-The Protector We Do Not Deserve-

        “Ah saw ‘im again last night. The ‘peacekeepers’ were runnin ‘im off.” Applejack announced as she entered Fluttershy’s cottage.

        “Was he hurt?” Rainbow Dash asked quickly, rising from her seat on one of the beams in the ceiling. The fur on her chest was ruffled on the right side, uneven there.

        Applejack shook her head. “Winona started barkin’ when they showed up. He ran back inta the forest.” She nodded out the window, the dark trees of the Everfree just a few meters away. “He was markin’ tha trees around tha farm, again.”

        The trees were different than they had been before Coalback had run away. Every tree visible from the town had a  claw mark on it. Three large slashes cut into the bark of the trees, their flesh exposed to the open air.

        During the storm, Coalback had returned, and he had marked as many trees as he could find. And the entire town had turned to Dumb-Bell as a response, the attention had gone straight to his head.

        Dumb-Bell had instantly jumped on the task of ‘securing’ the town against a wolf-pony attack. He had set up his own guard, like the royal guards at Canterlot, only not nearly as noble. They had named themselves peacekeepers. The stallions and mares, mostly stallions, that he had recruited were not even concerned about the ponies that they took their ‘supplies’ from.

        However, the new guards had taken advantage of their newfound power. They had stolen, and threatened everypony in the town. And had labeled the Elements of Harmony as threats to the safety of the town.

        All but one.

        Twilight Sparkle had jumped at the idea of fortifying the town, and Dumb-Bell had been careful to make sure that she didn’t know what had really been going on. Twilight had been locked in her library ever since Coalback disappeared, feeding him information from some newfound source of knowledge.

        They had done strange things around the town. They had buried some strange red bricks near the east border of town, where Coalback had disappeared into. Stolen every single piece of silverware and hung it out on strings across the streets. They spread a stinking liquid all over the streets. Even taking the carcass of the dead jaguar, cutting it up, and using it as bait for traps in the trees near the edge of the forest.

        Rainbow Dash had suggested that they take matters of resistance into their own hooves. They ran anonymous raids on their food warehouses, where the peacekeepers had stored the food that they had bullied off of ponyville. The peacekeepers had decided that food needed to be rationed so that the wolf-pony wouldn’t try to steal it from anypony.

        And they searched for Coalback, but the only sign that he was ever near the town was the claw marks. And even Fluttershy’s tracking skills, used for when she had to locate a sick animal if it ran away, had been of little use other than telling them how old each marking was. He had vanished like a shadow in the light of a torch.

        “How’s yer chest there, Dash?” Applejack said as she walked into the blackout curtained house. She walked over to the coffee table near the couch, dropping her saddlebags onto it. It opened out, spilling loose apples onto the table.

        “It’s growing back,” She said sadly. “Coalback didn’t cut deep, so its healed pretty well too.” She rubbed a hoof absentmindedly on her chest, over the mussed fur. It had been ten days since he left, ten days to miss him. She looked toward the apples on the table.

        Applejack and her family had openly defied the peacekeepers, handing out food from their cellar to everypony in need of it. The peacekeepers had made tartarus of their efforts, and further demoralized the town.

        “Eat up, everypony.” Applejack said tiredly, nodding at Rainbow’s answer. “The last ah today’s giveaway.” She smiled slightly, giving ponies in need what they required always made her happy.

        “How much longer can you keep up the charity movement, Applejack?” A prim voice said as Rarity walked down from the stairs.

        “A couple more weeks, at most. And if this stupid thing don’t end soon...well, Ah just don’ know.” She shrugged, looking toward the white unicorn. “How goes that lead on Coalback’s crystal?”

        “It’s just like Twilight described before the attack. Every time I seem to find something, it disappears again.” Rarity said tiredly, walking over to the table to take an apple in her magical grasp.

        “Could it be too far away?” A quiet voice called from the stairs.

        “Do come down and eat, dear!” Rarity said toward the stairs, Fluttershy soon floated downwards, a rolled up map in her mouth. “Here, you haven’t eaten anything all day. Come take a break.” Rarity took the map from Fluttershy’s mouth, and replacing it with a bright red apple.

        Fluttershy munched on the apple happily as Rarity laid the map out on the table.

“And he is not too far away. If I could find a geode in the mountains then I can find an arcane gem in the forest.” Rarity posed in a prideful stance, remembering her discovery of her cutie mark.

“Did you check on Pinkie and the bakery?” Rainbow called from her perch.

“Yeah. It ain’t goin too well over there. Pinkie’s barely keepin’ the folks from runnin inta tha forest and lookin fer Coalback again.” Applejack said sadly.

“Come down here and take a look at this girls, I think I have found a pattern in the locations that I found the signal.” Rarity said, motioning toward the now flat map.

The map depicted a topographical depiction of Ponyville, the plains to the West, the foothills in the North, and the Everfree forest to the South and the East. Its deep green depiction on the paper taking up the majority of the map. Several red ink circles were marked in the green of the forest.

“Many of the signals that I found I omitted because of the weakness of it. And as you can see, several of the signals came in strange places.” She placed a hoof on the map, tracing over several of the smaller circles near the edge of the map. “There were only a few out there, but the crystal didn’t dodge me until I had gotten much closer to finding its exact position. They could simply be off calculations on my part, but they are becoming too frequent to allow that to be simple chance.

“That means that, not only is Coalback monitoring the town,” She motioned toward the numerous larger circles near the town. “but he is also patrolling the forests.” She moved her hoof over toward the middle of the map. “But, during the middle of the night I decided to try and look for it again. And I found a signal that lasted longer  than any of the others, right here.” She put her hoof on another cluster of tiny circles, all centered near or on the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.

The castle sat on a large plateau that sat far above the canopy of the forest. Separated from everything by a rickety wooden bridge.

Rarity tapped the map with her hoof. “I think that this is where Coalback has been going during the coldest part of the night, to rest. And maybe the crystal has been resting as well, and that’s why I have been able to get such a good lock on it.” She lifted her hoof off of the map and turned toward Rainbow Dash. “But Coalback is smarter than that. He wouldn’t simply let me find something as obvious as that. So what does that tell us, Rainbow Dash?” She smiled coyly.

Rainbow Dash jumped down from her perch, a hopeful spark in her eyes, but none of it showed on her face. “He knows that we’ve been tracking him. Could any of the unicorns working for Dumb-Bell track the crystal like that?” She asked, her voice calm, like a natural born leader.

She had taken leadership of their resistance movements the instant that it had been suggested, and she had led them well. But Applejack could instantly see the reckless decision forming in her mind’s eye.

“We can’t go lookin for him yet, Rainbow. We’ll have ta wait fer tha storm that’s rollin inta the forest ta pass before we can do anythin’.” Applejack said, walking toward her.

Rainbow’s face fell, and she sighed. “I really hate it when you’re right, AJ.” She said sadly, kicking the wall behind her half-heartedly.

“Yes, and the snow has been dreadful lately as well. I do hope that Coalback is warm enough in his fur.” Rarity said in reply.

“That’s another thing actually.” Rainbow said sadly. “I wanted to wait for you to get here before I showed it to you guys.” She reached under her wing and pulled out a folded piece of cloth. “I found this on my bed last night...it’s from Coalback, I’m sure of it.” She said around the cloth, dropping it to the floor.

It opened as it hit the floor, revealing it’s contents inside. Marked in charcoal dust were several words.

Hurricane

         Army

Evacuate

 DON’T LOOK BACK.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Applejack whispered. “A hurricane? That’s rediculous! It’s tha middla winter.”

“If Coalback says that something big is coming, then he’s probably not wrong. He talked about how much he had seen before, he’s probably seen something like this.” She stated simply, striking down the protests with a glare. “We need to warn the townsponies, start an evacuation if we can, and...” She blinked away tears that had come to her eyes suddenly. “We’ll see where it goes from there.”

She scooped back up the cloth, tucking it under her wing carefully. “We can start on convincing them tomorrow.”

“We should go, Applejack. The foals will be let out of school soon, and we don’t want our sisters to be stuck out there.” Rarity said, leaving the table and the map behind. Applejack nodded silently, following her out the door quickly.

The moment they were gone, Rainbow Dash sat forcefully on the floor. “What am I going to do, Fluttershy?” Tears started forming on her face, the dam finally breaking.

“You’ll pull through, just like you always do.” Fluttershy comforted, moving over to embrace her in a gentle hug.

“I don’t know if I can handle him leaving me like this. There one moment, telling me that we’ll be together forever, and then gone the next.” Rainbow put her head onto Fluttershy’s shoulder, not returning the embrace, but accepting it anyway. “I had a dream about him last night, it was about when we first saw each other.” She sniffled.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Fluttershy asked gently, stroking her prismatic mane. Rainbow nodded into her shoulder.

“Coalback was leaning over me, his wolf form that is. And he was licking at the wound in my wing, and then he started to glow. It was amazing, it was like he had turned into the sun right before my eyes.

“He stood up after that, mumbling something I couldn’t understand. Then he howled, he howled in some sort of sad but happy way. Bittersweet almost, how it sounded. It was like he thought that he was dying, or maybe he thought that I was.

“Then he changed into a pony. Right there, in front of all the guards and all the Wonderbolts. Maybe that’s why the WonderBolts haven’t called me back yet, because they saw Coalback. His wings were tilted weird, and he picked me up.

“He balanced me between his wings, the glow surrounded him in some sort of holy light that made the guards jump to attention. Maybe they thought that Celestia had given him strength, or something. He looked at one of them, and I could see his eyes.

“They were glowing completely white, wherever his gaze fell it was bleached by the light. Coalback said something to the guard that I’m sure he didn’t understand, but the guard jumped up, ordering his ponies to surround him.

“They gathered in a protective circle around us, and started herding Coalback out of the arena. Before long they were running full tilt, but Coalback was barely even straining himself. That I could tell from how leisurely he ran, but I could also tell that Coalback couldn’t keep it up for long. Blood still poured out of him from the dragon fight. and he was tiring fast.

“We ran past nobles and maides, the guards yelling at them to get out of the way. It must have been incredible to see from where they were standing. Like a star running past, that’s probably how. Then Coalback collapsed, the glow left him at the same time.

“And that’s when it wasn’t a memory anymore.” Rainbow Dash wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy, the wonder in her words replaced by fear. “He wasn’t just cut by the dragon, He was split in half. One part of him fell one way, the other a different way. I tried to scream, but my mouth wouldn’t open. And I could see the pain in his eyes. Oh Celestia, his eyes!” She sobbed openly, tears soaking into the pink mane in front of her muzzle.

Fluttershy kept still and let her tell her story the whole way through, stroking Rainbow’s mane slowly. She resisted the urge to shudder at the image that her words created.

“Maybe you should stay here tonight, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy whispered. “I have something that can help you sleep, it’ll let you relax. You’ve been so worked up about him lately, we’re starting to get worried about you.” Fluttershy pushed Rainbow Dash up to her hooves, leading her silently to the guest bed on the bottom floor.

---

        “Hurry up, you guys!” Sweetie Belle whispered loudly, the other two fillies close behind her as they raced toward the forest.

        “This is stupid, the forest is way too dangerous!” Scootaloo exclaimed in an equally loud whisper. Her scarf flipped up into her face and she spat at it, snow flying up from her hooves.

        “Why do we havta be the ones who find ‘im?” Applebloom spoke up, bringing up the rear of the small group.

        “Because, if we can find him, then he can stop the peacekeepers and save the town. We could even get our cutie marks for tracking, or something.” Sweetie Belle responded, looking back to them as they entered the first of the trees. At this point, they were out of sight of the town, and any help that they could offer.

        The sun was running low in the sky, giving everything a slightly orange tint. But it wasn’t late enough to be worrying about night for a few more hours. However, even in the daylight, the Everfree forest was just as dark and spooky as always.

        “Do you even know where he is?” Scootaloo asked accusingly.

        “Rarity was talking to Applejack, and I heard them talking about the castle. What other castle could they be talking about?” Sweetie Belle said confidently.

        “That’s where he is?!” Applebloom exclaimed as they continued to walk. “That’s so far though! And it’s gonna get dark here pretty soon!” She caught up to Sweetie Belle, looking her in the face. “Okay, so let’s say we do find ‘im. Then what? Why would he listen ta a bunch a fillies? Do ya even have a plan at all?” She shook her head, the large bow bobbing around as she did.

        “We just have to convince him, I’m sure we can do it! I’m certain that he’ll rush straight back to town when he hears how bad it is.” She said determinedly, the feeling spread throughout them.

        They continued on in silence, rushing through the overgrowth as fast as they could toward the castle. But after a long run, they had to stop and catch their breath. They burst into a large clearing, stopping after a few steps into it.

        “At this rate, it’ll take days to get to the castle.” Scootaloo complained, huffing out clouds of mist in the cold winter air.

        “It can’t be that far from here, I was sure that we were heading in the right direction.” Sweetie Belle said, collapsing into the snow and continuing to try and catch her breath.

        Applebloom turned back to the trees that they had just past. “Did any a ya’ll hear that?” She whispered back to them, her eyes trained on the trees beyond.

        They all froze, holding their breath as they tried to pick out something. But between the wind and the absorbing effects of the powdery snow, they couldn’t hear anything. Scootaloo twitched a hoof nervously, and a large cracking sound echoed underneath her.

        The sound echoed and twirled metallically, like the sound that a slinky makes when you shake it up and down. The sound of breaking ice over a large pocket of water. Another loud crack and Scootaloo actually dropped in height by several centimeters. They all froze, waiting for the ice to settle before even daring to breath.

        After a moment the noises stopped and it grew almost eerily quiet with the absence. They all let out a unanimous sigh of relief, Scootaloo looked back up at them.

        “That was too cl-!” Scootaloo disappeared suddenly, her words cut off by a loud crack and a splash.

        Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both yelled out, high pitched squeals of surprise. They barely even noticed the huge grey blur as it shot into the hole that Scootaloo had created int the frozen pool. They scrambled backwards to the trees, animal instincts pushing them away from the danger of the ice.

        The icy water in the hole shifted, bits of crystallized water clinking against each other in a slush of numbing cold.

        A dark grey, completely soaked, paw reached out of the water. It’s claws caught grip on the ice almost instantly, pulling the owner of the limb from the icy grip of the frozen water. A huge wolf crawled from the icy hole, and clutched in his mouth was a small orange filly.

        They were completely soaked, frost and snow collecting on them quickly. The wolf rushed over to them, his features thinned by the clinging fur. The wet and cold revealed the coiled muscles under his hide, every one of them shivering in the cold of the recent swim. He ran to directly between the two fear stricken fillies, clearing a spot in the deep snow to rest the shivering form of Scootaloo.

        Her friends rushed to her, clutching each other close and shivering under the towering form of the predator. He took a step back, shaking himself off as much as he could in the snow. Small droplets froze in the air around him, falling gently against the fillies. Then he turned to them and spoke, the words sliding around in his mouth funnily.

        “Hold tight to each other, I’m going to take you somewhere to get warm.” His voice was instantly recognised by the white unicorn filly.

        “Coalback?” She said, attempting to turn her head to him. But her motion was arrested by the mouth that suddenly lifted her by the scruff of her neck, along side both of her friends. Coalback’s hot breath washed over them from where he gripped them, the smell of blood and berries laced his otherwise odorless breath.

        He pushed forward, weaving through the trees like a ghost. They moved faster than Sweetie Belle would have thought, it was like they were flying through the forest instead of running.

Coalback’s paws hit the top of the snow, but never sank farther than his ankles. The pads of his paws spread wide so that he wouldn’t be slowed by deep snow. He turned and dodged through the trees, his warmth counteracting the chill wind that he created.

In almost no time at all they had arrived. The ancient husk of the castle loomed over them, darkness hiding much of it’s features. Coalback never even paused at the huge chasm that separated them from it. His legs bunched under him and he leapt over it, landing on the other side with a short slide.

He pushed through an opening in the wall, pushing the fillies through first. He set them all down before fully crawling through himself.

Scootaloo was shivering uncontrollably now, her small form racked by her efforts to stay warm. Coalback shook himself again, dropping more snow onto the stone floor of the castle. Then he leaned down and gripped Scootaloo by the scruff again.

He padded toward a side of the main chamber, ignoring the monument in the center. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle followed closely, their eyes wandering around the huge castle. But they kept coming back to Scootaloo, her still wet form clutched in the teeth of the huge wolf leading them up a set of stairs.

They entered the bottom of a tall tower, the stairs had broken apart and collapsed long ago. But in the center of the tower a space had been cleared, and a small fire smoldered inside the clutter free area. Coalback set Scootaloo down gently, turning to tend to the dying fire.

He carefully lifted a broken piece of wood from a pile nearby, dropping it onto the embers of the fire and throwing sparks into the air. He gently blew into the embers, coaxing them back to a warm flame. When the fire had grown to his satisfaction he placed two more pieces of wood atop it and turned back to them.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had stopped inside the doorway, watching Scootaloo and the wolf. Coalback walked over to them calmly, pushing them toward the fire with his nose gently. He pushed them up next to Scootaloo, pressing on them so that they would sit next to her.

The fire was close, its warmth welcome after the long trek through the icy forest. Coalback walked around behind them, positioning himself between the cold outer walls of the tower and the fire. He dropped to a sitting position, moving the rest of his body close to their backs before laying down against them.

Sweetie Belle almost gasped at the gesture, and his fur was so soft, it was softer than any of Rarity’s fancy pillows. It was still slightly damp, and Scootaloo was still cold and wet. But he pressed them all close to each other, letting them share their heat with each other. His body grew warm quickly, reflecting the heat of the fire back towards them.

Their fur died out quickly, the embrace turning from soggy to as comfortable as any bed in the world. Sweetie Belle looked back at Coalback, examining him closely.

His fur was the same colors as she remembered, however now the patterns seemed to fit much better. He was fluffy, the thick, soft fur keeping him warm even in the cold of deep winter. His chest rose softly, it pushed them up gently with his breathing. The bands around his arm shimmered with the firelight, still tightly wrapped there. And Rarity’s black collar was wrapped around his neck protectively, a small tear near the side of it marred the otherwise perfect cloth.

His eyes were closed, but his ears kept moving, not missing anything from the outside world. The white shards in his ears clicked when he moved them too quickly, it had a long area missing from the bottom of it, making it flop a little with every movement.

When she looked closer, she could even make out the scars under his fur. She turned around fully, placing her small hooves around one of the scars, examining it closely. She didn’t even notice Coalback when he turned his head to look at her.

“Lightning,” His deep voice said softly. “leaves an interesting pattern in its wake. But usually doesn’t leave a scar. If I hadn’t been holding onto that radio tower it wouldn’t have either.” He lifted his head up, pushing against her with his nose. “You should rest like your friends, tomorrow will not be uneventful.”

She turned toward her friends, placing a hoof to hug onto Coalback’s muzzle. True enough her friends had fallen fast asleep in the warmth of the fire. They had stopped shaking from the cold, and their exhaustion had overcome them. Even as Applebloom fluttered her eyes open for just a moment, keeping herself on the edge of sleep and conscientiousness.

“But...” She started, trying to find an argument against the offer. But Coalback pushed her gently to the floor again.

“Do not argue, or I will simply put you to sleep.” He said, his firm response silencing her.

“Can you tell me a story then?” She said sleepily. His head tilted, surprising her with how similarly dog-like the movement was.

“What kind of story?” He said after a short pause, he had only taken a moment to consider it.

“Something from where you came from. I want to hear what kind of stories ponies from your country tell.” She said softly, trying to not wake up her sleeping friends as she made herself comfortable against them.

Coalback turned back toward the fire, thinking for a moment before looking back at her. And she could have sworn that there was a gentle smile on his face. “I think I know one. It is called ‘The Lay of the Were-Wolf’.” He said quietly, like a filly sharing a secret on the playground. Sweetie Belle’s eyes lit up, her attention completely on him now.

“Amongst the many tales I would tell you, I would never forget the Lay of the Were-Wolf. Such beasts as he are known in every land.” He said, the way he said it was not in a sad way, but in a happy way. As if he were saying that it was good for them to be heard everywhere. “Bisclavaret he is named in Brittany; while the Norman calls him Garwal.” He used the names of the countries directly from the story, the translations not existing.

“What are those places?” Sweetie said during the pause.

“Britain and Normandy are countries across the sea from my home. They have very interesting histories, but I can tell you about them later. Do want to hear this story or not, pup?” He said, she nodded quickly, closing her mouth tightly so that she wouldn’t say another word. “Good.”

“It is a certain thing, and within knowledge of all, that many have suffered this change, and ran wild in the woods, as a Were-Wolf.” He whispered the last word, adding a hint of tension to the words. “The Were-Wolf is a fearsome beast. He lurks within the thick forest, mad and horrible to see. All the evil in that he may, he does. He goes to and fro, about the solitary place, seeking those to devour. Hearken, now, to the adventure of the Were-Wolf, that I have to tell.” He looked at her gently. “Don’t get scared now, this is not a scary story.”

Sweetie Belle jumped, realizing that she had been shaking. “I-I wasn’t scared.” She said in her bravest voice that she could muster, even though it still shook slightly. He smiled with his wolf lips again, the look surprising like a pony’s.