-King of Kings-

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 do something!”

“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.

“Yes, that is what we shall do,” Delicae said.

Author's Notes:

I did eet! I made a new chapter! I'm not going to complain about my real life here so just tell me what you think of it in the comments. Also, I write most of these on my phone and they go through no secondary editing at all, so if you find some error that you feel the need to share: pm it to me.

But seriously, I struggled to find the right balance here and I crave your opinions, let me love your comments!