-A Dark Past-

The low light of the first rays of morning twilight peaked through an open window. The purple toned cloud that had acted as a shutter had drifted away in the night. It played through the window, the light of the stars still twinkling amidst the gradually brightening sky outside the window. The light that was there danced on the sculpted clouds, and the other items in the room.

The one awake occupant of the room didn’t mind however, the light reminded him of the sleepless nights alone in the wilderness,the peaceful ones anyway. The golden toned rings on his arm sparkled in the light, more so than a metal alone should have. It was just that time of night where a pony could easily see the little details of a picture, not that his eyes made any use of that.

Coalback looked down from the window, a prismatic mane dominating his vision. He had fallen asleep on his back, or at least near enough to it. Rainbow had fallen asleep on his chest, gently rocked to sleep by his steady breathing. Her lips were curled up into a contented smile, sleeping soundly with his heartbeat as her lullaby.

He smiled sadly down at her, gently stroking a green lock of her mane with his hoof. Memories from travels before Equestria plagued him, even those from before everything fell apart. Strangely, a song twittered into the back of his mind, quickly calling itself forward as he locked onto it.

He looked back out the window, memories of hearths and hospital rooms flittering through his head.

“Lay down

Your sweet and weary head

Night is falling

You’ve come to journey's end

Sleep now

And dream of the ones who came before

They are calling

From across the distant shore”

His voice was never the greatest. He had trouble keeping tempo, tune was only loosely grasped in the mediocrity that he called his voice. But it was enough, and it comforted him. But what he didn’t notice in his nostalgic reminiscence, was the pair of rose eyes that fluttered open before him.

“What can you see

On the horizon?

Why do the white gulls call?

Across the sea

A pale moon rises

The ships have come to carry you home

“And all will turn

To silver glass

A light on the water

All souls pass

“Hope fades

Into the world of night

Through shadows falling

Out of memory and time

Don't say: We have come now to the end

White shores are calling

You and I will meet again

“And you'll be here in my arms

Just sleeping

“What can you see

On the horizon?

Why do the white gulls call?

Across the sea

A pale moon rises

The ships have come to carry you home

“And all will turn

To silver glass

A light on the water

Grey ships pass

Into the West”

His voice started grating near the end, congestion quickly turning into a cough that shook his chest. It was far more than enough to shake Rainbow awake, her head shifting up and away from his chest as he recovered.

“Coalback?” she asked quietly, concern tracing through her voice heavily. She pulled a hoof up, placing it carefully on his chest. She could feel his heart slowly calming, the coughing having spiked it for just a moment.

“I’m fine …” he said quietly. He lifted his own hoof and placed it over hers, gently stroking it as his heart returned to the steady rhythm. He smiled down at her after a moment. “When I was little, and I could still visit my mother, she sang that to me,” he said gently, the song returning to the hushed conversation.

“You’re pretty good,” Rainbow smirked, reassured now that she knew he wasn’t hurt at all. “You should sing for me more often.” She chuckled lightly as he rolled his eyes, the light grace of a blush adding to the picture for her.

“I’m not that good,” he dismissed, looking back out the window. “And besides, its … part of … singing’s part of the only thing that I could really call a religion. Means a lot, you know?” he asked. The light of the stars slowly winked out as the sun rose, sparkling off his eyes in a remarkably cheesy fashion, at least to Rainbow.

She snorted quietly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “Yeah, whatever, Casanova,” she said teasingly, pushing up and pressing her lips to his as he turned back to her. His eyes opened wide for a second as she surprised him with it, but he quickly relaxed into it.

“And who’s that?” he asked as the kiss broke, a snort of his own escaping his lips.

“How should I know? It’s a thing ponies say. Shut up,” she defended, ending it with another kiss. When she broke away, his smile had dropped. “What’s up?” she tried. His continence had just changed so suddenly; something had to be on his mind.

“I was just thinking …” he muttered, looking away from her.

“A dangerous practice …” she muttered equally, hoping that the lame joke could keep him from closing up.

“Thanks,” he said with sarcasm, but his face softened. “I think … that I need to tell you some stuff. But I should tell everyb- … pony.” He paused again, some sort of translation tripping him up, or something.

“Do you want me to get the others, so you can tell them, too?” she asked, drawing the lines herself. This had to be something that he thought would affect all of them, otherwise, he would have just told her, right?

“Clever girl …” he said with a wink.

“I can be smart,” she said with a shake of her head. He still wasn’t relaxing, but he hadn’t stiffened up again. “What is it, though? You look like you’re pretty worked up over it,” she said with worry, dropping back to lean against him.

“You don’t know who I was before I came here …” he said after a moments hesitation, the words vibrating up through his chest. She was starting to really like that feeling.

“Well … no,” she said reluctantly. She liked to think that she could trust him, even though she didn’t actually know where he came from or how he got here. She looked back down at his chest, idly running a hoof over the markings on his chest and what he had said about them. “Okay, I’ll get them to the library. But you’re not going to do anything stupid are you?” she asked, eyeing him with a glare.

“It’s not smart … It’s the right thing, though,” he said after another short pause. “And … after I tell you, you might not want to be around me anymore …” he said with reluctance, not meeting her eyes.

“Not happening,” she responded instantly, pushing herself back up to look him in the eye. Coalback was her friend, more than that now, and she would stick with him. “If I’m here, I’m here for good.” She marked an ‘X’ on her chest, opting out of a full Pinkie Promise for the sake of her own embarrassment. It got him to smile, though.

“Yeah, thanks,” he said, sincerity warming his voice. He turned back to the window, watching the light slowly creep back into the world. Rainbow set her head down against his neck, watching the sunrise with him. She felt sort of silly, like an old mare or something.

It wasn’t until the sun had fully risen that they started to get ready for the day.

---

It took a few hours to pull all her friends away from their various chores and duties, eventually guiding them toward the library. It was late in the morning when she finally led Applejack and Fluttershy inside, the last of the ponies who needed to be there.

The sight she was greeted with was unpleasant. Her friends sat around in the library, various expressions on their faces. Sadness, fear, concern. They sat in various places around the main room of the library, the inset shelves around the room untouched by the studious mare. She had already told all of them why they were there, but hadn’t exactly explained what Coalback wanted, not that she knew.

The library was reasonably lit, although the windows were placed on the shady side of the tree. A varying set of lanterns and candles compensated for the lack of natural light however. The wood patterning made it easy to simply stare at the walls and trace the patterns, a good distraction from the imaginations of the mares inside.

“So, Coalback’s okay?” Fluttershy asked meekly, stepping around the door as Applejack closed it behind them. “He seemed so frightened last night.”

“Yeah, he was fine once I got him calmed down. I think he just overreacted a bit,” Rainbow assured, moving further into the library.

“So, what did Coalback want to talk about?” Twilight spoke up from across the room.

“Not sure,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “He was saying something about before he came here. It didn’t sound like he was very happy about it.” The room fell into silence as they waited.

It didn’t take long before there was a gentle knock on the door; Rainbow turned to open it. Coalback stood nervously on the other side, his gem hanging loosely around his neck. He had donned his suit’s coat, the coattails just covering his flanks.

He stepped inside somberly, the door swinging closed behind him. He looked around dartingly at the rest of the room, his head low. Rainbow moved around next to him, offering her presence as a reassurance. They moved forward toward the middle of the room, gathering around in a circle and sitting there.

After a moment, Coalback spoke quietly. “Can we dim the lights, please?” he asked, lifting a hoof to start rummaging inside his coat.

“Sure,” Twilight said, turning toward the windows and closing them with her magic. “Why?” she asked simply, dimming a few of the lanterns and leaving the library mostly in shadow.

He paused for a moment, his hoof catching on something on the inside pocket of his coat. “It’s not good to talk about the dead in the light,” he said quietly. “They like to hear their stories told. To be reminded of who they were, I guess,” he mumbled, pulling out one of his ‘cigarettes’ and putting it in his mouth.

“Coalback-” Rainbow started, cut off by a wave of his hoof.

“This is hard for me to talk about. It’ll help me, okay? And it’ll help me show you …” he explained, pulling out his little metal box. He flipped open the top of the box, revealing the a little wheel and a smaller perforated box.

He lifted his other hoof, using it to spin the small wheel. Sparks jumped from the little wheel, lighting a flame that spat out of the holes in the box. He carefully used it to light the end of his cigarette, slowly filling the room with a thin smoke. He flipped the box closed and put it away in one of his pockets, taking a short puff off of it before talking.

“Alright, I’ll set the scene,” he said thoughtfully, little puffs of smoke coming out with his words. “I lived on a large estate with my family, running our steel company from the scenic little town there. There were two hundred of us there,” he said, taking a thoughtful breath that pulled in smoke.

“Two hundred? That must be one heckova property …” Applejack mused, putting a hoof to her chin as she thought about it. The Apple clan was big, and they only ever all got together once in awhile. She couldn’t even imagine trying to live with all of them, not for more than a few days anyway.

“What’s ‘steel’, Coalback?” Twilight asked, somehow refraining from taking notes.

“Iron has too much carbon in it. Heat treat it enough and you get something stronger. Steel,” he explained, waving a hoof to stop her from asking any more questions. “I’m not here to trade recipes with you. Now where was I?” he mused, taking a deep drag of his cigarette and blowing the smoke out his nose. “It was a nice place, big land with lots of woods, a mountain that caught the sunset. We were a strong, dedicated clan. However I was the outcast,” he said, looking up at the smoke that eddied in the room.

“Outcast, but why?” Rarity asked, surprised that the serene scene that he had described would be ruined by something like that.

“I was a bastard,” he said flatly, huffing out another cloud of smoke. The reaction was one he expected, mostly sympathy. “It’s fine, I had it pretty easy considering,” he said, waving them down into silence again. “More of a blessing than a curse, really. Plus I wasn’t much into their purity that they were so proud of.” He pursed his lips, letting a smoke ring drift up toward the ceiling.

“Purity?” Rainbow asked, trying to figure where that would come in.

“Absolutely disgusting, is what it was. But, I think it was my impure blood that kept the sickness from sticking,” he said with a scowl, pulling the necklace off from around his neck. He opened it after a moment, letting the light from the gem fill the room. Golden streams of light scattered in the smoke in the air, creating a magical light show inside the library.

“On the eve of my eighteenth birthday, my family started to act strangely around me,” he said, pushing the gem into the center of their circle. “They were distant, even my cousins who were usually so kind to me. Only my grandfather really celebrated it with me. But it was that month that I … became part of the clan, and got this tattoo.” He became distant for a moment, old memories resurfacing. “And as the year progressed, things got stranger,” he said darkly, a cloud of smoke drifting out of his mouth and over the crystal.

The mares gasped as the light changed, an image appearing in the smoke. It was a set of eyes on a head that they couldn’t see, eyes smaller than a pony’s. The scleras were bloodshot with black, the yellow eyes staring back angrily. But before anypony could really get a good look at them, they drifted away with the smoke.

“They were sick, they had to be,” he said, staring up at the smoke just as they had. “Some sort of madness overcame them and spread like a plague. Their grandeur was unmatched by any dictator. They sought power like a moth to a flame. Which is how everything ended,” He puffed out another cloud, letting it eddy over the light.

“There was another family, large and powerful like ours. They ran a competing company in the same town, and my family hated them. So, they planned to kill them, then the town, then the state, then the coast, then the country! And who knows where they would have stopped from there!” he snarled, a cloud of smoke whirling from his lips and over the light.

Another image appeared in the smoke, whirling and shimmering as its medium eddied. It was a wolf, snarling and swiping at foes that they couldn’t see. They could actually hear the wolf as it moved and twirled. “I wouldn’t let them,” Coalback added darkly, scowling at the image. “I was young, and stupid, and in love,” he ended sadly, blinking as his scowl faded. “I did something that haunts me ...” Thunder echoed out of the smoke as the image drifted away.

“What happened?” Rainbow asked, worry starting to edge in on her voice. She didn’t want to show it, not with her friends there, but she was scared. Coalback was tougher than anypony she’d ever met before, so if something could really affect him like that, it had to be bad.

“... I killed them, all of them,” he said flatly, almost spitting the words out. “And then I watched the first love of my life die in my arms.” Another cloud drifted over the light, and when the room fell into silence sound echoed out of it. Desperate gasping, gurgling and coughing. And a deep voice, begging desperately in a tongue they couldn’t understand.

He took a shaky breath, blinking his eyes rapidly. “It cost me everything … but it was the only way to save them from themselves,” His hoof moved up to his neck, idly rubbing at the scar around it. “It was the night I got this, and this,” he stopped, moving his jacket off of his left shoulder.

Rainbow had already seen the scars but hadn’t said anything about them earlier. How his fur had ever regrown over them was what was most surprising. The skin there was puckered, a rolling sea of previously rent flesh.

“If I could have … not, I wouldn’t have. But they weren’t themselves. They were nothing more than beasts, monsters,” he finished somberly, replacing his coat. He swallowed hard, taking out the burnt down cigarette and grinding out the glowing end on the floor.

He wouldn’t meet their eyes, he didn’t want to see the what they thought of him on their faces. Shock, fear, horror, tears. Applejack was the first to break the silence that fell.

“Is that what yer cutie mark means?” she asked, her brow furrowed as she refused to allow herself to cry. She knew how important family was, she could tell how hard it was for him to talk like this. She had been to a few funerals herself. “And why ya ran when everypony saw it?”

“... Sort of … Part of the soul, right?” he asked bitterly, cringing down at the floor. “Shows I can’t really get away from it, even all the way out here.” He paused for a few moments, but he pressed on. “Went to prison after that, ten life sentences. High security in the North. Spent a year there, and I only got worse. Kept hurting, kept killing. So I left, seeking my own cure to the madness that was still holding me,” he choked out, his eyes starting to water.

“Y-you broke out of p-prison?” Twilight asked, eyes wide and voice shaking slightly.

“Had to, they couldn’t hold me there without someone getting ... hurt. The only other way was solitary confinement, and that was only a temporary solution.” His eyes darted up to Twilight, quickly replacing their stare onto the floor. “It was the only way. I had to get as far away as possible. So, I hid in the mountains. Even farther North of the prison, for a year, or so.”

There was a short, pregnant pause. The silence hung in the air with its own palpable weight, only broken once Rarity began to speak. “This is … Coalback, this is too much,” she had been crying, he could hear it in her voice. “How could all of this have happened?” she looked at him, but he still wouldn’t meet their gazes.

“I still ask myself that,” he replied sadly. He took a deep breath, steeling himself before he stated his reason for being there. “But now that I’ve told you all of this, I hope that you won’t want me to leave … ?” he said reluctantly, closing himself off from his emotions. He didn’t want to make a scene when they asked him to leave.

The pause was excruciating, it felt like it took hours for something to happen. When the first hoof rested on his shoulder, it surprised him with its tenderness. Quickly following it, more gentle hooves rested on his hunched frame.

When Coalback looked up, the last thing he had expected to see was the sad smiles on the ponies’ faces. “Of course you can stay,” Twilight said, but he couldn’t decipher the emotions on her face. “Just the fact that you’re so worked up over this means you regret what you did. Friends forgive each other,” she finished warmly, motioning to the others with a nod of her head.

The faces of the mares filled his vision: compassion, sadness, forgiveness. It was the last reaction that he had ever expected to see on their teary faces.

Rainbow was the first one that moved, wrapping her hooves around his neck. It didn’t take long for the others to follow, and before he knew it, Coalback was buried under a warm group hug. Coalback didn’t move, holding himself still as their warmth strengthened him.

Over the course of seven years, he had built himself a shelter. A suit of armor that kept him protected from his own emotions, cutting himself off from the world around him. But, like a floodgate opening, it broke. He shut his eyes tight, screwing up his face as tears started to flow out of his eyes. No one had ever had a reaction like this when they learned the truth.

He felt his throat contract suddenly, his diaphragm spasming. He pushed away from their embrace, putting a hoof over his mouth as he coughed. The mares quickly took a step back, giving him room to breath. Whatever had caused the sudden interruption cleared away as rapidly as it had arrived, letting him recover enough to wave off a concerned Fluttershy.

“I’m fine, probably just the cigarette,” he assured, pushing back the irritation in his throat and looking back up. “I really didn’t expect you to be so … accepting,” he admitted, his voice scratchy. “I would appreciate if this stays between us, though.” They nodded, agreeing freely to that.

Coalback paused. He felt … lighter. The feeling was overwhelming, and it felt good. He had spoken sparingly with only a select few about that particular subject, with mixed results. Maybe he had needed it more than he originally thought? A few niggling voices in the back of his head agreed, but he ignored them.

He lifted a hoof to wipe away the tears that had collected on his fur. “I need a drink,” he said after a moment, leaning over to scoop up the crystal and rewrapping it, “something strong.” The ponies around him donned confused faces. “Please tell me you have alcohol in Equestria,” he tried, becoming desperate. But it seemed to work as looks of recognition suddenly sparked among the ponies.

“Well, it’s a lil’ ‘erly fer a drink. But all consider’n, yer in luck,” Applejack said with a forced chuckle, pulling herself up and toward the door. She opened it and filled the dimmed room with light, making its occupants cringe at the sudden change.

Applejack stepped out the door, leaving it open until she returned a moment later. She had a small crate balanced on her back. The sound of glasses clinking together bounced out of it as she closed the door with a rear hoof. She took a step towards them and bent around to set the crate down carefully, revealing its open top and the contents within.

“Applejack, that’s not-” Rainbow started with a joyful smile, cut off by the farm pony.

“It sure as sugar is!” Applejack said with pride, motioning down at the six bottles neatly packaged in the crate. “This here is Big Mac’s special brew a’ apple ale. Picked it up as a present fer ya, Coalback. Meant ta give some a’ it to ya last night,” she said, pulling out one of the simple glass bottles. She set down the unlabeled bottle in front of Coalback, offering it to him. “Mac only ever makes a few bottles a’ this a year. But fer some reason, this year he made a whole dozen. And its a lot stronger than what we normally sell,” she explained as Coalback picked it up in his hooves.

He turned it over in his hooves, examining the dark liquid as it sloshed around inside. He leaned forward and bit down on the slightly protruding cork, pulling it out and dropping it on the floor as the bottle fizzed in the open air. He waited a moment for the froth to die down before lifting the bottle to his lips and taking a short swig.

The taste made him snort, quickly pulling the bottle from his lips. He stared incredulously at the bottle, as if accusing it of a crime.

Applejack chuckled as she pulled out another bottle and hoofed it over to Twilight, who had gathered a few glasses and a corkscrew. “Too strong?” she teased lightly.

“It’s different, I’ll give you that,” he said. He took another careful drink, this time prepared for the taste. In reality, it was one of the weaker things he had ever had. Honestly, he barely even felt the alcohol tickle his throat on the way down. It was more sweet than it was strong. The appley sweetness of it was muted compared to the apples he had tried, but it was far more powerful than the alcohol in it. Ponies must be lightweights, he mused idly.

“Let me have some,” a scratchy voice whispered from his side, a soft presence pressing up against him. He found Rainbow hungrily eyeing the bottle in his hooves, licking her lips in anticipation. He smiled warmly and acquiesced, lifting the bottle for her. She grabbed onto it and tilted it to her own mouth, smacking her lips as she pulled away.

“You know, Coalback, I didn’t really see you as the religious type,” Twilight noted from across the room. She accepted a glass from Applejack, who was pouring out a bottle for the rest of the mares.

Coalback snorted, a smirk decorating his face as he took the bottle back from Rainbow. “That’s because I’m not, about as far from it as possible,” he chuckled, taking another swig from the bottle.

“Then what was all that stuff about spirits? And how you talked about lights yesterday?” she asked incredulously, stopping from taking a sip out of her glass.

Coalback chuckled as he continued to take a drink from the bottle, a few large gulps of it were enough to start to make him feel warm. “I’ve seen what mortals should not see,” he said with a smirk, raising his eyebrows toward her. “My existence, if anything, proves gods don’t exist,” he said flatly, he swished the drink around in its bottle and waved it in front of Rainbow. She happily took the bottle for a drink as she listened.

“What about Celestia? Or Luna? They’re gods,” Twilight offered, taking a smug sip of her drink. She was confident that, Coalback having met them, would realize that she was right.

“No they’re not,” he said flatly, watching her nearly choke on her drink. He broke into laughter as she tried desperately to keep from spraying her drink across the room.

“What?! But you’ve met them!” Twilight said, aghast.

Coalback snorted again, taking back the bottle from an amused looking Rainbow. It wasn’t often that she got to see Twilight so flustered, it was always entertaining. “I’ve met things that can do more sitting in a chair than Celestia can with her silent entrances, or Luna with her shouting,” he said with a grin as Twilight tried to regain her composure. “And I’ve seen something call itself a god before. It died. Gods don’t die, do they?” he asked rhetorically.

“But that doesn’t make any sense! The Princesses are incredibly powerful, they control the sun and the moon!” she tried, nearly spilling her drink again as she tried to punctuate her point.

“So,” Coalback said with another laugh, he took another short drink from the bottle. “Applejack makes the trees grow, that doesn’t make her a god,” he retorted with a grin, draining the bottle and losing the angry look he got, replacing it with a smile as he pulled away the empty bottle. “I don’t like talking about this stuff, always makes someb- somepony angry.”

“Fine, so you’re not religious. Then why’d you talk about all that stuff like that?” Twilight asked, bemused as she sat back and sipped at her drink again.

“Not everything has to be made from gods, or divinity. And because the world is …” he looked at Rainbow out the side of his eye, “awesome,” he finished fatly, setting the bottle down. “Have you seen the tiny, intricate patterns on a dragonfly’s wing? Watched the clouds bend and flow through the mountains? No magic, no gods, just nature. It’s enough to make anything talk with wonder,” he explained.

“Jeez, Coalback,” Rainbow said from his side. “That’s deep, dude …”

“He’s prob’ly drunk!” Applejack said from across the room, filling her glass again. “He drank more th’n halfa that thang. And papa always said, drink’ll make anypony talk their heads off,” she spouted, motioning toward the empty bottle at his hooves.

“I’ll say!” Pinkie popped up, downing a full glass like a shot and burping loudly.

“Not drunk,” Coalback said, calm as ever. “Just telling what the truth to the best of my ability. Learning how big the universe is changed how I look at the sunrise, or at the stars burning in the sky,” he said to her, seeing the frustration drop from Twilight’s face.

“Actually, I think I know what you mean,” Twilight said, sipping her drink. “I decided to study magic after I saw Celestia raise the sun,” she said, smiling at warm memories.

“I wanted to be a doctor,” Coalback found himself saying. Maybe I’m a little buzzed, he mused.

“You studied medicine?” Fluttershy piped up, encouraged by what little drink she had actually had. She had only had one cup, but had barely touched it. Apparently it was enough to loosen her tongue considerably.

“Tried to, family got in the way,” he said, nodding. “Wanted to be a surgeon. Save lives, set bones, heal the wounded. After I broke out of prison I could have lost my arm, didn’t because I knew how to fix it. Hard to do when you’re wandering around the mountains,” he paused for a moment, thinking for a second. “If I hadn’t, it would have taken me a lot longer to figure out how to get here,” he mused.

Memories flashed in front of his eyes, more recent than the ones he had recounted. A shapeshifter, the naagloshii, liquid in shape as it countered his assault. The girl, her arm dislocated. She’d been there a long time with that thing. He remembered his wound, how it grabbed him with those blade-like claws. He could barely remember being able to drive it away, and helping her before he helped himself. The look on her face when he asked her for help-

“Coalback?” Rainbow’s voice pulled him out of his memories. “You got all stiff again, what’s up?” she asked, concern showing through her face.

“I’m fine,” he replied quickly, turning to her with a smile. “I was just thinking again, that’s all. Thinking that I’m too lucky for my own good, is what I’m thinking,” he said, turning to Rainbow and winked at her. “Don’t tell Applejack, but this drink is pretty weak,” he whispered to her so that Applejack couldn’t hear. “Not that it doesn’t taste good,” he added quickly, making her chuckle quietly.

“So, does that mean that there’s harder stuff where you come from?” she whispered back with a raised eyebrow. This was some of the strongest stuff that ponies could buy, most of anything stronger had to be imported, and it was expensive stuff.

“The stuff I used to drink would burn your nose hairs off, if this is the best you’ve got,” he said. She didn’t even bother to hide her laugh, letting it explode out. He had said it with such a straight face, and it might have helped that she’d had a few swigs from the bottle herself.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Rarity’s voice suddenly cut in, interrupting Rainbow’s mirth as they turned to look at the unicorn. She had walked over to them with her drink held in her magic, a small box floating beside her.

“Nope,” Rainbow said, not meeting the unicorn’s playful glare.

“Well, in that case. I have something for you, Coalback,” Rarity said, levitating the box over toward him. “Applejack wasn’t the only one who didn’t get to give you her present. Here you go, dear,” she explained, setting the box down in his hooves.

“Rarity, you didn’t have to-” Coalback started.

“Oh, yes I did!” she cut him off, glaring with disgust at the rags hanging around his neck. It was basically just a ripped up shirt that he had repurposed. He hadn’t wanted anymore questions like Twilight had had about the previous one. He could already assume that these ponies were basically vegans, so it would make explaining the leather, again, awfully awkward.

Coalback shrugged, taking up the box in his hooves. It was a simple, white cardboard box. Sparkling swirls inlaid themselves in the paper of it, revealing themselves as he tilted the box in the low light. It really reminded him of a necklace box.

When he opened it, he was surprised at the contents. The deep black cloth was woven together in a strong pattern that vaguely reminded him of nylon rope. Shining silver-stitched swirls highlighted it, looking vaguely like starlight. It looked more like a very nice … collar to him. How ironic, he thought.

“It’s a new necklace! Something comfortable to hold that absolutely fabulous gem,” she said, motioning with a cringe at his current form of transporting it. “Go on, dear. Put it inside that pocket, there.” She pointed down with her hoof, showing him the small opening near the front.

Coalback looked questioningly between her and the necklace. After a moment, he pulled out the new necklace and held it up. He quickly fumbled out the gem, transferring it to the other necklace with a flash of light. The light instantly vanished into the dark weave of cloth, swallowed by the necklace pocket.

He couldn’t stop staring at it, though. It really fucking looks like a collar … he kept thinking. The image was especially added to now that the gem was there, creating a lump in the cloth that reminded him of a dog tag that would otherwise have hung from it.

The necklace was suddenly pulled from his grip by a cyan hoof, the ratty shirt-made-necklace ripped away from his neck by another. As he tried to figure out why Rainbow had decided to grab it, the collar was already on its way over his head. He reflexively screwed his eyes shut and flattened his ears against his head as the cloth slid over his face and down his neck.

He simply sat, blinking his eyes, after Rainbow had finished throwing it on him. He glanced down at it and suppressed a groan. Great ghosts, it really is a damned collar! The pure irony of it, at least in his eyes, was both hilarious and horrible. He settled on smiling at it, trying not to seem ungrateful.

“Sorry,” Rainbow said snarkily, “you were taking too long. I had to see what it looked like on ya,” she chuckled.

“Yeah. Thanks, Rarity,” Coalback said, nodding to the alabaster unicorn.

“Fabulous!” Rarity beamed, snatching up the torn shirt with her magic. “Now you don’t need this ugly thing,” she muttered, floating it out of the room and toward a trashcan. She nodded to him before wandering off toward the others.

He heard another chuckle from his side, drawing his attention back to the cerulean mare. “It actually does look pretty awesome,” she said, smirking up at him. “Wanna go, or what?” she asked, motioning toward the door with a nod of her head.

“Sure, there’s something else I want to show you, anyway,” Coalback replied, standing with her and moving toward the door. They were able to sneak out without any interference from the others. It seemed that they were distracted, with drink or with unrelated conversations that had sprung with it.

Forgive and forget, it would seem, Coalback thought as he closed the door behind him. It seemed that they were easy to move on from the admittance of his past. He couldn’t be truly sure whether it was their nature, or the drinks that did it. But it was nice that they didn’t linger on it long.

“So,” Rainbow’s voice piped up, drawing his attention away from the now hidden ponies. “What’s so important that only I’m allowed to know about? I know it’s because I’m awesome and all, but why can’t they hear it too?” she asked, starting out strong but quickly growing concerned.

He chuckled at that, lifting his wings and getting ready to take off. “I’ll explain where there are … fewer ears. Come on.” He flapped down, lifting himself into the air forcefully. Rainbow followed him up, fluttering her wings and dodging around the wind Coalback threw from his wings.

They started forward and up, aiming up toward Rainbow’s cloud home in the distance. She heard Coalback mumble something about momentum, the words drowning out as their speed picked up. She made sure to wait for him, he seemed to have a lot more trouble starting out. It made sense, he had had to take a running leap to get off the ground the first time she saw him fly, and he had had to take a high dive to pick up any speed quickly.

This was what she loved, flying. And she could share it with Coalback, which was just icing on the triple fudge cake. Rainbow looped around, spinning behind and back ahead of Coalback. She couldn’t help showing off, just a little.

With a few more loops and rolls, they reached the house. Coalback broke through a cloudbank as he bled off speed, being thankful for the softness of the magical vapor. He crash landed on the porch, spitting out a clump of cloud as Rainbow opened the door.

“You should work on your landings,” Rainbow said with a smirk, barely keeping from laughing again. Coalback shook himself off and muttered something in his language, standing up and walking toward the door. Rainbow turned to him once the door was closed, pressing herself close to him so that he couldn’t back away. “So what is it? Why wait until you’d told me all that and then save one more thing for later?” she asked.

“Because, the others might panic when they see it happen.” He had backed up, flank against the cloud door as he cringed away from Rainbow’s sudden invasion of his personal space. “A soul gaze is strange to watch happen from the outside,” he said quietly, as if somepony could still be listening.

“A what?” Rainbow asked, caught off guard.

“A soul gaze,” Coalback repeated carefully, his confidence returning as he stepped forward. Pressure fell on her eyes as he met her gaze. “You will see the very core of who I am, and in return I will see you. It is something that we’ll both remember, forever. This does not fade into our memories. It stays as vivid and real as if you had only just seen it, forever.” He took a step back, and it took a few moments for Rainbow to realize that she’d been backing away from him. “You should sit down,” he said, taking a seat on the floor himself.

Rainbow lowered herself to the floor, tucking her legs underneath herself on the compressed cloud of her floor. “What happens on the outside?” she asked.

She stiffened as the room filled with a static feeling, it made every hair on her body stand on end. Coalback had removed one of his rings, carefully balancing it on the cloud in front of him. He looked surprised that the ring actually stayed in place.

“You pause,” he said simply, shrugging as he looked back up at her. He didn’t quite meet her eyes, concentrating on her muzzle instead. “It’s like the two people just … stop. They practically become part of the environment, but only for a second. It may only last for a moment, but for us it could be minutes or hours,” he explained, reaching up for the second ring.

“Wait, what are you doing?” she asked quickly drawing Coalback to a confused pause. “You only took off one when you did this to Luna, didn’t you? Why are you taking off another one?” she asked.

“I only let Luna and myself scratch the surface, but you’ll get to see the whole thing,” he tried, flexing his arm slightly as he wriggled the ring down his arm. “They are resistors, remember? They stop magical flow. Their effect is multiplicative; more rings, more resistance,” he explained, pulling the second ring off his arm.

The static in the room increased, making all of Rainbow’s feathers vibrate dully at their base. Coalback carefully balanced the second ring on top of the first, the metal clinking quietly as he did. “Are you ready?” he asked without looking up, keeping his eyes aimed at the rings on the floor.

“Uhm … yeah, sure,” Rainbow said, still unsure of exactly what was going to happen. But whatever Coalback could throw at her, she could take it. She hadn’t made it into the Wonderbolt training program for nothing, even if she had been forced to quit early.

Coalback looked up, his eyes meeting hers.