-A Stepped Ladder-

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.

“Here we go,” Coalback grumbled under his breath.

Author's Notes:

Finally! Time to put those fangs to the test!

Let me know what ya'll thought of this update! I'm especially open to criticism!