-That’ll Hurt in the Morning-

"Hitotsu Futatsu wa Akago mo Fumuga" -Voices filled the repairing hive as workers scurried and rushed to build walls, dig tunnels, care for crops and pump furnaces to keep the hatchlings warm and the iron flowing- "Mittsu Yottsu wa Oni mo Naku, Naku" -Where the song had come from only one could say, she was the worker who had first sung it and led the other workers in the song- "Tatara Onna wa Kogane no Nasake" -They were happy, the changelings, despite the fact that their only food was what few plants could be grown inside the hive- "Tokete Nagarerya Yaiba ni Kawaru."

The worker who led them in song was herself at one of the huge bellows. Her rear hoof rested strongly on the top of the bellows, and with all her weight and the weight of the five other changeling workers beside her they forced huge winds into the furnaces from the double sided bellows. However, unlike the smaller fires that burned deeper in the hive for the hatchlings and the larvae, this furnace was hot enough to melt down the iron scavenged from the wastelands.

For the siege on the Macintosh Hills, Discord had demanded every warrior changeling in the hive and as much weaponry as they could forge. Though little of the scavenged iron was kept for the changelings, most of it went to Discord who molded it himself for his favourite creatures. His creations of iron were nothing like the graceful edges of changeling blades, they were wrong somehow. But there was nothing a lowly worker changeling could do about it.

"Hitotsu Futatsu wa-"

"Bring that one to me! Now!" The Queen's voice cut through the hive like a knife. Everyone froze as one of the Queen's warrior drones cuffed the lead singer's ears and more dragged than led her away from the bellows. The changelings atop the furnace yelled in panic as the changelings on the bellows froze, they scrambled to start again.

This time there was no singing.

The drone's unblemished chitin and large wings glinted in the lantern light as he tossed the worker prostrate before her Queen. The little worker didn't dare look up for fear that she would be punished, she pressed her nose to the floor in respect. She felt the drone's Kojiri against the back of her skull as a warning.

She didn't have to look up to know what the Queen looked like, even if she was only a shell of her former self. One of her wings was nearly gone, her horn a shattered wreck of the pillar it had once been. Her chitin was healing but it still held many cracks and tears, especially around her mouth. In truth the worker was fearful she wouldn't be able to stop staring if she looked.

"Yes, that's the one," Discord said with disinterest. "Now, make her take the place of the leader of Ponyville, she's to make sure they cooperate with my insurgents once they arrive," he explained as he fiddled with a rusted piece of metal from the desert.

"Do you hear that, child?" the Queen asked, but the changeling did not answer except to press her face harder into the ground. "I have generously chosen you to go on an important mission in enemy territory." The Queen grinned as she said it, happy to send off this changeling on a dangerous mission alone. "Take their pathetic overseer's place and keep the ponies unaware of our plans until we have arrived, am I understood?" she asked coldly, anger boiled under the buzz of her voice.

"Yes, my Queen," the poor worker sputtered into the floor. The worker's eyes flashed green for an instant and the Queen's will and knowledge flowed into her, but only a taste.

"Send her back to work," the Queen commanded her drone.

He picked the worker back up, and with a whirl of his powerful wings swept her back to the bellows. The few workers who rested between turns on the bellows rushed to her side and huddled her over to the mats nearby. They all began to coddle her with questions, but the worker only smiled and took her place on the bellows again.

"Akago mo Fumuga, Mittsu Yottsu wa," she sang as she started to work alongside the others. Soon the hive buzzed with song again, but somehow there was less cheer there.

"Trouble child," the drone muttered as he buzzed away. The Queen would be content once more when that uppity worker was dead and gone.

"What did you find in the gardens?" Celestia inquired of the horror stricken Guard that had whispered in her ear.

"It was a bloody hoof," the stallion stuttered. "Something killed a deer in the gardens," he reported.

Celestia took a deep breath in through her nose before she spoke, certain to compose herself before she spoke aloud. "Court is dismissed for the day, please leave now," she said calmly, "everypony," she insisted to her Guard.

The sharply dressed nobles here to offer petitions and bills were filed out quickly by the Guards. The doors boomed shut behind them and left the spacious throne room empty. The late morning light streamed through the stained glass hall, and behind Celestia the bas relief sculptures that depicted the founding of her nation glinted in polished marble.

And in this solitude Celestia’s visage twisted into a rage filled scowl. Her coat shimmered with heat, and her mane flickered like fire. Thoughts unbidden took root in her mind, and she only grew all the more furious.

What if a foal had found that foul beast's leftovers? Or worse, had caught it in the act! It could only have been that creature Luna was harboring. If Celestia ever caught sight of that thing again, she'd -

Celestia took another deep breath, her throne had started to burn. Something heavy and hard sent a shiver of pain through her ribs, but she resisted her anger and her pain.

No, she told herself, no. She would not allow herself to trump Luna’s authority over the matter, as much as it enraged her not to. She would not invoke a political power struggle over this, even though the threat certainly gave her reason to.

Her mind flashed with ancient images of teeth in the darkness, swords as heavy as a chariot but thin as paper and armor as liquid as their shapes. Rivers of blood flowed through city streets and one those things, bigger than a bear, stood over the dead form of one of her sisters.

For now, she said to herself, but soon she would set things straight.

For now ...

This truly was a part of the castle that Rainbow had never been to, though it made sense why not. She'd left the daily spa session early today in exchange for a bout of exploration, she just wasn't up for a hooficure was all.

Just the fact that this part of the castle, so close to the gates of the palace, was dedicated to the predominantly male Guard was strange alone, but it certainly wasn't meant for the higher society members to see. Everything was clean of course, but also somewhat plain. Everything here was clearly labeled and designed for the quick deployment of troops should they be needed, not the hoity toity decoration that the rest of the castle was famous for. But that really wasn't what made it strange.

In most other military establishments, the ponies enlisted were mares and rarely stallions. There just weren't enough stallions that were interested in that sort of thing. But here it seemed that ratio was reversed. Rainbow wasn't too savvy on the history, she'd always fallen asleep in that class, not that she wasn't interested in it. She knew for a fact it had been a joke from Celestia to her Captain of the Guard a few hundred years ago about being surrounded by gorgeous stallions all day that had been taken, much to the Princess's surprise, very literally.

And Rainbow had to admit, they certainly were gorgeous. She stopped quite happily on her way past a training session where many of the muscled stallions were drilled, matted with sweat and breathless. She caught sight of the melee practices in another courtyard, the scrawny squires rushed around to polish armor and dress their knights with dulled weapons to bash each other with. Blacksmiths and their wiry apprentices were nearby to repair armor and take orders for new equipment.

It was all very entertaining for Rainbow, even if she only stayed for a little while.

However, after that she needed something to let steam off, so she returned to the mostly abandoned officer's gym. A few laps or some weight lifting should do the trick.

The receptionist was strangely absent, even though she'd been there the day before. Rainbow let herself in anyway, Luna had given her permission. She searched for the weight room only to discover most of them empty and missing their equipment, but she eventually found them and the stallion using them.

Coalback was too busy on an overloaded squat bar to notice her, and the Lunar Guards that spotted him never flinched away from their task. However Clean Cut turned with a surprised look toward her, his black notebook shut itself and tucked away into his labcoat.

"Miss Dash," he greeted. "What a surprise to see you here! Does the Princess know you're here?" he asked as he stepped between her and Coalback. But Rainbow wasn't about to be distracted that easily.

"No," she said as she dodged around the doctor. "Holy cow! That's gotta be at least two hundred pounds!" she said as she counted the disks that were nearly bending the bar balanced on the painted Pegasi's shoulders.

"Two hundred and thirty, actually," Clean Cut mumbled automatically. "Is there something you needed?" he asked to bluntly change the topic.

"Well, yeah," Rainbow said once she'd gotten over the shocking feat. "You guys are hogging all the weights, I want to get in a little workout before we all go on a 'Historical Tour' of Canterlot," she said, it was a wonder how Twilight had convinced them all it was a good idea last night.

"I see, I suppose that's nothing unreasonable-"

"Rainbow Dash!" The bar came back to rest on its stand with a loud crash and a creak as it settled under its uncommon weight and Coalback turned to face them. He cleared his throat and said "Hallo." He took a towel in his hoof before he walked toward them, somewhat unsteady as he got back to his hooves. He wiped the sweat off of his face as he came astride of Clean Cut. "Rainbow Dash does ... Exercise?" he asked through a heavy accent.

"Holy cow! That was totally Equestrian!" Rainbow said in shock, it truly was strange to hear it from somepony who'd only a few nights ago had only been able to communicate with his hooves and a few strangled words. "Yeah, I totally do. Can you share the weights, dude?"

"Share ... weights?" he repeated and rolled the words in his mouth as he contemplated them. "Ah! Yes, Rainbow Dash does share weights!" he said resolutely once he'd pieced together what she had asked. He made a familiar motion with his head for her to follow him and he walked back toward the literal wall of heavy objects.

Clean Cut only sighed in defeat, he'd faced worse than a pushy mare or stallion in his life. But he didn't stop them.

Coalback picked up a fifty pound barbell with a hoof and propped one hoof on a bench to start work on his shoulder with quick reps, otherwise he didn't bother to say anything else to Rainbow. Rainbow took some much lighter weights in wing and began a few lifts, it was her wing day and she was not about to miss it.

Even if Coalback continued to glance at her wings past his own reps. Fine, he wanted to get a look then she'd get some answers:

"What do you do, Coalback?" she asked only for the big pony to pause and look with a confused expression at her. "I mean, like, what sort of stuff do you do? Fire Rescue? Storm Chasing?" she asked, she knew it wasn't that simple but she wanted at least an idea of what interested this pony.

"I fight," he answered after a moment and returned to his weight. He switched arms.

"Oh, right. I guess that makes sense," Rainbow trailed off. That hadn't gone as planned.

"What is it Rainbow Dash 'do'?" He asked her after a moment, which was surprising to her. She still had the impression that he was displeased with everything in the world. The fact that he wanted to know something about her was ... charming.

"I race," Rainbow said proudly. She went on when his ear perked up in her direction. "Oh yeah, that wind in your mane, blood pumping, wings aching they're moving so fast! I live for that stuff," she said, and she could have sworn she saw the ghost of a smile on his face.

"Sprint or ... marathon?" he asked after a moment.

"A little of both I guess," she said as she switched to a different position to work her aviary pectorals. "I mostly do speed, but I can outfly just about anypony," she bragged. She wasn't sure how effective that would be with the stallion, but it made her feel more comfortable around him.

"Rainbow Dash should fight," Coalback said after a moment as he set down the barbell and picked up a hundred pound weight fashioned from two fifty pound disks strapped on top of each other. "It keep Rainbow Dash alive more th'n running," he grunted as he laid himself out on a bench and started on crunches with the disk clutched to his chest. His accent bent the words into strange shapes.

"Huh?"

"Where I come from, the things that hunt you will chase you down for however long it takes for you to drop dead on your own," he said carefully, his breathing remained steady with his crunches. "They only catch flies dead, yeah?" He glanced coldly in her direction, and Rainbow got the feeling there was a lot more to what he was saying than she realized.

"I ... guess that makes sense," she said. Suddenly this was a lot less comfortable. "Is that why you're in such a bad mood all the time? You think you're being hunted here?" she asked, though she wasn't so sure she liked his answer.

"Something is watching, and it isn't a pony."

That night Rainbow Dash and her friends learned all about the conceivement and construction Canterlot: The Cantered Slope City of the Rising Sun. How Celestia had called upon every engineer and architect the ponies could muster to design her grand city, and how it would be able to stand for a hundred thousand years after they had long passed. Even how the palace was really originally supposed to be a keep, but had been altered to be slightly less functional and far more fashionable.

They visited museums that memorialized past conflicts between ponies and the mares that died in those battles. How the City-States had been divided and warred amongst each other before Celestia could band them together. Rarity swooned over Romantic paintings. Applejack became puzzled over the pieces of art constructed purely of geographic shapes that Pinkie seemed to find absolutely hilarious. Fluttershy admired the sculptures while Rainbow admired the old wing blades on display. And Twilight had fawned over ancient texts displayed in protective cases that magically turned the pages.

Meanwhile, a changeling in the deserts far to the South learned all she could of her prey. Her mannerisms, linguistics and habits. How she thought, what she held highly and what she looked down upon. Even what products she bought, or how often she used the bathroom.

That night Coalback simply wouldn't acknowledge anypony. For some reason he'd dropped back into a bad mood, it was surprising that he tolerated the Lunar Guards at all.

He didn't say anything when he left the room, and for some reason his Guard didn't stop him either. They traveled as a group through the palace, steadily on their way to the hospital wing. It was abandoned save for the few doctors that treated the few injured from putting out fires in the garden only a few days ago.

Burn victims mostly, and the few guards that had been injured by the grey Pegasus himself. Strangely enough, Coalback stopped outside of the Burn Ward and simply stared in at the bandaged and pained ponies.

Burns were harsh on the body. They cut away flesh and damaged nerves, the pain rarely ever simply disappeared on serious cases. Skin grafts were all well and good, but until the burn was totally healed the pain would always be excruciating.

Coalback knew all this, he'd been through far worse than some of these ponies. Not that he couldn't sympathize, quite the opposite actually. If he had a god or gods to pray to, he would have. But all he had were memories that he regretted, hated himself for, and grieved over. Of no help to the living.

His Guards remained stoic and sympathetically silent in their thick cloaks and heavy armor, they didn't bother to keep a tight circle around him. Somehow they understood the stallion where nopony else could.

The servants of the Night could recognise remorse, no matter how well it was hidden.

However, the Solar Guards stationed in this wing of the hospital would not be able to. Nobles from birth the only violence they'd ever seen was behind city drinking holes and after large concerts or festivals. In truth they had all actually fought in the Changeling invasion, and for it they considered themselves champions.

And the sight of this criminal outside a hospital's burn ward, where pain and suffering were the norm, made their skin crawl. Filibuster was all but finished with this stallion, especially since he continued to pop up outside of a cell.

"You are disgusting," Filibuster growled, positively fuming. Coalback flinched at the word, ears and intense eyes turned, confused, to the Solar Guard. "Do you just enjoy watching ponies suffer? Is that it?!" Coalback turned fully toward Filibuster, but the emotions on his face conflicted with confusion and the Guard went on. "You caused that! Are you here to admire your work, you disgusting cretin? I'll never understand what the Princess sees in your black heart, but I hope she sees how horrible you really are soon so I can put a spear through your eye!"

Coalback moved before any of the Guards in the hall could react. In the blink of an eye he was across the room and Filibuster was slammed against the plastered wall hard enough to crack it. Coalback pushed the other stallion up so that only the tips of his rear hooves could touch the floor, the painted Pegasi's arm pressed hard into Filibuster's larynx.

"You don't know anything!" Coalback hissed into Filibuster's ear, he didn't even have to stretch over the smaller stallion. "You call yourself a killer but I donnae see it!"

Filibuster choked, his hooves dug at Coalback's thick arm in a desperate attempt for air. But just as Filibuster was sure that he'd pushed the stallion too far and he was going to die without even a chance to defend himself, Coalback was gone. Filibuster dropped to the floor and gasped for air, his partner was quickly there to pick him up again. Coalback had fled with his Lunar Guard just behind him.

Luna was at dinner at one of the finer restaurants in Canterlot when her Guard came to her. It was far past sundown and they'd nearly finished their food, but the Lunar Guard's rushed entrance shattered the mood. Her dark blue shemagh wrapped around her withers shifted as she bowed to the Princess.

"Calm thyself and explain clearly," she ordered the young mare. She bowed lower and took a moment to shake out her leathery wings and calm her nerves before the shemagh shifted again. "That is worrying news, and extremely inconvenient. Stop apologizing," she ordered and the shemagh was still again.

"What's wrong, Princess?" Applejack asked from across her empty plate.

"It's nothing to be concerned about," she said as she stood. "However it is unfortunate that I must ask you all to continue without me for a few moments once more, if you will excuse me," Luna said as she began to leave.

"This is about Coalback again, isn't it?" Rainbow said more than asked. She recognised the Guard from the weight room, there was no doubt in her mind.

"Unfortunately," Luna confirmed, but she barely paused on her way out the door.

"Then I'm coming with," Rainbow announced as she leapt away from the table to follow Luna. But this time the Princess did pause.

"We would prefer if you went back to the castle, Rainbow Dash," Luna insisted.

"Rainbow, dear, what ever has possessed you to need to be involved with this. From what you told us he's a brute, hardly worth worrying over," Rarity said with a frown.

"I'm not gonna let you walk all over the guy, I don't care what you say," Rainbow insisted to Luna.

"Very well, We lack the time to diffuse this. The rest of you may finish your meal-"

"No way, if Rainbow’s goin' then so're we," Applejack spoke up, the whole table agreed even if Rarity was somewhat upset about it.

"We must make haste," Luna insisted as the Guard led them out the door. "This situation is spiraling out of control," she muttered under her breath.

The cloaked Lunar Guard led them through the streets as quickly as she could with the ground-bound ponies in tow, Luna’s personal Guard of heavily armored bat-ponies formed quickly around them. Through darkened boulevards and past stores just about to close for the night. The few crowds that still were on the streets at this hour quickly made way for the Princess and her Guards. It wasn't hard to find the location, half the street had been locked down by Lunar Guards.

The bar they surrounded was nearly empty, but the owner's voice was unmistakably livid. The mare stood out front with a Lunar Guard who wrote down everything she said. "He came out of nowhere and demanded, demanded, that I bring him a keg, a whole keg, of my hardest stuff! Then he had the gall to call it watered down! And now he refuses to pay for anything and he's still in there drinking!"

Luna rushed into the fray with the Elements in tow. They slid to a stop on the frosty cobbles as Luna opened the door to the bar. Inside was surprisingly tame to how the exterior appeared: It could have easily been assumed that somepony was holding hostages inside with how the Guard had reacted, but no one was inside except for the rest of Coalback’s personal Guard regiment and the stallion himself.

The mares froze as they entered, the difference was shocking. The only damage appeared to be where the stallion had apparently dragged the kegs of liquor across the floor to a bench and had drained them. But he just sat there and stared at one of the paintings on the wall that most bars seemed to have just to add some sort of atmosphere but were never meant to truly be art.

"Why hasn't anypony done anything yet?" Luna asked the nearest guard, the scarf around his neck shifted in answer. "That is understandable. What of Clean Cut?" Luna asked, her head whipped around to the only fully armored Lunar Guard there. The dark, sharp horned unicorn with the same glowing yellow eyes that were the staple of the Lunar Guard didn't appear to say anything but all the same Luna responded. "Gone? Where could he have gone?"

Rainbow looked between Luna and her Guards in confusion. She was practically having only half a conversation, none of the guards were even speaking. It was only then that Rainbow noticed that every Guard wore something over their withers, whether or not it was armor.

Finally Rainbow simply turned to Twilight. "What's going on?" she whispered. "How are they talking to Luna?"

"Those are Thestrals," Twilight explained. "They don't talk like Equestrian ponies do, they don't have vocal chords like us. They talk with their throats, but I don't know how," Twilight admitted with a shrug.

It was only once Luna paused her investigation with her Guards that a quiet sound was able to be heard. In the commotion that had sprung up, nopony had been able to hear the quiet singing. But once the noise had dropped it became apparent.

It was in a language none of them could understand, but it was there all the same. And it came from Coalback. He never seemed to have noticed them, he could have been singing from the moment they entered. Everypony stopped, if only just to try to make out what he sang.

Coalback faced the wall, head on the table, and sang through clenched teeth. He sang with the sorrow of a drunk stallion, which he had apparently only won once he had emptied three kegs of their contents and started on a fourth. His eyes were locked on the painting hung from the wall of a pack of wolves running on a nameless snow field.

And then he sang in Equestrian, his sorrow rose with his voice. "O' all the money that e'er I've spent, I spent it in good company." He seemed to droop with the words only to raise his voice in spite. "And all the harm that e'er I've done, alas it was to none but me. And all I've done for want of wit, to mem'ry now I can't recall. So fill to me the parting glass: Good night, and joy be with you all."

Coalback’s head rose unsteadily from the table it had rested on, his voice filled the empty bar. "O' all the comrades that e'er I had, are sorry for my going away." The windows hummed with his voice, and the table gained a tear. "And all the sweethearts that e'er I had, would wish me one more day to stay. But since it falls unto my lot, that I should rise and you should not ..."

Coalback cried as he stared at the painting, all too many happy memories mixed in with horrible truths in his mind. It was too much for his inebriated mind. "... I'll gently rise and I'll softly call ..." his voice fell and stopped and his heavy head fell back onto the table.

Luna huffed with hesitant impatience. "We believe this display has gone on long enough," she announced to Coalback, unsure if the emotions he so strongly demonstrated were genuine. "Halt this, it is pathetic for one of your station, Coalback," she said, ready to pull the pegasus back to his hooves with a strong hoof. She was reluctant to drop the facade of strength she had built for the stallion, even if it might mean that the Elements saw her in a harsher light for it.

"I never wanted this," Coalback muttered, he didn't seem to have noticed Luna's voice. "I didn't want to hurt them, I didn't want any-" He hiccuped as he spoke, tears choked him, "-anyone to die." His hooves held down his ears, almost like his own voice was upsetting to him. "I didn't have a choice ... no choice, no choice," he mumbled between sobs. The empty kegs shivered with the timber of his voice, a reminder of what had spiraled the strong stallion so low.

Rainbow could only watch with a mixture of sympathy and disgust. It was so wrong seeing the pony that had lifted two hundred and thirty pounds for a squat and then a hundred more for crunches as deflated as this. Or the pony that had supposedly taken down a dragon bawling his eyes out like a foal. But it also reminded her, unfortunately, of her father. And that she would not put up with any longer.

Rainbow broke from the group without a second thought. She grabbed the stallion’s shoulder and pulled him off of the bench as best as she could with his large frame. "Stand up!" she ordered with all the ferocity she could muster. "Stand up!" She didn't know exactly what it was that Coalback had grieved for just then, but enough was enough. "That's enough! No more drinking, no more crying! You're a stallion, damnit, I get it but you need to stand up!"

To the surprise of everypony in the room, Coalback responded. He stood shakily, tears streaked his face and matted the patterns of his fur. He was still deflated, no more than a foal in a stallion's too-big-body, but standing all the same.

"Now come on, time to go home," Rainbow said, surprised with her own ferocity. Almost like she had been a long time ago.

But this time, Coalback resisted. "There isnae home," he grunted in his strange accent, worsened by the drink. "Home burned, no home with ponies," he almost snapped as he wrenched his arm free from her.

"No!" Rainbow said, not about to let the stallion sit back down. "You listen," she commanded with a rough pull on his withers to force him to face her. "This is what you've got, buckle down and deal with it. 'Cuz this-" She motioned to the empty kegs and all the Guards in the room, "-This won't cut it!"

Coalback aimed a half drunk glare at her, but she could see him consider her words. Finally he simply slumped over, his admittance of defeat.

"Good. Now come on, time to go," Rainbow said firmly, but this time she made sure to be gentle as she led him.

Nopony said anything, most were afraid to try. They led Coalback back to the palace with little event, Rainbow brought him back to his room and settled him onto the mattress shredding nest he had created, on his side. She made it clear to the Guards that he needed to be kept under watch pretty carefully so he wouldn't choke in his sleep.

At the end of it she shut the door with a huff of frustration. Only to turn to the shocked expression of her friends, and the strangely calm face of Luna. "Don't ask me about it, okay. It's over, can we just go to bed now?" she said without the patience to actually wait for an answer. She pushed past them to start toward the room they'd all been sharing.

She didn't want to talk, but she didn't want to be alone at the moment either. Her friends understood. Luna contemplated whether she had been too harsh in her methods with the Blood-Born.

But Coalback contemplated revenge on the Solar Guard that had brought forth the memories he'd carefully buried, and the voice in his head was all too eager to help.

Author's Notes:

This chapter was difficult for me to write; I just don't do the emotional shit all that often. I'll let ya'll try to figure out exactly what's going on, though some of you probably already know from the first draft. Anyway, I'll be touching on Rainbow's actions later once I can figure out where Rainbow and Coalback have a heart-to-heart (fingers crossed for no unused plot devices). Speaking of plot devices, don't worry, Invisible Barrier and Iron Bar are not gonna just disappear, I have a plan for them that could turn out to be pretty awesome.

But please tell me how it went with the scenes with Coalback in this one, I'm shaky on hoW it turned out.

Also, some foreshadowing for you in this one. I'm much better about it this time around I feel.

I love comments by the way, have I ever mentioned that?