-Splints and Casts-

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!"