-Bad Wings-

You can feel it can’t you?

Coalback twitched subtly from his perch atop the hospital mattress, the slightest reaction to a voice only he could hear. The guards around him were getting sleepy, perhaps they thought that Coalback would never move from his seat, he hadn’t for over four hours. Whatever daylight he could see before was faded entirely now, twilight had fallen.

You’re getting stronger ...

Coalback’s muscles twitched subtly, bouncing his hide up as they tested themselves. His may have been no bigger than a boxer's arms, but the muscle in his limbs were as strong as woven steel.

That strength and hardiness flowing from your bones. This is the second great secret of our blood that I’ve shared with you, my pup.

Coalback held back a growl as he felt the rings around his arm tighten. He could feel it though, despite the dull pain that still plagued him from the slowly healing wound on his side. He’d felt it from the moment that he’d looked at the pegasus mare and made himself protect her, he could feel himself getting stronger. His muscles were shifted under his skin, tightened into thicker ropes, so tight he wondered if they would snap.

He knew what it was: The third form, this other other him, this new face: Once before, when he was younger and only just coming of age he’d compared himself to two beings with all their mind-power and muscle all crushed down into one. That was why, he had reasoned, that he had to change, so he could stretch every muscle or a part of him would simply atrophy away. Now he was three, and all of his strength was built up on itself.

His heart thudded in his ears: Lub~Dub Lub~Dub Lub~Dub. He could hear the hearts squirt away inside the sleepy pony guards’ chests: lub-dub … lub-dub. For a moment he felt the hunger come back, a desire to feast on the meat and blood he could hear rushing through their veins, but the wolfsbane that padded his wounds made him far too calm to be able to give in.

In ancient days our kind would roam far and wide to gain strength in this same way, some were revered as invincible they had gathered so much power.

He could understand why, if he’d felt like this before he never would have had to run. He could have simply hunted down and killed all of the people involved with that sinful enclave. He felt like he could tear down the walls with his new hooves.

This … ability has been kept a close secret by all who have ever possessed it, I hope you are appreciative.

He was, and he wondered what he could do with it. He hungered to know how it worked just as much as he hungered for fresh food to hunt and eat. He had so many questions, he felt like a pup again; curious to know everything and why.

The sword pommel flashed through his mind. He felt the smooth inlaid stone against his thumb, could feel the jagged edge where it had broken off from the rest of the hilt. He felt the life flowing through it and into him and back out again, like his body was simply a part of a river that could wash away anything. The message was there, not exactly in words: Now, get it back.

Rainbow grunted as yet another stretch only served to send a painful lance through her shoulders. She stood slowly and twisted around to rub at the tender muscles. She hadn't been able to get to sleep once the sun had gone down, she simply was not tired enough to sleep after doing so little in the rather short day. The guards in her room were too mopey to be of any entertainment, which wasn't all that unexpected going off her previous experience with the Guard. So she had settled on doing a few quiet stretches next to her bed while they snoozed, hoping it might be just enough to make her at least a little sleepy.

No luck.

She resisted the urge to let out an explosive yell in frustration. She sat there for several long moments and just fumed over how lame it was that she was grounded. She started to pace with the hope to lull herself to sleep with the repetitive motion.

Her hoof stopped, only just far enough to catch the bar of light that came in through the door across from her. The sound had come and gone so fast- There it was again! Three more heavy thumps, each louder than the last came in quick succession from the hall.

"This again?" Rainbow wondered aloud to herself. She was sure it was Coalback, who else could it be. She pulled the IV out from her arm, snuck toward the door and peaked out. Her eyes widened at the sight of a Guard passed out on the ground, half inside Coalback’s open door.

She rushed over to his side, her breath came in gasps the whole way as her wing bounced painfully on her shoulder. The guard was still breathing, and from what she could see of the other Guards from the door, so were they.

A stumble of hooves and a mumbled, cryptic curse echoed up the other hall from her. She turned, looked around the corner and just caught sight of Coalback’s black tail as he rounded another turn. She trotted after him as best she could without banging her wings around any more.

She caught up with the wobbling stallion easily, but before she could get his attention he spun around and pinned her to the wall. Rainbow nearly screamed in pain, but to her surprise her wing had not been pinned against the wall as she'd assumed it would have been, though that didn't stop Coalback or his hoof in her mouth.

"Shh!" he hissed in her ear. He loomed over her, eyes aimed past her blankly as his ears swiveled around.

She had no choice but to follow the command, all the while completely confused. She wondered what he was doing out here in the middle of the night, or why he took out his guards to do it. Clean Cut's explanation of how the Princess had ordered Coalback to be put under heavy guard came back to her then, as well as the whole "illegal immigrant" thing.

Finally he took his hoof away from her mouth and looked disapprovingly at her but did not let her go yet. "Don't look at me like that, dude," Rainbow hissed at him. "You're the one sneaking around at night and tackling ponies-"

"Shh!" Coalback hissed again. He shook his head at her, his disapproving look changed to annoyance. But this time he let her go, even put her back on her hooves. He motioned with a hoof for her to go back and made to continue down the hall carefully on his wobbly hooves.

"No way!" Rainbow whispered and stepped around in front of him. "You're supposed to stay in your room just as much as I am!" she protested, surprised when the stallion just walked past her. He scoffed once he was shoulder to shoulder with her and motionef with his head for her to follow.

He continued down the hall, head low enough for his muzzle to brush the floor with a shoulder leaned against a wall. Rainbow followed hesitantly, her hoofsteps echoed in the empty halls but Coalback made almost no noise while he walked. They took only a few steps before Coalback turned back around with a hurried hush. When they continued and it seemed she was still too loud for him he turned around to stop her.

Coalback took one of her hooves in his and shushed her again when she tried to protest. He picked her hoof up off the floor and gently set it back down in a rolling motion. He did that a few more times to make sure that Rainbow understood that this was how to walk silently.

They continued, silently this time. Coalback with his head low to sweep over the floor, and Rainbow followed as silently as she could. Her mind wandered again, aflutter with questions: Why would a pony be so violent one moment and so … still the next? Or have so many scars - as cool as they were - alnd still be alive? And just what was it that he wanted from all of this?

There had to be a reason; a reason why he didn’t simply run away when he was free of the guards the first time; a reason to stop a deadly dragon attack; a reason to save one pony’s life and be ready to take another’s. A reason why he had come to Canterlot at all.

Rainbow’s thoughts were interrupted rudely as Coalback grabbed onto her and pulled her into a shadowy alcove with a scramble of hooves on marble. His hoof found her mouth again before she could protest, which gave her a chance to hear the hoofsteps as they came their way. His large frame leaned against her, his whole body pressed over her. It was with a start that she realized he'd used himself to cover up her brighter colors, which let them both blend into the shadow with his colors.

Her breath caught in her throat as the guard came around the corner, Coalback wasn’t breathing but she had a feeling that he'd done it on purpose. A Lunar Guard, dressed in black metal and silver chainmail, with dark grey fur and reflective yellow eyes appeared. The tufts on the tips of his ears flicked as he made his rounds, he paused only a moment at their alcove but walked on without a glance at them.

Coalback waited a full minute before he even started breathing again, even longer before he let them leave the alcove. He started silently down the hall again and walked even faster now. Rainbow struggled to keep up silently, even though now both of them seemed to be unable to remain completely silent.

He slid to a stop at an intersection, his legs shook with the effort of keeping himself upright on his hooves. Rainbow watched as he swung his head back and forth, only now able to see that he had sniffed along the floors, following some sort of smell. He took a hall and led her up several floors of carpeted stairs.

When they reached the top of the stairs and Rainbow was able to see where it was that Coalback wanted to go, she had to intervene. “No way!” she hissed and jumped in front of him again. “There is no way I’m letting you break into Princess Luna’s rooms!” she hissed. She pushed against his chest with a hoof when he tried to pass, and gulped at the concrete wall of a stallion she tried to hold back.

A large door emblazoned with Luna’s cutie mark and the emblem of her Guard was behind her, and while she’d only ever once been here during the Gala, Rainbow was pretty sure that uninvited guests were usually punished very severely for intruding on the Princesses’ privacy. She didn’t know what Coalback wanted, only that it involved going into that room, most likely to take something. Maybe that’s the reason why he was here, she thought to herself briefly, to steal some sort of artifact from the Princess or something!

She pushed harder against him when he tried to walk around her and met his scowl with one of her own. “No!” she hissed, certain that was a word he understood. He paused at that, thankfully, and gave her a considerate look.

Coalback took a step back from her
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and lifted his arm up to show her the brass rings tightly pressed into his upper arm. They sat above his biceps, unable to be removed now. He touched the rings with his nose, and then motioned with his head to the door. Then he made a motion toward his chest with a hoof, but if it meant anything Rainbow couldn't be sure.

"What is that supposed to mean?” Rainbow asked. She could only guess at what he truly meant, he merely pointed between the rings and the door again. However he took advantage of the moment she took to consider what he was trying to say, and slipped around her and through the door as quick as a shadow.

"Hey!" she nearly shouted, she was able to stop herself long enough for it to only become a hiss.

She rushed in after him and collided with his barrel just inside the door. He gave her a withering glare and pointed with his hoof to the deep blue carpet under them, a motion for her to stay where she was. He crept forward carefully, low to the ground.

Luna’s study was surprisingly spartan for a royal chamber in the Canterlot Palace, though she was guilty of keeping quite a few memorabilia. Paintings, normally of a dark hued pallet, hung over most any spare wall where cabinet bookcases - filled with innumerable books, specimens and relics - weren't. The room was unlit but not dark, the curtains had been pulled away from the many windows across the ceiling and silver moonlight glazed over everything. Other than her desk, very little furniture was actually decorative, most seemed well used but by whom Rainbow couldn't be sure.

Coalback circled Luna’s desk. He sniffed at the stained wood of the ebony furniture, a grimace grew the longer he inspected it. Finally he centered onto a single drawer. He pulled it open without hesitation and the lock shattered and sprayed wood splinters across the floor. He barely seemed to have noticed the lock.

"Coalback!" Rainbow hissed, a useless try to stop him. Breaking and entering was already bad enough, but burglary was way over the line.

Coalback ignored her and reached into the deep desk. He pulled out a single, well worn saddlebag and cradled it in his arms. He just sat down and held it for a moment with a look of extreme relief on his face.

Rainbow could only shake her head in disbelief. This was what he'd been after, a ratty old satchel? She'd almost taken him for some sort international jewel thief with the way that the guard had treated him. But jewel thieves didn't worry over a bag the way Coalback was now. He fussed over a few of the rips in its side, emptied out a pocket of a cloud of soot onto the carpet, and played with the few straps that were left on it.

She let out a sigh, but whether she was angry or relieved even she couldn't tell. She walked over to him and made her glare obvious to him. "Okay, you got your satchel, now let's get out of here before somepony finds us with this mess!" she whispered to him. She tried to grab his arm and pull him up to his hooves, but he flinched and grunted in pain at her touch. "Oh my gosh! You ripped out your stitches, dude," she said, able to see the blood stain his bandages in a quickly spreading dark spot.

He stood up carefully, his hooves shook under him as he started to dig through the saddlebag. A tattered book shifted into view worked itself out to thump heavily into the carpet. In a moment he stood up fully and dropped a small object into his hoof. He showed it to Rainbow, his breath came in short bursts to keep the pain from his injuries at a minimum.

It was a gem, dark and red in the light of the moon, imbedded in the end of a shattered rod. Something old and cracked still clung around the base of it, a sign of its age if the rust in its creases wasn't enough. He smiled as she looked over it, perhaps amused by her confusion.

"Coalback," he said with a motion toward himself. "Rainbow Dash-" He pointed to her next, and Rainbow got the nagging feeling that he was leading up to something. He held up the old piece of metal and gem, put it right in front of her nose. "Fenrir." The gem glittered in the moonlight, and though it was just a trick of the low light she could have sworn that she'd seen something move inside it's dark, faceted center.

"Wait," Rainbow grumbled. She gave a hard glance between Coalback and the gem. "This thing has a name? It's ... alive?" she asked. It seemed a bit too strange of an assumtion, but Coalback nodded.

"Alive." He pointed to her, then himself, and then the old gem. "Alive," he repeated. Without another word, he twisted around and ground the gem into his side. He pushed it into his bandages and grunted, and this time she was sure she saw something move.

It swirled around behind Coalback, circled him and stirred the thick carpet with its silent movement. It disappeared as quickly as it came, but after it was gone Coalback set the gem on the ground and ripped his bandages off his barrel.

The purple herb came out with the bandages, stuck to the gauze with his blood. The wound gaped, torn edges of flesh waved a sickly purple in the open air where the stitches had torn out. But as Rainbow watched, the edges began to seal back together. She couldn't see how or why, but with the static tingle of magic in the air she had a good guess. Whatever it was that was in Coalback's gem had healed his wounds. Coalback flinched with each sealed laceration, his long wings raised high in agitation.

The sickening sight of flesh as it was pulled back together over his white ribs finally ended with a relieved sigh, only a purple bruise remained. Rainbow flinched, she heard metal creak and then crack. It wasn't until Coalback stumbled and nearly fell that she noticed the bottommost ring on Coalback's arm had actually gained a large crack along its length.

He let out a satisfied sigh as it finished and his wings drooped down to the ground but didn't fold away. Rainbow stared, frozen by the shock of what she'd just seen. Coalback looked to her as he recovered, he probably expected some sort of reaction but she had none. He gave a smile more like a grimace as he leaned down to retrieve his gem.

He took a step toward her and her legs reacted before she could. She was backed against the door quicker than she imagined she would have.

Her heart pounded in her ears. She wouldn't have been able to explain it if somepony had asked her about it, but for some reason she felt like this stallion really was more dangerous than she'd originally thought. After all, who just shrugs off a wound as crippling as that?! It was so impossibly wrong, and she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd suddenly been locked in a room with a hungry manticore.

Coalback paused at her reaction and approached her more carefully this time. He mumbled a cryptic word to her, tried to be reassuring as he approached. Rainbow didn't try to run this time, but she kept her eyes trained on him with an unblinking stare. "Coalback ... fix?" he asked. He held out the gem, an offer. "Fenrir fix Rainbow Dash," he said with a nod at his near spotless side.

"I- Uh- N-" Rainbow tried to answer, but for some reason she couldn't unclench her jaw enough to get the words out.

Coalback was unphased, still carefully and calmly he stepped toward her. "Coalback fix, no hurt," he rumbled calmly, it surprised her with just how much Equestrian he did know. He held out the gem to her, his dark blood was still smeared across it.

Rainbow tried to protest again but Coalback was already right in front of her, the gem in his hoof innocent and unassuming. He didn't wait for her to actually say anything, he just reached around her and gently placed the rusted metal and its gem between her shoulderblades.

Rainbow gasped, the gem was surprisingly warm and it spread out from between her shoulders and into her wings almost instantly. In the back of her mind, like a key, she felt something click into place and open. It was there for only an instant, but she felt what could only be this "Fenrir" enter her. Not just into her mind but deep into her bones and her soul, her Element shuddered in her heart but rang with confusion and inaction. The warmth grew as her Element’s shuddering did, they grew until both were a deafening hum of power.

And then it was gone.

Just like that the feeling of another presence, another soul to caress hers and pull on a string she hadn’t known was there, her Element more active than it had ever been since Discord was imprisoned, was gone. It made her shiver, she suddenly felt like something was missing but at the same time like something was there that hadn’t been before.

Coalback smiled at her, and she gave a start when she realized she’d just been staring at him for the last few minutes. Rainbow looked away quickly, still upset with the large pegasus. She snorted in agitation, and only then noticed that her wing didn’t hurt with the movement of her barrel. She turned a surprised look toward her wing, she half expected it to be missing.

Coalback’s hoof moved fast, took a piece of the gauze wrap and tugged. He ripped open the wrap and pulled away the rest from her wing with a single motion. Rainbow gasped, she expected the pain to come back, or for her wing to be a horrible, misshapen wreck.

But it was fine. A little messy perhaps and still marred by a sickly bruise - it would definitely need some well deserved preening - but otherwise, completely fine. She knew what a bad dislocated wing looked like, this one hadn’t been her first, maybe her worst though. The joints could turn purple and even swell to the size of baseballs. The worse she’d seen could become infected, which would ground a pegasus for life. But her wing looked … just the way it had before she’d woken up in the hospital.

She looked back to Coalback with disbelief. He only smiled, took a look at his own wings, and with an expression of intense concentration, lifted them off the ground again. He lifted them up and flexed them at his sides to inspect the muscle there, then he looked to her expectantly, waited for her to do the same with a smile that was unfit for such a large stallion.

Rainbow watched his wings arc up high over his head, the muscles bulged with iron-rod strength. She almost couldn’t help but follow, despite her embarrassment that a stallion would make such a display toward her. Not that it was very impressive, his wings looked like they hadn’t been preened once in his life. But with wings as long and muscled as that, she wondered if he really needed to preen them to keep his lift. Her face nearly exploded with heat when she realized she’d ogled his wings, and she most certainly turned a shade of red when she realized that he was doing the same to her.

She folded both her wings quickly and pressed hard against the doors. She hoped she could just melt through them, or that they would open against their hinges so that she could make a run for it. This was so embarrassing, she’d just shown her plumage to a stallion she’d just met! And his wings were still open!

After a few more moments, Coalback’s foallike grin faded and he turned back towards his saddlebag. His wings sat awkwardly on his back, left limp and forgotten now. He bounced the gem in his hoof as he looked at the bag in thought. He picked up brass cylinder and put it in the bag, he threw the strap over his neck carelessly and it landed atop his tangled wings. He gave a sigh, one last look at the gem, and swallowed it.

Rainbow could only stare at his strange behaviour, it was almost like he didn’t notice his wings. And why in the world would he swallow something like that? How was she supposed to react to that?

Rainbow’s thoughts were interrupted, however, by the sounds of hoofsteps from the other end of the study. Coalback heard it before she did, his ears perked up and he started to back away from the desk and the direction they came from. A growling noise filled the room but it wasn’t until Coalback had nearly backed up against Rainbow that she realized he was where the noise came from.

“Therih rih rithethe ri may sothe rih fa fa themay dohmaythe la.” Luna’s voice drifted out from the darkened end of the study, and in a moment so did she. A thin smile graced her young features, a playful glint shone in her eye. She dressed in intricate black decorations, inlayed silver traced out star maps and glittering patterns all across her hooves and chest. Her mane billowed out behind her, the colors of the cosmos floated inside it and cast glittering shadows out in the moonlight. “Step aside, misplaced Blood-Born,” she said, her civility gone and in its place a grim, warning, calm tone. Her voice echoed in the small study, the panes of the windows shook with her voice.

Coalback growled louder, nearly to a snarl. His wings arced up on his back but didn't spread out to make himself look bigger, instead they made it look like his back was arched unnaturally high.

"Princess! Hi! Uh ..." Rainbow sputtered, unused to the intense look on Luna’s face as she looked between each of them and the broken desk. Rainbow groaned in defeat, she should have just gone to bed.

"Be not afraid, Rainbow Dash," Luna said calmly but her eyes never left Coalback, "We shan't let him hurt you." Her voice was low, while she slowly stepped toward Coalback. The Princess of the night slowly lowered her head, magic rippled within her fur and her horn reached out menacingly toward Coalback.

"But he didn't hurt me!" Rainbow protested.

Coalback snarled something menacingly in that old language Clean Cut had been so excited about and the Princess flinched. "We are the sole cause of the breath in thine foul throat!" She yelled, no longer concerned with Rainbow. Her voice echoed loudly, she spoke in twelve different languages at the same time and nearly shook the glass from their frames above. "Yet you, defiling cretin, defy Us at every attempt to aid thee! Now thou hast desecrated Our chambers. Are We to assume thou hast slain thine guard as well?!"

Coalback flinched, shrunk into himself but did not move. Rainbow could see his chest move shakily with each breath. Luna’s tirade went on, but now in a hundred languages and Rainbow could not understand her, but Coalback did. And Rainbow knew then that she had to do something, she couldn't stand to just watch as somepony yelled down at a stallion like the Princess was.

"Hold it!" she yelled. Her wings sprung open and launched her up and between the two goliaths. She wasn't exactly sure what it was she planned to do, especially since she had just yelled at one of the Princesses and a pony who knew little to no Equestrian. But she had to try. "Okay, look. I'm not usually the pony that breaks up the fights, but you both need to cool it!" she yelled, she made sure to make it clear to Coalback as well as she could.

"Rainbow Dash-" Luna started.

"No, you listen to me!" Rainbow said forcefully, a surprise even to herself. "I don't know what exactly is going on, but I know for a fact that you're both overreacting!" she said, a dear hope that she was right fluttered at the back of her mind. "As far as I know, Coalback's been pretty much treated like crap, so give him a little break for wanting his stiff back," she fumed. She'd started to lose momentum with Luna's glare the way it was, but she had too many unanswered questions to back down now. "Why was his stuff locked in here anyway?"

Luna’s glare persisted for several moments before she answered: "Protecting them," she said, much to Rainbow’s surprise. "One of Our guards found the saddlebag after he was detained, we kept it so that we could return it to him once he had recovered."

"But he was being guarded, like a prisoner."

"That is because he has broken the law and trespassed on Royal Grounds," Luna said calmly. "Do not worry, We have secured custody of him under the Night Court, he will be getting the best care and supervision from Our Guard and from Doctor Clean Cut."

"Yeah, I've met him. He said that Coalback was being held because he had some sort of disease that he could have given a bunch of the guards. And why is Coalback under just your custody?" Rainbow asked. Her wings set her down gently between Luna and Coalback, who was backed against the door now but silent.

"His trespassing occurred while on Our half of the sky, and all manners of creatures of the night fall within Our demesne. But Clean Cut is an expert, there's no need to be afraid. He's expressed a surety of only a minor risk," she explained, her stature relaxed, and Coalback shrank into himself behind Rainbow Dash. "As long as Coalback cooperates with us, he will be treated with the utmost fairness. Now, Clean Cut ..."

"You summoned me, my Princess?" Doctor Clean Cut said. Rainbow jumped, he wasn't there in front of the desk an instant ago.

"Please resettle Rainbow Dash and Coalback into chambers in this wing, it will be easier to prevent issues if Our Guard can be close to them rather than allowing Celestia's Guard to parade around them." Luna gave one last, thoughtful glance at Coalback before she turned around and disappeared back up the shadowy staircase at the rear of her study.

"The night lives on." Clean Cut bowed as she left and relaxed once she was gone. "Now, before either of you agitate the authorities any further, let's be off," he said as he gently ushered the both of them out of the door.

Lunar Guards now lined the walls, presumably they had come to respond to the Princess’s yelling, but now they stood at attention as Clean Cut passed them. Rainbow followed robotically, mostly just to process what had just happened and to hope Coalback was alright.

She stared at the huge grey stallion as they passed the guards and headed down the halls. He drooped now, no longer the defiantly strong stallion on the search for his possessions but rather defeated, deflated. Earlier, he had seemed big and proud as a house, now he was no bigger than a kitten and just as dangerous. Rainbow could tell that whatever the Princess had said, it had hit him hard.

Clean Cut brought Coalback to the first room, all he had to do was open the door and Coalback stumbled weakly inside. But Clean Cut didn't move on, and both Rainbow and the doctor just stood in the door to watch. The stallion wobbled on legs just too long for his body, whether wandering or not he made his way to one of the bolted shut windows where the starlight streamed in. He collapsed against the sill with a whump of air from his lungs, fog spread across the window and slowly faded as he stared blankly out of it.

"I think it's finally setting in for him," Clean Cut said, his voice barely interrupted the silence it was so quiet. Rainbow just gave him a curious look, unwilling herself to attempt such a feat in silence as solid as this. But Clean Cut didn't answer he only stared as Coalback weakly hummed a low tune into the window panes.

After a long moment of just listening, the doctor spoke softly, barely a breath in the thin night air Coalback’s sad humming filled. "I am alone. The world which shook at my feet ... and the trees ... and the sky, have gone. And I am alone now ... alone."

With a start Rainbow turned to the doctor, eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Are you translating?" she whispered.

The doctor nodded and closed his eyes to listen to Coalback's plaintive song. "Alone. The wind bites now, and the world is grey, and I am alone here. Can't see me. Doesn't see me. Can't see me." Clean Cut stopped there as it seemed Coalback would only repeat the same thing now. "But who? Who can't see him? I recognise that, I studied wolfsong for ten years. I had to hide out near the den of a grey wolf pack for ten years and never in that time did I ever hear something so ... lonely," he mumbled.

"But why is he lonely?" Rainbow asked, only to gain a sad look from Clean Cut. "I mean- We're here. I stood up for him. Why does he think he's alone?"

"It's very possible to be surrounded by allies, but totally and utterly alone. And he is not like you or me, Rainbow Dash," the doctor said as he gently closed the door. "We know next to nothing about his kind ... strange, beautiful creatures that they are. We thought that they'd all died out, but now ..." Clean Cut looked at the door again, Coalback's humming was getting louder, almost a wail or a moan. "He may be the last one left. It may be why he came here, he's lost."

They sat there for another moment, just to listen. Rainbow caught one of the Lunar Guards with his ears up and a far off gaze in his eyes, the Guards could hear it too and they were just as enraptured.

"Come on," Clean Cut said as Coalback finally stopped, "you need to sleep, magic healing ability or no. Tomorrow we'll arrange a physical therapy session to make sure everything is healed properly. Do you want something to help you sleep?"

"Yeah, there's no way I'm gonna be able to sleep now." She let Clean Cut lead her away, all the more confused.

Author's Notes:

I've been writing all of these on my phone. Also, I don't know why there have been numbers inserting themselves into stories, I saw it on a few other stories as well. Also, I absolutely loved the pilot for the new Doctor Who! (Even though that was weeks ago ...)
Here we see one of the changes I've made: Coalback no longer has instinctually figured out how to fly, and also no pink shield since Celestia's keeping all this on the down low. Few tidbits for you in there. Also tell me what you think of Rainbow’s interjection of the Princess, for some reason it feels off for me but this was the best I could get it.

Anyway, tell me what your thoughts are in the comments, I always like to read them.