coalback said, once again to pull her back to the task at hoof. "But you don't get to come back. I run a wolf pack, not a girl scout troop," he said with narrowed eyes. But Rainbow heard the unspoken challenge: Are you tough enough?
She set a determined frown on her face and stepped in. The tiniest tick of a smile on Coalback's sweaty face was her reward. "Prepare you're stance," he commanded.
Rainbow spread her hooves apart. But the moment she had them where she was sure they were supposed to be Coalback's leg shot out and pulled her front legs out from under her. She stumbled and attempted to use her wings to correct but Coalback's own wing swung out and smacked her to the ground.
"Not fast enough," he said simply. He turned his back to her and walked to the edge of the circle.
Rainbow felt her jaw tighten. "'Not fast enough'?" she hissed in disbelief even as she regained the wind that had been knocked out of her. "Do you know who you're talking to, buddy?" she snarled, her blood pumping in her ears.
"Apparently not the fastest pony in Equestria," Coalback said in a bored tone.
"I'll show you fast!" Rainbow barked.
In an instant she was back on her hooves. Wary of another attempt to break her stance she was able to see the kick before it came and jumped over it. With a grunt she rushed forward to meet his turn and pinned his wings down at the shoulder with one hoof. She hit him as hard as she could across the muzzle with the other. There was a loud crack and Coalback’s head whipped to the side, but in an instant Rainbow felt the dirt rush up to meet her again. Whatever slight of hoof had done it, it had certainly been martial.
Coalback snorted and turned around to face her. "Oh, shit!" Rainbow yelled instinctively as she saw the damage her hoof had done.
Coalback’s nose was turned the side, broken almost halfway up the bridge. Dark blood trickled out of his nostrils but he looked more surprised than in pain. "Very good!" he said as he used a hoof to cradle the broken nose. As she watched he used the hoof to twist his nose back into place with a sickening crunch. "You're stronger than you look, Lady Rainbow Dash," he praised through teary eyes. However the smile quickly left his face. "Now maybe if you could keep that up for more than half a second you might make a mediocre fighter."
"What? You're not even gonna say anything about your stupid nose!" Rainbow yelled as she climbed back to her hooves. She couldn't believe it, anypony else would have been bowled over in pain but Coalback seemed not to feel it. Or, if he did then it was little more than a nuisance, like a cramped muscle or a sprained ankle.
Coalback shrugged. "I've broken my arms seven or eight times each, and my legs a dozen times over. I've had to dig little balls of lead out of my thigh, and shrapnel out of my temple. This hurts, but do you really think a broken nose is going to stop me? Pain is relative," he said and started to grin. "Or someone who really wanted you dead for that matter?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow asked.
"You're clever," Coalback praised. It pleased him that she jumped right to the heart of the matter. "The Enemy. Does not matter who. All you know is they want you dead. As far as you're concerned, that is me while we are inside this circle," he rumbled.
"Right," Rainbow said. "So you're supposed to be stronger and more clever than me, right?" she asked.
"That's the idea."
"So, what? You're just gonna beat me up until I figure out how to do the same to you?" she asked incredulously.
"Learning is best through experience for most," Coalback said in a dry tone. "You have better active stance than Iron Bar."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Iron Bar thinks stance is like tree roots, he stays too still. You were ready to move when you had to, once you knew what would happen," he explained. "What is term? Fooled once, shame on you; fooled twice, shame on me? Is like this, no?" Coalback said as he wiped away the blood around his nose and lips with a hoof.
Rainbow understood his reasoning, and it certainly made sense. But something else was nagging at her mind. "And you got me angry," she said even as she realized it. Coalback had hit all her buttons right on the dot and she'd waltzed right into it. "You wanted me to hit you?"
"I wanted you to hit me hard," Coalback corrected. "Not that tap on the shoulder you gave Iron Bar. You need to be ready to hit hard enough to break bones, crack skulls, and snap necks if you have to." Coalback spun on a hoof and slowly began to pace around the circle.
"What if I don't want to hurt anypony?" Rainbow asked. She was suddenly very uncomfortable with the idea of learning how to hurt other ponies, and especially of killing them. But Coalback didn’t seem to have that problem. He shrugged.
"Do you think those fools who attacked the town cared what you wanted?" Coalback asked without hesitation. "Do you think they would have just dropped their weapons and gone ‘Sorry’ when you say ‘I do not like’? If it comes to you or them - whichever one will be face down in the dirt in a puddle of their own blood - then it should always be you who is priority. Do not think about them. Do not think at all. Act. Live. Then maybe later, while you're still alive, you can feel sorry for them," he preached as he circled her, his voice a dark rumble. "Only a fool learns to fight, and works to be as exceptional as ponies like you do, and then let that go to waste by dying. Look out for yourself first, never the Enemy.”
“Now,” he rumbled as he circled behind her. “Hit me again!" he commanded.
Rainbow spun around only just fast enough to see the splash of dirt and frost that hurtled toward her head. She was able to twist out the way and avoid any in her eyes, but it was only by luck that her rear hooves smacked Coalback's chest and turned his assault away. She scrambled back to her hooves and threw a blind punch.
She felt something smack her hoof away and in the same instant she felt the air pressure around her head rise suddenly. In less than a blink of an eye Coalback's wings buffeted against her head and she felt her eardrums pop. Pain exploded in her head despite the fact that Coalback had barely touched her ears with his wings.
Through her pain she was unable to dodge away from the hoof that knocked her back to the ground. Her breath left in a whoosh and she was left writhing and coughing in the dirt.
As the pain subsided and she caught her breath she was able to look back up. Her eyes met Coalback’s as he stepped forward to stand over her. He leaned down until his lips nearly brushed her ear and whispered: "From now on you are always about to lose."
He stood up and walked out of the circle. Rainbow pulled herself to her hooves just as Iron Bar returned from his first patrol. For a moment she realize that she hoped that meant Coalback was finished with her for the day.
Unfortunately when she looked back up Coalback had already returned, two sparring staves in hoof. He tossed one onto the ground in front of her and she realized that Coalback had barely started to beat her down. As far as he was concerned, when she asked to train with him she had simply become another soldier. An untrained, undisciplined, soft soldier. And so long as she stayed, that's how it would stay.
She set her expression and locked eyes with him, wary of the cold blue tone that had crept into his green eyes. She paid no mind to the harsh corners of his furrowed brow as she picked up the staff and readied her stance again.
This had better be one hell of a work out, she grumbled internally as she put a grimace back on her face.
---
Once again in the forest, once again in a shape he could call familiar. The night was freezing, snow fell in waves all around him and his hunting party. In the darkness and the snow a normal pony might have mistaken it for a pitch blackness. But to Coalback and the ponies he had granted the title of Blood-kin no less than a week ago, the light of the moon filtered down from the clouds and left everything in a silver shadow.
They trod through nearly a foot of snow that had fallen in the short time between sunset and the fall of night. The ponies followed the black shape of their wolf leader with little idea of what they were looking for besides a den.
Filibuster had noted the reptilian qualities of the creature that had attacked them in the town. Coalback had agreed at the time and said that their best bet was to smell out its den. However that plan had fallen apart with the snowfall, it covered whatever smells there were. And they all knew that if they could not come up with some new plan that they might simply have to return to their camp to ride out the snow’s rapid descent.
Coalback swept the snowy forest with sharply focused eyes. The green disks could cut straight through the snowfall, but it was far too late to find any trail in the forest. Every inhabitant of the strange wood had already taken to shelter, now ready for the final step into winter. But something encouraged the huge, black wolf to continue the search; at this point, though, he wasn’t sure what it was he searched for. Filibuster and Iron Bar followed his example. Their eyes, though less able to Pierce through the snow, scanned the pale gray trees around them carefully. They had both seen what those things had done; they had been on them in an instant. The surviving creature could come out of the snow at any moment, spouting that strange burble.
Coalback froze and the ponies beside him followed suit. He scanned the edge I'd the forest, ears rigid. A growl rose up in his throat and his head rose up. It was a subtle sign, but the parting of the snowfall was enough. An inkling told him to go alone.
"Take my sword, go back to the camp," he growled to the Guards. "We won't be finding anything tonight."
Filibuster took the sword without question, but when Coalback continued forward without them he spoke up: "Where are you going?" he asked, careful not to inflect a demand in his speech. He had already learned that he did not have the privilege to demand anything of Coalback -- especially not of the Wolf-Coalback.
"I have a ghost to chase," Coalback muttered back as he slipped into the trees. Coalback weaved through the wood as he pursued the spectre who parted the snow in front of him. He snorted as its scent wafted up to him. Even as a ghost Fenrir still had influence over the physical world: sometimes he could appear in reflections, or his scent would appear in the air, or he could become solid enough that rain or snow would part around him; little more than a glorified poltergeist, but one with enough knowledge to be of extreme use.
Fenrir led Coalback silently through the wood; over, under, and through obsticles. Flickering black eyes glanced back at him from the shadows as he followed the ever faster pace that Fenrir set. Coalback struggled to keep up as Fenrir began to simply pad through the trees is a straight line. His thunderous rumble of a laugh rolled out of the snow as he left Coalback behind.
He burst out from the trees and dug his claws in. He slid in the sleet and snow, his momentum spun him around. His rear legs dropped out from under him even as his claws caught on a buried root and Coalback found himself hanging from a cliff face. Far below he heard water raging in unseen rocks.
He grunted and with a few kicks dragged himself back over the edge. He shook the snow from his grey coat and looked back over the edge: the cliff opened into only blackness, even to his eyes. The wind howled in a sudden gust, and the snow payed like a curtain before him.
A huge ruin loomed over him from the other side of the casm: huge, and old, and strangely familiar. Its crumbling towers stood stoically in defiance of the forest and the winds. The archway of its gate howled as the wind danced around it, so loud it seemed to speak.
Coalback’s eyes locked on the shattered porticullis, and his breath froze in his throat. A phantom stood in the door; it glowed with an unnaturally rose red light that cut through the snow in rays of light. From here he could barely discern it's shape, but the rack atop its head was unmistakeable: it was a deer, but something told Coalback it was not a buck. A parting in the snowfall passed it through the porticullis and its head followed it. The apparition's gaze turned toward Coalback and he felt its beckoning eyes fall on him. It turned its head again, this time to draw Coalback's gaze to the rickety bridge that spanned the canyon's casm.
Coalback started to approach in a hypnotic gaze, unable to take his eyes off the apparition. As he grew closer its image turnedd and began to walk away from him, a slow retreat back into the castle. A sudden fear struck Coalback's heart, afraid to lose sight of the beautiful mirage. Something felt of about it, but he could not determine why, it was as if he recognised the spectre.
"Wait!" he barked. His legs jolted as he slammed into the log that part of the bridge had been secured to, it shook and wobbled in the ground as he pushed off it. He sprinted across the bridge, the ropes shook and creaked with strain. He burst through the wrecked porticullis and into the rubble filled courtyard.
A whisper snuck through the air and Coalback whipped his head around just in time to see the deer's white tail pass through a large door, shattered near its peak. "Wait!" he yelled again. He leapt onto a pile of rubble and vaulted into the shattered opening. His legs caught the rotten lip and he tumbled back to ground in a shower of splinters. "Wait! Who are you?" he demanded as the mirage disappeared into an alcove across the chamber.
He gave chase to the fleeting image of the strange deer through the ruined castle, always just a few steps ahead of him. He ran up crumbling stairwells, down long corridors, and scrambled down collapsed sections of wall. It led him past a throne room which, even in its old age, showed signs of a great struggle. He ran past statues, faded paintings, and torn tapestries. This place had been abandoned quickly, and never returned to -- there were even plates on what few tables remained.
Coalback rounded another corner and dug his claws into the stone as he once again was met with an abyss. He had travelled all the way through the castle and out to the castle and to the other side where an entire face of the stone monolith had plummeted to the bottom. The spirit was nowhere in sight, only the howling of the wind and the sting of the snow on his nose.
He peered over the edge, but no rosey light filtered up from the darkness. With a growl of frustration Coalback turned away from the edge. It had been a foolish whim to chase after the hallucination, it had led him nowhere. But when he back to the door, it was there.
It was a doe, not a buck, Coalback could clearly see that now. Her crown of bone was just that, a huge crown of tines that never touched her head yet moved as I'd it were a part of her. She stepped forward on silent, delicate hooves. And though her eyes were closed, he knew she watched him intently. Slowly, she walked towards him.
She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came Coalback could hear was the wind. Her mouth shaped words unfamiliar to him.
"Ég get ekki her í þér!" he tried to yell through the wind. It was the oldest language he knew, and this thing -- whatever she was -- was old. But it was to no avail, she continued to mouth indiscernable words as the wind howled louder and louder.
Finally she stood within reach of Coalback. She was taller than Coalback had expected, lean and elegantly proportioned much as he had seen in the Princesses in Canterlot. The tines twisted and entwined over her head, but never touched her body. Her crown floated above her head. She leaned down until her delicate nose was mere inches from his own and he was forced to stare at her face. The wind suddenly died and she spoke a single word:
"Breyta."
Her eyes snapped open, revealing the starry abyss behind them. The dark space went on forever within her eyes and Coalback was powerless before her sudden, almighty presence. A moment of brilliant understanding flowed through him as he looked into those eyes, and he felt he understood who he was looking at. His eyes dilated and his breathing slowed, and somehow he felt more rested than ever before. In that single instant he understood every pattern of the universe and saw every outcome to every divergence of time.
The moment ended and with it went all that knowledge. Her command overcame him and his body convulsed. He collapsed in pain as, involuntarily, he resisted the forced rearrangement of his bones. Somehow, she had commanded it, and his body had heard it. And now he could not halt his transformation.
---
Princess Luna stood suddenly from her throne, her assistants jumped in shock at the sudden movement. Papers fluttered off the steps and ponies looked to each other in confusion. The Princess looked about the room with ears forward and her wings slowly rose in an expression of surprise.
Later they would have sworn to have heard her mutter under her breath: "Mother?"
A heavy haze had fallen over Coalback's mind, and the last few hours had passed like a dream. His thoughts came sluggishly, and his vision came to him in waves. Blood rushed in his ears and he began to come back to himself. Unintelligible echoes bounced inside his skull; echoes full with fading whispers, but he could not understand nor remember what they said. His eyelids felt heavy, and his muscles were stiff and sore.
He struggled to stand, cold stone floors shook starved limbs into an itchy wakefulness. Some sleepy part of him realized that his paws had changed to hands, and that they were stiff as well. He managed to twist his feet underneath himself and stand, a faintness nearly overcame him as the blood rushed out of his head. He fell back to his knees with his hands pressed to his temples. His mind slowly began to wake up, and he began to wonder at his weakness. He hadn't had a faint spell since he was a boy. But as he looked around he realized why.
He had moved deeper into the castle, and had found an intact room. The room was silent, and no wind howled outside. And he'd covered the walls in his own blood, the ragged hole in his arm and the flesh under his fingernails were evidence enough. He looked again and realized what he had done it for: Words and pictures covered every surface from floor to ceiling, and if the hoof and paw prints that littered the floor were any indication then he had changed several times through the course of his blackout.
Strange symbols decorated every surface, and alongside them were gruesome depictions. He had painted cities, people, and ponies in his own blood. He could recognize the silhouette of Canterlot, and an army of ponies pulling carts away from what he thought might be smoke. A cloud city dropped fire from its belly on an army of flying jellyfish. And a single man, painted in extreme detail, sat on a throne made of bones above the entryway. In an instant Coalback recognized him, the same spectre had appeared in mirrors behind him a hundred times: Fenrir. The strong chin and scarred lips were unmistakable, neither could he deny the tattoo so proudly displayed on his left breast; the same that decorated Coalback's.
Coalback's chest felt tight, but he wrote it off for the moment. He looked at more depictions of a war he had never heard of, and drawings of pony Princesses that he did not recognize -- although almost all of them were depicted with a horn and wings. He flinched when he saw what he had created on the back wall, directly across from the king of death. The goddess, which is what he could only assume it was, stared back at him with black eyes that had dripped down the wall during their creation. Above her head floated tines painted in blood that twisted and wove into a net over her head. Here the art style changed, and he could see animals and plants of all kinds living in the disconnected bone crown. Below her head a pool of water had frosted over in a place where the floor had fallen in.
But no matter where he looked was the same phrase written again and again, in as many languages as he knew and then some: "Bred for war."
He stumbled over to the pool and looked into the calm water. He looked at his reflection, but it took him several moments to recognize himself. He had not looked in a mirror at his human face for more than three years. Hideous, in his opinion. His eyes were similar, yes, but crow’s feet and heavy bags decorated them. He looked old, an absurd thought for he was sure he was not older than thirty – though his exact age escaped him. His hair was unkempt and graying, and what facial hair he did have grew tough and short. His shoulders were mottled with scars from sunburn, and his muscles stood out as if they had been sewn on as an afterthought to his bones. When he had fur it was harder to see these things, and especially hard to see the scars.
He'd heard before that some considered scars as trophies, he only saw them as damning reminders of the person he had become. The single rune on his left breast stung in the cold air, the scars and burns he'd subjected himself to in attempts to remove it surrounded it but had left the mark unmarred. The scars had completely mottled his skin in places, from the line that had removed his naval to the burns that had taken his left nipple. It was a simple symbol, nothing more than three little lines. Like a fork, or a broken cross. As simple as it was, it had power: the kind that binds souls and traps them.
Coalback growled deep in his chest as a shadow appeared in the surface of the water. “You know what that thing was,” Coalback growled. The shadow looked up, its invisible eyes admired the macabre portrait of the strange spirit-doe.
The shadow’s head tilted to the side when it looked back down at him. “Yes,” Fenrir said softly, though still with enough strength to cause ripples in the water. Fenrir was a powerful shade, and the vengeful spirit liked to make use of it -- but only when Coalback's control over him slipped.
"But you're not going to tell me," Coalback said. He knew it as fact, having the spirit trapped in his body tended to allow them to share their intentions but not quite their thoughts. "Why?" he asked, though it was more of a command.
"It is the highest sin for one of us to speak her name, and I swore to never do so," Fenrir said, the shadow's head moved as if he still had a body to speak with. Dust shook from the crumbling bricks, the water rippled again. "I am bound."
"You are bound by me! You should be trying to help me!" Coalback yelled. He spun around and stood to his full height. A growl shook the entire chamber, separate from his own and louder than anything his lungs could have produced. Coalback could not see him, but he knew that Fenrir had changed into the shape of a huge wolf: one that could fill the room and swallow him whole if not for the fact that his body had long since rotted away.
"We are not alone," Fenrir’s voice rumbled, just as softly as before.
Coalback froze. The words and their implications came to him in a rush. "Where?" he asked in a whisper. His hand found a tapestry, one he’d apparently torn down in his blackout, and he began to wrap the stiff and dusty thing around himself.
"We are not alone."
"Where?" Coalback hissed as he tied off the makeshift covering.
A gust of wind rushed around Coalback and back out the entrance to the empty room. He turned and followed, a scowl on his face. The gust of wind halted before a dark corridor only a few steps away from the chamber he'd been in. A stray beam of moonlight crossed his path and robbed him of his night vision, but Coalback pressed forward blindly and quietly.
A whoosh of hot, stinking air halted him. And as his vision adjusted to the darkness Coalback saw what had curled up in the dead-end passage: the reptilian creature, marred on one side by a bright red burn.
Coalback took a careful step backwards, his eyes warily locked onto the sideways beak. He remembered the speed with which this thing's brother had struck him, and just how powerful its beak was: enough to dent the metal bracers that had saved his arm before. But now he had no armour, naked as a babe, and in this shape he was not as fast nor as strong as his other shapes. A smart wolf only killed the easiest pray, only Blaidd were often proud enough to hunt down more difficult quarries. Coalback had wanted to hunt it, but not on equal ground.
Coalback moved his feet carefully: he rolled them on their sides and backed away silently. If he could leave, change, and return with his weapons and squires then this would end quickly and easily.
Coalback's foot came down on something soft, it went taught as his weight pulled it fully to the floor. A loud rip of ancient fabric and creak from rusted metal filled the hall. He scrambled back as the heavy bar that had once held up a fading tapestry began its plunge. The brackets twisted free of their bolts in the wall, and it fell with a cacophonous crash.
A startled burble quickly drew Coalback back to his quarry. It uncoiled from its alcove and opened its eyes - one boiled white from the fire that had scarred it. Its good eye locked onto Coalback instantly and its dagger sized claws flexed nervously as the burble rose in pitch.
"Jabberwock," Coalback cursed under his breath as the creature lunged.
---
The badlands were quiet. Smoke rose in forest-like columns. Above, a ceiling of angry, black clouds blocked the stars. The mother storm was far off yet, but it would arrive soon. Dead wolves smoldered in their armor, and Discord’s scions had watered the earth with their gore. Pyres, burning effigies, were all that could chase away the darkness. Random skirmishes still plagued the Wolves’ exclusion zone, but the battle was for the most part at a halt.
Discord looked out at the destruction with glee. He had effectively crippled the Wolf army, they would pose little issue in the final push. If he knew Delicae as well as he thought he did; then Discord was certain she would retreat soon and sequester herself and her followers away. And if his eyes in Ponyville were right, then all was going mostly to plan. His sacrifice of a few pawns had done well in shaking the creature out of hiding, and hopefully that would result in the breakdown he expected.
Otherwise he had his own migration to attend to.
“Keep the mammoths asleep while you prepare their armor!” Discord bellowed at the depths below as the workers scrambled away from a perturbed pachyderm. “If you screw it up I’ll just use you to block magic missiles!” he snarled. He slithered down the steep inner walls of the hive into the main chamber.
It was a huge, open space. The hive had been built across an open chasm, and more tunnels had branched off from its walls. Green pods glowed along its walls, and the algae farms let out a constant mist that hung drearily in the warm air inside. In the deeper most pits huge ovens sucked air from the surface and roared their fumes out the other side. Changelings worked tirelessly, fought desperately and without thought of self-preservation, and renewed their numbers as quickly as one would expect from an insect's nest. The perfect army for a god who cared little of what happened to them afterward: he would burn a thousand hives just as populous if he had to.
"Here, kitty-kitty-kitty," his voice hissed through the hive. He was immediately answered by the distant yowl of his champion. In only a moment he saw her bound through the changelings toward him. He stopped on a terrace, an exhaust tunnel from the forges rumbled behind him.
The jaguar landed in front of him with a scrape of claws against stone. Her legs flexed with unnaturally strong muscles, black crystal strapped across every surface of her body. She'd been dressed in a changeling fashion, with many small plates woven together and a thick helmet with a frightening expression. Layers of cloth, colored as Discord had requested, protected everything else. She carried no swords, or bows and arrows. She would use only her claws, and the ferocity that Discord had grown inside her. He chuckled at the sight; a samurai cat from beyond the badlands.
"You look the part, at least," Discord chuckled. "It's almost time to put you into play. The daemon masquerading as a pony is almost ready to be taken down from his throne. He stands on pillars of sand, and you will be the tide that sweeps it out from under him," he purred as he circled the warrior cat. "Break him, make him show his true face. Don't think you can come back unless you do." He ran a lion's claw over the plates on her back, the horrible screech echoed in the hive but the cat barely offered a shiver of response. Discord smiled his lopsided smile, his one fang glinted in the light and his paw moved around to cup the face of her helmet.
"Yes, Master," the jaguar breathed.
"He somehow thinks that he can control himself, prove him wrong. Make him kill without thought or conscious. Make him the monster I want him to be."
"Yes, Master. But …”
“But?” Discord asked. Curiosity overwhelmed him, as it so often did with his chaotic creations. They often inspired intrigue in him, as because of their nature even he did not understand them. If he had done things properly, then she would have little thought at all. But then again, she was an experiment.
“Why not simply kill him? Surely you’ve prepared me to slay gods, have you not? He should pose little threat … shouldn’t he?” the jaguar asked in a monotone that betrayed the amount of concentration with which she thought. At least that was some comfort, her own thoughts did not come easily.
Discord grinned again. “I no longer believe we can kill him, at least not in the traditional sense,” he chuckled. “No. We need to drive him away from his purpose. We must rip out the roots before they settle or the weed will spread. If we can tear down the foundations to Luna’s control, he will become isolated and dangerous. He could even turn on the ponies and kill them, perhaps they’ll wipe each other out, I don’t know. But the fact remains that if we turn him against the ponies, or turn the ponies against him, then he will be taken out of play.”
“I see now, Master.”
“Good,” Discord grunted. “And don’t call me Shirley.”
---
A scream from far below tore Rainbow away from sleep. The rattling pop of the Guard’s guns peppered the air with their fire. The explosions were muffled and distant, but the next scream was followed by a screech. Rainbow struggled to pull herself out of bed, but the sounds of combat could not be ignored. She rushed to her window, her sore muscles and bruises made their displeasure clear with every movement. Purple strands of magic streaked wildly from below the Library's canopy that wove into a long net around a group of houses.
"Not again," she said breathlessly. She launched herself from the window and hurtled toward the ground. The sounds of a fight rose as she swooped in below the leaves of the library. Each instant of action was punctuated by a long moment of total silence from the other side of the makeshift shield.
Her hooves scraped the ground as she came to a stop. Twilight’s horn cast shimmering shadows on every surface. Across the square the net of magical energy sparked as a blur rammed into it and was gone in a flash. Gunfire boomed loudly and something let out an angry burble. A fire had broken out on the other side of the barrier and the snow glowed orange.
"What's going on?" Rainbow shouted over the noise.
"That monster came back. I've got it contained, but Rarity's stuck inside with the Guards! And they can't hold it long enough to put it down! We need Coalback!" Twilight yelled over the noise.
"I'll go get her out!" Rainbow yelled. She whipped her wings around and darted off toward Twilight’s magic barrier.
"No! Wait!" Twilight yelled as Rainbow darted toward the beams of magic.
She tucked her wings in and darted between the net of magic, her fur stood on end as she came very close to the beams of power and burning ozone assaulted her nostrils. She spotted where Rarity was in an instant: she had joined up with the two Guards just inside her boutique. A billowing purple tinged shield stood weakly in place around the front, Iron Bar stood outside in full armor with his heavy rifle brandished and at the ready. As she watched a blur went by and slashed at the partial shield, mauve sparks flew as power surged to accommodate against the attack. Iron Bar swung the heavy head of his rifle at the monster as it passed, but he did little more than to chase it away. The blur disappeared back into the shadowy, snow covered alleyways across the road.
Rainbow dove down and pulled herself into a hover beside Iron Bar. But before she could say anything his full face helm swung around at her and his voice bellowed out of it. “Get inside!” he commanded. One of his hooves reached out to put himself between the street and her. Rainbow dropped to the ground and slid underneath the fabric-like shield without an argument. The monster attacked with a renewed frenzy an instant later.
The boutique’s interior was dark, not a single lamp lit. Most of the windows had been covered hastily with stapled up swaths of various material. Filibuster stood by the only uncovered spot, his horn alight with mauve energy. Rarity rushed between the comfort her impromptu guests and the integrity of the shield. Several ponies from the neighborhood were huddled against the back wall; stallions, foals, and several mares looked fearfully around them as the shield outside sparked and spat again. An explosion split the air an instant after as Iron Bar fired off his rifle again. The creature outside hissed and screeched as it fled. Rarity’s own horn was alight, but for what Rainbow could not tell.
“Rarity,” Rainbow grunted as she trotted over to the fashionista. “What the hay happened? This place looks like it’s been hit by a hurricane!” she said. Her eyes darted over Rarity and the ponies in the room, her first responder training kicked in as she quickly scanned for injuries: none, thankfully.
“It was dreadful, darling,” Rarity swooned. She quickly wrapped her hooves around Rainbow in a fleeting hug. “It came out of nowhere. Some night owl spotted it skittering through the town and screamed for the Guards. Next thing I knew, Twilight had put up her barrier and I was helping Iron Bar out there gather up the ponies stuck inside!” Rarity wailed. "I saw it, Rainbow, darling! It looked right back at me with its terrible, beady, red eye and I knew it was after me! No doubt it's after you as well, dear!"
“Why are you here, Lady Rainbow Dash?” Filibuster grunted from the window. “You should have stayed where it was safe! Now you're stuck in the same pot as us!” he shouted.
“I came to help! I can start getting these ponies out of here!” Rainbow said.
“We’ve already tried flying ponies out, that thing out there can jump straight over this building. It’ll knock you and whoever you’re toting about out of the sky the instant it spots you!” he growled. "I'm surprised you even got in here without a maiming!"
"Calm down before that vein on your forehead pops!" Rarity screeched. "I've already had to clean up your blood once today and I'll not be doing it again!" She stomped her hoof once, a huff of frustration made it clear she would not be argued with. "How are you feeling, by the way? Would you like me to take more of the brunt work again?" she asked, sweet once more with the undertones of maternal concern.
"I'm fine," Filibuster said, his frustration apparently on the back burner for now. "It's funny, I hardly feel the pain anymore," he muttered as he turned back to the window. The light from the window revealed soaked bandages across his flank, black in the dim light with coagulated blood.
“What?” Rainbow grunted.
“We’re both working together to keep the shield up. The creature nearly broke through the first couple of times,” Rarity explained. “It’s rather taxing on the both of us, but I think we’ve worked out a system,” she said with a small smile. “This has been a bit stressful on all of us; stuck here. And it looks like we’ll be here for a long while still.”
“And now I’m stuck here too,” Rainbow groaned.
“I’m afraid that those boys won’t let anypony out of here until that monster is taken care of,” Rarity agreed. “We’re all trapped here until Coalback comes back.”
“Where is he, by the way?” Rainbow asked, she turned to Filibuster at the window and saw his brow furrow.
“Don’t know,” Filibuster said. “Twilight has been blowing her whistle but we haven’t heard from him,” he said with a flick of his ear. “Last time we saw him he took off into the forest on his own. Told us not to follow. Said something about ghosts,” he said, his ears folded back and a strange look of guilt passed over him.
“Filibuster?” Rarity asked with concern.
“This is strange,” he said. “The creature hasn’t attacked in a while. It’s planning something …” His eyes broke away from the window and wandered around the walls. An ominous creak floated through the air. “Give me control again, then pulse the power when I tell you to,” Filibuster whispered.
Rarity’s eyes went wide and her horn began to glow brighter. Filibuster’s horn dimmed considerably as his eyes scanned the ceiling. He froze on a single spot above Rarity’s chandelier. “Alright, on three,” he said, Rarity nodded and gave a ladylike grunt of acknowledgement. “One … Two …”
The wall behind Filibuster smashed in and buried him in rubble. Rarity let out a shout as their magic link broke and her horn let off an intense flash of light as the magic backlash overwhelmed her. The flash blinded everypony inside and as the dust settled they tried to blink their sight back. One of the foals was the first to regain their vision, and they screamed at what they saw.
Rainbow cleared her vision in time to see the creature rear up on its rear legs in the hole in Rarity’s wall that it had just created. A burble rose in its throat like a growl, and below it Iron Bar groaned. Both Guards had been knocked unconscious and lay buried in the rubble of the wall, Iron Bar’s own bulk apparently the tool with which the creature had busted through. Its one eye locked onto Rarity and Rainbow with a single minded prejudice. It crouched low like a cat and slowly began to creep toward them. Its sideways beak drooled a green slime and the burble vibrated its snake-like neck, it seemed to be relishing its moment of triumph. The beak opened and closed in anticipation, and behind its hard surface teeth gnashed in a second set of jaws.
That moment of triumph ended quickly however and its beady red eye widened in surprise as its claws suddenly sank into the floor. It screeched and an answering bellow from the hole in the wall shook dust from the ceiling. The creature’s claws dug deep furrows into the floor as it was wrenched back out through the hole by its tail. It struggled and twisted, clawed at the pile of rubble as it was steadily tugged out the hole. Its claws grabbed on the edges of the hole and it gave a desperate howl as the wall gave again and it disappeared in a waterfall of stucco and dust.
A voice boomed through the air. "Hræðilegur eðla! Imposter af dreka! Taktu reiði mína beint og örvæntingu!" It bellowed, a clear challenge but in no language recognizable to the ponies.
"Quick! Get them inside!" Rainbow grunted. She ran forward and began scooping rubble off of Filibuster. A magical duster began to clear rubble from Iron Bar nearby. As Rainbow worked she glanced up and peered through the hole in the wall. She almost wished she hadn't.
A new monster had been attracted by the fighting, and it was far more terrifying a sight than the mangled creature that had burst through the wall. It stood regally on two legs, powerful muscles in its back glistened in the light of the smoldering building nearby. Its bare skin was naked to the snow. He, for surely it was a male, was covered only in the tattered remains of some rags that hung to it tightly with thick knots. His skin was crisscrossed and deformed from an innumerable amount of scars. It circled the monster on its strange, flat feet. Strong arms ended in clenched, bony fists. And his flat face was twisted into an angry scowl as he bore down on the other monster.
It was a human: the first to be seen in over a thousand years.
"Rainbow, what are you doing?!" Rarity yelled. Rainbow flinched out of her hypnotic stare. "It's distracted we're making a run for it, let's go!" Rarity yelled as she tugged at Rainbow’s hoof. But then she realized what had caused Rainbow to freeze, and she did as well.
The titans met with a crack of bone on bone. The human's palm met the bottom of the creature’s head with a sickening snap. It reeled back and attempted to wrap the human in its claws, but with a twist that suggested martial mastery the human captured its arm between his own and twisted. The creature howled as its arm snapped in half at the elbow and bent abhorrently and the human dragged the creature over his shoulder and to the ground.
"Oh, dear," Rarity said with a shiver of primal fear. "Run!" she hissed. "We have to run now!" She tugged more insistently at Rainbow’s leg and finally tore the both of them from the hypnotizing, horrific spectacle.
They dragged the surprisingly heavy ponies away from the hole and back to the ponies huddled in the rear. They handed off the Guards to a few of the stronger earth ponies in the group and made for the rear door. They sprinted out from the boutique and stole down the back street, hell bent on the magical barrier less than a block away.
Rarity took the lead, her horn ablaze. Her magic grabbed the net-like shield and it gave way for her. Apparently Twilight had enough control over it to realize who was trying to warp her carefully created perimeter. Rarity dragged the shield up like a curtain and ushered the ponies through. But as the last pony ducked under and the Guards were dragged through the fight migrated in their direction.
"Look out!" Rainbow grunted. She tackled Rarity underneath the open shield, it dropped down behind them with a splash of cold slush. The shield sparked and spat behind them, and the monster slammed against it.
It screamed, and its skin sizzles against the cords of power. A pale body slammed into it and pressed it against the shield, the human's hands wrapped around the creature's head. The human slammed the creature's head against the shield and it screeched again. He hit the creature again, and again, until the magic barrier finally shattered under the force of the blow.
Purple shards of magic coiled out through the air and the creature dropped to the ground, unconscious. The human stepped out of the cloud of magic sparks, a halo of darkness around him where the glow of magic faded out of existence. He planted a single, calloused foot on the back of the creature's neck. The human bent down and wrapped his fingers into either side of the creature's strange beak. His arms flexed and the veins across his chest stood out, and a battle cry fell from his snarled lips. With a sickening crunch, the human's arms pulled apart and took a different chunk of the creature's head with them.
The chunks of skull fell into the snow with a wet slap. Brain and bits of skull were sprayed across the human's chest, the scars that circled the left side of his body stood out sharply. A single rune inked in black on his chest practically glowed against his pale skin. He rose to his full height and his intensely green eyes fell on the ponies sprawled out before him. Angry lines crisscrossed his forehead, and crow's feet edged in on them like the tips of knives. A strong chin held a hard frown, thick stubble shone in the dying light of magic. His eyes drifted across them and stopped directly on Rainbow’s.
Rainbow suddenly felt as if a great weight had been dropped on her, and it got heavier with every moment that she stared into those green disks. She felt her Element in her heart, an ancient feeling of despair both alien and familiar. In her mind's eye she could see the fires of a war that had been extinguished thousands of years before she'd ever been born, seen through eyes that were not her own. But there it was, the same fear, despair, and anger borne into her by the Element of Loyalty that had yet to forget the image and what came with it. An ancient echo of the previous owners’ mind.
She felt Rarity’s Element through her own, similar emotions racing through her. Slowly she realized that all of their Elements had sparked awake, and that they all hummed to the same tune. It was a kind of interconnectedness that Rainbow had been unsure she’d ever feel outside of using the Elements themselves. She’d only felt this way when they’d all come together to turn the Elements’ power against some foe, never without it. But the message emanating from them was not so confounding. It was simple, really:
The human stood among the remains of his battle, feet soaked in the steaming blood of the now headless monster, and stared down at the ponies. The beady green disks flickered over them, never staying for too long on a single one of them. A scream hung in the air as somepony down the street noticed the human. The human turned and locked onto the direction of the scream instantly, but something flashed across his eyes that Rainbow did not recognize: it looked like fear.
The human turned away from them and bent to pick up the body. He froze halfway down as he caught sight of the ponies that had emerged to examine the fallout. More screams and shocked gasps filled the air as they spotted the human, and the muscles in his back slowly became more and more pronounced.
He was afraid, Rainbow realized. Afraid of the growing number of ponies.
The human’s hands flexed over the limp, scaly tail of the creature as if he was still in the process of deciding whether to take it or not. Slowly the human backed away from the body, navigating toward the road that had yet to fill with gawking ponies. He balanced precariously on the balls of his feet, folded up until he was barely any taller than a pony. He slowly crept past them, his face drawn and his eyes darting to take in every detail.
Rings, and piercings too, Rainbow noted. He had the same piercings Coalback had, and the exact same rings around his arm. Rainbow’s brow furrowed as the human passed in front of her and a strange conviction overcame her, spurred on by the humming next to her heart from her Element. “Hey,” she said, quietly and tentatively at first. The human twitched, but kept his eyes on the larger groups of ponies. “Who are you?” she finally asked.
The human’s reaction was instantaneous. He jumped and his intense eyes locked onto hers for an instant before he spun fully around and sprinted down the road. But in that instant Rainbow saw the ragged scars across his throat. That was too similar.
“Hey! Wait a minute!” she shouted, but to no avail as the human barreled down the road. “I’m going after him!” she barked to Rarity.
“No! Wait!” Rarity wailed, but Rainbow had already given chase.
Rainbow’s wings blurred as she caught up with the human, she kept a small distance between them. She was unsure how to approach the human. She had questions, but if what he’d done to the creature was any indication then a direct confrontation might end badly. Rainbow would have to somehow corner him and get him to talk; she was certain he could speak Equestrian.
The human tore through the streets on his bare feet, his calloused toes kicked up slush and loose stones. Rainbow didn't know what they were called on a human, but his hocks snapped back and propelled him forward with each powerful stride. She watched as, without breaking pace, the human vaulted over a cart that was in his way. For something that seemed so ungainly, the human had incredible control as he transitioned from his feet to his hands and back again seamlessly.
For a moment she thought that the human hadn't noticed her pursuit. That quickly ended however as the human grabbed onto a potted plant and sent it flying in her direction. The plant went wide and she easily dodged it, but now she was certain he was running from her.
A shop owner stepped out his door to investigate the noise from outside, still dressed in his pajamas. He screamed and tripped over his long night shirt as the human charged toward him. When the pony hadn't gotten out of his way in time the human shifted his weight. Once again the human proved it's agility as it leapt from the ground, to the wall behind the pony, and over his head without a break in stride. The pony was spooked, but the human had left him unharmed.
It only took a few moments for the human to sprint through the center of town to the more sparsely spaced houses. But the human continued to run, unconcerned for the yards or homes he passed. It didn't take long to realize the human was making towards the border of the Everfree and White Tail woods.
"Wait! Stop!" Rainbow yelled at the top of her lungs, which was fairly loud considering she was used to shouting over the wind. The human glanced over his shoulder but made no move to halt his retreat. "Don't go in the forest!" she screamed. It was to no avail however as the human reached the clear fields that acted as a barrier between the town and the forest. "Who are you?!" she demanded as she started to close the distance.
The human dived immediately into the heavy brush of the forest, unfazed by the huge icicles and spiky rime on every leaf. He crashed through the forest and Rainbow had to make the split second decision of whether to give chase or not. Her Element screamed in her chest, it normally only felt that way when she wore it and they were about to use them.
Rainbow dived into the forest after the human.
"Turn back!" the human's voice echoed to her in the trees as she weaved to keep up. "Go home, child of the west wind!" Rainbow caught glimpses of the human as he ran ahead of her, just out of reach thanks to the thick foliage. "I mean you no harm, but delaying me will have great consequences!"
"You know Coalback! I know you do!" Rainbow yelled back. "Why do you have the same stuff as him?! And the same scars?! How come you showed up and he didn't?!"
"I had to kill the Jabberwocky! If I had not, you all would have perished!" They were both forced to slow as they came to a particularly thick portion of the forest. Twigs and thorns scratched at Rainbow’s face and she was nearly forced to land because of the branches. "Turn back!" the human barked again.
Rainbow burst out of the thicket into a clearing and reared back before she could crash into- ... Rainbow's eyes widened in horror.
It was a pony- or, rather, it had been. The pony’s body had been mutilated and hung from the trees like a morbid holiday decoration. A broken piece of wood was hung from its neck and 'INVADERS MUST DIE' had been scrawled across it in the pony’s blood. Its ribs were open to the air, the skin peeled back into a curtain that supported it. Its arms were spread apart, tacked to its own hide, as if it were to take off and fly away. Its organs were blackened and rotting, and had fallen out of the body where its hips were missing. But most horrifying was its head: The skin had been peeled back and nailed to the back of its head, revealing a crazed, skeletal grin. Its tongue hung out through a ragged hole in its throat. Smoke hung in the air behind it, and dying embers still smoldered in a pile below the body. And the moon glowed red through the smoke and the thinning clouds.
Rainbow felt her stomach lurch and she ducked back into the foliage. She heaved and what was left of her dinner spread itself across the roots of the trees. She stayed there, holding back her screams as she heaved until not even bile would come up her throat. She coughed and sputtered, and fought the urge to look again at the horrible remains.
Rainbow nearly jumped out of her skin when a heavy hoof grasped her shoulder. She spun around and jumped again when Coalback's green eyes met hers. He loomed over her and for an instant Rainbow was filled with dread. But her rational mind came back to her and clutched at his hoof. Her heart was pounding and the tears threatened to fall out from her eyes. She would have yelled at him about what she'd seen, screamed in panic, but she couldn't get any words past the tightness in her throat and all she managed was a desperate whimper.
"We have to leave this place," Coalback rumbled gently. His voice vibrated in the air and she could feel it in her chest.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she really hoped that she didn't look as frightened as she felt, but she nodded. He started to back away and in a panic Rainbow latched onto his neck and pulled herself close to him. She looked over his shoulder, but the effigy was hidden behind an ivy covered tree. She shook as she fought back the sobs, but his presence was comforting.
Coalback set an arm across her shoulders and slowly turned Rainbow away from the dim glow of the embers. "We have to leave this place," he said again as he slowly began to walk her away.
"Did you see it?" Rainbow managed to croak.
"... Yes," was Coalback's hesitant response.
"Who was- ?"
"It does not matter," Coalback said quickly. He seemed to pause and consider his words. "You are safe with me," he said, carefully pronouncing his Equestrian. The words were reassuring, but Rainbow’s grip tightened around his neck. For some reason, with every reassurance, she thought he might leave her in the forest; the last thing she wanted was to be alone right now, though neither did she want anyone else to see her like this.
"I wanna go home," Rainbow mumbled into his withers.
Coalback didn't reply at first, but after a moment he stopped leading her through the forest. His other hoof came up underneath her and with and grunt he lifted her into his arms. She felt the powerful muscles in his chest move and they lurched into the air. Rainbow's wings tightened around her as she felt their altitude rise, but soon the rhythmic sound of Coalback’s wings lulled her into a near sleep. The sight of the dead body had completely drained her.
She vaguely remembered hearing Coalback speaking, his voice vibrated inside her chest, but to who she couldn't be sure. Very soon after that she felt the soft clouds of her bed. She mumbled something, but as soon as she'd said the words she forgot what they were. Finally, she was able to forget about the nightmarish sight in the Everfree and blissful, dreamless sleep took her.
---
Abstract:
It has become of recent note that our newest asset acquirement has been met by our Enemy with their newest weapon: the strange, baffling, and terrifying Blaidd. Their abilities are a mystery to us for the most part, but we hope that with these Elements of the earth held tightly by only the six Princesses that Equestria may prevail. However the strangest of the Blaidd’s abilities have researchers and spies extremely worried:
The Blaidd that we have been able to observe express a strange anomaly never before seen. To summarize: this anomaly contradicts the phenomena of “magic permanence” whereas we have observed that magic has its place in all things in the world, however these creatures not only seem to be able to resist this phenomenon, but also control it. Scouts in the field have observed Blaidd able to walk straight into abandoned magical constructs and completely disable them, or, more strangely, a select few appear able to re-activate them.
This appears to be unique only to the Blaidd, as Human’s themselves still seem susceptible to magic’s effects and follow the same pattern of control they always have. However, Blaidd seem able to manipulate magical energy similarly to the way a Unicorn can though they seem to follow a similar verbal association with it where a Unicorn would only use mental or visual cues. With this in mind-
Clean Cut groaned and rubbed a hoof against his temples. The dim, green light of his lantern was meant to keep as much light away from the ancient texts in the castle archives as well as prevent eye strain. But the dark environment and cryptic scrawl of the centuries, no, eons old text was beginning to strain his brain. Not only did he have to translate the ancient language, of which nopony had spoken for numerous centuries, he also had to sift through the scrawl itself and the old references.
The piles of dilapidated folders, written before the Solar Wars and even before Discord’s imprisonment, had yielded little that Clean Cut hadn’t already known or observed himself. He knew that Coalback’s flesh reacted violently with contact to silver. He knew their strange properties of magic, and their connection with the history of the Elements. He knew that they could, somehow, take on a third or even fourth form: that they could somehow change into ponies and hide among them during the Fall of the City-States. He knew, far too well, of their propensity for violence.
However, what he was starting to pick out from the various field observations and reports, was that the Blaidd almost exclusively respected one thing: Loyalty. An officer who questions his uppers is observed to receive discrimination from the Blaidd beneath them. A Blaidd that strayed from his fellows might as well have been ostracized by the others. Blaidd show observable respect to the most loyal among them. But most importantly: the Blaidd became extremely protective of those they could consider one of their own or, if the translations of ancient human language were to be believed, “one of the pack.”
That was notable. But Clean Cut remained with more questions than answers: Had Blaidd-pony relations ever extended beyond violence? Had the Blaidd disintegration been caused by a lack of control, or by instigation of too much control over the Blaidd? Could the fault behind their final struggles after the War been caused by each other, as ponies believed, or is it because of some other, unseen variable? If this one had returned, could more have somehow survived the Disintegration? Would they be as reasonable as Coalback had been, or as submissive?
Clean Cut groaned again and a fluttering of wings behind him drew attention to his company. “If you keep groaning like that they may send the Guard in after a zombie in the Archives,” a snide, if somewhat gravelly voice suggested.
“Now is not the time, Merletta,” Clean Cut muttered.
“Then when will be the time? Perhaps while you and the Princess discuss my suitors?” Merletta suggested with a heavy layer of sarcasm. Another flutter of wings and a set of midnight claws alighted atop Clean Cut’s worktable. Clean Cut lifted his head and sat back, the green light of his lantern cast a strange glow over the both of them. Merletta’s jet black feathers gleamed in the light with sinister order and precision. She aimed one of her deep, eyes back at the tired old Unicorn. “Or perhaps you’d prefer I follow you on your next hike into the wilderness?” Merletta would have raised a brow at Clean Cut’s reaction if she had eyebrows, his stiffness always held back some emotion. She clacked her beak and flexed her tail feathers before she replied. “Where do you go, anyway? I can never find you, and neither can the Princesses.”
“Isn’t an old fart, like me, allowed his secrets?” Clean Cut replied defensively. “I work enough to warrant some unmolested free-time, don’t I?” He sighed, and his translucent magic quickly began gathering the dilapidated papers. “Besides, we both know you like my little mysteries.”
“There’s not a whole lot about you I don’t know,” The raven quipped. “You’ve been raising us for many generations, my mother and her mother before her has learned almost everything about you over the years.”
“Your tragically long lives do tend to lead to this, yes,” Clean Cut admitted as he restocked the shelves nearby. “Speaking of; you should take the Princess’s proposals more seriously. You need to find a mate before you get too old. Your Grandmother waited nearly too long, your mother was one of the only eggs that managed to hatch from her first and only nesting,” he said condescendingly. Merletta let none of her emotions show. “Your family legacy nearly ended with her before she ever had any children. I understand that you find it difficult to consider, so did I once-“ Clean Cut snickered “-Hell, I still do! But I don’t have a gift that relies solely on inheritance.”
“Only on your continued survival,” Merletta said, though her tone suggested she knew of the grim reality. It did make Clean Cut pause. “Besides, we have more worrying matters to attend to.”
“Oh, really?” Clean Cut said, with a thick swallow of the lump in his throat. “And what would that be?”
“Coalback has … revealed himself to the ponies,” she said.
“Do the Elements realize what he is?”
“No,” Merletta sighed. “From what I have seen they think Coalback is a pony, and that a human came looking for him. It’s not long now before the web of half-truths that he’s constructed will fall apart around him in a cataclysmic end to his cover!”
Clean Cut froze in his rounds, a scroll floated above a shelf. “And what would you have me do to prevent this?”
“Go cover for him- A-appease the ponies that are babbling in the streets- Something to stop their frantic thoughts tearing apart the weave!” Merletta shouted wildly, her feathers disturbed.
“Ponies thoughts can disturb your vision?” Clean Cut said. He latched onto the tangent with gusto.
“Ponies’ thoughts lead to actions,” Merletta squawked. “You know this! When ponies’ thoughts become erratic their decisions become erratic, and then they can’t know their future decisions- decisions that shape the possible future! Not many of them look very favorable at the moment and they continue to change!”
“Tell me what you saw,” Clean Cut said simply, the last of the papers returned to their places in the Archive.
“Fire.” Merletta shivered. “Fire, and blood, and death. I see walls crumbling and skies tearing. Mobs roam the streets; sometimes ponies, sometimes … not. The earth trembles, and the sun turns black. I see a terrible winter and all-consuming fires. Civil war and incest. A beast, drenched in the blood of its prey, tearing through armies that stand in its way with a bloodied crown stuck in its teeth.”
The Archive suddenly felt very empty, and very dark indeed outside the ring of green lantern light. Clean Cut’s face fell into shadow as he considered Merletta’s prophecy. “Something is coming,” Merletta breathed, her wings stiff at her side and her claws clenched on the edge of her perch. “The weave of time is fluctuating and I can barely keep up with it. I can see everything turning around a single point and it is squarely in Ponyville! We must do something!” Merletta’s feathers were ruffled and her chest shook, and if she could cry Clean Cut felt her eyes would be filled with tears.
“You’re afraid?”
“Of course I am,” Merletta snapped. “The last time the weave stood in such disarray the entire world was brought to its knees and Discord nearly wiped out every living thing in the world!” she shouted. “We are on the precipice of another extinction level war! We have to dosomething!”
“And what would you suggest?!” Clean Cut barked, his voice much louder than Merletta’s in the dark chambers. His scowl drew dark lines of shadow across his face, and heavily corded muscles tightened in his neck. “We knew of the death that would occur before Discord ever showed his ugly face! And for what?! My actions nearly set us on the same path by another’s hoof- by Her hoof!” Clean Cut’s hooves cracked down on the stone floor, but in the chambered halls his hooves summoned thunder. “If we are to take any action, then it must be considered down to every possible consequence! Else another Nightmare plague this land and any salvation that we somehow scramble together be all for naught! We cannot simply act without thought!”
Merletta was silent on the table, her feathers still disturbed. “If we don’t do something soon, an unchangeable path will reveal itself. And with the way things look now, it won’t be a good one,” she said in a low voice.
“Not again, never again,” Clean Cut breathed. He didn’t seem to have heard Merletta. She doubted he would see anything outside his own troubled thoughts for many moments more. His shoulders shook in the dark, and somehow Merletta felt she’d done a lot more harm than good telling him all she’d seen.
---
A plaintive howl rolled across the wastelands, soon joined by others until it seemed a million voices had joined in the call. The dark clouds that covered the desert glowed gently in cool blues and subtle greens. The wolves honored their dead through wolfsong, and so guided the fallens’ souls to their final resting place. The Great Pack had had few losses, especially in comparison to the flood of enemies that Discord had spawned for them: Perhaps he’d planned to drown the wolves in their blood.
However, the wolves were not so numerous that they could continue such conflicts. Formal warfare had rarely been their forte, most specifically in the field of defense. Give them a castle to siege, and they would slip into the ranks and pull them apart from the inside. Give them an army to march against, and they could break the lines and sow their own chaos into the field. Give them a forest, and they would fool, trap, and hunt until every last enemy had been destroyed.
But the clouds that covered this dry place had Delicae concerned. In nearly a thousand years this place had never had such weather. Discord was planning something.
“My Lady?”
Delicae was jolted from her thoughts, and the many golden chains and jewels hanging from her horns and around her neck jingled against each other. She turned her massive head to the six wolves that had lain around her upon their silken Council Rug, of which they had for the moment adopted to simply relax on. A young, brown coated wolf had her eyes locked on Delicae; these were some of the few that could dare or be allowed to do so. Her dappled brown coat shimmered in the light of the brazier, and the feathers braided in her fur were disturbed by the mountain breeze. Her tattoos shifted and changed across her body, gently shimmering in reflection of the lights above.
“You seem very upset, my Lady,” the wolfess said using the formal language of the wolves.
“We should strike at the wasp’s nest now, while they’re recovering from their failed charge!” A young, black coated wolfess yipped. She wore no jewelry and had no tattoos, but various hunting trophies adorned her. Her mate, another black coated young wolf dressed in furs, growled in agreement.
“Don’t be a fool!” an older wolf snarled. A heavy metal helm was strapped tightly to his head, the symbol of his Clan that made him appear very fierce and at all times ready for battle. “Discord sent his fodder out here to test our borders. The hive will be crawling with every mass of his forces: of which we do not know the extent of. He could have an army waiting in neverending tunnels right under our paws for all we know!”
“HeavyHelm is correct, Rhiannon,” Delicae said in a whisper, though her voice still filled the alcove that they had settled into during this troubling time. “Even with the Great Pack collected at its full strength we cannot risk the losses that would come with destroying Discord’s forces. And at my current strength I doubt that we could destroy him alone.”
“I’ll here none of this,” Rhiannon spat. “The Claw Clan could infiltrate their tunnels and let them flood with their own blood!” Rhiannon’s mate jumped up to his paws and barked fiercely. “We will destroy Discord here,” Rhiannon barked, her tail flagged high and teeth bared.
“Discord will destroy you,” Delicae said calmly, though it seemed enough to lower the young wolves’ tails again. Once again Delicae went silent, but the Council Rug remained silent. “We must retreat to Gate City, no wolf can be left behind,” she finally said. The six wolves gathered at her paws, like so many young pups, burst into a frenzy at the announcement. “SILENCE!” Delicae bellowed, her voice like thunder across the mountainside, and the quiet deafened. “We must regroup and seek a solution from the ancestors that once fought Discord before,” she said, no longer at a whisper and her voice shook the ground. “Perhaps we can seek assistance from the ponies,” she sighed with a defeated lowering of her ears.
The shattered crown that rested between her horns felt very heavy, and the metal once more began to grow warm. Once whole, now separated into seven pieces. It was often when she thought of her many lost sisters, none of whom she’d been close to, that its magic came alive.
Luna’s bedroom and Luna’s sleeping chamber were quite different: The place she slept and the place she walked the dreamscape were very different. Her bedroom was built for comfort, for her place of rest. And as a result the Chamber was a place for meditation and the exclusion of all outside influences. This room was dark, so dark that the walls disappeared into blackness even to Luna’s eyes.It was more than an absence of light, it clung like fog to everything. Dark purple curtains hung around her at seven points, and where they spread across the floor they absorbed nearly every sound. The floor was kept at the temperature of her flesh by a reactive spell that she had crafted into the circle herself. Black candles held a twilight glow about her meditation circle, but served doubly to suck away her night vision until she could truly believe she was floating in the void.
Luna herself looked far from her regal appearance as she crouched upon the floor with her head against the ground. Gone were her raiments, and so she was naked to the cool air. Her mane held none of the luster that it had when she stood before the ponies of Equestria, or anyone for that matter. Instead it was heavy with sweat and fell in clumps around her, the stars within flickered as if through a heavy smoke. Her coat was matted with foam and her breath came shakily.
Fighting the nightmares of the ponies was often trivial, but some nights were worse than others. Some nights left her gasping for breath and shivering at the sight of the dreams: the nightmares of the truly fearful; the night terrors could often be the most difficult to dispel, as the sleeper was frozen in a state somewhere between sleep and wakefulness and her power could slip away depending on their perception; the mad were sometimes the worst, as their dreams often were an amalgam of horrible imagery and the sleeper was unable to help themselves, but they too deserved a peaceful sleep. But one nightmare in particular had captured her efforts this night, as it was one from a pony she had yet to see among the dreamscape: Coalback’s dreams.
Luna’s head shot up from the floor and she gasped for air, her mane hung like a clinging cowl about her head and she struggled to fill her lungs. Tears stung at her eyes and she heard them clack to the floor heavily. A shiver ran down her spine, and she struggled to grab hold of her own sanity.
The things she had seen within his dreams were no nightmares forged from a fearful imagination, but instead the angry ghosts of his memories. Those truly were the worst nightmares, as they were the hardest for the dreamer to accept. And she could not simply will away those, there were few cures for such fears. But what Coalback had done, in his fear and his desperation, could truly haunt a thousand souls.
She had not wished to learn so much about him so graphically, but now she had. Perhaps that was why she had not seen his dreams among the dreamscape for the last days: he was afraid to sleep. Luna could sympathize with such feelings, as a past painted with so much blood could not be one to sit easily in his mind. Coalback’s dreams were vivid, not a true lucid dreamer but perhaps one with a mind that took in detail like a sponge and never let it go.
But now she was certain the pony held a conscious, and a strong moral code: Else he would not be haunted by the dead in his sleep. However, she had sensed another presence in his dreams, one that had the power to expel her so violently from his mind. It had hunted her through the violent landscape of Coalback’s nightmare, even as she fought to bring happy memories to the forefront of his mind. But in the end she had felt huge fangs close over her neck, and huge sickle shaped claws sink into her flank. A horrible howl filled the air and her own dreadful fear had overcome her.
Thus she sat with a cold sweat and gasping breath as she recovered from her dive into his dreams. Coalback was haunted by more than the deeds of his past. Truly a powerful spirit shared his body, one strong enough to expel her so forcefully from him. But a question remained around this Other within him: Had it somehow extracted the memories of the Blaidd that still shot ice into her heart; or was it simply the angry spirit of one of Coalback’s ancestors? Of this she could not know.
An echo of Coalback’s dream leapt to her vision unbidden and she flinched. A bloody hand, reaching out desperately as if for help. But a shattered stump lay behind it with the desperate face of its owner far behind it, her bottom half gone and her organs chewed by gnashing teeth. Rapid pops filled the air, and shooting stars whipped past overhead. Screams filled the air, but those dead eyes filled Luna with horror.
Luna did not know how Coalback had come to this point, or what had led to that damning moment, but it was carved into his brain and lit aflame as brightly as the sun: and she knew it for the innocent death that it had been.
“Coalback,” Luna breathed. “Your will is strong to go on with such evils haunting you,” she said, as if a prayer. “Do not bear it alone or it will crush you. You are dying, no matter how alive you think yourself to be.” She could only hope that his nightmares would calm soon, for she could not find the fortitude to return to the dreamscape.
---
Rainbow Dash’s room was one of the most important rooms of her house, at least that’s how she saw it. As such it was one of the rooms she’d spent the most time on when she’d built the house during the move to Ponyville. As it was, it was the only room in the house that she felt truly sure of; she often moved, removed and remade other rooms in her house but the bedroom rarely changed. It had far more than enough space for her, and she’d taken the time to make a spacious and high quality bed for it. The tone of the walls changed with the time of day; in the morning it could be a warm orange, and at night it could be a calming purple. The raised platform where she slept might have been somewhat narcissistic, especially since she saw it as her personal pedestal. The bookshelves held what few books she considered awesome enough to read, mostly Daring Do but she had a few others.
Rainbow woke reluctantly from her sleep, her warm bed made it very hard to want to get up. She snuggled deeper into her sheets and buried her face in her pillow, an accidental snort scratched at the roof of her mouth and she tasted her morning breath. She scowled at the taste but it was still not enough to force her away from the warmth draped over her. She couldn’t remember any dreams, but she felt incredibly rested. Although she was only half awake and had yet to even try to open her eyes, she found it strange that there was still snoring.
Rainbow bolted up, suddenly very aware of the other pony in her bed. His wing slipped off her shoulders and a hoof fell heavily against the cloud of her bed, and Coalback continued to snore beside her.
“Oh shit …” Rainbow hissed under breath. Hastily she reached a hoof between her legs and heaved a sigh of relief to find it dry and untouched. Coalback let out another rumbling snore beside her as he slept on, practically purring. Thankfully, his pride was tucked away.
However, Rainbow had never seen the huge Pegasus so relaxed before. One wing, which had been draped over her in place of the covers they’d slept on top of, was laid out across the bed, and the other was loosely tucked across his back. His arms, which normally were so purposefully placed and carefully tensed, were relaxed and loose now. The normal scowl on his face was gone, and in its place was a neutral expression: the most peaceful she’d seen on him.
She groaned and dragged her hooves down her face, now she was almost certain she’d done something lame last night. And right where somepony could see it too.
Rainbow grunted to herself and slipped off of her bed, but carefully so as not to wake Coalback. She rushed to her bathroom and shut the door behind her as quietly as she could before she slipped to the floor and softly began to freak out.
Somepony else was in her bed. A stallion was in her bed: Coalback was in her bed. Nothing had happened, of that she could almost be certain. But what turn of events had led to this was beyond Rainbow’s drowsy comprehension.
She needed a shower.
Rainbow’s bathroom was almost as Spartan as she could have made it, with little more than the necessities. But it was spacious, as she did like to fly even in the cloud home. And a large mirror was necessary, especially for her morning pep talks she gave herself. But the shower was all she could think of. She’d never been a cloud engineer, so it was one of the few things she’d bought for the home. With a yank of a handle warm rainwater fell from the ceiling, another yank and the force with which it fell increased and so did the heat.
She leaned her forelegs up against the wall and let the water cascade down her wings and against the back of her head. She could feel her mane clinging to her withers and her tail plastered to her legs, like a rainbow colored security blanket. She concentrated on the feeling of the water against her skin and the sound of the water as it sucked down into the clouds below her hooves.
Showers had never been a time for Rainbow to think of anything other than training, and as a result she hardly ever thought of anything else when she was in the water. She meditated with the sound of the shower and went about scrubbing the sweat from her fur, and gargling the taste of sleep out of her mouth.
By the time she’d finished, and stepped back out of the bathroom, Coalback was awake and jerkily preening his wings. He had his back to her and she had, an admittedly risque, view of his muscular legs and back. He hummed something softly as he worked, something that rose and fell in his deep timbre. His wing rose as he moved to straighten the feathers closer to his shoulder and Rainbow spotted the blank space on his flanks again.
“What happened to you?” she asked, though she hadn’t intended it to be out loud. Coalback paused, a feather still grasped between his lips, and turned to look over his shoulder at her with an unsaid question in his eyes. “I-I mean, with your Cutie-Mark,” Rainbow sputtered. She felt her face flush as Coalback only rose an eyebrow in continued confusion and finished aligning the feather. “Ponies don’t just lose their marks for no reason, and you don’t strike me as somepony who doesn’t have a clue as to who they are,” Rainbow said as quickly as she managed.
“I am confused,” Coalback muttered. “What is the need of having one of the ‘Cutie-Marks’?”
“What’s the need-?!” Rainbow mumbled in disbelief. “It’s a part of your soul, Coalback! It’s the part of you that makes you feel whole! The thing that defines you as a Pony!” she nearly yelled. How he couldn’t grasp that idea was beyond her. And she was certain she’d tried to explain it to him once before; at least once.
“What does yours mean?” he asked as he tucked his wings back at his side, still looking incredulously over his shoulder at her.
“It means I’m fast,” Rainbow grunted. “I like speed, I like flying, and I like pushing the limit of how fast and how far I can go. I got it on the day I did a Sonic-Rainboom.”
“What is ‘Sonic-Rainboom’?”
Rainbow grinned despite her frustration: for once she might impress the stoic stallion. “A Sonic-Rainboom can only happen when a particularly fast pony, such as myself, gets moving so fast that they go faster than sound moves in the air and condenses all the air and light in front of them into a massive wave. You can thank Twilight for all that sciency mumbo jumbo, it basically means I get moving so fast that there’s an explosion of sound and light right behind me!”
“And this makes you feel … complete?” he asked.
Rainbow balked at the reaction. For some reason the question seemed more concerned than curious. “Well … Yeah,” she said, “I never feel more alive than when I’m moving that fast.” She watched the contemplative look on his face as he processed that.
“That could explain it,” he quipped with a shrug and returned hurriedly to his feathers.
“Explain what?” Rainbow asked incredulously. She winged over him and landed in front of him on the bed: it was becoming very distracting talking to him while he was lying in such a nonchalantly suggestive pose.
“Something happened, I never felt right afterwards, might be why,” Coalback grumbled around his feathers. He moved on to feathers deeper in his wing as an excuse to tuck his face further out of Rainbow’s view.
“Hey. I shared, now it’s your turn,” Rainbow growled. She was unsure if pressing the issue was a good idea, but so far little else had worked with the stallion as far as getting what she wanted from him.
Coalback did pause, however, and slowly he peeked out from under his wing. “Someone I loved very much was killed by someone I thought I trusted, and then in the fighting that broke out after, the rest of my family died, too,” he grumbled. Coalback finally dropped the act of preening and simply curled up into as small a space on the bed as he could, which was a surprising amount considering his bulk. “Maybe that’s why,” he rumbled from behind his feathers. “I never felt the same way again.”
“Oh,” Rainbow grumbled. She groaned internally, and berated herself for her callousness. She should have known better, but for some stupid reason she’d thrown that out the window. Rainbow didn’t exactly know how to go about remedying her slip up, but she started by awkwardly sitting down next to Coalback and laying a wing over his shoulders. “I’m sorry I brought it up,” she said, “I shouldn’t’ve –“
“Don’t,” Coalback grunted. “I don’t want … your sympathy.” Slowly the large stallion uncoiled himself and slipped off of her bed. He shook himself to settle his fur, but unbrushed it remained a mess of blacks, greys, and browns. “Thank you, though,” he finally mumbled.
“For what?” Rainbow asked with a furrowed brow.
“I haven’t … slept … in a while,” he mumbled. “I needed it.” He flinched and Rainbow nearly jumped as Coalback’s stomach growled hungrily. “I have to go,” he said in a hurry. “I need to eat something and I need to remedy this damned mess that Jabberwock made of the streets,” he grumbled with a final nod to her as he hopped through a window and took off toward the forest.
Rainbow nearly followed to watch him go, but a feeling of dread overcame her. Now, she realized, that she remembered the night before; not as the nightmare she’d habitually written it off as, lingering in the back of her mind as it had been, but instead as the really real terror she’d felt.
Rainbow retreated to the bathroom again and hung her head in the toilet. She didn’t think she would vomit, but she wanted to be safe.
---
When Coalback showed up in Ponyville it was already midday and the ponies were in a frenzy. He followed the sound of the crowd and, shrouded in his scuffed and dented armor, made his way to city hall. He ignored the demanding questions of the ponies as he pushed past them, his armor and a full stomach gave him enough confidence to do so without flinching even if some of the crowd were less than polite.
“What good is a Guard if a monster like that can just wander into town?!” one demanded.
“I thought you were here to keep those things out!” screamed another.
From the front door of city hall the mayor gesticulated and projected to the crowd. “Please, remain calm!” she begged the rowdy crowd gathered at the steps of the round building. Its tall roof and colorful columns contrasted harshly with the mood of the town, and already the mayor seemed worried that a riot would break out. “I’m sure that all of your concerns can be addressed in an orderly and timely manner! This is no time to descend into such rash behavior!” she projected from where her podium once stood. A heap of wood fallen across the stairs suggested that the crowd had been much less cooperative only a few moments ago.
But as Coalback shuffled his way through the crowd they only seemed to grow more aggravated. He climbed the steps of the town hall with a purposeful calmness, one that betrayed the cold sweat that stung his eyes or the frantic pulsing of his heart as it tried to climb out his throat. He stood beside the mayor and came to attention with a stomp of his hooves that rattled his armor and his scabbard and drew the crowd to a low murmur. The mayor stood stock still beside him, a fearful smile plastered to her face. The mayor’s sweating only increased as he began to speak.
“You all must be concerned about the attack last night, especially those of you whose property was damaged,” he yelled out to the crowd. Near the back his eyes locked on a rainbow splotch of mane and he quickly picked out his two squires and the rest of his charges nearby. “I assure you that the crown is prepared to compensate you for your grievances,” he announced, careful to pick as many professional sounding words as he could remember from the dictionary he’d flipped through. The crowd, however, was not pleaded by this announcement and began to grow restless. “I assure you that the creature is dead, as well as the rest of the ponies that, against their free will, attacked you only a few short days ago. As of now I will be removing the curfew,” the crowd boiled angrily, “But I am insisting that nopony enter the forest. It has become extremely dangerous for anyone to enter the trees, and I would not advise flying anywhere near them either.”
“It’s more than dangerous!” someone in the crowd screamed. “There’s a bleedin’ Human runnin’ rampant in there!” The crowd agreed with more angry shouting and Coalback’s unseen grimace deepened.
“I assure you that the human is harmless so long as his territory is not threatened,” Coalback projected with a tightly chained façade of calm overlaid. “It was the Jabberwock, that dead thing in the road over there, that drew it out. Not it’s malice towards the town.” He lifted a placating hoof as the crowd slowly began to settle. “So long as we respect the ancient laws” –he groaned inwardly as he spun his half truths- “then the human will respect our borders, as well as any other unkind creatures that call the forest home.”
“What about the dead pony in the forest?” someone shouted accusingly. “It must have been that Human! Only a Human could think up such a horrible thing to do to a pony’s body!” The crowd erupted in anger, fueled by the reminder of their desecrated fellow.
“The effigies were constructed from what remained of the attackers,” Coalback growled. The crowd grew even louder and angrier, the angrier the town had ever been; and it was very suddenly aimed toward the darkly armoured Pegasus standing on their City Hall’s steps. “I regret to tell you that their souls were taken from them!” Coalback shouted over the crowd. “Their marks were missing and their master crushed their hearts before I could take them away from his evil grip! And by the ancient laws a body is needed for powerful enough wards to keep out the horrors of the woods!” Again, a half truth: while, yes, their souls had been taken and most had died before he had gotten to them; and indeed, the dead bodies and stained blood scared away large predators; there was no magic behind any of it. However, ponies seemed to take great stock in magic.
The crowd simmered down from a boil. Though, still agitated, no longer was the shouting so loud. “What are these ‘Ancient Laws’?” someone shouted over the grumbling of the crowd. “How do you know them?”
“The Ancient Laws,” Coalback barked over the crowd, “are not written! They are only known! Known by those who have seen the harsh winter. These are the Laws of the earth, laid down by nature Herself! They are the oldest and most powerful of magics!” he proclaimed.
It surprised Coalback how well that did to placate them. Though they did not lose their uneasiness, gone was their anger. Coalback could tell that they were in shock, though whether it was the revelation that he had been the one to desiccate the bodies in the forest, or that the ponies that had attacked them had been without souls of their own anymore.
Confused mumbles rippled through the crowd. “What about Zecora?” one of them shouted toward him.
“Yeah! The Zebra living in the woods!” another proclaimed.
“There is no one living in the woods,” Coalback said, much to the surprise of the crowd.
“She lives in a hollowed out tree deep in the forest!” someone shouted.
“We buy our perfumes from her!”
“Are you saying that she’s been gobbled up!?” The screaming started again, this time inlaid heavily with a modicum of fear.
“No one from the town has been killed!” Coalback roared and the crowd drew to an uneasy silence. “There is no zebra, or anypony, living in the woods! My guards and I have combed the forest for miles in all directions and we’ve found no signs of anyone living within. There is no Zecora.”
“That’s impossible! She’s been living here for years!” a pony declared. Again the crowd began to grow rowdy, though thankfully this time with concern for the wellbeing of one of their fellows.
“I know of the hollow tree of which you speak,” Coalback said, met with a surprisingly respectful silence as he spoke. “There is a door and windows cut from it much like your own library. And it is surrounded by blue flowers. But it is empty, and it appears as if no one has lived there for many years.”
Voices began to flittered out from the crowd: “But then what happened to her?!” “We should send out a search party!” “Call in the Search and Rescue ponies!” “You must have seen the wrong tree!” “She has to be out there! Where would she have gone?!”
“Hold on! Hold on! Hold on!” Twilight shouted as she and the rest of the Elements climbed up the steps to stand beside Coalback. “There’s a simple solution to all of this!” she yelled out over the cries of the masses. When she had been awarded silence, she continued: “We’ll just go out to Zecora’s house with Coalback and his Guard and see for ourselves. I’m sure this is just a small misunderstanding. It’s nothing to get upset about.”
Coalback growled quietly and stamped his hooves, but he belligerently agreed with a nod. “Only you six will accompany us,” he said as his only condition.
“But you need a tracker!” somepony in the crowd yelled. “Go get –“
“My Guards and I are the best trackers in Equestria,” Coalback announced. “We’ll need no civilian aid to find this Zecora, if she exists.” The crowd grumbled, many still not satisfied with the Knight’s confident words. “Now please return to your daily business,” Coalback said, attempting an amiable tone. “There’s no more need to worry. We have everything under control.”
With that the crowd slowly dispersed and Coalback turned to his charges with the blank stare of his snarling helmet. His two Guards lowered their gaze and flattened their ears, they could practically feel their failure weighing down on their collars.
“Let’s go now, we can be there in half an hour,” Twilight said with a forced smile. She unwittingly drew Callback’s boiling gaze onto her instead. He huffed through his helmet in acknowledgment and started to walk off the stage.
They followed Coalback to the edge of town, tracked the whole way by the ponies that had attempted to return back to daily duties. Concern flashed through many faces, some were drawn down in worry or even fear. Some faces had the sharp creases of anger in their brows. A few even scowled and turned their backs on the pony. However, many still looked on with a captivated awe: while his speech had, to some, wiped away his appearance of nobility; to many more it only had placed him on a higher pedestal.
Coalback did not realize it, but already ponies in the town had begun to idolize his little Guard. Their battle in front of the library had liberated the town from a dangerous gang: one they now knew were some sort of demon worshipers who’d sold their souls. What could they have done if he had not halted them so resolutely? Some even saw his Ancient Laws as a sign that he was indeed a paladin back from some secret crusade for Luna, and that his use of the dead was simply a more brutal form of justice and magic from that far off place. It was this majority that simply smiled, and their calm held back the anger and unease of the others around them.
Ponies were herd creatures, after all. If a large majority could remain calm, then they stood a chance to calm the rest. Not that panic didn’t flare quickly among them when it came; the crowd only minutes ago was proof enough of that. So what did it matter if Luna’s Knight was more brutal than they were used to? He’d quickly resolved a violent danger to the town, and even offered protection from the darkness of the Everfree. Surely somepony in thrall to one of the Princesses had to mean well.
Now all they had to worry about was Zecora’s apparent disappearance. Ever since she’d shown up in town she’d been a near constant presence: a small safe haven in the forest that robbed it of some of its scariness. To hear that she’d apparently gone missing some time ago, and that nopony had noticed … it certainly was a guilt ridden feeling that pierced their hearts.
---
When Coalback led them to one of the few paths into the forest he motioned for them to stop. As they waited he shuffled to a tree just beside the trail, tugged his helmet off his head, and promptly emptied his stomach into into a bush. He leaned heavily against the tree and took deep breaths. When he turned back to them his eyes were bloodshot, the veins of his eyes stood out with dark blood.
“Oh my goodness!” Rarity swooned. “Are you sick, dear?” she asked even as she took a disgusted step back.
“I am not sick,” Coalback rumbled as he drew himself back together. He wiped the corners of his mouth on the thick cloth around his fetlocks. “I just … don’t like many bodies in one place.” A full truth for once. His ears flicked with each pulse of his heart, still beating far too fast. It had taken all of his strength to keep his body in check and to appear calm for the entirety of his address to the townsfolk.
“Stage fright, huh?” Rainbow added from the air. “We getcha,” she said confidently.
“Ain’t no shame in that,” Applejack agreed. “Takes a lot of guts to jump in front of a bunch a’ ponies like that.” While her words were encouraging, she kept a blank expression on her face.
Coalback only sighed heavily through his nose and tied his helmet to his belt. “Lead the way to this Zecora. I have other things to do today,” he grunted.
“Come on, girls,” Twilight said as she took the lead. “Let’s put this to rest.”
They trudged along the dim path, the Guards’ heavy chainmail swished and chimed with every step. Dead twigs crunched under their hooves with every step, but despite the bare branches above the forest was still very dark and very foreboding. Coalback kept to the front and his two Guards took up the rear, but he briefed them as they walked. He discussed how he would allow them today to recover from the attack last night, which meant no training today, but that tomorrow he would be forcing them to do double time on everything. He also mentioned some sort of lessons, but their subject was lost on the mares.
By the time they’d reached the field of Poison Joke around Zecora’s hut they could tell something was wrong. The field had never been a clearing, more like a place where the Poison Joke had choked out any other underbrush and only tall trees grew by them. It had the strange effect of making the area of the forest feel like a large, open building; and it was exceptionally brighter here as a result. The flowers were wilted from winter, but more disturbing was that the clearly cut path through it had disappeared. They froze at the edge, searching in hope that the forest had simply let them off the path at the wrong place: it wasn’t uncommon for paths to move in the dark place. But none of them could see it.
“What are you waiting for?” Coalback asked, and when the mares looked he was already in the middle of the field of flowers.
“Coalback! Get out of there! That’s Poison Joke!” Twilight yelled. But when Coalback only looked at her in confusion she was forced to explain. “It’s a magical plant, it’s effects are relatively harmless but they can be very unpleasant!”
Coalback snorted and walked back toward them. Dead, blue petals fluttered up from his hooves and stuck fast to Coalback’s legs. “I’ll be fine,” he said as he pulled his sword from its scabbard with an echoing snicker. He swung it in a low, wide arc and sliced the flowers off. He turned around and continued to do so, slowly clearing a rough path. The mares followed cautiously, Twilight’s magic cleared the loose petals out of their way in case they could still be potent enough to play their cruel pranks.
They wound through the flowers and tall trunks of ancient trees, roughly led by Coalback’s slashing blade and Twilight’s directions. Finally, Zecora’s hut came into view. But it was not the sight that the mares had hoped for.
The hut was dark and overgrown with Poison Joke vines. The windows were missing their frames and the door was gone, not pulled away but gone as if it had never been there. Zecora’s welcoming, if a bit frightening, masks were missing. The various potions that once had hung from the branches above were replaced by hairy vines.
Coalback led them to hole in the hollow tree that had once been a zebra’s home and cleared away the vines for them to see inside. They slowly wandered in, shocked at the sight of a once very warm place being so dark and cold. A layer of dust covered every surface and black weeds had begun to poke through the floor. Cobwebs filled every nook and cranny. The only evidence that anyone had ever lived here at all was a tiny dip in the floor that still had the remains of a fire pit and it’s ashes.
“If your friend was here, she left some time ago. But there are no signs of struggle, she wasn’t taken,” Coalback rumbled from the door. The mares looked to each other with their downcast expressions, various amounts of worry shared between the friends. “If anything, she set this up so no one could follow her,” he said with a nod to the cobwebs and dust. “It would be difficult, but she seems to have covered her tracks very thoroughly.”
“I suppose she had to go home?” Rarity suggested. “Yes, perhaps that’s it. And she just didn’t want to have to say goodbye.”
“Aw!” Pinkie groaned. “But I never even got to throw her a party! Like a goodbye party! Or a We’ll Miss You Super Duper Much party!” she whined.
“Ah’m sure she had her reasons, sugarcube. Probably a family matter that couldn’t wait,” Applejack said with a nod.
“Well,” Twilight sighed. “As upsetting as it is to realize she left without saying goodbye, at least we have reason to think she’s safe.” She was met with nods from her friends.
“Now, let’s get out of this dreadful forest and to the spa; they should be able to get us into a bath to get any Poison Joke off us. You boys should join us, it wouldn’t do you any good to have some joke played on you,” Rarity suggested.
“We have work to do,” Filibuster said from beside Coalback. “There is not time to-“
“Nonsense,” Rarity barked. “There’s always time to keep yourselves looking presentable. I insist that you all come to the spa with us, my treat.” She pointed her nose in the air and happily led the rest of her friends out of the abandoned hut. “Goodness knows that you could use a bath,” she added under her breath, which brought a snort and a giggle from Pinkie.
The Ponyville Spa looked much like a circus tent, or several circus tents that had been stitched together into a much larger multi-room tent. In truth there was a real building beneath, but it made the Spa one of Ponyville’s most iconic buildings; Second only to the Town Hall and Sugercube Corner.
The baths were always hot. The massages were done with professionalism and skill. And the twins who owned the Spa were expert hairdressers and beauticians. Not only could they massage away a pony’s stress; they could also trim, brush, and generally pamper a pony until they looked just as good as they felt.
This made it no surprise that it was Rarity’s favorite place to go when she felt stressed. And it was not uncommon for her to treat her friends to a day at the Spa as well. It was a surprise to the twins, however, when the imposing bulk of Coalback and his Guards entered the Spa alongside Rarity and her friends.
The lobby was clean and had a soft scent of bleach and rubbing alcohol, a stick of incense burned in the corner to offset the smell with a cinnamon scent. A set of cushioned benches gave those waiting to enter a place to rest, and plenty of fashion and health magazines were racked nearby. A blue mare hummed to herself at the front desk, her pink mane reflected in the glass case hanging from an office door that boasted of their various services. She jumped to attention when the front door opened and her eyes widened in surprise at the crowd of ponies.
“Aloe! Aloe! Der Wätcherpferde ist hier!” the blue mare at the desk hissed into the door behind her. Her pink mane draped down her neck and whipped just enough to be called graceful.
“Vas?” came another voice from the door. “Diejenigen, die diese Bande Kämpfte?
“Ja! Ja!” the blue mare hopped in place. A moment later a pink mare joined her, practically a mirror image of the other with flipped colors. The door was just closing behind their guests when her eyes widened at the sight of the huge, armored Pegasus. “Glauben Sie, dass er will, eine Spa-Behandlung, als auch?”
“Hallo, Miss Rarity,” the pink one said as she shushed the other with a hoof. “The usual, today?” she asked with a bright smile. Her accent was thick with rolling r’s and stretched e’s, but far from being impossible to understand.
“No thank you, Aloe, darling,” Rarity said with an equally bright smile. “But we do need a bath; we just went to see if we could find Zecora. No luck, unfortunately. She seems to have had to leave and didn’t want anyone following her-“ Rarity was interrupted by a growl-like grunt from Coalback who stood near the door. “The point is,” she said with a frown, “we had to walk through some horrid Poison Joke on the way. We’d like the Poison Joke treatment to forestall anything horrible!” She shivered in memory of the horrible dreadlocks it had given her last time. “It’s all nine of us today, how much will that be?” she asked as she summoned her coin purse with a gentle sparkle of light.
“Oh, normally it would be forty bits per pony. But-“
“Herr Coalback, please accept an offer to any free spa treatment!” the blue mare blurted out with a stiff bow. “The stallions you ran out of town harassed us endlessly and we are extremely grateful that you got rid of them. We would have written letters to the nearest Guard station but they chased off anypony that tried to use the mail and they searched any Pegasi with bags. We felt hopeless. We thought they might rape us!”
The Elements looked in shock at her outburst, but soon Aloe joined her sister. “Lotus and I were scared for our lives until you and your Guards came to town. We can’t thank you enough for getting rid of them,” she said, her words heavy with tears. She bowed as well, though behind the counter it was mostly hidden.
Before anypony could speak again, Coalback walked up to the counter in his heavy boots. He pulled a small sack bulging with coins out from his armor and counted out twelve ten-bit coins. “Ich bestehe darauf, thay wir zahlen. Haben Sie ein Rauchenzimmer?” he said in sharply cut Germane.
The sisters nearly jumped out of their skin when they heard their native language come out of his mouth, as butchered an accent as it was. Aloe shook her head. “Da ist die Sauna …” she muttered. When Coalback nodded she simply pointed to the display where ‘Sauna – 20 bits per hour per pony’ was written in flowing script. Coalback counted out four more ten-bit coins and placed them on the counter.
Coalback stepped back from the counter as, still bearing their confusion, the twins counted the coins and put them in their cash register. He looked back at the equally surprised faces of his charges. “What?” he grunted as he put his money back into the hidden pocket of his armor.
“When did you learn Germane?” Twilight sputtered, her incredulity plain in her voice as she held back a twitch of utter confusion. “I thought you didn’t speak any pony languages.” His nonchalance only irritated her further. And she was almost led to believe he’d somehow learned another language while she hadn't been looking.
“Germane is like Deutsch. Equestrian is like strange version of Latin,” he said with a shrug. “I knew Deutsch, I never knew Latin.” He scoffed and tossed a paper wrapped package to Iron Bar. “Burn this while you are in the sauna later, don't let anypony else breathe it in,” he grunted at them.
“Let’s just get this over with before something weirder happens,” Applejack grumbled as she pulled some bits from her hat. Pinkie giggled and did likewise and was soon followed by the others; it seemed Rarity would only be paying for herself today.
---
After humoring Coalback and allowing him to sweep the entire building for intruders he allowed the mares to get into the bath and they were blessed with a few warm moments alone. Aloe added the sweet smelling salts that would wash away the Poison Joke’s effects and left them alone to soak.
The wooden tub added a pleasant smell to the air, and the bench around its sides was smooth and comfortable. They’d taken the tub in the corner, somewhat secluded from the rest in the spa. The steam from the hot water hung to the walls and drifted in the air here, where it was still and tranquil. The mares relaxed and allowed the water to soak into their coats and manes, their tails floated lazily in the water beside them.
“Ah don’t trust him,” Applejack finally announced, her voice shattered the silence. Her eyebrows furrowed as she let her mask of calm fall off and she ran some of the water through her mane.
“Who, dear?” Rarity said, though she had a suspicion.
“Coalback. He’s a liar, and a sneaky fellah anyhow,” she muttered. “Ah seen him and his cronies stalkin’ around in the woods near mah farm. Next mornin’ I found some big ol’ claw marks all over the trees there,” she shivered splashed some water over her face.
“What’s he lied about?” Rainbow asked incredulously.
“Ah suspected it earlier, but Ah really noticed it this morning when he was makin’ that speech up on the stage. I could tell all the way from where we were at the back that he was feedin’ us a crop a manure,” Applejack whispered. “Especially when he was talkin’ bout that human from last night. Them ‘Old Laws’ is a bunch a bull, too.”
“Maybe he wasn’t being very truthful about what he knew of the human, but I think he had everyponies’ best interests in mind,” Twilight put in. “He was attempting to stop a panic,” she added pointedly.
“Yeah,” Rainbow said as she splashed the water between her feathers. “Anyway, he must be doing something in the forest. I don’t think he slept at all once he got here. Plus, he doesn’t have a lot of resources to keep an entire town safe.”
“A little white lie to keep the town calm isn’t a bad thing, dear,” Rarity said with a nod. She whined as she dipped her immaculate mane into the water and ruined the styling , she’d be at it for a few hours to get it back the way it should be once they were done. But it was better than risking the wrath of the Poison Joke.
“Ah know,” Applejack grumbled as she sank her withers into the water. “Still don’t make it right,” she muttered under her breath.
Filibuster and Iron Bar climbed the steps to the pool a few moments later, greeted by the mares already in the bath. Iron Bar’s fitting bent bar cutie mark sank into the water with a splash, and Filibuster’s thick scroll followed. Their muscles rippled under their fur, which was slowly beginning to lose its white dyed luster now that they’d spent so much time out of the castle. However, they certainly didn’t look as sickly or thin as they had when they’d first seen the stallions. Now their arms were filled out with thick, corded muscle and their chests rippled with each motion. They took a seat between Fluttershy and Rarity, the shy Pegasus turned beet red and did her best to sink into the water beside the Iron Bar’s bulk. A heavier set of hooves began to make their way toward the bath when Rainbow decided to speak up.
“Don’t say anything about his cutie mark,” she hissed to the others in the water. Applejack rose an incredulous eyebrow but it was soon joined by the other as Coalback stepped up to the side of the pool.
The stallion that commanded the two other Guards was certainly not thin or sickly either, if anything he looked healthier now than when they’d seen him in the capital. His fur shone, though was still unkempt and unbrushed. And iron strength muscles bulged out from every limb, extremely defined and controlled with a certainty that spoke of his skill in using them. He turned as he tentatively stepped into the water, a strange thing to see on the normally so stoic stallion, and Rainbow’s point came into view. His flanks rippled with muscle, even as he dipped a hoof in the water, but their bare surface was unmistakable. Suddenly his habit of wearing a sash around his flanks didn’t seem so strange anymore.
He splashed into the water, wings held up high as his bulk nearly shook the water out of the bath. He shivered as he took another step and sunk straight to the bottom of the pool. The mares watched as he simply walked along the bottom, his ears flicked just above the surface, and he climbed into a seat beside Rainbow Dash. The wooden frame of the tub creaked as he settled into place. His thick shoulders were fully out of the water, and both sets of pectoral muscles were clearly defined in his water soaked breast. Either set flexed independently as he settled his legs and wings into the water. In the water he seemed like a different pony, even his scars were less noticeable with his fur hung heavily over them.
Rainbow didn’t realize she’d been staring until Coalback looked at her, she managed a smile that she hoped would hide her ogling. The corner of Coalback’s mouth twitched in what could have been called a flash of a smile before his normal frown returned. He shuffled slightly more and managed to sink his upper half into the water.
“So, Coalback,” Twilight said, to break the awkward silence. “Things should be nice and calm now, right?” she asked.
“Yes,” Coalback rumbled, his eyes closed. “The forest is effectively blocked off to any predators for a mile in all directions around the town.” His voice vibrated through the tub and the water, and all the occupants could practically feel his voice. “Shouldn’t have to worry about any more attacks as long as the border is maintained.”
“How ‘xactly do ya’ll go about maintainin’ that?” Applejack asked, her frown hidden as she sunk back down into the water.
“Animals use scent to mark borders. I leave mine all along the forest border. Predators can recognize it, but prey for the most part don’t know to look for it,” Coalback explained.
“And how is that done?” Twilight asked.
“Same way dogs do it,” Coalback mumbled, which brought a tinge of red to Twilight’s face. “That or I can just scratch up the trees with my hooves, that leaves some smell, too,” he said with a shrug. “Looks like claw marks, tigers do it.”
“So all them torn up trees around mah farm was ya’ll?” Applejack asked. She sat back up in the water, giving Coalback her full attention.
“Of course,” Filibuster put in. “Sir Coalback calls it the Exclusion Zone. Essentially territory he claimed as his from other predators around the edge of the forest. Predators rarely cross into other hunting grounds unless they’re desperate.”
“And most of the big ones were already ready to go deeper in the forest to hibernate for winter,” Iron Bar added with a nod from Coalback. “So it was mostly just a matter of chasing off the ones that wanted to sleep closer to the town, and then it’s his. Next spring we’ll have to chase off challengers, but for now the forest should be totally safe – not including the weird plant life,” he finished with a shrug.
“The town shouldn’t have to deal with anything this winter so long as no one enters the forest and we maintain the scent markings so they’re really soaked into the area,” Filibuster nodded. “Coalback has essentially built an invisible wall that keeps predators out but shouldn’t disrupt the life around the area either.”
“But what about the animals that aren’t hibernating?” Fluttershy asked. She nearly clammed up when everypony turned to her, but her concern overwhelmed her anxiety. “Won’t the deer in this part of the forest start to get out of hoof?” In truth she knew they would. Without predators to control the population of some larger animals, as unfortunate as it was, they could have a population boom, run out of food, and become very aggressive as competition increased.
“A predator remains to control population,” Coalback rumbled.
“The wolf?” Applejack asked.
Coalback’s eyes snapped open and locked onto the farmer, they pinned her in place as effectively as any needle would have. “How do you know about that?” he asked, and it became apparent that his squires had locked their gazes on Applejack as well.
“I seen it in the woods around mah farm at night,” Applejack said without hesitation. She knew she wasn’t afraid of the Pegasus, but she still found it difficult to keep her knees from shaking.
Coalback appeared to be satisfied with that answer as his freezing gaze left her. “Our combined efforts can control the population. Whatever isn’t eaten, the human takes. Peace is held,” Coalback said with a heavy finality.
But Applejack felt the half truth, that wasn’t all of it. She just no longer had the gusto to call him out on it. There would be no point anyway. Her Element felt heavy beside her heart.
---
That afternoon Rainbow found Coalback slowly pacing his way along the edge of the forest. He’d allowed them to return to leave free of his direct presence for the rest of the day, and had left to go to his camp shortly after they’d finished at the spa. When she flapped down beside him he never even looked up at her, but instead continued counting in a language she didn’t know. After ten more steps he stopped and tugged a stick of charcoal out of his bracer. He marked a swirling hieroglyphic onto a piece of paper that he’d pinned to the fattest part of his bracer before he put the charcoal back where it belonged.
“Yes?” he finally said as he studied the various marks on the paper. Rainbow could see a crude map of Ponyville sketched onto it with more hieroglyphics marked in all around it.
“I just came to see if you wanted to do another fight lesson,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “I’m bored and I need to do something.” Admittedly her muscles were still sore from the first lesson he’d given her, but she was eager to learn more. As tough a teacher as he was, she had to admit that she’d never felt like a moment was wasted; she’d pushed herself to the limit with every second she’d spent in his sparring circle.
Coalback nodded before he dug an X in the icy grass where he stood. He trotted back toward his camp and Rainbow followed along. Before she knew it she was back in the ring and Coalback had given her the same instruction to hit him as he had before. Once again she was trading punches with him, though he’d taken most of his armor off and tied blankets around his hooves for her.
She would throw a punch his way and then he would block it. He’d follow it immediately with a punch and she would try her best to emulate the blocks he’d demonstrated. After only a few minutes of this, Coalback broke the pattern and slipped into her block to push her over and out of the circle.
“Stop,” he ordered even as Rainbow scrambled back up to her hooves. “You’re not doing this right,” he said with a shake of his head.
“I thought you were showing me how to block punches?” Rainbow asked incredulously.
“Form and pattern help almost none in an actual fight. They teach discipline and control. You have control … and some discipline,” he said and flashed her another twitch of a grin. “But none of those help much in a desperate scrabble to kill or be killed. You must be like … be like water,” he said with a nod.
“Water?”
“Yes!” Coalback said. “Water can flow.” He stepped around her, his hooves a blur of smooth and practiced motion. “Or it can crash.” His back hoof spun out and made contact with one of the logs that they’d dragged in as a seat by the fire pit. The log exploded into splinters and its two split ends flew apart. “Be like water,” he said with a grunt. “Fight like your life depends on it,” he commanded and he stepped back into the circle.
Just like that the lecture was over and the exercise was back. She went after him this time, she pushed herself and forced Coalback into the defensive. She danced around him and threw punches as often as she could. She never stood still long enough for Coalback to lower his stance, and when he did she leapt over him and tried to stomp on his head. Every hit was met with one of his own, a deflection faster and from a direction she didn’t expect each time.
He was right, though. She’d never recognized his fighting style because he didn’t have one. He adapted and moved with his opponent, but in such a way as to never compromise his defense or let up on his offensive. She still thought she could recognize some martial arts in his movements but it was well hidden since he would deviate and mix apparently different parts of stances and strikes.
She felt like that match lasted for nearly half an hour, but when Coalback stopped her by once again breaking her defense and knocking her out of the circle; this time with a strange sweep and twist motion while she was in the air.
“Now I teach you a take down that will work on most ponies bigger than you,” he said as he helped her to her hooves, something he hadn’t done before. “But unless you intend to kill, be careful of breaking necks. You will break their stance and throw off their balance in the same move: very hard to defend against. Iron Bar!” he yelled. Rainbow turned to see that the Guards were just now returning from the Sauna. “Come here and help demonstrate spinning takedown,” Coalback commanded.
Iron Bar grunted an affirmative and trotted forward even as Filibuster made his way to a log to take a seat. “Iron Bar punches,” Coalback said as he grabbed hold of Iron Bars’ arm and puppet the action for him. “You catch arm under your arms,” he demonstrated again as he locked onto Iron Bar’s arm and pulled it into his chest. “Use to pull up and swing legs over his head. Then spin the rest of your body to twist him off his hooves. I show you,” he said as he released Iron Bar’s arm.
Iron Bar took a ready stance and Coalback did the same across from him. Coalback grunted and Iron Bar threw a punch. With a well timed sidestep Coalback caught Iron Bar’s arm and twisted. Coalback lifted his rear legs into the air and twisted to hook them around Iron Bar’s head and in the same motion he twisted his shoulders around. The momentum he built up was enough to flip Iron Bar completely over and they both slammed into the ground with an earth rattling thump. It happened so fast that Rainbow wondered if she’d seen it right.
Coalback unhooked his legs from around Iron Bar’s neck and stood up, soon followed by the groaning earth pony. “If you have strength in your legs, next you choke them until they stop moving – if you haven’t broken neck already,” Coalback added. “Your turn,” he said with a nod. Iron Bar rubbed his neck and shook himself before he returned to his ready stance.
Rainbow swallowed the lump in her throat. She was certain she wouldn’t get it right the first time, but she’d never get it at all if she didn’t try. She just hoped she didn’t accidentally break Iron Bar’s neck: he was nice for a Guard and she didn’t want to hurt him.
“Alright,” she said as she entered the circle. Coalback grunted before Rainbow had a chance to enter a ready stance and Iron Bar threw his punch. She wasn’t ready, and she panicked. The next moment was a blur and she couldn’t be sure exactly how she did it, but she ended up with Iron Bar on the ground and his head securely clamped between her legs. One of her arms was hurting, but she was so shocked that she’d even managed to pull off the takedown that she only stared at her own legs in disbelief.
“Very good,” Coalback said as he grabbed her and pulled her to her hooves. Iron Bar picked himself up again as Coalback set Rainbow down on her hooves.
Rainbow would have explained that she didn’t even know how she’d done it, but an excruciating pain shot up her arm from her elbow as she put weight on it. Coalback caught her again and grabbed her arm to look at it himself.
“You landed on your elbow,” he noted. “You just shocked the bone, you’ll be fine. But no more sparring today,” he said calmly as he set her back down.
“Dang,” Rainbow grunted as she took to the air. She hovered nearby as she took a look at her tender elbow herself. “I don’t need, like, a sling or anything, do I?” she asked.
“No,” Coalback said with a shake of his head. “A wrap might help but you’ll be fine in a day or two. Get some protein and calcium, that will help,” he grunted. “No more sparring today, I have more work to do now,” he said.
“Alright,” Rainbow said, secretly thankful. Even that short session had been exhausting and now she had a banged up elbow to boot. “But before I go can I ask you something?” Coalback grunted an affirmative and she continued. “The weather team here has this tradition of storm chasing, but the next storm is gonna show up around here over the forest. Can we still go? Cause I know you said the forest was forbidden and everything but we’d be way up, it’s a big anvil now and it’d be perfect for storm chasing-“
“Yes, yes. Just don’t fall into the forest,” Coalback said.
“Awesome!” Rainbow tried to pump her hoof but hissed when her elbow protested in the most noticeable way it could. “Hey, you should come!” she said as Coalback turned around. He paused when she yelled to him. “It’d be lots of fun! You’d love it! It’s the most intense rush you can get while flying!”
“Yes, now go home and rest,” he yelled back, a stern look on his face.
Rainbow smiled like an idiot at the prospect of getting to go storm chasing again and turned to leave. “We’re leaving in two days!” she yelled back as she winged back towards her house.
Coalback watched her leave before he turned to Filibuster. “Keep a close eye on her,” he told him. “Her elbow was broken, only somepony with the Blood would have barely noticed that.” Filibuster nodded and his horn sparked to life for a few moments and his eyes flashed.
“But how-“
“I don’t know when it happened, or how she didn’t notice it, but she’s of the Blood. I’m sure of it now,” Coalback said, not in the mood to listen to Filibuster’s squabbling. “How did I not smell this sooner?” he mumbled to himself. He cursed under his breath and spat on the ground, a thoughtful scowl crossed his face as he rubbed it into the dirt. How could you tell someone who trusted you that you’d poisoned them?
---
…
“What,” a melodic voice called from the darkness, “is your name?”
“Merletta,” the word felt strange, but to her it was also the only one that seemed to fill the niche left by the question. It simply came to her and she knew it to be true.
“What,” came the voice again, “is your purpose?”
“I-,” she began but found the words would not come. She knew her purpose, her purpose was to see; but she could not see now, so how could that be her purpose? “I do not know,” she admitted to the voice.
“That’s okay,” the voice said, its warmth and gentleness painted the darkness with a twilight of ghostly colors. “It took a lot of work to bring everything together for you, so it’s okay if you don’t feel sure of yourself yet. You barely have a physical form at the moment,” it said. For some reason she had the distinctive want to be near that voice, without it she couldn’t be sure if she existed at all. “Here. I brought you a form to take, a vessel if you will,” the warm voice said.
Like a lantern in the darkness a shape took form. She could see a sleek silhouette painted in shining purples, it called to her to come near. “Do you see?” the voice asked. His voice lit the thin bars of a cage for only a moment, and though she did not comprehend what they signified she was suddenly stricken with indecision. “Don’t worry,” the voice said softly. “It’s safe,” it assured her.
She was drawn to it and slowly it’s feature became more pronounced to her. She could see a beak, the word for it leapt to her mind before she could fathom that she’d never seen a beak before; claws held onto an invisible perch; and sleek, graceful wings were tucked gently at the shape’s side. A bird, she realized. It was a bird, the voice’s gift was a bird?
“This will let you see, and you will speak, and fly, and taste, and feel. It can help you to be.” The final word rang through the air and Marletta felt herself being drawn toward the bird. The cage once again flashed into her vision, and with it the room with the desk that the pony who had summoned her sat. The gravity of the bird pulled and pulled until she was rammed into its iridescent side.
And then there was darkness again. And sound: she could hear breathing, a pulsing heart and the gentle breeze billowing against curtains. She could feel the breeze, feel feathers against her sides and tough wood beneath her, she felt her claws scrape the wood and for a moment panicked as she felt once more a pull on her form and she fell. The cage rattled around her and she felt pain, a strange and alien sensation: she decided that she did not like pain.
“Open your eyes,” the warm voice said, gentle as ever.
Merletta blinked and light stabbed at eyes she had not had before. She felt her eyes contract, muscles she’d never had before stretched and moved her eyes until they focused and she could see. Her breath did not catch in her throat, it seemed it could not, but she did take pause at the sight before her.
Through a thin set of bars Merletta could see a room warmly lit by candles and a fireplace nearby. Purple curtains billowed in the breeze of a dark night and a cracked window. A wood floor and stone walls, both a mess of black books and papers scribbled with symbols she could not read. And finally the shock of red hair and the green horn pointed away from the gravity.
“You’re upside down,” the voice chuckled. Merletta turned her head, felt the floor of the cage pressed against it, and recognized the unicorn for what he was; once again the knowledge sprung from nowhere and everywhere at once. It was like she’d known what a Unicorn looked like for years, though she was certain she could only remember the last few moments.
The horn glowed before her, and she felt a gentle grip apply itself around her. The world spun as her claws dug tiny scratches in the wooden perch below her, she only just now realized she’d never let go. The cage’s latch flipped open with the same glow and the grip on her gently pulled her from her perch. She floated through the air, now right side up, until she was placed on the desk before the Unicorn.
She tried to speak, but all that came from her throat was a high pitched caw. “Yes, I know,” the voice said from the Unicorn’s mouth. “I’ve given you the body of a baby raven. It will take time to get used to and more time still before you’ll speak properly. But I’m very happy you’re here, Merletta.” The Unicorn’s lips pulled up at the corners and for a moment Merletta could not recognize the smile for what it was.
“Merletta.”
It made her happy that the Unicorn was happy. And once again she was certain, despite her fears, that this was the place to be.
“Merletta?”
She felt it in her heart and saw it in the ripped fabric on the pony’s flank, the thin knife adorned there looked like it was cleaning the edges. It could have been cutting a shape, but she wasn’t sure what.
“Merletta, it’s time to wake up.”
“You may call me Clean Cut,” the pony with the warm voice said. Though she was more certain that ‘Father’ fit him better.
“Merletta!”
Merletta squawked as her perch was shaken and she was rudely awoken from her slumber. She glared at Clean Cut’s tired grin and squawked loudly again to demonstrate her displeasure. His smile widened in the dim light of his candle.
“Come on, then. We’ve plenty of work to do tonight,” he said as he offered his horn to her. Sleepily she stepped from her perch to his horn, she flapped her wings unsteadily as Clean Cut spun to begin his fast walk down the halls of the castle. “I think I might have made a breakthrough on something,” he muttered.
“Okay,” she muttered sleepily. She didn’t need to mention her dream, though memory was a better word to describe it. It was thousands of years old, but still so vivid a memory.
A pickaxe broke up the earth and drug out the trench in the ground. Iron Bar grunted as he swung the pickaxe again and tore up another chunk of dirt and grass. His hooves were caked in cold mud and he could hardly feel his arms anymore, and despite the chill in the air sweat foamed on his chest and arms. The sloped trench already stretched from their camp across a long string of the border between the town and the Forest.
Behind Iron Bar, Coalback poured a rusty red paste into the trench from a cement mixer, borrowed from a construction site in town. A heavy cloth covered his muzzle and his arms were stained with the red dust he’d spent the morning mixing. They had enough of the ingredients to fully surround the town with his strange concoction.
Further back still, Filibuster labored with a shovel to cover the trench. Every twenty meters he would place a long tube that Coalback had constructed into the paste as it cured and dried, the very tip of the paper wrapping stuck out of the ground when he was finished.
The day continued in a monotonous way: with Iron Bar at the lead as he dug the trench; Coalback just behind with the red paste that he constantly mixed and poured; and Filibuster just behind with his carefully stacked faggot and a shovel. The pattern was only ever interrupted when Coalback had to turn away onlookers from town.
At least, that was how it went until Pinkie Pie showed up.
“Hi, guys!” she blurted as she made her presence known. Iron Bar grunted as he had to swerve his swing around the pink blur that had just appeared in front of him. “Here you go!” she smiled as she stuffed something sweet and moist into the Earth pony’s mouth. She hopped out of the trench as Iron Bar sat confused and mute, the tray on her back somehow remained balanced even with the drinks and remaining muffins sitting on top of them. “Goooooood morning, Coalback! Have a muffin!” she said as she began walking toward the Pegasus.
“Do not move!” Coalback barked. Pinkie Pie surprised him as she followed the order instantly and, more surprisingly, by freezing in the air, mid-hop. Coalback grunted and turned around to stop the cement mixer, and pick up a rag from a red stained bucket. He wiped off his face and arms before he turned back to her.
“That was fun!” Pinkie giggled. Coalback flinched as his vision was filled with the cotton candy mane of the unpredictable pony. “But seriously, have a muffin! They’re great! And have some lemonade! I know lemonade is a summer drink, but we had some frozen from last summer and you guys looked like you could use some refreshments. You’re all sweaty, just look at you!” she rambled even as she stuffed a glass into Coalback’s hooves before he could protest.
She hopped over to Filibuster next, who happily took a glass and a muffin with his magic. He had the decency to look sheepishly back at Coalback as he glared at the Filibuster and the pink menace.
“So whatcha guys doing out here? What’s this stu- Hurk!” Coalback cut her off as he pulled her away from his cement mixer before she could shove her head into it. “Oop!” she mumbled as Coalback picked her up by the scruff of her neck in his teeth and she was forced to tuck her legs in or be dragged along as he carried her away. She hadn’t noticed that Coalback was big enough to pick her up like this before.
Coalback marched her around the front of the trench and deposited her on her rump closer to the town. “Thank you, Pinkie Pie,” he said, though his tone made Pinkie think he wasn’t really thankful, “but we do not need your assistance. At the moment we are working with a very dangerous material, I would suggest going home and bathing yourself well; else the next spark set you aflame.” Pinkie’s tray with two empty glasses gently floated down beside her, guided by Filibuster’s magic on the other side of the trench. “You’re … kindness … is not unappreciated, but we cannot allow anypony to come in contact with this material,” he said and began to turn away.
“Ooh! What is it?!” Pinkie said, her famous smile back with a vengeance. Coalback flinched again as she cut him off and looked to him expectantly.
“No word for it in your language,” Coalback grumbled as he circled around her to put himself between her and the trench. “Closest word is … hellfire? I think. It burns hot enough to melt steel and cannot be put out with water or smothered with sand. It could burn straight through you if you caught on fire with it in your fur, so I suggest you go home and thoroughly bathe yourself,” he insisted again. He pushed at her with a red stained hoof, gently but firmly.
“But why are you putting it in a hole? And why do you need so much? And why are you digging up the ground all the way around the town?” Pinkie asked more and more desperately as she was slowly pushed away.
“It is just a precaution. The danger is over, but I am now tasked with fortifying the town. Also, do not step beyond the trench,” he said with forced patience. “We have not set up a fence yet, but there are holes all over the field between the town and the forest now. We would not want anypony to accidentally fall into them, would we?” he asked.
Pinkie gasped. “No! We wouldn’t!” she agreed.
“Good, now please-“
“Don’t worry, Coalback! I’ll make sure nopony comes over and gets hurt!” Pinkie announced as she scooped up her tray and sped off.
Coalback only snorted, though whether it was meant to be a sigh of relief or not was unclear. He turned back to the trench and grunted; “Keep working.”
“Why do I have the worst feeling about her helping us?” Filibuster asked.
“I think that that is a common feeling associated with that pony,” Coalback agreed as he donned his cloth mask again and started to turn the mixer once more.
---
The hive had quickly become a huge compound with Discord’s guidance. He was the one who had taught them to grow the moss and grasses that fueled them. He was also the one who had shown them where to build, stretched across a thin gorge that extended deep into the earth where its heat incubated their young and a huge aquifer gave them all the water they needed. With his benevolent fingers guiding them they’d recovered from their defeat in Canterlot almost overnight, though this was slowed by his constant harassment of the Wolves in the mountains between them and Equestria.
Dark, chitinous towers now pierced the heavens above their newborn city. A few ambitious Changelings had even been allowed to continue their existence as they endeavored to reclaim the wasteland around them. If they continued as they were they could potentially create an oasis in the wastes.
But, of course, that would not come to be. In the backs of their collective thoughts they knew that all of this was to prepare for the coming battles and conquests. With Discord ‘helping’ the Queen, drones and warrior changelings marched through the hive day and night; and strange beasts conjured up by Discord himself stretched their already limited food supplies.
But food was not enough to sustain a changeling, so even their new farms couldn’t truly help them. Changelings needed magic, and the best place it could come from was through the metaphysical connection ponies made with the ones they loved. It wasn’t truly love they feasted on, and neither was it accurate to call the effects of their lack of magic ‘love-starvation’. Instead they used that connection to siphon enough magic off to live. On its own that was harmless, ponies have a lot of magic to spare anyway; but unchecked it could seriously weaken the one feeding the Changeling. Changelings could only pull so much magic from the environment, barely enough to survive on, and it certainly was not pleasant. From Discord they had gained a tiny amount of pure magic that was heavily rationed and shared amongst the workers, but they did not like the prospect of relying on the demon-god even if they did already owe him so much.
The Queen was quick to squash any thought of dissent among her hive, and her own hypnotizing thoughts and emotions washed over them every day. She needed the support and cooperation of her entire hive if she hoped to reclaim her glory that had been so stolen by the ponies, and she saw Discord as a stepping stone to that. After they destroyed Canterlot and the Princesses living there then they could take all the magic they wanted from the ponies and she would have her pride restored. Discord would get what he wanted, and so would she; a win-win.
But the Queen was prideful, and Discord was no fool. His goal stretched far past crushing the Princesses, not that he would tell the Queen this. No. If she knew he could find her and her hive much less likely to stand so resolutely beside him.
As glorious and powerful as he was, he was still trapped in the mortal plane and an army could have the potential to kill him. He would return, but not for many years. He refused to wait any longer for his revenge.
Far below the farthest reaches of the hive were the tunnels he himself had dug. The stone did not yield to him so easily here, and he was forced to muddy his own claws to dig them. But it was worth it.
From the chamber he had found the blood red heartstone, he dug further and had discovered something far more useful. He knew something had drawn him deeper into the rock, and it had similarly drawn this as well. A deep rumble filled the cavern and a brimstone tinged wind wafted out of it.
“Shhhh, my pet. Soon you will rise, but not yet. Dream of me now, dream of rampage and hate. You will be given treasures innumerable to feed your greed,” he whispered. Another rumble and the earth shook as something truly massive tossed and turned in its sleep.
---
Coalback’s camp was set up in the hills South of Ponyville, smack in the middle of the border between the forest and the town. Three tents surrounded a burnt out fire pit, and several logs sat around for seating. Water barrels were set up in several spaces, and a locked chest held their supplies when they were put away. Nopony was quite sure where they were keeping their food, as there were no baskets or sealed iceboxes anywhere in the camp.
Since they had gotten a hold of digging supplies they’d flattened out their sparring ring and it was truly bare dirt, the turned earth of the strange trench they’d built sat between the camp and the forest. And Pinkie Pie had lived up to her word; a short, pink picket fence now segregated the filled trench and their camp away from town, though Coalback did not consider it adequate as it was hardly at chest height.
A stream passed their camp nearby, one that flowed through the town and into the forest. Thin ice floated through the stream, but that didn’t seem to bother the stallions who bathed in it. The water turned red as it flowed past them, the hellfire powder had worked itself deep into their fur and the skin below. Even soaked in water they risked being set aflame by any errant spark, so they scrubbed harshly.
Coalback wandered out of the forest with ice clinging to his unshorn fetlocks, icy water shook out of his fur as he walked out of the trees. He gave a few words to the stallions in the stream who nodded eagerly before he wandered back toward his camp and readied a fire.
Rainbow fluttered down beside him just as he finished stoking the flames, flashes of intense red colored the fire and Coalback frowned as the fire hissed and grew slightly. “Yes?” he said in greeting as he extended a wing over the fire to dry out.
“Great news! We’re leaving tonight!” Rainbow said with a large grin.
“Where are you going?” he asked, a raised eyebrow and a frown revealed his confusion.
“Storm chasing,” Rainbow said incredulously. “You’re still coming, aren’t you?” she asked. She nervously cleared her throat and checked her tone, she didn’t want him to think she was desperate even if she did want him to come.
After a moment Coalback nodded, a silent ‘oh’ on his lips. “Yes. But I thought we leave tomorrow?” he asked.
“Yeah, that’s the crazy thing!” Rainbow said, her excited smile back where it belonged. “Coudsdale just sent out a storm warning! A huge warm front came out of nowhere and is pushing the storm right at us! It’s gonna be huge, but it’ll die out fast this far inland so we gotta catch it A-Sap if we want to have any fun!”
“Okay,” Coalback shrugged as he turned around and switched wings over the fire. “I will put on my armor and we can go-“
“No armor, dude!” she said, quick as a flash she darted back in front of him and cut him off. “Lighting and metal are not a good combo!” she explained, Coalback’s frown was replaced once again by realization. She kept forgetting that Coalback had never worked with weather before, it still seemed so weird for a Pegasus to have never worked with clouds before. “Just bring some goggles, dude. You don’t have to be naked, either; just nothing that’ll get tangled up in your wings in high winds. But don’t worry ‘cause the whole weather team’s gonna be with us, we watch each others’ backs.”
“You don’t have to convince me, Rainbow Dash,” Coalback rumbled as he tucked in his wings. His mane still hung down with cold water but he didn’t seem to mind. “I promised you I would come, and I will. I make it a point not to say things I don’t mean,” he said and turned away from the fire, toward his tent.
“Awesome! I’ll come get you before we leave. I’ll be around before sunset!” she said as she zipped off. A thought nagged at the back of her mind, however: if he always tried to say what he meant, then why did Applejack think he constantly was lying to everypony around him?
He seemed honest enough to her.
At the camp, Coalback watched her go and turned when he heard Filibuster walking back toward camp. “Filibuster!” he yelled. The stallion’s ears perked up and his eyes locked on Coalback. “What is a goggles?” Coalback demanded.
---
“Step forward,” Celestia said. Her presence dominated the throne room despite the many bodies that did fill it. A pony dressed in gilded armor stepped forward and kneeled, his brown wings extended in submission to her and his nose met the floor. Small scratches and dents already marred his armor, though technically he had only been at her liege for a short time.
Behind him a century of Guards stood in their own armor, halberds stood like a forest in two thick rows. A hundred pairs of eyes were aimed toward the pony standing before Celestia, each loyal to her and the stallion that would soon lead them.
Their training had been swift with Celestia at their command, and the fact that each had come from a prestigious background. Many were previous members of the Royal Navy, or Army Regulars, or from Guilds that upheld the art of warfare. And though it appeared they had only been in her steed for a very short week, magic had made the time feel like months and had allowed months of training and selection to take place in no time at all. Celestia had expended much of her power to achieve it, but the result was far from dissapointing.
“You have shown me unwavering Loyalty,” she began, her gentle voice projected through the throne room. “You have demonstrated complete Honesty, Laughter in the face of danger, Generosity in defeat, and Kindness to your fellows. Most of all you have made each of these ponies your personal friend. Such aspects befit a hero of our time, and a hero you will be.” Celestia’s wings extended and she drew the attention of the crowd up to the fresco behind her that depicted the birth of their kind.
Ponies helped each other emerge from the clay of the earth. Pegasi groomed the clouds out of each others wings as they were shaped from them. Unicorns shook off stardust as they stepped out of the heavens. And all the while two Alicorn sisters watched them with loving eyes from the frame of the scene.
“You will protect your fellows, and the common pony from the forces of darkness that would see you destroyed. The miracle of your births breeds hatred inside them, and you must help Us extinguish that dark fire in their hearts.”
Her eyes dropped down to the pony that kneeled before her. Her horn lit with the golden radiance of her magic and a long claymore drew itself from the scabbard at the side of her throne. Its filigree shone in the light cast from the stained glass windows in the throne room, and the fiery jewel in its hilt shimmered with barely contained power.
“I knight thee,” Celestia said as she gently laid the tip of the deadly masterpiece on one side of the stallion’s withers and gently moved it to the other, “Sir Dumbell.”
The fortress city of Madineigh was a ruined shell of its former self, far across the sea where the Princesses had hoped to make a final stand. Few of its buildings still remained standing, some of the oldest created by pony kind. The soil and gravel of the streets had been soaked through with blood, and what walls remained were streaked with gore. Burning ruins and hideous effigies lit the cursed, desert night. Overnight it had gone from a desert paradise to a dark nightmare.
A heavily armoured hoof walked only tentatively through the tainted dust, her royal stature weighed down with cold, gold embossed steel. Her armour was heavy, heavier than most mortals could bear to lift let alone wear; but as a result she could survive a direct attack by even the most powerful of the Humans’ deadly wizards or any of the ferocious dragons that stalked the burnt and broken lands in the South. A corona of fiery light slowly coiled above her head and swirled behind her, her emotions betrayed by its frayed and erratic movement. Her alabaster coat reflected the light of her ethereal mane across the desolate scene, it revealed everything to her. Everything that she had missed by only hours.
Caelestia, the Radiant Noon and the Inferno Incarnate, felt far more defeated then ever before. Saddle Arabia had been her last hope, the one place she had prayed their enemy would not be able to follow. But it seemed that they had cut her off once more, their strange and ancient magics had often turned a victory into a miserable defeat. And though the ponies had won many a battle, they had not won the ones that truly mattered the most. Each great City State that might have posed the greatest threat had fallen under the greatest, unstoppable forces that the Enemy could muster. It seemed that only the flying city states of the Pegasi would remain if this pattern continued … and even they were in danger.
Princess Caelestia stepped tentatively past the mutilated remains of a unicorn that decorated a crumbling wall, his intestines spread like a sick replacement to the curtains that had once hung from it. The main thoroughfare was worse, bodies of pony and Blaidd alike were piled in fly ridden heaps. She stopped before the most horrid display: a pile of the dead that had been mutilated and set aflame; mare, stallion, and foal alike. The acrid smell of burning flesh had already stained her nostrils, but now it was nearly overwhelming. The goddess of the sun shivered and the fires all around the city dimmed and began to die.
A Guardsmare approached her, dressed in similarly gold tinged armor. Stripes along her shoulder revealed the mare’s rank to the Princess, but she did not turn away from the smoldering effigy. “M’Lady!” she saluted, her voice muffled by the heavy cloth tied around her muzzle. The soldiers had had a harder time coping with the smell, and now incense soaked cloths were almost mandatory equipment.
“Report, Captain,” the goddess said shortly. She turned her head slightly, the embers reflected off of her polished faceplate. Her heavy claymore swung at her side, made especially for felling the Enemy’s war machines.
“Survivors hath been discovered. My company doth gather them as we speak. None hath the countenance to speak. I cannot fathom the horrors they have seen,” the Guardsmare reported. She cleared her throat before she continued. “There be no Human bodies about, m’Lady. Twould seem the wolf-mens’ blood lust twas faster than their masters’ whip.” The goddess could see that the mare had been shaken, she was relatively new to her position and the leftovers of a Blaidd attack were never pretty. Her brows were furrowed, and her tail flicked in irritation often: she was angry and upset, not always a good mindset for a Captain.
“Indeed, We have seen as much,” the goddess agreed. Her armour shifted heavily, and the scabbard of her claymore, Sun’s Breath, nearly scraped along the ground behind her, she could feel it vibrate with anticipation. His brother sword, simply dubbed Fang, hummed in its scabbard as it thirsted for dragons’ blood. “Be there any sign of Princess Terrae?” she asked.
"N-neigh, m’Lady," the mare regretfully replied. "We found something else, the hooded mage thinks it may be how they arrived so quickly before us," she said quickly, eager to change the subject away from her failures.
Caelestia did not have to speak, the whip of the cold fire of her mane showed her shock. Her helm hid her face behind the grill of its faceplate, but her nod gave the command and the Captain led her away from the display of hatred. Their armor reflected back the destruction around them as they walked, the ash and ember darkened their shining armour to reflect the dark thoughts stirring inside of revenge.
The captain led the Princess past a decimated bridge, nothing but rubble that muddied a once beautiful river. Much of the main roads that would lead to the palace had been destroyed, though it seemed that had been a desperate ploy by powerful Saddle Arabian mages as opposed to the machinations of men. It was along one of these roads, capsized against the ruin of a great stone building that had perhaps once been a church, that the Captain's discovery became clear:
A huge construct, all forged from the same alloy, had been felled and come to rest here. Huge claws hung from its underbelly, the improbably long arms that supported them tucked away and crushed beneath its own weight. Its sloped back and arrow shape gave its upper body a sickly, disproportionate shape. However the barren, fin-like sails along its sides revealed that it moved through the air, like many of the human's airships did. A giant, finned, metal scorpion made for battling dragons, now it fought ponies and destroyed cities. Its tail, which once would have smashed walls or flung fiery missiles, had broken off and hung over the top of the destroyed building.
"Tis a Warmind," Caelestia said dismissively. "The humans often use them when they fell our greatest cities. We have destroyed many Ourselves." Sun’s Breath shivered in its scabbard, an agreement. “We would have expected to find one, Terrae was proficient in their destruction. Of what curiosity is this over any other?” she asked incredulously, the heavy feeling of dashed hope began to filter into her heart.
"Princess Selene is of a different inclination, your Grace," the Captain said. "Gaze to its prow, your Majesty." The Guards spear whistled as it whipped around to point at the crushed front end of the Warmind.
Caelestia glared down at the decorative cap, the ironically serene face of a doe had been crumpled and destroyed. She often found it so ironic to be staring into her mother's face when she destroyed these world enders. But the Captain was correct, this doe had been given a strange crown of bone, one that surrounded her head without touching it and truly completed the image of the God it honored. While all of the Warminds did have Man's Goddess carved on their noses, she had never seen one with such a decoration as this. The gold decorations spread across its entire back, more like veins and wrinkles near its rear.
"Strange. No?" a melodious voice inquired.
Caelestia turned with a start, her corona mane wrapped protectively about her. Princess Selene Eternae Luna grinned out from the half-helm of her dark armor, her nebulous mane blended with the dark sky behind her and her eyes glowed menacingly with power through the eye slots of her helm. Her shields hung heavily at her sides, weightless as far as the Princess was concerned. She didn't wear as heavy armor as Caelestia, instead she had opted for a more agile set that had fewer plates and more ringmail. While Caelestia was renowned for walking through longbow arrows like rain, Selene was infamous for weaving through attacks and only using her shields in the most intense of combat.
"We would do well not to shock each other," Caelestia admonished to the childish giggle of her sister.
"Thou would do well to find joy where none otherwise is. However, We agree. Tis inappropriate for such a time as this," Selene said with a sobered frown. She stepped forward to stand beside Caelestia. They stepped together and locked horns with each other, an embrace that once would have been compared to standing before a mirror that reflected opposites – however as they had aged in the world they had begun to grow somewhat different and no longer resembled the twins that they were heralded as. "But look upon this: We give thee this Flagship that dost step through folds of the ether," Luna said as she stepped away and motioned with her wing to the destroyed Warmind.
"Of what do We speak, Sister?" Caelestia asked. Not so long ago, perhaps a few hundred years, Caelestia and Selene had practically shared a consciousness. Now occasionally they would gain premonitions of each others thoughts, but the war had pulled them apart so often that now Caelestia found it difficult to understand her sister. She had become much more free spirited, and was so often able to perform tasks whose means only became obvious once the results had been met. Even in combat now Selene somehow managed to deceive her opponent and subtly steer them to their own demise.
"We speak of the Warmind, of course," Selene grinned. Whispers filled the air, a hundred voices just beyond what most mortal ears could understand, and both Goddesses turned back to the warmind. "Our Archmage's newest apprentice seems to think he can decipher its function."
Like a specter a hooded figure faded out of the shadows beneath the stone beast. Above his head a raven winged out and circled, expressing its displeasure. The hooded figure followed its path with his head as he approached the celestial Goddesses. The pony halted before them, frozen as if he had just noticed them, and bowed until his hood nearly touched the blood-muddied ground. A large scroll-tube rocked forward on his back, and while he appeared unarmoured, subtly infused runes flickered in the light of the Goddesses' manes. His mark, a papyrus apple and a thin blade, glittered where it was embossed onto his robes. The Raven landed on his back and gave a loud "Wark!" as it too bowed.
Caelestia and Selene both gave low nods and the hooded figure stood. "I am honored to be in thy presence once more, your Majesties," he said, his voice surprisingly young and cheerful with the twist of a smile in his words.
"Ah yes, the young colt who endeavors to cast light in the darkness,” Caelestia said with a nod that permitted the hooded pony to stand again. “Tell Us of this great, stone beast," Caelestia commanded in the gentle tone she so often used with non-military ponies, even if they were fewer by the day.
"An incredible opportunity to examine human technology such as this. It's so rare that any of the Warminds are left whole. This one was felled with expert precision; Princess Terrae's work, no doubt," he said with a gesture toward the dead machine and wonder in his voice. "Won't my master be jealous, stuck in Equestria with his sand dials? He would find this technology incredibly fascinating."
"Must you keep Us in suspense, young Clean Cut?" Selene said with a toothy grin. "Clover would not tease Us so. What would Star Swirl think, Sister?" she asked Caelestia, though the teasing did not go unnoticed by her Sister.
"Ah, yes," Caelestia said with a subtle roll of her eyes. "Now We see the reason for Our mirth."
The young mage lowered his hood with a flick of his horn. Clean Cut's brilliant red mane and pale coat were clumped with sweat and grime; the price of travelling alongside the Princesses during the war. Unfortunately this did make him the lesser known apprentice of Star Swirl, and his uncommon closeness with the Princess of the Night often meant that they were more cordial with each other than their statuses would normally allow.
"Clover is not as clever as she claims, and Master Star Swirl would have never looked where I have," Clean Cut claimed. It was true that the young unicorn colt had made quite an impression on both his master and the Princesses in his ability to discover and unveil hidden things. His horn glowed with his ghostly green magic as he began to speak rapidly of phaux-biological matrices and four dimensional wrinkles. Symbols and images, presumably from inside the belly of the Warmind, flickered above his horn in the air.
Caelestia allowed herself a sigh. It was very refreshing to find a pony so passionate about something other than warfare in these times. And while she did accept that it entertained her other half to no end when Clean Cut was worked into such a fit, there was no end to his ranting.
"And what is it, precisely, that thou hast devised from this abomination?" Caelestia asked, which brought Clean Cut to a swift halt. Selene giggled quietly and Caelestia couldn’t help but smile.
The stout Unicorn opened his mouth as if to protest, but halted himself. "Allow me to demonstrate, your Majesties," he finally said. His horn glowed and a three dimensional sigil floated and wriggled in front of him. "This is the sigil that the Warmind produces with its voice. As you know, the Warminds do have a voice; we hear it alongside the Humans’ war cries when they attack a city. However this Warmind has two voices: one it speaks softly with, and another that projects itself hundreds of miles away. It creates this shape in the air with its voice in two places and the very fabric of space, time, and fate are pulled apart! And then the Warmind steps through!”
“Clean Cut, as capable in magic as We are,” Selene said with a grin, “We are not as educated as you in these matters. Please explain to us what significance all of this has.” At this point Caelestia wasn’t sure if Selene was still teasing him or if now Their curiosity had truly been piqued.
“My Princesses of the Heavens, I give you the Humans’ secret to instant travel,” Clean Cut said with a bow. “Observe,” he said as he stood again. His horn flared and another wavering rune shimmered into being in the air at the end of the street. There was a crackle of magic and Clean Cut stepped up to the sigil still floating in front of him. There was a loud crack, like a whip, and a flash and Clean Cut was gone. In the same instant Clean Cut fell to the ground at the end of the street, his gasps for air could be heard from where they stood by the Warmind.
Luna flexed her rear legs and in a moment she had leapt with nary a flap of her wings to Clean Cut’s side. “Remarkable,” she laughed as she picked up the fallen stallion and brushed his robes free of dirt. “But We hath made the distance in just as much time, and We are better for it as well,” she laughed even as she rose an eyebrow at the ice that clung to the pony’s fur.
“Yes, m’Lady,” Clean Cut said, his blush at her sudden closeness hardly hidden. “But think of an army brought hundreds or thousands of miles the same way. I believe the Warmind is capable of moving many Humans at once, and that is how they travel so quickly,” he said between gasps of breath. The task had been costly on his magic reserves, and the trip itself had been unpleasant. “For just a moment I was in a place with no air or light, and it was freezing. But in that tiny instant I traveled almost twenty meters! Imagine the possibilities!”
“But can you stop them?” Caelestia asked, her presence very suddenly brought the somber mood of the decimated city back in full swing.
“Perhaps, m’Lady,” Clean Cut said tentatively. “But I still do not fully understand how it works or even how the Warminds can bring more than themselves. For all I know it may take more power than I have to even attempt such a thing- I will need time to know if it is reasonable to think it possible,” he admitted in a nervous rambling.
Caelestia nodded. “Very well then, this is thy new task. We will have the wreckage delivered to Canterhorn Keep, it may yet be safe and thou might complete thy research there. Ye will have every resource We can spare,” she said with a nod to the Captain, who saluted and spun around to start giving orders to the mares in arms. “This discovery may very well turn the tide of the war, Clean Cut. Congratulations.”
The sun slowly sunk below the horizon but still painted the sky with a few fleeting oranges and pinks, colors reflected by the walls of clouds that grew all around. The brightest of the stars had already begun to show themselves now that the sun’s radiance could not dwarf theirs. Soon its light would disappear altogether and the moon would rise, their clockwork dance uninterrupted.
A flock of Pegasi flew away from the fleeting light, toward the darkening skies and the fields of clouds. They flew in rough formation, sure to give each other plenty of space to stretch their wings. They shouted and jeered at each other jovially, the excitement and anticipation built up already. Several had had the foresight to pack saddlebags that were tightly tied down to their bodies. Both to be prepared in case they stayed out longer than intended and had to camp for the night or to treat an injury should it happen. The latter was likely since they were bringing a rookie flier with them.
Coalback’s large wings cut through the air surprisingly quietly despite their size and the roughness of his leading edges, and the ponies beside him gave him a large space. The blue sash that was wrapped around his flanks was tight, and would not flap in the wind. And his goggles, new from Cloudsdale only a few hours earlier, fit him well. All the same, he moved through the air like a brick, and they’d need to act fast to help him if he got in trouble. Rainbow Dash didn’t seem worried however, and instructed him from the front of the flock.
“When we hit the storm don’t try to fight the wind!” she shouted over her shoulder, Coalback’s ears faced her despite the sharp bite of the wind and their fast pace. “We’ll come down on it from above on its leading side, the winds will be pretty harsh there! If you get hit by a downdraft, tuck your wings and point your nose down! Ride it to the bottom before you try to come back up, but don’t let it slam you into the ground either! Don’t worry about lightning- you don’t have anything metal on you, right?” she yelled as she twisted around in the air.
“I think that the buckles on my goggles are metal?” Coalback boomed. At least he had no trouble making himself heard over the wind. But now the rest of the flock was almost certain that their weather captain was trying to freak out the newcomer.
“Unless you got a really cheap pair, they should be fine!” Rainbow shouted back at him.
“Anvil, ho!” Thunderlane shouted with a whoop of excitement. The flock’s attention was drawn forward to the huge anvil shaped storm that had appeared out of the gloom, a silver halo granted to it by the rising moon. It stretched far into the sky above them, its innards lit from within by tendrils of lightning. A threatening rumble reached them, as if the storm meant to scare them away.
Someone else whooped and a blue Pegasus did a loop as she shouted her excitement. “Eyes! Eyes!” Rainbow shouted and was echoed by the weather team behind her. “Follow our lead, Coalback! Climb!” she shouted and the flock began its ascent.
Their wings pumped faster now and forced them to climb higher into the sky to meet the top of the storm. They aimed for its upper edge, but it soon became clear that the storm would overtake them before they could reach it. Coalback called out to Rainbow, his worry in his tone. However she only grinned over her shoulder at him.
“Go! Go! Go!” a pony shouted.
“Pull! Pull!” shouted another past the whoops and the roar of the wind.
A column of lightning broke the darkness and its thunder hit them instantly. The explosive sound knocked the Pegasi back and left a ringing in their ears, but when the ringing cleared their cheering could be heard. The wind suddenly switched directions, now a tailwind that sucked them toward the storm.
“She’s calling us home!” someone shouted, met by the cheers of her peers.
“All the way!” someone yelled back at her and their climb steepened, now leading the edge of the storm.
The icy air began to grow colder, and the moisture in it sucked the heat out of their bodies. It only served to drive them on as the thinning air whipped away the heat from their muscles and they labored to climb. First fog, and then ice began to grow over their goggles as the winds grew and it became a race to the upper edge of the storm.
“Nice, rookie! Nice!” someone shouted to Coalback, surprised he was even able to keep up with them. Coalback only snorted out a cloud of steam and shook himself mid-flight, no one realized how hard it had been for him to bite back the cheerful howl in his throat.
The flight, the cheering of the other Pegasi, the chill air and the howling wind, even the imposing thunder that rumbled out of the storm; it all had a strange invigorating thrill that Coalback hadn’t considered on the ground. He’d been apprehensive of joining them at first, but now he was genuinely glad he had. Coalback hadn’t felt this way in a long time. Not since he had run faster than he ever had before and chased down big game with his brothers and sisters. For some reason, here, the memory was not so sour.
There was a push of a sudden wind in front of them and the Pegasi arced over the edge of the storm sooner than they had expected. Their ascent ended abruptly and they hung in the air as their momentum held them aloft. The wind was gone here, and the sudden silence was strange with the roiling clouds that stretched out in front of them.
Thunderlane’s dark fur whipped back down at the behest of gravity first. “Whoop! Whoop! Wahooo!” he howled as he dived into the top of the anvil. A pink and silver blur soon followed, a scream of joy echoed out as she too disappeared into the maelstrom and gravity began to pull on the rest of the flock.
No command was given, but whoops and screams of joy filled the air as the rest of the ponies began to plummet toward the upper lip of the anvil. Coalback followed, his panic rose for a moment as he tried to understand what was happening but soon it ebbed as he watched the others. They tucked in their wings and pointed their noses down, he followed suit and soon the wall of cloud met them.
Coalback rammed through the cloud like a rock, the turbulence sudden and frightening. But the blackness of the inner clouds ended as quickly as it had hit him and he was greeted with a warm updraft. A rainbow blur blasted past him, Rainbow spun in the updraft and raced away from him along the front face of the storm. Coalback’s eyes were drawn to the dots now skating across the surface of the storm’s face, billowing rooster tails of cloud followed them.
Coalback opened his wings again, just a hair, and felt the wind tug him and slow his fall. It pushed at him and he found himself hugging the wall of cloud that made up the face of the storm. His head steered him into a shallower dive and he rocketed along the side of the storm with the other Pegasi. His weight lent him a large amount of acceleration from gravity and he soon caught up with the other ponies, his own wake of torn up clouds followed him.
“Eyes! Eyes! Rookie incoming! Eyes! Eyes!” one of them yelled as they noticed his approach. They dipped just the edges of their hooves into the clouds to steer themselves around him. They surfed across the face of the storm.
“Captain, ho!” Thunderlane yelled from the front of the group, his voice strained over the howl of the wind.
Only an instant later Rainbow’s iridescent blur shot past, a thin line of broken cloud just behind her as she dove sharply down the face of the storm. Another instant and her true wake passed them, a huge explosion of pressure that ripped apart a large swath behind her. The echo of her sonic boom reached them as she pulled back up far below them. Thunder boomed to meet her own sound, as if the storm were angered by her speed.
“Eyes! Eyes!” Thunderlane shouted as he disappeared into Rainbow’s wake. He was echoed again by his fellows as they all followed him through. Coalback hit the turbulence and was deflected skyward. Rather than fight it he attempted to let the intense wind lift him.
Thunder boomed and he felt the pressure pop his ears forcefully. He emerged from the wake of Rainbow Dash’s speed at an upward angle and aimed himself to meet her at the top of her arc. His wings twitched at his side and he propelled forward much faster than he expected. He did it again, more forcefully now, and sped over the rest of the flock.
A sharp wolf whistle rose up from the flock as Coalback overtook them. A few cheers directed in his direction brought a tentative smile to his face.
Rainbow slowed as she came to the top of her arc; gravity her enemy here. She spun in the air, which forced more wind across her wings as she came to the very summit of her flight. Her hooves scraped the bottom of the anvil’s upper lip and she spotted him as she began to dive again, a smirk on her lips; a silent challenge of a race.
Coalback twisted his shoulders and spun upside down as he pointed his nose down. The wind held him aloft for only a moment, and they began their dive in near unison. Rainbow quickly overtook him as she pumped her wings against the wind, but her lead slowly stopped growing and began to shrink as gravity pulled Coalback’s bulk.
Distantly they heard Thunderlane yell, but the wind robbed his words from them. There was a wave of pressure that quickly passed as Coalback rode the calm of Rainbow’s wake, a shrinking line as they both sped toward the ground. A subtle wobble to his wings, barely a flap, and he forced more wind past him to speed up.
He couldn’t tell if she’d slow down for him or not, though he could hardly tell how fast they were going. Surely he hadn’t matched her apparently supersonic speed. But all the same, her lead no longer grew and they were both still accelerating fast toward the bottom of the anvil.
Rainbow tilted her wings up sharply and shot back up the face of the storm. Coalback mimicked her and followed an instant later, his wings nearly pulled from their sockets by the winds as they pulled him skyward. He felt the force of the turn in his legs as blood pooled there and his vision flickered at the edges. The turn even sped them up, the massive forces redirected in their new, upward path. Rain battered his face and wiped away the fog of his goggles.
The flock once again flashed past them, a fleeting shout as they rocketed toward the lip of the storm. Coalback soon closed in on Rainbow’s hooves as his momentum carried him further than hers. Her multicolored tail fluttered in the intense wind just in front of him and he could see the roof of the anvil close in on them quickly. They would not be slowing, that much he could tell.
Once again he felt the slam of the turbulence as they burst through the anvil.
The silence and the cold surrounded them suddenly, even as they soared far above the surface of the clouds. They slowed and only their momentum carried them. Ice slowly crawled across the lenses of their goggles, but the burn in their muscles kept them warm. They drifted upwards, the thin air barely enough to slow them at all as they drifted farther and farther away from the earth.
Coalback’s momentum carried him closer to Rainbow even as the same force slowed them both to a weightless stop. Rainbow twisted in the air; a slow, graceful back flip to face him. The satisfied smile on her face only grew as she realized he had followed her all the way up.
They drifted into each other in that brief moment of weightlessness at the top of their arc. Rainbow reached out and halted his approach with hooves on his shoulders. Her nose brushed his and a tiny spark of static gained from friction with the air leapt between them. Her breath was warm against his muzzle and somehow the chill was much more noticeable to him. His eyes widened with her grin and some part of him that was still thinking said she saw the expression on his face. With a push she fell away, back toward the clouds.
Coalback hardly noticed that he had begun to fall as well. The brief experience and electric touch had left a large part of his brain frozen only to restart with a jolt as he plunged back into the clouds.
---
It took several long hours for the storm to become too unstable for them to continue. Long, enjoyable hours filled with more of the sport the Pegasi continued to call ‘storm chasing’ no matter how much their newest friend kept calling it ‘cloud surfing’. Their makeshift camp had been made on a large cloud left relatively flat by the dying storm now just about to break over top Ponyville as a light thunderstorm. A foldable, metal contraption that sat atop an enchanted stand spread heat in a small but adequate circle so that they could all dry and relax in warmth. And the Pegasi gathered around it loosely to share stories and laugh in post adrenaline highs.
“I have question- a question,” Coalback said in a lull to the conversation. It caught the attention of the rest of the flock as Coalback had remained nearly silent for the entire trip, at least until he’d started whooping and hollering at the storm with them. “You, I think,” he said to Cloud Kicker, “you said ‘she is calling us home’ earlier. Who is calling?” he asked.
“The storm,” Cloud Kicker laughed. A few of the others gave their own good-hearted laughs. Coalback cocked an eyebrow, but Rainbow Dash intervened before he could follow up the question.
“Pegasi came from the clouds,” Rainbow explained from her relaxed spot on her own little chunk of floating cloud. She used her wings to lazily pull herself closer to Coalback. “And the most awesome Pegasi came from storm clouds,” she finished.
“I’ll toast to that!” Thunderlane said as he pulled a canteen from his pack. He took a long sip from it before he passed it to Flitter.
“Why am I not surprised that you brought booze?” she said as she licked her lips and passed the canteen to somepony else.
“Because he can’t get any unless you can’t see straight enough to look at his stupid face!” Cloudchaser cackled, which summoned a long round of laughter from the flock. Coalback smiled, however the joke was mostly lost on him.
“What does that mean? You were all born from clouds? No … parents?” Coalback asked to steer the conversation back to the subject.
“No, dude,” Rainbow said with a shake of her head. “It’s an ‘origin story’ according to Twilight. It’s just a legend about were ponies came from, the first ones.”
“There’s others for the other tribes, but they’re not as awesome,” Clear Skies agreed as she lounged against a mound of cloud. “The earth ponies climbed up from the clay of the earth. The Pegasi flew free from the clouds. And the ‘noble’ Unicorns stepped down from starlight itself,” she recited with a roll of her eyes. “You can kinda guess what tribe wrote that!” The flock laughed around her, jokes about Unicorns and their haughtiness were fairly commonplace among them.
“Say, Coalback,” Cloudchaser said from her seat by the heater, a wing still extended as she preened herself, “your people got a story like that?” she asked as she dipped her muzzle back down to straighten a feather, her eyes never left him though.
“My … people?” Coalback asked, unsure how to answer.
“Yeah! Well, I mean, you didn’t grow up around here: you got that accent and all. And you don’t look like no Equestrian Legionnaire to me,” Cloudchaser said.
“My people … my family?” he asked. The ponies around him shrugged and nodded, they wanted a story but it didn’t really matter what about. “When I was young I didn’t believe it, but … we were the sons and daughters of Fenrir, the monster wolf,” he said, his eyes on his hooves with a furrowed brow that betrayed the thought that went into each word. “Fenrir was a Giant Wolf, as tall as three or four of me,” he explained. “And he was born to the god of tricks, Loki, and was raised by the gods. At first they thought he was funny, a little ball of fur and bones. But Fenrir grew quickly, and his hunger even more so. Soon only the bravest of them would feed him or play with him, so he started hunting on the earth for his food. Eventually he found our oldest ancestor and was so struck by her beauty that he stole her … he forced himself on her and made her bear his children, the first of us,” Coalback explained.
“Gross! A giant wolf raped somepony?!” Cloudchaser grimaced, her preening forgotten.
“Yes,” Coalback nodded with his own grimace. “Later the gods locked Fenrir away. It took three tries with impossibly thick chains to hold him down. Their last chain was so powerful it trapped his soul in his own body and he was locked away forever – or at least until the end of days, as legend says,” Coalback explained. He hoped that Fenrir’s imprisonment might allay any worries that he’d gotten away with his crime, even if it had been wholly unrelated.
“That’s pretty awesome!” Thunderlane said.
“No, it’s not!” Clear Skies protested. “It’s really sick!” she said with a shake of her head.
“Oh, come on! ‘It took a bunch of gods three tries to lock up my ancestor.’ How badass do you have to be to best a bunch of gods twice?!” Thunderlane chuckled. The canteen was passed back to him and he tossed it over to Coalback. Coalback caught the canteen in his mouth but didn’t move to drink from it. He sniffed at it and rolled his eyes distastefully. He threw the canteen back to Thunderlane. “What? You don’t like it?” Thunderlane asked.
“Weak brew. Try this,” Coalback said as he slipped a hoof into his sash. He pulled out a thin flask and threw it across the cloud to Thunderlane. “Only a sip, very strong,” he warned.
Thunderlane didn’t hesitate to pull out the stopper and pressed the opening to his lips. He coughed immediately and slammed the stopper back onto the flask. Coalback smiled. The coughing fit lasted for a long bout and he waved the flask desperately to Flitter, who grabbed it and tossed it back to Coalback. Coalback pulled open the top and took a thick swallow from it with a grimace. “Good, no?” he asked.
“That’s fucking strong! It’s like I just swallowed a bunch of ashes – hot ashes!” Thunderlane coughed. “Where did you get that?” he asked desperately as the coughing slowly died.
“The Princess Luna has offered me a few supplies to apologize for extending my stay in Ponyville,” he mumbled as he put the flask back into the fold of his sash that it had been hidden in.
“Wait, you mean you were gonna leave?” Rainbow asked.
“It was my plan, I have things that I need to get done away from … ponies. Those two idiots I’ve been saddled with will have to come, too. But now I’m not so sure I know what to do,” he mumbled. “I need to stay to protect the town, but …” he grumbled as he stood. He leaned forward and stretched out his legs with a groan. “We should sleep, I need to be back early tomorrow,” he said as he wandered around to the other side of the cloud, out of view.
“He’s right,” Rainbow said reluctantly as she made a dramatic yawn. “We got an early start tomorrow if we want to get back home to clean up before the Mayor writes up a complaint or something.” She rolled over onto her back, the cloud she already had more than comfortable enough to sleep on despite the chill air.
“Yeah, whatever,” Thunderlane said as he curled up beside his saddlebags. “That stuff Coalback gave me is already making me dizzy,” he mumbled.
The heater was shut off and packed away as sleeping arrangements were made. Some of the Pegasi decided to sleep next to each other despite the chill being nothing their blood couldn’t handle, some Pegasi were less built for the cold than others and the warmth of each other’s down was very inviting. But soon it became glaringly obvious that one member of their group had not yet gone to sleep, especially when his voice gently cut through the darkness.
Coalback’s voice rose and fell in a soft but growing song, wordless now but symphonic. Soon Coalback’s voice quelled itself as he finally took a breath. “I’ve heard there was secret chord,” his voice rose, singing in unsure Equestrian but surely in tune, “that David played and it pleased the Lord. But you don’t really care for music. Do you?” he sang, and his voice drew the other Pegasi away from their sleeping preparations.
“It goes like this: the fourth; the fifth; the minor fall; the major lift! The baffled king composing! Hallelujah!” His voice rose until it was shouted to the skies and somehow the happy words felt mournful. The Pegasus weather team slowly edged around the cloud, collectively fearful that if they made too much sound they would halt what they felt was a rare event.
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah. Hallelujah! Halleloooojah,” he sang in rising and falling notes. The chorus soon stretched and stretched on a single breath, longer still than the singing that had first drawn the others to witness it.
“Your faith was strong, but you needed proof! You saw her bathing on the roof! Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you!”
Finally the audience crested what little cloud separated them from their performance. And seeing the large knight with his head lifted up to the sky and his eyes closed with a soft, happy smile was entirely incredible to see. None of them, most so Rainbow Dash, had even realized that Coalback was capable of singing so well. His performance in the bar had colored her perception just a tad too much, it seemed.
“She tied you to a kitchen chair! She broke your throne, she cut your hair! And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah!” he shouted to the skies, suddenly his voice alive with emotion that was yet to be truly defined. And then once more he relaxed and the chorus poured from his lips like satin. “Hallelujah! Hallelujah. Hallelujah! Hallelooojah!”
“Baby, I’ve been here before. I know this room. I've walked this floor.” His wings slowly unfurled and the slightest sway became visible as he kept time. His voice was at the same time mesmerizingly soft and hypnotically intense, it was as if he could rock them all to sleep or draw their attention at any moment. “I used to live alone before I knew you!”
“I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch! But love is not a vict’ry march! It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah!” Once more his voice rose. A shout and a coo all in one, as if it demanded answers to questions unsaid and accused of crimes done in inaction. And then it was gone, as if the energy had drained from him in that emotion and all was left was the beautiful chorus.
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah. Hallelujah! Hallelooojah!” he mourned to the southern night sky.
“I did my best, it wasn't much. I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch. I’ve told the truth. I didn’t come to fool you.” Coalback’s wings spread wide, spread as if to embrace the stars and the moon that hung far above him. “And even though it all went wrong!” he sang, that strange emotion and energy back again. Enough to tighten skin and raise hairs, a kind of feeling that sent chills up spines. “I’ll stand before the Lord of Song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!” His voice echoed briefly along the clouds still hanging around them.
“Hallelujah,” Coalback sang plaintively. “Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Halleloooo … Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelooooooo …” he sang. The words somehow fell away and now it was simply a long, solid note that howled away into the night. And it went on until the onlookers were certain his lungs would run out of air and continued still more before it slowly, almost painfully, ended.
Coalback’s legs buckled under him and he fell onto his rump. His shoulders slumped and his wings rested against the cloud below him. He sat, and stared out at the silver lined clouds.
The weather ponies were left flabbergasted, unsure how to pull their mouths closed again. It was still so shocking to have witnessed so much emotion in the previously stoic as a statue stallion. That façade had fallen away rather quickly, and they were surprised they’d been able to bear witness to it.
However, soon the silence drew out into an uncomfortable pause. They looked to each other in some hope that one of them had a reasonable idea of what to do, they silently mouthed and shrugged but couldn’t manage to piece something together. Coalback sighed, though the sound was mostly sucked away by the open space and the slight wind.
“You all can go back to bed, I apologize,” Coalback said as his shoulders slumped.
Rainbow silently let out the breath she’d been holding and motioned for the others to go back to bed. Thankfully, unlike the last time he’d burst out into song, he hadn’t had a total breakdown. She understood, but she worried that the others might not think so highly of him if he’d freaked out on their first meeting. Something told her this was less grief than before, at least the song hadn’t seemed so sad. It had felt more bittersweet than anything.
Once they’d all slipped back behind the hill of cloud, Rainbow stepped down from her makeshift bed and stepped over to Coalback. She felt like she needed to say something, anything that might comfort him. He certainly seemed at war with himself over something, though she wasn’t sure what. He’d seemed happy only a few minutes ago, but now it was apparent that wasn’t all he’d been feeling.
Before Rainbow could say anything, Coalback said, “Thank you.” His voice felt raw and lacking in emotion, especially compared to his singing. A lot had to be held back by whatever walls Coalback put up between himself and everypony around him.
“For what?” Rainbow mumbled. She hadn’t expected to be thanked, if anything she thought Coalback might tell her not to worry or to leave him alone.
“For inviting me to be part of … this,” Coalback mumbled. He turned his head and looked at her through one, tired eye. “I haven’t felt like part of a … part of a group … in years. So, thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Rainbow said. She shuffled her hooves and took a seat next to him.
“I haven’t had … friends … for a long time,” Coalback admitted to her. Her ears perked up and she looked at him in surprise; she hadn’t expected him to say anything else. “I would like if I could call you friend,” he said.
“I already told you, dude,” Rainbow said and gently punched his arm, “we are friends.” She slid herself down until her forelegs hung off the edge of the cloud and turned back to the starry view that peaked out from between the higher remnants of the storm clouds. She felt rather than saw Coalback follow her example, his considerable weight deformed the clouds all around him and she had to fight to keep her balance and not slide down into him.
“Thank you,” he mumbled again. “Would you sleep next to me again, tonight?” he asked.
“Sure, dude,” Rainbow said, and slid down until they were pressed together. She had to admit, it was nice to have another pony’s warmth beside her on such a chilly night. She didn’t tell him that she noticed the redness in his cheeks, but neither could she deny the warmth that bloomed in her own. It was a little weird being so intimate with someone she’d only known for a short while. But it was nice.
The chilly night wasn’t exactly silent; the wind and rain far below granted a constant background noise, as well as the occasional rumble of distant thunder. However, the relative quiet was gently broken. The sound started softly, so softly that neither Rainbow nor Coalback noticed it at first. Rainbow’s ears pricked up first as she caught the wavering notes of another, bodiless voice.
“What is that?” she asked, though the question wasn’t directed to anypony in particular. Coalback jerked beside her, and when she looked she just caught him turn away from her to look in the direction of the singing.
The notes became audible again and she too turned to face them, though she couldn’t help but notice Coalback tense beside her. The notes rose and fell, and whoever it was was certainly a talented singer. Every note was smooth and drifted to the next like a hypnotic lullaby. Soon more voices joined it, but only briefly before the distant singing ended.
“Seriously, what was that?” she asked. This time she turned to see Coalback staring off in the distance as if he could spot the singer if only he stared hard enough. His ears were angled forward and his arms and legs were tense, as if he planned to leap up at any moment and go out looking for them.
“I want all of their belongings tallied, not even a belt buckle overlooked!” the large Pegasus dressed in silver armor bellowed to his legion of silver garbed soldiers. “Check under their tents for signs of something buried there, dig under the fire pit. They could have anything hidden around here!” His head was covered by the shining helmet of his armor, the tiny slots in his faceplate left nothing for anyone to see or strike at. A cape of white adorned with the golden symbol of Celestia’s crest was draped across his shoulders and his hooves were adorned in more silver armor.
The Guards’ camp had been overrun, silver armor flashed in every corner of the once nearly empty camp. The tents were torn down and shaken out, the ground below them inspected harshly. The locked chest was smashed open and its various contents strewn across the icy grass, the strange weaponry that the Guards had had been piled up for later inspection. And in one corner, chained in silver and gagged, lay the two Lunar converts: Iron Bar and Filibuster.
Several of the silver soldiers had been required to subdue the two, a surprising amount considering they’d been caught in their sleep early in the morning. Iron Bar was the most heavily chained, steam billowed out from his nostrils as he glared angrily at the soldiers all around him. Filibuster only glared, an iron ring clamped around his cracked horn had rendered his magic useless for anything more than sparks but he’d been no less of an obstacle for the soldiers, several of whom now sported wounds from the goring he’d delivered to them.
"Sir!" one of the soldiers called out. The knight turned his head toward the call to see the soldier holding aloft two large, sealed bags. The material suggested that it held a large amount of fine powders. The soldier brought it through the crowd and set them down in front of the knight, red and black powder stained the soldier’s once shining armor.
“Some contraband or poison, no doubt,” the knight said as he prodded one with a hoof and examined the red powder that stained them. “Burn both of them with cleansing incenses, that should rid us of it,” he commanded and waved the soldier away.
Several soldiers shouted out behind them and the knight wheeled around to witness the commotion. With a rush of wind a giant of a Pegasus landed heavily in the center of the camp, his wings kicked up clouds of dust and ash from the remains of the fire pit and the soldiers had to scramble to get out of his way. When he stood he towered over the soldiers and his long, muscular legs might have been called elegant. The scars across his throat and chest were prominent, and his steely coat was flawed with splatters of black. His huge wings folded clumsily at his side and intense green eyes examined the silver clad warriors all around him with contempt.
The knight had no doubt as to who this was.
“So the beast returns to his lair,” the silver knight announced to a round of chuckles from the crowd of soldiers. He silenced them with a raised wing, cleverly hidden blades in the brown feathers glinted dangerously in the cold light; the glint in Coalback’s eye told that he saw them there. Coalback walked toward the knight and the sea of silver split around him, wordlessly they knew that this was a confrontation for the knight and not them.
“You will release the boys and return my things,” Coalback growled as he stepped up to the knight, his bare tooth scowl directly in front of the knight’s faceplate.
“They attacked us, they are under arrest for assaulting soldiers of the Royal Army. And these things do not belong to you, they belong to the crown and have been confiscated,” the knight said, unfazed by the abnormally pointy teeth in Coalback’s mouth. The knight did not balk nor back down, he was confident that not only would his armor protect him but that the savage wouldn’t dare attack him with so many soldiers around. “And you,” he continued, “have been decreed as a dangerous individual, and we are here to protect the ponies of Ponyville from your actions,” he said.
“One,” Coalback hissed with a lifted hoof, “they protect the camp from intruders, as you appear to be: Two; these things were given to me by Princess Luna, not Princess Celestia, and only Lady Luna has the power to take them from me,” Coalback said as he wrenched a rifle from the hooves of a nearby soldier who had been taking them away. “Third! These, especially belong to me. From the money given to me for my services- Do not touch!” he grunted at a soldier as they tried to take away the bags of powder. The soldier jumped and dropped the bags, one split open and the red powder spilled out from it. “And fourth; my camp does not lie on royal soil,” Coalback growled, he couldn’t see the knight’s expression but the crowd around him suggested their confusion. “The Everfree Forest lies at the border of Equestria’s boundaries, and that fence you carelessly stomped through,” Coalback announced as he pointed to the ripped up ground that led toward the town, “marked the edge of the town’s boundaries. I know the laws, you have no jurisdiction here, and I would ask you to leave.”
A heavy silence hung over the camp. The tension grew as the soldiers awaited orders from the Solar knight, ready to attack or retreat at his word. Coalback’s intense eyes stared into the knight’s helmet with an intensity that suggested he really could see straight through it.
“Very well, you are not incorrect,” the knight grumbled. He lifted a wing, once again the blades hidden in his feathers glinted in the light, and he motioned for the soldiers to retreat back toward town. Slowly the knight turned his back on Coalback and began to follow his soldiers. “But I’m warning you, beastie, if I think you present any danger to this town or to the crown then hell nor high water will save you.”
“Is that a challenge?” Coalback snarled, his voice echoed against the hills.
“It’s a promise,” the knight hissed over his shoulder and did not pause in his march.
Coalback only growled deep in his chest, a sound that rippled across the ground like water. His squires walked up behind him, dirt and slush clung to their coats where they’d been thrown to the ground after release. They waited loyally for Coalback to give an order. “Let them do what they like, the town is protected now whether they like it or not. But do not travel alone, and do not provoke them,” he growled and his squires bowed their heads in assent. “This a power play,” Coalback spat as he pulled the flint striker from the rifle in his hooves. He struck it against the metal and a shower of sparks sprayed over the red dust that had spilled across the ground.
The dust let out a vicious roar as it ignited, a violent eruption of bright red flames sprayed up toward the air. The wave of heat that flowed off of it melted the ice and dried the grass in a wide circle around it. The heat quickly turned the soil below it into a molten glass and dried off the squires nearby.
A flurry of wings and Rainbow attempted to land nearby, she quickly reconsidered as she felt the heat of the flames and landed a good distance away. “What’s going on?” she asked with a questioning glare at the unnaturally red fire.
Coalback stepped out of the ring of heat. “A group of Solar soldiers came and tore up our camp, dumped out some spare fuel and now it has to be burned,” he explained.
“Why’d they do that?” Rainbow grunted with a glare at the evidence all around. “Sheesh, I wish I’d shown up sooner. I was just coming to ask how you liked the trip, but this kinda puts a damper on things. I’m sorry this happened, dude,” she said.
“It was not you, you do not need to be sorry. Besides, the danger is passed, we don’t plan on doing much except for training for now,” Coalback said as he examined the rifle in his hooves. The shaft was broken where the soldier’s grip had resisted him and he quickly snapped off the bottom end. It might be repairable but the counterweight at the bottom was useless now, so he tossed it into the flames.
The wood screamed as the heat boiled away whatever water was left in it, and the steel counterweight quickly melted and began to boil. The fire ate the shaft as quickly as a dog might snap up a table scrap.
“We’ll be training from two hours before sunrise until noon every morning, and you’re welcome to join us whenever you like,” Coalback said as he turned to go and repair his tent. His defeated squires followed diligently.
---
The sun had begun to dip towards the horizon and gain an orange hue, but the normally quiet town of Ponyville was bustling with activity. Small groups of silver clad ponies marched up and down the streets, they often stopped ponies to question them. They’d set up their camp in one of the parks in the center of town, the once peaceful scenery now littered with tents and fire pits. In just a day a virtual army had moved into Ponyville, and all the little parties that seemed to follow them too. They had cooks and armorers in their own tents, a large battle tent had been set up in its interior. A long flag pole had been erected and flew a banner emblazoned with Celestia’s mark.
“This is so strange,” Rarity said as she looked out Sugercube Corner’s windows at the ranks of silver clad ponies as they marched by. “And to think I thought Coalback’s short lived curfew was intrusive on my schedule. I was stopped twice on my way here by different soldiers,” Rarity grumbled.
“I know,” Twilight agreed, “the mayor hasn’t said anything about it, and I don’t recognize any of these Guards. Where do you think they came from?”
“It’s pretty plain that Princess Celestia sent ‘em, I just can’t figure out why,” Applejack offered.
“Maybe they’re here to help Sir Coalback?” Fluttershy mumbled into her mug of hot cocoa. “You did say that it was strange that only they came here.”
“I might think that too if they hadn’t marched in and trashed his camp,” Rainbow said. “I went over there and the place was wrecked, their stuff was all over the ground.” She stabbed at a salad with a fork, not really in the mood to eat and for some reason didn’t see it very appetizing.
“Oh,” Fluttershy muttered as she hid behind her mug.
“Perhaps …” Rarity began but cut herself off with a thoughtful hum.
“What is it, Rares?” Applejack muttered.
“Well, I hate to say it, but what if Celestia is still upset with Coalback,” Rarity suggested as she watched a group of soldiers who had stopped outside of Sugarcube Corner. “She did seem quite miffed after that day in the courtroom, she didn’t even see us off.”
“Would Celestia hold a grudge? And just what does she have against Coalback?” Rainbow asked. All eyes turned to Twilight, who had slowly begun to sweat.
“Well, if the history books are right …” Twilight started, “then the last time Celestia and Luna had knights was right before Nightmare Moon was banished,” she said as she nervously twiddled her hooves. “It could be that there’s some sort of power struggle going on that they haven’t told us about … something personal that’s put them against each other,” she said, the realization dawned on her as she said it. “After all, Celestia didn’t seem like herself when we saw her. It was like she was wearing a mask.”
“A power struggle?” Rarity asked incredulously. “Between the Princesses? Twilight, you can’t possibly be-“
“But it would make sense!” Twilight insisted. “If Luna’s return has caused as much interruption to normal government as the newspapers claim, then it could potentially create power struggles underneath their noses. It might not be them directly making these decisions!” she explained.
“How does that work? Celestia and Luna are the Princesses, nothing happens without their say so,” Applejack said. She was on Rarity’s side on this, there was a piece missing here.
“Celestia herself told me that she can only read so many of the bills presented to her, and that often smaller undesirable bills can ride the coattails of others in ways that are difficult to spot. It could be that the bureaucracy underneath them saw the need for the Knights and that presented them in a way that was reasonable and are employing them for this,” Twilight said with a hoof pointed out the window.
Outside a set of soldiers pinned a large poster to the side of a shop. The paper was topped with Celestia’s mark.
“By royal order of her highness, Princess Celestia, the principality of Ponyville is now under martial law. These rules have been posted for your safety …” Fluttershy read. She got a surprised look from everyone at the table but Rainbow. “Pegasi have good eyesight …” she muttered.
“Curfew is seven o’clock p.m. every night,” Rainbow read with a scowl. “And ‘homes and businesses are subject to unannounced searches and seizures’! What the hell is this?!” she demanded. She slammed her fork into her salad, the idea of eating at all was alien to her now.
“Whatever!” Pinkie said as she hopped over to the table and slapped down a tray of cupcakes with silver swirls of icing. “This’ll blow over in no time! I can tell!” she bubbled as she passed out the cupcakes.
“Pinkie sense?” Twilight asked.
“Yup!” she said as she ate a cupcake, the cake gone in a single bite that somehow left the paper wrapper in tact. “I got a wiggly tail and itchy hooves the second those guys rolled in! This’ll all be over in just a few days!”
“Ah thought wiggly tail and itchy hooves meant someone was gonna get into an argument?” Applejack said as she took a bite of her own cupcake. Apple and cinnamon, a favourite.
“No, that’s itchy hooves then wiggly tail! This was wiggly tail and itchy hooves at the same time!” Pinkie explained. Everypony around the table nodded, that made sense. “Besides, I got more important things to think about! Like Coaback’s Welcome To Ponyville Party! It’s soooo overdue!” Pinkie said with a triumphant smile.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea, sugarcube? Seems to me like Coalback don’t like meetin’ new ponies,” Applejack said as she washed down her cupcake with her mug of hot cocoa.
“That’s what had me stumped for so long!” Pinkie declared with an exasperated sigh. “But I finally figured it out! We’ll just have a little party with the ponies he knows!” she said with a beaming smile. “Just us six, Spike, your sisters, and Iron Bar and Filibuster! We can do it at your barn, Applejack!” Pinkie said. She held out another cupcake to Applejack, the bribery obvious now for what it was.
Applejack rolled her eyes and took the cupcake. “It’s fine by me,” she said as she started to nibble at the new cupcake.
“Woohoo!” Pinkie said with a hop high into the air. “I’ll get the confetti!” she beamed as she sped off deeper into the bakery.
“Is she going now? It’s nearly seven, I hope she doesn’t get in trouble,” Rarity muttered as she took another glance out the window.
“I reckon not even Celestia herself could stop that girl once she’s got herself set on somethin’,” Applejack offered as she finished her cupcake and cocoa. “I betcha she’ll have the whole thing set up by tomorrow night and nopony’ll be able to stop her then. Ah better head off though, with this curfew and all,” Applejack grumbled as she donned her hat. “Thought we was finished with that malarkey,” she muttered under her breath as she went out the door.
“And I’d better find Sweetie Belle and get her home as well. It was good to see you all again,” Rarity said as she hugged Fluttershy. She wrapped her pink scarf around her neck and stepped out the door as well.
They all made their excuses and said their goodbyes and were soon all on their way home. Rainbow made her way home as well, not interested in being haggled by the newest visitors to Ponyville. However, she couldn’t help but look at them with a new critical eye, one that looked for openings and weaknesses. She couldn’t help but see them all as potential opponents, perhaps it was Coalback’s training.
---
The night was frigid and the insistent clouds overhead had begun to slowly trickle out snowflakes with the newfound freeze. The night below was black as pitch, and the shadows thrown by the soldier’s torches as they patrolled the town seemed all the more darker for their light. And in the forest, the darkness sat like a thick fog. No torch could pierce its depths, but the eyes of the Lunar Guards could.
Iron Bar and Filibuster didn’t quite consider themselves Lunar Guards, even though that was their official designation now. Rather, they saw themselves as soldiers under Coalback more than Luna, their orders came from him and not from Luna. And more still, their new strength and abilities had come from him. Stronger and faster than they’d ever been before, it had only taken two weeks for them to quickly overtake their previous physical peaks. Their hearing had sharpened as well as their eyesight, even more so in the stillness of the night. They found their movements more sure, more calculated and with better foundation. And their bodies moved the moment they willed it, their reaction time near instantaneous.
Their bodies had been honed down to a lethal point. As Coalback had told them they would become.
Coalback himself paced in front of them on the ledge that separated the forest from the decrepit castle of the Royal Sisters, which had become their new base of operations. With the silver clad soldiers in the vicinity, and their clear lack of respect for Coalback’s authority it was no longer practical to keep their most valuable tools and supplies where they were in danger of being confiscated. Their camp remained, but it was purely empty of supplies now.
His hooves dug at the dirt as he walked, frozen clods thrown about carelessly as he paced in a simmering anger. His armor and his sash lay forgotten inside the castle ruins. Snowflakes drifted down and melted on his blank flanks and ice clung to his unshorn fetlocks. Thick clouds of steam billowed out from Coalback’s nostrils as he paced, a deep look of concentration on his face.
“He’s just testing your honor, Sir,” Filibuster said, his voice low in the darkness. The stillness of the night allowed their voices to carry farther, so they spoke softly in order to not be overheard – by soldier or beast or whatever else may lurk in the dark.
“It’s not about honor,” Coalback growled under his breath, clearly spoken to their sensitive hearing. “It’s about sending a message,” he growled. The growl rumbled out through the ground and dust fell from the cliff face behind him in a rattling cascade down the face.
“What are they trying to say then?” Iron Bar asked.
Coalback smiled then, not a happy smile but rather a sneer that showed the glint of his sharp, jagged teeth. “They think they have power over us,” he growled, a slight chuckle in his words. “They think their silver and their training will protect them. And it makes them stupid. All they’re interested in is taking away our strength.”
“They have guns, too,” Iron Bar said. “I saw them unloading them from the blind south of here,” he said. Their hunting blinds were everywhere now, and they could watch the whole town from them or the border of their claim on the forest.
“Guns make stupid, too. Sometimes more stupid,” Coalback chuckled. “Don’t worry. Especially about honor,” Coalback growled as he stopped his pacing.
“Should we return the favor?” Filibuster asked, his own enthusiasm at the prospect surprised him but it didn’t feel wrong anymore. He’d lost all inhibitions about violence the moment he’d been bound up and gagged by those thugs.
“No!” Coalback said resolutely, the glow of the dim light in his eyes aimed hard at Filibuster. “There’s no point. Sooner or later we may have to work with him, but right now there’s nothing to risk or gain, so we let them be,” he lectured. “We should be able to relax, they pose little real danger to us,” he said with a glance at the trees around them.
“Sir?” Iron Bar said as he tried to follow his master’s line of sight. It was rare for Coalback to stare into nothing, at least while they were around. He was always on point, or edge, and he never allowed his mind to wander while they were nearby.
“Nothing,” Coalback snorted as he shook his head. The little spikes of ivory in his ear clacked together and he winced. “Let’s find something to eat,” he growled.
Coalback’s fur shivered on its own as his muscles writhed under his hide. His wings folded up and twitched as they receded into his back. The muscles on his chest writhed as they rearranged themselves and his bones shifted. His chest cracked and groaned as his ribs pushed themselves out and his shoulders sunk into a more streamlined shape. His head dipped as his muzzle stretched violently and his teeth grew out into their true fangs. His eyes shrunk in size, sharper and more compact and all the more intense in their gaze. His hooves cracked as they split and his bones separated to reform his paws. His mane fell out and regrew around his neck, the extra hair on his tail fell away just as quickly.
Coalback shook himself and in moments the dark wolf that had claimed these woods stood over the two ponies. He bared his teeth to them and they bared their own fangs back at him and folded their ears back in submission. He turned away and they followed him diligently into the forest to look for their next meal.
---
Rainbow bowed her head to catch her breath and wipe the sweat from her brow. The cold in the air nipped at her withers, but the heat from her muscles was incredible and she relished the cold. Her joints ached from constant movement and her muscles screamed for relief.
Coalback grunted and the training continued. Rainbow raised the makeshift training stave and Coalback’s strike glanced off of it. His hooves shuffled forward and he reared back to strike at her again. Rainbow hopped back and balanced on her back hooves as she used both forelegs to block the next attack. She recovered quickly and stepped forward to go on the offensive with a horizontal cut.
Coalback’s defense was solid and his own training stave spun around and batted hers out of the way. He stepped to the outside and shoved a thrust in her direction. Rainbow dodged and batted the tip away just for good measure.
The ground under their hooves scraped and tore at the frogs of Rainbow’s rear hooves, she could feel each step now as a dull throb beneath her hooves. Coalback had been training her in fighting on two legs since she’d shown up at dawn. He’d said it provided better control, but it was obvious that Coalback had been fighting on two legs for a very long time. He never once lost his balance or tripped, unlike Rainbow.
Coalback struck again at an upward angle. Rainbow managed to deflect it before it could smack against her ribs, but her hooves tangled themselves underneath her and she fell onto her back. The air rushed out of her lungs and she scrambled breathlessly to get back up. She heard Coalback land back on all four hooves and took that moment to gasp for breath. When she looked back up at him the horizon had captured his attention and she was drawn to a pause.
She followed his line of sight only to freeze as she realized that they were being watched. The silver knight from the day before stood on top of the hill, several of his silver clad soldiers stood around him with their spiky halberds. When they noticed Coalback’s gaze they began to walk toward the sparring ring. Coalback let out a deep growl from in his chest and Rainbow watched him stab his stave into the ground.
They walked slowly, as if they relished the fact that their small audience’s attention was locked squarely on them. The knight’s armor glistened in the sun, barely a scratch on it. His brown wings glittered with the hidden edges of cleverly crafted silver blades. Filibuster and Iron Bar stood up from the center of camp and armed themselves with their undamaged rifles, the heavy mating of black steel and wood thumped heavily against the ground as they walked over to offer Coalback back up.
Filibuster’s rifle impacted the dirt in front of the procession and he blocked their path with the heavy barrel. The procession halted and Iron Bar added his rifle to the blockade. “Enter the circle,” Filibuster said gravely, “and you accept that you become part of the training exercise.”
Filibuster’s face scrunched up as the lead soldier lowered his halberd and brushed Filibuster’s cheek with it. A thin smoke wafted off of the blade, and the smell of singed fur tinted the air. The soldier snickered derisively, but pulled his halberd back and took no further steps. The second soldier raised his halberd and slammed the shaft against the ground, a scroll tied off to its top shook free and unrolled to display the royal seal toward the circle.
“We are here to remove the Lady Rainbow Dash from your presence, and this is a formal cease and desist order,” the knight said, muffled through his full face helmet.
“Rainbow Dash is here of her own free will, and may leave whenever she wishes,” Iron Bar growled, his deep baritone and intimidating figure in full effect. He flexed the huge muscles in his chest and arms, perhaps in suggestion that he would be willing to defend his claim.
“Yeah, what’s the big deal?” Rainbow asked. She shook the sweat out of her eyes and took one last breath to calm her heart. She hadn’t kept her heartrate up for as long as she’d wanted, and now she was getting a bit irritated at the interruption.
“Stay out of this, Rainbow Crash,” the knight said, some amount of endearment leaking into his words.
Rainbow paused however and squinted up at the knight. “Dumbbell?” she asked in just as much disbelief as surprise.
“Took you long enough, feather brain,” Dumbbell said as he unclamped his helmet and pulled it off. His brown mane had been cut short the tips had for some reason been bleached a bright blond, even his eyes seemed to have flecks of gold in them. “Like what you see?” he asked with a smug grin.
“How …?” Rainbow mumbled.
“Working in the weather factory got boring for me, so I joined the Guard. Turns out that I’m really good at that. I’m so good, in fact, that Princess Celestia hoof picked me for her personal Guard. Then when this guy showed up,” he said with a nod toward Coalback, “I got promoted, and deployed out here,” he bragged as he rubbed a smudge off of his helmet with his cloak. “Now come on, you shouldn’t be hanging around this loser anyway,” he said as he motioned for his two leading soldiers to step in.
“Since when do you get to order me around?!” Rainbow protested as the first soldier pushed past Filibuster’s rifle.
“Since I was tasked with protecting you from him,” Dumbbell said with a pointed glare at Coalback.
The soldier stepped between Rainbow and Coalback and an armored hoof took hold of her arm. She hardly had time to form a protest before Coalback’s hoof had taken hold of the Soldier’s. Coalback twisted his hoof and the soldier’s grip immediately fell away as he let out a shout. Coalback nearly pulled the armored stallion off of his hooves as he separated the soldier from Rainbow. The soldier shook free and stepped back as Coalback’s hoof began to smoke.
“I think Rainbow Dash has made it clear that she doesn’t want to go with you,” he growled at Dumbbell, though his eyes stayed on the soldier that had now readied his halberd. The second soldier stepped in as he removed the scroll from his halberd and brought it to bear with a swirling motion that suggested martial mastery. Coalback set his hoof down, and stepped into a subtle ready stance.
“Raise your hoof again and taste holy silver, mongrel,” the soldier in front of Coalback shouted.
“Leave my lands, and my guest, in peace,” Coalback growled. His voice vibrated deep in his chest and carried more power in it than any shout the soldier could have issued. In the back of her mind, Rainbow wondered what it might be like if Coalback really decided to raise his voice at someone in anger.
“The forest may not be chartered as Royal Land, but it certainly does not belong to you,” Dumbbell said confidently. “Beasts and savages can’t own land, they don’t know how,” he said smugly. “Now step aside before we teach you a lesson in respect of the crown,” he said with a nod at the soldier still inside the circle.
“I’ll be the one teaching, today,” Coalback snarled as the soldier took a step forward. Coalback’s stave moved with a flash and kicked out the solder’s leg as he took a step, the hoof went wide and the soldier had to struggle to keep from toppling onto his face. Another quick swipe from the wooden stave and the heavy halberd tipped out of the soldier’s grip and flipped outside of the sparring circle.
Rainbow stepped between them as quickly as she dared to stop Coalback from doing anything more to the soldier. “Whoa!” she shouted, which was enough to halt Coalback. The soldier stood up and made to push her out of the way. Rainbow reacted without thinking and knocked his helmet with heavy backside of her hoof, it made a very satisfying ring against the polished metal. “Hold it!” she demanded. “I don’t have to do anything you say! I have rights and so does he! You can’t just tell us to get lost, this is where he lives!” she said with an angry hoof pointed at Dumbbell.
“No, I can’t tell him to pick up and move. Unfortunately,” Dumbbell admitted. “However, limiting public gatherings and individual mobility is well within my power,” he grinned. “According to the laws and limits involving declaring Martial Law, I am allowed to hold ponies for unlimited periods, restrict speech and assembly, and even control individual freedoms in order to keep the peace. All to my discretion. Even if Coalback resides off of Royal Lands, I can unofficially ‘expand’ the territory under my control to include him. As of now, he is under restriction from seeing you, or any of your friends,” Dumbbell said with a grin. “For your own protection,” he added as an afterthought.
“You can’t do that!” Rainbow protested as the soldier grabbed her and pulled her out of the circle.
“As a matter of fact, I can,” Dumbbell said as he put his helmet back on. Like a wave, another procession if soldiers marched over the hill and into the camp.
Silver soldiers surrounded Coalback, their halberds glinted in a spiky wall all around him as they kept him in place. He didn’t have enough room to even spread his wings as he stretched his neck up high to avoid being pricked by the razor edged tips of the weapons. He couldn’t do anything to stop them from dragging Rainbow away from his camp and back to town.
“Ask yourself this, Sir Dumbbell!” Coalback snarled after them. “What are you? A hero keeping peace, or a weapon pointed at the enemy so that someone else can claim a victory?”
“I know my place!” Dumbbell shouted back, and his voice rung inside his helmet. “It is time you learned yours!”
Clean Cut’s office was dark, the walls hidden in the gloom. He huddled over his desk, his chair discarded and forgotten amongst the piles of notes, discarded books, and scratch paper. The stub of a candle still spread its tiny light, just enough for Clean Cut to read his own writing by. Merletta’s feathers gleamed in the dim light.
“So as long as Ponyville remain ignorant of Coalback’s beasthood, things will go smoothly?” Clean Cut asked as he made several marks on his paper.
“Yes, but not exactly. If I’m right, the most likely scenario is a confrontation with Dumbbell; two powerful individuals in one place like that often leads to some form of conflict. But so long as Coalback does not decide to kill Dumbbell or any of Dumbbell’s soldiers, then the entire town will be safe when this turning point occurs,” Merletta explained. Clean Cut scribbled some more.
“And the anomaly you keep seeing?” he asked.
“Well, things become less easy to read the more people that are involved in a major event. Ponyville currently has quite a few individuals whose decisions could drastically change how the future unfolds,” Merletta explained. “It is the epicenter of events which we hope to divine …”
“But it doesn’t add up,” Clean Cut finished for her.
“No, it doesn’t. It isn’t an exact science, as you well know, but there’s too much variation. It doesn’t seem to fit with those involved: Dumbbell is too fixed in his point of view to stray from his decisions much, Celestia has made sure of that; and Coalback … Coalback is cold and calculating when it comes to such situations, but also an opportunist by nature, if he sees a way to not kill Dumbbell I think he will take it; and the Elements remain their own myriad of influences, but each somewhat predictable. Things should be relatively linear, though branching. It’s like another player has entered the game, without motive or a decisive goal, and their existence seems just as fluid. It’s this strange fluctuation, I can’t place who it is,” she admitted.
“You’ve not seen anything like it before?” Clean Cut asked as he rolled up his scroll.
“Only once,” she said reluctantly, however at the expectant look that Clean Cut aimed at her she continued: “Before Discord killed Necessaria. Before Luna and Celestia became the last Alicorns,” she said. “This anomaly will intervene, but how and when will determine how everything from here unfolds.”
“Oh no, an ouroboros …” Clean Cut mumbled as he sank to the floor.
“Yes,” Merletta agreed. “A recurring event. A fixed point …”
“… And where there is death, there will always be death,” they finished together.
---
Dumbbell sat in his tent, one of the largest in the camp, and allowed his breathing to fill his hearing. He concentrated on the creak of his ribs and the hollow sound of his lungs as they emptied and filled. The bed at one side and his desk at the other, even the thick rug that he sat on, all slowly faded from his vision. The heavy silver plated armor that he wore became heavier and his breath became colder.
Around him, in the darkness that his senses had become, he heard the echoes of war. Ponies screamed and burning buildings roared, metal clashed against metal, something large bellowed in the distance. Armies roared their battle cries as they leapt, unseen, into battle. Smoke filled Dumbbell’s nostrils, the acrid stench of burning flesh and fur. The air was so permeated with blood that Dumbbell could taste the copper on the back of his tongue.
When sight returned to Dumbbell the battlefield came with it. Before him lay the most terrifying spectacle of the entire battle: a pile of the dead. Mutilated ponies lay piled in a mountain of gore, faces had been ripped off of skulls, and entire limbs had been liberated from torsos. An Alicorn topped the pile, her throat shredded with white spine revealed to the open air. However, as Dumbbell stared at the display, he was able to discover more desecrated bodies of old gods.
Thunderous growls rolled out from the darkness as a pack of horribly misshapen wolves crawled out from behind the pile of the dead. Each of them was larger than any true wolf, muscle rippled in waves beneath mangy black fur as if their bodies were filled with raging storm clouds. Drool, stained red with blood, dripped from their maws between more rows and rows of teeth. Huge sickle shaped claws clacked against the bloody cobblestones, gobbets of meat still clung to their misshaped paws as they prowled about.
Their beady black eyes stared up at the pile of pony meat and they closed in on the mound. One let out a snarl and pounced at the body of the dead god and its teeth sank into the flesh as if it were no different than any other meat. But unlike the rest of the meat before them, the beasts lusted only for the god-flesh. The rest of the pack pounced, yips and snarls filled the air as they filled their stomachs.
“They left nothing to bury,” Celestia’s voice echoed above it all. “Not even the bones,” she said, her voice wavering in a way that she would never have allowed the general public to hear from her. “We used to be many, and we would have saved the world. But they stopped us. These are dead things, made by a dead power, in the shape of the dead. All they will ever do is kill. They took my sisters from me, and now HE conspires to take my last sister from me, too.”
The vision before Dumbbell changed suddenly. Teeth snapped in front of his nose and Dumbbell could not suppress the shiver that shot up his spine. Coalback’s dark, green eyes flickered black as a deep growl shook the silver cage around him. Dumbbell watched in horror as Coalback’s fur shivered and he began to change. His shoulders writhed and a pair of his ribs ripped out from his chest and snapped into place on his back. Blood vessels grew like roots along the bone and tendons chased after them. Flesh crawled up the bones as the tendons grew into muscle and flexed, the ribs cracked, suddenly in the rough shape of a pair of wings. Feathers grew with the flesh, strings of congealed blood clung to the spines of each one.
Dumbbell shut his eyes, he’d yet to be able to force himself to watch the entire transformation. The hideous display was so abhorrently unnatural that he’d barely been able to watch the wings form on Coalback at first. But the legs and face, it was too terrifying a thing to see with his mind intact. He was afraid, and his fear filled him with anger. Fear was weakness, and in the face of evil he could show no fear. He hated himself, but most of all he hated the creature that conjured such feelings of weakness inside him.
"Sir?"
Dumbbell spun his head around and locked onto the silver clad soldier standing like a beacon in the darkness, the stripes of a captain glinted in an unseen light. He saw his eye reflected in the soldier’s silver armor, the gold flecks had dilated just the same as his pupils. Like an eclipse that stared out from his skull. He blinked, and the visions disappeared. Once more he sat in his tent.
“Yes, Captain?” Dumbbell said.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt your prayer, Sir,” the Captain said with a respectful nod. “However, I thought it necessary that you knew; soldiers spotted Loyalty and Magic at the Beasts’ camp. It looked like they were training in some sort of Minotaur martial arts; on two legs. But the demon himself was dressed in black armor, hooves to withers in Lunar Steel. They were certain he was looking for a fight, so they didn’t intervene.”
“That was wise of them, he’s powerful enough to take on even a large group of highly trained soldiers if he has the desire to. I fear the only way we might destroy him is with a one on one challenge, at least then he might show some honor,” Dumbbell grumbled as he stood up and walked over to his desk. He pulled open a drawer and pulled out his writing supplies, he removed the golden seal with Celestia’s mark and set it down with a heavy finality. “Let’s see if a few choice words can’t get the good ponies of Ponyville on our side,” he muttered as he dipped the quill into the ink.
---
The town was quiet on a snowy day, especially with how much unexpected snow had come in the night. It seemed like most ponies would be spending the day indoors, with hot drinks and warm fires. All except the soldiers on patrol and the children at play it would seem. Marching boots and squeals of joy juxtaposed in the echoes of sound that leaked out from the little countryside town.
For the most part the clearing of the snow was done, and what melt there was stayed off the streets and flowed back toward the icy rivers and streams. The camp was dry as well, for the most part, as the snow had all been shoveled out and made into icy piles all around its border. Snowmares and forts littered the spaces where the snow had not been cleared, the sign of a herd of children on the move to play with as much of the snow as possible before it melted.
However, the camp outside of town, in reflection, seemed to have done little in response to the snow. Their fire burned warmly on a stack of ashen stones, but the ground around it had become muddy as they’d not bothered to clear the snow. The sparring circle had been hidden below the snow, but Coalback had put his squires into it anyway. As a result the circle had become an icy, muddy, slush with all the activity that had gone through it that morning. Rainbow had joined them and now her hooves were soaked in the freezing mud, it would seem frostbite would halt their training before exhaustion would.
Coalback was dressed in full armor, his scabbard tied around his sword so that he could swing it near his students without any accident. His helmet was tied off to his belt, which left him open to observe his students and quickly correct them. An unlit pipe hung from Coalback’s lips, one that the old blacksmith mare had given him and that he’d taken to use in the sunless mornings that he set aside for training. He’d dressed them all in armor, though in place Rainbow had simply worn as many running weights as she could get her hooves on. Thankfully she'd only needed a few to match the weight of armor, and that had been enough to satisfy Coalback before they started.
“But I thought you were here to protect us, why can’t you work with Celestia’s soldiers?” Twilight asked from beside the fire where she watched Coalback put Rainbow and his squires through different drills with dulled swords. Twilight had joined Rainbow this morning in an effort to reach some solution to the conflict between the Lunar and Solar soldiers. However, unlike Rainbow, she’d thought to bundle up and wear thick snow boots that kept her from the same torture Rainbow had subjected herself to.
Coalback paused momentarily to think, poised between stances, before he continued and spoke. “It is not that I do not wish it. Celestia and her soldiers see me like most ponies see this forest,” he mumbled around his pipe with a nod to the frozen trees behind him. “It’s full of monsters and beasts, and I imagine that some have attempted to burn it down in the past. It’s dangerous, ugly, and it presents a real threat to the safety of everyone near it.”
“Well, yes, but most ponies who have tried, failed. The forest returned within the next year, thicker and darker than before. No one has succeeded,” Twilight said. In fact, when she thought back to what she’d read and heard from the older residents, the forest had been almost peaceful before ponies had cut large portions of it down for building materials and fuel. The forest was more dangerous today than it had ever been in the history of Equestria.
“It is like trying to chase away the night with a candle,” Coalback said as he shifted into a defensive stance and his students followed. “That little flame defies and defines the darkness. After all, darkness cannot exist without light, and neither can light without darkness. They are the same,” he said as he demonstrated a parry and where his hooves were beneath him as he did it. “Celestia thinks me some darkness that can be cast out with a bright enough candle, but she forgets the shadow the light casts.”
“I didn’t think you were so … poetic, Coalback,” Twilight said with a smile.
“Sounded more like a riddle to me,” Rainbow said from the sparring circle as she finished one of her forms. “’What defines and defies the darkness?’” she said in her snootiest voice.
“Continue the drill,” Coalback said sternly, though his small smile betrayed his good mood.
“Careful, your humor is showing,” Rainbow said with a grin as she picked back up where she’d left off. Careful to keep her center of gravity over the space between her rear hooves, she dropped her stance and performed a quick upward sweep with her dulled sword. She’d been practicing simple strikes and sweeps all morning, and she would continue until Coalback was certain she was confident enough with a blade to do anything akin to how he used a sword.
“Are we playing a riddle game?” Pinkie bubbled as she appeared from within the log pile near the fire. “I love riddle games!” Pinkie greeted Twilight with her brightest smile as she bounced across the camp to an old stump near Coalback. Somehow her excited bouncing didn’t disturb the basket on her back nor did it fling her pink boots off her hooves. “I’ve got a riddle! What’s black and white, and blue all over?” she asked him with a large smile.
“Blue eyes?” Coalback asked in way of humoring her, his good mood apparently applicable outside the sparring ring.
“Nope!” Pinkie exclaimed with a snort and a giggle. “It’s you, silly! Here’s another one! Who’s brand new in town, and going to a super duper Welcome To Ponyville Party?!”
“Sir Dumbbell?” Coalback asked. He raised an eyebrow, now unsure of what her point was.
“Wrong, again!” Pinkie giggled. “You are really bad at this! It’s you, again!” She hopped past him and a pink, frilled invitation fell out of her basket and landed on Coalback’s nose. “You guys are invited, too!” she sing-songed as she hopped past Iron Bar and Filibuster, an invitation for either of them slipped into their coifs as she passed.
“This may be in poor taste,” Filibuster said reluctantly, as he inspected the swirling letters on the invitation.
“We have much work in the forest, and I am reluctant to test Sir Dumbbell’s patience any further than I already am,” Coalback grumbled as he squinted at the writing.
“Don’t even worry about it, he won’t mind! Besides, it’ll be at Applejack’s house, and she won’t let the soldiers anywhere near her fields,” she giggled. Applejack seemed to loath the soldier’s presence just as much as Coalback did, and had made it quite clear to anypony in earshot.
“We could show up without ever being seen by one of them, the soldiers would never know,” Iron Bar said as he thought about how the town was laid out. “A short walk through the boundary, and we’d be in one of the far fields. Then it’s just a matter of walking to the farm house,” he said.
Coalback hummed, considering the idea with more thought now.
“And it would only be a small party: just with Rarity and her sister; Applejack, her brother, her sister, and her granny; Twilight and Spike; Fluttershy; me; and Rainbow Dash! Course, I think Scootaloo’s gonna come too, she and her friends don’t go anywhere without each other,” Pinkie rambled off as she bounced back toward Coalback.
“Who is ‘Spike’?” Coalback asked.
“He’s my assistant. He’s been sick lately, which is why you two haven’t met yet,” Twilight said with a sheepish smile. “But he’s been feeling better, and he might be up to coming to the party tonight! You should come, Coalback, all of you should! We really want to be able to thank you for the work you’ve been doing, especially since Luna is requesting you stay for a whole year,” Twilight said sincerely.
"We will come,” Coalback said with a sigh.
"Yippee!” Pinkie exclaimed with an ecstatic hop. However, she paused with a confused look on her face, her gaze drifted into a thousand yard stare, and she was totally silent.
“Pinkie?” Twilight asked, which was also enough to draw Rainbow’s attention from the sparring circle. “Are you alright?” Twilight asked when Pinkie didn’t react. She stepped away from the fire and moved toward Pinkie, but the instant Twilight touched Pinkie, a shiver visibly ran up Pinkie’s spine.
“Whoo-oo-oo!” Pinkie shivered as she gave a shake. “That was a d-da-doozy!” she stuttered as she continued to shiver.
“Pinkie Sense?” Twilight asked, to which Pinkie shakily nodded. Twilight unwrapped her scarf and tied it around Pinkie’s neck, to which Pinkie nodded and grinned in thanks. “What’s going to happen?” Twilight asked, though with the same amount of apprehension she usually held when relying on the mysterious Pinkie Sense for predictions.
“I d-don’t know! That’s why it’s a d-da-doozy! It’s something ta-t-totally unexpected!” Pinkie said as her shivers began to subside. “Whatever it was it felt really, really, super, duper, cold! Like when somepony dumps snow down your parka, or when you forget to get out the winter comforter for your bed during the first big freeze of the season and you can’t stop shivering all night long!” she rambled.
“I do not understand. Are you cold, or are you having a seizure?” Coalback asked.
“Pinkie can see the future sometimes,” Rainbow said from the circle. “No one’s really sure how it works, but she’s never been wrong before,” she explained, though she didn’t interrupt her swordplay.
“Interesting,” Coalback muttered as he checked the angle of the sun. “That’s enough!” he yelled toward the circle, his signal for a break in the training. “Time to get something to eat, boys. Rainbow, you may retire for the day,” he said as his squires dropped their training gear and sprinted into the frozen forest.
“Why are they going that way?” Rainbow asked as she pulled her running weights off. Her arms burned pleasantly, and she could tell that she’d be sore by the end of the day.
“We moved all of our supplies further into the forest to prevent Dumbbell and his brood from destroying anything else. And even in winter, the forest provides,” Coalback explained with a shrug.
“Alright, I’ll see you later?” Rainbow asked as she gathered up her training weights. She needed a hot bath and a nap, she wasn’t used to working out so early or in such harsh conditions.
He nodded with a grunt but his gaze drifted back to the trees. Had that been his squires moving through the brush, or something else? His eyes raked the frozen twigs and branches, the ice looked disturbed but he couldn’t be sure. And that smell, it was strange and he was certain it hadn’t been there moments ago. He didn’t recognize it and he couldn’t place it.
“Coalback?” Twilight asked.
Coalback jerked back to attention. “Sorry, what?” he asked.
“I said: We’ll see you at the party,” Twilight said.
“Of course. I apologize, my thoughts escaped me,” he said as they waved their goodbyes and crested the hill. But, again, Coalback’s gaze drifted to the forest.
---
Applejack’s orchards were silent after sunset. There was little work to be done after dark, and with most of the critters in the area hibernating or migrating there were very few left to break the silence. All the same, the silence was broken as three stallions emerged from the forest and hopped the fence.
Their breath clouded the air in front of them, and their eyes cut through the darkness with the glow that betrayed their true nature. Their hooves crunched through the snow, but they did not seem to sink into it nearly as far as they should have. Their ears stood tall and twitched at every sound. The prospect of warm food and good company had put them in a good mood, but it had not dulled their guard. Their eyes glinted in the darkness, the thin light of the near full moon thrown back from their eyes.
Filibuster and Iron Bar wore no armor, however their rifles were slung over their shoulders. A horn of powder and a sack of iron hung from the rifles, ready to be loaded at the first sign of their need. Coalback had only worn his cuirass and damaged back plate, the blue sash around his flanks secured his sword at his side. He had also brought his own rifle, which was covered in thick cloth that hid its shape but could not hide that it was much more stout and heavy than the other two.
They found the path in the orchard that led straight to the farmhouse and began a fast march. They covered the distance far more quickly than a pony who would have had to slog through the snow could have. Their nature allowed them to practically dance on top of the snowy trail.
Coalback gave the signal to halt before they could leave the trees and make their way to the lit house. A simple huff of breath and a grumble of a growl was all it took. Filibuster and Iron Bar stopped instantly, they made a quick scan before they locked their eyes on him. Their ears remained vigilant.
“There’s something I want to tell you before we go in,” Coalback announced to them, his voice no louder than a whisper. “I want to send you home, tomorrow night at the earliest.”
Filibuster and Iron Bar jumped up, suddenly rigid and their attention fully trained on Coalback.
“Sir?” Filibuster asked, confused. He was even confused as to whether he should be disappointed or ecstatic. “Did we do something wrong, Sir?” he asked, just to be safe.
“No,” Coalback insisted without hesitation. “You’re training is not complete at all, but I think it would be good for everyone if you went home to your families.” He snorted with a nod, and blessed them with a rare smile when he read the surprise written so plainly on their faces. “You’ve done very well for a pair of Blaidd-Gwaed. You should go home, take your families and move them somewhere safe. Spend some time with them,” he said, his voice distant as he spoke.
“Do you think something is going to happen, Sir?” Filibuster asked, his joy morphed to concern.
“Should we really leave, Sir?” Iron Bar asked, having come to the same conclusion Filibuster had. Coalback had displayed a surprising amount of paternal concern for them even on hunts. Coalback would only have sent them away if he thought that they were in danger. “If you think that something is going to happen perhaps we should stay-“ He was silenced by a shake of the head from Coalback.
“It’s nothing. Just a smell I haven’t been able to place for the last few days. I’ll manage without you two for a few months, but I expect you back before the first thaw of the forest,” he rumbled.
“I can’t thank you enough, Sir!” Filibuster blurted out. He hopped forward despite himself and found himself with his hooves out in front of him and his tail whirling excitedly behind him. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed my herd these last few weeks,” he said. He could barely contain his happiness and was compelled to inch forward with some poor conceived intent of embracing the larger Pegasus. He managed to stop himself from touching his superior and settled instead to prostrate himself in thanks and subordination.
“I think I’d like to stay, Sir,” Iron Bar said. “I don’t have a herd to go home to and I haven’t been on good terms with my birth herd for a long time now. I like being here with you,” he said quickly.
“No,” Coalback insisted. “If you don’t have anywhere to go on your own you can go with Filibuster,” he said as he pulled Filibuster back onto his hooves. “You two are blood brothers now, you should treat each other like family. Protect each other, and enjoy the time off. I understand there’s a pony holiday coming soon, something to do with presents and the mint sticks,” he said as he brushed some snow off of Filibuster’s chest.
“To be home for Hearth’s Warming,” Filibuster said dreamily. “Sir, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. And Iron Bar you’re welcome at our table. We’ve got a lodge out in the mountains, it’ll be perfect. We’ll even be able to go hunt in the woods nearby, there’s bound to be plenty of mouse burrows and rabbit dens to dig up,” he said with a smile and a goodhearted punch to Iron Bar’s chest.
“Very well, Sir,” Iron Bar said without further argument. Though he did give a smile to Filibuster which was well returned.
“Good,” Coalback said. He started back down the path again and his two squires followed happily. “Now, I’ve had enough of this mushy, gushy, feel good. Let’s get inside,” he muttered.
They crunched through the packed snow to the front door, and lifted a hoof knock on the door. But before Coalback could touch the door it swung open and a pink hoof grabbed his cuirass. He was dragged across the floorboards, sped along by the refrozen slush that had gathered there, and into the darkened farmhouse.
The lights flicked on and illuminated an obnoxiously long banner that read: “Welcome to Ponyville / Thank You for Keeping Ponyville Safe / We Appreciate You!!!!” A pair of half full confetti cannons popped their payload out and Pinkie blew into her prismatic blowout right next to Coalback’s head. The ponies gathered in the room gave a gentle, welcoming cheer as Coalback blinked his eyes clear.
Pinkie pulled him the rest of the way into the room and proceeded to pull the other two in as well. Big Mac’ was next to greet Coalback with a small smile and a warm mug of apple cider. Big Mac didn’t say anything to the knight but nodded to him and then walked back to the kitchen he’d emerged from. Coalback sniffed at the warm mug in his hooves and was happy to sense the slight burn that meant it was spiked with something strong.
“There’s food in the kitchen, and games all over the place!” she beamed. She waved a hoof over the room as she swung an arm over Coalback’s shoulder. The entryway appeared to also serve as the home’s living room, a couch and coffee table took up its center both of which were now covered in confetti. A wooden bucket sat in one corner for apple bobbing, and a mat with crudely painted circles took up the other corner. A vertical piano sat against one wall, its stool tucked away beneath the keyboard. Several balloons floated happily next to the coat rack by the door, and streamers hung from the rafters above. The room had the distinct look of a rustic home that had been hastily redecorated with the hope of being festive, Coalback thought it was nice.
Pinkie released him from her embrace and hopped to the kitchen, mostly with the intent to taste test the apple fridders waiting there. Coalback leaned his wrapped rifle against the wall under the coat rack, it made a loud and heavy thunk against the floor and then the wall. Iron Bar and Filibuster did the same and Coalback dismissed them with a subtle flick of his ear. They followed Pinkie toward the kitchen and left Coalback at the door.
Coalback couldn’t think of a reason to wander around the room and simply watched from the doorway as he sipped at the warm cider. Twilight and Rarity stood near the worn in couch as they kept an eye on the ever present trio of fillies that had swarmed toward the Pin the Tail on the Pony game. A bundle of blankets was balanced on Twilight’s back, and she seemed to take great care to keep it undisturbed. Fluttershy sat nearby, neither excluded from the conversation nor feeling obligated to participate much. Applejack and Rainbow had decided to attempt to best each other at bobbing for apples, and Rainbow’s head was currently held under the water as she hunted for her fruit.
Coalback’s solitude was not unnoticed for long. Twilight broke away from her conversation and made her way toward Coalback. “Hello, Sir Coalback,” she said cheerily. “Why are you standing over here?” she asked.
“What else would I do?” Coalback asked.
Twilight chuckled but it quickly died in her throat when she realized Coalback was being serious. “Well, you could try mingling? Everyone is here to thank you for your services,” she said as she gestured at the room. “This is honestly the tamest party that Pinkie has ever thrown, we didn’t want to toss you into one of her palooza’s too soon,” she said, suddenly very aware of how quiet the room was. “Oh! I guess I should introduce you to Spike!” she said and turned so that Coalback could better see the lump of blankets piled on Twilight’s back.
Coalback raised his eyebrows as the pile of blankets jumped and shivered on Twilight’s back. “Spike?” Twilight said as she took notice of her assistant’s silence. “Say hello,” she encouraged as she lifted the blanket away from Spike’s face. Spike didn’t seem to register that the blanket had been removed, and instead stared wide-eyed up at Coalback.
Twilight prodded him with a hoof and he jumped. “H- Hi,” he muttered. He sniffed to clear his runny nose, but his eyes never left Coalback. “You smell funny,” he mumbled.
“Spike,” Twilight protested with a sigh. “I’m sorry, Coalback. He must still be suffering from some delirium.”
“I’m not delirious,” Spike protested as he snuggled back into his blankets. The cloth parted and a waft of magically heated air escaped, Spike shivered until the enchanted blanket had replaced the lost heat.
“And yet my crystal beakers taste just like rubies,” Twilight muttered with a roll of her eyes.
“Your assistant is a dragon of some kind?” Coalback asked. He leaned in to examine Spike’s face closer, and Spike’s eyes widened as his cold addled mind came to terms with how large Coalback’s head was.
“He’s a baby dragon, my magic hatched him and we’ve been inseparable ever since,” Twilight said with a smile. “Have you ever seen a dragon up close before, Coalback?” she asked.
“I became very familiar with one in Canterlot, it didn’t end well,” Coalback said with a deadpan expression. “Does that count?” he asked at the shocked looks Spike and Twilight had donned.
“Oh, of course- I forgot,” Twilight mumbled as Spike’s face managed to pale.
“That joke might have been in bad taste,” Coalback admitted as he hid his grin behind his mug of cider. He sipped loudly as Twilight let out a relieved sigh. Spike, however, didn’t feel very comforted. “Parties often have music, no? Is there any here?” he asked.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Pinkie piped in, suddenly standing beside Coalback. She slapped a blowout in his mouth, which inflated and played its trumpeting sound as Coalback twitched in surprise. “Vinyl’s shop has been boarded up ever since the Royal Guards showed up, and the Cakes don’t own their own portable record player since they’re pretty expensive. But we have blowouts and stuff! And Spike could play us something on Applejack’s piano!” she explained.
“Sorry, Pinkie, my claws are too shaky to play anything other than chopsticks,” Spike muttered from his blankets.
“I could play,” Coalback offered under his breath. More a statement to himself than an offer, but it was already too late.
Pinkie jumped to attention immediately, her mane fluffier and pinker than ever. “You can play?!” she asked, but she didn’t bother to wait for the answer. Instead she grabbed his hoof and dragged him as quickly as she could across the room and to the piano pressed up against the wall. She didn’t hesitate to flip the stool out and drag Coalback onto it.
She bounced impatiently beside the piano as Coalback took a long sip of his cider in a meager attempt to hide the reddening in his cheeks. He set the mug down on the worn top of the piano and rested a hoof on the keys. He swallowed nervously as he realized just how long it had been since he’d last touched a piano. He tapped a few keys experimentally with his hoof, still unsure as he tapped out an off tempo melody. He was so absorbed with this that he barely noticed when everypony in the room turned to watch him.
He hastily brought his hooves up and began to slowly play out an old melody, not even sure if he’d remembered it properly. But with slightly more confidence he used both hooves and slowly played the first verse of an old song he barely remembered. He hadn’t gotten very far before he noticed the eyes on him and slowed. But he quickly picked up the pace, the tune back to its fast paced and festive tempo.
“Woohoo!” Pinkie shouted. She grabbed Applebloom from beside the Pin the Tail game and swung her into a hectic dance. The other fillies giggled and tried to follow along, they all danced happily in the open floorspace behind Coalback’s seat at the piano. By the end of the first song he’d decided on another and started it immediately, and even genuinely enjoyed himself.
---
The moon was high in the sky now, nearly midnight, and the party had wound down. Applejack was busy pulling out extra pillows and blankets for everyone as the consensus had been to spend the night there rather than break the Solar Guards’ curfew.
Coalback had retreated outside with his squires for a smoke, and their pipes trailed purple clouds that hung around their heads with every breath. Their pipes were packed with wolfsbane, much in the same way they might have been if they’d had tobacco. However, they treated it more like cannabis, and happily drew the smoke into their lungs to feel the full force of the relaxants within the plant. They didn’t feel the need to worry about the toxins in the smoke, the plants were as harmless to them as daisies.
The party had put smiles on their faces, but had been equally stressful on their more attuned senses. They took the time to relax from the task of socializing, and to allow Coalback’s hooves a rest away from the piano. At some point in the night he’d removed what little armor he’d worn to the party, it had become obvious as the night went on that he would find no use for it. For now, he would go with only his sash to cover his blank flanks.
The air was chilled, but their fur was thick and warm and the walls of the house kept the porch from becoming too frigid. Coalback took a puff from the pipe and blew a smoke ring over his squires’ heads and they grinned, amused. The farm hound had wandered over at one point, curious of the strangest smelling ponies she’d ever smelled, and Coalback had quelled her curiosity with a gentle growl. Iron Bar and Filibuster considered it an interesting party trick.
Coalback took another puff from his pipe in an attempt to make a ring that would fly farther than the first, but stopped when Rainbow stepped onto the porch with them. Filibuster and iron Bar moved to quickly put out their own pipes, but Coalback simply blew his smoke and let the pipe go out as she approached.
“Good evening, Rainbow,” he greeted with a nod, which she returned with a smile. “Is there something you wanted?”
“Everyone else is getting ready to hit the hay. I’m not that tired so I thought I’d come check out what you guys were up to,” she said as she took a seat beside Coalback.
“Just a smoke before bed,” Filibuster said, a few errant clouds of the stuff puffed out of his nose as he spoke. Iron Bar chuckled at the sight, but let out his own smoky yawn.
“I could tell as much,” Rainbow said with a grin, she sniffed the air but didn’t seem to think the smell too offensive. If anything she enjoyed the smell of whatever they were smoking. She didn’t bother to ask for any, though. “Are you guys going to stay the night?” she asked.
“Filibuster and Iron Bar will sleep at the door, you needn’t worry over your safety so long as they are both with you,” Coalback said. He nodded to the two squires as they stood and made their way inside, both eager to sleep where it was warm.
“What about you?” Rainbow asked once they were inside. “Don’t tell me you plan on spending the night out here,” she said with a nod at the moonlit snow.
“I don’t sleep well, most nights. I wasn’t planning on it tonight,” he admitted.
“Then what were you going to do?” Rainbow asked. She scooted closer to him and laid a wing across his back. The smoky scent was stronger here and she took a grateful breath of it, it was a strangely relaxing smell. “Mope all night?” she offered sarcastically, which put a grin on Coalback’s face.
“No, I guess not,” Coalback admitted. He tapped his pipe against his hoof and took a moment to ensure all the ashes had been removed, but the expression on his face seemed to suggest that he was deep in thought. “Do you believe in life after death, Rainbow Dash?” he asked.
“What do you mean? Like, heaven?” she asked.
“Yes,” Coalback nodded. “My family and I believed in something similar. It was our belief that an honorable death was rewarded with a place at the table of the gods, in Valhalla, to feast and drink until the end of days. I like to think that that’s where my family is now,” he said. “All of them died fighting for what they believed in, even if it meant we were fighting each other.”
Rainbow leaned into Coalback further, and tightened her embrace. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked.
“Because I realize that I know much about you, but I have shared very little in return,” he said. “You’ve told me about your struggles, and I’ve seen your desire for greatness. You may not realize it but you compete for the same reason that I fight. You seek the immortality of Olympians,” he said with a smile.
“They’re the Wonder Bolts, actually,” Rainbow mumbled.
“Great athletes without equals,” Coalback corrected. “And I do believe you will one day be just that. You’ll be marked down in history, if not record books,” he noted. “Your name will echo through time, and so long as your name survives you will live on long past your life. And if I die protecting you, and your friends, then perhaps the gods would forget my sins and let me join them at their table.”
“Coalback,” Rainbow sighed in exasperation, though she couldn’t withhold a smile. It was nice to see determination in his eyes. “You shouldn’t talk like that,” she muttered and lifted a hoof to stroke the thick fur of Coalback’s chest. She could clearly feel the definition of his muscles, even down to the separate pectorals for his arms and his wings. “You’re not gonna die,” she stated.
“I think I’d like that,” Coalback muttered and his cheeks turned red, “not dying.” Rainbow felt him shift in her arms and looked up. He was looking down at her now, and her eyes met his. His nostrils flared and his head turned to the side slightly. “You’ve been drinking,” he noted.
“I didn’t have enough for you to smell it on me!” Rainbow protested, but she didn’t deny it. She’d actually been very controlled … for her. Only two mugs of Applejack’s best hard cider. She’d take whatever chance she could to get the stuff, even off season. “I’m not drunk, if that’s what you wanna know. Maybe a little buzzed,” she admitted. “Besides, you were drinking, too.”
“I can drink a lot,” Coalback said with a grin.
“So, good. Neither of us are drunk,” Rainbow said with a shrug and pressed her cheek into his shoulder. “So do you wanna come back to my place, or stay here?” she asked after a deep breath. She was starting to really like the smoky, sweet smell of his fur.
“What do you mean?” Coalback asked, but whether he was totally clueless or not Rainbow couldn’t tell.
“I know social anxiety when I see it, buddy. I grew up with Fluttershy,” Rainbow said. “I could tell you weren’t very comfortable at the party. But you are gonna sleep tonight,” she insisted. “So, here or my place?” she asked again.
Coalback stared at her for a long moment, and in the back of her head Rainbow realized that she might be pushing him a little hard. “I think I’d like to stay with you again,” Coalback said. And when he smiled at her, Rainbow felt a strange urge to kiss him. So she did.
Luna was up much later than she usually was. It was very early in the morning, with the sun just about to rise. But she’d been up all night organizing her forces and preparing them for the inevitable events that her sister both refused to acknowledge and refused to prepare for. At the moment she was preparing to interview one of the possible candidates for Merletta’s mating partner.
She found it strange that all reports had concluded this bird was a near match in Merletta’s ability, though he had been refused both by Merletta and Clean Cut. Surely it didn’t matter. Merletta hardly had to spend the last of her days with the other bird, she didn’t even have to spend any time with him should she prefer. Merletta certainly had access to the resources to not need the interaction normally required for egg laying.
She landed at the tower in which the bird had been placed, an empty apiary where the various courier birds would be held. For the purposes of her interview, and per request of the bird’s caretakers, it had been emptied. She landed on the balcony and walked through the doors.
“Go on then, sooth saying bird,” Luna said with a sigh, too tired to bother with pleasantries. “Tell me my fortune.” She walked slowly through the tower chamber, moving from the raised section near the balcony towards the large cage that sat in the center of the room. Every perch but one was empty, but the stench of bird droppings remained.
The large black bird within tilted its head. “If you continue down you current path,” the bird harked, his ability at speech limited, “you will be … at the bottom of the stairs.” He cackled happily as Luna’s hopeful expression suddenly fell and she looked down to see her hoof step down off the short steps from the balcony. “I see pain,” the bird said quickly as he flicked a spray of seeds into Luna’s eyes, which she recoiled at. “And anger,” he added dismissively.
“How dare you!” Luna exclaimed, barely able to keep herself from resorting to the Royal Canterlot Voice.
“Followed by denial,” the bird recited as if from a list.
“This is not fortune telling,” Luna said in frustration. “You’re just saying what’s happening right-“
“Now?” the bird asked with a cocked head. Luna paused, both in awe that such a little creature would dare to interrupt her, and in slow revelation of what the bird was saying. “The most important time is now,” the bird said with a clack of his beak. Subtle runes revealed themselves in the patterns of his feathers as he moved, the light played off them and revealed that each rune hid another beneath it in endless layers. Whatever magic had created this bird was less than pleasant, most likely eldritch in origin if Luna had to guess. She would be having a lengthy discussion with the ponies responsible for it at some point.
“So there is nothing We can do?” Luna asked.
“A very stupid way for a godling to look at things,” the bird tittered.
“Be careful what names you call Us, We tolerate thee with a thin patience.”
“Hmm, yes. The porcelain godling, the crumpled up demigod, the caged eye-spirit, and the pony who sold his soul. Yes, this is far more interesting than the monasteries. I’m glad I’ll be here to see it all in person,” the bird said and did a little dance on its perch. “My, my, my, my, my, I didn’t realize you surrounded you-self with so many trapped souls. But, I guess they all made they own decisions. Not like the Elements, not like they at all, that was decided for they!” the bird laughed maniacally.
“So this is what Clean Cut meant when he said all the candidates for Merletta were unsuitable. This was a mistake,” Luna sighed.
“Mistake! Mistake!” the bird parroted happily. He squawked and flapped his wings inside the cage. Whatever abomination had granted him his intelligence must have also robbed him of sanity, as was common when delving into the eldritch. Their inspiration and wisdom was both fascinating and maddening, it destroyed the minds it touched.
She sighed again and walked past the cage to the staircase as the bird continued to cackle and flap wildly in its cage.
“I know!” it laughed maniacally as it thrashed around. “I know! I know!”
---
The light from Rainbow Dash’s window slowly crawled down the misty walls of her bedroom as the sun rose, slowly but surely falling across her eyes in a rude awakening. She groaned and attempted to pull her sheets over her eyes but ended up pawing around her bare bed fruitlessly. She started to get up in frustration, but the motion made her vividly aware of the warm arms and wings wrapped around her … and the half limp cock pressed under her tail.
Her breath caught in her throat and she froze before she could accidentally wake Coalback, but his steady breathing didn’t change its pace. One of his arms was wrapped around her barrel and held her close to him, his huge wing had been her blanket as at some point in the night the bedsheets had been tossed aside. She couldn’t help the warmth that bloomed in her cheeks as she remembered the previous night. There had been a lot of touching, and licking, and other more enjoyable things.
Coalback shifted behind her and his head lifted off the pillows. He pressed his nose behind her ear. His breath tickled her ear, she suppressed a giggle but couldn’t stop her ear from twitching. “I have to pee,” he said drowsily.
Rainbow sighed, that was the end of that moment then. “’Morning,” she said with a smirk. The hoof that had been wrapped around her barrel moved down and stroked her flanks. She rolled over in his arms, giving up her position as the little spoon so she could face him. She ended up mostly on her back, her forelegs in the crook of Coalback’s wing and her shoulders pressed against his chest. She nipped under his chin and he hummed happily.
“You want me to lick you again?” he asked.
Rainbow shivered at the prospect but shook her head. Coalback had surprised her with his repeated offers of oral, and many other things. Most stallions she knew didn’t much care for it, though most of the stallions she courted didn’t last long after they’d gotten off and often fell asleep before she’d had a chance to peak. Coalback had kept going, and going, and going. He’d only gotten off once or twice in the entire night, but he’d spent most of the time giving her orgasm after orgasm. She knew that if she asked him to, he would spend the rest of the day turning her into a shivering mess under his tongue.
“Don’t you have stuff to do today?” she asked. She didn’t want to say no, but she could feel how sore she was; including but not limited to the bruised spots on her neck and collarbone, and her sensitive teats. “I know I got weather junk to do this morning,” she noted.
Coalback snorted. “I only have things to do so long as I want to do them,” he grumbled as he wrapped his lips around the tip of Rainbow’s ear and gave it a gentle nip.
Rainbow pulled her ear free and rolled out from under his wing. “Well I don’t have that luxury,” she said with a grunt as she slid off the bed and stretched her legs. “I got a job to keep, and if I don’t do it they don’t pay me,” she said as she arched her back to work out a kink.
“All work and no play,” Coalback mumbled with a lighthearted grin. He lifted his head and rolled over to lay on his stomach, eyes on Rainbow as she stretched her morning stiffness away.
“We had our play,” Rainbow said teasingly as she bent down to stretch her hamstrings, fully aware that her rear was on display. “And we’ll be able to do it again,” she said more as a question. She glanced over her shoulder and caught the grin on Coalback’s face.
“I’d like that,” he said.
"Good, then I’m taking a shower," she said as she stood up and trotted toward the door, “and you’re coming, too.” She caught Coalback in the corner of her eye as he stood up and shook himself. He dropped from the bed and trotted after her, his blank flanks shivered in the morning chill of the air.
---
“That whore,” Dumbbell mumbled under his breath. “This is the last straw.”
He watched from a distance, the center of town. But his superior Pegasus vision allowed him to pick out every detail of Rainbow Dash’s front porch. He watched with distaste and she and Coalback emerged from her house, Dumbbell nearly retched when he saw Rainbow Dash kiss Coalback goodbye. Perhaps if she knew what Coalback did with that mouth she might be less inclined to be so near it. They went their separate ways, Rainbow winged out over the town and Coalback glided down toward the forest.
He watched Coalback dip low and wave his head back and forth, even from here Dumbbell could see that Coalback was smelling the air. Could the beast know Dumbbell’s scent out of all the rest? Dumbbell had little in the way of knowing that. However, if Coalback could smell that Dumbbell had been tracking him then there was even less time than he thought.
He couldn’t stand that that creature walked so freely near all these ponies. Didn’t any of them realize the danger? It was wrong. And even more wrong that that thing had bedded a mare, and worse still that it had been one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. That was practically sacrilegious.
“Sir, the squires were spotted in their camp,” a silver clad soldier reported. “They appear to have packed up their camp, they’re on the move.”
Dumbbell didn’t bother turning to address the underling as he traced Coalback’s flight. “This ends now,” Dumbbell muttered. “Intercept them if they appear to be leaving the town, this scourge cannot be allowed to spread beyond here. Use force, if necessary,” he ordered with a deadpan expression. He couldn’t allow his hatred to color his voice, he would be a pillar of purity during this trying time.
“Deus Vult,” the soldier said with a nod and turned away.
---
‘Mayor Mare’ sat at her desk, papers piled high all over but she couldn’t bring herself to perform the duty of her position. She simply sat there with her head in her hooves in a vain attempt to nurse her migraine into submission. However, it wouldn’t be so simple.
Changelings were not meant to spend so much time away from their hive mind. Or so she’d been told.
The strain on her magic and mind were growing by the day. She had little opportunity to feed, what with most of her contact limited to the mayor’s assistants and various ponies in the town coming in for mundane reasons. There was little love there to feed through, barely enough to survive. Thankfully the assistants liked the mayor well enough, a sense of friendly acquaintance was hardly a shadow of true love, the connection was simply too weak to transfer the energy she needed from them.
She had wondered if she should have gone courting for the mayor, heavens knew the old mare could use some action. Even lust would be better than this, at least in the throes of passion most ponies became open to feeding. Unfortunately, with what connection she had to the hive, every time she considered it she was compelled not to. Apparently the Queen believed any action outside of the workplace was suspicious and should be avoided.
This changeling’s task was merely to be a beacon in this place, little else. And with the added benefit of removing a critical point of contact to the rest of Equestria from the last town in the march to Canterlot.
Her body needed magic, she couldn’t just wait for it to regenerate as changelings didn’t produce their own magic. Often the solution was to parasitize it off of a pony, or anything with a significantly powerful soul. This was often through ‘love’, the metaphysical connections between souls. The hive was its own shared network, somewhat like what love did to ponies but on a much larger scale. By replacing loved ones, changelings were often able to simply insert themselves into the ponies’ networks of love and therefore steal the magic transferred by it.
Generally the process was painless for both parties involved. Well, not the abductee, but that wasn’t the point. Her soul would fall apart without magic, and she would effectively die, though it was speculated that that fate was worse than death. A pony was fine isolated or otherwise, a changeling could never survive alone.
Something would have to change, and soon. There was always the option of abduction, but without another agent to replace the pony taken the danger of discovery was too great. If only those damned mercenaries hadn’t killed the mayor, then maybe she could have made a pod and siphoned off magic from her while she was here.
This changeling had never truly liked the idea of podding. It was so barbaric and desperate. It was a quick and dirty way of stealing magic, nothing more. And in the end it was a horribly inefficient process. It didn’t require the kind of connection that love provided, magic was simply siphoned off directly through physical contact with the host. But it left the host drained, and in extreme cases without a soul to call their own, much like the fate the changelings were so adamant to avoid.
She found it cruelly ironic.
The door opened and the scrawny, tall unicorn that served as Mayor Mare’s personal office clerk came in with yet more papers. The unicorn was barely old enough to no longer be considered a colt, though she’d noticed that his balls had at least dropped. He was hardly a specimen of a pony, but food was food and her migraine was making it easier and easier to not listen to the Queen’s influencing force.
“Uh- Papyrus?” she called to the colt after he’d placed down the papers in her ‘incoming’ bin and turned to leave. He paused at the door and looked back at her with a questioning gaze. “Could you come over here for a moment? I’ve got a bit of a … problem that I need your help with,” ‘Mayor Mare’ said. She fluttered her eyelids and left them half lidded.
“Help with what, Miss Mayor?” the clueless boy said as he walked back towards her desk. He didn’t notice the green glow that locked the door behind him.
“Don’t worry, dear. You’re perfectly equipped for the job.”
---
“C’mon!” Braeburn yelled over the howling wind and pounding rain. “Get a leg up! We gotta get to higher ground!”
Perched on the back of a helpful buffalo, Braeburn could see the entire town as they evacuated. The storm had come without warning, it rushed over the mountains and steamrolled right into town. It was a miracle no one had been killed yet, but the storm showed no signs of letting up. Trees collapsed in the orchards and entire buildings were being torn apart by the wind. There was no saving the orchards, or even the town for that part, yet it he’d had to use every trick he had and call in every favor just to convince the townsponies to abandon their claim in the frontier.
Thankfully the buffalo had known of the storm and were already on the move from it, they’d thankfully slowed to help with Appleoosa’s evacuation. It wouldn’t be easy, starting over. But better to have nothing and have survived than to have died trying to save the doomed settlement.
“If we can get past the outcrops we can bunker down in the caves on the other side!” he yelled over deafening thunder.
Carts rocked in the wind, their canvas covers whipped about wildly despite being heavy with rain. Ponies struggled to move forward, taking what shelter they could from the rain and wind behind the larger buffalos. The ground was already beginning to become mush, the dry earth not used to the incredible amount of water that had fallen in the last few hours. Braeburn was certain the hills would simply collapse off themselves, or worse that the surrounding mountains would slough off their topsoil and bury the townsfolk before they had any chance of escape.
The storm only became more powerful the longer they were out in it. The rain came down in sheets so thick that it was difficult to see ten feet in front of them. The clouds had blotted out the sun, and day had become a starless, moonless night.
Braeburn didn’t flinch in the light of lightning, nor the boom of the thunder. But from his perch on the back of the Buffalo the lightning revealed the terrain all around them. He didn’t call out, or warn anypony about what he saw, if he did there would be a panic and their evacuation would become a stampede of scared and desperate ponies. He had to believe that the endless fields of wolves marching just outside the reach of their measly lanterns would not start picking off ponies in the dark.
Lightning flashed again, and the army was revealed to him once more. ‘Army’ was truly the only word that could describe the sheer number of bodies he saw. He could see the gleam of metal on what he assumed was armor. And he spotted distinctive shapes, much like their own wagons but lower to the ground and lacking wheels. These were no feral wolves running from the storm as animals should, they were an organized force that had wrapped around them in every direction but refused to draw any closer to them.
Lightning flashed again and a new shape revealed itself to Braeburn. It was a wolf, of that he was certain by the flash of its eyes in the darkness as they locked onto him. But it was huge, bigger than any animal he’d ever seen. A rack that would have made any deer buck green with envy stretched over its head, though through the brief flash Braeburn got the impression that they weren’t really attached to the wolf’s head. Another group of flashes, like a strobing light, and Braeburn saw the giant wolf’s gaze leave him and move down to the evacuation group. The glowing eyes passed over the ponies and the Buffolo, all the size of mice in comparison, and settled on a small group that was falling behind.
“Somepony get back there and help them!” Braeburn yelled, a Buffalo broke off from their herd and thundered across the muddied path in response. Several ponies not pulling their own carts followed. The wolves didn’t make a move on the stragglers or the ones who came to help them.
Lightning flashed again and Braeburn spotted the giant wolf again. It had moved around the border of their herd, though still it respectfully kept its distance. Now it lay abreast of where he stood. In the brief double flash of the lightning strike he saw the wolf nod.
Braeburn didn’t like it much, it felt unnatural. But he was certain that the wolves all around them had no interest in their herd. A strange sort of equality brought on by the disaster all around them. He didn’t trust them, far from it, but he didn’t need to. The wolves wouldn’t bother attacking the herds during a storm, especially when they had more worrying things to worry about.
Such as the Jabberwockies slinking through the rain. Merely scouts, but there would be more now that the wolves had abandoned the mountains.
---
Filibuster and Iron Bar strolled through town as they waited for their train to arrive, laden down with the extra supplies from their camp. With Coalback at the camp alone they hardly needed any supplies to remain there. There was plenty to carry, despite that it was far less than what would normally be sent with a Guard. Tents, a trench digging tool that was just as good at tearing up dirt as it was at chopping wood; unused, bundled kindling; polishing tools for armor and weapons; and so on. All things that would need to be returned to the outfitter in Canterlot. Not to mention the more unique tools that Coalback had commissioned, which they were to keep in their own hooves under any circumstances.
They had little concern for the dirty glares that the Solar Soldiers gave them as they passed. The scared and disgusted looks from the townsponies, however, were far more concerning. It seemed that only a few days ago the town had been elated with their presence, something had to have changed.
“What do you think they’re thinking?” Iron Bar said under his breath. It was hardly a whisper, more like words hidden in the sound of his breathing. Filibuster didn’t have any problems hearing Iron Bar, however.
“Not sure,” Filibuster said just as quietly. He didn’t hide his wandering gaze, which very few dared to meet. “Something’s up. Any guesses as to who’s behind it?” he asked rhetorically.
“My money’s on the tin soldiers,” Iron Bar mumbled as his gaze locked onto something over Filibuster’s shoulder.
Filibuster turned to follow Iron Bar’s gaze and groaned. They’d reached the town center, both a marketplace and a plaza for gatherings. The town’s one government building stood here, an exaggerated and oversized pergola-made-building. But outside the city hall was a bulletin board, where many advertisements and announcements were posted. But a much larger letter had been tacked over many of the others, and in large print it proclaimed that “A Wolf in Pony’s Clothes Doth Walk Among Us.”
Filibuster clenched his jaw and turned to examine the letter further. Iron Bar followed and they both approached the board to read the letter in its entirety.
A Wolf in Pony’s Clothes Doth Walk Among Us
Ponies of Ponyville, you have been deceived. A creature of darkness that hides behind a mask crafted from benevolence has tricked his way into your home. The Knight you know as Coalback is not as he appears, and the creatures that follow him are no longer as equine as they once were. This creature has deceived Us on the most holy of levels by taking advantage of the innocence of your Princess of the Night. Her Royal Majesty has been horribly deceived in the most perverted of ways, but we cannot blame her for this lapse. Coalback is a creature of darkness and his kind specialize in the perversion of the ones who hold the light. Further proof lies in the deception of his two followers. The two ponies who stand beside him have been hollowed out and replaced by his black essence, they are no longer in control of themselves and have thus sold themselves to Coalback’s darkness and chaos.
In that most dark of forests that Coalback has taken residence in, he and his followers perform acts of heresy and murder. They feed their lust for blood with the innocent lives of the animals that reside there, and not even the monsters of the Everfree can stand against them. They pillage the forest, and steal away what little light is there. Their hunger will empty it of all life. And when the forest is empty, they will prowl through Ponyville to spirit your children, your sick, and your elderly into the night and fold them into their horrible corruption.
Coalback’s corruption and deceit is so great that even his appearance is false. He walks in the skin of a pony, but it cannot hide his true nature. Look closely upon him, past the familiarity of a pony’s face, and you will see his nature is not of a pony. His voice, his teeth, his ears, and even his eyes are that of a monstrous wolf’s. Reflective of his true form.
The Silver Shields have been sent by Celestia, in her immeasurable wisdom, to protect you from his clawed grip. We cannot act to destroy him on our own, however. It will take the combined might of our soldiers and his ostrocization from the society we claim as our own to achieve that. His greatest weapon against us is also his greatest weakness, if he cannot claim safety through comradery then he has no protection at all. His power is still great, however, and we must not allow ourselves to become complacent. Silver burns his flesh, its purity is poisonous to him. Symbols of faith deter him, and he cannot step onto holy ground. Take shelter in your places of worship and protect yourselves with the symbol of Celestia’s power, the sun. Should he take his true form amongst us he will be weaker to the Silver and we shall strike, but until he has exhausted his supply of blood and meat from the forest and become desperate we have little chance against him.
Bide your time, citizens of Ponyville. The power of Celestia shall be your savior.
Filibuster growled in the back of his throat and nearly choked on bile as it rose up. The hatred behind the words on the page was all but palpable. Dark scripture from the Solis Harmonia was weaved into the letter. The script written by Celestia after the Solar Wars was practically considered holy on its own, it had become common amongst ponies to study the scripture and find spiritual truths in it. Dumbbell had appealed to the common ponies’ study of the literature to incite fear and hate.
“This is a bastardization of all that Harmony stands for!” Iron Bar growled under his breath as he finished reading.
“Dumbbell must fail to realize what this will do. He will summon chaos with talk like this,” Filibuster agreed.
“You are so surrounded by darkness that you fail to see the path you are on leads to chaos!”
Filibuster and Iron Bar spun around. A silver wall of furious ponies surrounded them now, they’d snuck up on them whilst they’d been distracted. The marketplace had emptied of all but the soldiers, who stood in a double thick wall around Filibuster and Iron Bar to trap them against the bulletin board. A soldier with the bars of a captain that glinted in the overcast sunlight snorted angrily at them, apparently the one who had spoken.
“Maybe you should go back to Canterlot,” Filibuster spat, “and let us walk the path we have chosen.” The wall of soldiers shifted angrily at his words.
“No! We will stop you here!” the captain said resolutely, a grimace of determination carved onto his face. The soldiers around him lifted their halberds and rifles as one and slammed the shafts against the cold cobblestones, the sound echoed like a clap of thunder.
“First you slander our names and now you threaten us and chain us to the ground?” Iron Bar growled, his voice echoed off the empty stalls and rung against the soldiers’ helmets. “Do you not see the harmful effects of your actions? This town is stiff with fear! This is not harmony! You do Discord’s work for him!”
“Silence your heathen tongue!” the captain snarled. The line of soldiers around him bristled and lowered their silver halberds at Filibuster and Iron Bar. “Your vision of harmony has been skewed beyond repair! You must be cleansed!” The soldiers tensed and prepared to strike as one.
A massive wall of black metal slammed down in front of them before they had the chance, the line broke apart as many of the soldier’s balked at the sudden appearance of Coalback’s ferocious armor. A cloud of steam rushed out between the teeth of Coalback’s helmet as he let out a snarl. He shook his shoulders and the canvas wrapped rifle on his back slid to the snowy ground with a heavy thud. His wings spread above him, farther and farther to make himself appear as large as possible: which was very large indeed. His shadow fell across the line and sucked away the heat from their bones.
“Strike,” Coalback said calmly through the metallic echo of his helmet, “and I will kill you.” A soldier in the front line dropped his halberd as his hooves began to shake uncontrollably. What Coalback had said was not a threat, but a fact. They had never been subject to the full force of his anger, and the serenity of his voice only seemed to make it worse. Nothing truly gave away the anger, he held himself with such surety and calm. But a hoof did twitch against the cobbles and his wings shivered in time with his heartbeat, the eager ghost of his desire to tear into them without mercy. The tension in the air was palpable. Coalback snorted derisively. “As I suspected. Nothing but mewling babes,” he spat.
The captain’s grimace deepened and he lunged forward with his own halberd with the hope that his soldiers would follow. And many most likely would have, if the captain had been successful.
One of Coalback’s wings crashed down onto the halberd before it had a chance to meet its target, the shaft snapped in two by the heavy edge of the shield strapped to the wing. His other wing whipped down and smashed into the captain’s helmet, and the captain crumpled. The captain’s silver helmet had been caved in, and his body gave a few final twitches as the life drained out of his crushed skull. Coalback sighed as he removed his bloodied wing. It had taken less than three seconds to kill one of these supposedly highly trained soldiers, it was pitiful really.
“Anyone else?” Coalback asked in a bored tone. No one dared to move as his gaze fell heavily over them. “Good, now go home before you embarrass yourselves further.”
“He makes a good point,” a newcomer said from behind the crowd of frightened ponies in armor, “you’ve all embarrassed yourselves enough for the day. Form up and shut up while I clean up your mess.” The soldiers parted and revealed the silver plate of Sir Dumbbell’s armor, a long bladed spear with an equally long polearm hung at his side and shone unnaturally brightly. Dumbbell strolled forward through the crowd as they picked themselves up and reformed their ranks. He walked until he was directly in front of Coalback and looked down disdainfully at the corpse of his captain. “And I thought he had potential,” he cursed under his breath.
“I hope you have another witty way of squirming out of this situation, Dumbbell,” Coalback spat. “This is the last time you’ll be insulting me or my pack,” he said. He snorted and his breath washed over the smaller Pegasus.
“I could say the same,” Dumbbell said, his voice commanding. “Your presence is an insult to the purity of the ponies in this place. And your consummation of a holy figure is blasphemous at best!” he snarled and made a jab at Coalback’s chest with a gauntleted hoof. “Beastiality is as much a crime as the rape of a pony, and you may as well be guilty of both! Rainbow Dash’s heresy will not be ignored either-“
Coalback drew his sword, the folded Lunar Steel snickered as it slid out from the scabbard and snapped as Coalback pointed it at Dumbbell’s throat. The blood pearl set in the blade shone brightly despite the overcast sky. He held his blade steady, barely a waver to the tip. “I don’t take threats well, against me … or the ones I protect,” he growled, deep and low like thunder in his chest.
Dumbbell quickly responded in kind. He reached around and brought his spear to bear with a skillful twirl. As he held it, the thin blade began to glow a warm yellow. The air hissed and waves of heat rolled off the blade, the air around it became charged with magic as the many intricate runes along its shaft came to life.
Neither made a move, each willing to wait for the other to make the first strike. Coalback eyed the hot blade as the air wavered around it. The light became brighter and brighter until the edges of Dumbbell’s blade became impossible to distinguish. Dumbbell might have worn a cocksure grin under his facemask, but there was no way to tell.
“That’s a Sun Lance,” Filibuster said under his breath in awe. “Be very careful, Sir. They’re unbreakable, and burn as hot as the sun,” he said quickly. Coalback didn’t respond, but he did use a hoof to slide the covered rifle towards Filibuster’s hooves. Coalback readied his stance with his sword at the ready and his wings raised.
Dumbbell lunged, the tip of the Sun Lance aimed for Coalback’s heart. Coalback flicked his sword up and caught the blade, but the blades locked together instantly and Coalback was forced to swing both blades in a wide arc and was left open for attack. Dumbbell’s wing blades shot out at the opening, aimed for Coalback’s armpit. Coalback managed to sidestep the strike, but retreated the moment he had his own opening.
The crowd of soldiers parted to give the fighters more space, but didn’t hesitate to jab their halberds and rifles ineffectively at Coalback’s shielded back. Coalback prowled around Dumbbell, just outside the reach of his longer weapon. As he passed downwind from Dumbbell, he smelled it. The smell from the forest. A growl of satisfaction rolled out from his throat as he realized exactly what he’d been missing.
“You’ve been following me, I’m impressed,” Coalback growled as he searched for an opening in Dumbbell’s form. “Not many can do that,” he yelled over the clamoring of the soldiers as they screamed for blood.
Dumbbell didn’t respond, instead he lunged again. His Sun Lance glanced off of Coalback’s shields, both magical constructs flared wildly as they came into contact. They warped air and cracked like thunder. Coalback closed the distance in a single step, his sword suddenly inside Dumbbell’s defense. He aimed the tip of his sword, struck, and missed.
Dumbbell twisted out of the way of the sword at the last moment, a desperate move to get away from the deadly tip of Coalback’s blade. He didn’t escape unscathed, however. The sword scraped at ringmail underneath Dumbbell’s wing and tore it apart, a chunk of flesh from Dumbbell’s wing came with it.
Dumbbell rolled away from Coalback to put him back in range of the Sun Lance. Dumbbell didn’t waste time between his next strike: a stab aimed at Coalback’s center of mass. But Coalback’s shields snapped forward faster than anything so large should have the right to and slammed on top of the Sun Lance. The blade slipped along the edge, the magic of both items would not allow them to lock together, and it imbedded in the cobblestones with a hiss of melting stone and soil. The blade stuck fast as the shaft met the ground, and Dumbbell overextended.
Coalback struck at the opening, an awkward leap over the shaft. He opened his mouth and the helmet split, the sharpened teeth of the face mask came apart in a horrible bite that locked over Dumbbell’s helmet. Coalback’s sword jammed between the mechanisms of Dumbbell’s wingblades, barely missed the unprotected flesh beneath, and warped the metal to an unusable state. Their bodies slammed together and Coalback took the advantage. He shook his head wildly until something came free and was kicked off with a heavy blow to his sternum.
They rolled apart from each other, Dumbbell’s lance ripped free from the earth with a shower of hot rocks and molten glass. Dumbbell flexed his injured wing but could not get it to extend, the wingblade mechanism had been jammed and locked his wing to his side. Coalback rolled back to his hooves, Dumbbell’s helmet clasped in the teeth of his metal grin. He flexed, and the helmet mimicked his actions to crush the helmet like little more than a tin can.
The line of soldier’s around them shifted as the anatomy of the fight did, but some moved slower than others. Coalback struck at the slowest without a second glance, his sword met unprotected flesh and liberated limb from body. The soldier cried out, but Coalback’s attention was once more occupied by Dumbbell as he recovered. Coalback slammed his shields in front of him in a threat display, his heart pounded in his ears and drowned out everything. The grin on his helmet never wavered, and made the huge stallion seem all the more mad.
Dumbbell stood but had little time to prepare an attack. Coalback lunged at him again and Dumbbell had little choice but to defend himself. Coalback moved with quick thrusts, each hastily parried by Dumbbell as he was forced to retreat. The Sun Lance’s disadvantages became horribly clear in those moments. While it offered the unique ability of having a cutting edge that could just as easily block in every direction, its length meant that he had to keep his opponent at a distance or he would be virtually defenseless.
Coalback pressed this without mercy and kept to Dumbbell’s weaker side. He moved in, not entirely concerned with actually hitting Dumbbell so long as he could keep Dumbbell on the run. With every impact more sparks flew from Coalback’s blade and the Sun Lance’s heat took its toll on the less magical weapon. The fact that it had survived as long as it had was a testament to its maker, but it did fail.
Coalback reared onto his hind legs to take advantage of his greater size and force Dumbbell further into his retreat. Coalback now struck with little tact, the sword swung as if it were a club. All pretense of strategy or skill was gone, Coalback would simply beat down on the other Pegasus until something broke. The Sun Lance carved through the heated metal and left the blade dented, dull, and useless. The sudden change in shape to the weapon adjusted its weight just enough for Coalback to be thrown off on his next strike.
Dumbbell knocked the melted blade aside and took the opening that its warping had created. He stabbed with the tip, aimed wildly in the direction of Coalback’s chest. To his great surprise, the blade slipped between the plates of Coalback’s black armor and out the back. A perfect riposte.
Coalback urked as the hot blade slid between his ribs. He shivered and his sword dropped from his hooves. The sword dropped to the ground and impaled itself between several cobblestones, it lilted as the weight of the pommel strained the hot metal. The Sun Lance cooled alarmingly quickly as it was drenched in Coalback’s blood. A cloud of steam mixed with the stench of burning flesh, hair, and blood sprayed out from under his chest plate. Blood splattered onto Dumbbell’s face and into his eyes.
The marketplace suddenly grew very quiet, in shock as Coalback froze. His stiff body loomed over Dumbbell, half held up by the blade stuck in his chest. Dumbbell looked up in shock as a part of him was unable to accept that he’d succeeded in delivering a killing blow.
Coalback shivered again and the blade’s glow dimmed as his blood ran down the shaft and coated it in the black fluid. Despite the heat, it would seem, the wound had not been cauterized. Coalback’s hooves went to Dumbbell’s shoulders with a shocking speed and grabbed his withers with a crushing grip. Coalback’s head snapped forward and with a sickening crunch his helmet slammed against Dumbbell’s skull.
Dumbbell crumpled instantly, not knocked unconscious but near the brink of it.
Coalback straightened up on his rear legs, the long shaft of the spear stuck out of the bottom of his chest jammed between his lower ribs. He grunted and reached out to grasp the shaft, with a quiet whimper and a grunt he pulled the spear from his body. The blade slid out, caked in burnt blood and ribbons of flesh. Once it was free, Coalback flipped the blade up and braced the bottom of the shaft against the ground and leaned against it heavily. He shivered and took long breaths, blood continued to drip freely from the wound despite the burns the blade had made on its way in.
“Time for a lesson,” Coalback grunted. “Your aim was off, to start. If you wanted to stab me in the heart you should have aimed for the flat center of my chest piece not the curved underside. You stabbed me through the body cavity below my heart,” he grunted as Dumbbell tried to sit up. Coalback lifted a hoof and planted it on Dumbbell’s chest. “And using magic, what a pathetic thing. Especially when you should know it is pointless.”
Coalback lifted the spear over his head and flipped it around. He aimed the tip down at Dumbbell’s throat and rested it against his Adams Apple. A tiny bead of blood rose up around the tip and rolled down Dumbbell’s neck. It took a great amount of effort on Coalback’s part to resist the urge to behead the pathetic pony under his hoof. Coalback lifted the spear, swung it in one hoof until his grip had slipped down to the small pommel at its end, and then swung the blade down onto the cobbles as hard as he could.
The blade screamed and shattered instantly. The pieces flew apart, some into the crowd of soldiers and some farther still. An ancient weapon meant to kill dragons and demons, shattered like glass after the first time it had been used in centuries.
Coalback threw the shaft aside and dropped to his hooves, straddling Dumbbell. Coalback’s hideous helmet grinned in front of Dumbbell’s nose. Blood dripped out of Coalback’s armor and hissed as it fell onto Dumbbell’s. Dumbbell heard the air rush through the teeth of Coalback’s helmet as he took a deep breath and Dumbbell braced for the killing blow that did not come.
Dumbbell waited and waited, but when it did not come he searched the face mask until he could find the glimmer of Coalback’s eyes. And he saw fear.
“What? What is it?” Dumbbell asked. “Come on! Do it! Kill me!” he yelled in Coalback’s face.
“It wasn’t you,” Coalback muttered under his breath.
“What?” Dumbbell sputtered.
“In the forest!” Coalback barked, his hooves suddenly on Dumbbell’s cuirass. “In the forest, it was you following me?” he asked, desperation in his voice.
“What?” Dumbbell asked more desperately.
“In the forest there was a smell, and something followed us through the trees. Was it you?!” Coalback asked desperately. He already knew the answer, this close he could smell Dumbbell’s real scent and it did not match the one he’d smelt in the woods. But he had to know for sure.
“No!” Dumbbell screamed, and was suddenly filled with his own fear as Coalback’s eyes betrayed his panic. “Why? What’s going on?” he tried to ask but was slammed against the ground as Coalback looked up and scanned the surroundings.
Coalback began to look frantic, his movements more erratic by the moment. If it wasn’t Dumbbell’s scent then it was something else, and it was here. The soldiers around him looked to each other in confusion, their ranks bristled as they anticipated an attack. But he stopped suddenly, his gaze apparently locked on the line of soldiers who sported guns.
“They’re here,” he hissed under his breath. “Give me my gun!” he shouted over his shoulder.
Filibuster complied without question. He grabbed the covered gun from the ground and swung it with all his strength. Coalback’s gun was much heavier than any rifle that Filibuster had used, but he was able to lob it into the air over Coalback’s shoulder. The gun pulled free from its canvas cover and flipped through the air, oiled metal gleamed in the grey light from the sky. Coalback caught the heavy contraption and rose to his hind legs again to straddle Dumbbell and brace it on his shoulder.
The gun was unlike any rifle that the soldiers had ever seen: it was not built like a spear, but its size didn’t seem to allow for that. The gun was huge, a block of metal practically the size of Coalback’s head made up the greatest portion of it, a wheel of prepacked iron and powder lined up with a thick barrel. Coalback reached up with a hoof and pulled a lever back from the top of the gun, a red hot glow was revealed. And he aimed the gun at the line of soldiers.
“Bear arms!” the soldiers yelled in panic, their own rifles moved into motion quickly, but not before Coalback fired.
The barrel of Coalback’s rifle was consumed in fire and smoke as the lever was released and the hot tip was driven into the powder chamber. The powder exploded, a much larger charge than would have been in the rifles the soldiers used. A metal plate prevented the exhaust from hitting Coalback’s head, but fire seemed to seep out of every crevice in the device. The bullet left a spiraling trail of smoke from the barrel and flew past a soldier’s ear.
And the soldiers returned fire.
The line of soldier’s was engulfed in smoke and thunder. The ground around Coalback exploded in shards of rock and shattered bullets, the bulletin board and town hall were peppered by stray bullets. Coalback’s armor took the most hits, however. Bullets impacted his armor and the plates rang out with every hit.
Dumbbell cringed as he heard the guns go off. He knew that a firing line was more like a shower of barely guided shrapnel in a general direction of the target than a precise execution. And he would most likely be hit by any number of wild bullets. But he was surprised that when the echo of the guns faded away he hadn’t been touched. When he cracked open an eye he was able to see why.
Coalback stood limply above him, his shields cupped around Coalback’s legs and by coincidence Dumbbell. Coalback had protected him.
Coalback’s huge rifle fell off his shoulder and he slowly wilted. Coalback’s head lolled to the side and made the large dent in one of the temples clearly visible, more dents revealed themselves all over his armor as he crumpled. He fell like a tree, slowly at first but with quickly building speed. He slammed into the ground with all of his immense weight and no sign of an attempt to halt his fall. Miraculously his knees had locked and he fell backwards rather than simply crumpled and crushed Dumbbell underneath him.
“Hold your fire!” Dumbbell screamed. “Hold your fucking fire!” He untangled himself with some difficulty from Coalback’s legs and feathers as he climbed to his hooves. His silver armor made the feathers around him curl as if they’d been thrown into a fire wherever he touched them.
“You’re alive!” a soldier exclaimed in elation.
“Shut your trap! There’s something else hanging around here! Be on alert!” Dumbbell commanded. The soldiers immediately turned to the two squires who both sported the snarling grimaces of an ambivalence display, not sure whether to attack or not. “Not them, you ingrates!” Dumbbell shouted, he flexed his good wing and the blades hidden in the feathers slid out to their full length. Now he stood over Coalback’s body, unsure if he was protecting him or just preventing his idiot soldiers from taking any more potshots at the unconscious pony.
“Heya.”
The soldiers spun around and froze, a new and even more frightening visage presented to them.
Lounging on top of a wooden stall was a huge, armored cat. Its facemask was a gruesome thing, all teeth and horns like a strange skull. It was difficult to pick out any real features, other than the obscenely large, sharp toothed grin and two mismatched sized eyes that glowed out from the darkness of the helmet. Its body was covered in glistening sheets of overlapping gems the color of burnt flesh. The gems were shaped like platemail, but the cracked section on its chest and the large bullet imbedded there suggested it was much stronger than anything the ponies were wearing. Its tail, decorated with hooks, flipped back and forth lazily behind it.
Coalback groaned underneath Dumbbell and he quickly moved to allow Coalback to get up. Coalback unstrapped his helmet and ripped it off, a streak of blood ran down from his temple and into one of his eyes and stained it a dark red. He sat up, but froze as well when he spotted the large feline.
“You’ve been busy, huh?” it said, its voice tinny and maniacally cheerful. “So, I’ve got a question for ya,” its head tilted to the side and its tail started to move slightly faster. “Do you think even the worst person can change …? That everyone can be a good person, if they just try?” It tilted its head in the other direction and the smile on its helmet seemed to grow wider.
Coalback stood up and shook himself, his armor slid heavily on his back. He let out a throaty snarl in the cat’s direction and his squires followed suite. Coalback pounded his shielded wings against the ground, the cobbles cracked where the enchanted metal hit.
The cat gave a girlish giggle that almost grew out of control until it could reign its mirth back in. “All right. Well, here’s a better question,” it said as she took a calming breath. “Do you wanna have a bad time?” it asked as all the mirth in its voice was abandoned. “’Cause if you don’t roll over and die like a good little pup … you are really not going to like what happens next.”
“Who are you?” Coalback asked with the heavy undertone of a growl in his chest.
“I am a vessel of Discord’s will,” the cat said proudly. “Although, I didn’t have to do much. Your shiny friends practically did all my work for me.”
“In t-th-the n-name of the R-Royal Sisters, b-begone, demon!” one of the soldiers exclaimed, though the large cat didn’t seem to notice. Its tail twitched and a hook came free from the end of it, it flew through the air faster than it had a right to and hooked into the flesh just under the soldier’s helmet. Blood sprayed in a river of red from the artery the hook had ripped open, the soldier dropped and in a few moments would be dead. The cat barely seemed to notice that it had happened.
“I’m obligated to ask you once if you would much rather prefer to do what your creator intended,” it said calmly and the grin on its helmet seemed to grow even wider. “’A wolf in ponies’ clothing, indeed. Who do you think you’re kidding, parading around like some sort of hero?” it said, its tail grew more lively as it spoke. “You don’t belong here, your kind don’t do well trying to ‘protect’ things. Your kind kill everything you touch. You could at least be happy and fill your stomach for once,” it said with a barely contained chuckle. “Look at yourself, you’re starving! And for what? A people who hate you and fight you at every turn. There’s nothing here for you! I at least would have understood if you’d taken the first opportunity you could and ‘gotten out while the getting was good.’ This is just chaotic! But, of course, now you’re stuck in the middle of it. And you’re the determined type, I can see that. You never give up, even if there’s absolutely no benefit to persevering whatsoever. If I can make that clear. No matter what, you’ll just keep going. Not out of any desire for good or evil,” it said with a shake of its head, “but just because you think you can. And because you ‘can’ … you ‘have to’. It would be a lot simpler if you were working with us … or dead.”
Coalback spat and a tooth skittered across the cobblestones and made a red stain in the slush and ice. “Get everyone out,” Coalback said under his breath.
Dumbbell realized he’d been given an order with a start. “Excuse me?” he asked.
“More will come, an army. We must abandon Ponyville,” Coalback grunted. Dumbbell opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it and nodded. “You two,” Coalback nodded at the squires staring the cat down, “protect the assets at all costs, don’t let them come into town.” Filibuster and Iron Bar didn’t need to be told twice, and immediately turned away and bounded off to find their charges.
“Evacuate the town! No Pony left behind! Drag them out of their houses if you have to, just get them out of here!” Dumbbell ordered the soldiers, who reluctantly obeyed. A large detachment of the soldiers broke off, but just as many stayed and prepared themselves for a fight.
“It’s such a beautiful day outside, don’t you think? The wind is chilled, and the snow is soft. Perfect day for a snowball fight. It’s days like these, that freaks like us, ought to be rotting in hell,” the cat hissed as it tucked its legs under its body and readied itself for a pounce.
