-The Risk of the Game-

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.”

Author's Notes:

Quick note: bellow does not equal wolf-like roar in this case. I imagine it more like this horrible sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXebamjT4PY

(On my phone so hard to link stuff, at about 1:30 Spirit makes some bellows, then again at 3:30 ish)
anyway, threw together another chapter. I don't really have any way to edit besides myself, so if weird words, repeated words, or miss placed grammar makes its way in I'm just gonna blame my phone. Hopefully the town stays happy with Coalback, though they may change their minds when they realize he's started building effegies in the woods ...